Chaldean Community Council Opens Incubator Business Center in El Cajon

Opening an incubator business center to help refugees and immigrants start new businesses has been a dream of Dr. Noori Barka for more than a decade. On April 11, that dream came to fruition at a ceremony launching the Chaldean Community Council's new incubator business center at 405 East Lexington Avenue in El Cajon. The center will provide help for low-income and underserved refugee communities.

Supervisor Joel Anderson called the occasion a "joyous day" as he presented a check for a half million dollars from the County to the Chaldean Community Council to kickstart the incubator business center. He also issued a proclamation declarring April 11 El Cajon Small Business Incubator Day. Funding was through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Small Business Stimulus Grant program, and the County's Community Enhancement program.

"For years, I've said we need an incubator to kick start businesses," the Supervisor said. "In East County, we've got enterpreneurial spirit to be tapped," he added, predicting that the enterprise will produce new entrepreneurs, "bringing wealth and opportunities to East County."

He praised El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells after the city agreed to lease office space for the incubator business center for just a dollar a year, over the next five years.

Mayor Wells said working together with the County was a "great partnership." He added, "I'm thankful that the Chaldean community has chosen El Cajon to come and live. They are fantastic neighbors.." The Mayor said it was a "no brainer" for the city to help out after Dr. Barka proposed his idea to give new immigrants an opportunity to learn more about starting their own businesses....We have the largest group of refugees west of the Mississippi, and the (Chaldean Community) Council has done an incredible job."

Dr. Barka, president of Calbiotech and a leader in the Iraqi-Chaldean community, first announced his vision for an incubator business center back in 2014, in an interview with East County Magazine. "If you have an idea, you want to start a business...we will incubate you for up to three years and during this time we will give you the full support," he said at the time. "Start-up businesses will be given space, tools, expertise, and investors. After graduating in three years, people can receive continuing support -- provided that they launch new businesses in East County."

Barka hopes to create good-paying jobs in the biotech industry and other fields."Many of these newcomers are established business people -- they are doctors, engineers," Barka explained during the 2014 interview, adding that with some help, "They will be pioneers in helping our economy at the end of the day," he predicted.

At the April 11 event, Dr. Barka recalled the first Chaldean Festival in 2010, and thanked the city for its ongoing support at a time when many had come to the U.S. after fleeing war in Iraq."Mayor, you fed us, you cared for us, and now we're giving back. We own over 3500 businesses here. Our mission is to help the newcomers. Many reach this country with talent, but they don't know how to start."

Barka emphasizsed that the incubator business center is "not only for Chaldeans, but for everyone."

He told East County Magazine that plans for the incubator business center include taking in up to 20 businesses, providing them space and mentoring to launch their companies. "We have four or five candidates already," he disclosed. "One is an Afghan woman who wants to start a fashion business."

Vice Mayor Phil Ortiz was also present. "The City is very proud to partner with the Chaldean Council,not only to help citizens, but also this business incubator that's been a vision of Noori Barka for over 10 years."

Councilmember Michelle Metschel told East County Magazine, "I just think it's going to be great. I'm excited to see what businesses come out of the incubator businessc center;" she said, adding that the training to be provided "is also about safety", such as for people starting up food businesses.

Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta from St.Peter's Chaldean Catholic Diocese was on hand to offer a blessing at the new facility.

Kaye Turpin with the Chaldean Community Council called Barka "the Saint of El Cajon."

San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/Clerk Jordan Marks, on hand for the celebration, said the county's half-million contribution "is probably the largest check I've seen come to East County." As Supervisor Anderson presented the check to the Chaldean Community Council, Marks concluded, "You have seeded the American dream here today."
Pic story: digital twin technicians in N China's Tianjin

Xinhua) 10:10, May 03, 2024

Cui Shengji (R) and Ma Xinqi watch movements of a visual character at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. Surrounded by dozens of high-definition infrared cameras, Ma Xinqi, a motion capture actor, performs in a booth while a visual character on the computer screen records and repeats his movements.

"This is called digital twin technology, which can capture specific marks on an actor's body with infrared cameras set in the booth and calculate the actor's movement in milliseconds. The data will be transmitted to the computer for rendering to realize the synchronized performance of an virtual character," said Cui Shengji, a technical consultant of a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park.

Cui has been engaged in digital-technology-related work for nearly ten years, and now he has set up a studio, applying digital twin technology in fields of animation, immersive cultural tourism, life science, etc. Recently his team has worked with a local Taichi association to help retain the data of Taichi movements as a way of protecting intangible heritage culture. In his view, digital twin technology has a bright future as it helps extend the reality and enhances efficiency in solving problems.

Digital twin technician was among the new occupations announced by China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in June 2022. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (C) briefs the movements of a motion capture actor to his colleagues at a motion capture booth c the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Ma Xinqi performs at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park in Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (1st R) discusses with his colleagues at an office in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (1st R) discusses with his colleagues at an office in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (2nd L) and his colleagues check data at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (2nd L) briefs the movements of a motion capture actor to his colleagues at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (C) briefs the movements of a motion capture actor to a colleague at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

A member of Cui Shengji's studio adjusts movements of a visual character in the National Animation Industry Park in Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Ma Xinqi (L) performs as a visual character doing the same movement is generated in real time on the computer at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Ma Xinqi prepares for performance at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park in Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

Cui Shengji (2nd L) and his colleagues check data at a motion capture booth in the National Animation Industry Park, Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 23, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
CPS CEO Rudy Garza answers questions during a San Antonio City Council special session on Nov. 30. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News CPS Energy's Calaveras Power Station in San Antonio. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer Green lights if a freeze protection circuit is working at one of the power generation units at CPS's Braunig Power Station. William Luther, Staff OCI Solar Power is building the 110-megawatt, Alamo 6 solar farm in Iraan in West Texas to provide renewable power to the city of San Antonio. OCI Solar Power Rudy Garza, President and CEO of CPS Energy, speaks during a recent meeting with the San Antonio Express-News editorial board. Robin Jerstad

CPS Energy CEO Rudy Garza closed a deal on three natural gas power plants Wednesday, is scrambling to build new transmission lines from South Texas and needs to hit San Antonios climate targets by 2030, all while providing affordable energy to Americas lowest-income major city.

In other words, the boss at one of the nations largest city-owned utilities must solve all the problems facing the Texas grid, only on a smaller scale.

My job is to move us into the future in as quickly a manner as possible, but also affordably, Garza told me at CPS headquarters.

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CPS is one of the few city-owned utilities left in Texas that operates every step, from the generator to the customer. San Antonio customers dont have a choice of electricity provider, like other parts of Texas, but they enjoy lower rates, and if they have a complaint, they can call their City Council member.

However, CPS remains part of the ERCOT grid and is subject to the wholesale electricity market. CPS generates more electricity than its customers need and must play by the same rules as private electric companies. Being vertically integrated did not spare San Antonians from blackouts during 2021s Winter Storm Uri.

The storm left hundreds of Texans dead and politicized the electricity business, but Garza said he is not afraid to speak truth to power.

Energy reliability is neither Republican nor Democrat, he said about his often-frank conversations with policymakers. I think we would do better if we spent more time talking about the future than we did lamenting the past.

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Garza started his career as an electrical power engineer with TXU in the 1990s before Texas switched to a competitive market in 2000. He knows the pros and cons of each system but recognizes that CPS business model allows him to innovate in ways others cannot.

CPS is a leader in wind, solar, battery and nuclear power. The company has retired most of its coal-fired facilities and wants to shut down three aging natural gas plants. Some critics argue CPS spends too much on new technology, while others insist the utility is not doing enough to fight climate change.

Sound familiar?

Garza said purchasing the three natural gas plants generating 1,710 megawatts from Talon Energy for $785 million will meet San Antonios immediate needs. But state and federal policies make investing in new facilities riskier.

I'd like to see some of those regulatory policies get a little more mature before I decide whether to ask my customers to spend a billion dollars for a massive 600-megawatt gas plant, he said. I can live with taking a risk for 25 years. I'm not sure I'm gonna take on that risk for 50, because we already did that with coal plants, and we lost.

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Garza prioritizes saving customers money because he knows firsthand how low-income families often choose among paying electricity bills, filling prescriptions or buying groceries. CPS has award-winning programs to weatherize 16,000 homes and 20,000 multifamily units and reduce total energy use by 1% per year.

Those money-saving investments, though, will not keep bills from rising. Building new transmission lines is one example of the challenge of balancing reliability and affordability.

CPS often curtails renewable electricity from South Texas because the wires can carry only so much power without melting. But building new transmission and distribution lines adds a couple of dollars to customer bills for decades.

Asking for rate increases is difficult in this day and age, he said. But it allows us to make those billion-dollar annual investments over the next decade that we're going to have to make to continue to move the needle.

New technologies also present opportunities and challenges. CPS is talking to the large military bases around San Antonio about small nuclear reactors to generate power. Home solar panels, mini-natural gas generators and home battery systems can act as shock absorbers when demand spikes, but only if CPS knows about them.

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What CPS cannot do is slow the growing demand for electricity from data centers, oil and gas facilities, electric vehicles and home gadgets. Demand could grow by two-thirds by 2030.

Weve got an obligation to serve, Garza said. When somebody shows up at my doorstep and asks for service, I dont have the discretion to say, I'm sorry, we can't serve you.

San Antonio, like Texas, is one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation. When it comes to the grid, Texans would do well to watch and learn from CPS strategies.
The Richmond-based owners of the Quirk Hotel in Charlottesville have sold the property to a New York-based hospitality company for $24 million.

The sellers, a group led by Ted and Katie Ukrop, say they will focus their efforts on their flagship location in downtown Richmond.

The buyer, Blue Suede Hospitality Group, purchased the 80-room luxury hotel in downtown Charlottesville in a deal that closed April 29. The company intends to rebrand the hotel.

Ted Ukrop, the son of former grocery store magnate Jim Ukrop, opened the first Quirk boutique hotel in Richmond in 2015 with his wife, Katie, and business partners.

The 74-room hotel occupies a seven-story Italian Renaissance building on West Broad Street and features a restaurant, art gallery and rooftop bar.

Five years later, the Ukrops opened a second location in Charlottesville. They bought the building for about $4 million, and the hotel opened its doors on March 5, 2020, days before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Not all ventures or pursuits go as planned, and opening two weeks before COVID certainly presented many challenges, Ted Ukrop said in a statement.

Like the first one, the second Quirk features an art gallery, a rooftop area and a restaurant called Pink Grouse. The Ukrops plan to keep the art gallery, Ted Ukrop said.

Retro Hospitality, a Richmond-based company that manages both Quirk hotels, will keep managing the Charlottesville location.

The Charlottesville office of Cushman & Wakefield  Thalhimer represented Blue Suede, and a Dallas-based real estate firm, CBRE Hotels Institutional Group, advised the Ukrops on their sale.

Top 5 weekend events: Friday Cheers, Que Pasa? Festival, RVA Taco Fest Friday Cheers Que Pasa? Festival Arts in the Park RVA Taco Fest Asian American Celebration
The Marshalls store in Midlothian is moving from 9748 Midlothian Turnpike to Westchester Commons at 109 Perimeter Drive.

Marshalls is an off-price retailer with over 1,100 stores across the country.

The new Marshalls at Westchester Commons will open to the public on May 16. The store will be 25,000 square feet. Its hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.

Our newest store in Midlothian will offer an ever-changing selection of high-quality, on-trend, and brand-name merchandise at the amazing prices that Marshalls is known for. Were excited to bring this experience and exceptional values from fashion and beauty to home and more to a new neighborhood, said Tim Miner, president of Marshalls, in a statement.

The new Marshalls plans to add approximately 60 full- and part-time jobs.

The existing Marshalls on Midlothian Turnpike will close and is running sales on existing merchandise.

We consider a variety of factors when we choose store locations and our decision to relocate in the Richmond area reflects that thinking, said a spokesperson for Marshalls.

Westchester Commons, which opened in 2009, is also home to a Regal Cinema, Target, Petco, Golds Gym and many restaurants such as Sedona Taphouse, Latitude Seafood Co., Napa Kitchen and Wine, Rusty Taco and more.

In celebration of its new Midlothian location, Marshalls will contribute to the local community by donating $10,000 to the Chesterfield Food Bank Outreach Center.

This isnt the only local Marshalls store on the move.
As a federal program that offsets internet costs to families in need has expired, Congress is seeking both short- and long-term solutions.

Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd, signed onto a bill to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program on Wednesday, months after its introduction and as the program expired. The timing prompted a rebuke from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

But Kiggans appears to have sought other approaches to resolving the matter. On Wednesday, she shared a copy of an April 17 letter she and others sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., encouraging work on the issue.

Lauryn Fanguen, a spokeswoman for the DCCC, asserted that Kiggans belatedly signed onto the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act of 2024 after Democrats criticized Kiggans in a news release a day earlier for refusing to lift a finger to help constituents on the matter.

She clearly only did this in response to (Democrats) attacking her on the issue, she said.

Kiggans said she joined the bill as a co-sponsor because she has heard from constituents who have stressed concern about losing the benefit after finding out their internet bills would go up.

They even would say, you know, it said here on my bill for my service provider to contact my congressman, Kiggans said. So we listened to those types of things. We looked into it a little more and saw that there was legislation that we could co-sponsor.

Kiggans is seeking a second term in a district based in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk that has more turnover than any other Virginia congressional seat. Since 2000, the district has had eight different representatives  three Democrats and five Republicans. Missy Cotter Smasal and Jake Denton are seeking the Democratic nomination in this years contest.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called the district the most unstable employment you can have as a politician.

First created in 2021 and handled by the Federal Communications Commission, the Affordable Connectivity Program has enabled groups, including low-income households, to apply for discounts of up to $30 a month for internet service and up to $75 a month for households on tribal lands. The program also included a one-time $100 discount to help offset the purchase of laptops or tablets.

An estimated 16% of the households in Kiggans district, or roughly 46,000, have benefited from the program. Kiggans is the only Republican in Virginias congressional delegation to have joined the extension bill. The district of Rep. Ben Cline, R-6th, slightly trails Kiggans in tapping into the program.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has endorsed Smasal in her challenge to Kiggans.

Kiggans said she hopes the extension act can sail through the House and Senate chambers to end up on President Joe Bidens desk before the end of the year. Twenty-four of its 230 co-sponsors are Republicans.

She added that the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted how important broadband connectivity is to the workforce, health care and education.

We want to make sure that were not only focusing on things like broadband and increasing access there, but making sure people can afford it, she said.
Archaeological pieces from private Philadelphia family collection returned to Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico  The Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia has returned 22 archaeological pieces to Mexico. The pieces were returned last week to the Mexican Cultural Center (CCM) voluntarily from a private family collection.

In a joint statement this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said the 22 pieces will be reintegrated into Mexican archaeological heritage.

In addition to both institutions, the return was possible thanks to the collaboration between the Landau family, collector of the pieces, the federal Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico.

Last October, the Landau family decided to voluntarily deliver 29 pieces to the CMM, given the possible historical and cultural relevance of the elements in question, the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia and the CCM agreed to verify their authenticity before the INAH with the support of the SRE.

In that sense, an opinion was carried out on the 29 pieces and an archaeologist from the institute, a specialist in pre-Columbian cultures, concluded that 22 of them  among which anthropomorphic figures and vessels stand out  matched artifacts made by various Mesoamerican cultures that inhabited our country between the years 400 BC and 1521 AD, which is why they are considered the archaeological heritage of the nation.

Photo: SRE May 1, 2024.

It was resolved that the remaining seven pieces are of recent manufacture or that their place of origin cannot be determined based on their physical state.

Once the INAH opinion was received, the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia and the CMM coordinated the delivery of the 22 pieces with the aim of being returned to Mexican territory for proper research, conservation and care.

Five of the pieces date from the Mesoamerican Preclassic period (400 BC-200 AD), 16 belong to the Classic period (100-700 AD) and one is from the Postclassic period (1200-1521 AD).

The Consul of Mexico in Philadelphia, Carlos Obrador Garrido, praised the special attention that the federal government has given to the recovery and rematriation of Mexican historical heritage.

We celebrate that it has been possible to return these 22 pieces to the country, which should never have left Mexico, he said.

The president of the CCM Board of Directors, Araceli Guenther said we are pleased to collaborate in this initiative that highlights the importance of restoring our archaeological heritage.

For the Mexican Cultural Center it is a pride to have been the conduit through which the pieces that will soon return to our country were recovered.

The Landau family, also present at the event, said Leonard Landau was a lover of Mexican art and liked to collect archaeological pieces. After his death, his wife and his children considered that the right thing to do was to return them to Mexico and we were lucky enough to find the Mexican Cultural Center of Philadelphia.

Mexico, through its embassies and consulates around the world, constantly deploys efforts to raise awareness about the importance of preserving Mexican cultural heritage.

Photo: SRE May 1, 2024.

For this reason, the diplomatic and consular representations of Mexico have recovered various archaeological assets, historical manuscripts, among others, that were in the hands of people or institutions abroad, which are now in Mexican territory.
State Secretary says hyped media insecurity politically motivated

Chetumal, Q.R.  State officials have referred to the latest hyped media wave of insecurity in the south as politically motivated. In a press conference, State Secretary Cristina Torres said political groups are taking advantage of crime to generate panic as a strategy to destabilize the state.

Do not politicize security issues, she said referring to hyped media including an altered video released on social media claiming cartel takeovers in Quintana Roo.

In all the previous (electoral) processes there were similar situations, she said. They take the opportunity to send fake videos that coincide with a real situation and they want to generate an alert.

The important thing here is that security is not politicized, it has to do with ethics, she said.

Last week, an altered social media video began circulating where a group of armed men claimed to be taking over Cozumel. Other hyped incidence have been reported since the shooting death of an active SSC police officer last week.

Last week, an altered video began circulating claiming an armed group was going to take over the island of Cozumel.

In reference to the upcoming elections, Torres said in the past, security issues have been used for political purposes. She said citizens expect proposals and alternatives from the various political actors in the electoral run and do not deserve to enter a state of psychosis due to ill-intentioned people who spread messages of panic that do not correspond to reality, but coincide with a territorial dispute of crime.

On May 1, the Government of Belize released a public travel alert for its citizens traveling to Chetumal. In their statement, they said they were monitoring the recent rise in violent crime in the city of Chetumal while also acknowledging that Mexican authorities have taken steps to address the issue.
Witnesses to Cancun parking lot purse snatch capture, strip and tie thief for police

Cancun, Q.R.  A young Cancun man was stripped naked, tied and left for police after robbing a woman of her purse. The public incident happened Thursday night in a plaza parking lot when the youth is alleged to have grabbed the woman from behind.

According to involved witnesses, the youth grabbed the womans purse from behind, throwing her to the ground in the process. Mototaxi drivers who saw what happened began to chase the man, catching up with him in another area of the same plaza parking lot.

The incident happened in SM 248 Thursday night in a shopping area on Los Tules Avenue. An undisclosed number of mototaxi drivers intercepted the running man. They stripped him of his clothes, tied his hand and feet and left him for police.

Cancun police officers responding to the robbery report arrived to find a naked youth laying face down on the parking lot pavement with his hands and feet bound. He was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police unit for transport.

The young thief was arrested and set for later release since the victim refused to file an official complaint. Photo: May 2, 2024.

The female victim was able to recover her stolen belongings from the scene. However, since she was not willing to file an official police complaint, the young thief will be released after 48 hours.
Katy ISD Administration Building Google Earth

The race for two open positions on the Katy ISD board of trustees became increasingly heated ahead of the elections that take place Saturday.

Two candidates vying for the non-partisan positions have accepted endorsements from the Republican Party and leveled accusations in mailers that their opponents are extremist liberals.

Donovan Campbell and David Olson, candidates for Positions 6 and 7, have accepted endorsements from the Harris County GOP and circulated mail flyers insinuating that their opponents, Rebecca Fox and Dawn Champagne, are endorsed by the Democratic Party.

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Olson and Champagne did not respond to requests for comment.

SCHOOL FUNDING: Katy ISD superintendent slams Texas Legislature for inaction as district could face budget cuts

Katy joins a growing list of school board races in Texas and across the country that have become more partisan in recent years. In some cases, outside political groups have backed slates of like-minded candidates and spent big on mailers and even TV ads, the kind of tactics more common in higher profile mayoral and city council elections. Increasingly, these once-sleepy, low-spending, low-turnout races have become battlegrounds steeped in national political issues, like book banning, LGBTQ rights and sex education.

One of the Katy mailers, obtained by the Chronicle, says incumbent board members Dawn Champagne and Rebecca Fox were endorsed by Eliz Markowitz, president of the Katy Area Democrats.

Markowitz is not an elected political figure, but she previously ran for Katy ISD school board in 2022. She said on her personal Facebook page that she supports Champagne and Fox.

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Her political affiliations did not sway her support for Fox and Champagne, Markowitz said.

"I find it disappointing that two candidates for Katy ISD board of trustees who have stated their position is grounded in honor and integrity have the audacity to weaponize a private citizen in an attempt to politicize a non-partisan position," Markowitz said of the mailer. "Coupled with the fact that the community has heard absolutely no policy solutions from these men, it's clear to me that they are simply running a campaign based on fear-mongering and lies."

Campbell declined an interview but sent an email defending his decision to include Markowitz in his campaign materials, stating, "Our mailers publicized information that Eliz Markowitz, a well-known local activist and former board candidate, had herself publicized widely and promoted actively on social media. We believe that broadening the reach of her message was helpful for the Katy community."

Fox said school board races should not center on whether candidates are Republicans or Democrats.

"My (campaign) focus is on the value I bring to the community as a school board trustee," she said. "As a trustee, I pledged to take care of the interest of all the students, all their families and our incredible staff."

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Her rival is not using a "campaign strategy that is honorable, nor does it have anything to do with student success."

Fox and Champagne were publicly endorsed in an open letter April 22 signed by eight former Katy ISD board members.

"Despite how highly politicized the direction of public education has become, only a small percentage of voters make it to the polls to choose their school board trustees," the letter said. "We implore you to take the time and make your plan to vote so you can have your say in the direction of Katy ISD's leadership. Now, more than ever, we need to involve the whole community in defining the legacy we bring forward into Katy ISD's future."

The letter was signed by Chris Crockett, Henry Dibrell, Eric Duhon, Susan Gesoff, Duke Keller, Bill Lacy, Bryan Michalsky, Greg Schulte, Ashley Vann and Leah Wilson, all of whom served on the Katy ISD board.

Political-action groups

Katy ISD school board races have attracted more attention from political groups in recent years.

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This year, Campbell has accepted a $5,000 from With Honor PAC, campaign finance reports show. The Pennsylvania- based political organization is dedicated to helping veterans secure legislative positions.

Outside political-action groups, PACs, first got involved in the Katy ISD school board race in 2022 when current board president Victor Perez accepted endorsements from conservative entities, including the Texas Latino Conservatives, Conservative Coalition of Harris County and the Texas Alliance for Life PAC.

The following year, current board members Amy Theime, Morgan Calhoun and Mary Ellen Cuzela accepted endorsements from the Harris County GOP and allowed the Texans for Educational Freedom PAC to mail out flyers calling their opponents far left.

The other candidates at the time said that they are actually conservative but refused to bring their political affiliation into the apolitical position.

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My bad. When I was asked to write a review of Netflixs 3 Body Problem, I assumed we had entered a new stage in the gender wars. Having successfully worked around my undergraduate physical science requirement by taking a January-term class on Einstein and writing a paper on his philosophical ideas, I trust Im forgiven for not knowing that the three-body problem refers to an unsolvable problem in physics. I am informed by the authoritative Wikipedia that the three-body problem takes

the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses and solv[es] for their subsequent motion according to Newtons laws of motion and Newtons law of universal gravitation. Unlike two-body problems, the three-body problem has no general closed-form solution.

How would Netflix make a show of this, and how might it be of interest to our readers? Or did I just misunderstand?

The series begins promisingly enoughin the past. During a Maoist struggle session, a famous Chinese physicist, Ye Zhetai, is brought before a jeering crowd to recant of sins such as believing that the Big Bang theory is the best explanation for the origin of the universe available and that the science of physics has no definitive answer concerning Gods existence. The crowd, but for one person, his daughter, shout their disapproval, and even his wife takes the stage to denounce him. He is stalwart in his defense of science and subsequently beaten to death for his impertinence.

His daughter, Ye Wenjie, traumatized, turns against the Party, but it recognizes her genius and offers her the opportunity to work in a secret laboratory in the Chinese highlands. There she learns of the governments efforts to take the lead in interstellar communications. She cleverly figures out a way to intensify and accelerate radio transmissions and receives a reply from beyond: Do not answer. If you respond, we will come. Your world will be conquered. Thus begins a fairly conventional alien-invasion science fiction non-thriller, but with enough conceptual material to keep me engaged, even though I dislike the genre.

Ye Wenjie takes the alien threat not as a promise of destruction but of salvation. Disgusted by mans inhumanity to man, she vows to help the alien race (later revealed as the san-ti) find their new home, as their planet has been rendered uninhabitable by the existence of three suns. We fast-forward to the present and the suicide of Ye Wenjies daughter Vera, also a physicist, one trying to make sense of anomalous data produced by the worlds particle accelerators. Confused, she asks one of the defining questions of the series in a conversation with her fellow physicist, the brilliant but undisciplined Saul Durand:

Vera: Do you believe in God? Saul: Is that what its come to? No. I dont. I accept that this [the anomalies] defies all known laws of physics, but  I dont think thats an argument for God. Vera: So, whats left?

The underlying theme of the series, though done in a fairly facile way, restates the long-standing conflict between faith and science, and not necessarily to the advantage of science. That conflict brings into relief much condemnation of modernity, not only in terms of exploring the hubristic violation of limits often indulged by science, but also the attendant ecological and political disasters. Our science has not rendered us enlightened but rapacious. Moral progress has not attended material progress; indeed, Ye Wenjies experience watching the Red Troops beat her father destroyed any faith she might have had in progress. Reading a purloined copy of Rachel Carsons Silent Spring in her imprisoned youth convinced Ye Wenjie that humanity exists on this planet as a kind of destructive virus, thus concluding it is impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind itself. Our help must come from above.

While still working with the Chinese government, Ye Wenjie meets the American Mike Evans, a radical environmentalist and scion of an oil magnate, who had dedicated his life to saving an animal species in the Chinese hinterlands. Trying to get Ye Wenjie to desist from building the radio tower on the site where the species lived, he quotes, to Ye Wenjies surprise and interest, Rachel Carson: In nature, nothing exists alone. Thus begins a fitful romance whereby Evans and Ye Wenjie become co-conspirators in welcoming the san-ti to earth as saviors (the future Evans refers to the voice modulation of the san-ti as my Lord and carries around as a holy book the record of his conversations with them), the two of them prophets of the revelation that in the universe nothing exists alone. The show plays with the Fermi paradox: given all the suns that are out there, it seems improbable that there isnt intelligent life on other planets, so why havent we seen it?

But will the san-ti save the human race or destroy it? In a telling conversation, Evans, the only person with a direct line to the san-ti (aboard a ship named Judgement Day), relates the story of Little Red Riding Hood and, to his amazement, discovers how literal-minded the san-ti are. They dont understand fiction or metaphor, nor do they countenance the wolfs deception. Their conclusion: A liar is someone whose words are false. A liar cannot be trusted. We cannot coexist with liars. We are afraid of you. At which point, the san-ti cut off connection with Evans, who now, in the fashion of Ingmar Bergman, receives only silence in response to his cries de profundis.

The juxtaposition of a silent, all-knowing, and all-seeing power (as the san-ti have wired themselves into all human communication networks) against the arrogance of science and political revolution forms the arc of the story. In the scientific worldview, human beings have already been reduced to the ever-changing pattern dancing through the neurons of their brain. If that exists, the person exists. This conceit allows the san-ti to access brains directly. Faith in the san-tiagainst the promise and limits of scientific knowing places mankind in a tenuous state. No longer confident in our own abilities to perfect the world, either by scientific advancement or political revolution, we become susceptible to the promises of false gods. But what if theyre not false, and what if they judge our imperfection so harshly that they have no choice but to destroy us? Will there be a Noah who can survive the conflagration, with the promise that if one of us survives, we all survive?

The series features many characters, most of them two-dimensional, but centers on five young friends who went to university together and are all brilliant scientists. Two of themJin Cheng and Jack Rooneyare unwittingly brought by the san-ti into a virtual-reality game that initiates them into the world of the san-ti by running them through the three-body problem and in the process demonstrating their allegiance to the san-ti. When Jack balks at joining the san-ti in their plan, he is summarily dispatched by an alienated woman who possesses unexplained strength. Jin, meanwhile, who seeks all the big answers concerning why the universe works the way it does, puts together a plan to intercept the san-tiships heading to Earth. Her plan fails. Her friend Will, the most interesting character in the series and dying of cancer, but also in unrequited love with Jin, donates his brain to the project, which now floats endlessly through space.

The only other interesting character is Auggie Salazar, an applied scientist whose created nanofibers are put to deadly use. Horrified by the application of scientific discoveries, she removes herself from the drama and attempts to use her discovery to help people in the Third World. She a fairly stock character, but without her the conflict between faith and science lacks its punch. The tension between her and Jin restates the dirty-hands problem: Is it possible to engage in scientific exploration and keep yourself free from any guilt regarding its practical uses? Only Auggie achieves some clarity about that problem, as Jin remains too enthusiastic about pure science.

Though still 400 years away from getting to Earth, the san-ti fear the ability of earthlings to advance their technology beyond what the san-ti currently possess. Their immediate goal, therefore, is to kill science with sophons, photon-sized artificial intelligence devices that have nearly unlimited capacity. At the denouement, Jin is told by the san-ti with overtones of a malicious demiurge:

We will destroy the science that could defeat us. The answers to your questions will become chaotic and meaningless. The universe will remain a mystery to you forever. In place of truth, we give you miracles. We wrap your world in illusions. We make you see what we want you to see. We are everywhere. Anywhere. Always watching. Learning all your secrets. Uncovering your lies. And we will teach you how to fear again.

The series present the san-ti as a transcendent judge weighing humanity in the balance and finding it wanting. Against the san-ti stands a small group of humanists, using the full force of the remaining science to defeat the san-ti. The most dramatic moment occurs when Ye Wenjie finally learns the truth about the san-ti and their desire to destroy humanity. The full force of what she has done unnerves her, and she prepares to commit suicide, but first she offers her confession. She recalls the death of her father and all that happened on that stage; the Maoist revolutionaries destroying the old order in the belief that doing so would introduce a new and perfect one. She realizes that she has repeated the error:

A man with a hammer smashing the Buddha, Jesus, and a rock and roll record. The slogan said, Destroy the old world. Forge the new world. Its the only thing I ever agreed with the Red Guards about.

Between an angry ersatz god who wills their destruction and disillusionment with both science and revolution stands trembling humanity. Going beyond Pascal, the protagonists of 3 Body Problem discover not that the universe is indifferent to their existence but hostile. The san-ti threaten to crush them as bugs (a recurring metaphor). In another echo of Pascal, a character reminds Saul that bugs dont know why terrible things happen to them. Bugs also have a way of surviving all cataclysms, giving the conclusion of season 1 a note of hope. In any case, the fear and trembling have not robbed humans of all their dignity.

What to do? Despair? Worship the san-ti in hopes they might yet change their mind? Fight? Jin accuses Ye Wenjie, who was willing to risk everything because she saw the path we were on and where it led, of having arrogated too much power to herselfto decide for all humanity the road to salvation. How will you be remembered, Jin Cheng? As someone who fought back, Jin replies.

Season 1 is part of a planned three seasons, so it ends inconclusively. For all its stock characters and no small amount of ham-fisted writing, as well as risible special effects, the series makes an effort to limn the central problems of the human condition: What if the transcendent power is malevolent and not benevolent? What if we fly too close to the sun, transgressing our limits? What if eating of the tree of knowledge brings only death and despair? What happens when, to paraphrase Eric Voegelin, we prefer certain untruths to uncertain truths? Maybe the central lesson is the punchline to a joke told by the Secretary General of the UN to Saul at the end of season 1: Dont play with God. We would do well to drop the with.
New River Community College will celebrate its 54th annual commencement on Friday, May 10, and Monday, May 13, on the colleges campus in Dublin.

The ceremonies will take place in 117 Edward Hall, according to an NRCC news release.

Students who graduate this year will have completed more than 1,000 degrees, certificates and diplomas in 82 different programs, with many graduates receiving multiple awards, according to the release.

Students in the Division of Business and Technologies for the 2023-24 academic year will be honored on May 10 at 4 p.m. Doors open at 3 p.m.

Students in the Division of Arts and Sciences for the 2023-24 academic year will be honored later that evening at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Division of Health Professions students will graduate on May 13 at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. A pinning ceremony for associate degree nursing graduates will be held at 7:30 p.m. following graduation.

Graduation ceremonies will be livestreamed for family, friends, and others to view off-campus. To view the ceremonies online, visit NRCCs graduation webpage at www.nr.edu/graduation.
BLACKSBURG  A group of pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested decried Virginia Techs move to clear their encampment and urged the school to drop all legal charges and threats of disciplinary action against those who participated during a news conference Thursday.

It was held on the Graduate Life Center lawn  where the encampment was located.

Desiree Poets, an assistant professor of political science at Virginia Tech who was arrested on Sunday, said: We, the faculty of Virginia Tech, demand from Virginia Tech, that they drop all charges against the peaceful protesters arrested on April 28 and 29. We additionally demand that they reinstate and that they protect students and facultys right to assembly, free speech, and protest moving forward.

Several speakers mentioned the treatment some protesters reported, after their arrest, including being kept in handcuffs for several hours at a time, and being refused bathroom breaks.

The arrests were largely carried out by Virginia Techs police force, with assistance from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, the Blacksburg Police Department and Virginia State Police.

After being asked about the role of the state police, a person who was not one of the speakers during the conference approached the podium to discuss what he had witnessed, but did not wish to give his name.

I was on the other side of the grass filming the entire time, and I can confirm that a state trooper did successfully breach the line and try to assault students, the unnamed person said. And he did have to be held back by multiple other officers.

Bikrum Gill, a political science professor who was also arrested on Sunday, discussed the involvement of the state police.

The state police calls into question Virginia State, Gill said.

Gill went on to discuss Gov. Glenn Youngkins response to the encampment at Virginia Tech.

On April 30, two days after the clearing of the Virginia Tech encampment, Youngkin posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying that student and significant non-student participants had been seen throwing projectiles at police, and refusing to comply with university policies.

Gill, during the conference, responded to this.

There was a statement issued by Gov. Youngkin, very much in line with statements by Tim Sands, which are constantly suggesting that what is happening here is not reflective of the Virginia Tech community, that there are outside agitators coming in, Gill said. And what we would like to emphasize is that what this does is, it once again reproduces our Palestinian students as not a welcome part of this community.

While speakers at the press conference made no attempt to hide their faces, many were unwilling to give their names. One of these speakers, identified as a Virginia Tech student, discussed repeated attempts made by student groups to get Tim Sands to release an official statement on the suffering of Palestinians following Israels response to the Oct. 7 attacks.

According to the student, during a meeting with administrators on Nov. 15 Sands deferred to donors when asked why he would not make a statement along the lines of what the group was requesting.

So that was, in the only meeting we had with him back in November, we were just requesting a statement to equally recognize the immense loss of life in Gaza like he did after Oct. 7, for Israel, the speaker said. and we were met with, and I quote from him, The donors will be upset with that.

Speakers at the conference went on to claim that, while different pro-Palestinian groups had tried several times to meet again with Sands, he refused, and that when his presence was requested at the encampment, he informed them he had already heard what they had to say, referring to his meeting on Nov. 15.

In a statement Monday, Sands included this:

Today I am troubled by the divisions in our community, as we find ourselves faced with challenges and conflicts that are painful, difficult to manage, and nearly impossible to communicate about when emotions are high.

Last night, 82 protesters (largely students) were arrested for trespassing after occupying the Graduate Life Center lawn for three days and repeatedly refusing to comply with university policy and public safety regulations. While I am grateful the incident was resolved peacefully by Virginia Tech Police, I was saddened by the way our officers were treated. I am also deeply disappointed to see members of our community choose uncivil and unlawful behavior over purposeful engagement in difficult conversations and robust debate that should be part of the Virginia Tech experience.

Virginia Tech strongly supports free speech, even when the content of that speech may be disagreeable to some. However, those rights do not extend beyond the point where they interfere with the rights of others, violate our policies, the Code of Virginia, or federal laws and/or create a threat to safety for others.

When asked what specific disciplinary action the university might take, speakers at the news conference Thursday said that they did not wish to comment at this time.

Emon Green, a senior, said that he felt there was a disconnect between what was happening at the encampment, and what university administrators have suggested, further implying that the university misled the protesters.

Administration, on that day [April 28] at 5:30, told us that the reason we were allowed to stay was in order for our voices to be heard, all the while, they came for the express reason of suppressing us, and telling us to leave, Green said. You see the inconsistency there.
Grand Cypress Doctors Pavilion 1 will span across 60,000 square feet, including a 12,000-square-foot endoscopy center. David Stokes Collaborative Architects

The first phase of a long-awaited 30-acre, $600 million medical park project owned by physicians has broken ground in Cypress.

Physician investor group North Cypress Land Ventures has broken ground on Grand Cypress Doctors Pavilion One, a 60,000-square-foot project slated to be completed in June of 2025.

Most of the first building has been preleased with tenants across multiple disciplines, anchored by a 12,000-square-foot endoscopy surgery center headed by Dr. Bharat Pothuri.

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SOLAR PANELS: See how solar panels are made in a new facility based in the Houston area

The space is about 80 percent leased, North Cypress Land Ventures chairman Kim Keller said, and the building will also host Keller Surgical Specialists.

"Our mission is to provide a state o the art health care campus with experienced and caring doctors who are focused on patient care and satisfaction above all else," Keller said.

Now a more than 30-year general surgeon in the Cypress area, Keller comes from a family of physician ownership. His father, a primary care doctor, built Houston Northwest Medical Center and Cy-Fair Hospital, where Keller hosted his own practice. Now, three of Keller's children are involved in the Grand Cypress Medical Pavilion project.

Now with 43 local active physicians on board, North Cypress Land Ventures is unique in that it promotes medical developments owned by local doctors, Keller said.

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The 30-acre site is located adjacent to the formerly physician-owned North Cypress Medical Center.

"We had this extra land, and I really wanted to continue the process of physician ownership and physician involvement with patient care as much as possible," Keller said.

Located at the northeast corner of Grand Parkway and U.S. 290, the group first received an $8 million loan in 2019 to begin the project. The maturity date was extended to July 2025, and the same lender offered another $19.1 million for the project in 2020.

Once completed, the Grand Cypress Medical Pavilion will incorporate around five buildings including a potential rehabilitation center, a wellness center, another medical office building and a women's center or cancer prevention center, Keller said. Phase Two of the project will likely be the rehabilitation center, while Phase Three could feature the wellness center and women's or cancer center, respectively.

"The general theme I would like to have is physical health, mental health and cancer prevention," Keller said. "I think there's a significant need for more women's health."

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The wellness center will incorporate more than just fitness and will likely offer packages with other physicians within the campus, said Allison Keller-Beddoe, executive assistant and the wellness center's future director.

"The (wellness) center is going to be set up in collaboration with doctors located at the other (buildings,)" Keller-Beddoe said. "It'll be setting people up for success long-term, not just having it for them to work out."

Construction is headed by CONAR Building Group of Tennessee. Architect Willie Stokes of fellow Tennessee-based firm Davis Stokes Collaborative Architects, who has designed other medical buildings in the area, is designing the project.
Madeleine McCanns parents still living in limbo 17 years on from her disappearance

Madeleine McCanns family say they are still living in limbo as they mark 17 years since their little girl vanished.

Madeleine disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, after they left the then three-year-old and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment.

In a social media post to mark the painful anniversary, her parents wrote: Its 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us.

Gerry, left, and Kate McCann, hold up a poster of their four-year old Madeleine (AP)

Its hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief, they said. Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the living in limbo is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.

Your support continues to encourage us and bolsters our strength to keep going. We know the love and hope for Madeleine and the will to find her, even after so many years, remains, and we are truly thankful for that. Thank you again for remembering Madeleine and all missing children.

Madeleine has not been seen in 17 years (PA Media)

It comes as the McCann family also prepare to mark her 21st birthday. The family is expected to attend an annual prayer gathering in the middle of their village Rothley, Leicestershire on Friday night.

This week it emerged that up to 192,000 has been granted by the Home Office for the Scotland Yard investigation into the case. The confirmation of the latest annual funding for Operation Grange was revealed in a parliamentary written answer by Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom.

He also said that as of March this year, the Metropolitan Police had spent 13.2 million investigating the high-profile case.

The prime suspect in Madeleines disappearance is currently on trial in Germany charged with unrelated sex offences, allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

The 47-year-old German, only known as Christian B because of the countrys strict privacy laws, spent many years in Portugal  including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleines disappearance.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in the resort town in 2005. He had denied all the charges against him and any involvement in Madeleines disappearance.
SIOUX CITY  Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

It turns out that Steve DeVoe actually was, since the COO of CNOS was the big winner of "Are You Smarter than a 4th Grader?" fundraiser for the Sioux City Public Schools Foundation, held Thursday night at West High School.

Based on the TV quiz show, "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" the benefit had adult community members match wits with a panel of Sioux City Community School District fourth graders in three increasingly difficult rounds, hosted by Sioux City Journal editor Bruce Miller and Siouxland Chamber of Commerce investment relations director Heidi Reinking.

Answering questions while contributing a "Jar of Destiny" to the Sioux City Public Foundation, DeVoe won out over both Larry Moser, of Gallagher Insurance, and Larry Wentz, of KTIV-TV, who each won a round a piece.

The other contestants were Amy Denney, of Sioux City Community Schools, Brian Crichton, of CMBA Architects, and Katie Kruse, Together for a Greater Good (TAGG).

The 4th graders were Addison Timblin, Liberty Elementary School; Lucas Artega, Bryant Elementary School; Colin Conaway, Perry Creek Elementary School; Connor Koch, Leeds Elementary School; William Busch, Spalding Park Environmental Sciences Elementary School; Alivia Sissel, Loess Hills Computer Programming Elementary School; Lola Hollenkamp, Sunnyside Elementary School; Emanuel Tadesse, Morningside STEM Elementary School; Kenny Franco, Hunt A+ Arts Elementary School and Yordan Ramirez, Irving Dual Language Elementary School.

The mission of the Sioux City Public Schools Foundation (scpsf.org) is to support the Sioux City Community School District with innovative programs that cannot be achieved through limited state and federal funding.

Its purpose is to effectively utilize available resources to provide students with the maximum opportunity for both academic and lifelong success.
Warren Buffett is notoriously critical of digital currencies as speculative and lacking real value. Yet he passed up a chance to comment a few years ago when asked about cryptocurrencys growth into a trillion-dollar industry.

But to Charlie Munger, sitting to Buffetts left during the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, the question was like waving red in front of a bull.

The Berkshire vice chairman blasted cryptocurrency as invented out of thin air and noted its usefulness to kidnappers and extortionists.

I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization, said Munger, eliciting a chuckle from Buffett.

It was typical Munger: Feisty. Colorful. Acerbic. And not giving a damn what anybody else thinks.

Its also a reminder of how much Buffetts longtime business partner, sidekick and sounding board  who died in November at age 99  will be missed when Berkshires shareholders gather again in Omaha this week.

Thats going to be hard, said Susie Buffett, Warrens daughter and a Berkshire board member.

Not only did Munger and Buffett work together for decades, they also were close friends. At the time Munger died, Susie said, her 93-year-old father had been looking forward to celebrating Mungers 100th birthday Jan. 1.

Now when Buffett takes the stage at CHI Health Center for Saturday's shareholder Q&A  the centerpiece of the annual meeting  there will be no Munger by his side, munching on Sees peanut brittle. Its the second time Munger missed a Berkshire annual meeting in the decades since the gatherings became major events.

That chemistry between Warren and Charlie has always been the cornerstone  whats made the Berkshire Hathaway meeting so engaging, said Becky Quick, the CNBC business journalist and anchor who has posed shareholder questions in the sessions.

But Buffett wont go on alone.

He will be joined on stage by Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, Berkshire's vice chairmen for operations. The two, particularly CEO-in-waiting Abel, have had an increasingly visible roles in recent annual meetings.

And Munger certainly wont be forgotten. The meeting offers the chance to celebrate his life and critical role in building Berkshire.

Susie Buffett said the annual movie that traditionally opens the Saturday gathering will be dedicated to Munger.

Still, theres no question the curmudgeonly, one-of-a-kind Munger will be missed.

Its just going to be different, said Paul Lountzis, the principal in a New York investment firm and a regular at annual meetings for more than three decades. Charlie was a very special man. His wisdom was always welcome, and his delivery was great. Its a big loss.

'Bromance for the ages'

It seems Munger and Buffett were destined to get together.

Munger grew up in Omaha in a house not even a block from Buffetts current home near 55th and Farnam. Mungers first job was at the Dundee grocery store owned by Buffetts grandfather.

After graduating from Central High, Munger got a law degree from Harvard and went to work as an attorney in California.

But after being introduced to Buffett through mutual acquaintances in 1959, Munger became interested in investing. He soon formed an investment firm modeled on the Omaha partnership Buffett formed years earlier.

That first meeting in Omaha also sparked, in Susie Buffetts words, a bromance for the ages. Fast friends, Buffett and Munger maintained the bond despite making their homes halfway across the country from each other.

My vision in my head is my dad lying on the floor talking to Charlie, and they would just laugh, Susie said of growing up in the 1960s. They connected in a way that was just magical for the two of them.

The two not only shared a love of investing, both possessed brilliant minds and senses of humor.

We think so much alike that its spooky, Buffett said of Munger in a 1977 World-Herald interview.

The next year, the two joined forces. Mungers firm merged into Berkshire with Munger ultimately settling into the role of vice chairman under CEO and chairman Buffett.

Dynamic duo builds empire

Among historys famous duos  Rodgers and Hammerstein, Abbott and Costello, Simon and Garfunkel, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers  few enjoyed the decades of longevity of Buffett and Munger. And few could claim more success.

Buffett and Munger not only built Berkshire into one of the worlds largest conglomerates, they created a widely respected company culture that emphasized business ethics and a long-term orientation.

Buffett long credited Munger with expanding his investment horizons beyond bargain shopping  teaching him it was better to purchase wonderful businesses at fair prices than fair businesses at wonderful prices. That became a guiding principle of Berkshire acquisitions.

Over more than four decades, Munger helped Buffett add numerous brands to Berkshire's portfolio, among them Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, BNSF railroad, Duracell and Geico. And together, they posted one of the biggest and longest runs of investment success the business world has seen.

Berkshire's fast-rising stock price turned Buffett into one of the world's richest men and "The Oracle of Omaha." People began flocking to the city for annual meetings to hear his homespun advice on investing, business and life.

Over time, Munger developed his own following, too.

After answering a shareholder question, Buffett would then throw it to Munger. While the two did not often disagree, Mungers answers tended to be more succinct, colorful and biting.

For example, when asked about family estate planning during last years meeting, Buffett gave a lengthy response in which he talked about the importance of involving children in the process, saying he would not sign a will until his children thoroughly reviewed it.

When asked for his two cents, said Munger: At Berkshire, we have a simple (approach to) estate planning: Just hold the goddamn stock."

The 2015 meeting produced this exchange between the two as they talked about the success of Berkshire's outside stock holdings:

Warren, if (other) people werent so often wrong, we wouldnt be so rich, Munger said.

"He's finally explained it to me," Buffett replied amid the laughter.

Shareholders came to delight in Munger's droll response when he thought Buffett adequately handled the question: I have nothing to add.

Lountzis had been coming to the meetings for years when he brought his son Zachary, then 11, to his first in 1998.

Dad, I know Mr. Buffett is your hero, Zachary said afterward, but my favorite is Mr. Munger.

Mungers best quips and wisdom were ultimately compiled into the book Poor Charlies Almanack  an homage to Benjamin Franklin, who Munger greatly admired.

Quick said the give-and-take between Buffett and Munger not only offered insight into the inner workings of Berkshire and the two great thinkers, it showcased their brotherly relationship and friendship. They were authentically the same people behind the scenes as they were on stage, she said.

After the pandemic prevented Munger from attending the 2020 meeting that was held sans shareholders, Buffett moved the online-only meeting in 2021 to California so Munger could take part.

Even at 99 in last years meeting, Munger sat in a wheelchair and helped Buffett field more than five hours of questions.

"I am personally skeptical of some of the hype that's gone into artificial intelligence, Munger said in a memorable quip that day. I think old-fashioned intelligence works pretty well."

A final conversation

The invitations had already gone out for Mungers 100th birthday celebration.

With the approach of that milestone and the release of the latest edition of Poor Charlies Almanack, MSNBCs Quick sat down with Munger in November for an interview. She said he showed tremendous energy, talking for 2 hours.

Asked the reasons he and Buffett had so much success, Munger said: We got a little less crazy than most people, and a little less stupid than most people. And that really helped us.

Just days later, Munger became ill at his Santa Barbara home and was hospitalized.

A family member said at Munger's memorial service that a nurse in the hospital asked how he was doing. Im dying," he said. "How are you?

Before he died, Munger spoke by phone with Buffett from his hospital bed.

It was a huge surprise to everyone, Susie Buffett said of Mungers Nov. 28 death.

At first, she said, it was hard for her dad to even talk about it.

But one day about a week later, he sat down and penned a tribute to Munger that opened the annual letter to shareholders in February.

Buffett told the story of how in 1965 he was lamenting his decision to purchase Berkshire, at the time a failing New England textile company. Thats when Munger advised him to use Berkshire as an investment vehicle and focus on finding wonderful businesses to add to it.

In reality, Charlie was the architect of the present Berkshire, and I acted as the general contractor to carry out the day-by-day construction of his vision, Buffett wrote.

Susie Buffett said her father has taken solace in the public accolades Munger received in the wake of his death, feeling Munger at last has been getting his due.

In March, Susie Buffett delivered a eulogy at Mungers memorial service in California, including reading her fathers tribute from the annual report.

The fact that Buffett didnt deliver a eulogy himself seems to speak to how emotional Mungers death has been for him, even months later.

Buffett rarely does media interviews and has declined any leading up to this year's meeting. Buffetts words Saturday will be his first publicly in the five months since Mungers death.

Big 3 will take the stage

Even without Munger, the show will go on with tens of thousands of Berkies expected to fill CHI Health Center this weekend.

Quick, who will again be posing shareholder-submitted questions, said she thinks with Buffett, Abel and Jain on the stage, it should make for an engaging, insightful meeting.

The three are the key architects of whats happening day-to-day at Berkshire. Abel and Jain aren't new to the stage, either.

Beginning in 2020, at the request of shareholders, Buffett made them a bigger part of annual meetings.

It was hard to imagine at first without Charlie, but I do think theyve got a plan to keep things interesting, Quick said.

Brian Gongol, a Buffett fan from West Des Moines who has been coming to Berkshire meetings for more than a decade, expects Buffett will have no problem carrying the day, never short of incredibly useful and intelligent things to offer shareholders.

But theres no question, the absence of Munger will be felt.

Gongol recalled how cool it was that at age 99 last year, Munger still had new things to say. And he said its not likely Buffett, Abel or Jain will, for example, take a humorous shot at whats taught in business schools  a past target of the devil-may-care Munger.

Of course, Gongol said he and other shareholders will also miss hearing Munger's signature lines.

Its bittersweet to think that forevermore at Berkshire, Charlie Munger will have nothing to add.

Photos: Berkshire Hathaway 2023 annual shareholders meeting weekend in Omaha
Kaden Black, left, and his friend, Justin, fish for catfish at Lakeview Park as water from Lake Houston rises, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Atascocita. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer A woman reacts as she and others are evacuated by boat from their homes by Montgomery County Sheriffs Office deputies, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Conroe. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer Amanda Kovar, right, walks with her husband, Matthew, and daughter, Zoe, through their neighborhood in North Woodland Hills after severe flooding, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Kingwood. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer A Montgomery County Constables Office deputy blocks a section of River Plantation Drive headed toward Interstate 45 due to high water on Friday, May 3. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer

First responders in the Kingwood, Humble and Atascocita area are preparing for weekend water rescues as floodwaters flow from Lake Conroe and the San Jacinto River into Harris County.

Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department chief Mike Mulligan said Friday that his department is preparing for the worst flooding of this week's storms to occur this weekend.

LIVE STORM UPDATES: Hidalgo says hundreds of homes will be impacted by weekend floods

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"Probably the most surprising part of today is that it isn't worse already," Mulligan said just before noon Friday. "Today is kind of a lull for us. We have rain and street flooding, which is different than the kind of flooding we're going to experience tomorrow, which is river flooding."

Mulligan said he has seen projectings indicating the worst of the flooding will happen between 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday.

Since this flooding will happen at night, Mulligan said it makes it potentially more dangerous for people who decide to stay and wait it out. He said the department is prepared and willing to help rescue people in peril but hopes people heed the warnings before it reaches that point.

"This is dangerous," Mulligan said. "If they're not going to leave and get out of the area completely, then they should set themselves up in an area that's not going to be affected by the water and ride it out. If they are going to leave, then they should do that before the water covers the roadways."

The worst of the flooding along the San Jacinto River in northeast Harris County is expected to begin Friday afternoon and continue into Sunday, Harris County officials said Thursday.

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In a news conference at the Harris County Emergency Management office, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the timing of a surge of flood water heading toward Lake Houston had changed, but the predictions of its impacts had not.

It hasnt arrived yet, the weather continues to be a little bit unpredictable, Hidalgo said. You may think, if you live in those neighborhoods, that the things have leveled off and youre good to go, but this threat is ongoing and its going to get worse.

It is not your typical river flood, she said. This is much worse.

Harris County, Montgomery County, Waller County and Liberty County, along with other counties north of the Houston area, are all flood watch until at least the evening, the National Weather Service updated Friday morning.

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Areas along the east fork of the San Jacinto River remained under a mandatory evacuation order. Points south from Kingwood to Rio Villa are under voluntary evacuation orders, and residents in those communities are being warned they could be flooded in for two to three days.

Hidalgo said the counties expected hundreds of structures to be flooded by the end of the weekend. Buildings in the most badly affected areas could see flooding into their second stories, Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said reports of flooding in Polk County on Thursday morning should be looked at as preview for whats coming to areas of Harris County starting later today.

Seeing whats taking place there is like seeing the future, Hidalgo said. Some 700 of Polk County homes have been flooded, power and internet lines are down and several communities near Lake Livingston are under a boil water notice, Hidalgo said.
Five months after a federal appellate court reversed his convictions for making false statements to FBI agents investigating foreign campaign contributions at a fundraiser, Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry faces no new charges.

And the window to try him again soon will be closing.

On March 25, 2022, a federal jury in Los Angeles found Fortenberry guilty of one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents during an investigation into $30,000 Fortenberry had gotten from a controversial Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, at a fundraiser in Los Angeles in 2016.

Fortenberry didnt initially know it, but he later learned about the money and donated it to charity because it is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money.

But it was the statements he made to FBI agents in interviews at his home in Lincoln and at his counsel's office in Washington, D.C., in 2019 that got him charged. Fortenberry resigned from the House of Representatives a week after his conviction.

And a federal judge in California later sentenced him to probation, community service and a $25,000 fine for it. That sentence was canceled out by the appeal.

In a Dec. 26 decision, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned Fortenberry's three felony convictions saying he should have been tried in Nebraska or Washington, not in California where the fundraiser took place.

Fortenberrys convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue, Judge James Donato said then.

Following the ruling, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California in Los Angeles, said they were "evaluating potential next steps before deciding how best to move forward.

In January, an attorney with the office asked the court for more time to consider requesting a rehearing.

When the deadline passed with no motion, a mandate was issued on March 19, just four days before the five-year statute of limitations ran out to bring charges against Fortenberry in Nebraska over the statements he made at his home March 23, 2019.

This week, Public Affairs Officer Lecia Wright of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nebraska said any prosecution in their office begins with a referral from a law enforcement agency, which includes investigatory reports and evidence upon which the charge would be based.

"Without a referral, we cannot proceed with a prosecution. Our office has not received a referral, nor anything else, related to the Jeff Fortenberry investigation," she said.

The statute of limitations hasn't run out yet on the statements Fortenberry made during an interview July 18, 2019, at his counsel's office in Washington.

As of Wednesday, he faced no federal charges there. About two and a half months remain before prosecutors would be barred from going forward.

This week, Patty Hartman, a public affairs specialist at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, told the Journal Star in an email: "We do not comment on charging decisions, nor can we confirm referrals."

Fortenberry's attorney, Kannon Shanmugam, declined to comment.
The much-foreshadowed twist in Apple TV+s mystery drama Sugar finally arrived with todays episode, the series sixth. Speculation flourished on Reddit, where viewers advanced theories about the true identity of private detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell), while Sugar himself searched for Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler), the missing granddaughter of a fabled Hollywood producer (James Cromwell). The clues that online sleuths analyzed included Sugars uncanny coordination (he caught a fly with chopsticks in the first episode), the seizures that occasionally incapacitate him, his imperviousness to the effects of alcohol, and the Polyglot Society, that enigmatic organization to which Sugar ambivalently belongs.

Is Sugar an angel? A vampire? An alien? An immortal? A time traveler? No Redditor doubted that he was something more than human, a sentiment confirmed when Sugar, cornered by villain Stallings (a genuinely terrifying Eric Lange) and two of his armed henchfolk, succeeded in overpowering and killing all three. Some mysteries remainwhy did Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) tip the bad guys off to Sugars impending arrival?but the episodes final scene handed the laurels to Team Alien, showing Sugar injecting yet another hypodermic into his neck, causing him to gradually transform into a hairless, glowing-eyed wonder with ridged skin as blue as his beloved Corvette.

Related From Slate Colin Farrells Brilliant New Detective Show Is the Antidote to Every Antihero Drama Read More

This reveal has divided TV critics who had access to the full run of episodes before reviewing the series. Some hated it; others (including myself) found it intriguing. Surely anyone whos stuck with Sugar this long (despite the concise 30-odd-minute-long episodes) will be a sucker for moody film noir iconography, however familiar, just like Sugar himself. The series creator, Mark Protosevich, has laced a subtle vein of cognitive dissonance throughout the preceding episodes, with clips from Humphrey Bogart movies and that seedy 1955 classic, Kiss Me Deadly. The heroes of those films were not nice guys, certainly not as kind, gentle, and decent as Sugar. As much as he loves those old movies, this is a crucial point Sugar seems to have missed, just as those people who say they want to live out a fairy tale have forgotten how dark and brutal most fairy tales are.

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Those who object to the series reveal seem to regard it as a reversal or overturning of whats come before. Sugar presents itself as a detective show, then suddenly transforms into science fiction. But the two genres are more compatible than you might think. The long game being played by Sugars people isnt clear, but, as Ruby explains, the Polyglot Society is just here to observe. They are like anthropologists (or even journalists), sworn to remain uninvolved and to write down everything they see in Moleskine notebooks, presumably for transmission back to their home planet.

Detectives, too, are supposed to be committed to an impartial search for the truth, and that mission gives them access to walks of life that otherwise might be closed to them. But just as Sugar finds it impossible not to become emotionally entangled in his cases, anthropologists have also famously struggled not to get too close to the people they study. In a sly reversal of the usual anthropological concerns, Sugar and his confederates seem to worry less that they will contaminate their subjects with foreign influences than that they will be corrupted by the chaos, cruelty, and violence of the humans theyve infiltrated.

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This is the core dilemma of Sugars character: Can he preserve his better self while still consorting with humanity and savoring the aspects of life on Earth that he so plainly appreciates? Hes not the only one. Ruby, who genuinely cares for him, turns out to be complicit somehow in an arrangement to protect Stallings. What could cause her to compromise herself in this way? That Sugar must hold himself apart from even his closest human friend, Melanie (Amy Ryan), echoes the isolation of the classic hard-boiled P.I. It also lends a resonance to his melancholy detachment. Theres no place he belongs, an attitude common among the lone-wolf heroes of pop culture. But instead of being the toll exacted by all the terrible things hes seen or done, Sugars isolation is a matter of principle.

Sugar has yet to be renewed for a second season, and I will mourn if it isnt. I want to learn more about Sugars people and what theyre up to. I want to watch him glide through more classic film noir scenarios with his impeccable manners, ravishing suits, and tender sadness. Above all, I want to see if Sugar can succeed at negotiating his dual missions while still shielding his extraordinary goodness as he wends his way though this fallen, all-too-human world.
In the chaos of the past few weeks, as adults across so many disciplines have reacted to student protesters with suspensions, zip ties, violent police raids, arrests, and worse, it seems everyone has forgotten something very elemental about university students: They are raw idealists. Which means they can be inspiring, thoughtful, and creatively engaged. But they can also be hellish, self-serving, and terrifyingly shrewd. Trust me, I should know: From 2016 to 2018, I edited dispatches by college kids for the New York Times opinion section for a column called On Campus.

College kidsthey protest. A lot. Like, usually around every big election cycle, but about all kinds of issues, big and small. And guess what? They should!

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Students are supposed to be volatile and passionatetheyre the new members of our society who shake the comfortable cages adults inhabit to say, THIS ISNT SITTING WELL WITH ME. They are, by definition, in learning environments where they are meant to probe the biggest moral issues of our time through the lens of history or policy or science or art. And they have  so much more energy than we do.

Their methods are not perfect, by any means. Student protesters are messy, petty, and prone to fadslike all of us. But there is nothing surprising or particularly unique about the waves of protests and encampments right now. Young people are seeing something brutal, and they are freaking out about it, with and without nuance. This is where they are. This is, quite frankly, where they should be in this moment, as they are opening their eyes to what that world actually contains.

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WE are the adults, not them. And unfortunately, as campuses around the country continue to explodeas over 2,000 campus demonstrators have been arrested, some incredibly violentlywe are proving again and again that we are not up to the task. College presidents immediately escalating the protests by calling the cops to remove students from their own quads? Honestly, grow up. David Axelrod spreading the idea that students cant care enough about the war in Gaza to lead these protests, that those whove blockaded themselves in a campus buildingone with a long history of student occupationwere led by outside agitators? Grow up. Police raising the American flag at City College in Manhattan as if they had conquered some sort of break-away county in a civil war? GROW UP. The people making fun of students asking for vegan and gluten-free food in their encampments? God, just grow up! Students protesting war is the most natural thing in the whole world, and we shouldnt be surprised they dont use the most precise language or the politest actions to communicate what is essentially a primal scream.

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Some students have said and done things that are quite ugly and veered into bigotryagainst Jews and Muslims alike. But most students do not actually understand how everything works (who does?), which can make them illiberal-sounding, uninformed about the weight of their words or just, well, annoying. Joan Didion does some delightfully bitchy skewering of student protesters in The White Album, writing about the kids at San Francisco State University in 1968 whoduring the fiery protests against racism and the Vietnam War that swept college campuses in that eracall a press conference after days of raucous demonstrations only to realize that the problem with press conferences is that the press asked questions.

Two hours and several dozen hand votes later, the group had selected four members to tell the press who owned the media, Didion notes dryly, going on to accuse the students and professors of industrious self-delusion and unconsciously collaborating on a wishful fantasy (Revolution on Campus) and playing it out in time for the six oclock news.

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Ive been thinking about this masterful ethering while watching everyone and their mother moralize overor, really, dunk onthe Columbia student who, representing those occupying a campus building, asked for food and water and referred to it as humanitarian aid. Many have called the video in which she says this offensive, others have called for the student to face difficulty landing internships going forward (which  really? Grow up!).

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The writer Eve Barlow tagged the United Nations and tweeted: Can we please get an airdrop at Columbia University? We need 900 Acai bowls, 1300 Impossible Burgers on gluten free bread with sugar free vegan ketchup and 3000 bottles of pH 9.0 electrolyte water. This is urgent.

David Frum of the Atlantic tweeted: The revolution will be catered.

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OK, yes, its a little funny. But the glee with which grown adults have jumped on the imprecision of students words as a way to undercut the cause is damaging to their futures and frankly, lame. What are we saying here? That students arent allowed to ever be off-message and self-aggrandizing? That if they sometimes get confused about their sense of safety or the righteousness of their own actions, their entire plea becomes irrelevant?

Again, theyre students! Have any of these people ever met one of those? They are completely within their rights to present muddled messaging to us. Its not a crime.

Wethe adults, the journalists, the police, the mayors, the university administratorsare the ones that are tasked with precision. We are the ones who are supposed to be mature enough to respond to the emotionality behind these protests, however diluted they may be by ill-timed requests for nut milk.

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In the years I spent editing students, they wrote beautifully, wrenchingly, and bravely about the protests of those yearsabout the violence that broke out at Berkeley over right-wing provocateurs coming to campus; about the uproar at Middlebury when Charles Murray came to campus; about protests of Mike Pence at a conservative, Christian college; about the alt-right storming around their campuses; and about the horrible, deadly chaos of the Unite the Right riot at the University of Virginia.

In those years, students I edited also routinely railed against any simplification of their more jargon-infused rants, arguing, at times, that my attempts to streamline or simplify their words meant that I was a fascist. (It was 201618, the early Trump years, and monitoring fascism was the cri de coeur.) They yelled at me for the slightest infractions, over pronouns (fair) or not understanding their specific campuss dynamics (a sign that I might be a fascist). They publicly disavowed their op-eds all over social media and in the comments of their own essays while privately thanking me (because even when I wasnt fascist, the New York Times certainly was). One enterprising University of Oregon grad even FOIAd my communications with that schools president after the president wrote a fairly tame op-ed about the ironies of students silencing others by yelling about fascism. (That FOIA request led to a story in the Eugene Weekly that characterized my editing notes as indicative of my own pernicious opinions, which, you guessed it, were fascist.)

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SO WHAT?! Im an adult! I can handle it! Did I like being called a fascist? No. Did I feel misunderstood? Yes. Is that worth airing publicly? Only to shame you pearl-clutching adult babies who are shockedshocked!that students arent always intellectually and emotionally consistent!

Youre getting the picture here, right? Students protest. And they protest in raw, emotional, and sometimes confused waysespecially during times of societal upheaval. In 2017, Donald Trump had just been elected, and we were tsking students because they opposed having their campuses turned into stage sets for right-wing content creators. In 2024, were hurtling toward another fraught and terrifying election, the Supreme Court is basically handing this thing to Trump, individual rights are being rolled back across many different demographic groups, theres a brutal war being piped into everyones social media feeds, the White House is really not up to approaching the current moment with soothing fireside chats  and were mad that the students are freaking out?

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I am not excusing antisemitism or Islamophobia. The protests across college campuses have contained plenty of hateful sloganeering that is worth condemning. But I am calling for a little more emotional clarity from the adults who condemn these students for being imperfect ciphers of morality. None of us should be attacking one another for our identities or religious upbringingbut Im willing to bet that more than a handful of the college kids swept up in the current anti-war fervor had no idea that from the river to the sea evoked a sinister double meaning to some American Jews.

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And lets be real: Students have rioted over much, much less. At my own alma mater, Kenyon College, there was a planned annual riot held each spring until the 1990s, a concession granted to students to let them blow off some steamand one that ensured that the college could save most of its campus buildings in the process.

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The riots started in 1964and let me tell you, it was not because of the Vietnam War or some other contemporary societal turbulence. It was because new traffic signs had been installed in town and jaywalking laws were being enforced. The students tore down six stop signs and blocked highway patrol cars, causing such chaos they were written up in the Columbus Dispatch. Then the students commemorated those actions annually by upping the antethrowing couches out of windows, burning trees and campus furniture, mauling the firetruck that came one year to respond to a cherry bomb that had been launched into the quad. When the firetruck arrived on the scene, students reportedly bashed in its headlights with hammers and urinated on the wheels. (The school was all-men in those days, if you couldnt already tell.) In the late 60s, the school decided to sanction the event as a safety measure, setting aside old furniture in some kind of appeasement scheme that didnt always tame the chaos.

That is all to say: The students occupying school buildings, putting up tents in their quads, and marching through their campuses are not a sign of some worrisome new trend that we have to crack down on. They are a cohort of young people who are witnessing horrific brutality at a time of unprecedented American politics and who want it to stop.

It is our job, as the adults, to let them protest, loudly and imperfectly. Because guess what? This is what it means to grow up in the United States.
3. May 2024 at 19:56 I Modified at 6. May 2024 at 0:53

The country came 29th in Reporters Without Borders' latest survey.

Protesters outside the Slovak Radio building in Bratislava as part of a demonstration in defence of the independence of public media on March 27, 2024.

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Slovakia has fallen 12 places in the latest global media freedom ranking published by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), ending in 29th place.

Pavol Szalai, who heads the NGOs EU and Balkans Office, told the Sme daily that politicians have been turning journalist into targets, noting this was especially visible during last years parliamentary elections. As a result, threats to journalists in the online space have intensified.

Slovakias position deteriorated by all criteria, chiefly due to developments since the election of the Fico government in autumn last year.

Instead of answering journalists questions about issues of public interest, government officials have been attacking critical journalists, the RWB official underscored, as quoted by the Sme daily.

The government has also cut the budget for the current public broadcaster, RTVS, by 30 percent.

STVR bill had no effect on the ranking, yet

The ranking came out more than a week after the Slovak government okayed a bill that will abolish RTVS and replace it with a government-controlled television and radio broadcaster, STVR. The initial bill, which has been amended, was presented to the public in early March.

2024 Reporters Without Borders ranking 1 - Norway 2 - Denmark 3 - Sweden ____ 17 - Czech Republic 29 - Slovakia 32 - Austria 47 - Poland 61 - Ukraine 67 - Hungary ____ 178 - Afghanistan 179 - Syria 180 - Eritrea Source: RWB

However, Slovakias current RWB ranking did not take into account this latest move.

Still, the NGO notes that some European leaders, including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, of the ruling Smer party, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are continuing to threaten the media and journalists despite the EU adopting its first European Media Freedom Act.

Hungary, Slovakia's southern neighbour, is one of the worst-ranked countries in the EU, in 67th position. Across the union, press freedom was judged worst in Malta and Greece. Nevertheless, all three of these countries moved up in the ranking.

Poland also climbed the ladder, while Czechia fell.

Kuciak retrial also worries RWB

Szalai went on to note that the 2018 murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova remains unsolved. Fraudster Marian Kocner, who was accused of masterminding the killings, was acquitted during a retrial last year. Another reason why Slovakias position worsened is that the investment group Penta, which already owned the popular tabloid daily Plus 1 Den, bought the country's other main tabloid, Novy Cas, last year. Novy Cas has the largest circulation of any Slovak newspaper.

The coalitions threat to stop using private media that it perceives as critical towards it for state advertising  it has specifically identified the most popular TV channel, TV Markiza, as such  also contributed to Slovakias 29th place in the ranking.

The NGO also cites deepfakes as a tool of influencing elections, giving the audio deepfake of Slovak journalist Monika Todova used during the 2023 parliamentary elections in Slovakia as an example.

The ranking was published on Friday, May 3, which is also known as World Press Freedom Day, and several days before new rules against strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) will enter into force - on May 6 - to protect journalists, rights defenders and civil society organisations. Also, the European Media Freedom Act will become effective on May 7 to increase media independence, plurality and transparency.

President Zuzana Caputova welcomed the fact that Slovakia continues to belong to the freer part of the world, despite the drop in the latest ranking.

Where the freedom of the press is threatened, democracy is also threatened, she said.
Flat Earth-curious Lukas Machala might be appointed head of the planned state broadcaster.

Lukas Machala suggested that nothing short of a trip into space would convince him that the Earth is not flat. (Source: TASR)

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Lukas Machala, a government official whose name has been mentioned among possible candidates to lead the planned new government-controlled state broadcaster, Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), is not sure that the Earth is a sphere.

Twenty-five centuries after Greek philosophers first theorised that the Earth is not flat, five centuries after Iberian explorers demonstrated that it is, indeed, a globe, and more than fifty years since innumerable spacecraft began taking photographs and video of the planet on which we live, Machala was asked by journalist Peter Zatko, in the television programme, Reporteri (Reporters), on April 29, whether people who believe that the Earth is flat should be given a platform on the current public broadcaster, RTVS.

Machala said they should  and went on to ponder how much any of us, really, knows.

Has it been proved that the Earth is round? Have you been into outer space? No, nor have I, I dont know, Machala, chief of staff at the Culture Ministry, said.

Machala is notoriously conspiracy-minded

The government is trying to cancel RTVS, which airs Reporteri, and replace it with STVR, over which the ruling coalition would exercise more influence. The coalition claims that the current public broadcaster is biased and does not give space to opposing views. The bill to dissolve it and replace it with STVR, which has been approved by the government, was prepared by the Culture Ministry. The minister, Martina Simkovicova (SNS nom.), a former presenter on commercial TV, runs her own disinformation and pro-Russian television channel on Facebook.

Machala, a Putin admirer, spread several conspiracy theories in the past. For example, he claimed that "the Illuminati" tried to take over Europe by sending migrants to the continent. Machala, who was previously a member of the right-wing Slovak National Party (SNS) and Republika, another far-right party which broke away from Marian Kotleba's neo-fascist LSNS, has also spread hoaxes about the coronavirus and a supposed "Jewish mafia" that wants to take over the world via the wars in Israel and Ukraine, the Pravda daily reports.

In reaction to Machalas latest claim, Slovak astronaut Ivan Bella, who travelled into space in 1999 and spent eight days in orbit around the Earth, confirmed for the Refresher website that the planet is, indeed, round.

Open letter to MPs

Machala wasnt impressed by the programme as broadcast. On the social media network Telegram he wrote that the journalist did a good job of portraying him as a conspiracy theorist. He added the aired report shows that the public broadcaster is miles away from "objective journalism".

I am not a conspiracy theorist, he declared, claiming that he would no longer communicate with the broadcaster.

On May 3, some RTVS workers handed an open letter to MPs, asking them not to vote for the bill on the public broadcaster.

Lets not forget that Slovakia is also a country marked by the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova. Six years after the murders, attacks on the media continue, the letter reads.
Ukrainian Artem Marchevsky is alleged to have bribed European politicians.

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The Slovak authorities are helping a Ukrainian who has allegedly collaborated with the Kremlin to remain in the European Union, according to a Czech media report.

Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur Artem Marchevsky was placed on the Czech sanctions list in March this year. Soon after, he decided to relocate to Slovakia, where he is said to have been granted temporary protection.

Slovak Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said he had no information on the case, as reported by Dennik N. The Interior Ministry nevertheless confirmed that it has been handling the case, in cooperation with the Slovak Information Service (SIS), Slovakia's main domestic and foreign intelligence agency, for some time.

We will give more information once the investigation is closed, the ministry said.

Bribery allegations

The Czech authorities placed him on the country's sanctions list and planned to strip him of his refugee status, which he obtained shortly after arriving in the Czech Republic following Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, because of his alleged attempts to influence and bribe politicians in several European countries.

According to the Czech intelligence services, pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, along with Marchevsky, ran the Prague-based Voice of Europe website for this purpose. The pro-Russian platform has hosted interviews with several Slovak politicians, including pro-Russian ex-prime minister Jan Carnogursky, far-right MEP Milan Uhrik, and Smer MP Erik Kalinak, chief adviser to Prime Minister Robert Fico.

If Marchevsky, as alleged, enjoys protection in Slovakia, it is now up to the Slovak authorities whether to cancel his refugee status. That would make his stay in the EU illegal, since he would lose his residence permit.

Alleged cooperation with the Kremlin

According to Czech media, Marchevsky fled Ukraine not because of the war, but because he was allegedly collaborating with Putins regime and an investigation had been launched in Ukraine into his activities there. Marchevsky was a member of the now-banned pro-Russian party, Opposition Platform-For Life. A court dissolved it in 2022.

Medvedchuk is now resident in Moscow. He was arrested after going on the run shortly after the start of the war but was exchanged in August 2022 in return for more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia following the fall of Mariupol. He is reportedly close to the Russian leadership; President Vladimir Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk's daughter.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/boeing-struggles-to-ramp-up-production-of-787-jets-due-to-us-sanctions-on-russia---reports-1118244916.html

Boeing Struggles to Ramp Up Production of 787 Jets Due to US Sanctions on Russia - Reports

Boeing Struggles to Ramp Up Production of 787 Jets Due to US Sanctions on Russia - Reports

Sputnik International

US aerospace company Boeing is struggling to ramp up production of its 787 Dreamliner jet after a supplier's capability to provide parts for the aircraft was hampered by US sanctions against Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

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The report said a supplier of a temperature-regulating part for the 787 jet terminated its Russian operations and moved its production out, but the transition has made it difficult for the company to keep up with Boeing's growing demand. This delay is reportedly not only harming Boeing's business but also airlines, who now have to reduce the number of long flights offered to customers. Boeing did not immediately respond to Sputnik's request for comment on this matter.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/columbia-students-at-palestine-rally-inspired-by-anti-apartheid-and-anti-vietnam-war-protests-1118243825.html

Columbia Students at Palestine Rally Inspired by Anti-Apartheid and Anti-Vietnam War Protests

Columbia Students at Palestine Rally Inspired by Anti-Apartheid and Anti-Vietnam War Protests

Sputnik International

Over 2,000 people have been arrested at US colleges and universities since April 18, with Columbia University students becoming standard-bearers of the pro-Palestinian struggle in the eyes of youngsters. Sputnik's Political Misfits has discussed the growing student movement with one of its participants.

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Doe Hee Choi is a second-year graduate student at Columbia University School of Public Health who is participating in the pro-Palestine protests on campus. She chose not to use her real name to protect herself as the university administration has cracked down on the young protesters.At Columbia, students have been arrested, face suspension, and have reportedly been threatened with deportation after protesting against the months-long bloody Gaza War that has claimed the lives of over 34,000 Palestinians."We received an email from the [Columbia University] president, Minouche Shafik, a day ago saying that the students that occupied Hinds Hall - so it was called Hamilton Hall and was then renamed to Hinds Hall to honor the young Palestinian girl that was killed - those students, quote, face expulsion," Choi told Sputnik. According to the New York Times, the takeover of Hamilton - or Hinds - Hall was a "new turning point" in the two-week-long demonstrations at Columbia's campus. The newspaper noted that the demonstrators took a microwave, an electric tea kettle, and sleeping bags and "seemed ready to stay awhile." New York Police stormed the building late Tuesday to end the student-led occupation at Shafik's official request.The occupation of the hall wasn't without precedent: the young protesters followed in the footsteps of Columbia's anti-apartheid demonstrators who took over the premises in 1985, as well as those opposing the Vietnam War in 1968.Three former 1980s student leaders at Columbia University  Omar Barghouti, Tanaquil Jones, and Barbara Ransby  applauded "the courage and conviction of Palestine solidarity student activists in the eye of the storm" in their May 3 op-ed for the Guardian. They spoke in defense of the Columbia demonstrators and affirmed "the righteousness of their demand": to end the "genocidal" Gaza War. "Young people are once again the conscience of the nation and the world," the three alumni underscored.Choi went on to trash the assumptions voiced by the New York City authorities, as well as the US mainstream press, that the protests have been led by some "external agitators". She emphasized that the movement is grassroots, noting that arrests and the ongoing crackdown by university authorities only serve to bolster its strength.Unlike their predecessors in 1968 and 1985, Columbia students have to deal with facial recognition software and doxing that has prompted some of them to hide their identity and wear masks to evade retaliation. Conversely, others view being doxed for Palestine as an honor.Choi does not doubt that despite most students leaving the campus for the summer season the struggle will continue unabated and may catch its second wind in the fall.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240429/democrats-and-republicans-deaf-to-their-voters-opposing-ukraine-and-gaza-conflicts-1118176675.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/us-congress-reaction-to-student-protests-is-a-capitulation-to-double-standards-1118231017.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/scott-ritter-student-protests-among-most-important-things-to-happen-in-us-in-decades-1118216879.html

columbia

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gaza strip

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Ekaterina Blinova

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columbia university encampments, columbia university protests, pro-palestinian student rallies in the us, us students arrested over protests against the gaza war, columbia students doxing, columbia university cracked down on students over anti-war protests, us anti-war movement, us student movement
Workers disassemble the site of the Astroworld music festival Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, at NRG Park in Houston. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

The start of the civil trial over who is responsible for the deaths and injuries during the 2021 Astroworld Festival will be delayed after an appeals court decided against quickly dismissing a motion by Apple to have the company removed from the litigation.

The Texas First Court of Appeals on Tuesday told the company it had until May 10 to file a motion in support of its appeal.

The court at the same time denied a request by lawyers representing Astroworld victims to lift a stay on the trial that was triggered by the appeal.

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The denial will delay the start of the trial, which was anticipated to begin May 7.

Apple on Monday appealed District Court Judge Kristen Hawkins denial of its request for summary judgment, which caused the company to remain as a defendant in the trial.

Apple in its appeal cited a section of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code that allows a challenge to a district courts denial if it involves a member of the electronic or print media and raises free speech claims.

In its motion for summary judgment, Apple argued that it should be removed from the lawsuit, because its role in livestreaming rapper Travis Scotts concert was protected by the First Amendment.

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Victims lawyers criticized the appeal in a motion to the appeals court and during a pretrial hearing in Hawkins court on Thursday.

This is akin to a news truck running somebody over, and then claiming protections under the First Amendment, said attorney Jason Itkin, who represents the family of Madison Dubiski, one of the people killed in the festivals crowd crush.

Apples position is that livestreaming Scotts concert was an act of news gathering, and that things like camera placement during the concert were acts of creative decisions.

Im not sure I see the difference between livestreaming and reporting the news, Apple attorney Kent Rutter said.

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Apple is among the 22 named defendants still part of the sprawling lawsuit. The company has been accused of contributing to the conditions that led to the crowd crush during the festivals first night.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/democrats-fallback-on-outside-agitator-trope-to-justify-police-violence-1118232724.html

Democrats Fallback on Outside Agitator Trope to Justify Police Violence

Democrats Fallback on Outside Agitator Trope to Justify Police Violence

Sputnik International

US President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to condemn the police action and continued to blame outside agitators for the unrest.

2024-05-03T01:07+0000

2024-05-03T01:07+0000

2024-05-03T01:07+0000

analysis

hakeem jeffries

joe biden

columbia

new york police department (nypd)

fbi

us

israel-gaza conflict

eric adams

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On Wednesday, Jeffries was asked about the NYPDs excessive use of force against protesters at New York City schools on Tuesday.There have been no credible accounts of protesters engaging in Anti-semitic activities at Columbia, where the biggest police crackdown took place on Tuesday, and many Jewish students are participating in the protest. However, videos posted on social media that night showed the NYPD fighting with protesters and arresting more than 100.Earlier this week, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asserted that outside agitators hijacked the protest but has so far declined to provide evidence of the charge.During an arraignment hearing that was described as "chaotic" the Guardian was only able to identify one non-student who was charged during the protest.In 2020, former President Donald Trumps Attorney General Bill Barr claimed that the protests surrounding Black Lives Matter protests were coming from Groups of outside radicals and agitators who were exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate and violent agenda.In 2014, the Ferguson, Missouri unrest over the police killing of Michael Brown, Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, blamed outside agitators. We continue to worry about folks who are coming in from outside who are using this, he told local media. The protests were attracting bad guys across the country, he added.Its like looting tourism, An unnamed Ferguson police officer was quoted as saying.The history goes back further than that. In 1965, in the wake of protests over racial equality and the killing of black activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, Alabama Governor George Wallace signed a resolution that blamed continued agitation and demonstrations led and directed by outsiders.Former President Richard Nixon instructed the FBI to find evidence that the Kent State shootings were provoked by outside agitators and was reportedly dismayed when FBI director J. Edgar Hoover couldnt find any.Students at Columbia say the government is using the same tricks today.Even if some of the protesters are from outside the school or even the State, that would not make them agitators, after all, outsider is only half of the moniker. Traveling to protests to support a cause you believe in is a time-honored tradition in the United States, going back at least to the Bonus Army March on Washington in 1932.That protest, of WWI veterans from around the country asking to receive their bonus pay early, camped out in and around the nations capital for months until Republican President Herbert Hoover ordered the army to remove them. Days before, Washington police shot at the protesters, killing two veterans.According to Historian Howard Zinn, the group was labeled by the media as Red agitators and Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur claimed that it was full of traitors bent on overthrowing the government, adding that pacifists and its bedfellow communism are all around us.While Hoover was successful in squashing the protest, he lost his reelection bid later that year. In 1933, Congress awarded WWI veterans their bonus, overriding a veto from Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt.Protesters at Columbia believe their movement has similar resiliency. There were so many freshmen in the encampment as well as graduating seniors, the student told Political Misfits, I am not worried that the graduating class is going to leave any sort of gap. You might know that Admitted Students Day happened on day three of the Columbia encampment, and my conversations with those admitted students were incredibly hopeful.Im hearing accounts of freshmen saying if I wasnt radicalized before [the crackdown], Im radicalized now, she added later.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20211113/nyc-mayor-elect-adams-challenges-fellow-dems-to-condemn-blm-activist-threatening-with-riots-1090712019.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/scott-ritter-student-protests-among-most-important-things-to-happen-in-us-in-decades-1118216879.html

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student protests us, peo-palestine protests, does joe biden support student protests inn us
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/houthis-ready-to-attack-israeli-linked-ships-in-mediterranean-sea---military-spokesman-1118244428.html

Houthis Ready to Attack Israeli-Linked Ships in Mediterranean Sea - Military Spokesman

Houthis Ready to Attack Israeli-Linked Ships in Mediterranean Sea - Military Spokesman

Sputnik International

Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as Houthis, are ready to attack any ships heading to Israel from Mediterranean Sea if the Jewish state launches an offensive in Rafah, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Friday.

2024-05-03T17:44+0000

2024-05-03T17:44+0000

2024-05-03T17:44+0000

red sea crisis

middle east

mediterranean sea

israel

rafah

houthis

ansar allah

gaza strip

gaza violence

palestine-israel conflict

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The spokesman announced a new stage of escalation in response to the calls of the Palestinian people. The spokesman also said that Houthis will target ships that are heading towards Israeli ports. Third: If the Israeli enemy intends to launch an aggressive military operation against Rafah, the Yemeni Armed forces will impose comprehensive sanctions on all ships and companies that are related to supplying and entering the occupied Palestinian ports of any nationality and will prevent all ships of these companies from passing through the armed forces operation zone, regardless of their destination, the spokesman said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240430/houthis-launch-missile-and-drone-rampage-targeting-four-ships-after-rejecting-us-bribe-attempt-1118196502.html

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houthi attacks in the red sea, terrorist attacks in the red sea, why are houthis attacks ships in the red sea, commercial ships under attack in the red sea, who do houthis target, who do houthis attack, who are houtis, red sea attacks, whats happening in the red sea, why are there attacks in the red sea, us ships in the red sea, us coalition in the red sea, us-led coalition in the red sea, international coalition in the red sea, military hostilities in the red sea, tensions in the red sea
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/macron-is-afraid-to-go-down-in-history-as-the-leader-who-lost-africa-1118245820.html

Macron is Afraid to Go Down in History as the Leader Who 'Lost Africa'

Macron is Afraid to Go Down in History as the Leader Who 'Lost Africa'

Sputnik International

Currently, Macron witnesses his position weakening, both personally as the incumbent president and politically with his centrist-globalist party low performance, argues Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels.

2024-05-03T18:54+0000

2024-05-03T18:54+0000

2024-05-03T18:54+0000

analysis

europe

france

emmanuel macron

european union (eu)

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According to a recent Ipsos poll, Macrons Renaissance partys rating dropped to a measly 17%, compared to, for example, Marin Le Pens right-wing Rassemblement National (RN) partys 32% rating. Currently, Macron witnesses his position weakening, both personally as the incumbent president and politically with his centrist-globalist party low performance, argues Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels. At the same time, the analyst notes, Macron is essentially a narcissist who does not want to be remembered as the worst president of France: namely, as the president who witnessed France losing its hold on Africa. Macron has still a couple of years in office as president of France, and he cannot be reelected after this term. In this context, Macron is trying to play all his remaining cards to reinvent a political role for France in Europe, he said. In French and EU politics, Macron is attempting to sow division among the other right-wing parties, while abroad he seeks to recover his reputational losses over the African fiasco by trying to play a role in the Caucasus  pro Armenia and anti-Turkiye and Azerbaijan  and in the Ukrainian conflict. The analyst also pointed out that Macron and the French establishment are well aware of the fact that France is no more a power, not militarily and not economically, and that the so-called French-German axis is a fake.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240429/macrons-tough-talk-on-european-sovereignty-just-election-fodder-1118183691.html

france

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emmanuel macron, macron approval rating, macron political party
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/macrons-remark-on-possible-sending-of-troops-to-ukraine-dangerous---kremlin-1118239235.html

Kremlin Takes Macron to Task Over Dangerous Remark of Sending Troops to Ukraine

Kremlin Takes Macron to Task Over Dangerous Remark of Sending Troops to Ukraine

Sputnik International

The recent statement by French President Emmanuel Macron about the possibility to send military to Ukraine is important and dangerous, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

2024-05-03T10:40+0000

2024-05-03T10:40+0000

2024-05-03T11:07+0000

world

ukraine crisis

ukrainian crisis

ukraine

france

emmanuel macron

dmitry peskov

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Earlier this week, Macron said in an interview with The Economist that he did not rule out the possibility of deploying troops to Ukraine should Kiev make such a request. Many European countries have understood France's approach about the likelihood of sending troops to Ukraine and have concurred with the notion, the president added. Moscow is closely monitoring statements from Paris about such a possibility, the official said, adding that France continues to constantly talk about the possibility of its direct involvement on the ground in the conflict around Ukraine.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240425/macron-to-talk-stronger-europe-ukraine-to-boost-plummeting-clout-as-eu-elections-loom-1118105069.html

ukraine

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ukrainian crisis, france ukraine, macron ukraine, hawkish macron, macron rhetoric
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/mathematics-of-victory-russias-military-edge-over-ukraine-laid-starkly-visible-1118240117.html

Mathematics of Victory: Russias Military Edge Over Ukraine Laid Starkly Visible

Mathematics of Victory: Russias Military Edge Over Ukraine Laid Starkly Visible

Sputnik International

A bitter op-ed article under the title Ukraine is outmanned, outgunned and outmaneuvered has been published by The Hill detailing Russia's overwhelming supremacy on the special military op's battlefield.

2024-05-03T15:14+0000

2024-05-03T15:14+0000

2024-05-03T15:14+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

russian armed forces

ukrainian crisis

ukraine

sergei shoigu

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Russias military-industrial complex can produce about 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armored modular vehicles (AMV) and four million shells a year, while its jamming systems effectively blind Ukrainian drones, The Hill has reported.Moscow also outnumbers Kiev in troops at a 3 to 1 ratio, according to the outlet, a much-needed grasp of the obvious for Western elites. Russias total manpower exceeds 69 million soldiers while Ukraines is less than 23 million.Similarly, the Russian Army outmaneuvers Ukrainian forces with enhanced command structures and logistics. The Hill cites the newly constructed railway between Rostov-on-Don and Crimea that will be officially launched by the end of 2024, allowing the quick transfer of resources for the special military operation.Moreover, Russia outsmarts Ukraine in psychological ops, effectively bolstering public morale.The figures coincide with those of the Kremlin, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier saying that the Russian military-industrial complex had seriously enhanced its production capacity since the start of the special military operation.In addition, Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the goals of the special military operation would be fulfilled with the current number of soldiers on the frontlines - with their ranks being constantly bolstered by the inflow of volunteers. Meanwhile, Ukraine is running low on troops and recently adopted a draconian draft law. According to Kremlin officials, the Ukrainian military is in panic.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240501/russia-shatters-natos-illusory-might-with-display-of-trophy-armor-at-moscows-victory-park-1118213724.html

ukraine

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2024

Sergey Lebedev

Sergey Lebedev

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Sergey Lebedev

russia special military operation, ukrainian crisis, ukraine conflict, russian military industrial complex. russian army, russia wins ukraine
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/more-than-50-us-lawmakers-urge-biden-to-dissuade-israeli-offensive-in-rafah---letter-1118233549.html

More Than 50 US Lawmakers Urge Biden to Dissuade Israeli Offensive in Rafah - Letter

More Than 50 US Lawmakers Urge Biden to Dissuade Israeli Offensive in Rafah - Letter

Sputnik International

A group of more than 50 US House lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging his administration to dissuade the Israeli government from launching offensive operations in Rafah.

2024-05-03T00:15+0000

2024-05-03T00:15+0000

2024-05-03T00:15+0000

world

benjamin netanyahu

israel

rafah

hamas

the united nations (un)

israel-gaza conflict

gaza strip

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/02/1a/1117000289_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_35ee646d8ea370d2921ce17a86bf61ab.jpg

We write with urgency to say: an offensive invasion into Rafah by Israel in the upcoming days is wholly unacceptable, the letter, released Thursday, said. We urge you to invoke existing law and policy to immediately withhold certain offensive military aid to the Israeli government, including aid sourced from legislation already signed into law, in order to preempt a full-scale assault on Rafah. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will enter Rafah to combat the Palestinian organization Hamas, with or without an agreement on hostages. Israel has no other choice but to enter Rafah, Netanyahu said. The Israeli government has not provided a credible and executable plan to protect civilians during potential operations in Rafah, as requested by the Biden administration, the letter said.An Israeli offensive in Rafah risks starting an escalatory spiral and putting the region back on the brink of a broader conflict, the letter said. Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that an Israeli operation in Rafah would be an unbearable escalation that would kill thousands of civilians and force hundreds of thousands of others to flee. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also urged Israel not to launch an offensive in Rafah.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signaled to Israel that launching an offensive in Rafah could hinder efforts to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, Israeli media reported on Thursday. On October 7, Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel, in which nearly 1,200 Israeli civilians and military personnel were killed and some 240 others abducted. In response, Israel began military operations in the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 34,000 people so far, according to local authorities.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/russia-calls-for-independent-international-investigation-of-mass-graves-in-gaza---russian-envoy-1118218464.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240429/rafah-operation-looms-will-netanyahu-defy-bidens-warnings-1118179825.html

israel

rafah

gaza strip

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50 us house lawmakers, operation in rafah, gaza rafah no connection, biden admin can't be trusted
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/pictures-pro-palestine-protests-in-full-swing-across-us-colleges-1118239723.html

Pictures: Pro-Palestine Protests in Full Swing Across US Colleges

Pictures: Pro-Palestine Protests in Full Swing Across US Colleges

Sputnik International

Colleges all across the United States have witnessed a wave of fiery school rallies protesting the catastrophe that people in the Gaza Strip have been subject to for months.

2024-05-03T14:43+0000

2024-05-03T14:43+0000

2024-05-03T14:43+0000

multimedia

photo

us college campus protests

texas

palestine

gaza strip

university of texas

texas state troopers

hamas

https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/05/03/1118235042_0:114:3238:1935_1920x0_80_0_0_d258a5b0de0697cd51ec1b39d0f96795.jpg

Demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine have been popping up both throughout the US and elsewhere since Hamas' October 7 attack. They have now gained momentum due to Israel's blatant disregard for international law and its continuous violence against the civil population.Pro-Palestine student rallies have garnered significant media attention across the political spectrum due to the unanticipated brutality shown by the US law enforcers seeking to suppress them. The police crackdowns have ended in violent clashes with students, detentions and arrests.Explore the gallery below for a sneak peek into a new wave of civil disobedience against the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza:

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gaza strip

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protests in us colleges, pro-palestinian rallies in us schools, pro-gaza demonstrations, american students supporting gaza, police brutality against palestinian activists
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/reuters-again-posts-withdrawn-story-about-kievs-right-to-strike-russia-with-uk-weapons-1118233772.html

Reuters Again Posts Withdrawn Story About Kiev's 'Right' to Strike Russia With UK Weapons

Reuters Again Posts Withdrawn Story About Kiev's 'Right' to Strike Russia With UK Weapons

Sputnik International

Reuters republished with no changes a previously withdrawn news article on UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron saying Ukraine allegedly has the "right" to strike Russian territory with UK weapons.

2024-05-03T02:51+0000

2024-05-03T02:51+0000

2024-05-03T05:23+0000

world

united kingdom (uk)

ukraine

reuters

david cameron

maria zakharova

propaganda

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On Thursday, Reuters reported that, while visiting Kiev earlier this day, Cameron pledged 3 billion pounds ($3.74 billion) in annual military aid for Ukraine for "as long as is necessary," adding that the UK foreign secretary also stated that Ukraine allegedly has the "right" to use UK weapons to strike targets within Russia. Following the withdrawal of the article, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed confidence that Cameron had indeed said that Ukraine allegedly has the right to strike Russian territory with weapons supplied by London, but the scandal that broke out forced London to "back off." The news article reappeared on the agency's wire with no visible changes in the early minutes of Friday. The quote about Ukraine's "right" to use UK weapons for strikes on Russian territory also has no changes.Western countries, including the United Kingdom, have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. In April 2022, Russia sent a diplomatic note to all NATO countries on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian officials have warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Moscow.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240307/delusional-david-cameron-wants-to-steal-russian-assets-as-surety-to-bail-out-ukraine-1117197220.html

united kingdom (uk)

ukraine

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/russia-develops-ties-with-african-states--kremlin-on-reports-of-russian-military-in-niger-1118239360.html

Kremlin on Russias Niger Presence: Moscow Bolstering Ties With African States

Kremlin on Russias Niger Presence: Moscow Bolstering Ties With African States

Sputnik International

Russia is developing relations with African countries in all areas, including defense, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, commenting on reports about the Russian military at a base in Niger.

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Earlier in the day, a Pentagon spokesperson told Sputnik that Russian forces were sharing a base in Niger with the US military until the United States withdrew its contingent from the African country. Earlier, former CIA intelligence officer and US Department of State official Larry Johnson explained to Sputnik why Russia's presence in Africa is ever-growing:

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240430/us-losing-footprint-across-africa-as-niger-chad-demand-military-forces-pullouts-1118186233.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/russian-forces-in-separate-compound-on-niger-base-no-access-to-us-forces-1118234709.html

Russian Forces in Separate Compound on Niger Base, No Access to US Forces

Russian Forces in Separate Compound on Niger Base, No Access to US Forces

Sputnik International

Russian forces are being housed on the same base in Niger but in a separate compound with no access to US forces until the withdrawal of the contingent of the United States from the country.

2024-05-03T04:28+0000

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"The Russians are housed in a separate compound and do not have access to US forces, spaces, or equipment," the official said. "We continue to monitor the situation and to take all necessary and prudent measures to ensure the security of US forces, facilities, and equipment." The official noted that Russian forces arrived a few weeks ago at Air Base 101, a Nigerien Air Force base that is co-located with the international airport in Nigers capital, Niamey. On April 12, a Sputnik correspondent reported that Russian specialists have arrived in Niger to train local forces on combating terrorism. Washington and Niamey recently began discussions for the "orderly withdrawal" of US servicepeople based in Niger. The military pullout was initiated in March after a Nigerien military spokesperson said the country's transitional government, which took power in a coup last July, had terminated the military agreement with the US with immediate effect, citing the interests of the Nigerien people.The Pentagon later announced that some of the US contingent will also be withdrawn from Chad. On Wednesday, a US defense official told Sputnik that the US has relocated 60 of its military personnel to Germany, where they will continue their work, as part of their withdrawal from Chad. There are around 1,100 US personnel in Niger. Veteran Defense Department analyst Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik that the expulsion of US forces from Niger and Chad, along with similar trends across Africa, show that the post-World War II era of US-led neocolonialism to exploit the continent's peoples and riches is finally ending

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240427/withdrawal-from-chad-and-niger-foreshadows-collapse-of-us-hegemony-1118139311.html

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Andy Kahan, Director of Victim Services and Advocacy for Crime Stoppers, comforts Wendy Alvarez as she speaks about her daughter, Arlene Alvarez, during a press conference to discuss the indictment of Tony Earls in the death of the 9-year-old in 2022 at Crime Stoppers on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Houston. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP) Karen Warren/Associated Press Tony Earls, second from left, who is charged with aggravated assault with bodily injury in the shooting death of the 9-year-old, sits at a press conference on which his lawyer spoke on his behalf, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022, in Houston. Nicole Hensley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

A Houston man indicted on a murder charge in the 2022 shooting death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was arrested Wednesday at a southeast Houston home, court records show.

Police arrested Tony Earls at a home in the 5000 block of Tarawa Road, a residence that county records show is tied to his family, about a week after Harris County prosecutors announced a grand jury's decision to indict him. Prosecutors in 2022 accepted an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge in the girl's death, but a grand jury chose not to indict him on that offense and others.

Earls told police after the shooting that someone robbed him and his wife, who was driving, outside a Chase Bank in Houstons Gulfgate neighborhood. He mistakenly believed the armed man was fleeing in the familys vehicle on Winkler Drive and opened fire, striking the back window, authorities said.

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He fatally struck Arlene as she sat in the back seat with headphones on.

Special prosecutor Warren Diepraam, who was contracted by the Harris County District Attorney's Office to give Earls' case a second look, attributed last month's indictment to months of additional investigating.

Despite the extra efforts, the armed robber who first targeted Earls and his wife has yet to be publicly identified or apprehended. Diepraam, who said he is aware of a person of interest, anticipates that a $5,000 reward from Crime Stoppers of Houston will increase to find that individual.

Earls' initial appearance Friday in the 337th District Court was delayed until Monday as he was in medical at the Harris County Jail as of Friday morning and was unable to appear until later in the day.

His court-appointed attorney, Ana Paula Funes-Baker, said she had not had a chance to visit Earls yet.

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April Aguirre, Arlene's aunt, observed the brief proceeding as the attorneys addressed the judge about Earls' absence.

She called Earls' alleged actions "cruel."

"He executed her," Aguirre said.

Diepraam on Friday characterized Earls as "a threat to the public."



He said at an earlier news conference that he planned to ask a judge to set Earls' bail at $250,000 on the murder charge but no documentation was filed recommending that amount, records show. A prosecutor who oversaw a probable cause hearing Thursday instead requested $100,000, which a Harris County magistrate approved.

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The same magistrate set bail at $40,000 for an unrelated aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge that was filed in May 2023 against Earls. That charge prompted a warrant Earls was not arrested on until the recent indictment.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/turkiye-expects-wests-attack-following-suspension-of-trade-with-israel---erdogan-1118245186.html

Turkiye Expects West's 'Attack' Following Suspension of Trade With Israel - Erdogan

Turkiye Expects West's 'Attack' Following Suspension of Trade With Israel - Erdogan

Sputnik International

Ankara is well aware of the fact that the West will "attack" Turkiye following its decision to completely suspend trade with Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

2024-05-03T18:20+0000

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On Thursday, the Turkish Trade Ministry confirmed that the country had fully suspended trading with Israel and that the decision would be in force until uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is ensured. Earlier on Friday, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said that the restrictive measures would only be lifted after a ceasefire in Gaza. "We know perfectly well how the West will attack us in connection with this decision [to suspend trade with Israel]," Erdogan said while visiting the Turkish Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association. Ankara will "hold itself upright," knowing that one can only move forward by helping the suppressed, the Turkish leader added. Erdogan voiced hope that Turkiye will set an example for other countries displeased with the status quo.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/turkiye-suspends-all-trade-with-israel---reports-1118230548.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/turkiye-to-raise-issue-of-pressure-measures-on-israel-at-summit-of-islamic-states--source-1118247456.html

Turkiye to Raise Issue of Pressure Measures on Israel at Summit of Islamic States  Source

Turkiye to Raise Issue of Pressure Measures on Israel at Summit of Islamic States  Source

Sputnik International

Turkiye will raise the question of urgent pressure measures against Israel amid the situation in the Gaza Strip at the upcoming summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will attend the summit, which is scheduled from May 4-5 in the capital of The Gambia, Banjul. On Thursday, the Turkish Trade Ministry confirmed that the country had fully suspended trading with Israel and that the decision would be in force until uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is ensured. On Friday, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said that the restrictive measures would only be lifted after a ceasefire in Gaza.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240220/what-led-to-israels-economic-contraction-amid-gaza-strip-conflict-1116893940.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/ukraine-loses-over-111000-troops-in-2024---russian-defense-minister-1118239100.html

Ukraine Loses Over 111,000 Troops in 2024 - Russian Defense Minister

Ukraine Loses Over 111,000 Troops in 2024 - Russian Defense Minister

Sputnik International

Ukraine has already lost more than 111,000 troops and 21,000 units of weapons and military equipment in 2024, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.

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"In total, this year, they [Kiev's losses] have exceeded 111,000 servicepeople, 21,000 units of weapons and military equipment," Shoigu said at a conference call with the senior staff of the Russian armed forces. Moreover, Kiev loses 1,000 soldiers a day due to the demands of the United States and its allies to stop the offensive of the Russian armed forces at any cost, Shoigu said. The minister said that the Russian military had taken control of 547 square kilometers (211 square miles) of the territory of new regions of the country since the beginning of the year. The Russian armed forces fully liberated the settlements of Novobakhmutovka, Semenovka and Berdychi in the Donetsk People's Republic over the past two weeks, he added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240502/nowhere-to-hide-ukrainian-retreat-shows-their-defense-lines-barely-exist-1118228062.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/us-allies-mulling-providing-ukraine-with-50bln-from-russian-asset-profits--reports-1118246944.html

US, Allies Mulling Providing Ukraine With $50Bln From Russian Asset Profits  Reports

US, Allies Mulling Providing Ukraine With $50Bln From Russian Asset Profits  Reports

Sputnik International

The US is holding talks with allies on leading a group that would give up to $50bln in assistance to Ukraine which would be repaid by the windfall profits of Russian frozen assets, Bloomberg reported.

2024-05-03T22:49+0000

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The plan is reportedly being discussed by the Group of Seven (G7) with the aim of reaching an agreement before the group's upcoming summit in Italy in June, Bloomberg reported, citing US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials familiar with the matter. Discussions on the topic have been complicated, and reaching an agreement could take several more months, the report said, citing unnamed sources. Nonetheless, the move is set to put heightened pressure on the European Union to desist from objecting to the use of Russian assets, it added. Talks over the matter were confirmed by Yellen, who in an interview with Bloomberg said that its something were discussing. Seized Russian assets have generated about 3.9 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in net profit since last year, the report said. Earlier on Friday, the Financial Times newspaper reported that representatives of the G7 countries privately express that a complete confiscation of Russia's frozen assets is no longer on the agenda, with the group now exploring alternative measures to extract funds.The G7, spearheaded by the United States and the European Union, has been discussing legal ways to confiscate Russian assets since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in early 2022. Moscow has criticized the efforts to seize its sovereign assets as an act of theft and a violation of international law. The European Central Bank has warned that seizure poses reputational risks to the euro in the long term.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/saudi-arabia-and-indonesia-lobby-eu-to-halt-russian-asset-confiscation-1118238877.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/us-liberal-elites-want-central-europe-to-be-spear-against-russia---hungarian-official-1118237122.html

US Liberal Elites Want Central Europe to Be 'Spear' Against Russia - Hungarian Official to Carlson

US Liberal Elites Want Central Europe to Be 'Spear' Against Russia - Hungarian Official to Carlson

Sputnik International

Liberal elites of the United States want Central Europe to be "the edge of the spear" against Russia in a new Cold War, Balazs Orban, the political director of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson.

2024-05-03T05:41+0000

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Balazs Orban hinted that Washington liberal elites are willing to use Central European countries as their proxies in the conflict. The official said this is not good for Hungary and that this is not the destiny the Hungarians want, adding that Hungary wants "to be sovereign," "to be strong," and "to be a keystone state in the region." Balazs Orban added that the European liberal elites and the US leadership "are so much interconnected" and they "have the same mindset." The official further said he hopes former US President Donald Trump would again be elected as US president because he would change the US foreign policy, which in turn would "destroy the connection between the European liberal elites and the American leadership." In March, Trump hosted Viktor Orban at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to discuss a wide range of issues of common interest for Hungary and the US and praised the Hungarian as "a great leader." Trump and Viktor Orban are longtime allies who share conservative political views and have publicly expressed mutual respect and support for each other. Orban has thrown his support behind Trump both in the US presidential race and the legal challenges he is facing. The US presidential election is slated for November 2024. The main contenders expected on the ballot are incumbent President Joe Biden and Trump, who have both won enough delegates' votes to be their respective Democratic and Republican parties' presumptive nominees.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240430/tucker-carlson-interviews-russian-philosopher-aleksandr-dugin-1118184471.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240503/why-chasov-yars-fall-could-become-turning-point-in-ukraine-conflict-1118242585.html

Why Chasov Yar's Fall Could Become Turning Point in Ukraine Conflict

Why Chasov Yar's Fall Could Become Turning Point in Ukraine Conflict

Sputnik International

The town of Chasov Yar is of political, military and logistical significance to both Russian and Ukrainian troops, experts told Sputnik.

2024-05-03T15:40+0000

2024-05-03T15:40+0000

2024-05-03T15:40+0000

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It is just a matter of time before Russian forces take the strategic town of Chasov Yar, Deputy Head of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate Vadim Skibitsky told The Economist."Not today and not tomorrow, of course, but everything will depend on our reserves and supplies," he added, in a nod to the looming scenario of Russian troops entering the town.Chasov Yar is of paramount importance to both Russian and Ukrainian forces because the town has political, military and logistical significance, military expert and Hero of Russia Rustem Klupov told Sputnik.When it comes to political importance, Russian troops capturing Chasov Yar  which was earlier described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "an impenetrable fortress" - will be a new moral and psychological blow to the Ukrainian troops, whose fighting spirit is already in shambles, according to Skibitsky.He added that, "the main thing now is to turn the Russian offensive into a chain reaction with constant attacks, pressure, and actions." Per Skibitsky, "the collapse of some elements of [Ukraine's] defense, for example logistics support, will contribute to the collapse of [Kiev forces] defense at the frontline."He was echoed by military expert Oleg Glazunov, an associate professor of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, who called Chasov Yar "a key and direct road first to the city of Konstantinovka, and then to the cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk."His comments come after the Associated Press news agency cited an unnamed Ukrainian serviceman as saying that in mid-March, over 100 soldiers from Ukraines 67th brigade were killed amid Russias advance on Chasov Yar.The Russian Telegram news channel Voenny Obozrevatel (Military Commentator) earlier reported that an Azov* assault brigade subverted an instruction by Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky to send them to Chasov Yar in an attempt to hold the town in the face of the Russian offensive.The order was sabotaged because brigade commanders reportedly considered Chasov Yar to be lost to the Ukrainian military, according to the report.*Terrorist organization banned in Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240402/why-chasov-yars-liberation-is-critical-to-oust-ukrainian-military-from-donbass-1117702808.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240307/russian-forces-poised-to-disrupt-stability-of-ukrainian-defenses-1117195326.html

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Passed in the final turn, Buck Nome dug in, reasserted in the lane and captured the Thursday, May 2 feature at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, a $17,808 claiming handicap trot.

Buck Nome quarter-poled to the top for Spencer Kahrig but was challenged by the first-over Pembroke Regal, who edged ahead as the field turned for home but could not completely clear. Under Kahrig's urging, Buck Nome found more and scored in 1:54.3. HS Winchester shot the Lightning Lane for second, three-quarter lengths back, with Angeliki third.

Dana Kahrig trains Buck Nome, a five-year-old Dover Dan-Lauries Lucky Lady gelding, for Calvin Hoover.

Dave Palone piloted five winners on the 13-race card.

Live harness racing at The Meadows continues on Friday, May 3, with first post at 12:45 p.m.

(Meadows Standardbred Owners Association)
Trainer Meg Crone has two chances at making the grade when the Canadian Graduate Series finals take centre stage at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday, May 4.

Off to a stellar start in 2024, Crone is hoping to keep her stables winning ways going this weekend at the Milton, Ont. oval.

The lifetime winner of 433 races will be represented by Passarino in the Canadian Graduate Series Trot final. A son of Lookslikeachpndale-Perfect Prelude, the bay gelding is set to square off against five rivals in the race for Canadian-sired four-year-olds.

He seems to be getting a little stronger and a little sharper each week, said Crone. His biggest thing is that he is always able to leave the gate and put himself into a good position. He is tough down the lane too. 

Owned by Seawind Amgs Stbs 2005 Inc. of New Brunswick and T M Racing of Alberta, Passarino arrives at the final off a gutsy second in the third leg of the Graduate on April 26. Sent off at 14-1, Passarino held a nose advantage at the stretch call and dug in gamely to secure the runner-up spot, trotting the final quarter in a lively :26.3.

Sporting a lifetime mark of 4-9-3 from 35 starts, Passarino, who was also bred Seawind Amgs Stbs 2005 Inc., has rhymed off 11 consecutive top four finishes. In nine starts this year, he is 2-3-1, along with $46,110 in purse earnings.

Before he came to us, I watched a lot of his races, and I hadnt realized just how gutsy he is. In his race last week, he dug in and kept fighting on.

Passarino earned his speed badge of 1:53.4 on March 21 at Mohawk, courtesy of a 2-1/4-length score as the 1-5 choice.

Crone is pleased with what she has seen leading up to the $81,500 final.

He gets a little sharper each week. He shows each up race, better and stronger.

There wont be much time  less than 30 minutes  before Crone watches Powder Play line up behind the starter car for the Canadian Graduate Series Pace final for four-year-old mares.

The daughter of Sportswriter-Laurels Lea heads into the final riding a two-race win streak, both victories coming in Graduate legs. Powder Play followed up a head victory on April 19 with a 1-1/4-length triumph one week later.

The bay mare has reached the podium in six straight starts, a streak that includes three wins and a pair of seconds.

She surprises me every time she races, praised Crone. She tries so hard. She can leave, she can come off the pace  shes very versatile. 

Bred by Ray Compari and owned by Robert Woodburn, Powder Play was a $45,000 purchase at the 2021 Black Book Yearling Sale in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

After a trio of qualifiers spread over June and July of 2022, she debuted with a second at Georgian Downs on Aug. 13 of that year. Two races later, this time at Mohawk, Powder Play notched her first win, by a head, in 1:54.4.

In 40 career starts, she has complied a mark of 12-9-3, accompanied by $171,005 in purse earnings. Her lifetime-best 1:51 was on Jan. 5, in her first start of 2024.

She just gets better and better, lauded Crone. Shes amazing.

Jody Jamieson, who will be in the sulky Saturday night, agrees.

Her determination is what impresses me the most, said the driver who is closing in on 8,700 career wins. She doesnt like to lose at all.

The series, which made its debut last year as the Ontario Graduate before Woodbine opted to open it to Canadian-sired four-year-olds in 2024, consists of three $25,000 preliminary legs and $75,000 added finals.

Seven four-year-old pacers will vie for the $80,000 top prize in Saturdays other Graduate final, carded as the eighth race on the evenings 12-race offering.

First post is 7:15 p.m.

Canadian Graduate Series Trot

Post  Horse  Driver - Trainer

1. Ghostly Casper  Tyler Borth  Ben Baillargeon

2. Like Chaos  Bruce Richardson  Bruce Richardson

3. Osceola  Doug McNair  Gregg McNair

4. Passarino  Sylvain Filion  Meg Crone

5. Tuscan Prince  Louis-Philippe Roy  Luc Blais

6. Hasty Bid  James MacDonald  Paige Austin

Canadian Graduate Series Mares Pace

Post  Horse  Driver - Trainer

1. Talk Curdy To Me  James MacDonald  Dave Menary

2. Lady Get Lucky  Doug McNair  Chris Matthews

3. Ima Doll  Tyler Borth  John Pentland

4. Powder Play  Jody Jamieson  Meg Crone

5. Mist Amber  Louis-Phillipe Roy  John Pentland

6. Cheesy Smile  Bob McClure  John Pentland

7. One Last Wish  Paul MacDonell

Canadian Graduate Series Pace

Post  Horse  Driver - Trainer

1. Sauble Ace  Bob McClure  Otis Hall

2. Whatchulookinat  James MacDonald  Dave Menary

3. Write Me A Rose  Doug McNair  Kyle Fellows

4. Speaker Of Peace  Scott Young  William McClure

5. Wry  Louis-Phillipe Roy  Dave Menary

6. No Control  Sylvain Filion  Tan Micallef

7. Nightime Dancer  Jody Jamieson  Rod Boyd

To view Saturday's full card of harness racing entries, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT)

(Woodbine)
After being named Canadas Trainer of the Year in February and a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2024 a week ago, Dr. Ian Moore is set to kick off a new season this weekend with a slate of races that include millionaire Stockade Seelster visiting Miami Valley Raceway for the $136,986 Pacey The Wizard Mindlin Memorial on Saturday, May 4.

Stockade Seelster, a two-time OBrien Award winner, will face seven rivals in the Mindlin Memorial as he makes his four-year-old debut. Moore changed some of the stallions equipment in preparation for this season and has been pleased with the results so far. Stockade Seelster qualified twice at Southern Oaks Training Center in Florida, scoring in 1:50.1 with a :27.3 last quarter in the most recent on April 19.

Hes been real good, said Moore. Weve got him rigged up a little differently this year. Im actually using a riding horse bit on him and no head check, and he seems to like that. So far, weve been able to sit him in during training. He hasnt been pulling or fighting us. Im interested to see how hes going to fare in the race, but so far so good.

If he works with us instead of going against us like he has the last couple years, hes going to be a better horse, thats for sure. Sometimes, you just couldnt do with him what you wanted to do. I think were in good shape now and looking forward to it.

Stockade Seelster won seven of 19 races last year and hit the board an additional eight times. The son of State Treasurer-Soiree Seelster earned $677,688 for owners Sally MacDonald and Paul MacDonald. His victories included a division of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes, the consolation division of the North America Cup and three preliminary Gold divisions of the Ontario Sires Stakes. He finished second to Confederate in the Breeders Crown and Max C. Hempt Memorial.

It was up and down a little bit, but for the most part it wasnt too bad at all, Moore said about Stockade Seelsters season. He finished strong.

For his career, Stockade Seelster has hit the board in 25 of 30 races, winning 15 and earning $1.59 million. In addition to his OBrien honours, he received a Dan Patch Award as a two-year-old.

Stockade Seelster was one of two OBrien Award winners for Moore in 2023, along with older male pacer Tattoo Artist. Moore also conditioned Ontario Sires Stakes two-year-old pacing colt champion Storm Shadow and Ohio Sire Stakes two-year-old pacing colt champion Clever Cody as his stable surpassed $3 million in purses for the first time. Storm Shadow and Clever Cody also make their seasonal debuts Saturday, in an SBOA Stakes elimination at Woodbine Mohawk Park and a division of the Ohio Sire Stakes at Miami Valley, respectively.

For his career, Moore has won more than 700 races and $23 million in purses while averaging a stable size of only 10 to 15 horses. He has received 15 OBrien Awards, including two for Horsemanship, and trained seven millionaires. In addition to Tattoo Artist and Stockade Seelster, his stars have included 2022 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Shadow Play, 2015 Canadian Horse of the Year State Treasurer, 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year Century Farroh, and Percy Bluechip.

Its hard to believe really, Moore said about his Hall of Fame recognition. Ive only been a small-time guy, never had large numbers. There are a lot of people better than me, thats for sure, that might be more deserving as well. Im very humbled and honoured.

In the Mindlin Memorial, Stockade Seelster will start from post two with Aaron Merriman in the sulky. He is 5-1 on the morning line.

Hellabalou, who won the MGM Borgata Pacing Series final on April 22 at MGM Yonkers Raceway, is the 5-2 favourite. Little Rocket Man, who won last years inaugural Mindlin Memorial, is the 7-2 second choice followed by Taurasi, who brings a nine-race win streak to the event, at 9-2.

Chris Page will drive Hellabalou for trainer Ron Burke and leaves from post three. Little Rocket Man will leave from post five with driver John DeLong while Taurasi starts from post six with Trace Tetrick.

Pacey Mindlin passed away in March 2023 at the age of 81. He was a mainstay for several decades at Lebanon Raceway and later Miami Valley, where he was the on-air handicapper. He also was a prominent owner and pedigree expert.

In addition to the Mindlin Memorial, Miami Valley on Saturday hosts five divisions of Ohio Sire Stakes action for three-year-olds. Clever Cody is one of two returning champs competing, along with filly pacer Daisys Star.

(USTA)
Cy-Fair ISD parents hold signs to share their concerns about the most recent budget cuts, which included librarians, during the school boards workshop meeting at the Mark Henry Administration Building on Thursday, May 2, 2024 in Cypress. Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer

Parents in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD urged district leaders at a Thursday workshop to stand up against the flat public school funding that is forcing the district to cut jobs, including roughly half of school librarians.

Cy-Fair ISD leaders say they need to cut $64 million in costs and dip into their fund balance to cover a $138 million shortfall for the next school year. Cuts are planned to bus transportation, professional support staff, teaching positions and 40 of 92 librarians, who were recently informed of their position eliminations through email.

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Ashley Buckner, the creator of the CFISD Parents for Librarians Facebook page, said she didnt expect more than 5,400 people to join her page in just a few days.

It goes to show how many people in our community want some change, she said. I want to work together on this. Doug (Killian), I dont envy your position. I just hope that we can make some meaningful change. At the end of the day, (Gov. Greg) Abbott can really listen and give us those funds.

Speaker Ally Fitzpatrick said that as the third largest school system in Texas, Cy-Fair needs to utilize its power.

Gov. Abbott could call a special session today and get our schools the funding they desperately need, Fitzpatrick said. It is time you defend this district and stand up publicly to Abbott, the Texas (legislation) and the TEA. Echoing through the halls of power in Austin, your letter to the community has no mention of the real reason we are in this funding crisis, which is that Abbott is refusing to fund the schools until he gets vouchers.

Cy-Fair ISD mother Tara Cummings also said that the district is refusing to acknowledge Abbotts resistance to fund public schools statewide, possibly because of district leaderships seemingly conservative stance.

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The state has the money to fund public education but refuses to do so, she said. Abbott is holding public schools, our children and our collective future hostage in a temper tantrum over vouchers. Abbott and Republican officials are to blame for this crisis. We must send the Republican Party a clear message that unless and until they fund public (education), Texans will not vote for them.

Cy-Fair ISD seventh-grade student Zoe Lang also spoke to the board about how the Pope Elementary School librarian, Lauren Crites, helped her feel safe before she was diagnosed as autistic.

She made her library a very safe place for me when I felt like I wasnt a person and just a bad set of behaviors before I was diagnosed, Lang said. How much money is one kids life worth to you? I know its important to save money, but in the words of Jesus, From where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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Three people were killed in a two-car accident while fleeing from Cowlitz County deputies Tuesday night in Kelso.

The wreck occurred at about 8:35 p.m., near the intersection of South Pacific Avenue and Yew Street, according to Kelso police.

The fleeing vehicle struck another car, according to a Kelso police press release. The three people from the fleeing vehicle were killed, and two people from the other vehicle were injured.

Police have not released why the vehicle was being pursued.

Neither the identification of the victims nor the cause of the accident has been revealed either.

Trooper Will Finn, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol, said the agencys Major Accident Investigation Team will investigate the crash.

The state recently loosened its law on law enforcement vehicular pursuits.

The new law, effective June 6, allows law enforcement to follow vehicles based on reasonable suspicion of any crime or traffic violation, but they must immediately tell a supervisor first.

In 2021, lawmakers made it harder for police to pursue people by requiring probable cause, meaning a higher level of evidence, and only when people are suspected of committing violent crimes, sex crimes or driving intoxicated; the law prohibits car chases for minor offenses, like theft.

Editors note: This story has been updated to include the location of the crash and more information on police pursuit law.
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: CC0 Public Domain

A group of French parliamentarians has sounded the alarm over what they say is an inadequate government response to cyberattacks targeting their computers and attributed to China.

The seven deputies and senators said they received virus-infected emails in 2021 sent by a hacker group called APT31, which several countries, including the US and Britain, believe to be linked to the Chinese government.

Their concerns emerged ahead of a state visit to France by Chinese President Xi Jinping, beginning with his arrival on Sunday, part of Beijing's efforts for deeper political and economic ties in Europe to counterbalance difficult relations with Washington.

"We are clearly faced with wide-ranging foreign interference by China," said Olivier Cadic, a centrist member of the French Senate.

The seven targeted parliamentarians all belong to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international non-profit body for legislators who see China's policies as a threat to democratic values.

The French parliamentarians only discovered they had been hacked in March of this year after the US Justice Department indicted seven Chinese nationals "associated with the Chinese government" for sending malicious emails to US and foreign critics of China, including IPAC members.

Ex-senator Andre Gattolin, a former co-president of IPAC's French branch, said the US indictment was proof that a "Trojan Horse"-type email he received in 2021 came from the Chinese hacker group.

"At the time I was writing an extremely sensitive report about foreign interference in universities and research," he said.

But when he asked France's National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) to investigate further, "I couldn't get anybody's attention" there, nor at the anti-espionage agency DGSI, he told AFP.

He filed a police complaint last month, and IPAC got in touch with US law enforcement agency FBI which, he said, told them that they had informed the French authorities of their suspicions as early as 2022.

"But nobody told us anything," Gattolin said.

"I would like to understand why I wasn't alerted before," added deputy Anne Genetet.

The handling of the case by French authorities was "lightweight", she told AFP.

"It's unimaginable that I am the only National Assembly member this has happened to," she said.

The Paris prosecutors' office declined to comment on the case when contacted by AFP.

"I am concerned about how China's actions are met with complete silence," said Gattolin. "We may as well let Chinese spies walk right into our offices."

Asked in the Senate on Tuesday about the matter, government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said French services "are paying close attention" to APT31, "including under legality aspects".

But Cadic said such statements were insufficient. "We're dealing with an open official attack, and the authorities know it," he said. "What has been done to us is an act of war."

 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:

Alaskas Cook Inlet, that gorgeous blue waterway seen here, contains huge amounts of untapped tidal energy. But little was known about how much economic value this powerful inlet could bring to Alaskauntil now. Credit: Christopher Pike, NREL

Much of Alaska is emptyof humans, at least. Vast tundra and forest separate cities and villages, dividing the state into more than 150 isolated power grids. The largest of these grids, known as the Railbelt, carries 70% of the state's electrical energy to about three-quarters of its population. Today, that grid runs mostly on natural gas.

But Alaska's Governor, Mike Dunleavy, wants to change that.

"Despite Alaska's position as a leading producer of energy, the cost of energy in Alaska, especially in our rural communities, is extremely high," he said in a 2023 press release.

Dunleavy wants 80% of the Railbelt's electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2040not just to achieve the state's clean energy goals but also to lower its higher-than-average energy costs. Switching to renewables, including hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal power, could reduce how much the state spends on electricity generation by about $100 million per year (starting around 2030).

Cumulatively, those savings could total $1.3 billion, according to a new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study.

The new NREL report examines just how much value the new but fast-growing tidal energy industry could bring to the Railbelt grid. The state's Cook Inlet, which flows right up to the center of the Railbelt in Anchorage, contains some of the largest tidal energy resources of any region on Earth (including about one-third of the United States' total tidal power). But because tidal energy is still relatively new, its potential value is not always fully understood.

Today, Alaskas Railbelt grid can only handle about 200 megawatts of clean, tidal energyenough to power half the homes in the states largest city, Anchorage. But with grid upgrades, an NREL research team found, the grid could handle even more. Credit: Billy J. Roberts, NREL, for DOE

Working closely with Homer Electric Association, the utility serving the portion of the Railbelt grid that borders the Cook Inlet, the NREL team developed a grid operations model. With that model, they discovered that not only could tidal energy play a valuable role in decarbonizing Alaska's biggest grid, but it could also boost the state's economy.

"The existing Railbelt grid can support 200 megawatts (MW) of tidal energy, and with planned grid upgrades, it could support up to 300 MW," said Marty Schwarz, a power systems modeler at NREL and an author on the study. Those 200 MW could power about half the homes in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city; 300 MW could power almost all 118,000 homes.

But that is not all. "There's also potential to generate green fuels, like hydrogen, to export to other states or overseas," Schwarz said.

Cook Inlet's tides carry far more than 300 MW of energy. But even if the Railbelt's current transmission system can only support a portion of that power, that does not mean all that energy has to go to waste. The excess could power the production of clean fuel sources like hydrogen or ammonia.

"Tidal energy could help make Alaska a leading exporter of renewable energy," Schwarz said.

Of course, some of that tidal energy could stay within the state, helping decarbonize the Railbelt power system. Because tidal energy is so consistent and predictable, it makes a reliable complement to variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy. Because of that, tidal energy could provide a stable foundation for the Railbelt's transition and could, the team found, help reduce the grid's carbon emissions by up to 37%.

With their new grid model, the NREL team discovered three tidal energy plants situated along the Cook Inlet could provide more even power to the Railbelt grid than a single plant could. Credit: Billy J. Roberts, NREL, for DOE

To get to their estimates, the team designed the grid operations model to combine theoretical and real-world dataincluding, for example, the amount of tidal energy theoretically available in each hour of the year 2035, as well as how much of that energy the Railbelt grid could handle.

"Our models are aligned with what the grid operators are seeing. They're as real as they can get," said Ben McGilton, a research engineer at NREL and another author on the study.

Of course, the team's calculations assume tidal energy technologies will achieve commercial success by 2035, which is possible but not guaranteed. They also do not include the technical costs of developing these technologies. Nor do they consider regulatory and other challenges that arise when working with multiple utilities to coordinate large-scale renewable energy projects.

If, however, tidal energy technologies do make it to market, tidal energy could meet about 14% of the total Railbelt electrical demand in 2035, McGilton said. That percentage could increase to 20% if Alaska upgrades its transmission system. The existing Kenai Intertie, the only transmission line that connects the Kenai Peninsula and Homer to the rest of the Railbelt system, can only transfer about 75 MW of electricity as of today.

The Alaskan government is already discussing how to make these transmission upgrades. In the meantime, the NREL team will continue to examine the value of other marine energy resourceslike ocean current energy in Florida and wave energy in Hawaii. All this data will help researchers, as well as local governments and utilities, quantify how this budding renewable resource could support their clean energy transitions.

"There's a lot to learn about marine energy technologies over the coming decades," said Levi Kilcher, a senior energy advisor for DOE's Arctic Energy Office and another author on the study. "But if we can figure out how to create these technologies at low cost, it could really be a huge benefit to communities throughout Alaska and other parts of the world as well."
Donna Powell, a wraparound resource specialist, organizes goods that will be distributed to students Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, at Bruce Elementary School in Houston. Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Houston ISD plans to eliminate several campus-level wraparound resource specialists in the 2024-25 academic year due to budget constraints.

HISD has approximately 280 wraparound specialists at campuses who help provide students and families with resources such as school supplies, food and clothing. The district said it has been funding these positions through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funds, but must make cuts as federal COVID-19 pandemic relief money expires in September.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE: Join our private Zoom event with HISD Superintendent Mike Miles

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Phuong Tieu, HISD's executive director of student supports, told about 170 employees, including wraparound specialists, Thursday that their positions would be eliminated at the end of June amid district budget cuts, according to the Houston Landing. The district declined to comment to the Chronicle on the specific number of employees or positions that will be cut next year.

Due to the expiration of ESSER funds, HISD said it will coordinate wraparound support at the division and district level starting next school year. The districts schools will still provide emergency supports, but the new Sunrise Centers will manage comprehensive support for students and their families, according to a statement from HISD.

THE REPORT CARD: Subscribe to the Houston Chronicles weekly newsletter recapping HISD news

The district opened seven Sunrise Centers at pre-existing community spaces, such as the Morefield Boys & Girls Club or the West Orem Family YMCA, this year for $12 million to help community members facing poverty and other social-emotional challenges. The centers currently provide free health care, food, clothing and other services to families and students.

Planned budget cuts

HISD has not held workshops or released many details about the budget, which the appointed Board of Managers is expected to vote on in June. However, the district has said that some campuses outside the New Education System will see funding cuts of up to 12% next year due to declining student enrollment and attendance.

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We have a responsibility to deliver excellent instruction for every student, every day they are in school, the district said in a statement. In addition, we must avoid the fiscal cliff predicted by previous administrations and set HISD up to be financially healthy for the long term.

The districts planned cuts to wraparound services come about a week after the district announced that it would be notifying certain employees if their positions would be eliminated or changed during the 2024-25 academic year.

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Like most school districts, HISD is being forced to make some very difficult budget decisions for next school year, the district said. State funding for education has not increased, and time-limited COVID aid from the federal government  known as ESSER  ends with this school year.
Samantha Ketterer is a Houston Chronicle reporter covering higher education. She can be reached at samantha.ketterer@houstonchronicle.com.

Since joining the staff in 2018, Samantha has also covered criminal justice and the Harris County courthouse. She is a former reporting fellow for the Dallas Morning News' state bureau and a former city hall reporter for The Galveston County Daily News.

Samantha, who is from Houston's suburbs, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and is a proud alumna of The Daily Texan.
A familiar scene unfolded Monday evening in front of the Central Library downtown. Volunteers pulled up their vehicles and unloaded aluminum-covered trays filled with vegetarian food, just as they have at that location for roughly two decades.

About 20 volunteers readied to serve enchiladas, salad, rice and beans, and bread pudding. Men and women took numbered sheets of paper indicating their spot in line  190 had shown up for a free meal. The serving began with volunteers piling Styrofoam trays high, pouring beverages and handing out fruit, bottles of water and bags of trail mix for later.

But there was a difference between the meal served that April evening and the meals served there a few weeks before. The Houston Police Department did not ticket any volunteers or issue any fines.

Leon Thompson smiles as he receives a meal from Food Not Bombs volunteers Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Thompson said the meal was the only thing hed eaten that day. He added that a volunteer from the group helped him find a job after being released from state prison about a month ago. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

According to municipal court data, the Houston Police Department issued 111 tickets seeking more than $25,000 in fines over the course of a year. However, ticketing Food Not Bombs volunteers for serving free meals to people in need without permission of the property owner (even if the property is a city-owned sidewalk) has now come to a standstill that could last until late 2025.

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That's because a federal lawsuit against the city over the ordinance's constitutionality has led to an injunction. Further tickets cannot be issued until the case is decided. The case is scheduled to be heard in October of 2025. On June 6th, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen denied the city's motion to dismiss the case.

"It's a little more relaxed," said Vincent James, who said he's served meals at the location for about 10 years.

Jenna Thiel, a social work student who had started cooking that day's meal at 10 a.m. with her twin sister, agreed. "People seem more comfortable coming out without the threat of a ticket."

A history of activism

According to its website, Food Not Bombs is a loosely organized group with chapters around the world that traces its roots back to antinuclear protesters in 1980. After an attempt to occupy a New Hampshire nuclear power station incurred legal costs, protesters began holding bake sales to raise funds.

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Volunteers with Food Not Bombs feed homeless people Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

Over time, food became a symbol, highlighting what the protesters saw as a dystopian allocation of tax dollars. The group that became Food Not Bombs began hosting free meals prepared from donated, surplus food to make the case that resources should be redirected from the military to more "human needs."

In 1994, people in Houston began doing the same, according to Houston Food Not Bombs' site.

In 2012, Houston's City Council passed an ordinance banning the distribution of free meals without permission from the property where you're doing it, even if the property is public. The ordinance drew widespread protest, with 34,000 Houstonians signing a petition asking the issue be put to voters as a way to repeal the law. From the outset, Food Not Bombs considered civil disobedience as a way to fight the law, Houston Chronicle archives show.

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Ultimately, the mayor at the time, Annise Parker, gave permission to Food Not Bombs to continue giving away meals outside the downtown library, and the city did little to designate feeding spots or give out tickets. That buttressed the Central Library's reputation as a hub for Good Samaritans seeking to help people in need. In addition to Food Not Bombs, others, like the Faizi Fellowship, a group of Muslim volunteers, would also serve at the spot.

Volunteers with Food Not Bombs feed homeless people Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

But in November of 2023, then-Mayor Sylvester Turner announced during his annual "State of the City" address that he would work to restore the library as a family destination. His plan involved moving meals to a police parking lot on Riesner Street near the municipal court building.

The city paid Bread of Life, a nonprofit with a history of serving those in need, $50,000 from its general fund and $150,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to serve meals at the location on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays  the same nights Food Not Bombs serves. Officials installed laminated metal signs saying that meals were no longer allowed outside the library.

The city had previously given Food Not Bombs ultimatums to stop serving meals outside the library, and volunteers had been defiant and called for media attention. As the new ultimatum of the end of February 2023 approached, emails obtained by the Chronicle show the city crafting its media statement in advance.

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While some groups, like the Faizi Fellowship, agreed to move to the new location, Food Not Bombs took a different stance. Many volunteers viewed the ordinance limiting the sharing of meals as man's law having overstepped into the bounds of moral law. They continued serving meals and posted videos of volunteers receiving tickets for doing so on social media.

Dick Franklin leaves after eating a dinner provided by Food Not Bombs volunteers Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer Shere Dore, a volunteer with Food Not Bombs, helps organize a meal distribution for homeless people Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer Dick Franklin sits at a bus stop after eating a dinner provided by Food Not Bombs on Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

The conflict spurred strong emotions, bringing an influx of new volunteers, people volunteering to help with fees and pro bono lawyers. Others on social media agreed with Turner that the homeless presence downtown did deter them from using the library.

Volunteers and lawyers waited to see what would happen under a new city administration.

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New year, new questions

The new year brought a new mayor and city council members. The Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal nonprofit, helped gather more than 24,000 signatures voicing support for ending the Houston law limiting sharing free meals.

However, in January 2024, it became clear that ticketing would continue. The group filed a suit in federal court, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

The suit argues that the groups food-sharing events, which it says began in 2005, are a form of protest protected under the First Amendment. As their name makes clear, Food Not Bombs is not a charity, but instead a political association expressing a political message that government entities should divest money from war, policing, and weaponry, the suit says, and instead redirect that money to meet basic human needs.

Shere Dore, a volunteer with Food Not Bombs, helps organize a meal distribution for homeless people Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

City lawyers argued that the ordinance regulating meals was a matter of public health. The city needed to ensure people's safety from food poisoning or disease spread by vermin, they said.

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The U.S. District Court judge, Hanen, ordered Houston to temporarily stop enforcing the law on the condition that Food Not Bombs pay a $25,000 bond. The organization paid the bond in February using crowdsourced funds and has not been ticketed since then. Tickets that have already been issued are still being litigated in municipal courts, according to Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Randy Hiroshige.

Monday evening, three Houston Police Department SUVs were parked across the street from the meal, but officers did not emerge.

A man who had come from the Bread of Life meal at the Riesner lot earlier that evening greeted volunteer Shere Dore and showed him what he had been served  fried chicken breast, corn and green beans. That week, volunteers and people who ate the Riesner Street lot had heard that the nonprofit would soon stop serving meals because funding had run out.

A woman holds a box of food that she said she got from a meal distribution at 61 Riesner, or Houston Police Departments Central Patrol Station, on Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

The mayor's office said in an emailed statement that it was "actively engaging to find alternative solutions" to extend the program with additional funding, though specifics were still being discussed. Though the contract was supposed to last until mid-2025, that calculation involved feeding 100 participants a night. Demand was nearly double that, according to the statement.

"Due to this overwhelming demand, the budget has depleted faster than anticipated," said the mayor's office. However, it said, the city was looking for sustainable paths forward through a mixture of government funding and philanthropy.

Food Not Bombs does not have a budget because it focuses on serving donated food. Thiel and her sister, who were dropping off what they cooked that day, said they discovered the group by researching opportunities to engage in mutual aid or the community sharing of resources like meals.

Their therapy dog, Keyser (named for the larger-than-life legend that drives the film "The Usual Suspects"), greeted people as they worked their way through the line. The sounds of the evening fell into a rhythm as 190 people came through for a meal.

Hawkins Williams, a first-time volunteer with Food Not Bombs, serves a meal to a man who had difficulty walking Monday, April 29, 2024, at Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building in Houston. Williams and his wife volunteered together. Volunteers estimated that they served 200 meals that night. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

"Hot tea? Watermelon punch?" asked Ember Lombardo. "Do you want cream and sugar in that?"

"Apple? Oranges? Trail mix?" asked Samantha William. She had driven an hour from Lake Jackson to lend a hand.
Over 1,000 arrested so far in protests on U.S. college campuses nationwide

Xinhua) 10:11, May 03, 2024

Some schools including Columbia University, where the protests initially erupted, have seen a further intensification of the protests, while on some other campuses, the situation appears to be cooling down.

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested in recent days according to U.S. media reports, as the anti-war demonstrations at over 20 American universities continued on Tuesday.

Some schools including Columbia University, where the protests initially erupted, have seen a further intensification of the protests, while on some other campuses, the situation appears to be cooling down.

Protesters gather in front of Columbia University's gate in New York City, the United States, on April 30, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

Early Tuesday, dozens of protesters at Columbia University's Manhattan campus moved furniture and metal barricades to block the entrance of Hamilton Hall, one of several buildings occupied by students during the 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protests.

Protesters formed a human chain in front of the building and said that they would only leave unless the school meets their demands, which include the university's divestment from Israeli-related companies, disclosure of all financial assets, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined in the protests.

In a statement Tuesday, a Columbia spokesperson said that "students occupying the building face expulsion."

A woman blows bubbles during a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) in Austin, the United States, April 29, 2024.(Photo by Christopher Davila/Xinhua)

The university spokesperson stated that the protesters were offered an opportunity to depart peacefully and complete the semester. However, those who does not comply with the conditions outlined since Monday should face suspension.

"Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation -- vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances -- and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday," the spokesperson said.

On Tuesday night, New York police entered Columbia University campus and started to make arrests after pro-Palestinian protesters refused to leave.

In light of the escalation, the White House expressed disapproval of the actions taken by the protesters at Columbia University.

People gather at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the United States, April 29, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

"The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach, that is not an example of peaceful protests," White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters. "Taking over a building by force is unacceptable."

"A small percentage of students shouldn't be able to disrupt the academic experience, the legitimate study, for the rest of the student body," Kirby said.

At a demonstration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier Tuesday, police entered the protest camp and arrested about 30 people.

Later in the day, protesters returned to the site and replaced the American flag in the center of the campus with a Palestinian flag. They linked arms and formed a circle around the flagpole, and could be heard chanting "Intifada" and "Free Palestine," according to the school newspaper. Law enforcement officers later switched back to the American flag.

A "Free Palestine" sign is seen at a pro-Palestine encampment on campus of the University of Chicago (UChicago) in Chicago, the United States, on April 29, 2024. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua)

In the northwestern state of Oregon, protesters occupied a library at Portland State University overnight. On Tuesday, the university urged protesters to leave the library and asked the police for help.

Clashes between police and protesters turned violent in some cases. Police used riot gear and pepper spray to break up a protest at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond late Monday after protesters threw objects at officers and used chemical spray, officials said. Thirteen people, including six students, have been charged with unlawful assembly and trespassing.

Since protests broke out at Columbia University on April 18, more than 1,000 protesters have been arrested on over 20 U.S. college campuses in recent days, the New York Times reported.

Public safety aides are seen on campus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in California, the United States, April 28, 2024.(Xinhua)

While tensions have increased on some campuses, they appear to be cooling on others.

On Tuesday, police managed to end an eight-day occupation of the administration building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Protest camps at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh also appeared to have been emptied.

Northwestern University announced an agreement with protesters late Monday, saying it would re-establish an Investment Responsibility Advisory Committee in the fall with participation of student, faculty and staff representatives.

The agreement calls for the removal of tents set up by protesters and in exchange, the school allows students to demonstrate peacefully on the grass until the end of the semester on June 1.

The multi-day wave of campus anti-war protests is a manifestation of young Americans' discontent with how the Biden administration is managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A recent CNN poll found that 71 percent of American adults surveyed were dissatisfied with the Biden administration's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among those under 35, 81 percent were dissatisfied.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
Andrea Leinfelder is the space reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at andrea.leinfelder@houstonchronicle.com.

Andrea has written about NASA and the commercial space sector since 2020, with her coverage spanning human spaceflight, robotic exploration and operations in low-Earth orbit. She also follows Elon Musk's Texas footprint.

Originally from Florida, Andrea graduated from the University of Florida in 2012 and has worked for the Houston Chronicle since 2014. She previously wrote for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla. She enjoys traveling, eating her way across Texas and chasing her 2-year-old son and 6-year-old dog.
LEXINGTON  Grand Island Independent editor and features writer Terri Hahn was one of 10 members of Nebraska Press Women who won awards at the 2024 Professional Communications Contest.

Hahn took home 10 awards, including three first-place awards, three for second place, two for third place and two honorable mentions. Her first-place awards were for a feature story on the Edgerton Explorit Center in Aurora; an article about Hear Grand Island earning a top award from the Nebraska Department of Tourism; and for section editing with the December Delights holiday guide.

Its always an honor to be recognized for your work, Hahn said.

In the annual contest, NPW members submitted 92 entries in 56 categories. From those, 81 awards were given by 12 judges, all experienced out-of-state communications professionals.

Categories include writing, editing, photography, public relations, web sites, graphics and design, radio and television, digital communications, brochures, annual reports and more.

Awards were presented at the NPW spring meeting April 20 in Lexington.

Kearney Hub reporter and columnist Mary Jane Skala won 14 awards, including eight for first place, four for second place, one for third place and one honorable mention. Her first-place prizes came for her personal column and a personality profile, along with articles in the categories of food, travel, education and green-environmental topics.

Skala also was runner-up for the Sweepstakes Award, given to the winner who accumulates the most points for wins in the contest.

Winner of the Sweepstakes Award was Lori Potter of Kearney, retired Kearney Hub reporter who now contributes to the Hub, the Flatwater Free Press, the Minden Courier and several other publications.

Potter won 25 awards  nine for first place, nine for second place, six for third place and one honorable mention  including many for her photography as well as her writing.

Rick Brown of Kearney, who writes on a freelance basis for the Kearney Hub, took first place in humor columns.

Other winners from central Nebraska include Barb Batie of Lexington, who won 10 awards, including three for first place, one for second place, five for third place and one honorable mention for the now-defunct Midwest Messenger in Lexington. Batie now works part-time for the North Platte Telegraph.

NPWs 31 first-place entries  including those of Batie, Brown, Hahn, Potter and Skala  have moved on to the 2024 National Federation of Press Women Professional Communications contest. Winners will be announced June 22 at the 2024 NFPW Communications Conference in St. Louis.

PHOTOS: Climbing around at the third annual Touch-A-Truck Families and friends explore all types of vehicles at the Touch-A-Truck event on Tuesday. Donations made during the event will go towards the Imagination City Children's Museum as they work on remodeling their new location. Exploring all types of vehicles at the Touch-A-Truck Families and friends explore all types of vehicles at the Touch-A-Truck event on Tuesday. Donations made during the event will go towards the  Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck ABOVE: Several vehicles are set up for the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on Tuesday, April 30. The event Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck Everly Royer, left, and Jamie Royer look inside the fire truck at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on T Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck RIGHT: Isabella Campos sits inside a Case IH tractor at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on Tuesday, Ap Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck Four people sign the inside of a loader at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on Tuesday, April 30. The K Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck From left, Trevor Kluck, Zion Akinleye and Jenny Akinleye ride in an aerial lift at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 151 Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck Theodore Heinemann, left, and Elliette Kuilat lay with building blocks at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Av Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck A young boy looks out from inside a police rescue vehicle at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sam's Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on Tuesda Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck ABOVE, LEFT: Lucas Covarrubias sits inside a Bobcat T66 track loader at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave. Fun times at the Touch-A-Truck Sierra Thompson climbs down from a tractor at the Touch-A-Truck event in the Sams Club parking lot, 1510 Diers Ave., on Tuesday, April 30. Th
Octavia Johnson is a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at octavia.johnson@houstonchronicle.com.

Before joining the Chronicle, Octavia worked as a digital content producer at WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tenn., where she became a leader in producing fast paced, audience-focused content.

Octavia graduated from UNC Pembroke with a bachelor's degree in journalism before earning her master's degree in media and communications at Norfolk State University.
Tired of American flag desecration

What is being done to our flag has bothered me for quite a few years now, and it is only getting worse. Now is the time to speak up about this mess.

OK, I am a proud Army veteran, fly our flag proudly in my yard. When I leave the yard, I proudly salute our flag.

The first time that I know of where our flag was used improperly was when a blue stripe replaced a red stripe to show support for our police. This is a worthy cause without a doubt, but this is flag desecration.

Now I have seen flags with the blue corner and red stripes replaced with the color black. I have no idea what this is to support, but this is desecration in its worst form.

Our flag is supposed to have 13 stripes alternating in red and white colors to represent the 13 original colonies, and the left upper corner is to be blue with a star to represent the number of states in this country, hence the 50 stars currently on our flag.

All these other flags should be destroyed immediately, this shows no respect for this wonderful country.

Bob Lathen

Grand Island

I enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie

I feel the need to express my feelings about experiencing the Grand Island Little Theatre play, Tuesdays with Morrie.

Dave Hulinsky and Ron Jelinek took words off a page and became two extraordinary characters with some the best acting I have seen anywhere. If you saw it, you know what I mean. If you missed, you MISSED it.

Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this one of the best GILT productions ever.

Nancy Rutar Grand Island

We can all agree Hamas is bad

What we are seeing in Gaza is a religious war that has been going on against Israel since before the 1948 war. This is clear from the 1988 Hamas Charter. That charter was revised in 2017 when Hamas tried to show a non-terrorist face for the western media, but the 1988 Charter was never replaced.

The words show how a fanatical religious association can survive over 75 years of losing and still find believers like those that brought us 911.

The Hamas Charter says:

Introduction  Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

Article 11  [Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up.

Article 6  [Hamas] is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam.

Article 8  Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.

Article 13  Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of [Hamas]. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion.

Article 15  The Palestinian problem is a religious problem and should be dealt with on this basis. Palestine contains Islamic holy sites. In it there is al- Aqsa Mosque which is bound to the great Mosque in Mecca.

These words tell us, this war is not political in nature, its a religious war led by religious zealots pretending to live in the seventh century.

Bert Peterson Hastings

Honoring Asian Americans

Asian Americans rich history of service and sacrifice to our nation is a fundamental part of the American story. We honor this month the many contributions and diverse experiences of the Asian American community, an essential element of Americas cultural tapestry.

At the same time, we recognize that Asian Americans have increasingly been victims of rationally motivated violence, a problem exacerbated by far-left policies of defunding the police and releasing dangerous criminals back onto the streets.

Additionally, insidious race-based affirmative action policies have led to race quotas on Asian Americans at our nations elite institutions to this very day. Any policy that penalizes an applicant for their face is a racist policy. Republicans and Democrats will not give up the fight for merit-based, race-blind admission and hiring policies until every American has an equal opportunity to pursue the American dream.

Paul Bacon Hallandale Beach, Florida

War in the Middle East

Iran and Israel are conducting direct military attacks which could escalate into a major regional war and potentially impact U.S. military forces in the Middle East.

Other attacks on Israel are instigated by militias in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza, and the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, epitomizes the situation facing Israel.

The animosity and violence in the Middle East are attributable to religious differences and hatred between the Sunnis and the Shiites. There is the hatred of the Israeli Jews by many Arabs, and the Arab characterization of Christians and Jews as infidels. There are the remnants of the Syrian Civil War abetted by Russia; and the ongoing conflict between the Kurds of Iraq and Syria with Turkey.

The Sunni dominated countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain are wary of Shiite Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza. These Sunni dominated countries will not provide any assistance to Iran in its confrontations with Israel.

The Sunni countries look upon Israel as a buffer country in the Middle East who can blunt the impact of Iran and their Iraqi, Lebanese and Gaza militias.

Israel is a U.S. ally in a very strategic location in the oil rich Middle East, and we consider it as a blocking force against Iran and its proxies. Iran refers to Israel as the Little Satan and America as the Great Satan. Additionally, the Suez Canal is a maritime choke point to be safeguarded.

The United States and other democratic countries have to continue to provide military funding to support Israel in its confrontations with Iran and its proxies.

Unfortunately, the recent brutal attack on Israel by Hamas and the vast death and destruction wrought by Israel in Gaza significantly set back peace in the Middle East.

Donald Moskowitz Londonderry,

New Hampshire
Third Form St. Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) student, Lemuel Richards, hails from the Paget Farm community on Bequia. He is currently the Vice-President of the Bequia Police Youth Club.





This pleasant, respectful and intelligent young man has never been shy in making a contribution to his community through his duties as Vice President of the club. As such, he functions as a role model, demonstrating confidence as he constantly encourages his peers to maintain their determination for excellence.

About one month ago, however, Lemuels life was thrown into a tailspin when he had to be rushed to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.





Lemuels mother, Mrs. Maxine Richards, recalls that her son manifested the symptoms inclusive of weakness, difficulty standing and walking, light headedness, burning eyes and blurry vision, and headaches and backache, among others. He is very distraught, having not been able to receive an immediate diagnosis for his condition.

Mrs. Richards, who stays at his side at the hospital day and night, is constantly distressed as she witnesses wave after wave of symptoms taking him over. Recently, he has been experiencing severe headaches and regularly slips in and out of consciousness. To add to this, he has over time, begun to go through periods of "seizures.





"He would be fine at one point and then would suddenly be gripped in a seizure, his mother told THE VINCENTIAN, "and these are not pretty episodes to watch. They are really, really painful and scary to witness.





As the youngsters condition continued, the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital gave a working diagnosis of "Atypical Guillian Barre Syndrome. It was however, recommended that further medical consultation be sought to confirm this diagnosis or present another which is indicative of his symptoms.





After much consultation and planning, his case was accepted by the St. Augustine Private Hospital in Trinidad and Tobago. Towards this end, Lemuel and his mom travelled to this facility by Masa Air Ambulance last Monday.





Situations like these would require funds which the affected individuals may not readily have at their disposal. It was here that the benevolence of individuals came to the fore. Firstly, the SVGS, through a team of teachers, organised radio talks to launch a plea for financial aid from well-wishers. Then, the "Heart-to-Heart initiative was born within the school where parents donate funds to hand over to Mrs. Richards as a Mothers Day gift from many mothers to one mother in need. The Parent Teachers Association of the SVGS has also contributed to the cause. Other benevolent Vincentians at home and some from the Diaspora have stepped up to the plate too.





Additionally, the Bequia Dynamic Investors, who were witnesses firsthand to the role that Lemuel has selflessly played among his peers, organised a food sale on Saturday, 13th April, which was well supported.

In the pipeline too is a Cinema Day where students will head to the Russells Cinema to view a movie, the proceeds of which will go to their colleagues health cause. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers Cooperative Credit Union Ltd. has also made their compassion felt with a donation towards this cause.





Lemuels case has brought to the fore, the compassion and understanding of one person to another. The song says: "Who feels it knows it but be sure, one does not have to see or experience it, to feel it. Feelings do come from the heart and then knowing it compels action. Heres to Lemuels sure and swift recovery.
The aircraft reportedly with the Cubans aboard belonged to the Turpial Airlines, a Venezuela-based airline. (planespotters.net)

A charter flight, with some 60 Cubans on board and operated by Turpial Airlines, was denied landing right at the Argyle International Airport last Saturday.





Turpial Airlines is listed as a Venezuelan airline with its operating hub located at Arturo Michelena International Airport in Valencia, in that South American republic.





Speaking on the We FM Issue at Hand progamme on Sunday, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves confirmed the action by the authorities, and went on to say that the government he leads will not allow St. Vincent and the Grenadines to be used as a transit stop for individuals who want to go to other places, and pointed to the US Southern Border as the place of choice.





And while this country has no visa restriction on Cubans, the Prime Minister recognized, ". the Cubans who come here and work, which is a relatively small number, have to get work permits; that is a different story than people coming in mass; we just would not allow that.





This recent denial of landing rights follows a similar action taken on April 7 this year, when two flights, operated by two different airlines were refused entry.





One flight, reportedly originated in Nigeria but its manifest showed that there were not many Nigerians among its 374 passengers.





The other flight, operated by a Bulgarian registered airline, was said to have originated in Dubai with a flight plan to fly to Morocco and onwards to the AIA. Its manifest included a majority number of passengers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Cameroon.





The clamp down on flights with questionable motives came after this country imposed visa restrictions on Bulgaria, Cameroon, Nepal and Bangladesh, citing national security concerns as the basis for the decision.
Lieutenant William Theobalds of the SVG Coast Guard, wrote himself into the history of the RSVGPF.

One hundred and thirteen recruits (113) took the oath of office, signaling their official entry into the ranks of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF), during a Passing-Out Parade held on Thursday 25th April, 2024, at Victoria Park.





It was the first course (No. 41) over which a Coast Guard Officer functioned as the Commandant of the Police Training School.





That Coast Guard Officer to be written into the annals of RSVGPF was Lieutenant William Theobalds, whose resume showed that he has been an instructor at the Regional Security Services for the past five years.





Addressing the Parade, Lieutenant Theobalds reflected on the decision to serve and protect, and urged those passing out to approach their duties with "integrity, professionalism and courage.





He spoke of his expectation that the high standards of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force would be maintained, and reminded the recruits that their actions "reflect the institution even while modes of operating are changing.





Theobalds urged the new officers to be positive role models in their communities, and encouraged them to "stand tall in the face of adversity, and "serve with honour, distinction and integrity.





Importance of Community Involvement





Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Enville Williams embraced the new officers and even as he admitted that a divide existed between the public and the police, he implored the new officers to be involved in community activities that create positive change and solve problems.





"Communities must have respect for you, Williams posited but he reminded the recruits that "respect goes both ways, and that "Discipline has to be the foundation of every police officer.





Williams accepted that being a Police Officer was no fun and games; that it was a stressful job with many challenges and pitfalls, but this, he stressed was no excuse for resorting to alcohol and drugs use as coping measures, and recommended exercise and rest as preferred options.





Acknowledging that police are "under public scrutiny, the Acting CoP said that because of that, he expected his charges to be ambassadors for the nation.





"Aggressive individuals will test you or there may be exposure to hostile crowds, he said. He appealed for calm and politeness in the circumstances.
Of the two schools temporarily located at Arnos Vale, the TSSS has been the one to have borne the brunt of the flea infestation problem. (Photo Credit: St. Vincent Times)

Students attending Thomas Saunders Secondary School (TSSS) began to trickle back to classes on Thursday. School and Education officials expected that classes at that institution would have returned to their normal schedule on Thursday.





There has been no official confirmation that classes did resume as normal, on Thursday.





The disruption of classes last week at the TSSS and the neighbouring Girls High School was caused by an infestation of fleas.





Both schools are situated, temporarily according to government officials, at the southern end of the runway of the decommissioned E.T. Joshua Airport, a move occasioned by major renovations at the Girls High School and the still to be decided extent of work at the TSSS, both in Kingstown.





Reports are that packs of dogs roam unmolested in the area around both schools.





Students of the Girls High School returned to classes on Monday after it was deemed to have suffered less of an "attack by the fleas, though, there are also reports, albeit unconfirmed, of a wood lice problem at that school.





Minister of Education Curtis King had expressed optimism that classes would have been able to resume by Friday last week, but that was wishful thinking given the extent of fumigation and other measures that would have had to be taken to deal with the infestation.





The Ministry of Education has acknowledged that a large number of dogs frequent the area because it was a place where people ate.





The problems of the stray dogs continue even in the face of pleas to dog owners in the area to either tether their animals or keep them in their yards.





"We have treated the school grounds and implemented various measures, such as constructing a fence, to decrease the number of stray dogs. There are times when difficulties continue to exist despite your best efforts, Minister King said.





The Ministry of Agriculture, in a release dated April 29, appealed for the removal of all animals from schools and other government compounds with immediate effect.





If they fail to do so, the relevant authorities will take the necessary action. The release stated.
Andrea Ashers has not allowed her condition of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) to deter her from living as full a life as possible, to include contributing to her own upkeep and the advancement of the Vincentian society.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines joins the world over in the commemoration of Wishbone Day, Monday, May 6, 2024, and to mark that show of solidarity President of the National Society for Persons with DisAbilities- Andrea Ashers, is calling Vincentians to wear yellow on that day, in support of persons suffering with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI).





Wishbone Day has been designated a day when people across the globe come together to raise awareness about OI.





OI is a condition characterised by fragile, low mineral density bones, commonly referred to a brittle bones disease.





Considered a rare disease, Ashers has been suffering from OI since birth.





Recounting her travails, Ashers said: "Three days after my birth (I was told) that this pretty clear-skinned baby just started to turn redThen later on I was diagnosed with having OI, but at that time it was just known as brittle bones.





Ashers revealed that as early as four years old, she recognized that she had a problem.





"I acknowledged my problem as early as four years old My bones will break, and I will not be able to move for weeks. Sometimes they will mend back in three weeks and another time longer, Ashers recalled.





Her condition worsened and Ashers, who had begun to walk, was eventually confined to a chair.





"I remembered being able to walk, but things worsened and I had to resort to using a wheel chair as my means of getting around, a rather effervescent Ashes related.





Her condition meant that Ashers was not able to attend regular school, hence she enrolled in the School For Children with Special Needs





"I attended that school for eight years, 1979 to 1987, which provided me with my schooling, the NSPD President related.





However, for Ashers, her relative restrictive condition does not deter her from making positive contributions to the Vincentian society, and helping herself as much as he is able.





"I look at myself as extra special Dont pity me and be sorry for me, as there are plenty of you and few of me, Ashers philosophied.





More so, Ashers is thankful for life, "Because it is not normal for persons suffering with OI to live beyond 25.





The call from Ashers is to others living here with that medical condition, to come forward and make themselves known to the NSPD.





And, as a prelude to Mondays Wishbone Day, the NSPD is welcoming the public to their Barbecue to be held on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th May, during which time they can interact with members of the society and Ashers herself. The venue is the NSPD headquarters located at the Old Anglican School on Higginson Street, Kingstown.





The observance of Wishbone Day began in 2010.





Yellow is the chosen colour for Wishbone Day, as it symbolizes hope and optimism.




A man walks past a flooded car on Williams Trace Boulevard in Sugar Land on May 8, 2019. People can underestimate the force and power of water. A mere six inches of fast-moving floodwater can knock over an adult and it takes rushing water only as high as a cowboy boot, or about 12 inches, to float most vehicles. Mark Mulligan/Associated Press

Flooding, one of the top weather-related killers in the United States, claims an average of 90 deaths each year  and more than half of all deaths are caused by people walking or vehicles driving around barriers and into a flooded roadway, according to the National Weather Service.

People can underestimate the force and power of water. A mere six inches of fast-moving floodwater can knock over an adult and it takes rushing water only as high as a cowboy boot, or about 12 inches, to float most vehicles.

Because most flooding deaths are preventable, the National Weather Service initiated a flood safety campaign in Texas 20 years ago in the middle of severe weather season that popularized the now-familiar slogan: Turn Around, Dont Drown.

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This life-saving campaign originated in Texas, where Hector Guerrero, a warning coordinating meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Brownsville, was concerned about the safety of hurricane evacuees from the Texas Gulf Coast who might move to Central Texas.

When these hurricanes were approaching, they were sending people to evacuate to the deadliest flood alley in the country, which is Austin and San Antonio, Guerrero said. And unfortunately, I would hear stories of some of the same people succumbing to the flash floods in their vehicles, while living in this area.

He said he felt that the National Weather Service needed a catchy phrase or slogan that would effectively communicate the dangers of flooded roadways to the public. He drew inspiration from another popular safety slogan that continues to echo in households, workplaces and school classrooms to this day.



I thought something along the lines of the fire safety slogan, Stop, Drop and Roll, would be great, Guerrero said. So, after meeting with some firefighters in Harlingen, we came up with the slogan Turn Around, Dont Drown. "

Hector Guerrero was a National Weather Service meteorologist in Brownsville when he coined the "Turn Around, Don't Drown" slogan 20 years ago. National Weather Service

With his vision and a dedication to public safety, he took the idea to a team from the National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Texas Floodplain Management Association, and the City of Fort Worth Fire Department to develop a broader campaign and safety program.

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In 2004, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration officially launched the Turn Around, Dont Drown campaign to warn people of the hazards of walking or driving a vehicle through floodwaters. Since then, hundreds of Turn Around, Dont Drown signs and billboards have been placed along roads that are prone to flooding.

LIVE UPDATES: Storms hit Houston on Thursday with road closures, flooding

The four simple words have since become widely recognized and used by emergency officials and media outlets across the country. The Turn Around, Dont Drown slogan serves as a powerful reminder that, when faced with floodwaters, it is always safer to find an alternative route or wait for the water to recede rather than risk ones life by attempting to cross.

We cant control the weather, but we can try and encourage all of our fellow Americans to make the right decisions when they are faced with a flooded roadway, Guerrero said. We wanted to make it very simple and thats why the catchy slogan was very important.

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(TBTCO) - Thi truong bat ong san, nhat la can ho tai cua ngo khu Tay TP. Ho Chi Minh ang tro thanh tam iem thu hut su quan tam cua nhieu nha au tu va nguoi mua o. Suc hut chinh la do ha tang giao thong trong iem ngay cang uoc chu trong nang cap va mo rong. Qua o, thi truong nay khong chi gop phan thuc ay giao thuong va phat trien kinh te trong khu vuc ma con giup gia tang gia tri bat ong san.
Mills City Council is working to change how the community defines camping.

Currently, property owners and their immediate families are allowed to camp for no more than five days and additional circumstances may be considered on a case-by-case basis by a special resolution.

What the revised ordinance would do is define camping as staying overnight at a designated camping facility, using a tent, bedding or both to stay outside overnight, or using an RV, automobile or other mobile structure to sleep in.

The time limits would still apply.

Mayor Leah Juarez asked about extending the language to include staying somewhere during the day, citing what she said shes seen happening in nearby Casper in the Walmart parking lot. City Attorney Patrick Holscher said that while the language was meant to address someone who was staying at a fixed location for more than a day, he would take another stab at expanding the wording.

He promised Juarez that he would take a look at Caspers recent camping ordinance, which that council passed in November. It gave the city of Casper more teeth in defining what camping is and isnt within their city limits.

Id be curious  if thats something maybe wed want to put in our language as well, Juarez said.

Councilors Brad Neumiller and Tim Sutherland both backed the bill, which successfully passed on this first reading, with the understanding that on the second and third readings, it could be fine-tuned.

The next Mills City Council meeting will be held at 7 p.m., May 14.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk (shown here at his 2017 Senate confirmation hearing) struck down the 20-year-old FDA approval of mifepristone, a drug used in the majority of medication abortions. Associated Press

In federal district courts within the 5fth Circuit Court of Appeals, especially in the Northern District of Texas, statues of Lady Justice should have their blindfolds removed and their scales fully tipped to one side. No longer does the premise undergirding the American rule of law  that judges are impartial and will refrain from advancing their own policy preferences  hold in many courtrooms, as savvy right-wing litigants continue to engage in a dangerous practice called judge shopping.

In recent years, well-funded and politically powerful right-wing attorneys and their clients have begun strategically filing cases before ideologically sympathetic judges located in far-flung district court divisions. Conservative state attorneys general and litigants with ties to right-wing dark money groups have used these hand-picked judges to advance an unpopular and sweeping agenda that would be all but impossible to advance through Congress or electoral politics. And many of these judges have had no qualms, it seems, about prioritizing their right-wing policy preferences over judicial precedent or congressional intent.

Recent examples include:

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U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the only active district judge in Amarillo, who struck down the 20-year-old FDA approval of mifepristone, a drug used in the majority of medication abortions  effectively banning it nationwide. The ruling would have taken the drug off the U.S. market after allowing a week for appeals, but the 5th Circuit intervened. For now, as we await a Supreme Court ruling on the case, mifepristone remains available in states where abortion is legal.

U.S. District Judge Reed OConnor, one of two active district judges in Fort Worth, who ruled several times to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, including striking required insurance coverage for preventative care, such as cancer screenings and the drug that prevents transmission of HIV. He has also declared the Indian Child Welfare Act unconstitutional and struck down regulations against untraceable ghost guns.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, the other active district judge in Fort Worth, who invalidated President Joe Bidens student debt relief program and declared the Minority Business Development Agencys consideration of race unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge James Hendrix, the only active district judge in Lubbock, who declared that passage of the $1.7 trillion federal appropriations bill in 2022 was unconstitutional and struck down a requirement that Texas give reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers.

In the shadow of these and many other cases, a nonpartisan group of federal judges, the Judicial Conference of the United States, issued guidance on March 12 to stem judge shopping in hopes of bolstering public confidence in the courts. They recommended a limited subset of cases  cases seeking to bar or mandate application of a state or federal law  be subject to random assignment across federal district courts. In defiance, the Northern District of Texas refused to adopt this voluntary guidance, citing a lack of data on remedies sought in filed lawsuits and the need to hold jury trials where the case was brought. Notably, this district court is where the most egregious judge shopping occurs.

The Texas courts refusal came after weeks of outrage from the right falsely claiming the Judicial Conferences recommendations somehow assault judicial independence. Sen. Mitch McConnell wrote to a dozen chief district judges decrying the guidance as a political power play. Judge James Ho of the 5th Circuit  who was sworn into office in the private library of the right-wing billionaire at the heart of the Clarence Thomas ethics scandal  issued a statement critical of the guidance.

The excuses the Northern District asserts against randomizing cases are all hat, no cattle. These cases arent brought by aggrieved private individuals, but by government actors or strawman litigants propped up by right-wing dark money groups with no connections to the rural districts most often selected. More aptly, in an era of court hearings held on Zoom or the like, there is nothing to prevent a case from efficiently proceeding in a different division. But to accept the Judicial Conferences recommendations, the judges in the Northern District of Texas would have to admit that judge shopping is a problem  something they cannot do because it would be an admission of their own impartiality.

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Refusal to adopt this guidance will further erode public confidence in the courts  already near a record low  by allowing judges to continue operating as partisan actors. The Northern District and other district courts should immediately take steps to adopt the anti-judge shopping guidance for the good of the judiciary and our nation. Failing that, Congress should act swiftly to ban judge shopping. Its time for our judiciary to adhere to constitutional principles  not a political playbook.
How you want this to go? You want me to kill you and your son, or you want me just kill you alone?

This was the question posed to 40-year-old Anna Ellis yesterday, when she was attacked by a man known to her at her home on Dibe Road, St James.

Ellis, who was stabbed multiple times, was able to speak with reporters yesterday afternoon while police were conducting a search for her 12-year-old son, who was kidnapped following the confrontation.
Please allow me to say my two cents worth. The billion-dollar budget that was read by the Minister of Finance in the Parliament was very alarming to me.

When I heard of all the apparatus allotted to help fight the crime situation in the country, yes, it sounded goodthe minister was applauded by his colleagues who pounded their fists on their desks. But will all those things really help the crime situation? This is an election budgetso stop misleading the people.
A criminal charge in a deadly Tucson road rage incident in March has been reduced from second degree murder to manslaughter.

Jason Jameson, 41, was initially arrested on suspicion of murder after a heated argument in traffic on Tucsons far northeast side resulted in Jeffrey Honer, 47, being shot and killed.

We were very dismayed and upset, said Jerimiah Honer, the deceaseds brother who attended the preliminary hearing Monday in Pima County Justice Court in which the charge was reduced.

Given the actions Mr. Jameson has made, making false claims of self-defense and making accusations that are different from what the evidence would indicate, its very upsetting for us, he said.

Fellow sibling Kenneth Honer, who was also at the hearing, said it was emotionally draining to have to sit through the five-hour long hearing and have Jamesons sentence reduced at the end of it. He said tears were coming down his face at one point and he was having trouble breathing.

Its the biggest fear at the moment, Kenneth said. I wake up afraid that he will escape justice. Literally every morning I wake up to that.

The Pima County Attorneys office said in a statement saying it was the judges decision to move forward with the lesser charge.

Jameson, a Navy veteran, is accused of firing a shot into Honers back as the latter was walking away after Jameson struck him during a traffic dispute, court documents say. Honer, a doctor who was on his way to administer treatment in a patients home, died at the scene despite life-saving efforts by Jameson and the two nurses he was traveling with.

Jameson shot my husband in the back as he was walking away from him (and) evidence clearly suggests that he was far away from him, Alyssa Honer said about her husbands encounter after her attendance at Mondays hearing.

Hes angry enough to kill a person at 11 oclock in the morning. It is scary to think that Mr. Jameson is out there thinking that he did nothing wrong, that he had no other choice.

Jameson says Honer was the aggressor and struck him, according to prior statements his attorney, Josh Hamilton, has made to media and law enforcement. They intend to plead not guilty at the trial, Hamilton said.

Indeed, he (Jameson) is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing here, Hamilton said in a written statement to the Star. Mr. Jameson is a loving husband and father, a Naval veteran who has spent his entire life dedicated to service of the country.

The facts and evidence in this case will demonstrate that he made a split-second decision to defend himself in a rapidly-evolving, alarming and uncertain situation, Hamilton said in his statement. His actions were justified and in conformity with Arizona law.

The sole witness at the hearing said Jameson has made statements on how he heard Honer say he was going to get a gun. However, the witness, an investigator in the case, said no gun was found on Honer, in the car he drove nor in the desert near where the incident occurred.

He (Jameson) had plenty of choices, said Alyssa Honer. Dont provoke in the first place, dont brake check other people, dont be violent. Dont pull out a gun and murder someone when theyre walking away from you. This isnt accidental behavior.

Horner, who said she is pro-gun, said gun-related violence like this one gives owners a bad name. Guns are supposed to be used for protection and not for asserting dominance over other people, she said.

One of the hardest things for me and my family is that theres just no remorse from this person, Alyssa said. He shot my husband to kill. But all hes done since then is lie and claim hes a victim. And this is incredibly hard to see and read when he took everything away from us.

The trial date is pending.
PHOENIX  Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation Thursday to repeal a territorial-era abortion law, but it wont take effect for months.

The focus shifts now to an initiative expected to be on Arizonas November ballot to enshrine a broad right to abortion into the states Constitution. And the stage is set for a campaign that could cost at least $50 million.

Meanwhile, once the repeal of the 1864 law banning all abortions except to save the life of the mother eventually takes effect, that will leave a newer state law on the books, allowing abortion up to the 15th week of pregnancy.

The 1864 near-total ban was long dormant  until the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9 that it trumps the newer law and can be enforced.

Various polls have suggested the initiative was a shoo-in if the only other choice for voters was to maintain the 1864 law that makes no exceptions for rape or incest.

But now, absent some unforeseen circumstances, it appears that by November that ban will be history, after a few Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature sided with Democrats to send the repeal to Hobbs for her signature.

Then, the law in Arizona will again allow abortion up until 15 weeks. And thats a far different situation. In 2022, of the 11,407 pregnancies terminated in Arizona, 380 were beyond 15 weeks.

Put another way, maintaining a 15-week law allows 95% of all abortions to remain legal.

There are indications some Arizonans who oppose an outright abortion ban would be willing to support some restrictions.

In a 2022 survey after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, OH Predictive Insights found 9% of Arizonans questioned wanted abortion to be illegal in all circumstances. By contrast, 50% said the procedure should be legal only under certain circumstances, a figure that dropped to 41% support for allowing abortions at all times.

Does not undermine voters desire

But a Tucson Democrat who sponsored the repeal measure signed Thursday by Hobbs, Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, said the fact that the 1864 law is virtually certain to be off the books by Election Day does not undermine voters desire to get government all the way out of the picture when it comes to abortion rights.

She pointed out that the initiative drive was launched last year, when state law allowed abortions until 15 weeks, long before the Arizona Supreme Courts ruling allowing enforcement of the 1864 law.

That means those who already signed the initiative petitions  more than 500,000 so far according to sponsors  clearly do not think a 15-week limit is appropriate, Stahl Hamilton said.

Phoenix Democratic Sen. Anna Hernandez also said the push to enshrine broader abortion rights into the state Constitution remains necessary.

Picking a 15 week or six weeks (limit), thats all arbitrary, Hernandez said.

The initiative not only would guarantee the right to terminate a pregnancy up to fetal viability, generally considered between 22 and 24 weeks, but also the right to an abortion to protect maternal physical or mental health.

You cannot dictate and you cannot pinpoint when a complication of pregnancys going to happen, said Hernandez.

Thats why it is so important to get politicians out, get government out, and let that choice be between that person and the medical provider, she said.

And she said the fact there was a contentious debate on the Senate floor Wednesday to repeal the 1864 law proves that point.

The Republican leadership in Arizona has shown that they are unwavering in their desire to strip us of our right, our voices and our vote, Hernandez said.

Republican legislative leaders have said they believe life begins at conception and they support the old law.

Also for voters to weigh

Something else that could be part of what voters consider: The restrictions that will remain under the 15-week law.

Beyond 15 weeks, abortions will be allowed under two exceptions: To save the life of the mother or for a medical emergency.

The definition of a medical emergency is narrowly written, however, to say an immediate abortion would only be legal if a delay would create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.

That is further defined as the immune system, normal cell growth and the digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.

There is no exception in cases of rape or incest.

Thats appropriate, said Cathi Herrod, president of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy, who is involved in the campaign to defeat the initiative.

Fifteen weeks provides enough time for any victim of either crime to terminate a pregnancy, Herrod said

By contrast, the initiative would allow all abortions up to fetal viability, and beyond that point not only to protect the life of the pregnant individual, but also to protect their physical or mental health, circumstances to be determined by them with their doctors and medical providers.

Reproductive health care needs to be made available to all patients at all time, without the fear of criminalization, said Stahl Hamilton. And that is why we need to get this enshrined in our constitution.

Court agrees to hear case The Arizona Supreme Court agreed Thursday to consider a request by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes to delay the effective date of its ruling that an 1864 law outlawing most abortions can again be enforced. In a brief order, the justices gave the anti-abortion Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing those who successfully argued the old law trumps a more recent 15-week limit, until the end of the day Tuesday to provide their own perspective. Then Mayes, who opposes the old law, will get another two days to respond. Mayes wants up to 90 days to decide if there is a reason to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court of the state court's April 9 decision. She is concerned that, absent a stay, the state court ruling will become law and abortions will become unavailable in Arizona, at least for some period of time, until the repeal Gov. Katie Hobbs signed Thursday can take effect. Capitol Media Services

Money pouring in

The campaign is generating big bucks.

Arizonans for Abortion Access, the group backing the initiative, already collected more than $12.3 million in a campaign that supporters have said could cost $50 million.

The biggest donor to date is The Fairness Project. The Washington, D.C. organization, which has a history of supporting ballot measures in states, already kicked in more than $4.1 million.

Herrod declined to say how much foes, operating under the banner of It Goes Too Far, intend to raise, saying only it will cost a lot to defeat the measure and keep the 15-week limit.

But so far, the opposition group has raised less than $525,000, including $100,000 from John Connelly, an attorney in Tacoma, Washington, whom Herrod said also has a home in Arizona, and an identical amount from David Lambert, a retiree from Tempe.

Focus for initiative foes

Opponents are focusing on what they believe are potential weak spots in the initiative to peel off voters.

Herrod cites a provision that would bar any law penalizing any individual for aiding or assisting a pregnant individual in exercising the right to abortion.

The sex trafficker who takes his 14-year-old victim for an abortion to cover his crime would not face any consequences, Herrod said. When voters see that, theyre going to be outraged by that idea.

Dawn Penich, spokeswoman for the initiative proponents, disputed that point.

Im not going to even entertain the scandalous speculation of our opposition, she said.

The whole purpose of that section, Penich said, is to ensure that if a sister drove her beloved sister to the doctor that she wouldnt be criminalized. There are separate laws already dealing with sex trafficking and having sex with a minor, she said.

A closer call could be the question of whether the initiative would override existing laws that generally require a minor to get parental consent to terminate a pregnancy.

There already are exceptions in cases where a teen could convince a judge that she is mature enough to make that decision.

But the initiative declares that every individual has a fundamental right to abortion and does not narrow it to adults.

What's next with state laws What's next after Hobbs' signature Thursday:  The repeal of the territorial-era law, like all laws, takes effect 91 days after the end of the Legislature's current session. But there is no date for that at this point.  Before that happens, though, the final order could come from the Arizona Supreme Court formalizing its ruling that the old law is enforceable and supersedes a more recent law allowing abortion until the 15th week of pregnancy.  If that occurs, Planned Parenthood Arizona has said there will be a "blackout,'' with no legal abortions performed in this state until the old law, with its potential five-year prison terms for doctors, is actually repealed.

Penich said nothing in the initiative changes parental consent requirements.

What it says is that patients, their medical providers and their families should be the ones making this decision exclusively, she said.

So that is a conversation for the patient, their family and their doctor, Penich continued. If a doctor feels that more people need to be looped into a situation, then thats what the patient or the doctor will do.
Texas State troopers stand guard during pro-Palestinian protests April 29 at the University of Texas in Austin. SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images Texas state troopers advance to clear pro-Palestinian protesters at University of Texas in Austin, Texas, Monday, April 29, 2024. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP) Aaron E. Martinez/Associated Press AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Students watch from a classroom as others participate in a pro-Palestine demonstration at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. Brandon Bell/Getty Images Pre-med student Rawan Channaa discusses demands for the University of Texas at Austin to pull its investment from companies demonstrators believe are complaisant in deaths of Palestinians in Gaza make during a peaceful demonstration, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Austin. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: A person stands on top of a ledge bearing the words "Free Palestine" during a protest of the war in Gaza at the University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class as protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

There is a long, proud history of protest at the University of Texas at Austin. I am grateful to work at a university where students, faculty and staff care deeply enough about community, national and world events to rally around those causes.

Demonstrations play a role on campuses such as ours. A university, after all, encourages students to discover and develop points of view, and to express them. These activities challenge the ways we think and feed a campus dynamic atmosphere. UT students have held dozens of peaceful protests, largely without incident, throughout this academic year.

We also have a responsibility to keep the campus and its people safe, and to allow our teaching and research to continue. Our rules provide structure for this responsibility and set up conditions for the co-existence of protests, safety and education. We are constantly reviewing those rules, improving on them, and making sure they protect everyone  those who are protesting and those who are learning, working or visiting campus. These rules also protect free speech, and enforcing them uniformly and consistently keeps us from discriminating against any particular point of view.

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For decades, groups with an incredible array of differing views have shared a respect for our rules. These students, though energized by a conflict or cause, have nevertheless worked with us and found permissible ways to express themselves without putting others at risk.

Regrettably, protesters, including many not affiliated with UT, have refused in recent weeks to accept these rules and processes. It pains me deeply that even though the organizers declared their intent to break our rules, they rebuffed numerous attempts by our Office of the Dean of Students to meet beforehand. The on-campus encampments they said they would establish, and then did, were clearly prohibited by our rules, including a prohibition against camping that became effective in 2012. They also threatened to effectively disrupt the education of more than 52,000 students and to set an alarming precedent for anyone seeking to establish encampments in the future. Demonstrators were repeatedly urged, then ordered, to take down the encampments and disperse.

At every step, they refused. At that point, regardless of anyones opinion, this was no longer a traditional assembly or protest. By the plain language of our rules, it was criminal trespassing.

Some have asked why Texas Department of Public Safety officers were on our campus during the protests. This is a fair question with a clear answer: They were protecting the safety of our campus community by assisting the University of Texas Police Department. Our police department is outstanding, but its size is limited. We knew  as did the demonstrators  that it was unlikely to be adequately staffed for what was coming.

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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN PROFESSOR: Protests dont interfere with education. Protests are education.

We have watched with concern as disruptive and illegal encampments have sprung up on other university campuses, and we took seriously the pre-protest threats  voiced by organizers and others with no affiliation with UT  to occupy our own. As university leaders, we recognized that at other schools, encampments have preceded further and more serious disruptions, safety risks, injuries, and ultimately, more severe and dangerous police intervention. Also, if we allowed encampments in this instance, it would be nearly impossible to stop encampments from other groups in the future without facing challenges of chilling speech or viewpoint discrimination.

It is difficult  for all of us  to see serious police presence and arrests on our campus. It is worse, though, to see a handful of people flout rules meant to protect everyone. It is worse still to see that disorder escalate from encampments to occupations, as has happened at Columbia University and UCLA. And it is terrifying to contemplate where such occupations might end  and who might get hurt.

We share the sincere and deep concerns of many Longhorns about the lives lost in Gaza and Israel. Their human reactions  and their need to express them in hope of a better world  show the importance of our traditions of protest and assembly.

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Still, UT is a community. Our foremost responsibility has always been to keep that community safe.

We want to work with protesters  within our rules and laws  so they can express themselves. We need them to work with us to fulfill the responsibility we share.

Want to stay up to date on our most recent thought-provoking editorials, columns and Letters to the Editor? Our Opinion-focused 'SaysHou' newsletter delivers our weekly highlights, directly to your inbox. Sign up now.
Editor's Note This column originally published in 2007 for the state's centennial. Gene Curtis later wrote another column with reports from readers of other American bombings during WW2: A January 1943 Emporia Gazette report noted 10 practice bombs had been dropped on Reading in an almost identical circumstance by planes from Topeka Bomber Base ("The only known damage was the blow to the Army's pride," the short article said). Several communities on the West Coast -- in California, Oregon and British Columbia -- were hit by Japanese bombs. Japan didn't have any airplanes that could fly far enough to drop bombs, so balloons were launched to carry the incendiary devices across the Pacific Ocean. Only about 1,000 of the 9,000 balloon bombs ever reached the U.S. and none started the hoped-for forest fires.

Bombs fell on Boise City in the middle of a July night in 1943, making it the only American city to be bombed during World War II.

The explosions weren't extremely loud, but they awakened most, if not all, of the 1,200 people in the small Oklahoma Panhandle town, caused slight damage to a garage and a church and triggered a blackout.

No one was injured.

The 30-minute air raid was all a mistake.

The bombs were 100-pound practice explosive devices filled with four pounds of dynamite and 90 pounds of sand each.

They were dropped by one of OUR airplanes.

Most of the lights of the small town had been turned out, except for four lights around the courthouse square, when the bombing foray began shortly after midnight.

A cafe was still open and several truck drivers were inside.

A few young couples wandered past the square, walking toward homes after leaving the local movie theater.

The first bomb crashed through the roof of a private garage and exploded, digging a 4-foot-deep hole in the floor. The B-17 made another pass and dropped a second bomb that nicked the white frame Baptist church, exploding beside the building and breaking several windows.

The plane made three more passes, dropping a bomb each time, all hitting within 93 feet of the courthouse.

It dropped a sixth bomb far from any buildings.

When the bombs began falling, the town's air warning officer, John Adkins, wired the adjutant general's office at the nearby Dalhart, Texas, Army Air Corps base: "Boise City bombed 1 a.m. Baptist church, garage hit."

The driver of a munitions truck parked on the square ran from the cafe and quickly drove his rig away.

Another trucker, at the wheel of a gasoline tanker, came within feet of being hit when the third bomb landed.

Frank Garrett, an electric company employee, immediately pulled the master switch that blacked out the town, including the four lights marking the courthouse square.

Either the blackout or a radio message to the pilot in response to Adkins' wire to the Air Corps base caused the pilot or navigator of the plane to realize the mistake -- and the sixth bomb fell as the B-17 flew away.

The B-17 got off course while on a training flight with other planes from the Dalhart base to drop bombs in a range near Conlen, Texas, about 30 miles south of Boise City.

The lights of Boise City's courthouse square had the general pattern of the bombing range.

The accidental bombing made Boise City the only American town to be bombed during World War II.

That, of course, doesn't count Honolulu, which was bombed by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941. But Honolulu was not an American city then because Hawaii had not yet become a state.

Lt. Max Siegel, public relations officer at the Army base, said he had determined no one had been hurt and that property damage was less than $25.

Maj. C.E. Lancaster, commanding officer of the base, said the fliers believed the lights were those of the bombing range.

The Boise City News called the event "mortifying" and "horrifying" in its next weekly issue.

The same bomber crew led an 800-plane daylight raid on Berlin a year after the misguided bombing of Boise City and became one of most decorated of World War II.

All of the crew members survived the war and one even married a Boise City girl.

Boise City marked the 50th anniversary of the July 5, 1943, bombing with a party at which a 10-foot statue of a bomb buried nose first in a crater was unveiled.

The crew members of the B-17 all declined invitations to attend the party.

Attorney Stan Manske, who hadn't been born in 1943, said at the statue's dedication "the memorial is really a reminder of the power of motivation.

"Here's this crew. They screw up -- and they go out and prove to the world they're the best crew in the world. Everyone makes mistakes."

Illustration research by Rachele Vaughan

Like this column? Read all the columns in the Only in Oklahoma series from the Tulsa World Archive.
Houston City Controller Chris Hollins speaks during a press conference at City Hall, 901 Bagby, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Houston. Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer

As the $1.5 billion firefighters settlement continues to stir tension at City Hall, Houstons top two elected officials are at odds over the timing of a presentation about its financial impact.

Less than two weeks ahead of the budget season, Controller Chris Hollins, Houstons financial watchdog, protested the cancellation of an upcoming Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee hearing where he was set to discuss what the agreement means for city finances.

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This information is time-sensitive, Hollins said to the Chronicle. Theyre going to have to make important decisions around the settlement in days to come, so we cant wait for weeks and weeks at a time to share this information.

Mayor John Whitmire, in response, said he wanted Council Member Sallie Alcorn, chair of the budget committee, to be present at these meetings, but Alcorn is traveling and unable to attend the one scheduled for next Monday.

I respect the city controllers role in informing council committees on financial matters. I also respect the committee structure, and I believe the chair should be present for important discussions such as this, Whitmire said to the Chronicle.

The mayor added his main priority today and into the weekend will be focusing on the victims of the flooding in Kingwood and the first responders rescuing them.

Crossed meeting wires

Whitmire announced in March that his administration had reached an agreement with the firefighters union, resolving a bitter contract dispute that had dominated municipal politics since 2017.

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Council members and city officials, including Hollins, have closely scrutinized the settlement, which city officials say includes $650 million in back pay, salary increases of up to 34% and potentially an additional $10 million per year for special incentives. The financial strain is expected to last for decades, as the city plans to use a judgment bond to spread the cost of the back pay.

Hollins initially sought to discuss his analysis of the deal at a joint budget and labor committees meeting earlier this week.

He said he had informed Alcorn of his intention during a call last week. When Hollins tried to submit his presentation the day before the meeting, however, Alcorns office told him it was too late to modify the agenda, citing the Texas Open Meetings Act, which mandates that the city posts meeting details at least 72 hours in advance.

They agreed to schedule another budget meeting the following Monday for Hollins presentation, according to the controller. But Alcorn later informed him the meeting had been canceled.

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After the meeting was agreed to and publicly announced, to hear that it was canceled without any explanation is certainly disappointing, Hollins said.

In a Thursday memo to City Council, Hollins informed members of the committee meetings cancellation and announced he would publicize his findings at a public briefing Monday morning instead.

Alcorn, who is on vacation, could not be reached for comment.

A tumultuous financial moment

In recent weeks, tempers have flared at City Hall over the firefighters agreement, with some council members questioning whether the city negotiated effectively for the union to make meaningful concessions and if Houston can cover the substantial costs.

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Marty Lancton, president of the firefighters union, has defended the agreement, saying his side gave up a tremendous amount in order to get this done. He also repeatedly said Houstons budget could have taken an even larger immediate hit if the two sides had gone to trial.

Details of the agreement are still being finalized by the city and the union, according to Lancton and City Attorney Arturo Michel. Although the Whitmire administration has disclosed the top-line numbers in the agreement, neither Hollins nor City Council members have yet received a copy of the proposed settlement.

Based on publicly available information, Hollins recently projected a budget shortfall of $230 to $280 million for the upcoming fiscal year beginning in July. This projection does not account for the potential additional $100 million in costs next year after an April court ruling concerning the citys drainage system.

FINANCIAL CLIFF: Controller Hollins projects over $230M budget shortfall next year following firefighter settlement

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The controllers latest analysis, now set to be presented during a Monday press conference, will delve deeper into the deals financial implications, Hollins said. It will outline, for example, what firefighters salaries will look like over the next five years, how their pay compares to that in other large Texas metros and what the deal will mean for an average Houston firefighter.
Singapore has become increasingly reliant on Vietnamese rice imports, with Vietnam surpassing traditional suppliers like Thailand and India.

Data from Singapore's enterprise regulator shows Vietnamese white rice exports to the city-state reached US$26 million in the first three months of 2024, reflecting an impressive year-on-year increase of 80.46 percent and positioning Vietnam as the leading rice exporter to Singapore.

Aside from white rice, Vietnamese glutinous rice and fragrant milled rice exports have also grown 80.08 percent and 73.33 percent year on year, respectively.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Singapore, Vietnams dominance in the market is owing, at least in part, to Indias rice export ban and the recovery of tourism in Singapore.

Sill, in order to solidify their dominance, Vietnamese rice exporters need to remain vigilant.

Cao Xuan Thang, first secretary and commercial counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, emphasized the importance of cooperation between Vietnamese authorities and business associations.

This collaboration is crucial in upholding compliance with Singaporean regulations among Vietnamese rice exporters, ensuring their active engagement in trade promotion initiatives, promoting local brands in the market, and sustaining superior product quality.

Thang also highlighted the significance of brand development, underscoring that competitors in the region, such as Thailand and Japan, allocate substantial resources to enhance their product image.

They also actively forge partnerships for import, distribution, and brand safeguarding.

In contrast, Vietnamese companies often neglect marketing and product promotion due to limited resources.

This has led to many Singaporean importers purchasing raw Vietnamese rice only to repackage and distribute it locally under their own brands.

To achieve sustainable success, Vietnamese companies must prioritize building brand recognition.

Maintaining a strong market share in a demanding and premium market like Singapore requires strict adherence to Singaporean regulations, Thang shared, urging businesses and trade associations to stay updated on these rules.

Furthermore, a memorandum of understanding on rice between Vietnam and Singapore could be a valuable tool in securing Vietnam's leading position in the Singaporean rice market.

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Nearly 200 metric tons of dead fish have been collected from Song May Reservoir in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam.

A few days ago, the tranquil waters of the lake turned into a distressing sight as hundreds of metric tons of lifeless fish floated on its surface, unleashing a putrid stench that permeated the air, disturbing the neighborhood.

Senior Lieutenant Le Minh Tan, head of a seafood farming team under the Military Command of Dong Nai Province, said on Thursday that a massive clean-up of dead fish had been completed.

We are working to deodorize the affected areas, he said.

After the collection, these dead fish will be buried for compost.

A report from local authorities showed that prolonged heat has caused the water level of Song May Reservoir to drop significantly, leaving many areas exposed.

Moreover, owing to an unrelenting heatwave, the water of the lake was prioritized for release to water some 800 hectares of crops downstream, causing the water to recede to the dead level.

The lake has lost its volume, with the water surface area shrinking to two hectares from 196 hectares, while the deepest level of water measured one meter, leading to a mass die-off of fish.

Dead fish removed from Song May Reservoir in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam. Photo: M.T. / Tuoi Tre

Fish started to go belly up a week ago, but died en masse on April 28 due to the lake drying up, said Senior Lieutenant Tan.

The low water level, searing temperatures, and a large number of fish in the reservoir resulted in them lacking oxygen and perishing in bulk, he explained.

Song May Reservoir, which spans Bac Son Commune, Binh Minh Commune, Song Trau Commune, and Trang Bom Town in Trang Bom District, provides water for crops in Trang Bom and Vinh Cuu Districts.

The Military Command of Dong Nai Province is in charge of managing the water surface area of the 300-hectare reservoir and farmed fish in the lake.

In early January, Dong Nai Irrigational Works Exploitation Company started work on a Song May Reservoir dredging, repairing, and upgrading project.

The investor had previously sent the military command a dispatch about the clean-up of assets in the lake to implement the project.

The firm also proposed harvesting fish in the reservoir before December 31 last year.

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Developing Asia and the Pacific, including Vietnam, is unprepared to secure the well-being of its rapidly aging population, according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at its 57th annual meeting in Georgia on Thursday.

While longer lifespans reflect the regions development success, comprehensive policy reforms are urgently needed to support the welfare of older people, ADBs 'Aging Well in Asia: Asian Development Policy Report' indicated.

The growing share of older people in the region faces challenges from low pension coverage to health problems, social isolation, and limited access to essential services.

ADB chief economist Albert Park said Asia and the Pacifics rapid development is fueling a huge demographic shift and putting higher pressure on governments.

The number of people aged 60 and older in developing Asia and the Pacific is set to nearly double by 2050 to 1.2 billion, significantly increasing the need for pension and welfare programs as well as healthcare services.

In Vietnam, the number of people aged 60 and above is forecast to account for some 20 percent of its population by 2037.

The Southeast Asian countrys population aging pace is faster than that in other countries, Aiko Kikkawa, the main author of the report, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The Vietnamese government has made strong efforts to resolve the issue in the long term, Kikkawa added.

At present, some eight percent of Vietnamese males who are between 60 and 64 years old and 24 percent of men aged 65 and older are capable of working but do not join the workforce.

If Vietnam can arrange suitable jobs for them, the countrys gross domestic product may rise an additional 1.1 percent, according to ADB.

In other words, the aging population is not a burden to governments, ADB chief economist Park noted.

Governments need to prepare now if theyre going to be able to help hundreds of millions of people in the region age well. Policies should support lifetime investment in health, education, skills, and financial preparedness for retirement, Park added.

Governments should not force the elderly to work, but create appropriate opportunities for them so that they can help foster economic development.

Old people have their health checked at the National Geriatric Hospital in Hanoi. Photo: Duong Lieu / Tuoi Tre

Economies in the region can make mandatory retirement ages more flexible, provide old people with suitable work opportunities as well as lifelong learning and skill development, and pay attention to family and social ties to boost healthy and productive populations of older people and maximize their contribution to society, the economist said.

ADBs report also revealed that 40 percent of people over 60 in Asia and the Pacific lack access to any form of pension, with women disproportionately affected, as they are more likely to do unpaid domestic work.

As a result, many older people in the region have no choice but to work well beyond retirement age to survive.

Among those still working at age 65 or older, 94 percent work in the informal sector, which typically does not provide basic labor protections or pension benefits.

ADB recommended a wide range of policy measures to support healthy and economically secure aging.

Among these are government-assisted health insurance and pension plans, improved health infrastructure, and free annual check-ups and lifestyle evaluations.

Most governments are worried that the high number of old people will put pressure on their healthcare systems, Kikkawa told Tuoi Tre.

However, costs will fall if countries deal with the issue with preventive measures.

Preventive healthcare is important to Vietnam as the early detection of old peoples health issues will help reduce healthcare costs.

Vietnam should improve preventive healthcare services for young people as well, said Kikkawa.

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Three localities in north-central Vietnam have enjoyed the heavy rains that dispersed the scorching heat of up to 44 degrees Celsius hitting the region over the past few months.

On Thursday evening, the provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Binh, and Quang Tri all welcomed the downpours lasting for nearly one hour, which locals called golden rains that brought them coolness after long days of suffering sweltering weather conditions.

The rains were so heavy that some areas south of Dong Ha, the capital city of Quang Tri, were submerged in rainwater that could not drain in time.

A street in Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh Province, north-central Vietnam floods during a torrential rain on May 2, 2024. Photo: Quoc Nam / Tuoi Tre

Many houses in low-lying areas of the city were submerged under 0.2 meters of floodwaters.

Residents in various locations across the province, including Cam Lo, Gio Linh, and Trieu Phong Districts, experienced relief from the prolonged heat as rains arrived, while in Quang Binh's Dong Hoi City, torrential downpours flooded several streets under 0.4 meters of water.

The same intensive rain was recorded in Le Thuy, Quang Ninh, and Bo Trach Districts of the province.

A heavy rain is seen through the light of a street lamp in an area in Dong Ha, the capital city of Quang Tri Province in north-central Vietnam, May 2, 2024. Photo: B.V.A. / Tuoi Tre

Thua Thien-Hue Province also welcomed a golden rain that brought great joy to local residents who then expressed their excitement on social media.

The rain has dissipated all the discomforts caused by the extreme heat that reached its peak last week. Tonight, I will open up the windows to enjoy the coolness brought by the rain, said Le Nhan, a man in Hue, the capital city of the province.

As per the local hydro-meteorological station, temperatures are expected to decrease, promising more pleasant weather in the upcoming days.

In tandem with the delight of residents, hundreds of forest rangers, stationed at various forest guard posts, also felt a sense of relief.

The official Facebook page of the forest protection force in Thua Thien-Hue province displayed conversations where local rangers expressed immense joy over the heavy rain, reporting to their superiors about the beneficial 'golden rain.'

A guarding hut of the forest rangers in Thua Thien-Hue Province, north-central Vietnam. Photo: Thua Thien-Hue Forest Protection Sub-Department

The content of the chats touched many netizens when they learned that the provinces rangers had worked without a day off during the recent five-day holiday that marked Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) to detect and prevent risks of forest fires amid the heatwave.

Due to the extended period of scorching weather, with temperatures soaring up to 44 degrees Celsius and low humidity levels, authorities have elevated the forest fire warning to level 5 (extremely dangerous) for Nam Dong District in Thua Thien-Hue, and to level 4 (dangerous) for the rest of the province.

All forest rangers have been mobilized to be on duty at places prone to forest fires.

For more than ten days, the forest guards could not have a good sleep as the risk of forest fires is always looming amid the extreme heat, said Le Ngoc Tuan, head of the Thua Thien-Hue Forest Protection Sub-Department.

Rangers are seen in a patrol in a forest area in Thua Thien-Hue Province, northern central Vietnam, April 30-May 1, 2024. Photo: Thua Thien-Hue Forest Protection Sub-Department

Tuan expressed that he and many other rangers were moved to tears upon witnessing the invaluable rainfall, which they deemed 'more precious than gold.'

His agency has recently dispatched 230 mobile forest rangers along with hundreds of other personnel to maintain round-the-clock vigilance in fire-prone forests, aiming to swiftly detect and prevent any potential fire outbreaks.

As a result, only three minor fires have occurred over the past ten days of the toughest-ever heat in the province, damaging a small forest area of 0.1 hectare, Tuan said.

Just recently, a forest fire took the lives of our two colleagues in Tay Con Linh Mountain Range in northern Ha Giang Province while they were trying to put out a forest fire there, the ranger chief said.

With the rain on Thursday evening, the rangers on duty at points vulnerable to forest fire could take a short break after days of working around the clock, he added.

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A wedding ceremony in Thuong Tin District, Hanoi in late April wowed guests who were greeted by massive superhero figurines.

A 1.75-meter figure of Japanese comic character Kamen Rider welcomed guests at the entrance to the wedding venue, while Transformers Optimus and Bumblebee were also present at the wedding party.

The groom, Nguyen Hoai Duc, a 27-year-old costume designer and superhero model trader, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he had the models made in his workshop because he wanted to share his love for superheroes with his guests.

Though my family members were initially worried by my idea and wanted me to have a more traditional wedding, they eventually came to accept my decision, Duc said.

According to Duc, wedding guests were excited to see the models.

Nguyen Hoai Duc and his wife at their wedding festooned with some superhero robots in late April 2024. Photo: Supplied

Many guests took photos with the figurines, making my wife feel exhilarated, Duc said.

The groom also shared that he wore a costume of Kamen Rider Ixa when he proposed to his now-wife, as well as on the day of their pre-wedding photoshoot.

I liked seeing superhero movies when I was a kid," he said.

Two years ago, I was in hospital for treatment after an accident, and felt the future was gloomy. I realized that living and making ends meet in a competitive climate were nonsense.

Thats when I decided I wanted to be a superhero, so I rolled up my sleeves and learned how to make costumes and superhero models."

Duc and Luong Hue Chi, his wife, 23, fell in love in 2017 when they met at a local fair.

She was initially uncomfortable with his hobbies but gradually grew to appreciate them.

Nguyen Hoai Duc wears a superhero costume for a pre-wedding photo with his wife. Photo: Supplied

In 2022, the upheaval of the accident pushed him to pursue his passion for superhero models and turn them into a job, Chi said.

Many images and videos of their wedding featuring the participation of these special guests have gone viral.

Luong Hue Chi poses for a photo with a superhero figure. Photo: Supplied

Superhero figures put at a wedding in Hanoi in late April 2024. Photo: Supplied

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On Sunday 7NEWS Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett looks to fake advertisements featuring well-known celebrities travelling to a Philippines headquarters.

Everyone from the ACCC to the richest man in Australia has been trying to shut these crooks down without success, so weve gone to the source of the problem, the place where these scammers live and work to try to disable their wicked game, he said.

With the help of an insider, he turns the tables on the scammers, revealing the inner workings of a criminal enterprise that has devastated countless lives.

Away from the bustling city of Cebu, 7NEWS Spotlight reporter Sarah Greenhalgh travels to Adelaide and the Gold Coast to hear the stories of everyday Aussies who have fallen victim to these schemes. She meets Allison who was scammed out of almost $250,000 after being lured by fake advertisements featuring famous faces, while Johanna shares her experience of being drawn in by promises of rich returns.

These innocent, hardworking women lost everything, Sarah said. The scammers successfully preyed on their unique vulnerabilities and the victims lives have changed forever as a result.

Watch as 7NEWS Spotlight brings you the moment an Australian victim meets her scammer, leading to an unforgettable confrontation.

Plus, dont miss 7NEWS Spotlights exclusive interview with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison as he opens up about balancing his faith at the highest level of politics and dealing with debilitating anxiety while in the top job.

8:45pm Sunday on Seven.
The 2024 BAFTA Television Awards hosted by Romesh Ranganathan & Rob Beckett will be fastracked on UKTV.

The Crown and Black Mirror are among the TV series leading nominations at this years awards, earning eight and seven nominations respectively. They are followed by Happy Valley, Slow Horses, and The Sixth Commandment with six each. Getting five nominations each were The Last of Us, The Long Shadow, and Succession. Other shows featuring among the nominees include Good Omens and Extraordinary.

A sole Australian is featured in this years nominations, with Elizabeth Debicki being nominated in the Supporting Actress category for her role in The Crown.

The nominees in the international category include The Bear, Beef, Class Act, The Last of Us, Love & Death and Succession. The nominations for Best Drama Series include The Gold, Happy Valley, Slow Horses, and Top Boy. Limited Drama nominations include Best Interests, Demon 79, Black Mirror, The Long Shadow, The Sixth Commandment.

Leading Actress nominees include Anjana Vassan, Anne Reid, Bella Ramsey, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Lancashire, Sharon Hogan.

Leading Actor nominees include Brian Cox, Dominic West, Kane Robinson, Paapa Essiedu, Steve Coogan and Timothy Spall.

Monday, May 13 at 8.30pm on BBC First.
Death in Paradise has its new lead detective in Don Gilet (Sherwood, EastEnders, The Beekeeper, Shetland).

Making his debut in a feature-length Christmas special, Gilet will play Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson  who arrives on the idyllic island of Saint Marie from London, and isnt overly pleased with his new surroundings

Gilet has recently begun filming in Guadeloupe, alongside returning cast Don Warrington, Shantol Jackson, Ginny Holder, Elizabeth Bourgine and Danny John-Jules.

Being offered the new lead role in Death in Paradise feels like a deeply loved and incredibly precious jewel has been placed in my hands. This is a big show, with a big heart and the love continually grows for it. It is my intention to never lose sight of that and to remain grateful, humbled and dedicated. Even during those testing times when every sinew is screaming at me to run off the set and dive into the sea, swimming pool or an ice-cold beer  whichever happens to be closer at the time! said Gilet.

Tim Key, Executive Producer for Red Planet Pictures, says: Don is an amazing actor and were delighted that hes joining us as the show enters another exciting new era. Weve got huge plans for the new series and beyond, and I cant wait for the audience to meet Mervin and to see what weve got in store

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says: We could not be happier to welcome Don to the series. Already known to BBC viewers from the likes of Sherwood, EastEnders, and Doctor Who, hes long been one of the UKs most exciting actors. Death in Paradise is in brilliant hands  roll on Christmas!

The feature-length Christmas special screens in the UK later this year followed by a fourteenth season in 2025. The franchise has also spawned Beyond Paradise, and soon to be joined by Australian spin-off Return to Paradise.

Death in Paradise screens in Australia on BBC First and ABC.
Appearing on Q+A next Monday are Arts minister Tony Burke, and former Communications minister Paul Fletcher.

Whats the future of work? COVID disrupted the office and accelerated the transition to hybrid working. Full-time remote working is a reality for some, but theres a tension in some corporates who want staff back in the office at least a few days a week. For many Australians, WFH isnt an option, entrenching social and economic divides between those who can and those who cant. How will technological advances and the rise of artificial intelligence further exacerbate those differences? What are Australias labour advantages  and vulnerabilities  as an unstable world threatens international supply chains? And is the federal governments new made in Australia pitch, promising billions of dollars to rebuild manufacturing capacity, smart economics or extravagant protectionism?

Panellists:

Minister for Employment & Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts Tony Burke,

Shadow Minister for Science, Arts, Government Services and the Digital Economy Paul Fletcher, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus,

Work Futurist, Atlassian Dominic Price,

Carmens Founder Carolyn Creswell.

Monday, May 6 at 9.35pm on ABC.

Amended.
SKY News has apologised to NT teenager Keegan Payne following a Live interview with presenter Peter Stefanovic.

Payne, 19, appeared on First Edition on Wednesday morning after winning a $1 million prize in the Northern Territorys Million Dollar Fish Competition.

During the interview Stefanovic asked Payne about a 2020 theft of a Polaris Ranger and Polaris Quad from his former employer.

At the time Payne was a minor and this week struggled for the words to Stefanovics grilling.

Million-dollar catch for Top End teen turns awkward after sad TV admission. #MediaBites #MediaWatch pic.twitter.com/jQzcsms4fU  Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) May 2, 2024

His former boss Bob Cavanagh later told Yahoo there were no hard feelings and that Payne was a good and deserving kid.

Social media lashed out at the treatment, prompting Stefanovic to delete his accounts.

SKY News Australia and Peter Stefanovic apologise to Mr Payne and his family for raising these claims during the live interview about his million dollar win in the fishing competition, SKY News said in a statement.

Mr Stefanovic has reached out to Mr Payne and his family directly to convey his apology.
Mujeres Marcharon, a group of pro-choice advocates (left) in San Antonio, clash with anti-abortion supporters (right) who crashed their protest Thursday, August 25. Thursday was the first day Texas trigger laws went into effect after the recent Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights. Police arrived to separate the two groups, sending the anti-abortion protestors across the street, where they continued to shout opposing chants at each other. Jess Phelps Anti-abortion demonstrators pass Abortion rights demonstrators at a rally at the Texas Capitol, Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Austin, Texas. Demonstrators are rallying from coast to coast in the face of an anticipated Supreme Court decision that could overturn womens right to an abortion. Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press

A Texas man has asked a court for permission to launch an investigation into his ex-partners alleged out-of-state abortion, which could lead to one of the first lawsuits against people who help Texans leave the state to obtain the procedure.

Prolific anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell filed the now-sealed petition in Texas state court last month that would allow him to investigate suspected illegal actions before filing litigation, according to a lawyer representing the people targeted.

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The man Mitchell is representing, Collin Davis, threatened his ex-partner with legal action earlier this year upon learning she planned to go to Colorado to obtain an abortion, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the legal action.

Davis has said in legal filings that he plans to pursue wrongful-death claims against anyone involved in the killing of his unborn child, the Post reported. Mitchell could not immediately be reached for comment.

Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her group is representing the woman, who is remaining anonymous for privacy and safety reasons and who declined an interview, as well as multiple others who are named in the legal action.

Duane declined to say how many or who are named but noted that Mitchell previously has stated publicly his desire to punish out-of-state doctors. Mitchell engineered Texas novel citizen-enforced abortion ban known as Senate Bill 8 and regularly represents anti-abortion plaintiffs.

Duanes group is opposing Mitchells attempt to depose her clients. Among other things, Mitchell could ask them about others involved in the abortion, such as abortion funds or groups that might have provided financial support, and receive documentation related to the alleged abortion, the Post reported.

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Texas bans all abortions except those that would save a pregnant persons life or prevent substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Doctors can be punished under state law with up to a lifetime in prison and up to $100,000 in civil penalties, as well as the loss of their medical license.

Texas laws exempt the woman who received the abortion from punishment, but under Mitchells six-week abortion ban, private citizens can sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion in civil court for damages of at least $10,000.

This is the second high-profile case brought by Mitchell to test the applicability of that law as it relates to aborted fetuses. The first was filed by a Galveston man, Marcus Silva, who is seeking to punish three friends of his ex-wife that have been accused of helping her obtain abortion pills, and could go to trial this fall.

With these legal actions, Mitchell and his anti-abortion allies are seeking to test the reach of Texas restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

It is not currently a crime to obtain an abortion in a state where it is legal, and Duane said the petition amounts to fearmongering.

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It's not enough for Texas to ban abortion, she said. They truly want to trap people in their state, pregnant, and the purpose of this is to frighten people to make them think there might be repercussions for doing things that are perfectly legal.  That is really troubling, but it is emblematic of what abortion extremists really have on the agenda.

The woman Davis is targeting was still in the process of recovering from a very unhealthy relationship with him when he filed the legal action, Duane said, without providing details. Duane said it speaks for itself that in both this case and the Silva case, the women, who are being targeted by ex-partners, describe their former relationships as toxic or even abusive.

The new petition was filed using an unusual civil procedure called Rule 202, which allows lawyers to collect interviews and documents in anticipation of a lawsuit to help them determine their targets and confirm their suspicion that the issue at hand meets legal standards required to file officially.

While other states allow pre-suit discovery, Texas rules around when the procedure can be used are the most expansive, according to legal scholars.

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Punishment for abortions obtained out of state is a burgeoning area of law for anti-abortion advocates. Idaho recently passed a law that bars people from helping a minor exit the state to get an abortion without their parents consent, but the legislation has been blocked by the courts. Tennessee is considering similar legislation.

Some rural Texas counties within the last year have passed ordinances that ban travel on their roads by people assisting anyone seeking an abortion, though their constitutionality has yet to be challenged. Abortion rights advocates, some legal experts and even conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have said these ordinances likely would violate the right to interstate travel.

Texas lawmakers, including Deer Park Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain, have not gone that route, but they have filed legislation to punish companies that pay for their employees to travel out of state for abortions. So far, none has passed.

Duane says this case is emblematic of what happens when there are no federal abortion protections and abortion laws are left up to the states.

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M. I. Khan, TwoCircles.net

Patna: The popular slogans of jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni bhagidari (the greater the number, the greater will be his participation) or jitni abaadi, utni hissedari (the greater the population, the greater the share) seemingly went for a toss when the time came to walk the talk. Muslims in Bihar are upset after they were denied due share in candidate selection for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

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After the much-hyped caste survey report was made public last year, then Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said it would ensure proportionate political representation to all sections of the society in the state.

Contrary to the claim, candidates belonging to the Muslim community, which as per the 2023 caste census report constitutes 17.7 percent of Bihars total population, was given four of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats by the INDIA bloc  with both the RJD and the Congress nominating two Muslims each.

While Chief Minister Nitish Kumars Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) fielded only one Muslim to contest, his coalition partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as usual did not find any candidate from the community.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP (Ram Vilas)  an ally of the ruling NDA  this time also totally ignored Muslims in candidate selection.

While the RJD is contesting 23 seats, the Congress has got nine constituencies, Left parties five and the Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) three under the INDIA coalition.

Similarly, under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the JD-U is contesting 16 seats, the BJP 17, the LJP five and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) one each.

However, the caste census data indicates that EBCs have the maximum of 36% population followed by OBCs (27.12%), the Scheduled Caste (19.6518%), the Scheduled Tribe (1.6824%) and the general castes (15.5224%). Meanwhile, while Muslims are at 17.7088%, the Hindus comprise 81.9986% of the population.

As per Muslims share in the state population, the community should have got at least seven seats. But all parties have given weightage to OBC communities of Yadav and Koeri (Kushwaha), upper castes, EBCs (Extreme Backward Castes), but the minorities were conveniently denied their due share.

Former Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar, who is also founding-president of Patna-based All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM), finds decreasing political representation of Muslims a matter of serious concern.

All political parties should give the community its proportionate share in ticket distribution. But this time, the real fight is to save the Constitution and democracy. We are more concerned about defeating fascist forces, he told TwoCircles.net.

He said the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked a lot about pasmanda (backward) Muslims but totally ignored them in ticket distribution.

He cautioned though it is true that Muslims have limited alternatives to vote and support, yet no political party should take the minorities for granted. We will not do anything that communal forces from the Hindu majority and Muslim minority will take advantage of during elections, he added.

A Muslim intellectual, on condition of anonymity, said it is not easy for secular parties, especially regional outfits, to field more Muslims in elections in an increasingly polarised society like India.

It is a matter of risk to field Muslim candidates in view of the winnability factor. As of now, more than contesting elections, the focus should be to support and vote for secular parties, he advised.

The RJD has fielded Shahnawaz Alam, the partys MLA, from Muslim-concentrated Araia parliamentary constituency in the backward and impoverished Seemanchal region.

Alam is the son of former Union minister and veteran RJD leader Mohammad Taslimuddin  who was also popularly known as Seemanchal Gandhi.

Another Muslim nominee of the RJD is Mohmmad Ali Ashraf Fatmi who is in the fray from Madhubani. A four-time Darbhanga MP (twice each from the RJD and the erstwhile Janata Dal), he had crossed over to the JD(U) in 2019.

Despite having fancied chances of getting a JD(U) ticket either for Darbhanga or Madhubani, he had lost hope after Kumar switched over to the NDA in January and returned to the RJD.

Several Muslim aspirants to contest elections left in lurch this time. However, RJD spokesperson Ejaz Ahmad said it is not right to allege that his party ignored Muslims.

Infact, our rivals have been accusing the RJD and its top leaders Laluji and Tejashwi Yadav ji of championing the Muslim causes, he said.

The Congress has fielded its lone sitting MP Mohammad Jawed from Muslim-majority Kishanganj, which has nearly 68% population of the community.

Notably, it was Kishanganj that rejected both the BJP and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in 2019 and elected the Congress MP.

The second Congresss Muslim candidate in the fray is Tariq Anwar from Katihar, another parliamentary constituency in the Seemanchal region with sizable Muslim population. Anwar is also a former Union minister and veteran Congress leader.

The JD-U has fielded lone Muslim candidate Mujahid Alam, partys former MLA, to take on Jawed from Kishanganj.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which is seeking to offer Muslims a political alternative, is reportedly contesting 11 seats in Bihar. The party has fielded its lone MLA Akhtarul Iman from Kishanganj. Iman has unsuccessfully contested from the district as the party candidate.

As this is the first Lok Sabha polls after Bihar released a caste survey report, Muslims have grievances against the RJD, the JD-U and the LJP if not the BJP.

Muslims are more loyal to Lalus RJD than his own caste (Yadav). The formidable combination of Muslims and Yadavs (known as M-Y equation) is a decades old well-tested support base of the RJD. But in ticket distribution, Yadavs, who should have got five-six seats, got nine from the RJD, while the Muslims were nominated at two only. What surprises us is that the RJD has given three seats to the VIP headed by Mukesh Sahni, whose caste population stands at 2.6%, said Arman Khan, who hails from Aurangabad district.

His voice was echoed by Salam Ahmad, a young roadside vendor in Phulwarisharif locality in Patna.

The RJD should at least have fielded an equal number of Muslim and Yadav candidates to ensure that they get their proportionate share. The party nominated three candidates from the Kushwaha or Koeri caste, which accounts for just 4.2%. Is it justified that Muslims got only two seats from the RJD quota? he asked.

After the LJP denied the ticket to the party incumbent MP from Khagaria, Mahboob Ali Qaiser, the only Muslim MP of the BJP-led NDA, quit the Chiragh Paswan-led party and joined the RJD recently.

Ahmad Ashfaque Karim, former Rajya Sabha MP of the RJD quit the party and joined the JD-U after he was not named as a candidate.

Karim, who also runs the Katihar Medical College and Hospital, was unhappy after the RJD denied him a second term in the Rajya Sabha in March 2024. He was keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections this time.

After resigning the RJD, he alleged discrimination against Muslims in the party. But he cannot dare to question why his party (the JD-U) nominated only one Muslim.

Bihar had sent two Muslims to Lok Sabha in 2019, four in 2014 and three in 2009.

Maulana Shibli Al Qasmi, head of the Imarat Sharia, an influential Muslim body in the state, also reiterated the allegation that political parties neglected Muslims in ticket distribution.

Anwarul Hoda, secretary of the Bihar chapter of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, said the lowest numbers of Muslim candidates are in the fray in this election and it reveals that even the political parties, which claim themselves to be the champion of secularism, consider Muslims voters only.
Paul Evans founded UK-based software firm Mindera in 2014.

Paul Evans is founder of Mindera, a leading global software engineering company based in the UK. Mindera operates without job titles or hierarchy and allows people to take on projects in different parts of the business. With revenue of 85m, the company has offices including London, Leicester, Portugal, the US and India with clients like Selfridges, Trainline and New Look.

I had a bad childhood stammer and Ive always felt it important for everyone to be treated equally. At Mindera, everyone gets the same bonus wherever they are, no-one has their own office and everyone is a shareholder.

It all harks back to my first boss, Sandra Barrie. I did a computer science BTEC but, aged 18, decided I wasnt ready to do a degree. In 1988, I joined the civil service wanting to be a software developer but at the time you had to have a degree to write code. So I started out in the finance department in Plymouth.

Read More: My first boss: Tony Jamous, CEO of global HR platform Oyster

One day the tech director asked me to do a simple Word spreadsheet. These were the days when offices had one big PC in the corner that no one used. My job was to sort out letters for the team and run errands during the day but Sandra, who was a higher executive officer, saw what I could do and offered me a job in tech.

She had to break down all sorts of barriers at the top of the civil service to give me that opportunity. I get emotional thinking about it now as I would not be where I am today if she hadn't stuck her neck out on my behalf. I stayed in the civil service for eight years and left as a principal software engineer.

Sandra cared and wanted to help. A stable, healthy and happy environment like the one she created, creates more productive people. And it wasnt about watching the clock, which is strange in the civil service.

Through his previous jobs, Paul Evans realised he wanted to create a company with people at the core. Photo: Mindera

Sandra has had a massive influence on how I work today. At Mindera there are no clocks, as people should invest in the outcomes of the work as opposed to how much time they spend on it.

Sandra supported me in group meetings because of my stammer. I would have interesting points to make and she would help me get them across. It's easy to pay more attention to people who talk or stand out more in a group and so today I always look out for people who are quieter and perhaps deserve more.

Later, when I knew I was going to leave the Betfair Group in 2014, I remember saying to my wife that I didnt want to go back to a corporate job and compete with the big players.

Read More: My first boss: Nick Ogden, the founding father of fintech

Story continues

I knew I had it in me to strike out on my own and 10 years from launch we are a successful private equity (PE) backed company, with business now in Australia. Most PEs would have asked me to do six months of due diligence and forecast the amount of business we could win. But I said that Australia was right for us and we just did it.

We didn't fear the unknown and we dealt with the problems as they came along. This is a massive compliment to CBPE (our PE backers) and to John Lane (friend and chairperson) who trust, support and guide us.

We start by understanding what our client wants to do. A lot of my time is spent meeting people but I'm not focussing on selling to them, I just try and understand what they want to do, and how we can help them do it. Our revenue will be 85m and thats purely because of the relationships we have with our clients.

I travel to our offices across the globe as I want to be available. I also communicate four times per week to 1,200 staff across the group.

I always share as I want people to know what we are doing next, what I am thinking and what fears I have, as this is a challenging time in the industry. Again it points to my time at the civil service where people could say what they think.

Paul Evans has a passion for better access into technology and Mindera has set up schemes to offer routes into the industry. (Pedro Fidalgo)

The reason I dont like job titles is that people come in saying I am the COO, I must be something'. I dont doubt that people must have had a great career to achieve that. But I want people to be seen for the work they do, not because of the status they have and thats very important.

An engineer in India might have an old desktop machine costing 250, whereas a colleague in Portugal would have a beautiful silver Mac. I wanted everyone to have the same and so I would also look at our spend to make sure we were spending the same amount of money on the same quality of food in every location.

Thats nothing to do with the fact that we are a self-organised structure rather than the normal corporate, more that I want everyone to feel good and no one to feel like a second-class citizen.

Read More: My first boss: Karren Brady, West Ham United vice-chair

I never really thought about my view of the world until I was in my mid forties and I realised what Sandra had done for my early career. Today, we have a programme where we teach kids aged 12+ who live in institutional care. I appreciate that life can be a struggle for them and want to give them opportunities.

Sandras husband at the time was at some point also my boss in the civil service. In a senior meeting, someone asked if I could be a director one day and he said no as my stammer was so bad.

But Sandra saw straight through that, saw me as a human being and who I could become. I think she would be incredibly proud of where I am today.

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The parents of Madeleine McCann have released a statement on the 17th anniversary of her disappearance, saying the absence still aches.

In a message issued on the official Find Madeleine website, Kate and Gerry McCann said: Its 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us.

Its hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief.

Kate and Gerry McCann during an interview shortly before the 10th anniversary of Madeleines disappearance (Joe Giddens/PA)

Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the living in limbo is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.

The couple added: Your support continues to encourage us and bolsters our strength to keep going. We know the love and hope for Madeleine and the will to find her, even after so many years, remains, and we are truly thankful for that.

Thank you again for remembering Madeleine and all missing children.

Madeleine, from Rothley in Leicestershire, vanished on May 3 2007 while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, after they left the then three-year-old and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends nearby.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that up to a further 192,000 has been granted by the Home Office for the Scotland Yard investigation into Madeleines disappearance.

Click below to see the latest East Midlands headlines

The confirmation of the latest annual funding for Operation Grange was revealed in a parliamentary written answer by Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom.

He also said that as of March this year, the Metropolitan Police had spent 13.2 million investigating the high-profile case.

Responding to a parliamentary written question by Conservative peer Lord Black of Brentwood, Lord Sharpe said: Operation Granges special grant budget currently funds a team of three police officers and one member of police staff, all of whom operate on a part-time basis.

Special grant funding is reviewed annually by the Home Office.

The prime suspect in Madeleines disappearance is currently on trial in Germany charged with unrelated sex offences, allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Search teams at the Algarves Barragem do Arade reservoir last May (Yui Mok/PA)

The 47-year-old German, only known as Christian B because of the countrys strict privacy laws, spent many years in Portugal  including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleines disappearance.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in the resort town in 2005.

He had denied all the charges against him and any involvement in Madeleines disappearance.

In June last year, German prosecutors said they cannot yet link items seized in the fresh McCann searches with the investigation into her disappearance.

A large section of the Barragem do Arade area of the Algarve was cordoned in May 2023, around 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing.
American media experts ask New York Times to review its Hamas Rapes story

As many as 64 American media experts and journalists have asked The New York Times to do an external review of its story related to the fabricated claims of Hamas and other Palestinian Resistance fighters involvement in sexual violence on Oct 7.

Friday May 3, 2024 6:49 PM , ummid.com News Network

[File photo for representation.]

Washington: As many as 64 American media experts and journalists have asked The New York Times to do an external review of its story related to the fabricated claims of Hamas and other Palestinian Resistance fighters involvement in sexual violence on Oct 7.

In a letter, addressed to Arthur G. Sulzberger, Chairperson of The New York Times Co., and copied to executive editors Joseph Kahn and Philip Pan, the journalism professionals, who included Christians, Muslims and Jews, expressed their concerns over New York Times reporting and its failure to do enough to correct itself.

The New York Times is one of leading publications in the United States. Its reporting on Gaza war, which the critics say is pro-Israel, is being used to justify the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians, and also to encourage Police crackdown on student activists protesting against Israel in over 40 universities and the American funding of the Zionist war.

The NYT story which the American journalists want the publication to review is titled Screams Without Words: Sexual Violence on Oct. 7 that ran on the front page of the newspaper on Dec. 28 last year.

It is one of the several news reports by various media organizations that have been used by the Israeli government to counter criticisms of the brutal nature of its near-seven-month military offensive in Gaza, during which more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of the homes, businesses, schools, mosques, churches and hospitals in the besieged enclave have been destroyed, displacing more than a million people, many of whom now face famine, according to Arab News.

The Times editorial leadership remains silent on important and troubling questions raised about its reporting and editorial processes. We believe this inaction is not only harming The Times itself, it also actively endangers journalists, including American reporters working in conflict zones, as well as Palestinian journalists (of which, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports, around 100 have been killed in this conflict so far), the American journalists wrote in the letter.

Mohammed Bazzi, an associate professor with the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, told Arab News the letter demanding an external review of the story is a simple ask.

This story, and others as well, did play a role in allowing the Israeli military to take action beyond acceptable military practices and dehumanize Palestinians. Such dehumanization was on display before Oct. 7", Bazzi said. In the Western media there seemed to be far less sympathetic coverage of Palestinians in Israels war in Gaza as a consequence of these stories, he said.

Bazzi further said that the Western media has contributed to the dehumanization of Palestinians more than any other section of the international media, while at the same time humanizing the Israeli victims.

Bazzi, among others, said The New York Times has addressed only a handful of many questions about its story and needs to do more to present a more accurate account of what happened on Oct. 7 .

The journalists also accused The New York Times of relying for the said story on freelancers with little experience of ground reporting and questionable relationships.

Soon after the story was published, Hamas rejected it describing the Palestinian militants as freedom fighters and dignified who strictly adhere to the Islamic principles in the war against the occupation.

Our fighters are freedom fighters and dignified, and cannot commit such shameful acts. Our Islamic religion, national values, and societal culture do not accept such disgraceful acts, Dr Basem Naim, a member of Hamas political bureau, said .

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A NANG  The central citys Peoples Committee has officially issued an investment promotion programme for 2024 aiming to diversify partners and investment flows for new development.

The city said the programme will focus on calling potential domestic investors in hi-tech industries, semiconductor, information technology as well as giant technology companies from the the Europe Union, the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, and Taiwan (China).

It said the central hub will welcome all investors with planning for investment expansion or fund flow moves in the region.

a Nang has mapped out its Master Plan in 2021-30 with a vision to 2050, opening smooth options for domestic and foreign partners in line with the citys strategic development plan for the next decades.

In boosting promotion events with partners, the city will seek collaboration with organisations including  the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), the Korean Chamber of Business in Viet Nam (KOCHAM), the American Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (AMCHAM), Indian Business Chamber in Viet Nam (Incham); the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (EuroCham) and the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad in Viet Nam (AHK)  in hosting investment studies and market access research as well as business links.

The investment promotion programme will also include support and positive solutions in clearing barriers in investment procedure for investors.

It also emphasised the importance of building investment links and friendship ties with the US, Australia, the EU, Finland, the UK and Denmark, speeding up possible key investment projects in a Nang.

The central city signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for comprehensive and sustainable development in the Master Plan 2021-30, vision 2050, at Meet a Nang 2024.

a Nangs Semiconductor and AI Centre (DSAC) was also debuted early this year, setting up a foundation for investment flow of semiconductor industry from the US, Taiwan (China), Japan and the EU.

The beach city has been in discussions with TheCityUK, the industry-led body representing UK-based financial and related professional services, in building an international financial centre (IFC).

The National Assembly of Viet Nam has agreed on the pilot project developing a Nang Free Trade Zone.

To date, the city has attracted 1,016 FDI projects worth US$4.2 billion. VNS
HA NOI  The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) postponed the gold auction on Friday morning as there was only one bidder participating.

The SBV had announced an auction of 16,800 taels of SJC-branded gold this morning. This quantity was consistent with previous auction sessions. The minimum and maximum participation limits per member were set at 1,400 and 2,000 taels, respectively, with a 10 per cent deposit requirement.

The central bank had established a reference price of VN82.9 million per tael (US$3,262). The floor price, which is the minimum price bidders must submit, would be disclosed during the auction.

However, the auction was delayed as only one bidder submitted a tender.

Today's postponement marks the third time the monetary authority has taken such action. The SBV initiated the gold auction on April 22.

Out of the three preceding auction attempts, two were postponed due to inadequate participation from registered entities. One auction was successfully held, but only 13,400 taels were sold.

Thus far, there were two winning bidders, namely Saigon Jewelry Company Limited and Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), for a total of 3,400 taels of gold.

SJC gold prices soared after the cancellation announcement was released.

At 12.30pm, SJC gold prices were quoted at VN83.5 million per tael for sellers and VN85.8 million per tael for buyers, up VN600,000 per tael from the morning session. This is the highest selling price of SJC gold, surpassing the peak of VN85.5 million hit in mid-April.  VNS
With his new endeavor, Eugene Keith Galbraith, the world-class banking veteran, hopes to add value by drawing on his vast experience with BCA, the hugely successful Indonesian bank, to help Techcombank achieve its vision of becoming a leading bank in the region and the partner of choice for customers.

On a late April day, embarking on a new journey as an independent director at Vietnam-based Techcombank, Eugene Keith Galbraith recalled the first time he came to Viet Nam in 2018-19 with happiness, but no special expectation.

Yet, the country amazed him. Viet Nam gave him a sense of comfort through its culture and business environment, Galbraith said, during an interview at Techcombanks brand new head office in Ha Noi.

Throughout his 40-year career, Galbraiths roles in the finance industry have included Vice President Commissioner of PT Bank NISP Tbk, Managing Director of ABN AMRO Asia, and senior advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.

Building a business of trust

Back to the present, the former Vice President Director of Indonesias PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) was thrilled with Techcombanks offer to join the organisation as an independent board member. I jumped at it. This is a great opportunity for me to learn about a new and dynamic country, and also become part of Techcombank's success story, he exclaimed.

An avid reader, Galbraith suggested Marshall McLuhans book Understanding Media in which the late author described that in the media world, it was not the content but the modality of delivery that mattered.

It's very relevant to digital banking services because what you want to develop is not just profitable relationships, but sticky relationships. That's where digital transformation has to be managed very carefully, Galbraith said.

While it is common knowledge that digital tools help with cost saving and efficiency, to Galbraith, it is all about trust.

So it's very important that banks maintain a warm rather than a cool medium where there's no loyalty, and the intimacy between the consumers and the products is lost, he continued.

The leadership team at Techcombank shares his philosophy. The bank has streamlined its processes, front-end and back-end, in order to offer simplified, convenient features and make transactions just one click away, while ensuring security at its best.

Numbers speak for itself. In 2023, Techcombank acquired 2.6 million new customers, an increase in new to bank customers of 230 per cent compared to the previous year, and almost half of these came through online channels. The bank has a customer-centric strategy, and digital engagement plays a key part in this approach, with 94 per cent of retail transactions conducted online and about 88 per cent of corporate customers active on digital platforms last year. New and revamped customer value propositions introduced during 2023 helped to make Techcombank the primary banking relationship of its customers.

In the application of data to deliver better customer experiences, Techcombank has leveraged the most innovative technologies and capabilities to build its proprietary data platform, or data lake, which Galbraith described as leading-edge, advanced and praiseworthy.

The banking expert was impressed by how Techcombank was not just collecting data, but is analysing it to build a more holistic understanding of its customers and provide tailored value propositions, and linking it to the latest AI technologies to provide hyper-personalised customer experiences.

Galbraith believes being convenient, secure, and reliable is the key to success of a digital banking platform. As long as banks have the same interests as their customers, and deliver a secure, easy-to-access platform, they will excel as the bank of choice, explained Galbraith.

That will also put your bank in a very strong competitive position to drive CASA, because customers seek a value that is not strictly monetary when they leave their hard-earned money with you, he said.

Widening perspectives

As he joining a new workplace, Galbraith said he was impressed with how Techcombank remained open and receptive to new ideas even after achieving astonishing growth and success in recent years. In addition to a strong domestic workforce, Techcombank has also welcomed a great number of foreign experts and overseas Vietnamese who have chosen to return to contribute to their country. For instance, in 2023, the bank held a talent roadshow to Sydney to seek the hard-earn talent working in that financial center.

Domestic and international perspectives make a winning combination for the bank's success, Galbraith commented.

For his part, he pledges to offer his experience and perspectives on how the bank is operating, giving opinion on areas to improve or where the bank can continue to do more.

The participation of any individual in the formulation of a companys strategy is like making a soup. While the whole thing becomes delicious, it's hard to point to any individual spice as the key success factor, the new board member humbly shared.

His longstanding and extensive knowledge of the financial market in Indonesia, a country witnessing the same pace of growth and demographics as Viet Nam, is very relevant to the journey Techcombank is on.

Even though Viet Nams banking industry is at an earlier stage than Indonesias, Techcombanks growth strategy and drivers have many parallels with his former bank, BCA.

For example, Galbraith helped BCA strengthen its position in the mass affluent and affluent customer segments, which are also the focus of Techcombank.

Its a wise decision, he called out. And it's a big market. Viet Nam is home to 100 million people, and there's no need to bank everybody.

Yet Techcombank is already in a position of strength. Its sustained profitability, balance sheet strength and asset quality have demonstrated the success of its customer-centric strategy, the progress of its digital transformation and the robustness of its business model.

The way to continue this success he added, lies in how the bank constructs its business in a way that it can provide the best services at the lowest risk, with the highest returns.

Galbraith brings vast experience and knowledge of the banking industry to Techcombanks board. Most recently he spent 17 years with Bank Central Asia (BCA), one of Indonesias leading banks, where he served as President Commissioner and then Vice President Director. Prior to that he was an advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance and Managing Director of ABN AMRO Asia. Given the similarities between Techcombank and BCA in terms of business model, affluent customer focus, CASA leadership as well as digital innovation, Galbraith is expected to help Techcombank further strengthen its corporate governance and accelerate its digital transformation to become a leader in the region.
HA NOI  Vietnamese ballet dancers will perform Do with as well as a version of Four Seasons to celebrate Europe Day on May 9 at Ha Noi Opera House.

The music in Do serves as a link between the past and the present of European classical music, introducing Vietnamese audiences to Vivaldis legendary Four Seasons, recomposed by famed composer Max Richter.

Europe Day is the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration for European unity, which provided peace, prosperity, and freedom. The day is also an opportunity to commemorate past achievements, look ahead to shaping the future, and inspire partnerships forged beyond Europe's borders.

EU ambassador to Viet Nam Julien Guerrier said: "In this sense, cultural exchanges like the ballet Do unite us by giving a common sense, beyond aid, trade or politics, to the essence of the beauty of art.

"We want to promote the unique and refined music from the European continent and Viet Nams increasing artistic talents that we have witnessed over recent years.

"We are proud to demonstrate this EU and Viet Nam cultural cooperation and cherish it in the unique Do."

With the version by Richter, the legendary Four Seasons has familiar melodies but also encompasses new layers of instrumentation and daring structural experiments.

Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer and collaborator. From synthesisers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richters innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theatre works.

The music will be performed live by musicians from the Viet Nam National Symphony Orchestra, the Sun Symphony Orchestra and the Viet Nam National Opera and Theatre under the baton of ong Quang Vinh.

Written in 1723, the timeless Four Seasons paints vivid countryside scenes, while also conjuring up a world of sounds depicting natural phenomena and human life.

Set to provide a bridge for cross-cultural exchange, the piece Do, choreographed by Meritorious Artist Phan Luong and choreographer Vu Ngoc Khai, is a synthesis of European classical music, images and stories from Vietnamese culture, expressed with the artistic language of contemporary ballet.

The ballet also brings forth a sense of movement, flexibility, newness and convergence  core values championed by the European Union.

Through the artistic inputs of Luong and Khai, the dances and movements form an emotive response to Four Seasons and depict a diverse range of soulful expressions of the symphony of life.

Winter constitutes not only a conversation with the world of nature, but also an inner journey in search of meaning and purpose; while Autumn reflects moments of calmness under a vast open sky.

Summer revolves around the most wondrous and eventful years in ones life through weather systems, perturbation, and tranquillity.

The ballet ends where seasons begin  Spring, when all things bloom, are reborn, with all worries left behind, and nature and humans coming together in harmony.

The ballet will begin at 8 pm on May 10. Ticket information can be found on the EU in Viet Nam page on Facebook.  VNS
Anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A Texas man is suing three Houston women who helped his ex-wife terminate her pregnancy, a test of the states near-total abortion ban.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Galveston, argues that assisting a self-managed abortion amounts to murder under Texas law.

EARLIER THIS WEEK: 5 women sue Texas, saying its abortion ban put themselves or their fetuses at risk

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It comes just days after the states abortion ban drew a groundbreaking legal challenge from the other side of the issue. Five women who say they were denied abortions despite having dangerous or unviable pregnancies sued the state Monday, claiming they have been "denied dignified treatment as equal human beings."

The ex-husband's lawsuit also appears to break new ground in Texas. In the complaint, Marcus Silva of Galveston County alleges that he learned only recently that his ex-wife terminated the pregnancy last July, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing the states abortion ban to take effect. It accuses the three women of helping her obtain abortion pills and convincing her to conceal their murderous actions from Silva.

Silva, who is suing for wrongful death and conspiracy, is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a former state solicitor general who helped draft the abortion ban, and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park Republican.

Cain said in a statement that state law authorizes wrongful death lawsuits against anyone who distributes or manufactures abortion pills used by Texas residents. He said Silvas legal team also plans to sue the manufacturers of the abortion pills once they are identified in discovery.

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Anyone involved in distributing or manufacturing abortion pills will be sued into oblivion, Cain said. That includes CVS and Walgreens if their abortion pills find their way into our state.

The lawsuit comes after Walgreens said it would not distribute abortion pills in states where it is banned after Republican attorneys general, including Texas' Ken Paxton, had warned against doing so.

"We are outraged, but we are not surprised," said Wendy Davis, a senior adviser to Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, reacting to the litigation. "This lawsuit is a direct result of the dangerous policies championed by Gov. Greg Abbott and his supporters. It is state-sanctioned harassment, and we will not stand for it."

'He will use it against me'

Silva and his wife divorced in February 2022 and have two other children, according to the suit. Silva is not pursuing any claims against his ex-wife, who is exempt from civil and criminal liability. He is seeking $1 million in damages.

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The lawsuit points to text messages in which the women informed Silvas ex-wife about Aid Access, an organization that sends abortion pills through the mail.

But the suit says the women acknowledged that having the pills shipped to Texas was murky and instead found a way to get the pills in Houston. It says two of the women offered their homes to the ex-wife for the abortion.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of the text exchanges that also show the ex-wife worrying about Silvas response to the abortion.

I know either way he will use it against me, she wrote, adding that he might use it as a reason to stay together, or to act like he has some right to the decision.

The friends also expressed concern about Silva in the texts.

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I just worry about your emotional state and hell be able to snake his way into your head, one said.

Delete all conversations from today, another wrote. You dont want him looking through it.

Irreparable harm claimed

The suit comes after five women earlier this week detailed the lengths they went to obtain abortions, including secretly traveling out of state to seek treatment out of fear that they could be reported to state authorities.

Their lawsuit is not trying to overturn the Texas ban or others like it but clarify when exactly physicians can provide abortions during dangerous or unviable pregnancies.

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The state's ban allows for exceptions only when there is "substantial" risk to a mother or if a fetus has a fatal diagnosis.

But many doctors and hospitals have been fearful of intervening even when there is a clear danger because of the stiff penalties for anyone who violates the ban, including potential prison sentences of up to 99 years, tens of thousands of dollars in fines and the loss of medical licenses.

One of the women in that suit, 35-year-old Amanda Zurawski of Austin, said she was 17 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with a condition called cervical insufficiency, which had caused her to dilate too soon for her baby to survive.

The morning after her water broke, Zurawski still hadnt gone into labor, but doctors in the emergency room told her there was nothing they could do for her because the baby still had a heartbeat.

Even though I had lost all my amniotic fluid, something an unborn child simply cannot survive without, we had to wait, she told reporters Tuesday outside the Texas Capitol. I cannot adequately put into words the trauma and despair that comes with waiting to either lose your own life, your childs life or both. For days, I was locked in this bizarre and avoidable hell.

Zurawksi later developed sepsis, a life-threatening condition, and the hospital agreed to perform the abortion. After delivering and losing her daughter, Willow, Zurawski developed a secondary infection and was entered into the intensive care unit, where she spent three days.
HA NOI Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung has been announced as the jury president at the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), scheduled to take place from June 14-23.

According to the organisers of the film festival, the works of the Vietnamese French director and scriptwriter, who won the Best Director Award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in 2023 for The Taste of Things, blend the expressions of Eastern and Western cultures, with sensitivity, delicacy, and a romantic style.

SIFF has also highlighted notable works from the director, such as The Scent of Green Papaya (1992), Cyclo (1995), and I Come with the Rain (2009).

After being invited, Hung expressed his desire to discuss film development as an art form with other judges and movie buffs in China at the festival.

In June 2011, he served as a judge for the main competition unit of the 14th SIFF and held a press conference for his film Norwegian Wood during the festival.

Organisers have revealed that three months after its launch, the film festival received over 3,300 entries from 105 countries across the five continents. More than 2,300 films were submitted for the Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Documentary, Animation, and Short Film, including new works by established directors and those by new talents. The list of nominees for the Golden Goblet Awards is expected to be announced this month.

As the only international competitive feature film festival in China, SIFF serves as a crucial corridor for the world to perceive signals of Chinese film development. In 2023, the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance established by SIFF was listed in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation outcomes.

In 2024, SIFF will further cooperation and exchanges between countries, as the second 'golden decade' of jointly building the Belt and Road has been unveiled. It will screen films recommended by institutions from Belt and Road countries across the Yangtze River Delta region, initiating dialogues across borders.

Adhering to the philosophy of 'Asia, Chinese and New Talents,' SIFF has established a six-plus-one system for cultivating young talents, which includes SIFF EXPLORE, Golden Goblet Awards Short Film, SIFF NEXT, SIFF PROJECT, Golden Goblet Awards for Asian New Talent, Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition, and SIFF YOUNG.

As a barometre of the film industry, SIFF is expected to explore the prospects of the industry through exhibitions, market events, and market screenings with film institutions and practitioners from home and abroad.

Born in Viet Nam and settling in France in 1975, Tran Anh Hung studied filmmaking in Paris at lEcole Nationale Louis Lumiere from 1985 to 1987. His feature directorial debut, The Scent of Green Papaya (1992), won him an international reputation by receiving the Award of the Youth French Film and the Golden Camera Award at the 46th Cannes Film Festival and the Best First Film Award at the 19th Cesar Awards. The film was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

His second feature film, Cyclo (1995), won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival, and his Japanese language adaptation of famous writer Haruki Murakamis internationally acclaimed novel Norwegian Wood premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival before going on to be released internationally. VNS
HCM CITY  An exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the ien Bien Phu Victory is opening at Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in HCM Citys District 1.

The exhibition showcases 97 photos and documents reflecting strategic tactics and decisions of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, President Ho Chi Minh, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and the ien Bien Phu Campaign Command that led to the victory of ien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954.

The photos depict fierce battles at historical places such as Him Lam Hill, where the first battle of the ien Bien Phu Offensive occurred on March 13, 1954, along with oc Lap Hill, A1 Hill, and Muong Thanh Airport.

The images highlight the patriotism, bravery, and solidarity of soldiers, youth volunteer force, and people in the resistance war.

The works also feature the development of ien Bien Province, and the cooperation between the province and HCM City in fields of economy, society, and culture.

Tran The Thuan, Director of the city Department of Culture and Sports, said at the exhibitions opening ceremony on Friday morning that the ien Bien Phu Victory is a brilliant milestone in the history of Viet Nam, an immortal epic of the Vietnamese peoples war, and a victory of resistance war and military strategy of the Party Committee led by President Ho Chi Minh.

He added the victory reflects the solidarity, hardship and sacrifices of Vietnamese people and strong support of peace-loving people worldwide.

In addition, the city is launching an art photo exhibition titled Sac Mau Van Hoa  Du Lich Tay Bac (The Colours of Culture and Tourism in the North-western Region) on ong Khoi Street in District 1.

The exhibition displays 55 photos depicting the beautiful landscapes, historical sites, and tourism destinations of the north-western provinces of ien Bien, Hoa Binh, Son La, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, and Yen Bai.

The two exhibitions in HCM City remain open until May 12.

On May 3 at Ha Noi's Art Exhibition and house on Hang Bai Street, a fine arts exhibition organised by the Department of Fine Arts, Cinema and Exhibition, Ministry of Culutre, Sport and Tourism showcased some of the best artworks under ien Bien Phu theme.

Seventy artworks include lacquer, oil and acrylic on canvas, bronze statues borrowed from public and private owners to highlight the immense human forces put forward to the ien Bien Battle.

Here you will find names of great artists of Viet Nam's powerful art scenes from Indochina Fine Art college graduates to contemporary artists finishing their last brushes in 2024.

The Hang Bai Exhibition opens through May 9, 2024.  VNS
PARIS  Attending the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)s Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on May 2 and 3, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son delivered a speech at its inaugural plenary session, whose theme highlighted an inclusive and sustainable economy and society.

In his remarks, he stressed that Viet Nam does not pursue growth at all costs and always places human beings at the centre as the subject and objective of development.

Son proposed that the OECD take the lead in promoting global cooperation, specifically in building a global innovative ecosystem that effectively harnesses the dual trends of green transition and digital transformation, with a focus on innovation, AI, and just energy transition.

He added that it is necessary to establish mechanisms for experiences sharing and capacity building to help countries maximise human potential, unleash growth drivers, and foster inclusive prosperity, while encouraging OECD countries to provide financial, technical, and technological support for non-OECD ones implementation of strategic breakthroughs, particularly in human resources, infrastructure, and institutions.

The Vietnamese diplomat, in his capacity as the co-chair of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) for 2022-25, also addressed a commemoration ceremony marking its 10th anniversary, which was a highlight within the framework of the ministerial council meeting.

Minister Son praised Japan's foresight in initiating the establishment of SEARP, which has become the most successful regional programme of the OECD in the past decade. With their strategically important geographic position and dynamic economies, Southeast Asian countries will play an increasingly crucial role in contributing to global growth and addressing development challenges.

Minister Son proposed that in the next decade, the programme should further enhance its role as a bridge for deeper and more substantive engagement of Southeast Asian countries in global governance processes, particularly in such areas as green transition, tax cooperation, and AI. As a result the region will become a destination for high-quality investment flows, and promote reform efforts towards high governance standards, environmental friendliness, and social harmony.

Within the framework of the meeting, the Vietnamese delegation also participated in several other important activities, including a ministerial dialogue of the Inclusive Forum on Carbon Mitigation Approaches (IFCMA) and an event discussing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI governance.

Established in 1960, the OECD currently comprises 38 members, primarily being developed countries. Its objective is to enhance economic cooperation and policy coordination among member countries on economic and development issues.

Since 2007, the OECD has significantly promoted cooperation with Southeast Asia, considering the region a strategic priority.  VNS
PARIS  Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son had met with several countries' senior officials in Paris on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)s Ministerial Council Meeting on May 2-3.

During the reception for his Peruvian counterpart Javier Gonzalez Olaechea, Son affirmed that Viet Nam treasures its ties with Peru, and hailed the positive development in the bilateral relations in recent time, with two-way trade increasing continuously, making Peru one of the five leading economic partners of Viet Nam in the region.

He took this occasion to thank the Peruvian Government and people for providing COVID-19 vaccines for Vietnam, helping the country to overcome the pandemic and open its border soon.

Discussing measures to bolster the bilateral relations in the time ahead, the two diplomats concurred to join hands to organise activities marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations (1994-2024), enhance the exchange of high-level delegations, and continue coordination and support for each other within the framework of the UN, OECD, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The two ministers agreed to work toward the success of APECs high-level week slated for November in Peru.

They also expressed their hope to continue deepening the friendship relations and multifaceted cooperation, particularly in politics, diplomacy, trade and investment, as well as seeking measures to remove bottlenecks in the economic ties.

Besides, they were unanimous to effectively carry out cooperative mechanisms, enhance the signing and implementation of cooperative agreements to push ahead the multifaceted relations in a practical manner.

The same day, Son met with Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fettah Alaoui, during which he affirmed that Viet Nam attaches much importance to the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with the African country over the past time, especially in renewables and automobile production. Son invited the Moroccan Minister to pay an official visit to Viet Nam.

Fettah, for her part, agreed to promote cooperation with Viet Nam in the fields of the two sides interest, such as farm product processing, renewables, tourism, enhancement of business delegation exchange, banking and finance.

The two ministers emphasised the necessity to promote the exchange of delegations at all levels, work together to implement bilateral cooperative mechanisms, and coordinate and support each other at multilateral forums, especially in the framework of the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Receiving Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlic Radman on the same day, Minister Son asserted that Viet Nam always values the traditional friendship with countries in the Balkans, with Croatia being a priority partner.

He spoke highly of the close and effective cooperation between the two foreign ministries, including the organisation of Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuans trip to Croatia in November 2022, and the political consultation at the deputy foreign ministerial level in March.

Radman said he hopes to strengthen the bilateral ties, comprising parliamentary cooperation, and agreed with Son's recommendation to establish an inter-governmental committee on economic cooperation while concurring to negotiate and sign an agreement on education and labour cooperation.

He suggested both sides promote delegation exchanges and collaboration in science-technology, education and tourism.

The two ministers agreed to join hands to arrange activities welcoming the 30th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, including cultural days, a painting exhibition, a film week and art performances in the two countries to enhance mutual understanding.



Holding talks with Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Simonas Satunas on May 2 morning, Son thanked Lithuania for supporting Viet Nam during the negotiations and signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, and being one of the first EU members to approve the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Son took the occasion to propose the European country to contribute its voice in recognising Viet Nam's efforts to fully and strictly carry out the European Commissions (EC) recommendations on sustainable development of the fisheries, as well as urge the EC to lift its yellow card against Vietnamese seafood and other EU members to approve the EVIPA at the earliest.

Satunas said he has been impressed by the socio-economic achievements that Viet Nam has reaped over the past years, and agreed to consider the possibilities to set up bilateral economic mechanisms to bolster collaboration in the domains of the two countries strengths like renewables, IT, education, training, agriculture, culture and tourism.

Despite their robust development, the traditional Viet Nam  Lithuania relations have not been on a par with their potential, they said, agreeing on several measures to strengthen cooperation in the coming time, including enhancing the exchange of delegations at all levels, maintaining political consultative mechanisms, effectively implementing cooperative deals inked between the two foreign ministries, and supporting each other at multilateral forums such as the UN, ASEAN-EU and OECD.

Meeting with Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Saleumxay Kommasith in the same morning, Son affirmed that Viet Nam will continue assisting Laos to take on its role as the ASEAN Chair in 2024, while suggesting Laos join hands to promote the OECD-ASEAN ties as well as the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme.

Saleumxay recommended Viet Nam to participate and make positive contributions to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Laos, enhance coordination and support for each other at international, regional and sub-regional forums, and join hands with other member states to uphold solidarity, overcome challenges and consolidate the central role of ASEAN.

They expressed their delight at the achievements in the Viet Nam-Laos solidarity, friendship and comprehensive cooperation, and agreed to bring into play the outcomes of the meeting between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone when the latter was in Ha Noi to attend the ASEAN Future Forum on April 22 and 23.

They hailed the trustworthy and effective cooperation and close coordination between the two foreign ministries, manifested through enhancing delegation exchanges, high-level meetings and important bilateral cooperative mechanisms.

They also agreed to continue promoting the effective implementation of their cooperative agreements during 2021-2025, and existing cooperative mechanisms, especially separate tripartite cooperation agreements that Viet Nam and Laos have with Cambodia, Australia, and Thailand.  VNS
HA NOI  Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Central Committee and Chairman of the CPV Central Committee's Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Friday for a delegation from the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), the ruling Party of Ivory Coast.

The delegation, led by Sahy Claude Soumahoro, member of the RHDP's Standing Committee and Deputy Secretary in charge of communication and external relations, is on the first visit to Viet Nam on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the ien Bien Phu Victory.

Trung congratulated Ivory Coast on its achievements in maintaining a peaceful and stable environment and becoming one of the world's fastest growing economies.

He believed that under the leadership of the RHDP, Ivory Coasts reform efforts will continue to succeed, further improving the lives of its citizens.

Viet Nam values its friendship and cooperation with the RHDP and Ivory Coast, he said.

Trung also discussed several major directions to develop relations between the two Parties and two countries across various sectors.

Soumahoro, who is also Chief of Staff for Civil Affairs in the Office of the President of Ivory Coast, hailed the ien Bien Phu Victorys significant contributions to the global liberation movement, including in Africa.

He expressed his admiration for the great and historic achievements that Viet Nam has attained in nearly 40 years of renewal under the leadership of the CPV, with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the helm.

He stressed that the RHDP and Ivory Coast expect to foster their ties with the Party and State of Viet Nam through sharing experiences and learning from each other in Party building and national development, thereby further deepening the long-standing friendship and cooperation between the two nations for the benefit of their people.  VNS
HCM CITY  Advancements in Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) treatment and control were the main topic of discussion at a scientific conference that recently took place in HCM City and Ha Noi.

The event, entitled Keys to achieving goals in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment in Viet Nam was jointly organised by the Vietnam Lung Association in collaboration with AstraZeneca Vietnam Co. Ltd.

The conference, part of a series of scientific gatherings held since March, aimed to introduce nearly 2,000 healthcare professionals nationwide to new and advanced solutions to address gaps in COPD treatment. The event aims to enhance treatment effectiveness and alleviate the burden on patients.

Globally, there are an estimated 392 million cases of COPD, with three-quarters of them residing in low and middle-income countries. COPD ranks as the third leading cause of mortality worldwide, resulting in approximately three million deaths annually.

In Viet Nam, the burden of COPD is a significant concern within the respiratory healthcare sector. The prevalence of COPD among individuals aged  403 is 4.2 per cent with 46 per cent of patients experiencing exacerbations in the previous year. Furthermore, COPD stands as the fourth leading cause of mortality in the country.

The situation is also a concern for leading respiratory experts. Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Viet Nhung, President of the Vietnam Lung Association, said: Exacerbations are always a concern not only for patients but also for doctors. The treatment strategy for COPD is individualized with the overall goal of reducing symptoms, lessening the risk of exacerbations and lowering mortality. Therefore, having new treatment solutions and promoting access for COPD patients in outpatient management departments will help the local health system better manage patients, thereby reducing hospital admissions for exacerbations and alleviating the burden on the higher-level medical system.

During the conference, experts discussed the burdens and unresolved problems with current therapies, especially reducing mortality in COPD patients. According to GOLD 2023 (The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease), the closed triple therapy ICS/LABA/LAMA* in one inhaler is recommended and proven to reduce all-cause mortality compared to the LABA/LAMA duo therapy.

At the event, Associate Professor Dr. Richard Russell, Clinical Director, West Hampshire Integrated Respiratory Service, Respiratory Specialist at the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, University of Oxford, said: The advanced Aerosphere technology helps distribute active ingredients more effectively and stably throughout the entire lung; thereby reducing symptoms, improving quality of life, and significantly reducing moderate to severe exacerbations compared to the ICS/LABA and LABA/LAMA duo therapies. Additionally, the all-cause mortality risks are 49 per cent lower than the LABA/LAMA duo therapy.

Experts said that closed triple therapy represents a significant advancement, enhancing patients compliance and treatment success rates. This new therapy, containing three very familiar components that have been utilized in COPD treatment in Viet Nam, will provide healthcare professionals with additional treatment options. These medications are crucial, as emphasised by GOLD 2023, which highlights the goal of reducing mortality alongside symptom alleviation, exacerbation reduction, and disease progression prevention in COPD treatment and management.

General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam Atul Tandon said: "COPD's impact extends far beyond breathing difficulties. As studies have shown, the disease's link to increased risk of heart attacks and mortality underscores the urgent need to prioritize COPD alongside other chronic illnesses like heart disease and lung cancer."

Operating in Viet Nam since 1994, over the past 30 years, AstraZeneca has partnered with the Ministry of Health, medical associations, and industry partners to facilitate scientific exchanges and implement many impactful programs aiming at enhancing awareness, prevention, and early detection of diseases. A typical example is the Healthy Lung program, designed to elevate the quality of outpatient management for asthma, COPD, and lung cancer. To date, the programme has facilitated the establishment and operation of more than 155 UMACs (Unit of Management for Asthma and COPD) in 51 provinces and cities, enhancing the capacity of healthcare workers in asthma and COPD management.  VNS
IEN BIEN  A preview of a grand military parade in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the ien Bien Phu Victory (May 7, 1954 - 2024) was held at the stadium of the northwestern province of ien Bien on Friday.

Held by the Central Steering Committee for the commemoration of major holidays and important historical events of the country in the 2023-25 period, the parade will see the participation of more than 12,000 people, including those from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, and ien Bien Province.

It will be the highlight among a series of activities to mark the anniversary, contributing to affirming the significance, stature, and historical value of the victory and the continuous development and growth of the armed forces over the past 70 years under the Party's leadership.

After a period of training, all the participating forces have ensured the requirements of their assigned tasks.

Addressing the programme, Nguyen Trong Nghia, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Head of the Party Central Committees Commission for Communication and Education, highlighted the significance of the ien Bien Phu Victory, saying that the celebration aims to revive and promote the patriotic tradition, the revolutionary heroism, the spirit of solidarity, the will to fight, and the determination to win in the cause of national construction and defence.

It is also to honour and express gratitude to the generations of Vietnamese people who have sacrificed and made significant contributions to the struggle for national liberation, he added.

Nghia, who is also vice head of the steering committee, asked for more thorough preparation and close coordination among agencies and units to fulfill their assigned tasks.  VNS
HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang has asked relevant ministries and localities to use the Vietnam Electronic Identification (VNeID) as the only app in administrative procedure performance from July 1, 2024 to save time and costs.

He made the order while chairing a meeting of the Prime Ministers task force on administrative procedure reform on Friday morning.

The meeting was heard that each citizen now has many public service accounts issued by ministries and localities, causing a nuisance in personal information management, not to mention users have to remember lots of account IDs and passwords.

VNeID is a mobile phone app developed by the National Population Data Centre of the Ministry of Public Security to replace traditional documents and provide utilities serving digital citizens, digital government and digital society.

VNeID not only brings practical benefits to the people but also plays an important role in State management. It helps reduce waste and errors in using traditional documents, saving costs and time for people and the Government.

Deputy Chairman of Ha Noi Peoples Committee Ha Minh Hai said the citys trial on the issuance of judicial records via VNeID since April 22 has shown positive results.

Every day about 1,000 people lined up at the one-door administrative units at the citys Department of Justice. It took them even two to three days to finish the procedure. Since the judicial record issuance was processed online, many people feel relieved for no longer having to visit offices. State agencies can also streamline staff and other resources on the manual process, he said.

In the insurance sector, since October 2023, over eight million accounts have been activated to log in the VssID app of the Vietnam Social Insurance.

A number of localities have paid social insurance through VNeID accounts, which is especially convenient for those living in remote areas.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, public service portals nationwide have reported over 29.3 million electronic identification accounts.

The number of logins on the Etax application of the General Department of Taxation has reached more than two million.

About VN469 billion has been saved thanks to online public service.

According to the ministry, people need to download the VNeID app on their smartphones. While downloading and using the app, citizens encountering difficulties can contact the nearest local police for instructions on activating their identification account and electronic authentication on the VNeID app.

Deputy PM Quang requested relevant ministries and localities to step up mass and social media communication to make the app using instructions easy to understand and remember.

He directed the Ministry of Information and Communications and network operators to clean mobile subscriber data, ensuring that 100 per cent of SIM cards must be registered with membership information of subcribers, at the same time, improve the technical infrastructure quality.

Localities must invest in infrastructure and learn experience from each other to widely apply the VNeID, he said.  VNS
Digital technology has become an integral part of our daily lives, with almost everything relying on computers in one way or another. While it has already revolutionized the way we work, communicate, and carry out our daily routines, it is constantly evolving. Mykyta Machekhin, Senior Software Engineer at the fast-growing successful startup CurbWaste and a key figure in the digitalization of public services in Ukraine, shared with iTechPost how an IT specialist can keep up with the rapid changes of the digital age and follow its trends without losing sight of work processes.

Digitalization Is Everywhere

IT pros are the ones who brought digital tools into the world and now play a crucial role in advancing them for the better. Sometimes, digital technology can be implemented in the most unexpected ways, such as waste management. Mykyta, currently a Senior Software Engineer at CurbWastea startup that streamlines the management of the waste hauling business in the USmakes critical technical decisions, and he firmly believes that digitalizing all processes is an absolute necessity.

Our material world is becoming increasingly digital. Take, for example, the Diia app, which has completely revolutionized the public services sector in Ukraine by moving from old-fashioned paperwork to virtual format. Mykyta was behind this major project, which has eased the lives of millions of people and gained international recognition.

Efficient Incorporation of Cutting-Edge Technologies

Mykyta explained that implementing the latest technologies to achieve the right results requires a strategic yet pragmatic approach. He noted that for each project, he evaluates the potential impact of new technologies on achieving the company's objectives, considering factors such as scalability, efficiency, and maintainability.

"Before implementation, I conduct feasibility studies and prototype development to assess their practicality. This ensures that the integration of new technologies not only drives innovation but also aligns with our business goals and enhances our product offerings," Mykyta said.

The More We Share, the More We Have

So, how can one keep up with new trends without getting distracted from current work projects?

"Staying updated on the latest trends and technologies in the fast-evolving field of digitalization is both a passion and a priority for me. My approach is multifaceted. Firstly, I dedicate a portion of my time each week to reading industry publications, technical blogs, and research papers. This helps me stay informed about emerging technologies and methodologies. I also actively participate in tech communities and attend conferences, webinars, and workshops whenever possible, which provide insights into current trends and offer the opportunity to network with other professionals and share knowledge," Mykyta told Itechpost.

According to him, getting involved in professional communities is especially important, as it allows individuals to learn firsthand about emerging industry trends and even participate in setting them.

For more than seven years, Mykyta has been a member of the Metarhia open-source community, which is well-known in Eastern Europe.

"Our work in Metarhia is focused on developing a comprehensive technology stack designed for high-load applications. This includes the creation of our own DBMS, server applications, and a variety of libraries tailored to enhance the performance and scalability of web applications," Mykyta said.

Since 2023, he has been a member of the International Association of IT Professionals. This group connects industry experts worldwide and requires passing rigorous tests to confirm competency in the field. While joining these communities can be quite challenging as it requires serious testing conducted by some of the world's leading IT professionals, Mykyta said it is the right place for those committed to achieving excellence in the industry.

Additionally, IT enthusiasts constantly striving to advance technologies can publish their research, allowing a wide range of interested individuals to get involved and exchange their opinions about it. Mykyta, known for his innovative approach and pursuit of excellence, has been published on Scopus.com and Researchgate.net.

The more recognized an expert is, the greater the potential to influence the industry.

If one's professionalism and expertise are highly valued in the industry, individuals can contribute to its development by participating in competitions as judges. By evaluating competitors' projects, jurors can identify potential best methods and standards and perhaps discover a spark in young talent that could become an IT star someday.

Mykyta served as a judge in the prestigious "Top 40 Digital Experts" national competition as an internationally recognized expert in software development, application development, and data processing. The contest attracted participants from all over the world. Its purpose was to reward active and exceptional specialists and create a platform for popularizing achievements in digital technologies.

The expanded pool of 4,000 participants included market experts with outstanding achievements for 2023 who have attended nationwide digital events, developed their products, or received new career appointments to leadership positions based on their accomplishments. Mykyta was invited to join the judging panel for his professional achievements, including his significant contribution to the development of Diia through his authoring techniques.

Mastering Digitalization: Success in Challenging Fields

What are the essential steps for young software engineers who want to focus on digitalization? Itechpost asked Mykyta to share his successful experience using the example of a complex sector, such as the digitalization of public services.

"For aspiring software engineers looking to embark on a journey as ambitious as the complete digitization of public services for an entire country, my advice would be to start with a solid foundation. Focus on mastering the fundamentals of software engineering and understanding the principles of scalable and secure system design. It's crucial to recognize the importance of user-centered design, especially in public services, where your work will impact a diverse range of users. Embrace interdisciplinary learning; understanding the nuances of public administration, legal frameworks, and social sciences can be as important as your technical skills. Collaboration is keyseek to work with experts in various fields to gain insights that can inform your approach," Mykyta said.

He noted that staying resilient and adaptable is another important part of this journey. "Projects of such magnitude will inevitably face challenges, from technical hurdles to regulatory and societal barriers. Your ability to persevere and pivot as needed will be paramount," Mykyta added.

"Lastly, never lose sight of the larger goal: to make public services more accessible, efficient, and transparent for the benefit of all citizens. Let this vision drive your innovations and guide your decisions throughout your career," he concluded.
The boiler explosion killed six workers and injured five others

The police are waiting for the results of the accident report to add to the file before considering prosecuting the case. The investigating authorities initially assessed that the explosion was caused by a technical error in the boiler.

Binh Minh Wood Production and Trading Company, located in Thien Tan commune, Vinh Cuu district, has been in operation for a decade. The company processes and manufactures household wooden products and employs about 200 workers.

On the morning of the accident, 42 workers were on duty when an explosion in the boiler resulted in the deaths of six people, including one Chinese citizen. All were men aged 32-39. Five other workers were also injured.

A water tube boiler with a steam generation capacity of 1,000 kg/hour outside was next to the corrugated iron wall of the factory. There were technical problems and the company contacted the equipment supplier to inspect, maintain, and repair the boiler on April 30. The following day, as the workers started the boiler, it exploded.

Foreign investment increases in wood processing industry Foreign direct investment in the wood processing industry has increased rapidly, especially since 2018, the Viet Nam Timber and Forest Product Association has said.

Building stable labour supply chain a key solution to post-pandemic recovery Building stable labour supply chains with labourers put at the centre of all policies and emphasis laid on ensuring income and social security is one of the solutions to post-pandemic economic recovery, heard a seminar in the framework of the 4th Vietnam Economic Forum held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 5.

Wood processing industry to be major economic sector by 2030 Vietnam eyes the wood processing industry to be a major economic sector by 2030.
The collaboration aims to accelerate the cross-border trade process between Vietnam and New Zealand, as well as globally.

The two parties signed an MoU in which the two companies explore the integration of digital trade ecosystem TradeFlat (made by FPT IS) and global trade platform CUBE (made by TradeWindow).

It will also support the digitalisation of comprehensive international trade activities with the governments and corporations of two countries to effectively expand opportunities, connect and scale cross-border trade.

The MoU exchange was witnessed by Ginny Chapman  New Zealands Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam and representatives from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

TradeFlat and TradeWindow intend to collaborate to integrate two platforms based on API linkage - connecting trade and trade finance related services to handle the transaction flows and cross-border financing; market research and strategy planning; and promote cooperation with commercial platforms in Australasia and other regions.

Both parties aim at conducting experimental transactions (Proof of Concept  PoC) successfully in the near future, creating a favourable environment for key participants in trading activities in New Zealand and Vietnam to experience and apply digital processes, then, as a result, promoting two-way trade relationship between the two countries to grow more rapidly over the years.

The integration of TradeFlat with TradeWindow marks the first time when a Make-in-Vietnam solution collaborates with an international platform from New Zealand in trading activities.

For trade in total goods and services, Vietnam ranks 17th out of 242 countries and territories for highest export value (from New Zealand to Vietnam), 14th out of 241 for highest import value (from Vietnam to New Zealand), and 14th out of 244 for highest total trade value.

The bilateral trade reached $1.67 billion by December 2023, with both sides pushing to achieve the target of $2 billion this year and aiming for $3 billion by 2026.

Chapman said, This agreement enables Vietnam and New Zealand to combine their skills, expertise and specifically, their digital technology in ways that can facilitate more trade between our two countries.

Established in 2018, TradeWindow is a New Zealand publicly listed company taking the lead in the digitalisation of activities, information and processes related to trade.

The company has expertise in international trade, compliance processes, managing supply chains, logistic activities, information and digital technology.

TradeWindows global trade platform Cube provides many functions and insights to support manufactures, exporters, importers, retailers, freight forwarders, and government agencies for trade policy and regulation.

The integration of TradeFlat with TradeWindow marks the first time when a Make-in-Vietnam solution collaborates with an international platform from New Zealand in trading activities.

The company leads the market in New Zealand with the volume of exported goods going through its digital platform. The company is also expanding market share quickly in Australia, and now in PoC conversations with the United Kingdom and Singapore governments.

We expect the successful cooperation with FPT IS will enable a more comprehensive trade digitalisation process between the two countries and contribute to furthering bilateral trade, as well as a framework for expanding to other markets, said AJ Smith, co-founder and CEO of TradeWindow.

As for TradeFlat, the project is the next step in its goal of expanding the ecosystem through connection with the top trading platforms in the world.

With the aim of becoming a Digital Trade and Digital Trade Finance Hub, connecting key partners in international trade, cooperating with TradeWindow is the key to actualising our vision," said Tran Dang Hoa, chairman of FPT IS. "As the leading tech firm in Vietnam and the region, FPT IS hopes to contribute experiences and strong Made by FPT IS - Make-in-Vietnam solutions to help remove the barrier in import and export between the two countries, creating advantages in shifting global supply chains and international trade.

With the vision of connecting, resonating values and promoting business with banks and firms, TradeFlat is the first Letter-of-Credit (L/C) Blockchain platform in Vietnam to support L/C operations with an end-to-end digital process.

The solution brings outstanding efficiency in commercial activities such as reducing document transfer time by 90 per cent compared to traditional financing transaction flows, and reducing operational processing time of bank staff by half, while tripling productivity and work efficiency. The model was researched and developed by the top commercial banks in Vietnam.

In addition to efficiency in handling the L/C transaction process, TradeFlat also solves the problem of capital financing in commercial transactions for businesses including supply chain financing, electricity guarantee, and businesses financial health monitor.

In 2023, TradeFlat integrated with TradeWaltz, a leading trading platform in Japan, becoming the first solution duo to help connect and promote trading efficiency between Vietnam and Japan.

About TradeFlat: https://www.tradeflat.com/

FPT launches automotive technology subsidiary in Texas Global technology services provider FPT on December 14 officially launched its automotive technology subsidiary - FPT Automotive in Texas, USA as part of its moves to expand itss footprint in the market.

FPT IS and TradeWaltz cooperate to promote Asia-Pacific trade FPT Information System Corporation (FPT IS) and TradeWaltz, a major Japanese trading company, signed a strategic cooperation agreement on December 16, signalling the next phase of their development.
Tetsuo Saito (middle) visited the North Hanoi Smart City project

The North Hanoi Smart City project is on the list of key economic cooperation projects agreed during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit to Japan in 2023.

Tetsuo Saito, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, visited the North Hanoi Smart City project recently and met with the board of directors of North Hanoi Smart City Development Investment Company.

At the meeting, Minister Saito listened to the North Hanoi Smart City representative's brief on the overall project and the status of preparations for its implementation.

According to the companys representative, the project plays an important role in the partnership between the two corporations, and is a sustainable symbol of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties. To realise the dream of a green, beautiful, and modern urban area on par with international standards.

On April 24, during a working visit to Japan, Takashi Yanai, general manager of the Logistics Infrastructure Business Division at Sumitomo Corporation, and Nguyen Thi Nga, chairwoman of BRG Group, vice president and general director of North Hanoi Smart City Development Investment Company, also had a meeting in Tokyo with Hajime Wakuda, deputy commissioner for International Affairs, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, about the North Hanoi Smart City project.

Takashi Yanai and Nguyen Thi Nga discuss with Hajime Wakuda in Tokyo on April 24, 2024

At the meeting, representatives of BRG Group and Sumitomo Corporation shared their aspirations to turn the North Hanoi Smart City into the first carbon-neutral urban area in Vietnam and the world. Developing an increasingly sustainable environment will contribute to realising Vietnam's 2050 net-zero commitments made at COP26 and the national climate change adaptation plan.

The North Hanoi Smart City has a total estimated investment of nearly $4.2 billion, spanning nearly 272 hectares in Dong Anh district.

. The North Hanoi Smart City project

Sumitomo-BRG consortium announce plans for North Hanoi Smart City On November 11 in Dong Anh district, Hanoi, the North Hanoi Smart City Development Investment (NHSC) company, a consortium between Vietnam's BRG Group and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation, announced the official implementation of the North Hanoi Smart City, a symbolic project to celebrate 50 years of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties (19732023).

Japanese ambassador prioritises smart city development At a meeting between city leaders and the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam on October 25, Ambassador Yamada Takio expressed a keen interest in accelerating major projects in Hanoi, particularly the Smart City initiative in the city's northern area.
Another whistleblower of Boeing has died, citing sudden and fast-spreading infection as the cause of death for the former quality auditor of Spirit AeroSystems.

The former employee, Joshua Dean, was in critical condition for two weeks despite being relatively healthy.

Read Also : Boeing Under Another FAA Probe Over 737-800 Aircraft Engine Blowout

Boeing Whistleblower Suffers MRSA Before Dying

Dean was a 45-year-old who was known for having a healthy lifestyle. Prior to his illness, the former quality auditor was fired from his position last year. He then filed a labor complaint and cited that he was dismissed for raising safety concerns.

According to his aunt, he acquired the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). Dean was airlifted from his hometown Wichita to a hospital in Oklahoma City. He was put on an ECMO machine as his organs had already failed to function on their own.

The bacterial infection had a sudden and quick onset in his body causing him to be in critical condition before he succumbed to death.

Former Employee Pursued Lawsuit Against Spirit

Dean had also complained about Spirit's "serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line." He also gave a deposition in a separate Spirit shareholder lawsuit.

Boeing, who previously owned Spirit, unveiled its plan to acquire the company to reintegrate its operations and provide improved quality to air safety. The Federal Aviation Administration gave the company 90 days to present a proposal proving its promise.

Dean's death marked the second Boeing whistleblower to die this year. A former quality control engineer, John Barnett at Boeing was found dead last March. Dean and Barnett are both represented by a South Carolina law firm.

"Our thoughts are with Josh Dean's family. This sudden loss is stunning news here at Spirit and for his loved ones," a Spirit representative shared in a statement.
This $7 million round will allow Prep to expand its team, further refine its learning tools, and expand into other language products and other countries.

Prep was founded in 2020 by CEO Tu Pham and CTO Nam Tran. On the completion of the round, Tu Pham said, The ultimate vision of Prep is to enable every learner to feel as if they have a dedicated personal teacher and mentor to help them achieve their learning targets. This new investment is an important milestone for us in realising this vision.

In a short time, Prep has scaled its user base to hundreds of thousands, and the number is still growing quickly. The company won the 2023 EdTech Asia Award and the 2023 SEI Impact and Innovation Awards thanks to their own proprietary AI technologies, including the AI-powered Virtual Speaking and Virtual Writing Rooms. These virtual rooms enable the company to scale quickly and at the same time deliver high-quality education at a fraction of the normal cost learners would have to pay.

Due to this comparatively low tuition, Prep now caters to not only students in big metropolitans but also the underprivileged ones in Tier 2 and 3 towns and cities. 95 per cent of these students experience score improvements in as little as two months, a crucial step for them to either get accepted to universities or secure their first jobs.

Quality education made more accessible through technology has been a segment of emphasis for us. Preps application of technology to drive positive outcomes for language learning and standardised test preparation has been one of the best we have seen from the region. We are very excited to continue our support for Prep as they become a leader in this space, expanding their offerings for other languages and to other countries in the region," said MJ Yu, managing director of Cercano Management Asia.

Our realisation of how English has gained prominence in Vietnamese higher education and workforce, combined with the proprietary AI-powered technology that the Prep team have been building over the years, has convinced us that Prep has what it takes to disrupt the language test prep market in Vietnam, said Melvin Hade, managing director at Northstar Ventures.

All existing seed round investors of Prep chose to join in this new funding round. Tu Ngo, general partner at Touchstone Partners said, We are honoured to be Prep's early partner and continue to work alongside it to fulfill its mission of bringing a dedicated personal teacher to all students, regardless of background.

Wesley Tay, principal at East Ventures added, "We are glad to double down on our investment in Prep as Tu and the team continues to execute well and outperform. We believe that Prep will continue to play a big role in democratising the upskilling of talent in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Language learning and test preparation is a massive market segment that is still growing in Vietnam. On the potential of Prep in this segment, Ziheng Li, vice president at Saison Capital said, Growing up in China, I have witnessed first-hand the size of the test preparation market as I was learning English to study abroad. The online education market has been continuously growing and shows no signs of slowing down. Were incredibly proud to back a market leader like Prep.

Edtech arena remaining positive with major moves Venture capital continues to flow into edtech despite a decline in the tech startup market.

Vietnam's edtech startups gain attention from purpose-driven investors Vietnam's edtech market is continuing to receive an influx of fresh capital as home-grown edtech startups receive attention from purpose-driven investors.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR), currently, the entire project is 98 per cent complete.

To mark the 138th anniversary of International Labour Day on May 1, a delegation of foreign representative agencies in Ho Chi Minh City and Dien Bien Phu Veterans' Union participated in an automatic test run of Metro Line No1.

According to the MAUR, testing and safety assessment of trains on the line has been conducted since 2023. The testing process is carried out according to strict Japanese and European standards to ensure the highest level of safety for the project when put into operation.

Starting construction in 2012, Metro line 1 is nearly 20km long, from Ben Thanh Station in District 1 to Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc, and boasts three underground and 11 elevated stations. The project has a total investment of around $1.82 billion.

The line will have 17 trains, with a capacity of 930 passengers in each. The line has a maximum speed of 110km per hour on the elevated section and 80km per hour on the underground section.

Three large-scale transport projects to be put into operation this year The construction of three large infrastructure projects, namely the My Thuan 2 Bridge, the My Thuan-Can Tho expressway, and the Tuyen Quang-Phu Tho expressway, is expected to be completed late this year.
In a statement on May 1, MoIT stated, "Non-self-sustaining, grid-connected home solar systems will incur operational costs and are not advisable."

Under the proposed regulations, off-grid residential solar installations would face no development limits. However, for grid-connected systems, homeowners may feed surplus energy back to the grid but would receive no financial return. The cap for such installations is set at 2,600MW, aligned with the National Power Development Plan VIII.

According to Vnexpress, many industry experts are critical of these measures as they believe they lack adequate incentives for investment, pointing to the zero-return policy as economically unviable.

Additionally, the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam issued a warning on April 30 about rooftop solar. The authority advised prioritising on-site consumption and limiting grid feed-in to avoid large-scale disruptions and unnecessary financial burdens.

"Rapid, large-scale adoption could significantly destabilise the system and generate unwarranted costs," according to the regulator.

Currently, rooftop solar constitutes over 9 per cent of Vietnams total installed capacity, approximately 7,660MW, and nearly 4 per cent of national electricity production. This surpasses other renewable sources like wind and biomass, and even small hydro and gas turbines, which previously dominated the energy mix.

The variable nature of solar power, dependent on weather conditions, requires substantial backup and storage solutions to ensure grid stability, adding extra costs for homeowners and the electricity sector. On a larger scale, alternatives include pumped hydro storage or traditional power sources like hydro and gas, which face intermittent operation due to solar instability.

Regulators also highlight the challenge of managing the excess capacity from solar during peak times, which could surpass the grids absorption capacity. Grid operators would then face a critical choice: reduce output from controllable traditional plants, risking system reliability, or cut renewable energy production, thereby increasing operational costs and wasting resources.

The small-scale and dispersed nature of residential solar also complicates data collection and system control, presenting significant challenges in balancing the grid, particularly for individual household systems where precise data collection is not feasible.

Finally, the MoIT underscored the economic impact of solar intermittency. The variability of renewable sources necessitates keeping traditional power on standby or at low output, incurring costs even when no power is generated. These costs are ultimately distributed across all customers, including those without renewable installations.
Embarking on his new journey as an independent director at Vietnam-based Techcombank, Eugene Keith Galbraith recalled the first time he came to Vietnam in 2018 with feelings of, "happiness, but no special expectation."

Even still, the country amazed him. Galbraith said Vietnam gave him a sense of comfort through its culture and business environment, during an interview at Techcombanks brand-new head office in Hanoi in late April.

Throughout his 40-year career, Galbraiths roles in the finance industry have included vice-president commissioner of PT Bank NISP Tbk, managing director of ABN AMRO Asia, and senior advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance.

Building a business of trust

Back to the present, Galbraith was thrilled with Techcombanks offer to join the organisation as an independent board member.

"I jumped at the chance. This is a great opportunity for me to learn about a new and dynamic country, and also become part of Techcombank's success story," said Galbraith.

An avid reader, Galbraith suggested Marshall McLuhans book 'Understanding Media' in which the author described that in the media world, it was not the content but the modality of delivery that mattered.

New and revamped customer value propositions introduced during 2023 helped to make Techcombank the primary banking relationship of its customers.

"It's very relevant to digital banking services because what you want to develop is not just profitable relationships, but 'sticky' relationships. That's where digital transformation has to be managed carefully," Galbraith said.

While it is common knowledge that digital tools help with cost saving and efficiency, to Galbraith, it is all about trust.

"So it's essential that banks maintain a warm rather than a cool medium where there's no loyalty, and the intimacy between the consumers and the products is lost," he continued.

The leadership team at Techcombank shares his philosophy. The bank has streamlined its processes, front-end and back-end, to offer simplified, convenient features and make transactions just one click away, while ensuring security at its best.

Numbers speak for itself. In 2023, Techcombank acquired 2.6 million new customers, an increase of 230 per cent compared to the previous year, and almost half of these came through online channels.

The bank has a customer-centric strategy, and digital engagement plays a key part in this approach, with 94 per cent of retail transactions conducted online and about 88 per cent of corporate customers active on digital platforms last year.

New and revamped customer value propositions introduced during 2023 helped to make Techcombank the primary banking relationship of its customers.

In the application of data to deliver better customer experiences, Techcombank has leveraged the most innovative technologies and capabilities to build its proprietary data platform, or data lake, which Galbraith described as, "bleeding-edge, advanced, and praiseworthy."

The banking expert was impressed by how Techcombank was not just collecting data, but is analysing it to build a more holistic understanding of its customers and provide tailored value propositions, and linking it to the latest AI technologies to provide hyper-personalised customer experiences.

Galbraith believes being convenient, secure, and reliable is the key to success of a digital banking platform. As long as banks have the same interests as their customers, and deliver a secure, easy-to-access platform, they will excel as the bank of choice.

"That will also put your bank in a strong competitive position to drive non-term deposit accounts because customers seek value that is not strictly monetary when they deposit their hard-earned money with you," he said.

Widening perspectives

As he's joining a new workplace, Galbraith said he was impressed with how Techcombank remained open and receptive to new ideas even after achieving astonishing growth and success recently.

In addition to a strong domestic workforce, the bank has also welcomed a significant number of foreign experts and overseas Vietnamese who have chosen to return to their country.

For instance, in 2023, the bank held a talent roadshow in Sydney to seek talent working in the city's financial centre.

"Domestic and international perspectives make a winning combination for the bank's success," according to Galbraith.

For his part, he pledges to offer his experience and perspectives on how the bank is operating, giving opinion on areas to improve, or where the bank can continue to do more.

"The participation of any individual in the formulation of a companys strategy is like making a soup. While the whole thing becomes delicious, it's hard to point to any individual spice as the key success factor," the new board member said.

His longstanding and extensive knowledge of the financial market in Indonesia, a country witnessing the same pace of growth and demographics as Vietnam, is relevant to the journey Techcombank is on.

Even though Vietnams banking industry is at an earlier stage than Indonesias, Techcombanks growth strategy and drivers show many parallels with his former bank, BCA.

For example, Galbraith helped BCA strengthen its position in the affluent customer segment, which is also the focus of Techcombank.

"Its a wise decision," he said, "and it's a big market. Vietnam is home to 100 million people, and there's no need to bank everybody."

Techcombank is already deemed to be in a position of strength. Its sustained profitability, balance sheet strength, and asset quality have demonstrated the success of its customer-centric strategy, the progress of its digital transformation and the robustness of its business model.

"The way to continue this success story," he added, "lies in how the bank constructs its business in a way that it can provide the best services at the lowest risk, with the highest returns."

Galbraith brings vast experience and knowledge of the banking industry to Techcombanks Board. Most recently, he spent 17 years with Bank Central Asia (BCA), one of Indonesias top banks, where he served as president commissioner and then vice-president director. Before that, he was an advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Finance and managing director of ABN AMRO Asia. Given the similarities between Techcombank and BCA in terms of business model, affluent customer focus, as well as digital innovation, Galbraith is expected to help Techcombank further strengthen its corporate governance and accelerate its digital transformation to become a leader in the region.

Credit rating overhaul vital for building trust Pivotal changes are upcoming in Vietnams financial market, with mandated credit ratings for specific corporate bonds from 2024 to boost transparency and diversify investments.

Moody's upgrades the outlook of Techcombank 2024 The credit rating organisation Moody's on March 20 updated the outlook for Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) to Stable.
The event was jointly held by Huawei and the ASEAN Foundation.

Sabrina Meng, deputy chairwoman, rotating chairwoman, and CFO of Huawei, delivering an opening speech via video

According to experts, the Asia-Pacific digital economy is in a golden age. Countries and regions are actively exploring intelligence while promoting digital development. To date, Huawei has supported the digital transformation of more than 100,000 enterprise partners in Asia-Pacific. Through continuous technological innovation, Huawei is helping the region to build leading network and data centre infrastructure. Together, they have built OpenLabs, 5G joint innovation labs, and other platforms to meet local customers' business needs.

Making her opening speech at the event, Sabrina Meng, deputy chairwoman of the board and CFO of Huawei, said, "Asia-Pacific is not only one of the world's most vibrant regions, it has also become a role model for other regions that are trying to go digital and grow their digital economies. Huawei has been honoured to be part of this process. It has been great to work with such wonderful customers and partners who are driving the region's digital transformation."

Meng also added, "We value research and innovation. And over the past decade, we have invested over one trillion Chinese yuan into research and development. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on creating value for customers. And we will openly collaborate with partners to provide 5.5G, cloud, digital power, and other technologies. We want to do our part to bring the benefits of digital and intelligent technologies to people in Asia-Pacific, and we want to promote the integrated development of the digital and real economies."

According to Nararya S. Soeprapto, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs, with the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) that is expected to be completed in 2025, the business community and society will be empowered to unleash the full potential of digital services and emerging technologies, such as AI and cloud computing. To ensure a successful digital future throughout the region, it is imperative for governments, the private sector, and all stakeholders to adopt a coherent approach to bolster digital connectivity, bridging the developmental disparities among ASEAN member states, developing skills, and propelling digital transformation within the region.

Prasert Jantararuangtong, Thailand's minister of digital economy and society, noted, "Our prioritised topics are the acceleration of digital and intelligent transformation under the Growth Engine of Thailand policy to develop the digital economy as a main engine, enhancing Thailand's level of competitiveness. This will also help strengthen safety and security for electronic transactions and improve the country's overall digital human capital.

Prasert Jantararuangtong, Thai minister of digital economy and society, delivering a keynote speech

He elaborated that the flagship projects under this initiative are Cloud First Policy, AI development for Digital ID, Digital Manpower Development, Combating Online Scams, and various partnerships within the private sectors to develop and utilise digital technologies that align with digital trends in APAC.

Experts also added Asia Pacific stands as a pioneer in the digital and intelligent economy. Digital and intelligent infrastructure, which covers networks, storage, computing, and cloud, is key to unleashing the potential of productivity.

Simon Lin, president of Huawei Asia-Pacific Region, said, "As we navigate the evolving landscape of digital transformation, it is evident that it is more than just adopting solutions  it's about deeply integrating technology into the economy and society. As Asia-Pacific enters a golden era of digital economic development, Huawei is committed to becoming a technology innovator, industry pioneer, and local contributor. Together with nearly 10,000 enterprise and cloud partners, we are poised to ride the waves and accelerate a digital and intelligent APAC."

Simon Lin, president of Huawei Asia-Pacific Region, delivering a keynote speech

After this congress, Huawei will hold four conferences: the Huawei Network Summit, Innovative Data Infrastructure Forum, Global Optical Summit, and Huawei Cloud Stack Summit. Huawei and its partners will jointly hold seven major events, launch high-frequency scenario-based solutions in the commercial market and new products in the distribution business, and recognise outstanding partners at the Asia-Pacific Partners' Night.

In addition, Huawei will release its industry solutions at the Global ISP Summit Asia-Pacific, as well as at the Global Manufacturing and Large Enterprise Summit.

Huawei sets sights on Vietnam's digital infrastructure Huawei has revealed its ambition to invest in Vietnam's digital infrastructure, underscoring its commitments to an eco-friendly energy transition.

ZTE and Huawei strengthen tech alliances with Vietnam In a strategic move highlighting the deepening ties between Vietnam and two of China's tech giants, President Vo Van Thuong on October 19 engaged in discussions with executives from ZTE and Huawei.
In the first three months of the year, Vietnam Airlines recorded nearly $1.17 billion in net revenue and nearly $170.83 million in gross profit, marking respective increases of 19 per cent and 108 per cent compared to the same period last year.

This also marks the highest gross profit quarter to date for the national airline since its transition to a JSC in 2015. Additionally, the high gross profit margin nearly doubled on-year, reaching 14.6 per cent.

Vietnam Airlines attributed its profit to the debt write-off resulting from the agreement to return leased aircraft by its subsidiary Pacific Airlines, as well as fines collected.

Previously, Pacific Airlines announced the temporary suspension of operations from March 18 due to the lack of aircraft. The airline successfully cleared $220 million in debt with aircraft lessors. In return, the airline returned all aircraft currently in operation in Vietnam.

The revenue surge in the first three months of the year for Vietnam Airlines coincides with the peak business period in the aviation industry, driven by increased travel demand. Domestic flight ticket prices remained high due to the scarcity of aircraft. At this point, Vietnam Airlines has restored its entire domestic flight network and most international routes compared to 2019, and has opened new routes.

Vietnam Airlines witnessed a significant boost in business activities during a period of aircraft shortages in the aviation market, with high demand for domestic flights during peak Lunar New Year holidays driving up ticket prices, alongside a decline in Bamboo Airways' market share.

The Vietnamese aviation industry has two peak periods, Lunar New Year and summer, to compensate for other low seasons, Le Hong Ha, CEO of Vietnam Airlines told VietnamPlus. "During peak periods, airlines often have the opportunity to sell tickets at optimal prices. For the summer of 2024, Vietnam Airlines will apply pricing at optimal levels according to state-set ceiling prices, as regulated by the Ministry of Transport," Ha added.

Additionally, the return of international routes has contributed to the positive business outlook for Vietnam Airlines. In the first quarter, international flights accounted for 65 per cent of the total aviation transportation revenue.

In particular, the airline has improved service quality and digitised its operations, thereby attracting high-income passenger segments. Vietnam Airlines carried over 5.74 million passengers in the first quarter, a growth of 12.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. The flight occupancy rate of Vietnam Airlines is 86 per cent for the domestic market and 80 per cent for the international market, both increasing compared to the same period last year.

In Vietnam Airlines' business landscape, revenue from the international market has shown strong recovery, reaching over $575 million, a 30.4 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

Investors may have already perceived positive signals even before the announcement of the huge profit report. HVN stock prices have continuously risen since late 2023, reaching nearly a 60 per cent increase to 72 US cents per share.

However, despite the first quarter results, Vietnam Airlines' equity capital remains negative at over $500 billion, with accumulated losses decreasing to over $1.53 trillion.

Vietnam Airlines intends to wet-lease four aircraft Vietnam Airlines JSC intends to wet-lease four aircraft for a period of one month, with a tentative start date of February 1, 2024.

Vietnam Airlines to launch direct flights to Germanys Munich from October National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will begin its direct services from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Munich, one of the largest cities in Germany, from October this year.
Albert Park, chief economist at the ADB, pointed out that demographic changes in developing Asia-Pacific nations are placing increasing pressures on their governments.

Aiko Kikkawa, principal author of ADB's report, shared, "Vietnams ageing population is expanding rapidly compared to other countries. The government is actively implementing various long-term strategies to address this challenge effectively."

According to the ADB's projections, by 2037, about 20 per cent of Vietnam's population will be over 60 years old. Presently, around 8 per cent of Vietnamese men between 60 and 64, and 24 per cent of those over 65, are capable of working but remain outside the labour force.

Kikkawa explained that leveraging this capable, older demographic could boost Vietnams GDP by approximately 1.1 per cent, which is higher than the regional average of 0.9 per cent.

She described the economic contributions from the elderly as the "silver dividend", which, with the right strategies, Vietnam and other countries could significantly benefit from.

"Population ageing shouldnt be seen as a governmental burden. Early investment is key to harvesting the 'silver dividend'", remarked Park.

To prevent Vietnam from 'ageing before becoming wealthy', Kikkawa suggested that implementing cost-effective measures is crucial, especially since most of the Vietnamese population lives in rural areas where the elderly are more prone to isolation.

She emphasised the critical role of preventive healthcare, noting that early detection of health issues in the elderly could significantly reduce long-term medical costs.

"Given Vietnam's relatively young demographic, its vital to expand preventive healthcare for the elderly and the youth, who are contributing significantly to the budget now but will form the elderly demographic of the future," Kikkawa added, highlighting that this approach would reduce healthcare burdens and optimise current fiscal contributions.
Malaysia is one of the defence industry markets that Viettel is targeting, and the move is part of the companys efforts in 2024 to continue to realise its vision of becoming a global defence enterprise.

Viettel will showcase its defence industry capabilities in Malaysia

DSA and NATSEC 2024 are among the five largest defence and security exhibitions in the world. The 2024 event is considered the largest in 18 years, with the participation of over 1,200 companies from 60 countries, nearly 400 delegations from 45 countries, and an expected attendance of over 50,000 visitors.

Viettel will participate in the exhibition as the national booth of Vietnam, alongside 33 other national booths from around the world in the 45,000m2 exhibition space. Leading global defence companies such as BAE Systems, Raytheon, SAAB, and Thales, along with Malaysian companies Boustead, DEFTECH, and Sapura, regularly participate in the event.

At DSA & NATSEC, Viettel High Tech will introduce advanced military product systems, and showcase component modules, reflecting its research capabilities, technology, and design skills. After the success of deploying 5Gn India, including contracts signed at the International Defense Exhibition in Vietnam 2022, Viettel High Tech has gained new cooperation opportunities in the military and dual-use product sectors. Upon announcing participation in DSA & NATSEC, Viettel High Tech received cooperation proposals from major partners in the Middle East and Asia, opening up new business opportunities, especially in the 5G field.

Under the theme "Building a Secure Future for Developing Nations", Viettel will present a diverse range of military products and high-quality resources, providing comprehensive research and development solutions to international customers. Furthermore, as part of the global defence supply chain, Viettel High Tech is ready to collaborate with global partners, becoming a co-developer of products and customising products according to specific customer needs. Customisation capability is Viettel High Tech's advantage compared to other large defence corporations worldwide.

Following the success of the International Defense Industry Exhibition in Poland and the Defense & Security Exhibition in Thailand, with six international cooperation contracts signed, Viettel High Tech's presence in Malaysia promises cooperation opportunities in the defence industry. Collaboration between Viettel High Tech and global defence companies will continue to mark the Vietnamese defence industry brand on the international stage. Viettel High Tech has has also received invitations from nearly 40 partners, including the United States, Turkey, Spain, France, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Telecoms firms seeking new pastures Some of the leading Vietnamese telecoms firms are seeking new territories for development in the face of diminishing market share, following a report from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) showing that the share of revenue from traditional telecom services is shrinking.

Singtel and Viettel to develop VTS Cable System Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) reached a deal with Viettel on April 11 to jointly develop the Vietnam - Singapore Cable System (VTS) to directly link Vietnam and Singapore.
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Israel releases 64 Palestinians arrested in Gaza

Xinhua) 10:13, May 03, 2024

GAZA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel released on Thursday 64 Palestinians who were arrested during the military operations in the Gaza Strip, said the General Authority for Crossings and Borders in Gaza.

The Authority said in a press statement that the Israeli authorities released 64 Palestinians, including one dead and one seriously injured, through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

During the ongoing Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army arrested hundreds of Palestinians and transferred them to unknown destinations, according to Palestinian human rights organizations.

The released prisoners were transferred to a hospital to check on their health status, according to Palestinian security sources.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have resulted in extensive casualties and damages, with the Palestinian death toll rising to over 34,000 since the conflict started, according to the Gaza health authorities.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
Microsoft banned U.S. police departments from using the Azure OpenAI Service on facial recognition systems, including OpenAI's text and speech analyzing models.

The new policy stated that the service must not be used on any real-time facial recognition technology by any law enforcement from body to dash-mounted cameras.

Microsoft Revises Policy for Azure OpenAI Service

In an updated Code of Conduct for Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft announced that the AI platform should not be used to categorize people based on their biometric data that will reveal their affiliations and other characteristics.

Moreover, it must not be used for any ongoing surveillance or real-time identification. The policy also explicitly detailed that the U.S. police departments are not allowed to utilize the service for facial recognition purposes.

"We prohibit the use of our service for processing content or generating content that can inflict harm on individuals or society. Our content policies are intended to improve the safety of our platform," the company wrote. The rules apply to all models created by OpenAI and Azure OpenAI like GPT-3, GPT4, GPT-4 Turbo DALL-E 2, DALL-E 3, and more.

AI's Potential Misuse of Facial Recognition Technology

Earlier this month, Axon, a military and law enforcement weapon maker, launched a new product that used OpenAI's GPT-4. According to reports, the company took advantage of the feature that summarizes audio from body cameras.

While it was not specified whether GPT-4 was used via Azure OpenAI Service, the AI company had previously banned the use of its models on facial recognition using APIs.

As for Microsoft, the company emphasized that its AI models should not be used to infer a person's emotional state, age, and gender based on facial expressions.

"Azure OpenAI Service prohibits identification or verification of individual identities using media containing people's faces by any user, including by or for state or local police in the United States," the company stated.
At a Waco High School band rehearsal this week, trumpet player Tevin Parker learned that composers can be particular about how one plays their music.

Band members were practicing William Owens Maesong and Quicksilver and leading them in rehearsal was Owens himself.

He told us what he had wanted to hear when he wrote it and what he wanted to hear now, said Parker, the bands first-chair trumpet.

Clarinet player Anelis Galan said there are stories attached to the music. Maesong is about Owens wife, for example.

He gave us his idea of the music and told us the back story, she said.

Story, it turns out, shapes Owens writing. The Fort Worth-based composer and band clinician, in Waco this week as Waco Independent School Districts composer-in-residence, said he starts with a title, then writes the music with that in mind.

Waco band students have practiced a variety of musical stories this week with such Owens numbers as Cops and Robbers, Corps of Discovery, Courtlandt County Festival, Maesong, Quicksilver and Tudor Sketches.

Waco audiences will get to hear his latest story Friday night when the districts high school and middle school players debut Owens commissioned work Huaco! as a highlight of a concert featuring Owens compositions. That free concert, at 6 p.m. Friday at University High School, will feature players from the Waco secondary school bands plus an honor band selected from those bands.

Owens said Huaco! draws on Native American melodies as a tribute to the citys Native American history.

The piece came together quite easily, he said in an interview after a Waco High band rehearsal this week.

A Waco ISD Foundation grant funded the composers weeklong visit, combining rehearsals with all six bands and the commissioned composition. It is the districts first composer residency in years, although the district often brings in outside music clinicians to lead workshops and festivals for Waco bands and choirs.

Owens has penned more than 150 compositions for concert bands, string orchestras and smaller ensembles in his career, many intended for high school or middle school performances. More than 30 years as a Texas high school band director and instructor in Brownsville, Lubbock and Fort Worth public schools, to name a few, precede his current career as composer and clinician.

He knows full well what young players can, or should, do, and he sees the worth of music and its performance as providing life-shaping skills, discipline and enrichment more so than preparation for a professional career.

Band and choir directors often provide the personal touch or guidance that can change a life. That is what happened to the Indiana native, whose high school band director steered the young saxophonist to VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, her alma mater, and ultimately into the career he has today.

She was phenomenal  and she and I are buddies today, Owens said.

The experiences of Waco High School players Parker and Galan show there is more to music than a professional performing career. The resonant sound of a bass saxophone pulled the 17-year-old Parker into band. The junior is now a member of the Waco High varsity band, jazz band and steel band, but he is planning on studying engineering after high school with band on the side.

Sophomore Galan, 15, picked up the clarinet to one-up an older sister who also played clarinet. Now she is leaning to music education as a career direction.

In some four decades of working with young people, Owens said he has learned kids are kids, with the same excitement and enthusiasm of an early generation despite a new age of distractions and social norms.

As long as there are students interested in music, Owens is more than willing to encourage and guide that interest into something lifelong.

Its all about sharing my love for music with younger people. Its quite miraculous what Ive seen it do as they move into adulthood, he said. Its a tool to prepare them for whatever direction in life they go into.

Owens music for that title, it seems, is still playing.
Alligators inhabit the Brazos River, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is monitoring six juveniles lurking in Waco.

A photograph showing a small gator held aloft in a fishing net, illegally caught according to state officials, is making the rounds online.

Questions have arisen about the threat the gators may pose, if any, and if humanely catching and relocating the critters is a possibility. The state parks department warns that given their small size, between 1 feet and 4 feet in length, the Waco gators may become victim to predators during their stay in the area.

Alligators are not abundant in the Brazos, but the river forms part of the western edge of the species distribution in Texas and alligator sightings are not uncommon, the department said in a press release.

It says data from a parks and wildlife spotlight survey in Waco reveal the presence of six known individuals between 1 and 4 feet in length.

The confirmation follows the Waco parks departments sighting of a 3-foot-long gator at Brazos Park East on Sept. 26. At that time, experts said the gator was likely a loner that someone had transported to the area and released.

The latest news captured statewide and even national attention, reports appearing in the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and USA Today. Texas Parks and Wildlife officials say the gators presence is noteworthy, confirming they have been tracking their movements about a year. Chatter on social media prompted it to comment on its surveillance and issue guidance.

Cameron Park Zoo Chief Curator Gordon Henley said even with the confirmation of multiple alligators in the area, he suspects someone relocated them from the species core habitat in East Texas or western Louisiana.

You dont see any adults. Where are these babies coming from? Henley said. It would be extremely difficult and highly unlikely to see a baby swim upriver.

He said records show there were alligators in the Brazos River as late as the 1940s, but their numbers likely were significantly reduced by unregulated hunting for skins during the 1950s, and by manmade obstacles such as highways and urban development that eliminated their habitat.

They actually are very good for the ecosystem, Henley said. The big thing is, they do have an aversion to people. If people begin to feed or interact with them, thats when you make them dangerous. They are smart animals. They will learn the source of food.

He said the local gators could grow to 10 to 12 feet in length and still not pose a threat.

A lot of places live in harmony with large alligators, Henley said. It all depends on how we treat them, how we view them. Its best to enjoy them from a distance. If you feed them, they might bite you, even at 4 or 5 feet.

Asked about pets interacting with alligators, he said it is best to keep dogs away.

In the water, they (dogs) are pretty defenseless, he said. If you see an alligator around, you probably dont want your dog in the water.

If the Waco alligators are transplants, it would not represent the first time people have irresponsibly captured and moved gators, Henley said, having seen past incidents because of his position at the zoo.

Again, I dont have any evidence, but I think people are bringing these alligators in from East Texas or western Louisiana, he said. I think they think its fun to catch an alligator, then dont know what to do with it, so they toss it in the river.

I remember a few years ago, someone brought an alligator into a bar in Bellmead, having driven there with the animal in a saddlebag. They were force-feeding it beer, doing other things. It was confiscated, but we had to move it out. Alligators require a lot of space, are territorial, and can cannibalize each other. And they can live up to 80 years, so taking one in and humanely taking good care of it is quite a commitment. Sometimes it is difficult to justify doing that.

Henley said he has not personally seen an alligator in the Brazos River through Waco. He receives lots of photos and videos, however.

He said those hanging around the Waco area are probably staying pretty healthy. They eat snails, crawfish, pill bugs, fish, specializing in smaller animals, not like crocodiles that can bring down a deer and things like that.

Heavy rains and high water on the Brazos should create no problems for the gators, he said.

They may swim out to the middle, get caught in the current and taken downstream, he said. But they know what theyre doing. Its not going to hurt them.

The parks and wildlife department also said the gators in Waco pose no threat to public safety.

TPWD is aware of the heightened level of public concern due to recent social media activity (video of a juvenile alligator illegally caught in a cast net) and heavy recreational foot traffic near the water, the press release says.

The state agency suggests the gators are skittish around humans. They had rather not deal with the curious poking around them or their home.

They are naturally wary of humans and averse to disturbance from human activity, according to the press release. The juvenile alligators observed to date at Waco are still at an elevated risk of natural mortality from predation.

The department also advises against feeding alligators in their natural habitat, saying the same is true for other animals encountered in the wild.

Experts advise anyone who encounters an alligator in the wild simply back away slowly and not attempt to touch or feed it.

A parks and wildlife fact sheet says the American alligator is carnivorous, and will eat anything it can catch, including fish, turtles, lizards, snakes, small mammals, water birds, crustaceans and other alligators. They can become noisy, the young with barks, adults with bellowing, grunting or hissing.

As human populations in Texas continue to expand, there have been an increased number of encounters between people and alligators, according to information provided by the department. Alligators have been known to prey on pets and must be treated with caution. Alligators can be surprisingly quick on land and are capable of running quickly over short distances.

March 1 through May 30 is the peak breeding and nesting season. During this time, young alligators 4 to 5 feet long become very transient while searching for territories of their own, according to parks and wildlife. Periods of extreme weather, including drought or heavy rains, can increase alligator movements.

The McLennan County Sheriffs Office has taken the matter seriously enough to ask local Game Warden Michael Serbanic about the sightings.

He stated they do not currently pose a threat to the public, McLennan County Administrator Dustin Chapman said in an email response.

The parks and wildlife department says Texas in 1969 gave complete protection to the American alligator and classified it as endangered after passage of the Texas Endangered Species Act in 1973. With this protection, along with federal restrictions on unregulated alligator hide markets, the species has made a full recovery and was delisted from the status of endangered in 1985.
OELWEIN  Authorities have released the identity of a man found dead in Oelwein earlier in the week.

An autopsy by the State Medical Examiners Office in Ankeny identified the deceased as 58-year-old Darrell Lee Latham of Oelwein, according to Oelwein police.

Police said Lathums death is not being considered suspicious and there is no ongoing threat to the community.

Police received a report of a mans body in a wooded area the 10 block of Third Avenue Northwest around 9:25 p.m. Monday.

Agencies that participated in the investigation are the Oelwein Police Department, the Fayette County Sheriffs Office, the Fayette Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Fayette County Medical Examiner, and the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner.

How to stay secure during a hotel stay TOSS THE KEY ENVELOPE IMMEDIATELY WHAT ABOUT MANUAL KEYS? MUM'S THE WORD TAKE MENTAL NOTES ON ARRIVAL IF YOU FEEL FOLLOWED A WORD ABOUT HOTEL SAFES GET THE HOTEL'S BUSINESS CARDS WHEN IN DOUBT, CALL THE FRONT DESK THE TAKEAWAY
AT&T now allows customers to have faster 5G speeds for gaming and internet connection for an additional $7 in their monthly bill.

Effective immediately, the telecom giant will be offering its "Turbo" services to all eligible plans to boost "all the high-speed and hot spot data on a user's connection."

The company also hinted at plans to further expand its "Turbo" program to more "latency-sensitive applications" in the future.

AT&T has earlier leaked plans for the 5G speed boosting amid the Federal Communication Commission's deliberation to revive the net neutrality rule to regulate internet service providers on how much they can charge customers.

The roll-out of more add-on fees on internet bills reflects the FCC's move to bring back net neutrality, as well as fears from data experts that ISPs will introduce data speed "boosts" to drive up customers' internet bills.

Also Read : Internet Bills Can Charge Extra for Faster Gaming, 5G Connection Under New FCC Rule

Experts Scrutinize FCC's 'Net Neutrality'

While telecom networks tout the new add-ons as a way to boost data speed while still "consistent with open internet principles," data experts offer a different opinion on the matter.

Stanford's Barbara van Schewick earlier warned that ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are exploiting loopholes in the commission's revised net neutrality policy to charge customers still higher internet bills.

According to van Schewick, ISPs have been reported before testing ways to create faster 5G lanes for additional fees.

With more people relying on faster 5G connections for their jobs, studies, and hobbies, ISPs are sure to generate more money from customers despite the current regulatory rules.

Internet Prices Expected to Still Rise

Despite efforts from the government, experts and the FCC expect that prices for internet connection will continue to surge as more Americans will be deprived of their broadband bill subsidies.

The FCC has earlier reduced discounts for members of the Affordable Connectivity Program amid dwindling funds.

The commission said that it will continue to reduce the subsidies given per beneficiary as it eases people to the program's closing.

The White House has already pushed for legislation to extend funding for the program, although the bill remains in Congress as lawmakers cast doubt on the $6 billion additional budget's purpose.
Though it might be tempting to compare the U.S. campus protests to the anti-Vietnam War movement of a half century ago, experts say that would be an overreaction at this point.

So far, there hasn't been violence like bombings and the Kent State National Guard massacre on protestors. Still, some still feel the situation is just one hair-trigger moment away from tragedy.

In a way, the black-and-white Palestinian scarf draped over Hannah Sattler's shoulders this week and the tie-dyed T-shirts of 1968 are woven from a common thread.

Like so many college students across the country protesting the Israel-Hamas war, Sattler feels the historic weight of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 70s.

"They always talked about the '68 protest as sort of a North Star," Sattler, 27, a graduate student of international human rights policy at Columbia University, said of the campus organizers there.

"Even the choice to take over Hamilton Hall was always the plan from the start of the encampment," she says. "Not only because it just made a lot of sense logistically, but it also has that  strong historical connection with the 60s protests."

Still, Robert Cohen says the two aren't comparable.

"I would say that this is the biggest, in the United States, in the 21st century," said Cohen, a professor of history and social studies at New York University. "But you could say, 'Well, that's like being the tallest building in Wichita, Kansas.'"

So far, there have been no bombings, like the one in August 1970 at the University of Wisconsin that killed a postdoctoral researcher and did $6 million worth of damage. There has been no repeat of the infamous Kent State massacre of May 1970, when National Guard troops opened fire on protesters at the Ohio campus, killing four.

Police have cleared encampments and made more than 2,000 arrests, and some, like the crackdown Thursday at UCLA, involved violent clashes. A police officer involved in clearing Columbia's Hamilton Hall of protesters Tuesday fired his gun inside the building.

But demonstrations elsewhere have been peaceful and even led to agreements with administrators to address students' demands.

Yet, to some, there is a feeling that the situation is just one hair-trigger moment away from tragedy, says Mark Naison, who took part in the sometimes violent protests at Columbia in 1968.

"People are terrified," said Naison a professor of history and African & African American Studies at nearby Fordham University.

In September 1970, barely five months after the Kent State tragedy, the President's Commission on Campus Unrest delivered to Richard M. Nixon a "Letter To The American People."

"This crisis has roots in divisions of American society as deep as any since the Civil War," the panel wrote. "The divisions are reflected in violent acts and harsh rhetoric and in the enmity of those Americans who see themselves as occupying opposing camps."

Watching the emotions on campuses from Connecticut to California, those words feel as if they could have been written this week.

But Cohen says emotions  and sheer numbers  are nowhere near the levels they reached at the height of the Vietnam era.

"Look. NYU was one of the first campuses to mobilize," he says. "Maybe there's 200 students  maybe. There are 30,000 (undergraduate) students at NYU, right?"

Another difference that has struck observers is the quick crackdown by campus authorities. In 1968, students occupied Columbia's Hamilton Hall for nearly a week before authorities moved in. When it finally came, the bust saw more than 700 arrested.

"It's funny because Columbia is very proud of  Columbia students' history of activism," said Ilana Gut, a senior at the university's sister school Barnard College. "So their attitudes toward the modern-day activists, at least in the eyes of protestors, is very ironic  that they're so proud of their past protestors, but so violently repressive of their modern-day ones."

Robert Korstad, who protested in the 1960s and is now a professor emeritus of public policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, does see comparisons.

Then, as now, they were protesting a violent war. And now, in addition, students have felt pervasive conflict, said Korstad, with the country's rash of mass shootings and the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police.

"I'm really thinking about what's motivating these young people and what they've grown up with and thinking about over their short lifetime," he says.

Another disturbing difference between then and now, says Jack Radey, is the lack of respect on campuses for differing views.

Radey was a 17-year-old activist during the original Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. He says today's students have succeeded in amplifying the Palestinian cause, but, in some cases, at the cost of civility.

"We did not look on those students who had not joined the free speech movement as idiots or traitors, but as people we needed to convince," said Radey, president of the movement's archives. "You don't do that by violence or with super-heated rhetoric."

Gaza war protests ignite on US college campuses
ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- A Hinton, Iowa, woman was arrested for trespassing late Thursday after hopping a train in Sioux City because she didn't want to drive home while intoxicated.

According to a Sioux County Sheriff's news release, Shannon Heckler called 911 and told the dispatcher she was on a northbound train and wanted to get off. She told dispatchers she was intoxicated and thought it was safer to get on the train than drive home.

Authorities contacted BNSF Railway, which alerted the train's crew to stop the train. The train stopped near Sioux Center, Iowa, and a sheriff's deputy located Heckler walking on the railroad tracks near the intersection of 370th Street and U.S. Highway 75.

According to a complaint filed in Sioux County District Court, Heckler's speech was slurred, she smelled of alcohol, had trouble maintaining her balance and told the deputy she had been drinking too much. A preliminary breath test registered a .191% alcohol content, more than twice the legal limit of .08%

Heckler, 46, was arrested for public intoxication, and BNSF asked she be charged with trespassing.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Sioux County Sheriff's Office reminded people to call a friend, Uber or find another way to get home rather than drive drunk.

"While we appreciate not driving a vehicle after drinking too much alcohol, and we are certainly glad no one was injured, we would suggest NOT climbing aboard a moving BNSF Railway freight train to get you home. ... All kidding and fun aside, please dont drink and drive," the post read.
Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation (1 May 2024)

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

The units of the Zapad Group of Forces have improved their positions along the front line and defeated AFU 14th, 63rd mechanised, and 57th motorised infantry brigades close to Zagoruykovka (Kharkov region), Yampolovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 30 soldiers, five motor vehicles, one UK-made155-mm FN-70 howitzer, one 152-mm D-20 gun, and one 122-mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.

The units of the Yug Group of Forces have occupied more advantageous lines and also inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of 72nd, 93rd mechanised, 92nd assault, and 46th airmobile brigades of the AFU close to Andreyevka, Kurdyumovka, and Konstantinovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 400 troops, seven motor vehicles, two 122-mm D-30 howitzers, two Nota and Anklav electronic warfare stations, and one U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station.

The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces have improved their tactical position and defeated formations of 24th, 100th mechanised, and 142nd infantry brigades of the AFU near Leninskoye, Keramik, and Ocheretino (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

Russian troops have repulsed nine counterattacks by assault groups of 23rd mechanised, 92nd assault, 68th, and 71st jaeger brigades of the AFU close to Novgorodskoye, Solovyovo, Semyonovka, Netailovo, Novokalinovo, Shumy, and Berdychi (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The AFU losses were up to 410 servicemen, one tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, one armoured fighting vehicle, three motor vehicles, one Czech-made DANA 2 155-mm self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made M102 105-mm light howitzer, one 152-mm Msta-B howitzer, and one 122-mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.

The units of the Vostok Group of Forces have occupied more favourable lines and defeated manpower and hardware of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade of the AFU and the 108th Territorial Defence Brigade close to Lugovskoye (Zaporozhye region) and Staromayorskoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 110 soldiers, two pickup trucks, one UK-made 155-mm FN-70 howitzer, one 122-mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and one Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station.

The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have inflicted a fire defeat on manpower concentration areas of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the AFU and the 35th Marine Brigade close to Kamenskoye (Zaporozhye region), Ivanovka, and Stepovoye (Kherson region).

The enemy losses wer up to 20 troops and one U.S.-made M777 155-mm howitzer.

Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have hit the headquarters of the AFU Operational Command South, as well as enemy manpower and military hardware in 112 areas.

Air defence facilities have shot down 29 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, five French-made Hammer guided bombs, and one Uragan multiple-launch rocket system launcher.

In total, 593 airplanes and 270 helicopters, 23,648 unmanned aerial vehicles, 509 air defence missile systems, 15,891 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 1,275 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 9,230 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 21,413 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation (2 May 2024)

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

Units of the Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation along the front lines, and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 3rd Assault Brigade, 30th, 67th mechanised brigades, 13th, and 31st Ukrainian national guard brigades near Sinkovka, Borovaya, and Kupyansk (Kharkov region).

Five counter-attacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 77th Airmobile Brigade, 110th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 1st Ukrainian National Guard Brigade were repelled near Novoselkovskoye, Stelmakhovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic), and Kislovka (Kharkov region).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 150 Ukrainian troops, one tank, and five motor vehicles.

In course of counter-battery warfare, one Polish-made 155-mm self-propelled artillery system, one U.S-made 155-mm M777 howitzer and one U.S.-made M198 howitzer, one 152-mm Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, one 152-mm D-20 howitzer, and two 122-mm D-30 howitzers were neutralised.

Units of the Yug Group of Forces captured more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on mercenaries of the Foreign Legion units, 79th, 92nd air assault brigades, 46th, 81st airmobile brigades, 28th, 93rd mechanised brigades, 107th, and 112th territorial defence brigades near Belogorovka, Grigorovka, Maksimilyanovka, Konstantinovka, Krasnogorovka, and Paraskoviyevka (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 270 Ukrainian troops, one tank, and four motor vehicles.

In the course of counter-battery warfare, one 152-mm Msta-B howitzer, one 152-mm D-20 howitzer, one 122-mm D-30 howitzer, one Nota electronic warfare station, and three field ammunition depots were destroyed.

Units of Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Berdichi (Donetsk Peoples Republic), improved the tactical situation, and inflicted losses on units of the AFU 59th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 42nd, 47th mechanised brigades, and 109th Territorial Defence Brigade near Vozdvizhenka, Kalinovo, Sokol, Novopokrovskoye, and Progress (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

10 counter-attacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 78th Separate Air Assault Regiment, 68th Jaeger Brigade, 142nd Infantry Brigade, 23rd, 24th, 100th, 115th mechanised brigades were repelled near Leninskoye, Novokalinovo, Ocheretino, Solovyevo, Semyonovka, Netaylovo (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 380 Ukrainian troops, five armoured fighting vehicles, eight motor vehicles, one German-made PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery system, and one 155-mm U.S.-made M777 howitzer.

Units of the Vostok Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on units of the AFU 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade and 72nd Mechanised Brigade near Urozhaynoye, Makarovka, and Vodyanoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

One counter-attack launched by an assault detachment of the AFU 128th Territorial Defence Brigade was repelled near Staromayorskoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The AFU losses amounted up to 100 Ukrainian troops, two U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzers, and one U.S.-made M198 howitzer.

Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces delivered strikes on manpower clusters of the AFU 35th, 37th marines brigades, 121st, and 126th territorial defence brigades near Orekhov (Zaporozhye region), Mikhailovka, Ivanovka, and Tyaginka (Kherson region).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 30 Ukrainian troops, two motor vehicles, and one U.S.-made 105-mm M119 howitzer.

Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Groups of Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed two U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS combat vehicles, one missile and ammunition production plant, one AFU missile and tube artillery weaponry depot, as well as engaged AFU manpower and hardware in 117 areas.

Over the past 24 hours, air defence units shot down 25 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, two French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, as well as three U.S.-made HIMARS and Uragan MLRS projectiles.

In total, 593 airplanes, 270 helicopters, 23,673 unmanned aerial vehicles, 509 air-to-air missile systems, 15,898 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,277 MLRS combat vehicles, 9,246 field artillery guns and mortars, and 21,441 special military vehicles have been neutralised since the beginning of the special military operation.

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WtR
Facial recognition technology has been continuously evolving in recent years. The surge of artificial intelligence has contributed to its quick progression in terms of advancement.

However, its advancements are often met with concerns, especially regarding privacy and ethical complications. On the other hand, facial recognition has a list of potential security benefits if regulated properly.

These days AI companies are keen on implementing policies that will help mitigate or prevent the misuse of their generative AI to facial recognition systems.

Not sure where you land on facial recognition? Here are some pros and cons to help you decide:

Read Also : Microsoft Prohibits Use of Azure OpenAI Service to US Police Departments

Privacy and Security

The primary concern against facial recognition technology is the possible invasion of privacy of individuals. The constant surveillance, wherein the technology could be used, raises concerns about the lessening of personal privacy and the right to anonymity.

Moreover, if the technology is not used and regulated, companies could take advantage of storing biometric data like facial images in databases. Even big tech companies are susceptible to data breaches and unauthorized access.

Most individuals would be unaware that their facial data has been collected and processed by recognition systems. Several reports have shown that algorithms could exhibit biases on certain demographic groups which could lead to discrimination.

Crime Prevention

On the other hand, advanced facial recognition technology has the potential to significantly improve security measures and prevent crimes in certain areas. Police departments and other law enforcement agencies can use the technology to quickly identify suspects, leading to fast apprehension.

These days, the technology is being used by government agencies to enhance their border control and immigration process. The facial recognition system helps them verify the travelers' identity and prevent any attempt at illegal entry to a foreign country.

Lack of Regulation

There are currently no specific regulations on facial recognition systems, making it hard for individuals and companies to fully have a common ground about its potential. Facial recognition technology has been advancing at a rapid pace which has resulted in the government's slow progress in creating regulatory frameworks.

Over the years, the technology raised complex ethical dilemmas including consent, human rights, and autonomy. The lack of clear guidelines to be followed opens a window for companies and organizations to navigate their ethical guidelines.

Personalization and Convenience

If facial recognition systems are crafted and regulated properly, they can open a range of opportunities for personalization and convenience even to private individuals. For instance, it can be used to enhance customer service as it allows businesses to accommodate properly their customers as they can analyze their facial expressions.

It can also be an efficient authentication for any digital transactions. Facial recognition can be a secure method of authenticating the legitimate owner of a device or any account, eliminating the risk of unauthorized access and breach.

Businesses can also take advantage of the analysis brought by facial recognition technology as it can simplify and streamline their operations by automating their verification processes.
Just a few years ago, Jenny Martinez, 50, was selling forklifts for a living. In her off time, she loved whipping up the comforting, flavorful dishes of her native Mexico. When her daughter suggested uploading a video of Martinez making her signature birria to TikTok in 2020, she gamely agreed. The short clip, filmed in her Los Angeles kitchen, went viral and launched Martinezs career as a full-time social media influencer. She now has 3.6 million followers, a line of colorful cookware sold at JCPenny and a debut cookbook, My Mexican Mesa, Y Listo!: Beautiful Flavors, Family Style. The book, which Martinez calls a labor of love, features time-honored techniques that will add smart tricks to even the most experienced cooks repertoire. Martinez tells AARP why she decided to share her recipes, how her unexpected journey has changed her family's life, and the three ingredients she cant live without.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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What motivated you to take to TikTok to share your favorite recipes and kitchen tricks?

I always cooked [after work] and my husband would call me the Mexican Rachael Ray, because I was so fast. My daughter Cindy said, Mom, you should start posting your recipes on TikTok, and I said, What's TikTok? But [in January 2020] I downloaded the app. Cindy said, Why dont you post my grandmas birria [beef stew]? She posted the video, and the following morning my phone was blowing up. I couldn't believe it. Before you know it, we already had a million followers.

Have you been surprised by the reaction?

It's changed my life completely. We literally needed to learn to run a business and how to act like business owners, because we've always been employees. Its brought fame to the entire family because we're always doing something together. I started inviting my mom, my dad, my husband and my kids, and now they get recognized in the streets. Thats not to mention my whole cookware collection that was launched in JCPenney. I'm right next to Martha Stewarts store!

Can you share one of the earliest memories of cooking with your family?

My mom has always been known for preparing birria  first in Mexico and then in the United States. When anybody was celebrating a wedding, a baptism or a quinceanera,my mom would always be the one that everybody would be calling: Can you help us make the food? When I was a little girl I would help peel the onions and deseed all the dried chiles and cut the veggies.

It sounds like cooking has always been a family affair.

We've always been in the kitchen because my mom would always encourage us in her sweet way. She would always say that we would win a man's heart by feeding him good food. My sisters and I  we are all still married to the same husbands [for many years]. I don't know if that's something that my mom created  its like this is how you keep a family together, by serving meals every day and keeping the family together. It has worked for me.

What do you want people to feel when they're cooking through the book?

I just want to feel the love. If you cook with so much love, youll keep the family together. [It may make you] want to give a hug to your mom or dad. That's what I keep on hearing from my followers. They love the way I integrate my parents [into the book and social media]. It doesn't matter what culture you're in, because love and food doesn't have a language.
A new report highlights cancers burden on one of the countrys fastest-growing populations. While the disease  most commonly diagnosed in older adults  remains the second-leading cause of death in the United States, its the top killer among Chinese, Filipino, Korean and Vietnamese Americans, beating out heart disease, according to research published May 1 by the American Cancer Society. Meanwhile, death rates for what health experts consider largely preventable cancers  like stomach, liver and cervical  are two to three times higher among Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders compared with their white counterparts.

The report is the first of its kind to take a disaggregated look at cancer in the AANHPI population, which stands for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. Historically, cancer statistics for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been lumped together, says report lead author Nikita Wagle, principal scientist in cancer surveillance research at the American Cancer Society.

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However, this population is so heterogeneous; theres so much diversity, she says. And drilling down and taking a closer look at how cancer affects each group can better facilitate cancer prevention and early detection, she explains.

Different groups bear different burdens

The report looked at trends in cancer incidence and deaths, and made these findings.

Prostate, lung and colorectal cancer are leading threats. The most commonly diagnosed cancer in AANHPI men overall is prostate cancer, but there are a few exceptions:

Lung cancer is the most common cancer among Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian and Chamorro/Guamanian men.

Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer among Korean, Hmong and Cambodian men.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in every AANHPI group. However, theres variation among the groups, ranging from 17 percent of all cancers in Hmong women to 44 percent in Fijian women.

Cancer is diagnosed later in AANHPI individuals. People in AANHPI groups are generally diagnosed with cancer at a later stage compared with white individuals.
As a high-desert region of the Colorado Plateau, CNP experiences extreme climate and weather fluctuations. Its not uncommon for days to top 100 degrees in summer, with nighttime temperatures dropping into the 40s and 50s. Spring (April and May) and fall (September and October) are temperate and pleasant, with daytime temperatures ranging from 60 to 80 and nights dipping from the 50s down to the 30s. In the winter, daytime temperatures average 30 to 50 degrees, while temperatures at night average 20 to zero. The region also experiences a monsoon in late summer and early fall with sudden heavy rains and possible flash floods.

Winter is an overlooked opportunity to visit CNP, and not just because youll share the landscape with fewer people. Take that beautiful red rock and the gorgeous blue sky, put a dusting of powder white snow on it, and youll see its even more stunning, says Karen Garthwait, CNPs interpretation specialist. The park is an all-season hiking destination since snow accumulation rarely exceeds more than a few inches deep, but Garthwait recommends winter hikers use traction devices on their shoes since trails can be slippery.

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There is some cellphone coverage along the Island in the Sky scenic drive, depending on carrier, but cell service is limited to nonexistent in the canyons and on remote trails. There is little to no service in the Needles, and almost none in The Maze, except at the ranger station. Wi-Fi is available at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center.

Hiking trails wind among the rock towers in the Needles district of the park. HagePhoto / Aurora Photos / Getty Images

Things to do

Take a driving tour: Youll find the parks top views strung along Island in the Sky scenic drive, which makes a Y shape, with access to  Whale Rock. Because the shapes and perspectives shift so much as you move around the mesa, you wont want to skip any of the main overlooks which include Green River, Buck Canyon and Grand View Point.

Go hiking: Hundreds of miles of trails varying in length and difficulty thread through CNPs diverse terrain. The most-visited are in Island in the Sky, including the Mesa Arch Trail, a 0.6-mile easy hike round trip leading to the parks iconic photo op, as the cliff-side arch frames the canyon below. Another hike in this section is the moderately challenging, 1.4-mile Aztec Butte Trail, which traverses a flat and sandy wash before ascending around 200 feet to reach an Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site . At Grand View Point, the southernmost end and turnaround point of the Island in the Sky scenic drive, the level and comfortable 1.8-mile Grand View Trail winds along the mesa rim between expanses of slickrock and stands of gnarled and stunted pinon. Thanks to the elevation, this is one of the best views in the park.

In The Needles district, trails spiderweb among the spindly rock towers and gnarled outcrops. When youre in The Needles, youre actually down in the canyon, walking among all these otherworldly landforms and sculptural formations instead of looking down on them from the mesa, Garthwait says. [This also means] many of the trails are easier because theres less elevation change since you dont have to hike down into the canyon and back up. Her top pick for a shorter hike: the Cave Spring Trail, a 0.6-mile round trip past a natural underground spring with prehistoric rock markings and the remnants of a historic cowboy camp. Other favorites include the Chesler Park Trail, a 5.4-mile loop through knobby sherbet-colored hoodoos, and the 8.6-mile Lost Canyon Trail, which loops among eerily twisted formations.

Watch sunset or sunrise: The parks two popular spots for sunrise and sunset viewing are Grand View Point Overlook and White Rim Overlook, the last two stops on the Island in the Sky scenic drive. The Grand View Point Overlook has great views just steps from its parking lot, but its an easy 1.8-mile hike to White Rims overlook, where fewer people interrupt the peace of the dusk.

Visitors can stargaze all night inside the park. Brad McGinley Photography / Getty Images

Go stargazing: Designated an International Dark Sky Park from DarkSky International, formerly the International Dark-Sky Association, in 2015, CNP goes a level beyond with a Gold-Tier designation, reserved for the parks with the darkest skies. The park stays open all night so stargazers can see the spectacle, with stargazing programs scheduled during summer. Some are listed in the park calendar, but its best to check at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center for updated activities.

Garthwait encourages visitors to take a DIY approach to stargazing. Every night that isnt a cloudy night there is a dark-sky show in the park, whether there is a ranger there or not, she says. [On a moonless night] all you have to do is pull off the road, turn your back to the direction of Moab, where theres a little glow, and youll see stars and constellations youve never seen before. 

Go cycling: An ever-expanding network of mountain-bike trails has turned the area into a bucket-list destination for riders. Youre surrounded by [trails] here everywhere you look, and there is so much to do at every skill level, says Brandon Lake, CMO of Moab Adventure Center and Western River Expeditions, outfitters that lead biking and other tours in and around CNP. One of Lakes favorite rides is the Dead Horse Point Singletrack Loop trail, which starts in Dead Horse Point State Park north of CNP and continues into the park, winding over terraced buttes that afford dramatic views of the valley spreading below. Experienced mountain bikers come to the park specifically to ride all or part of Island in the Skys White Rim Road, which drops into the canyon and traces a 100-mile loop along the  mesa, its ragged red cliffs towering above.  

Go river rafting: Some visitors choose to see CNP and its iconic Cataract Canyon on rafting trips. Accessing Canyonlands by river is a way to get down in the heart of the canyon and see some things in the park that you wouldnt see otherwise, Lake says. Wildlife sightings are common, with bighorn sheep frequenting the slopes above the river and bald eagles soaring overhead. Western River Expeditions offers two- and four-day trips to the canyon, both traversing the stretch of the Colorado River from Moab. Shorter rafting experiences that explore stretches of the Colorado River outside the park are available from Moab Adventure Center and other Moab-based outfitters, such as Mild to Wild Rafting and Adrift Adventures.

Lake suggests that older adults and those who prefer tamer rafting inquire about J-Rig trips. These J-Rigs are really big rafts with a lot of different seating flexibility, and people can sit 20 feet back in the raft if they want a quieter experience, he says.
Google Play Store is making it easier for users to identify official government apps with the launch of its badge verification system on the platform.

Starting today, users will be greeted with a "Government" badge when opening official apps, telling them "Play verified this app is affiliated with a government entity."

The badges will also be visible while searching for the apps in "Top Charts" and recommendations, easily differing the original from imitations and copycat apps.

The new feature was first reported by 9to5Google.

The feature is currently available in more than 14 countries, including the US, the UK, Mexico, Australia, and Canada. Google has yet to indicate plans to bring the badges to more countries soon.

Google first teased the feature back in November, testing the verification system across 3,000 government-affiliated apps from different countries.

Also Read : Google Play Store Can Now Download 2 Apps at the Same Time

Play Store's 'Government' Badges Expected to Resolve Scamming Problems

The arrival of the new verification badges on the platform is expected to solve one of the long-running problems on Google Play Store and other Android-based app stores.

Several reports have long noted the prevalent scam apps on the Play Store attracting unaware users with instant monetary rewards or posing themselves as government-backed online service.

With the badges, the tech giant expects that hackers will have a tougher time fooling people to fall into their bogus apps.

Google has earlier declared plans to heighten rules on its Android app store amid data safety and privacy issues hurled at the tech giant.

So far, the company has already started requiring developers to test their apps at least two weeks before launch to prevent security risks arising during the program's launch.

Related Article : Google Play Toughens Rules on Android App Devs, Increases Platform Safety

How to Avoid Scam Apps on Google Play Store

While Google is increasing its efforts to protect users from government-related scam apps, the problem persists in other programs being catered on its platform, particularly those that promote in-app purchases.

To avoid falling victim to scam apps, it is recommended to inspect all apps before installing or downloading them.

Apps with the "Play Protect" badge are more likely to be safe due to being personally reviewed by one of the platform's staff, ensuring their authenticity.

Reviewing other users' experiences with the app can also provide a good grasp of its issues, particularly notable safety and security problems.
AndAnd Brand Partners, a pioneering force in the advertising industry known for its innovative approach to client briefs, today announced a significant expansion of its senior leadership team. This strategic enhancement aims to bolster the agency's capabilities and foster a new era of growth and creativity in response to the evolving market landscape.

The agency, which has consistently adapted to the shifting dynamics of the advertising world, has now strengthened its leadership ranks with the addition of esteemed Creative Director, Abhi Sengupta. Mr. Sengupta, formerly at BBH, brings over 15 years of profound experience in understanding consumer behaviour and managing high-profile accounts like Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Max Life Insurance, Dettol, MMT, Fanta, Greenply and etc. His expertise is set to drive &&'s creative vision forward.

He joins hands with Shyamakanta Pradhan and Nandini Pathania, both of whom have demonstrated exceptional talent and commitment to the agency's creative endeavours. Mr. Pradhan, a veteran at &&, has an impressive track record with brands like Gionee and Future Group, while Ms. Pathania, who joined in 2021, has previously enriched her portfolio with significant stints at Mullen Lowe and Dentsu, working with key clients like Honda and Canon.

On the Client Relationship side, && continues to rely on the robust partnership of Pinaki Sarkar and Diganta Sinha. Mr. Sarkar, with a vast background spanning over 17 years across various industries, and Mr. Sinha, known for his dynamic presence in the agency, together form a formidable team driving the agency's business strategy and client relations.

"We are extremely excited to welcome Mr. Abhi Sengupta as the Creative Director at AndAnd. The new world needs new ideas and the evolving landscape of advertising and marketing favours innovative minds. With our senior leadership in place, we are hopeful of delivering strategic solutions to the complex brand problems" said Rajesh Minocha, Partner, AndAnd Brand Partners. "This strategic move is set to not only enhance our service offerings but also solidify our position as a leader in the creative industry."

AndAnd remains committed to its roots in classical creativity while embracing the digital evolution that characterizes today's advertising landscape. The agency is poised for its next phase of growth, focusing on delivering cutting-edge solutions that meet the complex demands of its clients and the market at large.
Ashutosh Gupta, the Country Manager and APAC Head of LMS OSO at LinkedIn India, bids farewell to the company after an illustrious 11-year tenure marked by significant milestones and achievements. In a heartfelt message shared with his colleagues on LinkedIn, Gupta expressed a mix of emotions including excitement, nostalgia, and profound gratitude. He reflected on the growth, challenges, and triumphs experienced during his tenure, highlighting key moments that defined his journey:

Gupta reminisced about the ambitious "Climbing Everest" initiative launched in 2015, which surpassed goals and propelled him into APAC leadership. He credited the dedication of the LMS India team for the success of this endeavor. He also praised the resilience of Team India in navigating the challenges posed by the pandemic, achieving milestones such as reaching 100 million members and tripling revenues over five years. He acknowledged the inspirational spirit of the India Leadership team and Team India during these unprecedented times.

Gupta highlighted Project Ferrari as a pivotal moment that transformed business operations and fostered teamwork, earning recognition for innovation and collaboration. He acknowledged the contributions of Team APAC OSO in achieving success. Ashutosh Gupta expressed gratitude to his mentors and leaders who provided guidance and support throughout his journey, helping him overcome challenges and seize opportunities for growth.

As Gupta embarks on a new chapter in his career, he expressed eagerness to explore future endeavors while expressing continued support for his LinkedIn colleagues. His departure marks not a farewell, but a step into new beginnings, with updates on his next venture to follow.
Myntra Jabong Pvt. Ltd. the wholesale entity of Myntra has made the announcement that acclaimed fashion icon and Bollywood actor ,Ayushmann Khurrana, has been onboarded as the brand ambassador for Nautica, global lifestyle brand in India. Khurrana will be leading the Spring Summer collection campaign of the brand which will be discernible across all the regions nationwide. Nautica is famed for its premium fashion-forward allure all across the world, offering a diversified range of categories which span home and accessories, children, men, women, Nautica can be found online on Flipkart, Myntra and in physical stores.

With Ayushmann Khurrana as the face of the campaign, Nautica intends to tap into the actors popularity, building deeper salience with premium fashionistas nationwide. The national award-winning actor is known for his versatility, effortless style, and impeccable fashion sense, aligning with the ethos of Nautica perfectly. The actor's boy-next-door image (BND) and distinctive ability for connecting with a diversified set of consumers across geographies, make him the ideal choice for enhancing the visibility of the brand further, reaching every nook and corner of the country.

The ad campaign highlights Nautica's latest season's collection, with Khurrana's visual montage emphasizing the ease and style of a Nautica man. The actor confidently expresses his individuality through his fashion choices, showcasing his authenticity, staying true to himself. The campaign is being launched nationally across mediums, including, print, outdoor, social media and leading digital platforms. The Spring Summer collection is aimed at men between the ages of 22-60.
Social media is not only a gift to those who want to connect with people in their lives online, but a very useful tool for businesses building their brands. Through various platforms is a large network that can reach millions of people, but there's a right way to do it. Here are things you should avoid in social media marketing.

1. Not Following a Strategy

You can't just create materials and post them willy-nilly. You need to have a strategy in mind to make sure that your ads reach your target market, or reach new consumers that might be interested in what you can offer. For instance, you might want to promote rainbow-colored clothing when Pride Month is right around the corner.

2. Failing to Research Active Hours

There are a lot of factors to consider when you're posting promotional materials, and doing so during active hours can determine whether your post will get a lot of views or not. A simple search can tell you the right timeframe for posting. In the US, for instance, people are most active around 11:00 AM PST on Wednesday, so time your publishing well.

3. Too Many Ads

At some point, there are ads that are shown too much that people tend to get tired of them. Users are predisposed to hate ads because it interferes with what they want to do like watching videos or reading posts. You have to balance it out by showing your ads just enough to make an impact, but not too much that people would avoid it due to annoyance.

4. Relying Too Much on Paid Ads

Purchasing ads can be crucial to expanding your business and brand, but you also have to pay attention to the organic reach your page has. You may be able to control the amount of ads you send out, but not having an organic reach will show that your brand cannot go past paid boosts. Besides, building reach organically could mean you won't need paid ads eventually.

5. Ignoring Social Media Tools

Since social media companies recognize that business is already being conducted on their sites, a lot of them already have built-in marketing tools to encourage engagement. Take advantage of these tools and do your research on each platform as every one of them has unique methods for advertising.

Read Also : 8 Pros and Cons of Social Media Absence

6. Not Acknowledging Social Media Cultures

In case you haven't noticed, each social media platform has varying cultures, which means that one marketing strategy is not a universal fit for all. Take Instagram, for example. You might fare better having an influencer advertising your brand. Facebook, having multimedia options, allows you to post a photo along with a caption that can elaborate on what you can offer.

7. Brushing Negative Feedback Aside

What your customers think about your brand or your products can make or break your business. If someone has something bad to say, think of it as constructive criticism instead of ignoring it or worse, responding negatively. Take into account what they don't like about your product or services, and try to improve on that for other customers.

8. Lack of Crisis Management

There's a difference between negative feedback and a negative situation. With feedback, you can always assure them that you can do better as long as you will, but a bad situation won't go away until you resolve the underlying issues. If you don't have management measures in place when things go awry, you might not just lost your marketing platform but your business as well.
Brand Street Integrated, a prominent integrated marketing agency, is excited to declare its acquisition of 3% Collective, a forward-thinking digital agency celebrated for its prowess in elevating brands from inception to success. This strategic initiative signifies a pivotal moment in the trajectory of both entities, as they unite to offer unmatched end-to-end digital solutions to brands, companies, and corporations spanning various industries.

By joining forces, Brand Street Integrated and 3% Collective are set to bolster capabilities at the intersection of Digital Content, Media, Tech, and E-commerce. This ensures a comprehensive suite of services that deliver seamless, impactful and long lasting digital experiences. The objective of 3% Collective aligns perfectly with Brand Street Integrated's commitment to delivering tailored strategies and execution services. This synergy ensures a cohesive partnership focused on driving tangible results for clients.

By integrating innovative strategies with a robust suite of services encompassing Consumer Marketing, Trade Marketing, and Digital Solutions, 'Brand Street Integrated' and '3% Collective' are primed to craft immersive brand experiences that enthral and captivate target audiences. This collaboration leverages the collective expertise of both agencies, promising dynamic and engaging campaigns designed to resonate with consumers across diverse touchpoints.

Talking about the acquisition, Surendra Singh, CEO, Brand Street Integrated, said, This acquisition signifies a remarkable milestone for both Brand Street Integrated and 3% Collective. Together, we're on a mission to revolutionize the digital marketing arena, providing our clients with ground-breaking solutions that propel their growth and achievements. With this joint venture, we anticipate not only expanding our market presence but also fostering shared synergies that will undoubtedly benefit our clients and stakeholders alike."

Brand Street Integrated's ascent to becoming one of India's Top 10 Experiential Marketing Agency Networks, combined with 3% Collective's extensive expertise in digital terrain navigation, establishes a formidable partnership. With this union of strengths, their capabilities reach unprecedented levels, promising clients unmatched proficiency and solutions driven by tangible results.



Pradeep Singh, Co-founder of 3% Collective, remarked, "Brand Street Integrated, a powerhouse in their own niche, together, we're poised to leverage each other's strengths and expertise to drive unprecedented growth and innovation in the digital marketing landscape. This partnership represents a strategic alignment of our visions and resources, as we work hand in hand to deliver unparalleled value and results for our clients. We look forward to the exciting possibilities that lie ahead as we embark on this journey together."
Social platforms dominate the global media landscape, and wield huge influence over how brands reach their audiences. According to WARC Medias latest forecasts, social media is now the largest channel worldwide by advertising investment, having overtaken paid search last year, and is forecast to total $247.3 billion in 2024, up 14.3% year-on-year.

Data from GWI shows that time spent with social platforms has increased by 50% since 2014, from an average daily consumption of 95 minutes to 152 minutes in 2024, and according to data.ai, worldwide user numbers across social platforms have risen 169% since 2014.

Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media, said, Much of social medias success has been driven by Metas remarkable renaissance. However, socials stronghold on budgets can also be seen in TikToks rise, and a return to double digit ad revenue growth at Snapchat and Pinterest.

However, with this dominance comes challenges, such as rising advertising loads in social environments, and the impact of AI on media planning. In this report, we take a holistic view of the global social media landscape, which shows no sign of losing momentum, he added.

Key insights highlighted in WARCs Global Advertising Trends: Social media reaches new peaks are:

Social is the leading media channel by ad spend globally

Global social spend is set to total $247.3 billion in 2024, up 14.3% year-on-year, a slight deceleration from +16.0% in 2023. Western platforms are growing fastest, fuelled by Chinese brands targeting US and European audiences.

Meta is on track to overtake linear TV in ad revenue in 2025

Both Facebook and Instagram grew by more than 20% year-on-year in Q1 2024, and Meta is forecast to earn $155.6 billion in ad revenue this year, representing a 63.0% share of global social spend, fuelled by a wave of investment from Chinese exporters, and the popularity of its AI tools. According to WARC Media, Meta is set to overtake global linear TV in advertising spend terms in 2025.

Investment in AI has helped to drive incremental social spend

Tools like Metas Advantage+, which automate aspects of creative and media planning, are becoming increasingly popular with advertisers. However, some brands have complained of erosion to campaign efficiencies.

TikToks growth will slow in 2024, amidst US ban concerns

WARC Media forecasts TikTok will earn $23.1 billion this year. The +18.3% year-on-year increase marks a significant slow-down from the 87.8% growth rate it clocked up last year, despite the introduction of new search and shopping ad formats. Given TikToks unique popularity with Gen Z audiences, many advertisers in the US will be hoping a ban does not come into effect.

Snapchat and Pinterest return to double digit ad growth

Pinterest is set to enjoy a 17.3% year-on-year increase in ad revenue in 2024, while Snapchat is forecast to grow 13.7%. This strong growth of both platforms is attributed to a refocus and leaning into their respective strengths.

Twitter/Xs ad revenue woes are set to continue in 2024

Xs ad revenue in 2024 is predicted to decline by 6.4% globally and 5.1% in the US. However, compared to its startling 46.4% decrease in 2023, it marks something of a stabilisation for the Elon Musk owned platform, largely due to political ad spend. However, marketers remain concerned with brand safety and Xs much publicised issues with bots.

Ad loads are rising across social platforms

Meta reportedly increased its ad load in Q4 2023 to 19.1%, with most Reels sessions now having seven or more ads. Platforms are aiming to improve monetisation efficiency with new search and shopping ad formats.

Social platforms are becoming increasingly homogeneous

As TikTok prepares to launch a photo sharing app, Notes, and Meta invests in AI search tools, social platforms are converging in the advertising formats and commerce functionality they offer to brands.

Rachel Morman, Global Head of Social, PHD Global, commented, AI offers incredible new opportunities for [social advertisers], delivering multi-advertiser contextual ads, but that may not be suitable for all brands  such as those that need to heavily consider exclusivity and adjacency.

Gillian Collison, Global Head of Social, GroupM, added, The challenge remains to enable brands to leverage their own data and analytics to understand target audiences at a deeper level, enabling personalised experiences across all mediums.

Social Media outlook in the US, UK, China and APAC

US: Social media advertising spend is set to reach $75.6 billion this year. Facebook remains the biggest player, forecast to reach $36.3 billion, followed by Instagram ($21.3 billion), and TikTok ($10.1 billion).

UK: Social media advertising spend in the UK grew 15.6% year-on-year in 2023, and is forecast to reach 8.8bn in 2025, per the latest AA/WARC Expenditure Report. Much of this growth is attributed to rising spend on social video formats, up 20.0% year-on-year, according to IAB UK.

China: Major Chinese social platforms have suffered an ad revenue slowdown since 2021, however, signs of positivity are emerging: video and photo sharing app, Xiaohongshu, with 312 million MAUs in China, has reported its first profit; and Douyin, owned by ByteDance, is forecast to earn $30.2 billion in ad revenue, $7 billion more than TikTok, its Western sibling.

APAC: More than 70% of consumers in Asian markets, including Indonesia and the Philippines, use social media across multiple stages of their buying journeys. GWI data shows that social media users in APAC are 11.2% more likely than the global average to purchase a product or service on a weekly basis because of social media influencer endorsement.
Hershey India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of The Hershey Company, a leading global Snacking and Confectionery Company and the largest producer of quality chocolates in North America, has launched HERSHEYS Choco Delights  a melt-in-mouth milk chocolate bar with crunchies. HERSHEYS Choco Delights launch strengthens Hersheys chocolate portfolio in India and marks the companys foray into the Value Molded Chocolate Sub-Segment, one of the largest within the chocolates category in India.

HERSHEYS Choco Delights caters to the growing demand for unique snacking experiences at a reasonable price point among Indian consumers, particularly Gen Z, Millennials, and value-conscious consumers.

Commenting on the launch, Luigi Mirri, General Manager, Hershey India and APAC stated, "HESHEYS Choco Delights stands out distinctly with its combination of melt-in-mouth chocolates and crunchies that delivers Hersheys classic chocolatey experience at an accessible price point. It is a testament to our commitment to strengthen our chocolate portfolio in India and innovate in our pursuit of engaging a diverse consumer base. With this launch we aim to become a significant player in the prominent chocolate segment, catering to key consumption occasions for chocolate enthusiasts.



The launch is a significant milestone for the company, as it expands its presence in the chocolate segment in the country, after the successful launch of HERSHEYS KISSES, HERSHEYS Exotic Dark, HERSHEYS Bars and HERSHEYS Choco Tubes.

Delivering Hersheys classic experience at an affordable price point, this new addition will significantly expand Hersheys audience in the confectionery market, specifically targeting the metro markets which encompass 1 million plus towns.

HERSHEYS Choco Delights is available across retail stores in top cities at INR 10/-.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), renowned for its innovative marketing strategies and customer-centric approach, proudly launches its latest multi-channel media campaign for Hyundai EXTER, titled Dil mein Bas Jaye EXTER. The campaign, featuring a series of six quirky films, aims to significantly enhance brand recall and generate buzz surrounding the EXTER while effectively highlighting its key safety, convenience and comfort features like six Airbags standard with 40+ safety features, Paddle Shifters, Sunroof, Cruise Control, Hill Assist Control, and more. The TVCs incorporate carefully curated regional nuances to resonate deeply with diverse audiences, ensuring a powerful and lasting impact that transcends cultural boundaries.

These films, characterized by their unique and humorous storyline, with a common central character Surya, who embodies the spirit and features of EXTER in a convincing yet entertaining manner. This highly memorable approach to advertisement-making sets the campaign apart, ensuring a lasting impression on viewers.

Sharing his insights about the campaign, Mr. Virat Khullar, AVP & Vertical Head, Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Limited, said, "The Dil mein Bas Jaye EXTER campaign exemplifies Hyundais commitment to creativity and innovation in marketing. With a focus on creating high brand recall and amplifying awareness about EXTER, these TVCs effectively communicate the unique value proposition of our SUV. By leveraging humour and relatable narratives while establishing an enhanced regional connect through Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali languages, we aim to resonate with our target audience and further strengthen the brand value and recall of the Hyundai EXTER.

He added, In addition to the TVCs, we've developed concise, social media-specific content featuring familiar characters and settings. This targeted strategy aims to boost awareness and reinforce the 'Dil me bass jaye EXTER' positioning digitally, maximizing engagement and resonance, particularly among the Gen Z demographic. By extending the campaign's reach to social platforms, we anticipate heightened participation and advocacy for Hyundai EXTER."

The multifaceted campaign will be promoted across TV, digital, radio and social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Targeted towards driving higher website visits and video views, the campaign will utilize programmatic platforms to reach in-market auto enthusiasts, news channels, family-focused individuals, sport enthusiast, and travel affinity audiences.

Since its launch in 2023, Hyundai EXTER has garnered phenomenal customer response and critical acclaim. Boasting over 100,000 bookings and capturing a remarkable 34% segment share, EXTER has firmly established itself as a top choice in its category. Notably, the higher trims featuring enhanced convenience features, including a sunroof and Hyundai Bluelink Connected Car technology, have contributed to over 70% of EXTER sales.

With 20 first-in-segment features and 9 best-in-segment features, Hyundai EXTER continues to elevate the aspirations of Indian customers. Over 38% of EXTER buyers are first-time car buyers, with an average age ranging from 18 to 29 years. Furthermore, nearly 30% of customers are influenced by pure word-of-mouth marketing, underscoring the high levels of customer satisfaction associated with the EXTER.

The Dil mein Bus Jaye EXTER campaign represents Hyundais unwavering commitment to delivering innovative, customer-centric marketing initiatives.

Hyundai EXTER enthusiasts and prospective buyers can explore more about the campaign and the SUV's features by visiting the official Hyundai website and social media channels.






India Today, India's premier English news channel, is all set to tantalise the taste buds of viewers with a sizzling political showdown accompanied by the spicy culinary delights of Andhra Pradesh through its Election Special, "Elections on My Plate. The channel's Consulting Editor, Rajdeep Sardesai, is currently traversing through the southern state with a unique concept, blending analysis, interviews, and on-ground reports while indulging in the local gastronomy for the audience.

This Friday, May 3, Rajdeep is geared up to present exclusive interviews with two political powerhouses of the state  N Chandrababu Naidu, the chief of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and the charismatic Telugu film star Pawan Kalyan, who leads the regional outfit Jan Sena Party (JSP).

Andhra Pradesh commands special attention as it gears up to cast its vote for the new Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly simultaneously on May 13, marking the fourth phase of the seven-phased General Elections 2024.

Adding intrigue to the Andhra elections is the alliance between Naidu and Pawan Kalyan, who joined forces to challenge the incumbent chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. They have now aligned with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party, which dominated the Andhra polls in 2019, winning 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats and 151 out of 175 seats in the state assembly, has long been perceived as an implicit ally of the national BJP.

Rajdeep Sardesai engaged in candid discussions with Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada and Pawan Kalyan in Jaggampeta, posing pointed questions in his signature style to elucidate why Andhra voters should support their alliance this time around.

Previously, Rajdeep interviewed Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy in Visakhapatnam, probing into allegations of corruption against his administration and his authoritative leadership style.

Keep tuned to India Today to unravel the complexities of Andhra Pradesh politics, capturing the essence of both the visible and underlying dynamics in the state through Rajdeep Sardesai's insightful interviews with key players shaping the political landscape of Andhra Pradesh.
A preffered merchant software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for commerce enablement and payments, Mintoak, has announced a strategic step forward in its efforts towards expanding globally. Welcoming onboard three experienced professionals Marlyn Jose, Chayan Hazra, and Jyoti Shankar Mishra  to its leadership team, Mintoak stands for its steadfast commitment to firm innovation and growth.

Mintoak's recent appointments, strategically made beyond India's borders, signify a pivotal moment in the company's evolution, highlighting its strong growth trajectory and the visionary leadership guiding its advancement.

These strategic additions align perfectly with Mintoak's overarching vision, which not only focuses on strengthening its presence in its home market of India but also extends its reach into new, promising territories such as the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. While Mintoak has already forayed into markets like Africa and the Middle East, this expansion comes at a time when India's digital payments success serves as a global case study, making it a compelling strategic move for Mintoak to leverage its expertise and insights in these emerging markets.

Chayan Hazra steps into the pivotal role of Head of Growth, leveraging his nearly two-decade-long expertise in financial services and banking. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Chayan's leadership will play a pivotal role in driving Mintoak's international expansion, particularly in digital payments, regulatory compliance, and forging strategic partnerships. His extensive background includes leadership roles at PineLabs, Mastercard, HDFC Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

Joining as Head of Business Development, Africa, Marlyn Jose brings over 15 years of invaluable experience in banking and payments to the table. Stationed in Johannesburg, South Africa, Marlyn's deep understanding of the local retail landscape positions Mintoak favourably for growth across the African continent. In the past, she spearheaded strategy and revenue-generating initiatives for payment acceptance solutions at Mastercard EEMEA. Her prior achievements in enhancing FNB South Africa's merchant services segment also highlight her adeptness in navigating complex and diverse markets.

Jyoti Shankar Mishra, assuming the role of Head of Business Development for the Middle East, brings with him a wealth of experience spanning more than two decades in banking and insurance across the region. With a base in Dubai, Jyoti's extensive career with brands like Standard Chartered and Dubai Islamic Bank equips him to drive Mintoak's expansion in this dynamic market.

"We are thrilled to welcome Chayan, Marlyn, and Jyoti to the Mintoak family. Their collective experience and regional insights perfectly complement our strategic vision of expanding our global footprint. These appointments reinforce our commitment to delivering innovative solutions for empowering the SME community globally" said Raman Khanduja, co-founder and CEO at Mintoak.

In fortifying its global presence with these strategic appointments, Mintoak not only reaffirms its position as a frontrunner in the merchant services domain but also commits to its dedication to driving sustainable growth and fostering synergistic alliances in diverse markets.
Mother's Recipe has launched its vibrant 'Taste ka Dhamaka' campaign in Pune, showcasing its new line of sauces. To engage with the local Punekar audience and highlight the deliciousness of their 85g sauce packs, the brand has adorned city buses with colorful advertisements.

Following the success of their campaign on Mumbai local trains, Mother's Recipe is now spreading the joy to the streets of Pune. The 'Taste ka Dhamaka' campaign is all about their message 'Get a small pack, make anything you want!' highlighting how easy and versatile their sauces are. The ads on Pune Municipal Corporation buses will catch commuters' eyes, tempting them with the delicious flavors of Mother's Recipe Sauces.

Ms. Sanjana Desai, Executive Director of Mother's Recipe, shared her excitement, saying, "We are thrilled to bring the 'Taste ka Dhamaka' campaign to Pune. With our new sauces, we want to offer Puneites tasty and convenient options for cooking. Through this campaign, we aim to introduce our new Recipe Sauces to Pune and create buzz around our brand."

The campaign's goal is not only to let people know about the new sauces but also to boost confidence among sellers and increase sales. The 'Taste ka Dhamaka' campaign shows Mother's Recipe's dedication to customer-focused marketing. By using Pune Municipal Corporation buses, the brand hopes to reach a wide audience and make a mark in the market.

The product range is now available at your neighborhood store and leading supermarket chains like Reliance Fresh.
In a strategic move, Pravis, set up by Prashant Sinha and Vishal Gupta, ex-Momspresso founder, has made the acquisition of a considerable stake in the leading ad-tech platform in India. This undertaking is set to be exploring the considerable business possibility of the swiftly growing gaming sector, specifically in the engagement of the evasive GenZ cohort.

StreamO, founded by Tushaar Garg in 2021, is at the forefront of connecting brands with gamers and their live watchers, reaching a vast network of over 20,000 gamers and a GenZ subscriber base exceeding 300 million. With global game video content on platforms like YouTube reaching 120 billion hours of viewership in 2022 and India's consumption rates doubling the global average, the opportunities for brand engagement are immense and largely untapped.

Following their successful exit from Momspresso to Honasa (Mamaearth), Vishal and Prashant leveraged their experience to create Pravis, a growth marketing firm dedicated to fostering organic brand growth through proven strategies. Now, as co-founders of StreamO, they are poised to bring their deep insights from building internet products and influencer relationships to the forefront of the gaming industry.

Vishal Gupta, now Co-Founder of StreamO, comments on the unique challenge presented by the GenZ audience, "Gaming presents an unprecedented opportunity to reach the GenZ audience, a demographic that is notoriously difficult to engage through traditional media. With StreamO, we are positioned uniquely to leverage the explosive growth of live gaming platforms and the passionate GenZ communities they nurture. Tushaar is one of the thought leaders in the gaming space in India and we are delighted to partner with him in this journey".

Prashant Sinha, also Co-Founder, reflects on his experience and future plans, "Drawing from our learnings from Momspresso's MyMoney platform, we understand the dynamics of micro-influencer and brand interactions very well. With StreamO, we aim to apply these insights to expand and deepen our brand engagements by 10X in the next 12 months. StreamO's innovative methods are in perfect alignment with Pravis vision for the future of this industry and we are excited about the possibilities this partnership with Tushaar opens up."

Tushaar Garg, Founder and CEO of StreamO, highlights the companys achievements and upcoming goals, "StreamO has already set a benchmark in the gaming community by fostering authentic connections between brands and gamers. With the addition of Vishal and Prashant, we are excited to propel this success to new heights. Their expertise in influencer marketing and strategic brand partnerships will be instrumental in accelerating our growth and business."

StreamO has already established successful collaborations with top brands including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Intel, Sony PlayStation, OnePlus, Hero, Crocs, Taco Bell and Spotify, fostering more than 100 significant brand engagements.

The new partnership with Pravis promises to strengthen StreamOs leadership in connecting brands with the engaged GenZ gaming community, ushering in a new era of innovation in live gaming sponsorships.
Raymond Limited today announced its audited financial results for the year ended 31st March, 2024

A snapshot of the consolidated financial results: (Post IND AS 116)

Consolidated Results Snapshot Particular ( in Cr.) Q4FY24 Q4FY23 Y-o-Y% FY24 FY23 Y-o-Y% Net Revenue 2,688 2,192 23% 9,286 8,337 11% EBITDA 516 379 36% 1,575 1,322 19% EBITDA % 19.2% 17.3% 190 bps 17.0% 15.9% 110 bps PAT excluding profit on sale of FMCG Business 229 194 18% 655 529 24% Profit on sale of FMCG Business - - - 983 - Reported PAT 229 194 18% 1,638 529 210%

Note:FY24 Reported PAT includes  983 Crores (being 47.66%) of Raymond Ltd. share of profit in associate (Raymond Consume Care Ltd.) on sale of FMCG business.

In a milestone year FY24, Raymond delivered its highest-ever annual revenue of  9,286 Cr and EBITDA of  1,575 Cr with the EBITDA margin of 17.0%. Despite the Lifestyle business witnessing subdued consumer demand and challenging market conditions, Raymond's focused business approach across its operations led to robust growth in the Branded Apparel, Garmenting, and Real Estate segments, resulting in an impressive double-digit revenue growth of 11% in FY24 as compared to previous year. The Real Estate segment delivered stellar performance throughout the year, securing a total booking value of 2,249 Cr.

In O4FY24, Raymond delivered a record-breaking performance both in terms of revenue and profitability, making it the 11th consecutive quarter of sustained growth. During this quarter, revenue increased by 23% YoY, reaching  2,688 Cr, with highest-ever EBITDA of  516 Cr and EBITDA margin of 19.2%. Our strategic emphasis on premiumisation, casualisation and expansion of distribution channels significantly contributed to the robust growth of the Branded Apparel business, witnessing increase in revenue from 332 Cr in O4FY23 to 409 Cr in O4FY24, representing a growth of 23%. In O4FY24, the company recorded a total booking value of  840 Cr, primarily driven by the successful launch of 'The Address by GS, Bandra,' which received overwhelming response with approximately 62% of the launched inventory sold within 40 days.

During the quarter Raymond completed the business acquisition of Maini Precision Product Ltd. With this Raymond Group forays into sunrise sectors of Aerospace, Defense and EV components business. Going ahead post consolidation, through a composite scheme of arrangements, two subsidiaries will be created. One will focus on aerospace & defense, while the other will cater to the auto components with EV and engineering consumables sector, each charting its unique path of growth with a primary objective of value creation.

In line with our strategic initiatives, the proposed demerger of Lifestyle Business is progressing as planned, having already received SEBI, shareholder, and creditor approval. Further, NCLT hearing is scheduled on 9th May 24 for the approval of Demerger.

Commenting on the performance, Gautam Hari Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, Raymond Limited said; I am satisfied with the performance across businesses, and they have demonstrated consistent growth throughout the year. Our Lifestyle business showed strong perseverance and recorded growth despite headwinds and muted consumer demand. For our Real Estate business, we have maintained strong booking momentum particularly with the launch of our first JDA project in Bandra, Mumbai. We remain committed to delivering value to stakeholders and are confident in our ability to capitalize on growth opportunities, ensuring sustained success in the future. We have our three verticals vis Lifestyle, Real Estate & Engineering business that are future growth engines which is in line with Indias vision of Viksit Bharat.

O4FY24 Segmental Performance (Post IND AS 116)

Branded Textile segment sales maintained with the top line of  920 Cr in O4FY24 vs  902 Cr in O4FY23 despite muted customer demand and challenging market conditions. EBITDA margins maintained at 21.9% as compared to 21.8% in the previous quarter mainly due to operational efficiency.

Branded Apparel segment reported topline growth of 23% with sales at  409 Cr in O4FY24 as compared to  332 Cr in the same quarter last year. This growth was witnessed across all brands and formats, reflecting a strategic emphasis on casualisation and the introduction of new designs. The segment reported an EBITDA margin of 13.4%, lower as compared to PY due to increased investments in branding and category creation (Ethnix) through additional spending on advertising and marketing initiatives. During the year we have opened more than 200 stores including 56 Ethnix by Raymond stores. The total retail store network now stands at 1,518 stores as of 31st March 2024.

Garmenting segment sales reported sales at  280 Cr in O4FY24 as compared to  305 Cr in same quarter previous year. The top line decline in O4FY24 was due to ongoing Red Sea crisis and Geopolitical issues. EBITDA margin for the quarter was 11.3% as compared to 6.6% in the previous year mainly due to better product mix and operational efficiency.

High Value Cotton Shirting reported sales of  213 Cr in O4FY24 higher by 14% as compared to  187 Cr in same quarter previous year led by higher demand for linen fabric offerings from our B2B customers in the domestic market. The segment reported an EBITDA margin of 11.5 % for the quarter.

Engineering business excluding MPPL reported sales of  234 Cr in O4FY24 higher by 7% as compared to  219 Cr in same quarter previous year. Growth driven by demand of Flexplates & Bearings categories in domestic markets and of Flexplates, Ring gear and Shield Ring categories in the Export markets. EBITDA margin was higher at 15.8% mainly due to operational efficiencies and better product mix On the full year basis in FY24 MPPL revenue was  935 Cr with EBITDA of  146 Cr.

Real Estate business construction momentum was maintained in all six projects. The business showcased a strong sales performance with 134% growth to  677 Cr from  289 Cr in the same quarter previous year showing customer confidence and acceptance of our high- quality product coupled with a fast-paced construction momentum in the ongoing projects. During the quarter we launched our first JDA project outside Thane land in Bandra, Mumbai and sold ~62% of launched units. Total booking value during the quarter was ~ 840 Cr in the launched projects with ~91% of total units in Ten X Habitat, ~92% of total units in The Address by GS, ~42% of total units in TenX Era, ~52% of launched units in The Address by GS 2.0and

~40% of launched units in Invictus by GS project being sold.
M&C Saatchi Group has confirmed that group creative director, Sharon Edmonston, has departed after eight years with the agency.

Edmonston, who first joined M&C Saatchis Sydney office as a creative director in 2015, is yet to reveal the reason for her exit.

According to reports she is one of multiple senior employees to have left the group, continuing a trend of senior exits after the departure of from M&C Saatchi Australia chief strategy officer, Emily Taylor in February. The agencys chief creative officer, Cam Blackley, also finished up more than 5 years with the agency in October last year.

As M&C Saatchi embraces the optimum creative structure for our clients needs and evolving capabilities, the necessary yet difficult decision has been made to reshape select roles, said an M&C Saatchi Groupspokesperson in a statement.

We are sad to part ways with colleagues that have played significant roles in delivering exceptional campaigns for our valued clients; for which we would like to say a heartfelt thank you. Small changes to our creative structure are required to channel our big ambition and purposefully continue M&C Saatchi Group on its trajectory of success.

The news comes at the same time as reports that Endeavour Group has gone to pitch for its core brands, including BWS, for which M&C Saatchi is the incumbent.
(Photo : Unsplash/Raymond Kotewicz )

Exxon Mobil's $65 billion purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources got the green light from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Still, the Pioneer's ex-CEO is barred from joining the board after being accused of working with OPEC to hike prices.

FTC's Conspiracy Complaint Against Pioneer's Founder and OPEC

The FTC lodged a complaint claiming that Scott Sheffield, founder of Pioneer in 1997, tried to conspire with OPEC representatives to decrease crude oil and gas production, aiming to boost pump prices and Pioneer's profits. Sheffield, who retired in 2016, resumed his role as president and CEO in 2019, served as CEO from 2021 to 2023, and sits on the board since January 1, serving as a special adviser to the company's chief executive.

The FTC alleges that Sheffield attempted to coordinate oil production in the Permian Basin with OPEC+ through various means such as public statements, text messages, in-person meetings, WhatsApp conversations, and other communications. As part of its proposed resolution, the FTC suggested a consent order prohibiting Exxon from appointing any Pioneer employee to its board, with a few exceptions.

According to sources familiar with the situation who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, the federal regulator has opted to forward the allegations to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation. FTC spokesman Doug Farrar said that the FTC bears the responsibility of referring potentially criminal behavior and approaches this obligation seriously.

READ ALSO: US Lawmakers Dig Deeper Into Amazon-iRobot Failed Merger, Probes FTC's Questionable Work with European Commission

Exxon's Adherence to The Ruling

In response, Exxon said on Thursday that it would keep Sheffield off its board as it anticipates closing the deal with Pioneer on Friday.

The FTC claimed that Sheffield engaged in repeated private discussions with top OPEC officials, assuring them that Pioneer and its competitors in the Permian Basin were collaborating to maintain artificially low oil output, which was not a one-off event but a sustained and long-running strategy to coordinate output reductions, according to FTC Chair Lina Khan and the other commissioners.

Pioneer's Counteracting The Allegations

Dallas-based Pioneer expressed disagreement with the allegations but affirmed its commitment to not obstruct the merger's closure. The merger was initially announced in October 2023, and neither the company nor Sheffield is taking any measures to prevent it from finalizing.

Pioneer countered the allegations in a statement on Thursday, asserting that the FTC's complaint indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the US and global oil markets and that Sheffield never aimed to circumvent laws and principles safeguarding market competition.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed disappointment at seeing the FTC repeat the same mistake they made 25 years ago when he had previously warned about the Exxon and Mobil merger in 1999. Schumer, along with 22 other Democratic senators, had urged the FTC to investigate both the deal and a separate merger between Chevron and Hess, saying it could result in higher prices, diminish competition, and impose additional financial burdens on families at the pump.

RELATED ARTICLE: Shell Extends Job Cuts on Division Basis: Scaling Back Hydrogen for a Leaner Organization

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Quite a few changes can be expected as a new series of Pokemon  Pokemon Horizons: The Series  returns to television. For the first time in Pokemons history, the spotlight shines on a female lead, Liko, and her partner Pokemon Myaoha, as they explore a vibrant new world alongside young trainer Roy.

Set to premiere on Hungama on May 25, the series promises captivating storytelling and introduces viewers to a host of new characters and Pokemon, including the daring voyages of Captain Pikachu. With original opening and ending tracks composed by Vishal-Sheykhar and sung by Armaan Malik and Shirley Setia, tailored specifically for Indian fans, the series brings a fresh, local flavour to the beloved franchise.

Sharing his excitement about the new storyline and characters, Susumu Fukunaga, Corporate Officer, The Pokemon Company, said that Pokemon Horizons aims to engage audiences while respecting the legacy of Ash and Pikachu. While Fukunaga acknowledged the deep connection fans have with Ash and Pikachu, at the same time he stressed on the importance of exploring new horizons. We are very happy that a lot of people have enjoyed the journeys of Ash and Pikachu so far. Now that Ash has become a champion, that story has reached a pinnacle. We hope that the new series will bring people closer to Pokemon and they will enjoy it as much as they did before, he added.

As for the marketing strategy to reach Tier 2 and 3 cities, Fukunaga highlighted localization efforts and community engagement. He said, The first thing is through localization, especially with the introduction of local names for the characters, there will be almost immediate affinity and understanding. Were also organizing extensive multi-city events where fans can interact with the characters.

Fukunaga further emphasized on Hungamas widespread reach across the country, ensuring viewers in all regions have access to the new series. Hungamas reach is extensive across the country. Viewers will have the opportunity to watch Pokemon all the time on the channel, making it accessible to audiences everywhere, he added.

Regarding potential collaborations with OTT platforms, Fukunaga expressed gratitude to Hungamas partnership while hinting at future possibilities. We consider Hungama to be a very important partner for our franchise. After we release the animation and gauge the audiences response, we will consider whether we want to expand to other platforms, he said.
Coca-Cola Indias homegrown heritage brand Limca, India's favorite lemony flavored drink, has launched its exciting new campaign, #TravelWithLimca. Launching Triptii Dimri as the Limca girl, the campaign is built on the idea that there is a whole world waiting to be discovered right in our neighborhoods. The #TravelWithLimca campaign encourages people to discover new hotspots within their cities.

Conceptualized by Studio X, the campaign film takes viewers on a vibrant journey alongside Triptii Dimri as she embarks on a bus ride that takes her on a delightful city exploration. As the bus rattles through the streets, with the first sip of the ultimate thirst quencher, Limca, a layer of happiness envelops her, igniting a sense of excitement and curiosity. Energized by the refreshing taste, Triptii's journey takes an enchanting turn, setting out to traverse through the hidden gems of her city. From bustling markets to sizzling street snack shops, she uncovers the rich experiences, inspiring consumers to tour the city with a refreshing Limca.

Expressing her excitement about joining the Limca family, Triptii Dimri said, " I am very happy and excited to be a part of Limca. Exploring new places and experiencing different cultures has always been my passion, and I am thrilled to encourage others to do the same. Together with Limca, I look forward to embarking on this exciting journey of discovery."

Ruchira Bhattacharya, Senior Director, Marketing  Hydration, Sports and Tea Category, India and South-West Asia Operating Unit at The Coca-Cola Company, said, "With its legacy of lime and lemony credentials, Limca has been rejuvenating consumers with its unique taste for 5 decades. We are thrilled to launch the #TravelWithLimca campaign featuring Triptii Dimri as our new Limca face. With this campaign, we hope to encourage people to get out there and discover the beauty of their own cities and refresh themselves with a chilled Limca!

"Mukund VML, Chief Strategy Officer, Studio X said, There are so many places in ones own city that are waiting to be discovered. The #Travel with Limca campaign encourages you to live your city to the fullest. Everything in the commercial is localized to the city - from the name of the bus stop to the illustrations. Triptii with her effervescent attitude was not just great to work with but also is the perfect Limca girl. "

As part of the campaign, the brand will be running a promotional offer until 30th June, where consumers stand a chance to win travel vouchers from DMRC, Ease My Trip, and more by simply scanning their Limca bottle. Dive into the world of exploration and unlock access to a plethora of travel
Amid Shah's Razakars remark, Owaisi asserts loyalty of Muslim community 2

Taking exception to Union Home Minister Amit Shahs comments that Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency was held by a representative of Razakars, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the Nizams private militia had fled the country and that those who are loyal stayed back.

Addressing an election rally here Thursday night, he said BJP leaders have often made statements (about Hyderabad LS seat) that Razakars have ruled over for 40 years, old city is den of ISIS and surgical strikes would be carried out.

Why this hatred for Shah and his party men towards the old city of Hyderabad (which mainly constitutes the LS seat)? he asked.

There are no Razakars here. Humans live here. Those who were Razakars fled to Pakistan. Those who are loyal to the country stayed back here and have been defeating RSS since 40 years and defeat you and Modi again this time, he said.

Hindu brothers, including Dalits, people belonging to backward classes, those from Rajasthan and different other communities live in the Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency, Owaisi pointed out.

Responding to Shahs comments that there is no need for anyone to scare this time, he said none is intimidated in the constituency.

Amit Shah should have fought against him from Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, he said.

The senior BJP leader has come to know which direction the wind is blowing in Hyderabad LS constituency, Owaisi said.

Saying that Razakars have occupied for 40 years, is Hyderabad not an unbreakable part of India? Hyderabad is an unbreakable part of India and it will remain so. But, the countrys home minister is nervous, he said. Amit Shah on Wednesday urged the voters of Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency to elect BJP candidate K Madhavi Latha and liberate the seat from Razakars, who were armed supporters of Nizam.

Asaduddin Owaisi is seeking re-election from the Hyderabad constituency in the present Lok Sabha polls for a fifth term.
Maharashtra government demands severe action against deepfake content creators 2

The Maharashtra government on Friday directed the state police to take stern action against those creating deepfakes, saying such content is a cause for concern amid the poll season. According to an official release, the number of deepfakes and doctored photos being circulated on social media and digital media has risen during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Deepfake is a video of a person in which their appearance has been digitally altered so that they look like somebody else.

Such manipulated content is being created using machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI), it said, adding that the use of this machinery during elections is a cause for concern.

Deepfake content creates misunderstanding and is defamatory, said the government. The government has asked the Director-General of Police (DGP) to curb such practices and ensure a clean and transparent electoral process. The police have been asked to take stern action against anti-social elements making and circulating such content, the release said.

The order comes days after the Mumbai police registered a case against a Youth Congress social media handle and 16 others for allegedly sharing a deepfake of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

In the fake video, the BJP leader was purportedly seen announcing the curtailment of reservation rights of the SCs, STs and OBCs. Last month, the Maharashtra police had booked an X user for allegedly uploading a deepfake video where Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh appeared to be making an appeal to vote for Congress.
Despite protests from a packed crowd, Vestavia Hills City Schools officials voted unanimously May 2 to transfer principal Lauren Dressback to a local alternative school.

Dressback is still listed as principal on Cahaba Heights Elementarys website. But according to parents and a series of social media posts that emerged this weekend, she hasnt set foot in the school since February.

District officials have yet to disclose a reason for Dressbacks absence. Instead, they called a special meeting Thursday to reassign her to the districts alternative school. Kim Polson, the schools assistant principal, will take her place.

I know this is a topic of interest to many of you, and to many of those in our community, Superintendent Todd Freeman told the crowd before the vote. I want to clearly state that we cannot, have not, and will not, make personnel decisions based on an individuals race, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.

I can assure you that all of our decisions are vetted thoroughly and thoughtfully to be in compliance with applicable laws and board policies, and with the best interest of our students, faculty and community in mind. We are fortunate to have employees throughout our system who contribute greatly to our academic success and are committed to our mission to provide every child in our schools to learn without limits, and that will continue to be the case.

At a board meeting Monday, residents and school alumni claimed Dressback was placed on administrative leave shortly after she discussed her sexual orientation with school staff.

This is not a promotion, this is not glorifying her, you are sending her a message that in Vestavia Hills it is not OK to be LGBTQ, Rev. Julie Conrady of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham, told board members Thursday evening.

Dressback became the schools principal in 2022. Her contract was renewed in 2023. She has more than 20 years of experience in education.

Many other community members packed the board room Thursday, with some holding signs and many wearing green in support of Dressback. Several questioned the board about why they would not share any reasoning for the decision  and why they wouldnt hear out concerns before making a vote.

Jim Whisenhunt, a local parent, asked if it was illegal for the board to comment publicly on Mrs. Dressbacks demotion.

An attorney for the board said it was common procedure for the board not to make public comments about specific employees, and that doing so would be unfair to those individuals.

At one point, after more questioning from parents, officials made note of the police officers in the room.

Is there a reason why you felt like our children were in danger, somehow? Because if so, we have a right to know, one attendee said from the crowd.

After the vote, more than a dozen speakers lined up to speak in support of Dressback.

Lifelong educators spoke to Dressbacks legacy as a teacher and school leader, and pressed the board to give more details. One said homophobia had pushed her out of a nearby school district, too.

Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, also made an appearance. The states only openly gay legislator said he drove straight from Montgomery to attend the meeting.

Youre not just signaling to your other teachers, your other principals, your other staff here, he said. Youre signaling to your students who might be LGBTQ-identified that they dont matter.

This isnt just a Vestavia Hills issue anymore, he said.

A parent of twins at the school said Dressback helped calm nerves after a rough period of raising young children through the pandemic. Dressback attended IEP meetings and knew the names of every student.

Sandra Gonzales, a parent of a kindergartner, said Dressback advocated for her daughter from the first day of class.

She is a bright light and is clearly missed, she said, tearing up. It is a huge loss for Cahaba Heights.

An attorney for Dressback declined to comment on the vote.
A Jasper man was killed when he was hit by a pickup truck in Walker County.

Alabama State Troopers identified the fatality victim as Marcus C. Boteler. He was 27.

The wreck happened at 4:55 a.m. Thursday on Alabama 5, about six miles southeast of Nauvoo.

Senior Trooper Cody Farrar said Boteler was in the road when he was hit by a Ford F-150 driven by 57-year-old Philip L. Downs of Warrior.

Botleler was airlifted to UAB Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

The investigation is ongoing by troopers.
State Sen. Merika Coleman said Miles College is working to organize a consortium of HBCUs to purchase the campus of Birmingham-Southern College, which is closing May 31.

Coleman talked about the idea on the Senate floor on Thursday during discussions of the state education budget. In a brief interview after that, the senator said Miles College President Bobbie Knight talked to presidents of HBCUs across the state in a conference call about the possibilities of the BSC campus.

Coleman is a longtime political science professor at Miles, a private HBCU in Fairfield. She has a new job as director of the Economic and Social Justice Center, a newly formed center at the college.

I actually met with President Knight of Miles College and her government affairs team, Coleman said. They have spoken with all the HBCU presidents, and thats the two-year and the four-year. What Im told is everybody wants to come together and use their collective resources to be able to purchase the college itself. Of course youve got to have money to sustain it.

Coleman said Knight plans to speak to the Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday.

Mya Jolly, spokeswoman for Miles College, said Friday that Knight is not commenting publicly on any plans to make an offer on the BSC campus.

Coleman said the intent would be to include all the HBCUs in Alabama, public and private, four-year and two-year. Coleman said one possibility is to focus on STEM courses, or science, technology, engineering, and math, because that curriculum would be geared toward preparing students for jobs. Coleman said federal grant funding could help.

BSC issued a statement Friday in response to a question about the interest of Miles College and the HBCU consortium.

BSC continues to have fruitful conversations with several potential buyers, but has not entered into a definitive agreement with anyone at this time, said Virginia Gilbert Loftin, vice president for advancement and communications at the college.

Alabama A&M pursuing purchase

Alabama A&M University, an HBCU in Huntsville, is pursuing the purchase of BSC independently of the other HBCUs. Shannon Reaves, vice president of governmental affairs and external relations at Alabama A&M, said Friday the university was not on the conference call with the other HBCUs. He said he expects A&M to make an offer on the BSC campus soon.

Reaves said A&M would seek state funding to help with the purchase. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, chairman of the Senates education budget committee, said Thursday that lawmakers have no immediate plans to provide funding to help A&M make the purchase.

But Orr said funding for A&M to buy and operate the BSC campus is a possibility in the future.

I think theres a prospect, yes, Orr said. And I would certainly advocate an institution like A&M to be able to purchase it. But the timing was not good.

The Legislature is almost finished with passing this years education budget, which started with the governors proposal back in February, passed the House, and passed the Senate on Thursday.

It would be a heavy lift to make that appropriation in addition to thinking down the road, OK, if you do own the campus, the increased O&M (operations and maintenance) that it would cost to maintain that campus and to offer programs, classes, etc., there, Orr said. That would be a long term commitment that we would have to make in the budget for that.

Orr said Thursdays comments by Coleman were the first he had heard about a consortium led by Miles College being interested in the purchase of the BSC campus. He said he was interested in knowing the details.

BSC announced in March that it would close May 31 after efforts to obtain a $30 million loan from the Legislature failed.

Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, who represents the district that includes BSC, said she has talked to officials from both Alabama A&M and Miles and expects both to make an offer. Givan said either would be a great match for the campus and that it would be historic for an HBCU to buy and operate what had previously been a predominantly white college. Givan also said it would help with deep concerns about the future of the campus and its impact on the neighborhoods surrounding it.

It is a great thing that we do have multiple universities that are predominantly Black in line to possibly purchase Birmingham-Southern, Givan said. It helps to calm the emotions that are felt by the neighborhood associations, the two or three neighborhoods that surround it, College Hills, Bush Hills, Smithfield community. Because theres not one day since that college has announced its closing that I have not received calls wanting an update as to what will happen to that land.

The Legislature declined to give BSC a grant to help it remain open and instead created a loan program for financially distressed colleges, although the intent was clearly to help BSC. But State Treasurer Young Boozer, who the Legislature put in charge of the program, determined that BSC did not qualify for the loan under the terms in the law. The Legislature is now moving to repeal the loan program with a bill sponsored by Givan.

Orr was asked why the Legislature might consider helping Alabama A&M with the purchase and operations of BSC after it declined to provide a grant to save the private college.

A&M is a state institution and has well over a 100-year track record, Orr said. And I think it would certainly be beneficial to the city of Birmingham and the state for that campus to remain educational in focus, to be a real lighthouse for the community, imparting education to students near and far. And that would be a good thing.

But once you own it, you have to maintain it and sustain it and fill it full of professors and the maintenance folks and people to keep the campus up, etc. The costs go up as well. So we just need that full plan.
The Alabama Supreme Court today denied a rehearing request on its most controversial ruling of the year, which granted frozen embryos the status of unborn children under state law.

In its ruling on James LePage, et al. v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Association, the court held that frozen embryos should be considered as living beings, allowing for in vitro fertilization clinics to be held liable for the accidental loss of embryos under Alabamas Wrongful Death of a Minor Law.

Several IVF clinics in Alabama suspended operations following the ruling.

While the request for a rehearing on the case was denied, two justices dissented: Justice Greg Cook and Justice Will Sellers.

Sellers wrote a dissenting opinion that noted the unintended consequences of the courts ruling in the case earlier this year.

This case has removed us from any notion of ivory-tower isolation and has subjected us to the scrutiny of world opinion, thrusting us into a public discussion that was as unwarranted as it was unanticipated, Sellers wrote.

While many of our opinions have unintended consequences, oftentimes such consequences nevertheless are foreseeable because our decisions impact others who, although they were not parties to the case, were generally aware of the potential repercussions of a reasonable decision. In this case, our decision was a surprise, if not a shock, to our citizens.

The majority opinion on original submission had significant and sweeping implications for individuals who were entirely unassociated with the parties in the case. Many of those individuals had no reason to believe that a legal and routine medical procedure would be delayed, much less denied, as a result of this Courts opinion.

Sellers noted the cases effect on others not involved in the case, writing that he would have granted the request to conduct oral argument on the applications for rehearing, including providing .... an opportunity to voice their concerns, to explain the legal bases of their positions, and to highlight the various loose ends left dangling by this Courts opinion.

Not doing so, Sellers argued, left those affected by the original ruling with no legal recourse.

Because those individuals never had an opportunity to submit briefs in this case to explain their positions and the law supporting them, they now have a new regime that has been forced upon them for which they had neither input, nor redress, nor a hearing, he wrote.

The majority opinion on original submission also addressed issues and arguments that were never raised in the parties initial briefs and never argued by the parties.
A security staff member has been arrested for contraband at a state prison, the Alabama Department of Corrections said.

The incident happened on April 29 at the Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to ADOCs Law Enforcement Services Division.

Shemira Jackson, a staff security member at Fountain, was arrested and transported to the Escambia County Jail and was charged with promoting prison contraband III. The incident was discovered in a review of video footage.

The Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating and further charges may be pending, the statement from ADOC said.
A woman has been charged in the shooting death of her husband at the couples east Birmingham home earlier this week.

Lasha Patrice Thomas, 38, is charged with murder in the slaying of 38-year-old Andre Derrel Perry. The deadly shooting happened with their young teen in the home at the time, but he reportedly did not witness the shooting.

Birminghams East Precinct officers were dispatched shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday to a reported domestic disturbance in the 1500 block of Cedargate Circle. That is near the Spring Lake area.

Sgt. LaQuitta Wade said while officers were en route, they received another call reporting someone had been shot.

Police entered the home and found Perry unresponsive on the floor. He was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m. by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service.

Wade said the couple who lived at the home got into a verbal argument which led to the fatal shots being fired.

Thomas remained on the scene and was taken into custody for questioning by detectives. She remained held until the warrant against her was obtained.

She was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 2:15 p.m. Thursday and is being held without bond.

Perry in October wished Thomas a happy anniversary in a Facebook post, writing at that time that they had been together 15 years and married for eight of those.

Its been a bumpy, smooth, rough, high, low, happy, sad, ... road, he wrote, but we live to love each other another day.
(Photo : Unsplash/Brett Jordan)

The US Justice Department and Google's highly significant monopoly trial is reaching its conclusion this week, following a five-month break, where both parties will present their closing arguments starting Thursday, aiming to convince the federal judge why they should prevail in the case.

Google's Market Dominance Criticisms

Google is being accused of unlawfully exploiting its monopoly position to dominate the search engine industry, resulting in competitors being marginalized and customers receiving a subpar experience. However, Google has contended that its search engine's popularity stems from its superior quality rather than any dubious business practices.

US District Judge Amit Mehta posed numerous questions to the Justice Department and Alphabet's Google during the initial day of closing arguments in the government's antitrust case against the search engine giant.

Justice Department Accusing Google of Anticompetitive Behavior

During the trial, Microsoft admitted to not investing adequately in mobile search. Mehta stated that Google's earlier adoption of mobile technology was not anticompetitive but rather a result of its strategic foresight compared to Microsoft's actions.

The government concurred with the judge's observation but argued that a mistake by one competitor should not grant Google perpetual monopolization of the market. Mehta then directed challenging inquiries to Google's lawyer, probing whether any competitor could effectively challenge Google's dominance on mobile phones.

Google lawyer John Schmidtlein refuted allegations that the company had participated in anticompetitive behavior.

READ ALSO: Apple Accused of Questionable Business Practices, Faces About $539M Fine in EU Antitrust Investigation

Trump Administration's Series of Lawsuits

The case, initiated by the Trump administration, marked the first of five lawsuits targeting tech giants' market dominance. The second lawsuit, against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was also filed during the Trump administration. Antitrust enforcers under President Biden have pursued a second case against Google, as well as cases against Amazon.com and Apple Inc.

In this trial without a jury, Mehta will assess whether Google violated the law and subsequently consider any necessary penalties anticipated later this year.

Google's Annual Revenue and Consumer Loyalty

Witnesses from Verizon, Android maker Samsung Electronics, and Google testified regarding the company's annual payments, which amounted to $26.3 billion in 2021, to secure Google's search engine as the default option on smartphones and browsers, thereby maintaining its dominant market share.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged in his testimony the importance of making its search engine the default on phones, tablets, and laptops to keep users loyal, emphasizing the value of such a strategy.

In response, Google has contended that the government's accusation of breaking the law to maintain its significant market share is unfounded. It asserts that its search engine's popularity is due to its quality and that dissatisfied users have the option to switch easily. Despite Google's substantial payments and Pichai's statement, the company's lawyers have argued that being the default option holds limited value and that users will not remain loyal if dissatisfied.

RELATED ARTICLE: EU Suspecting DMA Non-Compliance, Probes Tech Giants Apple, Google, Meta in a Regulatory Battle

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating the death of a driver whose vehicle crashed into the Intra Coastal Waterway after a police chase.

Orange Beach police said the incident happened Friday near Cumberland Farms, 23679 Canal Rd., after authorities responded to a report of a vehicle striking a pedestrian.

A witness at the scene identified a vehicle believed to have been involved.

Police say the vehicle fled west on Canal Road and the chase reached an excessive speed.

The pursuing officer remained engaged at a safe distance, police said, but the suspect vehicle was unable to negotiate the 90 degree turn at Tacky Jacks in Gulf Shores and crashed, coming to rest submerged in the Intra Coastal Waterway.

Officers located the vehicles headlights underwater but could not save the life of the driver, whose name has not been released.
Madison Countys health inspectors had their work cut out for them in April.

Last month, 20 establishments scored 84 or below on their health inspections, meaning they must be reinspected within 60 days.

For comparison, just four restaurants in Jefferson County met that threshold last month, although health officials there havent finished posting scores to the agencys website.

Madison Countys data comes from a county health department official who sends weekly scores with details on specific infractions to the media.

Among the violations observed by Madison County health inspectors in April included live ants crawling in one establishments kitchen, another that had black and pink buildup inside an ice machine and a third restaurant with several dirty dishes.

Here are those 20 restaurants, from the highest scores to the lowest:

Chevron

1966 Winchester Rd NE, Huntsville

Score: 84

Inspection date: April 11

Raw liver, burritos and egg rolls were out of temperature.

The person in charge was unable to show proof of food safety manager course registration, attendance or certification.

Major League Wings #3

1047 Jeff Rd .,Unit 9, Huntsville

Score: 84

Inspection date: April 11

Paper towels were missing from the mens restroom. Tissues were missing from the womans restroom.

Raw shelled eggs were stored next to and above ready-to-eat and cooked foods in the reach-in cooler.

PKWY Cajun Inc # 2

3109 Drake Ave., Huntsville

Score: 84

Inspection date: April 23

Dirty plates were spotted on the serving line.

Soup was stored at room temperature.

McDonalds # 17370

6711 Hwy 431 S, Owens Cross Roads

Score: 83

Inspection date: April 9

Timestamps for lettuce were missing.

Paper towels were missing at the front hand sink.

Employee health agreements were missing.

Moes Original Bar-B-Que

445 Providence Main St., Ste 102, Huntsville

Score: 83

Inspection date: April 5

The inside of the ice machine had black and pink buildup.

The dish machine did not have any sanitizer.

Soap and paper towels were missing from the hand sink.

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

5946 Highway 72 E, Gurley

Score: 83

Inspection date: April 23

The ice bin, ice machine and lemonade dispenser were dirty.

Raw chicken was out of temperature.

Viet Cuisine LLC

210 Jordan Ln NW, Huntsville

Score: 83

Inspection date: April 5

The inside of the ice machine was dirty.

Hot water was inaccessible at the hand sink. There were also no paper towels at the sink.

Chicken and shrimp rolls were stored at improper temperatures.

Char Restaurant

931 Bob Wallace Ave SW, Suite 201, Huntsville

Score: 82

Inspection date: April 23

Several dirty dishes were found stored with clean ones.

Beef, cheddar cheese and butter were out of temperature.

Employee health agreements were missing. This was later abated.

China One

12290 Hwy 231/431 N Suite I, Meridianville

Score: 82

Inspection date: April 26

Interior drawers with cabbage, peas and carrots were dirty.

No one on site had proof of registering, attending or having a certified food safety manager course.

Piggly Wiggly # 84 (Meat Department)

6022 Hwy 72 E, Gurley

Score: 82

Inspection date: April 11

Medication, rubbing alcohol and open/unsealed mouthwash were stored directly and above the prep table for raw meat.

Pork, pork chops, pork riblets and raw bacon were out of temperature.

Stone Age Korean BBQ LLC

2319 South Memorial Pkwy., Suite 125, Huntsville

Score: 82

Inspection date: April 18

Several foods were out of temperature.

Employee health agreements were missing. This issue was later abated.

Wayback Burger

6290 University Dr. Suite F, Huntsville

Score: 82

Inspection date: April 4

A chemical spray bottle was improperly labeled.

Paper towels were not available by the hand sink.

Blue Plate Cafe

3210 Governors Dr., Huntsville

Score: 81

Inspection date: April 4

The potato slicer machine was connected to the hand sink.

Several foods were out of temperature.

Kijiji LLC

5000 Memorial Pkwy NW, Huntsville

Score: 80

Inspection date: April 25

Live ants were seen in the kitchen.

The ice machines interior was dirty.

No one on site had proof of registering, attending or having a certified food safety manager course despite handling food.

Domaine South #2

200 West Side Square, Suite 60 Huntsville

Score: 78

Inspection date: April 25

The establishment did not have a food thermometer.

There was no sanitizer dispensing from the ware washing sink.

Beef, butter, heavy whipping cream and Monchego cheese were out of temperature.

Health agreements were missing.

New Mandarin House Buffet & Grill, INC.

326 Sutton Road, STE A, Owens Cross Roads

Score: 78

Inspection date: April 1

Cabbage, chicken wings, chicken, lettuce and bean sprouts were stored at improper temperatures.

The person in charge could not provide proof that workers had signed and dated employee health agreements.

Venice Pizza

6610 Old Madison Pike Suite A, Huntsville

Score: 78

Inspection date: April 2

The inspector spotted a dirty can opener blade. The blade was not in use.

Turkey and cream cheese in the reach-in cooler were out of temperature.

There was nobody on site with proof of completing a food safety manager course. The owner later showed up to the pizzeria to show the inspector the certification.

Supermercado El Rey

2716 Lawrence Ave Ste. A, Huntsville

Score: 76

Inspection date: April 3

Several foods were out of temperature or were not date marked.

Tailgaters 2, Inc.

129 Old Highway 431 Ste A & B, Owens Cross Roads

Score: 74

Inspection date: April 3

Employee health agreements were missing and there was no person on site with proof they completed a certified food safety course.

The health agreement issue was later corrected.

AC Hotel, Downtown - City Centre Breakfast

435 Williams Ave SW, Huntsville

Score: 73

Inspection date: April 12

Black residue was found in the ice chute.

The ware washing machine was missing chlorine test papers.

The hot water in both the mens and womens bathrooms was too cold.

Turkey and cheeses were out of temperature.
There are only three more working days left in the Legislative session. (That means lawmakers working days, which are irregular. The next one is Tuesday.)

Also: Were changing the weekly review quiz from Mondays to Fridays beginning now. As always, its down near the bottom of this newsletter.

And if finding and affording childcare has ever been an issue for you, then you know how tricky it can be. Youll want to listen to the podcast, where we go in depth on the topic.

So much gambling talk (but dont bet on much action)

The Alabama Legislature Tuesday night came as close as it has for a quarter century to putting a lottery on the ballot, but there hasnt been much movement on the issue since.

Still, its the big talker on Goat Hill -- and well beyond. AL.coms John Sharp reports that even Donald Trump Jr. is weighing in on the topic.

Tweeted Trump Jr.: ... whenever I ask anyone from there whats going on in the state this is all they talk about. Whys their senate refusing to let the people vote on a clean bill to legalize the lottery & fund education when 45 states already do it? Wouldnt they rather keep the billions of $$$ in Alabama instead of sending it to other states? Makes no sense to me!

He ended the tweet with an exclamation point. Thats a genetic thing. Note that he said clean bill but that doesnt mean its lottery-only. It also includes some casinos.

One of the concerns over the legislation, according to Atmore Republican Greg Albritton, is that it did not include a fourth casino operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians that had been in a previous version of the package. Albritton is one of three senators who voted yes on that earlier package and switched to no on this one.

Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, a Jasper Republican, said there was a lot of talk and debate about the legislation Thursday. I dont know what the outcome will be other than membership is working on the issue, he said.

Capitol updates

Two more items of note from the Legislature:

First, AL.coms Mike Cason reports that the bill to adjust the deadline for political parties to certify presidential candidates has full Legislative approval and now awaits the governors signature. The result of Gov. Kay Iveys approval will be that President Biden can legally be put on the ballot even though the Democratic National Convention takes place after the original deadline. Both bodies of the Legislature passed the measure unanimously.

Similar situations have occurred in the past for both parties. It made a little splash this year when Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen notified the Democratic Party that its convention is too late for Biden to be on Alabamas ballot.

The state spends billions and the feds spend trillions. If we start saving now, we should be able to buy everyone involved a 2028 desk calendar for the next go-round.

And another: The Alabama House of Representatives has passed the General Fund budget by a 103-0 vote. It calls for non-education government spending of $3.4 billion, which is $360 million more than the current fiscal years budget. Thats riding a 16% increase in applicable revenues last year.

The cost of harassment

Sexual harassment is so 1970.

I aint saying its dead, though.

AL.coms Hannah Denham reports that Chipotle Mexican Grills company has to pay a $50,000 settlement in a sexual-harassment lawsuit involving a male manager and female cashier at the burrito chains Prattville location.

A Chipotle spokesperson said the company is not admitting wrongdoing but simply wanted to be done with the case. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had filed suit, claiming there were daily sexual advances, comments, conduct and contact.

More Alabama News

The podcast

John Hammontrees going to speak with AL.coms Alaina Bookman about some reporting shes been doing on the trouble finding and affording childcare.

If youve been through it, you know how tough it can be.

You can find Down in Alabama wherever you get your podcasts, including these places:
The Alabama House of Representatives passed the state General Fund budget Thursday, a plan that would spend $3.4 billion on non-education government services next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

The budget calls for spending about $360 million more than the current fiscal year. The House passed it by a vote of 103-0.

The bill, SB67 by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, returns to the Senate, which passed it earlier. The Senate could agree to the changes or send the bill to a conference committee.

Lawmakers return Tuesday and have three days left in the session.

Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, chairman of the House Ways and Means General Fund committee, said revenues that support the General Fund increased by 16% in fiscal year 2023 over the previous year. Strong areas of growth included the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, which is the state sales tax on online sales, ad valorem taxes, and interest on state accounts, Reynolds said.

The largest line item in the budget, the Alabama Medicaid Agency, would receive $955 million from the General Fund next year, a $92 million increase over this year. Reynolds said a main factor is a reduction in federal dollars for Medicaid because a period of enhanced federal matching funds during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. Reynolds noted that 52% of Medicaid beneficiaries in Alabama are children.

The budget allocates $736 million to the Alabama Department of Corrections, a $75 million increase over this year.

The budget increases funding to the Department of Mental Health by $23 million, to a total of $235 million. Reynolds said the bulk of the increase is to support Alabamas new crisis system of care. The state has opened crisis care centers in Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa and a sixth in Dothan will open soon. Reynolds said the annual operating cost for each center will be about $7 million.

Besides the General Fund budget for next year, the House approved a supplemental bill that allocates $254 million from the General Fund for this fiscal year. The biggest item is a $150 million appropriation for prison construction. Lawmakers are allocating funds to build a 4,000-bed mens prison in Escambia County.

That prison will follow a 4,000-bed prison now under construction in Elmore County at a cost of about $1.1 billion. Funding is already allocated for the Elmore County prison, which includes special facilities for medical and mental health care.

The supplemental spending bill, SB66, also passed by a vote of 103-0 and returns to the Senate.
The Alabama Senate voted in support of legislation Thursday giving teachers eight weeks of paid parental leave, only for the chambers president to say he wasnt transmitting the measure to the House for further consideration this year.

The move upset the sponsor of SB305  Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile  who said she ought to leave the Senate and start energizing women to let them know the power we all have.

It stings that you voted that it not be transmitted, Figures said after Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said he was withholding unanimous consent to move the legislation to the House, acknowledging that it likely would not get voted on before the end of the session. The legislatures session has three days remaining, and the Senate can withhold transmitting new bills to the House after the legislative session reaches 26 days. Thursday was Day No. 27 in this springs session.

Reed credited Figures with bringing up important topics while also stating females are in a minority in the Senate. Reed cited concerns over how much an eight-week paid parental leave measure would cost the states educational budget. Your thoughts and ideas are important. Youve stated you will be back next year and are working with us on things important to this issue.

Alabama State Sen. President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, May 2, 2024, inside the State House in Montgomery, Ala.John Sharp

The Senate voted 26-2 to pass SB305 out of the chamber, knowing that it was not get a vote before the full House this year despite what Figures said was bipartisan support. Reed was one of the Yes votes. Voting No were Sens. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore; and Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook.

Before the vote, Figures spoke with passion saying she plans to be back with a vengeance in 2025 to get paid parental leave approved, as well as other issue importance to womens health.

So many bills are passed that make so many decisions for us that you all dont have to go through, but we do, Figures said, referring to her male colleagues. Of the Alabama Senates 35 members, only four are women.

None of you are pregnant, ever will be pregnant nor will have a baby, Figures said. You have no idea what its like; not only the physical things we have to go through, but the mental and emotional things we have to go through.

She added, The least you can all do is give us a little time, eight weeks, to deal with that. I just want to say, Ill be coming back with a vengeance next year and I wont be by myself.

The Senate floor activity came about one week after a Senate committee, following a tense debate, voted 8-7 to give female public school educators six weeks of paid parental leave, down from 12 weeks that had originally been under consideration.

Figures said she felt eight weeks was a good compromise.

Currently, Alabama educators and school employees must build up a bank of sick leave days or take unpaid leave to care for a newborn or adopted child. Public school teachers generally are given 10 sick days each year.

Not only do teachers not get paid leave in Alabama after adding a new person to their family, but in order to keep their health insurance, teachers have to pay the full amount of the premium.

SB305 would require employers to pay their portion of health insurance premiums during an employees parental leave. However, the bill would allow the employer to recover the cost of those health care premiums if an employee does not return to work after taking parental leave or leaves the employer within two years.

Figures and Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, also engaged in a spirited back-and-forth over the potential costs of the legislation. Figures said a fiscal note attached to the legislation but there was no overall cost estimate. Orr  who chairs the committee that oversees the states education budget  said he was unsure if the costs could reach around $50 million.

Orr encouraged Figures to run a comparison with what other states are doing.

Figures said it might be difficult to get a handle on a cost estimate associated with her legislation.

Although these women are child-bearing age, it doesnt necessary mean they want to have children or can have children, she said. You cannot get an exact number. The closest you can come to it is the number of women who had babies in the last year, in 2023, and let that be a point where you start.

Paid parental leave for educators differs among states and is offered in some of the nations largest school districts. Georgia and Tennessee recently passed laws giving educators six weeks of paid parental leave. Both states provide leave to both parents. The Alabama legislation would have excluded men.

Orr asked Figures why she was bringing up the concern over paid leave now, and why it had not been an issued brought up in the past.

Figures said she did not realize the state did not give out paid leave to school personnel until after her son, Shomari, told her about it. Shomari Figures is the Democratic candidate for the 2nd congressional district seat in November.

I said, they do get it, Figures said. He said, No, they dont. When I hear of something that is not being done  I am trying to correct it. Thats why you are hearing about it from me. Had I known about this before, I would (have addressed the situation).
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) Friday announced it has confirmed that a raccoon in Autauga County tested positive for rabies on May 2.

According to the department, a property owner in the area of U.S. 82 and County Road 40 noticed the raccoon acting strangely near the old Henderson grocery store.

In December 2023, a kitten in this same area tested positive for rabies following an encounter with a positive raccoon. This area of Autauga County has seen an increase in rabies cases and is under enhanced surveillance by the USDA National Rabies Management Team.

State Health Veterinarian Dee W. Jones said vaccinating animals is the primary way to reduce risks to pets and livestock. ADPH can help facilitate testing of any animal in the area that is suspected of having rabies. Alabama state law requires that dogs, cats and ferrets 12 weeks of age and older be current with rabies vaccination.

The first rabies vaccination is only good for one year, regardless of which vaccine.

On Saturday, County Rabies Officer Allison Trotter of Animal Medical Clinic,will be hosting reduced-cost rabies clinics at the following locations:

Billingsley Junction (8-9 a.m.)

Marbury Middle School (8-9 a.m.0

Vida (9:15- 10:15 a.m.)

White City (9:30-10:30 a.m.)

Booth Fire Department (10:30-11:30 a.m.)

Poseys Crossroads (11-12:30 p.m.)

Prattville Farm Center (12-1 p.m.)

Prattville Elementary School (1-2 p.m.)

The fee is $12 per animal. Keep all dogs on leashes and all cats in boxes when attending one of these clinics.

For more information about rabies and prevention, contact ADPH at (334) 206-5969 or visit ADPH Infectious Diseases and Outbreaks.
The United Methodist General Conference on Thursday completed adoption of its new Social Principles document, a statement of beliefs, and for the first time in 52 years, it wont include the phrase: homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

The adoption of the Social Principles follows the actions on Wednesday in which the denomination officially dropped its longstanding bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of openly LGBTQ clergy from the Book of Discipline, the rule book for the United Methodist Church.

With the General Conference approaching its closing session on Friday, May 3, the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church had achieved its top priorities, which included removing anti-LGBTQ language from the Book of Discipline and the Social Principles.

The Social Principles hadnt been updated since 1972, said the Rev. Kelly Clem, clergy delegate for North Alabama.

This is a major update, she said. Its really justice and social matters, social concerns. Its big, broad human rights: climate change, global warming, fossil fuels, stewardship of creation, environmental racism, food justice.

The new outline of Social Principles can be found here.

Both United Methodist bishops from Alabama, Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, head of the North Alabama Conference, and Bishop David Graves, head of the Alabama-West Florida Conference, took turns presiding on Thursday.
Boeing plans to lay off 128 workers in Huntsville, according to a state notice filed this week.

The layoffs are planned to begin on June 28, according to the notice Boeing filed with the Alabama Department of Commerce.

We have notified some team members in Huntsville of a potential layoff, as programs are affected by decisions external to Boeing, a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to AL.com today. We will continue to be transparent with team members and explore alternative placement opportunities within Boeing for impacted employees.

Boeing did not provide additional details about the planned layoffs.

The aviation company is a contractor for NASAs Space Launch System. WHNT News-19 reported last week that Boeing, which employs 3,400 people in Huntsville, planned to cut jobs because of delays for the SLS Artemis mission .

NASA did not respond to a request for comment from AL.com by time of publication.

Federal law requires major employers to notify the state of planned layoffs or closures.
The military has not pulled money for flight training operations at Fort Novosel in Alabama to pay for aid to Ukraine and other foreign obligations as alleged in a social media post that began circulating online Tuesday.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, said they were aware of a tweet purporting to show an email from a Fort Novosel official claiming $130 million to $140 million of the bases flight simulation training funds were pulled and that the base could not continue the training as of Wednesday.

We are in touch with senior military officials and received the following comment: At this time no decision has been made and no dollars have been diverted, Britt tweeted Thursday.

Moore said he has been working with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Saks, and the rest of Alabamas congressional delegation to get clarity on the issue surrounding Fort Novosel, which used to be named Fort Rucker.

We have made multiple inquiries to the Army and they have agreed to provide a formal briefing, Moore tweeted Thursday. While we have received acknowledgement that the Army is dealing with a funding issue, the nature of it has not been disclosed and we have also been assured that flight training at Fort Novosel has not been disrupted. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and push for a definitive response as soon as possible.

The rumors began with a Twitter thread by Patrick Webb that included a screenshot of the purported Fort Novosel officials email. The officials name was redacted as well as the emails recipients.

BREAKING: The DoD has pulled $130M of their $140M training budget for the USAACE flight program to allocate it towards Ukraine and other foreign obligations, according to newly leaked email, Webb tweeted.

BREAKING: The DoD has pulled $130M of their $140M training budget for the USAACE flight program to allocate it towards Ukraine and other foreign obligations, according to newly leaked email. pic.twitter.com/Sr9IaxQ451  Patrick Webb (@RealPatrickWebb) May 1, 2024

Webb cited multiple senior aviation officials for his tweets but did not name them.

Britt noted that she helped secure funds for Fort Novosel in the defense spending bill.

In the recently passed FY24 Defense Appropriations bill, I helped secure $1.38 billion for flight training at Fort Novosel, and Ill continue to fight for every cent of that money to be spent as congressionally intended, she tweeted.

Late last month, Congress passed a supplemental appropriations bill that earmarked more than $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.

The legislation signed by President Biden also forces TikToks Chinese owner to sell the company to an American entity to avoid the social media app from being banned in the United States.
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Airbus is seeking financial compensation to absorb Spirit AeroSystems's unprofitable operations. According to sources familiar with the situation, this request has become one of the hurdles preventing a merger between Spirit and its primary client, Boeing.

The Negotiations to Assume Spirit's Unprofitable Operations

Spirit and Airbus executives are in discussions in New York, as initially reported by Bloomberg, aiming to address various issues, such as Airbus's request for financial compensation to assume the supplier's unprofitable operations and the logistics of separating Airbus's business from Spirit, according to two anonymous sources familiar with the matter. It remains unclear how the discussions progressed or whether any obstacles were resolved.

As reported by Reuters in April, the world's leading aircraft manufacturers have been investigating methods to unravel their connections with Spirit through a meticulously planned framework agreement to divide operations.

The sources did not provide specific financial details. Still, industry insiders have indicated that an Airbus plant operated by Spirit in the U.K. requires over $1 billion in reinvestment to recover from losses.

READ ALSO: Boeing Slaps Back at Whistleblower's Complaint, Defends 787 Dreamliner Against Aircraft's Structural Safety

Splitting Spirit's Business Plans

Boeing aims to acquire its major aerostructures supplier, responsible for making the fuselage of its 737 MAX aircraft, by negotiating with its competitor, Airbus, which represents about one-fifth of the supplier's revenue. According to one source, Boeing is expected to resist paying Airbus to take over operations and focus on finalizing the deal to increase production of the struggling MAX aircraft.

According to a second source, splitting Spirit's Airbus business entails relocating plants and redistributing some of the workload to other locations. The money-losing Belfast plant of Spirit is among the challenges currently being addressed, as noted by two sources. Spirit's financial results are scheduled to be reported on May 7.

An Airbus spokesperson reaffirmed that the company is involved in discussions regarding its operations tied to Spirit but declined to provide additional comments, along with Boeing.

Spirit Aero spokesman Joe Buccino emphasized the company's commitment to prioritizing quality, safety, and the highest engineering standards, irrespective of ongoing negotiations.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury informed Reuters last month that it was "not unlikely" for Airbus to take control of both the Belfast and Kinston, North Carolina plants, where Spirit manufactures components for the A350 aircraft. Spirit was separated from Boeing in 2005 and promptly diversified its operations to become a supplier for Airbus, now its second-largest customer after Boeing. Spirit continues to produce approximately 70% of the fuselage for Boeing's top-selling 737 and supplies significant components for the 787.

The situation has reignited worries regarding the fate of Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing employer and its 3,400 employees following Spirit's acquisition of the company from a struggling Bombardier in 2019. In addition to manufacturing wings for the Airbus A220, the company has been diversifying its operations into the defense and space sectors.

RELATED ARTICLE: Southwest Faces Critical Revenue Growth, Slashes 2,000 Jobs, Shuts Down Operations Caused by Boeing Delays

 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.










English News China's achievements in sci-tech innovation lauded by participants to 2024 ZGC Forum

Alwihda Info | Par People's Daily - 1 Mai 2024



This year, "exchange" and "cooperation" remained buzzwords at the event. Foreign guests said that China actively fosters an open innovation ecosystem, expands international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and provides an internationally competitive and attractive environment for innovation.

By Wang Hui, Guo Ziyun, People's Daily The 2024 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) was held in Beijing from April 25 to 29. Themed "Innovating for a Better World," the forum focused on cutting-edge and trending topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), space science, life and health, carbon peaking and neutrality, and future industries.



Scientists, business leaders, government officials, and representatives from international organizations from over 100 countries and regions came together for in-depth discussions and innovative solutions.



Foreign participants said China's focus on innovation-driven development has emerged as a standout feature of the country's economic and social development, propelling technological breakthroughs and fostering new industries, new business models, and new drivers of growth.



They noted that China is committed to true multilateralism and shares the benefits of innovation with other countries, thereby contributing to global development.



At the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, a new venue for ZGC Forum, many participants are interacting with bionic humanoid robots. With natural facial expressions and body movements, the robot was able to fluently answer visitors' inquiries about the forum's location, schedule, and other information.



Such new technologies, products and ideas were everywhere in the venue.



"Chinese modernization and the innovation-driven development strategy have made significant contributions to world economic growth and sustainable development," said Marco Aleman, Assistant Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).



He further noted that China ranked 12th in the Global Innovation Index 2023 released by the WIPO, the only middle-income economy in the top 30. Besides, China has become the economy with the most "top 100 science and technology clusters" worldwide.



"These achievements were made possible by careful planning and effective policy implementation," Aleman added.



Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, lauded China for its well-defined research and innovation objectives in clean energy and the effective actions it has implemented to reach them.



He noted the critical role China has played in making photovoltaic technology more affordable, highlighting the profound implications this will have on emission reduction efforts in China and other countries.



Antonius H.J. Bisseling, a professor at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was impressed by China's rapid technological advancements over the past 20 years.



Bisseling made his first trip to China in 2003 and has witnessed the remarkable progress made by the country. He said China has significantly reduced the manufacturing costs of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products, while also expanding their applications, which has greatly aided global efforts to reduce emissions. "The solar panel installed in my house last year was sourced from China," said the professor.



The ZGC Forum is a national-level platform of China that aims to promote exchange and cooperation in global scientific and technological innovation. It has successfully held 14 sessions so far.



This year, "exchange" and "cooperation" remained buzzwords at the event. Foreign guests said that China actively fosters an open innovation ecosystem, expands international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and provides an internationally competitive and attractive environment for innovation.



"China's development in science and technology is impressive," said Astrid Scherer, vice president of German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Bayer. She highlighted China's fast-paced R&D and advanced AI technology in healthcare, which are driving progress in clinical development both in China and around the world.



"China is a huge market with enormous opportunities," said Johann Lohn, honorary chairman of the Steinbeis foundation, an institution headquarter in Germany dedicated to the technology and knowledge transfer between universities and the economy.



"With a robust and vibrant innovation ecosystem, Beijing has become a prominent innovation city globally. We plan to leverage our innovation network to establish our China headquarter and an international collaborative innovation center in Beijing, supporting talent development and international technology transfer in digital healthcare and green energy," Lohn said.



Mustafa Shehu, President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, noted that the world is experiencing unprecedented technological transformation, accompanied by uncertainties.

"In the face of these changes and challenges, international cooperation is no longer a choice but a necessity," said Shehu, encouraging active communication, insight exchanges, and collaborative partnerships. Through collective efforts, the innovative ideas generated at the forum can be translated into practical solutions, he added.



Quarraisha Abdool Karim, president of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) lauded the long-term collaboration between the TWAS and China.



"We share a common vision of promoting sustainable development through technology and innovation," Karim said. She further highlighted China's achievements in this regard, which have enabled low- and middle-income countries and technologically disadvantaged nations to nurture a group of outstanding scientists, develop scientific infrastructure, and enhance the well-being of their citizens.



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 Chinese MOOCs share China's digital education achievements worldwide

Alwihda Info | Par People's Daily - 1 Mai 2024



At the 2024 World Digital Education Conference, the World Digital Education Alliance was established, joined by 104 institutions from 41 countries and regions. Besides, China's National Smart Education Platform has introduced its international version, providing round-the-clock services for learners worldwide. Education shapes the future, and MOOCs are opening up more possibilities in education.

By Wu Dan, People's Daily The spring semester of the Peking University Global Open Courses has kicked off as scheduled. Students from China, Azerbaijan, Japan, Turkey and other countries gathered in virtual classes at Peking University, waving hello to each other via video link.



Allowing students from different countries to share the same class is exactly the attractiveness of China's Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOC.



ICourse and XuetangX, renowned MOOCs platforms in China, offer over 1,000 online courses in 14 languages for university students and learners worldwide. They have created over 340 global hybrid classrooms and are working towards mutual credit recognition among prestigious universities.



Starting from 2013, China's MOOCs platforms have launched over 76,800 courses and attracted 454 million registered users. Serving nearly 1.28 billion learners in China and extending their reach internationally, they have not only empowered Chinese students but also contributed Chinese wisdom and solutions to global higher education.



By increasing their global outreach, these platforms disseminate knowledge and, more importantly, showcase China's educational philosophy and promote the diversified development of cultures around the world.



For instance, Tsinghua University launched a global open course named "China's Approach to Poverty Eradication," providing a panoramic picture of China's endeavor on poverty reduction and its contributions to the world. China Academy of Art introduced MOOCs such as "The Essence of Chinese Figure Painting" to highlight eastern aesthetics in the exchanges and mutual learning of world civilizations. Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine launched a MOOC on acupuncture in both Chinese and English, which was picked by XuetangX for promotion in Indonesia.



The rich and diverse online courses offer a window into understanding China. Through this window, more and more people can appreciate the profound heritage of Chinese culture and gain a more authentic, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive understanding of the real China.



With a global outlook, Chinese MOOCs are sharing China's digital education achievements and promoting exchanges and cooperation among institutes of higher education worldwide.



For example, Southwest Jiaotong University developed MOOCs related to the Belt and Road Initiative, which have trained more than 5,000 rail transit professionals from over 80 countries and benefited over 200 universities and more than 100,000 online learners home and abroad.



Southern University of Science and Technology helped bring smart classrooms to 13 Asian and African countries such as Cambodia and Kenya, providing local students with access to cutting-edge educational concepts and knowledge.



By sharing high-quality MOOCs courses, promoting teaching collaborations, and deepening international exchanges, China has transitioned from a major importer of educational resources to a major exporter of quality course resources, contributing to the development of a more open, inclusive, and shared educational environment.



At the 2024 World Digital Education Conference, the World Digital Education Alliance was established, joined by 104 institutions from 41 countries and regions. Besides, China's National Smart Education Platform has introduced its international version, providing round-the-clock services for learners worldwide. Education shapes the future, and MOOCs are opening up more possibilities in education.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Progress made in desertification control along Yellow River Basalt rocks made into national flag carried by Chang'e-6 probe Prospering telemedicine a reflection of China's rapid internet development Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
The 19th-century Prussian general Karl Von Clausewitz famously said: War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means. Or as we more often hear it, War is but politics by different means. Some predict that America is on the verge of a hot war. But while its true that our country is more divided than ever, it may not be as divided as the pro-Hamas, anti-American protesters hope.

War is what generally happens when two (or more) sides get to a point where they can no longer peacefully coexist with the current circumstances. America seems to have reached that point...

How does one know a civil war is coming? Have you been on a college campus lately?

2024 is an echo of 1968. Today, the ostensible catalyst for what were seeing on campuses across the country is the alleged Israeli genocide happening in Gaza. Were seeing a virtual replay of the original Summer of Love, when entitled students took over campuses while feckless administration cowards fiddled while their schools figuratively burned. In 68, the students were protesting the Vietnam War (they were really protesting the draft; the war was just the rallying point), and then, as now, Columbia was the epicenter.

Spreading from Columbia across the country, that summer protests raged. Chants of Hell no, we wont go and images of Black Power fists were seen and heard on every nightly newscast. Today, the news and social media are filled with chants of  From the river to the sea , images of Palestinian flags, BLM signs, and Antifa graffiti. Anyone not wearing a keffiyeh is being declared a Zionist.

The difference between 1968 and 2024 is that, back then, most of the country disagreed with the protesters.

In November 1968, Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey in the Electoral College 301-191. Add to that the 46 electors that George Wallace took, and the country voted 347 to 191 against the Democrats (57% vs 43% in the popular vote). This was at a time when most Democrats were strongly anti-communist, and being pro-American was considered normal, almost required.

Today, we have a completely different landscape. In 2024, Democrats are virtually indistinguishable from communists, and being pro-American is seen as racist.

Hence, the college protests. Theyre not just pro-Hamas ; theyre much, much more. These protests are very much a reflection of their time given the seemingly mainstream nature of the beliefs that power them. Theyre at their core not just anti-Israel, theyre antisemitic, theyre anti-American , anti-Western, anti-capitalist , anti-police , and of course, anti-white .

Sadly, all those things are basically mainstream Democrat policies in 2024. We see every single one of them play out across the country in federal, state, and local governments. From stultifying climate change regulations to the housing of illegals to DEI diktats to the reimagining of police, theres virtually nothing that the federal government and half our state and local governments do today that isnt infused with the workings of a leftists wet dream. At the end of the day, while some new incremental CAFE standard from Washington or a DEI hire at the local university might not sound particularly onerous, in reality, each is another bar in the leftist policy prison being implemented around the country.

Half the American population has become anti-everything America once stood for, and that half is actively leveraging the power of the government to fundamentally transform the United States of America against everything traditionally American. Given that the traditional half has no interest in watching its country be destroyed, feel as if they have few viable tools with which to stop the destruction, and hear their government call them the enemy, the country is sitting on a powder keg.

If this were the Roman Empire or 1945 Germany, it might be possible to split the nation in two, with the east going one direction and the west going another, but its not. What were faced with is an urban/rural dichotomy, where the population of cities is largely hardcore leftists, and the population of the suburbs and rural America is more traditionally patriotic.

While a clean split is simply not feasible, a continuation of the current trajectory isnt either.

Which is where these college protests come in. As they morph into fortified CHAZ-like encampments across the country, where the American flag is replaced by the Palestinian flag or where their own violent security staff keeps others at bay, the pressure will only ramp up on the feckless university leaders to do something. But of course, given that most are fellow travelers with the protesters, theyve dragged their feet so much so that its simply emboldened the protesters, even as some are finally being rounded up.

Funded by the modern incarnation of Satan himself, George Soros , the protests will spill out beyond the universities, returning to bridges, highways, and other choke points around the country. Theyll be joined by LGBTQXYZ activists and environmental wackos, as well as more Antifa and BLM agitators . Together, theyll try to bring the country to a halt. It wont happen, of course, as local police and the National Guard will be called outoften by reluctant, sympathetic Democrat leadersto restore some law and order.

But the lines will be drawn. On the one side will be Americans who understand exactly how fortunate we are, how difficult it is to create prosperity and how, while imperfect, America is the greatest nation yet produced. On the other side will be Americans who know little about history, spit on their birthright, and seek to turn the United States into Venezuela. At some point the former will decide theyve had enough and do what they need to do to put a stop to it.

With all due respect to Von Clausewitz, Id suggest politics is a prelude to war. At least in this case. Its not inevitable, but it is likely. But we couldand I hope we doget lucky.

The terrorist sympathizers taking over campuses are sufficiently emboldened by the support theyre getting from Democrats that theyre willing to say what they really think , to be crystal clear about what they support (Hamas and terrorism) and what they dont (America). Their forthrightness may lead them to discover that they and their Democrat brethren have overplayed their hands.

By showing America exactly who they are and how much they hate everything about America, perhaps enough non-radicalized Democrats will see the light and vote for the guy who promises to put America first. They might still hate him, but we can hope theyll love their country more. If enough do, we just might avoid another civil war

Image by Vince Coyner using AI.
The politicization of Americans faith traditions has recently devolved into the newfound leftist phrase Christian nationalist, often combined with race as white Christian nationalism and then touted as a threat to the nation. But in seemingly racist arrogance, these Christ-haters ignore the history of black Christian nationalism.

In an insightful contemplation of the nascent anti-Christian crusade by god-hating Marxists, Kenneth L. Woodward writes in First Things that [w]hite Christian nationalism is a social construction the meaning of which depends on who is doing the constructing. Woodward chronicles the effort by a handful of Christian-hating politicos to portray the dreaded Christian nationalist category as an implicit theocratic threat to the country but adroitly points out the flaws of this slanderous undertaking:

In sum, white Christian nationalist is an inherently political concept. ... The relationship between Christianity and American nationalism has a long history, against which any new iteration must be understood. ... In the Cold War era, when the spread of Communism was the nations main concern, both liberals and conservatives advanced their political agendas by appealing to yet other forms of Christian nationalism. And so, in the biblical idiom of freedom and justice, did Martin Luther King Jr.

Indeed, Joe Biden invokes God routinely to endorse his godless edicts. How does he escape the white Christian nationalist moniker? And what of black Christians who embrace the clear Christian roots of the American experience? Are they not a threat to the nation?

The meaning of words and phrases can be extremely important. White supremacist once referred to white people who believe that whites are a superior race to blacks. The term has been perverted to mean white people (or even black people who do not agree with Critical Race Theory). The political/secular crusade against Christianity seeks to similarly recast the good traditions of liberty, equality, and unalienable rights that arose from Christianity and led to the abolitionist movement as somehow evil. Many black voices, both current and historical, join Martin Luther King, Jr. in support of precisely the same Christian precepts embraced by so-called white Christian nationalists.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is no longer the darling of the left. He has essentially been canceled: whites who invoke his legacy are knee-jerk slandered as white supremacists. But King was a bold, devout Christian preacher, politician, and activist for whom faith in Christ was the foundation of all that he did, including his martyrdom for the cause of civil rights. His I Have a Dream speech still echoes dimly in the minds of Americans trying to fathom how race-based hiring, advancement, and reparations will accomplish anything other than the destruction of everything King invested his career  and life  to accomplish.

King was hardly the sole black American to elevate his faith into the Christian nationalist biblical idiom of freedom and justice. Black and white Americans have long found unity in that shared faith that fueled the abolitionist movement and strives even now for aspirational equality, under Marxist attack by those invoking the inequitable, destructive ideologies of race, gender, and queer theories that all advance principles antithetical to Christian ideals. These toxic theories create division, emphasize rights (that would not exist but for the Christian contribution) over duties, demand works of racial repentance, bizarre pronouns, or trans-groveling, and do not aspire toward freedom, equality, or justice. That is, they are overtly anti-Christian.

Many great black American minds held strongly to the Christian religion and the American creed. Frederick Douglass was outspoken in his passion for the American liberties now under assault:

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. ... There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution. ... Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.

Walter E. Williams was no less shy in expressing his faith and opposing the ongoing Marxist destruction of the nation:

Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual. ... Income redistribution not only betrays the founders vision, its a sin in the eyes of God. ... Its morality that is societys first line of defense against uncivilized behavior. ... For those of us who are Christians, Im very sure that when God gave Moses the commandment Thou Shalt Not Steal, he did not mean ... unless you get a majority vote in Congress.

Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman were both ardently devout Christians. While the social justice warrior crowd might falsely claim that these famous ladies were bamboozled into a false faith, their accomplishments would have been impossible without faith. Both women drew their courage from their Christian convictions, with Tubman claiming, I am at peace with God and all mankind.

George Washington Carver proclaimed, Our creator is the same and never changes despite the names given Him by people here and in all parts of the world. Even if we gave Him no name at all, He would still be there, within us, waiting to give us good on this earth. Booker T. Washington wrote, If no other consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has done during the last thirty-five years for the elevation of the black man would have made me a Christian.

Thomas Sowell is a black American who strongly condemns the attack on constitutional rights by those who claim they seek social justice:

Racism is not dead, but it is on life support  kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists. ... If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

Actor Harry Lennix, a Catholic, has remarked, The black church is extremely important in black America. I think most Americans themselves believe in a divine power, in a God, and Im sure that that number increases with black people. Rosa Parks held that I believe there is only one race  the human race. Voddie Baucham, Jr. writes, Who am I to tell a white brother that he cannot be reconciled to me until he has dredged up all of the racial sins of his and his ancestors past and made proper restitution? Christ has atoned for sin!

Defining Christian nationalism is a patently vague political game. In contrast, defining America as founded on Christian ideals of equal rights and fundamental liberties, which gave rise to the abolitionist movement, is a true, non-racist definition of the term, embraced by black and white Americans alike. The battle against slavery and prejudice will always go on, and there will always be brothers and sisters in Christ (of all colors and nationalities) agreeing with Rev. King: Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Christianity is the light, and the love, entwined in this American nation. Thats Christian nationalism, in plain black and white.

Attorney-farmer John Klar hosts the Small Farm Republic Substack and podcast from his Vermont farm. His recent book is Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival.

Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
Israels enemies are charging the worlds only Jewish nation with committing genocide. This is a lie.

Genocide as a word and internationally accepted concept did not exist before 1944. It was specifically created to describe how the Nazis sought to eliminate the entirety of the Jewish population in Europe. Resting on that singular historical example, the United Nations Office to Prevent Genocide defines this crime as any acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

This narrow definition under international law consists of two principal prerequisites: intent and a specific groups physical destruction. This was certainly the case when Hitler almost entirely exterminated European Jewry and when the Hutu government massacred Rwandas Tutsi population in 1994.

Currently, there are politically motivated and rhetorically irresponsible charges of genocide leveled at Israel. These disingenuous accusations are a weapon of war that terrorist groups such as Hamas and its allies are using to achieve strategic political victory in the struggle for universal information dominance. Israels actions in Gaza were a response to Hamass October 7. 2023 assault against a mostly defenseless civilian population. Consequently, it seems incongruent that anyone is granting credibility to these anti-Israel charges of genocide rather than seeing them as pure antisemitism.

Image: The genocide libel (edited). YouTube screen grab.

It's not just Israels open foes that claimed that Israels military operations have inflicted disproportionate damage upon Gazas civilian population. Even those who acknowledge her right to self-defense have chimed in. And while the Western media obscure Israels efforts to show accurately the scope of Hamass atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7, these same outlets lovingly portray Hamass inflated civilian death numbers for Gaza. This scandalous anti-Israel orientation has successfully pressured the White House to demand that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) give up its strategically advantageous position and yield to demands for a short of victory ceasefire.

Israels ostensible supporters are quiet about the complexities of urban guerilla warfare against a determined, dug-in, well-armed adversary that invites attacks because it uses Gazan civilians as human shields in a propaganda war thats more important than the war on the ground. The reports also ignore the advanced weaponry Hamas received from Iran, such as attack drones, mobile rocket launchers, long-range sniper rifles, and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). The IDFs task is further complicated because its mission is to bring home any surviving hostages still in Hamass hands.

Given the dishonesty and dissimulation around Israel, how do we refute the genocide charge? For this, we turn to two legitimate professional soldiers of the highest caliber: Col. Richard Kemp (ret.) and Col. John W. Spencer.

Colonel Richard Kemp, an internationally known soldier and veteran of multiple wars, has written extensively about IDF military operations. He has been living in Israel for the last several months, observing the IDFs Gaza campaign. His report details the incredible complexity involved in prosecuting the war and the IDFs enormous efforts to minimize civilian harm.

In the linked essay, Kemp rebuts those who criticize the IDFs conduct in the Gaza Strip and rejects suggestions that Israel should emulate the rules of engagement and tactics US forces used in Iraq and Afghanistan. He wryly states, Given the outcomes of both campaigns, perhaps neither provides the ideal template for how Jihadists can be defeated.

Kemp further claims that critics have not proffered any realistic proposals that could reduce civilian losses in Gazas concentrated urban environment while allowing Israel to achieve a military victory. He notes that Hamass brand of warfare further complicates the IDF effort. Hamas uses schools, hospitals, and mosques for weapons storage, fighting positions, and access to their 400+ miles of tunnels. Hamas also uses office and commercial facilities, shops, and residential buildings for these purposes.

John Spencer, the US Army War Colleges Professor of Military Science, addresses another standard critique against Israel, which is the claim that it violates the legal principle of proportionality in war. This concept concerns itself with minimizing harm to a civilian population, requiring commanders to weigh the anticipated military advantage against the expected collateral damage when planning an attack to ensure the results are not disproportional to a legitimate military objective.

However, there are limits on the constraints proportionality places on a military. Proportionality as a Law of Armed Conflict principle prohibits an attack only if the attacker concludes beforehand that the incidental or collateral damage will be excessive compared to the anticipated military advantage. The amount of collateral damage is irrelevant if the response was directed toward a legitimate military objective. It comes down to intent.

The best way to avoid civilian casualties is through advanced warning and evacuation. This obviously risks operational failure because it tells warns the enemy about an attacks timing and location. The U.S. did not do this in the 2003 Iraq invasion, which involved major urban battles. It also did not do so before the first battle of Fallujah, giving warning only before the second battle of Fallujah, six months later.

Col. Spencer asserts that Israel provided days and then weeks of warnings, as well as time for civilians to evacuate northern Gaza before initiating the IDF main air-ground attack. The IDF used calling and texting ahead of an air strike as well as roof-knocking, where they drop small munitions on the roof of a building notifying everyone to evacuate the building before a strike. He adds that,

No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before. The IDF has also air-dropped flyers to give civilians instructions on when and how to evacuate, including with safe corridors. [snip] Israel has dropped over 520,000 pamphlets, and broadcast over radio and through social media messages to provide instruction for civilians to leave combat areas. Israel's use of real phone calls to civilians in combat areas (19,734), SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to provide instructions on evacuations is also unprecedented. The IDF also conducted daily four-hour pauses over multiple consecutive days of the war to allow civilians to leave active combat areas.

Despite the unique challenges Israel faces in its war against Hamas, it has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in history. It has met the rules of proportionality by ensuring that every attack had a primary military goal and, because of its enemys deliberate decision to embed itself amongst civilians, it has gone above and beyond all moral military principles to shield enemy civilians from the effects of its war plans. The charges of genocide are demonstrably false.
The Greek word  means void, abyss, from the verb , to gape, to be wide open, and the cognate Old English geanian, to gape, to open.

The relationship between spiritual collapse and the decay of moral and social order is a common theme in the prophets, especially Isaiah.

In election campaigns in democracies, struggling parties threaten voters that the victory of the enemy represents the end of democracy for their country and the advent of dictatorship in it.

But there is a far greater threat to a country than the weakening of its democracy -- it is chaos, anarchy, the loosening and even disintegration of civil society, and perhaps even civil war.

Anarchists threaten not the existence of democracy, but the existence of the state. The system formed after these perturbations will not necessarily become totalitarian, as the fighters for democracy threaten, i.e., it may not be about the loss of freedom, but about the loss of the order of governing the country. A functional dictatorship, like Singapore and even China, may be better for citizens than the chaos of state collapse, because it provides stabilization of society.

The pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place in the U.S. are far more threatening to the U.S. than the Israel they target. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses oppose the Democrat party's vision of a solution to the Middle East conflict -- two states for two peoples -- as they fight for one state for the Arab Palestinian people instead of one Jewish state: they demand the liberation of Palestine from the Israelis, from river to sea.

In this way, they act as an opposition to the ruling Democrat party. But much more dangerously, these demonstrations are against democracy in general and, in particular, against American democracy. Technically, they are fighting against democracy in Israel and siding with the murderers and rapists of Hamas.

But he who fights against democracy in another country does not like democracy in his own country, either. Huge demonstrations create and legitimize anarchy: the establishment negotiates with anarchists to regularize anarchy. Anarchy in the U.S. comes from two sources -- from crowds of illegal immigrants and from crowds of protesting opponents of democracy. Chaos is worse than democracy because democracy has boundaries and laws, chaos has none.

Democracy is not always the power of democrats. In one speech, Joseph Stalin created a characteristically sly joke about democracy: I thought democracy was the power of the people, but Comrade Roosevelt lucidly explained to me that democracy is the power of the American people! Democrats are not those who think democracy is their power. Usually the opposite is true: anyone who monopolizes their right to power by calling it democracy is most likely an anti-democrat.

One can learn about the future in the United States by observing the results of the flood of Islamic immigrants into Europe that began as a result of the Arab Spring in 2010.

The huge flow of immigrants into Europe is creating social chaos. The leaders of European countries, thinking they were in control, created chaos that turned against the indigenous population of their countries. They proceeded from the theory of multiculturalism, but a few months after mass immigration began, they admitted the failure of their policy. They had created turbulent flows of populations alien to Europe.

In the summer of 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been more active than any other European leader in promoting the resettlement of Arab refugees in Europe, summarized the German government's failure to integrate them: Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany, in which people of different cultures live in full harmony, have finally and irrevocably failed. The integration of foreigners is one of the main political tasks of the near future. Migrants should not only be supported, but also demanded, which has been given too little attention in recent times.

In 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy summarized his country's experience with multiculturalism this way: Yes, it is very clear that it was a failure. We have been too concerned with the identity of the person who comes to the country and have not paid enough attention to the identity of the country that receives the newcomer.

Before the flood of immigrants into Europe, many Europeans thought the answer to Europe's social problems was multiculturalism, that is, the idea of a society that fully accepts foreigners who practice Islam, while preserving their religious and mental characteristics, without requiring them to integrate. But it turned out that multiculturalism facilitates not the integration of immigrants, but their consolidation, their isolation and promotes the creation of a state within a state. Then the European country becomes two states for two peoples, a state of natives and a state of immigrants who do not dissolve in the European democracy.

Society's tolerance and respect for immigrants who are intolerant and disrespectful of that society prepares the change of power. The arrival of huge numbers of immigrants turns the country into a turbulent system that can easily, by a small push, move into a state of crisis with unpredictable results. The destabilization of society can be more dangerous for it than deviations from the democratic regime. If a ship is rocked violently, it may go off course and slightly change its direction, but it is much more dangerous that this rocking may cause it to sink.

French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut writes in his book Unhappy Identity that French identity is disappearing amid the active multiplication of Muslims, which is a danger to the republic." He links his fears to the formation of a multicultural and post-national France.

British journalist Simon Kuper reported in the Financial Times on his French observations: Having moved to France in 2002, I witnessed first-hand the cultural revolution taking place in the country. Catholicism is virtually extinct (only 6% of French people now attend mass regularly). [...] The non-white population continues to grow. French political scientist Jerome Fourquet, in his book The French Archipelago: the Birth of a Multiple and Divided Nation (2019), describes the cultural collapse of French society as a post-Christian era, as the French parting ways with Catholicism, as a self-de-Christianization. A recent study shows that there are as many Muslims in France as Catholics. In The French Archipelago, Fourquet presents a picture of a fractured, fragmented French society, from a single and indivisible nation to a true multicultural archipelago.

In 2020, the concept of Islamist separatism entered the French political lexicon, which means the non-recognition of the fundamental principles of the French Republic by a part of the French population and the creation of a parallel society. Muslims in France make up 9% of the population. This percentage is enough to create a parallel counter-society and a state within a state.

In the U.S., Muslims make up about 1% of the population. How long will it take the U.S. to reach the level of the French crisis if political correctness, multi-culti (etymology from the German Multikulti) dialogue from a position of tolerance and respect with intolerant populations are the constant governing companions of the current U.S. administration?

Image: Pixabay (editing added) / Pixabay License
Down in Colombia, politics is a very tense sport, and the leftist president is looking for distractions. So he found one in the Gaza conflict, and a big target in Israel. This is the story:

Colombia President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday said he intends to end diplomatic relations with Israel over its handling of its war against Hamas in Gaza. Petro said hes ending relations with Israel as of Thursday due to the girls, the boys, the babies who have died dismembered by the bombs, The Hill reported. Petro announced his intention during Colombias annual May Day celebration at the central Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota. The times of genocide, of the extermination of an entire people, cannot come before our eyes, before our passivity, Petro said, according to the New York Times. He said the death of Palestine would be the death of humanity.

So there you have it. The president of Colombia is worried about bombs killing babies.

Israel responded by reminding everyone about October 7th and all of the innocents killed that day. Remember October 7th and the young women raped at the music festival?

Whats President Petros motive? It connects him with other leftist leaders in Brazil and Bolivia who have made similar moves. Its fashionable in left-wing corners to bash Israel, an easy cheap shot for presidents in tune with the marches around the world. Its also a distraction for men like Petro who are having a very difficult time governing, as we saw when thousands marched in opposition.

So Hamas has a new friend in communist guerrilla-turned-president Petro, and thats no shock to me.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Public domain.
In a move that defies logic and jeopardizes national security, the Biden administration is considering plans that could see Palestinian refugees  many suspected to be highly trained terrorists  relocated to the United States. This proposal is akin to leaving the coop open for the foxes, under the guise of rescue operations.

Leaked internal government documents, as uncovered by CBS News, suggest an eerie readiness to use the United States Refugee Admissions Program to import individuals from a region controlled by the notorious terrorist group Hamas. This revelation comes shortly after the horrific October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 civilians. Its astonishing and deeply concerning: why would our government consider offering refuge to individuals from an area under the sway of such a group?

Could this be a case of deja vu? We need only look back at the withdrawal from Afghanistan, where the Biden administration left over $100 billion in military assets. These weapons did not just vanish; they armed terrorists, potentially impacting global security for decades to come. Its a blistering example of poor judgment  first arming our adversaries abroad, and now potentially inviting them home. Inquiring minds want to know: is it intentional sabotage? If so, it's outright treason. So what does it mean that the Biden Justice Department does nothing about this?

The administrations current refugee proposal appears equally misguided. It's cloaked in the language of humanitarian aid, but one must ask: whom are we aiding? The rhetoric of rescuing refugees sounds noble until you realize that among the innocent, if there are any, may lurk highly trained terrorists. Are we so naive as to think that a rigorous vetting process is foolproof against the cunning of those trained to deceive?

This isnt just a breach of common sense; its a potential catastrophe in waiting. The administrations approach to national security is akin to playing Russian roulette with American lives. Why are we gambling with our safety, betting that stringent screenings will catch every bad actor?

Moreover, this policy is an affront to those who genuinely seek safety from persecution. Refugees are supposed to be fleeing terror, not embodying it. Yet, under Bidens watch, it seems were skewing the definition, prioritizing political optics over the protection of our citizens. This backward policy is akin to rescuing foxes while leaving the defenseless hens behind.

Is this how we define humanitarian aid now? Is this the legacy we want to leave? Its as if the administration has decided that showcasing a misguided benevolence is worth the risk to our national fabric. This isnt just about immigration; its about the integrity and safety of our homeland.

The choice in November should be clear to every reasoning, moral free thinker: choose the candidate who is most likely to safeguard our country, or pick one who will keep selling out our nation to a future global government, on a path of reckless disregard for the well-being of the United States and American citizens. Lets choose wisely and keep the foxes out of the henhouse.

Jerry McGlothlin is co-chairman of Restoring Justice US and the CEO of Special Guests, a publicity agency founded in 1986.

Image via Pexels.
By KTimes

Actor Kim Moo-yul, who played the villain in the movie "The Roundup: Punishment," is earning praise for his use of sign language to greet visitors at a press conference.

According to the Korean Film Council, the fourth installment of "The Roundup" series attracted 391,187 moviegoers on April 30 alone, pushing the cumulative viewership number past the 5 million mark.

"The Roundup: Punishment" follows monster detective Ma Seok-do (played by Ma Dong-seok) as he teams up with his squad and cyber team to battle Baek Chang-gi (played by Kim Moo-yul), a villainous ex-special forces mercenary who runs a massive illegal online gambling organization. They are also joined by Jang Yi-soo (played by Park Ji-hwan), who returns to the fight.

Kim's stage greeting has become a hot topic as he visited theaters with the film's cast to interact with the audience on April 27-28.

At the barrier-free screening held at Megabox COEX in Gangnam District, Seoul, Kim used sign language to greet the audience. This screening featured a Korean-subtitled version of the movie, accommodating the hearing impaired, while also welcoming sign language interpreters, donors from the Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities, and other attendees.

During his stage greeting, Kim captured everyone's attention by gently setting down the microphone he was handed and communicating with the audience in sign language. He introduced himself with a warm smile, saying, "Hello. My name is Kim Moo-yul. Thank you all for coming. I love you." His adeptness in sign language suggested careful and dedicated practice, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

The audience erupted in cheers at Kim's sign language greeting, which demonstrated thoughtfulness toward hearing-impaired attendees. Videos capturing this heartfelt moment are circulating widely across social media and online communities, leaving a warm and positive impression.

Following Kim, Park Ji-hwan brought laughter to the crowd by showing off his fake police badge attached to his waist.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.


Weve all seen how Biden has been trying to manage Israels war against Hamasand hes been doing so in a way that hampers Israels ability to fight an openly genocidal enemy. The question is why hes doing this. I know that I have inchoate ideas about Obamas Iran policy and Bidens long-standing animosity toward Israel, but Lee Smith drills deeper and comes up with something even more disturbing...and manifestly true.

The Tablet article is entitled, Saving Hamas: The Palestinian terror organization refuses to release hostages while clinging to its last stronghold in Rafah. So why is the Biden administration throwing the full weight of the U.S. government at Israel to prevent it from routing Hamas? The first two paragraphs clearly explain the essays premise:

Reports are circulating that the Israelis are planning an operation in Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. If so, the Netanyahu government will be acting against the very public wishes of the Biden administration, which has spent the last half year moving heaven and earth to save a terrorist organization from destruction. Bizarrely, the White Houses statements and actions show that Hamas survival is more important than the security of a traditional American partner, Israel; more crucial to American interests than the preservation of the U.S.-led order of the Middle East; more precious than the dozens of American lives that Hamas ended on Oct. 7; more valuable than however many Americans and Israelis are still alive in the terror armys tunnels. Why? As the money and prestige that the U.S. has invested month after month in protecting Hamas demonstrate, the Biden administration sees the terror group as a valuable asset.

So many essays start out this well and then fall down on the job. Smith doesnt make that mistake. In a beautifully organized series of paragraphs, Smith provides example after example of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel steps the Biden administration has taken, beginning the day after the October 7 massacre, when Secretary of State Blinken was already calling for a ceasefireas in, Hamas gets to break a ceasefire and sadistically slaughter Jews, but Israel should be handcuffed before she can retaliate.

Smith goes on from there, reciting chapter and verse about the Biden administrations efforts, both subtle and overt, to throttle Israels ability to fight a terrorist organization on her doorstep. And lest anyone think Im exaggerating about the organizations explicit plans to exterminate the Jews living in their ancestral homeland (land that Muslims and Arabs later colonized), heres a reminder of Hamas rhetoric, which Hamas has repeatedly paired with equally violent action:

Ahmad Bahr, former Deputy Speaker, Hamas Parliament: Kill them all without leaving a single one. (2012) Fathi Hamad, Senior Hamas official: You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing. (2019) Sheikh Hamad al-Regeb: Bring annihilation upon the Jews. Paralyze them, destroy their entity. (2023) and, Yaya Sinwar, at this writing crawling through sewers in Gaza, announcing that Hamas is winning the war: Well take down the border and tear their hearts from their bodies. (2018)

Having proven repeatedly the Biden administrations pro-Hamas slant, Smith moves on to explain who the self-identified Palestinians are, separate from their genocidal antisemitic proclivities: They are terrorists. I know that sounds obvious, but many people have lost sight of what that means. Smith carefully explains how the Palestinians have been violent guns for hire who serve anti-Western despots around the world.

From there, its a short but important step to explaining Obamas relationship with Iran, Israel, and other Middle Eastern nations, along with his problematic approach to the West Bank and Gaza. While Trump effectively halted Obamas policies, Biden has slavishly returned to them.

But heres the kicker: Its not just hatred for Israel or love for Iran thats driving the Obama and Biden train. Theres more...but you have to click on over to Tablet to get the stunning denouement.

Image: Internet meme; creator unknown
Within the same one-month period, Germany passed the most insanely pro-transgender laws in the world, while Britain pulled back from the abyss and officially recognized that there are only two biological sexes. It remains to be seen which policy will gain traction in Europe...and in America.

Heres what happened in Germany:

The German Parliament, or Bundestag, passed one of the worlds most far-reaching sex self-determination policies on April 12, despite protests from womens rights campaigners. The Self-Determination Act (SBGG) establishes gender identity as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their childrens documents from birth. Supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholzs three-party coalition and promoted and supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to 10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a persons given name and birth sex without their permission  an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as deadnaming. But arguably the most troubling aspect of the law relates to a portion of the bill which permits parents to alter the recorded sex of children beginning from birth. From the age of five years old, it allows for name and sex changes if there is mutual consent between the child and their parents.

Did you get that last bit about a five-year-old child consenting to have his sex changed on his birth certificate?

Image: Just as Oscar Wilde envisioned a Picture of Dorian Gray showing the rot, or Freudian Id, behind the gloss, the manifestly mentally ill Solomon Galligan is the Id of so-called transgenderism. X screen grab.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the National Health Service, which reflects official government policy, will finally back away from so-called transgenderism:

Changes to the health services written constitution proposed by ministers will for the first time ban trans women from women-only wards, and give women the right to request a female doctor for intimate care. [snip] In 2021, NHS guidance said trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards based on the gender with which they identified. The new constitution will state: We are defining sex as biological sex. The clarification means that the right to a single-sex ward means patients would not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex.

Ah, normalcy, at last, at least in the country that bequeathed many of its values to us 250 years ago. There, at least, it seems that (a) the hysterical madness of the so-called transgender activists, (b) womens realization that they are being subordinated to insane men, and (c) the emerging evidence that transgenderism was always a political and social con rather than a physical reality are slowly making themselves felt...at least in some areas.

Im really not sure what to say at this point. Germany has opted for insanity while Britain is trying to claw its way back to normalcy. We see the same schism in America as the different states battle it out over whether to subject children to the mental and physical torture of so-called transgenderism. Its to be hoped that we follow in Britains footsteps rather than in Germanys.
Can we just start gloating now? I know the Bible tells us not to, and why (Proverbs 24:1718), but watching anti-American progressive Democrats unintentionally self-cannibalize anywhere and everywhere because of their stupid ideas and policies makes it so hard not to.

And no doubt, CEO of telehealth company Hims Andrew Dudum will be a casualty soon enough; on Wednesday morning, he tweeted out this:

Moral courage > College degree



If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going. Its working.



There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.  andrewdudum (@AndrewDudum) May 1, 2024

Lets just recap what these morally courageous people have been up to, to get a rough idea of their capabilities and priorities, which are certainly important factors a prospective employee brings to a professional environmentright?

Theyre pooping in tents, which were out of order almost immediately:

The George Washington University Palestine encampment has thought of everything including 2 tents used for bathrooms



Detailed instructions include taking 2 bags into the bathroom and throwing away the waste in a bin



They are out of order currently pic.twitter.com/WFc70YoL0X  Wid Lyman (@Wid_Lyman) May 1, 2024

Instead of using a plumbed indoor bathroom or ordering an outhousebecause naturally why would you take a dump where you can flush it when you can squat in a sweaty tent over a bucket thats been used countless times alreadylike the animals they are, some introduced kitty litter:

Reporting from the antiwar protests at the Auraria campus today. One protester took it upon themselves to set up a bathroom, using tents, buckets and cat litter.



Another saw this and set up their own handwashing station. pic.twitter.com/j6DUo5F9MB  Paolo Zialcita (@paolozialcita) April 28, 2024

Bike helmets, shields made from old Rubbermaids they must have swiped from the school cafeteria, and respirators (because Covid-19 still has them almost paralyzed in fear) make for reasonable riot gear:

(I cant really picture these people being sacrificial, dedicated, and driven employees.)

At best, these morally courageous job candidates areliterally bumsand Dudum literally just invited them to work for his company. I really hope hes a man of his word (which I seriously doubt) and actually hires these freaks, because it would be a quick death, and Id enjoy the theater of it all. Theyre communists for crying out loud, and since when do communists work?? Um, spoiler alert, never. They want everything we have, except our jobs. (Dont forget, Marx was so repulsed by work that he actually went around pantsless in his house for an absurd length of time because he sold them to buy food; his mother also mocked him for only writing about capital instead of actually making it.)

Theyll demand six-figure salaries, but then protest work because a 95 is rooted in white supremacy and patriarchy, and Hims is misogynistic while Hims & Hers is binary and non-inclusive, before theyre triggered by microaggressions and file lawsuits.

These are the never-spanked-everyone-gets-a-trophy generation, and theyre used to getting their way through emotional (and real) terrorism and pitching fitsif theyre doing this to their own schools, whats stopping them from doing it at their own workplaces? (Dudum needs to revisit Aesops tale about the scorpion and the frog.)

This is not moral courage, its a bad case of spoiled-rotten and entitled useful idiots.

Moral courage is what Marc Bloch displayed as he held the hands of a teenaged-boy in an empty field as Gestapo officers aimed and fired.

Moral courage is what we saw as American men jumped off the boats on the beaches of Normandy to face German machine guns.

Moral courage is what we saw from the lone man standing in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square.

Moral courage is what we saw when first responders ran into the towers on 9/11.

Obviously, exhaustively listing instances of moral courage could never be done in a lifetimebut the rioting anti-Jew heathens would never make that list. Moral courage is exactly what progressive leftists dont have.

Now, Hims is a public company, and over the past month Hims stock value has already declined a little over 20%, and I suspect Dudums invitation may force a Bud Light treatmentso if youre an investor, get out while you can.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.
In a Seattle courtroom, a judge dismissed criminal trespass charges against three people who helped shut down I-5 for hours on January 6, 2024. Her ruling was made on specious legal grounds and reflects leftist judicial activism writ large.

The facts arent complicated. On January 6, 2024, a huge number of pro-Hamas protesters blocked I-5 in Seattle. Clearly acting on the orders of local elected officials, the state troopers did nothing to clear this conduct, which is illegal on its face as well as being an act of domestic terrorism. Instead, they just waited it out.

After the fact, law enforcement officers combed through social media posts about the event to identify participants. Eventually, they filed criminal trespass and disorderly conduct charges against six of the participants. Nevertheless, attorneys for the I-5 Six argued at the defendants arraignment (the formal charging proceeding) that using social media was an improper form of suspect identification for three of the six named defendants.

This is nonsense. If the photos from an event in a public place show that these defendants were among engaged in illegal acts, thats sufficient for the charges against them. Judge Andrea Jarmon, however, accepted the defense argument and dismissed the criminal trespass charges. (The prosecution has not dropped the charges.)

Lets talk about Judge Jarmon, the living embodiment of a leftist judge:

This is Judge Andrea Jarmon in Seattle.



She just dismissed ALL criminal trespass charges against half of the pro-Palestine activists who blocked the I-5 for 4 hours.



Jarmon sided with the defense attorneys, suggesting it was wrong of state patrol to recognize the suspects from pic.twitter.com/ozfOmdANom  End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 2, 2024

Let me emphasize that Jarmons Muslim faith is only part of the whole leftist intersectional package that sees her view the law as a tool for her values, values apparent in her LinkedIn blog, where she offers a series of Hijabi Speaks From The Bench insights.

The posts reveal a few things: Most obviously, despite a dual major from the University of Washington that includes English Language and Literature (the other is Womens Studies), as well as a UW law degree, Jarmon is barely literate: For example, the question could be posed as how does my experiences as a former victim of violence impact my judicial philosophy or as a former homeless youth. Or take this: I have to wonder of what those words were such...

Jarmon is also all-in on intersectionality and victimization, describing herself this way:

I am Muslim. I am African American. I am a cisgender female. I am a single parent. I am a divorcee. I was raised by a Catholic white woman. I have 7 children and I have embraced my Roe v. Wade rights without shame. I am a proud ally of the LGBTQ community. I speak with a speech impediment. I am a former homeless youth and a survivor of child abuse and domestic violence. I was sheltered from the streets by United Indians' Labateyah. Every day, at least one of these identities or associations are under attack.

In a loving remembrance of the woman who was Jarmons mentor, Jarmon boasts that, once on the bench, she blocked archaic language and was issuing rulings that appropriately address the harm of obvious racial bias and violence... She adds that her deceased mentor would get a hearty laughter [sic] at the thought of my infraction dispositions being considered so unusual that some of my colleagues are unable to hear the reviews. Wow!

Jarmon includes a link to a telling video showing her swearing-in ceremony, which was all female except for the imam. The Koran and the Constitution are diametrically opposed, matter and anti-matter. You cannot swear to support both simultaneously.

Like all good leftists, Jarmon is deeply invested in so-called restorative justice. Like many leftist terms, the justice in the phrase restorative justice has nothing to do with being just. Instead, its permission for a leftist judge to ignore facts and law and, instead, to go with her gut. The reality is that restorative justice simply gives a pass to bad activity that melds with leftist shibboleths. It is anything but just.

On the internet, people are taken aback by Judge Jarmons appearance because it implies that her moral compass leans Koranic. Thats just one part of the whole, though. She is, in fact, a semi-literate leftist, all of whose values lead her away from the Constitution and the rule of law. Trump is absolutely right that the American judiciary needs reform and it could start with people like Judge Jarmon.

Image: X screen grab.
Islamophobia is a technical word, the meaning of which is of little practical value. The more colloquial meaning, however, has great impact. It applies to people who see in Islam a threat.

Juan Williams, a well known liberal commentator on NPR, was fired in 2010 because of it. His offense was that he told Bill OReilly, on national television, that he got nervous about being on an airplane where some of the passengers were identifiable, by their clothing, as Muslims.

Is Juan Williams an Islamophobe? Does he wish to harm Muslims? Is his nervousness irrational? Unfounded? Of course not. He seems more likely to protest in sympathy with Gazans than to harm any Muslim out of animosity.

Islamophobia is not fear; it is caution. Jesse Jackson once confessed that he was in greater fear of fatherless young black men than he was of young white Christians. Is he a blackophobe? Or just realistic?

While the left would portray Islamophobia as a trait of white supremacists, there is one group that fears radical Islamism more than any other. It is Muslims themselves. Even in Gaza, a hotbed of Islamic extremism, there are many inhabitants who quietly fear  no, dread is the word  being summoned to a religious court on suspicion, mere suspicion, of having violated any of the myriad rules and regulations imposed by Hamas. Islamic law is not known for leniency. Punishments can be draconian, even deadly, for what we in the West consider minor offenses  or not offenses at all. More Muslims are killed by Islamists than by any other group.

We in the West have foolishly, and dangerously, underestimated the threat that radical Islam poses to us. In the mistaken notion that immigrants will be grateful to us for our benevolence, we have suffered immensely. Even after the atrocity of 9/11/2001, we did not learn. Today, in 2024, we see the ludicrous spectacle of college students marching under the banner of Gays for Gaza. Their denialism would be instantly fatal in Gaza.

Time for a bit of sarcasm. I feel strangely obliged to point out that not all Muslims are... are what? Suicide bombers? Even I have been subliminally affected by the fear of being accused of Islamophobia, racism, misogyny, or anti-leprechaunism. Some of my best friends are leprechauns.

The threat of radical Islam is real, and it is made more consequential by the error of tolerance that the left has foisted on us, the error that gives rise to the diversity, inclusion, equity policies that are ruining society.

While some college presidents defend their antisemitic policies on grounds of context, we need to exercise a saner version of contextualism, in the interpretation of our Constitution. Those who wrote our founding documents, who fought and died for it, did so in the context that freedom is not the same as libertinism. Freedom is not mere license; it is a heavy responsibility, grounded in faith in our Creator. As Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson once famously asserted, The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

We may not be, specifically, a denominationally Christian nation, but our founding principles are vastly more Christian than they are Islamic, Hindu, or Buddhist. Failure to recognize that, and to respect it in law and in jurisprudence, is at the heart of our present disunion.

Officially declaring that fact will certainly offend our Islamist neighbors, but it will almost as certainly help preserve our constitutional republic.

Image: chidioc via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
Biden wants you to pay for the education of the rioting know-nothing anti-Semitic students who hate America and Jews and embrace Hamas.



He needs their votes and believes excusing their education debt, which SCOTUS has ruled he cannot do, is the way to victory. His contempt for the justices and the Constitution is unparalleled in the history of presidential behavior.



Not only is this amoral but, it is one of the worst presidential teaching lessons its possible to imagine. Biden says you are not only not responsible for your actions and contracts, but also that others will treat you to your ice cream cone.

We already have large parts of society dependent upon welfare, we have theft of goods from privately-owned stores soaring, we have rapists and heinous criminals being set free without bail, and now Biden wants to add another category of irresponsibility to our nation's decline, all because he places re-election above national interest.



No wonder citizens despair and distrust their government. This is what Biden has accomplished in his first term and he now seeks re-election based on this despicable record while he bellows that Trump will destroy America. Only a totally partisan idiot would swallow this lie. To fall for it is to drive another nail into our republic's prospects for survival.

Image: Montecruz foto
The latest Windows updates are breaking users VPNs. Microsoft itself warns about this in the Known Issues section of its website dedicated to new OS updates.

The official post says that VPN connections might fail after installing the April 2024 security update. The issue is currently under investigation, and the company says they will provide a fix in the next update. However, there is still no ETA for the rollout. Meanwhile, affected users will not be able to use their VPNs as they normally do.

Avoid installing the latest April Windows security updates

The Windows 11 builds causing the problem are KB5036893 and KB5036894, but the April 2024 security updates for Windows 10 (KB5036892) and Windows Server are also affected. According to Bleeping Computer, Windows users are reporting mixed results after updating their devices. For some, their VPN set continues to work without problems, but others have not been so lucky.

Those affected have been trying a series of potential workarounds to try to temporarily fix the issue. For example, some claim that they were able to get their VPN back up and running simply by uninstalling and reinstalling their VPN providers app.

How to uninstall the Windows update that breaks VPN connections

A more drastic measure that others are resorting to is to completely uninstall the latest Windows updates. In case you choose the uninstall route, Microsoft recommends how. Basically, you must use the Windows command prompt to add a line of code that will trigger the uninstallation. Opening the command prompt is as simple as using the search/magnifying glass icon, typing cmd, and running it when it appears in the results. Once opened, the command line to use is DISM/Remove-Package.

For everything to go well, you must use the LCU package name as the argument. To get your LCU package, use the line DISM /online /get-packages in the command prompt and press enter. Then copy the result and use it to execute the DISM/Remove-Package command line.

There is also an easier way to do it. From Windows 11, go to Settings > Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall Updates. Once there, look for the problematic update and click Uninstall. The path should be similar for Windows 10.

Lastly, whether you uninstalled the update or have not received it, it is advisable to pause updates from the Windows Update menu for a few weeks.
Google disagrees with the list of Play Store remedies suggested by Epic Games. Both companies have been facing each other in court for a long time. Late last year, a judge ruled in favor of the Fortnite devs regarding Google carrying out anti-competitive practices.

The court ruling against Google means that the company must make some notable changes to the way it runs the Play Store. With this in mind, Epic Games proposed a series of remedies to implement. However, the Mountain View company considers them excessive for an antitrust case. They also argue that they can endanger the safety of users.

Some of Epics suggested Play Store remedies that Google doesnt like

As reported by TechCrunch, Epic Games wants Google to allow users to download Android apps from any third-party platform freely. Also, in-app purchases must be free of restrictions. The demands also include that the current Play Store fee system be revamped, or even eliminated.

Google responded through Wilson White, the companys Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Policy, saying that the suggested remedies would harm the privacy, security, and overall experience of consumers, developers, and device manufacturers. They believe that Epic Games is exceeding the actual scope of the court ruling.

Protecting user security and privacy may be Googles main argument

Google adds that there are suggestions that threaten user security. For example, the company cannot verify how safe all the apps available in third-party stores are. In addition, third-party stores would need access to the list of apps installed by the user. The latter would go against the companys privacy policies.

Google resorting to protecting user privacy and security as an argument does not seem like a coincidence. Apple did the same in its legal confrontation against Epic Games itself for potential monopolistic practices. In that case, Apple emerged victorious, so Google could use that legal precedent to defend its position.

Google had already taken some measures

Following agreements with attorney generals, Google has already eliminated certain practices accused of being anti-competitive. One of them was the implementation of exclusive agreements with certain developers for better fee conditions.

The next episode of this legal battle will take place on May 23. The industry has its eyes on this case since its final ruling will set a legal precedent on which to judge other similar situations in the future.
Google has made a small, but notable change to its app store. It will be extremely easy to spot government apps in the Google Play Store now, as they have the Government badge attached to them.

Google Play Store is rolling out the Government badge to belonging apps

Why is Google doing this? Well, were guessing for safety purposes, first and foremost. This way youll always know for sure what apps are official government ones, and which are not. Official ones will be far easier to spot in case you need to install them.

As you can see in the image below, that badge sits right next to the download numbers for a specific app. Theres a small office building included, and right next to it the Government tag is included. Its very easy to spot.

This is a global change, its not exclusive to the US

Also, this is not a US-only feature, which is great. Google seems to be making this change on a global scale, as the same change has been spotted in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, South Korea, and more.

9to5Google notes that Google has been testing this for a while on Android. Google has obviously been working with governments and app developers in order to make this change.

There are even some rules in place here. Official agencies need to use government emails when setting up their accounts. If its a high-security app in question, it needs to go through additional checks. By high-security, we mean apps for voting, for example.

Over 3,000 apps are getting this treatment during the initial rollout

In the US, apps like NASA, FEMA; and IRS2Go have that badge on them. Theyre not the only ones, though, of course. Over 3,000 apps in general are getting this badge in the initial rollout, all around the world. Google did provide some additional information regarding this, click here if youd like to know more.
By Lee Gyu-lee

Actor Jang Ki-yong is returning to the small screen after a two-year hiatus to serve his mandatory military service, playing the lead in the new JTBC series, The Atypical Family.

The romance fantasy series, set to premiere on Saturday, follows a family of heroes who lost their supernatural powers due to their own distinct reasons. The familys son and a single father, Bok Gwi-joo (Jang), has the ability to travel back in time, but after an incident, he suffers from depression and loses his power.

One day, a mysterious woman, Do Da-hae (Chun Woo-hee) comes into Bok and his familys life, bringing changes to their powerless days.

I felt a strong attraction when I read the script. The distinctive characteristics of each hero family member was interesting, and I felt a thrilling excitement that with this character of Bok Gwi-joo, I could pull off an unexpected type of acting, Jang said during the press conference for the series, held at Stanford Hotel in Mapo District, Seoul, Thursday.

The actor shared his excitement for his comeback, adding that he took a different approach with this series than his previous works.

My 20s have always been hectic. And for the first time, Ive had a hiatus and I realized such time is needed. I didnt have much peace of mind before. But with this series, I felt peacefulness for the first time when preparing for it, he said.

Because its my first work in almost three years, Ive prepared a lot and wanted to do well. Personally, Ive had a proud and fulfilling past eight months (while filming).

Director Jo Hyun-tak, known for leading the smash-hit series Sky Castle (2018), helmed the new series.

The director noted that the series combines several genres with the irony of relatable stories from the fictional setting.

The story begins as a family who completely lost their superpowers struggle to regain them. This process is both comical, poignant and desperate. It will encompass various genres, he said.

The series belongs to the realistic hero genre, where elements of reality and fantasy intersect continuously. I aimed to portray the fantasy storyline with a realistic touch and present the realistic aspects in a fictionalized manner.

And such irony was what drew actor Chun to join the series. Ive been longing to do a story about family. In the script, there was this fantasy setting to an everyday story of a family. I liked this paradox, she said.

(The series) has a lot to show, while its a very practical story about people living in todays society. (The viewers) will be able to relate and get comfort from the series.

Chun also added the series offers a unique chemistry between the two lead actors.

When Jang was cast for his role, a lot of people were surprised (to see us playing counterparts). Its an unexpected combination, she said.

This was Jangs first work in three years and I havent done much melodrama genre so we said lets rely on each other, and the chemistry went well.
Its been a while since the US has restricted Huawei from working with US-based companies. The US has also imposed restrictions on Chinese semiconductor firms linked to Huawei. The trade sanctions have no doubt slowed down the technological advancement of the Chinese giant. The FCC plans to prevent Huawei from certifying wireless equipment heading towards the US.

In the latest news, Bloomberg reveals that not everything between the company and the US has been stopped. Huawei has been funding cutting-edge research happening at universities in the US despite being banned. The researchers are getting the money through an independent Washington-based research foundation.

Huawei has been secretly funding researchers in the US

According to Bloomberg, Huawei was the only funder of the research competition. It has been awarded millions of dollars since 2022 and attracted hundreds of proposals from scientists. Many of them are associated with the top US universities that have actually banned researchers from working with Huawei. But they didnt even know from where exactly the funding had been coming.

Huawei funding the research works in the US despite being banned by the government could actually be a matter of concern. The innovations from a successful research work will offer China an advantage in its defense contracting and commercial interests, noted Kevin Wolf, a partner at the business-focused law firm Akin who specializes in export controls.

But what exactly was the research all about? Well, Optica, the research foundation has previously revealed that it was interested in high-sensitivity optical sensors and detectors, among other categories of research.

James Mulvenon, a defense contractor said that Its a bad look for a prestigious US research foundation to be anonymously accepting investment from Huawei, a banned Chinese company that raises so many national security concerns for the US government. He has worked on research security issues and co-authored several books on industrial espionage.

Funding research intended for publication is not illegal for Huawei even if its banned

Huawei funding researchers in the US is not illegal. It does not fall under the preview of the trade restrictions. Huawei funds similar competitions in other places as well, although those are all public. The Chinese giant provided $1 million per year and Optica kept the source secret.

A Huawei spokesperson has told Bloomberg that the Chinese giant and the Optica Foundation created the competition to support global research and promote academic communication. According to him, Huawei remained anonymous to keep from being seen as a promotion of some kind.

Optica also supported the matter saying many funders prefer to remain anonymous and there is nothing unusual about this practice. The foundation also revealed that the entire board knew about Huaweis involvement and that everyone agreed on it.
UPDATE: Samsung has resumed the One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S22 series. It is pushing a new build with firmware version S90*NKSU3EXE1 in South Korea. The previous build number was S90*NKSU3EXDC. The company halted the original release due to bugs. While it acknowledged the halt, it didnt disclose the bugs in question.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Samsung may have halted the One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S22 series just hours after its release. Reports coming out of South Korea, the only region where the update was available, suggest the update was buggy, forcing the company to temporarily suspend it. Some users reportedly encountered lock screen and boot issues after installing One UI 6.1. The Korean firm has yet to acknowledge the issues or confirm anything.

One UI 6.1 for the Galaxy S22 series reportedly halted due to bugs

Yesterday, Samsung released One UI 6.1 for all of its 2022 and 2021 flagship smartphones, including foldables. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S21 series received the update first, followed immediately by the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3. The devices picked up new AI features and other improvements. The Galaxy Tab S8 series is also expected to join the party soon.

As usual, Korean users got preferential treatment. The company may roll out the new One UI update globally over the next few days. However, Galaxy S22 users may have to wait longer for it. News circulating on the Samsung Community forum in Korea says the company has halted the One UI 6.1 release for its 2022 Galaxy S flagships. This came after the discovery of bugs causing various issues on the devices.

The phones may fail to boot properly or unlock after a restart. Most users who have already installed the update dont have any problems, though. That said, something may be wrong and Samsung acted quickly to halt the rollout. Galaxy S22 users who didnt install the update within the first few hours of its release are no longer seeing the update. The company may resume the update once it fixes the bugs.

Users who have already updated their devices may get another build to fix the issues in the coming days. We are still awaiting a confirmation from Samsung. It might be evaluating the situation and working on the next steps. We will let you know when we have anything new to share with you.

Avoid downloading the update for the time being

Alongside the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung yesterday updated several other devices to One UI 6.1 in Korea. However, reports suggest other models dont have any problem. Nonetheless, we advise you to avoid downloading the update for a few days and wait for an official comment from the company. To check for updates, go to Settings > Software update > Download and install.
Samsung is already aware of the alarm bug that is affecting multiple iPhones. Of course, it did not miss the opportunity to troll its biggest rival. Reports about the problem with Apple devices intensified a few days ago. However, it has actually been going on for months at least. Basically, it causes the iPhone alarm not to ring.

Samsung UKs Instagram account recently posted a Reel mocking the Cupertino company. The CM used the popular dog DJ meme accompanied by a catchy remix of the default Galaxy phone alarm tone. It includes the phrase Rest assured, our alarms GO OFF. Also, the post says: Samsung users woke up on time today . This makes it quite clear that this is a direct mockery of the iPhone alarm bug.

The annoying alarm bug for which Samsung mocks Apple

Regarding the iPhone alarm bug, Apple is also aware and working on a fix. The issue is not affecting all devices, but enough to require a fix as quickly as possible. After all, no one wants to fall asleep before an important meeting because the alarm on your phone doesnt ring, right? There are iPhone device users who have gone through similar situations. And, it is not even the only bug related to alarms on iPhones.

Currently, it is not known exactly what is causing the problem. iPhone owners have tried all kinds of potential workarounds to try to mitigate and resolve it. However, ideally, Apple will send a definitive fix, which should have happened a long time ago. Perhaps the company had not considered until now that the bug was important enough.

Its noteworthy that Samsung is accustomed to trolling Apple. The company did it when iPhones lost the audio jack, and when Apple devices removed the charger from the box. These attacks didnt go well in retrospect, as Samsung ended up doing the same thing later on. That said, the alarm bug is probably not something they want to replicate on Galaxy phones.
Products featured in this Yahoo article are selected by our shopping writers. We will earn a commission from purchases made via links in this article. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Animal print is officially back, here's why you should inject a pop of print into your outerwear. (Yahoo Life UK / Supplied)

In recent years I've stopped holding back when it comes to my fashion choices, reaching for clashing prints, bold silhouettes and standout colours wherever I can. So you can imagine my delight when I caught wind that animal print was making a comeback.

While some may argue that leopard or cheetah print is a timeless neutral, there's no denying its recent resurgence in the world of fashion. It was prominently featured across the 2024 runways, particularly in statement animal print coats showcased by high-end fashion houses such as Saint Laurent, Dior, Armani, and Ganni.

The trend has now quickly infiltrated the high street and you bet I jumped at the chance to invest in some new, all-over animal print pieces to add to my wardrobe. A quick Google search and a couple of bank balance glances later, and I landed on John Lewis about to purchase my dream coat. The Animal Print Oversized Wrap Coat from responsible womenswear brand, Albaray, which was luckily also reduced from 250 to 130.

Animal print coats were all over the autumn/winter 2024 runways, including this eye-catching trench at Christian Dior. (Getty Images) (AFP via Getty Images)

While you can inject a pop of animal print into your wardrobe in a number of different ways, a statement coat is an easy way to make any outfit look effortlessly cool. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)

A number of high street brands have released a ton of bold, patterned designs. (Boden)

Fast forward five months, I can honestly say it's been one of my favourite fashion moments to-date this year, garnering me a countless number of compliments from friends, colleagues, family members and even complete strangers (one lady even chased after me leaving a public toilet).

So, was it worth the investment? In short, absolutely. But if you want to know more about how I've styled it and why I think an animal print coat deserves to be your next outerwear purchase over something that's boring and grey, keep on reading.

 Product reviewed: Albaray Animal Print Oversized Wrap Coat

 Tested for: Five months

 Rating: 5/5

 Reasons to buy: Statement piece, stylish, comfortable to wear, great quality and value for money

 Reasons to avoid: Limited sizes currently available as it's selling out quickly having been reduced

 Best deal we've found: Save 90 now at John Lewis or direct from Albaray

 Reasons to buy

First and foremost, the print alone is reason enough to justify the splurge. Expensive-looking and way more premium than other styles I saw, the coat is crafted in a sumptuous brushed leopard jacquard.

Side-by-side with the gorgeous all-over animal print, the design's biggest selling point, and probably my favourite element, has to be its shape. The actual cut is unbelievably flattering and was designed to suit all body shapes (it comes in sizes 8 to 18). Following a classic trench-style cut, it has a more oversized, relaxed fit with luxury finishing touches including cuff straps, a coordinating belt, two large patch pockets and statement lapels.

Featuring a longline length, it looks effortlessly chic when thrown on with a pair of wide leg jeans (my go-to right now are a pair from Abercrombie), a simple top and some white trainers.

As the print is super neutral with brown, black and beige hues working together, any bold colour looks great alongside it. I particularly love wearing it with a pop of red  a combo that is very on-trend right now  whether that's by teaming it with a pair of red cowboy boots or a fine knit jumper.

I'm obsessed with the way it finishes an outfit. (Yahoo Life UK)

The coat is a great shape and the wrap style makes it very flattering. (Albaray)

I've got so many compliments on the coat. (Albaray)

Shop from John Lewis Shop from Albaray

There's also the all-important consideration of quality. While this coat comes with a higher price tag, it feels luxuriously soft and has a substantial weight to it, allowing it to hang nicely and provide ample warmth.

Upgrading quite literally every outfit I pair it with, I can't recommend investing in a statement animal print coat enough.

 Reasons to avoid

As my now-favourite coat to wear, I can't fault it. And even full-priced at 250, I think it's great value for money considering the quality and versatility of the actual piece.

It's for sure a coat I'll have in my wardrobe for years to come.

 Best deal we've found

Save 90 now at John Lewis or direct from Albaray, where it's been reduced from 250 down to 130 - that's a whopping 41% off.

A word of warning, though, stock is running very low, with only a few pieces left in sizes 8, 10, 12 and 14.

Shop now: Albaray Animal Print Oversized Wrap Coat | 130 (Was 250) from John Lewis

Shop now

With animal print going nowhere, I tracked down four more stylish options you can shop from the likes of Boden, Warehouse, Ted Baker and Ganni.

Four other options available to shop now

Boden Leopard Canterbury Interest Coat 130 Cut to Boden's classic knee-length shape, this pick is made from a cosy wool blend with two front pockets, full length sleeves, and button fastenings. 130 at Boden

This article was originally published on Yahoo Life UK.
Carlos Alcaraz has pulled out of next weeks Italian Open in Rome after suffering more discomfort in his forearm.

The Spaniard missed the opening two big European clay-court events in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona with the injury but returned for a tilt at a third successive title at the Madrid Open.

However, Alcaraz was beaten by Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals and has now revealed his right arm remains a concern with less than a month to go until the start of the French Open.

Alcaraz wrote on social media: I felt some pain after playing in Madrid, some discomfort in my arm. Today I did some tests and I have a muscle edema in my pronator teres, a consequence of my recent injury.

Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Rome. I need to rest so I can recover and play 100 per cent pain free. I am very sorry, I will see you next year.

Doubts also remain about the fitness of Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner and world number four Daniil Medvedev, who both pulled out mid-tournament in Madrid because of injuries.
The United States has made a preliminary decision to impose up to a 43.5 percent anti-dumping tariff on aluminum extrusion imports from Korea, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Commerce plans to impose 2.42 percent anti-dumping tariffs on aluminum extrusion produced by Shinyang Metal and 43.56 percent on other firms that have not responded to its investigation, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The rate for ALMAC, another Korean company, was set at zero.

The announcement came after the U.S. department launched an investigation into aluminum extrusion imports from 15 countries in October, following the petition from the U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition and the United Steelworkers Union.

"As the preliminary decision sets relatively lower anti-dumping margins on aluminum extrusion compared to other rivals, the move is anticipated to have only a limited impact on the sector," the industry ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. department set anti-dumping tariffs of up to 376.85 percent and 82.03 percent on imports from China and Mexico, respectively.

The ministry added it will continue to closely monitor the decision's potential impact on the market.

The commerce department will issue its final verdict in September, followed by the U.S. International Trade Commission's final decision on the industry impact in November.

In March, Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo sent a letter to the U.S. commerce secretary and engaged in various high-level discussions to convey Seoul's concerns. (Yonhap)
Frankie Valli said immortalising the story of the Four Seasons in the Broadway musical Jersey Boys was one of the hardest things that Ive ever done in my life.

The Four Seasons frontman, whose hits include Cant Take My Eyes Off You, Big Girls Dont Cry and Grease, was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday  during a ceremony which also marked his 90th birthday.

Valli accepted the star on behalf of Four Seasons members Bob Gaudio, who was not able to attend the ceremony, as well as late bandmates Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, who were all inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Frankie Valli and Jackie Jacobs attend a ceremony honouring Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

This is really a highlight in my life, especially having my sons here and my wife, Valli said of his two children and fourth wife Jackie Jacobs, whom he married in June last year.

The Four Seasons were formed in 1960 in New Jersey and the groups music and story has since been enshrined in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Jersey Boys.

It was later turned into a film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Clint Eastwood.

Frankie Valli and fellow original Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio (Steve Parsons/PA)

Jersey Boys was certainly one of the hardest things that Ive ever done in my life, Valli said.

It took 10 years to get somebody who might be interested in even thinking about doing a play.

We had some offers for movie of the week and everything we looked at wasnt just up to par as far as we were concerned.

Soon after that we hooked up with a company and they brought the whole thing to light and made it all happen.

The crowd sang Happy Birthday to Valli to celebrate his 90th birthday, before hearing a message from 81-year-old Gaudio.

Franki Valli point to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

When I was a kid, playing in a band was a dream. Having a show on Broadway was a bigger dream and now a star on Hollywood Boulevard, he said.

So thank you all for letting us beat you with our music and a personal thanks to my partner forever Mr Valli for still doing the heavy lifting.

The ceremony also heard from music industry executive Irving Azoff, who described Valli as a national treasure and truly a man for all seasons.
Harris says politician homes should be out of bounds after protest at his house

The Taoiseach has said the homes of politicians should be out of bounds after an anti-immigration demonstration was staged outside his home.

Simon Harris said it was bedtime for his two young children when the protesters gathered outside his house in Co Wicklow on Thursday evening.

It was the latest in a series of similar recent incidents involving anti-immigration protests outside the homes of political figures in Ireland.

It is understood the Taoiseach was not at home at the time as he had been away attending a funeral.

The Fine Gael leader was asked about the incident on a visit to Belfast on Friday.

I dont want to say too much about this and I dont like describing those sorts of things as protest, he said.

Ive a very clear view in relation to this. Whether its me, whether its an opposition politician, whether its anybody, I always think peoples families and peoples homes should be out of bounds.

It was bedtime for my kids last night when this situation arose. I dont think its appropriate.

He added: It is behaviour that can be intimidating and can be deeply upsetting and I think its important that peoples families and peoples homes are always out of bounds.

There are laws and we recently asked the gardai were those laws adequate in terms of being able to protect people, their families and their homes.

The gardai have responded that they are, and so therefore I think we need to continue to support the gardai in making sure that action  no matter whose home it is  is taken because nobodys family deserves to experience that.

Mr Harris was in Belfast to meet Stormont First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

Ms ONeill condemned those involved in the incident at the Taoiseachs home.

It is totally inappropriate, she said.

The Taoiseach has two young kids and I think your home should be your sanctity and I dont think there should be any tolerance for that type of attack on someones home.

The Garda said it received a report of a gathering of people outside a residence in Co Wicklow shortly after 7.00pm on Thursday.

Those present gathered for a duration of less than 10 minutes before leaving the area, said a Garda statement.

An Garda Siochana is investigating all the circumstances of this incident.
HSBC shareholders have approved the removal of a limit on bankers bonuses, as top bosses fielded anger from pensioners for clawing back parts of their payments.

A vote on the decision was held during the banking giants annual general meeting (AGM) in London on Friday.

The indicative result means that bank staff known as material risk takers will have the chance to take home bigger bonus payments, having previously had bonuses capped at two times their fixed pay.

The UKs financial regulators decided to change the rules in October last year, paving the way for the cap on bankers annual payouts to be scrapped.

HSBC said removing the cap will give the bank more flexibility to reduce fixed pay levels and instead focus more on rewarding staff based on performance over time.

It also said it will help it to attract and retain talented people from international markets outside the EU, where there is no limit on variable pay.

But the board was confronted by angry pensioners over the move to lift the cap on bonuses while cutting pension payments.

The leadership team advised shareholders to oppose a resolution tabled by the Midland Clawback Campaign calling for the removal of a feature on its pension scheme that reduces the benefits received by some pensioners.

The bank has been engaged in a years-long dispute with the campaigners over the clawback feature for former employees of Midland Bank, which HSBC took over in the 1990s.

Clawback is the practice of reducing the company pension scheme for an employee when they reach the state pension age.

Nancy Ball, chairwoman of the campaign, confronted the board during the AGM, calling the feature a shambles and arguing that members were not told about it when they worked at the bank.

Chief executive Noel Quinn was among the members of HSBCs board facing anger from pensioners at its annual general meeting (Yui Mok/PA)

In response, group chairman Mark Tucker said: We understand this is an important and emotional subject and many of those devoted significant parts of your working lives in Midland Bank and HSBC.

Citing legal reviews, research and findings from the Equality and Human Rights Commission over the years, he said the clawback feature is not discriminatory and it was properly communicated to scheme members.

Another HSBC shareholder described the feature as a stealth deduction, and pointed out that there are about 10,000 people in a Facebook campaign group who feel they were not fully aware of the clawback issue.

Asked whether he knew about the feature from his time working at Midland Bank, HSBCs chief executive Noel Quinn replied that he was well aware.

Attendees at the AGM frequently erupted into applause in response to the grilling from campaigners, or loudly heckled the board over their responses.

The board was also questioned about its green finance strategy and its approach to investing in the steel, plastics and fossil fuel industries.

On behalf of a group of investors, Jeanne Martin from ShareAction said some aspects of its climate strategy lack specificity and fail to align with leading practice.

On the almost one trillion US dollars pledged towards sustainable finance, Ms Martin asked HSBC to provide investors with a breakdown of how exactly the funding targets will be spent.

In response, Mr Tucker said: We have a clear and transparent set of policies around project financing and we remain committed to becoming net zero in our finance emissions by 2050.
An investigation has been ordered after it emerged there were missing notes from a key meeting of the Stormont Executive.

The handwritten notes related to a meeting of the Executive on July 2 2020, which was the first meeting of ministers after the funeral of senior Republican Bobby Storey.

The funeral sparked political controversy after then deputy first minister Michelle ONeill and other Sinn Fein ministers attended, despite lockdown restrictions limiting gatherings.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry had previously been told the notes were not held.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald (left) and Michelle ONeill at the funeral of senior Irish Republican Bobby Storey (Liam McBurney/PA)

At the start of Fridays hearings, lead counsel for the inquiry Clair Dobbin KC, said they had been informed by the Executive Office (TEO) that the notes had been located.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett said she was very concerned about what she had heard, and would consider whether her team will pursue it further.

Its not a very happy picture, she added.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Friday, the current head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Jayne Brady, said she had ordered an investigation into the matter.

Earlier this week, the former head of NICS Sir David Sterling told the inquiry there was a discernible chill between then first minister Arlene Foster and Ms ONeill after the funeral.

On Friday Ms Dobbin said the inquiry was approached by TEO after opening statements to say in fact they had the minutes of the July 2 meeting, and that officials were surprised as they believed the notes had been supplied to the inquiry.

She outlined the efforts that had been made by the inquiry to obtain those notes and follow-up queries about missing material.

Ms Dobbin said the inquiry set out to the Executive Office that these handwritten notes cover a period of significant interest to the inquiry and its plainly of concern if these are in fact missing.

She added: It suffices to say that despite those notes having been found, and despite the sheer number of requests having been made, despite the fact that TEO in fact told the inquiry that those notes werent held, and despite the very specific questions that the inquiry asked about the precise circumstances in which notes like this could go missing, they werent provided until after the opening had been given.

During her evidence, Ms Brady, who took her post in September 2021, was asked by Ms Dobbin whether there is a wider issue within TEO about disclosure, referring also to the wiping of some devices belonging to ministers.

Ms Brady said: I can see how the pattern of events compounds to draw those characteristics.

She expressed concern about the fullness of the disclosure around the July 2 meeting, why notes were lost and why it took so long to be provided.

I wasnt aware of the lack of disclosure of that item until you addressed that on Tuesday, she said, adding that she has asked for an investigation.

There will be many questions which will have to be asked about the late providing of information, the rationale why that was provided late, and how this builds into the overall perspective of what were trying to achieve in fulfilling our objectives, our commitments and our code of ethics around openness and transparency.

There are many areas of concern that have been raised through this process as well.

Ms Brady was also questioned about the wiping of devices that were assigned to ministers.

She said she had issued a number of communications to staff about the importance of retaining records for the inquiry.

She said she discovered that the First and deputy First Ministers phones had been wiped in August 2022 and began an investigation into the extent of the data loss.

Then First Minister Arlene Foster (left) and deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill (Liam McBurney/PA)

The inquiry heard that Ms Foster returned her issued mobile phone when she left office in July 2021 and it was restored to factory settings by IT.

Her successor Paul Givan returned his mobile phone when he left office in February 2022. An official said they could not recall if it was reset immediately.

Ms ONeill was issued with a mobile phone and iPad. The inquiry heard those were wiped before they were returned in February 2022.

Ms Brady said there appeared to have been a disconnect with staff in terms of their perception of the level of information that met the requirements for disclosure.

I think thats been characteristic of the engagements they would have had, very regrettably, with the inquiry in terms of fulsomeness of the information that has been provided, which to me was very clear in coming into post, but did not appear to be clear within departments, she said.

I think there was a view that that was regarding decision-making and the formal record, versus everything that is pertinent to the work of governance, the context for a decision.

Ms Brady said vast swathes of information has been provided to the inquiry from civil servants and some of the ministers.

The system failed to look at the collective responsibility as part of that to give effect to the legal guidance, she added.

Baroness Hallett asked: So they (devices) were wiped without anyone checking that the material had been recorded elsewhere?.

Ms Brady responded: Yes, thats my understanding.

Ms Dobbin put to Ms Brady that WhatsApp communications that the inquiry has in terms of Northern Ireland do appear to discuss official business, adding: Theres a little bit of social chat in them, but in fact in large part, theyre very firmly on the business side.

Jayne Brady gave evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Friday (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms Brady said: Yes, and expressed deep regret that the issues were similar to those raised during the Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry seven years ago.

She added: Its a significant issue that we have failed to address adequately in providing this to the inquiry, but also more broadly in terms of the obligations under the Freedom of Information Act

What this has shone a light on is that all the vulnerabilities within the system.

You have identified many different reports and policies but actually all of them have shown to have failed in this scenario to get the information, and I think thats of deep regret for the service, for Northern Ireland but also to get the information for the bereaved families and the information that they deserve for the learnings of that.

It is a matter of deep regret.

The UK-wide inquiry arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday for three weeks of hearings in Belfast.

It will look in depth at the decisions taken in Northern Ireland.

Hearings will resume on Tuesday.
Kerri Paton, 27, and Igor Topa, 28, with their kids, Amelia Topa, 6 and Oscar Topa, 5. (Kerri Paton/SWNS) (Kerri Paton/SWNS)

A mum has shared how the purple spots her baby was born with turned out to be signs of two types of cancer.

Kerri Paton's daughter, Amelia Topa, now six, arrived weighing a healthy 6lbs 12oz before doctors noticed her body was covered with pale purple spots.

The family were told it could simply be birthmarks, a liver problem or blueberry muffin syndrome - the descriptive term used for an infant born with multiple blue/purple marks or nodules in the skin - which can be linked to leukaemia.

Following an ultrasound, lumbar puncture and MRI, her parents mum Kerri, 27, and dad Igor Topa, 28, were told their daughter had two types of cancer - cute lymphoblastic leukaemia and acute myeloid leukaemia.

At just three weeks old Amelia started chemotherapy, followed by a bone marrow transplant and after eight months of treatment the family were given the happy news that their daughter was in remission.

The purple spots on Amelia's body which turned out to be a sign of leukaemia. (Kerri Paton/SWNS) (Kerri Paton/SWNS)

Sadly, however, just six months later, doctors revealed Amelia had relapsed in acute myeloid leukaemia.

She underwent chemotherapy again and a stem cell transplant - from an umbilical cord from the US.

Incredibly, following her second lot of treatment Amelia has now been in remission for the last five years with her parents describing their daughter as "absolutely amazing".

Kerri, a supermarket worker, from Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, met her partner Igor, a CNC operator, in February 2017 and the pair were shocked to discover Kerri was pregnant with their first child just four weeks later.

Kerri had a normal pregnancy and Amelia was born naturally on November 27, 2017 at 7.25pm, but doctors immediately noticed something wasn't quite right.

Recalling the moments immediately after Amelia's birth Kerri, explains: "Once she was in my arms I just cried. I was so happy.

Following an ultrasound, lumbar puncture and MRI, Amelia's parents were told she had two types of cancer. (Kerri Paton/SWNS) (Kerri Paton/SWNS)

"I didn't notice anything unusual," she continues. "But the midwife noticed the spots all over her and went to get a doctor.

"I was told it could be one of three things. It could be birthmarks, something wrong with her liver or blueberry muffin syndrome which could be linked to leukaemia."

Unsurprisingly, the news was upsetting but it didn't compare to being told their daughter had two types of cancer, which Kerri describes as "awful".

Amelia started on chemotherapy to tackle the acute myeloid leukaemia.

"She was so little and tormented and going purple from crying," Kerri recalls.

"After the first round of chemotherapy the lumps and spots were gone."

Amelia had a bone marrow transplant in June 2018 and was told she was cancer-free at eight months old.

The family had hoped to find some normality after welcoming their second child, Oscar, now five, in October 2018.

Kerri and Igor in hospital with baby Amelia after learning of her leukaemia diagnosis. (Kerri Paton/SWNS) (Kerri Paton/SWNS)

But in February 2019, after a routine check up, Kerri was told Amelia's cancer had returned.

"Igor was on the way with Amelia and I had a phone call to say 'I think best you come in as well'," she explains.

"I just knew it had come back."

Doctors were able to find treatment for Amelia and she underwent three rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in June 2019.

"Watching your kid sick - it was horrible," Kerri says of her daughter's cancer journey.

"Thankfully, it [the transplant] went smooth sailing."

Amelia is now 6 and cancer-free. (Kerri Paton/SWNS) (Kerri Paton/SWNS)

Incredibly, Amelia pulled through and is now a happy and healthy six-year-old.

"She's slightly delayed," her mum explains. "She's slightly delayed in her speech.

"But she's just so funny.

"She's fiercely independent. She's very strong-willed.

"We got quite lucky that she was so young. She's so young she won't remember.

"Even though she went through cancer, her story doesn't end there."

Signs of Leukaemia

Leukaemia is a type of blood cancer. Specifically a cancer of the white blood cells (also called leukocytes)  it starts in the bone marrow.

Leukaemia results in the over-production of abnormal white blood cells. These cells are unable to carry out their normal function as the part of the immune system, to defend and protect against infection.

There are four main types of leukaemia:

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML)

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)

Leukaemia is often difficult to spot as its symptoms arent specific and arent well known.

The symptoms in adults and children are very similar, however, symptoms in children can develop more quickly.

According to the charity Leukaemia UK signs of the condition can include:

Fatigue

Unexplained weight loss

Bruising and bleeding easily

Swollen lymph nodes

Swollen and/or painful stomach

Infections

Shortness of breath

Night sweats

Pain in bones/joints

Skin rashes

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, contact your GP and request a blood test. Early diagnosis can save lives.

Additional reporting SWNS.

Read more about cancer and treatments:

Watch: Brave girl, aged four, rings bell after ending three years of cancer treatment
Its a tragic fact of life that most animal shelters are massively overcrowded and cant take care of all the animals that come through their doors. Unfortunately, that means that many animals at kill shelters end up euthanized. This heartbreak is made all the worst when the dogs are merely lost, and their owners are desperately searching for them.

But sometimes there are happy endings. In this case, a lost dog was reunited with his family after the shelters social media post about the pup went viral enough that it was seen by the man searching for him all over the city.

In late April, New York City police brought the 135 pound dog to the shelter after finding him wandering around alone in the Bronx. He looked to be a Rottweiler or Rottweiler mix with cropped ears, and seemed very friendly and well cared-for. The shelter named the pup Jose and tried to no avail to locate the dogs owner. After a week, they released him to the list of adoptable dogs, and made a cute video about him.

Related: Stray Mother Dog and Her Pups Instantly Trust Woman Who Came To Save Them

Luckily, the video proved to be a big hit, and was shared around, eventually landing on the for you TikTok page of his owner, Mecca, who had been scouring the city in search of his lost best friend.

Animal Shelter Policies On Lost Dogs

At most animal shelters, stray dogs are put on a multi-day hold list in hopes that their owners will come looking for them. After the deadline has passed, they are usually put up for adoption. But in some instances, such as high kill shelters, they may be slated for euthanasia. That is why time is of the essence when it comes to communicating with local shelters about your missing dog.

How to Find a Missing Dog

The best line of defense when it comes to a lost dog starts before you lose track of them. Make sure your dog is equipped with a collar with your up to date contact information. Addresses and phone numbers change  and make sure your dogs ID tags reflect that. And, because collars can be lost, consider getting your dog microchipped. This involves the insertion of a small chip inside their skin, usually at the nape of the next, which will be tied to an online database where you can always make sure your name and contact info are up to date.

If your dog goes missing the first thing you want to do is call the local animal control facilities. Give them all the information you have on your dog. And because those places are often run by overworked and haired staff and volunteers, who may not have all the information about the dogs under their care, it behooves you to visit them yourself, calling loudly for your dog.

You should also call around to local vet offices, as many people will bring found petsespecially injured onesto a vets office first.

Check daily, and in person if you can, and dont be afraid to visit animal control facilities a bit farther away from home. Youd be surprised at how quickly pets can travel.

Get good, recent pictures of your pet for use in posters, to hand to animal control facilities and even to post on social media. After all, social media is what helped Mecca and his dog (whose name was actually Mecca Jr.) reunite.

Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos.

Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.
Narinder Kaur is seeking legal advice as police continue their investigation into a social media post by Laurence Fox in relation to an upskirting offence, her agent has said.

In a now-deleted tweet, posted on Tuesday, Fox shared a compromising image of Kaur, a broadcaster who rose to fame on Big Brother and now appears regularly on Good Morning Britain and GB News. The post remained on Foxs account until it was deleted on Thursday.

Kaurs agent told the PA news agency she is seeking legal advice as the police investigation continues.

Broadcaster Narinder Kaur (Ian West/PA)

They said: Narinder is understandably upset and still coming to terms with whats happened to her.

She thanks everyone who has supported her so far. Shes currently seeking legal advice and awaiting further response from the Metropolitan Police.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, Kaur confirmed it is now a police matter and said the image was unimaginably mortifying as she thanked people on the social media platform for their support.

I know people are saying not to feel embarrassed and mortified but I am. Im so incredibly upset that people are looking at my privates and laughing. Its unimaginably mortifying, she said.

The Metropolitan Police told the PA news agency it had been made aware of a post on social media regarding an upskirting offence and was investigating the circumstances.

Fox addressed the situation in an extended post on X on Friday, in which he said he would like to apologise to Kaur and then went on to say its not my fault Kaur was pictured in the compromising image.

He also criticised Kaur, those who support her, and those who want to silence him.

Upskirting, taking pictures of people under their clothes without their permission, became a specific criminal offence in 2019. Offenders can face up to two years in jail and be placed on the sex offenders register.

The police investigation comes a week after Fox was ordered to pay 180,000 in damages to two people he called paedophiles in a social media row, after losing a High Court libel battle.

The former actor used to present on GB News but was fired in October following an on-air rant about journalist Ava Evans.

The PA news agency has contacted Fox for comment.
Care workers use a smartphone app to log key observations on each visit, such as blood pressure, temperature and heart rate

An AI-backed app could cut hospitalisation rates among the frail elderly by up to two thirds, saving the state 1 billion a year, research suggests.

The model developed by Cera, a care provider, has been found to cut falls by one quarter and prevent a host of illnesses by raising the alarm promptly at signs of deterioration.

Care workers use a smartphone app to log key observations on each visit, such as blood pressure, temperature and heart rate.

The companys software tracks and analyses the information, taking into account age and medical history, to detect early signs of illnesses, such as a urine infection or flu.

The early warning system for carers then alerts them to take steps such as arranging an emergency GP visit, or organising a prescription for antibiotics.

Analysis shows use of the app has cut hospital admissions by between 52 and 70 per cent, by signalling the alarm early enough for preventive measures to be taken.

The model was able to predict 83 per cent of falls before they occur, with measures being taken to cut accidents by one quarter. The system has also been found to cut urinary problems by 47 per cent and improved medication compliance by 35 per cent.

The private company, which has contracts with around 150 councils, said its home healthcare model helps the NHS free up more than 1,210 hospital bed days each month.

Each bed costs an average of 460 per day.

The resulting reduction in A&E waiting times, hospital admissions and subsequent admissions to residential care homes is currently saving the NHS and local government 1 million a day, its analysis found.

The care provider was founded by Ben Maruthappu, a former front-line doctor and adviser to NHS England, and began piloting use of AI in 2022.

Large savings

Forecasts drawn up by Faculty, a technology firm which works with the health service, suggest it could save the taxpayer 1 billion a year by 2026, if trends continue.

The model has been found to rescue the number of patients stuck in hospital, when well enough for discharge, and the number of rehabilitation stays required in care homes.

The system is in use across 150 of the UKs 382 local authorities, and has contracts with 29 of Englands 42 integrated care boards.

Vast increases in A&E visits over recent years have placed a growing strain on the NHS, with long waiting times leading to 250 needless deaths a week in 2023.

Over-65s accounted for two-thirds of all 150,000 patients forced to wait 24 hours in A&E before being admitted to hospital in 2023.

Senior doctors have said such long waits are likely to lead to the death of patients .

The NHS and local authorities are struggling to cope with a rapidly ageing population and falling birthrate.

Maruthappu said: I launched Cera in 2016 with an ambition to revolutionise healthcare, using technology to transform services and patient outcomes, while alleviating NHS pressures.

This report confirms the substantial impact we are making, with Cera already saving the NHS and government 1 million a day, increasing to 1 billion a year in 2026. This only reinforces the important role technology has in transforming our health and care system, at a time when the need to change couldnt be greater.

Hugh Neylan, head of health at Faculty, which created the analysis for the NHS, said: As our population ages and pressure on in-patient services increases, taking care out of hospitals and residential settings and into patients homes is fundamental to the future of our health and social care system. Its exciting to see cost savings already being delivered by AI, and this will only grow as their adoption increases.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: Artificial intelligence is already transforming the way we deliver healthcare, cutting waiting lists for patients and freeing up time for NHS staff.

We recognise the positive impact AI and technology can have in delivering quality care for patients. Thats why in the budget, the government announced a 3.4 billion investment in the latest technology for the NHS, to help doctors and nurses focus on patients rather than admin.

We are also investing up to 700 million to make major improvements to the adult social care system. This includes investing in technology, innovation, and digitalisation, as well as improving the social care workforce.
A man is arrested after the alleged assault of a Perth couple in their 70s by three men, who include a former immigration detainee. Photograph: WA police

Anthony Albanese has blamed the community protection board and prosecutors for a former immigration detainee having his ankle bracelet removed and receiving bail before he and two other men allegedly assaulted a 73-year-old Perth woman.

The prime minister told Channel Sevens Sunrise it was the wrong decision by the board to advise that Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan did not need electronic monitoring, and if it were up to him there wouldnt have been bail granted in that case.

But Albanese continued to stand by the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, rejecting Coalition calls to sack him and explaining that both decisions had been made by independent agencies.

Related: Perth woman allegedly assaulted by freed detainee confronts minister over removal of mans ankle bracelet

Doukoshkan, one of more than 150 people released from immigration detention after the high court ruled that indefinite detention was unlawful in November, was arrested along with two other men over the alleged assault and robbery of Ninette Simmons in April.

Western Australian police allege the trio also assaulted Simmons husband Philip, 76, and tied his hands behind his back, before stealing $200,000 worth of jewellery.

Doukoshkan faced court in February over alleged curfew breaches. Bail was not opposed by the commonwealth, and the charges were later dropped over an administrative error related to the issuing of his visa.

In March the community protection board, a panel of justice system experts, advised the government to remove Doukoshkans ankle bracelet, which Ninette Simmons has questioned.

On Friday Albanese was asked if it was time to sack his minister. He replied: No  in this country  we have a separation of the judicial system from the political system.

But if it was up to me I assure you that there wouldnt have been bail granted in that case. But these things are done independently by the director of public prosecutions and in consultation of the AFP.

That wasnt a decision of government.

Albanese said he was just as upset as others about the decision not to oppose bail, which he said lacks common sense. He suggested the issue could be considered by a meeting of attorneys general in Canberra on Friday.

Asked if it was a failure to remove the ankle bracelet, Albanese replied: Yes, it is. I think thats a wrong decision by that board, but they  make the decisions independently.

Albanese said the commonwealth had opposed NZYQs bid in the high court to overturn the legality of indefinite detention but the government has had to deal with the implications of the loss.

The government had brought in a range of laws, which included curfews, criminal penalties for visa breaches and a regime to apply for preventive detention.

Albanese criticised the Coalition and Greens for delaying Labors bill to create an offence with a mandatory minimum of one-year in prison for a non-citizen who refused a direction to help facilitate their deportation.

So we want to take as strong an action as possible here, he said. We recognise that community safety is the absolute priority.

My heart goes out to Ninette. No one should be subject to that sort of violence. It is an outrage that this occurred and my government is committed to doing what we can to address these issues.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, told Channel Nines Today program that the minister has responsibility here.

The first charge of the prime minister of our country is to keep people safe, not to put them in harms way  People are right to be angry about it and upset.
DJ and farmer Calvin Harris (right) drinks raw sheep's milk fresh from his own flock every day - Calvin Harris

Your own organic farm seems to be the latest celebrity must-have, but could it soon become the preserve of the rich and the famous? Bake Off star Prue Leith, who has a small organic farm at her home in the Cotswolds, has hit out at the bureaucracy involved in sustainable farming.

The Cotswolds probably has a greater density of organic farms than anywhere because its where the rich, who can afford to go organic, live, she told The Oldie. It takes at least two years to convert. During that time, you cannot use chemicals to boost crop growth and the soil is not yet good enough to produce a profitable crop.

You plant nothing but clover, to fix nitrogen, and borrow sheep to eat it and to manure your fields. You cannot sell anything you raise or grow as organic. So, right now, the only farmers converting to sustainable farming are huge landowners or rich hobbyists.

While that doesnt seem to be strictly true  the Soil Association says the organic market increased two per cent in 2023 and according to Defra, 509,000 hectares were farmed organically in the UK in 2022, with 5,500 organic operators  there are certainly plenty of hoops for farmers to jump through if they want to be granted organic status.

And as Clarksons Farm demonstrated, even being a non-organic farmer is demanding work for often-not-too-much-gain. Clarkson claimed to make 144 of profit in the first year of running Diddly Squat.

Jeremy Clarkson emphasises how only meagre profits yielded by farming

But, of course, for most of the famous folk who farm, its about the love of the soil (and the Instagram selfies), not the cold hard cash.

So who are the celebrities whove swapped a life of fame for life on the farm?

Balearic beets

Superstar DJ Calvin Harris swapped Ibizas rave culture for agriculture when he bought the islands largest organic farm.

Harris, 40, bought the 138-acre finca Terra Masia in 2022 and produces his own vegetables, eggs, wine and farm-to-table meals. He drinks his own tremendous raw sheeps milk every day, and regularly posts pictures of himself lugging crates of oranges and videos of himself herding sheep.

Calvin Harris's Ibiza farm boasts 138 acres

A source said: Calvin employs an expert team including farmers and chefs. But that hasnt stopped him getting involved and he regularly gets his hands dirty, helping to plant seeds and everything else involved in running a farm.

The multi-millionaire Scottish DJ woo-ed his now-wife Vick Hope with trips to his farm, and allegedly proposed to her under a tree there. And when hes not busy milking, Harris can get back to making music, as he has built a recording studio on-site.

The Oprah Effect

In 2013, the billionaire chat show host proudly announced her new venture. Oprahs New Farm! screamed the headline on O magazine, complete with a glossy picture of Winfrey in the obligatory checked shirt.

Winfrey, 70, grew up on an one-acre farm in Missouri with her grandmother, but this venture is worlds away  in Maui, Hawaii, near her palatial farmhouse estate of 60 acres, on the side of Haleakala, a dormant volcano.

US chat show host Oprah on her farm in Hawaii

The farm was inspired by her friend and personal trainer Bob Greene, who helped her designate 16 acres for farming and ended up planting a single acre with 100 species of fruits, vegetables and herbs.

Hens are supplying eggs and theyre using regenerative agriculture to build soil health and save water. Everything grows five times as big as youd expect, Winfrey wrote in O, describing her baboon-butt radishes.

Although, the article claimed Winfrey and Greene will be rolling up their sleeves, tilling the soil and sharing one heck of a beautiful bounty, sceptics noted that Winfreys sun hat cost $245 and none of the dirty hands in the magazines pictures were Winfreys.

Lady muck

When Lady Carole Bamford set up Daylesford Farm, with her husband, the JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, 35 years ago, she had one simple aim: I have always wanted to produce good, nutritious food from our farm, she says. Factory farming systems have lost sight of good food, at a cost of taste and nutrition.

When she opened her organic farm cafe on their 1,500-acre estate near Chipping Norton in 2003 she was convinced no one would come. It was in a field and all we served were soups and sandwiches, she says. She now heads up a series of Daylesford cafes and farm shops, as well as the wellness brand Bamford, a cookery school, and a research hub, Agricology.

Lady Carole Bamford set up Daylesford Farm in Chipping Norton in 2003 - Andrew Crowley

Daylesford, which has won over 100 awards and claims to be one of the most sustainable farms in the UK, is run by senior farms manager, Richard Smith. Because were farming organically doesnt mean I walk around here wearing a smock, sucking on a piece of straw, being ignorant to the ways of the modern world, he says.

Across 5,500 acres of organically farmed land (split between their sites in Staffordshire and the Cotswolds), they slaughter 150 lambs, 16 cattle, 50 pigs, and 2,500 chickens a week and produce 20,000 eggs and 20,000 litres of milk. Plus they even managed to host the 2022 wedding of Boris Johnson.

From safety pins to sausages

Elizabeth Hurley swapped her Manolos and safety-pin dresses for wellies when she bought a 400-acre farm in Gloucestershire in 2010. I havent been a farmer before and now Im a farmer because its a working farm, she said.

Although her younger brother, Michael, did the day-to-day running. Its the best thing Ive ever done... its the only place I want to be, said Liz. At one point she had four Labradors, two cats, three geese, eight chickens, 49 cows, 63 sheep and 82 pigs.

Elizabeth Hurley converted a 400-acre farm to organic status - WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

Hurley converted the farm to organic status and launched a range of high-end beef jerky and fruit bars, and began stocking her own sausages in Harrods under the label Elizabeth Hurley Foods. In 2009, she joined forces with King Charles Duchy Originals brand.

She said at the time: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is an inspiration to me because of his passionate belief in organic food and farming and his unwavering commitment to help protect and sustain the countryside.

In 2015, the model and actress sold her farm for 9million, and moved 40 miles down the road to the fringes of the Forest of Dean. I previously spent 10 years in the Cotswolds, which I loved, but it was annoying bumping into people I cross the road to avoid in London, she said.

Butcher, Baker, Organic Farm Maker

More than a million people tuned in to watch BBC presenter Matt Bakers show about moving from Hertfordshire to the Dales to help out with the running of his familys organic sheep farm in Our Farm In The Dales.

Matt Baker and his family run an organic sheep farm in Yorkshire - Mark Taylor

The 2021 series was a surprise hit and followed three generations of the Baker family  Matt and his wife Nicola, their kids Molly and Luke and Matts parents Mike and Janice. Over the course of three series, viewers watched Matt plant an orchard, pick up a flock of ewes and organise a woodland cookout on the 100-acre farm.

Baker left the BBCs The One Show after receiving the news that his mother had been in an accident and needed knee surgery. It was one of those scenarios when you automatically go into rescue mode, so we downed tools, went up there and from day one, it was all hands on deck.

Although Bakers new series is about travelling the UK with his mum and dad in a caravan, his Instagram is still full of baby lambs, rowdy donkeys and farm life.

I see you baby, ploughing that field

Groove Armadas Andy Cato was on the way back from a gig in Lithuania, when he happened to read an article about chemical farming and the catastrophic effect it has on human health via the soil and plants. I decided [organic farming] was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, he says.

In 2008, the Barnsley-born musician sold the rights to his songs with Groove Armada to buy a 110-hectare farm in Gascony in southwest France, where he reared red Sussex cattle and grew heritage grains, eschewing mass-production methods. But he was almost crippled by costs. Do you know what a tractor costs? he says. 80,000! Its like buying a house every time you need something. The 51-year-old has been knighted for his services to agriculture in France, and then-President Francois Hollande paid his farm a visit.

Andy Cato when not on his farm - Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hermes

After 12 years in what Cato calls the agricultural school of hard knocks, what he learned is now being applied on a National Trust farm near Swindon. In 2018, he co-founded Wildfarmed, which distributes bread, pizza and pasta made with organic flour farmed through regenerative processes, throughout the UK. He even writes an online Soil Zine.

Farming changes your concept of time, says Cato. I think in terms of harvests now.
By Lee Yeon-woo

Woori Financial Group is launching a mid-sized securities firm through the merger of its subsidiary Woori Investment Bank and Korea Foss Securities.

The group aims to grow the firm into one of the top 10 mega-sized investment banks within the next 10 years and strengthen its non-banking portfolio.

The group officially announced the merger at a press meeting, Friday. The group plans to launch the merged securities firm and commence business within the third quarter of this year, after obtaining approval from the Financial Services Commission.

"This is the result that best fits the group's capital market business strategies, fostering a leading securities firm with powerful corporate financing (from Woori) and digitalization (from Korea Foss Securities)," Lee Jung-Soo, vice president of the group's strategy unit, said.

Korea Foss Securities, which was selected as the target for the merger and acquisition (M&A), is currently the largest online fund specialized platform in Korea, selling more than 3,700 fund products. It has 280,000 individual customers with 6.5 trillion won in customer funds.

Woori Financial Group has been consistently pursuing M&As of securities firms to enter the securities business, a core non-banking sector. It also made efforts in Woori Investment Bank, as witnessed by the strengthening of the investment bank's capabilities, the 500 billion won paid-in capital increase and specialist recruitment.

The group envisions the firm to grow into a top 10 mega-sized investment bank within 10 years through organic growth as well as additional M&As of securities firms.

The name Woori Investment & Securities is being strongly considered for the new company. It was the name that the Woori Financial Group had used for its securities firm from 2005 to 2014. The group had withdrawn from the securities business by selling the firm to NH Financial Group.

"With the entry into the securities business, Woori Financial Group has completed a financial service system tailored to each stage of the corporate life cycle, spanning 'venture capital - capital - banking - securities - asset management - private equity - F&I.' This brings the group one step closer to rebuilding its strategic goal of becoming a prestigious corporate finance institution," Lee said.
Images of Hope hostel appeared in the leaflet. The accommodation in Kigali is to be used to house asylum seekers sent from the UK. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Asylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunaks deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: Im being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?

The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime ministers 500m policy and it emerged that dozens of asylum seekers were being forcibly taken to detention centres.

The 17-page Home Office booklet promises detainees they will be flown to the land of a thousand hills that has a wide array of wildlife.

Alongside a display of photos of lush valleys, Kigalis financial district, and Hope hostel, the accommodation reserved for asylum seekers from the UK, the text of the booklet asks the question: Is Rwanda safe?

It answers: Rwanda is a generally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers. There is no mention of an incident in February 2018 when Congolese refugees were killed in clashes with Rwandan security forces.

The document goes on to say: If you feel that Rwanda is not safe for you personally, you must notify us immediately in writing or in person and explain why. Further on, it lists emergency numbers for the police, the fire brigade and for traffic incidents.

There is no mention of the UK supreme court ruling in November that found there were substantial grounds for believing asylum seekers sent to Rwanda faced a real risk of having their claims wrongly assessed or being returned to their country of origin to face persecution.

Once in Rwanda, each detainee will be granted refugee status, humanitarian protection or permanent residence, or will be supported to return home, the booklet says.

Despite promises of a warm welcome and protection by the Rwandan government, a Home Office disclaimer in the document says: This information is provided as a general guide and may be subject to change at any time with little or no notice.

More details have emerged about the people being targeted by the governments plans. According to the charity Care4Calais, more than 100 people have been detained in the UK, about a fifth of whom came from Syria and slightly fewer from Afghanistan. Other nationalities included Eritrean, Iranian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Sri Lankan and Sudanese. At least four women were being held, according to sources.

The charity Asylum Aid is launching legal action against the Home Office over the Rwanda policy. Lawyers acting on its behalf have sent a pre-action letter to the department saying the policy is inconsistent with the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act, which became law last week.

Asylum Aid says it is concerned the policy could lead to the Home Office unlawfully preventing people seeking asylum from entering the asylum system, and that the alleged inconsistency could lead to the Home Office refusing to consider evidence of individual risk.

The charitys executive director, Alison Pickup, said: The government has made clear that it is determined to act quickly as we have already seen the Home Office carrying out forcible detentions.

The panic this causes is made worse by the limited capacity to provide high-quality legal representation in the legal aid and charity sector. We have brought forward this legal action to ensure that the Home Office properly considers any individual cases against removal to Rwanda.

Meanwhile, a judge has said the FDA unions high court challenge over the Safety of Rwanda Act will be heard in the first week of June.

The union, which represents senior civil servants, previously said it was bringing legal action because its members could be asked by a home secretary to ignore a court order from the European court of human rights stopping a flight to Rwanda, which could in turn breach the civil service code.

In an order on Friday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the case would be heard in one day, to be listed between 4 and 7 June, at the Royal Courts of Justice. He said the legal action was being brought against the Cabinet Office, with the Home Office listed as an interested party.

Sophie Cartwright, the senior policy officer from the refugee organisation JRS UK, said of the document: This is a pathetic attempt to repackage a flagrant violation of peoples human rights and the dismantling of the UKs asylum system.

The Home Offices portrayal could not be more of a contrast to the fear and suffering that people are experiencing because of this appalling cash-for-humans scheme.

A Home Office spokesperson said: Under the treaty, relocated individuals are free to return to their country of origin. As the prime minister has set out, we will get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the next nine to 11 weeks.
Police gather near a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on 30 April 2024. Photograph: Marco Postigo Storel via AP

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, remains under pressure to divulge how many of the 282 people arrested at campus protests in Manhattan on Tuesday night were non-students after repeatedly claiming that outside agitators were responsible for escalations that prompted an overwhelming law enforcement crackdown.

Adams, a Democrat and former city police officer, was asked by local reporters on Thursday morning to give a breakdown of the arrest numbers. He repeatedly declined to provide details.

On a local Fox News channel, Adams was asked to provide firm details but instead gave an analogy: If you have one bad professor educating 30, 40, 50 college students with inappropriate actions, you dont need 50 bad professors speaking to 50 students.

He added that if its one, if its two, its 20, that is what we need to be focusing on.

The mayor was asked to provide specifics again on the local station NY1 and declined to do so by offering the same analogy. When pressed to provide further details, he said his office had turned everything over to the school, and it is up to the school to determine if theyre going to release the names of students and non-students.

The Guardian requested confirmation of receipt of arrest lists from both Columbia University and the City College of New York (CCNY), and asked whether the institutions planned to divulge details breaking down the numbers of arrests. Neither immediately responded.

Later on Thursday, the New York police department issued a press release saying that among those arrested at Columbia, approximately 29% of individuals were not affiliated with the school, while 60% of people arrested at the CCNY protests were not affiliated with the school. It was not immediately clear how the police were defining affiliation, and the release did not break down arrest figures in further detail.

What we have seen, and what has been made clear by the evidence emerging after this weeks arrests, is that professional, external actors are involved in these protests and demonstrations, the NYPD commissioner, Edward Caban, said in the release. These individuals are not university students, they are not affiliated with either the institutions or campuses in question, and they are working to escalate the situation.

The comments came as some of those arrested expressed shock at the polices handling of the episode. Dr Gregory Pflugfelder, an associate professor, told the Guardian he was arrested by officers as he photographed law enforcement from outside his apartment on a block near where police began their operation.

Pflugfelder, who has taught at Columbia since 1996, said he was placed in police zip ties and detained after he refused to stop photographing. He was held in detention, where he said he observed a young person who claimed they had occupied the universitys Hamilton Hall and sustained a facial injury during arrest.

Pflugfelder was released at about 5am the next day, he said, and charged with obstruction. The Japanese history and gender studies lecturer had, the day before, taught his final class before retirement. He described the police response as appallingly out of proportion and described the entire episode as a historic betrayal of Columbia values.

In the immediate aftermath of the mass arrests, Adams told the press that NYPD intelligence had identified a number of outside influencers before receiving a written request from Columbia University to remove protesters from campus and the Hamilton Hall building, which was occupied by protesters earlier in the week.

The mayor claimed in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday that protesters wearing all the black and covering your faces may have been influenced by outside forces by referencing a recent international trip made by the NYPDs intelligence division to an unspecified country to study this type of behavior across the globe.

Adams has also claimed in multiple interviews that outside influences included an individual whose husband was arrested for and convicted for terrorism on a federal level. He claimed to MSNBC that the woman, along with other outside influences, could be exploiting students involved in protest.

Once we were able to identify some of the other people, I knew there was no way I was going to allow those children to be exploited the way that they were being exploited, Adams told the news channel on Wednesday.

While authorities have not specifically named the woman, media reports indicate she is Nahla Al-Arian, the wife of Sami Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor and a prominent Palestinian activist throughout the 1990s.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Nahla Al-Arian said authorities had significantly misrepresented her role in the campus protests, which she acknowledged she attended over a week ago, but not to discuss protest tactics.

The whole thing is a distraction because they are very scared that the young Americans are aware for the first time of whats going on in Palestine, she said. They are the ones who influenced me. They are the ones who gave me hope that at last the Palestinian people can get some justice.

The 2003 indictment of Sami Al-Arian, 13 charges under the Patriot Act related to alleged support for Palestine Islamic Jihad, was shrouded in significant controversy. A jury found the Florida-based engineering professor not guilty on eight counts and remained deadlocked on the remaining charges. However, Al-Arian eventually took a plea agreement to one charge and was later deported.

On Wednesday evening, the Guardian observed the first round of arraignment hearings at the Manhattan criminal court, where a mix of protesters and others scheduled for hearings appeared before two judges.

During chaotic hearings, the Guardian was able to identify only one non-student charged over his involvement in the protests, a 47-year-old man accused of assault in second degree and obstruction of a government official.

The atmosphere inside the courthouse was unusually energetic for night proceedings. About two dozen student activists and supporters, many clad in keffiyehs, huddled together in the hallways, getting information from public defenders and ducking into arraignment rooms to find their friends as they were being released.

One arrestee, a City College student, declined to be interviewed shortly after his release on charges of second degree assault, property damage and resisting arrest.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that about 170 of those arrested were issued summonses, while the remaining had been given desk appearance tickets or would continue to wind their way through processing into Thursday.

In a statement, the Legal Aid Society expressed concerns that some protesters had been held in custody for over 24 hours.

Lawyers from various public defender offices and other organizations were present in court last night and ready to quickly arraign everyone but many protesters were not produced, the statement said, adding that many protesters were ultimately charged with low-level criminal trespass offenses and should have been released sooner by authorities.
Lady Campbell also says the Government should apologise - JEFF GILBERT

Jeremy Hunt must speed up compensation payments to survivors of the infected blood scandal, a peer whose husband was killed by the treatment disaster has said.

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton has urged the Chancellor to prioritise compensation for the 3,500 surviving infected individuals over the families of those who have already died, despite falling into the latter category herself.

Thousands of haemophiliacs were infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s when the NHS bought and prescribed contaminated blood products from the US, such as Factor VIII.

Factor VIII was a miracle cure for people with haemophilia but the imported products were made from the blood of gay men, sex workers and drug addicts. Britons caught viruses from these donations as the blood was not cleaned or treated to kill infections.

The public inquiry into the scandal will publish its final report on May 20 and Sir Brian Langstaff, the inquiry chairman, has ordered the Government to launch a compensation scheme for those infected and bereaved relatives within three months of that date.

However there are fears that survivors, many of whom are in bad health, will die before they receive full compensation.

Infected people in the UK have been awarded 100,000 in interim payments but the full compensation scheme has not yet been established. Bereaved parents and orphaned children have not yet received the interim payments they are owed or any compensation.

Lady Campbell, who was handed a peerage in 2007 for her work as a disability rights campaigner, told The Telegraph: For me, the most important thing is to give the bloody money to the living first and foremost.

Dont worry about me or anyone else, give them the money, give them mine as well if it helps.

The crossbench peer of the House of Lords, who uses a wheelchair, added that the Government should apologise, something it has avoided doing formally.

The Government says it accepts the moral case, but what does that really mean? What I would like from them is an apology and no buts. For me, it is all about the apology and the financial settlement.

I want a simple, genuine apology and for them to say that they played a part. It doesnt feel like we have had that when they say they accept the moral case.

Lady Campbells late husband, Graham, had severe haemophilia and used Factor VIII to treat the genetic blood-clotting condition which could lead to life-threatening bleeds.

Graham was just a very thoroughly decent, lovely human being from the Yorkshire Dales, Lady Campbell said. He was big, he was handsome, he was funny, he was gentle, and he loved me. He was very full of life, he loved life.

Graham was told he would die from Aids in 1987, two months before the young couple married, and he died of Aids aged 32 in 1993.

Lady Campbell and her husband Graham on their wedding day - JEFF GILBERT

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, was the health secretary when the inquiry was ordered by then prime minister Theresa May in 2017 and was a vocal advocate for compensation during his time as chairman of the health select committee.

I consider Jeremy Hunt a friend of mine, he has been in my house and he wrote to me when I was in hospital with bowel cancer, Baroness Campbell said.

But then he went into the Treasury and disappeared into a black hole. He told the inquiry it is going to cost billions, and this is money that they owe to people that were killed.

He was so vocal before. I think Jeremy Hunt just needs to be honest. He was part of calling for this, and he needs to find a way to make good.

He needs to find a way for the Government to atone. It is atonement. I can not understand why Jeremy is not more forthright in saying why this is important to settle properly and that they would find the money.

They just found millions of pounds for Ukraine armaments, which is good and right, but what about the countless haemophiliacs who they had a hand in damaging?

Graham was treated by Dr Geoffrey Savidge at St Thomass hospital in London, who was known to favour using imported Factor VIII from the US. The Telegraph last week revealed Dr Savidge received thousands of pounds in kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies for purchasing and prescribing Factor VIII to his patients.

Lady Campbell, however, praised Dr Savidge and instead believes Graham caught HIV after being pumped full of Factor VIII after crashing his Mini in the countryside when visiting his younger brother, Anthony, who was also a haemophiliac and died of Aids.

Graham was treated for three weeks for severe injuries and bleeding at Newcastle Infirmarys haemophilia centre, led by the now notorious doctor Peter Jones. The Telegraph revealed last week that Dr Jones was a paid consultant for Baxter, a US company which made tainted Factor VIII, in 1977.

A source close to the Chancellor told The Telegraph: The Chancellor was instrumental in setting up the inquiry and has long been one of the strongest supporters of redress for victims of this terrible scandal.

The idea that he would tolerate any inappropriate delay to victims receiving their due compensation is simply wrong.

The inquiry has not yet published its full report. The Government fully accepts the moral case for compensation and, once the final report is published, will respond as quickly as possible.

Listen to Bed of Lies, a six-part Telegraph podcast laying bare one of the biggest medical disasters in history, the Infected Blood scandal, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.
Spitting cobras release a potent venom in their bites - REUTERS/WildlifeDirect/Handout

A drug used to treat inflammation could be repurposed to treat toxic snake bites from African spitting cobras, a team at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have discovered.

Indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, spitting cobras release a potent venom in their bites, resulting in rapid destruction of skin, muscle, and bone  a condition clinically known as dermo-necrosis.

The researchers found that, when applied to the site of a spitting cobra bite, the small molecule drug  clinically known as varespladib  was highly effective in blocking one of the most damaging toxins released by the snakes venom, almost completely stopping the onset of symptoms.

Current antivenom treatments are designed to prevent death but do little to address the local effects of snakebites, which often result in permanent disability, said Dr Steven Hall, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Lancaster and a co-author of the study.

The bite of an African spitting cobra is incredibly toxic, causing a huge amount of tissue damage, a lot of pain, and very rapidly that damage creeps along the tissue and starts to degrade other areas  so its really a devastating type of snakebite, said Dr Hall.

Worlds most neglected tropical disease

Of the 2.7 million people bitten by snakes each year, approximately 400,000 will be left with permanent disability, including limb amputation  with most victims poor farm workers in Africa and Asia.

The drug will need to go through clinical trials before it can be rolled out in the field, but the early lab results are promising.

What were hoping to do is develop this as an in-the-field treatment  so it can be used quickly by someone, say, out in the African bush, said Dr Hall.

Crucially, the drug will need to be given within the hour of a bite but preferably within five and 10 minutes to prevent maximum damage  a huge challenge in low-resource settings with limited access to medical centres.

The team hope that varespladib could be administered via a patch or an EpiPen, meaning that victims could be rapidly treated without needing to travel hours or even days to be seen by a doctor.

You need this treatment as soon as humanly possible to prevent permanent disability, so if someone was able to carry it in their pocket or their backpack they could save precious time before needing to seek further treatment at a hospital, explained Dr Hall.

African spitting cobras  of which there are over 18 species  are located across the continent, and are one of the deadliest snakes on the planet.

Aside from biting their victims, the cobras also spit venom at them as a defence mechanism.

They have evolved to recognise the glint in an animals eye, and can eject toxins with almost perfect aim up to 4 to 8 feet. If not washed out quickly they can lead to corneal swelling and blindness.

Those most at risk of snakebites are between the ages of 10 and 30. Agricultural workers and children constitute the majority of those affected. Children often suffer the most severe effects, due to their smaller body mass.

Snakebites are often dubbed the worlds most neglected tropical disease, with the burden of death and disability equal to that of prostate or cervical cancer worldwide.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
Antony and Richard Joseph, the duo behind Joseph Joseph. Photograph: Jon Jones

Twin brothers Antony and Richard Joseph may not have envisaged running a multimillion-pound homeware business together one day, but theyve always enjoyed making things.

As children, they spent hours squirrelled away in their family garage with their brothers (also twins) and two sisters. More often than not, their latest crazy contraption wouldnt work or wasnt entirely practical. We once decided to build a sand yacht  like a sailing boat on wheels  but we grew up in landlocked Birmingham and couldnt have been farther from the beach, says Richard, CEO of Joseph Joseph. Sadly it never made it out of the garage.

Theyve come a long way since then. Fast forward a few decades and the pair have released more than 1,000 colourful, sought-after homeware products in more than 100 countries, built a staff of 250 across offices in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Dusseldorf, and won numerous awards for their innovative ideas. From laundry baskets that fold flat for easy storage to shelves that expand to fit the space available, Joseph Joseph specialises in clever functional products and storage solutions for around the home.

Even today, the pair say theyre still design-makers at heart and are never happier than when theyre creating something new. Its a challenge to continually innovate but we both really love the product side, says Richard. You know youve got the concept right when its so simple that people say they dont know why someone hasnt thought of it before.

Most concepts stem from a problem the duo think needs to be solved. The latest release, for example, tackles the awkward issue of saucepan storage, and the chaotic cupboards it creates. Joseph Josephs stylish new range of cookware, Space, has folding handles, making for neater and easier storage, and taking up way less space than standard pans. Even the handles on the lids fold down. And, in keeping with Joseph Josephs reputation for colour, the saucepans come in an attractive midnight blue.

Related: Bring order to a chaotic kitchen: seven expert tips from an interior redesigner

It has taken four years of testing and iterative development to get to this point  the longest Joseph Joseph has ever spent on a concept  not least because of the 20-year guarantee. The handle mechanism has to last, so we tested it for the equivalent of 20 years of use, says creative director Antony. We knew that with saucepans, the pain point for consumers was storage, so thats what we wanted to solve without compromising on the usability. It still feels like the high quality pan it is, and the folding handle is really robust and strong.

Much of the product testing happens in the London office, at a workshop situated in a glass cube in the middle of the design floor. Not everything makes it through. Weve released 1,000 products but weve probably looked at over 100,000 concepts to get to that number, says Antony.

The product that started it all back in 2003 was a glass chopping board. Their grandfather had set up a glass manufacturing business in Birmingham in 1936, producing toughened glass for products such as cooker hobs and fridge shelves. Richard and Antony remember spending part of their summers shovelling glass on the factory floor. After they both studied product design at university, their father, now in charge of the business, asked if theyd like to work on a chopping board.

Initially it was a side project alongside their day jobs  Richard was working at Dyson and Antony was freelancing  but it eventually became a business in its own right. From the start, both brothers pitched in with everything. There was lots of cold calling, exhibiting at trade shows, and even sleeping in the car overnight to save on hotel bills. That sense of being in it together continues to the present day, with both brothers involved in all areas of the business and jointly making the big decisions on new ideas and continuing the companys growth. We do all the concept reviews together, as we look at what we should take forward, says Antony.

So whats it like running a business with a sibling? People think it must be a nightmare, says Richard. Because lots of people think about their siblings and go: I could never work with my brother. But, says Antony, they actually get on very well and have a clear shared vision that makes joint decisions easy.

The business has been internationally focused from almost day one. When the twins found that established retailers close to home werent interested in stocking their chopping boards, they piled the car full of stock and drove around Europe for three weeks. Today, almost half of the companys revenue comes from international markets. Theyre lucky that, from a design point of view, their products can cross most borders, says Richard. He admits, though, that heading into a meeting in Japan with a cheese grater and a potato masher was something of a misstep. The buyer had to point out that Japanese people dont eat much cheese or mash their potatoes. It was a reminder of the importance of market research.

Despite 20 years at the helm, theyre nowhere near to running out of ideas. They have plans to push further into the US and Asian markets, and expand into more categories within the home. Persistence has been crucial, says Richard. But if you believe youve got a great product, you can ride out a lot of the tough times. Were still here, 20 years later, working together, which feels like a big achievement. Were still very committed to the business and excited about what comes next.

Take a look at Space, Joseph Josephs first cookware range  designed to bring style, function and order to your kitchen
Labour and Conservative party members observe ballots being counted in Southend, Essex. Photograph: John Keeble/Getty Images

At the start of a long weekend of election results, the first outcomes have been every bit as dire for the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak as analysts had predicted. Here is the state of play.

Labour wins mayoralty covering PMs constituency

Labours David Skaith has won the first York and North Yorkshire mayoral race, an area that includes Rishi Sunaks constituency of Richmond. Skaith won with 35.1% of the vote  beating the Tory candidate, Keane Duncan, by almost 15,000 votes. Duncan came second with 27.3% of the vote. Reform UK did not put up a candidate. Keir Starmer said the result was a historic victory for Labour in the heart of Tory territory.

Tory Ben Houchen re-elected as Tees Valley mayor

Ben Houchen has won the Tees Valley mayoral election, offering the Conservatives a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy election. Houchen, the incumbent, won 81,930 votes (53.6%) against 63,141 (41.3%) for Labours Chris McEwan and 7,679 (5%) for the Liberal Democrats Simon Thorley. The turnout was 30%. Labour secured a swing of 16.5 percentage points from the 2021 vote, and the party pointed out this was greater than the 12-point switch it would need to sweep the Tees Valley constituencies in a general election.

Labours Claire Ward becomes first East Midlands mayor

Claire Ward has been elected the first mayor of the East Midlands, beating the Conservative Ben Bradley by more than 50,000 votes. The former Watford MP had 181,040 votes (40.27%), with Bradley, who is MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire county council, on 129,332. A Labour source described the region as the beating heart of the general election battleground, suggesting the partys win there is one of the biggest signs yet it could be on track for national victory.

Labours McGuinness beats Driscoll for North East mayoralty

Labours Kim McGuinness has won the NorthEast mayoralty, defeating the formerly of Labour-turned-independent Jamie Driscoll. McGuinness won 185,051 votes (41.3%) to Driscolls 126,652 (28.2%). Driscoll resigned from Labour after being blocked from standing for the post after he appeared on stage with the veteran leftwing film-maker Ken Loach.

Labour has won the Blackpool South byelection with a 26-point swing

The red wall seat was retaken by Labour after the third largest ever Tory-to-Labour swing. Almost as ominously for the Conservatives, they managed to beat Reform UK by only 117 votes. Keir Starmer described this as a seismic win and a truly historic result. The byelection was triggered after Scott Benton stood down in March over a lobbying scandal.

The Conservative party is on course to lose up to 500 council seats

The Conservatives have already shed more than 450 council seats on a night of heavy losses for the party. The political scientist Prof Sir John Curtice said the party was basically losing half the seats theyre trying to defend. If that continued, he added, they could end up losing about 500 seats. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme, he said the party seemed to be on course for one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performance in local government elections for the last 40 years.

Sunak completely focused on the job

In his first comment on the results, Sunak said: It is disappointing to lose good hardworking Conservative councillors, adding: Im focused completely on the job at hand. Thats delivering for people across the country. Richard Holden, the Conservative party chair, said that although the results had not been great for the Tories, there was no chance of Sunak being replaced. Speaking to Times Radio, he said: The prime minister is going to go on and lead the Conservative party into the general election, theres no doubt about that. Asked for his response to the results so far, Holden said: Not a great set of results but coming off, I think it would be fair to say, a very high watermark in 2021. Andrea Jenkyns, one of two Tory MPs who have publicly said Sunak should be replaced, has accepted that a confidence vote in him is now unlikely. A ConservativeHome poll found that 63% of Tory members did not think Sunak should resign.

Greens dominate Bristol

The Green party fell narrowly short of an overall majority in Bristol, but the party is celebrating a thumping victory over Labour, taking 34 of the 70 seats and leaving Starmers party trailing a distant second with 21, after losing two. Party officials said they believed they were on track to finish with more than 800 members on more than 170 councils, and they have councillors for the first time in Newcastle, Sefton, Redditch and Bolton. The Lib Dems won eight seats in Bristol after gaining three and the Conservatives won seven after losing seven.

Labour has gained control of eight councils

The Labour party has gained more than 160 councillors, and taken Rushmoor and Redditch from the Conservatives. It has also taken Norwich, Hartlepool and Thurrock, all from no overall control. The Conservatives have lost control of 10 councils. The full results are available here.

Labour has lost control of Oldham council

Gains by independents meant Labour lost its small majority on Oldham council, in an area with a large Muslim population. Arooj Shah, the Labour leader of Oldham council, rejected suggestions that Starmers response to the Israel-Gaza war was to blame. Shah said there had been divisive, toxic politics in Oldham for the last five years and problems in the town were ultimately linked to Tory austerity.

The Liberal Democrats have gained seats and two councils

The Lib Dems have reached 500 seats, ahead of the Tories who have at least 460. The party retained control of Winchester after winning eight of the first 10 seats to declare. Daisy Cooper, the partys deputy leader, said: The Liberal Democrats are on the up with gaining councillors across the country, from Hampshire to Stockport. The Liberal Democrats winning streak continues and we are ready to beat Conservative MPs and finally get this chaotic government out of office. Liberal Democrats gained overall control of Tunbridge Wells as the Conservatives lost four seats in their former stronghold. Sir Ed Davey campaigned in the area and his party now has 22 of the 39 seats, with Conservatives on seven, and Labour and independents five each. The Liberal Democrats took Dorset from the Conservatives after gaining 15 seats. The party now has 42 of the 82 seats on the council, with Conservatives on 30 after losing 13. There are four independents, four Greens and two Labour councillors. Dorset is the first Lib Dem council gain from the Conservatives in this election.

Labour has failed to take control of Harlow

Harlow, a bellwether seat in the general election, had been targeted by the party in the local election with visits by Starmer and Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, on Wednesday. Starmer said Labour needed to win in places like Harlow. The Tories went into the local elections with 21 of the seats on the council, and Labour holding the other 12. The Tories now have 17 seats and Labour 16.

Electoral Commission says no major problems with voter ID

Unlike Boris Johnson, the vast majority of voters turned up to vote with the required photo ID. Vijay Rangarajan, the chief executive of the Electoral Commission, claimed the new requirement did not create any major problems. He said: A few people turned up without it. They went home and got it, much like Mr Johnson did. An awful lot of people had brought it. We think the campaigns that we and many others have done to raise awareness had worked.
King Charles III leaves Westminster Abbey after his Coronation on May 6, 2023 - WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES EUROPE

The King winked at the mastermind of the Coronation as he left Westminster Abbey after being crowned, it has emerged.

In his role as Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, 67, was responsible for overseeing the Coronation preparations.

The father of five, otherwise known as Edward Fitzalan-Howard, revealed that the King showed his appreciation for his efforts with a cheeky wink at the conclusion of the ceremony.

I think my most memorable moment was at the very end of it when we had processed out and we were standing outside the Great West door, he said.

As the King passed before he got into the Golden State Carriage, he winked at me and he said Eddie, well done and thank you.

The fleeting gesture, which was not picked up on camera, suggests that the King was immediately delighted with how the ceremony had gone.

The Duke revealed that he was constantly worrying whether everyone would do what they were meant to be doing at the right time.

He said he paid for his spectacular court uniform himself because Im determined that I dont want to cost the state a penny in my role as Earl Marshal.

It was incredibly heavy due to the expanse of gold braiding which made it very tiring to wear it all day.

King Charles III waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the coronation - JORDAN PETTITT/PA

Some of those who played a key role in the Coronation recorded their memories of the day for the Coronation Roll website, a Government-led project that contains full accounts of the May 6 events.

Most Rev Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury said the extraordinary moment of crowning was a mixture of the ridiculous and the sublime as he worried that he would drop the heavy St Edwards Crown.

The high emotions were that sense of privilege of being there at the time, of placing the crown on the Kings head, of knowing this was for him one of the key moments of his life, and the Queens, he said.

And the very basic elements of Have I got it the right way round? and Am I going to drop it? So it was a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous basically, and I managed to be both sublime and ridiculous. Usually ridiculous.

The Archbishop said that for him, the anointing, which took place behind a screen, was the most significant part of the ceremony.

There was a stillness there, an absolutely mysterious and almost mystical stillness and a sense of the presence of God, he revealed.

It felt almost as though we were alone.

The King looks on after being crowned with the St Edward's Crown by The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby - AARON CHOWN/AP

Penny Mordaunt, the Lord President of the Council, who was tasked with carrying the Sword of State into the Abbey, revealed that she took advice from several tailors on Savile Row after deciding to shun the traditional Privy Council court uniform for something more modern.

The MP admitted that she was not given much advice about what to wear but immediately decided that the court dress of the Privy Council wasnt the right thing for the occasion.

I was not the first woman Lord President but I was going to be the first woman Lord President to do this role in the coronation. I felt that the King wanted it to look splendidbut he also, I felt, wanted the service to be modern.

Ms Mordaunt said the most poignant moments of the service for her were when the King was seated in the Coronation Chair, being anointed and then when he was given the regalia.

There was this maelstrom of activity going all around him, enormous numbers of people watching, him at the centre of it in complete calm stillness, in the moment, she said.

She said there were some wonderful moments of interaction between the King and his grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, as the children were shown the jewels, which cheered us all up.

You just got a real sense of the joy of the occasion but also the hand of history, not just stretching out behind us, but what the future holds as well, she said. It was a really beautiful moment.

Mark Appleby, the Crown Jeweller, said the moment of greatest significance for him was his role in making sure the three crowns were ready for use, which involved many modifications.

He said that both the Imperial State Crown and the St Edwards Crown had to be enlarged to fit the Kings head, which meant he  literally had to cut through the crown jewels.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv - PA

Moscow has accused David Camerons of a direct escalation after the foreign secretary said Ukraine can use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin considers British foreign minister David Camerons statement about Kyivs right to use British weapons to attack Russian targets dangerous, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said. This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security.

Lord Cameron earlier promised 3 billion of annual military aid to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, adding that Britain had no objection to its weapons being used inside Russia. Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself, he said.

His comments put Britain on a more hawkish footing towards Russia - at least publicly - than the United States, which stipulates that any weapons it supplies to Ukraine should only be used within Ukraines internationally-recognised borders rather than against targets inside Russia itself.

Follow the latest updates below.

05:30 PM BST

Thats all for today

Thank you for tuning in to todays live blog. Well be back tomorrow to bring you all the latest from the war in Ukraine.

Key moments from today:

A top Kremlin official and ally of Vladimir Putin has called president Volodymyr Zelensky a bastard, halfwit and a c--t over plans for a peace conference in Switzerland.

The Latvian army has begun digging an anti-tank trench as part of its first line of defence near the Russian border, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Russia has warned it would launch a devastating revenge strike if Ukraine strikes the Kerch Bridge, which links southern Russia to the Black Sea peninsula.

Russian agents have targeted military sites in Vestland, the home of northern Europes largest naval base, Norways intelligence service has warned.

Prague has been targeted by dozens of cyberattacks launched by a group with links to Russias GRU military intelligence service, government officials said.

The fall of Chasiv Yar is only a matter of time, a Ukrainian intelligence official has warned, with Russia likely to capture the elevated stronghold within the next couple of weeks.

Germany has accused Russias GRU intelligence unit of carrying out a major cyberattack on Olaf Scholzs ruling SPD party last year which exposed email addresses and other personal data.

Russias aim is to seize Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by the end of the year, Kyivs ground forces chief has warned.

Moscow has accused Lord Cameron of making dangerous remarks that imperil European security over his support for Ukraine to use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

05:22 PM BST

Kremlin attacks bastard halfwit c--t Zelensky over peace talks

A top Kremlin official and ally of Vladimir Putin has called president Volodymyr Zelensky a bastard, halfwit and a c--t over plans for a peace conference in Switzerland.

Dmitry Medvedevs expletive-laden rant comes after Mr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that Russia is not invited to a proposed June peace summit in Switzerland as there is no assurance that Moscow will bargain in good faith. Mr Medvedev is Russias former president, put in power as a puppet for Mr Putin.



Mr Medvedevs comments echoed Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, who said on Thursday that the June gathering would not be a serious conference with serious expectations of some kind of results without Russias presence.



Despite Kyivs reservations, the countrys deputy intelligence chief has warned that Ukraine will at some point have to enter into direct talks with Russia to bring the war to an end.



Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraines HUR military intelligence service, told the Economist that such wars can only end with treaties, adding that both sides are currently jockeying for the most favourable position ahead of potential talks.

04:59 PM BST

Pictured: Aftermath of Russian shelling

A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict - Alexander Ermochenko/REUTERS

04:52 PM BST

Latvia digs trenches on Russian border

The Latvian army has begun digging an anti-tank trench as part of its first line of defence near the Russian border, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Located about a kilometre from the border, the trench forms part of a chain of defensive fortifications, including obstacles and ammunition depots, that Riga is constructing along its frontier with Russia and Belarus, LSM said.

We are digging up the road and making an anti-tank ditch here so that vehicles cannot move along this road. Including tanks, said Lieutenant Colonel Kaspars Lazdins, engineering inspector of Latvias National Armed Forces. This ditch has specified parameters, and it has the appropriate depth to fulfill its task.

Latvias anti-mobility plan makes use of natural obstacles such as forests and rivers, according to Mr Lazdins, and preserves the option for minefields to be laid if war breaks out.

It comes after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania agreed in late January to build a Baltic defense line in the coming years to strengthen the eastern border with Belarus and Russia.

04:23 PM BST

Putin spends big on defence over paranoid fear of West

Vladimir Putins paranoid fear of the West seeking to limit Russias power has led him to boost military spending to record levels, a US intelligence chief has said.

The Kremlin has increased defence spending to nearly 7 per cent of Russias GDP, almost double the historical average. Based on US national intelligence calculations, Moscows defence budget now accounts for roughly 25 per cent of all federal spending.

Putin continues to believe that Russia is under threat and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better-equipped military will convey that opinion to Western and domestic audiences, said Avril Haines, the director of US national intelligence.

Ms Haines said that Putin perceives Natos expansion and Western assistance for Ukraine as the US and Europe trying to limit Russias power, adding that Moscow is likely to continue its increasingly aggressive tactics against Ukraine, with the war unlikely to end any time soon.

04:00 PM BST

Russia promises devastating revenge if Ukraine attacks Crimean Bridge

Russia has warned it would launch a devastating revenge strike if Ukraine strikes the Kerch Bridge, which links southern Russia to the Black Sea peninsula.

Moscow said it believed that Ukraine, which has recently received long-range ATACM guided missile systems from the United States, was plotting to attack the bridge ahead of or on May 9, the day when Russia marks victory in WWII.

The Crimean Bridge is once again in the crosshairs, Maria Zakharova, Russias foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a news briefing, listing statements from Ukrainian officials that suggested the bridge is in Kyivs sights. Preparations for an attack on it, which is hard to believe, are now being carried out openly, with ostentatious bravado and with the absolute direct and shameless support of the collective West.

I would like to warn Washington and Brussels that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to fail, but will also be met with a devastating revenge strike, she said.

A Ukrainian intelligence official told the Guardian last month that Kyiv was preparing for a special operation to destroy the bridge in the first half of 2024.

03:37 PM BST

Pictured: Russia strikes Kharkiv

A firefighter at work in Kharkiv after a guided bomb explosion - SERGEY BOBOK/AFP

03:11 PM BST

Ukraine loses 200 square miles of territory in 2024

Russia has captured 211 square miles of Ukrainian territory so far this year, Sergei Shoigu, Moscows defence minister, has claimed.

Speaking to senior military commanders, Mr Shoigu said Ukrainian forces were retreating all along the front line and Russian troops were breaking what he called a network of Ukrainian strongholds.

The Ukrainian army units are trying to cling on to individual lines, but under our onslaught they are forced to abandon their positions and retreat, he said.

Over the past two weeks, the Russian Armed Forces have liberated the settlements of Novobakhmutivka, Semenivka and Berdychi in the Donetsk Peoples Republic, the Russian name for one of four annexed Ukrainian regions.

It comes as Ukraines ground commander said Russia is intent on seizing three Ukrainian territories, in Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, by the end of the year, a land mass of nearly 370 square miles.

02:50 PM BST

Russian spies target northern Europes largest naval base

Russian agents have targeted military sites in Vestland, the home of northern Europes largest naval base, Norways intelligence service has warned.

We see that part of Russias purpose may be to prepare acts of sabotage. They operate throughout the district and move around, said Torgils Lutro, the Vestland head of Norways PST intelligence service.

Russian intelligence agents work against various targets, such as critical and vulnerable infrastructure and military installations. They also have a clear goal of uncovering Norwegian emergency preparedness routines.

The region is home to a naval base at Haakonsvern as well as energy infrastructure such as the power plants and oil and gas facilities.

The intelligence service told NRK, Norways state-owned media outlet, that it had exposed Russian agents, but did not say how many.

02:28 PM BST

Russian hackers launch dozens of attacks against Czech Republic

Prague has been targeted by dozens of cyberattacks launched by a group with links to Russias GRU military intelligence service, government officials said.

The Czech foreign ministry blamed the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, for the attacks, citing the mode of operation and the focus of these attacks.

Some Czech institutions have... been the target of cyberattacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023, said a ministry statement.

It comes after Berlin officials said that the same notorious hacking group had carried out a cyberattack on members of the ruling Social Democratic Party in 2023.

Vit Rakusan, the Czech interior minister, said his countrys infrastructure had recently experienced higher dozens of such attacks.

The attacks were orchestrated by the Russian Federation and its military intelligence service GRU, Mr Rakusan told reporters at a news conference with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.

01:55 PM BST

Pictured: Russia gears up for Victory Day celebrations

Russians hold a giant replica of the victory banner as they attend an event commemorating victory in WWII near the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow - EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

Russian soldiers march during an event commemorating victory in WWII near the Museum of the Great Patriotic War - YURI KOCHETKOV/EPA-EFE

01:14 PM BST

Fall of key hill city Chasiv Yar a matter of time Kyiv admits

The fall of Chasiv Yar is only a matter of time, a Ukrainian intelligence official has warned, with Russia likely to capture the elevated stronghold within the next couple of weeks.

Asked when Moscow might seize the city, Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraines defence intelligence, said: Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies.

Mr Skibitsky told the Economist that the Russian army is under orders to take something in time for Victory Day celebrations on May 9, or, failing that, before Vladimir Putins visit to Beijing a week later.



A Ukrainian military commander who spoke to the Telegraph last week warned that the loss of Chasiv Yar would pave the way for Russia to capture the rest of the Donetsk region.

01:09 PM BST

Five dead in Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russian attacks against Ukraine killed five people and injured 17 over the past day, regional authorities reported.

In Donetsk, two people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, Vadym Filashkin, the governor, reported, as Russia carried out strikes across eight Ukrainian regions.

Strikes on town and villages in the region killed two more and injured four others, the head of the regional military administration said.

In Kharkiv, one man was killed and 10 people injured, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor. Meanwhile in Kherson, Russia struck 14 settlements over the past day, injuring one person, the regional governor reported.

12:40 PM BST

Russia hacks emails of Germanys ruling party

Germany has accused Russias GRU intelligence unit of carrying out a major cyberattack on Olaf Scholzs ruling SPD party last year which exposed email addresses and other personal data.

Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, told reporters in Australia that the GRU-controlled hacking organisation APT28 was behind the intolerable attack, vowing that there would be consequences.

Today we can say unambiguously... we can attribute this cyber attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia, Ms Baerbock said, describing it as a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany. This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences, she added.

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock speaks during a ceremony - MICHAEL ERREY/REUTERS

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, is a notorious hacking group which has previously targeted Pussy Riot, Nato and US defence firms. Ms Baerbock did not provide further details of the attack, but German media last year reported that an SPD executive had been targeted in a cyber-attack in January, resulting in possible data exposure. The EUs computer security response unit CERT-EU said there were concrete signs the attack came from Russia.

It is the latest embarrassing incident of Germany falling victim to Moscow hacking, after Russian media in March published an audio recording of a meeting between senior German military officials,

12:17 PM BST

Kyiv launches cyberattack on Russia

Ukraine has launched a large-scale cyberattack in Russias Tatarstan region, a military intelligence source said.

The attack blocked internet providers and mobile operators in Kazan, Russias fifth largest city, the agency source told the Kyiv Independent, with Ukrainian media reporting that Alabuga, the site of an alleged Shahed-type drone factory, was the main target.

The press service for Tattelecom, one of the largest telecommunications operators in Russia, said that it was the biggest cyberattack Ukraine has mounted on its networks to date.

It comes after Ukraine last month launched strikes on drone factories in the Tartasan cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk. located about 800 miles inside Russia, according to Ukraines military intelligence.

11:51 AM BST

Russia aims to capture three key Ukrainian regions by end of 2024, says Kyiv

Russias aim is to seize Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by the end of the year, Kyivs ground forces chief has warned.

Russias main goal remains to destroy Ukraine as a nation, said Oleksandr Pavliuk, who in February took over from Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraines military chief, as ground forces commander.

But as we havent given them that opportunity since 2022, we believe the goals the Russians set for themselves this year are the complete occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and, if they are successful there, the Zaporizhzhia region.

First on Russias list of targets is the Donetsk hilltop stronghold of Chasiv Yar, which reports suggest it intends to capture in time for Russian Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9, the commander told the Times. But the Russians have a 10-to-one ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority.

Mr Pavliuk echoed previous warnings from Kyiv that Russia is maximising its gains ahead of the arrival of US weapons, after Congress last month passed a $61 billion aid package following months of delays.

We will do everything we can to prevent a Russian breakthrough, and we hope that the American weaponry will help us, said Mr Pavliuk. If it had arrived in time, we would not have lost the territories that we have lost in the last few months.

11:27 AM BST

Ukrainian agent plotting terror attacks killed, claims Moscow

Moscows FSB security service said it had killed a man recruited by Ukraine to blow up military buildings and energy sites in key Russian cities, state media reported.

The FSB said it has neutralised a man who had planned to commit a series of terrorist acts in Russia, an FSB statement said.

These, it said, included attacks against defence ministry facilities in the Moscow region and against members of a volunteer battalion and a volunteer centre in Saint Petersburg.

Footage of the alleged incident puyblished by RIA Novosti shows an apparent firefight between FSB agents and the suspect in the Leningrad region.

The man is seen running into a concrete bunker in a field before armed FSB agents surround it and open fire. The video then shows a photo of his dead body inside the bunker, with a pistol lying by his hand.

The FSB said he was a Russian citizen, born in 1976, who had been recruited by Ukraines GUR military intelligence unit.

It said he had previously managed to flee when the FSB tried to detain him in the Moscow region, abandoning a car containing grenades, a pistol, a hunting rifle and equipment for making home-made bombs.

The man was planning to attack a fuel depot in the Leningrad region, the FSB alleged.

11:03 AM BST

Kremlin accuses Lord Cameron of direct escalation

Moscow has accused Lord Cameron of making dangerous remarks that imperil European security over his support for Ukraine to use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin considers British foreign minister David Camerons statement about Kyivs right to use British weapons to attack Russian targets dangerous, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said.

This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security.

Moscow also rebuked Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who, in an interview with the Economist, refused to rule out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.

This is a very important and very dangerous statement, Mr Peskov told a briefing. France, through its head of state, keeps talking about the possibility of its direct, on-the-ground involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

10:54 AM BST

Pictured: Lord Cameron sits down with president Zelensky

Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, meeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv - PA

10:40 AM BST

Lord Cameron: Ukraine has right to defend itself with British weapons

Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to strike inside of Russia, Lord Cameron has said, writes Albert Tait.

The Foreign Secretary, who has visited Kyiv and met with president Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was Ukraines right to decide whether to do so.

He said: Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself.

Lord Camerons visit on Thursday follows the Governments announcement that it will commit to at least 3 billion a year in military support to Ukraine.

Read the full report here.
Keir Starmer's Labour isn't guaranteed a majority - Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Thursdays vote was a bruising one for the Conservative Party. In Blackpool South the party recorded its third worst ever performance in a parliamentary by-election, finishing just 117 votes ahead of Reform UK, while council seats tumbled across the country.

The bad news did not end there. As Sir John Curtice pointed out, Reform stood in just one sixth of the seats contested. Had it put forward a full slate, as it intends to at the general election, then Rishi Sunaks night might have been even worse. Understandably, Sir Keir Starmer was in buoyant mood, declaring his partys win in Blackpool a seismic result and challenging the Prime Minister to call for a general election. Dig a little deeper below the results, however, and he might not feel so assured.

Despite its successes, Labour has not yet sealed the deal with the electorate. The estimated national vote based on the results puts Labour on 34 per cent to the Tories 25 per cent  and short of an overall majority. And in major mayoral races, things have not gone the partys way. In the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen emerged victorious, giving a lifeline to the partys hope of clinging on to vital Red Wall seats. In London, where the count begins on Saturday, there is speculation that Susan Hall may have outperformed the polls.

If Labour is underperforming polling in the most important and prominent races, it will give the Tories heart that the dire national figures are not set in stone. If they perform strongly in these, the narrative will shift. It is also true, as Foreign Secretary David Cameron remarked, that experience has shown the party can have bad local election results and go on and win a general election.

There are more reasons for Labour unease. In the West Midlands, the party is briefing that Conservative Mayor Andy Street is expected to win. One Labour source blamed the Gaza conflict, arguing that it was the Middle East, not West Midlands that had driven the vote. The party rapidly disowned these remarks, but visible faultlines are emerging in the partys coalition.

As Sir John noted, Labours vote was down by eight points in wards where Muslim voters made up more than one tenth of the population. This pattern led to a shock defeat for the party in Oldham, where it lost overall control of the council, and to lost seats in Newcastle and Bolton. For his part, Sir Keir acknowledged that the partys stance on Gaza had cost it votes. It could cost it again at the general election.

One of the most significant developments took place away from the polls. In Scotland, John Swinney appears to have reached an understanding with Kate Forbes that will likely see him become first minister of Scotland next week. If he is able to pull the SNP from its spiral, then he may deny Labour vital seats in its pursuit of a majority.

There are, then, strands of hope for the Conservatives to cling to. But for now that is all they are. The fundamental takeaway from Thursday night is still that the Conservatives must find a way to excite the electorate. It is interesting in this light to note that the most prominent and colourful figures within each party are for the present in the shadows.

Tony Blair has yet to state what, if any, role he will play in a Starmer administration. Jeremy Corbyn may still decide to contest his old seat as an independent. Nicola Sturgeon, and the ongoing Police Scotland investigation into its party finances, hang over the heads of the SNP. For the Tories, there is the question of what role Boris might play in the campaign. And with Reform riding high in the polls, it is an open question whether Nigel Farage would wish to take another tilt at Westminster. That these former leaders may still play a role in determining the election is unusual.

The emphasis of their successors on policy over charisma has been welcomed by commentators who see it as a rejection of populism, but it is hard to argue that it has been as popular with the electorate. The sense of greyness clinging to British politics may be why the results do not appear to show a country eager for a Labour government, but a country that lacks a reason to vote for a Conservative one.

Mr Sunak should take this to heart. His dedication to the intricacies of policymaking is one of his strengths, but he must sell the fruits of his labour to voters. It is notable that his greatest successes in breaking through with the public have come when he has been willing to make bold choices, whether facing down the SNP on gender ID, pushing through the Safety of Rwanda Bill, or delaying elements of Net Zero. It is time he learnt from these successes.
Labour celebrates Rushmoor breakthrough and says party is now trusted by voters on defence

Labour won in the home of the British Army for the first time on Thursday as it clinched four key councils in the local elections.

In a landmark result, Sir Keir Starmers party clinched Rushmoor council for the first time, overturning a quarter of a century of Tory control to secure its first-ever majority.

It also scored significant wins in Hartlepool, Thurrock and Redditch, indicating that the Tories are haemorrhaging votes among their traditional supporters.

Rushmoor district includes Aldershot Garrison, a military town which has been considered the spiritual home of the British Army since it was built in 1854.

Labour said its historic victory there proved that the party has moved on since its days under Jeremy Corbyn and was now trusted by voters on defence.

The party scooped nine of the 13 seats being contested on Rushmoor Borough Council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats taking the other.

The Conservatives share in Rushmoor (38.5 per cent) is now the partys lowest since 1998 and it is the first time they have lost control since 2000.

Thursday nights result will prompt alarm in No 10 as it suggests even the safest of Conservative seats will be under threat at the general election.

Labour branded it a historic and said the win in the home of the British Army demonstrates just how much the party has changed under Sir Keir.

A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. Its time for a general election, a party spokesman said.

The result suggests the parliamentary constituency of Aldershot, which has been Tory ever since its creation in 1918, could be in play at the election.

Leo Docherty, the Europe minister, is the current MP and won a nearly 17,000 majority over his Labour rival in 2019.

Aldershot is number 216 on the list of Labour target seats, requiring a 17 per cent swing, and winning it would suggest Sir Keir was on course for a landslide.

Reform UK could also play a defining role in the future of a constituency where the UK Independence Party came narrowly in third at the 2015 election.

The result in Rushmoor came on yet another dire night for the Tories which also saw Labour romp home to victory in three other traditionally blue councils.

Hartlepool

Sir Keir was delighted when his party clinched Hartlepool overnight, taking back the town that had become a poster for Boris Johnsons Red Wall revolution.

Three years ago the former prime minister was triumphant as he visited Hartlepool after routing Labour in a by-election to turn the seat Tory for the first time.

A giant inflatable of Mr Johnson was put up in the town as he celebrated what he called an emphatic mandate for the Tories policies.

The Conservatives had scored their largest-ever swing against Labour whilst in government in a by-election at 16 per cent.

Sir Keir recently revealed that he considered resigning in the wake of the result.

In this years council elections though Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs, suggesting Hartlepool will turn red again at the next election.

Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021, a party spokesman said.

Making gains here shows that the Party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.

Thurrock

At the opposite end of the country, Labour also seized Thurrock in Essex in a further sign that it is on track to secure a 1997-style landslide at the next election.

The party secured its biggest jump in the East of England to take control of the council for the first time since 2013 when Brexit began to dominate British politics.

Thurrock had the fourth highest level of support for Leave in the country at the 2016 referendum, so taking it back represents a significant victory for Sir Keir.

In the early years of his leadership Sir Keir, who called for a second referendum, struggled to convince voters in many Brexit-backing constituencies.

What an amazing night-@thurrocklabour gain control of @thurrockcouncil. Some huge results for some new @UKLabour councillors who will be such great advocates for our communities. pic.twitter.com/flAetPDJGP  Jen Craft (@ThurrockJen) May 3, 2024

The Tories won Thurrock council in 2023 although the party subsequently lost it to no overall control because of defections.

The areas seat in Parliament is held by Tory MP Dame Jackie Doyle-Price and has been blue since 2010, though it was Labour under Sir Tony Blair.

A Labour Party spokesman said: This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election.

The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change.

Redditch

In signs that the Tories are facing a national rout later this year, Labour also secured a morale-boosting victory in a bellwether Midlands seat.

Sir Keirs party took control of Redditch, near Birmingham, as the Tories suffered their heaviest losses of the night, being reduced to just a fifth of councillors.

The towns parliamentary constituency is considered a key signpost for general election results, meaning the result is a bad omen for Rishi Sunak.

Ever since its creation in 1997, the party which has won in Redditch has gone on to secure victory in the national election overall.

A Labour spokesman said: Making gains in this bellwether seat is a clear sign that Labour is set to achieve a sizeable majority in a general election.
Korea, China and Japan agreed Friday to reinforce the regional financial safety net, along with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), by launching a new financing facility program meant to extend greater support in case of a financial crisis, Seoul's finance ministry said.

The agreement was made during a trilateral meeting of South Korea's Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and China's Finance Minister Liu Kun held during their meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The trilateral meeting took place on the sidelines of the 27th ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors' Meeting, which brought together top financial officials, and central bankers from ASEAN and the three Northeast Asian countries.

"We support the establishment of the Rapid Financing Facility (RFF) with the incorporation of eligible freely usable currencies as its currencies of choice, as a new facility under the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) and its modalities," the joint statement released after the meeting read.

The RFF will be extended without any conditions in case of a crisis caused by such external shocks as a pandemic and natural disasters, officials said, adding that the ASEAN Plus Three nations will revise relevant regulations this year to officially implement the program next year.

The CMIM is a $240 billion pool launched in 2010 that can be tapped through currency swap deals in times of financial crises in the region.

The nations also shared the need to change the CMIM fund into a paid-in capital structure, rather than pledge funding, and agreed to fix a detailed structure by 2025 after an analysis of various models.

During the meeting, the three nations also shared the assessment that the region is expected to grow at a faster clip this year driven by rising exports and solid domestic demand.

"We remain committed to rebuilding policy space lost during the pandemic and strengthening fiscal sustainability, while providing targeted support for the economy.

But they pointed to geopolitical tensions, rising global prices of commodities and raw materials, and growing volatility in the foreign exchange market as near-term challenges.

As longer-term risks, they cited climate change and population aging.

"Against this background, we remain committed to rebuilding policy space lost during the pandemic and strengthening fiscal sustainability, while providing targeted support for the economy," the statement read.

They vowed to further enhance "our cooperation and communication with each other as well as with ASEAN countries in the ASEAN+3 Finance Process to work toward robust recovery and sustainable growth in our region," while reaffirming their commitment to "the open, free, fair, inclusive, equitable, transparent, and nondiscriminatory rules-based multilateral trading system," according to the statement.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. (Yonhap)
Margaret Lee in a scene from Operation Paradise, Rome, 1965: her sensuality was a gift for a newly permissive cinema - Michael Webb/Keystone/Getty Images

Margaret Lee, who has died aged 80, was an actress from the West Midlands who won fame overseas as a knowing, Marilyn Monroe-like blonde in a series of European genre movies cranked out in the late 1960s and early 1970s; in the UK, however, she remained largely uncelebrated  although her story could have played out very differently had a pivotal early-career audition gone in her favour.

Aged barely 20 as a fresh-faced graduate of the Italia Conti theatre school, Margaret Lee found herself in the running to play Tatiana Romanova, the KGB agent who seduces, and subsequently falls for, James Bond in From Russia with Love (1963).

She lost out to the Italian newcomer Daniela Bianchi  and yet it would be Margaret Lee who eclipsed Daniela Bianchi to become one of Italys biggest female stars, chiefly by playing the love interest in 007 knockoffs and parodies.

In a string of popular comedies featuring the Italian duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia  including Two Jokers at the Moulin Rouge (1964) and General Custers Two Sergeants (1965)  Margaret Lee served as Dorothy Lamour had done in Bob Hope and Bing Crosbys Road movies, cutting through the boys bluff badinage with flashes of leg and wit.

It was not the career in theatre I had dreamed of, she told one interviewer, but it was acting.

Our Man in Marrakesh, lobbycard (1966): Herbert Lom, Margaret Lee, Klaus Kinski - LMPC via Getty Images

Margaret Lee became a major Italian cover girl thanks to a rash of slapdash spy pastiches from the opportunistic producer Harry Alan Towers, positioning himself as a cut-price Cubby Broccoli. Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) paired her with Tony Randall, Herbert Lom and Wilfrid Hyde-White; in Five Golden Dragons (1967), which spliced espionage capers with the newly voguish kung fu, Lee gave a breathy rendition of the John Barry-aping theme song.

She had a dancers pep, and appeared in 12 films in 1965 alone: I adored it, she said. I felt so at home on the movie set that I often would stay behind to watch filming even when I had finished for the day. We often worked very long hours but it seemed to actually give me energy rather than tire me.

Even so, she later confessed to a measure of Marilynesque regret as to how those energies had been applied: I imagined myself in more dramatic roles, but I guess that is not how others saw me.

In Circus of Fear, aka Psycho Circus, 1966 - LMPC via Getty Images

She was born Margaret Gwendolyn Box on August 4 1943 to a mother who had been relocated to Wolverhampton during the Blitz. At the end of the war the family returned to London, where the young Margaret studied at Greenwichs Roan School for Girls (according to one contemporary, the pair spent their teenage years chasing a pre-fame Mick Jagger around the South London rail network).

After graduating from Italia Conti, Lee successfully answered an advert in The Stage seeking dancers for the Moulin Rouge; once installed on the continent, she won a role opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the Cinecitta-shot Cleopatra (1963), but her scenes were cut from the finished film.

Instead, she made her screen debut in lowlier circumstances, appearing alongside 1957s Mr Universe Reg Lewis in Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962), a routine sword-and-sandals programmer.

Her sensuality was a gift for a newly permissive cinema: in Casanova 70 (1965), she was manhandled by Marcello Mastroianni, whom she described as sweet. Yet  like many  she endured a fraught working relationship with Klaus Kinski, the emergent wild man of European cinema, with whom Margaret Lee made a total of 11 increasingly lurid thrillers between 1966 and 1971.

With Klaus Kinski in The Beast Kills in Cold Blood (aka Asylum Erotica), 1971: they had a fraught working relationship - Alamy

Margaret Lee felt obliged to correct the record of Kinskis characteristically unreliable, self-glorifying 1975 memoir All I Need is Love, in which the actor claimed that he enjoyed threesomes with his co-star and her fellow actress Maria Rohm: This is totally untrue, and I am sorry he abased himself this way. Klaus and I were chums and he was a close friend of my husband Gino, too; there was never any sexual side to our friendship ever. I was angry for a while, but now I forgive him.

Returning home upon the birth of her second child in 1973, Margaret Lee booked one episode of the Gerry Anderson-produced ITV caper The Protectors (1972-74), but saw her visibility dwindle as a result of industry indifference, I guess because I was known in Italy and to some extent France, but not in England. I did not think seriously of trying to work there.

Her final screen credit, at the age of 40, came with the crime comedy Neapolitan Sting (1983) opposite Treat Williams.

She moved decisively to Northern California in the mid-1980s, studying Stanislavski in San Francisco and working in local theatre, but still thinking of herself as an Italian movie actress and never aspiring to be known internationally. In retrospect, she said, this might have been a limitation and a mistake.

She was married three times  to the producer Gino Malerba, Patrick Anderson and Walter Creighton  and is survived by two sons, the production manager Damian Anderson and Roberto Malerba, a producer on the Bond film Spectre (2015).

Margaret Lee, born August 4 1943, died April 24 2024
Jose Raul Mulino arrives at a meeting with OAS members in Panama City on Wednesday. Photograph: Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images

Panamas supreme court has rejected a move to disqualify the candidacy of the leading presidential contender, Jose Raul Mulino, two days before the countrys election on Sunday.

The ruling early on Friday removes an element of uncertainty from the vote, but the country remains racked by social discontent, against a backdrop of mass protests, economic slowdown, drought in the Panama Canal and the closure of one of the worlds largest copper mines.

With 25-30% of voting intention, polls suggest Mulino has a comfortable lead over his two closest rivals, the lawyer Ricardo Lombana and the former president Martin Torrijos, in a fragmented field.

Related: Changing climate casts a shadow over the future of the Panama Canal  and global trade

Mulino only stepped in as a candidate in February, replacing Ricardo Martinelli, the supermarket magnate and former president whose candidacy was annulled after local courts ratified his prison sentence for money laundering.

In its ruling, the supreme court rejected an argument that Mulinos candidacy should also be annulled, since he assumed it without going through party primaries.

The current president, Laurentino Cortizo, is constitutionally unable to run for a second consecutive term. But he is in any case deeply unpopular, and his government was rocked by two unprecedented protest movements.

The first, in 2022, was triggered by the rising cost of living and deficient social services, given Panamas status as one of the regions most unequal countries.

The second, in 2023, was sparked by the governments opaque renegotiation of the contract for the Cobre Panama mine, which was subsequently closed.

Both episodes revealed public mistrust of the governing Partido Revolucionario Democratico and a political elite that has been involved in numerous corruption scandals.

Corruption, underlined by the Panama Papers investigation, is a top concern for voters, as is the economy, where a slowdown has been compounded by the closure of the mine and social upheaval that has hit investment.

The International Monetary Fund expects growth of 2.5% in 2024, down from 7.5% in 2023.

The fact that Martinelli  and by extension Mulino  remains popular despite his conviction for money laundering reflects both the political outsider status he has cultivated and the fact that Panama saw formidable economic growth during his presidency from 2009 to 2014.

People have always justified Martinelli by saying, He stole but he got things done, said Juan Diego Alvarado, a political analyst.

The economic conditions that carried that growth are no longer there, added Alvarado. But the memory is powerful.

Aside from promising to bring the good times back, Mulino has also vowed to close the Darien Gap, the swampy jungle straddling the border with Colombia that is crossed by hundreds of thousands of US-bound migrants each year.

Meanwhile other candidates have emphasised their economic management skills and anti-corruption platforms.

All the leading candidates are proposing to change Panamas constitution, which has remained the same since the return to democracy in 1989, and have supported the protests against the mine with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

But experts say there is a lack of substantive variety on the ballot paper.

Panama has great political homogeneity: every political party is centre right. For 30 years Panama has been governed by the centre right, said Claire Nevache, a political analyst. So its really more about characters and leadership styles than it is about public policy and how to fix Panamas problems.

If Mulino wins, he has promised to find a way to help Martinelli, who avoided a 10-year jail sentence by taking refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy, where he and his dog, Bruno, are campaigning energetically on social media.

To what degree Martinelli would be pulling the strings behind a Mulino presidency remains to be seen. I suspect Mulino doesnt have much strength within their party. I think Martinelli controls the party, said Alvarado. But whoever wins will not have a majority in the assembly. So theyll have to build alliances in order to govern.
The pro-Palestinian encampment at NYU on Saturday. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

New Yorks police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were not affiliated with the institution, as the citys mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of outside agitators.

The NYPD also said 60% of arrestees at City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday night were unaffiliated with the college, though a CCNY spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that these arrest figures applied to protesters both on and off the colleges grounds.

The statements came as police across the US have arrested almost 2,200 people at campus protests in 43 different locations during a week of heightened tension and unrest that has often been met with tough action from law enforcement.

On Friday morning, the NYPD began clearing protest encampments at two other campuses in the city, arresting 13 people at New York University and 43 people at the New School, according to reports. Details of the operations were continuing to emerge, but speaking in the immediate aftermath, the NYPD deputy commissioner Kaz Daughtry continued to claim outside influences had organized the protests.

There is somebody funding this. There is somebody radicalizing our students, the deputy commissioner said, citing as evidence literature and leaflets found at both campuses.

Despite police activity ramping up, protests continued at campuses across the country. Early on Thursday, officers surged against a crowd of demonstrators at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), ultimately taking at least 200 protesters into custody. In North Carolina, hundreds of students at UNC Chapel Hill marched across campus on Friday morning.

On Thursday night, police in Portland, Oregon, arrested at least seven people who had occupied the state universitys library. On Long Island in New York a group of protesters gathered at Stony Brook University to show support for the 29 people arrested during protests the previous evening, local news reported.

The NYPD release, issued on Thursday evening, stated that 80 of the 112 protesters arrested at Columbia on Tuesday were students. The police department added that 68 of the 170 people arrested at a separate protest at CCNY were also students, meaning 60% were unaffiliated.

But some observers questioned how the department had determined its definition of unaffiliated arrestees, and where some of the arrests took place.

Journalists covering events at CCNY noted that two strands of protests occurred on Tuesday night, one on campus and another outside of it.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to questions over how many of those included in its arrest breakdown were taken into custody outside of college grounds. A spokesperson for CCNY confirmed that the figure related to arrests both outside and inside campus but did not provide a further breakdown.

On Thursday evening, Columbia University provided a more detailed breakdown of those arrested inside Hamilton Hall, which had been occupied by protesters earlier in the week  an event cited by the university and the citys police as a sign of escalation.

The university said that of the 44 people arrested inside the building 13 were non-affiliates while 14 were undergraduates and nine were graduate students. Two Columbia staff were arrested and six students from affiliated universities.

A spokesperson for Columbia described non-affiliates as outsiders  not students, not employees.

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday nights police crackdown, Adams repeatedly accused outside agitators of influencing students. The mayor said occupation of the hall and destruction of property was the tipping point for me.

While authorities have lauded the police action at both campuses, the NYPD announced on Thursday evening that an officer had accidentally discharged their firearm during the operation at Hamilton Hall. The bullet did not hit anyone and there were no injuries, the NYPD said, adding that the officer had been holding a firearm with an attached flashlight they had used for illuminating the area.

A review by the Associated Press indicated there had been at least 56 mass arrest incidents on US campuses since 18 April.

Students have stepped up their protests, demanding a complete ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by their universities from companies with ties to Israel.

On Friday, students at Princeton University in New Jersey announced a hunger strike as part of their Palestinian solidarity encampment, calling for dissociation and divestment from Israel, as well as protecting protesters from punishment.

We refuse to be silenced by the university administrations intimidation and repression tactics. We struggle together in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We commit our bodies to their liberation, Princeton Divest said in a statement, adding that participants would abstain from all food and drink, except water, until their demands are met by Princeton.

Israel has branded the protests across the US antisemitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers  some of whom are Jewish  call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest against the war.

Some counter-protesters across campuses have also been caught on camera making offensive remarks and violent threats to pro-Palestinian protesters. On Tuesday, counter-protesters launched a violent attack against a pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA, causing 25 people to be hospitalized overnight, according to UC Divest at UCLA.

Joe Biden on Thursday broke his silence on the protest movement and subsequent unrest. In remarks delivered at the White House, the president defended the right to free speech, but added that order must prevail.

Dissent is essential for democracy, Biden said. But dissent must never lead to disorder.

The president resisted calls from some Republicans to call in the national guard but added that the protests had not made him reconsider his foreign policy agenda in Israel.

Theres the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos, Biden added. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked.
A public housing tower in Carlton, among those scheduled for demolition. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Victorias supreme court has dismissed a class action that was attempting to stop the demolition of Melbournes 44 public housing towers, saying it had no real prospect of success.

But the Inner Melbourne Community Legal service, which is leading the case, said it was determined to continue the fight using fresh legal tactics.

All 44 of Melbournes high-rise public housing towers will be redeveloped by 2051, with five in Flemington, North Melbourne and Carlton expected to be replaced by 2031.

Related: Its not the 19th century: tenants in new social housing block in Victoria say they go weeks without flushing toilets

The project was a key pillar of the state governments housing statement, unveiled by the then-premier, Daniel Andrews, in September and involved the relocation of more than 10,000 residents.

But some residents want the demolition stopped. Plaintiff Barry Berih is leading a class action against the state government, claiming the redevelopment adversely affects the human rights of thousands of tenants.

In a hearing at the supreme court of Victoria on Friday, Justice Melinda Richards said the case could not go ahead in its current form.

Ive concluded that Mr Berrys claim in its current form has no real prospect of success, and so must be summarily dismissed, she said.

She did not give her full reasons for the decision but said she had accepted the [governments] submissions in relation to the jurisdictional error ground, and in particular, have concluded that the decision is as its currently pleaded is not justiciable.

She said her reasons would be published next week. The class action will have seven days to re-plead.

Inner Melbourne Community Legals (IMCL) Louisa Bassini said public housing residents will continue to protect their rights.

The public housing towers are home to vibrant and diverse communities of people who rely on each other and that housing for their safety and wellbeing. The residents are filled with doubt and uncertainty about their future, and they need answers, Bassini said.

They dont know what will happen to their homes or where they will end up. Its devastating and traumatic.

She said at the following hearing, the plaintiffs would submit an argument against Homes Victoria, the government body that oversees social housing, in place of the failed argument that had targeted cabinet.

Homes Victoria did not respond to a request for comment.

Of the 484 residents captured in the class action, 427 have already signed relocation agreements.

Priya Kunjan from RMITs Centre for Urban Research said there had not been a clear justification about why the towers needed to be demolished.

Last year, Kunjan along with six other academics from RMIT released a paper showing the government had not put forward a proper justification and that the redevelopment plan would exacerbate the housing crisis in the state in a short time.

This policy, however, will not realise a net gain supply within the next decade, given the simple fact that hundreds of public housing dwellings will be destroyed before the lengthy rebuild program returns any housing to these sites, they said.

This is occurring alongside a rapid increase in applicants to the Victorian Housing Register (social housing waitlist), rapid growth in private rental households approaching the specialist homelessness service, rising rents and unaffordability, and decreased funding for crisis services.

Kunjan said there had been a lack of transparency and accountability from the government about the decisions that have been made to demolish and redevelop the towers.

Residents found out about this pretty much the day that the announcement was made by a state government, they said.

Theres this real ongoing concern about lack of consultation with residents, peoples voices havent been heard and decisions being made, you know, without robust consultation with the community.

The matter will return to court on 31 May.

With AAP
Moscow is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching itself as a friendly country with no colonial baggage - MAHAMADOU HAMIDOU/REUTER

Russian soldiers have deployed to a US drone base in Niger after the countrys military rulers decided to expel American troops, the US defence secretary has said.

The Russian deployment to Airbase 101 at Nigers international airport in Niamey puts Russian and American soldiers in close proximity at a time when Washington and Moscow are fiercely at odds over the war in Ukraine.

Asked about the situation at a news conference on Thursday, Lloyd Austin said the Russian deployment did not pose a significant issue... in terms of our force protection.

Airbase 101 where our forces [are], is a Nigerien air force base that is co-located with an international airport in the capital city. The Russians are in a separate compound and dont have access to US forces or access to our equipment, he said.

At a briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm or deny reports of the Russian presence at the Niger base, saying only that Moscow was cultivating ties with African countries in all areas including defence.

The United States built Airbase 201 in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018 it has been used to target Islamic State and Al-Qaeda affiliate Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) fighters with armed drones.

Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region, who may be able to expand without the presence of US forces and intelligence capabilities.

But Nigers junta, which seized power last July, said in March it was ending a military cooperation agreement with Washington, which has agreed to withdraw its troops and sent a delegation to Niamey to work out an orderly departure.

At the same time, Moscow is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching itself as a friendly country with no colonial baggage in the continent.

Mali, for example, has in recent years become one of Russias closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight jihadist insurgents.

Russian military instructors arrived in Niger last month with an air defence system and other equipment, Nigerien state media reported, after talks between military ruler general Abdourahamane Tiani and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
An encampment and pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 30 April 2024. Photograph: Trisha Ahmed/AP

Students at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis reached agreements with administrators on Thursday to peacefully dismantle their Gaza solidarity encampment protest.

Rutgers and the University of Minnesota now join Northwestern and Brown in successfully reaching deals to peacefully end their encampment protests.

Related: Union plans strike vote over crackdown on University of California Gaza protests

The peaceful resolutions are in contrast to the scenes at other universities in the US where pro-Palestinian protesters have been met with police violence after university administrations called on law enforcement to intervene and break up the encampments. More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested at campuses across the country.

The agreement at Rutgers was reached on Thursday after students met with administration to present their demands, some of which include: divesting from corporations participating in or benefiting from Israel; terminating Rutgers partnership with Tel Aviv University; accepting at least 10 displaced students from Gaza; and displaying the flags of occupied peoples  such as Palestinians, Kurds, and Kashmiris  alongside other existing international flags on campus.

Eight out of the 10 demands were met, but Rutgers students, faculty and alumni were still fighting for the remaining two: the actual call for divestment as well as severing ties with Tel Aviv University.

In an email, the RU Muslim alumni group wrote: Even though most of the demands have been met, there is still much work to be done  These demands will require great effort and continuous pressure to bring to fruition and your continued support is still needed.

Colleges, take note: Instead of sending riot police, Rutgers met with students, negotiated, agreed to 8/10 demands. Divestment, the biggest demand, was not among them -but they did secure a meeting with the committee on investments & will disband encampment.

These are the demands pic.twitter.com/5dqRLvRNkK  adelyreporter (@AdelyReporter) May 2, 2024

Just like 80 other universities across the country, Rutgers students established their own encampment earlier this week.

On Thursday morning, final exams at Rutgers were postponed due to the encampment protest, and university president Jonathan Holloway in an email threatened student demonstrators with police intervention if they did not comply and disperse, clearing the area of their tents and belongings by 4pm.

Shortly before 4pm, students began taking down their tents.

After four days, University of Minnesota students have also dismantled their encampment as of Wednesday, when interim university president Jeff Ettinger agreed to meet with protesters to hear their demands.

At Northwestern, university administration agreed to disclosing university investments, a community house for Middle Eastern and North African/Muslim students, and funding to support admitting Palestinian faculty and students.

Shortly after Northwestern protesters dismantled their encampment on Monday, Brown University followed suit. The Brown Corporation agreed to hold a vote on a divestment measure in October.

Campus encampment protests began taking place across the US after Columbia University students earlier this month pitched tents and began occupying the main lawn, igniting a worldwide movement that calls for universities to financially divest from Israel while it continues its military assault on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian land.
Joshua Dean, 45, died on Tuesday

A second Boeing whistleblower has died just two months after his colleague was found dead with gunshot wounds in a car park.

Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, warned of manufacturing defects in the planemakers 737 Max.

He filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line at Spirit.

The 45-year-old died on Tuesday after developing pneumonia following a fast-moving infection of Influenza B and MRSA.

According to reports, Mr Dean followed an active lifestyle and was believed to be in good health until his sudden death in Oklahoma.

Mr Dean was represented by the same legal team that represented Boeing whistleblower John Barnett until his death in March.

Mr Barnett, 62, was found dead in a vehicle in a hotel car park, having suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had been due to testify in a lawsuit against his former employer.

John Barnett was found dead having suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound - Television Stills

Boeing has been plagued by a series of incidents involving its planes, with two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 seeing a total of 346 people killed.

In January, a door flew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 mid-flight, leading to an investigation by the FAA.

Soon afterwards, four people came forward, including the two dead whistleblowers, alleging that Boeing cut corners during manufacturing.

Mr Dean, who was fired by Spirit last year, lodged a complaint claiming that his termination came in response to him flagging safety concerns.

He told the Wall Street Journal that he had been fired for pointing out that holes in jet fuselages had been drilled wrong.

It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved, Mr Dean said.

It doesnt mean you completely disregard stuff, but they dont want you to find everything and write it up.

After spending almost three decades at Boeing, the other deceased whistleblower, Mr Barnett told The New York Times in 2019 that he had discovered clusters or metal slivers hanging over the wiring of flight controls.

He said they could have caused catastrophic damage if they had penetrated wires.

Mr Barnett claimed he was moved to another part of the plant after management ignored his concerns.

Amid the allegations and incidents involving Boeing planes, Dave Calhoun, the companys chief executive, announced in March that he would step down at the end of the year.

In the first quarter of 2024, Boeing reported a $355 million net loss.
Pro-Palestinian protests are spreading across British universities as students attempt to replicate the occupations that have swept through US campuses.

Demonstrators at University College London (UCL) have added to a growing number of tent camps protesting against the war in Gaza, which have been seen at universities including Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Warwick, Swansea and Bristol.

The scenes have been a far cry from confrontations in the US, where there have been thousands of arrests and riot police have stormed campuses, but British student protesters are refusing to budge until universities meet their demands to cut ties with Israeli organisations and make commitments on Gaza.

Goldsmiths at University of London has agreed to student demands by offering scholarships for Palestinian students, renaming a lecture hall after Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist killed in an Israeli military operation in 2022, and reviewing how anti-Semitism is defined on campus.

Students from Goldsmiths had occupied the Professor Stuart Hall building earlier this year, and on Wednesday night forced their way into the college library in another show of defiance.

On Friday, university vice-chancellors were warned by Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, to be very, very careful about keeping the atmosphere stable for students heading into exam season.

Protesters at UCL hold up a 'Resist like Rafah' sign, in reference to the Gazan city - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

Students waving Palestinian flags take part in the UCL demonstration - Benjamin Cremel/AFP

In an echo of a Columbia University student in New York who was mocked for demanding basic humanitarian aid for demonstrators, some British students have begun requesting food for community dinners as well as mats, tents, blankets and sources of light.

On Instagram, a pro-Palestinian group called Newcastle Apartheid posted an urgent callout for blankets [and] food for community dinner to allow its encampment at the University of Newcastle to continue.

Meanwhile, protestors at UCL asked the public to donate nutritious and healthy food to their group, while pillows and some food supplies were seen being lifted over campus gates on Friday afternoon.

Cushions are carried in to the pro-Palestinian camp at UCL - Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Security officers at UCL have blocked students from using the main entrance where the activists are based, with dozens of protesters breaking into chants of From the river to the sea and Resistance is justified when people are occupied while waving Palestinian flags.

But the activists met some resistance on Friday, with two Jewish students turning up to wave the Israeli flag on separate occasions. Samuel Ktorza, a data sciences student at UCL, angrily challenged security wardens for not letting him into the main route to the library, and entered a heated five-minute spat with one of the activists who claimed Hamas was not a terrorist group.

How is this allowed to happen? the 19-year-old asked. How are Palestine flags replacing the university flags? Its unreal. Its unacceptable. Its my university, Im trying to come and study at the library and I cant even go through the main entrance  how crazy is that? Ive got exams in a week... Im lost for words.

A 20-year-old first-year student at UCL, who is supporting the protest, said: We are following in the footsteps of students around the world in asking for our university to divest the millions of pounds it has in companies that supply arms to Israel. Its disgraceful that the university is invested in these companies.

He and students at camps across the country are also demanding that university chiefs condemn the war in Gaza publicly and commit to helping rebuild the destroyed education system there.

Students shout out their message at UCL - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

A Metropolitan Police Territorial Support Group van arrived at UCL at around midday on Friday. Three uniformed officers left the vehicle and entered the university campus. One briefly approached the encampment, but then walked away. Five minutes later, the officers returned to their van and drove off.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested in US campus protests over Gaza, which have spread to around 50 universities in recent days.

A Government source told The Telegraph ministers were monitoring the situation closely amid concerns over campus security and fears that outsiders could infiltrate groups and agitate, turning the peaceful protests violent.

Authorities are also looking at evidence of expressions of anti-Semitism.

A UCL spokesman said: Like many other universities, a small protest with tents is taking place in our quad. We are speaking with the organisers and carefully monitoring the situation.

We will manage this in line with our legal duty and commitment to promote freedom of speech within the law, whilst ensuring the safety and security of our community and enabling our education and research activity to continue.

09:34 AM BST

More follows

Our reporter Alex Barton is at the scene.
Henry Cuellar: Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

The US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.

The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texass border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified allegations against him.

Related: Pro-Israel groups target Republican House candidate they deem antisemitic

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas, Cuellar said.

He added that Im running for re-election and will win this November, when Democrats are hoping to regain the majority in the House of Representatives.

The justice department said that between December 2014 and November 2021, the Cuellars received bribes from an unspecified bank headquartered in Mexico City as well as an oil and gas company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan.

Imelda Cuellar then allegedly used sham consulting contracts, front companies and intermediaries to launder the money.

In return, the congressman influenced US foreign policy to Azerbaijans advantage and pressured unnamed high-ranking officials in the executive branch to take actions in favor of the bank.

A statement from the House Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said that under the partys rules in the chamber, Cuellar would step down as the ranking member of a homeland security subcommittee while he faces these charges.

Jeffries added that Cuellar admirably devoted his career to public service  is a valued member of the House Democratic caucus and was entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process.

Two years ago, the FBI raided Cuellars Laredo, Texas, home and campaign office as part of an investigation into US businessmen and their links with Azerbaijan. Cuellar said he was cooperating with their inquiry, and months later, an attorney for the lawmaker told Fox News that he was not a target of the investigation that led to the raid.

In his statement on Friday, the congressman said that before I took any action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

Cuellar added that he had requested to meet with the Washington DC prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or to hear our side.

Federal charges could complicate the re-election of 68-year-old Cuellar, who is seeking an 11th term in office. A moderate Democrat, he supported a bipartisan Senate bill that would have tightened immigration policy, and is the partys sole House lawmaker opposed to passing federal legislation to guarantee abortion access.

After the 2022 raid on his home and office, Cuellar narrowly won the Democratic primary against his progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, then easily beat the Republican Cassy Garcia in the general election.
Ed Davey was celebrating a strong showing by his party in some areas. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

In true-blue Berkshire, the skies were a prophetic grey on Friday as the Liberal Democrats were a whisker away from winning Wokingham.

The district, where the veteran Tory MP John Redwood and the former prime minister Theresa May hold their parliamentary seats, has long been a Conservative stronghold. Redwoods constituency has returned a Tory MP since its creation in 1885.

The Lib Dems won 27 seats in Wokingham borough, one away from forming a majority. The near-victory comes as the party had a softer-than-expected performance in local elections across England and Wales. Wokingham was a council the Lib Dems expected to win outright.

Labour did better than anticipated in Wokingham, winning eight seats. The Tories won 19, losing three overall.

Local Lib Dems said a stronger-than-expected Labour showing prevented them from winning key seats and forming a majority. Reform UK did not field any candidates in Wokingham, meaning the Conservatives were the only rightwing option.

In the town centre, the drizzle did not dampen the anger fuelled by the Tories. Theyre a bunch of crooks, said Sarah Lowrie, 63. They give all their mates money instead of putting it back into the country.

She had previously voted Conservative but went for the Lib Dems this time. I gave up about five years ago after Brexit, she said. It should never have happened.

In 2016, about 57% of those who cast their ballot in the constituency voted to remain in the EU.

Redwood, who served in John Majors cabinet, is a staunch Brexiter. I wanted to get rid of the Conservatives in Wokingham and in government, said Lowrie. I want to see John Redwood voted out.

Reacting to the result, Stephen Conway, the Lib Dem leader of Wokingham council said he was very pleased but added it was a little frustrating that we didnt manage full control.

He said the result bodes well for the partys chances in Redwoods seat at the next general election. Its very noticeable how strongly we performed in wards that lie in the Wokingham parliamentary constituency.

Emily, 36, who did not want to provide her last name, is a psychologist. Im normally a Labour voter but Im tactically voting Lib Dems, she said.

She said the sight of seeing Redwood voted out of office would make her very pleased, adding: The Conservatives arent great. I work in the NHS and Im watching it gradually disintegrate.

It feels like everything is getting worse. Im not very positive about government and how things have been for the last 10 years.

Mays constituency, Maidenhead, is split between Wokingham and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and has been Conservative since its creation in 1997.

In Twyford, a village in the constituency, there was a similar appetite for change. Ive always been a Labour voter but I went for the Lib Dems to get the Tories out, said Theresa Gaughory, 72.

In this area, theyre the ones that can pose the most threat to the Conservatives, she said.

Its a tactical vote. The Tories are woeful. Since the Brexit vote, life has become much more difficult. Costs have gone up, everything is worse.

In recent years, Wokingham has been shifting from blue to orange. Since 2018, the Conservatives have lost 22 seats in the district. In 2019, the Lib Dems won 19 council seats and another nine in 2021.

The following year, the Conservatives lost overall control of the council after 20 years when the Lib Dems won another five seats.

The Lib Dems are hoping their performance in Wokingham will show they can knock some more bricks out of the blue wall  seats in the south of England where the Tories have traditionally done well  after a string of parliamentary byelection victories in nearby constituencies.
Theater to undergo remodeling to host immersive show 'Sleep No More'

By KTimes

Daehan Cinema, once a prominent theater in downtown Seoul, will close its doors in September, marking the end of 66 years of operation.

The theater said in a public notice that it would cease operations on Sept. 30.

It cited "ongoing losses due to the changing paradigm of the film screening industry" and "asset optimization and business structure enhancement" as the reasons for ending operations.

Daehan opened in 1958 as the largest cinema in Korea. Known for its large screen and impressive sound, it became one of Chungmuro's iconic theaters alongside Myeongbo Cinema (now Myeongbo Art Cinema) and Scala Cinema.

Daehan Cinema became hugely popular for screening 70mm films such as "Ben-Hur" (1959) and "The Sound of Music" (1969). With Daehan closing, Myeongbo Art Cinema will be the last of Chungmuro's famed 20th-century theaters, as Scala Cinema shut down in 2005.

Daehan adapted to the era of multiplex theaters, reopening in 2001 with 11 screens. It also became a popular venue for media and distribution previews.

However, by the mid-2000s, as the domestic theater market rapidly reorganized around the three major multiplex chains _ CGV, Lotte Cinema, and Megabox _ Daehan started to lose its luster.

After the theater closes in September, the building is expected to be used as a performance venue.

"We will remodel the Daehan Cinema building to host the world-famous immersive show 'Sleep No More' on a revenue-sharing basis," it said. Immersive shows are interactive performances that do not have traditional audience seats.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Weaker iPhone sales in China hurt Apple results. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Apple (AAPL)

Apple shares climbed in pre-market trading after the iPhone maker reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that topped estimates and announced an expanded stock buyback programme.

The tech company reported revenue of $90.75bn ($72.22bn) in the first three months of 2024, down 4% from the year before but slightly ahead of consensus estimates for $90.3bn.

Sales of its flagship iPhone were down 10% from the year before to $46bn, compared with $51.3bn the previous year, and sales in China fell to $16.3bn for the quarter, against $17.8bn a year ago.

Apple reported net income of $23.64bn, or $1.53 per share, down 2% from $24.16bn, or $1.52 per share, in the year-earlier period.

Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: London near all-time high as Asia stocks surge

CEO Tim Cook attempted to reassure investors about the state of the business in the world's second largest economy, noting that iPhone sales were actually up in mainland China.

"I maintain a great view of China in the long term," he said.

The company also announced another $110bn in share buybacks and raised its quarterly dividend by 4%.

Coinbase (COIN)

Coinbase reported better-than-expected revenue in its first-quarter earnings report, helped by an uptick in cryptocurrency trading following the launch of the first US-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) tracking bitcoin in January.

Coinbase, the primary marketplace in the US for buying and selling digital tokens, reported net income of $1.18bn or $4.40 per share, compared to a year-ago loss of $78.9m, or 34 cents a share.

Yet the stock of the largest US cryptocurrency exchange fell by as much as 4% in pre-market trading.

Net income rose to $1.17bn, the highest mark in nine quarters, while net revenue rose by 115% when compared to the year-ago period.

Consumer transaction revenue doubled from the previous quarter, reaching $935.2m, and volume was up over 93%, to $56bn.

Anglo American (AAL.L)

Anglo American has jumped 3% after Reuters reported that Glencore (GLEN.L) was considering an approach for the 107-year old miner, a move that could spark a bidding war.

Glencore has had internal preliminary discussions and those may not lead to the company making an approach to Anglo, Reuters said Thursday. A Glencore spokesperson told Reuters the company doesnt comment on rumour or speculation.

Anglo American is already the subject of bid interest from larger peer BHP Group Ltd.

Last Friday, Anglo American unanimously rejected an opportunistic offer from BHP on grounds that it significantly undervalues the London-based miner.

Guinness owner Diageo has poached the finance boss of the worlds largest Coca-Cola bottler as it seeks to recover from a drop in sales and profits.

Lavanya Chandrashekar, who joined the Guinness and Johnnie Walker maker as finance chief of its North America business in 2018, will be replaced by Nik Jhangiani, CFO at Coca-Colas largest bottler, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP).

Read more: 11 fabulous farmhouses for rural bliss

Shares have fallen by around 15% over the past six months after Diageo issued a profit warning due to a substantial slowdown in sales in the Latin America and the Caribbean.

Diageos weak share price performance has, in part, reflected questions around financial communication and some perceived mis-steps from senior management, so we think this will be moderately well received, said RBC Capital analyst James Edwardes Jones.

Watch: Market strategist debunks 'sell in May' strategy

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Hope Hicks is cross-examined by defense lawyer Emil Bove during Donald Trumps criminal trial in New York on 3 May 2024 in this courtroom sketch. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

On the docket: Hope Hicks, Trumps favorite staffer, takes the stand

Hope Hicks spent more time with former president Donald Trump than perhaps anyone else, from the launch of his political career through the end of his time in the White House.

On Friday, Hicks took the witness stand to testify against her former boss.

Hicks, a former campaign and White House spokeswoman who was constantly by Trumps side and one of his most trusted advisers until he left office, appeared at his trial under subpoena, and was clearly unhappy about being compelled to testify. After being asked to speak more clearly into the microphone, she said she was really nervous to be there. Later, as Trumps lawyer began cross-examining her, Hicks burst into tears, and Judge Juan Merchan granted a recess to allow her to compose herself. She was spotted clutching a tissue.

Hicks testified to prosecutors that Trump told her in 2018, when the story about adult film star Stormy Daniels alleged affair became public, that his fixer and attorney Michael Cohen had paid to keep the story quiet from the kindness of his own heart and didnt tell anyone it had happened. She said she didnt believe him, because that would be out of character for Michael, whom she knew as the kind of person who seeks credit, not an especially charitable or selfless person. That testimony undercuts Trumps chances of distancing himself from Cohens hush-money payment. Prosecutors need to prove Trump falsified business records to repay Cohen for that payment.

At the end of prosecutors questions, Hicks told them that Trumps attitude in 2018 when the Daniels news broke was it was better to be dealing with it now and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election. That helps prosecutors, who are seeking to show that Trump conspired to bury accusations of marital infidelities to help win the election  the underlying crime that lets them elevate their charges of falsifying business records against him to felonies.

She also testified about the panic that set in within the campaign in early October 2016 when the Access Hollywood recording emerged of Trump bragging about groping women. It was a damaging development, she said. This was a crisis.

But she then undercut prosecutors theory of the case  and helped her former boss with testimony that, while it made Trump look like a huge jerk, could actually help him avoid conviction. Trumps lawyers argue that Trump was simply worried about how his wife, Melania, would feel about extramarital affars  and Hicks gave them some significant ammo on that front.

Hicks testified that on the day that the Wall Street Journal planned to publish the story that the National Enquirer had bought then buried about former Playboy model Karen McDougals claim of an extended affair with Trump, he was concerned about how Melania would react and tried to keep the news from her. He wanted me to make sure that the newspapers were [not] delivered to their residence that morning, Hicks said.

Melania Trump, who has not attended any of her husbands criminal trial, was pregnant and delivered their son Barron during the period that McDougal claims the affair occurred. Trumps son Eric is the only member of his immediate family to join the former president in the courtroom.

During cross-examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove took a gentle approach with Hicks, who seemed not to want to hurt her boss. Bove got Hicks to agree with his statement that Cohen sometimes went rogue without discussing things with the campaign.

In other news

 Before the jury was brought in on Friday morning, Merchan corrected Trumps false claim made yesterday outside the courtroom that the judges gag order against him prevents the former president from testifying in the trial (it just blocks him from talking about witnesses and the jury outside the courtroom). It came to my attention that there may be a misunderstanding [about] the order restricting extrajudicial statements and how it impacts Mr Trumps right to testify at trial, he said. I want to stress, Mr Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial  The order prohibiting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.

 After the trial day concluded, Merchan ruled with Trumps attorneys and said that if the former president takes the stand to testify, prosecutors arent allowed to bring up the fact that Merchan had held him in contempt for violating his gag order, saying it would be prejudicial.

 A California man has been charged with sending death threats to Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who is overseeing the Georgia prosecution against Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. The man, Marc Shultz, posted multiple comments last October in two separate YouTube live streams that threatened Willis with violence and murder, including one comment that she will be killed like a dog.




Benzi Gopstein, the leader of the extreme right-wing movement Lehava - MAHMOUD ILLEAN/AP

Britain has sanctioned a loosely defined group of violent Right-wing extremists in a major crackdown on settler violence in the West Bank.

On Friday, the Foreign Office rolled out a second round of sanctions to address an unprecedented rise in Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank where at least 800 incidents of violence have been reported since last October, obscured by the war in Gaza.

The Israeli authorities must clamp down on those responsible. The UK will not hesitate to take further action if needed, including through further sanctions, Lord David Cameron said in a statement, decrying extremist settlers for undermining security and threatening prospects for peace.

Fridays sanctions targeted individuals responsible for perpetrating human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank and groups known to have supported, indicted and promoted violence against them.

Travel bans and asset freezes have been slapped on four individuals as well as the extreme far-right group Lehava and Hilltop Youth, a term commonly used to describe young violent settlers but not representing an actual organisation.

Britain now joins the European Union which blacklisted Lehava last month and the United States which targeted its founder Benzi Gopstein, an associate of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Previous rounds of sanctions by Britain and other countries appear to have spooked Israeli officials who have long been accused of turning a blind eye to violence against Palestinians and their gradual displacement from the West Bank.

The remains of a burnt vehicle after Israeli settlers attacked the village of al-Mughayyer, in the West Bank - MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/REUTERS

On Thursday, Israels security agency Shin Bet arrested a 34-year-old Israeli settler on suspicion of murdering a Palestinian during a day-long rampage last month in several Palestinian villages following the killing of a settler teenager. Two Palestinians were shot dead by the settlers during the attack.

Separately, Israels High Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that the Israeli government should detail measures they are taking to ensure the return of Palestinians, many of them shepherds, illegally displaced from three villages outside Hebron earlier this year and provide for their safety and the security of their property and their flocks.

Ziv Stahl, the director of Israels Yesh Din human rights group that works in the West Bank, described the injunction as something we have not seen here for years (maybe ever).

Settler violence has been raging on unchecked in the West Bank for years while instances of settlers killing and harassing Palestinians and seizing their land sky-rocketed since the Oct 7 attack as global attention turned away to focus on Gaza.
Maj Gen Vadym Skibitskyi says there is 'no way to win on the battlefield alone'

Ukraine is preparing for peace talks with Russia as there is no way to win on the battlefield alone, Kyivs deputy spy chief has said.

Maj Gen Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraines HUR military intelligence agency, said both sides were currently vying for the most favourable position ahead of possible negotiations in 2025.

As with virtually all wars, negotiations will likely be the final stage of the conflict, he told the Economist.

The prospect of a peace deal with Russia has re-emerged as Ukraines forces  running low on manpower and ammunition  suffer setback after setback on the battlefield.

According to the Economist, Maj Gen Skibitsky said he did not see a way for Ukraine to win the war on the battlefield alone. If Ukraine was able to push Russian forces back to the border, it is unlikely to end the war, adding that such wars can only end with treaties.

Maj Gen Skibitsky predicted that peace talks could happen in late 2025, as he expects Russian arms production to plateau early the following year due to a shortage of engineers and supplies.

So far, Putin has signalled no intention to attend any peace talks with Ukraine - ALEKSEY BABUSHKIN/REUTERS

Russian counter-offensives in the northwestern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy are also anticipated, he said.

Ukraine and its Western partners are racing to distribute weapons into the hands of Kyivs soldiers in the coming weeks in order to prevent Russia from seizing more territory.

Maj Gen Skibitsky said Russia was trying to exploit its current advantage in weapons and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.

Our problem is very simple: We have no weapons, he said.

He went on to paint a somewhat gloomy picture of Ukraines battlefield prospects, with particular concern for Chasiv Yar, a town occupying high-ground near Bakhmut, which Russia could soon capture.

Seizing Chasiv Yar would allow Russian forces to advance through other towns and cities in the Donetsk region.

He said it was probably a matter of time until the fall of Chasiv Yar, not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies.

Maj Gen Skibitsky warned that Russias army is no longer the disorganised rabble that Ukraine repelled from some regions with such success in the early stages of the war.

Now, it is a single body, with a clear plan, and under a single command, he said.

Lord Cameron met with Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday to discuss weapon supplies for troops - UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE/PA

It came as Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, met Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, in Kyiv, where he assured him that his forces have a right to use British-supplied weapons to strike inside Russian territory.

While Ukraine initially attempted peace talks with Russia, such as in Turkey and on the Belarusian border, Moscow has been much less eager to do so since the annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts in 2022.

Mr Zelensky has since declared peace talks with Russia under its current leadership are impossible and in November 2023 said he was not ready for talks with Moscow unless its troops withdrew from Ukraine.

Behind the scenes, Ukrainian and Western leaders accept that eventually the war will most likely end in a negotiated settlement. The crucial question is which side will have performed the strongest on the battlefield at that point, providing the most leverage.

A special Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland is due to be held in June, which Mr Zelensky has hailed as the first real chance to start restoring a just peace but Russia has signalled it will not attend.

Switzerland has stressed that a peace process without Russia is not possible.

On Friday, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and a staunch Putin ally, posted an expletive-laden rant on social media calling Mr Zelensky a bastard, halfwit and a c--- over the peace conference plans.

Mr Medvedev dismissed the Swiss talks as the product of impotent Western elites who have performed painful self-castration of their own potential to stop the military conflict.

The US election this November, which could see Donald Trump return to the White House, is also a major factor in a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia being achieved.

A source close to the Trump campaign has told The Telegraph that a detailed Ukraine-Russia peace plan has been drawn up but will not yet be disclosed in any detail before his in an effort to maintain leverage.

Mr Trump will style himself as the only candidate who can end the war, with a simple bumper sticker slogan, they said.

He wants to stop the killing, said the source. Thats the bumper sticker: Trump will stop the killing.
Not so grrreat: Hugh Grant plays the actor who voices Tony the Tiger and fears for his job - Netflix

Unfrosted  the barely-true-at-all true story of the Pop-Tart  is where frivolous brand biopics go to die. Stuffed to the gills with star cameos under the reigning guidance of Jerry Seinfeld, this would-be-farcical dive into the competitive fray of breakfast cereals has a pushiness born of almost zero inspiration.

Before it became feature-length landfill, the origin story of this toaster snack, cooked up by Kelloggs at their Michigan HQ in 1964, was a popular bit in Seinfelds stand-up routines. How a zany extrapolation from this pub-trivia material has landed before us as a garish Netflix boondoggle is down to the great residual love for the comedian over in the US.

Watching it is like being trapped in a writers room full of stale air, where the brief is to deliver 90 minutes worth of funny material about the 1960s, and the clock is ticking. At minute 12, Walter Cronkite comes on screen for the first of several its the 1960s! appearances in black-and-white. When we reach minute 25 and not one joke has sparkled, you dream of escape.

Seinfeld both directs and stars as fictitious Kelloggs suit Bob Cabana, who finds himself in the cereal equivalent of a space race against rival company Post, also based (weirdly) out of Battle Creek, and fronted by Amy Schumer in florid twin-sets as the real-life businesswoman Marjorie Post. Both firms came up with toastable pastries around the same time; who wins is just a matter of speed and marketing, and the fact that Post went and called their product Country Squares.

This is the entire plot; the rest is a bowl of sawdust. Melissa McCarthy injects what vim she can as a NASA scientist hired by Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) to be the genius of the operation, in turn lining up a quintet of eccentric boffins, all a waste of space, to brainstorm. Peter Dinklage is some kind of menacing dairy magnate in an off-white suit, and Christian Slaters a sinister milkman  the clanking idea being that Pop-Tarts pose a threat to their very existence.

Even Hugh Grant comes unstuck. This weary rinse/repeat of his Paddington 2 turn might mean calling time sharpish on the panto-villain phase weve lately been enjoying. Yes, hes a dastardly Shakespearian actor  Thurl Ravenscroft  whos been pocketing cheques by voicing Tony the Tiger, and leads an uprising among the other aggrieved Kelloggs mascots.

Inexplicably, their riot is styled like the Jan 6 storming of the Capitol, seemingly because someone thought that might be a goofy idea, twinned with the assumption that stuffing Grant into literally any silly costume (Viking horns, tooth necklace) will yield comic gold.

A side-trip to Puerto Rico finds a sugar boss living it up like a trigger-happy drug baron; a jaunt to Russia checks us in with Khrushchev for no particular reason. Bill Burr doesnt do a bad JFK impression, but his material  darn, that Monroe girl has got him in trouble this time!  is as feeble as anyones.

Walter Cronkite looks as bored as we are, and equally confused by why hes getting so much screen time. Seinfelds affable mugging is no compensation for putting us through a glorified pitch session anyone sane would have nipped in the bud.

12A cert, 93 min. On Netflix now
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes star Kevin Durand said the original 1968 film made me want to be an actor.

The Canadian actor plays Proximus Caesar, the leader of a coastal clan of apes, in the latest film set several generations in the future of the franchise, from filmmaker Wes Ball  who directed the Maze Runner trilogy.

Durand and Ball appeared at the red carpet premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles alongside stars Owen Teague, who plays young ape Noa, and Freya Allan, who plays a human named Nova.

Owen Teague arrives a the premiere of Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

The original 1968 film was directed by Franklin J Schaffner and led to many iterations, including the latest three films in 2011, 2014 and 2017 starring British actor Andy Serkis as protagonist Caesar.

It was actually the 1968 film that made me want to be an actor, when I realised that the people behind the rubber masks were actually humans, I was relieved to know that, Durand told the PA news agency on the red carpet.

Not only because then I wasnt so scared anymore, but also because I was like oh wow maybe I could make a living doing this.

And theres my giant head behind us which is absolutely bananas, Durand said, pointing to a statue of his character on the red carpet.

US star William H Macy, who plays a human named Trevathan in the film, was also inspired by the original Oscar-nominated film.

William H Macy arrives a the premiere of Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

I saw the original when I was a kid in a movie theatre and I remember the gasp from the audience when you saw the Statue of Liberty sticking out of the sand  its an iconic image now, the 74-year-old told PA.

So it seemed like a no-brainer for me to do this, and its a great script, its a really well-written script, its such an unusual premise.

And oh those clever people, I think theyve opened the door for many many more films in this franchise, because there is a lot of places it could go now.

Meanwhile Durand described how the cast got into character before filming on location in Australia.

We did ape school for about six weeks and learnt about the differences between humans and for me specifically bonobo (species of ape), we just learnt how to move and the voice was born, he said.

Freya Allan arrives a the premiere of Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

The 50-year-old, who recently starred in the horror film Abigail alongside the late Angus Cloud, added: I remember walking the sidewalk when I first moved here, 173 years ago.

I couldnt get an agent, I couldnt get anybody to answer a phone and to be here and see my big fat head right there is absolutely surreal, its a dream come true.

British actress Allan, who starred in Netflixs The Witcher alongside Henry Cavill, described Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes as the best filming experience she has ever had.

The locations were stunning, the cast were the best Ive ever worked with, Wes  the best director, the 22-year-old told PA.

Before the stars arrived at the premiere, apes riding a trio of horses paraded down the red carpet.

Meanwhile Australian actor Travis Jeffery, who plays an ape named Anaya, said they shot the film and the special effects team worked on it for a year.

It has been a long journey, the 35-year-old told PA.

I hadnt done any motion capture before so were in these grey suits with our helmets with a camera and our facecam and were wandering around.

Its a lot of adjusting to objects in your way, youre not using much, you might be in a blank room with something to jump on, its just really you and the other actors.

The technology has come so far that we were on location a lot, in Australia  we went to the Blue Mountains we kind of had it for real while playing planet chimps.

Its a real mix of imagination and technology and some locations, its a great challenge as an actor, its a lot of fun.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes will be released in UK cinemas on May 9.
Rishi Sunak may yet quell a Tory rebellion amid a consolation win in the Tees Valley and hopes for the West Midlands mayoral contest, despite suffering a drubbing in the first day of local election results.

Lord Ben Houchens re-election on Teesside was a crumb of comfort for the Conservatives as the party lost more than half of its councillors up for re-election across England, just months away from a general election.

Labour hailed a truly historic result in Rishi Sunaks own back yard of York and North Yorkshire, where David Skaith became the regions first elected mayor, defeating Tory Keane Duncan by almost 15,000 votes.

The Opposition also took a Tory scalp in the Blackpool South by-election, the only Westminster ballot of Thursdays polling day.

All eyes will now turn to mayoral contests in London and the West Midlands, the results of which will be declared on Saturday.

Labours Sadiq Khan is now believed to have a closer-than-expected contest with Tory challenger Susan Hall in the capital, while a narrow contest is also likely for West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street.

The results of several council and police and crime commissioner elections will also be announced as the weekend begins.

Sir Keir Starmer was in a buoyant mood following the result in North Yorkshire, a region which covers Mr Sunaks Richmond constituency and where Labour has historically struggled to compete in parliamentary elections.

Speaking at Northallerton Town Football Club, Sir Keir said the result was a historic victory for Labour in the heart of Tory territory.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves celebrate with David Skaith at Northallerton Town Football Club (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Labour also avoided potential embarrassment in the North East mayoral contest, where its candidate Kim McGuinness overcame independent Jamie Driscoll, who had quit Labour after being barred from running as the partys candidate himself.

In the East Midlands, Labours Claire Ward became the regions first elected mayor with a majority of more than 50,000 votes over Tory Ben Bradley who also sits as MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.

Of the 107 councils that held elections on Thursday, 102 had declared their full results as of Friday night.

(PA Graphics)

The Conservatives suffered a net loss of 371 councillors, as the party lost control of 10 councils.

Labour won control of eight councils as it saw a net gain of 204 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained 92 seats and the Greens 58.

In the final result of the night, the Conservatives lost control of Gloucester council.

Election expert Sir John Curtice suggested the final outcome could be the Conservatives worst performance for 40 years.

(PA Graphics)

The Liberal Democrats wrested control of Dorset Council from the Conservatives, where it now has 42 of the 82 seats after gaining 15.

The Greens fell narrowly short of taking overall control of Bristol, one of their top targets, despite gaining 10 seats.

While the Prime Minister acknowledged that results were disappointing, Mr Sunak was keen to stress his partys victory in Tees Valley as a sign that Labour was not on course to win the general election.

Appearing alongside Lord Houchen at a victory rally, Mr Sunak said: Ive got a message for the Labour Party too because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election  they know that.

They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them  but it didnt.

Rishi Sunak said the results had been disappointing but hailed his partys victory in Tees Valley (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Labour sources pointed to Lord Houchens much-reduced majority, saying the swing against him would be enough to give Labour victory in all the parliamentary seats in the Tees Valley, and claimed he had managed to win only by campaigning as a pseudo-independent.

Lord Houchen denied that he had sought to distance himself from Mr Sunak, saying: People around here know Im a Conservative.

Victory in Tees Valley is likely to have quelled efforts to topple Mr Sunak in light of other local election results, and his position will be further secured if the Tories can hold on to the West Midlands mayoralty on Saturday.

Labour, meanwhile, lost control of Oldham Council, failed to win back control of Oxford after nine councillors defected to independent last year, and lost some northern council seats, all apparently over the partys stance on Gaza.

Sir Keir said he was concerned wherever we lose votes, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper conceding there was really strong feeling about this issue.

(PA Graphics)

Other key results include:

 Labour won Rushmoor in Hampshire and Adur in West Sussex for the first time and claimed the council in general election bellwether Redditch.

 Labour also secured control of Milton Keynes Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Council, both covering key Westminster seats the party is looking to take at the general election.

 Labour won Hartlepool Council, regaining ground in an area where the party suffered a Westminster by-election disaster in 2021.

 The Tories clung on by a single seat in Harlow, although the total includes one councillor who was suspended by the party last month.

 The Greens became the largest party on Hastings Council, trebling its seats on the council.

 The Womens Equality Party gained its first councillor, as Stacy Hart won a seat on Basingstoke and Deane Council, while George Galloways Workers Party of Britain gained two seats in Rochdale and one on Manchester City Council.

 Labour have gained nine police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives, including in Cumbria, Avon and Somerset, and Norfolk.

In the Blackpool South by-election, Labour secured a 26.3% swing from the Conservatives as Reform UK recorded its highest vote share in a Westminster contest.

Hailing the victory, Sir Keir said: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

The strong showing by Reform UK will add to Tory unease about Mr Sunaks ability to lead the party to a general election victory, with Reforms leader Richard Tice telling the PA News Agency his party had rapidly become the real opposition to Labour.
Rishi Sunak has suffered a by-election drubbing and faces further pain in council contests across England.

Labours Chris Webb won the Blackpool South parliamentary seat with a swing of 26.33% from the Tories and Sir Keir Starmers party also secured council wins in areas which will be key general election battlegrounds later this year.

The Tories avoided the humiliation of coming third in Blackpool South, but finished just 117 votes ahead of Reform UK.

POLITICS Elections

Out of the 107 councils where votes were held on Thursday, just 35 counted overnight  but the results make grim reading for the Prime Minister.

The Tories lost control of three authorities and 96 councillors lost their seats.

Labour gained three authorities and 58 councillors.

Elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice said the Tories could be on course to lose 500 councillors in one of the worst, if not the worst performances by the party in 40 years.

So far they are basically losing a half of the seats they are trying to defend. If that continues, they may end up losing 500 or so seats, which is the thing they were meant to avoid, he told BBC Radio 4s Today.

Most of the council seats up for re-election in England were last contested in 2021, at the peak of Boris Johnsons popularity as the Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out.

Voters across England and Wales also had the chance to choose their police and crime commissioners.

Key results include:

 Labour won Rushmoor in Hampshire for the first time and claimed the council in general election bellwether Redditch.

 Labour won Hartlepool council, regaining ground in an area where the party suffered a Westminster by-election disaster in 2021.

 Labour won Thurrock, one of its top targets and an area of the country that will be a key battleground with the Tories at the next general election.

 The Tories clung on by a single seat in Harlow, a council targeted by Sir Keir on the eve of polling day.

 Labour lost control in Oldham, with gains made by independents possibly as a result of Sir Keirs stance on the war in Gaza.

 The Greens put on 12 councillors and the Liberal Democrats also gained 12, while there were also increases for independents and residents groups.

 Labour gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Cumbria and Avon and Somerset.

POLITICS Elections

In the Blackpool South contest triggered by the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton following a lobbying scandal, Labour secured 10,825 votes, a majority of 7,607.

Mr Webb said: People no longer trust the Conservatives. Prime Minister: do the decent thing, admit youve failed and call a general election.

The 26.33% swing was the third biggest from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a seismic win, adding: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

Tory deputy chair Angela Richardson told the BBC: The result was not unexpected. I think, given the circumstances that caused the by-election in the first place, it was always going to be difficult for the Conservatives.

Name the date  pic.twitter.com/Kk31bvsvlr  The Labour Party (@UKLabour) March 15, 2024

The strong showing by Reform UK will add to Tory unease about Mr Sunaks ability to lead the party to a general election victory.

Reform UKs leader Richard Tice told the PA news agency his party had rapidly become the real opposition to Labour, whether its in the North, the Midlands, we know its the case in Wales.

In Sunderland, one of the few councils where Reform fought every seat, it beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.

A total of 11 mayoral contests are also taking place, including for the London mayoralty between frontrunners Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Tory challenger Susan Hall.

Conservative mayors Andy Street in the West Midlands and Lord Ben Houchen in Tees Valley are also facing re-election battles.

Victory for either would be a welcome boost for Mr Sunak, although Labour point to the mayors distancing themselves from the current Tory leadership.

The Liberal Democrats said they expected to put further holes in the blue wall of Tory battleground seats in southern England.

The Greens hope to make further progress in key targets including Bristol, Worcester, Stroud and Hastings.

Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: North and south, east and west, Greens are winning the trust of voters fed up with the chaos of the Conservatives and the U-turns of Labour.

The relatively new requirement for voters to show photographic identification caused some high-profile problems, including for Mr Johnson, who as prime minister introduced the changes.

He was turned away while attempting to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire but returned with the proper documentation to vote for the Tory candidate for police and crime commissioner.
Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan will return for a Spain-set special of BBC comedy drama The Split.

The programme about divorce lawyers came to an end with a third series in 2022 with Walker as Hannah Defoe and Mangan as Nathan Stern ending their own marriage.

The two-part special is set two years later with Hannah and her family gathering for a wedding in Catalonias wine region while she considers looking for love again.

Stephen Mangan (Matt Crossick/PA)

Black Sails and Jane Eyre star Toby Stephens will join as hot-shot family lawyer Archie Moore as Annabel Scholey, Fiona Button, Deborah Findlay, Ian McElhinney, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Elizabeth Roberts and Alex Guersman return.

Creator Abi Morgan, who wrote The Iron Lady, said: In a world of brutal break-ups and tantalising make-ups, the Defoe family are invited to a destination wedding of their own, promising all that audiences have grown to love about The Split.

Problematic prenups, scandalous wedding crashers, and low-flying marriage proposals, as rom com meets gone wrong, in a chaotic and riotous weekend that guarantees to crack open the heart, before the last of the guests have gone home.

The show also follows the lives of the other Defoe sisters Nina (Scholey) and Rose (Button) and their mother Ruth (Findlay) and is produced by the production company Sister.

Annabel Scholey, Nicola Walker, Fiona Button (BBC/Sister)

Sister co-founder Jane Featherstone and executive producer Lucy Dyke said: It is a joy to reunite with Abi and our wonderful Split team for this two-parter for the BBC One and iPlayer.

We have missed the Defoe family and their messy, complex lives so we couldnt be more excited to send them to beautiful Barcelona for a glorious, romantic weekend.

In this chapter, Abi explores the often terrifying prospect of facing new romance after divorce and promises a rollercoaster of emotions along the way. And welcoming the brilliant Toby Stephens to our ensemble, as lawyer Archie Moore, its safe to say, sparks are going to fly.

It is set to air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later in the year and has already begun filming in Spain.

A spin-off series The Split Up is set to focus on Manchesters divorce law circuit and be broadcast following the special.
Tories lose almost half of councillors but Tees Valley result gives PM solace

The Prime Minister has looked to the Tees Valley for consolation as his party suffered a drubbing in the local elections.

Lord Ben Houchens re-election on Teesside was one of the few bright spots for the Conservatives as the party lost around 50% of its councillors across England just months away from a general election.

Meanwhile, Labour hailed a truly historic result in Rishi Sunaks own backyard of York and North Yorkshire, where David Skaith defeated Tory Keane Duncan by almost 15,000 votes.

The region, which was electing a mayor for the first time, covers Mr Sunaks Richmond constituency and Labour has historically struggled to compete there in parliamentary elections.

Speaking at Northallerton Town Football Club, Sir Keir Starmer said the result was a historic victory for Labour in the heart of Tory territory.

He said: Weve had a positive campaign here and I am very, very proud to stand here as leader of the Labour Party to celebrate this historic victory.

And it is a historic victory  these are places where we would not have usually had a Labour Party success but weve been able to create that success and persuade people to vote for us.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (centre) and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves celebrate with David Skaith at Northallerton Town Football Club (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Labour also avoided potential embarrassment in the North East mayoral contest, where its candidate Kim McGuinness overcame independent Jamie Driscoll, who had quit Labour after being barred from running as the partys candidate himself.

In the East Midlands, Labours Claire Ward became the regions first elected mayor with a majority of more than 50,000 votes over Tory Ben Bradley who also sits as MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.

Of the 107 councils that held elections on Thursday, 95 have declared their full results, with the Conservatives losing more than half of the seats it has been defending so far.

(PA Graphics)

Some 321 Tory councillors lost their seats as the party lost control of eight councils.

Labour won control of eight councils as it gained 203 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained 52 seats and the Greens 48.

Further results are expected over the weekend, including key mayoral contests in London and the West Midlands.

Labours Sadiq Khan is attempting to secure re-election in London, while Conservative Andy Street is defending his position in the West Midlands.

(PA Graphics)

Most councils are expected to finish declaring their results by the end of Friday, with election expert Sir John Curtice suggesting the final outcome could be the Conservatives worst performance for 40 years.

Other results still to be announced include council elections in the South and West of England where the Liberal Democrats and Greens hope to make progress.

But while he acknowledged that results were disappointing, the Prime Minister was keen to stress his partys victory in Tees Valley as a sign that Labour was not on course to win the general election.

Appearing alongside Lord Houchen at a victory rally, Mr Sunak said: Ive got a message for the Labour Party too because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election  they know that.

They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them  but it didnt.

Rishi Sunak said the results had been disappointing but hailed his partys victory in Tees Valley (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Labour sources pointed to Lord Houchens much-reduced majority, saying the swing against him would be enough to give Labour victory in all the parliamentary seats in the Tees Valley, and claimed he had only managed to win by campaigning as a pseudo-independent.

Lord Houchen denied that he had sought to distance himself from Mr Sunak, saying: People around here know Im a Conservative.

Victory in Tees Valley is likely to have quelled efforts to topple Mr Sunak in light of other local election results, and his position will be further secured if the Tories can hold onto the West Midlands mayoralty.

Labour suffered setbacks in Oldham and Kirklees, where it lost control of the councils after victories for independent candidates opposed to its stance on the conflict in Gaza.

Commentators suggested anger at Labours position on Gaza had cost it votes in other areas of the country such as Rochdale.

Sir Keir conceded he was concerned wherever we lose votes, with the partys national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden admitting the crisis in the Middle East was likely to have been a factor.

(PA Graphics)

Key results include:

 Labour won Rushmoor in Hampshire and Adur in West Sussex for the first time and claimed the council in general election bellwether Redditch.

 Labour also secured control of Milton Keynes Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Council, both covering key Westminster seats the party is looking to take at the general election.

 Labour won Hartlepool council, regaining ground in an area where the party suffered a Westminster by-election disaster in 2021.

 The Tories clung on by a single seat in Harlow, although the total includes one councillor who was suspended by the party last month.

 Labour lost control of Oldham and Kirklees councils, with gains made by independents possibly as a result of Sir Keirs stance on the war in Gaza.

 The Greens became the largest party on Hastings Council, trebling its seats on the council.

 The Womens Equality Party gained its first councillor, Stacy Hart winning a seat on Basingstoke and Deane Council, while George Galloways Workers Party of Britain gained two seats in Rochdale and one on Manchester City Council.

 Labour gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Cumbria, Avon and Somerset, and Norfolk.

Thursday night also brought victory for Labour in the Blackpool South by-election, where the party secured a 26.3% swing from the Conservatives as Reform UK recorded its highest vote share in a Westminster contest.

Hailing the victory, Sir Keir said: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

The strong showing by Reform UK will add to Tory unease about Mr Sunaks ability to lead the party to a general election victory, with Mr Holden saying on Friday that votes for the party will help Labour.

Reform UKs leader Richard Tice told the PA news agency his party had rapidly become the real opposition to Labour, whether its in the North, the Midlands, we know its the case in Wales.

In Sunderland, one of the few councils where Reform fought every seat, it beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.
Brother Anthony undertakes English translation of Park's debut poetry collection

By KTimes

The English version of "Dawn of Labor," the iconic poetry collection by Korean poet Park No-hae, has been published in the United States by the University of Hawaii Press, publisher Slow Walk said.

Originally published in 1984, the collection, written by a 27-year-old anonymous "faceless" factory worker at the time, shook Korean society with its powerful depiction of the working-class struggle. Despite being banned by the authoritarian Chun Doo-hwan regime, the collection sold over a million copies.

The raw and gritty lines, such as "For our hope and unity / We turn and pour / a cold glass of soju over our dawn-worn hearts," captured the rawness of the working-class struggle and became symbolic of labor literature in the 1980s.

The University of Hawaii Press, an Asia-Pacific research publishing house, expressed its desire to publish the poetry collection in English in 2021, according to Slow Walk.

In 2001, during a student protest at Harvard University against low wages for campus workers, the poetry collection was read.

Scott Swaner, Harvard University's first doctor of Korean literature, who translated and shared the collection during the protest, said that among the students participating in the protest, "Longing" was the most popular poem from the collection.

The English translation of "Dawn of Labor" was undertaken by Brother Anthony, a professor emeritus at Sogang University.

A graduate of Oxford University, he settled in Korea in 1994 after meeting the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and has translated literary works by Kim Dong-ri, Seo Jeong-ju and others into English.

In the preface of the English edition, the University of Hawaii Press emphasized that the translation marks a significant moment in world literature and labor movement history.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Update 5/5/24: All lanes reopened Sunday on I-95 in Norwalk, Connecticut



NORWALK, Conn. -- I-95 in Norwalk, Connecticut is closed in both directions and will not reopen for several days after a fuel truck crashed and burst into flames under an overpass Thursday morning.

Officials called it a chain-reaction crash. Just before dawn, a car swerved in front of a truck pulling a flatbed trailer as a fuel tanker approached the Fairfield Avenue overpass just past Exit 15 south.

"To avoid it, this tractor-trailer swerved to the right and he hit the other tractor-trailer, which ripped open the back of his gasoline tanker," said Stephen Shay, with the Norwalk Fire Department.

Work began early Friday morning to demolish the damaged overpass. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said crews will use shears to lift it, which could take at least 24 hours.

Watch video from Chopper 2 over the demolition early Friday morning.

State of emergency in Connecticut

Lamont has declared a state of emergency as drivers struggle to navigate detours, meaning a standstill for traffic and a slowdown for business.

"I worry about supply chain issues ... I think it will definitely impact the local merchants," Lamont said.

Local roads were a chaotic mess as thousands of drivers traveling one of the busiest interstates in the U.S. are being diverted around the accident scene.

Northbound lanes are closed to all traffic at exit 14, and southbound lanes are closed at exit 15. Travelers are advised to use I-84 as an alternate route through the state.

Metro-North has extra crews on call in case additional trains are needed.

Norwalk Public Schools are closed Friday because of potential traffic backups. All practices are canceled through the weekend, but athletic games, drama performances and proms are still allowed to take place.

Connecticut officials are urging employers to let employees work from home if possible.

I-95 overpass must be demolished

A fuel tanker crashed and burst into flames under an overpass on I-95 in Norwalk, Connecticut on May 2, 2024. The highway remained closed a crews evaluated the damage. / Credit: Chopper 2

Flames spread down the highway and roasted the overpass. The fire caused significant damage to the structure and the gas, phone and cable utility lines running underneath it.

"This bridge is less than 10 years old, but the damage was pretty severe due to the amount of gasoline that was in the tanker. It ignited directly underneath the bridge structure. The seal did begin to overheat and warp," a Connecticut Department of Transportation official said at a news conference. "Unfortunately, it's not able to be safely reopened in either direction underneath that bridge."

"The bridge was damaged, the heat from the burning fuel compromised some of the bridge, so that bridge is going to have to come down," Lamont said.

Later, he said on X, "The overpass near Exit 15 on I-95 in Norwalk needs to be demolished and the road needs to be repaved. Expect this area of the highway to remain closed through at least Monday. Avoid driving in the area."

State emergency management director Bill Turner said, "Anyone that drives into that area, in that geographical footprint, will receive a wireless alert on their cell phone advising them to avoid the area."

The closed stretch of I-95 serves 160,000 vehicles per day, according to the governor's office.

Click here to watch Chopper 2 over the scene

"The traffic jams are horrendous"

The charred remnants of two trucks and a passenger vehicle sit on shuttered I-95 in Norwalk, Connecticut after a fiery crash shut down the highway on May 2, 2024. / Credit: CBS New York

"Thank God no serious injuries, but it has resulted in the closing of I-95 North and South and that is incredible in terms of the traffic jams and what's happening there," said Lamont.

Hours after the fire was put out, the charred remnants of two trucks and a passenger vehicle sat on the shuttered highway between Exits 15 and 16.

Northbound lane closures started at Exit 13 in Darien, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

"I know what an incredible inconvenience this is for people and all I can ask you to do is stay away from that area as best you can. The traffic jams are horrendous," said Lamont.

Drivers from Bridgeport to Port Chester, New York received text alerts to avoid I-95 and trucking companies were told to use I-87 and I-84 instead, Lamont said.

"For a lot of truckers, we are on the clock. So we can only work 14 hours and drive 11 hours. So this impact, it slows down the delivery time for our loads," said Avril Jenerette, a trucker.

Drivers should expect delays on the Merritt Parkway, which trucks are not allowed on, while crews work to clear 95.

"Our highways team is working closely with Connecticut's DOT on the tanker fire that has closed I-95 in Norwalk. Please heed local authorities on detours and avoid the area if possible. Thank you to the first responders who are dealing with the fire and keeping other drivers safe," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg posted on social media.

Thousands of gallons of fuel spilled

The aftermath of a tractor-trailer fire on I-95 in Conn. on May 2, 2024. / Credit: CBS2

The truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of fuel and 75% either burned or spilled onto the highway, officials said.

Hazmat crews responded to the spill and had concerns about material getting into the Norwalk River, but testing revealed no impact on air or water quality.

A young boy's generosity, rewarded

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks takes the stand in New York trial

Louisiana boy receives surprising reward after generously giving away his only dollar
While the A380 superjumbo is enjoying a steady resurgence after having been on the brink of retirement during the pandemic, its older sibling  another four-engined aircraft from Airbus  seems dangerously close to being grounded for good.

The A340 was introduced 30 years ago with Lufthansa and Air France, but only 380 have been produced since, the last in 2012. By comparison, Airbus has already made 565 of its successor, the A350, since its introduction in 2015.

Despite the lackluster commercial response, Airbus had high hopes for the A340, which was meant to replace aging Boeing 747s and DC-10s, and was touted as having an unbeatable range.

Just after entering commercial service, in 1993, an A340 set records by flying from the Paris Air Show to Auckland, in New Zealand, and then back after a five-hour layover, totaling over 42 hours in the air. It was the first-ever nonstop flight between Europe and New Zealand and the longest-ever nonstop flight by an airliner.

In its heyday, the plane was used to operate the longest nonstop scheduled flight in the world, and was for a while the aircraft of choice for heads of state around the world due to its range and size.

But its main characteristic  the four engines  soon became a drag as fuel costs started rising and twin-engine jets began offering the same performance with lower operating costs.

By the early 2000s, the A340s main competitor  the twin-engined Boeing 777  was outselling it 10 to one. It had even taken away the longest flight record, with a nonstop journey from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur in 1997.

The A340 disappeared essentially because twinjets could fulfill its mission more efficiently, says Gary Crichlow, an aviation analyst at consulting firm AviationValues.

Theres a reason complex organisms evolved to have no more than two of any large, energy-guzzling organ: because when you cant get away with one, two offers the best bang for the buck. Three or more is overkill.

Two is better than four

The A340 has been the aircraft of choice for some heads of government. - Jens Buttner/picture alliance/dpa/Getty Images

As of February 2024 there were just 64 A340s in service with 17 airlines globally, according to data provided to CNN by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Thats about half as many as were in service before the pandemic, in early 2019. Only Lufthansa is operating more than 10, with many leading airlines having abandoned the type completely, like Air France, Iberia, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, all of which used to operate substantial fleets.

A worrying sign of the A340s imminent demise is that there are currently no airlines operating the A340-500 variant, which Airbus introduced in 2003 as the worlds longest-range commercial airliner.

Between 2004 and 2013, the -500 variant was used by Singapore Airlines to operate the worlds longest flight, from Newark to Singapore. The route was discontinued because Singapore Airlines couldnt generate enough revenue to offset the cost, particularly with fuel, says Crichlow.

One of the main factors driving four-engine jets to extinction is that newer and more reliable twin-engined jets, like the 787 and the A350, have progressively obtained better safety ratings that allowed them to fly for longer in case of loss of power from one of the two engines.

Previously, four-engined jets had an advantage in this area.

Clearly, shutting down one engine on a twinjet is a bigger deal than shutting down one on a quadjet, says Crichlow. But starting in the late 1990s with the introduction of the Boeing 777, up to three hours of single-engine flight time was allowed for eligible operators.

Today, the certification record is for the Airbus A350 with up to 370 minutes, or about 2,500 nautical miles. With the kind of routing flexibility that certification offers, airlines who want to service far-flung city pairs simply dont need four engines anymore.

As a result, only eight A340-500s are left out of the 34 built. Only two of those are still in a passenger layout, with Azerbaijan Airlines, and theyve been parked since November 2022 and March 2023 respectively, Crichlow adds.

Of the remaining six, five are in use by governments and one is outfitted for corporate and VIP flights.

Rare beauty

The A340 won many fans among passengers, with some expressing sadness at its declining fortunes. - Alex Kraus/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Sam Chui, an aviation enthusiast and blogger who has flown on the A340 over 50 times, remembers being on board the Newark to Singapore flight when it was the longest in the world.

That flight lasted around 19 hours on average, Chui says. Initially, Singapore operated it in a traditional two-class configuration, but in the final years it changed things up.

They moved to an all-business class - 100 seats only, on a very large airplane that typically can fit 300 airplane seats. It was a fairly quiet cabin.

Passengers liked the plane, but it wasnt without problems.

On a long flight from Hong Kong to London on the A340-300, they would often leave a lot of baggage behind when the plane was full, Chui adds. The Singapore flight took a long time to take off in the US  three-quarters of the full runway.

Oddly enough for a passenger aircraft, the A340 was believed to be somewhat underpowered and acquired a reputation of being slow.

It was the only plane to be hit by bird strikes from behind, jokes Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at Aerodynamic Advisor.

The original A340 was slow, fuel-thirsty, and, thanks to having four engines, both heavy and costly to maintain. The stretched and re-engined variants werent much better and by the time they were launched, it was very clear that twin-engine jets could do anything quads could do, at lower cost and with less maintenance.

Without any cargo version  which usually prolongs the lifespan of an aircraft, as in the case of the Boeing 747  its likely that the A340 will disappear from the skies entirely within a decade or two.

For now, however, the type still has some life left in it, and is even flying to one of the worlds most challenging destinations, Antarctica: Charter airline HiFly is operating flights to the region with an A340-300, carrying scientists and a small group of tourists.

Many will miss it when its gone.

There are currently just 64 A340s still in service. - Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The A340 is, almost inarguably, the prettiest of all the Airbus jets, and Im sad to see fewer and fewer of them around, says Patrick Smith, an airline pilot flying Boeing aircraft and the author of the popular book and blog Ask the Pilot.

In an age of boring aesthetic sameness among commercial jets, it has always set itself apart, he adds.

My favorite A340 variant is the -600, with the stretched fuselage and the huge Rolls-Royce engines. What a beauty. I once took an extra-early departure out of Bangkok just for the opportunity to fly on the -600.

As its numbers dwindle, the A340 will increasingly turn into a planespotters favorite.

Its an exciting airplane to watch, especially when it takes off at the very last minute, says Chui.

These are now very rare, and that makes them more interesting for aviation enthusiasts. Certainly something different compared to twin-engine aircraft.

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Amgen's (AMGN) positive trial results update on its GLP-1 injectable for obesity, MariTide, sent its stock up more than 13% in trading Friday.

CEO Bob Bradway shared a peek at phase II results of the potential competitor to market leaders Wegovy from Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Zepbound from Eli Lilly (LLY) during Amgen's earnings call late Thursday.

"Following the interim analysis, I would say we're confident in MariTide's differentiated profile, and believe it will address important unmet medical needs," Bradway said.

Bradway and other executives did not expand on what exactly would differentiate it from existing products, however. Final phase II results are expected later in the year and the company has yet to begin the final step toward approval, a phase III trial of the drug.

Still, Novo's stock slid more than 1% and Lilly's fell nearly 3% Friday. But analysts caution more information is needed.

"While the update is encouraging ... we will still need to see full [phase II] data in order to evaluate MariTide's potential role in the rapidly evolving obesity space," said JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott in a note to clients Friday.

Amgen also announced it is scrapping plans for an obesity pill, another area of the market that will be competitive, as Lilly, Novo, and Pfizer (PFE) are all working on options. Meanwhile, the company is starting to look at the same drug to treat diabetes patients, pursuing the market in reverse order from current market leaders.

The competition is heating up in other areas as well.

While obesity and diabetes are the focus for now, there are a number of clinical trials sponsored by the drug manufacturers and other clinical research organizations in the works to focus on different disease states.

An Amgen sign is seen at the company's office in South San Francisco, Calif., in this Oct. 21, 2013, file photo. (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/Files) (REUTERS / Reuters)

Novo Nordisk already successfully expanded use of Wegovy for cardiovascular benefits, opening the door for greater insurance coverage, as well as the lucrative Medicare market. It is also pursuing a trial for kidney treatment. Eli Lilly, meanwhile, is currently testing Zepbound for sleep apnea.

Both market leaders have reiterated there is room for competition and are undeterred as they begin work on the second generation of their blockbuster drugs.

Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jrgensen previously told Yahoo Finance, "There is room for competition, there is room for choice."

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks similarly noted that it was really a matter of making the right moves to maintain the market lead.

"Will we be the leader who gave up the lead, or will we exploit the lead?" Ricks said.

Both companies have early-stage next-generation products in the pipeline in addition to the clinical trials for expanded uses of current products.

Lilly recorded a total of $2 billion from its GLP-1 products in 2023, while Novo Nordisk pocketed $18.4 billion in the same period. Both companies have said that demand continues to outstrip supply.

Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. Follow Anjalee on all social media platforms @AnjKhem.

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest health industry news and events impacting stock prices

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called close US ally Japan xenophobic at a Washington, D.C., fundraiser, just weeks after lauding the US-Japan alliance at a state dinner.

The president made the remark at the off-camera event while arguing that Japan, along with India, Russia and China, would perform better economically if the countries embraced immigration more.

You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants. We look to  the reason  look, think about it  why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants, Biden said, according to an official White House transcript released Thursday. An initial report of Bidens comments that was released by pool reporters did not include India in the list of countries he mentioned.

On Thursday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president was attempting to make a larger point when he described Japan and India as xenophobic.

He was saying that when it comes to who we are as a nation, we are a nation of immigrants, that is in our DNA, she told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding later Biden was making a broad comment in his comments about Japan and India.

She described the US-Japan relationship as important and enduring that would continue, despite Bidens comment. As for whether the president would make similar remarks going forward, she said: That is up to the president.

Earlier in the day, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he wasnt aware of any communications between the White House and the governments of Japan or India.

President Biden values the capabilities that they bring across the spectrum on a range of issues, not just security related, Kirby said.

Biden had similarly cast Japan, Russia and China as xenophobic during an interview with a Spanish language radio station in March.

The Japanese, the Chinese, theyre xenophobic, they dont want any  the Russians, they dont want to have people, other than Russians, Chinese, or Japanese, the president said at the time.

The latest critique of Japan comes less than a month after he hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state visit and nearly a year after the president hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his own state visit. Biden has leaned on improving relations with both Japan and India as important counterweights to Chinas growing global influence.

At the state dinner held at the White House in April, Biden said Japan and the US share the same values, the same commitment to democracy and freedom to dignity.

And today without question, our alliance is literally stronger than it has ever been, Biden said during the dinner.

Japan has long experienced a demographic crisis with far-reaching consequences for the countrys workforce and economy. Japan and other East Asian nations have largely shied away from using immigration to bolster their populations.

The presidents comments also come as hes facing political pressure at home over his own immigration policies amid strained resources to deal with an influx of migrants and sharp Republicans criticism.

This story has been updated with a quote from the official White House transcript and additional reporting.

CNNs Jessie Yeung contributed to this report.

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After years of delays and a dizzying array of setbacks during test flights, Boeings Starliner spacecraft is finally set to make its inaugural crewed launch.

The mission is at last closing in on its historic astronaut launch attempt, with NASA officials giving the green light for liftoff at 10:34 p.m. ET Monday. Starliner will carry NASAs Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station, marking what could be a momentous and long-awaited victory for the beleaguered Boeing program.

Design and development is hard  particularly with a human space vehicle, said Mark Nappi, vice president and Starliner program manager at Boeing, during a Thursday news briefing. Theres a number of things that were surprises along the way that we had to overcome.  It certainly made the team very, very strong. Im very proud of how theyve overcome every single issue that weve encountered and gotten us to this point.

If successful, the Starliner will join SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft in making routine trips to the space station, keeping the orbiting outpost fully staffed with astronauts from NASA and its partner space agencies.

Such a scenario  with both Crew Dragon and Starliner flying regularly  is one for which the US space agency has long waited.

This is history in the making, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said of the upcoming Starliner mission during a March 22 news conference. Were now in the golden era of space exploration.

SpaceX and Boeing developed their respective vehicles under NASAs Commercial Crew Program, a partnership with private industry contractors. From the outset, the space agency aimed to have both companies operating at once. The Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft would each serve as a backup to the other, giving astronauts the option to keep flying, even if technical issues or other setbacks grounded one spacecraft.

NASA did not initially envision, however, that SpaceXs Crew Dragon would operate on its own for nearly four years before Boeings Starliner reached its first crewed test flight.

In the earliest days of the program, which awarded SpaceX and Boeing contracts in 2014, NASA had favored Boeing  a close partner dating back to the mid-20th century  over SpaceX, which the federal agency saw as a relatively young and capricious upstart.

Boeing, SpaceX and NASAs vision

As recently as 2016, NASA was planning its schedule with the view that the Starliner would beat the Crew Dragon to the launchpad.

But the race between Boeing and SpaceX took a clear turn by 2020. Missteps riddled a Starliner test flight the prior year, leaving NASA and Boeing officials scrambling to figure out what went wrong. The Starliner did not dock with the space station on that mission due to software problems, including an issue with the spacecrafts internal clock, which was off by 11 hours.

Meanwhile, SpaceX made history in May 2020 with the launch of its Demo-2 test flight, carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on a two-month mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceXs Crew Dragon has been flying routine trips ever since, carrying NASA astronauts and even paying customers and tourists. The spacecraft has now flown 13 crewed missions to orbit.

Boeing, however, has spent several years contending with a string of challenges, including a list of issues that were uncovered in 2022 during the spacecrafts second uncrewed test flight. Boeings commercial airplane division also has faced a series of scandals  including the 737 Max crisis and the recent quality control issues highlighted after a door plug blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January  that have damaged the companys brand.

NASA officials at one point in 2020 even admitted that they had turned more scrutiny toward SpaceX and its unorthodox ways, while issues with Boeings Starliner slipped through the cracks.

Perhaps we didnt have as many people embedded in that process as we should have, Steve Stich, NASAs Commercial Crew Program manager, said at a July 2020 news conference.

When one provider (SpaceX) has a newer approach than another, its often natural for a human being to spend more time on that newer approach, and maybe we didnt quite take the time we needed with (Boeings) more traditional approach.

Starliners setbacks

Boeings space division operates separately from its commercial airline team, and officials at NASA and the US aerospace giant have routinely sought to make that distinction.

NASA officials have also made clear they are working more closely with Boeing than ever, with personnel on the ground at Boeing facilities overseeing some of the fixes the company has put in place ahead of the upcoming Starliner flight.

This is an important capability for NASA. We signed up to go do this, and were gonna go do it and be successful at it, Nappi said Thursday. I dont think of it in terms of whats important for Boeing as much as I think of it as in terms of whats important for this program.

Still, Boeing and NASA have had a long list of issues to address.

During the last flight test in 2022, for example, engineers found that the suspension lines on the Starliners parachute had a lower threshold for failure than initially expected.

NASA and Boeing engineers tested a fix for that issue earlier this year, but parachutes will remain top of mind as they work through some last-minute checkouts before liftoff, Stich said Thursday.

Some tape that was also used to protect wiring harnesses was found to be flammable, and Boeing had to remove and replace about a miles worth of the material, according to Nappi.

Boeing may even need to implement a redesign of some of the spacecrafts valves because of corrosion issues. That upgrade, however, is not expected to be in place until the second crewed flight, slated for 2025, at the earliest.

On Mays inaugural crewed flight, Boeing will instead use a perfectly acceptable mitigation that should prevent the valves from sticking, Nappi said in March.

Starliner and safety

Despite the long path to the launchpad, the two people at the center of the Starliners first crewed mission  Williams and Wilmore, two longtime NASA astronauts  said as they arrived at the launch site that they are as confident as ever.

We want the general public to think its easy, but its not  its way hard, Wilmore said after arriving at Starliners launch site in Florida on Thursday. We wouldnt be here if we werent ready. We are ready. The spacecrafts ready, and the teams are ready.

Wilmore mentioned at a March news conference that he is not expecting the Starliner spacecraft to enter any failure modes.

But if something were to occur  because were all humans, we cant build things perfectly  if something were to occur, we have several downgrade modes, he said during the news conference, referring to modes that give the astronauts the ability to take more manual control over the spacecraft if something doesnt go to plan.

Williams said during a March news event, We wouldnt be sitting here if we didnt feel  and tell our families that we feel  confident in this spacecraft and our capabilities to control it.

She added during the Thursday news briefing in Florida, I have all the confidence in not only our capabilities and the spacecrafts capabilities, but also our mission control team, whos ready for the challenge.

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You can thank Star Wars fans.

Burger King

The most important holiday in the lives of Star Wars fans is coming upMay 4, also known as Star Wars Day. In case you don't know why, the sound of saying "May the Fourth" is pretty close to saying "May the Force," as in "May the Force be with you."

The pop culture holiday has become so famous that a whole business has risen around May 4. In March, Disneywhich now owns the Star Wars franchiseheld an event in New York City called the Imperial March. The event's name refers to the Darth Vader Theme and the commerce march leading to May 4. Many Star Wars games, toys, collectibles, themed partyware, and even foodsuch as TruMoo's Blue Milkare sold leading up to the holiday.

Star Wars lovers can pay a lot of money to celebrate their favorite holiday, but Burger King wants to give those fans something for free this year: a four-piece Chicken Fries.

Burger King

How to Get Free Chicken Fries at BK on Star Wars Day

The four-piece Chicken Fries are free (about a $4 value depending on location) on May the Fourth, starting at 10:30 a.m. with a $1 purchase. It's a perk available to members of Burger King's Royal Perks (even if they're not Star Wars fans) only through the BK app or website. The fine print says that "price and participation may vary," and that fine print doesn't clarify whether the price variation is the $1 purchase or if the fries may not be free but discounted. Royal Perks members must first activate the offer in the "Offers" tab in the app or online before placing their order.

What can you order for $1 to pair with your free Chicken Fries? The closest thing we can find on the menu is the $1.39 value fountain soda, but you'll need something to wash that tasty chicken down with anyway, right?

Read the original article on All Recipes.
Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, in Atlanta, Georgia, on 1 March 2024. Photograph: Alex Slitz/AP

A California man has been charged with sending death threats to Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney who is overseeing the Georgia prosecution against Donald Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Related: Hope Hicks and the Melania defense: Trump trial key takeaways, day 11

The man, Marc Shultz, suggested that Willis will be killed like a dog in one of several comments he posted under two separate YouTube live streams, according to the US attorneys office for the northern district of Georgia.

He was charged with transmitting interstate threats to injure Willis because of her prosecution of the former president, prosecutors said.

The precise circumstances surrounding Shultzs threats were not immediately clear on Friday. But the canine remark, which came as Trump ramped up his attacks on prosecutors, closely echoed language Trump has used in the past to describe a killing.

He died like a dog, Trump said in televised remarks from the White House when describing the death of former Islamic State terrorist group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi following a US special forces operation in Syria.

The threats to Willis increased dramatically after the Fulton county district attorneys office last year charged Trump and 18 co-defendants with conspiring to violate state racketeering laws as part of efforts to reverse the former presidents 2020 election defeat.

No trial date has been set for the Fulton county case, which has been in limbo for weeks after becoming sidetracked by Trump and his co-defendants, who unsuccessfully attempted to have Willis removed from the case after she had a romantic relationship with her deputy, Nathan Wade. Wade has since resigned from the case.

Trump has a long history of attacking prosecutors as well as judges and potential trial witnesses involved in the numerous criminal cases against him as part of a pugnacious campaign to publicly denigrate his legal woes as politically motivated.

Around the time that Shultz targeted Willis, Trump had for weeks complained that Willis, the first Black woman to hold her position, was racist and out to get Trump, in various posts on his Truth Social platform.

The continued attacks on trial participants reached a head in the federal criminal prosecution over his efforts to stop the transfer of power after the 2020 election, when the judge overseeing that case implemented a gag order limiting his abuse.

The presiding US district judge in that case, Tanya Chutkan in Washington, restricted Trump from assailing trial participants if his social media posts harm the integrity of the case, weeks after the judge herself received death threats from a Trump supporter.

While Trump has never been accused of directly inciting harm against prosecutors, his supporters have often engaged in violence or violent rhetoric after officials in the criminal justice system have taken actions against him.

Last summer, after FBI agents swarmed his Mar-a-Lago club to execute a search warrant to retrieve classified documents, an armed Ohio man enraged by the search tried to break into the bureaus field office near Cincinnati. The man was later killed in a shootout with police.
Protesters outside the consulate general of India during a protest against the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 24 June 2023. Photograph: Ethan Cairns/AP

Canadian police have charged three members of an alleged hit team for their role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the first arrests in a high-profile killing that officials believe was masterminded by India.

The arrests come nearly a year after the prominent activist was killed in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh gurdwara on the evening of 18 June in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. In what investigators previously described as a carefully orchestrated operation, two assailants fired about 50 bullets at Nijjar and escaped the area in a grey car.

According to court documents, Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karan Brar, 22, have been charged with first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in Nijjars death. The three men arrested on Friday were living in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, and will be transported on Monday to British Columbia to face charges. The indictments allege the conspiracy was planned in both Surrey and Edmonton between 1 May and 18 June.

Brian Edwards, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assistant commissioner, called the killing outrageous and reprehensible, adding that the investigators worked closely with members of the Sikh community.

It had a profound impact on the residents of Surrey and, notwithstanding today the announcing of charges, those scars will remain in our community for a long time, he said.

In September, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, told parliament his government had credible allegations that India was behind the killing, calling the death of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.

India has denied direct involvement in the killing of Nijjar and suggested rogue operatives were behind a separate attempted assassination of a prominent Sikh figure in the United States.

The fallout from Nijjars murder has chilled relations between Canada and India  and exposed what officials say is a transnational campaign of violence by India, meant to target dissidents abroad.

On Friday, the Indian high commissioner, Sanjay Kumar Verma, declined to comment on the arrests, calling them an internal matter for Canada.

Canadas public safety minister said the arrests confirmed that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously.

While todays action by Canadian authorities, which led to the arrest of those directly involved in the killing, is a step forward, it only scratches the surface, Gurpatwant Pannun, himself the target of a failed assassination attempt, said in a statement.

He also called on Canadian police to pursue the intelligence agents and diplomats allegedly involved in the killing in order to dismantle the networks that enable and perpetuate such crimes against Canadians on Canadian soil.

The men arrested on Friday are Indian citizens who entered Canada on student visas three to five years ago. None has permanent residency, said Supt Mandeep Mooker. More arrests in connection with the murder are possible, he said, adding that police were working with other units in active investigations across the country.

Six men and two vehicles were involved in Nijjars murder, according to previous statements from police.

We remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals, said Mooker.

The CBC reported police were investigating three other murders in Canada, including the sick and twisted killing of an 11-year-old boy in the city of Edmonton.

The World Sikh Organization said in a statement the charges raised disturbing questions about the nexus between the government of India and criminal gangs.

Assistant commissioner David Teboul, commander of the Federal Policing Program in the Pacific region, told reporters that the shooting of Nijjar was very much under active investigation  and these efforts include investigating connections to the government of India. He said it had been challenging and difficult working with Indian officials in Canada and counterpart agencies in India.
The Italian company that helped rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Genoa in 2018 says it is ready to do the same in Baltimore.

WeBuild Group said in a press release Friday that it had sent a preliminary design and plans to US officials for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which fell apart in late March after a cargo ship hit one of its pillars. Six construction workers died in the accident.

The company, which has a subsidiary in the United States, said its proposed design would produce a safer bridge by widening the channels through which ships can pass, among other measures.

The design will help prevent the risk of a tragedy such as the one of March 26 happening again, Carlo Ratti, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped develop the proposal, said in the press release.

Genoa's San Giorgio highway bridge seen in July 2022. The bridge replaced the Morandi bridge, which collapsed in August 2018. - Mauro Ujetto/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Morandi bridge in Italys port city of Genoa collapsed in August 2018 after heavy rainfall, killing 43 people.

When one of its main pylons fell mid-morning, it brought a section of road spanning 600 feet (183 meters) crashing down onto a railway and buildings below, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of people.

WeBuild Group was among the companies that built the Genoa San Giorgio bridge in just 15 months to replace the Morandi bridge. The project, completed in 2020, cost a total of 290 million ($312 million), including the cost of demolishing the remains of the collapsed bridge.

The Maryland Transportation Authority expects to put out formal invites for proposals to rebuild the bridge by the end of May.

The MDTA is responsible for financing revenue-generating transportation projects in the state, according to its Facebook page.

A costly rebuild

Baltimores bridge, also known as the Key Bridge, was a vital artery for traffic heading into the Port of Baltimore, a major hub for imports and exports of commodities, vehicles and other goods. As many as 35,000 cars and trucks used it daily.

Its collapse in March temporarily closed much of the ports operations, though four temporary channels have since reopened, allowing some ship traffic to resume.

In the wake of the disaster, President Joe Biden pledged the full support of the federal government in the recovery efforts.

Ive directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible, Biden said, vowing that the federal government will pay the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge.

The MDTA estimates that rebuilding the Key Bridge will cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion and expects the reconstruction to be completed by the fall of 2028, the Maryland Department of Transportation confirmed to CNN Friday.

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WASHINGTON  The Justice Department on Friday released an indictment against longtime Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife, Imelda, charging the pair with bribery and money laundering related to their ties with a bank in Mexico and an oil and gas company controlled by Azerbaijan.

NBC News was first to report that the charges were coming. The congressman and his wife were each released on a $100,000 bond after a first appearance in federal court in Houston, a DOJ spokesperson said Friday afternoon.

According to the indictment, from 2014 to 2021, the Cuellars allegedly accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from the two foreign entities in exchange for the congressman performing official acts.

The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts, the DOJ said in a statement.

In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan," DOJ continued. "In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.

The congressman and his wife are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal; two counts of bribery of a federal official; two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering; and five counts of money laundering.

If convicted, they could spend years or even decades in prison.

In a statement Friday before the charges were unsealed, Cuellar denied any wrongdoing, saying that he had proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, which had issued more than one written opinion about the matter. Much of his statement focused on his wife.

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas, Cuellar said in his statement, later adding: The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

Imelda and I have been married for 32 years. On top of being an amazing wife and mother, shes an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees. She spent her career working with banking, tax, and consulting, he continued. The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard working is both wrong and offensive.

A defiant Cuellar also made clear he will still seek re-election: Let me be clear, Im running for re-election and will win this November.

A statement from the congressman's defense attorneys was similar to Cuellar's but also noted prosecutors indicted him just six months before Election Day.

"The governments decision to move forward with charges so close to the general election  and their decision to execute a search warrant 40 days before his [2022] primary  undermines the electorate and puts a thumb on the scale," said attorneys Chris Flood and Eric Reed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other top Democratic leaders had endorsed Cuellar's re-election bid last summer. In a statement, Jeffries spokesperson Christie Stephenson called Cuellar a "valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus," noting that Cuellar is "entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process."

In the meantime, Cuellar will step aside from his position as the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security, Stephenson said.

Cuellars home and campaign office in Laredo, Texas, were raided in January 2022 as part of a federal investigation into Azerbaijan and a group of U.S. businessmen who have ties to the country, law enforcement said at the time. His office had pledged to cooperate with the investigation. In April, Cuellar's lawyer, Joshua Berman, told some news outlets that federal authorities informed him he was not the target of the investigation.

Cuellar is a one-time co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. According to the indictment, in exchange for the bribes, Cuellar promised to influence legislation related to Azerbaijan's conflict with neighboring Armenia; insert pro-Azerbaijan language into legislation and committee reports on security and economic aid programs; deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the House floor; and "consult" with Azerbaijan officials about their efforts to lobby the U.S. government.

Ahead of the indictment's release, Cuellars staff were calling other member offices Friday seeking advice on how to handle the situation, one source with knowledge of those calls told NBC News.

A year after the raid on his home  which has not previously yielded arrests or charges  Cuellar told the Texas Tribune: There has been no wrongdoing on my part. ... My focus remains the same from my very first day in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.

Despite the raid, Cuellar narrowly defeated a progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, in his 2022 primary and went on to win re-election to his seat that November. He didn't face a primary challenger this year and will be on the ballot this November seeking his 11th term in Congress.

Two years ago, Cuellar easily defeated Republican nominee Cassy Garcia, 57% to 43%. His district became bluer when he picked up parts of San Antonio following redistricting. But the indictment will make Cuellar more vulnerable than in the past; in 2020, Joe Biden won Cuellar's district over Donald Trump by 7 percentage points.

Two Republicans will face each other in a runoff election in late May for a chance to take on Cuellar in the fall.

Henry Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first," said Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "If his colleagues truly believe in putting people over politics, they will call on him to resign. If not  they are hypocrites whose statements about public service arent worth the paper theyre written on.

Cuellar, 66, a lawyer, is a former customs broker and Texas secretary of state. A member of the centrist Blue Dogs and New Democrat Coalition, Cuellar was elected to the House in 2004.

He's the only Democrat left in Congress who opposes abortion rights  a position that has infuriated many in his party.

The Cuellars are the second congressional couple to be charged in a foreign bribery scheme in the past year. In September, DOJ charged then-Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife after they allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, including gold bars, in return for official acts aimed at enriching three New Jersey businessmen and benefitting the Egyptian government. Both Cuellar and Menendez are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Menendez, who stepped aside from leading Foreign Relations, has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled to begin later this month.

A third lawmaker, New York Republican George Santos, was expelled from the House in December after a scathing ethics report and 23-count federal indictment charging him with crimes such as wire fraud and money laundering. Santos also has pleaded not guilty.

CORRECTION (May 3, 2024, 4:59 p.m. ET): Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misattributed a statement. It was from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries spokesperson, Christie Stephenson, not Jeffries himself.
A North Korean economic delegation has returned home from Iran, Pyongyang's state media said Friday, ending a rare trip that raised suspicions of possible weapons cooperation between the two nations.

The delegation, headed by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong-ho, arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday after visiting Iran, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a one-sentence dispatch.

The latest dispatch marked the first state media report on the visit since an April 24 dispatch announcing the delegation's departure.

It is rare for a ranking North Korean official to visit Iran. The last such visit took place in 2019 when Pak Chol-min, then North Korean vice chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, visited Iran to discuss cooperation.

Having established diplomatic ties in 1973, Pyongyang and Tehran are known to have close ties while under international sanctions for their weapons programs. The countries have been suspected of exchanging ballistic missile parts and technology, especially during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The recent trip raised speculation that along with economic cooperation, North Korea may seek to deepen military ties with Iran amid Russia's war with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Tehran are known to be key providers of weapons to Moscow to support the war.

The Iranian foreign ministry has dismissed such speculation as "biased," saying the North Korean delegation attended a trade show and held talks with officials from the government and the private sector. (Yonhap)
A home exploded in central New Jersey on Thursday, killing one person and seriously injuring another.

The explosion in South River happened shortly after 7 p.m. and damaged nearby homes, authorities told MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Kevin Gilbert, 62, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement from Middlesex County prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and South River Police Chief Mark Tinitigan.

The injured person was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the newspaper reported.

What caused the house to explode?

The cause of the explosion is under investigation, according to South River Mayor Peter Guindi.

"It was a horrific scene," Guindi said. "Houses and cars around had windows blown out. Garage doors were pushed in. We didn't know if there was anybody in the house. All the houses were evacuated as soon as we got here."

Photos from the scene show that the house was decimated in the explosion and debris is strewn all around the suburban cul-de-sac.

Fire officials said that neighbors were evacuated safely.

Authorities at the scene of a house explosion on Continental Court in South River Thursday night.

It is the second explosion in Middlesex County in as many days.

A 73-year-old South River woman was killed and four others injured in an explosion at a commercial building in Old Bridge on Wednesday. Preliminary information indicates that the explosion is not suspicious in nature and foul play is not suspected. The cause remains under investigation.

This is a developing story

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Jersey home leveled by explosion, killing 1 and injuring another
The U.S. Department of Justice will sue Iowa to block a new immigration law criminalizing "illegal reentry" if it remains in effect, a top DOJ official wrote to Gov. Kim Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird Thursday.

In a letter obtained by the Des Moines Register, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote that the department "intends to bring a lawsuit to enforce the supremacy of federal law and to enjoin" the new immigration law passed as Senate File 2340.

"SF 2340 is preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution," Boynton wrote.

He gave the state a deadline of May 7 to suspend enforcement of the law before the DOJ takes action.

Latinx Immigrants of Iowa hold a demonstration in opposition to the state's new "illegal reentry" law Wednesday, May 1, 2024, outside the Iowa State Capitol. This demonstration was one of four similar held across the state.

The law, signed in April after passing the Republican-led Legislature, allows Iowa officers to arrest undocumented immigrants who have previously been deported or barred from entering the country. If convicted, a judge could order that they deported back to their home country.

Boynton wrote that the law "effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme," which "intrudes into a field that is occupied by the federal government and is preempted."

The law also violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, he wrote, and conflicts "with various provisions of federal law permitting noncitizens to seek protection from removal to avoid persecution or torture."

More: Trump's promises to 'drill, baby, drill' and kick out migrants are at odds. Here's why.

Reynolds retorted that Iowa needed the law because of the Biden administration's poor record on immigration.

"The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden administration refuses to enforce the laws already on the books," Reynolds said in a statement provided to the Register. "I have a duty to protect the citizens of Iowa. Unlike the federal government, we will respect the rule of law and enforce it."

The attorney general said in a statement that "Iowa will not back down."

"Not only has Biden refused to enforce federal immigration laws and secure our border, he is now threatening to block states like Iowa from enforcing our own laws," Bird said. "Our message to Biden is this: Iowa will not back down and stand by as our states safety hangs in the balance. If Biden refuses to stop the border invasion and keep our communities safe, Iowa will do the job for him."

In an aerial view, U.S. soldiers and law enforcement officers stand over a small group of immigrants who had crossed the Rio Grande into the United States on March 18, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Iowa's law mimics a Texas measure that has been blocked by the courts while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is decided. The DOJ, which sued to block the law, argues it usurps federal authority to enforce immigration laws. Boynton wrote that Iowa's measure was "similar" to Texas' Senate Bill 4.

In most cases under the Iowa law, "illegal reentry" is classified as an aggravated misdemeanor, which carries a two-year prison sentence.

But in some circumstances, it can be elevated to a class D felony (up to five years in prison) or a class C felony (up to 10 years) if the person has been previously arrested for another crime.

Reynolds and those backing the law have called it a response to the Biden administration's immigration policies, arguing that it allows Iowa law enforcement to "enforce immigration laws already on the books."

Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert said in March his department is "not equipped, funded or staffed" to take on immigration enforcement responsibilities.

"Simply stated, not only do we not have the resources to assume this additional task, we don't even have the ability to perform this function," Wingert said.

Galen Bacharier covers the Statehouse & politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: DOJ threatens to sue Iowa GOP over new immigration law
Kendrick Lamars public diss to Drake led to more dollars for a Toronto-based restaurant.

The King Kunta rapper released Euphoria, a track about Drake, on April 30. In the song that otherwise criticized Drake for being inauthentic, Lamar said he eats at Chinese food restaurant New Ho King in Toronto, which is Drakes hometown.

Talk about me and my family crodie / Somebody gone bleed in your family crodie / I be at New Ho King eating fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie, Lamar rapped. Crodie is slang for bro or friend and commonly used in south Ontario, Canada, according to Urban Dictionary.

New Ho King owner, Johnny Lu, said in a local interview with City News on May 1 that business has boomed since the song released.

This morning, a lot of people texted me, Oh look at that, thats your restaurant? I said, Yes, and I said, Look at that, look at the song.

He said good food and ... fried rice. Get more, more, more rice. The chef gonna be busy, Lu added.

The restaurants Yelp page has been flooded with five star reviews that thank Kendrick for putting them on to a great dining option.

I call these guys and say Hi can I get the kendrick lamar special and the guy on the phone says Thats it? one reviewer wrote.

Kendrick recommended .. did not disappoint ...mans knows good food excellent service, another said.

King Kenny brought up yo place in a Drake diss congratulations, you now have the best restaurant in the country Ill have to come try it sometime, jus need the money to fly to Toronto. If Kendrick said its good then its good , a third person added.

Lu said he now wants to learn the lyrics to Euphoria, and he complimented Kendrick: Kendricks a good guy.

New Ho Kings booming business is just about the only good fallout from the record, but one Drake fan said on X the lyric is still a diss  the Canadian rapper was robbed at gunpoint in 2009 at a Toronto restaurant, according to the New York Times, and the X user explains how they believe dip and blammy could be references to the robbery.

Drake and Kendrick have maintained a growing feud for at least a decade, exchanging jabs about each others likeness, music and authenticity. Kendricks Euphoria is in response to Drakes April 19 Push Ups. Kendrick released a second diss track, 6:16 in LA, on Instagram May 3.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Fierceness is the overwhelming favorite ahead of Saturday's Kentucky Derby. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) (Michael Reaves via Getty Images)

Fierceness enters the Kentucky Derby as a huge favorite win the 150th running of the race. If he wins, Fierceness would be the first favorite to win the Kentucky Derby since 2018. Earlier in the week, Fierceness opened with 3-1 Morning Line odds.

The Todd Pletcher-trained horse has finished first and third in his two starts this season and won two of three starts in 2023. Fierceness won the Florida Derby in March by 13.5 lengths after pulling away down the stretch. Fierceness led wire-to-wire and had a 1.5-length lead at the three-quarter pole.

Sierra Leone opened with the second best odds and has won both of his starts this year and has three firsts and a second in four career starts. Sierra Leone is starting from the No. 2 post position while Fierceness launches from the 17th spot.

2024 Kentucky Derby Odds

Last updated 6:53 p.m. ET
The late Kirstie Alley's possessions are available to the public.

An estate sale of the "Cheers" actress organized by Those Two Girls Estate Sales is underway in Clearwater, Florida.

The cash-only event is spanning over two weeks, from Wednesday to Saturday and again next week from Thursday to Saturday.

Items from her homes in Maine, California and Florida range from $25 to $18,000 for a ballgown the actress wore in a Jenny Craig commercial, according to Tampa Bay Times. There's even a dress she wore while competing on "Dancing With the Stars" in 2011.

The estate sale's co-owner Bill Wallace told the Tampa Bay Times piecing Alley's collection together was "exciting" and "arduous" because she had a wide range of items including "15 vintage doors."

Kirstie Alley's items are available in an estate sale.

"It wasnt because she was a hoarder or a collector. She had actually purchased the house that she was retiring to, and she wanted it to be authentic," he said of the doors. "Theres French chateau, theres American mid with the vinyl and the chrome and glass table. When you look at the pictures of how she had her house set up, it all worked.

In addition to doors and dresses, Wallace toured with Fox 13, and revealed some of Alley's scripts with annotated notes are among the sale items. However, there are none from "Cheers" or "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

"We're not here for the movie memorabilia," Wallace said, adding that is something her family may choose to do in the future.

'Cheers' cast reunites, reveals what was in Norm's beer mug, unexpected Kirstie Alley gift

Alley, best known for her breakout role as Rebecca Howe on the hit NBC sitcom "Cheers," died from colon cancer in December 2022 at age 71.

Her children, True and Lillie Parker, shared the news in a statement posted to their late mother's Instagram. A representative for Alley later confirmed she died of colon cancer to USA TODAY.

"We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered," read the statement. Alley had not previously disclosed her cancer diagnosis.

"She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead," her children said. "As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother."

Alley's career took off after starring in "Cheers" from 1987 to 1993 as the love interest of Ted Danson's character Sam Malone. In 1991, she won an Emmy for best lead actress in a comedy series for her role on the show.

Over the years, she amassed roles in "David's Mother," "Veronica's Closet," "Look Who's Talking," "Fat Actress" and "Scream Queens." She also documented her weight loss journey in the reality TV series "Kirstie Alley's Big Life" after years of public fascination with her body.

Contributing: Charles Trepany, Pamila Avila

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kirstie Alley's estate sale is underway in Florida: What to know
Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on campus protests for Friday, May 3. For the latest news, view our live updates file for Saturday, May 4.

NEW YORK - Arrests piled up at several colleges, 14 Princeton University students launched a hunger strike, and police raided an NYU encampment Friday in the latest battles on college campuses that have pitted university officials against their own students over the war in Gaza.

The protests calling for a cease-fire and for universities to divest from Israel and Israeli companies have spread from coast to coast since police arrested over 100 students at an encampment outside Columbia University's main library on April 18. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested during protests on college campuses.

The hunger strike at Princeton comes a week after students launched a Gaza Solidary Encampment and after 15 protesters were arrested  two while setting up tents and 13 who took over Clio Hall on Monday in a sit-in that lasted about 90 minutes before police shut it down. Students said administrators have ignored their repeated requests for meetings and have been accused of "abusive" actions.

"Millions of Gazans continue to suffer due to ongoing siege by the State of Israel. Two million residents now face a man-made famine. Join us as we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people," organizers said in a statement.

Outside New York Universitys John A. Paulson Center, students scrambled Friday morning to fill trash bags with their supplies and bedding after being awoken by an early morning raid. Workers surrounded by NYPD officers cleared the remains of their encampment. The NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition said in a statement that 14 students were arrested during the raid. A spokesperson for the NYPD said officers arrested 13 people at New York University but did not specify what charges they faced.

At The New School, a private research university in New York City, 43 people were taken into custody and at New York University, 13 people were arrested, according to a spokesperson from the NYPD.

Adam Young, a freshman at the New School, got emotional as he recounted waking up surrounded by police officers Friday morning.

Im feeling distraught  as a student representative, I was crying the entire morning. I just stopped like 20 minutes ago, he said. I saw my friends walk out in handcuffs and (with) bruises. Im 18 years old, I should not have to watch my friends do that.

Israel supporters rally near MIT pro-Palestinian encampment

Pro-Israel protesters gathered a short distance from a pro-Palestinian encampment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Friday afternoon.

Massachusetts Avenue, which runs in front of MIT, was closed off, diverting city buses on one of busiest local routes between Boston and Cambridge around the protest. A small number of pro-Palestinian counter-protesters wearing keffiyehs and handing out flyers stood on the other side of the street, outnumbered by a large police presence.

Students remained encamped a short distance away, enclosed in a fence set up overnight by the administration, and now decorated with Israeli and American flags and signs representing Jews against Genocide and others.

 Karen Weintraub

Pro-Palestinian students at Princeton launch hunger strike

Fourteen Princeton University students launched a hunger strike on Friday announcing they wanted to call attention to the suffering of people in Gaza and to demand the university divest from companies tied to Israel's military campaign.

Students said in a video posted to social media they were outraged by Israel's actions to block food, fuel, clean water and electricity into the Gaza Strip, where over 30 people have died from dehydration and malnutrition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The hunger strike, students said, was "in response to the administration's refusal to engage with our demands."

The students said they plan to strike until the administration meets with students to discuss disclosure about their investments, as well as divestment and cultural and academic boycott of Israel. They also called for amnesty from criminal and disciplinary charges for participants of the sit-in, and to reverse campus bans and evictions of students from housing.

 Hannan Adely, Bergen Record

NYPD says sergeant accidentally fired gun during Columbia's Hamilton Hall raid

An NYPD sergeant accidentally discharged his firearm while trying to break into a locked empty office in Columbia University's Hamilton Hall "to make sure there was no one hiding inside" as police cleared out protesters who occupied the building Tuesday night, NYPD Assistant Chief Carlos Valdez said at a news conference on Friday.

Valdez said the weapon accidentally went off when the sergeant transferred it from his right to his left hand as he reached inside a broken window to unlock the office door. The bullet landed on the floor, and no one was injured.

"He was clearing the room," Valdez said. "We have to prepare for anything that may be in that room that could possibly be of harm to the officers or to civilians."

The sergeant, who has served on the force for eight years "with an impeccable record," will receive retraining and reevaluation, Valdez said.

Questioned why NYPD did not release information about the incident at an earlier news conference, Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard said the department doesn't normally release information about accidental discharges. "I think we could have talked about it, but I don't recall it coming up organically," Sheppard said.

"I knew it would come up eventually because it always does, so it was no rush for us to talk about this," he added.

Sheppard said the NYPD also won't release body camera footage of the incident because police protocol does not require it in accidental discharge incidents.

More: President Biden breaks silence on campus unrest: 'Violent protest is not protected'

More than 70 arrested at SUNY Purchase protest encampment

More than 70 students and faculty members at SUNY Purchase were arrested on Thursday night at a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.

Officers detained the protesters when they refused to disperse after quiet hours began at 10 p.m., Betsy Aldredge, assistant director of public relations for the college, wrote in a statement released Friday morning. The protest started around five hours earlier.

"Those who didnt disperse after multiple warnings of consequences were arrested for trespass violations, most without incident," Aldredge said.

Westchester County Police and New York State Police joined campus police to disband the protest, according to Aldredge. Those arrested were taken to local police precincts because campus police had limited capacity to hold them.

Aldredge said student protesters would go through a student code of conduct process. "As the investigation continues, a few individuals may face additional charges," she added.

According to the WESPAC Foundation, a local organization that announced the encampment at the Purchase campus, organizers launched the protest "in response to the college administrations refusal to listen to students concerns about the state schools financial ties to and complicity in the Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide.

SUNY Purchase is located in Harrison, New York, around 30 miles north of downtown New York City.

Police cleared the library at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, of pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday.

New York University protesters arrested in early morning raid

Outside New York Universitys John A. Paulson Center, students scrambled Friday morning to fill trash bags with their supplies and bedding after being awoken by an early morning raid. Workers surrounded by NYPD officers cleared the remains of their encampment.

The NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition said in a statement that 14 students were arrested during the early morning raid. A spokesperson for the NYPD said officers arrested 13 people at NYU on disorderly conduct and trespassing charges. Last week, more than 130 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested on campus at NYU, about half of whom were unaffiliated with the institution, according to a statement from university president Linda Mills.

City police were called to NYU Friday morning after the private university "requested our assistance to disperse the illegal encampment on their property," Kaz Daughtry, NYPD deputy commissioner said on X, formerly Twitter.

The post included a video in which police walked through an outdoor encampment, telling the demonstrators in and outside of their tents, "You have the opportunity to leave," and, "Grab your stuff and go."

Students planned to return to the area later Friday for a rally.

Arrest will not deter us from our steadfast solidarity with our Palestinian siblings, the coalition said in a statement.

NYU faculty picket outside president's office in support of protesters

Outside NYU's Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, dozens of people joined a faculty and staff picket line in support of student protesters hours after police cleared an encampment on the Manhattan campus.

Elisabeth Fay, a clinical associate professor, said picketers chose the location because the building houses President Linda Mills office and they hoped to put pressure on Mills and the administration to communicate with students.

Fay, who has worked at the university for 10 years, said faculty members are angry and troubled at the decision of university leadership to allow the NYPD to arrest students last week and early Friday morning. She said the presence of the NYPD on campus has been distracting and distressing, particularly for marginalized students.

We want cops off our campus now, we want NYU to negotiate with student activists, and were demanding amnesty for all students, faculty and staff who are facing discipline, sanctions or criminal charges related to peaceful protests, Fay said.

NYU protest carries on after encampment cleared

A large group of protestors gathered outside NYUs Paulson Center Friday evening where NYPD cleared an encampment of demonstrators in the same location about 12 hours earlier.

At the center of the protest a leader recounted the events of the morning as the crowd shouted shame. Signs throughout the crowd read Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism and Cops off campus now.

We are the voice of many Jewish communities around the world who stand in opposition to the existence of the Jewish state said Rabbi Joseph Cohen, who stood at the edge of the crowd with several other men dressed in religious garb. Whats happening in Palestine is a catastrophe not only for Palestinians but also for Jews, because our religion is being misused to perpetrate a crime and a genocide on the Palestinian people living in Gaza right now."

 Anna Kaufman

Chaos at The New School as police converge on student protesters

Adam Young said a student yelled for everyone to wake up early Friday as police vehicles unexpectedly surrounded the University Center at The New School. He said officers, some of whom were carrying batons, vastly outnumbered the protesters and quickly surrounded the group.

Police gave protesters a chance to leave before making arrests, but in the chaos, Young said, one person with diabetes had to leave medication behind and another who uses a cane could not get out fast enough. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on these allegations.

This is not okay and it is disgusting, Young said.

NYU students scramble to leave encampment ahead of raid

After spending the night at the encampment, Ryna Workman, a third-year law student at NYU, woke up early to go to the bathroom when security at the Paulson Center told her the building was on lockdown. Seconds later, she said, security pushed aside the barricades at the encampment to make room for the NYPD.

Workman said she rushed to wake up students at the encampment and gather books and electronics before police began making arrests.

I was mostly worried because I didnt know how many people were still asleep and which tents to check, she said. It was very scary.

Workman, who spoke to USA TODAY from 1 Police Plaza, said none of the people taken into custody have been released, as of Friday morning.

UC Riverside admin, students reach deal to take down encampment

The University of California, Riverside administration and student protesters reached an agreement to disassemble a pro-Palestinian encampment on Friday, joining a small group of colleges to announce deals amid the wave of demonstrations across campuses.

UC Riverside students agreed to take down the encampment by midnight Friday in exchange for disclosure and review of the universitys investments, and modification of the approval process for study abroad programs to ensure it aligns with the universitys anti-discriminatory policies. The agreement also said the business school has discontinued its global programs in several countries including Israel.

This agreement does not change the realities of the war in Gaza, or the need to address antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias and discrimination; however, I am grateful that we can have constructive and peaceful conversations on how to address these complex issues, said Chancellor Kim Wilcox.

Northwestern University became the first major university to publicly announce a deal on Monday. Brown University and Rutgers University have also announced agreements with students to end encampments.

Vermont school says U.N. ambassador will no longer be commencement speaker

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield will not be speaking at this year's commencement ceremony, the University of Vermont announced Friday evening, six days after pro-Palestinian student protesters pitched tents on the campus green outside Andrew Harris Commons.

Thomas-Greenfield has vetoed three resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, infuriating pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Her removal as commencement speaker is the second of five demands to which the university has agreed.

"After their years of hard work and commitment to success, they deserve a weekend of ceremony and celebration befitting their accomplishment," said UVM President Suresh Garimella. "It is with regret that I share that our planned speaker, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will not be joining us to deliver the Commencement address."

UVM's first concession was agreeing to disclose all financial investments in the university's $800 million endowment by the end of the week but has yet to do so. The protesters' other three demands include cutting ties with weapon manufacturers, Israeli companies and all companies "involved in the occupation of historic Palestine," agreeing to an academic boycott of Israeli institutions, and providing amnesty to all protesters. UVM protesters say that until the administration meets all their demands, the encampment will continue.

 Megan Stewart, Burlington Free Press

Tensions rising at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  Campus police at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology erected a green fence around a student encampment overnight and closed most campus buildings to those without IDs on Friday morning in anticipation of a midday rally.

Protesters not affiliated with MIT registered with the city of Cambridge to hold a rally in support of Israeli and Jewish students in front of the school's main entrance on Massachusetts Avenue, across the street from the encampment. Counter-protesters are also expected.

In an early morning letter to the MIT community, university President Sally Kornbluth said the school is "making every appropriate preparation for these rallies, with strong support from local police."

The letter reiterated concerns for the safety of students in the encampment and on campus which she also shared in a video released Saturday. "I ask that members of the community join us in doing everything possible to keep the peace," she said.

 Karen Weintraub

More: Amid arrests and chaos, Columbia's student radio station stayed on air. America listened.

Civil rights investigation opened into Columbia treatment of Palestinian students, lawyers say

The U.S. Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights on Thursday opened an investigation into Columbia University for how it's treated Palestinian students and allies, lawyers said.

The civil rights complaint, filed on April 25 , alleges unequal treatment by Columbia administrators, including President Minouche Shafik. Four students and the student organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, told federal officials they experienced harassment, death threats and doxing on campus since the start of the war, according to the complaint filed by Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization.

For months, Columbia has not only failed to take action to protect Palestinian students and their allies speaking out for Palestinian freedom from racist harassment and discrimination, but actively engaged in differential treatment, Radhika Sainath, a senior staff attorney for Palestine Legal, said in a statement. This investigation could not have come at a better time, as we just saw Columbia escalate its crackdown against Palestinian students and their allies by bringing in the NYPD to brutally arrest student protesters for the second time in less than two weeks.

USA TODAY obtained a copy of the Department of Education letter announcing the investigation. The Department of Education didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. The university said it doesnt comment on pending investigations.

During a news conference Wednesday night, Layla Saliba, a Columbia student in the complaint , described how the university disregarded her and other Palestinian Americans who have lost countless loved ones killed by Israeli forces. Saliba has lost 15 relatives, including a cousin killed last week. Other students have lost even more family members, she told hundreds gathered.

We are all grieving and the university does not care, she said. They want to appease their donors and trustees so bad that they are willing to use systematic violence against us, and they think it's OK. This is not OK.

More than 30 people arrested at Portland State University

More than 30 people were arrested at Portland State University on Thursday after demonstrators twice occupied the school's main library.

Beginning around 6 a.m. on Thursday, officers began working to clear the library where protesters barricaded themselves, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Multiple demonstrators were arrested, including one person accused of blasting an officer with a fire extinguisher. Around 9:30 a.m. police reported that the building was cleared, adding that "a hostile crowd remained on scene."

Portland State University officials "secured the library with plywood and erected a fence" as Portland police officers left the scene. However, a short time later, "trespassers had torn down the fence and broken back into the library," police said. An additional eight people were arrested. Seven officers suffered injuries, the most serious being a knee injury that required ambulance transport to the hospital, police said.

The police have not said how many of those arrested were students, faculty, or staff at the university. In a statement, the Portland Police Bureau said it would soon release the identities of those arrested.

Earlier this week the school asked police to help remove dozens of protesters occupying the building. Last week the university paused seeking or accepting gifts or grants from Boeing pending a review of weapons sales to Israel.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunger strike, raids, arrests across US as campus protests rage: Live
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) poked back at Mick Jagger Thursday night after the Rolling Stones frontman knocked his policies during a performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Thursday.

Were a welcoming crowd, arent we? Jagger said to the crowd, per NBCs local affiliate. I hope Mr. Landry is enjoying the show. Hes real inclusive you know. Hes trying to take us back to the stone age.

Landry supports a restrictive abortion ban and has backed various bills targeting the LGBTQ community. He responded to Jagger in a light-hearted post on social platform X, using the frontmans own lyrics.

You cant always get what you want, Landry said.

The only person who might remember the Stone Age is @MickJagger, Landry posted. Love you buddy, youre always welcome in Louisiana!

Jagger is 80 years old and has been performing with the Rolling Stones for more than 60 years.

Landry, the former Louisiana attorney general, won the states gubernatorial race with former President Trumps backing last October. He is the first Republican in the states top office since 2016.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The president of the progressive civil rights group Color of Change has a message for corporations that are considering participating in this summers Republican National Convention: Dont even think about it.

Rashad Robinson said his group is preparing to launch a campaign against any company that announces a sponsorship of the coronation of Donald Trump as the Republican Partys nominee in Milwaukee in July.

I want to make it clear that this is something we are paying attention to, said Robinson, who ran a similar pressure campaign against corporations in 2016. If we see these companies moving in a different direction, we absolutely wont let it go.

Robinsons threat underscores the danger for the normally risk-averse corporations that may be considering sponsoring this summers political conventions. In this polarized political climate, a company may decide that attaching its brand to either party may not offer enough gain to offset a public backlash.

NBC News interviewed more than 15 major corporate fundraisers and consultants with corporate clients. Many expressed concern over a charged political climate that they worry could backfire on their brand or where an investment would not pay off. Some said they feared being tied to Trump, given the litany of criminal charges against the former president. Others said the environment is too fragile, given the unrest exploding at college campuses across the country.

Out of the more than two dozen company representatives NBC News reached out to, only two  at AT&T and Fiserv Inc.  would confirm they had finalized plans to be involved in both the Republican and Democratic conventions this year.

AT&T said it would provide network connectivity for both events. Fiserv would only say that it plans to sponsor both conventions this year. The company holds the naming rights to Fiserv Forum, the arena where the RNC will be held.

Republican National Convention Walkthrough (Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The 88 counts against former President Donald Trump, what we see today with college protests  all of it has made C-suites very reticent and very deliberate with how they want to engage, if at all, said Greg Goldner, managing partner with Resolute Consulting, who represents numerous corporate clients and has a long history of working with conventions.

Trump and the baggage that comes with backing him was most often cited as a consideration by many of the corporate donors and consultants, indicative of Republicans struggle to reel in some of the major corporate sponsors that have traditionally been willing to back the GOP convention.

Some donors to previous Republican conventions over the last decade have yet to move ahead with any plans to support the GOP event in Milwaukee out of fear of a public outcry for backing Trump, according to four people familiar with the matter.

This reluctance, however, could hurt Democrats too. Major corporations often dont want to seem like theyre taking one side politically, so they either sponsor both conventions, or neither.

Corporations have this both-sides issue they have to put up with if they agree to sponsor a convention, said a lobbyist who represents Fortune 500 companies in the tech, media and airline industries. The person added that half of their clients didnt like being associated with Trump, although they wouldnt name which clients those were.

Democrats seemed none too pleased with the prospect of losing out on corporate sponsors because of Trump.

Organizations have a long-standing history supporting both parties nominating conventions because of the important role they play in our nations democratic process, a source familiar with convention planning said. Withholding support for both conventions because of Donald Trumps extremism only emboldens Donald Trump.

Sponsorship levels for both the Republican and Democratic conventions range from $100,000 to $5 million, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a copy of the DNC funding levels obtained by NBC News.

Other consultants who have heard from Republicans and Democrats running the conventions said they see little business sense in sponsoring or funding the events because companies arent convinced theyll see strong financial returns.

I think the deal is there is less interest in the conventions because they are basically a big TV show. People are sort of like, Do I want to pay extra to be on a TV show? Whats the value of this thing? said a lobbyist who has been pitched to have clients sponsor both conventions.

Conventions could see new sponsors

The Democratic and Republican conventions this summer are the first fully in-person conventions since the 2016 election.

The 2020 fight for the White House featured two virtual conventions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Then-President Trump and candidate Joe Biden accepted their respective nominations away from the convention locations. At that time, many businesses that helped fund conventions didnt participate, with attendance at historic lows.

The events this year are being pitched in private phone calls and meetings with corporate representatives as a chance to support a Republican convention, as well as its affiliated receptions, that will include new sponsors that may not have been featured at past events, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Another source noted that potential sponsors of the Republican convention are being pitched on the chance to promote their brand and meet with influential players, including politicians and media executives.

A lobbyist with clients in the oil and gas sector told NBC News that Trent Morse, the RNCs chief of external affairs, briefed consultants and sister committees in March to inform them that theres been a significant push to get new sponsors. Morse said the Republican convention is on pace to hit its financial goals, which include raising roughly $70 million, according to the source.

A representative for the Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee would not say which companies have agreed to take part in the convention. Instead, they touted their fundraising tally and said theyve recruited new donors.

The reality is we are $20 million ahead on fundraising compared to similar points in 2012 and 2016, because of the substantial support for our host committees efforts, said Alison Prange, the chief operating officer of the host committee. New donors are coming into the fold who did not give in 2016, and were especially proud of the tremendous support weve seen from Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin. We still have a little ways to go, but our fundraising continues to excel.

A spokesman for the host committee referred NBC News to a Wall Street Journal feature on Trumps former chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is the chairman of the host committee group and has taken the lead on fundraising and corporate sponsorships for the event.

A spokeswoman for the separate Republican National Committee did not return a request for comment.

Priebus told The Wall Street Journal that with Trump and Biden in a tight race, the convention has gotten a boost in interest from potential corporate sponsors. He noted, according to the paper, that almost all of the Fortune 500 companies based in Wisconsin have pledged financial support.

Unlike 2016, I think people out there in the business world realize that the likelihood of President Trump being president is pretty high, Priebus said. It is going to be Trump or Biden, and those are the choices that America has, and not being a part of a convention if you have corporate interests, or you have community interests, its not really an option.

Donald Trump at GOP convention. (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images file)

There are eight Wisconsin-based companies listed by Fortune magazine as among the 500 largest U.S. businesses, including Fiserv. The Wall Street Journal reported that Northwestern Mutual, a Wisconsin Fortune 500 company, is participating and financing the event.

The company later told NBC News that it is not donating to the convention itself but rather part of the host committee organization, focused on the local economic impact to Milwaukee.

The host committee is run by Priebus and Ted Kellner, a longtime Republican donor and friend of President Joe Biden.

Three of the seven other Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Wisconsin confirmed to NBC News that theyre supporting the Republican convention this year, but they did not provide many details.

As we did when the Democratic National Convention was in Milwaukee in 2020, the company is providing financial and facilities support  which is necessary for a host city to successfully stage a convention of this magnitude, a spokesman for WEC Energy Group said. The company representative would not say how much financial support its providing the host committee. WEC Energy Group said it would provide in-kind support through the use of our facilities near the convention.

The two other companies, Fiserv and Manpower Group, would not say how much money, if any, theyll give directly to the convention host committee or the Republican National Committee to help fund the convention.

Fiserv has a commitment to corporate non-partisanship, and in 2024 will sponsor both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, said a company spokeswoman, while later adding that the company has a sponsorship deal with the Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee.

A representative for Manpower Group told NBC News the company is supporting the convention through donations to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

We have not directly provided funds to the RNC, but rather MMAC has provided funds on our and others behalf, just like they did for the DNC [Democratic National Convention], a Manpower Group spokeswoman said.

Protests could discourage corporate support

Democrats likewise would not disclose the sponsors the DNC has so far locked down. But two sources on calls involving Democratic convention planning said there has already been talk of a strong labor presence among the donors and that discussions continue with other heavy hitters.

The corporate community, organized labor, and allied groups are invested in the success of this summers Democratic National Convention because a well-executed convention is a win for the city of Chicago, Natalie Edelstein, spokesperson for the Chicago 2024 Host Committee, said in a statement.

Democrats are working to raise the host committee goal of more than $80 million for the convention in Chicago. Longtime Democratic donor and Chicago host committee leader Michael Sacks is behind some of the pitches, according to a lobbyist who has heard from the veteran businessman. Sacks, who is close with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a veteran supporter of former President Barack Obama, is known for his deep connections among donors and businesses.

Democratic convention organizers in April said if corporations had any reluctance to back the RNC, it hasnt hampered Chicagos efforts to lure donors.

This committee has seen a really strong response to all of their efforts when it comes to fundraising, engagement, volunteerism, said Alex Hornbrook, executive director of the Democratic convention. Those efforts, he said, exceeded every mark that we set so far.  We feel very confident in where we are.

Theres also the concern about protests at both of the convention sites, and some companies dont want their brands connected to them.

Neither one of these are Taylor Swift concerts, quipped another lobbyist about what she expects to be a lack of corporate support and attendance at the conventions based on conversations shes had as recently as the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in late April.

The hunt for convention sponsors

Nearly all of the two dozen companies NBC News reached out to have given at least $15,000 in cash or in-kind contributions to conventions since 2012, when Mitt Romney and Obama duked it out for the presidency, according to Federal Election Commission records.

At least half a dozen of those companies  such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Bank of America, AT&T and Anthem (now known as Elevance Health)  are among the top corporate donors that gave at least $500,000 in contributions or in-kind services to both the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2016, according to FEC records.

Some of those same corporations dont have immediate plans to fund or participate in the conventions this year.

Microsoft is assessing a presence at both conventions this summer, a company spokesman said in a one-line statement to NBC News. Facebook and its parent company Meta are not expected to participate through either donations or a sponsorship opportunity at the conventions, according to consultants familiar with the matter. The company declined to provide a comment for this story.

Press representatives from Google and Bank of America declined to comment when reached.

If the tech companies decide to dial back their involvement in this years conventions, it will be a noticeable shift. At past events, swag with branding from companies like Google and Facebook was everywhere. In 2012, Google used shipping containers to build a whole new pop-up facility, where there were areas for people to hang out, livestream and be bombarded with Google services and products.

Microsoft in 2012 contributed over $1.5 million in a mix of in-kind and cash contributions to the Republican convention. But in 2016, it did not provide a cash donation and gave over $1.8 million in in-kind technology services, according to FEC records. Microsofts services during the 2016 conventions featured lounge and reception spaces, the promotion and use of Skype, and providing attendees access to other products.

Google gave $500,000 in 2016 to support the Republican convention, according to campaign finance records.

Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. (Nancy Lane / MediaNews Group via Getty Images file)

Beyond Facebooks over $1 million in support of both events, the company showed off its then-new product, Facebook Live, to livestream the Republican and Democratic conventions.

The deliberations by some tech giants whether to take part in the conventions comes after the relationship between Republican officials and many in the industry has grown more tense.

Trump has taken particular aim at Facebook, calling it the enemy of the people in a March interview on CNBC. Google has been under past scrutiny by Trumps allies in Congress.

JPMorgan Chase and Walmart are two companies that have no plans to fund or sponsor the conventions, according to their respective press teams.

Walmart ended up giving $15,000 to the Republican convention in 2016, a drop from $150,000 four years earlier, according to FEC records. JPMorgan donated $200,000 to the 2012 Republican convention and didnt write a check for the 2016 event.

General Motors could have a presence on the ground at the conventions, including having its vehicles drive featured speakers to the convention centers, according to a person familiar with the matter. But a spokeswoman for General Motors said our plans for support of the conventions have not been finalized at this time.

General Motors backed both the Republican and Democratic conventions in 2016, according to FEC records.

Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, spent millions on the Democratic convention in 2016, when the event was in Philadelphia, where the company has its headquarters. Most of those funds were for in-kind services. Press representatives for Comcast did not return a request for comment.

Trade group sponsorship route

Other corporate advisers said companies have looked for alternative, and less visible, ways to support the conventions amid concerns about safety. Organizers for both the RNC and DNC are contending with the prospect of substantial protests in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

To date, none of our corporate donors to the host committee have withdrawn support from the Democratic National Convention because of concerns related to protesting, a host committee official familiar with fundraising said.

One option thats been pushed is to donate to a desired trade group or a similar 501(c)(6) intending to take part at the meetings this summer. These types of groups act as state and federal lobbying forces for industries that want to influence policy.

Those organizations often do not publicly disclose their donors and would allow companies to have a role at the conventions from a distance.

The oil and gas industry already has at least one such nonprofit planning to attend both events: the American Petroleum Institute, according to the nonprofits spokesman. The trade group receives lobbying funds from oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, according to the company. API spent around $2 million on federal lobbying during the first quarter, according to disclosure reports.

Though API did not say if it was donating to the conventions, the group has given millions of dollars to both the Democratic and Republican conventions since 2012, according to FEC records.

Everyone is just kind of trying to understand how do I get the impact  with minimal risk to our brand  both employees and customers, Resolutes Goldner said. Its an open question.
Concerns are growing for a trio of missing tourists, including a US citizen, as Mexican authorities question three people in connection with their disappearance.

A vehicle, tents, and a cell phone were found during an ongoing search in the area where the men were last seen, according to Mexican authorities.

American Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson were reported missing on April 29, according to the Baja California prosecutors office. The three friends are believed to have been on a surfing and camping trip near the municipality of Ensenada, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Tijuana.

At this moment a team of investigators is in the location where it seems they were seen for the last time, where tents were found along with some evidence that could be related to these three people included in the investigation, Baja Californias chief public prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez told a news conference Thursday.

Three Mexican nationals were being questioned in connection with the case, she said, though it is unclear if they are suspects. Baja California has been plagued by cartel violence in recent years, though it rarely occurs in tourist areas like Ensenada.

In social media posts, the mother of the missing Australians said the three friends have been unreachable since April 27 after they failed to show up at an Airbnb in the nearby coastal resort of Rosarito. She also raised concern about Callums diabetes and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Jake Robinson, 30, is a doctor from Perth, Western Australia, according to CNN affiliate Seven News. - Jake Robinson/Instagram

Australian friends Jake and Callum Robinson have gone missing around Rosarita/Ensenada region of Baja California Norte Saturday morning, Debra Robinson posted on Instagram alongside a photo of her two sons.

They were likely surfing. Callum is diabeticthis is a very dire situation.

The brothers are from Perth, Western Australia, according to CNN affiliate Seven News. Jake, 30, is a doctor, while Callum, 33, lives in San Diego, California and is a member of Australias national lacrosse team, the Seven report said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed concern over the brothers disappearance.

We certainly hope that these brothers are found safely, but there is real concern about the fact that theyve gone missing, he told Seven. Their mother is obviously very distressed about this. And we just hope for a positive outcome.

Mexican authorities are liaising with US and Australian counterparts, the Baja California state attorneys office said.

CNN has reached out to the US consulate in Tijuana for comment.

CNNs Karol Suarez, Fidel Gutierrez and Angus Watson contributed reporting. Additional reporting by Reuters.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
The U.S. Education Department is opening a civil rights investigation into Columbia University after Palestinian students and their allies filed a complaint last month alleging discrimination in violation of federal law.

Palestine Legal, a Chicago-based advocacy group representing four students and the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, received notice Thursday from the agency's Office for Civil Rights that an investigation would commence based on whether the university is adhering to Title VI regulations that prohibit discrimination based on race, color or national origin and retaliated against students based on those factors.

The students initially complained about being targeted by school administrators with "extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment" after speaking out and protesting against Israel's war in Gaza that began in October. The students say they have received death threats, subjected to doxxing or harassed for wearing hijabs or keffiyehs, while "high-ranking administrators," including university President Minouche Shafik, have failed to respond promptly and end intimidation on campus.

"Instead, Columbia has reinforced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment, including by suspending Students for Justice in Palestine  a student organization that advocates for Palestinian human rights  for engaging in speech activity supporting Palestinian rights, and by repeatedly engaging in different treatment of Palestinian students and their allies," Palestine Legal wrote in its complaint to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

The Education Department says schools that intentionally violate Title VI can be forced to create certain policy requirements as a remedy or face penalties that affect federal funding. The department may also help mediate an agreement between parties.

The agency lists two other investigations into Columbia University on its website, including one opened last week, although it's unclear if they are related to the weeks of campus unrest. The Education Department said in response that it does not comment on pending investigations, while Columbia also declined a request for comment.

Palestine Legal's complaint was made before the flurry of events on the schools' upper Manhattan campus, where students were given a Monday afternoon deadline to vacate a sprawling tent encampment or face suspension. The following evening, the school's Hamilton Hall became the scene of a tense showdown when Shafik called the New York City Police Department to remove students who had occupied the administration building 20 hours earlier. Mass arrests were conducted at Hamilton Hall and outside Columbia in street demonstrations.

Shafik said in a statement Wednesday that those students "have many supporters in our community and have a right to express their views and engage in peaceful protest," but their ongoing demonstrations were creating a "disruptive environment for everyone and raising safety risks to an intolerable level."

Separately, a class action lawsuit was filed this week in the Southern District of New York by Jewish students accusing the university of violating safety protocols by allowing "extremist protesters" to intimidate them and "push them off campus" because of safety concerns.

University officials did not comment on the suit, but Shafik also said this week that the school is "committed to making Columbia safe for everyone."

The Jewish students' lawsuit and the Palestinian students' complaint underscore the fraught relations on U.S. college campuses, long upheld as places for debate and demonstrating, as the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas marks almost seven months.

Layla Saliba, a student in Columbia's School of Social Work who is among those named in Palestine Legal's complaint, said the opening of an investigation by the Education Department shows the urgency of the situation.

"It should not be controversial to be against your relatives being bombed," Saliba said. "Yet Columbia has created an environment where just expressing your view as a Palestinian, it feels so unwelcoming."

Maryam Alwan, a comparative literature and society major who is another student named in the complaint against Columbia, said she was suspended following her arrest last month when Columbia called in police to the campus about the encampments. More than 100 people were arrested and issued summonses for trespassing.

"The complaint is not just made on my behalf," Alwan said, "but it's meant to create institutional changes across the board because the level of unaddressed discrimination that has been caused directly by the school that has actually endangered students' lives has been unprecedented."
North Korea appears to have violated trademark rights as it displayed clothing with a famous animated character from Disney-Pixar's 2010 movie "Toy Story 3" at the latest fashion exhibition, photos carried by state media showed Friday.

Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, the main antagonist of the film, also known as Lotso Bear, was found on children's clothes that were presented at the spring clothing exhibition held in Pyongyang on Monday, photos carried by the Korean Central News Agency showed.

There is little possibility that North Korea has formally clinched a deal on design copyrights to produce such clothing, given that the reclusive regime has a track record of violating trademark rights and copyrights.

Balloons pictured with South Korean animated characters from "Super Wings" were spotted in Pyongyang around the birthday of late former leader Kim Jong-il in February, according to footage aired by North Korea's state-run Korean Central Television.

North Korean counterfeit products pirating luxury brands, such as Chanel, Burberry and Dior, were also found to be on display at a department store in Pyongyang, as shown in a video filmed in 2022. (Yonhap)
(Reuters) - Heavy rains battering Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul have killed 37 people, local authorities said on Friday, and the death toll is expected to rise as dozens still have not been accounted for.

More than 70 people were still missing and at least 23,000 had been displaced in the state bordering Uruguay and Argentina, which had nearly half of its 497 cities affected, according to Rio Grande do Sul's civil defense.

In several towns, streets essentially turned into rivers, with roads and bridges destroyed. The storm also triggered landslides and the partial collapse of a dam structure at a small hydroelectric power plant.

A second dam in the city of Bento Goncalves is also at risk of collapsing, authorities said, ordering people who live nearby to evacuate.

The state is at a geographical meeting point between tropical and polar atmospheres, which has created a weather pattern with periods of intense rains and others of drought.

Local scientists believe the pattern has been intensifying due to climate change.

Heavy rains had already hit Rio Grande do Sul last September, as an extratropical cyclone caused floods that killed more than 50 people.

That came after more than two years of a persistent drought due to the La Nina phenomenon, with only scarce showers.

"It's not just another critical situation; it's probably the most critical case the state has ever recorded," Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said in a live broadcast on social media on Thursday.

He added that the death toll will likely climb as authorities have not been able to access certain locations.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traveled to the state on Thursday to visit affected locations and discuss rescue efforts with the governor.

(Reporting by Fernando Cardoso in Sao Paulo and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; writing by Peter Frontini; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)
A steel drum killed a Pennsylvania hospital worker early Friday morning after it rolled away from a nearby construction site and crushed her as she walked by.

Emergency responders and police offers responded just before 11 a.m. Friday to reports of woman a with a head injury near Peterson Events Center, a stadium located on the University of Pittsburghs campus.

The woman had significant, grave injuries to her head, dying a few minutes after medics arrived on scene, the citys public safety department said in news release.

"Obviously there is a construction site here, a large, metal steel drum that escaped from the construction site, rolled down the hill, broke through a section of fencing, and the woman was on the sidewalk, street area when she was struck by the runaway piece of metal," Emily Bourne, a department spokesperson shared with CBS News.

#BREAKING: A hospital employee was killed near the Peterson Event Center in Oakland after a massive steel tube broke free from a nearby construction site, rolled down hill and hit her. The roll came to rest against a truck. Crews on scene investigation. @KDKA #KDKADroneTeam pic.twitter.com/UQCaLMqwAs  Ian Smith (@ismithKDKA) May 3, 2024

The tube ultimately came to rest against a black pickup truck, Ian Smith, KDKA-TV photographer reported.

Witnesses on scene tried to administer CPR before medics arrived, but were ultimately unsuccessful, according to the department.

Heres what we know.

Woman struck and killed was a hospital worker, worked in the area

A steel pipe struck and killed a hospital worker in Oakland, a Pittsburgh neighborhood late Friday morning.

Pittsburgh Public Safety told CBS News that the woman was a member at one of the hospitals in Oakland. The identity of the woman will be released by the county medical examiners office.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, or UPMC said they were saddened by this tragic incident."

"Our immediate concern is the well-being of our employees, patients and visitors. While this was not a UPMC construction site, this tragedy impacts our campuses and we are providing support services to our employees," according to statement obtained by USA TODAY. "Our deepest sympathies are with the victim's family, friends and colleagues."

The woman was a UPMC employee, working in the psychiatric hospital, Allison Hydzik, a UPMC spokesperson said.

The City of Pittsburgh and Occupational Safety and Health Administration will lead the investigation with the full support of the University. We offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victim, Jared Stonesifer, university spokesperson shared with USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pittsburgh hospital worker killed by runaway steel cylinder from site
After a series of busts of poachers fishing for out-of-season striped bass in New York, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation has changed fishing regulations for the species.

Environmental Conservation police officers and investigators are part of the agency's Division of Law Enforcement. Striped bass are considered an "ecologically, recreationally, and economically important species," according to the department's website.

Between April 6 and 10, multiple officers from the department witnessed people on Long Island catching and keeping the fish, according to a news release, even though the season for striped bass did not begin until April 15. In one find, a K-9 officer helped police find over a dozen fish buried in the sand and hidden behind logs and brush piles. In another bust, three men were found to be hiding striped bass inside traffic cones on the Bayville Bridge on Long Island.

A K-9 officer and some of the fish seized by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officers. / Credit: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Seventeen people were ticketed for taking striped bass out-of-season. Six people were also ticketed for failing to carry marine licenses.

Under new regulations established after the April busts, fish caught in the Hudson River and its tributaries north of the George Washington Bridge can only be kept if they are between 23 and 28 inches long. Those seeking to catch striped bass must be signed up for the Recreational Marine Fishing Registry, and only one such fish can be caught per day. In these waters, striped bass can only be fished between April 1 and Nov. 30.

Two of the fish seized by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officers. / Credit: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

The regulations that affect Long Island have not changed. Striped bass found in marine waters can only be kept if they are between 28 and 31 inches long. Those looking to fish must again be signed up for the registry, and they can only catch one striped bass per day. The fish can only be caught between April 15 and Dec. 15.

The size limits exist to protect female fish and ensure that the species can maintain a population, the department says online.

The state also maintains monitoring programs for the species. One program focuses on catching the fish, recording information about them, and tagging them before returning the fish to the river. Another asks fishers catching striped bass to share their fishing habits so that researchers can analyze the data.

The striped bassalso known as rockfishis the official fish of the State of Maryland.

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Elon Musk. Steve Granitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Tesla's board urged shareholders in a video to vote for CEO Elon Musk's $47 billion pay package.

A Delaware court had canceled his 2018 CEO performance award.

The carmaker announced last month it would hold another vote to reinstate the pay package.

Tesla's board made yet another push to get CEO Elon Musk his $47 billion pay package  this time on-camera.

In a video posted on Friday, Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla's board of directors, urged the carmaker's shareholders to reapprove Musk's 2018 CEO performance award after a Delaware judge overturned it in court.

Musk's compensation was worth roughly $56 billion, though it's now worth about $47 billion due to Tesla's falling share price. But Musk's billions in extra pay were thrown out after a Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit arguing the payout was excessive.

The shareholder vote to bring back the pay for Musk, Denholm said, will be "incredibly important for the future of the company."

"We don't believe one judge's opinion should void the will of millions of votes cast by all of the owners of the company," the chairman told investors in the video. "So once again, we're asking you to make your voices heard by voting for the ratification of the 2018 performance award."

The chairman argued in the video that Musk fairly received the award, which shareholders set to incentivize the tech billionaire to hit "ambitious financial and operational targets" since Tesla reached its goals as of 2023.

She noted that the carmaker grew revenues from $11.8 billion to $96.8 billion and turned a $2.2 billion loss into a $15 billion profit under Musk's leadership.

These milestones, she said, increased the value of Tesla from $53.7 billion to more than $790 billion.

"His success is shared by all stockholders," Denholm said regarding Musk, adding that investors saw the value of their shares increase by 1,100%.

Tesla Board Of Directors Chair Robyn Denholm has released a new video talking about the upcoming 2024 shareholder vote in June. We are asking your voices to be heard and to vote for these proposals. pic.twitter.com/AmfRYo28ah  Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 3, 2024

Last month, Tesla filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its plans to hold another shareholder vote on Musk's enormous compensation package, which includes stock options.

Tesla's leadership argued that Musk hasn't been properly paid for the work he did for Tesla over the past six years.

As of May 3rd, Musk is ranked the second richest person in the world with a net worth of $195 billion, according to Forbes' billionaire index.

Tesla's annual 2024 shareholder meeting is set to take place on June 13, 2024, at 3:30 p.m. central time.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider before publication.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Guo Wengui poses at his New York City apartment on November 28, 2017. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

A former aide to Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui has pleaded guilty to fraud.

Yvette Wang admitted to conspiracy weeks before her ex-boss is set to stand trial.

Guo is accused of defrauding online followers out of more than $1 billion.

Yvette Wang, a former aide to indicted Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, pleaded guilty to fraud, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Wang used to work for Guo, a self-exiled rapper, influencer, crypto guru, and real estate mogul who himself is facing 11 counts of fraud and money laundering charges.

William Je, Guo's financier, is facing the same charges  plus an additional count of obstruction of justice, according to the Department of Justice.

Federal prosecutors allege that Guo was the leader of a conspiracy that asked hundreds of thousands of followers to make investments based on false statements. He used the proceeds to buy a New Jersey mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari, two $36,000 mattresses, and other extravagant purchases, prosecutors allege.

US Attorney Damian Williams said Friday that Wang, 45, played "a leadership role" in the scheme, which "collected more than $1 billion from innocent victims located throughout the country and the world."

Wang's guilty pleas  to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering  carry a maximum sentence of 10 years.

She also agreed to pay $1.4 billion in restitution and forfeit the same amount to the US, according to the DOJ.

She will be sentenced on September 10. Wang's lawyers did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Guo, an associate of longtime Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon, is set to stand trial later this month.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Drenching rain swamped southern Texas Friday morning, leading to dangerous flash flooding throughout the region, including in the Houston metro area. The flooding forced people from their homes near the San Jacinto River Thursday night.

Rain gauges in the northern part of the metro area reported between 10 and 12 inches of rain in 24 hours, AccuWeather said.

The heavy rain was part of a sprawling weather system that also brought severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to portions of the state on Thursday.

Injuries reported as tornadoes batter Texas

Multiple tornadoes had battered Texas on Thursday near Abilene, including one in Hawley that damaged several homes. The National Weather Service said two people were injured when their home suffered storm damage in nearby Hodges, Texas, FoxWeather reported.

"We've had multiple confirmed tornadoes this evening," said the National Weather Service office in San Angelo on X Thursday evening. "Please stay weather aware and make sure you have a way to receive warnings!" The weather service also posted a map showing where the tornadoes hit.

The Hawley Independent School District said in a statement on Facebook that the "Hawley community has been hit pretty hard and we have several families that have lost homes." The district said that while the school seems to have been spared major damage, there is "pretty substantial" flooding on the grounds.

The district also said that Friday will be a flex day for students, meaning the school will be open and on regular schedule for students that can attend, however attendance is not mandatory and will not be taken.

Photos of the Hawley, Texas tornado

A tornado spins west of Hawley, Texas as cars pass on U.S. 277 on May 2, 2024. Damage was reported in Hawley, with hail reported up to baseball size.

People watch the progress of the storm along U.S. 277 in Texas between Abilene and Hawley on May 2, 2024.

A tornado spins west of Hawley, Texas as cars pass on U.S. 277 May 2, 2024.

San Jacinto River evacuation order

In the southeast portion of the state, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday issued a disaster declaration and a mandatory evacuation for residents on the East Fork of the San Jacinto River in Houston during a news conference.

Hidalgo said residents must evacuate their homes because of high water risk and that they should leave as soon as possible. Officials said that section of the San Jacinto River is nearing 78 feet above sea level, which is about three feet below Hurricane Harvey water levels.

Texas weather forecast for Friday and the weekend

The National Weather Service office in San Angelo said that severe weather potential continues in the area Friday with a marginal to slight risk of severe storms in the afternoon and evening.

"Large hail, damaging winds and even a tornado will again be possible," the NWS said.

As for Saturday, the weather service said more widespread thunderstorms during the day and night will lead to "a chance for heavy rainfall across portions of West Central Texas, mainly across the Big Country and the Heartland."

The NWS says the rainfall could be heavy enough to cause flash flooding of streets, creeks, streams, and other low-lying areas. Additionally, storms Saturday will pose the "greatest risk for very large hail greater than 2 inches in diameter."

A Flood Watch is in effect in the Houston-Galveston area through Friday, with flooding being especially hazardous at night, the NWS said.

"Scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms continue today, mainly north of I-10 and east of I-45," the NWS said Friday morning. "Heavy rainfall potential exists and could result in flash flooding. A few storms may become strong to severe with hail and strong gusts as the main risks," the NWS said.

Texas severe weather watches and warnings

Here's a look at a map of the watches and warnings across the state.

Texas power outage map

Nearly 30,000 power outages were reported across Texas as of 6:40 a.m. local time Friday, according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker. The number declined later Friday morning.

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Severe weather in Texas: Tornadoes, evacuation order, weekend forecast
Greetings from Hong Kong! Im Clay Chandler, Fortunes executive editor for Asia. Diane has invited me to weigh in weekly from this side of the world. If youve got an idea, insight, story or point of view that merits mulling in this space, shoot me a line!

Americas TikTok takedown is a tangle of contradictions.

At its center stands U.S. President Joe Biden, who last month signed into law a bill giving TikToks Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to either sell the platform to an American owner or face a ban. Biden and a bipartisan chorus in Congress insist TikTok poses a grave threat to national security and affords Chinas Communist rulers a powerful platform for spreading anti-American propaganda.

Yet, as Biden decried TikTok, his campaign ramped up reliance on it to mobilize young voters.

Donald Trumps stance on the ban is no more consistent. As president, Trump denounced TikTok and led two unsuccessful efforts to force its sale. Now Trump says he opposes a ban on the grounds that it will enrich Mark Zuckerberg.

Trump detractors say the real reason for his TikTok flip flop is that he is trying to curry to favor with MAGA mega-donor Jeffery Yass, whose company, Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group, owns 15% of ByteDance. Yasss personal stake in ByteDance is worth about $15 billion, according to Bloomberg, making it the largest asset in his $40.8 billion fortune.

And therein lies another paradox. A main argument of ban backers is that ByteDance cant be trusted because the company is controlled by its Chinese founder, Zhang Yiming, who must bow to the whims of the Chinese state. Yet about 60% of ByteDance is held by institutional investors, mostly big American firms, including General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, KKR, the Carlyle Group, and Coatue Management.

TikToks talking points, too, are convoluted. Singapore-based CEO Shou Zi Chew last month assured U.S. lawmakers that TikTok is an American company, privately owned, independently operated, and unbeholden to Beijing. But even as Chew made his rounds on Capitol Hill, commerce officials in Beijing declared that ByteDance is subject to Chinese law on technology exports and warned that the Chinese government would strongly oppose TikToks forced sale.

Chinese officials have blasted the TikTok ban as a case study in American hypocrisy. Chinas state-controlled media have mocked the U.S. for meddling in the affairs of a privately-owned tech startup as it preaches the virtues of free speech, free enterprise, and respect for intellectual property to its trade partners.

Biden officials say it's the Chinese who are laying it on thick. I find it supremely ironic because government officials [in China] are using the X platform to criticize the United States, U.S. ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns fumed last month. They dont give their own citizens the right to use X, to use Instagram, to use Facebook, to have access to Google.

Nor, he might have added, does China permit citizens to use TikTok.

TikTok will be among the topics we take up at Fortunes Brainstorm AI Summit in Singapore on July 30-31 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Places are limited and the event is by invitation only. You can register and learn more about topics and speakers here.

More news below.

Clay Chandler

clay.chandler@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, dial 988 to reach someone with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They're available 24 hours a day and provide services in multiple languages

A 21-year-old Utah woman is accused of shooting her best friend to death as a part of an alleged "suicide pact," according to multiple reports.

Heavenly Faith Garfield, 21, is in custody at the Utah County jail after being charged on Tuesday with one count of murder and one count of felony discharge of a firearm, inmate records show.

"We're knee-deep in trying to piece together everything we can to make sure what we think we know is accurate," Assistant Chief Bill Robertson with the Saratoga Springs Police Department told USA TODAY. "These cases a lot of times take a lot of twists and turns."

Robertson said some "circumstances" about this case weren't "your normal things," including a delayed report.

It is unclear if Garfield has retained legal counsel.

Pictured are two Utah County Sheriff's vans leaving Fourth District Court on August 24, 2001, in Provo, Utah.

What did Saratoga Springs police officers find in Heavenly Faith Garfield's home?

Police officers arrived at the home in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday after Garfield's father called them around 3:30 p.m. and said his daughter had shot a 21-year-old woman "as a part of a pact" earlier that morning, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by KTVX.

"Officers responded inside the residence where they found a 21-year-old female who was obviously deceased, the affidavit said, according to the Salt Lake City, Utah-based TV station.

Police found a 9mm bullet at the scene that appeared to be fired from a handgun, according to the court document. The gun was found near the deceased woman's body, the document continued.

Heavenly Faith Garfield had 'suicide pact' with deceased woman, reports say

Saratoga Springs police officers interviewed several of Garfield's family members, according to the court filing. Based on the interviews, officers learned the deceased woman "allegedly had a suicide pact with Heavenly Faith Garfield, the affidavit said, according to KTVX.

Detectives with the department also contacted a friend of the deceased woman who showed them text messages from the 21-year-old saying how she wanted to commit suicide but "was too scared to kill herself," FOX 13 reported.

The friend told detectives that the victim had also told him that she intended to commit suicide with her friend, whom he identified as Heavenly Faith, and that one of them would kill the other, and then kill themselves, the court filing said, according to KTVX.

The two women had been planning to commit suicide together "for multiple weeks," the court document said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Saratoga Springs shooting was part of a 'suicide pact' between friends
Demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza have spread across university campuses in the United States and around the world in recent weeks.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at US campuses since April 18, amid polarized debates over the right to protest, the limits of free speech and accusations of antisemitism.

But while clashes and standoffs with police at New Yorks Columbia University, Portland State and UCLA have captured global attention, demonstrations and sit-ins are also being held on campuses in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

And although demands among protesters vary at each university, the majority of demonstrations have called for colleges to divest from companies that support Israel and the war in Gaza.

The current war began on October 7 when Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. Israels military response has since sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has inflamed opinion globally.

Israels seven month bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 34,600 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Half of the 2.2 million people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation and man-made famine is imminent, according to a scale used by United Nations agencies. Concerns are also heightened over an anticipated Israeli military operation in southern Gazas Rafah, prompting renewed calls for a ceasefire.

Heres a look at some of the pro-Palestinian campus protests around the world.

Australia

Over the past few weeks, pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared in at least seven universities across Australia.

The University of Queensland in Brisbane has become a gathering point for rival camps pitched around 100 meters (328 feet) from each other  one populated by supporters of the Students for Palestine UQ, and another smaller cluster of tents with the Israeli flag among others strung between trees.

They were erected in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza and student protesters in the US, but some Jewish groups say theyre causing unnecessary tension on campus and Australias opposition leader has called them racist and antisemitic.

Students for Palestine UQ want the university to disclose all links to Israeli companies and universities and to cut ties with weapons companies.

Since April 23, camps have sprung up at several university campuses across Australia. - Hilary Whiteman/CNN

So far, violent scenes that have erupted at universities across the US have not been repeated in Australia.

At the University of Sydney, about 50 tents line the quadrangle where up to 100 protesters are sleeping each night. On May 3, Jewish groups held a counter protest against what they said is a disturbing trend of antisemitic and anti-Israel activities at the university.

More than 200 people, some wearing Israeli and Australian flags, gathered at the Sydney campus, but there was no direct encounter between them and the pro-Palestinian group, which had urged followers to help them defend their camp.

United Kingdom

Pro-Palestinian protests have been held at universities across the United Kingdom since the early days of Israels war in Gaza, with some setting up encampments in recent days.

At Newcastle University, a small pro-Palestinian encampment has been set up on a lawn in front of the colleges buildings, video and pictures on social media showed.

The X account Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus shared images of their encampment, which shows around a dozen tents on the lawn, some adorned with Palestinian flags.

Tents are set up at an encampment on the grounds of Newcastle University in protest against the war in Gaza, in Newcastle, England, on May 2, 2024. - Owen Humphreys/AP

The group describes itself as a student-led coalition fighting for an end to Newcastle Universitys partnership with defense companies supplying Israel.

Students in the English cities of Leeds, Bristol and Warwick have also set up tents outside their university buildings to protest the war in Gaza, according to PA news agency.

The campus protests in Britain have received criticism from some Jewish student groups amid calls for universities to take their duty of care to Jewish students more seriously.

France

In Paris, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Sciences Po university and the Sorbonne university in late April.

French police cleared protesters from the Sorbonne  one of the countrys most prestigious universities  on April 29, with video geolocated by CNN showing officers dragging two demonstrators out of tents and along the ground.

On Friday, riot police cleared the main hall of Sciences Po, with protesters shouting shame! and free Palestine!, though the removal otherwise appeared to take place calmly.

Dozens of students had begun a sit-in inside the university the previous day, prompting the closure of the campus, a Sciences Po spokesperson said. One protester said a student had begun a hunger strike in protest at the universitys response to students wishing to support Palestine.

CNN video showed students carrying placards calling for an end to genocide in Gaza and the boycott of Israeli universities.

Riot police stand guard on the sidelines of a rally by university students in support of Palestinian people after a makeshift campement in front of the Sorbonne University was dispersed by police in Paris on May 2, 2024. - Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

Sciences Po is one of Frances most highly ranked universities and the alma mater of a slew of presidents including incumbent leader Emmanuel Macron. It has strong ties to Columbia University, where students have been staging widespread pro-Palestinian protests.

We are inspired by Columbia, Harvard, Yale, UNC, Vanderbilt, Louise, a Sciences Po student, told CNN. All these universities that have mobilized, but our solidarity remains with the Palestinian people first and foremost.

Amid the protests, the Ile-de-France region president said the university will no longer receive funding from the Parisian regional authority, until serenity and security are restored to the school.

Samuel Lejoyeaux, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France, called for more dialogue between protesters on both sides of the ideological divide.

In a piece for Le Monde newspaper on Thursday, he said pro-Palestinian protesters needed to do more to clearly denounce anti-Semitism but that sending in police was not the answer.

Ill never be happy to see CRS [riot police] entering a campus, he wrote.More than anything, I believe in dialogue. The great social advances in France have always been the fruit of militancy and debate, he added.

India

Protests have been held at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, in solidarity with students protesting at Columbia.

The protests coincided with an expected visit to the campus by US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, which was postponed.

JNUs premises shall not provide a platform for administrations and personnel representing nations complicit in terrorism and genocide committed by Israel, said a statement from JNUs student union on April 29. The union has also expressed solidarity with protesters at Columbia.

JNU, one of Indias top universities, has been at the forefront of several protest movements, including 2019 demonstrations against a controversial law that critics say discriminates against Muslims.

Two student political parties at Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi also expressed solidarity with pro-Palestinian protesters.

We also denounce the stance taken by our BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-led government in supporting Israel, which deviates from Indias historical position, said a statement from the Communist Party-affiliated Students Federation of India.

Canada

Protests against Israels war in Gaza have swept campuses across Canada.

At McGill University in downtown Montreal, pro-Palestinian student protesters have set up an encampment on the front lawn.

Like their counterparts in the US, students are demanding the college divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Mounted police officers walk past as pro-Palestinian activists at an encampment set up on McGill University's campus in Montreal, on May 2, 2024. - Christinne Muschi/AP

The university has attempted to disperse the protesters, saying it had requested police assistance after dialogue with student representatives failed to reach a resolution.

On May 2, a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected an injunction request that would have forced the pro-Palestinian protesters to leave their encampment.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have also set up encampments at the University of Torontos downtown campus and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, among others, according to public broadcaster CBC News.

Lebanon

Hundreds of students gathered at campuses in Lebanon in late April, waving Palestinian flags and demanding their universities boycott companies that do business in Israel, Reuters reported.

In the capital, images showed students at the American University of Beirut protesting the war in Gaza outside the gates.

Students at the American University of Beirut and members of the public protest the war in Gaza outside the University gates in solidarity with students across the world, on April 30, in Beirut, Lebanon. - Oliver Marsden/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

Some protesters said they were inspired by protests on US campuses.

We want to show to show the whole world that we have not forgotten the Palestinian cause and that the young generation  which is aware and cultured  is still with the Palestinian cause, Ali al-Muslem, 19, told Reuters.

Israels military and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have routinely exchanged fire since October 7. 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.

CNNs Esha Mitra, Hilary Whiteman, Angus Watson, Joseph Ataman, Julen Chavin, Melissa Bell Mark Esplin, Niamh Kennedy, Paula Newton and Alex Hardie contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON  After days of silence from President Joe Biden about the eruption of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses nationwide, his decision to speak out Thursday was an acknowledgment that it was unavoidable to stay quiet for much longer, according to three people familiar with the decision, while Americans were seeing nonstop images of students clashing with law enforcement.

Biden didnt offer anything new about the White Houses position on the unrest. He forcefully condemned violent behavior while imploring those demonstrating to keep their actions peaceful and lawful.

Weve all seen the images, Biden said, referring to standoffs at UCLA and Columbia University that had escalated in the previous 24 hours after police removed and arrested hundreds of protesters from encampments.

Theres the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos, Biden added. He delivered the remarks just before he left for a day trip to North Carolina, where aides expected he would be peppered with questions on the protests.

On Wednesday night, after a campaign event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, Biden asked his advisers to develop remarks he might deliver should he decide to speak, two sources familiar with the planning said, and he then reworked the draft.

The New York Police Departments decision Tuesday night to clear Hamilton Hall at Columbia University and arrest nearly 100 people was part of the calculation to speak out, as was the violence among different groups of protesters, the person added.

But it wasnt until Thursday morning  just hours after police officers arrested hundreds of protesters while they were clearing the encampment at UCLA  that he decided he wanted to deliver the remarks.

Biden delivered the comments, which lasted about four minutes, after several of his Democratic allies urged him to do so and after former President Donald Trump ramped up his criticism of the Biden administrations handling of the turmoil.

A White House official, referring to the outside pressure, described the decision for Biden to speak Thursday as we answered the mail. Bidens team is focusing heavily on a speech hes set to deliver next week at a Holocaust Memorial Ceremony about antisemitism, the official said.

Biden said Thursday: In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isnt a moment for politics. Its a moment for clarity.

On whether Trumps comments prompted Bidens statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: It has nothing to do with anybody following anyones lead. The president, if anything, has been a leader on this.

For most of the last week, Biden allowed his top aides and surrogates, such as second gentleman Doug Emhoff, to take the lead on messaging about the growing protests. The White House released several statements condemning any violent or antisemitic rhetoric, clearly stating that forcibly taking over any kind of building is wrong.

Bidens remarks Thursday were his first formal statement about the tensions at 40 schools around the country. So far, more than 2,100 arrests have been connected to the protests, according to an NBC News tally.

Some Democrats are looking at what is happening on campuses and noting that the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is mere months away and that it could be a place for some of the energy and anger from the protests to continue to play out this summer.

Asked Thursday whether the demonstrations have forced him to reconsider any U.S. policy in the Middle East, Biden simply said: No.

For months, his national security team has been pursuing a cease-fire deal that would release up to 33 hostages still being held by Hamas in exchange for a six-week pause in the fighting. Negotiations have reached a critical point this week, with the U.S. and Israel waiting to hear back from Hamas about the latest proposal under consideration. A potential benefit of reaching an agreement, according to Biden advisers, could be to quell some of the political blowback that has exploded on college campuses.

Some family members of hostages, however, say they are concerned that the campus protests could hurt the prospect of a deal between Israel and Hamas. Several of them told NBC News that the protests are overshadowing the plight of hostages and their families and that they could affect Hamas decision about whether to agree to the deal under consideration given that the terrorist group thrives off chaos and unrest in the U.S.

It certainly doesnt help, Jonathan Dekel-Chen said of campus protesting. His son, Sagui Dekel-Chen, is one of the Israeli American hostages Hamas still holds after more than 200 days.

We need a deal, said Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great-aunt of 4-year-old released American hostage Abigail Mor Edan.

Even Iran is taking notice. Tehran University professor Foad Izadi said this week: What we are seeing on U.S. college campuses, these are our people.

The National Security Council declined to comment.

Gillian Kaye, Sagui Dekel-Chens stepmom, found herself relating to the Columbia demonstrations in an intensely personal way. She took part in a nearly monthlong occupation of Hamilton Hall to protest apartheid in South Africa in 1985, when she was a student activist at Barnard College.

It was a life-changing experience for me as a young person to understand that through struggle like this you can move mountains and you can move institutions, Kaye said. Columbia would later become the first major American university to fully divest from South Africa, and many other schools followed suit.

Kaye says she understands the motivation of many of the young students who are expressing their opinions in the new movement but has difficulty at times with the way they are communicating their message.

I do wish that there was more study and reflection about what actually is happening here and what is justice for Palestinians and Jews and the work of co-existence and how do we move toward that, she said. At the same time, I understand being caught up in a cause that feels absolutely black and white.
North Korea has approved the entry of more than 80 Chinese students seeking to study in the North in the first such acceptance of overseas students after years of stringent border lockdowns aimed at fending off the pandemic.

Late Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in North Korea released a photo on its website of 41 government scholarship students who arrived in Pyongyang the previous day.

The embassy said the arrival of the students marked the "resumption of study abroad exchange programs between China and North Korea," adding that 45 self-funded Chinese students also entered the North recently.

North Korea began resuming exchanges with China, its longtime ally and largest economic benefactor, in a limited manner after partially opening its border in August last year after more than three years and six months of closure.

The North has also approved the entry of government delegations from China and Russia as well as group tourists from Russia since its partial border reopening. (Yonhap)
Athena Karvellas and Hunter Raymond tied the knot on April 26

Courtesy of Athena Karvellas Athena Karvellas and husband Hunter Raymond

In March 2021, Athena Karvellas sat in her bed on FaceTime with her now-husband Hunter Raymond, whom she had met two months earlier, along with eight of his friends.

A little while into the conversation, the 23-year-old Allendale, New Jersey, native pressed the mute button, turned off her camera and went to the bathroom. When she came back a few minutes later, she was shocked to hear what the guys were talking about.

"There he was, just gushing over how he felt," Karvellas tells PEOPLE exclusively in an interview.

"I was so surprised. I knew how he felt about me because we had been talking for a while, but hearing that he was grateful for me warmed my heart."

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Alexis DeLucia Athena Karvellas showing off her engagement ring.

Karvellas sat for 20 minutes listening to Raymond, 26, speak and took out her camera to record the special moment.

Awwwww! she recalls saying when she finally took herself off mute.

"He fell quiet after that; I think he was embarrassed. But here we are!" Karvellas says, noting how the two officially started dating in July 2021 and got engaged the following year.

"I have no idea what prompted him to start talking about it; I honestly dont remember. But I do know his friends were so supportive, and most of those same friends were in our bridal party. Its just so special to look back on," she adds.

The bride recently re-discovered the video on her phone. Ahead of the couple's wedding day on April 26, she decided to post it on TikTok for her friends to see. To her surprise, it went viral, garnering over 9.4 million views and 5,750 comments.

"It just makes me so happy that Hunter is getting the recognition that he deserves. He is such a wonderful man and deserves all the kind words hes gotten from it," she says.

"We werent even dating yet at that point, so even if we didnt work out, I knew it was something I could look back on to remind myself this is the kind of man that I deserve to be with and to not ever lower my standards!" she continues.

Courtesy of Athena Karvellas Athena Karvellas on Facetime

Looking back at their relationship, Karvellas also says that she knew from the first time they met in person that Raymond was the one.

"I know that sounds cliche, but after spending time with him, I knew there were no upgrades! He was the perfect gentleman, and we instantly clicked," she says of the Medford, Massachusetts, native.

When the couple first met online in February 2021, Karvellas drove her car 13 hours to Tennessee to meet Raymond in person. But halfway through the drive, the engine blew out.

"The tow truck driver had to drive me 35 miles to the nearest car shop. I sat there for 8 hours in the middle of nowhere just for them to tell me my engine blew! A taxi service had to come get me and bring me 2 1/2 hours away, and Hunter came and picked me up at that halfway point to his apartment."

"So it wasnt an easy journey  But so, so worth it," she says.



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Read the original article on People.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, said she believes there is a "full-blown famine" in northern Gaza.

"Whenever you have conflicts like this, and emotions rage high, and things happen in a war, famine happens," McCain said during an interview with Kristen Welker set to air Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"What I can explain to you is  is that there is famine  full-blown famine  in the north, and it's moving its way south," she said.

Watch the full interview Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press.

Since mid-March, the United Nations has said famine is "imminent" in Gaza, but has not yet officially stated that it believes famine has struck the state.

In April, Samantha Power, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development became the first U.S. official to say that it was credible to assess that famine is occurring in portions of Gaza. No other U.S. official has made that assessment.

McCain said that while there has not yet been an official declaration of famine, based on what her organization has seen and experienced on the ground, she believes there is a "full-blown" issue in Gaza.

"Its horror. It's  You know, it's so hard to look at and it's so hard to hear, also," McCain said in her interview.

She went on to say that she is hopeful for a ceasefire in Gaza so that people can begin to be fed "in a much faster fashion." McCain added that the people in Gaza need "water, sanitation, medicine  it's all part of the famine  the famine issue."

Efforts to provide food aid to Gaza have been met both by political resistance and threats of violence on the ground.

In early March, the U.S. began coordinating food drops into Gaza after more than 100 Palestinians were killed trying to access aid in Northern Gaza. Humanitarian aid groups described the aid as a "drop in the bucket."

World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that has distributed over 43 million meals across Gaza, just resumed operations Monday after seven of its aid workers were killed by an Israeli airstrike on April 1.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that "incremental progress" had been made in Gaza, but called on Israel to allow and facilitate humanitarian aid through land routes.

Guterres urged the international community to do everything possible to avert an entirely preventable human-made famine."


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Since its VMware acquisition in November last year, Broadcom has summarised the intense amount of changes that it has enacted since closing the deal, hinting there was more to come.

These changes include the move to subscription licensing and per-core pricing, the reduction in VMwares product portfolio and the creation of the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) division.

We are all anchored by one clear and consistent focus amidst these changes: how do we deliver on our commitment to create more value, better results and faster innovation for our customers, said Sylvain Cazard, president for Asia Pacific at Broadcom. This decisive simplification of our VCF model enables us to do so by being the best platform for deploying a private cloud infrastructure that is ubiquitous, flexible and integrated across cloud endpoints.
German Ambassador to Seoul Georg Schmidt said Friday his country has yet to decide whether to reopen its embassy in North Korea following its withdrawal in early 2020 due to Pyongyang's COVID-19 border shutdown.

In February, a German diplomat in charge of East Asia affairs visited North Korea in the first known case that a Western diplomat has visited Pyongyang since the reclusive nation closed its border due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schmidt said the delegation checked the technical conditions of the Germany embassy building and took a look at diplomats' entry process and living conditions such as medical services to brace for the possible reopening of the diplomatic mission.

"It is up to Berlin's political decision about when to reopen the embassy with what size or whether to reopen it. We've been always trying to communicate with North Korea even at the time of the German embassy closure," he told a group of reporters in Seoul.

Some European countries that established diplomatic relations with North Korea, such as Britain and Sweden, pulled out of Pyongyang in early 2020 due to the North's COVID-19 restrictions.

Since opening the border partially in August last year, North Korea has only permitted a few countries, such as China, Russia and Mongolia, to resume diplomatic activities in Pyongyang. (Yonhap)


New Delhi: Hours before the deadline to file nominations for the Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies, the Congress ended the long suspense surrounding these two high-profile seats, but, with a twist. While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi switched to family bastion Rae Bareli, Gandhi loyalist Kishorilal Sharma has been fielded from Amethi.

Contrary to expectations, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will not be contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress insiders have revealed diverging perspectives on the decision to keep Priyanka Gandhi out of the poll arena. A faction within the party staunchly advocated for maintaining distance from what they termed the dynasty narrative, especially with all three Gandhis potentially occupying parliamentary seats.

The other faction hinted at a strategic move, saying Priyanka Gandhi Vadras electoral victory in Rae Bareli could have positioned her as the torch-bearer of the Congress in the foreseeable future. This theory gained traction in the light of the possibility of Rahul Gandhi losing to BJPs Smriti Irani from Amethi for a second time.

The Gandhis, along with senior party leaders, landed at the Fursatganj airport en route to Rae Bareli. Gandhi filed his nomination for the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat on Friday, surrounded by mother Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and senior party colleagues, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Ashok Gehlot.

In a show of adulation, Congress workers turned up in large numbers. Photographs were posted on social media showing gandhi handing the papers to polling officials and smiling at the camera. There was no uncertainty any more.

Kishori Lal Sharma, who is from Punjabs Ludhiana, has worked for the Gandhis in Amethi and Rae Bareli since the 1980s. He began his work for the Congress in its central Uttar Pradesh stronghold when Rajiv Gandhi won the Amethi bypoll after the death of his brother Sanjay Gandhi.

Sharma said he would have preferred a Gandhi to contest but he could not refuse the partys order when he was asked to fight the election. He said he has always been a worker of the Gandhi family and he would fulfil whatever responsibility has been entrusted to him.

Priyanka Gandhi, in a message, said: Kishori Lal Sharma ji has been associated with our family for years. He has always been dedicated towards serving the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli. His passion for public service is an example in itself. She added in a post in Hindi on X: Today it is a matter of joy that the Congress Party has made him the party candidate from Amethi. Kishori Lal ji's loyalty and dedication towards duty will definitely bring him success in this election. Many best wishes.
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi predicted on Friday that neither would the Trinamul Congress win more than 15 Lok Sabha seats out of the 42 in West Bengal nor would the Congress score a half century in the tally of seats across the country.

Modi said at Tehatta in Krishnanagar of Nadia, Who has the ability to form government of the country? TMC can't even win 15 seats in the entire country. Now you tell me if TMC can form government with just 15 seats! It is also difficult for the Congress this time to make a half century irrespective of their efforts.

He added, Can they form a government when they can't get 50 seats? Once the Sun didn't set for the Left here. Now red flags are not visible. They have been lying crushed. It is only BJP-led NDA which can form government.

Modi, addressing campaign rallies at three different parliamentary constituencies, also took a swipe at Congress scion Rahul Gandhi for shifting to Rae Bareli seat instead of Amethi, where he had lost in 2019. He sarcastically repeated Rahul Gandhis quote: Daro mat, Bhaago mat (Don't panic, Don't run away).

In a veiled jibe at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the PM remarked, "I had stated in Parliament when the polls were two-three months away that their biggest leader would not dare to contest the polls and would run away out of fear. She literally fled to Rajasthan and from there made entry to the Rajya Sabha. That is what happened in fact.

Mocking Gandhi, Modi claimed, "I also said that Shehzade going to lose at Wayanad and because of fear of losing in Wayanad, he will start looking for a third seat the moment voting ends there.

Modi pointed out, Now all of his close aides started talking about his contest from Amethi. But he panicked so much that he ran away from there also and is now looking for road at Rae Bareli. These people keep going around telling public Daro Mat. Today I am also telling them with lot of happiness: Are Daro Mat, Bhaago Mat."

The PM said, The Congress is set to be decimated in lesser number of seats that they got last time as they are contesting in few seats. The country has also understood that these people are not fighting the polls to win. He said that the I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties were in the race to become the main Opposition against the BJP.

Reiterating his tirade against the Trinamul Congress over violence against women in Sandeshkhali, Modi played Hindutva card while speaking at Bardhaman-Durgapur parliamentary constituency. He referred to Bharatpur TMC MLA Humayun Kabir's recent threat to send the bodies of Hindus flowing at Bhagirathi river in Murshidabad and wondered, What kind of political culture is this? The PM alleged that such threats showed that the Hindus have been reduced to second class citizens in Bengal under TMC rule.

On the School Service Commission job scam which led to the termination of 25,753 appointments of state education department staff including teachers by the Calcutta High Court last month, the PM pledged to support the meritorious candidates who were affected by the order.

He informed that he has ordered the state BJP leadership to open a social media window and enlist the names of those candidates who had got the jobs because of their merit and not by paying hefty amount of money to the TMC leaders.
In our alley black dogs were named Moti

Which means pearl and is an ironic way,

Just as on seeing unzipped flies we say

So, whats with your air-conditioned dhoti?

And of course white stray dogs were called Kaloo

The dogs answered to these names as the joke

Eluded them. My neighbour would invoke

Kipling, calling his cocks Ka and Bhaloo!

And thus, we use these pet names for our mirth.

God did the same when he created earth.

From Yardon Ki Yaadein, by Bachchoo

Forgive me, gentle readers, for this naive attempt to address a vital question affecting our dwindling Parsi populace in an open letter to the Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) -- though of course it should be renamed the MumbaiPP (MPP) -- (as should Bollywood, which should now be Mollywood?  Get on with it! --Ed)

Dear MPP Trustees:

I believe you are about to launch an appeal in Indias Supreme Court asking it to overturn a judgment of the Bombay high court, which overturned your ban on two Parsi priests from attending or entering the Parsi Towers of Silence and the Zoroastrian fire temples, which you claim you own. Their transgression in your judgment: They prayed for the dead who were cremated; performed Navjote ceremonies -- initiation into the Zoroastrian faith  of the children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers and performed Zoroastrian rituals for a Parsi marrying a non-Parsi.

The case to lift this ban was brought and won by caring members of the Parsi community imposed by your trustees on dasturs Framroze Mirza and Khushroo Madon in June 2006.

The Bombay high court righteously ruled that you couldnt arrogate powers to yourselves assuming the custodianship of the Zoroastrian religion. Religion and faith reside in the hearts of the multitude for whom devotion to the faith is a matter of conscience, is what the court said.

True enough.

So, lets get some theology and history to prove it. I would first of all advise you to visit a site in Iran called Naqsh-e Rustam. You will find there tombs of the Hakamanyush (Achaemenid in the Anglicised version) emperors Darius and Xerxes who proclaimed themselves the first Royal Zoroastrians. You will also find friezes of the subsequent imperial dynasty of the Sassanian Zoroastrians.

These kings are in buried tombs!! Only the poor Zoroastrians, not owning or affording land, subjected their dead to be eaten by vultures -- the sky burial that you espouse. So yes to tombs, and therefore to other forms of disposal of the Zoroastrian dead -- sky burial is NOT a tenet of the religion.

And then this idea that we Parsis are a race and not the followers of a religion.

Peculiar! Because in your bigoted mind it has taken the form of prosecuting or banning Parsi priests who have initiated into Zoroastrianism, through Navjote ceremonies, the children of Parsi women and non-Parsi men.

While I completely understand that when Zoroastrians fled Iran after the Arab-Muslim invasion and came as refugees to India, there was a self-imposed injunction to preserve the community -- presumably to perpetrate the religion and protect it from mergers, dissipation and disappearance. Fair enough.

But what this preservative policy resulted in was a sort of racism and most devastatingly a rapid, now exponential, decrease in the numbers of pure Parsis, and therefore of the followers of the Zoroastrian faith.

It ought to be obvious that there were no Zoroastrians before Zoroaster preached his monotheistic doctrine. So, the first Zoroastrians were converts?

And so were the populations of Iran and later Assyria, Azerbaijan, etc, who were converted through consent during, and by virtue of, the conquests of the Zoroastrian emperors. Conversion, conversion, conversion.

So why not now?

You MPP trustees must realise that the number of Zoroastrians is in severe decline because of this traditional insistence that Parsis are a race and not a religion. As the Bombay high court has ruled, a religion doesnt have policemen -- its a matter of an individuals faith. Of course, any individual on earth, of whatever race and ancestry, can believe in the Zoroastrian tenets of humata-hukta-huvereshta, and even learn some Zoroastrian prayers. You will, on the present evidence, not consider them Zoroastrians, far less admit them to the Parsi community.

My suggestion, if you insist on racial purity being a criterion for membership of the faith, is that you switch from persecuting Parsi priests to form a militant strategy to reconvert the population of Iran from Islam to Zoroastrianism.

There youll have it: millions of racially pure Zoroastrians if you succeed.

The very modest alternative to combat the endangered species decline in numbers is first, to recognise the children of Parsi mothers, regardless of the religion or ethnicity of the fathers, as Parsis.

The more drastic solution is, as Ive argued in this very column before, to sell the real estate on which the Towers of Silence stand in Mumbai and use the crores thus raised to recruit baby mothers from anywhere in the world and furnish them with flats, a car and an income to interact with Parsi fathers of their choice and make a baby every two years. Sorted!

And please ban Nietzsches THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA from our libraries and temples. It is not an exposition of the prophets doctrine but the atheist existentialist Nietzsches use of the persona of the inventor of God to retract and denounce his existence.

Your humble savant,

Farrukh Dhondy
A year after his first historic visit to Beijing, the cardinal and a group of aides held meetings in local churches in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, two metropolises in southern China on, like Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta. He also encouraged meetings among the laity to feel that we belong to one family.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews)  Exactly one year after his historic visit to Beijing in April 2023 (almost 30 years after the last one), a delegation of the Diocese of Hong Kong led by Card Stephen Chow Sau-yan made a new, important visit to Catholic communities in mainland China.

From 22 to 26 April, the Chinese cardinal  together with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, Vicar General Fr Peter Choy Wai-man, and a small group of priests and lay people involved in pastoral care  travelled to Guangdong province where they held meetings in the dioceses of Guangzhou and Shantou as well as the Church of Shenzhen.

This is a very significant aspect of the task of building bridges, the cardinal laid out in his ministry for the Church of Hong Kong

Guangzhou and Shenzhen are large metropolises in southern China. With Hong Kong, they constitute the huge metropolitan area of the Pearl River Delta, which are increasingly becoming a single community through large-scale infrastructural development undertaken by Beijing.

For Card Chow, this was his first visit to these dioceses and on his return he relayed his impressions to the diocesan weekly Sunday Examiner.

He said, for example, that he was struck by the large number of parishes that a priest has to serve in China, citing as an example two parish priests who serve 31 parishes in Shantou.

He praised the various ministries carried out by the local Church in Guangzhou, a huge area that offers the possibility of cooperation with many groups and organisations in Hong Kong, something that should be explored.

His stay in Guangdong were punctuated by meetings with the local prelates  Bishop Gan Junqiu of Guangzhou, Bishop Su Yongda of Zhanjiang (Beihai), and Bishop Huang Bingzhang of Shantou  as well as celebrations with the faithful and visits to significant places like the Huanghuagang Mausoleum, built in 1912 to commemorate 72 victims of the revolt against the Qing dynasty, which was brutally suppressed.

Above all, the delegation had the opportunity to exchange views with local Catholic communities on various topics, including youth ministry, catechesis, and families.

Other issues were explored, such as the devotion and commitment of the laity, the importance of support for Catholic marriage, and the responsibility of Christians in the care of creation.

Card Chow said he found many similarities between the Church in Guangdong and that of Vietnam, which he visited in early April at the invitation of the Diocese of Xuan Loc, from which hail three missionaries involved in the pastoral ministry in Hong Kong.

According to the prelate, both Churches survived under a communist regime for many years and still operate well, thanks to people who evangelise in a creative way.

The cardinal believes cultivating friendship with respect was the bottom line of the trip, inspired by the work of the Venerable Matteo Ricci who engaged in dialogue while respecting the culture of local people in China.

We must acknowledge and respect the culture and customs of others while still maintaining our faith in God. They are eager to communicate with us but have their own way of doing things, he said.

For the prelate, the laity also have a role to play in building a bridge between the Church in Hong Kong and that in the mainland, guided by the Holy Spirit.

I encourage Hong Kong people to invite the brothers and sisters there to gather in Hong Kong as they travel to mainland China. Lets visit one another and create more chances to meet; this is a sign of a family, the cardinal said.

The Sunday Examiner also notes that some specific collaborations were discussed during the trip; in particular, the possibility of creating a training centre in China together with the local churches. The possibility of activities with young people in Shantou was also raised.

For his part, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Hong Kong, Fr Peter Choi, stressed that the visit was designed to boost ties in the region, linked by shared language (Cantonese) and cultural background, to develop closer relations between the Church in southern China and Hong Kong.

He cited the dynamism of the Church in Shenzhen, a metropolis with many migrant workers from various regions, which knows how to open up to people from different backgrounds to assist them in their spiritual needs.

I think we all have a clear feeling that we belong to one family in Church, and we feel so joyful, the cardinal said summing up the meaning of his trip.
This move follows the imposition of compulsory military service in February on men up to 35 years and women up to 27. In the last three months, 100,000 men have applied for expatriation and many others have fled to Thailand to avoid the draft.

Yangon (AsiaNews)  Myanmars ruling military junta has banned men eligible for the draft from going abroad to work, the Ministry of Labour announced. The measure came into force two days ago.

This step comes after conscription was imposed in February for men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 following mounting losses and defeats by the regular army in the countrys ongoing civil war. Since then, at least 100,000 men applied to leave.

Nyunt Win, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labour, said the measure did not apply to those who had already been granted permission to leave.

Those who already got the approval are exempt from this ban. When we will lift it depends on prevailing circumstances. Thats all I can say for now, he explained.

An unnamed source told Myanmar Now that during a meeting prior to the announcement, the labour minister complained that too many youths were leaving the country to avoid the conscription law,

The United States Institute of Peace estimates that the Myanmar army has just 130,000 soldiers at most, and that only about half are combat-ready.

For experts, conscription is a desperate attempt to boost troop numbers, which have been progressively reduced over more than three years of fighting.

With the onset of civil war in the wake of the February 2021 coup, when the military ousted the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, thousands of Myanmar citizens fled abroad, seeking work primarily in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

Before the introduction of conscription, the military regime, short of cash as well as manpower, had already introduced two economic measures that penalised migrant workers.

In order to send remittances home, they are required to use official channels for at least a quarter of their salary (at an unfavourable rate). Failure to comply with will lead to a three-year travel ban on migrant workers after they return.

What is more, migrant workers have to pay taxes on their foreign income, resulting in double taxation since migrant workers are already required to pay income taxes in their host country.

With the travel ban, everyone has lost their hope for the future," said a man set to leave for Japan speaking to the BBC. There are no job opportunities within the country and now they've also forbidden us from leaving the country. Are we not allowed to do anything?" he added.

In recent weeks, many men of military age have fled to Thailand thanks to the gains of resistance forces, who took control of Myawaddy, a major border trading post, only to lose it after two weeks.

About 15,000 people fled during the fighting, seeking refuge in monasteries and makeshift camps along the Moei River, which separates Myanmar from Thailand.

According to the United Nations, at least 2.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict.
by Fady Noun

There is still deep disagreement between Lebanon and Brussels over the presence of more than two million people in the country without official documents. The country of the cedars demands their repatriation, while Europe only wants to avert migration to its shores, offering money in exchange. On the table is an aid plan for one billion euros over four years.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - The President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, on a visit to Lebanon, announced yesterday the granting to Lebanon of an aid program worth one billion euros to be allocated by 2027. The top European official he communicated this at the end of a meeting with the outgoing Prime Minister Nagib Mikati, the Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and in the presence of several officials from the Land of Cedars. A meeting, institutional sources report, focused largely on the delicate and age-old issue of Syrian migrants.

The aid will mainly serve to support "the economic and social stability" of Lebanon, strengthening "fundamental structures" such as education, social security and healthcare. At the same time, aid will be provided within the framework of the Beirut-EU program for "the security forces and the army", in particular with the sending of equipment and through training, thanks to which it will be possible to "guard the borders".

This opinion is supported by a comment from the Cypriot president, who stated bluntly yesterday that the current situation "can no longer continue, neither for Cyprus nor for the European Union". Christodoulides was alluding to the practice of rejection by the Nicosia coast guard of migrants who left the Lebanese coast.

May 27th in Brussels

It should be remembered here that President von der Leyen's visit precedes the Brussels conference on Syria, scheduled for May 27, an opportunity that Lebanon still without a head of state intends to seize to put pressure on repatriations.

Beirut's objective is to bring back to regions considered safe in Syria all the migrants who are currently in the country of the cedars without official documents, which excludes those who have work permits. At the same time, government leaders intend to be careful not to expel opponents, who risk being arrested by the Damascus intelligence services if they return home.

The European Union, for its part, still shows strong opposition to their return, in this case for reasons of political expediency although, at least officially, it claims to fear massive human rights violations by the regime of President Bashar al- Assad.

However, even for Lebanon this situation can no longer continue underlines MP Ziad Hawat, close to the Lebanese Forces. Citizens are now worried about the demographic growth of the Syrian refugee population, estimated at over two million people, equal to about a third of the total. These fears were rekindled in the aftermath of the murder of senior member of the Lebanese Forces Pascal Sleiman by a gang of Syrian car thieves.

This "crime too many" has led to attacks and beatings against Syrians, municipal restrictions (curfews, bans on gatherings), traffic blocks and the closure by neighborhood officials of shops opened without a license by Syrian immigrants.

Obstacles

In reality, the first obstacle to the repatriation of Syrians is Damascus' effective opposition to the return of migrants to its territory. In order to repatriate them, Bashar al-Assad needs to have an official interlocutor in front of him. In practice, he is trying to normalize relations with Lebanon, a process that deeply divides the inhabitants of the Land of Cedars and is at odds with the American sanctions imposed on Syria.

Furthermore, the Lebanese army, in the midst of the crisis, does not have the means to control the 280 kilometers of border it shares with its neighbor, much less in the current regional crisis situation and with the supporting war in Gaza launched by Hezbollah on 8 last October, without any prior consultation.

Moreover, Damascus subordinates the repatriations - which also concern the neighboring nations of Jordan and Turkey - to the allocation of economic aid for the reconstruction of all those areas destroyed by the war. Nonetheless, the international community categorically rejects this condition until the Syrian regime introduces democratic reforms, which the current Alawite leadership led by Bashar al-Assad refuses to do.

According to Fabrice Ballanche, professor at the University of Lyon II and expert on Syria quoted by his colleague Jeannine Jalkh of L'Orient-Le Jour (LOJ), Bashar al-Assad "does not want the vast majority of Syrian migrants to return, nor from Lebanon nor elsewhere. And he does so for a primary reason which is both political and pertaining to the community sphere: the return of seven million Sunni Arabs - he concludes - would upset the balance between minorities and Sunnis in the area he controls".
South Korea's spy agency said Friday that Pyongyang was plotting "terrorist" attacks targeting Seoul's officials and citizens overseas, with the foreign ministry raising the alert level for diplomatic missions in five countries.

The National Intelligence Service said it had recently "detected numerous signs that North Korea is preparing for terrorist attacks against our embassy staff or citizens in various countries, (such as) China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East".

"North Korea has dispatched agents to these countries to expand surveillance of the South Korean embassies and is also engaging in specific activities such as searching for South Korean citizens as potential terrorist targets," it said in a statement sent to AFP.

The spy agency said it appeared linked to a wave of defections by elite North Koreans who were trapped overseas during the pandemic and are now avoiding returning home after Pyongyang eased strict border controls, having become "sceptical" of the regime.

Pyongyang treats defections as a serious crime and is believed to hand harsh punishments to transgressors, their families, and even people tangentially linked to the incident.

North Korean embassy officials may be submitting false reports blaming "external" factors for voluntary defections by their colleagues, in a bid to evade punishment, the NIS said.

As a result, the North may be "plotting retaliation" against South Korean embassy staff on such pretences, NIS added.

South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday it had raised its anti-terrorism alert status for five of its diplomatic missions -- embassies in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam as well as its consulates in Russian port city Vladivostok and the Chinese city of Shenyang.

Both Seoul and Pyongyang have embassies or consulates in all five locations.

North Korea has diplomatic ties with more than 150 countries, according to Seoul, but the number of missions it maintains overseas has shrunk since the 1990s due to financial constraints.

According to Seoul's unification ministry, 196 North Korean defectors arrived in the South last year, with around 10 of them being from Pyongyang's elite class, such as diplomats and possibly their children.

This marked the highest number of defections by North Korean elites to the South since 2017, according to Seoul.

"The end of the pandemic has enabled North Korean agents, previously confined within their country, to travel abroad for missions, while South Koreans are also travelling abroad without any restrictions," Lee Man-jong, president of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies, told AFP.

"Pyongyang appears to be targeting South Korean assets and nationals located in foreign countries with which they have established strong diplomatic ties."

Experts say the extended overseas stay during the pandemic has led North Korean expatriates to increasingly doubt their country's isolated regime.

"While living abroad, these North Koreans were able to send their children to normal schools, avoiding propaganda education and the constant need to be obedient to the regime," Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.

"If North Korean diplomats and agents stationed abroad are continually and brutally pressured by Pyongyang to address defections by elite expats, we cannot rule out the possibility of the North plotting a terrorist attack...against South Koreans living overseas."

Pyongyang is suspected of being behind the 1996 killing of a South Korean consul in Vladivostok, who was attacked and killed by an unidentified assailant.

The consul, also an intelligence agent, had been monitoring Pyongyang's illicit activities, including drug trafficking and the production of counterfeit banknotes, according to South Korean reports.

And it launched an assassination attempt in Myanmar in 1983 when a bomb exploded in a Yangon mausoleum during a visit by then-South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people, including some government ministers, were killed.

Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un has declared Seoul his country's "principal enemy", jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over "even 0.001 mm" of territorial infringement. (AFP)
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is taking a "positive view" of a proposed truce with Israel after nearly seven months of a war that has caused "unprecedented" destruction in the Gaza Strip.

After months of fruitless negotiations, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh spoke in an upbeat tone on Thursday about the latest proposal for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages seized by the Islamists during the 7 October attack.

The statements fueled hopes for a deal that would give some respite to the people of Gaza, who remain under Israeli bombardment on Friday, according to Palestinian rescuers.

Haniyeh said the group would "soon" send a delegation to Egypt to continue negotiations and that Hamas was studying the proposal in a "positive spirit".

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that it will take decades to rebuild homes destroyed during the war, as "the scale of destruction is enormous and unprecedented" and warned that the international community has not been confronted with a mission of this scale since World War II.

The UNDP predicted that the ravages of the conflict will impact on generations of Palestinians and called urgently for a ceasefire.

"Suffering"

The truce, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, would be the first since late November, when a first agreement saw 105 hostages held in Gaza released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is demanding a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, which Israel rejects.

The truce plan Hamas is discussing includes a 40-day ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israel, according to details released by the UK.

The war erupted on 7 October after Hamas commandos raided southern Israel, killing 1,170 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250, according to an AFP assessment based on Israeli data.

Israeli authorities estimate that, after the November swap, 129 people are still being held in Gaza, but suspect that 35 of the abductees are dead.

Israel announced Friday the death of Dror Or, a 49-year-old hostage, and the kibbutz where he lived demanded that Hamas return his body.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces protests that his far-right government should negotiate the release of the hostages.

Israel's offensive in response to the 7 October attack has so far left 34,596 people dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas government's Health Ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the Middle East this week and visited Israel on Wednesday. During his trip, he urged Hamas to accept the proposal, which he called "extraordinarily generous".

Blinken also reiterated to Israel that the US opposes its plan to launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah, a southern Gaza town where 1.5 million Palestinians survive in dire conditions.

"Hunger"

The humanitarian crisis and rising death toll in Gaza have sparked demonstrations around the world, including a large protest movement on US campuses, which was suppressed by police.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Wednesday that he was breaking off relations with Israel, and Turkey said on Thursday that it would suspend trade.

A key issue is the arrival of more humanitarian aid to Gaza, home to 2.4 million people, who are facing severe shortages because of Israel's siege.

Under pressure from the US, Israel has increased aid inflows in recent days.

The US-based World Central Kitchen resumed operations this week, after the organisation founded by Spanish chef Jose Andres suspended operations following an Israeli bombing that killed seven employees.

"When this kitchen closed, many people were left hungry," said Zakria Yahya Abukuwaik, the administrator of a World Central Kitchen centre in Rafah.
Ghanaian ambassador wants more Korean investments in various sectors

Editors note This article is the third in a series of interviews with African ambassadors to Korea ahead of the Korea-Africa Summit in June.  ED.

By Kim Hyun-bin

Ghana anticipates using the upcoming Korea-Africa Summit as a means to engage meaningfully with Korea to establish processes for mutually beneficial collaboration, according to its envoy to Seoul.

The summit, the first of its kind, is scheduled to take place from June 4 to 5, offering African nations including Ghana a significant opportunity to strengthen ties with Korea. Anticipated discussions during the summit will span multiple sectors, emphasizing economic collaboration and cultural exchange.

"Korea will have a vision of its commitments to the African continent, and Ghana's perspective on this will be articulated and discussed within the summit," Ghanaian Ambassador to Korea Charis Obetsebi-Lamptey Zwennes said during an interview with The Korea Times at the Embassy of Ghana in Seoul, March 26.

"The summit will provide a platform for Ghana to pursue the enhancement of our relations with the Republic of Korea."

Economic cooperation is set to be a focal point of discussions during the summit, with both countries eyeing deeper cross-sector collaboration such as infrastructure, manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, energy, innovation, ICT and technology.

The ambassador emphasized the potential for increased investments and partnerships between Korean and Ghanaian companies, especially in areas where Ghana offers strategic advantages, such as its business-friendly climate quality human resource, abundant natural resources, fertile lands and strategic location for trade and transportation.

The summit offers a chance for Ghana and Korea to delve into fresh avenues for collaboration and tackle common challenges for mutual benefit. With a population of 1.4 billion and a gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion, Africa is a huge market and despite its significant potential its economic ties with Korea are currently limited.

Were hoping that during the summit, there will be high-level talks between the Korean and Ghanaian officials and this will help leverage and discuss the promotion of economic opportunities between the two countries, she said.

And of course, then there's the business forum to be held the next day that would be an opportunity for public and private sector to help facilitate the promotion of trade and investment between Ghana and Korea.

Korea and Ghana established diplomatic relations in 1977 and have been fostering closer bilateral ties ever since.

"We've had several cooperation agreements in various sectors, which have been signed or are ongoing, including projects like the K-rice belt project, in which Ghana is one of the eight African countries involved," the ambassador said.

Last July, Korea's agriculture ministry launched the "K-Ricebelt" program, designed to provide superior rice varieties and share agricultural knowledge with partner countries, bolstering sustainable food security efforts.

Attracting Korean investments

Highlighting the economic potential of both nations, the ambassador pointed out the establishment of Kia's assembly plant in Ghana as an example of a successful public-private sector partnership.

"Both countries possess a tremendous economic potential that could be harnessed for mutual benefits," she said.

She further emphasized the importance of drawing increased Korean investments across various sectors, underscoring Ghana's strategic location, business-friendly environment and membership in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area as favorable conditions for investment. The ambassador also expressed hope for increased engagements in the private sector following the summit.

For now mainly it's been at government-to-government level and private sector engagement has been lacking but that is the gap that we want to now fill, she said.

So now some private companies have started going to Ghana and hopefully after, the business summit, more Korean companies would see the opportunities and find it reasonable and economically beneficial to look at the opportunities that are available in Ghana.

Noting the presence of Korean companies in Ghana, particularly in the fishing industry, she hoped for expanded Korean investments in various sectors.

With Ghana's abundant natural resources and young population, the country offers attractive opportunities for Korean investors. Sectors such as manufacturing, infrastructure, mining, energy, agriculture, technology and innovation were identified as areas ripe for collaboration, she said.

The ambassador also lauded the educational exchange programs between Korea and Ghana, noting the opportunities provided to Ghanaian students to pursue advanced degrees in Korean universities through scholarships.

Tourism also presents an avenue for collaboration, with Ghana boasting a rich cultural heritage and diverse tourist attractions, including national parks, historical sites and vibrant festivals, which the ambassador expressed hope for increased Korean tourist traffic to Ghana, highlighting the unique experiences awaiting visitors.
3 May 2024 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Ulviyya Shahin Read more

In May, it is projected that Azerbaijani natural gas supplied through the Bulgaria-Greece Interconnector (IGB) will account for 76.6% of Bulgaria's domestic demand.

According to the information provided by the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) of Bulgaria, the long-term gas contract with Azerbaijan, which is indexed to international oil prices rather than gas hub prices, plays a role in "achieving favorable prices."

As stated by the regulator, the remaining portion of gas for household consumption is provided by Bulgargaz, the state gas company, through a contract for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Bulgarian regulatory authority for public services, EWRC, has approved a 7% reduction in the regulated gas price for May, setting it at 54.7 leva (equivalent to 30 US dollars) per MWh. Transportation costs, excise taxes, and value-added tax are excluded from this price.

Although the regulator did not specify the reason for the price decrease following a slight increase in April, it mentioned considering price trends in international gas markets.

It's worth noting that the Greece-Bulgaria gas pipeline was put into commercial operation in October 2022. The IGB aims to transport "blue fuel" produced within the framework of the second stage of exploitation of the "Shah Deniz" gas-condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to Bulgaria. The state company "Bulgargaz EAD" has signed a contract with the "Shah Deniz" consortium for the supply of 1 billion cubic meters of gas from the "Shah Deniz-2" field.

The total length of the pipeline, which passes through 150 kilometers of Bulgarian territory, is 182 kilometers. It is expected to have an annual transportation capacity of 3-5 billion cubic meters.

Here poses questions:

Given that it is predicted to cover 76.6 percent of Bulgaria's domestic consumption in May, how important is Azerbaijan's role in supplying Bulgaria with gas?

The regulator noted the price trends in the international gas market to lower the gas price. However, knowing the sensitivity of Azerbaijan's gas prices to global market dynamics, especially fluctuations in energy markets makes great sense.

Head of the Innovative Economic Research Center of Azerbaijan Technical University, professor, economist Elshad Mammadov stated to Azernews that establishing cooperation in the direction of gas supply with Azerbaijan is quite beneficial for the foreign trade partners.

"This is because of Azerbaijani gas is transported via pipelines, as is well known. The price of gas transported through pipelines is traditionally more favorable compared to liquefied gas, and this determines significant advantages for the foreign trade partners in cooperation with Azerbaijan. At the same time, Azerbaijan has proven itself as a reliable, durable trading partner. All agreements related to Azerbaijani gas supply bear the signature of the state, and I believe that the signature of the Azerbaijani state is widely accepted in the global arena, demonstrating its reliability and durability," Elshad Mamadov noted.

According to him, furthermore, Azerbaijan prioritizes durable, long-term trade cooperation in its relevant agreements in the energy sector, which undoubtedly promises great opportunities for the foreign trade partners.

"Therefore, I consider that Azerbaijan's cooperation in the energy sector, whether with Bulgaria or other countries in the foreign trade sector, is developing along a promising trajectory, contributing to the formation of economic processes in those countries."

Economist thinks that Bulgaria is not a major gas consumer to that extent.

"There has been a significant decrease in the share of industrial enterprises in recent decades. Nevertheless, gaps in European energy policy today encourage many European countries, including Bulgaria, to return to traditional energy carriers. And Bulgaria is undoubtedly among them. This is because of Bulgaria faces quite serious problems and challenges regarding its energy supply. Cooperation with Azerbaijan should be further emphasized with the exploitation of the interconnector, and I believe that not only Bulgaria but also several other European countries will witness the deepening of their cooperation with Azerbaijan in the near future in terms of gas supply," Mammadov concluded.

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Rebuilding Korea Party's Kim seeks to rein in president's power in diplomacy

Editors note This article is the first in a series by The Korea Times featuring interviews with lawmakers-elect who are well-versed in diplomacy and national security.  ED.

By Nam Hyun-woo

Kim Joon-hyung, a first-term lawmaker-elect from the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP), has set his sights on passing a parliamentary resolution, as his inaugural initiative.

This motion would mean a ban on sending South Korean troops abroad in situations of military conflict  especially an envisaged clash between the United States and China over Taiwan.

The former chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) and international relations professor at Handong Global University also said that he will table a series of parliamentary measures to rein in President Yoon Suk Yeols war-like diplomacy to protect the countrys interests amid continuing global geopolitical upheavals.

During the Yoon presidency, Korea literally became a pushover, conceding too much of its interests to the United States and Japan while witnessing its relations with China and Russia being aggravated excessively, Kim said during an interview with The Korea Times on Wednesday.

The problem is that the opposition pinpoints Yoons diplomacy as one of his worst achievements, while the ruling bloc takes the opposite stance, meaning he will not likely change his diplomatic philosophy even after suffering a crushing defeat in the April 10 general elections. Thats the reason I decided to go into politics. If the Assembly fails to control this, the remaining three years of Yoon's presidency will feel excessively prolonged."

Kim is a diplomatic scholar who served in various adviser roles for liberal politicians, including former President Moon Jae-in and main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung. During the Moon administration, he was on one of the expert panels advising Seoul at the 2018 inter-Korean summits and served as the head of the KNDA, an official institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which develops the countrys long-term diplomatic strategies, from 2019 to 2021.

He joined the RKP, which was created just a month before the elections as a political group whose main focus is containing the Yoon administration and earned a proportional representative seat.

Less than a month before assuming his role as an Assemblyman, Kim has already established a clear-cut to-do list, with the first item being a resolution against dispatching troops to troubled regions overseas.

With the global superpowers interests clashing across the globe, the U.S. will count on South Korea to play its role in regional conflicts, with a possible clash in Taiwan being the most concerning, he said.

Not only diplomatic analysts like Kim but also U.S. officials assume that China is on track and will be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, as the Chinese army marks the 100th anniversary of its founding, and when the country will determine whether to give President Xi Jinping a fourth term.

If this scenario happens, Kim expects the U.S. will likely rely on its Asian allies South Korea and Japan. Seoul is expected to face even greater pressure to dispatch its forces to Taiwan, given South Koreas military strength and Japans legal restrictions in sending troops overseas.

Technically, South Korea is in a state of war [against North Korea], and Taiwan is not an ally of ours, Kim said, noting that Seoul severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1992. Most South Koreans would say they dont want the country to participate in a war in Taiwan.

Similar issues have already tested the South Korea-U.S. alliance in the 2000s.

At the time, the U.S. sought to employ strategic flexibility for U.S. Forces Korea by allowing it to be used in other areas, while South Korea opposed this due to concerns that the country may automatically be involved in overseas conflicts.

Debates surrounding this issue came to a pause after a 2006 agreement between then-South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under which Seoul respects the necessity for strategic flexibility, while Washington respects Seouls position that it shall not be involved in a regional conflict in Northeast Asia against the will of the Korean people.

During last years summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden, the two sides elevated their relations to a Global Comprehensive Strategic Alliance, Kim said. The Yoon administration interprets this as an opportunity for Seoul to participate in the U.S. global strategy, this also means that South Korea can be used for the U.S. global strategy  And the beginning will be a possible military conflict over Taiwan.

Kim said that he plans to conduct surveys with the general public to gauge South Koreans' sentiment on dispatching its forces to Taiwan and urge President Yoon to preemptively declare that Seoul will not participate in such conflicts.

Since Yoon has been reluctant to reflect the oppositions claims, the lawmaker-elect said he will look to a parliamentary resolution, which can be adopted when more than half of the 300 members of the Assembly approve it. Since the RKP secured 12 seats and the DPK has 175, their coalition means that they can pass the resolution without consent from the ruling bloc.

Curbing presidential diplomatic power

Along with the resolution, Kim is seeking to table bills requiring the president to obtain approvals from the Assembly before providing lethal military equipment to other countries or offering financial support exceeding a specific threshold to a certain country or global initiative.

These measures are being proposed to directly counter the suspicions that South Korea is indirectly supplying 155-millimeter shells to Ukraine. Though Seouls existing law prohibits providing weapons to war zones, foreign media outlets are suggesting that the country is providing the ammunition either by refilling U.S. stockpiles or other measures.

The alleged ammunition support coupled with Yoons hawkish remarks on Russias invasion of Ukraine, means that relations between Seoul and Moscow have plunged to their lowest ebb during Yoon's presidency. And this is one of the reasons that prompted Russia to strengthen its military ties with North Korea.

Since South Korea employs a presidential system, the president has a single executive authority to determine the countrys diplomatic strategies, and there is no proper tool to contain the presidents power, Kim said.

After losing in the elections, the president's office said all senior secretaries have tendered their resignations to reform Yoons governing stance, but those in charge of diplomacy and national security were excluded. This means that Yoon will focus on diplomacy because he still has monopolistic power, and the necessity of measures containing the presidents power in diplomacy is ever increasing.

Strategic autonomy

The lawmaker-elect stressed that he believes the desirable diplomatic direction is strategic autonomy, not a balancing act between the U.S. and China. The latter is a concept that has long been criticized by the conservatives as a wrong diplomatic strategy.

Strategic autonomy is used by the European Union to describe its diplomatic goal of acting independently in key matters while collaborating with partners when possible.

Though South Korea and the U.S. are allies, they are respective sovereign states, Kim said.

No matter how important the alliance is and how close the two countries' relations are, it is impossible to see a 100 percent alignment between them in all matters of strategic interests. Allies and friendly nations are also negotiable partners in contentious matters, especially those involving economic interests.

The Yoon administration has been promoting that its diplomatic strategy is raising South Koreas voice in international matters, labeling it as a global pivotal state, but Kim said the country is not pivoting to engage in countries other than the U.S. and friendly nations, thereby ending up echoing Washingtons voice regarding most international matters.

Kim cited that the recent case of Seoul not being invited to this years Group of Seven (G7) summit shows this trend. In the 2020s, South Korea was invited to the wealthy nations gathering (2020, 2021 and 2023), but this years G7 host country, Italy, invited African and South American countries instead, showing the interest of developed nations in the Global South.

The top three agenda items on the global diplomatic stage are engaging with the Global South, climate change and peace, Kim said. However, South Korea, under the Yoon presidency, is not leading any of those key agendas as a player, remaining on the outskirts of related international debates.

He also criticized the undoing of the previous Moon administrations efforts to play a leading role. Such as participating in the global fight against climate change, expanding renewable energy or encouraging South Korean corporate giants to invest in eco-friendly technologies, all things that were reversed by the Yoon administration. Also, tensions between the two Koreas continue to heighten, as Yoon relies mostly on hawkish measures to counter North Koreas growing belligerence.

South Korea is no longer an active player in those agenda areas, he said. The country no longer has its own initiatives, policies or strategies in agendas that the international community wants to discuss. It is no wonder why G7 countries did not invite Seoul for this years summit.
3 May 2024 14:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Nazrin Abdul, AZERNEWS

The VI World Intercultural Dialogue Forum commenced with an inspiring opening ceremony on May 1, hosted at the esteemed Baku Congress Center. Under the theme of "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security," the event brought together distinguished delegates and thought leaders from across the globe.

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, addressed the international event, emphasizing need for financial resources to combat climate change. With a forward-looking perspective, President Aliyev highlighted that addressing the financial aspect of climate issues would take center stage at COP29.

The deputy of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis, economist Vugar Bayramov, in his statement to Azernews, underscored Azerbaijan's commitment to collaborative efforts with international partners to combat the climate crisis. Bayramov emphasized the necessity for increased global funding and private sector involvement to tackle climate change effectively.

The expert stressed that "not only the financial resources of Azerbaijan, but also the world as a whole, it is important to allocate more funds related to climate change and to involve the private sector in this direction".

He highlighted Azerbaijan's ambitious targets, including a 30 percent increase in green energy production by 2030 and a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the same period.

The successful implementation of projects such as the "Khizi-Absheron" KES with ACWA Power and the "Garadagh Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Station" project with Masdar demonstrates Azerbaijan's proactive approach towards sustainable energy solutions.

With a clear roadmap in place, Bayramov emphasized the importance of directing financial resources towards achieving Azerbaijan's environmental goals. He noted global cooperation and investment to ensure the uninterrupted implementation of climate change measures worldwide.

Ayaz Museyibov, Advisor to the Executive Director of the Center for Analysis and Communication of Economic Reforms, agree with the statement of MP.

He highlights urgency of optimal global financial resource utilization in climate change combat.

In addressing the pressing issue of climate change, Museyibov underscores the paramount importance of effectively and efficiently leveraging financial resources on a global scale.

He articulates that the crux lies in directing financial allocations towards the most impactful endeavors and ensuring their detailed organization.

Furthermore, Museyibov stresses the indispensable role of fostering global solidarity and cooperation throughout the process of attracting and utilizing these financial resources.

"Establishing robust global cooperation is imperative for upholding commitments on climate change."

He emphasizes the need for forging effective partnerships among all stakeholders with vested interests and those directly impacted by climate-related processes.

"Such collaborative endeavors will not only optimize the utilization of financial resources but also significantly contribute to the fulfillment of commitments pertaining to climate change mitigation and adaptation."

Azerbaijan's proactive stance on climate action was further highlighted during the 11th meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, where Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babayev, emphasized the importance of ambitious and equitable climate finance.

The invitation for Azerbaijan to join the Coalition of Finance Ministers on Climate Action underscores the country's growing recognition as a key player in global climate initiatives.

As anticipation builds for COP29 scheduled for November, Baku is poised to host tens of thousands of participants. The conference presents a crucial opportunity for countries to reaffirm commitments and take tangible steps towards addressing the climate crisis.

COP29 will serve as a platform for Azerbaijan to showcase its vision on regional security, energy transition, and green growth. Discussions will span topics including the development of green energy corridors, renewable energy projects, and ecological initiatives in Karabakh, underscoring Azerbaijan's commitment to a sustainable future.

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3 May 2024 15:17 (UTC+04:00)

Ulviyya Shahin Read more

Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia have signed documents strengthening their energy partnership, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy.

During the visit of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, to our country, a meeting took place between him and Azerbaijan's Minister of Energy, Parviz Shahbazov, along with their respective delegations.

During the meeting, it was noted with satisfaction that there are fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the importance of the friendly relations between the leaders of the countries and the development of energy cooperation was emphasized.

The discussions highlighted the significance of bilateral energy relations and emphasized the importance of the implementation of the Energy Cooperation Agreement and the activities of the Joint Technical Committee in fostering mutually beneficial cooperation in the energy sector. In particular, the crucial role of "green energy" partnership in strengthening long-term energy cooperation and the solidarity of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia in promoting just energy transition and combating climate change were underscored. Discussions were held on cooperation within the framework of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) towards achieving successes.

The current status of cooperation with the company "ACWA Power" in the development of wind and offshore energy projects with a total capacity of 2.5 GW was reviewed during the meeting. The necessity of accelerating the implementation of renewable energy projects was emphasized. Support was expressed for cooperation between Azerbaijan and "ACWA Power" in the implementation of renewable energy projects, integration of recovered energy sources through knowledge and experience exchange, electricity production, transmission, and energy efficiency. Additionally, discussions were held on collaboration issues and investment opportunities between SOCAR and Saudi Arabian companies in the fields of oil production, supply of oil and petrochemical products, low-emission fuels and technologies.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Protocol of the Third Meeting of the Joint Technical Committee between the Ministries of Energy of both countries was signed. Furthermore, an Execution Agreement for a 200 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project and a Framework Agreement for a 200 MW wind energy project were also signed between the Ministry of Energy and "ACWA Power" company.

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3 May 2024 11:35 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Azerbaijan Culture Minister Adil Karimli has received the Slovakian Culture Ministry's delegation as part of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Azernews reports.

The minister informed State Secretary of the Slovakian Culture Ministry Mario Marushka and Director of the Slovakian Ministry's Department of International Cooperation Branislav Salat About the Baku Process.

He underlined Azerbaijan's contributions to intercultural dialogue at the international level.

Mario Marushka expressed his satisfaction at participating in such a prestigious event as the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue and emphasized the relevance of the issues raised by the forum.

Adil Karimli said that Azerbaijan is sensitive to environmental issues and global climate changes, and pointed out that 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) will be held in Azerbaijan this year. The minister also invited Slovakia to participate in COP29.

The 6th edition of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue is underway in Baku under the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity" .

This forum, part of the Baku Process initiated by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in 2008, is organized in partnership with prominent international entities such as the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC), UNESCO, UN Tourism, and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO).

The forum aims to explore the critical intersections between dialogue facilitation, cooperative frameworks, leadership efficacy, and the complex dynamics of interconnectedness, all in the service of advancing global peace and security imperatives.

Over three days, a series of plenary sessions and panel discussions bring together a diverse array of stakeholders, including government officials, representatives from international organizations, eminent cultural figures, journalists, civil society actors, and intellectuals from across the globe, to deliberate upon pressing global challenges.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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3 May 2024 09:27 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

Speaker of Azerbaijan`s Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has met with Giorgio Mule, Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, who is visiting the country to participate in the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Azernews reports.

During the meeting, the sides stressed the importance of the inter-parliamentary conference on The role and best practices of the legislature in the protection of cultural heritage within the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

The two hailed the development of the relations between the two countries across various domains.

They also emphasized the two parliaments` vital role in the development of the bilateral ties.

Giorgio Mule, Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies commended his participation in the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

The Vice President shared his thoughts on the development and achievements of the modern Azerbaijan, the activities of the inter-parliamentary friendship groups, and Azerbaijan`s hosting of a such an important event as COP29.

The parties also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest.

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3 May 2024 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

Major media outlets have extensively covered Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev`s speech at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, themed Dialogue for Peace and Global Security, held in Baku on May 1.

The media outlets particularly focused on the Presidents remarks about Azerbaijan's contributions to intercultural dialogue, the forums importance, Azerbaijans role in regional development, steps taken to solidify peace and stability, and efforts to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

Articles published by Turkish Anadolu Agency, "Haber Global" TV, "Aksam" newspaper, "Haberler.com" portal, and others highlighted the landmark event that welcomed over 700 distinguished guests from more than 100 countries.

The articles also featured President Ilham Aliyev's comments on relations with Armenia, wherein he stated, "The process of delimitation and demarcation was carried out between Azerbaijan and Armenia without any mediation.

Russian TASS and Interfax agencies, Vedomosti, Gazeta.ru, Profil magazine, and Rossiya segodnya, along with Georgian information portals such as "resonancedaily.com", "imedinews.ge", "newshub.ge", "primetime.ge", "for.ge", "alt-info.ge", and "1tv.ge", drew readers` attention to President Ilham Aliyev`s remarks regarding the importance of preventing the policy of neo-colonialism implemented by some big European countries.

Qatar News Agency and Belarusian press including BELTA and Sb.by focused on the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, highlighting the discussed topics covering education, youth, climate change, artificial intelligence, protection of cultural heritage, illegal migration, and other key issues.

Ukrainian publications such as "Telegraph" and "Correspondent", Iran's IRNA agency and "Entexab" newspaper, as well as the "Central Asia" media platform of Turkmenistan, mainly emphasized the Presidents remarks on steps taken towards the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

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3 May 2024 11:13 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

The visit of the participants of the VI World Intercultural Dialogue Forum held in Baku to the liberated territories has begun, Azernews reports.

The guests arriving at Fuzuli International Airport were met by the Deputy Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan Bashir Hajiyev in Aghdam, Fuzuli and Khojavend regions.

They will participate in a special session on Impact of Mines and Unexploded Ordnance on Cultural Property to be held in Agdam within the framework of the forum.

At the session, Deputy Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Farid Jafarov, Head of Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Gaya Mammadov will deliver a report.

There will also be speeches by UN Development Program specialist Qadim Tariq, Director of UNESCO's Culture and Emergencies, Culture Sector Krista Pikkat and other guests.

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3 May 2024 11:59 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

The European Union (EU) plans to allocate an additional 2 million euros to Azerbaijan for demining, Azernews reports, citing Gert Jan Kopman, Director General of the European Commission for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, as he telling at the "European Team Anti-Mine Initiative" event held in Baku.

Recall that last year, ANAMA, the European Union, UNDP launched a demining project to help save lives and enable internally displaced persons to return home. The project covered 20 villages and have 33,604 families as direct beneficiaries. The project also established the first female teams in Azerbaijan to carry out demining operations,

It is worth noting that despite attempts at formally requesting information about the location of those mines, Armenia repeatedly denied that it possessed the relevant information and refused to engage on the issue.

Finally, in February this year, Armenia has submitted 8 minefield maps of territories located in the liberated lands to Azerbaijan. These maps cover some of the areas along the former contact line. However, the maps covering part of the former contact line passing through Khojavand, Tartar, and Goranboy districts, as well as the areas mined by Armenian military units when they retreated in November 2020, has not been submitted yet.

Many have suspicions about these maps because previous minefield maps submitted by Armenia were inaccurate. Only 25 percent of these maps were correct. Especially submitting minefield maps of the height where civilians do not live increases this suspicion. It is also worth noting that more than 55% of recent landmine cases have occurred outside the areas covered by the information provided.

The behavior that Armenia displayed by relation to the landmine threat is indeed another setback to the peace and confidence-building measures taken during the post-conflict period in the region.

It is worth noting that because of Azerbaijan's liberated territories remain contaminated with mine, the new infrastructure and green energy projects remains a risky and problematic goal. These obstacles to a legal peace are part of the challenges facing the repopulation, development and integration of the liberated territories on the path to a full peace.

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3 May 2024 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, received Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, Minister of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Azernews reports.

During the meeting, they praised the successful development of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia across various areas, particularly in the energy sector.

The sides emphasized the importance of cooperation between the two countries within OPEC+.

The parties highlighted the successful collaboration in Azerbaijan between the country and ACWA Power, a leading company from Saudi Arabia, in the field of renewable energy, noting the promising potential in this area.

They also touched upon the importance of Azerbaijan hosting COP29.

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3 May 2024 17:35 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

The 4th plenary session themed "Safeguarding our past and future: Cultural heritage in the face of Climate Change" has been organized as part of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Azernews reports.

Moderated by Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the UK National Commission for UNESCO James Bridge, the plenary session highlighted the impact of climate change on cultural heritage monuments, the need for preservation efforts, and challenges in ensuring the longevity of historical sites.

The session emphasized the importance of addressing the threats posed by climate change to both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and the necessity of implementing measures to safeguard these valuable assets for future generations.

Speaking at the event, Azerbaijan Deputy Culture Minister Saadat Yusifova pointed out that Azerbaijan's cultural heritage monuments are not directly insured against the effects of climate change.

"During the relevant excavations conducted in the memorial complex created in Guba to perpetuate the memory of those killed during the Armenian genocide in March 1918, it was observed that soil erosion increased significantly. Petroglyphs in Gobustan have undergone certain negative processes due to the influence of climate change. The decrease in the volume of rains has complicated the current situation of other historical objects such as Damjili Cave. Although architectural objects have passed the test of centuries, they are affected by nature. More biological and chemical factors are revealed here. The work to be done in the direction of their preservation and delivery to future generations is becoming difficult. At least six objects on the UNESCO list which are in danger are located on Azerbaijani territory," Saadat Yusifova said.

She added that climate change negatively affects the national parks and sanctuaries. Research is being conducted in this regard and some proposals were prepared based on the analysis.

"We have drawn up a Road Map regarding the protection of nature and national cultural heritage objects. This has opened up new opportunities for the application of unified strategies. Many countries are facing the same challenges. Therefore, there is a need to develop effective adaptation strategies at both national and international levels. Azerbaijan makes consistent contributions to the fight against climate change. As a country that will host COP29, Azerbaijan is ready to support any strategies that will be put forward in this direction," the Deputy Culture Minister said.

"Unfortunately, along with climate changes, wars also have a negative impact on nature and cultural heritage. The Azerbaijani monuments, which were under the Armenian occupation for almost 30 years, were destroyed and cultural genocide was committed there. Approximately 35 cultural heritage sites of special importance located in Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur have been significantly negatively affected. Among them, we would like to mention the acts of vandalism. Tens of thousands of historical monuments were destroyed, access to more than a hundred monuments was blocked. This is explained by the mining of the roads leading to those areas. The protection of these monuments is an integral part of the Great Return Program," she added.

The Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Jinfeng Zhou noted the impact of industrialization on the environment and the decline of biodiversity, said:

"Until now, we have focused only on certain breeds and species of the animal kingdom. Many species have been overlooked. We have completely lost some breeds. In this case, interaction is needed. If people and societies are well informed about this problem, if they come together, if they understand the issues related to the future, we can prevent negative processes in the field of climate and biodiversity."

Founder and CEO of the Frison Horta Foundation Nupur Tron emphasized the importance of raising the growing generation in the spirit of love for the environment and getting acquainted with the problems of climate change early.

"If we do not raise our voice to the problems of climate change, nature will face a more difficult situation. We must take measures to strengthen the harmony of young people with nature."

Advisor to the ICESCO Secretary General Hesham El Askary said that according to the conducted studies, there are three different warning scenarios related to climate changes.

"The latest studies show that climate change is having very negative effects on cultural heritage monuments. Intangible and tangible cultural heritage monuments are under threat. Research conducted over the past five years has enabled the development of new models. ICESCO focuses on protecting cultural heritage. It's about our past and it's about our future," Hisham Al-Askari said.

In his speech, research anthropologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, curator of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern Ethnology and head of that museum's Asian Cultural History Program Paul Michael Taylor underscored the emergency preparedness and response measures. He stressed that the digital copies of exhibits can play a key role in the preservation of cultural heritage.

Paul Michael Taylor outlined that cooperated with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in the field of cultural heritage protection and even prepared a joint book.

Head of programs at the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) Albino Jopela said that there are places in Africa which are in danger.

"About six percent of them faced danger. Seven percent of listed African monuments are directly affected by climate change. There is a need for different strategies related to the management of cultural heritage objects," said the executive director, thanking the government of Azerbaijan for the invitation to the event, as well as financial support to the African World Heritage Fund," Albino Jopela said.

Head of the State Service for Protection, Development, and Restoration Sabina Hajiyeva drew attention to the fact that Azerbaijan is home to 7,000 archaeological monuments.

"Despite the government's concern for monuments, there are still some problems related to their preservation. "The biggest problem is the monuments in our lands that have been occupied for many years. Since most of the areas are mined, we cannot approach them. We cannot enter places that are very valuable, especially from an archaeological point of view," Sabina Hajiyeva said.

Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the UNESCO Ambassador Dr. Adam Al-Mulla stated that the process of climate change is accelerating, even increasing its speed three times in different places. He stressed that the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue unites everyone in the fight against the threat of climate change.

The 6th edition of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue is underway in Baku under the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity" .

This forum, part of the Baku Process initiated by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in 2008, is organized in partnership with prominent international entities such as the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), UNESCO, UN Tourism, and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).

The forum aims to explore the critical intersections between dialogue facilitation, cooperative frameworks, leadership efficacy, and the complex dynamics of interconnectedness, all in the service of advancing global peace and security imperatives.

Over three days, a series of plenary sessions and panel discussions bring together a diverse array of stakeholders, including government officials, representatives from international organizations, eminent cultural figures, journalists, civil society actors, and intellectuals from across the globe, to deliberate upon pressing global challenges.

----

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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3 May 2024 13:00 (UTC+04:00)

President of Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has sent congratulatory letter to Poland's President Andrzej Duda, Azernews reports.

The letter reads:

"Dear Mr. President,

I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations and best wishes to you and, through you, to all your people on behalf of myself and the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of May 3, Constitution Day.

We are pleased with the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, which are founded on traditions of friendship and mutual respect. Our rapidly developing cooperation in economy, transportation, culture, and other areas serves the interests of both our countries and our people.

We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently to realize the existing potential of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, to expand the scope of our cooperation, and to infuse it with new content.

On this holiday, I wish you robust health, happiness, and success in your endeavors, and I wish the friendly people of Poland constant peace and prosperity.

Respectfully,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 1 May 2024"

---

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Korea and the United States could explore expanding bilateral energy cooperation dialogue to a trilateral format involving Japan in the future, given the importance Washington puts on its two Asian allies, a U.S. official said Friday.

Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Energy Resources, made the remarks in response to a reporter's question on the prospects of expanding the talks to include other like-minded countries, such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

"I think there is a possibility for us to do more, in the North Asia context, leveraging what the United States has strongly supported in terms of the deeper cooperation between Japan, Korea and the United States," Pyatt said during an online press briefing.

While agreeing that the energy area certainly offers opportunities for the three countries or more, Pyatt struck a cautious note in that developing such possibilities would need "more work."

"There are certainly some areas where I could imagine the U.S.-Japan-Korea relationship meeting that test, but that's going to require more work by all of us, and we're not quite there yet," he said.

"The relationships are different," Pyatt said. "I think we've got more work to do if we want to develop those opportunities for multilateral cooperation."

"But this is very much something that's on the agenda as we look to the future," Pyatt said.

In the latest Energy Security Dialogue between Washington and Seoul earlier this week, Pyatt said he and his Korean counterpart, Kim Hee-sang, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, discussed efforts to secure critical energy supply chains, such as solar energy, away from Chinese dependence on sourcing.

The discussions also included talks on ways to work together to accelerate the clean energy transition in Southeast Asia and across the Indo-Pacific, Pyatt added.

On Korea's energy dependence on Russia, such as coal imports, Pyatt noted that reducing the portion of fossil fuels is more of a broader goal to achieve the green energy transition than a matter concerning the ties with Russia.

"Korea has already gone to zero on certain key fossil energy imports from Russia, its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas down by about half, compared to before the full-scale invasion began," he said.

"It's less a matter of phasing out of Russia than phasing out of coal writ large. This is a goal which the Korean government shares ... every country will have to manage this transition out of coal in a way that is sustainable." (Yonhap)
3 May 2024 13:25 (UTC+04:00)

Natavan Hasanova from Azercosmos talks about the importance of embracing gender equality and investing in women leaders.

According to Azernews, reportage has been broadcast on Euronews, regarding the Azerbaijani woman leader in space technology industry.

Natavan Hasanova's path into the space industry began when she defied expectations and decided to study economics instead of becoming a piano teacher, as her parents wanted.

When Natavan joined Azercosmos, the space agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, she met women who were successful in their roles as technical leaders. This helped her realize that success in this male-dominated industry was within reach. Natavan gradually achieved success in her career and currently holds the position of Director of Strategy and Business Development at Azercosmos. She leads a gender-balanced team of 10, promoting both gender equality and diversity of perspective on projects.

Natavan is proud of Azercosmos' work and spoke to Euronews about how the agency provides critical geographic data and video services to more than 200 clients in more than 40 countries. These services help in environmental management, monitoring the effects of climate change and shaping public policy. In addition, Azercosmos plays a key role in the development of Azerbaijans space ecosystem by conducting competitions, hackathons, acceleration programs and events. In 2023, the agency hosted the International Astronautical Congress, which was attended by 132 countries.

Aiming to become an international leader in the space industry, Natavan pursued further education at the International Space University and mentors young women, encouraging them to enter space-related fields. Her mentees have achieved success in the industry, and Natavan serves as an example that perseverance and following your vision pays off.

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3 May 2024 14:08 (UTC+04:00)

We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in his congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda on the occasion of Constitution Day.

According to Azernews, the Azerbaijani leader extended his sincerest congratulations and best wishes to Andrzej Duda and, through him, to all the people of Poland on behalf of himself and the people of Azerbaijan.

We are pleased with the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, which are founded on traditions of friendship and mutual respect. Our rapidly developing cooperation in economy, transportation, culture, and other areas serves the interests of both our countries and our people, the letter reads.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed confidence that joint efforts would be continued to realize the existing potential of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, to expand the scope of Azerbaijan-Poland cooperation, and to infuse it with new content.

---

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3 May 2024 14:59 (UTC+04:00)

Ulviyya Shahin Read more

Jeyhun Bayramov, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, met with Selwin Charles Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition, on the sidelines of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Azernews reports.

The meeting focused on preparations for the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the negotiation process, and prospects for cooperation.

Minister Bayramov emphasized Azerbaijans commitment to transitioning to alternative energy despite its rich hydrocarbon resources, highlighting the countrys intention to actively support international efforts within COP29.

He noted significant meetings and events in this field and stressed the importance of continued cooperation with the United Nations.

Special Adviser Selwin Charles Hart expressed confidence in Azerbaijans ability to organize the preparatory process efficiently within a short period of time, praising the creation of the Troika format for coordination with other presidencies. He underscored that hosting COP29 aligns well with the launch of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), presenting a favorable opportunity.

The parties also exchanged views on prospects for cooperation in combating climate change.
3 May 2024 15:34 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijans Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov has departed for Gambia on a working visit, Azernews reports.

During his trip, FM Bayramov will attend and address the 15th annual Islamic Summit Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Gambian capital, Banjul, scheduled for May 4-5. Additionally, the FM will engage in bilateral meetings with several high-ranking officials.

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3 May 2024 17:06 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

Colonel General Kerem Mustafayev, Azerbaijans Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of the Combined Arms Army, has paid an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azernews reports.

During the visit, Colonel General Kerem Mustafayev held meetings with Major General Aziz Nasirzadeh, the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with other officials.

The discussions focused on the current situation and prospects of military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran, exchanging detailed views on regional security.

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3 May 2024 20:41 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries that is an example of the principles of multiculturalism. This country has national and humanistic traditions. Let's not forget that Azerbaijan is a country with a centuries-old history located on the great Silk Road. Diversity has always been the way of life of Azerbaijani society. In modern times, numerous, different ethnic groups live peacefully in the cities and regions of Azerbaijan and continue their activities with equal rights.

The decree of President Ilham Aliyev "On declaring 2016 as the "Year of Multiculturalism" in the Republic of Azerbaijan" dated January 11, 2016 also shows that the preservation, further development and wide promotion of the traditions of multiculturalism is always in the focus of the Azerbaijan's leadership. For this purpose, numerous international and local important events are held in Azerbaijan every year.

As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue on Dialogue for Peace and Global Security, intercultural dialogue within Azerbaijan has always been very positive.

It is worth noting that for over 70 years, the USSR authorities promoted atheism and prevented many peoples from experiencing humanistic tendencies based on spiritual and religious values. However, the people of Azerbaijan have acquired their values with the background of great state support and care during the Soviet period and after independence. Following its independence, the celebration of religious holidays based on Islamic traditions was restored in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and maximum conditions were created for every citizen to enjoy freedom of religion. This has made Azerbaijan an ideal and desirable country where representatives of different nations and religions live side by side.

As we know, Azerbaijan's Garabagh was occupied by Armenia in the early years of independence - in the 1990s. The economic and social difficulties experienced in this period, the attempts of other states to divide Azerbaijan, and even aggressive separatism could not break the solidarity of Azerbaijanis.

Even during the worst period of relations with Armenia, Armenian churches continued to operate in Azerbaijan. However, it is worth to remember that when Garabagh was under Armenian occupation, the Azerbaijani mosques in the formerly occupied territories were used as piggery and historical and cultural monuments were vandalised.

This comparison once again proves that Azerbaijan is a more humanist and respectable country in the South Caucasus given this all conflicts and loss of territories.

One of the greatest examples of Azerbaijan's commitment to multilateralism is its successful chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement. It should be noted that in 2011, Azerbaijan was accepted as a full member of the National Assembly after obtaining the unanimous support of the member states of the Movement in Bali.

In 2019, Baku hosted the Movement's 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government. High-level representatives of 120 UN member states and representatives of 42 international organizations took part in the event. During the Baku Summit, the Movement's Chairmanship for 2019-2022 years, was transferred to the Republic of Azerbaijan. Later, the UN member states applied to Baku regarding Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Movement for an additional 1 year, taking into account the successful chairmanship of the Movement, and the Azerbaijani side gave a positive response to the request. Thus, Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the National Assembly was extended until 2023.

As the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan's constant fight against colonial tendencies caused the displeasure of a number of colonial countries, especially France.

The 6th edition of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, operating under the theme Dialogue for Peace and Global Security" in Baku, and President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the opening ceremony of the event are on the agenda these days.

The president's views were covered in the press of Turkish, Russian, Georgian, Belarusian, Qatari, Iranian and other countries.

Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan, the country that cultures intersect, continues to develop in all directions and easily adapt to the requirements of the new era.

It is worth noting that Azerbaijan differs in a good way from many other countries with its colorful culture and respect and care for the culture of other nations.

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3 May 2024 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze refused to visit the USA. So, the official Washington demanded to stop consideration of the draft law on "Foreign agents" in the parliament.

According to Azernews, this was stated in Georgian Foreign Ministry's statement.

"The Prime Minister of Georgia was invited to visit the United States on the condition that before the visit, the Georgian Parliament temporarily suspends consideration of the draft law on the transparency of foreign influence. The implementation of the conditional visit does not correspond to the spirit of partnership, which should be based on mutual respect and trust, the US ambassador was given a detailed explanation about this," the statement said.

Before that, US Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan said that the Georgian authorities refused to negotiate with the US on strategic partnership. He expressed his concern that the decisions taken by the Georgian government in recent weeks distanced the country from the Euro-Atlantic future.

"We recently invited high-ranking representatives of the Georgian government to discuss any issues related to strategic partnership and US assistance with high-ranking US officials. "Unfortunately, the Georgian side chose to refuse this invitation."

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3 May 2024 19:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Alimat Aliyeva

The heads of the defense departments of the United States, Japan and Australia have agreed to hold the first trilateral missile and air defense exercises in 2027, Azernews reports.

A corresponding agreement was reached following the results of trilateral negotiations held in the state of Hawaii. In the next two years, the parties agreed to conduct joint exercises using fifth-generation F-35 fighters in service in each of the countries.

The heads of the defense departments of the three countries also signed an agreement on promoting cooperation in the field of modern defense technologies.

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3 May 2024 23:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Alimat Aliyeva

French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to prepare an agreement on the interaction of the national armed forces, Azernews reports.

It is reported that at the meeting it was decided to strengthen strategic cooperation in defense issues between France and Japan:

"The parties will begin the negotiation process to conclude an agreement on the development of operational cooperation between the French army and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

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By Kim Hyun-bin

The Embassy of Ukraine in Seoul issued a statement Monday denouncing the scheduled performance of Russian violinist Vladimir Spivakov at the upcoming Classical Bridge International Music Festival in Seoul.

Vladimir Spivakov, a prominent figure in the world of classical music, has been criticized for his vocal support of the war waged by Russia against Ukraine.

Since the onset of Russia's assault on Ukraine on Feb. 20, 2014, when Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, to annex it, Spivakov has openly condoned the actions of the Russian government.

The embassy highlighted Spivakov's role as a member of the Russian Presidential Council on Culture and Arts, alongside other notable figures such as Valery Gergiev and Svetlana Zakharova, who have also endorsed Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

This endorsement includes signing an open letter in March 2014 in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions despite international condemnation.

The statement further underscored the Russian regime's exploitation of culture to justify war, propagate imperialism and commit acts of genocide.

Additionally, it pointed out Russia's violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions by providing weapon technologies to North Korea, which are used to shell Ukrainian cities and kill civilians.

The Embassy of Ukraine said that showcasing performers affiliated with the aggressor-state amounts to legitimizing Russian aggression and disregarding the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

It called upon international partners to suspend cultural cooperation with the Russian regime and its representatives as a means of condemning unjustified aggression.

"While recognizing the importance of pluralism of opinion and cultural exchange, we urge our international partners to join us in standing against the criminal actions of the Russian regime," the embassy said in the satement.
Lincoln City's Guided 'Exploriences' of Cascade Head Take You Into Wilds of Oregon Coast

Published 4/27/24 at 5:05 p.m.

By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Lincoln City, Oregon)  Soaring above the central Oregon coast town of Lincoln City, Cascade Head is a former volcano that has now formed itself into an unmistakable landmark. Those shapes at the northern edge of town can only be one place and always recognizable from any photo. (Photo Alex Jordan / Cascade Head Biosphere)

Now, the area is getting its own set of Explorience events: those immersive programs that open up grand new aspects of the Oregon coast experience.

Explore Lincoln City is excited to introduce the newest addition to its popular Explorience programs: the Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience. This engaging 90-minute walking tour invites visitors to explore Oregons sole UNESCO Biosphere Region, offering a 10,000-year glimpse into the natural history of this extraordinary coastal area where land meets sea. Accompanied by a knowledgeable naturalist, participants will delve into the distinctive flora, fauna, and geology of the Biosphere Region, discover groundbreaking conservation initiatives along the Salmon River, and uncover the rich heritage of the Nechesne people - the original inhabitants of this land.

The Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience joins Explore Lincoln Citys suite of Explorience programs, which includes six additional hands-on learning events led by local experts. These programs enhance visitors experiences during their time in Lincoln City.

Designated in 1976 by the United Nations Man and Biosphere Programme, the Cascade Head Biosphere Region spans 102,110 acres along the central Oregon coast. In 2017, it was reauthorized with its current boundaries. This unique ecosystem encompasses the Salmon River and its estuary, a sandy spit that's squeezed between two headlands, densely wooded uplands, a two-mile basalt headland adorned with native coastal prairie, and a marine reserve extending westward into the Pacific Ocean. Abundant and diverse wildlife, including endangered species, thrives in this protected and managed region, overseen by a collaborative effort involving agencies, non-profits, businesses, and local residents.

Kim Cooper Findling, Director of Explore Lincoln City, said she's thrilled about the new additions that explore a place that has  a diverse ecosystem filled with hundreds of extraordinary species and natural wonders located right here in Lincoln City's backyard.

The partnership between the agency and Cascade Head Biosphere Collaborative means a new way to enjoy the area that is quite enriching: you're getting a local guide.

Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience outings are led by local biosphere expert, Margery Price, Explore Lincoln City said. Price is a master's student studying geology and has a passion for creating outdoors education opportunities for all ages. She has led and designed various geoscience lessons and field trips throughout Oregon and helped script and present salmon education videos with the Cascade Head Biosphere Collective.

2024 Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience Dates:



Photo Alex Jordan / Cascade Head Biosphere

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Thursday, July 11, 2024

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Friday, August 23, 2024

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience outings are led by local biosphere expert, Margery Price. Price is a master's student studying geology and has a passion for creating outdoors education opportunities for all ages. She has led and designed various geoscience lessons and field trips throughout Oregon and helped script and present salmon education videos with the Cascade Head Biosphere Collective.

The Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience participants will meet at Knight County Park at 10:30 AM on select dates from May through October. The park is located at the mouth of the Salmon River Estuary and is also adjacent to the Cascade Head Nature Conservancy hiking trail. Visitors will be guided on a fascinating journey down a small watershed through an upland Sitka Spruce forest, tracing the fresh waters of a tributary to the Salmon River as they move across the land and into the fertile estuary itself where fresh water meets salt water. The area to be visited includes the Cascade Head Scenic Research Area, Cascade Head Experimental Forest, the Cascade Head Preserve, and the Cascade Head Marine Reserve and Marine Protected Areas.



Photo Alex Jordan / Cascade Head Biosphere



Duncan Berry, Co-Director of the Cascade Head Biosphere Collaborative, said this is about sharing the beauty and significance of the area, not to just those of us in modern times but also the First Nation that were its guardians in the past.

"We also acknowledge and honor the Nechesne Peoples of the Salmon River, the original inhabitants of these lands. The Cascade Head Biosphere Collaborative pledges to work with their descendants, including the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, going forward in inclusion and collaboration, to mutually benefit this shared place, he said.

Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes, bring water, sunscreen, and a jacket. The Cascade Head Biosphere Region is a protected wildlife sanctuary  no hunting, camping, fires, bicycles, removal of foliage, or dogs (even on a leash) are allowed. The presence or scent of dogs in a habitat such as the Cascade Head Biosphere Region may force wild animals to leave their homes, both temporarily and permanently  so visitors need to leave their four-legged friends at home.

Weather conditions may impact dates and times  when that is the case, visitors should check the Explore Lincoln City Facebook page for updates.

For more information about the Cascade Head Biosphere Explorience: https://www.explorelincolncity.com/events/exploriences/biosphere-explorience/

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South Oregon's Golden and Silver Falls Park Needs Cleanup Help in May - Near Coos Bay

Published 4/27/24 at 7:55 p.m.

By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection





(Coos Bay, Oregon)  Near Coos Bay, one sprawling, gorgeous state park is asking for a little help. Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area on the south coast is hosting a clean-up event on Saturday, May 18, and it's requesting volunteers to help spruce up the place before the summer rush begins. (Photo OPRD)

You can join park rangers on that day from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Even more interesting: you can walk in some spots where dinosaurs walked  well, at least in a recent sci-fi movie. You can certainly walk where Hollywood's Adam Driver strolled a few years back.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) sent out the notice this week.

Volunteers will help clean up the parking area and conduct trail work at the park, which is about 25 miles northeast of Coos Bay, said OPRD. There will be something for everyone to help with. Lend a hand and help get the park ready before summer begins.

You can sign up at https://form.jotform.com/240576122083047.

OPRD said participants should be prepared to walk on some amounts of uneven ground and trails around the south Oregon coast attraction. All the work will be taking place outdoors, and volunteers should be comfortable wearing work gloves and using hand tools.

Because it's the coast, you'll want to dress for the weather. OPRD said you should be wearing closed-toed shoes, and be wearing clothes you don't mind getting dirty in.



Photo OPRD

Remember to bring a water bottle, sack lunch and work gloves if you have them (some will be provided if not), OPRD said. Snacks will be provided.

If you have questions about the event, email ranger Jess at jess.hayward@oprd.oregon.gov.

If you need to contact staff on the day of the event, please call park ranger Jake at 541-294-0644 or Ranger Jess at 541-888-3732.

It was here a couple of years ago that star Adam Driver skittered about battling little dinosaurs in the movie 65. A good chunk of it was filmed on the south Oregon coast, and some of the early sequences were filmed right here in Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area.

His character - named Mills - peers down and sees a pack of gnarly and snarling dinos zipping around, and suddenly one jumps right in his face from just below the edge of the falls and attacks him. After that, it may be difficult to picture that south coast trail without dinos.

Other parts of the film were shot near Brookings and Gold Beach. 65 Sci-Fi Flick on Streaming: Parts Filmed on S. Oregon Coast - Review

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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A physician who owned a pain management clinic in Martins Ferry, Ohio, was sentenced to seven years in prison for unlawfully distributing opioids.

The prescriptions that Thomas Romano, MD, issued for opioids and other controlled substances exceeded the recommended dosages and were in dangerous combinations, according to a May 2 news release from the Justice Department. Between October 2014 and September 2019, Dr. Romano prescribed more than 137,000 pills to nine individuals.

Dr. Romano was convicted in September of 24 counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Friday met with a senior German official and discussed Berlin's unification experience and the possibility of a unified Korea, Seoul's unification ministry said.

Kim met with Carsten Schneider, the minister of state for East Germany and equivalent living conditions, at his office, as Seoul is working on drawing up a new unification vision amid North Korea's pledge not to seek unification with South Korea.

Kim asked for Berlin's cooperation and support for South Korea's "unwavering" commitment to pursuing a peaceful unification of the two Koreas based on liberal democracy, according to the unification ministry.

Schneider also voiced the need to strengthen solidarity between Seoul and Berlin over the issue and shared South Korea's unification vision, it added.

The meeting came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two countries hostile to each other" and vowed not to seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea.

Schneider was visiting South Korea to attend a meeting of the Korea-Germany Unification Advisory Committee held in the southeastern port city of Busan from Tuesday and Wednesday.

The two nations launched the unification advisory committee in 2011 in order to share Germany's unification experience and have held an annual meeting since then. Vice Unification Minister Moon Seoung-hyun and Schneider co-chair the committee.

Later in the day, Schneider told reporters that South Korea could seize an unexpected opportunity only when it does not give up the goal of unification.

"We did not know in the spring of 1989 that the Berlin Wall would collapse in November that year. If South Korea wants to catch such a chance (for unification), it should not lose the goal of unification while keeping close tabs on North Korean people's situations," he said. (Yonhap)
Becker's has reported on six hospitals shuttering in the Midwest in 2024, which could mean a rise in volume for ASCs in the region.

"As hospitals evaluate and close or ramp down in specific service lines, it can be a real opportunity for ASCs to capture new volume in a variety of specialties," Jennifer Misajet, RN, interim chief nursing officer at Fresno, Calif.-based Saint Agnes Medical Center, told Becker's in November. "Surgical patient volume in many specialties continues to migrate safely and appropriately to an ambulatory approach in both ASCs and hospitals. While service expansion may require ASCs to purchase specialty equipment and train staff, selectively focusing on growing volumes in specialties moving out of acute care can make sense for the revenue, productivity and utilization of the ASC."

Here are six hospitals shuttering in the Midwest:

1. Family Hospital at Papillion (Neb.) closed in March and its sister hospital, Family Hospital at Millard in Omaha, Neb., shut down at the end of January.

2. Chippewa Falls, Wis.-based St. Joseph's Hospital and Eau Claire, Wis.-based Sacred Heart Hospital, both part of Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System, closed in March.

3. Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus Health shut down its Aspirus Ontonagon (Mich.) Hospital and turned it into a rural health clinic in April.

4. Kettering (Ohio) Health closed its emergency department at Kettering Health Piqua on Feb. 1.
Fort Dodge, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health-Trinity Regional Medical Center will terminate an ongoing agreement with MercyOne-Iowa Heart later this year in which Mercy will no longer provide 24/7 interventional cardiology on-call coverage for the medical center, according to a May 1 report from The Daily Freeman-Journal.

The cardiology agreement will be terminated effective Oct. 19, according to the report. UnityPoint Health is working on a transition plan to ensure that coverage for its around-the-clock interventional cardiology care remains ongoing.

Iowa Heart Center will remain open and continue to care for patients at its Fort Dodge location upon termination of the agreement.

"UnityPoint Health-Fort Dodge and Mercy Iowa Heart are committed to working together to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition of services and patient care," Leah Glasgo, president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Fort Dodge, told the Journal. "We remain committed to providing high-quality cardiovascular care to Fort Dodge and the surrounding region."






Health systems are spending again on bricks-and-mortar expansion as their financial situation stabilizes and demand for care increases.

Kaufman Hall reported during its third quarter 2023 "National Hospital Flash Report" that building expansions are becoming a strategic priority for many organizations preparing for the future. There was a slowdown in hospital construction over the last few years amid the pandemic and as leaders considered the best strategy for reaching patients with smaller ambulatory locations and virtual care. But new hospital and campus projects are back with full force.

"While deferring capital investment may have been prudent in the face of recent financial pressures, waiting too long to re-engage in a strategic financial and capital planning process could threaten the long-term relevance and viability of organizations and they fall behind the needs of their communities and actions of their companies," the report states.

So far in 2024, there have been 15 hospital projects announced topping $500 million, and eight projected to cost more than $1 billion announced or launched. Here is a quick snapshot of those projects.

1. Harris Health in Bellaire, Texas, is planning a $1.16 billion hospital project that will replace the existing LBJ hospital. The new hospital will have 390 beds and a level 1 trauma center.

2. UCSF Health in San Francisco is planning a $4.3 billion, 15-story hospital to house diagnostic services, surgical procedures and robotics. The hospital will have 682 beds and the campus will also include a research and academic building.

3. MUSC in Charlston, S.C., is asking for permission to build two hospitals as part of a $705 million project, which has already received approval from the health system's board of trustees.

4. St. Louis-based Mercy is making plans to develop a 75-bed, $650 million hospital in Wentzville, Mo. The health system filed a letter of intent with the state's health department in April and plans to glean community feedback on the project.

5. Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Health Network and Highmark Health aim to launch a $1 billion, 10-year transformation project that will include major renovations to the hospital campus. The system aims to add a patient tower that will feature a cardiovascular institute and expand the emergency and trauma services.

6. BayCare in Clearwater, Fla., is planning a $538 million nonprofit hospital in Manatee County, Fla., that will include 154 beds, orthopedics, gastroenterology and more specialty services. The hospital will also have a medical arts building.

7. Jefferson Health in Philadelphia finished a $762 million outpatient facility that includes 300 exam rooms, 58 endoscopy chairs and 10 operating rooms as part of its $1 billion urban development project. The facility began seeing patients in mid-April.

8. Detroit-based Henry Ford Health received permission to move forward with a $3 billion development deal in partnership with the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University. The project will include a 1 million-square-foot-plus expansion to Henry Ford Hospital and a new research center through the partnership between Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University Health Sciences that houses the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute.

10. Gainesville, Fla.-based UF Health broke ground on a $1 billion expansion in February, with the first phase being a 150-bed hospital focused on neurosurgery, cardiovascular medicine, women's services and orthopedics.

11. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health's North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., completed a $560 million surgical pavilion that includes 18 operating rooms, three hybrid rooms and 143 ICU rooms. The pavilion also has a heart hospital.

12. University of Maryland Shore Regional Health in Easton is embarking on a new $540 million hospital construction project. The 147-bed, six floor hospital will replace the current facility, which is part of the University of Maryland Medical System.

13. University Health in San Antonio broke ground on a new $450 million, five-story hospital in January as part of a $900 million project on the University Health Palo Alto hospital campus, and a second facility in Selma, Texas, shortly thereafter.

14. Hoag Health System in Newport Beach, Calif., broke ground on a $1 billion expansion project for its Sun Family Campus in Irvine, Calif., which will include six buildings and 155 new inpatient beds.

15. Inova in Falls Church, Va., unveiled plans to break ground on a $1 billion campus later this year to replace its current facility in Alexandria. The health system expects the project to be completed by the third quarter of 2028.
Hospitals are often reluctant to share information about cyberattacks, even with one another, because of liability concerns, a health system CIO told Congress.

Members of the College of Health Information Management Executives want lawmakers to introduce safe harbors around knowledge exchange during hacks, said Scott MacLean, chair of CHIME and CIO of Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health.

"Far too often the walls go up and organizations are forced to go into a protectionist mode given the significant liability repercussions associated with a data breach," he testified in April during a hearing about the Change Healthcare ransomware attack.

Mr. MacLean said safe harbors that allowed facts to be passed along during a cyberattack would benefit the entire healthcare industry from a "time-is-brain approach."

"It would move the attack victim from a position of isolation to one where they can freely share threat information for the common good; that will help us all ensure the threat is best contained, managed, and mitigated in a timely fashion," he said.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 has increased information sharing but limits that data dissemination to federal agencies and groups designed specifically for that purpose, Mr. MacLean noted.

"We are aware of instances when a hospital experienced a cyberattack and the neighboring hospitals were not made aware because of the liability ramifications," he said. "Far too often organizations are counseled early on by their attorneys that they are not permitted to share details of their incident as doing so would open them to significant legal and regulatory risk."

Becker's recently reached out to the 25 largest health systems to ask about their response to the Change Healthcare cyberattack. All but one either didn't respond or declined to make an executive available to answer questions; Renton, Wash.-based Providence referred Becker's to a prewritten statement on its website.
Memorial Hermann Health System said it will increase its reach and support the shift to value-based care by investing in a $2.2 billion digital health startup.

The Houston-based health system was a new investor in a $126 million series D funding round May 2 for Transcarent, a company that provides a personalized digital health platform to employers and health plans. The funding increased the startup's valuation to over $2 billion.

"By building meaningful partnerships with local community healthcare providers, Transcarent is expanding opportunities for health systems to support national employers through innovative, value-based payment models," said Feby Abraham, PhD, chief strategy and innovations officer of Memorial Hermann Health System, in a statement. "Transcarent's platform empowers employer benefits programs, making it easy for employees to seek high-quality care from trusted local providers."

Transcarent CEO Glen Tullman stated that the company aims to provide customers "one platform  your mobile phone  for everything you want and need" in healthcare, including access to virtual visits, pharmacy services, weight health, cancer treatment and surgery care (via partnerships with top health systems). More than 4.3 million people have access to Transcarent through their employer or health plan.
Fifteen years after meaningful use incentives propelled the shift to EHRs, health system leaders told Becker's that digitizing medical records has been a net positive for the industry  with some caveats.

"Regardless of your position, there is no doubt that EHRs have changed the face of healthcare," said Sandra Hales, associate vice president for IT clinical applications at Phoenix-based Banner Health. "Patients now have timely access to records and data that is simplified for understanding, and there's a level of inclusivity and responsibility for patients to engage in their own care."

A challenge is that clinicians commonly feel an electronic screen has come between them and their patients, often for the purpose of increasing daily documentation for reimbursement, she said. But she called the data generated from EHRs, as well as their algorithms and safety checks, "invaluable."

"Lives are saved from simple human error," she said.

In 2009, then-President Barack Obama signed into law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, aka the HITECH Act, part of a larger economic stimulus package that provided about $35 billion in incentives for hospitals that made "meaningful use" of EHRs. Many health system leaders agreed that the transition to digital wouldn't have happened as quickly, or at all, without this push.

"Meaningful use was necessary in EHR adoption and created a better and more digitized process," said Ed McCallister, CIO of Pittsburgh-based UPMC. "Over the past 15 years, we have not connected the dots as quickly to allow for a truly connected patient experience. I am confident that [artificial intelligence] will accelerate what we know as today's health record."

Laura Wilt, chief digital officer of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, pointed to one such enhancement, a tool in Epic that employs generative AI to draft patient portal messages. The platform is being used by dozens of Sutter Health physicians, saving them time in triaging and responding to patient communications in the EHR.

"While there is always room for improvement within our field, EHRs have helped propel medicine and patient care into the modern era," Ms. Wilt said.

Michael Pfeffer, MD, CIO of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care, said it's important to leverage what EHRs do well and improve upon what they don't, including optimizing all the applications that interact with them.

EHRs also laid the groundwork for the next evolution of healthcare technology. "Applying responsible AI requires healthcare to be digitized, and now we are seeing such great advances in AI that will certainly allow us to improve EHRs and transform the way we deliver healthcare," Dr. Pfeffer said.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente was an early adopter, setting out to create an ambulatory EHR in 1997. The health system now has the largest private-sector EHR in the country. Completed in 2010, the EHR has streamlined care, reduced duplication and advanced research, said Kaiser Permanente Chief Medical Officer Andrew Bindman, MD.

"Our EHR system enables our teams of experts to seamlessly collaborate and coordinate care across departments and specialties and has fueled transformational health research and clinical practices that continue to improve patient outcomes," he said.

AdventHealth, a 52-hospital system based in Altamonte Springs, Fla., completed a $660 million Epic rollout in early 2023, giving its medical professionals "timely access to the clinical information they need at every point of care to provide the highest degree of whole-person care possible," said AdventHealth President and CEO Terry Shaw.

The single EHR enables providers across nine states to easily exchange patient data  "whether from across town or across the country," he said. "Our clinical teams benefit from having a more complete picture of a patient's history, thereby improving our healthcare delivery."

Kelley Curtis, PharmD, chief pharmacy officer of Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke's Health System, helped implement an EHR after a merger at her organization. She said the benefits have been innumerable: care coordination, information access, staff efficiency and productivity, data analytics and reporting, regulatory compliance, patient engagement and empowerment.

"While EHRs have their challenges, particularly in the realms of cost, technical issues, and the initial learning curve, their benefits in terms of improved patient care, enhanced communication, and better data management are substantial," she said.

"At this point, the role of EMRs is pretty undeniable: the value that it brings related to making data available at point of care, and allowing us to share records to deliver higher quality of care coordination," said Sophia Saleem, MD, chief medical information officer of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health. "Really, we couldn't have achieved that without EHR."

On the flip side, she said EHRs made everything in healthcare seem like an "emergency," since patients and colleagues can easily send messages at any time, regardless of the acuity of the issue. She said EHRs were also designed for documenting appointments and not the holistic, patient-centered experience that the industry hopes to move toward.

She doesn't expect anything to replace EHRs anytime soon, as they do an adequate job of safeguarding data and boosting patient safety in a litigious healthcare industry. But she said the EHR experience could inform healthcare's shift to the next big technology. "One of the things that we missed out on with EMR implementation was really getting the clinical voice in the design of it," she said. "We should not make that mistake when it comes to AI."

Dan Roth, MD, chief clinical officer of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, said the industry is at an "inflection point" with AI, where technology has the potential to reduce clinicians' documentation workloads rather than add to them.

"In the next one, three, five years, we'll be able to significantly alleviate that burden using technologies that are coming," he said.

Still, he said, EHRs' benefits have been indisputable with medication safety having improved dramatically via barcode medication administration and care gaps being narrowed by electronic data exchange. He said EHRs went through a "hype cycle," from people thinking they would transform healthcare to disillusionment to, now, a relative plateau with gradual improvements.

"When I was in practice, we used to fax information from one practice to the other. That's a very antiquated way of doing things," he said. "And without EHRs, we might still be faxing, and, in fact, sometimes we still fax, which is crazy. I'm not aware of any other industry that still uses fax at scale."

Providers often don't appreciate EHRs until they're without them when the inevitable IT outage happens, said Joe Moscola, executive vice president of enterprise management at Northwell Health.

"The majority of our workforce is Gen Y or Gen Z," he said. "They're very much digitally native. There are certain things they're just not accustomed to being able to do without the assistance of the chart."

EHRs, meanwhile, have given way to the larger "digital transformation" in healthcare, which aims to address some of the issues where the technology fell short, including interoperability and connectivity, clinician burnout, and patient "stickiness," he said.

"On the input side, ambient listening is a total game changer," he said. "I think the core record stays the same  but what we put around the record changes substantially in the next five to 10 years."

He said "meaningful use" helped create the streamlined EHR approach that exists today. Where providers used to have disparate, sometimes homegrown records systems, they're now opting for integrated platforms (with Epic being the clear winner in that market).

Northwell is switching to Epic to put the health system "on par with the majority of the country," Mr. Moscola said, but is also tacking on a customer relationship management platform from Salesforce to fill gaps in the EHR.

"That ultimately will allow us to learn more about the patient and those around them, to understand the behavior of an individual so we also understand what's distracting him or her from their healthcare, or health," he explained. "Is it their kids? Is it their parents? This sandwich generation having to deal with issues on both sides? You're not going to get that from certain tools like Epic."

Vinay Vaidya, MD, chief medical information officer of Phoenix Children's, said early EHRs were "clunky," comparing them to the first iPhone. But they became pretty consistent about eight years ago.

"Once the EMR was stable at Phoenix Children's we said, 'We didn't implement the EMR just to replace paper. We implemented it for its value for clinical outcomes and the data,'" he recalled. "So we heavily focused on giving clinical data back to physicians. That, to us, was a game changer."

EHRs have facilitated care at home, allowing Phoenix Children's to remotely gather and monitor data from cleft palate and childhood leukemia patients, reducing malnutrition and hospital readmissions in the process, he said. EHRs also identify patients for clinical trials.

Dr. Vaidya called meaningful use incentives  to apply two healthcare analogies  "ripping the Band-Aid off" and a "shot in the arm," helping consolidate the best solutions. "It was something that was needed to reset the country, and not have 75,000 opinions on how to do things," he said.

He said EHRs have been disparaged as "death by 1,000 clicks." But providers often ask for more clicks because they understand the benefits of data collection.

"In the last two years, I have received medical care from three different states," Dr. Vaidya said. "Nowadays we take it for granted, but my appointment from one state to the other was seamless. My records were seamless, my medication list was seamless. Nobody repeated my test, they had access to it  my allergies, my surgeries."

"Instead of the glass half full, I think it's 90% there," he said of EHR technology. "The tremendous advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning now rest on the shoulders of data, and it rests on electronic data."
Cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and moving beyond just EHRs are top priorities for Oracle Health, its leader told the Nashville (Tenn.) Business Journal.

Oracle Health sees itself as the "center" of the healthcare ecosystem, which is a big reason parent company Oracle plans to move to Nashville, a "center of healthcare and innovation," Oracle Health General Manager Seema Verma said in the May 2 story.

"Obviously the electronic health record is our core, but it is bringing all of those pieces together, allowing data to flow between public health, between payers, between researchers, between providers and having that data flow in a very secure way," she told the publication.

Ms. Verma, who was appointed to lead the company formerly known as Cerner in December, expressed a similar sentiment at the March HIMSS health IT conference covered by Becker's. "Oracle Health is not just an EHR company," she said at the event, citing other offerings including healthcare data intelligence, a clinical documentation tool and "military-grade" cybersecurity.

While AI is "not new to Oracle," the company is now applying it to healthcare, Ms. Verma told the Business Journal. "To get rid of a lot of the manual effort that we see across the healthcare system, thats another [thing] I would say is a key focus for us," she said.
A proposal making its way through the Delaware legislature would "devastatingly weaken" Lewes, Del.-based Beebe Healthcare and other community hospitals, its CEO David Tam, MD, said in an op-ed posted on the health system's website.

According to the Delaware Hospital Association, the proposal would impose a 250% of Medicare cap on commercial reimbursement. Dr. Tam said in his op-ed that, if passed as written, Bebee is projected to lose more than $60 million in the next two years, and that figure is estimated to be around $360 million throughout the state.

In addition to the reimbursement cap, the proposed legislation would create a five-member board that would start reviewing and approving hospital budgets in 2026. Three of the members would be appointed by the governor, one by the speaker of the House and one by the president pro tempore of the Senate. The bill has passed the House and will soon be debated in the Senate.

"We believe that budgetary control should stay with local hospitals, their leaders, and the community-based boards that know their communities best," Dr. Tam said. "Our community-based board allows us to nimbly make decisions that address our patients' and community's unique healthcare needs because they understand the unique needs of our population."

The Delaware Hospital Association is also pushing against the legislation, which it said in an April 29 news release "decimates Delaware's healthcare system." The association said it has worked to offer proposals that "address affordability and transparency and establish a collaborative effort to identify realistic solutions to shared cost concerns."

"Only a holistic approach to improving healthcare while addressing costs will benefit Delawareans, and we call on Governor Carney and state senators to join us in developing an approach that will help  not harm  the state of Delaware," Delaware Healthcare Association CEO Brian Frazee said.
The board for John C. Fremont Healthcare District in Mariposa, Calif., has dismissed the CEO after less than five months on the job, the Mariposa Gazette reported May 2.

Board members voted to dismiss Michael Zimmerman during a meeting on April 24, according to the newspaper. It also voted to appoint Pat Ryan of consulting firm Force 10 Partners, who most recently served as CEO of Sutter Health's Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, Calif., as interim CEO.

Michael Zimmerman took the helm of John C. Fremont in December. He was the first permanent CEO since Matt Matthiessen went on medical leave in January 2023. Last year, the hospital saw three interim CEOs, and CFO Mark Foote resigned after five days on the job. Diahann Barrera currently serves as CFO.

"We acknowledge the community's concern following the recent change in our executive leadership," a hospital statement shared with Becker's said. "While we maintain confidentiality on personnel issues, we assure you that this decision [regarding Mr. Zimmerman] was made with the district's best financial and operational interests in mind."

The statement also said the hospital is strengthening its financial oversight and auditing processes; implementing robust governance measures; increasing board involvement in daily operations; and is committed to transparency and maintaining the trust of individuals it serves.








On May 1, the Arizona Medical Group Management Association told the national MGMA it would end its affiliation. In the last few months, numerous other organizations have done the same and rebranded as Healthcare Leaders Associations.

The exodus happened after the MGMA  an association with a membership of more than 60,000 medical practice leaders  changed its affiliation agreement deals. In June, the national organization sought more oversight of financial performance and membership data among its affiliates in 46 states.

The MGMA proposed two affiliation agreements. The first option was for an organization to be a "state chapter," which would qualify as an MGMA subsidiary in which the national organization would assume administrative and governance duties. The alternative was to be a "state partner affiliate," which is more similar to former agreements but would forbid the affiliate from hosting a conference within 30 days of a nearby MGMA event and require the affiliate to offer dual membership and meet key performance indicators.

Forty-one organizations sent a notice of dissent in September.

The letter asked for a year to consider the new affiliate agreement options, a comparison between historical agreements and the current choices, and a meeting with MGMA leadership. The national organization agreed to meet in Nashville, Tenn., and declined the other requests.

"When we realized there would be no compromise, there would be no changes made, we had to very quickly figure out our exit strategy," Rachael Perlinger, president of Healthcare Leaders Association of Minnesota, told Becker's. She described the disaffiliation as a rebranding effort.

The other organizations that disaffiliated are Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts/Rhode Island, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire/Vermont, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The MGMA has created its own chapters in the states where HLAs exist, continuing its presence in 46 states.

Andrew Swanson, senior vice president of product strategy and sales at the MGMA, told Becker's the national organization has been reconsidering its affiliation agreements for years because of financial struggles related to halted conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before suggesting the new affiliate agreements, the MGMA found a few state affiliations were "on the brink of insolvency," Mr. Swanson said.

Decades of trust and affiliations eroded in 2023.

"Those two things, offering of dual membership and the oversight of MGMA, pushed some organizations into a feeling of, 'Not a partnership but more of a reporting relationship, a hierarchical relationship,'" he said. "Those were the impetus  or at least that's what we've been told was the impetus  for some of the state organizations who carried the MGMA brand to disaffiliate."

Healthcare Leaders Association and MGMA members alike will feel minimal differences, according to Mr. Swanson and HLA leaders. One contrast is the MGMA offers the American College of Medical Practice Executives certification and credit hours; state HLAs do not.

Former MGMA affiliates said the Healthcare Leaders Association brand has more inclusive language: All managers are leaders but not all leaders are managers, they said.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 8:40 a.m. to clarify the Medical Group Management Association has organizations in 46 states.
Korea's industry ministry said Friday the country has officially become the fourth member of the Digital Trade Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), founded by Singapore, Chile and New Zealand.

The DEPA is an agreement that went into effect in January 2021 by the three countries to establish key rules on digital trade issues, such as digital identities, cross-border data flows and artificial intelligence.

"The ROK's successful accession is an important milestone," the members said in a joint statement, using the acronym of Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

"The DEPA commits parties to ambitious disciplines on digital trade to advance the growth of the digital economy," the statement said. "Expansion of the DEPA will add to the heft of the agreement and provide greater opportunities for collaboration amongst parties."

The trade ministry said Korea is expected to expand online-based businesses with countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, along with Central and South America through participation in the DEPA.

Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo said, as the first additional member of the DEPA, Korea will lend hands in expanding the membership of the initiative.

"We aim to establish a foundation for digital cooperation among the members, ensuring that the DEPA emerges as a platform that strengthens our economic partnership," Cheong said during a celebration event held in Paris.

Currently, China, Canada, Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates are negotiating their participation in the agreement. (Yonhap)
The National Labor Relations Board has asked a federal court to force Trinity Health Grand Haven (Mich.) Hospital, part of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, to recognize SEIU Healthcare Michigan as the bargaining agent of about 200 employees and to resume negotiations.

The NLRB filed for the preliminary injunction April 30, months after the hospital withdrew recognition of the union in September 2023. In the filing accessed by Becker's, the federal agency argues that the court should grant injunctive relief pending the final disposition of broader allegations by the NLRB that Trinity Health Grand Haven has engaged in, and is engaging in, acts and conduct in violation of federal labor law. Specifically, the NLRB seeks to stop the hospital from "interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed" under the law while the broader case is ongoing.

SEIU Healthcare Michigan issued a news release about the petition for a preliminary injunction, emphasizing its position that hospital workers were denied their union rights after the hospital illegally ceased union recognition while disregarding a certified federal union election.

"This is an uplifting victory for Grand Haven Hospital workers and an unequivocal declaration that the law is firmly on our side when it comes to our union rights. Trinity needs to stop playing games with corporate lawyers, cheating hard-working Americans out of their rights, and instead go back to the bargaining table," Ricky Kauffman, lead radiographer at Trinity Grand Haven, said in the release.

Trinity Health Michigan shared the following statement with Becker's: "Trinity Health Michigan has done our best to act in accordance with what we think our obligations are to the employees, under the law, and we're prepared to take this with the Federal Labor Relations Board if that is what the NLRB chooses to do. We believe the NLRB is improperly trying to change the law after the fact and that we are willing to go, not only to the full NLRB, but to the courts to defend our actions and our colleagues' actions."

Workers at Trinity Health Grand Haven initially voted to join SEIU Healthcare Michigan in fall 2022. The hospital withdrew the union's recognition last fall, citing a petition it received Sept. 28 that it says indicated the union lost majority support of its members. The petition followed a decertification election that took place Sept. 18-19. According to Michigan Public, the vote showed a majority of workers support SEIU Healthcare Michigan. In December, the NLRB upheld a regional director's decision certifying the union as the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of the hospital workers.

"Although the results of the election were in favor of the union, the notice to the SEIU of the withdrawal of recognition was delivered 10 days after the election and prior to the ballot count, thereby taking precedence over the outcome of the election," a previous news release from the hospital said.

Throughout the ongoing dispute, the NLRB has favored the union's position and contends the hospital violated labor law by refusing to bargain in good faith. Trinity Health Grand Haven has consistently stood by what it says is its right to withdraw union recognition.

"Our basic position is that we are doing what our colleagues, our employees, want us to do," Doug Seaton, Trinity's lead labor relations consultant, told Michigan Public. "They have submitted a letter to us saying in a majority that they don't wish to be represented by the SEIU."
Resident physicians have filed dozens of grievances with New York City's public hospital system, alleging systemic understaffing that their union says leaves about 2,300 physicians at NYC Health + Hospitals chronically overworked.

The grievances, announced May 1, represent 483 individual incidents in two weeks, including those in which physicians had to perform tasks outside of their job scope, according to the Committee of Interns and Residents, the nation's largest house staff union and a local of the Service Employees International Union.

The incidents span a range of departments such as emergency and internal medicine, OB-GYN, pediatrics and surgery across seven of the health system's facilities, and represent demands placed on new physicians, including drawing blood, transporting patients and performing social work tasks, according to the union. The CIR contends the tasks reduce the amount of time physicians are able to spend treating patients and are the result of understaffing.

"The out-of-title work tasks that are the subject of the grievances pull them away from time with their patients as physicians  so counseling them about their care and follow up, answering their questions, talking to their families and answering their questions, studying their case, as well as the continued medical education that's supposed to take place during residency and fellowship," Rachel Nass, lead communications coordinator with the union, told Becker's.

"This is all the result of understaffing  there should be enough professionals ([such as] phlebotomists, nurses, social workers) to handle these tasks. It contributes to extreme burnout, and is part of what makes it so difficult for doctors to want to stay on at H+H after residency, along with the low pay."

The grievance filing comes amid contract negotiations and follows a week of action physicians had in January, a City Council committee hearing in February and a protest outside the home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams in March. Both parties have been negotiating since August, with one bargaining session earlier in 2023. The next bargaining session is May 9.



"NYC Health + Hospitals is grateful for our residents who play a critical role in patient care every day," a statement from the health system shared with Becker's said. "As negotiations are ongoing, we look forward to continued discussions with the Committee of Interns and Residents. Our goal is to strengthen our partnership and reach an agreement that is fair to CIR, NYC Health + Hospitals, and our city's taxpayers."
As it stands, federal health officials say the risk avian flu poses to public health is low. If that were to change, hospital leaders say they don't feel any more prepared in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they fear they would face a repeat of challenges in securing adequate supplies to care for patients and protect the workforce.

"I don't think that we would do well if we were to be hit by a pandemic right now," Payal Patel, MD, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Health, told Politico in a May 3 report. "What we've learned over the last few years is that it's really hard to predict what turn things will take  and also that it's important to learn from the past."

There is currently no evidence that the H5N1 bird flu strain infecting dairy cattle in at least nine states is spreading between humans. So far, there has been one confirmed human case tied to the outbreak, which affected a dairy farm worker in Texas in early April. The true scope of the outbreak is not clear, given dairy herds aren't routinely tested. Some scientists also believe there are more human infections that have gone undetected, given just 25 human samples have been sent to the CDC, according to The New York Times.

Speaking of a hypothetical scenario in which the disease did start to affect more humans, infectious disease physicians worry the workforce won't be prepared, given many clinicians haven't had time to recover from COVID-19 and continue to operate under strain amid ongoing labor shortages.

"We just simply do not have the manpower  currently  to care for the people that are coming in through our doors," George Diaz, MD, infectious disease specialist at Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health, told Politico. "We don't have an adequate supply of the people to care for the people."

Hospital officials anticipate there would be hurdles in securing the right amounts of testing supplies, antivirals and personal protective equipment. They fear lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic haven't been fully learned.

"There doesn't seem to be enough political motivation" for an adequate public health response, should bird flu spread more widely among humans, Bruce Farber, MD, chief public health and epidemiology officer at New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health, told the news outlet. "The politics are, if anything, further against public health than they were before the pandemic."

Federal officials say they have a head start in responding to a potential bird flu outbreak, given it is not a novel virus and disease surveillance is more advanced than it was when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

"We're not flat-footed," Dawn O'Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, told Politico.

There are millions of vaccine doses believed to be well-matched to H5N1 in government stockpiles that federal officials say would be ready to distribute quickly, should they be needed. Antivirals are also on hand, and manufacturing could be bolstered if needed, CDC officials have said.
The Nebraska Hospital Association established a relief fund to support hospital employees who were affected by tornadoes April 26.

Tornadoes affected Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa on April 26 and 27. The storms destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and were the strongest in Nebraska and Iowa in 10 years, the National Weather Service said. In Oklahoma, 100 people were injured in the storms and one hospital was shut down.

The relief fund will help hospital employees in the affected areas, according to a May 1 American Hospital Association news release. The AHA plans to make a donation to the fund.
Several orthopedic procedures are becoming more commonplace in the outpatient setting.

Two orthopedic surgeons connected with Becker's to answer, "What's next for outpatient orthopedic surgery?"

Ask Orthopedic Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting orthopedic care. We invite all orthopedic surgeon and specialist responses.

Next question: What orthopedic innovation are you most excited about?

Please send responses to Riz Hatton at rhatton@beckershealthcare.com by 5 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 9.

Note: These responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Earl Kilbride, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Austin (Texas) Orthopedic Institute: Outpatient orthopedic surgery will continue to make strides in the total joint market. Right now, the majority of total joints are still being performed as an inpatient or short stay episode. With the Medicare allowance of total shoulders in the ASC, the volumes of shoulders will only grow. As companies self-insure and look for ways to save while providing exceptional care, totals in all joints will move to the ASCs. The studies support the economics and clinical outcomes. The ASC is adapting to these cases. They are hiring navigators and therapists to help with throughput. The joint companies are modifying their technologies as well. One company has a two-tray total hip and a tabletop navigation/kinematic unit. Others utilized disposable cutting guides. Home health companies have increased their exposure to the patients as well.

Philip Louie, MD. Spine Surgeon at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Tacoma, Wash.): Developing models for Centers of Excellence. How so? Well, as the healthcare landscape is pushing toward an eventual value-based care model (and potential smaller population-based models), outpatient surgery centers need to better harness data and analytics. Precision analytics and time-driven activity-based costing will be crucial for driving clinical and financial performance in these outpatient surgery programs.

This data can also be used to strategically invest in innovations that will allow for safer surgery through smaller soft-tissue footprints and improve the outcomes of the surgeries being performed. As more care transitions to outpatient settings, data harnessing and analytics becomes more streamlined, and investments in innovation improve outcomes  these outpatient programs will become even more renowned and serve as preferred destinations. Thus, potentially earning additional key accreditations that will grow these programs and advance patient surgical care.
Scroll down for all the answers to your questions

Business owners in Belfasts Great Victoria Street have said they have mixed feelings ahead of the closure of one of the city's largest train stations.

Today, Great Victoria Street Train Station will close its doors for the final time ahead of construction on the new state-of-the-art Belfast Grand Central Station.

The day will be marked by Translink who will give those travelling from Great Victoria Street Station a free commemorative ticket.

The transport company have also published a limited-edition special booklet outlining the history of the station as it departs ahead of the nearly 400m upgrade.

Watch: Inside the new 200m Belfast Grand Central Station as work enters final phase

The first station opened on the site of Great Victoria Street station in 1839, some 185 years ago.

The final train will depart (delays permitting) at 11.32pm to Bangor.

As the train leaves the station, it marks the beginning of travel disruption for some commuters, which Translink said will be minimal with various bus substitutions in place.

The transport company will operate a Belfast base from Lanyon Place, with no changes to Botanic or City Hospital stops.

However, later in the summer as engineering work continues, the rail line will close between Lanyon Place and Lisburn.

During this time, bus substitution services will operate and passengers will also be able to use scheduled Metro and Ulsterbus services operating between Belfast train stations and along the Lisburn Road.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph before the station shuts down its rail services, business owners who operate in the shopping mall, which connects the entrance to the stations, said they had mixed feelings about the closure.

Bread Street is newly opened in the station

A more recent addition to the station is Bread Street, whose employees didnt wish to be named, but admitted they were not too concerned.

Weve been busy since we opened, and nothing has been said to us. Were still going to be trading and open the whole way through the shutdown of the station, one employee said.

Bread Street is actually really busy, as you can see the amount of people in here, its great. But there will be no changes to us.

Sarah Bonar, who works within the electronic cigarette stand and vape shop, Ziggicig, expressed some concern, saying their shop is one of the busiest in Belfast.

Sarah Bonar, sales assistant at Ziggicigg

I work across Belfast, including shops in Lisburn, and this is one of the busiest there is. See the minute people get off those trains or buses, theyre straight in here. Its crazy busy.

We havent heard much about the closing of the station, but I doubt well close due to the business of this shop.

However, owner of mobile and tech accessory stand ProMobile, Navid Hemd is slightly more concerned.

Navid Hemd, owner of ProMobile and Tablets

The concession stand sells phone cases and any last-minute accessories for those heading on long journeys, including power banks. The stand is one of the only non-housed traders in the unit, but it is a permanent fixture.

There will be the buses, yes, but its mostly train passengers coming through here at rush hour who are stopping to look at the phone cases. I am worried, he admits.

It means there wont be as many people. We are a very busy place, and that is because of the train station. With bus passengers we dont get as many. Were not moving though, and well just stay here and hope.

Metro Barbers, which operates just yards away from the entrance to the bus station, connected to the soon-to-close train halt, is not closing its doors and while owner and manager Paul McGill admits it will be tough, hes looking at the bigger picture.

Paul McGill, owner of Metro Barbers in Great Northern Mall, Great Victoria Street

Were still open, I dare say we will be affected, he said.

We tend to get a fair share from the bus and train, but other customers do come to us as well. But at the end of the day, were looking at the bigger and longer picture.

The plan they say is that this area will be the thoroughfare to the main new hub. So there are going to be a lot more people coming through here once its done.

But it will be tight for a few months, but we just have to focus on what is to come. This Linen Quarter and new square is going to filter a lot of people through here which is good for us.

The only thing were worried about is that the barrier right next to the shop will have to close, its the cut-off part for the work, but itll be just a few months, but were not closing and will still be trading the entire thing.

We actually look at it as exciting for a new development to come here which will bring more customers to us.

Great Victoria Street closure  your questions answered

When does Belfast Great Victoria Street close?

Great Victoria Streets train operations will close tonight (Friday, May 10) with the final train leaving at 11.32pm.

When does it reopen?

The station itself, which still operates as a bus station, will not reopen in its current form. Instead, a new station, Belfast Grand Central, will replace it in the autumn.

What does this mean for travel into Belfast?

The railway line will remain open throughout Belfast but will no longer serve Great Victoria Street Station.

Translink has said passengers can continue to use other city centre stations including York Street, Lanyon Place, Botanic and City Hospital.

Major routes such as the Derry-Londonderry line will remain unaffected, with Belfast travellers instead boarding the train at Lanyon Place.

I travel from Lisburn to Lanyon place, how will I be affected?

From later this summer, the line from Lisburn to Lanyon will be closed. Translink has said a bus substitution will be in place.

Once in Belfast and at Lanyon Place, other bus services will also be available to commuters.

Will this affect larger summer events in Belfast like the Twelfth of July?

The disruption will be minimal. Only those travelling using the Lisburn line will be affected when travelling into Belfast.

For example, if youre travelling from Lurgan and wish to go to Portrush, you would use the bus substitution to Lanyon Place and board the Derry-Londonderry service there.

What about the Enterprise service?

The Enterprise service will continue to operate from Lanyon Place.
What the new student scheme could look like when completed

A major new student accommodation scheme could be built in the Titanic Quarter amid freshly submitted plans.

The TQ Student Village could see four blocks built  ranging from five to nine storeys  between the new Olympic House office building and Belfast Metropolitan College, and able to accommodate up to 1,200 students.

The development could include 385,000 sq ft of external floorspace, cafe, associated communal facilities including landscaped courtyards, internal bin stores and cycle stores, solar panels, disabled parking, public realm provision, associated site works and extension of Titanic Boulevard to form new junction with Hamilton Road.

The scheme, which is being developed by Watkin Jones Group and Lacuna Developments, has already undergone a pre-application and community consultation, but full plans have now been submitted.

The TQ Student Village has been designed with community at its core, with access for its future residents to so much more than just a bedroom or studio, supporting documents on behalf of Todd Architects say.

The proposal we present as part of this submission includes a range of facilities and services to support both study and relaxation in one location, allowing residents to utilise scheme specific study facilities, and easing pressure on library space and the wider university facilities at peak times.

The proposals describe a new, contemporary and sustainable student residential development that is rooted in the qualities of this historical maritime site and upcoming waterfront community.

The scheme was conceived as a perimeter block responding to the defined urban edges of the masterplan plot, around a secure private landscape courtyard and is composed of a series of architectural pieces with varying architectural character through material tone and articulation to read as a composition of buildings responding to the site and street contexts.

Breaks in the massing at upper floor levels articulate this urban assembly allowing glimpse views through to neighbouring buidings as well as the historic H&W cranes
Array Collective delighted to help teach kids about mixed-media art

Belfast-based art group Array Collective have been immortalised as cartoon characters for a new online BBC Bitesize platform which is teaching children about mixed-media art.

The group are most famous for being the first Northern Ireland recipients of the prestigious Turner Prize, which they were awarded in 2021  also the first time it was given to a group of artists rather than an individual.
Korea, China and Japan are likely to hold a long-stalled trilateral summit of their leaders on May 26 and 27, a news report said Friday.

The three countries have been in talks for the three-way summit in Seoul, and they reached an agreement on the summit date, according to Japanese private broadcaster JNN.

The trilateral summit was last held in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu in December 2019.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are expected to visit Seoul to meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol as South Korea is the current rotating chair.

The summit has been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and a deterioration in Seoul-Tokyo relations over the issue of compensating Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Talks of reviving the summit gained momentum amid a dramatic warming of the Seoul-Tokyo relations after South Korea said in March last year it will compensate the Korean victims on its own without asking for contributions from Japanese companies. (Yonhap)
Bill and Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell in audience

Packy Lee as Gerry Adams and Dan Gordon as John Hume in Lyric Theatre production of Agreement. Photo by Carrie Davenport

Award-winning actor Dan Gordon says he is delighted with the stateside reaction to the play he stars in about the Good Friday Agreement.

Bill and Hillary Clinton, and George Mitchell, were in the audience to see it in New York this week.

The critically acclaimed Agreement looks at one of the most momentous months in Northern Irelands history when a peace deal was signed, ending a decades-long conflict which claimed the lives of 3,500 people.

It was a time when the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the British Government and the Irish Government, all under the watchful eye of then Senator Mitchell, were trying to hammer out a deal that could pave the way for peace.

The Lyric Theatre has been celebrating following a host of critically acclaimed reviews for its political drama.

The production is currently playing to packed audiences at the Irish Arts Center (IAC) in New York and is running until May 12.

It is directed by Charlotte Westenra, with set and costume design by Conor Murphy.

The cast includes: Andrea Irvine (Mo Mowlam), Chris Corrigan (Gerry Adams), Dan Gordon (John Hume), Martin Huston (Tony Blair), Richard Croxford (George Mitchell), Ronan Leahy (Bertie Ahern) and Ruairi Conaghan (David Trimble).

Dan Gordon told the Belfast Telegraph the reaction has been fantastic.

He added: We've had full houses for six weeks. Senator George Mitchell came on the opening night, he'd also seen it in Belfast.

He came for a third time on Wednesday night with President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton, she had also seen it in Belfast.

Liam Neeson has been in and several other well-known faces from Broadway and beyond.

The play is about negotiation and tells the story through our own Good Friday Agreement - the audiences delight in the compromise and the hope it displays.

Let's face it we played out our history on the world stage - the names Hume, Trimble, Adams, Ahern, Blair, Mowlam and of course Mitchell are known to many Americans of a certain age.

As for the younger ones, like the young people at home, they just love the fact that grown-ups can be made to sit down and for once agree.

Mr Mitchell spoke at Queens University Belfast on the 25th anniversary of the agreement last year when he urged the 100 percenters within Northern Irelands political parties to approach compromise in the future.

He reflected on the talks and negotiations in the lead-up to the Good Friday Agreement.

It was the first event he has publicly spoken at since being diagnosed with cancer three years ago.

"Each of your parties have the 100 percenters. They want it their way all the time. Compromise is seen as a sign of weakness, he said.

Reasoned principled compromise is essential, especially in divided society. There is great depth in recognising that the only way to help up emerge from the rubble of conflict is that we must learn to understand one another.

"We don't need to love one another, we dont even need to like one other, but we must learn to understand one another and be able to say yes to one another even when the quickest and easiest answer is no.
James Corden shared the news that the hit sitcom would return for a final episode (Ian West/PA)

BBC sitcom Gavin and Stacey will return for its last-ever episode on Christmas Day this year.

The hit TV series about a couple who commit to a long-distance relationship last aired in 2019 for a one-off festive episode which ended on a cliffhanger.

In an Instagram post, writer and star James Corden shared an image of him and fellow creator Ruth Jones with a 2024 script titled: Gavin and Stacey: The finale.

He wrote: Some news Its official!!! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey. See you on Christmas Day, BBC One. Love Ruth and James.

The BBC said: Well have: A chicken bhuna, lamb bhuna, prawn bhuna, mushroom rice, bag of chips, keema naan, nine poppadoms and the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey!!!

Coming this Christmas Day on BBC One and iPlayer.

Jones had previously shut down rumours that the series would return.

The Welsh actress said it was sadly a rumour on RTE Radio 1 in February.

The comedy followed the two titular characters Gavin and Stacey, played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, as they pursued a relationship across Essex and Wales.

US outlet Deadline reported in February that the special was being produced by Steve Coogans Baby Cow, Joness Tidy Productions and Fulwell 73, which is co-owned by Corden.

Loose Women star Page and comedian Rob Brydon, who plays Uncle Bryn in the series, have denied knowledge of the shows return.

But Page wrote on Instagram on Friday: O my god its happening!!! So excited!!! Last ever Gavin and Stacey! Christmas Day @bbcone. Cant wait to start filming!!

The show, which picked up multiple accolades including Bafta and British Comedy Awards gongs, also stars Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb as Gavins mother Pam and father Mick, while Melanie Walters portrays Staceys widowed mother Gwen.

Lamb wrote on X, formerly Twitter: Well just to say to everyone whos asked about another G&S we just got the word from the BBC this morning its definitely occurring.

James Corden, Joanna Page, Mathew Horne and Ruth Jones star in Gavin and Stacey (Tom Jackson/BBC/PA)

Running for three series from 2007 to 2010, the festive special in 2019 saw Smithy, played by Corden, and Nessa, whose characters had an on-off relationship, end on a cliff-hanger after Nessa, played by Jones, proposed.

The 2019 festive episode scored the highest overnight Christmas ratings in 12 years when it aired, attracting an average audience of 11.6 million viewers, making it the biggest festive special since Christmas Day 2008.

By the new year, it had been viewed by 17.1 million people, making it the biggest scripted programme of the decade at the time.

The special also went on to win the impact award at the National Television Awards in 2020.

Jones told the PA news agency during the red carpet event that the barrier was Corden living in the US prior to his exit from his talk show The Late Late Show With James Corden, which ended in 2023.

We still have the same situation, which is that James and I live on different continents, so getting together to write is very difficult, so who knows?, she said. At the moment there are no plans.

Corden has been cast in a London stage production of political drama The Constituent, which is set to begin at The Old Vic in June, and has starred in the Prime Video comedy series Mammals.

Jones went on to create and star in Sky One comedy drama Stella, for which she was nominated for a Bafta, and has also written novels.
The Belfast Telegraph Business Awards are taking place this evening (Image: by Kevin Scott)

Staff from Cleary Contracting Ltd attending the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024 at the Crowne Plaza, Tuesday, May 2, 2024. Picture by Peter Morrison

Sasha Geoffrey and Alice Byrne attending the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024 at the Crowne Plaza, Tuesday, May 2, 2024. Picture by Peter Morrison

Sarah Taylor, Eileen Taylor and Saima Akran attending the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024 at the Crowne Plaza, Tuesday, May 2, 2024. Picture by Peter Morrison

Claire Loftus and Stephen Loftus attending the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024 at the Crowne Plaza, Tuesday, May 2, 2024. Picture by Peter Morrison

Louise and Roger McLaughlin of Home Instead UK attending the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024 at the Crowne Plaza, Tuesday, May 2, 2024. Picture by Peter Morrison

Eoin Brannigan, Editor in chief of Belfast Telegraph, Economy Minister Conor Murphy, Belfast Telegraph Business Editor Margaret Canning and Ed McCann, Director of Publishing Operations, Mediahuis Ireland. (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Dame Rotha Johnston DBE receives the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Ed McCann, Director of Publishing Operations at Mediahuis Ireland, and Mark Crimmins, Regional Managing Director, Corporate, Commercial and Business Banking at Ulster Bank, at the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards. (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph

Almac Group has been named Outstanding Business of the Year while Dame Rotha Johnston received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Belfast Telegraph Business Awards in partnership with Ulster Bank.

Winners were announced across 19 categories at a glittering awards ceremony on Thursday in Belfasts Crowne Plaza Hotel. It was attended by around 500 people, including Economy Minister Conor Murphy.

The Minister said the optimism of the ceremony reflected the general mood of the business community here.

Eoin Brannigan, Editor in chief of Belfast Telegraph, Economy Minister Conor Murphy, Belfast Telegraph Business Editor Margaret Canning and Ed McCann, Director of Publishing Operations, Mediahuis Ireland. (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

"I congratulate all the winners, nominees and all businesses in attendance who are at the forefront of writing a new, more prosperous chapter for our economy, he added.

Mark Crimmins, head of Northern Ireland for title sponsor Ulster Bank, said: This years Business Awards in partnership with Ulster Bank were a fantastic showcase for the local business community and it was fantastic to see so many industries and business leaders represented on stage.

Congratulations to all the winners, who exemplify the talent and innovation companies here are so renowned for and rightly deserve to be celebrated for all they have achieved.

Its been wonderful to be associated with awards again this year and sincere thanks must go to the team at the Belfast Telegraph for delivering a great event and to all of the judges and other partners who made tonight a success.

Drug development company Almac Group, which is based in Craigavon and employs around 7,000 people worldwide, was praised by the judging panel, led by Belfast Chamber chief executive Clare Guinness.

They said: Almacs turnover has grown significantly year-on-year, but it stands out for its ethos, values and its commitment to Northern Ireland.

"It has also adopted science-based climate targets, including transitioning to renewable energy and zero waste to landfill and has a significant CSR programme, including generous donations to charity."

They said the company was to be commended for expanding in Northern Ireland, adding two new facilities in Craigavon and announcing a centre of excellence at Queens University.

Almac Group, a privately-owned business, is regarded by major global biopharma companies as a trusted expert in drug research and development and diagnostic services.

Dame Rotha Johnston DBE receives the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Ed McCann, Director of Publishing Operations at Mediahuis Ireland, and Mark Crimmins, Regional Managing Director, Corporate, Commercial and Business Banking at Ulster Bank, at the Belfast Telegraph Business Awards. (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph

Dame Rotha Johnston was celebrated for a distinguished career spanning textiles, economic development, foodservice, banking, property investment and film.

With her husband Henry, she developed the first all-Ireland foodservice business, selling to Musgrave Foodservices in 2006.

She was chair of Northern Ireland Screen from 2013 to 2021 and is the former chair of NIE Networks. During 2022 she was a member of the Independent Review Panel of Invest NI.

Belfast Telegraph Business Awards 2024

Eoin Brannigan, editor in chief of the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life, said: We are delighted to honours the stars and often unsung heroes of Northern Irelands economy by holding the Business Awards every year.

"The last two events went ahead when we had no Executive so I was particularly happy to see the Economy Minister in attendance.

"Thank you to Ulster Bank and all our sponsors for their support and well done to all the winners, especially Almac Group and Dame Rotha Johnston, who collected a Lifetime Achievement Award."

Ms Guinness said the awards were a chance to celebrate the vibrant business community.

"Chairing the awards and working with an expert panel of judges is of course a pleasure, but the true enjoyment is drawn from reading the quality applications from businesses of all types, across all sectors and from all parts of Northern Ireland, she said.

Winners across 19 categories in the 2024 Belfast Telegraph Business Awards in partnership with Ulster Bank:

Heres how the evening unfolded:
A Co Down village can rest easy this weekend, after their two-day parrot watch ended on Friday evening.

Kali the double yellow-headed amazon parrot escaped from Andy and Gail Taits home in Donaghcloney on Wednesday night, but the couple managed to retrieve their pet bird thanks to the help of fellow residents  and a bag of crisps.

The exotic animal escaped from their home after Andy went to give her some water in her cage for the night.

He forgot that he had left the back door open, and she scooted right past his arm.

From then, Gail said the community had been fantastic in trying to recover the famous bird, who is now safely back home.

"See once we got her, it was like something just drained from my body, Andy explained, adding that Kali too seemed exhausted after her wild outdoor adventure.

He noted that they would both sleep well now.

Kali was spotted on the roof of the local primary school on Friday morning, but she scarpered again when the bell went for break and all the pupils came out.

However, Andy and Gails daughter said that she appeared at the school again during the evening.

Andy continued: We went to drive up after work and I knew shed be hungry, so I stopped to get a pack of beef-flavoured McCoy crisps, because I would give Kali a wee tiny bit of them as a small treat from time to time, and I know theyre her favourite; you dont want to be giving them to birds too often.

"But, we saw her in this tree and I started shaking the open packet of crisps at the bottom of it. She was looking down at me, and got spooked and flew away, but eventually we found her again at the back of some houses on the other side of the village.

Kali fluttered over to a low garage then, and again Andy attempted to lure her in with the crunchy goods.

A local crowd had gathered, and slowly, Kali approached her owner. As soon as she put her beak in the crisp bag, he grabbed her firmly and put a blanket over his feathery friend, with an uproar of cheers from all the helpful onlookers.

"I honestly didnt think Id ever see her again, Andy continued. And the residents of Donaghcloney have been awesome.

"There is one man, Phil Ogle, who is originally from the village but now lives in Hillsborough. I never knew him personally, before but he has been out helping us look for her ever since she got out and he found out on Facebook. Hes a friend for life now.

DUP councillor for the area, Mark Baxter, said that Kali has become famous and that she has really captured the imagination of the entire village.

Shes my husbands baby, Gail added.

We are totally humbled by the whole village. We went out on Thursday night to look for her and the more we looked, the more people joined us to help.

They were out with nets, standing out on their roofs. They unlocked their garage and shed doors and said we could come and go freely to look for her; all people we dont know, we just couldnt believe it.

Shes about seven months old and weve had her since she was three months old.

She's just starting to learn to talk, with the broadest Belfast accent youve ever heard.

Shes hilarious, she wolf whistles and says, whatcha doing? or she shouts Peekaboo. Shell give someone a heart attack!

We just want to add a massive thank you to Donaghcloney residents and everyone who is taking the time to help catch or spot her.

The Taits also have a new nickname for Kalis favourite crisp brand too  McCaws.
Sport

Ulster boss Richie Murphy: We lost our way, but showed character to come back and finish it off
The Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) has suspended a public inquiry into goldmining that was scheduled to take place in September.

Huge quantities of water would have to be used for Dalradians proposed mining project in the Sperrin Mountains if it is approved.

But an error meant applications related to water abstraction and its storage in ponds known as impoundment  could not come before the inquiry.

The PAC has now said that all applications, including crucial applications related to water, have to be heard at the same time as the others for the sake of public confidence in the process.

In response the Department for Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has said: The Department is of the view that the suspension of the originally timetabled inquiry is not a proportionate decision and have suggested an alternative approach, to the Appeals Commission, that would allow the new abstraction & Impoundment licence applications to form part of the conjoined inquiry, with a start date of 10 September 2024.

"However, the timetabling of the inquiry is solely a matter for the Commission.

The global firm has applied for planning permission to extract gold, silver and copper from the area of outstanding natural beauty.

These plans have sparked 50,000 objections and a public inquiry was called to examine all parts related to the application, including eight permissions Dalradian will need to mine.

These are linked to the electricity grid, water abstraction and impound licences and the abandonment of a historic road.

Read more GB minister accused of meddling after Sperrins gold mine letter

The Water Appeals Commission (WAC) wrote to DAERA two weeks ago raising concerns about information received during the pre-inquiry meeting.

This cast doubt on DAERA's authority to call a public inquiry over water licences they had "deemed refused" and said "it appears to us that the Departments representative may not have given entirely accurate information.

DAERA Minister Andrew Muir then said Stormont officials "did not intend to mislead" a pre-public inquiry meeting about Dalradian Gold's application to mine in the Sperrin Mountains.

Now a letter has been published on the PAC website by Chief Commissioner Andrea Kells.

She notes that all applications were supposed to be considered together as part of a conjoined inquiry.

However, the abstraction and impoundment license applications can no longer form part of the inquiry which was due to open on September 10.

The Commission said it was placed in an invidious position where two referring authorities wish to progress with the PI (public inquiry) whilst another has failed to respond in time.

The Department for Infrastructure had said if the resubmitted licenses added nothing new then the department saw no obvious reason to delay the inquiry process.

However, Ms Kells said: As you should all be aware, the water abstraction and impoundment licenses are required to abstract water from the ground and surface water around the proposed mine and impound that water in ponds as detailed in the planning application.

This operation proposes to use the impounded water in the processing of ore.

She added: Whilst the commissions appreciate that the licensing applications fall under a different consenting regime, you will all of course agree that they are integral to the operation of the mine and without the water ponds there may be surface water run off which may have a different environmental impact to that which has been assessed as part of the papers provided to the Commissions.

The letter states that resubmitted license applications and subsequent public inquiry referrals will ensure that issues associated with the development can be considered in full.

The Chief Commissioner added: Proceeding with the inquiries in the absence of these two key elements will, in the Commissions view, fundamentally undermine the ability of the Commissions to fulfil its duties satisfactorily and would significantly undermine public confidence in the inquiry process and its outcomes.

They therefore decided to suspend arrangements for the current inquiry timetable as they await valid direction from DAERA in relation to the expected abstraction and impoundment license applications, together with all relevant papers.

The hearing will then have to be rescheduled for all eight elements of a conjoined inquiry.

In answer to an Assembly question about a letter from the Water Appeals Commission, DAERA Minister Andrew Muir stated: My officials responded to the WAC letter on 24 April 2024.

The letter confirms that in oral questions, from the Commissioner, at the pre-hearing inquiry in March, DAERA officials gave an incorrect answer based on their honest understanding of relevant internal procedures and their honest recollections of the correspondence from some time ago.

There was no attempt to mislead the inquiry and a sincere apology has been issued.

The letter further confirms that the Applications had been deemed to be refused prior to the direction to the WAC and that there was therefore no jurisdiction to direct the WAC to consider representations in respect of these two Applications.

DAERA has been contacted for comment.
The UK-wide inquiry arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday for three weeks of hearings in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

A set of notes from a key meeting of the Stormont executive believed to be missing has been handed to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The handwritten notes related to a meeting of the executive on July 2 2020 which was the first meeting of ministers following the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey.

The funeral sparked political controversy after then deputy first minister Michelle ONeill attended despite lockdown restrictions being in place limiting gatherings.

Sir David Sterling leaves the Clayton Hotel in Belfast after giving evidence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry hearing on Wednesday (Liam McBurney/PA)

Earlier this week, the former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Sir David Sterling told the inquiry there was a discernible chill between then first minister Arlene Foster and Ms ONeill following the funeral.

At the start of the inquiry hearing on Friday morning, counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin KC revealed that the notes from the July 2 meeting had now been located by The Executive Office (TEO).

Previously the inquiry had been told the notes were not held.

Ms Dobbin said the inquiry was approached by the TEO following opening statements to say in fact they had the minutes of the July 2 meeting, and that officials were surprised as they believed the notes had been supplied to the inquiry.

She outlined efforts that had been made by the inquiry to obtain those notes and follow-up queries around missing materials.

Ms Dobbin said the inquiry set out to The Executive Office that these handwritten notes cover a period of significant interest to the inquiry and its plainly of concern if these are in fact missing.

She added: It suffices to say that despite those notes having been found, and despite the sheer number of requests having been made, despite the fact that the TEO in fact told the inquiry that those notes werent held, and despite the very specific questions that the inquiry asked about the precise circumstances in which notes like this could go missing, they werent provided until after the opening had been given.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett said she was very concerned about what she had heard, and will consider whether her team will pursue it further.

Its not a very happy picture, she added.

The current head of the NICS Jayne Brady is set to give evidence to the inquiry later.

Jayne Brady, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (Niall Carson/PA)

The UK-wide inquiry arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday for three weeks of hearings in Belfast.

It is set to look in depth at the decisions taken in Northern Ireland.

This module will investigate the initial response, central government decision-making, political and Civil Service performance as well as the effectiveness of relationships with governments in the devolved administrations and local and voluntary sectors.

It will also assess decisions behind lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions.

It has so far heard from a number of senior civil servants, including former interim head of the NICS Jenny Pyper.

In a previous phase, the inquiry heard that some mobile phones which had belonged to former ministers had been wiped despite instructions to preserve communications for the hearings.

Jenny Pyper, former interim head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, after giving evidence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry hearing on Thursday (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms Pyper gave evidence to the inquiry that she had handed in her work-issued laptop and mobile phone when she left the role in September 2021, and had not deleted any messages from them.

However Thursdays hearing was told she made a second statement in March to correct that.

She said she had deleted some material from her personal phone but also said what she deleted did not relate to the response of the government of Northern Ireland to the pandemic.

I did not clear out all WhatsApps and messages on my personal phone, I deleted the exchange with Dr McCormick (senior official Andrew McCormick) because I believed I had shared some casual and off-hand comments on what was a personal communication channel, but I believed those comments on reflection were unprofessional, she told the inquiry.

I dont believe that I consciously thought that those messages needed to be retained  but I reflected that my communications with Dr McCormick had drifted towards the inappropriate.

I did not clear out everything and a number of my exhibits confirm that there were other WhatsApps exchanged, very casual, especially when you read it now knowing what has happened in relation to the loss of information.

I regret now that I deleted anything from my personal phone because I believe it could have given the impression that I had deleted more than I had.

The inquiry also heard that Ms Pypers work-issued phone cannot be located.
A male midwife in Northern Ireland has shared how two babies he delivered have been named after him  and what he does to celebrate each new mum.
Baroness Arlene Foster, former first minister of Northern Ireland and former leader of the DUP (Liam McBurney/PA)

Former First Minister Arlene Foster has dismissed the prospect of a united Ireland saying "there are nowhere near enough people to take us out of the United Kingdom".

Speaking to ITV News on a visit to Jersey with her pro-unionist organisation Together UK, the ex-DUP leader claimed: The dial hasn't really moved in terms of a united Ireland, they (republican and nationalist parties) portray it as such... but actually, it is important to look at the facts."
Members of K-pop juggernaut BTS carrying out their mandatory military service has sent a "positive signal" for men to faithfully fulfill their service, the head of the military manpower agency said, raising the possibility of abolishing exemptions given to top athletes and musicians.

Lee Ki-sik, commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration (MMA), made the remark in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Thursday, noting shifting public perception on the country's compulsory service since the enlistment of the group's members.

All seven members of BTS are currently carrying out their service, as all able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve in the military for at least 18 months in a country facing constant military threats from North Korea.

"In the eyes of the public and in terms of fairness, BTS carrying out their military service and faring well is extremely positive," he said at the MMA's office in western Seoul.

Lee pointed to the public's enthusiastic reaction to recent pictures of BTS member V in full counterterrorism gear after being accepted to serve in a special duty unit late last year.

"Such appearances send a very positive signal to the people," he said. "It compares with draft dodgers."

The remarks come as South Korea plans to review overhauling a supplementary military system, which has been widely perceived as providing exemption from conscription for elite athletes and classical musicians.

Lee said an intergovernmental task force will launch later this month to review the system in its entirety, which also includes alternative services for doctors and other technical experts, and come up with measures to improve it by the end of this year.

The country has recently debated over the system that allows elite athletes and musicians to just undergo a three-week basic military training program for their service if they win Olympic medals, the gold at the Asian Games or win top prizes at prestigious classical music competitions.

The system was introduced in 1973 with the intent of promoting national prestige, but South Korea's rise as an economic and cultural powerhouse over the decades has led to growing questions over its fairness, such as whether BTS  the first South Korean group to top the Billboard 200  is more deserving of the benefit.

"Compared with when the system was first introduced, there have been many changes in terms of the environment, public perception and military manpower resources," he said.

Lee said various options can be discussed regarding the benefit to athletes and classical musicians.

"It could disappear or it could be changed in a way where their specialties aren't buried," he said. "There could be many measures ... the condition for what would be optimal is fairness in military service duties and the eye level of the people."

When asked about athletes undergoing the supplementary service by winning the gold at the Asian Games, considered relatively less competitive than the Olympics, Lee said many of the public would agree.

"The system was created when winning a gold medal at the Olympics and the Asian Games was considered raising national prestige," he said. "Is that still necessary?"

Meanwhile, Lee reaffirmed his view against female conscription as a way to respond to concerns over dwindling military manpower resources due to the country's chronic low birth rate.

"The introduction of female conscription is still too early," he said, noting it could create conflict between men and women.

The country's declining total fertility rate has further increased concerns of troop shortages, with the average number of expected births coming to 0.72 last year, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea's population stable at 51 million without immigration.

South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)
Infrastructure minister to meet with PSNI to discuss interim safety measures on A5 following latest road deaths

Department for Infrastructure yet to respond to the findings of a public inquiry that concluded last year

The Doogary Road, part of the A5, where two teenagers died in a crash on Tuesday night. Pic: Pacemaker Belfast

Liam Tunney Fri 3 May 2024 at 07:00







Infrastructure Minister John ODowd is set to meet with the PSNI to discuss interim safety measures on one of Northern Irelands deadliest roads.
Exclusive |

Indefensibly, the Covid Inquiry is hiding key Stormont evidence from public  and that is not just stupid, but dangerous
Zak Hanias wife Batoul Hania and sons Nourmohammed, 11, (front left), Ahmed, 14, (front right), Mazen, 19, (back left) and Ismael, 17, (back right) (Brian Lawless/PA)

An Irish-Palestinian man who was blocked from leaving Rafah has fled the Gaza Strip and is making his way back to Ireland in the coming days.

Zak Hania previously spoke about his fear of never seeing his family again after they were able to leave Gaza at the end of last year.

Mr Hanias wife Batoul and their four sons were among the Irish citizens who left Gaza via the Rafah border last November and are now living in Dublin.

Palestinian Batoul Hania, who is an Irish citizen, at her accommodation in West Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Hania was not accepted on to the list of evacuees and was left in the besieged territory.

Mrs Hania and her four Irish-born sons, Mazen, Ismael, Ahmed and Nour, spent months pleading for help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

His family said that he crossed the border and is in Egypt, and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr Hania previously told the PA news agency about the nightmare conditions living in Rafah and how he spent months fearing he would never see his wife and sons again.

His son Mazen said they are so excited about being reunited with their father this weekend.
Taoiseach Simon Harris with First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, during a press conference outside Stormont Castle (Liam McBurney/PA)

Irelands premier Simon Harris hailed the impact of the return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont as he began his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

Mr Harris met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration.

However, Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseachs office had not always been good in the past.

Taoiseach Simon Harris during a press conference outside Stormont Castle (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Harriss visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle ONeill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived.

After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs.

After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the incredible leadership of Northern Irelands First and deputy First Ministers during a brief press conference at which there was limited scope for the media to ask questions.

He said: It has been a really good engagement.

I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north.

I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and Im extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in.

Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus.

Mr Harris was elected as Irelands youngest ever Taoiseach last month.

First Minister Michelle ONeill during a press conference at Stormont Castle (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms ONeill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund.

She said: I am very glad he has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund.

A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week thats been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road.

Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again.

She added: We talked about some of the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects.

The DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly said: We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseachs office have not always been good in the last number of years.

But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the Government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom.

But of course there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together.

Those are set out in terms of the areas of co-operation.

But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships.

The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships.

Taoiseach Simon Harris arriving at Stormont Castle as makes his first official visit to Northern Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders.

Afterwards, Alliance party leader Naomi Long said she raised the need for reforms of the Stormont institutions to remove the ability for any one party to collapse the institutions in the future.

Im very conscious always of the vulnerability of the institutions, she said.

Ms Long expressed concern that complacency would emerge around the issue of reform now that powersharing was back up and running.

The East Belfast MLA also raised the recent diplomatic tensions between the UK and Ireland over migration issues.

She described the spat over the Rwanda scheme as a bit of a phoney war and also appeared to question the basis for the claim that 80% of asylum seekers recently arrived in the Republic of Ireland had entered from Northern Ireland.

Alliance party leader Naomi Long raised recent diplomatic tensions between the UK and Ireland over migration issues (Liam McBurney/PA)

These arent figures that we would recognise, Ms Long said, as she stressed the need for clarity on the numbers.

She added: Whilst were not responsible for migration in Northern Ireland (the Home Office is), we do have an ethical and moral obligation to look after people who are within our remit and in our jurisdiction.

UUP leader Doug Beattie described his discussions with Mr Harris as friendly.

It really was a bit of a grip and grin meeting just to sort of say hello to each other, he said.

Mr Beattie said he pressed Mr Harris to do more on issues around the legacy of the Troubles, including setting up a public inquiry in Ireland into the Omagh bomb of 1998.

The UUP leader insisted there was no need for any reset of relations between his party and the Irish Government, insisting that the relationship had never faltered.

Our relationships have been strong all along, he said.

Weve continued to meet, weve continued to have good dialogue, weve continued to express concerns. Thats what good neighbours do. If we have concerns, we should be able to openly and respectfully express them and weve always had that. So, where some people might need to reset their relationship with the Irish Government, thats for them, but certainly as a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party I think our relationships remain strong.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said much of his discussions with Mr Harris concentrated on migration.

He said the Taoiseach made it very clear that an open border on the island of Ireland was non negotiable.

Mr Eastwood said the noises coming from the UK Government over migration and Ireland were primarily motivated by a desire to shore up its support in the local and general elections.

One thing that I think unites lots of people in the north of Ireland is the need to get rid of this Tory Government, so the sooner they call that election the better, he added.

The Taoiseach left Stormont for a working lunch with business stakeholders prior to a scheduled engagement at the Duncairn arts centre focused on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

That visit came ahead of a final engagement at Queens University Belfast for a meeting with academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Governments Shared Island Fund.
Over a dozen tents were pitched in the grounds of St Marys Park in Ballsbridge, south Dublin (Cate McCurry/PA)

The Taoiseach has defended the Governments handling of accommodation for asylum seekers, after a number of homeless migrants pitched tents in a private park in south Dublin.

Around a dozen asylum seekers arrived at St Marys Church Park in Ballsbridge on Thursday night.

The men had been told by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) that there was no longer accommodation available.

The group of men left the Ballsbridge area at around 9am on Friday. The park is close to Mount Street, where hundreds of tents had been pitched until Wednesday morning when the makeshift campsite was cleared in a multi-agency operation.

The Government has been struggling to accommodate the rising number of asylum seekers arriving into the State.

On Wednesday morning, more than 200 asylum seekers who had been living in tents outside the International Protection Office (IPO) were moved from the area to facilities at Citywest and Crooksling in Co Dublin.

However, a number of men who sought accommodation on Thursday were told none was available.

Simon Harris said that makeshift encampments on public roads and footpaths is illegal, and never the solution.

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Harris said: Its also not in the interest of the people who are sleeping in those tents, people who dont have access to proper sanitation.

We did provide 290 people from Mount Street and those who appeared in Mount Street that day with accommodation, with shelter, with access to sanitation, with food, with a much better scenario than had been allowed to develop on Mount Street.

I am very comfortable with the position that we took and I believe it was necessary in relation to that.

Simon Harris said Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home (Liam McBurney/PA)

People did turn up at the International Protection Office yesterday and there wasnt accommodation for all people.

IPAS does have contact details for all those people. It is working to try and provide accommodation solutions for all those people.

I think what we saw in St Marys was a temporary thing being done by people who were being very humane in terms of trying to provide assistance on property that wasnt public.

We work at this every single day but I need to be clear and honest with people coming to our country, we are doing our very best in a very difficult and challenging circumstances to provide accommodation.

But accommodation isnt always readily available but we keeping working at it day by day.

The conversation about migration cant just be one about accommodation, because no matter how much accommodation you have, if its just a conversation about accommodation, accommodation will fill.

It also has to be a conversation about faster processing times, about efficient and effective systems.

On Thursday it was reported that a senior civil servant is to be appointed to tackle misinformation and disinformation around migration.

The Irish Examiner reported that the civil servant will work within the Department of Children and will work to improve the messaging around migration.

Mr Harris said said it is never too late for any democracy to push back against misinformation, disinformation and indeed interference from abroad on occasion in relation to debate and discourse.

Tents housing asylum seekers near to the International Protection Office, in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Migration is a really good thing, immigration is a good thing, he added.

Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home. They are working in hospitals, they are working in our hospitality sector, and right across many sectors of the economy.

So migration and immigration is a good thing and I think its really important that we say that and that we dont seed that ground or create a vacuum for others to exploit.

Having said that, I think people in Ireland, and I would imagine people in most countries, want to know there are rules in place, they want to know the rules are enforced, they want to know that the system is fair, that its firm, that it helps those who are entitled to help.

That if someone comes to our country and goes through a processing system and isnt entitled to be there, that that person is asked to leave in the first instance and made to leave if they dont.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer looks at his watch as he celebrates at Blackpool Cricket Club after Chris Webb was declared winner in the Blackpool South by-election (Peter Byrne/PA)

The Conservative Party chairman has appealed to restive Tory MPs to wait through the weekend after a bruising first set of local election results, insisting Rishi Sunak is the right man to lead the party.

Richard Holden admitted it had been a tough night, but insisted the partys drubbing on Friday was typical for a Government in midterm amid rumblings of unease among the parliamentary back benches.

Elections experts have warned the Conservatives could be on course to lose 500 seats in what could be their worst showing in 40 years.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer hailed a seismic win for Labour in the Blackpool South by-election, where the party secured a 26.33% swing, as well as council gains in key areas like Hartlepool and Redditch.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria arrive at their local polling station in north London, to cast their vote in the local and London Mayoral election (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Prime Minister is braced for further pain as more results trickle in over the weekend which could increase pressure on his leadership of the Conservative Party and the country.

Touring broadcast studios on Friday, Mr Holden said it had been a tough night, but insisted that when were facing those tough challenges weve got the right man for the job.

Asked whether he was confident that Tory MPs will not try to remove Mr Sunak as PM, Mr Holden told Sky News: Parliamentary colleagues need to look at this and see and wait through the weekend as well.

The losses have triggered speculation that mounting Tory discontent could lead MPs to seek to remove the Prime Minister after reports of a rebel plot to oust him in anticipation of disastrous local elections results.

Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden admitted it had been a tough night (James Manning/PA)

But Mr Holden sought to highlight local issues at play, insisting the Blackpool South by-election took place in particularly difficult circumstances following the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton after a lobbying scandal.

He admitted it had been a tough night but told LBC the party was coming off a very high watermark in 2021.

Most of the council seats up for re-election in England were last contested three years ago, at the peak of Boris Johnsons popularity as the Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out.

Labours Chris Webb won the Blackpool South parliamentary seat with the third biggest swing from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.

(PA Graphics)

The Conservatives avoided the humiliation of coming third in Blackpool South, but finished just 117 votes ahead of Reform UK.

Out of the 107 councils where votes were held on Thursday, just 35 counted overnight  but the results make grim reading for the Prime Minister.

The Tories lost control of three authorities and 96 councillors lost their seats, though the party held on by a single seat in Harlow. Labour gained three authorities and 58 councillors.

Elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice said the Tories could be on course to lose 500 councillors in one of the worst, if not the worst performances by the party in 40 years.

So far they are basically losing a half of the seats they are trying to defend. If that continues, they may end up losing 500 or so seats, which is the thing they were meant to avoid, he told BBC Radio 4s Today.

Labour candidate Chris Webb celebrates with his wife Portia and baby Cillian Douglas Webb after winning the Blackpool South by-election (Peter Byrne/PA)

Voters across England and Wales also had the chance to choose their police and crime commissioners.

Key results include:

 Labour won Rushmoor in Hampshire for the first time and claimed the council in general election bellwether Redditch.

 Labour won Hartlepool council, regaining ground in an area where the party suffered a Westminster by-election disaster in 2021.

 Labour won Thurrock, one of its top targets and an area of the country that will be a key battleground with the Tories at the next general election.

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 The Tories clung on by a single seat in Harlow, a council targeted by Sir Keir on the eve of polling day.

 Labour lost control in Oldham, with gains made by independents possibly as a result of Sir Keirs stance on the war in Gaza.

 The Greens put on 12 councillors and the Liberal Democrats also gained 12, while there were also increases for independents and residents groups.

 Labour gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Cumbria and Avon and Somerset.

In the Blackpool South contest, Labour secured 10,825 votes, a majority of 7,607, with Mr Webb saying: People no longer trust the Conservatives. Prime Minister: do the decent thing, admit youve failed and call a general election.

Sir Keir said: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

He added: That wasnt just a little message, that wasnt just a murmur, that was a shout from Blackpool.

We want change, and Blackpool speaks for the whole country. It says we have had enough now after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline

We have a positive case, we want to take our country forward, this is a giant step on that journey.

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The strong showing by Reform UK will add to Tory unease about Mr Sunaks ability to lead the party to a general election victory, with Mr Holden saying on Friday that votes for the right-wing party will help Labour.

Reform UKs leader Richard Tice told the PA news agency his party had rapidly become the real opposition to Labour, whether its in the North, the Midlands, we know its the case in Wales.

In Sunderland, one of the few councils where Reform fought every seat, it beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.

Sir Keir conceded he was concerned wherever we lose votes after Labour lost control of Oldham Council, with the partys national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden admitting the crisis in the Middle East was likely a factor.

We intend to win any votes we have lost back, he told the BBC.

A total of 11 mayoral contests are also taking place, including for the London mayoralty between frontrunners Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Tory challenger Susan Hall.

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Conservative mayors Andy Street in the West Midlands and Lord Ben Houchen in Tees Valley are also facing re-election battles.

Victory for either would be a welcome boost for Mr Sunak, although Labour points to the mayors distancing themselves from the current Tory leadership.

The Liberal Democrats said they expected to put further holes in the blue wall of Tory battleground seats in southern England.

The Greens hope to make further progress in key targets including Bristol, Worcester, Stroud and Hastings.

The relatively new requirement for voters to show photographic identification caused some high-profile problems, including for Boris Johnson, who as prime minister introduced the changes.

He was turned away while attempting to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire but returned with the proper documentation to vote for the Tory candidate for police and crime commissioner.
Democratic Arizona governor Katie Hobbs has relegated a Civil War-era ban on most abortions to the past by signing a repeal bill on Thursday.

Ms Hobbs said the move is just the beginning of a fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona.

But the repeal may not take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, in June or July.

Abortion rights advocates hope a court will step in to prevent that outcome.

Katie Hobbs holds up the repeal of the near-total abortion ban at the Capitol in Phoenix (AP Photo/Matt York)

The effort to repeal the long-dormant law, which bans all abortions except those done to save a patients life, won final legislative approval on Wednesday in a 16-14 vote of the Senate, as two Republican lawmakers joined with Democrats.

Ms Hobbs denounced a ban that was passed by 27 men before Arizona was even a state, at a time when America was at war about the right to own slaves.

This ban needs to be repealed, I said it in 2022 when Roe was overturned, and I said it again and again as governor, Ms Hobbs said.

The vote extended for hours as senators described their motivations in personal, emotional and even biblical terms  including graphic descriptions of abortion procedures and amplified audio recordings of a foetal heartbeat, along with warnings against the dangers of legislating religious beliefs.

Anti-abortion supporters protest outside at the Capitol in Phoenix (AP Photo/Matt York)

At the same time on Wednesday, supporters of a South Dakota abortion rights initiative submitted far more signatures than required to make the ballot this fall, while in Florida a ban took effect against most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people even know they are pregnant.

Democratic Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes, an opponent of the near-total abortion ban, has said the earliest the dormant abortion-ban law could be enforced is June 27, though she has asked the states highest court to block enforcement until sometime in late July.

But the anti-abortion group defending the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains county prosecutors can begin enforcing it once the Supreme Courts decision becomes final, which has not yet occurred.

The near-total ban provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the law first approved in 1864, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.

A repeal means that a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizonas prevailing abortion law.

President Joe Bidens campaign team believes anger over the fall of Roe vs Wade gives them a political advantage in battleground states like Arizona, while the issue has divided Republican leaders.

The 19th century law had been blocked since the US Supreme Courts 1973 Roe vs Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

After Roe vs Wade was overturned in June 2022, then-Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could be enforced.

Still, the law has not actually been enforced while the case was making its way through the courts.

Dr Ronald Yunis, a Phoenix-based obstetrician-gynaecologist who also provides abortions, called the repeal a positive development for patients who might otherwise leave Arizona for medical care.
The death toll from heavy rains in Brazils southern Rio Grande do Sul state jumped to 29 as of Thursday night, with another 60 people missing, according to the states civil defence agency.

The agency had said in its prior report, at noon, that 13 people were dead and 21 people missing, just slightly higher than the toll on Wednesday.

Brazils President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva travelled to the state on Thursday to meet with local authorities and express his solidarity.

Everything that is within reach of our government will be done to attend to the needs of the people who are being affected by these rains, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Operators reported electricity and water cuts across the state, and officials detailed numerous incidents of flooded roads, landslides and collapsed bridges as water levels of rivers and streams rose sharply.

Part of the structure of a hydroelectric dam gave way on Thursday. More than 10,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to the civil defence agency.

The downpour started on Monday and was expected to last through Friday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than 150 millimetres (six inches) of rain fell in 24 hours, according to Brazils National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Tuesday.

The current event will be the worst climate disaster that our state ever faced, governor Eduardo Leite said on X late on Wednesday afternoon.

We are living a very critical moment in the state.

Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Nino, a periodic naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region.

In Brazil, El Nino has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.

This year, the impacts of El Nino have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.
Firefighters attempt to put out the fire on the scuba dive boat Conception (Ventura County Fire Department via AP, File)

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.

The September 2 2019 blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent US history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.

Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year.

The charge is a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seamans manslaughter. It was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Captain Jerry Boylan was the first to jump overboard when the ship Conception caught fire (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Boylans appeal is ongoing. He faced up to 10 years behind bars.

The defence had asked the judge to sentence Boylan to a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest.

While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr Boylan did not intend for anyone to die, his lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo.

Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.

The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 30 metres from shore.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck.

Among the dead were a deckhand, who had landed her dream job; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.

Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived.

Thursdays sentencing was the final step in a fraught prosecution that has lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims families.

A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seamans manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars.

Boylans lawyers argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.

With the conclusion of the criminal case, attention now turns to several ongoing lawsuits.
The South Korean military shot down an unidentified balloon over the Yellow Sea in March as it crossed the western maritime border, sources said Friday.

The Marine Corps stationed in Baengnyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto inter-Korean maritime border, detected the unidentified flying object measuring up to 2 meters and drifting without a power device, according to the sources familiar with the issue.

A KA-1 light attack aircraft was deployed near the front-line island and shot it down as it kept crossing the NLL.

The military attempted to retrieve the object at sea but failed to salvage it, they noted.

Military officials speculate that the object may have flown from North Korea, though they do not rule out the possibility of it originating from China.

Spy balloons from China have been spotted in the United States and Taiwan in recent years. (Yonhap)
The sale and supply of single use vapes are set to be banned in NI by April 2025

As parents, we try to do what we can to bring up our children healthy, happy and able to make the right decisions in life.

But try as we might, there are always temptations placed in their way.

A quick smoke behind the bike sheds used to be enough to get school pupils into a world of trouble in years gone by, but that habit has been replaced in recent times by vaping. The new kid on the block, supposedly healthier, supposedly cooler and incredibly easy to attain.

For the uninitiated, they come in all colours and flavours, and can be bought in disposable form. But the risks to health in the long term have been largely cast aside along the way. They are already reaching epidemic levels in our schools.

There is always an issue with slapping the word banned on something that has already proved popular, however misguided that popularity is. It could, in the end, make the product even more desirable, and raise the financial cost.

But that must be a cost worth paying if it means vapes are harder to obtain for young people.

It is, just like smoking, addictive. It is, just like smoking, harmful to health. Thats a message that still needs to be pressed home.

Read more Ban on sale and supply of single use vapes in NI to be in place by April 2025

Moves are now under way to ban the sale and supply of single use vapes in Northern Ireland by April 2025. At the pace Stormont has traditionally managed to legislate, that may seem ambitious, but the road of travel has been laid out.

And for the minister, its not simply the obvious health benefits in banning their use, its the benefits for the environment.

They are, as the name suggests, disposable. They are produced to be used, then thrown away. But simply throwing them away doesnt get rid of them.

Around five million every week are discarded across the UK rather than recycled, introducing plastic, nicotine salts, metals and lithium-ion batteries into the environment.

No ban will get rid of that problem overnight, of course. For now, this is about keeping the message loud and clear in the minds.

Vaping may not be as harmful as smoking cigarettes. But health experts agree that anyone who doesnt smoke should not start vaping. Childrens doctors say vaping may cause long-term damage to young peoples lungs, hearts and brains.

It should not be so easy to start in such a disposable manner.

If Northern Ireland can join with the rest of the UK in introducing a ban on single use disposable vapes, a win win is always better than a win.
Shutterstock.com

You are probably familiar with the term rapture, as It commonly associated with the Second Coming of Christ within certain branches of American evangelicalism. To understand why the word rapture is applied to Jesus return, we have to understand what the word really means in a Christian context. The rapture is believed to be the final assumption of Christians into heaven during the end times. During this end-time event, Christian believers who are living, along with resurrected believers, will rise in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The origin of the term comes from the apostle Pauls first epistle to the Thessalonians in scripture, in which the word harpazo is used, which means to seize or to snatch away. During the rapture, believers of Jesus Christ will be snatched away from earth and go into the air. According to scripture, the event will happen instantly, in the twinkling of an eye.

The word rapture is not used directly in scripture, but it is referenced in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. During this period, believers who have already died will be resurrected along with believers who are living. They will meet the Lord in the air. Many Christians believe that the rapture is the return of Christ in the clouds to remove all Christians from the earth before Gods wrath in the final days. The rapture is connected with the event of Jesus return because we are told at this moment Jesus will come back to defeat the Antichrist, destroy the enemy and establish His millennial kingdom. Many people associate the rapture with the Second Coming, and while they are similar events, they are separate from each other. Both of these events involve Jesus return and are end-time events. However, we must understand the differences.

The rapture is the idea that Jesus return will happen in two stages. The first stage will be a secret rapture. This is a carrying away of the saved to heaven that will occur at the beginning of a seven-year period of tribulation. At the end of tribulation, the second phase will happen when He will make His final return to earth in glory and triumph. In the first stage of the rapture, Jesus comes for His church. At the end of the tribulation, He comes back with His church. During this event, every eye will see Him. At the rapture, only believers will see Him.

There is great debate in Christian circles about the timing of the rapture. Some believe it happens before the tribulation period, and others believing it occurs after. Some believe it happens during the tribulation period. The biggest debate has less to do around if it happens, but when it will happen in relation to the tribulation. Those who have the pre-tribulation view believe that the rapture will happen before the tribulation period. Those who have the mid-tribulation view believe that the rapture will take place halfway through the tribulation. The post-tribulation belief is that the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation period. For Christians, the pre-tribulation rapture is great hope. Whether we live to see pre, mid or post-tribulation, or die before the rapture occurs, the common link is eternal salvation. This is coming from our faith in Jesus Christ.

Many things are supposed to occur during the rapture, including many signs of deception. Some people will claim to be the Messiah and have all the answers concerning our troubled world. Matthew 24 speaks directly to this. In this passage, Jesus gives warning directly to our generation. Matthew 24:3-8 tells us, Later, Jesus was sitting at a place on the Mount of Olives. The followers came to be alone with him. They said, Tell us when these things will happen. And what will happen to prepare us for Your coming and the end time? Jesus answered, Be careful! Dont let anyone fool you. Many people will come and use My name. They will say, I am the Messiah. And they will fool many people. You will hear about wars that are fought. And you will hear stories about other wars beginning. But dont be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. Nations will fight against other nations. Kingdoms will fight other kingdoms. There will be times where there is no food for people to eat. And there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are only the beginning of troubles, like the first pains of a woman giving birth. This passage is speaking directly to us, warning of the false prophets that will show up with signs and wonders only to deceive us. We must be on guard and figure out who these false prophets may be.

While we are told not to try to determine the time the rapture will occur, we are cautioned for a reason. We should pay attention to the signs around us. God specifically chose not to reveal the date to us. In Acts 1:7-8, when Jesus was asked about the end times, He replies, It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Ultimately, only our Father in Heaven knows the date and the hour. Only He can answer when time has run out.

One of the most important things to gather from the rapture is that during this period, Christians will approach the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is the point when a Christians life is examined. Scripture says, For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). This refers to the summing up of a Christians life. Instead of looking at this only as a time of judgment and punishment, we should look at this as a reward. Our lives will determine what will happen when that moment comes, but if we live as Christ has called us to live, only good things will come.

Lesli White is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications and a concentration in print and online journalism. In college, she took a number of religious studies courses and harnessed her talent for storytelling. White has a rich faith background. Her father, a Lutheran pastor and life coach was a big influence in her faith life, helping her to see the value of sharing the message of Christ with others. She has served in the church from an early age. Some of these roles include assisting ministry, mutual ministry, worship and music ministry and church council.
Under the change, Australian and British firms could import U.S. military technology without needing licenses.

U.S. President Joe Biden (second from left), flanked by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, walks to a meeting at Point Loma Naval Base in San Diego, Calif., March 13, 2023.

The U.S. State Department has opened the public review process for proposed changes to export controls that would allow defense contractors in Australia and the United Kingdom to import American military technology without needing to obtain licenses.

Australia and the United Kingdom would join Canada as the only countries with exemptions from licensing requirements under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, which is meant to stop U.S. defense technology falling into the wrong hands.

Public comment on the proposed exemptions  central to Pillar 2 of the AUKUS security pact among Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States  is being sought by May 31, according to a statement issued by the State Department on Thursday.

The change would create a license exemption supporting billions of dollars in license-free defense trade between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and allow for deeper security cooperation and innovation among AUKUS partners, it said.

All three nations are committed to working with our private sectors and our research communities  those who will use these exemptions  to ensure the exemptions, taken together, support the goals of the AUKUS enhanced security partnership, the statement said.

The Virginia-class attack submarine Pre-commissioning Unit (PCU) John Warner (SSN 785) is moved to Newport News Shipbuildings floating dry dock in preparation for a christening in Virginia, Aug. 31, 2014. [U.S. Navy/John Whalen/Huntington Ingalls Industries/Handout/Reuters]

AUKUS Pillar 2 aims to create a broad and seamless defense industry across the three nations amid ongoing production backlogs in America as its defense industrial base is stretched by growing commitments to allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

However, the proposed ITAR changes have been criticized by some U.S. lawmakers, including the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, who has asked whether Australia can protect defense secrets from Chinese spies.

ITAR exemption

Officials at the State Department last year also expressed concerns about the proposed ITAR exemptions, arguing that Australian and British firms can freely access U.S. military technology after being vetted and going through the licensing process.

Proponents of Pillar 2, though, said the process is bureaucratic and burdensome for many foreign firms and that exemptions are needed to facilitate production innovation across the three AUKUS countries.

Congress ultimately approved the possible exemptions in last years defense spending authorization bill and gave President Joe Biden until last month to evaluate whether Australia and the United Kingdom had appropriate safeguards in place to protect U.S. military secrets.

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN 780) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a scheduled deployment in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility, Sept. 1, 2021. [Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP]

On April 19, though, the State Department said Biden had not yet reached such a determination and would again evaluate the allies in 120 days, at which time the exemptions could be finalized.

Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho and his partys ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the decision at the time as undermining the AUKUS pact.

The Biden Administrations determination that the U.K. and Australia do not have a system of export controls comparable to those of the United States is deeply misguided and further delays the implementation of AUKUS, Risch said in a April 22 statement.

This judgment means our trade with the U.K. and Australia will continue to operate under the existing ITAR rules for at least the next four months, he said. It is time to deliver on the promise of AUKUS. Continued failure to do so would demonstrate the administration is fundamentally unserious about competing with China.

Last year, Risch noted that Australia and the United Kingdom were  along with Canada and New Zealand  already trusted as part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance with the United States.

Widening net

Those critical of the exemptions point out that Five Eyes is an arrangement with trusted foreign governments, while the changes to ITAR would put U.S. defense technology into the hands of private companies who would then be responsible for safeguarding it.

Australian and British companies would no longer need to seek approval from the State Department prior to any export, reexport, retransfer, or temporary import of defense articles from America, according to a filing on the U.S. Federal Register.

In order to mitigate the risks involved with that, the proposed exemptions say individuals in Australia and the United Kingdom with access to sensitive U.S. technologies would need the equivalent in their countries of Secret-level clearance in the United States.

The exemptions would also not be comprehensive.

The State Department will compile a list of defense articles and defense services excluded from eligibility for transfer under the proposed new exemption, the Federal Register filing said.

Whatever the case, the Biden administration seems intent on passing the exemptions that could dramatically expand military production amid fears about Chinas aims of territorial expansion in the Pacific.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell  who until February was Bidens top adviser on Asia  said last month that Pillar 2 of AUKUS was basically  the way forward from the massive backlogs that he said have plagued the U.S. defense industrial base.

National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington to examine his nomination to be deputy secretary of state, Dec. 7, 2023. [Mariam Zuhaib/AP]

In time, U.S. officials said that Pillar 2 could be expanded to include more allies. Last month, officials indicated Japan could be the first extra country added, but also said Tokyo has to wait until the arrangement with Canberra and London is fully fleshed out.

South Korea this week expressed interest in joining.
Frank Bainimarama, prime minister of Fiji until December 2022, who oversaw an era of media repression in the Pacific island country, interacts with a reporter after casting his vote at a polling station in Suva during Fijis general elections on Dec. 14, 2022.

Fijis ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs.

Fijis improvement in the annual Reporters Without Borders index was in contrast to the global trend for erosion of media independence  manifested in the Pacific by Papua New Guineas evolving plans for a media law and its prime ministers threat to retaliate against journalists.

The advocacy group, also known as Reporters sans frontieres or RSF, said Friday there has been a worrying decline globally in respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from states and other political actors.

States and other political forces are playing a decreasing role in protecting press freedom. This disempowerment sometimes goes hand in hand with more hostile actions that undermine the role of journalists, said RSFs editorial director Anne Bocande.

The international community, RSF said, also has shown a clear lack of political will to enforce principles of protection of journalists. At least 22 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the course of their work by Israels military during its war in Gaza since October, it said.

Meanwhile authoritarian governments in Asia, the most populous continent, are throttling journalism, the group said, citing the examples of Vietnam, Myanmar, China, North Korea and Afghanistan.

The index covers 180 countries but it reports on only four of two dozen Pacific island nations and territories. Excluded Pacific island countries include those with no independent media, such as Nauru, and others with a diversity of media organizations such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

RSF told BenarNews that while it currently does not have the capacity, it hopes to increase the number of Pacific island countries it reports on and to forge relationships with more Pacific media organizations.

The chief executive of Vanuatu Broadcasting & Television Corporation [VBTC], Francis Herman, said he would welcome Vanuatus inclusion.

I think it is important that Vanuatu is included. There are challenges around media freedom, the track record in the past is of threats to media freedom, he told BenarNews at a Pacific broadcasters conference in Brisbane.

We are relatively free but that doesnt mean everything is all well.

Chinese state TV interviews Solomon Islands Chief Electoral Officer Jasper Anisi in Honiara on Apr. 18, 2024 following a general election.

Fijis position in the index improved to 44th in 2024 from 89th the previous year, reflecting the seachange for its media after strongman leader Frank Bainimarama lost power in a 2022 election.

After 16 years of repeated attacks on press freedom under Frank Bainimarama, pressure on the media has eased since Sitiveni Rabuka replaced him as prime minister in 2022, said RSF.

Fiji Broadcasting Corp. said the reform has allowed its journalists to do stories they previously shied away from.

Self-censorship out of fear for the possible consequences was the biggest issue in holding power to account, FBC said in a statement provided to BenarNews on behalf of its newsroom.

The 16 years under the media decree meant many experienced journalists left the profession and a generation of journalists couldnt practice in a free and transparent media environment.

Already we're seeing positive change but its going to take some time to rebuild the skills and confidence to report without fear or favor.

The win for press freedom in the Pacific comes at a time when Chinas government, ranked at 172nd on the index and which tolerates media only as a compliant mouthpiece, is vying against the United States, ranked at 55th, for influence in the region.

State-controlled or influenced media has a prominent role in many Pacific island countries, partly due to small populations, economies of scale and cultural norms that emphasize deference to authority and tradition.

Nations such as Tuvalu and Nauru only have populations of a small town.

Papua New Guineas Prime Minister James Marape shows the inside of his jacket, which is lined with old photographs of himself, during an interview in Sydney on Dec. 11, 2023. PNGs ranking in a global press freedom index has plummeted during his prime ministership. [David Gray/AFP]

The press freedom ranking of Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country, deteriorated to 91st place from 59th last year.

The government last year said it planned to regulate news organizations and released a draft media policy that envisaged newsrooms as tools to support the economically-struggling countrys development objectives.

Prime Minister James Marape has frequently criticized Papua New Guineas media for reporting on the countrys problems such as tribal conflicts. He has said that journalists were creating a bad perception of his government and he would look to hold them accountable.

Belinda Kora, secretary of the PNG Media Council, said the proposed media development law is now in its fifth draft, but concerns about it representing a threat to a free press have not been allayed.

The newsrooms that weve been able to talk to, especially the members of the council, all 16 of them, are unhappy, she told BenarNews at a Pacific broadcasters conference in Brisbane.

They see there are some clauses and some pointers in this policy that point to restricting media, to lifting the cost of licenses for broadcasting organizations, she said.

RSF commended Samoa ranked 22nd as a regional leader in press freedom. The Polynesian country is the only Pacific island nation in the top 25 for the second year running, and Tonga is 45th.
Filipino journalists take part in a protest to air their concerns about threats to local journalists as they mark World Press Freedom Day in Quezon City, Metro Manila, May 3, 2024.

Geopolitical tensions in Southeast Asia have added a new dimension to threats to media freedom in the Philippines including foreign-based malign influence operations targeting local journalists, a press watchdog group said Friday.

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), which was founded in 1974 during the dark days of martial law, paid tribute on World Press Freedom Day to journalists across the globe who were carrying on with their jobs despite increased threats to their lives.

At home, FOCAP said that Philippine media workers remain vulnerable to harassment and attacks by state agents and political actors who try to control news and information as a way to wield power.

Since last year, the group said it observed a new threat to journalists working in the Philippines that had emerged as malign influence operations indicative of foreign interference.

The organization has recorded a case of impersonation or spoofing and an uptick in messages to journalists from fake or suspicious email addresses, attempting to either extract information or skew the news agenda regarding coverage of the South China Sea, FOCAP said in a statement it issued on Friday.

The group said at least one of its members was a victim of two attempted hacks traced to an unidentified government.

The source of the threats are unclear, but FOCAP calls on journalists and the public to remain vigilant. In a heated geopolitical situation, there is no shortage of attempts to bait, influence, misrepresent, and smear the free press, it said.

The Philippines and China are locked in a territorial dispute over the South China Sea. Lately, bilateral tensions have become heightened over frequent standoffs between Chinese coast guard ships and Filipino boats in waters within the Philippines exclusive economic zone.

Pursuit of truth

FOCAP, which groups together workers for foreign media organizations reporting in the Philippines, said it would remain dedicated to its pursuit of the truth.

It will not be swayed by any threat, domestic or foreign. It will continue to record and monitor these incidents and support its members under threat or attack, it said.

FOCAP was founded to provide critical information as the Philippines descended into chaos after then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in 1972. His dictatorship jailed opposition figures, human rights activists, and plundered billions of U.S. dollars from the national coffers. The late Marcos ruled the Philippines for 21 years, from 1965 until 1986.

His son and namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., won the presidency in 2022 and has pledged to protect the press rights in reporting the truth. In a speech before FOCAP last month, he said he would not interfere with critical reporting by the press.

Unlike my predecessors, I do not seek collaboration, for that implies a surrender of your independence, he said during his visit to FOCAP on April 15. I am of the opinion that national interest is better served by a press that is critical rather than a press that is cooperative.

His immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had not been shy with his attacks against the press.

Duterte once notoriously said that just because youre a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if youre a son of a bitch. His government worked to shut down the former broadcasting giant ABS-CBN, and took to court journalist Maria Ressa, a co-founder of the independent news site Rappler. She would later win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel laureate and journalist Maria Ressa speaks to reporters outside the Court of Tax Appeals in Quezon City, Philippines, Jan. 18, 2023. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]





Press freedom rankings

Yet, attacks on the press have continued during Marcos Jr.s term.

This year, the Philippines dropped two places in the global press freedom rankings of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a worldwide media freedom watchdog group. Manila currently ranks 134th out of 180 countries on its 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

In 2023, as Marcos Jr. marked his first year in office, the Philippines climbed to its highest ranking on the World Press Freedom Index in six years. But in its 2024 report, RSF said that there seem to have been fewer and less violent attacks against news outlets and journalists under the Marcos administration, but they are still worrisome.

Harassment by means of threats and red-tagging persists, while defamation and cyber-defamation are still punishable by prison sentences, the watchdog said, referring to Filipinos tagged by the authorities as suspected communists.

Other Southeast Asian countries also fared lower on this years press freedom index.

Malaysia dropped 34 notches on the index, as journalists struggled with political pressures, and news sites critical of the government were often blocked, RSF said.

Indonesia also plunged three places in this years rankings, as threats continued against journalists covering cases of local corruption and environmental issues, according to the Paris-based group.

Thailand was a bright spot in the rankings in 2024, climbing 19 places to rank 87th out of 180 countries, compared with its 106th position last year. However, Thai journalists said they continued to face harassment and intimidation in their coverage.

Killings continue

Meanwhile, the Philippines remained one of the worlds most dangerous countries for reporters.

While there has been progress in some high-profile cases of journalist killings in the Philippines, the masterminds in most of them are rarely arrested and imprisoned.

Police in recent weeks have arrested and charged three suspects in the November 2023 killing of radio broadcaster Juan Jumalon, as he was broadcasting live on Facebook.

He was the fourth member of the press killed since the start of the second Marcos administration.

At least 199 media workers have been killed in the Philippines since the restoration of democracy in 1986, according to RSF.

That figure includes the 32 journalists and media workers killed in one incident in 2009, described as the biggest single-day attack on the working press.

Lady Ann Salem, a journalist with the online outfit Manila Today who had been jailed for three months in 2021, said threats and harassment against journalists continued under Marcos Jr.

Salem was arrested in a police raid along with several trade union activists who had been accused of gunrunning. The lower courts had thrown out her case, but the state appealed it. Salems case is now pending before Manilas highest court.

There are many threats continuing against news organizations, she told BenarNews on Friday, adding that her job had been affected because she needed to focus more on her case. The accumulation (of these threats) really had a chilling effect so much so that we dont know now to what degree journalists censor themselves.

Lady Ann Salem, editor-in-chief of Manila Today, waves to reporters as she leaves a jail in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, upon her release from custody, March 5, 2021. [Handout photo/Manila Today]

Asked about Marcos pledge to protect the press, she replied: I think it would be more believable if there is action behind the words.

Salem cited the continued detention of Frenchie Mae Cumpio, a community journalist in central Leyte province, who had been in jail since 2020 while on trial for firearms and explosives possession.

Cumpio had repeatedly denied the allegations.

Note to readers: BenarNews and sister organization Radio Free Asia (RFA) are represented at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).
By Jung Min-ho

An appellate court in Daejeon upheld an eight-year prison sentence, Friday, on a man who was convicted last year of inflicting fatal damage to his three-month-old child through drug-laced milk.

The Daejeon High Court confirmed the sentence on the 41-year-old man whose infant daughter died on Jan. 13, 2023 after drinking baby formula mixed with zolpidem  a medication commonly used for the short-term treatment of sleeping problems.

The cause of the baby's death was difficulty breathing, which is one of the most common side effects of the drug.

A panel of judges, led by Park Jin-hwan, rejected the fathers claim that he did so mistakenly and that he did everything he could to save her life.

The court said it was difficult to believe his claim that he possessed the drug for his own use.

Even if he did not give her zolpidem intentionally, he left her untreated, which led to her death. That meets the condition for the charge of child abuse resulting in death, the court added.

According to the prosecution, the man did not bring her to a nearby hospital immediately because he was wanted by police for fraud.
BENNINGTON  The case of Miles Hall once again highlights the difficulties in dealing with Vermont statutes for prosecutors, criminal defendants and mental health advocates trying to fairly balance an acceptable level of community safety with how we treat fellow citizens with mental health issues caught up in the criminal justice system.

Hall, 41, stood trial earlier this month on several counts stemming from a June 2022 incident in Bennington. The charges included several counts of criminal threatening, stalking, and unlawful trespass into a residence.

According to police affidavits and witness statements at trial, in June 2022, Hall had stalked and threatened a family member with death. Police also accused Hall of threatening several members of the community, including a Bennington judge and Benningtons states attorney, with violence and death.

During the two-day trial, it was revealed that Hall had severe bipolar disorder and was in a manic state at the time of these incidents. After a two-hour deliberation, a jury found Hall not guilty by reason of insanity.

On Wednesday, Hall was again in front of Bennington Judge Kerry McDonald-Cady, this time for a post-verdict, mandatory hospitalization hearing. Both sides agreed that Hall, from all accounts, is currently compliant with his medications and does not require in-patient treatment. Both sides also agreed that a non-hospitalization order was appropriate. The only bone of contention was an attempt by State Prosecutor Jared Bianchi to compel Hall to take his medications in a medical setting, a Hail Mary of sorts, to verify compliance. The defense objected to the proposal as intrusive.

For Bianchi, its an issue he has struggled with for some time. The issue for him is that Vermont statutes do not address public safety concerns in situations like this. They dont even address the long-term issue in Halls case - which is when someone struggling with a mental illness stops taking medication. Where is the line that crosses from an individuals rights to safety concerns for the general public? Bianchi made that clear at Wednesdays hearing.

I would like to be able to ask you to craft an order that's based on public safety, but that there is no basis under the current statute for that, Bianchi told the judge early in the hearing. Instead, I would like to be able to ask for a specifically crafted order to address Miles's specific case. We [have] heard throughout the case that this is a long-term, cyclical issue for him, but the statute doesn't allow [for] that because we are barred from doing that past a period of 90 days. Finally, I'd like to ask for there to be a victim impact and safety consideration. That's not part of the analysis either, according to the statute. All we have left is to ask [that] he take his medication in a medical setting so at least we can verify that part of it.

There are two sides to the problem. If an individual is having behaviors that don't qualify as a defined mental illness, if it's not schizophrenia, for instance, or dementia or Huntington's, an order cannot be implemented. But if that individual has a defined mental illness, it can either be an ONH or an order of hospitalization. According to Vermont statute, those decisions can only address the patient's current needs. No public safety considerations can be considered.

In this case, Bianchi said, because he does not currently need hospital-level care, the court can't order him into a hospital to keep the community safe. They can only order him into the hospital to get help. There is zero consideration for public safety in these cases. We are unlike any other state that I'm aware of in having really no ability to take into account the public safety issues.

Robert Appel, Halls defense attorney during the criminal trial, feels that steps, like Bianchi proposes, needlessly burden those struggling and criminalizes mental health. Appel feels that more robust funding for community-based mental health services coupled with reducing the stigma, labels, and perceptions by the general public and the legal community will go a long way in solving the issue. It is also important to not intrude on the rights of those with mental health issues.

Erica Marthage, Bennington County states attorney, also feels Vermont hasnt spent the money needed on treatment. She is tasked with the community's safety and what happens with individuals who might not have the capacity to conform their behaviors to a safe society.

"The truth is, Marthage said, The person who is victimized or injured is no less traumatized by the offense because the person is mentally ill, insane, or incompetent. Those victims can, in many cases, be more traumatized because theres nothing our office can do after someone is found mentally ill. That responsibility falls entirely to the Vermont Department of Mental Health, which does not consider public safety in its evaluations.

Those orders do not have any teeth and are very time-limited, Bianchi said. There is no public safety consideration beyond that individuals mental health need. This request to verify that Hall is taking his meds is, at least, a chance to know that the community is safe."

According to the National Institute of Health, individuals with a severe mental illness who fall through the cracks or are non-adherent to treatment are at a high risk of committing grave acts of violence, especially on family members. Untreated profound mental illness is particularly significant in cases of homicide.

Many of those individuals with mental illness face an uphill battle when trying to access mental health treatment. Many do not receive the appropriate and timely treatment needed. Budget cuts in funding for public health and mental health in many cities further put people with mental illness in situations where they can become involved in criminal activity.

We are the ones responsible for public safety, Marthage said. We dont get to say that this might not be the best tool. Its the only tool we have right now.

When asked what he might say to those victims and their families who have to deal with the aftermath of these incidents, Appel paused, then reiterated that he believes more robust resources and support would cut down on the violence that we see.

I feel for people who are harmed by untreated mentally ill people, Appel said. There are just a lot of people who are not getting what they need and acting out in bad ways. That needs to change.

Judge McDonald-Cady ultimately issued an order placing Hall in the custody of the Department of Mental Health for 90 days. She also ordered that Hall be allowed to take his medications on his own, allowing that if one of his case managers becomes concerned about non-compliance, Hall must comply with 'reasonable requests' to take medications in the presence of his providers.

A new hearing will be scheduled when Hall is discharged.

At the end of the day, Bianchi said, I have to uphold the law whether I like it or not. That's why we're left with what the Legislature gives us, and that's not really fair or safe for anybody involved, but that's what I have.
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BRATTLEBORO  The accused killer of a Groundworks Collaborative shelter coordinator is no longer in need of in-patient care, states a letter from the Vermont Department of Mental Health to Windham Superior Court, Criminal Division.

The letter, dated April 25, states that Zaaina Asra Jakirrah Mahvish-Jammeh will be released to the custody of the Department of Corrections on May 6 "to await further hearing on the results of the renewed competency evaluation ordered by [Windham Superior Court] on March 12, 2024. ... Please let us know if a discharge hearing will be needed before that date."

On Thursday, Judge John Treadwell took arguments in the case of Mahvish-Jammeh, 39, who is accused of killing with a hatchet Leah Rosin-Pritchard, 37, manager of the Morningside House shelter, in April 2023.

"In our opinion," said Assistant Attorney General Scott Shumaker, which represents DMH in legal proceedings, "a discharge hearing is not necessary."

He told the court that the discharge authority lies with the commissioner of DMH, not the court.

State's Attorney Tracy Shriver asked Treadwell to schedule a competency hearing and to transfer the defendant to the custody of the Department of Corrections.

Currently, Mahvish-Jammeh is being held at the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin.

Treadwell noted that in May 2023, when Mahvish-Jammeh was ruled not competent to assist their attorneys in the first degree murder case against them, there was a stipulation noting a hold without bail order was in abeyance. Mahvish-Jammeh was deemed "a person in need of in-patient treatment" and is in the care and custody of the Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health.

Attorney John McCullough of the Vermont Legal Aid Mental Health Law Project, disagreed with the AG's Office, saying state statutes require a hearing prior to the release a patient to DOC. McCullough also noted the letter from DMH did not say Mahvish-Jammeh was no longer in need of care, but that they are no longer in need of in-patient care.

He requested the court schedule an evidentiary hearing to determine appropriate placement for Mahvish-Jammeh.

David Sleigh, Mahvish-Jammeh's appointed attorney, asked the court to answer whether the questions should even be heard in criminal court, suggesting the proper venue is family court.

"The Department says [Mahvish-Jammeh] is not in need of hospital-level care," he added. "The are many intermediary care options."

Mimi Brill, supervising attorney of the Windham County Public Defender's Office, said a hearing prior to discharge from the hospital is appropriate.

Treadwell said he would review the applicable statutes and the stipulation as well as the arguments presented in court and will issue a written decision soon.
Martin J. Lecker, Ed.D., is a SUNY distinguished teaching professor of business emeritus. Questions, suggestions or comments may be sent to mlecker@twc.com.
SPRINGFIELD  A serial sex offender from Sandisfield was sentenced Thursday to a decade in federal prison for possessing sexually explicit images of children and an unregistered gun.

Brian Hohman, 60, will be on supervised release for another decade after his 10-year prison stint. The term of the sentence was recommended jointly by prosecutors and the defense.

At federal court in Springfield, U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni approved the sentencing, which the prosecutor said in court documents will deliver "just punishment" and "adequate protection to the public."

Hohman pleaded guilty in January to one count of possession of child sex abuse images and one count of receipt and possession of an unregistered firearm.

It was just his latest criminal case  Hohman's lengthy record includes 47 arraignments in Berkshire County for sexual assault charges. A Level 3 sex offender, Hohman has gotten in trouble for sex crimes involving minors in Massachusetts, New York, Florida and the United Kingdom.

The federal charges in question stem from a search warrant police executed on Sept. 23, 2020, at the Sandisfield home where Hohman lived alone. Police found 300 images of child sex abuse images on a laptop in the home, including two videos. Officers also seized a sawed-off shotgun.

Some of the evidence police gathered in the investigation came from Hohman himself. According to court documents, Hohman spoke to his brother-in-law on a recorded phone call from jail after his arrest.

You know  pictures arent illegal, except certain kinds," his brother-in-law said. "And if you were that foolish.

Well, of course Im that foolish, Hohman responded, according to court documents.

On another recorded phone call, Hohman tipped investigators off to the existence of additional phones. Police got warrants to search those devices, and found more illicit images of minors between the ages of 14 and 17 years old. The images were either taken by Hohman or at his request, prosecutors said.

There's no evidence Hohman shared the images he took of the minors, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine G. Curley. But the prosecutors said those victims nonetheless "suffered a significant harm" and trauma.

The victims depicted in the child sex abuse images Hohman didn't produce, but had stored on his laptop, suffered many times over, she said.

"Not only do these victims suffer the original abuse, but they and their families must live with the knowledge that images of that abuse are being shared for the sexual gratification of strangers," she wrote.

"The seriousness of the Defendants crimes cannot be understated," Curley added.

Both sides agreed that a decade in prison was an appropriate sentence, though it falls below the range recommended in federal sentencing guidelines.

Curley said the victims "expressed support" for the sentencing agreement, which will allow them to avoid the potentially traumatizing event of testifying at trial.

In a sentencing memorandum filed in federal court April 30, defense lawyer Timothy G. Watkins said Hohman has cardiac problems that have been "largely untreated" during his time in pretrial custody.

"Hohmans health will inevitably decline into his late 60s as he serves his sentence of continued incarceration," Watkins wrote.

Hohman's sister filed a letter in support of her brother, writing that they spent the early part of their childhood on Long Island then moved to the Berkshires in the 1970s. She described growing up in a "stable, supportive loving home not far from our grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins, whom we would see often."

They belonged to a church, and were "active members of the community," Tracey Hohman wrote. She said Hohman can live at her family cabin in Sandisfield after his release from prison.
Faced with increasing costs and declining enrollment in the district and region, Superintendent Timothy Lee said the district will need to take creative steps in order to continue to operate.
* The success of ARJ21 marks a significant achievement under the Belt and Road Initiative in the burgeoning relationship between China and Indonesia.

* The aircraft can not only serve as a tool of transportation but also act as a bridge to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

by Yu Shuaishuai, Ye Pingfan, Jia Yuankun

JAKARTA/SHANGHAI, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Since Chinese-produced ARJ21 made its overseas commercial flight debut with Indonesian airline TransNusa one year ago, the regional jetliner has demonstrated improved performance in the Southeast Asian market.

Over the past year, TransNusa has acquired two ARJ21s from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) and operated them on six routes. The planes have accumulated 3,560 safe flight hours and transported nearly 120,000 passengers.

The success of ARJ21 marks a significant achievement under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the burgeoning relationship between China and Indonesia.

People pose for a group photo with the first jetliner ARJ21 of Indonesian airline TransNusa in Bali, Indonesia, April 18, 2023. (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China/Handout via Xinhua)

LOCAL MARKET ADAPTATIONS

In Indonesia, airports often have limited facilities and short and narrow runways, but ARJ21 adapts well to these conditions.

TransNusa Vice President Leo Budiman called it "a remarkable success" and a breakthrough for ARJ21 when it completed a chartered flight from Jakarta to Morowali, where the airport's runway was narrow and short.

Wu Guofang, vice president of COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Customer Service Co., Ltd., told Xinhua that ARJ21 was designed to adapt to high temperatures and high humidity, well suited to climate in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.

This photo taken on Dec. 17, 2022 shows the first jetliner ARJ21 of Indonesian airline TransNusa in east China's Shanghai. (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China/Handout via Xinhua)

For Yves Liga Pangeran Hakim, one of the pilots from TransNusa, ARJ21 is perfect for the local market.

"It has good potential and can fly on a narrow runway. This aircraft provides solutions for the Indonesian aviation market. It is a great success," said Hakim, who has flown on ARJ21 for several times.

The ARJ21 was also deployed for international flights, as TransNusa operated the aircraft on the Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur route in 2023.

Budiman said ARJ21 received "a remarkable welcome" in Malaysia as the jetliner has acquired permits to operate in six airports nationwide.

"We will show the world that ARJ21 is really suitable for the local market," said Budiman.

Indonesian airline TransNusa Vice President Leo Budiman has an interview with Xinhua in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 17, 2024. (Xinhua/Sun Lei)

POTENTIAL FOR WIDER REGION

After its success in Indonesia, COMAC has sought to expand its business footprint to more Southeast Asian countries.

At the Singapore Airshow 2024 in February, ARJ21 and C919, another COMAC-made jetliner, garnered attention. During the event, the company received orders for 40 C919 and 16 ARJ21 jets.

After the airshow, the two jetliners launched demonstration flights in five Southeast Asian countries. Eyeing cooperation with local airlines in these countries, COMAC is beginning to establish its overseas market network.

"The aircraft has fully demonstrated its excellent stability and adaptability, receiving very positive responses from the Indonesian civil aviation authority, Indonesian airlines and the Southeast Asian market," said Wu.

Believing that ARJ21 has bigger market potential in the region, Budiman said the regional airliner will improve connectivity between islands, which is very important for Indonesia and the wider region.

"We see COMAC is making improvements day by day," Budiman said, adding that the prospect is "very promising."

According to Wu, COMAC has established a customer service office in Jakarta, offering more efficient and localized personnel training, aircraft parts and maintenance services for regional clients.

Wu said the aircraft can not only serve as a tool of transportation but also act as a bridge to enhance cooperation between the two countries, adding that more opportunities for further cooperation can be explored.

China-manufactured commercial jetliner ARJ21 (R) and C919 are seen in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 10, 2024. (Xinhua/Sun Lei)

BENEFITING LOCAL ECONOMY

Over the past decade, Indonesia and China have forged productive cooperation in various fields.

The China-Indonesia bilateral relationship has never been stronger. China is Indonesia's largest trading partner and one of its biggest foreign investors.

In April, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the flagship project co-constructed by China and Indonesia under the BRI, marked six months of operation, during which some 2.56 million passengers were transported.

With a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the 142.3-kilometer high-speed railway cut the journey between Jakarta and Bandung in West Java province from over three hours to around 40 minutes.

Veronika Saraswati, a China expert and researcher at Indonesia's leading think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said infrastructure projects carried out by Indonesian and Chinese companies under the BRI will transform Indonesia's traditional industries and increase national and local fiscal revenues.

Teguh Dartanto, dean of the School of Economics at the University of Indonesia, would like to see a stronger relationship between China and Indonesia.

"We need a more next-level relationship where we not only focus on production, business and trade but also on people-to-people collaboration, R&D and perhaps a transfer of technology and knowledge."

(Xinhua Correspondent Tao Fangwei in Jakarta also contributed to this story. Video reporters: Di Chun, Jia Yuankun, Yu Shuai Shuai; Video editors: Zheng Kaijun, Qiu Qingyi)
Prosecutors on Friday sought life imprisonment for a lawyer for allegedly murdering his wife late last year.

Prosecutors requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence the 51-year-old man to life in prison, accusing him of murdering his wife despite having multiple opportunities to stop.

He is accused of striking his wife in the head with a blunt instrument and strangling her to death at his home last December. The couple had been separated and going through a divorce suit at the time.

Voice recordings from the victim's mobile phone at the time of the crime were played in court Friday, which included the victim's plea to her son at the scene to call the police and the 51-year-old calling his father, a former multiterm lawmaker, for help.

The defendant argued that it was not a premeditated crime, claiming the incident escalated after a physical altercation with his wife. (Yonhap)
Robert Bishop secured his fourth term on the Dalton Select Board Monday, according to unofficial results from the town's annual election, soundly defeating challenger Robert Collins for the only contested seat.
VIM Berkshires in Pittsfield What: VIM Berkshires new Pittsfield location Where: 199 South St., Pittsfield Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday Thursday; 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Information: www.vimberkshires.org, 413-528-4014

PITSFIELD  The idea came from Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires employees and volunteers: With about half of its patients traveling from Pittsfield to its Great Barrington office, why not open a second location in the countys largest city?

A year of effort and millions of dollars in donations later, the nonprofit, which provides medical care and access to a full range of human services for uninsured persons, has a bright, brand-new space downtown. Its the result of a fundraising campaign that is halfway to its $10 million goal, leaders said.

The need is growing: According to executive director Ilana Steinhauer, VIM Berkshires has seen a rapid increase in demand for services, including 700 new patients in the last year alone.

It is precisely to keep pace with this increased demand that VIM has expanded into Pittsfield, added staff to support our volunteer practitioners and is growing and sustaining the programs that we know are critical to our patients, she told supporters celebrating the new care centers opening on Thursday evening.

The organization serves persons who are not eligible for MassHealth or Medicaid, often as a result of their immigration status. Many of its employees are bilingual and customers are greeted in their own language when they walk in the door, building a climate that is welcoming, with trust, communications director Nelson Fernandez said.

One of the signature components of our service is that, from the moment the patient walks in the door, we engage them in their local language, and that immediately puts them at ease, Fernandez said.

Thursday, the 20-year-old nonprofit welcomed guests, employees, board members and city officials to its location in the Doctors Park complex at 199 South St. Hors d'oeuvres were served, wine was poured and supporters squeezed into the space to hear the organization's leaders mark the occasion and thank donors and volunteers who made it possible.

Funding included $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars through the City of Pittsfield, as well as $441,000 in federal funds secured by U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and a $75,000 earmark in the state budget.

Fernandez also lauded Berkshire Health Systems for its support, including Berkshire Medical Centers internal medicine residency program.

Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires provides free comprehensive, high-quality health care for income-qualified patients who are ineligible for health insurance. It provides clinical services including primary care, womens health, eye health and behavioral therapy.

But VIM also approaches care holistically, addressing social determinants of health such as housing, food insecurity, nutrition, literacy, employment and child care.

The new location has already made a difference, Steinhauer said.

The first day we opened, we had a woman walk through the doors and start crying. And this was a woman who's been our patient since we opened 20 years ago, who has always lived in Pittsfield, Steinhauer said. And she said For the first time, I could wake up, I didn't feel good and I knew I could walk right down the block to get my care.

Knowing that transportation and housing remain significant hurdles, In order to really create health equity we had to remove some of those barriers, Steinhauer told attendees. By opening up a space in Pittsfield, we're completely changing access for over half our patients.

Steinhauer told the story of a patient, Jose, who came to the Great Barrington location last year with a seemingly impossible problem. His wife had been sent back to Guatemala by Mexican police, and their children, ages 2 and 7, were being detained on the U.S. side of the border, thousands of miles from either parent.

That, Steinhauer said, was when VIM's magic began to unfold. The organization gathered the necessary information, contacted authorities at the border and engaged lawyers, eventually winning a transfer for the children to a detention center in New York where their father could visit them. The family was reunited in Great Barrington last year.

What truly stands out to me is that, in his moment of crisis, unsure of what to do, or where to go for help, Jose turned to [VIM staff], Steinhauer said. In just a few months, we had become his place of trust and security.

Steinhauer, Fernandez and board member Robert L.W. McGraw all expressed gratitude for the efforts of board members, volunteers, employees and donors for making the new care center possible. McGraw extended special thanks to Dan McManmon, whose company, Jedko Properties LLC, owns the property. Fernandez said McManmon and his company "allowed us to alter the space to meet our clinical needs, And they were incredible attentive and helpful during the construction process. ... Also the building is beautifully maintained."

"Each and every person in this room has showed up for [patients] with your sponsorship, your friendship and your commitment. We have saved and changed the lives of thousands within our community, Steinhauer said. These patients make the Berkshires a beautiful, diverse and sustainable community. And together we are making systems that work for everyone.
Three Democratic candidates for the 3rd Berkshire District seat spoke with voters in Dalton on Tuesday night, as the town could be a pivotal force in the election as one of the most populated in the newly drawn boundaries.
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Stewart Edelstein, a Stockbridge resident, is author of several books, including Dubious Doublets, The Covid-19 Zeitgeist: Fifty Essays, and An Alphabetical Romp Through the Flora of Berkshire Botanical Garden from Agave to Zinnia. Email: news@berkshireeagle.com.
The Outlook reviews the week past and previews the week ahead for Berkshire County. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com.
Some trainee doctors have returned to their worksites, a senior health ministry official said Friday, amid prolonged walkouts by medical interns and residents against the government's plan to boost the number of medical students.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo stopped short of providing details on how many junior doctors returned to hospitals, but said, "Although not many, a small number of trainee doctors have returned."

It was unclear why some trainee doctors went back to hospitals, but media reports have said some junior doctors suffered financial difficulties due to the walkouts that began late February.

Park also renewed calls for junior doctors to return to hospitals, saying, "There is nothing that can be earned through the collective action. We urge them to return to their positions and take care of patients."

Earlier in the day, Park said the government expects no significant disruptions in medical services despite medical professors taking one day off per week in solidarity with junior doctors.

Medical professors, who are senior doctors, at Asan Medical Center and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital decided to take a day off on Friday, expressing fatigue from the prolonged walkout of junior doctors.

Some professors at Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital, and Seoul National University Hospital also suspended surgeries and treatment for outpatients for a day earlier this week.

"While some medical professors vowed to take a day off on Friday, we expect no major disruptions, including an all-out suspension of treatments," Park told reporters.

The five major hospitals play a critical role in treating critically ill patients in the country.

Other regional hospitals, including Chungbuk National University Hospital and Konyang University Hospital, also participated in the move. The hospitals, however, noted that no outpatient treatments were scheduled for the day.

About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their worksites since Feb. 20 in protest of the plan to boost the number of medical students by 2,000, causing delays in medical treatments, with some emergency rooms partially limiting their treatment of critically ill patients.

The government has formally launched a presidential committee to resolve the standoff, but doctors boycotted it.

The government has been maintaining that it is also open to one-on-one dialogue with the medical community, but doctors have faced challenges in establishing a unified representative body.

"The government is leaving the spot open for the Korean Medical Association and trainee doctors at the medical reform committee," Park said, noting that the government is willing to engage in talks "anytime without formal constraints."

Meanwhile, local universities have finalized their decisions to increase the combined medical school admission quota for next year by around 1,500 seats, less than the 2,000 slots the government had initially permitted.

The adjustment came after the government allowed schools to flexibly adjust their respective admission quotas for next year within the 50 percent to 100 percent range of their newly allotted quotas. (Yonhap)
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To help train doctors in the field of Ayurveda oncology

In a significant step towards integrating Ayurveda practices with modern healthcare, Uttarakhand Ayurveda University, under the auspices of the Ministry of AYUSH (Government of Uttarakhand) has recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pune-based Rasayu Cancer Clinic.

The aim of this collaboration is to empower government doctors in AYUSH in Uttarakhand with specialised training in Ayurveda and Cancer.



To mark this occasion, a 4-day workshop was conducted by Ayurveda experts at Rasayu Cancer Clinic Pune recently.



In this effort to provide safe and effective cancer treatment, the collaboration also aims to introduce the principles of Ayurveda and actual patient therapy, research and published papers based on research findings.

Recognising the importance of early cancer detection, this specialised training can help these doctors develop advanced knowledge and skills in treating cancer using Ayurvedic principles.



Also, the collaboration between Uttarakhand Ayurveda University and Rasayu Cancer Clinic will help train future Ayurveda doctors in the field of Ayurveda oncology and guide them in using research-based treatments.



Simultaneously, an MoU has been signed between Rasayu Cancer Clinic and Uttarakhand Ayurveda University for therapeutic, educational and research purposes in Ayurveda Oncology.






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By Jung Min-ho

A Turkish man was killed Friday in a fire at a residential building in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, regional fire authorities say.

The fire started on the second floor of the building at around 2:31 a.m.

Fire engines were dispatched to the scene following an emergency call from the studio apartment property's owner.

Firefighters extinguished the flames in 34 minutes and found the Turkish tenant, 41, dead in his room.

He is the only person reported to have died in the fire, while the remaining 30 or so residents successfully evacuated the building.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

Police and firefighters said they would conduct an autopsy.
Court says next year's recruitment numbers not finalized yet

By Jung Da-hyun, Jun Ji-hye

The Seoul High Court is set to decide on the validity of the Yoon Suk Yeol administrations plan to increase the medical schools admissions quota, by the middle of this month. If the court rules against the government, the policy will encounter a serious setback at a time when relevant administrative procedures have almost been finalized.

The legal action was initiated by 18 individuals, including medical school professors, trainee doctors, medical students and examinees preparing for medical school, against the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education. They filed an injunction to prevent the medical school quota hike plan from proceeding.



Following the injunction application, the court, on April 30, instructed the government to submit  by May 10  grounds for the proposed increase of the medical school quota by 2,000 starting next year.

The specific number for the medical school admissions quota will be determined after the ruling by the court, which urged the education ministry to postpone finalizing it.

The quota for the country's 40 medical schools has remained unchanged at 3,058 since 2006.

The government asserted that its policy aims to address a projected shortage of doctors, estimating a deficit of 10,000 physicians by 2035. The government emphasized the necessity of increasing the number of medical students by 2,000 every year, highlighting that it takes over six years to produce new doctors  according to their estimates.

A report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Professor Hong Yoon-chul at Seoul National University Medical School, was submitted to the court to support this assertion by the government.

However, the report does not explicitly justify the addition of 2,000 medical school slots. So, the court ruled that additional grounds are necessary, mentioning that the government's submitted reasoning is insufficient.

The court also ordered the disclosure of on-site survey data and minutes from the medical school quota allocation committee.

A failure to submit this data could result in a loss for the government.

If the court rejects the provisional injunction application and agrees with the government's rationale, it may strengthen the momentum for the policy of increasing medical school admissions numbers.

Conversely, if the court accepts the provisional injunction application, judging that the governments grounds are insufficient, pressure from medical groups to halt the increase in the medical school quota is likely to intensify.

Meanwhile, the education ministry and the Korean Council for University Education unveiled the university admissions implementation plan last Thursday. The additional slots for medical schools will range from a minimum of 1,489 to a maximum of 1,509, according to their announcement.

The unveiled new slots decreased from the government's initial decision to raise them by 2,000, as it allowed universities to adjust their quotas on their own within a range of 50 to 100 percent of the increased quota allocated to them, in a bid to appease intensifying protests from doctors.

Amid the legal battle, the government submitted a statement to the court clarifying that the recruitment numbers for the 2025 school year have not yet been finalized. The court also emphasized that the extent of the quota's expansion remains undecided.




Activity in Irish services expanded in April despite a slowdown in new business and job creation in the Technology, Media & Telecoms sector, a survey showed on Friday.

The AIB S&P Global Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was 53.3 in April, down from 56.6 in March, which is the slowest rate of growth since January.

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The index has not dipped below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for three years and two months.

AIB's Chief Economist David McNamara said that while Irish firms continued to report rising levels of new business, there was a notable decline in new and outstanding business in the TMT sector, which dragged the TMT business activity index to its weakest rate of growth in more than three years.

"Employment continued to rise in the services sector overall and across all four sectors, but the pace of job creation decelerated in April, particularly in the TMT sector," he said.

The other sectors covered by the survey are Financial Services, Business Services and Transport, Tourism & Leisure.

Financial Services posted the fastest growth of the four sectors surveyed for the fifth month running. - Reuters
Tara Mines will reopen from next month after workers voted to accept a deal brokered through the Workplace Relations Commission.

Boliden will restart production at its zinc mine in Co Meath in the third quarter after being closed for almost one year, the Swedish mining group said on Friday.

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Tara will gradually increase production to reach full capacity from January 2025, Boliden said.

The mine was suspended since last June after prices of the galvanising metal hit a three-year low.

It is Europe's largest zinc mine and produced more than 300,000 metric tons of zinc concentrates a year. Tara's suspension, together with disruptions at major Australian mines, caused a tighter supply of zinc concentrates.

"An agreement has been reached between worker's unions and local management which enables the process of reopening the mine at Tara on a more financially sustainable basis," Boliden said in a statement.

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The deal includes staff cuts. It is envisaged there will be about 160 jobs losses on top of the roughly 50 people who have left the company since the mine was closed on a temporary basis last summer.

There will also be substantial changes to rostering and other work practices as well as new arrangements for outsourcing.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke welcomed the decision by a majority of the companys workers to accept the deal.

The closure of the mine since July last year has had a significant impact on workers and their families, and on the wider community in the region, he said in a statement. I want to commend all parties for the efforts that they have made to ensure a positive outcome in difficult circumstances. Government will ensure that all available supports are put in place for workers that choose to take voluntary redundancy, including supports for retraining and job search assistance.

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Tara Mines is a major employer operating in an important sector and the Government is committed to exploring the possibility of strategic supports to incentivise longer term investment by Boliden in Tara Mines.

Boliden said it will book a 30 million restructuring cost for the cuts and other organisational changes in the second quarter.

The total hit to results in the quarter, including previously announced costs for care and maintenance, will be 43 million.

Zinc prices gained 11 per cent so far this year to improve profitability of zinc operations and motivated restarts of mothballed projects.

Glencore announced a ramp-up in its Nordenham smelter of Germany and Nyrstar also planned to restart its Budel smelter in the Netherlands.

Tara's restart, alongside expansion of Boliden's Odda smelter in Norway, is set to increase European zinc supply.
Jailed teacher Enoch Burke has said the Sunday Independent conducted a malicious hit job by portraying him as someone who repeatedly expresses his religious beliefs to the point that people cannot bear it and might resort to physical violence.

Speaking at the close of his defamation action on Friday, Mr Burke told the High Court the newspaper made a grave and serious libel and defamed him in an October 2022 article about his movement within prison.

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The German and history teacher had been jailed for the first time the previous month over his refusal to comply with a court order requiring him to stay away from Wilsons Hospital School in Co Westmeath, from which he had been suspended and was later dismissed.

Issues with the evangelical Christians employment arose after he publicly objected to being told to refer to a student using they/them pronouns.

Mr Burke was brought to the Four Courts from Mountjoy Prison, where he has spent more than 340 nights, on each of the four days of his defamation action against Mediahuis Ireland, as publisher of the Sunday Independent; its editor Alan English and reporter Ali Bracken.

After the hearing, Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy thanked the parties for cooperating during the trial and said he would deliver his judgment at a later date.

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The defendants deny Mr Burke was defamed by the article but acknowledge minor errors occurred.

They have pointed to an apology the newspaper published in print and online in January 2023 that clarified Mr Burkes cell change was for operational reasons only and not for the reasons stated in the article.

The story of October 9th, 2022, claimed Mr Burke had been moved to a new jail cell for his own safety, as he might have got a beating after annoying other prisoners and repeatedly expressing his outspoken views and beliefs.

Senior counsel for the defendants, Ronan Lupton, submitted there is an elephant in the room in that Mr Burke comes from Mountjoy to vindicate his good name.

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Before the court is a contemnor: someone who will not comply with an order of the court while asking the very same court to grant orders that vindicate him, said counsel.

Mr Lupton, appearing with Lewis Mooney, said the thicket of printouts from Mr Burke bearing social media comments about him are inadmissible as evidence as no one was called to court to speak to their truth.

Mr Justice Mulcahy commented that a striking feature of the case is that the newspapers position is in effect that it did not matter whether this story was true or not.

Mr Lupton said he could not plead the truth as confidential sources could not be called as witnesses.

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Journalist Ali Bracken outside court. Photo: Collins

Earlier, Ms Bracken, the Sunday Independent journalist who wrote the October 9th article, said she confirmed her information with two sources, neither of whom she could speak about.

Unfortunately, it transpired the piece incorrectly reported Mr Burkes location within the jail, she said, adding that she would consider this to be a minor matter.

Cross-examining, Mr Burke asked her if she accepts that it was false to say he was moved for his own safety. She said: I find it difficult to accept, but I accept the newspaper clarified and apologised for certain matters.

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Mr Burke quoted from a letter from the Irish Prison Service that said he was moved for operational reasons and that no other issues were considered.

He asked Ms Bracken if she accepted there were no other issues, to which she responded: I accept that this is the Irish Prison Services position.

She said she stands over aspects of her article but there is a difficulty because confidential sources cannot give evidence in court. She denied his suggestion the article represented her going out to bat for Wilsons Hospital School.

In his closing submissions to the court, Mr Burke said the way the defence has been conducted has led to the defamation percolating again during the trial.

He said the newspapers witnesses refused to accept the official statement of the prison service while in the witness box. This demonstrates disdain for a State body, he said, adding that the publisher has not pleaded the defence of truth.

He submitted he had a good reputation but this was taken from him.
A family have been rescued off the North Dublin coast.

Their powerboat suffered engine failure and ended up on the rocks at Lambay Island on Friday.

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Howth RNLI's All-Weather Lifeboat went to the scene, along with Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 and Skerries RNLI.

The family had abandoned the boat and were unable to safely make it ashore to the island.

Rescue 116 lowered a winchman and the safest approach was to winch the family one-by one on board the helicopter.

The family were taken to Rescue 116s base at Dublin Airport.
An Irish-Palestinian man who was blocked from leaving Rafah has fled the Gaza Strip and is making his way back to Ireland in the coming days.

Zak Hania previously spoke about his fear of never seeing his family again after they were able to leave Gaza at the end of last year.

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Mr Hanias wife Batoul and their four sons were among the Irish citizens who left Gaza via the Rafah border last November and are now living in Dublin.

Palestinian Batoul Hania, who is an Irish citizen, at her accommodation in West Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Hania was not accepted on to the list of evacuees and was left in the besieged territory.

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Mrs Hania and her four Irish-born sons, Mazen, Ismael, Ahmed and Nour, spent months pleading for help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

His family said that he crossed the border and is in Egypt, and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr Hania previously told the PA news agency about the nightmare conditions living in Rafah and how he spent months fearing he would never see his wife and sons again.

His son Mazen said they are so excited about being reunited with their father this weekend.
By Jung Min-ho

South Korea dropped significantly to 62nd place in the annual global press freedom index, down from 47th place the previous year. Meanwhile, North Korea was rated as one of the most brutal persecutors of journalists.

According to the ranking unveiled Friday by Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based NGO focused on press freedom, South Korea scored 64.87 points out of 100 and was rated as one of the problematic countries, along with Italy (69.8), the United States (66.59) and Japan (62.12).

Based on its analysis of the level of freedom enjoyed by media employees in 180 countries and territories, the organization divides them into five brackets: good (85-100), satisfactory (70-85), problematic (55-70), difficult (40-55) and very serious (0-40).

While journalists can work in generally satisfactory conditions (in South Korea), they are sometimes victims of online harassment, a practice against which they have little protection. About 30 percent of the journalists who took part in the 2023 Korea Press Foundation survey said they have been victims of harassment in relation to their profession, the report says.

The most prominent form of harassment was via phone calls, text messages and emails, while comments from Internet trolls and malicious legal actions were also prevalent. More than 40 percent of harassed journalists said they didnt receive adequate support from their employers, indicating a need for legal support, it added.

North Korea ranked 177th, after Eritrea, Syria and Afghanistan. China and Russia, which came in 172nd and 162nd, respectively, were also among the countries near the bottom of the table.

As a result of the regimes desire for complete isolation from the world, journalists have been arrested, deported, sent to forced labor camps, and killed for deviating from the partys narrative, the report says. In 2017, the government even sentenced South Korean journalists to death in absentia for only commenting on the countrys economic and social situation.

Norway retained the top spot this year. Denmark came in second, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia and Portugal.
Taoiseach Simon Harris hailed the impact of the return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont as he began his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

Mr Harris met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration.

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However, Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseachs office had not always been good in the past.

Mr Harriss visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle ONeill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived.

Taoiseach Simon Harris during a press conference outside Stormont Castle (Liam McBurney/PA)

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After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs.

After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the incredible leadership of Northern Irelands First and deputy First Ministers.

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He said: It has been a really good engagement.

I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north.

I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and Im extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

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I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in.

Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus.

Mr Harris was elected as Irelands youngest ever Taoiseach last month.

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First Minister Michelle ONeill during a press conference at Stormont Castle (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms ONeill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund.

She said: I am very glad he has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund.

A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week thats been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road.

Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again.

She added: We talked about some of the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects.

The DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly said: We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseachs office have not always been good in the last number of years.

But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom.

But of course there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together.

Those are set out in terms of the areas of co-operation.

But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships.

The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships.

Taoiseach Simon Harris arriving at Stormont Castle as makes his first official visit to Northern Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders.

The Taoiseach will later have a working lunch with business stakeholders before he is hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queens University Belfast where Mr Harris will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Governments Shared Island Fund.
An analysis of social media posts related to violent anti-immigration protests in Co Wicklow showed the majority came from non-Irish accounts.

That is according to research by Sky News that shows there were close to 54,000 posts on X, formerly Twitter, mentioning Newtownmountkennedy last Friday after anti-immigration protests the day before.

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More than half came from users based in the US while just 21 per cent were from Irish accounts.

Of the five posts that saw the most engagement, three were based outside of Ireland.

English far-right activist Tommy Robinson had engagement of 42,500 from posts mentioning the Wicklow town, according to the data which was compiled using social media monitoring tool Talkwalker.

Common anti-immigration slogans trended in relation to the Newtownmountkennedy protests, including 'Ireland belongs to the Irish', 'Ireland is full' and 'Irish lives matter'.

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In total, 54.4 per cent of messages were posted by users in the United States. 28 per cent came from Irish accounts, and 8.1 per cent were posted by accounts from the United Kingdom.

The author of the research, Sam Doak, said: "Migration to Ireland has become a focus of debate beyond the country's borders. Prominent figures from the United States and elsewhere have frequently weighed in on social media, pushing it further into the international spotlight."

Migration has become one of the main topics of public debate in recent months.

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Gardai at a closed road in Newtownmountkennedy after protests near Trudder House descended into violence. Photo: PA Images

An encampment of homeless refugees outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street in Dublin was recently cleared.

While the majority of asylum seekers were given alternative accommodation, others are still homeless on the streets of the capital.

Meanwhile, diplomatic tensions between Dublin and London have heightened after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said 80 per cent of asylum seekers arriving here are coming over the border from Northern Ireland.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak claimed this was a sign that his Rwanda scheme is working.

Ireland Migration row continues as UK 'offers' Ireland inv... Read More

While Ms McEntee "stands over" the figure, Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin has said it wasn't "statistical".

Taoiseach Simon Harris has pointed to an operational agreement which provides for the reciprocal return of asylum seekers between the UK and Ireland, but Downing Street has said it contains no legal obligations to accept them.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said he was not interested in a returns deal if the European Union did not allow the UK to send back asylum seekers who had crossed the English Channel from France.

Mr Harris, who pointed out that there were upcoming elections in the UK, stressed the importance of countries upholding agreements.
A man who the ESB claims is unlawfully residing on land that forms part of a Dublin substation has told the High Court that he has "nowhere else to go."

Glen Oglesby told the court that he had been living in caravan on the ESB's property at Gloucester Place Upper in Dublin 1 for some time.

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He said he feared that if he had to leave the site he would end up living in homeless shelters and could end up taking drugs again.

Mr Oglesby said local people had not objected to his presence there. He also accepted that he was the owner of a Doberman Pinscher dog seen on the site.

He told the court the ESB had brought proceedings earlier this week against Paul Oglesby.

Mr Oglesby said Paul is his brother and is not the person residing on the property.

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In response, John Punch SC for ESB, said his client had been given information that the person on the site was Paul and not Glen Oglesby.

His client had concerns that Glen Oglesby's admission might be some sort of manoeuvre to avoid compliance with a court order, and asked the court to add Glen Oglesby as a defendant to its action.

Mr Justice Mark Sanfey agreed that Glen should be added as a party to the action.

Noting Mr Oglesby's admissions to the court, and that he was representing himself in the action, the judge agreed to adjourn the matter to a date later this month.

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The judge told Mr Oglesby that the situation was very serious and would need to be determined by the court relatively quickly

The judge also suggested to him that he have his response ready when the case returns before the court.

The ESB claims the site is not a safe place for anyone to reside, and it has never given anyone permission to reside in and around the substation.

The ESB says it has also placed signs up on the property directing any persons to leave the site which consists of a 38KV and a 10KV substation.

The ESB claims the site consists of an inner and outer compound, where the caravan is located, separated by fences and or walls.

The inner compound, the ESB says, is made up of highly dangerous live electrical apparatus.

The ESB says it has "grave concerns" about people having unauthorised access to the property.

There are also underground cables located in and around where the caravan has been placed, the ESB further claims.

As a result the ESB has sought various injunctions where it seeks vacant possession of the property.
The Taoiseach is to meet Stormonts leaders during his first official visit to Northern Ireland on Friday.

Simon Harris, who became Taoiseach on April 9th, will meet First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly during his trip to Belfast.

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He is expected to discuss developments in Northern Ireland since the restoration of its political institutions in February, as well as areas of common interest and potential opportunities for all-island co-operation.

He will be formally greeted at Parliament Buildings by the Speaker of the Assembly Edwin Poots, before he has bilateral meetings with Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and Colum Eastwood leader of the SDLP.

Simon Harris will meet First Minister Michelle ONeill, left, and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (Liam McBurney/PA)

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Mr Harris will also hold a working lunch with key business stakeholders in Northern Ireland.

He will later be hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queens University Belfast where the Taoiseach will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Governments Shared Island Fund.
Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a ceasefire with Israel that the United States and other mediators hope will avert an Israeli attack on the Gaza town of Rafah.

But the chances of a deal are entangled with the question of whether Israel can accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas.

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The stakes in the ceasefire negotiations were made clear in a new UN report that said if the war in Gaza stops today, it will still take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes that have been destroyed by nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in the territory.

It warned that the impact of the damage to the economy will set back development for generations and will only get worse with every month fighting continues.

Antony Blinken said there is no time for quibbling over a ceasefire (Pool via AP)

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Hamas has insisted it will not sign onto the deal without assurances that, if it eventually releases all its hostages, Israel will end its onslaught in Gaza and pull its troops out of the territory.

The proposal that US and Egyptian mediators have put to Hamas  apparently with Israels acceptance  sets out a three-stage process that will bring an immediate six-week ceasefire and partial hostage release but also negotiations over a permanent calm that includes some sort of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to an Egyptian official.

If Israel does agree to end the war in return for a full hostage release, it would be a major turnaround.

Since Hamas bloody October 7th attack stunned Israel, its leaders have vowed not to stop their bombardment and ground offensives until the militant group is destroyed. They also say Israel must keep a military presence in Gaza and security control after the war to ensure Hamas does not rebuild.

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Publicly at least, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that is the only acceptable endgame.

He has vowed that even if a ceasefire is reached, Israel will eventually attack Rafah, which he says is Hamas last stronghold in Gaza.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah (AP)

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He repeated his determination to do so in talks on Wednesday with US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who was in Israel on a regional tour to push the deal through.

The deals immediate fate hinges on whether Hamas will accept uncertainty over the final phases to bring the initial six-week pause in fighting  and at least postpone what it is feared would be a devastating assault on Rafah, Gazas southernmost town where some 1.4 million Palestinians have taken refuge.

Egypt has been privately assuring Hamas that the deal will mean a total end to the war. But the Egyptian official said Hamas claims the texts language is too vague and wants it to specify a complete Israeli pullout from all of Gaza.

The group is still studying the offer, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a message on Thursday to The Associated Press. He did not confirm whether it would formally give an answer later in the day.

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On Thursday, Hamas said it was sending a delegation to Cairo to continue ceasefire talks. The groups supreme leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement that he had spoken to Egypts intelligence chief and stressed the positive spirit of the movement in studying the cease-fire proposal.

The statement said Hamas negotiators would travel to Egypt as soon as possible to complete the ongoing discussions with the aim of working forward for an agreement.

Spoke with Minister @gantzbe on our efforts to secure the release of hostages through an immediate ceasefire deal. We also discussed our commitment to Israels security and the imperative to ensure more humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza.  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 1, 2024

The statement did not say when the delegation would travel. Hamas had been expected to deliver an answer to Egypts latest proposal as soon as Thursday.

Mr Blinken hiked up pressure on Hamas to accept, saying Israel had made very important compromises.

Theres no time for further haggling. The deal is there, Mr Blinken said on Wednesday before leaving for the US.

Hanging over the negotiations is the threat of an Israeli attack on Rafah, which the US and UN have warned could be catastrophic for Palestinian civilians. After fleeing Israels assault elsewhere in Gaza, more than half the territorys population has crowded into tent camps and other shelters in and around Rafah.

The United States, which has staunchly supported Israel throughout the war, has said it should not move on Rafah and has grown increasingly critical of the staggering toll borne by Palestinian civilians.

American officials say they oppose a major offensive in Rafah but that if Israel conducts one, it must first evacuate civilians. Israel has said it is developing plans for a mass evacuation of civilians.

The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the October 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Hamas is believed to still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Since then, Israels campaign in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

It has wreaked vast destruction and brought about a humanitarian disaster, with several hundred thousand Palestinians in northern Gaza facing imminent famine, according to the UN. More than 80% of the population has been driven from their homes.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station after forgetting to bring a photo ID.

The PA news agency understands Mr Johnson was told by polling station staff he would not be able to vote without proving his identity.

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The requirement to provide photo ID was introduced by Mr Johnson during his time in Downing Street as part of the Elections Act 2022.

It is understood Mr Johnson was later able to vote, and that he voted Conservative.

Voting ID provisions were rolled out at last years local elections (PA)

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Thursdays local elections were the first time many voters in England and Wales have had to present ID to vote under provisions first rolled out at last years local elections.

Acceptable forms of ID include a passport, driving licence, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (Pass) cards, Blue Badges, and some concessionary travel cards.

The UK government has also said it intends to make veterans ID cards a valid form of voter identification after former service personnel were turned away from polling stations.

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I am sorry about this.



The legislation on acceptable forms of ID came out before the veterans ID cards started coming out in January this year. I will do all I can to change it before the next one. https://t.co/COY0n6vIEo  Rt Hon Johnny Mercer (@JohnnyMercerUK) May 2, 2024

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UK veterans minister Johnny Mercer apologised to those who had been unable to use their veterans ID card to vote in the local elections on Thursday, vowing to do all I can to have it added to the list of valid identification.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: It is our intention for the new Veteran Card, which was rolled out in January, to be added to the official list.

The UK government is consulting on adding the card to the list of acceptable voter ID, which already includes armed forces identity cards.

Mr Mercers apology came after Army veteran Adam Diver complained he had been turned away from his local polling station after presenting his Veteran Card.

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Army veteran Mr Diver, 48, had been looking to place his vote in Fleetwood, Lancashire, but was turned away after presenting his card, saying the experience left him feeling gutted.

I felt clearly deflated, I felt gutted to be fair and upset  I felt angry at the point, Mr Diver, who served in the Army for 27 years, told the PA news agency.

I felt like my time served was invalidated and I just thought to myself, what was the point in that?

Ive served in pretty much every war going, Ive spent 27 years away from my family.

I thought you could use it as an ID card. Its like a driving licence, you cant get any more official and it didnt strike me one bit that it wouldnt be validated.

Labour said the UK government has had years to ensure the Veteran Card was included on the list of valid voter ID, having begun rolling out the cards in 2019.

Meanwhile, a Conservative MP has said his dyspraxia caused him to misplace his photo ID, forcing him to arrange an emergency proxy vote for Thursdays local elections.

Tom Hunt, who represents Ipswich, warned people persecuting him online to be very careful with their words, saying it is well known that sadly we are slightly more prone to lose things.

He told PA: I dont want to blame everything on my dyspraxia but its a factor in my life I have to deal with.

Its all well and good people saying we need to have more neurodiverse Members of Parliament, but having a massive pile-on on them, I dont think its going to encourage more people.

People whose ID has been lost, stolen or damaged can apply for an emergency proxy vote until 5pm on polling day, allowing someone else to vote on their behalf.

Mr Hunt said he had not previously been aware of this provision, but had applied for an emergency proxy vote, saying it is the system working well.

Downing Street said it had no wider concerns about the operation of the voter ID requirement, adding that only 0.25 per cent of would-be voters had been turned away from polling stations for lacking the correct documents.

The Electoral Commission said most voters were able to cast their ballots despite the ID requirements.

Our initial assessment of the elections is that they were well-run, and millions of voters were able to exercise their democratic rights, a spokesman said.

This is a testament to the efforts of electoral administrators, who work tirelessly to ensure the smooth delivery and integrity of polls.
The ringleader of an extreme body modifications website was driven towards the subculture by a desire to be the architect of his own body after his marriage broke down, a court in London has heard.

Through his eunuch maker site, Marius Gustavson and other like-minded individuals carried out multiple mutilations, the scale of which is without precedent, prosecutor Caroline Carberry previously told England's central criminal court.

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The 46-year-old Norwegian required hospital treatment after having his penis and leg removed during body modification procedures.

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Rashvinderjeet Panesar, defending Gustavson, said the breakdown of his 11-year marriage in 2016 which had kept him stable, was a trigger for his extreme activities.

When it came to an end it sent him into a spiral, Mr Panesar said.

He had a desire to be the architect of his own body.

His modification led him to feelings of empowerment.

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Gustavson had not participated in any body modification before the end of his marriage, Mr Panesar said.

Arch manipulator Gustavson, of Haringey, north London, has previously admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

He appeared for sentence alongside six other men who had all admitted their part in the lucrative scheme.

The charges relate to 13 victims who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives.

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The wide-ranging conspiracy also involved the removal and trade of body parts, the court was told.

Ms Carberry said Peter Wates, a retired former member of the UK's Royal Society of Chemists, had been in the business of purchasing body parts from Gustavson.

During a police raid on the Wales home of David Carruthers, testicles were found in a chest freezer, the prosecutor said.

Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of making an indecent photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child and possession of criminal property contrary to Section 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

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Ion Ciucur (30), of Gretna, Scotland, Wates (66), of Purley, England, Stefan Scharf (61), of no fixed address, David Carruthers (61), Atkin (38), Ashley Williams (32), all of Newport, Wales, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.

The sentencing hearing continues.
The parents of Madeleine McCann have released a statement on the 17th anniversary of her disappearance, saying the absence still aches.

In a message issued on the official Find Madeleine website, Kate and Gerry McCann said: Its 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us.

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Its hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief.

Kate and Gerry McCann during an interview shortly before the 10th anniversary of Madeleines disappearance. Photo: Joe Giddens/PA

Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the living in limbo is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.

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The couple added: Your support continues to encourage us and bolsters our strength to keep going. We know the love and hope for Madeleine and the will to find her, even after so many years, remains, and we are truly thankful for that.

Thank you again for remembering Madeleine and all missing children.

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Madeleine, from Leicestershire in England, vanished on May 3rd, 2007, while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, after they left the then three-year-old and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends nearby.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that up to a further 192,000 (224,000) has been granted by the UK Home Office for a British police investigation into Madeleines disappearance.

The prime suspect in Madeleines disappearance is currently on trial in Germany charged with unrelated sex offences, allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

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Search teams at the Algarves Barragem do Arade reservoir last May. Photo: Yui Mok/PA

The 47-year-old German, only known as Christian B because of the countrys strict privacy laws, spent many years in Portugal  including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleines disappearance.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in the resort town in 2005.

He had denied all the charges against him and any involvement in Madeleines disappearance.

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In June last year, German prosecutors said they cannot yet link items seized in the fresh McCann searches with the investigation into her disappearance.

A large section of the Barragem do Arade area of the Algarve was cordoned in May 2023, around 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing.
The FDA trade unions High Court challenge over the Governments Safety of Rwanda Act will be heard in the first week of June, a judge has ruled.

The trade union, which represents senior civil servants, previously said it was bringing legal action over the relationship of the Civil Service Code with the Governments Safety of Rwanda Act.

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In an order on Friday, judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said the case would be heard on one day, to be listed between June 4th and 7th at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The judge also said the legal action was being brought against the Cabinet Office, with the Home Office listed as an interested party.

The Safety of Rwanda Act aims to deter small boats crossing the English Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)

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He continued: It would not be right to say anything about the merits of the claim at this stage.

However, it appears from the claim that some civil servants believe, or have been advised, that it would be contrary to their terms and conditions to comply with a ministerial decision to proceed with Rwanda removals in the face of a rule 39 measure.

The prospect that they will be asked to act contrary to a rule 39 measure, whilst far from certain, is also not hypothetical, given the Governments public statements on this subject.

That being so, there is a powerful public interest in the determination of this claim in advance of the point when any rule 39 measure might be indicated.

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A Rule 39 interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights  branded a pyjama injunction because it can be issued outside normal court hours  contributed to the grounding in 2022 of the first flight that was set to carry asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The FDAs challenge concerns guidance from the Cabinet Office to civil servants which says they will be acting in line with the Civil Service Code if they follow a Minsters decision to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, even if a Rule 39 measure has been made.

In Fridays order, Mr Justice Chamberlain continued: The claimant says that this guidance is wrong in law and that civil servants would be acting contrary to the code, as presently drafted, and therefore contrary to their terms and conditions of employment, if they acted contrary to such an interim measure.

The judge also said the Government had told the High Court that the earliest dates individuals are expected to be removed to Rwanda is July 1-15th.
Britain's opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday, inflicting a heavy loss on the governing Conservatives at the start of what looked set to be a bruising round of results for prime minister Rishi Sunak.

The thumping victory set the tone for what will be a closely watched two days of local results before a general election this year, which polling shows could put Labour leader Keir Starmer in power and end 14 years of Conservative government.

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Voters cast their ballots on Thursday for more than 2,000 seats on local authorities across England and a handful of high-profile mayoral elections, including in London.

Blackpool South was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after the incumbent, elected in 2019 as a Conservative candidate, quit over a lobbying scandal.

Labour candidate Chris Webb won the Blackpool election with 10,825 votes. The Conservative candidate came in second with 3,218. The swing of 26 per cent to Labour from the 2019 result was the third biggest in post-war by-election history, polling expert John Curtice said.

The defeat in Blackpool and early signs of deep losses at the council level will boost Labour's hopes for a sweeping victory over Mr Sunak's Conservatives in the general election.

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"This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today," Mr Starmer said.

"This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change."

Poor showing by Conservatives

Mr Sunak's Conservatives are about 20 percentage points behind Labour in most opinion polls for the national election, which ,Mr Sunak intends to call in the second half of the year.

Mr Curtice said that based on results so far, the Conservatives could be looking at their worst local election results for 40 years and were on course for defeat in the national election.

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The first 500 of the more than 2,600 local council results showed Labour making gains at the expense of the Conservatives - in line with finance minister Jeremy Hunt's pre-vote prediction of significant losses for the governing party.

The Conservatives seized on results in one southeastern council that Mr Starmer had made a key target, but failed to win control of.

"Whilst this is tough night for the Conservative party, it's clear there is absolutely no love for Keir Starmer," a Conservative spokesperson said.

Although local elections do not always reflect how people will vote in a national contest, a heavy defeat could trigger renewed anger in the Conservative Party over Mr Sunak's leadership and the prospect of losing power.

The extent of that unrest could hinge on the results of two mayoral elections in which the Conservatives hope to show they can still hold ground in central and northeast England.

The Tees Valley mayoral result is due on Friday, while the West Midlands mayor is to be announced on Saturday. The result in London, where current Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win another term, is also due on Saturday.
By Jung Da-hyun

Local governments are intensifying efforts to establish crematoriums, a plan that has frequently faced strong opposition from residents in the past.

However, this time, the plan is receiving a warm welcome as local governments promise financial support.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the cremation rate surged from 42.6 percent in 2002 to 91.7 percent in 2022. Simultaneously, the number of crematoriums increased from 105,103 to 342,128 during the same period.

Despite this growth, the number of crematoriums nationwide stands at only 321. Particularly, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Busan, and Daegu face shortages of 4.9 to 24.7 crematoriums compared to demand.

In response to increasing demand, local governments plan to establish more crematoriums. Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province aims to complete the construction of a memorial park equipped with crematoriums by the end of 2028.

The park will encompass crematoriums, funeral parlors and burial sites on a 330,000-square-meter piece of land.

The city launched a public tender process to select the site for the facility from June to September last year. Seven villages applied in total, and the city government is now examining the final sites.

The selected villages will receive 4 billion won ($2.93 million) in support funds from the city. Additionally, the city government plans to allocate 20 percent of the crematoriums' usage fees for 30 years to the villages and provide employment opportunities to local residents.

An official at the Pohang city government noted the enthusiastic participation and support of residents in attracting these facilities. The city government believes that residents prioritize local economic revitalization.

Similarly, Yangju in Gyeonggi Province laid out plans to establish crematoriums. The city intends to develop a facility on an 830,000-square-meter plot of land and received site applications from August to October last year.

Six villages applied as the city government pledged to offer up to 40 billion won in incentives, operating rights for profitable facilities like restaurants and cafes within the cremation complexes and prioritized employment for residents.

The city government has allocated a total of 40 billion won, with 10 billion won going to Bangseong 1-ri and 30 billion won to nearby villages, which were selected as the final candidate sites.
Sharon and Ians wedding was a lunch affair in Bright. In morning traffic, almost four hours drive from the family home in Williamstown. Kids dropped at the station and dog fed, I burned off solo in the Kia Carnival about 7.30am, in a good dress and towering strappy Chloe sandals.

Along with changing the radio station every five seconds in search of a better song, one of my driving foibles is having the car temperature set to coldish. Nobody wants car sickness from being trapped in a hot moving bubble. I was doing a reading at the wedding and wanted to be in ripper shape from the roadie. So, a bag of jersey caramels, tons of bad singing and Arctic temperatures.

Its easier to fulfil your wedding duties when you havent frozen your feet. Credit: Tanya Lake

Groom Ian was on welcome duties at the door of the winery when I pulled up. Ace. My scheduling and Be Your Best strategy seemed to have paid off. Until I got out of the car, fell over and couldnt stand. My feet were legit frozen.

Ian saw I was in all sorts. Abandoned his post. Raced over.
Australia will pour almost $500 million into development projects in the Asia-Pacific region after securing commitments aimed at preventing the participation of Chinese government companies who secure major Pacific Island infrastructure projects by underbidding only to deliver shoddy work.

Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy and Foreign Minister Penny Wong inked the new $492 million, four-year funding contribution to the Asian Development Bank on Thursday night.

An aerial view of the Aiwo Port in Nauru. Credit: CHEC

Conroy stressed the funding deal was delivered after the bank had committed to reforming the way it delivered projects, amid concerns from experts and security officials that Chinese state-owned enterprises were also using Asian Development Bank-funded contracts to advance Beijings geopolitical agenda.

Conroy also revealed that Australias lobbying of the World Bank to overhaul its procurement processes had produced important reforms while warning that multilateral banks had unwittingly been caught in a contest for influence in the South Pacific.
A man who repeatedly lied about the whereabouts of his missing girlfriend, telling police and her loved ones she left their home in Sydneys north-west for a walk in her pyjamas and did not return, has pleaded guilty to her murder.

Vincent Carlino was arrested on July 23, 2022, hours after the body of Shereen Kumar, a mother of two, businesswoman and part-time model, was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in bushland off Laurie Road in Dural.

Shereen Kumars body was found dumped in Dural bushland in 2022. Credit: Facebook

Kumar and Carlino each owned franchises of the dog walking chain Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and had a tumultuous on and off relationship for 17 months, sometimes living together and sometimes apart, according to the agreed facts.

In the weeks before Kumars death, the couple had argued over WhatsApp. Carlino described himself as a manipulative asshole that doesnt deserve love or cannot give love, said that he felt nothing positive from Kumars heart, and he was just one step above the devil.
Another former Perth immigration detainee released following a High Court ruling last year has been arrested and charged with an aggravated burglary that he allegedly committed while under the watch of the federal police and wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Kimbengere Gosoge, 42, was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly breaching curfew for nearly a week and then turning off his ankle device.

Midland Magistrates Court. Credit: Hannah Barry

Gosoge is alleged to have breached the conditions of his visa five times between April 26 and May 1 by failing to observe his residential curfew obligations, and is alleged to have failed to keep his monitoring device in working order.

He appeared at Midland Magistrates Court on Thursday afternoon and did not apply for bail. He was remanded in custody to reappear at Perth Magistrates Court on May 16.
West Coast coach Adam Simpson is confident Elliot Yeo will turn his back on free agency to remain with the AFL club.

Yeo will become an unrestricted free agent at seasons end, and he is a hot commodity following his stunning start to 2024.

The 30-year-old has averaged a career-high 25.1 possessions and 8.1 clearances this season, to go along with five goals.

His combination in the midfield with Harley Reid, Tim Kelly and Reuben Ginbey has helped transform last seasons wooden spooners into a competitive outfit.

Clubs in the premiership window are set to push hard to lure Yeo away from West Coast, but Simpson is confident the midfield bull will stay.

I think its on his desk. It might be in his pigeonhole at the footy club, Simpson quipped when asked about a contract offer for Yeo.

Were working through that. From all reports he wants to stay, and we want to keep him, so Im hoping thats just a matter of time.

West Coast will welcome back Reid, Tom Barrass and Noah Long for Saturday nights clash with Essendon at Optus Stadium, while pick No.49 from last years draft, Harvey Johnston, has been named for his AFL debut.

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Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has delivered a veiled swipe at a government-appointed panel of experts hours after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the board made the wrong call by allowing a former detainees ankle monitor to be removed before he allegedly committed a home invasion.

In a statement released by his office on Friday evening, a spokesperson for Giles distanced the minister from decisions made over the visa conditions of former immigration detainees, as the government faces mounting questions over its accountability for 150 people released into the community after the High Courts November ruling that indefinite detention was illegal.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giless office put out a statement late on Friday evening. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The Community Protection Board is there to provide experienced and expert advice but the expectation is that they will always be mindful of community views and the objectives of government policy, the spokesperson said. The board makes recommendations on conditions that must be signed off by the minister, Giles, or a delegate.

The statement followed accusations by the Coalition that the minister was in hiding. Monthly community protection reports promised months ago are yet to be published, and justice experts paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by taxpayers to advise on visa conditions have either declined or not replied to requests for comment.
Homeowners should be allowed to rent out their spare rooms or granny flats without facing a tax penalty, independent MP Allegra Spender says, as a new report shows Australias housing crisis will worsen in coming years.

The National Housing Supply and Affordability Councils State of the Housing System 2024 report found the federal governments ambitious target of getting 1.2 million homes built in five years will fall short by more than 250,000 homes due to building industry constraints, complex planning processes and a lack of land to build on.

Allegra Spender says home owners should be able to rent out granny flats and spare bedrooms without capital gains tax implications. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Supplied

The report found housing affordability worsened in 2023 from already bad levels. Minimum repayments on mortgages had risen by as much as 60 per cent since the Reserve Bank started lifting interest rates in 2022.

Renters also faced enormous pressures from skyrocketing rents  which rose by 8 per cent last year  and a near record lack of availability. The national rental vacancy rate was 1.6 per cent.
A Rozelle Interchange-type fiasco is looming on the Warringah Freeway, north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a former NSW Roads and Traffic Authority chief executive has warned.

Former RTA boss Paul Forward told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday that the Western Harbour Tunnel  long touted as a solution for the Rozelle Interchange chaos  could shift the problem from the inner west to Sydneys lower north shore.

He said the traffic delivered by the $5 billion tunnel project, combined with the two existing harbour crossings, was very concerning and could see a new traffic debacle when it opens in 2028.

Were also concerned about the actual design of the Western Harbour Tunnel. We now have three motorways ... all coming onto the Warringah Freeway in very similar locations, he said.
More than $1 billion in resources revenue has flowed from the earth into the Victorian governments coffers in the past three years  and none of it has gone to the traditional owners of those lands.

Such is the extent of land injustice faced by Victorias First Peoples  exposed in evidence before the Yoorrook Justice Commission that lays bare the scale of economic exclusion imposed on Indigenous people in this state.

Djiri Djiri dancers perform before Mondays Yoorrook hearing. Credit: Justin McManus

The historic truth telling inquiry has held a month of hearings into the injustices and inequities stemming from the violent dispossession of lands, waters and skies from First Peoples since the arrival of European settlers.

Premier Jactina Allans appearance  the first by a state leader at a formal, Indigenous-led truth telling and justice commission  briefly brought wider interest to the inquiry, but the crux of the hearings was generally overlooked.
They might be particularly disfiguring, for example, injuries to the face using knives or sharp force, or sometimes injuries designed if not to kill them, then to disfigure them and cause psychological harm. Forensic physician Maaike Moller, of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Credit: Eddie Jim Though statistics about womens verified, violent deaths are tallied  as yet only by volunteers online  Dr Sarah Whitelaw, an emergency physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, agrees with Chris and other medical experts, academics and social workers that the full picture of harm to Victorian women is not captured in data  but needs to be. Experts are calling for better information sharing between hospital networks, and the use of technology to help comprehend the wider picture of family violence, which  as community anger builds about 28 womens alleged murders by men this year  would help governments provide adequate responses. Whitelaw, who works at one of Victorias two major trauma hospitals, describes the family violence injury toll on Victorian women as a hidden epidemic.

Multiple agencies collect data about injuries caused by family violence, but there is no central means of storing or accessing it. A proportion of domestic violence injuries is sent to the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit, but only those notified to police or hospital staff as committed by a partner, which often does not occur. This week, Will Alstergren, Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court, also called for better information sharing among the nations family courts, to enable courts to best triage matters in which women may be at risk and to identify the level of risk they face. Federal Circuit Court and Family Court Chief Justice Will Alstergren called this week for a national database of intervention orders to help courts assess risk for women whose matters are appearing. Whitelaw says the hospital sees women who must have been in extreme pain and traumatised for some time, but who have been made to wait by the perpetrator for hours or days before being allowed to get treatment. As part of our day-to-day case presentations in the emergency department, we see the gamut from first presentation of injury to 50th presentation of injury  what we look for and what we often see is patterns of injury, Whitelaw says.

We learn a lot about non-accidental injury  injuries to bilateral [both] arms that can be defensive and gained while trying to defend yourself. Its often a situation where our nurses pick up that theres something this woman is trying to tell us, sometimes with her eyes, sometimes with her body language. Loading They are really hard to deal with when you see people who have repeatedly been injured over days, weeks or years. Sometimes where injuries have been repeated, or where abuse has been going on for a long period of time, it is just as difficult to deal with as some of the really severe injuries we see. Distressing scenarios for hospital staff, as well as families and, of course, mostly for the victim, include women with brain injuries from family violence, chest and abdomen injuries, and injuries to pregnant women that also place the baby at risk, Whitelaw says. Frontline staff want women to know they will be offered safe support in hospitals, and they will not be judged if they choose to take up only part of the advice offered, including if and when they feel ready to disclose that the harm was caused by family violence.

Hospital networks do not have connected information systems, which means if violence victims  who may not have felt safe to disclose the cause of their injury  are taken to hospitals in different networks, chances are high that staff treating them will not know they have been admitted previously for non-accidental family violence injuries. Loading This knowledge could aid medical workers to offer targeted support. Dr Christine Craik, a social work academic at RMIT who worked for 12 years in the intensive care department at one of Melbournes biggest trauma hospitals, says because hospitals in different regions have different information systems, medical staff are unable to see if women have had other recent injuries that may be due to violence, and may miss the chance to help them get support. In some states, like Tasmania and New South Wales, hospital emergency departments are connected, but that doesnt happen in Victoria, she says.

We had cases where perpetrators would choose Sunshine Hospital for one thing, and five months later theyd turn up at the Austin and then down at The Alfred or another hospital  but they dont talk to each other. We could perhaps raise red flags if they did. All experts say more hospital information that could help produce a clearer understanding of the true dimensions of the injury toll on women from family violence should be adopted, along with strict privacy and confidentiality measures to keep the information secure. Thousands marched in Melbourne this week calling for national action to end violence against women. Credit: Wayne Taylor Farah Mak, a domestic violence survivor who works with other women to help re-build a sense of self-worth, spoke at the Family Violence Remembrance Day candlelight vigil near Parliament House on Wednesday night, saying advocates wanted systemic reforms. Domestic and family violence spares no one, and it does not discriminate, she said. Its a scourge that disregards boundaries of background, culture, race, religion, wealth, or upbringing. Its insidious reach touches lives across all walks of life, leaving behind a trail of devastation and heartache.
By Lee Hyo-jin

John Lee, a Korean War veteran known for his role as the interpreter for Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the 1950 Incheon Landing Operation, passed away in Atlanta, Georgia, Wednesday (local time).

He was 95.

The Korean-American, whose Korean name was Lee Jong-yeon, was born on Nov. 23, 1928, in Yeonbaek, Hwanghae Province.

He moved to Seoul and enrolled in Korean literature studies at Korea University in 1948.

Lee answered the call to serve in the military when the Korean War (1950-53) broke out in June 1950, upon hearing that the Eighth U.S. Army was looking for a soldier with interpreting skills. He was assigned to the U.S. First Marine Division.

He participated in the Incheon Landing Operation, also known as Operation Chromite, led by Gen. MacArthur on Sept. 15 of that year.

Lee served as the interpreter for MacArthur throughout the operation, which marked a significant turning point in the war, allowing South Korean forces to retake Seoul from North Korean troops.

He also took part in the Battle of Lake Changjin, or the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, from Nov. 26 to Dec. 11, 1950, in South Hamgyeong Province, where approximately 30,000 U.N. troops faced off against 120,000 Chinese troops.

Recognized for his contributions during the war, Lee was awarded the Legion of Merit by the U.S. government in April 1952.

After being discharged from the military in 1954, Lee moved to America and studied law at Yale University. Following his graduation, he practiced law as an attorney in New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., serving as a senior lawyer for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1967 to 1987.

Later in life, Lee authored the book, "Old Chosin," recounting his experiences during the Korean War.

Lee's funeral will be held at Jans Creek Korean Church in Atlanta at 10 a.m. on Saturday (local time).
We know that self-employed clients are a little different when it comes to demonstrating income, and with these changes weve introduced, brokers can assist more clients by providing a single verification of income across all of our loan options, Saoud said.
Celonis, the global leader in Process Mining, announced today that it has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Process Mining Platforms for the second time since the category's inception last year. Celonis was evaluated and placed in the Leaders' Quadrant, being positioned highest on the Ability to Execute axis and advancing to the furthest spot on the Completeness of Vision axis once again.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240501312728/en/

The 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Process Mining Platforms (Graphic: Business Wire)

The pace of change keeps accelerating - new technologies keep emerging, customer expectations keep rising, and the need for greater efficiency keeps increasing. To succeed, organizations need solutions that help them address all these demands, and most importantly create meaningful value, said Alex Rinke, co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis. Celonis gives companies a common language for how their business runs and provides the context to enable technologies like AI and automation to become effective. For us, being named a Leader for the second consecutive year in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Process Mining Platforms reinforces our commitment to make processes work for people, companies and the planet. We are proud to receive this recognition and will continue to build the future of process intelligence together with our customers, partners and fellow Celonauts who have embraced our vision and keep pushing process mining to realize its full potential.

Process mining has become an essential enterprise solution for adapting to an uncertain world and driving transformation at speed and scale, said, Daniel de Rooij, SVP Digital Transformation and CIO Hygiene at Reckitt, a global consumer products company with well-known brands such as Finish dishwasher tablets, Lysol disinfectant, and Nurofen painkillers. With advancements like object-centric process mining and the Process Intelligence Graph, Celonis platform provides us with the unique process intelligence that we need to optimize IT operations, deliver value to the business faster, and drive disruptive innovation with emerging technologies like generative AI.

Celonis enables customers to identify and capture hidden value, empower their people with actionable insights, and help them more effectively leverage technologies like AI and automation to optimize their processes. At the core of the Celonis Platform is the Process Intelligence Graph (PI Graph), an extensible digital twin of the business based on a standardized, object-centric data model. This twin is system-agnostic and without bias. The PI Graph adds business context to this process digital twin with out-of-the-box KPI definitions and improvement opportunities, such as how delivery blocks impact on-time delivery rate. Sitting at the heart of the Celonis platform, the PI Graph allows us to create capabilities that embed AI in ready-to-use solutions. For example, the Process Copilot chatbot turns natural language requests into process insights, and the AI-powered Duplicate Checker App helps keep customers from paying invoices twice. Using our Machine Learning (ML) Workbench customers and partners can create their own AI solutions in Celonis or feed data into their existing AI tools using our Intelligence API.

The platform also provides advanced process modeling functionality. In 2023, Celonis acquired Symbio, a provider of AI-driven Business Process Management (BPM) software. The integration of Symbios capabilities into the Celonis enables customers to not only mine their processes and identify value opportunities, but also design their ideal process using a modern, AI-assisted process modeling solution. Customers can also ensure their processes stay on the straight and narrow with the Process Adherence Manager and track the business impact of their process improvement work with the Transformation Hub.

Notes to editors

The 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant on Process Mining Platforms is available here.

Find more information on Process Mining and the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform here.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Process Mining Platforms, Marc Kerremans, David Sudgen, Nick Duffy, 29 April 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartners research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Celonis

Since 2011, Celonis has helped thousands of the worlds largest and most esteemed companies yield immediate cash impact, radically improve customer experience, and reduce carbon emissions. Its Process Intelligence platform uses industry-leading process mining technology and AI to present companies with a living digital twin of their end-to-end processes. For the first time, everyone in an organization has a common language for how the business runs, visibility into where value is hiding, and the ability to capture it. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with more than 20 offices worldwide.

 2024 Celonis SE. All rights reserved. Celonis and the Celonis droplet logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Celonis SE in Germany and other jurisdictions. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240501312728/en/
Mary Kay Inc., a global beauty brand renowned for its commitment to female empowerment and entrepreneurship, is thrilled to announce that its products will now be sold in Denmark. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in Mary Kay's mission to enrich women's lives across the globe. With this launch, Mary Kay products are now available in all the Scandinavian and Nordic markets in partnership with Lesley Cosmetics, Mary Kays authorized distributor in Scandinavia.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502841084/en/

Mary Kay Inc., a global beauty brand renowned for its commitment to female empowerment and entrepreneurship, is thrilled to announce that its products will now be sold in Denmark. Denmark, known for its strong focus on gender equality and women's rights, stands as one of the most egalitarian societies in the world, ranking third in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. (Photo: Mary Kay Inc.)

Denmark, known for its strong focus on gender equality and women's rights, stands as one of the most egalitarian societies in the world, ranking third in the EU on the Gender Equality Index1. The countrys demand for innovative opportunities for women is ever-present. The availability of Mary Kay products in the Danish market promises to offer exciting, new prospects for female entrepreneurship and empowerment through its unique business model.

Mary Kay Europe President Tara Eustace expressed her excitement about the introduction of Mary Kay products into a new country. The expansion into Denmark not only represents an amazing growth strategy in Europe but also reaffirms our commitment to providing women with unparalleled opportunities for empowerment and entrepreneurship. We are excited to partner with Lesley Cosmetics to introduce Danish women to our high-quality products and the unique Mary Kay business opportunity. Together, we look forward to building a strong community of independent beauty consultants in Denmark and supporting them in achieving their goals.

"The essence of Mary Kay's vision has always been to offer women unparalleled opportunities for personal and professional growth, said Carl Henric Wallblom, CEO of Lesley Cosmetics. I am confident that Danish women will embrace Mary Kay's high-quality skincare and color cosmetics, and more importantly, the chance to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams without compromising their personal and family lives. Mary Kay's visionary business model is more relevant today than ever before, and I'm excited to see its impact on families in Denmark.

The official grand opening in Denmark, attended by 750 guests, was a spectacular and historic evening for Mary Kay, Lesley Cosmetics, and the many women who have eagerly awaited the products and opportunity. Click here to watch the Mary Kay Beauty Beyond Borders video.

Mary Kay's legacy of enriching women's lives for over 60 years continues to inspire and pave the way for future generations. With its cutting-edge skincare and color cosmetics, Mary Kay is set to make a significant impact in Denmark, empowering women to pursue their dreams and achieve success on their own terms.

About Mary Kay

Then. Now. Always. One of the original glass ceiling breakers, Mary Kay Ash founded her dream beauty brand in Texas in 1963 with one goal: to enrich womens lives. That dream has blossomed into a global company with millions of independent sales force members in more than 35 countries. For 60 years, the Mary Kay opportunity has empowered women to define their own futures through education, mentorship, advocacy, and innovation. Mary Kay is dedicated to investing in the science behind beauty and manufacturing cutting-edge skincare, color cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and fragrances. Mary Kay believes in preserving our planet for future generations, protecting women impacted by cancer and domestic abuse, and encouraging youth to follow their dreams. Learn more at marykayglobal.com, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or follow us on X (formerly Twitter).

1 Source: European Institute For Gender Equality (2023). Retrieved from: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2023/country/DK.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502841084/en/
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Friday elected a lawmaker closely aligned with DP leader Lee Jae-myung as its new floor leader.

Rep. Park Chan-dae, a member of the DPK's Supreme Council who was reelected for a third term in the general elections, was named floor leader at a general meeting of party lawmakers, becoming the party's first floor leader under the current 22nd National Assembly.

Park was the sole candidate for the post.

A total of 170 out of 171 lawmakers attended the vote, with a majority of them casting their ballots for Park.

Announcing his run for the floor leader earlier, Park said his election will establish a "two-top system," with Chairman Lee best fit to push ahead with reforms.

In his address after the election, Park said he will seek to reintroduce bills that were vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

They include a proposal that calls for a special investigation into first lady Kim Keon Hee's alleged involvement in stock manipulation.

He also vowed to bring back the chairmanship of the house steering committee to the DPK, as well as the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee  a key Assembly panel that has the power to approve bills before they are put to a plenary vote.

"We will part ways from the Democratic Party of the past that lost opportunities because of hesitation," Park said, stressing the DPK's priority lies in "reform."

A graduate of Seoul's Inha University, Park worked as an accountant before entering politics in 2014 and winning the general elections for the first time in 2016.

Park emerged as a key aide to Lee, serving as the chief spokesperson for Lee's campaign during the 2021 presidential primary.

Although considered a pro-Lee hardliner, he is also said to have strong communication skills and be fond of those not aligned with the DPK leader.

Park takes over from his predecessor, Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo. (Yonhap)
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President Yoon Suk Yeol reiterated his commitment Friday to increasing the monthly basic pension benefit for the senior population during his term.

Yoon made the pledge during a ceremony marking Parents' Day, celebrated on May 8 every year. It was the first time a sitting president attended the annual event.

One of the Yoon government's policy goals is to increase the monthly basic pension benefit for senior citizens from slightly over 320,000 won to 400,000 won ($292). The benefit is provided to individuals aged 65 and older who belong to the bottom 70 percent of the income distribution.

"The infinite sacrifices of the parents generation continue to this day, and as our society rapidly develops, I often think whether we are forgetting to appreciate them," Yoon said.

Yoon also reiterated the government's commitment to improving the later years of the senior population by creating more job opportunities and increasing their wages.

Yoon promised to expand care services for seniors, including alleviating the financial burden of nursing fees.

During the event, he personally pinned carnations on three senior participants, a gesture commonly used in South Korea to express gratitude and love for parents.

The event was attended by approximately 1,300 seniors, as well as a number of government officials, including Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong. (Yonhap)
Presidential office hints at exercising veto power

By Lee Hyo-jin, Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk Yeol must decide  or may have already decided  whether to veto a bill launching a special counsel probe into allegations that the government interfered in an investigation into the death of a Marine during a flood rescue operation.

The decision, expected to be announced in the next couple of weeks, places the president in a major political dilemma.

As surveys show that nearly 70 percent of the general public supports the special counsel probe, a potential veto of the bill could further damage Yoon's abysmal job approval ratings.

However, conducting a comprehensive investigation into the allegations and holding a press briefing by the special counsel could potentially sow public distrust in the administration, regardless of the veracity of the circumstances surrounding the young marine's death.

The worst-case scenario for Yoon will be his veto being overridden during a revote in the National Assembly. It will send a clear signal of his weakening leadership within the governing party.

The Assembly railroaded the special counsel bill during a plenary session on Thursday, after the ruling People Power Party (PPP) exited the session in protest. The bill, pushed by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), targets the government's alleged interference in the military's investigation into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun during a flood rescue operation in July 2023.

The bill aims to launch a sweeping investigation into officials at the presidential office, the Ministry of National Defense and Marine Corps, to look into whether they have exerted influence in the military's internal probe to omit allegations of criminal activity of individuals involved. By pursuing this course of action, the DPK aims to question high-ranking government officials, potentially including the president himself.

Yoon's office has indicated that the president opposes the bill. Presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said that ongoing investigations by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) are addressing related matters. Chung criticized the DPK for unilaterally pushing the bill for "political purposes" rather than genuinely seeking the "truth behind the death."

The PPP also released a statement, Sunday, suggesting that the bill's focus on investigating the presidential office and the manner in which the special counsel was recommended and press briefings held indicate that the bill is primarily aimed at political maneuvers rather than genuine investigative efforts.

The CIO, which has been criticized for its slow pace of investigation, is now expediting its probe. It subjected Marine Corps Commander Kim Gye-hwan to a 15-hour grilling session from Saturday to Sunday regarding allegations that he influenced the military's internal investigation. Specifically, he allegedly mentioned "the VIP" (referring to the president) being upset about the military's plan to transfer several implicated military officials to the police.

While a veto may shield the Yoon administration from a sweeping investigation, it would immediately invite criticism from the opposition parties. Two years into office, the president has already exercised his veto power to reject nine bills, which the opposition has condemned as abuse of power.

Rejecting another proposal could signal that President Yoon will face significant challenges in dealing with the DPK, which will hold control for the next four years.

"Yoon himself has said that 'the one who avoids a special counsel probe is the criminal,'" DPK spokesperson Choi Min-seok said. "If Yoon is confident, he should accept the special counsel probe bill."

The veto decision may also hamper the president's promise to listen to the voices of the public and collaborate with the opposition bloc, an approach adopted in the aftermath of the ruling party's crushing defeat in the April 10 elections, where the PPP managed to win only 108 seats in the 300-member Assembly.

A survey conducted by Embrain Public from April 29 to May 1 found that 67 percent of 1,000 respondents agreed that launching a special counsel probe into Chae's case should be enacted. Turning a deaf ear to such public sentiment may cause a further drop in Yoon's job approval ratings, which are hoverng slightly over 30 percent.

Making matters more complicated for the president is the possibility that his veto may not prevail, as an Assembly revote could overturn it. The DPK plans to table the bill on a revote during a plenary session in the last week of May, if the president vetoes it.

A bill returned to the Assembly for a revote requires the attendance of a majority of present members and approval from more than two-thirds of attending members to pass.

With a total of 296 present members in the current Assembly, the bill can be approved with 198 in favor. The opposition bloc holds 180 seats, including the DPK and its satellite party's 155 seats. This means that at least 18 votes from ruling party lawmakers favoring the bill would ensure its passage.

PPP Rep. Kim Woong, who was the only ruling party lawmaker to remain during Thursday's plenary session and voted for the special counsel bill, wrote on Facebook Monday that the party has a "lack of empathy toward the young man who unjustly lost his life" and "this is the point showing our party's limitations."




















Vfx behemoth DNEG, which employs over 10,000 workers globally, is set to lay off hundreds of people.

The company, which produces vfx for high-profile films and series like Dune: Part Two, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Last of Us and Oppenheimer, could lay off up to five per cent of its workforce in the U.K. and Canada, according to a report in Deadline. The company employs a large number of workers in India and its unclear whether anyone in that country will be affected.

Per the Deadline story:

Layoffs are understood to be somewhat concentrated within R&D teams and are a response to the challenged market, which has not eased up since the Hollywood strikes ended and has not improved sufficiently after DNEG brought in a pay offer for staff last year.

DNEG is expected to lay off around 100 people at its London studio. The company laid off around 70 people at the same studio last summmer.

Last September, DNEG made a bizarre proposal to its Canadian workers, offering to loan employees their own salary, which in turn led to the rapid unionization of both its Vancouver and Montreal studios. It is unclear the number of people wholl be affected at its Canadian studios in this upcoming round of layoffs.

DNEG Animation, the companys new-ish animation arm, has fared better in recent times because the economics of animation production are different than those of vfx. Its animation division delivered Nimona and Under the Boardwalk last year, and has wrapped on the upcoming The Garfield Movie. Other forthcoming titles produced by its animation division include Netflixs That Christmas and Warner Bros. The Cat in the Hat.
Pakistan cement association voices concerns over law and order

Muriel Bal By 03 May 2024

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) has expressed its concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in Pakistan.



The law and order situation in Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kohat, Mianwali and adjacent areas has seriously jeopardised the day-to-day operations of the areas cement units, said the spokesman of APCMA. Recently some workers of a cement unit in one of the above-mentioned areas were kidnapped by terrorists and they killed one of them, he added. Terrorist are generally demanding huge amounts of money as extortion and give warnings of serious consequences in case their demands are not met.



APCMA urges the government to "take strict measures to control and manage the law and order situation in those areas."



Besides, the industrys investment of billions of rupees in the said areas has also been endangered by these terrorist activities, he said, adding that the deteriorating law and order situation could also pose threats to local employment and create unrest in the said locality.

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A number of diplomats have appreciated China's extensive level of participation and diverse platforms to fulfill democracy, underscoring that every democratic model should be respected. They made the remarks during a recent visit to a Legislative Outreach Office in Beijing's Chaoyang district, where they observed a fundamental step in lawmaking and met with deputies to people's congresses. The district has established 43 such offices  which act as a bridge between the public and lawmakers  to more efficiently solicit opinions and suggestions on legislation from all walks of life. During their visit in late April, the ambassadors and diplomats from 36 countries witnessed the collecting of opinions on the Law on Deputies to the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses, and discussed how the office works with legislators at national, provincial, city and county levels. Anne Lafortune, the ambassador of the Seychelles to China, said she was impressed by China's diverse ways for people to express their opinions. Regarding the visit as a good platform to learn firsthand about China's legislation process, she pointed out that the process shows the commitment of the Chinese government to meet the needs and aspiration of the grassroots people. "Also, I was impressed by the different ways for people to be able to voice their opinions, such as through deputies, online platforms or calls, which reflects China is committed in making sure its people's voice can be heard," she added. Michael Campbell, Nicaragua's ambassador to China, expressed his excitement to have an opportunity to see China's whole-process people's democracy at the grassroots level, saying that he was impressed by the diversity of participants in making laws. On that day, those who exchanged opinions on the bill were not only officials from the standing committee of the district's people's congress and NPC, China's top legislature, but also included deputies from universities, hospitals and law firms. "Everybody was debating on the same bill that will eventually go to the upper level," he said. "By the time the bill reaches the national level, it already has the opinions and suggestions from all walks of life. So when it's finally approved, everybody is willing to implement it." He highlighted the importance of diversity in promoting democracy, adding that greater participation of each sector, such as women and young people, makes decisions more creative in policies, regulations and norms. In March, Campbell was invited to attend the annual full session of the NPC, where he read multiple work reports by China's central leadership. "I can see that these reports actually came from the grassroots level." He noted that the "Western model of democracy" is not the only definition of democracy, stressing "each country has to decide what is most appropriate for them based on their cultures, traditions and needs". One of the most important things about China is that it respects the democratic models of other countries, he said, while Western democracy is promoting interventionism, warmongering and false narratives. Lafortune from the Seychelles said that she was aware of China's whole-process people's democracy, but has never seen it up close as she did during the visit. She emphasized that every country can see its own way to approach democracy, adding that "China is moving forward, and its democratic model, obviously, works for it." Abu Bakarr Karim, the ambassador of Sierra Leone to China, said that what impressed him most was the level of expertise in China's legislation, adding that he would like to communicate with legislators in his country about his observations and discuss whether they can learn more from it. China has people's congresses at the national, provincial, city, county and township levels, with about 2.77 million deputies elected to the five levels of legislative bodies in 2022, according to a release from the NPC Standing Committee. caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn
Korean tech giant Naver said Friday its first-quarter net profit soared 1,171.9 percent from a year earlier on the overall growth of its major businesses, including its search platform and e-commerce.

Its net profit reached 555.8 billion won ($405 million) in the January-March period, compared with 43.7 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The operating profit jumped 32.9 percent on-year to a quarterly high of 439.3 billion won, and sales rose 10.8 percent to 2.52 trillion won, the highest for a first quarter.

The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 291.4 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Naver said its major businesses delivered strong overall performance in the first quarter.

Its flagship search platform division saw its sales increase 6.3 percent on-year to 905.4 billion won, thanks to commercials.

Sales of its commerce division advanced 16.1 percent to 703.4 billion won, driven by the release of a new delivery solution and the growth of its social commerce platform, Kream.

Revenue from its fintech division also climbed 11.2 percent to 353.9 billion won on the expansion of Naver Pay, its mobile payment service.

The content division reported an 8.5 percent increase in sales to 446.3 billion won, as transactions on the global webtoon platform grew 9.1 percent on-year to 458.7 billion won in the first quarter.

In particular, Japanese yen transactions rose 24 percent on the webtoon platform.

The cloud division saw its revenue jump 25.5 percent to 117 billion won as its generative artificial intelligence services, including its hyperscale AI HyperClova X, began to raise profits, according to the Korean company.

"Naver will work to strengthen its competitiveness in a swift manner by providing a differentiated experience based on our core technologies, such as AI, data and search, and creating long-term technological growth," CEO Choi Soo-yeon said.

Regarding the recent issue involving LY, the operator of popular mobile messenger app Line and internet platform Yahoo Japan, Choi said, "Naver's stance has yet to be settled."

LY has reportedly been moving to sell Naver's stake in the company to SoftBank Group after the Japanese government issued an administrative guidance to lower its dependence on the Korean company following a personal data leak incident last year.

LY is controlled by a 50-50 joint venture between Naver and SoftBank.

Shares in Naver had jumped 2.97 percent to 194,400 won as of 11 a.m. on the main Seoul bourse, outperforming the broader Korea Composite Stock Price Index's 0.12 percent increase. The earnings results were released before the stock markets opened. (Yonhap)
Wietersdorf invests in renewable power in Slovenia

Muriel Bal By 03 May 2024

Austria-based Wietersdorfer Group will be participating with Austrian experts in the energy sector to achieve its goal in producing carbon-neutral cement by 2035. Through AAE Gamit, a specialist in renewable energy projects, Wietersdorfer Group will implement wind and solar power projects in Primorska region, Slovenia.



Together with Energie AG Oberosterreich and the OKOENERGIE Group from Wolkersdorf, the Carinthian Wietersdorfer Group will make a significant contribution to the implementation of AAE Gamit's ambitious plans and thus to the green transformation in Slovenia. AAE Gamit is expected to generate ~360GW o electricity per year.



The investment in AAE Gamit represents another important milestone for our group of companies in the consistent implementation of the green transformation process, says Michael Junghans, CEO of the Wietersdorfer Group. We are once again underlining our efforts to expand renewable energy sources, says Mr Junghans.

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Heidelberg Materials acquires Malaysia's largest pulverised fly ash supplier

Muriel Bal By 03 May 2024

Heidelberg Materials has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire ACE Group,the largest supplier of pulverised fly ash in Malaysia, effective 1 May 2024. The acquisition strengthens circularity within Heidelberg Materials value chain in Southeast Asia, according to the company. Reusing fly ash from energy generation contributes significantly to reducing the CO2 intensity of composite cement while used as an additive, fly ash can replace part of the energy-intensive clinker and thus reduce the CO2 intensity of the cement.



ACE Group comprises three entities operating across the value chain: ACE Greencemt Venture, a leading supplier of pulverised fly ash to the Malaysian construction industry; ASAS Asia, a processor of coal ashes; and AGP Logistics, a logistics service company operating 20 silo trucks.



The leadership team of ACE Group will stay on board as part of the acquisition to continue managing the companies. Both parties have agreed to not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.



The acquisition reflects our strong commitment to further strengthening our footprint in a growing market in Southeast Asia, says Roberto Callieri, Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials and CEO of Heidelberg Materials Asia. Leveraging the vertical integration of ACE Group helps to drive our ambitious carbon reduction targets at all our sites throughout Malaysia.



We are experiencing a growing demand for sustainable building materials, says Dr Nicola Kimm, Chief Sustainability Officer and Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials. With the acquisition of ACE Group, we continue to optimise our portfolio and lower our carbon footprint in yet another key market, on our path to eventually delivering net-zero cement and concrete across the globe.







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Korean shipbuilders have been exploring opportunities to enter the U.S. Navy's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market, aligning with the United States' efforts to revitalize its declining shipbuilding industry through collaboration with its Asian allies.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Hanwha Ocean are pursuing partnership and acquisition deals with shipyards authorized to build and repair U.S. warships as the U.S. is seeking to revive its dormant shipyards and boost maritime competitiveness in response to China's rapid naval expansion.

Their bid in the U.S. naval market has been in the spotlight following U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro's visit to their shipyards in February to assess their ship construction and MRO capabilities.

The two shipbuilders have applied for a Master Ship Repair Agreement to be eligible for MRO tasks for U.S. naval vessels at their local shipyards, having completed the U.S. Navy's on-site inspections, according to company officials.

Following the visit, Del Toro has touted Korea's capabilities to build high-quality commercial and warships in a cost-effective way, voicing concerns over America's declining shipbuilding capabilities.

The top U.S. Navy official highlighted the potential of dormant and intact shipyard sites for redevelopment into dual-use facilities for both military and civilian purposes.

"In each of these engagements, I brought to the table a simple, yet profound opportunity: invest in America," Del Toro said, according to a transcript from the Navy's website. "I was enormously gratified by the strong interest expressed by the leaders of each of these world-class shipbuilders in establishing U.S. subsidiaries and investing in shipyards in the United States."

The U.S. naval market is the world's the biggest and most influential market, with its Pacific Fleet alone boasting around 200 vessels. However, the U.S.' private shipbuilding capacity stands at a mere 0.13 percent, far below China's 46.6 percent share of the global market, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

Korea is the world's second-largest shipbuilder with a 29.2 percent share and Japan comes third with a 17.3 percent share, the data showed.

As the U.S. Jones Act prohibits any foreign-built, foreign-owned or foreign-flagged vessels from engaging in coastwise trade, Korean shipbuilders have been seeking partnership with U.S.-based shipyards to pave the way for entry into the restrictive market.

Last month, HHI signed a memorandum of understanding with Philly Shipyard to explore a potential business relationship relating to future U.S. government shipbuilding projects, as well as MRO projects.

"We look forward to further growing HHI's presence in the global defense market through collaboration with U.S. companies in government and military vessel building and the MRO business," Joo Won-ho, chief executive of naval and special ship business unit of HHI, said.

As a subsidiary of Norwegian energy firm Aker, Philly Shipyard was founded in 1997 on part of the site of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Hanwha Ocean, formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, said the company has been negotiating with Austal as part of its strategy to acquire shipyards abroad for potential warship and MRO deals in advanced markets.

Headquartered in Australia, Austal generates about 90 percent of its revenue from its U.S. affiliate, which operates under a special security arrangement allowing it to work on sensitive U.S. defense programs despite foreign ownership. Additionally, the firm has affiliates in the Philippines and service centers in Singapore.

"We have been tapping Austal's parent company in Australia. Talks have been under way, but they are expected to take considerable time," Lee Yong-ook, senior executive vice president of naval ship business, said during a press conference Thursday.

On Wednesday, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said his government does not have concerns over Hanwha's possible bid to acquire Austal, noting the need to have security arrangements to protect the shipbuilder's sensitive defense technologies and intellectual property. (Yonhap)
The ordinance regulating the towing industry in Chattanooga only pertains to towing companies that are on the citys rotation list. Those are companies that are called by the city to move vehicles on a rotating basis. That means the city has no authority over towing businesses other than those on rotation, leaving others to make their own rules.

During the past year, two businesses, Chattanooga Impound Services, 2800 Rossville Blvd. and American Tow and Recover, 5910 Shaw Ave., have repeatedly taken advantage of the lack of regulations for their own benefit, members of the Wrecker Board were told Thursday.

Discussions about these companies have taken place at several Wrecker Board meetings in recent months. American Towing is on the citys rotation list, but Chattanooga Impound is not. Owners of these businesses have a personal relationship and the businesses intermingle their vehicles, storage lots and tows, it was stated.

Examples of how their businesses operate together, include practices such as American Towing vehicles being used to tow cars for Chattanooga Impound, the board was told. In one case, an invoice was from Chattanooga Impound, but the vehicle which had been towed had to be picked up at American Towings storage lot. And astonishing prices, have been required from people when retrieving their vehicles, especially from Chattanooga Impound which is not on the rotation list, Sgt. Jason Wood told the Wrecker Board.

Earlier this year, the two companies caused a bus load of people to have to find rides all across town to pick up their cars at the American Towing lot near the airport, after being taken there by Chattanooga Impound. That time, a parking lot was cleared of cars by the towing company, while the owners of the vehicles had taken an overnight bus trip to gamble in Mississippi. And more recently, the board heard a complaint from the owner of a car which had been towed out of an apartment parking lot and charged an exorbitant amount to get the vehicle back.

The most recent problem became known when David Bagley, the branch service manager at Penske, a truck rental business, complained to the Wrecker Board of a recent incident involving one of his companys vehicles. He said the truck had been leased to people doing work for Erlanger Hospital. On April 23, the vehicle had been parked where it was blocking a loading dock and Erlanger did not call the driver to move it, but did call Chattanooga Impound Services for the truck to be towed. The towing was justified, but the problem was the amount that was charged to Penske for getting the truck back, it was stated.

Penske has a relationship with Doug Yates Towing, which they call when help is needed. The cost of an average local tow for Penske is about $400-$500, said Shannon Yates. In this case, the vehicle had been taken from Erlanger Hospital and stored at the American Towing lot near the airport for less than one day. When Mr. Bagley from Penske went to pick it up, he was charged $2,000 that had to be paid in cash before the truck was released. With no regulation, they could have charged $5,000 or whatever they wanted, since the towing company is not on the rotation list, said Mr. Bagley.

The city does not have any authority over predatory towing if the tow company is not on the citys rotation list, said Sgt. Jason Wood with the Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board. People are being taken advantage of and it makes the towing industry look bad. Something needs to be done.

Assistant City Attorney Kathryn McDonald said that the ordinance needs to be changed and suggested for the wrecker board, which does not have the authority to change ordinances, to make a recommendation to the Chattanooga City Council, which is the body that does have the power to make and change ordinances.
Chemovator, the business incubator and early-stage investor of BASF, has successfully finalized an investment in Heartland Industries. The Detroit-based startup is a frontrunner in the production of natural fiber plastic additives, and the latest addition to Chemovator's external-facing Elevate program.

Heartland helps manufacturers to reduce the product carbon footprint of plastic and rubber products Supported by a team of scientists, engineers, and technologists, Heartland has developed hemp-based materials that can be used as additives within plastic compounds. This breakthrough advancement in the world of sustainable material innovation improves properties with regard to flammability, bonding, dispersion, and bulk density, which are historically associated with processing natural fibers. As a result, natural fibers are now a viable market opportunity to reduce scope 3 carbon emissions* in numerous industries.

By working with global brands and their suppliers, Heartland is able to reduce the carbon footprint of plastics on an industrial scale,

comments Jesse Henry, CEO of Heartland.

Heartland secures early-stage investment that builds on an existing strategic alliance With this funding, Heartland becomes Chemovators first portfolio company in North America and the latest addition to the Chemovator Elevate program. The program aims to support early-stage startups in the chemical industry through monetary investment, access to BASF and its experts, as well as support from a network of experienced entrepreneurs.

Heartlands dedication to developing natural fiber additives aligns perfectly with our purpose of shaping the future of the chemical industry. This investment not only expands our portfolio to a new geography, but also underscores our commitment to innovation and sustainability. We look forward to supporting the Heartland team on its journey, adds Gati Kalim, Head of Portfolio Management at Chemovator.

The Investment builds on an existing partnership between Heartland and BASFs North America Open Research Alliance (NORA).

We are not only continuing our collaboration with Heartland; we are strengthening this collaboration. Supported by the tireless efforts of our colleagues in the Performance Materials division, we work together to deliver sustainable solutions for our customers, says Thomas Holcombe, Head of NORA at BASF Corporation. BASF's partnership with Heartland will enable us to advance on our commitment to reduce scope 3 emissions* and create chemistry for a sustainable future."

The monetary and strategic support provided by Chemovator enables Heartland to deepen valuable collaborations within BASF.
Containers of Zyn, a Phillip Morris smokeless nicotine pouch, are displayed for sale among other nicotine and tobacco products at a newsstand Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in New York. The product has been making big headlines, sparking debate about whether new nicotine-based alternatives intended for adults may be catching on with underage teens and adolescents.
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By Park Jae-hyuk

Naver said, Friday, the Japanese governments apparent attempt to exclude the Korean IT firm from joint management of the Line mobile messenger app with SoftBank is very unusual.

During a conference call on first-quarter earnings, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon pointed out that Japans administrative guidance in March, which asked LY Corp., the messenger apps Tokyo-headquartered operator, to reconsider its financial reliance on Naver, is unprecedented. The administrative guidance came after a massive leak of Line users personal information last November via Navers cloud server.

It is very unusual for an administrative guidance to ask for readjustments to a shareholding structure, Choi said. "Rather than determining whether to follow the guidance or not, we see the matter as a decision which needs to be made according to our mid-to-long-term business strategy, and we are still pondering the matter."

This is the first time the Naver CEO made an official comment on this issue. She also confirmed that Naver is in talks with the Korean government regarding the matter.

Last month, Koreas ICT and foreign ministries and the presidential office told reporters that the government is cooperating with Naver to cope with Japans guidance.

We would like to appreciate the government supporting us, Choi said.

In response to a question about the potential impact of the guidance on Navers business, the CEO said there will be changes in its revenue from the infrastructure business, as the networks of Naver and Line will be separated.

We will clarify our stance, once we finalize our plan, she said.

Both the ruling and opposition parties in Korea already denounced Japans guidance as an unreasonable and excessive measure.

Unlike companies of enemy states, Naver did not use Japanese users information for an unlawful purpose, so it is unreasonable for Japan to take such an excessive measure, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling People Power Party said Thursday.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea accused Japan of discriminating against Naver in favor of Japanese firms involved in leaks of personal information.

As a diplomatic feud looms between Korea and Japan over the messenger app, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication said Thursday that its administrative guidance is non-binding.

However, SoftBank reportedly started talks with Naver to acquire part of the Korean IT firms 50 percent stake in A Holdings, their joint venture which owns 64.5 percent of LY Corp. In 2019, Naver and SoftBank announced their joint management of Line and Yahoo! Japan, each of which had been under the respective control of the Korean IT firm and the Japanese IT company.
We know that dogs and cats dream, but do birds? The answer is yes! For the first time ever, researchers have translated the vocal muscle activity of birds while theyre sleeping into a synthetic song.

The findings have helped experts gain a better understanding of the avian brain and hinted at what birds might dream about.

A team of researchers from the University of Buenos Aires chose two wild, great kiskadees for their study. The species is found throughout South America, Central America, and some areas in Mexico and Texas.

The bird has been described as aggressive and boisterous. It is known for its three-syllable call that sounds like kis-ka-dee, which is how it got its name. Kiskadees also have yellow feathers covering their bellies; brown wings tinged with orange, and black and white faces.

The scientists used surgically implanted electrodes to monitor the birds muscle activity while they were sleeping and awake. Around 100 instances of muscle activity related to singing were recorded.

The team then used the data to create a model that predicted which types of muscle activity would make each sound.

Afterward, they were able to use the model to produce a synthetic song that resembled the noises that kiskadees make when theyre fighting over territory.

When the scientists reviewed video footage of the sleeping bird, they saw that the feathers on its head were raised, which is a behavior that would occur during a territorial confrontation with a rival in the daytime.

According to Gabriel Mindlin, a co-author of the study and a biophysicist at the University of Buenos Aires, the bird may have been having a bad dream.

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One morning in 1828, a young boy appeared seemingly out of thin air. He was found wandering a public square in what is now Nuremberg, Germany.

The boy was 16-years-old and was dressed in tattered clothing. He wore a gray jacket, waistcoat, pantaloons, a silk necktie, and torn-up boots. He had a handkerchief embroidered with the letters KH and carried an envelope.

In the envelope were two letters. One of them was addressed to Captain von Wessenig, the captain of the fourth squadron of the sixth cavalry regiment, asking him to take the boy into his charge. It was written by an anonymous laborer who had raised the boy.

The other letter was penned by the boys mother, and it stated that she could no longer take care of him. The boys father also wasnt alive, so he would be sent to join the military. The boy had grown up in isolation so that no one would know his whereabouts. To this day, it is unclear who exactly he was or where he had come from.

When he was taken to the captains house to be questioned, the boy seemed confused. He only knew how to read and write his own name, Kaspar Hauser. He also kept saying that he wanted to be a cavalryman just like his father and repeated the word horse.

Aside from that, his speech was limited. He indulged in bread and water but would turn his nose up at meats and vegetables. Overall, he didnt have much in the ways of civilized manners.

Eventually, he was put under the care of a British nobleman named Lord Stanhope. Within several weeks, he learned how to read, write, and communicate effectively, much to the surprise of everyone.

Once his vocabulary expanded, Hauser began to tell a story about being raised in a prison. He described being in a cell that was about six feet long, three feet wide, and three and a half feet high.

He slept on a straw bed and was left bread and water to consume. However, the water was always bitter and made him sleep for a long time.

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Though a significant part of their culture, not all feel like it best honors how God wants conflict dealt with.

Illustration by Christianity Today / Source Images: Getty

In 1997, I moved from America to China to teach English and study Mandarin. I ended up working there for 15 years. While in the country, I ran an organization with team members of diverse ages, cultures, and ethnicities. Just like in the United States, I discovered that many interpersonal conflicts in China are left unaddressed and unresolved.

On my team, two Chinese colleagues resisted working together due to past conflicts that had never been addressed. A local pastor in my community told me about a pastor and an elder of a church who didnt speak to each other for months due to a church split.

The term that most mainland Chinese people associate with conflict is maodun () according to research conducted by Stonehill Colleges communications professor Xuejian Yu. Maodun is typically perceived as something negative and destructive that should be minimized or dealt with through an avoidant or evasive nonconfrontational manner, thus preventing the loss of face or any experience of shame for all involved.

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The Chinese words for face are mianzi () and lian (). They refer to each individuals perception or awareness of his or her own reputation in the eyes of others, which then forms the basis for ones personal sense of integrity, honor, shame, prestige, and dignity. (For simplicitys sake, I have combined the meanings of mianzi and lian in my description of face.)

In a broader context, face is the pervasive human attempt to establish a sense of worth and meaning (esteem) and to find acceptance (esteem that is social), describes American missiologist Chris Flanders. Simply put, individuals possess face when they believe they are solid and respected in their identities, perceive that their reputations are intact, and feel accepted and socially affirmed as having value to others and their communities.

I interviewed 31 believers from 13 different urban city churches in China and discovered that many consider face as a negative and significant hindrance to living the Christian life. (All the names of the Chinese Christians quoted here are pseudonyms for security reasons.)

Face doesnt help reconciliation at all, said Wang Min, a pastors wife from western China. If no one else is present to mediate and a person has been shamed in a group, they will not reconcile because they feel like they have lost face. Even if they were clearly wrong, they wont admit it. When a person is paying attention to face, they would rather die before reconciling. Or they reconcile at the surface level, only reconciling in response to the pressure of someone else being present, Wang added. These findings led me to ask, How does the Bible speak into the concept of face in Chinese contexts? To what degree does giving, saving, or losing face in conflict contribute to or hinder reconciliation in this particular culture?

A theology of face

The concept of face is not bad, negative, or a hindrance, argues Flanders, the American missiologist. Our preoccupation with face is not a result of sin entering the world at the Fall but was present in a positive way pre-Fall, he adds.

God created us in his image (Gen. 1:2627), which is by nature a reflection of the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are hardwired to desire peaceful, joyful, and harmonious connections with others in community.

Face is a gift from God that structures each ones identity and relationality at a basic level. Giving and receiving acceptance and affirmation of value through the mechanism of face establishes harmony in a communal sense, which is how God intended things to be.

Only when Adam and Eve disobeyed God did they feel afraid and view their nakedness as something shameful to be hidden (Gen. 3:7). Instead of coming to God, confessing their sin, and seeing what God would do, they hid, no longer connecting or getting their face needs met through the face of God.

From that point on, people have used negative face-saving strategies, such as avoidance and denial, to respond to situations in which they feel shame, embarrassment, and loss of face.

Based on this understanding of the origin of face and its relational purpose, I argue that we dont need to get beyond face or get rid of the concept in Chinese Christian contexts. Rather, we need to look to God instead of people to meet our fundamental face needs for love, value affirmation, esteem, honor, and acceptance.

Nevertheless, face remains a fragile concept today since we can gain or lose face at any moment. When people disagree with us, raise concerns, or point out our mistakes or sin, we unconsciously sense that our reputations are in jeopardy. We get defensive and angry. We feel a need to prove our positions or protect ourselves.

Unmasking cultural beliefs

In face-conscious societies, losing face is a serious issue and can affect a persons ability to function effectively in social settings. While it may sometimes be isolated to only one relationship, the loss of face may also impact a persons relationship with a whole community. For instance, divorce is often perceived as something shameful that brings dishonor to ones parents and impacts their esteem in the larger community.

Face is something that others can give to you, based on your relative positions in your social networks and on how well you conduct yourself in those positions. To give or save face shows respect and boosts ones self-esteem.

People commonly give face to others through compliments on diligence, status, beauty, wisdom, or elegance and by complying when asked to do something. When critiquing someones performance, people save that persons face by avoiding direct criticism, using tactful or ambiguous words instead. Showing respect for someones suggestion or position, even if one does not agree with the person, also saves face.

The common thought is that by saving face for others, one can prevent conflicts, and that by giving face to others, one can enhance interpersonal relationships.

In Chinese culture, face is very important, especially for men, explained Li Jie, a math teacher from western China. A man is supposed to display his position in society, so from those in the very top of the government to the very lowest in the household, men especially want face.

As a result, face has caused a lot of conflicts. I pretty much have never truly reconciled with someone. Every time, our reconciliation has strictly been to maintain face, meaning that on the surface level, everything looks fine and we are speaking with one another, but in fact, we have not reconciled.

As Li Jie pointed out, reconciliation is often superficial in a face-oriented culture. Although people may behave politely toward one another after a conflict and cooperate again, their relationship remains distant or broken.

A deeper and truer heart-level reconciliation, where genuine harmony is present or being cultivated, seems less prominent in Chinese contexts. This is when two people hold positive perceptions of each other and interact in a sincere, trustful, active, supportive, accepting, and natural manner, describes Li-Li Huang, a professor of social and indigenous psychology in Taiwan. Genuine harmony looks like two people who are willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Building a face-safe community

Relating to each other in this spirit of genuine harmony is meant to be a hallmark of Christian community. Likewise, a face-safe community is intended to be a loving environment in which we can honestly confess sins and discuss grievances instead of ignoring them.

But in Chinese culture, confessing our sins and apologizing to one another is perceived as something that will cause a loss of face. Doing so between people of equal status, such as friends or coworkers, includes some degree of losing face. Yet this is exacerbated between people of superior and inferior statusthink father and son, or boss and subordinate. It is thought that someone of superior status should not apologize to someone inferior because of the hierarchical Confucian notions of positional power and authority. The subordinate is to obey and defer to the superior and to stay silent and submit in times of conflict.

Chinese Christians are thus confronted with a big conundrum: Culturally speaking, confession results in face loss, but in Gods kingdom culture, to reconcile is to apologize and confess, no matter your age or position.

After all, God doesnt give or save face. He doesnt pretend everything is fine relationally when it is not. God genuinely loves, values, and forgives us. He calls us to acknowledge our mistakes and transgressions (Ps. 32; 103:814) and purposefully addresses our innermost issues so we can be transformed (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Apologizing merely to save face does not acknowledge ones complicity in the situation. It strives to protect the persons own honor and esteem. In contrast, giving a confession apology does not excuse, explain, or defend. Rather, it acknowledges the hurt that the other person feels and takes responsibility for ones own contribution to the conflict. This might entail losing face, but when done sincerely in face-to-face conversations, we can also gain valuable gifts such as mutual understanding and empathy.

In short, when we dont fear losing face because our identities are rooted in Christ and not in the eyes of others, our community can turn into a face-safe place where hierarchy and power differentials do not impede opportunities to reconcile.

After Chen Meizhen, a counselor in western China, apologized to a subordinate, she discovered that her face was not impacted the way she had feared it would be. I originally thought that if I, the leader, apologized, I might become lower than my coworker, Chen said. I would worry and wonder, Will she look down on me? But after I truly apologized, she didnt look down on me! She still respected me.

Su Lijuan, a woman in marketing and sales in northern China, went so far as to say that genuinely apologizing restores ones face: What I knew to be true has been turned upside down. Previously, I thought that any time you apologize, the result will be a loss of face. However, if you can sincerely apologize, you actually restore your own face, your own dignity and honor.

As people who have had our face needs met in God, we can image Gods face to each other. Instead of shaming, scolding, lecturing, or viewing ourselves as inferior when we acknowledge a mistake or confess sin, we can learn to accept, love, forgive, and support one another to go and sin no more (John 8:11, NLT).

Amid the cultural pressures to save or give face to preserve superficial harmony, a face-safe community becomes a place where authentic, heart-level reconciliation can occur. The reconciliation process often starts with apologizing but does not end there. Confessing our sin, acknowledging harm, making reparations for damage done, and changing our behavior, together with granting and receiving forgiveness, are ways in which genuine reconciliation can take place. When our fundamental face needs are met first in Christ, we can courageously be kingdom-minded peacemakers in a face-conscious society.

This excerpt was adapted from Changing Normal: Break Through Barriers to Pursuing Peace in Relationships by Jolene Kinser. Copyright  2024 by Jolene Kinser. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Chris Carlson / AP Images

That was fast. In the first General Conference since the most conservative congregations disaffiliated, the United Methodist Church liberalized its teachings on marriage, sexuality, and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.

In other mainline denominations, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), the conservative exodus has tended to come after the progressive victory. But in the UMC, the conservative American contingent is already gone, so the vote wasnt close.

With that settled, the next and perhaps final battle between American Methodists who have been on opposite sides of theological and social issues for more than half a century will concern who can win over the Africans, who have been the main group opposing the changes in policy on sexuality and are also the largest UMC contingent outside the United States. The breakaway conservative denomination called itself the Global Methodist Church in no small part because members hoped to remain in fellowship with churches in the Global South, where Methodism is more orthodoxand growing as Methodism in the US hasnt in years.

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But the United Methodist Church has also set in motion a plan to allow regional autonomy on the very issues that broke up the denomination domestically. This would permit African churches to remain traditional in how they define marriage andso the pitch goesotherwise insulate themselves from the Americans liberal course.

African Methodists have previously rejected similar proposals, likely understanding how such rules would dilute African churches influence over the denomination and exempt leaders of the shrinking US church from accountability to their African counterparts. They would be wise to reject the plan again.

I give that advice as a conservative Methodist myselfand one facing a similar quandary over denominational affiliation. For now, I remain a United Methodist. My church is theologically traditional but fell short of the congregational vote threshold to disaffiliate, and theres no Global Methodist presence in my area.

Yet, longer term, I see no future for conservatives of any nationality in this denomination. With so many evangelical congregations and much of the organized resistance to theological liberalism gone, the trajectory displayed in this weeks conference votes will only accelerate.

A better path, as we near the end of the mainline, would be continued connection between the African and American Methodists who together prevented the UMC from going down this road for more than 50 years. Global Methodists have an opportunity to inherit the most vibrant parts of United Methodism while disentangling from its outdated bureaucracy. More importantly, they have a chance to provide an orthodox Wesleyan witness that is compromised neither by liberalism nor by fundamentalism.

The UMC held together as long as it did because it was orthodox on paper but progressive in practice, except in jurisdictions where traditionalists were numerically prevalent. But eventually, liberals who saw prohibitions on same-sex marriage as morally equivalent to racial discrimination could no longer live with even nominal orthodoxy. And conservatives could no longer watch those prohibitions being routinely flouted without consequence.

Yet our divides were never solely about same-sex relationships. When Methodists began debating homosexuality in 1972, it was a reliable proxy for beliefs about biblical authority and the Christian understanding of love. Today, I still believe liberalizing on sexual morality reflects an errant, culture-conforming view of Scripture and tradition, but I also think Methodists have other pressing questions to addressquestions that sometimes cut across lines of debate over gay marriage and related topics.

Today there are more Methodists who passionately disagree with each other on LGBTQ questions while being able to recite the creeds together without crossing their fingers. And there are Methodists who are slipping away from very basic doctrines about Christ and Scripture. If we can complete the denominational split and welcome the African churches into Global Methodism, perhaps conservative Methodists can set aside decades-long sexuality debates and focus instead on core theological mattersand the broader work of the churchwithout compromising on marriage or abortion.

That vision is particularly appealing because many of us on the conservative side have come to believe we were not ambitious enough. Over a long period of time and with considerable effort, even without real executive authority to expedite the process, maybe we could have gradually transformed the UMC from a center-left denomination with a strong evangelical subculture to a (mildly) center-right one with a strong liberal subculture.

That opportunity, if it existed, has passed. But now, perhaps, we can do even better by going our separate ways. I was recently at a dinner outside Washington, DC, with longtime combatants in the fight for Methodist renewal. Many expressed their wonderment and relief now that the fight was lostthat they could now follow conscience and conviction without active resistance from progressive church leaders.

Just a few years ago, they would have been hunkering down to do battle at the General Conference, an experience a pastor friend once described to me as being like attending the Republican and Democratic National Conventions at the same time. Now, conservative Methodists are free to practice an orthodox faith marked by the distinctive parts of our Wesleyan heritage.

Theres no guarantee that conservative Methodists will flourish, of course. But the new beginning offers real promise, and our prospects will be better if our African brothers and sisters join us. Global Methodism is continuing a tradition that shares their values and biblical perspective, and membership from the Global South is vital to the church weve sought to build together for so long.

W. James Antle III is executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.
Were recording live this week from CTs quarterly staff meeting with special guests CT president and CEO Tim Dalrymple and news editor Daniel Silliman. Host Mike Cosper and producer Clarissa Moll discuss the escalating student protests on US college campuseswhy students are gathering and how free speech rights shape university discourse. Then, the United Methodist Church met this week to remove all LGBTQ limitations from its books. Should conservative churches within the denomination stay, or should they go?

Todays Guests:

Timothy Dalrymple is a former national champion gymnast who turned to academia following an accident in college where he broke his neck. He studied at Stanford University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Harvards Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he made suffering a key theme of his research and teaching in modern Western religious thought. Dalrymple was a key player in the launch of Patheos.com, an online marketing place of religious ideas, and he pioneered many of the techniques that led Patheos to become the worlds largest platform for multi-religious conversations. In 2013, he founded Polymath, a creative agency that services businesses and nonprofits serving the world. Dalrymple currently serves as president and CEO of Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical media ministry founded in 1956 by Billy Graham.

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Daniel Silliman is a journalist and a historian. He is news editor for Christianity Today, author of a history of bestselling evangelical fiction, and teaches humanities at Milligan University. Daniel spent several years as a crime reporter outside Atlanta before pursuing higher education in Germany, earning an MA from Tubingen University and a doctoral degree from Heidelberg University. He has reported and edited news coverage for CT since 2019.

The Bulletin is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Producers: Clarissa Moll and Matt Stevens Associate Producers: McKenzie Hill and Raed Gilliam Editing and Mix: TJ Hester Music: Dan Phelps Show Design: Bryan Todd Graphic Design: Amy Jones Social Media: Kate Lucky
The Crosby-Schyen Codex is one of the oldest examples of a book.

An ancient codex, containing perhaps the earliest complete versions of Jonah and 1 Peter, went up for auction and sold to an anonymous bidder.

Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd. 2024

Update (6/11/24): The Crosby-Schyen Codex sold in London on Tuesday for $3.9 million to an anonymous phone bidder after several rounds of back-and-forth bids in the afternoon sale at Christies. A Christies auctioneer and expert on the ancient texts, Eugenio Donadoni, conducted the auction, telling the room the codex was one of the cultural monuments of this sale. Scholars and the public will not know the ownership of the prized text for now, but its possible the new owner or owners could reveal themselves at some point. If an institution purchased the codex, as scholars hoped, its more likely that would become public.



One of the oldest books in existence, which contains what is perhaps the oldest complete versions of Jonah and 1 Peter, is going up for auction in June. The sale of the Crosby-Schyen Codex has scholars excited to talk about its uniquenessand nervous about whether it could go into private hands and disappear.

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The Crosby-Schyen Codex is a primary example of the invention of books, which coincided with the spread of Christianity, said Eugenio Donadoni, a specialist in books and manuscripts at Christies London, which is auctioning the codex. The growth of Christianity spurred the need to maximize the text you can write down and transmit  around the Mediterranean, Donadoni said.

Before codices appeared in roughly the third century, scrolls for several thousand years were the primary vehicle for transmitting literature, said Brent Nongbri, an expert in early Christian manuscripts and a professor at the Norwegian School of Theology.

Codices were a technological advancement that that wouldnt be surpassed until the discovery of the printing press, Donadoni added. Donadoni just finished touring the codex for potential buyers in New York and Paris before returning it to London, where it will be auctioned on June 11. About the codex he said, Ive never seen anything like this.

A single scribe wrote out the texts of the codex on papyrus leaves in Sahidic Coptic somewhere between A.D. 250 and 350, according to carbon dating of the codex conducted in 2020. That means its likely the text was written before the fourth-century church councils and during the time of the great persecutions.

This is being used at a time when Christians are still finding their feet, said Donadoni.

The codex contains Jonah, 1 Peter, a passage from 2 Maccabees, a Passover text from second-century church leader Melito of Sardis, and an Easter sermon.

New Testament scholar David Horrell has argued that these different texts in the codex relate to each other in how they talk about suffering and resurrection, and may have been an Easter liturgy. Melitos text on the Passover talks about Christ as the Passover lamb and uses parallel language to 1 Peter. Jonah, some scholars argue, was a major figure in early Christianity in Egypt and repeatedly appeared in Christian art there.

Horrell notes Jonahs perceived relevance as a type of the Easter story, a sign of resurrection, notably in the three days and three nights Jonah spends inside the fish. The Maccabees text, focused on martyrdom, goes along with that liturgical theme of the suffering of both Christ and Gods people.

We can slip into thinking that theres just the New Testamentthis particular collection of booksand thats what everybody was reading, said Nongbri. But when we get back into this early period, there's actually different collections circulating. And this one is an interesting group of texts and allows us to imagine, What would have this been used for?  What kind of liturgical use might this have had?

The codex comes from the private collection of Norwegian Martin Schyen, who has one of the largest collections of biblical texts. Some of the other largest biblical-text reserves are the Green Collection behind the Museum of the Bible and the British and Foreign Bible Society collection at Cambridge.

Museums and private collectors have had issues with ancient items provenance, like whether they were looted. The codex has a documented provenance and was a legal export out of Egypt, although the story of its original discovery is open for debate, said Nongbri. Yet Donadoni says there is general consensus that the codex was found near a particular monastic complex in Egypt.

The codex was buried in a jar in sand, according to the collector. An antiquities dealer first placed it on the market in the 1950s, and it eventually went to the University of Mississippi in 1955, which had a large archaeology department at the time. The university sold it in 1981, and then it passed to private collectors.

If the codex was from the earlier end of its carbon dating between 250 and 350, that would make it the oldest book, including the oldest copies of 1 Peter and Jonah. William Willis, an early scholar studying the codex, argued that it may be dated with some confidence to the middle of the third century, or 250.

But if it was produced at a monastery, then it likely came at the later end of the carbon-dating window, according to Nongbri, because monasteries took off in the fourth century.

Other scholars have argued that it could have been produced earlier and stored at the monastery where it was later discovered. Horrell, for one, argued the codex was produced before the monastery was founded.

Is it the oldest book in existence?

It could be, said Nongbri. But it's not certain.

In the codex, the 1 Peter text is described as the letter of Peter and does not make any reference to 2 Peter. The Schyen Collection says that means it was copied in A.D. 60130, making it the single most important [manuscript] of 1 Peter.

Christies estimates the codex will sell for $2.5 to $3.75 million. Last year the Codex Sassoon, considered the oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, broke records for the sale of a book or historical document when it sold at auction for $38.1 million.

Scholars worry about where the codex will end up.

Theres always the fear when something goes up for sale  it could go behind doors that would make it hard for researchers to access it, said Jordan Jones, an expert in biblical texts and archaeology at the University of Iowa.

Nongbri concurred: We just worry about it disappearing.

Nongbri and Donadoni both noted that the Schyen Collection allowed scholars in to study the codex, with the carbon-dating study as the most recent example. The Schyen Collection had photographed the codex, and Christies also photographed and digitized it.

But there is more research to conduct on it with newer imaging tools. Jones noted how multispectral imaging, for example, helped researchers see words no one had seen on the Dead Sea Scrolls. That hasnt been done on the codex, he said.

Researchers would have a field day [with the codex] if they got a chance, Jones said. These pages are in a better state of legibility than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Multispectral imaging could show any changes made to the text, such as whether there was initially a different word under the visible word, Jones explained. He also said there could be more studies on the way the codex was bound.

There's definitely more to look at from a sort of book history standpoint, said Nongbri. Certainly multispectral imaging would be great.

Donadoni from Christies London said he is hoping an institution steps in to buy the codex. The auction will include other biblical texts: the Holkham Hebrew Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, and the Geraardsbergen Bible. In the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, the Gospels were written in fifth-century Christian Palestinian Aramaic that was largely erased and written over by a tenth-century Georgian Palestinian monk.

Scholars of these texts will be watching the auction on June 11and hope that they might know who the buyer is afterward. Sometimes buyers are not disclosed.

Nongbri said any major university that has a papyrus collection has the proper conditions for storing the codex, the personnel to care for it, and the systems for academics to study it.

Thats the ideal setting for something like this, he said.

This article has been updated to clarify that the fourth century church councils were not establishing biblical canon.
Victim says she wants accountability more than money.

Andrew Merry / Getty Images

Hillsong Church Australias legal settlement with a former student who was groped by a worship leader fell apart on Thursday when the survivor refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

I will not give up my voice, Anna Crenshaw, daughter of Pennsylvania megachurch pastor Ed Crenshaw, told Australian reporters. This has never been about money for me but about justice and accountability.

According to lawyers, one condition of the agreement was a joint statement saying the church reported the assault immediately. Crenshaw claims Hillsongembroiled at the time in a scandal over founder Brian Houstons failure to report his father Franks sexual abuse of a young boyactually waited four or five months to contact police.

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Crenshaw was studying at Hillsong College in 2016 when Jason Mays, an administrative staff member and volunteer worship leader, put his hand on her inner thigh. The young woman18 at the timegot up to leave, but Mays, 24, grabbed her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and touched her legs, butt, and crotch, according to a statement Crenshaw wrote several years later.

He lifted up my shirt and was kissing my stomach, Crenshaw, now 26, said in a TV news interview. So Im just, like, stuck there with this guy groping me.

Crenshaw did not immediately report the incident because, she said, she was ashamed.

She also didnt believe she could report Mays to human resources, because the department was run by Mayss father. Two years later, a counselor pushed her to report to someone, and Crenshaw went to the head of pastoral care, who said, Im sure hes really sorry, according to Crenshaw.

The church then assigned Crenshaw to work on a team with Mayss wife. After several months and pressure from Crenshaws father, Hillsong reported the incident to local police.

Mays pleaded guilty to indecent assault in 2020. He was sentenced to two years probation and mandatory counseling, but no criminal conviction will go on his record.

Mays told Eternity that he accepted he crossed a boundary after getting very drunk. But he claimed the media blew the details out of proportion and made him out to be a monster because of its anti-Christian agenda.

I wish my apologies had been enough, he said. There needs to be reconciliation. Instead, this story of ours has evolved into a weapon thats been used against the Church.

Mays later returned to work at Hillsong. The church told Crenshaws father that there were no additional concerns about Mays, and that we also have an obligation to care for Jason, his wife, and family.

Hillsongs founder also downplayed the incident to the congregationsaying it was really just an attempt at a hugand told them the Lord has forgiven Jason, and we felt he deserved another chance.

Crenshaw sued the church. She claimed negligence and breach of duty.

According to her lawsuit, the church had no proper or adequate policy or procedure in place for the proper or adequate handling of complaints of sexual assault and had failed to take any precautions to protect students, interns, or volunteers from the general risk of sexual assault by its members.

The church denied the allegations. It also claimed not to be legally liable, since Mays was not acting in any capacity relating to his paid employment or volunteer duties with Hillsong when he touched the student inappropriately.

The litigation was set to go to trial on Monday in New South Wales. Hillsong, however, offered to settle the case for an undisclosed sum of money, and the trial was taken off the court calendar. When the attorneys returned the following day to work out the details, though, they came to an impasse.

Hillsong required a non-disclosure agreement. Crenshaw refused.

She would not agree to get their money and walk away without my voice, she told reporters. She wanted accountability and real sense of justice and hope that they would really change moving forward.

Christian abuse victims and victims advocates have increasingly opposed the use of non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements, claiming the common legal tools called NDAs are widely misused to protect powerful institutions from accountability.

NDAs were originally designed to protect tech industry trade secrets. They are now used by many industries and are often written so broadly that they include anything an employee learns in the course of employment.

Many evangelical churches and ministries require staff to sign them, though it is not clear what trade secrets the organizations could have. One agreement reviewed by CT included the prohibition of the disclosure of any information regarding ministries, as well as the names of anyone the staff member had ever worked with, even though their names, photos, and bios were listed on the parachurchs website. Many of the Christian NDAs seen by CT also include prohibitions against disclosing the non-disclosure agreement, cloaking even the secrecy in secrecy.

It is not clear whether these agreements would hold up in court. To date, they have not been tested.

There have been a number of recent efforts to limit the scope of NDAs. In the US, President Joe Biden signed a law saying these legal agreements cannot cover sexual assault or harassment if they are signed before the incident as part of the conditions of employment.

The UK is currently considering legislation that would say NDAs cannot prevent someone from reporting information to police, lawyers, government regulators, counselors, or close family members. The head of the justice department said, We are bringing an end to the murky world of non-disclosure agreements, which are too often used to sweep criminality under the carpet.

Not everyone agrees that goes far enough, though.

We need a complete ban of NDAs in cases of sexual misconduct, harassment and bullying, a center-left member of the UK parliament said, to ensure that no victim is silenced.

A group called #NDAfree was organized in 2021 to push Christian organizations to stop using NDAs and to encourage people not to sign them.

Im not against settlement as a process, one of the organizers told CT. But using payment and NDAs as a way to not investigate something, thats totally unacceptable.

Crenshaw, for her part, said she had been hopeful that Hillsongs approach to accountability had changed with the departure of founder Brian Houston. The condition of an NDA as part of the settlement convinced her she was wrong.

Its very disheartening and devastating, Crenshaw said. I think this is just evidence that despite their new leadership, they have the same tactics.

The Hillsong trial has been rescheduled on the New South Wales court calendar for May 13.
Home News Arizona repeals Civil War-era abortion ban ahead of 2024 referendum vote

Arizona has repealed the state's near-total abortion ban after Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law Thursday in advance of the 2024 election and potential referendum vote that could enshrine abortion rights into its constitution.

Hobbs signedHouse Bill 2677 into law as supporters of the measure gathered around her desk.

"Today, we did what 23 governors and 55 legislatures refused to do and repealed the 1864 Civil War-era total abortion ban," she wrote.

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"I will do everything in my power to protect our reproductive freedoms, because I trust women to make the decisions that are best for them, and know politicians do not belong in the doctor's office," Hobbs vowed.

Today, we did what 23 governors and 55 legislatures refused to do and repealed the 1864 Civil War-era total abortion ban.



I will do everything in my power to protect our reproductive freedoms, because I trust women to make the decisions that are best for them, and know pic.twitter.com/32LMZBICnU  Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) May 2, 2024

The near-total abortion restriction that House Bill 2677 will repeal prohibits abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy with exceptions in cases where the life of the mother is in danger.

The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate passed the legislation in the weeks following the Arizona Supreme Court's decision to uphold the abortion ban that dates back to before Arizona's admission to the United States as the 48th state.

In the Arizona House of Representatives, three Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to repeal the near-total abortion ban, while two Senate Republicans broke with their party to support the legislation.

After the repeal takes effect, the 15-week abortion ban signed into law by Republican former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022 will become the law of the land as it pertains to abortion in Arizona.

The ACLU of Arizona, which supported the repeal of the ban, called for "further court intervention," complaining that "access to abortion may be lost after June 27."

"This cruel law will not be repealed until 90 days AFTER the legislative session ends," the group stated on social media Thursday.

"Once lifted, people who need abortions will still face other bans."

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the U.S. Constitution doesn't contain a right to abortion and overturned previous case law in favor of abortion access, many state laws banning abortion or restricting them to the earliest parts of pregnancy have been challenged in court.

In a post on her personal X account, Hobbs noted that the bill's signing fell on the second anniversary of the publication of the leaked Supreme Court draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which led to a wave of violence and vandalism directed at churches and pro-life advocacy groups.

The Dobbsruling was released a month and a half later and resulted in states charting divergent paths on abortion policy.

In Arizona's case, the decades-old abortion ban left unenforceable by the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide could take effect, although it faced a court challenge. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled last month that since Dobbs overturned Roe, the law could go into effect.

Arizona voters will weigh in this November on a proposed constitutional amendment that would establish a right to abortion in the state constitution. If voters approve the Arizona Abortion Access Act in November, the state would join California, Michigan, Vermont and Ohio as states where a constitutional right to abortion has been established by popular vote since the Dobbs decision.
Home News Global Methodist Church reacts to UMC votes to allow LGBT clergy, same-sex weddings

The Global Methodist Church has issued an official response to the United Methodist Church's General Conference votes to drop the denomination's decades-old ban on ordaining noncelibate homosexuals and allow the blessing of same-sex weddings.

UMC General Conference delegates voted this week via consent calendar to remove assorted rules from the denomination's Book of Discipline, shifting its stance on multiple LGBT issues.

Launched in 2022 as a conservative alternative to the UMC at a time when many churches were planning to leave the mainline Protestant denomination, the GMC issued a statement Wednesday stating that it "do[es] not have any affiliation with their decisions, nor do we wish to comment or provide commentary on the actions of other religious organizations."

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Nevertheless, the nascent Methodist denomination took the opportunity to state that it remains "dedicated" to maintaining a historic understanding of Christianity.

"The Global Methodist Church maintains its steadfast commitment to advancing its mission, which involves proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving its community of more than 4,501 churches and congregational members worldwide," stated the GMC.

"Rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the historic confessions of the Christian faith proclaimed over the past two thousand years, The Global Methodist Church remains dedicated to upholding its denomination's strong foundation."

The GMC was launched in 2022 after the UMC delayed its General Conference, originally scheduled for May 2020, for a third time amid the COVID-19 pandemic. GMC's goal was to provide a new denomination for conservatives seeking to leave the UMC in objection to theologically progressive leaders within the denomination refusing to abide by the denomination's rules on sexuality.

Although decades of efforts to change the rules prohibiting gay weddings and noncelibate homosexual clergy had failed, many liberals within the UMC refused to enforce or follow the Book of Discipline's ban on ordaining LGBT clergy.

A 2019 special session of the General Conference approved a temporary measure creating a disaffiliation process for congregations that wanted to leave the UMC. Over 7,500 churches had done so by the end of last year.

On Tuesday, as part of a consent calendar vote, delegates voted 667-54 to remove the Book of Discipline's ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and mandatory punishments for clergy who blessed same-sex unions.

The following day, delegates approved without debate in a vote of 692 to 51 a consent calendar that included removing a ban on "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" being ordained, a measure that had been in the Book of Discipline since 1984.
By Lee Min-hyung

Hyundai Motor is moving to diversify its eco-friendly mobility business portfolio in the United States by initiating its hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric truck project in California, the automaker said Friday.

This is part of the NorCAL ZERO project for which Hyundai Motor provides its hydrogen fuel cell technologies and hydrogen electric vehicles for zero-emission freight transportation to the San Francisco Bay Area and Californias Central Valley, according to the company.

Under the project, Hyundai Motor already provided a total of 30 XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks to a local freight transportation business operator last year.

Taking advantage of the latters logistics network, the commercial operation of the vehicles has been underway since last year, hauling containers from the Port of Oakland and transporting vehicles from the Port of Richmond.

Hyundai Motor has collaborated with major partners to build a more comprehensive hydrogen mobility ecosystem across North America in recent years.

Earlier this year, the company presented its hydrogen vision during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Even if the hydrogen-fueled vehicle industry is yet to generate meaningful revenue, the company shared its unwavering belief in the sector, speaking highly of the energys eco-friendliness and safety.

The NorCAL ZERO Project in Oakland marks a significant step forward in realizing Hyundais vision for a global hydrogen society, Ken Ramirez, executive vice president and head of global commercial vehicle and hydrogen business at Hyundai Motor, said. The project demonstrates how the transport energy transition is achievable today and will serve as one of the building blocks for Hyundais port decarbonization initiatives worldwide.

Hyundai Motors XCIENT Fuel Cell electric truck is the worlds first mass-produced heavy-duty truck powered by hydrogen energy. The vehicle has been deployed in eight countries, including the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Korea, after it made its debut in 2020.

At the 2024 edition of CES, the company gave a glimpse into its grand vision to build a hydrogen value chain encompassing the energys production, storage, transportation and utilization.

Hyundai is proud to be a part of the largest-ever deployment of the fuel cell electric trucks in North America, Jim Park, senior vice president at Hyundai Motor North America, said. The community in Oakland leads the way in clean, sustainable freight transportation and serves as a blueprint for many more deployments to come in the U.S.
Home News Trump says states should decide whether to prosecute women for abortions

Former President Donald Trump appeared to suggest that he would allow states to prosecute women who have abortions as he continues to face blowback from both sides of the debate over his stance on the issue.

In an interview with Time Magazine published Tuesday, Trump discussed many topics as he outlined his vision for a second term if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

The abortion topic has received a lot of attention following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that determined that the U.S. Constitution does not have a right to abortion. The ruling opened the door for several states to enact near-total bans on abortion or laws that restrict abortion to the earliest parts of a pregnancy in the last two years.

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The 2022 ruling has also ignited a debate about what role the federal government should have in legislating abortion policy. To the chagrin of many pro-life activists who would like to see federal law limiting access to abortion nationwide, Trump has argued that abortion policy should be decided at the state level.

Trump doubled down on that position during his interview with Time. When asked if he was comfortable with states prosecuting women who have abortions in violation of state laws, the former president responded, "It's irrelevant whether I'm comfortable or not."

"It's totally irrelevant because the states are going to make those decisions," he added. "And by the way, Texas is going to be different than Ohio. And Ohio is going to be different than Michigan. I see what's happening."

The Republican Study Committee, which contains over 80% of Republicans currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, has included the Life at Conception Act in its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. When asked if he planned to veto the bill, Trump insisted, "I don't have to do anything about vetoes" because "we now have it back in the states."

Trump continued to defend his position: "Every legal scholar for 53 years has said that issue is a state issue from a legal standpoint. And it's starting to work that way."

The 77-year-old insisted that the prospect of a national abortion ban of some kind passing is not practical due to the partisan makeup of the U.S. Senate.

"You're never going to have 60 votes," he said. "You're not going to have it for many, many years, whether it be Democrat or Republican. Right now, it's essentially 50-50. I think we have a chance to pick up a couple, but a couple means we're at 51 or 52. We have a long way to go. So it's not going to happen because you won't have that."

The current makeup of the U.S. Senate is almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans.

The RealClearPolitics Senate map, which predicts the outcomes of the U.S. Senate races on the ballot this year based on polling and other factors, forecasts that at least 43 seats will be won by Democrats and at least 49 will be won by the Republicans. Of the eight toss-up races, the RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Republicans leading in only two: the Republican-held seat in Texas and the Democrat-held seat in Maryland.

With the Democrat-held seat in West Virginia listed as a safe Republican pickup, Republicans would hold 51 seats if the current RealClearPolitics polling averages accurately predict what happens on Election Day. Because most legislation needs 60 votes to pass the U.S. Senate, Republicans would almost certainly lack the votes to pass a national abortion ban even if they hold a majority of seats after the election in light of the fact that all Democrats and even a few Republicans would oppose such a measure.

Trump's comments come as a debate was sparked on social media this week among pro-lifers after podcaster Steve Cruz of "The Regular Man Podcast" said he thinks women who get abortions should be killed. The comment prompted a response from former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who called the comment "disgusting and vile."

"[It's] no way to speak of any human being made in God's image, including a woman who has had an abortion," Ellis stated. "This isn't pro-life, or the way to deal with this issue."

Trump's Time interview also touched on the debate about the abortion pill. When asked if he thought "women should be able to get the abortion pill," Trump replied, "I have an opinion on that, but I'm not going to explain."

"I'm not going to say it yet. But I have pretty strong views on that. And I'll be releasing it probably over the next week," Trump said.

The current RealClearPolitics average of polling of the 2024 presidential election, expected to be a rematch between President Joe Biden and Trump, shows Trump with a 1.5% lead over Biden. In a five-way race that includes Biden, Trump, independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West and prospective Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Trump's lead expands to 2.2%.

The RealClearPolitics Electoral College map, which predicts how each state will vote in the presidential election, shows Trump likely to win at least 219 electoral votes while Biden will likely win at least 215. The remaining states, which boast a combined 104 electoral votes, are listed as toss-ups. The "no toss-ups" map, which predicts how states will vote based on their current polling averages, shows Trump is favored to win with 312 electoral votes to Biden's 226.
Home News USCIRF labels Azerbaijan a top religious freedom violator for the first time

A bipartisan watchdog committee has for the first time urged the U.S. State Department to include Azerbaijan on its list of the world's worst religious freedom violators as it calls on the agency to take a stronger stance against violations in several countries, including Nigeria and India.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released its 2024 Annual Report Wednesday, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The legislation mandated the creation of the bipartisan panel of experts known as USCIRF and an annual report documenting religious freedom conditions worldwide.

This year's report lists more than two dozen countries as among the world's worst violators of religious freedom, urging the State Department to list them as "countries of particular concern."

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IRFA defines countries of particular concern as "countries where the government engages in or tolerates 'particularly severe' violations of religious freedom." The designation could result in sanctions or other diplomatic actions to encourage foreign governments to prevent religious freedom violations.

Examples of "particularly severe" violations of religious freedom include "systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations" such as "torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment," "prolonged detention without charges" and "causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons."

The countries recommended for placement on the list of CPCs compiled by the State Department on an annual basis include 12 of the 17 countries included on the State Department's 2023 list of CPCs: Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Additionally, USCIRF recommends that the State Department add five additional countries to the list in 2024: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam.

Azerbaijan

This year's annual report marked the first time Azerbaijan was recommended for designation as a CPC. Since 2020, the commission has listed Azerbaijan on its Special Watch List, a tier 2 designation.

But in 2023, USCIRF found that religious freedom conditions in Azerbaijan "trended negatively" in the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial conflict, which was mostly ethnic Armenian Christians before a mass exodus in 2023 amid what some experts have labeled "ethnic cleansing."

"The government continued to pose a threat to religious sites in and around the region of Nagorno-Karabakh," the report states. "In May, the chairman of the official State Committee for Work on Religious Affairs Mubariz Gurbanli urged Armenian Apostolic priests to leave the Dadivank Monastery located in the Kalbajar region, falsely claiming that they had no ties to the religious site."

"Although a United Nations mission to the city of Khankendi in October concluded that it 'saw no damage  to cultural or religious structures,' other organizations remained concerned by the potential for damage or destruction in the region," the report continues. "In November 2023, Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW), a research initiative supported by Cornell University, reported damage to the historical Meghretsots Holy Mother of God Church in Shusha. That same month, CHW released satellite imagery that indicated probable damage to two Armenian cemeteries also in Shusha."

USCIRF also stated that the government continued to enforce its 2009 law requiring the registration of religious groups to legally engage in worship. The government also "mandated the official review and approval of religious literature and other materials, and restricted who could engage in 'religious propaganda,' or missionary activity, among other limitations."

"In keeping with the previous year, the government yet again refused to register any non-Muslim religious community despite continued efforts by Protestant Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses to obtain official registration," the report added.

Muslims did not escape persecution from the government either, as "authorities continued to exert pressure on Muslims related to their religious activities, and they surveilled, fined, detained, and arrested those considered to have violated Azerbaijan's religious regulations."

"In our 2022 and 2023 annual reports, we noted increasing religious freedom violations by the government of Azerbaijan. Regrettably, this trend continued during 2023, leading USCIRF to conclude that the CPC designation had now been met," USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck said during a press conference Wednesday.

"USCIRF documented a significant and alarming increase in the number of prisoners arrested on the basis of religion or belief in Azerbaijan during the year. In addition, authorities are regularly accused of torturing or threatening sexual violence to elicit false confessions from detainees with those perpetrating such violence facing no accountability."

USCIRF recommends that the U.S. government work with the government of Azerbaijan to revise the 2009 religion law, amended in 2022, "to comply with international human rights standards." USCIRF also wants funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Embassy in Baku to "restore, preserve, and protect places of worship and other religious or cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories."

India

USCIRF Commissioner David Curry elaborated on the reasons behind recommending India as a CPC.

"In 2023, the Indian government at the national, state and local levels continued to promote and enforce religious nationalist policies," he stated. "This includes restrictions on citizenship, religious conversion, [and] interfaith marriage."

"These laws and policies negatively impact Muslims, Christians, Sikhs" and others, he maintained. "They've also created a culture of impunity for nationwide campaigns of harrassment and violence, particularly towards Muslims and Christians."

Curry said, "Several mosques were destroyed in the presence of police" and "hate speech against Muslims continued at an alarming rate ahead of national elections, contributing to vigilante violence."

As it has in previous years, the Indian government pushed back on USCRIF's claims, with India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the report "propaganda on India."

Nigeria

As the State Department faced sharp criticism when it failed to designate Nigeria as a CPC earlier this year, USCIRF Commissioner Eric Ueland said the commission "continued to see deteriorating religious freedom conditions there, including mass violence, killings and the enforcement of blasphemy laws."

Ueland described how "central government failure, state government level repression and religiously motivated violence by non-state actors have turned parts of Nigeria into areas of extreme persecution, particularly in the north."

He lamented "the consistent failure of the Nigerian government to prevent or punish widespread violence impacting religious freedom in Nigeria."

In addition to countries on the list of CPCs, USCIRF recommended that the State Department place 11 countries on its Special Watch List for committing "severe" violations of religious freedom.

The report advised the State Department to keep Algeria on the SWL and urged the U.S. government to add Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey and Uzbekistan to the list.

Non-state entities recommended for designation as entities of Particular Concern are "al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Houthis, Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (also referred to as ISIS-West Africa), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM)."

"While 25 years has passed since USCIRF was created, it is more important now than ever to ensure that promoting freedom of religion or belief remains a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy," USCIRF Chair Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement.
Home Opinion Genocidal antisemitism in America?

I am certain that most of the Christian Posts readers have been as shocked as I have been by the shameful and gruesome scenes of virulent, genocidal antisemitism breaking out on the campuses of major American universities. Until I saw it with my own eyes, I would not have believed such scenes could have erupted in our country. Clearly, these are not the better angels of our nature.

These scenes from the past few days call to mind the virulent antisemitism of 1930s Nazi Germany. And we all know where that eventually led.

These outbreaks of racist violence must serve as a wake-up call. Clearly, cultural Marxism has deeply infiltrated the American university structure at the faculty and administration levels. Far too many students have been brainwashed concerning Israel and the Palestinians. Most of these students have never been taught of the Israeli peace offers turned down by the Palestinians in 1948, 1967, and ultimately the Camp David and Oslo Accords.

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Why? The answer is simple. The Palestinians rejected the idea of a Jewish state. The chant of a Jew-free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea involves the death or forced removal of between six to seven million Jews. Does that number sound familiar? Yes, that is the approximate number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Hamass charter calls for the abolition of the Jews in Israel. Surveys show that at least two-thirds of Palestinians support Hamas. Hamas, by the way, and the Palestinian Liberation Front (P.L.O.) are both kleptocracies with some of their leaders being worth up to a billion dollars from siphoned-off funds intended for their people.

They pay pensions to the families of terrorists killed attacking the Israelis. They teach their children in school that the Jews are monsters and in the process turn their young men into replicas of Nazi stormtroopers.

They want American young people to be ignorant of their historya history that condemns this terrible antisemitism.

The first president of the United States, a year after being elected president in 1789, visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1790. The warden of the synagogue, Moses Seixas, took the occasion of President Washingtons visit to send a letter of greeting to our countrys first president. He expressed the congregations esteem for the president and the freedoms offered in the new nation. The warden went on to say,

Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty diposer of all events behold a Government, erected by the Majesty of the People  a government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance  but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship  deeming everyone, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine: - This so ample and extensive Federal Union whose basis is Philanthropy, Mutual confidence and Public Virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the Great God, who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and among the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing whatever seemeth him good.

What a remarkable statement of faitha remarkable letter, and it produced a remarkable and historic response from President Washington.

Our nations first President wrote to the synagogue and expressed his desire, The children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree. There shall be none to make them afraid.

He also said the following:

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policya policy worthy of imitation. All possess a like liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

President Washingtons letter was written before the First Amendment had been ratified. President Washington declared religious liberty, not mere toleration, to be the nations standard, and in an echo of America as the city on the hill, declares this radical new liberty to be a policy of worthy of imitation. As was the case with many things, President Washington got it and he got it right!

The cultural Marxists do not want us to know our history, because a nations history tells us who we are. We are better than these demonstrations. We must teach our young people our history. May we never forget who we are. May we continue to be the city on a hill.
Home News African delegates denounce UMC votes to allow LGBT marriage, ordination: We are devastated

A group of African delegates to the United Methodist Church General Conference have denounced the recent votes to allow for same-sex marriage and noncelibate LGBT clergy.

This week, delegates at the UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a series of measures removing from the Book of Discipline rules preventing the officiating of same-sex weddings and the funding of LGBT advocacy groups.

On Thursday, the churchwide legislative gathering voted 523 to 161 to remove from the Book of Discipline the statement that the "practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," which had been originally added to the rule book in 1972.

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Rob Renfroe, publisher of the theologically conservative Good News Magazine and attendee of the General Conference, forwarded The Christian Post a copy of Thursday's statement from several African delegates.

"We have loved The United Methodist Church. We have been grateful for The United Methodist Church. We have joyfully served The United Methodist Church. But now our hearts are troubled," read the statement.

"The United Methodist Church has changed the definition of marriage. It now defines marriage differently from what God created it to be in the beginning. It has changed the definition of marriage from how Jesus described it in Matthew 19 as one man and one woman."

The delegates assert: "We do not believe we know better than Jesus. We do not believe we know better than God. We do not believe we know better than the Bible."

"We are devastated now to be part of a denomination that officially contradicts the Bible's teaching on marriage and sexual morality. We return to Africa with important decisions to make regarding the future," they continued.

"Still, we go home full of hope, confident in Jesus, standing on the word of God, and determined to contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. We return to Africa where the church is growing, nonbelievers are coming to faith and disciples are being made for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The African delegates blamed the UMC establishment for failing to properly invite 70 African delegates in time for them to travel to the General Conference, further biasing the proceedings.

"That is roughly 25% of our delegates. Ten months ago we began sending letters and emails and making phone calls, alerting the Commission on General Conference and some of our bishops that there was a problem. Many of these communications never received a single response," the statement alleged.

The statement was signed by the Rev. Jerry P. Kulah, head of the Liberia Annual Conference delegation; Prosperous Tunda, delegate of the East Congo Annual Conference; the Rev. Danjuma Judi, delegate of the Nigeria Annual Conference; Dr. Yeabu Kamara, delegate of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference; and Ginford Dzimati, delegate of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference.

CP reached out to the UMC for comment on the claims. A spokesperson emailed a statement from Bishop Tracy S. Malone, president of the UMC Council of Bishops and resident bishop of the East Ohio Conference.

Malone, the first African American woman to be president of the UMC Council of Bishops, said the delegates who signed the protest statement "do not speak for all the African delegates who are here at General Conference."

"The staff of the Commission on the General Conference made every effort to get each delegate from the African region to the General Conference who had a right to be seated," she explained.

"The Committee on Credentials reported to the General Conference and confirmed such efforts. The delegates from the African region who are here are fully engaged in all decisions being made. The delegates who are not here were not able to travel due to not receiving visas and other circumstances that prevented them from being here."

Malone said the UMC is "a worldwide church" that embraces "our diversity and respect our cultural, contextual, and theological differences."

Malone cited the regionalization measure that passed during the General Conference. This measure will allow different regions of the global denomination to determine their stance on LGBT issues. It must still be ratified by a majority of annual conferences before it can be added to the UMC constitution.

"The regionalization legislation that overwhelming passed confirms this visible unity and witness," she added. "The Social Principles legislation that expands the definition of marriage that overwhelming passed also confirms this unity and diversity and respects our cultural and contextual realities."

A UMC spokesperson also forwarded CP a brief statement from Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa of the Africa Central Conference, Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, who expressed support for Malone.

"We want to go on record to say that the majority of the African bishops who are here at General Conference, support this statement from Bishop Malone," stated Nhiwatiwa.

For the past several years, the UMC has been dealing with divisive debate over the Book of Discipline's stance on LGBT issues. While efforts to change the language at past General Conferences had always failed, many liberals refused to enforce or follow the rules.

In 2019, at a special session of the General Conference, delegates passed a temporary measure that created a process for congregations to disaffiliate from the UMC over the debate. More than 7,500 mostly conservative churches left the denomination from 2019 to 2023.
Home News Egypt security services failed to protect Christians homes from gasoline bombs, human rights group says

CAIRO, Egypt  Attacks on two predominantly Christian villages in Egypt last week came after days of rising tensions, which the states security services did nothing to quell despite being notified of impending danger to Christians, according to a human rights group.

On April 23 and again on April 26, hundreds of Muslims took to the streets and attacked Christians, first in Al-Fawakher and then in Al-Koum Al-Ahmar village, both in Minya Governate. Enraged villagers launched the attacks ostensibly to prevent construction of church buildings at each site.

Clergy from the Coptic Orthodox Church had notified security service officials four days prior to the first attack that hostilities toward the Christians had reached a breaking point, according to a statement issued on April 29 by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. On April 20, Muslim villagers in Al-Fawakher had attacked three houses with Molotov cocktails in response to a rumor that a Copts house was going to be used for worship, according to EIPR.

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Security services failed to intervene to prevent attacks before they occurred, despite their prior knowledge of the existence of tensions and sectarian incitement, the group said.

The day of the firebombing, the principal of the Al-Fawakher elementary school began bullying several Coptic schoolgirls. When the girls parents confronted him, the principal expelled the students.

Moderate villagers had warned Christian friends that an attack was certain, and the Archdiocese of Minya requested help a second time but was largely ignored, according to EIPR. By 10:30 p.m., crowds were on the streets firing weapons into the air and chanting Islamic slogans.

The villagers started attacking Christian-owned homes with bricks and stones and eventually more gasoline bombs. The homes that werent burned were looted by the rioters. They beat several Christian women, though none suffered serious injury. Videos of the attack later surfaced on social media with posts stating the attacks were against Christians trying to build a church in the village.

The attack on Christians in Al-Koum Al-Ahmar started on April 26 shortly after Islamic noon prayers. It was not publicly known if mosque leaders mentioned Christians or churches at the Friday prayers, but shortly afterward crowds chanting anti-Christian slogans began gathering in the streets.

The crowd swarmed through the Christian neighborhoods smashing doors and windows of Christian-owned homes with stones, according to EIPR. They then went to a plot of land that had been set aside by an Evangelical church for the construction of a worship hall and destroyed building supplies stored there. They also damaged three cars.

An Evangelical congregation bought the land in 2000 for a church building but tried unsuccessfully to obtain the required license until 2023. In January, after the congregation obtained permission to construct the building, roughly 100 villagers gathered at the site to prevent it. They had heard that some sort of agreement had been reached for the church construction.

Egypt has a long-standing practice of restricting or even forbidding construction or renovation of church buildings. In 2016, the government passed the Law for Building and Restoring Churches that brought welcome changes in approvals for construction and renovation of worship halls, but significant hurdles remain for Christians who want a dedicated building for their congregation. Even if a congregation receives government approval to build, Islamists willing to employ violence can put off construction indefinitely.

There is no church building in Al-Fawakher or surrounding villages. The closest church site is an hour away by car. The villages 40 Christian families rely on itinerant priests who meet with them in their homes. Al-Koum Al-Ahmar has a church building where Orthodox Christians meet but none for Evangelicals.

The attacks were hardly the first to take place in the governorate and should not have come as a surprise to Egyptian authorities in Minya, according to EIPR. There were three other violent uprisings to stop the church construction in the governorate since September.

EIPR affirmed that the April 23 and April 26 attacks were not individual incidents that were exceptional or coincidental, as government and Islamic apologists often claim, but were predictable events that could have been deterred.

State institutions should not be subject to the blackmail of aggressors, as it is not its responsibility to respect the feelings of those who may provoked by the existence of houses of worship for Christians, but rather the state is required to protect freedom of religion and the right to practice religious rites for all its citizens, the EIPR stated. Instead of intervening to protect the rights of their citizens to practice religious rites and redress the damage caused to them, official state institutions closed and prevented the construction of churches.

Egypt ranked 38th on Open Doors 2024 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian.
Home News Northwestern professor tells students at anti-Israel protest journalism 'not about objectivity'

A Northwestern University journalism professor told protesters at an anti-Israel protest encampment that journalists' work isn't about "objectivity," saying he teaches "relational journalism" that encourages students to open their "compassionate hearts."

Steven Thrasher, an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, addressed a crowd of nearly 100 people at the "Northwestern Liberation Zone" on Deering Meadow last Saturday.

He is the university's inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair of social justice in reporting, with an emphasis on LGBT-related issues, according to the university's website. Before teaching at the university, he expressed admiration for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and called Israel an "apartheid state."

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On Saturday, Thrasher, whose articles have been featured in BuzzFeed News and The New York Times, told the crowd of anti-Israel demonstrators that he teaches his students "relational journalism."

"To the Medill students and journalists within earshot, I say to you: Our work is not about objectivity. Our work is about you putting your brilliant minds to work and opening your compassionate hearts," the professor said in his speech, a copy of which was shared with The Christian Post. He stated that journalism can be an "act of love."

He said that one of the people he looks up to most in the world is trans journalist Lewis Wallace, who wrote in the book The View From Somewhere that there are two schools of journalism.

"[There is] extractive journalism, where journalists take something from people (in a model similar to colonialism), and relational journalism, where journalists are in relationship with the communities and people they are writing about," Thrasher said.

"I teach my students relational journalism. But one of the many lessons Palestinian journalists have taught me  at great sacrifice  is that journalism can be an act of love. They have elevated beyond belief what relational journalism can, and should, be."

According to The Daily Northwestern, the professor had made multiple appearances at the encampment since it began last Thursday, even participating in blocking the Northwestern Police from entering. Journalist Andy Ngo shared a video to X on April 25 that showed the professor using his body to block the police.

Thrasher said in his speech that he locked arms with several fellow faculty members to block the police, claiming that they do "violence on behalf of the ruling class." The professor also accused Israel of committing "genocide" against Palestinians and said that he did not "see antisemitism" from any of the demonstrators.

In comments to CP, Thrasher denied that he was "fighting" the police when he blocked them from entering the encampment. The professor argued that it was the other way around, and the police assaulted him as he stood "arm in arm" with his colleagues.

"Since this is a Christian publication, as a Christian, I will say that Jesus and the scriptures have taught me that you turn the other cheek and allow yourself to be hit again and again and that you put your life before others," Thrasher stated.

The journalism professor claimed he only stood in place when the police arrived and that he never let go of his co-workers' arms to raise a hand to the officers. Thrasher stated that he and his colleagues blocked the police to "protect our students."

He also requested that the media "properly contextualize" the situation, referring to what he called a "genocide" of Palestinians and Christians in Gaza. He called Israel's actions in Gaza a "lethal occupation of Palestine, which has brutalized Christians, Jews, and Muslims on the land where Christ was born, lived and died."

Israel's offensive began last October after Hamas, the terror group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, attacked southern Israel and killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped over 240 people. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says that over 34,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began but doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Northwestern University did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.

John Grano, the senior managing editor of The Christian Post and a former Northwestern University student, believes the professor is "masquerading as a journalist."

"Professor Thrasher seems like an effective advocate who doesn't know the first thing about journalism," Grano, the former senior vice president of Inside Washington Publishers, told CP. "No news story is completely and perfectly objective, but that doesn't mean a journalist shouldn't try his hardest to make it so."

"The way to accomplish this is to be conversant in every narrative that affects the story. Professor Thatcher chooses to pick a narrative and ignore the other aspects of this story," he continued. "I would call it just foolish if it wasn't so dangerous."

Grano said journalists need to understand all the facts and narratives that apply to a particular story to the extent that they can act as public relations people for both sides. He asserted that if a reporter cannot do this, they are not even ready to ask the first question in an interview.

"You haven't fully absorbed the dynamics of the story that you're writing," Grano said. "You should know what one side says. You should be able to write a better press release than the PR person for that side."

"You understand the narrative, but you need to understand both narratives," he added. "And then, you're in a position to start asking questions to try to get to the next point, which is, where do the narratives match or do they not match? Because the reader is the ultimate decision-maker in terms of what's true in a story."

As The Washington Times reported in May 2019, then-New York University President Andrew Hamilton condemned Thrasher for using his doctoral convocation speech to praise the BDS movement, with one of the school's deans saying that those remarks were omitted from the speech beforehand. During his speech, Thrasher said that he was "so proud" of those who supported BDS, and he referred to Israel as an "apartheid state."

Hamilton told The Jewish Journal at the time that Thrasher should never have been chosen as a speaker for the event after the administration was made aware of what the NYU president described as "undoubtedly vile and anti-Semitic tweets" by Thrasher.

The Israelly Cool blog published social media posts that included Thrasher comparing the Israeli government to Nazis and making jokes about the Holocaust.

At the time of the controversy, Northwestern University's then-President and Professor of Economics Morton Schapiro and then-Provost and Professor of History and African American Studies Jonathan Holloway released a joint statement saying that Thrasher would still join the Northwestern University staff and that he was not the only faculty member to support BDS.

"Many were understandably offended by some of the comments made by Dr. Thrasher during his commencement speech at New York University earlier this week," the pair stated. "We do not share all of his views, nor do we feel commencement was the appropriate venue to express them. However, academic freedom assures his right to hold them."

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty announced it had filed a federal Title VI complaint against Northwestern University on behalf of the Young America's Foundation. The complaint highlighted the university entering into an agreement with the demonstrators, which included offering nearly $1.9 million in scholarship funds to Palestinian students.

The agreement provides "funding two faculty per year for two years," and the university also promised to "provide immediate temporary space for MENA/Muslim students," with "MENA" meaning Middle Eastern and North African. WILL argued that this agreement is discriminatory toward non-Palestinian and non-MENA individuals.

Three anonymous Northwestern University students have also filed a class-action lawsuit against the school, alleging that the school chose "to facilitate, encourage, and coddle a dystopic cesspool of hate."

While most of the encampment dispersed on Monday, the lawsuit argued that "Northwestern twisted itself into a pretzel to accommodate the hostile and discriminatory encampment, legislate around it, and ultimately reward it." The suit included a photo of a demonstrator at the anti-Israel encampment wearing a shirt that appears to depict a Hamas terrorist.
Home News 'The Office' actress says she objected to 'super judgy' Christian joke about gay character

"The Office" actress Angela Kinsey has recalled a time she refused to say a scripted line on the popular NBC sitcom in reference to a gay character that she didn't believe accurately portrayed Christians or the love of Christ.

During an April 23 episode of "The Office" co-star with Rainn Wilson's podcast "Soul Boom," Kinsey discussed the years she played Angela Martin on the series that aired from 2005 to 2013.

Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute, asked Kinsey about her real-life relationship with God and her views on the Church, saying that her character was known as an "uptight Christian cat lady."

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Kinsey disclosed that she grew up Christian, and her mother taught Sunday school and still leads a weekly Bible study. On a few occasions, she said there were jokes written for her character that she felt didn't authentically portray Christians.

In one episode during the show's third season, she recalled that she was supposed to say a "super judgy" line against Oscar, an openly gay character on the show. Kinsey said the line wasn't what any Christian would really say.

She discussed her concerns with producer and showrunner Greg Daniels.

"Yeah, actually, there were one or two times in which there would be a joke written for her that I thought was just really stereotypical, maybe one note. I like to think of her as a full, well-rounded person," she said.

"I do remember, I remember there was a particular storyline between Angela and Oscar, where Angela was being super judgy. I never went up to Greg about any joke, but there was a joke at Oscar's expense, and I went up to Greg [Daniels], and I was like, 'I can't.'"

"I just was like, 'I don't feel good about it. I don't feel good about that. I don't feel like that's what Jesus represented to me,'" she told Daniels.

"And he was like, 'OK.' And he heard me, and he took the joke out. And the episode, it was 'Gay Witch Hunt,' had so many already. But that's the one pivotal moment I remember being like, 'OK, this is feeling like a stereotype and very one note.' I feel like she has more depth than that," Kinsey continued.

To this day, Kinsey said, "Prayer is still important in my family." She said her mother would read the Bible to her, and her family would frequently say "grace" at dinners.

Questioning why people only say "grace" during a meal, Wilson, who grew up as a member of the Baha'i faith, then led Kinsey in prayer for the podcast.

"First time grace has been said for a podcast," Wilson said.

"That we know of," Kinsey responded.

Wilson published his book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, in April 2023.

The actor made headlines last May when he called out Hollywood for having an "anti-Christian bias."

"I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. As soon as the David character in 'The Last of Us' started reading from the Bible I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain," he tweeted. "Could there be a Bible-reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind?"
Home News Protestant pastor's prison sentence upheld in Algeria over 'illegal worship' conviction

A court in Algeria last week upheld a one-year prison sentence for a top church leader baselessly convicted of illegal worshiping, according to a legal advocacy group.

The Court of Appeal in Tizi Ouzou issued the verdict against Pastor Youssef Ourahamane of Emmanuel Church in Algeria, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International said in a press statement. Pastor Ourahamane has long been a top leader in the Eglise Protestante dAlgerie (Protestant Church of Algeria, or EPA) association, which has seen 43 of its churches forcibly closed by authorities since 2019, with only one remaining open.

No one should be punished, let alone face prison, for exercising their right to religious freedom, said Kelsey Zorzi, director of advocacy for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, which is coordinating with other non-governmental organizations to support the pastor. The decision of the Appellate Court to uphold Pastor Youssefs conviction and sentence amounts to a blatant violation of his rights under both Algerian and international law and must be condemned.

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Pastor Ourahamane, a convert from Islam, was sentenced on July 2 to two years in prison and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (US$738) for leading his church, though prosecutors provided no evidence of a crime, according to ADF International. His sentence was reduced to one year last November.

After Pastor Ourahamane appealed the conviction a second time to the Appellate Court in Tizi Ouzo, the judge last week upheld it and added a six-month suspended prison sentence to his one-year term, in addition to the fine.

Zorzi of ADF International expressed hope that the Supreme Court of Algeria would hear the case and acquit Pastor Ourahamane so he can resume duties as pastor.

The international community must continue to advocate for the rights of all Algerians to freely live out their faith and worship in community without fear of persecution, she said.

Security police in Algeria on orders from the Ministry of Interior have systematically targeted churches for more than five years, citing health and safety to justify locking church doors and declaring worship to be illegal.

In one case, they physically beat a pastor in front of his young child because he was peacefully protesting against the closure of his church, ADF International stated.

Authorities have targeted Pastor Ourahamane with fabricated legal charges since 2008, according to ADF International. He asserts he is just the latest of 50 Christians to be convicted recently under charges of illegal worship, shaking the faith of Muslims or embezzling tithes. He and others believe the convictions are a reaction to government concern over large numbers of Muslims converting to Christianity.

In the 1970s, the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats, Pastor Ourahamane said. Today the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts, and they therefore want to suppress the spread of the Gospel among us.

Pastor Ourahamane appealed his conviction on March 26, his 36th wedding anniversary. Another pastor and four elders from his church on March 27 also appealed their three-year prison sentences and fines of 200,000 Algerian dinars (US$1,475).

Pastor Ourahamane has been leading congregations in Algeria for more than 30 years.

About 99% of Algerias 43 million people identify as Sunni Muslim. Islam is the official state religion, but Algerias constitution recognizes the right of all to worship and speak freely. The Algerian government limits religious freedom and expression through the enforcement of laws, including blasphemy and anti-proselytism statutes that intentionally target Christians and other religious minorities, according to ADF International.

Algeria criminalizes blasphemy, with punishments including imprisonment for up to five years and fines. The Criminal Code also censors publications by prohibiting content that is contrary to Islamic morals.

In particular, the government has systematically cracked down on the Evangelical Protestant Church through church closures and raids, ADF International stated.

Algeria is a signatory to major human rights treaties, committing it to uphold the rights to freedom of religion and expression. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2024 Annual Report recommended Algeria be included on the State Departments Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.

Originally published at Christian Daily International
Home News UMC removes rule that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching

The United Methodist Church General Conference has voted to remove a statement from its central rulebook that declared that homosexuality was "incompatible with Christian teaching."

In a vote of 523 to 161 following around 90 minutes of debate on Thursday, the churchwide legislative gathering opted to remove a clause from the Book of Discipline,  304.3 under "Qualifications for Ordination."

"The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," read the clause, which had been originally added to the Book of Discipline in 1972.

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With the vote, delegates also approved the statement that "marriage [is] a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community."

South Carolina Conference Bishop L. Jonathan Holston said that the vote will have a mixed reaction from the denomination, which has already experienced schism over the LGBT debate.

"I know that some of you are celebrating, some are mourning and some are uncertain about what your future holds  for the denomination, for your local church and perhaps even for yourselves as followers of Jesus Christ," said Holston, as quoted by UM News.

The vote was among a series of votes taken at the gathering this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, which removed the UMC's bans on clergy officiating same-sex marriages, the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals and the funding of LGBT advocacy groups.

Reconciling Ministries Network, an LGBT advocacy group that has long campaigned for removing the "incompatible" language from the Book of Discipline, celebrated the vote.

"Beloved, it has been another very good day today in Charlotte and, indeed, for our whole Church," said RMN in an email sent out to supporters on Friday morning.

"It has been said many times by many of our movement kin: You have never been incompatible. You were expected. As you are. You were awaited. As you are. You are beloved. As you are."

Over the past few decades, the UMC has been embroiled in a divisive debate over whether to change the language of the Book of Discipline, with many efforts to remove the rules failing at the General Conference.

Despite the failures, theological progressives within the UMC often refused to enforce or follow the rules, such as blessing same-sex unions or ordaining people in same-sex marriages.

Frustrations over this resistance led large numbers of theological conservative churches to leave the denomination in advance of this year's General Conference, effectively paving the way for changes to be approved.

Thousands of congregations that left the UMC over the past couple of years have affiliated with the Global Methodist Church, which was launched in 2022 as a conservative alternative to the denomination.

In response to the series of changes to the UMC Book of Discipline, the GMC released a statement stating that it was still dedicated to historic Christian teaching.

"The Global Methodist Church maintains its steadfast commitment to advancing its mission, which involves proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving its community of more than 4,501 churches and congregational members worldwide," stated the GMC.

"Rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the historic confessions of the Christian faith proclaimed over the past two thousand years, The Global Methodist Church remains dedicated to upholding its denomination's strong foundation."
Home Opinion Hamas must release all hostages or Israel has to escalate war in Rafah

As the world watches, the Middle East finds itself at another critical juncture. The question on everyones minds is whether the Hamas terrorist leadership will accept the latest hostage deal proposed by the U.S. Biden administration and Egypt. With the Israeli cabinet also needing to approve the deal, the stakes are high.

The proposed deal, while details remain scant in public discourse, is a litmus test for the intentions and future actions of all parties involved. Should Hamas reject the proposal, it suggests a readiness to continue hostilities, likely leading to a dire situation, with a likely imminent expansion into Rafah. This would undoubtedly result in further violence and suffering. On the other hand, an acceptance could herald the end of hostilities, at least temporarily.

This scenario raises several critical questions about the motivations and strategies of both Hamas and the Israeli government. For Hamas, the decision to accept or reject the hostage deal will significantly reflect on their political and military calculations. Historically, Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, has used hostage situations as leverage in negotiations, aiming to extract concessions from the Israeli government. The group's decision will reveal much about their current position and future intentions in the geopolitical chess game of the region.

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On the Israeli side, the cabinet's decision will similarly indicate their current strategic priorities and their willingness to compromise with a terrorist enemy. The Israeli government faces internal pressures from various political and public sectors, each with differing views on the best approach to deal with Hamas, but with an overwhelming majority advocating continuation of the war against Hamas. The balance between ensuring national security and freeing hostages is delicate and often contentious within Israeli political circles.

Furthermore, the role of the U.S. Biden administration and Egypt in brokering this deal is crucial. Their involvement underscores the international community's vested interest in stabilizing the region, but it also highlights the complexities of Middle Eastern geopolitics where U.S. and Egyptian interests often do not align with those of Israel and the Palestinians. The effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy in this region, particularly in managing the delicate balance between different stakeholders, is on trial.

Should the deal fall through, the international community, particularly those directly involved in the negotiations, must remain committed to supporting Israel, one true ally of the United States in the Middle East. The decisions made in the coming days will likely have profound implications not only for the current conflict but also for stability in the Middle East and the world.

As developments unfold, it is crucial for all observers to stay informed and engaged. The decisions made in the coming days will likely have profound implications not only for the current conflict but also for the broader future of peace and stability in the Middle East.
Russia delivered more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea in March alone, a White House official said Thursday, noting its shipments thus far have already exceeded Pyongyang's annual import cap mandated by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC).

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby made the remarks as Washington is working in tandem with South Korea, Japan and other partners to roll out new sanctions this month against those aiding in transfers of weapons and refined petroleum between the North and Russia.

His revelations came amid concerns that the sanctions regime against the North could erode due to this week's expiration of the mandate of a U.N. expert panel monitoring sanctions compliance  a termination caused by Russia's veto.

"In March alone, Russia shipped more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum (to the North)," Kirby said. "Given the close proximity of Russian and North Korean commercial ports, Russia could sustain these shipments indefinitely."

Under UNSC sanctions, the North is banned from importing more than 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per year.

Kirby stressed that Washington will continue efforts to disrupt trade in weapons and oil between the North and Russia.

"The United States is going to continue to impose sanctions against all those working to facilitate arms and refined petroleum transfers between Russia and the DPRK," he said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Commenting on this issue, Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said that the U.S. is currently working with its partners, including South Korea, Britain, Australia, the European Union, New Zealand and Japan, to announce new coordinated sanctions designations this month.

The disclosure about the Russian shipments came as the mandate of the expert panel ended Tuesday following Russia's veto late March of a UNSC resolution that would have extended the mandate in what had been an annual renewal.

Kirby called Moscow's veto a "calculated" move to hide its own violations of UNSC resolutions.

Through regular reports, the panel had laid bare various cases of sanction violations. Its latest report this year touched on arms trade between Moscow and Pyongyang, which Seoul, Washington and others berated as violations of multiple UNSC sanctions.

"By disbanding the panel of experts, Russia is also attempting to obscure its violations of binding Security Council resolutions," Kirby said.

With the expiration of the panel's mandate, South Korea, the U.S., Japan and other nations have been looking for alternative measures to help ensure sanctions compliance.

On Wednesday, 50 countries issued a joint statement, stressing the need to consider how to keep access to "objective" and "independent" analysis regarding the enforcement of anti-North Korea sanctions. (Yonhap)
Anglican primates meet in Rome

This week some of the primates of the Anglican Communion met together in Rome at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The four-day event is billed as "Primates' Meeting 2024" by the Anglican Communion Office, a meeting of the senior clergyperson from each of the 42 provinces, which is supposed to work for unity among Anglican churches globally.

From the start, this Primates Meeting has been different. While previous meetings have been tense affairs because of diverging views about the authority of Scripture and issues of human sexuality, this one seems to have been much calmer. The main reason for this is the non-attendance of at least nine Primates due to the failure of the Lambeth Conference to listen to the views of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) and the Archbishop of Canterbury's role in the decision of the Church of England to bless same-sex couples. This leaves well over half of all Anglican worshippers unrepresented.

Archbishop Justin Badi, the leader of the GSFA outlined the reasons for their decision in an interview last week in which he said they had heard about the meeting and received an invitation to go to Rome "but in accordance with the Ash Wednesday Statement that we issued, some of us may not be able to be part of that meeting in Rome".

"We cannot sit together with those who have intentionally violated the biblical truth that we received from our forefathers. We cannot go and share anything with them unless they repent," he said.

In the same interview he outlined plans for first GSFA Assembly which will take place in Cairo in June - where plans are afoot to re-set the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, acknowledged that some could not come to Rome for "conscience reasons" and assured them that "they were no less loved for their absence." Speaking at the press conference after the Meeting, the Most Rev Albert Chama, Primate of Central Africa, said that having been in Rome, he will also be attending the GSFA Assembly in Cairo in June and will be seeking to persuade his fellow Primates to reconsider and return to the next Primates Meeting.

Archbishop Tamihere, from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, said that discussions centred around becoming "instruments of peace" in places of war and conflict, and "first responders" in the face of extreme weather events caused by climate change.

There were also discussions about the role of the Church of England in a 'maturing' Anglican Communion, though Bishop Graham Tomlin told reporters that the Primates rejected the idea of electing a Primate to work alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and chair Primates Meetings in the future.

This Primates Meeting has been hosted by the Anglican Centre (ACR) in Rome, which works with Anglican Communion and Vatican offices to cultivate friendship between Anglicans and Catholics to deepen communion. So much of the Primates' time has been spent on a pilgrimage, visiting many holy sites, including the Abbey of Tre Fontane, the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls and the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere and culminating with an audience with Pope Francis.

In his speech to the gathered Primates, the Pope covered themes of unity in diversity and walking together in love, but he also acknowledged the tensions that exist. "I realise," he said,"that the role of the Bishop of Rome is still a controversial and divisive issue among Christians," and went on to suggest there needed to be "a patient and fraternal dialogue" on the topic, which "strives to understand how the Petrine ministry can develop as a service of love for all."

Welby was very encouraged by his time in Rome, saying, "This Primates' Meeting has been wonderful and has now become a moment in history where we have seen the closeness of our relationship with Rome at the pastoral, the missional and the spiritual level, which demonstrates the progress made over the last half century form real antipathy, to deep bonds of friendship all round the world."

Perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury, having accepted that he cannot reconcile the provinces of the Anglican Communion, will set his sights on the reconciliation of all Christians under the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome? If he does he may have some difficulty squaring it with the 39 Articles, one of the founding documents of the Church of England.

Susie Leafe is director of Anglican Futures, which supports orthodox Anglicans in the UK.
Azerbaijan named among religious freedom violators by religious liberty watchdog

An independent watchdog on religious liberty has recommended Azerbaijan be listed among the State Department's "countries of particular concern" that have committed the most egregious violations of religious freedom.

In its annual report, issued Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also urged the addition of Kyrgyzstan to the department's second-tier "special watch list."

The report comes months after the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act was officially marked in October. The law created in 1998 the role of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom and the Office of International Religious Freedom within the department and the bipartisan commission.

"USCIRF's first annual report, issued in May 2000, focused primarily on China, Russia, and Sudan," reads the introduction of the commission's 2024 Annual Report. "Today, the governments of China and Russia remain among the world's worst violators of their people's religious freedom, as well as among the most active perpetrators of cross-border repression and other malign activities abroad, including in the United States."

The nine commissioners presented the report's findings in a virtual event on Wednesday.

Commissioner Stephen Schneck said conditions in Azerbaijan had long been noted by the commission but had worsened in 2023, the year of focus for the report.

"USCIRF documented a significant and alarming increase in the number of prisoners arrested on the basis of religion or belief in Azerbaijan during the year," he said of the former Soviet republic. "In addition, authorities are regularly accused of torturing or threatening sexual violence to elicit false confessions from detainees, with those perpetrating such violence facing no accountability."

The commissioners recommended that the State Department also retain the dozen countries that are currently designated as "countries of particular concern," which the department determined are committing "systematic, egregious, and ongoing" religious freedom violations: Myanmar (which the department refers to as Burma), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

They also continued to seek the additions of Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam to the CPC list.

Schneck said Kyrgyzstan is a first-time nominee by USCIRF for the special watch list, in part because of government targeting of Muslims who are not aligned with the interpretation of their religion preferred by the state and the labeling of peaceful religious groups as "extremist."

"In 2023, Kyrgyz authorities increasingly enforced long-standing restrictive legislation regulating religion and penalizing peaceful religious practices such as online religious expression and collective worship and possessing unauthorized religious materials," he said of the Central Asian country.

The State Department currently has designated Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam as special-watch-list countries.

The commissioners recommended that Algeria be kept on that second-tier list and that, in addition to Kyrgyzstan, these other countries be added: Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Their 102-page report noted global developments, including USCIRF's identification of 96 countries with blasphemy laws, which penalize religious expression and acts "deemed insulting or offensive" with the death penalty, prison sentences and fines. It also cited the destruction of religious sites in war zones and conflicts, including the oldest mosque and a convent in Gaza and churches and monasteries in the Israel-Hamas war; houses of worship in Ukraine since Russia invaded that country; and mosques and churches attacked in Sudan.

The report noted "a disturbing global rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred during 2023," early in the year and in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the commission's outgoing chair, noted that the commission's work affects its members personally, with some of them or their families touched by the religious freedom issues they are addressing. He reiterated his thanks to the Rev. Fred Davie, USCIRF's vice chair, for joining him in leaving a delegation trip to Saudi Arabia when the rabbi was asked to remove his kippah, or yarmulke, during their visit in March.

Cooper also said all the commissioners face questions in their overseas trips about how they, as U.S. representatives, can point out others' religious freedom violations when their own country has religious hatred too.

"It's a fair question," Cooper said at the conclusion of the event announcing the report. "It's something that we each will grapple with every day. But we can also point to the fact that, as the world's greatest democracy, the way in which we deal with hate is we confront it. We don't sweep it under the rug. We don't make believe it isn't there."

 Religion News Service
Catholic bishops in England, Wales issue pastoral statement against transgender interventions

(CP) Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales released guidance last week urging against medical and social transitioning for trans-identified children.

"Medical intervention for children should not be supported," the bishops wrote in an April 24 document titled "Intricately Woven by the Lord," which serves as a "pastoral reflection on gender."

"Social 'transition' can have a formative effect on a child's development and this should be avoided with young children."

The bishops expressed compassion toward adults and children struggling with gender dysphoria, presenting it as a symptom of human fallenness that awaits redemption through Jesus Christ.

"We cannot encourage or give support to reconstructive or drug-based medical intervention that harms the body," the bishops wrote. "Nor can we legitimize or uphold a way of living that is not respectful of the truth and vocation of each man and each woman, called to live according to the divine plan."

"Rather, when a family or person experiencing these challenges seeks to be accompanied on their Christian journey, our aim is to help them rediscover and cherish their humanity as it was conceived and created by God, body and soul," the bishops continued.

The document stressed the importance of remembering that humans are created in the image of God, saying humans are inextricably physical and spiritual beings and called to honor God's image in them by not pursuing interventions to "reassign" their gender.

"Pastoral accompaniment must flow from an acceptance and celebration of the body as created, respect for parents as primary educators and uphold best practice in terms of safeguarding principles," the bishops said.

The document's themes echoed the guidance the Vatican issued earlier this month. On April 22, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a declaration titled "Dignitas Infinita," which clarifies the Catholic Church's positions on various issues related to human dignity.

"[E]very person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while 'every unjust sign of discrimination' is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence," the document said.

While acknowledging that LGBT people deserve to be treated with dignity, the guidance condemned "gender theory" as an example of "a personal self-determination" that "amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God."

Such a worldview, the guidance maintained, rejects the teaching that "human life, in all its dimensions, both physical in spiritual, is a gift from God" that "is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good."

The 10-page pastoral reflection from the English and Welsh bishops was reportedly prepared over two years. Its release so close to the Vatican's guidance was not planned, according to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who serves as archbishop of Westminster.

Even so, Nichols told the media last Wednesday that both documents are in "absolute harmony," according to The Irish News.

Secular authorities in the United Kingdom have also questioned the efficacy of transgender interventions for minors.

Earlier this month, the release of the "Cass Report" urged the National Health Services to "review the policy on masculinizing/feminizing hormones" and recommended "extreme caution" when prescribing cross-sex hormones to minors.

The review was commissioned in response to the exponential increase of youth seeking treatment for gender dysphoria over the past decade and noted the poor quality of studies examining the long-term use of puberty blockers to treat children with gender dysphoria.

"There should be a clear clinical rationale for providing hormones at this stage rather than waiting until an individual reaches 18," the report said.

After the report's release, the NHS advised its "gender clinics to implement a pause" on first appointments for those under 18.

A recent study by 11 scientists with the Mayo Clinic found that boys who take puberty-blocking drugs could be at risk of developing atrophied testicles and long-term infertility issues, despite claims that such drugs are reversible.

 The Christian Post
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Why your business needs a cloud-based print management solution

If your business isnt using a cloud-based print management solution, youre missing out on a range of efficiency, environmental and security benefits.

There are a number of factors driving the move to cloud-based services, from budget considerations to scalability and security. But there are different types of clouds and its important to understand which solution will work best for your business.

There are three main types of cloud-based services: public, private and hybrid. Each service offers slightly different benefits depending on business requirements. Lets look at the different cloud services on offer and consider how uniFLOW Online, the award-winning, cloud-based print and scan management solution, can benefit your business.

Private Cloud

Private cloud refers to infrastructure that is dedicated to a single organisation or group. Private cloud services can be hosted on-premise or provided by a third-party vendor. They tend to be more expensive than public cloud, but can provide greater control, customisation, and security.

Hybrid Cloud

As the name suggests, hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private cloud services. Hybrid cloud allows businesses to take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness of public cloud services while maintaining local control over certain data though private cloud services. Hybrid cloud can provide the best of both worlds, but can be complex to operate and costly to manage.

Public Cloud

Public cloud services are sold by third-party vendors, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. Public cloud services are typically more cost-effective and require less maintenance.

What sort of cloud does uniFLOW Online run on?

uniFLOW Online is a public cloud-based print and scan management solution hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform. It is used by a wide range of customers, from small and medium-sized businesses to enterprise and government customers, to efficiently and securely manage print and scan jobs.

At a time when business users want flexibility to print and scan anywhere, anytime, uniFLOW Online delivers the goods. uniFLOW Online works with various devices across multiple locations. It is quick to install and set up. And it offers great insights that can help your business reduce print and scan costs and improve your sustainability credentials.

Lets take a look at some of the benefits that uniFLOW Online users enjoy.

The benefits of cloud printing

When it comes to cloud printing, users want to print from anywhere, anytime and from any device without the need for any physical connections. uniFLOW Online helps drive cost-efficiencies, scalability, security, and flexibility in print environments.

Serious cost savings

As uniFLOW Online is hosted in the public cloud, it is a very cost-effective print and scan management solution. uniFLOW Online eliminates the need for expensive, on-premise infrastructure costs such as print servers, IT support and office space. The system runs on a universal, cloud-based print driver that is updated three times per year to ensure customers have access to the latest features and functionality.

Unlimited scalability

Because uniFLOW Online is a public solution, your business can quickly and easily scale the solution to suit your changing circumstances without the need to invest in additional infrastructure. If your business grows and you need to provide access to 100 new staff, no problem. In fact, there is no limit to how many users you can have with uniFLOW Online.

Impressive security credentials

uniFLOW Online is highly secure and delivered as a pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) built natively on the Microsoft Azure Web Service platform. The system features layered security strategies that are consistent with Microsofts Zero Trust principles. All data is stored regionally in Australia in Microsoft Azure data centres that provide maximum security by encrypting data to industry-standard protocols. It is also protected by Australian privacy legislation. With Australian Privacy Law providing comparable safeguards to that of New Zealands Privacy Act, this gives businesses comfort  knowing that their data is stored, and remains within the Oceania region. Finally, NT-ware, the Canon group company that develops uniFLOW Online, is an ISO 27001 certified business, giving you that additional peace of mind.

As flexible as your business

Flexibility is critical to success and uniFLOW Online is more than capable of adapting to your unique circumstances. For example, the system allows for location-based print and scan configurations, meaning you can have one set of rules for your main office and another set of rules for other locations. When a user travels between those locations, their permissions will update automatically based on their location. Locations can vary in print submission pathways, security features, or network set-up, including Zero Trust environments.

As you can see, public cloud printing offers many benefits for businesses, including cost-effectiveness, scalability, greater security, and flexibility. And as one of the worlds first true cloud-based print and scan management solutionsand a 6-time winner of the prestigious Buyers Lab BLI Pick AwarduniFLOW Online brings a lot to the table.

For more information on cloud printing for your organisation, visit uniFLOW Online or get in contact with a Canon expert.
U.S. President Joe Biden insisted Thursday that "order must prevail" on college campuses after weeks of turmoil, clashes with police and mass arrests involving student protests against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.

Biden, who had remained tight-lipped as the student unrest expanded, spoke just hours after hundreds of police moved in to forcibly clear a sprawling encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protestors.

For weeks, authorities on campuses from New York to California have tried to thread the needle between the right to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, resulting in more than 2,000 arrests in two weeks as university terms end.

"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," Biden, who has faced criticism from all sides of the political spectrum over the demonstrations, said in a televised statement from the White House.

"But neither are we a lawless country. We're a civil society, and order must prevail," he added.

Earlier, UCLA students clad in white helmets linked arms and formed a line facing off against officers, who were detaining protesters and leading them away.

"About 300 protesters voluntarily left, while more than 200 resisted orders to disperse and were arrested," UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said.

Police used flashbangs to disperse the crowds gathered outside the encampment who chanted "Let them go!" as helicopters hovered overhead.

Officers blocked stairs accessing the site, with students dressed in yellow jackets and serving as medics telling AFP they were being largely prevented from reaching the area.

In another part of the encampment, students carrying umbrellas, helmets and plastic shields squared off against police in mostly tense silence, with sporadic chants of "Free Palestine!" and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!"

The large police presence, including LAPD and California Highway Patrol officers, came after law enforcement were criticized for being slow to act during violent clashes late Tuesday, when counter-protesters attacked the encampment of pro-Palestinian students.

UCLA said classes would be remote on Thursday and Friday due to the "emergency on campus," and warned students to avoid the protest area.

Wave of unrest

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 U.S. university campuses since last month, often erecting tent camps to protest the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

Officers detained several people at Fordham University in New York and cleared a protest set up inside a school building, officials said.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, protesters dug in, blocking an avenue near the center of the campus in Cambridge during the height of Wednesday afternoon's rush hour commute.

The University of Texas at Dallas saw police remove an encampment and arrest at least 17 people for "criminal trespass," the school said.

Police said about 300 arrests were made at Columbia and another New York university this week.

The mayor's office said Thursday night that almost half of those arrested at the two schools Tuesday night were people unaffiliated with the schools.

Balancing act

Like university leaders, Biden's administration has also tried to walk the fine line between free speech and complaints of intimidation.

Republicans have accused him of being soft on what they say is anti-Semitic sentiment among the protesters, while he faces widespread opposition in his own party for his strong support for Israel's war on Gaza.

"There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students," Biden said Thursday.

Biden's Republican election rival Donald Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly praised the police response and called for a full crackdown, denouncing "radical left lunatics" in comments from the New York courthouse where he is on trial over a hush money scheme.

"To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students," he told a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also took about 250 hostages.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. (AFP)
Aboneaza-te la rubricile dorite si primeste zilnic notificari pe email cu link-uri la articolele care au fost adaugate in ultimele 24 de ore. Notificarile vor fi expediate la adresa indicata mai jos. Daca doresti sa schimbi adresa - o poti modifica editand informatia de profil aici.
China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), AFP journalists near the site said.

Heavy rain engulfed the site just minutes before the launch began, they said, with hundreds of onlookers gathered nearby to witness the latest leap for China's decades-long space programme.

Washington has warned that the programme is being used to mask military objectives and an effort to establish dominance in space.

The Chang'e-6 aims to collect around two kilograms (4 pounds) of lunar samples from the far side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

State news agency Xinhua hailed it as "the first endeavour of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration".

It is a technically complex 53-day mission that will also see it attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

"The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking," Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-6 mission, told Xinhua.

The probe is set to land in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system.

Once there, it will scoop up lunar soil and rocks, and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.

It must then lift off from the Moon's surface and retrace its steps back home.

mo

Plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing has ploughed huge resources into its space programme over the past decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers  the United States and Russia.

It has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or "heavenly palace", to which it sent a fresh crew of three astronauts last month.

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon and made China only the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.

The rapid advance of China's space programme has raised alarm bells in Washington, with the head of NASA warning last month that the United States was now in a "race" against Beijing.

"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Chang'e-6 is the first of three high-wire uncrewed missions to the Moon planned by China this decade.

Its successor, Chang'e-7, will scour the lunar south pole for water, while Chang'e-8 will attempt to establish the technical feasibility of building a planned base, known as the International Lunar Research Station, with Beijing saying a "basic model" will be completed by 2030.

Scientists say the Moon's dark side  so-called because it is invisible from Earth, not because it never catches the sun's rays  holds great promise for research because its craters are less covered by ancient lava flows than the near side.

That might mean it is more possible to collect material that sheds light on how the Moon formed in the first place.

"The samples collected by Chang'e-6 will have a geological age of approximately 4 billion years," Ge Ping, vice director of China's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told journalists.

"Collecting lunar samples from different regions and geological ages, and conducting experiments is of great value and significance for humanity." (AFP)
By Farnaces/Adobe

Most Conservative MPs think the charity sector as a whole is too political, while most Labour MPs do not, according to new research.

nfpResearch surveyed 100 MPs and found that almost two in three of those from Labour think relations with charities and parliament are good or very good, compared to just over a third of Conservative MPs.

This could be a positive sign for charities, as the potential of a Labour majority should spark optimism about the sectors relationship with government, a blog on the research says.

Researchers found party differences on the topic of charities being political, with Labour and Conservative MPs at different ends of the scale.

Almost all Conservatives said that some charities are too political compared to one in four Labour MPs.

Moreover, four in five Conservative MPs said that the charity sector as a whole is too political compared with less than one in 10 Labour MPs.

Challenging for charities in run-up to election

The blog by nfpResearch head of influencer audiences research Heather Sturgess says: The increase in Conservative MPs in agreement with the idea that the charity sector is too political is cause for concern.

It will be challenging for charities to strike the right balance in the run-up to the election as they advocate for their causes to be considered.

Should Labour win the next election it will be interesting to see whether Conservative perceptions that charities are too political prevail as the opposition party.

Labour being less likely to see charities as political suggests they will be more open to discussion and debate with charities on policies. However, this idea will be tested should it be Labours policies that are facing scrutiny from charities.

The findings are based on a sample of 100 MPs representative of party and region.

sign up to receive the free Civil Society daily news bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,




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One photo shows a counterprotester, their black-clad body a blur of motion, spraying a Palestine solidarity encampment with aerosol, its particles dissolving into a yellow haze in front of a person in a kaffiyeh, shielding behind a placard. Another shows a protester, their face in stunned close-up, angled toward the camera and visible between the legs of the police officers pinning them to the pavement and zip-tying them. Another shows a university president, arms folded, her face tilted downward in a frown, the crystals of a smashed door panel to her right glinting in the light.

All three images were taken by student journalists (or journalism students) at their own schoolsrespectively, by Zoraiz Irshad, at the University of California, Los Angeles; Manoo Sirivelu, at the University of Texas at Austin; and Indy Scholtens, at Columbiain recent days, as campus protests in solidarity with Gaza spread nationwide. The images are three particularly striking swatches in a broader national tapestry that student journalists have woven together over this period, often at personal risk. Student journalists have been detained in the course of their work on at least two campuses, and threatened with arrest elsewhere. At UT Austinwhere a professional photojournalist was arrested last week (and now faces charges)Sirivelu described being pushed down by an officer before taking the photo of the protester being arrested. (I felt needed to take a picture that would encapsulate both her feelings and my own, Sirivelu recalled.) At UCLA, four student journalists said that pro-Israel counterprotesters surrounded and sprayed them, then punched one of them and kicked another for nearly a minute.

The correct artistic metaphor for these and other students images and reports might not be the warp and weft of a tapestry but dots in a pointillist painting, one that is necessarily impressionistic and also incompletenot least due to the threats and other access restrictions these students have faced, but also due to the complexity of the unfolding story. In places, student reporting has rendered the painting comprehensible. (We reported last week on the sterling work of the Columbia Daily Spectator in covering unrest and arrests on that campus. As a reminder: CJR is not a student publication.) At its best, local and national media coverage has usefully filled in the picture, too. At its worst, it has taken a hand to the dots of paint and smeared them across the canvas. And there has been a lot of worst.

In the name of not smudging the picture myself, some national-level coverage has respected the nuances of the story, including by amplifying or commissioning the work of student reporters on the ground. Speaking on MSNBC on Wednesday, Alex Wagner sagely warned that, with a story this big, its important not to paint any of this with too broad a brush. All of these protests are made up of individual actors. All of them are happening on different campuses with different responses from administrators and different responses from police.

Still, too much coverageespecially on, but not limited to, TVhas blurred into a heady, sometimes incoherent mix of alarmism, condescension, and misplaced nostalgia: one in which the protests are proof of some shadowy, nationwide conspiracy that police are heroically facing down, and also proof that the kids are not all right, and also proof that protest standards have slipped since the sixties (no matter how those protests were seen at the time). At times, the vibe has lurched between analysis of the Zapruder film and Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons.

In the process, no little coverage has muddied the actual factsnot least out of Columbia, where, on Tuesday night, hundreds of police officers swept in and arrested protesters who had occupied Hamilton Hall, a campus building. University administrators, police officials, and New York City mayor Eric Adams all to some extent attested to outside agitators playing a key role in the occupation. (For their part, pro-Palestinian organizers at Columbia described the occupiers as autonomous.) Sections of the media amplified the official narrative, including a claim from City Hall that the wife of a known terrorist was in the building. (She was not.) On Wednesday morning, a deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department appeared on MSNBCs Morning Joe brandishing a chain that he said had been recovered from Hamilton Hall. This is not what students bring to school, he said. Dont think so, Mika Brzezinski, the cohost, chimed in emphatically. Various journalists suggested that the chain looked an awful lot like a bike lock sold on campus.

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Later in the day, police officials released a four-and-a-half-minute video, set to heart-pumping music, smashing together footage of preparations for the operation at Hamilton Hall and the sweep itself. But neither they nor Adams offered any sort of clarity as to who exactly had been arrested, even as some diligent outside journalists pressed for answers. In one interview yesterday, Adams estimated the number of outsiders involved at 40 percent, though this also included protests on a different New York campus; in another, he suggested that the true figure didnt matter. Last night, Columbia said that forty-four arrests had been made at Hamilton Hall, of which thirteen were of non-affiliates. But the exact role played by the latter remained murky at time of writing.

The circumstances of the police sweep remain somewhat murky as well. Police officials were quick to hail it as precise, a characterization that itself was quickly amplified on cable news, alongside the claim that there were no known injuries. Shortly after the sweep concluded, a law enforcement analyst on CNN, who claimed to have spoken to people in the building, said he thought that police had shown up in such numbers in part to minimize the use of force that they would have to use. Shortly afterward, though, the Spectator reported that officers threw protesters to the floor and slammed into them with metal barricades outside Hamilton, and that one protester lay unmoving on the ground before being carried away.

On Wednesday night, CNNs Erin Burnett asked Adams about testimony from a Columbia student who said that police pushed away press, then ambushed, tackled, and beat people at Hamilton. When you look at the analysis of national independent news outlets, they used the terms of how much restraint, how well this was handled, how organized this was handled, Adams replied. I agree with those national outlets.

Last night, the New York news site The City reported that an officer fired his gun inside Hamilton Hall, citing a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney. A police spokesperson confirmed that this had happened, stating that the officer was using a flashlight on his gun and fired it accidentally; the spokesperson said that no students were in the vicinity at the time, and no one was hurt. Accident or not, the discharge didnt make the four-and-a-half-minute police showreel.

Again, generalizing about media coverage is always hard. On the night of the sweep, CNN, for example, also brought on voices connected to Columbia, including Julia Vargas Jones, a student at Columbia Journalism School who broadcast live from campus, and Mahmoud Khalil, a negotiator representing student protesters at Columbia. The network also, by my count, brought on at least six law enforcement or legal or national security commentators, some of them repeatedly, despite their obviously imperfect insight into what was happening on the ground. The following night, as the story continued to reverberate, no representative of the protesters was invited onto CNN in prime time, as far as I can tellthough it did invite Kevin OLeary, a judge on Shark Tank, to discuss the rest of their lives. (Im not against you protesting, but you must understand, in todays economy, with AI technology, you just killed your career, he said.)

I believe that cable-news interviews with experts and outside voices can add interesting context to unfolding stories. (Nor is it always straightforward to interview representatives of protest movements that are often diffuse, and leery of the press.) But those who believe that real journalism is dying at the hands of ill-informed armchair punditryand they are legionhave had a banner week for their cause. Ever since the first round of arrests at Columbia two weeks ago (which I wrote about at the time), the story of campus tensions has been turned into a circus; politicians have not needed much help with this, but sections of the media, not least the armchair pundits, have given it to them anyway. As I wrote previously, this isnt to say that this nationwide story doesnt matterit does, for myriad reasons I listed at the timeor that disturbing instances of bigotry havent been a part of it; they have, and continue to be. But the circus-like atmosphere has too often drowned out facts and complexity. And it has fueled a volume of coverage that has, ultimately, been wildly out of proportion to the stakes.

I wrote after the first arrests that the longer-term story of American campus culture, particularly since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and Israel bombarded Gaza in response, had sometimes distracted from the events on the ground that the protesters have been trying to highlight. Since I last wrote, this has certainly been the case, as various media critics (and one United States senator) have pointed out. This more important story hasnt stopped, of course: in the last two weeks alone, there have been reports of mass graves in Gaza, a murdered Israeli hostage, Palestinian children killed in air strikes, and more. These developments have been covered, including on CNN. Often, though, the student protests have taken precedence.

If covering these protests has been difficult, sometimes dangerous, work, it of course pales in comparison to covering Gaza, where Israeli officials have controlled access for outside journalists and air strikes have killed dozens of journalists on the ground. As a result, that painting, too, is lacking many dots. Journalists might point to this fact as reason for caution and nuance in their coverage, and they might have a point. But in many areas, that painting is already clear enough. And, if this weeks campus coverage is any guide, too many in our media seem quite happy to draw sweeping conclusions when the subject matter suits them.



Other notable stories:

A year ago, a report in the Washington Post cast doubt on US claims that a military strike in Syria had killed an influential figure within Al Qaeda; the family of the man who was killed said that he was a shepherd with no ties to terrorist groups, while unnamed US officials told the Post that they werent sure who they had killed. Following the Posts story, officials opened an investigation into the incident; yesterday, they acknowledged publicly that the strike killed a civilian by mistake. The public statement about the killing did not go into much detail as to how it occurred, but the admission, the Post reports, underscores the Pentagons persistent struggle to avoid unintentional casualties despite the Biden administrations pledge to curb such incidents.

The New Yorkers Clare Malone dug into Hunterbrook, a combined financial and media company that places trades based on its investigative journalism, and that launched recently to no little controversy. In many ways, Hunterbrook behaves more like a hedge fund than a journalism outlet, Malone writes. A core principle of traditional journalism, of course, is that reporters should pursue information if it is in the public goodnot for remunerative reasons. Conflict disclosure is another basic tenet of journalism, but Hunterbrook doesnt disclose the investors in its hedge fund.

Reporters Without Borders is out with the 2024 edition of its World Press Freedom Index, which shows that journalism has increasingly come under political pressure globally, RSF says. There were notable falls down the rankings for Niger and Burkina Faso, both of which are now governed by military juntas, while Argentina tumbled twenty-six places following the election of the populist president Javier Milei. And the US fell ten places to fifty-fifth position, out of a hundred and eighty countries worldwide.

And the writer Siri Hustvedtwhose husband, the author Paul Auster, died this weeksaid in an Instagram post that her family was denied the dignity of sharing the news after word spread in the media and online without their knowledge. (According to Le Monde, a family friend told the New York Times that Auster had died.) I do not know the full story about how this happened, Hustvedt wrote, but I know this: it is wrong.

ICYMI: Whats next for TikTok?

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Claims Journal recently reported on a new Ohio State University study, which examines who is at fault when cars hit pedestrians shows that vehicle/pedestrian accidents occur much more frequently in certain environments than in others.

The study showed that pedestrians were much more likely to be at fault when there was a high volume of cars moving at a faster speed. Taken by itself, this result is somewhat obvious and intuitive. However, the study also showed that more incidents occur, and pedestrians are more likely to be at fault, in areas where crosswalks are fewer and farther apart. In busy urban areas, where crosswalks were plentiful, the study found that the vehicle driver was more likely to be at fault. The study focused on road design and the built environment which contributes to crashes.

Only a few years ago, another analysis of pedestrian safety by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) revealed that pedestrian fatalities are sharply on the rise. In fact, the report revealed the astonishing news that an average of nearly 22 pedestrians per day were struck and killed by automobiles in the U.S. in 2020, and that number is on the rise. This number doesnt include thousands of non-fatality accidents resulting in serious injury.

In New York City alone, in 2018, there were 277,971 auto accidents. Nearly 6% of those accidents involved a pedestrian and many of those injured or killed were on the job when the accident occurred. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data for 2020, most pedestrian traffic deaths occurred in urban settings (80%), on the open road (76%) versus intersections (24%), and during dark lighting conditions (76%). The GHSA report also predicts that 2022 will be a 40-year high for pedestrian deaths.

In an effort to address this growing public safety concern, state legislatures are scrambling to pass new laws which regulate and define who is at fault when a pedestrian is struck.

These laws cover circumstances when a vehicle must stop or yield to a pedestrian crossing the street at an uncontrolled crosswalkone where there is no traffic control device governing and/or directing when it is safe to cross the street.

For example, a growing number of states require motorists to stop and yield to pedestrians in an uncontrolled crosswalk; an obligation many motorists have had a hard time adjusting to.

In Minnesota, the law now requires a vehicle to stop when a pedestrian is in any portion of the roadwaycontrolled or uncontrolled. Drivers in that state must now stop for crossing pedestrians at marked crosswalks and at all intersections without crosswalks or stop lights. Although Minnesota pedestrians must not enter a crosswalk if a vehicle is approaching and it is impossible for the driver to stop, there is no defined distance that a pedestrian must abide by before entering the crosswalk. Furthermore, when a vehicle is stopped at a Minnesota intersection to allow pedestrians to cross the roadway, it is illegal for drivers of other vehicles approaching from the rear to pass the stopped vehicle.

Interestingly, at common law, the rights of pedestrians and motorists at crossings were equal and neither had a superior right over the other. Bartlett v. Melzo, 88 N.W.2d 518 (Mich. 1958). Today, however, most states treat pedestrian rights and vehicle obligations at controlled and uncontrolled crosswalks differently.

Controlled crosswalks are typically striped and delineated, as such a crosswalk could be marked or unmarked. The language and definitions differ from state to state. In general, vehicles must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians at plainly marked crosswalks and at intersections where stop signs or flashing red signals are in place. On the other hand, pedestrians must generally yield the right-of-way to vehicles when crossing outside of a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.

The laws do vary from state to state, however.

In New Jersey, vehicles must stop for a pedestrian within a marked crosswalk but must only yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Nineteen states put the burden on vehicles to stop and yield if a pedestrian is located anywhere in the roadway.

Other states, like Louisiana, require a vehicle to yield only if the pedestrian is on their half of the road, but not if they are on the other half; requiring the pedestrian to stop and wait as traffic passes. Nebraska requires yielding if the pedestrian is on the same half of the roadway or within one lane of the vehicle. Massachusetts is an example of a state that requires the vehicle to stop and yield if the pedestrian is on the same half of the roadway or within 10 feet of the motorist. Despite this, some statesincluding Hawaii, Georgia, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, and Washington treat controlled and uncontrolled crosswalks the same.

In general, drivers of motor vehicles must exercise reasonable care to avoid striking a pedestrian. The laws of many states impose a higher duty of care when it comes to pedestrians who are children. At the same time, a pedestrian cannot blindly walk into the roadway without exercising reasonable care and keeping a proper lookout. A pedestrian who fails to do this is guilty of contributory negligence.

A legal culture sea transformation is underway and claims and subrogation professionals must be aware of this change. The University of Minnesota recently conducted research at high-risk intersections in St. Paul as part of a study to track pedestrian and driver behavior. Only 31% of drivers yielded to the pedestrians as required by Minnesota law.

Minnesota refers to it as the Stop for Me campaigna public campaign to protect pedestrians and educate drivers that they must stop and let pedestrians cross, even when there isnt a red light.

From 2013 to 2017, 835 pedestrians in St. Paul were struck by vehicles. Of those, 17 died and 747 were injured. Of those hurt, 87 were children 10 years of age and under, and 100 were ages 11 to 17. In Minnesota, pedestrians are allowed to cross the street wherever they choose, so long as they (1) act reasonably to ensure their own safety, (2) follow traffic laws and rules, and (3) are not otherwise prohibited from crossing in a specific location. Minn. Stat.  169 (Minnesota Statutes Traffic Regulations chapter).

When crossing at a marked crosswalk where traffic control signals are present, pedestrians must obey the signals and may only cross the road within the marked crosswalk. Minn. Stat.  169.21, subd. 1, 3(c). If crossing at a marked crosswalk or at an intersection without a marked crosswalk where no traffic control signals are present, both motor vehicle drivers and bicyclists must allow pedestrians already crossing the road to cross the entire road first before driving further through the intersection. Minn. Stat.  169.21, subd. 2(a). Similarly, pedestrians must allow traffic in the roadway to pass before attempting to cross at locations without traffic signals, such as at crosswalks, intersections, and undesignated locations like the middle of the street where there is no crosswalk. Minn. Stat.  169.21, subd. 2(a), 3(a).

Complicating matters even more are some of the more complex traffic control signs and devices which assist pedestrians in crossing the street. Pedestrians in many states are considered to be lawfully crossing the road within an intersection or crosswalk with traffic control signals when doing so according to a defined set of rules. In Minnesota, these rules are as follows according to the Public Health Law Center:

Where there is only one set of lights applicable to all traffic, the following rules apply: Green Signal: Pedestrians facing any green signal (except when the only green signal is a turn arrow) may proceed across the road within any marked or unmarked crosswalk. Every driver of a vehicle must allow pedestrians to cross the road first  except, pedestrians must allow vehicles lawfully within the intersection at the time that the green signal indication is first shown to proceed before crossing. Steady Yellow Signal: Pedestrians facing a circular yellow signal are notified that there is not enough time to cross the road before a red signal is shown and are prohibited from starting to cross the road. Steady Red Signal: Pedestrians facing a steady red signal alone must not enter the road.

Whenever special pedestrian control signals with the words Walk or Dont Walk or symbols of a walking person or upraised hand are in place, the signals or symbols indicate as follows: Steady Walk signal or the symbol of a walking person: A pedestrian facing either of these signals may proceed across the road in the direction of the signal, possibly in conflict with turning vehicles. Every driver of a vehicle must allow pedestrians to cross before driving further  except that the pedestrian must let vehicles that are lawfully within the intersection at the time that the signal indication is first shown to pass first. Dont Walk signal or the symbol of an upraised hand (flashing or steady): A pedestrian is prohibited from starting to cross the road in the direction of either signal. BUT  Any pedestrian who has partially crossed on the Walk or walking person signal must proceed to a sidewalk or safety island while the signal is showing.



Distracted Walking Laws

Closely related to the laws regarding pedestrians and street crossing is the growing body of laws which regulate what a pedestrian can and cant do while crossing a street. These laws are referred to as Distracted Walking Laws, but more creative names such as Phones Down, Heads Up Act have been used.

The use of headphones, smartphones, or other electronic devices while crossing the road has contributed to pedestrian/vehicle accidents, injuries, and deaths. A growing number of municipalities across the country have criminalized the ordinary act of walking by making it illegal to walk across the street while using smartphones or wearing earphones.

This movement is sweeping the nation the same way the campaign against drunk and distracted driving proliferated. Cities, towns, and villages across America are passing ordinances making it illegal to cross the street while involved in a phone call, viewing a mobile electronic device, or with both ears obstructed by personal audio equipment. While public safety is certainly a concern across the country, some of these laws border on the absurdboth in terms of enforceability and failure to reflect the realities of everyday life. A 2017 Honolulu ordinance makes it illegal to cross the street and even look at a cellphone, an innocent act no more distracting than looking at ones watch and quite normal for those who rely on smartphones in place of a wristwatch.

Some people have suggested legislation making use of a device called a textalyzer, under development by a firm in Israel, that can scan a drivers phone for activity like texting, Facebooking, and Snapchatting in the moments leading up to a collision. One such bill in New York proposed that anyone who refused to hand over their phone would surrender their license, much like refusal to submit to a breath test is grounds for a license suspension.

Critics of the growing number of distracted walking laws claim that these laws do not target the real public safety threat. They argue that people slow down their walking when theyre looking at electronic devices, enabling them to avoid obstacles and not walk into trouble inadvertently. They claim that you cant legislate common sense.

A report from the Office of Ontarios Chief Coroner revealed that a mere seven out of 95 pedestrians killed in 2010 were distracted by a cell phone or handheld deviceroughly 7%. They argue that jaywalking is already against the law, so if someone crosses an active roadway illegally, notwithstanding the use of a handheld device, theres already a law for that.

Besides, they say, many pedestrian laws allow the pedestrian to rely on the fact that a vehicle will not violate the law and strike them when they have the right-of-way. Whats more, in only 23% of collisions with pedestrians was the driver found to be driving properly. They argue that the most serious cause of pedestrian accidents is driver inattention or reckless driving.

White Cane Laws

Complicating the pedestrian mosaic further is the fact many states and municipalities have enacted laws and ordinances with the objective of protecting pedestrians who are blind or visually impaired. When a pedestrian is yielding a white cane, an entire new body of laws and duties enter the picture.

Each state handles the situation differently, with some states requiring that the driver yield to a white cane, some requiring that the driver come to a complete stop, some requiring only caution be used by the driver, and still others providing for no extra rights and protections to the visually impaired. Obviously, as with distracted walking laws and ordinances, white cane laws are also part of the legal mosaic which is created when there is a pedestrian injury. A chart detailing the white cane laws for each state can be found here.

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. 42 U.S.C.A.  12101 to 12213; P.L. 101-336, Table 2, Statutes at Large, U.S.C.A., P.L. 101-336. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.

One might wonder what this massive federal law has to do with crosswalks, but it has begun to play a role because todays crosswalks are often constructed by municipalities with ramps and other features accommodating to Americans with disabilities. Under Project Civic Access (PCA), the U.S. Civil Rights Division works with local governments nationwide to help them achieve compliance with Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The ADA has many requirements for curb ramps at pedestrian crossings that are currently enforced by the Division under PCA. The guidelines promulgated cover pedestrian access to sidewalks and streets, including crosswalks, curb ramps, street furnishings, pedestrian signals, parking, and other parts of the public right-of-way. Another source of information about the federal accessibility requirements for public rights-of-way is the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Following ADA, the U.S. Access Board has developed specific accessibility guidelines, known as the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), for the design of certain pedestrian facilities.

The Ohio State University study referenced at the beginning of this article published recently in the Journal of Transport and Land Use also portends new and innovative subrogation possibilities where the design of roadways and the placement of crosswalks contributes to a catastrophic pedestrian accident. It reveals the importance of a Safe System Approach to designing roads and crosswalks to minimize the effects of human errors and allow pedestrians, as well as cars, to move safely through the city. A Safe System Approach prioritizes the elimination of crashes that result in death and serious injuries.

Municipalities are charged with the responsibility of ensuring street and road planning and traffic control measures are such that protect pedestrians and provide for their safety when engaging in spaces occupied by vehicles.

An aggressive subrogation program should look beyond the vehicle and the pedestrian for possible avenues of recovery. State and local government enjoy immunity from most lawsuits. Yet, poorly-designed and poorly-planned roads and crosswalks contribute heavily to a large number of vehicle/pedestrian accidents which occur. Municipalities may indeed be found negligent in a vehicle/pedestrian accident claim when traffic control devices fail to properly regulate traffic flow.

For instance, if traffic control lights in both directions of an intersection are green at the same time and a pedestrian enters the intersection not really understanding that the traffic light for oncoming traffic is also green, the municipality may be held liable for any resulting accident. If, however, the pedestrian has noticed that both lights in the intersection were green at the same time and still crossed the street, they may be on the hook for their own injuries. Likewise, if a traffic officer gives confusing signals waving through oncoming traffic while not stopping pedestrian traffic, the municipality may be found liable for any resulting injuries. There could be lapses in municipal planning which make certain areas more dangerous than they need to be.

To help recognize true subrogation potential when a pedestrian injury or death is involved, MWL has created a chart representing an amalgamation of laws from all 50 states addressing the relationship between and the duties of motor vehicles and pedestrians crossing the street. That chart may be viewed here.

It should be remembered that individual cities and villages may also have ordinances which affect the duties and liabilities of drivers and pedestrians. Claims adjusters and subrogation professionals should not automatically assume that a pedestrian is at fault merely because he or she was struck while crossing the road. Society is changing and the burden and duty to avoid a collision is rapidly shifting to the driver of the motor vehicle.

Wickert is a shareholder with Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. With nearly four decades of litigation experience, he is the author of several subrogation books and legal treatises. He is licensed in both Texas and Wisconsin, and is double board-certified in both personal injury law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also dual board-certified as a Civil Trial Advocate and Civil Pretrial Practice Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Those with questions may contact Wickert at gwickert@mwl-law.com.
A sting operation in Manatee County, Florida, has led to the arrest of 16 men who were working without a contractors license and without securing workers compensation insurance on their employees.

The sting was led by the Manatee Sheriffs office in cooperation with the Florida Department of Financial Services and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, authorities said.

Details about the operation were not released, but a spokesman for DFS said it was probably similar to a number of other stings in recent years: Authorities advertise for bids on home renovation work; when the contractors show up to take a look, investigators check for a contractors license and for workers comp coverage.

At least 16 people who looked at the dummy house property failed the test and were charged last week, the sheriffs office said.

Florida law requires that all businesses with four or more employees secure comp insurance. All construction companies with one or more employees must carry coverage for all workers, although company officers can apply for exemptions, according to DFS.
Dozens of Google workers who were fired after internal protests surrounding a lucrative contract that the technology company has with the Israeli government have filed a complaint with labor regulators in an attempt to get their jobs back.

The complaint filed late Monday with the National Labor Relations Board alleges about 50 workers were unfairly fired or placed on administrative leave earlier this month in the aftermath of employee sit-ins that occurred at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The protests targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus that provides artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli government. The fired works contend the system is being lethally deployed in the Gaza war  an allegation Google refutes.

Google jettisoned the workers participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work.

The National Labor Relations Board didnt immediately set a timetable for reviewing the case.

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Drugmakers GSK Plc and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH prioritized profits over consumer safety by hiding the cancer risks of their once-blockbuster heartburn drug Zantac, according to lawyers representing a Chicago woman in the first of thousands of such claims to go before a US jury.

Angela Valadez, 89, used over-the-counter Zantac religiously for 18 years before being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, she said in her lawsuit. Shes now seeking at least $640 million in compensatory damages. Both GSK and Boehringer sold Zantac at different times during 30 years that the drug was one of the top-selling antacids in the US.

London-based GSK, which developed Zantac in 1983, knew early on the drug could cause cancer and sold it anyway without warnings, Mikal Watts, Valadezs lawyer, told an Illinois state court jury Thursday in Chicago. In his opening statement, Watts said internal files show a study laying out the drugs risks were withheld from US regulators by GSK executives for 37 years.

A whole lot of Zantac got sold over that period, Watts told the nine-woman, three-man panel in a tiny Cook County Circuit Court room. Internal documents also show Zantac generated more revenue in 1983 than all of GSKs other drugs combined, he said. Zantac was bigger than the whole company.

Valadezs suit is one of tens of thousands pending against GSK, Boehringer, Pfizer Inc. and Sanofi, which all sold Zantac at different times. The potential of costly legal risks has been a concern for investors in the companies.

GSK and Boehringer are the only defendants in the Valadez case, after Pfizer agreed earlier to a settlement. Sanofi wasnt named in her suit.

Blockbuster Drug

Zantac hit the US market as a prescription drug in 1983 before becoming an over-the-counter product in 1996. It was the worlds top-selling medicine five years later and recognized as one of the first blockbuster drugs to rack up more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Paris-based Sanofi agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle about 4,000 lawsuits claiming it failed to warn users that Zantac could cause cancer, Bloomberg News reported last month. The French drugmaker still faces claims in other state courts.

GSK has settled some cases before they went to trial, but it opted to let jurors hear the claim by Valadez. She argues Zantacs former active ingredient, ranitidine, formed the likely carcinogen NDMA over time or when stored in elevated temperatures. The US Food and Drug Administration recalled Zantac in 2019 over the NDMA discovery.

Tarek Ismail, one of GSKs lawyers, told jurors in his opening statement that no scientific studies have linked Zantac or NDMA to colorectal cancer. He said Valadez likely developed the illness  which affects millions of Americans every year  because of other risk factors. He said Valadez didnt get a colonoscopy until she was 80.

GSK said it decided to take the case to trial to defend itself against unfair and unwarranted allegations that Valadez developed the potentially fatal disease from the heartburn medication.

No Liability

Andy Bayman, one of Boehringers lawyers, told jurors that the German drugmaker had no liability. Valadez had been taking Zantac for two decades before the company acquired the rights to the drug in 2006, Bayman said. Boehringer never picked up any signs Zantac was tainted with NDMA while it owned the drug, he said. Boehringer sold the Zantac rights to Sanofi in 2017.

After the FDA recall, Sanofi won approval to return Zantac to US store shelves, but without ranitidine. Its now made with famotidine, the active ingredient in competitor Pepcid, which is marketed jointly by Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co.

All the Zantac makers got a boost in 2022 when a federal judge threw out more than 5,000 suits filed in federal court in Florida, saying the science behind the cancer claims was flawed. Many of those cases later were refiled in state court in Delaware.

Judge Vivian Medinilla in Wilmington is weighing the validity of the scientific evidence underlying the more than 70,000 Zantac cases filed in her court and is expected to rule soon on whether juries can hear those suits.

Top photo: Zantac Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.
The death toll from flood-related incidents in Kenya has crossed 200 since March, the interior ministry said Friday, as a cyclone barrelled towards the Tanzanian coast.

Torrential rains have lashed East Africa, triggering flooding and landslides that has destroyed crops, swallowed homes, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Some 210 people have died in Kenya "due to severe weather conditions," the interior ministry said in a statement, with 22 killed in the past 24 hours.

More than 165,000 people had been uprooted from their home, it added, with 90 others missing, raising fears that the toll could rise further.

Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding, are bracing for cyclone Hidaya, bringing heavy rain, wind and waves to their coasts.

Tanzanian authorities warned Friday that Hidaya had "strengthened to reach the status of a full-fledged cyclone," at 3:00 am local time (0000GMT) when it was some 400 kilometres (248 miles) from the southeastern city of Mtwara.

"Cyclone Hidaya has continued to strengthen further, with wind speeds increasing to about 130 kilometres per hour," they said in a weather bulletin.

Kenya's interior ministry forecast that the cyclone was likely to "bring strong winds and large ocean waves, with heavy rainfall" expected to hit the coast starting Sunday.

Rescuers in boats and aircrafts have raced against the clock in pouring rain to help people marooned by the floods in Kenya.

In dramatic footage shared on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross rescued a man who said he was stranded by floodwaters and forced to shelter in a tree for five days in Garissa in the country's east.

The country's military also joined search and rescue efforts after President William Ruto deployed them to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas.

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto's government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings.

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, dozens of villagers were killed when a makeshift dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Nairobi.

The interior ministry said 52 bodies had been recovered and 49 people were still missing after that disaster.

The ministry ordered that anyone living close to major rivers or near 178 "filled up or near filled up dams or water reservoirs" must vacate the area within 24 hours.

The heavier than usual rains have also claimed at least 29 lives in Burundi, with 175 people injured, and tens of thousands displaced since September last year, the United Nations said.

The rains have been amplified by the El Nino weather pattern  a naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.

Cyclone season in the southwest of the Indian Ocean normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year. (AFP)
The Russia-Ukraine war reached day 800 on Friday, crossing another milestone in the ongoing conflict as the battle continues with no immient signs of resolution.

A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry late on Thursday reiterated that Russia would not take part in the peace summit that is set to be held in June in Switzerland. The Swiss government said Thursday that Russia has not been invited.

"We once again confirm and emphasize that Russia will not participate in the Swiss 'summits' either at the first or at subsequent stages, regardless of whether it receives an invitation or not," Maria Zakharova said, according to a Google-translated statement posted on the Russian foreign ministry's website.

Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry on Friday said it had thwarted attacks from Ukraine overnight, with its air defence systems destroying six drones, according to a post by the ministry on Telegram.

Five drones were intercepted over the Belgorod region at the border of Russia and Ukraine, while one was destroyed over Russian-occupied Crimea on the Black Sea, according to a Google-translation of the post.

CNBC could not independently verify the information.
A picture shows logos of the Big Tech companies named GAFAM, for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, on June 2, 2023. Sebastien Bozon | AFP | Getty Images

Late last year, an artificial intelligence engineer at Amazon was wrapping up the work week and getting ready to spend time with some friends visiting from out of town. Then, a Slack message popped up. He suddenly had a deadline to deliver a project by 6 a.m. on Monday. There went the weekend. The AI engineer bailed on his friends, who had traveled from the East Coast to the Seattle area. Instead, he worked day and night to finish the job.



But it was all for nothing. The project was ultimately "deprioritized," the engineer told CNBC. He said it was a familiar result. AI specialists, he said, commonly sprint to build new features that are often suddenly shelved in favor of a hectic pivot to another AI project. The engineer, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said he had to write thousands of lines of code for new AI features in an environment with zero testing for mistakes. Since code can break if the required tests are postponed, the Amazon engineer recalled periods when team members would have to call one another in the middle of the night to fix aspects of the AI feature's software. AI workers at other Big Tech companies, including Google and Microsoft , told CNBC about the pressure they are similarly under to roll out tools at breakneck speeds due to the internal fear of falling behind the competition in a technology that, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, is having its "iPhone moment." The tech workers spoke to CNBC mostly on the condition that they remain unnamed because they weren't authorized to speak to the media. The experiences they shared illustrate a broader trend across the industry, rather than a single company's approach to AI. They spoke of accelerated timelines, chasing rivals' AI announcements and an overall lack of concern from their superiors about real-world effects, themes that appear common across a broad spectrum of the biggest tech companies  from Apple to Amazon to Google. Engineers and those with other roles in the field said an increasingly large part of their job was focused on satisfying investors and not falling behind the competition rather than solving actual problems for users. Some said they were switched over to AI teams to help support fast-paced rollouts without having adequate time to train or learn about AI, even if they are new to the technology. A common feeling they described is burnout from immense pressure, long hours and mandates that are constantly changing. Many said their employers are looking past surveillance concerns, AI's effect on the climate and other potential harms, all in the name of speed. Some said they or their colleagues were looking for other jobs or switching out of AI departments, due to an untenable pace.

watch now

This is the dark underbelly of the generative AI gold rush. Tech companies are racing to build chatbots, agents and image generators, and they're spending billions of dollars training their own large language models to ensure their relevance in a market that's predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade. Tech's megacap companies aren't being shy about acknowledging to investors and employees how much AI is shaping their decision-making. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood, on an earnings call earlier this year, said the software company is "repivoting our workforce toward the AI-first work were doing without adding material number of people to the workforce," and said Microsoft will continue to prioritize investing in AI as "the thing thats going to shape the next decade." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent much of his opening remarks on his company's earnings call last week focused on AI products and services and the advancements in its large language model called Llama 3. "This leads me to believe that we should invest significantly more over the coming years to build even more advanced models and the largest scale AI services in the world," Zuckerberg said. At Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy told investors last week that the "generative AI opportunity" is almost unprecedented, and that increased capital spending is necessary to take advantage of it. "I don't know if any of us has seen a possibility like this in technology in a really long time, for sure since the cloud, perhaps since the Internet," Jassy said.

Speed above everything

On the ground floor, where those investments are taking place, things can get messy. The Amazon engineer, who lost his weekend to a project that was ultimately scuttled, said higher-ups seemed to be doing things just to "tick a checkbox," and that speed, rather than quality, was the priority while trying to recreate products coming out of Microsoft or OpenAI. In an emailed statement to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said, the company is "focused on building and deploying useful, reliable, and secure generative AI innovations that reinvent and enhance customers' experiences," and that Amazon is supporting its employees to "deliver those innovations." "It's inaccurate and misleading to use a single employee's anecdote to characterize the experience of all Amazon employees working in AI," the spokesperson said. Last year marked the beginning of the generative AI boom, following the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT near the end of 2022. Since then, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and others have been snapping up Nvidia's processors, which are at the core of most big AI models. While companies such as Alphabet and Amazon continue to downsize their total headcount, they're aggressively hiring AI experts and pouring resources into building their models and developing features for consumers and businesses. Eric Gu, a former Apple employee who spent about four years working on AI initiatives, including for the Vision Pro headset, said that toward the end of his time at the company, he felt boxed in. "Apple is a very product-focused company, so there's this intense pressure to immediately be productive, start shipping and contributing features," Gu said. He said that even though he was surrounded by "these brilliant people," there was no time to really learn from them. "It boils down to the pace at which it felt like you had to ship and perform," said Gu, who left Apple a year ago to join AI startup Imbue, where he said he can work on equally ambitious projects but at a more measured pace. Apple declined to comment.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (R) speaks as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) looks on during the OpenAI DevDay event in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2023. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

An AI engineer at Microsoft said the company is engaged in an "AI rat race." When it comes to ethics and safeguards, he said, Microsoft has cut corners in favor of speed, leading to rushed rollouts without sufficient concerns about what could follow. The engineer said there's a recognition that because all of the large tech companies have access to most of the same data, there's no real moat in AI. Microsoft didn't provide a comment. Morry Kolman, an independent software engineer and digital artist who has worked on viral projects that have garnered more than 200,000 users, said that in the age of rapid advancement in AI, "its hard to figure out where is worth investing your time." "And that is very conducive to burnout just in the sense that it makes it hard to believe in something," Kolman said, adding, I think that the biggest thing for me is that it's not cool or fun anymore." At Google, an AI team member said the burnout is the result of competitive pressure, shorter timelines and a lack of resources, particularly budget and headcount. Although many top tech companies have said they are redirecting resources to AI, the required headcount, especially on a rushed timeline, doesn't always materialize. That is certainly the case at Google, the AI staffer said. The company's hurried output has led to some public embarrassment. Google Geminis image-generation tool was released and promptly taken offline in February after users discovered historical inaccuracies and questionable responses. In early 2023, Google employees criticized leadership, most notably CEO Sundar Pichai, for what they called a "rushed" and "botched" announcement of its initial ChatGPT competitor called Bard. The Google AI engineer, who has over a decade of experience in tech, said she understands the pressure to move fast, given the intense competition in generative AI, but it's all happening as the industry is in cost-cutting mode, with companies slashing their workforce to meet investor demands and "increase their bottom line," she said. There's also the conference schedule. AI teams had to prepare for the Google I/O developer event in May 2023, followed by Cloud Next in August and then another Cloud Next conference in April 2024. That's a significantly shorter gap between events than normal, and created a crunch for a team that was "beholden to conference timelines" for shipping features, the Google engineer said. Google didn't provide a comment for this story. The sentiment in AI is not limited to the biggest companies. An AI researcher at a government agency reported feeling rushed to keep up. Even though the government is notorious for moving slower than companies, the pressure "trickles down everywhere," since everyone wants to get in on generative AI, the person said. And it's happening at startups. There are companies getting funded by "really big VC firms who are expecting this 10X-like return," said Ayodele Odubela, a data scientist and AI policy advisor. "Theyre trying to strike while the iron is hot," she said.

'A big pile of nonsense'

Regardless of the employer, AI workers said much of their jobs involve working on AI for the sake of AI, rather than to solve a business problem or to serve customers directly. "A lot of times, its being asked to provide a solution to a problem that doesnt exist with a tool that you don't want to use," independent software engineer Kolman told CNBC. The Microsoft AI engineer said a lot of tasks are about "trying to create AI hype" with no practical use. He recalled instances when a software engineer on his team would come up with an algorithm to solve a particular problem that didn't involve generative AI. That solution would be pushed aside in favor of one that used a large language model, even if it were less efficient, more expensive and slower, the person said. He described the irony of using an "inferior solution" just because it involved an AI model. A software engineer at a major internet company, which the person asked to keep unnamed due to his group's small size, said the new team he works on dedicated to AI advancement is doing large language model research "because that's what's hot right now." The engineer has worked in machine learning for years, and described much of the work in generative AI today as an extreme amount of vaporware and hype. Every two weeks, the engineer said, there's some sort of big pivot, but ultimately there's the sense that everyone is building the same thing.

watch now

He said he often has to put together demos of AI products for the company's board of directors on three-week timelines, even though the products are "a big pile of nonsense." There's a constant effort to appease investors and fight for money, he said. He gave one example of building a web app to show investors even though it wasn't related to the team's actual work. After the presentation, "We never touched it again," he said. A product manager at a fintech startup said one of his projects involved a rebranding of the company's algorithms to AI. He also worked on a ChatGPT plug-in for customers. Executives at the company never told the team why it was needed. The employee said it felt "out of order." The company was starting with a solution involving AI without ever defining the problem. An AI engineer who works at a retail surveillance startup told CNBC that he's the only AI engineer at a company of 40 people and that he handles any responsibility related to AI, which is an overwhelming task. He said the companys investors have inaccurate views on the capabilities of AI, often asking him to build certain things that are "impossible for me to deliver." He said he hopes to leave for graduate school and to publish research independently.

Risky business

The Google staffer said that about six months into her role, she felt she could finally keep her head above water. Even then, she said, the pressure continued to mount, as the demands on the team were "not sustainable." She used the analogy of "building the plane while flying it" to describe the company's approach to product development.

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky speaks with Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei during AWS re:Invent 2023, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas on Nov. 28, 2023. Noah Berger | Getty Images

The Amazon AI engineer expressed a similar sentiment, saying everyone on his current team was pulled into working on a product that was running behind schedule, and that many were "thrown into it" without relevant experience and onboarding. He also said AI accuracy, and testing in general, has taken a backseat to prioritize speed of product rollouts despite "motivational speeches" from managers about how their work will "revolutionize the industry." Odubela underscored the ethical risks of inadequate training for AI workers and with rushing AI projects to keep up with competition. She pointed to the problems with Google Geminis image creator when the product hit the market in February. In one instance, a user asked Gemini to show a German soldier in 1943, and the tool depicted a racially diverse set of soldiers wearing German military uniforms of the era, according to screenshots viewed by CNBC. "The biggest piece thats missing is lacking the ability to work with domain experts on projects, and the ability to even evaluate them as stringently as they should be evaluated before release," Odubela said, regarding the current ethos in AI. At a moment in technology when thoughtfulness is more important than ever, some of the leading companies appear to be doing the opposite. "I think the major harm that comes is there's no time to think critically," Odubela said.
Albemarle 's plans to reopen a resource-rich lithium mine in North Carolina will take longer than originally expected as a collapse in lithium prices weighs on the company.

Albemarle, a top lithium producer, had originally planned to reopen the Kings Mountain mine as early as late 2026 to increase domestic lithium production and support a U.S. electric-vehicle battery supply chain.

"It's going to be a later date," Eric Norris, president of energy storage at Albemarle, told CNBC. "It slowed down a bit given the concerns we have, but we are still progressing it forward. It's not that we've stopped it."

Kings Mountain could produce enough material to manufacture 1.2 million electric vehicles annually. The mine sits on one of the world's richest deposits of spodumene ore, a source of lithium. There is currently only one operational lithium mine in the U.S. in Silver Peak, Nevada, which is owned by Albemarle.

Albemarle does not have a precise date for when Kings Mountain will become operational, Norris said. The company is preparing to start the permitting process, which will take two years to complete. Construction will be a multiyear undertaking before the mine is operational, according to the company.
Amgen 's stock rose more than 12% on Friday after the drugmaker teased positive initial data on its experimental weight loss injection.

That fueled investor concerns about new competition in the rapidly growing weight loss drug industry, sending shares of the current obesity players, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly , lower on Friday. Eli Lilly shares dropped nearly 3%, while Novo Nordisk's U.S.-traded shares fell more than 1%.

Novo Nordisk's stock was already under pressure on Thursday after sales of its blockbuster weight loss injection Wegovy missed analysts' estimates for the first quarter due to lower pricing.

During a first-quarter earnings call Thursday, Amgen's CEO Bob Bradway said he was "very encouraged" by early results from a mid-stage study on the company's obesity injection, MariTide. Investors have been laser-focused on that drug and the rest of Amgen's weight loss drug pipeline as it races several other drugmakers to join the booming market.

"We are confident in MariTide's differentiated profile and believe it will address important unmet medical needs," Bradway said during the call.

Amgen did not provide specific data, but its Chief Scientific Officer Jay Bradner said that patient dropout has not been an issue. He said Amgen is on track to release initial data from the study in late 2024 and is also planning late-stage studies in patients with obesity, obesity-related conditions and diabetes.

Bradway also highlighted the potential competitive advantages of the injection, which patients will take using a hand-held autoinjector once a month or even less frequently. That could offer far more convenience than the weekly injections on the market, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.

"While there has been significant debate on the potential efficacy and safety of MariTide since the initial disclosures of the Phase I data in 2022, we have grown more confident in the potential for the therapy to meaningfully differentiate from other therapies in development, particularly in regard to treatment intervals," William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said in a research note on Friday, adding that the firm is upgrading its rating on Amgen shares to "outperform."

Notably, Amgen said it was scrapping its experimental oral obesity drug. But that development was not as important as the MariTide update, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note Thursday.

Amgen's Bradway said the company has started expanding manufacturing for MariTide. That's a signal that the company is preparing to produce enough supply of the drug  a major issue that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have grappled with over the past year and a half.

Still, investors were pleased with Eli Lilly on Tuesday after the company assured them that it could overcome ongoing supply constraints for its popular drugs. Eli Lilly hiked its full-year guidance in part due to optimism around increased production of Zepbound, its diabetes injection Mounjaro and similar drugs for the rest of the year.

Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites either "ramping up or under construction," including two locations in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Ireland, and one in Germany, along with a seventh recently acquired site, executives said during an earnings call.

Meanwhile, investors were less impressed with Novo Nordisk on Thursday.

Sales of Wegovy during the first quarter nearly doubled but came in under analysts' expectations. That signals that Novo Nordisk is struggling to meet demand for the treatment.

But Novo Nordisk also pointed to fierce competition from Eli Lilly's Zepbound, which has shaken up pricing dynamics for Wegovy in the U.S.

"Net pricing" for both Wegovy and Ozempic will be lower in the U.S. throughout the year due to the "increasing volume and competition," Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen said on a first-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
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Tim Cook and Warren Buffett Getty Images (L) | CNBC (R)

Berkshire Hathaway 's Warren Buffett was still using a flip phone as late as 2020, four years after his investment behemoth started amassing a huge stake in the company that makes iPhones. "I don't understand the phone at all, but I do understand consumer behavior," Buffett said last year at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. He's emerged in recent years as one of Apple's top evangelists. At the end of 2023, Berkshire owned about 6% of Apple, a stake worth $174 billion at the time, or about 40% of the conglomerate's total value. That's about four times bigger than Berkshire's second-biggest public stock holding, Bank of America , and makes the company the No. 2 Apple shareholder, behind only Vanguard. As Berkshire investors and fanboys of the 93-year-old Buffett flood Omaha this weekend for the 2024 annual meeting, Apple is likely to be a hot topic of discussion. The tech giant on Thursday reported a 10% year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, leading to a 4% drop in total revenue. But the stock had its best day since late 2022 on Friday due largely to a $110 billion stock buyback plan and increased margins that result from a growing services business. The bet on Apple and CEO Tim Cook has paid off handsomely for Buffett, who said in 2022 that the cost of Berkshire's Apple stake was only $31 billion. His firm is up almost 620% on its investment since the start of 2016. Despite being a self-described Luddite, Buffett has long had a coherent non-techie thesis for loving Apple. He's seen how devoted Apple users are to their devices, and has viewed the iPhone as an extraordinary product that could keep its customers spending inside the Apple ecosystem. He calls it a moat, one of his favorite words for describing his preferred businesses. "Apple has a position with consumers that they're paying $1,500 or whatever it may be for a phone, and these same people pay $35,000 for a second car," Buffett said at last year's meeting. "And if they had to give up their second car or give up their iPhone, they'd give up their second car!"

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Data is in his favor. According to a study from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple benefits from 94% customer loyalty, meaning that nine out of 10 current U.S. iPhone owners choose another iPhone when buying a new device. Buffett also has hailed Apple's ability to return billions of dollars to shareholders annually through share buybacks and dividends, a capital allocation strategy for which the billionaire investor may have himself to thank. When the Apple CEO was asked in a 2016 interview with The Washington Post who he turns to for advice at pivotal moments, Cook offered up a story about his relationship with Buffett. "When I was going through [the question of] what should we do on returning cash to shareholders, I thought who could really give us great advice here? Who wouldn't have a bias?" Cook said. "So I called up Warren Buffett. I thought he's the natural person."

Apple has shown its appreciation for the Oracle of Omaha in other ways. In 2019, the company published an original iPhone game called "Warren Buffett's Paper Wizard" in which a paperboy bikes from Omaha to Apple's hometown of Cupertino, California. But with Apple's business having declined in size in five of the past six quarters and with the company expecting just low single-digit growth in the current quarter, Buffett may face questions this weekend at the shareholder meeting about whether he still sees the same power in the moat, particularly with regulatory pressures building around tech's mega-cap companies. Buffett trimmed his stake in Apple late last year, though only by about 1%. Even after Friday's rally, the stock is down 3.8% in 2024, while the S&P 500 is up 7.5%.

'Very, very, very locked in'

Berkshire's initial foray into Apple in 2016 was not Buffett's idea. Rather, the investment was led by Ted Weschler, one of his top deputies, and was seen as a passing of the torch to the next generation of Berkshire investment managers. But the following year, Berkshire started purchasing even more Apple shares, and Buffett began talking it up. He said he liked the stock and the company's "sticky" product, although he didn't use it. In 2018, he said Apple users are "very, very, very locked in, at least psychologically and mentally" to the product and the ecosystem. "Apple has an extraordinary consumer franchise," he said. At last year's annual meeting, when asked how Berkshire can defend having Apple make up so much of its public portfolio, Buffett said, "It just happens to be a better business than any we own." He also hailed Cook, calling him one of the "best managers in the world." A number Apple likes to use to tout the health of its business, despite the declining revenue, is "2.2 billion." That's how many devices the company says are currently in use and points to the massive customer base available as Apple rolls out new subscription services. "Once customers get into the ecosystem, they don't leave. So it's not a speculative tech play," said Dan Eye, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group, which owns Apple shares. "It's kind of more like an annuity and I think that's what Warren Buffett really sees as well." In addition to the drop in revenue, Apple faces new challenges from regulations and weak overseas markets, as well as from Microsoft and Google's advancements in artificial intelligence. For regulators, the concern surrounds the very moat that Buffett finds so attractive, and whether it gives the company monopolistic control in the smartphone market. The U.S. government in March alleged that Apple designs its business to keep customers locked in. The Department of Justice's lawsuit claimed that products like Apple Card, the Apple Arcade game subscription, iMessage and Apple Watch work best or only with an iPhone, creating illegal barriers to competition and making it harder for consumers to switch when it's time for an upgrade. However, the litigation is expected to take years, pushing any potential penalties to Apple and its products well into the future. In the meantime, there's no sign that the iPhone is becoming less important as new devices like virtual reality goggles have found only niche audiences, while consumer AI products have failed to take off.

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Buffett hasn't voiced his view publicly on Apple's regulatory hurdles, and this will be the first opportunity for investors to ask him about the issue since the DOJ's lawsuit. But Buffett knows a little something about regulation  two markets where he's most active are railroads and insurance. In a note to clients earlier this month, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi didn't go deep on regulatory concerns, but mentioned that he doesn't believe the DOJ suit will "seriously threaten" the strength of Apple's ecosystem. He also said that following Buffett's lead on getting in and out of Apple is a solid strategy for making money. "Despite his reputation as a long term buy and hold investor, Warren Buffett has been remarkably disciplined at adding to his Apple position when it is relatively cheap and trimming when it is relatively expensive," Sacconaghi wrote. He encouraged investors to "be like Buffett."

More money back

Odds are that Buffett was thrilled with Apple's announcement this week regarding its expanded repurchase program. It's a practice he's long adored. "When I buy Apple, I know that Apple is going to repurchase a lot of shares," he said in 2018. And he likes to note how buybacks result in getting a bigger stake in the company without buying more shares. "The math of repurchases grinds away slowly, but can be powerful over time," Buffett said in 2021. Apple also increased its dividend by 4%, and signaled that it would continue to lift it annually. Buffett was effusive about the tech giant's capital-return strategy at the conglomerate's annual meeting last year, pointing out that it helped Berkshire own a bigger piece of the pie. Unlike insurance company Geico and homebuilder Clayton Homes, which his firm owns in their entirety, Berkshire can continue to increase its stake in Apple, a fact he reminded investors of at the meeting. "The good thing about Apple is that we can go up," Buffett said.
New Labour Party MP for Blackpool South, Chris Webb (C) reacts as his win is announced at the count centre in Blackpool, north-west England on May 3, 2024, during the Blackpool South by-election.

LONDON  U.K. leader Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party suffered significant losses at a flurry of local elections overnight, in a closely-watched indicator of sentiment ahead of the nationwide vote expected later this year.

The opposition Labour Party won a Blackpool South by-election, taking the seat from the Conservatives. New Labour MP Chris Webb beat his Conservative rival David Jones with a significant swing of 26%. The Reform UK party, founded by Brexit proponent Nigel Farage, came in third.

The northern town's by-election was called in the wake of former Conservative MP Scott Benton's suspension from the party after he was caught offering to lobby on behalf of gambling investors for money.

Labour leader Keir Starmer posted on the social media platform X that the "swing towards Labour in Blackpool South is historic."

"Britain is demanding change. It's time for a general election," he added.

Angela Richardson, deputy chair of the Conservative Party, told the BBC the result "was not unexpected," especially given the circumstances that sparked the by-election.
Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust, has attended 20 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meetings in Omaha, Nebraska. A longtime Warren Buffett disciple and a Berkshire shareholder since 1999, Stone's investing style has been inspired by the "Oracle of Omaha"  a value-oriented approach with an emphasis on the so-called margin of safety. "You look at stocks, not as pieces of paper, but as businesses," he said in CNBC's latest Pro Talks . "Can they withstand competition? Can they continue to earn these profits? Can I possibly forecast that they'll continue to earn these profits?" Ahead of this year's "Woodstock for Capitalists" Saturday, Stone shared what he's learned from Buffett's investing philosophy and what he expects from the annual meeting without the late Charlie Munger. Stone joined CNBC's Senior Markets Correspondent Dominic Chu and CNBC's Markets Reporter Yun Li in a special Pro Talks conversation to discuss: How Stone's start on Wall Street coincided with Buffett's time at Salomon Brothers Buffett and Munger's life lessons on Stone's professional and personal life How Stone became a Berkshire shareholder and his experience in Omaha over the years How Munger's passing put the spotlight on Berkshire's succession plan For more of Stone's insight into Buffett's latest picks and investing strategies, PRO subscribers can check out the rest of the chat here .

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Before billionaire investor Warren Buffett takes the stage at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on Saturday, investors may want to scoop up some of his stock, according to CFRA. In addition to a Q-and-A session with the 93-year-old Oracle of Omaha, the company will release its first-quarter financial results Saturday morning. "CFRA believes Berkshire Class B shares are undervalued versus historical averages, and we expect improved claim trends at GEICO and strong reinsurance results will provide the shares with a catalyst for continued outperformance," analyst Catherine Seifert wrote in a note Thursday. BRK.B 1Y mountain Berkshire Hathaway year to date Her $472 price target on class B shares suggests nearly 18% upside from Thursday's close. The meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, has been dubbed "Woodstock for Capitalists" thanks to the tens of thousands of investors who flock to hear Buffett speak. Seifert expects the Q-and-A session to include topics such as succession planning, given Charlie Munger's recent passing and Buffett's age, and its strategies on Geico, energy and acquisition. There will also be several shareholder proposals set forth, most centered around climate change and diversity and unlikely to pass, she said.
 This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on April 25, 2024.

Usually, March, April, and May are the hotter months in some areas of Southeast Asia throughout the year, but the El Nino has exacerbated the high temperatures this year. on April 24th, extreme heat swept through Southeast Asia and South Asia.

This week, temperatures in certain areas of Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Indonesia have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. It's also noteworthy that the Southeast Asian region generally has high humidity, making the air full of water vapor. This kind of environment will limit the evaporation of sweat from the human body, the primary way humans cool down. Therefore, high humidity exacerbates the perception of high temperatures in the Southeast Asian region.

For example, in the Philippines, the national weather forecast predicts that the heat index in at least 30 cities will reach dangerous levels of 42 degrees Celsius or even higher on Wednesday. The heat index, also known as the "feels-like" temperature, combines both humidity and temperature to assess the perceived temperature for humans.

The Department of Education in the Philippines stated that nearly 6,700 schools would suspend classes on Wednesday, while the chief meteorologist at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) also said that there is a 50% chance of temperatures worsening in the coming days. She reminded people to avoid outdoor activities, drink plenty of water, and carry umbrellas or hats when going out.

In Bangkok, Thailand, authorities issued an extreme heat warning on the same day, urging people to stay indoors for their safety. According to local weather forecasts, the temperature in Bangkok reached 39 degrees Celsius, with a heat index exceeding 52 degrees Celsius.

In Bangladesh, the local meteorological bureau stated that over the past week, the average maximum temperature in the capital, Dhaka, was 4 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature for the same period over the past 30 years. The local government also ordered the closure of some schools. Additionally, due to water shortages, thousands of Muslims in Bangladesh held rain prayer ceremonies.

As the heatwave sweeps through Southeast Asia, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently released a new report, stating that Asia was the region most affected by climate-related disasters last year.

The report indicates that last year, Asia experienced 79 disasters linked to hydro-meteorological events, with over 80% of these being related to floods and storms, resulting in over 2,000 deaths and affecting 9 million people directly.

The WMO report also indicates that last year, the average surface temperature in Asia reached the second highest on record, and the pace of getting warmer in Asia exceeded the global average. Compared to the average temperature from 1961 to 1990, last year's temperature was 1.87 degrees Celsius higher.

Now, Southeast Asian countries are also realizing the severity of climate issues. A recent study by the National University of Singapore shows that by 2035, high temperatures could lead to economic losses in Singapore reaching 2.22 billion Singapore dollars, equivalent to approximately 11.594 billion yuan.

Furthermore, the secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the Philippines told CNBC that the Philippines is a climate-vulnerable country and has already experienced various losses caused by climate change. They are also considering solutions such as transitioning to green energy.

Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga

The secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the Philippines

"We have the experience as far as our vulnerability, and therefore the realization of what values can be lost in terms of loss and damage for not just the Philippines, but many developing countries, especially the small island states."
Gold bracelets at a gold jewelry store in the Zhejiang Province of China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Gold's recent rally has sparked a bullion rush, but along with it came a surge in gold scams in China. Thousands of people in China have been duped into forking out money on "fake gold"  inferior or artificial gold  after trying to purchase so-called "999 gold" online, according to the government. The purest form of gold is commonly referred to as 999 gold, because it has gold content of 99.9%. It is also sometimes referred to as 24-carat gold. "Fake gold is becoming a major problem in China as more Chinese are looking to put their savings into gold," said China Market Research Group's Managing Director Shaun Rein. China is the leading consumer demand for bullion, after the country overtook India in 2023 to become the world's largest buyer of gold jewelry. Chinese consumers bought 603 tons of gold jewelry last year, a 10% jump from 2022, data from the World Gold Council showed.

The main thing a consumer can do to protect themselves is to buy from reputable sources, whether this is online or in-store. Nikos Kavalis founding partner of Metals Focus

"The demand for gold combined with unsophisticated Chinese consumers and investors unable to differentiate between 24-carat and lower quality gold has given rise to scammers," Rein added. Reports about the rise in gold scams have been on local media and consumer protection sites such as Heimao Tousu, a third-party consumer service platform under tech giant Sina. One user who reportedly bought five gold pendants for 1,985 Chinese yuan (about $280) on online e-commerce platform Taobao said he found out the gold was fake after conducting a flame test. Fake gold gets darker or reveals a greenish color when placed under flame, while pure gold turns brighter on exposure to heat. Another user complained about buying a gold product from online retailer Pinduoduo, only for it to arrive with rust on it. The user claimed to have brought it to a jeweler for appraisal, and was told it was fake. Taobao and Pinduoduo did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

Real vs. fake gold

In a bid to protect consumers from scammers, China's government recently released guidelines on how to identify the authenticity of gold jewelry. Tips included listening to the sound when it is thrown on the floor, or dropping nitric acid on the goldware. If the acid drop reveals a green color, the gold object is either made of other ordinary metal or gold plated. If nothing happens to the gold, then it is likely the gold is genuine, the guideline noted. Additionally, a consumer who is familiar with gold could spot a fake from its weight vis a vis its size and volume, said Nikos Kavalis, founding partner of precious metals research consultancy, Metals Focus. "Depending on the design, it may also be possible to spot fake jewelry from its hardness  999 gold is very soft," he added. That said, aside from tell-tale signs and tests, it could still be difficult to tell for sure whether one has been sold a fake. "The main thing a consumer can do to protect themselves is to buy from reputable sources, whether this is online or in-store," said Kavalis.

Customers purchasing gold products at a gold shop in Nantong, China. ChinaFotoPress | Getty Images
A Long March 5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 mission lunar probe, lifts off as it rains at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province on May 3, 2024.

China on Friday launched a space probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon in a mission that has been billed as "unprecedented" as the global space race heats up.

An unmanned rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe took off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province just before 5:30 p.m. local time, kick-starting the 53-day planned mission.

The expedition aims to return around 5 pounds of lunar samples to Earth for analysis. If successful, scientists hope the findings could unlock fresh information about the moon's origins.

"Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the moon is an unprecedented feat," Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, said, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

"Scientists currently know very little about the moon's far side. If the Chang'e-6 mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the moon, which is of great significance," he added.

The launch marks a significant step forward in China's space exploration ambitions as it seeks to compete with other global powers including the U.S.

Beijing has also stated that it wants to land Chinese astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as sending probes to Mars and Jupiter.

Space is becoming a new geopolitical frontier as rival nations seek to expand their influence and access highly sought-after supplies of metals and critical minerals.

The head of the U.S. Space Command, Gen. Stephen Whiting, said last week that Beijing's space development was moving at "breathtaking speed" and that the country was showing "clear intent" to project its power in orbit.
One big question has hung over the Vision Pro since Apple launched the powerful mixed-reality headset in February: Who can afford the $3,499 price tag? The tech giant on Thursday made its answer clear: businesses. More than half of the companies in the Fortune 100 have bought Vision Pros and "are exploring innovative ways to use it do things that weren't possible before," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the post-earnings call with investors. "I see enormous opportunity in the enterprise," Cook said Thursday  echoing a view we laid out earlier this year after fellow Club holding Nvidia made its 3D graphics platform used by companies to do industrial simulations, known as Omniverse, compatible with the Vision Pro. Apple did not disclose revenue for the Vision Pro, the company's first new major device since the Apple Watch debuted in 2015. Wall Street analysts agree that the Vision Pro will not be a financial needle mover right away for Apple, which generated more than $380 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. The muted outlook stems partly from a lack of consumer adoption for mixed-reality headsets, including Club holding Meta Platform's much cheaper Quest devices. Business use could change all that. "The Vision Pro .... is something that's going to be very big business to business," Jim Cramer said Friday on CNBC, referencing his conversation with Cook on Thursday night. Jim said Cook was "very clear" that orders for the Vision Pro from businesses will continue to grow. The Vision Pro is generally considered a higher-quality product than rival devices, with its sharper resolution as one key advantage. Even so, the number of people willing to pay thousands of dollars for a first-generation product with a limited app ecosystem is unlikely to be large. Consumer buyers may grow as more affordable iterations are developed. Until then, the Vision Pro was mostly viewed as a curious sideshow to investors, who are more concerned about the rocky trajectory of iPhone sales and Apple's strategy around generative artificial intelligence. Jim, however, said the Vision Pro could be a positive contributor to Apple's earnings much sooner than others expect, as enterprise adoption drives more sales. Not only can businesses better afford the headsets, but the technological capabilities of the immersive device can save time and money, particularly when paired with Nvidia's Omniverse software to enable collaboration and design. Early corporate customers using the Vision Pro include the Dutch airline KLM, which is conducting aircraft engine maintenance training for employees with the headset, Cook said. Lowe's is using Vision Pro for immersive kitchen design, while Porsche is using it for "real-time team collaboration for racing," Cook said. On the Club's Morning Meeting on Friday, Jim said Cook also told him about multiple healthcare uses for the Vision Pro. For its part, Nvidia has long touted the benefits that its Omniverse platform can bring to businesses, arguing that creating realistic digital versions of the physical world and running simulations there can cut down on waste and deliver efficiencies. In an interview with Jim in 2021 , Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pointed to use cases such as generating digital factories and logistics networks. Nvidia likes to call such creations "digital twins," and has continued to make them a point of discussion in the years since that interview. That included Huang's keynote in March at Nvidia's much-hyped GTC conference when the Omniverse-Vision Pro tie-up was disclosed. Jim has since grown more excited about Vision Pro finding a home in the corporate world. He said Friday that Apple's developer conference in June  where more details on its AI strategy are widely expected  will also highlight new software programs written for the Vision Pro. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long AAPL, NVDA and META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

A person wears Vision Pro headset the product release at the Apple Store in New York City on February 2, 2024. Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
The Stoxx 600 index was up 0.44% by the close, holding gains following a weaker rise in U.S. payrolls than markets were expecting.

"While today's miss will be good for markets given their hope for swifter interest rate cuts, it is very unlikely to move the needle at this stage when it comes to the Fed's thinking about its first interest rate cut in this cycle," Richard Carter, head of fixed interest research at Quilter Cheviot, said in a note.

"It ultimately appears as if the market got ahead of itself earlier this year in thinking the pace of interest rate cuts would be fairly swift initially."
European companies are more cash-rich than they've been in recent history. Companies in the Stoxx 600 index have nearly 1.5 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion) in cash on their balance sheets  that's 25% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to Goldman Sachs. The free cash flow yield in Europe is around 6%  more than one percentage point above that of the United States, the bank said. According to Goldman, sectors with the highest yield include autos, commodity producers and financials. The bank favors the latter two, given their clearly stated focus on shareholder returns. Overall, the company balance sheets in the region are particularly strong, with the level of net debt to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) close to an all-time low, the bank said in an April 23 note. The dividend yield differential between Europe and the U.S. is the narrowest it's ever been, making Europe more appealing, according to Goldman Sachs. "In other words, Europe has rarely looked cheaper on an absolute and relative basis," it said. "We think dividends can continue to grow in Europe given that payout ratios are below the historical average  and investment opportunities remain scarce," the bank said, adding that it expects European dividends to grow around 3% in 2024 and 4% in 2025. Goldman said there are also good opportunities in value stocks right now, particularly in banks and energy. The MSCI Europe Value index offers a dividend yield of 4.8%  2.8 times that of the MSCI Europe Growth. Goldman added that the volatility surrounding rates now suggests that value stocks should continue to outperform growth equities. "In this environment, we think investors should also focus on stable income strategies as income is likely to become an important driver of returns," it said. Here are some stocks in Goldman's screen of high dividend yield names. They are companies in the Stoxx Europe 600 with the highest 12-month forward dividend yields in each sector. The bank stressed that this screen identifies companies with the highest sustainable dividend yields.  CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
Fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui hold a news conference on November 20, 2018 in New York, on the death of of tycoon Wang Jian in France on July 3, 2018.

The chief of staff to controversial exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui pleaded guilty in New York on Friday to a fraud conspiracy that swindled more than $1 billion from hundreds of thousands of victims around the world, prosecutors said.

Yvette Wang's plea came weeks before the 53-year-old Guo is set to stand trial in Manhattan federal court for related charges. Wang was scheduled to stand trial with Guo in that case before her plea.

Prosecutors accuse Guo, an associate of former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon, of duping his online followers with promises of outsized investment returns. Guo has pleaded not guilty.

Wang, 45, agreed to pay $1.4 billion in restitution to the United States and to forfeit the same amount of money, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

She faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison for the charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A Peloton Bike inside a showroom in New York, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. Peloton Interactive Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on November 2.

From a CEO change to announcing staff layoffs, it's been a bumpy couple of days for Peloton. On Thursday, Peloton announced it is laying off 15% of its global staff, which will affect around 400 employees. The company also plans to continue to close retail showrooms in an effort to "align the company's cost structure with the current size of its business," according to the May 2 announcement. That same day, the fitness company announced that Barry McCarthy would step down as CEO, president and board director just two years after taking on the position from founder John Foley. He'll become a strategic advisor through the end of the year, according to the May 2 statement. As the company searches for a new CEO, Peloton Chairperson Karen Boone and Peloton Director Chris Bruzzo will serve as interim co-CEOs.

How much you'd have if you invested $1,000 in Peloton

Peloton has come a long way from when the company was founded in 2012. The buzzy startup quickly gained a cult-like following by delivering stationary exercise bikes that came with built-in virtual classes. It made its market debut on Sept. 26, 2019, with an opening trade price of $27 per share. In the midst of the Covid-fueled shutdowns of gyms and fitness centers, the share price surged to an all-time intraday high of $171.09 per share on Jan. 14, 2021. However, a little over three years later, the decline has been steep. As of market close on May 2, Peloton stocks were trading at a price of $3.13 per share. If you had invested $1,000 in Peloton in 2019, 2021 or 2023, here's how much it would be worth now. CNBC's calculations are based on the company's May 2 closing share price of $3.13. If you had invested $1,000 in Peloton one year ago in 2023, your investment would have declined by nearly 64% and be worth around $364 as of May 2.

If you had invested $1,000 in Peloton in 2021, your investment would have sunk by about 98% and be worth a little over $18 as of May 2.

And if you had invested $1,000 in Peloton in 2019 when it first went public, your investment would have decreased by about 89% and be worth about $108 as of May 2.

Investors should be wary of putting all their eggs in one basket
The strong jobs market has been bolstered post-pandemic by strength in the immigrant workforce in America. And as Americans age out of the labor force and birth rates remain low, economists and the Federal Reserve are touting the importance of immigrant workers for overall future economic growth.

Immigrant workers made up 18.6% of the workforce last year, a new record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Workers are taking open positions in agriculture, technology and health care, fields where labor supply has been a challenge for those looking to hire.

Despite the U.S. adding fewer-than-expected jobs in April, the labor force participation rate for foreign-born workers ticked up slightly, to 66%.

"We don't have enough workers participating in the labor force and our birth rate has dropped down 2% last year from 2022 to 2023. ... These folks are not taking jobs. They are helping to bolster and helping us build back  they're adding needed workers to the labor force," said Jennie Murray, CEO of the National Immigration Forum, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization.

The influx of immigrant workers is also a projected boost to U.S. output, and is expected to grow gross domestic product over the next decade by $7 trillion, Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel noted in a February statement accompanying the 2024-2034 CBO outlook.

"The labor force in 2033 is larger by 5.2 million people, mostly because of higher net immigration. As a result of those changes in the labor force, we estimate that, from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenues will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise. We are continuing to assess the implications of immigration for revenues and spending," Swagel wrote.
Shari Redstone, chair of Paramount Global, attends the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

Skydance Media is prepared to walk away from its offer for Paramount Global unless it receives a firm commitment from controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, following the latest offer from Apollo Global Management and Sony Pictures, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The exclusivity window for discussions between David Ellison's Skydance, backed by private equity firms RedBird Capital and KKR, and Paramount ends Friday and won't be extended, people familiar with the matter told CNBC's David Faber. Paramount shares rose following the report.

The consortium has been waiting for word from Paramount's special committee on whether the panel will recommend its bid to acquire the company to Redstone. Now, with Apollo and Sony formally expressing interest in acquiring the company for about $26 billion, the Skydance group is looking for Redstone to reaffirm her commitment to the deal.

The Skydance consortium is not keen to hang around to be a stalking horse offer for Apollo and Sony, one of the people said. Still, depending on what Redstone says, Ellison may be willing to work with her, a second person said.

Spokespeople for Skydance, Redstone's National Amusements and Paramount's special committee declined to comment on Friday.

Apollo and Sony made their latest offer Thursday, CNBC previously reported. The special committee is currently considering the bid, the people said.

As part of Skydance's latest deal on the table, Redstone may take less than $2 billion for her controlling stake in Paramount, which is lower than Skydance's initial offer. The consortium is contributing additional capital to pay common, Class B shareholders at a nearly 30% premium to the undisturbed trading price of about $11 per share, CNBC has reported. In total, Redstone and Skydance would contribute $3 billion, with the vast majority going to Class B shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter.

Skydance's valuation as part of the deal remains around $5 billion, the people said. Like Skydance's bid, the Apollo-Sony offer includes a control premium for Redstone, according to people familiar with the matter.

Previously, Redstone rejected an offer by Apollo in favor of exclusive talks with Skydance. Redstone has preferred a deal that would keep Paramount together, as Skydance's offer would, CNBC previously reported. A private equity firm is likely to break up the company.
There's at least one apartment in New York City that won't break your budget.

Skittles has launched a contest with the grand prize of a rent-free yearlong stay in a Manhattan micro-apartment.

The 353-square-foot apartment has been given a candy-coated facelift by Dani Klaric, an interior designer with more than 2 million followers on TikTok and nearly 850,000 on Instagram. It features bright, colorful furniture, rainbow-colored cabinets and wall art made using real Skittles lentils.

The unit is located at 335 East 27th Street in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood. Rental units in the building typically go for more than $3,000 per month. In fact, an identical apartment directly below the colorful space rented for just over $3,500 in January 2024 according to StreetEasy data.

The marketing stunt is a promotion for Skittles Littles, a new, smaller form factor for the candy similar to that of M&M's Minis. Like the Littles, most everything about the micro-apartment is small. The stove has just two burners, the fridge is the size of a hotel's mini fridge, and the full-size bed flips up into the wall when not in use.

The prize-winning tenant will have access to all of the building's amenities, including the fitness center, roof deck, laundry room and bicycle storage. They will also have the option to pay additional fees for housekeeping and to have their bathroom stocked with products from Malin+Goetz.

Skittles lists the approximate retail value of the prize at $85,000, with the winner also receiving a $20,000 check to offset their tax liability.

Though the apartment is free, the tenant will still be responsible for paying for utilities, obligatory renter's insurance as well as any repairs resulting from damage they may cause to the apartment.

The sweepstakes is open to contestants ages 18 or older. To enter the sweepstakes, participants must give their full name, date of birth, email and phone number. The winner will be selected via random drawing on May 22. You can enter the contest here.
A former Societe Generale trader who was fired for unauthorized risky bets has lambasted the French bank for making him a "scapegoat" and failing to take its share of responsibility for missing the trades.

Kavish Kataria, who was dismissed from the bank's Delta One desk last year, said the profits and losses on his trades were reported on a daily basis to superiors on his Hong Kong team as well as those in the Paris head office, while a daily email about the transactions was also sent out.

"Instead of taking the responsibility of the lapse in their risk system and not identifying the trades at the right time they fired me and terminated my contract," Kataria said in a LinkedIn post Thursday.

The comments come after SocGen confirmed earlier this week that Kataria and team head Kevin Ng were dismissed last year after an internal review of their transactions. A SocGen spokesperson declined to comment on the post, but provided a statement on the pair's dismissal.

"Our strict control framework has allowed us to identify a one-off trading incident in 2023, which didn't generate any impact and led to appropriate mending measures," the statement said.

Although SocGen did not lose any money from the trades, losses could have spiraled into the hundreds of millions of dollars had there been a market downturn, a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

Kataria had been dealing in options on Indian indexes, which he was not permitted to do, the person said. However, because most were intraday trades, they were not immediately detected, the FT reported.

Kataria said the trades were auto-booked and a "daily email was sent to the entire group mentioning the trades have been reconciled."

"It's very easy for other people to say that we were not aware of the trades done by me," he wrote. "This means either you were not doing your job properly or either you were unfit for the same."

Kataria joined the bank in Hong Kong in 2021 and claimed he made $50 million for the desk in the last eight months alone.

In his LinkedIn post, he called for better regulation after he was dismissed with seven days' salary and his bonus for the previous year was withheld.

"Trading Industry is so big but there are no rules or regulations which fight for trader justice," he said.

Risk management is a critical area of focus for banks, and SocGen remains scarred by the 4.9 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in losses accrued in 2008 by "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel, who worked on the same derivatives desk as Kataria.

The French bank on Friday reported a lower-than-expected 22% slide in first-quarter net income, as profits on equity derivative sales offset weakness at its retail bank and fixed income trading.
Taiwan's defense ministry said on Friday it had detected a renewed incursion by Chinese military aircraft across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China reported its navy had carried out combat drills with landing craft.

Taiwan's defense ministry said on Friday it had detected a renewed incursion by Chinese military aircraft across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China reported its navy had carried out combat drills with landing craft.

Over the past four years, China's military has significantly ramped up its activities around democratically-governed Taiwan. Beijing views the island as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

The defense ministry, in its daily morning update on Chinese activities in the previous 24 hours, said 14 Chinese military aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line, getting as close as 41 nautical miles (76 km) to the northern Taiwanese port city of Keelung, home to a major navy base.

The median line is used to serve as an unofficial border between the two sides, but Chinese military aircraft now regularly cross it. China says it does not recognize the line's existence.

Taiwan said on Thursday that China had carried out a "joint combat readiness patrol" near the island for the second time in a week.

China's defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment on Friday, the country being in the middle of its Labor Day holiday.

On Thursday, the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army, which is responsible for the area around Taiwan, showed pictures on its WeChat social media account of ships carrying out what it called live combat landing drills.

It did not say when or where exactly the exercises took place, but showed images of ship-mounted guns opening fire and operating in formation.
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Nicolette Nelson was running late for her return flight to Fairbanks as she sprinted towards her gate at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Overcome by a medical issue, she didn't make it to her gate and wound up spending the night in a Cincinnati hospital. By the next day, she had recovered and awaited her flight home, but it was repeatedly delayed. So Nelson spent hours of her delay in a quiet cubicle in an unlikely place  a bank  waiting for her flight and wiling away the time on electronic devices. "It's been really, it's quiet and that is what I need," Nelson said. Fifth Third Bank was trying to appeal to this type of traveler when it rechristened its 40-year-old CVG branch last month as a combination lounge and lending center. Weary travelers and constantly working entrepreneurs stake out prime spots in the bank away from the airport hubbub, while corporate travelers use the center to squeeze out more business. "One woman wanted to rent my office to work," remembers Lisa Slocum, the airport Fifth Third Bank branch manager. Slocum directed the woman to other options in the branch. Other customers use the bank on a purely transactional basis. On a recent day, Hannah Thelen and her mother, Ashley Thelen, were passing through on their way to Spain and stopped in to convert currency. "I love the central location," Ashley Thelen said as she converted dollars to euros. It's a central location for a flyer, but a maze of trams, moving sidewalks, and concourses need to be navigated to get to it in Terminal B, and it is past the TSA checkpoint, so the branch doesn't get customers off the street. Fifth-Third Bank isn't the first financial institution to create an airport lounge vibe. Capital One closed its branch at Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport in 2020, instead creating "airport lounges" for cardholders in Dulles, along with similar spots at airports in Denver and Dallas. The lounges offer amenities on par with an airline rewards club but are only for Capital One card holders, and banking services are not a part of the experience like they are at Fifth-Third's CVG branch.

Capital One Lounge inside Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. Capital One

If CVG were a city, it'd be the fourth or fifth largest in Kentucky on most days, with 16,000 workers employed on the airport campus daily, according to Mindy Kershner, CVG's senior manager of communications, plus the nine million passengers going through the gates yearly. That's a lot of potential banking customers. Yet full-service airport bank branches are a relative rarity, surprising in a retail landscape that often resembles an upscale mall more than a terminal. Wings Credit Union has a small full-service branch at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and Wings Vice President of Marketing Brent Andersen said the branch is also more about serving the large number of airport employees who are members than the traveling public. He adds, however, that in terms of visibility and advertising, even with the higher airport rent, the branch is a no-brainer. "We'd have to spend a lot more in other advertising to get that kind of visibility," Andersen said, crediting the branch with also landing new members. For Fifth Third Bank, and a handful of other retail banking players, the airport branches are more than just expensive advertising for the brand (though that's certainly part of the appeal). They are also functional financial centers, and in a digital era when bank branches are under existential scrutiny, some financial companies are betting on airports as a viable and visible place to keep their shingle hung. Big banks are adding hundreds of branches The banks and credit unions adding airport branches are just another indicator that the long-predicted demise of in-person banking at the hands of digital isn't happening exactly as expected. The long-term trend is still less retail footprint, but branches have been staging a bit of a comeback. In fact, FDIC data shows that 2023 saw the first annual gain in branch count nationwide, to nearly 70,000, in a decade. This rebound comes as banking giants JPMorgan Chase and PNC have announced plans to open more branches  Chase up to 500, plus 1,700 renovations, while PNC is adding 100 new branches and renovating another 1,000 at a cost of $1 billion over the next three to five years.

When Fifth Third Bank, the nation's tenth-largest bank by deposits, rechristened its 40-year-old CVG location last month, it did so with plenty of local media coverage, cementing its commitment to airport banking. "There are very few full-service branches in airports, and this is one of a kind," said John Sieg, regional retail executive for Fifth Third Bank. The bank is trying to create something like Delta's Sky Club, except with on-site banking  cashing checks, checking balances, and converting currency  and open to all. And you won't get dinged with an overdraft fee for lounging on their sofas. "Our objective is for travelers to have a place to do their full-service banking and hang out with us. They could hang out with us all day if they have a delayed flight. We have had customers that have done it," Sieg said.

Fifth Third Bank

Wells Fargo operates a full-service branch in Las Vegas's Harry Reid International Airport, and according to a bank spokeswomen, has a multi-year relationship with the airport that involves both the branch and multiple ATMs throughout terminals. Although Wells Fargo had little to say about the branch, it's not difficult to imagine why it might be popular in Vegas, where slots are as much a part of the landscape as espresso machines. Truist Bank, formerly SunTrust, operates a full-service bank branch at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where serving customers remains a top priority, but Brian Davis, director of consumer and small business banking communications, also noted that being at the airport provides the bank with "a high level of brand visibility for the millions of passengers who pass through." Still, not everyone in the industry is sold on mixing anxiety about getting through security and to the gate on time with personal finance. "I think it's a bad idea," says Paul McAdam, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at analytics firm J.D. Power. McAdam says ATMs and advanced-function kiosks are one thing, but a full-service branch, except maybe in the largest markets, is overkill. JFK Airport in New York City has three credit unions in its terminals. "I sense that bank branches in airports would handle a lot of transaction volume but very little value-added volume of customers looking to open accounts or receive advice. Who wants to open a new account in an airport?" McAdam said. Financial giants are testing the concept of bank-branded destinations more widely. Capital One has opened some cafes in New York that cater to the remote worker, offering a financial vibe without vaults of money and tellers watching your every move. With most travelers focused on traveling, Fifth Third conceded that banking isn't top of mind for many airport customers. Sieg says the CVG branch does about 1,700 transactions a month. "That is probably on the smaller side of what a transaction count would be at a traditional bank mart or office," he said, but the visibility of the branch makes up for lower volume. The branch offers an array of spaces, including a service bar where travelers can tap away at their tablets while watching coffee-clutching, harried travelers racing for their gates. The bank also includes a fully private office with phones, a hydration station, sofas, and overstuffed chairs, an enticement for remote workers. "Regardless of whether you are a customer or a non-customer, we wanted to put out the best welcome sign we could have. Everybody is invited and can use this space," Sieg said. However, if someone feels a need to apply for a mortgage during their layover or open a savings account, the branch has that functionality.
Companies around the world are eager to hire U.S. tech talent, and Americans are making moves.

Of all the countries in the world, the U.S. has the second-highest number of tech workers working abroad in foreign countries, according to a new tech migration report from Deel, a global HR and payroll company.

It falls between No. 1 India, which has the highest number of expat tech workers, and No. 3 Britain.

As far as where Americans are going, the top countries hiring and relocating U.S. tech workers are:

Great Britain Germany Canada Netherlands Spain

By job, U.S. tech workers moving abroad are most likely to work in software development, product and operations.

International bosses are eager to hire U.S. tech talent from acclaimed universities, startups, venture capital firms and those who've built industry-shaping companies like Google and others, says Masha Sutherlin, head of immigration at Deel. There's a "spirit of innovation" among American tech workers that global leaders want to bring to their businesses, she adds.

Many U.S. tech workers take up operations roles abroad, meaning they're likely being hired as specialists to help with international expansion efforts, or as a way to import best practices from U.S.-based companies.
The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor's owner were charged Friday with "massive fraud" by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced.

The auditor, BF Borgers CPA, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said.

The agency, calling BF Borgers a "sham audit mill," said the company and its owner "deliberately systematically failed to conduct" audits and quarterly reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023 in accordance with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards.

The SEC said the Lakewood, Colorado-based auditor lied to clients by saying its work complied with PCAOB standards, fabricated audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and falsely claims in audit reports included in more than 500 public company SEC filings that the firm's audits complied with such standards.

BF Borgers during the period covered by the SEC complaint acted as the auditor for Trump Media, which was then privately held and moving toward a planned merger with the publicly traded shell company Digital World Acquisition Corp.

Trump Media and DWAC finalized that merger in late March 2024, leading to Trump Media becoming publicly traded under the DJT ticker.

Three days after the company went public, Trump Media's board approved keeping BF Borgers on as the company's auditors for 2024.
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he stands next to former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks outside of the Oval Office as he departs the White House for a trip to Cleveland, Ohio, in Washington D.C., U.S., March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018.

Former top White House communications aide Hope Hicks started crying on the witness stand Friday as an attorney for Donald Trump began cross-examining her testimony in the ex-president's criminal hush money trial.

Hicks and the jury briefly left the courtroom while she composed herself.

The emotional outburst came at the start of the defense attorneys' time to question Hicks, who spoke just feet away from her former boss in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Prosecutors had asked Hicks about the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that threatened Trump's 2016 presidential campaign just weeks before Election Day.

"Everyone was just absorbing the shock of it," Hicks testified.

Hicks, a top press aide for the campaign at the time, said she was "very concerned" when she received an email from The Washington Post on Oct. 7, 2016, seeking comment on the tape in which Trump is heard bragging about sexual misconduct.

Hicks was concerned "about the contents of the email" and about "the lack of time to respond," she testified.

She said she notified other campaign leaders, including Jason Miller, David Bosse, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. She wrote that the initial strategy should be that they "need to hear the tape to be sure" and to "deny, deny, deny."

When Trump read the transcript of the tape, he said, "That doesn't sound like something I would say," Hicks testified.

In a brief cross-examination, Hicks told Trump's lawyer that she was not involved with the Trump Organization's record-keeping practices while she was at the White House.

The tape is a significant piece of the case against Trump, who is charged with falsifying records as part of a scheme to silence damaging information about him ahead of the 2016 election.

Attorney Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that the tape spurred a swell of media interest in porn star Stormy Daniels' claim that she had sex with Trump while he was married years earlier.

"I think before, before [the] 'Access Hollywood' tape, there was very little interest from what I understand," said Davidson, who represented Daniels and helped broker a $130,000 hush money payment to her.

Hicks, 35, has deep roots in Trump's business and political lives, and she was present for many of the scandals that defined Trump's campaign and his term in office. She worked for the Trump Organization before being tapped in early 2015 as Trump's campaign press secretary. Hicks worked for Trump over his four years in the White House.

Hicks, appearing in Manhattan Supreme Court under subpoena, testified that she has not spoken to Trump since the summer or fall of 2022.

Her testimony follows that of eight other witnesses including Davidson, who negotiated six-figure hush money deals for Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payment to Daniels. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of unlawfully trying to influence the election by buying and suppressing damaging information about him.

On Thursday, Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing on whether Trump violated the gag order again, barring him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and others involved in the trial.

Merchan had already held Trump in criminal contempt for violating his speech restrictions nine times. The judge fined Trump $9,000, the maximum, and warned him that future violations could land him in jail. Prosecutors in Thursday's hearing flagged four more alleged gag order violations by Trump, though they said they were not seeking to put him in jail.

Merchan has yet to rule on the additional alleged violations.
Shares of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk slid 2.5% on Friday, extending a 2.7% loss on Thursday as analysts pored over the details of the firm's first-quarter results and monitored a potential rival weight loss treatment.

The company reported that sales for its blockbuster injectable weight loss treatment Wegovy, more than doubled to 9.38 billion Danish kroner ($1.4 billion). Novo Nordisk, which also makes diabetes treatment Ozempic, said the rise in sales had offset a slight reduction in prices.

Novo Nordisk expects prices to drop further as new entrants enter the market, CFO Karsten Knudsen said on a media call, adding that the company was not seeing much evidence of Wegovy users moving to other rival treatments.

Analysts expected even higher weight loss drug sales in the quarter, and some noted that Novo Nordisk's 2024 outlook raise for both sales growth and operating profit was due to one-off accounting adjustments.

"While we continue to see Novo as a wide-moat firm, with strong intangible assets surrounding its cardiometabolic business, we think high obesity drug demand and a scarcity of supply have driven share prices above their intrinsic value," Karen Andersen, strategist at Morningstar, said in a Thursday note.

The boom in demand for weight loss treatments saw Novo Nordisk overtake French luxury group LVMH to become Europe's most valuable company last year. Shares gained 49% in 2023 and are up 25% year to date.
(Image: Reuters)



Hay una mayoria social de espanoles cada vez mas concienciada con el bienestar animal.

Con la supresion del Premio Nacional de Tauromaquia damos un paso importante para adaptar nuestras instituciones a la Espana de 2024. pic.twitter.com/BZJAw3PUPP



 Ernest Urtasun (@ernesturtasun) May 3, 2024

In a cultural pivot reflecting shifting societal values, Spain on Friday, May 3, announced a landmark decision to abolish its annual national bullfighting award, igniting a fierce debate between traditionalists and advocates for animal welfare.The decision, announced by Spain's Culture Ministry, comes amidst mounting concerns for animal welfare and a declining interest in traditional bullfighting spectacles.Spanish style bullfighting, a spectacle where the animal typically meets its demise at the hands of a matador wielding a sword, is viewed by its proponents as a cherished cultural heritage in need of conservation. However, detractors vehemently denounce it as a barbaric ritual that has long overstayed its welcome in contemporary society.Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun defended the move, citing a "new social and cultural reality in Spain" where sentiments regarding animal welfare have gained prominence and attendance at bullrings has dwindled."I think that's the feeling of a majority of Spaniards who can understand less and less why animal torture is practiced in our country... and much less why that torture gets awarded with public money," Urtasun remarked.The national award, which came with a prize of 30,000 euros ($32,217) funded by the government, has been a honour bestowed upon renowned bullfighters like Julian Lopez, known as 'El Juli,' as well as cultural associations linked to the bullfighting tradition.However, its abolition marks a significant shift in Spain's cultural landscape and has become a focal point in the country's ongoing culture wars.The move has drawn swift criticism from conservatives, who view bullfighting as an integral part of Spain's cultural heritage. Borja Semper, spokesperson for the Opposition conservative People's Party, condemned the decision, accusing the government of disregarding cultural diversity and liberty. He pledged that his party would reinstate the award if it regained power.Jorge Azcon, leader of the People's Party in the Aragon region, expressed similar sentiments, emphasising the importance of tradition in uniting rather than dividing society. Despite opposition, the abolition of the award signals a broader trend towards reevaluating traditional practices in light of evolving societal values.In Latin America, where bullfighting was introduced during the colonial era, and in southern France, where it gained prominence in the 19th century, resistance to the tradition has surged in recent years.In Spain specifically, the average bullfighting enthusiast has grown older, and the number of bullfighting festivals has decreased significantly over the past decade.
Don't look now, but Colorado's Republican members of Congress could again help decide the fate of a troubled House speaker, just seven months after the last one lost his gavel.

After presiding over a series of votes that relied on Democrats to pass legislation out of the closely divided, GOP-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson faces threats from within his own party to remove him from the position the Louisiana Republican has held since late October, weeks after a handful of Republicans ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

The two House Republicans from Colorado, Doug Lamborn and Lauren Boebert, have both said they don't favor replacing the speaker, though Lamborn calls his support of Johnson "unwavering," while Boebert said this week with frustration that it makes "no difference" to her whether Johnson or House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is in charge.

Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene on May 1 repeated a demand she's been making for nearly a month that she'll force a vote to depose Johnson if the speaker doesn't resign within a week  an unlikely scenario, given Johnson's recent dismissal of Greene as not "a serious lawmaker."

"Bless her heart," Johnson said in a recent interview. "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about her. I've got to do my job. We do the right thing, and we let the chips fall where they may."

But while Johnson assumed the role last fall with the unanimous support of Republicans and nary a Democrat in his corner, his situation is very different than the one that confronted McCarthy when another disgruntled Republican  Florida's Matt Gaetz  moved to bring his speakership to an end.

In a historic move, eight Republicans  including Colorado's Ken Buck, who has since left Congress  joined with every Democrat present on Oct. 3 to fire McCarthy midsession amid a barrage of complaints that members on both sides had lost trust in the California lawmaker.

Lamborn and Boebert voted to keep McCarthy as speaker, though when she cast her vote, Boebert added a portentous "for now."

The turmoil that followed, as Republicans struggled to settle on a successor who could satisfy the party's combative factions, mirrored the House's delayed start at the beginning of last year, when it took four days and 15 ballots for McCarthy to win election to the post as a small group of lawmakers Boebert among them  withheld their support until they secured a series of concessions.

House Democrats, as the party in the minority has nearly always done, voted for their party's leader, Jeffries, of New York, in ballot after ballot, while Boebert and a few other Republicans voted for a parade of alternatives to McCarthy, keeping him from obtaining the required majority.

One of the points McCarthy conceded was to allow a single member to bring what's known as a motion to vacate the chair, putting him on a short string that eventually frayed and cost him his job.

Johnson, a low-profile conservative serving only his fourth term before his elevation to the third-most powerful position in the federal government, won the backing of the entire Republican caucus after three other speaker nominees floundered.

Boebert, it later emerged, had been the first House Republican to bring up Johnson's name when GOP lawmakers were casting about for a candidate who could unite the caucus.

While members on both sides of the aisle cheered the end of the three-week impasse that preceded Johnson's election  the chamber had ground to a standstill amid mounting global crises and looming funding deadlines  the parties had opposite reactions to the Republicans' pick.

"I voted for Rep. Johnson because of his unwavering dedication to conservative principles, his willingness to tackle tough issues, and because he is the right candidate to bring the Republican conference together again," Buck said, echoing the praise sung by Lamborn and Boebert.

Instead of embracing bipartisanship, House Republicans have elevated an extremist," said Democrat Diana DeGette, noting that Johnson had led the House GOP's effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and was a hardline opponent of abortion rights, even declaring that doctors who perform abortions should be imprisoned.

"His views do not represent the majority of Americans, or even the majority of Republicans," said Democrat Brittany Pettersen, asserting that her GOP colleagues had chosen to "cave to the far-right, fringe members holding their party hostage."

Although some Republicans urged him to jettison the single-member threshold to call for removing the speaker, Johnson kept the rule and could soon endure the consequences.

Johnson's predicament is less precarious than McCarthy's turned out to be, however, because the chamber's Democratic leadership this week made clear that their members will step in to save the Republican  this time  if Greene or her allies force a vote.

That's in part due to Johnson's decision last month to bring a $95 billion foreign aid package to a long-delayed vote in the House, which approved funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after more Democrats than Republicans voted to advance the legislation in a preliminary, procedural vote.

"At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction," Jeffries said in a statement. "We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed."

The nearly unprecedented circumstances of a Republican speaker relying on the opposition party to move legislation  and potentially retain his gavel  drew renewed ire from Greene and other Republicans, including Boebert, who voted against the foreign aid bills.

"Mike Johnson is officially the Democratic Speaker of the House," Greene tweeted. "What slimy back room deal did Johnson make for the Democrats' support?"

She added that she would give Johnson the weekend to consider resigning and insisted she still plans to call for a vote if he doesn't.

"If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats' chosen Speaker), I'll give them the chance to do it," Greene tweeted. "Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I'm about to give them their coming out party!"

Lamborn, a long-time Johnson ally, made his position clear in a May 2 op-ed, declaring that Johnson's "exceptional performance under the most trying circumstances has only strengthened my unwavering support for his continued tenure as speaker of the House."

Added Lamborn: "Ousting him would have detrimental repercussions, potentially leading to further division within our party and dysfunction in Congress. We must stand united as a solid Republican Party, avoiding any splits that could weaken us."

After earlier accusing Johnson of "(breaking) his promise to us" on Ukraine aid, Boebert on May 1 told reporters: We are passing the Democratic agenda each and every day that were here. We have a slim majority in the House, and everythings being passed overwhelmingly with Democrats support, so it makes no difference to me if its Hakeem Jeffries as speaker or Mike Johnson right now.

A week earlier, Boebert expressed similar frustration to a room full of Republican donors  but concluded that the consequences of undermining Johnson were too great to risk.

"I can make remarks and joke all day long that we already have Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, we may as well," she said at an April 23 state GOP fundraiser in Greenwood Village. "We have passed more legislation with Democratic approval of the House since he has become speaker than with Republican approval. However, if Mike Johnson is successfully vacated, I know that there are at least three, four or five of my corrupt Republican colleagues who would either resign, or they would vote for Hakeem Jeffries."

That, she said, would give Democrats the gavel not only in the House as a whole but in crucial committees, including removing Ohio Republican Jim Jordan from the Judiciary Committee chairmanship and handing control of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin.

"I believe that impeachment proceedings for President Trump would start again," she said. "They would have a supermajority and begin to aggressively put forward their agenda, which you saw Nancy Pelosi ram through. And we've heard Jamie Raskin even endorse the idea of Congress making it a law that President Trump could not appear on the ballot. Tell me that wouldn't be the first thing that they did."

"It's why I cannot risk supporting a motion to vacate," Boebert said. "I didn't agree with the timing of my colleagues who vacated Kevin McCarthy, but at least they knew the speaker would not be a Democrat. At least they knew that much."

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He's analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.

Colorado's congressional primary lineup features crowded races for open GOP seats | TRAIL MIX Just over six weeks before primary ballots go in the mail to Colorado voters, the candidate rosters are nearly set  teeing up a half dozen co

Throng of petitioning Republicans could yield historic primary ballot to replace Ken Buck | TRAIL MIX This year's Republican primary ballot in Colorado's 4th Congressional District could be the longest of any congressional primary in state history.
Republican 4th Congressional District candidate Deborah Flora, from a campaign video released last November. A former talk radio host and founder of the Parents United America nonprofit, Flora has earned the endorsement of The Gazette editorial board for her bid in the June 25 GOP primary election. (Courtesy Deborah for Colorado, via YouTube)
Google has unveiled its comprehensive plans for Mental Health Awareness Month, highlighting its commitment to supporting global mental well-being.

Google's Initiative

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month in the U.S., Google has announced its comprehensive approach to supporting mental health globally. With an estimated one billion people affected by mental health issues worldwide, Google is committed to reducing stigma and providing resources for those in need.

Connecting People to Vital Resources

Recognizing the crucial role of access to information, Google has expanded its efforts to connect people with mental health resources. Through Google Search, the platform now offers information about suicide, domestic violence, and sexual assault hotlines in numerous countries and languages, including recent expansions to Puerto Rico and Thailand. Additionally, users in select countries can access clinically validated self-assessments for depression and anxiety directly from search results.

YouTube's Contribution to Wellbeing

YouTube is also playing a significant role in supporting mental health awareness. In regions including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia, the platform features content from both personal experiences and authoritative health organizations related to depression and other mental health issues. Moreover, YouTube has implemented safeguards to limit repeated recommendations of potentially harmful content, particularly for young viewers.

Innovative Features for Wellbeing

Google's commitment to mental health extends beyond online platforms. Through partnerships with companies like Fitbit, Google provides tools like the Body Response feature on Pixel Watch 2, which monitors physiological stress responses and offers actionable insights. These innovations aim to bridge the gap between psychological experiences and physical well-being.

Enhancing Access to Care

Google's initiatives also extend to improving access to mental healthcare options. Partnering with the state of Illinois, Google Public Sector has launched the BEACON online portal to streamline access to mental healthcare services for children and families. This AI-powered platform aims to connect users with the appropriate care efficiently.

Investing in Community Support

Through Google.org, the company has committed over $10 million to support nonprofits working in the mental health space. Initiatives like ReflexAI's HomeTeam program provide valuable resources for veterans struggling with mental health issues. Additionally, Google recently announced a $20 million commitment to promoting digital well-being for children and teens.

Supporting Googlers and Their Families

Within its own workplace, Google prioritizes mental health support for employees and their families year-round. From comprehensive medical plans covering mental health services to on-site counseling and training programs for managers, Google is dedicated to fostering a supportive work environment.

As Google continues to prioritize mental health awareness and support, its efforts underscore the importance of collective action in addressing this global challenge.
A study conducted by researchers at Columbia University in New York has uncovered a significant association between anger and heightened risks of heart attack and stroke.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, indicate that short bursts of anger can lead to alterations in blood vessel function, potentially predisposing individuals to cardiovascular events.

The study, which focused on young adults with no prior cardiovascular issues, revealed that recalling past anger-inducing experiences resulted in impaired blood vessel functioning, New Scientist reported.

While none of the participants experienced immediate cardiac events during the study, the observed effects underscore the potential long-term consequences of intense emotional states on cardiovascular health.

Lead researcher Daichi Shimbo emphasized the importance of these findings, suggesting that recurrent episodes of anger could exacerbate existing health conditions, leading to irreversible damage over time.

The research involved 280 volunteers who were exposed to various emotional stimuli, including anger, anxiety and sadness, as well as a control group. Measurements taken during the study, including blood pressure and blood vessel dilation capacity, indicated a distinct response among those exposed to anger-inducing scenarios.

According to the study, individuals prompted to recall angry experiences exhibited a notable decrease in blood vessel dilation capacity lasting approximately 40 minutes. This response was not observed in participants exposed to other emotional stimuli or in the control group.

"It is possible that [these effects] occur routinely throughout the day or week with potentially long-term consequences," the researchers stated. "Repeated episodes of a negative emotion may affect cardiovascular physiology over time, causing... irreversible damage."

Dr. Andrew Steptoe of University College London highlighted the significance of the study's findings in understanding the relationship between emotions and cardiovascular health. While acknowledging the challenges of managing intense emotions, he emphasized the importance of interventions to mitigate potential risks.

Dr. Glenn Levine of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston praised the study for advancing understanding of the mechanisms underlying psychological states' impact on cardiovascular health.
If home ownership is your endgame here in America, its a pretty dire time. Is it still possible to save up enough scratch from what are probably three different freelance jobs to buy a house of your very own? Sure, but its going to be a whole lot harder than it was for your parents. Median U.S. house prices are approaching $500,000, which is a pretty penny no matter how many monthly payments you chop it into.

So whats a modern fella with a dream of a home to call his own to do?

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Well, if youre willing to move, and accept that the house you get might be more than a fixer-upper, there are places around the world that are literally giving houses away, or very close to it

5 Japan's Akiya Calistemon One particular brand of cheap house that seems to continually come up is Japans abandoned houses, or akiya. Japans property taxes are expensive and a little strange, with a notable quirk being that taxes may be cheaper on land with an abandoned house than on empty land with the house demolished. This already should give you a hint that the list price isnt the final bill, but it does lead to abandoned houses being sold for extremely low prices that include the land, with some even being offered for free. Just don't expect them to be ready to move in.

4 Maenza, Italy Rural towns in Italy are struggling to keep their populations up, as people overwhelmingly prefer the convenience of city life. Its led to a particularly dramatic demonstration of supply and demand, with some of them offering homes for as little as one euro, in order to jump-start the population and economy. Just dont think you can scoop up a cheap pied-a-terre. These programs often require the buyer to live there for a minimum of at least a year.

3 Monti Sciaga, Switzerland Advertisement DrOzORRR This isnt just a fad in Italy, with other European countries and towns giving it a shot before they fade off the map. Case in point: Monti Sciaga in Switzerland is putting up houses for a single Swiss franc. This, too, comes with caveats  namely, any buyer has to commit to renovating the home they buy, meaning youll likely be in the hole for a decent amount of scratch post-purchase. Advertisement

2 Baltimore, Maryland In Baltimore, the city seemingly reached a tipping point when it came to vacant houses. With housing prices hitting exorbitant numbers, the fact is there are going to be vacant houses sitting around, which are both a slap in the face to people who would be perfectly happy to live there, as well as a bit of an eyesore. Thats why theyve launched a program to sell some of these vacant homes for a single dollar to willing homeowners, looking to give residents of the city a chance to, you know, actually live there.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine star and Nicolas Cage understudy Andy Samberg is obviously known for his many comedic performances, which may or may not have required him to shove his junk inside of a brightly decorated Christmas present. Well, now Samberg has a brand new movie coming out, Lee starring Kate Winslet, and it is definitely not a comedy.

Lee tells the story of legendary photographer Lee Miller, who captured some of the most historically significant images of World War II while working as a photojournalist for Vogue. Her work famously included documentation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis at the Dachau concentration camp.

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Samberg plays Millers colleague, LIFE photojournalist David Scherman, whose photos once helped sink a German warship, and who memorably collaborated with Miller on the iconic picture of her taking a soak in Hitlers private bathtub in Munich, just hours after returning from Dachau.

Judging from the online response, a lot of people were pretty weirded out to see the star of Hot Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping appearing in a harrowing wartime drama alongside an Oscar-winning actress. Samberg doesnt even have any lines of dialogue in the trailer, which makes the whole thing feel even odder, as if its some kind of SNL sketch in which Samberg has been digitally inserted into a pre-existing movie.

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Some of us have just been trained to associate the presence of Samberg with hijinks and tomfoolery.

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That being said, there is obviously a long history of comedians becoming wonderful dramatic actors  from Robin Williams, to Whoopi Goldberg, to Sambergs Thats My Boy co-star Adam Sandler. Not to mention Jim Carrey, who was willing to alienate everyone around him by constantly acting like an egomaniacal dick, purely in the pursuit of dramatic realism.

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While hes claimed in interviews that he took the Lee gig specifically to work outside of his comedic comfort zone, Samberg has occasionally shown off some dramatic chops in movies such as Palm Springs, which gets pretty bleak at times.

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And by all indications, Samberg is actually pretty terrific in Lee. The film screened at last years Toronto International Film Festival, and critics repeatedly singled out Samberg as one of its highlights in their reviews.

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According to Layered Popcorn, the biggest surprise of the film is Andy Samberg. This Samberg is eloquent, quiet and nuanced in his performance. Meanwhile, Variety proclaimed that Samberg was astutely cast and the most substantial of the supporting players. And Film Stage noted that the role of Scherman was played remarkably well by Andy Samberg. Not bad for the former star of People Getting Punched Right Before Eating.

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So, if this goes well, maybe Samberg will keep appearing in dramas. Hes previously professed a desire to make a movie like Uncut Gems. Or maybe hell do a gritty new take on Dick in a Box that ends with indecent exposure charges and a prison sentence.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time youre reading this).
Microsoft has added new chief information security officers (CISOs) to product teams and appointed a new deputy CISO to liaise with customers. The moves are part of an ongoing attempt to revamp the companys approach to security in the wake of a high-profile attack that breached company emails and a sharp rebuke from the federal government on the companys security practices.

The new product-focused security chiefs will report to Igor Tsyganskiy, Microsofts global CISO who has only been in his post for about six months, according to a published report by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, longtime security executive Ann Johnson is now deputy CISO for customer outreach and regulated industries and also will report to Tsyganskiy.

Johnsons role will focus on customer engagement and communication about Microsofts own security, Microsoft said in an email, according to the report. A Microsoft spokesperson said Friday in an email to CSO that the company has nothing to share at the moment about the reported executive changes.
US Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI have issued a joint advisory to developers, urging them to check for path traversal vulnerabilities before shipping a software.

Directory traversal or path traversal vulnerabilities remain a persistent class of defect in software products, CISA said in the advisory. Software manufacturers continue to put customers at risk by developing products that allow for path traversal exploits.

The advisory was issued in response to the recent critical path traversal vulnerabilities, including the ConnectWise ScreenConnect and Cisco AppDynamics flaws.
On Tuesday night, police stood by as a mob of Zionist extremists were allowed to violently assault the Palestine solidarity encampment at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The peaceful pro-Palestine protests breaking out across the USA have been smeared as violent, racist and antisemitic by the media a politicians of all stripes. But there has been a conspiracy of silence around the real overt racism and extreme violence of the Zionists attacking campuses these past few days.

Armed with metal batons, pepper spray and raining down powerful fireworks on the camps, the Zionists attacked barricades, trying to physically dismantle the protest site. The students at UCLA, for their part, put up a brave defence, fighting back and preventing the break up of the occupation.

Horrifying : At UCLA, pro-Israel protesters continue to launch fireworks into a peaceful encampment. You can literally hear the peaceful Anti-Genocide protestors screaming after the firework landed inside the encampment.

pic.twitter.com/Om05lJ9iqZ  Furkan Gozukara (@GozukaraFurkan) May 1, 2024

The police, meanwhile, were complicit in the violence. They stood idly by, allowing the attack to occur, simply recording the events or smirking at what was unfolding. Subsequent events would seem to indicate some coordination between police and the far-right Zionist mobs, who had been used to soften up the students and create scenes of chaos as a pretext for breaking up the pro-Palestine camps.

Just hours after the Zionist-provoked violence at UCLA, police stormed the camp. In a coordinated move, police in other parts of the country broke up encampments at Yale, Columbia and elsewhere. At Columbia University in New York, the peaceful camp was broken up by police using rubber bullets, concussion grenades, and other less lethal weaponry, and 300 students were arrested. According to some reports, over 2,000 students have been arrested nationwide.

Zionist counterprotestors at UCLA attack encampment, then violently jump and beat pro-Palestine protestor.

pic.twitter.com/z97ABfLUJ3  ScheerPost.com (@scheer_post) May 1, 2024

At a press conference the morning after the repression, New York Citys Democratic Party Mayor Eric Adams addressed the media to once more smear the pro-Palestine protestors as the ones responsible for violence and chaos.

He then went on to justify the violent repression as part of the battle against the radicalisation of the youth globally, implying that shadowy professionals have infiltrated campuses:

Im going to protect the city from those who are attempting to do what is happening globally. Theres a movement to radicalise young people. Im not going to wait until its done and then acknowledge the existence of it. This is a global problem, of young people being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalising our children. I am not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York Outside agitators are training and co-opting this movement.

We agree with the mayor: this is a global problem  for the ruling class. The youth everywhere are indeed radicalising  against imperialist barbarism, against the violence of the state and the far-right thugs working hand-in-glove with the state, and against the truth-twisters in power and in the media who justify unjustifiable horrors.

But theres no need to point to outside agitators to understand this radicalisation. The slaughter that Adams and his friends are backing in Gaza, the violence of the whole system, is radicalising the youth. The ruling class dull-witted attempts to stop this process by crushing it will only spread the sparks of anger further, where they will meet with tinderbox conditions.

pic.twitter.com/mQLPf4G64M



New York City Mayor Eric Adams on youth getting radicalized:



"I'm going to protect the city from those who are attempting to do what is happening globally.



There's a movement to radicalize young people.



This is a global problem that young people are  Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) May 1, 2024

The protests are continuing to jump from campus to campus as more join the movement in the US and far beyond. And now UAW Local 4811, which organises staff at the UCLA and represents 48,000 workers, is threatening strike action in response to the repression.

This is the way forward! The students have the warm sympathy of millions of workers who are looking on at the repression of university administrations, the government, police and right-wing thugs in horror. We must escalate the action on campuses, in the US and worldwide, in solidarity with Palestine, in solidarity with those facing repression for taking a stand.

Workers must enter this struggle, they must connect with the students, students must connect with them, to strike and protest in defence of the basic democratic rights now being trampled, and to spread the working-class action needed to bring the Israeli war machine to a halt. The workers hold the power to stop the gears of the imperialist machine: from the weapons factories, to the dockers that transport the goods destined for Israel, to the university campuses. The leadership of the labour movement must unleash this power.
Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

Details: Price: $4.2 million ($8,070 monthly maintenance) Specs: 3 beds, 3 bathrooms Extras: Butlers pantry, walk-in closet, wood-burning fireplace, laundry room, staff room, closet turned bar 5-minute walking radius: Central Park, Restaurant DANIEL, the Cosmopolitan Club Listed by: Russell K. Miller, Brown Harris Stevens

Barbara Ross grew up in a family of collectors. Her father, who ran a chain of Chevy dealerships in Florida, collected old coins and stamps. Her mother was enamored with art and china. And her brother loved decorative art, especially anything depicting lions. Ross herself sought out Art Deco, vintage handbags, and eclectic furniture  such as a miniature armchair that had been once used as a salesmans model. I had to stop going to antique shows because I couldnt fit anymore of it, she said. Im kind of out of my mind.

Ross had a career running a womenswear boutique in Miami while raising three daughters. But she got divorced, her daughters left home, and she wondered what was tying her down. She wanted a life where she could go to the ballet, the symphony, and the theater, walk to restaurants, and, of course, go antiquing. I love the sophistication of New York, she said.

Still, there was some baggage tying her down: all of her familys collections. Her mother, Beatrice Ross, had died, then her brother. I was left with everything, she said. She wanted an apartment that would be big enough to fit their best pieces and serve as a showcase. So in the early 1990s, while living at a temporary apartment in the neighborhood, she started looking  and found that a three-bedroom at 665 Park Avenue was miraculously on the market.

The building was built by a collective of wealthy New Yorkers who lived in mansions nearby and were worried about encroaching luxury towers stealing their sunlight. They bought the lot between 67th and 68th on Park Avenue and restricted the scale of what could be built. The 1924 luxury building is only 7 to 11 stories  relatively low for that stretch of Park Avenue. There are 50 units, but the building feels smaller thanks to a courtyard that divides it into two wings with separate entrances. An elevator, still run by an operator, leads to a landing on each floor, some of which serve as few as two apartments.

The courtyard and the lobby entrance on 68th Street. From left: Photo: Brown Harris Stevens Photo: Brown Harris Stevens The courtyard and the lobby entrance on 68th Street. From top: Photo: Brown Harris Stevens Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The privacy drew stylish uptowners, including Massimo Ferragamo, who bought a 15-room penthouse duplex; Barbara Goldsmith, the reporter turned best-selling author who funded the launch of New York Magazine; and Grace Dudley, an ex-Radziwill, whose relationship with New York Review of Books editor Robert Silvers meant their living room was often used as a salon. In 1966 at age 18, author Danielle Steel married a French American banker in a ceremony at the Carlyle, then came to their newlywed apartment here  a place described by her friend as terribly grand in the Old World way.

Which is exactly what Ross was after. And 7B had everything: herringbone floors, original moldings, and windows decorated with ruby-colored stained glass. A glass door between the living and dining rooms had a graphic Art Deco pattern. And then there was the scale: The dining room could host dinners for 12. A second bedroom turned into a den, with a pull-down projector screen. A swift renovation expanded the size of a very important space: the closet in her bedroom. Im five-foot-eight, she said. I need big spaces.

Ross claims the previous owner was the second husband of a Russian princess  which would help explain the left-behind antique chandeliers. Ross loved the effect of them and added more. All of a sudden, I became a collector of chandeliers, she said.

The foyer, with an oil portrait once owned by Dr. Harvey Ross, a psychiatrist who worked in Los Angeles and left his collection of antiques to his sister, Barbara Ross. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The foyer opens onto the living room. Herringbone floors, a functional fireplace, and leaded glass windows are original to the apartment. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The Chinese screen and the Japanese Buddha were owned by Dr. Ross. Barbara Ross bought the antique sconces and furniture. I just love beautiful things, she said. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

Looking back to the foyer. The Art Decostyle glass doors are actually a copy of the doors that lead to the dining room and may be original to that era. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

Past the living-room fireplace is the dining room, where Ross would host dinner parties for 12. Note the Art Deco door and the mirrors, which reflect candlelight. I just thought it gave a nice glow to the room, especially with the peach-colored walls, Ross said. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The kitchen was recently remodeled. Ross turned an antique bankers table into a unique countertop and side table (right). Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

All three bedrooms are down a hall off the living area, which also contains a closet (left) that Ross transformed into a bar. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

Ross turned the first bedroom on the hall into a den and media room. A projector screen drops down from the ceiling (right), covering a painting owned by Rosss late mother, Beatrice Ross. The miniature armchair (right) is an antique salesmans model that Ross had reupholstered. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

Next to the den is a guest bedroom with stained glass windows. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The guest bath, with a close-up of the windows. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens

The primary bedroom. Not shown is a walk-in closet. Photo: Brown Harris Stevens
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Mrs Thatcher nodded. 'Proper coppers,' she said. 'Proper coppers.' I was sitting next to her on the top table at the Metropolitan Police Retired CID Officers' annual dinner.

She was there to present bravery awards to three young officers who had risked their lives to tackle and disarm two gunmen in North London, even though they themselves were unarmed.

I was her warm-up act, the after-dinner song and dance man. The former Prime Minister wasn't at her best, clearly in the throes of dementia but determined to be there. Conversation had been difficult.

Yet when Sergeant Stephen Hayter and Constables Michael Carroll and Richard Cousins came up to accept their awards, she became instantly animated, beaming with pride, shaking their hands, posing for photographs and offering heartfelt congratulations.

For a few brief minutes, the Iron Lady of old was back. No Prime Minister has ever held the police in greater esteem or given them firmer support, sentiments they returned in spades.

Police officers Taser and detain a sword-wielding man in Hainault

'It must be good to be back among proper coppers,' I remarked. She smiled and agreed: 'Proper coppers, yes.'

I thought of that evening this week as I watched the incredible bravery of the young policemen and women who tackled the man now charged with the sword attack in North-East London which left a 14-year-old boy dead and four others, including two police officers, seriously wounded.

A doorbell camera captures the eventual detention of the suspect, who had been on a 22-minute rampage through the streets of Hainault.

First to approach him is a female officer, equipped with a Taser. He is carrying a sword. As she advanced towards him, she must by then have been aware that others, fellow coppers among them, were in a critical condition, to say the least.

Yet, despite the risk to herself, she got close enough to fire and brought him down. Other officers quickly subdued him on the ground. Another policewoman grabbed his sword and removed it to a place of safety.

None could have been absolutely sure he was fully incapacitated. There are reports that he had earlier been pepper sprayed and possibly Tasered but had managed to escape.

Commissioner Mark Rowley has admitted that Tasers can and do misfunction. So the officer who cornered the suspect could have stood back and waited for armed back-up, which arrived shortly afterwards. But she went ahead regardless of her own safety.

After the man was taken into custody, we learned that the two officers who had previously confronted him had sustained serious injuries. One, a policewoman, had to have hours of surgery and almost lost her hand.

Yet all the coppers on the scene ran towards danger. Their courage was awe-inspiring. I'd be the first to admit that the selfless actions of the female officers, in particular, go a long way to rebutting the doubts of those who question the suitability of young policewomen when it comes to tackling violent criminals.

Their exemplary response to this terrifying incident also serves to remind us that every day on the streets, officers  many of them not long out of their teens  are prepared to put their lives on the line to keep us safe. Over the years, I've gained a reputation in some quarters for being anti-police. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite the opposite, in fact.

My dad served as a policeman in West London. He joined the Met when he was demobbed from the Royal Navy after World War II, pounding the beat in Fulham and later working for the CID.

He won't have been much, if any, older than the officers involved in the Hainault incident, but will never have had to deal with savagery of the kind which is a daily fixture of life on the beat in our big cities today. We may just have fought a world war, but Britain was a far safer, gentler society back then.

I want our modern policemen and women to be able to clock on for every shift secure in the knowledge that they will return home safely at the end of it.

What happened in Hainault reminds us that, tragically, that can't always be guaranteed.

Yes, I poke fun at the Old Bill. This column's regular Mind How You Go Awards may take the proverbial but they are written with affection, if not always admiration.

What serious criticisms I've had have almost exclusively been levelled at the Common Purpose-brainwashed, careerist top brass, who are in thrall to all manner of wokery and political pressure, particularly from the hard-Left and self-appointed 'community leaders', while neglecting crimes like burglary which concern most of the people who pay their wages. Not the poor bloody infantry.

But this isn't the day to dwell on that. Today we must extend our deep gratitude and admiration to those who stand between us and the villains, drug dealers, muggers and madmen who otherwise would take control of our streets.

No doubt the Heroes of Hainault will be in line for Commissioner's commendations and more. I'm sure that they'll definitely be up for bravery awards at the next annual jolly-up of my friends in the Ex-CID Association.

Mrs Thatcher may not be around to present the awards, but she would certainly approve.

Proper coppers.

Country boy Kaleb Cooper, breakout star of Clarkson's Farm, which kicks off again tonight on Amazon, has been unspoiled by celebrity.

He was invited to meet Rishi Sunak, presumably because the PM thought some stardust  topsoil, more likely  might rub off on him, but came away unimpressed.

'Let's put it this way. If I go to a farm and the farmer says: 'Kaleb, you know what, I'm going to plough that field,' I know for a damn fact that the farmer is going to go out there and plough that field because he's said so.

'If the Prime Minister or anyone from politics goes to me: 'Kaleb, I'm going to do this next week,' they're not going to do it, are they?'

Never mind Clarkson's Farm, Kaleb should be presenting Newsnight.

Victoria Wood, above, rewrote Cole Porter's classic in her own inimitable style

The head chef at a hotel in the Lake District has won an 80,000 sexual harassment payout after his male boss serenaded him with Victoria Wood's 'suggestive' Ballad Of Barry And Freda.

It's a rewrite of Cole Porter's classic Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) and is about a woman propositioning her reluctant husband for sex.

In this case, it was the male chef's manager doing the wooing, one of a number of unwanted sexual advances.

Not that Wood's deputy canteen manager from her BBC comedy Dinnerladies would have minded a few sexual advances from her shy boss, Tony. Victoria's Let's Do It is sheer genius, turning the mundane into gold dust.

Sadly, space limitations meant that some of the best lines were missing from the Mail's coverage, though we did manage to fit in:

This is folly / Is jolly / Bend me over backwards on my hostess trolley.

My two faves:

Get drastic / Gymnastic / Wear your baggy Y-fronts with the loose elastic . . .

And the climax, so to speak:

Not bleakly / Not Meekly / Beat me on the bottom with the Woman's Weekly . . .

Let's do it. Call it 80 grand for cash!
Cancel me, burn me in effigy, do what you will, but I hope members of the Garrick Club will find the courage to uphold a tradition almost two centuries old, by retaining their ban on membership for women when the question is put to the ballot this coming Tuesday.

Indeed, I wish it all the more since Stephen Fry, Sting and other members like them have promised to resign en masse if the ban stays in place.

Bring it on! Whats more, I reckon Id think just the same way if I happened to be a woman myself. But Ill explain what I mean in a moment.

I hasten to say that Im not a member of the club, and never have been. Its true that the great Sir John Junor, who was once my editor, offered to put me up for membership, but I declined.

This was partly because I was daunted by the membership fee, but mostly because there was then an eight or nine-year waiting list. As an impatient 28-year-old, I simply couldnt imagine having to wait so long for anything.

Non-member Tom Utley has been able to enjoy the many delights the Garrick Club, above, has to offer without having to pay a penny

Celebrity members such as Sting have promised to resign en masse if the ban on women stays in place at the Garrick

That was more than 40 years ago  and the decades since have passed in the mere blink of an eye. Ah, well.

But Ive never regretted having turned down Sir Johns kind offer. This is because over the years Ive often been able to go to the Garrick as a guest  on exactly the same terms as women are admitted now. They, too, have long been welcomed as members guests  an arrangement, I reckon, that offers us the best of both worlds.

Not only do we escape having to pay the membership fee, which now stands at a forbidding 1,600 a year. Better still, club rules dictate that members must pay for their guests food and drink (although I have to add that, in the past, members have shown themselves willing to accept my under-the-table offer of a financial gift amounting to precisely my share of the bill!)

Self-righteous, exhibitionist poseurs, such as Stephen Fry, above, sign up to almost every fashionable enthusiasm of the Left, reckons our man Tom Utley

The upshot is that, more often than not, Ive been able to enjoy the many delights the club has to offer without having to pay a penny.

My point is that almost exactly the same goes for women guests. In my case its just meanness that stops me seeking paid-up membership, while they have the unanswerable excuse that they are banned from joining. Why would any sensible woman want to change that, when the best the club has to offer can already be hers?

For a start, the grub is superb, at least by the standards of most gentlemens clubs. For this, and for much else besides, members have to thank a legacy from A.A. Milne, who left the club a chunk of the royalties from Winnie the Pooh. When Disney bought the film rights to the books, this gave them millions to spend on top chefs and magnificent wines.

A brief digression: Ive long had a soft spot for Milne, in part because he left another slice of Poohs royalties to his school and mine, Westminster, but also because of something he wrote in his 1939 autobiography about his time as a columnist on Punch magazine: I know of no work, manual or mental, to equal the appalling, heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.

Thats putting it a bit strongly, perhaps. But, my goodness, I know what he meant!

But back to the delights of the Garrick. Apart from the excellent food and wine, the rooms are magnificent, and adorned with the finest art collection Ive seen in any such institution.

Where other clubs are hung with boring, formal portraits of Victorian politicians and other dignitaries (almost all elderly men), the Garricks pictures show famous actors and actresses from the past, striking theatrical poses in fabulously colourful costume.

My only reservation about the place is the constant danger of running into one of the arch-bores of our time. Its a danger more acute at the Garrick, with its hordes of Leftie luvvies and human rights lawyers, than in any comparable institution, with the possible exception of the drama department of the BBC.

I reckon there are two distinct types of club bore. There is the first, more traditional kind, of which I count myself an honorary member.

When were full of after-dinner port, we like to doze in our armchairs or burble on about how much better things were in the good old days, before political correctness invaded our island shores. My sort of people, in short.

Then theres the new sort of crasher, exemplified by the likes of Fry, Sting, Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits fame) and a whole host of their fellow luvvies  self-righteous, exhibitionist poseurs, who sign up to almost every fashionable enthusiasm of the Left. Suddenly, these hypocrites have woken up to the fact that for years theyve belonged to a club that has always refused to accept women as members. How odd that they seem only just to have noticed.

READ MORE: Sting and Stephen Fry threaten to resign from the Garrick Club unless women are allowed to join Advertisement

If they were happy to join when they did, what has changed? Are they simply terrified of a Twitterstorm, whipped up by people who dont understand that a private members club should have the same right as a private homeowner to decide who should be allowed in?

Whatever the truth, an exodus has already begun, with the departure this year of high-profile members including the head of the civil service, Simon Case. Imagine how delightful the Garrick will be if the ban stays, and all those luvvies keep their promise to follow Cases example.

As it happens, I myself tend to prefer mixed company to the undiluted society of my own sex. But that has seldom been a problem at the Garrick, since attractive and interesting women have often been among my fellow guests.

I shudder to think, however, of the monstrous regiment of women who will throng the place if the woke win the day. You can bet your last penny militant feminists will be at the front of the queue, intent on networking and lobbying for pet causes (though discussing business is strictly against club rules).

Before you know it, theyll rearrange the facilities to suit their convenience, rebuking older members for their old-fashioned views and generally making their lives hell.

True, members of the Garrick long ago abandoned the guiding principle spelled out by their predecessors: It would be better that ten unobjectionable men should be excluded than one terrible bore should be admitted.

But are they really prepared to abandon two centuries of tradition, and sacrifice their peace, by throwing open their doors to the most tiresome specimens of both sexes?

Bizarrely, Michael Beloff KC has concluded that the clubs constitution does not specifically exclude women as members, arguing that the pronoun he may be taken to refer to a male or a female. Thanks to this eccentric advice, and the critical mass of Lefties who already belong to the club, it now seems probable that next weeks vote will go the reformers way.

If so, the Garrick will hardly be the first great British institution to cringe in surrender to the politically correct. Look what has happened to our great universities, the civil service, the BBC, the National Trust, the police and even our Armed Forces.

But thats quite enough defeatist talk from me. So let me end with a rallying cry to my fellow club bores of the oldfashioned kind. Show some backbone, chaps! There are surely enough of you at the Garrick to see off the Lefties and militant feminists. Bring on the flight of the woke!
Emily Ratajkowski recently made headlines when she repurposed her massive toi et moi engagement ring from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard.

The model's ring which once featured a pear and a square-cut diamond is now two separate rings - a new category in the jewelry industry called divorce rings.

'The rings represent my own personal evolution,' the brunette beauty told Vogue. 'I dont think a woman should be stripped of her diamonds just because shes losing a man.'

Emily Ratajkowski recently made headlines when she repurposed her massive toi et moi engagement ring from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard

Rachel Akmakjian Director of Jeweler Relations at BriteCo and Graduate Gemologist, describes divorce rings as 'a former engagement ring or bridal set that has been reworked and remastered into a piece that symbolizes the end of their marriage.'

No matter how stunning the engagement ring, after a breakup, it represents something that no longer exists. So why not give it new meaning?

The model's ring which once featured a pear and a square-cut diamond is now two separate rings - a new category in the jewelry industry called divorce rings

'Divorce rings are a way to reclaim the jewelry's significance in a new context and represent a new beginning for the wearer,' shared Rachel.

'It's similar to an engagement or wedding ring but is a marker of transitioning out of the relationship rather than into it.'

Ways to repurpose an engagement ring and/or wedding band

According to the expert, the key to personalizing a divorce ring is to choose elements that resonate with your experience and symbolize your path toward healing and self-discovery.

'You can work with a jeweler to design a custom divorce ring that reflects your individuality and story.'

Emily enlisted Alison Chemla, creative director of jewelry brand Alison Lou, to reimagine her ring.

Now, the pear stone of her engagement ring is a stunning pinky ring, and the square diamond has been remade into a trilogy ring.

Emily enlisted Alison Chemla, creative director of jewelry brand Alison Lou, to reimagine her ring. Now, the pear stone of her engagement ring is a stunning pinky ring, and the square diamond has been remade into a trilogy ring

Divorce ring styles can vary depending on personal taste and interests.

'Engraving a meaningful message, date, or mantra inside the band of the divorce ring can serve as a reminder of your strength and resilience as you move forward,' suggests the gemologist.

'If you have other jewelry items you no longer wish to wear from your marriage, consider repurposing the materials into your divorce ring.

'You can also create a set of stackable rings, each representing a different aspect of your journey post-divorce, by mixing and matching styles, colors, and textures to create a look reflective of your personal growth.'

Incorporating other gems like your birthstone can give your ring new meaning.

Rachel Akmakjian Director of Jeweler Relations at BriteCo and Graduate Gemologist says another trend in jewelry is women buying their own engagement-style rings. Pictured: Rings by Dara Kaye Jewelry

Put your own ring on it

According to the expert, another trend in the jewelry industry is women buying their own engagement-style rings.

'Wearing a self-engagement ring is a growing trend among individuals who want to celebrate their independence, self-worth, and commitment to self-love,' reveals BriteCo's Director of Jeweler Relations.

'It's a symbolic gesture of self-affirmation and empowerment, signifying that you don't need to wait for someone else to validate your worth or commit to your happiness.'

Fine jewelry designers such as Julez Bryant, Karen Karch, Dara Kaye Jewelry and Melissa Joy Manning offer stunning engagement rings and engagement-style rings any modern gal would love.

'The concept of self-engagement rings has gained popularity for individuals to redefine the traditional narrative around engagement rings, which has historically centered on romantic partnerships.

'Instead, self-engagement rings celebrate the importance of self-love, personal growth, and individual fulfillment.'

Crown ring set by Karen Karch, $7,275; karenkarch.com

1.65 Carat Hexagonal Montana Sapphire ring by Melissa Joy Manning, $4,140; melissajoymanning.com. Right: 1.23 Carat Blue Montana Sapphire Ring by Melissa Joy Manning, $9,310; melissajoymanning.com

Left: Rome 14k Gold Kite Diamond Ring by Julez Bryant, julezbryant.com. Rafa 14K Gold Ring by Julez Bryant, julezbryant.com

Studded Star invincible by Karen Karch, $4,350; karenkarch.com. Right: Studded vine solitaire by Karen Karch, $3,000; karenkarch.com

Give self-love the finger (any finger!)

In many western cultures, wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand.

This tradition is rooted in the belief that this finger has a vein "vena amoris" that runs directly to the heart.

But when it comes to a divorce ring, all fingers are fair game.

'The finger on which to wear a divorce ring depends on personal preference,' says Rachel.

'Some people wear their divorce ring on the ring finger of their left hand, similar to a wedding ring placement. This placement symbolizes one's commitment to oneself as one embarks on this new journey of self-discovery and relearns the freedom of being on one's own.

'Others may opt to wear the divorce ring on a different finger, pinky, middle, or right-hand ring finger.'

Be sure to insure your new bling

'I highly recommend that you insure any piece of fine jewelrythat is, jewelry made of diamonds, fine gemstones, and precious metals,' says Akmakjian.

'At BriteCo Jewelry Insurance you can get your jewelry insured in a matter of minutes at unbeatable prices.

'With BriteCo, you can rest easy knowing that we have you covered from loss and theft to any damage your ring may incur.'
With every national scandal you can trace the people who stood up first and said 'this is wrong'. Gareth Eve was one. When he lost his wife Lisa, who died due to complications from the AstraZeneca vaccine, he put himself in the firing line to tell her story.

He knew he had more chance than most of being listened to. Lisa Shaw, who was just 44, was a BBC journalist, a high profile and popular broadcaster on Radio Newcastle who was happy to receive the vaccine because, as Gareth puts it, 'it was the right and responsible thing to do'.

She paid with her life, and the minute a coroner recorded that the cause of her death was the vaccine, he knew he had to go public. Gareth, 44, spoke to this paper a year ago, movingly and eloquently explaining why families like his felt abandoned by the Government and treated as 'collateral damage'.

Then, he was explaining why he and other bereaved families had joined forces in a potentially ground-breaking legal class action against the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

It was a reluctant sort of legal action because at the start of the pandemic the Government  desperate to roll out the Covid vaccine without delay  had agreed an indemnity clause.

The exact details are not public, but it effectively meant that in the event of successful legal action against AstraZeneca over vaccine failings, the Government ('or more accurately, the taxpayer', says Gareth) would foot the bill.

'No one wanted to go to court,' he repeats today. 'But what option did we have? The Government has refused to help, or even acknowledge their role in our loved ones' deaths. We were on our own.'

Earlier this week came news of a significant victory for those families whose loved ones either died or suffered lasting health issues after having the vaccine.

It emerged that in court documents to the High Court, AstraZeneca admitted for the first time that 'in very rare cases' the vaccine can cause a type of blood clotting called TTS (thrombotic thrombocytopenia)  the very condition that had killed Lisa.

Lisa Shaw with son Zach, who was just six when his mother died from blood clotting

Gareth Eve put himself in the firing line to tell Lisa's shocking story

Gareth Eve and BBC presenter Lisa on their wedding day

AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, also stated: 'TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.'

The admission could open the door to multi-million-pound payouts for the families involved, many of whom have spent years being dismissed as anti-vaxxers, pilloried on social media for demanding answers and adequate compensation.

So is Gareth celebrating? Yes, but only 'for the others', he says  not himself or his son Zach, who was just six when Lisa died.

The reason? Around six weeks ago, Gareth was told that he and 11 other families were being removed from the class action.

While others  including one man who died on the same hospital ward as Lisa, in the same week, from exactly the same reaction to the vaccine  could be in line for compensation payments if they win in court, he will not.

'It's because of a technicality, a loophole,' he says. 'I am devastated. I feel completely abandoned all over again. It actually takes me back to just after Lisa died when I was in that state of feeling utterly alone, thinking 'well, what now?'.' The background is complicated but, as it was explained to him, lawyers acting for the families were concerned when, in the course of legal proceedings, it emerged that after April 7, 2021, with the approval of the UK regulator, a warning about the risk of thrombotic complications was added by AstraZeneca and sent to healthcare professionals.

AstraZeneca say the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side-effects

Vikki Spit, from Cumbria, pictured with her partner Zion, who died in May 2021

Rock musician Zion died of from a blood clot after having the AstraZeneca Covid jab

There was no hoopla about it at the time. Gareth (and the legal team helping him) became aware of it only recently. 'The message from the Government at the time was still 'this is safe. It is your duty to have the vaccine'.

'And I'm pretty sure Lisa was not made aware of it either. The language was only for professionals  the average lay person would not have understood it  and it only went on documentation that would have gone to the vaccination centres.'

Yet the mere existence of this warning clearly caused concern with the legal team leading the class action.

'The way it was explained to me was that they felt it was better to remove those families where the vaccine had left the factory after that April 7 cut-off, because they felt that if it comes to court, AstraZeneca could use it against us.

'Lisa had her vaccine on April 29. It had left the factory on April 11. This meant a dozen of us were removed. The issue is that the insurers felt it was too much of a risk to include us. Had our names stayed on the class action and we lost in court, we would have been personally liable for those costs ourselves and they would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. None of us can afford that.'

He understands the logic, and bears the lawyers no ill-will, but he still feels it is deeply unfair.

'We were all on this rollercoaster, all the families in the same position. Our loved ones died from the same vaccine. To start quibbling about dates and warnings is missing the point.

'We all know what those vaccination centres were like. No one on the ground got warnings! And even if it had been spelled out, there was no alternative. We were all told it was our duty. For this to now be used against us is well, it is wrong.'

The Mail has this week spoken to some of the other families involved in the class action, who were left bewildered by the development, many wondering if they too were going to be excluded.

'This is madness,' says Vikki Spit, from Cumbria, who lost her partner Zion in May 2021. 'We are gutted for Gareth and the others. We are such a tight group and it has left the rest of us wondering if they are going to find another loophole and we will lose more people.

'Gareth was one of the brave ones who dared to speak up, knowing that Lisa's status gave him more clout with the media. This has left us all really cynical and bitter. It's just another example of what we are up against.'

The cut-off date has thrown up anomalies that are hard to fathom, and also seem to make a mockery of Gareth's exclusion. For example, the late husband of another woman in the class action died on the same hospital ward as Lisa in the same week, from the same vaccine reaction, and was 'actually given the vaccine after Lisa', says Gareth.

'But because the vial containing his vaccine had left the factory before hers, his death can be included in the class action,' explains Gareth. 'It's nuts.'

The loophole could have massive consequences. If they reach court and win, the families involved will be entitled to compensation payments worth millions. Gareth will not receive a penny, unless he can fund a separate court action.

'It's not just about the money, though,' he says. 'What we've been fighting for  and I will continue to fight for, even if I'm not part of the class action  is for someone, the Government or AstraZeneca, to step up and take responsibility.'

What a legal and moral mess this is, and a world away from the huge fanfare that accompanied the rollout of the vaccine in 2020. Developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, it has been credited with saving more than a million lives. Fifty million doses were administered in 2021, and co-developer Dame Sarah Gilbert was given a standing ovation at Wimbledon that year.

READ MORE: True toll of AstraZeneca jab problem may never be known, lawyers say Advertisement

And yet as far back as February 2021 problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine had been identified, leading France and Germany to switch to other vaccines.

Various caveats in the UK were introduced  with official advice changing first to say it should not be offered to the under-30s, then the under-40s. By the autumn of 2021, its use was being quietly shelved. Figures from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) show 81 deaths appear to have been linked to the adverse reaction from the vaccine that caused blood clotting. Hundreds more have been left with lasting disabilities.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said: 'Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems. Patient safety is our highest priority, and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

'From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side-effects.'

How affected families should be supported, though, is at the heart of this complex issue. The Government insists there is financial support available, under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme. But this was not designed for Covid-related situations (it was launched in 1979). Payments are limited to 120,000 per claim (a figure set in 2007, and paltry even when you consider loss of earnings alone) and applications must prove severe disablement.

Vikki Spit was the first recipient of this payment in respect to Covid vaccine deaths, but tells us she had to 'fight for a year for it'.

'And even though Zion had died, I had to fight to convince them he had suffered 60 per cent disability. It's not fit for purpose.'

Each family has its own tragedy, but there are striking parallels. Zion, previously fit and healthy, died at 48 after developing headaches following the vaccine.

Gareth's tragedy unfolded in the same way. Lisa started to suffer headaches just a week after having the vaccine 'so she could hug her mum'. On May 16, while having tests in hospital, she started to suffer speech difficulties, struggling to say the word 'goggles' when she and Gareth were discussing Zach's swimming lessons.

A rare bleed on the brain was identified, and Lisa  'the healthiest, bubbliest, loveliest person you could meet,' says Gareth  spent the last five days of her life on a ventilator.

Gareth was the one who had to tell their son his mum had died. 'It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.' He still maintains that speaking up was the right course of action, even though it has brought great distress.

'Nobody wanted to know at the beginning because it went against the narrative,' he recalls, remembering how he would try to tell Lisa's story on TV only to be shut down or for viewers to be reminded that vaccines were 'safe'. He recalls being made to feel like a 'crackpot or conspiracy theorist'. 'At the time if you questioned anything about the vaccine, you were accused of being an anti-vaxxer and unpatriotic.'

Conversely, he was also attacked by the anti-vax lobby for daring to have a vaccine (albeit the Pfizer one) even after Lisa died. 'My crime was wanting to take my son on holiday after his mum died, and to do that I needed to be vaccinated. This issue is one of those ones where you have to take a side. I don't want to be on a side. I just want acknowledgement of the facts.'

His fight, certainly before the class action, was lonely, and carried out while he was almost destroyed by grief. He admits he considered suicide in the early, raw days after losing Lisa, 'but could not, because of Zach'.

'He absolutely does remember Lisa. I just don't know how much is from pictures or what the family have told him.'

He says family, particularly Lisa's sisters, have pitched in but the strain of single parenthood is evident. 'I still don't know how I've done,' he shrugs. 'It hasn't been easy. Even daft things like decorating the house  Lisa would do that all. I still find myself looking at a cushion and thinking 'do I like this? Would Lisa like it?'.'

Throughout, he continued to fight for some official recognition of the 'sacrifice' his family had made. The families who lost loved ones have long thought of themselves as akin to war veterans, accepting of their fate of being sent to the front  but expecting that their families would be looked after if they never came home.

Gareth wrote to three successive prime ministers pleading for help. 'No one wanted to know. I actually have a letter from Rishi Sunak saying he was too busy to see me, but he'd pass me on to the health minister. No word from her either. I'm sure everyone wishes we would go away.'

Trapped between what they call the 'twin Goliaths' of the Government and AstraZeneca, a company worth 185billion, the families increasingly seem like pawns in a bigger game.

'To this day, I can't understand why we have to fight,' says Gareth. 'AstraZeneca have been lauded for saving the world, and maybe rightly so, but ever since their profits have gone through the roof and their people have been rewarded with damehoods, knighthoods and the like. Why do they want to fight us  the little people  in court?

'There is no debate about how our loved ones died  the Government has admitted as much by the payments, even if derisory, from the payment scheme.

'Successive coroners have ruled that the vaccine caused the deaths. Now AstraZeneca have admitted that the vaccine caused the condition that killed Lisa.

'Surely they  or the Government, or both  would want to support us and say 'we asked you to do your duty, and you did, and now we will support you'.'

From here, his fight seems over. 'I can't afford to take either the Government or AstraZeneca to court on my own,' he says.

And there is salt in the wounds. In cases like his, any legal action must be instigated within three years of injury  in this case, the date of the vaccination. Lisa received her vaccination three years ago this week, making this time of year, with anniversaries on the horizon, even more painful.

Were you or a loved one diagnosed with a serious health condition as a result of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine? Or was it even cited as a cause of death of a loved one? Contact us to tell your story at femailreaders@dailymail.co.uk
Prince William scored one per cent lower than his wife, Princess Kate

A new poll has named the Princess of Wales the UK's favourite royal, as William's popularity marginally dropped.

The survey found 63 per cent of Brits consider Kate, 42, 'favourable' - a slight increase from Prince William's score of 62 per cent.

The Princess of Wales has been the subject of intense speculation and conspiracy theories in recent months - and found herself in a social media storm after admitting to editing a Mother's Day family photograph.

But this hasn't seemed to knock her popularity, with her still rating well among Brits.

Royal insiders have claimed she wants to move on from the storm caused by the image and say she is struggling with the aftermath.

Regardless of the picture editing furore, 34 per cent found Kate 'strongly favourable' - a two per cent increase from her husband's score, according to the poll conducted by Savanta research for The Independent.

The Prince of Wales (seen in April) was knocked from the top spot as Britain's favourite royal by just one per cent

However, Harry and Meghan scored considerably lower in comparison.

Only 29 per cent of participants deemed Prince Harry 'favourable', while Meghan's score sat one per cent lower at 28 per cent.

While William managed to impress 33 per cent of participants as 'strongly favourable', Harry appealed to only nine per cent in the same category - the same score achieved by Meghan.

The Duke of York came in as the UK's least favourite royal, with just 14 per cent of participants regarding him as 'favourable'.

Most favoured royals in the UK Participants ranked royals on whether or not they seem 'favourable'... The Princess of Wales - 63 per cent The Prince of Wales - 62 per cent The Duke of Sussex - 29 per cent The Duchess of Sussex - 28 per cent The Duke of York - 14 per cent Savanta research for the Independent Advertisement

Prince Andrew, 64, stepped back from public duties in 2019 following the scandal related to his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes after Kate and William broke tradition today for the second time in weeks by delaying the release of a birthday portrait until late morning on the big day.

Princess Charlotte is nine today, and fans all over the world who were eagerly anticipating a new picture of the young royal were kept waiting a little longer than they had hoped to see a picture of the birthday girl.

Kensington Palace typically releases portraits of the Wales children at midnight to mark their birthdays, but Charlotte's snap - which was captured by her mother - was held back.

Mother-of-three Kate, who is undergoing cancer treatment, also delayed releasing a snap of her youngest son, Prince Louis, to mark his sixth birthday last month, with the image not appearing until the afternoon.

The Mail's Rebecca English revealed that the couple had initially decided not to issue a picture of Louis at all given their recent appeals for privacy at such an 'unprecedented' time for their family, but changed their minds because they wanted to thank fans for their kind wishes to Prince Louis.

And in conversation with The Express royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams added that once they'd decided to release a photo there were likely a lot of discussions about the best approach, given the furore over Kate's edited Mother's Day photo.

Kate achieved the title of Britain's favourite royal with 63 per cent of participants deeming her 'favourable' (seen alongside William, George, Charlotte, and Louis in 2022)

Overall, Richard said the timing could 'emphasise Kate's need for time, space and privacy.'

Describing the 'vexed' issue of her Mother's Day portrait, he described the backlash as a 'highly embarrassing contretemps'.

He added that not rushing out a birthday photo of Louis could also 'emphasise her need for time, space and privacy which she expressed so movingly' in the video message revealing she has cancer.

Earlier this year, the Princess of Wales detailed how the cancerous cells were discovered, while she was undergoing surgery for a different condition in January.

She explained that she had not spoken out about it earlier because she wanted to have time to 'explain everything' to George, Charlotte and Louis and assure them 'I'm going to be okay'.

In March, royal fans went into meltdown after Associated Press issued a 'kill notice' on a photo of the Princess of Wales and her three children that had been released for Mother's Day.

It was the first official photo that was published of Kate after she underwent abdominal surgery in January.

That evening, the Associated Press became the first agency to 'kill' the photo over an 'inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte's left hand'.

While AP said there was no suggestion the photo was fake, it retracted it because it said on closer inspection, the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet the agency's photo standards.

The following day, the Princess of Wales admitted that she edited the Mother's Day photo herself and apologised for 'any confusion' it had caused.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex scored lower than the Wales's - with Harry on 29 per cent and Meghan on 28 per cent. Pictured in Whistler, Canada

63 per cent of participants found the Princess of Wales to be 'favourable', compared to 62 per cent achieved by William

A statement from the Princess of Wales said: 'Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.

'I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day. C'

Two weeks later, the Princess of Wales announced she was battling cancer - amid mounting pressure for the Palace to comment on her condition.

It is believed that the Princess of Wales announced her cancer diagnosis on 22 March as this was the day George, Charlotte and Louis broke up from Lambrook School in Bracknell for their Easter break.

The announcement may have been timed so that her children would not immediately face questions in the playground after the news was made public.

The family are reported to have spent the Easter holidays together as they adjust to Kate's diagnosis, which was discovered in post-operative tests following her major abdominal surgery.

In the emotional message, which was filmed in Windsor, Kate revealed the news had come as a 'huge shock' and that she and William 'have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family'.

Speaking from a bench surrounded by daffodils and spring blossom, she said: 'It has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be ok.

'As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits.

'Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance too. As is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. It means so much to us both.'

Kate revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer after undergoing a planned operation at The London Clinic in January.
When it comes to style, we are all inspired by what we see; whether it be a well-dressed celebrity, a blow-your-mind catwalk presentation or even a fashionable passerby.

As fashion editors, we're moved by all of the above, and then some. We're exposed to under-the-radar labels; we get a first-hand look at collections months before they hit stores; we attend VIP events; we're tapped into brands with chic-yet-cheap offerings and we shop  a lot.

To share our knowledge, FEMAIL brings you Style Swoon, a weekly series of the latest, greatest and on the verge. We hope this series will serve as a buying guide and point of inspiration for all.

On Thursday, May 2, 2024, Tiffany & Co. celebrated the launch of its Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection at the Houses iconic Fifth Avenue flagship: The Landmark

Pharrell x Tiffany & Co.

On Thursday, May 2, 2024, Tiffany & Co. celebrated the launch of its Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection at the Houses iconic Fifth Avenue flagship: The Landmark.

To commemorate the special occasion the iconic fine jewelry label hosted an exclusive event that included cocktails on The Landmarks private floor followed by an intimate seated dinner.

Pharrell Williams and guests including ROSE, Blake Lively, Anitta, Rosalia, KAWS, Pusha T, Gabrielle Union, A$AP Rocky, Hannah Einbinder, Ayo Edebiri, Daniel Arsham, Maggie Rogers, Tyshawn Jones and more attended the celebration tastefully dripping in Tiffany & Co. designs.

The Louis Vuitton Men's Creative Director looked every bit the fashion plate in blue jeans and a white tee topped by a black fringe jacket.

He completed the country-inspired look with a white cowboy hat , sunglasses, and jewelry from his collection.

Blake Lively looked divine in a blue sheath dress that showed off her phenomenal physique, paired with silver sparkly sandals and gems from the Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection

To commemorate the special occasion the iconic fine jewelry label hosted an exclusive event that included cocktails on The Landmarks private floor followed by an intimate seated dinner

Blake Lively showed her support looking divine in a blue fitted sheath dress that showed off her phenomenal physique, paired with silver sparkly sandals and gems from the Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection.

Her blonde tresses were styled in sleek waves cascading down her shoulders.

The Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection is everything a modern day man or woman wants.

Inspired by the structure of the trident, the Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection incorporates sharp, spear-like spikes within an array of necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

The end result? Jewelry that plays with proportion and balance that's made with everyday wear in mind to instantly elevate any and every ensemble.

Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams is available this May exclusively on Tiffany.com in the US and at The Landmark in New York City. The collection will be available globally at Tiffany & Co. stores and Tiffany.com in June.

Inspired by the structure of the trident, the Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams collection incorporates sharp, spear-like spikes within an array of necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

Tiffany Titan by Pharrell Williams is available this May exclusively on Tiffany.com in the US and at The Landmark in New York City . The collection will be available globally at Tiffany & Co. stores and Tiffany.com in June.

The Louis Vuitton Men's Creative Director looked every bit the fashion plate in a cowboy hat and graphic white tee

Lightweight classic backpack leader Kipling and iconic surf-swimwear brand Body Glove have just dropped their collaboration of bags, brought to life with a content creator lifestyle campaign

Kipling x Body Glove

Two legendary brands have come together to create the summer's must-have bags!

On Wednesday, May 1st, lightweight classic backpack leader Kipling and iconic surf-swimwear brand Body Glove dropped their cool collaboration of bags, brought to life with a content creator lifestyle campaign.

Inspired by Body Glove's 80's retro vibe, the Kipling x Body Glove capsule collection is the perfect mix of function and fashion.

Fusing Kipling's lightweight everyday favorites with Body Glove's bold retro color-blocking DNA, offerings include a large drawstring backpack, a large waist pack, and a small crossbody in three colors: black, flashy pink, and yellow beam, that are perfect for the beach and beyond.

True fans of both labels - including pro surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb - bring the creative campaign vision to life, toting the bags in their everyday lives

Fusing Kipling's lightweight everyday favorites with Body Glove's bold retro color-blocking DNA, offerings include a large drawstring backpack, a large waist pack, and a small crossbody in three colors: black, flashy pink, and yellow beam, that are perfect for the beach and beyond

True fans of both labels - including pro surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb - bring the creative campaign vision to life, toting the bags in their everyday lives.

Tatiana can be seen on the beach with her surf board and Kipling x Body Glove black backpack in hand.

'We believe our customers are the heart and soul of our brand,' states Priscilla Mera, Kipling North America.

'To celebrate the collaboration as well as our customers' creativity into this campaign, we are able to showcase the ways our products empower them to embrace an active and adventurous lifestyle.'

Nick Meistrell, VP of Global Marketing at Body Glove, added, 'I am thrilled about the collaboration between Body Glove and Kipling bags, merging 90s nostalgia with the timeless appeal of two heritage brands.

'The partnership embodies the perfect synergy between style and function, offering a unique blend of retro flair and modern design. I can't wait to see how this collaboration sparks new trends, capturing the essence of such an iconic fashion era in a contemporary way.'

The Kipling x Body Glove capsule collection starts at $69.00 and it available at kipling-usa.com and bodyglove.com

'To celebrate the collaboration as well as our customers' creativity into this campaign, we are able to showcase the ways our products empower them to embrace an active and adventurous lifestyle, said Priscilla Mera, Kipling North America

The Kipling x Body Glove capsule collection starts at $69.00 and it available at kipling-usa.com and bodyglove.com

Joe & the Juice has taken a unique approach to publicizing their breakfast menu expansion with a new digital campaign, 'Get Chic for Breakfast', starring Paris Hilton and Alix Earle

Paris x Joe & The Juice

Joe & the Juice has taken a unique approach to publicizing their breakfast menu expansion with a new digital campaign, 'Get Chic for Breakfast', starring Paris Hilton and Alix Earle.

The campaign - highlighting their new Eggcado Breakfast Sandwich' - is now live across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Tapping both blonde beauties, Joe & The Juice is hoping to encourage customers to get together and get chic for the most important meal of the day.

In the video, Paris looks stunning in an all-pink ensemble consisting of a body-hugging dress featuring feather sleeves, while Alix is suited up in a pale pink double-breasted suit.

The clip depicts Hilton and Earle as new friends meeting for the first time at Joe & the Juice in Los Angeles, where they slay, slive, and bond over the new Eggcado Breakfast Sandwich.

Tapping Paris Alix, Joe & The Juice is hoping to encourage customers to get together and get chic for the most important meal of the day

The Skechers x Jen Stark collaboration is back for season 2 with a colorful, eye-catching footwear collection

Following the highly coveted season 1 capsule - which sold out in days - this season's wildly popular collection includes pairs for her and him

For its second capsule, a selection of Skechers street style footwear serve as a canvas to showcase Jen's hypnotizing dimensional patterns and colors that she is best known for

Skechers x Jen Stark

The Skechers x Jen Stark collaboration is back for season 2 with a colorful, eye-catching footwear collection.

Following the highly coveted season 1 capsule - which sold out in days - this season's wildly popular collection includes pairs for her and him.

For its second capsule, a selection of Skechers street style footwear serve as a canvas to showcase Jen's hypnotizing dimensional patterns and colors that she is best known for.

One of several artists that make up the Skechers Visual Artist Series, Stark's designs start at $95 and can be found on skechers.com and select Skechers retail stores across the country.
King Frederik of Denmark said that having his wife Queen Mary by his side was the 'highlight' of his 'overwhelming' coronation ceremony, amid rumours the couple is dealing with marital struggles.

Speaking to Danish broadcaster, TV2, aboard their royal yacht Kongeskibet Dannebrog, the couple avoided questions about their relationship after pictures emerged of the monarch having an evening out with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova in November last year.

Instead, the couple doubled down on the strength of their marriage - with Frederik praising Mary to help him get through the historic day.

The King, who was crowned in January, said: 'It was very overwhelming and moving. I felt extremely well received.

Queen Mary and King Frederik of Denmark are warmly welcomed by the Danish public at Fredensborg Palace yesterday

They waved to crowds as they prepared to set sail on their yacht, Kongeskibet Dannebrog

'The highlight was when Mary and the children came out and stood right behind me and I had the Danes standing in front of me and waving. It was one of the most amazing things to experience in my life.'

And Queen Mary was just as complimentary to her husband, saying the moment 'moved her so much'

She said: 'I stood with the children and when you stepped out onto the balcony towards your fate, it was a moment that moved me incredibly much.

'We could hear and feel it, even if we couldn't see it. It was a beautiful moment. I was both very happy and very proud.'

Unlike the British royal family, Mary and Frederik's new reign was announced at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen and they did not have a coronation service after his mother Queen Margrethe stepped down.

The shock abdication came a month after Frederik was pictured with Geneva Casnova, the former daughter-in-law of the billionaire Duchess of Alba.

The pair were seen walking through Madrid before heading to her apartment building, changing clothes and heading out again for the evening.

The publication of the photos resulted in Genoveva, 47, issuing a statement denying any kind of romantic relationship between herself and the royal and slamming the 'malicious' rumours.

Mary, 52, donned a simple, yet stylish ensemble featuring a tailored white blazer, a chic cream blouse and smart navy blue trousers

But the couple seemed to put all trouble behind them as they arrived in Fredensborg on Thursday.

The royal pair were greeted with cheers from royal fans and a welcome from the local mayor yesterday when they travelled to Fredensborg Palace.

In the months that have followed the coronation, Mary has fulled speculation by completing a series of solo royal engagements without her husband.

Despite this, the couple say protecting the tradition of the monarchy was important to them.

They told the Danish outlet: 'We want to be a royal couple who are visible and present throughout Denmark.'

The couple, who share four children, Crown Prince Christian, Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, were greeted with a sea of white and red when they arrived yesterday, with many patriotic Danes waving the flag and giving the King and Queen a warm welcome.

The couple shared a loving gaze at each other whilst onstage yesterday, amid rumours of marital struggles

The royal couple looked in high spirits as they greeted fans who wished them well on their travels

The couple were greeted with a sea of white and red when they arrived yesterday

Mary, 52, donned a simple, yet stylish ensemble featuring a tailored white blazer, a chic cream blouse and smart navy blue trousers.

The mother-of-two showed off her slender figure by cinching in her waist with a patterned-brown belt and opted for olive-green heels.

She wore her brunette tresses of hair down in a sophisticated blowdry and chose to wear simple silver stud earrings and a pearl ring.

Mary wore glamorous makeup that highlighted her features, opting to for shimmery eye-shadow, pink lip gloss and glitzy highlighter.

Mary showed off her slender figure by cinching in her waist with a patterned-brown belt and opted for olive-green heels

Mary spoke to people who waited to see them at Fredensborg Castle yesterday

King Frederik looked dapper in a grey chequered suit with matching suit trousers, a brown belt, and a blue shirt

King Frederik looked dapper in a grey chequered suit with matching suit trousers, a brown belt, and a blue shirt.

Mary also spoke to the media about their yacht, Kongeskibet Dannebrog, which has been in commission since 1932.

She looked back on the family holidays that took place there and said: 'The children, crew and us  not so high for me  jump from the highest point on the ship into the deep blue water.'

It is believed they will travel on the yacht to visit their Scandinavian neighbours, Sweden and Norway over the spring and summer months.

Frederik said: 'We feel at home in Scandinavia. We are not only colleagues, but also family. Our cohorts have become friends. We have a fantastic dialogue and a relaxed relationship when we meet.'

Well-wishers eagerly watched Queen Mary, and King Frederik board the Royal Yacht Dannebrog as they set off for a traditional summer tour at sea.

Queen Mary and King Frederik of Denmark beamed as they arrived at the port today to board the Royal Yactht Dannebrog

The Queen was given a posy of flowers as she departed for the waters as the couple head off on their summer tour

The royal couple beamed as they waved goodbye to people on the land after setting sail on their summer tour

Mary had a quick outfit change and looked elegant in a navy polka dot dress with an a-line skirt, paired with a stunning white headband as she accepted a posy of flowers before boarding the boat.

Meanwhile her husband looked regal in his military uniform as he joined his wife to wave goodbye to people on land when they set sail.

The royal couple beamed as they set off on the tour, which will see them visit the Faroe Islands and Greenland in June and July - and showed they would not be cowed by accusations they photoshopped their first royal portrait since becoming king and queen.
The Changing of the Guard in London and Windsor is an event that attracts hundreds of tourists, who flock from around the world to see the military spectacle unfold.

Taking place four times a week, it sees The King's Guard handing over responsibility for protecting Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace to the New Guard, usually involving soldiers in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats parading with an army band through central London.

However, England isn't the only place that has a distinctive Changing of the Guard ceremony - different kinds of these events take place at many important institutions around the world.

Videos of the choreographed displays of military drills often find their way to social media, sometimes evoking mixed reactions.

As more clips than usual have been circulating online recently, tourists are beginning to poke fun at the 'nuts' and 'unserious' protocol.

One clip that's doing the rounds online, shows the Attari-Wagah border ceremony which sees the security forces of India and Pakistan put on a show of unionship every day by performing drills in an exaggerated fashion

One clip that's doing the rounds online, shows the Attari-Wagah border ceremony which sees the security forces of India and Pakistan put on a show of unionship every day by performing drills in an exaggerated fashion.

Sporting colourful clothing at sunset, the soldiers do some impressively high leg kicks and manoeuvres, before the two flags are lowered at the same time and the gates are closed.

The clip, shared by X (formerly Twitter) account @TheFigen_, has already been seen by a whopping 32 million people, some of whom rushed to the comments to poke fun at the bizarre ceremony.

One user joked: 'This is the most unserious, serious thing I've ever witnessed'.

A second and third penned:'They look like complete idiots' and 'They look just like two peacocks prancing at each other!'

Someone else joked: 'Looks like it turned into a dance off' with another adding: ''This looks like a comedy show'.

Meanwhile, another social media user claimed: 'That has to be one of the silliest things I've seen in a while'.

A tourist who had seen the dramatic event in person added their own video and wrote: 'When we were there earlier this year, we had to come see this. It was nuts. Two countries with a lot of tension having a March off. Those dudes are like 67 massive towers'.

The clip, shared by X (formerly Twitter) account @TheFigen_ , has already been seen by a whopping 32 million people, some of whom rushed to the comments to poke fun at the bizarre ceremony

The video also encouraged another user to share a snippet of the Greek Changing of Guards ceremony, which shares a similar level of flamboyance

The Greek Guards get bonus points for their flair, their attire and symmetry.  pic.twitter.com/unY5lNGKid  floridanow1 (@floridanow1) April 30, 2024

However, one user defended the border ceremony and explained its significance, quipping: 'This is a moment of pride for either of the nationalities. You literally get goosebumps if you're witnessing this on the spot there'.

The security forces of India (Border Security Force, BSF) and Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) have been taking part in the daily military practice since 1959 and thousands of people flock to see it on either side of the border.

It represents the complex relationship between the nations and is a symbol of both division and peace and cooperation.

The video also encouraged another user to share a snippet of the Greek Changing of Guards ceremony, which shares a similar level of flamboyance.

The X account @floridanow1 penned: 'The Greek Guards get bonus points for their flair, their attire and symmetry,' alongside a shocked emoji.

Donning white jackets, wide skirts, and Albanian-type slipper clogs, the video sees two of the guards performing their routine in unity, lifting their legs and arms up high.

The guards are known as the Greek Evzones and they guard the Presidential Palace and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier around the clock.

They raise the Greek flag at the Acropolis right after sunrise every Sunday and lower it at sundown.

Changing of Turkish Guards of Antkabir...  pic.twitter.com/a8OdeGTIma  Deli Frtna  (@TANER_FIRTINA) April 30, 2024

Joining the conversation, another X user ( @Taner_Firtina ) shared a video of the Changing of Turkish Guards of Anitkabir

Every Sunday, at 11am, the Grand Changing of the Guard ceremony takes place and the evzones, accompanied by a military band, march from the Presidential Guard's barracks to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and backward.

As the video began racking up views online, one user joked: 'They are also very flexible'.

But, a second angrily penned: 'Why do they make them do things like this. It's stupid and humiliating'.

'Looks more like a humiliation ritual,' quipped another, with someone else adding: 'I won't be able to stop laughing if I'm there'.

One fan of the ceremony added: 'This is a tradition, so much is lost in our society just because 'times change'. It's refreshing to see that these have stood the test of time'.

Another wrote: 'Loved witnessing this in Athens! But the shoes kill me every time!'

Joining the conversation, another X user (@Taner_Firtina) shared a video of the Changing of Turkish Guards of Anitkabir.

'Power rangers' and 'toy soldiers' joked some commenters, with a third questioning: 'Why does it look like they're dressed as henchmen in an Evil Genius game?'

The military ceremony takes place at certain times of day, attracting the attention of tourists and locals alike.

Social media users poked fun at the flamboyant Changing of the Guard ceremonies across the world

In the clip, soldiers are seen marching in sync in black, white blue uniforms as crowds watch on.

The videos come just after last month, for the first time in history Buckingham Palace was guarded by French troops in a drill approved by King Charles to mark 120 years of friendly relations.

In April of 1904 an agreement known as the Entente Cordiale was decided between the United Kingdom and the French Republic that settled a number of controversial matters and improved Anglo-French relations.

To mark this anniversary French troops guarded Buckingham Palace at Monday's Changing the Guard ceremony.

The forecourt of Buckingham Palace saw 32 French soldiers from the Republican Guard of the National Gendarmerie join 40 Guardsmen from F Company Scots Guards to parade the grounds together.

A similar guard change, attended by President Macron, was also held in Paris earlier that day.
Meghan Markle may not be accompanying Harry to the UK for the Invictus Games event because she is afraid that she will be booed by the British public again, a royal expert has said.

Prince Harry, 39, is set to fly to the UK next week for the event but he will not be joined by his wife.

A spokesman for the couple confirmed Meghan would not accompany her husband to a service at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games on May 8.

Instead the Duchess of Sussex, 42, will fly from the US to Nigeria to meet her husband for an official visit immediately afterwards.

The mother-of-two is worried about coming back because she does not want to feel unwelcome by royalists at St Paul's for the second time, according to Richard Eden.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were booed during celebrations for the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022 (the pair pictured at the event)

Royal Expert Richard Eden says Meghan may not want to go back to the London landmark because she is afraid of being booed again

Meghan and Harry went to the historic landmark in 2022 to participate in celebrations for the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

But when they exited the car, they were greeted by some smiles, cheers and applause - but also booing.

Speaking on Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail's Richard Eden said: 'She does not want to return to Britain in a hurry. There are many people here who won't be sad about that.

'Meghan will be wary of getting booed at St. Pauls'.

In September 2022, the Duchess of Sussex travelled to Windsor Castle with her husband Harry, Kate and William to greet those who wanted to pay their respects to Queen after she passed away.

The former fab-four walked around and interacted with people who were eager to offer their best wishes to the royals during the tough time.

But when Meghan went to shake hands with one woman, she was ignored.

She refused to put out her hand when Meghan went to shake it, and then turned her head away from the former Suits star altogether.

Meghan was ignored by one well-wisher, who was paying her respects to the late Queen, after attempting to shake her hand

Meghan and Harry have been invited to Nigeria by the country's chief of defence staff to take part in 'cultural activities'.

They will meet service members and their families and participate in 'traditional cultural activities', according to Nigerian media.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to travel to the African country in May after being invited by its chief of defence staff to take part in 'cultural activities' and meet service members on an unofficial visit.

One royal commentator accused the couple of 'playing the "Royal Card"' as their 'income lifeline' while another said it was 'ironic' the couple are happy to visit Commonwealth countries but not as official royal ambassadors.

Brigadier General Tukur Gusau expressed 'honour and delight' that the couple had accepted the invitation to visit the country, after meeting Harry at last year's Invictus Games.

Their tour of Nigeria will take place just days after the Prince is set to fly to the UK to mark the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games at a service at St Paul's Cathedral. No senior members of the royal family are expected to attend.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured on April 12 in Florida) have been accused of wanting their own 'rival royal roadshow' as they embark on their first non-official royal tour of Nigeria

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (pictured in South Africa in 2019) are set to travel to the African country in May after being invited by its chief of defence staff

Harry and Meghan's acceptance of the invitation - their first visit to Nigeria as a couple - is said to have left the country's defence headquarters feeling 'honoured' and 'delighted' (Harry and Meghan pictured at the Invictus Games as they attend the Ukraine v Nigeria volleyball match)

Harry will then jet off to the Commonwealth country to meet his wife who is also not believed to be travelling alongside him to the UK, in what will be his first visit since Kate's shock cancer diagnosis.

Following the announcement of the trip, royal experts were quick to point out that the couple's visit will be a royal tour in all but name - and could even confusion and threaten diplomatic relationships.

Royal biographer Tom Bower told MailOnline: 'Playing the "Royal Card" has become Meghan's and Harry's income lifeline. Once again, the 'privacy-seeking' couple are exploiting the family they have outrageously denounced to pump up their publicity.

'Undoubtedly, the trip will be financed by the Nigerian government. Their motives, as members of the Commonwealth, remain obscure.'

Meanwhile royal author Phil Dampier suggested there was an irony to the visit, as Harry and Meghan have previously been critical of the Commonwealth, with the Duchess admitting she 'did not know' about it until after she joined the firm.

Royal author Phil Dampier said: 'It's ironic that the late Queen wanted Harry and Meghan to very much be her ambassadors throughout the Commonwealth and spread goodwill among its fifty or so nations, but they didn't want to do it as royals.

'Now they are happy to pick and choose invitations they receive from these countries. They did so in Jamaica and now plan to travel to Nigeria, a country his mother Diana toured with the King in the early 1990s.

The Sussexes will make their first visit as a couple to Nigeria after being invited by the country's chief of defence staff (Pictured: Harry and Meghan at day four of Invictus Games 2023 at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany)

The Duke of Sussex and Michael Buble curling at the final day of the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 on February 16 2024

Prince Harry will fly to Britain in just over a week's time for the Invictus Games' 10th anniversary where he will give a reading at St Paul's Cathedral - but there is no mention of Meghan being in attendance

'They are in effect trying to set up a rival court, their own royal roadshow, and I think people can see through it.

'They heavily criticised the monarchy and the Commonwealth in their Netflix shows and Harry's book Spare, yet they are happy to be invited simply because of their royal connections.'

Mr Dampier said that unofficial visits conducted by the pair could 'blunder into a diplomatic incident' if they couple 'say or do the wrong thing'.

He added: 'It's all trying to have your cake and eat it, do commercial deals where it suits, but do some quasi-official duties to make out you are still important on the world stage.

'Some will say they have every right to do this but it smacks of the half in and half out position the late Queen tried to avoid.'
podcast: each week Vogue Williams sits down with a family to discuss issues from the past, like NEVER before. Listen on

A mother has opened up about the 'devastating' moment her son was diagnosed with a deadly disease at age 30, and was given just two years to live.

Vogue Williams met with Sue and her son Alex, now 33, at his home in Forest Hill, South London for The Mail's new podcast, The Apple & The Tree - a show which unearths candid conversations between parents and their adult children about subjects theyve rarely, if ever, talked about.

In this episode, Sue, a mother-of-two to brothers Alex and James, spoke on the 'difficult' moment her youngest son Alex was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - an uncommon condition that causes the brain and nerves to weaken over time and which eventually leads to death.

At the time of his diagnosis Alex, who now uses a wheelchair, was given a '50/50' chance of being alive in two years.

Sue recalled what happened when she received the life-changing news: 'Um you [Alex] called us and you said, "I'll, I'll, I'll call you when I'm home".

Sue and her son Alex, now 33, from London, appeared on The Mail's new podcast The Apple & The Tree to discuss his motor neurone disease diagnosis

At the time of his diagnosis Alex, who now uses a wheelchair, was given a '50/50' chance of being alive in two years

'And I think you called us about three o'clock that afternoon. And then literally, I remember your words saying "I've got a 50, 50 chance of being alive in two years time". 'I think you [Alex] were angry as well.

'And dad and I, I was cleaning granddad's floor at the time in the kitchen, and I think, "oh dear". Yeah. And I just can remember how devastating that news was. It's very difficult'.

Sue, who once lived in pre revolution Tehran as an air hostess for Iran Airways, also relived the 'worst' feeling of knowing her son had received the diagnosis without his family by his side.

For the mum, the memory of that day is as vivid as ever. She continued: 'Craig wasn't with you, you'd gone on your own, and the consultant told you the diagnosis on your own.

'You were going to ring us after you'd had your appointment - not knowing that you were going to get the diagnosis, so just to see, just to let us know how the appointment had gone.

'And I remember I, I thought you would have, you should have finished by about one o'clock and you didn't get in touch and then time went on'.

Alex was diagnosed with motor neurone disease after suffering for months with 'twitches' and the loss of strength in his hands.

During the episode, Alex wanted to ask his mum about the impact of his MND diagnosis on the family. Sue replied that it had been challenging both 'mentally' and physically'.

Sue said the diagnosis was 'devastating' and added that the disease had been challenging both 'mentally' and 'physically' for the entire family

She said: 'So now we've got your diagnosis - motor neuron disease - which has been quite a shock. Um, and quite challenging to deal with mentally and physically for all of us'.

When Alex asked his mum if she suspected he had MND, she said it crossed her mind but it was something she didn't want to 'believe'.

She recalled: 'I can remember being out walking with my girlfriends... I can remember saying that you've been having, you know, problems and you've got this twitching and you were waiting for some results, this, that and the other.

'And, and I just recall saying, "well, let's hope it's not motor neuron disease because you know, that would just be the worst case scenario".

'So it had crossed my mind, but it's one of those things you say, and you don't really believe it. Do you know what I mean? Because I had an idea that the symptoms, you know, pointed to that being a possibility'.

Vogue Williams presents The Apple & The Tree - a show which unearths candid conversations between parents and their adult children about subjects theyve rarely, if ever, talked about

Elsewhere in the podcast things became even more candid when Sue shared her thoughts on learning both her sons were gay.

Responding to Alex's question about having 'suspicions' that her sons were gay before they officially came out, she said: 'Um, I think my first inclination was James. Yeah, he was 16 and there were just moments.

'Over a period of time I started to think and I thought, well, I just wanted to know and so I asked him.

'I thought you [Alex] were just a child having fun. Dancing to Steps, doing all the dance moves and looking at the camera like I think I'm a model. Yeah, but Alex, I thought you... I thought you were just a child having fun'.

WHAT IS MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE? Motor neurone disease is a rare condition that mainly affects people in their 60s and 70s, but it can affect adults of all ages. It's caused by a problem with cells in the brain and nerves called motor neurones. These cells gradually stop working over time. It's not known why this happens. Having a close relative with motor neurone disease, or a related condition called frontotemporal dementia, can sometimes mean you're more likely to get it. But it doesn't run in families in most cases. Early symptoms can include weakness in your ankle or leg, like finding it hard to walk upstairs; slurred speech, finding it hard to swallow, a weak grip, and gradual weight loss. If you have these symptoms, you should see a GP. They will consider other possible conditions and can refer you to a specialist called a neurologist if necessary. If a close relative has motor neurone disease or frontotemporal dementia and you're worried you may be at risk of it, they may refer you to a genetic counsellor to talk about your risk and any tests you can have Source: NHS UK Advertisement

Alex said he came out to a group of friends during a game - a moment that left them all in shock.

He revealed: 'We were actually playing a drinking game I think we were playing I Have Never, where you say stuff you've never done.

'And um someone said something like, "I've never kissed a man". And I was just like, ah, screw it. And I was just, "I have". And they were like, "oh my God", like, really shocked'.

Before the end of the podcast he left a word of advice for viewers, telling them to 'make more mistakes' in their youth.

He added: 'I think that part of my own advice would be to make more mistakes and take more risks when I was younger.

'Because I think I've always been a bit scared of making mistakes - but maybe that's come from me'.

Listen to the interview in full on The Apple & The Tree podcast on the Mail Podcast hub, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. New episodes released every Friday.

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Olive oil has become a food shop staple for the middle classes in recent decades, a health-giving Mediterranean nectar that makes salads taste better and has all but banished butter - or gasp! - lard from our frying pans.

However, the oil, usually sourced from Spain, Italy and Greece, has shot up in price over the last two years, with the Office for National Statistics figures suggesting it's now 89 per cent more expensive to add a bottle to your trolley than it was just two years ago.

Indeed, research by MailOnline last week found that the price of a bottle are at an average of 9.49 now, an increase of more than 168 per cent on three years ago when you'd have paid just 3.54.

Office for National Statistics figures suggest the price of olive oil has soared by 89 per cent in the past two years, so what are the alternatives for shoppers, without compromising on health?

The most expensive bottle of olive oil currently sold at Waitrose costs a whopping 22 for 500ml, with Aldi the cheapest place to pick the cooking oil up; a 500ml bottle costs a more affordable 4.59.

Such is the rise that supermarkets in the UK have even taken to using security tags on olive oil in a bid to prevent shoplifting, after it was revealed criminals were capitalising on the price hikes.

Harvir Dhillon, an economist at the British Retail Consortium, explained why we're facing such a hit, saying: 'Olive harvests have been badly affected by weather conditions in several Mediterranean countries, including Spain, where the UK gets most of its supply.

Pictured: The price of the cheapest bottle of 500ml olive oil in each UK supermarket.

'This has reduced the supply of olive oil, increasing prices. Weaker exchange rates have further increased the cost of importing olive oil.'

Nutritionist Laura Southern says for her, the taste of olive oil still warrants the cost, but only for pouring on salads  she has stopped cooking with it. She says: 'I use cold-pressed rapeseed oil. They are both high in monounsaturated fat. Rapeseed has a slightly higher smoke point than olive oil, so might be better to cook with anyway.'

Here, FEMAIL looks at cheaper olive oil alternatives - that still come with health benefits - worth considering in your next supermarket shop:

COCONUT OIL Price per 100ml: 88.3p Benefit: Can support gut health

Coconut oil is an affordable option with a unique flavour profile and is rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs).

MCTs are easily digested and can support gut health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut microbiome. It also has antimicrobial properties that may help maintain a healthy gut flora balance.

Look to the nut! A 470ml bottle of coconut oil currently costs around 4.16, making it cheaper than many bottles of olive oil - and it's rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) which can support good gut health

GRAPESEED OIL

Price per 100ml: 88.3p Benefit: Source of Vitamin E

Containing polyunsaturated fat and vitamin E, grapeseed is considered a good alternative to olive oil. It's also, unlike some of the nut oils, without much flavour so versatile in what dishes you can use it with. Great for high-heat cooking, its smoke point is actually a touch above olive oil.

And finally, it's jam packed with linoleic acid levels, good for reducing the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

SESAME OIL Price per 100ml: 1 Benefit: High in omega-3s

Neutral in flavour and with a high smoke point, grapeseed oil is also cheaper than olive oil at around 88 pence per 100ml. Right: The flavour is unique...but sesame and toasted sesame oils are packed with goodness and reasonable at 53.4 pence per 100ml

Not just for the tops of burger buns or bagels, sesame seeds make a pretty fine oil too. Popular in Asian cookery, there's no reason why you can't use it with any cuisine provided you like the nutty flavour profile.

More good news? There's lots of antioxidants such as phytosterols and lignans in them, as well as brain boosting omega-3s and omega-6s, great for skin and hair growth.

SUNFLOWER OIL Price per 100ml: 53.4p Benefit: Source of Vit E and Vit K

Look to the sun (flower): Gentle in flavour and full of vitamin E and K, sunflower oil is a decent alternative to olive. Right: And vegetable oil, although not stacked with as many

Delicate in flavour and equally great for stir-frys and roasting, sunflower seed oil has long been one of the most biggest selling cooking oils - because it's inexpensive to buy at just over 50 pence for 100ml.

It also works drizzled over salads although it doesn't have quite the depth of flavour you get with extra virgin olive oil. Health benefits? There's lots of monounsaturated fats, and it's low-ish on saturated fats plus you'll find vitamin E and vitamin K in there too.

COLD-PRESSED RAPESEED OIL

Price per 100ml: 18.5 p

Benefit: Low in sat fat

High in monounsaturated fat, and with a slightly higher smoke point than olive oil, cold-pressed rapeseed oil is a genuinely great alternative for cooking. Price-wise, it's great value, often coming in at under 20 pence per 100ml.

VEGETABLE OIL Price per 100ml: 18.5p Benefit: Low in sat fat

A bottle of M&S vegetable oil currently costs just 1.85 - a bargain compared to olive oil

Way back when, before we all fell in love with olive oil, vegetable oil was what filled deep fat fryers and saute pans.

While it may not be quite as brimming with health benefits, there's plenty to like about vegetable oil, not least the price, which remains great value at 18.5p. It's also important to know it doesn't come just from veggies, often seeds, nuts, grains and even fruit plays a part.

Vegetable oil simply can't compete with olive oil when it comes to levels of healthier polyunsaturated fats but it remains, if used sparingly, a good choice for roasting and cooking.

Prices based on Ocado this week
The death notice, placed in the local paper by the family of Katie Simpson, asked for donations to a mental health charity in their beloved daughters name.

It seemed fitting: Katies death at the age of just 21, apparently by her own hand, had blindsided everyone. Charismatic and beautiful, she was carving out a career as a showjumper, had a new boyfriend and, in short, had the world at her feet.

Nonetheless, one morning in August 2020 she had seemingly tried to take her own life.

Despite desperate efforts to save her, she tragically died in hospital a week later, having never recovered consciousness.

The loss of such a promising young woman in circumstances as terrible as these would be awful enough.

But as the months passed, the truth about Katies death emerged  a horrifying tale of murder, abuse, rape and multiple infidelities that has utterly destroyed her family.

Katie Simpson death at the age of 21 in 2020, apparently by her own hand, had blindsided everyone

Jonathan Creswell, 36, had been charged with the rape and murder of Katie and was two days into his trial when he killed himself

Katie had known Jonathan Creswell since she was nine when he started working as a jockey at the nearby Darten Ree Stables, in County Armagh

It is a story so darkly shocking as to be barely believable, more like a Netflix crime drama than that of everyday life in a small country village.

Little wonder, then, that the events of that August morning have not only riven Katies close-knit northern Irish village, but has attracted attention worldwide.

The first sign that this was more than just a tragic suicide came relatively quickly  hospital staff raised questions when they saw unexplained bruises on Katies lifeless body.

Months, though, would pass before police would launch an investigation.

When they finally did, it led them to a person Katie had known since she was nine-years-old: her brother-in-law, horse trainer Jonathan Creswell. The partner of her older sister, Christina, 36-year-old Creswell was also father to their two children.

Charged with Katies rape and murder, Creswell was accused of strangling her in a jealous rage after finding out about her new relationship, before covering up her death by passing it off as suicide.

Emotional text messages on Katies phone were to later reveal that she lived in utter terror of the controlling Creswell.

Bleak enough. But what detectives would subsequently uncover would stun even the most seasoned investigators: Creswell had been having an affair with Katie  possibly grooming her since childhood  while also remaining in a relationship with her sister.

Not only this: he was also in relationships with other women.

Three women helped Creswell cover up murdering Katie, one of them mopping up the blood and washing his stained clothes after his ferocious attack on the young woman they knew so well.

One of these women, a young equestrian star called Rose de Montmorency-Wright, 22, had shared a house with Katie, Creswell and Christina in the village of Greysteel, County Londonderry. She had even helped to carry Katies coffin into the church on the day of her funeral.

Little wonder, given this intensely disturbing nexus of sex, violence and betrayal, that the case had transfixed Ireland long before Creswells trial.

It finally opened last month, nearly four years after Katies death, and was expected to last between six and eight weeks.

Yet just one day after the prosecution began to unveil their case, it emerged that Creswell had taken his own life. His body was found at his address on April 25.

With Creswells death has come intense international attention.

It has also, inevitably, left many questions unanswered  but also allows Katies tragic story to be told for the first time.

The Mail can reveal that in the aftermath of Creswells initial appearance in court on charges of murdering Katie, more victims have come forward to describe to police how they, too, were abused by him.

Cristina Simpson has two daughters with Creswell and shared her family home with sister Katie

The girls grew up in the small rural village of Tynan in County Armagh as two of six siblings

One police source told the Mail: It is one of the most complex cases we have come across. Creswell spun an enormously complex web of lies the like of which we havent really seen before.

Certainly, the outwardly charismatic Creswell had been a philanderer from his youth.

A former jockey turned horse trainer, he was in his early 20s when he first crossed paths with the Simpson family in the small rural village of Tynan in County Armagh.

Village life was dominated by the nearby Darten Ree Stables, where the young Katie, one of six siblings, spent much of her time alongside sister Christina, who was several years older.

Horse mad according to her mother Noeleen, Katie was also a real people person.

She could talk to anybody and it didnt matter their age, she recalled in an interview before Creswells trial began. Katie just lit up the room.

The young Katie first met Creswell after he arrived to work as a jockey at the stables. Detective Sergeant James Brannigan told an earlier court hearing his influence upon the youngster had been pernicious from the start.

He had controlled and coerced Katie since she was a child, he stated.

And he already had a chequered past. The year before he arrived in Tynan, he had been dating a talented dressage eventer called Abigail Lyle - now 38, she today lives in the UK and is hoping to compete for Ireland at the Paris Olympics in July.

They had met at an equestrian event in Belfast in 2008 before embarking on a nine-month relationship.

In an emotional interview with the BBC last week, Abi revealed how Creswell had beaten her throughout those months whenever she did something that would be unacceptable to him.

Those could be anything from meeting up with friends, texting someone or going to an event he did not like, she recalled.

On several occasions he had beaten her so badly it left her looking like a Dalmatian because of the bruises on her body.

One attack saw him fill a bath with bleach and threatened to throw her in it. Another saw her in fear of her life.

He took me into the woods and threatened to kill me, she said. I thought he was going to do it this time, he didnt obviously, but that attack lasted hours. He was just beating me, throwing me around, choking me, screaming at me, calling me names and asking me horrible questions.

After plucking up courage to leave him, she went to the police and, in 2010, Creswell was jailed for six months for assault.

Astonishingly, such was his magnetism that when Creswell returned to Tynan after his release, a welcome home party was thrown for him in a local hotel.

He also embarked on a relationship with Christina Simpson, with whom he went on to have two daughters.

Yet despite setting up home with Christina, the philandering Creswell was openly sleeping with different women.

A long standing friend called Jill Robinson was among his periodic lovers, alongside a 30-year-old equestrian called Hayley Robb, who subsequently revealed that she was due to meet up to have sex with Creswell on the day Katie was taken to hospital.

At what point Katies own relationship with Creswell became sexual is unknown, although briefings to the Public Prosecution Service seen by the Mail reveal that Christina certainly knew her sister and partner had at least once shared a bed.

On the morning of August 3, hours before Creswell made the 999 call reporting Katies suicide, Christina had gone to her sisters room and seen them in bed together.

The following morning at 4.30am, Christina observes Johnny sleeping in Katies bed with Katie. When Christina leaves at 6am she observes Johnny now sleeping in the spare room, the briefing states.

We simply do not know if Christina knew the pair were having an affair and condoned it  or if she might have been planning to confront her partner later, or quite possibly, was terrified of him herself.

Katie, however, had recently started a new relationship of her own  with Shane McCloskey, a showjumper from nearby Derry  something she appears to have tried to conceal from Creswell.

Katie remained unconscious for a week before her death on August 9, 2020. Later that day, Creswell posted a Facebook status about Katie

Londonderry Crown Court heard Creswell had previously had an 'illicit' sexual relations with Katie

Despite being excited by her new romance, text messages sent just 24 hours before she was hospitalised show that Katie was also terrified of Creswell finding out about her blossoming relationship.

A frantic exchange of messages with McCloskey later uncovered by police showed she had begged him to lie about the fact they had spent the previous night together if Creswell got in touch.

When McCloskey suggested it would be easier to tell the truth she replies  in what would prove to be a tragically prophetic premonition  that Creswell would go crazy, pleading with her new boyfriend to keep quiet.

This is crazy, McCloskey replied. Youre terrified of him. Its no good.

Mere hours later, Katie would be taken to hospital by an outwardly desperate Creswell, who claimed to medical staff that he had discovered Katie unresponsive at the family home after shed tried to hang herself.

After calling 999, he had refused to let ambulance workers come to the house, instead driving Katies own car with her unconscious body in the back  dressed in just a polo shirt and her underwear  to meet paramedics from nearby Altnagelvin Hospital.

Katie's mother Noeleen said Katie was horse mad and also a real people person

Dressage eventer Abigail Lyle revealed how Creswell had beaten her during their relationship

As prosecuting counsel Sam Magee KC told jurors on the first day of Creswells trial, he had said he found her hanging, and she was blue and not breathing.

In fact, Magee told the court, Creswell had been consumed with jealous rage over Katies relationship with McCloskey, and had strangled her and created a fiction in what he contended was a calculating and deceitful episode.

Nurses had raised concerns that Katies injuries did not match Creswells account: she had bruises on her body, with multiple bruising to her inner thigh including what appeared to be a boot mark. There were also indications of intimate bleeding.

Katie never regained consciousness. Six days after Creswell drove her to hospital, on August 9, 2020, she died.

Later that day, Creswell wrote a gushing tribute to Katie on Facebook: One of the best friends I could ever ask for, one of the most talented horse women I ever met, he wrote, peppering the message with heart emojis. Best hunting buddy in the world, fearless in the saddle, fearless across the country. Hardest worker born, best aunty to my children.

Despite his effusive comments, questions continued to be asked  and ignored  about what had actually happened that day.

At Katies post-mortem, tram-like marks were found on her body consistent with having been hit by a rod. Still her death was recorded as suicide.

Along with de Montmorency-Wright, Creswell was one of the tearful pall bearers at the small country churchyard at St Vindics Parish Church, the familys local church.

His display of mourning didnt fool everyone, however: others who knew Katie felt something wasnt right, and fought for recalcitrant police to open an investigation.

That investigation, when it finally unfolded six months after Katies death, led them to Creswell.

Police discovered Katie had gone somewhere with Creswell in his horsebox at about 6pm. The pair had returned to the family home around midnight.

Considering what we know now about how Creswell treated former girlfriend Abi Lyle when shed displeased him, its probable Katie suffered a terrible, violent ordeal throughout those six hours.

In the early hours of the morning, Christina saw Creswell in bed with her sister.

Hours later, Creswell called for an ambulance, claiming hed found Katie hanging.

The precise details of what actually happened after Christina left the house that morning are unknown and probably will remain so.

What police were able to establish, however, was the part de Montmorency Wright, Robb and Robinson all played in helping Creswell cover up the crime.

De Montmorency Wright  a successful eventer who met Creswell through the equestrian scene while just a teenager, and who Creswell described as his Queen  latterly pleaded guilty to withholding information by knowing Creswell had committed assault.

Jill Robinson, a long turn associate of Creswell, latterly pleaded guilty to perverting the cause of justice.

Described as fiercely loyal to Creswell, Robinson had initially put up his bail when he was first arrested and alongside fellow equestrian Robb subsequently admitted washing Creswells clothes at a launderette some miles away from the family home, after August 3.

Robb, who was described by one police source as being utterly consumed by Creswell, also admitted to cleaning up blood in the family home.

It was Robb, however, who eventually found the courage to admit what shed done, and went on to become a whistleblower, putting herself forward as a co-operating witness.

She described him being abusive and controlling and it was only when he was remanded she got the strength to really come clean about what really happened, a police source reveals.

A lot of her actions were out of loyalty and potentially fear, but she did try to do right by Katie in the end.

All three women, whod pleaded guilty before Creswells trial began, are now awaiting sentencing.

In the meantime, the Mail has learned that Creswell was also facing a catalogue of allegations from more than a dozen other women in the wake of his aborted trial. Among them is a teenage girl who had spoken to police about being abused by Creswell.

The Northern Irish Police Service has also been referred to the Police Ombudsman about its conduct surrounding Katies death, with Northern Irish MP Nuala McAllister revealing this week that she had a lot of questions as to why Katies murder was treated as a suicide for the first few months.

Katies grieving family are now left to confront the fact that Creswell has taken to his grave the secrets of his last hours with Katie  as well as leaving behind two young daughters who will one day have to learn the sordid truth about their father.

News of his death has undoubtedly stunned all involved, with McCloskey telling the Mail it was a huge shock.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, Women's Aid offers free support via their instant messaging service and hotline.

Additional reporting: Nicola Byrne
The stylish aide serves as the former president's deputy communications chief

Margo, 28, wore a pink colored knit dress on the eleventh day of the historic trial

Donald Trump's glamorous aide Margo Martin stepped out in a pink dress on Friday as the former president stopped to speak with reporters outside the Manhattan Supreme Court.

The former President, 77, is currently in the midst of the third week of his historic criminal trial over a $130,000 hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels over their alleged affair.

In a colorful change to previous days that Martin has accompanied her boss to court, the 28-year-old aide looked chic in a mid-calf length mauve knit dress, with a V-neck collar and a tie around the waist to the 11th day of the trial.

Martin, who works as Trump's deputy communications chief, had her balayage hair out in beachy waves, accessorizing with a simple necklace, a watch and some light-colored heels.

Donald Trump's glamorous aide Margo Martin stunned in a stylish mauve dress, as he stopped to speak with reporters outside the Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday morning

Martin, 28, wore a mid-calf length mauve knit dress, with a collar a V-neck and a tie around the waist

Meanwhile her boss kept it simple. Trump walked into court wearing a navy blue suit and a light blue tie.

The former President's hush money criminal trial kicked off in April, with him denying 34 counts of falsifying business records.

While he's been in court, loyal Martin - who shares a striking resemblance to her boss's wife Melania Trump - has gained the public's attention.

The Oklahoma-native is often spotted arriving at the courthouse with Trump in glamorous and opulent ensembles - including a $168 pair of black J. Crew pants and a $2,590 Burberry trench coat.

Martin previously served as the Deputy Director of Communications for Trump's Save America PAC.

During his time in office, she was hired as his press assistant - and she was famously the communications aide who gave the final press lid for the Trump administration.

She was one of the few to remain on with him beyond his White House tenure, and has since become a key part in his team.

Martin now serves as his deputy director of communications and is often spotted with him at various events, including a variety of parties held at his Florida home at Mar-a-Lago.

Martin previously served as the deputy director of communications for Trump's Save America PAC

She now serves as his deputy director of communications and is often spotted with him at various events, including a variety of parties held at his Florida home at Mar-a-Lago

The former President's hush money criminal trial kicked off in April, with him denying 34 counts of falsifying business records

Martin (left) was first propelled into the spotlight last year, after a reporter mistook her for Melania (right), 53, as she entered the courthouse for Trump's arraignment in a separate case

Martin, an Oklahoma native, previously served as Trump's press assistant during his time in office

She has racked up more than 39,000 followers on Instagram, where she often flaunts the many lavish perks that come with working with a prominent political figure and showcases her incredibly luxurious lifestyle.

Martin was first propelled into the spotlight last year, after a reporter actually mistook her for Melania, 53, as she entered the United States Courthouse in Miami for Trump's arraignment in a separate case.

At the time, Fox News anchor John Roberts showed a clip of her walking into the government building on air, telling viewers beforehand, 'We have some video that we want to play out here, Melania Trump entering the courthouse just a short time ago.'

A chyron at the bottom of the video said 'Melania Trump arrives at Miami court.'

On Tuesday, Margo looked stylish in a darker outfit, donning a figure-hugging top and a chic leather skirt

On Thursday, she stunned in a simple but chic set of black pants and a matching jacket, which she paired with a belt that cinched her in at the waist, a leather purse, and dark pumps

The pink dress was a change of color and style for Margot, who usually opts for darker colors (pictured entering the courthouse in April)

However, DailyMail.com had reported earlier that Melania was in New York at the time, where she was spotted exiting Trump Tower and heading to John Frieda's hair salon.

A little while later, John announced on air that he had made a mistake, confessing, 'Apparently that was not Melania.'

He continued: 'A day like today with so many comings and goings, it's easy from a distance to mistake two people.'

On Thursday, the court heard that Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt offered to pay Stormy Daniels $1 million and cover her legal fees to free her from the deal with Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump's defense team try to show Stormy Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson 'extorted' multiple celebrities and paint Davidson as a serial extortionist.

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential election.
Malle said she charges him for every weekend they spend together at her house

She told the podcasters about her financial arrangement with her boyfriend

A woman has sparked fierce debate after revealing that she charges her boyfriend rent when he stays at her house on weekends.

Marystella 'Malle' Gomez, from Colombia, made the eyebrow-raising revelation on the Los Platos Sucios podcast on Sunday.

The social media star told podcast host Ana Maria Cardona - along with fellow influencer Isabela Rivera - about the financial arrangement she and her boyfriend have agreed.

Malle said that she charges him for every weekend they spend together at her house - and the revelation has caused quite the stir.

A woman has sparked fierce debate after revealing that she charges her boyfriend rent when he stays at her house on weekends

Marystella 'Malle' Gomez made the eyebrow-raising revelation on the Los Platos Sucios podcast on Sunday

The social media star told podcast host Ana Maria Cardona - along with fellow influencer Isabela Rivera - about the financial arrangement she and her boyfriend have agreed

Malle, whose Instagram showcases her lavish trips around the world, revealed: 'He stays over on weekends and I still charge my fee.

'I mean, are the services here free? Is the water here free? I don't see anything wrong with it.'

The other women told Malle in no uncertain terms that they did not agree with her actions - but Malle claimed she had even convinced her pals to do the same with their own men.

As the debate continued, the influencer cited a video she had previously seen on social media saying: 'If a man is not helping you have a better financial life, then what are you doing?'

But the other women posited that if their partners' charged them to stay at their places, they would be left outraged.

Ana Maria said, 'If a guy ever charges me a fee, forget it.'

And Isabela added: 'I couldn't be maintained, I'd get bored.'

It was not long until listeners took to social media to discuss the notion - with most disagreeing with Malle's stance.

Malle said that she charges him for every weekend they spend together at her house - and the revelation has caused quite the stir

Malle, whose Instagram showcases her lavish trips around the world, revealed: 'He stays over on weekends and I still charge my fee'

It was not long until listeners took to social media to discuss the notion - with most disagreeing with Malle's stance

One wrote: 'No, it's like if my boyfriend charged me every time he picked me up and took me home.'

Another labelled her actions as being 'extreme stinginess.'

But some were on the Colombian influencer's side.

Someone revealed: 'Before we lived together, mine would always stay from Thursday to Monday.

'One day I told him he had to pay for utilities, and so it was done.'
Trans patients are now getting a 'grotesque' new surgery to give them a combined penis and vagina.

So-called 'phalginas', a term made of the words phallus and vagina, are offered by multiple clinics in the US for 'non-binary' patients.

Britons also claim to have been in discussions with UK surgeons about undergoing the procedure, although none are known to have actually had it.

Traditionally, trans men and women wanting affirming surgery are given the option of an op to alter or remove their original genitals and have new ones crafted.

But the phalgina does away with this 'binary' option, and instead gives patients the chance to have both.

Critics have labelled such ops as 'grotesque surgical experiments' or something akin to what would be performed in 'Frankenstein's lab'

Critics have labelled such ops as 'grotesque surgical experiments' or something akin to what would be performed in 'Frankenstein's lab'.

Advocates, however, say such procedures  usually sold for upwards of 10,000  help people with 'unique' non-binary gender identities finally get the body they want, improving their mental health.

Giving a man a vagina while preserving their penis is medically known as a PPV, or 'penile preservation vaginoplasty'.

A traditional vaginoplasty for males uses tissue from the penis or scrotum to create the neo-vagina.

But some patients who want the penis material preserved opt for an alternative technique that typically involves carving a vagina out of the tissue in the scrotum or perineum, the space between the anus and the genitals.

Peritoneal tissue, which is found inside the abdomen, is harvested in some cases to craft the inside of the new vagina.

Proponents claim this tissue offers several benefits, including making their genitalia pinker and self-lubricating because of the type of tissue used.

The new vagina isn't as touch sensitive because it doesn't contain the same natural nerve connections, however.

The scrotum is usually removed in PPV, with the crafted vaginal opening placed where it used to be.

In theory, the preserved penis retains both its function and sensation.

However, the constitution of patients' ejaculate changes slightly with the removal of the testicles and a resulting absence of semen, becoming clear instead of white.

The opposite procedure, where a female is given an artificial penis while preserving their vagina, is called a vaginal preserving phalloplasty, or VPP.

Much like a PPV, a patient gets to keep their original genitals but have an added set to match their gender identity.

Typical phalloplasties use tissue harvested from other parts of the body, usually the arm or thigh, to craft the new organ.

This process remains the same in VPP but without the removal of the vagina, uterus and ovaries.

VPPs come with a few options such as potentially altering the body's urethra so the trans man can urinate from their new penis and the creation of an artificial scrotum.

Penis size can also be customised to patient preference, to some degree.

However, the length and girth can be limited by the amount of tissue safely able to be harvested from the patient's body.

The penis can also be made to be erogenous by connecting to the nerves found in the clitoris. Ejaculation is not possible, though.

However, only some trans men opt in for this, with others only interested in the aesthetic nature of their new penis, not the functionality.

Implants  to inflate the organ or otherwise mimic an erection  are available for those wanting to use their penis for penetrative sex.

Your browser does not support iframes.

If a female wanting a VPP keeps their reproductive anatomy intact, they can also go on to have children naturally, in theory.

Both VPP and PPV surgeries have a general three-month healing time until patients can resume sexual activity.

It can take up to two years to fully heal and develop nerve sensation, however.

Most surgeons offering these surgeries don't list their prices, but previous reports have put them between 8,000 to 56,000, depending on the complexity.

It is not known how many people have had such procedures.

Surgeries which add a set of genitals while keeping the others intact are, by their very nature, experimental. Long-term health impacts remain a mystery.

The quality of evidence and standards practice used in the care of trans patients has come under increasing scrutiny in wake of the landmark Cass Review in England.

Led by respected paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, the scathing NHS-commissioned 388-page report into child gender services concluded children were being set on the path to irreversible change despite 'remarkably weak evidence'.

In the wake of her report, officials are planning to launch wide-reaching review into adult trans care services, which will serve as a 'Cass, part two' that encompasses the whole field.

UK advocacy group LGB Alliance told MailOnline they were concerned the 'gender industry' was paving the way for 'ever more grotesque surgical experiments'.

The group is particularly concerned about gay, lesbian and bisexual teens being led to believe feelings of same-sex attraction are instead being cause by a gender-identity crisis.

They cite 2016 evidence included in the Cass Review from the NHS's Gender Identity Development Service that found 89 per cent of female and 81 per cent of male patients were either homosexual or bisexual.

LGB Alliance chief executive Kate Barker said: 'The gender industry has persuaded society that people can be "born in the wrong body" and that they must be "fixed" with drugs or surgery.

'Its a business model, built on lies and misery, that has paved the way for ever more grotesque surgical experiments on truly vulnerable people.'

Jay Richards, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, previously told DailyMail.com about non-binary surgery options: 'Its tempting to compare clinics engaged in these ghoulish procedures to Frankensteins lab. But that would be uncharitable to Dr Frankenstein.

Most surgeons offering these surgeries don't list their prices, but previous reports have put them between 8,000 to 56,000, depending on the complexity (stock photo)

'It started with surgeries to make males look like females, and vice versa.

'But it doesnt end there, because the ideologys definition of gender identity is completely untethered from our sexed bodies.'

Stella OMalley, director of Genspect, a campaign group added: 'Surgical interventions for non-binary identities are not necessary and arguably cause more harm than good.

'Surgeons should not be viewed as shopkeepers who can dispense whatever the customer wants.

'They are doctors and they should be bound by the principle to first do no harm.'

A trans movement to ditch the idea of binary genitalia has been spoken about in academic circles for years.

In a talk in 2021 Laura Jacobs a trans psychotherapist based in New York advocated for the possibility of moving away from binary gender limitations when it to surgery.

'Will technology give us options that are artistic and creative?' she said.

'Do we have to stick to penis and vagina norms? Can we have genitalia that look like flowers or abstract sculpture? Can we have multiple? Can they be interchangeable?'.
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Babies born through IVF may be at higher risk of childhood leukaemia, research suggests.

Scientists discovered children conceived using frozen embryos had a 61 per cent greater chance of developing the blood cancer later in life compared to those brought into the world naturally.

Babies conceived via IVF using fresh embryos also had a heightened risk, at 41 per cent.

But independent experts said the technology itself may not be to blame.

Instead, they suggested that older and less fit couples, who are more likely to use IVF in the first place, have a higher chance of having children with leukaemia in general could explain the results.

Scientists discovered children conceived using frozen embryos had a 61 per cent greater chance of developing the blood cancer later in life compared to those brought into the world naturally. Babies conceived via IVF using fresh embryos also had a heightened risk, at 41 per cent

Currently, the fertility treatment has a success rate of up to 40 per cent. Around a third of IVF cycles among under-35s resulted in a live birth in 2019 in the UK. Yet this dropped to just 4 per cent in over-44s

French researchers, who tracked more than 8.2million children, said their findings 'must be interpreted with caution'.

Charities also urged parents not to be alarmed and cautioned the overall risk of children conceived via IVF developing the cancer still 'remains low'.

Dr Richard Francis, deputy director of research at Blood Cancer UK, said while the study was 'well-conducted' it shouldn't worry parents who've had a child via IVF or those considering undergoing fertility treatment.

'Findings from this one study must be treated with caution particularly as this was conducted in a different healthcare system from our own, and where the number of children with blood cancer is very small,' he said.

'Importantly this study can't prove a direct cause between mechanically assisted conception and blood cancer risk.

READ MORE: The heartbreaking egg-freezing scandals that show how vulnerable IVF and fertility treatments are to error Advertisement

'The message to anyone who has been diagnosed with any blood cancer is this: it is not your fault.'

He added: 'Risk factors are not the same as causes and there are various risk factors for blood cancer that all interlink, with things like your age, sex and ethnicity playing an important role too.

'It's important to remember that the risk for children developing leukaemia remains low.

'For those going through, or who have a young child from assisted conception these findings shouldn't be something to worry about but if you do have any concerns you should reach out to your healthcare team.'

Children involved in the study were all recorded in the French National Mother-Child Register between 2010 and 2021.

Of these 2,729 were diagnosed with leukaemia during an average follow-up period of six years.

Babies conceived using frozen embryos had the highest risk, with 69 cases per one million children per year.

Among those conceived with fresh embryos, the risk stood at 52 cases per million children. Babies conceived naturally reported 48 per one million.

Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, researchers said the findings 'suggest that children born after fresh embryo transfer or frozen embryo transfer had a higher risk of leukaemia'.

However, the team made up of health bodies across France, led by the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety, acknowledged the 'risk assessment of childhood cancers is challenging given their rarity'.

They added: 'Therefore, these findings must be interpreted with caution.'

Dr Channa Jayasena, an expert in reproductive endocrinology at Imperial College London, who wasn't involved in the research, said the study had a notable omission.

'My main criticism is that the results do not appear corrected for parental age,' he said.

'Couples having a baby naturally are more likely to be younger and fitter than couples needing fertility treatment.

Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows the average age of mothers in England and Wales has increased since the 1970s, now reaching 30.9 years as of the latest figures

'We know that the health of both mum and dad can affect outcomes of pregnancy.

'In particular, increased age reduces egg and sperm quality by causing DNA damage.

'It is already known that older mums and dads are slightly more likely to have children with leukaemia, just as with Down's syndrome.'

However, he added it was critical to remember the majority of children born via fertility treatment are healthy and technologies like IVF were a critical part in helping women conceive in modern Britain.

'Shifts in society mean that more women need to secure employment stability before having kids,' he said.

'In my opinion, merely telling women to have kids earlier is unhelpful medical advice.

'Instead, we should focus on reducing modifiable risk factors for childhood leukaemia, such as smoking.'

Around 650 children and young adults are diagnosed with leukaemia every year in Britain, according to Blood Cancer UK.

Leukaemia, of all types, is the most common cancer in kids under 15.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the most common form of the disease, has an overall survival rate of more than 90 per cent five years after diagnosis, Cancer Research UK says.

Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at Britain's fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said the data was actually good news for couples using IVF.

While conception rates vary for individual women, statistics from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence show fertility levels generally begin to fall off by the late 20s and then rapidly decline from the mid-30s onwards

'This study is reassuring as the results show that the risk of leukaemia for children born after assisted reproduction did not differ significantly from that of children conceived naturally, ' she said.

Around 55,000 Brits went through IVF in 2021, latest figures from the HFEA show.

The fertility treatment is often the go-to-method for couples struggling to conceive, despite costing up to 5,000 for one cycle privately.

Data also suggests the number of older mothers  who are more likely to need to use fertility treatments  is rising.

Experts believe the rise is linked to women opting to have children later in life while they pursue careers in their youth.

Success rates for IVF vary, from 41 per cent for under-35s to six per cent for over-44s, according to its data.

Under current official guidelines, women under the age of 40 struggling to have a child naturally should get three cycles of the fertility treatment on the NHS.

But last year MailOnline revealed only three parts of the country abide by this access criteria, developed 10 years ago.

The majority of health authorities, who are allowed to make their own access rules, offer only one cycle of IVF.

Some also deny it to women over 35. Others even refuse to pay for the procedure if they or their partner already have any children.
DID YOU SUFFER A SERIOUS SIDE EFFECT FROM THE VACCINE? WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: CONTACT HEALTH@DAILYMAIL.COM

Americans who claim they were badly injured by the Covid vaccines feel they are being ignored and gaslighted by the government.

Over 13,000 formal complaints about adverse reactions to the shots have been filed since 2021 - but only 19 percent have been reviewed.

And just 12 patients have been compensated at an average of about $3,600, a figure which some have called insultingly low given the debilitating health issues they have been left with.

Experts say that researchers who've tried to investigate the little-understood side effect profile of Covid vaccines have been blocked by government officials and scientists who fear that even entertaining the possibility that vaccines can cause harm would fuel the anti-vax, which become bigger and louder during the pandemic.

Still, people are suffering from a range of conditions that came on soon after getting their first shot, including brain damage, tinnitus, neurological syndromes, facial paralysis, heart trouble, and shingles.

Michelle Zimmerman, 37, a neuroscience PhD, had to move back into her parents after she was diagnosed with brain damage after getting the Covid shot

Shaun Barcavage, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner in New York, said that merely standing up would make his heart race ever since he got his first Covid shot, which suggests a syndrome that causes disupted blood flow throughout the body

Unlike several countries like Australia, Canada, and Denmark, which have centralized health records compiled on a single database, the US has no such thing, leaving scientists to sift through reports of mild to severe side effects, of which there are more than four million lodged to the CDCs voluntary adverse reporting website.

Before Michelle Zimmerman, 37, had to say goodbye to her career as a neuroscientist, her regular 20-mile bike rides, and her lectures on the latest in AI, she had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in 2021.

No longer able to stand up on her own for long periods of time, and eventually diagnosed with brain damage, Dr Zimmerman had to move back in with her parents. She is convinced the vaccine she got came from a contaminated batch.

She told the New York Times: When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much Ive lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend.

Dr Zimmerman submitted her application for the Covid vaccine compensation program in October 2021, but it took two years for that claim to be acknowledged by the federal government. She has yet to receive any help from government officials.

She is far from the only one who has submitted such a claim. The Health Resources and Services Administrations Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), 13,116 claims have been filed, of which more than 10,000 are still in review.

Twelve claims have been compensated at an average of about $3,600. This is because the office recognizes so few side effects as stemming from the Covid vaccine.

Shaun Barcavage, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner in New York, said that merely standing up would make his heart race ever since he got his first Covid shot.

His symptoms suggested postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition in which the body cannot regulate the flow of blood properly, causing lightheadedness, fainting, and rapid heartbeat.

POTS has been tenuously linked to the vaccines, but more often with Covid infection itself.

Mr Barcavage, who in his career has worked on clinical trials for both HIV and Covid, said: I cant get the government to help me. I am told Im not real. Im told Im rare. Im told Im coincidence.

And Dr Gregory Poland, 68, who edits the journal Vaccine, has had a loud whoosing sound in his ears accompany every single second since he got his shot, and now fears never having a silent moment again.

His colleagues at the CDC did not take on his pleas for further research into the post-vaccine phenomenon.

Dr Gregory Poland, editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine, has had tinnitus since he got his vaccine

Dr Buddy Creech, a vaccine researcher at Vanderbilt University, has suffered tinnitus and a racing heartbeat after each dose

Covid vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Johnson and Johnson  which is no longer available  have been credited with averted at least three million deaths in the US and around 20 million globally due to the virus.

But even the best vaccines are not perfect, and when given to more than 270 million Americans in nearly 677 million doses, adverse reactions are bound to crop up.

Scientists fear the minority of vaccine recipients who have experienced severe reactions that have upended their lives are being ignored by federal officials with the power to initiate and fund more research into the matter.

Dr Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and vaccine expert at Yale University, said: 'At least long Covid has been somewhat recognized', added people complaining of post-vaccine injuries are 'just completely ignored and dismissed and gaslighted.'

Dr Janet Woodcock, who headed the FDA from January 2021 through February 2022 during a crucial time which which early vaccines and treatments were being reviewed, told the New York Times that she wished government officials would hear those people out.

She said: I feel bad for those people. I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.

Im disappointed in myself. I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didnt bring it home.

The understaffed office heading the complaints database has left suffering Americans feeling let down by what was meant to be a highly specific, high efficient means of recourse for Covid shot recipients.

Renee France, 49 of Seattle, developed a form of facial paralysis called Bells palsy causing one side of her face to droop, which can be a reaction to a viral infection as well as the flu vaccine. She also developed shingles that caused a severe rash that crossed her face and debilitated her for weeks.

Researchers have estimated that Covid vaccines averted more than 19.8 million deaths. The red line shows the deaths that would have occurred had there not been any vaccines available, and blue shading represents all of the deaths directly averted by vaccines

She submitted her claim to the database two times but heard nothing back. Like many other patients, her doctor dismissed her fears that the symptoms were side effects of her Covid shot. People have complained of being brushed off and labeled anti-vax by family and friends, despite their support for vaccines.

Dr. Buddy Creech, 50, who led several Covid vaccine trials at Vanderbilt University and suffered tinnitus and racing heartbeat for about a week after each shot, said: When our patients experience a side effect that may or may not be related to the vaccine, we owe it to them to investigate that as completely as we can.

Countries that store patient data in a single place have conducted more extensive research into side effects simply because they can spot them easier.

The CDCs adverse events reporting system is voluntary, so anyone can file a report, and the reports are not verified by the agency as being true or unbiased.

In addition to poring over the CDC system, researchers have to sift through insurance claims, and even then there are gaps.

Shots given at mass vaccination sites that cropped up in parking lots across the country did not file vaccine claims with insurers.

Rebecca Chandler, a vaccine safety expert at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said: Its harder to see signals when you have so many people, and things are happening in different parts of the country, and theyre not all collected in the same system.

But in China, Europe, and Israel, scientists have actively sought out instances of adverse reactions, even mild ones, in order to study them further.

The European Medicines Agency has uncovered and linked facial paralysis and numbness to the Pfizer and Moderna shots, which the US has not, despite there being nearly 3,000 reports of facial paralysis on the CDCs voluntary database.

And Israeli authorities were first to spot an unusual side effect in April 2021 primarily among young men after a second dose of a Pfizer or Moderna shot  inflammation of the heart muscle, also known as myocarditis.

Meanwhile, the CDC maintained there was no strong link between heart inflammation and Covid vaccines. That continued until the agency decided the following May to investigate a smattering of reports of heart inflammation in teenagers that occurred just a few days after they got a dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

But despite the 16,700 reports of tinnitus, the 9,000 reports of vertigo, the 7,000 reports of irregularly fast heart beat, the 3,800 reports of Bells palsy, or any of the other millions of adverse event reports submitted to the CDCs system, the NIH is not conducting thorough research into the matter.

Dr William Murphy, a cancer researcher of 12 years at the NIH who has been pushing for these investigations, said that officials told him the same hackneyed phrase he had been hearing for years: the virus is worse.

He said: Yes, the virus is worse, but that doesnt obviate doing research to make sure that there may be other options.
She said this raised the risk of the virus spreading to humans

America's top bird flu expert says the virus outbreak in cows suggests that the virus is one step closer to spreading to humans.

In an interview with STAT News, Dr Vivien Dugan  who also directs the CDC's flu division  insisted that the risk to the general public was still 'low'.

But she admitted that the repeated infections in cattle suggested the virus could become endemic in the species, raising the risk of an H5N1 spillover to humans  who have close contact with the animals.

She also warned officials were having trouble tracking infections because many farmers were not coming forward to get tested.

The above map shows states that have reported bird flu infections in cattle

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Dr Dugan warned: 'These viruses change. If this were to become seeded in cows and become a cow-endemic virus, it certainly would increase that risk to people.

'And certainly, our pandemic planning [operation] has been really thinking about this and trying to be as vigilant as we can...

'[The aim is] to try and understand not just current risk, but the future risk so that we're as prepared as we can be. But the risk could be quite big.'

She added: 'It's probably why I'm not sleeping very much right now.'

Dr Dugan also warned that the CDC was struggling to track the virus and establish whether it had spread to people in other states.

After a person tested positive for the virus in Texas, it would be normal practice for the blood of their close contacts to be tested for antibodies against the virus  called serology testing  which would indicate whether the virus had spread.

But she said that this could not be carried out because the farmers in close contact with the case had refused to get tested.

A tick indicates foods that have tested positive for bird flu, while a cross indicates those that have been tested for bird flu but were not found to contain the virus

It would also be common practice for the CDC to monitor those on farms with infected cattle who showed symptoms of illness.

But she said that, again, in many cases, health officials had 'not been as successful' in getting them tested.

The low numbers of people checked for the disease  25 tested and 100 monitored so far  appear to underscore these difficulties.

Dr Vivien Dugan, who directs the CDC's flu division

For comparison, among poultry workers who have been dealing with H5N1 for more than two years, the CDC has tracked more than 8,000 people for symptoms.

She also said that in some cases the agency was having trouble accessing states because they had to be invited in by local health departments, an invite that was not always forthcoming.

'We had a team pretty much ready to go six weeks ago when this really started to show up on our radar,' she added.

'But this is not the average poultry-worker response situation. These are dairy farmers.

'Some states have been able to contact workers directly and actively monitor. Others, of course, have not been as successful.'

Scientists are concerned about bird flu becoming established in a new species because this suggests it has acquired mutations enabling it to infect and spread between new animals - and people.

A total of 36 cattle herds across nine states have so far tested positive for bird flu, with fears raised that the virus may be spread through the air after testing detected the pathogen in the lungs of a cow.

The virus has also been found in their milk and in grocery store milks, cottage cheese and sour cream  in what could be possible transmission routes to humans.

But officials say that these pose no risk because the virus in these is 'not alive'. The products are treated with pasteurization, where they are rapidly heated and cooled, in order to kill any microbes within them.

Tests on ground beef, infant formula and powdered milk have, however, found no trace of the virus.

US officials have been repeatedly criticized for failing to share data publicly, including on whether pasteurized milk is still safe to drink.

Some scientists have said they will no longer consume milk until the FDA shares more data, although they marked the recent tests as 'reassuring'.
DailyMail.com can reveal Hicks, 35, is to marry Jim Donovan, 57, this summer

She's Donald Trump's glamorous former aide turned communications executive but DailyMail.com can reveal that Hope Hicks is soon to acquire a new title: that of Mrs.

The lucky man is none other than Goldman Sachs boss Jim Donovan, 57, whose secret romance with 35-year-old Hicks was revealed by DailyMail.com in 2020.

Sources have told DailyMail.com that the wedding will take place this summer - but not before Hicks appeared today as a witness at Trump's hush money trial.

On Friday morning, Trump watched intently as his former confidant Hicks was sworn in and took a seat, telling the courtroom, 'I'm really nervous.'

Proceedings in the case, which is over payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, are expected to continue for at least another month.

Donald Trump's glamorous former aide turned communications executive Hope Hicks is getting married this summer, DailyMail.com can reveal

Hope Hicks, 35, and Jim Donovan, 57, are set to get hitched this summer after their secret romance was revealed in 2020

In 2020, DailyMail.com exposed the secret romance between Trump's former top aide and the Goldman Sachs boss

The pair were first spotted canoodling in D.C. in January 2020. They were seen at salad joint Sweetgreen in March of that year

Hope's testimony in Trump's 'catch and kill' trial

Hope Hicks told the jury that she first heard the name Karen McDougal on November 4th 2016, when a Wall Street Journal reporter emailed her asking for comment. The story they were planning to run was that the National Enquirer had bought McDougals story but not run it. The Wall St Journal wanted a comment from Trump, including if he had indeed had a relationship with McDougal. She revealed she forwarded an emailed inquiry from the Wall Street Journal about Trump's alleged affair with McDougal to Jared Kushner, her son in law. Hicks said that Kushner knew Murdoch, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, and that he might be able to 'buy a little time' before the story was published. The story detailing the agreement with Pecker and AMI and McDougal was published by the Journal Nov 4, 2016, right before the presidential election. Hicks also told the court she heard about Stormy Daniels only once before the Wall Street Journal article McDougal's deal in November 2016. Trump's 'security guys', she says, mentioned that she was at golf tournament in Nevada where the former president played. That 2006 event in Nevada is where Trump and Daniels had their alleged encounter. Advertisement

Hicks has already been mentioned during testimony with ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker telling the jury that he knows her, having met her while she was working for Ivanka Trump and doing public relations for Star magazine.

She then went on to work for Trump as his campaign communications director and then as a White House aide before quitting to work for Fox News in Los Angeles.

The move to the west coast came after a turbulent period in Hicks' love life that included a steamy affair with Trump's first campaign manager, married father-of-four Corey Lewandowski, 50.

Hicks and Lewandowski have never publicly admitted to a relationship but are thought to have had an on-off fling during the 2016 presidential campaign.

According to author Michael Wolff, on one occasion Hicks asked to help Lewandowski after he left the Trump campaign, only for the President to respond: 'Why? You've already done enough for him. You're the best piece of tail he'll ever have.'

In May 2016, the pair were seen having a screaming fight on Park Avenue in New York  although a source later told Page Six that the altercation was due to 'a campaign-related disagreement'.

After Lewandowski, Hicks moved on to another Trump staffer  former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, now 46.

In February 2018, DailyMail.com broke the news of their relationship, with the couple pictured canoodling in the back of a cab in DC.

Porter, then 38, had been living with a willowy blonde political appointee but the pair split around Thanksgiving 2017 after she discovered suggestive text messages between him and Hicks.

Rumors about their relationship began after they were spotted at a DC church on January 7  praying together despite coming from different religions.

Utah-native Porter is Mormon, while Connecticut-born Hicks is Roman Catholic.

The relationship continued after both left the White House in spring 2018 following revelations about Porter's alleged record of domestic abuse, with the pair spotted working out together in New York.

But the romance came to an end after Hicks left DC for the West Coast to take up a lucrative job with FOX in Los Angeles.

Hicks previously had a steamy affair with Trump's first campaign manager, married father-of-four Corey Lewandowski, 50

After Lewandowski, Hicks moved on to another Trump staffer  former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, now 46. Porter who had a girlfriend when he hooked up with Hicks and was forced to resign after DailyMail.com revealed his alleged history of domestic abuse

Unlike Lewandowski and Porter, Donovan had already divorced by the time he met Hicks with his split from physical therapist wife Christi finalized in April 2019

Hicks mostly put romance on the backburner during her 18-month stint in Hollywood, although Vanity Fair claimed in 2020 that she had had a fling with a producer that foundered over their political differences.

She was also seen spending time with married United Talent Agency boss Jay Sures, 54, but that relationship is understood to have been nothing more than a platonic friendship.

Dad-of-four Donovan entered Hicks' life shortly before her return to DC to rejoin the Trump White House.

The 57-year-old was repeatedly spotted at her Brentwood home in the weeks leading up to her return to the east coast, with DailyMail.com photographing the now-engaged couple enjoying a double date at swanky restaurant Mr Chow and three-hour lunch at celebrity hotspot Nobu.

When Hicks arrived back in DC, she spent the first week ensconced at Donovan's $5,000-a-month apartment in the capital's upscale Georgetown neighborhood, where the couple repeatedly seen venturing out to cafes and their local branch of Sweetgreen.

In 2020, Donovan paid her a visit in LA, turning up on crutches and in a leg brace. He was all smiles with his younger girlfriend as they went for dinner with friends at Mr Chow

Dad-of-four Donovan entered Hicks' life shortly before her return to DC to rejoin the Trump White House

Like her previous loves, Donovan comes with some baggage, not least his ex-wife Christi, 52, and their four children.

Hicks' new father-in-law could also prove a challenge, given his long-running legal battle with his son that included claiming Donovan had hired a Russian hitman to kill him.

Unlike Lewandowski and Porter, Donovan had already divorced by the time he met Hicks with his split from physical therapist Christi finalized in April 2019.

Donovan's father, MIT professor John Donovan, dragged him to court in Massachusetts where he claimed his son had hired a Russian hitman to kill him

During their marriage, the pair were known for their philanthropy  even setting up a joint foundation to fund cancer research  from their $4m home in Upperville, Virginia.

Both are also members of the Piedmont Fox Hounds hunt club and were pictured riding to hounds with their children in a photo posted on Christi's Facebook page in February 2018.

Like Hicks herself, both Donovan and Christi were keen on fitness with the latter photographed swimming and the former known to be a keen runner.

But while Christi is every inch the respectable mom who has never commented on Donovan's soon-to-be second wife, his father John, 82, could prove more difficult.

John, once a respected MIT professor and entrepreneur, he was convicted in 2022 of a dozen felony counts of fraud and forgery in a jury trial, for attempting to steal assets from members of his family

Hicks has already been mentioned during testimony with ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker (pictured on the stand) telling the jury that he knows her, having met her while she was working for Ivanka Trump and doing public relations for Star magazine

Donovan's career has proved hugely successful with the 57-year-old holding the position of vice chairman of Goldman Sachs.

One of his previous clients was Bain Capital, a private equity firm set up by Mitt Romney who later hired Donovan as an adviser during his 2012 presidential campaign.

He later went on to work on Jeb Bush's failed 2016 attempt to become the Republican presidential nominee but was nominated for the number two job at the Treasury by President Trump the following year.

Two months after his nomination, Donovan pulled out citing family concerns. In a statement released at the time, he said: 'I am deeply honored by President Trump's decision to nominate me as Deputy Secretary of the U.S Department of the Treasury.

'However at this time, I want to focus on my family, and I can no longer accept it. I hope to be able to serve this administration in the future and fully support President Trump and Secretary Steven Mnuchin's ongoing work to reform the tax system and the U.S economy.'
It is a tale of love at first sight in the depths of horror that captured the hearts of millions when it hit the shelves in 2018.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz fictionalised the incredible story of Lali Sokolov and Gita Fuhrmannova and how they met in the worst of circumstances during the Holocaust.

But Heather Morris's novel - which has been adapted into a Sky drama that began airing this week - prompted some historians to point to several alleged inaccuracies.

An expert from the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center claimed the book contained 'numerous errors and information inconsistent with the facts, as well as exaggerations, misinterpretations and understatements.'

Their report added that it provided an 'overall inauthentic' picture of reality at the camp.

However, Morris told MailOnline this week that the mistakes were 'rectified' immediately 'where they mattered'.

She added that 'academic Holocaust historians in London' looked at 'every word' of the new TV drama and checked 'what they could' to ensure it is accurate.

The book depicts how Lali, a Slovakian Jew, was sent to Auschwitz before chance landed him the role of the camp's tattooist.

He spent two years tattooing numbers on the arms of hundreds of thousands of arrivals at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Lali and Gita met when she stood before him with her head shaved and her dignity stolen - before he tattooed the number 34902 on her arm, according to Morris's novel.

It is a tale of love at first sight in the depths of horror that captured the hearts of millions when it hit the shelves in 2018. The Tattooist of Auschwitz fictionalised the incredible story of Lali Sokolov and Gita Fuhrmannova and how they met in the worst of circumstances during the Holocaust

Heather Morris's novel - which has been adapted into a Sky drama that begins airing this week - upset some historians who pointed out several alleged inaccuracies. Above: Jonah Hauer-King as the young Lali and Polish actress Anna Prochniak as Gita

But scholar Wanda Witek-Malicka claimed in a report on the book that this was not correct. She wrote: 'We do not find any surviving documents with her personal data or relating to number 34902 issued in the women's series.'

It was pointed out that women who entered the camp in 1942 - as Gita did - were given four-digit numbers.

Years earlier, Gita herself had said in oral testimony given to the USC Shoah Foundation that her number was 4562.

However, in an interview with MailOnline this week, Morris was insistent that Gita was initially tattooed by someone else, when Auschwitz's authorities were 'still experimenting with how to do it'.

She claimed that the number Lali tattooed on her - the one he recounted to her - was the second attempt, because the other had faded.

Morris met Lali after being told by his and Gita's son Gary that he wanted to tell his story, which he had kept secret for decades because he feared he would be viewed as a Nazi collaborator.

It was only after his wife died in 2003 that he felt able to recount what happened to him and Gita.

Morris, a former social worker, spent the next three years meeting Lali several times a week, getting every aspect of his story down on paper.

Heather Morris, a former social worker, spent three years interviewing Lali after his wife died in 2003

Harvey Keitel as Lali and Melanie Lynskey as Heather Morris in Sky's adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Lali and Gita emigrated to Australia - where Morris is from - in 1949 after being re-united following their ordeal in Auschwitz.

They married in late 1945 and their son Gary was born in 1961.

Morris had said that 'ninety-five per cent of it is as it happened; researched and confirmed'.

Because she had initially sought to turn his testimony into a film, she received funding from Film Victoria, which itself is financed by the Australian government.

This enabled international researchers to corroborate Lali's story.

The documents they uncovered led researchers to discover that Lali's parents had been killed at Auschwitz a month before he arrived.

However, Witek-Malicka's fact-checking of her work ran to more than seven pages.

She claimed that Morris's depiction of Lali giving Gita penicillin for typhoid fever in 1943 was incorrect, because the medicine was not widely available until after the war.

Another alleged error was the route taken by the transport that took Lali to Auschwitz in 1942.

A new Sky adaptation of Morris's novel debuts on May 2. The six-part series stars both Jonah Hauer-King (left) and Harvey Keitel as Lali, whilst Polish actress Anna Prochniak (right) portrays Gita

Lali and Gita Sokolov in later life. Their romance survived against all the odds

Both Lali and Gita survived the Holocaust and went on to marry in October 1945. Lali kept his story to himself for decades before revealing all to Morris

Morris claimed it travelled through Ostrava in what is now the Czech Republic and Pszczyna in Poland.

But Ms Witek-Malicka said this could not have been correct.

She also took issue with Morris' account of the murder of prisoners in a bus that was being used as a gas chamber.

The historian said it 'does not find confirmation in any sources'.

There is also a scene in Morris's novel where Auschwitz's notorious doctor, Dr Josef Mengele, is shown sterilising a man.

Ms Witek-Malicka said in her report: 'Doctor Mengele did not conduct sterilisation experiments on men, but performed experiments on twins and dwarves...'

Morris's novel also says that two crematoriums at Auschwitz were blown up during a revolt by prisoners.

But Ms Witek-Malicka said only one was partially burned down. She added that, contrary to Morris's depiction, 'female prisoners who delivered the gunpowder to the prisoners did not carry it under their fingernails.'

Another point of contention is Morris's depiction of a sexual relationship between Auschwitz camp chief Johann Schwarzhuber and the Jewish female prisoner Cilka.

Ms Witek-Malicka said: 'In practice, the possibility of maintaining such a long relationship and, according to the book, a semi-explicit relationship between a Jewish female prisoner and a high-ranking member of the SS hierarchy was non-existent.'

She added: 'The disclosure of such a relationship would have involved an accusation of race dishonour and severe punishment for the SS man.'

The historian took issue with the depiction of dead prisoners being left to lie in sewage ditches at the camp.

'The prisoners' count during the roll-call had to tally up, so before dead prisoners' bodies were sent to the crematoria, they had to be identified and their numbers crossed out of the register,' she said.

Ms Witek-Malicka concluded that the novel 'cannot be recommended as a valuable title for persons who want to explore and understand the history of KL Auschwitz.'

She added: 'The nature of human memory, especially where the events recalled occurred over 70 years ago, requires confrontation with other sources. From todays perspective, we can only regret that no specialist in the area of camp matters was invited to work on the book.'

Children are seen in Auschwitz after the camp's liberation in 1945

Only inmates at Auschwitz and its subcamps - Birkenau and Monowitz - were tattooed

However, the scholar did concede that the novel is based on the 'authentic history of a prisoner whose stay and function in the camp can be documented.'

Morris's publisher said at the time: 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a novel based on the personal recollections and experiences of one man. It is not, and has never claimed to be, an official history.'

The author added this week: 'It had one or two factual statements that they said that wasn't correct.

'He could not have got penicillin, we rectified those immediately.

'We acknowledged and rectified them, where they mattered.

'Not one holocaust survivor - and I have been privileged to meet many of them, not one of them ever said "you got it wrong".'

She continued: 'I didn't see it [the criticism] as questioning my integrity as a writer.

'I had these wonderful publishers and they said how do we fix this. So we fixed it. I'm a big girl, I can put my big girl pants on and said we will change these things.

'I never set out to offend anyone by writing this story. I never pretended to be something I'm not, that I'm an academic with knowledge of the Holocaust.'

Speaking of the new Sky adaptation, the author added: 'We had these wonderful academic holocaust historians in London who went over every word.

'They checked what they could, always coming back to the premise that this is one mans memory.'

Sky's new drama depicts both Lali's and Gita's life at Auschwitz as well as his conversations with Morris in later life.

Lali is depicted by Jonah Hauer-King as a young man and Harvey Keitel as a pensioner, whilst Polish actress Anna Prochniak portrays Gita.

The new show's director, Tali Shalom-Ezer, said: 'When I read the scripts I felt like all the questions I had when I read the book were answered.

'Lali only started to tell his story 60 years after he left Auschwitz and we know the nature of memory is that events can be jumbled up.

'There were questions for me about how he felt about his special position. I'm glad we're getting to explore some of that.'
A British entrepreneur living in the Caribbean has been charged with assaulting four schoolgirls and raping two of them.

The man, who cannot be named because of a gagging order made by the Cayman Islands' Grand Court, was charged with 18 counts of grooming and indecent assault against three juveniles.

The charges include rape, sexual communication with a child, meeting a child following sexual communication and having indecent images of a child. The Brit pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Prosecutors accused him of posing as a teenager to groom and rape a child and said he also asked two young schoolgirls to have a threesome with him.

He was reported to police at the end of 2023 after the mother of a young girl intercepted communications between her child and the British man.

The police found 13,000 messages as well as indecent images and pornographic videos of a child on multiple mobile phones they seized from him.

At the time, the alleged paedophile entrepreneur was already on bail while awaiting trial for five counts relating to a separate incident on similar charges involving a fourth alleged victim that took place in March 2023.

A British entrepreneur living in the Caribbean has been charged with assaulting four schoolgirls and raping two of them. Pictured: The Cayman Islands' Grand Court (File image)

The Cayman Islands, in the Caribbean, are just south of Cuba. Its capital is George Town

After the latest claims, the entrepreneur was rearrested and served with additional charges.

He attended court in relation to the recent charges on March 15, and is currently in custody.

In his first trial, which is ongoing, prosecutor Sarah Lewis told a jury of five women and two men that the man contacted a 13-year-old girl on social media after seeing a photograph of her online, the Cayman Compass reported.

Lewis said: 'He asked her her name, age and what school she went to. She told him she was 13, and in the ninth grade.'

Lewis added: 'He should have known she was either 13 or 14 years old, given the grade she was in.'

The alleged paedophile complimented the schoolgirl before asking her for nude photos of herself, the court heard.

During the school holidays he allegedly assaulted the child in a hotel's hot tub before taking her to a bathroom where he raped her.

The entrepreneur's trial is taking place in the Cayman Islands' capital of George Town (pictured, file image)

The child's mother saw her daughter leave the bathroom and the child later admitted what happened, the jury heard.

Lewis said that while the British entrepreneur admitted he went into the bathroom with the child, he denied having sex with her.

She added that semen samples from the victim returned a positive DNA match to the alleged paedophile Brit.

His second trial is scheduled to begin on July 15, in which he will face allegations he raped a 12-year-old girl and molested two other girls aged 11 and 12.

He is accused of trying to have group sex with two of the girls and possessing 11 indecent images and 14 pornographic videos of a child.

Cayman Island Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown: 'It appears contact with the victims was initiated through social media.

'This situation serves to stress the importance of parents and guardians being actively aware of the communication young persons are engaging in on messaging services and social media networks, via, predominantly, their mobile devices.'
Shop opening hours across the UK are affected by the early May Bank Holiday today.

Major supermarkets including Morrisons, Tesco, Aldi and Sainsburys will operate with altered operating times for the latest Bank Holiday.

The annual early May Bank Holiday falls exactly one year to the days since King Charles' coronation ceremony that saw him crowned as the UK's reigning monarch.

With the next Bank Holiday occurring today, here are the opening times for all major supermarkets.

Tesco stores across the UK will remain open during the bank holiday weekend. It is worth noting, however, that store opening hours will vary depending on location and store type

On Monday May 6, Morrisons stores will open between 7am and 8am with the majority of stores closing at 8pm, but some stores will remain open until the later time of 10pm

Low-cost supermarket Aldi advises customers to head to its store finder to check local store opening times

Supermarket opening times on coronation day

Tesco

Tesco stores across the UK will remain open during the bank holiday weekend. It is worth noting, however, that store opening hours will vary depending on location and store type.

Many large stores will operate with reduced hours on Monday, closing by 8pm.

Some Tesco locations are open 24 hours a day, but larger stores open from 6am or 7am.

You can find your nearest Tesco with the supermarket's store locator.

Sainsbury's

Any shoppers heading to Sainsbury's on Bank Holiday Monday can still purchase groceries but opening hours may be different to those normally in operation.

Regular opening hours remained in place at all stores on Saturday May 4 and Sunday May 5, with stores open from 8am to 8pm.

Opening and closing times can differ from store to store though and can depend on size and location.

Aldi

On Monday May 6, Aldi's stores will be open between the hours of 8am and 8pm.

Opening hours may vary depending on store location. The low-cost supermarket advises customers to head to its store finder to check local store opening times.

Click here to view the Aldi store finder.

Asda

If looking for opening times for your local Asda branch, shoppers should check the company's official store locator.

After finding your chosen store, you should select the holiday option from the drop down menu that appears on screen.

Lidl

People shopping at Lidl on Bank Holiday Monday should check opening times for your local branch on the store finder before heading out.

Store opening times may vary depending upon size and location.

Waitrose

The majority of Waitrose's stores will be open over the early May Bank Holiday

However, customers should note that some of the chain's smaller stores will have different opening times compared to larger shops.

On Bank Holiday Monday, most Waitrose shops will have shorter opening times.

All Waitrose stores in Shell petrol stations and Welcome Break motorway services could also have different opening times.

M&S

You can find your nearest store and check its opening hours using the locator on the M&S website or on the M&S App.

Check the opening hours of your nearest store on the M&S website before travelling to ensure it is open.

But many stores in England, Scotland and Wales will have shorter hours on the Bank Holiday Mondays.

Morrisons

Morrisons stores were open as normal on Saturday May 4 and Sunday May 5, with shops will be open at either 6am or 7am and closing between 10pm and midnight, including Morrisons Daily.

Some 24 hour stores were open from midnight to midnight, and others operated from 6am until 11pm or midnight.

Morrisons petrol stations will be open from 6:30am until 8:30pm.

On Monday May 6, Morrisons stores are open between 7am and 8am with the majority of stores closing at 8pm, but some stores will remain open until the later time of 10pm.

Customers should check their local store times on Morrisons store finder.

Co-Op

During bank holidays and special times of year some of their stores may open later and close earlier than normal.

You can check opening times for your local Co-op via its online store locator.
He was the monstrous SS guard who was described as a 'flogger and murderer' by one historian.

Stefan Baretzki was jailed for life in 1965 for the murder of five people and the participation in the killings of more than 8,000 others at Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Now, his misdeeds have been glaringly brought to life in Sky's adaptation of mega-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Heather Morris's work depicts Baretzki's relationship with Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who met his future wife Gita in his enforced role as Auschwitz's tattooist.

Baretzki was described by historian Hermann Langbein in his 2004 book People in Auschwitz as a 'flogger and murderer'.

During his trial he was found to have drowned four prisoners in a water tank and was even accused of kicking a baby to death.

He would go on to take his own life in prison in 1988 after expressing remorse for what he had done.

The guard is portrayed in Sky's drama by German star Jonas Nay, who admitted that it 'wasn't easy' to depict him.

Stefan Baretzki was the monstrous SS guard who was described as a 'flogger and murderer' by one historian. Now, his misdeeds have been glaringly brought to life in Sky's adaptation of mega-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Right: Baretzki at his trial in Frankfurt in 1965

Stefan Baretzki was the monstrous SS guard who was described as a 'flogger and murderer' by one historian. Now, his misdeeds have been glaringly brought to life in Sky's adaptation of mega-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Right: Jonas Nay as Baretzki

To prepare for his role, Nay listened to recordings of Baretzki testifying at his trial in Frankfurt.

He told Newsweek: '[There was] an audio recording of him defending himself before the Frankfurt trial, and it's 45 minutes of him totally convinced that what he did wasn't wrong, which is deeply disturbing to listen to.

'You could listen to other victims testifying on the sadistic acts he's committed in his time in Auschwitz. Survivors telling stories that I couldn't even repeat, that are so horrible.'

In the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Baretzki is the guard assigned to monitor Lali in his role.

Baretzki agrees to deliver a note to Gita but warns him that he can kill him whenever he wants.

The guard often confides in Lali, at one point asking him for advice about his girlfriend.

He also pulls strings to enable Gita to be transferred to a warmer building when she falls seriously ill.

Jonah Hauer-King as Lali Sokolov and Jonas Nay as Nazi SS officer Stefan Baretzki in the Tattooist of Auschwitz

However, he is also seen brutally killing prisoners in an echo of what the real guard did.

In an interview with MailOnline, Morris described Baretzki as a 'brute' who had 'no remorse' for his horrific crimes.

But she said he probably had a 'small amount of respect' for Lali.

'Lali every clearly had a way with women, when Baretski didn't and he wanted to,' she said.

'He was unsophisticated and uneducated and he saw that Lali was someone he could learn from. But he never quite got that empathy gene from him.'

Baretzki, who was posted to Auschwitz at the age of 22, said at his trial in 1965 that he and others were told by senior camp official Johann Schwarzhuber that it was 'necessary to exterminate the Jews'.

Some of his comrades had asked 'what did these people do?' and were told that the Jewish prisoners had 'poisoned the wells and committed sabotage.'

The guard is portrayed in Sky's drama by German star Jonas Nay, who admitted that it 'wasn't easy' to depict him

He added: 'We were often told by SS officers and civilians that what happened in Auschwitz was legal because the inmates acted as saboteurs.

'I personally held the view that all these things were an injustice. For example, what acts of sabotage could children have committed?'

However, the guard - in a hint at his acts of brutality - also said it 'wasn't possible to get anywhere in the camp with kindness'.

He claimed that his family had encouraged him when he was on leave to go and hide in the mountains, but he was worried there 'might be reprisals' against his mother if he had done so.

In 1944, thousands of men, women and children were murdered when the family camp at Auschwitz - Theresienstadt - was liquidated.

Ahead of the killings, Baretzki had begged the SS camp leader to spare the lives of children.

Asked at his trial about his motivations, he said: 'Well, we had nothing to do in the camp, but we always went to the children's theater, and so we were already used to the children.'

In Birkenau's newest section, which was called 'Mexico', Baretzki described how he found a few thousand women who 'slept on the bare ground' and 'didn't even have a blanket'.

He said that some of them 'begged' him to 'bring more water'.

In the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Baretzki is the guard assigned to monitor Lali in his role. Above: Jonah Hauer-King as Lali Sokolov and Nay as Baretzki

Baretzki was briefly captured by Soviet forces at the end of the war. He twice had run-ins with police in the 1950s for assault and resisting arrest.

He was arrested in 1960 and was one of 24 men who went on trial in what were known as the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials.

After his conviction, he was visited in prison by historian Hermann Langbein, who claimed he told him 'I hope this will never happen again', in reference to the mass murder at Auschwitz.

He did appeal his life sentence but allegedly only after being put under pressure to do by his fellow defendants.

Speaking to Sky to promote the new series, Nay added: 'It wasn't easy because of everything I learned about him.

'There are even recordings of him at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials in 1960, during which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jonas Nay as Baretzki in a scene where he beats an inmate in the new drama

'It was very disturbing to hear him try to defend what he did. At certain points I had to stop, I couldn't bear to continue to listen to him anymore.'

He added: 'His life was so different from anything I have experienced: he grew up with a violent father; he fled home as a young man and left his sisters behind; he was put in a position of great power, as an Auschwitz guard, at a very young age.

'The more I found out, the more I realised it was going to be a hard journey to embody this character.'

Morris, who called Nay 'wonderful' after seeing his performance, added: 'People who have seen it and seen his performance, they say "I want to hate him".

'But Jonas is able to show that little bit of that boy in the man still. We shouldn't hate anybody, even ones as evil as him.'

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is available to buy and the series is out now on Sky and the streaming service NOW.
If Joe Biden is successful in passing his massive capital gains tax rate hike, Americans in 11 states will next year be paying over 50 percent of some of the profits when they sell off their assets to the government.

The president's 2025 budget proposal includes increasing the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains dividends to 44.6 percent mark, which is the highest ever since the tax was implemented a century ago.

The current rate sits below 25 percent - so the increase represents a significant hike.

Many economic and tax experts agree that raising the capital gains tax this high would dis-incentivize investing and hurt the U.S. economy, despite the Biden administration claiming they are only trying to tax the rich.

'The Biden administration may think they are going after the 'super wealthy' with this proposal, but the opposite will be true,' Dan Savickas, the Director of Policy for Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told DailyMail.com.

If a 44.6% capital gains tax rate is included in FY2025 budget, Americans in 11 states will have a burden above 50% when state and federal are combined when selling assets

Biden proposed in his budget for next year the highest-ever capital gains tax rate at 44.6%  the last highest was at 40% under President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s

'This new capital gains tax proposal will dis-incentivize high-risk, high-reward investments in small businesses and entrepreneurs,' he continued. 'It will, in effect, steer money towards more established players, harming smaller players' access to capital.'

All states besides seven have additional taxes on capital gains and a few would see their total top rate exceed 50 percent when selling off investments and assets.

California would by far have their residents paying the highest top rate with a combined 57.9 percent.

New York and New Jersey are tied for second with 55.5 percent combined capital gains tax rate.

And Minnesota and Oregon are in close third and fourth place with 55.45 percent and 54.5 percent total, respectively, with state and Biden's proposed national rates taken into account.

Maine would see a 51.75 percent combined rate if Biden's proposal is passed.

The remaining states that would have a top marginal rate for capital gains above 50 percent would be Nebraska (50.44 percent), Idaho (50.4 percent), Iowa (50.3 percent), Kansas (50.3 percent) and Georgia (50.09 percent).

Capital gains are profits made from selling assets like stocks, businesses, homes and other investments.

The hike would affect people with taxable income of over $1 million and investment income of over $400,000.

Biden's 2025 budget proposal includes the highest-ever capital gains tax rate since the tax was implemented in the 1920s

Previously, President Jimmy Carter's top marginal rate for capital gains was the highest when it reached 40 percent in the late 1970s.

If Biden's rates make it through Congress' final budget for next year, TRES Finance co-founder and CEO Tal Zackon warns it would move business out of the U.S.

'Consequently, we could possibly see an unintended domino effect, where capital is moved overseas and used to invest and grow outside of the U.S.,' he said in a statement on the capital gains proposed hike.

Zackon added: 'There will definitely be an aftershock from implementing the highest capital gains tax in U.S. history and the world.'
Donald Trump's authority as commander-in-chief was ignored by senior military leadership on January 6, 2021, claims the chief legal advisor for D.C. National Guard on that day.

Colonel Earl Matthews came forward as a whistleblower to the House subcommittee reviewing the January 6 Select Committee's investigation.

He sat down with DailyMail.com two weeks after the public hearing to explain what he saw happen that day.

He claims that Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, and then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, were plotting to disobey any orders handed down by Trump because they 'unreasonably' assumed the then-president was going to break the law and try to use the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

A lot has been made about the breakdown in military and administration communication when it came to the timeline of deploying DCNG to the Capitol.

But Matthews claims senior military leadership was solely focused on getting the heat off of them and putting it back onto Trump.

Col. Earl Matthews was the Staff Judge Advocate on January 6, 2021. He came forward as a whistleblower before the subcommittee reviewing the investigation by the Select Committee on January 6

Matthews told DailyMail.com that Army leadership essentially stripped then-President Donald Trump of his authority as Commander-in-Chief on January 6, 2021 because they plotted to go against any orders from him to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol that day

The Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, Matthews claims, was more than happy to lean into this narrative and blame the entire ordeal on the then-president.

But Matthews says that senior military leadership essentially stripped the president of his authority as commander-in-chief by preemptively planning to go against orders because they didn't like the optics of uniformed soldiers at the Capitol.

'I think a very plausible argument can be made that through no fault of his own, President Trump's command authority over both the D.C. National Guard and the U.S. Army itself had been surreptitiously curtailed by the senior leadership of the Army on January 6, 2021,' Matthews told DailyMail.com.

He continued: 'Army leadership had unreasonably anticipated an 'unlawful order' from the President, an order that the President had no plans to issue, and were preemptively seeking to curtail his discretion to issue such an order.'

Matthews, who was the Staff Judge Advocate of the DCNG during the riot, was on the consequential and highly discussed phone call the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021 with McCarthy, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other senior leadership.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund pleaded during the call for the DCNG to help law enforcement in responding to the Capitol riot. And DCNG Commander Maj. Gen. William Walker had prepared his troops to deploy.

Sund said at a congressional hearing, and Matthews reiterated in his interview with DailyMail.com, that Army Staff Director Walter Piatt and Chief of Staff for Operations Charles Flynn were part of that discussion, despite the latter claiming under oath he was not on the call.

The more than three-hour delay of deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol on January 6, 2021 has been at the center of the claim that Trump tried to engage in insurrection

Matthews claims that Army Staff Director Walter Piatt (left) and Chief of Staff for Operations Charles Flynn (right) were 'nonchalant' on the call during the breaching of the Capitol where U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund pleaded for National Guard back up

Matthews said on the call Flynn and Piatt seemed 'almost disinterested' in Sund's concerns and displayed no urgency toward getting the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol to respond to rioters.

'Flynn and Piatt displayed what I would characterize as a nonchalant attitude during the roughly 25 minute call,' the Colonel claimed.

Additionally, he said the two Army leaders 'didn't like the optics of the Guard coming to the Capitol,' even though Piatt said under oath to Congress that he never mentioned 'optics.'

'Both Piatt and Flynn were obsessively focused on what they considered the bad optics of military personnel at the Capitol during the certification of the election,' Matthews told DailyMail.com.

'They both stated that they believed that what was transpiring at the Capitol was most appropriately handled by civilian law enforcement personnel,' he continued, 'despite the fact the capabilities and resources of the U.S. Capitol Police and MPD were quickly being overwhelmed and the National Guard typically assists civilian police authorities in such circumstances.'

Matthews detailed: 'Piatt and Flynn wanted the D.C. National Guard to find locations around the city where it could relieve MPD officers performing traffic or other duties in order to allow those civilian police officers to deploy to the Capitol.'

Critics blame the three-hour-and-nineteen-minute delay of the DC National Guard arrival at the Capitol for not stopping the riot sooner after Trump's supporters breached the building

The January 6 Committee was led by seven Democrats and two Republicans now no longer in Congress, former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

The final report from the select committee acknowledges that Trump did approve deployment of the National Guard despite claims that he did not give the proper authorizations, which resulted in the more than three-hour delay.

'Former President Trump's eagerness to engage the U.S. military to play a visible role in addressing domestic unrest during the late spring and summer of 2020 does appear to have prompted senior military leadership to take precautions, in preparing for the joint session against the possibility that the DC Guard might be ordered to deploy for an improper use,' the final report reads.

But Matthews confirms the President's authority was ignored or completely balked by Piatt and Flynn, as well as other military leaders.

And he says it is contradictory to try and blame Trump for the delay while also claiming he was attempting to use the DCNG to stop certification of the 2020 election results.

Trump's then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller reiterated to DailyMail.com last month that Trump did authorize the National Guard during an Oval Office meeting days before January 6, 2021.

He also said that the January 6 Committee threatened him to stop speaking publicly about his recounting of the events surrounding the Capitol riot.
A former cop of 30 years and a leading criminologist has revealed his no-nonsense solutions to Australia's domestic violence epidemic.

Dr Vincent Hurley, who was a NSW police officer and negotiator for 30 years, is a university lecturer on policing at Macquarie University in Sydney.

He, like millions of Australians, has become increasingly fed-up with the lack of action from the government in combating the nation's domestic violence crisis.

The rate of women killed by an intimate partner, all of whom were male, saw an almost 30 per cent spike in 2022-23 compared to the previous year.

Earlier this week The Albanese government announced a $925million investment to establish the Leaving Violence Program over the next five years.

Women fleeing violent or abusive relationships will receive $5000 payments as part of the package.

Those eligible will receive $1500 in cash and a further $3500 made up of goods and services, which will be indexed in coming years.

Federal, state and territory police ministers, as well as attorneys-general, will work to improve police responses to high-risk or serial perpetrators of violence against women.

National cabinet agreed to greater information sharing between jurisdictions about perpetrators.

Meanwhile, a new online ad campaign challenging misogynistic stereotypes perpetuated on the internet will be rolled out from mid-June until May 2025.

But Dr Hurley says more is needed.

He shared his recommendations for how domestic violence victims can be better supported and even saved, and his powerful message to young women in Australia.

Dr Vincent Hurley, who was a NSW police officer and negotiator for 30 years, is a university lecturer on policing at Macquarie University in Sydney

Bail conditions

Dr Hurley said bail should be 'flatly refused' for domestic violence offenders to allow their victims vital breathing space following an offence.

He conceded there was little police could do to keep perpetrators behind bars with magistrates many times ruling standards for refusing bail had not been met.

'If I was to arrest you for stealing, I'm have to make sure that there were certain elements in that offence before I can actually arrest you,' he said.

'But with domestic violence, that is not the case. I used to be able to arrest someone on domestic violence just on the slightest bit of evidence.'

When Dr Hurley first joined the force in 1981, offenders who committed armed hold-ups were usually refused bail due to the risk of further violence.

'We have a case now that is worse than armed robbery because women are being murdered, but they're entitled to bail,' he said.

'So when it goes then to court, the magistrates' generally looks at the circumstances and the offender's solicitor will argue they should get bail.

'Generally speaking they will get bail because the magistrates sees the person's liberty being far more important than the threat to society or to the victim.'

Funding for frontline services

Dr Hurley said the Albanese government had announced new funding for domestic violence as a political strategy to ensure his re-election.

'Funding is only ever on an election cycle basis,' he said.

'I could be wrong, and by the time the second election comes around all this will be forgotten tragically, but I reckon that Albanese's given [domestic violence] funding now and he'll get re-elected.'

Dr Hurley said women escaping violence were often times left with nothing.

'I went with my mother to a woman's refuge in Sydney's outer western suburbs to donate clothes from members of the public,' he said.

'Now, how can that possibly be right? Not only do the women have to suffer the indignity of fleeing some violent pr*** they have the indignity of wearing second-hand clothes, that is degrading to the women.

'These women refuges and other independent women groups, they have to fund a lot of their services themselves. There is no government support.

'That is just outrageous.'

Dr Hurley said state and federal governments need to invest more into frontline services instead of pouring money into a costly royal commission.

Royal Commission

Dr Hurley said a royal commission into Australia's domestic violence crisis is a 'waste of time' and that millions of dollars would be better spent on services.

'I think the reason why the politicians probably don't want a royal commission is because it will shift focus too much onto them, onto their failings,' he said

'It will cost millions and millions and millions. How many extra beds, rehab, how many extra nurses could that buy, how many extra psychologists or psychiatrists that could help go to fund?'

Social media

Dr Hurley said domestic violence been happening for decades before the existence of social media and worries the government is too preoccupied with online abuse.

'Now the social media has come into play, I worry the emphasis will be more on social media than on helping women literally escape domestic violence,' he said.

'I'm sure social influences and being online contributes to it for sure. As a parent I don't doubt that whatsoever.'

Role of education

Dr Hurley said schools are the only common place where young people came together but that teachers shouldn't be expected to teach respectful relationships.

'We may as well call them social workers,' he said.

'Trying to correct behaviour, trying to prevent parents abusing teachers because their son is misbehaving or abusing the teacher because the school isn't living up to the parents' expectation, how can you expect an education system to cop with this?

'I'm not sure what the answer is because unfortunately, school is the only common element for young children when they're growing up.

'It's the only really stable thing in their life.'

Politicians on another planet

Dr Hurley said politicians tasked with combating Australia's gendered violence crisis were mostly 'white privileged males' who had no first-hand experience.

He said lawmakers were reacting to anger that's existed in society for decades and long before he worked as a police officer in the 1980s.

'The politicians and the legal fraternity don't put it within the terms of the humanness of it,' he said.

'If it happened to them, they would have the financial resources to be able to throw everything and anything at the victim's children or their grandchildren, but the ordinary punter on the street doesn't.'

His message to young women

Dr Hurley encouraged women to look at the cycle of violence, which sees couples repeat a honeymoon phase, a period of tension and then a violent outburst.

'The longer they are in that relationship, the harder it is going to be,' he said.

'There's never an easy time to leave, but they need to leave however long that may take because everyone's different in the way they process trauma.

'But when they do leave, they have to try and look at it like right if I don't leave now and I'm still here in six months or a years time, is it going to get any better?

'It's a bit of a reality check.

'But it should never be about why didn't the woman leave? Didn't she know? That's missing the point of how difficult this is for women. It's not a women's problem.'
Travel north of Detroit and Flint and just off the 'thumb' of Michigan is Saginaw, County, one of the pivot counties of the 2020 presidential race.

There President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump appear ready to duke it out once again come November.

The battleground state had one of the closest presidential elections in the country in 2020 with Biden winning Saginaw County by just over 300 votes.

Speaking to voters there this week suggests the county will see another brutal political season and neck-and-neck race this year.

The appetite for talking politics at random is low. Nearly two dozen people on a warm sunny afternoon seemed less than happy with the idea of discussing where they stand on the looming election.

Inquiries elicited teeth gritting, narrowed eyes, a number of head shaking refusals, quickened step to escape and in one case a literal hiss.

But for those who were willing to engage about 2024, there appears to be a split - and dissatisfaction with the same old candidates.

President Biden won Saginaw County, MI over Donald Trump in 2020 by just over 300 votes. Voters there signaled it could be another extremely tight race in 2024

Trump traveled to the 'pivot county' he won in 2016 but lost in 2020 during his day off from court

On Wednesday, Donald Trump returned to the county for a rally in Freeland where supporters lined up for hours to get into the outdoor venue and cheer as Trump's plane come to a halt just behind the podium.

The rowdy crowd was energized as they heard some of the ex-president's greatest hits on the campaign trail.

Trump was able to visit the state and in rare form while his criminal trial involving hush money payments was off for the day in New York.

Polling has showed that some potential Trump voters would turn against the ex-president should he be convicted. But those are not the type of voter who attends his rallies. They've already made up their minds.

Waiting in line to attend the rally were Bert and Gena Smith. It was their first Trump rally ever, but they did vote for the ex-president in both 2016 and 2020. They plan to do so again in 2024.

They have been keeping tabs on some of the hush money trial, but it won't change their minds about their support come November.

'I think it's a bunch of baloney,' said Gena Smith. 'I think it's run its course and they're just wasting our time and money.'

She suggested it is basically free advertising for the former president. Both told DailyMail.com that the ex-president should have some degree of immunity. But that did not hold true for President Biden as well.

'If they can prove that he's done all this backwoods collusion and backdoor hoodwinking, I think so,' Smith said of prosecuting the current president.

Trump supporters line up to enter the Trump rally in Freeland, MI on May 1

Trump supporters look on in Freeland, MI as Trump's plane pulls up ahead of his rally

Anti-Trump protesters standing outside the ex-president's rally in Freeland, MI as supporters lined up to enter

But travel fifteen minutes down the road and away from the rally and other Michiganders show just how divided the state is when it comes to Trump versus Biden.

'In a million years I can tell you who I'm not voting for which is Trump because it's Trump,' said Mark "Brummeler. His most important issue: not letting Trump be president again.

Brummeler blasted the ex-president as a 'baby want-to-be dictator' with 'Putinistic tendencies' and called the idea of a president getting absolute immunity disgusting and embarrassing.

Come November, he will be casting a ballot for Biden, but he is not happy about the choices.

'I'm beyond annoyed that we're forced into having to vote for who we have to vote for. The choices are stupid, but yes, there's not real choice here,' he said.

Theresa Mahan, 31, also said she is going to vote for Biden 'reluctantly.'

Down the road 15 minutes in Saginaw, MI from Trumps rally location is today. Spoke with some reluctant Biden voters.

Heres Theresa Mahan, 31: pic.twitter.com/tPbuPjZ93J  Sarah Ewall-Wice (@EwallWice) May 1, 2024

Donald Trump shouts during his campaign event in Freeland, MI on Wednesday. One Saginaw County resident who was not attending the rally told DailyMail.com he hopes Trump's hair 'blows off' in the wind while visiting the state

Trump attempts to comb his hair back at windy campaign event in Freeland. MI. Trump was visiting the 'pivot county' he lost to Biden by just over 300 votes in 2020 but won in 2016

Trump arriving in Waukesha, WI ahead of second visit to Michigan in just over a month. MI voters were divided over his hush money trial and the issue of presidential immunity depending on which candidate they plan to vote for

'With the two party system, I think that we don't really have much of a choice on who we can elect that best represents our thoughts,' she said.

She identifies more with Bernie Sanders but is not sitting out the election. Her attitude this year is 'vote blue, no matter who.'

Mahan said reproductive rights is a top issue and while 'the Democratic party is doing what they can, it's just not enough.'

She also listed LGBTQ rights, income inequality and social justice as important issues to her.

While Biden eked out a win in Saginaw County in 2020, Trump won it by just over 1,000 votes in 2016 on his way to win the state in an extremely tight race against Hillary Clinton.

Statewide, polling shows the race between Biden and Trump neck-and-neck. The Real Clear Politics average of recent polls show the ex-president with just over a one point lead in the state.
Spin, secrecy and passing the buck. These are the approaches Team Albanese is increasingly using rather than taking responsibility for improving the job of government.

A hallmark of Labor's election victory was supposed to be improving government after the goings on of the Morrison years.

However, the divide between what the new government says and what it promised before the election is growing.

This week the PM found himself engaged in a war of words with an anti-domestic violence campaigner. He sought to move on from the weekend saga by claiming what really matters is the actions being taken to curb the scourge of domestic violence. Few would disagree.

Yet when Daily Mail Australia revealed that of 500 domestic violence case workers promised as part of a $165million funding allocation two years ago, only 17 have been confirmed as active and now in fact working, the PM used morning radio to dismiss the discrepancy.

Anthony Albanese (above) sinks to his very own 'I don't hold a hose moment' after blaming domestic violence policy failure on the states

Remember when Scott Morrison (pictured) didn't take responsibility for managing the bushfires?

Scott Morrison (pictured centre) holidaying in Hawaii as Australia burned in late 2019 during the bushfires

Asked on Thursday 'why are there so few that have been deployed?', Albo answered: 'Well, we're not responsible for employing them.' That's where the ABC interrogation ended, with Albo dumping the blame at the feet of the states.

It was buck passing 101. The Commonwealth allocated the funds to state and territory government to do the doing. So he just blamed them, wiping his hands of the matter. The PM's responsible minister, Amanda Rishworth, did similar when responding to questions from Daily Mail Australia, refusing to tell us if the dismal figure of 17 had lifted in recent months.

Remember when Albo attacked Scott Morrison for his buck passing during the bushfires? 'I don't hold a hose, mate' was Morrisons turn of phrase. It even featured in Labor attack ads. Is this really any different?

Surely the federal Labor government doesn't just give up if states - having already received the money - aren't getting on with hiring the promised personnel? That's just pathetic, especially when seven of the eight states and territories are Labor. Pick up the phone Albo!

Besides, when announcing the policy, the Albanese government harped on about the importance of the 500 new positions, as well as providing timelines around the delivery of the workers. Yet it now acts like its responsibility for the program ended entirely when the cheques were written and sent out.

If the money has gone out the door, but only 17 of 500 new frontline domestic violence workers are actively working, how is all that cash doing anything to help address domestic violence? It's just sitting there. Also, is that how this government casually throws taxpayers money around in other policy areas as well? Not fussed if once allocated it gets put to good use? That is a disturbing possibility as we countdown to budget week.

Then there is the horrific bashing of 73-year-old Perth woman Ninette Simons, allegedly by a former detainee released into the community. Bail was not opposed by the Commonwealth and the PM has blamed the federal Community Protection Board for making the 'wrong decision' when it agreed to remove the former detainee's ankle monitor.

Horrific injuries suffered by Ninette Simons (pictured) allegedly inflicted by a released detainee

'I think that's a wrong decision by the board, but they make the decisions,' Albo said. Buck passing once again. Never mind that the government is responsible for the legislative rules within which the board operates. The responsibility of the federal government not state governments.

CHEAT SHEETS

This week also included revelations that briefing notes were prepared showing bureaucrats required to answer to parliamentary committees how to avoid giving comprehensive answers.

An exercise in pre-emptive cover-up. Prepared under the nose of the Prime Minister no less  in his parliamentary office  the cheat sheets direct senior public servants on how to act like spin doctors.

Before being elected PM, Anthony Albanese said 'the Australian people deserve accountability and transparency, not secrecy'. It was a powerful attack against the Morrison government deployed time and again by Team Albo in opposition.

Fast forward to today and as PM he's embracing the same approach, the PM's office even putting the cynical tactic in writing as a directive to bureaucrats who are supposed to be independent of political spin.

Albo's office did a cheat sheet to help bureaucrats avoid answering senate estimates QTs (The Senate is pictured)

There is an argument that providing lessons in how to obfuscate when fronting senate committees could be in contempt of the chamber. At the very least it goes against principles of open government Albo spruiked ahead of the election.

If this was happening in court proceedings it would be akin to tampering with witness statements, illegal actions to be sure.

Did the PM know this memo was sent out? If he didn't, and lets hope he didn't, will he condemn it and reverse the directive to avoid giving fulsome answers to democratically elected members of parliamentary committees? Will we find out who in his office thought it appropriate to send out such a directive?
EXCLUSIVE

Barry Calverley appeared to have it all - a beautiful wife, country estate, three successful daughters and a career spanning decades in the mining industry.

He had worked in India, Singapore and West Africa on gas and oil projects for resources giants including Shell, Exxon Mobil, BHP and Santos.

He also worked from the Bass Strait to the Pilbara in his home state of Western Australia, and earned up to $2,000 a day.

Mr Calverley was well-respected and 'impressive' according to a friend who also works in the business of safety consultancy for high-risk mining sites.

His friend was 'flabbergasted' to learn this week that Mr Calverley, 68, is now sitting in a jail cell accused of drug trafficking after being arrested three months ago for allegedly smuggling 5kg of heroin from South East Asia through Customs in a camping bag.

Barry Calverley (above) with daughter Harriet was a well-respected mining industry consultant with a country estate who now is locked up in a jail cell on drug importation charges which carry a penalty of life imprisonment

Respected mining industry consultant Barry Calverley (above) had a successful career, property and a loving family but the Western Australian grandfather is now in a jail cell accused of drug trafficking heroin from Laos via Vietnam

Barry Calverley and his wife owned this horse riding property in a picturesque valley of old-growth forests, orchards and vineyards near the Margaret River wine region

On Wednesday, Mr Calverley's eldest daughter Harriet was at his court hearing after making a mercy dash from Perth to Sydney to see her father.

In a failed bail application, the court was told that Harriet would be prepared to live with her father, who is in the maximum security Macquarie Correctional Centre at Wuuluman 350km northwest of Sydney, in NSW should the magistrate release him from custody as he awaits further hearings.

'He is at great risk in the prison system,' his lawyer told the court, and if not granted bail 'at his age risks a very early demise'.

THE ARREST

Mr Calverley was arrested at Sydney International Airport after it is believed he flew back from Laos via Hanoi, Vietnam on the afternoon of January 24.

Australian Border Force officers examined a green bag containing a camping chair as part of Mr Calverley's baggage and allegedly found 5kg of heroin.

The Australian Federal Police said the 'large quantity of heroin... would have been enough for 25,000 street deals with an estimated street value of $2.25 million.'

The court heard that via WhatsApp communications with a man name 'Privham', Mr Calverley had been promised US$7.2million (AUD$11million) 'to pick up documents' and that he had travelled to Laos and met up in a hotel to do so.

At the hotel he was asked 'to take a little gift' in a camping bag as well as the documents back to Australia. Mr Calverley admitted it was suspicious and that he would not have agreed to take anything illegal.

Barry and Jocelyn Calverley have three daughters including Harriet (centre) who were privately educated and grew up on a horse riding estate inland from Bunbury, WA

Border Force officers allege that Barry Calverley imported this camping chair bag containing 5kg of heroin into Customs at Sydney International Airport on the afternoon of January 24 this year

Barry Calverley, above with an ambulance he delivered to a WA mining site, has worked on gas and oil projects for resources giants like Shell, Exxon Mobil, BHP and Santos

The WA grandfather is believed to have flown from Perth to South East Asia in or around the third week of January.

On Wednesday Magistrate Mark Whelan was told that Calverley had 'a very arguable case in relation to his innocence' and that there were 'telling materials that support believing he had a reason to be going to Laos thinking he was going to get this very large sum of money'.

LIFE BEFORE PRISON CELL

After his decades working on mining sites ensuring safety standards for 14 different companies in almost 20 years, Mr Calverley started his own company Redcoastal in 2022.

He posted photos of ambulances, fire trucks and emergency response vehicles he delivered to mining sites, joking they were his his 'big boys' toys'.

The same year he put up his wine collection for sale on Facebook, including vintage Grange Hermitage and Wolf Blass reds and bottles of port dating back to the 1960s, asking friends 'Wine people, any ideas on price for these?'

Mr Calverley had started selling items on his Facebook page three years earlier, including the family home and a 2004 Holden Rodeo ute for $12,500

Owned by Mr Calverley and his wife Jocelyn since 2006, the 20hectare estate at Glen Mervyn, 200km south of Perth, was in a picturesque valley of old-growth forests, orchards and vineyards 'in proximity to Bunbury, the beaches of Geographe Bay, and the Margaret River wine region'.

The Calverley's sold their 290ha property south of Perth for just under $1million in 2021 after living there for 15 years

Barry Calverley put his collection of vintage wines and ports up for sale on Facebook in 2022

The Calverley's five bedroom homestead had a saltwater swimming pool, dressage and show jump arenas and a cross-country jumping course.

It appears the couple's daughters grew up horse riding in the idyllic setting with its own stables and tack room, 15 paddocks for sheep and horses and hay cropping.

Advertised for almost $1million in 2019, the property sold in 2021 for for $965,000 to corporate trust company, Perpetual Trustee.

Meanwhile, the Calverley's had become grandparents and one of their privately educated daughters had graduated from university and become an events manager.

After being charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, Mr Calverley was refused bail and remanded in custody until his bail application on Wednesday when he was again refused bail.

Barry Calverley appeared in court this week via AVL from Macquarie jail (above) at Wuuluman, 350km northwest of Sydney in regional NSW

After being charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, Mr Calverley was refused bail and remanded in custody until his bail application on Wednesday when he was again refused bail.

Magistrate Whelan noted that the alleged offence carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, although he acknowledged there would be delay in Mr Calverley's case before the courts.

He also noted Mr Calverley's stated cardiac issues, and skin complaints of dermatitis and psoriasis, but was not satisfied his lawyer had shown cause to be released on bail.

In refusing bail, Mr Whelan remanded Mr Calverley in custody until a next appearance on January 29, 2025.
They've ticked off Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and seen Hamilton on Broadway.

Now the visitors from Australia are headed for the public gallery of the Donald Trump trial at Manhattan Criminal Court.

'We woke up this morning and said we have to be in "the room where it happens,' said Marney, breaking into the hit song from Hamilton, quickly followed by a fit of giggles.

Across the street is the Manhattan court where Donald Trump is on trial.

He has denied 34 counts of falsifying business records.

But a seemingly mundane case about ledgers and checks has become the hottest ticket in town, enlivened already by the testimony of America's tabloid king and a celebrity lawyer who has won payouts from Charlie Sheen.

Susan Koch (l) and Marianne Fortunato were up at 3am to ensure they got good spots at the head of the line for public seats in the courtroom to see Donald Trump's hush money trial

Those who arrived early enough were given a yellow ticket on Thursday ensuring access

Stormy Daniels is almost certain to appear.

And for the lucky few who line up early enough to snag one of the golden tickets (well, the yellow card emblazoned with the New York State Unified Court System logo) there is a chance to be in the same room as the first former president to ever face criminal chares.

Marney and her friend (who decline to give their full names because one works in the Australian legal system) are too far back in the line. Their destination is the overflow room, 1523, where proceedings are shown by video feed.

'It's history,' said Marney. 'If he is convicted he is the first president to be convicted. If he is acquitted, maybe he wins. Either way ...'

It is only 7:30am on a drab New York morning but there are more than 25 people in line, standing beside a queue for journalists who get first dibs at the seats.

Among the reporters is Andrew Weissmann, former Mueller investigation investigator-turned-MSNBC talking head.

He has to fend off questions and selfies from perhaps the nerdiest line for a tourist attraction in the city.

He points out how rundown the court building looks: 'You can tell from those old air conditioning units.'

The first in line get a chance to be in courtroom 1530, sitting on the benches behind Trump

Visitors got to see for themselves scenes only otherwise published in sketch artists' renderings, as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass and defense attorney Emil Bove clashed

But this is not like coming to a Broadway show. Facilities throughout the drab courthouse building are in need of a refresh, to say the least

A supporter of former President Donald Trump stands outside Manhattan criminal court building, where his hush money trial is taking place

No central air here. The windows are studded with old-fashioned box coolers.

Ask him about the ground-floor cafeteria and his nose wrinkles in shock.

This ticket is a lot cheaper than Broadway (well, it's free). And the facilities match the price.

The small park next to the line is set aside for protesters, but it is empty until a bearded man, dressed in black, arrives clanging a bell under his elbow.

He waves a crucifix in front of him, looking for all the world as if he is blessing the bedraggled ranks of camera crews and reporters tasked with broadcasting from in front of the court house.

Ten minutes later and a woman from France has joined the line. She is chatting to a man from Colorado who is in town for a funeral, but found time to round out his visit with Hamilton on Wednesday, and Trump on Thursday.

At 7:25am the line was already 25 strong, and getting longer as gray morning wore on

Lucky ticket holders ride the elevator up to the 15th floor where a pen is set up for Trump to address the assembled media before and after court sessions

At the start of the trial, the media wrapped up in blankets to protect from the cold as they waited in line to take up their seats inside the courtroom

Marianne Fortunato set off from her New Jersey home at 3am to make sure she and her cousin got good spots.

'I came up from Virginia,' said Susan Koch, a 68-year-old photographer.

'I was a history major. So I want to sort of witness history live in action.

'And I'm also hoping that the "former guy" gets his just due.'

They arrived at 5am, early enough to claim position two and three in the line.

Most days, the first six in line can make it in courtroom 1530 where they can breathe the same air as the former president and watch the back of his head for any sign of gentle snoring.

'I'm really interested in seeing the jury, since they have been masked,' said Fortunato.

'I think it'll be interesting just to watch their reactions and to read their body language.'

A Trump supporter walks along the line, draped in a 2024 campaign flag.

She hands out leaflets that end with the line: 'Wake up people! FJB!'

What would otherwise be a boring financial fraud case has been enlivened by Trump star dust. Last week, David Pecker, tabloid king, described the inner workings of the National Enquirer

And there were titters around the courtroom when the jury was shown cartoons shared by former Trump fixer Michael Cohen of Trump in an orange jumpsuit

Next to her, a courtroom lawyer has come to see the drama on his day off from work. He declines to give his name for fear of professional ridicule, but says he is returning after hearing the testimony of David Pecker, the former editor of the National Enquirer, last week.

'That was something else,' he says, smiling at the way Pecker laid out the dark arts of buying up celebrity stories and massaging the truth.

'I'm not talking about the procedural aspects or the charges.

'It was just riveting in its own right to hear all this. I just think it would be a service to the world and the country for people to hear it.

'You can't summarize it and convey this distorted reality.'

A little after 8am, the cards were handed out, and the lucky few dozen were escorted across the road and into the courthouse.
Just last week Goldberg bashed Donald Trump - who is on trial for his own 'catch and kill' scheme - over his comments in a recent interview

The actress used notorious PI Anthony Pellicano to negotiate a 'kill fee' with two reporters to stop the publication of a story about a cancer scare

He enrages her so much she won't even say his name, referring to him only as 'You Know Who' in regular rants on popular television show, The View.

Just last week Whoopi Goldberg, 68, reacted to Donald Trump's new interview with Time magazine by bashing the former President for everything from his admission that he'd allow states to monitor women's pregnancies to his claim that he'd 'absolutely consider pardoning January 6 rioters.'

But, the truth is, Goldberg has more in common with Trump, 77, than she'd care to admit.

Because, DailyMail.com can reveal, there's one dubious practice both have employed  using a 'fixer' to pay hush money to quash potentially scandalous stories.

In Trump's case, for which he is currently on trial in Manhattan's Criminal Court, this 'catch and kill' of a story he didn't want made public fell to disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen who paid stripper Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep mum about her alleged one-night stand with the then presidential candidate.

In Goldberg's, it was notorious private investigator Anthony Pellicano, now 80,  a man once known as Hollywood's 'fixer of fixers'  who negotiated a generous 'kill fee' with two freelance reporters threatening to take sensitive medical information about the star to the tabloids.

DailyMail.com obtained exclusive audio revealing Whoopi Goldberg used a 'fixer' to pay hush money to quash a potentially scandalous story in the '90s

The actress used notorious PI Anthony Pellicano to negotiate a 'kill fee' with two reporters to stop the publication of a story about a cancer scare

Just last week Goldberg bashed Donald Trump - who is on trial for his own 'catch and kill' scheme - over his comments in a recent interview

In audio tape obtained by Pellicano's fellow fixer, Paul Barresi, 75, and reviewed by DailyMail.com, the investigator is heard speaking with the freelancers one of whom tells him, 'The Globe ran a story a week ago about her having breast reduction surgery, or somethingNow the Star is working on something that she went to St John's Hospital to have a mammogram.'

Barresi told DailyMail.com, 'It's always easier to be critical than correct. Whoopi has been spewing hatred for President Trump for years.

'As a veteran and Trump supporter, who would following him into battle any day of the week, I decided to go public with the audio recording to show Whoopi had something very much in common with "You know who." She too had her own fixer.'

In the recording, the reporter tells Pellicano that the Star is digging into a story alleging Goldberg has had 'a cancer scare.'

DailyMail.com reviewed audio tape obtained by Pellicano's fellow fixer, Paul Barresi, 75

At the time it was well known that Pellicano, whose clients also included Chris Rock, Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Hollywood Kingpins, was a close friend of Goldberg who not only acted as her 'fixer' but her sometime bodyguard.

In the recording of the telephone conversation which took place in 1994, the reporters ask for $5,000 to hand over the name of the hospital informant for which Pellicano has asked.

Pellicano responds, 'Now Whoopi is a very close friend of mine. This really pisses me off. So, I'm willing to take money out of my pocketnot her pocketto give to you. Now you want to give me a more reasonable number. The answer is yes.'

It is a curious echo of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's 2019 testimony to Congress in which he described the mechanism by which adult-actress Stormy was paid back in 2016.

According to Cohen the money came out of his pocket  not Trump's campaign funds - and was then reimbursed the following year in payments that were disguised as legal fees.

As the reporters' conversation with Pellicano continues they become more brazen in their requests, suggesting that Goldberg could scotch the story herself by giving them an interview which they could sell for $10,000.

Pellicano dismisses the attempt to force Goldberg's hand telling them, 'Yeah, except for one thingShe hates the f***ing Enquirer and the Star.

'She hates all tabloids. She's not going to do that.'

He continues, 'I got to figure out what to do, I can't tell her [about this story] on the telephone.'

At this point one of the reporter volunteers, 'I can kill the story. I can probably kill the story.'

To which Pellicano replies, 'Well, if you can kill the story, I can probably get some more money from her.

'I'm not going to talk to her about this over the telephone. I've got to see her in person on this. And she's gonna f***ing freak out. This is what I want with this source. I want his name. I want his social security number and I want his telephone number.'

In the recording of the telephone conversation which took place in 1994, Pellicano says, 'Now Whoopi is a very close friend of mine. This really pisses me off. So, I'm willing to take money out of my pocketnot her pocketto give to you. Now you want to give me a more reasonable number. The answer is yes'

Pellicano was released in 2019 following a 15-year prison sentence after being convicted of 78 counts of wiretapping, intimidation and racketeering. He's seen in court in 2009

His clients included the likes of Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise. Pellicano became prolific in obtaining and protecting the darkest secrets of Hollywood stars, with the help of a sprawling network of wire-tappings

At the time of the conversation Pellicano was at the top of his decidedly murky game. But in 2002 everything changed with a federal investigation into the private detective who boasted of having powerful mob affiliations.

The FBI raided his Los Angeles offices and discovered a trove of incriminating evidence including firearms and two hand grenades, military grade plastic C-4 explosives, a detonator, jewelry, gold coins and bullion and $200,000 in cash.

In subsequent searches agents carted off 36 pieces of electronic equipment, including wiretapping software, computer hard drives and storage files, 150,000 pages of documents, encrypted transcripts of phone conversations and more than 1,300 tape recordings.

Pellicano was ultimately sentenced to 27 to 32 months in prison and on the day of his scheduled release in February 2006, the man whom Goldberg once counted as a friend, was slapped with a multi-count federal wiretapping indictment.

Among his victims were the biggest stars of the day - Sylvester Stallone, Oscar winner Keith Carradine, Garry Shandling, Kevin Nealon and Donna Dubrow, ex-wife of Die-Hard director John McTiernan.

McTiernan was later convicted as part of the prosecution of Pellicano and sentenced to 10 months in federal prison.

Pellicano, whose former protege Barresi was interrogated by the FBI in 2004 about the practices that earned his one-time mentor the moniker the Big Sleazy, was sentenced to 15 years.
UCLA protesters were filmed engaging in combat training moments before cops swooped in and arrested hundreds at a pro-Palestine encampment.

Police raided the Gaza solidarity encampment at the California school on Wednesday night after students defied orders to leave. At least 132 protesters were arrested and one officer was injured during the tense standoff between the demonstrators and riot-gear clad cops.

Now, drone footage taken just before officers stormed shows the students learning hand-to-hand combat techniques.

The group can be seen doling out instructions via megaphone as one balaclava-wearing member appears to act out self-defense tactics - in scenes that reminded some online commenters of jihadi-like training.

UCLA protesters were filmed engaging in militant-style combat training moments before cops swooped in

Drone footage taken just before an overnight standoff on Wednesday shows the students learning hand to hand combat techniques taught by a protester in a balaclava

BREAKING: Using a drone I was able to get EXCLUSIVE UCLA Pro Palestine encampment footage. They are TRAINING protestors in hand to hand combat as LAPD expected to tear down the encampment as soon as tonight, and potential fights with police expected.



The school has deemed the pic.twitter.com/SmLSX6cPjG  Anthony Cabassa (IWA) (@AnthonyCabassa_) May 1, 2024

The Gaza encampment popped up outside of Royce Hall as protesters urged UCLA divest from companies profiting from Israel's war on Hamas

The group filmed performed various scenarios to a crowd that assembled in a circle around them. At one point, one of the group members approaches another and appears to strike them in the head.

A second demonstration shows an individual appearing to act out how to pull someone's leg after being kicked.

Overhead shots show the rows of tents packed closely together at the sprawling encampment.

Masked members of the Palestinian Force 17, an elite security unit linked to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement train in the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip Saturday, March 24, 2007

Fighters participate in military training in this undated still frame from a recruitment video for Osama bin Laden''s extremist Al-Qaida network

Palestinian flags are draped throughout, while signs and placards are pushed up against metal fencing surrounding the camp.

Some of the protesters had been seen donning hard hats, goggles and respirator masks in anticipation of the siege a day after the university declared the encampment unlawful.

Objects, including water bottles, were thrown at officers as they descended on the settlement late Wednesday, according to a CHP spokesperson.

Initially, a small group of police was forced to retreat by pro-Palestine protesters before busloads of riot cops arrived and smashed through the barrier at the camp.

Objects, including water bottles, were thrown at officers as they descended on the UCLA settlement, according to a CHP spokesperson

At least 132 protesters were arrested and one officer injured during the tense standoff between the demonstrators and riot-gear clad cops.

The mob of protesters resisted the cops attempts to disperse them as they pulled signs and shields from the group

LAPD protester apprehending a protester as the break through the encampment early on Thursday

An activist is restrained and led away from the scene from an officer

The mob of protesters resisted the cops attempts to disperse them as they pulled signs and shields from the group.

As police helicopters hovered overhead, the sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people could be heard as police moved in, amid chants of: 'Where were you last night?'

Those arrested were booked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Downtown Los Angeles jail. It is unclear how many of the people arrested are students and faculty.

By morning, the plaza was strewn with detritus from the destroyed encampment: tents, blankets, food containers, a Palestinian flag, an upturned helmet.

Police remained on hand during the first half of the day as the area was cleaned of debris.

Classes were moved to remote learning and Royce Hall will remain closed through Friday, university administrators confirmed.

Students were warned they could face consequences including expulsion or criminal charges if they remained at the site. Staff were also told they could face disciplinary action.

Students have rallied or set up tents at dozens of universities in recent days to protest Israel's war on Gaza and to ask their institutions to divest from companies profiting on the war on Hamas.

Dozens of protesters camped outside Royce Hall in scenes reminiscent of those seen across other campuses

Those arrested were booked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Downtown Los Angeles jail. It is unclear how many of the people arrested are students and faculty

By morning, the plaza was strewn with detritus from the destroyed encampment: tents, blankets, food containers, a Palestinian flag, an upturned helmet

Demonstrators have called on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel's right to defend itself, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and demanded schools divest from companies that support Israel's government.

Many of the schools, including Columbia University in New York City, called in police to quell the protests.

Biden broke his silence on the demonstrations on Thursday after the UCLA raid, saying Americans have the right to protest but not to unleash violence.

'Destroying property is not a peaceful protest,' he said at the White House.

'It's against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancelling of classes and graduations - none of this is a peaceful protest.'

Police remained on hand during the first half of the day as the area was cleaned of debris

Classes were moved to remote learning and Royce Hall will remain closed through Friday, university administrators confirmed

Students were warned they could face consequences including expulsion or criminal charges if they remained at the site

The scenes at UCLA were reminiscent of those at campuses across the US, including Columbia and CUNY which were raided by the NYPD on Tuesday.

In Portland, Oregon, police entered the Portland State University library on Thursday morning, where demonstrators had barricaded themselves since Monday.

Several dozen protesters ran out of the building and rushed into a phalanx of officers in riot gear, who arrested them.

In New Hampshire, police arrested approximately 100 protesters in separate incidents at Dartmouth University and the University of New Hampshire overnight, breaking up encampments.

The protests follow the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw dozens taken hostage, and an ensuing Israeli offensive that has killed about 34,000 and created a humanitarian crisis.
Nat Barr has blasted Anthony Albanese after a freed immigration detainee allegedly bashed an elderly woman in a horror home invasion.

Ninette Simmons, 73, and her husband Phillip, 76, were left bruised and shaken after three men allegedly assaulted them and stole jewellery from their Perth home.

One of the alleged perpetrators, 43-year-old Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, is part of a cohort of immigration detainees at the centre of a political firestorm.

The Sunrise host questioned how the government's Community Protection Board had failed to recommend the freed detainee wear an ankle monitoring device.

Prosecutors told the hearing that Mr Doukoshkan, who came to Australia from Kuwait, was 'likely to re-offend' and had issues with compliance, but the board ruled he shouldn't have to wear the bracelet.

'Commonwealth prosecutors apparently did not oppose bail in that circumstance in Perth. Your own government board did not recommend an ankle bracelet,' Barr said.

She asked Mr Albanese if Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil would be sacked over the debacle.

The Prime Minister simply stated 'no' and said the decision was out of his hands.

Nat Barr (left) has blasted Anthony Albanese (right) and called for the resignation of one of his ministers after an elderly woman was bashed by a freed immigration detainee

Recently released immigration detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan (above), who is accused of bashing an elderly woman in her own home, has been in and out of court this year

'Nat, in this country we have a separation of the judicial system from the political system. But if it was up to me I assure you that there wouldn't have been bail granted in that case,' Mr Albanese replied.

'But these things are done independently by the Director of Public prosecutions.'

Barr fired back: 'But it wasn't opposed.'

'That wasn't a decision by government Nat,' the PM rebutted.

'I'm just as upset about that decision as you are, I think it that lacks common sense.

'That is one of the things, no doubt, that will be on the agenda today at the meeting of the attorney-generals, that will be chaired by Mark Dreyfus in Canberra, bringing together all the states and territories to look at bail laws, to look at these issues.'

Barr pushed the Prime Minister to accept responsibility for the failure.

'If you've got a board that you guys appointed that is saying this person doesn't need an ankle bracelet, surely that's a failure?' she said.

'Yes, it is. I think that's a wrong decision by that board,' Mr Albanese replied.

Nat interrupted: [A board] that you appointed, so who is responsible for that?'

Ninette Simmons, 73, and her husband Phillip, 76, were left bruised and shaken after three men allegedly assaulted them and stole jewellery from their Perth home on April 16

Mr Albanese said his 'heart went out' to Ninette (pictured) following the alleged home invasion

'They make the decisions independent,' Mr Albanese continued.

'One of the things that we have in this country is a separation there and the whole NZYQ case was something we opposed, that decision of the High Court. The government has had to deal with implications of that and the results of that.

'We have been trying to do that. We've brought in a range of laws. We have a law before the Senate now that we wanted to pass in March when Parliament was sitting and that's been held up with another inquiry by a Coalition of the Liberals and Greens,' Mr Albanese explained.

'So we want to take as strong an action as possible here. We recognise that community safety is the absolute priority.

'My heart goes out to Ninette. No one should be subject to that sort of violence. It is an outrage that this occurred.'

Mr Doukoshkan was one of 154 men released from immigration detention in November after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful.

On Thursday, Barr asked Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil why released detainee Jamshidi Doukoshkan hadn't been wearing an ankle monitoring device.

Ms O'Neil dodged the question, saying that she couldn't comment and potentially interrupt criminal proceedings against the man.

Natalie Barr asked Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil (pictured) why released detainee Jamshidi Doukoshkan hadn't been wearing an ankle monitoring device

'So one of the layers of protection that we have in place, Nat, is a group of very experienced law enforcement officials who make decisions about how people will be monitored in the community,' she said.

Barr fired back, asking a question in the minds of many Australians.

'Aren't you responsible for the Community Protection Board that makes those decisions?

'And they did not give him an ankle bracelet?

'Do you think people feel safe out there,' Barr asked.

Ms O'Neil dodged the question again: 'Well, I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the case.'
Waleed Aly has questioned the widespread belief held by politicians and activists that male violence against women stems from disrespect - instead suggesting the desire to hurt women actually comes from attackers feeling shamed and humiliated.

The Project host addressed the domestic violence crisis in Australia in an op-ed following shocking statistics that show a woman is being killed every four days.

Aly, who is also a lecturer in politics at Monash University, said he'd put off writing the piece for nearly a decade.

He referenced words from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who in 2015 said: 'Disrespecting women does not always result in violence against women. But all violence against women begins with disrespecting women.'

Aly said that he always thought Mr Turnbull's comment was incorrect, but had never said anything publicly - until now.

'I couldn't repress a simple thought when I heard Turnbull's comment: I just don't think that's correct,' Aly wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald.

'That's because my academic work was studying the roots of violence, where research overwhelmingly identifies factors like humiliation, shame and guilt as motivating drivers, not a lack of respect.'

Waleed Aly has questioned the idea that the root of male violence against women is a lack of respect, instead suggesting the violence stems from attackers feeling shamed and humiliated

Poll Do you agree with Waleed? Yes, he's right No, the root of gendered violence is disrespect Do you agree with Waleed? Yes, he's right 889 votes

No, the root of gendered violence is disrespect 795 votes Now share your opinion





Aly said research showed perpetrators of violent crimes had often felt they had been disrespected themselves.

He referenced American prison psychiatrist James Gilligan who said he was yet to see a violent act that 'was not provoked by the experience of feeling shamed or humiliated, disrespected and ridiculed'.

Mr Gilligan claimed the most dangerous men 'are those who are afraid they are wimps'.

The issue of domestic violence in Australia has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks after 28 women were allegedly killed this year alone.

Men are being urged to start having conversations with each other about domestic violence, and in Aly's words 'for the "good" men to set the "bad" men straight'.

Aly's comments come a day after the funeral of Molly Ticehurst, 28, who was allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend Daniel Billings

'This delivers a conventional wisdom that this is ultimately a men's problem, and one that every one of us has to own and solve,' he said.

He said it 'makes little sense' to treat every man as violent, when a minority is to blame.

Aly added that associating all men with violence could lead them to 'retreat and defend an identity they feel is unfairly maligned'.

But he said there was still hope for Australia's domestic violence problem.

He said tackling the minority responsible for violence by addressing their risk factors, as opposed to looking at all men in general, was the way forward.

'It accepts the enormity of the task, but doesnt drown in it. It makes the invincible intelligible. It is fierce, but restrained. In sum, it deserves the next decade of respect,' he said.

Aly also noted that tasking 'all men' with solving the domestic violence epidemic was no different to 'being told it was up to Muslims to own the problem of terrorism' - an attitude that 'didn't work' and only resulted in Muslims feeling 'alienated'.

His comments come a day after the funeral of Molly Ticehurst, 28, who was allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend Daniel Billings.
The massive mansion a tech billionaire wants to build towering over a historic ski town is a series of steel and concrete boxes.

Cloudfare founder Matthew Prince, 49, has spent the past year trying to ram his 11,300sqft monstrosity through local bureaucrats in Park City, Utah.

His tactics included hiring lobbyists to sneak an amendment to an affordable housing bill in the Utah legislature to override local planning rules.

Prince, worth $3.4 billion, also bought the local paper and gave its new editor free housing, and sued neighbors who objected to his plan by claiming their dogs, Sasha and Mocha, were vicious.

The massive mansion a tech billionaire wants to build towering over a historic ski town is a series of steel and concrete boxes

The mansion is 3,500sqft with an unspecified number of rooms that towers 4-and-a-half stories high including two below the hill's incline and the roof extends 117ft at 30 to 33ft height

Cloudfare founder Matthew Prince, 49, (pictured with his wife Tatiana) has spent the past year trying to ram his 11,300sqft monstrosity through local bureaucrats in Park City, Utah .

Townsfolk who oppose his plans call him a 'bully' and the 'most hated man in Park City' due to how he went about seeking building approval.

The mansion is 3,500sqft with an unspecified number of rooms that towers 4-and-a-half stories high including two below the hill's incline and the roof extends 117ft at 30 to 33ft height.

A driveway, parking area, and turnaround wide enough for fire trucks, and a separate home office bring the total to 11,300sqft.

The Park City Planning Commission in February approved the mansion with some alterations, but some locals are appealing the 4-2 decision.

The most prominent are Eric and Susan Hermann, the 71-year-old and 68-year-old owners of a $11.5 million mansion next door.

A driveway, parking area, and turnaround wide enough for fire trucks, and a separate home office bring the total to 11,300sqft

The Park City Planning Commission in February approved the mansion with some alterations, but some locals are appealing the 4-2 decision

How the mansion would look towering above the historic ski town

Prince last month sued the couple claiming a rock wall coming from their home crosses the property line into the vacant lot he bought last March.

The pair have emerged as two of Prince's fiercest adversaries in the ongoing property fight, filing an appeal this past month after Prince received approval.

They argue his proposal violates zoning laws - a declaration eight others in the neighborhood, including some friends, have rallied behind. They also say he purposely bought a second patch of land after the first suit so he could file a second.

Within days, Prince filed suit against the couple over the behavior of their Bernese Mountain dogs, calling them 'menacing'.

'I get that we're rich a**holes, but at some level I'm also a father and I have to protect my daughter,' Prince told the Wall Street Journal.

Prince last month sued the couple claiming a rock wall coming from their home crosses the property line into the vacant lot he bought last March. These two maps appear to conflict

A sketch of the side of the building showing the house against the incline of the hill and the basement underneath

Price claimed the two dogs menaced his 82-year-old mother and 'barked, snarled and charged' at his toddler.

The Hermanns said he never asked them to leash their dogs before the filing, and that 'the dogs have had no interaction with the Princes'.

Since the fight erupted about the two pooches, locals have came out in support of Sasha and Mocha, making 'Free Sasha & Mocha' stickers.

The stickers began appearing on signs, fence posts and car bumpers around the city.

Blaire Dernach, a local bartender, described the dogs as being 'big, fluffy and beautiful.'

The owners said they had never received such a complaint before, and claim they are being 'harassed' with the second suit.

Neighbors Eric Hermann and Susan Fredston-Hermann argue his proposal violates zoning laws - a declaration eight others in the neighborhood have rallied behind

Within days, Prince filed suit against the couple over the behavior of their Bernese Mountain dogs, calling them 'menacing'

Attorney Bruce Baird, the lawyer representing Prince, called the rock wall lawsuit a 'simple property dispute'.

In an interview back in March, Prince - who in 2017 wed ex-banker Tatiana Prince - conceded the couple's opposition was a factor in his decision to file the lawsuit over their dogs.

Claiming the canines are often unleashed and uncontrolled, the Cloudflare kingpin who's worth a reported $3.4 billion appeared to make light of the legal fight.

'I think it's pretty reasonable that at some point you say enough is enough. Especially if they're kind of suing you, or at least appealing your ability to build a house,' he told The Daily Beast, referring to the two dogs, Sasha and Mocha.

'This is essentially just two rich people fighting with each other, which is silly, but here we are,' he added, now claiming a wall illegally encroaches on his property.

Prince's complaint against the pups claims the dogs, each weighs over 100 pounds, have aggressively chased and harassed those nearby, and alleges the Hermanns often walk the dogs unleashed on the trail that runs along the perimeter of the Prince property.

The wall belongs to the 71-year-old and 68-year-old Hermanns, who also own this $11.5million mansion. The pair have thus emerged as two of Prince's fiercest adversaries in an ongoing property fight, filing an appeal this past month after Prince received approval to break ground

The Cloudflare kingpin - who's worth a reported $3.4billlion - moved to Park City from the Bay Area after the pandemic

That, the couple claims, comes in direct violation of Park City code - with the complaint also calling the Hermanns 'elderly and frail,' claiming they are not physically capable of controlling the dogs.

A friend of the Hermanns who is familiar with the animals said those claims are bogus - calling the couple far from frail.

'I've known the Hermann's[sic] for most of my life and can confidently say that they are anything but 'frail',' Park City resident Sam Owen wrote in a reply to an Instagram post sharing recent town news.

'In fact they are two of the most active people, anyone who actually knows them would say the same.

'I've known Sasha and Mocha since they were puppies,' she went on, before honing in on the 'menacing' claims.

'They are the most friendly and welcoming dogs to everyone they meet,' she said. 'Neither are aggressive in any way.'

Prince claims the rock wall (circled) crosses the property line between the lot he bought a few weeks ago and the lot next door. The Hermanns say he purposely bought the lot a few weeks ago out of spite

Trying to circumvent the process by sneaking an amendment into a Utah law was one of Prince's earliest tactics back in early 2023.

Cloudfare hired lobbying firm Lincoln Shurtz on February 17 and the amendment appeared in the affordable housing bill the same day.

Representative Doug Owens spotted the amendment and brought it up during debate last March,

'Is there anything in this that came out of another bill this morning that relates to the placement of allowing a specific resident in Park City to bypass local authority for the construction of a home?' he asked.

House Speaker Brad Wilson rolled his eyes as representatives shouted down the amendment, then bizarrely declared it was passed - then calling a vote where it failed 42-30 and was stripped out.

Weeks later, Prince bought the Park Record, which was Park City's biggest local newspaper and installed Don Rogers to edit it.

Rogers has since then lived rent-free in one of Prince's other properties in the area.

Check out the eye roll from @BradWilsonGOP when the nays loudly oppose an amendment to SB271. @ParkCityGovt says the amendment would allow a billionaire to bypass local building codes. The speaker even says it passed, when the resulting vote shows it didnt. #utpol pic.twitter.com/sNBEXysfRZ  KPCW Radio (@KPCWRadio) March 4, 2023

Price wed his wife in 2017, with the pair since purchasing local publication the Park Record. The neighborhood appeal is set for review by Park City's three member appeal panel on April 30, after which the matter will be settled

The coverage of the fight over his mansion suddenly changed to being both frequent and extremely positive.

The paper fawningly quoted Prince saying the project was 'something to be proud of' and attacked its critics - even the entire national news media in a recent editorial.

The incredibly one-sided piece brought up Hermanns' history as a 'debt vulture' in the UK and accused the media of ignoring it to focus on bashing Prince for the dogs lawsuit.

'Coverage of the house and the feud between the ski town titans has been described with varying degrees of breathless inaccuracy, innuendo and incompleteness by the larger press having fun,' Rogers wrote.

'It all has the feel of middle school, entertainment like Mean Girls.'
Social media influencers are risking massive fines and even death by recreating a Steve Irwin stunt with a killer snake.

Instagram influencers are attempting their own 'crikey' moment by picking up and posing with the inland taipan - the world's most venomous snake.

All native snakes are protected in Australia and the penalties for catching one can reach up to $464,400 and even jail.

FNQ Nature Tours owner and nature guide James Boettcher said he became aware of the deadly behaviour a decade ago.

He is critical of influencers trying to copy the wildlife warrior, who once picked up a taipan and allowed it to lick his face.

'I've noticed a trend where people have gotten mixed up in the social media game, and I think they've lost sight of their educational responsibilities,' Mr Boettcher told Yahoo News.

Mr Boettcher is critical of social media influencers trying to copy a famous Steve Irwin stunt

Mr Boettcher (pictured) admits he used to handle wildlife for his Instagram posts and saw a jump in his followers

'They just pose with the snake and rip a sentence from Wikipedia to add onto their post for educational value, and boom, they're a wildlife educator,' he said.

Mr Boettcher said it was ok for someone like Steve Irwin to pose with snakes, as he held a permit.

He is concerned about the impact of the influencers' behaviour on the snakes, that are in some cases being held for up to half an hour while photos are taken.

Queenslands Department of Environment (DESI) states the act of catching a protected snake is an offence.

Offenders can face a fine up to $15,480 plus two years in prison.

The fine soars to $464,000 if the offence occurs in a national park or protected area.

Apart from a massive fine, an encounter with an inland taipan can result in headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, dizziness, collapse, kidney failure and, ultimately, death in just 45 minutes.

The Australian Museum states only a handful of people have ever been bitten by the inland taipan, and all have survived due to rapid first aid and prompt hospital treatment.

Mr Boettcher admits he used to handle wildlife for his Instagram posts and saw a jump in his followers.

'Then I realised I was becoming my own worst enemy: I was doing exactly what I wouldnt want anyone else to do,' he said.
A popular restaurant chain that went cashless during the Covid-19 pandemic has been slammed by Aussies who continue to be frustrated by the move.

Like many businesses, Nando's Australia announced in 2020 it would no longer be accepting cash payments over hygiene concerns and to limit the interaction between employees and customers.

But by refusing cash as a method of payment across its Australian restaurants, the South African-based company has drawn customer backlash.

The restaurant addressed the criticism in a notice to customers that suggested concerns about the decline of cash are just conspiracy theories.

'Sorry, guess we're part of the New World Order now. Just kidding. Card payments mean we spend less time counting coins and more time perfecting your chicken,' it read.

'I understand it's a business's right to refuse payment types. As someone who mostly uses card, I still think this is a really stupid move and will be taking out elsewhere,' one long-time patrons wrote on Reddit.

A popular restaurant chain that went cashless during the Covid-19 pandemic has been slammed by Aussies who continue to be frustrated by the move (stock image)

'Begs the question if card is so much more convenient for business why are they still allowed surcharges,' another wrote.

'Maybe I'm a boomer-ish gen-z member, but it's pretty ironic that legal tender is slowly becoming something only useful for buying non-legal items,' a third person commented.

'Just walk straight back out and find a good local business with a decent owner and staff who is open to all forms of remuneration,' a fourth added.

'Not everyone uses their card for purchases so i guess they're gonna lose customers,' a fifth said.

But not everyone was against the move from Nando's.

The restaurant addressed the criticism in a notice to customers that suggested concerns about the decline of cash are just conspiracy theories

'Not only does [cash] it make you vulnerable to being robbed ... it always takes so long if you have to count coins and makes people behind wait,' one said.

'The problem with cash is that cash handling, management and transportation is a business and ironically an increasingly unprofitable one,' a second added.

'Most people pay by card anyway so it's not too bad unless they charge a surcharge or ask for a tip by QR code,' a third wrote.

Nando's employees revealed customers often complained about the cash ban.

'Nothing new. No surcharge for card, Nando's is expensive enough as it is lol. It is annoying when customers try and complain to me or scold me for it though, not much I can do about it, I wasn't even there when the decision was made,' the employee wrote.

Another employee agreed and added: 'I worked at Nando's for eight months and I swear people always lost their minds about it'.

Daily Mail Australia contact Nando's for comment.
Seventeen years since her shock disappearance in 2007, Madeleine McCann's parents shared a poignant message with supporters on Thursday, describing how the 'absence still aches' and thanking followers for their steadfast encouragement.

'It's 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us,' a social media post from Kate and Gerry McCann read. 'It's hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief.'

'Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the 'living in limbo' is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.

'Your support continues to encourage us and bolsters our strength to keep going. We know the love and hope for Madeleine and the will to find her, even after so many years, remains, and we are truly thankful for that.

'Thank you again for remembering Madeleine and all missing children.'

Earlier this week, the Home Office committed an additional 192,000 towards Scotland Yard's investigation into the disappearance, with police from across Europe still fighting to find out what happened to young Madeleine.

Madeleine McCann disappeared aged three from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal

Kate and Gerry McCann pictured together during an interview with the BBC in April 2017

The month of May marks both the anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance and her birthday month, the young girl turning 21 on May 12.

In the years since her 2007 disappearance, international search efforts have been supported by a distinct fund set up to help the family and ensure Madeleine's safe return home.

The family have continued to share periodic updates on the findmadeleine.com website and gather annually to mark Madeleine's birthday.

Earlier this month, the Home Office also provided the Met with an additional 192,000 to help in their investigation this year, bringing the total to 13.2mn spent since Madeleine's disappearance.

German police are currently probing prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 47, in a separate case in Germany, where he is accused of raping a woman in Praia da Rocha in 2004, and abusing a teenage girl and a woman aged between 70 and 80 in Praia da Luz, where he lived, between December 2000 and June 2006.

At the trial this week, a British police officer involved in Madeleine's case this week revealed dealings with Helge Busching, a key witness in the disappearance.

DC Mark Draycott revealed he had taken a statement from Busching in 2017, the witness telling police his fears Brueckner was involved in Madeleine's disapperance.

It would be another three years before German officials named Brueckner as their chief suspect in 2020.

And a former girlfriend to Brueckner told a court in Germany in April that detectives still had not searched her home despite revealing he had called her on the night Madeleine disappeared.

The woman told the court he had called her to say he was driving to her house in Portugal, and that she did not know whether he had arrived.

The father to Brueckner's former girlfriend and the German prosecutor also insisted police investigate the compound near Praia de Luz in 2022, but said they never came.

The trial unrelated to Madeleine's disappearance has heard several pieces of evidence suggesting police were slow to investigate aspects of the case - or did not follow up on leads at all.

Brueckner's defence have tried several times to have witnesses ruled out saying the case is unfair and prejudiced against their client because of the link to Madeleine but all attempts have so far failed.

Brueckner maintains he has nothing to do with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from her bedroom at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007 while on holiday with her parents.

British police initially investigated the case before it was archived in July 2008 due to lack of evidence.

The family kept the case open with private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own investigation in 2011.

Madeleine McCann, who disappeared aged 3 in 2007, will turn 21 this month

Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, appearing in Braunschweig court in Germany on February 16th 2024, accused of other offences

Brueckner was officially named as a suspect in April 2022 after his yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Madeleine vanished.

Brueckner has denied he was in the area at the time and distanced himself from the allegations against him.

German prosecutors say phone logs show he received a call on May 3 2007 near the Ocean Club. He has claimed he was miles away with a young woman at the time.

Brueckner has not been charged in connection to the case and denies the allegations.

The trial is expected to continue through the spring and into the summer.
A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients avoided the death penalty after she pleaded guilty to three counts of murder.

Heather Pressdee, 41, was given three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars during a hearing in Butler, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, 'Because I am guilty.'

She played a role in the deaths of at least 17 patients who lived in five health facilities in four counties between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said.

The 22 overall victims ranged in age from 43 to 104. Coworkers often questioned Pressdee's conduct and said she frequently showed disdain for her patients and made derogatory comments about them, authorities said.

Family members were quick to blast the sick 'Angel of Death' as she listened to them testify at her Thursday sentencing. One said: 'She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified. ... 'I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father.'

Heather Pressdee, 41, was given three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars during a hearing in Butler, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh

Pressdee, who could have faced a death sentence, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder. She initially was charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third.

Further investigation led to dozens of more charges against her. During a February hearing she argued with her attorneys and indicated that she wanted to plead guilty.

Pressdee said little as she entered her pleas inside a Pennsylvania courthouse, responding to most questions with a single word.

The plea hearing was expected to last through Friday because several people wanted to give victim impact statements, officials said.

Some who spoke in court Thursday told Pressdee that she had wrongly tried to play God, noting that although some of her victims were elderly or very ill, none were ready to die.

Pressdee didn't look at the speakers or react to their comments, even when one shouted an expletive at her that led the courtroom gallery to break out in applause, according to news reports.

She was charged with the murders of Irene Simons, 78, (pictured) and Sandra Lincoln, 82, who died following unnecessarily doses of insulin last year

When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, 'Because I am guilty'

Prosecutors alleged Pressdee, of Harrison, gave excessive amounts of insulin to 22 patients, including some who weren't diabetic.

Two patients died at the at the Quality of Life Services facility located in Chicora, Pennsylvania, where Pressdee worked, prosecutors said.

She typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts, when staffing was low and the emergencies wouldn't prompt immediate hospitalization. Most of the patients died soon after receiving the insulin dose, or some time later.

Her nursing license was suspended early last year, not long after the initial charges were filed.

According to court documents, Pressdee sent her mother texts between April 2022 and May 2023 in which she discussed her unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and spoke about potentially harming them.

She also voiced similar complaints about people she encountered at restaurants and other places.

Pressdee had a history of being 'disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated,' prosecutors said in court documents.

Beginning in 2018, Pressdee held a number of jobs at western Pennsylvania nursing homes and facilities for short periods, according to the documents.

She was charged with the murders of Irene Simons, 78, and Sandra Lincoln, 82, who died following unnecessary doses of insulin last year/

This image provided by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office shows Pressdee

A typical room at the Quality of Life Services facility located in Chicora, Pennsylvania

Their families filed separate wrongful death lawsuits against Sunnyview Operating LLC and Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center last month.

They claim the companies were negligent, careless or reckless as they hired Pressdee 'despite her alarming history of resident abuse at ten prior facilities including causing injuries and/or deaths of at least sixteen residents at the other facilities.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Sunnyview Operating LLC and Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for comment.
The distraught uncle of a surfer who was stabbed to death minutes after he emerged from the waves in a regional NSW town has spoken of the family's grief and anger.

Ralph also made the shocking revelation that the 22-year-old's mother worked in the same hospital her son was rushed to and where he died.

He called for changes in the law to tackle the soaring number of knife crime incidents.

Still dressed in his wetsuit, the surfer was found with significant injuries beside his car near the Coffs Harbour Surf Life Saving Club about 6.40am on Thursday.

Paramedics treated him at the scene before taking him to hospital, where he later died.

His uncle, speaking with Ben Fordham on 2GB, said that in 'the cycle of life, people you love pass. Sometimes it's old age, sometimes it's a terrible accident, and for our family right now it's just murder'.

A young man has been rushed to hospital following an incident in Coffs Harbour (pictured)

READ MORE: Young surfer dies after he is wounded in the neck and chest moments after leaving the water SES personnel are pictured at the scene of an alleged stabbing in Coffs Harbour Advertisement

Fighting back tears, Ralph said his 'first emotion is just anger'.

'I'm angry obviously at this attacker. But I'm angry about politicians (too).'

He called on the NSW Government to bring in a version of Jack's Law, which was introduced in Queensland after Jack Beasley, 17, was killed during a fight with two other teens outside a convenience store in Surfers Paradise.

The 'wanding' laws allow police to use hand-held metal detectors in public places to uncover concealed knives.

'How long do we have to wait here in New South Wales? This will save lives. Why are they asleep at the wheel? It's our sons and daughters,' Ralph said.

'I hope all the listeners and people in New South Wales are angry. He was just coming back from the surf (and was) stabbed eight times.

'What on earth is going on? Give the police these powers and save lives. Do your job.'

On Friday, Coffs Harbour detectives continued their search for the attacker, for whom a description has not been released.

Avenues of inquiry include whether the surfer came across someone breaking into his car, and what if any relation a confrontation at a second beachside area on Thursday morning had to the homicide.

'We've identified some items of interest at a campsite around the jetty area,' Detective Chief Inspector Guy Flaherty told reporters.

'This area may or may not be related but at this point we've declared a crime scene.'

Ralph paid tribute to his 'lovely young' nephew.

A crime scene was established at Ocean Parade with SES personnel also in attendance

'More than anything else, he just had a heart of gold, he really did. (He had) a gentle, caring nature, (it) was his greatest asset. We're just broken.'

Two weeks ago, NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was looking at adopting Jack's Law in NSW after a spate of high-profile knife attacks that shocked Sydney.

Police, emergency services and transport unions have backed the change and decried the 'appalling incidence of youth knife crime'.

But the Council for Civil Liberties warned of a knee-jerk response to 'violent and distressing, but isolated' incidents and worried police would disproportionately search marginalised communities.
The Home Office has forecast that three-quarters of detained migrants will bring successful legal challenges that block their removal to Rwanda, the Mail can disclose.

Leaked documents seen by this newspaper predicted 75 per cent of migrants will bring successful judicial reviews.

The development suggests the Home Office will have to make hundreds of detentions in anticipation of a high rate of drop-outs on legal grounds.

It comes after the Home Office heralded passing a 'milestone' in the Rwanda scheme this week, as the first wave of detentions took place across the country.

The Rwanda removals programme, code-named 'Operation Vector', began on Monday lunchtime and involves 800 uniformed immigration officers.

The Home Office has forecast that three-quarters of detained migrants will bring successful legal challenges that block their removal to Rwanda , the Mail can disclose. Pictured: The first migrants set to be deported to Rwanda have been detained

The Home Office confirmed 711 small boat migrants reached Dover on Wednesday  a record this year, and a daily tally not normally seen until the summer

Yesterday the Home Office confirmed 711 small boat migrants reached Dover on Wednesday  a record this year, and a daily tally not normally seen until the summer.

Senior Tory MP Neil O'Brien said of the predicted level of successful appeals: 'This just shows how the Government has to wade through treacle to get anyone out of the country.

'It demonstrates the absurd extent to which bogus claimants can launch endless further appeals to block their removal.

'This leak just shows how difficult the 'rights culture' has made things.'

The documents set out how much time it is likely to take to process detainees and fight off different legal challenges.

For example, a claim that they have been a victim of human trafficking would take between five and 35 days to resolve, while a challenge which ends up in the Court of Appeal could take 11 months.

Under the laws passed last year by the Government, migrants can block their removal if they persuade judges they face a 'real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm' in Rwanda.

The internal documents also suggest the Home Office has been planning for 142 individuals to be removed per week, with 50 migrants aboard each flight.

Yesterday the Home Office said: 'This document is out of date and is no longer accurate.

'Our new legislation makes clear the route for successfully appealing a decision is vanishingly narrow.'
A flyer offering women and children fleeing domestic violence a 'secure carpark' in which to sleep is causing Aussies to despair about the state of the nation.

Nova, a referral service in the NSW city of Newcastle for women and children escaping domestic violence, has put out fliers asking women sleeping in their vehicles if they are 'looking for somewhere safer to sleep in your car a few nights a week?'

The flyer advises the pilot project will run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights from April to June, and the car park will offer food and drink, showers, toilets, laundry facilities, a kitchen, TV and lounge. Those with dogs are also accepted.

A notice advertising a secure carpark where those fleeing domestic violence can sleep in the NSW city of Newcastle has caused widespread dismay and anger

The service running the carpark has not been named as a safety precaution and Nova will screen applicants before referring them.

'We are heartened by the enthusiastic response from our community (both locally and nationally), to share support options for women needing a space to sleep,' Nova said in a statement about the pilot project.

'We certainly do not see this pilot as a housing solution, but as a response to the immediate crisis currently in our region.'

Nova CEO Kelly Hansen told Nine newspapers that the carpark shelter was made necessary by Australia's housing 'crisis'.

'Women sleeping in their cars is not a solution to housing but we don't have another answer,' she said.

The poster advertising the carpark service has been shared widely online and caused social media users to react with shock and outrage.

'This is so f***ing sad,' wrote a person commenting on the Facebook page Don't Rent Me.

'The fact that something like this has to be offered hurts my heart,' another said.

'I think people have no clue how many are staying in abusive relationships because there is no alternative apart from sleeping in a car,' read another comment.

Some saw it as a tragic sign of what Australia has become.

'It's a crisis point and shameful on this country,' one person commented.

'While I'm so glad these services are available I am so disappointed that this is where we're at.

'We're so fast turning into the USA. The gap between gender, income and education is getting out of control.

'Not the Australia I was brought up to love, I wish that we didn't have to have anyone sleeping in cars.'

Other commenters called on the government to do more.

'Why oh why is our government not doing something about this on an urgent basis?!' another asked.

The Albanese government has offered $5,000 to women fleeing domestic violence (stock image)

'I work in self storage and have so many customers coming in and storing their life's possessions and then losing it all because they're homeless and unable to pay.

'It breaks my heart when we have to auction their stuff.

'We go out of our way to help them but at the end of the day we're as powerless as they are. Surely there's something the govt can do about this.'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday that female victims of domestic violence will be given up to $5,000 and help accessing services, as the government responds to a recent spike in domestic violence deaths.

The Leaving Violence Payment is intended to assist those who are otherwise financially trapped into staying with an abusive partner.

'Those eligible will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments, and safety planning,' Mr Albanese said.

'This commitment builds on measures put in place by our government to help address financial barriers to escaping violence.'

Domestic violence survivor and advocate Rosie Batty welcomed an extension to emergency financial support but raised concerns in relation to barriers around eligibility and access.

She said women are at the highest of risk of violence and homicide when they leave a violent relationship, and urged for more federal and state resources towards recovery and healing.

'I appreciate this is an important request that the government has listened to, but what I would enforce is I hope this payment is easily accessible and provided without the victim having to prove or to go through an extensive screening process that ultimately re-traumatises them,' Ms Batty said.

'Ultimately, leaving a violent relationship is a long recovery. We need to realise that the violence doesn't necessarily stop just because you leave.'
More than 200million of taxpayers' cash has been spent on fully-funded scholarships to foreign students in the past four years, the Mail can reveal.

While UK students are saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt, Chevening Scholarship recipients have their flights, accommodation and tuition fees paid for.

They are available to 'outstanding emerging leaders' from across the world to pursue one-year master's degrees in Britain.

But many recipients appear capable of paying their own way - with even a Prince from Lesotho among the distinguished Chevening alumni.

The Mail can now reveal that the scheme costs taxpayers more than 50million each year, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.

Former Business Secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said students should pay for their own trips rather than receive free tuition through the Chevening Scholarship

Some of the recipients have had flights and accommodation paid for as well as activities including visiting the Harry Potter Studios (pictured)

In the past year, scholars have been able to attend events including a 'fully immersive wellbeing art workshop' and a visit to Brighton to 'celebrate diversity'.

They have also been invited to have afternoon tea on a London bus and visit the Harry Potter studios in Hertfordshire - all for free.

The Foreign Office insists that the scheme generates more economic benefit than it costs, adding that it enhances British influence abroad.

But former Tory minister David Jones said that while the scholarships are a 'good way of cultivating soft power', they should be given to 'deserving people' who cannot afford to study in the UK otherwise.

He said: 'It's an issue of value for taxpayers' money. If it is sensibly applied, it can be of benefit not only to the Chevening Scholar but also to the UK because it's an exercise in soft power.

'It is not an exercise in soft power to give money to wealthy African princes or to pay for people to go on a Harry Potter studio tour. Clearly, whoever administers this scheme needs to look at it again.'

Former Business Secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said students should pay for their own trips - and criticised the Government for reopening the scheme to Russians.

He told the Mail that the Chevening Scholarship was 'quite a sensible thing to do', but said: 'I would have thought they could pay for their excursions themselves.'

Sir Jacob added: 'I think we should not be taking Russian students because I find it hard to believe that with the current Russian state you can give them to people who are not tied into Putin in some way or another.

'I know the Foreign Office maintains that they are independent of Putin, but I find that difficult to believe under the current circumstances.'

Britain barred Russians from applying to the programme in the wake of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

However, it has since been reopened to Russian applicants.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokeswoman said: 'The Chevening Programme is creating long-lasting relationships with the next generation of leaders, influencers, and decision makers from across the globe.

'In addition to furthering UK influence abroad, the programme also provides economic benefits by attracting business and research opportunities and supports the UK's development objectives by working with scholars from ODA eligible countries.'

Chevening alumni includes 20 former or current heads of state or government.

UK government funding is part supplemented by in-kind university fee waivers and private contributions.
Australian motorists are shunning fully-electric cars and sales are plunging with no zero emission vehicles in the top 10 for the first time in almost two years, new figures show.

This is occurring only months ahead of Anthony Albanese's government introducing a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard that aims to slash vehicle emissions by 59 per cent in just four years, with penalties levied on sellers of petrol, diesel and even petrol-electric hybrid cars.

For the first time since July 2022, the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3 and the MG ZS, available as a battery-electric SUV, were absent from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' monthly top 10 list.

Tesla last month had no models in the top 20 - after making the top three in both February and March.

Australian motorists are shunning fully-electric cars with no zero emission vehicles in the top 10 for the first time in almost two years, new figures show. Tesla last month had no models in the top 20 (pictured is a Tesla Model 3 - Australia's 26th bestselling car in April)

Australia's top-selling car in April was instead the Toyota RAV4, an SUV available as a hybrid which was last the No. 1 car in August 2020.

Its 5,857 monthly sales marked a 166.5 per cent surge compared with a year ago.

Cars available as a hybrid had four spots on the top 10 list including the Toyota Corolla in sixth place with 2,097 sales - a 165.1 per cent increase compared with April 2023.

The Toyota Camry sedan, also available as a hybrid, was ninth with its 1,873 sales more than triple the level of a year earlier, with a 226.3 per cent increase.

The Mitsubishi Outlander, available as a plug-in hybrid, rounded out the top 10 list with 1,848 sales.

Environmentally-conscious motorists are now favouring hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which together had an 18.3 per cent market share, more than double the 7.5 per cent level of April 2023.

But battery-electric vehicles had a big decrease to 6.4 per cent, down from 7.9 per cent a year ago when they were outselling hybrids.

The Tesla Model 3 had 911 sales in April, down 42.4 per cent from a year earlier to be in 26th spot just two months after it was Australia's third bestselling car.

Australia's top-selling car in April was instead the Toyota RAV4, an SUV available as a hybrid which was last the No. 1 car in August 2020

The more expensive Tesla Model Y suffered a 44.3 per cent sales slump with 1,166 ordered to be in 21st position, a big fall from third place in March.

Tesla announced in March it would quit the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries in protest at the motoring industry lobby group's campaign against Labor's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, but its EVs will continue to be included in monthly FCAI sales data until the end of June.

EVs had two spots in the top 20 list but only for models also available as an unleaded car.

They included the MG ZS in 11th place with 1,707 sales and the Hyundai Kona in 17th spot with 1,303 sales.

Diesel cars had six spots in the top 10 including the Ford Ranger, in second place, with 5,569 sales, putting it ahead of the Toyota HiLux in third place with 4,693 sales.

The other bestselling diesels included the Ford Everest SUV in fourth place with 2,400 sales and the Isuzu D-Max ute in fifth place with 2,380 sales.

The LandCruiser four wheel drive, including older-style 70 series utes belching out 281 grams of carbon per kilometre, was seventh with 1,970 sales, ahead of the Isuzu MU-X SUV with 1,876 sales.

Beyond the top 10, cars available as a hybrid making the top 20 included the Kia Sportage in 12th place with 1,699 sales, the Hyundai Tucson in 14th spot with 1,548 sales, Nissan X-Trail in 19th position with 1,219 sales and the Toyota Yaris Cross in 20th place with 1,180 sales.

Labor's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), announced in February, seeks to impose penalties on car makers that relied too heavily on selling petrol and diesel cars, including those with a petrol-electric hybrid engine.

The plan, due to come into effect on January 1, 2025, aims to cut average passenger vehicle carbon emissions to 58 grams of carbon per kilometre by 2029.

Diesel cars had six spots in the top 10 including the Ford Ranger (pictured is Raptor model that uses premium unleaded), in second place, with 5,569 sales, putting it ahead of the Toyota HiLux in third place with 4,693 sales

This would mark a 59 per cent reduction from the 2025 target of 141 grams per kilometre as part of Labor's plan to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.

Sellers of light commercial vehicles, covering utes and four wheel drives, would be required to reduce emissions by 47.6 per cent, from 210 grams of CO2 per kilometre in 2025 to 110g/km by 2029.

No single petrol, diesel or hybrid car on sale now would meet those NVES goals, with car manufacturers fined $100 for every gram, on average, their new fleet went above a specified threshold.

This would see costs passed on to consumers but it would reward EV makers who could sell carbon credits to their rivals, with the scheme expected to reduce the price of a Tesla Model Y by $15,390, based on FCAI calculations.

Labor is aiming to slash carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 as part of a net zero by 2050 goal.
Turkey has suspended all trade with Israel over its ongoing offensive in Gaza as relations continue to sour between the two regional powers.

The Turkish Trade Ministry said exports and imports had abruptly 'stopped' on Thursday, and that the measures would remain until Israel allows what it deems 'an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid' into the beleaguered Strip.

'This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements,' Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz snapped in a post on Twitter/X on Thursday.

He said he had instructed the foreign ministry to seek out alternatives for trade with Turkey, including focusing on internal production as Israel's local relationships are tested by its seven-month campaign in Gaza.

Turkish officials added in their declaration that they would work with the relevant Palestinian authorities to ensure Palestinians are not affected by the suspension.

Turkey and Israel had a trade volume of $6.8 billion in 2023. The two countries had finally normalised ties after years of tensions by appointing ambassadors in 2022.

But the war in Gaza has seen relations spiral in recent months with President Erdogan calling Israel a 'terror state' and introducing trade restrictions expected to hurt Israel's economy - a move matched in kind by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) in September 2023

Relatives of Palestinians who lost their lives as a result of Israeli attacks on the Bureij refugee camp mourn as they take the dead bodies to be buried in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on May 2, 2024

In its statement today, the Turkish trade ministry described the step as the 'second phase' of measures against Israel, adding that the steps would remain in force until Israel 'allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.'

The move was met with furious backlash from Israel's foreign minister, who accused Turkey of blocking Israeli imports and exports from Turkish ports earlier on Thursday.

READ MORE: President Erdogan says Turkey firmly backs Hamas leaders and speaks openly with them Advertisement

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 'is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports,' Katz wrote on the social platform X.

Erdogan's government, which suffered major setbacks in local elections in March, is faced with intense pressure at home to halt trade with Israel.

Critics accuse the government of engaging in double standards by leveling strong accusations against Israel while pressing ahead with commercial relations.

Last month, Turkey - a staunch critic of Israel's military actions - announced that it would restrict exports of 54 types of products to Israel, including aluminum, steel, construction products and chemical fertilizers.

Israel responded by also announcing trade barriers.

This week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey had decided to join the legal case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice and would soon submit a formal request to intervene in the case.

South Africa filed a case at the ICJ accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention with its military offensive against Hamas.

Israel denies that its military campaign in Gaza amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention.

Since January, Turkish authorities have detained dozens of people, including private detectives, on suspicion of spying for Israel, mostly on Palestinians living in Turkey.

And in December, Erdogan went so far as to say Netanyahu was no different from Adolf Hitler, comparing Israel's attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.

Erdogan was quick to accuse Israel of committing war crimes and genocide in the days and weeks after the war broke our, using strong rhetoric in front of crowds of supporters while donning a scarf emblazoned with the flags of Turkey and Palestine.

'We will tell the whole world that Israel is a war criminal. We are making preparations for this. We will declare Israel a war criminal,' he said as part of a one-hour speech three weeks into the conflict.

A Palestinian man pulls a cart on a road lined with destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 2, 2024

Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, October 7, 2023

Turkey recognized Israel in 1949 but under Erdogan tensions have ebbed and flowed between the countries.

He has described Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, as freedom fighters.

Erdogan's party has offered support to Hamas since the 2000s but finally managed to normalise relations in August 2022.

The restoration of relations was significant for the region, allowing Israel closer monitoring of Iran and the facilitation of selling gas to Europe.

Turkey saw the opportunity to improve ties with the US through better relations with Israel.
A young man is in critical condition in hospital after allegedly being tortured and buried alive.

Two people have been charged following the brutal assault and attempted murder of the man in Mount Mee, a one-and-a-half-hour drive north-west of Brisbane on Wednesday night.

Emergency services were called to a Mclean Road property around 8.30pm following reports of an alleged assault.

A 23-year-old man from Eagle Farm was found with serious head injuries and is in critical condition in Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

It's understood the man was partially buried, reported 9News.

A 21-year-old Mount Mee woman and 23-year-old man have been charged with a string of serious offences, including attempted murder and torture.

Emergency services were called to a Mclean Road property around 8.30pm on Wednesday following reports of an alleged assault

A 21-year-old Mount Mee woman and 23-year-old man have been charged with a string of serious offences, including attempted murder and torture

Mount Mee is a one-and-a-half-hour drive north-west of Brisbane, and directly west of Caboolture

The woman was charged with 10 offences, including attempt to murder, common assault, deprivation of liberty, disabling in order to commit indictable offence, grievous bodily harm, observations or recordings in breach of privacy genital or anal region, serious assault of police officer, torture, wounding and unlawful possession of weapons.

A 23-year-old local man was charged with nine offences, including attempt to murder, common assault, deprivation of liberty, disabling in order to commit indictable offence, grievous bodily harm, observations or recordings in breach of privacy genital or anal region, torture, wounding and unlawful possession of weapons.

Both were due to appear before Caboolture Magistrates Court today.

Queensland police told Daily Mail Australia investigations are continuing and at this stage there are no other suspects involved.
Ministers have still not met the author of a landmark report ruling in favour of the 'Waspi' women, six weeks after it was published.

Women hit by changes to the state pension, who could be owed up to 10.5billion, fear they have been forgotten again.

After years of campaigning, a long-awaited ruling found that millions born in the 1950s had been failed by the Government.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said the affected women had 'lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances' because of inaction by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Ministers have still not met the author of a landmark report ruling in favour of the 'Waspi' women, six weeks after it was published (file photo)

Women hit by changes to the state pension, who could be owed up to 10.5billion, fear they have been forgotten again (file photo)

It is understood that Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has still not met the Ombudsman's chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath to discuss the report.

Campaigners are concerned they may miss out on compensation as a result.

Angela Madden, of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign, said: 'With one Waspi woman dying every 13 minutes, those affected can no longer be ignored  justice delayed is justice denied.'

When the ruling was published on March 21, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt said she hoped Mr Stride would address the matter before the Easter recess.

After years of campaigning, a long-awaited ruling found that millions born in the 1950s had been failed by the Government (file pic)

It is understood that Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride (pictured) has still not met the Ombudsman's chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath to discuss the report

However, Mr Stride later said the Government would need time to 'properly consider the findings'.

A DWP spokesman said: 'The Secretary of State is considering the Ombudsman's report and will respond in due course.'
A former high-flying lawyer has been accused of trafficking more than 120kg of cocaine disguised as frozen chicken in the back of a van.

Australian Federal Police will allege Michael Bosscher, 55, attempted to transport the drugs from Melbourne to Sydney in August 2022.

He appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday via telephone facing one count of trafficking in commercial quantities of controlled drugs.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Bosscher is also accused of playing a major role in an alleged multi-million dollar money laundering syndicate at the same time, in another matter before the courts.

Former high-flying Queensland lawyer Michael Bosscher (pictured) has been accused of allegedly trying to transport 120kg of cocaine from Melbourne to Sydney disguised as frozen chicken

Bosscher's lawyer Adam Guest, of Guest Lawyers, requested the charge be joined with other related matters, the Courier Mail reports.

Magistrate Peter Saggers adjourned the case to May 17, leaving Bosscher remanded in custody.

He was one of two men arrested by the AFP in October 2022 and charged over their alleged involvement in a $4.5million money laundering syndicate.

Raids over the syndicate allegedly uncovered $70,000 cash from two safes that were hidden under stairs and a cash counter at a premises in Bardon, a suburb of Brisbane, while $160,000 cash was seized from a safe in Helensvale on the Gold Coast.

Bosscher was charged with conspiring to deal in the proceeds of general crime and at the time of dealing, the value of the money or property was $1,000,000 or more.

The cocaine was allegedly discovered in the back of a van disguised as frozen chicken (pictured)

Bosscher is also accused of allegedly playing a major role in an alleged multi-million dollar money laundering syndicate at the same time (pictured, Bosscher arrested in 2022)

His law firm Bosscher Lawyers had formerly described Bosscher as one of Australia's most experienced criminal law practitioners.

He became a solicitor in 1993 and has since represented serial killers, rapists and drug kingpins.

'Michael has spent over a quarter of a century practising exclusively in criminal law,' the firm's website stated.

'Michael has appeared in some of Australia's most famous criminal law cases over the past 25 years and is also a published author on criminal law topics.

'His reputation for his knowledge and experience in the field is nationally recognised and he provides advice not only directly to clients but also to educational institutions, sporting bodies and law reform stakeholders.'
A group of teenage girls has been accused of wreaking havoc and assaulting commuters on an Adelaide train line.

The group has been threatening and terrorising commuters on the Seaford train line, on the Eyre Peninsula, for the past few weeks.

An Adelaide mother confronted the teenage girls after they allegedly attacked her 17-year-old daughter on Wednesday evening.

She was alerted to the incident after she received SOS text messages from her daughter who said she was being robbed.

'They were saying give me your bag, give me your phone, give me your glasses,' the mother told 9News.

'Grabbed her by the hair, pulled her head backwards and started punching her.

'As a mother, it makes me feel helpless.'

A group of teenage girls has been accused of wreaking havoc and assaulting commuters on an Adelaide train line (pictured, footage of

A mother was alerted to the incident after she received SOS text messages (pictured) from her daughter who said she was being robbed

A SA Police spokesperson confirmed police were investigating the alleged assault.

'Just after 6.15pm Wednesday 1 May, a teenage girl was assaulted on the Seaford Line train by a group of girls unknown who attempted to steal her bag and phone,' the spokesperson confirmed.

'The female victim received minor injuries.'

The spokesperson said police are reviewing CCTV footage, and all three suspects had long brown hair and were aged between 12 and 15-years-old.

'One suspect was described as being of Aboriginal appearance,' they said.

'One suspect was wearing denim jeans and a light grey coloured jumper, while another was wearing light blue shorts and a white hoodie.

'The third suspect was wearing black leggings and a black hoodie.'

Avari Geschmay, 19, believed she was attacked by the same group of girls when she was leaving Seaford train station on Tuesday evening.

Avari Geschmay, 19, believed she was attacked by the same group of girls when she was leaving Seaford train station on Tuesday evening

Ms Geschmay alleges she was followed by the gang of three and punched in the back of her head by one of the girls.

'They were following behind me, towards the car, kicking my bag, which had all my electronics,' she said.

'But once I got in the car, one of the girls started punching me in the back of my head.

'I won't be able to use the train station by myself anymore because anything could happen to me.

'You don't think that it's going to be younger people that would do stuff like that.'

A spokesperson confirmed police were investigating an alleged assault at Seaford train station at about 7pm on Tuesday evening.

Police will investigate if the two incidents were linked.

Anyone with any information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Labour claimed a 'truly historic' result as they seized Rushmoor council directly from the Tories to end nearly a quarter-of-a-century of Conservative control.

Sir Keir Starmer's party boasted of now being in charge of the 'home of the British Army' in a nod to the Hampshire authority's links to the military.

They taunted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that it was 'time for a general election' as they racked up a slew of victories in key council contests.

Labour were also celebrating wins in Hartlepool and Thurrock in the early hours of Friday morning.

Rushmoor Borough Council includes the town of Aldershot, known as the home of the British Army

Sir Keir Starmer, pictured while voting on Thursday with his wife Victoria, was celebrating a slew of victories in key council contests

Labour won nine out of 13 seats up for grabs on Rushmoor Borough Council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats one.

It gave Sir Keir's party a majority on the council as the Tories ceded control after 24 years in charge.

The council includes Aldershot, known as the home of the British Army, and Labour was keen to highlight that link as proof that the party had changed since Jeremy Corbyn's time as leader.

A party spokesperson said: 'This is a truly historic result.

'Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - has never had a majority Labour council before, and has been run by the Tories for the last 24 years.

'This result demonstrates just how much the Labour Party has changed and people in Rushmoor know that only Labour can deliver the change they want to see.

'A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. It's time for a general election.'

In another eye-catching victory for Labour, the party won control of Thurrock after starting the night as the second biggest party behind the Tories.

The Essex council, which had recently moved to no overall control because of defections, is in a strong Brexit-supporting part of the country.

It has also been among those local authorities in dire financial straits, with council tax having been hiked by an eye-watering 8 per cent last month.

Thurrock was effectively declared bankrupt in 2022 following a failed investment spree.

Labour hailed their victory in a key parliamentary battleground, with a party spokesperson saying: 'This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election.

'The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change.'

Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs in Hartlepool to gain control of the council, with independents winning two and the Conservatives one.

Hartlepool has a symbolic importance for Sir Keir after Labour lost the parliamentary by-election there in 2021.

A party spokesperson said: 'Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021.

'Keir Starmer pledged to change the Labour Party after that result and today's win shows that this changed Labour Party is ready to deliver the change that communities like Hartlepool are crying out for.

'Making gains here shows that the party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.'
Bizarre video shows the moment a pastor announces his wife's death in front of his stunned congregation after forbidding them from discussing it in church.

Mica Miller, 30, was discovered with a fatal gunshot wound on April 27 in Lumber River State Park, North Carolina.

Her pastor husband announced her death at their nearby church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the day after she was found.

Police in Robeson County are now investigating, but so far nobody has been charged.

A lack of information about Miller's passing has seen friends and family question what exactly went wrong.

Pastor's wife Mica Miller, pictured with husband John-Paul Miller, has been found dead in an apparent suicide in North Carolina

Miller, 30, was discovered with a fatal gunshot wound on April 27 in Lumber River State Park, North Carolina

Her death was announced as suicide by her pastor husband John-Paul Miller at the end of a service at their church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Miller told his congregation at the Solid Rock at Market Common church that his wife's death was 'self-induced.'

'You all know she wasn't well mentally and that she needed her medicine and it was hard to get to her,' he said.

Prior to making the announcement, he asked his flock to stand and instructed them to, 'leave church quietly and don't talk about the announcement here in the building.'

'I'm taking a little bit of a break, it might be a few days or weeks. I got a call last night, my wife has passed away, yeah it was self-induced [...] I'm just kind of going on adrenaline,' Miller's husband said.

An obituary penned by him also described his wife as 'a great stepmother, and an amazing wife and helpmate' and portrayed her as his biggest cheerleader.

Kenn Young, Mica's friend, is among those searching for answers over what happened.

'This has to be at least looked into deeply. There's got to be some accountability here,' he told WPDE. 'Because yeah, a tragic life was lost, and it's not just as simple as mental health issues.'

Miller's sisters have also alluded to questions around her death, making posts with the caption '#JusticeforMica.'

Miller told the congregation that his wife's death was 'self-inflicted' and due to poor mental health

But the lack of information about Miller's passing has raised questions for some, including amongst her family

John-Paul Miller is pastor of the the Solid Rock at Market Common church in South Carolina

'There is a lot of talk already going on so I want to set the record straight. Our sister Mica Miller passed away yesterday,' Miller's sister Sierra Francis wrote.

'Please do not listen to false stories being shared about her. Mica was a God-fearing, joyful, loving woman.

'We know that so many of you feel this gut-wrenching loss with us. The fight is not over.'

Miller originally hails from Wichita, Kansas, as one of five children, according to her obituary.

Court filings indicate she had served her husband with divorce papers just weeks before her death.

The pastor's obituary describes her as, 'energetic, affirming, adventurous, faithful, loving, giving, forgiving, talented, joyous, creative, assertive, bold, determined, authoritative, passionate, hardworking, a risk taker, and so much more.'

In an interview with ABC15, Miller's husband reiterated that his wife had taken her own life.

'She had struggled with suicide before,' he said. 'Each time we would help her through it and take her to the doctor, and we got through it and everything was fine.

'She even gave a few testimonies here at church that we have on video. She battled suicide but God took care of her and got her through it.'

Miller originally hails from Wichita, Kansas, and was one of five siblings. Her husband said she had been open about mental health struggles

But the lack of information from the police has led many including Millers sisters (pictured) to question what happened

Court filings indicate she had served her husband with divorce papers just weeks before her death

He added she was 'probably the greatest wife anyone could ask for' and described nights spent talking to each other for hours.

A celebration of Miller's life is scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Major Damien McLean with the Robeson County Sheriff's Office said his team is still working on the case. At this stage, there is nothing to suggest a threat to the wider community, he said.

McLean added his office plans to release more information in the next few days.

DailyMail.com has contacted Robeson County Sheriff's Office for comment.
The mayor of one of Sydney's biggest councils has died on a flight home from China.

Tony Bleasdale, 77, was due home this morning after a tour of the Blacktown City Council's sister cities in South Korea and China when he suddenly died.

Mr Bleasdale had been a councillor in Blacktown since 1996 before being elected mayor in 2019.

He was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia in 2010 for his extensive charity work and service to Blacktown municipality.

With an estimated 426,000 people, Blacktown is the largest local government area in Sydney.

Mayor of Blacktown City Council, Tony Bleasdale (pictured), has died at the age of 77 during a flight home from China on Friday morning

A veteran member of the Labor Party, Mr Bleasdale recently joined other local mayors who supported NSW Premier Chris Minns' efforts to increase housing supply.

Tributes flowed from fellow politicians for the late mayor on social media following the news of his sudden death.

Federal MP for Greenway and a former co-councillor of Mr Bleasdale, Michelle Rowland, said the mayor 'fought passionately for the people of Blacktown'.

'His sense of community and commitment to countless charitable organisations over decades helped shaped Blacktown City into the vibrant place it is today,' Ms Rowland wrote on Facebook.

'Tony truly loved Blacktown  and I know there are many people today who will be reeling from this loss.'

The state's deputy premier and member for Londonderry, Prue Car, also paid tribute to the mayor, sharing her shock over the sudden death of a 'friend and mentor'.

'Tony was well loved within the Blacktown community, fiercely advocating for local residents for over 30 years,' Ms Car wrote.

NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car (pictured with Mr Bleasdale) said the mayor was a 'great friend and mentor' who fought for his constituents for three decades

'He was also a great friend and mentor to me, as we worked together in our shared communities for many years.

'My thoughts and love are with Mayoress Nina Bleasdale and all of their family and loved ones.'

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, said Mr Bleasdale was a 'friend long before he was Mayor'.

'He and his family epitomise the values of care, hard work compassion and dedication to the community.'

More to come.
Migrants last month used a speedboat to zoom up to a beach near San Diego

Sprinted across the jetty and into the city to be picked up by accomplices

Migrants have used a boat to illegally sneak into the US in the latest brazen attempt to circumvent border security.

About 20 migrants sprinted off a boat after it docked at a marina on the tip of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California, on Thursday morning.

They climbed over fences and ran across the jetty towards the street, leaving the empty boat floating behind. A white van slowed down on the street as they arrived, but it was unclear if it was there to pick them up.

Footage of the migrants arriving and then sprinting into the US was posted online.

Taking a boat around the border in California is an increasingly popular tactic for migrants who want to sneak in illegally, rather than claim asylum. The tactic comes as President Joe Biden's policies have allowed a flood of migrants to enter the US during his tenure.

WATCH: Approximately two dozen migrants were caught on film unloading off a boat in NEWPORT BEACH Thursday morning on the tip of the Balboa Peninsula and fleeing into the neighborhood.



Until we fix our broken immigration laws, every town in Orange County is a border town. pic.twitter.com/0ITXveFNSk  OCLiberator (@OCLiberator) May 2, 2024

Migrants have used a boat to illegally sneak into the US in the latest brazen attempt to circumvent border security, jumping over fences as they fled

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes pointed to figures showing maritime smuggling incidents in California steadily rose from 308 in 2020 to 736 last year.

'Maritime smuggling is up, and although our Harbor Patrol works to interdict vessels trafficking drugs and people, state restrictions on communications with federal partners hinder our efforts,' he said.

'The state should repeal laws that restrict communication with our federal partners.'

Former Newport Beach mayor and current city councilor said Will O'Neill said he and the sheriff blamed California's 'sanctuary state' policy.

'Our nations border crisis is serious, lawless, and dangerous,' he said.

'The approaches taken by the administrations in DC and Sacramento have made it significantly worse.

'As it has been said, every city is now a border city. We must expect better from people in charge of enforcing our laws.'

About 20 migrants sprinted off a boat after it docked at a marina on the tip of the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California, on Thursday morning

A white van slowed down on the street as they arrived, but it was unclear if it was there to pick them up

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes pointed to figures showing maritime smuggling incidents in California steadily rose from 308 in 2020 to 736 last year

Last month, a dozen migrants zoomed into a beach in Carlsbad, a town about 30 miles north of San Diego.

The boat missed what appeared to be a surfer in the water by a few feet as it zipped by and approached the beach at very high speed.

After beaching the vessel on the sand, the migrants got out and sprinted towards the row of oceanfront houses and were picked up by waiting black SUVs.

The cars left in such haste that one woman almost fell out as it started moving before she had fully clambered in to the back seats.

Migrants can seek asylum in the US by crossing the border and immediately presenting themselves to law enforcement.

However, a smaller number sneak in to the country illegally with no intention of following the asylum process.

The San Diego sector, which includes most of the Southern California border with Mexico except El Centro and Calexico, got 6,000 to 8,000 immigrants in recent weeks.

Last month, a dozen migrants zoomed into a beach in Carlsbad, a town about 30 miles north of San Diego

After beaching the vessel on the sand, the migrants got out and sprinted towards the row of oceanfront houses on Saturday

With so many migrants entering the country through Southern California, migrants who are vetted by US Border Patrol are being released onto the streets.

The county migrant shelter closed a few months ago, after local leaders decided they did not want to spend the $18 million a year needed to keep running it.

'It was costing us, at that point in time, about $1.5 million a month to basically be their travel agent,' San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond said.

Without the local shelter, migrants are either being let loose at a transit station or at the airport by border patrol.

'The biggest burden here lately has been our airport. Luckily a lot of them are flying to other parts of the country, but we're a tourist community. People coming to San Diego, they see all the people sleeping there. It looks bad,' the commissioner added.

'We just can't sustain it; we can't manage the numbers that are coming here.'
Cities, towns and vacation spots across the American South are 'drowning' under rapidly rising tides that could soon put them underwater.

Ocean levels are at least six inches higher than they were a decade ago along a swathe of the country from Texas to North Carolina.

An overall rising ocean is coupled with vicious tidal events that wreak havoc and kill locals, especially when they coincide with storms.

The problem is already affecting thousands of Americans living along the coast, and millions more across the US will feel it in the coming decades.

Climate change is steadily raising sea levels around the world, but the Gulf of Mexico is rising faster than almost anywhere else in the world.

'Its irreversible,' Jianjun Yin, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona, told the Washington Post.

Cities, towns and vacation spots across the American South are 'drowning' under rapidly rising tides that could soon put them underwater. Pictured: An $18million mansion along the water in Hilton Head, South Carolina

Scientists are perplexed as to why the region is so badly affected, with few other areas - such as the North Sea near the UK - have shown such as a similar increase.

An analysis by the Post found sea levels were rising twice as fast in the Gulf than the world average, and are dramatically accelerating.

Average sea levels in Charleston, South Carolina, rose 7 inches since 2010, which was twice as much as over the previous 30 years.

Tybee Island in Georgia rose 3.7 inches in 1980 to 2009, then 7.3 inches from 2010 to 2023, and Wilmington, North Carolina, rose 2.7 inches, then 7 inches, over the same spans.

Galveston, Texas, was the worst hit in the Post's research, jumping 8.4 inches in the past 14 years , which experts said was made worse by sinking land.

A $5milllion mansion in Spring Hill in Florida. Many coastal cities have seen massive increase in their sea levels since 2010

Scientists are perplexed as to why the region is so badly affected. Pictured: A $8million home in Destin, Florida

A $4.6million home sits along the water in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Experts say the rising sea levels are irreversible

High tides flooded the area at least 141 times since 2015 and are expected to become far more frequent in the near future.

Local officials in Galveston plan to install water pumps, each costing $60 million, to mitigate the issue and can only afford it using federal grants.

Other huge rises since 2010 included Mobile, Alabama, up 6.7 inches, Miami and Daytona Beach, Florida, both up 6 inches, Savannah, Georgia, up 7.3 inches, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, up 7 inches - all since 2010.

Jacksonville, Florida, rose 6 inches and projected a quarter of major roads could become inaccessible to emergency vehicles during flooding, and the number or residents are risk would soon triple.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, the wetlands that protect the state from storms are 'drowning', clogged septic systems threaten to contaminate water, and insurance companies are hiking policies or refusing to offer than at all.

An aerial view of destroyed beachfront homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Nicole at Daytona Beach, Florida

Climate scientists warn the rises are irreversible even if they stop getting worse as rapidly - which was less likely

Ormond Beach, Florida, is among the stunning beach locations at risk from rising tides

Climate scientists warn the rises are irreversible even if they stop getting worse as rapidly - which was less likely.

'While it is possible the swift rate of sea level rise could eventually taper, the higher water that has already arrived in recent years is here to stay,' University of Arizona scientist Jianjun Yin told the newspaper.

Others like Western Carolina University professor Rob Young worry all the money thrown at dealing with hurricanes is 'preparing for the wrong disaster'.

'These smaller changes will be a greater threat over time than the next hurricane, no question about it,' he said

William Sweet, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned the flooding seen so far would be nothing compared to what's coming.

He expected tidal floods would be 15 times more frequent in 2050 than 2020.


A Perth tradie will spend months more behind bars as he waits to learn his fate for the shocking kidnapping of a nine-year-old girl on her way to school.

Ryan Ashley Darken previously pleaded guilty to luring the girl into his ute at Warnbro, in the outer suburbs of Perth, about 8.25am on July 21, 2023.

He left her outside an IGA supermarket in Port Kennedy with her hands bound by cable ties a short while later.

A parent who witnessed the incident alerted the girl's school, and news spread after the girl's mother took to social media to plead for help.

The girl was later found in distress at a shopping centre several kilometres away.

Police officers swarmed the area and Darken was arrested and charged.

Darken was charged with detaining another with intent to do harm, deprivation of liberty, assault, and making threats

Darken left the girl outside an IGA supermarket in Port Kennedy with her hands bound by cable ties a short while later

Darken was charged with detaining another with intent to do harm, deprivation of liberty, assault, and making threats.

He pleaded guilty to those charges in the Rockingham Magistrates Court on November 3, 2023.

He was not required to appear in the Perth District Court on Friday, but his lawyer Christian Porter told registrar Jacquie Kubacz that Darken required multiple appointments with a forensic psychiatrist to produce a report for his sentencing hearing.

The court heard the first available appointment was not until July.

The West reported in March that Darken had suffered a head injury in a car accident when he was a child and was considered to be quite functionally impaired.

The case is due back in the District Court for a mention hearing on August 30 before he is sentenced in October.
Former Democrat congresswoman and presidential candidate turned independent Tulsi Gabbard believes that America stands to lose freedom if Joe Biden is re-elected.

Gabbard, 43, appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast Wednesday to promote her new book, 'For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind' to outline her now frequent criticisms of liberals.

She sounded the alarm about the Biden administration, saying the current administration 'cannot be allowed to remain in power.'

Gabbard believes the White House has engaged in an 'unprecedented abuse of power.'

She cites the Democrats 'undermining the rule of law, politicizing our government entities, targeting Americans' including former President Donald Trump, whom Gabbard has been tabbed as a possible running mate.

Former Democrat congresswoman and presidential candidate turned independent Tulsi Gabbard believes that America stands to lose freedom if Joe Biden is re-elected

She sounded the alarm about the Biden administration on the comedian's podcast, saying the current administration 'cannot be allowed to remain in power'

The former Hawaii congresswoman also cited how the feds under Biden target those at levels as low as school boards for protesting what she sees as woke, progressive ideologies in schools.

Gabbard asked: 'This is happening across the country and if we the American people don't do something about this and stop them and hold them accountable, what happens in these elections?'

Speaking to Rogan, she believes that re-electing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the ability to govern with the training wheels off in a second term.

'If they're allowed to remain in power, they will tell us, "Hey, you gave us a mandate. You said, Hey, good job thumbs up, keep at it," and we'll see everything that's happened just continue to escalate,' Gabbard said.

She said their reelection will cause freedoms in America to 'be eroded to a point where it'll be virtually impossible to get them back, and where do we go from there?'

Gabbard believes citizens who say phrases such as 'the emperor has no clothes on, boys are boys and girls are girls and that's just how it is' will be retaliated against.

'We no longer becomes the "land of the free and the home of the brave," it becomes the land of people who are controlled by the government and forced to comply or else,' she added.

Gabbard, who backed Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 before endorsing Joe Biden in 2020, has since become an independent, and now is more likely to be seen alongside Republicans in public.

Speaking to Joe Rogan's podcast, she believes that re-electing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the ability to govern with the training wheels off in a second term

Gabbard, who backed Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 before endorsing Biden in 2020, has since become an independent, and is more likely to be seen alongside Republicans in public

Gabbard believes citizens who say phrases such as 'the emperor has no clothes on, boys are boys and girls are girls and that's just how it is' will be retaliated against

In October 2022, Gabbard announced she would leave the Democrat party because it was 'under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.'

It's made her a favorite with conservatives, to the point that some have floated her as a left-field choice for Trump's VP in 2024.

Gabbard spoke to a CPAC ballroom full of Trump supporters who cheered her on in February as she praised the former president for continuing to fight the establishment elite in Washington, D.C.

'I've known Joe Biden for a long time, I used to consider him a friend, do you think he could handle this pressure?' She asked the crowd. 'I don't think so.'

'I've met a lot of strong tough people in my life, I can't think of a single one who could not only withstand all that is coming at Donald Trump without crumbling, but someone who would actually choose to keep fighting against the entire Washington establishment,' Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said.

Gabbard, a former Democrat, referenced her past friendship with President Joe Biden, suggesting there was no way he could handle a similar assault.

Now Gabbard is on Trump's list of potential vice presidential picks.

When asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham Tuesday about a list of potential choices for a running mate, that included Gabbard, Trump replied, 'Honestly all of those people are good. They're all good, they're all solid.'
A former national security adviser has warned the globe 'could be on the cusp of another World War.'

General H.R. McMaster, who served as a special adviser to former president Donald Trump, urged Washington and the UK to increase their defense spending in anticipation of the global conflict.

He cautioned that a series of 'cascading crises' such as Israel's war on Hamas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine could spell disaster.

McMaster advised the White House to increase defense spending to 4 percent of GDP - twice as much currently required of NATO nations. The money should be spent on high-tech missile systems such as Israel's Iron Dome, according to the geopolitical expert.

'We could be on the cusp of another World War,' he told British broadcaster LBC Radio's Andrew Marr. 'I know that sounds dramatic, but I think we have to take it seriously so we can prevent that from happening.'

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster has warned that 'we could be on the cusp of another World War'

He cautioned that a series of 'cascading crises' such as Israel's war on Hamas and other conflicts could spell disaster. Pictured: Damage in Gaza on April 7

The former adviser to Donald Trump warned that Vladimir Putin's ongoing occupation of Ukraine shows now signs of abating as he is not 'interested in a deal'. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline, March 6

Firefighters fighting a blaze at a home after Russian strikes, in the town of Derhachi, Kharkiv region, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine on April 26

McMaster added that a 4 percent defense spend would still be 'a historic low relative to Cold War levels.'

'It's a heck of a lot cheaper to prevent a war than to have to fight,' he said. 'I think that every country is going to have to develop these kinds of defenses and long-range missiles, hypersonic missiles are important.

'Maybe [former US President] Ronald Reagan had it right with Star Wars, with space-based capabilities as well.'

He explained the conflicts unfolding around the world pose ever increasing threats to the West.

As well as Gaza and Ukraine, unrest has bubbled over in places such as Haiti, Venezuela and Sudan.

Renewed military activity in Taiwan has also reignited fears of a future invasion by Beijing.

McMaster advocated for the White House to increase defense spending to 4 percent of GDP and invest in long range missiles or system's similar to Israel's Iron Dome

Other threats to Western stability include the gang warfare unfolding in Haiti (pictured) following the resignation of its Prime Minister

A woman carrying a child runs from the area after gunshots were heard in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 20

The Venezuelan crisis also continues to pose safety concerns for the US. Pictured: A rally for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina on May 2

When grilled on how his former boss would deal with the global turmoil if re-elected in November, McMaster stood by Trump, stating he was right to call for NATO nations to increase defense spending.

'We know for sure Trump will demand burden sharing and reciprocity, but I think Europe is on board with that now,' he said, adding that he expected the former president to stand with besieged nations 'when presented with the facts'.

He praised Trump for calling out Germany's 'unwise decision' to become over reliant on Kremlin gas exports via Nord Stream 2.

However, he criticized his ex-boss for 'gullibility' in thinking he could ever strike a deal with Vladimir Putin and made a jibe about 'useful idiot' Tucker Carlson following his interview with the autocrat.

'Putin is not interested in a deal,' McMaster explained. 'Putin wants to drag everybody else down, under the theory that he can be the last man standing and he can restore the Russian Empire.

'He's been quite clear about that when he did the interview with that useful idiot, Tucker Carlson.'

McMaster slammed Trump for misunderstanding Putin's aims and branded Tucker Carlson a 'useful idiot' after he sat down for an interview with the autocrat earlier this year

His comments come after Taiwan reported renewed military activity near the island by China, reigniting fears of an invasion by Beijing

His comments come after US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Dr. John Plumb revealed that Russia is developing a nuclear anti-satellite weaponry.

Recently, France's President Emanuel Macron stated he would be willing to send troops to Ukraine if Putin's forces break through to the frontline.

The suggestion has been rebuffed by the US government, but Putin warned that a direct conflict between Russia and NATO states would arise if allied forces are sent to Ukraine.
Nobody involved in the crash was injured

A crash caused one driver to swerve right into a nearby bayou

A massive dead alligator in the middle of a Louisiana road caused a multi-vehicle car crash as one van swerved off the road and into a nearby bayou.

Around 6.30am Monday, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the 5400 block of Paris Road as the gigantic reptile laid dead on the Chalmette median, about 20 minutes outside of New Orleans.

The crash occurred when one driver slowed their car down to get a good look at the bizarre gator, causing the driver behind them to swerve in an attempt to avoid hitting them.

The second vehicle landed directly into the nearby water as pictures showed the top of the silver Honda minivan sticking out while the back sank down.

'People scared of a lil bitty creature,' Aces Towing and Auto Sales said in a post on Facebook about the crash.

A massive dead alligator on a median in the middle of the road in Louisiana caused a multi-vehicle car crash on Monday morning

A car swerved off of Paris Road and flew into a nearby bayou when the driver in front of them slowed down to look at the dead gator

Those involved in the crash were not seriously injured, witness Kayden Koffler said.

It is unclear how the alligator died and how long it had been there. It is also unclear what happened to its deceased body after the crash.

Koffler, who wasn't present at the time of the crash, told NOLA.com the alligator was dead when he showed up for work at Gulf South Automotive, near the crash scene, that morning.

He described the beastly creature as 'pretty decent-sized' as Koffler witnessed the frightening aftermath of the crash.

Shortly after the wreck, authorities and a tow truck arrived and rescued the van out of the bayou.

A picture showed the large gator laid out on the median, as it looked toward the road.

'My mom took this today while driving in Chalmette,' the caption read as commenters accused the person of 'photoshopping' the image.

The towing company posted pictures of the car in the water as a person in a blue shirt seemed to be getting out of the vehicle, while two others stood nearby. Multiple cars were seen stopped on the shoulder of the road as a police blocked oncoming traffic.

The company captioned the post: 'So how was your Monday...mine started like this....yep the last picture was the culprit!!! People scared of a lil bitty creature....'

People quickly reacted to the peculiar situation on social media as one suggested: 'Gonna need a warning sign "Alligator crossing" both ways in and out of Da Parish.'

It is unclear how the alligator died and how long it had been there. It is also unclear what happened to its deceased body after the crash

The towing company posted pictures of the car in the water as a person in a blue shirt seemed to be getting out of the vehicle

A cop is seen blocking off the area as a tow truck rescued the sinking vehicle from the water

'Bet they weren't going slow when they spotted that big boy,' another said.

Another wrote: 'What a bad way to start the day, esp [sic] if the gator was already dead!!'

A commenter said: 'That's a big gator, but it would seem you could roll him over slowly and be on your way!'

The Bayou State and Florida have the largest alligator populations, though the reptiles can be found from central Texas to North Carolina, according to Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries.

They are most commonly found hiding out in bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, canals, swamps and bayous.

The cold-blooded animals are often seen laying in the sun as their body temperatures regulate to their surrounding environment.

The reptiles can grow to about eight to nine inches long when they first hatch, but as they grow, they get much longer, depending on their gender.

Male alligators 'rarely exceed 13 feet in length' and weigh around 500lbs, while female alligators grow to about nine feet and can weigh more than 200lbs.

According to the Louisiana Alligator Advisory Council, there are about 2million alligators in the state.

In June, a Louisiana couple found a five-foot long alligator in their bedroom after it snuck inside their home through a doggie door.

Don, 62, and Jan Schultz, 55, had just moved to New Iberia, Louisiana when the smaller gator took them by surprise.

'Our dog Panda growled a deep throat grumble and woke my wife up and she tapped me and said, "I think there's someone in the house'" and so I got up and headed down the hall to check,' Don told KATC. 'I saw the shape of an alligator.'

According to the Louisiana Alligator Advisory Council, the wild population of alligators are estimated at around two million in the state.

In June, a Louisiana couple found a five-foot long alligator in their bedroom after it snuck inside their home through a doggie door. (pictured: the homeowner trapping the gator)

He cautiously made his way down the hall around 1:30 a.m., armed with a Glock .40-caliber pistol, before noticing what he initially thought was a dog toy on the rug. He quickly realized it was a gator.

Initially, the alligator didn't react, but that changed when Don turned on a light.

It started puffing up and hissing, prompting Don to call Jan and share the shocking news.

'You just don't expect one in your house,' said Jan to the Washington Post.

A trapper from the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries arrived 45 minutes later.

Using a catchpole, the trapper lassoed the alligator while Don captured the entire event on video for his YouTube channel.

The gator was later released deeper into the bayou.
A group of British tourists have been injured in a shocking tour bus crash, with one 53-year-old man being left in a critical condition.

The passengers were thrown from the open-top vehicle upon impact in Turkey's southern Manavgat district on Thursday, local reports said.

Pictures from the scene of the crash in the popular tourist destination showed the severely damaged vehicle overturned and leaning up against a utility pole, with a second tour vehicle from the same company parked down the road.

The front of the vehicle appeared to be crumpled, while damage was also done to the top of the bus, with handrails crushed against the pole.

One witness claimed the overturned tour bus smashed into the back of the other.

A group of British tourists have been injured in a shocking tour bus crash, with one 53-year-old man being left in a critical condition. Pictured: The aftermath of the crash

Pictures from the scene of the crash in the popular tourist destination showed the severely damaged vehicle overturned and leaning up against a utility pole, with a second tour vehicle from the same company parked down the road

This caused it to swerve off the road and up a verge, causing it to flip over, they said, adding that the passengers were tossed out of their seats.

Both vehicles were travelling at speed and it was fortunate that nobody was killed in the incident, the witness told Turkey's IHA broadcaster.

In addition to the 11 Brits, one Irish tourist was also injured, as were three staff working for the tour company, according to Turkish reports.

Several of the injured passengers required medical aid at the scene before being transported to nearby hospitals.

Footage from the scene carried by IHA showed people being treated while lying on the ground. Other passengers sat with blankets over their shoulders.

One woman was seen with a scratch over her face, clutching her head, as she was guided into the back of an ambulance.

Another man was seen being placed into an ambulance on a stretcher.

The pink vehicle appeared to belong to tour company 'Panter Safari' which operates in and around Turkey's city of Antalya - 40 miles from the site of the crash.

The front of the vehicle appeared to be crumpled, while damage was also done to the top of the bus, with handrails crushed against the utility pole

According to its Facebook page, the company - with its Pink Panther branding - operates tours across the region for those wanting to explore the countryside.

It is one of several companies to offer tours in the picturesque Antalya Province found in south-west Turkey on the Mediterranean sea.

Turkish reports said police have launched an investigation into the incident.

In a statement to The Sun, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals following an incident in Turkey, and are in contact with the local authorities.'
Sky News journalist Peter Stefanovic has been forced to apologise to a teenager after confronting him live on air about his troubled past when he won a fishing competition.

Keegan Payne, 19, who lives in the central Northern Territory town of Katherine, caught a barramundi that had been released with a tag that could be redeemed for a $1million prize on Sunday.

However, his joy at winning the fishing competition was cut short by a blunt question from Stefanovic about a crime Payne had committed as a 16-year-old, which he admitted to.

'There is a claim online that you stole a Polaris Ranger and Polaris quad that you and your friends stole and damaged from a business a few years back, first of all, is that true?' Stefanovic asked from his Sydney studio during the live interview.

Payne, who was speaking from the Darwin, simply answered: 'Yes'.

'So, what happened?' Stefanovic asked.

Payne explained he and his friends 'were young', and 'weren't thinking at the time' but having come up with the idea they 'went for it'.

Stefanovic asked Payne if he regretted the act and he said he did 'big time'.

The question has attracted scorn rather than praise from viewers, who complained online.

Now Stefanovic has been forced to issue an apology.

'On Wednesday 1 May 2024, Sky News Australia broadcast a live interview of Keegan Payne by Peter Stefanovic on First Edition,' the apology published on the Sky News website read.

'The interview concerned Mr Payne's win in the Northern Territory's Million Dollar Fish Competition.

'During the interview Mr Stefanovic asked Mr Payne questions about claims he had been involved in the theft of a Polaris Ranger and Polaris Quad from his former employer in 2021.

'Mr Payne confirmed the claims and apologised to his former employer on-air. Mr Payne's former employer subsequently told Sky News Australia that he did not proceed with police charges and had accepted Mr Payne's apology.

'Sky News Australia and Peter Stefanovic apologise to Mr Payne and his family for raising these claims during the live interview about his million dollar win in the fishing competition.

'Mr Stefanovic has reached out to Mr Payne and his family directly to convey his apology.'

Sky News anchor Peter Stefanovic has been slammed by those who say he ruined the teen's moment

Keegan Payne (pictured central left) gets emotional as he announces the catch of the million dollar fish

WHAT AUSSIES SAID ABOUT STEFANOVIC'S QUESTION: 'Reporter hears good news. Does everything they can to dig up dirt and be negative,' one wrote. 'He made a mistake and took the fall out for it and was forgiven way before this win!!!!!' said another. 'S***ty reporting as usual another commented. One Aussie asked why people couldn't 'be happy for this kid?' 'No ones perfect, but to shame him on TV? Talk about rip the carpet from beneath him! Stop kicking people back down when they move forward! 'Shows the mentality of dipsh*ts who like ruin other peoples happiness!' 'He's a young lad who's trying to correct his mistakes and that's alright, just goes to show it's helping more then just him and his family and that's good him of him to make first contact to correct it since actually being able to,' one person said. 'Hats off to the kid for turning his life around by realising the path he was on was a dead end and that his life holds more value than to be a thief,' another wrote.' Another simply called Stefanovic a 'grub.' Advertisement

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the teen is back in touch with his old boss, Bob Cavanagh from Cav's Mowing, and has offered to pay him back for the stolen vehicles.

'Out of the blue this morning, his father rang me and said, 'Keegan wants to repay you,' and you could have knocked me down with a feather,' Mr Cavanagh said.

'He said Keegan has always felt so terrible for what he did.'

Cavanagh took on Keegan as a worker for his ground maintenance business when he was 15.

But during Covid lockdowns, Cavanagh decided to move to Queensland, leaving his equipment unsupervised.

Keegan and a friend took the opportunity to steal his quad and buggy.

'They were only 16, you know. There's not too many of us go through life without stuffing up somewhere along the line,' Cavanagh said.

'If you can be given a second chance, that's what I was prepared to do for those two boys. I hope they have made the best of it.

'There's no point going through this life carrying grudges.'

Cavanagh said the theft was a 'one-off' mistake from an otherwise 'good kid'.
Ukraine cannot beat Russia on the battlefield and will have to enter talks with Vladimir Putin, one of Kyiv's senior military commanders has admitted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out talks with the Kremlin over the course of the two-year war, and a decree he issued after Russia formally annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022 deems negotiations 'impossible'.

But Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine's HUR military intelligence directorate, told the Economist magazine that talks would eventually be needed, as would be the case with any war.

He also conceded that Ukraine is 'on the brink' waiting for the arrival of aid - as Russia took control of another small village along the eastern front lines.

'General Skibitsky says he does not see a way for Ukraine to win the war on the battlefield alone. Even if it were able to push Russian forces back to the borders there's an increasingly distant prospect it wouldn't end the war,' the magazine wrote.

'Such wars can only end with treaties, he says. Right now, both sides are jockeying for the 'the most favourable position' ahead of potential talks. But meaningful negotiations can begin only in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, he guesses.'

Ukraine cannot beat Russia on the battlefield and will have to enter talks with Vladimir Putin , one of Kyiv 's senior military commanders has admitted. Ukrainian soldiers are seen taking part in a training exercise in March, 2024

Ukrainian servicemen of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian troops, April 24

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out talks with the Kremlin over the course of the two-year war, and a decree he issued after Russia formally annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022 deems negotiations 'impossible'

Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine's HUR military intelligence directorate, told the Economist magazine that talks with Russia would eventually be needed

Meanwhile, Zelensky and other officials in Kyiv have said Russia is not invited to a 'peace summit' planned for Switzerland in June as there is no assurance that Moscow will bargain in good faith.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appeared to echo Skibitsky's thoughts in a separate interview this week with Foreign Policy magazine.

He said the goal of the June summit was 'to unite countries who share principles and approaches that they will build further actions on.

'After that, communication with Russia may take place and Russia can be part of the talks. Because you are right: In the end, you cannot put the war to an end without both parties.'

The Russian President and other senior Kremlin officials have accused Ukraine of blocking any attempt at a settlement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said the June gathering could not be a 'serious conference with serious expectations of some kind of results' without Russia's presence.

Zelensky in his nightly video address on Thursday, described the June meeting as 'practically the first real chance to start restoring a just peace'.

'All our positions, on the battlefield, in diplomacy and in the information sphere, must be equally strong now,' he said. 'Our strength, our capabilities, our weapons, unity with partners - all this must work together. And it will work.'

The interview with Skibitsky came as Moscow's defence ministry said troops had 'fully liberated the settlement of Berdychi.' Kyiv said it had retreated from the village, northwest of the Moscow-held town of Avdiivka, over the weekend.

Ukrainian servicemen ride on an armored personnel carrier (APC) in a field near Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, on April 27, 2024

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, prepares to fire a M777 howitzer toward Russian troops, May 1

Ukrainian soldiers from the 30th mechanised brigade walk at an artillery position in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on April 30

Berdychi, which lies some seven miles from Avdiivka, is the latest in a string of tiny eastern villages Russia has claimed in recent weeks after some of the most brutal battles in its more than two-year offensive.

Ukraine said in February it had established defensive lines in Berdychi after the fall of the nearby village of Lastochkyne.

Over the weekend, Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Kyiv had retreated from Berdychi and two other nearby villages to protect 'the lives and health of our defenders.'

He called the area the 'most complicated' part of the front and conceded that Russia has made 'certain tactical successes' there.

Despite being out-manned and out-gunned, Ukraine has put up a valiant fight against the invading Russia forces.

The early months of the war saw Kyiv's troops beat Moscow's armies back from the gates of Kyiv, while the second half of 2022 saw them mount two lightning counteroffensives, liberating swathes of territory and pushing the Russians back into the east of Ukraine.

Since then, however, frontlines have changed little, with Ukraine's counteroffensives in 2023 failing to achieve the same gains that were seen in 2022.

For its part, Russia has been making gradual gains, notably taking the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, while steadily pushing Ukraine's defenders back - using its greater numbers of both personnel and ammunition to grind Kyiv's troops down.

Ukraine recieved a boost last month when US lawmakers finally passed a bill that will release $61 billion in aid to Kyiv, much of which will go towards replenishing Ukraine's stockpiles of weapons and ammunition.

However, analysts fear the US is running out of time to deliver the aid to Ukraine as Russia continues to threaten to make further breakthroughs in the east.

What's more, some analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.

Moscow has switched its economy on to a war footing and continues to find ways of bolstering its ranks - despite suffering extraordinary losses on the battlefield.

Russia also continues to receive weapons and ammo from its allies such as North Korea and Iran, as well as intelligence assistance from China, reports say.

A map shows the location of Berdychi which Russia on Thursday said it had claimed

A Ukrainian sapper carries mines after he cleared a cemetery the site of heavy battles with Russian troops in the village of Krasnopillya, Ukraine, May 2

Zelensky in his nightly video address on Thursday, described the June meeting as 'practically the first real chance to start restoring a just peace'

Until Ukrainian forces on the frontlines start to see the impact of the $61 billion US aid package approved last week, Russia will have far superior firepower.

Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday that fighting in the east had recently worsened and that his troops had fallen back in three places on the front.

According to Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with Black Bird Group, a Finnish-run volunteer group that analyses satellite imagery and social media content, Russia has gained more territory in Ukraine this year than Kyiv did in its counteroffensive last summer.

From June 1 to October 1, 2023, Russian forces lost control of 414.26 square kilometres of territory. From January 1 to May 2, 2024, they have gained 432.3 square kilometers, most of it in the Donetsk region, the analyst said.

Russian forces are focusing most of their assaults on the strategic town of Chasiv Yar, just west of Bakhmut, and further south around Ocheretyne.

Ukrainian officials believe that Moscow wants to seize Chasiv Yar by the symbolic date of May 9, or Victory Day in Russia. That would place some of the Donetsk region's largest Ukrainian-held cities within artillery range, analysts say.

Troops in one position, the location of which Ukraine's armed forces requested not to be disclosed, told Reuters Russian attacks were steady but often unpredictable.

'We can have a calm night and just keep watch, or we can be running to the gun 15 to 20 times,' said Boichak, a bespectacled former builder.

'And the same thing during the day.'

Russian drones are a constant threat, the soldiers said, while a lack of fresh manpower meant that they were spread thin and growing tired.

Kyiv has designed a new mobilisation package to replenish its forces, which are easily outnumbered.

'I'd like to leave at least for a week and rest, but we keep working for as long as needed,' Boichak said.

A battalion commander in the same brigade, who withheld his name for security purposes, said small tactical gains by Russian forces did not yet amount to a significant strategic advantage.

He acknowledged, however, Moscow's ability to throw far more troops into battle than Kyiv in its bid to seize the initiative.

'To lose an entire company in one day is nothing for them.'

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, fires a M777 howitzer toward Russian troops near a front line, May 1, 2024

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, prepares shells to fire a M777 howitzer toward Russian troops, May 1 2024

In addition to the interview with Skibitsky, the Economist also published an interview with French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday which set alarm bells ringing.

The French president said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Putin's forces break through the front lines - further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia's armies.

He said the issue of sending troops would 'legitimately' arise if Kyiv and president Zelensky made such a request.

The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is 'mortal' and could 'die' partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

'I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,' Macron said when asked if he stood by comments earlier this year not excluding the sending of Western troops that sent shockwaves around Europe.

Such a move would see NATO troops go head-to-head with those in the Russian army, dramatically increasing the risk of an escalation.

Macron said 'if Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question' of sending troops, describing his refusal to rule out such a move as a 'strategic wake-up call for my counterparts'.

He described Russia as 'a power of regional destabilisation' and 'a threat to Europeans' security'.

'I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine,' Macron said.

'If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe,' he warned.

'Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighbouring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?'

Under NATO's Article 5, all members are obliged to defend others in the case of an armed attack. Should Russia directly attack a NATO member, then the US, the UK, France and Germany are among those who would be expected to respond.

Any such conflict risks growing into a global war, the like of which has not been seen since the end of the Second World War.

A worker constructs new defensive positions close to the Russian border in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024

This photo taken from a drone video provided by Ukraine Patrol Police, shows devastation in Chasiv Yar, an eastern Ukrainian city Russia is assaulting, Ukraine, April 29

It remains to be seen if peace talks have any chance of bringing and end to the war.

The Swiss government has invited over 160 delegations for the talks next month, but said 'at this stage' Russia is not among the countries invited.

Switzerland said it had always shown openness to inviting Russia but added Moscow has repeatedly underlined it has no interest in participating in the initial talks.

'Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process,' the Swiss government said in a statement. 'A peace process without Russia is not possible.'

Ukraine's government has for its part questioned the utility of Russian participation in the talks due to be held from June 15-16 near the Swiss city of Lucerne.

Russian officials point to Switzerland's adoption of EU sanctions against Moscow over its invasion, and argue it therefore lacks credibility as a neutral broker.

Switzerland in January said it would host the summit at the request of Zelensky.

Anti-tank systems known as 'dragon teeth' are seen in the field close to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Switzerland said the talks will build on Zelenskiy's peace formula and other peace proposals based on the UN Charter and key principles of international law.

The delegations invited include members of the G7, G20, BRICS groups, the EU, international organizations and two religious representatives, Switzerland said.

The talks aim to create a framework for a lasting peace, and a roadmap for Russia's participation in the process, it said.

'The overarching objective of the summit is to inspire a future peace process,' the Swiss government said.
This is the hilarious moment a lioness pushed her annoying cub backwards into a river.

Adorable footage shows the five-month-old cub busily playing arounds his mother, who occasionally swatted him away to keep him at a distance.

Clearly annoyed by the young lion's games, the matriarch eventually pushed her cub backwards over the ridge as his back was turned.

In a moment of comedic perfection, the youngster managed to swivel round on his backside with a look of disbelief at the betrayal, before keeling over and vanishing into the water below.

The moment was captured perfectly by South African safari guide Kagiso Magano as he took a tour through Madikwe Game Reserve.

This is the hilarious moment a lioness pushed her annoying cub backwards into a river, captured by safari tour guide Kagiso Magano at Madikwe Game Reserve in February

In a moment of comedic perfection, the youngster managed to swivel round on his backside with a look of disbelief at the betrayal after being pushed

Kagiso said: 'I've been a guide for 15 years and I have never seen anything like this before, it was just so funny'

The contented lioness watched on as her cub disappeared out of view into the ridge below

Kagiso spotted the family of big cats enjoying some time together on February 23, but one cub was being particularly playful.

Kagiso, from Rockfig Madikwe Lodge, said: 'I've been a guide for 15 years and I have never seen anything like this before, it was just so funny.

'This cub is the only one in the litter and is extremely playful. Obviously mum found him annoying this day while she was trying to rest and decided to teach him a lesson.

'They are part of the Mica Jamala Pride, which is based in the south of the reserve.'

Madikwe Game Reserve is home to a small fraction of South Africa's estimated 3,284 lions - according to the World Population Review in 2024 - over its 750 square-km area in the north of the country.

At five months, the cheeky cub above is still in the early stage of his life, although little lions do begin to participate in kills as young as 11-months-old.

However, they cannot survive until they are around two-years-old and they are into adolescence.

As this young cub is male, he will likely be expelled from his pride at three-years-old and become a nomad, until he is old and strong enough to take over another pride as their leading figure.

Wild lions rarely live for over 10 years, though in captivity they can survive for over 25 years.

Despite their notorious power, lion numbers are actually in decline, and classed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Storms in Brazil have sparked floods and caused a hydroelectric dam to collapse, with at least 29 people dead and 60 missing.

Shocking images and video show people wading through chest-high muddy water and huge swathes of land submerged in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the country's south.

The region has since declared a state of emergency with the death toll expected to rise and a desperate search underway for dozens of missing people among collapsed homes, bridges and roads.

Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000.

Part of the structure of the hydroelectric dam '14 de Julho' located between the town of Cotipora and the city of Bento Goncalves has also collapsed on Thursday, raising the level of water in the Taquari river.

People walk in a flooded area next to the Taquari River during heavy rains in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024

People trapped on the roof of a house by heavy rains are rescued in Cruzeiro do sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, May 2, 2024

An aerial view shows a flooded area in the region of Guaiba Islands, in Porto Alegre, Brazil May 2, 2024

The 14 de Julho dam dam in Rio Grande do Sul partially collapsed due to the floods

Aerial view shows a flooded area of Capela de Santana, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 2, 2024

A handout photo made available by the Government of Rio Grande Do Sul shows rescue workers searching for survivors in the floods caused by heavy rains in Rio Pardinho, Brazil, May 1 2024

An aerial view shows flooded areas in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on May 1, 2024

The downpour started on Monday and was expected to last through Friday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than six inches of rain fell in 24 hours, according to Brazil's National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Tuesday.

Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with 'the worst disaster in [its] history', and he added: 'We are living a very critical moment in the state.'

'With the deepest pain in my heart, I know it will be even more,' the governor said of the death toll.

President Lula, who has blamed the torrent on climate change, arrived in the town of Santa Maria in the morning with a delegation of ministers and held a working meeting with Leite and other officials to coordinate rescue efforts, the government said.

The president promised 'there will be no lack of human or material resources' to 'minimize the suffering this extreme event... is causing in the state.'

The federal government, he added, 'will be 100 percent at the disposition' of state officials.

Central authorities has already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, a press statement said.

Residents and a dog are evacuated from a flooded area in the city center of Sao Sebastiao do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, on May 2, 2024

Debris piles up on a bridge over the Pardinho River after heavy rains in Sinimbu, in the Vale do Rio Pardo region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on May 1, 2024

A flooded road after heavy rains in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on April 30, 2024

An aerial view shows flooded areas in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on May 1, 2024

Rescue workers stand near a flooded area next to the Taquari River during heavy rains in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024

An aerial view shows flooded areas in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on May 1, 2024

Aerial view of a flooded road after heavy rains in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on April 30, 2024

Aerial view shows a flooded area of Capela de Santana, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 2, 2024

Electricity poles and trees felled by wind and heavy rains lie on street in Sinimbu, in the Vale do Rio Pardo region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on May 1, 2024

View of a flooded area next to the Taquari River during heavy rains in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024

Brazil storms have sparked floods and caused a hydroelectric dam to collapse, with at least 29 people dead and 60 missing (pictured: flooded area in Rio Grande do Sul)

Chairs lie amid mud and debris inside a house partially destroyed by heavy rains in Sinimbu, in the Vale do Rio Pardo region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on May 1, 2024

As the rains continued, forecasts warned the state's main Guaiba River, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, would reach an extraordinary level of three meters (9.8 feet) by Thursday and four meters the next day.

Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul state have been completely cut off as persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without even telephone or internet services.

Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stuck on rooftops to escape rising waters.

'I came here to help people, to get them out of the flooding because it is very dangerous. The current is very strong,' said fisherman Guilverto Luiz, who was helping rescue efforts in Sao Sebastiaio do Cai, about 70 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital.

'I've never seen anything like this... it's all under water,' said Raul Metzel, a 52-year-old machine operator in the municipality of Capela de Santana.

Authorities have urged people to avoid areas along state highways due to a risk of mudslides, and those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to electricity and drinking water, while classes have been suspended state-wide.

On Wednesday, the state's deputy governor, Gabriel Souza, said damages have been estimated at 16million.

People walk on a roof in a flooded area next to the Taquari River during heavy rains in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024

A handout photo made available by the Government of Rio Grande Do Sul on 02 May 2024 shows floods caused by heavy rains in Santa Maria, Brazil, May 1 2024

A handout photo made available by the Government of Rio Grande Do Sul shows people wading through the floods caused by heavy rains in Rio Pardinho, Brazil, May 1 2024

Jefferson Abreu Teles, resident of Quilombo neighborhood, rests after choosing to stay at his flooded house in Sao Sebastiao do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil on May 2, 2024

This handout picture released by the Brazilian Presidency shows a woman being assisted by members of the Air Force after being rescued in a helicopter from a flooded area of Rio Grande do Sul State, at the Santa Maria Air Base in southern Brazil, on May 2, 2024

An aerial view shows a flooded area in the region of Guaiba Islands, in Porto Alegre, Brazil May 2, 2024

Firefighters rescue a man and his dog from a flooded area at the city center of Sao Sebastiao do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil on May 2, 2024

Mayor Sandra Backes of Sinimbu said the situation in her town was 'a nightmare.'

'Sinimbu is like a war zone, completely destroyed... All the stores, businesses, supermarkets - everything is devastated,' she said in a video posted on Instagram.

Elsewhere, in Santa Cruz do Sul, lifeguards used boats to transport residents, many of them children, to safety.

The region's rivers had already been swollen from previous storms.

Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Nino, a periodic naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region.

In Brazil, El Nino has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.

This year, the impacts of El Nino have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.
A public health emergency has been declared in southern California after a tuberculosis outbreak left at least one person dead and nine hospitalized.

Health officials said the outbreak was localized to guests at a single-room occupancy hotel in Long Beach, which the city's health department has declined to identify.

A total of 14 cases of tuberculosis were confirmed as of Monday, but investigators have also identified 170 other people who may have been exposed, the City of Long Beach has revealed.

City Health Officer Dr. Anissa Davis on Thursday declared a local public health emergency in effort to 'strengthen the city's preparedness and ability to respond' to the localized outbreak.

Officials insist the risk of exposure to the general public is 'low', noting the outbreak is restricted to a 'distinct population' of people with 'significant barriers to care, including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance abuse and serious medical comorbidities.'

Tuberculosis is a serious illness that usually attacks the lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria is spread through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

A public health emergency has been declared in Long Beach, California after a localized tuberculosis outbreak left at least one person dead and nine hospitalized. Pictured is a file photo of downtown Long Beach, as seen in February 2023

A total of 14 cases of tuberculosis were confirmed as of Monday, but investigators have also identified 170 other people who may have been exposed. Pictured is a 3D illustration of bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Long Beach's Department of Health and Human Services said that people who stayed at the privately operated hotel may have been exposed to tuberculosis and have been contacted by the city.

Around 170 people who were potentially exposed have been identified and are in the process of being screened, the city revealed in a press release.

As of April 29, 14 cases associated with the outbreak have been confirmed but officials expect that number, as well as the number of additional exposures, to rise.

'Those who are found to have active TB disease or latent TB infection will be provided treatment,' the city said.

Officials refused to release the name or location of the hotel connected to the outbreak 'to protect patient privacy and comply with HIPAA regulations', but said the facility is private and not operated by the city.

The health authority told the Los Angeles Times that the hotel was not in quarantine and remains open. It is unclear whether the residents who were staying there were moved out.

Long Beach officials declared the public health emergency Thursday afternoon, citing how the 'level of attention needed to contain the outbreak is well beyond the scope of the department's day-to-day work'.

Tuberculosis is a serious illness that usually attacks the lungs, according to the CDC. The bacteria is spread through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Pictured is a file photo of a chest x-ray of the patient with tuberculosis

Officials say the declaration, which will be formally voted on by the City Council on Tuesday, will 'streamline the Department's ability to quickly secure resources and take additional action to contain the outbreak'.

'The population of concern requires outreach and engagement, necessitating significant staff time to perform multiple interactions,' health officials said. 'The Department has exhausted their resources to manage this response without an emergency declaration.

'Screening and treating such a large number of people requires many resources. Declaring a public health emergency streamlines the department's ability to quickly secure resources and take additional action to contain the outbreak.'

Signs and symptoms of a tuberculosis infection Tuberculosis in the lungs may cause: A bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer

Chest pain

Coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs) Other symptoms include: Weakness or fatigue

Weight loss

Loss of appetite

Chills

Fever

Night sweats Symptoms of tuberculosis in other parts of the body will depend on the affected area, health officials say. Patients with a latent tuberculosis infection will not feel sick, do not exhibit any symptoms and cannot spread the illness to others. Source: CDC Advertisement

The health department has been authorized to provide provided temporary housing, food and transportation to those who were exposed to the bacteria. The authority is also covering Tuberculosis treatment.

Neighboring Los Angeles County has not had any cases related to the outbreak in Long Beach, but its health disease control bureau intends to 'support Long Beach' with the outbreak, a spokesperson told the LA Times.

Jennifer Rice Epstein, a spokesperson for the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, told DailyMail.com: 'Tuberculosis is most commonly spread by people who are in close quarters for extended periods of time. Poorly ventilated spaces can also raise the risk of exposure. The people at the center of this outbreak all lived in a single room occupancy hotel and were in close contact with one another.

'Contact tracers in the Health Department are now interviewing people who are affiliated with those who were living at the hotel and nursing staff are testing people who are at risk. Because of the scope of the outbreak, City Health Officer Dr. Anissa Davis declared a public health emergency, which allows us to streamline staffing, accelerate planning and coordinate with other agencies.'

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County health department told DailyMail.com:' At this time, there are no reported Los Angeles County tuberculosis cases related to the outbreak in Long Beach.

'Public Health does expect to support Long Beach with staffing from our DPH CDC-staffed team and program, as well as staff from our Public Health Disease Control Bureau.'

The outbreak comes as tuberculosis cases appear to be on the rise nationwide.

Last year, the US recorded the highest number of tuberculosis cases in a decade, a CDC report showed, with 40 states reporting an increase in the illness.

More than 9,600 tuberculosis cases were reported in 2023, a 16 per cent increase from 2022 and the highest recorded number of cases since 2013.

Cases reportedly declined sharply at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but officials say they have been rising ever since.

The number of cases in California rose by 15 per cent in 2023, compared with the previous year. The state Department of Public Health in March said the rise in tuberculosis cases was the highest year-over-year increase since 1989.

There were a total of 2,113 tuberculosis cases recorded in California last year - around the same number reported in 2019, before the pandemic.

The outbreak in Long Beach follows a recent tuberculosis outbreak at migrant facilities in Chicago.

Last month, the Chicago Department of Public Health revealed that city officials were urgently start contact tracing after tuberculosis cases had detected at a migrant facility in the city.

The Chicago Department of Public Health did not disclose the exact number of cases or which shelter it originated from but confirmed that 'a small number of cases' were reported 'in a few different shelters' around the city.

The outbreak in Chicago followed a recent measles outbreak in the city's shelters. Officials said at the time that 'these outbreaks happen in close quarters, people who are living close to one another' and reaffirmed that the public did not need to panic.

More than 9,600 tuberculosis cases were reported in 2023, a 16 per cent increase from 2022 and the highest recorded number of cases since 2013

Tuberculosis kills an estimated 1.6million people worldwide each year, making it one of the leading causes of death globally.

The infection is spread by the coughs and sneezes of patients and most often affects the lungs, although it can get into other parts of the body.

Early symptoms of the disease include coughs, fevers, night sweats and weight loss.

Severe tuberculosis infection can kill by destroying the organs from the inside, causing them to bleed and fill with liquid.

Tuberculosis is particularly dangerous for immunocompromised people, like those undergoing chemotherapy, and for those without access to good medical care.

But the infection can usually be cured with antibiotics. The BCG vaccine protects people from getting Tuberculosis but is only given to those at higher risk of getting the infection.
Poland's Brexit-hating Prime Minister Donald Tusk claims Poles will be richer than Brits by 2030 because 'it's better to be in the EU'.

In the bold statement made Wednesday, Tusk, 67, vowed to accelerate the country's economic growth, potentially leading to a higher GDP per capita than that of post-Brexit Britain within just five years.

Poland's PM was the European Council president during Brexit negotiations and was known for his extreme criticism of the decision to leave the EU.

'A fierce debate is taking place in Great Britain caused by the World Bank's forecast that GDP per capita will be higher in Poland than in the UK in 2025,' Tusk said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

'And I promise it: on the 25th anniversary, Poles will be richer than Brits. It's better to be in the European Union,' he added, underscoring his strong belief in the benefits of EU membership.

Donald Tusk made a bold statement Wednesday, claiming that Poland will be richer than Britain in just five years, thanks to being in the European Union

His statement comes as Poland celebrates 20 years since joining the EU, a period that has seen significant economic growth and development.

According to data by the Finance Ministry, Poland's GDP has already almost doubled since joining the EU in 2004.

The Polish Institute of Economics reports that the country's GDP is now a staggering 40 per cent higher than it would be had it not become a member of the European Union.

Last year, analysts for the British Labour Party noted that if current trends continued, the UK's GDP would be around 480 less that Poland's within a five-year timeframe.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party Leader, stressed that while the UK was lagging behind, its European neighbours, including Poland, were becoming wealthier.

He pointed to World Bank data from 2010 to 2021 that suggested GDP per capita in 2021 was 35,935 in Britain and 27,894 in Poland.

This showed an average economic growth of 0.5 per cent for the UK and 3.6 per cent for Poland.

That would mean Poland would overtake the UK by 2030, according to the calculations.

Sir Keir warned: 'The British people are falling behind while our European neighbours get richer, in the east as well as in countries like France and Germany.

'I'm not comfortable with that; not comfortable with a trajectory that will soon see Britain overtaken by Poland.

'Nor am I prepared to accept what the consequences of this failure would mean.'

Tusk claimed his second stint as prime minister - a job he had left to become European Council president in December 2014 - in the Polish general election last year.

During a 2019 trip to Brussels, Tusk sparked fury when he said there is a 'special place in hell' for people who pushed for Brexit without a plan.

Tusk's bold claim comes just one week after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Poland to meet with Tusk for talks about aid for Ukraine.

In a joint speech, the Tory leader and Polish PM said 'we are allies in the long term', following a 500 million pledge in military aid for Ukraine by the British government.

'We will never forget in Britain that it was Polish pilots that gave their lives to protect our country in the Battle of Britain,' they said.

'And today we're proud to stand together as NATO allies. Two of Europe's biggest military powers. Two of Ukraine's firmest friends.'

Sunak added: 'And across Europe, I think Poland and the UK are part of a growing wave of countries that are taking greater responsibility for our collective security.

'Poland is spending more of its GDP on defence than any NATO ally in Europe.

'And with today's announcement, the UK will be spending more in cash terms than any NATO ally in Europe.'
It has been impossible for weeks to find a Tory who thought they would win the Blackpool South by-election.

The party's previous MP left under a cloud, and it only required a 5.5 per cent swing to turn the seat red.

But at 26 per cent, the scale of the swing to Labour will still have come as a huge blow to Rishi Sunak.

That reinforces the idea that Keir Starmer is on track for power  and will set MPs' nerves jangling.

However, perhaps what will alarm them most is the Reform performance.

Although the insurgents did not quite push the Tories into third, it was a close-run thing - a bare 117 votes.

The scale of the swing to Labour in Blackpool South will have come as a huge blow to Rishi Sunak

Eyes will turn again to Nigel Farage, who has promised to make a decision shortly on whether to make a comeback to the political front line

Meanwhile, in council areas like Sunderland, Reform has been taking significant chunks of support.

It looks like tangible evidence of what Conservatives fear most - the right-wing vote splintering, allowing Labour to hoover up more seats across the country.

Reform says that makes no difference because the public has already give up on the Tories.

Lee Anderson memorably quipped that Mr Sunak could drop a million pounds down every chimney and still lose.

Eyes will turn again to Nigel Farage, who has promised to make a decision shortly on whether to make a comeback to the political front line.

If he could add couple of percent to the Reform poll ratings, anxiety in Tory ranks could become outright panic.

Mr Sunak must now show he has another plan for changing the Tories' fortunes - and rapidly.

As he told aides this week, that would probably have a claim to being the greatest comeback in political history.

But if the mayoral results go worse than expected today and tomorrow, the premier might not get the chance to try.
Weeks of evidence have lifted the lid on what is surely one of the most depraved criminal conspiracies ever to reach the Old Bailey - an extreme body modification gang who cut off men's genitals, nipples and limbs for paying online subscribers.

Through his 'Eunuch Maker' site, ringleader Marius Gustavson and other members of his 'cult' carried out at least 30 of the vile procedures on men who had been pressured and manipulated into having their bodies mangled while others watched.

But if you are thinking this is another freak oddity lurking on an obscure corner of the dark web, you'd be wrong...

Not only did the group have 22,000 paying subscribers (generating 300,000 in revenues) - they also conducted their sick trade completely in the open, with a public website accessible to anyone who stumbled upon it.

Front and centre of the whole operation was Gustavson, an 'arch manipulator' who collected a group of 'acolytes' attracted to the deviant business, according to prosecutors, by 'the sexual element of the offending and financial gain'.

Marius Gustavson and other members of his 'cult' cut off men's genitals, nipples and other limbs while streaming the footage online

The website had 22,000 paying subscribers and generated 300,000 in revenues

The Norwegian national, who had to have his leg amputated in February 2019 after getting a man to freeze it, claimed 18,000 in disability payments up until 2021 while living in north London.

He appeared for sentencing today alongside six other members of his gang, including his 'right-hand man' Peter Wates, a retired former member of the Royal Society of Chemists, and Janus Atkin, who had been completing a veterinary course.

Also facing jail are Romanian Ion Ciucur, 30, 61-year-old German Stefan Scharf, surgical assistant David Carruthers, 61, and his boyfriend Ashley Williams, both from South Wales.

Carruthers was involved in six procedures including four testicle removals. He worked for Ceredigion and Mid Wales NHS trust from 1991 to 2002 as a 'domestic assistant' but has no medical qualifications.

The charges against the men relate to 13 victims, who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives.

Despite consenting to the procedures - often in return for the promise of payment - they were described by prosecutors and 'vulnerable' to Gustavson's manipulation.

The wide-ranging conspiracy lasted from 2017 and 2021 and involved the removal and trade of body parts, the Old Bailey heard.

The procedures were filmed and uploaded to the 'Eunuch Maker' website Gustavson ran, and subscribers paid to watch, with varying levels of membership from 'free' to 'VIP' which cost 100.

The practice is linked to a subculture where men become 'nullos', short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC told the court that during a Facetime call with a man in Sweden, Gustavson told him to 'maim himself' by cutting off his testicles with a knife.

Gustavson told him: 'You know what to do come on, just push it.'

Three days later, he encouraged him to cut off his penis.

In one testicle removal video Gustavson can be heard saying 'that was a lot quicker than the last one' and 'such a nice cut.' He holds the removed testicle up to show the camera.

Ms Carberry said that Gustavson 'sold on' some of the removed body parts to others, including Wates.

After one procedure, she said Gustavson had 'cooked some testicles for lunch' which he ate in a salad he had prepared for himself.

Janus Atkin who had been completing a veterinary course while taking part in the deviant conspiracy

Gustavson had taken various images from 'raw ingredients to an artfully arranged salad platter'.

In a video played during the hearing of another incident, one of the group's victims was branded with the letters 'EM', for eunuch maker, on the back of his calf.

The man later complained to police about Gustavson and his 'circle of acolytes' in November 2020 and an investigation was launched.

He is the only victim who has assisted the police with their enquiries.

Ms Carberry said: 'It was his report in November 2020 to police about the procedures done to him in 2019 which started this large complex police investigation.

'He told police he was high on drugs when Gustavson cut his scrotum with a scalpel.'

The victim said the procedure left his testicles injured so he then tried to get Gustavson to remove them entirely.

When he went to Gustavson's flat in September 2019 he did not remove his testicles but clamped them causing him to 'cry and howl in pain.'

In the video he can be heard saying 'what the f*** have you done to me?'

But he went back to Gustavson's flat on December 2.

Ms Carberry said: 'He thought he was attending in order to have his dead testicles cut off but that did not happen.

'What happened instead was that Gustavson used a red hot branding iron on the back of his legs. The iron had been fashioned with the initials "EM" which stands for Eunuch Maker.

'It's right to say in fact it was [the victim] who had made that branding tool for Gustavson. He at that time believed Gustavson to be his master, he being Mr Gustavson's servant.'

Ashley Williams - seen outside court - was the boyfriend of surgical assistant David Carruthers, 61, a fellow gang member

He told police he was a 'servant' to Gustavson and Carruthers.

On a later occasion, his testicle was taken out by Carruthers before being put back in when the surgery started to go wrong.

The victim told police: 'At this point I realise I need to see a urologist rather than a backstreet surgeon.'

He said he 'wants to kill' Gustavson, who he knew as 'Theo', for leaving his testicles 'mangled'.

'I've realised I've been trusting the wrong person and Gustavson is in fact a lunatic,' he said.

In a victim impact statement, the man said he was severely depressed when he first met Gustavson.

He said: 'I wanted out and was quite prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to change anything.

'The cult like atmosphere Gustavson propagated around himself was captivating. The persona he created for himself in the world of body modification was a masterpiece.'

He said the Eunuch Maker website 'made it all feel like a game'.

'Eunuch badges' would be given to members who had undergone a verified castration which gave them 'clout', he said.

'I remember the joy I felt when my Eunuch badge appeared on my profile,' he said.

He said Gustavson injected him with testosterone before the first procedure and he believes this was done to make him 'compliant to his manipulation..'

Damien Byrnes, a male prostitute, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to five years in prison for causing GBH with intent

He said he had consented to the removal of his testicles but 'wanted out' when Gustavson brought out clamps normally used for livestock.

'I realised my mistake, I wanted out but I was strapped down, high, and unable to do anything about the situation.

'When I hear people consented I wonder what idea of consent they're going with because I sure as hell didn't consent to what happened to me that drug fuelled night.'

He said that after Carruthers put his testicle back in he realised his mistake.

'At that point I realised my mistake at long last. The scales fell form my eyes and my anger rose like fire.'

'Fury like nothing else I've felt before.

'The group of people he introduced me to was at first impression welcoming and pleasant.

'It is only with the benefit of hindsight I can see how manipulative and coercive it truly was.

'It took being away from their circle of influence to realise how under their sway I was.'

He said he was told to lie to his therapist and was 'persuaded' by the other that he had issues with his gender identity.

'I was given coaching that if castration came up to say it was a lifestyle choice and I was happy with it.'

He said he was scared to go to police as Gustavson was the 'unquestioned leader' of 22,000 people.

'Knowing I was the reason for the closure of their playground could have caused several problems.

'I'm scared of whatever remains of his followers although I am sure some have realised it needed to stop.'

After the investigation began, ten men were arrested after police raids in London, Scotland and South Wales.

Gustavson's boyfriend Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, was jailed for three years

Ms Carberry said police officers found Gustavson's penis 'in a drawer in his home four years after it had been amputated'.

He was also found to be in possession of beastiality pornography and had sent three indecent images of children to another man.

In one message he claimed to have castrated and had sex with an eight-year-old.

He was convicted in Norway in 1999 for fraud committed against a housing cooperative he was the chair of.

In 2001 he was sentenced to eight months imprisonment partially suspended for fraud in obtaining items over the Internet for which he did not intend to pay.

Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of making an indecent photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child and possession of criminal property contrary to Section 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Ion Ciucur, 30, of Gretna, Scotland, Wates, 66, of Purley, Surrey, Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address, David Carruthers 61, Atkin, 38, Ashley Williams, 32, all of Newport, Gwent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.

Former nurse Nathaniel Arnold, 49, Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, and male prostitute Damien Byrnes, 36, all admitted removing body parts from Gustavson and were jailed last year.

Crimi-Appleby, who had a sexual relationship with Gustavson after meeting him aged 17, froze his leg causing it to require amputation, Byrnes removed his penis with a vegetable knife while Arnold partially removed his nipple with a scalpel.

Byrnes was earlier jailed for five years, Crimi-Appleby for three years and eight months while Arnold was given a two year suspended sentence.

The sentencing hearing continues.
Eight passengers on a Qatar airways flight were hospitalised after turbulence rocked the cabin

Boeing has had a torrid start to 2024 including two whistleblowers who were raising issues about the company dying suddenly.

The first of those, John Barnett, took his own life just days after testifying against the aircraft giant.

More recently two of their aircrafts have left passengers terrified after being thrown around in somersaults during brutal turbulence.

A 73-year-old Brit died of a fatal heart attack on Boeing 777 after the plane hit an air pocket sending passengers and crew thrown around the cabin.

Find a full timeline of Boeing's difficult 2024 below.

Boeing has had a torrid 2024 starting with a door plug blowing out on an Alaska Airlines flight in early January (stock image above)

An emergency landing was required and the plane landed safely, but a teddy bear, two mobile phones, a seat headrest and a 15-year-old passengers t-shirt

Boeing 2024 timeline

January 5

On January 5, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 - a Boeing 737 Max 9 - lost a door plug at 16,000 feet on a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California.

That part is designed to replace an unneeded emergency exit door, and it blew out within just 20 minutes of takeoff.

An emergency landing was required and the plane landed safely but 15-year-old passengers t-shirt was ripped off, a teddy bear was sucked out and two mobile phones flew out.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 of the 737 Max 9s in the aftermath and six of the flight's passengers went on to sue the airline.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines also went on to find loose parts on their grounded jets' door plugs.

January 16

An anonymous whistleblower broke rank to say that the door plug blowout 'was Boeing's fault', rather than its supplier Spirit AeroSystems.

First reported by The Seattle Times, they claimed the fuselage panel was removed for repair then reinstalled improperly at its Washington factory

'The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeings own records,' they wrote on aviation site Leeham News.

'It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business.'

February 6

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report said that the January 5 incident was down to four crucial bolds being missing from the panel which blew out.

February 21

Boeing's 737 Max program chief, Ed Clark, was reportedly fired in a structural shakeup at the company.

Clark was also general manager at the company's Renton, Washington, facility and had been at Boeing for 18 years.

He was replaced by Katie Ringgold, while a 'senior vice president of quality' role was created too.

March 3

A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 veered off the runway after landing in Houston due to some sort of gear collapse.

Shocking footage showed the plane lying flat on its wings on grass by the side of the runway, while passengers were hurried off from an emergency gate ladder.

A Boeing 737 Max operated by United Airlines veered off the tarmac into the grass when exiting the runway at George Bush Airport in Houston early Friday

March 4

An audit by the FAA of both Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems 'found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements'.

March 6

The head of the NTSB accused Boeing of 'not cooperating' with its investigation into the January incident.

Jennifer Homendy said investigators sought the names of the 25 people who work on door plugs at the Renton facility, but had not received them from Boeing.

She told a Senate Committee hearing 'it is absurd that two months later we don't have it'.

However, Boeing spokesperson Connor Greenwood pushed back and insisted that names of employees were provided 'early in the investigation'.

The same day, a 737's engine caught fire in mid-air above Texas, causing an emergency landing minutes into its journey to Fort Myers, Florida.

March 7

A wheel fell off a Boeing 777-200 shortly after takeoff from San Francisco, crushing cars below.

The plane with 235 passengers and 14 crew diverted to Los Angeles Airport after it was alerted to the landing gear failure and landed safely with no further incident and no injuries reported on the ground.

March 9

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel days after testifying against his former employer

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62 - a former quality control manager and employee of 32 years - was found dead in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel days after testifying against the company in a lawsuit.

The coroner put it down to a 'self-inflicted' gunshot wound in the head, though the police confirmed that they would investigate further.

Barnett had made a string of complaints to his higher-ups in his time as a quality control manager before leaving the company on health grounds in 2017.

In January 2024, he appeared on TMZ to say that the 737 Max 9 aircraft were being launched back into the air too soon in the wake of the accident, suggesting corners had been cut.

March 11

A Boeing 777 was was forced to land due to hydraulic fluid spewing from its landing gear area.

The forced landing happened as the San Francisco-bound 777-300 embarked from Sydney, with fluid filmed leaking from its undercarriage.

March 15

A United Airlines 737 was grounded after it was found to be missing a panel after it touched down successfully in Medford Airport, Oregon, despite the missing part.

March 20

A Boeing 737 900 bound for Atlanta was forced to turn back and make an emergency landing after an engine blow out on take-off from Aruba.

The Delta flight circled the Caribbean island four times before coming back into land following the 'mechanical issue'.

March 29

United Airlines flight 990 - a Boeing 777-200 - from San Francisco to Paris had to touch down early in Denver after engine problems.

April 4

Alaska Airlines announced that they had received $160 million in compensation from Boeing after their 737 Max 9s were grounded following the January 5 door blowout.

The amount was equal to the revenue lost according to a filing from the airline, but Alaska added that it anticipated receiving extra compensation too.

April 10

Another whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, came forward to Boeing of taking shortcuts when building its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets and added that the company had retaliated against him when he raised concerns.

He doubled down on the claims a week later, adding on NBC that 787s should be grounded fearing 'fatal flaws' which could case them to fall apart mid-air.

In a 1,500 word statement, Boeing said it was 'fully confident' in the 787 and called concerns about structural integrity 'inaccurate.'

Pictured: Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour testifies before the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations on April 17

April 11

An internal Boeing review in response to an initial Wall Street Journal investigation found that CEO Dave Calhoun and other bosses at the aviation firm spent $500,000 on company private jets for personal trips which were improperly recorded as business travel.

Boeing's review concluded that some of the flights taken by executives in 2021 and 2022 'were not previously classified as perquisites by the company'.

In the company's proxy filing on April 5, Boeing said that these flights 'should have been classified as such in accordance with SEC rules and guidance'.

April 16

United Airlines indicated it will reduce reliance on Boeing after announcing a $124m loss in the first quarter of 2024, which it blamed on the scandal-laden manufacturer.

April 24

Boeing's CEO assured investors after a first-quarter loss of $355m was announced which coincided with a six per cent dip in share prices.

Calhoun added that he had a successor lined up for his departure at the end of 2024 who would come from inside the company.

April 26

Delta flight 520 was forced to make an emergency landing at JFK Airport when an emergency slide fell off the Boeing 767 an hour into its journey to Los Angeles.

FAA records indicated that the plane was 33 years old.

April 30

Joshua Dean (pictured) died suddenly on April 30 aged 45 having raised the alarm about supposed defects in 737 Max jets

Dean was employed by Spirit AeroSystems based in Wichita, Kansas

A second whistleblower, Joshua Dean, died suddenly aged 45 having raised the alarm about supposed defects in 737 Max jets.

The former Spirit employee previously said he was fired from his quality auditing role for questioning standards at the supplier's plant in Wichita, Kansas, in October 2022.

His family said on social media that Dean died in hospital after a sudden illness.

Earlier in 2024, Dean spoke with NPR about being fired. 'I think they were sending out a message to anybody else. If you are too loud, we will silence you,' he said.

May 22

A 73-year-old British man was killed on a Boeing 777-300ER after extreme turbulence caused pandemonium in the cabin forcing pilots to make an emergency landing.

The aircraft journeying from London to Singapore with 221 passengers as well as 18 crew members descended 6,000 metres in five minutes.

The brutal turbulence caused pure chaos in the cabin with some blacking out after being thrown around.

Geoffrey Kitchen, 73, who was travelling to his son's wedding abroad, suffered a fatal heart attack during the ordeal, whilst seven others are fighting for their lives.

Upwards of 80 people were injured during the extreme turbulence which left the cabin showered in debris and terrified passengers desperately trying to stop blood flowing from severe cuts and blunt force injuries

After around 11 hours of flying time from take off in London, the aircraft sharply dropped 6,000 feet in just five minutes, causing chaos in the cabin. In pictures of the aftermath, one air stewardess was seen with blood over her face (pictured)

Pictured: Passengers are seen in the cabin after the incident on May 22, with belongings strewn across the floor and oxygen masks dangling from above

Geoffrey Kitchen, 73, suffered a fatal heart attack during the ordeal

May 26

Eight people were taken to hospital - and 12 were injured in total - after a Qatar Airways flight experienced extreme turbulence on its approach to Dublin airport.

Terrified passengers detailed how flight attendants were tossed into the air hitting the ceiling of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

'There was panic, the look of panic everywhere,' passenger Emma Rose Power said.

'Some of the flight attendants had scratches to their face, ice to their face... one girl had a sling on her arm.'

Another traveller named Eileen described her horrifying experience, as her partner Tony was forced to hold her down to prevent her from being launched out of her chair.

Eileen has been sleeping without her seat belt on.

A teary-eyed Eileen shared: ''It was so scary... I am not in a hurry to get back on a plane I can tell you.'

It was really scary.

Passengers on a flight from Qatar to Ireland describe the moment they experienced turbulence while airborne over Turkey during the food and drinks service. Six passengers and six cabin crew were injured during the turbulence | https://t.co/XkruwzQHZa pic.twitter.com/PfX3vKbCF9  RTE News (@rtenews) May 26, 2024

'There was panic, the look of panic everywhere,' Emma Rose Power said. 'Some of the flight attendants had scratches to their face, ice to their face... one girl had a sling on her arm'

Firefighters and a fire engine outside the a plane at Dublin airport which experienced turbulence over Turkey resulting in 12 people being injured
A horrified onlooker captured the moment a large truck tailgated a car while driving at speed on a major freeway.

Courtney, who was travelling in another car along Melbourne's Monash Freeway this week said she noticed the delivery truck riding up the rear of a 'tiny' car.

Her husband filmed the 'scary' scene from their passenger seat as the truck barrelled down on the car - seemingly just inches behind it.

The couple's daughter in the backseat asked what the truck was doing.

'It's far too close to that car,' Courtney told her.

A driver on Melbourne's Monash Freeway filmed one of the 'worst examples of tailgating' she had ever seen this week

The truck was less than a metre from the rear of the car in front of it as the two travelled around 98km for more than one kilometre

The mum appeared on Jacqui Felgate's 3AW radio show to talk about the nerve-wracking moment on Thursday.

'There would've only been a metre between the truck and the car so it was pretty intimidating,' Courtney said.

The tailgating lasted roughly one kilometre along the freeway while both vehicles were travelling 98km per hour.

Ms Felgate noted that a 'no trucks in right lane' was clearly visible beside the truck at one point in the footage.

Courtney said that the truck tried to exit the right hand lane but could not because it 'was wedged in between another car'.

The tailgating ended when the truck cut off the car to its left and continued along the freeway.

According to Courtney tailgating happens 'a lot' in the area but that this incident was one of the 'worst examples' she had ever seen.

'The Monash is pretty hectic but it was pretty bumper-to-bumper,' Courtney said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Therapedic for comment.
Outrage is growing across Europe over bizarre proposals to force all slices of meat in a doner kebab to have the exact same thickness.

Turkey has filed an application to grant its best-known foodstuff the same EU protection as Italian Neapolitan pizza, Spanish serrano ham and French champagne.

The country has demanded that there should be very specific rules for how thin slices of doner meat should be, what the meat should consist of, and that there should be a 'certain standard' to its production.

Turkey wants to register the name doner in Europe so that it can only be used by those conforming to the registered production method and specifications.

If the proposal goes through the three-month process, it would mean that there will be an EU standard for what can be called doner kebab - something that restaurants and stores across Europe will then have to live up to.

Turkey Turkey has filed an application to grant its doner kebab the same EU protection as Italian Neapolitan pizza, Spanish serrano ham and French champagne

Only large slabs of beef and lamb 'horizontally sliced into cutlets with a thickness of 3 to 5mm' could be labelled as doner, while chicken cutlets can be between one to two cm thick in the poultry variety.

Doner kebabs, the classic meat dish, consist of thinly sliced cutlets from beef, lamb, or chicken, rotating on a stainless steel skewer over a fire, cooking the meat as it revolves vertically around its axis.

Before being placed on the skewer, the meat is marinated in a mixture of yoghurt, pepper, tomato puree, herbs, spices and salt.

According to local media, one of the reasons Turkey wants the EU to protect the kebab is to preserve tradition as the dish has evolved throughout its journey into Europe.

The doner economy in Europe is estimated to be worth a staggering 3.5billion (2.9billion), according to the Association of Turkish Doner Producers in Europe.

Although they are somewhat associated with the EU's protected designation of origin quality scheme, traditional specialties are not included in the geographical indications framework - which offers the highest level of protection for foodstuffs across Europe, Euronews reports.

This enhanced level of protection is given to products which a direct link to a geographical area, which is not the case for the traditional cooking technique of doner meat.

It is also the reason why Parma ham has been granted geographical indications, while jamon serrano has only been offered protected status.

The food specialty label has sparked previous controversy, including when the use of the traditional term 'prosek' for a Croatian desert wine was challenged by Italians as it sounded too similar to the Italian's Prosecco.

In terms of Turkey's doner, complaints may be put forward by neighbour and cultural rival, Greece.

'It is claimed that Greece was the first country in Europe where 'Doner' was introduced during an exchange of people between Turkey and Greece in 1922. In Greece, it has been named 'gyro',' says the application by Turkey.

A tense consultation phase has now been opened and will last for three months where countries will be able to challenge the application.

The application has split opinions, with some hailing the move as a positive step, and others questioning the origin of the dish.

Many social media users shared the reported earliest known photo of the doner kebab from the Ottoman Empire, reiterating that it has always been a Turkish dish.

But others disagreed with the statement.

'Germany should submit a counterclaim,' one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
An emergency package for women who are seeking shelter from domestic violence is set to be unveiled by the NSW government next week.

Deputy Premier Prue Car announced the housing package on Friday saying that it would focus an prevention and assisting women trying to leave dangerous situations.

Ms Car said it would be the first step in a larger push by her government to improve the safety of women after an alarming spike in gender-based violence.

Following a cabinet meeting on Friday, which heard from experts and campaigners, Ms Car said: 'Primary prevention and early intervention does need more attention because we need to drive the cultural change that stops this from happening'.

Ms Car, who is the housing minister, said the government will look at under-used accommodation facilities with a view to repurposing them as shelters or even long-term housing.

She also said education would be focus.

'Education is always, always part of the answer, but the government needs to make sure that schools are supported to be able to do that'.

NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car (centre) on Friday announced a housing package to help women fleeing domestic violence with the details to be delivered next week

READ MORE: 'Sad' flyer offering place to park for women living in their cars A notice advertising a secure carpark where those fleeing domestic violence can sleep in the NSW city of Newcastle has caused widespread dismay and anger Advertisement

Leader of the government in the Legislative Council Penny Sharpe said the announcement was decades overdue.

'Today, what this government has done [has] started a process that has taken too long but that is about urgent action.

'It is about things that are going to change the dial ... to prevent the behaviour in the first place.'

On a national level a similar meeting was taking place in Canberra on Friday.

Chaired by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, the meeting of various police ministers 'noted' national cabinet's direction they work alongside the country's attorneys-general to devise options for improving police responses to high risk perpetrators of gender-based violence.

The police ministers council 'agreed to task officials to consider expert stakeholder views, including those with lived experience of violence, in developing the joint program to progress this work'.

Mr Dreyfus also referenced comments Anthony Albanese had made ahead of the meeting about bail, and other measures that prioritise safety.

Ahead of the meeting, the Prime Minister had indicated the ministers would discuss bail laws and greater data sharing between states about high risk or serial perpetrators.

The technicalities of those issues overwhelmingly fall under the purview of police ministers.

The meeting that was set up prior to the worrying rise in gendered violence and two Sydney stabbings, and included discussions and action on the national firearms register and closing the gap.

It had not been expected any major announcements would be made.

On Friday morning, Mr Albanese said co-operation between the states was key in tackling what he described as a national crisis.

'States and territories will all come together at the Attorney-General meeting to talk about the law, justice system, bail laws, those matters that are the primary responsibility of states and territories,' the Prime Minister told Channel 7.

'In addition to that, the NSW cabinet is meeting today as well to talk about measures that are within NSW that they can take control of, issues like community services and housing.'

Rallies were held right across the country in recent days with thousands demanding action on the problem

South Australia has already passed tough laws targeting repeat offenders with strict stay-at-home orders and requiring those who break intervention orders and are bailed to wear an ankle monitor.

At least 28 women have died this year from gendered violence.

Mr Albanese held an emergency meeting of national cabinet this week, announcing a Morrison-era trial program to financially assist women leaving violent relations will be made permanent.

In total, $925m over five years will be set aside to rebadge the trial Escaping Violence Payment to the Leaving Violence Payment, which will roll out next year at the end of the trial.

Mr Albanese described it as 'two steps forward'.

'What we've done is to beef up the program to make sure that there's more, more support, not just the financial payment, but that those support services kick in as well,' he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a virtual National Cabinet meeting to discuss the national crisis of gender-based violence on Wednesday

The program, which seeks to help people with the financial costs of escaping a violent intimate relationship, offers eligible people up to $1500 in cash and $3500 in vouchers.

The one-off payment of $5000 was first introduced under the former Morrison government in 2021 but was revised in response to heightened concerns over its strict eligibility requirements, including the exclusion of people who hold temporary visas.

To be eligible, a person must be a victim survivor and have experienced a change in living arrangement as a result of the intimate partner violence in the past 12 weeks.

According to a report from peak organisation Domestic Violence NSW, only 15 per cent of frontline services reported having their clients receive the full $5000 payment in 2022.

Data obtained this year by the Guardian showed that more than half of more than 50,000 Australians had their applications rejected between July and September 2023.

Independent MP Kylea Tink said the government should stop 'throwing money at a broken system'.

'Where we are at the moment, as a society and culture, at a tipping point, where we need to tip this issue on its head,' she told ABC News.

'We have to stop focusing on the victims running, the women running with their children and focus on the root causes of gender-based violence in this country.'
Animal campaigners are calling for puppy yoga to be banned in Britain, saying the controversial wellness trend beloved by influencers leaves the pups more likely to catch diseases, increases their anxiety and can even cause them to mistrust humans.

The demands for action come the day after Italy's Ministry of Health banned the practice on animal welfare grounds, stating only adult dogs should take part in order to protect the health of animals and the safety of those who attend.

The often-instagrammed activity - which sees litters of puppies drafted in to human yoga classes - has been routinely criticised by animal rights groups over concerns for the dogs' welfare.

An ITV investigation last year exposed exploitative puppy yoga practices such as not allowing the animals access to water to prevent them from weeing on the practicing yogis, as well keeping them in hot rooms.

The loud environments and constant handling by customers also prevent the pups from getting their much-needed 18-20 hours of sleep.

Campaigners and dog experts say these conditions can cause lifelong issues for the puppies - who have been found in some cases to be younger than eight weeks old.

Pictured: Ex-Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison at a puppy yoga class in 2019

Megan Barton Hanson from Love Island at a puppy yoga class. Organiser Paws for Thought shares photos of celebs attending their classes

ITV filmed footage inside puppy yoga sessions as part of an investigation that has raised animal welfare concerns

The RSPCA said it hopes that Italy's ban sends a message to people in England and Wales who still take part in the activity.

Esme Wheeler, dog welfare expert at the RSPCA, said: 'We should all want to see pets kept safe - but the RSPCA has been concerned for a long time that puppy yoga classes are not good for the puppies' welfare.

'Sadly, puppy yoga has gained more traction as time has gone on, with people thinking that it is 'cute' - but the puppies - sometimes younger than eight weeks - can be overwhelmed and frightened.

'It can have such a detrimental effect on their welfare, but we're really worried the popularity of this trend is being fuelled by social media.

'Many puppy yoga organisers say the classes help socialise the animals, but socialisation needs to be carried out gradually, where exposure to various experiences, people and other animals is controlled and calm. Not doing so can have a negative effect on the puppy.

'Only last month, a report from the EFRA parliamentary committee raised concerns about puppy yoga, and that the welfare of underage and potentially unvaccinated puppies in a setting may be detrimental to their health and wellbeing.

'We hope the ban on puppy yoga in Italy sends a strong message to anyone considering attending one in this country to stay away.'

The reality TV star is seen stretching alongside the dogs and sometimes incorporating them into her poses

At one class hosted in Essex, puppies were placed in a small, warm room for an hour-long class without any water. They were seen trying to leave the room but prevented from doing so

Footage shows dogs trying to sleep in the corner of a room before being repeatedly picked up and moved towards the customers

The Puppy Yoga industry first boomed in the UK after being featured on TOWIE and Made In Chelsea.

Celebrities such as ex-Geordie Shore starlet Vicky Pattison have been photographed leaving puppy yoga classes, while scores of influencers publicise the sessions by posting photos on social media.

As of last summer, there were more than 25 companies advertising classes across the UK for up to 43 a pop.

The classes, which advertise their stress-busting benefits, feature puppies roaming from one mat to the next and sometimes being incorporated into yoga poses. Dogs are obtained through local breeders or animal shelters.

However, ITV revealed a darker side to the practice in a documentary last year.

At one 43 class hosted by The Bully Barn Essex in Wickford, puppies were placed in a small, warm room for an hour-long class without any water.

When an undercover reporter asked whether the puppies had access to water, the teacher said: 'No, no, it might make them pee more.'

Puppies were seen attempting to leave the room on several occasions but not permitted to.

In some studios, puppies as young as six and a half weeks old were used - contrary to statutory guidance which states that dogs should not leave their mother until at least eight weeks old.

Italy's new ban mandates that only adult dogs should take part in the pet-friendly yoga sessions to protect the health of animals as well as the safety of attendees.

Its Ministry of Health has asked regional authorities to carry out checks to ensure puppy yoga classes do not take place.

Certified Animal Behaviourist Caroline Wilkinson told MailOnline that she would welcome a similar ban in the UK

Ms Wilkinson teaches her own form of dog yoga - focused on the animal, not the human - that helps with stretching, as well as confidence and relaxation

She told MailOnline: 'Putting them in an environment with not only a lot of new people but where they're being handled without their consent is very stressful for them.'

Certified Animal Behaviourist Caroline Wilkinson told MailOnline that she would welcome a similar ban in the UK.

'It's a really good decision for the welfare of puppies,' she said.

'People underestimate just how important sleep and rest is for puppies.

'Putting them in an environment with not only a lot of new people but where they're being handled without their consent is very stressful for them.'

'It may be providing oxytocin for the humans but it's doing the opposite for the puppies.

'During those sessions their being handled a lot and they're definitely not getting the 18-20 hours of sleep per day that they need.

'For the puppies, this can increase their stress hormone levels, which are usually brought down by sleep.

'In the long run, as they get older, this can impact their gut health and emotional wellbeing - not only making them more prone to diseases but also making them more hypervigilant, pessimistic dogs.

'Overall, it impacts how they're able to become confident adults.'

Ms Wilkinson teaches her own form of dog yoga - focused on the animal, not the human - that helps with stretching, as well as confidence and relaxation.

Animal handler Paula Stewart agrees, saying she 'absolutely agrees with the ban.'

Ms Stewart (pictured here with dogs Timmy and Betty) says she fears for the puppies' safety in unregulated and unmonitored environments like puppy yoga classes

'I'm really strict about the productions we work on - we don't put them in an environment that will be detrimental to their health as it can have a really long term impact on the puppies,' she explained

Animal handler Paula Stewart agrees, saying she 'absolutely agrees with the ban.'

As a supplier of ethically trained animals for film and TV sets, Ms Stewart said she fears for the puppies' safety in unregulated and unmonitored environments like puppy yoga classes.

'I'm really strict about the productions we work on - we don't put them in an environment that will be detrimental to their health as it can have a really long term impact on the puppies,' she explained.

'In all the work that I do in TV and film, there's always vets present.

'I have the qualifications to do that and I am licensed by the council and have to be fully vetted and inspected.

'I don't see that those puppy yoga people have got the same level of experience or the license.

Ms Stewart says she worries that if puppies as young as six weeks are being used in classes, they won't have been fully vaccinated yet - leading to an increased risk of them picking up diseases.

Puppies generally only get their first vaccination at eight weeks old and their second at 12 weeks.

She said: 'There's a concept called 'flooding' which is often used for humans as well.

'It's when an animal is overexposed to an environment that's too much for them.

'In this circumstance its a lot of people at once doing a lot of activity which causes puppies to shut down as they can't cope with the situation.

'In the end, they can go on to experience anxiety and a mistrust of humans.

'I don't think anybody does this thinking they're abusing their puppy, but if you cared about your puppy you wouldn't put them in this situation.

'I've never seen a puppy party that has a vet on site, or someone qualified to look after dogs.'

Bill Lambert, Health, Welfare and Breeder Services Executive at The Kennel Club said: 'We have serious concerns about young puppies being taken into any environment where there aren't clear standards around how they are cared for before, during and after that time.

'Any dog, but especially those of such a young age, should always have access to water, a safe area to go to the toilet and exercise, as well as plenty of time to rest in a quiet, and ideally private area.

'There should also always be someone responsible and knowledgeable looking out for their welfare, and making it a priority, at all times.

'Equally, puppies shouldn't leave their mum and breeding environment for extended periods until at least eight weeks old, when they will have been microchipped and had the necessary health checks, including vaccinations.

'All of these things raise welfare concerns for the puppies involved.'

PETA's Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen added: 'Hats off to Italy for banning puppy yoga, a sales gimmick designed to promote the breeding of 'pedigree' dogs  who are prone to severe physical problems later in life  and which violates the fundamental principle of yoga: ahimsa, or doing no harm.

'While wonderful dogs sit in shelters, longing for a home  some for years  greedy breeders are churning out litters of puppies, knowing that some of them will end up adding to the homeless-animal crisis after being abandoned once the novelty wears off.

'While governments around the world should take heed, we must not wait to do the right thing: PETA urges yogis to stay away from this cheap ploy that uses sensitive animals as props to their detriment.'
Broadcaster Narinder Kaur has thanked people for their support amid the ongoing police probe into Laurence Fox over an 'upskirt photo' he shared of her online.

Former actor Laurence Fox posted the explicit image of Ms Kaur on X, formerly Twitter, without her consent on Wednesday evening amid a spat about their political views.

Now Ms Kaur has taken to the platform to issue a heartfelt message to her followers for the support she has received, adding that it has driven her to 'pick myself back up' following the incident.

She wrote on X: 'I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone supporting me and trying to make me feel better. It's actually making me cry. Thank you to all you lovely people, you will never know how much you are helping me pick myself back up.'

Broadcaster Narinder Kaur has thanked people for their support amid the ongoing police probe into Laurence Fox over an 'upskirt photo' he shared of her online

Ms Kaur has taken to the platform to issue a heartfelt message to her followers for the support she has recevied

Police are investigating after Laurence Fox (pictured) was criticised for sharing an 'upskirt photo' of broadcaster Narinder Kaur on social media

A spokesperson for the Met Police told MailOnline: 'We have been made aware of a post on social media regarding an up-skirting offence and we are currently investigating the circumstances.'

No suggestion is being made that Mr Fox, 45, has committed an offence.

There was outrage after Mr Fox posted the photo, which was taken and shared online without the consent of Good Morning Britain contributor Ms Kaur, to X. He has since deleted the post.

He caption the photo, in which she lacked underwear: 'I for one applaud the celebration of modesty which Narinder highlighted in her criticism of @LeilaniDowding for getting her b**s out. We need standards in public life.'

After receiving criticism for the post, he said: 'It's not my fault she forgot to put her pants on'.

Social media users said the move was 'low, even for him'. The Reclaim Party founder responded: 'I don't take the photo [sic] and I didn't forget to put my pants on. Jog on.'

Ms Kaur later told her followers on X: 'This is now a police matter.'

She later added: 'I know people are saying not to feel embarrassed and mortified but I am. I'm so incredibly upset that people are looking at my privates and laughing. It's unimaginably mortifying.'

Former actor Laurence Fox posted the explicit image of Ms Kaur (pictured) on X, formerly Twitter, without her consent on Wednesday evening amid a spat about their political views

Ms Kaur told her followers on X: 'This is now a police matter'

The Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 applies to anyone operating equipment or records an image under another person's clothing without reasonable belief of their consent, to view their genitals or buttocks.

It is a criminal offence where the purpose is to obtain sexual gratification or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm.

The maximum sentence if found guilty is two years in prison.

'Revenge porn', the sharing private, sexual photos or videos of another person without their consent with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress, is a sexual offence under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.

The photo of Ms Kaur had previously been removed from picture websites when upskirting was made a criminal offence. The photo had been taken without her knowledge or consent.

MailOnline has contacted Mr Fox for comment through the Reclaim Party.
A former NSW Police officer has been charged with perjury over evidence he gave during NRL star Jack de Belin's sexual assault court proceedings.

The Director of Public Prosecutions in mid-2021 dropped sexual assault charges against Mr de Belin and his co-accused Callan Sinclair following two District Court trials which ended in hung juries.

NSW Police on Friday said that a former Detective Senior Constable had been charged with perjury relating to Mr de Belin's case in the Wollongong District Court in February 2020.

Jack de Belin was accused of the sexual assault of a woman and fronted a Sydney court. He was acquitted on one count and the jury could not reach a verdict on others

Both Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair consistently maintained they were innocent of the allegations and had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

During a second trial, a jury acquitted the pair of one count and was unable to reach a verdict on five other charges, before plans for a third trial were abandoned.

In 2021 the NSW Police Professional Standards Command commenced an investigation under the umbrella of Strike Force Ephemeris to investigate the conduct of officers in the case.

NSW Police said after receiving advice from the Director of Public Prosecution, a former Detective Senior Constable had been charged with giving false evidence under oath amounting to perjury.

The 48-year-old man will appear in Wollongong Local Court on June 19.

NSW Police said investigations under Strike Force Ephemeris were continuing.
US fighter jets allegedly scrambled to intercept Russian nuclear bombers that flew over Alaskan airspace.

US and Russian warplanes came face to face in the sky on Thursday after Vladimir Putin sent up two Tu-95MS nuclear bombers over the Bering Sea, near Alaska's western coast.

Footage published by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a warplane from the Alaska Air National Guard marked with the letters AK and the number 304 on its tail fin. A Russian escort Su-30SM fighter jet is also pictured in the video.

The Russian defense minister admitted its hulking 'Bear' strategic bombers 'appeared near the coast of Alaska' on an 11 hour flight over the neutral waters Bering Sea. Moscow said 'at certain stages the missile carriers were accompanied by fighter jets of foreign countries'.

Four Kremlin military jets were detected and tracked operating near American airspace in an area where Russian aircraft activity is regularly detected, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed Thursday. NORAD added that the Russian jets 'remained in international airspace'.

The aerial drama came amid fury in Moscow over the US resuming major arms supplies to Ukraine as part of a $61billion package of war aid.

US and Russian warplanes came face to face in the sky on Thursday after Vladimir Putin sent up two Tu-95MS nuclear bombers over the Bering Sea, near Alaska's western coast

Footage published by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a warplane from the Alaska Air National Guard marked with the letters AK and the number 304 on its tail fin

A crewmember working inside of the Russian bomber as the interception takes place

NORAD, in a statement, confirmed the jets were observed in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is a buffer some outside US sovereign airspace

Russia's Ministry of Defense confirmed on Telegram that two 'missile carriers' had flown a mission off the western coast of Alaska on Thursday.

'Two Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces' long-range aviation carried out a scheduled flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Bering Sea near the western coast of Alaska,' said the defense ministry.

'The flight lasted over 11 hours. Crews of Su-30SM of the Aerospace Forces provided fighter support.'

It is unclear which other foreign state sent up its aircraft to monitor the Russian mission. The closest Western country would be Canada.

NORAD, in a statement, confirmed the jets were observed in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is a buffer some outside US sovereign airspace.

'The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,' the statement said. 'This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.'

Moscow claimed that 'all flights of the Russian Aerospace Forces are carried out in strict compliance with international rules of airspace use'.

The Tu-95 fleet is an integral part of Russia's nuclear armory, but the planes have been also used to launch devastating conventional missile strikes causing large-scale destruction in Ukraine.

The Soviet-era Tu-95s first flew some 70 years ago but remain a mainstay of the Russian nuclear force. The super noisy Tu-95s are the world's only propeller-powered strategic bombers.

The jets were observed in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is a buffer some outside US sovereign airspace, NORAD confirmed. The ADIZ is a zone stretching about 150 miles from the US coastline in which aircraft are required to identify themselves

Last year, multiple Russian aircraft were detected in the Alaska ADIZ, a zone stretching about 150 miles from the US coastline in which aircraft are required to identify themselves

Russian military aircraft were detected in the Alaska ADIZ on two separate occasions in February, ABC News reported

NORAD tracks aircraft in the Alaska ADIZ through a 'layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft', a spokesperson added.

The organization also 'remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.'

Russian military aircraft were detected in the Alaska ADIZ on two separate occasions in February, ABC News reported. Similarly to Thursday's incident, the jets did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace.

Last year, multiple Russian aircraft were detected in the Alaska ADIZ, a zone stretching about 150 miles from the US coastline in which aircraft are required to identify themselves.

Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash, of Russia's Defense Ministry, said after one of the February flights: 'Long-range aviation pilots regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, Black and Baltic Seas, and the Pacific Ocean.'
A young surfer who was stabbed to death minutes after he emerged from the waves in a regional NSW town has been remembered as 'gentle soul'.

Kye Schaefer, 22, was stabbed in broad daylight Park Beach in Coffs Harbour while still wearing his wetsuit after a morning surf about 6.40am on Thursday.

Mr Schaefer was found with significant injuries beside his car near the Coffs Harbour Surf Life Saving Club. He died shortly after being rushed to hospital.

Police are still searching for his killer and are yet to release a description.

The popular young man, who had been in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend, was a keen surfer and member of the Woolgoolga Soccer Club.

'His loving sister and her partner were extremely close. Kye will be profoundly missed by his family, friends and members of the community,' friend Heather Isubikalu Ngobi said.

Coffs Harbour businesswoman Sandy Ryman said she was 'heartbroken' for the family after the 'violent and pointless attack'.

'He was an extremely gentle soul, quiet spoken, polite and well mannered,' she said.

'All the family are wonderful people.'

His uncle Ralph earlier made the shocking revelation that Kye's mother worked in the same hospital her son was rushed to where he sadly died.

Kye Schaefer went for a morning surf and was stabbed in a shocking attack on Wednesday

The young man was rushed to hospital following the incident in Coffs Harbour (pictured)

Mr Schaefer's uncle has called for changes in the law to tackle the soaring number of knife attacks in Australia.

Speaking with Ben Fordham on 2GB, his uncle said that in 'the cycle of life, people you love pass. Sometimes it's old age, sometimes it's a terrible accident, and for our family right now it's just murder'.

Fighting back tears, Ralph said his 'first emotion is just anger'.

'I'm angry obviously at this attacker. But I'm angry about politicians (too).'

He called on the NSW Government to bring in a version of Jack's Law, which was introduced in Queensland after Jack Beasley, 17, was killed during a fight with two other teens outside a convenience store in Surfers Paradise.

The 'wanding' laws allow police to use hand-held metal detectors in public places to uncover concealed knives.

'How long do we have to wait here in New South Wales? This will save lives. Why are they asleep at the wheel? It's our sons and daughters,' Ralph said.

'I hope all the listeners and people in New South Wales are angry. He was just coming back from the surf (and was) stabbed eight times.

'What on earth is going on? Give the police these powers and save lives. Do your job.'

A description of Mr Schaefer's attacker has not been released. One line of inquiry is that he might have stumbled onto somone breaking into his car

On Friday, Coffs Harbour detectives continued their search for the attacker, for whom a description has not been released.

Avenues of inquiry include whether the surfer came across someone breaking into his car, and what if any relation a confrontation at a second beachside area on Thursday morning had to the homicide.

'We've identified some items of interest at a campsite around the jetty area,' Detective Chief Inspector Guy Flaherty told reporters.

'This area may or may not be related but at this point we've declared a crime scene.'

Ralph paid tribute to his 'lovely young' nephew.

A crime scene was established at Ocean Parade with SES personnel also in attendance

'More than anything else, he just had a heart of gold, he really did. (He had) a gentle, caring nature, (it) was his greatest asset. We're just broken.'

Two weeks ago, NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was looking at adopting Jack's Law in NSW after a spate of high-profile knife attacks that shocked Sydney.

Police, emergency services and transport unions have backed the change and decried the 'appalling incidence of youth knife crime'.

But the Council for Civil Liberties warned of a knee-jerk response to 'violent and distressing, but isolated' incidents and worried police would disproportionately search marginalised communities.
This is the shocking moment a car ploughs into four people outside a polling station, leaving a woman in hospital.

Dramatic footage filmed on Thursday afternoon shows a red car accelerating into the group on a quiet residential street in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester before fleeing the scene.

Police told MailOnline two teenagers had been arrested in connection with the incident, while a 43-year-old woman was taken to hospital with superficial injuries.

The injured woman was identified by the Workers Party - including leader George Galloway - as one of its activists.

A spokesperson alleged the activist had been intentionally run down by a 'Labour supporter' in a fit of rage but did not provide any evidence.

A Labour source insisted no staff or activists were involved in the incident.

Footage posted to social media shows a parked red car backing up before accelerating into a group of people crossing a quiet residential street in Greater Manchester

Four people appear to be hit as the car speeds away, with two rolling off the bonnet

The left-hand side door opens as the car speeds away further up the street

Footage posted on social media shows a parked red car backing up before accelerating into a group of people crossing a quiet residential street in Tameside, Greater Manchester.

Four people appear to be hit as the car speeds away, with two rolling off the bonnet.

One victim remains lying unmoving on the ground as others begin to chase the car as its left-side door swings open.

A 43-year-old woman was hospitalised after the incident.

Police confirmed that the incident occurred on Holy Trinity Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside.

Activists from both parties were gathered outside of a polling station for yesterday's council elections.

The constituency has been represented since 2015 by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner.

One victim is left lying on the ground, unmoving, as others begin to chase the car as it speeds away

The injured woman was identified by the Workers Party - including leader George Galloway (pictured) - as one of its activists

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Just after 4.30pm yesterday evening (Thursday 2 May 2024), we were called to reports of a road traffic collision between a car and a pedestrian on Holy Trinity Street in Ashton Under Lyne.

'Emergency services attended the scene, and a 43-year-old woman was taken to hospital with superficial injuries.

'Enquiries have established that a car collided with the victim and failed to stop.

'The full circumstances of the incident are yet to be determined, but officers in Tameside are progressing enquiries at pace, with two arrests made.

'One man, aged 18, was arrested on suspicion of attempted section 18 assault, and a 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit section 18.'

Police are asking anyone with any information, CCTV, dashcam or doorbell footage to contact them on 0161 856 9482.
The Kremlin has today called David Cameron's statement that Ukraine could use British weapons against targets inside Russia a 'direct escalation' of the conflict.

The British Foreign Secretary promised three billion pounds of annual military aid for Ukraine for 'as long as it takes' on Thursday.

Announcing the aid, Lord Cameron - who is in Kyiv today - added that London had no objection to the weapons being used inside Russia by Ukraine's forces.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back angrily at the senior Conservative and former prime minister, describing the comments as 'dangerous' and 'escalatory'.

They could imperil the entire system of European security architecture, he said, while also slamming French President Emmanuel Macron's reiteration on Thursday that the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out.

The Kremlin has called David Cameron's statement that Ukraine could use British weapons against targets inside Russia if it wanted a 'direct escalation' of the conflict. Pictured: Lord Cameron shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv today

Moscow has reacted with fury to previous suggestions by Macron that the West could deploy forces to support Kyiv, casting it as evidence of NATO's direct involvement in the conflict and its hostile and aggressive stance towards Russia.

'The statement [from Macron] is very important and very dangerous,' Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Macron 'continues to constantly talk about the possibility of direct involvement on the ground in the conflict around Ukraine. This is a very dangerous trend,' he added.

Peskov said the recent statements by Macron and Cameron 'potentially pose a danger to European security, to the entire European security architecture'.

'We see a dangerous tendency towards escalation in official statements. This is raising our concern,' he added.

Kyiv has hit a number of energy sites inside Russia in recent months, using drones packed with explosives to strike oil refineries and depots hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines.

Ukraine says its hits are justified retribution for Moscow's attacks, and that they target a source of fuel and revenue for the Russian army.

In an interview with Reuters during his visit to Kyiv, Cameron said: 'We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment.'

He said the UK's donation of military equipment would include the provision of precision-guided bombs, and air defence missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams to enable Ukraine to shoot down Russia's drones and missiles.

He added that the aid package was the largest from the UK so far. 'Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here,' he said.

Cameron said Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so.

'Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself,' Cameron told Reuters outside St. Michael's Cathedral.

Cameron, who led the UK from 2010 and 2016 as prime minister and only returned to frontline politics several months ago, met Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on his second visit to Kyiv as foreign secretary.

Britain's top diplomat also celebrated the release of a long-delayed $60 billion aid package by the US Congress.

'It's absolutely crucial, not just in terms of the weapons it will bring, but also the boost to morale that it will bring to people here in Ukraine,' he said.

A handout photo made available by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron (right) in Kyiv today

Some of that aid appeared to have already been put to use this week, with footage showing a suspected long-range missile strike on Russian troops emerging online.

Analysts said the attack was carried out by a US-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) and killed more than 100 Russian soldiers on a training ground.

Such long-range weapons will enable Ukraine's forces to strike deep within Russian-held territory, as well as deep into Russia itself.

Kyiv had long been calling for such weapons to be sent to Ukraine by the US, UK and other Western allies to allow it to strike key military targets that were otherwise out of range, forcing Russia to pull its own equipment further back from the fronlines.

Since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2024, Russia has often attacked the West for its support for Kyiv.

In March this year, Russia said it regards itself at war due to the West's intervention on Ukraine's side in a notable shift in its language around the conflict.

Analysts suggested this was to prepare the Russian public for a longer and harder struggle than it initially anticipated when Moscow believed it could seize Kyiv and overthrow Zelensky's government in a matter of days.

In another sign that the Kremlin is taking steps to portray to the public that it is at war with the West, Western tanks and military hardware captured by Russian forces in Ukraine went on display in Moscow on Wednesday at an exhibition the Russian military said showed Western help would not stop it winning the war.

Long queues of people were pictured waiting at the entrance to the exhibition, entitled 'Trophies of the Russian Army,' which is being held outside a museum celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

'History is repeating itself,' the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement, adding that the Soviet Union had in 1943 also put on a display of captured tanks and hardware, in this case from the German army.

People visit an exhibition showing western military equipment captured by Russian forces in Ukraine, displayed at the WWII memorial complex at Poklonnya Hill western in Moscow, May 1

'Strength is in the truth. It's always been that way. In 1943 and today. These war trophies reflect our strength.

'The more of them there are, the stronger we are,' the ministry stated, predicting a Russian victory in what it officially calls its 'special military operation' in Ukraine.

'No Western military equipment will change the situation on the battlefield,'it added.

According to Western and Ukrainian critics, much of Russia's military hardware is old or outdated, and Russian battlefield gains have resulted from sheer force of numbers and high casualties. Both sides keep the number of dead and injured a secret but are known to have suffered heavy losses.
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Rishi Sunak put a brave face on grim elections today - as he was given a glimmer of hope with Labour conceding defeat in the Tees Valley mayoral battle.

As he tries to fend off a fresh coup bid from Tory rebels, the PM acknowledged that results so far were 'disappointing' but insisted Keir Starmer had still not sealed the deal.

Tory incumbent Ben Houchen is being installed for a third term after Labour sources acknowledged they had narrowly 'fallen short' of ousting him despite a 'significant swing'. Three years ago Lord Houchen secured a huge victory with 72 per cent of the vote, but this time he only received 53 per cent on a turnout of just over 30 per cent.

In his victory speech, the peer - a close ally of Boris Johnson said he was 'absolutely humbled' and would 'redouble' his work, without mentioning Mr Sunak. Afterwards he made clear he could 'work with' Sir Keir if he becomes PM. Asked why he had been the only candidate not wearing a party rosette at the count he said: 'I didn't have one and I forgot it.'

Along with signs that Andy Street is performing strongly in West Mids, the PM could have some much-needed relief after disaster in the Blackpool South by-election and a mounting bloodbath on councils. Polling guru Professor John Curtice said the Tories could be on track to lose 500 councillors and critics are already stepping up calls for Mr Sunak to go.

Labour's Chris Webb secured a massive 26 per cent swing in Blackpool South to become the newest MP in the Commons - and in a particularly alarming sign the Tory candidate barely managed to push Reform into third place, by just 117 votes. Visiting the constituency this morning flanked by Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer said voters wanted to 'turn the page' on the government.

It was the seventh parliamentary seat the Tories have lost in a by-election since Mr Sunak became PM in October 2022 - underlining that Sir Keir looks to be on track for Downing Street.

As English councils declared, Labour claimed a 'truly historic result' to take Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - from the Tories and end nearly a quarter-of-a century of Conservative control.

Sir Keir also saw wins in Hartlepool and made other gains in key general election battlegrounds Thurrock and Redditch as they enjoyed early success. Welwyn Hatfield - Grant Shapps' seat - remained under no overall control, but the Tories were reduced to the lowest number of seats ever. In Castle Point the party's eight councillors were wiped out.

In a bright spot, the party has managed to hold on to control of Harlow - which local MP Robert Halfon described as 'the biggest comeback since Lazarus'.

Labour also suffered woes of their own in Oldham, where the party lost overall control after independents picked up seats in an apparent backlash over the Gaza war.

Despite the good news in Tees Valley, Mr Sunak suffered a blow in his own back yard. Labour's David Skaith won the York and North Yorkshire mayoralty, including his Richmond constituency. The Opposition also triumphed in the North East mayoral race.

In a boost for Rishi Sunak (right), senior sources acknowledged that they had 'fallen short' of ousting Tory incumbent Ben Houchen (left) despite a 'significant swing'

Lord houchen - a close ally of Boris Johnson - was the only candidate on stage not wearing a party rosette today

Visiting the Blackpool South constituency this morning flanked by Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer said voters wanted to 'turn the page' on the government

New Labour MP for Blackpool South Chris Webb, pictured with his son Cillian and wife Portia, called on Rishi Sunak to 'do the decent thing, admit you've failed and call a general election'

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Speaking at a military base in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: 'Obviously it's disappointing to lose good, hard-working Conservative councillors and I'm grateful to them for all their service in local government, keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people.

'But we have still got lots of results to come as well, and there are also things that I would point to, Harlow for example where Keir Starmer held a rally just on Wednesday saying that was a place that he had to win to be on track to win a general election.

'That hasn't happened, and indeed we are still waiting for the results in the Tees Valley mayoralty just near to here which is obviously a very important test as well.'

Labour tried to play down falling short in Tees Valley, saying Lord Houchen - a close ally of Boris Johnson - ran as a 'pseudo-independent'.

Sources argued that an estimated 12.5 per cent swing would be enough to sweep most Westminster constituencies in the area.

In a bruising tour of broadcast studios, Tory chair Richard Holden was asked whether he was confident MPs will not try to remove Mr Sunak as leader.

'Parliamentary colleagues need to look at this and see and wait through the weekend as well,' he told Sky News.

The losses have triggered speculation that mounting Tory unrest could lead MPs to seek to remove the Prime Minister.

But Mr Holden sought to highlight local issues at play, insisting the Blackpool South by-election took place in 'particularly difficult' circumstances following the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton after a lobbying scandal.

He admitted it had been a 'tough night' but told LBC the party was coming off a 'very high watermark in 2021'.

Blackpool South by-election result in full Chris Webb (Lab) 10,825 (58.91%, +20.57%) David Jones (Tory) 3,218 (17.51%, -32.09%) Mark Butcher (Reform) 3,101 (16.88%) Andrew Cregan (Lib Dem) 387 (2.11%, -0.97%) Ben Thomas (Green) 368 (2.00%, +0.28%) Stephen Black (Ind) 163 (0.89%, -0.24%) Kim Knight (ADF) 147 (0.80%) Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 121 (0.66%) Damon Sharp (NonPol) 45 (0.24%) Lab majority: 7,607 votes Advertisement

However, Tory MPs were scathing in their assessment.

Paul Scully said he did not believe the leader should change, but warned of a 'bunker mentality' in No10.

'Crisis management is almost a day to day job of the government,' he told LBC. 'We are not speaking to people. We need to reach out.'

Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told LBC: 'All of our seats are under threat. There's no such thing really as a safe Tory seat anymore.'

Veteran Tory aide Tim Montgomerie, who has been highly critical of Mr Sunak, told the BBC: 'Personally I think the results are so bad... I just don't think he is connected with the voters.

'I think he should go.'

Following the declaration of the Blackpool South result just before 5am, Sir Keir reiterated his demand for Mr Sunak to call a general election.

Standing alongside his new MP in the constituency, the Labour leader said: 'It's a fantastic result, a really first-class result and here in Blackpool a message has been sent directly to the Prime Minister, directly to the Prime Minister, because this was a parliamentary vote.

'This was directly to Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour.'

He added: 'That wasn't just a little message, that wasn't just a murmur, that was a shout from Blackpool.

'We want change, and Blackpool speaks for the whole country. It says we have had enough now after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline. We need to turn the page and start afresh with Labour, which has a positive plan for the country.'

Mr Webb scooped 10,825 votes to secure a 7,607-vote majority. The Tories won 3,218 votes, just 117 votes ahead of third-placed Reform UK.

The 26.33 per cent swing was the third biggest from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.

The Tories said the Blackpool South by-election was 'always going to be difficult' given the 'specific circumstances' surrounding former MP Scott Benton.

A party spokesman said: 'This was a tough fight and David Jones was an excellent candidate who campaigned hard for every single vote.

'This was always going to be difficult election given the specific circumstances related to the previous incumbent.

'What has been clear is that a vote for Reform is a vote for Sir Keir Starmer  taking us right back to square one.'

The Blackpool South outcome added to a night of turmoil for the Conservatives, as they also suffered dismal results in local elections across the country.

Labour are boasting of being 'on track' for power at Westminster after making gains in key council contests.

In his victory speech, Mr Webb said: 'People no longer trust the Conservatives. Prime Minister: do the decent thing, admit you've failed and call a general election.'

The Blackpool South contest was prompted by the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton from the House of Commons after he was caught up in a lobbying sting.

The Conservatives won the seat at the 2019 general election, with Mr Benton as the party's candidate, with a more than 3,500-vote majority.

Tory deputy chair Angela Richardson told the BBC: 'The result was not unexpected. I think, given the circumstances that caused the by-election in the first place, it was always going to be difficult for the Conservatives.'

Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice said the Tories could be on course to lose 500 councillors in 'one of the worst, if not the worst' performances by the party in 40 years.

'So far they are basically losing a half of the seats they are trying to defend. If that continues they may end up losing 500 or so seats, which is the thing they were meant to avoid,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

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Lord Houchen with his wife Rachel Houchen and baby Hannah at the election count today

'Early days yet, but where we have got the detailed voting numbers, it looks as though the Conservative vote is a wee bit down on where it was last year.

'We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years.'

Elections expert Michael Thrasher told Sky News that the swing to Labour in Blackpool was 'more or less off the scale'.

As well as the Tory-Labour fight, the performance of insurgent outfit Reform was also being keenly scrutinised throughout the night of election results.

Reform beat the Tories in 16 out of the 25 seats being contests on Sunderland council, with leader Richard Tice crowing they were 'becoming the real opposition to Labour in Red Wall areas'.

The results from the 107 local authorities in England who held elections on Thursday could yet decide Mr Sunak's 's political fate.

Labour has gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Cumbria and Avon and Somerset.

The PM is also braced for further dire results from mayoral contests, which will start to be declared in the coming hours.

Reform UK leader Richard Tice was bullish about the result in Blackpool, where the party came within a whisker of second place

Labour supporters were celebrating in Peterborough this morning as they became the largest party on the council

Party activists punched the air in delight in Sunderland as Labour retained control of the council

LOCAL ELECTIONS: KEY RESULTS SO FAR - Hartlepool Three years ago Labour lost the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election to the Conservatives - an event that reportedly led Sir Keir Starmer to consider resigning as party leader. This year Hartlepool gave Labour cause for celebration, with the party winning control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six. - South Tyneside It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats. Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor. Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens. - Sunderland The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat. While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority. - Thurrock This Essex council was one of Labour's top targets and is in an area of the country that will be a key Conservative-Labour battleground at the next general election. The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022. Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10. - Swindon Labour retained control, gaining nine seats as the Conservatives lost eight and an independent one. the new council is Labour Labour 41, Conservative 15, Liberal Democrat one - Harlow Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner toured the Essex town of Harlow 24 hours before the polls opened, in a symbolic visit to a part of the country that will be a key battleground at the general election. But while Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursday's council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17. - Blackburn with Darwen Labour have retained control, but lost four seats, while the Conservatives lost two and independents were up four. The new council is Labour 29, independents 13 and Conservatives nine. Advertisement

Labour's most impressive victory of the night so far came in Rushmoor.

Sir Keir's party boasted of now being in charge of the 'home of the British Army' in a nod to the Hampshire authority's links to the military.

They taunted Mr Sunak that it was 'time for a general election' in the wake of the result.

Labour won nine out of 13 seats up for grabs on Rushmoor Borough Council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats one.

It gave Sir Keir's party a majority on the council as the Tories ceded control after 24 years in charge.

The council includes Aldershot, known as the home of the British Army, and Labour was keen to highlight that link as proof that the party had changed since Jeremy Corbyn's time as leader.

A party spokeswoman said: 'This is a truly historic result.

'Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - has never had a majority Labour council before, and has been run by the Tories for the last 24 years.

'This result demonstrates just how much the Labour Party has changed and people in Rushmoor know that only Labour can deliver the change they want to see.

'A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. It's time for a general election.'

In another eye-catching victory for Labour, the party won control of Thurrock after starting the night as the second biggest party behind the Tories.

The Essex council, which had recently moved to no overall control because of defections, is in a strong Brexit-supporting part of the country.

It has also been among those local authorities in dire financial straits, with council tax having been hiked by an eye-watering 8 per cent last month.

Thurrock was effectively declared bankrupt in 2022 following a failed investment spree.

Labour hailed their victory in a key parliamentary battleground, with a party spokesperson saying: 'This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election.

'The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change.'

Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs in Hartlepool to gain control of the council, with independents winning two and the Conservatives one.

Hartlepool has a symbolic importance for Sir Keir after Labour lost the parliamentary by-election there in 2021.

A party spokesperson said: 'Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021.

'Keir Starmer pledged to change the Labour Party after that result and today's win shows that this changed Labour Party is ready to deliver the change that communities like Hartlepool are crying out for.'Making gains here shows that the party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.'

Along with the direct challenge from Labour and apparent squeeze on Tory votes in 'Red Wall' areas from Reform, the Liberal Democrats claimed they were gaining ground in traditional Conservative heartlands in southern England.

A party source said they were expecting positive results in Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire.

As well as the council elections, voting also took place on Thursday in 11 mayoral contests and 37 police and crime commissioner elections.

Conservative rebels are poised to pounce on a dismal night for Mr Sunak by mounting a fresh effort to oust the PM from No10 in the coming days.

Tories fear they could lose up to half of the council seats they are defending.

The final result in Sunderland was Labour 18, Liberal Democrats four and Conservatives three, as Sir Keir's party retained control.

Although Reform did not win one of the 25 seats being contested, Mr Tice hailed his party's performance.

He said Reform were 'rapidly becoming the real opposition to Labour, whether it's in the North, the Midlands, we know it's the case in Wales'.

Mr Tice added: 'We are very excited. This is a very good day for Reform UK. It's also a good day for democracy, actually, because the Great British people have got a serious alternative to consider when they want to go and vote.'

Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the results in Sunderland showed 'if you vote Reform, you get Labour'.

The Northern Ireland Secretary told the BBC: 'It's a very straightforward equation for people at the next general election.

'If they want to vote Reform, they'll end up with Labour MPs, and they'll end up with a Labour government, and then they'll end up, probably, with everything they didn't want to vote for based on the profile of Reform voters.'

Peterborough remained under no overall control, but Labour became the biggest party after gaining five seats while the Conservatives lost 11.

Rishi Sunak (pictured canvassing in Chelsea with wife Akshata Murty yesterday) is bracing for a dire set of results from the local elections

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Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrived at a polling station in London on Thursday to cast their votes

Rishi Sunak's string of by-election losses as PM July 2023 - Selby and Ainsty (Labour gain)

July 2023 - Somerton and Frome (Liberal Democrat gain)

October 2023 - Mid Bedfordshire (Labour gain)

October 2023 - Tamworth (Labour gain)

February 2024 - Wellingborough (Labour gain)

February 2024 - Kingswood (Labour gain)

May 2024 - Blackpool South (Labour gain) Advertisement

Labour retained control of South Tyneside, but lost at least seven seats to independents.

Sir Keir's party were fearing a local elections backlash over the Gaza conflict in some parts of the country.

In London, Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win an historic third term in City Hall despite a challenge by Tory rival Susan Hall over ULEZ and crime rates.

As polls closed last night, Labour MP Pat McFadden MP, the party's national campaign coordinator, said: 'The most important election of the night is the historic by-election in Blackpool, caused by yet more Tory chaos and scandal.

'It's the only election today where voters have had the opportunity to directly reject Rishi Sunak's party in Westminster.

'It's going to be a long night and the full picture of results from local elections may not be clear until over the weekend, but we expect to see Labour gains that show we're making progress in the places we need to win the next general election.'

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also sought to pile the pressure on Mr Sunak, saying: 'Up and down the country, so many lifelong Conservative voters backed the Liberal Democrats today'.

Every voter in England and Wales was able to cast a ballot in at least one type of election before 10pm on Thursday.

There were 2,600 council seats in England up for grabs across 107 authorities.

Many of the seats were last fought in 2021 - a year in which the Conservatives did particularly well in local elections at a high point in Boris Johnson's premiership.

The Tory slump since then was demonstrated by the latest YouGov poll, published on Thursday, showing the party on 18 per cent with Labour on 44 per cent.

This was the lowest Conservative vote share of this Parliament, lower than under Liz Truss, when it sank to 19 per cent.

The survey of 2,010 British voters, conducted between April 30 and May 1, also showed the Tories only three percentage points ahead of Reform on 15 per cent.

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A Colorado state legislator running against Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has accused his Republican rival of dressing like a prostitute in his latest vile remark.

State Rep. Richard Holtorf declared that Boebert 'needs to learn how to dress' after comparing her to women working the streets near the Colorado capitol building.

'You know what I see about two blocks up from the State Capitol? I see women dressed like Boebert,' Holtorf told 710KNUS radio Thursday morning. 'High heels, short skirt, low cut blouse. And I won't tell you what they're doing but it's nothing you can talk to your grandmother about.'

Holtorf, whose frankness has a history of creating friction with his Republican colleagues, commented on Boebert's appearance just one day after she was heckled by a crowd of apparent students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at George Washington University in DC.

The protesters, who continue to occupy a 'liberation camp' that they erected last week, repeatedly chanted 'Beetlejuice' at the Congresswoman as her security detail led her through the campus. They also sang Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars.

Boerbert, who was touring the encampment with other congress members, was seen trying to rip down a Palestinian flag that had been draped over a statue of George Washington as she stated: 'This is America, and that s**t needs to come down.'

State Rep. Richard Holtorf, (pictured) who is running against Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to replace the retiring Rep. Ken Buck in Colorado's 4th District, has accused his Republican rival of dressing like a prostitute

Holtorf declared that Boebert (pictured outside the US Capitol on April 30) 'needs to learn how to dress' after comparing her to women working the streets near the Colorado capitol building who wear 'high heels, short skirts, low cut blouses'

Holtorf's vile remarks came just one day after Boebert was heckled by a crowd of apparent students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at George Washington University in DC. Boebert is pictured with a bullhorn as she and fellow lawmakers toured the campus on Wednesday

Holtorf, the State House Minority Whip, is running against Boebert to replace retiring Rep. Ken Buck in the 4th District.

Although analysts say he is struggling to get any traction in the six-way race, Holtorf is not happy with Boebert jumping into the 4th district and has had no problem criticizing Boebert publicly.

In addition to implying she dresses like a sex worker, as stated on public radio Thursday, Holtorf has previously accused Boebert of being a deserter of the conservative fight.

'I don't know if you understand what the penalty for desertion is in the military,' he previously told DailyMail.com. 'But it is very, very severe and involves something called a firing squad.'

Boebert's personal and family drama, Holtorf said, would encourage voters in Colorado to support someone else.

'She has a lot of problems with her family, and herself, and her family life that with a lot of judicial troubles,' he said. 'And that does not reflect well, with respect to a son that just recently has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies.'

Holtorf is referring to Boebert's son Tyler getting arrested and hit with 22 criminal charges, including five felonies, as police say he and his friends were caught using stolen credit cards in connection with a series of vehicle break-ins in Rifle, Colorado.

He previously admitted that he understands why former President Donald Trump endorsed Boebert, but he thinks Colorado voters want someone who does not have as much personal drama.

'I still just don't think the electorate is going to go for it despite the fact that they are very strong supporters of Donald Trump for president,' he said. 'I don't think that completely exonerates her from the carpet-bagging and the seat-swapping.'

Holtorf views Boebert's decision to abandon the third distract in the upcoming election as an act of cowardice.

'In the world I grew up in if you've got a good fight and you're standing behind your principles in that fight, then you need to stand and fight,' he said. You don't cut and run. Lauren Boebert has cut and run.'

Holtorf told DailyMail.com: 'Colorado citizens deserve representatives who lead by example, who listen to their constituents, and who work tirelessly to improve the lives of those Colorado citizens that they serve.

'Boebert should put them at the forefront of every decision that she makes. It is time for a change, as a Veteran Leader, I am committed to bringing solid integrity, fiscal accountability, and effective veteran leadership to the US Congress.'

Representatives for Boebert and been approached for comment.

Students stand guard around the statue of George Washington at University Yard on Wednesday after Lauren Boebert demanded the Palestinian flag be pulled down

Boebert, pictured Wednesday, tried to rip down the Palestinian flag that had been draped over the statue as she stated: 'This is America, and that s**t needs to come down.'

The protesters, who continue to occupy a 'liberation camp' that they erected last week, repeatedly chanted ' Beetlejuice ' at the Congresswoman as her security detail led her through the campus. They also sang Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars

Holtorf's latest attack on Boebert came just one day after protestors screamed, jeered and waved recording cell phones in her face as she and fellow lawmakers toured through George Washington University's pro-Gaza encampment.

Boebert visited site Wednesday with Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), and James Comer (R-KY).

As she was escorted through the campus by her security detail, students repeatedly shouted 'Beetlejuice' at her, seemingly a reference to her debauchery and obnoxiousness at performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver last September.

She was caught heavy-petting with her boyfriend Quinn Gallagher, waving her hands, singing loudly, photographing the show, taking selfies with the flash on, and vaping during the performance.

Members of Congress visited #GWU today and Lauren Boebert was met with BeetleJuice heckling pic.twitter.com/a0Gcz3dNQ5  Anarchy princess (@SatireAP) May 1, 2024

As she surveyed the campus Wednesday, Boebert was filmed trying to rip a Palestinian flag off of a statue, but was ultimately unsuccessful in doing so.

She branded the protesters nd their '2024 "Summer of Love"' as 'very disrespectful' and criticised them for disrupting other students' learning.

'It's time that Mayor [Muriel] Bowser gets aggressive in keeping safety here on this campus and the surrounding perimeter,' she told the demonstration, The Daily Beast reported.

As the crowd chanted 'Free, free Palestine', Boebert reportedly said: 'We bless Israel! Those who bless Israel shall be blessed!'

She added: 'Not only is this disgusting but let me be clear: Almost every single person in this so-called 'liberated zone' would be eviscerated by the very terrorists you are standing here supporting.'

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tours the George Washington University students encampment as they protest over the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday

Pro-Palestinian supporters sing and chant as the House Oversight Committee Republicans toured the encampment at George Washington University on Wednesday

The lawmakers' visit was a show of force by House Oversight Committee Republicans who came to oversee the campus' encampment to discern its impact on DC and student life.

'The House Oversight Committee is deeply concerned over reports indicating the DC Metropolitan Police Department rejected George Washington University's request for help in removing the radical, antisemitic, and unlawful protestors occupying the campus and surrounding public lands,' Chairman James Comer said in a statement prior to the visit.

The committee has requested that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the DC Metropolitan Police (MPD) testify in a hearing May 8 on the student encampment and the city's response to the school's plea for help.

According to reports, MPD refused to intervene with the encampment despite requests from GWU to do so.

However, MPD has continuously been around to direct traffic, close streets as necessary and instruct passers-by and protestors as needed.
Do YOU know who tried to rescue Bear? Email emily.cooper@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.com

A dog who ran away from home and went on a four-mile overnight swim in the sea had to be dramatically rescued by the RNLI.

Bear the German Shepherd slipped away from his owner, Fiona Rennie, on the evening of April 30.

The dog went missing from his home in Margate, Kent and was spotted by two members of the public, who waded into the water in an attempt to rescue the animal.

But Bear swam out to sea and paddled four miles around the coast towards Stone Bay, sparking a call to lifeboat crews.

He was safely rescued by the RNLI and reclaimed by his worried owner on May 1.

Fiona's daughter, Jessica Conway (left), pictured with Bear and the RNLI crew that rescued the pooch from the rocks

Bear (pictured) had to be saved after going on a four-mile swim and getting stranded on rocks at sea

The moment Bear was reunited with his owner Fiona Rennie after completing a four-mile swim

Bear the German shepherd swam out to sea and paddled four miles around the coast towards Stone Bay, sparking a call to lifeboat crews

Bear pictured back at home after being rescued by the RNLI

Apart from a few cuts to his paws, Bea, pictured at home, was unharmed but tired

Apart from a few cuts to his paws, Bear was unharmed but tired.

Ms Rennie's daughter, Jessica Conway, 38, told the BBC: 'He's one lucky dog. He'd been out all night and then decided to go for a long swim.'

Ms Conway said the family would like to trace the two people who attempted to rescue Bear, 'so we can thank them properly'.

She said: 'We're just so grateful to the people who tried to grab him and raised the alarm and of course the crew of the RNLI Margate lifeboat who rely on donations.'

She added: 'Bear's lost some claws, presumably when he tried to clamber ashore during the night and his paws were bleeding.

'But he's home now and will sleep well.

Volunteers at RNLI Margate have attempted to trace the two members of the public who tried to rescue Bear by backing the calls made at the time, but to no avail.

Derek Amas, Lifeboat Operations Manager at RNLI Margate said: 'We strongly urge people not to enter the water to attempt rescue when a dog decides to go for an extended swim, the animal will usually return safely on its own. On these occasions dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard.'
A police officer has been sacked after sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl while on duty.

PC Dean Dempster, 35, faced an accelerated misconduct hearing on May 2, where he was promptly dismissed without notice.

Dempster, who was a response officer based in Oldham for Greater Manchester Police, previously pleaded guilty in February to sexually assaulting the child.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson, presiding over the hearing, branded Dempster's actions as 'morally reprehensible.'

The assault, which occurred on December 29, came to light after a complaint was lodged with Greater Manchester Police later that same day.

Dempster, who was a response officer based in Oldham for Greater Manchester Police, previously pleaded guilty in February to sexually assaulting the six-year-old girl

Chief Constable Stephen Watson, presiding over the hearing, branded Dempster's actions as 'morally reprehensible.' Pictured: GMP Headquarters

He appeared at Manchester Magistrates Court for a brief hearing before District Judge Jane Hamilton in January

Dempster was arrested by a supervisor within the Oldham District on New Year's Eve.

He has also been added to the College of Policing Barred List by the Chief Constable.

An application will also be made to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester to appeal for him to lose his right to a police pension.

During the hearing, Chief Constable Watson said: 'This sexual assault occurred whilst the officer was on duty and where the victim was totally trusting and reliant on him performing his duties professionally, compassionately and with her welfare uppermost in his thoughts.'

Dempster, of Langford Road, Manchester, was a former Army reservist who joined GMP in 2021 after serving as a special constable and ambulance service paramedic.

He appeared at Manchester Magistrates Court for a brief hearing before District Judge Jane Hamilton in January.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Allen, head of GMP's Professional Standards Directorate, added: 'Dean Dempster is not a police officer, he's a child sex offender who has no right to be in police uniform or in a position to serve the public.'

The investigation into Dempster's conduct was directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), leading to his conviction at Liverpool Crown Court in February.

Dempster has remained suspended since being charged on December 31, 2023.

He is due to face sentencing at a future date.
The CEO of male hair loss company HIMS has sparked furious backlash and threats of a boycott after he offered jobs to university students protesting in support of Palestine.

Andrew Dudum, who identifies as Palestinian-American, voiced support for the student protesters across US campuses on X.

'Moral courage > College degree,' the CEO, 35, wrote on Wednesday. 'If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going. Its working. There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.

Dudum then shared a link to apply for a job at HIMS, an online pharmacy that also includes the HERS brand and offers products for erectile dysfunction, anxiety and skincare.

Critics were quick to react to Dudum's message, with many social media users saying they will be cancelling their HIMS subscriptions and asking others to do the same.

Stocks of the company had fallen 4 percent soon after midday on Thursday.

Andrew Dudum, who identifies as Palestinian-American, voiced support for the student protesters across US campuses on X

Stocks of the company had fallen4 percent soon after midday

Conservative writer Ben Domenech wrote: 'If you support Israel, cancel your HIMS subscription s immediately. You can get similar products elsewhere for cheaper anyway.'

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of software company Palantir Technologies, also weighed in, saying 'Real moral courage doesn't involve joining a mindless mob, chanting anti-US and other woke Pablum, following instructions not to debate or discuss your positions at all yet being indignantly righteous, while large numbers in the mob chant for violence and block Jewish students.'

Many pointed out that Dudum may be harming the interest of shareholders who may not agree with him, given that HIMS is a publicly-traded company.

Others shared screenshots of the cancelation of their subscription, with one X user writing as the reason: 'Your CEO supports Hamas.'

Dudum, who has said he has family in Gaza and the West Bank, founded HIMS in 2017.

He wrote a blog post in November calling for a ceasefire and lamenting that companies were still supporting Israel after its counterattack had already killed an estimated 10,000 Palestinians.

'Now, a month past the October 7th attack, we find ourselves in a world where Israel has killed an estimated 10,000 Palestinians with over 4,000 innocent children in a military response that nearly all international experts decry as violations of international law and human rights,' Dudum wrote.

And the messages of unequivocal support for Israel are still sitting on our corporate pages  untouched nor updated.'

In the Medium post, Dudum described himself as 'a father whose children are both the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled the Nakba in 1948, and the descendants of Holocaust survivors from Poland.'

The entrepreneur, who is also an accomplished cellist, was born and raised in San Francisco and dropped out from the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is married to Lea Dessi-Olive, CFO at floss company Cocofloss.

Dessi-Olive's last activity on X show she is also passionate about the Palestinian cause, as she shared posts accusing Israel of apartheid.

In another post from September, 2021, she shared a video of John Legend criticizing Israel. The couple also shared a picture with the singer the same month.

Dudum's stand comes in contrast with other CEOs who have said they will not hire students participating in the pro-Palestine protests.

DailyMail.com has reached out to HIMS for comment on this story.

Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings.

More than 100 people were taken into custody during a Columbia crackdown, just a fraction of the total arrests stemming from recent campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

He is married to Lea Dessi-Olive, CFO at Cocofloss. They are seen with John Legend

A tally by The Associated Press recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different US colleges or universities since April 18. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

Dessi-Olive's last activity on X show she is also passionate about the Palestinian cause, as she shared posts accusing Israel of apartheid

Early Thursday, officers surged against a crowd of demonstrators at University of California, Los Angeles, ultimately taking at least 200 protesters into custody after hundreds defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.

Police tore apart a fortified encampments barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.

Like at UCLA, tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across other campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.

Israel has branded the protests anti-Semitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition.

The NYPD moved to clear Hamilton Hall in Columbia University on April 30

A pro-Palestinian protestor is arrested at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, on April 29

Although some protesters have been caught on camera making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.

The demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on October 7 and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
A British tourist is facing up to 20 years in a Thai prison after he was allegedly caught with a bag of cocaine hidden in his passport by immigration staff.

Jamie Louis Swain, 29, from Enfield, north London, arrived in Phuket, Thailand on an Etihad Airways flight on Thursday night.

When he handed his passport to an immigration officer, the cop noticed a small plastic bag with white powder inside when flicking through the document to find an empty page to place the visa stamp.

Officers said that Swain reacted with surprise, before he started swearing and shaking, prompting authorities to conduct further inspections and scanning his luggage.

He was arrested at Phuket International Airport, where police tested the substance found in his passport and confirmed it was 0.42 grams of cocaine.

Jamie Louis Swain (pictured), 29, from Enfield, north London, arrived in Phuket, Thailand on an Etihad Airways flight on Thursday night

When he handed his passport to an immigration officer, the cop noticed a small plastic bag (pictured) with white powder inside when flicking through the document to find an empty page to place the visa stamp

Officers said that Swain reacted with surprise, before he started swearing and shaking, prompting authorities to conduct further inspections and scanning his luggage (pictured above)

He was arrested at Phuket International Airport, where police tested the substance found in his passport and confirmed it was 0.42 grams of cocaine

Police Colonel Padthongtew Damapong, superintendent of Phuket Airport Immigration, said: 'An immigration officer found the cocaine when she was checking the tourist's passport.

'The suspect was charged with importing category II narcotics, namely cocaine, into the country and possessing them.

'The suspect was handed over to Sakhu Police Station for further legal action.'

Under Thailand's Narcotics Act, importing cocaine into the country carries a maximum jail term of 20 years to life and a fine of 43,000 to 108,000 (2,000,000  5,000,000 Baht).

Cocaine possession is punishable with up to five years or a fine not exceeding 2,000 (100,000 Baht) or both.
A 'Karl Marx' is among the dozens of victorious local Labour councillors to be elected overnight.

Councillor Karl Peter Marx Wardlaw, who shares part of his name with the revolutionary socialist author of the Communist Manifesto, has been re-elected to Brinnington and Stockport Central in the local elections, having represented the ward since May 2023.

Cllr Wardlaw celebrated a landslide victory with 1,069 votes, taking 61 per cent of the vote share.

Cllr Wardlaw's full name and re-election for Labour amused some social media users and political watchers.

But he took a seemingly good natured approach to his newfound internet fame, responding on social media with the word 'infamy' and a laughing emoticon.

In his spare time, married Cllr Wardlaw is a pro-wrestling fan and regularly reviews a variety of books, according to his social media accounts.

Among them was a tome entitled Trotsky: The Passionate Revolutionary by Allan Todd, which he described as 'good for the general reader' and a 'fine addition to the books already written about Trotsky'.

And unsurprisingly, Cllr Wardlaw also appears to be a fan of the father of Communism.

In one June 2021 post, he shared a photograph of several bookmarks he had received, including a Marx bookmark which featured an image of the German philosopher and quoted his famous rallying cry from the Communist Manifesto 'Workers from all countries unite'.

He said online he was 'so happy' with the 'amazing bookmarks'.

Cllr Wardlaw works as an ambulance booking clerk, and his wife is a nursery nurse, according to his Register of Interests.

Councillor Karl Peter Marx Wardlaw won 1,069 votes, taking 61 per cent of the vote share

He stood for election under the Green Party in 2019, but lost out to the former Labour candidate Kerry Waters, taking only 13 per cent of the vote share.

A Unite trade union member, Cllr Wardlaw has been spotted on the campaign trail with local MP Navendu Mishra for his re-election.

He has also been photographed with Andy Burnham, who is also bidding to be re-elected as Greater Manchester's Labour mayor.

He previously ran for the Green Party in 2019, but lost out to ex Labour candidate Kerry Waters

He has been out with Andy Burnham, who is seeking re-election as Greater Manchester mayor

Cllr Wardlaw's victory amused some social media users and political watchers.

Social media users jokingly suggested the revolutionary socialist author had won the seat

According to the Telegraph, Cllr Wardlaw said he has raised the alarm on 'lots of fly-tipping, potholes and represented residents over a number of other issues' when elected as councillor in May 2023.

Some political watchers noted the irony, given how Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been at pains to show how the party has changed since the days of his radical left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.

Under Sir Keir, the once dominant left-wing of the party has been sidelined, with the abandonment of many Corbynite polices and the suspension of high-profile left wing MPs, including Mr Corbyn.

The ward of Brinnington and Stockport Central is described on Stockport Labour's website as 'the most polarised ward in the borough' and 'a tale of two halves'.

'The regeneration rich, and economic centre of the borough, alongside the largest concentration of social housing in the borough which has been identified as being in the top 1% deprived areas across the county,' the website adds.

According to the Telegraph, Cllr Wardlaw said he has raised the alarm on 'lots of fly-tipping, potholes and represented residents over a number of other issues' when elected as councillor in May 2023.
Labour is at the centre of an Islamophobia row today after claims a party insider suggested to the BBC that Muslim voters who failed to back them are pro-Hamas.

Sir Keir Starmer has already admitted Gaza was a 'very strong factor' after losing control of Oldham Council overnight.

BBC reporter Rob Mayor has claimed that a Labour source told him that 'once again Hamas are the real villains' because they believe they have lost the West Midlands Mayoral election over the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Claiming Labour believes that Conservative incumbent Andy Street will hold on after Muslim voters failed to back them, the same insider said: 'It's the Middle East, not West Midlands, that will have won Street the Mayoralty'.

Muslims and Muslim groups have branded the source's words 'Islamophobic'. One critic said: 'So this is what Labour thinks of Muslims'. MEND, a NGO formed to support British Muslims, tweeted: Islamophobic briefing to media has started again from Labour, adding: The Muslim vote is being haemorrhaged by Labour.

A Tory spokesman has called it 'vile' and insisted Andy Street is still in a fight to win.

When asked about the assessment, Labour apologised and called it 'racist'. A spokesman said: 'The Labour Party has strongly condemned this racist quote which has not come from anyone who is speaking on behalf of party or whose values are welcome in the party'.

The count at Oldham Council in the early hours where Labour lost control with those who lost seats blaming their party's stance on Gaza not chiming with Muslim voters

Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer's face and quotes about Gaza has been on opposition leaflets. Sir Keir admits Gaza was a major factor in Oldham

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Speaking today Sir Keir was asked whether his stance on Gaza had played a part in the results in Oldham. He told the BBC: 'There are some places where it's a very strong factor... I respect that'.

Despite gains all over England from the Tories in yesterday's local elections, Labour lost control of Oldham after gains by Independents, some of abandoned Sir Keir's party over Gaza.

Labour sources in Birmingham have claimed that Tory Andy Street is set to win the West Midlands mayoralty again because of a slump in their vote in Muslim communities. Polling guru John Curtice said there is a trend of the Labour vote falling in areas with high Muslim populations.

The party's national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden has admitted the crisis in the Middle East has been an 'issue' on the doorstep because with 'so many innocent people being killed I'm not surprised people have strong feelings about that'.

One Labour Councillor in the own who lost their Oldham seat told the BBC: 'The main reason for this is Gaza and anger that the Labour Party took too long to call for a ceasefire' .

Sir Keir Starmer said he was 'concerned wherever we lose votes' after reports his party's stance on Gaza had cost some seats at the local elections, but insisted Labour was picking up seats where it needed to.

The Labour leader told the BBC: 'I'm concerned wherever we lose votes and we intend to win any votes we have lost back.

'But there's no denying that across the country, whether it's Hartlepool int he North or Rushmoor in the South or Redditch, a bellwether seat, we are winning votes across the country.

'And that, I think, reflects a changed Labour Party with a positive case to take to the country.

'So I'm very please with the results, Blackpool is an incredible result but we are picking up seats where we need them in other parts of the country as well.'

Labour is still the largest party on Oldham Council with 27 seats - but have lost control because there are now 16 independents as well as nine Lib Dems and eight Tory councillors.

Councillors Nyla Ibrahim and Akhtar Shoab left Labour to sit as independents, reportedly citing Labour's response to Gaza, with councillor Ibrahim re-elected on Thursday.

Retiring Labour councillor Paul Fryer said last night: 'Labour have been in power in Oldham for 13 years, perhaps people are a bit tired of Labour. In some parts of the borough it's the Gaza issue that may lose them the seat'.

Pat McFadden has admitted the crisis in Gaza has been an 'issue' and 'does get raised' when asked about Labour's loss of control in Oldham.

The party's national campaign coordinator told BBC Breakfast: 'I do think that's been a factor in some places, I don't think there's any point in denying that. It does get raised, and I understand why people have strong feelings about that.'

He said that with 'so many innocent people being killed I'm not surprised people have strong feelings about that'.

But Mr McFadden added: 'In addition to the Middle East issue which you mentioned there are specific very local factors in Oldham which have knocked it out of line with the Labour gains we've been seeing in local elections.'

Gaza has become a fraught issue for the Labour Party, with multiple defections since last October, including the loss of 11 councillors in Burnley in November.

Former Labour MP George Galloway has also sought to capitalise on the Gaza issue, winning the Rochdale by-election in February and saying he will challenge Labour with a series of pro-Palestinian candidates at the general election.

Former Conservative Naveed Chowhan was also among the independents elected on Thursday, having left his party over Gaza alongside former Tory councillors Abdul Wahid and Mohammad Irfan.

Oldham's Labour council leader Arooj Shah has denied the party's loss of control was solely because of the Gaza crisis, blaming the Tories in Westminster for '13 years of austerity'.

But elections expert Rob Ford said last night that it appeared that Labour was 'struggling' in councils with above-average Muslim voter numbers because of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Arooj Shah told BBC Radio 4's Today there had been 'divisive, toxic politics' in Oldham for the last five years, predating the war in the Middle East.

Asked whether the loss was linked to Sir Keir Starmer's position on the conflict, Ms Shah said: 'I don't think that's a fair statement to make, given that the issue of Gaza has been over the last year but what we've seen in Oldham is a lot longer than that... what we have had is 13 years of austerity and that's been really, really difficult.'

She added: 'We've always had to deal with the hand that we've been dealt.'

When it was put to her that it was not the fault of the Tories in Westminster, she replied: 'Well, actually it is.'

Rishi Sunak (pictured canvassing in Chelsea with wife Akshata Murty yesterday) is bracing for a dire set of results from the local elections

Away from Oldham, Labour has had a good night.

Rishi Sunak was given a battering from voters after the Tories were put to the sword in the Blackpool South by-election - and suffered a swathe of early council losses.

The PM is hunkering down for a grim day as results continue to flow in, with the most striking so far Keir Starmer seizing the Lancashire seat.

Chris Webb secured a massive 26 per cent swing to become the newest MP in the Commons - and in a particularly alarming sign the Conservative candidate barely managed to push Reform into third place, by just 117 votes.

It is the seventh parliamentary seat the Tories have lost in a by-election since Mr Sunak became PM in October 2022, six of which have now been won by Labour - underlining that Sir Keir looks to be on track for Downing Street.

As English councils started to declare, Labour also claimed a 'truly historic result' to take Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - from the Tories and end nearly a quarter-of-a century of Conservative control.

Sir Keir also saw wins in Hartlepool and made other gains in key general election battlegrounds Thurrock and Redditch as they enjoyed early success.

The Tories lost control of North East Lincolnshire as Mr Sunak witnessed a dire set of results begin to unfold.

In one bright spot, the party has managed to hold on to control of Harlow - which local MP Robert Halfon described as 'the biggest comeback since Lazarus'.
A high-profile Democrat Senator who is under investigation for bribery is expected, according to his lawyers, to blame his actions in part on the 'traumatic' death of his father nearly 50 years ago.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was charged in September for using his influence as a lawmaker to help provide favors for several businessmen and the governments of Qatar and Egypt.

A raid of the senator's Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home uncovered around $500,000 in cash stowed in clothes, closets and a safe, 13 gold bars and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible.

Now, the Democrat's lawyers are hatching a plan to portray Menendez as a compulsive money withdrawer whose fear of going without stems from 'traumatic experiences in his past associated with cash and finances.'

Menendez's legal team is even requesting a psychologist - Karen B. Rosenbaum - to testify that the Democrat 'experienced trauma when his father, a compulsive gambler, died by suicide after Senator Menendez eventually decided to discontinue paying off his father's gambling debts.'

Menendez's lawyers are prepared to invoke his childhood trauma and family history of having property confiscated in Cuba as a reason for why he habitually pulled money out of his accounts

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife Nadine are both being prosecuted in the case

The 70-year-old embattled Democrat and wife Nadine are charged with accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car over the last five years to carry out favors for three businessmen who are also charged

Stashes of cash were found in jackets bearing the senator's name during a search of his home

Menendez and his wife Nadine have pleaded not guilty to the alleged bribery scheme.

The lawyers for Menendez wrote summarizing Rosenbaum's findings that the Democrat has a 'fear of scarcity' which resulted in a 'longstanding coping mechanism of routinely withdrawing and storing cash in his home.'

The senator's family history in Cuba, where they had property confiscated, also contributed to his ATM habit, his lawyers wrote to the court.

And Menendez has even admitted as much.

'For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,' he said in September.

'Now this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years.'

But the move to allow Rosenbaum to testify about the Democrat's trauma has been pushed back on by federal prosecutors.

They argue that the psychologist's testimony may not be rooted in science and it is a move to evoke sympathy from jurors.

The prosecutors wrote the testimony would 'engender sympathy based on his family background, in the guise of expert testimony.'

The federal prosecutors also told the judge the psychologist's conclusion 'does not appear to be the product of any reliable scientific principle or method.'

Additionally, Rosenbaum's testimony could provide a way for jurors to hear about Menendez's family history without forcing him to take the stand, and thus be open to cross examination.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks on the indictment of Menendez and his wife Nadine, with bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen

Menendez held the high-ranking position of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman. He resigned that post amid the legal case as he was also charged with helping people from Qatar and Egypt

Previously, Menendez's wife has claimed that the gold bars were family heirlooms.

According to court documents, a Menendez staffer and a jeweler were told by the senator and his wife that the gold came from Nadine's deceased mother.

But prosecutors say that Nadine told her jeweler a 'false cover story' about where the gold came from.

They claim the gold bars came from one of the New Jersey businessmen that is also facing charges in the bribery scheme.

The trail for Menendez is expected to begin May 13.
Rutgers University students drowned out anti-Israel protestors with the Star-Spangled Banner and chants of 'USA' amid hostile clashes on campuses across the nation.

The New Jersey institution played host to a Gaza Encampment for four days, before a deal was reached with administrators to bring the protests to an end on Thursday.

Footage from the encampment hours before it was shut down saw patriotic students descend on the demonstration, where Hamas-supporters showed their frustration at being counter-protested.

As American flags and the national anthem filled the space, pro-Palestine students were heard saying the pro-America chants are 'what sore losing sounds like', hours before their encampment was halted.

Rutgers University students drowned out anti-Israel protestors with the Star-Spangled Banner and chants of 'USA' on Thursday

Footage from the encampment hours before it was shut down saw patriotic students descend on the demonstration, where Hamas-supporters showed their frustration at being counter-protested

The clashes at Rutgers University mirrored scenes at UNC Chapel Hill two days prior, where a group of fraternity brothers protected the American flag from being defaced by protestors.

READ MORE: STUDENTS TAKE A STAND AGAINST PALESTINE PROTESTS

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Their efforts led to a GoFundMe ostensibly to pay for a huge party for the fraternity, which even drew donations from outspoken billionaire Bill Ackman.

At Rutgers, the pro-America students appeared to spend the final day of the encampment drowning out their counterparts.

Chants of 'From the river to the sea - Palestine will be free,' were matched by 'USA, USA', with protestors then attempting to show solidarity by linking arms around the patriotic students.

They encircled the group and were heard remarking that their efforts were 'what sore losing sounds like', while the counter-protestors seemed undeterred as they belted out the Star-Spangled Banner.

In one set of footage from the event, a woman with a bullhorn later calls on the pro-Palestine protestors to disperse, seemingly in response to the deal being reached to end the encampment.

'We are not protesting. We're not. We have to clean up. We have to leave,' she told the group while others packed up tents.

According to a statement from Rutgers, the agreement to end the demonstration saw the university give protestors until 4pm on Thursday to clear the campus.

'All students involved will leave the encampment, remove all tents and personal belongings, and clear the mall of all trash,' the statement read. 'This agreement is contingent upon no further disruptions and adherence to University policies.'

The clashes at Rutgers University mirrored scenes at UNC Chapel Hill two days prior, where a group of fraternity brothers protected the American flag from being defaced by protestors

Rutgers University protestors (seen on the first day of the encampment on Monday) demonstrated for four days before the encampment came to an end on Thursday

The encampment was closed after Rutgers agreed to eight of the protestors' demands, including ending its partnership with Tel Aviv University

As part of the agreement, Rutgers agreed to a version of eight of the protestors' ten demands.

While it did not agree to divest entirely from firms tied to Israel, it did say it would be terminating its partnership with Tel Aviv University, a common demand among encampments across the country.

Rutgers implied it may continue to divest from Israel-linked companies, and would be convening a meeting with its endowment board to undergo a 'review process.'

The university also agreed to provide scholarships to at least 10 displaced Palestinian students, and create an Arab Cultural Center on its campuses.

It agreed to continue to recognize Palestine and Gaza in its wording in communications about the Middle East crisis, and continue its relationship with Birzeit University.

This relationship will also expand study abroad opportunities to the institution - located in the West Bank - while Rutgers will also hire a 'culturally competent' senior administrator with a specialty in Palestinian, Arab and Muslim issues.

Rutgers agreed not to punish any students or faculty that took part in the university's protests

Similarly, Rutgers will also explore creating its own Department of Middle East Studies, and will make sure flags representing students' nationalities are displayed around the campus.

Although there are no reports of arrests made at Rutgers' Gaza encampment, the deal will also see the institution pledge not to punish students or faculty that participated in the protests.

Rutgers University Chancellor Francine Conway said in a statement after the deal was reached that she was 'pleased' to see it come to a close.

'We are pleased to report that these students have agreed to peacefully end their protest. They have committed to removing their tents and belongings, effectively clearing Voorhees Mall,' the statement read.

'This process began before the 4 p.m. deadline and is currently underway.'
The Liberal Democrats took a council seat in a leafy part of the Cotswolds home to David Cameron and Jeremy Clarkson in the local elections.

Sir Ed Davey's party took the Chadlington and Churchill ward in West Oxfordshire District Council from the Conservatives.

The area north of Oxford and close to Chipping Norton contains the family home of the Foreign Secretary and former prime minister, and Clarkson's Farm, which features in his hit Amazon TV series.

It was an early scalp in local elections in which the Lib Dems are seeking to make some gains in Tory Blue Wall heartlands.

A Lib Dem source said: 'Cameron lives in that ward meaning he now has a local Lib Dem councillor. It is also home to Jeremy Clarkson's farm. This is just one of many Blue Wall gains we are expecting throughout the day.'

However, early in voting the party was struggling to make headway elsewhere. It is currently in control of five councils where elections were taking place, no change on the situation before the vote.

This afternoon the party aid it had pushed the Tories into third place in terms of gains, with 150 Lib Dem councillors elected compared to 144 for the Conservatives.

But in two early counts for police and crime commissioners in Lincolnshire and Avon and Somerset the party finished behind the Greens and Reform respectively.

The area north of Oxford and close to Chipping Norton contains the family home of the Foreign Secretary and former prime minister, and Clarkson's Farm, which features in his hit Amazon TV series.

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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey claimed lifelong Tories had been switching to his party.

The Liberal Democrats retained control of Winchester, after winning eight of the first 10 seats to be declared.

Portsmouth remains under no overall control, with the Liberal Democrats still the biggest party.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey last night claimed lifelong Tories had been switching to his party.

'The message across the country today was loud and clear. Voters want an end to this appalling Conservative government,' he said.

'People are sick of the Conservative party's endless infighting, unaffordable mortgages, an NHS in freefall and filthy sewage being pumped into their rivers and seas.

'They want change and they want to see the end of Rishi Sunak's Conservative party in office.

'That is why, up and down the country, so many lifelong Conservative voters backed the Liberal Democrats today, because they know Liberal Democrat councillors will never take them for granted and fight for the issues they care about.'
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Donald Trump's former communications aide Hope Hicks took the stand in a blockbuster moment in the hush money trial.

Hicks was Trumps press secretary during the campaign, and has knowledge of what was happening in the final weeks before the 2016 election.

During that time, the deal with Stormy Daniels was negotiated.

Follow the coverage live from DailyMail.com's reporters in the courtroom
An American veteran GI, 99, is attempting to trace a mystery British woman who he met during World War Two in 1944.

John Jeckovich, then 19, forged a friendship with 'radiant' Jean Young, who was 24 or 25 at the time, while serving in Haverfordwest, west Wales.

The pair danced in a local auditorium and enjoyed a picnic of Welsh lamb, Pembrokeshire potatoes and crumpets before Mr Jeckovich was transferred to Belgium in January 1945.

Now the veteran is reaching out to anyone in the Pembrokeshire area who might know Ms Young or her family in a bid to rekindle an 80-year-old friendship.

The 99-year-old is hoping to reconnect with his former sweetheart's relatives ahead of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings this June.

Jean Jeckovich (pictured), an American veteran GI, 99, is attempting to trace a mystery British woman who he met during World War Two in 1944

Mr Jeckovich (pictured during the war), then 19, forged a friendship with 'radiant' Jean Young, who was 24 or 25 at the time, while serving in Haverfordwest, West Wales

Mr Jeckovich, from Niagara Falls, New York, said he was scared when he landed 3,500 miles away from home in the Welsh market town but that Ms Young brought back his 'confidence and aspirations' as she stood in a doorway smiling 'radiantly' at him.

He added: 'Just the sight of her elevated my spirits and gave me renew hope for the future.'

Later that night, Mr Jeckovich visit an auditorium.

He said: 'I could see every GI's eyes on Jean as she walked out to the dance floor - she was no doubt the most beautiful person there.

'I was so proud to be escorting her and I told her so as we danced.'

He added: 'As we danced I thought how lucky I was to have been privileged to be a part of her life for even a short time.'

At a picnic shortly after, Mr Jeckovich tried some British staples and described the lamb as 'greasy', the potatoes as 'good' and dismissed crumpets as 'terrible'.

The GI was then separated from Ms Young after he was moved to Belgium and in January 15, 1945, while fighting near Grand Halleux during the Battle of the Bulge, Mr Jeckovich was wounded by a blast.

As he attempted to drag himself away from the scene, the soldier was hit by a German sniper.

He told WW2 Veterans History Project: 'He got me in the shoulder and in the leg.

'There was snow on the ground, and he was spotting me...because I was leaving a trail of blood.'

Miraculously, the bullets passed through the GI's body and did not hit any bone.

Mr Jeckovich then fired his M-1 Carbine gun at the window where the shots had come raining down from.

He added: 'I blasted the window he was at, and I took the window out and half the building on that side. I think I got him.'

He was awarded the Purple Heart medal and continued to battle across Europe until VE Day on May 8, 1945.

Mr Jeckovich, from Niagara Falls, New York, said he was scared when he landed 3,500 miles away from home in the Welsh market town but that Ms Young brought back his 'confidence and aspirations' as she stood in a doorway smiling 'radiantly' at him

The GI was then separated from Ms Young after he was moved from the market town of Haverfordwest (pictured) to Belgium

Jean-Marc Bordeaux, a representative of the Jeckovich family, said: 'John recalls that Jean's father might have been a mayor or manager of the town, and she worked at an office with him on what he believes was East Essex Street.

'This is more than a search; it's a call to our sense of community and historical camaraderie.

'We believe that with the help of the local media and the community's collective memory, we can piece together Jean's story and, hopefully, reconnect Mr. Jeckovich with his friend's family.'
A father who was injured in the sword attack in east London while 'protecting his wife and four-year-old daughter' has thanked the emergency services and his family for saving his life.

Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, an IT engineer from Hainault, is currently in hospital after being stabbed in his home on Tuesday morning in a shocking attack that left 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin dead.

Four others were seriously injured during the 22-minute reign of terror on Tuesday, including a heroic female police officer who almost lost a hand.

Mr De Los Rios Polania was described by his sister, Jessica De Los Rios, 31, as a 'hero' for protecting his family from the assailant and he has since shared a photo to social media from his hospital bed, with a message thanking those who saved his life.

'I would like to start by thanking all the nurses, paramedics, and the doctors on the NHS for keeping me alive,' he said in a post to Instagram Stories, also sending gratitude to the police 'for risking their lives'.

Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, an IT engineer from Hainault, is currently in hospital after being stabbed in his home on Tuesday morning

Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, (pictured) suffered injuries when a knifeman broke into his family home, his sister said

Daniel Anjorin, pictured here with his mother Grace, was tragically killed during an attack in Hainault on Tuesday

A photo of a man prowling the streets of Hainault on Tuesday

He also thanked 'friends and family' and all those who made sure he did not 'bleed out'.

Mr De Los Rios Polania added: 'I'm recovering. I have a long journey ahead but I'm very positive that this trauma will end soon.'

Marcus Arduini Monzo, 36, a dual Spanish-Brazilian national living in Newham, east London, has appeared in court accused of murdering Daniel Anjorin as he was walking to school on Tuesday, and injuring four other people.

Ms De Los Rios previously revealed that her brother was recovering in hospital after sustaining a deep wound to his hand.

'It's a very long process to get his hand recovered, due to this wound,' she said, adding: 'He's awake, he's in hospital,' but 'he lost a lot of blood' and 'it's going to be a really long, traumatising recovery for him.

'He's very devastated to believe something like this could happen,' she said, adding: 'To us, he's our hero. He protected them - my niece and my sister-in-law.

'They were just literally sleeping, opened their eyes to see a man with a big machete sword.

'He felt helpless in the moment but to us he is our hero. It could have been extremely worse.'

Daniel Anjorin was stabbed in the neck and chest in the horrifying attack

Daniel, pictured here wearing a red and blue Spiderman costume, was on his way to school when he was attacked

Floral tributes at the scene of the sword attack in Laing close in Hainault

Mr De Los Rios Polania and his family are originally from Colombia but have lived in the UK for several years.

Marcus Arduini Monzo, 36, appeared in court yesterday accused of Daniel's murder along with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary, and possession of a bladed article.

David Burns, prosecuting, said Monzo allegedly drove a van at speed at Donato Iwule, who was walking on the street, before exiting the vehicle and slashing him around the neck, leaving an injury that required hospital treatment.

Monzo then forced entry into the bedroom of a couple who were sleeping with their four-year-old child and slashed the father in the neck, the prosecutor said.

Mr Burns said he was shouting: 'If you do not believe in God he will cause you harm.'

Marcus Aurelio Arduini Monzo, a Spanish and Brazilian national, appeared in court today charged with murder

Daniel Anjorin was leaving his home just before 7am when he was caught up in the horrifying ordeal

The suspect larking around in fancy dress in a video he posted on social media

Monzo at Westminster Magistrates Court today flanked by custody officers

The prosecutor added: 'He has then left the scene and attacked Daniel Anjorin, a schoolboy on his way to school.'

It is alleged that he stabbed him in the neck and chest.

The court heard that while officers were tending to Daniel's injuries Monzo appeared from a bush and attacked a female police officer with the weapon while she was on the ground.

A second officer named Moloy Campbell was also injured, the court heard.

Daniel has been remembered as a 'true scholar' with a 'gentle character' - as well-wishers raised more than 28,000 on GoFundMe for a celebration of his life.

The 14-year-old was said to put a smile on faces whenever he walked in the room while being described as a 'very much-loved' boy who brought joy to his family and was an 'admirable' student at his prestigious independent school.

Daniel attended Bancroft's School in nearby Woodford Green, the 24,999-a-year school, which yesterday flew its flag at half-mast while flowers were laid by fellow students.

His heartbroken parents are trusting in their deep Christian faith to cope with their profound shock and grief at his killing, family friends revealed.

Bancroft's School said on its website: 'We are devastated by the heartbreaking news of the death of Daniel. This has left us in profound shock and sorrow.

'He joined Bancroft's at seven years old and quickly became a core member of our community. He was a true scholar, demonstrating commendable dedication to his academic pursuits.

'His positive nature and gentle character will leave a lasting impact on us. Losing such a young pupil is something we will always struggle to come to terms with.' Nottingham stabbing victim Grace O'Malley-Kumar, 19, had also been a pupil at the Bancroft's.

Her parents offered to meet Daniel's family  health and safety consultant Dr Ebenezer Anjorin, 59, and science teacher mother Grace Anjorin, 49  to help them through their traumatic time.

Sinead O'Malley, Grace's mum, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I don't think there's anything that anybody can say to alleviate their heart and their pain so we wouldn't try to minimise that, but all we can do is empathise and hope they will heal with time.'
From impersonating a goose-stepping Nazi in front of German guests, to thrashing his red Austin car after it failed to start, Basil Fawlty was the most gloriously haphazard of hotel owners.

The star of hit sitcom Fawlty Towers might have seemed like yet another hilarious creation from the mind of John Cleese.

But the character was - as Cleese has previously spoken about - in fact almost entirely based on Donald Sinclair, the owner of the ramshackle Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay in the 1970s.

Cleese was inspired to create Fawlty Towers after he and the other Monty Python stars stayed there in 1970 and discovered the 'wonderfully rude' owner and his wife Beatrice - who Basil's wife Sybil was later based on.

Fawlty Towers is now back after half a century in the form of a West End play, in which Adam Jackson-Smith portrays Basil.

Fellow Python Graham Chapman described Sinclair - who appeared to despise his guests - as 'completely round the twist, off his chump, out of his tree.'

Other staff at the Gleneagles - which has now closed - inspired more of the show's characters.

Spanish waiter Pepe became Manuel - who was portrayed by Andrew Sachs - and German-Swiss housekeeper Jetty was the basis for Polly, depicted by Cleese's then wife Connie Booth.

Donald Sinclair and his wife Beatrice (left) ran the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay. They became the inspiration for Basil and Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers after Monty Python's John Cleese visited the hotel with his co-stars and encountered the 'wonderfully rude' Sinclair. Above right: Cleese and Prunella Scales as Basil and Sybil

The Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, which was was run by Donald Sinclair and his wife Beatrice

Cleese and the other Pytons checked in to the Gleneagles for a three-week stay in May 1970 while filming Monty Python's Flying Circus in nearby Paignton.

Sinclair, a former Merchant Navy officer, scolded Python Terry Gilliam, who was American, for using his knife and fork in what he believed to be the wrong way.

He also put Eric Idle's bag containing his squash kit out by the swimming pool because he thought it might be a bomb.

Most of the Pythons soon became infuriated by the frosty reception they received and so moved to a different hotel.

Cleese later described Sinclair as 'the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met.'

He stayed on at the hotel with Booth to gather more material on the Sinclairs.

Mr Sinclair's daughter Helen Cooper previously told the Mail on Sunday that her parents were every bit as odd as the fictional pair Cleese created.

John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, Connie Booth as Polly Sherman and Andrew Sachs as waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Polly and Manuel were formed from the real-life German-Swiss housekeeper Jetty and Spanish waiter Pepe at the Gleneagles Hotel

Basil Fawlty with Major Gowen, who was portrayed by Ballard Berkeley

However, after seeing Fawlty Towers, they were horrified at the way they had been portrayed.

Ms Cooper said: 'Mum and Dad were both so embarrassed at Fawlty Towers and the way they had been portrayed.

'In some ways it was very unfair but I can see elements of their personalities in both Basil and Sybil.

'Dad did not suffer fools and could be prone to the most monumental outbursts. Who does that remind you of?

'His sanctuary was his little office just off the reception.

'He would sit there happily doing his little bits and pieces, like typing up the menus, until Mum would burst in demanding he sorted this, that and the other out for her.

'She was the real power behind the throne.'

She added: 'Dad loathed being in the service industry. He had been an officer with his own batman and was used to being waited on hand and foot.

Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth as Basil Fawlty and maid Polly. Right: Basil with Terry the chef, who was portrayed by Brian Hall

Cleese and Andrew Sachs as Basil Fawlty and hapless waiter Manuel, who was based on the Gleaneages' waiter Pepe

Despite its popularity, Fawlty Towers only ran for 12 episodes, which ran across two series in 1975 and 1979

'He hated being at other people's beck and call. He was torpedoed three times during the war but survived. It made him a rather serious man.'

On another occasion, Sinclair scalded a young mother who had pressed the night porter service button to request a flask of hot water to heat her baby's bottle.

The hotel owner appeared in his dressing gown and told her off for getting him out of bed for the 'trivial' request.

When Cleese asked Sinclair to call him a taxi, his initial response was to look shocked and say: 'I beg your pardon?'

He eventually said 'I suppose so' and then begrudgingly carried out the request.

Sinclair also told a guest who was having a pre-dinner drink at the bar: 'You'd better drink up, my wife doesn't spend her life in the kitchen preparing good food to have it spoilt because you can't get there on time.'

He also once stopped the breakfast service and began interrogating guests when a teapot that was meant for four people was discovered on a table meant for two.

Several guests who had asked in the hotel lounge if sandwiches might be available were thrown out by the owner when they asked if sandwiches might be available.

Cleese's fellow Python star Graham Chapman later recalled that Sinclair was 'completely round the twist, off his chump, out of his tree.'

Cleese later explained that Manuel was made a foreigner because of his experience of British restaurants at the time.

Basil Fawlty talks to guest Mr Hutchinson, who was portrayed by Bernard Cribbens

Basil Fawlty with Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs, who were depicted by Renee Roberts and Gilly Flower

He said: 'If you went into most restaurants at that time - the 1970s - you were very, very lucky if you got what you'd ordered, because almost none of the waters could either understand or speak English.

'Now, that was not their fault - this is very important - it was the fault of the owners who were saving money.'

Other characters in Fawlty Towers included Brian Hall's Terry, the hotel chef, and guests Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley) and Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, who were depicted by Gilly Fowler and Renee Roberts.

Despite its popularity, Fawlty Towers only ran for 12 episodes, which ran across two series in 1975 and 1979.

For the new play, Cleese, now 84, wove together three famous episodes: The Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans.

The latter saw Basil goose-step around the hotel after a bang on the head and yelling at everyone: 'Don't mention the war!'
The Gilbert Goons, a group of young men who have been terrorizing Phoenix suburbs for years, have finally been designated as a criminal street gang.

Following a months-long investigation into the gang, sparked by the killing of 16-year-old Preston Lord, embattled Gilbert police chief Michael Soelberg confirmed on Thursday the group functions as an organized criminal entity.

However, the official designation will not lead to new charges against the Goon suspects, because, as officials said, the violence committed by the group was not meant to strengthen the gang.

'Each of these law enforcement agencies here today have reviewed their investigations involving identified members of this gang, and based on the information available at this time, there is not sufficient evidence to submit additional charges of participating in or assisting a criminal street gang,' Soelberg said.

Soelberg was accompanied by representatives from four other police departments in the East Valley area that have dealt with the Goons' activities.

Following a months-long investigation into the group, embattled Gilbert police chief Michael Soelberg confirmed on Thursday the group functions as an organized criminal entity

The chief explained the Goons were classified as a 'hybrid gang,' because it relies on social media, its members are not of the same race and it has a 'lax or absent' code of conduct.

According to police, the Goons lack aspects of a traditional gang, including defined leadership and rules, specific use of symbols and colors, and lifelong commitments.

However, there is no legal difference between hybrid and traditional hangs, Soelberg added.

The Goons have been involved in at least 95 assaults in 18 attacks, most in Gilbert, as reported by the Arizona Republic.

Soelberg previously told DailyMail.com his department has made 29 arrests in connection to the attacks.

Earlier this month, the chief claimed in an exclusive interview that Gilbert did not have a teen violence issue.

Gilbert, a wealthy Phoenix suburb once billed as the country's second-safest city, has been in national news over the teen delinquents who have allegedly terrorized the community since as far back as 2022.

But Soelberg has said the videos of teen attacks and claims made by alleged victims about their reign of terror were not shared with police until after the fatal beating of Lord 16, at a Halloween party in October in nearby Queen Creek.

Seven teens and young men, including several Goons suspects, have been charged with his murder, sparking accusations from some in the community who believe the alleged killers should have been removed from the streets long ago.

One father, Rick Kuehner, claims he had been trying to get Gilbert police and school officials to protect his son from the Goons since last summer, when his child was first threatened and then brutally beaten up at an In-N-Out parking lot which was a go-to spot for the teen delinquents.

In a lawsuit against Goon suspects, their parents and Arizona officials, Kuehner argues that authorities failed to protect his son, and then also failed to punish the Goons.

The Goons' reign of terror: DailyMail.com can reveal how the gang of youngsters ran amok in the Arizona town before Preston Lord's death in October

He and other members of the community have told DailyMail.com they believe Soelberg is one of the officials who should resign over their alleged negligence.

But chief Soelberg claims his department has properly investigated and appropriately closed the alleged killers' previous charges.

He told DailyMail.com: 'It was never documented that this was the term that they were doing before Preston was killed. That was all information that came up after Preston Lord was killed.

'We looked at all of our cases involving those seven subjects involved in that case, and we had properly investigated all cases that we had with them prior to Lord's murder. We had no pending cases.'

Soelberg has said the videos of teen attacks and claims made by alleged victims about their reign of terror were not shared with police until after the fatal beating of Preston Lord 16

The seven suspects of Preston Lord's death, from top left to bottom right: Jacob Meisner, Talan Renner, Taylor Sherman, Treston Billey, Talyn Vigil, Dominic Turner, William Owen

Goons suspects Treston Billie and Jacob Meisner are named in Kuehner's lawsuit after several assault arrests in Gilbert. They are both also accused with Lord's murder

Soelberg added that once the community started sharing videos and information, his department was able to act.

The chief added that his department currently has eight open teen violence cases, but they are not all related to the alleged Goons.

After Lord's brutal beating and subsequent alleged attempted cover ups were detailed by The Arizona Republic, authorities reopened multiple cases believed to have been conducted by a larger group of assailants.

Victims and residents in the area have described the group as mostly white, upper-middle-class teenagers from multiple East Valley high schools.

Their assaults appeared unmotivated and were often recorded and shared by the attackers themselves.

Several lawsuits have been filed claiming that law enforcement and school officials allowed the Goons to continue unleashing their violence since as least 2022.

Arizona businessman Travis Renner has been accused of trying to help his teen son cover up the murder

Travis Renner's other son Kyler has been charged in connection with two gang attacks at a parking garage and a house party in 2022

Activists held vigils and marched to protest growing gang violence in Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler and other Phoenix suburbs following Lord's killing.

At least three of the murder suspects in the case, Jacob Meisner, Dominic Turner and William Himes, were previously charged in connection to Gilbert Goons attacks.

Talan Renner, 17, is one of the young men accused. His brother Kyler is also believed to be a member of the Goons.

Their father Travis Renner, meanwhile has been accused of trying to cover up Talan's involvement in Lord's alleged murder.
The scuba dive boat captain responsible for the deaths of 34 individuals has been sentenced.

Captain Jerry Boylan, 69, was previously found guilty in November of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, for the 2019 maritime travesty that prompted congressional reform.

Boylan's charges are often referred to as as seaman's manslaughter, a term coined before the Civil War to hold steamboat captains and crew accountable.

When Boylan's scuba diving boat caught fire and sank off the coast of Santa Barbara on September 2 of that year, he was one of the first to jump overboard, while crew and tourists were trapped below deck.

The captain has been given four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence.

Captain Jerry Boylan, 69, (pictured) was previously found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, for the 2019 maritime travesty that killed 34 people

The Conception is pictured in flames on September 2, 2019, off the coast of Santa Barbara

The vessel fire was the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history (Pictured: The burned hull of the dive boat Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2019)

The maximum sentence for his conviction was 10 years in custody.

His defense tried limiting Boylan's sentence to five years on probation with the first three being under house arrest.

'While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr. Boylan did not intend for anyone to die,' his lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo.

'Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.'

The boat, the Conception, on its final night of a three-night scuba diving trip, was anchored off the Channel Islands, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara. It sank less than 100 feet from shore.

The captain (right) has been given four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence. His lawyer (left) tried placing the blame on the owner of Conception

A photo collage of the 34 victims of the Sept. 2, 2019 fire aboard the dive boat

Pictured: A woman gets emotional after placing flowers at a memorial for the victims of the Conception

Pictured: Barbara Chan (center) talks to the media about her brother, Scott and niece Kendra who were both killed in the Conception boat fire in front of the U.S. Federal Building

The victims, whose ages ranged between 16 and 62, according to USA Today, were aboard the dive boat for a variety of reasons, from celebrating a birthday and traveling the world to working as a deckhand.

Four of Boylan's crew members who jumped ship after him also survived.

Although the cause of the blaze remains unknown, Boylan's attorneys previously tried placing the blame on the boat owner Glen Fritzler.

He and his wife owned Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats.

Boylan's attorneys accused the co-owner of fostering a overly-relaxed workplace environment - 'the Fritzler way' as the crew referred to it. Under his leadership, no captain assigned a roving night watch.

Captain Jerry Boylan was the first to jump overboard when the ship Conception caught fire

Pictured: Boylan, arrives to federal court in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, where he was indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seamans manslaughter

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Boylan failed to thoroughly teach safety precautions and firefighting to his crew.

Because Boylan did not post the roving night watch, the fire was able to spread faster throughout the vessel.

While the criminal trial is finally over after five years, several civil lawsuits remain ongoing.
Text messages swapped by two key Trump insiders reveal their panic as a newspaper closed in on a story about a Playboy model and her affair allegation just four days before the 2016 election.

Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen repeatedly messaged Hope Hicks, press secretary to Donald Trump's campaign, asking if there were any developments.

Eventually she responds with a link to the published story, headlined: 'National Enquirer Shielded Donald Trump From Playboy Model's Affair Allegation.'

Almost eight years later the fallout from that story reverberates around a Manhattan criminal court, where the former president is on trial accused of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to another woman.

But back then, the messages show Hicks and Cohen hoping that the story about 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal will just disappear. They know that buried deep in the piece is another thread for journalists to investigate: The name 'Stormy Daniels.'

Texts between top Trump aides Michael Cohen and Hope Hicks from days before the 2016 election were published in court on Thursday. They show the panic as they wait for a Wall Street Journal report to drop on allegations that a Playboy model was paid off

A Wall Street Journal story published days before the 2016 election reverberates around courtroom 1530 of Manhattan criminal court where Donald Trump is on trial

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: The texts from Stormy Daniels' publicist claiming Trump first tried to silence her in 2012 Advertisement

'Lots of innuendos with little fact,' writes Cohen.

'Poorly written and I don't see it getting much play.'

Hicks replies: 'I agree with most of that!! It will get play bc the media is the worst but he should just ignore and blow past it.'

Trump's treatment of women was already under intense scrutiny after publication of the 'Inside Hollywood' tape, in which he bragged about the way he treated female admirers.

And now the new story suggested an expensive scheme to silence women who had affairs with the Republican candidate.

Cohen, who later admitted facilitating the $150,000 payment, suggests Trump should quickly draw a line under it.

'One quick statement by him to blow off steam and say that there is no validity and WSJ has turned into a smut paper,' he says.

'Yep,' replies Hicks. 'Ok pray Michael, pray!!!'

Early the next morning, Cohen is ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

'So far I see only 6 stories,' he writes. 'Getting little to no traction.'

Once they have reviewed the story about a hush money payment, they dismiss it, hoping it will blow over. It is just four days before the 2016 election, pitting Trump against Hillary Clinton

At the time, Hicks was the Trump campaign press secretary and Cohen was Trump's attorney

Little did they know that the story would set in motion a path leading to courtroom 1530 of Manhattan Criminal Court, where their text messages were introduced as evidence on Thursday.

Both are expected to appear as witnesses for the prosecution to answer questions about how the so called 'catch and kill' agreement, to buy and bury negative stories, was set up and paid for.

Last week, America's tabloid kind David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, described how he offered to act as the 'eyes and ears' of the campaign during a pivotal 2015 Trump Tower meeting.

And this week, the court heard from the celebrity lawyer who helped Karen McDougal, the Playboy model, sell her story.

Trump denies all 34 charges of falsifying business records, and his lawyers have sought to show that he was the target of muckrakers and extortionists.

But in those days before the election, both Hicks and Cohen were convinced the story would go away.

'Keep praying!! It's working!' Hicks messaged to the lawyer.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov 4, 2016 that the company that owns the National Enquirer agreed to pay $150,000 to Karen McDougal for her story of an affair a decade ago with the Republican presidential nominee, but then didnt publish it

At this point, Cohen had already been involved in a payment to a second woman, Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name was Stormy Daniels. Her name is brought up in the Wall Street Journal story.

It describes how the celebrity lawyer Keith Davidson represented Clifford as well as McDougal, and that she had been in talks with ABC's 'Good Morning America' to discuss a past relationship with Trump, before calling off the talks.

Cohen says he has a denial ready if needed.

'Even CNN not talking about it,' he replied. 'No one believes it and if necessary, I have a statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars statement.

'I wouldn't use it now or even discuss with him as no one is talking about this or cares!'

Hicks ask him to stay in touch and he responds a little later: 'Can't wait for this to be over...especially with a win.'

Trump pulled off a shock win over Hillary Clinton in the election, but the repercussions from the story were only just beginning.
Passengers suffered puking hell at 38,000 feet on Thursday when 70 people fell ill with a vomiting bug mid-way through their flight.

Condor airline Flight DE2315 was travelling from Mauritius to Frankfurt when it became clear that many passengers on board were suffering from the bug.

The aircraft landed in the German city at around 5.33pm where it was greeted with a large contingent of emergency services.

Crew had called ahead to alert officials on the ground of the unfolding emergency.

It was found that 70 of the 290 passengers onboard had suddenly reported symptoms including nausea and vomiting.

Passengers suffered puking hell at 38,000 feet on Thursday when 70 people fell ill with a vomiting bug mid-way through their flight from Mauritius to Frankfurt. Pictured: A Condor airline plane lands at Frankfurt airport on March 23, 2024 (file photo)

A spokesperson for the Germany airline confirmed the incident to the country's Bild tabloid, adding that the crew was not affected by the illness.

'She [the pilot/crew] is also educated and trained for special situations like this,' the statement to the newspaper said.

'After carefully examining the overall situation, the flight continued. The aircraft landed safely in Frankfurt, where medical professionals were available to care for the affected guests.'

The airline, however, did not confirm the cause of the sudden illness, but noted that the food onboard would have been prepared in Mauritius.

'Condor has already initiated an investigation into the case to get to the bottom of the cause and to derive possible measures from it,' the spokeswoman added.

'Condor is working closely with all responsible partners and authorities. There is currently no result available.

'We generally do not participate in speculation about the cause, for example about individual menus on board that were prepared in Mauritius,' the statement added.

While individuals falling ill while flying is not uncommon, it appears to be less common for several passengers - not to mention 70 - to fall ill at once.

The most extreme case happened in 1975 when a mass outbreak of food poisoning wreaked havoc on a Japan Airlines flight flying from Anchorage, Alaska, to Paris - forcing the plane to land in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Of the 344 people on board, 197 people fell sick with nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal cramps after consuming an in-flight meal contaminated with Staphylococci - the largest food poisoning incident aboard a commercial airliner.

Although there were no fatalities, 44 of the passengers were so severely ill that they required hospitalisation and 30 were in critical condition.

The majority of passengers were Japanese salesmen working for the Coca-Cola company, along with their families, who had won a trip to Paris.

Pictured: Passengers are seen at Frankfurt airport in February (file photo)

As none of the doctors in Denmark spoke Japanese, and only a few of the passengers could speak Danish or English, Japanese speaking staff from Copenhagen's restaurants were called in to the hospital to assist as translators.

An investigation into the incident traced the Staphylococci contamination back to a cook who had prepared the meal in Anchorage.

It was found that they had lesions on one of their hands infected with the bacteria.

While all victims officially survived the incident, Japan Air Lines' catering manager, - 52-year-old Kenji Kuwabara - committed suicide upon learning that the outbreak of food poisoning had been caused by one of his cooks.
Neo-Nazis have descended upon a posh Connecticut town, chanting 'Heil' in a one arm Hitler salute - and threatened to come back unless there is 'proper punishment for minorities that ruthlessly attack our people.'

The group of masked men claiming to be from the white nationalist group NSC 131 arrived in Greenwich, Connecticut on Saturday, in what they say is in response to an 'Anti-white gang assault on an adolescent white woman that occurred there.'

This viral incident, which was captured on video in early April, involved a white girl being brutally attacked by two black girls in front of a surrounding audience.

The altercation reportedly began with the white girl using the n-word racial slur.

The NSC 131 mob demanded action from Connecticut legislators and District Attorney Paul J. Ferencek, warning of a repeat visit if their call for 'proper punishment for minorities' was not taken.

Neo Nazi group NSC 131 arrived in Greenwich, Connecticut on Saturday

They marched, flashed the Hitler salute while shouting 'Seig Heil' with nazi signs

'We would remind the legislators of Connecticut and District Attorney Paul J. Ferencek that the best remedy for NSC 131 is proper punishment for minorities that ruthlessly attack our people,' the white supremacist group wrote in a post on Telegram.

The Neo Nazi group then threatened: 'Hate crime charges or we'll be back.'

During their demonstration outside Greenwich Town Hall, the group displayed banners reading 'New England is ours the rest must go' and 'Anti-whites FAFO.'

They marched through downtown, before stopping to display their banners while shouting 'Seig Heil,' and flashing the Nazi salute.

The hate group, who came from out of town, left after about an hour and twenty minutes. Police said they did not break the law or cause violence.

'Officers were aware of their arrival and on scene,' Greenwich Deputy Police Chief Mark Zuccerella said to the Greenwich Time.

'The group did not break any laws and left without incident. The reported reason for their protest was related to an assault between teens in Byram Park a few weeks ago.'

During their demonstration outside Greenwich Town Hall, the group displayed banners reading 'New England is ours the rest must go' and 'Anti-whites FAFO'

The group was responding to an 'anti-white gang assault on a white woman'

This incident, which was captured on video and quickly went viral, involved a white girl being brutally attacked by two black girls in front of a surrounding audience

NSC-131 believes they are soldiers fighting against the 'Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race,' according to the ADL.

Their goal includes forming a clandestine network of white men across the nation to stand up against their perceived adversaries.

Despite the provocative nature of their actions, Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo emphasized that the gathering fell within free speech protections, although he condemned the group's message as abhorrent.

'They did not break any laws, as abhorrent and disgusting as their message was,' Camillo told The New York Post, characterizing them as attention-seekers to whom the people of Greenwich must respond with the kind of civility of which such bigots are incapable.

He noted that law enforcement was vigilant throughout the event and would have taken action if any laws were violated.

NSC-131 believes they are soldiers fighting against the 'Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race'

Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo emphasized that the gathering fell within free speech protections, although he condemned the group's message as abhorrent

'Had they crossed the line there, were there would have been consequences,' he added, noting that local police were aware the Nazis were coming, and monitored them throughout the rally.

Various organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have denounced the neo-Nazi rally and called for solidarity in rejecting hate messages.

'We urge all political, religious and community leaders to join in the repudiation of the message of hate promoted by this neo-Nazi group and urge law enforcement authorities to protect target minority communities,' the group said.

'Whatever this group's misguided intent or its reason for being here, none of the participants committed a crime,' Camillo said to The Patch.

'The right to free speech must be respected, no matter how unsavory that speech, balanced with the rights of Greenwich residents and our commitment to public safety. To assure public safety was maintained, an additional police presence was maintained throughout the protest,' he added.

In December 2023, the New England neo-Nazi group was sued over a 'campaign of unlawful conduct' that has 'terrorized' Americans they dub 'enemies of our people' (Founder of NSC-131 Christopher Hood appears in court after a drag story time protest. He was found not guilty)

When NSC-131 members entered a drag queen story event on January 14, one of them 'raised his hand in the shape of a gun and made a shooting gesture in the direction of parents and the performer'

In December 2023, the New England neo-Nazi group was sued over a 'campaign of unlawful conduct' that has 'terrorized' Americans they dub 'enemies of our people'.

The Massachusetts Attorney General has brought a civil lawsuit against NSC-131, known as the Nationalist Social Club, and its leaders, Christopher Hood and Liam McNeil, accusing them of a series of 'violent and otherwise unlawful Club actions'.

The lawsuit was unique in that it points to specific actions allegedly conducted by the group that go beyond their right to free speech - including storming a drag queen story time event and harassing migrants outside emergency shelter hotels.

NSC-131 has around 30 members - thought to all be local white men - and captures its 'violent protests' on video to use as marketing to attract new members, as part of a growing 'international' white supremacist movement.

Self-proclaimed Nazi-hunter, and founder of anti-fascist veterans group, Task Force Butler, Kristofer Goldsmith told DailyMail.com at the time that the group is motivated 'by a deep desire to hurt people... it's all about causing fear'.
A British holidaymaker has been arrested after allegedly indecently assaulting an air stewardess on a flight to Majorca.

The 26-year-old tourist was held after the employee for the Jet2 airline complained she had been groped in mid-air.

He also allegedly touched two women passengers near their breasts without their consent who decided they did not want to press charges, source said.

Civil Guard officers were waiting for the plane when it touched down at Palma Airport yesterday from Manchester after the pilot radioed ahead to say the unnamed Brit, who was travelling with a friend and was drinking, had caused problems during the flight by bothering other passengers, shouting and vaping while on board.

Officers had originally intended to remove the troublesome passenger from the plane and report him for breaching air security so he could be fined.

A British holidaymaker (pictured being escorted by police today) has been arrested after allegedly indecently assaulting an air stewardess on a flight to Majorca

But they proceeded to arrest him on suspicion of sexual assault after a British air stewardess on the flight said he had touched her up and made lewd comments to her.

He was kept in a cell overnight before being hauled to court earlier today so he could be questioned by an investigating judge.

Ahead of his court appearance his phone was confiscated from him after it emerged he had used it to take videos while he was on the plane, in case it contained evidence.

There has been no official comment yet from court officials in Palma.

But it is understood he was freed after the magistrate decided the allegations made against him had to be dealt with in the UK because the incident happened in the air and involved British nationals and a British airline.

The holidaymaker, who told police he couldn't remember what had happened on the flight, declined to answer questions from the judge.

In August last year a British holidaymaker was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting an air stewardess on a flight from Manchester to Ibiza before spitting on her boss.

In September 2022 a British man was arrested after touching up a female stranger sat next to him on a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Majorca.

Air stewards radioed police from 35,000ft after the woman, also British, complained he had touched her breasts and asked her to have sex with him in the toilet.

He was held when the plane touched down at Palma Airport.

A British holidaymaker has been arrested after allegedly indecently assaulting an air stewardess on a flight to Majorca. Pictured: Palma de Mallorca's airport (file photo)

Reports at the time said the unnamed Brit had been fined 2,500 after being hauled to court for a speedy trial.

The woman at the centre of the extraordinary mid-air incident is said to have been sexually abused moments before the plane touched down after the male passenger had engaged in unwanted sexual innuendo with the young Brit.

A spokesman for Jet2.com said in a statement: 'We can confirm that police met flight LS869 last night to offload a disruptive passenger who displayed a catalogue of absolutely unacceptable behaviour whilst onboard.

'As a family friendly airline we take a zero tolerance approach to such behaviour and we will fully support the authorities with any subsequent investigations.'
Experts have revealed the explanation for why the doomed Titan submarine imploded on its expedition to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.

OceanGate's Titan submersible disappeared on June 18, 2023, after it plunged into the ocean to explore the wreck of the Titanic.

New reports from researchers at the University of Houston who studied how thin-walled structures can buckle due to tiny imperfections in the materials, Newsweek reported.

In a paper in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), research lead and professor of civil and environmental engineering, Roberto Ballarini, suggested that imperfections in the carbon fiber used to build the Titan sub's hull could be to blame for the devastating implosion.

He further suggested that any damage that had built up from the vessel's previous dives could have made it vulnerable to 'micro-buckling.'

OceanGate 's Titan submersible disappeared on June 18, 2023, after it plunged into the ocean to explore the wreck of the Titanic

'Buckling in the simplest explanation: you take a long spaghetti and you push on it with two fingers. What's going to happen? It's going to buckle essentially, it's going to snap,' Roberto Ballarini.

'That's what buckling is. It's when you compress something and it deforms by a significant amount because it's an instability.'

Researchers were not able to examine whether micro-buckling was behind the Titan failure - but they looked at vessels of similar shapes and materials.

There are still other theories for why the submarine imploded - including the hull's carbon fiber composite material.

Small imperfections that could go undetected make vessels, like the Titan, at risk of collapsing under intense pressure.

Now that the ship has completely imploded, researchers will likely never determine the exact location of the flaw that caused the tragic event.

The Titan submersible lost communications with its support vessel on Sunday, June 18, during a descent to the wreck of the Titanic 12,500 feet beneath the surface.

Days later, its debris was recovered. It was said to have suffered a 'catastrophic implosion'.

Tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush all died on the submersible.

The US Coast Guard confirmed the victims' deaths four days later and an investigation into the implosion is ongoing.

On June 18, the OceanGate sub was launched around 8am in the Atlantic Ocean above the site of the Titanic shipwreck.

The five passengers started to descend as Rush piloted the vessel. At 9:45am, it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince.

Debris from the Titan submersible recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from a ship

Graphic showing the parts of the Titan submersible that have been found following 'catastrophic implosion'

British explorer Hamish Harding was among those killed in the 'catastrophic implosion'

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was in the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition

OceanGate Expeditions took eight hours to report the missing sub to the US Coast Guard after it lost contact.

That led to a massive international response to rescue the five passengers. Ships from across the globe started to make the trek to help search for the missing sub while the hours and estimated oxygen ticked down.

It was also revealed that a US Navy monitoring system picked up a possible sound of the implosion in the descent - but search efforts continued.

After announcing the death of the five passengers, it was later revealed that debris form the imploded sub was found near the site of the Titanic.

The Titan submersible tragedy is set to be made into a motion picture. The film, titled Salvaged, comes from the mind of one of the main producers behind Black-ish, and will cover periods before, during and after the five-day tragedy.

A pair of relatively unknown writers have been pegged to craft the narrative, which serves as one installment of an upcoming slate of docuseries projects from the presiding studio.

Other films in the work include a project based around Seattle's rising underground rap scene, and another about various Girl Scouts troupes across North America and abroad.

Salvaged, though - as its name might suggest - seeks to clean up any doubts about the tragedy, by providing a clean-cut narrative surrounding the five who died.
A TikToker posting videos of himself winding up police outside Buckingham Palace has been arrested after shoving his microphone under the nose of a King's Guard and his horse in London.

The prankster, known by TikTok handle ymusa18, was cuffed and carted off after he began confronting people who criticised him for harassing the guardsman and his mount while tourists tried to take pictures on Thursday.

Similar to Mizzy, the lawbreaking prankster who has since vowed to change his ways, the prankster films himself harassing members of the public - and was searched outside Downing Street for appearing to suggest he was carrying a bomb.

But his most recent stunt outside the Household Cavalry Museum on Whitehall saw him confront members of the public who disliked his pranks - and was then grabbed and pinned to a fence by armed police officers as he pleaded with them for calm.

Multiple angles of the incident have been shared online - including by the fame-hungry prankster himself - after it happened earlier this week.

The prankster was filmed harassing members of the King's Guard outside the Household Cavalry Museum on Whitehall in London

He then confronts a YouTuber who tells him to 'f*** off', labelling him a 'rude b******' as the situation escalates

The TikToker is then arrested by police under suspicion of committing a public order offence

The prankster did not look amused as he was held against the fence by police (left) but flashed a grin to the camera as he was led inside (right)

Labelling it 'interviewing the Royal Guard and their horses' in his own version of the clip, the joker holds a microphone to the horse's muzzle and asks it for its name - cutting directly across a bewildered tourist posing for a photograph.

He is filmed the entire time by a friend, who shoots the footage for the TikTok video from a distance.

The Royal Guard maintains a professional facade throughout even as the prankster hits him with inane questions about riding the horse - but eventually members of the public tire of his antics and call him out.

'Stop being so God-damn rude. F*** off, you rude b******,' says one man, whom MailOnline has identified as a YouTuber who regularly films videos of tourists outside the museum.

Another member of the public, realising ymusa18 is filming the video for an online prank, then moves to cover the lens and disrupt the video - outraging the young TikToker, who walks over saying: 'That's my phone, man, you can't touch that.'

'Go on, p*** off,' says the earlier YouTuber - to which the youngster replies: 'Say that to my face.'

'P*** off,' the videographer says again, pushing the joker back as he gets too close for comfort.

The angry TikToker then launches into a rant, yelling over and over: 'Who the f*** you touching?'

As he yells at the cameraman, two armed police officers, one male and one female, come bounding out from the gates of the museum gripping sub-machine guns.

The male officer places his hand on the prankster's chest and pushes him backwards, announcing sternly: 'Get back.'

His pranks are similar to those committed by Mizzy (above), who has since renounced his pranking antics after being convicted of several offences

Mizzy's pranks saw him sneaking into strangers' houses (left) and riding e-bikes through supermarkets (right)

He has since claimed he is done with pranks and hopes to go to college after having a child

The prankster protests rapidly: 'I didn't do s***, I didn't do s***, did you not see what happened, mate? I'm calm, I'm calm, no need to grab my neck bro, no need to grab my neck. I did not threaten no-one, you know.'

As he is told he is being arrested on suspicion of a public order offence, he stops talking - and remains silent as he is frogmarched inside the museum's gates.

In his own clip, as he is taken inside the compound, he flashes a grin to the camera.

What is the King's Guard and what are the rules around them? The King's Guard is the name given to the group of soldiers responsible for guarding Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. Traditionally, guards stand still while on sentry duty for two hours before a four-hour break. Every 10 minutes, they come to attention, slope arms and do a march of 15 paces across the area of the post. The King's Guard are generally not allowed to interact with the public, but may shout or present bayonets if they get too close. The soldiers must not let anything distract them from their duties - with toilet breaks banned on shift - and will march through anyone in their way. Advertisement

Like other parts of Whitehall and nationwide locations of utmost national security, the Household Cavalry Museum is protected by the Ministry of Defence Police rather than the Metropolitan Police.

MailOnline has contacted the MoD for comment.

Ymusa18's TikTok features him harassing members of the public on trains where he pretends to fall asleep on passengers.

He also pulls what he terms 'Uber pranks', where he climbs into the back of police vehicles as if they are taxis - to the annoyance of the officers inside.

But his other 'jokes' put him at much greater risk - including outside Downing Street, where he said, in full view of armed police: 'Rishi Sunak, I've got a message for you. If I see you on the street, there's gonna be problems, you get it?'

He adds: 'Your little minions, they ain't going to do nothing about it' - immediately before an armed police officer opens the gate and tells him to behave.

Sometime later, he is led away by police further down Whitehall after seemingly suggesting he had an explosive in his bag.

'You tried to say you've got something in your bag,' a police officer can be heard saying. 'You mentioned C4 (a plastic explosive).'

The video ends with him stepping out of Charing Cross Police Station boldly proclaiming: 'Yes lads, I'm free now. The police can't hold me. What have I done? I'm innocent, yeah?'

He also dared police to arrest him after crossing the threshold of the gates at Buckingham Palace in front of armed cops, who told him: 'Don't push your luck.'

In a subsequent video, he promised to scale the gates of Buckingham Palace if the clip got 5,000 likes, a figure he later revised to 15,000. It now has 36,000.

'Get me to 10k and I'll post more serious (videos),' he says in his bio.
Alabama has authorized the second ever execution via nitrogen hypoxia, months after the same method sparked controversy in the state.

The state's Supreme Court granted a request from the state Attorney General on Thursday to schedule the execution of killer Alan Eugene Miller, 57.

Miller was convicted of killing three men in a 1999 workplace shooting, where he admitted to opening fire during a 'delusional episode' as he believed his colleagues were spreading false rumors about him.

The murderer previously survived an execution attempt in 2022, which failed due to ongoing issues with lethal injections including painful attempts to find a vein.

His execution, an exact date for which has not been set, will be carried out with the experimental nitrogen gas method, despite the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January casting doubt over its efficacy as he took over 20 minutes to suffocate to death.

Alan Eugene Miller, 57, who was sentenced to death for killing three men in 1999, is set to become the second person to ever be executed via nitrogen hypoxia

Miller (pictured after his arrest in August 1999) previously survived an execution in 2022 due to flaws in the lethal injection system

The decision on Miller's execution 25 years after he shot and killed three men - Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis - in a workplace shooting

When Miller survived his first execution in 2022, he was poked with needles for over an hour in a bungled attempt to find a vein to inject him with a lethal cocktail.

At one point, he was let hanging vertically on a gurney to improve blood flow, and his ordeal was cited by his attorneys this week in their failed request to halt his second execution.

The use of nitrogen gas as a new method - where a gas mask is strapped to an inmate's face before they are suffocated - is also being contested by Miller in an ongoing lawsuit.

He also cited the experience of Kenneth Eugene Smith in his argument that it violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Witnesses to Smith's execution said he struggled against his restraints and convulsed for over 20 minutes, amid fears the gas mask was not properly fitted to his face causing a slow and painful suffocation.

Smith, a hitman, was sentenced to death over the 1988 murder of a pastor's wife, for which he was only paid $1,000.

Alabama officials have insisted that Smith's first ever nitrogen execution was a success, with Attorney General Steve Marshall maintaining the method is 'textbook.'

Marshall says Alabama will continue to seek out more executions via nitrogen hypoxia, adding: 'The State of Alabama is prepared to carry out the execution of Millers sentence by means of nitrogen hypoxia.'

In his motion in February seeking out Miller's execution, he said that it was beyond time to execute the killer as he has sat on death row since 2000.

The decision on Miller's execution comes 25 years after he shot and killed three men - Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis - in a workplace shooting.

The gurney inside Holman Correctional Facility's execution chamber in Alabama, where Smith was put to death and Miller is scheduled to die

He was reportedly suffering a 'delusional episode' and believed his victims were spreading false rumors about him, but has never claimed he was not the perpetrator.

Smith was sentenced to death over the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett, 45, (right) in a hit that he was only paid $1,000 for

At his trial, prosecutors described how he methodically opened fire at two businesses, noting the 'men were not just murdered - they were executed.'

At his failed execution in 2022, Miller was forced to endure over an hour of injection attempts, which included medics using a cellphone flashlight to help their search for a vein.

Issues with lethal injections have plagued death rows across the nation for years, primarily stemming from a reluctance from pharmacies to produce lethal injection drugs.

This has led some states, such as Texas, to merely extend the use-by dates of the drugs, triggering an ongoing lawsuit from the inmates they are used upon amid claims the extended drugs are painful.

Miller's execution comes 25 years after he shot and killed three men - Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy, and Terry Jarvis - in a workplace shooting

Miller was reportedly suffering a 'delusional episode' and believed his victims were spreading false rumors about him before he opened fire. Pictured is a body bag being wheeled from the scene after Miller opened fire in August 1999

A witness to Smith's execution, his spiritual advisor Rev. Jeff Hood, captured headlines after the execution as he gave a harrowing depiction of how a nitrogen gas execution unfolds.

He noted that the contraption used to kill Smith resembled a 'firefighters mask', and said he was forced to bless the killer's feet with a bible for over 10 minutes as he thrashed against his restraints.

'I could see the corrections officers, I think they were very surprised that this didn't go smoothly - one of the state officials in the room was so nervous she was tap dancing,' Hood continued.

'(Smith) kept breathing for what could possibly be up to nine minutes, ten minutes, unbelievable evil was unleashed tonight in Alabama... that was torture.'

Hood said he has witnessed five executions before, and after seeing Smith's agony, he felt that 'lethal injection is preferable every single day.'
The ringleader of an extreme body modification gang who had his penis and leg removed went into a 'spiral' after his marriage broke down, a court heard today.

Through his 'Eunuch Maker' site, Marius Gustavson and other 'like-minded individuals' carried out at least 30 mutilations on men that were livestreamed to 22,000 subscribers.

The 46-year-old Norwegian, who made 300,000 in four years from the 'lucrative' business, claimed 18,500 in disability benefit after having his own penis and leg removed during body modification procedures.

He kept a freezer full of men's body parts and cooked himself a testicle salad for lunch.

Rashvinderjeet Panesar, defending Gustavson, said the breakdown of his 11 year marriage in 2016 which had 'kept him stable', was a 'trigger' for his extreme activities.

Marius Gustavson went into a 'spiral' after his marriage broke down, his defence barrister claimed today

'When it came to an end it sent him into a spiral,' Mr Panesar said. 'He had a desire to be the architect of his own body.

'His modification led him to feelings of empowerment. It appears at face value to be something that's become an addiction for him.'

The lawyer said Gustavson had been diagnosed with body identity integrity disorder, which accounted for his desire to have body parts removed.

Gustavson had not participated in any body modification before the end of his marriage, Mr Panesar said.

He now wished to return to his native Norway, where his views are more likely to be accepted, the barrister added.

Addressing the question of if Gustavson got sexual gratification from the operations he said: 'While it may be a world we do not understand as they do, it would not be hard for any human to understand that if you are going to lose a part of your genitalia in order to be of a neutral gender - the last time they were going to experience those parts of their anatomy would surely be one they want to remember for a long time and indulge in fantasy over.

'A lot that derived from the Eunuch Maker website was a form of fantasy or an introduction into the world of modification and as horrific as going through some of this footage has been, what we in this courtroom can see as depraved, dangerous and unnecessary is the cost of happiness to others.

'I ask your Lordship to look at the case as a whole as people who genuinely wanted to be gender neutral.

'There is masses of text evidence of people being happier, and whether or not there was sexual gratification, these procedures have led to a number of people being able to better identify with who they are and who they felt they were.

'It happened in circumstances where legal medical procedures had not caught up with what was sought to be achieved with some of these procedures with regard to neutrality.'

Gustavson and other 'like-minded individuals' carried out at least 30 mutilations on men that were livestreamed to 22,000 subscribers

In messages sent to Gustavson by another member of the website, they referred to eating 'sausages and garlic bread.'

Gustavson replied: 'Sweet. Yeah hmmm I have some sausages in my freezer but I'm not sure I can cook them LOL'.

The prosecution say 'sausages' was a reference to the severed genitalia Gustavson kept in his freezer.

The messages also suggested Gustavson's own testicles had been eaten by another man.

The man sent a text saying: 'your right nut was very tasteful and almost a bit sweet apparently LOL'.

Gustavson was selling penises online and messages referred to him having 'c***s up for auction'.

People would bid for penises before being sent the item along with a video of it being removed.

'Arch manipulator' Gustavson, of Haringey, north London, has previously admitted charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

He appeared for sentence alongside six other men who had all admitted their part in the lucrative scheme.

The charges relate to 13 victims who are being safeguarded by specialist detectives.

The wide-ranging conspiracy also involved the removal and trade of body parts, the court was told.

Ms Carberry said Peter Wates, a retired former member of the Royal Society of Chemists, had been 'in the business of purchasing body parts from Gustavson'.

During a police raid on the South Wales home of David Carruthers, 'testicles were found in a chest freezer', the prosecutor said.

Alexander Greenwood, defending Carruthers, said the testicles found in his freezer were Carruthers' own.

The 46-year-old Norwegian made 300,000 in four years from the 'lucrative' business

But for his connection with the 'spider web' of Gustavson, Carruthers would 'never have troubled these courts', Mr Greenwood said.

Carruthers was also diagnosed with body identity integrity disorder and removed his own testicles, the court heard.

'He believed he was assisting those with the same condition', his defence barrister said.

Helping Gustavson with his body modification activities was a 'terrible mistake', Mr Greenwood added.

Paul Dixon, on behalf of retired chemist Wates, said: 'His involvement in this case was founded on his belief he was doing something good toward those who genuinely wanted some body modification.

'He is extremely regretful of having been persuaded to take part in procedures. His overriding thought was that of an altruistic individual who wanted to help and proceeded to do so.'

He said Wates was not sexually motivated.

David Osborne, representing Ciucur, said his behaviour was due to 'manipulation' by Gustavson.

Ciucur owed a debt to Gustavson after he made loans to him while he was in poverty, he said.

He said Ciucur had been separated from his family in Romania for eight years and is desperate to return home after his sentence as he is mostly alone in the UK.

Stephen Thomas, representing Carruthers' husband Williams, said he is 'a compassionate, gentle and well liked individual' and urged the judge to give him a suspended sentence.

He said he has worked in the passport office in Wales since 2018 and works as a voluntary counsellor for HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Scharf's barrister Richard Padley said he was introduced to body modification in the 1990s when working at a tattoo shop in Germany.

He was introduced to the Eunuch Maker website in 2017.

Scharf intends to return to Germany and focus on religion.

Gustavson pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of making an indecent photograph of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child and possession of criminal property contrary to Section 329(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Ion Ciucur, 30, of Gretna, Scotland, Wates, 66, of Purley, Surrey, Stefan Scharf, 61, of no fixed address, David Carruthers 61, Atkin, 38, Ashley Williams, 32, all of Newport, Gwent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit grievous bodily harm.

The sentencing hearing continues
Two Australian brothers and their American friend disappeared in Mexico

Three surfers were seen having the time of their lives in social media posts of their vacation before they vanished in Mexico.

Australian lacrosse star Callum Robinson, 33, his brother Jake, 30, and their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, from San Diego, disappeared without a trace in the Baja California region in Mexico over the weekend.

Callum's last social media posts, uploaded to his Instagram story, give insight into the group's last known whereabouts in the area.

Several images shows them in Rosarito Beach, where they were believed to be surfing and camping. The group reportedly planned on moving on to Ensenada, where they failed to check in an Airbnb on Sunday.

The last image posted to Callum's Instagram shows the group made to San Miguel beach in Ensenada before going off the radar.

Callum last posted from Ensenada, where they failed to check into an Airbnb on Sunday

The brothers were traveling with American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, seen in an image uploaded by Callum on Saturday

One chilling picture shows a white Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck at the beach ion Rosarito. Police believe that same vehicle was later found burnt-out in the Santo Tomas area after a ranch manager called 911 on Thursday.

A check of the vehicle's VIN reportedly identified it as belonging to one of the three missing surfers.

'... and it begins,' Callum wrote on the image of the pickup truck at the beach, alongside an emoji of the Mexican flag at the start of the doomed trip.

Police also say they found three abandoned tents south of Ensenada, with local media reporting that blood was found on them.

Callum also shared images of Jake and Rhoad and of the sights they were exploring.

The trio had been actively sharing images of their trip until Sunday - and no one has heard of them since Saturday.

Local police have arrested three people in connection the their disappearance, including a 23-year-old Mexican woman who reportedly was discovered in possession of a mobile phone belonging to one of the brothers, along with methamphetamine.

Two men, also Mexican, were also arrested as part of the investigation, said Baja Californias chief public prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez.

It is understood police were able to make the arrests after one of the brothers' mobile phones was turned back on, and pinged a local mobile tower.

'A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation,' Andrade Ramirez said.

Australian brothers Jake, 30, (right) and Callum Robinson, 33, vanished without a trace in the Baja California region in Mexico

One chilling picture shows a white Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck at the beach ion Rosarito

Police believe that same vehicle was later found burnt-out in the Santo Tomas area after the ranch manager called 911 on Thursday

Jake and Callum are understood to have gone missing from the Baja California region near Ensenada

'There is a lot of important information that we can't make public.'

While drug cartels are active in the area, she said 'all lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.'

Ramirez would not say whether the three people questioned were considered possible suspects or witnesses in the case. She said only that some were tied directly to the case, and others indirectly.

Callum also shared images the sights they were exploring and meals they were having

Three people have been detained in connection the probe. Mexican officials are seen in a checkpoint in Ensenada on Thursday

Officials search the area for the missing group of tourists

The mother of the Robinson brothers, Debra Robinson, said on social media she has not heard from them since April 27, when they failed to show up at an Airbnb in nearby Rosarito.

She stressed Callum is a diabetic as she asked anyone with information to come forward.

Debra wrote: 'Australian friends Jake and Callum Robinson have gone missing around Rosarita/Ensenada region of Baja California Norte Saturday morning.

'They were likely surfing. Callum is diabeticthis is a very dire situation.'

The brothers' family is said to be 'frantically' trying to get a flight to Mexico, reports 7News.

Jake is a doctor, according to Seven News; meanwhile Callum lives in San Diego and a member of Australias national lacrosse team.

Lacrosse Australia issued a statement on social media expressing its concern over the whereabouts of Jake, Callum and their friend Jack Carter Rhoad.

Debra Robinson appealed for help from the public in the search for her sons on Thursday

It described Callum as an 'Australian lacrosse star'.

'We urge the Australian lacrosse community and our global lacrosse family to continue sharing the post from Callum's friends and family (located on the LA Facebook and Instagram story) in the hope that Callum, Jake and Jack are found safe and sound,' it said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also expressed concern about the brothers' wellbeing.

'We certainly hope that these brothers are found safely, but there is real concern about the fact that theyve gone missing,' he told Australian media.

'Their mother is obviously very distressed about this. And we just hope for a positive outcome.'

A woman and two men, all Mexican, have been arrested in connection to the case, Baja California Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez (center) told reporters

Baja California has been plagued by cartel violence in recent months.

Ramirez said her office was in contact with Australian and U.S. officials but suggested that the time that had passed might make it harder to find them.

'Unfortunately, it wasnt until the last few days that they were reported missing. So, that meant that important hours or time was lost,' she said.

In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California  also known as the Sea of Cortez from the Baja peninsula.

Authorities say they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
A poisonous cloud is hanging over Berlin after a chemical factory blaze, with firefighters warning deadly hydrogen cyanide could develop.

Firefighters said sulphuric acid and copper cyanide were stored at the plant and the chemicals ignited, which could create hydrogen cyanide.

People were warned to close all windows, stay inside and switch off ventilation units after the fire hit the firm that makes weapons supplied to Ukraine.

The state of Berlin has issued an official danger warning and urged people to stay away from the area as the cloud of smoke is already spanning over nearly all of the western area of the city.

The blaze is at Diehl Metal Applications in Berlin's Lichterfelde district, which is a sister company to the Diehl Defence concern, manufacturer of the deadly IRIS-T missiles.

A poisonous cloud is hanging over Berlin after a chemical factory blaze, with firefighters warning deadly hydrogen cyanide could develop

People were warned to close all windows, stay inside and switch off ventilation units after the fire hit the firm that makes weapons supplied to Ukraine

The blaze was at Diehl Metal Applications in Berlin's Lichterfelde district, which is a sister company to the Diehl Defense concern, manufacturer of the deadly IRIS-T, which also has its headquarters on the same street

In the building that is on fire, the company reportledy operates its own electroplating system for refining metal surfaces in the building

Diehl Defence has its headquarters on the same street as the burning building. Diehl Metal Applications reportledy operates its own electroplating system for refining metal surfaces in the building that is on fire.

'The building is now completely burned through on four floors. Part of the building has already collapsed,' Adrian Wenzel, spokesman for the Berlin fire department and on site at the scene of the fire, told German tabloid Bild.

He added: 'We are only trying to put out the fire from the outside. The fire can no longer be brought under control from the inside.'

Local outlet Berliner Zeitung reported several detonations being heard on site.

There are currently 190 firefighters at the site, wearing protective suits.

Students and teachers from nearby schools have been sent home as a precaution and several shops in the area have also closed.

There is no currently no information available on the cause of the fire, but the spokesman for the fire department said there have been no injuries reported.

The operation to get the fire under control is expected to last into the night after firefighters have been struggling to bring it under control since it broke out around 10.30am local time. Parts of the building have reportedly collapsed.
Boeing has given Alaska Airlines $61million in supplier credit memos for the disaster which temporarily grounded a fleet of 737 MAX 9 jets.

The airline suffered a near-catastrophe when a door plug blew out at 16,000 feet on a flight from Oregon on January 5 and it led to an emergency landing.

It led to the US Federal Aviation Administration grounding 171 of the 737 MAX 9 jets for about three weeks.

Boeing provided $61 million in supplier credit to Alaska Airlines as additional compensation after handing them $162 million in cash in the first quarter.

The credit memos can be used to make future purchases at Boeing, Alaska said in its quarterly report on Friday.

Boeing has given Alaska Airlines $61million in supplier credit memos for the disaster which temporarily grounded a fleet of 737 MAX 9 jets

The airline suffered a near-catastrophe when a door plug blew out at 16,000 feet on a flight from Oregon on January 5 and it led to an emergency landing

Boeing provided $61 million in supplier credit to Alaska Airlines as additional compensation after handing them $162 million in cash in the first quarter

Boeing is also compensating United Airlines, a prominent customer, to address the financial damages related to the grounding.

There were 154 flights by the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 before the January 5 mid-air emergency.

The previous $162million provided to the airline was equal to the revenue lost according to a filing from the airline.

The Flight 1282 blowout on January 5 as the plane took off from Portland, Oregon left a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft, and prompted wide-ranging federal investigations into Boeing's production process.

It also forced United to temporarily suspend service on all 79 of its 737 MAX 9 aircraft, which resulted in a $200million hit in the first quarter.

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report said that the January 5 incident was down to four crucial bolds being missing from the panel which blew out.

An audit by the FAA of both Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems 'found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements' in March.

There were 154 flights by the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 before the January 5 mid-air emergency

Boeing, led by CEO David Calhoun, is also compensating United Airlines, a prominent customer, to address the financial damages related to the grounding

The head of the NTSB previously accused Boeing of 'not cooperating' with its investigation into the January incident.

Jennifer Homendy said investigators sought the names of the 25 people who work on door plugs at the Renton facility, but had not received them from Boeing.

However, Boeing spokesperson Connor Greenwood pushed back and insisted that names of Boeing employees were provided 'early in the investigation'.

Last month Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer, claimed he was targeted after raising concerns about the quality of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner jets.

'I have even been subjected to threats of violence from my supervisor after I attempted to discuss the problems in a meeting in April 9 2023,' Salehpour said.

'After the meeting, my supervisor said to me, "I would have killed anyone who said what you said if it was from some other group, I would tear them apart."

The engineer said he filed an ethics complaint, but no action was taken, 'and I continue to report to a supervisor who has threatened me with bodily injury for speaking out.'

The head of the NTSB Jennifer Homendy (pictured) previously accused Boeing of 'not cooperating' with its investigation into the January incident

A photo shows three locations (circled) where retaining bolts are missing after the door was removed and then re-installed during a repair at Boeing's plant in Renton. A fourth location of a suspected missing bolt, in the top left, is not visible in the photo

The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation

Salehpour asserted that higher-ups at the company had barred him from key meetings and sidelined him from his job duties as a means of retaliation.

He also provided the committee with a photo of a large nail that was allegedly planted in his car tire.

'That was about a one month old tire,' he explained. 'The nail was inserted in there, I believe it happened at work.'

Senator Roger Marshall asked if he believed the damaged tire and threats constituted efforts by the company to silence him.

'I think the retaliation was somebody calling me on my personal phone time after time. This is my personal phone,' Salehpour said.

'My boss was calling me there for forty minutes, he berated me and chewed me out. I have a work phone that he could use but he called me on my personal phone.

'After the threats, and after this, it really scares me - believe me. But I am at peace.'

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62 - a former quality control manager and employee of 32 years - was found dead in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel in March days after testifying against the company in a lawsuit.

The coroner put it down to a 'self-inflicted' gunshot wound in the head, though the police confirmed that they would investigate further.

A second whistleblower, Joshua Dean, died suddenly last month having raised the alarm about supposed defects in 737 Max jets.

The former Spirit employee previously said he was fired from his quality auditing role for questioning standards at the supplier's plant in Wichita, Kansas, in October 2022.

His family said on social media that Dean died in hospital after a sudden illness.
For 136 years, the identity of Jack the Ripper has confounded history buffs.

Some say the killer was Lewis Carroll, the 'Alice in Wonderland' creator, others suspect Winston Churchill's dad  Lord Randolph Churchill.

Others still say it was likely a non-famous local of Whitechapel, East London, where the gruesome slayings occurred in the 1880s.

Now, a TikToker from Tennessee has added a name to the list of suspects.

Kiki Schirr, a perky, freckled redhead, unveiled her theory in a video filmed in the passenger seat of her Hyundai Santa Fe.

Tennessee TikToker Kiki Schirr says a famous French artist could well have been the serial killer

An illustration of a street in Whitechapel, East London, after Jack the Ripper claimed another victim

It's already clocked up more than 14 million views.

In it, she explains why she thinks French impressionist artist Edgar Degas was the killer.

Poll Was Jack the Ripper in reality the artist Edgar Degas? Yes No Not sure Was Jack the Ripper in reality the artist Edgar Degas? Yes 52 votes

No 835 votes

Not sure 226 votes Now share your opinion





The painter and sculptor is celebrated for his works of ballerinas, bathing females and prostitutes.

Schirr says Degas' subject-matter reveals more about him than was previously understood.

His obsession with women's bodies makes him a prime suspect for the killer who stalked cobblestoned London by twilight.

'Those are the thoughts that I cannot get out of my head,' Schirr says in her viral video.

'Did this artist get away with murder?'

Her theory casts a sinister shadow on the 'pretty paintings of ballerinas that hang in little girls rooms to this day,' she adds.

'Were they painted by a murderer?'

At least a dozen murders between 1888 and 1892 have been speculatively attributed to Jack the Ripper.

A self-portrait of Edgar Degas, the impressionist artist who Kiki Schirr now frames as a psychopath

But only five of those, all committed in 1888, were linked by police to a single murderer.

These so-called 'canonical five' victims were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

They're often presented as prostitutes killed while plying their trade, but this is disputed.

At the time, police suspected the Ripper was a butcher, due to the way his victims were killed and the fact they were discovered near to the dockyards, where meat was brought into the city.

Several people have been identified as the serial killer.

But no theory is widely accepted. It's now doubtful the mystery will ever be solved.

Degas is a prime suspect, Schirr says in her seven-minute addition to the enigma.

For one, she says, he lived at the right time.

Born in Paris in 1834, Degas was in his early 50s at the time of the killing spree, she says.

Edgar Degas often focused on women and dancers, who may have been sex workers

Tennessee's Kiki Schirr has nearly 124,000 TikTok followers and her Jack the Ripper video has been seen more than 14 million times

At that time, records show, he 'was beginning to really hate women,' she adds.

'He'd always been a bit of a misogynist, but he was degrading into a horrible, awful misanthrope of a person,' she adds.

Victorian cops were searching for a butcher, but Schirr says the murders could also have been the work of a painter.

'Degas was a classically-trained artist, he had attended human dissections, probably multiple times,' she says.

She uses biographical accounts of Degas and his oeuvre to suggest he was a psychopath.

He was 'obsessive about knowing every detail about how a body worked,' she says.

He often compared women to horses and other animals, she adds.

His studies of women in Paris bars in the late 1800s indicated late-night trysts with men, she added.

Oftentimes, Degas' pastel pieces of women bore the 'dark line' of a ribbon 'cut across' their necks, she says  reminiscent of the Ripper's throat-slitting escapades.

One of Jack the Ripper's slashing attacks, as presented in the Police Gazette

She also addresses an anti-Semitic scrawl left in chalk on a wall beside a clue in Eddowes' murder  a key element of Ripper lore.

The language used suggested at a French speaker, she says.

Degas, she adds, was an artist who could well have had a piece of chalk in his pocket.

As well as motive, Schirr says Degas had plenty of opportunity.

He was rich and well-connected, she says.

'He lived in Paris, which was just a short train ride away from London, where the murders occurred,' she adds.

She notes that Degas wrote a 'ton of letters' from southern France at the time of two Ripper slayings.

This was likely Degas 'setting himself up an alibi' through a paper trail, she adds.

The clip went viral, and Schirr has now posted more than a dozen videos about Degas' culpability.

One viewer praised an 'interesting theory' that left them 'genuinely convinced.'

Others said they'd always been uneasy about the 'eerie' quality of Degas' work.

Follower's of Schirr's theory say Degas' ballerina artworks now look 'creepy' and 'eerie'

'I always thought the ballerina paintings were off-putting, but this now makes sense to why,' posted another.

Schirr has won over fans, but her theory has problems.

She says Paris-bases Degas could take a 'short train ride' to stalk London women.

But the Eurostar rail link between the two capitals didn't open until 1994, after the Channel Tunnel was built.

That's more than a century after the Ripper terrorized Whitechapel.

Still, Schirr's theory is the biggest development in the Ripper saga since last month's revelations of a never-before-seen police file.

The fascinating archive was found by the great-grandson of a detective who worked on the case.

It includes two photographs of Michael Ostrog, an early suspect.

Ostrog, a Russian immigrant, was a petty thief and con artist who spent long periods in prison and in a mental asylum.

However, he was quickly ruled out as the Ripper as it emerged that he was in the lunatic wing of a French prison when the murders took place.
A woman is fighting for her life after being hit by a double-decker outside London Victoria station at a notoriously dangerous junction where two people have died in the past three years.

The victim was taken to hospital after the crash at about 11am, with passengers kept on the bus for more than an hour afterwards to be interviewed by police.

The Metropolitan Police has since confirmed that her injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

Two other women have died in the same area after being hit by a bus in recent years - Catherine Finnegan, 56, in January this year; and Melissa Burr, 32, in August 2021.

Youcef Fk, 26, who works for a sightseeing bus company in Victoria, told the Daily Telegraph today: 'Police said a lady had been smashed by the bus.

The scene outside London Victoria station today following the crash at about 11am

Two other women have died in the same area of Victoria after being hit by a bus in recent years - Catherine Finnegan (left), 56, in January; and Melissa Burr (right), 32, in August 2021

'This is about the third time it has happened in the same place, and the fourth time was a couple of weeks ago when a bus stop was smashed.'

He said it was a 'dangerous junction' and that his firm had warned police and the council that the 'pavement is too close to the road and bus wheels go over it'.

Mr Fk also revealed that working near the busy junction he has seen many near misses. He said: 'It's not about drivers, it's about people. They keep crossing without looking behind them.'

Following the death of Ms Finnegan in January, London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the Evening Standard 'All options are on the table' for a re-design of Victoria station.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told MailOnline: 'Police were called to Buckingham Palace Road following reports of a Road Traffic Collision involving a bus and pedestrian.

'A woman was treated on scene, her injuries have been confirmed to be life threatening. Road closures are currently in place.'

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: 'We were called at 11:14am today to reports of a road traffic collision involving a bus and a pedestrian at Victoria Station.

'We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, and an incident response officer. We also dispatched a trauma team from London's Air Ambulance by car.

'Our first paramedic was on the scene in under five minutes.

'We treated a patient at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre.'
An Australian businessman arrested in Serbia as part of an international drug sting centred around a 1.28 tonne cocaine shipment has been jailed for 18 years.

David Edward John Campbell, 54, was arrested outside the Metropol Palace Hotel in Belgrade in January 2018 and was sentenced on Friday.

Campbell was working as a lookout for two other Canberran businessmen trying to get the cocaine back off of a rival criminal syndicate who were in fact undercover police who had intercepted it.

The cocaine had a street value of $1.5 billion and, at the time of his arrest, Campbell was armed and 'willing to kill' an undercover policeman, a judge found.

The shipment of 2,576 blocks of cocaine was stopped before it made it to Sydney.

Campbell was in 2023 found guilty of conspiracy to possess a commercial quantity of imported cocaine in NSW District Court.

Judge Phillip Mahony SC sentenced him to 18 years in jail on Friday with a non-parole period of 10-and-a-half years, reports the ABC.

David Edward John Campbell, 54, was on Friday jailed for 18 years after he was brought in by a business partner to help retrieve a $1.5billion cocaine delivery

Serbian authorities arrested Campbell and his two Australian business partners in Belgrade

Their cocaine had been seized by undercover cops who were posing as a rival cartel offering to sell it back to them

The cocaine was sent to Australia by a Colombian drug cartel which hid the blocks inside a Chinese shipment of prefabricated steel structures.

After the cocaine went 'missing' in 2017 Campbell was bought into the plot by his former business partner, Rohan Peter Arnold, to help retrieve it.

Undercover police posed as a rival cartel who claimed to have found the the drugs in New Zealand.

For his part, Campbell was overly loyal to Arnold, Judge Mahony said.

Campbell knew Arnold through 'their long-term and legitimate business relationship over many years' which was leveraged by Arnold, the judge said, 'supposedly out of misplaced loyalty'.

Judge Mahony added that Arnold, who was known as the 'Australian King of Steel', warned Campbell that the cartel and their Chinese affiliates would 'come after' them if they failed to retrieve the cocaine.

The court heard Campbell had been surveilled by cartel members who also sent him photos of his family which created 'non-exculpatory duress'.

The former businessman voluntarily travelled to New Zealand in 2017 in order to get back the missing cocaine.

Judge Mahony said Campbell joined Arnold to Serbia for the same reason where they met another Canberran businessman, Tristan Egon Sebastian Waters, 40.

Waters, who lived in Dubai, had travelled to Serbia to help the pair in their mission to get back the cocaine where he also acquired a gun for Campbell in Belgrade.

All three were subsequently arrested in Serbia where Campbell then served a six-month sentence for possessing the gun and 13 bullets before being extradited to Sydney where he stood trial in 2023.

Campbell was acquitted by a jury of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, but found guilty of participating in a conspiracy to possess the cocaine.

Serbian authorities found a gun and a significant amount of cash during the arrest

His counsel told the court during his sentencing this year that their client had been used by the cartel and considered 'entirely dispensable cannon fodder'.

The barrister agreed that Campbell was a 'messenger boy' and a 'low-level functionary' as evidenced by his exclusion from encrypted cartel chat groups.

Prosecutors however challenged this belief and argued that Campbell was in fact 'a high-level and trusted facilitator' playing a 'crucial' role.

They also argued that Campbell's claim of acting under duress were 'completely unbelievable'.

Judge Mahony agreed with prosecutors that Campbell was more than a 'messenger boy' but that he was indeed still a low-level player.

The judge also said that there had been some 'non-exculpatory duress' as proven by a high-ranking cartel member calling him a 'mutt' in a message where they also suggested Campbell should be killed.

'David has to get knocked, this mutt, no matter what happens,' the message read.

Campbell was extradited back to Sydney. He will be eligible for parole in 2028

Judge Mahony added that Campbell had 'myriad opportunities' to report any cartel threats to the police which he did not take advantage of in the three months he was involved with the syndicate.

'His voluntary act of travelling to NZ for the first meeting, his continuing engagement in the encrypted messages and volunteering to go to Belgrade,' he said.

'His acquisition of a firearm in Belgrade and also the ample opportunity he had to go to the authorities during the period of some three months.'

Campbell's original 22-year recommended sentence was reduced to 18 years due to the duress he was under and the harsh prison conditions that he faced after his extradition during the Covid-19 pandemic.

With time already served Campbell will be eligible for parole in July 2028.

Waters was sentenced to 20 years in jail in April with a non-parole period of 12 years after pleading guilty to participating in a conspiracy to possess cocaine.

Arnold was sentenced to 27 years in jail with a non-parole period of 19 years in 2020 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.
Police are working to determine baby's cause of death and 'developmental stage'

Baby cried for 'five seconds' after birth and then died, mother told investigators

The University of Tampa student who dumped her newborn baby's body in a garbage can last week gave birth in the dormitory bathroom, it has emerged.

The mother, 19, told police the baby girl cried for 'approximately five seconds' after she gave birth in a shared bathroom on Saturday, newly released court documents show. The infant reportedly stopped crying after she held the child to her chest.

The student, who is not being named because she has not been charged with a crime, then laid the baby down on a towel and checked for a heartbeat, but allegedly could not feel one, according to the affidavit obtained by The Tampa Bay Times.

She told police she rinsed the baby off, wrapped her in a towel, and set her on the floor while she napped for about an hour. When she woke up, the baby still did not show signs of life, so she placed it in the trash can and went back to sleep.

The infant's remains were discovered in trash bag in McKay Hall, a dormitory used by first year students, just before 7pm on Sunday. Investigators are working to determine the child's cause of death and her 'developmental stage'.

The mother, who claimed she had not had a period in about a year, told police she didn't know she was pregnant, but also admitted she 'may have been in denial', the affidavit states.

The infant's remains were discovered in trash bag in McKay Hall, (pictured) a dormitory used by first year students, just before 7pm on Sunday

The mother, who claimed she had not had a period in about a year, told police she didn't know she was pregnant, but also admitted she 'may have been in denial', the affidavit states. Pictured: News coverage

Pictured: News coverage showing a City of Tampa police vehicle

Campus security contacted emergency responders around 3.30pm Saturday after receiving reports that a 19-year-old student possibly suffered a miscarriage, a search warrant made public Thursday has revealed.

Some residents in McKay Hall claimed they heard what sounding like a baby crying in a dorm room.

EMS responded to the call, but paramedics ultimately cleared it after the woman claimed blood found in the common bathroom was from her menstruation, according to the affidavit.

Students in the dorm reported seeing a woman holding what appeared to be a bundled up towel on Saturday and provided security with what they thought was a 'suspicious' looking trash bag the next day.

The security guard opened the bag and saw the torso of an apparently dead baby, the documents state.

Police responded to the campus again on Sunday just before 7pm after receiving a call 'advising that campus security was on scene with a deceased fetus in a bag.'

The mother told investigators that she started to feel nauseous on Saturday morning and ended up giving birth in the bathroom between two adjourning dorm rooms later that day.

Police have not said if the woman will be criminally charged.

A university spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'The University of Tampa is cooperating with the Tampa Police Department on the investigation and is offering counseling and resources to the campus community.'

The University of Tampa is a private university with around 10,500 students attending in addition to staff of nearly 1,000.

The spring semester officially wrapped up today after classes having ended on Monday. The school's graduation ceremony set for tomorrow.

The incident prompted the university on Monday to send a message to the campus community stating that as more details emerge students 'may have a wide variety of emotional responses to this event.'

The university community was provided a list of resources including on-campus counseling, a 24-hour crisis line and the employment assistance program for staff to help cope with the situation.

The incident at the University of Tampa occurred just days after Florida's abortion ban went into effect. The law bans abortions after six-weeks, which is before many women know they are pregnant.

Campus security contacted emergency responders around 3.30pm Saturday after receiving reports that a 19-year-old student possibly suffered a miscarriage, a search warrant made public Thursday has revealed. Pictured: News coverage

Some residents in McKay Hall claimed they heard what sounding like a baby crying in a dorm room. Pictured: News coverage

Florida's top court last month cleared the way for a six-week abortion ban. It also said at the time that a ballot measure legalizing abortion until viability could be voted on this November.

The US Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022 opened the door for Florida and other states to set their own abortion laws.

Abortion access is now almost non-existent in the south. Florida had been a refuge for abortion-seekers from states such as Alabama and Georgia until the ban passed.

In 2023, about 7,700 of some 84,000 abortions performed in Florida were for out-of-state residents, nearly 60 per cent higher than two years earlier, state data shows.

About half of the state's 50 clinics operate independently from larger groups such as Planned Parenthood. Several have previously told reporters that they do not know how long they can remain open.

Expectant mothers in need of assistance can seek help by contacting the Florida Department of Health, The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay or The National Safe Haven Alliance Hotline.

The state's Safe Haven law also allows parents to anonymously surrender an unharmed infant, aged seven days old or younger, at any hospital or fire and EMS station.
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach have shared their sympathy after ABC's weatherman was fired from the network for his alleged temper.

Rob Marciano, 55, exited his position as meteorologist for ABC News and Good Morning America last month - which was confirmed by PEOPLE on April 30.

Marciano frequently butted heads with his predecessor Ginger Zee, who 'brought out the worst in him.' The 55-year-old had joined GMA in 204 to take over Zee's role after she was promoted to the daily set to replace chief meteorologist Sam Champion.

The weatherman engaged in a 'screaming match' with a producer at 'GMA' the week before he was fired, according to the Daily Beast.

On Holmes and Robach's most recent episode of their show, Amy & T.J. Podcast, the pair defended Marciano and his alleged temper - citing their own problems with the network. The couple were ousted by ABC and dismissed from GMA because of their scandalous affair.

On Tuesday, Rob Marciano (pictured) was fired from ABC News, two years after he was yanked off air for 'anger issues'

T.J. Holmes (left) and Amy Robach (right) have shared their sympathy after ABC's weatherman was fired from the network for his alleged temper

An anonymous media executive said Marciano and his former co-worker, Good Morning America meteorologist Ginger Zee (pictured), had a rocky relationship

'It's a tough situation,' agreed Robach, 51. 'We have walked down that road and it's not an easy one... And I think he might still be going through a divorce. So we know what it's like to have your entire life upended, career and personal life  And we both have known Rob for a long time.'

Holmes revealed that someone recently reminded the couple that 'nobody leaves ABC News in a pretty fashion.'

Marciano and his wife of 11 years, Eryn, filed for divorce in June 2021. The pair share two children together: Daughter Madelynn, 12, and son Mason, 6.

Holmes described Marciano as 'one of the best guys I've ever seen in the field covering weather,' and said that he didn't 'know all the details' of the reason behind his departure.

READ MORE: ABC NEWS WEATHERMAN ROB MARCIANO OUSTED AFTER 'ANGER ISSUES'

Rob Marciano was fired from ABC News two years after he was yanked off air for anger management issues Advertisement

'Whatever it is, we hate to see somebody who's been a friend and colleague for a long time end up in this place, this position to be talked about the way he's being talked about to some degree,' Holmes said.

'We do know what it's like to have those headlines, to be the subject of clickbait,' continued Robach. 'And that's a tough position for anyone to be going through, especially someone who is a father of two.

'I know how much he loves his kids. He talks about them all the time. So it's just tough to see those headlines almost, for the sake of his family, his kids, him, all of that. So our heart goes out to him.'

'I do applaud all the work he has bravely done over the last decade or so, and we wish him the very best,' added Robach.

Marciano appeared on Good Morning America until he disappeared in March 2022 during the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Eryn Marciano.

He was 'banned' from the studio after an incident with a female colleague and made multiple colleagues 'feel uncomfortable' around him.

After a month off the air he was shuffled to ABC's World News Tonight, which shoots from a different studio, and reported from the field.

However, he was fired on Tuesday after two years of exile from the flagship morning show, the New York Post reported.

Why he was dumped now is unknown and neither he nor ABC commented.

Marciano's last report was published on Sunday, a 'reporter's notebook' from Shreveport, Louisiana, a year after a huge storm that now reads like his epitaph.

He was reposting ABC News weather content on his Instagram stories on Tuesday morning, indicating the firing may have been sudden.

Marciano was initially suspended for a month, but GMA executive producer Simone Swink kept him banned from the studio indefinitely.

'He was found to have done something  that was improper, but he was punished for it, and they still haven't let him return,' a source told the Post last year.

Marciano (pictured) appeared on Good Morning America until he disappeared in March 2022 during the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Eryn Marciano

Marciano frequently butted heads with his predecessor Ginger Zee (pictured), who 'brought out the worst in him'

Marciano appeared on Good Morning America until he disappeared in March 2022 during the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Eryn Marciano (pictured)

Eryn Marciano filed for divorce on June 18, 2021, and they are co-parenting their children Madelynn, 12, and Mason, 6

Holmes and Robach launched their podcas with iHeartRadio on December 5, 2023.

DailyMail.com exclusively exposed the pair's romance on November 30, 2022, and revealed that they had been locked in a passionate relationship for six months - despite both being married to their respective spouses for the past 12 years.

The podcast debuted exactly one year after ABC News President Kim Godwin put the pair on hiatus from their roles as GMA3 co-anchors because of their scandalous workplace affair.

Holmes created a TikTok account the month after unveiling his new podcast with Robach, which he used to complain about his journalism career being 'upended'.

Holmes uploaded his very first video to the platform on Wednesday as he said he was 'embarrassingly behind' in joining the social media trend.

He went on to 'reintroduce' himself to the internet as he said: 'And it's the career- the 25 plus year career in journalism that was upended about a year ago when some aspect of my personal life, including who I'm dating, became tabloid fodder.'
Horrifying dashcam footage shows the moment a jealous ex torched a deaf pregnant mother's home in a bid to kill her and her daughter because she met a Muslim man and converted to Islam.

Harry Owusu-Manu, 39, has now been jailed for life for attempted murder with a minimum of 22 years behind bars.

Dashcam footage from the early hours of April 25 2023 taken from Owusu-Manu's van captured him walking towards his ex's flat in Battersea, south London, to start a blaze that tore through his victim's flat while she was inside.

The victim, who is deaf and was pregnant at the time, along with her young daughter had to be rescued by firefighters. They were then rushed to hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

Investigators found Owusu-Manu had set light to a doormat and forced it under the woman's door. He tried to cover his tracks by spray painting the lens of a nearby CCTV camera.

Harry Owusu-Manu (pictured),39, has now been jailed for life for attempted murder after he torched his pregnant ex-girlfriend's home in a jealous.

Dashcam footage from the early hours of April 25 2023 taken from Owusu-Manu's van captured him walking towards his ex's flat in Battersea, south London , to start a blaze that tore through his victim's flat while she was inside

However, officers quickly identified the van and traced his movements from his home address to his ex-girlfriend's address.

He had previously carried out a recce at the woman's flat in the days leading up to the fire.

The footage also showed the Owusu-Manu attempting to dispose of the clothes he wore when he started the fire.

Owusu-Manu, of New Kent Road, Southwark, was convicted by an Old Bailey jury of two counts of attempted murder following a five week trial at the Old Bailey.

He was also convicted of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life, religiously aggravated stalking and having a lock knife in a public place.

Judge Rebecca Poulet, KC ordered Owusu-Manu should serve a minimum of 22 years.

The judge said: 'Your intention was to kill your ex-partner and her daughter who lived in a flat on the 16th floor.

'Cell-site analysis revealed that you had made several nocturnal visits to the building in recent weeks to prepare for this attack.'

'You planned to set fire to her home at a time you knew that she and her child would be present and, very likely, asleep.'

Judge Rebecca Poulet, KC ordered Owusu-Manu should serve a minimum of 22 years. The judge said: 'Your intention was to kill your ex-partner and her daughter who lived in a flat on the 16th floor'

Footage also shows Owusu-Manu leaving the scene

She continued: 'You knew that she was profoundly deaf, as are you. This fact meant that she was in even greater danger than a hearing person.

'You also knew the layout of her flat, which meant that you knew that she would have no possible means of escape.

'Fortunately, her child woke up and started crying. Her mother was woken by special alarm that vibrated under her pillow. She honestly thought that she was going to be burned alive with her child in her arms. She thought she would have to jump from the 16th floor.'

According to one of the fire fighters, they 'undoubtedly saved the lives of the mother and her daughter' and were 'only just in time to do so.'

'The offence was partly motivated by religious hostility', said the judge.

The court heard evidence of another arson attack allegedly carried out by him against the same woman in 2009.

'I am satisfied to the criminal standard that it was carried out by you,' the judge said.

He also assaulted a woman in 2015, for which he was issued with a restraining order.

The judge concluded he poses a threat to members of the public, particularly women.

'Other women who you are in a relationship with, who you are annoyed with for whatever reason would be at significant risk of harm by the commission of further offences.'

Owusu-Manu was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years before he can apply for parole.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said: 'Since he set fire to my home, every aspect of my life has been marred by significant upheaval and distress.'

'I honestly thought that I would be burned alive. My mind was occupied by the thought that I would lose my child right in front of my eyes. and that I would never see my unborn child.'

After Owusu-Manu started the blaze his victim, who is deaf and was pregnant at the time, along with her young daughter had to be rescued by firefighters. In a victim impact statement, the woman said: 'Since he set fire to my home, every aspect of my life has been marred by significant upheaval and distress'

'I thought about my family, and about never seeing them again. The greatest loss is of a sense of safety and confidence. I never feel completely safe anymore.'

'I am so sad that I am unable to be the happy, confident mum that I was before the fire.'

Detective Constable Megan Gittins said: 'It is no exaggeration to say Harry Owusu-Manu made his ex-partner's life a misery with his behaviour. The victim's home and new baby items including clothes, cot and toys were all destroyed.

'Owusu-Manu refused to accept that she did not want to be in a relationship with him anymore and set about causing her physical and mental harm.

'He began posting derogatory and Islamophobic stories on Instagram but his behaviour soon escalated when he attempted to murder not just his ex-partner but her young daughter and unborn child. He also showed extreme disregard for the lives of other residents who could have been seriously injured by his dangerously misguided drive for revenge.

'Owusu-Manu is a terrifying example of the threat women can face for simply wanting to end a relationship.

'Throughout this process Owusu-Manu changed his account numerous times. Including claiming he was at the location to stop someone else starting the fire. These attempts to obscure the truth have been discredited. His lies have drawn out this process and delayed the justice that the victim deserves.'
Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson was seen running away from reporters after a prayer service on Thursday.

Johnson, who was elected mayor last year, was attending a National Day of Prayer service.

Aides took Johnson out into the ally where his car was waiting, NBC News reported.

Reporters attempted to ask the Mayor about the murder of Chicago Police officer Luis Huesca but he refused to stop, instead running towards his chauffeured car.

Huesca, 30, was shot dead during a a brutal carjacking while on his way home from work last month.

NEW VIDEO: @ChicagosMayor RUNS from me and another reporter as we tried to ask him about the arrest in the death of Officer Luis Huesca.



He did not comment. As you see he drove off.



More on this at 4 on @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/oFj7YfIRjP  Darius Johnson (DJ) (@DariusJohnsonTV) May 2, 2024

Chicago 's Mayor Brandon Johnson was seen running away from reporters after a prayer service on Thursday

Reporters attempted to ask the Mayor about the murder of Chicago Police officer Luis Huesca but he refused to stop

Huesca served as a Chicago Police officer for six years and was just two days shy of his 31st birthday.

A suspect was finally arrested on Wednesday evening, Chicago Police said in a statement.

'Xavier L. Tate Jr. was taken into custody by members of the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force this evening in Glendale Heights for the murder of CPD Officer Luis Huesca,' the statement read.

Adding: 'The investigation continues and no further information is available at this time.

'We ask that the people of this city continue to support the Huesca family by keeping them in your prayers as they continue to mourn the loss of a beloved son, brother and uncle.'

The 22-year-old is accused of using a 40-caliber handgun to shoot dead Huesca on April 21.

Mayor Johnson caused outrage after allegedly attempting to attend Huesca's funeral after being asked not to by his family.

On Monday, hundreds of people attended funeral services for the fallen officer.

Luis Huesca, 30, was shot multiple times in the Gage Park neighborhood on April 21 and was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center

Mayor Brandon Johnson (pictured) tried to attend the funeral of murdered Chicago police officer Luis Huesca despite being told by the family to stay away, reports say

On Monday, hundreds of people attended funeral services for the fallen officer Huesca, who was shot and killed during a brutal carjacking while on his way home from work last week

Johnson initially said he would attend the funeral as per the schedule released on Sunday night, but notified reporters at the last minute that he would not be present.

The victim's family have expressed frustration that it took so long to apprehend Huesca's killer and are angry at Johnson for his progressive stances, which they claim is worsening violent crime across Windy City.

The change to Johnson's plans came after Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza wrote in an early morning post on X that Huesca's mother asked her to tell Johnson that 'he was unwelcome' at the funeral.
Trinity College Dublin has fined its Students' Union 214,000 (180,000) over pro-Palestine protests that blocked visitor access to the historic Book of Kells.

The union was told this morning that it has until the end of the month to pay the mammoth penalty.

Currently housed on campus in the Trinity College Library, the Book of Kells is open to visitors seven days a week for a small fee.

The 9th-century gospel manuscript has been routinely blockaded since September, however, including during protests organised by the union in support of Palestine.

Students have also blocked tourists from visiting the national treasure during protests over fee increases for masters courses.

In an email sent to student union officers, the university cited five dates on which protests were cited for 'partial losses' of college income.

Trinity College Dublin has fined its Students' Union 214,000 (180,000) over pro-Palestine protests that blocked visitor access to the historic Book of Kells

Currently housed on campus in the Trinity College Library, the Book of Kells is open to visitors seven days a week for a small fee

Communications officer for the students' union Aiesha Wong said that students were blocking access to the relic because Trinity has 'refused to acknowledge our pleas over raising Masters fees and on cutting ties to Israel'.

She said the union had been 'politely asking for meetings, advocating at advisory boards and writing petitions' before the decision to protest'.

'The main source of actual direct action we can do is to target their finances, which is through the Book of Kells,' said Wong.

'We've stated very explicitly to the college that if they don't raise the Masters fees and openly condemn the genocide happening in Gaza, we will happily let the Book of Kells be.'

A Trinity College spokesperson said the college 'cannot survive solely on Government funding and depends on other sources of income'.

'Student protests involving blockades of the Book of Kells Experience has had a negative financial impact as visitors could not enter,' they told The Journal.

'Trinity has an obligation to protect the Book of Kells which is a national treasure.

'The university supports students' right to protest within the rules of the university.'

The university added in a further statement that 'any loss of income at the Book of Kells directly affects our ability to deliver services for our students'.

The 9th-century gospel manuscript has been routinely blockaded since September, however, including during protests organised by the union in support of Palestine

Their decision to fine the students union is an attempt to recoup what they estimate to be their total financial losses incurred by the disruptive protests.

Meanwhile, the union also claims that the hefty fine will impact the welfare of students by siphoning around a third of their annual budget, which largely comes from student enrolment fees.

Ms Wong said the union is 'definitely open to having dialogue with the provost and with the senior management'.

'The last thing we'd like to do is take over 200,000 raised from students away from their services and from our ability to help them,' she told The Journal.

'If we can at any point work with them to have some sort of resolution that doesn't involve taking all this money away from students that would be in our best interest.'

She told MailOnline: 'The decision to levy a 0.2 million euro fine on students for protesting against not only the increase in fees, but also the genocide currently happening in Gaza sets a dangerous precedent for free speech.

'By financially penalising the Union for advocating for these interests, not only does it cripple our ability to provide student services across the college such as the Student Hardship fund, the Transition fund as well as other student-based initiatives, it is also an attempt to intimidates students from voicing their concerns with the college.'
Paul, 48, is now suing two exes and six other women for defamation, claiming they hacked his social media and impersonated him on phone calls

John Krasinski's wellness guru brother is suing two exes and six other women for defamation, among other claims for allegedly calling him an 'untrustworthy charlatan' and 'sexual predator,' DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Paul Krasinski, 48, further accuses the 'conspirators' of hacking his social media, impersonating him on phone calls and using cameras to monitor his property in an extraordinary 20-page complaint.

The defendants include former flame Danielle Cyr DeFrias, who is accused of posting 'malicious and fabricated claims' on a popular Facebook page entitled 'Are We Dating the Same Guy'.

'This is me with my lifelong friend, Paul Krasinski, brother to the famous actor, John,' she allegedly wrote under a picture post. 'Paul is a master manipulator and narcissistic sociopath. Ladies beware.'

John Krasinski's brother Paul is a tech CEO-turned wellness guru who faces a slew of unsavory allegations. John Krasinski, Paul Krasinski and wife Emily Blunt are pictured in 2015

One of the defendants includes Paul's ex Danielle Cyr DeFrias who posted on Facebook that he is a 'master manipulator' and 'narcissistic sociopath'

A second ex-girlfriend, the former NBC Boston anchor Jackie Bruno, is said to have written to school officials in Plymouth, Massachusetts, telling them divorced dad-of-two Krasinski was 'dangerous and uses people'

Mom-of-two Cyr DeFrias also allegedly told the group's 65,600 members that she had heard thatformer tech CEO Krasinski infected a prior romantic partner with an STI.

A second ex-girlfriend, the former NBC Boston anchor Jackie Bruno, is said to have written to school officials in Plymouth, Massachusetts, telling them divorced dad-of-two Krasinski was 'dangerous and uses people.'

Both 'smears' were part of a broader civil conspiracy involving the defendants and six unnamed Jane Does to trash Krasinski's reputation and damage his Cape Cod Bay wellness retreat, The Farmhouse, according to his complaint.

'Over the course of the last six months, the defendants have engaged in a highly coordinated operation with the singular goal of humiliating, defaming and destroying Paul Krasinski and his charitable endeavor, The Farmhouse,' it says.

The complaint was filed in Plymouth Superior Court Thursday afternoon, a day after DailyMail.com approached Krasinski for comment over allegations about his personal and professional conduct.

Cyr DeFrias, 48, and Bruno, 39, were among a group of women DailyMail.com had interviewed and said that Krasinski had mistreated them, accusations he maintains are false.

The two were unaware of his filing, which seeks 'substantial' damages, when DailyMail.com approached them for comment late Thursday.

'Jackie Bruno and Danielle Cyr DeFrias have no knowledge of any lawsuit filed by Paul Krasinski naming them as of today's date,' the pair said in a joint statement.

'They each stand strongly behind their stories, which are supported by facts including statements made to both of them in writing by Paul Krasinski that they will share with the court, if served with his alleged complaint, in the upcoming days.'

Krasinski ran a successful software company until he bought a six-bed family home in 2021 and set about transforming the $1.75 million property into a coastal 'changemaker' campus.

Paul owns The Farmhouse, which is billed as a chic rustic sanctuary where creatives and changemakers hunker down in an unspoiled corner of New England to 'resolve the world's most pressing problems'

It's alleged that after their breakup last May, Cyr DeFrias posted on The Farmhouse Instagram page: 'The Farmhouse is anything but a safe and supporting environment. If you know you know'

Danielle Cyr DeFrias is accused in the suit of posting 'malicious and fabricated claims' on a popular Facebook page entitled 'Are We Dating the Same Guy'

'In responding to comments to her post, Ms. Cyr DeFrias suggested falsely that Mr. Krasinski had transmitted a sexually transmitted infection to a prior romantic partner and that he 'hurts the people closest to him,' Krasinski's suit says

According to a screenshot from the lawsuit, Bruno messaged a high school senior that works at The Farmhouse to warn them to be 'careful' of Krasinski

Some 50 miles from where he and The Office star John, 44, grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, The Farmhouse was intended as a 'safe space' where kids could learn about everything from animals and agriculture to podcasting and cooking.

But the non-profit made headlines for the wrong reasons last month after it was hit with cease-and-desist orders for violating fire codes and hosting educational events without a permit.

DailyMail.com has verified that the March 26 letters, issued by the Town of Plymouth's Department of Inspectional Services and its fire department, are genuine.

But Krasinski's suit claims that Bruno, an Emmy-Award winning journalist and former Miss Massachusetts USA - arranged for the 'negative' stories to be published to smear The Farmhouse as a 'sham charity'.

Bruno and Krasinski had been dating for a month when she attended a film festival Krasinski hosted for Plymouth middle and high school students. Days later he terminated their relationship, the complaint states

The pair had been dating for a month when she attended a film festival Krasinski hosted for Plymouth middle and high school students. Days later he terminated their relationship, the complaint states.

Bruno subsequently wrote to 17 school officials and other attendees, telling them that 'upon learning more about Paul's true character we have broken up and I'm very saddened to inform you that much of what he tells people is built on lies,' according to Krasinski's lawsuit.

She warned that she 'didn't want children or other women hurt' and that they should 'beware.'

'All of Ms. Bruno's statements  except her allusion to the fact that Mr. Krasinski had terminated their relationship  were false and defamatory and were either knowingly or recklessly false when made,' the complaint adds.

Bruno was 'parroting' similar comments from Cyr DeFrias, whom Krasinski claims he was 'briefly romantically involved with' in 2023, the suit says.

It's alleged that after their breakup last May, the realtor posted on The Farmhouse Instagram page: 'The Farmhouse is anything but a safe and supporting environment. If you know you know.'

Cyr DeFrias followed up with text messages warning Krasinski he would soon be hearing from Dateline NBC investigative reporter Keith Morrison, vowing also to expose his minor son as a 'creep'.

The reference to Morrison 'was a threat to falsely and baselessly 'expose' Mr Krasinski and/or his young son as sexual predators,' the complaint claims.

His ex Jackie Bruno commented on The Plymouth Independent's post, saying what Krasinski did was 'deplorable,' according to the lawsuit. Cyr DeFrias followed up saying, 'this is just the tip of the iceberg'

Cyr Defrias wrote on Facebook, 'After dating him for several months last year, I learned that he is an untrustworthy charlatan who preys on people who work and/or donate their time and resources towards humanitarian causes'

In December, Cyr DeFrias allegedly went on Facebook to leave derogatory comments in the group 'Are We Dating the Same guy | Boston / Cambridge'.

'Ms. Cyr DeFrias wrote  that Mr. Krasinski was a 'master manipulator,' 'narcissistic sociopath,' and advised the group, 'Ladies beware,' accompanied by a photo of her and Mr. Krasinski together,' the complaint says.

'Ms. Cyr DeFrias attempted to amplify her Facebook post and her personal standing in the group by explicitly identifying Mr. Krasinski's connection to a 'famous' family member.

'In responding to comments to her post, Ms. Cyr DeFrias suggested falsely that Mr. Krasinski had transmitted a sexually transmitted infection to a prior romantic partner and that he 'hurts the people closest to him'.

Krasinski claims that in further online posts Cyr DeFrias branded him an 'untrusty charlatan' and wrote: 'My friends and I only talk s**t about people who deserve it. We are not gossips, we're vigilantes.'

The reference to vigilantism indicated a 'spiteful desire for revenge,' Krasinski says, demanding damages for defamation and emotional distress.

The 6ft 9in graduate of Brown University and Columbia Business School also points the finger at six more Jane Does who have 'engaged in additional unlawful conduct with the aim of destroying Mr Krasinski and The Farmhouse.'

These activities included 'contacting the Internal Revenue Service posing as Mr. Krasinski' and 'making reports to the Department of Children and Family Services falsely reporting that Mr. Krasinski's son is engaged in inappropriate misconduct'.

The conspirators installed cameras on adjacent property to monitor The Farmhouse's activities and hacked The Farmhouse's Instagram page, he claims, with the sole goal of 'spreading vicious lies and misinformation.'

The Farmhouse was recognized as a charity by the Internal Revenue Service in October 2021 and qualified for a federal tax exemption.

Initially, it operated as an Airbnb and bougie wedding venue, sparking anger among locals who created a 'Stop The Noise' website to register complaints about the music.

Krasinski set out to turn a $1.75 million family home on Cape Cod Bay into The Farmhouse in 2021

A March 26 letter from the Town of Plymouth's Department of Inspectional Services warned, however, that it was unlawful for Krasinski to use his single-family dwelling for public use without a building permit, giving him 30 days to submit the paperwork

By 2023 school students were regularly coming onsite to take yoga classes, forage for micro herbs and learn how to use podcasting equipment.

A March 26 letter from the Town of Plymouth's Department of Inspectional Services warned, however, that it was unlawful for Krasinski to use his single-family dwelling for public use without a building permit, giving him 30 days to submit the paperwork.

'Cease and Desist all activities associated with this notice including: Immediately cease all activities and use associated with the public/business/educational activities within any building or structure on the property,' the letter stated.

The Fire Department wrote the same day to warn that the facility was in violation of fire safety codes and had 'failed to secure the proper licenses and permits to operate this type of occupancy at your private residence.'

In a statement, Krasinski's attorney David Rich told DailyMail.com the defendants claims against Krasinski: 'reflect an attempt to preempt and distract from the significant, documented legal claims which have been advanced against them.'
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are protesting against the killing and eating of cicadas - a newly emerging delicacy in an insectarium's cafe menu.

The Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans announced cicada-based food items such as a green salad with apple, almonds, blueberry vinaigrette and the roasted insect for its 'Bug Appetit' cafe last month.

But since the insectarium's new menu addition has been revealed, the animal rights nonprofit has vehemently protested against what they call the murdering of insects.

On May 2, PETA activists held a pop-up 'humanitarium' exhibit featuring people dressed as giant cicadas.

The Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans announced cicadas based food items such as a green salad with apple, almonds, blueberry vinaigrette and the roasted insect for its 'Bug Appetit' cafe last month

But since the insectarium's new addition has been declared, PETA has vehemently protested against the murdering of the insects

On May 2, PETA activists held a pop-up 'humanitarium' exhibit featuring people dressed as giant cicadas

The humans dressed as insects were seen feasting on a 'realistic spread of organic, free-range human flesh' with signs reading, 'What if the tables were turned?'

In a press release, the activist group explained, 'The eye-catching exhibition will remind viewers that insects are thinking, feeling beings who  like humans  dont want to die.'

Tracy Reiman, PETA Executive Vice President said: 'By killing and cooking insects while purporting to educate people about them, the Audubon Insectarium is being as hypocritical as the Audubon Zoo would be if it served burgers made of lions and tigers.

The humans dressed as insects were seen feasting on a 'realistic spread of organic, free-range human flesh' with sings reading, 'What if the tables were turned?'

In a press release, the activist group explained: 'The eye-catching exhibition will remind viewers that insects are thinking, feeling beings wholike humansdont want to die'

Amanda Brody said at the protest, 'Eating insects at an insectarium is like chowing down on a poodle burger at a dog show'

Cicadas are usually found in tropical and temperate areas globally and are mostly seen in deserts, grasslands and forests

READ MORE: HORRIFIED LOCALS CALL 911 AS CICADAS TERRORIZE US

Fact-box text Cicadas across the Southeast and Midwest will be arriving in the trillions Advertisement

'Cicadas feel pain  just as humans do  and PETA encourages everyone to show them and all other sentient beings compassion by keeping animals off their plates, whether they have four legs, six legs, or none at all.'

One of the activist present at the protest also drew comparisons and explained the role cicadas play in nature

Amanda Brody told WWL: 'Eating insects at an insectarium is like chowing down on a poodle burger at a dog show.

'Cicadas are remarkable individuals who can keep track of time by tasting small changes in fluid and measuring the soil's temperature.

'They spend 13 to 17 years underground and emerge for their one chance at a life in the outside world.'

Cicadas are usually found in tropical and temperate areas globally and are mostly seen in deserts, grasslands and forests.

They have long been used in folk medicines, commonly as religious and monetary symbols, and as an important source of food for humans along with many other organisms.
Labour jitters were spreading over Sadiq Khan's prospects in London today amid claims of low turnout and a Gaza backlash.

Polls ahead of the election yesterday suggested that the incumbent was on track for a comfortable victory over Tory rival Susan Hall.

The final surveys gave him a lead of between 10 and 22 points. But rumours have been circulating today that it could be significantly closer, with senior figures pointing to the impact of Gaza on other results across England.

Verification of the votes is happening now, with turnout numbers due later and the count tomorrow.

Mr Khan faced intense scrutiny over his record on law and order during the campaign, after a 14-year-old schoolboy become the latest victim of knife crime in the capital.

Daniel Anjorin was killed just moments after leaving his house when he was attacked in a sword rampage in Hainault that saw four other people, including two police officers, seriously wounded.

Labour jitters were spreading over Sadiq Khan 's prospects in London today amid claims of low turnout and a Gaza backlash

Polls ahead of the election yesterday suggested that the incumbent was on track for a comfortable victory over Tory rival Susan Hall

The final surveys gave Mr Khan a lead of between 10 and 22 points

Home Secretary James Cleverly was among those slamming the Mayor's perceived failures, with calls for every front-line officer to be equipped with a Taser.

Ms Hall appealed for Londoners to take their 'last chance to vote for a Mayor who will get a grip on crime and make people safe, stop the ULEZ expansion, halt Khan's plans for pay-per-mile and build more family homes that people can afford'.

Mr Khan was one of the first Labour politicians to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but Sir Keir's strong support for Israel's right to self-defence caused anger among many supporters.

There has been evidence of that in the results today, with Labour losing overall control of Oldham council after independents claimed seats.

One senior ally of Ms Khan told MailOnline that it is 'going to be close'. 'The polls were rubbish,' they added. 'London is exceptionally difficult to poll.'

Another political veteran, who still believes Mr Khan will win, pointed out that Labour has not been performing well in local council by-elections.

Asked on Sky News this afternoon about the jitters, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting - MP for Ilford North - said: 'We've always feared this race will be close.'

He highlighted that Mr Khan only won the first round of voting by 5 per cent in 2021. Since then the government has changed the voting system to first past the post, meaning Mr Khan will not benefit from second preferences of Greens and Lib Dems.

'We were warning Londoners you know, don't take the risk of waking up with a Conservative mayor,' Mr Streeting said.

He went on: 'It is too early to say yet what we think the result will be, verification of votes are taking place today the counting will be tomorrow.

'I mean, based on what I saw in my own constituency and bearing in mind the last election a few years ago - Sadiq lost every ward in Iford North bar one - I felt that there was a bit more support for him this time in my constituency.

Asked on Sky News this afternoon about the jitters, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting - MP for Ilford North - said: 'We've always feared this race will be close.'

Keir Starmer and his allies are awaiting news of the London mayoral election tomorrow

'There are people who are angry with him about Ulez we sort of had that argument of following the Uxbridge by election.

'And, you know, I didn't agree with him, but he stuck to his guns, stuck to his convictions. Fair enough.'

Mr Streeting hit out at racial abuse suffered by Mr Khan, but acknowledged that Gaza could be a factor in the election.

'There's no doubt looking at some of the results across the country that have already come in that Gaza has been an issue,' he said.

'And I say say that with great respect to voters who sent us a message on Gaza. So we'll have to wait and see where the results come in.'
A group of 11 British tourists who were injured in a shocking tour bus crash in Turkey were all members of the same family from Blackpool, it has been claimed on social media.

The passengers were thrown from the open-top tour vehicle upon impact in Turkey's southern Manavgat district on Thursday, local reports said.

One member of the family - a 53-year-old man - was left fighting for his life.

Pictures from the scene of the crash in the popular tourist destination showed the severely damaged vehicle overturned and leaning up against a large utility pole.

A second tour vehicle from the same company was parked down the road, amid reports that the overturned bus had crashed into the back of it before overturning. The second vehicle also appeared to be damaged at the rear.

According to local reports, passengers of the overturned bus had a 'water fight' with other tourists before the crash. It was not immediately clear from the Turkish reports what this entailed.

A group of British tourists have been injured in a shocking tour bus crash, with one 53-year-old man being left in a critical condition. Pictured: The aftermath of the crash

After learning of the crash, a woman saying she was a friend of the victims posted on Facebook to say that the 11 people injured were all from the same family.

'Please can every one of my family and friends say a prayer for all the strength in the world for this beautiful family,' the woman wrote, while sharing pictures of the family.

'All 11 have been in a really bad accident on holiday. Love you all so much. Wish I could be there for you,' she added.

In the images, the front of the tipped vehicle appeared to be crumpled, while damage was also done to the top of the bus, with handrails crushed against the pole.

One witness claimed the overturned tour bus smashed into the back of the other.

This caused it to swerve off the road and up a verge where it flipped over, they said, adding that the passengers were tossed out of their seats.

Pictures from the scene of the crash in the popular tourist destination showed the severely damaged vehicle overturned and leaning up against a utility pole, with a second tour vehicle from the same company parked down the road

Both vehicles were travelling at speed and it was fortunate that nobody was killed in the incident, the witness told Turkey's IHA broadcaster.

In addition to the 11 Brits, one Irish tourist was also injured, as were three staff working for the tour company, according to Turkish reports.

Several of the injured passengers required medical aid at the scene before being transported to nearby hospitals.

Footage from the scene carried by IHA showed people being treated while lying on the ground. Other passengers sat with blankets over their shoulders.

One woman was seen with a scratch over her face, clutching her head, as she was guided into the back of an ambulance.

Another man was seen being placed into an ambulance on a stretcher, while others were seen being treated on the tarmac.

The pink vehicle appeared to belong to tour company 'Panter Safari' which operates in and around Turkey's city of Antalya - 40 miles from the site of the crash.

The front of the vehicle appeared to be crumpled, while damage was also done to the top of the bus, with handrails crushed against the utility pole

According to its Facebook page, the company - with its Pink Panther branding - operates tours across the region for those wanting to explore the countryside.

It is one of several companies to offer tours in the picturesque Antalya Province found in south-west Turkey on the Mediterranean sea.

Turkish reports said police have launched an investigation into the incident.

In a statement to The Sun, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: 'We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals following an incident in Turkey, and are in contact with the local authorities.'
Move over California and New York, a new state is in contention for the 'most dysfunctional' in America.

Illinois is grappling with a string of issues which have triggered a rise in residents departing the state.

The state has struggled to add jobs and its public pension debt has ballooned to nearly $150 billion. Meanwhile, its population has declined, hurting tax income.

Conservative thinktanks have now grouped Illinois with other blue states like New York and California, which have also faced an exodus amid issues ranging from immigration to crime.

'Unemployment rates are very high; wage growth is lagging compared to most other states,' said Bryce Hill, the director of fiscal and economic research at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Hill told the Daily Caller: 'The Census Bureau has reported that residents are leaving the state en masse to the tune of hundreds of thousands every single year, so much so that the state's population has actually been declining for the past 10 years.

Illinois is grappling with a string of issues which have triggered a rise in residents departing the state - which has been touted as one of the 'most dysfunctional' in America. Pictured: Chicago, the most populous city in Illinois

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team Unit investigate in downtown Highland Park, Ill., on July 5, 2022, the day after a deadly mass shooting at a Fourth of July Parade

Tents used by the homeless sit along a subterranean sidewalk in downtown on April 22, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois

'So on any metric, quantitatively on outcomes, Illinois economy is lagging.'

Census Bureau data reveals the population fell by around 32,826 people in the year to July 2023. The population of 12,549,689 was also more than a quarter of a million less than in April 2020.

Illinois' pension debt also grew by $2.6 billion last year to reach $142.3 billion in unfunded liabilities, state data shows.

A September 2022 report by Equable said it has the second worst funded state pension in the country after Kentucky.

State accountants also project it will have a budget deficit of $891 million in the next fiscal year.

Governor J.B. Pritzker has defended his record in office and told a state of the state and budget address in February that his administration has 'grown Illinois' economy to over $1 trillion'.

Illinois' unemployment rate of 4.8 percent is also the fifth-highest in the country.

Governor J.B. Pritzker has defended his record in office and told a state of the state and budget address in February that his administration has 'grown Illinois' economy to over $1 trillion'

But Hill said the budget deficit coupled with migration out of the state will deepen the problems.

'So the state is projecting budget shortfalls for the next several years, absent any changes in spending or revenues, which is certainly affected by out migration,' he added.

'Migrants take over $10 billion worth of income with them out of state when we lose people due to domestic migration, so it certainly has an impact on not only the states pocketbooks but local tax revenues as well.

'But theyre not the root cause of the states budgetary stress, because the state also has another very large issue to contend with, which is unfunded pension liabilities that are eating into state and local government budgets and crowding out funding and taking up large sources of revenue.'

The situation in Illinois follows similar trends in New York and California, which have both lost hundreds of thousands of residents in recent years - with many of those relocating to low tax, red states like Florida and Texas.

US Census Bureau data published last October revealed California and New York combined lost nearly 1.4 million residents in 2022.

Florida gained some 249,064 people in the same period, while Texas had 174,261 more newcomers than those leaving.

A Chicago police officer detains a migrant near a shelter at the former Standard Club in Chicago on April 16, 2024

US Census Bureau data published last October revealed California and New York combined lost nearly 1.4 million residents in 2022. Overall, California recorded a net loss of 341,866 people, compared to 244,137 for New York

Overall, California recorded a net loss of 341,866 people, compared to 244,137 for New York.

Population experts have long studied America's people flows. Some explanations for interstate migration patterns are widely accepted.

Americans mostly relocate for better jobs, affordable housing, cheaper living costs, and to lower their tax bills.

Some move away from high crimes areas, homelessness, and the sight of drug addicts stumbling on the sidewalk - a growing issue in parts of California and Oregon.

Social problems have been a headache for officials in such cities as San Francisco and Portland.

William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution, a think tank, said Americans mostly hit the road for money.

'Interstate movers are motivated by employment, housing, and family reasons,' Frey told DailyMail.com.

The top relocation trends of recent years have seen New Yorkers flock to Florida and Californians choose Texas, he noted.
A Democrat lawmaker who was carjacked revealed that when she looked down the barrel she could only think about Congress' failures to address gun reform and how closing 'loopholes' and funding the ATF could have prevented her robbing.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Penn., represents south Philadelphia where the House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing Friday on crime in the city.

'Two and a half years ago, I was carjacked at gunpoint by three teenagers using a gun they brought from out of state,' Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Penn., said at the hearing.

'Obviously, it was scary to have a gun pointed at my chest,' Scanlon said.

'But as I looked down the barrel of that gun my mind raced thinking about all the ways Congress could have prevented that encounter.'

Scanlon was robbed of her car at gunpoint in FDR Park (pictured) following a meeting there. She was walking to her parked vehicle when she two men driving a dark-colored SUV approached her, demanded her keys and fled in her 2017 Acura MDX

Scanlon's car was located later on Wednesday night at the Christiana Mall, in Delaware. Police arrested five suspects inside the car

Scanlon was the victim of a high-profile 2021 carjacking by two teenagers that forced her to hand over her purse and keys, stranding her and a staffer.

'Closing loopholes to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them, including kids,' is one of the policies she floated Friday that could prevent carjackings.

'Giving ATF the funding that it needs to enforce gun trafficking laws,' was another idea.

She also said 'addressing the poverty trauma and social conditions that led to those kids picking up a gun in the first place,' could have helped too.

The Friday hearing was titled 'Victims of Violent Crime in Philadelphia' and brought together witnesses to testify about the city District Attorney Larry Krasner's 'pro-criminal policies embolden criminals at the expense of victims and Philadelphia residents.'

Democrats, like Scanlon, called the hearing a sham and likened it to a 'traveling circus.'

Republicans, however, have taken aim at policing in the city, saying crime has gone up as a result of defunded law enforcement and lax prosecution by local law officials.

Josiah Brown, who was sentenced to seven years for carjacking Scanlon, was on probation at the time of his arrest for armed robbery.

Previously, he had been arrested for a string of vehicle break-ins and had prior convictions for resisting arrest, disregarding a police officer and robbing a 7-Eleven.

Brown also admitted to carjacking another man outside of a Philadelphia convenience store.

Four other minors were also arrested in the case.

They were charged with receiving stolen property in a Delaware juvenile court.

The hearing featured testimony from Pauline and Joel Fitzgerald, the parents of Christopher Fitzgerald, a local cop who was shot and killed in the city last year.

Other family members of fallen law enforcement officers also testified, slamming DA Krasner.

Local criminals 'know that Krasner gives them a free pass,' Joel Fitzgerald testified.

'It's far from ok in the city,' he added. 'When the rule of law is not enforced, you have anarchy.'
The Conservatives are searching for a super Saturday shock in London tomorrow to rescue a disastrous local election campaign.

All Tory eyes will be on Susan Hall to see if she can pull off an upset in London and oust Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan in a result expected to be announced on Saturday afternoon.

Polls have give Mr Khan a significant lead over his Tory challenger Hall despite a backlash on crime and policing issues.

A final survey for Savanta yesterday indicated the gap was 10 points, while YouGov has put it as wide as 22 points.

However, many at Westminster expect the final result to be closer, as happened at the last elections three years ago.

Conservative hopes are also riding on a win - albeit narrow- for Tory mayor Andy Street in the West Midlands.

Most of the other mayoral votes expected to be declared from now on are in what should be safe Labour strongholds including Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire.

Tory contender Susan Hall went to a polling station in Hatch End, as she warned Londoners it is their 'last chance to vote for a Mayor who will get a grip on crime and make people safe' and scrap ULEZ

Sadiq Khan, who is hoping for a third term, took his dog along as he cast his ballot alongside wife Saadiya this morning

Conservative hopes are also riding on a win - albeit narrow- for Tory mayor Andy Street in the West Midlands.

England Local England Mayoral London Assembly London Mayoral Police & Crime

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Mr Khan has been facing intense scrutiny over his record on law and order, after a 14-year-old schoolboy become the latest victim of knife crime in the capital.

Daniel Anjorin was killed just moments after leaving his house when he was attacked in a sword rampage in Hainault that saw four other people, including two police officers, seriously wounded.

Home Secretary James Cleverly was among those slamming the Mayor's perceived failures, with calls for every front-line officer to be equipped with a Taser.

Estimated declaration times: Friday Councils: 5pm Basingstoke & Deane, Bradford, Cambridge, Coventry, Oxford, Runnymede, Tandridge, Worthing 5.30pm Rugby, Wolverhampton, Worcester 5.45pm Cherwell 6pm Mole Valley, North Hertfordshire, Reigate & Banstead, Stevenage, Tamworth 6.30pm Bristol, Elmbridge 7pm Dorset 8pm West Lancashire 10pm Gloucester SATURDAY Councils: 4pm North Tyneside, Stroud, Warrington Mayors: 12pm Liverpool City Region 1.30pm London* 2pm South Yorkshire 3pm West Midlands 3.15pm West Yorkshire 4pm Greater Manchester 5pm Salford Police & crime commissioners: 12pm Hertfordshire 2pm Thames Valley 2.30pm Warwickshire, West Midlands 3pm Cheshire, Dorset 3.30pm Merseyside 4pm Wiltshire SUNDAY Councils: 3pm Salford Police & crime commissioners: 3.30pm Sussex 4pm Kent Advertisement

Rishi Sunak put a brave face on grim elections today - as he was given a glimmer of hope with Labour conceding defeat in the Tees Valley mayoral battle.

As he tries to fend off a fresh coup bid from Tory rebels, the PM acknowledged that results so far were 'disappointing' but insisted Keir Starmer had still not sealed the deal.

Tory incumbent Ben Houchen is being installed for a third term after Labour sources acknowledged they had narrowly 'fallen short' of ousting him despite a 'significant swing'. Three years ago Lord Houchen secured a huge victory with 72 per cent of the vote, but this time he only received 53 per cent on a turnout of just over 30 per cent.

In his victory speech, the peer - a close ally of Boris Johnson said he was 'absolutely humbled' and would 'redouble' his work, without mentioning Mr Sunak. Afterwards he made clear he could 'work with' Sir Keir if he becomes PM. Asked why he had been the only candidate not wearing a party rosette at the count he said: 'I didn't have one and I forgot it.'

Along with signs that Andy Street is performing strongly in West Mids, the PM could have some much-needed relief after disaster in the Blackpool South by-election and a mounting bloodbath on councils. Polling guru Professor John Curtice said the Tories could be on track to lose 500 councillors and critics are already stepping up calls for Mr Sunak to go.

Labour's Chris Webb secured a massive 26 per cent swing in Blackpool South to become the newest MP in the Commons - and in a particularly alarming sign the Tory candidate barely managed to push Reform into third place, by just 117 votes. Visiting the constituency this morning flanked by Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer said voters wanted to 'turn the page' on the government.

It was the seventh parliamentary seat the Tories have lost in a by-election since Mr Sunak became PM in October 2022 - underlining that Sir Keir looks to be on track for Downing Street.

As English councils declared, Labour claimed a 'truly historic result' to take Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - from the Tories and end nearly a quarter-of-a century of Conservative control.

Sir Keir also saw wins in Hartlepool and made other gains in key general election battlegrounds Thurrock and Redditch as they enjoyed early success. Welwyn Hatfield - Grant Shapps' seat - remained under no overall control, but the Tories were reduced to the lowest number of seats ever. In Castle Point the party's eight councillors were wiped out.

In a bright spot, the party has managed to hold on to control of Harlow - which local MP Robert Halfon described as 'the biggest comeback since Lazarus'.

Labour also suffered woes of their own in Oldham, where the party lost overall control after independents picked up seats in an apparent backlash over the Gaza war.

Despite the good news in Tees Valley, Mr Sunak suffered a blow in his own back yard. Labour's David Skaith won the York and North Yorkshire mayoralty, including his Richmond constituency. The Opposition also triumphed in the North East mayoral race.
A 15-year-old boy who stabbed another teenager through the heart on the way home from school has been found guilty of murder.

Alfie Lewis, 15, was stabbed to death 'in full view' of pupils leaving a primary school in the Horsforth area of Leeds last November.

A schoolboy, who was 14 at the time, admitted stabbing Alfie with a 13cm-long kitchen knife he had brought from home but denied murder, claiming he was scared for his life when he pulled out the weapon.

On Friday, a jury of five men and seven women at Leeds Crown Court convicted him of the offence.

Opening the case to jurors last week, prosecutor Craig Hassall KC said Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the defendant attacked him.

Alfie Lewis, 15, (pictured) was stabbed to death 'in full view' of pupils leaving a primary school in the Horsforth area of Leeds last November

Alfie was stabbed to death a 13cm-long kitchen knife that a boy, 15, had brought from home

Witnesses recalled Alfie looking 'surprised and shocked' and saying to the defendant: 'What are you doing?' as the incident unfolded close to St Margaret's Primary School in Town Street, Horsforth, just before 3pm on November 7 2023.

The prosecutor said: 'Alfie did not get as far as meeting any of his friends that day.

'He was approached by (the defendant), and stabbed twice - once in the chest and once in the leg.

'He collapsed and died in the road close to the primary school in full view of scores of pupils leaving school and the people who were waiting to collect them.'

The prosecutor said a post-mortem examination revealed that the fatal stab injury was a 14cm deep wound to Alfie's chest which punctured his heart.

Mr Hassall told the jury at Leeds Crown Court: '(The defendant) then fled the scene, dropping the murder weapon in the road close to the primary school.'

He said all the witnesses were 'consistent' in saying that Alfie was 'not the aggressor' that day.

Alfie had been walking down the street to meet friends at the end of the school day when the boy stabbed him

Police at the scene where Alfie died last November

'Several of the witnesses speak of Alfie seeming surprised and shocked at what (the defendant) was doing,' Mr Hassall told the court.

'Several of them recall hearing Alfie ask of (the defendant): 'What are you doing?'

'None of the witnesses heard Alfie shouting at or threatening (the defendant).

'Insofar as any of the witnesses saw Alfie doing anything towards (the defendant), they describe him trying in vain to defend himself from (the defendant's) knife.'

The defendant, who cannot be named, told the jury he was scared of Alfie following two incidents in the months before.

The latter of these happened on Halloween when, according to the teenager, he walked past Alfie's house with a bag of fireworks and Alfie said to him: 'Give me the bag or something worse than last time is going to happen.'

The defendant said that, when he returned to school after a half-term break, he decided to take a knife from the kitchen drawer to protect himself.

Describing the incident on November 7, he told the jury he aimlessly swung the knife to keep Alfie away, adding: 'I was just trying to protect my own life.'
A Wisconsin teen is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a bus full of students when their driver passed out behind the wheel and veered into traffic.

Acie Holland III, 14, was riding home on the school bus in Glendale, Wisconsin, when he realized that the driver was not slowing down to turn onto his street - as she usually does.

'She likes to joke with us a lot, and I thought maybe she was fooling with us,' Acie said.

When Acie stood up to call out the driver, he noticed her head drop down to the steering wheel all of a sudden.

Then, the bus began drifting across the center line and into a lane of oncoming traffic, with 14 kids on board.

Acie Holland, 14, from Wisconsin is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a bus full of students when their driver passed out behind the wheel and veered into traffic

Acie, who is an eighth-grader at Glen Hills Middle School, bravely dashed to the front of the bus to take control of the steering wheel when he noticed the driver's head collapse

Some of the kids on the bus were as young as fourth-graders, the Washington Post reported.

Acie, who is an eighth-grader at Glen Hills Middle School, bravely dashed to the front of the bus to take control of the steering wheel.

'I checked to see if the driver was OK, and I yelled, but she was unconscious and didn't respond,' he said. 'So, I took the wheel and straightened out the bus, then I moved her foot off the gas pedal.'

The heroic 14-year-old then swerved the bus toward the curb and slammed on the breaks, which caused the bus to abruptly stop.

Acie later said he felt comfortable taking control of the bus because he was previously taught how to drive a tractor and frequently enjoys helping out at his dad's auto repair shop in Glendale.

'Everyone else was OK, and the other kids were frozen, just looking at me because it happened so fast,' Acie said.

'I told them all to call their parents, and I asked my friend to call 911,' he said. 'Then, I got off the bus and ran home to get my grandma because she's a nurse.'

The heroic 14-year-old then swerved the bus toward the curb and slammed on the breaks, which caused the bus to abruptly stop

Acie is now seen as a hero and everyone is grateful for his quick actions

When the bus driver eventually regained consciousness, she called her dispatcher at Go Riteway transportation company in Milwaukee.

A new driver was sent to complete the route, Acie said.

By the time the 14-year-old had returned to the scene with his grandmother, a bus company manager had arrived and the driver was taken to hospital.

The driver was apologetic to her young passengers before being carted off to hospital, according to the principal of Glen Hills Middle School, Anna Young.

'We don't have any details about what happened to her, but I know she was under medical care the following day,' Young said. 'The kids told me it was a really scary experience, but Acie took care of it.'

Young said Acie is now seen as a hero and that everyone is grateful for his quick actions.

Acie was honored with a citation for his act of bravery by Young and other from the Glendale-River Hills School District.

'It's not lost on me that this could have been a serious tragedy for our school community,' Young said. 'Acie knows about cars and he has an understanding of cars that most students his age don't. I can't think of a student who could have been more properly placed to deal with this.'

Acie's parents were relieved but not surprised that their son jumped into action.

'He's definitely always been hands-on, and he pays close attention to everything,' said Acie's mother, Kimberly Holland.

'I was in tears to think about what could have happened, and so happy that everyone walked away without a scratch,' she said. 'I'm really proud that Acie took charge.'

Acie told his father, Acie Holland Jr.. 'Hey, Dad, I saved the bus today,' and at first, Holland thought he was being pranked.

'When I realized he was serious, it made sense  he was just being himself,' Holland said. 'He took really easily to driving. If I don't teach it, and it's something he wants to do, I know Acie is going to do it, regardless.'

The next day, Acie told his story to the Milwaukee TV station TMJ4, while his classmates chanted 'Acie, hero!' in the background.

Acie was awarded the 'Person of the Week' award - and told WISN 12 NEWS 'it made me feel good that I saved people,' adding that he feels more confident now.
The Department of Justice indicted Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife Imelda on Friday for allegedly accepting bribes of close to $600,000.

Two bribes, which amounted to $598,000, allegedly came from an oil and gas company owned by the Azerbaijani government and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. They were reportedly funneled through shell companies owned by Imelda.

'Cuellar promised to use the power and prestige of his office to advance Azerbaijans and Foreign Bank-1s interests in the United States,' the DOJ claimed.

The pair were released on $100,000 bond on Friday. If convicted, they could each spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

'The bribe payments were laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar. Cuellar performed little or no legitimate work under the sham contracts.'

The scheme ran 'at least' from December 2014 to November 2021.

The Texas Democrat's home was raided by the FBI in January 2022 as part of an investigation into his ties to Azerbaijani businessmen.

Cuellar insisted he and his wife were innocent in response to the news.

'I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations.'

'The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people,' he went on.

The embattled congressman said he plans to continue his campaign for reelection despite the indictment.

Cuellar said he and his wife tried to meet with prosecutors and they 'refused to discuss the case or hear our side.'

'Imelda and I have been married for 32 years. On top of being an amazing wife and mother, she's an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees. She spent her career working with banking, tax and consulting. The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard-working is both wrong and offensive.'

Cuellar said at the time of the raid he was cooperating with law enforcement and he did not believe he was the target of the investigation. It is not yet clear if the indictment will be related to that investigation.

The nine-term Democrat is a past co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, an obscure group dedicated to furthering relations with the oil-rich nation on the Caspian Sea.

Congressman Henry Cuellar is expected to be indicted by the Department of Justice on Friday afternoon, according to multiple reports.

Cuellar insisted he was innocent in response to the news - and suggested his wife would be caught up in the indictment

In that role, Cuellar is known to have met repeatedly with Azerbaijan officials, including the country's ambassador to the US, Elin Suleymanov.

Azerbaijan has been harshly criticized in the past for bribing foreign officials and diplomats to secure its foreign policy aims and legitimize dubious election results.

The practice is so common in the country that it is known there as 'caviar diplomacy,' but it is unclear whether the FBI is investigating any similar allegations in relation to Cuellar.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (right) is seen meeting with Azerbaijan's ambassador to the US in 2013. The FBI raid on Cuellar's home is reportedly related to a probe into Azerbaijani activities in the US

FBI agents have been spotted conducting a 'court-authorized' investigation at the Texas home of United States Representative Henry Cuellar, who has vowed to cooperate fully

Since 2004, Cuellar has represented a district that extends from the U.S. border with Mexico near McAllen to Laredo, and north to San Antonio's eastern outskirts.

The moderate Democrat has a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Public records show that Cuellar purchased his luxurious Laredo home in 2010.

The 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home in a gated community is valued at $825,000 currently by Realtor.com.

Cuellar, who represents much of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their handling of a surge of illegal crossings at the border.
First things first, Rishi Sunak has survived his 'May Day from hell' and will lead the Conservatives into the next election.

Tory plotters who had hoped to use the local elections to topple him have thrown in the towel and conceded they do not have the numbers to oust him. By lunchtime today, those who had threatened the Prime Minister with a 'grid of s***' had locked it away in a filing cabinet and gone to the pub.

But if the good news for Mr Sunak is that he is almost certainly safe until the election, the bad news is that today's results suggest he is also almost certain to lose it.

The Conservatives are on track to lose around half of the council seats they were defending this week  a result which would be at the very worst end of expectations.

Rishi Sunak is almost certainly safe until the general election, writes Jason Groves, but today's results suggest he is almost certain to lose it

They have lost to Labour in a string of areas which are likely to be critical swing seats at the General Election, such as Thurrock and Redditch. Labour also seized back control of Hartlepool  the Red Wall seat where the Conservatives won a sensational by-election at the height of Boris Johnson's popularity.

And, ominously for many southern Tories, Labour also took control in the Hampshire district of Rushmoor, home to the British Army, and a council the Conservatives have run since New Labour's heyday in 2000.

At his North Yorkshire home, Mr Sunak is now represented by a Labour mayor. At his country pile in the Cotswolds, David Cameron has a Lib Dem councillor.

The elections expert Sir John Curtice said the overall results were 'not far short of catastrophic' for the Conservatives and could yet prove to be their worst performance for 40 years.

READ MORE: What are the key results yet to be announced in local elections? All eyes on Susan Hall to see if she can produce an upset and beat Sadiq Khan in London tomorrow with Andy Street expected to cling on in the West Midlands Advertisement

Equally worrying for Tory high command was their performance in the Blackpool South by-election, which was triggered by yet another Conservative sleaze scandal. Losing to Labour on the back of a whopping 26 per cent swing was bad enough.

But senior figures are just as alarmed by the performance of Reform, who came within a whisker of relegating the Tories into third place as they recorded their best ever by-election result and Conservative support collapsed.

In council seats where they stood, Reform appeared to have depressed the Conservative vote without ever threatening to make a significant breakthrough of their own. No wonder senior Tories like Dame Andrea Leadsom are publicly calling on the PM to 'bring back our Reform voters'.

Dame Andrea Jenkyns  a longtime critic of Mr Sunak  went further, urging the PM to bring back Boris Johnson as Tory chairman as part of a wider Cabinet reshuffle aimed at tilting the government's top team to the Right.

There are some straws for Mr Sunak to clutch at. If the plotters really have downed tools then perhaps Conservative MPs might  finally  have a go at presenting a united face to the electorate.

In the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen threw a grateful Prime Minister a lifeline by hanging on as mayor in a contest which Labour had chucked the kitchen sink at.

Tory hopes were also rising that Andy Street might pull off a remarkable win in the West Midlands, allowing the PM to claim that the Conservatives are still competitive in a region that is packed with swing seats.

But the truth is that both men played down their Conservative affiliation and campaigned on their local records. Mr Houchen's victory also masks a 16 per cent swing to Labour, which would be enough to deliver every parliamentary seat to Sir Keir Starmer if it were repeated at the general election.

Sir Keir Starmer celebrates the victory of Labour MP Chris Webb who seized the Blackpool South from the Conservative Party

The Prime Minister inspects the Passing Out Parade of the Parachute Regiment as he visits the Helles Barracks in north Yorkshire today

Labour will be more concerned about their failure to break through in the Essex swing seat of Harlow, where Sir Keir made a campaign visit this week. Tory victory there suggests there may still be some life in the Conservative Party in electorally important parts of the country.

It is also clear that Sir Keir has a Gaza problem. Analysis today suggests Labour support was 8 per cent lower in wards where the Muslim population is 10 per cent or more of the total.

In Oldham, Labour lost control of the council as Muslim voters punished Sir Keir for his initial equivocation over calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Labour sources also suggested that disaffected Muslim voters could end up making the difference in the West Midlands mayoral contest.

But the scale of Sir Keir's electoral problems are dwarfed by those facing Mr Sunak. No wonder the Labour leader called on the PM to 'make way' and call a general election.

One Cabinet minister acknowledged that voters are 'not listening to us', but insisted the Tories could still make a dramatic late comeback when the public is presented with competing visions for the future at the election.

'Obviously the situation is terrible, but we are very good at winning when we are not meant to and Labour are very good at losing when they should win,' the source said optimistically.

But optimism will not be enough for the PM. Strip away the comfort blanket of the Tees Valley and the results are grim  and Mr Sunak now just has six months to turn things round. His MPs might have decided not to throw him out. But there is every sign the voters will make a different decision in the autumn.
China and Russia are working on a joint invasion of Taiwan, US intelligence officials fear.

'We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognising that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn't,' Avril Haines, Director of US National Intelligence, told the US Congress on Thursday.

Her warning on the potential cooperation between the countries on Taiwan, which China has long claimed as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary, was echoed by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.

He said that the US Defence Department has 'become even more concerned about our joint force requirements in an environment where [Russia and China] would certainly be cooperative, and we need to take that into account,' Bloomberg reports.

A potential joint invasion of Taiwan was raised in the meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee by Republican Senator Mike Rounds, who asked the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency about the Pentagon's plans should an invasion happen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, October 18, 2023

Avril Haines, right, director of National Intelligence, speaks as Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, left, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, listens during the open portion of a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 2, 2024

Haines said that there seems to be an 'increasing cooperation in the "no-limits" partnership' between Russia and China.

This comes as Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to make his first trip to Europe in five years next week as part of China's efforts to rebuild its foreign relations after a prolonged absence during the Covid-19 pandemic.

READ MORE: China buys huge 135billion stockpile of gold raising fears Beijing is preparing to invade Taiwan and protect its economy in the event of Western sanction Advertisement

Xi will start the tour in Paris on Monday, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the US.

On a visit to Beijing last year, Macron courted controversy by saying France would not necessarily always align with the US in foreign policy, an apparent reference to American support for the self-governing republic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

After leaving France, Xi will visit Hungary and Serbia, both seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rebuffing Western criticism of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Xi's European visits will be closely followed in Washington for signs of diminishing support for its key foreign policy goals.

The Chinese leader will arrive in France just as Paris is putting the finishing touches on its preparations for hosting the Summer Olympics, an event in which China invests huge amount of national prestige.

France sees Xi's visit, which officially marks 60 years of French-Chinese diplomatic relations, as an important diplomatic moment, and wants to focus on China's broader relations with the EU.

Macron invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the talks Monday.
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Rishi Sunak suffered the indignity of seeing of seeing a Labour mayor win in his own constituency today as the Tories endured a torrid day of local elections that saw the party hemorrhage councils and seats.

Labour's David Skaith became the inaugural elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire this afternoon, a new position that covers the Prime Minister's Richmond constituency.

It was one of the final blows in a day of reverses for the ruling party, including in many areas the Tories need to win to have any chance in the general election later this year.

Despite a bright spot with the Tory Tees Valley mayor winning re-election, the bad news has kept rolling in for the PM after a disastrous set of local authority votes.

Labour gained Adur in West Sussex from the Conservatives this afternoon after scooping eight seats  the first time the party has controlled the council. There was an even more extraordinary turnaround in Nuneaton and Bedworth, where Keir Starmer's party racked up 15 more seats to take control, with the Tories down 14.

Labour also seized overall control of Milton Keynes for the first time since 2000 after adding three councillors. It followed the shock win in Rushmoor in Hampshire this morning, a council it has never before controlled.

Polling guru Professor John Curtice has suggested the Tories are on track to lose 500 councillors - half of those up for grabs - in one of the worst showings by the party for 40 years.

As he tries to fend off a fresh coup bid from Tory rebels, the PM acknowledged that results so far were 'disappointing' but insisted Keir Starmer had still not sealed the deal.

But on a victory lap in Northallerton tonight, Sir Keir hailed Mr Skaith's win in 'the heart of Tory territory', with a majority of nearly 15,000 in an area previously considered a Conservative stronghold.

Eyes are now turning to tomorrow, with Conservatives hoping that Andy Street could take some more pressure off the premier by winning a third mayoral term in the West Midlands.

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour's victory in the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was 'a very, very special moment' in an appearance at Northallerton Town Football Club with the new mayor, David Skaith

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In a boost for Rishi Sunak (right), senior sources acknowledged that they had 'fallen short' of ousting Tory incumbent Ben Houchen (left) despite a 'significant swing'

Lord houchen - a close ally of Boris Johnson - was the only candidate on stage not wearing a party rosette today

New Labour MP for Blackpool South Chris Webb, pictured with his son Cillian and wife Portia, called on Rishi Sunak to 'do the decent thing, admit you've failed and call a general election'

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Tory incumbent Ben Houchen was re-elected in Tees Valley, but saw his majority slashed. Three years ago Lord Houchen secured a huge victory with 72 per cent of the vote, but this time he only received 53 per cent on a turnout of just over 30 per cent.

The day began on a grim note for the Tories as Labour's Chris Webb secured a massive 26 per cent swing in Blackpool South to become the newest MP in the Commons.

In a particularly alarming sign the Tory candidate barely managed to push Reform into third place, by just 117 votes. Visiting the constituency this morning flanked by Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer said voters wanted to 'turn the page' on the government.

It was the seventh parliamentary seat the Tories have lost in a by-election since Mr Sunak became PM in October 2022 - underlining that Sir Keir looks to be on track for Downing Street.

As English councils declared, Labour claimed a 'truly historic result' to take Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - from the Tories and end nearly a quarter-of-a century of Conservative control.

Sir Keir also saw wins in Hartlepool and made other gains in key general election battlegrounds Thurrock and Redditch as they enjoyed early success. Welwyn Hatfield - Grant Shapps' seat - remained under no overall control, but the Tories were reduced to the lowest number of seats ever. In Castle Point the party's eight councillors were wiped out.

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In a bright spot, the party has managed to hold on to control of Harlow - which local MP Robert Halfon described as 'the biggest comeback since Lazarus'.

Labour also suffered woes of their own in Oldham, where the party lost overall control after independents picked up seats in an apparent backlash over the Gaza war.

Speaking at a military base in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: 'Obviously it's disappointing to lose good, hard-working Conservative councillors and I'm grateful to them for all their service in local government, keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people.

'But we have still got lots of results to come as well, and there are also things that I would point to, Harlow for example where Keir Starmer held a rally just on Wednesday saying that was a place that he had to win to be on track to win a general election.

'That hasn't happened, and indeed we are still waiting for the results in the Tees Valley mayoralty just near to here which is obviously a very important test as well.'

Labour tried to play down falling short in Tees Valley, saying Lord Houchen - a close ally of Boris Johnson - ran as a 'pseudo-independent'.

Sources argued that an estimated 12.5 per cent swing would be enough to sweep most Westminster constituencies in the area.

In a bruising tour of broadcast studios, Tory chair Richard Holden was asked whether he was confident MPs will not try to remove Mr Sunak as leader.

'Parliamentary colleagues need to look at this and see and wait through the weekend as well,' he told Sky News.

The losses have triggered speculation that mounting Tory unrest could lead MPs to seek to remove the Prime Minister.

But Mr Holden sought to highlight local issues at play, insisting the Blackpool South by-election took place in 'particularly difficult' circumstances following the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton after a lobbying scandal.

He admitted it had been a 'tough night' but told LBC the party was coming off a 'very high watermark in 2021'.

Blackpool South by-election result in full Chris Webb (Lab) 10,825 (58.91%, +20.57%) David Jones (Tory) 3,218 (17.51%, -32.09%) Mark Butcher (Reform) 3,101 (16.88%) Andrew Cregan (Lib Dem) 387 (2.11%, -0.97%) Ben Thomas (Green) 368 (2.00%, +0.28%) Stephen Black (Ind) 163 (0.89%, -0.24%) Kim Knight (ADF) 147 (0.80%) Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 121 (0.66%) Damon Sharp (NonPol) 45 (0.24%) Lab majority: 7,607 votes Advertisement

However, Tory MPs were scathing in their assessment.

Paul Scully said he did not believe the leader should change, but warned of a 'bunker mentality' in No10.

'Crisis management is almost a day to day job of the government,' he told LBC. 'We are not speaking to people. We need to reach out.'

Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told LBC: 'All of our seats are under threat. There's no such thing really as a safe Tory seat anymore.'

Veteran Tory aide Tim Montgomerie, who has been highly critical of Mr Sunak, told the BBC: 'Personally I think the results are so bad... I just don't think he is connected with the voters.

'I think he should go.'

Following the declaration of the Blackpool South result just before 5am, Sir Keir reiterated his demand for Mr Sunak to call a general election.

Standing alongside his new MP in the constituency, the Labour leader said: 'It's a fantastic result, a really first-class result and here in Blackpool a message has been sent directly to the Prime Minister, directly to the Prime Minister, because this was a parliamentary vote.

'This was directly to Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour.'

He added: 'That wasn't just a little message, that wasn't just a murmur, that was a shout from Blackpool.

'We want change, and Blackpool speaks for the whole country. It says we have had enough now after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline. We need to turn the page and start afresh with Labour, which has a positive plan for the country.'

Mr Webb scooped 10,825 votes to secure a 7,607-vote majority. The Tories won 3,218 votes, just 117 votes ahead of third-placed Reform UK.

The 26.33 per cent swing was the third biggest from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.

The Tories said the Blackpool South by-election was 'always going to be difficult' given the 'specific circumstances' surrounding former MP Scott Benton.

A party spokesman said: 'This was a tough fight and David Jones was an excellent candidate who campaigned hard for every single vote.

'This was always going to be difficult election given the specific circumstances related to the previous incumbent.

'What has been clear is that a vote for Reform is a vote for Sir Keir Starmer  taking us right back to square one.'

The Blackpool South outcome added to a night of turmoil for the Conservatives, as they also suffered dismal results in local elections across the country.

Labour are boasting of being 'on track' for power at Westminster after making gains in key council contests.

In his victory speech, Mr Webb said: 'People no longer trust the Conservatives. Prime Minister: do the decent thing, admit you've failed and call a general election.'

The Blackpool South contest was prompted by the resignation of former Tory MP Scott Benton from the House of Commons after he was caught up in a lobbying sting.

The Conservatives won the seat at the 2019 general election, with Mr Benton as the party's candidate, with a more than 3,500-vote majority.

Tory deputy chair Angela Richardson told the BBC: 'The result was not unexpected. I think, given the circumstances that caused the by-election in the first place, it was always going to be difficult for the Conservatives.'

Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice said the Tories could be on course to lose 500 councillors in 'one of the worst, if not the worst' performances by the party in 40 years.

'So far they are basically losing a half of the seats they are trying to defend. If that continues they may end up losing 500 or so seats, which is the thing they were meant to avoid,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

Lord Houchen with his wife Rachel Houchen and baby Hannah at the election count today

In the Liberal Democrats' latest election campaign stunt, Sir Ed Davey could be seen posing alongside people in inflatable dinosaur costumes as he appeared in Winchester. The dinosaurs wore blue rosettes usually sported by Conservative candidates, and held up a banner reading 'Make this Conservative Government history'.

'Early days yet, but where we have got the detailed voting numbers, it looks as though the Conservative vote is a wee bit down on where it was last year.

'We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years.'

Elections expert Michael Thrasher told Sky News that the swing to Labour in Blackpool was 'more or less off the scale'.

As well as the Tory-Labour fight, the performance of insurgent outfit Reform was also being keenly scrutinised throughout the night of election results.

Reform beat the Tories in 16 out of the 25 seats being contests on Sunderland council, with leader Richard Tice crowing they were 'becoming the real opposition to Labour in Red Wall areas'.

The results from the 107 local authorities in England who held elections on Thursday could yet decide Mr Sunak's 's political fate.

Labour has gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Cumbria and Avon and Somerset.

The PM is also braced for further dire results from mayoral contests, which will start to be declared in the coming hours.

Reform UK leader Richard Tice was bullish about the result in Blackpool, where the party came within a whisker of second place

Labour supporters were celebrating in Peterborough this morning as they became the largest party on the council

Party activists punched the air in delight in Sunderland as Labour retained control of the council

LOCAL ELECTIONS: KEY RESULTS SO FAR - Hartlepool Three years ago Labour lost the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election to the Conservatives - an event that reportedly led Sir Keir Starmer to consider resigning as party leader. This year Hartlepool gave Labour cause for celebration, with the party winning control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six. - South Tyneside It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats. Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor. Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens. - Sunderland The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat. While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority. - Thurrock This Essex council was one of Labour's top targets and is in an area of the country that will be a key Conservative-Labour battleground at the next general election. The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022. Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10. - Swindon Labour retained control, gaining nine seats as the Conservatives lost eight and an independent one. the new council is Labour Labour 41, Conservative 15, Liberal Democrat one - Harlow Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner toured the Essex town of Harlow 24 hours before the polls opened, in a symbolic visit to a part of the country that will be a key battleground at the general election. But while Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursday's council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17. - Blackburn with Darwen Labour have retained control, but lost four seats, while the Conservatives lost two and independents were up four. The new council is Labour 29, independents 13 and Conservatives nine. Advertisement

Labour's most impressive victory of the night so far came in Rushmoor.

Sir Keir's party boasted of now being in charge of the 'home of the British Army' in a nod to the Hampshire authority's links to the military.

They taunted Mr Sunak that it was 'time for a general election' in the wake of the result.

Labour won nine out of 13 seats up for grabs on Rushmoor Borough Council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats one.

It gave Sir Keir's party a majority on the council as the Tories ceded control after 24 years in charge.

The council includes Aldershot, known as the home of the British Army, and Labour was keen to highlight that link as proof that the party had changed since Jeremy Corbyn's time as leader.

A party spokeswoman said: 'This is a truly historic result.

'Rushmoor - the home of the British Army - has never had a majority Labour council before, and has been run by the Tories for the last 24 years.

'This result demonstrates just how much the Labour Party has changed and people in Rushmoor know that only Labour can deliver the change they want to see.

'A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. It's time for a general election.'

In another eye-catching victory for Labour, the party won control of Thurrock after starting the night as the second biggest party behind the Tories.

The Essex council, which had recently moved to no overall control because of defections, is in a strong Brexit-supporting part of the country.

It has also been among those local authorities in dire financial straits, with council tax having been hiked by an eye-watering 8 per cent last month.

Thurrock was effectively declared bankrupt in 2022 following a failed investment spree.

Labour hailed their victory in a key parliamentary battleground, with a party spokesperson saying: 'This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election.

'The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change.'

Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs in Hartlepool to gain control of the council, with independents winning two and the Conservatives one.

Hartlepool has a symbolic importance for Sir Keir after Labour lost the parliamentary by-election there in 2021.

A party spokesperson said: 'Winning back Hartlepool council is a groundbreaking moment after the disappointing results we saw here in 2021.

'Keir Starmer pledged to change the Labour Party after that result and today's win shows that this changed Labour Party is ready to deliver the change that communities like Hartlepool are crying out for.'Making gains here shows that the party is on track to win a general election and is firmly back in the service of working people.'

Along with the direct challenge from Labour and apparent squeeze on Tory votes in 'Red Wall' areas from Reform, the Liberal Democrats claimed they were gaining ground in traditional Conservative heartlands in southern England.

A party source said they were expecting positive results in Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire.

As well as the council elections, voting also took place on Thursday in 11 mayoral contests and 37 police and crime commissioner elections.

Conservative rebels are poised to pounce on a dismal night for Mr Sunak by mounting a fresh effort to oust the PM from No10 in the coming days.

Tories fear they could lose up to half of the council seats they are defending.

The final result in Sunderland was Labour 18, Liberal Democrats four and Conservatives three, as Sir Keir's party retained control.

Although Reform did not win one of the 25 seats being contested, Mr Tice hailed his party's performance.

He said Reform were 'rapidly becoming the real opposition to Labour, whether it's in the North, the Midlands, we know it's the case in Wales'.

Mr Tice added: 'We are very excited. This is a very good day for Reform UK. It's also a good day for democracy, actually, because the Great British people have got a serious alternative to consider when they want to go and vote.'

Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the results in Sunderland showed 'if you vote Reform, you get Labour'.

The Northern Ireland Secretary told the BBC: 'It's a very straightforward equation for people at the next general election.

'If they want to vote Reform, they'll end up with Labour MPs, and they'll end up with a Labour government, and then they'll end up, probably, with everything they didn't want to vote for based on the profile of Reform voters.'

Peterborough remained under no overall control, but Labour became the biggest party after gaining five seats while the Conservatives lost 11.

Rishi Sunak (pictured canvassing in Chelsea with wife Akshata Murty yesterday) is bracing for a dire set of results from the local elections

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Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrived at a polling station in London on Thursday to cast their votes

Rishi Sunak's string of by-election losses as PM July 2023 - Selby and Ainsty (Labour gain)

July 2023 - Somerton and Frome (Liberal Democrat gain)

October 2023 - Mid Bedfordshire (Labour gain)

October 2023 - Tamworth (Labour gain)

February 2024 - Wellingborough (Labour gain)

February 2024 - Kingswood (Labour gain)

May 2024 - Blackpool South (Labour gain) Advertisement

Labour retained control of South Tyneside, but lost at least seven seats to independents.

Sir Keir's party were fearing a local elections backlash over the Gaza conflict in some parts of the country.

In London, Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win an historic third term in City Hall despite a challenge by Tory rival Susan Hall over ULEZ and crime rates.

As polls closed last night, Labour MP Pat McFadden MP, the party's national campaign coordinator, said: 'The most important election of the night is the historic by-election in Blackpool, caused by yet more Tory chaos and scandal.

'It's the only election today where voters have had the opportunity to directly reject Rishi Sunak's party in Westminster.

'It's going to be a long night and the full picture of results from local elections may not be clear until over the weekend, but we expect to see Labour gains that show we're making progress in the places we need to win the next general election.'

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also sought to pile the pressure on Mr Sunak, saying: 'Up and down the country, so many lifelong Conservative voters backed the Liberal Democrats today'.

Every voter in England and Wales was able to cast a ballot in at least one type of election before 10pm on Thursday.

There were 2,600 council seats in England up for grabs across 107 authorities.

Many of the seats were last fought in 2021 - a year in which the Conservatives did particularly well in local elections at a high point in Boris Johnson's premiership.

The Tory slump since then was demonstrated by the latest YouGov poll, published on Thursday, showing the party on 18 per cent with Labour on 44 per cent.

This was the lowest Conservative vote share of this Parliament, lower than under Liz Truss, when it sank to 19 per cent.

The survey of 2,010 British voters, conducted between April 30 and May 1, also showed the Tories only three percentage points ahead of Reform on 15 per cent.

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A student was struck in the head by a stray bullet following a shooting at a school in Washington DC.

The 17-year-old girl was grazed by the bullet which came in through the window at Dunbar High School at around 10.30am on Friday, according to police.

She suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the school has been placed on lockdown following the horrific incident.

Authorities said several rounds of bullets came through the window at the time the student was hit.

A student was struck in the head by a stray bullet following a shooting at a school in Washington DC

The 17-year-old girl was grazed by the bullet which came in through the window at Dunbar High School, according to police

Authorities said several rounds of bullets came through the window at the time the student was hit

The 17-year-old girl was inside the school when she was struck by a bullet shot outside the gate.

She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and Dunbar High School was immediately placed under lockdown.

The Metropolitan Police Department believe there was an exchange of gunfire outside but do not know the reason behind it.

They added that there is no active threat inside the school.

James Boteler, commander of the third district, said people were in the area at the time of the shooting and hope people come forward with information.

Mayor Muriel Bowser arrived on the scene following the shooting.

Joyce Robinson-Paul, who is part of the advisory neighborhood commission 5E, told Fox5: 'How many shootings do you all have to have before you all understand that this neighborhood is under siege?'

DailyMail.com has contacted the Metropolitan Police Department and Dunbar High School for comment.
A high-ranking member of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel is in United States custody after he was extradited from Mexico last week.

Juan Abouzaid was allegedly in charge of coordinating drug shipments and laundering money for the transnational criminal organization, according to the Treasury Department.

The 52-year-old was turned over to U.S. federal authorities in Mexico City on April 26 and is scheduled to appear in the District Court of the District of Columbia on May 17.

Abouzaid, who is also known as 'El Escorpion' or The Scorpion, was arrested on March 9, 2021, in Zapopan, a city in the western state of Jalisco.

Juan Abouzaid was extradited from Mexico to the United States on April 26. He is facing drug and money laundering charges in the District Court of the District of Columbia

His apprehension took place just six days after the Treasury Department sanctioned him under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act for his ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which trafficked fentanyl and other drugs to the U.S., including Los Angeles.

Abouzaid was first linked to the cartel after the Department of Justice named him in a federal indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in October 2018.

At the time, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles Field Division alleged that in or around 2012, he conspired to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and knowing and intending to import the drugs into the United States.

The Mexican government blocked his bank accounts in June 2020 due to his link to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, viewed by criminal analysts as one of the two most powerful criminal organizations in the nation along with the Sinaloa Cartel

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has a presence in 23 Mexican states.

The United States is offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of cartel leader, Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last Wednesday accused Juan Manuel Abouzaid of coordinating the shipment of drugs and laundering money for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Juan Abouzaid, an alleged high-ranking leader for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury under the Kingpin Act in March 21. The Department of Justice accuses him of coordinating the shipment of drugs and laundering money for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel

Ruben 'El Mencho' Oseguera is the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups. The United States government is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction

Abouzaid's extradition took place following the April 21 arrest of El Mecho's brother, Abraham 'Don Rodo' Oseguera in the Jalisco city of Autlan de Navarro.

However, his released from custody was shockingly announced by Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's daily press conference on Tuesday.

State of Mexico federal Judge Rogelio Leon ruled that there were no legal grounds to charge or keep him in prison.

Rodriguez questioned Leon's decision and said that the Supreme Court of Justice was approached but did not strike down the judge's decision.

She added that U.S. authorities had asked for information on legal processes or pending complaints against Oseguera as part of a binational collaboration in the fight against drugs and arms trafficking, but none had been provided.

'This is a state matter that could seriously affect the prestige of Mexico's institutions,' Rodriguez said.
A Zimbabwean asylum seeker has been jailed for possession of a hammer and racked up more than 60 convictions for drugs, robbery and assault.

Zimbabwean Ashley Simbarashe Maparura has amassed a 'dreadful catalogue' of 68 convictions across several counties, a court heard.

The 34-year-old thug arrived in the UK around 2017 and quickly became involved in serious crimes including drugs, robbery and assault.

But in spite of his appalling criminal record he had not been kicked out of the country.

This week, he appeared at Northampton Crown Court where he was jailed for possession of a weapon.

CCTV operators spotted two men behind a row of shops in Gainsborough Road, Corby, Northants., at 1.50am on February 16.

Despite his convictions, Maparura has not yet been kicked out of the UK, the court heard

Maparura was carrying a hammer and his accomplice Reece Cruickshank was holding a wrench.

The operators followed the men on their screens as they 'caused a commotion' before running away.

The pair were later arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery but the victim refused to co-operate so they were charged with possession of offensive weapons.

They admitted the charges and Maparura, of Northampton, was jailed for one year and four months.

Cruickshank will be sentenced later this month.

Sentencing Maparura, Judge Rupert Mayo said: 'The courts take very seriously any public display of weapons when theyre brandished or used to present a threat to people who are out and about.

'You have a dreadful record for using weapons.

'You have been an asylum seeker since your arrival from Zimbabwe but during that time you have amassed a huge amount of antecedents and have been gripped by drugs.

'This is a dreadful catalogue of serious convictions.'

The court heard Maparuras staggering list of crimes include being caught with heroin and cocaine which were tied to his genitals.

Maprarura appeared at Northampton Crown Court and was jailed for possession of a weapon

Carrie-Ann Garness, prosecuting, said police stopped him last February for another matter and when officers searched him they discovered the drugs wrapped in a cigarette paper 'between his penis and testicles.'

His criminal record includes robbery, supplying and smuggling drugs and drug dealing, committed across several different counties.

The court heard that he was found guilty of knife possession in 2017.

He also has five convictions for failing to comply with court orders.

In 2018 he was jailed for 16 weeks for shoplifting and cannabis possession.

While on licence from prison he was jailed for attacking a motorist. He was accused of battering the victim with a hammer which he denied.

He was also convicted of possession of cocaine in 2019.

In July the same year Maparura was jailed for a year after he stole two vacuum cleaners from Currys PC World in Kettering armed with incapacitant spray.

In 2020 he was jailed again for smuggling drugs into a detention centre.

The same year he was jailed following a 'night of madness' where he rammed into police cars that were chasing him.

In July 2022 he was jailed for three years for controlled drugs offences and breaching a suspended sentence order.

Last July he was jailed for 31 weeks for possession of a hammer and a meat cleaver.

After his release last October, Maparura was jailed for 16 weeks for possession of cannabis, pregabalin, diazepam and zopiclone.

He was hauled back to court on November 23 where he was given a suspended sentence for possession of an offensive weapon.

Rajesh Pabary, defending, said that he had three children aged 10, 11, and 12 but admitted he had a 'long and extensive history of offending.'

He said: 'This is partially to do with drugs and partially to do with funding himself as he was not initially allowed to work when he arrived in this country.

'He wants to apologise for his actions.'

Despite his string of convictions, Maparura was able to remain in the UK and was trying to find work as a forklift driver.
Hope Hicks did not so much walk to the witness box as glide.

With highlighted curls splayed across her shoulders and her cheek bones picked out dramatically with blusher, she looked every inch the communications professional and confidante that she had once been for Donald Trump.

But the mask slipped under the steady gaze of her former boss as prosecutor Matthew Colangelo introduced himself.

She gave a fragile smile and asked if she is close enough to the microphone. 'I'm really nervous,' she admitted.

Trump twisted his head to watch as the first of the prosecution's major witnesses, one who was at the heart of his 2016 campaign, began giving evidence.

Hope Hicks (pictured February 27, 2018) took the stand on Friday and delivered riveting testimony on her experience with the ex-president at the Trump Organization, his wild 2016 campaign and ending up at the center of the political universe in the White House

Hicks leaving the Manhattan criminal court after her bombshell testimony on Friday in the Donald Trump hush money case

She broke down at the end of her testimony and the judge called for a brief break

Trump and Hicks in happier times, seen here outside the Oval Office as they leave for Cleveland, Ohio, on March 29, 2018

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: The texts from Stormy Daniels' publicist claiming Trump first tried to silence her in 2012 Advertisement

If he feared her testimony he gave no sign of it, simply staring intently at the woman who worked her way up through his company, on to his campaign, and then into the White House.

He leaned back in his leather chair, flanked by his lawyers, as he listened to Hicks establish her credentials.

There were no poker faces in the public gallery. A collective gasp circulated when the prosecution announced Hicks as its next witness.

And the importance of her evidence was only underlined by the fact that it was Colangelo, who stepped down from a senior role at the Department of Justice to join the Manhattan District Attorney's office, asking the questions

The weight of the moment seemed to catch Hicks unaware, despite living in the media spotlight for much of her time with Trump.

She gave another watery smile as she adjusted to the sound of her amplified voice. 'Its going to take a second to get used to it,' she added.

It was a reminder that she had had little in the way of a career before being drawn into Trump's orbit as a 26-year-old and is still only 35.

In that time she had become one of Trump's most trusted advisers, elevated to White House director of communications.

The result was a conflicted witness still deeply attached to the defendant and who delivered her evidence with her eyes fixed on the lawyers, unable to look at Trump.

Donald Trump watched intently as his nervous former press secretary Hope Hicks gave evidence in court on Friday. She avoided lookin at him throughout her time on the stand

Trump showed little reaction to most of her testimony. He swapped words with his lawyer Todd Blanche and scribbled on a legal pad. He could be seen sucking on throat sweets too

Hicks in the State Dining Room of the White House in 2018 with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders

She spoke warmly of him, his family and her time at his side. She praised his media savvy, people skills and ability to multitask, before the questions got to the more awkward business of Playboy models, infidelities and hush money payments.

'He's always doing many things at once,' she said.

While she fidgeted and gave a nervy little gulp, Trump gave no sign of warmth. He sat, eyes half closed, looking unimpressed.

If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it is Hicks. As his gatekeeper she had a ringside seat at scandal after scandal.

On the stand she came across as loyal, speaking fondly about the former president's family and her time at his side.

They are no longer close.

She admitted that they had not spoken in two years, the result of a rift when some of her messages were released during an investigation into his efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.

She had left the White House six days after the Jan.6 riot in what she said was a long-planned moved; but her messages suggested she was furious with her boss.

Press aide Margo Martin (far right) and legal adviser Boris Epshteyn (center) accompanied Trump to court on Friday. Campaign adviser Jason Miller is obscured by court officers

The trial is being held at Manhattan Criminal Court and is expected to last into June

At times though Trump was more animated.

He whispered to his defense attorney Todd Blanche, scribbled on a legal pad and popped a throat sweet in his mouth, looking for all the world that he was stuck in a boring business meeting.

He adopted an air of indifference when the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape came up, in which he made lewd comments.

Hicks described how the usual suspects of Speaker Paul Ryan and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney had expressed their outragepeople, she said, who always felt the need to 'weigh.'

Trump smirked at the mention of his Republican enemies, wobbling his head to one side and then the other.

Despite her obvious nerves, Hicks delivered her testimony in clear, concise answers. She described the campaign's damage-control efforts amid a slew of allegations of unflattering sexual behavior with a remarkable degree of recall.

Hicks, 35, and Jim Donovan, 57, are set to get hitched this summer after their secret romance was revealed in 2020

For six years, Hicks was never far from Trump, whether on the campaign or at the White House

It was an insider account of events that could help convict the former president. The prosecution will seize on what she said about fixer Michael Cohen, and how he was unlikely to have been acting alone when he went about paying hush money.

And they will also use her words to show that Trump was intent on trying to silence women like Stormy Daniels because they might damage his election chances rather than to protect his family

'I think Mr. Trumps opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now, and it wouldve been bad to have that story come out before the election,' she said.

In the end it was all too much for a tearful Hicks. She looked drained, spent.

As the defense began on her cross-examination, she asked for a moment to compose herself, turning away from the court and letting her hair fall across her face.

'I'm sorry,' she said amid sobs as the judge called for a break.

Then, when the day was finished, she walked briskly out of court, keeping her head turned away from the man she had served for six years.
Police are putting together a 'large brief' of evidence against a man who was allegedly the ringleader of a botched plan to import 900kg of cocaine into Australia.

The Australian Federal Police will allege in court Daniel Wayne John Roberts, 36, is the Australian leader of the transnational organised crime syndicate which had tried to import 900kg cocaine.

However, the botched importation job saw bricks of the drug washing up on NSW beaches in recent months.

The AFP allege Daniel Wayne John Roberts was the Australian leader of a transnational organised crime syndicate

Mr Roberts was allegedly in charge of collecting and distributing the cocaine and other illicit drugs into Australia, primarily using sea routes.

He was arrested on April 17 charged with seven offences relating to the importation of commercial quantities of drugs and dealing in proceeds of crime.

The matter was briefly mentioned on Friday in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

The court was told there was a 'large brief' of evidence being collated by the prosecution.

A partial brief of evidence was ordered to be completed before the next appearance on July 5.

Mr Roberts was arrested as part of Operation Groot - a major joint investigation under the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (QJOCTF), which includes the AFP, Queensland Police Service (QPS), Australian Border Force, the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Daniel Wayne John Roberts was arrested over the alleged botch drug importation plan

It will further be alleged Mr Roberts went by the names of WANTED and John Dillinger - the same name as the notorious US gangster during the Great Depression - when using dedicated encrypted communication platforms to contract out drug pick-up jobs.

Mr Roberts also allegedly played a significant role in importing almost two tonnes of cocaine in the past year, which have an estimated total street value of $617.5 m.

He was also allegedly failed to collect 900kg of cocaine off the coast of Queensland's Moreton Island in November 2023.

That failed importation plot resulted in packages of drugs washing up on beaches along the NSW coast in late 2023 and into 2024 after.

So far about 256kg of the suspected 900kg has been seized by NSW Police Force after washing up on the shore.

Up to 213kg of cocaine has been discovered on the shoreline between Sydney and Newcastle, with 90kg of that found in the New Year (pictured are some of the packages)

Police will also allege Mr Roberts facilitated the importation and collection of about 560kg of cocaine into WA's Mid-West region in August 2023.

Mr Roberts is also charged with a further 12 offences for allegedly using violence and threats to collect debts and intimidate rivals by engaging criminal associates to assault, firebomb, shoot at and extort his customers.

Police have since arrested a second man, Thomas James Pfeffer, in connection to the alleged drug trafficking ring.

The AFP told NCA NewsWire Mr Pfeffer was arrested as part of Operation Groot.

Mr Pfeffer was charged with one count of trafficking a commercial quantity of controlled drugs and one count of associating in support of serious organised criminal activity.

His matters were also briefly mentioned in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday, where a bail variation was granted that ordered him to not leave Australia.

Mr Roberts, from Aspley, and Mr Pfeffer will have their matters next mentioned on July 5. They are yet to enter pleas.
A whistle-blowing government civil servant was sacked after a senior member of the BBC's Newsnight team accidentally revealed her name by posting screenshots of leaked emails showing her name, a tribunal has heard.

Josie Stewart was axed by the Foreign, Commonweath and Development Office after sending the Corporation's flagship news programme a series of damning emails blaming the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson for giving priority to staff working for Kabul animal charity Nowzad, founded by former Royal Marines commando Pen Farthing.

She has agreed to speak out anonymously and sent Newsnight two emails with the subject heading 'Pen Farthing & dogs' which allegedly showed the department and special representative Nigel Casey had sought guidance from No. 10 over whether to evacuate workers for Nowzad ahead of others, including interpreters who had worked with the British Army.

But her cover was blown when a well-respected member of the Newsnight team tweeted uncropped screenshots of the emails on January 27, 2022 and in doing so unwittingly revealed the photos to have come from the inbox of a 'J Stewart'.

Josie Stewart (pictured) was axed by the Foreign, Commonweath and Development Office after sending the Corporation's flagship news programme a series of damning emails

The embarrassing blunder came two years after the programme's now infamous interview with Prince Andrew over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which was trumpeted in hit Netflix film Scoop starring Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell.

Ms Stewart was suspended and later sacked by the FCDO but is now claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds that her whistleblowing was protected under the Employment Rights Act 1996.

In evidence submitted to the Central London Tribunal Centre, Ms Stewart was said to be 'horrified' by the chaos and confusion at the Whitehall crisis centre where she had volunteered to work when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

She believed 'the government's mismanagement of the crisis caused huge amounts of avoidable suffering in Afghanistan and that it had probably cost lives' and so agreed to speak to the BBC anonymously about these failings.

Ms Stewart leaked the emails to contradict Johnson's claims that he had been involved in the decision to evacuate Nowzad staff and animals as 'complete nonsense'.

She claims the decision came from the Prime Minister and knowledge of this was discussed in the Crisis Centre by senior civil servants and contained in numerous emails she was copied in on, including one from Casey stating that the National Security Adviser would 'seek input from Number 10.'

Britain's evacuation of ex-pats and personnel from Afghanistan as the Taliban clawed their way back to power was marked by a terrorist attack on August 26, 2021 as thousands tried to flee to safety at Kabul Airport.

Ms Stewart claimed that 'the government's mismanagement of the crisis caused huge amounts of avoidable suffering in Afghanistan (file pic)

Islamic State offshoot ISIS-K bombed the perimeter where desperate crowds had gathered. Two British men and a teenage child of a UK national were killed alongside 169 Afghans and 13 US troops.

Farthing said that members of his animal charity had been caught up in the blasts only to be turned away due to a change in paperwork rules.

He had been trying to evacuate some 200 dogs and cats rescued from the country - dubbed Operation Ark- but lambasted the government, accusing officials of inaction.

Many staff members and rescue animals were later re-homed in the UK but the decision sparked fury and accusations that his public spat with the Government had meant they were prioritised over others, including those who had worked with the British authorities and were at risk of being executed by the Taliban.

According to her witness statement, Ms Stewart felt 'morally compelled' to speak to the media about the withdrawal from Afghanistan because of the Government's 'dishonest account' of what happened.

She said that although she knew she was unauthorised to speak to the media she felt she had been put in an impossible position and said: 'Doing so [speaking to the media] was less wrong than my alternatives,'

Her lawyers argued that Stewart was acting in the public interest and felt 'morally compelled to speak out' submitting that: '[Stewart] had viewed numerous emails which appeared to confirm the PM's involvement in the Nowzad decision and it was impossible to reconcile those emails with the PM's public denial of any involvement.'

The tribunal between Ms Stewart and the FCDO will decide the extent of the rights of civil servants to make public interest disclosures to the press.

Ms Stewart said she felt 'morally compelled' to speak to the media about the withdrawal from Afghanistan because of the Government's 'dishonest account' of what happened (file pic)

Lawyers for the department had previously challenged the admissibility of some of Ms Stewart's evidence on the grounds that including parts of her witness testimony would breach principles of parliamentary privilege.

In November, the employment tribunal decided to allow some of the whistleblower's contested evidence, but redacted some elements.

An FCDO spokesperson said: 'The 2021 Afghanistan response was the biggest mission of its kind in generations and the second largest evacuation carried out by any country  and we are proud of our staff who worked tirelessly to evacuate more than 15,000 people within a fortnight.

'We have learned lessons from the evacuation and have seen the benefits of this work in our response to the Sudan and Niger evacuations, as well as in our response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

'We have continued to provide assistance to those in Afghanistan, including bringing thousands more people to safety. We cannot comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.'suci

The tribunal will continue until May 20.
A former councillor who was one of the first people arrested for 'upskirting' in the UK has today been found guilty of two earlier offences of sexually assaulting a woman.

Lee Hawthorne, 44, was a Tory city councillor when he sexually touched the woman on at least four separate occasions between December 2018 and June 2019.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court today found him guilty by majority verdicts following a five day trial.

Hawthorne, who resigned after four years on the council in April 2020, told jurors he 'never thought for one second [that] she wasn't consenting' and that her consent was all 'non-verbal'.

He told the court he had been the 'provocative lead', while the accuser had been 'submissive'.

Hawthorne added: 'It's what we humans are made to do some people like to take the lead, and some people are submissive.'

Lee Hawthorne (pictured), 44, was a Tory city councillor when he sexually touched the woman on at least four separate occasions between December 2018 and June 2019

In March 2021, Hawthorne was sentenced to 9 months jail suspended for two years and ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work after admitting one offence of voyeurism and one of attempted voyeurism. The two charges related to upskirting incidents - one in a TK Maxx store in Gloucester and the other at an office in the city

Judge James Townsend bailed him for a pre-sentence report to be prepared but warned him an immediate prison term was possible when sentencing takes place at Swindon Crown Court in June.

In March 2021, Hawthorne was sentenced to 9 months jail suspended for two years and ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work after admitting one offence of voyeurism and one of attempted voyeurism. The two charges related to upskirting incidents - one in a TK Maxx store in Gloucester and the other at an office in the city.

He had crouched down in an aisle of the TK Maxx and made repeated attempts to position his phone underneath the dress of a woman who was browsing through clothing rails.

When he was later arrested police found footage of another woman whom Hawthorne had secretly recorded.

This week's trial related to a different woman and the offences preceded his upskirting offences, the court was told. Jurors were, however, given details of the upskirting convictions.

The married father-of-two, who has worked as an Alzheimer's Society charity officer manager, was said to have behaved in an increasingly inappropriate way towards a woman he first met in 2014 and this had escalated to the point of becoming criminal, said Mr Haggerty.

Prosecutor Alistair Haggerty said the situation became 'increasingly unbearable' for the woman and in Autumn 2019 she told another woman who knew Hawthorne. That friend seemed unsurprised and said Hawthorne had once told her that her 'boobs were a good size.'

Eventually the woman formally complained about Hawthorne and police interviewed him on 26th June 2021.

He claimed to the police that there had been a 'mutual attraction' between him and the woman and that she had sought him out. He accepted that the woman had texted him telling him his touching had to stop but he thought this was because she felt guilty about effectively cheating on her boyfriend.

Telling the jury about Hawthorne's upskirting offences, Mr Haggerty said 'They are indicative of a man who has no regard for boundaries and is prone to inappropriate sexual behaviour and shows a great deal of indifference to the question of consent.'

Hawthorne told the jury he believed the woman had consented to the touching.

'I wasn't interested in a full-blown affair with her but I think that with all that was happening in my life at the time I liked the idea of a distraction,' he said.

A jury at Gloucester Crown Court (pictured) today found Hawthorne guilty by majority verdicts following a five day trial

He related how his second child had been born not long before the alleged offences and was deaf, which caused great trauma for the whole family.

He told the jury 'After your wife has a baby things changed a lot in my relationship. I know it's a rubbish excuse. I know it's the wrong reason to show an interest in someone else but that's the fact of it, to be honest.'

He said that on one occasion he went to take a closer look at a picture on a lanyard the woman was wearing and he brushed his hand against her crotch.

'I did not intend to do that but it happened but she didn't react.'

Judge Townsend agreed to a defence request for a pre-sentence report on Hawthorne and bailed him till 24th June.

'I need to know more about you before I pass sentence,' said the judge. 'You must understand these are serious offences and they could carry an immediate prison sentence.

'The fact I am ordering a pre-sentence report is no indication of any particular sentence being passed.

'By reason of your conviction today, and because of your previous convictions, you will be on the Sexual Offenders Register. You must sign on with the police but the length of time you will be on the Register will depend on the sentence I pass.

'You will also be placed on the Disclosure and Barring Service register.'

In September 2019, former government lawyer Daren Timson-Hunt was one of the first convicted under new upskirting legislations. The 54-year-old, of Essex, was given a 24-month community order at Westminster magistrates court following his arrest the previous July.

Hawthorne was arrested over the TK Maxx incident a fortnight after Timson-Hunt.
A coin collector in San Francisco is hiding $10,000 worth of rare coins around town for people to uncover.

Seth Chandler set up the scavenger hunt, which began on Friday, to get more people interested in collecting coins and to educate them.

He owns Witter Coin in the Marina District and is giving away five gold, five silver and one copper coin which each range from $250 to $2,500 in value.

'I thought of the idea to place 11 different coins, all made in San Francisco, in 11 different neighborhoods,' he told KTVU.

Chandler expected they would be found within a few hours but by Friday evening, only six of the 11 were picked up.

A coin collector in San Francisco is hiding $10,000 worth of rare coins around town for people to uncover

Seth Chandler set up the scavenger hunt, which began on Friday, to get more people interested in collecting coins and to educate them

He owns Witter Coin in the Marina District and is giving away five gold, five silver and one copper coin which each range from $250 to $2,500 in value

Chandler has posted clues on the store's Instagram page about where the items are hidden.

The most valuable are a $20 gold coin from 1915 and a penny made in 1909.

'I love coins. I've been collecting coins since I was four-years-old,' he said.

'When you hold a round piece of metal when it's two or three hundred years old, you think about our founding fathers.

'You think about the country the coin was made in. You can really connect with history.'

He added: 'San Francisco is the king of coin cities, the only city in the country with three mints.'

Chandler has posted clues on the store's Instagram page about where the items are hidden

The coins that Chandler and his team have hidden are each in plastic bags and come with cards that provide information as to how to contact his store

Chandler expected they would be found within a few hours but by Friday evening only six of the 11 were picked up

There is still a US Mint which is operating in San Francisco's Upper Market neighborhood.

Don Kagin, an avid coin collector and historian, said: 'There is no artifact that even comes close to our coins to tell a story of a civilization.

'It tells so much about who we are and what we are and our US Mint has done a good job.'

The coins that Chandler and his team have hidden are each in plastic bags and come with cards that provide information as to how to contact his store.

'We're encouraging people to bring it back here to our shop on Lombard Street just so we can meet them, see how excited they are,' he said.

'But most importantly, educate them about the coin they found.'
Owners of a popular Italian restaurant have been left fuming by a 'dine and dash' group who fled without paying 180 of their near 300 bill.

Two families making up a group of nine - including young children - ran up a bill of 280 at Ciao Eatalia in Highworth, Wiltshire, on Saturday April 20.

But when the time came to pay the bill they argued it was too high, threatened manager Gianluca La Porta and head chef Fabio Giacalone and left without paying - allegedly laughing as they did so.

The business partners say this is the fifth time recently they have been subjected to what is known as 'bilking'.

Despite it being reported to the police, who have opened an investigation, they feel that the behaviour is not taken seriously enough.

Head chef Fabio Giacalone, pictured, said: 'It seems to me that anyone can go into any restaurant, eat and drink whatever they want, and then leave without paying'

Two families ran up a bill of 280 at Ciao Eatalia in Highworth, which is pictured

When the time came to pay the bill, they argued it was too high, threatened manager Gianluca La Porta and head chef Fabio Giacalone, and left without paying

Gianluca said: 'It seems to me that anyone can go into any restaurant, eat and drink whatever they want, and then leave without paying and no one will do anything about it.'

The two groups, who were described as rude and demanding during their time in the restaurant, spent around 100 on food.

But the majority of their 280 bill came from alcohol orders of multiple double vodka and cokes and double gin and tonics, as well as beer, and so Fabio described them as becoming progressively drunk as the evening wore on.

When it was just the large group and the two owners left in the building, they refused to pay - saying it was 'too much'.

An argument then started, which eventually led to the two Italian men receiving what they claim was racist abuse, as well threats of violence.

Gianluca alleged: 'One of them told me they were going to smash my face into the wall.'

Fabio called the police and told them he was going to lock everyone inside until they arrived, but says he was advised not to do this.

Eventually, one of the group handed over 100 in cash, and another made a card payment for the remaining 180 which was declined.

Fabio and Gianluca then watched as the group left the restaurant and say they saw them laughing among themselves, before getting into cars and driving off.

Fabio said: 'It was almost like they were proud of it.

The business partners say this is the fifth time recently they have been subjected to what is known as 'bilking'

Despite it being reported to the police, who have opened an investigation, they feel that the behaviour is not taken seriously enough

The two groups, who were described as rude and demanding during their time in the restaurant, spent around 100 on food

The majority of their 280 bill came from alcohol orders of multiple double vodka and cokes and double gin and tonics

'If they had an issue with something, we would have replaced it or taken it off the bill, but they just said the whole thing was too expensive.

'But they knew how much everything would cost when they ordered it.

'To me, they knew what they were doing and I don't see how it is any different to stealing.'

He added: 'As a local independent business and small restaurant, that is a lot of money, especially in the current cost-of-living crisis and we already try to charge as little as possible and keep our profits as little as possible because we know this.'

Gianluca added: 'We are here to work, not to be abused, and threatened and stolen from and we are not protected by the police or anybody.

'One of them even said to me 'nothing will happen if I don't pay.'

Gianluca said: 'But I believe in Karma, whatever you do will come back to you.'

They feel that unless this kind of behaviour is taken more seriously it will get worse, especially with people's finances worsening as the cost of living crisis bites.

A Wiltshire Police officer did attend in the same evening and take evidence, statements and CCTV footage, but the pair say they have not heard anything from them since.

Wiltshire Police has been approached for comment.
Universities have been accused of deserting Jewish students over divisive pro-Palestine protests sweeping across the country.

Edward Isaacs, president of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said campus bosses have been unwilling to be allies to his members and are not making them feel included.

He called on vice chancellors to muster the moral courage to ensure campuses are places where they can study free from hatred.

His comments, in a piece for the Jewish Chronicle, come as so-called encampments set up this week on campuses all over the country.

Yesterday, tents appeared at University College London (UCL), in addition to existing sites at Leeds, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle and Warwick.

Universities have been accused of deserting Jewish students over divisive pro-Palestine protests sweeping across the country

Students at University College London (UCL) join pro-Palestinian demonstrations

A Palestinian flag is seen with a sign at University College London (UCL) join the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that started at Columbia University in the United States

Jewish students have said the protests have made them feel unwelcome on their own campuses, due to the aggressive stance on Israel

Similar action is also spreading across the Channel, with police tackling protesters who had set up tents at Sorbonne University in Paris earlier this week.

Jewish students have said the protests have made them feel unwelcome on their own campuses, due to the aggressive stance on Israel.

Mr Isaacs said he was aware that students in UK protests are using anti-Israel phrases such as globalise the Intifada and do not engage with Zionists.

He wrote: Encampments are growing and the rhetoric emanating from these encampments is increasing in hostility

Universities have been unwilling to effectively stand in allyship with their Jewish students and ensure they can be fully included in campus life.

Now is a bellwether moment for university administrations as to whether they will muster the moral courage to stand in allyship with Jewish students, and ensure campuses are places where they can study free from hatred

The moral imperative is theirs.

Mr Isaacs said Jewish students were having to start sitting their end-of-year exams amid increased toxicity towards them.

Edward Isaacs, president of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said campus bosses have been unwilling to be allies to his members

Isaacs said UJS members were not being included in discussions

Police at Leeds University where protesters have set up tents on campus in solidarity with Palestine

Protestors were seen at Leeds' encampment

A pro-Palestine encampment has been set up on the campus pf the University of Newcastle

Pictured is Hafsa, a 21-year old first year student at Newcastle University

He said some protesters were seeking to import nefarious aspects of the violent US demonstrations.

You may wonder how a few tents can create a hostile environment on campus for Jewish students, he added.

But it is what these encampments are trying to emulate which is most disturbing.

One must only look to the violent scenes at Columbia and UCLA, the brazen support for Hamas, and the all-to-often infiltration of these protests by non-student activists.

Earlier this week, activists managed to take over the library at Goldsmiths, University of London, camping there with sleeping bags.

And student protesters in Newcastle have been mocked after taking to social media to beg for blankets and food for a community dinner.

It comes after the hard-Left University and College Union (UCU) declared it stands with student protesters and urged members to hold demonstrations.

A man walks past flags and banners in support of Palestine displayed in the window of the Goldsmiths University library

Shoes and a keffiyeh lie on the floor next to cushions in the Goldsmiths University library

Academics have been holding protests at Oxford University and London Metropolitan, where they were joined by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Meanwhile, the UCU branch at Sheffield University urged members to visit student protest camps and offer support.

Number 10 has warned protests should not be used to intimidate others and said police would be fully supported to intervene if any turn violent.

The protesters have declared they are not leaving their tents until universities cut financial and other ties with Israel.

A spokesperson for Universities UK (UUK) said: The priority of UUK and our member universities is to ensure that our campuses remain safe for all our students and staff. We will do everything we can to prevent hate crime, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and intolerance, and support our universities to respond appropriately if incidents involving these take place.

In line with the sectors clear commitment to freedom of speech, it is important that universities enable and support students and staff to debate and discuss this crisis, and the most challenging issues it raises, within the law, and with respect and tolerance.
A fundraiser for the teenager who was killed in the Hainault sword rampage has hit 100,000.

Daniel Anjorin, 14, was stabbed to death while on his way to school in east London, on Tuesday.

Now thousands have donated in memory of the schoolboy and a GoFundMe page has raised over 100,000 in just two days.

The proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards helping the teenager's family, the description says.

It describes Joshua as 'very loved' and 'always full of happiness'.

Daniel Anjorin (pictured), 14, was killed while on his way to school in east London , on Tuesday

Now thousands have donated in memory of the schoolboy and a GoFundMe page has raised over 100,000 in just two days

Some people left messages on the page, one person said: 'I was so saddened to hear of your loss. I hope and wish for the best for the family and friends of Daniel Anjorin and may he rest in paradise.'

Another commented: 'My deepest and dearest condolences to this family on their loss of their beautiful son. Gone too soon. Praying for strength for you all xxx'

Someone else added: 'My son is similar age and I cannot imagine your pain which obviously money cannot heal, but I donate to show support.

'Although I do not know you and live miles away from London I am thinking of your family at this heartbreaking time.'

One said: 'I dont know you and I'm struggling to find the right words but my heart breaks for you, your family and friends. My condolences to all of you x'

Joshua was a student at 24,990-a-year Bancroft's school in Woodford Green. The flag on the school's building flew at half-mast on Wednesday.

The proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards helping Daniel's (pictured) family, the description says

The youngster, whose mother is a science teacher, was described as a 'true scholar' with a 'positive nature and gentle character' in a statement from the school released earlier this week.

It read: 'Daniel joined Bancroft's at seven-years old and quickly became a core member of our community. He was a true scholar, demonstrating commendable dedication to his academic pursuits.

'His positive nature and gentle character will leave a lasting impact on us. Losing such a young pupil is something we will always struggle to come to terms with.

'We are now doing all we can to support our entire community through this most painful situation. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Daniel's family during this incredibly difficult time.'
Hundreds of cops in Charlotte showed up to honor one of the cops killed in Monday's shootout with felon Terry Clark Hughes.

Hughes, 39, fired at least 100 rounds from a high-powered rifle at officers who were outside the home he was in as he was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of felony fleeing. He was fatally shot during the exchange.

The shooting left four dead. Two officers, Samuel Poloche and William Elliot, were with the North Carolina Department of Corrections and Thomas Weeks was a deputy U.S. Marshal.

The final victim, Joshua Eyer, was with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

A processional to honor him began on Friday at CMPD headquarters and made its way to First Baptist Church in uptown Charlotte for the memorial service.

Charlotte police officer Joshua Eyer died Monday night. He was one of four officers killed

Hundreds of cops in Charlotte showed up to honor Joshua Eyer killed in Monday's shootout with felon Terry Clark Hughes

A processional to honor him began on Friday at CMPD headquarters and made its way to First Baptist Church in uptown Charlotte for the memorial service

Pipers lead the processional of officer Joshua Eyer outside CMPD headquarters to First Baptist Church on Friday

Large gatherings of cops turned out for the processional and crowds lined up as a horse-drawn carriage carried his body to the church

Heartbreaking photos form inside First Baptist Church show Eyer's three-year-old son, Andrew, waving to a picture of his deceased father while his mother, Ashley Eyer, clutched him

Ashley gave a moving speech during the funeral proceedings, as Eyer's best friend Charlie Sardelli comforted her

Law enforcement officers were seen hugging and comforting each other in support during the emotional proceedings

Large gatherings of cops turned out for the processional and crowds lined up as a horse-drawn carriage carried his body to the church.

READ MORE: Neighbor films shootout between Charlotte cops and gunmen that left FOUR officers dead The shooting took place after police tried to arrest felon Terry Clark Hughes Advertisement

Bystanders carried American flags and waved 'Blue Lives Matters' versions of the Stars and Stripes.

Law enforcement officers were seen hugging and comforting each other in support during the emotional proceedings.

Heartbreaking photos form inside First Baptist Church show Eyer's three-year-old son, Andrew, waving to a picture of his deceased father while his mother, Ashley Eyer, clutched him.

Ashley gave a moving speech during the funeral proceedings, as Eyer's best friend Charlie Sardelli comforted her.

She began her speech by saying, 'I've been told there is a strong possibility that me standing up here is a really bad idea and I may not get through this - but I'm going to try.

'For 10 years josh and I built a beautiful life its cliche but I know the reason our love is so special because he is and will always be my very best friend,' she continued.

'He was so good to me,' Ashley said. 'I never have and I never will question how much he loves me. I will carry his love with me for the rest of my life.'

Through tears - Ashley said, 'Being a father was undoubtedly his most cherished role,' she said. 'All of this has been amazing and such an honor to our family... So if you really want to honor him, please help me by maintaining his legacy through Andrew. Help me teach him about how his daddy was and what he meant to each of you.

The funeral came just days after the tragic death of the beloved and respected North Carolina officer.

At the time of the shooting on Monday, a neighbor managed to capture terrifying footage of the heated exchange between Charlotte police and two gunmen.

A livestream shared by Saing Chhoeun on Facebook shows two heavily armed cops taking cover behind a vehicle as they engage in the gun battle.

The video begins with the terrified neighbor seemingly locked outside his house and asking someone to let him in.

The officers repeatedly ask the neighbor to go inside the home, but he informs them he can't because he does not have the keys.

Some of the officers who rushed to the Charlotte neighborhood to rescue the first wave of downed officers were wounded, as a second shooter began firing on them. That shooter opened fire after they killed the wanted man, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said.

Terry Clark Hughes, 39, has been revealed as the suspect officers were searching for before he opened fire at a North Carolina home, sparking a gun fight that left four officers dead

Officer Samuel 'Sam' Polche (left) and Officer William 'Alden' Elliot (right) died on Monday night in a shooting at a home in Charlotte, North Carolina. They both worked for the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections

Thomas M Meeks is the US Marshal who was killed during the terrifying shootout

The front of the home of the felon's home is seen above after the shooting

'When [officers] approached Hughes they were met by gunfire and returned the gunfire, striking Hughes, who was found deceased in a yard', Jennings said.

Officers then received 'additional gunfire' from within the residence, but it is not yet clear whose bullets struck which officers, and how many cops were hit overall.

After a three-hour standoff, the suburban Charlotte home was torn open. Armored vehicles smashed into it, ripping off windows and entire doorways that were left broken. Several armored vehicles were parked across yards, some with tree branches dangling off them.
The energising skirl of the bagpipes echoed across the Firth of Clyde on the rainy morning of November 21, 2017.

The sky may have been grey but the mood among the crowd, sheltering under a canopy of umbrellas, was sunny.

Those gathered at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow were  quite understandably  excited because after years of community decline, here was what they dared to hope might be the rebirth of the shipbuilding industry.

Nicola Sturgeon, then the all-powerful leader of the SNP and First Minister, stepped up to a podium and quieted the crowd.

On a slipway in front of her stood MV Glen Sannox, one of two passenger ferries ordered, under a 97million contract, by the Scottish Government.

Three SNP stooges: Sturgeon, Salmond and Swinney are serial failures

This, she told her audience, is a very emotional occasion, as all ship launches are.

But this is emotional in particular because of the very special place the shipyard has in the heart of this community and indeed in the heart of Scotland.

Calling for Gods blessing on the ferry and all who sail on her, Ms Sturgeon released the traditional champagne bottle, which smashed on the hull before the vessel slipped into the water.

The cheers were deafening.

However, this triumphant moment was not all it seemed. In fact, it was a sham.

The ferry was very far from being completed.

It looked the part, all right, but its windows were painted on, its funnels didnt work and the bow wasnt fit for purpose.

Could there be a more perfect metaphor for the SNPs 17-year political reign in Scotland?

While the Nationalists have enthusiastically told a story of progress and achievement, the truth is they have done nothing of substance with the powers they hold.

From a distance, they might look like a government of competence, but get up close and you can see the bits theyve painted on.

The reason for this is simple; at the heart of the SNPs political project is a void, a great echoing black hole of nothing.

There are no serious ideas, only monomania about achieving the chaotic break-up of the UK.

There is no drive to create a better country using the powers of Holyrood, only the destructive urge to foment anger and division.

A LMOST seven years after what turned out to be nothing more than a stunt, neither MV Glen Sannox nor its sister ferry MV Glen Rosa are in service, while costs have soared to more than 360million.

SNP ministers insisted the new ferries be built on the Clyde not because it was the option that offered best value for the Scottish taxpayer, but because of the symbolism of the deal.

The Nationalists wished to give the impression they had brought the once-thriving Scottish shipbuilding industry back to life.

Symbolism is, of course, all important to the SNP which, since taking power in 2007, has prioritised introducing legislation that might bolster their story of Scots as uniquely different to the English.

This instinct to prioritise storytelling over substance was evident from the moment the SNP took control.

Look at the Nationalists approach to the NHS, for example. In opposition, Ms Sturgeon insisted only her party could protect the health service.

Its health spokesman at the time told us that, under Labour (which, it might be uncomfortable for SNP members to remember, created the NHS at the same time some senior Nats were still regretting the Allies victory in the Second World War), the NHS was in terminal decline.

But what, when the SNP won the 2007 election, was their big idea to improve services? With much fanfare, the SNP extended the existing provision of free prescriptions to include the wealthy and took the ticket machines out of hospital car parks.

These were policies that spoke of good old fashioned Scottish compassion and common sense, apparently.

In fact, there was little sense in directing resources away from those areas of the service that needed investment.

The prescriptions policy costs more than 50million a year. Common sense would, for example, have been to use that money to hire more medical staff to deal with the needs of an ever-growing elderly population.

And when, finally, the SNP Government did begin to address the problem of growing waiting lists and delays for treatment, their solution was as hollow as any other SNP wheeze.

Ministers put new waiting time guarantees into statute, placing upon themselves a legal obligation to keep their promises.

This certainly looked like a government taking things seriously but there was just one small problem with the new law.

Ministers neglected to include in the legislation any meaningful sanction for failure to meet these now legally binding guarantees.

This is a law  and we should use the word loosely in this instance  that may be broken with impunity.

The SNP instinct to prioritise imagery over action grew stronger when Ms Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond as First Minister.

When the Nationalists wished to present Scotland as uniquely compassionate towards children, did they target investment towards areas of deprivation?

Did they focus on solving already identified problems in schools such as the tendency of many boys to slip academically and go off the rails socially during the transition years between primary and secondary school?

Of course, Ms Sturgeons government did none of these things. Instead, it pushed ahead with plans to appoint a state guardian to every child.

The dangerously illiberal Named Person Act was supposed to send a signal to the world that Scotland really cared about its kids.

The problem was that this proposed intrusion into the lives of every family in the country was not, itself, legal.

Ministers hadnt put the effort into thinking about whether the law was workable. It fell to the Supreme Court to tell them it was not, on the grounds that it breached human rights law.

Just about every SNP Government promise made during the eras of Ms Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf has been hollow. And Scots have paid a price for that.

Both leaders obsessions with delivering a referendum have put Scotland on hold.

Neither dared take on any difficult challenges as they feared the risk of controversy that might harm the independence cause.

This cowardice renders all SNP claims towards radical progress utterly hollow.

SNP First Ministers may have delivered speech after speech about how committed they are to driving up standards in schools and creating an NHS fit to meet the demands of the 21st century but their words have meant nothing.

Reality shows us as much.

Years of soundbite-over-substance have seen the NHS lurch towards breaking point and standards in literacy and numeracy among children slide, while empty promises of action in place of ideas for change mean there has been next to no progress on tackling Scotlands shameful level of drug-related deaths.

John Swinneys imminent return as party leader tells us a great deal about the void at the heart of the SNPs project.

Mr Yousaf, for the time being, has two deputies. Keith Brown is deputy leader of the SNP, while Shona Robison is Deputy First Minister.

These are, by any standard, substantial roles in Scotlands party of government.

Wasnt it remarkable, then, that when Mr Yousaf announced his resignation on Monday, there was absolutely no suggestion within SNP ranks that either Mr Brown or Ms Robison might step up?

F or years, the SNP has boasted of the breadth and depth of its pool of talent while attacking its opponents for being tired and out of ideas.

How does that story of the SNP as home to the brightest and best in our politics marry up to the reality of the return to leadership of Mr Swinney, whose last spell in charge between 2000-04 was disastrous?

One might make the argument for Kate Forbes, the former Finance Secretary who, rather than standing against Mr Swinney has accepted his offer to join his new Cabinet in a senior role, as a politician of some substance but beyond her, when it comes to talent, the SNP has produced nobody of note since Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney got together more than three decades ago.

Mr Swinneys return is an admission of failure by the SNP. And no amount of SNP spin can divert us from that truth.

The party wishes Scots to unite around the idea that Mr Swinney represents change for Scotland.

Thats quite the ask, what with Mr Swinney having spent most of his career at the very top of an SNP government that has so conspicuously failed Scotland.

For all but one of the 17 years of decline in public services under the mismanagement of the SNP, Mr Swinney was one of the most powerful and influential figures in government.

He encouraged and supported Ms Sturgeon throughout almost a decade where the Scottish Government prioritised agitating for a second referendum over addressing the priorities of the Scottish people.

When Ms Sturgeon was on her feet in the Holyrood debating chamber, angrily dismissing concerns over the hugely unpopular and ultimately unworkable plan to reform the Gender Recognition Act, Mr Swinney was by her side, thumping his desk in support.

And when Ms Sturgeon was ignoring the advice of business leaders and pushing up income tax for Scots workers, Mr Swinney was fully on board.

Can Mr Swinney really offer the change Scotland needs when, the last time he was in office, his government showed absolutely no interest in the needs of the entrepreneurs and wealth creators who keep the economy afloat.

And what do Scots get for all the extra tax they pay? An ever worsening slate of public services, thats what.

How can a man who helped lay the foundations for the current crisis in the SNP  and its impact on a nation being so poorly served by a dysfunctional government  be the agent for change?

Little more than a year ago, Mr Swinney stepped down as Deputy First Minister, making it clear his days on the frontline were over.

There was, he said, a breadth of talent in the SNP at Holyrood. He and Ms Sturgeon were leaving the party in capable hands, whoever became the next leader. And then Humza Yousaf got the job.

W HEN it comes to talent, the SNP has always made a little go a long way.

The electoral surge which led to it gaining an unprecedented Holyrood majority in 2011 was not achieved because of the remarkable calibre of its candidates but because of the campaigning skills of a very small group of people at the top of the party.

A cadre of Mr Salmond, Mr Swinney, Ms Sturgeon, her husband and then SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, spin doctor Kevin Pringle (who was hired for that role by Mr Yousaf) and the MSP Bruce Crawford, whose skill in cutting deals with rival parties when the Nationalists ran a minority government were crucial to the SNPs ongoing success.

That team created the illusion of substance in Nationalist ranks.

The reality, however, was that during the time Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney were running the show, they had so little faith in the abilities of Cabinet secretaries that they effectively micromanaged each of them, making key decisions over the heads of ministers across all portfolios.

This lack of talent has contributed to years of hollow government.

While party leaders have spent much of their time agitating for referendums they had no power to deliver, their Cabinets have been stuffed with intellectual lightweights whose analysis of the needs of families across Scotland stretches little further than blind faith in the idea that breaking up the UK is the answer to everything.

Far too many of their MSPs think pushing a big red button marked independence will transform Scotland.

SNP spinners talk of the partys record in government as one of progress and change but the reality is that years of Nationalist leadership are marked by inaction and missed opportunity.

Oh, cries the pious Nationalist, what about the baby box? Isnt that proof of our governments progressive politics?

The answer is no. This much vaunted proof of wise government is  with its packs of nappies and bibs  perfectly useful but studies show its provision does nothing to improve the lot of children born into deprivation. It is just another hollow Nationalist symbol, an empty gesture.

John Swinney will be First Minister within days. He will be the SNPs seventh leader at Holyrood since 1999. The roll call will run: Alex Salmond, John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon (holding the fort while Mr Salmond was at Westminster), Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney.

Does that sound like a party of fresh ideas and new beginnings to you?

The idea were finally about to enter an era of substantial, reforming government under the SNP is as convincing as the windows of the MV Glen Sannox on that wet November morning in 2017.
Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has been accused of 'unwisely' dating an actress at the same time as she also auditioned for a part.

Reece Lyons, who wrote a series of tweets about the experience, said the comic had 'conflated' the two processes and she had been hurt by it.

However, a source close to Gadd on Friday insisted he had no say in the final casting for the hit Netflix series.

It is the latest twist in an already gripping back-story to surprise TV sensation Gadd, who was cleared of any wrong doing by Baby Reindeer producer Clerkenwell Films after his romance with the actress.

Some 14 million people have been poring over every detail of Gadd's much-talked about darkly comic drama based on his real life experiences of being stalked by a woman, 'Martha', after meeting her in a London pub.

The programme shows Martha's obsession developing as she emails Gadd hundreds of times a day, turning up outside his house and harassing his family and friends.

For the past week, the focus has been on Martha, and the real-life version of her who has bitterly complained she was stalked by Gadd rather than the other way round.

Reece Lyons (pictured), who wrote a series of tweets about the experience of dating Gadd and auditioning for his show

Some 14 million people have been poring over every detail of Richard Gadd's (pictured) much-talked about darkly comic drama based on his real life experiences of being stalked by a woman, 'Martha'

But now Gadd faces claims from actress Ms Lyons, who auditioned to play the part of his transgender girlfriend Teri in the drama.

Ms Lyons, who is transgender herself, said she met Gadd in the bar after he had attended one of her stand-up performances.

She wrote on X: 'He began to tell me about his upcoming Netflix show that he had written. The role in question was that of his ex-girlfriend, a trans woman.

'I told him I was interested in auditioning and asked him to get in touch with my agent at the time. 'But there is one other thing,' he said. 'What?' I replied. 'I find you really attractive'.'

Ms Lyons tweeted: 'I said that I didn't think the conflation of the upcoming audition and dating each other at the same time was wise, and he said that he understood.'

However the pair went on four dates between October and November 2021.

Ms Lyons wrote: 'What if I say, no? Does that mean he would feel slighted, and I wouldn't get the chance to audition?

For the past week, the focus has been on Martha, and the real-life version of her who has bitterly complained she was stalked by Gadd rather than the other way round

'He hurt me. I also understand that there was no conscious intent to do so.'

She stressed she did not see herself as a 'victim' of any 'abuse'.

But she warned others to be wary of becoming involved in a casting process 'where somebody is simultaneously conflating a work opportunity with a dating dynamic'.

Casting for Baby Reindeer was conducted by production company Clerkenwell Films. Hollywood website Deadline, which broke the story, said it understood Gadd did not have final approval on Baby Reindeer casting, but did give feedback to Clerkenwell Films on audition tapes.

A source close to Gadd stressed that he had no say in the final casting decision and said: 'Any potential romantic relationship was ended by Richard Gadd in December 2021, three months before the formal casting process for Baby Reindeer began.'

In the end, Ms Lyons did not land the role, which instead went to actress Nava Mau.

On Twitter, Ms Lyons does not name Gadd or directly reference Baby Reindeer, but Deadline said it had verified his identity.

The website claimed Clerkenwell Films had investigated Ms Lyons' comments after she made the company aware of her X posts.

Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has been accused of 'unwisely' dating actress Reece, above, at the same time as she also auditioned for a part

In the end, Ms Lyons did not land the role, which instead went to actress Nava Mau (pictured)

Gadd wrote for the show, and based it off his own experiences of being stalked and abused

It said Gadd had not previously disclosed the romantic liaison to Clerkenwell, and that Ms Lyons was not interviewed on the phone or in person as part of the investigation, with correspondence done in writing.

A Clerkenwell source said her account and other evidence was enough to conclude that Gadd had behaved professionally and casting decisions were not compromised.

Deadline said Ms Lyons did not wish to comment beyond her X thread.

The publication added that sources close to Gadd did not deny that conversations about an audition took place during the period in which they dated.

The Mail has contacted Gadd and Clerkenwell Films for comment.
The House Republican campaign arm has delivered a 'DUI prevention kit' to state senator Dave Min, the California Democrat running to replace Rep. Katie Porter, to mark the one-year anniversary of his drunk driving arrest.

The kit, put together by the California Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Commitee (NRCC) and hand-delivered to the candidate's senate office, included non-alcoholic beer, a breathalyzer, bottles of water and 'tips to avoid a DUI.'

Min, 48, was arrested by police on May 3, 2023 in Sacramento after he ran through a red light in his Toyota Camry with his headlights off.

The Harvard law graduate, who hopes to win the battleground 47th district in Orange County, admitted he had been detained overnight and booked by officers.

'Last night I received a misdemeanor for driving under the influence. My decision to drive last night was irresponsible,' Min wrote on social media at the time.

'I accept full responsibility and there is no excuse for my actions. To my family, constituents, and supporters, I am so deeply sorry.

'I know I need to do better. I will not let this personal failure distract from our work in California and Washington.'

Police had conducted a DUI test and arrested him on suspicion of driving with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. The results have not been released.

'The officers contacted the driver of the vehicle and noticed signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication,' the police report said.

'The officers conducted a Driving Under the Influence [DUI] investigation and determined the driver was driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage,' it concluded.

Min apologized to voters and his family in the social media mea culpa after being arrested on a DUI offense

Min had been seen as a frontrunner to replace the outgoing Katie Porter, who is eyeing a tilt at the U.S. Senate

Min, a former aide to U.S Senator Chuck Schumer, is in the race to replace Porter, who is vacating the seat to run for Senate. She's endorsed Min as her successor.

DailyMail.com reported last year that Porter had dumped boiling potatoes on her ex-husband's head and deemed him 'too stupid' to have a cell phone, following a pattern of reports from her former staff alleging anger issues.

Porter only just squeezed through to victory in 2022 with 51.5% of the vote, making it a tight battle with the Republicans.

Min will face former Republican state Assemblyman Scott Baugh in November.
Is there 'a new hope' for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign?

Star Wars star Mark Hamill made a surprise appearance Friday in the White House briefing room and revealed to reporters he had just gotten a tour of the Oval Office from Biden himself.

Hamill, a vocal liberal on Twitter, praised the president's record and debuted a potential new Biden nickname.

'Well, you know, I called him Mr. President. He said, "You can call me Joe." And I said, "Can I call you Joe B.-Wan Kenobi?' the Luke Skywalker actor said. 'He liked that,' Hamill added.

While press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn't entirely explain why Hamill was in town, Saturday marks Star Wars Day nationally - as May the fourth resembles the sci-fi movie franchise's slogan: 'May the force be with you.'

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill (left) paid a surprise visit to the White House briefing room Friday alongside White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

The actor came out wearing a pair of aviators which he said was a gift from President Joe Biden. He took them off to briefly take questions from the press

Mark Hamill (right) gave White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (left) a hug as he departed the White House briefing room Friday afternoon

During the briefing, Hamill entered the room with Jean-Pierre and stood behind her sporting a pair of shades.

'How many of you have Mark Hamill will lead the press briefing on your BINGO card,' he asked surprised journalists. 'Yeah, me neither,' the actor joked.

'I just got to meet the president and he gave me these aviator glasses,' Hamill went on. 'I love the merch, I love it all.'

He then explained why he was a continued supporter of the Biden administration.

'But listen I just want to say I was honored to be asked to come to the White House to meet the president, the most legislatively successful president in my lifetime,' said the 72-year-old. 'And I don't have to go through the list, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the PACT Act, the CHIPS Act. 15 million jobs. It's all good.'

Hamill said he was also 'thrilled' to meet many members of the White House staff too.

'I'm open to questions although, no Star Wars questions, please,' he joked, adding, 'I want to say once again, how grateful I am and that just shows you that one person can be so influential and so positive in our lives,' he said of Biden.

'And again, thank you so much. And Peter Baker, I loved your book,' Hamill said, giving a shout-out to the prominent New York Times reporter.

The actor was asked what he talked about with the president.

He answered that he only expected to with Biden for five minutes - but revealed the meeting lasted longer.

'He showed us all of his photographs. And you know, it was really amazing to me because you know I was invited to the Carter White House. And I came. And then I came to the Obama White House. But I never was invited into the Oval Office ... so this one was really extra special,' Hamill said.

Once he left, Jean-Pierre chuckled, 'I don't even know where to go from there,' as staff could be heard applauding the actor as he walked back into the White House press office.

'They had a meeting about what the president has been able to do on behalf of the American people. Mark Hamill was in town. They met,' Jean-Pierre said, calling it 'important.'

'You all know Mark Hamill,' she continued, noting how he's 'invested' in the country.

'And we thought it would be fun for him to come up here and lighten up, lighten up the room on a Friday, we also believe that you guys - there are some Star Wars fans in here,' Jean-Pierre said.
On a sun-baked Friday evening in late April, a folk songs spirited chorus drifted out of Bar Beag at the far end of Tobermory and across the Sound of Mull.

A long weekend of merrymaking was well under way for those lucky enough to have made it over to Mull for what has been dubbed the worlds best free festival.

The plans of others, however, had been thrown into chaos after their ferry tickets were abruptly cancelled leaving fans and performers scrambling for a different way to cross from the mainland.

Some battled on and headed over on another boat after a long detour, while others simply gave up and went home.

The main routes usual ferry, the 960-capacity MV Isle of Mull, had been deployed at short notice to head off a CalMac crisis elsewhere in its woefully overstretched network.

Tobermory has been badly hit by CalMacs ageing fleet

Chris Wayne-Wills, chief executive of owner Crerar Hotels has had over 500,000 of cancellations

But while a number of music-loving day-trippers may have had their hopes of attending the Mull Music Festival dashed, they were not the biggest losers on an island wholly dependent on its ferries.

Because islanders are watching their livelihoods fail through no fault of their own  and they know things will get worse before they get better.

Its a complete nightmare, said Emma Denovan, who recently reopened the old MacDonald Arms in Tobermory with partner John McCrone. We have really focused to be open in time for the music festival.

We had one of the bars refurbished and tarted up the second bar, so its a right kick in the teeth that the ferries are letting us down.

We have spent 2,000 on drink, which has just been delivered, and we need to shift it as it is not on sale or return.

We also need day-trippers after the music festival. Everybody is in the same boat: hotels, pubs and restaurants.

It is an unfortunate turn of phrase, given everybody on Mull would give their eye teeth to have reliable access to any kind of boat from ferry operator Caledonian MacBraynes creaking fleet.

In all, seven CalMac ferries have been placed out of action at various times in the past week, leading to disruptions and delays on sailings to both Craignure and Fishnish on Mull.

Given the annual Mull Music Festival provides a 500,000 boost to the local economy, the timing could not have been worse.

The 37-year-old MV Isle of Mull was itself recalled to dry dock for a second time in less than a year after it was found to require extensive repairs to rust on its hull. CalMac conceded that its delayed return from Aberdeen early this year caused some challenges.

For those trying to build their businesses on the island, its the uncertainty thats the killer. If tourists start to doubt whether their ferry will turn up, they wont either.

Not so long ago, Mull was a hotbed of toddler tourism with up to 5,000 visitors as day thanks to the childrens TV programme Balamory. Now, Tobermorys familiar, cheerily painted row of houses by the harbour feel like they are masking despair. Hope is already draining away.

Further south lies the Isle of Mull Hotel and Spa, close to the main ferry terminal at Craignure, just 45 minutes by boat from Oban.

It has undergone a 3million upgrade in recent years, but has witnessed a noticeable reduction in footfall on the island, with the hotels restaurants, bars and spa all suffering.

In the last year we have had over 500,000 of cancellations the provision of ferries and the reliability of ferries has been the major factor in all of these, said Chris Wayne-Wills, chief executive of owner Crerar Hotels.

The ferries are such an issue that even our ability to recruit people has been affected, as candidates are concerned about not being able to get home at short notice if required.

He added: We invested millions of pounds into this hotel and created a world-class business. The fact that our main issue in operating it has been the ferries is a damning indictment on those responsible for the ferry service and investment into the fleet.

Certainly, the effects of CalMac shuffling its pack of depleted resources around the islands have proved catastrophic for day-to-day life on Mull.

On that islanders are as one. It has resulted in last-minute cancellations, reduced-capacity sailings and scuppered travel plans.

Tourists cant come and islanders cant leave. For businesses, deliveries dont arrive and stocks dry up. Life grinds to a halt. But that is what happens when the fleet is ageing and failing, there is no spare capacity and no new ferries ready to replace the old ones.

John Wilson, 94, has lived on the island for 70 years and has never known a service so poor. The former councillor relies on the boat to take him to medical appointments and visit his wife in hospital in Oban, where she has been for the past seven weeks.

In the 21st century one would have expected a more streamlined and modern service, rather than the third world service that it is now, he said.

Increasingly, holidaymakers are fed up with how late CalMac publishes its summer timetables, according to Billy McLymont, who deals with more than 4,000 bookings a year at the Shieling Holidays campsite and self-catering accommodation he runs at Craignure.

People need the confidence to book accommodation in advance but theres always that element of doubt that they may not get a reservation on the ferry, he said.

With no air link like Tiree or Barra or a bridge to fall back on, Mull is completely at the mercy of CalMac. So I guess our friends on the already overrun Isle of Skye will benefit from our troubles, he added, glumly.

Colin Morrison, who runs the Turus Mara boat tour company, agreed. If visitors see it as difficult to access Mull they will simply vote with their feet and go somewhere else, he said.

The ferries are so enmeshed in island life that when they dont run smoothly, everything is upended. Colin Craig, managing director of bus operator West Coast Motors, said unreliable ferries were impacting on his ability to keep bus schedules on track and were causing immeasurable reputational damage to his company.

Many residents have sympathy with the public-facing CalMac staff. Only 3,000 people live on Mull and almost everyone knows someone who works at the company.

They all know stories of ticketing staff in tears as furious passengers converge on them after missing sailings and say many staff are close to quitting.

Yet, islanders are equally furious that repeated incompetence by SNP politicians and others responsible for buying new vessels have left them and their families cut off and their businesses and employees high and dry.

For years, they have been braced for the coming storm as the CalMac fleet aged and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, the state body that owns the vessels, procured highly questionable replacements.

The long overdue Glen Sannox and its sister vessel, the newly launched Glen Rosa, are cases in point.

At least six years late and expected to cost quadruple the original 97million contract, they are both now due to serve Arran. Its anyones guess when Mull will see new ferries.

In his idle moments, Andy Knight might imagine he could do a better job of assembling them, having built up one of the biggest construction firms on Scotlands west coast from the family firm started by his parents in 1979.

Now, 45 years on, TSL Contractors Ltd finds itself at risk, with cancelled crossings costing the company a six-figure sum every year.

Like so many others on the island, he relies on the lifeline ferry services to deliver and receive supplies and transport workers to and from the mainland.

At first things worked well. As we expanded, the implementation of a frequent, modern, reliable ferry service allowed us to export our expertise, developed on the island, to the nearby mainland market, Mr Knight said.

A new ferry pricing structure, known as the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET), was also introduced which was designed to cut the costs of ferry travel, but proved a mixed blessing.

While RET made ferry travel cheaper, it meant capacity became challenging and there was no provision for additional vessels to assist with this, said Mr Knight.

The Scottish Government wanted to boost tourist visitors to the islands but failed to consider the consequences for the regular users.

The effect on his business meant that rather than having a commuting workforce, they needed to have people stay on the island for a week at a time  which has led to increased costs of providing accommodation, meals and other expenses.

That might have been manageable had the ferries remained reliable. In addition, the wasted time we have encountered, caused by lack of capacity, breakdowns, late changes in timetables, etc, is definitely costing us a six-figure sum per annum, he said.

For many, the impact is both personal and professional. Mr Knights wife Naomi, who is born and bred on Mull, worries that the younger generation of islanders, having seen their parents struggles, will flee to the mainland.

It could, she said, result in the Highland Clearances by the Scottish Government, the very people who claim they want to protect remote communities.

For Flora Corbett, too, the ferry problems affect every aspect of her life. As chairman of Mulls only slaughterhouse, she said a lack of sailings almost forced the firm to close as it struggled to get fresh produce to its customers.

The inconvenience and cancellations we had last year almost finished our business, said Mrs Corbett. We kill one day a week, and the vet is contracted to work between the hours of 8am and 4pm  we cannot operate without a vet present.

We had customers whose ferries were changed last minute to unsuitable sailings  either too late in the day or even on the next day.

We cannot afford to face this ferry nightmare again.

As a parent, she witnessed the shambles first-hand when efforts to take her daughter to national equestrian competitions on the mainland foundered when no room could be found on board for the horsebox.

Last year almost every weekend I needed to go to equestrian training or competitions with my daughter who was representing the Scottish team, she said.

It was total chaos. All my bookings were either transferred or moved onto sailings that were totally unsuitable for onward timings and would also involve having to have an overnight in Oban on return.

An added concern for residents is the soaring cost of building projects as mainland contractors have little option but to pass on consequential costs of additional travel and accommodation due to last-minute ferry cancellations.

As Moray Finch, general manager of the Mull and Iona Community Trust, put it: The ferries that are meant to provide our lifeline service are in effect strangling the life out of the islands.

Even organisers of the Mull Rally, which attracts around 3,000 spectators each October and injects an estimated 1.75milllion into the economy, are looking nervously at the calendar.

In 2023 our numbers of competitors, volunteers and spectators were down, and we have established that the ferry issues were a direct reason for that, said a spokesman.

This had a direct impact on event and island revenues, placing pressure on its economic viability.

CalMac behaviour so far in 2024 has done nothing to give us confidence that this year will be any easier. Indeed the timetable for the period of the event has been delayed; many participants have already booked accommodation but have made no arrangements for ferries as a result.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson blamed SNP mismanagement and negligence for a scandal which is mirrored across Scotlands islands.

He urged ministers to speed up efforts to replace CalMacs ageing, decrepit fleet with new ferries that are value for money and delivered on time.

Islanders Naomi Knight, John Wilson, Moray Finch, Gordon Milne and Fraser McKenzie

All this comes at a tumultuous time for CalMac. Earlier last month, Robbie Drummond was removed from his role as chief executive by the ferry operators board.

The company said it understood the challenges islanders face when services are disrupted and suggested adverse weather and tidal conditions for a significant reason why ferries are cancelled or delayed.

Pauline Blackshaw, director of strategy and change at CalMac, said: We carry around five million passengers a year, a number which is steadily growing. While this is good news for islands communities relying on visitors, it does lead to increased pressure on the service, as the available space on our fleet of 35 vessels remains unchanged.

"However, thanks to Scottish Government funding, we will welcome six new major vessels to the fleet by 2026. This will bring extremely welcome additional tonnage and will strengthen resilience. However, we are aware that we will continue to face challenging times until these new vessels join us.

"With regards to cancellations, we know how inconvenient this can be and I apologise whenever this happens. More than 95 per cent of all scheduled sailings go ahead, and whilst this is occasionally not the lived experience for our island communities, the main reason for cancellations is because of poor weather, which can happen at any time in the year in the challenging waters off the west coast of Scotland.

Over the Mull Music festival, we saw 82 per cent average deck utilisation to Craignure, and just 34 per cent average passenger utilisation, so there was sufficient passenger capacity. We also have two other routes to and from Mull which are available on a turn up and go basis, these routes also had ample capacity, on average there was 45 per cent utilisation for deck space and 9 per cent utilisation for passengers over the festival period.

"Everyone at CalMac is committed to helping passengers and we will continue to work as hard as we can to maintain resilience and a reliable service.

Transport Scotland said it is promising to add six new vessels to Scotlands ferry network by 2026 and is currently looking for islanders to voice their views on its Islands Connectivity Plan which, among other issues, it says looks at improving the reliability of its fleet.

It said Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop had met island communities in recent weeks to hear first-hand the difficulties they are facing.

A spokesman said: We are listening carefully to concerns raised by islanders and other ferry users and working hard to address these.

We expect CalMac to communicate and engage with those affected by disruption to ensure travellers are aware of available alternative services and that our islands remain open for business.

They will need to act fast, or it may not be long before musicians arriving for the Mull Music Festival will be playing a last lament for the island and its people.
Crews have begun demolishing a bridge in Connecticut after it was severely damaged by a huge tanker truck which caught fire following a crash.

The tanker truck, carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline, crashed into a tractor-trailer on the I-95 in Norwalk near exit 15 at around 5am on Thursday.

It caused a massive fireball to erupt and engulf the overpass above and caused major traffic and school closures.

There were no serious injuries despite the explosive collision but the bridge was heavily damaged.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation began demolishing the Fairfield Avenue Bridge on Friday morning to get the highway reopened.

Crews have begun demolishing a bridge in Connecticut after it was severely damaged by a huge tanker truck which caught fire following a crash

The tanker truck, carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline, crashed into a tractor-trailer on the I-95 in Norwalk near exit 15 at around 5am on Thursday

It caused a massive fireball to erupt and engulf the overpass above and caused major traffic and school closures

The tanker truck struck a tractor-trailer and then a passenger car before a huge fire erupted and spread on to the overpass.

Local firefighters responded first, putting out the flaming vehicles, and both sides of the major east coast highway were shut down.

Crews started work to demolish the damaged bridge on Friday using excavators and debris was seen scattered all over the ground below.

'Crews from @CTDOTOfficial and our contractors began demolishing the Fairfield Avenue Bridge over I-95 in Norwalk this morning,' Governor Ned Lamont said.

'They'll be working around the clock to remove the bridge so we can get the highway reopened.'

Connecticut Department of Transportation commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said: 'This bridge is less than 10 years old  and the damage was pretty severe due to the amount of gasoline that was in the tanker ignited directly underneath the bridge structure. The steel did begin to overheat and warp.'

Crews started work to demolish the damaged bridge on Friday using excavators

Debris from the demolition was seen scattered all over the ground below

The aftermath of the crash with the remains of the tanker truck pictured underneath the smoldering overpass

Governor Lamont declared a state of emergency in a bid for support from the federal government.

'This emergency declaration will help expedite some of the resources needed for us to respond to this situation,' he said.

'I strongly encourage everyone to avoid this area for at least the next few days while the highway remains closed and to stay alert for updates.'

On Friday, around 13-miles of traffic was reported on the southbound side of the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield as well as serious delays northbound.

Norwalk Public Schools also made the decision to shut 'due to ongoing traffic concerns and delays.'

While commuters were urged to work from home and avoid non-essential travel to ease congestion.

'Weve scheduled some different staggering work times for people so that they can come in later, maybe go home earlier so we can reduce some of the traffic,' Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said.

'But were also asking a lot of our staff to work from home. So we feel that well keep some of the traffic off the road.'

There is an ongoing investigation into the crash.
A Costco shopper living in Oregon was shocked to find an unexpected creature after she cracked one of her newly purchased eggs.

The buyer, who's known as @xiomis95 on TikTok, posted a video on the social media platform two days ago after she discovered a roundworm in one of her eggs.

'If you get eggs from f****** Costco, crack them in a separate bowl,' she stated prior to scooping up the roundworm with a fork.

A Costco shopper from Oregon known as @xiomis95 on TikTok posted a video two days ago after she cracked an egg and discovered a roundworm in her bowl

The TikToker bought her eggs at Costco and has since advised other egg buyers to crack their eggs in a separate bowl just in case there's a worm in one of them

Roundworms are small organisms that can live in a human or animal intestine, sometimes for long periods of time.

The Cleveland Clinic reads that a roundworm has a long round body that can come in different sizes depending on the type.

Roundworms can also cause various health problems, including stomach pain. fever, and diarrhea.

This isn't the first time that roundworms have been found by Costco customers.

@xiomis95 had a hard time looking at the roundworm that was still moving in the eggs. However, she did scoop it up briefly with a fork

New York Costco customer Jack Sanchez was disturbed after he saw a roundworm in a package of salmon in 2019 while he was in a checkout line.

Sanchez told PIX11 News that he called over a manager, who told him it was 'pretty normal' that the salmon had a worm or parasite.

Rachel Lyn posted a TikTok video back in 2023 after she found a roundworm crawling inside a package of salmon at a Costco in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Lyn's video quickly went viral, and as of now, it's gotten nearly 5 million views.
It was a bustling Friday night in January at Mae Ping Thai, a Thai restaurant on Perths South Street, when a handsome man with a thick beard came in for dinner.

Owner Nongmay Buncharoen thought at once that his face was so familiar, he must be a regular.

When he came in I asked if he had been here before because I thought I recognised him, she later said.

He had a massive smile and giggled. He said: No Ive never been here before.

It was only later on, when a friend who had been sitting at the next table messaged asking if Buncharoen knew who she was serving, that the penny dropped.

The mysterious diner was none other than Ewan McGregor.

The film stars 2million property in rural Perthshire

Happy couple Ewan McGregor with his wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead

The Carse of Gowrie property has been completely renovated

I thought he was maybe just from somewhere out of town because he had a strong Scottish accent, she said.

Out of town is right. For decades McGregor has lived on the other side of the world, making his home in Los Angeles with ex-wife Eve Mavrakis and their four daughters.

Now, however, after so many years away and with a new wife and son in tow, it would seem McGregor is finally reconnecting with his Scottish roots.

Last year, McGregor and his second wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead purchased a 2million home in rural Perthshire, and have spent the past 12 months lovingly restoring it.

For McGregor it is certainly a homecoming. He grew up in the town of Crieff, in Strathearn, where he attended the local private school Morrisons and where his parents still live.

And since snapping up the property he has been spotted out and about in a number of local haunts.

In January, he was seen on Dundee Waterfront outside a street food van where he bought a coffee, a doughnut and a bagel (he was very nice and looks just like he does in the movies, owner Chris Heather later reported), while later in the month he stopped by Perth double glazing firm Balhousie Glazing to thank staff for installing windows at his new home.

According to Jane Bertie, finance director at Balhousie, he was friendly and very down to earth. He made time to talk to the staff.

Then it was off to T Paterson Jewellers on Perth High Street and while its not clear whether he purchased anything, staff later said it was an exciting day.

Anyone would think McGregor was trying to blend in with the locals.

McGregors return to Scotland has certainly been a long time coming.

He left the country at 17 to go to drama school in London where he then settled following his breakthrough success in Danny Boyle films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, and hasnt lived in the UK since 2008, swapping the English capital for the bright lights of Hollywood.

A bearded Ewan McGregor has recently purchased a property in rural Perthshire and plans to spend more time in his homeland

Ewan McGregor with his brother Colin

In a recent interview, McGregor revealed that a longing to reconnect with his roots  and his family  lay at the heart of his return.

Ive lived in Scotland for less time than Ive lived away from it, but Ive never lost my love for it, he said. I have a home there now.

I didnt see my family for years during Covid, so when I got married to Mary here [in Los Angeles], they came over and my brother was in an Airbnb up the road. Id never had that ability to just pop round to see him, because Ive always lived away.

The yearning to come back however, still took him by surprise.

I never saw it coming, its weird, the 53-year-old told Architectural Digest. I spoke to [comedian and former American chat show host] Craig Ferguson about it, hes moved back to Scotland, and when I called him up he told me, Oh yeah, youre just at that age. You just reach an age when its time to go home.

But there are clearly still mixed feelings there, particularly when it comes to the people of Scotland themselves. In March, McGregor told the Radio Times: It was hard to leave Scotland. Theres a sense youre turning your back.

People in Scotland to this day tell me to remember where I come from. I know where I come from!

I dont need anybody to remind me. Its this feeling of youre not Scottish enough. Im Scottish wherever I am in the world. Im always Scottish.

As if to hammer the point home, McGregor recently took part in a promo video for Perthshire alongside his brother Colin, a former RAF fighter pilot, for travel firm Expedia.

In the video they extol the virtues of the county, visiting The Hermitage forest, Fortingall Hotel and Ewe Bar near Aberfeldy, Taymouth Marina in Kenmore  run by their childhood friend, Eric Strickland  and Aran Bakery in Dunkeld.

I knew this would be such a lovely thing to do with him because it just gives us an opportunity to hang out together, which is not always the case when youre both working and living in different places, McGregor said at the time.

The two even reminisce about their early days, climbing the hills of Perthshire.

As kids wed sit on top of hills having hoofed all the way up there, get the sarnies out, said McGregor. Then, it was a white roll with one lopsided cheese slice.

Might the pair be angling for a brothers in arms style TV series travelling the length and breadth of Scotland, just like McGregors motorcycle series Long Way Round with his friend Charlie Boorman, where they traversed South America?

Or is McGregor merely trying to convince his fellow Scots, and perhaps even himself, that Scotland is once again home?

Certainly, its a long way from the lavish 4million pad he once shared with his ex-wife Mavrakis.

A stunning mansion in Los Angeless Brentwood, next door to the house once owned by Marilyn Monroe, its where the couple chose to settle when they moved to Los Angeles in 2008 with their then young family.

The former couple share four children together: Clara, 27, Jamyan, 23, Esther, 22, and Anouk, 13, all of whom speak with American accents, and all of whom still live in LA.

Following their messy break-up  not long after the pair called it quits in 2017, McGregor was spotted getting extremely cosy in public with Winstead  he moved into an LA bachelor pad while the children stayed in the family home.

His former wife was said to be particularly upset by the new relationship given that she had invited Winstead to their home a few months earlier when it was revealed the two stars would be working together on Fargo.

And his daughter Clara was also riled, describing Winstead on social media as a piece of trash, comments she later said she regretted.

Perhaps its no surprise then that in the early days of their courtship McGregor brought Winstead to Scotland, away from the media scrutiny and the family ire.

In November 2017 the pair were spotted in various locations in Argyll, including Arisaig, where they dined at the Old Library Lodge restaurant with rooms, before heading over to the Isle of Skye.

The couple married quietly in April 2022 in an outdoor ceremony in Los Angeles, a year after the birth of their baby son, Laurie.

His arrival would appear to have helped heal the rift between McGregor and his daughter, with Clara posting on social media alongside a picture of herself cradling the newborn: Welcome to the world little brother.

Congratulations to my Dad & Mary, this is the greatest gift.

But while McGregor revels in a new young family and introduces them to his homeland, not all has been plain sailing at the actors new Scottish pad.

Earlier this year he came under fire after he was accused of carrying out unauthorised works at the 18th century C-listed mansion.

A formal proposal for a number of renovations, which the application states have already been completed, has now been submitted to Perth and Kinross council, including the installation of CCTV cameras, roof repairs and renovating parts of the propertys vast interior.

Agents stated the reason for the work being completed ahead of submission of the application was that it was carried out in advance of applicant moving in.

It was evident that the previous owners had not decorated the property for some time, said the agent, McKenzie Strickland Associates.

The paintwork was generally yellowing, and wallpaper was peeling in several areas due to water damage from blocked gutters, etc.

Therefore, most of the works carried out at the house were decorative, including painting, wallpapering and sanding floors.

Land Registry documents show the actor bought the mansion in the Carse of Gowrie area in May last year for 200,000 over the asking price.

Since then, McGregor has been granted permission by the council to erect a replacement garage and create a new master bedroom and bathroom suite.

Given the works have been completed, it sounds as though McGregor and family might be moving in any day now.

Meanwhile, McGregors career is going from strength to strength.

After his critically acclaimed role in Fargo, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2018, he won an Emmy award for his portrayal of the eponymous fashion designer in the Netflix series Halston, then returned to his Star Wars role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a well-received mini series.

Earlier this year, a film written by his daughter Clara and starring the father daughter duo was released, to mixed reviews it must be said.

Now McGregor is starring in the Paramount+ series A Gentleman in Moscow, adapted from the bestselling novel by Amor Towles, a historical thriller about a Russian count sentenced to indefinite house arrest in a luxury Moscow hotel.

It also stars Winstead as his sometime lover  the couple used an intimacy co-ordinator for the shows sex scenes despite being married because, said McGregor, its odd to be naked in front of people  and has garnered a string of five star reviews.

Does all this Hollywood success mean McGregor might not be spending as much time in Scotland after all? Dont count on it.

In a recent interview he revealed he missed the smell of the rain in Scotland (and theres certainly been no shortage of that here so far this year), and that he and his brother were considering taking their mother to a favourite cottage, complete with in-house catering, in Nethy Bridge for her 80th birthday celebrations this year.

In fact, while McGregors love story with Winstead has clearly dominated the past few years of his life, it may be that the other true love of his life is his homeland.

In the travel video with his brother, one clip sees him driving across the country gazing in awe at the landscape saying: I think whoever made the world started with Scotland, [and they] got it right.

Spoken with all the zeal of a returning expat.
Donald Trumps longtime aide Hope Hicks broke down in tears during rollercoaster testimony where she detailed the crisis sparked by the infamous Access Hollywood tape and her own stunned reaction at the hush money trial on Friday.

Hicks glided into the witness box wearing a black trouser suit and blue blouse and told the jury Im really nervous before describing her work reacting to a scandal they feared would ruin his 2016 presidential run.

The 35-year-old revealed how Trump was concerned wife Melania would see articles about the hush money deal, so stopped newspapers being delivered to Trump Tower.

As the Manhattan District Attorney's Office ended their exhaustive questioning, she started to cry and said 'sorry' to the court, overwhelmed by her appearance in front of a man she trusted and admired.

Donald Trumps longtime aide Hope Hicks broke down in tears during rollercoaster testimony where she detailed the crisis sparked by the infamous Access Hollywood tape and her own stunned reaction at the hush money trial on Friday

Hicks makes a brisk exit from the Manhattan Criminal Court after her emotional testimony on Friday

Hicks' appearance came as she is set to walk down the aisle this summer, DailyMail.com can reveal.

She is due to marry Goldman Sachs boss Jim Donovan, 57.

In court Hicks recalled in vivid detail how, as the campaign press secretary, she walked to the 25th floor of Trump Tower to interrupt debate preparations to hand Trump the transcript of the clip where he made the grab em by the p**** comments.

An upset Trump insisted he didnt want to offend anybody and felt his crude remarks made were pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other, she told the jury.

The prosecution guided her through detailed descriptions of her interactions with Trump when he women came forward with lurid allegations.She also revealed that she hasnt spoken to the former president since the fall of 2022 and is paying for her own lawyer, despite her unflinching loyalty when she worked by his side.

Hope Hicks, former White House Communications Director, in 2018

Hope Hicks gives evidence as Donald Trump looks on

During an appearance on the stand where she barely looked at the defendant, she was questioned about topics ranging from fake National Enquirer stories to her relationship with Ivanka Trump.

Hicks also laughed as she said the campaign response to the clip of Trump saying grab em by the p**** should be deny, deny, deny.

She praised her old boss as a savvy political operator who was in the driving seat during the campaign.

US President Donald Trump poses for a photo with former communications director Hope Hicks outside of the Oval Office in 2018

Hope Hicks smiles at US President Donald Trump during a Make America Great Again rally at Dubuque Regional Airport on November 1, 2020, in Dubuque, Iowa

White House adviser Hope Hicks waves near of U.S. President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Ocala International Airport in Ocala, Florida, U.S., October 16, 2020

'He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. We were all just following his lead, Hicks said.

When asked if he deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on in terms of the agenda he put forward, she said yes.

She said the fake National Enquirer story about Ben Carson's 'medical malpractice' was worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.

The communications aide was describing calls between Donald Trump and the magazines publisher David Pecker.

Hicks said Trump congratulated Pecker on the great reporting.

She also heard the former president praise Pecker for the story linking Ted Cruzs father to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who assassinated JFK.

Hicks was asked about the response to the Access Hollywood tape from Republicans and mentioned then-Speaker Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee.

She described them as people who always felt they needed to 'weigh in.'

Trump smirked at the jab of two of his political enemies.

Counselor to the US president Hope Hicks boards Air Force One at Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport August 20, 2020

Hope Hicks, a former top aide to former U.S. President Donald Trump, is cross examined by defense lawyer Emil Bove during Trump's criminal trial

Hicks also told the jury that when the Access Hollywood tape came out Trump was worried about how this would be viewed at home, meaning by his wife Melania.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove asked Hicks what observations she had made of Trumps relationship with his wife that led her to believe this was causing him stress.

Hicks told the jury: He really values Mrs Trumps opinion and she doesnt weigh in all the time but when she does it is really meaningful to him.

He really really respects what she has to say.

He was concerned about what her perception of this would be. I know that was weighing on him.'

Bove asked: It continued to weigh on him as more allegations were made?

In a quiet voice, Hicks said: Yes.

White House counselor to the president Hope Hicks walks from Marine One prior to boarding Air Force One as she departs Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump for campaign travel to Florida at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., October 23, 2020

Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen

Bove asked why she thought Trump didnt want the newspapers delivered to his house in November 2016 when the story about Karen McDougal came out.

He said: 'This was hitting home in a very real way? There were parts of this that were very very personal to him?'

Hicks responded: 'Absolutely. I dont think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him.'
READ MORE: STUDENT PROTESTS

Fact-box text NYPD cops dressed in riot gear stormed through the window of a Columbia University building occupied by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters to begin clearing them out Advertisement

A pamphlet reportedly circulated among University of Wisconsin pro-Palestine student protesters appears to show how to overcome police during an arrest.

The pro-Palestine protesters have been in a tense stand-off with police on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus for several days.

Police have made several arrests at the encampment where students are demanding the university cuts ties with Israel.

The 'De-Arrest Primer' pamphlet, first reported by Maclver News Service, offers tips on how to be 'unarrested' such as breaking an officer's grip and claims that resisting arrest is a 'micro-intifada.'

'A de-arrest, aka an unarrest, is the act of freeing someone who has been seized by LAW Enforcement Officers (LEO)' the pamphlet's introduction explains.

'A de-arrest can look like physically removing an arrestee from LEO's grip, opening the door of a car, or pressuring LEOs to release an arrestee' it goes on to explain.

'Being arrested can have drastic negative life altering affects, especially for targeted populations like people who aren't white, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and certain radicals.

'It follows then that reversing an arrest can be well worth the risks involved.'

One such tactic advised in the booklet is described as 'pulling and pushing an officer off an arrestee and/or breaking their grip on an arrestee.'

The 'De-Arrest Primer' pamphlet appears to offer tips on how to be 'unarrested'

The pamphlet reportedly circulated among University of Wisconsin pro-Palestine student protesters appears to show how to overcome police during an arrest.

In discussing the supposed benefits of de-arrests the booklet argues that each one is a 'shaking off' of a 'micro-intifada'

In discussing the supposed benefits of de-arrests the booklet argues that each one is a 'shaking off' of a 'micro-intifada' which can spread and inspire other until we may finally shake off this noxious ruling order all together.'

So far 34 students have been arrested in relation to protests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to WKOW.

The encampment was largely dismantled after police action on Wednesday, but tents are currently being reassembled on Library Mall.

Protesters met with Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin on Friday following administrators pledge to offer a day without police on campus, WKOW reported.

So far 34 students have been arrested in relation to protests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The encampment was largely dismantled after police action on Wednesday, but tents are currently being reassembled on Library Mall

NYPD cops dressed in riot gear stormed through the window of a Columbia University building occupied by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters to begin clearing them out

Police use a vehicle named 'the bear' to enter Hamilton Hall from a public street, which was occupied by protesters, as other officers enter the campus of Columbia University

Columbia University protesters smashed windows, upended furniture and caused damage throughout Hamilton Hall amid their brief occupation

Images and video showed extensive damage to Hamilton Hall after protesters were evicted on Tuesday night

However, no agreement has yet been met, the outlet reported following a student press conference.

Protesters are pushing for the university to pressure the UW Foundation to disclose and divest from all companies 'profiting off the war in Gaza.'

'Campus leaders continue to engage with student protestors in an effort to bring this situation to a resolution,' a UW-Madison spokesperson said in a statement.

It comes as protests at college's around the country have become increasingly heated, as students class with university administrators and law enforcement.

At Columbia University in New York more than 100 protesters were arrested by the NYPD after they occupied Hamilton Hall.

Around 40 protesters were arrested on the first floor of the building after police swooped just after 9pm on Tuesday ending the pro-Palestine encampment that stretched on for nearly two weeks.

Columbia's President Minouche Shafik called in the NYPD in to 'restore order and safety' to the campus amid the escalating protests, which also included a massive encampment on the school's lawns.

The raid saw demonstrators arrested across the campus and at nearby City College New York, where similar protests unfolded.
It will as come as a surprise to those who have been enduring a soggy spring.

Just days into May, fire chiefs have put parts of Scotland on high alert for wildfires.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) warned of an extreme risk of wildfires after temperatures soared above 20C (68F) over several days, turning the ground into a tinderbox.

Wildfire spread across a vast grass and gorse area near Connel in Argyll

It comes after Scotland suffered its fourth wettest April in records going back to 1836.

The SFRS has urged people in the North-west to be cautious and avoid naked flames.

The warning came after fire crews battled a massive blaze near Connel in Argyll.

Group commander Niall MacLennan said: It is crucial that people act safely and responsibly in rural environments.

Forecasters said temperatures are expected to drop across the West today and Sunday with some scattered showers.

The Met Offices Greg Dewhurst said: Lot of cloud and rain around, especially around the Central Belt and the Borders regions where it could be heavy and even thundery.

Any chance of sunshine will be around the Western Isles and the North-west Highlands. Then Sunday and Monday sunny spells and scattered showers.
This is the moment the military rescued a couple and their pet dog after they got stuck in their car on a flooded street in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Footage released by the Military Brigade showed a man and a woman with their pooch on top of their vehicle covered with tree branches and debris on Friday morning.

The soldier could be see strapping a harness to the woman in order to lift her up to the helicopter.

The military said the woman had limited mobility and was treated for hypothermia.

A service member of Brazil's Military Brigade rescued a couple and their pet dog after they were found stranded on top of their car surrounded by tree branches and debris in Bom Retiro do Sul, a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil

A drone view shows an area affected by the floods in Encantado, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on Friday. At least 37 people have been confirmed dead and 74 were still missing

Air Force troops escort a woman after the was rescued from a flooded neighborhood in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on Thursday

At least 37 people have been confirmed dead, 74 were missing and 74 had been treated for injuries as of Friday afternoon, according to the Civil Defense.

The agency said that 235 of the 496 cities in the southernmost state of Brazil have been severely impacted by rain since Monday.

The bad weather has forced 7,165 people to abandon their homes and seek refuge in shelters while 17,087 are homeless.

The storm has also caused landslides and damages to homes, roads and bridges, including one that was swept away by a flooded river.

It triggered the partial collapse of a dam structure at a small hydroelectric power plant in the city of Cotipora.

A couple is rescued from their flooded home in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost Brazilian state that since Monday has been slammed with heavy rain that has forced 7,165 people to abandon their homes and seek refuge in shelters while 17,087 are homeless

A man wades in a flooded street in the Rio Grande do Sul municipality of Porto Alegre on Friday

Residents are seen with their pet dogs after they were rescued from their homes in Porto Alegre, Brazil on Friday

A second dam in the city of Bento Goncalves is also at risk of collapsing, authorities said, ordering people who live nearby to evacuate. Two other dams in the municipalities of Candela and Sao Martinho da Serra are could also collapse at any moment.

The state is at a geographical meeting point between tropical and polar atmospheres, which has created a weather pattern with periods of intense rains and others of drought.

Local scientists believe the pattern has been intensifying due to climate change.

Heavy rains had already hit Rio Grande do Sul last September, as an extratropical cyclone caused floods that killed more than 50 people.

That came after more than two years of a persistent drought due to the La Nina phenomenon, with only scarce showers.

'It's not just another critical situation; it's probably the most critical case the state has ever recorded,' Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said in a live broadcast on social media on Thursday.

He added that the death toll will likely climb as authorities have not been able to access certain locations.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traveled to the state on Thursday to visit affected locations and discuss rescue efforts with the governor.
Heavy storms hit Houston again today, leaving drivers stranded and a school bus of children in need of high-water rescues due to floods.

The latest downpour has further increased dangerous flooding fears in Texas.

As a result of today's flooding, officials have redoubled efforts and warnings asking residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, worrying that the worst was still to come.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo cautioned: 'This threat is ongoing and it's going to get worse. It is not your typical river flood.'

She further described the surge of water as 'catastrophic' and said several hundred structures were at risk of flooding.

As of now, authorities have already conducted at least two dozen water rescues in the county, in addition to getting 30 pets to safety.

Schools in the path of the flooding have canceled classes and roads remain jammed as officials have closed highways. Authorities have yet not reported any deaths or injuries.

Conroe firefighter Cody Leroy carries a resident evacuated in a boat by the CFD Rapid Intervention Team from her flooded home in the aftermath of a severe storm

Emergency workers with Caney Creek Fire and Rescue carry a dog from a flooded area

A man carries his dogs rescued by boat from his home by Caney Creek Fire and Rescue on River Plantation Drive

For weeks, drenching rains in Texas and parts of Louisiana have filled reservoirs and completely saturated the ground.

Floodwaters began partially submerged cars and roads this week across parts of southeastern Texas, north of Houston, where high waters reached the roofs of some homes.

In the rural community of Shepherd, Gilroy Fernandes said he and his spouse had about an hour to evacuate after a mandatory order. Their home is on stilts near the Trinity River, and they felt relief when the water began to recede on Thursday but things worsened overnight.

'Next thing you know, overnight they started releasing more water from the dam at Livingston. And so that caused the level of the river to shoot up by almost five or six feet overnight,' Fernandes said.

Neighbors who left an hour later got stuck in traffic because of the flooding.

Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough claims there have been more high-water rescues than he was able to count.

'We estimate we've had a couple hundred rescues from homes, from houses, from vehicles,' Keough said.

A woman is rescued by airboat from her home by Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputies

Family members survey the damage after a tree fell on the home of Monica Ramirez during a severe storm

A child in a car seat is taken out of a boat as residents are evacuated by boat from their homes by Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputies

More than nine inches of rain has fell over the county in the last 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

In Crosby, school officials said the driver of a school bus carrying 27 students stopped his vehicle just before driving into high water Friday.

The students were forced to exit through a rear door and were taken to campuses on another bus.

Later, Crosby school district Superintendent Paula Patterson said: 'I am proud of the quick action of our bus driver'.

Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River, on the eastern part of the county, which was expected to continue rising as more rain falls and officials release extra water from an already full reservoir.

A pickup truck maneuvers a residential street filled with water in Woodloch

A woman is handed her child after being evacuated by boat from her homes with the help of deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office

Hidalgo officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living along portions of the river.

The county has also warned others who live along the river in southern portions of Hidalgo that they could be stranded for days if they remain in their homes.

As a result, shelters have been opened across the region, including nine by the American Red Cross.

In the city of Conroe, just north of Houston, rescuers are driving boats into neighborhood subdivisions to rescue people and pets from their homes, then carrying them from the boats to higher ground.

In nearby Livingston, neighborhoods were flooded, with water rising to the windshields of moving vans and above the bottom of windows of some buildings.

A woman reacts as she and others are evacuated by boat from their homes by Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputies

A helicopter flies above the San Jacinto River, which rose out of its banks in the aftermath of a severe storm

Storms over the past month in southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana have dumped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

The greater Houston area covers about 10,000 square miles - a footprint slightly bigger than New Jersey.

It is crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles to the southeast from downtown.

The city's system of bayous and reservoirs was built to drain heavy rains. But engineering initially designed nearly 100 years ago has struggled to keep up with the city's growth and bigger storms.
A 12-year-old girl was today revealed as one of the victims of a school attack in which two staff members were hurt by a youth armed with a broken bottle, a court heard.

The Year 7 pupil was in the reception area of Birley Academy, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, when the assailant, a former pupil, allegedly struck at 8.50am Wednesday morning  just as lessons were starting.

Police were called and the high school, which has 1,000 pupils, went into full-scale lockdown, with tearful children hiding under desks.

Neither the schoolgirl nor the two injured staff members  who are both female - were seriously hurt or needed hospital treatment.

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old youth was arrested at the scene, Sheffield Youth Court heard today.

Police outside the Birley Academy in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where a 17-year-old boy was charged with three charges of attempted grievous bodily harm and one charge of being in possession of a sharp or pointed article

A view of police at the scene at Birley Academy, Sheffield on Wednesday, May 1

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in court Friday lunchtime charged with three charges of attempted grievous bodily harm and one charge of being in possession of a sharp or pointed article.

The court heard how the youth, who had a shaved head and was dressed in a grey sweatshirt, allegedly lashed out attacking the young girl and a first staff member.

A second adult was then attacked when stepping in to stop the commotion.

The boy  who the court heard has autism - was brought into court from police custody and spoke only to confirm he was not going to enter a plea at this time.

When asked by District Judge James Gould what his plea would be, he simply said: 'No indication'.

Judge Gould remanded the teen into custody until his next hearing at Sheffield Crown Court on May 31.

Horrified parents have questioned how the youth was able to enter the school site.

Parents were sent a letter by Birley Academy headteacher Victoria Hall after the incident

An aerial view of the scene at the school after the teenager was arrested on Wednesday

A 'scrum' of mothers and fathers were waiting outside the gates to collect their children when pupils were sent home at 11am on Wednesday

Birley Academy was rebuilt in the late 2000s and pupils and staff have to enter via a reception area with security procedures for visitors.

Children described to their parents  many of whom were waiting to collect them after they were allowed home at 11am - how they were lying on the floor and hiding under the tables during the incident as lockdown procedures were enacted.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs his 'thoughts' were with those injured in the attack in Sheffield.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan wrote on social media: 'We're in touch with the school and my thoughts are with those injured and all the school community affected by this frightening situation.'

A statement from The Birley Academy, which reopened as normal on Thursday, said: 'The safety of students and staff is paramount and all students and staff are safe.

'We would like to praise our staff for their professionalism and our students for the way they responded. We continue to work closely with the police and will update as required.'
The Tory plot to oust Rishi Sunak fizzled out yesterday, despite 'disappointing' local election results that leave Labour on course for power.

Disaffected Tories had planned to use the elections as a springboard for a coup against the Prime Minister.

But despite results that left the Conservatives on track to lose half the seats they contested, rebels admitted they had not persuaded enough MPs to join them to force a vote of no confidence in Mr Sunak's leadership.

One rebel said simply: 'We're off to the pub.'

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the first Tory MP to publicly move against the PM, said it was 'unlikely' that others would follow in sufficient numbers to trigger a leadership contest.

Tory Ben Houchen (pictured) who won the Tees Valley mayoral race and posed with Rishi Sunak following his victory

Rishi Sunak was under threat of being ousted following disappointing local election results but the plot to replace him fizzled out with Tory rebels opting to go to the pub instead

Conservatives MPs are worried that the latest local election results will pave the way for a Labour victory at the next general election

'My stance is the same,' she said. 'But we are where we are and it is looking unlikely that the MPs are going to put the letters in, so we need to pull together.'

Former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries  another high-profile critic of the PM  said it would be 'madness' to try to replace Mr Sunak before the general election, adding that it would 'make no difference' to the result.

One rebel source said it was clear that Mr Sunak would 'limp on to the election', adding: 'We're not kamikaze pilots. In the end, there are too many MPs with their heads stuck in the sand for it to work.'

One ally of the PM urged warring Tories to unite behind Mr Sunak and take the fight to Labour. 'It would certainly help if we could get to a situation where everyone was turning their fire on Labour instead of constantly warring with each other,' the source said.

The Tories are on course to lose around 500 of the 1,000 seats they were defending. Labour took control of councils in key swing seats such as Thurrock, Redditch, Nuneaton and Milton Keynes, and seized control in traditional Tory areas in the South East, such as Rushmoor in Hampshire, and Adur in West Sussex.

The Conservatives were also thumped in the Blackpool South by-election, which was taken by Labour on a huge 26 per cent swing, with the Tory candidate barely 100 votes ahead of Reform UK.

In another embarrassment, Dan Skaith won the York and North Yorkshire mayoral contest, leaving Mr Sunak  the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire  with a Labour mayor in his backyard.

Mr Sunak admitted the results were 'disappointing'. But he said an against-the-odds victory for Tory Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley mayoral race showed Labour was not making the breakthroughs needed to be sure of victory.

Former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries said it would be 'madness' to try to replace Mr Sunak now

The Tories are on course to lose around 500 of the 1,000 seats they were defending and Labour have taken control of councils in key swing seats such as Thurrock and Milton Keynes

The PM said voters were 'frustrated and wondering why they should vote', but writing in The Daily Telegraph, he insisted: 'The fact that Labour is not winning in places they admit they need for a majority shows that Keir Starmer's lack of plan and vision is hurting them.'

Tory sources said Labour's push for power had 'stalled', with the party failing to clinch victory in key election battlegrounds such as Harlow in Essex.

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour had achieved 'historic' results and urged the PM to 'make way' and call an election.

A projected national vote share produced for the BBC put Labour on 34 per cent, ahead of the Conservatives on 25, the Liberal Democrats on 17 and 'others' on 24.

Polling expert Sir John Curtice said the figures suggested Labour was in 'pole position' to win the election.

However, a similar exercise conducted for Sky News suggested Labour's performance would leave it short of an overall majority, putting Sir Keir in charge of the largest party in a hung parliament.

Labour celebrations were also dented by evidence that some Muslim voters are deserting the party in protest at Sir Keir's stance on the Gaza conflict.

Labour sources suggested Tory Andy Street could hang on as West Midlands mayor today as disaffected Muslim voters punish Sir Keir.

There was speculation last night that the London mayoral race could also be tighter than expected.

Conservative candidate Susan Hall had been written off in her bid to deny Labour's Sadiq Khan a third term, but some commentators suggested that a high turnout in outer boroughs could help the Tories close the gap.
The parents of Madeleine McCann failed to attend a prayer vigil tonight on the poignant 17th anniversary of her disappearance - as a young Polish woman who insists she is Maddie bizarrely turned up.

Kate and Gerry were said by a family member to be away at a secret location on a 'much needed' long weekend break.

A message from them was read out during an informal gathering of friends and well wishers and they apologised for not being present.

Read by vicar the Rev. Robert Gladstone from the local parish church, it started: 'Good evening, we are sorry that we cannot be with you tonight but we thank you for coming together and wanting to share your hope for Madeleine and other missing children.

'It's 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us. It's hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief.'

Madeleine McCann disappeared aged three from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal

Kate and Gerry McCann pictured together during an interview with the BBC in April 2017

Julia Wendell, is known as the 'Maddie faker'. She listened intently at the vigil having travelled from Poland to attend the event (pictured)

The small service was held in the Baptist Church, Rothley, to mark the 17th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance

Tributes were paid by those at Friday evening's vigil, with some lighting candles during the event

Echoing words they they had posted earlier on social media they added: 'Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the 'living in limbo' is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.'

The unexpected visitor Julia Wendell, 22, known as the 'Maddie faker', accompanied by a friend Robert Zyla, listened on intently, clutching a letter she had desperately hoped to give to the McCanns.

She later told of her 'disappointment' that they hadn't been present, and said of her mission, and having travelled over from Poland, that she had one question for them.

READ MORE: Madeleine McCann detective reveals bombshell voicemail that led investigators to prime suspect Christian Bruec Advertisement

Speaking after the 45-minute service, she said: 'I am Madeleine McCann. I have never stopped believing it and I have come here because I want to ask Kate and Gerry to do a DNA test.

'They haven't done one to prove I am not their daughter.' She added: 'No I am not crazy. I am not a liar.'

Her presence later became known to family members and church representatives.

A crowd of 50 packed into the Baptist Church in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire - the informal gathering held inside and not outside the war memorial, as usual, because of heavy rain.

Among them were Kate's uncle, retired head teacher Brian Kennedy and his wife Janet, who read verses.

Mr Kennedy said: 'Each time we hope this annual occasion will be the last. The search for Madeleine continues.'

Adults and children then lit candles in Maddie's memory, and prayers were said.

Supporters also read out mantras including 'Never give up', 'don't forget about me,' 'still missing, still missed' and 'all children are precious.'

The McCann's are clinging onto a glimmer of hope that their daughter, who would now be aged 20, nearly 21, could still be alive.

Members of the congregation gather during the service on Friday, which was not attend by Kate and Gerry McCann

Ms Wendell claims she wanted to hand a letter to the McCanns and appeal for a DNA test

Madeleine McCann, who disappeared aged 3 in 2007, will turn 21 this month

The latest public anniversary gathering comes at an awkward time as the prime suspect in Maddie'e disappearance, Christian Brueckner has gone on trial in for horrific, unrelated sex offences.

German police are convinced Maddie is dead and have been intent on charging prime suspect Brueckner - sensationally named nearly four years ago - with her kidnap and 'no body' murder.

The convicted paedophile is currently on trial in his native Germany for five unrelated rapes and sex offences, three involving minors.

Brueckner, 47, is also serving a sentence for the rape of an elderly American tourist in the same resort of Praia da Luz Maddie was snatched from.

Mr Kennedy - Maddie's great uncle - said he was 'encouraged by people turning on an extremely unpleasant rainy night.'

He said: 'Kate and Gerry have gone away, they didn't tell me where and I didn't ask, and it is a bit of a clash.

'But they work very hard and they needed a break very much.'

Gerry, 55, is a renowned heart doctor while former GP Kate, 56, is now medical worker.

It is not known if they have taken their 19-year-old twins Seam and Amelie away too.

Mrs Kennedy later went to greet Julia, hearing a visitor from Poland was present, but not realising she was an impersonator.

She said: 'Please help me to meet Kate and Gerry. I am very disappointed they are not here.'

She handed over a letter, which was taken by the vicar, and they assured her they would pass it on.

Julia became infamous last February after she insisted she was the missing British toddler in spurious posts on social media with her username '@IamMadeleineMcCann'.

But she was persuaded to take a DNA test and the results proved conclusively that she had no relation to Madeleine.

Accompanied by a friend Robert Zyla, Wendell listened on intently at the vigil clutching a letter she had desperately hoped to give to the McCanns. Pictured during a BBC interview

She then revealed she regrets making the claims online after she received torrents of abuse and death threats in the wake of her headline-grabbing stunt.

But tonight she insisted: 'I am Madeleine McCann, and I'll prove it.'

British Police have just been granted new funding of nearly 200,000 by the Home Office to keep their investigation, codenamed Operation Grange, going.

So far Scotland Yard's 13-year inquiry, which officers are still treating as a missing person case, has cost the taxpayer a staggering 13.2 million.

A Home Office spokesperson has confirmed: 'Ministers have approved a request to provide up to 192,000 for Operation Grange in 2024-25 in line with our Special Grant processes.

'The total figure is just under 13.2 million since 2011.'

Maddie disappeared from a holiday apartment in the popular Algarve resort of Luz while she was left sleeping alone with her toddler twin siblings.

At the time her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant whilst carrying out regular half-hour checks on the children.

The McCans have previously said: 'We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.'
A secret tape of Donald Trump allegedly talking about paying hush money to a Playboy model was played at his trial in New York yesterday.

The former President says: 'So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?' in the recording made without his knowledge.

On the tape, Trump tells his former lawyer Michael Cohen that the money should be paid in cash.

Prosecutors claim this relates to the $150,000 (120,000) paid to Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal weeks before the 2016 election to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump.

The court has heard that Trump feared female voters would desert him if they learned about a relationship with Ms McDougal, which allegedly happened in 2006 when his wife Melania was pregnant with their son Barron.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, denies 34 counts of business fraud.

Trump (pictured), the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, denies 34 counts of business fraud

Prosecutors allege they were part of a scheme to 'corrupt' the 2016 election by hiding his alleged affairs with Ms McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels.

The recording was secretly made by Mr Cohen on September 6, 2016, as he was in discussions with UFS tabloid the National Enquirer about buying the rights to the story from Ms McDougal, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1998.

Before speaking to Mr Cohen, Trump can be heard talking to somebody called 'Pam'.

He says: 'Maybe it would be better if you didn't come. Because of this. It's so false what they're saying. Such b*******.' It is unclear what Trump is referring to.

Mr Cohen enters and says: 'I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David...'

According to prosecutors, this was a company Mr Cohen was setting up to pay the $150,000 back to the National Enquirer, which would pay Ms McDougal for her story. In the end, he did not pay the money.

The 'David' referred to is David Pecker, who at the time was the tabloid's publisher, it is claimed.

Mr Cohen continues: 'I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg,' referring to the man who was chief financial officer of The Trump Organisation, Trump's real estate business.

Trump replies: 'So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?' Mr Cohen: 'Yes. And it's all the stuff.'

On the tape there is cross-talk between the two men and it is unclear who Mr Trump is referring to when he says: 'Maybe he gets hit by a truck.'

Mr Cohen says: 'Correct. So, I'm all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be'

Prosecutors allege they were part of a scheme to 'corrupt' the 2016 election by hiding his alleged affairs with Ms McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels. Pictured: Donald Trump arriving at Manhattan Supreme Court

Interrupting, Trump says: 'Listen, what financing?'

When Mr Cohen says they will 'have to pay him something', Trump cuts in: 'Pay with cash.'

To reassure him, Mr Cohen says: 'No, no, no, no, no, I got it.'

Trump faces years in jail if found guilty. He is also facing three other trials, with one, for election interference, to start in Georgia in August. He denies all the charges.

Trump could demand Nato nations raise defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP from 2 per cent if he is returned to the White House in November as the price of continued US membership of the alliance, it has been reported.
University of Mississippi students taunted a black female protester with racist monkey noises and shouts of 'Lizzo' during a shameful clash with pro-Palestine demonstrators.

The predominantly white, male counter-protesters hurled abuse at the lone woman during the showdown on Thursday.

The female protester was on the pro-Palestine side of two dueling demonstrations when she was accosted by the rowdy pro-Israel protesters.

Video of the encounter was reposted by Republican representative Mike Collins, who appeared to sanction the ugly behavior by sharing it with the caption, 'Ole Miss taking care of business'.

The footage shows the woman filming as dozens of protesters scream, 'Lizzo' and 'f*** you fat a**' at her.

University of Mississippi students taunted a black female protester with racist monkey noises and shouts of ' Lizzo ' during a shameful clash with pro Palestine demonstrators

The predominantly white, male counter-protesters hurled abuse at the woman during the showdown on Thursday including this student in blue on the right who made monkey gestures

The female protester was on the pro Palestine side of two dueling demonstrations when she was accosted by the rowdy pro Israel protesters

She defiantly gives them the finger and steps out from behind a barrier to film at a closer range.

As she approaches, the men including one student dressed in stars and stripes overalls, continue to shout and scream at her.

At one point a security guard inserts himself between her and the baying mob, ordering her to go back to her side.

The camera pans to reveal a man in a blue shirt jumping up and down making monkey noises at her.

As they continue to holler more security guards arrive to try and maintain space between them.

Shouts of 'lock her up' then begin echoing across the courtyard as the woman is ushered away in front of the smirking crowd.

'Statements were made at the demonstration on our campus Thursday that were offensive and inappropriate,' a university spokesperson told TMZ.

'Any actions that violate university policy will be met with appropriate action.'

The protester held her ground and filmed the baying mob as they screamed abuse about her weight

A security guard intervened to try and stop her getting too close to the pro Israel side amid the hostilities

The pro Palestine protesters were eventually escorted away from the site after becoming out numbered by rowdy counter-protesters

The clash came as dozens of pro Palestine protesters gathered to condemn Israel's bombardment of Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

The group was demanding the university be transparent about its links to Israel and divest from companies profiting from its war on Hamas.

However, the activists quickly found themselves outnumbered by counter-protesters who screamed 'terrorists' over their shouts of 'Free Palestine'.

The altercation became so heated that the pro Palestine protesters had to be escorted by police into a building before being bussed away.

Cops confirmed they managed to disperse the crowd with no injuries or arrests.

The demonstration was just one of several taking place at colleges across the country in recent weeks.

Encampments for Gaza which popped up at Columbia University in New York City as well as UCLA were dispersed by police after students defied orders to leave.

A settlement is still standing at the University of Chicago where students have issued lists of supplies required to allow them to keep camping.

The clash was the latest example of unrest following Gaza solidarity demos on campuses. Pictured: California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers detain a protestor while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at UCLA on May 2, 2024

Students illegally occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia University were evicted by police force on Tuesday

Police officers detain a demonstrator during a pro-Palestinian protest against the war in Gaza at Emory University on April 25, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia

Administrators at Rutgers University in New Jersey managed to strike a deal to end an encampment there after four days.

More than 2,000 protesters have been arrested at campuses across the US in recent weeks.

Demonstrations have cropped up at more than 76 institutions, prompting the president to call on Americans to condemn the alarming surge of anti-Semitism on college campuses and elsewhere.
A new campaign has been launched to set up the first memorial to UK journalists killed while working in conflict zones.

The organisers plan for a sculpture to be commissioned and located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

Some 16 UK journalists have been killed carrying out their work since 2000, according to industry website Press Gazette.

Among these were Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria in 2012, and Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, who was shot in Cairo in 2013.

Freelance photographer Tim Hetherington lost his life in Libya in 2011, while Lyra McKee was fatally shot in Northern Ireland in 2019.

Among these were Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin (pictured), who was killed in Syria in 2012, and Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, who was shot in Cairo in 2013

Cameraman Mick Deane, who was shot dead covering clashes in Egypt in 2013

Freelance photographer Tim Hetherington lost his life in Libya in 2011, while Lyra McKee was fatally shot in Northern Ireland in 2019. Pictured: Tim Hetherington's self portrait in an exhibition of his work

On The Record: The National Memorial to Journalists on the Frontline campaign is being headed by communications executive Andrew Baud in partnership with Press Gazette.

It is hoped the memorial would offer families, friends and colleagues the chance to remember those that have lost their lives, as well as being a place visited by schoolchildren and the public.

There are plans to also have a digital database which would include stories about the lives of the journalists that have been killed, leaving a record of their legacy.

Dominic Ponsford, Press Gazette's editor-in-chief, said: 'Journalists risk their lives every day to shine a light into some of the darkest corners of the world.

'This memorial should serve as a reminder of the importance of the work we all do in the news business.'

Mr Baud, who is understood to have been closely working with the arboretum for 16 years, added: 'Having worked with journalists for my whole professional life and understanding the importance of remembering those who have sacrificed their lives for the greater good, the creation of a memorial to journalists reporting from the frontline has become a personal mission for me.'

Figures from the International Federation of Journalists say that last year 128 journalists were killed around the world.
The UK will have to come up with a new strategy to reach net zero after a High Court judge ruled the existing plan was unlawful.

Last year the then energy secretary Grant Shapps signed off a strategy known as the sixth carbon budget  stating how the country would meet targets ahead of cutting carbon emissions to net zero in 2050.

The Government's plan to deliver the cuts details policies in a large number of areas, including targets for the sale of electric cars, the installation of heat pumps and even how farmers spread manure on the ground.

But Mr Justice Sheldon ruled Mr Shapps was 'mistaken' in submitting the plan because it assumed the policies would be delivered in full.

Last year the then energy secretary Grant Shapps (pictured) signed off a strategy known as the sixth carbon budget  stating how the country would meet targets ahead of cutting carbon emissions to net zero in 2050

Pictured: A protester outside of the High Courts in London today

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho will now have to go back to the drawing board and submit a revised plan which would take into account the possibilities individual policies would not necessarily succeed in full.

Mr Justice Sheldon accepted a challenge from environmental campaigners Friends Of The Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project that the plan was unlawful.

In a ruling yesterday, the judge said Mr Shapps' decision to sign off the plan was 'simply not justified by the evidence'.

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: Why climate change ISN'T going to end the world and why we need to stop obsessing about net-zero, according to Cambridge University professor Advertisement

The ruling marks a second High Court victory for the three groups against the Government over its climate policies after a different judge ruled in 2022 that ministers were not properly briefed on how certain net zero policies would meet climate targets.

Following the ruling, Sam Hunter-Jones, a lawyer for ClientEarth, said: 'No more pie in the sky...

'This judgment means the Government must now take credible action to address the climate crisis.'

And Labour's climate change spokesman Ed Miliband added: 'This is a new low even for this clown show of a Government.'

In response to the decision, a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) spokesman said: 'The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change.

'Not only are we the first major economy to reach halfway to net zero, we have also set out in more detail than any other G20 country on how we will reach our ambitious carbon budgets.'

The DESNZ added it will publish a new report within 12 months following the judge's decision.

31 new oil and gas licences

Fossil fuel firms will be allowed to look for oil and gas under 31 North Sea windfarms after new licences were granted.

The offshore permits, combined with 51 issued in October, could produce 600 million barrels of oil over the next 30 years  helping project jobs and secure the UK's energy supply during the transition to net zero. And it will provide a boost to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak among backbench MPs, with many being keen on more North Sea digs.

But critics said he was 'irresponsible' for rowing back on the need for green energy.

David Whitehouse, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, said: 'New oil and gas licences benefit every sector in the UK.'
A five-year-old-girl's arm was sucked into a tiny gap between an elevator and the wall and trapped there for three minutes.

Zoe Garatziotis suffered a gash on her wrist that needed 20 stiches to close, and now has a large and painful scar, and her family filed a lawsuit.

The little girl was having a pool day at the 1450 Washington at Hudson Tea apartment complex in Hoboken, New Jersey, last July and riding to the seventh floor.

She had her hand on the elevator door as it arrived and as the door opened it was dragged along with it, to the horror of her mother Loni Garatziotis.

Zoe Garatziotis' arm was pulled into a tiny gap between an elevator and the wall and trapped there for three minutes

Security footage showed Loni and her friend Nicole, who were there with Zoe's brother and twin sister and two other children, straining to pull her arm out.

They tried hand sanitizer as a makeshift lubricant, but to no avail, and after three minutes finally pulled her free after slathering her arm in lotion a neighbor gave them.

Zoe needed monthly hospital visits to care for the wound after the family returned home to Palm Beach, Florida.

Her parents sued Taylor Management Company and Kone Elevators and Escalators for negligence on August 31, both of which deny liability.

The lawsuit seeks damages and want the building and elevator manufacturer to add warning signs about what happened to Zoe.

Security footage showed Loni and her friend Nicole, who were there with Zoe's brother and twin sister and two other children, straining to pull her arm out

Zoe suffered a gash on her wrist that needed 20 stiches to close, and now has a large and painful scar, and her family filed a lawsuit

'If you look at where the door goes in, it's a really small gap, it can fit a couple pieces of paper, that's how it should have been, the gap was too big,' their lawyer Edward Capozzi told ABC 7.

Loni said Zoe was still struggling with the scar nine months later.

'It's pretty rugged, it's pretty big and it's something that we deal with on a daily basis. She wants to cover it, it doesn't feel good, it's sensitive,' she said.

Taylor Management Company denied liability and blamed Zoe and her mother for causing the accident.

'Any injury or damages sustained by the plaintiffs were caused by the sole negligence, wrongdoing or breach of duty or warranty of plaintiffs and/or co-defendants,' it wrote in its answer to the complaint.

Zoe with her twin sister and parents Loni and Theo Garatziotis

The filing argued Loni was responsible for Zoe at the time and left her unattended and unsupervised

'Said minor was not paying attention and was too young and inexperienced to have good judgment and recognize the risk of injuring herself, thus causing the within alleged accident,' it argued.

TMC argued Loni was therefore 'negligent and/or reckless' in supervising Zoe, which was 'direct and proximate cause of the accident and injuries'.

Kone also denied responsibility but didn't make any other accusations.

The case was sent to mediation and is working its way through the courts.
The Kremlin yesterday accused Lord Cameron of 'threatening European security' after he authorised Ukraine to fire UK-supplied missiles into Russia.

Moscow hit back after the Foreign Secretary lifted a previous restriction on British rockets only striking enemy targets inside Ukraine, describing it as a 'direct escalation'.

The move could see the Storm Shadow missile  with a range of 155 miles  being aimed at Vladimir Putin's weapons factories and ammunition depots far from the frontline.

Lord Cameron's announcement is a huge boost to Ukraine which has been fighting on the back foot due to chronic shortages of Western military aid.

Lord Cameron (right) meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on May 2

David Cameron (front) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba lay flowers at a memorial wall to fallen servicemen, outside St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on May 2

The decline in support from the US and other allies has coincided with Russia increasing its production of weapons, leading to its troops outgunning the Ukrainians and capturing territory in the country's eastern provinces.

READ MORE: Lord Cameron BACKS Ukrainian strikes against targets inside Russia using British-supplied weapons as Foreign Secretary visits Kyiv Advertisement

During a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, Lord Cameron said: 'Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it is defending itself. Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia.'

It came after French president Emmanuel Macron this week suggested the West could send ground troops to Ukraine if Russia made further territorial gains.

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'The statements by Lord Cameron and Mr Macron are very important and very dangerous.

'They pose a danger to European security... We see a dangerous tendency towards escalation in these statements.'

Britain has increased its military aid to Ukraine to 3billion per year and Lord Cameron said the UK would maintain this support 'for as long as it takes'.

The Foreign Secretary met Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky and saw Russian military vehicles which had been destroyed by his troops.

He added: 'This aid package of precision-guided bombs, air defence missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams is the largest from the UK so far.'

David Cameron gestures during a working visit on May 3, 2024 in Lviv, Ukraine
The ABC has been slammed for having 'the gall' to have National Party MP Barnaby Joyce appear on a television show where he discussed 'how to treat women'.

Mr Joyce, who notoriously cheated on his wife Natalie with a political adviser, who he had a child with, was booked as a guest on the national broadcaster's Afternoon Briefing news show on Thursday to talk about the federal government's plans to protect children online.

But the former deputy prime minister strayed off that brief into a broader discussion of the importance of family and how parents teach their children to respect women.

'The most formative understanding of how you act around women, as a bloke, comes from your parents,' Mr Joyce, who married his former mistress Vikki Campion last November, said.

'How the father treats the mother is how they expect you to treat other women.'

The ABC has been slammed for having 'the gall' to have National Party MP Barnaby Joyce appear on a television show where he discussed 'how to treat women'. Mr Joyce is pictured with his second wife, Vikki Campion, whom he had an affair with while married to his first wife, at the Mid Winter Ball in Parliament House in Canberra on June 21, 2023

Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his then wife Natalie at the Mid Winter Ball at Parliament House in Canberra on June 14, 2017

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: Video shows Barnaby Joyce lying on the side of the road in Canberra and mumbling profanities into his phone late at night after Parliament Mr Joyce (pictured) could be heard saying 'dead f***ing c**t' into the phone Advertisement

Author and former 2GB presenter Mike Carlton was one of many who were outraged at the choice of Mr Joyce for the program, tweeting that he had been 'invited by the ABC to offer his invaluable counsel on "how to act around women".;

Carlton also included a sly comment about Mr Joyce being 'in an upright position', which was a reference to an exclusive story broken by Daily Mail Australia of shocking video footage of him lying by the side of the road and mumbling obscenities after he fell off a planter pot late at night.

But past lapses in behaviour did not deter Mr Joyce in telling ABC viewers that 'You've got to go right back to your belief in the family, to belief in the structure and formation that comes from the house you grow up in.

'That is overwhelmingly the pot which the seed grows from, and if you don't support family structure and you let that fall apart... it's not the grand elixir that cures everything, but it's a very, very, very good start.'

His use of the word 'seed' triggered Australian writer Sahar Adatia, who took to X to express her disgust.

'The gall of "Bonk Ban" Barnaby Joyce preaching the sanctity of "family structure" & advising it's "where the seed grows" when he himself was off spreading his own seed to a staffer & betraying his wife,' Ms Adatia wrote.

'And the ABC deems him apt to discuss women. Woeful.'

The phrase 'Bonk Ban' was a reference to the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull banning government ministers from having relationships with staffers, which was sparked by Mr Joyce's extramarital relationship with Ms Campion.

Former political journalist Geoff Kitney also took to X to comment on Mr Joyce's appearance on the ABC to talk about 'how to treat women'.

'Are there no senior editors at ABC news any more,' Kitney asked.

'How could anyone with basic journalistic skills think it a good idea to interview Barnaby Joyce on this issue.

Australian writer Sahar Adatia, who took to X to express her disgust. Her tweet is pictured

Former political journalist Geoff Kitney also took to X to comment on Mr Joyce's appearance on ABC to talk about 'how to treat women'

Former News Ltd journalist Tony Koch also joined the pile on, saying the ABC show amounted to 'good ole "Can't keep my zip up'' Barnaby lecturing on how to properly treat women ...

Mr Joyce did have some support for appearing on the ABC show, though, with one writing: 'When it over its over. Being married for umpteen years doesn't mean you can't find happiness elsewhere.'

Another observed: 'Doesn't matter what happens. Family is still important.'

A third pointed out that 'He was asked the question in his capacity of MP not as a virtue signallers in chief.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Joyce and the ABC for comment.
Sven Lindemann faces life in prison for the horrendous crime

Ms Lezsak's young daughter tried desperately to save her

The horrific moment a 10-year old child tried desperately to save her mum as her estranged partner stabbed her to death has been played out in court.

Sven Lindemann, a Melbourne-based fitness fanatic raised in Germany, brutally stabbed Monique Lezsak, 39, to death as her distraught child fought to save her.

The hulking brute had been in a blind rage after Monique, a talented bodybuilder in her own right, dared to try and break up with him.

Ms Lezsak was stabbed to death by Sven Lindemann in May 2023

Melbourne bodybuilder Sven Lindemann posted on Instagram about being an 'alpha male' and wrote days before Ms Lezsak's stabbing death 'don't forget that you are going to die... and you don't know when'

Lindemann covered his head with a jacket as he arrived at the Supreme Court of Victoria in a police van

Family and friends of Monique Lezsak depart from the Supreme Court of Victoria

Lindemann, 51, appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday for a pre-sentence hearing after pleading guilty to murdering Ms Lezsak and injuring the little girl, referred to as Lilly for legal reasons.

The cowardly killer quickly attracted the ire of Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth as a summary of his evil acts was read to the court.

Justice Hollingworth was forced to stop the proceeding to scold Lindemann, who she claimed was attempting to disrupt the hearing by pretending to show remorse.

'Will the accused sit up? Come on. Stop the crocodile tears,' she told him. 'You haven't shown any real remorse.

'Don't do loud sobbing in the back of the court distracting us please. I'm not persuaded by that, that you're remotely remorseful.

'I've seen the evidence - just stop interrupting us please.'

Justice Hollingworth told the court Lindemann was wasting his time trying to claim he was now sorry for his actions.

'He was just getting louder and louder and it's not acceptable,' she added. 'It's not remotely persuasive and it's a bit late for him to pretend he's remorseful.'

The court heard of Lindemann's intense jealousy when he learned Ms Lezsak - his partner of four years - had struck up a relationship with another fitness fanatic from Queensland.

The hard-working mum of twins had decided to break up with Lindemann after tiring of his bad behaviour, particularly aimed at her kids, who both had special needs.

Monique Lezsak (pictured) died after being stabbed to death in her own home

By May 21 last year, Ms Lezsak had told him their relationship was over. The court heard she immediately expressed concern over what he might do.

The estranged couple was living at Ms Lezsak's parents' home in Endeavour Hills, in Melbourne's south-east, at the time.

Lindemann had already began threatening her interstate love interest and told friends Ms Lezsak had 'ruined his life'.

On May 30, while still living under the same roof, Lindemann unleashed his murderous attack.

At 7.32am, the sound of Ms Lezsak's terrifying screams were recorded by a neighbour's CCTV cameras.

Young Lilly was in the living room with her brother, talking to their grandmother, when they heard the screams.

By the time the youngster ran into the master bedroom, Lindemann had stabbed her mother so hard, the knife snapped.

'Lilly saw the offender then punch and strangle the deceased and drag her out of the en suite,' Crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill said.

'Lilly tried to intervene as her mother screamed and the offender dragged Ms Lezsak to the kitchen.'

Ms Lezsak's estranged partner Sven Lindemann butchered her in front of her two children

The children's grandmother suffers from Parkinson's disease and didn't stand a chance against the brute.

'Leave my mother alone,' Lilly shouted as Lindemann reached for another knife.

'You've ruined my life,' Lindemann shouted as he stabbed Ms Lezsak on the kitchen floor.

The court heard Lilly kicked Lindemann and attempted to block his knife strikes, sustaining multiple slash wounds in the process.

'She managed to kick him and grab the knife away,' Ms Churchill said.

'However the offender located another knife and stabbed the deceased in the chest, breaking the knife in the process.'

The brave child managed to disarm him yet again after he grabbed yet another knife before he dragged her mother into the dining room to continue his assault.

'He continued stabbing her while Lilly got between the offender and her mother and tried to stop the attack,' Ms Churchill said.

'Lilly was able to twice stop the attack by gaining possession of the knives but the offender sourced more knives to continue his attack.'

By the time he finally gave up the frenzied attack, Lindemann had used six knives to butcher his victim.

At 7.35am, just minutes after the attack began, Lindemann took a knife and attempted to kill himself.

At the same time Lilly used voice control to call 911 - the American number for emergency services.

'Stay with me mum, stay with me,' she was heard saying as emergency services took the call.

The professional bodybuilder also worked as a disability carer but really dreamt of becoming a cop, her former partner said

Ms Lezsak and her then boyfriend Sven Lindemann were both professional bodybuilders

The young mother of twins had wanted to be a police officer, her ex-partner said

The court heard Lilly told the operator her mother was dead and that a murderer remained inside the house.

She told the operator Lindemann had murdered her mother because 'she was breaking up with him'.

Lilly then told a police officer who joined in on the call that she had tried to perform CPR on her mum, but it hadn't worked.

'There was blood everywhere,' she told the officer, including all over her.

'My heart is shattered in pieces,' she told the officer. 'My mum, I loved her so much.'

In a shocking final act, the court heard Lindemann transferred $71,000 out of his bank account as he lay bleeding next to Ms Lezsak's corpse in an attempt to hide any money from going to his dead ex-partner's children.

When police arrived, Lindemann begged police to allow him to die.

'She ruined my life,' he told them. Paramedics who took him to hospital were told the same.

In jail awaiting justice, Lindemann was recorded on prison phones whining about his life.

'She shouldn't have started something with another man. That's why it was though she poured petrol onto the fire,' he said.

Detectives outside Ms Lezsak's parents residence in Endeavour Hills in May last year

Police at the home where Lindemann carried out his hideous crime

Sven's Instagram post four days ago about life, death and happiness included the words 'don't forget that you are going to die'

Prison staff further heard Lindemann telling a friend to ensure no-one could access his money.

'My account book and everything. Who knows? They might be able to use my card and go shopping or whatever,' he said.

Lindemann was captured on the calls making full confessions to his crime.

'When it comes down to it I don't have any excuses for what I've done,' he said.

'I only know that someone hurt me very, very, very, very much and ripped my heart out of my body. I just couldn't cope with it.

'A man who was free before, who had work, a career - it's all been taken away, but that woman wrecked all of that for me. She wrecked everything for me.

'It was a blackout. She ripped my heart out of my chest and she took everything from me.'

Just days before the murder, he gave a chilling insight into his twisted plans.

In an Instagram post, he spoke about death, '10 bitter truths' and 'mortality, happiness and material wealth'.

The day before the alleged stabbing murder, Sven posted a strange video of an apartment's fisheye security door camera, and his earlier posts include statements about death, destiny and being an 'alpha male'.

Lindemann will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.
King Charles burst into fits of laughter today as he made a surprise visit to the Royal Windsor Horse Show while his cancer treatment continues.

The high-spirited monarch looked delighted and was spotted pointing with a smile on his face as he watched the event in Berkshire.

He was also seen chatting happily to officials at the Royal Windsor Horse Show while sheltering under umbrellas in the pouring rain.

The King was present for the third day of the event which his late mother Queen Elizabeth II also often attended as a spectator.

King Charles burst into fits of laughter today as he made a surprise visit to the Royal Windsor Horse Show while his cancer treatment continues

The high-spirited monarch looked delighted and was spotted pointing with a smile on his face as he watched the event in Berkshire

He was also seen chatting happily to officials at the Royal Windsor Horse Show while sheltering under umbrellas in the pouring rain

It comes just three days after Charles visited hospital patients in London upon his return to public-facing royal duties.

Other royals also attended the Royal Windsor Horse Show yesterday including Prince Edward and his wife Sophie and Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.

The Duchess of Edinburgh looked stylish in a khaki blazer and leather skirt at the show.

Sophie, 59, completed her ensemble with a white blouse and burgundy leather boots.

The photos of Charles grinning in the stands come after Zara Tindall was seen beaming as she gave her Uncle Charles a big hug today.

It comes just three days after Charles visited hospital patients in London upon his return to public-facing royal duties

King Charles laughing at the third day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show today

Charles was seen pointing with a smile on his face in the stands

Charles's appearance and cheerful manner will come as a relief to many and suggest that he is making positive progress after almost three months of cancer care as an outpatient

The pair were spotted in a warm embrace and shared a few words as they met on site.

Charles's appearance and cheerful manner will come as a relief to many and suggest that he is making positive progress after almost three months of cancer care as an outpatient.

At his visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre on Tuesday, the King spoke of his 'shock' at being diagnosed with cancer as he met fellow patients.

Charles candidly described the experience of being told he had the disease, as he learned about the latest treatments and chat to staff providing the pioneering care.

He also reassured those who asked about the state of his health, saying: 'I'm well.'

King Charles III and Zara Tindall at day three of the Royal Windsor Horse Show today

Zara Tindall gives her uncle King Charles a hug at the Royal Windsor Horse Show this morning

King Charles III and Zara Tindall at day three of the Royal Windsor Horse Show today

The King, who looked relaxed and in good spirits, was joined on the visit by Camilla, and went on impromptu walkabouts, meeting staff who had stopped to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.

In another engagement on Wednesday, Charles viewed his Coronation Roll at Buckingham Palace in what was his second public-facing event since his diagnosis.

He told those who created the historic document that 'you deserve a very stiff drink'. Charles viewed the roll with Camilla, and marvelled at the handwritten and lavishly decorated artefact.
These are the professional protesters who descended on the University of Texas's Palestinian demonstration earlier this week despite having no connections to the school.

Among them is a former elementary school teacher, a costume designer, a Palestinian store-owner and an interpreter.

Their ages range from the early 30s to one man who is 59, and none are enrolled at the college.

Their arrests can be revealed by DailyMail.com today as the school hits back at the narrative that police are at war with wide-eyed, youthful protesters demanding justice in Palestine.

Six non-students arrested at the University of Texas at Austin protests Monday

Julian Manuel Reyes, 55, shown in a 2023 jail booking photo, after being arrested on charges of interfering with public duties, in Austin, Texas

'The University of Texas learned Tuesday that, of the 79 people arrested on our campus Monday, 45 had no affiliation with UT Austin,' the university shared in a statement Tuesday.

'These numbers validate our concern that much of the disruption on campus over the past week has been orchestrated by people from outside the University, including groups with ties to escalating protests at other universities around the country.'

DailyMail.com can now reveal the identities of some of the outsiders who infiltrated the student protests in Austin- obtained through a deep dive of public records.

Julian Reyes, 55, is a well-known Austin ankle biter and fixture at pretty much every local protest.

On his YouTube channel, Reyes chronicles his many confrontations with the cops, whom he calls 'micro tyrants.'

Former elementary school teacher turned arrestee Sophia Deloretto-Chudy, 28, was among the non-students arrested at the University of Texas at Austin Monday, according to charging documents

Deloretto-Chudy posted images of bruises and injures from the protest to her Instagram. 'Nothing in my lived experience has ever radicalized me more than being personally brutalized by those who were sworn to "protect and serve" me,' she wrote

Deloretto-Chudy recently took a job as the executive director at Texas Voter Project, according to her social media accounts

He's also uploaded footage of his attendance at other Gaza peace rallies.

On April 24, Reyes was arrested for criminal trespassing, after university police gave protestors a notice to disperse and they refused to leave, according to an arrest warrant for Reyes obtained by DailyMail.com.

Last week's arrest is at least his ninth, as the self proclaimed 'Lizard King' was taken into custody, leaving police unsure what to do with a pet lizard he had with him, according to a clip tweeted by the local paper.

Reyes' was thrown in jail along with 55 others last week. The 'Lizard King' and 25 others had no UT affiliation, University President Jay Hartzell confirmed.

Up until last week, dozens of pro-Palesntine protests had taken place at UT Austin, the crown jewel of state schools in the Lone Star State.

Those protests were attended by students and were peaceful.

Molly Biggar, 34, who works for an LA production firm, mixed in with students at the University of Texas and was arrested for criminal trespassing

Haithem Nasser El-Zabri, 59, runs the Palestine Online Store out of Pflugerville, Texas. He was arrested at Monday's protest

But starting with the April 24 protest and then again this week, people from outside the campus started showing up to the school rallies.

The fact is theres been over 40 pro-Palestinian protests on campus and at the capital since Oct. 7, and everyone has been totally peaceful. What weve seen at UT yesterday and on Wednesday is very different. The goal is an encampment, and they are mimicking similar to other college campuses, most notably Columbia,' Austin attorney and political commentator Adam Loewy told DailyMail.com.

Both the university and Gov. Greg Abbott have explicitly said they will not allow protestors to form encampments.

Monday, protestors who chained themselves to tables and barricades meant to set up an encampment, decided they were going to stand their ground, despite receiving multiple warnings from the school police and administration that they would be arrested if they did not leave.

The school called in dozens of state troopers in riot gear to start making arrests.

Jessica Erin Ennis, 37, was arrested at Monday's protest. She has previously been arrested for resisting arrest in 2015, according to public records

Jaime Hammonds, a online content creator who documents current events, witnessed agitators at Monday's protest.

There are people there that are definitely not students. There was a lot of people there holding signs that said Veterans against genocide. They did tell me that theyre not from Austin and theyre not university students,' he described.

'They were wearing camouflage, and they were holding signs. They were very much provoking the police. They were right in the middle of it. Yelling slurs at them, calling them some of the most vile names that you an imagine.

While Monday's demonstration appeared peaceful at first, Hammonds said it only took three to four people to stir up the crowd.

He saw police arrest anyone who threw water bottles at the cops or tried to set up tents.

At one point, a trouble-maker with a covered face came out of the crowd and started slashing the tires of the police cruiser Hammonds was leaning against.

The armed man nearly stabbed Hammonds leg, but disappeared into the crowd before he could be caught.

'People say it wasn't violent, but it was violent,' Hammonds said.

The tire slashing incident was documented on Hammond's social media account.

Ultimately, 79 protestors were charged, but 45 of them weren't students.

Tessa Austin Mitterhoff, a 29-year-old activist, was among those mixed in with students at what was supposed to be a college only protest

Sophia Deloretto-Chudy, 28, was among them.

The former third-grade teacher was fired from her job at Becker Elementary in Austin when she ranted about an administrative review she had with her bosses on her TikTok account.

Administrators initially called the first-year teacher in to discuss concerns, including why students were sitting in protest during the national anthem, reported local station KEYE.

'We've noticed an intentional attempt of teaching your students about their legal and constitutional rights,' Deloretto-Chudy said in the clip reading from the school paperwork.

'That's the concern. They're concerned. Why are you concerned? Why is that a concern,' she mockingly said.

Molly Kathleen Biggar, 34, a native of Fairfield, Texas, was also arrested.

Texas State troopers in riot gear arrive at a Protect Palestine Rally on the University of Texas at Austin campus on April 29

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott brought in state troopers from other parts of the Lone Star State to help handle protestors

At Monday's protests, some could be seen yelling insults at police in an attempt to provoke officers

Unique moment from yesterday's pro-Palestinian protest at UT yesterday  campus police did not know what to do with his iguana when Julian Reyes got arrested. pic.twitter.com/MTXXBFVhjC  Mikala Compton  (@MikalaCompton) April 25, 2024

She lists her employment as associate producer at Cardinal Trio Pictures in Los Angeles on her LinkedIn profile.

It's unclear what drew them to the protest at UT since they did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Haithem Nasser El-Zabri, 59, runs the Palestine Online Store out of Pflugerville, an Austin suburb.

His social media is filled with his support to Gaza and even confrontations with others over his unbridled support for the cause.

He's been previously charged with battery and deceptive practices in Illinois.

Another arrestee, Jessica Erin Ennis, 37, also has a rap sheet.

Aside from her arrest on Monday for criminal trespassing, she has a 2015 charge for resisting arrest.

Tessa Mitternoff, 29, is an activist who works for MOVE Texas, a liberal organization who helps to register new voters, according to her LinkedIn account.

Its a lazy media narrative just to say, "Its the students vs the cops" because then you have the immediate reference to Vietnam protests that every Boomer is still in love with, but I think that this is a very different situation,' Loewy added.

Weapons, including five-gallon buckets filled with rocks, where found on the University of Texas at Austin campus Monday after protests

Additionally, the university found weapons strategically left on campus after Monday's protest.

They included guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel enforced wood planks, mallets and chains.

'On Saturday, the University received extensive online threats from a group organizing today's protests. These threats have been reported to local, state and federal law enforcement,' the school explained.

Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales is pushing for the Biden Administration to revoke the student visa of any college kid who may be advocating for terrorist organizations, like Hamas, at these rallies.

These people need to be held accountable, and if theyre here in a student visa, their a--es need to be sent home,' the Republican said.

He added that Americans need to be vigilant of who might exploiting political strife in the US during an election year.

Those folks who are parachuting are essentially there just to stir things up,' Gonzales stated.

'I cannot help but think, who would want the United States to be in internal turmoil than China and Russia these people who hate us.
Undeterred by the federal border wall, illegal immigrants in Texas tried to use a ladder to get past the 19-30 foot border barrier in order to sneak into the country undetected.

Texas troopers rushed to assist US Border Patrol agents who had busted a group of migrants with a huge ladder, tweeted a spokesman for the agency.

'This morning, @TxDPS & US Border Patrol in Mission, TX, apprehended 5 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, & El Salvador who attempted to breach the border wall using a makeshift ladder.' Lt. Chris Olivarez posted online.

The ladder was between 10 and 15 feet, Olivarez told DailyMail.com.

The migrants were waiting for a smuggler to pick them up, after they had scaled the US border wall Tuesday morning in South Texas.

The ladder used to scale the border wall was between 10 and 15 feet tall, Texas Department of Public Safety told DailyMail.com

Five illegal immigrants were caught with the ladder after scaling the border wall in Texas' Rio Grande Valley

The migrants had made it past the federal border wall and were waiting for their smuggler to move them deeper into the country when law enforcement found them

#RGV This morning, @TxDPS & US Border Patrol in Mission, TX, apprehended 5 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, & El Salvador who attempted to breach the border wall using a makeshift ladder. #USBP K9 located the group as Agents & Troopers assisted. #BorderSecurity pic.twitter.com/WbOWSRkWia  Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) May 2, 2024

'What we did is stop a smuggling event; we got to them before the smugglers,' the trooper added.

The migrants arrested in this incident are from countries that do not typically qualify for asylum, unlike migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti, who are more successful in making an asylum claim to be allowed to stay in the US.

Migrants from Mexico and Central America are traditionally deported immediately when they're caught by immigration officials.

Citizens of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador do not look to surrender to US Border Patrol agents, like asylum seekers.

Instead, they pay cartels to sneak them into the country and evade law enforcement all together.

Illegal immigrants were recorded casually climbing over the border wall with a ladder earlier this week near El Paso, Texas

A makeshift ladder made out of wiring was left behind by illegal immigrants near El Paso, Texas

The use of makeshift ladders by migrants are common along the border wall.

They can often by found discarded on both side of the border wall, like one made of wiring found by DailyMail.com near El Paso last year.

The steel had been bent by Border Patrol to keep others from using it again, photos show.

Near El Paso, migrants were seen easily climbing on a ladder to the top of the border wall, a video posted earlier this week to an Instagram account showed.

One man even sat on the top and watched cars roll by.

However, migrants who have ladder to climb down the border wall are lucky.

Border Patrol sources explain smuggler will often help migrants climb up the border wall on the Mexican side, but will leave them stranded on top.

The smuggler will take away the rope or ladder needed to get down.

Migrants are often told to jump down, resulting in mostly broken legs and back injures for those who do not die from the fall.
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the moon in Greek mythology.

NASA has chosen her to personify its path back to the moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2026 - including the first woman and the next man.

Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars.

The uncrewed flight, which successfully launched in November last year, travelled more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the moon and back to Earth. It splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December 2022, 25-and-a-half days after launch.

Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the moon and Mars. This graphic explains the various stages of the mission

Orion stayed in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station, while it also returned home faster and hotter than ever before.

It will now be followed by Artemis II, a manned mission which is scheduled for launch next year.

The crew will fly around the moon and back to prepare for Artemis III, which NASA is targeting as the mission to return humans to the lunar surface.

Eventually NASA seeks to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis programme.

The space agency hopes this colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advancements and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.

Who is Victor Glover? The man set to become NASA's first black astronaut to orbit the moon

Victor Glover (pictured) was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and became the first African American ISS expedition crewmember to live on the ISS seven years later

NASA is set to send the first-ever black astronaut to the moon.

Victor Glover, 46, was selected to take part in the space agency's Artemis II mission  the US' first lunar mission in a half-century.

The Pomona, California, native will be the first person of color to travel into deep space, hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

NASA officials say the diverse crew assignments signify the cultural shifts that have taken place since the original Apollo missions, which ended in 1972, at a time when white men dominated space exploration.

Glover was also the first black man to ever live on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020 and is among 15 African Americans to be selected as an astronaut.

In his esteemed career since being selected as an astronaut in 2013, Mr Glover has logged over 3,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft.

Artemis II - which will launch in November 2024 - will see the four-man crew orbit the moon in the Orion spacecraft but not land.

Their goal is to test new technology, including heat shields that protects Orion as it travels 24,500 mph in 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit on its way back.

If successful, NASA plans to launch an expedition to land on the moon titled Artemis III. Another success would spell out a trip to Mars for NASA.

I wanna thank God for this Amazing opportunity, Mr Glover said during a new conference Monday.

This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate. Its so much more than the four names that have been announced. We need to celebrate this moment in human history.

'Artermis II is more than a mission to the Moon and back. Its more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars.

This crew will never forget that.

Mr Glover was born in 1976 in Pomona, around 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

The city is far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, known for its high poverty rate and relatively high crime.

Mr Glover grew up in Ponoma, CA, 30 miles east of Los Angeles

He said his parents and teachers served as mentors as him growing up.

'Early on in life it had to be my parents; they encouraged me and challenged me and held me to high standards. Outside of home, I had teachers that did the same,' he told USA Today in 2017.

'They all challenged me, and they encouraged me.'

Mr Glover continued that his teachers and parents urged him to go the engineering school and eventually become a test pilot  leading to him becoming an astronaut.

He graduated from Southern California's Ontario High School in 1994, and went on to attend California Polytechnic State University, before completing his graduate education at Air University and the US Naval Academy.

'Im the first person in my family to graduate from college, and being at graduation with my mom and my dad and my stepdad and my little brothers and my grandparents,' he said to USA Today.

'That was unreal, that was cool and it was special for me.'

In 1999 he was commissioned as part of the US Navy. After completing flight training in Corpus Christy, Texas, he was 'given his wings' and awarded the title of pilot in 2001.

He then moved to San Diego to learn to fly the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, known as one of the Navy's more versatile aircraft.

After spending the next two years training in Florida and Virginia, he was deployed to Iraq in 2004 for six months.

Mr Glover was working in the office of the late Sen John McCain as a legislative fellow when he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013.

NASA only selects a handful of the thousands of people that apply to be a member of the nation's astronaut corps each year. Only 15 black astronauts have ever been selected out of 348.

A vast majority of the 41 current astronauts have a military background, like Mr Glover.

He completed his astronaut training in 2015. Three years later, he was selected to be a part of the first ever operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon, a reusable aircraft designed by the firm Elon Musk found in 2002.

As part of that mission, he would live on the ISS from November 17, 2020 to May 2, 2021.

The nearly six-month-long stay on the station makes him the first black astronaut to inhabit it.

Jeanette Epps, 52, who was selected to be an astronaut in 2009 is set to become the second African American, and first black woman, to live on the ISS after the launch of Boeing Starliner-1 in 2024 or later.

In 2020, Mr Glover said it was an honor to be the first black person selected to the ISS.

'It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew,' he said during a news conference.

'I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure, you know, we are worthy of all the work that's been put into setting us up for this mission.'

In an interview with The Christian Chronicle later that year, he said there were qualified black astronauts that should have earned the honor before him.

'I've had some amazing colleagues before me that really could have done it, and there are some amazing folks that will go behind me,' he said.

'I wish it would have already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention to it.'

Who is Christina Koch? The first female NASA astronaut set to orbit the moon

Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to go around the moon when NASA's Artemis II mission takes off next year.

Christina Koch, 44, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is set to become the first woman to go around the moon

The Grand Rapids, Michigan native, 44, is already the record-holder for the longest amount of time a woman has spent in space, 328 days, and for taking part in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019.

Selected to become an astronaut in 2013, Ms Koch said she has not followed a 'checklist' in order to become an astronaut  but instead chased her passions whether this be rock climbing, sailing or even learning to surf in her 40s.

She said in 2020: 'I really don't remember a time when I didn't want to be an astronaut.

'For me, I learned that if I was going to be an astronaut, it was because my passions had turned me into someone that could contribute the most as someone contributing to human space flight.'

While she's exploring space, her husband Robert will be left taking care of housework and the couple's puppy, LBD. It is not believed that they have children.

'Am I excited? Absolutely!' she said at a news conference at the crew's announcement Monday.

The one thing I'm most excited about is that we will carry your excitement,your aspirations, your dreams, on this mission.

She also said: We are going to launch from Kennedy space center, we are going to here the words go for launch on top of the most powerful rocket NASAs ever made.

NASA has sent a total of 355 people to space so far, of which some 55 have been women  or 15 percent. It has also sent 24 people to orbit the moon and 12 to walk on the lunar surface who were all men.

Russian Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to ever leave the earth's atmosphere  setting off in 1937. American women did not get sent to space until 1983.

Ms Koch, however, will make history on the Artemis II mission when she completes her long-awaited trip around the moon.

She revealed her love of space in a video when she was announced as a member of the Artemis I team in 2020.

The astronaut said: 'I am someone who has loved exploration on the frontier since I was little.

'I used to be inspired by the night sky and throughout my career, it's been this balance between engineering for space science missions and doing science in really remote places all over the world.

'I loved things that made me feel small, things that made me ponder the size of the universe, my place in it and everything that was out there to explore.'

She added: 'I didn't necessarily live my life following check boxes of how you could become an astronaut.

'But I followed those passions and one day I looked at what I had become and the skills I had gathered and I asked "could I sit across from a table and present myself as someone who could do this well?". And I thought, I'm going to give this a shot.'

She went to North Carolina State University in Raleigh to get a bachelor's and a master's in Electrical Engineering.

She then became an Electrical Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before becoming a research associate for the United States Antarctic Program  living an entire year in the Arctic.

Ms Koch was one of eight selected as part of NASA's 21st class of astronauts in 2013. After two years of training, she became a full-fledged astronaut.

Her first space flight came in 2019 when she was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to work as a flight engineer.

She stayed up there for 328 days, taking the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. The previous record holder, Peggy Whitson, was in space for 288 days.

While in space she also took the record for the first all-women space walk  when an astronaut gets out of a vehicle while in space  with Jessica Meir.

The pair spent seven hours and 17 minutes on the side of the ISS as they worked to replace a power controller. The walk also included a brief call with President Trump.

Upon her return to Earth in 2020, Ms Koch said she felt 'like a baby' who was two weeks old and working hard to hold up its head.

Back on Earth, she lives in Galveston, Texas, just outside of the Houston area.

Among her interests are backpacking, running, yoga, photography and travel.

Now she will be a part of a groundbreaking mission in NASA's goal towards putting a man on Mars.

The Artemis II mission marks NASA's first trip to the moon in half a century. It says it will be performed to help test kit in preparation for getting humans onto Mars.

The agency sent an empty Orion capsule around the moon last year before it returned to Earth in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.

If this latest mission goes well, then another flight to land people on the moon will be sent in 2025  as part of tests ahead of getting people onto Mars.
A scientific breakthrough has exposed the truth about a site in ancient Jerusalem, overturning expert opinion and vindicating the Bible's account.

Until now, experts believed a stretch of wall in the original heart of the city was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah, whose reign straddled the seventh and eighth centuries BC.

He had seen his neighbours to the north, the Kingdom of Israel, destroyed by the Assyrian Empire, and it was thought that he built the wall to defend against the invaders.

But now an almost decade-long study has revealed it was built by his great-grandfather, Uzziah, after a huge earthquake, echoing the account of the Bible.

The wall is in the City of David  the historic archaeological site that formed the original town of Jerusalem, according to the Bible.

The stretch of wall, at the eastern slopes of the City of David, was long assumed to be built by Hezekiah, King of Judah

An almost decade-long study has revealed it was built by his great-grandfather, Uzziah, after a huge earthquake, echoing the account of the Bible

Who was Hezekiah? Mentioned in the books of Kings, Isaiah and Chronicles in the Bible, King Hezekiah is regarded as one of the greatest kings of Judah. He is thought to have ruled between 715BC and 686BC following the death of his father King Ahaz. According to the Hebrew Bible he was 25 when he assumed the throne. Following the death of the Assyrian king Sargon II, Hezekiah took the opportunity to throw off the subservience of his kingdom to the Assyrians. He ceased to pay the tribute imposed upon his father and instead allied himself with Egypt. Sargon's son Sennacherib embarked on a series of attempts to suppress this rebellion which culmulated in the siege of Jerusalem. Hezekiah's reign is thought to have brought about a notable increase in the power of Judah in the region and it became an important state on the frontier between Assyria and Egpt. The Hebrew Bible also describes how Hezekiah made a miraculous recovery from a sickness after praying to God. He went on to live for another 15 years. Advertisement

Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said: 'For decades, it was assumed that this wall was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah.

'But it is now becoming clear that it dates back to the days of King Uzziah, as hinted at in the Bible.

'Until now, many researchers assumed that the wall was built by Hezekiah during his rebellion against Sennacherib, King of Assyria, in order to defend Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege.

'It is now apparent that the wall in its eastern part, in the area of the City of David, was built earlier, shortly after the great earthquake of Jerusalem, and as part of the construction of the city.'

The Old Testament describes the construction in the Second Book of Chronicles.

It reads: 'Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them.'

Scripture also attests to the seismic activity  with the Old-Testament Book of Amos dating itself to 'two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah'.

The study, a joint project between the IAA, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, revealed the provenance of the ancient wall using carbon-14 dating.

Also known as radiocarbon dating, this technique uses the decay of a radioactive isotope of carbon (14C) to measure the time and date objects containing carbon-bearing material.

According to the IAA, this period of history was previously considered a 'black hole' for carbon-14 dating, due to fluctuating levels of the isotope in the atmosphere at the time.

Until now, experts believed a stretch of wall in the original heart of the city was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah (left). But the study has revealed it was built by his great-grandfather, Uzziah (left) after a huge earthquake

Illustration of the the First Temple Period city fortification built in the days of King Uzziah, around 783 to 742 BC

Pictured, Dr Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority (left) and Professor Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University

The city wall unearthed in the City of David was not built during the days of Hezekiah as part of the preparations for the Assyrian siege, but rather earlier, during the days of King Uzziah, subsequent to the earthquake that occurred in Jerusalem

READ MORE: 'Curse tablet' made 3,200 years ago may feature earliest name of God A tablet found in the West Bank could feature the oldest writing of God Advertisement

But using ancient tree rings from Europe, scientists were able to chart these fluctuations year by year.

Elisabetta Boaretto of the Weizmann Institute said: 'The resolution of c-14 was very bad  200-300 years; it was impossible to distinguish anything else.

'With the work we've done in the City of David, we succeeded to reach a resolution less than 10 years, which is really something very very new and dramatic.'

The scientists took their samples from organic artifacts found at four different excavation sites in the ancient heart of Jerusalem  sometimes called the City of David.

Among these were grape seeds, date pits and even bat skeletons.

All were cleaned, converted into graphite, then put into a particle accelerator at speeds of 3,000km per second to separate the carbon-14 from other organic material.

Measuring the carbon then revealed the sample's true age.

Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University said the method had also pushed back the westward expansion of the city by five generations.

The wall is in the City of David  the historic archaeological site that formed the original town of Jerusalem, according to the Bible

Researchers have succeeded in using 'exact science' to link events mentioned in the Bible to archaeological findings unearthed in the city of David

He said: 'Until now, most researchers have linked Jerusalem's growth to the west, to the period of King Hezekiah  just over 2,700 years ago.

'The conventional assumption to date has been that the city expanded due to the arrival of refugees from the Kingdom of Israel in the north, following the Assyrian exile.

'However, the new findings strengthen the view that Jerusalem grew in size and spread towards Mount Zion already in the ninth century BC.

'This was during the reign of King Jehoash  a hundred years before the Assyrian exile.

'In light of this, the new research teaches that the expansion of Jerusalem is a result of internal-Judean demographic growth and the establishment of political and economic systems.'

The research presents over 100 radiocarbon dates taken from four different excavation areas throughout the City of David. These dates were obtained by sampling organic finds such as grape seeds, date pits, and even bat skeletons found in one of the structures. All were cleaned, converted into graphite, then put into a particle accelerator at speeds of 3,000km per second to separate the carbon-14 from other organic material

What's more, it shows that the city was larger than thought during the reigns David and Solomon.

Dr Uziel said: 'During the 10th century BC, the days of David and Solomon, this research has shown that the city is occupied in different areas, and seems to have been larger than we thought previously.

'We can pinpoint specific buildings and relate them to specific kings mentioned in the Biblical text.'

The Kingdom of Judah would last until 587 BC, when the Babylonians besieged and destroyed its capital Jerusalem, along with Solomon's Temple  often called the First Temple.
They're two of the biggest rivals in the technology world.

So it's no surprise that Samsung has jumped on the bandwagon to mock Apple over its alarm issues this week.

Apple hit the headlines after users reported that their alarms weren't going off, causing many to miss work and school.

While Apple has reassured users that it's fixing the problem, Samsung has taken to Instagram to poke fun at its rival.

'Rest assured our alarms GO OFF,' it posted on a video of a dachshund playing with a DJ mixer.

The Apple issues started earlier this week and have caused havoc for many iPhone users.

One enraged iPhone user, Alyssa Sarracco, has missed classes at school after none of the 'five alarms' she set went off after taking a nap.

Another unhappy Apple customer, Reid Manning, has not been woken up by her alarm for three or four days, while 24-year-old Pete Layzell only just managed to get to work on time this morning after his alarm didn't go off.

It is not clear how widespread the issue is or whether it is related to a specific iPhone model or version of iOS software, but Apple has acknowledged the bug and is working on a fix.

Samsung UK didn't wait around, taking to Instagram on Tuesday night to mock its rival.

It posted the video with the caption: 'Samsung users woke up on time today,' along with the eyes emoji.

The Apple issues started earlier this week and have caused havoc for many iPhone users. One enraged iPhone user, Alyssa Sarracco, has missed classes at school after none of the 'five alarms' she set went off after taking a nap

The video has garnered huge attention, with 449 likes at the time of writing.

However, not everyone seems to be on board with the joke, with one user taking the opportunity to mock Samsung in the comments.

'Does Samsung count an alarm going off as a phone battery catching fire?' they wrote, seemingly in reference to the Galaxy Note 7, which was recalled back in 2016 after reports of batteries catching on fire.

This isn't the first time that Samsung has mocked Apple.

Back in 2017, Samsung released an anti-Apple advert to promote its flagship Galaxy Note 8 smartphone.

The 'savage' advert showed the progression of past iPhones alongside past Samsung models, mocking many of Apple's designs.

The ad even slammed Apple's 10th anniversary device, the iPhone X, for its lack of features such as a headphone jack.

Then, in 2018, Samsung took a not-so-subtle dig at Apple's iPhone throttling issues in an advert titled 'Moving On'.
A Pentagon official warned lawmakers that Russia's development of a nuclear space satellite could knock out all other global satellites for up to a year.

Satellites aren't built to withstand the radiation from a nuclear explosion and some could be destroyed by the blast and have 'devastating' consequences for the US and other countries' capabilities in space.

This marks the first time the Biden administration has openly discussed the 'indiscriminate weapon' at an open Congressional hearing, after a bombshell revelation by lawmakers in February.

Meanwhile, China has launched the first mission to collect samples from the dark side of the moon, even as the US government has warned that China could claim ownership of the moon if it reached the lunar surface first.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) has denied claims that reports that the country is building a nuclear anti-satellite that could destroy all other satellites in space for up to a year.

Russia already has several space-based military assets. These include co-orbital anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, direct-ascent ASAT missiles, and Starlink communication satellites it is contracting for its war on Ukraine

'The concept that we are concerned about is Russia developing and  if we are unable to convince them otherwise  to ultimately fly a nuclear weapon in space which will be an indiscriminate weapon,' John Plumb, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

He added that the weapon wouldn't distinguish between civilian, commercial or military satellites which provide cell phone reception, internet access and data about foreign threats.

SpaceX's Starlink has 5,400 satellites in orbit that have been vital to Ukraine remaining online and having communication capabilities during the ongoing Russian invasion.

In February, lawmakers first warned that Russia was developing a nuclear anti-satellite, also called a nuclear EMP, that posed a 'serious national security threat' to the US.

'Our general knowledge of Russian pursuit of this kind of capability goes back many, many months, if not a few years,' National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN at the time.

'But only in recent weeks now has the intelligence community been able to assess with a higher sense of confidence exactly how Russia continues to pursue it.'

The weapon has not yet been placed in space and Plumb said there isn't an 'imminent' threat to public safety, and the anti-satellite wouldn't be able to attack humans or cause physical destruction on Earth.

However, if the nuclear EMP is deployed, it 'could pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend upon,' Plumb said.

Shortly after lawmakers said Russia was building the anti-satellite nuclear weapon, Russian President Vladimir Putin vehemently denied the reports during a meeting with his defense minister in Moscow and claimed he was against deploying nuclear weapons in space.

China launched its Chang'e 6 rocket on Friday (pictured) that will travel to the dark side of the moon to collect rock samples from the lunar surface

Concerns over Russia's potential impact on space satellites come as China launched the Chang E' 6 mission to the dark side of the moon on Friday, making it the first country to deploy a mission to the region.

READ MORE: Republicans question if the US has the capability to respond to Russia attacking its satellites Russia blew up one of its own satellites in 2021 using a missile. Cosmos 1408, a defunct spy satellite launched in 1982, was the destroyed target, which resulted in a field of 1,500 pieces of debris endangering the crew of the ISS Advertisement

Last month, NASA warned that China could be using its civilian space program as a cover for military operations and their plans to create a landing base on the lunar surface could pose a threat to national security.

He noted that much of his concern stems from the Chinese space programs' close-knit ties to the People's Liberation Army - a military branch of the Communist Party.

'My concern would be if China got there first and suddenly said: 'Okay, this is our territory, you stay out,''' Nelson said.

He said his concern stems from the Chinese space programs' close-knit ties to the People's Liberation Army - a military branch of the Communist Party.

'My concern would be if China got there first and suddenly said: 'Okay, this is our territory, you stay out,''' Nelson said.

He argued that if anyone doubts his warning, they should look at Beijing's claims that it owns the majority of territory in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea which China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines jointly own.

'China has made extraordinary strides, especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive,' Nelson said at the hearing.

'We believe that a lot of their, so-called civilian space programs is a military program,' he continued. 'And I think, in effect, we are in a race.'
They may be cute and charismatic, but red squirrels may have spread leprosy to people in medieval England, according to a new study.

Researchers have discovered evidence that indicates our native rodents once served as an important host for the Mycobacterium leprae strains that cause leprosy in humans.

The disease is one of the oldest recorded in human history and affects the skin, nerves, eyes and lining of the nose.

If left untreated it may cause permanent disabilities - the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis and blindness.

Experts studied 25 human and 12 squirrel samples unearthed from two archaeological sites in Winchester.

They may be cute and charismatic, but red squirrels may have spread leprosy to people in medieval England, according to a new study (stock image)

Researchers have discovered evidence that indicates our native rodents once served as an important host for the Mycobacterium leprae strains that cause leprosy in humans. Pictured: a squirrel bone found in Winchester

The city was known for having a leprosarium  a hospital for people with leprosy  and connections to the fur trade.

In the Middle Ages, squirrel fur was widely used to trim and line garments. Many people at the time also kept squirrels as pets.

The team, from the University of Basel and University of Leicester, analysed medieval strains of leprosy including one from a red squirrel.

They discovered that all belonged to a single branch of the Mycobacterium leprae family tree.

The findings suggest that the infection was circulating between people and animals in the Middle Ages in a way that hasn't been detected before.

Modern red squirrels have also been found to carry strains of the leprosy bacteria, but the team said that these rodents do not pose a threat to people in the UK.

A lady plays with a pet squirrel, wearing a belled collar, in the early 14th century Luttrell Psalter

READ MORE: Skull dating back nearly 200 years found on uninhabited Caribbean island shows evidence of leprosy Advertisement

Study senior author Professor Verena Schuenemann said: 'With our genetic analysis we were able to identify red squirrels as the first ancient animal host of leprosy.

'The medieval red squirrel strain we recovered is more closely related to medieval human strains from the same city than to strains isolated from infected modern red squirrels.

'Overall, our results point to an independent circulation of M. leprae strains between humans and red squirrels during the Medieval Period.'

Despite popular myths about leprosy leaping from person to person through physical contact, the infection is not highly contagious.

It is believed to be spread chiefly by coughing or sneezing.

Dr Sarah Inskip, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Leicester, said: 'Very few people are actually susceptible to catching leprosy today and you would have to have prolonged contact with an infected animal.

'There are not many of them around today either - Britain has just 160,000 native red squirrels - so the chances are extremely low.'

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.
For a lesson on how to see the world on a shoestring budget, read on.

Schoolteacher Lucy Hsu, from San Francisco, has officially visited all 195 countries as recognized by the United Nations, with Syria being the final spot she ticked off in May 2023.

In a bid to achieve her goal, the 42-year-old employed a number of cost-cutting measures - revealing that doing volunteer exchange programs and homestays allowed her to save thousands of dollars.

She told NBC that she used Workaway, which is a subscription-based website that matches volunteers with vetted hosts and lodging is provided in exchange for voluntary teaching and community development work.

Schoolteacher Lucy Hsu, from San Francisco, has officially visited all 195 countries as recognized by the United Nations, with Syria being her final spot to tick off in May 2023

In a bid to achieve her goal, the 42-year old (pictured in Antarctica) employed a number of cost-cutting measures

The globetrotter (seen in Sudan) used Workaway, which is a subscription-based website that matches volunteers with vetted hosts and lodging is provided in exchange for services

Over time, Lucy has been able to save travel rewards through credit cards and grow loyalty points with certain airlines. Above, pictured in Lebanon

Lucy explained that if she did need to pay for accommodation on her travels, she would search for budget hostels via HostelWorld instead of checking into a hotel.

And when it came to transportation, buses and trains would be her preferred mode of getting around instead of booking expensive flights to cross borders or make an internal connection.

Over time, she has also been able to save travel rewards through credit cards and grow loyalty points with certain airlines.

She hopes that her purse-friendly travels will inspire others to go on their own adventures.

The globetrotter explained: 'There's still a lot of misconceptions about travel being unattainable... or that it's very unsafe or unaffordable.

'Travel is attainable if you've learned ways to do it in a budget-conscious way. And those methods are out there if you want to research.'

Lucy, who is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, got her first passport when she was 23.

Her first trip involved backpacking around Europe before she returned to the US to complete a master's degree.

In a Facebook post she said that at the time, she 'never imagined' that she would go on to visit every country in the world.

Reflecting on what she has learned from her 19 years of travel which has led her everywhere from the wilds of Antarctica to the ancient sands of Sudan, she adds: 'I'm so grateful for this journey that has taught me the greatest lessons in life: patience, gratitude, perseverance, love, acceptance, kindness, balance, and more!

'I can best describe it as picking up a book, being captivated by every page and never wanting to put it down.

Lucy, who is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, got her first passport when she was 23

A shot of Lucy at the Denakil Depression in Ethiopia - one of the hottest places on the planet - where she witnessed '120F degree heat for three days with no facilities' while camping

The avid traveler met the Dalai Lama in India this April and said it was a day she will 'never forget'

'And now that I've read the last page, it only makes me want to reread favorite parts, and go back to sections I may have missed or skimmed too quickly.'

The California native says some of her most memorable trips include Mongolia for its 'undiscovered adventure,' and Kenya for the hospitable locals.

Meanwhile, she also met the Dalai Lama in India this April and said it was a day she will 'never forget.'

When it came to visiting her final country, Syria, Lucy said she had to wait until it was open to Americans again. When the time finally came, she was 'excited' to complete her mission.

Currently Syria is on the United States Department of State's 'Do Not Travel' list, but Lucy said that she had no problems when she was there.

Detailing her Syria trip on Facebook, she wrote: 'Visiting Aleppo is a must - once the largest city in the Syrian region, it is now an UNESCO site with its famous citadel and souks wandering through, you're transported back to the time of the Arabs, Mongols, and Ottomans.

'Continuing to Hama, we visited the famous ancient wooden waterwheels. Finally Homs, once a major industrial center, still stands in rubble from the civil war over 10 years ago.'

Some of the other risky spots Lucy has been to on the map include Afghanistan and North Korea. However, thanks to her meticulous planning, she had smooth experiences in both countries.

Offering advice to others who are eager to visit every country, Lucy recommends planning wisely and trying to see countries that are 'clustered together,' so you tick several places off on the same trip.

She also recommends joining networks of international travelers, as these can be a great resource for finding things such as guides and translators, and learning about local rules.
300 staff laid off with no warning Tuesday

Bonza will not get a government bailout

More than 300 employees of budget carrier Bonza have been stood down as the government leaves the financially floundering airline without a life raft.

Thousands of passengers were stranded around Australia when Bonza flights were cancelled on Tuesday morning with little notice. The airline was placed into administration hours later.

Many of those stranded had been allowed to buy tickets after the company was warned it would be forced to ground its planes.

In a further update late on Friday, Hall Chadwick confirmed 302 workers had been stood down out of a total workforce of 323 people. They were informed during a virtual meeting on Thursday evening.

The collapse of Bonza and the confirmation there would be no government bailout is another blow to hopes of increasing competition - and affordability - in Australia's highly concentrated aviation sector.

Qantas, its subsidiary Jetstar and rival Virgin fly about 95 per cent of all domestic passengers.

Bonza entered voluntary administration on Tuesday morning unexpectedly with the government on Friday saying there would be no bailout

Ex-Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce (pictured with PM Anthony Albanese and his girlfriend Jodie Haydon) accepted a billion-dollar bailout to prevent Qantas going bankrupt

During the Covid-19 pandemic the government jumped to the aid of Qantas which received $2.7billion from taxpayers, including $900million from the JobKeeper program.

The airline's chief executive Alan Joyce said it was just 11 weeks away from bankruptcy at the time.

Virgin did not get the same treatment and was only saved after US firm Bain Capital stepped in with a buyout.

Despite Qantas posting a $2.47billion profit in 2023, the airline decline to pay any of the money back.

Bonza administrators Hall Chadwick revealed default notices were issued to the airline on April 17, almost two weeks before customers were left scrambling to secure alternative flights.

Bonza leased its entire fleet of Boeing 737-8 planes and those agreements were terminated late on Monday night.

Company directors claimed action taken by lessors that forced them to ground flights was 'not foreshadowed or expected', Hall Chadwick said in a statement.

Insufficient cash flow and funding was preventing Bonza from continuing to operate, the administrator said.

The administrators were in discussions with government organisations in regards to employee assistance, they said.

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King earlier ruled out providing financial assistance to Bonza, saying the government's priority was ensuring stranded travellers could make it home.

But cabinet colleague Bill Shorten later said the government would arrange transition support to ensure employees received the wages they were owed if administrators could not pay their entitlements.

'It's a terrible time for these workers, unfortunately,' he told ABC Radio.

'As a union rep, I went through the collapse of Ansett and I saw what happened with Virgin.'

All planes have been grounded until at least Wednesday, five days more than previously expected.

More than 300 staff were laid off and thousands of passengers left stranded at airports

Administrator Hall Chadwick revealed default notices were issued to the airline on April 17, almost two weeks before customers were left scrambling to secure alternative flights

Passengers with upcoming flights have been told not to travel to an airport unless they have secured a seat with a different airline.

'The administrators appreciate this is not the news that the employees, customers, and other key stakeholders would like to hear, however there is no alternative course of action available to the administrators at this point in time,' Hall Chadwick said.

Transport Workers Union official Emily McMillan called on Bonza to 'strain every sinew' to ensure workers were paid.

'These are hardworking people with bills to pay and families to feed,' she said.

'This is a devastating blow and a cause for great worry in a cost-of-living crisis.'

Refunds are not being processed and customers have been told to contact their bank or travel insurance provider.

The Sunshine Coast-based company was unveiled in October 2021 and its first flight took off in January 2023.

It originally flew 27 routes to 17 destinations but started cutting services during its first six month.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin's 95 per cent market domination is almost unheard of in similar areas with high aircraft traffic - as is the case with the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane routes.

By way of comparison to the airlines, Woolworths and Coles, which have been the focus of multiple inquiries into concentration in the supermarket sector, control about 65 per cent of that market.

The transport minister said the government was committed to growing competition, reliability and affordability in the aviation industry.

'In recent years it is clear the sector has not met the expectations of Australian travellers,' a spokesperson told AAP.

She said recent changes to slot availability at Sydney airport helped increase competition and further measures would be unveiled in the Aviation White Paper, expected to be released in mid-2024.
Sofia Vergara is one of the top beauties in Hollywood.

And she has no intention of letting her looks slide, the 51-year-old siren told the new digital issue of People magazine.

The Modern Family veteran - who shared why she didn't have kids with ex Joe Manganiello - admitted that she will push back on nature for as long as she possibly can. 'I'm going to fight it every step of the way!' said the Griselda actress.

For now, she feels amazing: 'I feel great. I know I dont look the same. But I dont think I am going to ever be the woman that has the courage to be, like, all-white hair.'

She has also tried every silly beauty treatment that is out there: 'Ive done it all. I mean, you tell me to put cement under your eye, youre going to look younger, Ill do it immediately. I do it all.'

The interview also covers her beauty secrets, what her workouts are like, how she is a sugar addict and why she won't cut her long hair.

Sofia Vergara is one of the top beauties in Hollywood. And she has no intention of letting her looks slide, the 51-year-old siren told the new digital issue of People magazine. Seen in the 1980s

'Its like I put coconut oil on my head. I put it on my feet. Ive wrapped myself in plastic with Aquaphor up to the neck. Ill do it. I dont care. Its not stupid,' she noted.

And the America's Got Talent revealed her real beauty secret that anyone can do: sleep.

'I take sleeping seriously now. Before, I could survive on six hours, now I know that I dont look good if I dont sleep more,' added the designer.

If she has a photo shoot, she tries to wake up earlier because she needs time to get rid of the 'puffiness': 'Our job as actors, its not like, put your glasses on, and go pick up your kid at school or go and sit in a desk. You have to be camera-ready and do your job. But it takes longer now that Im older,' the star noted.

She also hops in the shower every morning to lather up.

'I wash my hair every single day of my life. I mean, unless Im sick or I have to catch a plane at 3 in the morning, then I dont have time,' noted the diva.

'But I wash my hair every day. Everybody always told me its going to ruin your hair, and it never has.'

And she won't cut her long hair off.

'In Latin America, I mean they used to tell you that once you hit 40, youre not supposed to have this crazy long hair. So Im always thinking like, Is it time? Is it time to cut it? I dont know, I dont want to feel like old-fashioned [with] short hair.

One of the biggest shockers of the interview is that she works out lightly but often: 'I have bad knees, so Ive never been really into crazy workouts. Ive worked out kind of like an older person my whole life. I do little weights like this [she curls up her arm], but I am constant. I do it often because I cant do spinning or any of those sexy exercises now.'

And she loves to eat cake often as she is a self-proclaimed sugar addict.

The Modern Family veteran admitted that she will push back on nature for as long as she possibly can; seen in an ad for her Walmart swimwear line this year

For now, she feels amazing: 'I feel great. I know I dont look the same. But I dont think I am going to ever be the woman that has the courage to be, like, all-white hair.' Seen left this year and seen right in Miami in the 1980s

'I'm going to fight it every step of the way!' said the Griselda actress; seen last summer in Ravello, Itay

Sofia loves to keep herself looking her very best probably because of where she grew up: in Colombia.

'I think because I'm Latin, we always grow up thinking about looking good, doing your hair, your makeup. It's something that makes you feel good,' she said.

'I love beauty products. I love makeup, I love clothes. And I think now that I'm older, it's great, because you know exactly what you like, what looks good on you, what doesn't look good on you. I don't do what is in fashion. I just do what feels good, makes me feel confident and beautiful.'

And she did not like covering up her looks for her latest series, she admitted: 'I did Griselda for six months. It was a horrific [look],' she said, laughing. 'It was torture.'

Sofia also said that she is grateful that she is good looking because it helped open doors: 'I always knew how I looked, and I was always very thankful, because at the end of the day, you have to be.'

Shockingly, as a teenager she was 'very skinny and not very voluptuous at that time.'

She said: 'So it took me some years to fill in, and then I started feeling confident. But at the beginning I was like, "Oh, I don't have anything." And then God punished me. [Laughs].'
Chris Hemsworth has fired back over recent reports about his health.

The Hollywood star, 40, was filming his Disney+ docuseries Limitless in 2022 when he found out he is 'between eight and 10 times' likelier to develop Alzheimer's than the general population.

Shortly after the news was made public the actor took a step back from Hollywood.

And quickly, news reports began to swirl that Chris was retiring, or he had already developed the disease.

'It really kind of p***ed me off because it felt like I had been vulnerable with something personal and shared this,' he told Vanity Fair.

Chris Hemsworth has fired back over recent reports about his health

'No matter how much I said, "This is not a death sentence," the story became that I have dementia and Im reconsidering life and retiring and so on,' he added.

In a 2023 interview, Hemsworth disclosed he's at higher risk of suffering Alzheimer's disease after filming a confronting episode about death for his Disney+ docuseries Limitless.

After having bloodwork done for the program, he was informed he is 'between eight and 10 times' likelier to develop Alzheimer's than the general population, because he is one of only two to three percent of people with two copies of the gene APOE4.

And Hemsworth told Vanity Fair that his father, Craig, is beginning to show early signs of the disease.

'I know my dad is going through a transition of acceptance around Im not this big, strong man with all the answers who everybody looks to for guidance now,' he said.

The Hollywood star, 40, was filming his Disney+ docuseries Limitless in 2022 when he found out he is 'between eight and 10 times' likelier to develop Alzheimer's than the general population. Shortly after the news was made public the actor took a break from acting

'Hes much more the observer now, rather than leading the pack. Its a reminder to me because those are exactly the qualities I need: stillness, observation, absorption, a respect for the present moment.'

Following the test, Chris changed his already extensive workout routines and now focuses more on his brain health.

In an interview with Men's Health last year, he said he was 'incorporating more solitude into his life.'

'I've always been pretty consistent with my exercise commitments, but lately I've really felt the importance of taking time for yourself without any outside voice or stimulation and making time for stillness,' explained.

And soon news reports began to swirl that Hemsworth was retiring or he had already developed the disease

Chris also ensures he gets enough sleep and is taking regular ice baths.

In the past year, Hemsworth has been adjusting his fitness regimen as well.

'I'm lifting less frequently than I was and I'm incorporating more cardio and endurance workouts which I much prefer than heavy body building style sessions.'

In Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Dr Peter Attia suggested regular exercise and decent sleep were crucial to reduce the chances of Alzheimer's manifesting.

'It really kind of p***ed me off because it felt like I had been vulnerable with something personal and shared this,' he told Vanity Fair

Additionally, he advised saunas, brushing and flossing teeth, and mental acuity activities.

Hemsworth also told Dr Attia that he was looking to improve his work-life balance with more family time.

'It made me think about my kids and how they're growing up and things are changing so dramatically, and I want to sit, I want to soak it in.'
Ryan Gosling gushed that his two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada, have started calling him by the adorable name of Papi along with a slight accent.

The Barbie star, 43 - who recently shared the 'odd piece of advice' that fellow actor Burt Reynolds once gave him - opened up about the sweet moniker while talking to WSJ. Magazine in an article published on Thursday.

'It kills me every time. There's just nothing, nothing better than that,' he expressed to the publication.

Gosling notably shares Esmeralda, nine, and Amada, eight, with his longtime partner, Eva Mendes - whom he started dating back in 2011 after meeting on set of The Place Beyond The Pines.

The actress also recently called Ryan 'Papi' after he donned a shirt to help promote her new children's book titled: Desi, Mami, And The Never-Ending Worries.

Ryan Gosling, 43, gushed that his two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada, have started calling him by the adorable name of Papi along with a slight accent; seen in April in Hollywood

While reposting a photo of Gosling, she penned, 'Feeling the love from my Cuban Papi! And loving that beautiful Mami - Emily Blunt - so mucho! Love all around!'

The actress has previously opened up about teaching their two children Spanish - and admitted that it was 'harder than I thought.'

During an appearance on The Talk in 2019, she stated, per People, 'We're trying to teach the kids Spanish and it's harder than I thought because I speak Spanglish and that's what they're picking up.'

'It's adorable but it's technically not a language. So my little girl will be like, "Mami, my boca hurts because I think something got stuck in my diente."'

Eva - whose parents are Cuban - explained, 'It's so cute but that's not really going to work out there.'

Last year, Ryan revealed that he hadn't planned on having a family until he met Mendes.

'I wasn't thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn't want to have kids without her,' he expressed to GQ at the time.

He explained that filming scenes as a family with the Ghost Rider actress prompted his outlook to change. 'I didn't really want it to be pretend anymore. I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.'

'It kills me every time. There's just nothing, nothing better than that,' he expressed to the publication; seen in April in Paris

The actress also recently called Ryan 'Papi' after he donned a shirt to help promote her new children's book titled: Desi, Mami, And The Never-Ending Worries

While reposting a photo of Gosling, she penned, 'Feeling the love from my Cuban Papi! And loving that beautiful Mami - Emily Blunt - so mucho! Love all around!'

Gosling further commented on fatherhood and stated that, 'I would never want to go back, you know?'

'I'm glad I didn't have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.'

Following his 2017 film Blade Runner 2049, Ryan took a few years off from acting and explained, 'I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them.'

He also opened up about parenting with Mendes and said, 'I just lean on Eva. She knows what's important, always. She just somehow knows. So if ever I'm in my head about it, I just ask her.'

While talking to People for the outlet's Beautiful issue which will be released later this week on Friday, Mendes discussed having children later in life. 'When I was 40, it was a big deal for people when I was pregnant, and it wasn't for me.'

She added, 'And then I was 42 and I was pregnant with my second one and people were like, "Oh my God, you're going to be so tired. That's why people have kids in their 20s." I was like, that's the most sorry, asinine thing I've ever heard.'

'It takes more patience. In my 20s, I shouldn't have even been around a child. I was just foul-mouthed and smoking. I could not have raised kids in any other era of my life but now, for sure.'

In regards to taking a break from acting to raise her family, Eva admitted to the publication, 'It was the easiest decision I've ever made.'

Gosling notably shares Esmeralda, nine, and Amada, eight, with his longtime partner, Eva Mendes - whom he started dating back in 2011 after meeting on set of The Place Beyond The Pines (seen above)

'I wasn't thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn't want to have kids without her,' he expressed to GQ at the time; the couple seen in 2017 in NYC

'I was older and I knew that my kids are going to be little once, and whatever I do or don't do right now is going to affect them the rest of their life.'

She later also talked about keeping her relationship with Gosling as well as their children mainly out of the public eye.

'I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids. I'll talk about them of course, with limits, but I won't post pictures of our daily life,' Mendes explained.

'Since my children are still so little and don't understand what posting their image really means, I don't have their consent. And I won't post their image until they're old enough to give me consent.'

A few months earlier in March, it was revealed that both Ryan and Eva had moved their children outside of L.A. in order for their daughters to experience a normal upbringing.

At the time, a source told People, 'For them, the most important job is their girls. Everything else comes second.'

'And their girls are thriving. They left L.A. to live a bit further north, away from Hollywood. They didn't want the girls to grow up around other celebrity kids.'

While talking to People for the outlet's Beautiful issue which will be released later this week on Friday, Mendes discussed having children later in life. 'When I was 40, it was a big deal for people when I was pregnant, and it wasn't for me'; seen in 2013 in NYC

Along with his recent WSJ. Magazine interview, Ryan has been keeping busy while promoting his upcoming film, The Fall Guy - which hits theaters on Friday, May 3

The insider continued, 'Eva and Ryan love their life. It's admirable how they've been able to create balance and boundaries. They care so much about their marriage and just want their girls to live a happy life.'

Along with his recent WSJ. Magazine interview, Ryan has been keeping busy while promoting his upcoming film, The Fall Guy - which hits theaters on Friday, May 3.

The movie is based off the 1980s television of the same name, and also stars Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke as well as Stephanie Hsu.

The premise of the project - which was directed by David Leitch - follows, 'A down-and-out stuntman must find the missing star of his ex-girlfriend's blockbuster film,' per IMDB.
John Leguizamo said that while he was fond of late actor Patrick Swayze, he found it tough working with him.

The Emmy-winning actor, 63, speaking on Andy Cohen Live on SiriusXM Thursday, explained that while he personally liked Swayze - who died at 57 in September of 2009 from pancreatic cancer - he had a hard time starring alongside him on the 1995 comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

'He was just neurotic,' the Bogota, Colombia-born star said. 'I'm neurotic too, but I don't know. He was just, it was difficult working with him.'

The story of the comedy cast Leguizamo, Swayze and Wesley Snipes as a trio of drag queens whose car breaks down during a cross-country trip.

Cohen said to Leguizamo, who played the role of Chi-Chi in the Beeban Kidron-directed motion picture, 'AlI I hear about Patrick Swayze is just what an absolute angel he was.'

John Leguizamo, 63, said Thursday that while he was fond of late actor Patrick Swayze, he found it tough working with him on the 1995 comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Leguizamo, who has also been seen in movies including 2001's Moulin Rouge!, 1999's Summer of Sam, 1997's Spawn, and 1996's Romeo + Juliet, replied, 'That's different than what I experienced.'

Leguizamo said Swayze was tough to work with, adding, 'He was just, rest in peace. I love him.'

Cohen asked Leguizamo if the working issues might have been tied to Swayze, who headlined hit films such as 1987's Dirty Dancing and 1990's Ghost, being a 'perfectionist.'

Leguizamo replied, 'I don't know. Just neurotic. I think maybe a tiny bit insecure.'

Leguizamo said Swayze was often thrown off by his ad-libbing as cameras rolled on the film, which was encouraged by the director.

'I'm also an improviser and he didn't like that,' Leguizamo said. 'He couldn't keep up with it and it would make him mad and upset sometimes.'

'He'd be like, "Are you gonna say a line like that?" I'd go, "You know me - I'm gonna do me, I'm gonna just keep making up lines." He goes, "Well, can you just say the line the way it is?" I go, "I can't," and the director didn't want me to.'

Cohen suggested that the two actors 'approached the work differently,' to which Leguizamo said, 'Way differently,' noting that he had to spice up the part from how it was written in the script.

The story of the 1995 comedy cast Wesley Snipes, Leguizamo and Swayze as a trio of drag queens whose car breaks down during a cross-country trip

Leguizamo said Swayze was often thrown off by his ad-libbing as cameras rolled on the film, which was encouraged by the director

Swayze's star exploded with the 1987 romance Dirty Dancing alongside Jennifer Grey

He solidified his spot on the A-list with his tear-jerking role in the hit 1990 romance Ghost, opposite Demi Moore

'I invented my role,' he said. 'I rewrote that role. I expanded that role because that role was nothing.'

Leguizamo said he had a better rapport working with Snipes, who he would appear alongside the following year in 1996's The Fan.

'We vibed because, you know, we're people of color, and you know, we got each other,' Leguizamo said of Snipes.

Leguizamo said To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar was 'very important' in terms of LGBTQ+ representation during the mid-1990s.

'It was very important because a lot of transgender kids, LGBTQ+ kids, come up to me who are now, I guess, a little older, but they said because of that and my character, they felt confident to come out to their parents,' Leguizamo told Cohen. 'And I felt like, wow ... that's what art's supposed to do.

'Art's supposed to give people courage. Art is supposed to teach people empathy. That's what art - that's what I got in the business for.'
Controversial Married At First Sight groom Harrison Boon has fired back at Carrie Bickmore's impassioned plea for men to 'stop killing' women.

On Wednesday, Fox FM star Tommy Little broke down live on-air as he read a letter his radio co-host Carrie Bickmore wrote to end violence against Australian women.

Carrie, 43, shared a clip of the heartwrenching moment to her Instagram, which caught the attention of MAFS star Harrison Boon, 32.

'We gonna talk about the men killed by their wives each year? What about the hundreds of men killed by other men each year?' the reality TV star began.

'Seems odd to solely focus on the female victims.'

Controversial Married At First Sight groom Harrison Boon (pictured) has fired back at Carrie Bickmore's impassioned live on-air plea for men to 'stop killing' women

Only four men were killed by an intimate partner in the 2022/2023 financial year, as opposed to 34 women killed by male partners during the same period.

Many of Carrie's followers were not impressed by Harrison's response and quickly fired back.

'If you're so outraged by it do something about it! Stop taking away from the issue that is being discussed here!' one fan sniped.

Harrison responded: 'I constantly talk about this. I cover it at length. This needs to stop.'

Others weighed in, telling Boon, 'Go back to your cave. Your moment of attention ended years ago.'

'You're naive and are missing the entire point. You are part of the problem buddy,' added another critic.

Another was even more strident in their attack, writing, 'You are the problem.'

It comes after Tommy Little, 39, was asked by Bickmore to read out the letter she wrote to the Australian government about the national crisis, and it brought him to tears.

On Wednesday, Fox FM star Tommy Little broke down live on-air as he read the plea his radio co-host Carrie Bickmore (pictured) made to end violence against Australian women

In an emotional moment, Carrie expressed hope that having a man read her words would help other men to listen, as Tommy vowed to 'happily stand by her side'.

After Carrie urged him and other men around the country to 'stand up, speak up and speak loudly', Tommy attempted to choke back tears as he read the letter out loud.

It began by referencing 'the crisis that our country is in' which has seen one woman be allegedly murdered by a man every four days so far this year.

Carrie, 43, shared a clip of the heartwrenching moment to her Instagram, which caught the attention of MAFS star Boon, 32

Tommy continued to read: 'No, not all men are monsters, but we live in fear of the ones that are.

'We change our behaviour to account for the bad ones, not the good ones because the risk is too high for us not to.

'To the good men out there, do something more. Just not killing us is not enough. Do something.'

Carrie's letter then said if men were killed at a similar rate by terrorists or cyclists were run down, 'laws would be drawn up overnight' to prevent it happening again.

It comes after Tommy Little (right), 39, was asked by Bickmore to read out the letter she wrote to the Australian government about the national crisis, and it brought him to tears

Carrie is not the only public figure in Australia to demand an end to gendered violence, as Sunrise host Natalie Barr also put her voice to the cause this week.

Their pleas follow the protests which saw tens of thousands of Australians march in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra over the weekend.

The rallies were sparked by growing outrage over a spate of gendered killings with approximately 28 women murdered this year - or one every four days.

Among the victims were five women who lost their lives after knifeman Joel Cauchi, 40, carried out his stabbing rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13.

Their pleas follow the protests which saw tens of thousands of Australians march in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra over the weekend. The rallies were sparked by growing outrage over a spate of gendered killings with approximately 28 women murdered this year

Barr said the protests and discourse around gender-based violence were overly represented by women and needed the input from men.

It follows a shock report on Monday which found that intimate partner violence is on the rise in Australia, according to new data published on the back of a spate of tragedies.

Data from the Homicide in Australia 2022 - 2023 report shows there were 247 victims of homicide between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

Of these, 38 incidents were between intimate partners, and 89 per cent of those were perpetrated against women.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) delivered a fiery speech at a rally in Canberra on Sunday and said Australia needed to change its culture and attitudes to end violence against women
Sex Pistols icon John Lydon wept on stage on Thursday as he spoke about his beloved wife Nora Forster's final moments.

The punk rocker, 68, famously known as Johnny Rotten, lost Nora at the age of 80 after a two-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.

He has since been candid about his battle with grief and the star opened up about his late wife during his 45-date UK speaking tour called I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right.

According to The Mirror, John recalled the night she died by saying: 'She started a death rattle, like the breathing. It is very, very strange and uncomfortable to be around. I knew then that it was finally coming.

'She held my hand and said Johnny. And then in a heartbeat, the ambulance arrived, in minutes.

Sex Pistols icon John Lydon wept on stage on Thursday as he spoke about his beloved wife Nora Forster's final moments (pictured 2023)

The punk rocker, 68, famously known as Johnny Rotten, lost Nora at the age of 80 after a two-year battle with Alzheimer's disease (pictured 2011)

'They kept trying to revive her. Her heart would come back for a little bit and then stop again. And then the most painful question was, Shall we stop now and let her rest in peace? I was like, No f***ing way.

'If I ever had to go through this all over again, Id still say the same. You have to fight for life til the very last breath, it is worth it. The agony, whatever, take it all.

'Dont give up on yourself or anybody else. I love my Nora.'

John met Nora at Vivienne Westwoods famous Kings Road clothes shop Sex, in 1975.

The pair then got married in 1979 and John became her full-time carer after she was diagnosed in 2021.

John also showed fans a picture of her urn with flowers by the side of his bed during another event at the Theatre Royal in Brighton.

He said: 'Forgive me, the flowers are plastic. There is a reason why real flowers rot and that is the saddest vibe in the world. Plastic flowers go on forever.

'She loved colours but shes going to have to wait for my ashes to join her.'

He has since been candid about his battle with grief and the star opened up about his late wife during his 45-date UK speaking tour called I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right (pictured 2017)

According to The Mirror, John recalled the night she died by saying: 'She started a death rattle, like the breathing. It is very, very strange and uncomfortable to be around. I knew then that it was finally coming

John also revealed that he has been drinking more since Nora passed.

He said: 'I might as well be [a woman] after all the brandy and whiskey I drank last year. I have actually got t*ts. My breasts are overflowing'

The star also touched on his impoverished upbringing in Holloway, North London, and growing up with little opportunity.

He added: 'When I was born, the doctor did not like me. He grabbed my ankles and held me like a turkey. I was nine pounds and some awkward ounces.'

It comes after last month John shed light on the loneliness he felt since his beloved wife Nora passed away last year.

WHAT IS DEMENTIA? Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a range of neurological disorders A GLOBAL CONCERN Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a range of progressive neurological disorders (those affecting the brain) which impact memory, thinking and behaviour. There are many types of dementia, of which Alzheimers disease is the most common. Some people may have a combination of different types of dementia. Regardless of which type is diagnosed, each person will experience dementia in their own unique way. Dementia is a global concern but it is most often seen in wealthier countries, where people are likely to live into very old age. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED? The Alzheimer's Society reports there are more than 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK today. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting between 50 and 75 per cent of those diagnosed. In the US, it's estimated there are 5.5 million Alzheimer's sufferers. A similar percentage rise is expected in the coming years. As a persons age increases, so does the risk of them developing dementia. Rates of diagnosis are improving but many people with dementia are thought to still be undiagnosed. IS THERE A CURE? Currently there is no cure for dementia. But new drugs can slow down its progression and the earlier it is spotted, the more effective treatments can be. Source: Alzheimers Society Advertisement

In a new interview with The Sunday Times Home, the star spoke about life in their LA home since her passing.

John tragically confessed he 'bounces about in the day' but when evening falls he no longer cooks as 'it seems pointless and selfish', while also confessing that he tries to 'drown himself in alcohol' to little avail.

He said: 'At night it's terrifically lonely. All the memories keep flooding back and they won't leave you. Your body becomes immobile but your brain doesn't switch off.'

It comes after he tragically announced last year that Nora had passed away - and has since been open and honest about his battles with grief.

In September last year, Johnny confessed it was 'almost a relief' when she passed away and was free from her battle. Speaking on GMB, he was asked how the months after her death had been. He responded: 'It has been tough but we endure...

'She died laughing up to the last day. She found it very difficult breathing but she died happy and she knew I loved her and that's all that matters.'

John continued: 'It was almost a relief [when she died] as she was put out of her misery, for five solid years, but I loved every minute of it.

He added: 'She held my hand and said Johnny. And then in a heartbeat, the ambulance arrived, in minutes.'

'I didn't mind the wheelchairs or the nappies. I just got attached to her in a whole new way and I learnt so many new things about her.

'Just sharing comedy and humuor with her was amazing because that would give her memory of what was going on. She was a very independent and strong woman.'

John explained he had to learn to be patient with Nora, as it was crucial while looking after someone with Dementia.

He added: 'The first year she was ill, it was a learning curve, then you get used to it and after that, you learn to relax a little bit with it. There is no point in arguing, don't ask questions and let them enjoy what they enjoy.

It comes after last month John shed light on the loneliness he felt since his beloved wife Nora passed away last year (pictured 2023)

'She didn't like to be patronised, it would drive her insane with fury. Don't baby them [people with Dementia], and don't ask too many questions.'

John again spoke about how he turned to food and alcohol shortly after Nora had died. He continued: 'All it did was make me put on weight. I never got drunk and I thought, "This is stupid", so I stopped.

'But, the trouble is it's not just the brandy, it's the instant microwave meals that go with it and you just wreck yourself and the only way I know how to get fit is it to get back on stage.'

In 1975 when Nora met John, the pair were at first warned off each other by friends, however, John said they had an immediate and explosive connection - one which would last a lifetime.
Laverne Cox donned an elegant look to attend the The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala, which was held Thursday at Cipriani South Street in Lower Manhattan.

King Charles III originally established his charity - formerly known as The Prince's Trust - in 1976 and it has reportedly helped support 1.2M young people and communities in 23 countries.

Buckingham Palace announced the 75-year-old monarch's cancer diagnosis on February 5 and his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, announced she was also diagnosed with cancer on March 22 following planned abdominal surgery.

The transgender trailblazer - turning 52 this month - flaunted substantial cleavage in a beige tank dress, featuring gold leopard print detail, beneath a light blue maxi-coat.

Laverne (born Roderick) toted a beige boxy handbag and she wore statement earrings and translucent gold heels selected by stylist Christina Joy Pacelli.

Laverne Cox donned an elegant look to attend the The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala, which was held Thursday at Cipriani South Street in Lower Manhattan

King Charles III (L, pictured Wednesday) originally established his charity - formerly known as The Prince's Trust - in 1976 and it has reportedly helped support 1.2M young people and communities in 23 countries

Cox had a fully-contoured complexion for the regal black-tie benefit and silent auction, and she topped her rolled up blonde wig with a gold-embellished beige fascinator.

The Daytime Emmy-winning producer took a moment to greet five-time Grammy winner Sam Smith while posing on the red carpet.

Laverne is next scheduled to attend the reception for Stonewall National Museum's Exhibits in NYC event, which takes place next Tuesday at CUNY School of Labor Studies in Manhattan.

Cox is also 'honored' to appear at Tribeca Talks' Storytellers event happening June 12 at 6pm inside The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios.

The Gretchen songstress recently landed a mystery role in the Apple Studios film Outcome, which is Jonah Hill's revenge comedy about a damaged Hollywood star confronting his demons after being blackmailed.

'I'm so grateful to be working with these amazing artists with such brilliant, sharp writing,' Laverne - who boasts 9.2M social media followers - gushed on April 9.

'I'm forever humbled by this process of being an artist. Here we go!'

The ensemble cast of Outcome includes Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Susan Lucci, David Spade, Kaia Gerber, Roy Wood Jr., and Atsuko Okatsuka.

The transgender trailblazer - turning 52 this month - flaunted substantial cleavage in a beige tank dress, featuring gold leopard print detail, beneath a light blue maxi-coat

Laverne (born Roderick) toted a beige boxy handbag and she wore statement earrings and translucent gold heels selected by stylist Christina Joy Pacelli

Cox had a fully-contoured complexion for the regal black-tie benefit and silent auction, and she topped her rolled up blonde wig with a gold-embellished beige fascinator

The Daytime Emmy-winning producer took a moment to greet five-time Grammy winner Sam Smith (R) while posing on the red carpet

Laverne is next scheduled to attend the reception for Stonewall National Museum's Exhibits in NYC event, which takes place next Tuesday at CUNY School of Labor Studies in Manhattan

Cox is also 'honored' to appear at Tribeca Talks' Storytellers event happening June 12 at 6pm inside The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios

The Gretchen songstress recently landed a mystery role in the Apple Studios film Outcome, which is Jonah Hill's (pictured April 4 on the LA set) revenge comedy about a damaged Hollywood star confronting his demons after being blackmailed

Laverne gushed on April 9: 'I'm so grateful to be working with these amazing artists with such brilliant, sharp writing. I'm forever humbled by this process of being an artist. Here we go!'

Cox will next play a mystery role in McG's film adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's 20052007 dystopian fantasy bestseller Uglies, which will stream 'mid-late 2024' on Netflix

Cox will next play a mystery role in Netflix's film adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's 20052007 dystopian fantasy bestseller Uglies, which will stream 'mid-late 2024.'

'Yeah, I'm just finishing it right now with Joey King,' director McG told TooFab on November 30.

'It's really exciting - big world creation, dystopian future. Joey's such a courageous little rebel in that movie. Chase Stokes is in that movie, Laverne Cox. It's really, really exciting. It's our answer to Hunger Games, and it's turning out really cool.'

Uglies wrapped production in Atlanta way back in December 2021 and Westerfeld tweeted via X on August 8: 'Very minor [tweaks] delayed by the strikes.'

And it's been two years since there's been any update on the late Norman Lear's final project - Amazon Freevee's eight-episode comedy Clean Slate - starring Laverne as Desiree, the estranged transgender daughter of old-school car wash owner Henry (George Wallace).
Lionel Richie and girlfriend Lisa Parigi were among a number of stars attending The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala at Casa Cipriani in New York on Thursday.

Motown legend Richie, 74, co-hosted the event with former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, 52.

The Hello hitmaker looked dapper in a black velvet tuxedo with a bowtie, and black dress shoes.

Meanwhile his longtime girlfriend, 34, who is 40 years his junior, looked lovely in a long off-shoulder floral gown with two blue bow embellishments.

The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala raises awareness and funds for The King's Trust, a charity that helps young people with career development, education, and building confidence.

Lionel Richie, 74, and girlfriend Lisa Parigi, 34, were among a number of stars attending The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala at Casa Cipriani in New York on Thursday

Lisa's dress featured a sultry front slit, and she added height to her look with white peep-toe heels.

The beauty further sparkled up her look with a diamond necklace.

The event was founded in the United Kingdom by King Charles III with the aim of helping disadvantaged young people.

The star-studded occasion marked the first major event since The Prince's Foundation was renamed The King's Trust.

A surprise performance by John Legend is also understood to have taken place.

The Prince's Trust became the King's Trust in November last year, as Charles set up the foundation while he was still the Prince of Wales.

The palace said the King's long-standing charities had been rebranded in recognition of his accession to the throne.

Lionel and Lisa have been dating since 2014.

The music veteran and the model met at a dinner party after being introduced by mutual friends.

Motown legend Richie looked dapper in a black velvet tuxedo with a bowtie, and black dress shoes

Meanwhile his longtime girlfriend looked lovely in a long off-shoulder floral gown with two blue bow embellishments

Lionel and Lisa have been dating since 2014

Lionel sported a neatly trimmed mustache

He co-hosted the event with former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, 52 (pictured)

In a 2019 interview with People, Richie discussed his relationship with Parigi.

'I'm a man who's been through the ups and the downs, the ins and the outs of love,' he explained, adding that he is still a 'hopeless romantic.'

He said of Parigi, 'She's extremely beautiful, but most importantly she's smart and helps me deal with my crazy world.'

Prior to his relationship with Lisa, Lionel was married twice. He was wed to Diane Alexander from 1995 until 2004, and Brenda Harvey-Richie from 1975 until 1993.

Lionel shares daughter Sofia Richie, 24, and son Miles, 28, with Diane.

Meanwhile he and Brenda share daughter Nicole Richie, 42, whom they adopted when she was just nine years old in 1990.
Megan Gale turned heads on Friday when she was spotted makeup-free at Sydney Airport.

The Australian supermodel, 48, who attended the Sydney Mad Max: Furiosa premiere on Thursday night with other A-Listers, dressed to impress in a stylish all-black getup on her way to Melbourne.

The Perth-born star rocked a business chic look in an unbuttoned black blazer paired with a matching blouse and pants.

She had her hands full with a red Manning Cartell shopping bag and showcased her taste in luxury fashion with a $2,800 Mulberry tote.

Gale wore her luscious black hair tied in a ponytail and perched a pair of dark shades atop her head.

Megan Gale (pictured) turned heads on Friday when she was spotted makeup-free at Sydney Airport

The stunner looked focused and composed as she navigated her way through the crowds.

Gale previously appeared in two movies by Furiosa director George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road and Three Thousand Years of Longing.

Last month, it was revealed an Australian child actress had scored her big break opposite Chris Hemsworth in the upcoming blockbuster Mad Max: Furiosa.

The Australian supermodel, 48, who attended the Sydney Mad Max: Furiosa premiere on Thursday night, dressed to impress in a stylish all-black getup

The Perth-born star rocked a business chic look in an unbuttoned black blazer paired with a matching blouse and pants

Gale had her hands full with a red Manning Cartell shopping bag and showcased her taste in luxury fashion with a $2,800 Mulberry tote

Dylan Adonis, 10, is a Sydney-based performer who plays the younger version of Megan Gale's character Valkyrie - from the 2015 movie Fury Road - in flashbacks.

'I wasn't sure about auditioning for anything again. It was kind of annoying doing your best and them saying I am too tall or too old,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

'I didn't really want to audition for Mad Max because I thought the same thing would happen but I ended up auditioning anyway because my family really wanted me to.'

Gale highlighted her natural beauty by going makeup free for the outing and wore her luscious black hair tied in a ponytail

The stunner looked focused and composed as she navigated her way through the crowds

Adonis can be spotted in the opening scene of the latest Furiosa trailer alongside Nine Perfect Strangers star Alyla Browne, who plays the younger version of the titular character.

Dylan attended the world premiere of the movie at Sydney's State Theatre on May 2, alongside the rest of the cast and director George Miller.

Mad Mad: Furiosa, the fifth movie in the long-running series, will be released nationally cinemas on Thursday, May 23.

The film tells the origin story of a young Imperator Furiosa, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who rose to fame as the star of Netflix hit The Queen's Gambit.

Megan previously appeared in two movies by Furiosa director George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road and Three Thousand Years of Longing
Sydney Sweeney headed south of the border to promote her horror hit Immaculate ahead of the Mexican premiere.

The 26-year-old actress was all smiles as she hit the red carpet at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City on Thursday.

She was joined by her Immaculate co-star Alvaro Morte for the press conference and the premiere of her film, which debuts in Mexico on Friday.

Sweeney was spotted at the Mexico City airport on Wednesday, just after she was seen modeling bikinis in Hawaii.

The actress and producer stepped out with a stunning and sleeveless black dress with cutouts over her hips.

Sydney Sweeney headed south of the border to promote her horror hit Immaculate ahead of the Mexican premiere

The 26-year-old actress was all smiles as she hit the red carpet at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City on Thursday

She was joined by her Immaculate co-star Alvaro Morte for the press conference and the premiere of her film, which debuts in Mexico on Friday

Her short blonde hair fell just below her shoulders as she accessorized with black leather gloves that came up just below her elbows.

The actress and producer completed her look with black pointed-toe heels for her appearance down south.

Sweeney serves as both an actress and producer of the film, having auditioned for an earlier incarnation of the project a decade earlier.

While the project languished in developed, Sweeney had her breakout hit with HBO's Euphoria, where she played Cassie Howard.

After that, she purchased the rights to the screenplay by Andrew Lobel herself, attaching herself as a producer and starring as Sister Cecilia, with Michael Mohan directing.

The story follows Sweeney's character Sister Cecilia, a devout nun who is invited to the lush Italian countryside.

She's offered a role at a mysterious Italian convent, though upon arrival, she quickly suspects there are secrets lurking within.

The film also stars Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli and Dora Romano.

Her short blonde hair fell just below her shoulders as she accessorized with black leather gloves that came up just below her elbows

The actress and producer completed her look with black pointed-toe heels for her appearance down south

Her short blonde hair fell just below her shoulders as she accessorized with black leather gloves that came up just below her elbows

Sweeney serves as both an actress and producer of the film, having auditioned for an earlier incarnation of the project a decade earlier

While the project languished in developed, Sweeney had her breakout hit with HBO's Euphoria, where she played Cassie Howard

Immaculate opened in mid-March from indie distributor Neon, opening with $5.3 million in theaters

Immaculate opened in mid-March from indie distributor Neon, opening with $5.3 million in theaters.

It currently stands at $15.6 million domestic and $22.2 million worldwide from a reported $9 million budget.

Sweeney is coming off her hit romcom Anyone But You, which took in $88.3 million domestic and $131 million from foreign markets for $219.4 million worldwide, from just a $25 million budget.

The actress also has Echo Valley with Domhnall Gleeson and Julianne Moore which is currently in post-production.
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Kathryn Newton and Freya Allan led the show-stopping glamour at the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

Newton, 27  who recently made a bold statement at another LA premiere  looked ultra chic in a black tweed Chanel minidress.

The collar and pockets were lined with a baby pink fabric boasting images of Coco Chanel's iconic hat and pearl strands.

The Lisa Frankenstein star accessorized with a sparkly Chanel diamond choker necklace and stud earrings featuring the French luxury brand's logo.

Newton's blonde hair flowed down her back in curls and she rocked a bright red lip.

Kathryn Newton and Freya Allan led the show-stopping glamour at the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday night

Freya  who is the sci-fi film's lead star  stunned onlookers as she arrived in a flowing see-through gown.

It had dramatic batwing sleeves that the British actress, 22, frequently showed off for the cameras.

She protected her modesty with nude pasties and a pair of undergarments that matched the frock's shimmery brown fabric.

Freya's chocolate brown tresses were swept back in a loose ponytail and she sported a sultry dark brown smokey eye for her big night in LA.

She plays the role of 'Mae' in the latest chapter in the Planet Of The Apes franchise that takes place 'many years after the reign of Caesar.'

As per IMDb, the film follows a young ape who 'goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.'

It also stars William H. Macy, Peter Macon, Kevin Durand, Lydia Peckham and Owen Teague.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on Friday, May 8.

Newton, 27  who recently made a bold statement at another LA premiere  looked ultra chic in a black tweed Chanel minidress

The collar and pockets were lined with a baby pink fabric boasting images of Coco Chanel's iconic hat and pearl strands

Newton's blonde hair flowed down her back in curls and she rocked a bright red lip

Freya  who is the sci-fi film's lead star  stunned onlookers as she arrived in a flowing see-through gown

It had dramatic batwing sleeves that the British actress, 22, frequently showed off for the cameras

She protected her modesty with nude pasties and a pair of undergarments that matched the frock's shimmery brown fabric

Freya's chocolate brown tresses were swept back in a loose ponytail and she sported a sultry dark brown smokey eye for her big night in LA

Lydia Peckham  who plays 'Soona'  made jaws drop in a simple black sleeveless gown on the red carpet. The actress rocked smudged black eyeliner that made her blue eyes pop while her hair was neatly styled in body waves

Lydia Peckham  who plays 'Soona'  made jaws drop in a simple black sleeveless gown on the red carpet.

The actress rocked smudged black eyeliner that made her blue eyes pop while her hair was neatly styled in body waves.

William H. Macy  who plays 'Trevathan'  suited up for the occasion in a classic black suit with a white button-up shirt and a dark blue tie.

The Shameless star, 74, rocked a scruffy white beard that contrasted his neat salt-and-pepper coif.

Comedian Heather McDonald looked ultra glam in a plunging white gown that flaunted her ample cleavage.

Monica Mamudo had passersby in awe as she posed up in a racy, animal-print dress that exposed her chiseled abs.

The Boogeyman star Vivien Lyra Blair looked darling in a puffy yellow dress as she held up a stuffed monkey for the cameras.

William H. Macy  who plays 'Trevathan'  suited up for the occasion in a classic black suit with a white button-up shirt and a dark blue tie

The Shameless star, 74, rocked a scruffy white beard and a neat salt-and-pepper coif

Comedian Heather McDonald looked ultra glam in a plunging white gown that flaunted her ample cleavage

Monica Mamudo had passersby in awe as she posed up in a racy, animal-print dress that exposed her chiseled abs

The Boogeyman star Vivien Lyra Blair looked darling in a puffy yellow dress as she held up a stuffed monkey for the cameras

The film's director Wes Ball looked suave in a fitted navy blue suit styled with tan leather dress shoes and a purple satin tie

Peter Macon  who plays 'Raka'  looked effortlessly cool in a bright white coat styled with blue-tinted shades and designer sneakers

Kevin Durand who plays 'Proximus Caesar'  kept an arm wrapped around his gorgeous wife of 14 years, Sandra Cho

YouTuber-turned-actor Ras-Samuel Welda'abzgi  who stars in the new flick  flashed a wide smile while rocking a bright purple suit

Neil Sandilands  who plays 'Koro'  turned heads in a gaudy, bright floral blazer as he posed up solo ahead of the screening

The latest chapter in the Planet Of The Apes franchise takes place 'many years after the reign of Caesar'

As per IMDb, the film follows a young ape who 'goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike'

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on Friday, May 8

The film's director Wes Ball looked suave in a fitted navy blue suit styled with tan leather dress shoes and a purple satin tie.

Peter Macon  who plays 'Raka'  looked effortlessly cool in a bright white coat styled with blue-tinted shades and designer sneakers.

Kevin Durand  who plays 'Proximus Caesar'  kept an arm wrapped around his gorgeous wife of 14 years, Sandra Cho.

YouTuber-turned-actor Ras-Samuel Welda'abzgi  who also stars in the new flick  flashed a wide smile while rocking a bright purple suit.

Neil Sandilands  who plays 'Koro'  turned heads in a gaudy, bright floral blazer as he posed up solo ahead of the screening.
Gavin And Stacey IS returning for its last ever episode on Christmas Day and the announcement has been praised as the 'best news ever' by overjoyed fans.

Show creators James Corden and Ruth Jones shocked the BBC sitcom's millions of viewers on Friday with the news they have written the final episode.

The pair reunited in secret to pen the special after recently denying another episode was in the works, nearly five years after the last episode aired in 2019.

Taking to Instagram, the pair shared a black and white photo of themselves holding up the script.

Alongside the post, they wrote: 'Some news... It's official! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey. See you on Christmas Day, BBC One. Love Ruth and James!'

James Corden and Ruth Jones have written the last ever episode of Gavin And Stacey, set to air on Christmas Day

The pair wrote: 'Some news... It's official! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey'

Fans expressed their joy at the news under James and Ruth's post. Among those sharing their delight was Rio Ferdinand who wrote: 'I'm clearing the diary.'

Other celebrities including Gordon Ramsay, John Bishop, Ferne Cotton and Amanda Holden all shared their delight.

Joanna Page, who plays Stacey, reshared James and Ruth's photo to her Instagram and wrote: 'Oh my God it's happening! So excited! Last ever Gavin And Stacey! Christmas Day @bbcone Can't wait to start filming!'

Joanna also shared a statement with ITV's Loose Women that read: 'I'm very excited for the return of the Gavin and Stacey and can't wait to come back on and tell you all about it'.

The actress also revealed she 'can't wait to find out what happens' next on the BBC show as she doesn't know what happens after the 2019 Christmas cliffhanger when Nessa proposed to Smithy.

Speaking on Off The Telly on BBC Sounds podcast, Joanna said: 'Im so excited to see the gang again and start filming, and I cant wait to find out if Smithy has said yes. I cant wait to find out whats happening to everybody!

'Im going to have to keep that script away from your [Natalies] little paws but yeah we are going to be able to review it on our show at Christmas and I will be very cross if you arent sitting down on Christmas Day watching me!'

Matthew Horne, who portrays Gavin, seemed excited for the reunion as he reshared the snap of Ruth and James holding up the new script, he wrote: 'Happy Christmas'.

Others wrote: 'This has made my whole year'... 'Yes roll on Christmas, been waiting a very long time for this'... 'Stepping into Christmas 2024! Yay!'

The pair reunited in secret to pen the final edition of the much-loved BBC series after recently denying another episode was in the works

The critically acclaimed series follows the lives of the two titular characters Gavin from Essex and Stacey from South Wales, documenting key points in their long-distance relationship and events that bring the two families together

It was previously reported that a new episode of Gavin And Stacey was in the works but Ruth Jones denied it, saying: 'It's sadly a rumour'

One fan demanded the final episode be 'five hours long' to make up for the length of time it's been since the last special.

Several fans said they finally wanted to know what happened on character Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason which they both refuse to speak about, a long-running joke on the series.

It was previously reported that a new episode of Gavin And Stacey was in the works but Ruth Jones denied it.

Reports circulated online claiming the cast was set to film a new episode over the summer with the plan to air it at Christmas, five years on from a dramatic cliffhanger.

US outlet Deadline reported that the new special was in development/pre-production stages currently and that it will be produced by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow, Jones' Tidy Productions and Fulwell 73, which is co-owned by Corden.

But Ruth insisted the speculation was 'sadly a rumour' during an interview on Irish station RTE Radio 1.

Asked about the reports, she said: 'Apparently there's a bidding war going on between the BBC and Netflix and I love it because it says 'a source says', who is this source?'

Fans, including Rio Ferdinand and Gordon Ramsay, expressed their joy at the news under James and Ruth's pos

Ruth added: 'It's sadly a rumour... All I can say is, if there was something to say on that front, James and I would happily announce it, we would.'

The actress said she thought the rumours were sparked after she was photographed having lunch with Corden a few months back after he returned to the UK from living in America.

'Then the next thing is 'Oh my god they must be writing more Gavin And Stacey', which is lovely,' she said.

'It's lovely that people are so desperate for it because imagine if it was the opposite and were like 'Oh, god, you're not bringing that back again'.'

In March, Alison Steadman, who plays Pam, also shut down reunion rumours and insisted the cast were not getting back together.

Speaking to The Mirror, Alison said creators James and Ruth had not reached out to the cast at the time.

She said: 'If we did another series or episode, I would absolutely love it. But at the moment, as far as I know, it's not going to happen.

'None of us have been sent scripts, none of us, so until there's something definite and it's announced, then I'm not going to go along with anything, it might not happen. It's all up in the air.'

Several fans said they finally wanted to know what happened on character Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason

The critically acclaimed series follows the lives of the two titular characters Gavin from Essex and Stacey from South Wales, documenting key points in their long-distance relationship and events that bring the two families together.

Gavin And Stacey first aired in 2007 and ran for just 21 episodes, spanning three seasons and two Christmas specials. The show's popularity was stratospheric with 2019's Christmas special garnering a whopping 18.49million viewers.

At the climax of the episode, Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy, played by Corden, but viewers did not get to hear his response.

The pair had an on-off relationship during the series and in the special it was revealed they were successfully co-parenting their son, Neil.

Fans have hoped the show would make a comeback following James' decision to move back to the UK after his eight-year stint hosting The Late Late Show in the US.

One of the show's most long-running jokes concerns Uncle Bryn (centre) and his nephew Jason (right) who went on a fishing trip they both refuse to speak about

In March, Alison Steadman, who plays Pam, also shut down reunion rumours and insisted the cast were not getting back together (pictured in February 2024)

Fans have hoped the show would make a comeback following James' decision to move back to the UK after his eight-year stint hosting The Late Late Show in the US (James and Ruth pictured together in April 2024)

Gavin And Stacey first aired in 2007 and ran for just 21 episodes, spanning three seasons and two Christmas specials

The show's popularity was stratospheric with 2019's Christmas special garnering a whopping 18.49million viewers

During its time it graduated from BBC Three to BBC One and picked up multiple accolades including Bafta and British Comedy Awards gongs

Stealing the show as much-loved character Nessa, Ruth portrayed the hilarious amusement park worker and 'original member' of All Saints, who becomes pregnant with Smithy's child after a one-night-stand.

Co-writer James took on the role of Gavin's best friend from primary school, Smithy, who is interested in Stacey's best friend Nessa.

Starring as Uncle Bryn in the hit series, Rob Brydon played the brother of Stacey's deceased father, a single man in his late forties.

Stacey was played by Joanna Page, with Mathew Horne starring as the series' titular character Gavin, nicknamed Gavlar, or Gavala.

During its time it graduated from BBC Three to BBC One and picked up multiple accolades including Bafta and British Comedy Awards gongs.
Riley Keough looked emotional on Thursday when she was spotted filming intense scenes with George Clooney in a Hampshire woodland for the comedy Jay Kelly.

The American actress, 34, the granddaughter of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley, looked emotional as she met a distressed George in the eerie greenspace.

In the intense-looking snaps, the brunette beauty appeared bedraggled as she engaged in a conversation with the actor from a distance.

Riley, who received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role in Daisy Jones & The Six, wore a shabby knit jumper and skinny jeans.

Meanwhile, 62-year-old George, who plays the titular Jay Kelly, was dressed in a cream linen suit, with a pair of suede loafers as he was seen running through the woodlands.

Riley Keough, 34, looked emotional on Thursday when she was spotted filming intense scenes with George Clooney, 62, in a Hampshire woodland for the comedy Jay Kelly

A distressed George, who plays the titular character, was seen running through the forest before meeting the American actress, who is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley

His chic ensemble was hardly appropriate for his outing as he looked distressed while running through the trees with his mobile phone.

Riley's role and character in the new motion picture have not been announced, as little is known about Noah Baumbach's upcoming Netflix movie.

But the cast also includes Adam Sandler, Isla Fisher, Laura Dern, Jim Broadbent and Billy Crudup.

This film is reportedly based on a screenplay Noah co-wrote with actor Emily Mortimer and is said to include themes of anxiety and social awkwardness.

Noah has an exclusive deal with Netflix, having previously directed The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Marriage Story and White Noise.

Riley recently starred as lead character Daisy, in the Prime Video series Daisy Jones and The Six, which follows the rise of rock band Daisy Jones and The Six through the '70s LA music scene on their quest for worldwide icon status.

In the intense-looking snaps, the brunette beauty appeared bedraggld as she engaged in a conversation with the actor from a distance

George was dressed in a cream linen suit, which he teamed with a pair of suede loafers for the eerie scenes

His chic ensemble was hardly appropriate for his outing as he looked distressed while running through the trees with his mobile phone

George was later seen stepping out in Milan as he waved to fans

The actor looked stylish, despite the rain, as he opted for a blue linen suit jacket and beige chinos and sunglasses

The show is based on the New York Times bestselling novel, also starring Suki Waterhouse, Camila Morrone, Sam Claflin, Sebastian Chacon, Josh Waterhouse, Nabiyah Be and Tom Wright

Daisy Jones & The Six landed nine Prime Time Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Or Movie, at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Last year Riley said she and her grandmother Priscilla Presley's relationship experienced 'a bit of upheaval' while they battled over Lisa Marie Presley's will.

The actress was left devastated by her mum's death aged 54 in January 2023 and was left fighting her grandmother Priscilla, 78, after she contested her daughter's will  disputing a 2016 amendment removing her as co-trustee and naming Riley and her brother Benjamin, who has since died, instead.

Riley said in a cover interview with Vanity Fair magazine their relationship is now 'happy', but admitted Lisa Marie's death caused a 'lot of chaos' in the family.

She said when asked about the issue: 'I'm trying to think of a way to answer it that's not a 20-minute conversation.

'There was a bit of upheaval, but now everything's going to be how it was. 'Anything that would suggest otherwise in the press makes me sad because, at the end of the day, all (Priscilla) wants is to love and protect Graceland and the Presley family and the legacy.'

Riley's role and character in the new motion picture have not been announced, as little is known about Noah Baumbach's upcoming Netflix movie

Riley recently starred as lead character Daisy, in the Prime Video series Daisy Jones and The Six, which follows the rise of rock band Daisy Jones and The Six through the '70s LA music scene on their quest for worldwide icon status

Riley added 'things with Grandma will be happy' now that 'clarity has been had,' noting that she and Priscilla had 'never not been happy'.

She added about the fallout from Lisa Marie's death: 'Everything felt like the carpet had been ripped out and the floor had melted from under us.

'Everyone was in a bit of a panic to understand how we move forward, and it just took a minute to understand the details of the situation, because it's complicated.

'We are a family, but there's also a huge business side of our family.'

After a months-long dispute, Riley agreed to give her grandma $1 million to become the sole trustee, as well as $400,000 to cover legal fees.

While Lisa Marie's cause of death was not known at the time, it has since been revealed that she died of a bowel obstruction.

Riley said: 'I did feel like there was a choice in front of me to give up and let this event take me out or have the courage to work through it.

'I started trying to move through it and not let it take me out.'
Clarkson's Farm is back for series three and one tourist has shared what Diddly Squat is really like away from TV screens.

In a recent TikTok clip, London-based @sazzle_shares visited the Cotswolds farm shop, which rose to fame in the Amazon Prime Video series, and said while the views are amazing, there is one catch.

In her visit, she asserted she would not queue at the Chipping Norton Farm Shop had there been a long wait and remarked the produce was pricey and the shop is a lot smaller than what it seems on TV.

She even agreed with viewers the shop is 'a shed with nothing in it', but enjoyed eating at the rustic joint behind the shop, after Clarkson's restaurant was shut down by the local council and found herself able to get into the shop quickly.

Viewers agreed the shop was overpriced, but many Jeremy Clarkson fans were quick to praise its food quality, with some willing to queue.

One woman went to the Diddly Squat Farm shop, featured in Clarkson's Farm and enjoyed the food but wasn't quite willing to queue if she had to. Pictured: Jeremy Clarkson, 64, on the farm

While the London-based tikToker Sazz was quite pleased with her experience, fans were unsure - with some branding the farm shop 'ridiculously priced'

In the 40-second-long clip the camera panned to show some of the fresh produce on offer at Jeremy's farm shop - including different varieties of cheese

In the 40-second-long clip, the woman, who goes by Sazz explained there was no queue' and she was 'able to get straight into the shop'.

She acknowledged the bar and eating area were 'really fun' but confessed that she would not queue at the Chipping Norton Farm Shop for hours.

Sazz enjoyed eating at the rustic joint, citing its aesthetic picnic benches and gorgeous views.

'I had a delicious halloumi burger, the beef burgers look great as well. They serve Jeremy's beer (Hawkstone)'.

Adamant she wouldn't be willing to queue, she stressed: 'It's a nice little place to go if you don't have to queue'.

The camera panned to show the interior of The Cotswolds farm shop, which sells fresh pasteurised farm milk, as well as a plethora of fresh cheese.

On the website the homemade jam is advertised as costing 4.80.

Fans were divided on Jeremy's brainchild, which came into existence after the Top Gear star, 64, bought around 1,000 acres of land in Oxfordshire and decided to run the farm himself.

While some viewers were obvious fans of the Top Gear stud, quick to praise the food quality in his shop, but some felt the farm shop was overpriced

'You were lucky, you it's one of our locals and there's usually always queues to get in the farm shop. Back area is brilliant'.

'Sounds nice...you can get some amazing food at farm shops'.

'I didnt queue either it was fabulous food and drink'.

'Absolutely worth it. Yes, I'd line up, no questions'.

'Its a huge con and ridiculous prices. Makes Blenheim Palace look like Poundland!'

Another said: 'Its a shed with nothing in it' to which Sazz agreed: 'Pretty much!! It looks so much bigger on the show and the produce is '.

Part one of Clarkson's Farm launch launched on Friday, followed by Part two launching on May 10 on Amazon Prime Video.


Sienna Miller looked sensational on Friday as she walked around London in Victoria Beckham's sought-after Mango trench coat.

The fashionista, 42, cut a trendy figure as she wrapped up in the ankle-length beige garment, which was cinched at the waist with a bow-tied belt.

The trench, worth 300, featured a layered design on the back, bow fastenings on the cuffs and two side pockets.

She paired her look with blue mom jeans, maroon country boots, large hoop earrings and a pair of oversized black sunglasses.

Her outing comes after she showcased her incredible figure in a 3,900 gown at a star-studded birthday party, just four months after giving birth to her second child.

Sienna Miller, 42, looked sensational on Friday as she walked around London in Victoria Beckham's sought-after Mango trench coat which retails for 300

Her outing comes after she showcased her incredible figure in a 3,900 gown at a star-studded birthday party, just four months after giving birth to her second child

Sienna and her boyfriend Oli Green, 27, welcomed their first child together, a baby girl, in January. Sienna also has a daughter Marlowe, 10.

The actress barely aged a day since starring in Layer Cake and Alfie more than twenty years ago - and previously credited yoga and her love of Marmite as the secret to her age-defying looks.

On Tuesday Sienna joined the likes of make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury and models Poppy Delevingne and Cora Corre at Lady Lola Bute's 25th birthday party, held at the family's Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute.

Sienna stood out from the crowd in a 3,900 floor length silk mesh dress created by Annie Doble of Annie's Ibiza.

For her London stroll she cut a trendy figure as she wrapped up warm in the beige garment, which was cinched at the waist with a tied belt

Her cotton coat, worth 300, featured a layered design on the back, bow fastenings on the cuffs and two side pockets

She paired her look with blue mom jeans, maroon country boots and a pair of oversized black sunglasses

On Tuesday, Sienna joined the likes of make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury and models Poppy Delevingne and Cora Corre at Lady Lola Bute's 25th birthday party, held at the family's Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute (pictured with Annie Doble and Camille Charriere)

It featured hand-beaded crystals in the shape of a cobweb and a backless design, while the sheer nature of the dress highlighted her lithe figure.

She teamed the look with a nude bodysuit and a bronzed tan, having just got back from a family holiday in Croatia.

The designer also produced a custom-made outfit in a 1920s Egyptian fabric for Lady Lola.

As Lola and Annie shared photos of the bash on Instagram, Sienna firmly cemented her status as a fashion icon as she posed for a photo with Annie and Camille Charriere.

Sienna previously gave an insight into her health and fitness regime and told Vogue: 'I do yoga three times a weekmore because Im just searching for some equanimity. Its very easy to feel exhausted by these schedules and time zones.'

The actress, who lives in New York, said at the time she wasn't a big fan of the spin class SoulCycle.

She said: 'Sometimes I cringe a little bit at the motivational aspect of it, but thats just because Im English and were not used to saying, "You see your dream! Go get it"'.

'Cooking is a focus for me,' Sienna shared, 'But I wouldnt say healthy  Im more of a home cook: roasts, some Asian food, pastas and sauces and soups. In terms of, like, chia seed and whatever grains, no. Im like, "Fried eggs and Marmite toast".'

Sienna and her boyfriend Oli Green, 27 , welcomed their first child together, a baby girl, in January. Sienna also has a daughter Marlowe, 10 (pictured in August 2023)

The party saw hundreds of guests flown out to the remote Scottish island for the party of aristocrat Lady Lola including Sienna Miller (pictured)

Charlotte Tilbury was among the well-heeled guests enjoying the festivities

Lady Lola Bute celebrated her 25th birthday in style in her ancestral home this week

Guests shared snaps inside the home, including in the bedrooms they were saying in

The party saw hundreds of guests flown out to the remote Scottish island for the party of aristocrat Lady Lola, who is the daughter of the late John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute and fashion designer Serena Bute.

Guests had a weekend-long celebration, dancing in the 19th Century Gothic revival dining hall, and sleeping in grand bedrooms that look straight out of a fantasy novel.

Princess Olympia of Greece and Lady Mary Charteris, danced with members of the Guinness family, who downed Iron Bru during a festival-themed party in the day before switching to more sophisticated dirty martinis with their black tie attire in the evening.

Rare snaps from inside the Mount Stuart House were also shared, including a grand staircase, ornate ceiling pattern and even the somewhat old-fashioned toilet.

The manor, which is the seat of the Marquess of Bute, a title now held by Lola's brother, has been held since 1157.

However, the current home, which is Category A listed, was built in the late 1870s, replacing an earlier house.
It's the news every Gavin And Stacey fan has been waiting for, five years on from that dramatic cliffhanger on Christmas day 2019.

Show creators James Corden and Ruth Jones shocked the BBC sitcom's millions of viewers on Friday with the news they have written the final ever episode.

The pair reunited in secret to pen the special after recently denying another episode was in the works, as they took to Instagram to share a black and white photo of themselves holding up the script.

Alongside the post, they wrote: 'Some news... It's official! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey. See you on Christmas Day, BBC One. Love Ruth and James!'

And as delighted fans have been sent into a frenzy with the highly-anticipated news, we take a look at all the questions viewers want answers. Will Smithy say yes? Are Gavin and Stacey still together? And what really happened on that fishing trip?

As the nation celebrates the return of Gavin And Stacey which unanswered questions will FINALLY be resolved?

James Corden and Ruth Jones have written the last ever episode of Gavin And Stacey, set to air on Christmas Day

Will Smithy and Nessa FINALLY end up together?

At the climax of the last Christmas episode in 2019, Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy, but viewers never got to hear his response.

The pair had an on-off relationship during the series after several unplanned one-night stands led to their son, Neil the baby.

In the last episode, which caught up with the characters 10 years after the previous instalment, it was revealed they were successfully co-parenting their son.

And as the family gathered in Barry for the festivities, the episode ended with Nessa down on one knee and the episode ended immediately after she asked: 'Marry me?'

While talking about Nessa's shock proposal, she told the Mirror back in 2019: 'Its quite difficult to show her soft side. If Im down on one knee, its obvious whats going on.

'When I put my hand on my heart and I said, as Nessa, "I love you. No, I do, I loves you with all my heart" I really meant it to James.'

Will the pair finally get their happy ever after and accept they are destined to be together?

At the climax of the last Christmas episode in 2019, Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy, but viewers never got to hear his response

What happened to Smithy's girlfriend?

On the Christmas Day special fans met Smithy's new girlfriend Sonia and it was clear she didn't quite fit into the mad world of the Shipman and West's.

Sonia made a hasty exit from Barry after being unimpressed with Gavin and Stacey's family, leading Nessa to tell Smithy she is in love with him.

However, Smithy had already posted an engagement ring to her grandparents house before the disaster of a Christmas and shes going to be there to get it.

Will this affect Smithy's answer to Nessa? Will he have to retract his proposal to Sonia? It could all get rather messy.

On the Christmas Day special fans met Smithy's new girlfriend Sonia and it was clear she didn't quite fit into the mad world of the Shipman and West's

What REALLY happened on the fishing trip?

Probably the most highly requested question, fans are desperate to know what really happened on Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason which they both refuse to speak about, a long-running joke on the series.

Replying to the announcement post, fans pleaded: 'Fishing trip reveal or we riot'; 'Oh my Christ! Pleasewe HAVE to know what went down on the fishing trip'.

Stacey's brother, played by Robert Wilfort, would pop up in the sitcome from time to time as he visited the family from his home in Spain.

And while the fishing trip was often alluded to, fans never found out what did happen that day between him and Bryn.

Will the mystery finally be solved?

Probably the most highly requested question, fans are desperate to know what really happened on Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason which they both refuse to speak about, a long-running joke on the series

Several fans said they finally wanted to know what happened on character Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason

Will Gavin and Stacey still be together?

The series is called Gavin And Stacey after all, so what will the two main protagonists have been up to since we last caught up with them.

In the last festive one-off it was revealed that the pair, played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, now have three children so there is sure to be plenty of drama in the couple's lives as they raise their family together.

One thing is for sure, it is never smooth sailing when the Shipman family get together with the gang in Barry.

The series is called Gavin And Stacey after all, so what will the two main protagonists have been up to since we last caught up with them

Will Bryn come out?

Perhaps the final episode could see Bryn open up about his sexuality, after Rob Brydon previously revealed he would be surprised if his character wasn't gay.

Aside from the mysterious antics on the fishing trip, the way Bryn stares at Larry Lamb's character Mick Shipman suggests his sexuality is 'not ambiguous' - even though producers never openly said he was gay.

Speaking on the Table Manners podcast back in 2021, when asked if he thought his character was gay or not Rob said: 'There's a part of me that doesn't want to say anything because I think it should be in the mind of the audience.

'Obviously they've written it... It's not ambiguous, is it? I would be surprised if he wasn't.

'But I wonder perhaps if he's never acted on it. They've never said to me, it's just what is there in the script. But I mean, you know, the way he gazes at Larry lamb - at Mick.

'He is a lovely looking boy. But they've never sort of nailed it on the head. But I think it's for the audience to decide for themselves...'.

Will he finally open up about his sexuality?

Perhaps the final episode could see Bryn open up about his sexuality, after Rob Brydon previously revealed he would be surprised if his character wasn't gay

Will Bryn get TikTok?

He's known for his incredible enthusiasm and is always eager to be 'down with the kids'.

And after the explosion of TikTok since the last episode, it seems as though the trending dances and skits could definitely be something that Bryn would relish getting stuck into.

With baby Neil now 14-year-old perhaps he will show Bryn the ropes and the Welshman could be on the way to becoming an influencer.

After the explosion of TikTok since the last episode, it seems as though the trending dances and skits could definitely be something that Bryn would get stuck into

Will Dawn and Pete have survived another year?

Pete Sutcliffe (Adrian Scarborough) can do nothing right as Dawn's disappointing husband.

The couple have been married for over 30 years however Dawn (Julia Davis) is known for her frequent and very public arguments with her husband Pete.

Another break-up was on the horizon last time we saw them, but thankfully Pam and Mick were able to save them from the brink of divorce once again.

But what will have happened in the five years since we saw them? Will they have finally called it quits or do they secretly love each other's annoying grievances?

Pete Sutcliffe (Adrian Scarborough) can do nothing right as Dawn's (Julia Davis') disappointing husband - will the couple still be together?

Will Gwen still be making omelettes?

Seems like a silly question really, one thing is for sure if anyone is under the weather Gwen (Melanie Walters) is sure to whip up an omelette.

Stacey's mum is known for her signature dish and became most memorable for her iconic phrase (in her Welsh accent) 'Anybody fancy an omelette?'

Will she be serving up her final omelette in the last ever episode, or will her repertoire have expanded?

Stacey's mum Gwen (Melanie Walters) is known for her signature dish and became most memorable for her iconic phrase (in her Welsh accent) 'Anybody fancy an omelette?'

Will Rudi return for a final duet with her brother?

Rudi (Sheridan Smith) and Smithy's rendition of Estelle's American Boy will never be forgotten as the pair proved they had a rapping ability second to none.

Rudi didn't return for the last Christmas special much to the disappointment of fans, but will she make an appearance for the last ever episode?
Britain's Got Talent have dropped a knife act from Saturday night's show in light of the fatal Hainault sword attack which claimed the life of a 14-year-old boy.

ITV bosses made the last minute change to the programme out of respect and compassion to the family of Daniel Anjorin, who was killed in north-east London on Tuesday.

The long-running series, presented by Ant and Dec and featuring judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, and Bruno Tonioli, called an emergency meeting following the incident and made the quick decision to scrap Heather Holliday, who's a professional sword swallower.

Heather, who's from America, has been named 'The World's Craziest Sword Swallower' by Guinness World Records and her act involves swallowing multiple solid steel swords while wearing sexy burlesque costume.

A TV source told MailOnline: 'Producers felt, following the devastating attacks this week, it would be wrong to air the stunt act this weekend. The edit was changed and it is absolutely right for show bosses to pull the act from episode four.'

Britain's Got Talent have dropped a knife act from Saturday night's show in light of the fatal Hainault sword attack which claimed the life of a 14-year-old boy

ITV bosses made the last minute change to the programme out of respect and compassion to the family of Daniel Anjorin (pictured) who was killed in north-east London on Tuesday

The long-running series called an emergency meeting following the incident and made the quick decision to scrap Heather Holliday (pictured) who's a professional sword swallower

Heather, who's from America, has been named 'The World's Craziest Sword Swallower' by Guinness World Records and her act involves swallowing multiple solid steel swords

A show insider added: 'Following the horrific murder of Daniel Anjorin this week, Britain's Got Talent acted quickly with making the necessary changes to Saturday night's show.

'Given the brutality of the crime and the nature of Heather Holliday's act, it was decided she wouldn't feature during episode four.

'It is nothing the contestant has done, but bosses felt it would send the wrong message at this extremely difficult time for the families and those who have been affected by the tragic events of this week.'

Their decision follows the death of schoolboy Daniel, who alongside four other people, was attacked by a man patrolling the streets brandishing a samurai-style sword this week.

Police have since named Marcus Aurelio Arduini Monzo as the suspect and charged him with murder.

They have described the incident as 'truly horrific' and are still piecing together how and why the attack unfolded.

Britain's Got Talent, currently airing on Saturday and Sunday evenings, film the auditions in advance but the final show can still be edited days before broadcast.

MailOnline has contacted Britain's Got Talent for comment.

Britain's Got Talent, currently airing on Saturday and Sunday evenings, film the auditions in advance but the final show can still be edited days before broadcast

Britain's Got Talent often features dangerous acts including this series when daredevil acrobat Arbon, who wearing a full face mask, balanced on top of metal poles using just his hands

One of the show's most notable stunt performers is Jonathan Goodwin, who during his audition in 2019 escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside down, with his entire body in flames

Speaking about her act, Heather Holliday has previously said: 'Sword swallowing is quite dangerous. One of the things that drew me to it though, I take it very seriously and take all the precautions I can, but I still do things to amplify the danger.'

After becoming one of the youngest female sword swallowers in the world, she has since developed her act from consuming six to eight swords and regurgitating solid objects.

Britain's Got Talent often features dangerous acts including this series when daredevil acrobat Arbon, who wearing a full face mask, balanced on top of metal poles using just his hands, with the added risk of falling to the ground, which he lit on fire.

One of the show's most notable stunt performers is Jonathan Goodwin, who during his audition in 2019 escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside down, with his entire body in flames.
Anya Taylor-Joy has shared a stunning topless snap as she gave a behind the scenes glimpse at her glamour routine on Friday.

The actress, 28, stole the show at the Australian premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in Sydney on Thursday with her quirky and extravagant haute couture look.

She has now given an insight into how the ensemble was pulled together as she took to Instagram to share a photograph of herself getting ready for the big night.

In the shot, Anya went topless as she posed with her arms across her chest while her make-up artist got to work on her stunning smokey-eye make-up look.

She also sported a dramatic gold chainmail style headpiece featuring an array of arrows sticking out of it as she made sure to turn heads.

Anya Taylor-Joy (pictured) has shared a stunning topless snap as she gave a behind the scenes glimpse at her glamour routine on Friday

The actress, 28, stole the show at the Australian premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in Sydney on Thursday with her quirky and extravagant haute couture look

The headpiece was part of a quirky look which included a matching mini dress, from the 1996 Paco Rabanne spring/summer haute couture show.

For the premiere, Anya - who is starring as the titular character Imperator Furiosa in the Mad Max prequel - captured attention in the extravagant and sheer dress.

She seemingly went braless underneath the show-stopping backless chainmail style dress, while she simply sported G-string underwear to protect her modesty.

The fashionista added a few extra inches to her frame with a pair of gold heels as she showed off her quirky sense of style.

She was joined on the red carpet at the State Theatre by her Mad Max co-star Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pakaty.

For the premiere, Anya - who is starring as the titular character Imperator Furiosa in the Mad Max prequel - captured attention in her extravagant and sheer dress

Anya pulled out all the stops for the event as she sported a daring outfit from Paco Rabanne's 1996 spring/summer haute couture show (right)

Chris, who portrays Dr. Dementus in Furiosa, cut a dapper figure in a checkered black suit as he stepped out to celebrate the release of his latest adventure epic.

Chris and Elsa, who tied the knot in 2010, looked as loved-up as ever as they packed on the PDA and shared a kiss on the red carpet.

The couple made a rare family appearance as they were joined by their twin boys Sasha and Tristan, nine. They also share a daughter India, 11.

Mad Mad: Furiosa, the fifth movie in the long-running series, will be released in cinemas on May 24.

She was joined on the red carpet at the State Theatre by her Mad Max co-star Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pakaty (pictured)

Chris and Elsa, who tied the knot in 2010, looked as loved-up as ever as they packed on the PDA and shared a kiss on the red carpet

The couple made a rare family appearance as they were joined by their twin boys Sasha and Tristan, nine. They also share a daughter India, 11

The film tells the origin story of a young Imperator Furiosa, played by Anya, who rose to fame as the star of Netflix hit The Queen's Gambit.

Chris portrays villainous character Dementus, who he has described as 'a very violent, insane, brutal person that is born from the Wasteland'.

'He has been birthed into a space where it's kill or be killed,' he said at CCXP in Brazil, when the trailer footage was unveiled.

'He's learned to rule with an iron fist. There's a charisma to him and it's very manipulative.'

Furiosa tells the origin story of a young Imperator Furiosa, played by Anya, while Chris portrays villainous character Dementus

Furiosa was filmed in New South Wales and was expected to become the biggest movie ever to be made in Australia. Filming wrapped up in September 2022.

Franchise creator George Miller returned as director and co-writer of Furiosa, alongside Nico Lathouris, as well as his long-time producing partner Doug Mitchell.

George described the prequel as 'a saga' that will be told over a 15-year period, which is much different from Fury Road, which spanned three days in its timeframe.
Fifi Box has defended her right to flaunt her ample cleavage.

The breakfast radio show star, who co-hosts the Fifi, Fev & Nick show, said on the program this week that she was inundated by troll comments about her body after wearing a revealing dress.

The 47-year-old explained that she cannot hide her large bust - and doesn't want to for the sake of 'bullies and trolls' in what she calls a 'gross online space'.

Fifi said one comment from a woman told her to 'have some decorum' and Fifi insisted she does not believe she should cover up.

'I'm a 10DD. I have boobs, I don't know where to pop them, if I could pop them under my am I would' she said.

Fifi Box has defended her right to flaunt her ample cleavage. The breakfast radio show star, who co-hosts the Fifi, Fev & Nick show, said on the program this week that she was inundated by troll comments about her body after wearing this revealing dress (pictured)

'I have gotten to an age that I've got thick enough skin. But I don't know that young women have that confidence to block it out' she continued.

'It's my body. It's flesh. Why do I have to hide it? Why do I need to wear turtlenecks to hide it? For other people to be okay with it?'

Fifi said that she does not let people get away with treating her badly, and tells her daughters to set the standards you expect.

'I'm at an age where they are there, they are what they are, and I am not going to pick a neckline that suits other people. Why should I? Because I am not ashamed of my body' Fifi added.

It comes after Fifi was shocked to discover she'd been named Australia's most likeable Breakfast radio broadcaster.

She was in a state of utter disbelief when her co-hosts Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody celebrated her new title.

'I'm a 10DD. I have boobs, I don't know where to pop them, if I could pop them under my am I would' she said. Pictured with her co-stars in the frock

'It's my body. It's flesh. Why do I have to hide it? Why do I need to wear turtlenecks to hide it? For other people to be okay with it?' she added

The Australian Talent Index released its 2024 Top Talent Report in which 7000 Australians were surveyed about their thoughts on Aussie celebrities.

Fifi fell into the category of top 10 in breakfast TV and radio for likeability.

Co-host Brendan declared Fifi the winner during The Fox's Fifi, Fev & Nick in March.

'Coming in at number one... with 75 per cent likeability, our queen Fifi Box!' Brendan cheered, before confetti popped in Fifi's face.

'No it isn't. Is not! I don't believe that,' Fifi replied humbly.

Brendan continued: 'They all love you. No, you are, number one! You're number one in radio. 75 per cent likeability. You are the most likeable radio presenter in Australia, congratulations.'

'Well, that's very nice. Well, thank you. That's lovely,' Fifi said. 'I really appreciate that, and to the people that were part of that (survey).'
Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning looked worlds apart from her stalker character Martha Scott as she returned to BBC's The Outlaws.

The actress, 38, blew fans away with her controversial role in the Netflix series, which is based on writer and star Richard Gadd's experience of being stalked.

Now, the acting sensation is returning to her old role in BBC's, The Outlaws, as her character, Community Payback Officer Diane Pemberley, has bagged a promotion.

The Supervisor of The Outlaws will return as a fully qualified Police Community Support Officer and will train up an eager protege, Stan (Harry Trevaldwyn).

The BBC series follows a group of strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete a community payback sentence in Bristol.

Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning, 38, looked worlds apart from her Martha Scott as she returned to BBC's The Outlaws now her character, Diane Pemberley, has bagged a promotion

The actress blew fans away with her controversial role in the Netflix series, which is based on writer and leading star Richard Gadd's own experience of being stalked

As series three begins, with the crime boss, The Dean, behind bars awaiting trial, The Outlaws are moving on with their livesuntil one of their own returns with a deadly secret, hurling them back into mortal danger.

As a murder manhunt closes in on the gang, they try to prove their innocence before The Dean's case collapses, and he comes looking for revenge.

Jessica said: 'Diane is persistent, she's ruthless, no-nonsense, she never misses a trick - or so she thinks! In a dream world she would become a police officer. She's Cagney & Lacey's number one fan.

'It's been lovely all being back together, and I felt very lucky that I was in the writers' room this time as I co-wrote an episode with Stephen, episode five.

'It's been really exciting to be a part of helping draft the storyline for series three and get to know the characters more than I did before.'

Stephen Merchant will return as Greg, along with Rhianne Barreto as Rani, Gamba Cole as Ben and Darren Boyd as John.

The new series will also see Clare Perkins as Myrna, Eleanor Tomlinson as Lady Gabby, Jessica as Diane, Charles Babalola as Malaki, Tom Hanson as Spencer and Christopher Walken as Frank.

It comes after Jessica doubled down on Baby Reindeer creator Richard's plea for fans to stop trying to find out who the 'real Martha' from the show is.

Now, the acting sensation is returning to her old role as the Supervisor of The Outlaws will return as a Police Community Support Officer and train protege, Stan (Harry Trevaldwyn)

The BBC series follows a group of strangers from different walks of life forced together to complete a community payback sentence in Bristol (Jess pictured as Diane)

After the harrowing show soared to global success, Richard, 34, was forced to beg social media sleuths to stop trying to find out the real identities of the characters.

Since, Jessica has doubled down on his plea and said it is a 'real shame' fans are getting fixated on who the real 'Martha' is, after Richard went to great lengths to protect their identity.

She told Glamour: 'I would urge people not to be doing that [...] I think it's a real, real shame, because it shows that they haven't watched the show properly, that's not the point of it in any way.

'Netflix and Richard [Gadd] went to extreme lengths to try and make sure that the identities were kept private for a reason.

'I think they should try and watch the show again, and really see what the point of it was  it definitely wasn't that, I deliberately didn't want to do an impersonation of somebody, I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.'

Richard has made it clear that he has changed names and specific details of the story to protect the identities of those involved.

It comes after Jessica doubled down on Baby Reindeer creator Richard's plea for fans to stop trying to find out who the 'real Martha' from the show is

He recently asked people to stop trying to figure out the real identities of his characters because it has led to false accusation against his friends.

READ MORE: Baby Reindeer reaches big milestone hours after creator Richard Gadd shared his disappointment over losing Netflix number one spot in Colombia Advertisement

In an Instagram statement, he told how 'people I love, have worked with, and admire' were being targeted unfairly.

'Please don't speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That's not the point of the show,' he added.

Baby Reindeer delves into Richard's harrowing real-life stalking ordeal and brutal sexual abuse as he plays a fictionalised version of himself called Donny Dunn.

Donny is flooded with 41,071 emails, 744 tweets, 350 voicemails and 106 pages of letters from stalker Martha.

The series also details Donny's horrifying rape at the hands of his comedy mentor Darrien, played by Tom Goodman-Hill.

Darrien coaxes Donny to come to his flat and get high on drugs, by promising him that TV producers are interested in his work. However while on drugs, he sexually assaults Donny multiple times.

Richard has opened up about what it was like to re-enact his trauma for the small screen - and how he hopes it will aid his healing process.

On reliving his 'severe' twenties, he told Attitude: 'It's hugely challenging, but I hope for catharsis when the show comes out.'

The Outlaws returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Thursday 30th May.

After the harrowing show soared to global success, Richard, 34, was forced to beg social media sleuths to stop trying to find out the real identities of the characters

Since, Jessica has doubled down on his plea and said it is a 'real shame' fans are getting fixated on who the real 'Martha' is, after Richard went to great lengths to protect their identity
The BBC confirmed on Friday that legal drama The Split is making a return to screens two years after the series three finale first aired - and fans are delighted.

The television series follows the lives of the Dafoe family: three sisters and their mother, all working as divorce lawyers.

The BBC have also confirmed that Nicola Walker, Annabel Scholey and Fiona Button will reprise their roles as sisters Hannah, Nina, Rose.

Deborah Findlay will return as mother Ruth, alongside some fresh faces.

A two-part special will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year and will chronicle the strong women on a wild Spanish extravaganza.

The BBC confirmed on Friday legal drama The Split will return to screens later this year L-R Deborah Findlay, Annabel Scholey, Nicola Walker and Fiona Button

A two-part special will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year and will chronicle the strong women on a wild Spanish extravaganza (pictured: Annabel, Nicola and Fiona)

Fans were delighted as the news coincided with the return of another BBC classic, Gavin And Stacey, also announced on Friday morning.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, they shared: 'The Split and Gavin And Stacey! What a day!'; 'Fantastic to see The Split is returning. I really enjoyed this drama, one of those all star cast best of British ones that the BBC does so well'.

'OMG THE SPLIT IS COMING BACK?!?'; 'THE SPLIT IS COMING BACK OMG!'

Set two years after the third season, formidable family lawyer Hannah and her family are back.

They've gathered for a beautiful wedding at a magnificent vineyard, nestled in Catalonias wine region.

Set across one sun-soaked weekend, The Split will encompass break-ups, reunions and plenty of romance.

As the sun rises over the glorious Spanish countryside, Hannah is compelled to banish the ghosts of her past and open herself up to the possibility of love again.

The series delves into whether Hannah can build up the courage to take the leap into a new future, says the BBC.

Fans were pleased that BBC ONE legal drama The Split is due to return, this time chronicling the Defoe's antics on a wild Spanish extravaganza

The broadcaster has also unveiled a few fresh faces for its 2024 shock return. New actors this year will include Toby Stephens of Percy Jacksons And The Olympians fame.

The last series' finale, aired in May 2022 saw fans left weeping as fan favourites Hannah and Nathan both were without a happy ending.

The third series of the much-loved BBC One divorce drama started with Hannah and Nathan (Stephen Mangan) entering the final stages of negotiating their divorce.

Many hoped the ex-couple would rekindle their romance in final scenes, while others rooted for Hannah's romance with fellow lawyer Christie - who had relocated to New York.
Alison Hammond has finally broken her silence on her new romance with toyboy boyfriend David Putman, 26.

The This Morning presenter, 49, has been dating the Russian masseur since she booked him for a 150 massage and the pair hit it off.

Their friendship reportedly turned romantic at the end of last year, despite the 23 year age gap between the pair.

And now Alison has opened up about their relationship and confirmed he even has her son Aiden's seal of approval.

Speaking about the relationship for the first time on Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's podcast Parenting Hell, the comedians grilled the TV star as they asked: 'Are you single Alison?'

Alison Hammond, 49, has finally broken her silence on her new relationship with Russian toyboy David Putman, 26, and revealed what her son Aiden, 19, REALLY thinks of the romance

Alison confirmed he even has her son Aiden's seal of approval as she shared the complexities of dating now her son is almost an adult

Acting coy, she gushed: 'No I'm not single.. I'm dating. I'm dating!'

Alison is mother to her only child, Aiden, who she shares with her former husband Noureddine Boufaied, and Rob and Josh asked about the complexities of dating now her son is almost an adult.

Aiden is 19-years-old, only a few years younger than her new boyfriend David who is thought to be in his mid twenties.

Explaining the struggles, Alison confessed: 'It's more difficult, he is more verbal now that he is older. He'll want to know who this person is and he'll want to meet them.

'It's a lot harder. He'll wanna know that this guy is treating me well.

'The person who I am seeing at the moment, he is on his Instagram and is like "yeah I like him, he's not too in your face". Aiden is on it.'

Last month Alison shared snaps of her and David together on social media including one where they cosied up together with their arms wrapped around each other on a country walk.

David is thought to be around 20 years younger than Alison, 49, and she is said to be 'happier than ever' with her new partner following a 'turbulent love life'.

Speaking about the relationship for the first time on Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's podcast Parenting Hell, the comedians grilled the TV star as they asked: 'Are you single Alison?' Acting coy, she gushed: 'No I'm not single.. I'm dating. I'm dating!'

Discussing the first time David and her son met, she revealed: 'When they actually met, he really liked him, he really thought he was lovely, so that's nice. 'Thank goodness for that! Because normally Aiden hates anybody I date, literally just not interested'

Originally from Krasnodar in Russia, David left the country for the UK in December 2022 to escape the front line following President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine

Discussing the first time David and her son met, she revealed: 'When they actually met, he really liked him, he really thought he was lovely, so that's nice.

'Thank goodness for that! Because normally Aiden hates anybody I date, literally just not interested.

'And you just know at that point, if Aiden doesn't like them, this isn't gonna work. There are moments where I think, "who's the parent here?!"

'It's nice though because I always feel like there's someone there looking over me, protecting me.'

Originally from Krasnodar in Russia, David left the country for the UK in December 2022 to escape the front line following President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

A friend of David previously told The Sun: 'When the war in Ukraine began David's mother Olga began to worry. She didn't want her boys dragged into it. She wanted them safe like any mother would.'

David therefore moved to the UK, where he now lives with his uncle Nigel Putman, 71, in Slough, but he spends a lot of time in London for work.

The friend explained that David was able to avoid being drafted into the Russian army as his father, also called David, is originally from Slough himself, therefore the young masseur already had British citizenship.

David's father is reportedly a retired welder and panel beater who moved to Russia in the late 1990s after marrying Russian architect Olga Kovalenko following a divorce from his first wife.

David also two brother, twins Apollo and Sviatoslov, who are three years older than him and were born in England.

They explained: 'David is a very quiet, unassuming and thoughtful person who likes to play the guitar. He's the strong, silent type, not a pushover, but not chatty like Alison.

'In that sense they're perfect for each other and to David age is just a number. He's not bothered by fame, he probably didn't even know who Alison was when they first met.'

The Sun also reportedly spoke to David himself, but he wouldn't yet speak about his reasons for leaving Russia or relationship with Alison.

Alison added: 'And you just know at that point, if Aiden doesn't like them, this isn't gonna work. There are moments where I think, "who's the parent here?!" 'It's nice though because I always feel like there's someone there looking over me, protecting me'

Alison shares Aiden, 19, with her former husband Noureddine Boufaied

David's pal have emphasised that the age gap between the pair is not a concern at all and he won't be phased at all by her career in the spotlight: 'They're perfect for each other and to David age is just a number'

Alison hinted at their growing relationship back in November when she liked David's post documenting a recent trip to Dublin.

A source told The Sun: 'Alison has never been happier. She has had a turbulent love-life, but is finally confident she has found a trusted companion.'

Last September, Alison hinted she has a new secret boyfriend after sharing a cryptic sex confession during Loose Women Live.

The presenter joined her fellow ITV Daytime hosts during their appearance at the London Palladium on Tuesday.

The panel was made up of Christine Lampard, Denise Welch, Brenda Edwards, Linda Robson and Janet Street-Porter.

During the show, Christine asked the panel: 'Who's having the most jiggy jigs?'

Alison then said: 'How's Birmingham doing? I reckon we're up there, I really do...'

She then cheekily added: 'Well I am.'
A MasterChef Australia insider has revealed that Channel Ten have had their eye on new judge Poh Ling Yeow as far back as 2019.

The former contestant was considered as a replacement for outgoing judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan when they were booted that year.

'The conversations around the boardroom started with a dream team of judges that would work well together and Poh was on that list for sure,' the source told Yahoo.

The plans were put on ice however, with producers allegedly keen to get Poh and former winner Julie Goodwin to return for the Back to Win celebrity season.

The pause allowed Poh to gain further TV experience, as did her appearance on other shows.

A MasterChef Australia insider has revealed that Channel Ten have had their eye on new judge Poh Ling Yeow as far back as 2019. Pictured

'We had her back for Back to Win which was a great TV moment' the source continued.

'She was able to do I'm A Celebrity and had an amazing opportunity to host a show with Snackmasters.'

Poh joined the new lineup after the exit of Melissa Leong and the death of Jock Zonfrillo.

Andy Allen has returned to the Channel Ten cooking show alongside some new faces in a panel shake-up.

MasterChef's Andy Allen has returned as a judge alongside some fresh faces in a panel shake-up. He is joined by French celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, Melbourne-based food critic Sofia Levin, and MasterChef season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow. All pictured

The new judges replace outgoing judge Melissa Leong (left) who exited the show and Jock Zonfrillo (centre), who tragically died last year

He is joined by French celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, Melbourne-based food critic Sofia Levin, and MasterChef season one runner-up Poh.

They replace outgoing judge Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo, who tragically died last year.

As the 16th season premiered earlier this month, the new lineup has since received mixed reactions on social media, with many fans taking to X to weigh in on their judging skills.

'Feels weird without Mel and Jock but looking forward to these new judges,' one commented.

'I do love Poh... she's my favourite ever contestant from that show,' another added.

Another agreed: 'Living for Poh's chaotic energy. So happy she's back on my screen!'
Katie Price, 45, took a swipe at her ex-fiance Carl Woods, 35, as she finally covered up the tattoo of his face.

The pair got each other's profiles inked to their forearms in an act of love after just four months of dating in October, 2020.

Katie got Carl's name added to her own with 'Pricey Woods' written near her elbow yet their relationship didn't stand the test of the time and they split in 2022.

She revealed that she'd since moved on from the romance as she covered Carl's face with a black floral tattoo design.

Katie did not announce the cover up on social media but instead uploaded some busty Instagram snaps leaving her arms bare.

Katie Price, 45, has taken a sneaky swipe at her ex-fiance Carl Woods, 35, as she finally covered up the tattoo of his face in her right arm sleeve

The model and the Married At First Sight star got each other's profiles inked to their forearms in an act of love after just four months of dating in October, 2020

It is unknown exactly when the former glamourpuss had the tattoo done, but on April 23, Carl's face was still on her right arm for all to see.

His face was still on her arm when she posted an Instagram snap lifting her arms above her head and thanking people in Sheffield for attending her MUA masterclass.

In the two weeks following this post, Katie only shared pictures of herself wearing long-sleeved tops and jumpers.

But on Thursday, she shared a picture of her holding her arm above her head while she posed in her kitchen wearing an Alexander Wang gym bra.

The picture revealed a dark patch where Carl's face used to lie in Katie's tattoo sleeve.

She also shared a giveaway post just four hours later showcasing her bare arms and clearly displayed the absence of her ex's face.

The disappearance of the star's former artwork comes just days after she and her current boyfriend, JJ Slater, 31, got matching tattoos during their romantic trip to Ayia Napa, Cyprus.

Just five months into their whirlwind romance, the couple took their relationship to the next step and got similar inks on each other's left arm.

Katie did not announce the cover up on social media but instead uploaded some busty Instagram snaps leaving her arms bare

She shared a giveaway post just four hours later showcasing her bare arms and clearly displayed the absence of her ex's face

It is unknown exactly when the former glamour puss had the tattoo done, but on April, 23, Carl's face (pictured) was still on her right arm for all to see

 Slide me  The picture revealed a dark patch where Carl's face used to lie in Katie's tattoo sleeve

The disappearance of the star's former artwork comes just days after she and her current boyfriend, JJ Slater, 31, got matching tattoos during their romantic trip to Ayia Napa, Cyprus

Just five months into their whirlwind romance, the couple took their relationship to the next step and got their pet names inks on each other's left arm

In an exclusive pictured obtained on Wednesday by The Sun , Katie and JJ showed off their new tattoos on the top of their left wrist.

The smitten couple got a permanent ink of their pet names for one another, with the writing 'baby darling'.

The smitten couple got a permanent ink of their pet names for one another, with the writing 'baby darling'.

Katie has also had a tattoo done with her ex-husband Peter Andre's name but has since covered up the inking with a rose.

And she has previously covered a tribute to her ex-boyfriend Leandro Penna - which read 'Leo' - with an tattoo of a black horse.

The mother-of-five shares Junior, 18, and Princess, 16, with Peter Andre, and Jett, nine, and Bunny, eight, with Kieran Hayler.

Her eldest son Harvey, 21, was fathered by Dwight Yorke, and she has spoken at length about Dwight's lack of involvement in Harvey's life.

As well as her recent split from Carl after the pair's on-off relationship, Katie also has three ex-husbands, Peter, Alex Reid and Kieran.

Katie has reportedly introduced her new boyfriend JJ to some of her children as the couple's romance heats up.

Katie and JJ jetted off on a romantic Bulgarian ski trip, of which they exclusively shared snaps with MailOnline.

A source said: 'Katie's already introduced JJ to her youngest kids. It's so important to her that he gets along with them as they're a huge part of her life.

'They've been talking for a while but it seems like it's already getting serious.'

Katie's eldest son Harvey, 21, was fathered by Dwight Yorke, and she has spoken at length about Dwight's lack of involvement in Harvey's life (pictured in 2001)

The mother-of-five shares Junior, 18, and Princess, 16, with Peter Andre, who she was married to from 2005 to 2009 (Peter pictured with their children in 2022)
Warwick Davis has made his first public appearance since the tragic death of his wife Samantha in March.

The Harry Potter actor, 54, and his children went to St Barnabas Hospice in Lincolnshire, which provides palliative care to adults with life-limiting illnesses, on Friday.

Warwick was joined by his daughter Annabelle, 27, and son Harrison, 21, as they celebrated the hospice's Feathers From Above appeal.

Annabelle shared a photo of the family together at the hospice and wrote: 'It was an honour to watch the #FeathersFromAbove take flight for @stbarnabashospice.

'A beautiful way to remember those weve lost whilst supporting the incredible work they do.

Warwick Davis made his first public appearance since the death of his wife Samantha as he and his children Harrison and Annabelle went to St Barnabas Hospice on Friday

Samantha Davis (pictured), who was an actor herself and met her husband when she had an uncredited role in his 1988 film Willow, tragically died on March 24

'Dedicate a feather to a loved one here, https://stbarnabashospice.co.uk/feathersfromabove'.

The Feathers from Above appeal is an installation of 1,000 handmade feathers that offer supporters a unique way to remember a loved one.

Those who purchase a feather will have their money go towards care for patients and their families.

Annabelle was inundated with condolensces from her social media followers after she shared a family photo on Instagram.

Users wrote: 'God bless you guys. Prayers for peace and comfort for the days to come. Much love'... 'Condolences to you and your family... sending love from Australia'... 'Sending so much love and condolences to you and your family.'

St. Barnabas Hospice's account wrote: 'It was our privilege to have you there during such a difficult time. Thank you for supporting us.'

Samantha Davis, who was an actor herself and met her husband when she had an uncredited role in his 1988 film Willow, tragically died on March 24.

The last photo of the pair saw the couple enjoying a date night out together as they beamed in a cheeky selfie.

Annabelle shared a photo of the family together at the hospice and wrote: 'It was an honour to watch the #FeathersFromAbove take flight for @stbarnabashospice'

St. Barnabas Hospice's account wrote: 'It was our privilege to have you there during such a difficult time. Thank you for supporting us'

Annabelle was inundated with condolensces from her social media followers after she shared a family photo on Instagram

In April, Warwick issued an apology after sparking concern among fans with a late night social media post.

The actor had declared on X/Twitter: 'I'm done here. Signing off' with a broken heart symbol.

Annabelle and Harrison later used their father's account to tell fans that he was taking some time away from social media - adding that he was sorry for causing 'any concern'.

They wrote: 'Thank you everyone for looking out for our Dad, he is taking some time away from social media. He apologises if his last message caused anyone concern. We appreciate all of your love and support.'

Warwick kept vigil at his wife Samantha's hospital bedside as she fought for her life against sepsis five years before her death aged 53.

The couple, who had been together for nearly 30 years, had been through struggles before including losing two children.

Their family had been gearing up for a caravan holiday in 2019 when Samantha suddenly fell ill with a mystery condition, something she put down to stress.

However, within days she was at death's door with doctors telling her terrified husband that she had sepsis, a rare condition which sees the body's immune system attack its own organs and tissues.

Warwick kept vigil at his wife Samantha's hospital bedside as she fought for her life against sepsis five years before her death aged 53 (pictured in 2015)

The couple, who had been together for nearly 30 years, had been through struggles before including losing two children (pictured in 2015)

Warwick described Sammy, as he called her, as his 'most trusted confidant and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career'

The thought of losing his 'soul mate' tortured Warwick and despite her battling hard to recover, he later admitted they still felt its effects as they refused to 'take life for granted' anymore.

It was a motto the couple lived by, enjoying another five years of bliss with each other before Samantha tragically passed away at the age of 53 last month.

In a touching statement released on Wednesday, Warwick said his late wife's passing had 'left a huge hole in our lives' and paid tribute to his 'favourite human'.

He described Sammy, as he called her, as his 'most trusted confidant and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career'.

READ MORE - Warwick Davis' heartbreaking final photo with wife Samantha before her tragic death aged 53 Advertisement

He said he felt like he could achieve anything with his wife by his side and that it felt like he had a 'superpower'.

'She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life she had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes,' Warwick said in a statement given to the BBC.

In 2022 Warwick had opened up about Samantha's health issues, including her hard fought battle with sepsis which left her on the brink of death before making a remarkable recovery.

In an emotional tribute to his 'favourite human', Warwick said: 'Her passing has left a huge hole in our lives as a family. I miss her hugs.'

He described Sammy, as he called her, as his 'most trusted confidant and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career'. He said he felt like he could achieve anything with his wife by his side and that it felt like he had a 'superpower'.

'She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life she had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes,' Davis said in a statement given to the BBC.

Warwick was born with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare bone growth disorder that causes dwarfism. Samantha also had dwarfism but hers was caused by was caused by a condition called achondroplasia.

The couple were among the co-founders of Little People UK. Formed in 2012, it provides support to people with dwarfism as well as their families and friends.
Johnny Depp is 'in really good spirits' and bears 'no animosity toward anybody' as he continues his comeback, it is claimed.

Depp, 60, spent years as a pariah in Hollywood amid his highly publicized legal battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard, 38.

They waged a blistering war of lawsuits against one another, accusing each other of abuse after their 15-month marriage disintegrated in 2016.

After his victory in a defamation case against Heard in 2022, Depp was met with a rapturous reception at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where he premiered his French romantic drama Jeanne du Barry.

Now, with Jeanne du Barry out in theaters in the US, an insider has told People that Depp is 'focused on moving forward. He's keeping busy. Theres a lot of good distractions, so there's not that much time to be reminiscing on that darker period.'

Johnny Depp is 'in really good spirits' and bears 'no animosity toward anybody' as he continues his comeback; pictured at the UK premiere of Jeanne du Barry last month

Depp, 60, spent years as a pariah in Hollywood amid his highly publicized legal battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard, 38; they are pictured together in 2014

The insider added: 'Theres been a release of the old and embarking on this new chapter. Hes feeling better about where he is in life.'

He is said to be 'very excited' for the release of Jeanne du Barry, which served as 'a good challenge' for him as he 'did the entire film in French.'

Depp stars as Louis XV in the story of the French king's affair with his favorite mistress Madame du Barry, played by the film's director Maiwenn.

The source continued: 'He is prioritizing his health and wellbeing much more these days. People were loving his look for the Jeanne du Barry UK premiere.'

As the insider noted: 'He got a new haircut, he looked polished and clean-cut. Hes lost weight. Hes feeling and looking healthier.'

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Depp's revamped look at his film's UK premiere was partly the work of renowned Paris hairstylist Odile Gilbert.

Depp is purportedly 'taking advantage of being in this better headspace. Theres a lot of good energy, and he surrounds himself with a good group of people.'

Heard had to pay him $1 million after losing the defamation case that he brought against her after she accused him of physical abuse.

A source said Depp 'is prioritizing his health and wellbeing much more these days,' adding: 'People were loving his look for the Jeanne du Barry UK premiere' (pictured)

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Depp's revamped look at his film's UK premiere was partly the work of renowned Paris hairstylist Odile Gilbert

Depp was met with a rapturous reception at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where he premiered his French romantic drama Jeanne du Barry; pictured at the Cannes premiere

Now, with Jeanne du Barry (pictured) out in theaters in the US, an insider has told People that Depp is 'focused on moving forward' and 'keeping busy'

Depp stars as Louis XV in the story of the French king's affair with his favorite mistress Madame du Barry, played by the film's director Maiwenn (left)

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star has been staying in London while editing his directorial feature Modi (pictured), a biopic of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani

Their lurid 2022 trial unfolded in the headlines, with Depp accusing Heard of having left feces in his bed as a bizarre prank on her 30th birthday.

After the trial ended, Heard sold her home in Yucca Valley, California for a reported $1.1 million and moved to Madrid with her daughter Oonagh, three.

Heard turned 38 in Spain last week, cheerfully declaring on Instagram that she was indulging in a 'Champagne kind of birthday.'

Meanwhile, sources recently informed DailyMail.com that Depp has undergone a radical transformation, losing weight and shrugging off his previous grungy look as he embraces 'a cleaner lifestyle than at times in the past.'

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star has been staying in London while editing his directorial feature Modi, a biopic of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

Al Pacino is one of the co-producers of the movie, which stars Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio at the head of a cast that includes Miranda actress Sally Phillips.

Although Depp does not appear in Modi and is currently devoting his energies to directing, sources assured TMZ that he is not retiring from acting.

When he feels the moment is opportune, he is said to be open to the prospect of starring in a Hollywood movie again.
Jackie 'O' Henderson may be looking for a new man in Melbourne, according to a new report.

The radio titan and her co-host Kyle Sandilands have seen their Kyle and Jackie O Show expand into Melbourne this month.

The 49-year-old, who has recently slimmed down by over 18 kilos, may be finding a way to connect to local audiences by dating men from the city, Yahoo Lifestyle claimed this week.

'After quite a few years on the market in Sydney and Los Angeles the single mum is keen to see what Melbourne has to offer,' an alleged source told the website.

The report went on to claim that, 'producers are pushing for Jackie to join a couple of the dating apps in her new city.'

Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) may be looking for a new man in Melbourne, according to a new report

'Embracing a new market on radio is extremely important. You need to prove to your audience that you care about them' the alleged source said.

'There are plenty of ways to localise your content and audiences shouldn't expect the usual tricks from the king and queen of radio.'

It comes after Jackie opened up about her new approach to finding love and her adamant refusal to ever grace the screens of a reality TV dating show during an interview with Daily Mail Australia.

When asked about her current relationship status, she candidly admitted, 'Yes, I'm single,' before dropping a bombshell about her dating app future.

'I'm done with dating apps. I don't know. I'm just going to, like, see what happens... I'm open to whatever comes along,' she said.

The 49-year-old, who has recently slimmed down by over 18 kilos, may be finding a way to connect to local audiences by dating men from the city

When pressed if she would ever consider appearing on a dating show such as The Bachelorette Jackie responded, 'Oh, no, no. Definitely not The Bachelorette.'

'No. I won't be doing that. No dating shows... I don't wanna be on TV [dating] . It's hard enough doing it in private.'

Jackie exclusively revealed to Daily Mail Australia that she was seeing a new man during a red carpet interview at the TV Week Logie Awards.

'I'll just say maybe,' she said when asked if she was seeing anyone new, after being linked to several eligible younger men.

After being quizzed on whether her new love would be joining her at the Logies, Jackie was quick to insist, 'No, no!'

The media personality went on to say she was ultimately 'to blame' for all the recent romance rumours after her comments to Daily Mail Australia.

'In my mind, I'm dating and I've been on a few dates, so I said 'maybe' [I'm dating], but I probably should have said, 'Maybe, we'll see what happens,'' she confessed.
Amy Schumer made the rare move of posing with her mother Sandra Schumer.

The two were seen at Variety's 2024 Power of Women luncheon in New York City on Thursday.

The actress, 42, wore a lovely lavender gown that fit her body well and made her look slender. Her hair was pulled back as she wore purple toned makeup to match her dress.

She was seen sitting next to her mom who wore all black with her blonde hair down.

In 2022, Amy said she has had a complicated relationship with her mom which was hinted at during season one of Life & Beth.

While on the Making Space with Hoda Kotb podcast, she explained: 'I have certainly forgiven her. And she's a great grandma. We have a beautiful relationship, and [Life & Beth] is a lot about forgiveness and about dealing with your old traumas. I think it's just better for you physically, mentally, all of it.'

Amy Schumer made the rare move of posing with her mother Sandra Schumer. The two were seen at Variety's 2024 Power of Women luncheon in New York City on Thursday

She was seen sitting next to her mom who wore all black with her blonde hair down. In 2022, Amy said she has had a complicated relationship with her mom which was hinted at during season one of Life & Beth. While on the Making Space with Hoda Kotb podcast, she explained: 'I have certainly forgiven her. And she's a great grandma. We have a beautiful relationship'

Schumer explained what her mom had done.

'Well, she and my dad divorced when I was, like, 12 or 13,' she recalled. 'They both started dating, and I think some of her behavior around that time was pretty destructive to my sister and I.'

But she has empathy now.

'Now being a mom, I can only imagine what it was like for her,' she told Hoda. 'She was, you know  single mother, three kids, we had no money.

'She's a speech and hearing therapist for the deaf. She's working second and third jobs. Like, she's just trying to keep it moving. And I really can't judge her decisions, because I don't know what it's like to go through that. So I found a real level of forgiveness and empathy with her.'

While at the Variety event she gave an emotional speech.

She moved the audience as she opened up about gun safety and the strides women have made while being honored at the star-studded celebrations.

Schumer explained what her mom had done. 'Well, she and my dad divorced when I was, like, 12 or 13,' she recalled. 'They both started dating, and I think some of her behavior around that time was pretty destructive to my sister and I'

Schumer was the recipient of the Variety Power of Women Award, an honor presented to her by Sascha Seinfeld, the daughter of Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld and a staff writer on her show Life & Beth.

'I'm here representing Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action,' she began, according to Variety.

Amy added: 'If you're interested in really helping, everytown.org is a great place to start. Ten years ago, Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, two girls, went to go see my movie Trainwreck and they were shot in the movie theater, and that's what brought me to this work.

Schumer delivered a powerful speech about gun safety at the event

'What I've learned in my years of work with Everytown is that the gun lobby's strategy is hopelessness, and keeping us complacent, deceiving us into believing gun laws don't make a difference. But instead, we need every person to use their voice. And you won't believe this, but the most effective people have been mothers.

'And we have to vote out those who fail to do so, you know, who change the gun laws,' she said.

'We are the lucky ones in this tent... if you're in this room, you already know that women are the strongest, smartest, most capable people there are.'

'Some would even say... that women are good leaders... and we carry the wisdom of so many women before us,' she said.

Despite the inequalities women continue to face, Schumer said 'we are undoubtedly moving forward'.

She recounted the story of a production assistant who had been sexually harassed in the workplace - but didn't stay quiet about the behavior.

A crew member employed on a project Schumer had been working on was 'sexually harassed by an actor on set,' the actress recalled.

'And we've all been there. We've all been there. And felt shame and probably blamed ourselves, maybe let it tear us apart,' she said.

She stunned in a lilac dress with leg slit and a ruched detailing

Jerry Seinfeld's wife Jessica Seinfeld (L) and Alexandra Wentworth (R) were among the attendees

Schumer was presented with her award by Sascha Seinfeld, the daughter of Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld and a staff writer on her show Life & Beth

The funny girl rubbed elbows with Hollywood icon Glenn Close

Instead, Amy said the production assistant 'spoke up right away.'

'She told the appropriate people and she did what she needed to do to feel safe and to heal,' she said.

'And I called her to apologize and thank her for speaking up for the women who would come after her that she had saved. This isn't perfect, but this is progress. And many of you here, today, your work will help guide these women so when the time comes, they'll say, 'Oh I'm so sorry but not on my watch, motherf**ker.''

For her moment in the spotlight, Amy dazzled in a ruched lilac dress with thigh-high slit and her hair beautifully slicked back.
She quit her job as the host of Bravo's Top Chef after 17 years in the role.

And Padma Lakshmi didn't seem to have any regrets about her decision as she appeared to be in a joyful mood when stepping out in Manhattan on Friday.

The 53-year-old went for a 1970s inspired look in light blue denim jeans, brown heeled boots and a reddish brown leather handbag that matched her footwear.

She paired it with an orange leather motorcycle jacket and lovely light yellow blouse.

Padma couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she grinned for photographers and sipped from a takeaway coffee cup.

Padma Lakshmi went for a 1970s inspired look in light blue denim jeans, brown heeled boots and a reddish brown leather handbag that matched her footwear

She paired it with an orange leather jacket and lovely light yellow blouse

She was on her way to Gold House for an event celebrating AAPI month.

The former model, 53, stepped down from hosting the long-running competition show Top Chef in June 2023 after 17 years.

'It was really taking a toll on me physically to digest that much food in a day,' Lakshmi  who attended the Emmy Awards with her daughter Krishna  explained in the cover story for the April issue of Harper's Bazaar.

'I'm really proud of the legacy I helped build in all these countries around the world and for two generations of young people,' Lakshmi said.

'I didn't know what an amuse-bouche was, and for that reason I will always root for Top Chef,' she added.

'That's my family; Krishna grew up on that set. I like to think that I had something to do with the success, but it was time to move on.'

And now that she's 53, she's finding perimenopause to be one of the biggest challenges she's facing.

The former model, 53, stepped down from hosting the long-running competition show Top Chef in June 2023 after 17 years

Here she is seen on the balcony overlooking New York City at the Empire State Building

Lakshmi lights up the Empire State Building in gold together with Gold House in honor of Asian Pacific American heritage month

Padma smiled as she posed for photos behind the podium at the event

'Nobody tells you that about perimenopause,' she said. 'Your t*** get huge,' she said with a laugh, adding that her metabolism isn't what it used to be.

'I live in the f***ing gym,' she admitted.

The Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day author also addressed the myth of 'having it all' in the interview.

Between being a mom to her daughter Krishna, 14, whom she shares with ex-boyfriend Adam Dell, and her Top Chef duties, she couldn't find the time to parent, work and date for years.

'You can have it all, but you can't have it all at once,' she explained. 'I didn't have a lot of time for a social life. When was I going to find somebody I wanted to hang out with?'
Sharon Stone's son Roan has followed in her acting footsteps as the star shared a snap of him on set this week.

The Basic Instinct star, 66, shared a snap of a shirtless Roan posing for a selfie in his trailer as he got to work on the mystery project.

She wrote: 'ROAN JOSEPH STONE / DAY 1 on set. Welcome to the family biz kid, have fun.

In February Stone shared a rare snap of Roan to social media.

The actress was every inch the proud mother as she posted a snap of her shirtless son flashing his bold tattoos.

Sharon Stone's son Roan has followed in her acting footsteps as the star shared a snap of him on set this week

The Basic Instinct star, 66, shared a snap of a shirtless Roan posing for a selfie in his trailer as he got to work on the mystery project

'Proud of you @roanjosephstone. Well done,' she penned - without revealing what she was congratulating him on.

Roan shared a second photo on his own social media - a selfie from his bathroom.

The Casino actress adopted Roan with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein, 73 in 2000.

The star has two younger sons, whom she adopted after her divorce from Roan's dad.

She is a proud mom to Laird, 17, and Quinn, 16. She has reportedly made room in her family for Roan's best friend, and considers him as a fourth child.

Last week she cried about the icons she looked up to and how happy she is to be working with them.

In an interview with Alex Salmond for Turkish Tea Talk, Sharon got emotional as she said she loved the people she got to meet in her role as a global humanitarian.

The silver screen goddess teared up talking about being able to spend time with peacemakers she admired like Betty Helena Williams, a Welsh Labour politician.

The actress shares Roan with her ex-husband Phil Bronstein, 73 (Pictured in San Francisco in April 2002)

In February Stone shared a rare snap of Roan to social media. The actress was every inch the proud mother as she posted a snap of her shirtless son flashing his bold tattoos

'These people are so courageous... suddenly I was like I am in the right goddamn room, these are my people, I would stand in the street with these people, I would risk my life with these people, they get me and I get them,' said the star through her tears.

'It took 35 years but I am in the right room,' she said about working with her heroes.

'I never told people here in LA that I even went to get a Nobel Prize... I thought how can I tell people in the movie business that I won a Nobel prize?' she cried about the 2013 win.

Stone also touched on mental health and how so many people need help in her wide-ranging interview.

'We are all trying to confront our demons, including me,' she said, noting one in 10 people are suffering which was highlighted by COVID-19 lockdown when so many had to spend time alone.
Pamela Anderson looks set to dazzle in the first look released from her new film.

The actress, 56, who has signed on for the Naked Gun reboot, will star in her first leading role in several years in The Last Showgirl.

Director Giancarla (Gia) Coppola, 37 - whose grandfather is Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather fame - shared a snap of a pensive Anderson dressed in her glittering regalia on social media Friday with the Las Vegas strip in the background.

The former Baywatch star will play a Vegas performer who finds herself without a job when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.

As a dancer in her fifties, her character struggles with what to do next and tries to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, after years of focusing mostly on her showgirl family.

Pamela Anderson, 56, looks set to dazzle in the first look released from her new film, The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola, 37. The drama is on its way to France, where it will look for distributors at the Cannes Market

Jamie Lee Curtis, 65, who co-stars in the upcoming drama, shared the snap, writing, 'So excited for the world to see @pamelaanderson @davebautista @praisethelourd @kiernanshipka @brendasong in @giancarla.coppola @itskategersten THE LAST SHOWGIRL!'

The film already has already garnered international attention.

Paris-based sales and production company Good Fellas and US-based distributor and sales company Utopia are teaming up at Cannes to co-sell the film.

Deadline reported it was the first time the two powerhouse companies have done so.

'We are thrilled to kick off foreign sales for Gia Coppolas upcoming film, The Last Showgirl,' Goodfellas Head of Sales Eva Diederix and Utopia VP of Sales Marie Zeniter said in a joint statement to the outlet.

'This is exactly the type of title that distributors should be looking for: a compelling directorial voice, a stellar cast, and strong theatrical potential.'

Both executives praised Anderson's performance, adding, 'Combined with a captivating narrative, this film embodies the strength, resilience, and creativity of female voices in independent cinema.'

The script was written by Kate Gersten, known for her work on TV series such as The Good Place and Schmigadoon!

'Pamelas performance shows a very different side of her, adding depth to the iconic Las Vegas showgirl,' said executives from Good Fellas and Utopia who are selling the film at the Cannes Market later this month (Pictured in Paris in September 2023)

The Last Showgirl is Anderson's first film since 2022's Alone At Night; seen center in 2023 with her sons Brandon, left, and Dylan right

'Pamelas performance shows a very different side of her, adding depth to the iconic Las Vegas showgirl.'

'As we embark on this journey, we cant wait for audiences worldwide to experience the magic of this film.'

The film does not have a US distributor or release date yet.

The former Baywatch star was the focus of the Netflix documentary, Pamela: A Love Story, released by the streamer in 2023

That will, presumably, be taken care of pretty quickly at the Cannes Marketplace which runs concurrently with the film festival May 14-22.

The Last Showgirl is Anderson's first feature since 2022's Alone At Night.

She was also the focus of the Netflix documentary, Pamela: A Love Story, released by the streamer in 2023.

The leading lady shared the first look in her Instagram Stories, commenting with a heart and a film clapper emojis.
Fans may best know him as the clean-shaven and suited up Kendall Roy from Succession.

But Jeremy Strong was cutting a very different figure as he attended the 77th Annual Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Event in New York on Thursday.

The actor, 45, looked unrecognizable rocking a mustache and hipster ensemble as he hit the red carpet.

Strong has grown out his facial hair for his part in the Broadway revival An Enemy Of The People.

His role as role as small town doctor Thomas Stockmann has earned him a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.

Jeremy Strong was unrecognizable as he attended the 77th Annual Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Event in New York on Thursday

Jeremy's quirky look consisted of a brown felt hat, matching jacket and slacks, along with a silver chain necklace and trainers.

The actor was looking cool, calm and collected as he hit the red carpet ahead of the event.

Jeremy is up against Liev Schreiber, William Jackson Harper, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Michael Stuhlbarg for the coveted Tony award.

Ariana DeBose, who won an Oscar for Steven Spielberg's movie adaptation of the Broadway classic West Side Story, will host this year's Tonys on June 16.

Some of the highest-profile categories were announced Tuesday on CBS, read out by Renee Elise Goldsberry and Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

The rest of the nominations were unveiled later the same day, via the official YouTube page for the Tony Awards.

One of the nominees for best musical is Hell's Kitchen, a jukebox musical featuring songs by Alicia and loosely based on her life.

Hell's Kitchen was the most nominated musical, with 13 nods - a feat equaled this year only by the straight play Stereophonic about a 1970s rock band.

He's known for his clean-shaven appearance on Succession

The facial hair was for his role in the Broadway revival of An Enemy Of The People

He looked cool, calm and collected

Strong received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

The other best musical nominees include Suffs, a show about the suffragettes that has Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai among its producers.

Illinoise, a jukebox musical of Sufjan Stevens' work, and The Outsider, based on the classic young adult novel of the same name, are also up for the top prize.

The best musical nominations were rounded out by Water For Elephants, an adaptation of the bestselling novel that was previously made into a movie starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.

Notable snubs for best musical included the Britney Spears show Once Upon A One More Time, the as well as the adaptations of the classic movies Back To The Future, The Notebook and Days Of Wine And Roses.

He plays small town doctor Thomas Stockmann

Rachel McAdams was nominated for best lead actress in a play in honor of her work in Mary Jane, starring her as the mother of a son with cerebral palsy.

She is up against Sarah Paulson for Appropriate, a dark comedy about three siblings feuding over their father's estate after his death.

Jessica Lange is up for Mother Play, playing the mother of teens portrayed by Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger and The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons.

The category includes Betsy Aidem in Prayer For The French Republic, a dark comedy by Joshua Harmon about mounting antisemitism in France.

Rachel's category is rounded out by Amy Ryan for the lead role in John Patrick Shanley's classic drama Doubt: A Parable, which was made into an acclaimed movie starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis.
Tiffany Haddish has revealed the extreme lengths she goes to track down internet trolls and confront them after receiving hoards of death threats and negative comments online.

To combat online harassment, the 44-year-old comedian hired a digital forensics analyst to research where the threats were coming from - and even admitted to calling her haters up on the phone and addressing them one-on-one.

'Oh, I have called people, honey,' she told The Los Angeles Times.

'They be shocked that I called. They'll be like, 'I can't believe you even saw that.''

'You did a whole video, b! You made a full, five-minute video! On the internet, people think they can just say whatever and you not gonna say anything. I try my best not to, but I'm a human being,' she said.

She was, however, pleasantly surprised to find out 75 percent of these comments were created by robots in Malaysia and Iran, she said.

Hadish, 44, hired a digital forensics analyst to find where the threats are from. She even admitted to calling her haters up on the phone and addressing them

Since the LA Times feature was published, Haddish has received even more hate, 'P*do & not funny ... now all I gotta do is wait for @tiffanyhaddish to find me,' one commented

She also admitted to creating fake social media accounts, using the alter ego 'Sara,' who promised to 'destroy' anyone hating on her by exposing details about their personal lives.

'I've learned how to find people's information  like I pull up the credit report, police records. You can do that for $1.99,' Haddish told the LA Times. 'Sometimes, I get so mad that I'll get they phone number and I'll just call them.'

This comes after the 'Girls Trip' star faces increasingly negative comments online which led her to block users from commenting certain words and phrases on her Instagram, including 'pedo' and 'not funny.'

This comes after the 'Girls Trip' star faces increasingly negative comments online which led her to block users from commenting certain words and phrases on her Instagram. She also created fake social media accounts, using the alter ego 'Sara'

Haddish has also experienced a surge in anti-Semitic comments following a recent trip to Israel to explore her Jewish roots.

Since October 7, Haddish has been a vocal advocate against anti-Semitism and has proudly stood for her Jewish identity.

Additionally, since starring in the new film 'Girls Trip,' other actors reportedly became jealous seeing her career flourish.

'Then the jealousy started with other actors and stuff. They're like, "How is she winning?" Everybody was cheering her on for being herself, and then that's the same thing that people got mad about. "She's doing too much!" But she's been doing too much.'

Haddish has also experienced a surge in anti-Semitic comments following a recent trip to Israel to explore her Jewish roots

Since the LA Times feature was published, Haddish has received even more hate, 'P*do & not funny ... now all I gotta do is wait for @tiffanyhaddish to find me,' one commented.

Last week, Haddish was promoting her upcoming book I Curse You With Joy when she admitted to having a burner social media account.

As she was promoting her new book at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, she spoke about how people like to talk about her on the internet, saying she, 'made me a fake page and now I'm talking s**t.'

Haddish added, 'Why is this lady attacking me?' You talk about what goes around comes around, don't worry.'

When asked if she has a 'Finsta,' meaning a fake Instagram, Haddish acknowledged, 'I don't know about fake Instagram, but I definitely got fake Twitter. I mean a fake X, a fake X.'

She didn't divulge into further details about her fake X/Twitter account, or how long she's had it for.

This also comes after she opened up about her November 2023 DUI arrest, revealing to People she's been both celibate and sober since.

'I'm very sober. I haven't had a drink since. When I sit back and look at my life, everything that's crazy that's happened is because somebody or myself had alcohol in their system,' she admitted.

'This is my challenge to people. Stop drinking for six months and just see how your life changes,' she said.

'You're going to have your snatched body back, you're going to see your relationships will be better and you'll stop dealing with people you don't need to be dealing with. My issue was, I was waking up next to ugly men,' she admitted.

She added that becoming both sober and celibate, 'went together,' stating, 'With alcohol [my mind] would just be like 'You're horny, let's just do it.''
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Abbie Cornish has been spotted for the first time in character as the late Anna Nicole Smith on the Toronto set of the movie Trust Me, I'm A Doctor.

The film is based on a memoir of the same name by Anna Nicole's pain medication doctor Sandeep Kapoor, played by Kal Penn.

After Anna Nicole died of an overdose at age 39 in 2007, Sandeep was implicated in her wrongful death trial, but he was ultimately acquitted of all six counts against him.

This week Abbie was spotted on the set of Trust Me, I'm A Doctor, vanishing completely into the role of the tragic model.

She was decked out an uncanny replica of the outfit Anna Nicole wore to the Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood in 2005, which she attended with the physician.

Abbie Cornish (left) was seen for the first time in character as the late Anna Nicole Smith (right in 2005) on the Toronto set of the movie Trust Me, I'm A Doctor

Anna Nicole and Howard K Stern, right, pictured at the 2005 Pride Parade in Los Angeles

Anna Nicole rose to fame in the 1990s, becoming the face of Guess in 1992 and being named Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993.

She turbo-charged her notoriety by marrying the geriatric billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994 - just 14 months before his death when he was 89 and she 26.

Over the next decade she remained a constant tabloid figure for her tempestuous personal life, which was buffeted by her addictions.

Anna Nicole succumbed to an accidental overdose in 2007 when she was only 39, leaving behind a five-month-old daughter called Dannielynn.

While on the set of Trust Me, I'm A Doctor movie this week, Abbie could be seen between takes holding hands with a mystery man, who at one point was also glimpsed warmly embracing her from behind.

For her Anna Nicole look, Abbie slid into a gleaming silver dress with dangerously high slits up the side that allowed her to show off her legs to full advantage.

The Sucker Punch star brought the ensemble together with a tangle of beaded necklaces, in a touch reminiscent of the real Anna Nicole, had on blue eye makeup.

Abbie balanced on a pair of silver ankle-strap heels that gleamed in the sunlight and amplified the leggy impact of her flesh-flashing dress.

Kal was also spotted on set that day, wearing a t-shirt that read: 'Trust Me, I'm A Doctor' with a pair of cargo trousers.

The film is based on a memoir of the same name by Anna Nicole's pain medication doctor Sandeep Kapoor, played by Kal Penn, who is pictured on set the same day

Kal (pictured left) told Variety that he had been attempting to 'spend as much time' with Sandeep (pictured right at his 2009 arraignment) as possible to prepare for the role

The film's cast includes Linda Hamilton as Ellyn Garafalo, the lawyer who helped Sandeep secure his acquittal in the Anna Nicole case.

Sandeep, who is gay himself, attended the 2005 Pride Parade with Anna Nicole in 2005, explaining why the moment is included in the film.

His diaries were confiscated after Anna Nicole's overdose as evidence in the wrongful death trial, and multiple passages leaked out into the public.

After Anna Nicole died of an overdose at age 39, Sandeep was implicated in her wrongful death trial, but he was ultimately acquitted of all six counts against him

IIn between takes, Abbie could be seen holding hands with a mystery man

The man at one point was also glimpsed warmly embracing her from behind

For her Anna Nicole look, Abbie slid into a gleaming silver dress with dangerously high slits up the side that allowed her to show off her legs to full advantage

Abbie balanced on a pair of silver ankle-strap heels that gleamed in the sunlight and amplified the leggy impact of her flesh-flashing dress

Kal was also spotted on set that day, wearing a t-shirt that read: 'Trust Me, I'm A Doctor' with a pair of cargo trousers

Abbie's castmates include Linda Hamilton as Ellyn Garafalo, the lawyer who helped Sandeep secure his acquittal in the Anna Nicole case

One of them involved the parade, which Sandeep described as 'mesmerizing, watching the crowd wave at us, Anna and me all buffed out on the car'

One of them involved the parade, which Sandeep described as 'mesmerizing, watching the crowd wave at us, Anna and me all buffed out on the car.'

They then attended an afterparty where he found himself 'making out with Anna, my patient, blurring the lines. I gave her Valium and Methodone. Can she ruin me?'

Following the 2005 parade, Sandeep and Anna Nicole attended an afterparty where he found himself 'making out with Anna, my patient, blurring the lines'

Anna Nicole rose to fame in the 1990s, becoming the face of Guess in 1992 and being named Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993

Over the next decade she remained a constant tabloid figure for her tempestuous personal life, which was buffeted by her addictions

Anna Nicole succumbed to an accidental overdose in 2007 when she was only 39, leaving behind a five-month-old daughter called Dannielynn; pictured in 2005

She turbo-charged her notoriety by marrying the geriatric billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994; she is pictured flashing his ring at a trade show in Las Vegas

After her death, Sandeep, along with Anna Nicole's boyfriend Howard K. Stern and psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, found themselves in court.

He was brought up on charges including prescribing drugs to an addict, but although the other two defendants were convicted, Sandeep was acquitted.

In 2017 he published his memoir Trust Me, I'm A Doctor: My Life Before, During And After Anna Nicole Smith, which is the basis for the upcoming movie.

Kal has described the movie as a 'drama' that is 'equal parts ridiculous' thanks to the media frenzy around Anna Nicole and the 'larger than life personalities' in her orbit.

He told Variety that he had been attempting to 'spend as much time' with Sandeep as possible in order to prepare for the role.
Kylie Jenner enjoyed a walk down memory lane as she prepared for Monday's Met Gala.

The 25-year-old, who has been subjected to some wild rumors over her relationship with Timothee Chalamet, 28, shared details of her stunning red and blue gown from last year's fashion extravaganza.

'Oh how time flies,' she wrote next to the carousel of snaps on social media Friday.

The 2023 theme for the Met Gala was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty in tribute to the late designer who died in 2019 at the age of 85.

In accordance with that, the reality star donned a stunning red gown.

Kylie Jenner, 25, enjoyed a walk down memory lane as she prepared for next week's Met Gala by taking a look back at her 2023 gown on social media

The curve clinging frock featured an asymmetrical neckline and a high-slit, with coordinated red pumps.

In her pictorial, The Kardashians star shared some of the intricate details of the dress which featured an ice blue satin lining and a long train that could be picked up and used as a cloak.

She credited Haider Ackermann with creating the look for Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture.

Memories from the evening include the model, in full hair and makeup, holding a slice of New York pizza while laden with multi carat diamond rings.

The mother of two, who shares Stormi, six, and Aire, two, with former partner Travis Scott, captured hearts when she shared a photo as she and her denim clad daughter walked past a group of photographers ready to capture looks from the high fashion evening.

Another picture shows the youngster with a camera of her own acting as a shutterbug.

'Stormi with the camera is priceless,' commented one fan.

The theme for the May 6, 2024 Met Gala is Sleeping Beauties with a dress code of Garden in Time.

Memories from the evening include the model, in full hair and makeup holding a slice of New York pizza while laden with multi carat diamond rings

The curve clinging frock featured an asymmetrical neckline and a high-slit, and was lined with ice blue satin and included a train that could double as a cloak. She credited Haider Ackermann with creating the look for Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture

Many of her followers are anxious to see what the Kylie Cosmetics founder will wear on the red carpet.

'Veryyy excited to see your 2024 met gala outfit ,' wrote one fan.

'Cant wait to see your look of this year!!!,' echoed another.

The fashionista has been praised for her haute couture looks since she made her Met Gala debut in 2016.

The reality star captured hearts with this photos as she and daughter Stormi, six, walked past a group of photographers ready to capture looks from the high fashion evening

Another picture shows the youngster with a camera of her own acting as a shutterbug. 'Stormi with the camera is priceless,' commented one fan

And this year, fans are curious if she will arrive solo or make her debut as a couple with Chalamet.

The entrepreneur has followed her older sister Kendall, 28, founder of 818 Tequila, into the libations business.

In April, she launched her own drink, Sprinter Vodka Soda.

The 100 calorie drinks come in Grapefruit, Lime, Peach and Blackberry flavors, and according to the company are made with real fruit juice and no added sugar.
Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page has revealed her excitement after it was confirmed the iconic BBC sitcom would return for one final episode this Christmas, nearly five years after the last episode aired in 2019.

However the actress, 47, who plays Stacey in the show, admitted she hadn't yet read the script and has no idea what happens to the beloved characters.

After a five-year wait for fans the show's creators James Corden and Ruth Jones announced the joyous news on Friday, revealing they'd teamed up in secret to write the 'last ever' episode.

The critically acclaimed series follows the lives of titular characters Gavin from Essex and Stacey from South Wales, documenting key points in their long-distance relationship and events that bring the two families together.

Speaking during a special of her Off the Telly Podcast she told co-host Natalie Cassidy: 'I'm so excited to see the gang again and start filming, and I can't wait to find out if Smithy has said yes.

Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page, 47, has revealed her excitement after it was confirmed the iconic BBC sitcom would return for one final episode this Christmas , nearly five years after the last episode aired in 2019

However the actress, who plays Stacey in the show, admitted she hadn't yet read the script and has no idea what happens to the beloved characters (L-R) James Corden, Joanna, Matthew Horne and Ruth Jones pictured during the show's 2019 Christmas Special

'I can't wait to find out what's happening to everybody!'

Before laughing: 'I'm going to have to keep that script away from your [Natalie's] little paws but yeah we are going to be able to review it on our show at Christmas and I will be very cross if you aren't sitting down on Christmas Day watching me!'.

Joanna also shared a statement with ITV's Loose Women that read: 'I'm very excited for the return of the Gavin and Stacey and can't wait to come back on and tell you all about it'.

The surprise announcement was been praised as the 'best news ever' by overjoyed fans of the series.

Taking to Instagram, creators James and Ruth shared a black and white photo of themselves holding up the script.

Alongside the post, they wrote: 'Some news... It's official! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey. See you on Christmas Day, BBC One. Love Ruth and James!'.

Fans expressed their joy at the news under James and Ruth's post. Among those sharing their delight was Rio Ferdinand who wrote: 'I'm clearing the diary.'

Other celebrities including Gordon Ramsay, John Bishop, Ferne Cotton and Amanda Holden all shared their delight.

Speaking during a special of her Off the Telly Podcast she told co-host Natalie Cassidy : 'I'm so excited to see the gang again and start filming, and I can't wait to find out if Smithy has said yes'

After a five-year wait for fans the show's creators James Corden and Ruth Jones announced the joyous news on Friday, revealing they'd teamed up in secret to write the 'last ever' episode

The pair wrote: 'Some news... It's official! We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey'

Matthew Horne, who portrays Gavin, seemed excited for the reunion as he reshared the snap of Ruth and James holding up the new script, he wrote: 'Happy Christmas'.

Others wrote: 'This has made my whole year'... 'Yes roll on Christmas, been waiting a very long time for this'... 'Stepping into Christmas 2024! Yay!'

One fan demanded the final episode be 'five hours long' to make up for the length of time it's been since the last special.

Several fans said they finally wanted to know what happened on character Bryn's notorious fishing trip with his nephew Jason which they both refuse to speak about, a long-running joke on the series.

It was previously reported that a new episode of Gavin And Stacey was in the works but Ruth Jones denied it.

Reports circulated online claiming the cast was set to film a new episode over the summer with the plan to air it at Christmas, five years on from a dramatic cliffhanger.

US outlet Deadline reported that the new special was in development/pre-production stages currently and that it will be produced by Steve Coogan's Baby Cow, Jones' Tidy Productions and Fulwell 73, which is co-owned by Corden.

The critically acclaimed series follows the lives of the two titular characters Gavin from Essex and Stacey from South Wales, documenting key points in their long-distance relationship and events that bring the two families together

It was previously reported that a new episode of Gavin And Stacey was in the works but Ruth Jones denied it, saying: 'It's sadly a rumour'

But Ruth insisted the speculation was 'sadly a rumour' during an interview on Irish station RTE Radio 1.

Asked about the reports, she said: 'Apparently there's a bidding war going on between the BBC and Netflix and I love it because it says 'a source says', who is this source?'

Ruth added: 'It's sadly a rumour... All I can say is, if there was something to say on that front, James and I would happily announce it, we would.'

The actress said she thought the rumours were sparked after she was photographed having lunch with Corden a few months back after he returned to the UK from living in America.

'Then the next thing is 'Oh my god they must be writing more Gavin And Stacey', which is lovely,' she said.

'It's lovely that people are so desperate for it because imagine if it was the opposite and were like 'Oh, god, you're not bringing that back again'
Clodagh McKeena shared an exhausted selfie and revealed she was in her local pub with a 'cocktail in hand' after being heckled by Jimmy Carr during Friday's This Morning.

The TV chef, 48, found her segment continuously interrupted by the comedian, 51, as furious fans branded his behaviour 'rude' and praised the cook for keeping her composure.

Following the tense exchange Clodagh shared a snap alongside hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary thought noticeably without Jimmy.

One follower commented: 'I bet you need a rest I hope you have one', as Clodagh replied: 'Currently with a cocktail in hand in our pub'.

During her cooking demonstration the chef had tended to a chicken carcass as she recommended viewers to set in a saucepan, as she introduced three ways of cooking one single chicken, Jimmy interjected: 'What? Have you not got a bin?'

Clodagh McKeena shared an exhausted selfie and revealed she was in her local pub with a 'cocktail in hand' after being heckled by Jimmy Carr during Friday's This Morning (pictured with hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary)

Following the tense exchange one follower commented: 'I bet you need a rest I hope you have one', as Clodagh replied: 'Currently with a cocktail in hand in our pub'.

'Pop it in the bin! It's gone, the chicken is gone', he insisted, speaking over Clodagh.

Jimmy proceeded to mock the chef and talk over her as she boasted the flavour of a chicken broth she'd made, he jibed: 'Wait until she finds out about stock cubes!'

After she had finished cooking, Jimmy joined Alison and Dermot as they tasted the vegetable and chicken dish but the comedian took his quips to another level as he criticised Clodagh's dish by suggesting it lacked chicken.

Clodagh put on a polite grin following the comment as Dermot wrapped an arm around the TV chef to comfort her and said: 'It's hard work when your being heckled by one of the UK's comedian'.

Fans quickly took to the comments of her Instagram post to say she was 'amazing' despite the 'rude interference' throughout her segment.

'Well done on biting your tongue with the rudeness of Jimmy Carr and the hosts clearly were mortified.'

'You were amazing Clodagh under extreme interference!!!'

'Jimmy Carr was incredibly rude to you and Dermot and Alison clearly felt awkward. Its such a shame that the producers didnt get them to remove him from there or at least point out he was being rude and ruining your item.'

The TV chef, 48, found her segment continuously interrupted by the comedian, 51, as furious fans branded his behaviour 'rude' and praised her for keeping her composure

Smiling Clodagh kept her composure as she tried to get on with her segment but Jimmy's interruptions continued, 'Pop it in the bin! It's gone, the chicken is gone', he insisted

Jimmy proceeded to mock the chef and talk over her as she boasted the flavour of a chicken broth she'd made, he said: 'Wait until she finds out about stock cubes!'

Fans quickly took to the comments to say Clodagh was 'amazing' despite the 'rude interference' throughout her segment

'Jimmy Carr was funny wasnt he?NOT!'

'Felt so sorry for you, Jimmy Carr was just rude and not at all funny.'

'Jimmy Carr was so rude to you C, you were fab thank you so much'.

It is not the first time Jimmy has come under fire. Last year the comedian was branded 'painfully unfunny' by viewers after he shared a selection of his controversial jokes from his Netflix show to plug his US tour.

The comedian, took to X - formerly known as Twitter - over the weekend to share a reel of 'the time I tried to tell a 9/11 joke to a room full of Americans' ahead of his tour in the states, Terribly Funny.

In the clip, Jimmy compared the 2001 New York terror attacks which saw nearly 3,000 people lose their lives to the moment Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015.

He said in the show, A Netflix Is A Joke Festival: 'What I'm saying onstage tonight is barely acceptable now. In ten years' time, f**king forget about it.

'Now you might think this is silly, but its absolutely true. When Zayn left One Direction, for me, it was like 9/11  I didnt care about that either.

It is not the first time Jimmy has come under fire. Last year the comedian was branded 'painfully unfunny' by viewers

'I was actually supposed to be on one of the planes on 9/11, but the more interesting story is how I met Osama.

'I can see there's a real generational divide. Some people are looking at me like, "9/11 steady on" and other people are looking at me like "don't take their name in vain".'

Other jokes in the three minute clip included asking if anyone was in a controlling relationship and one-liners about paying for sex.

But the jokes fell flat for those watching the clip too with viewers branding the segment 'cringe' and trying 'too hard to be edgy'.

One wrote: 'God that was so bad,' and 'He fell off so bad, what is this'.

'The joke were so bad', said another. 'These were so cringe'.

'This is like if an edgy 14 year old reditter tried standup' and 'a lot of these jokes are him trying so hard to be edgy that it becomes unfunny.'

The joked sparked controversy when the Netflix show aired back in 2021.
MailOnline reported in February that Gavin And Stacey was at the centre of a battle between BBC and Netflix over rights to the sitcom's return festive special.

However, on Friday, James revealed on Instagram that the 2024 Christmas special will air on BBC One with a black and white snap.

James shared a selfie of himself and Gavin And Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones holding up the special's script which read 'Gavin and Stacey: the finale written by James Corden and Ruth Jones 2024'.

The former late-night talk show host, 45, captioned the much-anticipated post: 'Some news Its official!!!

'We have finished writing the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey. See you on Christmas Day, BBC One. Love Ruth and James .'

MailOnline reported in February that Gavin And Stacey was at the centre of a battle between BBC and Netflix over rights to the sitcom's return festive special (pictured: 2019 special)

However, on Friday, James revealed on Instagram that the 2024 Christmas special will air on BBC One with a black and white snap

Fans went wild at the news, and the post now sits at almost 700,000 likes in the 13 hours its been up.

But why did James Corden and Ruth Jones turn down Netflix's no-doubt extremely lucrative deal?

A source told The Sun: 'They held conversations with Netflix who threw everything at them to land what is seen as a gem of British comedy.

'James, Ruth and the team were effectively offered a multi-million pound one-off deal, and were promised it would open the show up to a whole new international audience.

'Obviously it was tempting, but they felt Gavin and Stacey belonged to the BBC  and the nation, really. The optics wouldnt have been great had they sold out so they went with their hearts, not the cash.'

The source finished by saying James and Ruth are happy with their decision.

Amanda Holden led the celebrity reactions to the news, simply writing under Friday's post 'wtf'.

It comes after Ruth insisted back in February that the news of a reunion was 'sadly a rumour'.

Later that same month, Joanna Page, who plays Stacey, solemnly vowed: 'I don't know anything at all'.

Happily brushing off the cast's deceit, fans cannot wait to split their time once more between Essex and Barry.

James and Ruth created the sitcom in the noughties and, despite its cultural impact, it has aired just 21 episodes since its 2007 debut

James, Ruth and the team were 'effectively offered' a multi-million pound one-off deal, promising to open the show up to a whole new international audience, but turned it down

Previously, the series returned for a Christmas Special back in 2019, but ended on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger when Nessa - played by Ruth - got down on one knee and proposed to her on/off flame Smithy - played by James.

Elsewhere during the special fans were left more desperate than ever to find out what really happened on the infamous fishing trip.

After years of not knowing what occurred it appeared Uncle Bryn was ready to reveal what led to him and Jason falling out on the trip during the festive family gathering .

The pair were gifted with a photo of themselves together which, unbeknownst to Gwen (Melanie Walters) who gave them the present, was taken on the fishing trip.

Bryn (Rob Brydon) and Jason (Robert Wilfort) both immediately fell silent as the mysterious events of the trip came back to them.

The fishing trip has been a running gag throughout the series and was the cause of Bryn and Jason's long-standing troubled relationship in the early episodes.

Fans thought they were finally going to get an answer to what really happened on the trip when Bryn stood up to get it off his chest, but he was interrupted by Gavin and Stacey's children running into the room.

The fishing trip has never properly been spoken off causing fans to brand the cliffhanger as the 'best unsolved mystery of all time'.

Fans have long hoped James' decision to move back to the UK following his eight-year stint hosting The Late Late Show in the US will increase the chances of making another episode.

And after James was spotted meeting co-creator Ruth in London's Soho in November 2023, speculation went into overdrive.
Student loan forgiveness for public sector workers including teachers, nurses and firefighters is paused temporarily as the Department of Education revamps the program.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program will move from being serviced solely by company Mohela, and will instead be managed in-house by Federal Student Aid.

The PSLF program, which was created in 2007, writes off the remaining balance of borrowers who work in public sector or government jobs after 10 years of eligible repayment.

Moving providers is expected to last through July, and impact around 2 million borrowers enrolled in the program.

This means some borrowers may experience delays in their debt being cancelled, and will have to wait until after the pause.

Student loan forgiveness for public sector workers including teachers, nurses and firefighters will be temporarily paused from May 1

It comes as servicer Mohela (The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority) also quietly announced that it will no longer be managing over a million separate borrower accounts, which will be moved to other federal servicers.

Mohela is one of the nation's largest student loan servicers, and became the sole servicer of PSLF in July 2022, but has been widely criticized for its management of the program.

The transition is part of a larger revamp of the federal student loan system in order to streamline the processing of debts and improve the service for borrowers.

The change will also apply to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program, which will also be managed directly through Federal Student Aid.

'From May 1 through July, borrowers will not be able to see their PSLF payment counts on MOHELA's website, and any forms submitted for PSLF will not be reviewed,' the Department of Education wrote in a statement.

Borrowers will still be expected to make monthly payments during the pause.

They can still submit PSLF forms to apply for forgiveness or certify employment, which will be reviewed once the transition is complete.

If they reach their 120th qualifying payment, which means they are able to apply for relief, they will have to wait for their debt to be cancelled.

'Borrowers who qualify for forgiveness during the pause can request a forbearance from their servicer and any additional payments made will be refunded to the borrower or applied to their other outstanding federal student loan debt,' the Department said.

Once the transition is complete, the loans will still be held by a student loan servicer, but Federal Student Aid will manage the program.

They will be able to track the progress of repayment counts through the Federal Student Aid website.

Borrowers will also be able to call the Department of Education's contact center directly if they have questions about the status of their debts, in a bid to improve customer service and speed up processing times.

Since 2022, Mohela has been the sole servicer of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which has been a key focus of the Biden administration's recent forgiveness initiatives

The PSLF program has long been criticized for poor communication between the Education Department, loan servicers and borrowers - and errors keeping track of payment counts.

Workers frequently found that all or some of their payments did not count because they were enrolled in a plan not covered by the initiative.

The Biden administration has broadened the eligibility of the program, cancelling around $62.8 billion in debt for 876,000 borrowers to date.

Overall, the administration has approved almost $160 billion in forgiveness after announcing a further $6 billion in debt cancellation Wednesday.

Mohela has also faced widespread criticism of its handling of the program.

In March, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called on chief executive Scott Giles to testify before Congress amid reports of 'widespread servicing failures' impacting 'at least 40 percent of its borrowers.'

In March the Massachusetts Senator invited Scott Giles, the chief executive of servicer Mohela, to testify before the Senate banking committee

Deborah Soto thought she had paid off all the student loans for her daughter Elena (middle) before the end of the pandemic-era interest pause in September last year, but was shocked to find that another loan totaling $16,947 had suddenly appeared in her account

DailyMail.com asked its readers to get in touch if they had been left frustrated by the service they had received from the servicer - and received scores of responses from graduates concerned about their loans.

Some were left baffled by the monthly repayment amount they had been given, others had seen their loan forgiveness delayed, while others had outstanding debts they believed they should not have to pay off.

And many of them complained about a practically non-existent customer service which left them waiting hours on the phone with no answers.

Mohela was also the first federal servicer to be penalized for servicing failures after the return of loan repayments for borrowers in October last year.

The Education Department withheld over $7 million in pay from the company in October 2023 after it failed to send timely billing statements to 2.5 million borrowers.

The error meant more than 800,000 borrowers were delinquent on their loans.
Candy went viral on TikTok but online reviews are mixed

Restriction only applies to online sales, the retail chain has confirmed

Walgreens has been forced to limit sales of its own-brand 'peelable' candy after it went viral on TikTok.

Customers are now only able to purchase just one bag of Gummy Mango peelable candy when they shop online, the retail chain has confirmed.

The candy is part of Walgreens' Nice! brand and retails for $1.99 both in-store and online. There is also a pineapple flavor of the treat.

It comes after content creator Trinh Carreon shared a video about the peelable sweets in January - which amassed 8.9 million views and thousands of comments.

Marty Esarte, vice president of Walgreens' own-brands, told USA Today: 'We're really excited about the popularity of Nice! Mango Gummy Candy.

Content creator Trinh Carreon shared a video about the peelable sweets in January - which amassed 8.9 million views and thousands of comments.

'Because of the success of the item, we're currently expanding inventory of our mango item to 8,000 stores on May 22.'

The candy was first released last fall to 2,500 stores. After Carreon's review went viral in January, it sold out in days nationwide.

Carreon, from the Bay Area, has 1.4 million followers and regularly reviews food on her profile.

She awarded the Gummy Mango sweets eight out of 10 stars, adding: 'This is so fun. This is so fun to eat.'

One viewer who claimed to be a Walgreens employee commented: 'The amount of people coming in asking for these is crazy.'

Another comment read: 'I can't find it at my Walgreens.'

A third said: 'I can't find them anywhere and not even for shipping. I checked all Walgreens near me and none are available.'

However, not everybody appears convinced. On the Walgreens website, the product has an average review rating of just 2.8 stars out of five.

Walgreens has been forced to limit sales of its own-brand candy after it went viral on TikTok

One said: 'Taste like chemicals it's so bad. Do not buy.'

Another wrote: 'I was excited when I saw them on the shelf at the Walgreens I work at. I picked up a couple bags because everyone wanted to try them.

'It was a HUGE WASTE OF MONEY! They say that you can peel them... well they are super sticky and make a mess trying.

'They smell like mango but don't taste like them at all. They are super gross.'
Assyriologist Solves Archaeological Mystery From 700 BC

Late 19th century drawings of the eagle and bull symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. ( New York Public Library) Ancient symbols on a 2,700-year-old temple which have baffled experts for over a century have been explained by Trinity Assyriologist Dr Martin Worthington.

The sequence of 'mystery symbols' were on view on temples at various locations in ancient city of Dur-Sarrukin, present day Khorsabad, Iraq, which was ruled by Sargon II, king of Assyria (721-704 BC).

The sequence of five symbols -- a lion, eagle, bull, fig-tree and plough -- were first made known to the modern world through drawings published by French excavators in the late nineteenth century. Since then, there has been a spate of ideas about what the symbols might mean.

They have been compared to Egyptian hieroglyphs, understood as reflections of imperial might, and suspected to represent the king's name -- but how?

Dr Martin Worthington of Trinity's School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies has proposed a new solution in a paper published this month [April 26th] in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. He argues the Assyrian words for the five symbols (lion, eagle, bull, fig-tree and plough) contain, in the right sequence, the sounds that spell out the Assyrian form of the name 'Sargon' (sarginu):

Sometimes, the same archaeological site uses only three of the symbols (lion, tree, plough), which Dr Worthington argues again write the name 'Sargon', following similar principles.

Dr Worthington commented: "The study of ancient languages and cultures is full of puzzles of all shapes and sizes, but it's not often in the Ancient Near East that one faces mystery symbols on a temple wall."

What is more, according to Dr Worthington, each of the five symbols can also be understood as a constellation. Thus, the lion represents Leo, and the eagle Aquila (our own constellations are largely inherited from Mesopotamia, via the Greeks, so many of them are the same). The fig-tree stands in for the hard-to-illustrate constellation 'the Jaw' (which we don't have today), on the basis that isu 'tree' sounds similar to isu'jaw'.

Late 19th century drawings of the tree and plough symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. ( New York Public Library)

"The effect of the five symbols, was to place Sargon's name in the heavens, for all eternity -- a clever way to make the king's name immortal. And, of course, the idea of bombastic individuals writing their name on buildings is not unique to ancient Assyria..."

Ancient Mesopotamia, or modern Iraq and neighbouring regions, was home to Babylonians, Assyrians, Sumerians, and others, and is today being researched from cuneiform writings, which survive in abundance. Indeed, writing was probably invented there around 3400 BC. So, though Sargon's scholars would not have been aware of this, in devising new written symbols they were echoing Mesopotamian history from over a thousand years before.

Late 19th century drawings of the lion symbol published by French excavator Victor Place. ( New York Public Library)

Dr Worthington explained: "I can't prove my theory, but the fact it works for both the five-symbol sequence and the three-symbol sequence, and that the symbols can also be understood as culturally appropriate constellations, strikes me as highly suggestive. The odd against it all being happenstance are -- forgive the pun -- astronomical".

Dr Worthington specialises in the languages and civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia, including those of the Babylonians, Assyrians and Sumerians.

"This region of the world, which includes present-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Turkey and Syria, is often referred to as the "cradle of civilisation". It is where cities and empires were born, and its story is a huge part of human history. It is because of the Mesopotamian habit of counting in sixties that today we have 60 minutes in an hour, and Abraham (a central figure in three of the world's major religions) is said to have come from the Mesopotamian city of Ur. "Solving puzzles (or trying to) is an especially fun bit", says Dr Worthington, "but Mesopotamian studies at large have the grander aim of understanding the complexity and diversity of a huge part of human societies and cultural achievements".
The Czech Foreign Ministry said on Friday (May 3) that the country had been the target of several cyberattacks orchestrated by a group linked to the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

Some Czech institutions have been the target of cyberattacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. Referring to the modus operandi and objectives of these attacks, the Czech ministry points to the Russian group APT 28, also known by the nickname Fancy Bear. Prague, part of the European Union and NATO, has provided substantial military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the Russian attack on that country began in February 2022.

According to Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, the countrys infrastructure has seen several dozen such attacks. These attacks were orchestrated by the Russian Federation and its GRU intelligence service, he accused. The Czech Republic is a target and is perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy country, he added. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky added to Agence France-Presse that publicly pointing the finger at a specific attacker is important to protect national interests.

Germany also targeted

In parallel with these accusations made by the Czech government, Germany  whose Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, was in Prague on Friday  also implicated Moscow and the APT 28 group in an attack which notably targeted, last year, e-mail addresses of officials of the SDP, the social-democratic party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. A joint investigation with the authorities of the Czech Republic brought the actions to light. The German government announced in the morning the summoning of the charge daffaires of the Russian embassy, ??a clear diplomatic signal () to make it clear to the Russian government that we do not accept these actions.

The member countries of the European Union (EU) strongly condemn this campaign of cyberattacks, said the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell on behalf of the Twenty-Seven. Having already imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT 28 group in 2020, the EU is committed to using a range of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russias malicious behavior in cyberspace, a statement said. he added.

Earlier this week, Czech police said they had to close an investigation into two explosions at a munitions depot in the east of the country in 2014, accusing the GRU of orchestrating them. According to her, Russia refused to cooperate in the investigation into these explosions, which caused the death of two local employees. A Czech intelligence report on this affair caused mass expulsions of diplomats from both sides in 2021.

Last March, Czech intelligence said it had uncovered a network financed by Moscow to spread propaganda favorable to Russia in Europe, particularly targeting the European Parliament before the European elections in June. The group used the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread information aimed at dissuading the EU from sending aid to Ukraine. The Belgian public prosecutors office announced on April 11 that it had opened an investigation following these revelations.
In an era marked by geopolitical upheavals and regional conflicts, the spectre of terror looms large, transcending borders and threatening stability on a global scale

At a time when the world political landscape is dealing with a number of regional conflicts such as Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, skirmishes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, trans-national terrorism has hogged the limelight world over during the last few years. Similarly at the domestic level terror organisations from across the border have unleashed a wave of terror in Kashmir to attract attention from the media to upturn the diminishing morale of the mercenaries. Seen in this recent perspective are the latest sinister designs of the terror forces in different parts of the world whether in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Red Sea, Israel, Palestine, Scandinavian Countries, Central Asia or Russia. In the past few days, the insurgency has resulted in numerous killings of innocents and the martyrdom of several Army soldiers in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir on the domestic front in India.

International terrorism, though comparatively less in volume than the domestic variety, has crossed all limitations despite increased Government efforts to combat it. Much blood, if not ink, has flowed since terrorists struck the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in the US This was followed by an upsurge in terrorist activities across the globe. Repeated terror attacks over the years sometimes after a brief lull have not only exposed the security and intelligence network but also robbed confidence of modern nations in controlling the menace.

Whether terrorism is unleashed at the local, regional, national or international level, it cannot survive for long without international support and collaboration. In a globalised world, the matrices of power turn on the highly visible, inegalitarian structure of the international economy and as such inter-relations between socio-economic conditions in different parts of the world are becoming more and more obvious. At another level, the post-Cold War international political-economic order is still a victim of the power game that was thrust on the world by the then-big powers. Many seasoned international experts on violence and terror are of the opinion that the power network woven by the hegemonic mighty in the entire West Asian region has provoked the ire of the opposition forces in almost every State where they had an interest-based relationship.

Thus, as societies globalise and curtains of opacity are raised through increased inter-societal interaction at the international level, people in under-developed countries are holding the big powers responsible for their inferior socio-economic positions. The Cold War Era leading to interference in crucial areas such as Afghanistan, South-East Asia, Gulf and Latin American countries has resulted in the development of peculiar trends that provided breeding grounds for terrorist activities. Talibanisation of Afghanistan would never have taken place had the powerful nations handled the situation well in the beginning.

The consequences of the failure to diagnose this social disease (terrorism) at the early stage can be pernicious for the various countries. The strategies of imposing arms and economic sanctions on the so-called rogue nations during the last few years have been counter-productive and rather helped these nations to gain international sympathy. Although the hope of a permanent solution to the problem of terrorism is still far away, one hopes that the powerful nations will develop a more mature understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism that has assumed alarming proportions. The rapid international transportation and use of sophisticated weapons like AK 47 assault rifles and plastic explosives (RDX) have helped to facilitate the expansion of terrorist networks around the world. Besides, the new suicide squads of terrorists have left the entire security apparatus of the affected States in a State of shock. The recent incidents cannot be viewed in isolation.

A leading anti-terrorism expert, Mr Brian Jenkins, believes that though more articulate and multiplied effort by the police and intelligence can tell us about a possible terrorist attack, there is still confusion over whether such a mechanism is successful in dealing with terrorists driven by fundamentalism. Gradually, religion is becoming the main motivating force for terrorism across the globe. There is a growing nexus between terrorists and internationally organised crime networks. Mr. Alison Jamieson, a British analyst on organised crime and political violence, commented that the distinction between terrorism and organised crime has become very blurred recently.

An Italian organised crime expert, Professor Ernesto, says: The terrorists goal is an ideological one, while organised crimes goal is financial, but the instrument is the same.

They both need money and arms. In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers engage in drug trafficking to finance their struggle, in north-eastern India guerrillas kidnap tea planters and hold them to ransom to help fund their fight for independence. In Chechnya, the secessionists were heavily involved in drug distribution.

These days terrorists are more confident than ever before of their access to the vulnerable points before carrying out any of their attacks and they plan their attacks in a heroic manner for the justification and fulfilment of a cause that they think is just. Thus, they attempt, by their acts, to inspire and manipulate fear to achieve a variety of purposes. For effective administrative measures, various sources of terrorism must be found first. There is a need for a truly effective preparedness programme at the Government level.

First, we must know about the people involved in terrorist activities and their motivations.

Dealing with a terrorist incident and mitigating its consequences need to be carefully thought out. Sufficient data about the terrorist-hit area could be of immense use. Intelligence should be able to provide information about terrorist targets, timing and site in advance. But the Government alone cannot do much to stop it. Individuals and groups can make a significant contribution towards improving the general security environment. On the other hand, there is a need for sophisticated security procedures that can go all the way from airport screening to the border area.

Some kind of positive programmes which can alleviate the frustration of terrorists can prove effective. There is also a need to promote open institutions, including political institutions to absorb the ethnic, religious and political pressure and allow terrorists to vent their feelings in a proper way.

This will change their mind and thus encourage them to settle their differences in a peaceful way. Since present-day terrorists are very well organised and more professional than their counterparts a decade ago, new concepts of safety and security should arise. A vigilant and assertive police and paramilitary network should replace the old one. There is an apprehension that with the availability of biological and chemical weapons, terrorists could start their campaign with a renewed vigour.

No civilised political system can progress until terrorism is wiped out, but terrorism cannot be eliminated unless there is a political solution. The need of the hour is the political will to solve problems that generate terrorism. The States affected by terrorism should open up avenues for a negotiated settlement of disputes and exhibit genuine willingness to resolve long-festering problems.

(The author, a recipient of the Bharat Gaurav award, is a professor and expert on strategic affairs; views are personal)
Chinas recent outcry over the alleged breach of Gentlemans Agreement with the Philippines reveals a profound irony, given the history of its coercion and deceit

There is a huge amount of insincerity and gall involved in the Chinese complaint that the Philippines had torn up the bilateral Gentlemans Agreement, between Beijing and Manila. While the term Gentlemans Agreement has an implicit assumption of trust as a fundamental tenet besting a relationship, which may otherwise not be legally binding  to even imagine that there has been any element of trust between these two sparing countries, is to put oneself up to ridicule.

Much of the tensions in the countries around the South China Seas originates from an expansionist instinct in China that seeks to coerce, intimidate and dominate the region with creative, wholly unique and untenable concepts like the nine dash line (called out by the International Court of Justice, Hague, as illegal). But it is not just the Philippines but also other regional countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei etc., that are up in arms over Chinese belligerence.

Recent events have seen optics like the Philippines charging China in the International Court of Justice, Hague (and winning the plea), dangerous military exercises to assert competitive territorial counterclaims, ramming and shooting with high-pressure water cannons at Filipino boats, disruption to freedom of navigation, denying access etc., hardly the backdrop to assume the word trust between two constantly slug-fisting nations.

But the make-believe posturing and incredulously cry wolf terms like Gentlemans Agreement are an age-old Chinese norm, whenever anyone has stood up to expose its bullying and relentless expansionism. The Chinese through their conduct have unilaterally made a mockery of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Chinese have further upped the ante by dredging up sand to create artificial landmass e.g., around the restive Spratly Islands. This is enough to station a Military base replete with fighter planes and missiles and even anchor its fleet of so-called unsinkable aircraft carriers. All this has been done with sheer impunity and disregard towards any neighbouring countries territorial claims, sense of security, or socioeconomic concerns. Duplicitousness and attempting to checkmate (by force or lure) any emerging force that could challenge the Chinese juggernaut is met with its patent falsehoods, sneaky salami tactic encroachment, or even brazen show of force.

In the late 70s, the Chinese were more concerned about the Soviet Union, than with the United States of America. Beijing had counterintuitively started engaging with Washington DC to align it towards its side as it went about preparing to attack Vietnam. Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping on a trip to the United States had told US President Jimmy Carter, The child is getting naughty, it is time he got spanked.

Soon thereafter, China attacked Vietnam in a war that is recalled in Vietnam as Chien tranh chong banh truoing Trung Hoa (War against Chinese expansionism)! The physical-material superiority in favour of the Chinese PLA notwithstanding, most independent military historians acknowledge the bloody nose inflicted by the plucky, war-experienced and pugnacious Vietnamese forces that led to a rupture between China and Vietnam, that still lingers subliminally.

Even earlier in the 50s, the Chinese laid the trap for Nehrus complacency when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai refused to contest Nehrus rightful insistence on Aksai Chin by accepting that China had no claim on it. But Zhou would renege and contradict his earlier position by later claiming that Aksai Chin was already under the Chinese - they had surreptitiously built a road, while still playing naive and ingenuous, all along.

Like all bilateral agreements that the Chinese are always willing to relegate to the bins, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was put to the same fate. In yet another act that would soon become a standard Chinese practice over the years, the Chinese cartographical interpretation was revised with newly usurped territories and claims.

This template of dubious expansionism led to the 1962 Indo-China War and ensured unsettled status in the region with the Chinese updating their official maps with new territories and new names. That same principle has been applied to sovereign maritime issues in the South China Seas and the ongoing tussle with the Philippines has its roots in the history of Chinas insatiable expansionism and unbridled ambition to assert its hegemony.

Propaganda in the highly controlled media of China has been elevated to a fine art. Filipino Defence Secretary was quick to rebut the same by clarifying that he was, not aware of, nor is it a party to, any internal agreement with China and that his department had, not had any contact with any Chinese Government officials since last year. The Chinese have been deft with wordsmithing in order to lay the blame for ongoing tensions in the Philippines by first invoking an alleged promise, which then became a Gentlemans Agreement and have most recently morphed into a new model and finally internal understanding.

Gen Jonathan Malaya, of the Philippines National Security Council, put it bluntly, The propaganda masters are clearly working overtime in Beijing to sow discord and division in our country. But unfortunately for the Chinese, there are fewer takers for their position by the day and there never was, or is, anything Gentlemanly about Chinese diplomacy, for decades.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal)
The Government must extend comprehensive support to farmers, fostering significant opportunities for saffron production in similar regions

In the heart of the border district Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, amidst the rugged terrain and lush valleys, a quiet revolution is underway - the cultivation of saffron. For the past 5 years, we have been conducting trials of saffron and a year ago, we took the plunge into full-scale cultivation. The results? Astonishing! Our efforts were supported by School of Biotechnology at the University of Jammu, who provided us a generous grant of INR 10 lakhs. With unwavering support from Professor Jyoti and the expertise of the universitys scholars, including PhD student Tahil Bhatti and SDO, Horticulture, Mohammad Fareed from Poonch, we started to explore saffron cultivation in Poonch, uncovering the untapped potential of saffron production in the region, shared 35-year-old farmer Ajaz Ahmad from Bayla village, in Mandi tehsil, bordering Poonch. He has made a name for himself as a saffron farmer in the region, moving away from traditional farming over the past few years.

In this research, Ajaz found that saffron production can be done in abundance in areas like Surankote, Arai, Fatehpur, Bayla, Mandi and Mendhar of Poonch. The environment and soil here are almost similar to those in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir where saffron production takes place.

Saffron holds the esteemed title of being one of the worlds most prised spices. Known as Kong in Kashmiri, Jafran in Urdu and Kesar in Hindi, it is derived from the delicate threads of fragrant flowers. Historically, its cultivation has been confined to specific regions within the Union Territory. While some cultivation occurs in Kishtwar, the Pampore region of Kashmir reigns as its primary producer, renowned for its superior quality. Commanding a premium price, Pampore saffron fetches around 3 lakh rupees per kilogram. It takes an astonishing quantity of flowers-approximately 160 to 180-to yield just one gram of saffron. Moreover, a kilogram of this precious spice requires the harvest of about half a million flowers.

Ajaz Ahmad highlights the shifting agricultural landscape in Poonch, noting a traditional focus on seasonal crops like maize. However, he observes a gradual change in mindset among local farmers, with growing enthusiasm for saffron production. We have procured saffron seeds from Pampore and Kishtwar districts of Kashmir.

Now, my desire is that after Pampore and Kishtwar, Poonch becomes the third largest center for saffron production in Jammu and Kashmir, he said. He advocates for Governmental support in the form of security measures rather than subsidies, citing the comparatively high cost of saffron seeds. Ajaz emphasises the need for crop protection from wildlife, particularly bears that frequently ravage fields, suggesting that fencing could mitigate such risks and safeguard farmers livelihoods.

It can be easily understood that extensive efforts are required for saffron production. In India, saffron cultivation begins in June and July, while in some regions, it starts in August and September. Flowering usually begins in October. Apart from India, saffron cultivation is mainly done in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran and China. 80 per cent of the worlds total saffron production is concentrated in Spain and Iran alone. For the farmers involved in its production, it is nothing less than a boon because its price in the market ranges from 3 to 3.5 lakh rupees per kilogram.

The allure of saffron extends to both men and women who actively engage in its cultivation. Shamim Akhtar, a 35-year-old farmer from Bayla, shared, Ive been cultivating saffron for several years now and the results have been rewarding. However, the construction of a road through our land resulted in crop damage. Nonetheless, my passion for saffron cultivation remains strong. Despite facing financial constraints to procure seeds, I aspire to continue with this endeavor.

Farmer Abdul Samad from the same village, however, has another concern on his mind. He is worried about agriculture being affected by changing environmental conditions. He explains that due to changing weather patterns, there has been a decrease in saffron production in Kashmir in recent years. It requires rainfall between 1000 to 1500 millimetres, which has decreased and untimely snowfall has had a negative impact on the soil, resulting in reduced saffron production.

Kashmir, which previously yielded up to 15 tons of saffron annually, has seen this output dwindle to 8 to 9 tons, a worrying trend. Despite this setback, Kashmiri saffron remains highly valued for its medicinal properties, known to alleviate blood pressure and migraines and find use in beauty products. The central Governments attention to Kashmiri saffron is evident through initiatives like the National Saffron Mission (NSM). Aimed at bolstering saffron production and enhancing the socio-economic status of Kashmiri residents, the NSM has notably benefited saffron farmers. Additionally, various other Government schemes also promote saffron cultivation. However, for farmers to swiftly reap the benefits of these programs, they must be executed on a larger scale, given the increasing enthusiasm for saffron cultivation.

(The writer is a grassroots writer from Poonch, J&K. Charkha Features)
Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Friday rejected the allegations of sexual assault leveled against him as an "absurd drama," a political "storm"  and a conspiracy by some political parties  which he expected and which was used to facing.

A day after a woman employee at the Kolkata Raj Bhavan alleged that she was sexually harassed by the Governor, Bose blamed the political parties for the "absurd drama," adding he was expecting more such storms in the offing.

His remarks came hours after the Governor's House administration banned entry of State Police and State Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya inside Raj Bhavan.

Bose through an official statement said, "I welcome all the generous allegations and the frequent innuendoes passed on me by some political forces. I understand, my friends, there is more in the offing. But one thing is clear, none of the absurd dramas is going to deter me from my determined efforts to expose corruption and curb violence."

The Governor who left for Kerala  where he belongs  in the day also said "that is the nature of the political forces working in the State, adding, "I have braved many storms. I tell the political party that is plotting against me, this is no storm. This is only a storm in a teacup. Do not be surprised if you realise I am the storm. Bring out all the weapons from your armoury. Use it against me. I am willing. I am prepared. I shall continue my fight for the dignity and respect of my brothers and sisters of Bengal."

In an apparent bid to underscore the "absurdity" of the allegations, Bose a former IAS officer said that he could well be held responsible for the Famine that had hit Bengal or for the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946.

After initial bonhomie between him and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Raj Bhavan's chemistry with Nabanna  State secretariat  had been on a falling track, particularly. The two sides had run-ins on a host of issues including the appointment of Vice Chancellors, corruption and rampant violence in panchayat elections.

Referring to the incident Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee flayed the BJP for using the Raj Bhavan as its party office. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not sparing a single word on the allegations of molestation leveled by the Raj Bhavan staff against the Governor Banerjee said, "I am quite disturbed by this and here he (Modi) is attacking us but not sparing a single word on what happened at the Governor's House where he spent a night on Thursday."

Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh however backed the Governor saying TMC was capable of arranging such situations to malign a person as high as a Governor. "This is nothing new. This is TMC's politics. I don't know how low they will stoop. They have earlier insulted the President, Prime Minister, Home Minister now they are insulting the Governor  people are watching and people will decide," he said.

The woman who had on Thursday lodged a police complaint against the Governor leveling charges of molestation countered the statement of Bose on Friday narrating the entire incident saying, "I come from an apolitical family and have nothing to do with either BJP or TMC  I have been looking for jobs and have this contractual engagement  Before Thursday he had done this to me earlier on April 25  not only this he did this to a lady dancer earlier who wrote a complaint and when I was handling that issue my seniors asked me to ignore it."

Referring to the Governor's statements Bengal Minister Shashi Panja said that her party had nothing to do with whatever happened at Raj Bhavan. "Such an allegation against a governor never happened before. This has certainly demeaned the prestige of the chair of the Governor. We demand that an impartial inquiry should be done," Panja said wondering how the same person could who raised his voice against the Sandeshkhali incident could be involved in a similar incident. Her party was not in any way involved in the incident she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocked the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying he had "run away" from Amethi for fear of defeat. "Today I also want to tell him, Daro Mat (don't be afraid), Bhaago Mat (don't run)," the Prime Minister sneered at three election rallies in West Bengal.

Modi's jibe came after Rahul's most often repeated remarks against the PM "Daro Mat" and accusing the BJP Government of using probe agencies to terrorise critics and political rivals. Modi also attacked former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi saying he had predicted that both mother and son would avoid contesting from their seats out of fear.

"I had said, their biggest leader will not dare to contest. She will run away out of fear. She ran to Rajasthan and from there entered the Rajya Sabha. That is exactly what happened," he said.

"I had said shehzade (Rahul Gandhi) is afraid of losing in Wayanad, and the moment voting ends, he will start looking for a third seat. Now even from Amethi, despite all his loyalists saying it, he panicked so much, he ran from there and is now looking towards Raebareli. These people keep going around telling people Daro Mat. Today I will also tell them... ji bhar ke kehta hoon. Arey daro mat, bhaago mat," the PM said in Burdwan.

Several BJP leaders seized on the Amethi-Raebareli decision, calling it a dead giveaway that Rahul knows he can't win Amethi, where Union Minister Smriti Irani is contesting again after her win in the last Lok Sabha election. Modi also asserted that the Congress' tally in the Lok Sabha polls will be an "all-time low", as the grand old party would struggle to cross even the "half-century" mark in the hustings.

Addressing back-to-back rallies in the Bardhaman-Durgapur, Krishnanagar and Bolpur Lok Sabha constituencies, the PM said if the Congress is voted to power, it would "snatch" quotas meant for the Scheduled Caste, Dalits and OBCs and give those to its "jihadi vote bank" to pursue the party's "appeasement politics".

Modi slammed the Opposition Bloc INDIA and the Congress for "supporting" the "vote jihad" comments made by a candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP), an ally of the grand old party in Uttar Pradesh.

The Prime Minister also challenged the Congress to give in writing that it would not amend the Constitution to provide reservations based on religion. "Our Constitution explicitly states that the Government of India must not provide reservations based on religion. The Congress wants to do the same as they are angry with the OBCs, Dalits and the tribals because they supported Modi," he said.

Modi said he has been challenging the Congress on three points for the last 10 days, but it has remained silent. "My first challenge is - Congress and the INDI alliance should give assurance to the country in writing that they will not make any changes in the Constitution or give reservations based on religion. My second challenge is - they should promise the country in writing that they will not snatch the reservations of SC/ST and OBCs and divide those based on religion.

"My third challenge is that they should give in writing that wherever their State Governments are in power, reservations will not be given to Muslims based on religion by slashing the OBC quota," he said.

Modi also said the "game of vote jihad" has been silently continuing in the country for decades.

"The royal family of the Congress, the TMC and the Left are silent on this appeal of 'vote jihad' against me. This means that every single member of the Opposition alliance agrees with it," he said. Hitting out at the coalition, the PM said the INDIA Bloc of Congress, TMC and the Left parties "has only one policy - appeasement".

Reaching out to the Matua community of West Bengal, Modi said, "We had hoped that the TMC would support the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, as the Matuas would benefit from it. But, the state's ruling party is opposing it for their vote bank politics."

On Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks over wealth redistribution, the PM said, the Congress and the INDIA Bloc are planning to "take the wealth that you have accumulated by working hard and enduring hardships, and distribute it among their vote bank".
In support of his successor, despite his two terms from the constituency coming to an end, former Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan made his presence felt at the grand roadshow held for the nomination filing of BJP candidate Praveen Khandelwal for Chandni Chowk on Friday.

Along with Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Khandelwal started his journey from the ancient Gauri Shankar Temple turning the atmosphere ecstatic as one witnessed conch blowing, drum beating, band playing, and party flags fluttering in the roadshow.

The sitting Chandni Chowk MP said, "The BJP is an organisation-based party, and our organisation works not for individuals but for organisational development, and each candidate is a symbol of the organisation. We will ensure the victory of BJP candidate Khandelwal by ensuring maximum voter turnout on election day."

This support adds a stark contrast to the infighting between the Congress in the national Capital, which is now out in the open with the exit of former Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely.

Slamming the INDIA Bloc, Goyal said, "The Congress and the AAP abuse each other in Punjab while they have seat-sharing arrangements in other States. The people of Delhi are intelligent enough not to be misled by such tactics," adding that the grand old party is going to be "wiped out" from the entire north India after the ongoing election.

Further, Goyal said the INDIA Bloc of Opposition parties has no vision and blueprint for making the country a world power. "They have nothing to give to the country except fake videos and narratives," he said.

Referring to Khandelwal as a long-time friend, Goyal said he has been actively involved in finding solutions to the problems of traders, micro and small enterprises as well as consumers.

BJP candidate Ramvir Singh Bidhuri also filed his nomination for the South Delhi seat, accompanied by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami. A large number of BJP workers carrying party flags and raising "Jai Shri Ram" and 'Ek baar phir Modi Sarkar' slogans marched along the roadshow of Bidhuri, greeting people from open-top vehicles.

One witnessed people dressed in different traditional attires. While some dressed up in South Indian attire, others wore Uttarakhandi attires in the rally. Prior to filing his nomination, Bidhuri also visited the Gopal Temple located in Prithviraj Market to seek blessings and mark the start of his road show.

Accompanying Bidhuri, Dhami said the BJP's team work is going to repeat history and the saffron party will win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national Capital. Dhami encouraged the party workers, saying there is no contest against the BJP and their only challenge is the hot weather.

"No matter how high the temperatures are, you have to bring the voters to the polling booths and ensure that the voting percentage does not fall," he said.

Outside the returning officer's office, women workers of the BJP wearing sarees in the party colours danced to the tune of Haryanvi songs. A group of third-gender people also joined Bidhuri's roadshow.

Congress candidate Udit Raj also filed his nomination for North West Delhi constituency. On this occasion, National General Secretary of the Congress and in-charge of Delhi and Haryana Deepak Babaria, and Delhi president of AAP Gopal Rai were present. However, his own party leaders are not happy with his candidature, many of whom protested outside the Delhi Congress office to show their anger against the ticket being given to an 'outsider'.

Additionally, BJP candidate Bansuri Swaraj for New Delhi, Yogendra Chandoliya for reserved North West Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat for West Delhi, Manoj Tiwari for Northeast Delhi and Harshdeep Malhotra for East Delhi have filed their nominations so far.

So far a total of 114 candidates have filed nominations for the polls scheduled on May 25.
Amid raging controversy over the side effects of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of putting the lives of people at stake.

He alleged that the ruling party extorted political donations from a vaccine manufacturer.

Addressing an election meeting in Kishni assembly segment of Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency on Friday, the SP chief demanded a high-level probe into it. He also demanded free medical check-up of all persons who were administered the Covishield vaccine.

Akhilesh Yadav said allowing such lethal medicines amounts to a fiddling with public health and those responsible should be prosecuted. I stand vindicated after the revelation about the side effects of the vaccine. I had refused to take the vaccine, he said.

Around 80 crore Indians have been administered Covishield vaccine, and two doses are given to each person. The company which made its original formula has said that it causes a risk of heart attack, Yadav said.

Akhilesh Yadavs wife Dimple is seeking re-election from Mainpuri.

Those who have lost their loved ones due to the side effects of the vaccine or who feared the ill effects of the vaccine, their doubts and fears have now been proven right, he added.

The UK-headquartered pharma giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in very rare cases, its COVID-19 vaccine, which is known as Vaxzevria in Europe and Covishield in India, can cause a blood clot-related side effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media. In India, the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

Attacking the BJP, the SP chief further said, The ruling party has put the lives of the public at stake by collecting political donations from the vaccine manufacturing company.

Neither the law, nor the public will ever forgive them. There should be a judicial inquiry at the highest level in this matter, Akhilesh Yadav added.

The SP leaders had made similar allegations while addressing election meetings in Mainpuri earlier this week, saying the BJP took commission from the manufacturer of the Covid vaccine, which they said was forcibly administered to people.

SP national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav said, It has now been exposed that they have taken commission in vaccines too. Low quality vaccines and medicines were given to the people.

Dimple Yadav said people were forcibly administered COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

A donation of Rs 200-300 crore was taken by the BJP and the pharma companies were given permission to market the vaccine. People were forcibly administered vaccines. Nowhere in the world vaccines were administered forcibly, Dimple said, adding that corruption in vaccine manufacturing has now come to the fore.

Akhilesh Yadav, addressing several meetings in Mainpuri, reminded the people of the series of failures of the BJP led Central and state governments and urged them to vote for the SP candidate.
Cash, Liquor and Drugs worth Rs 34.77 Crore Confiscated in Haryana



Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Secretary T.V.S.N Prasad on Friday said that enforcement agencies have reported a staggering seizure amounting to Rs 34.77 crore. The seizures, comprising cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals, and various other items, underscore the stringent measures in place to curb illicit activities during the electoral process. He was presiding over the meeting on seizure made during ongoing Lok Sabha Election. DGP Shatrujeet Kapur, Principal Secretary and Chief Electoral Officer, Anurag Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, Excise and Taxation Devendra Kalyan, and other senior officials attended the meeting. According to the Election Seizure Management System's progress report, the seizures include cash worth Rs 5.91 crore, 367,561 liters of liquor valued at Rs 12.48 crore and 6015.72 kilograms of drugs/narcotics valued at Rs 12.11 crore. Additionally precious metals and freebies/other items account for Rs1.73 crore and Rs.2.52 crore respectively. Prasad directed the senior officers to establish coordination with neighbouring states to trace the origin of seized liquor. Additionally, he emphasised the need to further enhance vigilance, especially in districts bordering Delhi and other states.



Sukhu's irresponsible speeches suggest he is not serious about Himachal: State BJP President



Hamirpur: Himachal Pradesh BJP chief Rajiv Bindal on Friday said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's "irresponsible speeches" suggest he is not serious towards the state. Addressing a gathering of 'panna pramaukhs' in Hamirpur, Bindal said Sukhu was making such statements as he was sure that his party Congress would lose all seats in the elections. The chief minister had recently said that Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Jai Ram Thakur, is not a "good director" and therefore "Kangana's film will be a flop". Actor Kangana Ranaut is the BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi seat. The state BJP chief asked the 'panna pramukhs' to ensure that maximum polling takes place on June 1 at their respective polling stations in favour of the BJP. Taking a jibe at Sukhu, the BJP leader said the Congress' promise to give Rs 1,500 per month to women on the eve of the last assembly polls remained unfulfilled. Now, with the Lok Sabha elections around the corner, the Congress is getting the forms filled to give Rs 1,500 to women, Bindal said at a press conference in Hamirpur. "We hope that the chief minister will say something about what he has done for Himachal Pradesh but he is making irrelevant statements," Bindal said.



Congress committed to waiving off all debts of farmers: Kumari Selja



Chandigarh: Congress candidate from the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat, Kumari Selja on Friday said that whatever promises Congress makes, it fulfills them, unlike Modi, who only gives slogans. With a Congress government, all farmers' debts will be forgiven, and MSP will be given legal status to protect farming. Daily wages under MGNREGA for laborers will be increased to 400 rupees, she added. Addressing a public meeting in the village of Bosti in the Tohana Assembly constituency, she has said that today's fight is to save the constitution; anyone accused of corruption faces agencies' wrath, which ceases if they join the BJP, making them seem innocent. She said that the poor are ridiculed; giving five kilograms of wheat doesn't alleviate poverty. This government has not done any good for farmers, the poor, laborers, or the youth. Unemployment is high, and addiction is on the rise. The people vote carefully, keeping in mind the future of children.



Tandon meets Chandigarh Chemists Association



Chandigarh: Sanjay Tandon, the BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha on Friday interacted with healthcare and pharmaceutical operators organised by the Chandigarh Chemists Association. At the event, the members submitted a memorandum to Tandon highlighting issues related to pharmaceutical services in the city, such as reforms of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, prohibition of predatory pricing, banning of E-pharmacies, regulation of deep discounting, Pharmacy Practice Regulation Act, prohibition of discount advertising, distance policy for issuing drug licenses, and the availability of over-the-counter medicines at general stores. They also demanded extra space for boot shops. Tandon assured to resolve the long-pending issues and advocate policies that support the interests of chemists and pharmacists. Tandon wanted Chandigarh rose as a medical tourism destination in the region, which gave a push to the pharmaceutical sector in the city. I am aware of the issues and am committed to working closely with the Chandigarh Chemist Association and other stakeholders to address the challenges and promote the well-being of Chandigarh's residents.



Will make up for BJPs 10 lost years, Tewari assures Chandigarh residents



CHANDIGARH: Manish Tewari, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) candidate from Chandigarh on Friday assured the people of the city that he will make up for the loss of ten precious years under the BJP rule. He said, unlike the BJP, the Congress has a multi-pronged vision of development, which not only takes into account the needs of the nation as a whole, but also the local needs, besides reaching out to help the needy individuals like the unemployed youth or poor families by providing them regular monthly income directly. Tewari was interacting with people in various markets and residential areas in Sectors 52, 21 and 22. He said Chandigarh lost precious ten years due to the callous indifference of the BJP dispensation that ruled right from the city up to the national capital. The BJP had everything at its disposal and still the city slid in every aspect and so much so the "city beautiful" is no longer counted among the cleanest cities in the country, he observed. I have a vision, which I will soon be spelling out, for building a prosperous and progressive Chandigarh, where development does not take the backseat any further, he assured the residents of Chandigarh.
The Delhi Congress and the AAP on Friday met to discuss the alliances strategy in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections. Top leaders of AAP and Delhi Congress met on Friday where all the coordinators from both the parties met with each other to ensure smooth collaboration ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha 2024 elections slated to be held in the national capital on May 25.

After the meeting, Delhi Congress Interim president Devender Yadav, said that the meeting was held to plan better coordination between the workers of the parties. Today, we held a meeting in order to make better coordination between the workers of both the parties. We have taken some important decisions in the meeting. Seven coordinators from both the parties have been elected, Yadav stated.

Senior party leaders including Chairman of partys Election Management and Co-ordination Committee Subhash Chopra, Media Head of the Delhi Congress Anil Bhardwaj, were among the Congress leaders who attended the meeting. While MLA and state-level coordinator Durgesh Pathak, MLA Dilip Pandey including other party leaders attended the meeting from AAP.

After the meeting, Pathak said, When the alliance was made, it was very important that how the coordination will take place. For that a meeting of all the coordinators was held here on Friday.

Under a seat-sharing arrangement between the two constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of the opposition parties, the Congress has fielded candidates from three of the seven seats while the AAP is contesting the remaining four. Polling is scheduled in the national capital on May 25 in the sixth round of the seven-phase elections.

To put forward a united front, Pathak while checking the availability of AAP and Congress leaders, will accordingly make a schedule for them to participate in each others campaigns. Further, he will organise joint padayatras wherever necessary, and cover maximum ground through door-to-door campaigns. To ensure smooth communication, he will share the AAPs media strategy, issues and ground intelligence with the grand old party.

He will also ensure that Congress leaders participate in the constituencies where AAP is contesting. The responsibility of coordination in the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has been given to AAP MLA Rajesh Gupta while the West Delhi coordination will be looked after by AAP MLA Naresh Balyan. AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya will be the coordinator for South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, AAP leader Pawan Sharma for Chandni Chowk and AAP leader Mukesh Ahlawat for North West Delhi.

AAP Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha will be coordinator for the North East Delhi constituency and AAP Timarpur MLA Dilip Pandey for East Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday embarked on political rallies in the State addressing a grand public event in Singhbhum. Addressing his first election rally in Chaibasa in support of BJP candidate Geeta Koda and Khunti BJP candidate Arjun Munda, the PM was deeply moved by the enthusiasm of the crowd and, in return, reiterated the Modi Ki Guarantee for everyone in Jharkhand.

BJP has a special bond with Jharkhand. Only the BJP understands the state and its people. We initiated the creation of Jharkhand under Atal Ji's leadership, while Congress opposed it. Congress stalled development and exploited resources. But now, under Modi's leadership, the entire amount goes directly into your accounts. We launched Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Mudra Scheme, PM Jan Man Yojana, and Modi Ki Guarantee wali gaadi right here in Jharkhand. We believe in starting schemes from every corner of the country, not just from Delhi. That's why Jharkhand is echoing, "Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar!" PM Modi established this while initiating his powerful speech.

A huge crowd gathered at the venue to listen to the PM. A large number of women also participated. PM Modi said- 'Our tribal brothers and sisters have the right over the water, forests and land of Jharkhand, but JMM and Congress... consider it their property. This is the reason why every resource of Jharkhand is being openly looted. The mines of the entire state are being looted through illegal mining.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Congress is eyeing to plunder the reservation of SC, ST, Tribal and OBC. Congress is angry because tribals, Dalits, poor and OBCs support BJP. Congress wants to steal your reservation and give it to Muslims. They want to give reservation on the basis of religion.' He said- 'No one can touch the Constitution. No one can snatch the reservation of Dalits, OBCs and tribals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said- 'There is a race going on between Congress and JMM for loot and corruption. Rs 300 crore cash was recovered from the hideout of Congress MP here. Even machines had to be brought from banks to count the notes. After looting the lands of the tribals, they have also set their eyes on the land of our country's army. Such a big land scam has been done by JMM people. Congress and JMM together have hurt the honor and dignity of Jharkhand.

Comparing Congress with BJP, PM Modi remarked, Congress wanted to monopolize the credit for independence to one family. BJP has given a new identity to Bhagwan Birsa Munda's birthday by celebrating it as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas. I inaugurated the museum at Bhagwan Birsa Munda's sacrifice site in Ranchi. We are building tribal museums across the country to promote tribal pride.

Congress opposes respect for tribal history and the progress of tribal society. They opposed making Draupadi Murmu Ji, a tribal woman, the President, unable to accept that tribal women can hold the highest post in the country, the PM added.

After the rally, the PM reached Ranchi's Birsa Munda Airport in the evening and undertook a roadshow till Raj Bhawan amid heavy security deployment.

The PM will stay at Raj Bhavan on Friday night. On Saturday, he is scheduled to address two election rallies for party candidates in Palamu and Lohardaga parliamentary constituencies.
The Election Commission of India is sending delegations from different countries to different states to observe the entire process of the Lok Sabha General Election-2024, the great festival of Indian democracy. In this sequence, an 11-member delegation from Philippines and Sri Lanka will come to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. This delegation will remain in Bhopal from 5th to 8th May and during this time will observe the voting preparations and the voting process.

Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan has informed that a 3-member delegation will come to Bhopal under the leadership of Socorro B. Inting, Associate Commissioner of the Philippines Commission on Elections. Director Celia B. Romero and Executive Assistant Leslie NC Conquilla will also be a part of the delegation.

Similarly, an 8-member delegation is coming to Bhopal under the leadership of Justice Wewage Priyasath Gerard Dep, Chairman of Sri Lankas Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Make Recommendations for Election Law Reforms. The delegation coming to Bhopal includes Commission Member Sundaram Arumainayagam, Commission Member Alisandaralage Senanayake, Commission Member Ahmed Lebbe Mohammed Salim, Commission Member Nimalka Fernando, Commission Member Vitharanage Deepani Samantha Rodrigo, Commission Member Alan Carmichael Vere Tambinayagam David along with Commission Secretary Madhava Devasurendra.

Rajan told that this delegation will reach Bhopal on 5th May. This delegation will observe the departure of parties and other voting preparations from 8 am to 12 noon on May 6. On May 7, this delegation will visit the polling centers of Bhopal, Sehore, Raisen and Vidisha districts to observe the voting process on the spot. They will also hold talks with the voters.

It may be noted that, this delegation will come to the Chief Electoral Officers office and will meet Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan and share his experiences on May 8 at 12 noon. The delegation will depart from Bhopal the same day.
Deputy Collector Abhay Singh Kharadi, posted in Ujjain, was arrested on rape charges by Barwani Mahila Police from Bhopal on Thursday night.

A female employee had filed a rape case against him on April 29. He was absconding since the FIR was registered. Kharadi was posted in Barwani and he was transferred to Ujjain just a month ago due to the Lok Sabha elections.

He has been SDM in Barwani in 2016. During this time, he was accused of beating and raping the victim. The police were conducting raids in many districts to arrest the accused officer.

On Friday afternoon, the accused officer was brought from Bhopal to Barwani. The police presented him in the court and he was sent to Central Jail in judicial custody.
The Jharkhand high court on Friday dismissed former chief minister Hemant Sorens petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges involving a tribal land in Ranchi district. But, at the same time the Court granted temporary bail (in another petition) for one day to attend the shraadh ceremony of his uncle, Raja Ram Soren, who passed away last month.

A bench led by Justice R Mukhopadhyay granted his plea for interim relief while directing Soren to remain in judicial custody and prohibiting him from speaking to the media. On April 27, a special PMLA court dismissed Sorens petition for interim bail. Soren sought permission to attend the last rites of his uncle, who was the elder brother of Shibu Soren.

In February this year, Soren had knocked the HC door challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Later, Soren moved the apex court due to the delay in the High Courts verdict on his petition against the EDs arrest, the High Court had reserved its order on February 28, 2024.

Sources said that Court had reserved its judgement on February 28. Thus the order came after 66 days since it was reserved.

The advocate citing the courts order said that Soren had moved the Supreme Court on April 25 expressing his concern over delayed judgment. The top court then issued a notice to ED seeking the agencys counter affidavit by May 6 on Sorens bail plea, while also allowing the high court to pronounce its verdict. Thus, the order came eight days after he moved the apex court.

Soren, the former chief minister of Jharkhand, is under investigation for money laundering charges linked to an illegal mining case and an alleged land scam in Ranchi, the states capital. The ED is investigating both cases and alleges that approximately 8.5 acres of property involved constitute proceeds of crime. It has accused Soren of unauthorised possession and usage.

The ED alleges Sorens direct involvement in the acquisition, possession, and use of the money from these activities. It is believed that he worked with others, like Bhanu Pratap Prasad, to hide the original papers and make it seem like the money was clean.

Sources said that additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, representing the ED, stated to the high court that there was enough evidence against Soren for this plea to be denied.

Another high court advocate familiar with the argument said senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal presented his case virtually on behalf of Soren, while Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan and advocate Piyush Chitresh assisted him.

Sibal, appearing on behalf of Soren, said that this is not a case of a scheduled offence and no case of money laundering is made out against the former CM.

Soren was arrested on January 31 in a money laundering case involving the alleged illegal business of tribal land in Bargain.
When 20 fake bills of water engineering and drainage department were caught in Indore Municipal Corporation, 20 bills of 5 firms - M/s Jahanvi Enterprises, M/s Kshitij Enterprises, M/s King Construction, M/s Neev Construction and M/s Green Construction were issued without any tender, contract and without work. Fakes were made and presented in the finance branch of the corporation.

On this basis, a payment of Rs 3 crore 20 lakh was made to the said firms. On the instructions of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, five firms have been blacklisted and payment has been banned. Inquiry committee formed

On receiving information about the incident, Commissioner Municipal Corporation Indore constituted an investigation committee.

The committee is investigating 188 cases found in these 5 firms in the last 10 years. Two employees, Bhupendra Purohit and Sunil Bhanwar, who were found guilty in the preliminary investigation of the committee, have been exempted from attendance by issuing show cause notices.
llicit liquor worth Rs 5 lakh was seized in Gandhi Nagar, Bhopal: Drums and flasks filled with liquor were hidden in the bushes; destroyed by dumping on the ground by police.

Illegal liquor worth more than Rs 5 lakh has been seized from Gandhi Nagar, Bhopal. The Excise Department took action here on Friday morning. Those doing illegal liquor business had hidden drums and flasks filled with liquor in the bushes. After confiscation, the liquor was destroyed by spilling it on the ground.

This action was taken under the leadership of District Excise Controller RG Bhadauria. Three to four teams jointly raided New Basti, Hariom Nagar of Gandhinagar. The sudden action created a stir.

From here, 390 liters of hand-crafted liquor and 4560 kg of Lahan were seized from flasks and drums. 17 cases have been registered in the matter. The price of liquor has been estimated at Rs 5 lakh 15 thousand.

The Excise Department team took action against illegal liquor in Gandhinagar, Bhopal.

Liquor also seized from Subhashnagar

In another action, 15 pav plain liquor was seized from a woman in Acharya Narendra Dev Nagar, Subhash Nagar. Let us tell you that a day earlier on Thursday also the Excise Department had taken action in many villages of Berasia Road. More than 20 officers and employees were present during the action.

On Thursday also the Excise Department had destroyed illegal liquor and lahan.

Due to Lok Sabha elections, Excise Department teams are taking action. On Thursday, raids were conducted in villages like Ratua Pathar, Harrakheda, Tarawali Jod, Kararia Jod, Bairasiya Pathar, Dhamarra, Hirankhedi, Karanpura etc. The liquor seized from here was spilled on the ground. Illegal liquor was destroyed on Friday also
In a significant development during the inauguration of the 21st Annual Conference of Ophthalmologists organized by the Jharkhand Ophthalmological Society, a pioneering Deferred Live Surgery session took place at the esteemed Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital in Ranchi. Attended by eye specialists from across Jharkhand, the session provided a unique opportunity for interactive learning as guest surgeons performed surgeries live, followed by insightful question-answer sessions.

The initiative was spearheaded by the dynamic duo of Dr. Bibbhuti Kashyap and Dr. Nidhi Gadkar Kashyap, who organised the event at Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital. Dr. Samar Basak, the President of the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS), was the chief guest for the Live Surgery session, further elevating its significance.

Highlighting the achievements of the Jharkhand Ophthalmological Society, which recently received the prestigious Best State Society award for its outstanding educational and scientific contributions, Dr. Basak also honoured various institutions and individuals with the Jharkhand Excellence Award. Among the recipients were prominent establishments like Rio RIMS Ranchi, CCL Ranchi, Bokaro General Hospital, and distinguished doctors such as Dr. Pinky Pal and Dr. Pritish Pronoy.

Dr Basak said that Eye Donation Awareness Club and Kashyap Memorial Eye Bank are doing a very good job and they should work with organizations working towards blood donation and conduct eye donation awareness campaigns among students of classes 9 to 12 and people in old age homes.

Dr. Bharti Kashyap, Chairperson of the Scientific Committee of Jharkhand Ophthalmological Society, underscored the demonstration of eleven innovative surgical techniques aimed at addressing diverse eye conditions. Noteworthy demonstrations included safe approaches for managing hardened and ripe white cataracts, featuring the utilization of advanced tools like the Terminator Chopper and Mohan Rajan Chopper by noted eye surgeon Dr B. P. Kashyap, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr Arvind Maurya and Dr Partho Biswas.

Eye surgeons came to know about newer trifocal IOLs eg Vivinex Gemetric and Gemetric Plus and the new Mono Focal Plus IOL. Vivinex Impress which was also implanted in the patients. Relatively cheaper and affordable trifocal Triphobic IOL was also implanted in patients in deferred live surgery sessions.

In Glaucoma Session Dr Saheban Sethi displayed the new technology of Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS). This new technology has emerged as a revolutionary ray of hope for glaucoma patients. It is highly safer than existing conventional glaucoma surgeries, with less trauma to the eye and quicker recovery. MIGS can be done in the initial stage of glaucoma to save the eyesight from irreversible loss, whereas traditional surgeries cannot be done in the initial stage.

The droopy eyelids surgery Muller's Muscle Conjunctival Resection (MMCR) was demonstrated by Dr Akshay Nair.

Jharkhand's renowned eye surgeon Dr B. P. Kashyap gave important tips related to the implantation technique of IPCL which is indicated in high minus power patients, patients with thin cornea or dry eyes in which Lasik laser cannot be done.
In a major relief to the Karnal Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja, a Panchkula court on Friday granted him bail in connection with a 2018 property defacement case in which he had been declared a proclaimed offender.

Divyanshu, 31, who is the president of the Haryana Youth Congress and is contesting against former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP in the May 25 election, had surrendered before the court a few hours before he was let off on bail. The court of judicial magistrate Arunima Chauhan granted him bail after he furnished a bail bond of Rs 40,000 and a surety of the like amount.

Divyanshu, who was booked for defacement of property in 2018 after he had put up posters regarding unemployment in the state, was declared a proclaimed offender by a Panchkula court on December 15, 2023 after he failed to appear before the court repeatedly.

A criminal case was registered against him at the Sector-14 police station in Panchkula on January 28, 2018, under the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.

A fresh FIR was registered for his failure to appear before the Panchkula court under Section 174-A (failure to appear before court) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) upon the court order by the Sector 14 police station of Panchkula on January 3, 2024.

Divyanshu had even moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking quashing of the charges against him. In his plea, he had termed the 2018 FIR the result of political vendetta and blamed the police for his failure to appear in the proceedings, which resulted in the court declaring him a proclaimed offender. He had sought quashing of the January 3 FIR and consequent proceedings.

Talking to reporters, after getting bail, Divyanshu said, It was a conspiracy to malign me. Those cases that were being talked about I had taken on for people but today the court has given me bail. AGENCIES
In the light of the order passed by the Jharkhand High Court in WPC. 2532/2021, and instructions of the Principal District and Sessions Judge Rajesh Sharan Singh , Court Najir sealed the Kandi police station in presence of local witnesses, on Friday. Principal District and Sessions Judge gave an order vide letter no.132 dated 03/05/24 to Najir. Najir reached today at Kandi police station premises and sealed two rooms of Police Out Post in presence of Kandi Circle Officer Mohammad Aftab Alam, CI Jagarnath Manjhi, court clerk Mahendra Ram, police station in-charge Gulshan Kumar Gautam, Block Pramukh Satyendra Pandey alias Pinku Pandey, 20-point chairman Chandrashekhar Upadhyay alias Vikas Upadhyay. Following the order of Principal District Judge the responsibility of looking after this entire premises was given to Gulshan Kumar Gautam, Incharge of Kandi Police Station with immediate effect, so that the entry of any person in this premises is prohibited.

In the petition filed in the High Court by the plaintiff of this case, Ajay Kumar Singh, an order was passed on 18.03.2024 that "Considering the material available on record, the outpost of Kandi Police Station, Garhwa, situated at Khata No.206, Plot No.78, Area-0.05 acre, Village  Sarki, District  Garhwa, is,

hereby, directed to be sealed and closed.

The Principal District & Sessions Judge, Garhwa is,hereby, directed to close and seal the outpost of Kandi Police Station, Garhwa, forthwith and take charge over the entire property. It is, hereby, directed that nobody will enter over the land in question, without permission of this Court."
The debate on implementing a cooling off period for the bureaucrats to enter political foray after demitting office had started after the Election Commission gave this suggestion to the Central Government in 2012. A new debate has also started to include the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court in this category, i.e., to wait and complete a cooling off period before joining any political party to contest elections in the country. All this is aimed to ensure political neutrality of the bureaucrats and the judges.

The person who took up the issue in Jharkhand High Court in 2015 through a PIL immediately after the Government did not show any commitment to the proposal of the Election Commission, and later at Supreme Court, has written a letter to President Draupdi Murmu to give her opinion and suggestion on this matter, as appropriate, to the new government that will come to power after the general election of 2024.

The Supreme Court while disposing of the PIL in May 2022, had mentioned that there can be no doubt that law may be enacted, laying down the norms and qualifications for contesting specific elections. It is, however, for the appropriate Legislature to frame the law. The Supreme Court while dismissing the PIL had mentioned that, there can be no doubt that civil servants should maintain the highest ethical standards of integrity and honesty; political neutrality; fairness and impartiality in the discharge of duties, courtesy, accountability and transparency. Integrity, impartiality, neutrality, transparency and honesty are non-negotiable. Ethical standards necessarily have to be enforced and stringent action taken against the concerned officer whenever there is any breach of ethical standards as laid down in the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.

However, The apex Court had maintained that it cannot interfere in law making and direct the Legislature in a mandamaus writ to enforce a law on this subject and held that whether there should be any Cooling off Period for civil servants to contest elections or not is best left to the concerned Legislature. The judgement on the PIL mentioned: It is not for this Court to decide whether or not there should be any rules/guidelines for a bureaucrat to contest elections. It is for the appropriate authorities to take a decision in this matter.

From the reading of the judgement of the Apex Court in this PIL it becomes clear that the Court refrained from issuing any direction to the government because it maintained that it should be left to the legislature to frame any rule/law in this regard, and it that it should be left to the appropriate authorities to frame any law in this regard.

The appropriate authorities in this regard are the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Union Ministry of Law and Justice and the Election Commission of India that can initiate a process for making a law in this regard.

The Election Commission of India has already given a proposal to the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions way back in 2012, and the Union Ministry of Law had expressed some reservations which could not be overruled by the Governments decision making powers in this regard although the EC had pursued the issue for a period of two years approximately, and had written multiple letters to the government to consider its proposal on cooling off period for the bureaucrats. And, when the Apex Court has specifically mentioned that only appropriate authorities can take a decision in this regard then any desirable rule or law can see the light of the day only when the Union Government takes up the issue afresh and comes out to frame any rule or law in this regard. This proposition becomes valid only when the President opines to consider the Union Government to frame a rule or law in this regard considering the urgency of the issue. Moreover, the original proposal given by the EC to impose a cooling off period before contesting elections related only to bureaucrats. In the light of recent debates to include the Judges of the High Courts and Supreme Courts to observe a cooling off period before joining a political party and entering election foray the urgency is felt more, and the President may appropriately opine and indicate a need in this regard to the government that comes to power at the centre after the general elections of 2024. On its part the Election Commission can also send a fresh proposal to the government including this time cooling off period for the judges as well in the new proposal.

For ensuring the political neutrality of the highly placed personnel, both in the executive/bureaucracy and judiciary political neutrality, honesty and integrity are essential elements to make the common man believe that the authorities are functioning in non-partisan manner. It is very commonly said that justice not only should be dispensed but it must also appear in the eyes of the common people that it is being dispensed that way. A cooling off period for the bureaucrats and judges is need of the hour to achieve this end.

Vivek Krishna, who is working for the last twenty years for electoral and administrative reforms through his efforts is determined to take the issue to its natural conclusion. He hopes that like minded persons in political circles will espouse this cause as many senior party leaders across all political parties and political ideologies have expressed their concern in this regard, and one day an appropriate rule/law will be made relating to cooling off period to ensure and strengthen political neutrality of the bureaucrats and the judges. He is very hopeful of the President taking a call in this regard looking at the importance and urgency of the matter.

The writer is an activist and a practising Advocate in Jharkhand High Court. Views are personal.
The Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate that it may consider the question of interim bail for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal due to the Lok Sabha elections. The apex court was hearing a plea by Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told the additional solicitor general S V Raju, representing the ED, to be prepared to argue on this question on Tuesday, and also asked whether Kejriwal should be signing official files. Raju replied that this statement from the apex court may be blown out of proportion and cited statements made by AAP leader Sanjay Singh after his release from jail. Justice Khanna said that because of elections the court will hear Kejriwals plea for interim bail and added, let us be very clear on that.

Raju submitted that he will oppose the bail to Kejriwal and pointed out that to the statements made by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh after getting bail last month in the case. Just, look at the kind of statements he is making, he said.

The bench said it is putting the agency on notice about the courts intention, so that it is not taken by surprise on May 7, when the interim bail issue will be dealt.

We are not commenting on it either way. We are just saying we will hear on interim bail and not saying we will grant interim bail. We may or may not grant interim bail, the bench said.

It also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, Just one thing more. Please also take instructions. Because of the position he holds, whether he should be signing official files? During the hearing, Singhvi informed the bench that on March 16 the elections were announced and on March 21, Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on the basis of statements and materials which were available with the agency since last July.

The bench asked Singhvi when are the elections scheduled in Delhi to which he replied that on May 23 the campaigning will come to an end in the national capital and on May 25 the polling will be held.The top court was also critical of Singhvis arguments that AAP being a political party will not be covered under section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which deals with offences by companies.

Anything done by a political party cannot be attributed to its President, Convenor or General Secretary, else it will be a case of vicarious liability. A political party is out of the section 70 of the PMLA, he submitted, adding that the provision only deals with companies.

The senior lawyer further said that a political party is not a partnership, private corporate firm or a society but an entity which is registered under the Representation of the People Act.

The bench said, It is difficult to accept your arguments. AAP is a juristic person and cannot be arrested. It can be impleaded as accused. Person in-charge can be prosecuted along with the juristic person under section 70 of the PMLA. Will the society not be covered under section 70. Anyways, we have noted your arguments and will deal with it.

Singhvi said that there is no direct evidence of Kejriwal receiving kickback and if at all he has, then the case will fall under the Prevention of Corruption Act and not the PMLA.

He added that all the materials the ED has, were covered in the bail case of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the court has said that no case is made out based on them. The top court also posed several queries to ED including on why nine exculpatory statements of witnesses were not mentioned in the ground of arrest of Kejriwal and why only inculpatory statements were mentioned.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, while addressing the public meeting in Gormi of Mehgaon assembly constituency of the district in support of the party candidate from Bhind-Datia Lok Sabha, Sandhya Rai, said that this election is not only for Bhind, but also to establish India as a developed nation in the world.

There is a choice to establish as. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased the prestige of India in the world.

Today, under the leadership of Modi ji, the flag of India is flying all over the world. Prime Minister Modi ji has established the name of India in the whole world by hoisting the flag of India from Jammu and Kashmir to the moon in the sky. This is the election to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third time. The public meeting was attended by party candidate Smt. Sandhya Rai, State Minister Rakesh Shukla, former MP Bhagirath Prasad, former minister OPS Bhadauria, BJP State Executive member Romesh Mahant, Lok Sabha election coordinator Mr. Virendra Singh Rana, former Madhya Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation. President Kok Singh Narwaria, Jaiveer Purohit, Krishna Katare, District Panchayat President Kamna Bhadauria also addressed.Make the double engine government a triple engine one.Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that in 2014, India's economy was ranked 11th in the world.

In the last 10 years, under the leadership of Modi ji, India has emerged as the fifth largest economy in the world. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has resolved to make India a developed nation by 2047 and soon we will become the third largest economy in the world.

He said that in the last years, the double engine government of BJP has taken the country and the state on the path of rapid development. You convert the double engine government into a triple engine government, we will leave no stone unturned in development. He said that in the double engine government, the first engine is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the second engine is Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav. When you will make sister Sandhya Rai win with huge votes on 7th, then ministers Rakesh Shukla, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sandhya Rai will also become an engine in this government. After this, development will accelerate further.

Modi ji's guarantee is changing lives.Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the BJP government of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh approved an important irrigation project of Rs 1600 crore for Bhind-Datia Lok Sabha constituency and made arrangements for water for the farmers.

He said that due to the guarantee of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 80 crore poor people in India are getting free ration. Under Ayushman Bharat Yojana, every poor person is getting free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh in 15000 hospitals of the country, irrespective of caste or society. Mothers and sisters have got gas connections under Ujjwala scheme. He said that Janata Party candidate from Bhind-Datia Lok Sabha constituency, Sandhya Rai ji should be given full blessings and sent to Delhi as your MP for development and progress and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji will work to deliver the benefits of the schemes to all your homes.We have developed before and will do so in the future also.

Union Minister Scindia said that we have cordial relations and family relations with the people of this area. We have never left any stone unturned for the development of this sector. Scindia said that earlier the roads in the surrounding area were bad, I did the work of laying a network of good roads.
Transgender Sunaina Singh filed her nomination papers for Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat on Friday despite the fact that this community has just 78 registered voters from this constituency.

This 35-year-old transgender has challenged BJP candidate Dulu Mahto and Congress party nominee Anupma Singh.

Education wise a graduate filed her nomination as representative of Uttar Pradesh-based Naqi Bhartiya Ekta Party (NBEP) and happens to be more qualified from the aforementioned two who happen to be just 12th pass. .

Sunaina said,I have a clear agenda and would like to work for improvement in education and create employment opportunities as even educated youths are not getting jobs. Yet another issue is corruption, which is one of the major causes of failure in development in the state.

Singh said was willing to contest as an independent candidate and am thankful that Chaudhary Zarar Ahmed Naqi-led NBEP offered him a ticket .

She said that my parents had abandoned me after my birth. The transgender community took care of me and gave me all that I have today.

She by standing as candidate also wants to fight against discrimination against my community people, she added expressing her feeling how she was discriminated once when had tried for a job in Delhi.
Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal is facing public revolt for the first time and a caucus of "outsiders" in the chief minister's office wants to capture the state, BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has claimed.

The Education Minister, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Sambalpur, also dismissed the speculation that there were any attempts from BJP to enter into an alliance with the BJD.

In an interview with PTI, Pradhan, who is returning to the electoral fray after 15 years, said, "the Odia identity is under threat and this election is all about that identity."

"BJD is being run by a group of bureaucrats...The caucus in the chief minister's office which has few non-Oriya officers, they all came together and thought let's exploit the inability of the chief minister, let's create a vacuum from back door and their intention is to capture the state.

"This is a very dangerous trend and this is what public is angry about besides their inaction on the ground," Pradhan said in a veiled jibe at Patnaik's close aide VK Pandian.

The minister said this is the first time the so far popular CM is facing the heat from the public.

"BJD is facing public revolt for the first time...We have been fighting with them for long, we fought elections together too in the past. But 2024 election is a new type of election for them ..It is the most difficult election they would be facing," he said.

The Assembly and general elections are being held in Odisha simultaneously.

Naveen Patnaik will become the longest serving chief minister of India if his party wins the upcoming Assembly polls. He is already the longest serving CM of Odisha.

Pradhan, however, said Patnaik's more than two-decade rule has brought little to the people of the state in way of solid development.

"Since last 24 years, Patnaik has been the in-charge of the state as chief minister but on all the fronts, be it social structure, infrastructure, economy, employment generation  this government has been an utter failure. The lack of basic facilities causing large scale migration from the state.

"They do not have any vision or political will power  they do not have any commitment to society, there is a huge anger among youth, women, tribals, different sections of society..This is going to reflect in voting behaviour, people will teach them a lesson, there will be befitting response," he said.

When he was asked about how the BJD was able to secure a mandate for five consecutive terms if there are so many issues, Pradhan said, "kabhi to sabr ka bandh tutata hai (the patience crosses its limit at one point). 2024 election will be a real test of his popularity...Soon BJD will not be seen in the state even by using binoculars."

Pradhan, 54, also denied any talks of an alliance between BJP and BJD ahead of elections.

"There was no 'buzz' for alliance from our side...We had no compulsions for an alliance with them...On several national issues various parties have supported us but it is not mandatory that we will fight elections with them together," he said.

Asked whether he would be the BJP's CM face if the party comes to power in Odisha, Pradhan said, "there has been no decision yet and it will be decided by the party later only about who will be given the responsibility but I am confident that the Chief Minister will be from BJP."

The BJP leader filed his nomination from Sambalpur on Thursday. Polling in the state is scheduled in the sixth phase of the general election on May 25.

The high-profile Sambalpur constituency, which is the epicentre of western Odisha, is gearing up for a heated contest between Congress's Nagendra Pradhan, Dharmendra Pradhan, and BJD's Pranab Prakash Das.

Nagendra Pradhan had won the constituency on a Biju Janata Dal ticket in 2014 polls.

Dharmendra Pradhan is contesting an election after a gap of 15 years. He had last contested an election in 2009 after the end of BJP-BJD alliance. He lost the assembly poll that year.

He was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 2000 and to the Lok Sabha from Deogarh seat in 2004.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar in 2012 and again in 2018 from Madhya Pradesh.

Asked about the opposition's allegations that BJP will change the Constitution if voted to power, Pradhan said, "Congress is scared...Their leadership has been re-launched and repackaged several times and they have faced defeat only. They are making all attempts now like using deepfake videos, misutilising AI, making such statements but public knows their deeds and Congress existence is in danger."
Delhi University's associate professor Hany Babu on Friday withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

A bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal took note of the submission of of the lawyer appearing for Babu, who said five other co-accused have been granted bail in the case.

"The counsel for the petitioner states that there is a change in the circumstance and would not like to press the present petition and approach the high court," the bench noted.

The top court had earlier sought a response from the Maharashtra government and the NIA on his plea against an order of the Bombay High Court which rejected his bail plea.

The high court on September 19, 2022 had rejected the bail plea filed by Babu.

The NIA, which is conducting a probe into the case, has accused Babu of being a co-conspirator in propagating Maoist activities and ideology on the instructions of leaders of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation.

Babu was arrested in July 2020 in the case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held in Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts.

One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence.

The case, in which over a dozen activists and academicians had been named accused, was initially probed by the Pune Police and later taken over by the NIA. Babu approached the HC in June this year, challenging an order of the special NIA court here which rejected his bail plea earlier this year.

Babu, in his plea, had said the special court had "erred" in holding that there existed prima facie incriminating material against him.

The NIA had opposed the bail plea, arguing Babu actively participated in activities to promote Naxalism and wanted to overthrow the government.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades.

Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the party said in a statement on Friday.

Sharma was the key person who looked after the two prestigious constituencies in the absence of the Gandhis.

Rahul and Sharma will file their nomination papers on Friday, the last date for the filing of nominations for the seats.

Rahul Gandhi along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law Robert Vadra have arrived at the Fursatganj Airport in Amethi ahead of the nomination filing.They were accompanied by former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will also be in Rae Bareli for the nomination filing besides a large number of party workers and leaders.

The two seats will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth of the seven-phase general election.

Ending days of suspense, the party announced the candidates from the two seats early Friday.

Rahul Gandhi will be contesting from the seat which has been held by his mother Sonia Gandhi, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his grandfather Feroze Gandhi.

The constituency has also been represented by family members and friends of the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a message said, "Kishori Lal Sharma ji has been associated with our family for years. He has always been dedicated towards serving the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli. His passion for public service is an example in itself."

"Today it is a matter of joy that Congress party has made him the party candidate from Amethi. Kishori Lal ji's loyalty and dedication towards duty will definitely bring him in success in this election. Many best wishes," she said in a post in Hindi on X.

Deliberations had been on in the party since Thursday on the names of the contenders for the two seats, which have been traditionally held by the members of the Gandhi-Nehru family.

The BJP had on Thursday announced Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from Rae Bareli. He had lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Posters and banners of Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were also brought late last evening to the Congress office in Gauriganj.

BJP leader Smriti Irani has already filed her nomination papers from Amethi.

The Uttar Pradesh leadership of the Congress had earlier called upon the Gandhi family to contest both the seats.
Modis North east story

Author: Tuhin Sinha and Aditya Pittie

Publisher: Rupa (www.rupapublications.co.in)

Price: Rs 595.00

A well-timed book, Modis North East Story, enumerating the development story of the North East, is an inspiration for those genuinely wishing to connect with this hitherto remote region of India, says KUMAR CHELLAPPAN

It is election time and television news channels across the country are on a roll as spokespersons of various Opposition parties try their best to churn out the failures of the NDA Government that has been in power for the past 10 years even as representatives of the ruling coalition vociferously list out the achievements of the BJP-led Government at the Centre.

This is an age-old practice since the first General Elections held in India from October 1951 to February 1952. Although the ruling Congress party back then had nothing major to list out as achievements, the party continued to roll out new promises. From the basic provision of drinking water to all villages, establishment of schools in all districts of the country, to subsidised ration to the poorer sections of society, all topped the list of electoral promises.

These so-called promises continued till the 1990s. In fact, in the 1960s, people were asked to forego a days meal owing to the severe famine the nation faced back then. A lot has been written about the Green Revolution but the sad truth is that despite the much publicised initiative, hunger and malnutrition continued to haunt India. There was no serious attempt from the Governments of the day to increase productivity of our farm lands. Indias pluralism and vivid nature were on full display during the summer as well as rainy seasons.

While the scorching heat of the summer played havoc in South India with most of the rivers going dry, the North experienced floods and deluge. Every year hundreds were drowned in the recurring floods as the snow in the Himalayas melted causing severe deluges in the mighty Brahmaputra which resulted in village after village in States like Bengal, Assam and Bihar getting completely devoured by flood waters. While the northern part of the country was battered by floods, the southern States were crying for drinking water.

Rivers like the Kavery and the Krishna routinely run dry whenever the South West Monsoon fails to hit the Indian coast. The drought in the Kaveri River has severe implications for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as farming operations come to a complete standstill due to non-availability of water for irrigation.

Although a lot of experts ranging from Sir Arthur Cotton and Captain Dastur to CP Ramaswamy Iyer and VK Rao had suggested the interlinking of Indian rivers no Government took note of the proposal. Every year the west flowing rivers in Karnataka and Maharashtra discharge thousands of cubic feet water into the Arabian Sea while the Godavari discharges an equal or more quantity of flood water into the Bay of Bengal. Had a responsible Government taken adequate measures to divert these river waters into the Mettur Dam or other parts of water-starved regions, Tamil Nadu would have come out of its perpetual struggle with water scarcity.

The Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that the Government of India should take the initiative and interlink the rivers in the country so that the perpetual flood, drought and water scarcity problems would be resolved once and for all. Athough we did get governments that worked while other governments worked faster, nothing permanent was done to sort out the issue for good.

In fact, we even witnessed a Chennai-based Gandhian write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, asking him not to take up the post of Prime Minister as the latter had no mandate to rule the country. Indeed, the priority of our politicians was at variance with that of the requirements of the common man. Till 1998, the country had not heard about a four-lane highway linking Kanyakumari and Kashmir and Surat to Silchar. Nobody took the initiative to bring down the travelling time between New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram when train travelers had to toil for almost 52 hours to cover the 2900 km. There was no highway between Chennai and Kochi and a bus journey took literally two days to reach the destination.

If this was the situation in mainland India, the condition in the North East India was far worse. Insurgency grew by leaps and bounds. The Nagas, the people of Manipur, and other North Eastern states of India considered themselves as citizens of a separate country altogether. So much so, that a so-called government in exile is functioning from some European countries claiming to be the lone representative of the Nagas.

Most of the youth of the North Eastern States are even misled to believe that they do not belong to India. Making matters worse, those in power in these regions never wanted to disprove this notion. Immediately after Independence from our British colonial masters, what the new rulers did instead was to create yet another problem, this time in Kashmir. A separate entity by the name North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) was formed with the objective of uplifting the seven sisters of Brahmaputra (as Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram were known initially).

Unfortunately, the Congress Government that ruled post-Independence till 1977, 1980-1989, 1991-1996 and 2004-2014 did nothing for the economic and social development of these States. In 1998, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister, he renamed the Seven Sisters of Brahmaputra as Ashtalakshmi by including Sikkim in the group and some long-needed efforts were made to bring these eight States into the national mainstream. Till then, news emanating from these States dwelt mainly on secessionism-related issues. Bodoland, AASU, the Maoists of Manipur and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim and the turf war between various terrorist organisations formed the crux of news broadcasts from the North East.

However, when the BJP Government came to power in 2014, it launched a plethora of missions to harness the real potential of the North East. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the one to comprehend the vast opportunities and immense potential offered by this hitherto unexplored region of India.

It is in this context that Modis North East Story authored by two young professionals, Tuhin A Sinha and Aditya Pittie, deserves appreciation and immediate attention. The 196-page book offers a panoramic view of the eight North Eastern States and the path-breaking developments that have taken place in this long neglected region in the past decade. It has witnessed an unprecedented development in infrastructure, the number of airports have increased manifold and the entire region today has rail and communication connectivity to boast of.

Clearly, neither Prime Minister Modi nor his team are the kind to rest on their achievements. Instead they are continuing furiously on the path of development and work is going on at a frenetic pace to develop these States with world class infrastructure facilities even as they ensure that the essence and unique culture and heritage of these regions remain untouched.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kiren Rijiju, the energetic and youthful Union Minister from Arunachal Pradesh and Pema Khandu, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, and a host of such dynamic leaders and policy makers have made their mark in the holistic development of the North East. The authors of Modis North East Story deserve kudos as make the readers travel straight to these scenic States with the story of the coming of age of the eight States, the Ashtalakshmis.

Even an old and ailing person like this writer felt inspired to fly to these abodes of the God and Goddesses. The words penned down by Tuhin Sinha and Pittie come straight from the heart and indeed inspire their readers to visit the North East, behold its serene landscape and meet the people long alienated from the countrys mainstream.
WASHINGTON DC, May 03 (NHK) - Media reports say US President Joe Biden has blamed Japan's economic troubles on xenophobia while arguing that the US economy is growing because it accepts immigrants.

Biden reportedly made the remarks at a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign held in Washington on Wednesday.

Reuters news agency quotes Biden as saying one of the reasons the US economy is growing is because it welcomes immigrants.

Biden went on to say, "Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong."

US media outlet Bloomberg also reported on Biden's comments. It said that while Biden has linked China's economic woes to its unwillingness to accept immigration before, this time he added Russia and long-standing ally Japan.

Bloomberg pointed out that Biden welcomed Japan's Prime Minister Kishida Fumio for a summit and state dinner in Washington three weeks ago.

It noted that Biden's "criticisms and the fact that Japan was mentioned alongside two major US rivals could raise hackles in Tokyo."
Supposed free speech advocate Elon Musk is to lift the X Ban on deluded Mexican Neo-Nazi incel leader Nick Fuentes but satire site the Daily Squib is still banned on the platform.

The Daily Squib was permanently shadowbanned by Twitter X and no specific reason was given for the banning. As a result of this unjust tyrannical action, none of our content is visible to X users on search, and our actual account is now hidden. Because our account has been locked away, many parasite copy-cats, who are not banned, are now using our brand name to gain followers for themselves.

It seems that groups like ISIS, HAMAS, the Taliban and Neo-Nazis like Fuentes are lauded over a satirical newspaper that simply writes satire. The Taliban have even been given a blue check mark by Musk, as will no doubt Fuentes.

Maybe Elon Musk and his staff do not even understand what satire is in their ignorance, and have no comprehension of irony or rhetoric, who knows what goes through their deranged minds? In their closed-off blinkered world, everything has to be literal and there is no room for comedy or satire.

Antisemitic white nationalist Christian fascist Nick Fuentes says that when his America First movement takes power, all non-Christians will be executed: When we take power, they need to be given the death penalty  They must be absolutely annihilated when we take power. pic.twitter.com/V9nVJC8Xf6  Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) December 11, 2023

Who would have thought, that the Daily Squib would be seen as more of a threat than ISIS, HAMAS, the Taliban and Neo-Nazis on Elon Musks free speech X?
May 03 (News On Japan) - Detectives Reina and the rookie Sato find themselves investigating a taxi driver named Kodogawa due to an unexpected turn of events. What was supposed to be a simple conduct investigation leads them to a "high school girl's disappearance"...

During a talent audition hosted by the agency Mystery Kiss, Reina and Kanon make it to the final selection. Successfully sneaking into the dressing room, Reina probes a girl claiming to be Yuki Miya, but her questions are subtly dodged. Sensing Reina's movements, Yamamoto alerts Yano. Consequently, Reina finds herself chased by Yano's men. Although she manages to escape the audition venue, she ends up cornered in a deserted building. Meanwhile, Yano is meeting with the boss, Kuroda, who suspects that Yano might be the mastermind behind the Miya kidnapping. Despite Yano's light-hearted demeanor, Kuroda's suspicions linger.

Source:  
Key Points:

US forces are withdrawing from Airbase 101 in Niger following a directive from the countrys military leadership.

Russian military personnel have arrived at the same airbase, raising concerns about shifting alliances and regional power dynamics.

The US withdrawal is part of a broader trend of Western forces leaving African nations in the wake of recent coups.

US Withdraws from Niger Airbase as Russian Personnel Arrive

Following a directive from Nigers military leadership, US forces are withdrawing from Airbase 101 near the capital city of Niamey. This development coincides with the arrival of Russian military personnel at the same base, raising concerns about shifting power dynamics in the Sahel region.

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Prior to a military coup in July 2023, Niger served as a crucial partner for the US in combatting terrorism and extremist groups like ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates within the Sahel. The region has witnessed a surge in violence, making international cooperation vital for maintaining stability.

However, the coup led to a reassessment of foreign military presence in the country. In March 2024, Nigers new military leadership informed Washington of their decision to expel the approximately 1,000 US troops stationed in Niger, marking a significant shift in the countrys alliances.

Russian Arrival and US Concerns

The arrival of Russian military personnel at Airbase 101 has further complicated the situation. While US officials have confirmed their presence, they assure that the Russian troops are confined to a separate area and do not have access to US personnel or equipment.

Despite these assurances, the close proximity of US and Russian forces during a period of heightened tensions between the two nations is a cause for concern. The situation in Ukraine and ongoing geopolitical rivalries contribute to a delicate balancing act for Nigers leadership.

Shifting Alliances in the Sahel

The US withdrawal from Niger is part of a larger trend of Western forces leaving African nations following coups and the rise of military leaders seeking to distance themselves from former colonial powers. France has experienced similar pushback, with their military being expelled from Mali and Burkina Faso.

Meanwhile, Russia has actively sought to strengthen its ties with African nations, presenting itself as a reliable partner without the historical baggage of colonialism. The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, has already established a presence in Mali, further solidifying Russias influence in the region.

Future of US Engagement in Niger

While the withdrawal of US military personnel from Airbase 101 is proceeding in a deliberate and organized manner under the guidance of a senior military official, the long-term trajectory of US involvement in Niger is currently undergoing a period of meticulous analysis.

The recent change in Nigers leadership and the subsequent shift in foreign policy priorities require a recalibration of US diplomatic and military strategies. Additionally, the introduction of Russian military personnel into the region introduces a new set of variables that must be factored into the decision-making process.

While no definitive decisions have been reached regarding the sustained presence of US military assets in Niger, current operational planning indicates a potential relocation of personnel and resources to US Africa Command installations in Germany. This strategic repositioning would enable the US to maintain a responsive posture while evaluating the evolving circumstances in Niger and the broader Sahel region.

The US remains committed to collaborating with regional and international partners to address security concerns and promote stability in the Sahel. This commitment necessitates ongoing dialogue and a flexible approach to adapt to the dynamic geopolitical landscape.

Impact on Counterterrorism Efforts

The withdrawal of US forces and the arrival of Russian personnel raise questions about the future of counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel. The US had invested significantly in infrastructure, including the construction of Airbase 201, specifically designed for counterterrorism operations against ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates. The changing landscape of international involvement may require a reevaluation of strategies to address the ongoing security challenges in the region.
A life-sized model of a Suffragette will be on display in The Tower Museum this month as part of this years Workers Rights and Social Justice Programme.

Standing at an impressive 170cm tall and made up of over 32,000 bricks, Hope, the Lego Suffragette will be on display in the museum throughout the programme of events.

Hope was originally built in 2018 for the UK Parliaments Education and Engagement team, to help them tell the story of womens suffrage 100 years after the first women gained the right to vote. The name Hope was chosen by the public after the popular media campaign, #NameOurSister went out across social media. The powerful statue took three people from the Lego Group to build over 171 hours.

Bernadette Walsh, Archivist at The Tower Museum, said the team were excited to welcome Hope to Derry and they couldnt wait to introduce her to the public.

Were delighted to play host to this amazing life-sized model built entirely by Lego. Hope is a striking and powerful exhibition and were really excited to include it in this years Workers Rights and Social Justice Programme. An exhibition like this is a great way to educate and inform the younger generation about the struggles women would have faced throughout the suffragette movement, and we cant wait to see families come through our doors and hear the reactions of children and young people.

She is currently on tour around the country and on display in Derry until Sunday 12th May. Call into the Tower Museum this month and grab a selfie with Hope, while learning all about the Suffragette movement in the UK. The public are encouraged to use the hashtag #StandWithHope on social media when sharing.

For more information on this years Workers Rights and Social Justice Programme, please visit www.derrystrabane.com/workersrights
NAGANO, May 03 (News On Japan) - Nagano Prefecture's Shiga Kogen is bustling with spring skiers, with significant snow remaining at the Yokoteyama-Shibutoge Ski Resort in Yamanouchi Town.

The opening of the "Shiga-Kusatsu Highland Route" has made it more accessible from the Kanto region, attracting many visitors both from within and outside the prefecture.

According to the ski resort staff, the snow depth is typical for this time of year, with some areas still having about 80 centimeters of snow. The ski resort plans to continue operations until mid-this month.

Source: TBS
Police in Derry City & Strabane are urging people to be wary of scammers after a report this week of a person who thought theyd bought tickets online for a Taylor Swift concert only to find out they'd been swindled.



It was reported the person saw tickets for sale on an online platform. After contacting the seller and subsequently transferring money to them, the person was blocked and left without any tickets.



Inspector Craig said: "Not only does this fraud leave people out of pocket financially, but will also leave them left outside at the doors of concert venues. People think theyre getting the real deal only to find out the money theyve shelled out is to someone who isnt genuine."



Ticket fraud often involves the use of images and graphics taken from genuine sellers to make fake websites look like the real deal, or use contact through social media. The advertisement or offer may appear genuine, but there will be subtle differences buyers should look closely at, such as the website address.



Inspector Craig advises people should only buy tickets from legitimate, authorised ticket sellers and re-sellers as criminals will exploit the eagerness by fans to get their hands on tickets for a show or gig they really want to go to.



I would also urge parents buying tickets for children and young adults going to a concert, and those who make a last-minute decision to go to a concert, to be really cautious when buying your ticket. Too often, we see reports of tickets that dont materialise at all, or are just screenshots of genuine tickets that wont get you any farther than the ticket barrier



"The safest way to ensure tickets bought are genuine is to purchase them from the authorised ticket seller or authorised re-seller. We'd also advise against buying tickets from other sources, such as third parties because you can never be sure of the validity and authenticity of the tickets. When purchasing a ticket from a reseller you should also check the re-sale or transfer policy for that concert, often there are strict policies regarding how tickets can be sold or transferred, breaching these can mean your ticket is invalid.



"Ticket fraud is a continuing problem and fraudsters will try everything to lure people into falling for their scams. It is vital people take care when buying tickets. Follow our Stop. Check. Report. advice and recognise the signs of ticket fraud before getting caught out and remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."



If you lose money in a ticket fraud, report it to your bank and to Action Fraud on www.actionfraud.police.uk or call police on 101. You can also find out more on our website at http://www.psni.police.uk/ ticket-fraud



How to spot scam ticket websites



STOP - While its always tempting to rush in and buy those hot tickets, dont rush into buying a ticket. Do not transfer money by bank transfer and only pay by a protect payment method.



CHECK - Check the website or re-seller you are buying from before you buy. Check the events ticket re-sale policy to make sure tickets re-sold remain valid, or if there is a designated resale agent, or specific policies for this event or venue. Check the venue or the event website. If you have bought a ticket, and you are concerned about the validity of it, check with the event on its validity.



REPORT - If you lose money in a ticket fraud, dont just shake it off, report it to police at www.psni.police.uk/report or to your bank. You can also report to Action Fraud on www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling police on 101. Further information is available at www.psni.police.uk/ticket- fraud
The Irish premier is to meet Stormonts leaders during his first official visit to Northern Ireland on Friday.

Simon Harris, who became Taoiseach on April 9, will meet First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly during his trip to Belfast.

He is expected to discuss developments in Northern Ireland since the restoration of its political institutions in February, as well as areas of common interest and potential opportunities for all-island co-operation.

He will be formally greeted at Parliament Buildings by the Speaker of the Assembly Edwin Poots, before he has bilateral meetings with Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and Colum Eastwood leader of the SDLP.

Mr Harris will also hold a working lunch with key business stakeholders in Northern Ireland.

He will later be hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queens University Belfast where the Taoiseach will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Governments Shared Island Fund.
A set of notes from a key meeting of the Stormont executive believed to be missing has been handed to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The handwritten notes related to a meeting of the executive on July 2 2020 which was the first meeting of ministers following the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey.

The funeral sparked political controversy after then deputy first minister Michelle ONeill and other Sinn Fein ministers attended despite lockdown restrictions being in place limiting gatherings.

Earlier this week, the former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Sir David Sterling told the inquiry there was a discernible chill between then first minister Arlene Foster and Ms ONeill following the funeral.

At the start of the inquiry hearing on Friday morning, counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin KC revealed that the notes from the July 2 meeting had now been located by The Executive Office (TEO).

Previously the inquiry had been told the notes were not held.

Ms Dobbin said the inquiry was approached by the TEO following opening statements to say in fact they had the minutes of the July 2 meeting, and that officials were surprised as they believed the notes had been supplied to the inquiry.

She outlined efforts that had been made by the inquiry to obtain those notes and follow-up queries around missing materials.

Ms Dobbin said the inquiry set out to The Executive Office that these handwritten notes cover a period of significant interest to the inquiry and its plainly of concern if these are in fact missing.

She added: It suffices to say that despite those notes having been found, and despite the sheer number of requests having been made, despite the fact that the TEO in fact told the inquiry that those notes werent held, and despite the very specific questions that the inquiry asked about the precise circumstances in which notes like this could go missing, they werent provided until after the opening had been given.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett said she was very concerned about what she had heard, and will consider whether her team will pursue it further.

Its not a very happy picture, she added.

The current head of the NICS, Jayne Brady, was asked about the matter when she appeared before the inquiry on Friday afternoon.

Ms Brady, who took up office in September 2021, was asked by Ms Dobbin whether there is a wider issue within the Executive Office around disclosure, referring also to the wiping of some devices belonging to ministers.

Ms Brady responded: I can see how the pattern of events compounds to draw those characteristics.

She expressed concern at the fullness of the disclosure around the July 2 meeting, why notes were lost and why it took so long to be provided.

I wasnt aware of the lack of disclosure of that item until you addressed that on Tuesday, she said, adding that she has asked for an investigation to be carried out.

There will be many questions which will have to be asked about the late providing of information, the rationale why that was provided late and how this builds into the overall perspective of what were trying to achieve in fulfilling our objectives, our commitments and our code of ethics around openness and transparency.

There are many areas of concern that have been raised through this process as well.

Ms Brady was also questioned about the wiping of devices that were assigned to ministers.

She said she had issued a number of communications to staff around the importance of retaining records for the inquiry.

She said she discovered that the First and deputy First ministers phones had been wiped in August 2022 and commenced an investigation into the extent of the data loss.

The inquiry heard that Ms Foster returned her issued mobile phone when she left office in July 2021 and it was restored to factory settings by IT.

Her successor Paul Givan returned his mobile phone when he left office in February 2022. An official said they could not recall if it was reset immediately.

Ms ONeill was issued with a mobile phone and iPad. The inquiry heard those were wiped before they were returned in February 2022.

Ms Brady said there appeared to have been a disconnect with staff in terms of their perception of the level of information that met the requirements to be disclosed.

I think thats been characteristic of the engagements they would have had, very regrettably, with the inquiry in terms of fulsomeness of the information that has been provided, which to me was very clear in coming into post, but did not appear to be clear within departments, she said.

I think there was a view that that was regarding decision-making and the formal record, versus everything that is pertinent to the work of governance, the context for a decision.

Ms Brady said vast swathes of information have been provided to the inquiry from civil servants and some of the ministers.

The system failed to look at the collective responsibility as part of that to give effect to the legal guidance, she added.

Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett asked: So they (devices) were wiped without anyone checking that the material had been recorded elsewhere?

Ms Brady responded: Yes, thats my understanding.

Ms Dobbin put to Ms Brady that WhatsApp communications that the inquiry has in terms of Northern Ireland do appear to discuss official business, adding: Theres a little bit of social chat in them, but in fact in large part, theyre very firmly on the business side.

Ms Brady responded: Yes. She also expressed deep regret that the issues are similar to those raised during the Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry seven years ago.

She added: Its a significant issue that we have failed to address adequately in providing this to the inquiry, but also more broadly in terms of the obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

What this has shone a light on is  all the vulnerabilities within the system.

You have identified many different reports and policies but actually all of them have shown to have failed in this scenario to get the information and I think thats of deep regret for the service, for Northern Ireland but also to get the information for the bereaved families and the information that they deserve for the learnings of that.

It is a matter of deep regret.

The inquiry heard that a minute of a meeting between officials preparing material to be disclosed in May had 13 amendments, and the final version contained an abbreviated reference to what happened to the devices.

Ms Brady said: They have indicated that they changed the reference or reduced the reference  that they were not aware of the full information and they were seeking to get further information.

In my view, it materially changes the substance of the meeting.

The UK-wide inquiry arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday for three weeks of hearings in Belfast.

It is set to look in depth at the decisions taken in Northern Ireland.

This module will investigate the initial response, central government decision-making, political and Civil Service performance as well as the effectiveness of relationships with governments in the devolved administrations and local and voluntary sectors.

It will also assess decisions behind lockdowns and other non-pharmaceutical interventions.
HIGHLIGHTS Microsoft has launched passkey support for all consumer accounts. Passkeys serve as an alternative to traditional passwords. Passkeys enable users to sign into their Microsoft accounts using their face, fingerprint, or PIN.

Keeping your online accounts safe just got easier! Microsoft has launched passkey support for all consumer accounts. This means you can add an extra layer of security to your Microsoft account, making it even more challenging for unauthorised users to access your information.

In this article, well tell you how passkeys work and how you can set it up. Lets dive in!

Also read: Microsofts VASA-1: AI tool that can turn photos into realistic talking faces

Starting today, you can use a passkey to access your Microsoft account using your face, fingerprint, or device PIN on Windows, Google, and Apple platforms, the company announced in a blogpost.

Also read: Microsoft Copilot Pro now available globally: Check how much it costs in India & what it offers

What are Passkeys?

Passkeys serve as an alternative to traditional passwords. They enable users to sign into their Microsoft personal, work, or school accounts using facial recognition, fingerprint, or a PIN. This method streamlines the sign-in process, enhancing convenience while bolstering security against phishing attempts.

How Passkeys work

Passkeys are different from passwords. Instead of just one secret code, passkeys use two special codes, called a key pair. One code stays safe on your device, protected by your biometrics or PIN. The other code is kept by the website or app where you set up the passkey. You need both codes to log in.

Because this key pair is unique, your passkey only works on the website or app you made it for. So, you wont accidentally log in to a fake website.

According to Microsoft, the best part about passkeys is that youll never need to worry about creating, forgetting or resetting passwords ever again.

How to create a Passkey for your Microsoft Account

On the device where you want to create the passkey, follow this link, and choose the face, fingerprint, PIN, or security key option. Then, follow the on-screen instructions.
SDC saw operating profits drop in 1Q24 due to weak iPhone sales and intensifying competition

With sluggish iPhone sales and intense competition from Chinese panel manufacturers, Samsung Display (SDC)'s operating profit in the first quarter of 2024 saw a 56% year-on-year decrease. How SDC will respond to this has received a lot of attention.

According to South Korea's TheElec, Samsung Electronics recently released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024. The revenue of its panel subsidiary, SDC, amounted to KRW5.39 trillion (approx. US$3.9 billion), with an operating profit of KRW340 billion. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 18% and 56%, with a quarterly decrease of 44% and 83% respectively.

Source: Samsung, compiled by DIGITIMES, May 2024.

Industry analysis suggests that the significant decline in operating profit for SDC in the first quarter of 2024 is largely due to the weak sales of the iPhone in the same period, as flexible OLED panels used in iPhones account for over 70% of SDC's operating profit. According to market research firm IDC, iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2024 totaled 50.1 million units, a 9.6% year-on-year decrease, with particularly noticeable sales declines in the Chinese market.

Amid the downturn in iPhone sales, Chinese smartphone manufacturers are expanding their inventories of smartphones and OLED panels to seize the gap left behind by the iPhone. Companies such as BOE, TCL CSOT, Tianma, and Visionox expect to fully utilize their 6th generation flexible OLED production lines by the end of 2024.

At the same time, there has been an increase in demand for SDC's rigid OLED panels, which has led to an increase in the utilization rate of A2 rigid OLED production lines, effectively mitigating the decline in revenue. However, to compete with Chinese manufacturers's flexible OLEDs, SDC couldn't raise prices, which affected profitability.

SDC stated that in the small and medium-sized display business in the first quarter, flexible OLED production responded timely to the launch of high-end smartphones by major customers, and the utilization rate of rigid OLED also improved due to increased sales. However, due to intensified market competition, revenue declined slightly. In the second quarter, although sales are expected to grow with the expansion of demand for new foldable devices and IT products, performance improvement will likely be limited due to market competition.

Regarding the large-size display business, market demand declined during the slack season, but Samsung effectively reduced the scale of losses by launching new QD-OLED products. In the second quarter, it will steadily meet the demand of major customers and promote the sales of high-end displays.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, SDC expects a slight growth in the smartphone market compared to 2023, with OLED penetration continuing to increase. Therefore, it will maintain its competitive advantage through low-power-consumption, high-durability flexible OLEDs, while accelerating the replacement of LCD panels with rigid OLEDs by reducing costs.

In addition, SDC plans to apply the latest technology to new foldable products in 2024, improving panel performance in wrinkles, scratch resistance, power consumption, and more, thereby widening the quality gap with competitors.

In the large-size QD-OLED segment, SDC will increase production capacity without additional investment, dedicated to improving production efficiency, aiming to increase the proportion of sales of high-end products. At the same time, SDC will expand the proportion of IT and automotive displays to diversify its business structure.
Microsoft CEO wraps up Southeast Asia tour, pledging billions into AI talent boost and establishment of data centers

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's tour across Southeast Asia has concluded, having visited three key countries: Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, as part of the company's strategic outreach efforts in the region.

The company announced plans to cultivate 2.5 million individuals across Southeast Asia with AI skills by 2025, spanning Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

First stop: Indonesia

Nadella's journey commenced in Indonesia, where Microsoft announced a substantial investment of US$1.7 billion into the nation on April 30th. This investment is set to bolster the country's digital transformation efforts, focusing on expanding cloud services and advancing AI capabilities.

The company's regional pledge to train 2.5 million talents with AI skills entails approximately 840,000 individuals in Indonesia. In addition, plans for establishing data centers were discussed, with potential locations suggested by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, such as Bali or the future capital, Nusantara.

Bloomberg has reported during Nadella's stop in the country, the Microsoft CEO told hundreds of local attendees in Jakarta that AI is going to be the next major bend in the curve of GDP growth. "This is going to have a real impact even in Indonesia where we will have in the region 10%-12% extra growth," Nadella says.

Second stop: Thailand

Transitioning to Thailand, Nadella announced a new data center will be built in the country while jointly attending the company's AI Day event on May 1st with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Nadella also reiterated Microsoft's 2025 AI talent pledge, aiming to bolster 100,000 talents capable of controlling AI tools in the country.

Nadella signed a cooperation memorandum with the Thai government that aligns with the country's ambitious vision for a digital-first, AI-driven future, as outlined in the country's "Ignite Thailand" plan. The goal is to build Thailand into a regional digital economic center by 2030 through further innovation and stronger R&D capabilities.

The collaboration aims to strengthen sectors like tourism by leveraging AI tools to enhance visitor experiences and drive economic growth. The Thai government announced in 2023 that it will increase the tourism GDP to 25% of the national GDP.

Last stop: Malaysia

The tour concluded in Malaysia on May 2nd, where Nadella announced a significant investment of US$2.2 billion in the country's digital infrastructure. This investment encompasses the development of essential infrastructure for cloud computing and AI services, along with extensive training programs designed to equip 200,000 individuals with AI skills as part of the pledge.

This is Microsoft's largest investment in Malaysia in its 32-year history. Notably, Microsoft established its first data center in Malaysia in 2021. Throughout the tour, Nadella emphasized Microsoft's long-term commitment to Southeast Asia and its belief in the transformative power of AI.

By partnering with governments and investing in digital infrastructure and talent development, Microsoft aims to accelerate the region's digital transformation journey, driving sustainable growth and fostering innovation across various sectors. Microsoft cites data from research firm Kearney, indicating that by 2030, AI is expected to contribute US$1 trillion to the GDP of the Southeast Asian region, with Indonesia poised to capture $366 billion, Thailand $117 billion, and Malaysia $115 billion.
Taiwan weighs hydrogen future amid renewable energy hurdles

Hydrogen is a critical decarbonization vector and can connect and reshape current power, gas, chemicals, and fuel markets.

Partnerships and collaborations are crucial elements for the success of hydrogen endeavors, transcending individual companies and spanning industries and geographies. According to statistics from the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey, estimates of the total required investment are around US$7 to 8 trillion across the hydrogen value chain through 2050, generating about US$3 trillion in revenue in 2050 across the hydrogen economy.

According to Olivier Letessier, president of Air Liquide's Far East, for Taiwan to realize its ambitions in the burgeoning hydrogen economy, it must first overcome a significant obstacle: a lack of renewable energy sources.

As a world leader in industrial gases, Air Liquide's involvement in the hydrogen ecosystem encompasses advanced technologies for hydrogen production, storage, and delivery. Instances include innovative electrolyzer technology implemented in Canada and the management of hydrogen stations in Japan.

While global players like Japan, South Korea, and China have raced ahead on hydrogen, Taiwan is taking a more cautious approach as it grapples with boosting renewable power generation. "For this to be successful and move to the next step, we need renewable energy to produce low-carbon hydrogen. One of the challenges in Taiwan is to develop enough renewable energy."

Credit: Hydrogen Council and McKinsey

In a net-zero world, demand for clean hydrogen could reach approximately 660 million metric tons (MT) in 2050, making up 22% of the final energy demand globally. Hydrogen has emerged as a potential green energy vector that could help nations and industries decarbonize.

When derived from renewable sources like wind or solar, hydrogen produces no direct carbon emissions when used in fuel cells or burned. Major economies are investing billions to develop hydrogen supply chains and technologies.

Taiwan, a manufacturing powerhouse for semiconductors and electronics, could play an integral role in that hydrogen supply chain, according to Letessier. With its vast experience in advanced manufacturing, he says Taiwan is well-positioned to produce key hydrogen components like electrolyzers, fuel cells, and membranes.

"The reputation and skills Taiwan has developed over the years in manufacturing will put it on the map as a destination of choice," Letessier said.

However, before those opportunities can be realized, Taiwan must find a way to scale up renewable energy production from sources like offshore wind. Only then can it start using that clean power to produce low-carbon "green" hydrogen through electrolysis.

Some promising transportation use cases could involve high-utilization commercial fleets like trucks and taxis, rather than personal vehicles, Letessier noted. However, regulatory reforms may also be needed - current Taiwanese rules cap hydrogen storage at 200 bar of pressure, inadequate for long-range mobility.

Cooperation between government and industry will also be critical, mirroring past energy transitions, Letessier said. Potential policy levers include subsidies for investments in hydrogen, as well as taxes on carbon emissions to make alternative fuels more cost-competitive.

For Taiwan's hydrogen ambitions to take flight, renewable energy - currently less than 10% of its power mix - will be the critical first step.
Apple attributes sales decline to previous high base, anticipates growth in coming quarter

Apple reported a fall in sales over the past quarter due to the high base effect and a few product launches a year ago. Apple anticipates a return to growth in the current quarter and is optimistic about stimulating growth through the forthcoming product launch event and a developer conference.

Apple's financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 (October 2023 to September 2024) show that its net sales declined by 4.31% to US$90.75 billion, with profit falling by 2.17% to US$23.64 billion. Except for Europe, Apple witnessed sales fall across geographies, including an 8% fall in Greater China.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple reported an all-time revenue record in Services, and was thrilled to launch Apple Vision Pro, adding that the company is looking forward to an exciting product announcement next week and an incredible WWDC in June.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Apple's active installed base of devices reached a new all-time high across products and geographics. Maestri said at the earnings call that Apple expects June quarter revenue to grow low-single digits year-on-year, with Services continuing to grow at a double-digit rate. iPad revenue is also expected to grow double-digit, implying a new iPad launch on May 7.

Business performances

Cook said at the earnings call that Apple set an all-time revenue record in Services, which reported a 14% growth in sales over the past year.

iPhone sales experienced a setback in the March quarter of 2023 due to a nearly US$5 billion impact because of COVID-related disruptions in the supply chain during the preceding December quarter of 2022, which prompted the need to replenish iPhone inventory channels and fulfill pent-up demand in the subsequent quarter. According to Cook, iPhone sales would have shown growth during that period without this one-time effect.

Mac sales grew by 4% to US$7.5 billion thanks to the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Air, powered by the M3 chip. iPad revenue for the March quarter was down 17% to US$5.6 billion due to the high base effect of the M2 iPad Pro launched a year ago. The Wearables, Home, and Accessories revenue was down 10% year-on-year for similar reasons as Apple introduced the new AirPods Pro, the Watch SE, and the first Watch Ultra in 2023.

Vision Pro and AI performances remain to be seen

Apple launched the Vision Pro in early February 2024. Cook said it has been wonderful to hear from people who now get to experience the magic of spatial computing, and it's great to see the enthusiasm from the enterprise market as to the product, with more than half of the Fortune 100 companies having bought Vision Pro to explore innovative usages.

Cook did not elaborate on Apple's AI strategy but only said the company believes in AI's transformative power and promise and that Apple has advantages that will make a difference.

Cook said that despite the 8% fall in sales in Greater China, Apple still saw iPhone shipment growth in some markets, including China. Furthermore, Apple set revenue records in more than a dozen countries and regions, including Latin America and the Middle East, Canada, India, Spain, and Turkey.

Bloomberg Intelligence released a note saying that the sales fall of 8% in Greater China was lower than their estimates of 11%. On top of that, the low-single-digit growth in the fiscal third quarter may point to some stabilization in sales. However, with competition escalating, Apple might not experience immediate relief.

Apple financial summary (US$m) Financial 2QFY23 3QFY23 4QFY23 1QFY24 2QFY24 YoY for 2QFY24 (%) Net sales 94,836 81,797 89,498 119,575 90,753 -4.31 Gross profit 41,976 36,413 40,427 54,855 42,271 0.7 Operating income 28,318 22,998 26,969 40,373 27,900 -1.48 Net income 24,160 19,881 22,956 33,916 23,636 -2.17

Source: Apple, May 2024

Apple sales by geography (US$m) Geography 2QFY23 3QFY23 4QFY23 1QFY24 2QFY24 YoY for 2QFY24 (%) Americas 37,784 35,383 40,115 50,430 37,273 -1.35 Europe 23,945 20,205 22,463 30,397 24,123 0.74 Greater China 17,812 15,758 15,084 20,819 16,372 -8.08 Rest of Asia Pacific 8,119 5,630 6,331 10,162 6,723 -17.19 Japan 7,176 4,821 5,505 7,767 6,262 -12.74

Source: Apple, May 2024

Apple sales by business (US$m) Business 2QFY23 3QFY23 4QFY23 1QFY24 2QFY24 YoY for 2QFY24 (%) Products 73,929 60,584 67,184 96,458 66,886 -9.53 iPhone 51,334 39,669 43,805 69,702 45,963 -10.46 Wearables, Home & Accessories 8,757 8,284 9,322 11,953 7,913 -9.64 Mac 7,168 6,840 7,614 7,780 7,451 3.95 iPad 6,670 5,791 6,443 7,023 5,559 -16.66 Services 20,907 21,213 22,314 23,117 23,867 14.16

Source: Apple, May 2024
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Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Four children were among six people rescued after being washed up on the rocks off the coast of Dublin.

The rescue mission involved volunteer crew of the Howth RNLI as well as a Coast Guard helicopter.

A family got into difficulty after their powerboat experienced engine failure and ended up on the rocks at Lambay island, off the north Dublin coast.

The all-weather lifeboat was launched within 10 minutes of the 2.37pm alert with seven crew on board.

Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 and Skerries RNLI were also tasked to the emergency.

A spokesman for Howth RNLI said rescue crew discovered that the family had abandoned the boat and were on the rocks but were unable to safely make it ashore to the island.

Our volunteer crew were involved in a multi-agency rescue of a family whose boat ended up on rocks at Lambay island today.@IrishCoastGuard helicopter Rescue 116 winched all six people to safety. Read more here: https://t.co/ZkzdJwBtCh pic.twitter.com/Wj2OUs3OFE  Howth RNLI (@HowthRNLI) May 3, 2024

The lifeboat crew launched their daughter boat  the XP boat  which allowed crew members to get in close to rocks to assist.

The Rescue 116 helicopter lowered a winchman to assess the family and observed that all were in good health and wearing lifejackets.

In consultation with the crew on the XP boat  and given the conditions on scene  the decision was taken that the safest approach to the rescue was to winch the family on board the helicopter.

The crew in the XP boat cleared the area to allow the helicopter to commence the winching operation.

The family were winched one-by-one on board the helicopter and taken to Rescue 116s base at Dublin Airport.

The volunteer lifeboat crew from Skerries RNLI, on board their Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat, attempted to recover the powerboat but given the conditions and the location of the boat on rocks, it was unable to safely recover the boat.

Speaking following the rescue, the Coxswain of Howth RNLI Fred Connolly, who was in command of the lifeboat, said: Today we launched to an emergency involving a family including four children who were washed up on rocks and unable to make their way to safety.

Once on scene, our crew quickly launched the XP boat so that we could get in close and assess the situation.

Given the treacherous location, the decision was taken to recover all six casualties on board Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

The family were all wearing lifejackets and although shaken, were in good health. They did the right thing in calling for help as soon as they got into difficulty.

Our volunteer crew commit to dropping what they are doing and responding to the pager once it goes off, knowing that lives can be in danger.

We train regularly for these situations and we are able to do this thanks to the generous donations of our supporters.

The callout comes at the beginning of the May bank holiday weekend, which traditionally sees the start of the summer busy season and an expected increase in demand for lifesaving services.

This May, the charity is putting out its own Mayday call, urging members of the local community to take part in the Mayday Mile  taking on the challenge of covering a mile a day for the month of May.

Funds raised will help support the charitys vital lifesaving work, including the provision of important training and kit for the volunteer lifeboat crews who readily risk their own lives to save others whenever the call for help comes in.

Members of the public are encouraged to sign up for the Mayday Mile, with more information available at rnli.org/SupportMayday
Over 97k has been allocated to Louth County Council to support their community function.

This additional funding will in particular support the work of the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) through Additional Staff Resource (ASR) payments.

Minister Joe OBrien TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development yesterday announced an increase in funding of almost 1m nationally to local authorities to support their community functions.

The allocation of additional funding arises from a comprehensive review of the work of the LCDCs.

The review found that since their creation, the LCDCs have been performing an ever expanding range of functions and there was a clearly evidenced need for continued funding to support them in delivering upon their core work.

ASR funding has been provided annually to the local authorities since 2017 as a contribution towards their community functions, and in particular the staffing of the LCDCs.

Minister OBrien said:

The Department of Rural and Community Development has a clear, people-centred, mission:

To promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland.

I am pleased to be able to provide additional funding of almost 1m to assist the community function of all 31 Local Authorities nationwide supporting this mission and supporting rural and community development throughout the country.
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Irelands top university has fined its student union more than 200,000 euro over protests on campus.

Regarded as Irelands most prestigious university, Trinity College Dublin fined its undergraduate student union 214,285 euro after a series of demonstrations about fees and rent as well as pro-Palestinian solidarity protests.

The students decision to blockade access to a key tourist attraction on the campus was cited as one of the reasons for the fine.

Visitors were prevented from accessing the famous Long Room library during the protests that also prevented tourists from viewing the Book of Kells, which is considered to be a national treasure.

Speaking to the PA news agency, the president of the students union accused senior management at the university of an ill-fated attempt to threaten and suppress its protest.

Laszlo Molnarfi said: Our fight for Palestinian liberation and to make our university adopt the principles of boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) has seen us blockade and take disruptive action which is now being criminalised, essentially.

The union was issued with an invoice for partial losses incurred as a result of disruption to normal TCD operations.

Five dates between September 13 and March 13 are listed on the invoice, with payment due on May 30.

Mr Molnarfi compared the reaction of the university to ongoing protests in the US, where college security and police officers have clashed with students.

The student activist said he and others had been called for a disciplinary hearing with the junior dean.

Mr Molnarfi, who believes the university may escalate to threats of suspension or expulsion, accused Trinity College Dublin of caring more about tourists than students.

He said that students with unpaid fines may be prohibited from graduating.

In a statement, Trinity College said it is a not-for-profit organisation that cannot survive solely on Government funding and depends on other sources of income.

A spokeswoman said the income generated from the Book of Kells is vital to keep the university going and that it supports initiatives such as student services and the student hardship fund

Any loss of income at the Book of Kells Experience directly affects our ability to deliver services for our students, not to mention our legal obligation to financially balance the books.

The student protests involving blockades of the Book of Kells Experience has had a negative financial impact as visitors could not enter.

Trinity has an obligation to protect the Book of Kells which is a national treasure.

The university supports students right to protest within the rules of the university.

Asked about a potential disciplinary hearing for student union officials, the spokeswoman said the college does not comment on individual students or their correspondence with the junior dean.
Three young Irishmen accused of million dollar thefts of luxury items including jewellery and designer handbags have been arrested in Australia.

According to 9 News Melbourne, the trio have allegedly been linked to more than 60 home invasions and burglaries across Melbourne, allegedly working as part of a sophisticated syndicate.

In a May 2 report on the arrests, Journalist Neary Ty said, "They are known for living a transient lifestyle, but tonight these Irish nationals are calling a jail cell home.

"They were scooped up this morning at a Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport allegedly trying to flee the country.

"[The] three young men aged 19, 24 and 25 are accused of a crime spree targeting the wealthy across Melbourne."

Detective Senior Sergeant, Brendan Pollock, said, "They see this as work and this is the way of earning a living.

"It's rich pickings, so to speak, for these kind of criminals to be able to ship the items back home."

Ty continued: "Police will allege these men are part of a broader network of fly-in fly-out burglars, even bringing their families and children with them.

"Some of their alleged crimes have been described as quasi-military in style, allegedly using cleaning products like bleach to remove any traces of DNA.

"Sources have told 9 News once the offenders in the syndicate serve time and are deported to the UK, their identities are easily changed only to fly back down under to fleece more victims."

Detective Pollock described them as "very sophisticated".

He said, "They're very networked, it's a worldwide style of offending. These arrests are significant in terms of sending a message."

The three men have since been charged and are reportedly facing court today (May 3).

Three Irish Nationals, allegedly working as part of a sophisticated syndicate and accused of stealing jewels, luxury handbags and cash worth a million dollars, have been arrested. @NearyTy_9 #9News pic.twitter.com/uPN2hC0UGF  9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) May 2, 2024

Irish social media users have commented on the news online.

One X user wrote, "Name and shame so we here in Ireland can make an example of them when they get back home. Disgraceful."

Another wrote, "Well done lads. Good to see the Irish diaspora making something of themselves."

Another commented, "When the Australian government say they are going to send a message, you can be assured that they will do exactly that. These lads, if found guilty, are going to go down for a very very long time."

Others wondered why the Irishmen will be deported to the UK and not to Ireland.

One X user wrote, "If they are Irish nationals, why is your reporter saying they will be deported to the UK? Just in case you dont know, Ireland is not part of the UK!"

Another commented, "If they are being deported to the UK and hold British citizenship then they are UK nationals."
Irelands premier Simon Harris hailed the impact of the return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont as he began his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

Mr Harris met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration.

However, Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseachs office had not always been good in the past.

Mr Harriss visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle ONeill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived.

After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs.

After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the incredible leadership of Northern Irelands First and deputy First Ministers during a brief press conference at which there was limited scope for the media to ask questions.

He said: It has been a really good engagement.

I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north.

I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and Im extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in.

Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus.

Mr Harris was elected as Irelands youngest ever Taoiseach last month.

Ms ONeill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund.

She said: I am very glad he has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund.

A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week thats been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road.

Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again.

She added: We talked about some of the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects.

The DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly said: We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseachs office have not always been good in the last number of years.

But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the Government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom.

But of course there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together.

Those are set out in terms of the areas of co-operation.

But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships.

The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships.

Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders.

Afterwards, Alliance party leader Naomi Long said she raised the need for reforms of the Stormont institutions to remove the ability for any one party to collapse the institutions in the future.

Im very conscious always of the vulnerability of the institutions, she said.

Ms Long expressed concern that complacency would emerge around the issue of reform now that powersharing was back up and running.

The East Belfast MLA also raised the recent diplomatic tensions between the UK and Ireland over migration issues.

She described the spat over the Rwanda scheme as a bit of a phoney war and also appeared to question the basis for the claim that 80% of asylum seekers recently arrived in the Republic of Ireland had entered from Northern Ireland.

These arent figures that we would recognise, Ms Long said, as she stressed the need for clarity on the numbers.

She added: Whilst were not responsible for migration in Northern Ireland (the Home Office is), we do have an ethical and moral obligation to look after people who are within our remit and in our jurisdiction.

UUP leader Doug Beattie described his discussions with Mr Harris as friendly.

It really was a bit of a grip and grin meeting just to sort of say hello to each other, he said.

Mr Beattie said he pressed Mr Harris to do more on issues around the legacy of the Troubles, including setting up a public inquiry in Ireland into the Omagh bomb of 1998.

The UUP leader insisted there was no need for any reset of relations between his party and the Irish Government, insisting that the relationship had never faltered.

Our relationships have been strong all along, he said.

Weve continued to meet, weve continued to have good dialogue, weve continued to express concerns. Thats what good neighbours do. If we have concerns, we should be able to openly and respectfully express them and weve always had that. So, where some people might need to reset their relationship with the Irish Government, thats for them, but certainly as a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party I think our relationships remain strong.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said much of his discussions with Mr Harris concentrated on migration.

He said the Taoiseach made it very clear that an open border on the island of Ireland was non negotiable.

Mr Eastwood said the noises coming from the UK Government over migration and Ireland were primarily motivated by a desire to shore up its support in the local and general elections.

One thing that I think unites lots of people in the north of Ireland is the need to get rid of this Tory Government, so the sooner they call that election the better, he added.

The Taoiseach left Stormont for a working lunch with business stakeholders prior to a scheduled engagement at the Duncairn arts centre focused on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

That visit came ahead of a final engagement at Queens University Belfast for a meeting with academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Governments Shared Island Fund.
THE great and good of Irelands cheesemaking community gathered recently in the charming 19th century Orangerie amongst the Regency glamour of Kilshane House in Co Tipperary, to celebrate the winners of the 2024 Cais Irish Cheese Awards.

Cais is the Association of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers, established in 1983 with the aim of showcasing what was, at the time, Irelands burgeoning farmhouse cheese movement. That movement began with the late Veronica Steele who, alongside her husband Norman, created Milleens, the semi-soft washed rind cheese created from the milk of their one-horned cow, Brisket, in Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula.

That cheese was discovered by the likes of Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe House and Declan Ryan of Arbutus Lodge, and has since been recognised for its position in the revolutionary big bang that kick started Irelands artisan food movement.

Around the same time, Jeffa Gill created Durrus Cheese, Giana Ferguson developed the first expression of Gubeen Cheese, and Dick and Helene Wilhems were perfecting Coolea  all in West Cork.

Sometimes, when we talk about these iconic West Cork farmhouse cheeses, its as though they have been with us forever, yet they have been part of our gastronomic landscape for just four and a half decades.

Incredible to think how much we owe to the people who make these cheeses for the vibrant larder of quality artisanal foods we have access to easily, today.

Fast forward, and Bord Bia estimates there to be in the region of 200 different farmhouse cheeses produced by 70 cheesemakers. This year, Cais received 175 entries across 17 categories including Raw Milk, Blue, Smoked, aged cheeses and cheese with added flavours.

As might be expected for a county where the Irish farmhouse cheese revolution began, Cork makers were well represented across all categories, picking up six bronze, six silver, and six gold awards.

Winning makers included Durrus, Coolea, Hegarty, Macroom Buffalo Cheese, Dottie & Dora, Carbery, Drinagh, Ardsallagh, Milleens, Carrigaline, Gubbeen, and Bandon Vale, with all corners of the county taking home honours.

But it was about to get a whole lot better with the announcement that Cork would be taking home two very prestigious titles: Supreme Champion and Lifetime Achievement.

Supreme Champion Hegartys Cheese, established in 2001, is located on the edge of Cork city in Whitechurch. Dan has been making his pasteurised and raw milk cheeses for over two decades, alongside French cheesemaker Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin who joined in 2016. Dans father, Jim, tends their herd of Irish Friesian cows and manages the grass.

Templegall is a Swiss-style cheese made with raw milk and aged for at least nine months. This year, Hegartys Templegall was selected as the Supreme ChampionToon. A delighted Dan was  almost  lost for words on receiving his award, the second time this cheese has been selected to be Supreme Champion at these awards.

Were absolutely thrilled to have retained the Supreme Champion title. Templegall Extra Mature is only made during summer months when the cows are grazing outside and at their happiest, with milk produced in the morning. Having complete control over the entire process, from what the cows eat to when we make it, is what allows us to produce such an outstanding cheese. It might only take us half a morning to make, but then theres a whole year of careful minding to ensure we achieve the quality of the cheese were looking for.

Lifetime Achievement Award Dick and Helene Willems established Coolea in 1979, making cheese to a very old Dutch Gouda recipe using pasteurised milk from their own cows. Coolea Cheese is aged for at least two months, the extra mature for around 18 months, as well as a selection of cheeses with added flavours. But it is perhaps their extra mature cheese, with its crumbly, fudgy texture studded with salt crystals and flavours of toffee and apricot that encapsulates why Coolea Cheese is much loved by cheese lovers and chefs everywhere.

Dick and Helene have been quietly making Coolea for 45 years, dedicated to producing quality farmhouse cheeses. They are worthy winners of this years Cais Lifetime Achievement Award.

In his acceptance speech, Dick Willems said that he became a member of Cais early on because he knew making cheese can be a very lonesome experience. He leaned on the association and its links with organisations as diverse as Teagasc, Bord Bia, and UCCs school of dairy science to troubleshoot, problem solve, and figure out how to get the cheese he made in the mountains of west Cork into the hands of retailers, chefs and consumers across Ireland.

Were both extremely grateful and proud of this award and feel incredibly honoured to have been acknowledged in this way. As one of the founding members, were hugely thankful for the opportunities that being a part of the Association over the last 40 years has given us to work with, and for, so many fantastic farmhouse cheesemakers all over Ireland. The current chairperson of Cais is Tom Dinneen who, together with his wife Norma, established Bo Rua farmhouse cheese based near Fermoy.

Celebrating excellence at the Irish Cheese Awards not only honours our rich heritage, but also propels us towards a vibrant future, says Tom. By acknowledging and commending the dedication of individual cheesemakers, these awards ignite innovation, enhance standards, and nurture a thriving community of Irish cheesemakers. Together, we are forging a legacy of quality and sustainability securing the lasting success of Irish farmhouse cheesemaking for generations to come. For the full list of all the 2024 Cais Irish Farmhouse Cheese Award winners, visit www.irishcheese.ie
FULLY illustrated with band photos, record covers, 400 musical arrangements and original handwritten scores, Ceoltoiri Chualann: The Band That Changed The Course Of Irish Music is a stunning tome.

Written by Cork musician Peadar O Riada, it charts the birth and rise of the legendary traditional Irish music ensemble, Ceoltoiri Chualann.

Founded by his father and Cuil Aodhas most famous son, the iconic Sean O Riada, the book gives a fly-on-the-wall insight into the complex workings behind the scenes, as this trailblazing collective of Irelands finest musicians redefined the landscape for Irish music and, more broadly, for Irish culture, around the world.

Drawn extensively from the records of Eamon de Buitlear, Michael Tubridy, and the authors family archives, the narrative is enriched by personal anecdotes and insights, particularly from Sean O Se, who played a vital role in shaping the account.

Peadar says the book is an homage not only to his fathers genius but to the lads in the band for whom there is a great bond of love and affection.

The fact that, as a young boy, Peadar sat in on all the rehearsals, breathing in the vibrant communion of energy, artistry, music, and later joined their ranks as a player himself, gives the account a rare intimacy and authenticity.

Ceoltoiri Chualann: The Band That Changed The Course Of Irish Music, written by Peadar O Riada (pictured below left)

The book offers an unprecedented look into the ensembles creative process through details of record dates, rehearsals, and performances/concerts, and a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the ensembles artistic journey, from studio recordings to live performances, emphasising the rigorous practice and dedication behind their memorable concerts and recordings.

At the heart of it all is Sean O Riada, a remarkable visionary whose commitment to preserving the traditions of The Great Gaelic Nation set him far apart from his peers.

My father had a wonderful gift of languages, says Peader. This included a penchant for Greek and Latin, and Sean had the same effortless gift when it came to reading and writing music.

Deputy Director of Music on RTE Radio 1, and Musical Director for the Abbey Theatre, his openness to pushing the boundaries for traditional Irish music by assembling a collection of the finest musicians in the land who were up to task (including the brilliant Paddy Moloney and Martin Fay, who later went on to form the world-renowned Chieftains), meant experimentation was possible.

This innovative process appeared to be a seamless, organic one.

Sean melded his love of traditional Irish tunes with his more formal classical training, which he completed at UCC under the late Aloys Fleischmann.

He wrote elaborate arrangements for the band, weaving complex orchestrations and contrapuntal melodies into traditional tunes which had been passed down, intact, through the generations.

My father was very clear-minded when it came to writing music.

"He never did any advance rough notes, never preparatory sketch work. He wrote what he heard in his head, explains Peadar. Even his seminal work, Mise Eire, was written this way.

He was a genius.

Sean O Riada had an innate understanding and appreciation for the blend of instruments, and devised a unique system within the band for modifying the colour and shape of each musical piece, every time it was played.

The book gives us intimate insights into these ever-evolving creative and symbiotic moments within the band, which are utterly fascinating.

This melange of musical styles became their unique voice as a collective and was carefully and meticulously recorded in their Reacaireacht and Fleadh Cheoil an Radio programmes on RTE Radio 1 from 1962 to 1969.

Through his collaboration with Gael Linn, Sean O Riada began recording LPs. At a time when traditional music was marginalised, recording an album of Irish music was hardly considered a commercially sound decision. However, Gael Linn was an innovative and bold organisation, and took the risk.

The first LP was Poc ar Buile, sung by Sean O Se. The success of the song surprised many.

It became ubiquitous in all schools and community gatherings around the country, insists Peadar, and O Se was nicknamed the Pucker, a name that has followed him around the world for the past seven decades.

There was a small cadre of creative and cultural people who made up the artistic pool of Ireland at that time, explains Peadar, and his father Sean was at the epicentre.

It was no surprise that he attracted the attention of the late, great filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, and there is a very funny anecdote in the book about his visit to the O Riada home.

My father was like the man at the front of the barricade, carrying the flag, aiming to feed the future with just enough of the past, says Peadar.

However, while there are hundreds of musical arrangements in this book alone, and a wealth of live recordings too, Peadar insists his father didnt necessarily set out to create a massive repository of music for successive generations of musicians.

My father kept everything, explains Peadar, not out of a sense of archival responsibility but because he couldnt throw anything away.

He operated a heap-system, he adds, when heaps got too big, he would put them on the floor and start again.

At a time when traditional Irish music was being marginalised, it is clear from the book that Sean and the band had a clear sense of responsibility and duty to the preservation of our innate culture.

They created a vast wealth of recordings and an abundance of meticulous notes and music, transcribed for posterity.

There are more than 400 arrangements in this book alone, making it a prized possession for musicians and enthusiasts alike.

In the words of Martin Hayes, fiddler, this book is the extraordinary story of a musical vision that changed the trajectory of traditional Irish music. A seminal work that belongs on every music lovers shelf.

Ceoltoiri Chualann: The Band That Changed The Course Of Irish Music, by Peadar O Riada, is available in all good book stores now.

Peadar O Riada is a composer, musician, choir director and broadcaster.
A member of Cork City Council has taken issue with a claim that no effort has been made to compulsorily purchase one of Corks most significant derelict stately homes.

Last July, Cork City Council took the decision to name the new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the N40 the Vernon Mount Bridge after the adjacent Vernon Mount site, which has fallen into extreme dereliction in recent years.

Vernon Mount House, a neo-classical Georgian mansion built in the 1780s and overlooking the South Ring road, had contained significant murals by 18th century artist Nathaniel Grogan.

In private ownership since the 1990s, the house had fallen into ruin after an investment company was refused planning permission for a hotel and residential property development on the site.

Following years of anti-social behaviour, the building was badly damaged in a fire in 2016, three years after Cork County Council had used its powers under the 2000 Planning and Development Act and intervened to repair a leaking roof, at a cost of 170,000.

In 2019, following the city boundary extension, Vernon Mount came under the jurisdiction of Cork City Council, and in December 2020, Fine Gael councillor Shane OCallaghan succeeded in getting the property placed on the Derelict Sites Register, making the owners liable for an annual levy of 7% of its market value.

Calls for CPO

Since then, Peter Horgan, the Labour Partys local election candidate in Cork City South East, has consistently called on the city council to purchase Vernon Mount and last year Mr OCallaghan made a similar call.

Labour Party TD for Cork East, Sean Sherlock, was recently told by Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe that the Office of Public Works (OPW) was not aware of any attempt by Cork City Council to compulsorily acquire the property.

Mr Horgan last week said it was ironic that the city council had named its newest pedestrian bridge after Vernon Mount, while the historic property had been allowed to fall into dereliction. He criticised the council for not attempting to purchase the site.

Its frankly shocking how disinterested authorities are in this piece of history of Cork. The OPW seem to be making every effort to not get involved, while the onus remains on the council to take the first steps, Mr Horgan said.

Responding to Mr Horgans comments, Mr OCallaghan said it was unfair to say the city council had done nothing to compulsorily purchase the site.

I was instrumental in getting Vernon Mount placed on the Derelict Sites Register in late 2020, and the policy of Cork City Council is that, after a site has been on the Derelict Sites Register for three years, it is then put on a list to be considered for a compulsory purchase order.

I know for a fact that Vernon Mount is now on that list, but unfortunately a determination has been made that it will not be subject to a compulsory purchase order this year. However, it is on the list for consideration.

It remains on the list, and I will be raising the matter again, so it isnt correct to say that nothing has been done to bring it into public ownership, Mr OCallaghan said.

A Cork City Council spokesperson said: We can confirm that Cork City Council has engaged with a range of parties with an interest in the site.
AN Bord Pleanala has approved plans for a sizeable mixed-use development in the centre of Carrigtwohill.

In March 2022, a planning application was submitted to Cork County Council by Ardarostig Developments Ltd, seeking permission for the demolition of sheds and storage buildings at the site on Main St and the construction of a mixed-use development in five buildings, ranging in height from a single storey to three.

The development, the application said, would consist of 43 residential units  14 one-bed and 29 two-bed  and mixed uses including retail, offices, a pharmacy, and a cafe.

The application also sought permission for other elements, including car parking and bicycle parking.

Cork County Council sought some further information, before making a decision, which resulted in some minor changes and the local authority approving the development, subject to 50 conditions.

However, the progression was stalled after appeals were lodged with An Bord Pleanala.

A CGI of the proposed development.

A first-party appeal sought the omission of one of the conditions, which stipulated that the developer had to pay a special contribution of 763,428 to Cork County Council, in respect of works proposed to be carried out for the provision of Cobh Cross Interim Upgrade, new link road, URDF works on Main St/Station Rd, [and] URDF public car parking provision.

The local authority said it considered it appropriate that the developer should contribute towards these specific exceptional costs for works, which will benefit the proposed development.

An appeal, lodged on behalf of the applicants, said the condition came as a surprise and would have negative implications for the viability of constructing the scheme.

It said the special-contribution charges sought under the condition for the provision of infrastructure and facilities are neither exceptional nor specific to the proposed development.

The applicants insisted they were still opposed to the special contribution being required after Cork County Council reduced the amount sought to 536,168.

Meanwhile, a third-party appeal was submitted to the planning board in a bid to see the permission for the development overturned.

The appeal, submitted on behalf of the director of a company operating a local business, expressed a number of concerns, including that they believed the development would result in the diminution of the value of the existing business.

However, An Bord Pleanala said it considered that, subject to compliance with conditions, the proposed development would not seriously injure the residential amenities of properties in the vicinity, would not be detrimental to the character and amenity of the area, and would be acceptable in terms of pedestrian and traffic safety.

One condition is that a special contribution fee of 351,668 must be paid.

It is considered reasonable that the developer should contribute towards the specific, exceptional costs which are incurred by the planning authority in respect of public services, which are not covered in the Development Contribution Scheme or the Supplementary Development Contribution Scheme and which will benefit the proposed development, the board stated.
CORK currently has a deficit of more than 300 gardai, a member of the European Parliament has claimed.

Fianna Fail MEP for Ireland South, Billy Kelleher, said that a comparison of the total number of gardai per head of population meant that Irelands largest county was getting a raw deal when it comes to garda numbers.

At the end of March 2024, there was a total force strength of 14,058, he said.

Cork, with a population of over 580,000, has just 1,271 gardai.

With a national population of 5.127m, according to Census 2022, and 14,058 gardai in the country, there is a national average of one garda to every 365 people.

On a very simple comparison of garda numbers to population, Cork should have at least 1,600 gardai, said Mr Kelleher. This is a deficit of over 300 garda members in our city and rural towns.

According to the last census, Corks population is 584,156.

However, the Garda website states that, on March 31, 2023, the Cork City division had 668 gardai across all ranks, Cork North had 323, and Cork West had 280, giving a total of 1,271 gardai in the city and county.

Extra 120 gardai needed in city

A Cork city spokesperson for the Garda Representative Association, which represents rank-and-file members, noted that the ratio of gardai to the total population would be nominally higher in the Dublin Metropolitan Area, due to the number of national units located there.

However, the spokesperson said, the national average quoted would not be incorrect.

They added that, while there were 668 gardai across all ranks in Cork city in March  according to the most recent figures available to them  in December, the Cork City division had 562 rank-and-file gardai.

At a minimum, we would need between 680 and 700 frontline gardai to effectively police the city, meaning we would need approximately 120 extra uniformed gardai, said the spokesperson.

A spokesperson for Mr Kelleher said if a proportional shortfall were replicated across Cork county, with a commensurate shortfall in officers of higher ranks, then the deficit of gardai across Cork county would indeed be around 300+.

Issue raised on doorsteps

Crime figures for Cork last year showed significant increases in thefts from shops and in the number of reported incidents of crimes against property.

Last year, there were 4,601 crimes against property in Cork city  including 2,121 thefts from shops and 296 incidents of non-aggravated burglary.

Thefts from shops were the highest among property crimes in Cork North, where 474 incidents were reported, and Cork West, with 163 incidents.

Mr Kelleher said one of the biggest concerns he was hearing on the doorsteps related to crime and a perception that gardai were not visible in the community.

He added that people in Cork needed to feel safe, and they needed to see gardai on the beat again.

The Garda Press Office said: An Garda Siochana does not comment on the specific details of numbers attached to specific areas, which can vary ... and are kept under constant review.

It added that the Garda Commissioner has stated that the force needs to grow to 15,000 officers and further to meet the demands of a growing population.
MAKING breast cancer screening available to as many women as possible is a matter of life and death, the regional health forum meeting for the southern region heard yesterday.

The meeting, held in County Hall, saw wide support for a motion by Independent councillor Danny Collins that the HSE provide the BreastCheck truck come to Bantry at least once a year if not more.

Mr Collins noted that one of the mobile units comes to Bantry every 18 to 20 months, and will not return until the summer of 2025, saying some women will not be able to spare the time to make the long journey from West Cork to the city for a mammogram.

Midleton Fianna Fail councillor Anne Marie Ahern said she fully supported Mr Collins motion, and she further suggested that the council writes to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly asking that the age for testing be reduced from 50 to 40, a move she said would save lives.

Carrigaline Fianna Fail councillor Audrey Buckley said that two of her aunts had suffered breast cancer, and she described BreastCheck as life and death for people.

Fiona Murphy, chief executive officer of the National Screening Service, said the service has four static units and 24 mobile units working across the country, staying between three and five months in areas. She said that rather than making more visits to areas, what might be more helpful would be if the mobile units were able to stay for longer in some areas.

Ms Murphy said the service was currently looking at establishing a static location in Cork city, because doing so would allow a BreastCheck mobile unit to be freed up for visits outside of the city.

She said the screening service would be instigating a full review of the locations it visits in the county and how long it stays there. The service has asked Government to reduce the lower age for BreastCheck from 50 down to 45, Ms Murphy said, but, citing a lack of resources, she added it would not yet be possible to lower the age to 40.

Mr Collins said he would welcome a review of the BreastCheck service in the county.
A funeral home was burgled by a 34-year-old man who also carried out burglaries at two neighbouring properties, it was alleged this week, when gardai objected to bail being granted to him.

Daniel Jackson said, in Cork District Court, by video link from prison: I have had a permanent bed in Simon for the past three months. I would keep any bail conditions whatsoever.

Judge Mary Dorgan said: He is charged with three counts of burglary and one count of possession of a knife. On the basis of the seriousness of the charges and the nature of evidence in support of the charges, it is difficult for Mr Jackson in this case.

In addition, the situation is that he was found in possession of a knife and identified on CCTV. I am concerned that he was caught red-handed.

The judge then refused bail and adjourned the case until May 23. Sergeant John Kelleher said directions were awaited from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the refusal of bail would be appealed to the High Court.

Detective Garda Maurice Hickey outlined the allegations against Daniel Jackson, when the 34-year-old allegedly burgled AJ Tyres on Boreenmanna Road at 10.40pm on April 22 and tried to get into three cars parked outside. The second alleged offence related to a break-in at Jeremiah OConnors funeral home on Boreenmanna Road about 20 minutes later, and then the burgling of a house at Bellfield Abbey nearby half an hour after that, while armed with a knife and confronting two young Spanish men who were living there.

Det Garda Hickeys concern about Daniel Jackson was that he would not attend court if granted bail and would commit further serious offences and is a danger to the community. In terms of the risk, the detective pointed to allegations that he produced a knife after one burglary, when two Spanish nationals were at their home in Cork.
A SPANISH man who was caught drug dealing in Castletownbere was described as a vulnerable youth who was taken advantage of by a Cork city gang to transport drugs into West Cork.

Antonio Nicolas Orovio Munoz, aged 19, faced sentencing for counts of having four different drugs for sale or supply and having a small amount of magic mushrooms for personal use.

Detective Garda Shannon Ryan said a warrant was obtained to search the young mans home at Castletownbere, Co Cork, on March 31, 2023.

Stashes of drugs were found in his bedroom, the court heard. The man was present and he was co-operative in pointing out all of the drugs that were there. Follow-up forensic analysis established the street values for the four drug types that he had for the purpose of sale or supply: 7,400 worth of cocaine; 2,200 of cannabis resin; 3,000 of cannabis herb; and 1,100 of MDMA (ecstasy).

He also had a small amount of magic mushrooms for his own use, valued around 30.

Detective Garda Ryan said: He freely admitted selling controlled drugs for unnamed persons in Cork city. He is a Spanish national living in West Cork for the last five or six years. He was a self-confessed cannabis user and fell in with a Cork city gang.

Prosecution barrister Brendan Kelly suggested that the accused was vulnerable and taken advantage of by this gang.

Peter OFlynn, defence barrister, said: He was using cannabis from a very young age, even before he came to Ireland. He stopped for a while. Between [the] age of 16 and 17, he was taken advantage of, sent back down to West Cork [from the city] and given contacts. He is now back in full-time employment in Castletownbere. He has distanced himself from those he was involved with.

He is a young man from an extremely dysfunctional background. He was homeless in Madrid from a very young age. He was exposed to criminal activities in childhood. He has anxiety issues from the past. He was taken advantage of. He knew what he was doing, but he found it difficult to get out of the situation he was in.

Judge Jonathan Dunphy imposed a sentence of two years, and suspended it. The judge said: The total value of the drugs was in excess of 13,000. The value of the drugs is of serious concern.

In mitigation, there are his admissions to gardai, his guilty plea, the fact that he was only 18 at the time, and was operating under pressure of a drugs debt and otherwise has a good work history.
AHEAD of the bank holiday weekend, trolley figures in Cork showed no sign of reducing.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), there were 75 people on trolleys in hospitals across Cork yesterday morning.

It comes as the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare and South South West Hospital groups warned earlier this week emergency departments are often busier around bank holiday weekends.

All patients will always be seen and treated, with the most urgent patients prioritised. This means that patients with non-urgent injuries may face longer waiting times and these patients may get the treatment they need faster at an injury unit.

CUH had the second highest trolley number in the country with 64 patients on trolleys, just three behind University Hospital Limerick.

There were also five people on trolleys in Bantry General Hospital and six in the Mercy University Hospital.

It comes as the INMO revealed that 1,415 people were on a trolley in a Cork hospital over the month of April, with 1,096 patients on trolleys in CUH, 49 in Bantry, and 270 in The Mercy.

INMO assistant director of industrial relations, Colm Porter, told The Echo that it was a worrying trend that figures were still so high outside what would generally be considered peak times during the winter months.

Professor Conor Deasy, who is a professor in emergency medicine at both CUH and University College Cork, said what we expect to happen today is that a lot of patients will be discharged from the hospital ahead of the long weekend.
TWO young Cork filmmakers have won prizes at this years Young Filmmaker of The Year Awards, which took place earlier this week at Limericks Troy Studios.

Nora Twomey and Eoin Murphy were among 17 winners whose work was selected from 42 shortlisted films.

Irelands Young Filmmaker of the Year Awards, the culmination of the Fresh Film Festival, recognise the best in young Irish talent. All entrants must be under 18, and the work is produced by young people who work on all sides of the camera, including script writing, directing, and cinematography.

Nora Twomeys documentary Devil May Care, which won the Radharc Award, chronicles her journey to uncover her great-grandmother, May Caseys involvement in the Irish Civil War, a chapter of history often overlooked.

The actor Faye Shortt presented the award and explained what the Radharc jury looks for in a winning film.

The Radharc Jury always looks for a film that helps the audience understand the world a little better.

This year, the jury was very impressed with the range of stories, the technical standards and the passion to highlight issues that affect young people.

Twomey, who dedicated the award to her great-grandmother, wanted to highlight the many forgotten stories about womens role in history.

I wanted to highlight the activities of women during the Civil War, which, for a long time, were never spoken about, not even in schools. It was very important for me to make this documentary to write her back into history.

Nora Twomey with the Radharc Award at the Fresh Film Festival awards in Limerick - she won for her documentary, Devil May Care. Picture: Don Moloney

The jury selected Twomeys documentary as the winner, saying it demonstrated excellence in research, used a range of production techniques, and was personal and relevant to the filmmaker.

This is Twomeys second award for the documentary. She recently won Best Documentary at the First Cut Youth Film Festival in Youghal.

The second Cork winner was Eoin Murphy, who won Best Animation for his dark stop-motion animation Inferno, inspired by Dantes Inferno. The animation follows a characters descent into hell.

The animation award is a collaboration between the Fresh Film Festival and Animation Ireland. It recognises and celebrates excellence in young peoples animation work. The jury loved the film and recognised the skill and labour involved in making it.

Murphy thanked his family in his acceptance speech and quoted a proverb.

Only a fool tests the water with both feet. A true filmmaker jumps all the way in.

Throughout the awards ceremony, pre-recorded video slots with several of the festivals participants were screened, including Bishopstown Community School, who spoke about what it means to be a part of the festival with the actor Demi Isaac Oviawe.

The winning films are available to view on the Fresh YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/@freshfilmfestival
By Cillian Sherlock, PA

The Taoiseach is to meet Stormonts leaders during his first official visit to Northern Ireland on Friday.

Simon Harris, who became Taoiseach on April 9th, will meet First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly during his trip to Belfast.

He is expected to discuss developments in Northern Ireland since the restoration of its political institutions in February, as well as areas of common interest and potential opportunities for all-island co-operation.

He will be formally greeted at Parliament Buildings by the Speaker of the Assembly Edwin Poots, before he has bilateral meetings with Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and Colum Eastwood leader of the SDLP.

Simon Harris will meet First Minister Michelle ONeill, left, and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Harris will also hold a working lunch with key business stakeholders in Northern Ireland.

He will later be hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queens University Belfast where the Taoiseach will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Governments Shared Island Fund.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

An aerial view of the previously submerged town of Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija province, the Philippines on April 28, 2024. Ezra Acayan / Getty Images

A centuries-old town emerged in the Philippines recently when a long drought dried up a dam.

Southeast Asia has been experiencing deadly extreme heat, causing school closures, work-from-home orders and withered crops.

The ruins of the town of Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija province have given local residents in the rice-growing region another income source from tourists coming to see the historic sight.

When I heard about the sunken church of old Pantabangan town resurfacing, I got excited and wanted to see it, said Aurea Delos Santos, a retired nurse in her early 60s, as Reuters reported.

Taking tourists to and from the island has boosted some locals earnings significantly.

Back then, I was only earning 200 pesos ($3.50) from fishing, but when the tourists arrived, Im earning 1,500 to 1,800 per day, said Nelson Dellera, a local fisherman, as reported by Reuters.

The dam  constructed after the town was relocated during the 1970s to make way for a reservoir  is now the primary water and irrigation source for Nueva Ecija and other provinces in the area, the local government said, as The Guardian reported.

Water levels at the dam have fallen 85.3 feet already this year, revealing the foundations of the nearly 300-year-old town and portions of a church. The current level at Pantabangan dam is 23 feet lower than last year.

Marlon Paladin  a supervising engineer with the countrys National Irrigation Administration  told AFP that parts of the town started resurfacing in March following several months with almost no rain.

Pantabangan has reappeared five other times since the reservoir was created, but this was the longest Paladin had seen at one time.

The Philippines is one of the countries most at risk from climate change impacts, as its warm and dry season can bring drought and extreme sea surface temperatures, while the wet season can result in huge storms, including Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the country in 2013 and is known as one of the strongest ever recorded.

The general impact of climate change on the Philippines is warmer temperatures. The heat that we are experiencing, it could steadily increase in the coming days, Benison Estareja, a meteorologist with the states Pagasa weather bureau, told BBC News.

Even the Jesus Good Shepherd School in the city of Imus, south of Manila  which has an air conditioner in every classroom, a rarity  sent students home last week, reported The New York Times.

It is hard for the students and teachers alike to concentrate, because the air-con is struggling, too, said Ana Marie Macarimbang, one of the schools fifth-grade teachers who has been teaching for almost two decades. We are in a tropical country, yes, but the heat now is more intense than I can remember.

Global heating due to human-caused climate change is contributing to extreme weather all over the planet, including more deadly and frequent floods, heat waves, wildfires and supercharged storms.




Indonesia seeks alternative soybean suppliers amid price concerns



As the world's second-largest consumer of soybeans, Indonesia is exploring alternative sources of soybean suppliers to ensure stability in domestic supply and prices, Voice of Indonesia reported.

According to Nisrina Nafisah, a researcher at the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), Indonesia could increase imports from Brazil and Argentina to diversify its soybean sourcing countries. This move aims to mitigate the impact of price fluctuations and maintain stability in domestic soybean markets.

Nafisah emphasised the importance of diversifying import sources to stabilise prices and ensure an adequate supply of soybeans, especially considering Indonesia's significant soybean consumption, ranking second globally after China.

Soybean production in Brazil and Argentina stands at 140 million tonnes and 50 million tonnes annually, respectively. However, Indonesian imports from these countries currently account for less than one percent of its total soybean imports each year, with no imports from either country recorded in 2020.

This presents an opportunity for enhanced cooperation, particularly in addressing Indonesia's reliance on soybeans from the US.

Nafisah highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen economic ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations, which represent non-traditional markets for Indonesia. Such cooperation could potentially allow Indonesia to share its soybean import quota with countries like Brazil and Argentina.

Over 80% of Indonesia's soybeans are imported annually, with the US accounting for around 90% of imports in 2020, totalling 2.238.5 tonnes out of 2.475.3 tonnes.

Canada stands as the second-largest source of soybean imports for Indonesia, supplying 229.6 thousand tonnes in 2020.

Factors contributing to the recent surge in soybean prices on the international market include reduced global soybean supply due to weather-related disruptions in major producing countries like the US, Brazil, and Argentina.

Despite declines in production since December 2021, Brazil and Argentina remain key players in global soybean production, collectively contributing about 80% of the world's soybean output.



- Voice of Indonesia
Boeings Starliner crew capsule, which has been plagued by years of setbacks and cost overruns amounting to roughly $1.5 billion, is about to take its first flight with humans on board. Boeing was chosen 10 years ago alongside SpaceX to develop a spacecraft that could ferry astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station (ISS), thus allowing NASA to end its reliance on Russia for crewed flights. The companies were each awarded a fixed-price contract under NASAs Commercial Crew Program: $4.2 billion to Boeing for its CST-100 (Starliner) and $2.6 billion for SpaceXs Crew Dragon.

Their initial deadline of 2017 proved to be a bit too ambitious. SpaceX managed its first crewed flight in 2020  and about a dozen since  while Boeing has struggled to get its Starliner capsule off the ground. But as soon as May 6, itll finally have a crewed flight under its belt.

Starliner is now at Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations Launch Complex-41 attached to the ULA Atlas V rocket thatll send it on its way to the ISS. Liftoff is planned for 10:34PM ET on Monday, May 6. The capsule will be carrying two NASA astronauts: Butch Wilmore, the missions commander, and Suni Williams, who will serve as pilot.

NASA

Not only is it Starliners first crewed flight, but this test is only its third flight ever. The spacecraft (without anyone aboard) successfully demonstrated its ability to reach, dock and undock from the ISS in spring 2022 when it conducted its second Orbital Flight Test. On its previous attempt, in 2019, Starliner failed to make it all the way to the ISS thanks to a software issue that resulted in it burning too much fuel (one of a few problems Boeing missed after it opted at the time not to do end-to-end testing ).

Its suffered numerous other problems, too, in the years since Boeing bagged the NASA contract, causing the company to slip far behind SpaceX. There was a toxic fuel leak during a 2018 test. Then corrosion caused valves in the propulsion system to stick, waylaying Boeings plans for a 2021 launch, as Ars Technica reported earlier this year. Problems with the spacecrafts parachute deployment system derailed plans for a launch last summer, and the team had to remove around a mile of flammable tape.

Boeing has also had its fair share of troubles beyond Starliner during this time, facing increased scrutiny into the safety of its airplanes  particularly the 737 Max line  after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, on top of other less serious incidents. Most recently, a panel blew off a 737 Max 9 mid-flight in January, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

The May 6 flight marks a major step toward Starliners certification as a crew transport system that NASA can actually put into its rotation for trips to the ISS. That will give the space agency the redundancy its looking for; with both Crew Dragon and Starliner in operation, itll always have a backup option in case something happens to one of them. Both NASA and Boeing have been adamant that the capsule has been put through an exhaustive review process and is ready to support astronauts. NASA wrapped up its Crew Flight Test Readiness Review of Starliner on April 25.

The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone, NASA associate administrator Jim Free said during a briefing on the completion of the review. The lives of our crewmembers Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are at stake  we dont take that lightly at all. The latest review is the culmination of a detailed review season that has really thoroughly established that we are really ready to go on this flight, said NASA chief flight director Emily Nelson.

NASA/Frank Michaux

Its expected to take about 24 hours for Starliner to reach the ISS after it lifts off, and as this is a test flight, its onboard crew will have a lengthy task list of systems and equipment checks to complete across every phase of the journey. While Starliner can operate autonomously, the crew will test its manual controls and make sure its in good shape for manual abort scenarios. After Starliner docks to the space station, the astronauts will spend about a week there working with the current crew, Expedition 71.

Then, theyll undock from the orbiting lab and head home  and put Starliner through the test of reentry and landing. A few potential landing sites in the southwest US have been picked out, including the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Wilmore and Williams have been training for Starliners first flight for years. They know the vehicle inside and out, and theyve been part of the test environment thats developed the Starliner capability, said Steve Stich, manager for NASAs Commercial Crew Program. All involved in last Thursdays briefing acknowledged that they may encounter some unexpected challenges, and that theres much to be learned from this first crewed flight. Its a good reminder for all of us that the team has practiced, run sims, run models, but theres nothing like flying in the space environment, said Free.

The NASA and Boeing officials also expressed their confidence that the craft itself and the teams handling its journey are well-prepared for the job. The astronauts echoed these sentiments upon arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We wouldnt be here if it werent ready, Wilmore said, addressing questions from the press. We are ready, the spacecrafts ready, and the teams are ready.

If Starliner for whatever reason cant launch on the 6th, itll have backup opportunities on May 7, 10 and 11. After the Crew Flight Test is complete and the astronauts are back home, NASA will get to work certifying the spacecraft for future missions bringing crews to and from the ISS. Its currently targeting 2025 for Starliner to begin duty.

I dont want to get too far ahead because we still need to fly a successful mission, said Free ahead of Starliners launch, but when we do, and when we certify Starliner, the United States will have two unique human space transportations that provide critical redundancies for ISS access.
Boom's supersonic XB-1 test jet has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly past Mach 1, the company announced. Tests are slated to take place later this year at the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor in Mojave, CA, and the results could help prove the feasibility of the design in areas like fuel consumption, speeds and flight characteristics.

"Following XB-1s successful first flight, Im looking forward to its historic first supersonic flight, said Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl. "We thank the Federal Aviation Administration for supporting innovation and enabling XB-1 to continue its important role of informing the future of supersonic travel."

The approval arrives just weeks after a successful X-B1 test flight at subsonic speeds by a pair of test pilots. It follows a thorough review and environmental assessment, and mandates a chaise plane to trail the XB-1 to monitor and record flight safety, according to the company.

The company will conduct 10-20 flights before attempting to break the speed of sound. It will "systematically expand the flight envelope during that time" to confirm performance and handling qualities, Boom said, while performing in-flight checks of all systems and demonstrating a safe margin to flutter/vibration boundaries. Test pilot Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenberg will be at the controls during the first supersonic flight.

Passenger flights are still a long way off, though. The XB-1 is a scaled-down version of Boom's ultimate goal, a commercial liner called Overture that's expected to carry under 100 passenger at "business class" comfort levels. The company has said that plane will be able to fly from Tokyo to Seattle in four hours and thirty minutes.

The company has seen its share of issues, with test plans delayed and a rupture with original engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. The company subsequently partnered with a company called FTT to develop its own custom "Symphony" jet engine. Still, the company already has customers lined up, with American Airlines and United Airlines having place orders for multiple jets.

NASA is also working on a supersonic jet called the X-59 with a reduced sonic profile, but Boom Supersonic hasn't provided much detail on how it plans to reduce the, well, supersonic boom.
During a recent podcast interview, 'Jersey Shore's' Vinny Guadagnino made an ode to the late Tupac Shakur's love for "chocolate women," agreeing that "The blacker the Berry, the sweeter the juice."

The former reality TV star sat with the 'Whoreible Decisions' podcast, where the MTV star revealed he "almost exclusively" dates Black women.

According to The Shade Room, a co-host set the discussion off when she recalled a story about dating a Black man, when Guadagnino chimed in with his personal taste in women.

"Oh yeah, I almost date exclusively Black women," Guadagnino, 36, candidly said.

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"I thought that was Pauly D.," one of the hosts replied, to which he mentioned that they have "similar taste" in women. The host asked him to specify, asking, "As in...chocolate?"

"Chocolate, yeah," Guadagnino responded. "[Pauly D] he's just more known for it because he's been with his girl now for like three years...a Jamaican girl."

"The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice," one host joked, to which Guadagnino replied, "That too, they're all true...all the studies are true." The 'Keto Guido Cookbook' writer explained that he believes Black women are "beautiful," noting their physical features.

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"I just find them really beautiful and I like thicker... kinda like slim-thicker and s**t, so they more have a probability of having curves than skinny white girls," he began. "And then culturally, too. I get along with Black people better than like, Latinas or something like that because they have curves too, but culturally  I don't know. I've always gotten along with Black people more."

The New Yorker also mentioned that he has a thing for tall "Avatar" looking women.

Despite his affectionate words, TSR found some of his dating history, which includes co-stars Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, Angelina Pivarnick, and Ramona Nitu, who are all not Black women.
Nineteen-year-old Ella Pick from Boston found out that what she thought was a hangover turned out to be an incurable and inoperable brain tumor.

After returning home from a four-week trip to Zante with her pals last June, Pick started feeling off and thought it could just be a hangover. However, she also started experiencing severe migraines and "awful" pressure in the back of her head, according to The Sun.

"We were all having the best time. Then I didn't exactly feel ill, I just didn't feel myself. I wasn't drinking as much or going out as much. I thought maybe it could be a hangover. I just felt off. Now I look back and think I clearly wasn't well," she recalled.





Shortly after, her left eye began to drift inwards, prompting her to have an eye test. However, the local optician referred her to the hospital because it was "a major concern."

According to the NHS, common symptoms of brain tumors include headaches, vision or speech problems, persistently feeling sick, seizures, progressive weakness and mental or behavioral changes.

In Ella's case, while she experienced migraines and vision problems, it was reportedly not clear if these were related to the tumor the doctors later found in her brain after a CT scan and MRI. Her brain tumor was identified as a diffuse midline glioma that leaves her with an estimated 12 months to live.





The condition refers to a primary central nervous system tumor that begins in the brain or spinal cord. Primary CNS tumors are malignant (cancerous) and fast-growing, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Because of the diagnosis Ella received in July last year, the trajectory of her life changed. She said she even had to turn down an interview for her dream job -- working as a British Airways cabin crew.

"I just felt completely numb. It still doesn't feel real. Everyone else around me is hurting more than I am," she said of her situation.

Right now, she said she's just making the most of whatever time she has left, making memories with her friends and family. She also underwent a six-course radiotherapy last year to slow down the progression of her tumor.

"I've gone to work and would just rather go on with life as normal. I've been on a few holidays with my family. We're just trying to make the most of the time we have," she added.

Her latest scan reportedly revealed that her brain tumor was stable and not progressing as a result of radiotherapy.

While the tumor did not grow, Ella admitted that she was open to trying anything to increase her chances of living.

"There [are] always different trials with different drugs. I'd be willing to try anything," she said.




Attention all foodies!

For an action-packed weekend including the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo celebrations commencing, Taco Bell is celebrating in a special way.

Renowned for its enticing offers throughout the week, especially on Tuesdays, Taco Bell continues its tradition with special deals for Cinco de Mayo.

On May 5th, this Tex-Mex haven is treating customers to its Soft or Crunchy Tacos for a mere $1.

For those who prefer to order through the Taco Bell app, there's an even sweeter deal: five tacos for just $5, which equates to $1 per taco.

This offer can be redeemed once on May 5th through the Taco Bell app, located in the "Rewards and Offers" section. For Uber Eats customers, from May 3 through 5, you can get a BOGO Nachos Grande when you order through Uber Eats-no minimum spending required.

If you prefer a dish other than tacos, Taco Bell is offering another promotion.

All weekend long, May 3 through 5, customers can get a free order of Nachos BellGrande when you spend $20 on a DoorDash or GrubHub order.

After adding $20 worth of items to your delivery order, add an order of Nachos Bell Grande. Once you have $20 worth of items to your cart  not including tax  the Nachos Bell Grande will automatically be free!
Friday, May 3, 2024

Harvard University has become a refuge for plagiarists and now, antisemites. How far a once-bright star has fallen. It will take someone willing to fight to heal Harvard University of its ivory tower hubris.

This is my declaration that I plan to take on that fight. Repeatedly, the University has failed to take responsibility for the deleterious actions of its faculty, students, and administrators that have had immediate real-life consequences for Jews, hardworking students, and faculty, as well as victims of its faculty plagiarism.

Consider the Universitys handling of antisemitism and all matters related to its plagiarism scandal, which it has yet to rectify. Serial plagiarist Claudine Gay is scheduled to teach a fall graduate seminar on reading and research, an area where she has famously failed. The irony is too rich: allowing an in-house plagiarist to teach ethics. And yet Harvard openly bullies anyone who challenges its authorities on these serious moral issues with lawfare.

When the New York Post contacted them about Gays plagiarism, they responded with their big dog lawyers and threatened the press with a defamation lawsuit. When six Jewish students filed a lawsuit against Harvard for failing to protect their civil rights by addressing the rampant antisemitism on campus, the University asked a judge to dismiss the case. When my lawyers presented the University and Gays lawyers with demand letters to explain her plagiarism and its implications, the response from the big dog lawyers was to argue that the theft of my ideas and sentences was fair use. And that if I filed suit against them and lost, I would be responsible for court costs, which some have estimated could top $100,000 if the copyright infringement/intellectual property case were to go to trial. Harvard acts as if it believes it can use its wealth to shrug off wrongdoing and silence its victims.

I refuse to be intimidated by an unrepentant plagiarist cowering behind Harvards lawyers. But I am one woman against Leviathan. I will need your help. Therefore, I am announcing the establishment of a www.GiveSendGo.com/HelpHealHarvardsHubris fund to help finance the cost of a lawsuit against Harvard University. The goal of the lawsuit is to hold the University accountable and prompt the alumni and corporation to steer the institution back towards its founding purpose of academic integrity and excellence. Funds raised in excess of the amount needed to finance court cases will be used to help establish a Christian classical education school in Roanoke, Virginia for underprivileged children.

Let us be the ones to restore Harvard University to its former glory: a crown jewel of American education and excellence, or at least help heal the Universitys hubris.

Carol Swain, retired Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, resides in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a bestselling author, public speaker, and small business owner.
The annual return of wintering birds to their ancestral breeding and summering grounds is in full-flight. Many folks have begun putting out their hummingbird feeders in the hopes of capturing bragging rights for spotting the first returnee to reestablish nesting sites. Others cant wait to try their hand at unraveling the mystical identities of woodland warblers hiding among unfolding leaves.

There are also wetlands, rivers, marshes and lakes that draw waterfowl and wetland birds with bird watching enthusiasts flocking to these areas as quickly as the birds. Their hope is to spot a vagabond from another flyway or a rare resident whose numbers have suffered due to habitat shifts.

Watchers know that some birds are just passing though during their continued journeys and that the chance for observation is short while other species are settling in until winter whispers its own return.

Birding continues to increase in popularity and like many hobbies can be as involved as you wish to make it.

The initial interest is often born from setting out a bird feeder or is an expansion of other outdoor activities such as camping, fishing, hiking and hunting. Its often passed down by an interested friend or relative as well as from a nudge resulting from an ecological education.

Curiosity

One friend learned to hunt turkeys with his grandfather. He liked to tell the story of his own constant whispering, Grandpa, what bird is singing? Grandpa, is that black and white bird a woodpecker? Grandpa, why is that bird climbing upside down?

Grandpa explained that being quiet was an important tactic when trying to bring old Tom into range, but the questions persisted during their hunts.

His grandfather was a smart man, as many grandfathers seem to be. A future turkey hunting trip was accompanied with another barrage of questions, but Grandpa was ready with an answer.

He put a finger to his lips and slipped a Petersons Field Guide out of his jacket. In it were the words, For times of quiet learning. That book is now displayed on another grandfathers wall beneath an array of turkey-tail fans and photos.

Thats how learning often starts, an interest fanned by an experienced hand. The greatest part about wildlife and bird watching is that it can be a low-cost avenue of enjoying local resources or a passion that leads to expensive optics and extensive travel.

The experience enhances respect and understanding and can be an extension of existing pursuits. You choose the depth of your own involvement, and age is of no consequence.

Ohio spots

Once that fascination has been spurred, theres the question of where to travel to see new and interesting species that can be added to that Ive seen one of those life lists. Fortunately, there are plenty of spots in Ohio that you can explore.

Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, located in both Wyandot and Marion Counties, is a 9,230-acre complex of wetlands and upland sites. Northern harriers, short-eared owls and a multitude of waterfowl pass through while American bald eagles supervise their travels. Keep an eye out for Sandhill cranes and look for the tundra and trumpeter swans that often lay over in large numbers.

The 3,200-acre Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area in Sandusky County is another great birding destination. Watch for bald eagles and a large variety of waterfowl loafing around the area. There will also be plenty of opportunity to watch egrets and other shallow water stalkers looking for a meal. Much of the area has been restored to wetlands with the remainder in woods, scrub-shrub and native grassland.

If you take a drive to Holmes and Wayne Counties, youll find Ohios largest remaining marshland complex outside of the Lake Erie region. The 5,671-acre Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area is in a shallow, U-shaped glacial outwash valley. More than half is made up of marsh and is a magnet for migrating birds.

Theres also that birders trio of sites that just cant be ignored by any serious enthusiast. Magee Marsh Wildlife Area (2,202-acres), Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (6,500-acres) and the adjoining wildlife area are all nestled along Lake Eries shoreline.

Magee offers 1.3 miles of boardwalk and observation decks while the refuge adds another 7 miles of trails. This area also hosts the Division of Wildlifes outstanding Sportsmens Migratory Bird Center which has been freshly refurbished and rededicated during 2023 and is now known as the Magee Marsh Visitor Center.

While youre exploring nearby wildlife and bird-watching areas, dont forget Andreoff Wildlife Area in Hardin and Wyandot Counties. Purchased with funds from the H2Ohio program, this 861-acre wildlife haven consists of wetlands, tall-grass prairies and woodlots.

Over 86 species of birds are known to breed in the area and nearly 175 species have been sighted, including several rare waterbirds. Youll have chances to spot sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans, American bittern, green-winged teal and king and sora rails. Hard to find species such as the northern harrier, bobolink and dickcissel frequent the prairies, along with countless pollinator species. Andreoff is open to wildlife viewing on the first and third Sunday of each month.

Also, consider Big Island Wildlife Area. This 5,872-acre natural resource is located 5 miles west of Marion on Ohio 95, is a birdwatchers paradise and is the largest wetland area on public land in Ohio. A wildlife viewing deck located along State Route 95 provides an excellent view of the open prairie and wetland habitat and the numerous birds that occupy these areas.

There are many other local, private and public areas which draw migrating birds. These include other wildlife areas, county and state parks, riparian waterways, farm edges and conservation plantings to explore  with permission, of course.

Its also wise to be careful while visiting areas containing state or federal refuges. Access can be restrictive or off-limits. Anyone caught creeping into restricted zones are apt to get an expensive education.

So, grab your binoculars, spotting scope, camera and your identification book and explore the next surprise that the spring winds push into our area. And if you have some kid full of questions, give them something for times of quiet learning.

Get all the education you can, then add the learning.

 Jack Miner

Miner was born in Dover Center, now, Westlake, Ohio. He established the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada in 1904 where he pioneered waterfowl banding and was one of the first to determine the migratory paths of birds.
Portage SWCD collaborated with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Kent Roosevelt High Schools Forestry and Landscape Management crew April 25 to remove callery pears at Phillips Park in Franklin Township.

The students also planted an Ohio native tree provided by ODNR to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Portage County received and planted a sycamore. Removing invasive species AND planting native trees  now thats doubling down on conservation.

Ohios forest economy

Forest products provide a $30 billion annual economic impact in Ohio. Ohio forests also produce some of the best hardwoods in the world. So, it stands to reason that Ohio would also produce high quality wood products. Ohio ranks number one in the U.S. for high grade furniture production.

Ohios forests also provide much of the wildlife habitat in the state. Hunting, fishing, watercraft and parks combined contribute another $12 billion in economic impact in Ohio annually. Its easy to make the connection between wildlife habitat and hunting. But woodlands also contribute to cleaner, cooler water which improves fishing and other water sport activities.

Threats

Ohios forests face many threats. Invasive plant species are a major challenge for woodlot management. Invasive insect species such as emerald ash borer, which decimated our native ash population, are changing forest composition.

Additional pests such as Asian longhorned beetle have us constantly on guard in our efforts to keep them at bay. Many invasive exotic insects were introduced unintentionally via international trade. Both EAB and ALB are believed to have arrived in pallets or other wood packaging. However, some invasive species (both plant and animal) are a result of our aesthetic preference for non-native plants.

Non-native bush honeysuckles, burning bush and barberries are just a few of the many invasive plant species that are inhibiting native hardwood regeneration in Ohio. Each of these species were intentionally brought to the U.S. through the horticultural trade industry as ornamental plants for the home landscape.

Hemlock wooly adelgid is another non-native forest pest. HWA arrived in the U.S. in the early 1900s on a Japanese Hemlock at a time when no international controls were in place. Again, it was our aesthetic preference for a non-native species that is now resulting in the devastating loss of our native hemlocks.

When to seek assistance

Foresters and resource professionals provide a variety of valuable assistance to landowners. But there are several critical times when forest owners should seek professional assistance. Seek assistance when you have an identified threat to your woodlot.

For most threats to Ohios forests, there is also a management strategy to help landowners protect their woodlands. Best management practices are developed by resource professionals through field-tested trials. A forester or resource professional can fast-track you to the right course of action.

If you are a woodland owner, you should be on high alert for oak wilt. Oak wilt can be managed, but it is an aggressive disease that can destroy your oaks before you even notice its presence. Dont let this disease sneak up on you. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has some excellent information to help with oak wilt identification. Seek professional assistance if you believe you have oak wilt in your woodlot.

The most critical time to seek help from a forester is when you are planning a timber harvest. Poorly managed timber harvests represent one of the most significant preventable threats to Ohios forests.

A poorly managed timber harvest can result in significant soil erosion and water pollution; a large number of scarred and damaged trees; reduced diversity and loss of your forests most commercially valuable trees; suppressed regeneration of commercially valuable or rare tree species; rapid spread of invasive exotic plant species; reduction of habitat for wildlife species of concern such as amphibians, reptiles and songbirds and a forest that is left more vulnerable to disturbance associated with pathogens and disease.

For more information about planning a timber harvest, contact ODNR Division of Forestrys Call Before You Cut program prior to signing any type of contract with a timber buyer. Visit callb4ucut.com/ohio/ for more information.

Many SWCD offices also have staff that can connect landowners with resource professionals. The Ohio Society of American Foresters also maintains a directory of forestry professionals at osafdirectory.com. Your local SWCD can likely provide you with a list of consulting foresters that work in your area.
NILES, Ohio  The Friendly Squares will host its monthly square dance (Pie Night) May 11 from 7:30-10 p.m. at the Niles SCOPE Center, 14 East State St.

Gene Hammond will be the caller and Frankie Hammond will be cuing line dances. This will be a plus dance, and dress is casual.

There will be a $7 donation per person at the door. For additional information, call Gene Hammond at 330-506-3370.
The government has been told to reverse its decision to slash funding for checks on illegal meat imports at the Port of Dover as another 3.4 tonnes of illegal meat was seized.

Dover District Council warned that a failure to act could expose the UK livestock industry to devastating disease, like African swine fever (ASF).

The 3.4 tonnes of illegal meat seized at Dover last week was the largest haul this year so far, taking the total seized since new ASF control measure came into force in 2022 to 85t.

The rules make it illegal for travellers to bring pork products weighing over 2kg into the country from the EU unless produced to the bloc's commercial standards.

The latest seizures came from a number of vehicle inspections completed by Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) at the port.

They included 54 unmarked sheep carcasses from two vehicles from Romania, which had travelled for several days in unhygienic conditions and unsuitable packaging.

The meat had been transported without temperature controls, cross contaminating other food including pig parts, chicken, beef, and cheese items with dripping blood.

To stop the potential spread of disease, the illegal meat was removed from the food supply chain by DPHA at the point of entry at Dover, the council said.

Funding for these illegal meat checks at the port under ASF rules  which have resulted more than 85 tonnes of meat being seized so far, much of it pork from ASF-infected regions  is being slashed.

Defra told DPHA in December that it was cutting its budget from 3.2m to 1.2m in 2024/25, starting in April, and then to nothing in 2025/26.

DPHA says it needs 4 million to perform the work, which has also been extended to Coquelles, in France.

Lucy Manzano, DPHAs Head of Port Health, said: These seizures demonstrate just how vital the work is of the Dover Port Health Authority when it comes to protecting British supply chains and biosecurity.

Despite our limited resources, our inspection teams are fully committed to fighting off the threat of ASF and other lethal diseases that threaten livestock."
Amendments have been made to permitted development rights (PDRs) for the change of use of agricultural buildings to residential and commercial uses.

The changes, which come into force from 21 May, have been announced to the PDRs for agriculture, the government confirmed.

Farmers and landowners will now be able to convert agricultural buildings into a higher number of dwellings, and of a greater size.

Buildings will be able to more flexibly be re-used for other commercial uses, in a boost for on-farm diversification.

For farms over 5ha, the permitted development right currently allows the erection of agricultural buildings up to 1000sqm.

This is to be increased to 1500sqm from 21 May. For farms of less than 5ha, the ability to extend existing agricultural buildings will be increased from 20% to 25%.

However, Class Q permitted development rights wont be expanded to National Parks and Landscapes, the government confirmed.

Responding to the measures, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said it had long argued for PDRs to be extended to grow the rural economy.

The group's deputy president, Gavin Lane said: We welcome the news that farmers and landowners will now be able to convert agricultural buildings into a higher number of dwellings,.

"There is a chronic lack of rural housing and without it, the sustainability and vibrancy of communities up and down the country is under threat."

But he said the move to not expand Class Q PDRs for National Parks and protected landscapes as 'bitterly disappointing'.

Mr Lane said: "A recent CLA survey found that more than half of our members living in protected landscapes wish to convert existing and redundant agricultural buildings that no longer serve their existing purpose, but under current planning rules and restrictions they cannot.

Allowing the use of Class Q within these areas would enable much needed development and help stimulate growth in the rural economy.

"So many enterprises in rural areas could grow, could create jobs, could expand into new markets, but are being stifled by an archaic planning regime that seems almost designed to restrict our ambition.

"The rural economy is 19% less productive than the national average  closing that gap could add 43bn to UK GVA.
A Kent farm has been fined 12,000 for multiple health and safety breaches which placed employees and others at risk over many years, the HSE has said.

Seymour Stevens Ltd, which runs a beef and arable farm in Faversham, was visited by the UK's workplace safety regulator in November 2022.

The HSE said it identified multiple, serious health and safety failings, such as an barn which was unsafe due to its poor structural state.

Seymour Stevens were aware of this but had taken the decision not to repair the shed due to the costs, but had continued to allow its use.

A number of electrical faults were also identified within that shed, the health and safety watchdog said.

In another shed, the roof was insecurely fixed and was being weighed down with a straw bale in an attempt to prevent it from moving.

Roof sheeting was also in poor condition and state of disrepair; in some cases, even falling from buildings.

Bull pens were broken and rusty and concerns were raised about the suitability of these to contain a bull, according to HSE.

During the Christmas period in 2022, a bull had managed to escape the farm and was brought back to site by the police.

Earlier in the same year, the farm had been invited to attend a paid-for Preparing for Inspection courses which have been developed in partnership with industry.

The business didnt take up that offer, the regulator said, missing the opportunity to learn more about their health and safety responsibilities and to better manage the risks they faced.

Seymour Stevens Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation, and was fined 12,000 and ordered to pay 4,830 in costs at a hearing at Maidstone Magistrates Court on 24 April 2024.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Peter Bruce said: In the case at Seymour Stevens farm, there were failings to manage health and safety risks associated with animals and falling objects  two of the five most common causes of fatal injuries in the agriculture sector.

Employees and members of the public were being put at risk, despite previous warnings having been given to the company by their staff.

It is important that employers maintain their workplaces and equipment to suitable standards to ensure that employees, visitors and members of the public are not put at risk.
Dairy equipment firm GEA Farm Technologies has acquired family-run South West Dairy Services in a deal which will further consolidate its presence in the South West of England.

South West Dairy Services, based in Cullompton, Devon, offers a specialised service for parlour requirements and is already one of the main GEA dealers.

Owned by couple Philip and Rachel Squires, the firm's team of installers, along with service engineers and dairy hygiene specialists, work across Devon, Somerset and Dorset.

They stock parlour parts and spares for most dairy equipment brands along with dairy hygiene chemicals and sundries.

A team of dairy hygiene specialists have regular routes across the South West, delivering chemicals and hygiene products direct to farm.

They also provide practical and cost-effective solutions to dairy hygiene and cow management.

Simon Redfearn, managing director of GEA Farm Technologies, one of the worlds largest systems suppliers for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, said the firm looked forward to improving South West Dairy Services further.

This acquisition is a fantastic opportunity to further our growth strategy in the UK," he said.

"Along with being part of the Milking Systems Technician Accreditation Scheme (MSTA), this acquisition by GEA means we are well placed to assist and partner in our customers progression in the dairy industry.

South West Dairy Services will retain its branding.
Sheep meat, dairy and beef exports from the UK to the EU should 'hold firm' despite a free trade agreement between the bloc and New Zealand coming into force.

New Zealand will have improved access to the European market as part of the new NZ-EU free trade agreement (FTA).

This has caused some concern among UK farmers that the FTA could result in a deluge of NZ sheep meat entering the EU market, posing a threat to the UK export trade.

However, in new analysis published today (3 May) by AHDB, the deal should "unlikely pose a threat to UK exports".

The EU is the UKs largest market for sheep meat, with 79,700 tonnes of fresh and frozen product shipped in 2023 valued at 524m, the levy board notes.

It is the second largest market for New Zealand sheep meat with 54,000 tonnes of product shipped to the market last year.

The largest cut exported to the EU from the UK is fresh lamb carcases, which accounts for 84% of total UK sheep meat exports to the region.

Volumes of fresh/chilled sheep meat exported from New Zealand to the EU are much lower than frozen, given the length of shipping time to market.

The largest cut exported from New Zealand include frozen bone-in lamb, assumed to be frozen sheep legs, at 47% of total exports.

Jess Corsair, AHDB senior economist, said the levy board's new analysis had highlighted several factors to allay the concerns of UK sheep meat exporters.

She explained: "EU sheep meat production fell in 2023 and is expected to fall further this year, helping to consolidate the UKs position as the major supplier to this market.

"Given the different products and markets of the UK and New Zealand, it would suggest that when the new FTA is in force, New Zealand product will not displace UK sheep meat exports to the EU.

Analysis also revealed that while NZ-EU FTA will also provide for improved access for dairy products to the EU, the UKs strong foothold in the market should put it on a sound footing to remain a key exporter to the region. Similarly, the UK exports much more beef to the EU than New Zealand.

The UKs market share in the EU for the main dairy products  milk powder, butter, cheese and dairy processed animal proteins and whey products  is strong at 65%, 70%, 64% and 66% respectively.

Butter is the only category where New Zealand has had a notable market share and this is falling. As such, the UK is likely to remain a key exporter of dairy products to the EU, AHDB says.

Ms Corsair said: About a third of New Zealand beef exports to the EU are fresh boneless cuts, but in a much smaller amounts than the UK. That said it will be an important area to keep an eye on as the trade deal comes into place.

The overarching feeling is that, based on our analysis, sheep meat, dairy and beef exports from the UK to the EU should not be adversely affected by the NZ/EU trade deal.

"We will, however, continue to monitor trade as it evolves as any changes to New Zealands relationship with its other trading partners may have a knock-on effect on EU trade.
Alfred Molina "disappointed" his late father by turning down a job in a restaurant to pursue his career as an actor.

Alfred Molina has opened up about his relationship with his late father

The 70-year-old 'Spider-Man 2' star has revealed his dad got him a job as a waiter and was aghast to find out Alfred turned down the chance to become a manager there to take on an acting job instead - and the screen star admits his father never really understood because he would have earned double the money if he'd stayed at the restaurant.

He told Vanity Fair magazine: "I was a good waiter to the point where the management offered me the chance to do a two-week management training course.

"I turned it down because I got an acting job. My father says, This acting job, how much are they paying you? I said, Im getting union wage, so 15 pounds a week.

"He looked at me and he had the look on his face that you reserve for the mad and the lost. He stared at me like he didnt recognize me. The only thing I could say to him was, This is what I love, Dad. He never quite got it.

"I did disappoint my dad. Yeah. If my dad had lived a little longer, hed hopefully would have realised I hadnt wasted my time."

However, Alfred later found out his dad had been following his career closely because he stashed a suitcase full of press clippings about Alfred's acting work.

Alfred added: "When he passed away, I went to Spain for the funeral and I was with his widow, my stepmom, and she drags out this suitcase and its full of clippings and photos and bits from magazines and letters from people that wrote to him saying they saw me. He kept all this stuff, but he never talked about it.

"My stepmom said, Do you want any of this? And I couldnt handle it. I said no."

The actor concluded by insisting he talks more openly with his own children about their hopes and dreams and makes sure he tells them how "brilliant" they are, adding: "Thats all you need to do."
John Lydon keeps his wife ashes by the side of his bed.

John Lydon keeps his wife's ashes close

The 68-year-old punk icon - known as Johnny Rotten during his heyday with the Sex Pistols - nursed his wife Nora Forster through the last years of her life as she battled Alzheimer's disease prior to her death in 2023 and he's now revealed he keeps her ashes by his side at night time so he can feel close to her.

According to the Mirror newspaper, John showed a picture of the urn next to his bed with a bouquet of plastic flowers during the opening night of his UK speaking tour in Brighton on Wednesday (01.05.24). He told the audience: "Forgive me, the flowers are plastic. There is a reason why real flowers rot and that is the saddest vibe in the world.

"Plastic flowers go on forever. She loved colours but shes going to have to wait for my ashes to join her."

It comes after John admitted he feels "terrifically lonely" without Nora and it's not the same at home in Malibu, California, without her.

He told The Sunday Times newspaper: "I bounce about in the day but the loneliness of Nora not being here kills me."

John went on to reveal his life has totally changed and he can't even bring himself to cook proper meals for himself now he's living alone.

He added: "I used to love cooking for Nora, and now I go for the stupid fatty things. It just seems pointless and selfish to sit here and eat a designer meal that Ive concocted and cant share with her."

John also confessed he feels worst during the evenings and drowning his sorrows with booze has not helped. He explained: "At night its terrifically lonely. Thats when all the memories keep flooding back and they wont leave you alone.

"You think you can drown yourself in alcohol, but you cant. Your body becomes immobile but your brain doesnt switch off, so booze doesnt help."
Johnny Depp is "focused on moving forward".

Johnny Depp has moved on with his life

The 60-year-old actor has moved on from his acrimonious legal dispute with ex-wife Amber Heard, and he's now looking forward to the future with a lot of optimism.

A source told PEOPLE: "Hes keeping busy. Theres a lot of good distractions, so theres not that much time to be reminiscing on that darker period."

Johnny doesn't have bitterness towards Amber, 38, or anyone else in his life.

The insider shared: "Theres been a release of the old and embarking on this new chapter. Hes feeling better about where he is in life. Theres no animosity toward anybody."

Johnny is currently living in London and he's happy to be out of the spotlight.

The source explained: "He really feels London is a home. It is more of a quiet life, but filled with painting and music. Hes jamming out with friends and playing solo in times when hes not focused on filmmaking."

The movie star is also in a "better headspace" than he's been in for a long time.

The insider said: "Theres a lot of good energy, and he surrounds himself with a good group of people."

Johnny previously explained that he's consciously distanced himself from Hollywood, following his legal battles.

During a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, he said: "Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all. But I don't feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don't think about it. I don't think about Hollywood. I don't have much further need for Hollywood myself."

Johnny celebrated his 60th birthday last year, and a source revealed at the time that the actor has "moved on" from his personal dramas.

The source told PEOPLE: "In the last year, he's been able to touch all these different parts of his life that he hadn't been able to do that much before because he was so busy dealing with the matters tied to the Amber trial.

"It's nice for him to be an artist first and foremost."
Kevin Costner is only bringing female actors from his epic new Western Horizon: An American Saga to its world premiere.

Kevin Costner is only bringing female actors from his epic new Western Horizon: An American Saga to its world premiere

The Dances with Wolves star, 69, will be showing his latest film at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May and said he was having an all-female guest entourage as he believes women power Americas future.

He told People about his plans for the event: Im taking seven of the women that are in the movie with me.

For Cannes, I really want to take these women who made a huge contribution to this movie.

Kevins new film stars Sienna Miller, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington and Luke Wilson.

The Oscar-winner directed, co-wrote and stars in the film that features a string of overlapping stories of 19th century settlers as they clash with Indigenous people and each other.

Kevin added about how the saga portrays hardships females faced during that time: Women are the reason the country goes forward. They were taken often against their own wishes.

They were taken advantage of and they were resilient. I couldnt tell the story unless it revolved around them.

Kevin added casting Sienna, 42, was an especially easy decision, adding: I think shes one of our great actresses.

Her outward beauty is undeniable, but shes so skilled as an actress.

Theres something about Siennas character that I think speaks to all women.

He has said about the movie: Horizon is incredibly meaningful to me. Its really been the hardest thing Ive ever done, but its exactly what I want to do.
Turkiye's apparel exports experienced a 9.66 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in the first quarter of 2024, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute and the country's Ministry of Trade. During this period, exports totalled $4.538 billion, a decrease from $4.913 billion in the corresponding period of 2023.

The countrys exports of knitted and crocheted clothing and accessories (HS Chapter 61) reached $2,409.793 million in January-March 2024, marking an 8.1 per cent decrease from $2,623.574 million in the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, non-knitted apparel and accessories (HS Chapter 62) amounted to $2,029.271 million, representing an 11.4 per cent drop compared to $2,290 million in January-March 2023, as per the trade report of the top twenty chapters.

In Q1 2024, Turkiye's apparel exports declined by 9.66 per cent YoY to $4.538 billion. Knitted and crocheted clothing exports decreased by 8.1 per cent, while non-knitted apparel dropped by 11.4 per cent. March 2024 saw a 16.11 per cent decrease in exports compared to March 2023. Despite this, textile products did not feature among Turkiye's top 20 imports.

In March 2024, Turkiyes exports saw a mild drop, falling 16.11 per cent to $1,588.561 million. Exports of knitted and crocheted clothing and accessories fell by 13.6 per cent, totalling $865.598 million in March 2024, against $1,001.778 million in March 2023. Shipments of non-knitted apparel and accessories also declined, dropping by 18.9 per cent from $891.468 million in March 2023 to $722.963 million in the same month of 2024.

No textile product featured in Turkiye's top 20 chapters in its imports during the period under review.

In 2023, the countrys apparel exports eased by 5.86 per cent to $18.321 billion from $19.463 billion in 2022. Turkiye's apparel exports were recorded at $18.294 billion in 2021.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
Three members of the US Senate Labour Committee recently introduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, a piece of legislation that would protect warehouse workers by prohibiting dangerous work speed quotas that lead to high rates of injuries.

Large companies seek to maximise profits by using quota systems that push workers to their physical limits, resulting in high injury rates that can be permanently disabling.

The Act would prohibit dangerous quotas, including those that rely on constant intrusive surveillance, interfere with workers ability to use the bathroom and take guaranteed breaks, violate health and safety laws, or prevent workers from exercising their right to organise.

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which would protect such workers by prohibiting dangerous work speed quotas that lead to injuries, was recently introduced in the US Senate. It would prohibit quotas, including those that rely on intrusive surveillance, interfere with workers' use of bathroom and guaranteed breaks, and violate health and safety laws.

The legislation also creates new transparency requirements for quota systems and directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create an ergonomic management standard for warehouse workers.

When workers have the power to come together and organize for better working conditions and safer workplaces, we all do better. These big companies hold a lot of power, and with their productivity metrics and quotas, they are literally controlling the lives of workers minute by minute, said Democratic Senator Tina Smith from Minnesota who was part of the group of three.

With this bill, we are saying, enough. Were putting accountability back in this system and power back in the hands of workers subjected to systems that drive profits for billionaires while they wring workers dry, she said.

The other two Democratic Senators were Edward J Markey from Massachusetts and Bob Casey from Pennsylvania. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio is an original co-sponsor of the bill.

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is about dignity, safety, and respect for the workers that make companies run, said Senator Markey in a press release issued by Senator Smiths office.

When corporations repeatedly use and abuse warehouse workers, they show us that their number one obligation is to their profits. This bill would guarantee that we have basic standards in place to protect warehouse workers from the worst of corporate greed and move us one step further towards true worker justice, he said.

Workers are skipping breaks to meet quotas set by algorithms, putting their own safety and the safety of their colleagues at risk. I have long fought against surveillance and AI [artificial intelligence] technology to manage workers, and this bill is another step to ensure workers have a voice in the workplace to stand up for their own health and safety, said Senator Casey.

Smiths legislation includes provisions similar to a bill Minnesota lawmakers recently approved requiring companies that operate warehouse distribution centres to inform their employees any work quotas theyre held to, disclose data around their individual productivity and prohibits quotas that prevent workers from skipping meal breaks, bathroom breaks or prayer periods.

The bill also authorises state officials to investigate companies for high injury rates.

..This legislation would overturn decades of employment and labor law, erode employers private property rights and unjustifiably expand the federal governments intrusion into American workplaces, National Retail Federation (NRF) executive vice president of government relations David French said responding to the legislation.

The bill mandates that OSHA promulgate an ergonomics standard, despite a 2001 law passed by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress that permanently barred OSHA from regulating ergonomics for numerous reasons, including the impossibility of separating workers pain from away-from-work life activities, a lack of clear scientific evidence to support such a standard and the massive costs. There is no new rationale for undoing Congress prohibition, and NRF strongly opposes this bill, he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
BUDAPEST, Hungary, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple achievements were made on Thursday at a conference focused on cooperation between China and Hungary under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework.

Under the guidance of China's State Council Information Office, the conference was co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and Hungary's ATV Media Group in Budapest.

Xinhua has always been committed to concentrating efforts and contributing to the joint building of the Belt and Road between the two countries, President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua said while addressing the event.

The conference aims to further implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and promote pragmatic cooperation at various levels across the board so as to make new and greater contributions to the Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries with more innovative results, Fu said.

At the conference, the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP), which was initiated by Xinhua News Agency, inaugurated an Eastern European liaison office.

The China NGO Network for International Exchanges launched a non-governmental Belt and Road cooperation project with Hungary.

The official website of the BRI introduced a dedicated sector for industrial cooperation between China and Hungary.

A report on investment and cooperation between the two countries under the Belt and Road framework was also released.

About 200 people, including government officials, representatives from chambers of commerce and the business sector, as well as heads of major media outlets and think tanks from both countries joined the event.

Fu noted that Xinhua will continue to provide in-depth coverage of high-level interactions between the two countries and present major achievements of the two countries' high-quality Belt and Road cooperation in an all-round and multi-perspective manner.

Stressing efforts to strengthen exchanges with Hungarian think tanks, Fu also urged making full use of platforms and mechanisms including the World Media Summit and the BREIP to roll out even more tangible results.

Fu also stressed the importance of providing services for China-Hungary cooperation in various areas and better promoting the in-depth integration of the BRI cooperation and Hungary's "Opening to the East" policy.

Hungary and China have achieved fruitful results in Belt and Road cooperation, Hungarian Minister for National Economy Marton Nagy said at the conference, citing the Hungary-Serbia railway project as an example.

Hungary sees China's economic development as an important opportunity, Nagy said, stressing that investment from Chinese companies including Bank of China, CATL and BYD has been driving the development of related industries.

Nagy said Hungary is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in areas such as infrastructure and high-tech, and act as a link between China and Europe.

Liu Hongcai, deputy head of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, called for efforts from various sectors of the two countries to thoroughly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further promote people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.

More momentum for future-oriented cooperation should be fostered and cooperation platforms at all levels should make full use of their advantages to respond to global challenges, Liu said.

Liu voiced his hope that people from all walks of life in the two countries will make active contributions to promoting bilateral relations.

During the past years, economic ties and trade between the two countries have flourished, said Tamas Kovacs, CEO of ATV.

Based on the extensive cooperation between ATV and Chinese media outlets, the audience is able to have a better understanding of the fruitful achievements of the two countries' joint efforts, Kovacs said, adding that such cooperation will be carried on to help the two peoples to better understand each other's culture and values.

Participating guests also visited a photo exhibition on the pragmatic BRI cooperation between China and Hungary.

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Typhur Inc. Goes International, Announces Official Launch with Debut of UK Website

Typhur Inc., a leading provider of innovative kitchen appliances and cooking technology, is thrilled to announce its official website launch in the United Kingdom. Committed to revolutionizing cooking through the integration of technology, precision, and ease, Typhur is transforming the culinary experience for home chefs across the UK.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502110240/en/

Typhur Ambassador, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham (Photo: Business Wire)

Merging science with culinary artistry, Typhur introduces a range of advanced appliances designed to make the cooking process more enjoyable and efficient. From the top-rated Typhur InstaProbe, voted the best digital meat thermometer of 2024 by USA Today, to the Typhur Sync, offering unparalleled stability and accuracy, Typhur appliances are set to redefine the way home chefs approach cooking.

"We are excited to bring Typhur's innovative kitchen solutions to the UK market," said Allen Fung, Managing Director of Typhur Inc. "Our goal is to empower home chefs with the tools they need to create exceptional dishes with precision and ease. The UK launch is a significant step towards our mission of becoming the leading experts in cooking science worldwide."

Having already collaborated with renowned culinary enthusiasts, chefs, and influencers, including UK native Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, this momentous expansion reflects Typhur's commitment to delivering cutting-edge kitchen technology to all home cooks across the globe. With ambassador and Sous Vide Everything host Guga Tosta also on board, Typhur is proud to offer a diverse range of culinary inspirations to its customers.

"Excited to announce Typhur's expansion into the UK. Cooking has been a lifelong passion for me-it's more than just ingredients; it's about the love you bring to the table. Innovation and great taste have no boundaries, and I'm thrilled to be part of a company that blends both, creating products that help empower aspiring chefs to achieve professional results at home," Brooklyn Beckham said of the launch.

Product Availability and Pricing

Typhur InstaProbe, the world's fastest and most accurate food thermometer. Patent-pending DCTi (Direct Contact Thermal Integration) process allows for direct thermal conduction between the sensor and target object at readings of just .75 seconds.

MSRP 99, available on https://uk.typhur.com/

Press Kit

Typhur Sync, a wireless food thermometer with two separate probes. Boasting 6 sensors in each probe, the Typhur Sync pushes the limits in both accuracy and stability.

MSRP 249, available on https://uk.typhur.com/

Press Kit

Typhur's commitment to excellence extends beyond its products, as the company provides comprehensive support to its customers through its user-friendly app, real-time customer service, and hassle-free warranty and return policies.

To learn more about Typhur and explore their range of advanced kitchen appliances, visit https://uk.typhur.com/.

About Typhur Inc.:

Typhur Inc. is a leading provider of advanced kitchen appliances and cooking technology aimed at revolutionizing the culinary experience for home chefs worldwide. With a focus on innovation, precision, and ease, Typhur is dedicated to elevating cooking standards and making the kitchen a place of creativity and enjoyment.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502110240/en/

Contacts:

For PR Press inquiries, please contact:

Danielle Spoleti, Head of Public Relations

danielle.spoleti@typhur.com

For sales inquiries, please contact:

Alex Siow, Head of Sales

alex.siow@typhur.com

For partnership inquiries, please contact:

Allen Fung, Director of Business Development

allen.f@typhur.com
PUNE, India, May 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The report titled "Protective Coatings Market by Resin Type (Acrylic, Alkyd, Epoxy), Product Formulation (Solvent-Borne, Water-Borne), 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 $37.62 billion in 2023 to reach $56.28 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.92% over the forecast period.

" Global Surge in Protective Coatings Adoption: Fueling Longevity and Eco-Innovation across Industries "

In an era where the longevity and integrity of assets stand paramount, protective coatings shield surfaces from environmental aggressors such as moisture, chemicals, UV exposure, and wear and tear. These innovative materials are instrumental in preserving critical assets' value and functionality across diverse industrial equipment and infrastructure sectors to automotive and marine vessels by combating corrosion and damage on surfaces such as metals, plastics, concrete, and wood. The surge in global urbanization and construction activities, alongside the expansion of offshore oil & gas operations, emphasizes the escalating demand for these protective solutions. The industry navigates challenges such as volatile raw material costs and environmental regulations targeting solvent-based coatings due to their VOC emissions. Strides in nanotechnology, materials science, and the development and adoption of eco-friendly alternatives are opening new opportunities for sustainable protective applications. Reflecting the geographical diversity in demand, the Americas lead with a solid industrial base, particularly in oil & gas, powered by the technological prowess and regulatory frameworks of the United States and Canada. Europe's stringent environmental policies favor advancing protective technologies, whereas the construction and oil & gas maintenance requirements support adoption in the Middle East. In Africa, the focus on infrastructure and eco-consciousness draws attention to water-based options. The Asia-Pacific region's booming industrial and construction sectors, led by giants such as China, India, and Japan, signal a robust trajectory for these coatings, with industrial growth and a commitment to safeguarding assets against corrosion.

Download Sample Report @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/protective-coatings

" Enhancing Infrastructure Longevity: The Essential Role of Protective Coatings in Global Development "

As urban areas expand and populations surge, there is a significant increase in the demand for modern infrastructure, including public parks, highways, airports, and affordable housing solutions. This boom in infrastructure development and construction projects underscores the critical importance of protective coatings. These coatings defend against corrosion for metal structures such as bridges and pipelines, which are vulnerable to the damaging effects of moisture, salts, and chemicals. They also protect against the harsh impacts of weather, such as UV radiation, rain, wind, and temperature changes, ensuring the durability and integrity of buildings. Additionally, specific protective coatings are vital for preventing fire spread in residential areas, making them indispensable for preserving the structural integrity of new infrastructure. Protective coatings have emerged as a key investment for governments and developers to ensure the long-term sustainability and safety of construction projects worldwide.

" Innovative Protective Coatings Leading the Way in Durability and Environmental Sustainability "

Acrylic resins, known for their superior color retention and ultraviolet (UV) resistance, stand out for outdoor projects where sunlight is a relentless factor. These resins appeal for their eco-friendliness and efficient balance between cost and performance, making them a preferred choice for automotive, architectural, and protective coatings. Alkyd resins, crafted from polyols, acids, and fatty acids, deliver a cost-effective solution without compromising adhesion, flexibility, or sheen, making them ideal for industrial and marine settings. Epoxy resins, recognized for their robustness and resistance to chemicals and corrosion, offer unparalleled protection in extreme environments, solidifying their role in heavy industry, flooring, and infrastructural safeguards. Fluoropolymer coatings are distinguished by their unmatched resilience to weather, chemicals, heat, and UV damage, serving critical roles in architecture, bridge protection, and the aerospace sector. Polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (PAE) resins enhance epoxy coatings with superior adhesion and tolerance to harsh chemicals and water, proving indispensable in marine applications. Polyester resins, used across various temperatures, provide versatile protection in industrial coatings and automotive finishes. Polysiloxane coatings merge the best polyurethanes and epoxies, offering long-lasting protection with excellent weather resistance and low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, which are ideal for marine, offshore, and infrastructure projects. Polyurethane coatings, preferred for their outstanding durability, flexibility, and resistance to abrasion, chemicals, and UV light, are versatile for industrial, automotive, aerospace, and architectural applications. Together, these innovations in protective coatings are setting new standards for lasting protection while maintaining a firm commitment to environmental sustainability.

Request Analyst Support @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/protective-coatings

" PPG Industries, Inc. at the Forefront of Protective Coatings Market with a Strong 12.43% Market Share "

The key players in the Protective Coatings Market include Kansai Paint Co., Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Company, Akzo Nobel N.V., PPG Industries, Inc., Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd., 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 Protective Coatings Market "

We proudly unveil ThinkMi, a cutting-edge AI product designed to transform how businesses interact with the Protective Coatings 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 Protective Coatings 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/protective-coatings

" Dive into the Protective Coatings Market Landscape: Explore 199 Pages of Insights, 304 Tables, and 22 Figures "

Preface Research Methodology Executive Summary Market Overview Market Insights Protective Coatings Market, by Resin Type Protective Coatings Market, by Product Formulation Protective Coatings Market, by Application Americas Protective Coatings Market Asia-Pacific Protective Coatings Market Europe, Middle East & Africa Protective Coatings Market Competitive Landscape Competitive Portfolio

Inquire Before Buying @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/protective-coatings

Related Reports:

MRO Protective Coatings Market - Global Forecast 2024-2030 Porcelain Enamel Coatings Market - Global Forecast 2024-2030 Electrical Insulation Coatings 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.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 2, 2024) - 1355379 BC Ltd. (the "Company") announces that, further to its press release on April 25, 2024, the Company is proceeding with a consolidation (the "Consolidation") of its common shares ("Shares") on the basis of one (1) post-Consolidation Share for seven (7) pre-Consolidation Shares. As of the date hereof, the Company has 12,889,131 Shares issued and outstanding. Following completion of the Consolidation, the Company will have 1,841,305 Shares issued and outstanding.

No fractional Shares of the Company will be issued if, as a result of the Consolidation, a registered Shareholder would otherwise be entitled to a fractional Share. Instead, the Company will round any fractional Shares resulting from the Consolidation up to the nearest whole Share. The post-Consolidation Shares will be assigned the new CUSIP and ISIN numbers 682933205 and CA6829332056, respectively.

A letter of transmittal describing the process by which registered shareholders of the Company holding a certificate representing their Shares may obtain a new certificate representing post-Consolidation Shares will be mailed. Registered shareholders of the Company who do not hold a certificate will receive a direct registration statement representing their Shares.

The Consolidation will be effective on May 3, 2024. Pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) and the articles of the Company, shareholder approval of the Consolidation is not required.

The Consolidation is intended to increase the Company's flexibility and make the Company's securities more attractive to potential investors and other interested parties.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Anthony Paterson

1355379 B.C. Ltd.

Tel: (604) 910-1804

info@districtmines.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, that the Company will complete the Consolidation and that the Company will receive all required regulatory and exchange approvals. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. Specific risks included that we may not obtain regulatory approval. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond our control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. Other factors which could materially affect such forward-looking information are described in the risk factors in the Company's most recent annual management's discussion and analysis that is available on the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. WIRE SERVICES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207871

SOURCE: 1355379 BC LTD
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CANNES, France, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Campari returns to the red carpet on 14th-25thMay 2024. The iconic red bitter brand continues its role as Official Partner to the Festival de Cannes for the third consecutive year.

Festival de Cannes is one of the most anticipated, watched, and glamorous film festivals worldwide. Campari, meanwhile, has a longstanding connection with the world of cinema, having supported the industry and championed its film-making talent for the last 40 years.

It's apt, then, that Campari has chosen the opening of the 77th Festival to launch its We Are Cinema campaign. Its role is to acknowledge human stories as the inspiration for some of the world's greatest cinema. Building on Campari's role as curator of aperitivo occasions, Campari celebrates those real-life moments that become remarkable stories. Viewers of the new campaign can expect a melody of cinematic moments artistically brought to life and told through the vivid red lens of Campari's creativity.

As both festival and campaign unfurl, Campari will again host and promote a series of events from the Campari Lounge in the Palais de Festival, over-looking the famous red-carpet. This year, the brand also introduces Hyde Beach by Campari, a new iconic space on Boulevard de Croisette, where stars and guests will be welcomed, and events hosted throughout the festival.

Amongst their exciting programme, Campari is honoured to announce both new and returning collaborations:

Cole Walliser will be based in the Campari Lounge, interviewing guests and celebrities. The director and celebrity host, famous for the behind-the-scenes GlamBOT clips, will eagerly tune into his entertaining dispatches covering the red-carpet action from the lounge.

Campari is also rejoining forces with The Hollywood Reporter, recording a special festival edition of the Awards Chatter podcast with Kevin Costner - director, writer, producer and star of Horizon: An American Saga. Costner will join THR's Executive Editor of Awards, Scott Feinberg, live to talk about his returning to the big screen Western, premiering at this year's Festival de Cannes.

One of the most anticipated events has to be the Official Cannes After Party for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. During the festival Campari will host this star-studded event at Hyde Beach by Campari in celebration of the latest instalment of this epic franchise.

Campari will also partner for the third year with Breaking Through The Lens, a non-profit organisation which empowers women in film by facilitating access to vital funding. Together, they will host the 'Crossing Borders' gala to celebrate women who have transcended cultural borders. The evening will include a panel discussion with globally renowned actress, Diane Kruger, who will be joined by other industry figures - including Campari Group Head of Marketing, Julka Villa - to share their own unique experiences.

The 77th Festival also marks the debut of Campari's partnership with Soho House, to host a one-of-a-kind creative film competition. Supporting and honouring emerging film talent, it focuses on the elements of life that transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, similar to the role of Campari in mixology.

Campari is more than an aperitif. With such unmistakable characteristics, the brand has long been a source of passionate inspiration. Since its birth, Campari has always been at the forefront of cocktail culture, inspiring passion in bartenders across the world. With Camparino in Galleria, master mixologists, serving up their famed cocktails - including Negroni and Campari Spritz - the Campari Lounge and Hyde Beach by Campari are the perfect places to raise a toast to inspiring stories and the talent behind them.

Campari Group Head of Marketing, Julka Villa comments: "We are delighted to return to Festival de Cannes, this year bringing our passion for cinema and stories through our global We Are Cinema campaign to the iconic Festival setting. With a strong and enduring legacy in the cinema world, creativity and passion remain at the heart of everything we do. This year, we look forward to continuing to bring this to our audience through a programme of remarkable moments throughout the Festival."

Please follow Campari's social media channels for further information @campariofficial.

CampariCinema WeAreCinema Cannes2024 FestivalDeCannes DrinkResponsibly

www.campari.com

https://www.youtube.com/EnjoyCampari

https://www.facebook.com/Campari

https://instagram.com/campariofficial

ABOUT CAMPARI

Campari, the iconic, Italian red spirit sitting at the heart of some of the world's most famous cocktails. Campari was founded in Milan in 1860 by Gaspare Campari, and pioneered by his son, Davide, who created something so distinctive and revolutionary that its secret recipe has not been altered since. Vibrant red in colour, Campari's unique and multi-layered taste is the result of the infusion of herbs, aromatic plants and fruit in alcohol and water. As well as being unique and distinctive, Campari is extremely versatile, offering boundless and unexpected possibilities. As a source of this passionate inspiration since its creation seen through its founders' creative genius, artists in different fields and the world's best bartenders, Campari stimulates your instincts to unlock your passions, inspiring limitless creations.

ABOUT CAMPARI GROUP

Campari Group is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands, spreading across Global, Regional and Local priorities. Global Priorities, the Group's key focus, include Aperol, Appleton Estate, Campari, SKYY, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier. The Group was founded in 1860 and today is the sixth-largest player worldwide in the premium spirits industry. It has a global distribution reach, trading in over 190 nations around the world with leading positions in Europe and the Americas. Campari Group's growth strategy aims to combine organic growth through strong brand building and external growth via selective acquisitions of brands and businesses. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Campari Group owns 22 plants worldwide and has its own distribution network in 26 countries. Campari Group employs approximately 4,700people. The shares of the parent company Davide Campari-Milano N.V. (Reuters CPRI.MI - Bloomberg CPR IM) have been listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001.

For more information: http://www.camparigroup.com/en.

Please enjoy our brands responsibly.

ABOUT FESTIVAL DE CANNES

The Festival de Cannes is an event that brings together the world's film professionals around an official competition and an International Film Market, whose highly media-oriented aspect makes it one of the first annual international events, contributing to the world cinematic influence.

ABOUT CAMPARINO

Camparino in Galleria is the legendary bar opened by Davide Campari in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in 1915. The bar was opened opposite to Caffe Campari, the establishment opened by Gaspare Campari - Davide's father and the creator of the bitter liqueur - in 1867. An instant hit with the people of Milan, the bar became synonymous with the city's aperitivo tradition and in 2015 marked its 100th anniversary. Following a renovation project, the bar reopens to the public in autumn 2019 with a refreshed identity and food and drink offering designed to consolidate its status as one of the most influential establishments in the world for lovers of mixology and gastronomic innovation.

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - Proleo.io, a top crypto marketing and PR firm, is happy to report that it attended the recent edition of Blockchain Life. The forum, which was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from April 15-16, 2024, is a gathering of some of the biggest names in the crypto space.

Blockchain Life 2024 In Dubai



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The program has boasted prominent figures within the industry such as Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit, Rachel Conlan, the CMO of Binance, and Jason Lau, the Chief Innovation Officer at OKX. Previous editions have also featured panel discussions, fireside chats, and keynote discussions of some of the most pressing issues in the industry like DeFi, Web3, and AI.

The latest edition was no different, with industry leaders in attendance, as well as hosting informative panel talks. For companies in the space, Blockchain Life represents a unique opportunity to showcase themselves to potential customers and partners. Blockchain Life offered over 180 booth opportunities to companies looking to reach the over 10,000 people who were in attendance from over 120 countries.

"This year, we reached a milestone with 10,162 attendees. They know that the current market growth is just the beginning of a real explosion. The next wave is coming, which is why top projects, insiders, and funds gathered at Blockchain Life to finalize their preparations," said Sergei Khitrov, an organizer for Blockchain Life.

Proleo.io attended the forum not just for its own benefit but for that of its clients as well. A gathering of these many influential names in the industry does not happen too often and the firm took full advantage of this, connecting with contemporaries and customers alike. The industry is at a crucial stage in terms of growth and there is no better time to tap into the community.

The event was sponsored by Uminers, OKX, ByBit, eToro, Coinpal, and much more and was held at the Dubai Festival Arena. The organizers have also emphasized Dubai as a leading hub for blockchain and cryptocurrency, and a top place to do business.

The city has almost 0% business taxes, an already established legal framework for crypto use, a thriving local crypto community, and solar power for mining operations.

About Proleo.io

Founded in 2021, Proleo.io is a full-service marketing and PR firm servicing the blockchain, crypto, fintech, and web3 sectors. Boasting both clients and a team around the world, the firm works to deliver maximum visibility and help businesses cultivate relevant and engaged audiences.

Contact:

Hicham Sbaa - press@proleo.io

Media links

Website: https://proleo.io/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proleo-io

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SOURCE: Proleo.io
CHICAGO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Armored Vehicle Market is valued at USD 51.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 60.7 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 3.3% from 2024 to 2029 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The market experiences growth and evolution driven by various factors. Rising geopolitical tensions and terrorism prompt nations to enhance defense capabilities, fueling demand for armored vehicles. Global military modernization programs, aiming to replace aging fleets with advanced technology-equipped vehicles, boost market demand. Innovations in armor materials, vehicle design, and weapon systems attract investments and propel market growth.

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Ammunition Market Report Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2024 $ 51.6 billion Estimated Value by 2029 $ 60.7 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 3.3% Market Size Available for 2020-2029 Forecast Period 2024-2029 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Platform, Type, Systems, Mode of Operation, Point of sale and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge Hardware and software malfunctions Key Market Opportunities Rising technology integration and upgrades in military vehicles Key Market Drivers Increasing demand for armored vehicles to tackle cross-border conflicts

Based on the platform, the combat vehicles segment is estimated to hold the highest market share during the forecast period

Based on the platform, the combat vehicles segment is estimated to lead the armored vehicles market from 2024 to 2029. This growth is fueled by increasing global security concerns, geopolitical tensions, and military modernization initiatives across various regions. Combat vehicles, equipped with advanced technology, enhanced firepower, and superior mobility, are vital assets for modern military operations, driving their prominence in defense procurement programs. Additionally, ongoing conflicts and evolving battlefield scenarios necessitate the continuous development and deployment of combat vehicles, further contributing to their significant market share and growth potential.

Based on mobility, the wheeled segment is estimated to hold the highest market share during the forecast period.

Based on mobility, the wheeled segment is estimated to hold the highest market share during the forecast period. Wheeled armored vehicles (WAVs) offer advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, as they are generally more affordable to acquire and maintain compared to tracked vehicles. Additionally, WAVs provide superior mobility and deployment flexibility, as they can be easily transported over long distances by road or air and offer better maneuverability on various terrains, especially in urban environments. Their modular design allows for customization to suit different mission requirements, making WAVs versatile for a range of applications, including law enforcement, internal security, and emerging market needs. While tracked vehicles still hold certain advantages in off-road capability and armor protection, the rise of WAVs reflects a shift towards more agile, cost-effective solutions in modern military operations.

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Based on regions, the Asia Pacific accounts for the largest market share in Armored Vehicles market.

Based on region, the Asia Pacific market is estimated to account for largest market share during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific region's dominance in the armored vehicle industry is bolstered by several factors, including geopolitical tensions, robust economic growth, evolving warfare dynamics, internal security challenges, and significant contracts secured by key players. Territorial disputes and nuclear threats, coupled with increasing defense budgets, drive nations to procure advanced armored vehicles to strengthen their military capabilities. Furthermore, key players in the market, such as General Dynamics, BAE Systems, and Hanwha Defense, have secured substantial contracts in the region, contributing to the proliferation of armored vehicles. These contracts not only enhance regional security but also stimulate market growth by fostering innovation and technological advancements. Collectively, these factors position the Asia Pacific region as a pivotal player in the global armored vehicle market.

Key Players

The Armored Vehicles companies is dominated by a few globally established players such as Rheinmetall AG (Germany), General Dynamics Corporation (US), Oshkosh Corporation (US), BAE Systems (UK), and Hanwha Defense (South Korea).

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About MarketsandMarkets

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MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients.

Earlier this year, we made a formal transformation into one of America's best management consulting firms as per a survey conducted by Forbes.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry.

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ALMATY, Kazakhstan, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Narxoz University, a leading private university in Kazakhstan and member of Bulat Utemuratov's Group, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a ground-breaking partnership with Queen's University Belfast, a Russell Group university, to ?stablish a branch at Narxoz's new campus. The branch will provide students in Kazakhstan with access to Queen's University's academic programs.

The agreement, signed at a ceremony attended by Lord David Cameron, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, and former UK Prime Minister, marks a significant milestone in Narxoz's history. Since 2007, the university embarked on a transformation journey, initiated and overseen by Bulat Utemuratov, to develop into a world-class institution through investment into academia, infrastructure and international partnerships. The new partnership strengthens the relationship between Queen's and Narxoz, building on their double degree agreement which was announced earlier this year.

Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said: "In line with the President's vision to establish branches of international universities in Kazakhstan, it is significant that we are signing a partnership agreement with a Russell Group university at the time of Lord Cameron's official visit. This signing ceremony is a key moment in Narxoz University's history and forms part of the wider trend of leading foreign universities actively opening branches in our country. I am confident this partnership will contribute to our continuous efforts to provide world-class education and foster the development of science and innovation in Kazakhstan."

Nola Hewitt-Dundas, Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University Belfast, outlined: "As an international University, Queen's University Belfast is delighted to partner with Narxoz University, and this partnership builds on the excellent relationships we have developed with students and university staff. We are confident that Narxoz University students will excel in their studies and through engaging with our staff and other students from across the world, become future leaders across all areas of society in Kazakhstan."

Miras Daulenov, President of Narxoz University, added: "Our partnership with Queen's University Belfast is an example of effective collaboration with a top university. I am confident that the partnership between Narxoz and Queen's University will boost the training of leaders and industry experts, promote cultural exchange, and strengthen the country's profile as an educational hub in the region."

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First Quarter Highlights*

Diluted EPS for the Quarter of $1.96, Up 20 percent

Adjusted Diluted EPS for the Quarter of $2.15, Up 13 percent

Record Net Revenue for the Quarter of $502.1 million, Up 7 percent

Anticipates Higher End of Organic Total Net Revenue Growth 2 Range of 5 to 7 percent in 2024; Reaffirms Data and Access Solutions Organic Net Revenue Growth Target 2 of 7 to 10 percent

Decreases 2024 Adjusted Operating Expense Guidance2 to $795 to $805 million, from $798 to $808 million

CHICAGO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE) today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2024.

"During the first quarter, Cboe delivered record quarterly net revenue and strong adjusted earnings1, led by the strength of our Derivatives and Data and Access Solutions categories," said Fredric Tomczyk, Cboe Global Markets Chief Executive Officer. "These results build on our strong 2023 trends, as overall net revenues grew 7% year-over-year and adjusted EPS1 increased by 13% as compared to the same period in 2023. Importantly, the adjusted EBITDA margin1 for the quarter increased by 1.4% year-over-year to 67.2% during the quarter, marking clear progress in our efforts to drive greater margin efficiencies across our businesses. Last week, we announced plans to refocus our digital asset business to leverage our core strengths in derivatives, technology and product innovation while realizing operating efficiencies for both Cboe and our clients. The second quarter is off to a strong start, and I look forward to building on that momentum going forward."

"Following a record 2023, I am incredibly pleased to report record net revenues and strong adjusted earnings1 in the first quarter of 2024," said Jill Griebenow, Cboe Global Markets Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. "Derivative trends were robust during the first quarter of 2024 with net revenues growing 8%. Data and Access Solutions delivered equally strong growth with net revenue up 8%, while Cash and Spot Markets net revenues were stable on a year-over-year basis. Moving forward, we anticipate organic total net revenue growth2 to finish at the higher end of our 5-7% expected guidance range. We are reaffirming our Data and Access Solutions organic net revenue growth2 range of 7-10%, in line with our medium-term expectations. Additionally, we are lowering our full year adjusted operating expense guidance2 range to $795 to $805 million from $798 to $808 million. 2024 is off to a strong start, and we look forward to delivering durable returns for shareholders in the quarters ahead."

*All comparisons are first quarter 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. (1)A full reconciliation of our non-GAAP results to our GAAP ("Generally Accepted Accounting Principles") results is included in the attached tables. See "Non-GAAP Information" in the accompanying financial tables. (2)Specific quantifications of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the company's organic net revenue growth guidance and adjusted operating expenses guidance are not available. The company believes that there is uncertainty and unpredictability with respect to certain of its GAAP measures, primarily related to acquisition-related revenues and expenses that would be required to reconcile to GAAP revenues less cost of revenues, GAAP operating expenses and GAAP effective tax rate, which preclude the company from providing accurate guidance on certain forward-looking GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations. The company believes that providing estimates of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the range of the company's organic net revenue growth guidance and adjusted operating expenses would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors for the reasons identified above.

Consolidated First Quarter Results -Table 1

Table 1 below presents summary selected unaudited condensed consolidated financial information for the company as reported and on an adjusted basis for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023.

Table 1 Consolidated First Quarter Results























1Q24

1Q23



($ in millions except per share)



1Q24

1Q23 Change

Adjusted1

Adjusted1 Change Total Revenues Less Cost of Revenues



$ 502.1



$ 471.4

7 %

$ 502.1



$ 471.4

7 % Total Operating Expenses



$ 219.7



$ 223.5

(2) %

$ 192.9



$ 186.2

4 % Operating Income



$ 282.4



$ 247.9

14 %

$ 309.2



$ 285.2

8 % Operating Margin %





56.2 %



52.6 % 3.6 pp



61.6 %



60.5 % 1.1 pp Net Income Allocated to Common Stockholders



$ 208.3



$ 172.6

21 %

$ 227.7



$ 201.8

13 % Diluted Earnings Per Share



$ 1.96



$ 1.63

20 %

$ 2.15



$ 1.90

13 % EBITDA1



$ 337.1



$ 303.9

11 %

$ 337.3



$ 310.3

9 % EBITDA Margin %1





67.1 %



64.5 % 2.6 pp



67.2 %



65.8 % 1.4 pp

Total revenues less cost of revenues (referred to as "net revenue") of $502.1 million increased 7 percent, compared to $471.4 million in the prior-year period, a result of increases in derivatives markets and data and access solutions net revenue, as well as stable cash and spot markets net revenue.

Total operating expenses were $219.7 million versus $223.5 million in the first quarter of 2023, a decrease of $3.8 million. Adjusted operating expenses 1 of $192.9 million increased 4 percent compared to $186.2 million in the first quarter of 2023. This increase was primarily due to higher compensation and benefits and technology support services, partially offset by a decline in professional fees and outside services.

of $192.9 million increased 4 percent compared to $186.2 million in the first quarter of 2023. This increase was primarily due to higher compensation and benefits and technology support services, partially offset by a decline in professional fees and outside services. The effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2024 was 28.3 percent as compared with 30.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023. The lower effective tax rate in 2024 is primarily due to excess tax benefits from the vesting of equity awards during the quarter. The effective tax rate on adjusted earnings 1 was 28.1 percent, a decrease of 0.9 percent when compared with 29.0 percent in last year's first quarter.

was 28.1 percent, a decrease of 0.9 percent when compared with 29.0 percent in last year's first quarter. Diluted EPS for the first quarter of 2024 increased 20 percent to $1.96 compared to the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted diluted EPS1 of $2.15 increased 13 percent compared to 2023 first quarter results.

Business Segment Information:

Table 2 Total Revenues Less Cost of Revenues by



















Business Segment



















(in millions)

1Q24 1Q23 Change Options

$ 307.4

$ 280.7



10 % North American Equities



92.6



93.1



(1) % Europe and Asia Pacific



54.1



49.3



10 % Futures



30.5



31.1



(2) % Global FX



18.4



18.5



(1) % Digital



(0.9)



(1.3)



* % Total

$ 502.1

$ 471.4



7 %



(1)A full reconciliation of our non-GAAP results to our GAAP results is included in the attached tables. See "Non-GAAP Information" in the accompanying financial tables. *Not meaningful

Discussion of Results by Business Segment:

Options:

Options net revenue of $307.4 million was up $26.7 million, or 10 percent, from the first quarter of 2023. Net transaction and clearing fees 1 increased primarily as a result of a 14 percent increase in index options trading volumes versus the first quarter of 2023. Access and capacity fees were 7 percent higher than first quarter 2023.

increased primarily as a result of a 14 percent increase in index options trading volumes versus the first quarter of 2023. Access and capacity fees were 7 percent higher than first quarter 2023. Net transaction and clearing fees 1 increased $28.4 million, or 12 percent, reflecting a 1 percent increase in total options average daily volume ("ADV") and a 12 percent increase in total options RPC compared to the first quarter 2023. The increase in total options RPC was due to a mix shift, with index options representing a higher percentage of total options volume.

increased $28.4 million, or 12 percent, reflecting a 1 percent increase in total options average daily volume ("ADV") and a 12 percent increase in total options RPC compared to the first quarter 2023. The increase in total options RPC was due to a mix shift, with index options representing a higher percentage of total options volume. Cboe's Options exchanges had total market share of 31.3 percent for the first quarter of 2024 compared to 31.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023, a result of lower multi-list market share as compared to the first quarter of 2023.

North American (N.A.) Equities:

N.A. Equities net revenue of $92.6 million decreased $0.5 million, or 1 percent versus the first quarter of 2023, reflecting lower net transaction and clearing fees 1 and industry market data.

and industry market data. Net transaction and clearing fees 1 decreased by $0.3 million, or 1 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was driven by lower Canadian Equities market volumes and net capture as compared to the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was partially offset by a stronger U.S. off-exchange net capture rate, up 24 percent as compared to the first quarter of 2023 given client mix shift and less fee incentives given lower volumes.

decreased by $0.3 million, or 1 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was driven by lower Canadian Equities market volumes and net capture as compared to the first quarter of 2023. The decrease was partially offset by a stronger U.S. off-exchange net capture rate, up 24 percent as compared to the first quarter of 2023 given client mix shift and less fee incentives given lower volumes. Cboe's U.S. Equities exchanges had market share of 12.8 percent for the first quarter of 2024 compared to 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Cboe's U.S. Equities off-exchange market share was 18.4 percent versus 20.4 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Canadian Equities market share rose to 15.3 percent as compared to 14.3 percent in the first quarter of 2023 due to continued client adoption and growth.

Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC):

Europe and APAC net revenue of $54.1 million increased by 10 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023, reflecting double-digit non-transaction revenue growth across market data fees, access and capacity fees, and other revenue. On a constant currency basis 1 , net revenues were $53.4 million, up 8 percent on a year-over-year basis. European Equities average daily notional value ("ADNV") traded on Cboe European Equities was 9.9 billion, down 13 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023 given a 9 percent decline in industry market volumes and lower market share.

, net revenues were $53.4 million, up 8 percent on a year-over-year basis. European Equities average daily notional value ("ADNV") traded on Cboe European Equities was 9.9 billion, down 13 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023 given a 9 percent decline in industry market volumes and lower market share. For the first quarter of 2024, Cboe European Equities had 23.7 percent market share, down from 24.9 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Market share was negatively impacted by elevated closing auction activity on listing venues. Cboe Australia had 20.4 percent market share for the first quarter of 2024, up from 18.5 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Cboe Japan grew market share to 5.0 percent in the first quarter of 2024 from 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023. Cboe European Equities net capture rate increased 16 percent given mix shift to higher capture products, and Cboe Australia net capture decreased 3 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2023.

Futures:

Futures net revenue of $30.5 million decreased $0.6 million compared to the first quarter of 2023 due to a decline in net transaction and clearing fees 1 , partially offset by higher access and capacity fees and market data fees.

, partially offset by higher access and capacity fees and market data fees. Net transaction and clearing fees1 decreased $1.3 million, reflecting a 5 percent decrease in ADV during the quarter.

Global FX:

Global FX net revenue of $18.4 million decreased 1 percent, primarily due to lower net transaction and clearing fees 1 . ADNV traded on the Cboe FX platform was $45.3 billion for the quarter, up 1 percent compared to last year's first quarter, and net capture rate per one million dollars traded was $2.62 for the quarter, down 1 percent compared to $2.64 in the first quarter of 2023.

. ADNV traded on the Cboe FX platform was $45.3 billion for the quarter, up 1 percent compared to last year's first quarter, and net capture rate per one million dollars traded was $2.62 for the quarter, down 1 percent compared to $2.64 in the first quarter of 2023. Cboe FX market share was 20.3 percent for the quarter compared to 19.0 percent in last year's first quarter.

Digital:

Announced the realignment of Cboe Digital asset business on April 25, 2024. Cboe plans to transition and fully integrate the digital asset derivatives and clearing businesses and wind down operations of the Cboe Digital Spot Market, pending regulatory review and certain corporate approvals.

The wind down of the Cboe Digital Spot Market operations is expected to have an immaterial impact on Cboe's net revenue in 2024. Expense savings are estimated to be in the range of $2 million to $4 million in 2024, with savings expected to be in the $11 million to $15 million range on annualized adjusted operating expenses2.

(1)A full reconciliation of our non-GAAP results to our GAAP results is included in the attached tables. See "Non-GAAP Information" in the accompanying financial tables. (2)Specific quantifications of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the company's organic and inorganic growth guidance, adjusted operating expenses guidance, annualized adjusted operating expenses guidance, and the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings guidance are not available. Acquisitions are considered organic after 12 months of closing. The company believes that there is uncertainty and unpredictability with respect to certain of its GAAP measures, primarily related to acquisition-related revenues and expenses that would be required to reconcile to GAAP revenues less cost of revenues, GAAP operating expenses and GAAP effective tax rate, which preclude the company from providing accurate guidance on certain forward-looking GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations. The company believes that providing estimates of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the range of the company's organic growth, adjusted operating expenses, annualized adjusted operating expenses, and the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors for the reasons identified above.

2024 Fiscal Year Financial Guidance

Cboe provided guidance for the 2024 fiscal year as noted below.

Anticipates higher end of organic total net revenue growth 1 range of 5 to 7 percentage points in 2024, at the higher end of Cboe's medium-term organic total net revenue 1 guidance expectations of 5 to 7 percentage points.

range of 5 to 7 percentage points in 2024, at the higher end of Cboe's medium-term organic total net revenue guidance expectations of 5 to 7 percentage points. Reaffirms organic net revenue 1 from Data and Access Solutions is expected to increase by approximately 7 to 10 percentage points in 2024, in line with medium-term guidance expectations of 7 to 10 percentage points.

from Data and Access Solutions is expected to increase by approximately 7 to 10 percentage points in 2024, in line with medium-term guidance expectations of 7 to 10 percentage points. Adjusted operating expenses 1 in 2024 are now expected to be in the range of $795 to $805 million, down from previous guidance of $798 to $808 million. The guidance excludes the expected amortization of acquired intangible assets of $93 million; the company reflects the exclusion of this amount in its non-GAAP reconciliation.

in 2024 are now expected to be in the range of $795 to $805 million, down from previous guidance of $798 to $808 million. The guidance excludes the expected amortization of acquired intangible assets of $93 million; the company reflects the exclusion of this amount in its non-GAAP reconciliation. Reaffirms depreciation and amortization expense for 2024 is expected to be in the range of $43 to $47 million, excluding the expected amortization of acquired intangible assets.

Reaffirms minority investments are expected to contribute a $37 to $43 million benefit in 2024 to non-operating income. Anticipates that $33 to $37 million of the benefit will come in the earnings in investments line and $4 to $6 million through the other income, net line.

Reaffirms the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings 1 for the full year 2024 is expected to be in the range of 28.5 to 30.5 percent. Significant changes in trading volume, expenses, tax laws or rates and other items could materially impact this expectation.

for the full year 2024 is expected to be in the range of 28.5 to 30.5 percent. Significant changes in trading volume, expenses, tax laws or rates and other items could materially impact this expectation. Reaffirms capital expenditures for 2024 are expected to be in the range of $51 to $57 million.

(1)Specific quantifications of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the company's organic and inorganic growth guidance, adjusted operating expenses guidance, annualized adjusted operating expenses guidance, and the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings guidance are not available. Acquisitions are considered organic after 12 months of closing. The company believes that there is uncertainty and unpredictability with respect to certain of its GAAP measures, primarily related to acquisition-related revenues and expenses that would be required to reconcile to GAAP revenues less cost of revenues, GAAP operating expenses and GAAP effective tax rate, which preclude the company from providing accurate guidance on certain forward-looking GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations. The company believes that providing estimates of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the range of the company's organic growth, adjusted operating expenses, annualized adjusted operating expenses, and the effective tax rate on adjusted earnings would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors for the reasons identified above.

Capital Management

At March 31, 2024, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $536.3 million, and adjusted cash2 of $536.8 million. Total debt as of March 31, 2024 was $1,439.6 million.

The company paid cash dividends of $58.5 million, or $0.55 per share, during the first quarter of 2024 and utilized $89.3 million to repurchase approximately 490 thousand shares of its common stock under its share repurchase program at an average price of $182.26 per share. As of March 31, 2024, the company had approximately $294.8 million of availability remaining under its existing share repurchase authorizations.

Earnings Conference Call

Executives of Cboe Global Markets will host a conference call to review its first-quarter financial results today, May 3, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. ET/7:30 a.m. CT. The conference call and any accompanying slides will be publicly available via live webcast from the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.cboe.com under Events & Presentations. Participants may also listen via telephone by dialing (800) 715-9871 (toll-free) or (646) 307-1963 (toll) and using the Conference ID 2619514. Telephone participants should place calls 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The webcast will be archived on the company's website for replay.

(2)A full reconciliation of our non-GAAP results to our GAAP results is included in the attached tables. See "Non-GAAP Information" in the accompanying financial tables.

About Cboe Global Markets

Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to people around the world. Cboe provides trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives, FX, and digital assets, across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Above all, Cboe is committed to building a trusted, inclusive global marketplace that enables people to pursue a sustainable financial future. To learn more about the Exchange for the World Stage, visit www.cboe.com.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes or changes in tax regimes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security vulnerabilities and breaches; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel, increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; global expansion of operations; factors that impact the quality and integrity of our and other applicable indices; our ability to manage our growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit, counterparty investment, and default risks, associated with operating a European clearinghouse; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing potential conflicts between our regulatory responsibilities and our for-profit status; our ability to maintain BIDS Trading as an independently managed and operated trading venue, separate from and not integrated with our registered national securities exchanges; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments or intangible assets; the impacts of pandemics; the accuracy of our estimates and expectations; litigation risks and other liabilities; risks relating to digital assets, including winding down the Cboe Digital spot crypto market, operating a digital assets futures clearinghouse, cybercrime, changes in digital asset regulation, and fluctuations in digital asset prices. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.

We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

The condensed consolidated statements of income and balance sheets are unaudited and subject to revision.

Cboe Media Contacts:





Analyst Contact: Angela Tu

Tim Cave

Kenneth Hill, CFA (646) 856-8734

+44 (0) 7593 506 719

(312) 786-7559 atu@cboe.com

tcave@cboe.com

khill@cboe.com

CBOE-F

Trademarks:

Cboe, Cboe Global Markets, Cboe Volatility Index, Bats, BIDS Trading, BZX, BYX, Chi-X, Cboe Clear, Cboe Digital, EDGX, EDGA, MATCHNow, and VIX are registered trademarks of Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. Key Performance Statistics by Business Segment





1Q 2024 4Q 2023 3Q 2023 2Q 2023 1Q 2023 Options































Total industry ADV (in thousands)



47,452



44,410



43,411



42,964



46,057

Total company Options ADV (in thousands)



14,833



14,896



14,592



14,306



14,657

Multi-listed options



10,744



10,725



10,848



10,622



11,062

Index options



4,089



4,172



3,743



3,683



3,595

Total Options market share



31.3 %

33.5 %

33.6 %

33.3 %

31.8 % Multi-listed options



24.8 %

26.7 %

27.4 %

27.1 %

26.1 % Total Options RPC:

$ 0.299

$ 0.297

$ 0.270

$ 0.271

$ 0.267

Multi-listed options

$ 0.064

$ 0.060

$ 0.055

$ 0.061

$ 0.064

Index options

$ 0.915

$ 0.908

$ 0.894

$ 0.877

$ 0.889



































North American Equities































U.S. Equities - Exchange:































Total industry ADV (shares in billions)



11.8



11.2



10.4



10.7



11.8

Market share %



12.8 %

13.0 %

12.7 %

12.7 %

12.7 % Net capture (per 100 touched shares)

$ 0.019

$ 0.013

$ 0.022

$ 0.021

$ 0.019

U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange:































ADV (touched shares, in millions)



77.1



72.7



71.4



78.7



89.4

Off-Exchange ATS Block Market Share % (reported on a one-month lag)



18.4 %

18.4 %

19.9 %

19.9 %

20.4 % Net capture (per 100 touched shares)

$ 0.141

$ 0.143

$ 0.129

$ 0.122

$ 0.113

Canadian Equities:































ADV (matched shares, in millions)



146.3



141.8



127.5



124.2



150.8

Total market share %



15.3 %

15.3 %

15.2 %

14.5 %

14.3 % Net capture (per 10,000 shares, in Canadian Dollars)

$ 3.997

$ 3.905

$ 3.976

$ 4.055

$ 4.039



































Europe and Asia Pacific































European Equities:































Total industry ADNV (Euros - in billions)

 41.8

 37.7

 34.3

 38.7

 45.8

Market share %



23.7 %

23.9 %

23.2 %

23.8 %

24.9 % Net capture (per matched notional value (bps), in Euros)

 0.249

 0.233

 0.232

 0.230

 0.215

Cboe Clear Europe:































Trades cleared (in thousands)



294,325.7



281,938.1



255,152.3



275,519.8



359,418.1

Fee per trade cleared (in Euros)

 0.008

 0.010

 0.010

 0.009

 0.008

Net settlement volume (shares in thousands)



2,524.6



2,511.6



2,469.5



2,402.0



2,661.9

Net fee per settlement (in Euros)

 1.072

 0.899

 0.927

 0.887

 0.953

Australian Equities:































ADNV (AUD - in billions)

$ 0.8

$ 0.7

$ 0.7

$ 0.7

$ 0.8

Market share - Continuous



20.4 %

20.3 %

17.9 %

18.2 %

18.5 % Net capture (per matched notional value (bps), in Australian Dollars)

$ 0.156

$ 0.157

$ 0.155

$ 0.160

$ 0.160

Japanese Equities:































ADNV (JPY - in billions)

 315.9

 190.2

 148.7

 184.3

 183.3

Market share - Lit Continuous



5.0 %

4.0 %

3.3 %

4.1 %

4.8 % Net capture (per matched notional value (bps), in Yen)

 0.227

 0.252

 0.257

 0.256

 0.243



































Futures































ADV (in thousands)



220.0



233.4



230.0



197.4



231.8

RPC

$ 1.749

$ 1.729

$ 1.753

$ 1.826

$ 1.725



































Global FX































Spot market share %



20.3 %

21.3 %

20.2 %

19.5 %

19.0 % ADNV ($ - in billions)

$ 45.3

$ 47.0

$ 44.4

$ 42.5

$ 45.0

Net capture (per one million dollars traded)

$ 2.62

$ 2.60

$ 2.64

$ 2.66

$ 2.64



ADV = average daily volume; ADNV = average daily notional value.

RPC, average revenue per contract, for options and futures represents total net transaction fees recognized for the period divided by total contracts traded during the period.

Touched volume represents the total number of shares of equity securities and ETFs internally matched on our exchanges or routed to and executed on an external market center.

Matched volume represents the total number of shares of equity securities and ETFs executed on our exchanges.

U.S. Equities - Exchange, "net capture per 100 touched shares" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments and routing and clearing costs divided by the product of one-hundredth ADV of touched shares on BZX, BYX, EDGX and EDGA and the number of trading days. U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange data reflects BIDS Trading. For U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange, "net capture per 100 touched shares" refers to transaction fees less order and execution management system (OMS/EMS) fees and clearing costs divided by the product of one-hundredth ADV of touched shares on BIDS Trading and the number of trading days for the period.

Canadian Equities, "net capture per 10,000 shares" refers to transaction fees divided by the product of one-ten thousandth ADV of shares for MATCHNow and Cboe Canada and the number of trading days. Total market share represents MATCHNow and Cboe Canada volume divided by the total volume of the Canadian Equities market. As of January 1, 2024, the Cboe Canada and MATCHNow entities have been amalgamated into Cboe Canada Inc.

European Equities, "net capture per matched notional value" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments in Euros divided by the product of ADNV in Euros of shares matched on Cboe Europe Equities and the number of trading days. "Trades cleared" refers to the total number of non-interoperable trades cleared, "Fee per trade cleared" refers to clearing fees divided by number of non-interoperable trades cleared, "Net settlement volume" refers to the total number of settlements executed after netting, and "Net fee per settlement" refers to settlement fees less direct costs incurred to settle divided by the number of settlements executed after netting.

Asia Pacific data reflects the acquisition of Cboe Asia Pacific. Australian Equities "Net capture per matched notional value" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments in Australian dollars divided by the product of ADNV in Australian dollars of shares matched on Cboe Australia and the number of Australian Equities trading days. Japanese Equities "Net capture per matched notional value" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments in Japanese Yen divided by the product of ADNV in Japanese Yen of shares matched on Cboe Japan and the number of Japanese Equities trading days.

Global FX, "net capture per one million dollars traded" refers to transaction fees less liquidity payments, if any, divided by the Spot and SEF products of one-thousandth of ADNV traded on the Cboe FX Markets and the number of trading days, divided by two, which represents the buyer and seller that are both charged on the transaction. Market Share represents Cboe FX volume divided by the total volume of publicly reporting spot FX venues (Cboe FX, EBS, Refinitiv, and Euronext FX).

Average transaction fees per contract can be affected by various factors, including exchange fee rates, volume-based discounts and transaction mix by contract type and product type.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 and 2023





Three Months Ended March 31, (in millions, except per share amounts)

2024

2023 Revenues:











Cash and spot markets

$ 380.9

$ 407.0 Data and access solutions



140.2



129.4 Derivatives markets



436.1



451.8 Total Revenues



957.2



988.2 Cost of Revenues:











Liquidity payments



338.8



371.8 Routing and clearing



16.0



24.0 Section 31 fees



42.1



74.9 Royalty fees and other cost of revenues



58.2



46.1 Total Cost of Revenues



455.1



516.8 Revenues Less Cost of Revenues



502.1



471.4 Operating Expenses:











Compensation and benefits



115.3



110.4 Depreciation and amortization



37.3



41.4 Technology support services



24.2



22.2 Professional fees and outside services



21.5



23.9 Travel and promotional expenses



7.5



6.2 Facilities costs



6.5



7.6 Acquisition-related costs



0.6



6.4 Other expenses



6.8



5.4 Total Operating Expenses



219.7



223.5 Operating Income



282.4



247.9 Non-operating Income (Expenses):











Interest expense



(13.0)



(17.1) Interest income



4.1



2.0 Earnings in investments



14.0



15.3 Other income, net



4.6



0.1 Total Non-operating Expenses



9.7



0.3 Income Before Income Tax Provision



292.1



248.2 Income tax provision



82.6



74.8 Net Income



209.5



173.4 Net income allocated to participating securities



(1.2)



(0.8) Net Income Allocated to Common Stockholders

$ 208.3

$ 172.6 Net Income Per Share Allocated to Common Stockholders:











Basic earnings per share

$ 1.97

$ 1.63 Diluted earnings per share



1.96



1.63 Weighted average shares used in computing income per share:











Basic



105.6



105.9 Diluted



106.1



106.2

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023





March 31,

December 31, (in millions)

2024

2023 Assets











Current Assets:











Cash and cash equivalents

$ 536.3

$ 543.2 Financial investments



58.8



57.5 Accounts receivable, net



370.2



337.3 Margin deposits, clearing funds, and interoperability funds



1,544.6



848.8 Digital assets - safeguarded assets



93.3



51.3 Income taxes receivable



6.8



74.5 Other current assets



65.1



66.7 Total Current Assets



2,675.1



1,979.3













Investments



361.8



345.3 Property and equipment, net



106.0



109.2 Property held for sale



8.7



8.7 Operating lease right of use assets



130.6



136.6 Goodwill



3,133.8



3,140.6 Intangible assets, net



1,526.7



1,561.5 Other assets, net



209.4



206.3 Total Assets

$ 8,152.1

$ 7,487.5













Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity











Current Liabilities:











Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

$ 304.7

$ 412.7 Section 31 fees payable



42.7



51.9 Deferred revenue



12.9



5.9 Margin deposits, clearing funds, and interoperability funds



1,544.6



848.8 Income taxes payable



-



1.0 Digital assets - safeguarded liabilities



93.3



51.3 Current portion of contingent consideration liabilities



8.8



11.8 Total Current Liabilities



2,007.0



1,383.4













Long-term debt



1,439.6



1,439.2 Non-current unrecognized tax benefits



257.4



243.8 Deferred income taxes



214.2



217.8 Non-current operating lease liabilities



144.3



150.8 Other non-current liabilities



65.5



67.5 Total Liabilities



4,128.0



3,502.5













Stockholders' Equity:











Preferred stock



-



- Common stock



1.1



1.1 Treasury stock at cost



(125.3)



(10.5) Additional paid-in capital



1,495.3



1,478.6 Retained earnings



2,676.2



2,525.2 Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net



(23.2)



(9.4) Total Stockholders' Equity



4,024.1



3,985.0













Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

$ 8,152.1

$ 7,487.5

Non-GAAP Information

In addition to disclosing results determined in accordance with GAAP, Cboe Global Markets has disclosed certain non-GAAP measures of operating performance. These measures are not in accordance with, or a substitute for, GAAP, and may be different from or inconsistent with non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. The non-GAAP measures provided in this press release include net transaction and clearing fees, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating income, organic net revenue, inorganic net revenue, and adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income allocated to common stockholders and adjusted diluted earnings per share, effective tax rate on adjusted earnings, adjusted cash, net revenues in constant currency, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin.

Management believes that the non-GAAP financial measures presented in this press release provide additional and comparative information to assess trends in our core operations and a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by management are provided as additional information to investors in order to provide them with an alternative method for assessing our financial condition and operating results.

Organic net revenue, inorganic net revenue, organic non-transaction revenue and organic net revenue guidance: These are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude or have otherwise been adjusted for the impact of our acquisitions for the period or guidance, as applicable. Management believes the organic net revenue growth and guidance measures provide users with supplemental information regarding the company's ongoing and future potential revenue performances and trends by presenting revenue growth and guidance excluding the impact of the acquisitions. Revenues from acquisitions that have been owned for at least one year are considered organic and are no longer excluded from organic net revenue from either period for comparative purposes.

Amortization expense of acquired intangible assets: We amortize intangible assets acquired in connection with various acquisitions. Amortization of intangible assets is inconsistent in amount and frequency and is significantly affected by the timing and size of our acquisitions. As such, if intangible asset amortization is included in performance measures, it is more difficult to assess the day-to-day operating performance of the businesses, the relative operating performance of the businesses between periods and the earnings power of the company. Therefore, we believe performance measures excluding intangible asset amortization expense provide investors with an additional basis for comparison across accounting periods.

Acquisition-related expenses: From time to time, we have pursued acquisitions, which have resulted in expenses which would not otherwise have been incurred in the normal course of the company's business operations. These expenses include integration costs, as well as legal, due diligence, impairment charges, and other third-party transaction costs. The frequency and the amount of such expenses vary significantly based on the size, timing and complexity of the transaction. Accordingly, we exclude these costs for purposes of calculating non-GAAP measures which provide an additional analysis of Cboe's ongoing operating performance or comparisons in Cboe's performance between periods.

The tables below show the reconciliation of each financial measure from GAAP to non-GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact of those items detailed below and are referred to as adjusted financial measures.

Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Information





Three Months Ended

Table 3

March 31,

(in millions, except per share amounts)

2024

2023

Reconciliation of Net Income Allocated to Common Stockholders to Non-GAAP (As shown on Table 1)













Net income allocated to common stockholders

$ 208.3

$ 172.6

Non-GAAP adjustments













Acquisition-related expenses (1)



0.6



6.4

Amortization of acquired intangible assets (2)



26.2



30.9

Gain on revaluation of Cboe Digital non-recourse notes and warrants (3)



(0.4)



-

Total Non-GAAP adjustments



26.4



37.3

Income tax expense related to the items above



(6.9)



(9.5)

Tax reserves (4)



-



1.5

Net income allocated to participating securities - effect on reconciling items



(0.1)



(0.1)

Adjusted earnings

$ 227.7

$ 201.8

















Reconciliation of Diluted EPS to Non-GAAP













Diluted earnings per common share

$ 1.96

$ 1.63

Per share impact of non-GAAP adjustments noted above



0.19



0.27

Adjusted diluted earnings per common share

$ 2.15

$ 1.90

















Reconciliation of Operating Margin to Non-GAAP













Adjusted revenue less cost of revenue

$ 502.1

$ 471.4

Operating expenses (5)

$ 219.7

$ 223.5

Non-GAAP adjustments noted above



26.8



37.3

Adjusted operating expenses

$ 192.9

$ 186.2

Operating income

$ 282.4

$ 247.9

Non-GAAP adjustments noted above



26.8



37.3

Adjusted operating income

$ 309.2

$ 285.2

Adjusted operating margin (6)



61.6 %

60.5 %















Reconciliation of Income Tax Rate to Non-GAAP













Income before income taxes



292.1



248.2

Non-GAAP adjustments noted above



26.4



37.3

Adjusted income before income taxes

$ 318.5

$ 285.5

















Income tax expense



82.6



74.8

Non-GAAP adjustments noted above



6.9



8.0

Adjusted income tax expense

$ 89.5

$ 82.8

Adjusted income tax rate



28.1 %

29.0 %



(1) This amount includes ongoing acquisition related costs primarily from the Company's Cboe Digital, Cboe Canada, Cboe Japan and Cboe Australia acquisitions. (2) This amount represents the amortization of acquired intangible assets related to the Company's acquisitions. (3) This amount represents the gain due to the revaluation of the Cboe Digital non-recourse notes and warrants, which is included in other income, net on the condensed consolidated statements of income. (4) This amount represents the tax reserves related to Section 199 matters. (5) The Company sponsors deferred compensation plans held in a trust. The expenses or income related to the deferred compensation plans are included in "Compensation and benefits" ($1.5 million and $3.2 million in expense for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and are directly offset by deferred compensation income, expenses and dividends included within "Other income, net" ($1.5 million and $3.2 million in income, expense and dividends in the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, on the condensed consolidated statements of income. The deferred compensation plans' expenses are not excluded from "adjusted operating expenses" and do not have an impact on "Income before income taxes." (6) Adjusted operating margin represents adjusted operating income divided by adjusted revenue less cost of revenue.

EBITDA Reconciliations

EBITDA (earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization) and Adjusted EBITDA are widely used non-GAAP financial measures of operating performance. EBITDA margin represents EBITDA divided by revenues less cost of revenues (net revenue). It is presented as supplemental information that the company believes is useful to investors to evaluate its results because it excludes certain items that are not directly related to the company's core operating performance. EBITDA is calculated by adding back to net income interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated by adding back to EBITDA acquisition-related expenses and gain on revaluation of Cboe Digital non-recourse notes and warrants. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as substitutes either for net income, as an indicator of the company's operating performance, or for cash flow, as a measure of the company's liquidity. In addition, because EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be calculated identically by all companies, the presentation here may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents Adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenue.

Table 4

Three Months Ended

(in millions, except percentages)

March 31,

Reconciliation of Net Income Allocated to Common Stockholders to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (Per Table 1)

2024

2023

Net income allocated to common stockholders

$ 208.3

$ 172.6

Interest expense, net



8.9



15.1

Income tax provision



82.6



74.8

Depreciation and amortization



37.3



41.4

EBITDA

$ 337.1

$ 303.9

EBITDA Margin



67.1 %

64.5 %















Non-GAAP adjustments not included in above line items













Acquisition-related expenses



0.6



6.4

Gain on revaluation of Cboe Digital non-recourse notes and warrants



(0.4)



-

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 337.3

$ 310.3

Adjusted EBITDA Margin



67.2 %

65.8 %































Table 5













(in millions)

March 31,

December 31,

Reconciliation of Cash and Cash Equivalents to Adjusted Cash

2024

2023

Cash and cash equivalents

$ 536.3

$ 543.2

Financial investments



58.8



57.5

Less deferred compensation plan assets



(35.2)



(36.7)

Less cash collected for Section 31 Fees



(23.1)



(30.5)

Adjusted Cash

$ 536.8

$ 533.5



Table 6

















































































(in millions)

















































































Reconciliation of Net Transaction and Clearing Fees by Business Segment -Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 and 2023





























Consolidated

Options

N.A. Equities

Europe and APAC

Futures

Global FX

Digital

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023 Transaction and clearing fees $ 718.5

$ 732.5

$ 389.8

$ 395.8

$ 251.7

$ 255.0

$ 38.8

$ 42.1

$ 23.5

$ 24.8

$ 15.5

$ 15.8

$ (0.8)

$ (1.0) Liquidity payments

(338.8)



(371.8)



(115.3)



(144.2)



(215.2)



(215.9)



(8.1)



(11.3)



-



-



-



-



(0.2)



(0.4) Routing and clearing

(16.0)



(24.0)



(4.2)



(9.7)



(7.1)



(9.4)



(4.4)



(4.6)



-



-



(0.3)



(0.3)



-



- Net transaction and clearing fees $ 363.7

$ 336.7

$ 270.3

$ 241.9

$ 29.4

$ 29.7

$ 26.3

$ 26.2

$ 23.5

$ 24.8

$ 15.2

$ 15.5

$ (1.0)

$ (1.4)

Table 7













































(in millions)













































Reconciliation of Net Revenue by Revenue Caption -Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 and 2023

Cash and Spot Markets

Data and Access Solutions

Derivatives Markets

Total

Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended

Three Months Ended

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

March 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023

2024

2023 Transaction and clearing fees $ 305.2

$ 311.9

$ -

$ -

$ 413.3

$ 420.6

$ 718.5

$ 732.5 Access and capacity fees

-



-



90.1



84.2



-



-



90.1



84.2 Market data fees

16.0



17.9



49.3



44.5



6.7



8.5



72.0



70.9 Regulatory fees

34.9



62.6



-



-



15.3



21.9



50.2



84.5 Other revenue

24.8



14.6



0.8



0.7



0.8



0.8



26.4



16.1 Total revenues $ 380.9

$ 407.0

$ 140.2

$ 129.4

$ 436.1

$ 451.8

$ 957.2

$ 988.2















































Liquidity payments $ 222.9

$ 227.0

$ -

$ -

$ 115.9

$ 144.8

$ 338.8

$ 371.8 Routing and clearing fees

11.8



14.3



-



-



4.2



9.7



16.0



24.0 Section 31 fees

34.7



61.4



-



-



7.4



13.5



42.1



74.9 Royalty fees and other cost of revenues

14.2



7.1



2.5



2.2



41.5



36.8



58.2



46.1 Total cost of revenues $ 283.6

$ 309.8

$ 2.5

$ 2.2

$ 169.0

$ 204.8

$ 455.1

$ 516.8















































Revenues less cost of revenues (net revenue) $ 97.3

$ 97.2

$ 137.7

$ 127.2

$ 267.1

$ 247.0

$ 502.1

$ 471.4

Table 8











(in millions)











Reconciliation of GAAP Net Revenues to Net Revenues in Constant Currency - Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 and 2023



















Three Months Ended,



Three Months Ended,





March 31,



March 31,





2024



2023 Europe and Asia Pacific net revenues

$ 54.1

$ 49.3 Constant currency adjustment



(0.7)



3.5 Europe and Asia Pacific net revenues in constant currency1

$ 53.4

$ 52.8



(1) Net revenues in constant currency is calculated by converting the current period GAAP net revenues in local currency using the foreign currency exchange rates that were in effect during the previous comparable period.

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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company"), a leading consolidator of emerging food brands is pleased to announce the promotion of Gary Fung from Senor Vice President of Finance to Chief Financial Officer of Happy Belly Food Group.

"We are currently witnessing a consistent and accelerated pace of signed franchise agreements across our portfolio of brands, coupled with steady organic growth within our corporate locations. To support that growth we are delighted to announce the promotion of Gary Fung to the role of Chief Financial Officer, empowering him to play a greater role in overseeing our expanding verticals of growth," said Shawn Moniz, Chief Executive Officer of Happy Belly.

"We were ecstatic to have Gary join us in a full-time capacity in January. We are very excited to have him expand his role and influence over the business and the team going forward. He is perfectly suited to lead Happy Belly's financial operations and help transform our vision into incredible value for our shareholders. He joined us after a very successful career at Tim Hortons and has brought a wealth of knowledge with him to elevate our team and has ensured that they are supported throughout our continued phases of accelerated growth. He is a great cultural fit for our brand teams as he embodies the entrepreneurial mindset and loves rolling up his sleeves and working side by side with our partners, brand operators, financial team and partners."



"He will continue to spearhead franchise profitability, further develop our analytics practice and restaurant insights department, as well as continue to create financial models to drive strategic growth while maximizing return on all capital spend. Gary brings the energy and prideful attitude that fits well within our culture here at Happy Belly. We are in good hands as Happy Belly continues to execute on our growth strategy through disciplined organic growth and accretive M&A."



"Thank you to Shawn Moniz and the Board of Directors for entrusting me with this amazing opportunity as CFO of Happy Belly Food Group. The company has experienced significant growth across our brands and yet the journey has only just begun. I am ecstatic to be leading our next phase of growth, leading our finance function, executing against our strategic plan and providing the framework that will enable all our brands to thrive and deliver on their targets which will generate tangible value for our shareholders. Exciting times are ahead and I am confident in our teams' ability to deliver in 2024 and beyond!", said Gary Fung, Chief Financial Officer.



"It's been a pleasure to work with Happy Belly over the past five years. The Company has grown and transformed itself from a small one-brand quick service restaurant company out of Ontario, into the nine-branded multi-provincial franchising company it is today. I am thankful for working with such talented people at Happy Belly and I will always feel pride in being part of its journey. With operations continuing to grow out of Ontario, the Company needs a CFO based in this region and not in Alberta, so it is time to pass the baton over to Gary Fung for the next phase of growth at the company. Gary is an impressive individual and comes with a wealth of knowledge from his experience in the food and franchise business and specifically at Tim Hortons. Happy Belly will truly benefit from the experience he brings and will prepare the Company for the next phase of growth. I am very confident in the team's ability to handle the growth that is coming, and I will follow the Happy Belly story with great interest as it continues to grow and expand rapidly for the benefit of shareholders," said Dean Callaway.



Franchising

For franchising inquiries please see www.happybellyfg.com/franchise-with-us/ or contact us at hello@happybellyfg.com.

About Happy Belly Food Group

Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company") is a leading consolidator of emerging food brands.

Happy Belly



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6625/207882_1d9710c174189844_001full.jpg

Happy Belly Food Group

Shawn Moniz

Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:

www: www.happybellyfg.com or email hello@happybellyfg.com

If you wish to contact us please call: (604) 737-2303

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-Looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include the future performance of Happy Belly and her subsidiaries. Forward-Looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Happy Belly described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207882

SOURCE: Happy Belly Food Group Inc.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

TUCSON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Western Alaska Minerals (the "Company" or "WAM") (TSXV:WAM) is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases dated April 18, 2024 and April 22, 2024 and April 26, 2024, due to significant demand, the Company has increased the size of the Company's previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") from up to C$1.5 million to up to C$2.5 million. Under the upsized Offering, the Company will issue up to 3,846,154 units of the Company ("Units") at a price of $0.65 per Unit (the "Offering Price"), for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$2.5 million.

Each Unit will be comprised of one subordinate voting share in the authorized share structure of the Company (a "Share") plus one Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Share (a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $0.90 per Warrant Share for 36 months from the date of issuance.

The Units issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four month hold period.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund the Company's 2024 exploration program, including step-out drilling at the LH and Warm Springs target zones that are new targets identified by the 2023-completed geophysical program, and for general corporate purposes.

Closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about May 8, 2024, and is subject to certain customary conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The securities being offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons or persons in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About WAM

Our mission is to advance a mineable and scalable CRD, ultimately reshaping the mineral landscape of western Alaska and establishing a new CRD district.

WAM's 100% owned claims cover 73,120 acres (114.25 square miles or 29,591 hectares), approximately 45 km east of an ocean barge-compatible section of the Yukon River. WAM's intact mineralized CRD system encompasses the (past producing) Illinois Creek gold-silver mine, the Waterpump Creek high-grade silver-lead-zinc deposit, open to the north, and the Honker gold prospect. Twenty-five kilometers northeast of the Illinois Creek CRD lies the Round Top copper and the TG North CRD prospects. All prospects were originally discovered by Anaconda Minerals Co. in the early 1980's. Since 2010, WAM, along with its precursor company, Western Alaska Copper & Gold, reassembled the Anaconda land package and has been engaged in exploring the district.

Headquartered in both Alaska and Arizona, WAM brings together a team of seasoned professionals with a shared vision of pioneering new frontiers in mineral exploration. Our strategic approach is underpinned by cutting-edge technology, innovative techniques, and a deep understanding of the geological intricacies of the region.

On behalf of the Company

"Kit Marrs"

Kit Marrs

President & CEO

Phone: 520-200-1667

For further information please contact:

Vanessa Bogaert, Director of Corporate Communications/IR at vanessa@westernalaskaminerals.com

Or visit our website at: www.westernalaskaminerals.com

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connation thereof. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: the completion of the Offering; the expected closing dates of the Offering; the intended use of proceeds from the Offering; and the receipt of all necessary approvals for the completion of the Offering, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Such forward-looking information and statements are based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the Company will complete Offering in the timeframe and on the terms as anticipated by management, that the Company will be able to utilize the proceeds of the Offering in the manner intended, and that the Company will receive all necessary approvals for the completion of the Offering, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward-looking information or making forward-looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include risks relating to the failure to complete the Offering in the timeframe and on the terms as anticipated by management, market conditions, metal prices, and risks relating to the Company not receiving all necessary approvals for the completion of the Offering, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Western Alaska Minerals Corp

View the original press release on accesswire.com
Kupfer wird oft als das Gold der Energiewende bezeichnet, weil es aufgrund seiner hervorragenden elektrischen Leitfahigkeit eine zentrale Rolle in vielen Technologien spielt, die fur nachhaltige Energiesysteme entscheidend sind. Experten gehen aufgrund der Angebotsknappheit von einem Superzyklus aus.

Korrektur als Einstiegschance

Nach Hochststanden im Mai korrigierte das rote Metall stark. Die Abwartsspirale verstarkte sich in den vergangenen Tagen aufgrund schwacher Konjunkturdaten aus den USA und China. Langfristig konnte sich die aktuell laufende Korrektur als exzellente Einstiegsmoglichkeit herausstellen.

3 Kupferaktien mit hohem Potential

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Mairs Family Dentistry is proud to announce that they have been awarded the esteemed "2024 Best of Mile High" Award in the Family Dentist category. This recognition is a testament to the exceptional service and care provided by Mairs Family Dentistry to the Denver community.

ARVADA, CO / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / The Best of Mile High holds an annual "Best of" poll where communities get to vote on who they believe is the best in a given category. Mairs Family Dentistry was honored to be nominated and thrilled to win for "Best Family Dentist of 2024".





Dr. D and Dr. N

Dr. Daren and Dr. Nichole in scrubs in front of the office building





Unlike traditional awards programs, Best of Mile High stands out by offering free participation, stringent fraud prevention measures, consideration of online reviews, and evaluation of Better Business Bureau ratings. This unique approach ensures that winners are truly the best in their respective categories.

Mairs Family Dentistry has distinguished itself through its comprehensive range of dental services, including preventive care, restorative treatments, cosmetic dentistry, and emergency services. The practice is known for its state-of-the-art facilities, experienced dental team, and dedication to patient comfort and satisfaction.

The "Best Family Dentist" award is a reflection of the trust and confidence that the community has placed in them, recognizing their dedication to delivering exceptional results, unparalleled patient experiences and the best dentistry possible.

Gratitude from Our Mairs Family Dentistry Team

Dr. Daren Mairs extends his appreciation to the communities.

"Our team is dedicated to helping patients achieve healthy, beautiful smiles while ensuring a relaxed and stress-free experience. To be recognized by our community as the best family dentists is truly an honor. It pushes us to keep challenging the way dentistry should be done."

This sentiment expressed by Dr. Daren Mairs resonates deeply within the entire team as each member shares in the joy and gratitude of being voted the best family dentist.

Unrivaled Comprehensive Family Dentistry

Understanding that each patient has unique dental needs and desires is why they offer a wide range of treatments. Botox treatments that enhance facial aesthetics to, Invisalign procedures that straighten teeth discreetly, Oral sleep appliances that offer relief to snorers or CPAP users, their practice is equipped to address a diverse array of concerns.

?Their success in family dentistry is further validated by the countless testimonials from their patients.

The library of patient testimonials speak volumes about the positive impact that Mairs Family Dentistry has had on the lives of their patients, reinforcing the commitment to delivering the best care with compassion and professionalism.

Trusted by the Community

With nearly 400 5-star reviews, Mairs Family Dentistry has earned the trust and confidence of our community since our inception in 2010.

A comprehensive range of services, including general dentistry, restorative procedures, cosmetic enhancements, oral surgery, and cutting-edge technologies, makes them the preferred choice for all dental needs.

Our win for "Best Family Dentist" not only celebrates our excellence in family dentistry but also underscores our unwavering commitment to community-centric care, continuously transforming smiles, and elevating patient experiences.

?As Mairs Family Dentistry celebrates its triumph, the practice extends its heartfelt gratitude to the community for their unwavering support and trust. With a steadfast commitment to delivering exceptional care and creating beautiful, healthy smiles that enrich lives and inspire confidence, Mairs Family Dentistry invites individuals to join them on their journey towards dental excellence.

Contact Information

Sara Sanders

Office Manager

sarasanders30@live.com

3034203310

Saren Mairs

Dentist, President

darenlamirs@gmail.com

3034203310

Nichole Mairs

Dentist

nichole.mairs@gmail.com

3034203310

Related Files

2024BestOfMileHigh_winner_SMpost

0e99a562-b5c3-4726-b811-68c5a41d3a73

SOURCE: Mairs Family Dentistry

View the original press release on newswire.com.
WSO2 is a leading provider of application development and identity and access management software to enterprises globally, with over 80% of revenue coming from blue-chip customers in the Americas and EMEA

WSO2's technology enables thousands of enterprises, including the world's largest corporations, universities, and governments, to drive their digital transformation evolution rapidly, efficiently, and more securely

Drawing on its extensive experience of supporting global software businesses, EQT will support WSO2's management team in the next phase of their growth journey

STOCKHOLM, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT is pleased to announce that BPEA Fund VIII ("EQT Private Capital Asia") has agreed to acquire WSO2 (the "Company") from existing shareholders. WSO2 is a leading provider of application development and identity and access management software to enterprise companies globally, with over 80% of revenue coming from blue-chip customers in the Americas and EMEA. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

WSO2 was founded in Asia and has established a global footprint, enabling thousands of enterprises, including the world's largest corporations, universities, and governments, to drive their digital transformation rapidly, efficiently, and more securely. WSO2 does this through a comprehensive portfolio of offerings spanning Application Programming Interface ("API") Management, API Integration, and Identity and Access Management ("IAM").

Both the API Management and Integration as well as IAM markets are witnessing significant tailwinds, driven by long-term trends such as the transition to hybrid and multi-cloud workloads, rising API volumes, accelerated adoption of Generative AI, and increasing sophistication of cyberattacks. WSO2 is well-positioned to capitalize on this robust market growth on the back of their strong product suite and entrenched customer relationships.

EQT Private Capital Asia will support WSO2's next phase of accelerated growth and innovation, drawing on EQT's deep experience in the software space, global network of industry experts and dedicated digital value-creation team. WSO2 joins EQT's extensive global portfolio of enterprise software companies that already includes firms such as Billtrust, IFS, SUSE, Storable, and Waystar.

Hari Gopalakrishnan, Partner in the EQT Private Capital Asia advisory team, said: "Software is a key focus sector for EQT, and WSO2 is a strong company that has scaled globally with an enterprise customer base spread across the US and Europe. We are excited to partner with WSO2 and believe that the Company is well-positioned to capitalize on long-term trends such as digital transformation and rising GenAI adoption. We are confident of drawing on EQT's proven software value creation playbook to further accelerate WSO2's growth momentum."

"We are thrilled to partner with EQT as we embark on the next phase of WSO2's journey," said Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO and Founder of WSO2. "With EQT's support and expertise, we are well-positioned to accelerate our innovation agenda, expand our global footprint, and continue empowering enterprises to thrive in the digital economy."

EQT Private Capital Asia was advised by Ropes & Gray and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. The selling shareholders were advised by JP Morgan and Cooley.

With this transaction, BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII is expected to be 45 - 50 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication). The transaction is expected to close in H2 2024.

Contact

EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com.

https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-to-acquire-wso2--a-leading-global-provider-of-digital-transformation-technologies,c3973049

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Der Goldpreis haussiert und schwingt sich von Hoch zu Hoch. Getrieben von geopolitischen Unsicherheiten sowie der Aussicht auf eine lockere Geldpolitik der FED gehen Experten aktuell von weiter steigenden Notierungen bis sogar in den Bereich von 3.000 US-Dollar je Unze Gold aus.



Im Schatten des Basispreises notieren Goldproduzenten aus der zweiten Reihe sowie Explorationsunternehmen noch weit weg von ihren historischen Hochststanden entfernt und bieten dadurch erhebliches Aufholpotential.



In diesem kostenlosen Report geben wir Ihnen Favoriten an die Hand, die aufgrund von Sondersituation die Chance auf eine Kursvervielfachung besitzen.



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REDDING, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report titled, "Pharmaceutical Packaging Market by Material (Polymer [PE, PP, PET], Glass) Type (Bottles, Blister, PFS, Caps, Vials, Ampoules, Sachet, Inhaler) Dosage Form (Oral, Parenteral, Topical), and End User - Global Forecast to 2031,' published by Meticulous Research, the global pharmaceutical packaging market is projected to reach $176.54 billion by 2031 at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2024 to 2031.

Download Free Sample Report: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5298

Pharmaceutical packaging includes the materials and components essential for storing, preserving, protecting, distributing, and delivering safe and effective drug products. It comprises primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging. Primary pharmaceutical packaging consists of containers and materials that directly contact the drug product or medicine. Secondary packaging refers to the outer packaging material surrounding the primary packaging, ensuring efficient transportation and protection. Tertiary packaging involves packaging outside the primary and secondary layers to keep the pharmaceuticals safe during transit.

A Shift Towards Sustainable Packaging is a Recent Market Trend

Sustainable packaging is the use of reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable materials for packaging. Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly focusing on sustainable pharmaceutical packaging in order to cut waste and reduce their carbon footprint. The packaging industry is moving toward PET plastic and other environmentally friendly materials to help create a more sustainable future. PET packaging can be recycled and reused. Used PET bottles can be processed into new PET bottles, resetting their lifecycle and contributing to sustainability.

Eco-friendly bioplastics and biodegradable materials like cellulose and paper are examples of sustainable primary packaging materials that minimize waste, conserve resources, and have a minimal impact on the environment. Several pharmaceutical companies around the globe are using biodegradable materials for packaging their products. For instance, Astellas Pharma Inc. (Japan) uses biomass-based plastic derived from sugarcane to package its pills. Astellas Pharma Inc. invented the packaging in March 2022.

The sustainable packaging sector is expanding due to strict laws and regulations enforced by governments and regulatory bodies, as well as a shift in consumer preference toward recyclable and environmentally friendly packaging materials. For instance, in accordance with EU Regulation (EU) 2021/2226, pharmaceutical companies are required to place QR codes in their packaging to reduce the need for physical pamphlets or leaflets, contributing to sustainability.

Request Sample Report:

https://www.meticulousresearch.com/request-sample-report/cp_id=5298

Additionally, in 2019, about 170 countries from the United Nations pledged to ban plastic by 2030. Such initiatives are expected to support the use of sustainable packaging materials. Leading market players are also focused on offering sustainable pharmaceutical packaging. Some of the recent key developments in this space are as follows:

In October 2023, Perlen Packaging (Switzerland) collaborated with ETIMEX Primary Packaging GmbH (Mexico) to develop recyclable polypropylene mono blister packaging to cater to the increasing demand for eco-friendly packaging.

In April 2022, Amcor plc (U.S.) launched sustainable High Shield laminates for pharmaceutical packaging. High Shield innovations include more sustainable pharmaceutical sachet, stick pack, and strip pack packaging, providing options in both paper-based and polyolefin-based materials.

The key players operating in the global pharmaceutical packaging market are Amcor plc (Switzerland), AptarGroup, Inc. (U.S.), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Gerresheimer AG (Germany), Schott Pharma AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), Berry Global Group, Inc. (U.S.), Drug Plastics Group (U.S.), Catalent, Inc. (U.S.), SGD Pharma (France), Corning Inc. (U.S.), WestRock Company (U.S.), and West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (U.S.).

Key findings in the pharmaceutical packaging market report:

Among all the materials studied in this report, in 2024, the polymer segment is expected to account for the largest share of 43% of the pharmaceutical packaging market. The segment's large share is attributed to the wide availability of polymers, the cost-effectiveness of polymers compared to other packaging materials, such as glass and metal, and the effectiveness of polymers in protecting pharmaceutical preparations against external damage and contamination.

The polymer segment is further segmented into polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and other polymers. In 2024, the polyvinyl chloride segment is expected to account for the largest share of the pharmaceutical packaging market. The large share of the segment is attributed to the fact that PVC has excellent barrier properties against moisture, gases, and chemicals, which helps in maintaining the potency and shelf life of pharmaceutical products, and PVC can be easily thermoformed, making it a preferred material for the pharmaceutical packaging process.

Among all the packaging types studied in this report, in 2024, the primary packaging segment is expected to account for the largest share of 72% the pharmaceutical packaging market. The segment is also projected to register the highest CAGR of 8.0% during the forecast period. Primary packaging is further segmented into bottles, blister packs, pre-fillable inhalers, pouches & sachets, pre-fillable syringes & cartridges, vials & ampoules, caps & closures, and other primary packaging. The pre-fillable syringes & cartridges segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The rising preference for injectable formulations is driving the demand for pre-filled syringes & cartridges. Additionally, pre-filled syringes & cartridges are easy to administer due to the elimination of steps, lower cost, and reduced drug wastage.

Among all the dosage forms studied in this report, in 2024, the oral dosage form segment is expected to account for the largest share of the pharmaceutical packaging market. The oral dosage form is further segmented into oral solid dosage and oral liquid dosage. In 2024, the oral solid dosage segment is expected to account for the largest share of the pharmaceutical packaging market for oral dosage. Many consumers prefer oral solid dosages due to their ease of dosing and portability. Drug formulations in oral solid forms, such as capsules and tablets, are preferred for several reasons, including their wide acceptance, convenient administration, manufacturing efficiency, precise dosing, and stability, contributing to the large share of the market. Additionally, key players are also adopting various strategic initiatives. For instance, in May 2023, SUDPACK Medica (Germany) and Liveo Research (Switzerland) launched a PharmaGuard innovative blister concept for solid applications.

Among all the end users studied in this report, in 2024, the pharmaceutical companies segment is expected to account for the largest share of 44% of the pharmaceutical packaging market. The pharmaceutical sector has witnessed significant growth in recent years due to the increasing volume of production of pharmaceuticals, the rising burden of diseases requiring novel therapies, and the need to address unmet medical requirements for both rare and chronic diseases are contributing to the large share of the segment. Additionally, governments of various countries are taking initiatives by making investments and providing grants and funds to pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture and R&D of drugs, thereby driving the demand for drug packaging.

Geographically, in 2024, North America is expected to account for the largest share of 35% of the pharmaceutical packaging market. North America pharmaceutical packaging market is estimated to be worth USD 37.2 billion in 2024. North America's major market share is attributed to the presence of major key players, technological advancements in packaging, such as smart packaging, investment by key players in R&D for drug discovery, and strategic initiatives adopted by the key players. For instance, in October 2023, Pharmascience Inc. (Canada) invested USD 120 million for the expansion of an injectable manufacturing facility.

However, Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical packaging market is expected to growth with the highest CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period. The rapid growth of this market is attributed to the increasing healthcare expenditure, rising production of pharmaceuticals and advancements in primary packaging and drug delivery devices, growth in per capita income, a large population pool, and government initiatives to improve healthcare infrastructure.

In the Asia-Pacific region, countries like China, India, and Singapore are positioning themselves as significant players in the global biotech market, driving a surge in research and development endeavors across the region. India and China, in particular, have solidified their positions in the global pharmaceutical outsourcing sector. Their large, skilled, and cost-effective workforce has provided them with a competitive edge, facilitating the expansion of their respective pharmaceutical industries.

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Scope of the Report:

Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Assessment-by Material

Polymer Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Polypropylene (PP) Polyethylene (PE) Other Polymers

Glass

Paper & Paperboard

Metal

Other Packaging Materials

Note: Other polymer materials include Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) and Polystyrene

Note: Other packaging materials include rubber, silica gel, and wood

Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Assessment-by Packaging Type

Primary Packaging Blister Packaging Bottles Vials & Ampoules Caps & Closures Pre-fillable Inhalers Pre-fillable Syringes & Cartridges Pouches & Sachets Other Primary Packaging

Secondary Packaging

Tertiary Packaging

Note: Other primary packaging includes jars & canisters, medication tubes, strip packs, specialty bags, and accessories

Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Assessment-by Dosage Form

Oral Dosage Form Oral Solid Dosage Oral Liquid Dosage

Parenteral Dosage Form

Other Dosage Forms

Note: Other dosage forms include topical, nasal, dermal, and ocular dosage forms

Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Assessment-by End User

Pharmaceutical Companies

Contract Companies

Pharmacies

Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Assessment-by Geography

North America U.S. Canada

Europe Switzerland Italy Germany France U.K Ireland Belgium Spain Denmark Rest of Europe (RoE)

Asia-Pacific (APAC) China Japan India South Korea Australia Rest of Asia-Pacific (RoAPAC)

Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Related Reports:

Pharmaceutical Processing and Packaging Equipment Market by Mode of Delivery (Oral, Parenteral, Topical), Secondary Packaging (Cartoning, Labelling, Serialization), and End-of-Line Packaging (Palletizing, Case Packaging) - Global Forecasts to 2028

Packaging Automation Market by Offering, Type (Robotic Pick & Place, Secondary Packaging, Tertiary & Palletizing), End-use Industry (Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, E-Commerce & Logistics, Food & Beverage), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2030

Flexible Packaging Market by Material Type (Plastics {Polyethylene, Polypropylene}, Paper, Bioplastics), Design Type (Rollstocks, Blisters), End-use Industry (Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Home & Personal Care) - Global Forecast to 2030

Packaging Machinery Market by Type (Carded Packaging Machines, Filling Machines, Labelling Machines), by Function, Automation (Automatic, Semi-automatic), End-use (Food & Beverages, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals,) and Geography - Global Forecasts to 2030

Pharmaceutical Contract Packaging Market by Service (Primary Packaging {Bottle, Vial, Ampoules, Blister Packs}, Secondary Packaging), Material (Plastic, Polymer, Paper, Glass, Aluminum Foil), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2029

Smart Packaging Market by Packaging Technology (Modified Atmosphere Packaging, Active Packaging {Ethanol Emitters}, Intelligent Packaging {Indicators}), by Application (Food and Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, Automotive), Geography - Global Forecast To 2027

About Meticulous Research

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The name of our company defines our services, strengths, and values. Since the inception, we have only thrived to research, analyze, and present the critical market data with great attention to details. With the meticulous primary and secondary research techniques, we have built strong capabilities in data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data including qualitative and quantitative research with the finest team of analysts. We design our meticulously analyzed intelligent and value-driven syndicate market research reports, custom studies, quick turnaround research, and consulting solutions to address business challenges of sustainable growth.

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Content Source: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/pressrelease/522/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-2031

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AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) of Damaan Islamic Insurance Company 'BEEMA' Q.P.S.C. (Beema) (Qatar). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect Beema's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

Beema is a takaful insurer and operates through a hybrid model, whereby the shareholders' fund charges the policyholders' fund (PHF) a Wakala fee based on gross written contributions (GWC) and a Mudarabah fee based on investment income.

Beema's balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). AM Best assesses the company's risk-adjusted capitalisation on a combined basis, including its policyholders' and shareholders' funds, due to the strength of domestic regulation and requirement that the shareholders' fund would have to support the PHF. Other positive balance sheet strength factors include the company's track record of internal capital generation through the retention of earnings and Beema's ability to accumulate surpluses within the PHF whilst regularly distributing surplus back to policyholders. At year-end 2023, Beema reported capital and surplus of QAR 715.6 million (inclusive of QAR 210.6 million of accumulated policyholder surplus), an 11.8% increase as compared with year-end 2022.

AM Best views Beema's operating performance as strong. The company has consistently reported robust technical performance, with a five-year (2019-2023) weighted average combined ratio of 79.7%, as calculated by AM Best. Whilst a small component of overall earnings, investment returns have continued to be positive in each of the past five years. Earnings are well balanced between shareholders' and policyholders' with both funds achieving consistent growth over the past 10 years.

Beema holds a leading position within its domestic insurance market, as the second largest takaful player by GWC. The company has good diversification by line of business, offering a range of Sharia-compliant insurance products. In 2023, Beema wrote GWC of QAR 401.3 million (USD 110.9 million). The business profile assessment is constrained by the company's geographic concentration and limited competitive position in Qatar's insurance market.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Performance Assessments, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright 2024 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503996744/en/

Contacts:

Romeo Berti

Senior Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 0267

romeo.berti@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey

Associate Director, Public Relations

+1 908 882 2310

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Michael Dunckley, CFA

Associate Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 0312

michael.dunckley@ambest.com

Al Slavin

Senior Public Relations Specialist

+1 908 882 2318

al.slavin@ambest.com
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Kohler Co.



Originally published by Laura Kohler, Chief Sustainable Living Officer at Kohler Co. on LinkedIn

Water is a basic human right, yet millions of people in our own country - and billions around the globe - don't have running water or toilets in their homes.

Don't get me wrong, we have made progress in addressing this unacceptable condition - thanks in a large part to legislation like the Water for the World Act of 2014, the efforts of late Senator Paul Simon, who was the inspiration for the Act, his wife Patti Simon, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Samantha Power and USAID, Bruno Pigott and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and organizations and coalitions like IAPMO, the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) and WaterAid America, among so many others from the public and private sector.

And so much more needs to be done.

My message to a group of bipartisan leaders, plumbing industry executives and water advocates in Washington yesterday: We might be competitors outside of this room, but when it comes to solving water, sanitation, and hygiene challenges, we must be collaborators and accelerate our collective efforts if we want to achieve sustainable and equitable water and sanitation for all.

Kohler Co. is in!

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Kohler Co. on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Kohler Co.

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/kohler-co

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Kohler Co.

View the original press release on accesswire.com
Kunstliche Intelligenz hat spatestens nach dem Raketenstart von Chat GPT das Leben aller verandert. Doch der Superzyklus steht nach Meinungen von Experten erst am Anfang. Wahrend Aktien wie Nvidia von der ersten Aufwartsentwicklung stark profitieren konnten, versprechen aussichtsreiche Player aus der

zweiten Reihe noch enormes Aufwartspotenzial.



Im kostenlosen, exklusiven Spezialreport prasentieren wir ihnen 5 innovative KI-Unternehmen, die bahnbrechende Entwicklungen in diesem Sektor pragen konnten.



Warum sollten Sie dabei sein?

Trotz der jungsten Erfolge steht die Entwicklung der kunstlichen Intelligenz noch am Beginn eines neuen Superzyklus. Experten gehen davon aus, dass der Sektor bis 2032 global auf 1,3 Billionen US-Dollar explodieren wird, wobei ein groer Teil auf Hardware und Infrastruktur entfallen wird.



Nutzen Sie die Chance!

Fordern Sie sofort unseren brandneuen Spezialreport an und erfahren Sie, welche 5 KI-Aktien das grote Potenzial zur Vervielfachung besitzen. Dieser Report ist komplett kostenlos und zeigt Ihnen die aussichtsreichsten Investments im KI-Sektor.

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KCAS Bio continues to expand its global reach and has selected Crux Biolabs (Melbourne, Australia) as its partner in providing harmonized spectral flow cytometry across the US, Europe, and Australia. The alliance enables KCAS Bio and Crux Biolabs to support the global needs of clinical research by offering advanced spectral flow cytometry using the Cytek Aurora platform. Crux Biolabs is expected to be the first CRO in Australia to offer spectral flow cytometry accredited for clinical research. Together, the partnership is focused on being the global provider of choice for outsourced flow cytometry clinical research.

KCAS Bio continues to deliver against both growth objectives and more integrated customer service offerings. KCAS Bio has partnered with Crux Biolabs, a leading provider of flow cytometry and bioanalytical services located in Melbourne, Australia. KCAS Bio is a leading international Contract Research Organization (CRO) providing comprehensive GLP-compliant bioanalytical and biomarker development testing services for the biotech, pharmaceutical, and cell/gene therapy industries. KCAS Bio offers a complete range of bioanalytical services from early discovery support through registration, providing expertise in biological (large molecule), synthetic (small molecule), and cell/gene therapy drug candidates. KCAS Bio provides services from its three locations in Kansas City, KS; the greater Philadelphia, PA, region; and Lyon, France.

John Bucksath, CEO of KCAS Bio, commented, "We are delighted to partner with the Crux Biolabs team, working to accelerate our combined offering of global development support to the industries and customers we serve. We are committed to supporting the partnership beyond just flow cytometry and are actively engaging on next steps in the partnership. KCAS Bio has embarked on significant investments in spectral flow cytometry, including the placement of harmonized Cytek Aurora cytometers at Crux Biolabs. We remain committed to attracting the industry's top scientific talent, focusing on outstanding customer service, and accelerating global reach through additional acquisitions and partnerships. With our investor, Vitruvian Partners, we are optimally positioned to invest in our people and deliver world-class services for our growing client base. The partnership with Crux Biolabs enables our combined clients access to expanded operational expertise and geographical reach, supporting the increasing R&D needs of the industries we serve."

Stefan Cross, CEO of Crux Biolabs,commented, "We are excited about this partnership with KCAS Bio and our combined ability to provide best-in-class services for the biopharma and pharmaceutical industries. As a full-service bioanalytical CRO in Australia, Crux Biolabs is well-positioned to support sponsors and clients through the clinical trial journey from pre-clinical through full clinical development. Australia is well known for its advantageous Phase 1 clinical trial capabilities and this alliance will allow clients to develop flow cytometry assays for use throughout the clinical trial lifecycle. Establishing common practices and using a harmonized Cytek Aurora platform for spectral flow cytometry with KCAS Bio will bring a unique and industry-leading offering to our current and emerging clients."

Further information:

About KCAS Bio KCAS Bio is a premier international provider of bioanalytical and laboratory services that provides comprehensive GLP- and GCP-compliant development services from early discovery support through commercial approval and beyond. One of only a select few CROs offering both large and small molecule development with extensive capabilities and expertise, KCAS Bio provides a truly differentiated approach to its clients who are looking for both scientific expertise and excellent customer service. KCAS Bio is headquartered in Olathe, Kansas the Kansas City, KS metro area, supported by more than 360 employees. Further information can be found at www.KCASBio.com.

Vitruvian Partners - a leading international growth investor headquartered in London, with offices in Miami, San Francisco, Madrid, Munich, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore, and Shanghai, and c$20bn of active funds. Vitruvian acquired KCAS Bio in April 2021 and has supported the international expansion of the business. Further information can be found at www.vitruvianpartners.com.

About Crux Biolabs Crux Biolabs, an Australian bioanalytical laboratory, offers a wide range of GCLP/GCP-compliant services. These services encompass PBMC processing, pharmacodynamics (including biomarker, flow cytometry, ELISpot, and anti-drug antibody assays), and pharmacokinetics for both large and small molecules, all tailored to support clinical research. Our team of highly skilled scientists, based in our ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab in Melbourne, Victoria, specialize in the development and validation of various biomarker and cell assays. We also offer select services from our Sydney, New South Wales, laboratory. For more information, please visit our website at www.cruxbiolabs.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503665774/en/

Contacts:

KCAS Bio

Jeff Goddard, +1 317-626-0631

Jeff.Goddard@KCASBio.com

Crux Biolabs

Stefan Cross, +61 3 9763 0110

stefan.cross@cruxbiolabs.com
BOISE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Caleb Dimick, Chief Banking Officer at Bank of Idaho, graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC) Executive Development Institute for Community Bankers (EDI) as a member of its 10th cohort.

"As a leader in banking, I'm thrilled to have completed the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado's EDI program," Dimick said. "EDI has given me invaluable insights and strategies to navigate the evolving landscape of banking and finance. A special thanks to Jeff Newgard, Bank of Idaho Chairman, President, and CEO, for his support. I feel more empowered to better serve our customers and drive sustainable success for our organization."

EDI participants are bold, forward-thinking leaders in their organizations who have been identified as up-and-coming C-suite leaders for their organizations. EDI is designed to provide each participant with individual and bank-specific resources that contribute directly to their individual development plans and banks' strategic plans.

"EDI is helping community banks develop their future executives in support of the bank's succession plan," said GSBC President & CEO Michael Stevens. "It is reassuring to see Caleb's passion for the industry, his community, and his customers. GSBC is proud to have been a part of his development."

Dimick was one of 14 community bankers who graduated from the program during a ceremony on April 23, 2024 in Broomfield, Colorado. Dimick has worked with Bank of Idaho since December 2015 and currently serves as Chief Banking Officer, overseeing all customer-facing departments and sales activities and deposit operations. He is a graduate of Idaho State University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance.

Bank of Idaho is a regional community bank providing a range of business, personal, commercial, mortgage, and wealth management products and services to customers and communities across Southern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Bank of Idaho Holding Company common stock is traded on the OTCQX exchange under the symbol "BOID." For more information, visit www.bankofidaho.com.

###

Contact:

Matt Borud, Bank of Idaho

Phone: 208.412.2322

Email: mattborud@bankofidaho.net

SOURCE: Bank Of Idaho Holding Co



View the original press release on accesswire.com
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, May 03

For immediate release

3 May 2024

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announce that it has today purchased 121,030 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 839.93 pence per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 23 January 2024.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 41,310,954; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 183,680,349.

The figure of 183,680,349 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
Article L. 238-8-II of the French commercial Code and article 223-16 of the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) general regulation

Regulatory News:

Corporate name of the issuer: Veolia Environnement (Paris:VIE) 21 rue La Boetie 75008 PARIS FRANCE (ISIN code: FR0000124141-VIE)

Information closing date Total number of shares forming the share capital Total number of voting rights April 30, 2024 725,411,667 Total number of theoretical voting rights (1): 725,411,667 Total number of voting rights that may be exercised (2): 715,065,699

Inclusion in the Veolia Environnement Articles of Association of a clause requiring a reporting obligation of the declaration of crossing a shareholding threshold, complementary to the one relating to the thresholds provided by the French law and the regulations in force (article 8).

(1) Number of theoretical voting rights abolition of double voting rights as of April 25, 2024

(2) Number of voting rights that may be exercised number of theoretical voting rights (or total number of voting rights attached to shares) shares without voting rights (number of treasury shares held as of April 30, 2024, i.e. 10,345,968).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503007869/en/

Contacts:

Veolia Environnement
PANJIM, Goa, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As the global travel and tourism industry gears up for the prestigious Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Dubai 2024, there's one destination that's poised to make a significant impact - Goa, India. Renowned for its pristine beaches, rich cultural heritage, and vibrant communities, Goa is set to showcase its commitment to sustainable tourism at ATM Dubai 2024 with this year's theme: Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Transforming Travel Through Entrepreneurship.



Attendees of ATM Dubai at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), from May 6th to May 9th, 2024, will have the opportunity to explore the Goa Pavilion, Stand No: AS7259, where they'll experience an immersive presentation spotlighting the region's innovative endeavors in sustainable tourism. Central to our exhibit is the principle of Regenerative Tourism, surpassing traditional conservation efforts to actively rejuvenate both natural and cultural assets while fostering the prosperity of local communities. The Goa Tourism Pavilion at ATM Dubai will showcase sustainable endeavors rooted in the Regenerative Tourism framework, focusing on key pillars such as hinterland exploration, restoration of heritage sites, and the promotion of spiritual tourism. Through immersive experiences and interactive displays, visitors will be transported on a virtual voyage into the heart of Goa's hinterlands, where they will unearth hidden treasures and uncover the region's rich cultural heritage.

In addition to these initiatives, visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the Ekadasha Teertha circuit, which encompasses 11 temples of significant spiritual importance. Furthermore, they will discover the upcoming exposition of St. Francis Xavier's relics at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa.

The Ekadasha Teertha circuit stands as a testament to Goa's profound spiritual heritage, offering pilgrims and travelers alike an enriching journey through the state's sacred sites. Translated as the "Eleven Holy Places," this circuit comprises a collection of temples and shrines, each steeped in mythology, history, and reverence. Embarking on the Ekadasha Teertha circuit is akin to embarking on a spiritual odyssey, where devotees are invited to pay homage to the divine and seek solace amidst serene surroundings. From the ancient temples of Lord Shiva to the sacred abodes of Goddess Parvati, each stop along the circuit offers a unique opportunity for introspection, prayer, and communion with the divine.

Moreover, the exposition of St. Francis Xavier's relics at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa holds immense significance in the annals of Goan history and Christian pilgrimage. As one of the most revered Christian destinations in Asia, the Basilica of Bom Jesus serves as a beacon of faith and devotion, drawing pilgrims from far and wide to pay homage to the revered saint. The exposition, scheduled to take place after a decade, from November 21st, 2024, until January 5th, 2025, marks a rare and auspicious occasion for devotees to venerate the relics of St. Francis Xavier and seek his intercession. This sacred event is steeped in tradition and reverence, with devotees flocking to the basilica to offer prayers, seek blessings, and experience the profound sense of spiritual connection that permeates the air.

Mr. Suneel Anchipaka, IAS, Director Tourism & Managing Director GTDC "The Goa Tourism pavilion will reflect the traditional, historical significance and the rich cultural heritage of Goa under Regenerative Tourism. There will be approximately 17 co-exhibitors like tour and travel operators, wedding planners, as we have roped in various planners and MICE representatives. One of our main focuses will be on promoting MICE tourism in a massive manner, along with this, the Department of Tourism is in the process of forming the Wedding in Goa policy; to rope in more tourists as part of this initiative at ATM Dubai. Goa became the first state to launch Regenerative Tourism with hinterland tourism, spiritual tourism and various MICE tourism under it, all these initiatives are to attract inbound tourists and especially quality tourists. Through this mart, we aim to promote tourism within GCC countries, which have high-spending tourists so that they can visit Goa and explore the hidden gems our state has to offer. Through joint efforts with the Indian Embassy in UAE, we underscore our commitment to engage with the global Goan community and harness their support in promoting Goa as a sustainable tourism destination, reinforcing their role as ambassadors for our region on the global stage. Through events like ATM Dubai, the Goan diaspora not only strengthens ties between Goa and Dubai but also contributes to the growth of tourism in their homeland."

Goa Tourism's pavilion will exhibit the best of what Goa has to offer with the presence of Hon'ble Minister of Tourism, Mr. Rohan A. Khaunte, Mr. Suneel Anchipaka, IAS, Director Tourism & Managing Director GTDC, Mr. Kuldeep Arolkar, Deputy Director Tourism, Government of Goa, Mr. Shawn Mendes, OSD to Tourism Minister and Mrs. Chitra Vengurlekar, Assistant Tourist Officer, Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, along with co-exhibitors from leading industries like tours and travels, hospitality and wedding planners. ATM Dubai's theme for 2024 is on sustainable tourism and Goa being the first state to launch Regenerative Tourism, showcases just that; Sustainable & Responsible Tourism.

Goa Tourism's participation at ATM Dubai isn't just about showcasing Goa's cultural and spiritual treasures - it's also about promoting sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and local communities. Through the pavilion, the state aims to inspire travelers to make conscious choices that support responsible tourism and contribute to the long-term well-being of our planet. At Goa's Pavilion, visitors can expect interactive exhibits, engaging discussions, and immersive experiences that highlight the symbiotic relationship between tourism and sustainability.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/goa-blends-innovation--entrepreneurship-with-its-model-of-regenerative-tourism-at-atm-dubai-2024-302135784.html
Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, May 03

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

3 May 2024

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 3 May 2024 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 125,000 Weighted average purchase price paid 390.25 pence per share Highest purchase price paid 391.25 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid 390 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 19,139,362 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 226,952,061 which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions (as at 3 May 2024)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 25,000 100,000 391.25 390.00 08:40:19 13:34:35 00069823859TRLO0 00069830427TRLO0 LSE LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Hannah Ratcliff +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.

The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - Mayo Lake Minerals Inc. (CSE: MLKM) (Mayo or Company) is pleased to report on the progress of its proposed merger with WestMountain Gold, Inc. (WestMountain), as initially described in Mayo's press release of August 17, 2023 and as recently updated on March 12, 2024; the closing of the third tranche of its ongoing $1.4 million private placement ($1.4M Placement); the issuance of Compensation Securities based on the performance of the Company and recipients for the period between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023; and the engagement of Outside the Box Capital Inc. for marketing services.

Third Tranche of $1.4M Placement Closes; Mayo has today closed the third tranche of its ongoing $1.4M Placement for 6,906,400 CS Units totaling $414,384. To date, Mayo has now closed on a total of $574,984 under the placement which will be extended until the initiation of the merger private placement (Merger Financing).

Each CS Unit consists of one common share and one whole warrant exercisable into one additional common share at $0.09 for a period of four years from the date of issuance. The securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period of four (4) months and one day after the closing date. The CS Unit proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

A senior officer and one director of the Company (both 'Related Parties under Multilateral Instrument 61-101), subscribed for a total of 886,567 Units for a total of $53,194. Mayo is exempt from obtaining a formal valuation and minority approval of its shareholders in respect of the Related Party Participation due to the fair market value of the Related Party Participation being below 25% of the Company's market capitalization for the purposes of MI 61-101.

The Merger and Associated Financing; Mayo plans to initiate the 'Merger Financing' in conjunction with the final administrative steps for the completion of a definitive agreement for subsequent signing and completion of the Merger.

The merged company (MergCo) will result in a well-diversified combination of prospective gold properties within the prolific Tintina Gold Province. Through a wholly-owned Alaskan subsidiary, it will hold an advanced-stage project with a significant gold resource and several highly prospective gold and silver projects.

MergCo will use the proceeds of the Merger Financing for an aggressive drill program to upgrade and increase the estimated narrow vein, high-grade gold resources and bulk mining model resources of gold with silver credits at WestMountain's Terra project.

MergCo's management team combines a track record of successful exploration as well as development with a capacity to unlock the full potential of a variety of projects. Mayo's geological team has an experienced professional understanding of regional mineralization, decades of working in a harsh environment and a strong commitment to environmental matters. WestMountain provides individuals with on-site experience.

WestMountain Gold, Inc. (Terra): WestMountain brings its Terra Gold Project to the amalgamated company. In 2020, R.J. (Jim) Robinson, B.Sc. P.Geo., (QP) reported to WestMountain1 that Terra contains Indicated Resources, 435,360 ounces gold at 12.08g Au/t and Inferred Resources, 267,943 ounces gold at 10.59g Au/t with a 5.0g Au/t cut-off for a total of 703,303 ounces at 10.28g Au/t, based on an under-ground ("UG") narrow vein mining model. Robinson also reported in an internal report to WestMountain that resources for a model with extraction by open pit at the Fish Zone and bulk mining at the Ben Zone were Indicated, 1,671,348 ounces gold at 1.43g Au/t and Inferred, 840,132 ounces gold at 1.3g Au/t for a total of 2,511,480 ounces gold at 2.23g Au/t. An underground mining model with a cut-off of 3.0g Au/t, related to present constraints, estimates indicated and inferred resources of 818,809 ounces gold and 1,034,179 ounces silver for Terra's drilled resource area. For Mayo's purposes at this time, these resources are deemed historical.

As of August, 2023, 4,500 ounces of gold have been extracted from ~ 3,000 tonnes of excavated ore; this equated to a gold grade of ~ 46g Au/t. On-site pilot studies determined that the gold and silver (partially) could be extracted by crushing and pulverizing followed by gravity separation without the use of chemicals.

The Ben and Fish zones lie within a 2.5 km N-S trending, mineralized corridor. The two zones contain numerous multi-phased high-grade veins up to 1m plus in width and of various strike lengths. These veins parallel the primary vein within each zone. The high-grade veins are commonly within an envelope of stringers and stockwork silification, increasing the width of the mineralization adjacent to the main vein widths to anywhere up to 10m; a configuration that could lead to a reduction of costs in underground mining. Both zones are open along strike and at depth, being only tested to approximately 250m below ground surface. Parallel high-grade veins and adjacent low grades enveloping the veins offer the opportunity for a rapid upgrade in resource quantity and quality with strategically located drill holes.

Thirty diamond drill holes (DDHs) were completed during drilling in 2018 and 2019. Of the thirty DDHs, twenty-five cored quartz veins assaying over 10g Au/t; with multiple veins being cored in fifteen DDH. The gold values ranged from 10g Au/t up to 246g Au/t with widths ranging from 0.2 to 1.5m in a total of sixty-four intercepts, averaging 36.3g Au/t.

Terra has infrastructure and facilities at the site including: a 25-person camp facility with a mess tent, showers, water wells, laundry facilities, and privies, plus an office, core shack, storage area, a mill building, a storage shed, fuel depot, bulldozers and vehicle equipment, a road network and a 1,463m airstrip. Services are available at Anchorage some 210 km to the east. A winter road from the Alaska Highway Network presently ends within 65 km of Terra and an all-weather road is planned by the state to replace the winter road in the near future. WestMountain has stated that there are no significant fish, wildlife, wetlands or environmental issues, indigenous land claims or Federal mining permits required.

For more information on WestMountain's properties, please visit: https://www.westmountaingold.com/.

Mayo Lake Minerals Inc. owns 4 properties covering 202 square kilometers in the Yukon where it has completed extensive exploration over the last 12 years. Independent of any activities proposed for Terra, Mayo plans (i) to complete soil surveys of prospective area identified by soil and magnetic surveys to add to its gold prospects within the Anderson Gold Belt and (ii) to trench its Carlin West and AJ silver targets at its Carlin-Roop property in 2024. Mayo's Trail-Minto property may well host similar mineralization to that at Banyan Gold's AurMac or Victoria Gold's Eagle Mine (intrusion related with sheeted veining) and will be the subject of additional soil surveying and trenching in 2024. For more information on Mayo's properties, please visit https://www.mayolakeminerals.com.

Issuance of Compensation Securities; Mayo also announced the issuance of a total of 4,333,63 options to certain officers, employees and consultants (Recipients) of the Company in lieu of cash compensation as part of its ongoing efforts to incentivize its personnel without depleting cash resources. These options were related to performance of the Recipients for the period beginning July 1, 2022 and ending December 31, 2023. Each option is exercisable into one common share at a price of $0.10 for a period of 5 years from the date of issuance. Two independent directors of the Company were awarded a total of 502,200 Deferred Share Units (DSUs); each Unit will vest in the name of the grantee on his retirement from the board and automatically be converted into one common share. Mayo's independent directors do not receive cash compensation. All issuances detailed in this release are subject to the consent of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Marketing Agreement with Outside the Box Capital: Mayo has also entered into a six month marketing and consulting contract with Toronto-based marketing firm Outside The Box Capital Inc. ("OTBOX"). OTBOX specializes in various social media platforms and digital marketing strategies, and can facilitate greater awareness and widespread dissemination of the Company's activities. The agreement has an effective date of May 6, 2024 and will run for a period of six months. The Company will pay OTBOX a cash fee of $100,000 plus applicable taxes. Their engagement remains subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

Qualified Person. The technical and scientific information contained within this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Vern Rampton, P.Eng., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standard of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101). Rampton, has reviewed data reported on https://westmountaingold.com and within a technical report, dated June 20, 2020 (see footnote 1) and an internal report (2023) prepared for WestMountain and authored by Jim Robinson, B.SC., P.Geo. (QP). Rampton accepts responsibility for any interpretations or projections based on the information contained within the two reports. The information contained in these documents provides an indication of the exploration potential of Terra as interpreted by Rampton. Although Rampton has assessed the reported data to be reliable, he cannot guarantee that any reported projections will result in development and mining.

About Mayo Lake Minerals Inc. : Mayo is actively engaged in the exploration and development of four precious metal projects in the Tombstone Gold (Plutonic) Belt of the Tintina Gold Province. The properties cover 202 square kilometres in the Yukon's Mayo Mining District and lie within the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation. Mayo is focusing on its two flagship properties; the Carlin-Roop Silver Project lying within the Keno Hill Silver District and the promising Anderson-Davidson gold property. Two active mines; Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold Mine and Hecla Mining's Keno Silver mines are nearby. Mayo has recently turned its attention to effecting a merger with WestMountain Gold, Inc.

About WestMountain Gold, Inc. : WestMountain is a junior mineral exploration and development company that is seeking to explore and develop its current prospective advanced-stage Terra Gold Project in Alaska, consisting of 339 unpatented lode mining claims and 5 leased unpatented lode mining claims. A 43-101 Technical Report reports that Terra contains 703,300 ounces of narrow vein high grade (11.35g Au/t) and 2,511,480 ounces of bulk mineable rock (1.3g Au/t).

For additional information, please contact :

Vern Rampton, Ph.D., P.Eng. President & CEO; vrampton@mayolakeminerals.com Tel. 613-836-2594

Darrell Munro, Corporate Administration; dmunro@mayolakeminerals.com Tel. 613-836-2594

Lee Bowles. Director; lbowles@ironstonecapital.ca Tel. 011 3462 466 9063

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of Mayo and WestMountain. Although management of Mayo and WestMountain believe that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of Mayo and WestMountain relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. BECAUSE MAYO AND WESTMOUNTAIN HAVE ENTERED INTO A NON-BINDING LETTER OF INTENT, THERE IS NO ASSURANCE WHATSOEVER THAT THE CONTEMPLATED TRANSACTION WILL OCCUR. FURTHER, THERE IS NO ASSURANCE THAT MAYO WILL BE ABLE TO RAISE THE NECESSARY CAPITAL TO PROCEED WITH THE CONTEMPLATED TRANSACTION. BOTH MAYO AND WESTMOUNTAIN HAVE LIMITED CAPITAL.

The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

1Revised N.I. 43-101 Technical Report on the Geophysical Surveying, Diamond Drilling, Soil and Rock Sampling, and Resource Estimates of the Terra Property, Lime Hills Quadrangle, McGrath Mining District, Mt. McKinley Recording District, Alaska, USA; June 20, 2020. Report prepared by Mr. Ronald James (Jim) Robinson, B.Sc., P. Geo. Of Aurora Geoscience Ltd., 1901 Davis Ave. Unit B1, Juneau, AK99801, USA for WestMountain Gold Inc. 1001-A East Harmony Road, Suite 340, FT Collins, CO80525, USA.

NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR

DISSEMINATED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207964

SOURCE: Mayo Lake Minerals Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - Hertz Energy Inc. (CSE: HZ) (OTCQB: HZLIF) (FSE: QE2) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that is has submitted applications for uranium Exclusive Prospecting Licenses (EPLs) in Namibia.

Namibia is a country of diverse geology and has one of the richest uranium mineral reserves in the world. There are currently two large operating mines, the Husab and Rossing mines, in the Erongo Region and five major exploration projects planned to advance to production in the next few years as the country embraces the green energy transition. Uranium mining in Namibia is of considerable importance to the national economy1. In 2023, Namibia produced the 3rd largest quantity of uranium worldwide at 6,382 tonnes, ranked only behind Kazakhstan and Australia2.

Namibia is a premier operational uranium jurisdiction with a 45-year history of safe uranium production and exportation3. It possesses excellent utilities, transportation, and exportation infrastructure as well as established support for uranium mining from both the Namibian Government and local communities. Namibia enjoys a combination of political stability, security, a strong rule of law and an assertive development agenda. In 2023, mining contributed approximately 12% of Namibia's GDP and employs approximately 16,000 people4.

Hertz Energy Namibia Uranium Project

The application areas cover an area of 9,627.84 hectares located in Central Namibia in the Erongo Region which hosts numerous primary and secondary uranium deposits. Primary economic uranium is hosted mainly in sheeted D-type alaskites which occur both as cross-cutting dykes and as bedding and/or foliation-parallel sills. The sheets can amalgamate to form larger granite plutons or granite stockworks made up of closely spaced dykes and sills. The mineralized alaskites tend to occur at marked stratigraphic levels, often associated with the Khan-Rossing Formation boundary, or, where the Rossing Formation is missing, the Khan-Chuos/Arandis Formation boundary. Secondary uranium deposits occur in calcretes in the coastal plain of the Namib Desert. The deposits are associated with ancient river systems that flowed westward from the Great Escarpment during the upper Cretaceous and lower Cenozoic periods. Uranium mineralization is typically located in calcretised fluvial channels which tend to be buried with little or no obvious surface expression to identify them.

Figure 1: Licence applications in the Erongo Uranium Province of Namibia.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Licence Application EPL-10185

EPL-10185 is located 22 km east of the coastal town of Swakopmund. Its geology is comprised of units from the Kuiseb, Karibib, Arandis, Chuos and Khan Formations intruded by granodiorites and uranium prospective granites. Most of the western and central parts of the licence is under recent surficial cover made up of sand, gravel, scree, and calcrete. Preliminary interpretation of regional airborne radiometric data from the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy indicates radiometric anomalies coinciding with favourable geology for primary alaskite-hosted uranium mineralization. This is the similar style of mineralization found at Bannerman Energy's Etango deposit located 15 km southeast of EPL-10185 as well as that at the Rossing Mine located 30km to the northeast. The Rossing Mine is one of the largest and longest operating uranium open cast mines in the world producing now for 46 years. In 2022, Rossing produced 2,659t U3O8 and currently has a feasibility study underway to extend the mine life beyond 20265.

Figure 2: The geology and the airborne radiometric anomaly targets (red) of EPL-10185.



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Licence Application EPL-10186

EPL-10186 is located 40 km northeast of the coastal town of Swakopmund. Most of the licence is covered by recent sand, gravel, scree and calcrete, with a few outcrops of mica schist, calc-silicate rock, marble and red granite. There are two prominent sub-surface water conduits/streams which in general, are believed to be geographically similar to where paleo-channels carrying uranium-rich waters would have flowed. Preliminary interpretation of regional airborne radiometric data from the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy indicates a strong and consistent radiometric anomaly trending northeast-southwest and coincident with the subsurface streams. The Company is targeting secondary uranium mineralization with potential for primary mineralization to the east of the application area. This is the similar style of mineralization found at ORANO's Trekkopje Mine 6 kilometres north of EPL-10186 and Elevate Uranium's Marenica deposit 40km to the north with a resource of 46Mlb U308 at a 93ppm U3O8 cutoff grade.

Figure 3: The geology (A) and the airborne radiometric targets over EPL-10186.



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The applications were filed by Odikwa Geoservices, led by Mary Barton, a Professional Natural Scientist (SACNASP) and a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). In conjunction with filing the prospecting licenses, Odikwa Geoservices conducted a geological desktop review to locate prospective ground within the region of Erongo for the purposes of the licensing application. Odikwa Geoservices is a respected local geology company, providing high quality geology, exploration, mineral resource, mining and revenue management solutions to the Namibian mining industry.

"We are devoted to increasing our footprint in the green energy metals markets and are excited to enter Namibia this year. Namibia has a long history of uranium exploration and production," stated Kal Malhi, CEO & Director of Hertz Energy. "Mary Barton and her team at Odikwa Geoservices have been instrumental in setting up our operations in the country. We are fortunate to have access to an expert local Geological Consultant Company and look forward to developing and executing our exploration initiatives in the coming months once we receive government approvals."

The EPL applications have been acquired for the cost of the applications submissions and no other payments of stock issuances are payables on the EPL acquisitions.

Qualified Person

Mary Barton Pr.Sci.Nat., MGSSA - MSc. Geology, is the Qualified Person for the Hertz Energy Namibia Uranium Project as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About the Company

The Company is a British Columbia based junior exploration company primarily engaged in the acquisition and exploration of energy metals mineral properties. The Company's lithium exploration projects include the Lucky Mica Lithium Project, the AC/DC Lithium Project, and the Patriota Lithium Project. The Lucky Mica Project is 939 hectares located within the Arizona Pegmatite Belt in the Maricopa County of Arizona, USA. The AC/DC Project is 26,500 hectares located in the renowned James Bay Lithium District in Quebec, Canada, just 26kms southeast of the Covette Lithium Project owned by Patriot Battery Metals and is contiguous to Rio Tinto's Kaanaayaa project claims. The Patriota Lithium Project is 2,963 hectares located within the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province in Minas Gerais, Brazil and hosts similar geology as Sigma's "Green Lithium Mine". The Company's uranium projects include the Cominco Uranium Project located in Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut, Canada and its recent applications for Exclusive Prospecting Licenses in Namibia.

For further information, please contact Mr. Kal Malhi or view the Company's filings at www.sedarplus.ca.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Kal Malhi

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Phone: 604-805-4602

Email: kal@bullruncapital.ca

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining_in_Namibia#:~:text=Namibia%20has%20one%20of%20the,in%20the%20next%20few%20years.&text=Uranium%20mining%20in%20Namibia%20is%20of%20considerable%20importance%20to%20the%20national%20economy. https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/uranium-production-by-country/ https://www.africanmining.co.za/2021/10/01/namibia-presents-golden-opportunities/ https://economist.com.na/82061/columns/mining-industry-has-potential-to-drive-namibias-economic-fortunes/ https://www.namibianuranium.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NUA-2022_03.pdf

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207966

SOURCE: Hertz Energy Inc.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V:BAY)(OTCQB:ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company") advises that it has filed an amended Offering Document under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption, which reflects a correction to a date in Part 7. The Company also refiled its condensed interim financial statements for the nine months December 31, 2023 to reflect two corrections to Note 5 - Share Capital in respect of the warrants. The first correction was to a typographical error in the number of warrants issued on October 5, 2023, which was 31,297,375 instead of 13,297,375. The second correction was to reflect that the warrants expiring on December 31, 2023 had expired instead of being outstanding. Other than these changes, and the resulting change to the aggregate number of warrants outstanding, there were no other changes to the financial statements and the refiled financial statements replace and supersede the previously filed interim financial statements in respect of the same period filed on February 28, 2024.

About Aston Bay Holdings

Aston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for high-grade copper and gold deposits in Virginia, USA, and Nunavut, Canada. The Company is led by CEO Thomas Ullrich with exploration in Virginia directed by the Company's advisor, Don Taylor, the 2018 Thayer Lindsley Award winner for his discovery of the Taylor Pb-Zn-Ag Deposit in Arizona. The Company is currently exploring the Storm Project property and Epworth property in Nunavut, as well as the high-grade Buckingham Gold Vein and critical metals prospects in central Virginia and is in advanced stages of negotiation on other lands with high-grade copper potential in the area.

The Company and its joint venture partners, American West Metals Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tornado Metals Ltd. (collectively, "American West") have agreed to form a 20/80 unincorporated joint venture and enter into a joint venture agreement in respect of the Storm Project property, which hosts the Storm Copper Project and the Seal Zinc Deposit. Under such agreement, Aston Bay shall have a free carried interest until American West has made a decision to mine upon completion of a bankable feasibility study, meaning American West will be solely responsible for funding the joint venture until such decision is made. After such decision is made, Aston Bay will be diluted in the event it does not elect to contribute its proportionate share and its interest in the Storm Project property will be converted into a 2% net smelter returns royalty if its interest is diluted to below 10%.

Further details are available on the Company's website at https://astonbayholdings.com/.

The Company's public disclosure documents are available on www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer

thomas.ullrich@astonbayholdings.com

(416) 456-3516

SOURCE: Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.

View the original press release on accesswire.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / CMC Metals Ltd. (TSX-V:CMB)(Frankfurt:ZM5P)(CMCXF:OTCQB) ("CMC" or the "Company") announces that as a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC"), the Company is issuing the following news to clarify previous disclosure relating to the 2020 Technical Report on the Silver Hart Property, Yukon. The 2020 Technical Report Silver Hart Project is not compliant with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and should not be relied on until it has been verified and supported by technical reports.

Also for interested shareholders and potential investors, an outlook on proposed exploration activities for the 2024 season by the Company is included in the April 2024 edition of Hello Investors that will soon be posted on our website at www.cmcmetals.ca

On behalf of the Board:

"Kevin Brewer"

Kevin Brewer, President, CEO and Director

CMC METALS LTD.

For Further Information and Investor Inquiries:

Kevin Brewer, P. Geo., MBA, B.Sc.(Hons), Dip. Mine Eng.

President, CEO and Director

Tel: (+52) 669 198 8503

kbrewer80@hotmail.com

Suite 1000-409 Granville St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 1T2

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

"This news release may contain certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law, including without limitation, statements that address the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles and exploitation activities and developments. In this release disclosure regarding the potential to undertake future exploration work comprise forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks, including the ability of the Company to raise the funds necessary to fund its projects, to carry out the work and, accordingly, may not occur as described herein or at all. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, the impact of the constantly evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Readers are referred to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators for information on these and other risk factors, available at www.sedar.com. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation."

SOURCE: CMC Metals Ltd.

View the original press release on accesswire.com
Leader in Primary and Behavioral Health for Post-Acute Care Facilities Increases Value-Based Care Expertise and Expands Service Areas to New States

CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Eventus WholeHealth ("Eventus"), a private equity-backed full-service, physician-led provider of interdisciplinary healthcare to individuals residing in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, announced today that it has acquired Premier Geriatric Solutions ("Premier"), a pioneer and market leader in value-based medical directorships, primary care and behavioral health services in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

The merged multispecialty group practice will have a total of more than 800 clinicians and employees providing integrated primary care, specialty care, and behavioral health services to more than 44,000 patients in long-term care facilities and will be the largest provider of integrated value-based care services.

Premier Geriatric Solutions founder and CEO Bradley Goad, DO, is highly regarded as one of the physician pioneers in long-term care. The book he co-authored with Jamie Smith, Geriatric Notes Jones & Bartlett Learning, is considered by most to be the top reference book for geriatric primary care.

Brent King, DO, founder and CEO of Eventus, stated, "With the establishment of our own Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), Eventus is poised to revolutionize Value-Based Care within LTC communities. Our goal is to enhance communication, streamline coordination of care, and integrate best practices throughout the care continuum. This initiative will not only improve efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability but also set a new standard for medical practice in the LTC space, fostering stronger, more collaborative partnerships within these communities."

Established in 2020, Premier Geriatric Solutions quickly grew to become one of the largest integrated providers of primary care and mental health services to long-term care facilities in the state of Virginia. Most recently, it achieved the added success of being a top performer in value-based care Accountable Care programs.

Dr. Goad said, "By joining two successful organizations, we will create one company better prepared to meet the increasing needs of our medically vulnerable patients while outperforming value-based care measures. I am excited to combine forces with Eventus to shape the future of long-term care."

"We are excited to welcome Premier to the Eventus platform and, by extension, the Enhanced Healthcare Partners portfolio," said Matthew Thompson, Partner at EHP. "This is a bold step that reflects our ongoing commitment to Eventus' strategic growth and development plans."

The combined entities will begin joint operations as Eventus while maintaining the celebrated Premier Geriatric Solutions brand. Premier founder and CEO Bradley Goad, DO, will serve as Chief Medical Officer, and Premier COO Holly Roy, PA-C, will lead clinical operations for the combined organization as the Vice President of Clinical Operations.

About Eventus WholeHealth

Eventus WholeHealth, private equity-backed by Enhanced Healthcare Partners, was founded in 2014 to provide physician-led healthcare services for residents and patients of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. With our highly trained team of primary care physicians, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychotherapists, podiatrists, and support staff, our comprehensive, evidence-based model provides collaborative interdisciplinary care with the seamless and vital integration of a wide range of specialties. For more information, please visit www.eventuswholehealth.com.

Contact Information

Samantha Frontera

(847) 703-0529

sfrontera@exclusivepr.biz

Contact Information

Samantha Frontera

sfrontera@exclusivepr.biz

847-703-0529

SOURCE: Eventus WholeHealth

View the original press release on newswire.com.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - International Frontier Resources Corporation (TSXV: IFR) ("IFR" or the "Company") pleased to announce the appointment of a new independent director, Henry Bustard to its board of directors (the "Board"). The appointment is subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Mr. Bustard has over 30 years of experience in finance, acquisition/disposition, and management primarily in Commercial Real Estate. From 2000 to 2012, as a major shareholder of Carlton Trail Limited Partnership, a publicly traded Limited Partnership, he oversaw the development, management and finance of a varied commercial real estate portfolio across Western Canada and Ontario. Following 2012, Mr. Bustard has continued to invest on his own behalf. Early in his career, he spent 10 years at Royal Lepage Commercial Inc. specializing in institutional and private sales. Mr. Bustard has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's in business administration.

"We are pleased to welcome Mr. Bustard to the IFR Board of Directors," stated IFR Chairman Tony Kinnon. "He brings a wealth of leadership and expertise to the current composition of the Board and we look forward to his guidance with respect to the Company's operations and interests."

IFR also announces that effective April 30, 2024 Andrew Fisher has resigned as an executive officer and director of the Company and the board has accepted his resignation. The Company would like to thank Mr. Fisher for his years of service and for his contributions to the Company and wishes him all the best with his future endeavors.

About International Frontier Resources

International Frontier Resources Corporation (IFR) is a Canadian publicly traded company with a demonstrated track record of advancing oil and gas projects. Through its Mexican subsidiary, Petro Frontera S.A.P.I de CV (Frontera) and strategic joint ventures, it is advancing the development of petroleum and natural gas assets in Mexico. IFR also has projects in Canada and the United States, including the Northwest Territories and Montana.

IFR's Common Shares are listed on the TSXV, trading under the symbol IFR. For additional information please visit www.internationalfrontier.com.

For further information

Tony Kinnon - Chairman and CEO

info@internationalfrontier.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/208019

SOURCE: International Frontier Resources
Celonis, the global leader in Process Mining, today announced it has appointed Mark Jacobs to the role of Senior Vice President North America Sales. As the Go-to-Market leader for North America, Jacobs will work closely with new and existing customers to drive the company's continued growth in the market.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503639977/en/

Celonis appoints Mark Jacobs as Go-to-Market Leader for North America (Graphic: Business Wire)

Celonis has a strong presence in North America, with more than 25% of the market's Fortune 500 companies as partners and customers, including household names, such as Johnson Johnson, US Army, GE HealthCare, The Coca-Cola Company, Uber Technologies, HSBC Bank, Accenture and KPMG.

Jacobs has been a major driver of expanding Celonis' footprint in North America. His leadership and deep expertise overseeing high-performance, go-to-market teams has helped customers realize their company's fullest potential through Celonis' game-changing technology spanning Life Sciences, Healthcare, CPG/Retail, Financial Services, Public Sector, and Manufacturing.

Alex Rinke, co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis, commented: "Mark has been overseeing some of our most important customer relationships and strategic partnerships. As we enter our next phase of rapid growth in the number one software market in the world, Mark's extensive sales and leadership experience, along with his proven track record at Celonis, will be invaluable. I am thrilled to partner with him on this next chapter for our customers, partners, and fellow Celonauts, and I look forward to seeing more game-changing results for everyone."

"I am beyond excited to keep helping our customers and partners in North America realize the fullest potential of Celonis, our platform and solutions," said Jacobs. "Over the past two years, I've seen the radical, rapid impact of process mining and process intelligence on companies in ways I've not seen with any other technology available today. We have an impressive team in North America who are excited to keep delivering unprecedented value for our customers and partners. I look forward to meeting many of our current and future customers and partners in person at our upcoming Celonis Day events around the country and sharing more about how we are making processes work for people, companies, and the planet."

Jacobs has more than three decades of experience in the enterprise software industry, covering a wide range of responsibilities from sales and customer success, to services and product development. He has worked with some of the most well-known global technology companies, including Medidata, Marketo/Adobe, and Oracle.

Jacob's appointment comes after Celonis was named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Process Mining Platforms for the second consecutive year since its inception last year. The report continues to catapult process mining into C-level consciousness, placing Celonis highest in both Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

Companies are invited to hear the latest news about Celonis' process intelligence platform and solutions, including hearing directly from Jacobs, at its upcoming Celonis Days event series in the Bay Area (May 9), New York City (May 14), Chicago (June 5) and Atlanta (June 11). To find out more and register for your preferred location, please visit here.

About Celonis

Since 2011, Celonis has helped thousands of the world's largest and most esteemed companies yield immediate cash impact, radically improve customer experience, and reduce carbon emissions. Its Process Intelligence platform uses industry-leading process mining technology and AI to present companies with a living digital twin of their end-to-end processes. For the first time, everyone in an organization has a common language for how the business runs, visibility into where value is hiding, and the ability to capture it. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA with more than 20 offices worldwide.

2024 Celonis SE. All rights reserved. Celonis and the Celonis "droplet" logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Celonis SE in Germany and other jurisdictions. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503639977/en/

Contacts:

press@celonis.com
Hartland, Wisconsin--(Newsfile Corp. - May 3, 2024) - Elite Trades, a leader in plumbing and HVAC business consulting, announces a strategic name change from PlumbAmatic to Elite Trades. This significant move reflects a deliberate elevation in service quality and a refined focus tailored to meet the needs of high-level business owners across expanded industries, including electrical, well pump and water conditioning.





Elite Trades Announces New Strategic Branding - Setting Standards For Home Service Industries



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8843/207961_elitetrades.jpg

Eric Smith, Founder and CEO of Elite Trades, elaborates on the motivation behind this strategic decision:

"Adopting the Elite Trades name emphasizes our commitment to expand our reach and significantly enhance our service offerings. We continue to engage with business owners who are leaders in their respective fields and who are seeking sophisticated strategies to dominate their markets."

This strategic move includes a comprehensive update to the company's visual identity and digital experience, designed to improve accessibility to essential business resources and support services.

Elite Trades is dedicated to pioneering innovative solutions that foster substantial growth and operational excellence.

Key Insights for Business Owners:

Strategic Market Positioning: Identifying and articulating market position is crucial. Elite Trades helps businesses pinpoint their unique selling propositions and competitive advantages, which are key to attracting and retaining high-value customers.

Advanced Operational Tactics: Elite Trades focuses on operational excellence through the implementation of lean management principles, aiming to reduce waste and increase efficiency without sacrificing quality.

Leadership Empowerment: At the heart of substantial business growth is robust leadership. Elite Trades' customized leadership programs are crafted to transform business owners into visionary leaders who can inspire their teams and drive impactful growth.

Eric Smith adds, "This name change is part of our broader strategy to offer more than just services - it's about forging partnerships that nurture long-term success and transformation. We are excited to equip business leaders with the tools and insights necessary for exceptional performance."

Beyond business growth, Elite Trades is deeply committed to enhancing the quality of life for homeowners by ensuring they receive superior service. Elite Trades focuses on elevating craftsmanship and operational standards across the home service industry, not only supporting business owners but also serving thousands of households each year.

By developing the next generation of skilled tradespeople, Elite Trades upholds core values of Integrity, Purpose, Solutions, Craftsmanship, Legacy, and Action. This approach ensures that the legacy of excellence and dedication to the community continues to thrive.

Elite Trades invites ambitious business owners eager to elevate their operations to visit https://EliteTrades.com for more information on our enhanced services and to schedule a free consultation.

Media Contact:

Contact: Jeremy McGilvrey

Address: 2800 Post Oak Blvd. Ste. 5600B, Houston, TX 77056

Phone: (832) 390-2229

Email: Hi@JeremyMcGilvrey.com

Website/URL: https://www.jeremymcgilvrey.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207961

SOURCE: Jeremy McGilvrey
AISAP, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based company providing an AI-powered point of care assisted diagnosis (POCAD) solution for the medical ultrasound industry, raised $13M in Seed funding.

The round was led by Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. and Shoni Top Ventures, L.P.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and development efforts.

Co-founded by Adiel Am-Shalom, Ehud Raanani, Robert Klempfner, Ehud Schwammenthal and led by CEO Roni Attali, AISAP provides a POCAD solution that offers AI-powered diagnoses including urgency score that enables medical providers to prioritize cases based on the severity of the condition, a score that measures the quality of the scan for operators, to ensure accuracy even if they are less familiar with traditional ultrasound devices, and Deep Learning AI capabilities that enable accurate readings even with lower-quality images from handheld machines. The solution can even provide diagnoses of specific valves within the cardiovascular systems.

AISAPs algorithms have been trained on more than 300,000 studies comprising over 24 million video clips, and the technology has been validated by a range of medical experts from The Mayo Clinic, Inova Health Foundation, Jefferson Health, Poriya Institute and more.

FinSMEs

03/05/2024
EnviroSpark, an Atlanta, GA-based electric vehicle (EV) charging company, received a $50M investment from Basalt Infrastructure Partners.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its owned and operated network across the US, innovate its technologies, and further enhance the accessibility and sustainability of EV infrastructure.

Led by Aaron and Stephanie Luque, EnviroSpark specializes in design, installation and operation of EV charging solutions. The company is responsible for more than 8,200 installations of charging plugs across North America to date. EnviroSpark has recently signed strategic partnerships with industry leaders across various sectors, including RaceTrac, Waffle House, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Ford Dealerships, HHHunt, and Asset Living. In addition to partnerships with Tesla, Volkswagen, Volta (recently acquired by Shell), and Starwood Capital Group, the company has also partnered with the U.S. Federal Government through the General Services Administration.

Commenting on the news, Aaron Luque said: With strategic support from Basalt, we are poised to accelerate our mission of fostering sustainable transportation solutions. This investment not only fuels our expansion efforts but also reinforces our commitment to making electric mobility accessible and convenient for all.

FinSMEs

03/05/2024
More and more US citizens decide to live and work abroad. Portugal is one of the most appealing destinations, drawing wealthy business people, investors, and highly qualified experts from every corner of the globe.

People desiring to acquire residency in this country to do business and take advantage of other avails are offered different Portugal visa types. The Portuguese tax system developed tax incentives to induce expats to come and live in the country. The non-habitual residence program is regarded as one of these advantageous schemes.

Eligibility Criteria for the Non-Habitual Resident Program

The Portuguese Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) program represents a tax regime intended to entice individuals to reside in Portugal by proposing favorable tax treatment on definite types of income. However, as Callan Richardson, a specialist of the Imin Portugal company, stresses, applicants must fulfill specific eligibility criteria to qualify for this program:

Spending at least 183 days in Portugal within a calendar year;

Not being a tax resident in Portugal in the previous five years;

Applicants must be over 18 years old;

Obligation to comply with all corresponding Portuguese tax laws and regulations, particularly filing annual tax returns and carrying out any reporting requirements linked with the NHR program.

Since eligibility criteria and program requirements may alter over time, potential applicants should follow updated information from official sources or consult competent tax advisors. This is a guarantee all Portuguese tax regulations are completely fulfilled.

Tax Benefits of the Non-Habitual Resident Program

The government offers the program of Non-Habitual Residence in Portugal, which guarantees definite tax benefits to individuals. Portugals NHR status draws foreign investors, proficient professionals, and retirees to this country by granting favorable tax treatment for 10 years. Here are some of the pivotal advantages of this program:

One of the most appealing peculiarities of Portugals NHR program is the flat income tax rate of 20% applied to definite types of income. This comprises income from high-value-added activities, specifically scientific research, technology, and cultural activities.

Foreign pensions acquired by non-habitual residents are commonly tax-free in Portugal, making it an engaging destination for retirees striving to maximize their retirement income.

Portugal does not have wealth taxes, and the inheritance and gift tax regime proposes generous exemptions and deductions, specifically for close relatives.

These are the major tax benefits of the non-habitual resident program. If you want more info about it, you can find it by going to imin-portugal.com. Before taking advantage of this program, you should guarantee compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.

Applying for the Non-Habitual Resident Status

Applying for Portuguese Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) status is a strategic move for individuals desiring to get tax treatment and residency benefits in this country. The process commonly comprises submitting the needed documentation to the Portuguese Tax Authority and fulfilling specific requirements established by the authorities.

The task of applicants is to present documentation backing their eligibility, in particular, confirmation of residency, income sources, expert qualifications, and tax history. After that, officials inspect the application to ensure adherence to the NHR programs criteria. Once approved, applicants get a certificate proving their NHR status.

Life in Portugal as a Non-Habitual Resident

Life in Portugal as a non-habitual resident offers an exceptional mixture of cultural richness, natural beauty, and favorable tax incentives, making it a stunning destination for expatriates striving for a high quality of life. One of the most evident benefits of life in Portugal as an NHR is the advantageous tax regime. Within the framework of this program, individuals who meet the criteria can enjoy miscellaneous tax exemptions and reductions.

Aside from tax benefits, Portugals delightful climate, spectacular landscapes, and rich cultural heritage promote a high quality of life. The cost of living in Portugal is commonly lower than in other European countries, specifically from the point of view of housing, healthcare, and dining out. Generally speaking, life in Portugal as a non-habitual resident is the best option for individuals desiring to relocate to a welcoming and vibrant European country.
Daniel Radcliffe has said he is saddened by author JK Rowlings stance on transgender rights, telling an interviewer he has not spoken to the Harry Potter creator in years read more

Daniel Radcliffe has said he is saddened by author JK Rowlings stance on transgender rights, telling an interviewer he has not spoken to the Harry Potter creator in years. Daniel Radcliffe, who played boy wizard Potter in the wildly successful film adaptations of Rowlings best-selling books, has found himself at odds with Rowling on the thorny issue of gender identity.

JK Rowling has faced accusations of transphobia for her stance emphasizing biological sex over gender identity, while Radcliffe has long campaigned for LGBTQ groups that defend the rights of trans women.

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It makes me really sad, ultimately, Daniel Radcliffe told the Atlantic, in an interview published this week.

Daniel Radcliffe has said he is saddened by author JK Rowlings stance on transgender rights, telling an interviewer he has not spoken to the Harry Potter creator in years. Daniel Radcliffe, who played boy wizard Potter in the wildly successful film adaptations of Rowlings best-selling books, has found himself at odds with Rowling on the thorny issue of gender identity.

JK Rowling has faced accusations of transphobia for her stance emphasizing biological sex over gender identity, while Radcliffe has long campaigned for LGBTQ groups that defend the rights of trans women.

It makes me really sad, ultimately, Daniel Radcliffe told the Atlantic, in an interview published this week.

Because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.

The issue of gender identity has become a polarizing political debate in many countries, including Rowlings native Scotland, and in the United States, where Radcliffe is currently performing in a Broadway play.

JK Rowling has been at the forefront, arguing that transgender rights endanger women. She has pointed to claims that transgender women entering female-designated changing rooms, toilets or prisons causes harm.

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In 2020, Radcliffe - a longtime supporter of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide-prevention hotline - responded to some of Rowlings comments on the matter with a statement saying Transgender women are women.

The public split was pounced upon by the British press, not least as the wildly successful Potter franchise had been embraced by children across the board.

A lot of people found some solace in those books and films who were dealing with feeling closeted or rejected by their family or living with a secret, said Daniel Radcliffe.

British media tried to portray Radcliffe and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as ungrateful brats, he told the interviewer. Last month, Rowling appeared to hit out at the films actors once again, responding to a comment on social media suggesting she would forgive Radcliffe and Watson if they apologized.

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Celebs who cozied up to a movement intent on eroding womens hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatized detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces, wrote JK Rowling.

Asked to respond by the Atlantic, Radcliffe said: I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that.

Daniel Radcliffe, who said he has had no direct contact with Rowling throughout the controversy, also acknowledged that his fame and success would likely never have happened if she had not created the Potter franchise.

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But that doesnt mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life, he said.

Agence France-Presse
Did you know hundreds of workers had toiled for nearly 10 months to create the sets of Lahore of the early 1900s for Sanjay Leela Bhansalis directorial, Netflixs Heeramandi? read more

It is always important to know the real story of the courtesans of Heeramandi shown in Sanjay Leela Bhansalis period drama. Watching a film is one thing, but for appreciating a period drama, you need to know the back story. The story of Heeramandi is complex. And not many know that they were supremely powerful. The real story of tawaifs inspired Sanjay Leela Bhansalis directorial, Netflixs Heeramandi. But what went behind the making of this lavish masterpiece?

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Sanjay Leela Bhansalis much-awaited foray into the world of OTT platforms with Heeramandi has finally arrived, garnering praise from both audiences and critics alike. The series, comprised of 8 episodes, immerses viewers in a meticulously crafted rendition of Lahore from the early 1900s, capturing the essence of the era with unparalleled detail.

From the lavish lifestyle of the tawaifs to the intricate calligraphy adorning city walls and storefronts, every aspect of Heeramandi takes viewers back in time, making everyone relive the bygone era. Whats remarkable is the dedication behind the scenes, as its revealed that hundreds of workers dedicated nearly 10 months to recreate the Lahore of yesteryears under Bhansalis vision.

Initially conceived as a 14-page concept by Bhansalis friend, Moin Beg, two decades ago, the project underwent a transformative journey before making its way to the screen. Bhansalis decision to adapt it for a series format allowed for the exploration of a multitude of characters and narratives, breathing life into a world rich in history and culture.

History behind Heeramandi

Going back to the history of Heeramandi, the series is set during the Mughal era and shows the pre-independence times when women predominantly from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan were brought to Heeramandi to perform Kathak dances to entertain the Mughal rulers.

Helmed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar is an eight-part series released across 190 countries on Netflix.

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WATCH the trailer of Heeramandi here:
Colombia and Turkey have become the latest nations to cut ties with Israel over its actions in Gaza. Several other countries including South Africa, Bahrain, Chile, Honduras, Chad and Jordan have withdrawn and recalled their ambassadors. Experts say these developments have exacerbated the diplomatic isolation of Israel and that the biggest impact could be delaying normalisaing relations with Saudi Arabia read more

Colombia president Gustavo Petro denounced Israels actions as a genocide. Colombia has also requested to join South Africas case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Reuters

Colombia has announced that it is cutting ties with Israel over the Gaza war.

The countrys president Gustavo Petro has denounced Israels actions as a genocide and said his government would end diplomatic relations.

Here in front of you, the government of change, of the president of the republic announces that tomorrow we will break diplomatic relations with the state of Israel  for having a government, for having a president who is genocidal, Petro said.

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Petro previously slammed Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested to join South Africas case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Countries cannot be passive in the face of events in Gaza, he added.

Israels foreign minister Israel Katz accused Petro of being antisemitic and full of hate.

He said Petros move was a reward to the armed group Hamas, which on 7 October led a deadly attack on Israeli military bases and communities.

But which nations have broken off relations with Israel? And what impact will it have?

Colombia

Colombia and Israel have signed dozens of agreements on wide-ranging issues, including education and trade, since they established diplomatic relations in 1957. But nothing links them closer than military contracts.

Colombias fighter jets are all Israeli-built.

The more than 20 Kfir Israeli-made fighter jets were used by its air force in numerous attacks on remote guerrilla camps that debilitated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The attacks helped push the rebel group into peace talks that resulted in its disarmament in 2016.

But the fleet, purchased in the late 1980s, is aging and requires maintenance, which can only be carried out by an Israeli firm. Manufacturers in France, Sweden and the United States have approached Colombias government with replacement options, but the spending priorities of Petros administration are elsewhere.

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Colombias military also uses Galil rifles, which were designed in Israel and for which Colombia acquired the rights to manufacture and sell. Israel also assists the South American country with its cybersecurity needs.

It remains unclear how the military contracts will be affected.

Colombias Foreign Ministry said Thursday in a statement that all communications related to this announcement will be made through established official channels and will not be public. The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, while the Israeli Embassy in Bogota declined to address the issue.

However, a day before Petro announced his decision, Colombian defence minister Ivan Velasquez told lawmakers that no new contracts will be signed with Israel, though existing ones will be fulfilled, including those for maintenance for the Kfir fighters and one for missile systems.

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Velasquez said the government has established a transition committee that would seek to diversify suppliers to avoid depending on Israel. He added that one of the possibilities under consideration is the development of a rifle by the Colombian military industry to replace the Galil.

Colombia president slammed Benjamin Netanyahu. AFP

Security cooperation has been at the center of tensions between the two countries. Israel said in October that it would halt security exports to Colombia after Petro refused to condemn Hamas 7 October attack on southern Israel that triggered the war and compared Israels actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany. In February, Petro announced the suspension of arms purchases from Israel.

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For retired General Guillermo Leon, former commander of the Colombian air force, the countrys military capabilities will be affected if Petros administration breaks its contract obligations or even if it complies with them but refuses to sign new ones.

At the end of the year, maintenance and spare parts run out, and from then on, the fleet would rapidly enter a condition where we would no longer have the means to sustain it, he told AP.

This year, three aircraft were withdrawn from service due to compliance with their useful life cycle.

A free trade agreement between Colombia and Israel went into effect in August 2020. Israel now buys one per cent of Colombias total exports, which include coal, coffee and flowers.

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According to Colombias Ministry of Commerce, exports to Israel last year totaled $499 million, which represents a drop of 53 per cent from 2022.

Colombias imports from Israel include electrical equipment, plastics and fertilisers.

Neither government has explained whether the diplomatic feud will affect the trade agreement.

Turkey

According to Bloomberg, Turkey has paused all trade with Israel.

Ankara said it was doing so until Israel allows uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

This comes a month after it restricted some Turkish exports to Israel citing the worsening humanitarian tragedy in Palestine.

The second phase of the measures taken at the state level has been started, and export and import transactions related to Israel have been suspended to cover all products, the statement read. Turkey will firmly and decisively implement these new measures until the government of Israel allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The outlet quoted the Turkish Statistical Institute as saying that trade between the two nations was valued at $6.8 billion in 2023.

Of that, 76 per cent was Turkish exports.

Israels imports from Turkey, which included steel, machinery, minerals, fuels, fresh produce and food products, amounted to $4.6 billion.

Turkey last year was Israels sixth largest import source, as per Israels Central Statistics Bureau.

The head of a group of industrialists in Israel demanded that the government impose a 100 per cent tariff on all Turkish imports for the next three years. Representational image

Like Colombia, Turkey too has asked to join South Africas case against Israel at the ICC.

The head of a group of industrialists in Israel demanded that the government impose a 100 per cent tariff on all Turkish imports for the next three years.

This is the only way for Erdogan to understand that he cannot toy with us and that his actions will have long-term consequences, Ron Tomer, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, told Bloomberg.

Tormer suggested Israel consider banning some imports and that it do all it can to break its dependence on Turkey.

Bolivia

Bolivia in October said it had broken diplomatic ties with Israel because of its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Bolivia decided to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli state in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip, Deputy foreign minister Freddy Mamani said at a press conference.

We reject the war crimes being committed in Gaza. We support international initiatives to guarantee humanitarian aid, in compliance with international law, Bolivian president Arce said on social media on Monday.

Bolivia previously cut diplomatic ties with Israel in 2009 under the government of leftist President Evo Morales, also in protest against Israels actions in Gaza.

In 2020, the government of right-wing interim president Jeanine Anez reestablished ties.

Belize

Axios reported that Belize in November called for an immediate ceasefire while announcing it was suspending diplomatic ties.

Belize also withdrawing the appointment of its Honorary Consul in Tel Aviv and cancelled the accreditation for Israels ambassador.

It said all activities of Israels Honorary Consulate in Belize have been suspended.

Forbes quoted the Belize government of demanding an immediate ceasefire to let aid into Gaza.

It further accused Israel of violating international humanitarian law.

The Government of Belize has repeatedly condemned the actions of the IDF in Gaza. We have appealed to Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and to allow unimpeded access to humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Despite our requests, Israel has not stopped its violations of international humanitarian law nor allowed relief workers to alleviate the suffering of millions of Gazans, the Belize statement read as per CNN.

Belize renews its call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, unimpeded access to humanitarian supplies into Gaza and the release of all hostages.

Saudi Arabia pauses ties

Saudi Arabia in November put US-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice.

The two sources told Reuters there would be a delay in the US-backed talks on normalisation with Israel that was a key step for the kingdom to secure what Riyadh considers the real prize of a US defence pact in exchange.

Until Iran-backed Hamas sparked a war on 7 October by launching a devastating attack on Israel, both Israeli and Saudi leaders had been saying they were moving steadily towards a deal that could have reshaped the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia in November put US-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice. The Kingdom in February told the United States it will not open diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Kingdom in February told the United States it will not open diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Riyadh reiterated its call for permanent members of the UN Security Council that have not recognised a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital to do so.

Other nations withdraw diplomats, recall ambassadors

A slew of other nations have withdrawn diplomats and recalled ambassadors.

These include South Africa, Bahrain, Chile, Honduras, Chad and Jordan.

South Africa had withdrawn all its diplomats in Tel Aviv over its disappoint[ment] by the refusal of the Israeli government to respect international law and the United Nations resolutions with impunity.

Chile in October recalled its ambassador citing unacceptable violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Gaza Strip.

Chile strongly condemns and observes with great concern that these military operations  which at this point in their development entail collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza  do not respect fundamental norms of International Law, as demonstrated by the more than eight thousand civilian victims. , mostly women and children, it said in a statement.

Chile reiterates its call for an immediate end to hostilities, which will allow the deployment of a humanitarian support operation to help the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and civilian victims, it added.

Chiles president Gabriel Boric in November called Israels actions in Gaza disproportionate and a violation of international humanitarian law.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosas government government withdrew all its diplomats in Tel Aviv over its disappointment by the refusal of the Israeli government to respect international law and the United Nations resolutions. AP

These Hamas attacks are without justification, they deserve global condemnation, but the response by Benjamin Netanyahus government also deserves our clearest condemnation, he told reporters after his meeting with Biden at the White House.

Theres no doubt we can say the response has been disproportionate and is violating international humanitarian law, he said. The right of a state to defend itself has limits, and those limits imply respecting the lives of innocent civilians, especially children, and respecting civil humanitarian law.

Honduras in November recalled its ambassador to Israel over the grave humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Chad in November recalled its charge daffaires to Israel.

Chad condemns the loss of human lives of many innocent civilians and calls for a ceasefire leading to a lasting solution to the Palestinian question, its foreign ministry said in a statement.

Jordan in November had recalled its ambassador to Israel.

It said Israel was creating an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and threatening regional security in West Asia.

Bahrain in November said its Israel had returned home.

It added that the Israeli ambassador in Manama had left the kingdom a while ago.

In its statement, the parliament - a consultative body with no powers in the area of foreign policy - said the moves confirmed Bahrains historic position in support of the Palestinian cause.

The Council of Representatives affirms that the Israeli ambassador in the kingdom of Bahrain has left Bahrain and the kingdom of Bahrain has decided on the return of the Bahrain ambassador to Israel, the parliament said.

The cessation of economic relations was also decided, it said, without making clear who had made the decision.

How will this impact Israel?

A piece in AA.com noted that these developments exacerbates the diplomatic isolation of Israel.

It noted that Israel, despite being a member of the UN, does not have bilateral relations with all 193 members.

But arguably the biggest impact on Israel could be with regard to the Abraham Accords  and any possible dealings with Saudi Arabia.

This is a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco signed in 2020.

Washington helped broker the accords between Israel and Arab nations, the first of their kind since 1994.

Israel had been hoping the accords would eventually pave the way for a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia, an oil and Muslim power which has vast influence across the West Asia.

But the Israel-Hamas war has dealt a blow to its plans.

The latest war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began when Hamas militants broke through the border on 7 October.

Israel says they killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostages.

With inputs from agencies
Beijing has set aside over $1 trillion to emerging nations as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. While India has constantly warned about the dangers of unsustainable financing and countries being trapped in a vicious debt cycle that hasnt stopped many nations including its neighbours from participating in the project read more

China's Belt and Road Initiative is a pet project of President Xi Jinping. AP

Over the years, China has made no secret of its habit of doling out the big bucks.

Beijing has set aside over $1 trillion to emerging nations as part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Beijing views the BRI, a pet project of Xi Jinping, as a means of countering Western influence in Europe, Asia and West Africa.

India, which has constantly opposed the project, has warned about the dangers of unsustainable financing and a countries being trapped in a vicious debt cycle.

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But that hasnt stopped many nations including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Angola, Ethiopia, and Kenya from enjoying Chinas largesse, according to the World Bank International Debt Report 2023.

The report noted that around 60 per cent of low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or already in it.

Knowing what a country owes and to whom is essential for better debt management and sustainability, Haishan Fu, chief statistician of the World Bank and director of the World Banks Development Data Group was quoted as saying by DTE.

The first step in avoiding a crisis is having a clear picture of the challenge. And when problems arise, clear data can guide debt restructuring efforts to get a country back on track towards economic stability and growth, Fu added.

Debt transparency is the key to sustainable public borrowing and accountable, rules-based lending practices, which are vital to ending poverty on a liveable planet.

The report also noted that China itself borrowed $4 trillion from 2012 to 2022.

But which low and middle-income countries are most in debt to China? How vulnerable are they?

Lets take a closer look:
The trial of a former economy minister, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, has gripped Kazakhstan, sparking conversations about domestic abuse. A brutal CCTV footage, played in the court, shows him dragging his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, and then punching and kicking her in a restaurant owned by one of his relatives last November read more

Saltanat Nukenova was beaten to death by her husband in Kazakhstan. AP File Photo

Kazakhstan is witnessing its trial of the century. Its Supreme Court is hearing a case wherein a former government minister has been accused of beating his wife to death.

The trial has created a massive uproar in Kazakhstan, where about 400 women die from domestic abuse every year, according to the United Nations. This figure is believed to be higher as many cases go unreported.

Lets take a closer look.

The horrific murder of Saltanat Nukenova

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On 9 November last year, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova was killed by her husband, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, a former economy minister.

A CCTV footage showed him dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her in a restaurant owned by one of his relatives in the Kazakh capital Astana, as per a Daily Mail report.

As Nukenova fell to the ground, the 44-year-old Bishimbayev dragged her by her hair again and took her to a room, where there were no cameras.

Bishimbayev broke down the door, pulled her out, and carried on beating her, the prosecutor said during the trial last month, as per Daily Mail.

After dragging her out of the toilet, Bishimbayev grabbed Nukenova by the throat and strangled her, causing her to lose consciousness, he reportedly alleged.

While Nukenova was lying in the suite, covered in her blood, Bishimbayev dialled a fortune-teller, who told him his wife would be okay, reported Al Jazeera.

An ambulance arrived 12 hours later and Nukenova was declared dead at the scene.

She died from brain trauma, a coroners report revealed. One of her nasal bones was broken and she had several bruises on her face, head, arms and hands, reported Reuters.

The shocking CCTV footage was shown at the ongoing domestic abuse trial, which is being streamed online in a country of over 19 million population.

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The murder trial

In a hearing on 3 April, Bishimbayev pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder with exceptional cruelty, Daily Mirror reported. Instead, he claimed that Nukenova died from self-sustained injuries.

His lawyers claim Bishimbayevs wife suffered a brain injury after falling and hitting her head on a lavatory bowl.

Initially, they also dismissed medical proof that Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head, as per an Associated Press (AP) report.

Bishimbayevs legal team portrayed his wife as prone to jealousy and violence. However, no footage shown from the restaurants security cameras in the court showed her striking her husband, the report added.

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Kazakhstans former economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev, charged with beating his wife to death, attends a court hearing in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 3 April 2024. Reuters File Photo

They presented her as a woman who drank heavily and provoked her husband, as per Al Jazeera.

However, Nukenovas friends and family tell a different tale.

They said Bishimbayev abused her physically and mentally, adding that she tried leaving him several times. They say they often saw her with bruises and rope marks and the former minister had banned her from talking to them, Al Jazeera reported. He was jealous and monitored the contents of her phone, Nukenovas loved ones said.

According to Daily Mail, the attack came after she told Bishimbayev that she wanted to leave him.

Kazakhstans previous domestic abuse law

In 2017, Kazakhstan decriminalised beatings and other acts that cause minor physical damage. These offences were made less severe to attract punishments of only fines or short jail terms.

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Critics say the law discouraged women from lower-income families from reporting domestic violence.

A similar law was introduced in Russia , causing uproar among womens rights advocates.

Why the trial has grabbed eyeballs

Even before Nukenovas brutal murder, domestic abuse, especially violence against women, was a key issue in the patriarchal country.

As per government data, one in six Kazakh women has faced violence by a male partner.

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Bishimbayevs trial is being considered a litmus test of Kazakhstan president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who vowed to create a fairer, more equitable society, including bettering womens rights, noted Reuters.

After Nukenovas death, her relatives started an online petition calling for reforms, including strengthening protection for those vulnerable to domestic violence. It received more than 150,000 signatures.

AP reported citing Kazakh media that as Bishimbayevs trial started, over 5,000 people wrote to senators, demanding stricter laws on abuse.

Amid the public outrage, Tokayev on 15 April signed a new law, making striking women and children a criminal offence, which could result in imprisonment. Now, police are also required to probe all domestic abuse cases, even if the victim did not report, Al Jazeera reported.

However, Aitbek Amangeldy, Nukenovas elder brother, has pointed out that the new law falls short as we still have no legal norms around stalking and harassment" of adults, according to AP report.

People walk in the center of Astana, Kazakhstan, on 21 April 2024. A high-profile trial involving the killing of Saltanat Nukenova has raised awareness of spousal abuse in the Central Asian country. AP File Photo

Not just Kazakhstan, the trial has also garnered interest in Russia and some other countries.

In Kazakhstan, there has been a storm, and now the whole country and even the whole world is involved, Dinara Smailova, founder of the womens rights NGO NeMolchi, which means Dont Be Silent, told Al Jazeera.

Weve been working with high-profile cases for many years, and we see how people are afraid and ashamed to talk about domestic violence. [But] from the very beginning, the relatives of the victim told what happened with an open face.

Speaking to AP, Amangeldy said his sisters death has changed the attitudes about domestic violence in the socially conservative country. It changes peoples minds when they see directly what it looks like when a person is tortured, he said.

According to womens rights advocate Aigerim Kussainkyzy, Bishimbayevs trial has led to a collective awakening among politicians and citizens alike. Some may even label it the trial of the century.  Male politicians, in particular, have started to consider the implications of domestic violence for their own daughters, Kussainkyzy was quoted as saying by AP.

Despite the public outrage, there are concerns that Bishimbayev, even if convicted, could escape proper punishment. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the torture and murder of his wife with extreme violence, reported Reuters.

The fear is not unfounded though as Bishimbayev, who was the economy minister in 2016, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on bribery charges in 2018. However, he walked out of jail in less than three years after being pardoned by then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

As the trial proceeds, all eyes will be on Kazakhstans judiciary.

With inputs from agencies
The Congress has ended the suspense by announcing that Rahul Gandhi will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli rather than Amethi. Also, his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will sit the polls out. What is the partys strategy? Will it help or hurt it? read more

Congress's Rahul Gandhi will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli as well as Wayanad. His sister, Priyanka, has opted out of contesting the elections. File image/PTI

The suspense is over. The Congress last-minute announcement on the two big Lok Sabha seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh has delivered a big twist, surprising many. The Congress has announced that Rahul Gandhi will be contesting the polls from Rae Bareli rather than Amethi, while his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will skip the polls altogether.

The announcement came on the last day of filing nominations for the two seats, which go to the polls on 20 May, phase five of the elections.

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While Rahul will contest from his mothers seat  Sonia Gandhi has been the MP since 2004  the Gandhis close confidante, Kishori Lal Sharma, has been selected to contest from Amethi against BJPs sitting MP Smriti Irani.

We analyse the reasons behind the Congress move and what it means for the party in the ongoing elections.

Rahuls switch to Rae Bareli

After days of suspense and consultations , the Congress announced on Friday (3 May) that Rahul would be switching from Amethi, a seat he lost to Smriti Irani in 2019, to Rae Bareli. Notably, Rahul is also contesting the polls from Keralas Wayanad.

With this, Rahul will be up against BJPs choice of Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Pratap Singh . In 2019 too, Singh had contested from Rae Bareli. While he lost to Sonia Gandhi, he had managed to halve her majority from 2014.

Meanwhile, Gandhi loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma has been selected for the Amethi seat and will be up against BJPs Smriti Irani. Interestingly, this will be the first time after 25 years that no Gandhi will be in the fray from Amethi. Sonia had made her electoral debut from here back in 1999, a year after she took over as Congress president.

Rahul Gandhi made his electoral debut from Amethi in 2004. It was in 2019 that he was delivered a jolt when BJPs Smriti Irani defeated him with a margin of 55,120 votes. File image/PTI

Earlier, everyone had suspected that while Rahul would contest from one of the two seats, Priyanka would make her poll debut from the other.

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With Rahuls switch to Rae Bareli, the UP constituency continues its years-long affair with the Gandhis and its friends . It was first represented in the Lok Sabha by Rahuls grandfather, Feroze Gandhi, who held the seat in the first two elections after Independence.

Following him, his wife, Indira Gandhi, represented Rae Bareli in 1967, 1971 and 1980. However, in 1980, she had also chosen Medak from Telangana to contest the polls and when she won from both, she chose to retain Medak.

The only time the Congress did not represent the seat was in the wake of the Emergency in 1977 when Janata Partys Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister, and BJPs Ashoke Singh in 1996 and 1998.

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When Sonia Gandhi entered politics, she chose neighbouring Amethi as her seat, but then vacated it in 2004 for her son Rahul.

Sonia Gandhi subsequently held Rae Bareli four times between 2004 and 2019, although of late, her winning margins had begun dwindling.

And it was in February this year that Sonia announced that she would not be contesting polls, and in her farewell message to the people of Rae Bareli, she had expressed confidence that the seat which always stood by her and the Gandhis will continue to support her family in future also.

Factors that influenced Congress decision

But what led the Congress to make such a decision? Poll pundits and analysts believe that there are a couple of factors that drove the party to this move.

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Firstly, Rahuls loss to Smriti Irani in 2019. The party believes that the Amethi seat is no longer a safe one. Many in Amethi have expressed their displeasure at the former Congress president, complaining that he neglected them even when he was their MP.

Does he look serious to you? Why did he abandon us for Wayanad? Even when he was our MP, he would rarely come and he would bring his friends from Delhi to show them around. No work was done, said an Amethi local to News18 on Rahul.

Rahul will now contest the polls from Rae Bareli, a constituency that has been a Gandhi bastion. Prior to him, Sonia Gandhi was the MP from this region. File image/PTI

Moreover, by moving Rahul away from Amethi, it avoids the daily slanging match with Smriti Irani, that could derail the Lok Sabha campaign plan. As a senior Congress leader told Deccan Herald, Then it will become a Rahul versus Smriti fight. You know electronic media. We dont want to make it a personality war. It is a war of ideas. We have set an agenda and it will go for a toss if Rahul fights from Amethi.

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Additionally, if Rahul is to win from Wayanad and Rae Bareli, it would be easier for him to give up the constituency in Kerala, citing his familys age-old ties with the UP constituency.

No poll debut for Priyanka

Besides Rahul, another notable aspect of the announcement was Priyankas absence from the polls. Many had assumed that Priyanka would contest the 2024 elections. In fact, NDTV reports that Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had requested Priyanka to contest from Amethi or Rae Bareli, but she refused.

Sources speaking to NDTV said that her refusal to contest the polls stems from the fact that if she and her brother both won, it would put three Gandhi members in Parliament  her mother, Sonia, is now a Rajya Sabha MP  and this would reinforce the BJPs charge of dynastic politics.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra dances with artists during an election campaign rally ahead of Lok Sabha elections, in Jorhat district, Assam. She will not be contesting the elections, despite many calling for her to fight the polls. File image/PTI

But there are others in the party who fear that her decision to abstain from contesting the polls will hurt the partys image among the voters. They believe that it will reassert the BJPs claim that the Gandhis are afraid of them. Many feel that the Congress could have benefited from her star power if she contested the polls, reported NDTV.

How this could hurt the Congress

While some consider the Congress move a well-thought out plan, there are others who believe that it will only hurt the party in the ongoing polls and even in the long-run.

With Rahuls move from Amethi to Rae Bareli, the BJP will be able to sell it as the Gandhis being afraid. A News18 report, which cites sources, said that the BJP will project amongst the people that Rahul Gandhi deserted Amethi in fear of losing to Irani, and that there is no stopping her record win from Amethi now.

All this drama & build up for what?



With Rahul Gandhi running away and surrendering out of Amethi & fielding somebody like KL Sharma, it is evident that Congress has given up on Amethi.



They too realise that Rahul stands no chance in front of Smriti Irani



So they sent him to  Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) May 3, 2024

In fact, shortly after the announcement was made, Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in Bardhaman-Durgapur said, Fearing defeat in Wayanad and Amethi, Rahul Gandhi decided to run from Rae Bareli.

#WATCH | Bardhaman-Durgapur, West Bengal: On Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's candidature from Raebareli, PM Modi says, "I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. She ran away to Rajasthan and came pic.twitter.com/xKNnGtpq6q  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

Even Union Minister and BJP Hamirpur candidate Anurag Thakur echoed similar comments. Speaking to ANI, he said, Sometime back Rahul Gandhi used to say daro mat, daro mat (dont be scared), now due to fear, from Amethi to Wayanad and Wayanad to Rae Bareli indicates his fear towards defeat.

Many think the Congress decision will benefit the BJP. The BJP party will be able to use this to show that the Gandhis are afraid of the polls. File image/PTI

The BJP will also use Rahuls switch to Rae Bareli to their advantage. They will tell voters not to vote for Rahul there as he will leave this seat too and retain Wayanad if he wins both.

This, in fact, has been a worry for Rahul too. According to an Indian Express report, the former Congress chief was hesitant of contesting a second seat, arguing that he could not leave Wayanad in the event of winning Rae Bareli, if the Kerala seat voted for him a second time.

Theres also concern that if he does so it could impact the Congresss chances in the 2026 Assembly elections in Kerala.

Will the Congress gamble pay off? Or will it be beneficial to the BJP? We will have to wait until 4 June when the results are declared.

With inputs from agencies
Pakistan is sending its lunar mission (ICUBE-Q) on board Chinas Change6 on 3 May. ICUBE-Q has been designed and developed by Islamabad-based Institute of Space Technology in collaboration with Chinas Shanghai University and Pakistans national space agency SUPARCO read more

Pakistan's IST said that the lunar mission iCube-Q will be launched at 12:50 pm (local time) on board Chinas Change 6 lunar probe on 3 May. X/CathayPak

The Institute of Space Technology (IST) in Islamabad announced that Pakistans first lunar mission, iCube-Q, is scheduled for launch on 3 May at 12:50 pm (Pakistan Standard Time) aboard Chinas Change 6 lunar probe from Hainan, China. This collaborative effort involves Pakistans national space agency Suparco, along with Chinas Shanghai University SJTU.

The lunar mission headlined by China is set to land on the far side of the moon, where it will gather surface samples to be brought back to Earth for further research.

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Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, #SUPARCOs logo is seen on Chinas most powerful rocket #LongMarch5! Together with Chinas #ChangE6 lunar probe and payloads from France and #ESA, Pakistans CubeSat is ready to go to the moon in just a few days! the Chinese embassy in Pakistan said in a post on X.

Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, #SUPARCOs logo is seen on Chinas most powerful rocket #LongMarch5! Together with Chinas #ChangE6 lunar probe and payloads from France and #ESA, Pakistans CubeSat is ready to go to the moon in just a few days! pic.twitter.com/tlOebD5wVf  Chinese Emb Pakistan (@CathayPak) April 29, 2024

What is so unique about this particular mission?

One notable aspect of this mission is the inclusion of a CubeSat satellite, iCube-Q, developed by IST. CubeSats are miniature satellites known for their small size and standardised design. These satellites play a crucial role in facilitating scientific research, technology development, and educational initiatives in space exploration. Despite their compact size, CubeSats offer valuable opportunities for universities, research institutions, and commercial entities to participate in space missions and gather essential data for scientific advancement, reported Dawn. The ICUBE-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface. In 2022, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) extended a distinctive opportunity to member states via the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) to include a student-built payload on the Change 6 mission bound for the moon. Pakistans ICUBE-Q was chosen. Chinas Change 6 mission marks the next step in its meticulously planned lunar exploration program. Scheduled to launch from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on southern Hainan Island, this mission aims to achieve several firsts in lunar exploration. Notably, it will be only the second mission to land on the lunar far side, following the success of Change 4 in 2019. One of the primary objectives of the Change 6 mission is to collect samples from the moons far side, specifically targeting the South Pole-Aitken basin, the oldest lunar impact crater. This ambitious endeavour will provide invaluable insights into the composition and age of the lunar far side, contributing to our understanding of the early history of the Solar System. The Change 6 mission exemplifies international collaboration in space exploration. With contributions from France, Italy, Pakistan, Sweden, and the European Space Agency (ESA), this endeavour transcends national boundaries in pursuit of scientific discovery. Despite geopolitical tensions, scientists emphasise the universal principles underlying scientific collaboration and the importance of sharing knowledge for the benefit of humanity. Any specimens retrieved will be shared with the international community for in-depth analysis, just like the Change 5 samples and data from Chinas other space science missions  including its recent high-resolution Moon atlas.

With inputs from agencies
The estimated count of vacant homes in Japan reached a record high of nine million as of 1 October last year. This preliminary figure surged by 5,10,000 compared to the previous survey conducted in 2018 and doubled from the tally of 4.48 million recorded in 1993. Why does Japan have so many empty homes? read more

Amidst Japans aging population and dwindling birth rates, the prevalence of abandoned residences is escalating at an alarming rate. According to a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey, the tally of vacant units has surged by 1.5 times, reaching approximately 8.49 million units over the two decades preceding 2018.

This translates to roughly one in every eight homes standing vacant, with projections indicating a staggering rise to 23.03 million units by 2038, reported World Economic Forum (WEF).

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In Japanese, Akiya translates to empty house. This term specifically means a residential property that has remained unoccupied for a duration of at least six months.

Where did all these empty homes come from?

The survey classifies these abandoned homes into four categories: available for rent, listed for sale, serving as secondary residences, or falling under the category of other. Notably, those categorised as other comprise over 40 per cent of the total. Furthermore, the study reveals that nearly 90 per cent of these long-term vacant properties, left unattended without rental or sale, consist of single-family houses. Among them, approximately 70 per cent were constructed before 1980.

Approximately 59 per cent of these abandoned properties stem from inheritance. Many inheritors find themselves in possession of homes previously occupied by their ancestors or parents but encounter challenges in managing them, often due to geographical distance from their current residence.

Why are these houses empty?

The core of the problem lies in rural depopulation, compounded by the fact that many inheritors of such properties find themselves either incapable or disinclined to inhabit, renovate, or even dismantle them. However, urban areas are not exempt from this phenomenon, with hundreds of thousands of long-term vacant houses dotting city landscapes.

The aggregate count of empty residences accounts for nearly 14 per cent of all homes in Japan, although the actual figure may be higher. According to the Nomura Research Institute, the estimated number of akiya stands at nearly 11 million, potentially comprising over 30 per cent of houses within the span of a decade.

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Compounding the issue, existing property tax incentives for residential land, which provide tax reductions of up to one-sixth, incentivise owners to retain vacant homes rather than demolish them, thus exacerbating the number of vacant properties.

The depopulation impact extends to the broader population dynamics. In Japan, the fertility rate experienced its seventh consecutive annual decline in 2022, dropping from 1.30 births per woman to 1.26 births per woman compared to the previous year. Similarly, Singapore and Taiwan have seen their fertility rates dip below one child per woman. Additionally, fertility rates in the United States have plummeted to their lowest level in a century.

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What action has the government taken to curb empty homes?

To mitigate the risks posed by poorly managed empty homes, such as structural collapse, hygiene degradation, and adverse effects on community aesthetics and living standards, the government enacted the Vacant Houses Special Measures Law in 2015. This legislation identifies high-risk properties, labeled as specified vacant homes, mandating owners to either demolish or refurbish them. Failure to comply may result in government-enforced demolition at the owners expense.

Subsequently, the law underwent revision in December, introducing a new category termed poorly managed long-unoccupied homes. This classification encompasses properties exhibiting signs of potential deterioration, such as broken windows or walls, and allows for the revocation of tax reduction measures if the situation fails to improve.

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Local authorities and start-up step in

Efforts to address the issue of empty homes have gained momentum among local authorities. In Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, estimated to harbour the highest concentration of vacant homes nationwide, approximately 50,000 initiatives are underway to facilitate will creation among seniors. This initiative aims to prevent the emergence of empty homes by streamlining inheritance procedures and averting prolonged deliberations over high land value, a common impediment to timely property transfers.

Various startups have also emerged to tackle the myriad challenges associated with abandoned properties. Crassone, for instance, offers a matching service connecting individuals seeking to dispose of empty homes with suitable demolition companies, reported WEF. Collaborating with over 1,900 demolition specialists, the company provides comprehensive services, including AI-driven cost simulations and post-demolition land appraisal.

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Renobank, another startup, endeavours to rejuvenate the secondhand housing market by refurbishing unoccupied properties into habitable dwellings. Through a portal site, users can access information on secondhand homes, renovation costs, and property valuation. The company also spearheads the development of an AI model to generate renovation layouts swiftly and accurately.

AGE Technologies addresses inheritance challenges, a key contributor to empty homes, by offering a streamlined web service for real estate inheritance procedures. By simplifying the complex inheritance process, the company aims to facilitate proper registration and management of vacant properties.

There has been a significant interest among foreign tourists in experiencing a stay in traditional Japanese accommodation, surpassing the current supply. This demand surge has been bolstered by the yens multi-decade lows against major currencies, fueling a tourism boom. In March alone, Japan welcomed a record 3 million overseas visitors.

With inputs from agencies
A Raj Bhavan employee has filed a police complaint against West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose, alleging that he sexually harassed her on multiple occasions. The TMC has used this claim to attack the Governor, who has been at loggerheads with the Mamata Banerjee government since his appointment read more

West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose has dismissed the allegations of sexual harassment, terming it as an "engineered narrative." File image/PTI

The standoff between West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is set to deepen. This comes after the party accused the Governor of sexual harassment, a claim which Bose has emphatically denied.

The allegations take Bengal politics to a new level, pitting the Trinamool and the Governors office in direct conflict amid the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections across the country.

What do we know of the sexual harassment claim? How has the Governor reacted? What comes next? We explore it all.

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Sexual harassment allegations

A woman employee of Raj Bhavan since 2019, who reportedly works in the telephone room and as per a Times of India report lives at the residential quarters at the Governors House, has accused Bose of inappropriately touching her. The matter came to light when the woman approached the police post located inside the Governors House and accused Bose of molesting her.

She was then taken to the local police station at Hare Street where she filed a complaint, in which she alleged that she was molested multiple times by the Governor on the pretext of the job.

In her complaint, she lists two instances of the sexual harassment she endured. The complaint states that on 19 April, Governor asked me to take some time out and meet him with my CV.

On 24 April, around 12.45 pm, he called me to his office room and after some discussion touched me. I somehow managed to leave the office room. He called me once again today, on 2 May. I took my supervisor along with me to the conference room because I was scared. After talking for a while about work, he asked the supervisor to leave. He prolonged the conversation by talking about my promotion. He said he will call me at night and asked me not to tell anyone. When I refused, he tried to touch me. I protested and left.

The woman, as per a Times of India report, alleged that she felt compelled to break her silence on the matter to protect others from the same ordeal. She is also seen referring to another woman who made similar complaints in the past.

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Deputy Commissioner of Central Division, Indira Mukherjee confirmed the complaint, saying: Around 5 pm, a complaint was lodged at the police outpost. It was forwarded to Hare Street police station. The complaint is against His Excellency the Governor. An inquiry is on.

The sexual harassment claims marks a new chapter in the feud between Governor Ananda Bose and the TMC. The two sides have been locked in bitter battle over several issues, including Sandeshkhali. File image/PTI

TMC slams Governor Bose

The Trinamool Congress, which has been at odds with the Governor for a long period of time, used the allegation as fodder to attack Bose.

The Mamata-led party accused the Governor of tarnishing the sanctity of Raj Bhavan. In a post on X, the party wrote: Appalling and unthinkable! The sanctity of Raj Bhavan, a symbol of our constitutionality, has been tarnished. Hours before PM Narendra Modi was supposed to arrive at Raj Bhavan to spend the night, a woman was allegedly molested by the Governor under the false pretext of a job, the party posted on X from its official handle.

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The party has also sought that justice must be delivered swiftly for the victim  no excuses, no delays.

Senior TMC leader Shashi Panja was quoted as telling NDTV, We are utterly shocked. The same Governor who reached Sandeshkhali talking about womens rights has now been involved in a rather shameful incident. He has sabotaged the reputation of his post and his chair.

TMCs Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose also called the matter shocking and horrifying.

Molestation charges against Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose puts the prestige of the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata at stake. PM @narendramodi is scheduled to arrive in Kolkata today and stay overnight at the Raj Bhavan. Will Modi ask CV Ananda Bose for an explanation? pic.twitter.com/LFN8Rdemys  Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) May 2, 2024

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Chandrima Bhattacharya, the states Finance Minister, was quoted telling Indian Express, What is this? The PM will come tonight and stay in Raj Bhawan. At this time, there is an allegation against the Governor for atrocities against a woman It is a shame.

Governor rejects allegations

Governor Bose has categorically rejected all allegations made against him, saying the truth would triumph.

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In a statement, he said: Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God Bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal.

To the Raj Bhavan staff who expressed solidarity with Honble Governor Dr. C. V. Ananda Bose against whom some derogatory narratives were circulated by two disgruntled employees as agents of political parties, Honble Governor said:  Raj Bhavan Kolkata (@BengalGovernor) May 2, 2024

Moreover, the Governor banned Bengals finance minister, Chandrima Bhattacharya, from entering Raj Bhavan, stating: For defamation and anti-constitutional media statements against the Governor Chandrima Bhattacharya has been banned (from) entry into the Raj Bhavan premises of Kolkata, Darjeeling and Barrackpore.

He further said that he wouldnt participate in any state function where she would be present.

An Indian Express report further stated that the Governor had blocked the entry of police into Raj Bhavan premises, under the guise of conducting unauthorised, illegitimate, sham and motivated investigation to placate political bosses during elections.

Governors immunity

Interestingly, while a complaint has been registered against Governor Bose, the authorities are yet to register a case against him, owing to the immunity he enjoys as the Governor of the state.

Article 361 of the Constitution states that they (governors) shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties

It further has two sub-clauses  1) no criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be initiated or continued against the President, or the Governor of a State, in any court during the term of his office. 2) No process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President, or the Governor of a State, shall issue from any court during his term of office.

Hence, officials are now contemplating their future actions and are consulting with legal experts on the matter.

With inputs from agencies
From China to the UAE, the problem of flooding keeps rearing its ugly ahead again and again. Sponge cities are a nature-based solution that make use of terrain to retain water, slow down its flow, clean and reuse it. The idea behind this concept is to keep water in urban areas, tackle resource shortages, aid ecology and biodiversity read more

These cities work by having surfaces that mimic sponges. The water is then filtered via the ground soil and sent to urban aquifers. News18 Bangla

Countries across the world are struggling in the face of climate change.

From China to the UAE, the problem of flooding keeps rearing its ugly ahead again and again.

But now some are turning to a novel solution  sponge cities.

But what are they? How do they work? And will they change the way we handle rain?

Lets take a closer look:

What are they?

EuroNews.com defines sponge cities as a nature-based solution.'

These cities make use of their terrain to keep water at its source, slow its flow down, clean and reuse it.

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This is accomplished by waterproofing the paved floor so part of the water evaporates and the rest is slowly drained.

According to Business Standard, these cities work by having surfaces that mimic sponges that absorb water.

This is then filtered via the ground soil and sent to urban aquifers.

The water can be drained through urban or peri-urban wells, treated, and used for the citys water supply.

Such cities are

Environmentally adaptive

Systematic and comprehensive

Environmentally friendly

The idea behind these cities is to keep water in urban areas and tackle shortages. This can also be aided by planting more trees and constructing smart buildings.

This includes covering roofs in grass to better absorb water and painting buildings in light colours to refract the heat rather than trapping it, as per EuroNews.

Origins

As per Business Standard, another aim behind sponge cities is to aid ecology and biodiversity.

The concept was first formulated in China in the early 2000s.

Beijing did so with an eye on tackling surface-level flooding in urban areas.

In 2014, China began experimenting with pilot projects across the nation.

Each city had a budget of around 400 to 600 million yuan, as per the newspaper.

EuroNews credits professor Kongjian Yu as the brains behind the concept.

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Yu, an ecological urban planner and landscape architect, teaches landscape architecture at Peking University.

He is also founder of the planning and design office Turenscape in Beijing.

Yu was inspired by integrated urban water management (IUWM) strategies including sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in the UK and low-impact developments (LID) in the US.

Amsterdam has covered 45,000 square metres with blue-green roofs.

These concepts are being put into practice.

According to The Guardian, Amsterdam has covered 45,000 square metres with blue-green roofs.

These absorb rainwater that can be used by residents of building to water plants and flush toilets.

As per Wired, Los Angeles has been making use of green spaces on roadsides and along medians for years.

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The city, perennially plagued by water troubles, had to change its thinking.

Before, the city would see stormwater as a liability, Art Castro, manager of watershed management at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told the outlet. It would be a hindrance, it would be a flooding issue, it would create erosion. So, 11, 12 years ago, we kind of had a paradigm shift, and we started looking more at it as an asset.

The city now has green spaces on the street that send water to underground tanks.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power estimates it will take in 16,000 acre-feet (water that would go a foot deep across an acre of land) of rainwater per year.

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This is enough to fulfill the needs of 64,000 homes.

For Yu, this is a deeply personal battle.

Yu, speaking to NPR, recalled how nature literally saved his life during a flood.

I survived. You know why? Because I grabbed the willows, weeds, the reeds, along the riverbank, he added.

What do experts say?

Experts say they are vital in todays times.

Though grey infrastructure of concrete, steel, pipes and pumps, can be necessary to solve urgent individual problems, it consumes huge amounts of concrete and energy, lacks resilience and often accumulates a higher risk of disaster. It breaks the connection between man and nature, Yu told Euronews.

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More than ever, facing global climate change and destructive industrial technologies, we have to rethink the way we build our cities, the way we treat water and nature, and even the way we define civilisation.

Sponge Cities are inspired by the ancient wisdom of farming and water management that use simple tools to transform the global surface at a vast scale in a sustainable way.

As Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, explained to Wired.com, Where once there were forests and fields and wetlands that would soak up the rain, these have been paved over and replaced with surfaces that do not absorb rain.

Surfaces such as concrete sidewalks and asphalt roads.

The denser cities are developed, the more impervious surfaces are used, the worse the impacts of climate change are becoming, Kiparsky added.

Once the capacity of these structures is exceeded, then water starts backing up, and its problems are exacerbated because of the lack of the natural absorbency of large areas of soil and vegetation.

It has other benefits too.

Natural infrastructure like vegetated swales can not only slow down the hydrologythat is, reduce the speed with which this runoff accumulates in these natural systemsit can also actively clean the water, Kiparsky said.

The most interesting part about natural infrastructure thats used to create sponge cities is the fact that it is a multi-benefit approach, says Kiparsky. It does many, many thingsand it does many things that traditional infrastructure simply cant do.

We think the concept is applicable to many urban areas around the world, Kasper Spaan, policy developer for climate adaptation at Waternet, Amsterdams public water management organisation, told The Guardian. In the south of Europe  Italy and Spain  where there are really drought-stressed areas, theres new attention for rainwater catchment.

Up to 50% more cost effective

Business Standard quoted a World Economic Forum (WEF) as showing that nature-based solutions to climate change were up to 50 per cent more cost-effective than engineered alternatives.

The report on sponge cities in China said it also added 28 per cent value compared to just infrastructure.

Shanghai, New York, and Cardiff have all taken steps to become spongier,, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

The outlet quoted a 2022 study by multinational firm Arup as showing that Mumbai ranked third out of seven major cities when it comes to sponginess.

Mumbai, which netted a 30 per cent rating, was tied with New York and Singapore.

But critics point to recent floods in China as showing the limitations of sponge cities.

Zhengzhou in Chinas Henan province, went all in on the sponge city concept.

Despite granting the programme around 60 billion yuan to the programme from 2016 to 2021, it could not handle the 2021 downpour.

Some experts estimate that sponge cities cannot cope with more than 200 millimetres of daily rain.

In August 2023, one station in Beijing recorded 745 millimetres in three and a half days.

Zhengzhou itself witnessed rainfall that exceeded 200 millimetres in just one hour.

The country has a huge problem with climate change.

According to 2018 data, 641 out of 654 large- and medium-sized cities in China are vulnerable to flooding and waterlogging, with 180 facing flood risks every year.

Misunderstanding of scale

Others dispute the notion that sponge cities dont work.

Erica Gies, author of a book about water management called Water Always Wins, told NPR, People see a city in China flood from a heavy rain and then they say sponge cities doesnt work, but thats a fundamental misunderstanding of scale.

Its a growing movement. But it needs to grow a lot faster and at much bigger scale for it to really help reverse the really extreme scale at which we have altered the natural water cycle she added

If you have a sponge city project in five square miles of a city but your city covers hundreds of square miles, its not surprising that that wouldnt be sufficient to prevent the flooding, Gies explained.

Yu, meanwhile, said the problem is with peoples mindset.

We still trust that concrete can solve the problem. We still trust that technology can solve the problem, he told the outlet.

With inputs from agencies
The US has accused Russia of using chemical weapons, including poison gas, as a method of warfare against Ukrainian forces. Chloropicrin, recognised as a choking agent, had been extensively utilised during World War I and is no longer authorised for military use read more

The United States has accused Russia of deploying banned choking gas Chloropicrin to expel Ukrainian troops, coinciding with its most significant advancement in the Eastern European nation since its military operation in Ukraine. The US Department of State asserted that Russia utilised the riot control agent, also known as nitrochloroform, to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield.

The US emphasised that the use of Chloropicrin is not an isolated incident, contending that Russias actions are in violation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), of which Russia is a signatory. Moscow has rebuffed the allegations , labelling them as baseless and denying the deployment of the chemical substance.

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What is Chloropicrin?

Chloropicrin, primarily utilised as an insecticide, found a more sinister application as a weapon during World War I. This oily substance was among the various gases employed to injure and asphyxiate entrenched soldiers. According to the CDC, it appears: Colourless to faintly yellow oily liquid.

Functioning as a toxic irritant, Chloropicrin induces tearing and burning sensations in the eyes and skin, while also impacting the respiratory system. Inhalation of significant quantities may result in symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.

Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Also Read: US to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine: How will these help the war-torn nation?

On the frontline, grenades containing CS and CN gases have reportedly been deployed, compelling troops entrenched in trenches to either brave enemy fire by fleeing or face the peril of suffocation, reported Sky News. According to the Ukrainian military, a minimum of 500 Ukrainian troops have received medical treatment due to exposure to the toxic substance, with one casualty succumbing to suffocation as a consequence of tear gas inhalation.

What are CS and CN gases?

CS and CN gases are both types of chemical compounds commonly used in riot control agents.

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CS gas, also known as ortho-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile, is a riot control agent that causes irritation to the eyes, nose, and respiratory system, leading to tearing, coughing, and difficulty breathing. It is typically deployed in the form of tear gas grenades or canisters.

CN gas, also known as chloroacetophenone, is another riot control agent that produces similar effects to CS gas, including irritation to the eyes, nose, and respiratory tract. It is also commonly used in riot control situations and can cause temporary incapacitation and disorientation.

Ukrainian servicemen of 79th brigade take part in training, amid Russias attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine on 4 March, 2024. File Image/Reuters

Both CS and CN gases are considered less lethal alternatives to lethal force and are used by law enforcement and military personnel for crowd control purposes. However, exposure to high concentrations or prolonged exposure to these gases can pose health risks and lead to serious injury or death, especially in enclosed spaces or for individuals with pre-existing respiratory conditions.

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Has Russia been accused before as well?

The US statement said that Moscows utilisation of the gas comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal along with his daughter Yulia in 2018 using the Novichok nerve agent.

Accusations have been leveled against Russians for multiple instances of using white phosphorus bombs. These allegations include incidents during the Battle of Kyiv and against Kramatorsk in March 2022, as well as against dug-in defenders at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May 2022. Additionally, reports indicate the use of white phosphorus bombs in Marinka over the 2022 Christmas holiday.

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Also Read: US sends long-range missiles to Ukraine secretly. What are ATACMS, can they hit targets in Russia?

On 15 March in 2022, when incendiaries were used during the Battle of Mariupol, Serhiy Haidai, the Governor of Ukraines Luhansk Oblast, labelled the Russian soldiers war criminals and likened their actions to those of the Nazis.

Similar munitions were observed in Popasna two days prior. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Russian military of using phosphorus shells against civilians in an address to NATO leaders on 25 March, 2022. Although the use of phosphorus shells was not independently confirmed at the time, experts acknowledged the possibility.

Deputy Defence Minister of Ukraine Anna Malyar announced in April 2022 that the government was investigating reports of possible chemical weapons usage, including phosphorus bombs, during the blockade of Mariupol.

In mid-May, Ombudsman for Human Rights in Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova accused Russian forces of attacking the Mariupol metallurgical plant Azovstal with incendiary and phosphorus bombs. Western experts disagreed on whether the attack involved phosphorus or thermite magnesium ammunition.

Ukrainian servicemen take part in radiation, chemical and biological hazard drills in Kharkiv, Ukraine in February. Reuters

The Russians reportedly used 9M22S incendiary shells developed by NPO Splav, containing thermite mixture, which outwardly resembles phosphorus munitions.

On 13 March last year, footage emerged showing thermite munitions raining down on a residential area during the Battle of Vuhledar. Overnight on 5-7 May 2023, videos surfaced depicting attacks with incendiary weapons by Russian forces during the Battle of Bakhmut.

What action has the US taken?

The US has imposed sanctions on three Russian state entities associated with Moscows chemical and biological weapons initiatives, which notably include a specialised military unit purportedly involved in facilitating the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

In a separate move, the US Treasury Department has enforced sanctions on almost 200 targets, while the US State Department has designated over 80 entities in what constitutes one of the most extensive actions against Chinese companies to date as part of Washingtons sanctions directed at Russia.

These sanctions notably target 20 companies situated in China and Hong Kong, underscoring ongoing concerns from Washington regarding Chinas backing of Russias military actions, a matter that has been emphasised during recent diplomatic engagements, including visits by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China.

Also Read: How the $61 billion US aid will change the war in Ukraine

Chinas alignment with Russia poses one of several challenges to the recent improvements observed in relations between the worlds largest economies.

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Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russias war, and the U.S. is imposing them today on almost 300 targets, Yellen said in a statement.

With inputs from agencies
Anger is bad for cardiovascular health; even short bursts can take a toll. New research has found that being angry for a few minutes impairs the functioning of your blood vessels and can trigger heart attacks and strokes read more

A news study founf that being angry for only 8 minutes can increase chances of a heart attack. Representative image. Pixabay

Do you lose your cool if you are stuck in traffic? Are you miffed at your boss? Does the state of the world make you mad? We have news for you. All that anger is not good for you and your heart.

A new study has found that moments of anger can increase your chances of getting a heart attack or a stroke.

A collaborative team of researchers from Columbia University, Yale School of Medicine, and St. Johns University in New York, alongside other esteemed institutions provided additional insights into earlier studies that indicated that intense emotional experiences were linked to cardiovascular health.

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There have been some studies in the past that have linked the feelings of anger, the feelings of anxiety, and the feelings of sadness to heart disease risk in the future, said lead study author Dr Daichi Shimbo, Columbia University in New York City in a CNN report.

Even short bursts of anger could impact cardiovascular health and trigger heart attacks. Representative image. Unsplash

The new findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggested that even short bursts of anger could impact cardiovascular health and trigger heart diseases, heart attacks, and stroke.

How do our emotional outbursts affect our hearts? Lets take a closer look

How was the experiment conducted?

Approximately 280 participants, with an average age of 26, were randomly divided into groups to partake in one of three distinct experiences, each designed to evoke anger, anxiety, or sadness for eight minutes. Alternatively, participants in a separate group were instructed to engage in a neutral counting activity until the allotted time had elapsed.

Before commencing the tasks and at intervals spanning 100 minutes post the activity, researchers obtained blood samples and took note of participants vital signs, including heart rate, blood flow, and pressure to find out its surprising effect on cardiac health.

How did anger impact the heart?

Shimbo and his team noted that negative emotions, particularly anger, may affect the heart because it impairs blood vessel function.

In the study, people who were asked to think and speak about a recent experience that made them angry had a fall in their blood vessel dilation capacity that lasted for about 40 minutes, according to a report in New Scientist. Such dilation capacity is thought to be a measure of blood vessel health, with lower dilation capacity having been linked to a higher chance of heart attacks.

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With these rhythmic movements of dilation and contraction, blood vessels slow down or increase the flow of blood to the parts of the body that need it. It is when the blood vessels dont relax that a problem emerges.

Chronic injuries to blood vessels over time may have irreversible effects on cardiovascular health. Representative image. Pixabay

We speculate that if youre a person that gets angry over and over again, that youre chronically impairing your blood vessels, Shimbo told CNN. Its these chronic injuries over time that may eventually cause irreversible effects on vascular health and eventually increase your heart disease risk, he added.

Though the study revealed that there was no damage to the endothelial cells, which control the dilation, or to the bodys ability to repair any endothelial cell damage, having repeated negative emotions may affect cardiovascular physiology over time which can cause irreversible damage.

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It is possible that [these effects] occur routinely throughout the day or week with potentially long-term consequences, the researchers wrote in their paper.

Are sadness and anxiety not bad after all?

Interestingly, the study found anger to be one of the major contributors to triggering a heart attack. It found no significant changes in blood vessel function of participants who undertook tasks that induced emotions of sadness and anxiety.

But, lets not say those emotions dont impact our health adversely. Last year, a UK study titled Psychological therapies for depression and cardiovascular risk found that people who have depression have 72 per cent more chances of having a cardiovascular disease than those who dont.

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So, one shouldnt take negative emotions lightly.

Can anger be managed?

Anger cannot and should not be avoided. While it is sometimes important to express and accept your feelings, you must manage them.

The best approach is to learn to process feelings of anger without letting it fester, Dr Brett Ford, associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, told CNN.

Taking deep breaths, counting down, going around for a walk, stretching, talking to a loved one, listening to music, and penning in your thoughts in a journal are a few things that can help you manage your anger.

With inputs from agencies
Scientists have identified a novel variant of mPox discovered amid an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggesting a high transmission rate among individuals. Since January, the country has reported over 4,500 suspected cases, resulting in approximately 300 deaths. Recently, the nation has officially recognised the outbreak as a health emergency read more

This image shows a colourised transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory that was captured and color-enhanced. NIAID via AP

Congo is grappling with its most significant mPox (monkeypox_)_ outbreak yet, as scientists warn of a new strain of the disease detected in a mining town, potentially leading to more rapid transmission among humans.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the numbers paint a grim picture: since January, over 4,500 suspected mPox cases have been reported in Congo, with nearly 300 fatalities. Alarmingly, these figures have nearly tripled compared to the same period last year, prompting Congo to declare a nationwide health emergency.

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A fresh variant of the lethal monkeypox

An analysis conducted on patients hospitalised between October and January in Kamituga, situated in eastern Congo, revealed critical insights.

Dr. Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, the lead researcher of the study, asserted that recent genetic mutations in mPox are indicative of continued transmission among humans. This development is particularly concerning as Kamituga residents have minimal contact with the wild animals traditionally thought to harbour the disease.

Mbala-Kingebenis study, soon to be published, highlights shifts in the diseases manifestation. Patients predominantly exhibit milder lesions, primarily on the genitals, making diagnosis more challenging. This contrasts with past outbreaks in Africa, where lesions were commonly observed on the chest, hands, and feet.

Moreover, this new variant appears to have a lower mortality rate, according to Mbala-Kingebeni.

How is the virus being transmitted?

The evolving nature of mPox necessitates a reevaluation of testing strategies. WHOs recent report on the global mPox situation indicates that the new strain may require an adapted testing approach to detect mutations effectively.

However, the challenge persists: fewer than half of mPox cases in Congo undergo testing, raising concerns about undetected transmission.

Also Read: What are FLiRT variants of COVID-19 that are on rise in US?

Mbala-Kingebeni underscored the risk posed by silent transmission, stressing the importance of proactive patient engagement. He noted that sexual transmission remains a primary mode of infection, with approximately one-third of mPox cases occurring in sex workers.

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This understanding only emerged during the 2022 global mPox emergency, with most cases previously identified in gay or bisexual men. WHO confirmed sexual transmission in Congo for the first time in November.

What are the variants and their severity?

Two distinct clades of mPox exist, with differing levels of severity.

Clade 1, characterised by a higher fatality rate of up to 10%, contrasts sharply with Clade 2, which triggered the 2022 outbreak, resulting in a survival rate exceeding 99%. However, the emergence of a new form of Clade 1 in Kamituga presents a worrisome development.

This 1997 image depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient. CDC via AP

Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University, expressed concern over the implications of these mutations, suggesting that the virus may be adapting to enhance human-to-human transmission.

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This suggests the virus is adapting to spread efficiently in humans and could cause some pretty consequential outbreaks, she told AP.

What have been the vaccination efforts?

Despite successful containment efforts in the West aided by vaccines and treatments, Congo faces significant challenges. Vaccines and treatments are scarce, exacerbating the crisis. However, there is a glimmer of hope: Congos Minister of Health has authorised the use of vaccines in high-risk provinces.

Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congos Monkeypox Response Committee, indicated ongoing negotiations with donor countries, such as Japan, to procure vaccines.

Once a sufficient quantity of vaccines is available  vaccination will be implemented as part of the response, Kacita Osako said.

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Dr. Dimie Ogoina, an mPox expert at Niger Delta University, drew parallels between the current situation and past epidemics. The notable spread among sex workers raises concerns akin to the early stages of HIV. Ogoina emphasised the importance of addressing societal prejudices and fostering a culture of openness to mitigate transmission risks effectively.

Not a single dollar invested

Dr. Michael Ryan, WHOs emergencies chief, highlighted a critical gap in funding despite the escalating crisis. Despite the widespread prevalence of mPox in Africa and beyond, there has been a stark lack of investment from donors, posing significant challenges to containment efforts.

Ryan, said last week that despite the ongoing spread of mpox in Africa and elsewhere, there has not been a single donor dollar invested.

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With inputs from agencies
CM Mamta Banerjee also wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi who came to Raj Bhawan last night didnt speak a word on the issue. read more

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday lashed out at Governor C V Ananda Bose for his alleged misconduct with a woman employee of Raj Bhavan.

The CM said that her heart bleeds for the woman molested at Raj Bhavan. Banerjee also wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi who came to Raj Bhawan last night didnt speak a word on the issue. The development came a day after a female employee at the West Bengal Raj Bhavan accused the Governor of allegedly molesting her.

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Speaking at a public rally in Purba Bardhaman district, Banerjee said my heart bleeds for the woman molested at Raj Bhavan and termed it a shame.

#WATCH | On alleged molestation case against West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose, CM Mamata Banerjee says, "She works at the Raj Bhavan. How did the Governor treat her?...Not one, but thousands of such incidents have come to my knowledge but I never said anything. But this is a pic.twitter.com/0RhnYGZONN  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

The CM said Yesterday, a young woman who worked at Raj Bhavan came out and spoke against the Governors harassmentYesterday, the tears of the woman broke my heart. I have seen her video testimony. Before talking about Sandeshkhali, BJP must answer why the Governor did this to a woman working at Raj Bhavan,.

The woman cried and walked out saying she was too scared to work at Raj Bhavan anymore. She said that she was called at odd hours and was subjected to harassment. And these are the people who talk about the dignity of our mothers and sisters? she said.

West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Thursday said he will not be cowed down by engineered narratives and the truth shall triumph after TMC leaders claimed that a woman working at Raj Bhavan levelled allegations of molestation against him.

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With agencies inputs.
During an election rally in Bardhaman-Durgapur, PM Modi expressed his desire for those implicated in corruption by the TMC to face consequences while adding that he doesnt want any innocent person to suffer read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he has asked the West Bengal BJP unit to create a separate legal cell to provide help to genuine teachers and candidates who have lost jobs due to the School Service Commission (SSC) scam.

While addressing an election rally at Bardhaman-Durgapur, Modi said, Although he wants those involved in corruption by the TMC to be punished but doesnt want the innocent to suffer.

The corruption that the TMC has done in Bengal in school recruitment is shameful. Due to this scam, several genuine candidates have suffered. I have asked the Bengal BJP unit on behalf of the party to create a separate legal cell and social media platform to provide help to the genuine candidates and teachers, he said.

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BJP will support such honest candidates and will provide them legal help and will fight for them. This is Modis guarantee, he said.

Modis remarks came a week after the Calcutta High Court declared the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools as null and void, ordering the cancellation of all appointments made through it.

Around 26,000 people have lost jobs following the court order.

Hit hard by court order

On 22 April, the Calcutta High Court declared the entire panel of the 2016 SSC recruitment null and void due to identified irregularities in appointments across various educational sectors in the state. Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi, comprising the division bench, unequivocally invalidated all appointments made through the 2016 state-level test conducted by the West Bengal SSC. The court mandated the administration to initiate fresh appointments within a 15-day timeframe.

This resulted in the immediate job loss of teachers and non-teaching staff. The courts decree extends further, necessitating individuals appointed under the invalidated process to refund their salaries within a stipulated six-week period.

What is the 2016 SSC scam in Bengal all about?

The purported West Bengal Teacher Recruitment Scam stems from the inception of the teacher hiring procedure in state-owned schools through the State Level Selection Test (SLST) in 2014 with the recruitment officially starting in 2016.

In 2016, the West Bengal government released a notification for the employment of 13,000 Group-D staff in state-operated schools.

Multiple petitions were lodged in the high court asserting discrepancies in the scandal. Allegations surfaced that numerous candidates with lower scores were ranked higher on the merit roster, prompting doubts about the integrity of the selection process. Furthermore, accusations emerged suggesting that individuals not listed on the merit roster received appointment letters.

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The recruitment exam was conducted to fill vacancies for the posts of assistant teachers for Classes 9-10, assistant teachers for Classes 11-12, Group C (clerks) and Group D posts.

How the Bengal government reacted?

On 24 April, the West Bengal government under Mamata Banerjees leadership took the step to approach the Supreme Court, contesting the decision of the Calcutta High Court. This ruling revoked nearly 24,000 appointments of both teaching and non-teaching personnel, which were conducted through the 2016 SSC recruitment process.

Reacting to the HCs verdict, Banerjee said: The court verdict cancelling all recruitments is illegal. We stand by those who lost jobs. We will ensure you get justice, and challenge the order in a higher court.

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However, quick relief to those affected is unlikely soon.
The Congress party has fielded Rahul Gandhi from his mother Sonia Gandhis former constituency of Raebareli instead of his traditional seat of Amethi read more

Amid criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the decision to field Rahul Gandhi on Raebareli Lok Sabha seat instead of Amethi, the party has come to the defence of its scion. Party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh hailed him as an an experienced player of politics and chess and said it was part of the larger strategy of Congress.

For weeks, there had been speculation that Rahul would contest from either Amethi or Raebareli in addition to Keralas Wayanad where he is seeking a reelection this time. He had held the Amethi seat from 2004 to 2019. In 2019, BJPs Smriti Irani defeated him in Amethi.

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After Rahuls candidature from Raebareli was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he had run away from his older seat.

In a bid to mount a counter-offensive, Ramesh took a jibe at Irani and said that her only identity is that she contests against Rahul. Now that she would not be facing Rahul in polls, she would be irrelevant, said Ramesh.

Today, Smriti Iranis only identity is that she contests elections from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi. Now, her political relevance is over. Instead of making meaningless statements, Smriti Irani will now have to answer about local development: closed hospitals, steel plants and IIITs, said Ramesh in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Many people have many opinions on the news of @RahulGandhi contesting elections from Rae Bareli.



Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion, and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 3, 2024

Will Rahuls gambit pay off?

In a video released by Congress, Rahul said that he is the best chess players among Indian politicians. The decision to skip his traditional seat of Amethi to contest from Raebareli vacated for him by his mother Sonia Gandhi is no less than a gambit.

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While Modi has mocked Rahul as a princeling running away from a fight, Congress has framed the candidature from Raebareli as part of the partys efforts to respect the legacy spanning generations.

Speaking at a rally in West Bengal, Modi on Friday also mocked Sonia, who decided to not contest Lok Sabha election this time and instead went to the Rajya Sabha. I had said their biggest leader will not dare to contest. She will run away out of fear. She ran to Rajasthan and from there entered Rajya Sabha. That is exactly what happened. I had said that shehzade (Rahul Gandhi) is afraid of losing in Wayanad and the moment voting ends, he will start looking for a third seat. Now even from Amethi, despite all his loyalists saying it, he panicked so much. he ran from there and is now looking towards Raebareli, said Modi.

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On his part, Ramesh said that Rahul is not inheriting Raebarelis seat from his mother but is fulfilling a responsibility.

Rae Bareli has been the seat not only of Sonia ji but also of Indira Gandhi herself. It is not an inheritance; it is a responsibility and a duty, said Ramesh.

Ramesh further flagged that while Rahul has been an MP from both North India and South India, Modi has never contested from South India.

He said, As far as the Gandhi family is concerned, it is not just Amethi-Rae Bareli, the entire country from north to south is the stronghold of the Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi has been MP thrice from Uttar Pradesh and once from Kerala. Why has the Prime Minister been unable to muster the courage to contest an election from a single seat below the Vindhyas?

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From Amethi to Raebareli via Wayanad, heres Rahuls political journey

Rahul joined electoral politics in 2004 from Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh. Incidentally, his mother Sonia had also first become a Lok Sabha MP from Amethi seat. In 2004, while Rahul contested from Amethi, Sonia moved to Raebareli.

Both Amethi and Raebareli seats had long been Congress bastions. Previously, Sonias mother-in-law and Rahuls grandmother, Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, was an MP from Rae Bareli whereas her husband Rajiv Gandhi, also a former PM, was an MP from Amethi.

While Rahul defeated Irani in 2014 from Amethi, she staged an upset in 2019 by beating him in his family bastion.

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Prior to entering politics, however, Rahul and his sister Priyanka Gandhi spent time in the shadows of the giants like their father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira Gandhi, and mother Sonia. The two of them were home-schooled because of security considerations. Their father and grandmother were both assassinated.

After schooling, Rahul went to St. Stephens College of the University of Delhi for his undergraduate studies. From there, he moved to the United States to attend Harvard University. Following Rajivs assassination, he moved to Rollins College in Florida. He graduated from there in 1994. Then, he went on to an M Phil in Development Studies from University of Cambridges Trinity College in 1995. Then, he briefly ran a consultancy before returning to India. In 2004, he joined electoral politics.

Gandhi is a certified scuba diver and is known for his fitness. He also holds a black belt in Aikido, a Japanese martial art.

Over the years, Rahul has often been criticised as a non-serious politician. Two weeks back, he addressed this at a press conference and addressed the issue. He cited his involvement with the Land Acquisition Bill, the Bhatta-Parsaul movement, and the MGNREGA scheme, among others over the years.

In recent years, Rahul has carried out south-to-north and east-to-west marches with the idea to revive the party orgnaisation ahead of polls.

Unlike last time when Rahul led the charge against Modi on the issue of purported irregularities in the procurement of Rafale fighter planes, he has this time led his party on the platform of caste census. He has promised to remove the Supreme Court-instituted 50% cap on reservation.

Whether the caste census pitch along with the gambit of contesting from Raebarei remains to be seen.
Beijing is monitoring the India-US relationship. If it could drive a wedge in that strategic partnership, it would. But the US administration, alive to that possibility, will not let the relationship sour tactically beyond a point read more

Washington is fully aware that India is an indispensable power in the Wests strategic contest with China. Image: US embassy

The strategic partnership between India and the United States runs on two parallel tracks.

The first is collaborative and focused. The 2+2 dialogue between the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries, the Quad, joint naval exercises, quiet talks on critical and emerging technologies (iCET), defence purchases, and participation in annual G7 summits.

This years G7 summit is in Italy on June 13-15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as in past G7 summits, will attend as a special invitee. His meeting with US President Joe Biden will be of particular interest.

There is, however, a second parallel track, mostly out of the public eye, where conversations between India and the US-led West are strained.

It began with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing in Parliament on September 18, 2023 that authorities in Canada were investigating the role of agents connected with the Indian government in the murder on June 18, 2023 of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist and local gangster.

Canadas English-speaking cousins (Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US) backed Trudeaus charge. America had by then already arrested an Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta. Detained at Prague airport under US instructions and awaiting extradition, Gupta remains in a Czech jail.

India meanwhile denied Canadas allegations on Nijjars murder and expelled 41 Canadian diplomats from India. Annoyed at the treatment meted out to Anglospheric Canada, the US unsealed an indictment against Nikhil Gupta in a New York court on November 30, 2023 on charges of murder-for-hire.

Cloak and dagger

How Gupta was arrested reveals the borderline-legal methods the US and its European allies (in this case the Czech Republic) employ.

As an investigation by The Washington Post published on April 29, 2024 reported: US agents used their informant to persuade Gupta to travel to the Czech Republic for what he was led to believe would be a clandestine meeting with his American contact, according to officials familiar with the operation. Gupta arrived in Prague on June 30, 2023  11 days after Czech authorities, acting at the behest of US officials, had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him.

As he exited Vaclav Havel Airport, Gupta was intercepted by Czech police, who ushered him into a vehicle in which two US federal agents were waiting, according to court filings submitted by Guptas family in India. He was questioned for hours while the car meandered around the city. His laptop was seized and his phone held to his face to unlock it.

Between June and September 2023, US President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi first at a State visit to Washington, and then travelled to India for the successful G20 Summit held under Indias presidency.

Nikhil Gupta had by then been in a Czech jail without charge since June 30, 2023. Nijjar was murdered on June 18, 2023. Talks between Indias National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan were ongoing through this period.

FBI director Christopher Wray made an unusual trip to India on December 11-12, 2023. It was the first visit to India by an FBI director in 12 years. In January 2024, Biden politely declined Modis invitation to be chief guest at Indias Republic Day, citing a tight election schedule at home.

The US was by now distracted with the Gaza war and the continuing conflict in Ukraine. NSA Jake Sullivan twice postponed scheduled meetings in Delhi with Doval in February 2024 and again in April 2024.

The embedded US media

When the US wants to deliver a message to an ally that is not part of the Anglo-Saxon Five Eyes or the broader Western alliance, it uses newspapers like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

On April 29, 2024 The Washington Post published an investigative story. It wrote: That India would pursue lethal operations in North America has stunned Western security officials. In some ways, however, it reflects a profound shift in geopolitics. After years of being treated as a second-tier player, India sees itself as a rising force in a new era of global competition, one that even the United States cannot afford to alienate.

The newspaper claimed that an Indian operative identified by anonymous sources as Vikram Yadav, an officer in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), discussed the planned assassination of proscribed terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, noting his New York address.

The Washington Post added, again quoting anonymous sources: Yadavs identity and affiliation, which have not previously been reported, provide the most explicit evidence to date that the assassination plan  ultimately thwarted by US authorities  was directed from within the Indian spy service. Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of the sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modis inner circle.

In reports that have been closely held within the American government, US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. That finding is consistent with accounts provided to The Washington Post by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation and said Goel was under extreme pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas. US spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modis national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAWs plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasised that no smoking gun proof has emerged.

Track 2, track 1

While External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has been blunt while addressing Western annoyance with Indias neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has largely maintained a diplomatic tone, even in the face of aggravations from mainstream US media and occasionally State Department spokespersons.

This changed last week when the MEA dismissed The Washington Post story, based entirely on anonymous officials in India and the US, with this terse comment: Democracies should display understanding in regard to other democracies. After all, we are judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.

The allusion was to the recent violence and polarisation that has undermined US democracy.

While punch and counter-punch was being exchanged in Washington and New Delhi, the first parallel track of the India-US strategic partnership proceeded at stately pace. Washington is fully aware that India is an indispensable power in the Wests strategic contest with China.

Beijing is monitoring the India-US relationship. If it could drive a wedge in that strategic partnership, it would. But the US administration, alive to that possibility, will not let the relationship sour tactically beyond a point.

Nikhil Gupta meanwhile remains in Pragues Pankrac Prison awaiting extradition to the US. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, designated as a terrorist by India, travels freely under US protection between America and Canada.

The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The Asian giant has made its place in the world with its multi-pronged efforts, from financial assistance to establishing a network of diplomatic posts; however, the lack of faith in this unilateral rise is evident from global support for initiatives aimed at diversifying industrial reliance beyond the current monopoly read more

An overwhelming number of people in the US consider China an enemy rather than a partner. Image: REUTERS

An often quoted saying goes, With great power comes great responsibility. Fast forward to the third decade of the 21st century, and we say, With louder narratives comes greater prowess. From national to global governance, the contemporary world is seeing some of the fiercest battles over controlling the narrative. A case in point is the rise of China.

The Asian giant has made its place in the world with its multi-pronged efforts, from lucrative financial assistance to establishing the largest network of diplomatic posts. From offering bailout packages to investing in critical and strategic infrastructure, traces of Chinese interests are everywhere. The world could be wary of China, but no one can ignore its presence in the room.

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However, the lack of faith in this unilateral rise is evident from global support for initiatives aimed at diversifying industrial reliance beyond the current monopoly. The China+1 policy is one such initiative. In light of the growing regional turbulence and bilateral discomfort, it becomes all the more important to analyse Chinas increasing influence and the direction in which it is headed.

Chinas Influence: An Overview

The two-pronged approach adopted by Chinathe infrastructural industrial complex and its military-civil infusionoffer a multifaceted insight into Chinas manoeuvring in the global domain. Currently, the country has invested over USD 1 trillion on infrastructural projects outside of its borders, while having loaned over USD 600 billion in infrastructure-related loanshigher than those extended by the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, among others.

Furthermore, Chinas extensive economic influence in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) region has further bolstered its stance, with investments and contracts between the MENAT and Beijing amounting to USD 273 billion over 17 years. In Africa alone, this marks an increase of 520 per cent in the last 15 years. The ambitious Belt Road Initiative (BRI), which alone accounted for nearly 21 per cent of Chinas investments in the region in 2022, amidst other construction projects, also plays a crucial role in determining Chinas influence in the region, affecting 40 of the 54 countries in the African continent.

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The strategic importance being accorded to Africa by the Chinese leadership is also visible in the 10,000 Chinese private firms that are now operating in the continent with a potential to generate USD 440 billion in revenue by 2025. China is also the biggest exporter to 19 of the 40 sub-Saharan countries.

Chinas influence in Latin America, along with increased investments in the Lithium Triangle of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile via the construction of lithium production units, amounts to over USD 73 billion from 2000 to 2018. Additional investments in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru to develop artificial intelligence, smart cities, and 5G technology further solidify Chinas position in the region.

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Developments in the Middle East are also indicators of Chinas growing rapport in the region. The increasingly warming acquaintance signifies a rather dangerous predicament for the Western world, particularly the US, which remains the largest arms exporter to the Middle Eastern arms market. Over the past decade alone, Chinese arms sales in the region have increased by 80 per cent , owing to their promises of express shipping, financing, and the lack of an end-user agreement. Additionally, Chinas extensive dependence on the Gulf for its oil imports and arms exports (worth USD 307 billion over 16 years) is also one of the driving factors for the astronomical increase in regional cooperation.

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Its widespread role in shaping the political crisis in Myanmar by not only extending arms support but also pushing for a ceasefire by coordinating the three ethnic armiesthe Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Taang National Liberation Armyindicates its further involvement in regional politics. Additionally, Chinas extensive movement in the Indian Ocean to control critical sea lanes through its alleged String of Pearls strategy is a manifestation of its mighty hard power politicsan attempt to demonstrate its valour to the world.

China as the Global Hegemon: Will it, or Wont it?

According to a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Centre , over 47 per cent of Americans believe that the US influence is diminishing, while 66 per cent of the people consider an increase in Chinese geopolitical influence. Moreover, an overwhelming number of people in the US consider China an enemy rather than a partner.

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Despite the vehemently opposing opinions on China worldwide and its robust ambitions in progressing as a geopolitical hegemony, the lack of transparency on its account prohibits the country from harbouring trust among world leaders.

This is evident by the increasing influence of the China+1 policy, where nations such as India and Vietnam play a pivotal role in providing alternative infrastructural support to the world. The world also recognises Indias significance as a major geopolitical and geographical partner in striking a balance in the region amidst Chinas increasing military movement. Repeated violations of territorial integrity and challenging a rule-based world order make China a constant threat to the peace and stability of the region.

Moreover, Chinese protectionist policies are often seen as a hindrance to foreign businesses, as is evident in increasing regulations on tech giants such as Meta and Google. The lack of trust thus becomes mutual, with Chinese tech giants such as Huawei (a company generating over 100 billion USD of annual revenue) being banned for operations in 13 countries.

A world where China rises as the hegemonic superpower will be a world with numerous unanswered questionsthe increasing offensive tactics against the Uighur community in the Xinjiang region, the challenges in Taiwan, or the massive censorship of freedom of speech and expression. With the ever-evolving power dynamics and shifting loyalties, it becomes imminent to follow the traces of Chinese money around the world to understand the nuances of the emerging Chinese order.

Deeksha Goel is a Deputy Director at India Foundation, a think tank based in New Delhi. Shubhangi Mishra is an Associate (Research and Content) at Ardent Co. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
There are local and regional differences, including in language in the case of Tamil, but these localised variations are part of the enriching diversity of our civilisational heritage read more

The so-called Harappan-Aryan divide, and by implication the North-South polarity, is a figment of the imagination, and is much more a cultural continuum. PTI photo

These days there is increasing discussion on the difference between the North and South of India. There is acrimony with regard to the varying interpretations of Sanatan Dharma. There is resentment in the South that the North is trying to impose Hindi. There is also a kind of political divide, where the BJP is more predominant in the North, whereas in the South regional parties like the DMK, the AIADMK, the Telugu Desam or the Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi have held far more prominence. In fact, there is a growing feeling that the Aryan North, and the Dravidian South are two cultural entities, with different traditions, evolution and origins.

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Frankly, all this is rubbish. Indian civilisation is beyond doubt a unified entity, with a thousand threads that bind all parts of Bharat Varsha. Of course, within this unity there is great diversity, and this must be fully respected. But the so-called North-South divide is a deliberate myth, whose origins lay in a completely false and distorted interpretation of history.

For a long time, the considered view was that the Aryans invaded India sometime around 1500 BCE, overran the pre-existing Harappan civilisation, and settled largely along the Gangetic plains. As a result of this invasion, the Harappans, who spoke Dravidian, were driven towards south India, and the Sanskrit speaking Aryans established their hegemony in the north. This was a theory long-favoured by the British. The Aryans were presumed to be of European origin. Hence, they were migrants from the West, thus allowing the British to claim ownership, indirectly, of many aspects of the legacy and achievements of ancient India, while denying at the same time the indigenous roots of Indian history. The theory then said that, in time, the Western origin Aryans, by mixing with the indigenous population, lost their civilisational vitality, and it was for the British, millennia later, to resurrect that original civilisation by the benediction of colonial rule.

It was a convenient theory, except that it has been dismissed by almost every serious historian. The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) has now been consigned to the historical dustbin. As the noted historian, Dr. Upinder Singh, writes: One of the most popular explanations of one of the declines of the Harappan civilisation is one for which there is least evidence. There is, actually, no evidence of any kind of military assault or conflict at any Harappan site.

What has been overwhelmingly accepted is that the Indian Aryans were migrants who came to the subcontinent over a period of time. The period of migration took place in batches, and has now been predatedthanks to new and incontrovertible research, especially with regard to the Saraswati river (for which, due to shortage of space, I will have to write another column)to anytime between 4000 BCE to 3500 BCE.

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If therefore, the Aryans were in the subcontinent more than a millennium earlier, then they were part of Indian soil coterminous with the Harappan civilisation. What was the interface between the two? Until recently, conventional history was divided between pre-Aryan and post-Aryan. The two phases were seen as an irreconcilable binary, with almost nothing in common. However, recent research is radically changing this mechanically polarised view, and now points to an active interface between the Aryan and Harappan people as part of a process that was both assimilative and transformative.

Evidence that there was such an interface is overwhelming. Later cities like Mathura, Kaushambi and Vaishali reproduce, almost identically, the architectural features of moats and fortresses found in Harappan cities; the remarkable Harappan weights system clearly inspired the weight system described in the Arthashastra; the bronze casting method, also known as lost wax casting, used by the Harappans to make, for instance, the famous dancing girl statue, was subsequently used throughout the sub-continent, including the famous Chola bronzes in the 13th century CE.

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The scholar, Michael Danino writes that even the married Hindu womans custom of applying vermilion at the parting of the hair has Harappan origins: figurines found at Nausharo, (a Harappan site), shows traces of red pigment at the same spot; many Hindu men continue to wear an amulet tied to the upper right arm, exactly where the priest king (as seen in Harappan seals) displays one.

Intangible heritage also shows some striking overlapping. Thus, common Harappan forms such as the swastika, the pipal leaf and the fire-worshipping altars are common symbols that persist even today. The Pashupati seal, which shows a dominant figure seated in a yogic posture with a tricorn headdress, and surrounded by animals, is strikingly reminiscent of Shiva. The many Harappan seals dedicated to a mother goddess is a direct progenitor of the Devi cult. The historian, John Marshall, thus categorically concludes: Taken as a whole (the Harappan civilisation) is so characteristically Indian as hardly to be distinguished from still living Hinduism.

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Quite explicitly, the so-called Harappan-Aryan divide, and by implication the North-South polarity, is a figment of the imagination, and is much more a cultural continuum. There are local and regional differences, including in language in the case of Tamil, but these localised variations are part of the enriching diversity of our civilisational heritage.

Let transient politics not divide what is foundationally one.

The author is a former diplomat, an author and a politician. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
Apple now claims the top six spots on the list of the 10 largest share buyback announcements ever made in the US. Despite declining revenue and sales Apple beat revenue expectation. Apples shares surged by as much as 7.9% or about $190 billion in market value read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Apple now has 6 of the top 10 share buybacks in US history. Image Credit: AFP

With its recent announcement of a $110 billion share buyback program, Apple has once again topped its own record for the largest buyback value ever announced in the United States.

This move surpasses Apples previous authorization of $100 billion for share buybacks in 2018, according to data compiled by market research firm Birinyi Associates dating back to 1999.

In fact, Apple now claims the top six spots on the list of the 10 largest share buyback announcements ever made in the US. Other notable companies included in this list are Chevron Corp. and Alphabet Inc., highlighting Apples dominance in this aspect of corporate finance.

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Following the announcement, Apples shares surged by as much as 7.9 per cent in post-market trading, indicating a strong investor response to the buyback program. If these gains hold on Friday, the move could potentially add over $190 billion in market value to the company.

This significant increase in market value comes as a welcome reversal for Apple investors, who have seen the technology giant lag behind its Magnificent 7 peers throughout the year leading up to Thursdays close. While Apple shares have experienced a decline of 10 per cent, the broader S&P 500 Index has registered a growth of more than 6 per cent.

With a 4 per cent increase in its cash dividend and authorization for an additional $110 billion stock buyback program, Apple demonstrated its commitment to shareholder value, making it the largest buyback initiative in the companys history.

Despite a slight decline in quarterly revenue, Apples performance surpassed analyst estimates, suggesting a potential resurgence in the smartphone market despite stiff competition and regulatory challenges.

Apples fiscal second-quarter revenue fell by 4 per cent to $90.8 billion, surpassing the average analyst estimate of $90.01 billion. Analysts and experts hailed this achievement as remarkable, with Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers LLC, describing it as an astonishing number.

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CEO Tim Cook expressed confidence in revenue growth returning in the current quarter, indicating positive prospects for the companys trajectory.

The surge in Apples shares following its report elevated its stock market value by over $160 billion, signalling investor confidence in the companys resilience and future prospects.

While Apple faces challenges across its business, including intensified competition and regulatory scrutiny, the company remains focused on its long-term growth strategy.

Apples CFO Luca Maestri provided insights into the companys outlook, expecting double-digit growth in services and iPad revenue for the current quarter. Additionally, Apple anticipates gross margins of between 45.5 per cent and 46.5 per cent for the fiscal third quarter.

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Despite a 10.5 per cent decline in iPhone sales to $45.96 billion, Apple experienced growth in some markets, particularly in China. The companys revenue decline in China was not as steep as analysts expected, indicating resilience in a crucial market.

Apples ongoing investments in research and development, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), underscore its commitment to innovation. CEO Tim Cook expressed optimism about the companys prospects in generative AI, highlighting significant investments in this burgeoning field.

As Apple races to integrate AI into its products, the announcement of a massive buyback program may reassure investors concerned about the companys stock performance.

With earnings per share exceeding Wall Street estimates and sales in the services segment surpassing expectations, Apples solid performance reflects its ability to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities in the evolving tech landscape.

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While sales in the iPad and wearables segments fell below analyst expectations, Mac sales exceeded projections, driven by the success of new MacBook Air models.

As Apple continues to innovate and adapt to changing market dynamics, its recent financial results underscore its resilience and long-term vision for sustainable growth.

(With inputs from agencies)
The 8-ton Change-6 probe was launched using the Long March-5, Chinas largest rocket, which took off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan. Once on the dark side of the Moon, Change-6 will collect soil and rock samples, and bring them back the earth read more

The Long March-5, China's largest rocket, launches while carrying the Change-6 probe, along with payloads from France, Italy, Sweden, and Pakistan. Image Credit: AFP

China continues to add feathers to the cap that is its space exploration and colonisation efforts. Marking a major milestone in space exploration, the Chinese space agency or the China National Space Administration successfully launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to the Moon.

Called Change-6, the objective of the mission is to collect rocks and soil samples from the far side of the Moon. The 8-ton Change-6 probe was launched using the Long March-5, Chinas largest rocket, which took off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan.

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Change-6 and its mission objectives

Change-6s primary objective is to land in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moons far side and retrieve samples. Neil Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at ESA, emphasized the enigmatic nature of the dark side of the Moon, which has been explored only through robotic probes.

The launch is a significant achievement in Chinas lunar exploration program, with Pierre-Yves Meslin, a French researcher, commending Chinas rapid progress in space exploration.

Previous missions, such as Change-4 and Change-5, have already marked major milestones for China, including its first unmanned Moon landing and the retrieval of lunar samples.

Once on the Moon, Change-6 will be collecting samples that weigh about two kilogrammes before returning to Earth. The actual window during which the Change-6 probe can collect the rocks will be about 14 hours long, which will be spread over a period of 24 hours

The mission aims to provide valuable insights into the Moons geological history, with a focus on the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

Payloads from Pakistan and other countries

Although the launch was attended by scientists and officials from various countries, including France, Italy, and Pakistan, no US organizations participated due to legal restrictions.

Chinas Change-6 mission is set to carry payloads from various international partners, showcasing the collaborative nature of space exploration. Among the payloads onboard Change-6 are contributions from France, Italy, Sweden, and Pakistan. Similarly, for the upcoming Change-7 mission, payloads from Russia, Switzerland, and Thailand will be included.

Pakistans payload is particularly interesting. The iCube Qamar, on board Chinas ChangE6 is Pakistans first satellite mission to the Moon. The satellite has been designed and developed by the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in collaboration with Chinas Shanghai University and Pakistans national space agency SUPARCO.

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The primary purpose of iCube is to take photos of the Moons surface and relay them back to Pakistan so that they have their own images of the lunar surface to study. Once the probe is in lunar orbit, which will be about five days from the day of the launch, it will circle the Moon for a period of three to six months.

Chinas colonisation plans

Change-6 is part of Chinas long-term plan to establish a permanent research station on the Moon, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), in collaboration with Russia.

The mission also underscores Chinas growing capabilities in space technology. The Long March-5 rocket is known for its reliability and robustness and has played a crucial role in Chinas space endeavours over the years. By successfully launching Change-6, China has demonstrated its ability to execute complex missions beyond Earths orbit that too with a considerably conservative budget.

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Furthermore, the scientific significance of Change-6 cannot be overstated. By retrieving samples from the Moons far side, researchers hope to gain new insights into lunar geology, evolution, and potential resources. The South Pole-Aitken Basin, in particular, is of great interest due to its unique geological features and pristine lunar material.

Despite geopolitical tensions and regulatory barriers, China remains committed to advancing its space exploration agenda. The countrys ambitious lunar program reflects its long-term vision for space exploration and scientific discovery.

(With inputs from agencies)
Last year, under Japans leadership of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations, the Hiroshima AI process was launched to develop international guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developer, about 49 countries and regions have joined the voluntary framework read more

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has introduced an international framework aimed at regulating and utilizing generative AI, marking a significant addition to global governance efforts for this rapidly advancing technology.

Speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, Kishida emphasized the potential benefits of generative AI while also acknowledging the risks, such as disinformation.

Last year, under Japans leadership of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations, the Hiroshima AI process was launched to develop international guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI developers. Kishida announced that 49 countries and regions have joined the voluntary framework, known as the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, to address the risks associated with generative AI and ensure its safe, secure, and trustworthy use.

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Meanwhile, in the European Union, lawmakers have recently approved a landmark law governing artificial intelligence. The law aims to harness innovation while providing protections against harm, reshaping how AI is used across various sectors, including healthcare and policing.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled plans to allocate over 100 million Pounds towards bolstering the countrys position in regulating AI. The focus is on addressing regulatory challenges and advancing research and development initiatives to ensure responsible AI deployment. Additionally, the UK aims to establish collaborative partnerships, particularly with the United States, to advance AI regulation efforts globally.

However, efforts to persuade Asian governments to adopt stricter AI regulations have encountered some resistance. While the EU is actively urging Asian countries to implement similar regulations, many Asian nations, including Singapore and Japan, are adopting a cautious approach. They prefer to observe the evolution of AI technology before implementing local regulations, expressing concerns about the potential impact on innovation.

Overall, discussions on AI regulation are part of a broader global initiative led by European nations, with ongoing efforts to engage countries across Asia, North America, and other regions. As the technology continues to evolve, international cooperation and dialogue will be crucial in shaping responsible and ethical AI governance.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Police in West Bengal have made Meta-owned Instagram a co-accused in a POCSO case for hosting indecent content that involves children and Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM. read more

Instagram has been many issues for becoming a platform where CSAM and child abuse content is deeply prevalent. Image Credit: Reuters

In a rather bizarre development that spells more trouble for Meta in India, the West Bengal Police have named Instagram as a co-accused in a case that involves a POCSO charge.

The Police in West Bengal have made Meta-owned Instagram a co-accused for purportedly hosting indecent content that involves children, as per a report by The Economic Times.

The cyber police station of Dakshin Dinajpur district filed a First Information Report (FIR) on April 11, naming Instagram as a co-accused under Section 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as well as Section 67 (B) of the Information Technology (IT) Act of 2000.

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The FIR was initiated following a complaint lodged by the victim under the guidance of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, as confirmed by the agencys chairperson Priyank Kanoongo.

Section 12 of the POCSO Act delineates the punishment for sexual harassment of a child, stipulating imprisonment of up to three years along with a fine for the perpetrator.

Notably, this offence is non-bailable, as per the rulings of various high courts in the country.

Under Section 67 (B) of the IT Act, the dissemination of material portraying children in sexually explicit acts through electronic means is punishable.

The section outlines penalties of up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for first-time offenders, escalating to seven years imprisonment and a similar fine for subsequent violations.

In response to queries from ET, a spokesperson for Instagram stated their commitment to taking action against content that breaches their Community Guidelines or local laws.

This legal action comes in the wake of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issuing notices to various social media platforms last October, urging them to eliminate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from their platforms.

The notices were prompted by concerns raised about the presence of pornographic material and CSAM on several social media platforms, which had been brought to the attention of senior ministry officials previously.
Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. read more

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the indigenous Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. - AP

Germanys top diplomat on Friday said Russia will face consequences after accusing its military intelligence service of masterminding an absolutely intolerable cyberattack, as NATO and European Union member countries said they will not let Russias malicious" behavior in cyberspace go unanswered.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian state hackers were behind a cyberattack last year that targeted the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. The German Interior Ministry added that German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to Russias war in Ukraine were a focus of the attacks.

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Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace, Baerbock said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide. We can attribute this attack to the group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia."

This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences, she said.

The Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry said that Czechias institutions have also been a target of a cyber campaign by the same group.

The ministry said APT28, which is associated with the Russian military intelligence service GRU, exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023.

Ties between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

Cyberattacks targeting political entities, state institutions and critical infrastructure are not only a threat to national security, but also disrupt the democratic processes on which our free society is based, the ministry said. No details about the targets of these attacks were given.

In a statement by the EUs top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the blocs nations said they strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign conducted by the Russia-controlled Advanced Persistent Threat Actor 28 (APT28) against Germany and Czechia.

The EU noted that it had previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for APT28 attacks targeting the German parliament in 2015. It said it will not tolerate the continuation of such attacks, particularly with EU elections upcoming in June.

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NATO said that APT28 targeted other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance," including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyberthreats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses, said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.

Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.

The defense cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats, said Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.

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Discussions between Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centered on the conflict in Gaza. I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution, Wong said.
The students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) called on the government to break diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel. The protesters set up tents in front of the universitys head office in Mexico City read more

After shaking multiple campuses across the United States, pro-Palestinian protests have hit Mexicos largest university. Palestinian flags were waved and chants of Long live free Palestine engulfed the skies of the Latin American nation as protesters set up tents.

The students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) called on the government to break diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel. The protesters set up tents in front of the universitys head office in Mexico City.

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We are here to support Palestine, the people who are in Palestine, and the student camps in the United States, a 19-year-old philosophy student named Valentino Pino told AFP.

The students came out in support of not only the state of Palestine but also expressed solidarity with students protesting in the US who are urging colleges to divest from Israel.

Over 2,000 people arrested in US

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people protesting against the war in Gaza in the United States were arrested within a few weeks.

A tally of the arrests conducted by the Associated Press revealed that as many as 300 protesters were arrested on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. This included the arrest of 200 students at the University of California, Los Angeles and more than 90 students arrested at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

In the Thursday report, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said that although there have been instances of clashes, the overwhelming majority [of protests]  99 per cent  have remained peaceful.

Amid the chaos, US President Joe Biden on Thursday made it clear that while he supports the right to protest, the order must prevail when it comes to conducting such demonstrations.

Dissent is essential for democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder, the American Commander-in-chief said in an address from the White House.

Biden admonished protesters and went on to call them violent. Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is. Theres the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos," the POTUS averred.

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Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation  none of this is a peaceful protest," he added.

However, while concluding his address, Biden made the case for the right to free speech. We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent  but neither are we a lawless country, he said.

With inputs from agencies.
The suspension of green card applications may exacerbate the difficulties faced by overseas candidates seeking employment in the US, especially within the tech sector. Both Amazon and Google have temporarily halted PERM applications until next year. read more

In a move prompted by recent layoffs in the tech industry, including those at Microsoft, Amazon and Google have suspended green card applications for immigrants in the US for the year 2024.

This move comes amidst intensifying competition, making conditions more challenging for foreign workers, as reported by the Daily Guardian. The suspension of green card applications may exacerbate the difficulties faced by overseas candidates seeking employment in the US, especially within the tech sector. Both Amazon and Google have temporarily halted PERM applications until next year.

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PERM, overseen by the US Department of Labor, is a process for obtaining permanent labor certification. It ensures that admitting foreign workers does not adversely affect job opportunities, wages, or working conditions for US workers. PERM is often the first step towards obtaining a green card.

Amazon announced internally earlier this year that it would pause all PERM filings through 2024, citing an inability to continue with the process, the Daily Guardian reported. Google also suspended its PERM applications earlier, in January 2023, and laid off 12,000 employees. The company informed employees that it would not resume the PERM process until the first quarter of 2025, it said.

Ava Benach, founding partner of Benach Collopy, a renowned immigration law firm in Washington DC, told the Daily Guardian that tech companies are following Googles approach because to its outsized influence here.

Collopy said With more US workers available for open positions, the labor market test fails and so the process becomes a waste of time and money for these tech companies,

If tech companies have done layoffs relatively recently, they also have to notify laid off workers of new positions that may be going to foreign workers. If some of these people say yes, Im interested, then youre out of luck with the green card application, she told the Daily Guardian.
The court identified Angel Nikolayev as an opponent of mobilisation and provided a long list of his offences stretching back nearly two years, according to a statement read more

A Russian military court sentenced an anti-war activist in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk to 15 years in prison on Friday for crimes including setting fire to a military commissariat and desecrating the graves of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.

In a statement, the court identified Angel Nikolayev as an opponent of mobilisation and provided a long list of his offences stretching back nearly two years.

On two separate occasions, Nikolayev spray-painted symbols visually similar to Nazi symbols on Russian flags draped over the graves of soldiers killed in Ukraine, the court said.

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Zona Solidarnosti (Solidarity Zone), a Telegram channel that provides information about Russian anti-war activists, said Nikolayev had painted a crossed-out Z - the symbol of Moscows war in Ukraine - on the flags.

His protest actions continued. Last spring, Nikolayev cut out the Z symbol on an advert poster at a local bus stop - an act of vandalism, the court said. He also tore off Z symbols pasted onto cars.

Later, last autumn, the court said Nikolayev set fire to a military recruitment centre in Khabarovsk using two incendiary bottles with a flammable mixture - a terrorist act. No one was harmed in the incident but the building sustained serious damage, according to the court.

The prosecutor had sought an 18-year sentence for Nikolayev. He pleaded guilty, according to Zona Solidarnosti, but did not express any regret.

Over 20,000 people have been detained in Russia for expressing anti-war views since the start of Moscows full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to Russian rights group OVD-Info.

That figure includes those arrested for non-violent offences, such as posting negative opinions about the Russian army online or giving interviews to journalists about the war.
Manila and Beijing have traded barbs almost daily since Tuesdays confrontation at the disputed Scarborough shoal, where Chinas coast guard used water cannon against to two vessels from the Philippines, prompting outrage from its government read more

Chinese Coast Guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. Reuters File

Damage to Philippine vessels and injuries to their crew in the South China Sea is irresponsible behaviour in disregard of international law, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday, weighing in on the latest flare-up involving China.

Manila and Beijing have traded barbs almost daily since Tuesdays confrontation at the disputed Scarborough shoal, where Chinas coast guard used water cannon against to two vessels from the Philippines, prompting outrage from its government.

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Weve been very clear to everyone, to include Beijing, that the kind of behaviour that weve seen, where Filipino crews are put in danger sailors have been injured and property damaged, that is irresponsible behaviour, Austin told a joint press conference in Hawaii.

Austin reiterated the United States would continue to support its former colony the Philippines, as outlined in a 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty.

Our commitment to the treaty is ironclad and we stand with the Philippines, he said after a meeting with defence counterparts of the Philippines, Australia and Japan.

Teodoro refused to speculate about the conditions in which Manila might invoke the treaty, saying that would be a political decision.

The treaty binds the two countries to defend each other in the event of attack, including in the South China Sea, upping the stakes in a long-running battle for power that has seen China double-down in asserting its territorial claim over most of the waterway, a key global trade route.

Appearing alongside Austin, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the two were committed to building capacity and deterrence to ensure no situation emerged that would require the treaty to be invoked.

We need to assert our rights but in a manner that safeguards the safety of each and every member of the Philippines armed force, he added.

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The Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing patch used by several countries, has been occupied by China for more than a decade and has been flashpoint between the Philippines and China on and off for years.

China this week accused the Philippines of encroachment and warned it not to challenge its resolve to defend its sovereignty.

Tensions between them have escalated elsewhere in the South China Sea recently as the Philippines steps up its coast guard patrols near disputed features within its exclusive economic zone, while strengthening alliances with the United States and Japan, moves Beijing sees as provocations.

Two Philippine vessels suffered damage from water cannon use late last month, while at least four crew members were injured in a similar incident in March.
Over a month after a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the government on Wednesday prohibited Chinese nationals from travelling within the province unless they are accompanied by armored vehicles read more

Five Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver on March 26. AFP File

Over a month after a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the government on Wednesday prohibited Chinese nationals from travelling within the province unless they are accompanied by armored vehicles.

Talking about the safety measures put in place after the attack, Hazara range deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Tahir Ayub Khan told Dawn News, As were adopting all possible measures for the safety of Chinese nationals, they shouldnt travel in the province without armoured vehicles in line with the governments directions.

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On March 26, a suicide bomber had rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing six people.

The engineers were en route from Islamabad to their camp at the dam construction site in Dasu in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This was the third major attack on Chinese interests in the South Asian country in a week.

The first two attacks targeted a Pakistan naval air base and a strategic port used by China in the southwest province of Balochistan where Beijing is investing billions in infrastructure projects.

According to Pakistan-based Dunya News, after the incident several Chinese nationals were restricted to move only within their hotels amid the rising security concerns. A letter by the police stressed on the need to protect Chinese nationals who are involved in non-China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Pakistans home department also stated that the projects that are not using bulletproof vehicles will be stopped unless the changes are made.

According to Dawn News, the DIG visited the sites of the Suki Kinari and Balakot hydropower projects to discuss security arrangements for the projects in the Malkandi area of Kaghan Valley

He attended security meetings concerning the hydropower projects in the Malkandi and Ghanool areas. The attendees comprised security personnel, Chinese engineers, and project managers from both sites, added the report.

DIG Tahir said the boundary walls of residential colonies, housing Chinese engineers and workers, would be at least eight feet high and might be additionally fortified with barbed wires.

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He emphasised that the security personnel would ensure the safety of the Chinese engineers at all costs.

Tahir joined the post after former DIG Mohammad Ijaz Khan was suspended after the attack on Chinese officials.

With inputs from agencies
The senators  whose identities were not disclosed  used the Wednesday meeting to voice concerns about how the ICC investigation regarding the war in Gaza is being conducted, according to a report read more

A group of Republican and Democratic senators convened a virtual meeting this week with senior officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and urged them not to issue arrest warrants against top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report.

According to a Times of Israel report, citing Axios, the senators senators  whose identities were not disclosed  used the Wednesday meeting to voice concerns about how the ICC investigation regarding the war in Gaza is being conducted.

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Israel has recently informed the US that Palestinian Authority officials might be encouraging the ICC to issue warrants against Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, added the report.

The report also said that Israel has warned the US that it will retaliate against the Palestinian Authority if the court issues the arrest warrants.

Earlier this week, according to Times of Israel, citing Axios, US Congress members from both parties cautioned the ICC, stating that if it were to issue potential arrest warrants, Washington would retaliate.

The warning comes amid concerns that such actions could jeopardize a potential hostages-for-truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.

A senior official reportedly stressed that the threat of ICC arrest warrants is real and stressed if such a scenario happens the Israeli cabinet would likely make an official decision to punish the Palestinian Authority, added the report.

The ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, has been investigating since 2021 possible war crimes by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants dating back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

That investigation has been extended to the 7 October attacks and the war that has been raging in Gaza since then.

US President Joe Biden has reiterated that the Washington opposes an ICC investigation against Israeli leaders.

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We are quietly encouraging the ICC no to do it. It will blow up everything. Israel will retaliate against the Palestinian Authority, a US official was quoted as saying.

The official also reportedly stated that the Biden administration doesnt think the move is as imminent as the Israelis think.

Israel has been actively engaged in efforts for weeks to prevent the ICC from issuing arrest warrants. Prime Minister Netanyahu asserted earlier this week that such warrants would constitute an unprecedented antisemitic hate crime.

With inputs from agencies
While heading to the polling station to cast his vote, the conservative politician was told by the polling station staff that he would not be allowed to vote in the police and crime commissioner election which was being conducted in South Oxfordshire read more

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was turned away from casting his vote at his local polling station after he forgot to bring the required photo identity.

While heading to the polling station to cast his vote, the conservative politician was told by the polling station staff that he would not be allowed to vote in the police and crime commissioner election which was being conducted in South Oxfordshire.

Interestingly, it was Johnson himself who introduced the requirement to bring a photo ID. The requirement was introduced in the stipulation of the Elections Act he proposed in 2022 while he was holding the prime ministerial post.

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At that time, the British Electoral Commission warned that hundreds and thousands of people could be excluded from voting if such a law came into force.

Johnsons spokesperson confirmed that the former British premier indeed forgot the photo ID. However, he made it clear that Johnson came back with his ID and participated in the voting.

The disenfranchising effect of the legislation

During his time in the office, Johnson introduced the Elections Act in 2022. Under the legislation, the voters must bring a photographic ID to cast their ballots.

However, the legislation was criticised by not only the UK Election Commission but also several advocacy groups who argued that they could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from voting in a future general election.

They insisted that the people who are likely to be poorer, from minority ethnic backgrounds, and disabled will be impacted by the rule.

However, the law is likely to remain in place for the next UK general elections which are expected to be held this year. In light of this, the Electoral Commission pointed out that the disenfranchising effect will very likely affect the general elections as well.

In 2023, fellow Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was part of the administration that introduced the law admitted that the rules had been an attempt to gerrymander future elections for the Conservatives  but that they had backfired because older people are one of the major voting base for the Tories, Politico reported.

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We found the people who didnt have ID were elderly and they, by and large, voted Conservative, he said. So we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.

In light of this, Downing Street said that it would look into changing the controversial rules to allow veterans ID cards onto the list of valid identification.

While responding to complaints from a veteran, British minister Johnny Mercer said that he had been turned away at a polling station. I am sorry about this. The legislation on acceptable forms of ID came out before the veterans ID cards started coming out in January this year. I will do all I can to change it before the next one, Mercer averred.
While the United States has pressed allies to seize frozen Russian assets, the European countries have disagreed with the approach read more

The G7 countries are no longer considering seizing frozen Russian assets and are instead exploring alternatives, according to a report.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and its partners froze around $300 billion of Russian assets. The G7 countries comprise the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

While the US has pressed partners to seize Russian assets to use them to support Ukraine in the war with Russia, the European countries have disagreed with approach. They are not sure of the validity of the move in international law and are further concerned about the precedent it would create that could be the ground of similar retaliatory seizures.

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Why are G7 countries not seizing frozen Russian assets?

The G7 countries are not seizing frozen Russian assets because of multiple reasons. One, it could set a bad precedent and violate international law. The precedent would allow other countries to similarly seize assets of G7 nations. Two, European countries are concerned that, taking into account the precedent of Ukraine, other countries could seek reparation for previous wars like the World Wars or colonial exploitation.

While Canada and UK have supported the American calls for seizures, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and the EU are cautious about any seizures, as per FT.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said that moving from freezing the assets, to confiscating them, to disposing of them [could carry the risk of] breaking the international order that you want to protect, that you would want Russia to respect, as per the report.

Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has been quoted as saying that it would be hard and complicated to find legal grounds to seize Russian state assets. Moreover, French Foreign Minister Bruno Le Maire has gone to the length to say that the legal foundation of such seizures simply did not exist, as per FT.

Reserves as collateral for debt, bonds, utilisation of profits: what alternatives are G7 countries exploring?

The G-7 countries have come up with a number of alternatives to seizing frozen Russian assets, according to the FT report.

One plan floated by Belgium, which hosts the largest chunk of frozen assets in Europe, says that the G7 should use Russian frozen assets as collateral to raise debt to fund Ukraines war efforts, as per the report. For this purpose, the G7 would float a special purpose vehicle that would issue debt in Russias name.

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Another plan, also floated by the United States which initially called for seizure of frozen assets, says that $50 billion from the frozen assets should be released via loans or bonds against future profits from frozen Russian assets, as per the report.

Yet another plan has reportedly been floated by the EU. This plan says that majority of present and future profits from frozen Russian assets will be used primarily to buy weapons for Ukraine. Profits until mid-February will be left to act as a buffer against any legal costs or other risks.

This plan, however, would give much slower and lower yields compared to what the US has suggested. There is another drawback. As highlighted previously, if you have already seized frozen Russian assets, then these assets cannot be used as a leverage in talks with Russia.
Responding to a question about the remarks made by Biden at an election fundraiser on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the president was making a broader point read more

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily press briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. Reuters

The United States is a country of immigrants, the White House said, defending President Joe Bidens remarks calling two of his QUAD partners  India and Japan  as well as Russia and China xenophobic nations, asserting that none of these countries, unlike the US, welcome immigrants.

Responding to a question about the remarks made by Biden at an election fundraiser on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the president was making a broader point.

He was making a broader point. Our allies and partners know very well that how much this president respects them, Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Thursday.

As you know, in regard to Japan, they were just here for the State visit. The US-Japan relationship is an important relationship. Its a deep, enduring alliance, she said.

He (Biden) was making a broader comment, speaking about this country and speaking about how important it is to be a country of immigrants and how it makes our country stronger. And so, thats what he was talking about, Jean-Pierre said.

It relates to our relationship with our allies, that continues. Obviously, we have a strong relationship with India (and) with Japan. And the President, if you just look at the last three years, has certainly focused on those diplomatic relationships, she said.

He was talking about who we are as a country. He was talking about the importance of being in a country of immigrants, especially as you see the attacks that we have seen very recently, in the last couple of years, those attacks on immigrants, in particular, the White House Press Secretary said, defending the president.

The President is always going to be really clear on speaking to issues that matter to the American people. We are a country of immigrants. That matters. And weve seen these attacks. And so, the President is never going to shy away from that, Jean-Pierre said.

It is important for us to remember that we are a country of immigrants. Im explaining what he was talking about and what he was focusing on in those comments: a country of immigrants makes us stronger. It is important to be very clear about that, she said.

While addressing his supporters at the Democratic Party fundraiser here on Wednesday evening, Biden said, This election is about freedom, America and democracy. Thats why I badly need you. You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants.

We look to the reason look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants, Biden, the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party, said.

India and Japan are members of QUAD - a four-member strategic security dialogue that includes the US and Australia.

Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State Visit last year, while Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the White House in April for an official visit.

Biden has been under attack from his opponents and the Republican Party for his immigration policies, as hundreds and thousands of illegal immigrants enter the United States every month.

Earlier, President Biden reasoned that this xenophobia is part of the reason why the economies of these nations are stalling.

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One of the reasons why our economys growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants, the 81-year-old president said at a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign, Reuters reported.

Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong, he added.

The proclamation came as Biden kickstarted the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month on Wednesday. In April, the International Monetary Fund forecasted that both Japan and India would see a growth decelerate in 2024 from the year prior, ranging from 0.9 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

The latest remarks from the president came at a time when he is campaigning against his Republican opponent Donald Trumps anti-immigrant stance.

Immigration is a hot topic in the 5 November presidential election in which Biden will face former president Donald Trump, the presumptive candidate from the Republican Party.
Londons High Court ruled that Britains latest climate action plan, aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2050, was unlawful due to ministers being uninformed about the risks of key policies not being deliverable, necessitating a new plan submission read more

Environmental campaigners celebrate outside the High Court in London, Britain on 3 May, 2024. Reuters

Britains latest climate action plan is unlawful because ministers were not told of the risk that key policies could not be delivered, Londons High Court ruled on Friday, in a further challenge for Britain as it navigates the move towards net zero.

The courts judgment  that carbon budgets set by the government in 2023 to meet the UKs target of net zero emissions by 2050 were set without evidence they could be achieved  means Britain will have to submit a new plan for a second time.

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Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project took legal action over the targets last year, having successfully challenged the previous budgets set by the Conservative government in 2022.

The High Court ruled then that Britain had breached legislation designed to help reach the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, requiring a new plan.

The three environmental groups argued the new plan was also unlawful because it was agreed based on incorrect assumptions about its viability, citing the fact that the then-energy minister, Grant Shapps, was not told of the risk that policies to reduce emissions could not eventually be delivered.

Judge Clive Sheldon upheld four out of five grounds of their legal challenge in a written ruling that Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer with Friends of the Earth, described as another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans.

In response, a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change.

The spokesperson added: The claims in this case were largely about process and the judgment contains no criticism of the detailed plans we have in place.

We do not believe a court case about process represents the best way of driving progress towards our shared goal of reaching net zero.

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More challengers

Fridays ruling comes as climate campaigners have increasingly turned to the law to force governments to move more quickly on tackling emissions.

Europes top human rights court ruled, opens new tab in April that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change, in a decision that could set a precedent for future climate lawsuits.

The case in Britain was also heard amid concerns the country has lost its position as a global leader on climate action.

Friends of the Earth lawyer David Wolfe said at Februarys hearing that Britains Climate Change Committee warned there were credible policies in place for less than 20% of the reductions required to meet the carbon budget for 2033-2037.

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But, the group said, Shapps proceeded on the assumption that the reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases from all of the proposals and policies  would all be delivered in full.

The high court ruled that Shapps was wrongly told by officials that each of the individual proposals and policies that form the package of measures would be delivered in full, rendering the carbon budget delivery plan unlawful.

Shapps decision was based on reasoning which was simply not justified by the evidence, Sheldon said in his ruling.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that there is a very strong proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza Strip on the table read more

Hamas has said that it is studying the latest proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in positive spirit.

The latest statement from Hamas, the terrorist group that Israel has been warring with for over six months in Gaza, comes amid indications that it is about to reject the proposal floating during the latest round of talks at Egyptian capital Cairo.

In recent days, the United States has stressed that it is Hamas thats a roadblock to a truce in Gaza. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Israel has been extraordinarily generous in the latest proposal.

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While the specifics of the proposal are not yet public, any deal will include a ceasefire in Gaza in lieu for the release of hostages held by Gaza in Hamas and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hamas delegation to arrive soon in Egypt to finish talks: Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the political bureau of Hamas, has said that the group is studying the latest ceasefire proposal in positive spirit, as per AFP.

Haniyeh said this in a call on Thursday with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, according to the news agency. The United States along with regional partners, mainly Qatar and Egypt, are facilitating talks between Israel and Hamas. The two warring sides do not directly engage with each-other.

Haniyeh further said that a delegation of the group will arrive soon in Egypt to complete the talks that realises the demands of our people.

While talks were stalled for weeks, negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza have picked up pace in recent weeks.

In the October 7 attack, Hamas took more than 250 hostages. While around 105 hostages were freed in a deal struck in November 2023, the rest continue to be held captive.

Very strong proposal is on the table: Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that there is a very strong proposal on the table at the moment.

Speaking to NBC News on Thursday, Blinken further said that everyone agrees it is a good deal.

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The most immediate thing, the most urgent thing is seeing in the days ahead what Hamas response is to a very strong proposal thats on the table. Everyone agrees that this is a good deal and one that would result in, again, an immediate ceasefire, which everyone wants, and getting the hostages home, which everyone should want. Thats where the focus is, said Blinken.

Previously, Blinken on Monday has said that Israel has been extraordinarily generous with the latest proposal and that he hoped it will make the right decision by accepting it.

Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel. And in this moment the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly. Im hopeful that they will make the right decision, said Blinken at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Saudi Arabias capital Riyadh.
Israel has warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where around a million displaced people are crowded together in shelters and makeshift accommodation, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7. read more

Palestinians stand in the ruins of the Chahine family home, after an overnight Israeli strike that killed at least two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024.- AP

The UN humanitarian office warned on Friday that an Israeli incursion in Rafah would endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and severely impact humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has issued warnings of an operation against Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where approximately one million displaced people are residing in shelters and makeshift accommodations following months of Israeli bombardments triggered by a deadly cross-border attack by Hamas fighters on October 7th.

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Addressing the media, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office said that aid operations run from Rafah included medical clinics and food distribution points, including centres for malnourished children.

It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah, he said

At the same briefing, a World Health Organization official said that a contingency plan for an incursion had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory said via video link that this contingency plan is a band-aid. It will not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity posed by a military operation."

Peeperkorn also said that he was extremely concerned that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is currently being used to import medical supplies.

Since Israel declared war in response to Hamas deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Netanyahu has said a central goal is to destroy its military capabilities.

Israel says Rafah is Hamas last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip, after operations elsewhere dismantled 18 out of the militant groups 24 battalions, according to the military. But even in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, Hamas has regrouped in some areas and continued to launch attacks.

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Since Israel declared war in response to Hamas deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Netanyahu has said a central goal is to destroy its military capabilities.

Israel says Rafah is Hamas last major stronghold in the Gaza Strip, after operations elsewhere dismantled 18 out of the militant groups 24 battalions, according to the military. But even in northern Gaza, the first target of the offensive, Hamas has regrouped in some areas and continued to launch attacks.

With inputs from agencies.
Maj Gen Fatuma Gaiti Ahmed was appointed as first female commander of the Kenya air force by President William Ruto. This comes after the tragic helicopter crash last month, which claimed the lives of the military chief and others, prompting the need for new leadership read more

Maj Gen Fatuma Gaiti appointed as Kenya's first female commander of the air force. Source mod.go.ke

For the first time in history of Kenya, a woman has been appointed as the commander of the countrys air force. Maj Gen Fatuma Gaiti Ahmed will now be heading one of the military services in the East African country.

Maj Gen Ahmed was appointed by Kenyas President William Ruto. This comes after the tragic helicopter crash last month, which claimed the lives of the military chief and others, prompting the need for new leadership.

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Her appointment to the prestigious post has quashed gender barriers. She has become the countrys first female air force Commander the rank dominated by men. She was the first woman to rise to a rank of brigadier and major general.

Who is Maj Gen Fatumah Gaiti Ahmed, Kenyas fist woman air force commander?

Gen Ahmed was born in 1965 and completed her education at Aga Khan High School in Nairobi.

She is a graduate of the National Defence College and an alumni of the Defence Staff College where she graduated in July 2000.

She also holds a Diploma in Management from Strathmore University College.

Luck By Chance

After graduating in 1983, Gen Ahmed had gone to collect her identity card when she stumbled upon a recruitment advertisement by the Kenyan Defence Forces.

Trying her luck, she applied and got through. Gen Ahmed entered the Kenya Military Academy as an officer cadet in 1984 and there was no looking back. In no time, she became an indispensable part of the force.

After her training got over, she was commissioned to the rank of second lieutenant in the Kenyan Womens Service Corps in 1985. All women joining the military were immediately recruited to this Corps, which was a woman-only outfit that operated as a separate entity from the other arms of the defence forces and reportedly was set up to provide support services to male officers.

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In her interview to African news outlet Nation in 2015, she had said: It was just an opportunity that presented itself and I decided to go for it.

However, in 1999, the Womens Corps was dissolved and Gen Ahmed was transferred to the Kenyan Air Force.

Notably, Gen Ahmed became the first woman to ever rise to rank in the Kenyan military.

In 2015, she was promoted to the rank of Brigadier by the then President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In 2021, she was promoted to the rank of Major General which further strengthened her remarkable career.

In 2023, President William Ruto appointed her as the Senior Directing Staff Air.

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Maj Gen Ahmed has also served as a Battalion Second in Command (BN 2IC) Staff Officer II Audit Personnel and Records.

With inputs from agencies
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the fatal shooting of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. New Delhi rejected Trudeaus claim as absurd. read more

Canadian police have made arrests in connection with the fatal 2023 shooting of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, months after Canada accused the Indian government agents of being involved in the murder according to media reports.

Members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, CBC News cited sources as saying.

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Court documents show Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karan Brar are each facing one count first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in Nijjars death.

Nijjar, 45, was gunned down outside his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., on June 18, 2023. He was a Canadian citizen.

A report in Global News identified the suspects as Indians nationals.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the fatal shooting of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. New Delhi rejected Trudeaus claim as absurd.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier said the RCMP had arrested members of an alleged hit squad. It cited a source saying investigators had identified the suspects in Canada some months ago and had been keeping them under tight surveillance.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following following Trudeaus remarks in the House of Commons regarding credible allegations of potential links between Indian agents and Nijjars killing.

India vehemently and repeatedly has denied the allegations, calling them absurd and has even asked Ottawa to share evidence on the matter. The accusation led to a series of unfortunate events; the suspension of free-trade discussions and a business trade mission by Ottawa. It also led to India suspending visa services for Canadians (it was later restored in November), and New Delhi revoking diplomatic protections for 41 Canadian diplomats in India.

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With inputs from agencies.
In a classic case of being all hat and no cattle, the US sanctions on China has proven to be of no major effect at all. Despite being blacklisted by the US government for years, Huawei has somehow managed to fund research and development projects worth millions of dollars in the US read more

US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping. US sanctions have had very little effect on China's technological development. Image Credit: Reuters

Even though the US has been very loud and vocal about imposing sanctions on China, it seems that their sanctions are all noise, while lacking the teeth to have a proper bite. In other words, its a classic case of being all hat and no cattle.

A recent report by Bloomberg has revealed that despite sanctions running years now, Chinese tech giant Huawei has been secretly financing several research projects in the United States.

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This covert funding, channelled through a Washington-based research foundation called Optica, has been supporting cutting-edge research at prestigious American universities, including Harvard.

The investigation by Bloomberg uncovered that Huawei has been the sole financial supporter of a research competition managed by Optica, which has been awarding millions of dollars since 2022.

This competition has attracted numerous proposals from scientists, including those from top US universities that have prohibited collaboration with Huawei due to national security concerns.

The concern surrounding this covert funding revolves around the potential for the research to provide China with advancements in both defence contracting and commercial interests.

Optica, the foundation overseeing the research competition, has expressed interest in various research areas, including high-sensitivity optical sensors and detectors, the report said.

However, the acceptance of anonymous funding from a Chinese company like Huawei has raised eyebrows, especially within the US governments national security circles

Despite concerns, the funnelling of funds for research purposes appears to be legal, as research intended for publication falls outside the bans scope.

Huawei conducts similar competitions openly in other parts of the world but chose to remain anonymous in the US-based initiative. Participants in the competition were unaware of Huaweis involvement, believing the funds to originate from Optica.

A spokesperson from Huawei defended the collaboration with Optica, stating that the competition was established to support global research and academic communication.

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The anonymity was purportedly maintained to avoid any appearance of promotion. Opticas CEO, Liz Rogan, echoed this sentiment, stating that anonymous donations are not uncommon and that the board was aware of Huaweis involvement.

Huawei has faced restrictions in the US since 2019 when former President Trump signed an executive order banning the sale and use of telecom equipment deemed risky to national security.

These restrictions have escalated under President Biden, with further measures blocking Huawei from obtaining FCC licenses and prohibiting American investments in Chinas high-tech industries.

Despite its challenges in the US market, Huawei continues to thrive in Europe. However, its covert research funding in America has reignited concerns about its ties to the Chinese government and its potential impact on US national security.
In Oregon, police crashed into a schools library on Thursday which has been occupied by demonstrators since Monday. Dozens were also arrested at the University of New Hampshire and at the University of Buffalo. read more

Police stand guard near an encampment of protesters supporting Palestinians on the grounds of Columbia University, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in New York City, US. Reuters

As the pro-Palestine protests take over campuses across the United States, more than 2,000 people associated with these demonstrations have now been arrested by law enforcement agencies in recent weeks.

A tally of the arrests conducted by the Associated Press revealed that as many as 300 protesters were arrested on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. This included the arrest of 200 students at the University of California, Los Angeles and more than 90 students arrested at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

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Meanwhile, in Oregon, police crashed into a schools library on Thursday which has been occupied by demonstrators since Monday. Dozens were also arrested at the University of New Hampshire and at the University of Buffalo.

Most of the protests were peaceful: Report

In the Thursday report, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said that although there have been instances of clashes, the overwhelming majority [of protests]  99 per cent  have remained peaceful.

The recent protests are part of the movement where students are urging universities to divest from businesses that support the war in Gaza. The protest highlighted how the Israel-Hamas war has become a major flashpoint in US politics with the US Presidential elections being right around the corner.

Order must prevail: Biden

Amid the protests, US President Joe Biden on Thursday made it clear that while he supports the right to protest, the order must prevail when it comes to conducting such demonstrations.

Dissent is essential for democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder, the American Commander-in-chief said in an address from the White House.

Biden admonished protesters and went on to call them violent. Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is. Theres the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos," the POTUS averred.

Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation  none of this is a peaceful protest," he added.

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However, while concluding his address, Biden made the case for the right to free speech. We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent  but neither are we a lawless country, he said.
Cash-strapped Pakistan flies to the moon for first time by hitching ride to Chinas Change-6 mission read more

Pakistans first ever moon satellite ICUBEQ launched on Friday, riding the same rocket with Chinas Chang'E6 lunar probe. Source: X/@CathayPak

Pakistan, which has been reeling under severe economic crisis, on Friday, launched its first satellite mission to the moon, iCube Qamar. For this, it tagged along Chinas ChangE6 mission.

China launched its sixth lunar exploration mission, the ChangE6 from Hainan on May 3, on board the Long March 5 rocket.

A report by Geo News quoted Dr Khurram Khurshid, a member of the Core Committee at the Institute of Space Technology (IST) saying that Pakistans satellite will reach the lunar orbit in five days and will circle around the moon for about three to six months.

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What will Pakistans satellite do on the moon?

Pakistans CubeSat Satellite iCUBE-Q is designed and developed by IST in collaboration with Chinas Shanghai University and Pakistans national space agency SUPARCO.

iCUBE-Q satellite is said to be carrying two optical cameras that will capture different pictures of the surface of the moon and help the country have its own satellite images of the celestial body for research, Khurshid said.

But why China is taking Pakistans satellite to the moon?

In 2022, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) extended a distinctive opportunity to member states via the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) to include a student-built payload on the Change 6 mission bound for the moon.

Pakistans ICUBE-Q was chosen for it.

More about Pakistans first satellite on the way to the moon

CubeSats are miniature satellites typically characterised by their small size and standardised design. They are constructed in a cubic shape, consisting of modular components that follow specific size constraints.

Also Read: Quicksplained: Pakistans first moon mission and its China connection

The weight of these satellites is often not more than a few kilograms and they are deployed in space for multiple purposes, with the primary being facilitating scientific research, development of technology, and educational initiatives in space exploration.

Also, these satellites are used for a wide range of missions, including Earth observations, remote sensing, atmospheric research, communications, astronomy, and technology demonstration.
Pakistan has seen a surge in terrorist attacks over the past year, particularly in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, following the cessation of a ceasefire between the government and the banned militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in November 2022. read more

At least 179 terrorism-related incidents took place in Pakistans restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan this year till April-end, according to a media report on Friday.

According to a media report on Friday, at least 179 terrorism-related incidents occurred in Pakistans volatile Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan in the first four months of this year.

Citing figures from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), ARY News channel reported that February saw the highest number of terrorist fatalities, with 31 individuals killed. In January, there were 60 terrorism-related incidents, followed by 48 in April, 38 in February, and 33 in March, as per the CTD data.

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The report also noted that 19 terrorists were killed in Dera Ismail Khan and 14 in North Waziristan. Among those killed, 16 were identified as most wanted, including individuals named Mohsin Qadir, Azmatullah, and Fareedullah.

The challenging security situation in the province was further underscored by ten attacks targeting police teams reported this year.

Pakistan has seen an increase in terrorist activities over the past year, particularly in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, following the cessation of a ceasefire between the government and the banned militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in November 2022.

Last year, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) highlighted the prevalence of terrorism incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, noting a total of 563 such incidents in 2023. Among these, police were targeted 243 times. The report revealed that the highest number of terrorism incidents, totaling 132, occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, followed by 103 incidents in Khyber and 89 in Peshawar.

KP province shares a border with Afghanistan, where insurgents often find refuge. Pakistani officials have pointed out that the province is vulnerable to terrorist activities, with militants frequently crossing the porous border to launch attacks and then retreating back into Afghanistan.
All 168 of the 296 members currently in the single-chamber National Assembly cast ballots in favour of passing the bill, which aims to investigate allegations that the Yoon administration pressured an investigator to drop charges against a division commander in connection with the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun read more

On Thursday, the opposition-led National Assembly passed a special bill to launch an inquiry into allegations that the Yoon Suk Yeol government misused its authority to obstruct an investigation into the demise of a young Marine in the previous year.

All 168 of the 296 members currently in the single-chamber National Assembly cast ballots in favour of passing the bill, which aims to investigate allegations that the Yoon administration pressured an investigator to drop charges against a division commander in connection with the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun.

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In July of last year, Chae was washed away during a search and rescue effort in a flooded creek; he was not wearing any safety gear at the time.

With the exception of one, every lawmaker from the ruling People Power Party boycotted the move and left the afternoon plenary session, where the vote was held.

The brief spirit of reconciliation between Yoon and the opposing partieswhich had resulted from the president and key opposition leader Lee Jae-myungs first-ever meeting on Mondaywas dashed by the oppositions move to pass the bill.

Referred to as a political ploy, the oppositions plan to approve the investigation bill into the marines death was condemned by the ruling party and the presidential office.

The presidents new chief of staff, Chung Jin-suk, announced at a briefing that they deeply regretted the Democratic Party of Koreas (major opposition) decision to pursue the special investigation bill on Marine Cpl. Chaes death in a unilateral manner.

He also added that the Democratic Partys move to pass the bill was an example of bad politics in which they were trying to use the tragic death of Marine Cpl. Chae for political gain.

The interim chairman of the governing party, Yun Jae-ok, stated that he intended to formally ask Yoon to use his veto authority over the controversial probe bill and declined to work with the opposition in the near future.

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After the MPs from the governing party departed the plenary session, Yun spoke at a news conference. We believe we can only ask President Yoon to exercise his veto power considering the legislative process (shown today) and the details of the (contentious) bill, Yun stated.

In a rare instance of bipartisan collaboration, the opposing parties earlier in the same plenary session enacted a watered-down version of a special inquiry law that launches a fresh investigation into the Itaewon crowd crush catastrophe on October 29, 2022.

256 of the 259 Assembly members who took part in the vote supported the bills passage, which aims to establish an impartial inquiry panel into the catastrophe that left 159 people dead. Three governing party MPs chose to abstain from voting.

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President Yoon first rejected the earlier version of the law on January 30, following its passage on January 9 by the opposition-led parliament, which saw the ruling People Power Party abstain from voting.

After Yoon and Lee met for the first time in person, the opposing sides decided to compromise on some of the provisions specifics in order to reach a compromise, which resulted in the revised law.

A significant departure from the original draft of the bill was the removal of provisions granting the panel access to a number of secret court records related to the Itaewon tragedy investigations, as well as the authority to ask prosecutors for a warrant in the event that the panels request for these records is denied twice.

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Additionally, the panels membership was reduced from its original eleven members to nine. The Assembly Speaker will also choose the members from among the candidates recommended by the opposing parties; in the previous iteration, nominees nominated by the relatives of the victims of the disaster were also included.

The panel will be operational for one year from its launch, with the option to extend it once for up to three months.
The spy agency said it appeared linked to a wave of defections by elite North Koreans who were trapped overseas during the pandemic and are now avoiding returning home after Pyongyang eased strict border controls, having become sceptical of the regime read more

South Koreas spy agency said Friday that Pyongyang was plotting terrorist attacks targeting Seouls officials and citizens overseas, with the foreign ministry raising the alert level for diplomatic missions in five countries.

The National Intelligence Service said it had recently detected numerous signs that North Korea is preparing for terrorist attacks against our embassy staff or citizens in various countries, (such as) China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

North Korea has dispatched agents to these countries to expand surveillance of the South Korean embassies and is also engaging in specific activities such as searching for South Korean citizens as potential terrorist targets, it said in a statement sent to AFP.

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The spy agency said it appeared linked to a wave of defections by elite North Koreans who were trapped overseas during the pandemic and are now avoiding returning home after Pyongyang eased strict border controls, having become sceptical of the regime.

Pyongyang treats defections as a serious crime and is believed to hand harsh punishments to transgressors, their families, and even people tangentially linked to the incident.

North Korean embassy officials may be submitting false reports blaming external factors for voluntary defections by their colleagues, in a bid to evade punishment, the NIS said.

As a result, the North may be plotting retaliation against South Korean embassy staff on such pretences, NIS added.

South Koreas foreign ministry said on Thursday it had raised its anti-terrorism alert status for five of its diplomatic missions  embassies in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam as well as its consulates in Russian port city Vladivostok and the Chinese city of Shenyang.

Both Seoul and Pyongyang have embassies or consulates in all five locations.

North Korea has diplomatic ties with more than 150 countries, according to Seoul, but the number of missions it maintains overseas has shrunk since the 1990s due to financial constraints.

According to Seouls unification ministry, 196 North Korean defectors arrived in the South last year, with around 10 of them being from Pyongyangs elite class, such as diplomats and possibly their children.

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This marked the highest number of defections by North Korean elites to the South since 2017, according to Seoul.

The end of the pandemic has enabled North Korean agents, previously confined within their country, to travel abroad for missions, while South Koreans are also travelling abroad without any restrictions, Lee Man-jong, president of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies, told AFP.

Pyongyang appears to be targeting South Korean assets and nationals located in foreign countries with which they have established strong diplomatic ties.

Assassination attempt

Experts say the extended overseas stay during the pandemic has led North Korean expatriates to increasingly doubt their countrys isolated regime.

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While living abroad, these North Koreans were able to send their children to normal schools, avoiding propaganda education and the constant need to be obedient to the regime, Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.

If North Korean diplomats and agents stationed abroad are continually and brutally pressured by Pyongyang to address defections by elite expats, we cannot rule out the possibility of the North plotting a terrorist attack against South Koreans living overseas.

Pyongyang is suspected of being behind the 1996 killing of a South Korean consul in Vladivostok, who was attacked and killed by an unidentified assailant.

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The consul, also an intelligence agent, had been monitoring Pyongyangs illicit activities, including drug trafficking and the production of counterfeit banknotes, according to South Korean reports.

And it launched an assassination attempt in Myanmar in 1983 when a bomb exploded in a Yangon mausoleum during a visit by then-South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people, including some government ministers, were killed.

Pyongyangs leader Kim Jong Un has declared Seoul his countrys principal enemy, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over even 0.001 mm of territorial infringement.
The move by Russias military puts US and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine read more

Nigeriens gather in a street to protest against the US military presence, in Niamey, Niger, 13 April, 2024. Reuters File

Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting US troops, a senior US defence told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Nigers junta to expel US forces.

The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the US to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washingtons fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

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A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces were not mingling with US troops but were using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Nigers capital.

The move by Russias military, which Reuters was the first to report, puts US and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine.

It also raises questions about the fate of US installations in the country following a withdrawal.

(The situation) is not great but in the short-term manageable, the official said.

Asked about the Reuters report, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin played down any risk to American troops or the chance that Russian troops might get close to US military hardware.

The Russians are in a separate compound and dont have access to US forces or access to our equipment, Austin told a press conference in Honolulu.

Im always focused on the safety and protection of our troops  But right now, I dont see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection.

The Nigerien and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US and its allies have been forced to move troops out of a number of African countries following coups that brought to power groups eager to distance themselves from Western governments. In addition to the impending departure from Niger, US troops have also left Chad in recent days, while French forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso.

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At the same time, Russia is seeking to strengthen relations with African nations, pitching Moscow as a friendly country with no colonial baggage in the continent.

Mali, for example, has in recent years become one of Russias closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight jihadist insurgents.

Russia has described relations with the United States as below zero because of U.S. military and financial aid for Ukraine in its effort to defend against invading Russian forces.

The U.S. official said Nigerien authorities had told President Joe Bidens administration that about 60 Russian military personnel would be in Niger, but the official could not verify that number.

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After the coup, the U.S. military moved some of its forces in Niger from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez. It was not immediately clear what US military equipment remained at Airbase 101.

The United States built Airbase 201 in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million. Since 2018 it has been used to target Islamic State and al Qaeda affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) fighters with armed drones.

Washington is concerned about Islamic militants in the Sahel region, who may be able to expand without the presence of U.S. forces and intelligence capabilities.

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Nigers move to ask for the removal of U.S. troops came after a meeting in Niamey in mid-March, when senior U.S. officials raised concerns including the expected arrival of Russia forces and reports of Iran seeking raw materials in the country, including uranium.

While the US message to Nigerien officials was not an ultimatum, the official said, it was made clear US forces could not be on a base with Russian forces.

They did not take that well, the official said.

A two-star US general has been sent to Niger to try and arrange a professional and responsible withdrawal.

While no decisions have been taken on the future of US troops in Niger, the official said the plan was for them to return to US Africa Commands home bases, located in Germany.
The UKs Opposition Labour Party has made definitive gains, including overturning the Tory majority in the Blackpool South by-election which was necessitated following a resignation amid a lobbying row read more

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks leadership is under severe pressure on Friday as the results of local elections and a crucial by-election poured in overnight, delivering what is being characterised as one of the worst poll outcomes for the governing Conservative Party in 40 years.

Rebels from within his party are expected to renew their attacks on the British Indian leader after the Opposition Labour Party made definitive gains, including overturning the Tory majority in the Blackpool South by-election which was necessitated following a resignation amid a lobbying row.

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Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer declared the result as a seismic victory and an overall poll verdict in favour of the party as it comes on the eve of a general election, expected later this year.

Blackpool speaks for the whole country This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change, said Starmer of the by-election.

The message to Rishi Sunak is clear. Its time for change, its time for a general election, he said.

The Labour candidate in Blackpool South, Chris Webb, defeated Conservative David Jones in the constituency which the Tories had won from Labour under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019. The swing of 26 per cent from the Tories to Labour has been characterised as the third biggest in a by-election since 1945.

Were probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performance in local government elections for the last 40 years, eminent pollster Professor John Curtice told the BBC.

The by-election took place alongside local elections around England and Wales, in which voters elected their local councillors who manage day to day issues such as waste collection, roads and local infrastructure as well as crime fighting.

The results will continue to pour in over the weekend, with the overall picture expected to be clear by Sunday. But the early indications are that Labour has taken control of a number of local authorities in the regions that had turned away from the party in favour of the Tories over its anti-Brexit stance.

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Meanwhile, Tories look set to lose hundreds of seats, with the far-right Reform UK also making some impact. This will also worry the Conservatives for the general election if traditional Tory voters are seen to be drawn to this new avatar of the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP). In another trend likely to continue to resonate during a general election, there is evidence in areas with a significant Muslim population that Labours stance to not strongly condemn Israel in the Gaza conflict is hurting the party.

Most of the mayoral results are expected over the weekend, with Londons Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan hoping to be re-elected for a third term. He was challenged by British Indian businessman Tarun Ghulati, who thanked voters for the support he received in the campaign.

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I had overwhelming support from India and all over the world and want to thank everyone for the support and blessings, he said.

Among the other mayoral polls, the Tory Mayors of Tees Valley and the West Midlands are hoping to hold on to their seats. There other mayoral contests taking place include Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region, with the East Midlands, the North East, and York and North Yorkshire electing mayors for the first time. Besides councillors and mayors, around 37 police and crime commissioners are also being elected in some parts of England and Wales.
Energy workers in Ukraine are having a difficult time repairing the damage caused by the escalating airstrikes that are intended to destroy the countrys energy infrastructure, cripple the economy, and lower public morale read more

At a Ukrainian power plant repeatedly hit by Russian aerial attacks, equipment department chief Oleh has a one-word answer when asked what Ukraines battered energy industry needs most: Patriot.

Ukrainian energy workers are struggling to repair the damage from intensifying airstrikes aimed at pulverizing Ukraines energy grid, hobbling the economy and sapping the publics morale. Staff worry they will lose the race to prepare for winter unless allies come up with air-defense systems like the US-made Patriots to stop Russian attacks inflicting more destruction on already damaged plants.

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Rockets hit fast. Fixing takes long, Oleh said in limited but forceful English.

The US has sent Ukraine some Patriot missile systems, and said last week it would give more after entreaties from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Associated Press on Thursday visited a plant owned by DTEK, the countrys biggest private energy supplier, days after a cruise-missile attack left parts of it a mess of smashed glass, shattered bricks and twisted metal. The coal-fired plant is one of four DTEK power stations struck on the same day last week.

The AP was given access on the condition that the location of the facility, technical details of the damage and workers full names are not published due to security concerns.

During the visit, State Emergency Service workers in hard hats and harnesses clambered atop the twisted roof of a vast building, assessing the damage and occasionally dislodging chunks of debris with a thunderous clang.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Foreign Policy magazine that half of the countrys energy system has been damaged by Russian attacks.

DTEK says it has lost 80% of its electricity-generating capacity in almost 180 aerial attacks since the start of Russias full-scale invasion in 2022. It estimates that repairing all the damaged plants would take between six months and two years  even if there are no more strikes.

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Shift supervisor Ruslan was on duty in the operations room when the air alarm sounded. He sent his crew to a basement shelter but remained at his post when the blast struck only meters (yards) away.

He rushed out to darkness, dust and fire. He said he wasnt scared because I knew what I needed to do  make sure his team was OK and then try to help put out the flames.

Russia pummeled Ukraines energy infrastructure to devastating effect during the blackout winter of 2022-23. In March it launched a new wave of attacks, one of which completely destroyed the Trypilska power plant near Kyiv, one of the countrys biggest.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed the attacks as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Oleh said the Russians are learning all the time and adapting their tactics. Initially they targeted transformers that distribute power; now they aim for the power-generating equipment itself, with increasing accuracy. The Russians also are sending growing numbers of missiles and exploding drones to exhaust Ukraines air defenses, and striking the same targets repeatedly.

DTEK executive director Dmytro Sakharuk said in March that out of 10 units the company had repaired after earlier strikes, two-thirds had been hit again.

More Russian missiles have been getting through in recent months as Ukraine awaited new supplies from allies, including a $61 billion package from the US that was held up for months by wrangling in Congress. It was finally approved in April, but it could be weeks or months before all the new weapons and ammunition arrives.

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Ukraines energy firms have all but exhausted their finances, equipment and spare parts fixing the damage Russia has already wrought. The countrys power plants urgently need specialist equipment that Ukraine can no longer make at sufficient speed and scale.

Some 51 DTEK employees have been wounded in attacks since 2022, and three have been killed. Staff say they keep working despite the danger because they know how crucial their work is.

Machine operator Dmytro, who was on shift during the recent attack and took shelter in the basement, said that when he emerged, my soul was bleeding when I saw the scale of the destruction.

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He thought of the many people who had poured heart and soul into building the mammoth power plant.

This was destroyed in a few seconds, in an instant, he said.

Dmytro, who worked at Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant before it was seized by Russia, said he would continue to show up for work every day, as long as Im able.

Its our duty towards the country, he said.
Among their demands, the protesters at Rutgers University had sought to fly the flags of occupied people in areas of the campus that feature international flags read more

The Rutgers University in the United States has agreed to the demands of anti-Israel protesters on the campus. Among the agitators demands that the administration has bowed to is the clubbing of Kashmiris with the Palestinians in the list of occupied people.

Among their 10 demands, the protesters had sought to fly the flags of occupied people in areas of the campus that feature international flags.

Additionally, the Rutgers administration has agreed to accept other demands that include accepting 10 displaced Palestinian students, recruiting Arab faculty members, establishing an Arab Cultural Centre, etc.

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Rutgers to consider flying flags of occupied people

The protesters had demanded that all areas of the university campus featuring international flags should feature flags of occupied people. Among them, the agitators listed Palestinians, Kurds, and Kashmiris.

In its response, the Rutgers administration said it will take stock of flags in such areas.

The Office of the Chancellor will take stock of flags that are displayed across Rutgers-New Brunswick campus, and ensure appropriate representation of students enrolled in academic and other spaces, said a note attached to a message signed by Francine Conway, Chancellor, Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

So @RutgersU has caved. But check this out.



Display the flags of occupied peoples includingKashmiris?



How nice.



Lets ask the indigenous people of Kashmir.



Hey Kashmiri Pandit friends, Shall we send your flag to Rutgers?  https://t.co/LhseUW0KoX pic.twitter.com/QAKIfxOY25  Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) May 3, 2024

The inclusion of Kashmiris in the list of occupied people comes at a time when protests are going on across campuses in the United States over the war in Gaza. The protesters are calling for their institutions to disassociate from Israel and are urging for increased attention to the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

8 of 10 demands of Gaza protesters met

The Rutgers administration has accepted eight of the 10 demands of the protesters. These demands include:

Accepting at least 10 displaced Gazans to study at Rutgers on scholarship

Providing resources for Palestinian and Arab students in the form of an Arab Cultural Center

Establishing long-term educational and collaboration partnership with Birzeit University, Ramallah

Replacing Middle East and Gaza region as Palestine and Palestinians and advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza

Recruit officials with cultural competency and knowledge about Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobia

Recruit additional professor specialising in Palestinian and Middle Eastern affairs

Full amnesty for all protesters

UPDATE: President Halloway has agreed to 8 of the 10 demands given by Rutgers SJP and the students in the encampment. Most notably the demands for total divestment and the termination of its partnership with Tel Aviv University are things not in the Presidents control.



Thus pic.twitter.com/xpjSVOEMHn  Spyder Monkey (@SpyderMonkey0_0) May 2, 2024

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The two demands not accepted are divesting from companies doing business with Israel and severing ties with Israels Tel Aviv University. The reason is that these decisions fall outside the purview of the university administration.

While the request for the university to divest from companies engaged in Israel and to sever ties with Tel Aviv University was made, such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope. However, following our established university policies, the divestment request is under review, said Francine Conway, Chancellor, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, in a statement.
The agreement normalising the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia is expected to be modelled on the Abraham Accords that normalised Israels ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco read more

The US is working on a deal for a defence pact with Saudis, Israel-Saudi normalisation, and Palestinian statehood. (Photo: Reuters)

The United States is working on a three-way mega-deal that includes Israel-Saudi Arabia normalisation, a US-Saudi defence pact, and a pathway for Palestinian statehood, according to the US Department of State.

The three parts of the deal are dependent on each-other and will not be implemented separately, according to a CNN report that cites the State Department.

The Saudi-Israeli normalisation is expected to be modelled after Abraham Accords, the series of agreements during the Donald Trumps administration that normalised Israels relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco.

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While Joe Biden administration has been working for the Saudi-Israel normalisation for years, the latest push and the bundling of the normalisation with the US-Saudi defence pact and Palestinian statehood comes amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The Saudis have stressed that a ceasefire in Gaza and an irrevocable pathway for Palestinian statehood are preconditions for any normalisation.

All parts of mega-deal linked together, none will go forward alone: Department of State

The US Department of State has said that the three components of the mega-deal Israel-Saudi normalisation, US-Saudi defence pact, Palestinian statehood will not go forward alone and are all linked.

All of them are linked together. None go forward without the others, said Miller to CNN.

The report said that the first component of the mega-deal will include a series of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia which will comprise the defence pact between the two countries. Then, the Israel-Saudi normalisation is expected to follow, and the third component will be a pathway for a Palestinian statehood, according to the report.

The United States and much of the international community has lately been pushing for the realisation of the two-state solution, which refers to a proposed solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Under this framework, a Jewish State of Israel and an Arab State of Palestine will exist side-by-side in the region.

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Calm in Gaza must for Israel-Saudi normalisation: Antony Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that calm in Gaza is a must for the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking earlier this week at a World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Saudi capital Riyadh, Blinken said that the US-Saudi component of the deal is potentially very close to completion.

The work that Saudi Arabia, the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion. But then in order to move forward with normalisation, two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state, said Blinken, as per AFP.

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Previously, Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince and the de-facto ruler of the kingdom, has called any pact with Israel with the biggest historical deal since the Cold War.

On his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appreciated the Abaraham Accords. He has earlier said that the old and dangerous doctrine of territories in exchange for peace and brought peace in exchange for peace, without giving up a single inch. The land for peace refers to the proposed two-state solution where proponents of the plan say Israel should give up land for the Palestinian state for lasting peace in the region.
While the presence of US forces can deter aggression and provide security assurances to allies, they can also exacerbate tensions and contribute to perceptions of foreign intervention read more

Wary about earning the ire of Irans proxies, a careful UAE has asked to stop the US to stop combat missions from the Al Dhafra air base in Abu Dhabi to carry out strikes in Yemen and Iraq. The Middle East is already in state of turmoil and the UAE can ill-afford to earn more enemies at this juncture.

A Wall Street Journal exclusive report said that the recent action underscores increasing strains between Washington and certain Persian Gulf nations.

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These nations have permitted American military presence on their soil but are cautious about being dragged into regional conflicts, especially as the Gaza conflict, which has been ongoing for eight months, extends its reach. Across the Middle East, the US has utilised multiple bases to carry out airstrikes in countries like Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Additionally, it has intercepted drones and missiles over the Red Sea and in airspace over Jordan and other neighbouring nations.

Given the ground restrictions, the US has shifted many of its aerial combat assets to Al Udeid in Qatar where no such restrictions exist. These installations play a crucial role in projecting American military power in the region, supporting various operations including counterterrorism, deterrence against adversaries and maintaining stability.

American military installations in the Middle East

American military presence in the Middle East is significant with several key installations across the region. Here are a few key ones spreading across different countries in the region.

Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar: One of the largest US military bases in the region, it serves as a major hub for US air operations in the Middle East. It houses the US Air Force Central Command and the Combined Air Operations Center.

Camp Arifjan, Kuwait: This is the primary logistics base for US military operations in the region. It supports US Army operations and serves as a staging area for troops and equipment.

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Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti: Though not technically in the Middle East, it plays a crucial role in US military operations in the region. It is a key base for counterterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait: Another important US military installation in Kuwait, used for air operations and logistics support.

Incirlik Air Base, Turkey: While tensions between the US and Turkey have strained relations and impacted operations at this base, it historically has been a key hub for US air operations in the region.

Naval Support Activity Bahrain: This base provides support to US Navy operations in the Persian Gulf, including the Fifth Fleet.

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Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia: This base has seen increased US presence in recent years, particularly after tensions with Iran escalated. It serves as a staging area for US forces in the region.

Camp Buehring, Kuwait: Another important base in Kuwait, primarily used for training and staging of ground forces.

Al Dhafra Air Base: Located southwest of Abu Dhabi, Al Dhafra Air Base is one of the main military bases in the UAE and hosts a contingent of US forces. It has been used for various purposes, including refueling and logistics support for US military operations in the region.

Port of Jebel Ali: While not a traditional military installation, the Port of Jebel Ali in Dubai is a strategically important logistics hub for the US military. It serves as a key port of call for US Navy ships and provides support for naval operations in the region.

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RAK Airport Base: There have been reports of the UAE allowing the US military to use Ras Al Khaimah International Airport for logistical support and potentially for operations in the region. However, information about this base is not as widely available as for other installations.

US-Qatar extends Al Udeid Air Base deal

In January this year, US reached an agreement with Qatar to maintain military presence at the Al Udeid Air Base, located in the desert southwest of Doha, for another 10 years, as per a CNN report. It is also the biggest US military installation in the Middle East and can house more than 10,000 American troops.

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The installation serves as a crucial hub for US Central Commands aerial operations in and around Afghanistan, Iran and throughout the Middle East. Additionally, both the Qatari and British Air Forces utilize facilities at this base.

US military presence in Middle East is not devoid of political and regional tensions

The presence of these military installations has been a source of political tension both within the countries hosting them and in the broader region. The presence of US military forces in the Middle East has been a contentious issue in regional politics, contributing to anti-American sentiment in some quarters and complicating efforts at diplomacy and conflict resolution.

While the presence of US forces can deter aggression and provide security assurances to allies, they can also exacerbate tensions and contribute to perceptions of foreign intervention. The Middle East, also referred to as West Asia, is characterised by complex geopolitical rivalries including competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as between various Sunni and Shia factions.

Nevertheless, the US has used its military presence in the Middle East to conduct numerous counterterrorism operations, particularly against groups like Al Qaeda and Islamic State for decades now. Perhaps also from the point of energy security as the Middle East is home to some of the worlds largest oil reserves and critical shipping lanes like the Red Sea, the US military presence helps in securing these sites and lanes.

Broadly speaking, the politics surrounding American military installations in the Middle East are complex and multifaceted reflecting the geopolitical dynamics of the region.
Authorities in Rio Grande do Sul have declared a state of emergency as rescuers continue to search for dozens of individuals reported missing amid the debris of fallen homes, bridges, and roadways read more

People walk in a flooded area next to the Taquari River during heavy rains in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. Reuters

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday visited the countrys south where floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains have killed 29 people, with the toll expected to rise.

Authorities in Rio Grande do Sul have declared a state of emergency as rescuers continue to search for dozens of people reported missing among the ruins of collapsed homes, bridges and roads.

Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000.

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Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with the worst disaster in (its) history.

With the deepest pain in my heart, I know it will be even more, the governor said of the death toll.

Lula, who has blamed the torrent on climate change, arrived in the town of Santa Maria in the morning with a delegation of ministers and held a working meeting with Leite and other officials to coordinate rescue efforts, the government said.

The president promised there will be no lack of human or material resources to minimize the suffering this extreme event is causing in the state.

The federal government, he added, will be 100 percent at the disposition of state officials.

Central authorities has already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, a press statement said.

As the rains continued, forecasts warned the states main Guaiba River, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, would reach an extraordinary level of three meters (9.8 feet) by Thursday and four meters the next day.

Completely destroyed

Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul state have been completely cut off as persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without even telephone or internet services.

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Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stuck on rooftops to escape rising waters.

Ive never seen anything like this its all under water, said Raul Metzel, a 52-year-old machine operator in the municipality of Capela de Santana.

A dam collapsed in the town of Cotipora, raising the level of water in the Taquari river.

I came here to help people, to get them out of the flooding because it is very dangerous. The current is very strong, said fisherman Guilverto Luiz, who was helping rescue efforts in Sao Sebastiaio do Cai, about 70 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital.

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Authorities have urged people to avoid areas along state highways due to a risk of mudslides, and those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to electricity and drinking water, while classes have been suspended state-wide.

On Wednesday, the states deputy governor, Gabriel Souza, said damages have been estimated at $20 million.

Mayor Sandra Backes of Sinimbu said the situation in her town was a nightmare.

Sinimbu is like a war zone, completely destroyed All the stores, businesses, supermarkets  everything is devastated, she said in a video posted on Instagram.

Elsewhere, in Santa Cruz do Sul, lifeguards used boats to transport residents, many of them children, to safety.

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The regions rivers had already been swollen from previous storms.

Last September at least 31 people died as a cyclone hit the state.

South Americas largest country has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.

The floods came amid a cold front battering the south and southeast, following a wave of extreme heat.
Sony is gearing up to release its newest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 VI, later this month. Before the official launch, MSPoweruser has shared details about its camera and other features.

Design and Display

The Xperia 1 VI will have frosted textured glass on the back and fine slits on the sides for a better grip. It will be available in black and platinum silver colors.

The OLED display is 1.5 times brighter than the previous model, with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and variable refresh rates from 1Hz to 120Hz, aligning with previous leaks of the device losing the 4K display.

The display could include features like BRAVIA HDR remaster technology and Sunlight vision mode for improved outdoor visibility and visuals.

Camera

The phone will feature a triple rear camera setup: an ultrawide angle 16mm lens, a wide-angle 24mm lens (48mm with 2X Optical Zoom), and a telephoto zoom 85-170mm lens (Up to 7X Zoom).

Each camera is expected to have a 48MP Exmor T lens. Sony will introduce a new camera app combining Photography Pro, Videography Pro, and Cinema Pro into one.

It will also include human pose estimation technology for better focusing on subjects and a new Video Creator app for simplified video production.

Other Specifications

The Xperia 1 VI might run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, with improved heat diffusion and a vapor chamber to prevent overheating. It could have a 5000mAh battery with wireless and reverse wireless charging and upgraded battery health technology.

The phone will feature a new high-performance audio chip, Hi-Res Audio, Hi-Res Audio Wireless, 360 Reality Audio, LDAC, and DSEE Ultimate. It will retain the 3.5mm jack for wired listening and offer gaming features like a 240Hz touch scanning rate and an FPS optimizer.

In select regions, buyers could get a year of free Sony Pictures movie streaming and up to five movie titles remastered with IMAX video and DTS sound optimized for the phone.

Launch Date

Sonys Xperia product launch event is scheduled for May 17th, where the Xperia 1 VI is expected to be unveiled.

Source
From April 23 to 24, Ambassador Wang Qing visited Sierra Leone Southern Province. Ambassador Wang visited Bo, the second largest city in Sierra Leone, and met with relevant mayors and city council chairpersons of the Southern and Eastern Provinces of Sierra Leone. He introduced the latest progress in China- Sierra Leone relations and discussed further strengthening the local, agricultural, poverty reduction, and human resources development between the two countries.





Ambassador Wang also visited Njala University, Bo School and Taiama Primary School respectively, introducing the achievements and significance of Chinese

modernization, looking forward to the bright future of China-Sierra Leone relations, and encouraging students to be the inheritors and contributors of China- Sierra Leone friendship.

Ambassador Wang also paid a visit to the 14th China-Agricultural Technical Expert Group to Sierra Leone and attended the seed donation ceremony of the expert group to Sierra Leone.

All parties expressed warm welcome to Ambassador Wang's visit, thanked China for its long-term valuable support to Sierra Leone, spoke highly of the friendship between the two countries, which is a friend in need, and looked forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with China to contribute to the China- Sierra Leone friendship.
Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - Top independent rights experts on Thursday called for an end to the practice of detaining the children of migrants and asylum-seekers entering the European Union
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - UN agencies issued a joint warning on Friday that time is running out to prevent starvation in Sudans Darfur region due to intensifying clashes around the northern capital of El Fasher, which are hindering efforts to deliver life-saving aid
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has begun consideration of several rule changes to help benefit livestock producers dealing with impacts from restoration of wolves to the state.

They include letting livestock producers use lighting and nighttime vision enhancement equipment when they are authorized to injure or kill a problem wolf, expanding compensation for losses of livestock to wolves in cases of livestock managed in pools, and extending compensation from wolf depredation to instances of attacks on domestic bison.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission began considering the changes at its meeting Thursday in Montrose. It will consider final action on them at a future meeting.

As part of its gray wolf reintroduction effort, the agency can issue permits to people to injure or kill wolves under certain circumstances to protect livestock. But state law also prohibits the use of artificial light or equipment such as night vision goggles or thermal imaging devices to aid in hunting or taking wildlife, unless the Parks and Wildlife Commission creates an exception. The rule change would create an exception as it pertains to managing gray wolves, helping address the challenges ranchers can face trying to fend off wolves, oftentimes at night.

This is not hunting that were talking about, this is protection of their livestock, Travis Black, Northwest regional manager for Parks and Wildlife, told the commission.

The pooled livestock provision would pertain to situations where multiple cattle owners graze their stock together. Parks and Wildlife currently lets an owner who has experienced a confirmed loss of an animal to wolf depredation in a pooled situation to file a claim for compensation, but doesnt allow other livestock owners in the pool to seek compensation for missing calves and yearlings except where such a loss is confirmed as a wolf depredation. Under the change, owners without a confirmed wolf depredation could still seek compensation for missing calves and yearlings they think were lost to gray wolves as long as another owner experiences a confirmed wolf depredation involving some of the pooled animals.

The other rule change would add domestic bison to the list of livestock animals whose owners are eligible for compensation in cases of attacks on livestock by wolves.

The commission on Thursday heard some support for the changes, including from Ginny Harrington, who lives in the Carbondale area, where her husband manages a ranch. She thanked Park and Wildlife for listening to her concerns related to pooled cattle and wolves.

Ive been talking about pooled cattle for a couple of years now so I appreciate that being brought forward, she said.

She said the Holy Cross Cattlemens Association, with which she is involved, also supports the proposed change regarding use of artificial lighting to protect livestock.

Adam Kreger with Friends of Animals said his group opposes the artificial lighting/thermal imaging/night vision rule change, which he said encourages killing of wolves when the focus should be on use of nonlethal measures to deter wolf attacks on livestock. He also questioned being able to automatically attribute a missing calf to wolf depredation in a pooled cattle situation.

This artificially raises the threat and animosity toward wolves, so we need to find another way, he said.

Livestock owners and Parks and Wildlife have dealt with several instances of attacks by wolves on cattle in Grand and Jackson counties over the past month.

Working to fulfill a 2020 voter-approved ballot measure requiring wolf restoration, Parks and Wildlife transferred 10 wolves from Oregon to Colorado in December, adding to two gray wolves already in the state as a result of natural migration. One of the transplanted wolves recently was found dead in Larimer County, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says initial indications are that it likely died of natural causes.

Also last month, on April 3, the Fish and Wildlife Service became aware of a deceased canid in Elbert County that genetic testing later confirmed is a gray wolf from the Great Lakes wolf population, not one of those released by Parks and Wildlife in December, according to a statement from a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, Joe Szuszwalak.

As a federally listed species under the Endangered Species Act, the Service is investigating this incident and is working in coordination with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. As an open and active investigation, no additional details are available at this time, he said.

The agricultural news organization, the Fence Post, has reported that a rancher had discovered the animal April 3 in a legal coyote trap on a ranch in the eastern Colorado county.

While its not clear how the wolf ended up in Elbert County, Szuszwalak said it isnt unheard of for gray wolves to move great distances, and we have noted wolves from the Great Lakes making their way through neighboring states, including Nebraska in recent years (not resident wolves but likely just moving through).

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a 209-205 vote a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., that would remove the gray wolf in the Lower 48 states from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, was one of four Democrats joining Republicans in approving the bill.

The gray wolf is fully recovered and should be delisted in the lower 48 states, Boebert said in a press release.

Gray wolves in the northern Rockies already have been delisted by Congress. Animal rights activists reacted in anger after Wyoming resident Cody Roberts ran down and injured a wolf with his snowmobile in February and displayed the injured, muzzled animal in a bar before killing it. His only legal consequence was being fined $250 for possession of a live wild animal.

This savage act of cruelty tells us all we need to know about the consequences of a federal delisting of wolves: a state-based free-for-all when it comes to killing and maiming and torturing wolves, Wayne Pacelle with Animal Wellness Action said in a news release criticizing the passage of Boeberts bill.
Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Andrea Mitchell of NBC

US Department of State

Interview

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Ashdod Port

Ashdod, Israel

May 1, 2024

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you've spent so much time with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And you say that you want a hostage deal. You've told the families that that's at the heart of everything you're doing. But if Netanyahu and Israel go into Rafah, there's no chance for a hostage deal or a ceasefire.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, look. We're focused on the hostages, and I believe the Israeli Government is as well. And that's, I think, evident from the fact that the proposal, the most recent proposal they put on the table shows that they are willing to make big compromises in order to get a deal. That's what speaks most clearly and most loudly. And as we discussed it today, it's clear they'd like to see that happen. It gets an immediate ceasefire, it gets hostages home, and it gives us something to build on. And we agreed today in our conversations that if this happens, we'll work to build on it.

QUESTION: But there are lots of reports from officials that they are getting a lot closer to going into Rafah. If they do that, there won't be a hostage deal; there's not a ceasefire, by definition; and what will the U.S. do? Will there be repercussions if they go into Rafah, despite what is basically a red line?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Andrea, first, I don't want to get into hypotheticals about what might happen. We're focused on seeing if this deal can happen, as it should happen. And we'll see what Hamas does. It's on them.

In terms of Rafah, we've been very clear, our position's been clear - it hasn't changed; it won't change. And our position is that we cannot and will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent a clear, credible plan to protect civilians. We've not seen such a plan. And there are also better ways to do what Israel needs to do in terms of dealing with the remaining Hamas problem. We've been talking about that with them; we agreed that those conversations would continue. So let's let that play out.

QUESTION: The prime minister has said that they will go into Rafah with or without a deal. Doesn't that make a deal impossible?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: People say things; let's focus on what they're doing, what we're doing. And the most immediate thing, the most urgent thing is seeing in the days ahead what Hamas's response is to a very strong proposal that's on the table. Everyone agrees that this is a good deal, and one that would result in, again, an immediate ceasefire, which everyone wants, and getting the hostages home, which everyone should want. That's where the focus is.

QUESTION: The prime minister also told you that they will not agree to a permanent ceasefire.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: What we've agreed is if there is an agreement, if we get the initial ceasefire, if we get the hostages home, we'll work to build on that. So 

QUESTION: And finally, you saw the aid being loaded on trucks in Jordan. Jordan is complaining that trucks with aid from that warehouse that you were just at were attacked by settlers as they were crossing to the Erez crossing. Is that acceptable?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: So yes, and that is unacceptable. We made that clear to the government. It's also 

QUESTION: Will there be repercussions?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, it's also important to note that there already have been. My understanding is that the people who attacked this convoy were arrested today by the Israeli authorities. That sends a very strong message. Now, they need to continue to send a strong message that this aid cannot be, must not be interfered with as it goes through Israel. And look, Israel is better than this. Look, feelings are so incredibly raw - you know this from being here. October 7th, and what is beyond imagination that's happened. The hostages who remain in the most dire situation.

But as President Biden has made clear - again, from day one - that doesn't mean that aid shouldn't get to people who desperately need it. These are two separate things. The people who so desperately need this aid, and who are now getting more of it because of the important steps that have been taken in recent weeks, including right here at Ashdod Port, had nothing to do with October 7th, nothing to do with the hostages. They're - they've been caught in this crossfire of Hamas's making. And it's imperative that they get the food that they need, the water they need, the medical supplies they need, access to hospitals, to health care - all of that.

That's what we're focused on. President Biden has been relentless about this, and will continue to be as long as it's necessary.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, Andrea.

QUESTION: Safe travels.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: To you as well.

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Situation in Georgia: Statement by the Secretary General

Council of Europe

Secretary General

Strasbourg

2 May 2024

Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric today made the following statement: "I am deeply concerned by the developments unfolding in Georgia and regret Parliament's adoption in second reading of the draft law 'on transparency of foreign influence', despite calls by Georgia's international partners to withdraw it. Given the major concerns about its compatibility with European democratic and human rights standards, I call on Georgian lawmakers to wait for the forthcoming opinion of the Venice Commission and to consider its recommendations before making any final decisions.

"An enabling environment for civil society and the media is essential for a vibrant and fully functioning democracy. Transparency should not be used as an instrument to stigmatise civil society organisations and limit their capacity to operate freely.

"I also condemn the violence witnessed on the streets of Tbilisi over recent days. Disproportionate use of force against demonstrators is incompatible with human rights standards. Georgians, who have demonstrated their profound attachment to democracy on many occasions, should be able to exercise their freedoms of assembly and expression in a peaceful manner.

"I hope that Georgia and the Council of Europe continue the constructive dialogue that has characterised our productive cooperation over recent years. We remain ready to assist Georgia in ensuring compliance with international standards on its paths towards EU integration."

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Ministers' Meeting

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

2.5.2024

Twenty-six African and five Nordic countries are meeting today and tomorrow in Copenhagen, where Denmark hosts the Nordic-African Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

The Nordic-African Foreign Ministers' Meeting (NAFM) was first held in Stockholm in 2001 and has since taken place 21 times. NAFM aims to strengthen cooperation between the Nordic and African countries on foreign policy and global issues.

The timing of the meeting coincides with the Danish Government's current efforts to formulate a plan for a more strategic approach to cooperation with the African countries. From the Danish side, the meeting will also be an opportunity to gather ideas and input for that effort.

"With nearly a third of the votes in the UN and a rapidly growing young population, it is no wonder that Africa's international relevance is only increasing. If we are to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time, it requires that we strengthen our cooperation with the African countries. We must do this based on the needs and wishes expressed by our African partners, and that is why I am meeting with a number of African colleagues during these days," says Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Lkke Rasmussen.

Many African countries have expressed a desire that NAFM focus more on promoting trade and investment between the African and Nordic countries. Therefore, as a new addition to the meeting, Denmark has prepared a full-day programme for African and Nordic businesses.

"Increased trade and investment is one of the keys to creating equal partnerships. And there is good opportunity for that on the African continent, which has some of the world's fastest growing economies. Here, Danish companies must show that they can offer some of the world's best solutions in sectors such as food production and the green transition. This will both benefit the Danish economy and create local jobs," says Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Lkke Rasmussen.

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May 2, 2024

Release

44th U.S.-Jordan Joint Military Commission

Department of Defense Spokesperson Maj. Pete Nguyen provided the following readout:

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander and Chairman of the Jordanian Joint Chiefs of Staff Maj. Gen. Yousef Al-Hnaity co-chaired the 44th meeting of the U.S.-Jordan Joint Military Commission (JMC) from May 1-2, 2024 in Washington, D.C.

The JMC is the premier bilateral defense forum for senior U.S. and Jordanian officials to discuss ongoing security assistance and military cooperation.

The U.S. and Jordanian delegations reiterated their commitment to further advance their robust security partnership, which is a pillar of regional stability. They also acknowledged 20 years of defense cooperation through the National Guard State Partnership Program with Colorado. The delegations discussed a broad range of issues that are vital to both countries' shared strategic interests, to include addressing the destabilizing impacts of ongoing conflicts within the region and countering the proliferation of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UASs). They also discussed the continuing challenges posed by ISIS and other violent extremist organizations, and the importance of maintaining security along Jordan's borders with Iraq and Syria. The U.S. delegation praised Jordan's ongoing humanitarian assistance efforts in Gaza and its critical regional leadership role.

Senior U.S. Government officials expressed gratitude for Jordan's participation in the Defeat-ISIS coalition and the Jordanian Armed Forces' leadership in advancing stability and security across the region. They reinforced the U.S. Government's support for the modernization of Jordan's fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft and pledged to continue efforts to improve Jordan's air defense and ability to counter UASs, which will improve the interoperability and effectiveness of the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

Both parties agreed on the importance of the bilateral partnership and the need for continued cooperation to address mutual security challenges.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3763868/

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May 2, 2024

By Matthew Olay, DOD News

Commandant Underscores Priorities, Praises Marines During State of the Corps Speech

The Marine Corps' most senior officer stated his key priorities and praised his fighting force during a state of the Marine Corps speech closing out a three-day defense industry exposition today in Washington.

During his speech, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric M. Smith spoke about maintaining a balance between being ready to respond to crises in the present while at the same time investing in future capabilities; being able to partner with the Navy in meeting the amphibious ship building requirements necessary to keep the Marine Corps mobile across the globe; and recruiting, training and retaining new Marines  a topic Smith spoke about passionately and at length.

"I'm constantly humbled by the quality and dedication of the young Americans who continue to measure themselves against our high standards [and] who compete for the title of Marine: Earned, never given," Smith said.

"It's not a guarantee that they're going to measure up, but those who make the cut earn something few can: the privilege of becoming a Marine, and the privilege of wearing our cloth."

The most important 'm' in 'Modern Day Marine' is the last one. ... It's all about you. ... It's all about Marines."

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric M. Smith

While speaking about the Corps' personnel, Smith praised the newest generation of Marines, saying that not only are they as tough and dedicated as the Marines who came before them, but that they're intelligent, as well.

"They're all smarter than me, I guarantee you," Smith jested to the crowd. "As I walk around this floor and I talk to young Marines, I need a translator; because they are moving at light speed, and I'm moving at 55 miles per hour. They are, in fact, a cut above."

Smith also spoke about the necessity to invest in the well-being of the fighting force.

"After 37 years in the Marine Corps, I've learned that heroic acts come in many forms, and sometimes the simple act of caring about your Marines is heroic," said Smith, adding that "quality of life" doesn't mean giving Marines everything they ask for, "but it does mean giving them everything that they need."

To that end, Smith spoke at length about the need for infrastructure modernization in the Marine Corps. Specifically, he referenced the Corps' Barracks 2030 initiative, a project to improve quality of life for Marines by making meaningful near-term and long-term investments.



It's our most consequential investment in barracks to date, and it is sorely needed," Smith said. "The heart of the initiative is improving the barracks that need it, tearing down old ones that are beyond repair, finding efficiencies within individual ... units, and building new ones where we need them," he explained.

On the topic of striking a balance between being ready to respond and investing in the future, Smith said doing so would be "difficult."

"Over the next three years, we must effectively synchronize personnel, readiness and investments to achieve that balance," said Smith, "and it might be the biggest challenge I face [in] my time as the commandant."

To meet such a challenge, Smith said partnering with the Navy in the pursuit of innovation to ensure Marine Corps mobility is key.

"The secretary of the Navy and the [chief of naval operations] have advocated for amphibious ships, and I expect everyone here to show how relevant they are today and into the future through experimentation and innovation," said Smith. "Integration with the Navy  doctrinally, operationally [and] tactically  is mandatory for how we fight."

"There's a technical element to this; there's a planning strategy element to this; but  most importantly  there's a human element ... and I need it to happen at your level, Marines."

Smith rounded out his speech by thanking all the Marines for attending the expo and encouraging them to provide their feedback on what they think of all the new military technology on display.

"The most important 'm' in 'Modern Day Marine' is the last one," Smith told crowd. "It's all about you. ... It's all about Marines."

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May 2, 2024

ByC. Todd Lopez, DOD News

DOD Looks Outside Bureaucracy for Novel Talent Management Concepts

Across the globe, the Defense Department employs over three million people  including civilians and uniformed military personnel. A challenge for the department has been both competing with the private sector for talent, but also finding the best way to manage the talent it has and that it brings on, in terms of ensuring the best people, with the right skills, are in the most appropriate jobs.

"From a talent management standpoint, we have a lot of things that we face as challenges," said Jeannette Haynie, director of the DOD Talent Management Innovation Challenge. "For example, hiring timelines, competing against private industry and reaching the breadth of the folks around America. We need to figure out how to, over time, [increase our] focus to be more human-centered."

Late last year, the department embarked on a novel effort to meet the challenges of talent management by asking employees across the department for their best talent management ideas.

The inaugural "Talent Management: From the Ground Up Innovation Challenge" kicked off in August 2023 as a way to capture the diversity of thought, experience, background and capability offered by the department's total force, and to bring forward new ideas about how the DOD can improve its talent management.

The DOD's office of personnel and readiness received some 200 submissions as part of the challenge, and those were whittled down to 33 semifinalists. On April 24-25, teams and individuals representing the nine top-rated talent management ideas gathered at the Pentagon to present their ideas to DOD leadership in a final round. Presenters of those ideas will eventually work alongside various policy offices inside DOD to collaborate on how best to implement their ideas.

Idea: The Agile Talent Ecosystem, Powered by Gig Eagle

Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael McGinley

Air Force Lt. Col. Charles Kubik

Idea: DOD Workforce Competency Development and Skills Framework

Matthew Correia, Air Force

Idea: DOD Talent Navigator

Space Force Lt. Col. Jamie Johnson

Idea: Government Fix to Spousal Hiring (Go FiSH)

Air Force Maj. Vincent Colletti

Idea: 3rd Party Aptitude Testing

Air Force Capt. Adam Bilyeu

Air Force Reserve Capt. Louis McCullagh

Idea: Data Driven Career Planning for Civilians

Evan Derrow, Army

Idea: Talent Management EMERGE Program

Jazmin Sinclair, Defense Intelligence Agency

Cynthia Little, Defense Intelligence Agency

Idea: Recruiting and Acquisition Strategy

Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Steven Jaworski

Idea: Talent Assessment Platform for High Performing Teams and Career Pathing

Air Force Master Sgt. Chad Hardesty

For this year's talent management innovation challenge, participants were asked to submit ideas related to recruiting and accessions as well as promotion and retention. A third "wild card" category allowed submitters to be broader with their ideas.

The presentations, Haynie said, were impressive. She said she is optimistic about how what she and her team heard might benefit the Defense Department.

"These leaders know the problems they're seeing. They're living them, and they have solutions," Haynie said. "The overwhelming impression is there's a lot of creativity [and] we need to figure out how to effectively tap into a lot of energy that we can use. And I'm just thrilled that we have a template for something that could work for the future."

Based on what she saw, Haynie said it's clear that soliciting ideas from some of the innovative personnel from across the DOD is a great way to get new insights and ideas that might not have been otherwise considered. It's something she said she hopes might happen again.

"I hope that we continue doing these challenges at DOD and talent management," she said. "This one was pretty broad  we had some really broad categories. I'd love to focus those and target ones for the future, to look just at maybe promotion, and retention in certain categories, or military occupational specialties."

Haynie also said that she hopes every idea she saw presented might, in some way, be useful to the DOD in the future.

"It really just depends on what the department sees as valuable from these nine, and how we think they can fit into existing plans or further support existing plans," she said.

Air Force Master Sgt. Chad Hardesty, an "innovation strategist" within the Air Force's talent management office, was one of the competitors in the talent management innovation challenge. Among those who presented ideas, he was also the only enlisted service member.

The issue Hardesty identified is that existing organizations and teams are challenged to bring the best new team members on board and are also challenged to understand how new team members communicate and are motivated so that the entire team can move quickly to high performance. A solution, he said, involves making use of a talent management assessment platform.

"It allows your organization, from top to bottom, to be able to conduct a number of assessments that can be customized and tailored to the commander or the organization's needs," he said, adding that this includes assessing personality, skills and strength, for instance.

"It then [uses] a ... kind of AI algorithm to give you a synopsis of how individuals will be able to work together based on their skills, their strengths [and] behavioral and personality assessments," he said.

Already, Hardesty said, his idea has been piloted within the Air Force with senior executive service personnel and general officers.

"Currently across the Air Force, during my research and analysis, I noticed that individuals ... are not hiring people, they're hiring paper," he said. "When you submit for a job, you submit your resume. But they don't know who you are. They don't know your personality characteristics. They don't necessarily know your skills and your strengths. They know what you're qualified in and whether you have a degree [or] certifications."

An analysis of skills, personality, strengths and weaknesses, he said, could allow teams to better know a candidate before they are hired and to be able to better integrate a new team member once they are on board.

His interaction with DOD's personnel and readiness team, and the support they have provided during the innovation challenge, he said, has been phenomenal.

"They've reached out to me, they've continued to, even before the finals, they were asking for more data, more feedback," Hardesty said. "They really wanted to make sure that they were getting everything they needed to make the right decisions. After the pitch yesterday talking to a couple of senior leaders, I really feel over the next couple of weeks I'll be able to have a good number of meetings and hear people's challenges and see how our idea, our solution, can be customized or even be pivoted to help them solve some of their challenges."

The Defense Department also struggles to attract top talent in technology and STEM fields, said Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Steven Jaworski, one of the innovators selected to present his ideas to leaders at the Pentagon.

"My idea was to get left to the problem, get upstream of it. Source, recruit, engage and nurture potential candidates and DOD applicants with an advanced candidate relationship management tool," Jaworski said. "This means pooling applicants, pipelining  very granular segmentation.

For candidates who apply for a DOD job but aren't selected, he said, those candidates shouldn't be forgotten, but instead the department should remember them and keep them in mind, based on what skills they have, for other jobs.

"Let's keep them in a talent pool, engage them with emails and SMS campaigns, and keep them in the pipeline to become an applicant," he said.

The artificial intelligence-driven candidate relationship management system, Jaworski said, can identify potential employment candidates based on their social media posts, and recommend jobs within the DOD.

Presenting his idea to DOD leadership was a good experience for him, Jaworski said.

"[I had a] great conversation ... with [Ashish Vazirani] and the panel," he said. "I know behind the scenes [everybody has] done so much work to make this possible. And not only the coordination of the panel and of the presentations, but the research that the panel obviously put into reading our ideas ... they really did their due diligence."

Matthew Correia, a military veteran and current civilian with the Air Force, has recommended using gaming software in conjunction with an existing competency assessment tool, to develop various competencies within military and civilian personnel.

The DOD and military services, he said, have competencies involving things like accountability, leadership, communications, decision-making and teamwork, for instance, that they would like service members and civilians to have.

"I thought, why don't we assess and develop those competencies within a commercial, off-the-shelf assessment tool, paired with a team-based activity," he said. "It could be an online game. It could be a war game. It could be a project. And then once you've identified what their competencies are, develop them to the next proficiency level up. This way, you have a workforce that is very much adaptive to the 21st century warfighter."

Correia said he has been surprised with how easy it has been with talent management: innovation challenge for him to develop his idea and to then bring it to DOD level for consideration.

"A lot of folks have an idea that the Department of Defense is a rather static, sort of fixed environment, maybe not open to ideas," he said. "This just completely changed my mind about it. It really opened up a new door and a new opportunity to find out that there are people at the senior level of the Department of Defense who are looking for creative, innovative ways to develop the force, attract new people to the force, and retain the best talent within the Department of Defense."

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President von der Leyen reaffirms EU's strong support for Lebanon and its people and announces a 1 billion package of EU funding

European Commission

Press release

2 May 2024

Brussels, Beirut

During her visit to Beirut today, European Commission President Ursulavon der Leyen, accompanied by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, discussed the significant domestic and regional challenges faced by Lebanon, and how best the EU could support the country and its people.

She announced that the EU will provide a financial assistance package for Lebanon worth 1 billion for 2024 to 2027.

This continued EU support will strengthen basic services such as education, social protection and health for the people in Lebanon. It will accompany urgent economic, financial and banking reforms. Furthermore, support will be provided to the Lebanese Armed Forces and other security forces with equipment and training for border management and to fight against smuggling.

President von der Leyen said: "My visit today is a strong testimony of the EU's continued support to Lebanon and its people. This was also the clear message of European leaders at our last summit, and are committed to provide strong financial support to the country in view of the significant challenges it faces. The 1 billion until 2027 will provide much needed assistance to the people in Lebanon and contribute to its security and stability."

Background

The visit of President von der Leyen to Lebanon follows the special meeting of the European Council on 17-18 April, where the Council confirmed the EU's determination to support the most vulnerable people in Lebanon, including refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities, as well as strengthening support to Lebanese Armed Forces, combating human trafficking and smuggling. The European Council also reaffirmed the need to achieve conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of Syrian refugees, as defined by UNHCR.

The EU's support will focus on:

support to basic services such as education, health, social protection and water to the most vulnerable people in Lebanon, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and host communities;

assisting urgent domestic reforms, in particular those requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including in the banking sector, contributing to improved economic situation and business environment;

support for border and migration management, including combating human trafficking and smuggling, strengthened support to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Since 2011, the EU support to Lebanon amounts to more than 3 billion, including 2.6 billion to support Syrian refugees as well as host communities in Lebanon.

Quote(s)

"My visit today is a strong testimony of the EU's continued support to Lebanon and its people. This was also the clear message of European leaders at our last summit, and are committed to provide strong financial support to the country in view of the significant challenges it faces. The 1 billion until 2027 will provide much needed assistance to the people in Lebanon and contribute to its security and stability." Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

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Press statement by President von der Leyen with Cypriot President Christodoulides and Lebanese Prime Minister Mikati

European Commission

Statement

2 May 2024

Beirut

Dear Prime Minister,

Thank you very much for welcoming President Christodoulides and me here in Beirut. Lebanon is a beautiful, diverse and vibrant country, full of energy and potential. But it faces significant challenges domestically and as a result of tensions and war in the region. We understand this and we are here first and foremost to say that the European Union strongly supports Lebanon and its people. And we want to reinforce our long-standing cooperation. This was also the very clear message of European Leaders at our last Summit. And today we, Nikos and me, are here in a Team Europe spirit to reiterate that message.

Today, we discussed how we can strengthen our political and economic relations and support the security and stability of Lebanon. To underline our support, I can announce a financial package of EUR 1 billion for Lebanon that would be available from this year until 2027. We want to contribute to Lebanon's socio-economic stability.

First, by strengthening basic services, investments in for example education, social protection and health, for the people in Lebanon.

Second, we will accompany you as you take forward economic, financial and banking reforms. These reforms are key for the long-term improvement of the overall economic situation of the country. This would allow the business environment and the banking sector to regain the trust of the international community and thus enable private sector investment. Lebanon needs and deserves a positive economic momentum to give opportunities to its businesses and citizens.

Third, security and stability are also key for these investments. We will support the Lebanese armed forces as well as the general and internal security forces. This will be mainly focused on providing equipment, training and the necessary infrastructure for border management. In addition, it would be very helpful for Lebanon to conclude a working arrangement with Frontex, particularly on information exchange and situational awareness.

Fourth, to help you in managing migration, we are committed to maintain legal pathways open to Europe and resettle refugees from Lebanon to the European Union. At the same time, we count on your good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and combat migrant smuggling.

Finally, we understand the challenges that Lebanon faces with hosting Syrian refugees and other displaced persons. It is vital to ensure the well-being of the host communities and Syrian refugees. Since 2011, the European Union has supported Lebanon with EUR 2.6 billion - not only for the Syrian refugees but also for the host communities. And we will continue to do so.

We will also look at how we can make the EU's assistance more effective. This includes exploring how to work on a more structured approach to voluntary returns to Syria, in close cooperation with UNHCR. At the same time, there needs to be strengthened support from the international community, for humanitarian and early recovery programmes in Syria.

I would like to finish by focusing on the conflict in Gaza and its impact on Lebanon. We fully support all efforts to reach a ceasefire and release of all hostages. And we have just increased further our extensive humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ultimately, we need a peace process towards a two-state solution. It is the only solution that can bring lasting peace and stability to the Middle East. In the meantime, we must continue to work towards a de-escalation of conflict. And we are deeply concerned about the volatile situation in South Lebanon. What is at stake is the security of both Lebanon and Israel. The two cannot be disassociated. So, we call for the full implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 by all parties. This needs to be part of a negotiated diplomatic settlement. Here too, the Lebanese armed forces are critical, and the European Union is ready to work on how to bolster their capabilities.

Dear Prime Minister,

to conclude, let me assure you that you can count on the European Union's sustained support for Lebanon and its people. It is a long-term partnership and friendship. The bonds between Lebanon and Europe are deep and strong. It is these bonds that will continue to drive our cooperation. Thanks again for having me here and for being such a fantastic host.

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Defence Forces to join US National Guard Partnership Program

Finnish Ministry of Defence

02.05.2024

On 2 May 2024, Minister of Defence Antti Hakkanen and Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin signed a Letter of Intent in Helsinki on Finland's accession to the United States National Guard Partnership Program (State Partnership Program, SPP).

The National Guards in the United States are troops under the Governors of the states, used regionally in rescue, evacuation and protection missions. Virginia is Finland's state partner. The strength of the National Guard of Virginia is approximately 8,450, while the combined strength of all National Guards in the United States is approximately 340,000.

The SPP opens up new opportunities for the Defence Forces for exercises, training, deepening cooperation between sectors and competence development. Cooperation is carried out primarily within the framework of the Army, Air Force and the cyber sector.

- The defence cooperation between the United States and Finland deepens. These areas of cooperation further enhance the development of Finland's defence and complement the existing cooperation with the United States, says Minister of Defence Hakkanen.

The State Partnership Program was launched in 1993 and today, about one hundred partner countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia participate in the SPP. More partnerships are established every year. The US European Command (USEUCOM) plays an important role in the National Guard Partnerships of European countries.

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Germany Signs CAVS Research and Development Agreement

Finnish Ministry of Defence

02.05.2024

Germany has signed the Research and Development Agreement of the multinational Common Armoured Vehicles System (CAVS) programme. The agreement is currently between Finland, Sweden and Latvia, with Patria Land Oy as the supplier. Germany joined the CAVS programme led by Finland in 2023.

By joining the agreement, Germany will have access to the results of the product development packages and will be able to participate in the further development of the vehicle system. In the long term, Germany is planning to replace its existing FUCHS fleet with 6x6 armoured vehicles from Patria. Patria is committed to industrial cooperation with Germany, including the manufacture of CAVS vehicles in Germany in cooperation with German partners.

- The CAVS programme enables the participating countries to benefit from common product development, acquisitions and life cycle management. The program is a fine example of increased collaboration within European defence and defence industries that the EU has called for, Minister of Defence Antti Hakkanen says.

- Cooperation with Germany has been excellent at all levels, so on behalf of the CAVS countries Finland, Sweden and Latvia, I warmly welcome Germany to the CAVS program's product development cooperation.

The aim of the CAVS programme, launched in cooperation between Finland and Latvia in 2020, is to develop an armoured 6x6 vehicle system for the needs of the participating countries. Deliveries of vehicles are underway to Finland, Sweden and Latvia, which have already ordered a total of 700 armoured vehicles from Patria. The latest order was from Finland who purchased heavy armoured personnel carriers for international crisis management purposes.

Open to European countries with similar equipment requirements, the CAVS programme's goal is to strengthen European defence and NATO cooperation. Having Germany and Sweden now on board enables user co-operation between the Nordic and Baltic countries, joint exercises and crisis management operations, simplifies logistics and improves security of supply.

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Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom

Government Offices of Sweden

02 May 2024

Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom on the situation in Georgia.

Over the past weeks, tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets across the country to raise their voices against the so-called draft law on foreign influence. Sweden is following these events closely and condemns the use of violence against peaceful protestors. Freedom of assembly must be respected.

By granting Georgia candidate status, the European Union has shown that it supports the European aspirations of the Georgian people. A vibrant and independent civil society plays a crucial role in advancing along Georgia's EU path.

The proposed legislation would run counter to Georgia's stated EU ambitions, as enshrined in the constitution and supported by an overwhelming majority of its citizens, and its commitments as a candidate country. If adopted, it would jeopardise Georgia's progress towards the EU. The Georgian Government should refrain from false narratives and inflammatory rhetoric. Candidate status is a historic opportunity for Georgia.

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Bahraini resistance group launches drone attack on occupied Palestine for first time

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Bahrain's Islamic resistance group known as "Saraya Al-Ashtar" (Al-Ashtar groups) announced a drone attack on the occupied Palestine.

According to al-Mayadeen, this is the first time that the Bahraini resistance group known as Saraya Al-Ashtar attacks Israel.

The Al-Ashtar Brigades (Saraya Al-Ashtar), as the Islamic resistance group of Bahrain, released images of a drone attack on the building of the "Trucknet" transport company in the port of Eilat.

After the sea blockade of the port of Eilat by the Yemenis, Trucknet Company has carried out the land transfer of goods from the ports of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf to occupied Palestine.

2050



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UN: 7,500 tons of unexploded ammunition left across Gaza Strip

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The United Nations announced that, at the same time as the Zionist regime continued its invasion of the Gaza Strip, there are about 7,500 tons of unexploded ordnance throughout this strip of Palestinian territory, and it will take about 14 years to clear it.

According to Al-Sharrooq news of Egypt, the United Nations Center for Demining announced in a statement that at the same time as the Zionist regime continues invasion of Gaza Strip, there are about 7,500 tons of unexploded ammunition all over this strip of Palestinian territory, and its clearance takes about 14 years.

In this statement, the center called for the help of the international community to clear the remnants of ammunition from the war in the Gaza Strip in order to reduce the risks against civilians and relief teams in this area.

Last April, after the withdrawal of the occupying Zionist forces from the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, the United Nations assessment team announced that the streets and public places of this city are full of unexploded ordnance.

Also, bombs weighing about 500 kg were found in the main intersections and schools of this city.

2050







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Israel to face multiple shocks if it attacks Rafah: Hamas envoy

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Ahmad Abdul Hadi, representative of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in Lebanon, has warned that the Israeli regime will face multiple surprises if it attacks Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Abdul Hadi made the remarks in an interview with Lebanon's Al Mayadeen TV network, saying that the Zionist regime's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to prolong the war; so, he agrees to short cessation of clashes; and at the same time, he threatens to attack Rafah to put pressure on the Palestinian resistance, but if so, the regime will face numerous shocks.

Referring to the negotiations in Cairo, Egypt, on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, he noted that the time is ripe to evaluate the results of the talks and speak about its positive aspects.

The American side claimed that this round of talks has been positive, but it is inappropriate to issue a judgment on this issue hitherto, the Hamas envoy noted.

He also pointed to Hamas' stance in this respect, saying that putting pressure on the resistance movement will not force it to accept any imposed agreement; thus, if occupiers think that the public opinion supporting the resistance will succumb to their tactics, they make a mistake.

The ongoing protest rallies at Western universities have their roots in Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, he said, predicting that such protests will be held at numerous universities around the world, which is an important development to spread the Palestinian cause.

4208**2050



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Palestinian rocket attack hits key Gaza corridor used by Israel

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Palestinian resistance fighters have launched rocket attacks on a key corridor used by the Israeli regime's military through the Gaza Strip.

According to Palestine's Shehab news agency, the resistance fighters hit commanding posts in the Netzarim Corridor with rockets on Thursday, causing damage to them.

They also launched rocket attacks on military positions in Zikim located in the southern Israeli-occupied territories.

The resistance fighters said the attacks were in response to the Israeli regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli media say the regime's war cabinet is set to hold an important meeting later on Thursday.

This comes amid diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, to establish a ceasefire in Gaza. The efforts have been intensified in recent days, with significant progress reportedly being made in the negotiations over a truce in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

4194**2050

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Hamas welcomes Colombia decision to sever ties with Israel

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has welcomed a decision by Colombia to sever diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime, and called on other countries to follow suit.

Tehran, IRNA - The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has welcomed a decision by Colombia to sever diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime, and called on other countries to follow suit.

In a statement on Thursday, Hamas called Colombia's decision a victory for the sacrifices of the Palestinian people and their fair cause, Palestine's Shehab news agency reported.

The movement called on all countries, including South American nations, to completely cut their diplomatic ties with the "fascist Israeli regime" which keeps committing crimes against Palestinians in violation of international law and norms.

On Wednesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country will sever diplomatic ties with Israel as of Thursday (May 2) for "having a president who is genocidal."

He told supporters during May Day rallies in Bogota that countries cannot remain passive in the face of what's going on in Gaza.

Since the start of the war in early October, the Israeli regime has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. The regime has also defied growing international calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

1483**4194



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Minister of National Defence L. Kasciunas to meet with Minister of Defence of the Netherlands K. Ollongren

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2024-05-02

International cooperation

On May 6 Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasciunas will receive Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren at the Ministry of National Defence. Ministers are planned to discuss the bilateral defence cooperation, the exercise the Netherlands are deploying the Patriot long-range air-defence system, as well as the regional security situation and NATO agenda.

Afterwards, Defence Minister of the Netherlands will visit Rukla and meet with the Dutch troops deployed in there.

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We invite U.S. defence contractors to invest in Lithuania, says L. Kasciunas

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2024-05-02

As Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasciunas proceeds with the agenda of his official visit to the United States, he had a meeting with Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante.

Laurynas Kasciunas thanked for the U.S contribution to Lithuania's security calling the United States force presence in the country a critical component of deterrence. Also, the vision of the Lithuanian national division development, investment in the Lithuanian Armed Forces capabilities were presented and the necessity to further strengthen the Lithuanian-U.S. cooperation in defence industry was pointed out at the meeting.

"We appreciate the U.S. assistance in developing Lithuania's military capabilities. Modernization of the Lithuanian Armed Forces is our priority financed with the impressive 30 percent of defence spending. Lithuania is the largest U.S. weaponry buyer among the three Baltic states spending USD 1.3 billion over an average period of time, which is 20% of the planned defence acquisitions in total. Equipment servicing and maintenance over its full life cycle doubles the amount," said Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasciunas at the meeting and highlighted the importance of looking into the opportunity for defence cooperation between the countries, especially in attracting defence investment to Lithuania.

According to Minister, introduction of a Law on Defence and Security Industry, which will be processed by the Seimas shortly, would not open broader cooperation opportunities for defence companies but also facilitate investment of the large arms and ammunition manufacturers in Lithuania.

"The Government of Lithuania has just signed a Letter of Intent with Germany's defence industry giant Rheinmetall which going to build an ammunition factory in Lithuania. We can see immense potential in Lithuania-U.S. cooperation in defence industry, therefore we look forward to a signal for the business that Lithuania is a reliable partner," stated Laurynas Kasciunas at the meeting.

Minister's agenda in the United States also includes visits to UAV manufacturer AEVEX Aerospace, defence production giant Lockheed Martin which sells equipment to Lithuania for over USD 1 billion (HIMARS air defence systems, Black Hawk helicopters, Javelin antitank systems, etc.). L. Kasciunas is also planned to meet with top executives of Northrop Grumman, largest manufacturer of medium caliber live and dummy ammunition and defence systems in the world.

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DFA STATEMENT

Republic of the Philippines - Department of Foreign Affairs

MANILA 02 May 2024 -- The Department of Foreign Affairs today summoned Chinese Embassy of Manila Deputy Chief of Mission Zhou Zhiyong over the 30 April 2024 harassment of Philippine vessels conducting a routine and regular humanitarian mission to Bajo de Masinloc.

The Philippines protested the harassment, ramming, swarming, shadowing and blocking, dangerous maneuvers, use of water cannons, and other aggressive actions of China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia vessels against the vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) enroute to Bajo de Masinloc. China's aggressive actions, particularly its water cannon use, caused damage to vessels of PCG and BFAR.

The Philippines demanded that Chinese vessels leave Bajo de Masinloc and its vicinity immediately. END



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In first, Bahraini resistance group strikes Israeli target in Port of Eilat

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 11:10 PM

A Bahraini resistance group has announced staging an unprecedented pro-Palestinian strike against the Port of Eilat in the southern part of the occupied territories.

The group, which identified itself as al-Ashtar Brigades, revealed the information in a statement on Thursday, saying it had carried out the strike on April 27, "using drones."

It named the target as "the headquarters of the company responsible for ground transportation in the Zionist entity (Trucknet)."

The operation was carried out "in solidarity with" the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who have been enduring a genocidal Israeli war since October 7.

At least 34,568 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the brutal military onslaught that began following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by Gaza's resistance groups against the occupied territories.

Concluding its statement, the brigades vowed "it will continue its movements and support on all fronts for our patient people in Gaza, and that it will not cease its operations until the Zionist aggression on Gaza stops."

Resistance groups across the region, namely those that are based in Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, have been performing numerous such operations against targets belonging to the Israeli regime or those affiliated with it since the onset of the war.

Most recently, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, announced conducting a "cruise missile" attack against the "Abraham" intelligence center in the city of Beersheba in the central part of the occupied territories as well as the Israeli spy agency Mossad's "Glilot" intelligence center in Tel Aviv.

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Houthi: Yemen preparing for 'fourth phase' of Red Sea operations

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 7:57 PM

The leader of Yemen's Ansarullah movement has vowed to escalate operations in the Red Sea until Israel ends its war in Gaza and the US stops attacking his country.

"We are preparing for a fourth phase of escalation if the Israeli enemy and the Americans continue their intransigence," Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday.

Al-Houthi said that Yemeni forces launched 606 ballistic missiles and drones against 107 Israeli, US, and UK ships in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, Gulf of Aden, and recently in the Indian Ocean during the Red Sea ship campaign that began in November.

In the last seven days alone, the Yemeni forces have fired 33 ballistic missiles and drones at six ships off Yemen's coast, as well as Israel's port city of Eilat.

Al-Houthi said that 452 attacks by US and UK militaries on Yemen have killed 40 people and injured 35 others since January.

His warning came after Yemen's media said on Thursday that the US and UK carried out five airstrikes on Hudaydah airport in the Red Sea's western city of Hudaydah.

On Tuesday, the US carried out another strike on the port of al-Saleef in Hudaydah.

Yemeni forces have seized an Israeli-linked ship, sunk another, and launched hundreds of missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with Palestinians in a bid to pressure Israel to cease its war in Gaza.

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Turkey moves to suspend all trade with Israel over war on Gaza: Report

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 7:21 PM

Turkey has reportedly stopped all trade with Israel in the wake of months-long incessant military campaign against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Turkey had stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel, citing two Turkish officials.

Turkey recently imposed restrictions on exchanges with Israel over the regime's refusal to allow Ankara to take part in aid air-drop operations for Gaza.

The country imposed trade restrictions on 54 product groups in April, a move widely believed to be in response to growing public pressure for the suspension of trade ties with Israel amid the rising humanitarian toll in Gaza.

President Tayyip Erdogan back then said that Turkey no longer continued "intense trade" with Israel, adding "that is done". He did not indicate Ankara had cut off all trade with Israel, however.

Erdogan in recent months has repeatedly criticized Israel's conduct in the war on Gaza, which has killed thousands of Palestinians.

The Turkish leader has said that new tensions could be expected in the region until the "oppression and genocide" in Gaza ends.

The president has also warned Israel of a "heavy price" if the Tel Aviv regime carries out its alleged plot to target members of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Turkish soil.

Turkish leader recently hosted Hamas's political leader in Istanbul on April 20, calling for immediate aid to Gaza.

Israel and Turkey restored diplomatic ties last August after a decade of tensions. The Israeli aggression has triggered a popular public backlash across the Muslim world and even in the US.

The latest move came a day after Turkey announced plans to join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice as a plaintiff accusing Israel of committing genocide in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Senior Israeli officials have held emergency meetings in Tel Aviv this week to discuss the possibility that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could also issue arrest warrants for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Turkish leader denounces US for crackdown on US university students

Erdogan in remarks on Thursday also strongly criticized Heavily-handed tactics to curb US college campus protests, saying authorities were displaying "cruelty" in clamping down on pro-Palestinian students and academics.

"Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre (in Gaza)," Erdogan told an event in Ankara.

"These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop," he said, adding that university staff were being "sacked and lynched" for supporting the Palestinians.

Demonstrations have spread on campuses across the United States over Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza.

Student-organized pro-Palestinian rallies and encampments, which began at Columbia University in New York City on 17 April, have spread to more than two dozen states and several other countries.

Protesters have demanded that academic institutions financially boycott Israel and companies.

US police have stormed several colleges and arrest more students as unrest over Israel's onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza simmers on campuses.

"The limits of Western democracy are drawn by Israel's interests," Erdogan said. "Whatever infringes on Israel's interests is anti-democratic, antisemitic for them."

Turkey has sharply criticized Israel's onslaught on Gaza and what it calls the unconditional support the Tel Aviv regime receives from Western countries.

The US is a top supplier of military aid to Israel and has shielded Israel from critical United Nations votes.

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May 1: 'Axis of Resistance' operations against Israeli occupation

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 11:59 AM

By Press TV Website Staff

Amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians so far, including more than 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 Wednesday, May 1, are as follows:

Al-Qassam Brigades' operations on May 1:



Targeted a gathering of Israeli forces near the "Holit" kibbutz with 114mm short-range "Rajoom" rocket system.



Targeted a group of Israeli soldiers stationed on the "Netzarim" axis south of Gaza City with mortar shells.



Targeted Israeli forces located in the "Netzarim" axis with 114mm short-range "Rajoom" rocket system.



Al-Quds Brigades' operations on May 1:



Bombed the command and control center of the Israeli military in the vicinity of the Turkish Friendship Hospital on the supply line to the "Netzarim" axis with mortar shells.



Bombed the positions of Israeli soldiers and their military vehicles with a barrage of mortar shells around the Sheikh Ajlin area, southwest of Gaza City.



Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades' operations on May 1:



Targeted a cavalcade of Israeli military vehicles in the "Netzarim" axis with mortar shells, resulting in heavy damages.



Hezbollah's operations on May 1:



Eastern sector:



At around 17:00 local time, an Israeli military building in the Metulla settlement was targeted with appropriate weapons.



At around 17:50 local time, the Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in Lebanon's Kfar Shuba was targeted with missiles.



Western sector:



At around 08:15 local time, Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Pranit Barracks were targeted with rockets and artillery shells.



At around 17:35 local time, two buildings in which Israeli soldiers were positioned in the Shtula settlement were targeted with guided missiles.



Targeted Israeli troops stationed in the "Netzarim" axis with heavy-caliber mortar shells.



Islamic Resistance in Iraq's operations on May 1:



Targeted a vital facility of the Israeli military in the occupied Golan Heights with a barrage of drones, resulting in heavy damages.

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Russia: US has held UNSC 'hostage', does not represent body's position on Israel's Gaza war

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 11:07 AM

Russia says the United States has taken the United Nations Security Council "hostage," stressing that Washington does not reflect the body's stance on the current Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia made the comments on Wednesday during a UN General Assembly debate on the US's veto of Palestine's bid to join the world body.

Commenting on Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, Nebenzia said that Washington's actions "absolutely do not reflect the principled position taken by the remaining members of the UN Security Council, who over the past six months, in fact, became hostages of the US when it comes to the events in the Middle East."

The Russian envoy also stressed that "violence generates more violence, and this vicious circle can only be broken if we achieve an unconditional ceasefire and begin substantive discussions about the possibility of a just political settlement."

The death toll from Israel's genocidal campaign against Gaza has risen to 34,568 since October 7 while 77,765 others have also been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza. Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women.

The regime has also been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

In his remarks, the Russian envoy also said that Moscow "deeply regrets" Washington's move to reject the Algerian resolution that for the State of Palestine to become a full member of the UN.

In mid-April, the US predictably cast its veto against a bid by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for Palestine to be recognized as a full member of the UN.

Palestine is currently a non-member "Permanent Observer State" in the UN. An application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the Security Council and then at least two-thirds of the UN General Assembly.

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Israeli forces' intensified attacks on Gaza claim more civilian lives as war enters its 209th day

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 7:51 AM

The Israeli regime continues its attacks on Palestinians through relentless airstrikes and artillery fire, killing several and injuring many others across the Gaza Strip as the war enters its 209th day.

In the latest attacks, six Palestinian were killed and many others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the city of al-Zahraa in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Three Palestinians were successfully retrieved by ambulance and rescue teams, along with the assistance of local residents, the report added.

One person was killed and several others were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Qaa al-Qurain area, located southeast of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Other areas in Khan Yunus such as Bani Suhaila, Abasan, and Khuza'a, east of the city, also saw intense bombardment by Israeli warplanes.

Moreover, two citizens were killed and several others injured when an Israeli aircraft targeted a residential building owned by the Ishteiwi family in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. The bombing also resulted in a number of people being trapped under the rubble, their whereabouts currently unknown.

Israeli artillery strikes also hit residential areas and farmlands in several neighborhoods southwest of Gaza City, including Sheikh Ajlin, Tal Al-Hawa, and Al-Zaytoun.

Displaced people east of Rafah city had their lands and tents targeted by the Israeli regime as well.

This is while, the Israeli regime's aggression last night killed two civilians and injured dozens across the Gaza strip. Wafa reported that in the Nuseirat refugee camp located in central Gaza, one Palestinian was killed and five others were injured in an Israeli shelling that targeted the southern and central Gaza Strip.

Local media reports also said that a woman was killed in an Israeli artillery attack on the southern Gaza city of al-Fukhkhari.

Furthermore, the headquarters of the electricity distribution company in Deir al-Balah was targeted by the regime's bombardment and in the Jabalia refugee camp, situated in northern Gaza, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on a house in the "Six Martyrs" neighborhood.

The death toll from Israel's genocidal campaign against Gaza has risen to 34,568 since October 7 while 77,765 others have also been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza . Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women.

However, the actual death toll is believed to be much higher as thousands remain under rubble.

The government media office in Gaza recently reported that nearly 90,000 housing units have been destroyed while nearly 300,000 others have been damaged by the Israeli air and ground offensive.

Moreover, the Gaza civil defense agency on Tuesday warned of a looming health disaster and epidemics in the besieged Strip as the decomposition of thousands of dead bodies under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the relentless Israeli bombings accelerates due to rising temperature.

Seven months into the war, the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned earlier that the decomposition of dead bodies for long periods leads to the transmission of serious diseases, including blood-borne viruses and tuberculosis.

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Jeremiah Manele is new Solomon Islands PM, vows action on economy

The new prime minister has indicated he'll continue a friends-to-all foreign policy.

By Stephen Wright and Charley Piringi for BenarNews 2024.05.02 -- The Solomon Islands' new prime minister, Jeremiah Manele, has promised an aggressive approach to improving the economy after a national election last month showed widespread frustration with falling living standards.

Manele, who was foreign minister in the previous government, was elected by a secret ballot of members of Parliament on Thursday. He replaced Manasseh Sogavare, the combative pro-Beijing leader who attracted international attention to the Pacific island country of 700,000 people by pulling it into China's orbit.

Speaking outside the Parliament building in Honiara, Manele called on Solomon Islanders to respect the democratic process and not resort to the violence that has followed previous elections.

"Our economy and livelihoods have suffered because of this violence. However today we show the world that we are better than that," he said. "We must respect and uphold the democratic process of electing our prime minister and set an example for our children and their children."

Manele's governing Ownership Unity and Responsibility Party won 15 of Parliament's 50 seats in the Apr. 17 election.

Combined with coalition allies, independents and apparent defections from the opposition camp, it was able to secure 31 votes for Manele's election as prime minister. Opposition leader Matthew Wale got 18 votes. One member of Parliament wasn't present for the voting.

Sogavare announced earlier this week he would not seek the prime ministership. Under his leadership, the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019 and signed a secret security pact with China, alarming the United States and its allies.

The election and Parliament's choice of prime minister has been watched by governments from China to Australia and the U.S. as they jostle for influence in the Pacific.

Analysts have said Manele is regarded as a more moderate figure than Sogavare, but is unlikely to spurn close ties with China. Earlier this week, Manele said he'd continue the country's "friends to all, enemies to none" foreign policy if elected.

For many observers, the election has been the most consequential for the Solomon Islands in a half century since independence and a test of Sogavare's embrace of China. The superpower rewarded the nation with showcase sporting facilities for the Pacific Games and funding for members of Parliament.

However, going into the election, voters interviewed by RFA-affiliate BenarNews in Honiara and other areas of Guadalcanal said they were frustrated by the government's ineffectiveness in providing basic services and were preoccupied by the daily struggle to earn enough to get by.

Crumbling roads and rundown health clinics were a common complaint as were high prices in mostly Chinese-owned shops in Honiara. In a village kilometers from the capital, one resident said he hoped the community could get bore water and proper toilets rather than having to dig pits in the ground.

The OUR Party's underwhelming performance in the election "was primarily down to poor economic conditions which left voters frustrated," said Terence Wood, a development aid and Melanesian politics researcher at Australian National University.

"Also, MPs had less money available to them to provide direct material assistance to their supporters and so they got turfed out at a higher rate," he said.

A recent report by the Solomon Islands' central bank on the precarious state of the economy "is concerning and calls for a more focused and aggressive approach," Manele said.

The report called for major reforms to improve infrastructure such as roads and boost the economic growth rate to a minimum of 5.0% annually. The Solomon Islands' population has been growing faster than the economy, which means the average Solomon Islander is getting poorer.

"It is not an easy task but we will be reaching out to all relevant stakeholders as we progress on our road to recovery," Manele said.

The economy, he said, had been damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and riots in Honiara in late 2021, which were sparked by anger at the diplomatic switch and Sogavare's leadership.

Priorities for the new government are possible revisions to the 2024 budget and laws covering special economic zones and the minerals and forestry industries, Manele said.

"No doubt Manele would like to focus on the economy but to some extent macroeconomic circumstances are beyond the ability of any individual prime minister to address," said Wood.

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 May 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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Vietnam's National Assembly approves removal of its leader

Vuong Dinh Hue was caught up in a bribery scandal.

By RFA Staff 2024.05.02 -- Vietnam's National Assembly approved the removal of Vuong Dinh Hue as its chairman and delegate at an extraordinary meeting of its standing committee in Hanoi on Thursday, state media reported.

Hue was forced to resign by the Communist Party on April 26 after being accused of violating party regulations affecting the reputation of the Party and the state. Last month, his personal assistant Phan Thai Ha was arrested at the airport after returning from a five-day official trip to China with Hue, where they met with President Xi Jinping.

Ha, who had been Hue's right-hand man for over two decades, was charged with "abusing his position and power to influence others for personal gain" for his ties to the Thuan An construction group, a small firm that won 38 of 47 public tenders for major infrastructure projects. Thuan An's two top leaders have been arrested.

The National Assembly meeting has made no decision so far on appointing a new Vietnamese president.

In March, it approved the removal of Vo Van Thuong as president for the 2021-2026 term after just one year in office.

Thuong was forced to quit for his failure to exercise proper supervision over officials in Quang Ngai province during his tenure as provincial party secretary from 2011-2014.

The Politburo appointed Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan as acting president, her second time in the temporary job.

The president's role is one of the top four political positions in Vietnam, along with general secretary, prime minister and chairman of the National Assembly. The general secretary of the Communist Party is the most powerful figure in the country.

The removal of the National Assembly leader is the latest move in the party's "blazing furnace" anti-corruption campaign which has netted senior party officials and business leaders. It could raise new concerns about political stability in what is considered Southeast Asia's manufacturing hub, which is heavily dependent on foreign investment and trade.

The National Assembly plans to hold a regular month-long session from May 20.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

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 May 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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Serbian Parliament Overwhelmingly Approves New Government

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service May 02, 2024

The new government of Serbia, which includes two politicians who have been on the U.S. sanctions list since last year, has been overwhelmingly approved by parliament.

The legislative body voted 152-61 on May 2 to approve the new government after more than six hours of debate. There were no abstentions, but only 213 out of 250 members voted.

The new government will have 25 ministries and five ministers without portfolios.

The two cabinet members designated by the United States for sanctions are Aleksandar Vulin, who will serve as deputy prime minister, and Nenad Popovic, who was tapped as one of the ministers without portfolio.

Vulin, a former director of Serbia's BIA security agency, was hit by U.S. sanctions in July 2023 for "corrupt and destabilizing acts that have also facilitated Russia's malign activities in the region."

Popovic, a businessman and former minister without portfolio, was added to the sanctions list in November 2023 for allegedly "operating in or having operated in the electronics sector of the Russian Federation economy."

The United States said it was "disappointed" that two individuals under U.S. sanctions have been included in the new government.

"Our position on Mr. Vulin and Mr. Popovic is well-known," a U.S. State Department spokesman told RFE/RL in a written statement on May 1. "They remain under U.S. sanctions."

He added, however, that Washington plays no role in the appointments in the Serbian government.

Prime Minister-elect Milos Vucevic, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), told the parliament on May 1 that his cabinet will be a government of continuity to the greatest extent possible and membership in the European Union remained the country's strategic goal.

However, he said that the European Union's expectations were tied to Serbia "humiliating" itself by recognizing Kosovo's independence and joining sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. He said Serbia will not renounce friendship with Russia and will maintain its policy of not joining the sanctions.

The government was formed 4 1/2 months after the SNS and its coalition partners won a narrow majority of 129 mandates in the legislature in a close-fought vote that was marred by allegations of fraud.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-government-sns- vucevic-vulin-popovic-sanctions/32930929.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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Draft Resolution On Srebrenica Genocide Sent To UN General Assembly

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service May 02, 2024

A draft resolution to establish an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide has been sent to the UN General Assembly for a vote, Bosnia-Herzegovina's permanent representative to the UN said.

"After several rounds of inclusive consultations, the final motion of the resolution 'International Day of Remembrance and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995' by the cross-regional core group went to the President of the UN General Assembly [Dennis Francis] and all permanent missions to the UN," Zlatko Lagumdzija announced on X, formerly Twitter, late on May 1.

In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up and killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Potocari near the eastern town of Srebrenica -- the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.

The massacre has been deemed genocide by various verdicts of both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The resolution, which would declare July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance for the Genocide in Srebrenica, was initiated by Germany and Rwanda and is co-sponsored by the United States, France, Bosnia, and other countries.

It is expected to be put to a vote in the General Assembly in early May and would be observed starting from next year -- the 30th anniversary of the genocide.

The final draft, seen by RFE/RL, condemns any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as well as actions that glorify convicted war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide.

It also highlights the importance of completing the process of finding and identifying the remains of victims of the Srebrenica genocide and calls for the continued prosecution of its perpetrators that have yet to be brought to justice.

So far, more than 50 individuals have been sentenced to some 700 years in prison for their roles in the Srebrenica genocide.

Leaders of Bosnia's Serb entity, Republika Srpska, and Serbia have voiced angry opposition to the resolution, which they claim would label Serbs as a "genocidal nation." Serbia is supported by Russia and China.

On April 30, Russia's envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, dismissed the resolution as "one-sided" and "politically charged." Nebenzya said the move would not promote reconciliation among the peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska's Russia-friendly leader, has repeatedly threatened that if the resolution is adopted, the entity "will withdraw from the decision-making process in Bosnia."

Dodik, who has been sanctioned by the United States and Britain over his efforts to undermine the Dayton peace accords, has regularly reiterated his denial of the Srebrenica genocide.

Dodik told supporters at a rally in Banja Luka on April 18 that the actions of the Republika Srpska Army in Srebrenica in 1995 were "a mistake that left the crime," but he denied it was genocide.

Serbia's nationalist president, Aleksandar Vucic, said the resolution should be subjected to a vote in the UN Security Council, not the General Assembly.

Unlike resolutions presented to the General Assembly, those put to a vote in the Security Council can be vetoed by any of its five members, therefore allowing Russia and China to sink it.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/srebrenica-genocide- united-nations-resolution-serbia-bosnia/32930574.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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Turkish Ministry of Trade Confirms Trade Relations With Israel Fully Suspended

Sputnik News

20240502

ISTANBUL, (Sputnik) - Turkiye has fully suspended trading with Israel, and the decision will be in force until uninterrupted delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip is ensured, the Ministry of Trade confirmed on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, media reported that Turkiye halted all imports and exports to and from Israel as of Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz then accused Turkiye of breaking trade agreements and said that Israel would seek alternatives by focusing on imports from other countries.

The ministry recalled that Turkiye has already restricted export of 54 different items of goods, including aviation fuel and motor oil, to Israel, but the "aggression" in the Gaza Strip is still ongoing.

"Considering this fact, a second phase of measures has been taken at the state level  export and import transactions related to Israel have been halted, the measures apply to all items," the ministry said, adding that the decision will be in force until Israel ensures uninterrupted and sufficient supplies of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

 Sputnik

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Russia Calls for Independent International Investigation of Mass Graves in Gaza - Russian Envoy

Sputnik News

20240502

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Russia calls for an independent international investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators in relation to the reported mass graves in the Gaza Strip, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said.

"We received chilling reports about mass graves that were discovered in the Gaza Strip. We need an independent international investigation to ensure that the perpetrators are held to account," Nebenzia told the UN General Assembly.

Palestinian officials reported that more than 300 bodies - including of women, children, elderly and injured persons - were found in mass graves on the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city and al-Shifa medical compound in Gaza City.

 Sputnik

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Congratulations to Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele

US Department of State

Press Statement

Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson

May 2, 2024

The United States congratulates Jeremiah Manele on his election as the prime minister of Solomon Islands, as confirmed by the vote results certified on May 2. We also congratulate the people of Solomon Islands for making their voices heard, and we applaud the many officials and volunteers, especially from the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, whose dedication made the free and fair elections of April 17 possible.

We look forward to working with Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele to further strengthen the U.S.-Solomon Islands relationship and move our nations toward a better future.

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UK statement to the OSCE on developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 2024

The UK expresses concern about recent developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and underlines the important role of the OSCE Mission in strengthening inter-ethnic relations.

2 May 2024

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We all share the obligation to support and safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The United Kingdom is therefore, like others in this room, concerned about the political situation in the country, and the implications this inevitably presents for safety and security. Repeated calls from politicians in the Republika Srpska to dissolve the state are dangerous, and are clearly intended to stir up ethno-nationalism and inter-community tensions in the interests of protecting corrupt elites. It is important that such provocations are not successful, and we call upon those making such demands to cease.

The United Kingdom welcomes the joint statement by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the Secretary General on 19 April, and subsequent statements by the Commander of EUFOR Operation ALTHEA.

EUFOR ALTHEA - along with the OSCE, the Office of the High Representative, NATO and others - are key guarantors of the Dayton Peace Agreement, with the remit and capability to deter and prevent escalations or threats to the safe and secure environment.

The United Kingdom would like to underline the important role performed by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, including on strengthening inter-ethnic relations and connecting neighbouring communities across political and administrative divides. We highly value the insight provided by the Mission's network of nine field offices across the country. The United Kingdom will continue to support the work of the OSCE Mission, including through current programmes to improve the integrity of electoral processes.

Madam Chair, the UK will remain steadfast in its commitment to work towards building a peaceful, prosperous and thriving Bosnia and Herzegovina, working in the interests of its people. A more inclusive and cohesive society is essential to achieving lasting stability. Much has been achieved over the last 29 years, and we cannot allow for this progress to be jeopardised. We will continue to track closely developments on the ground, in cooperation with the relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with our partners.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

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10,000 people feared buried under the rubble in Gaza

2 May 2024 - More than 10,000 people are believed buried under the rubble in Gaza after nearly seven months of devastating conflict, UN humanitarians said on Thursday, citing the enclave's health authorities.

"It could take up to three years to retrieve the bodies using the primitive tools they have on hand," the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said, amid rising temperatures that will accelerate the decomposition of bodies, potentially increasing the threat of disease spreading.

Citing the Palestinian civil defence authority, OCHA said that the recovery of dead bodies from the debris is a huge challenge, owing to a lack of bulldozers, excavators and personnel.

Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled amid intense and ongoing Israeli bombardment "across much of the Gaza Strip" from the air, land and sea, the UN aid office noted.

'Nightmare' must end: UNICEF chief

In a call for an end to the hostilities, sparked by Hamas-led terror raids on southern Israel on 7 October that killed some 1,250 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, top UN humanitarian official Catherine Russell insisted that the "nightmare" must end.

Nearly all of the 600,000 children now sheltering in the southern border city of Rafah are "injured, sick or malnourished", the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) chief said in a video post on X on Wednesday.

"Over 200 days of war have already killed and maimed tens of thousands of children in Gaza," Ms. Russell added, amid deepening fears of a full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah.

1,000-pound bombs

Following the withdrawal of Israeli troops last month from the southern city of Khan Younis, a UN assessment team mission on 10 April reported that streets and public spaces were littered with unexploded weapons. In addition, 1,000-pound bombs were found "lying on main intersections and inside schools".

UN-led efforts are ongoing to make areas safe for Gazans to return to Khan Younis, including damage assessments at facilities belonging to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and mapping high-risk areas containing shrapnel and unexploded ordnance.

Another vital aspect of this work is awareness-raising sessions, which the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) conducts via social media, mobile phone text messages and leaflets to around 1.2 million people in Gaza, as part of aid packages distributed by other humanitarian partners.

In total there is an estimated 37 million tonnes of debris in the enclave which likely contains about 800,000 tonnes of asbestos and other contaminants.

UN mine action experts have estimated that some 7,500 tonnes of unexploded ordnance could be "scattered" throughout Gaza which could take up to 14 years to clear. To mitigate the risk for civilians and aid teams in the meantime, the UN Mine Action Service, UNMAS, has issued increasingly urgent appeals for assistance from the international community to remove explosive remnants of war.

Rising toll

Between 29 April 1 May, OCHA reported that 80 Palestinians were killed and 118 injured amid Israeli bombardment, citing the Gazan health authorities. The same source has reported that since 7 October, at least 34,560 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 77,765 injured.

This includes a strike on 29 April "at about 12:25pm" when two Palestinian women and two girls were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Tall As Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah.

OCHA also reported that between 28 April and 1 May, two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. As of 1 May, 262 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,602 soldiers injured in Gaza since the beginning of the ground operation.

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World News in Brief: Palestinian journalists win top press freedom prize, child migrant detention, Niger meningitis epidemic

2 May 2024 - The Palestinian journalists who have been covering the devastating war in Gaza were named winners of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on Thursday.

The top award for reporters who have born witness to the destruction of much of their homeland under Israel's relentless bombardment came at the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

"In these times of darkness and hopelessness we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances", said Mauricio Weibel, who chaired the jury.

Huge debt

"We have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression". he added.

The UN science, education and culture agency's chief Audrey Azoulay said that the Prize reminded everyone of "the importance of collective action to ensure that journalists around the world can continue to carry out their essential work to inform and investigate".

The ongoing conflict in Gaza is having grave consequences for journalists. Since 7 October, UNESCO has condemned and deplored the deaths of 26 journalists and media workers in the line of work, based upon information from its international NGO partners.

UNESCO is supporting journalists reporting from conflict and crisis zones which includes distributing essential supplies to journalists in Gaza, and has established safe working spaces and provided emergency grants for journalists in Ukraine and Sudan.

Detention of child migrants in EU must end, say top rights experts

Migration news now, and a call from top independent rights experts on Thursday to end the practice of detaining the children of migrants and asylum-seekers entering the European Union.

In their appeal to the EU bloc, experts including Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants, insisted that detention of children because of their parents' migration status was "always a violation" of their rights.

The development comes as the European Union's 27 Members prepare to implement a new Pact on Migration and Asylum, pending its approval by the EU Council in Brussels.

The measures which are expected to come into effect in 2026 include the creation of national mechanisms to monitor respect for human rights during the screening of migrants and asylum seekers at country borders.

"Asylum-seekers should not be penalised for exercising the right to seek asylum, and migration should not be criminalised," the independent experts said in a statement.

WHO launches urgent vaccination in Niger to contain meningitis epidemic

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) started a mass vaccination campaign in Niger's Niamey region on Thursday in response to an ongoing and deadly meningitis outbreak.

More than 2,000 cases were recorded in just one week last month and 123 people have died, the WHO said.

Niger is one of 26 African countries where the disease is endemic and persistently poses a high-risk in the so-called African meningitis belt.

The recent surge in cases represents a 50 per cent increase from last year, with a mortality rate exceeding six per cent.

The focus of the epicentre is Niamey region, with an infection rate of more than 52 cases per 100,000 people. Other regions such as Agadez, Zinder and Dosso also require urgent intervention to confront high infection rates, the UN health agency said.

To help protect at-risk communities, WHO is joining forces with several technical and financial partners to respond to the epidemic with a new vaccine.

Unlike previous jabs, the new meningitis vaccine is single-dose - and it protects against five strains of the infection.

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USS Stout Provides Medical Assistance to Merchant Vessel at Sea

US Navy

02 May 2024

ATLANTIC OCEAN -- While underway in the Atlantic Ocean during routine operations with Carrier Strike Group Eight (CSG-8), the guided missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) responded to a notification of a cargo ship requiring medical assistance, April 29, 2024. Stout is currently operating as part of CSG-8 for Group Sail, a weeklong exercise combining multiple Navy ships, led by the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.

Around 10:00am, the bridge team of USS Stout overheard a bridge-to-bridge radio transmission from a cargo vessel off the coast of North Carolina hailing the Coast Guard for medical assistance for a civilian onboard who suffered an injury. Ready to answer the call, Stout quickly responded, setting a course to the vessel in distress while simultaneously preparing a small boat team with medical personnel to render aid upon arrival. As Stout approached the vessel, they found the cargo vessel Grande Portogallo, on its way to Mexico, and a member of the crew had sustained injuries from a hot fuel oil spill and was in need of medical attention.

A crew of five Sailors from Stout deployed on a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) and embarked the Grande Portogallo to provide medical care to the injured crewmember. The Stout bridge team maintained communication with the vessel as well as U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina throughout the incident. After determining the crewmember required medical evacuation, USCG deployed a helicopter for assistance. Stout personnel remained on scene until USCG arrived and took over patient care, evacuating the patient to shore via helicopter for further medical treatment and evaluation. Stout's small boat crew then headed back to the ship before continuing with CSG-8 Group Sail operations.

"The crew performed well as professionals, quickly transitioning from tactical training to real-life humanitarian assistance," said Cmdr. Desmond Walker, commanding officer of USS Stout. "The coordination between our combat information center, bridge, small boat team and the U.S. Coast Guard ensured the fastest response possible, given the type of emergency," he added.

While a main mission of the Navy is maintaining free and open seas, helping those in distress is just as important. U.S. Navy assets will never turn away from a call for help. USS Stout responded to this call for help quickly, effectively, and professionally, highlighting part of the ship's motto, "Fast and Ready."

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SECNAV Del Toro Delivers Keynote Address at Modern Day Marine 2024

US Navy

Washington, DC

Speech by Carlos Del Toro

Presented on 02 May 2024

Date Published 02 May 2024

Good morning, everyone! It is great to be with you here in D.C. for the final day of Modern Day Marine 2024.

Lieutenant General Chiarotti, thank you for that kind introduction and for your 36 years of service in the United States Marine Corps.

From Europe to the Middle East, from the Indo-Pacific to the Caribbean, you answered the call of our nation time and time again, leading Marines and Sailors around the globe in support of peace and stability.

And I thank you for your continued dedication to serving the Marine Corps as the Chief Executive Officer of the Marine Corps Association.

The work of your organization and others like it undertake to support the professional development of our Marines and to build awareness of the rich history, spirit, and traditions of our Marine Corps that are critical to maintaining the world's premier naval expeditionary force.

General Smith, General Mahoney, Sergeant Major Ruiz, thank you, Gentlemen, for your decades of service, and for your leadership of the United States Marine Corps.

I cannot express how I proud I am of the successes we've realized during our time together, from meeting recruiting goals to being the first service to pass an audit, and I look forward to what the future holds for the Marines, Sailors, and civilians that you lead.

Given the challenges our nation faces today, alongside our international allies and partners, it is imperative that we remain committed to fielding a strong Navy and Marine Corps team that is lethal, agile, and capable of deterring our adversaries and, if called upon, prevail in combat.

And those challenges are many, from Europe to the Indo-Pacific to the Red Sea.

In Europe, Russia has entered the third year of its unprovoked, illegal, and brutal war of aggression in Ukraine.

We, alongside our NATO allies, proudly stand alongside our Ukrainian partners as they fight to restore peace in their homeland.

And I commend Congress for their passage of the recent national security supplemental budget request that included $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine, providing them with the materiel support they need to defend against Russia's ongoing invasion.

And as you are all aware, in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, we are working alongside our NATO allies and partners in the Middle East to ensure the safety of innocent, civilian mariners and to protect our commercial shipping against missiles and drones launched by the Houthis in Yemen.

Since last November, the Houthiswho are an Iranian partner and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist grouphave launched over one hundred attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Marines and Sailors across multiple ships and aviation squadrons have demonstrated a high level of warfighting experience and an incredible amount of resiliency while conducting kinetic operations.

In March, I had the privilege of welcoming USS Bataan (LHD-5) home at Naval Station Norfolk. The sense of pride I felt from our Marines and Sailors from knowing that they excelled in the performance of their assigned missions was overwhelming.

Likewise, the outpouring of love and support I witnessed from the families that had endured over eight months of separation was a reminder of why we do what we dowhy we sail into harm's wayto keep them safe, and to defend the ideals and freedoms we enjoy.

Finally, in the Indo-Pacific, we face a comprehensive maritime powerour pacing challenge.

The People's Republic of China continues to exert its excessive maritime claims through their navy, coast guard, and maritime militia.

We will continue to sail and operate alongside our allies and partners, including the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, in support of our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region, one where nations are secure in their access to the seas and where their rights within their exclusive economic zones are respected and upheld.

Our Navy and Marine Corps remain at the center of global and national securitymaintaining freedom of the seas, international security, and upholding the rules-based international order that has brought prosperity and stability to millions around the globe.

And to preserve the freedoms and ideals codified by the Constitution many of us here today have sworn an oath to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic, we are proud to have the world's strongest Marine Corps, supported America's Warfighting Navy.

But to maintain the competitive advantages our Marines and Sailors enjoy today in terms of platforms, systems, and capabilities, it is imperative that we continue to both modernize and innovate.

Shortly after I became the 78th Secretary of the Navy in August of 2021, I laid out our Department's three enduring priorities of: Strengthening Maritime Dominance, Building a Culture of Warfighting Excellence, and Enhancing Strategic Partnerships.

Over the last year, we have realized significant advances in the Marine Corps against all three of our enduring priorities.

This progress directly supports Force Design, and the Marine Corps continues to make progress in this force-wide transformational endeavor to ensure our ability to operate as our Nation's Stand-In Force, any-time, anywhere around the globe.

And as we look towards the future of the Corps and how we will advance its warfighting capabilities and readiness along all three enduring priorities, we are making strong commitments to the acquisition of modern platforms and systems, taking care of our Marines and their families, and strengthening our relationships with allies and partners across the world.

On the acquisitions front, the President's budget request for Fiscal Year 2025 includes $4.2 billion for the procurement of platforms and weapons our Marines and Sailors need to operate ashore as an expeditionary force, including:

Joint Tactical Vehicles

Amphibious Combat Vehicles

Naval Strike Missiles for NMESIS

Tactical Tomahawk missiles

Javelin anti-armor missiles, and

Ground/Air Task Oriented RADAR (GATOR)

We continue to acquire F-35s and CH-53Ks to provide our Marines with the strike and heavy lift support they require from the air.

And our Navy continues to procure LPDs, LHAs, and LSMs to ensure we maintain the sealift capacity necessary to move Marines and their equipment throughout the maritime domain in potentially contested environments.

However, the core of our combat strength is our people. A critical element of Force Design is providing our people with world class training and education opportunitiesincluding the Naval Community Collegeto hone their skills, making the Marine Corps more lethal and agile.

We are taking an innovative approach to utilizing our Reserve Marines through programs such as the Marine Innovation Unit, where reservists can directly apply their civilian career experiences in support of the rapid identification, experimentation, prototyping, adoption, and fielding of cutting-edge technologies to solve capability gaps identified by Marines in the field.

And we focused on improving the quality of life for our Marines and their families through initiatives like Barracks 2030, improving on-base family housing, and expanding childcare services with planned construction of new Child Development Centers across several installations.

We are also committed to reducing destructive behaviors across both the Navy and Marine Corps as we strive to provide each and every one of our Marines, Sailors, and civilians with a work environment where they feel safe, respected, and welcomed.

All of these efforts contribute to the readiness and resiliency of our Marines and their families, ensuring they are ready to respond to wherever they are needed around the globe.

However, it is important to note that our Marines rarely operate alone and are often accompanied by forces from our allies and partners.

Every day, our Marines and Sailors are sailing, flying, and operating alongside the forces of fellow like-minded nations across the world.

Exercises like Freedom Shield 24 with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, Iron Fist 24 with the Japanese Self Defense Force, and Balikatan 2024 with the Armed Forces of the Philippines provide us with unique opportunities to strengthen the bonds between our nations' respective militaries, building trust in one another's abilities to operate in a critical region.

We also continue to train alongside our allies and partners in Europe and South America through exercises such as Nordic Response and CENTAM Guardian 24, respectively.

The alliances and partnerships we enjoy with nations around the globe are indeed what separate us from our potential adversaries, and I am proud that the United States Marine Corps is the partner-of-choice many militaries across several continents.

Now, as we look towards the future of the Corps, it is important to reflect on where we've been, and the sacrifices made by our Marines and Sailors who, for centuries, have served as our Nation's premier expeditionary fighting force.

Here in Washington, D.C, their stories, including acts of heroism and devotion to our nation, are preserved throughout the capital's museums and monumentsincluding the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington, where I swore my oath of office as Secretary of the Navy.

Up the road from here in Annapolis at the United States Naval Academy, the names of fallen graduates like Major Doug Zembiec, Major Megan McClung, and 1st Lieutenant Travis Manion adorn the walls of Memorial Hall.

Across the world, Marine Corps bases and installations are marked with reminders of Marines who remained "always faithful" to our Nation.

And in our Fleet, warships bear the names of Marine Corps Medal of Honor Recipients, like Colonel Harvey Barnum, hard-fought battles, including Bataan and Bougainville, and places of historical significance to the Corps, such as Tripoli.

In December of 2022, I had the privilege of naming the future America-class amphibious assault ship LHA-9 the USS Fallujah, honoring the actions of our Marines who participated in the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, as well as all of our Marines and Sailors who conducted operations in Iraq.

In keeping with naval tradition of naming our Navy's amphibious assault ships after U.S. Marine Corps battles, I am honored to announce today that the future LHA-10 will be named USS Helmand Province, recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of our Marines and Sailors who fought for almost 20 years in the mountains of Afghanistan.

I am also honored to announce that Mrs. Trish Smith, the wife of the 39th Commandant of the Marine Corps General Eric Smith, will serve as the ship's sponsor for USS Helmand Province.

A ship's sponsor plays a critical role throughout the life of a warship, serving as the bond between the ship, her crew, and the nation they serve. And I have no doubt that Mrs. Smith will serve admirably in this role, supporting the Marines and Sailors of USS Helmand Province wherever they may sail around the globe.

Mrs. Smith, please join me on stage for the presentation of your official sponsor designation letter.

Thank you, Mrs. Smith, on behalf of our Navy and Marine Corps, for accepting this lifetime commitment, which will endure long after your and your husband's time in service to the Corps ends.

At this time, I would like to offer the stage to our Commandant, General Eric Smith, to share the significance of Helmand Province to the Marine Corps.

(Commandant Provides Remarks)

Thank you, General Smith, for sharing your reflections on why naming this ship USS Helmand Province is so important to keeping the memories of those who gave all alive for future generations of Marines and Sailors.

As I close, I will echo what General Smith highlightedthe work we ask our Marines and Sailors to do every day is anything but ordinary or routine, and in many cases extremely dangerous.

It is incumbent upon all of us here in this roomgovernment and industryto leverage every resource at our disposal to ensure our Marines have what they need to be successful in their assigned missions and return home safely to their loved ones.

May God Bless our Marines, Sailors, civilians, and their families, and continue to grant our Nation with fair winds and following seas. Thank you.

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US defense secretary meeting with Pacific allies in Hawaii

By Carla Babb May 02, 2024

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Hawaii on Thursday to meet with leaders from Australia, Japan and the Philippines amid increasing concerns about Chinese military aggression in the Pacific.

Defense officials said the talks would continue the allies' "historic progress" on cooperation in their defense industries and military activities, including air and missile defense.

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called the quadrilateral group an "anti-aggression coalition" whose efforts protect "many countries around the world who depend on the ability for commercial vessels to sail freely and unimpeded through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea."

"The single biggest reason for what we're witnessing in Hawaii this week is the increasingly aggressive behavior of the People's Republic of China," Bowman told VOA.

"I think Japan, Australia and the Philippines understand that investments in deterrence are far less costly than dealing with a war that could have been prevented, and they understand that deterrence will be much stronger and more effective if they work with the United States and they work with each other," he said.

Austin was to meet with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles on Thursday following Australia's commitment last month to increase defense spending by 20% over the next decade.

Austin also planned to meet with Japanese Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara. During an April state visit in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced deepening military cooperation, including creation of a trilateral air defense architecture with Australia and trilateral exercises with the United Kingdom.

Trilateral session

The U.S., Japan and Australia were to convene a trilateral meeting following the bilateral talks, where a senior defense official said they were expected to sign a new trilateral agreement on strategic research and development.

Austin then planned to host a quadrilateral meeting with Filipino Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro and their Japanese and Australian counterparts. It will be the second such meeting of the four countries' defense ministers.

A senior defense official, speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, said talks would focus on deterring actors from activities that could "undermine peace and stability in the region, whether it's in East Asia, the East China Sea, South China Sea or the Pacific Islands."

Tensions have risen between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, with China's coast guard using water cannons last month to threaten Filipino fishing ships. China has also used collision and ramming tactics, undersea barriers and a military-grade laser to stop Philippine resupply and patrol missions.

Bowman said he expected Beijing to complain about the talks as an attempt to form a coalition like NATO in the Pacific.

"I think as a general rule, the People's Republic of China wants to deal with everything in the region in a bilateral way that allows Beijing to take advantage of power asymmetries. ... The bully on the playground ... doesn't want to deal with four or five kids at the same time," he said.

Last month, Austin spoke with Chinese Admiral Dong Jun in the first dialogue between the two countries' defense chiefs in nearly 17 months.

The Pentagon said Austin and his Chinese counterpart discussed "defense relations" and global security issues ranging from Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine to recent provocations from North Korea. A Pentagon press release said Austin stressed the importance of "respect for high seas freedom of navigation as guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea."

Beijing has asserted its desire to control access to the South China Sea and bring Taiwan under its control, by force if necessary.

Biden has said U.S. troops will defend the democratically run island from attack.

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Biden: 'Order must prevail' alongside free speech in campus protests over war in Gaza

By Patsy Widakuswara May 02, 2024

After weeks of pro-Palestinian protests escalating in universities across the United States, President Joe Biden addressed the nation Thursday, underscoring that the right to free speech and the rule of law must both be upheld.

"Order must prevail," he said from the White House, even as he stressed that dissent is "essential for democracy."

"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," he said. "The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues."

Biden said he does not support calls by some Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson to send in the National Guard to quell protests.

He said the campus demonstrations have not caused him to reconsider his approach to Gaza. His administration has criticized some of Israel's war conduct but continues to support their efforts to eliminate Hamas, despite pushback from progressive Democrats and American Muslim groups.

Biden's statement was met with criticism from Edward Mitchell, deputy director of the Council of American and Islamic Relations, who said the president's "vague, both-sides speech failed to specifically mention or condemn the violent attacks that pro-Israel rioters and law enforcement officers have launched against students protesting the Gaza genocide across the country."

"The White House has repeatedly rushed to condemn any allegation of antisemitism, but repeatedly failed to call out incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia," he told VOA.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump has also criticized Biden's approach on the protests, suggesting he has been too soft on demonstrators.

"The radical extremists and far-left agitators are terrorizing college campuses," Trump said Wednesday during a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin. "And Biden's nowhere to be found. He hasn't said anything."

The protests have become a growing political dilemma for Biden ahead of the November presidential election. Republicans accuse the U.S. president of turning a blind eye to lawlessness and antisemitism while progressives and young voters are incensed at police cracking down on unrest over the war in Gaza.

"This is a classic case of a policy issue where a president cannot win," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at University of Virginia.

The issue is particularly fraught for a Democratic presidential candidate who usually carries the votes of both most Jewish Americans and most Arab Americans, Sabato told VOA.

"The odds are, you're not going to get both this year or at least the percentages will be lower than usual," he said.

Biden denounced Republican efforts to use the protests as campaign fodder. "In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points," he said.

Police crackdown

Earlier Thursday, police moved against a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California, Los Angeles, pulling apart a barricade and arresting multiple people after issuing orders for people to leave.

The police action unfolded over hours, with officers initially standing near the protest camp and briefly pushing into the area before retreating as protesters cheered.

About an hour later, a larger group of officers returned, and while they were initially stymied at one end of a plaza by hundreds of protesters clogging stairs and walkways, officers converged on the main protest camp from another direction and quickly began tearing away plywood, metal fencing and tents.

The protesters, who are demanding the university divest from Israel, chanted "peaceful protest" as police equipped with helmets, face shields and batons worked to push people from the area.

The UCLA protest is one of many pro-Palestinian demonstrations at college campuses across the country, which have resulted in hundreds of arrests.

Police in New Hampshire made arrests and removed tents late Wednesday and early Thursday at Dartmouth College.

A pro-Palestinian protest camp emerged at Dartmouth on Wednesday as administrators warned that such a camp would violate school policy.

At the University of Texas at Dallas, police cleared a pro-Palestinian camp following the arrest of at least 17 people.

In New York, police arrested at least 15 people Wednesday at Fordham University while clearing a pro-Palestinian protest camp.

Columbia University administrators said Wednesday that all remaining academic activity for the semester, which is nearing its end, will be held remotely following protests that included the occupation of a campus building. Police cleared protesters late Tuesday and arrested nearly 300 people.

Israel launched its counter-offensive in Gaza after Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.

Vowing to erase Hamas control of Gaza, Israel has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians in the territory along the Mediterranean Sea, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty toll.

VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Hamas chief: Group considering cease-fire proposal with 'positive spirit'

By VOA News May 02, 2024

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday that the Palestinian militant group was studying a proposal for a temporary cease-fire with Israel with a "positive spirit."

Haniyeh discussed the issue in separate phone calls with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a Hamas statement.

Hamas said it is sending a delegation to Egypt for more talks on a cease-fire.

Mediators have proposed a 40-day cease-fire and the release of many Palestinian prisoners in exchange for dozens of Israeli hostages.

"Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Israel on Wednesday. "If Hamas actually purports to care about the Palestinian people and wants to see an immediate alleviation of their suffering, it should take this deal."

Hamas said on Saturday that it received Israel's latest position and would study it before issuing a response.

Meanwhile, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday his government would sever diplomatic relations with Israel Thursday in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Speaking at a march in the Colombian capital, Bogota, Petro described Israel's leadership as "genocidal."

"If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die," Petro said.

His comments drew a quick response from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who called Petro's decision a gift to Hamas.

"History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians," Katz said on X.

As Israel prepares for a planned military operation in Rafah, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by telephone Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

A Pentagon spokesperson said Austin "stressed the need for any potential Israeli military operation in Rafah to include a credible plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid."

Austin also reiterated U.S. support for Israel's defense, as well as a "commitment to the unconditional return of all hostages and conveyed the importance of increasing the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza to flood the zone, while ensuring the safety of civilians and aid workers."

The discussion followed a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel amid efforts to resolve details of an elusive bid for a cease-fire.

Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, as well as families of some of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken "emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a cease-fire."

The militants so far have refused to accept a plan calling for a several-week halt in nearly seven months of warfare, along with Hamas failing to free hostages it is holding in exchange for the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel.

Israel launched a campaign to eliminate the Hamas militant group after the Hamas attack on Israel in October that killed 1,200 people.

Hamas also took about 250 hostages during the attack, and it is believed to still be holding about 100, along with the remains of 30 or more hostages who have either been killed or otherwise died in the ensuing months.

Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Gaza conflict exacts devastating toll on children in Lebanon as regional war looms

By Lisa Schlein May 02, 2024

UNICEF warns the conflict in Gaza and mounting violence between Israel and Hezbollah are increasing the suffering of tens of thousands of children in Lebanon caught in the crosshairs of this escalating regional crisis.

A report issued by the United Nations Children's Fund this week calls for an immediate, permanent cease-fire in Gaza as an essential prerequisite for protecting the lives and well-being of children and civilians in Lebanon and beyond.

"Without that, Lebanon is at risk of a full-scale war which would have a devastating impact on the 1.3 million children living in the country, as well as the rest of the children in the region," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

Presenting the report at a Geneva press conference, Elder said humanitarian needs were surging across Lebanon as airstrikes by Israel Defense Forces have progressively increased and "hit deeper into a country already suffering protracted economic and political crises."

Israel has been exchanging frequent fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants.

"UNICEF has previously warned of Lebanon's unrelenting, overlapping emergencies and their impact on children and education. Today these are compounded by almost daily airstrikes," he said.

According to Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health, airstrikes have damaged civilian infrastructure and facilities, killing 344 people, including eight children and 21 women, since October 7, when Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people and saw 240 abductions.

"Together with those children killed and scores injured, 30,000 children have been displaced," said Elder. "Infrastructure that children rely on is being destroyed, including significant damage to water stations, thus denying 100,000 people access to safe drinking water. Around 23 health care facilities, serving 4,000 people, are also closed due to the hostilities.

"Should the conflict continue to escalate, UNICEF warns that repercussions for children will be devastating," he said.

Before the conflict, UNICEF reports, some 700,000 children in Lebanon were out of school. It says Lebanon's pre-existing education crisis has since worsened, noting that the recent violence has forced the closure of 72 schools in southern Lebanon, disrupting the education of an additional 20,000 students.

The agency says nearly half of Lebanon's 5.49 million population live below the poverty line, while an estimated 90% of its more than 1 million Syrian-refugee households live in extreme poverty.

"There are some commonalities between Syrian and Lebanese children, and Palestinian children on the ground in that the vast majority of children in Lebanon are not having their needs met," Ettie Higgins, deputy head of office for UNICEF in Lebanon, told journalists Tuesday.

She observed that tensions between communities and nationalities have risen due to the lack of resources brought on by "a massive collapse of humanitarian funding in Lebanon in the past few months."

"This has forced us to cut back virtually on all of our services, including the provision of safe drinking water and simple things like getting rid of sewage in communities."

She acknowledged that cutbacks in food and other essential life-saving commodities and services are having a profound impact on the health and well-being of children.

This is borne out by data collected for a comprehensive nutrition assessment conducted by UNICEF in Lebanon last year. Higgins said the results, which will be released next month, "point to a very, very worrying situation, particularly for children who are living in informal settlements."

"The rates of stunting and wasting [becoming underweight for height] are much higher than we, unfortunately, had assumed," she said, noting that there has been "a three-fold increase in children being referred to malnutrition programs in the past 12 months."

Discussing Lebanon's economic meltdown, she said: "Now in the fourth year of this massive catastrophe that has hit Lebanon, we are seeing tensions spike, and this is having an impact on children daily."

Higgins added that Palestinian refugees who have been living for a long time in terrible conditions in camps and settlements are experiencing "the secondary trauma of seeing what is happening to fellow Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank."

She said destitute families who are unable to make ends meet have been forced into negative and sometimes potentially dangerous coping mechanisms to survive.

"We are seeing families sending the entire family out to beg. They are forcing children as young as four to work in agriculture. And this means that their overall health and well-being are impacted," she said.

"I spoke to a doctor recently who said that he had 7-year-olds coming to him with back problems because of the heavy loads of trash that they are carrying on a daily basis," she added. "And this was to earn maybe two dollars a day, just to be able to eat and put a meal on the table."

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International aid flotilla searches for new flags to sail from Turkey to Gaza

By Umut Colak, Hilmi Hacaloglu, Ezel Sahinkaya May 02, 2024

Activists from an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid are applying for new maritime flags to sail to Gaza from Turkey after the flags of two of their ships were removed by Guinea-Bissau authorities last week.

"We will take flags of different countries. We will also apply to Turkey. We will also try to get Turkey's flag," Behesti Ismail Songur, head of the Mavi Marmara Association, a group that is part of the international flotilla, told VOA.

"So, this will be a litmus test for all states. We will see who will be brave enough to flag the freedom fleet," Songur said.

The flotilla is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which consists of several Turkish and international groups, including the Turkish Islamist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Mavi Marmara Association.

Inspection

The flotilla has three ships, named Vicdan (conscience in Turkish), Anadolu (Anatolia), and Akdeniz (the Mediterranean).

Anadolu, docked at Turkey's Iskenderun port in the Mediterranean, was set to transport 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the activists were planning to sail to Gaza on the Akdeniz, a ferry, from Istanbul's Tuzla shipyard. Vicdan, recently acquired by the group, was not part of the planned sailing.

Anadolu and Akdeniz carried Guinea-Bissau flags until last week when the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR) inspected them and decided to remove the flags.

Flotilla organizers said the GBISR referred to their planned mission to Gaza while informing them about the removal of the flags.

GBISR did not respond to VOA's request for comment.

The flotilla organizers believe that Guinea-Bissau authorities withdrew their flags because of pressure from Israel, which objects to the refusal of the organizers to allow the ships to be inspected for contraband or weapons. But Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dismissed these allegations Monday.

Embalo told the Portuguese LUSA News Agency that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart "about the flagging of ships," noting that it is not a matter that he would deal with.

"I do not usually talk to the prime minister of Israel; I talk to the president of Israel, a friend I met many years ago. That's who I have been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip," Embalo said, adding that he talked with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Sunday.

Mavi Marmara

On April 22 Israel's Channel 12 television reported that Shayetet 13, the Israeli army's elite special forces unit, had been preparing to intercept the flotilla, citing the Israel Defense Forces.

Shayetet 13 was also involved in 2010 when the Mavi Marmara, carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Turkish Islamist IHH, attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza with a flotilla. Israel views the IHH as a terrorist group.

Israeli units boarded the Mavi Marmara with helicopters in international waters, killing nine activists. At least seven Israeli soldiers were injured as activists attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes.

According to a report by the Spanish daily El Pais on April 25, the activists, who were set to sail on the Anadolu and the Akdeniz, took basic training in Istanbul in case of an Israeli attack on the flotilla. The training was conducted by Lisa Fithian, an American expert who teaches "peaceful resistance."

At least 500 international activists were set to sail in the flotilla, including Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of late South African President Nelson Mandela; Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona; and Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned from the State Department in opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led military invasion into Iraq.

Wright, who also participated in the Mavi Marmara voyage in 2010, accused the U.S. of pressuring the current flotilla to prevent it from sailing.

"The U.S. is very complicit in trying to stop the Gaza flotilla," Wright said, referring to a letter to U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken signed by 20 members of Congress last week.

In the letter, members of the U.S. House of Representatives said they were "gravely concerned by the reported 'Freedom Flotilla Coalition,' which plans to breach the established security perimeter with an unknown number of ships to deliver aid to Gaza."

"The flotilla, led in part by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH)  which has close ties with the Turkish government and has previously raised funds for Hamas  intends to bypass established aid channels and refuse to allow Israeli inspection of their cargo, casting doubt on the nature of the mission," the letter stated.

The House members also called on Blinken "to engage directly with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government to prevent or delay the flotilla's departure and ensure that all shipments to Gaza are vetted and in compliance with international standards for humanitarian assistance."

Wright hopes Erdogan will support the flotilla. Erdogan and Turkish government officials have not commented publicly on the flotilla.

Erdogan hosted Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul last month, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that Ankara has decided to join South Africa's lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

This story originated in VOA's Turkish Service with contributions by Portuguese Service.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 03 May 2024 - Day 800

Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The UK Ministry of Defence reported that over the course of this week, the Ukrainian attack on the Russian airfield Kushchevskaya has likely contributed to approximately 40 aircraft of different types being removed from the area and dispersed to multiple airfields further from the frontline.

The impact of this is unlikely to be immediately obvious or dramatic. However, Ukraine has already demonstrated the ability to strike much further into Russia than these dispersal locations. Forcing such dispersal measures means that length of sorties will have to increase to maintain the same permanency over the battlespace. This will in turn require more fuel, increasing cost, while also placing more strain on the aircrews.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day of May 3, there were 97x tactical engagements.

Russian forces launched a total of 2x missile and 65x air strikes, 12x MLRS attacks on the positions of Ukrainian troops and various settlements. Unfortunately, the Russian attacks have killed and wounded civilians. Residential apartment blocks and private houses, as well as other infrastructure, got destroyed and damaged.

Volyn and Polissya axes: no significant changes. No signs of formation of an offensive group.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: the Russian adversary maintains its military presence in the Russian areas bordering Ukraine. Russia conducts subversion, continues shelling of Ukrainian settlements from the territory of Russia and increases the concentration of mining operations along the state border of Ukraine. Russian forces launched an air strike in the vicinity of Baranivka (Sumy oblast). More than 20x settlements, including Liskivshchyna, Klyusy, Karpovychi (Chernihiv oblast), Seredyna-Buda, Vyshen'ky, Mohrytsya, Voronivka (Sumy oblast), Strilecha, Luk'yantsi, Vovchans'k (Kharkiv oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Kup'yans'k and Lyman axes: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 6x attacks in the vicinities of Petropavlivka, Kyslivka (Kharkiv oblast), Andriivka, Stel'makhivka (Luhansk oblast). Russian forces launched an air strike in the vicinity of Borova (Kharkiv oblast). The Russian invaders fired artillery and mortars at around 10x settlements, including Syn'kivka, Stepova Novoselivka, Kotlyarivka (Kharkiv oblast).

Lyman axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled 7x attacks, supported by Russian air strikes, in the vicinities of Makiivka, Nevs'ke, Serebryans'ke forestry (Luhansk oblast), Terny, Tors'ke (Donetsk oblast). The Russian occupiers launched an air strike in the vicinity of Spirne (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Makiivka, Nevs'ke (Luhansk oblast), Terny, Yampolivka (Donetsk oblast).

Bakhmut axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled 14x attacks in the vicinities of Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), Novyi, Klishchiivka, Andriivka (Donetsk oblast), where Russia, using air attacks, attempted to improve its tactical position. Russian forces launched air strikes in the vicinities of Verkhn'okam'yans'ke, Spirne, Ivano-Dar'ivka and New York (Donetsk oblast). More than 10x settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Rozdolivka, Kalynivka, Chasiv Yar, Andriivka (Donetsk oblast).

Avdiivka axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled 28x attacks in the vicinities of Arkhanhel's'ke, Novooleksandrivka, Sokil, Novopokrovs'ke, Umans'ke, Netailove and west of Semenivka (Donetsk oblast), where Russian forces, with air support, made attempts to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their positions. Russian forces launched air strikes in the vicinities of Vovche, Kalynove, Zhelanne, Vesele, Novoselivka Persha, Komyshivka, Karlivka (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 15x settlements, including Novooleksandrivka, Sokil, Umans'ke, Yasnobrodivka (Donetsk oblast).

Novopavlivka axis: the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to hold back Russian forces near Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Paraskoviivka and Vodyane (Donetsk oblast), where Russian forces made 12x attempts to breach Ukrainian defense. The Russian invaders launched air strikes in the vicinities of Bohoyavlenka and Yevhenivka (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Krasnohorivka, Paraskoviivka, Kostyantynivka (Donetsk oblast).

Orikhiv axis: Russian forces, using air attacks, launched 5x assaults on positions of Ukrainian defenders in the vicinities of Staromaiors'ke (Donetsk oblast) and Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia oblast). Around 15x settlements, including Malynivka, Chervone, Bilohir'ya, Robotyne, Shcherbaky (Zaporizhzhia oblast), were under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Kherson axis: Russia does not abandon its intention to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnipro River. In particular during the day of May 3, the Russian invaders, with air support, executed 6x unsuccessful assaults on positions of Ukrainian troops in the vicinity of Krynky (Kherson oblast). The Russian occupiers fired artillery and mortars at around 20 settlements, including Ol'hivka, L'vove, Tyahynka, Tokarivka (Kherson oblast).

During the day of May 3, the Ukrainian Air Force launched air strikes on 13x concentrations of troops, 3x command posts, meanwhile Missile Forces hit 1x Russian command post.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line and inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 14th and 44th mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Sinkovka and Dvurechnaya (Kharkov region).

Three attacks launched by assault groups of the AFU 63rd Mechanised, 77th Airmobile, and 1st National Guard brigades were repelled close to Berestovoye (Kharkov region), Stelmakhovka, and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy losses amounted to up to 355 Ukrainian troops and two motor vehicles.

In the course of counter-battery warfare, one Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, one U.S.-made 155-mm M198 howitzer, one 152-mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, one 122-mm D-30 howitzer, two U.S.-made 105-mm M119 gun, one UK-made 105-mm L-119 howitzer, and one BM-21 Grad MLRS were eliminated.

The Yug Group of Forces units took more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on the 79th, 80th air assault, 46th Airmobile, 24th Mechanised brigades of the AFU and 4th National Guard Brigade close to Spornoye, Konstantinovka, and Krasnogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 340 Ukrainian troops, one U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier, four motor vehicles, one 152-mm D-20 howitzer, one 122-mm D-30 howitzer, one UK-made 105-mm L-119 howitzer, as well as Nota electronic warfare station.

As a result of active actions, the Tsentr Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on the 3rd Assault Brigades, 24th, 110th mechanised brigades of the AFU and 109th Territorial Defence Brigade close to Mayorsk, Novgorodskoye, Semyonovka, and Rozovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The Russian troops also repelled ten counter-attacks launched by assault groups of the AFU 68th, 71st jaeger, 142nd Infantry, 23rd, 100th, 115th mechanised brigades of the AFU near Keramik, Novokalinovo, Ocheretino, Solovyevo, and Netailovo (Donetsk People's Republic).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 360 Ukrainian troops, one U.S.-made Abrams tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, two armoured fighting vehicles, five pick-up trucks, one U.S.-made 155-mm M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery system, one Czech-made 152-mm DANA M2 self-propelled gun, one 152-mm Msta-B howitzer, and one D-30 howitzer.

The Vostok Group of Forces captured more advantageous lines and defeated the units of the 58th Mechanised Infantry Brigade of the AFU and 128th Territorial Defence Brigades near Staromayorskoye and Prechistovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

Three counter-attacks launched by assault groups of the 106th Territorial Defence Brigade were repelled near Urozhaynoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 135 Ukrainian troops, two motor vehicles, and one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer.

The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have inflicted fire damage on manpower of the AFU 35th Marine Brigade and the 121st Territorial Defence Brigade close to Mikhailovka and Ivanovka (Kherson region).

The AFU losses amounted to up to 30 Ukrainian troops, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, and one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer.

Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have eliminated one engagement radar of the S-300PT surface-to-air missile system and one launching vehicle of the German-made IRIS-T anti-aircraft missile system have been neutralised.

In addition, the Balovoye oil base was hit by fuel supplies for AFU military personnel, as well as enemy manpower and hardware in 102 areas.

Air defence systems shot down 40 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and three French-made Hammer aerial guided bombs during the day.

In total, 593 airplanes, 270 helicopters, 23,713 unmanned aerial vehicles, 512 anti-aircraft missile systems, 15,908 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,278 combat vehicles of multiple rocket launcher systems, 9,276 field artillery guns and mortars, and 21,457 special military vehicles have been neutralised since the beginning of the special military operation.

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May 2, 2024

By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News

Good Cyber Hygiene Can Impede Adversary Meddling in U.S. Infrastructure

Good cyber hygiene, which includes things like regularly changing passwords or applying software security patches, plays an outsized role in preventing America's adversaries from hacking into and crippling U.S. infrastructure systems, such as power, water or gas.

On Capitol Hill today, Director of National Intelligence Avril D. Haines told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that in many cases where it's been evident that U.S. adversaries have demonstrated an ability to hack into U.S. infrastructure systems, good cyber hygiene would have prevented it.

"This year, cyber actors are attacking U.S. industrial control systems, which are typically used to automate industrial processes, at record levels," Haines said.

Critical infrastructure sectors a including water, wastewater, food, agriculture, defense, energy and transportation arely on these kinds of systems, she said.

"Although the likelihood of any single attack having a widespread effect on interrupting critical services remains low, the increased number of attacks and the actors' willingness to access and manipulate these control systems increases the collective odds that at least one could have a more significant impact," Haines said.

The owners and maintainers of these systems play a role in their vulnerability to cyberattack by American adversaries, Haines told lawmakers.

"In virtually all the attacks we've seen against U.S. critical infrastructure, cyber actors took advantage of default or weak passwords; unpatched, known vulnerabilities; and poorly secured network connections to launch relatively simple attacks," she said. "And for this reason, it is crucial that all of us a particularly critical infrastructure owners and operators a improve our cybersecurity practices to reduce our vulnerability to such efforts."

According to Haines, the number of ransomware attacks globally went up by as much as 74% in the last year.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told senators that the need to protect DIA networks from cyberattacks by a wide range of actors, including foreign intelligence entities and insider threats, remains a primary concern for DIA.

"This includes not only the sophisticated capabilities of state actors, such as Russia and China, but also rogue cyber actors loosely aligned to governments," he said. "In addition to ... the growing threat to critical infrastructure in local governments, this threat directly endangers our defense industrial capabilities, our hard-won technological and military advantages, our allies and partners, and our future defense operations. We must partner, invest and integrate in new ways to secure what we value and safeguard: the assured resiliency of our networks, the data and the people."

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Treasury Targets Sanctions Evaders Supporting Key Hizballah Financial Advisor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

May 2, 2024

WASHINGTON -- Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five individuals for helping U.S.-designated Hizballah money exchanger Hassan Moukalled (Moukalled) and his company, CTEX Exchange, evade sanctions and facilitate illicit activities in support of Hizballah. These individuals, including two co-founders of CTEX Exchange and two of Moukalled's sons, operate two companies in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that are being concurrently designated. Individuals and entities targeted today are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups, their supporters, and those who aid acts of terrorism.

"Hizballah continues to rely on seemingly legitimate business investments and key facilitators to generate revenue for the group's operations, including its destabilizing attacks across Israel's northern border," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. "The United States remains focused on relentlessly pursuing Hizballah's key revenue sources and constraining its ability to further destabilize the region."

This action builds on OFAC's January 24, 2023 designations of Moukalled, his companies CTEX Exchange, Lebanese Company for Information and Studies SARL (LCIS), and Lebanese Company for Publishing, Media, and Research, as well as Rayyan Hassan Moukalled (Rayyan Moukalled) and Rani Hassan Moukalled (Rani Moukalled) pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. The UAE added the same three individuals and CTEX Exchange to their Local Terrorist List in February 2023.

Moukalled continues to serve as a financial advisor to Hizballah and works closely with senior Hizballah finance officials, including U.S.-designated Muhammad Qasir, to represent Hizballah's business interests throughout the Middle East. Moukalled, jointly with Hizballah senior officials Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal, established CTEX Exchange as a financial facilitation front company for Hizballah. OFAC designated Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal pursuant to E.O. 13224 for acting for or on behalf of Hizballah on May 15, 2018 and November 20, 2018, respectively.

HIZBALLAH ADVISOR MOUKALLED'S SANCTIONS EVASION NETWORK

Adnan Mahmoud Youssef (Youssef) is an employee of CTEX Exchange and has, as of mid-2023, sought investors to set up companies in the UAE on behalf of Moukalled in circumvention of the sanctions imposed on Moukalled in early 2023 by the government of the UAE. Youssef has been involved in business dealings, including discussions of proposals and profitability, with Rayyan Moukalled and Rani Moukalled. Additionally, Youssef has engaged in business transactions with and received over a million dollars from U.S.-designated Hizballah financier Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi.

Mazen Hassan al-Zein (al-Zein) is a UAE-based business consultant for Moukalled. As recently as mid-2023, al-Zein has been a business partner with Moukalled and Youssef on various projects in the UAE. Al-Zein also had management role in a parent company that would administer a number of businesses the three men planned to establish in the UAE on Moukalled's behalf following Moukalled's designation. Moukalled appointed al-Zein as his representative to coordinate with Moukalled's associates on his behalf, particularly on business deals with potential investors to secure millions of dollars' worth of funds.

Al-Zein is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of The Crystal Group, a Lebanon and UAE-based hospitality company.

Youssef and al-Zein are being designated for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Moukalled, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. The Crystal Group is being designated for being owned, controlled, or directed by, directly or indirectly, al-Zein, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

Andriyah Samir Mushantaf (Mushantaf) and Bashir Ibrahim Mansur (Mansur), jointly with Moukallad, contributed capital towards founding CTEX Exchange. Mushantaf and Mansur continue to be minority shareholders in CTEX Exchange alongside Moukalled.

Mushantaf and Mansur are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, CTEX Exchange, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

Moukalled often involves his family members in illicit activities for Hizballah, including his previously designated children, Rayyan and Rani. Firas Hasan Moukalled (Firas), Moukalled's son, is also involved in Moukalled's business dealings through U.S.-designated LCIS, where Firas works. Lebanon-based Teleport Company SAL (Teleport) is jointly owned and operated by Mushantaf and two of Moukalled's sons, Firas and Rayyan.

Firas is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Moukalled, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. Teleport is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for being owned, controlled, or directed by, directly or indirectly, Mushantaf, Firas, and Rayyan, persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended.

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.

Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with persons designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. Individuals and entities being designated today are also subject to the Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations, which implements the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015, as amended by the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2018. Pursuant to these authorities, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on behalf of a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, or, among other things, knowingly facilitates a significant transaction for Hizballah or certain persons designated for their connection to Hizballah.

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 designated 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.

Treasury remains committed to enabling the flow of legitimate humanitarian assistance supporting the basic human needs of vulnerable populations, while continuing to deny resources to malicious actors. Accordingly, OFAC sanctions programs contain provisions for legitimate humanitarian support to vulnerable populations, including authorizations for certain humanitarian transactions in support of nongovernmental organizations' activities. For more information, please review relevant authorizations and guidance on OFAC's website.

Click here to view identifying information on the individuals and entities designated today.

###

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Latest contract a big deal for air defence

By Sophie Pearse

2 May 2024

In a significant collaboration with Australian industry, Defence has formally engaged Lockheed Martin Australia through a head contract to advance the multi-million-dollar Joint Air Battle Management System under Project AIR6500.

The contract, valued at about $500 million dollars, is part of the Federal Government's work to enhance the ADF's integrated air and missile defence capability, as detailed in the National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program.

AIR6500 Project Director Group Captain David Hood said the Joint Air Battle Management System was a key command and control element of the capability and was being delivered at speed using an agile development approach.

"The [system] will allow us to efficiently and effectively sense and respond to air and missile threats," Group Captain Hood said.

The contract with Lockheed Martin Australia, signed in March, would deliver the next stage of the system.

"The Joint Air Battle Management System acquired under Project AIR6500 will provide the foundational architecture for Defence's integrated air and missile defence," he said.

"This milestone follows on from the now completed Advanced Work Arrangement, which facilitated Lockheed Martin Australia's mobilisation and the initial delivery of system capabilities, concurrent with negotiations of the head contract."

Group Captain Hood said a number of Australian companies, such as CEA Technologies and Northrop Grumman Australia, would continue to support the project, along with companies subcontracted to Lockheed Martin Australia, including Boeing Defence Australia, C4i, Leidos Australia, Lucid Consulting Australia, Raytheon Australia, Shoal Group and Silentium Defence.

Project AIR6500 is also set to supply four advanced air defence radars, manufactured by CEA Technologies, with initial delivery scheduled for later this year.

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Squadron reformation marks milestone

By Flight Lieutenant Rachael Blake

2 May 2024

In a significant move for allied air capability, the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Air Force have reformed their respective 80 Squadrons.

The occasion was marked with a dual squadron parade and reformation ceremony, attended by Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Robert Chipman and Warrant Officer of the Air Force Ralph Clifton, at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, United States, on April 15.

80 Squadron represents the transition of the Australia Canada United Kingdom F-35 Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) capability into an integrated, operationally relevant squadron that will continue serving the world's most advanced strike fighter jets - the allied F-35 Lightning II.

Air Marshal Chipman explained what the reformation means in an ever-evolving global strategic environment: "Our partnership with allied nations is of utmost importance," he said.

"Together, we must adapt to meet the challenges of the future, leveraging opportunities for collaboration and cooperation."

British Royal Navy's Commander Chris Wilcox, Officer Commanding of RAF 80 Squadron, acknowledged the importance of reforming the two historic units in RAF and RAAF.

"Officially we will be two squadrons, but our early years of F-35 reprogramming have seen us grow into a harmonious and prolific relationship, and as such, we will be proud to share just one name," Commander Wilcox said.

The outcome of enhanced coalition interoperability is air superiority in a modern three-dimensional, connected battlefield. In today's increasingly complex and contested electromagnetic spectrum, sophisticated precision strike, GPS and innovative data systems are required to target, jam, spoof and confuse adversarial military forces.

Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton underlined how the F-35 warfighting capability in Europe and the Indo Pacific is dependent on how well the specialist personnel at 80 Squadron continue to 'sharpen the spear' together in their work in Florida.

"A critical part of our strength comes from how effectively and synergistically we can operate our 5th generation capabilities," Air Chief Marshal Knighton said.

"Co-location of the whole F-35 reprogramming enterprise at Eglin AFB provides a unique opportunity to integrate with our closest F-35 partners to the fullest extent.

"It's an opportunity that wouldn't exist if we were at home alone."

The effort of re-raising RAAF's 80 Squadron and RAF's 80 Squadron has been four years in the making. Air Marshal Chipman said the Australian journey from the ACURL F-35A mission data team into an operational support squadron holds profound importance.

"I am proud of how the team has grown to support global exercises and operations, providing first-class, responsive operational support to frontline warfighters," Air Marshal Chipman said.

"It signifies that the people and the specialist work they do, is operationally relevant; fostering unit identity and aviator pride."

RAAF 80 Squadron Warrant Officer, Warrant Officer Sean Bell, described ACURL as a wholly unique Force Element comprising a multi-faceted RAAF, RAF, Royal Navy and US workforce.

"We are a fully blended unit in terms of three nations of three military services supported by a US Government and prime contractor workforce all interacting as one team. We are also planning for the Royal Canadian Air Force to join us over the next four years," Warrant Officer Bell said.

"It certainly makes for a challenging but rewarding workplace, knowing that our mission data products are supporting both [Australian] and UK F-35 operations."

At the ceremony, Wing Commander Matthew Rapson, Commanding Officer RAAF 80 Squadron, commented on how the team will manage future challenges and opportunities.

"Remaining true to our vision of operationally responsive reprogramming [while] navigating significant transitions and breaking down barriers to address our challenges can only be achieved through what got us to this point - enduring successful collaboration within our enterprise underpinned with trust, dedication, cooperation and transparency, driven by innovation and a commitment to our people who will bring about this transformation," Wing Commander Rapson said.

He described the resolute support of the United States Air Force in enabling the squadron's mission and highlighted opportunities for collaboration.

"Our capabilities will undergo a series of essential, complex upgrades to remain in lockstep with the collective F-35 modernisation whilst also introducing enhanced software tools critical to our mission," Wing Commander Rapson said.

Air Marshal Chipman touched on the Pacific legacy behind RAAF's 80 Squadron badge, which shows a large owl clutching two lightning bolts in its claws.

"The Sooty owl, found across eastern Australia, is a formidable and silent predator. The owl is also a universal symbol of wisdom and strategy," Air Marshal Chipman said.

"Lightning bolts symbolise the enabling capability of mission data, allowing the F-35 to operate within the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Together, these two images perfectly embody the readiness of the squadron's mission and motto 'Strike True' and also reflect the unit's commitment to precision and accuracy in all they do."

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China vows 'necessary measures' in response to new US sanctions

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 2:09 PM

China has announced that it would respond appropriately after the United States imposed new sanctions designed to weaken Russia's military and industrial strength, and also targeted Chinese firms.

The Joe Biden administration on Wednesday announced sanctions against nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries, for internationally supplying critical technology to Russia's military-industrial complex.

In a retaliatory move, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that Beijing would take "necessary measures" against Washington for crippling the capabilities of the Chinese firms.

"China will take all necessary measures to resolutely uphold the legal rights and interests of Chinese companies," the foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"The Chinese side urges the US to stop smearing and containing China and stop wantonly implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions," he said.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her department had "consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia's war", and that its "actions will further disrupt and degrade Russia's war efforts".

Wednesday's sanctions signify an expansion of American initiatives to interfere with Russia's military-industrial complex's supply chain, including more than a dozen targets based in China, which Washington says has increasingly been helping the Kremlin arm itself.

According to the Treasury Department, Chinese companies are supplying Russia with infrared detectors, components for Russian drones, and pressure sensors for Russian missiles, which resulted in the imposition of sanctions against them.

Beijing has remained silent on Russia's special military operation in Kiev, while continuing to demonstrate its support through its strategic partnership with Moscow.

On Thursday, Beijing insisted again it was "neither a creator nor a party" to the invasion in Ukraine, and said it had the right to develop "normal" trading relations with all countries, including Russia.

"China has always resolutely opposed the United States implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions against Chinese enterprises and exercising 'long-arm jurisdiction'," the spokesman said.

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4 in 5 Americans have a negative view of China: survey

Nearly two-thirds of older Americans see China as an 'enemy,' compared to less than a third of the youngest adults.

By Alex Willemyns for RFA 2024.05.02 -- Four in five Americans say they have an unfavorable opinion of China, according to a new survey, with clear majorities across each age group but older people the most likely to report negative views.

The Pew survey, released on Wednesday, found that 81% of all Americans say they have an unfavorable opinion of America's biggest geopolitical rival. That figure is about steady since 2019.

In that year, 79% of Americans reported unfavorable views of China, which was more than double the figure from a decade prior. In 2009, only 38% held unfavorable views, while 49% held favorable views.

Only 16% of Americans said they view China favorably this year.

The Pew survey was based on responses from 3,600 adults carried out from April 1 to 7 using a random sampling of residential addresses with demographic weighting to represent the U.S. population. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The unfavorable views are translating into policy positions, too.

In a report, Pew said that many Americans were "likewise critical of China's impact on the U.S. economy, describing its influence as large and negative" and supported government intervention.

"Roughly half of Americans think limiting China's power and influence should be a top U.S. foreign policy priority," the report said, "and another 42% think this should be given some priority."

Older and more conservative

Americans are more likely to hold negative views of China the older and more conservative they are, according to the survey results.

In fact, while 90% of those older than 65 years old reported unfavorable views - with 61% "very unfavorable" - that figure was only 72% for Americans younger than 30, among whom only 27% reported "very unfavorable" views, less than half of the oldest age range.

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Republicans (59%) reported "very unfavorable" views of China and said the country was an enemy of the United States, compared with less than a third of Democrats.

A similar trend held across age demographics: Nearly two-thirds (61%) of Americans older than 65 say that China is an "enemy" of the United States, compared with only 27% of those aged under 30.

Overall, the portion of Americans who view China as an "enemy" has grown 8 percentage points since 2021, Pew noted. In that year, it was 34%, and it now stands at 42%. Exactly half of Americans now say that China is just a "competitor," though, and 6% view it as a "partner."

There is also less of a stark partisan divide when it comes to concerns about China's territorial disputes with its neighbors, with 65% of Republicans and 61% of Democrats saying they are concerned.

The oldest age bracket of Americans (79%) are still the most likely to be concerned about China's territorial expansionist aims, though, with only 47% of the youngest age bracket reporting the same concerns.

Pew notes an overarching trend: Americans with "a sour view of the U.S. economy" are the most negative when it comes to China.

"Those who say the current U.S. economic situation is bad are more likely to hold an unfavorable opinion of China and to say China has a great deal or fair amount of negative influence on the U.S. economy," the report says. "They are also more likely to see China as an enemy when compared with those who see the economy positively."

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 May 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 to hold long-delayed plenary meeting to boost embattled economy

The third plenary session has already spawned some new buzzwords, and will focus on growth in the Yangtze Delta.

By Kitty Wang and Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin, Yitong Wu for RFA Cantonese 2024.05.02 -- The ruling Chinese Communist Party has announced it will hold a top-level plenary session on the economy several months later than usual, suggesting it is struggling to come up with a workable plan to stimulate growth and boost investor confidence in its handling of the economy, analysts said in recent interviews with Radio Free Asia.

The ruling party's Central Committee announced this week it will hold its delayed third plenary session of the 20th party congress in July, an unusual time of year for such a meeting. Third plenums -- full sessions of the 205-member, 171-alternate member committee -- have traditionally focused on economic matters.

But while state media have reported that the plenum will decide on reforms amid "challenges at home and complexities abroad," analysts said the long delay suggests that the party leadership has struggled to reach consensus on what that might mean on the ground.

"If they had held it last year, or at the start of this year, they wouldn't have known what economic direction to take," U.S.-based commentator Cai Shenkun told RFA Mandarin, adding that nobody really understood the latest economic slogan to come down from the top, "new productive forces."

"They started pushing the idea of new productive forces, but everyone thought it was a joke," Cai said. "Now they may have found some practical ways to boost the economy."

The new focus will be breathing new life into the Yangtze River Delta region, using another buzzword -- "new development philosophy" -- state news agency Xinhua reported on May 2.

"Economic recovery is beset by multiple challenges, including insufficient demand, high operation pressures in enterprises, various hidden risks in key sectors, unsmooth domestic economic flow, as well as an external environment that is grimmer, more complicated and less certain," Xinhua quoted an April 30 Politburo meeting as saying.

One practical measure under the "new development philosophy" appears to be a recent attempt to boost flagging domestic demand through grassroots political campaigns to get people to buy more consumer goods, and to trade in their old domestic appliances for newer models, according to the article.

Another will be "new mechanisms for cooperation between the government and private capital," according to Xinhua.

That could be where another new economic buzzword -- "patient capital" -- comes in.

According to financial commentator Zheng Xuguang, that means encouraging investors to seek long-term returns rather than a quick buck, while serving the national interest.

But he said the government doesn't offer a stable regulatory environment in return, further damaging confidence.

"If they need long-term investment, then they can't have short-term policies that can just change overnight," Zheng said. "The two things go together."

He said the deep-seated problems with confidence in China, which have manifested in the "run" movement of people moving overseas in the wake of the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in late 2022, are likely behind the delay in the Third Plenum.

That hasn't been helped by further shifts away from the economic reform era begun by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, according to Cai.

"They were a little confused by the plummeting exports," Cai said. "And on top of that, they moved politically towards the pre-reform era [of a state-controlled economy] last year."

Added to which, the looming possibility of an armed invasion of democratic Taiwan would also wipe out any prospect of foreign investors offering long-term, "patient" investments, he said.

China's leaders also remain concerned about "hidden risks," an oblique reference to the possibility of financial crisis, and called on cash-strapped local governments to "shoulder their share of responsibility," according to Xinhua's May 2 article.

The "integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta" is a key strategy attributed to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, and seeks to position the region as a "pioneer, leader and driver of regional development," including the building of high-tech industrial clusters and integrated supply chains, the agency reported.

"Shanghai should play a leading role, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces should leverage their respective strengths so as to form synergy for continuously writing new chapters in the integrated development of the Delta," the agency paraphrased the Politburo meeting as saying.

Cai Shenkun said the region is likely to benefit at the expense of the Pearl River Delta, which includes Hong Kong.

"The Yangtze River Delta economy is a major leader of Chinese economic growth," he said. "The Pearl River Delta used to have that leading role, but Hong Kong has become totally paralyzed by [the political intervention of the] Chinese Communist Party."

"This basically sets the tone for the Third Plenum," Cai said.

Huang Tianlei , a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Chinese officials are playing down the seriousness of the economic situation, amid huge structural changes, as China pivots from being an export-dependent economy to something more dependent on its own citizens' spending decisions.

"China's economic policy has been focused for a very long time on the supply side, and has been very light on the demand side," he said. "This is the fundamental reason behind the current economic imbalance."

He said the plenum needs to address changes to the tax system, which is hugely dependent on corporate tax revenues, and on boosting sources of income for local governments, which have heavy liabilities but few sources of revenue in the wake of the bursting of the real estate bubble.

Economic commentator Li Hengqing, said the Xinhua report glosses over the extent of China's current economic crisis, however.

Perhaps more tellingly, it talks about reform without talking about the use of the market economy to distribute resources and benefits, or about restraints on state power, Li said.

"It's trying to boost confidence, but actually nobody has confidence in them," Li said. "Confidence is the key, but they're not doing the things that matter [to make it happen]."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

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 May 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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Uyghurs have highest rate of imprisonment in world: report

An estimated 1 in 26 Uyghurs have been jailed, accounting for a third of China's prison population.

By Irade for RFA Uyghur 2024.05.02 -- An estimated one in 26 Uyghurs in China's far-western Xinjiang region are behind bars, the world's highest rate of incarceration, according to a report by a Uyghur advocacy group.

Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples there are imprisoned at an estimated rate of 3,814 per 100,000 people a 47 times higher than China's overall rate of 80 per 100,000, the group said.

That's also more than three higher than in El Salvador, which has the world's highest known incarceration rate at 1,086 per 100,000 people, according to the April 25 report by the Uyghur Human Right Project, or UHRP.

All told, 578,500 Uyghurs or other Turkic people were in jail as of 2022, the group estimates. That's just over one-third of China's total prison population, even though they comprise only 1% of China's overall population. That figure is likely the same or higher today, the group says.

A prominent imprisoned Uyghur is Rahile Dawut, a Uyghur folklore expert and ethnographer convicted in December 2018 for "splittism" and sentenced to life in prison.

Another example is Gulshan Abbas, a retired Uyghur doctor and the sister of Rushan Abbas, a former Radio Free Asia employee and current executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs. She was sentenced to a lengthy prison term on "terrorism" charges after she disappeared along with another relative in September 2018.

The U.S. State Department has said that Dawut and other Uyghur intellectuals have been unfairly imprisoned for their work to protect and preserve Uyghur culture and traditions.

The report's findings are based on data from annual reports from the Xinjiang High People's Procuratorate a which prosecutes criminal defendants a and information published on the website of China's Ministry of Justice, covering the period 2017-2022. During that period, one in every 26 Uyghurs or members of other Turkic ethnicities in Xinjiang was incarcerated.

Many of those imprisoned have been convicted of crimes related to practicing Islam, such as studying the Quran when they were young or teaching it to others.

Reality may be worse

The actual situation in Xinjiang may even be worse, said UHRP senior researcher Ben Carrdus, who wrote the report.

"These are just people who have been put in prison. It doesn't include people who might still be in internment camps," he told Radio Free Asia, referring to the estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and others arbitrarily detained in what the Chinese government said were vocational training centers.

The camps were, in fact, places where Uyghurs were subjected to political indoctrination and severe human rights abuses, including torture, the forced sterilization of woman and forced labor.

China claims that the camps have been closed.

When China says it's ruled by law, it actually means that the law is whatever the Chinese Communist Party wants it to be, Carrdus said.

"Using laws doesn't mean they are using justice. What they've done is use the instruments against the Uyghur people," he said. "Thousands and thousands of people have been sentenced to prison mostly through the courts where China has used very unjust rules."

The report indicates that Uyghurs experience higher death rates in prison than other ethnic groups in China, though death penalty figures are not publicly available because they are considered a state secret.

The UHRP believes Uyghurs receive severe sentences, such as at least 10 years in prison for minor actions like studying the Quran or teaching it to children, so that the rate of death sentences among them may be higher.

John Kamm, executive director of the U.S.-based human rights group The Dui Hua Foundation, emphasized the importance of highlighting the number of Uyghurs in prison to attract the attention of international media and governments in hope that they will push for their release.

Carrdus urged the international community not to forget the Uyghurs.

"I can say that with 100% confidence, things are not getting better," he said, adding that although authorities in Xinjiang have been closing down the internment camps, they've been sending Uyghurs to prisons instead.

Edited by Roseanne Gerin 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 May 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 puts third aircraft carrier on sea trial

First homegrown carrier Fujian is expected to help project power.

By RFA Staff 2024.05.02 -- China has begun sea trials for its third aircraft carrier, Fujian , a big step towards realizing its naval ambitions amid increased regional tensions, defense analysts said.

Chinese media reported that the 80,000-ton Fujian. a Type 003 class vessel, left Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on Wednesday morning to begin its first trial in the open sea.

The sea trial is primarily aimed at testing the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier's propulsion and electrical systems, state news agency Xinhua reported.

"This is a huge step forward for the Chinese navy," said Andreas Rupprecht, a veteran Chinese military watcher.

The sea trial is probably "the most eagerly awaited milestone" for the ship that was launched almost two years ago, Rupprecht told Radio Free Asia.

However, "there is still a lot that we don't know: if everything works according to plan or whether there remain technical issues," the analyst said.

Xinhua reported that the Fujian has completed its mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments and "has met the technical requirements for sea trials" without giving further details.

'Pride of Chinese Navy'

China's state CCTV released a clip showing the carrier, flanked by several tugboats, moving out of the shipyard and heading to sea.

This week, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigational warning to ban ships from entering an area in the East China Sea from May 1-9, believed to be the period of the trial.

Sea trials are an important final step towards commissioning the carrier. Some experts believe the carrier could become operational in 2025 while some say they are unsure of the time frame.

Yusuf Unjhawala, a Bangalore-based defense analyst, said that India took a year to carry out sea trials for its indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

The Fujian is China's largest and most advanced carrier, also the first to feature a modern catapult system

for launching fighter jets. Experts said the Fujian's Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR, mechanism is similar to that of U.S. carriers.

China's first two aircraft carriers - Liaoning and Shandong - use a ski jump-style launch system.

The Fujian is also China's first carrier built with an indigenous design, unlike the other two which were remodeled from Soviet-made ships.

Combat capabilities

When operational, the Fujian will "significantly enhance the capabilities" of the navy, Chinese experts told the Global Times.

They were quoted as saying it can carry a larger number of aircraft and launch aircraft, including heavier ones, faster and more efficiently than its existing carriers.

Fujian will likely host Shenyang J-15 fighters, as well as the next generation J-35s and the new Xian KJ-600 fixed-wing AEWC (airborne early warning and control) aircraft, according to open intelligence sources.

"The ship's air complement is based on the Russian Su-33 which it calls the J-15," said Unjhawala, "It's a very heavy fighter and it takes off from a ski ramp, which limits its ability to carry arms."

The aviation component of the new aircraft carrier is beset with technical problems, the analyst said, adding that "it will take time for China to become a formidable carrier force."

Still, it represents a big leap forward and a warning for countries in dispute with China in the East and South China seas.

Japan has recently decided to upgrade one of its two helicopter carriers to its first aircraft carrier - a decision that was quickly condemned by Beijing.

Aircraft carriers represent China's maritime ambitions and the carrier fleet may be expanded to five ships in the next 10 years, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an independent U.S. think tank specializing in defense policy, planning and budgets.

China already has the largest navy in the world by number with an overall battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines, compared with the U.S.'s 293, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. Navy, however, has 11 aircraft carriers, most of which are much more advanced and powerful than China's.

The Fujian has a dead weight tonnage of 80,000 tons, similar to one of the U.S.'s ten Nimitz-class ships but significantly smaller than the U.S.'s new Gerald R. Ford carrier of 100,000 tons.

Edited by Mike Firn.

Updated to correct probable date of sea trial.

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50 UN members eye alternative to disbanded North Korea monitoring panel

UN panel probing the North's nuclear, missile sanctions violations dissolved after Russia vetoed mandate renewal.

By Taejun Kang for RFA 2024.05.01 -- Fifty U.N. members, including the United States, Japan, and South Korea, are considering alternatives to ensure continued "objective and independent" monitoring of sanctions on North Korea after the recent dissolution of a panel investigating suspected violations, they said in a statement.

The joint statement, delivered by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday, emphasized the need for impartial analysis to address North Korea's unlawful development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

The U.N. panel of experts, tasked with investigating violations of sanctions related to North Korea's prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs, was officially dissolved on Tuesday. This followed the U.N. Security Council's failure to renew the panel's mandate on March 28 due to a veto by permanent council member Russia.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield stressed that the sanctions on North Korea remain in effect, reiterating the Security Council's consistent demand for the North to comply with its obligations under multiple Security Council resolutions.

When asked about possible alternatives to the disbanded panel, Thomas-Greenfield said countries are considering various possibilities. She added that the U.S. is working closely with South Korea and Japan to propose ideas for the rest of the member states to consider.

The panel, which consists of eight experts drawn from the permanent members of the Security Council, is tasked with assisting the North Korea Sanctions Committee to investigate alleged violations of sanctions by North Korea, and has issued in-depth reports twice a year on the sanctions violations.

The Security Council has extended the panel's mandate for one year each March by passing a resolution. Its mandate expired at the end of April.

Russia's use of its veto follows accusations from the U.S., South Korea and others that North Korea is supplying Russia with weapons to use in its war in Ukraine - an accusation that both countries have denied.

But the panel, in a report released in March, gave details, with photographs, of Russia's arms dealings with North Korea in violation of sanctions. The panel said it was investigating reports of the arms transfers.

Edited by Mike Firn.

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Transcript of Weekly Media Briefing by the Official Spokesperson (May 02, 2024)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

May 02, 2024

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good afternoon friends. Let's begin this Press engagement. I open the floor for questions.

Madhurendra: Sir, Madhurendra main News Nation se. Sir, Bharatiya chunaav ke dauran jis tarah se dekha ja raha hai ki Pakistan ke neta aur khaas taur pe kai handles jo hain, wo chunaav ko prabhavit karne ki koshish kar rahe hain, aur jis tarah se mahaul khaas taur se social media ke jariye Bharatiya chunav me interference ka banaya ja raha hai, us par apka kya reply hai?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate Translation] Sir, this is Madhurendra from News Nation. Sir, the way it is being observed during the Indian elections that leaders from Pakistan, especially various handles, are attempting to influence the elections; and the atmosphere that is being created, especially through social media, to interfere in the Indian elections, what is your response to that?

Bramh Prakash: Sir, main Bramh Prakash Dubey hu India Daily Live se. Mera sawal ye hai ki haal hi me kuch aisi tasveere bhi saamne aai hain, ki Siachen ke paas jo hai najdeek China phir se sadake bana raha hai. Usko le kar kya jankari hai, kya jo vivadit kshetra hai, jo kabjaya huwa hai, kya usme sadake bana raha hai China. Thank you.

[Question in Hindi: Approximate Translation] Sir, I am Bramh Prakash Dubey from India Daily Live. My question is that recently some images have surfaced, that China is once again constructing roads near Siachen. What information do we have about it, and is China constructing roads in the disputed area, occupied area? Thank you.

Neeraj: Neeraj News 18 se. Madhurendra ji ke sawal ko hi aage badha raha hu. Pradhan Mantri ne kaha hai ki Pakistan ki taraf se hastakshep kiya ja raha hai. Pakistan ke neta duwa kar rahe hain Congress jeete. Is tarah ka koi sanket aap log ke pas bhi hai?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate Translation] Niraj from News 18. I'm following up on Madhurendra ji's question. The Prime Minister has said that there is interference from Pakistan. Pakistani leaders are praying for the Congress party to win. Do you also have any such indication?

Sidhant: Hi Sir, Sidhant from WION. The USCIRF has released a report, mentioned about India. We know the contents, if you can react on that? And secondly, we have also seen the police storming the University, the Columbia University, the students being pulled out, the visuals we all have seen. What do you have to say on that?

Ayushi: This is Ayushi Agarwal from ANI. Sir, I would like to have your reaction on some reports by the Australian media, claiming that there were Indian spies expelled for allegedly trying to steal secrets in 2020 about sensitive defence projects and Canberra's trade relationship. What is India's comment on such reports?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Okay. We have any more questions on this USCIRF report? So, let me first attend to these questions and then we will come back to more.

Madhu, apka sawaal election ko le ke hai. Jis baat ka aap jikar kar rahe hain, maine kuch is prakaar ka, abhi tak mere sangyan me nahi aaya hai. Toh ek baar mujhe iska, jo apne baat kahi uske bare me main thoda dekh leta hu. Uske baad main phir response apko dunga.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Madhu, your question is regarding the election. The issue you have mentioned, it hasn't come to my notice so far. Let me look into what you've said. After that, I'll give you the response.

Dubey ji apka sawaal Siachen ke aas paas me jo gatividhi chal rahi hai uske baare me tha. Toh shayad pichhle baar bhi ispe kuch baatchit hum log ki hui thi. Shayad aap nahi the yaha par. Ye Shaksgam waha waadi hai, usko le kar hai ye baat. Shaksgam waadi jo hai, Shaksgam valley, hum log maante hai ki ye humara kshetra hai.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Dubey ji, your question was about the activities happening near Siachen. Perhaps, we had discussed this matter last time as well. Maybe you weren't present here. This is regarding the Shaksgam valley. The Shaksgam valley, we consider it our own territory.

We have never accepted the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963 through which Pakistan unlawfully attempted to cede the area to China, and have consistently conveyed our rejection of the same. We have registered a protest with the Chinese side against illegal attempts to alter facts on the ground. We further reserve the right to take necessary measures to safeguard our interests.

Bramh Prakash: Sir, Hindi mein (in Hindi).

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Shaksgam waadi ki jaha tak baat hai ye humara apna, hum isko apna territory mante hain, apna kshetra mante hain. Humne kabhi ye sweekaar nahi kiya hai jo so-called, tathakathit Pakistan-China Boundary Agreement hai 1963 ka, usko hum logon ne kabhi nahi mana hai, jiske jariye Pakistan ne ye jo jamin hai waha ki, jo kshetra hai, usko China ke adheen kiya tha. Aur humne humesha iska khandan kiya hai. Humne apna virodh bhi jaari kiya hai China sarkar ke saath, China side ke saath ki aap jo jamini hakikat hai usko badalne ke kosish na kare. Aur hum humesha, we further reserve the right to take necessary measures. Jo humara apna mool jo humari jo interest hai usko hum safeguard karne ke liye har koshish karenge.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] As far as the Shaksgam valley is concerned, we consider it as our own territory, our own area. We have never accepted the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, through which Pakistan unlawfully attempted to cede the area to China; and we have consistently conveyed our rejection of the same. We have registered a protest with the Chinese government, the Chinese side against attempts to alter the ground reality. We further reserve the right to take necessary measures to safeguard our interests.

Sidhant, regarding your question on USCIRF, that is United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, they had released their report 2024 yesterday. They have been releasing their reports earlier as well, in earlier years. The USCIRF is known as a biased organization with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report. We really have no expectation that USCIRF will even seek to understand India's diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed.

Main isko Hindi me bhi aap logo ke liye rupantarit kar deta hu. Antarastriya Dharmik Swatantra par Ameriki Aayog yaani ki USCIRF ko, rajnitik agenda wale pakshpati sangathan ke roop me jana jata hai. Unhone vaarshik report ke hisse ke roop me Bharat ke bare me apna dusprachar prakashit karna jaari rakha hai. Hume vaastav me aisi ummeed jara bhi nahi hai ki USCIRF Bharat ke vividhtapurna, bahultawadi aur loktantrik mool bhawana ko samajhne ki koshish bhi karega. Unke dwara duniya ki sabse badi chunaavi prakriya me hastakshep karne ke liye kiye gaye prayaas kabhi safal nahi honge.

Uma Shankar ji maine khaas kar ke apke liye, kyunki aap kehte hain Hindi me bhi jara bataye.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] I'll translate this into Hindi as well for you. USCIRF, that is United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, they had released their report 2024 yesterday. The USCIRF is known as a biased organization with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report. We really have no expectation that USCIRF will even seek to understand India's diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed.

Uma Shankar ji, I specifically mentioned this for you, because you ask for Hindi versions.

Ayushi regarding your question on the media reports in Australia. Look we really have no comments to make on those reports. We see them as speculative reports and we have no comments to make on them. So that is how we look at it. It's not our policy to do so, on such matters especially.

On Columbia University protest, Sidhant, we had already, in my last Presser, that time, we had made our views known to you. So I would refer you, if you could look at them. There were some questions regarding Indian students, etc. On that, so far no Indian students or their families have contacted us for any assistance in regard to disciplinary action which has been taken for their participation in the protest. But at the same time, we also want to say that we expect all our citizens at home and abroad to respect local laws and regulations.

Neeraj: Sir, PM ke bayaan par mera prashn tha.

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] Sir, my question was on PM's statement.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Jis bayaan ka aap jikar kar rahe hain, usko mene thik se dekha nahi hai. Lekin ye election ka maamla hai, to ek baar main dekhta hu, aap kya kehna chaah rahe hain, phir wapas apke vaktavya pe main aaunga.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] I have not seen the statement you are quoting. But, this is about elections. Let me look at what you are saying, then I'll come back to you.

Yeshi: This is Yeshi Seli from the New Indian Express. What's the update on the 16 Indian sailors who are stuck in the ship MS Aries off the coast of Iran? And also there are reports saying that the job racket, you know, where people had applied for jobs in Bangkok and ended up being in Myanmar, working for fake cyber cells. There are some reports which suggest that some people have reached out to MEA for help. Is there any update on that?

Ileana: Good evening, Ileana, TASS News Agency. My first question is on the context between India and my country in the framework of chairmanship of Russia in BRICS. So what contacts are planned in the closest future, what can you tell us? And how, maybe, have these contacts activated in the framework of the chairmanship of Russia? And also, last month, there was information that 40 countries already applied for membership in BRICS. So do you have any information what are these countries? And what is India's approach towards the membership of this or that country, which maybe you can name? Thank you.

Pia: Pia with The Print. Sir my question pertains to suspended JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna who is reportedly in Germany at the moment. Was he traveling on a diplomatic passport? And can you if the MEA gave him political clearance for such travel?

Pranay: Sir, Pranay Upadhyaya Zee News se. Mera sawaal isi se juda hua hai ki Prajwal Revanna ke case ko lekar Karnataka ke CM Siddaramaiah ne MEA ko ek chitthi likhi hai, jisme kaha hai unka passport radd kiya jana chahiye. To kya apko ye prastav prapt hua hai aur is baare me, koi action liya gaya hai. Dusri taraf SIT ki taraf se kya koi approach hua hai MEA ko. Kya Prajwal Revanna ko Germany me kahi locate kiya gaya hai, koi contact?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] Sir, Pranay Upadhyaya from Zee News. My question is related to the case of Prajwal Revanna. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has written a letter to the MEA stating that his passport should be revoked. Have you received this proposal, has any action been taken? On the other hand, has there been any approach from the SIT to the MEA? Has Prajwal Revanna been located anywhere in Germany, any contact?

Srinjoy: Sir, first a clarification. You spoke about the Shaksgam situation. Now, are you referring to that four kilometer track that the Chinese have made with the possible intention of making it pucca and linking it to a labor camp? This is just a clarification. Secondly, Sir, as far as the invitation from the Swiss government to attend this Peace Conference on Ukraine on the 15th and 16th of June is concerned, the invitation has already reached the Indian government. Is the Indian government keen to take part and at what level? Because this comes right after G7.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Okay, let me answer these questions. Yeshi, regarding 16 sailors, last time also, we had given an update that all these 16 sailors, we've been able to make contact with them. They are in good health, we had a consular access. As far as the return to India is concerned, it is dependent on several factors including their contractual obligations. So, this is where the situation is. There is no change as far as what the situation was last week and this week. But all of them are in good health and we are in touch with them. And we are in touch with the Iranian authorities also for their release.

On the issue of people going to Southeast Asia and Myanmar, specifically in Myanmar, there were three people who had contacted us. They wanted to be repatriated; they had gone there to work on certain IT projects. One of them has returned. We are in touch with the two other gentlemen and the Embassy there is working as to how they can get them released as early as possible. But at the same time, you would have seen that we have issued several advisories, where we have cautioned people who look for opportunities, employment opportunities abroad, that they should be careful when they are accepting employment from people, from agents who are not verified. You have to take proper care and not just sign off on contracts. So we would yet again, through you and through all of you, remind people who take up these assignments that they should be careful in their approach.

Ileana, regarding BRICS, yes, Russia is the new chair of BRICS and we look forward to participating in the various meetings. There was some BRICS program in St. Petersburg as well. We know of several other programs that have been drawn out all throughout the year. You will come to know of more details as and when we participate in the several segments that have been planned. As far as the membership of BRICS is concerned, it is for the BRICS members to take a decision on it. There are certain set guidelines of BRICS. All the BRICS members have to sit together and decide how to take things forward.

Regarding, Pia, your question on Member of Parliament. So, specifically on political clearance, no political clearance was either sought from or issued by MEA in respect of the travel of the said MP to Germany. Obviously, no visa note was issued either. No visa is required for diplomatic passport holders to travel to Germany. The Ministry has also not issued any visa note for any other country for the said Member of Parliament. The second question was regarding whether he traveled on a diplomatic passport. Yes, he traveled on a diplomatic passport.

Neeraj, isi baat ko main Hindi dohra raha hu, ki jo rajnitik clearance liya jata hai Ministry of External Affairs se, is travel ke liye, is visit ke liye, na ki humse manga gaya aur na humne koi issue kiya hai. Visa note bhi hum logo ne nahi diya, kyunki iski jarurat hi nahi padi. Jo diplomatic passport holders hote hain unko Germany ke liye visa nahi chahiye hota hai. Aur hum logo ne iske alawa koi aur desh ka unko visa note bhi nahi diya hai.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Neeraj, I am reiterating it in Hindi; that no political clearance was either sought from or issued by MEA in respect of the travel of the said MP to Germany. Obviously, no visa note was issued either. No visa is required for diplomatic passport holders to travel to Germany. Further, the Ministry has also not issued any visa note for any other country for the said Member of Parliament.

Pranay, dekhiye jaha tak diplomatic passport ko revoke ya radd karne ki baat hai kisi bhi vyakti ka, wo Passport Act jo humara hai 1967 ka, uske tahet hota hai. Aur uske tahet aap dekhenge, usme jo provisions hai usme direction aana chahiye court se. Tab ja ke wo radd hota hai. To abhi filhaal humare paas koi is prakar ka direction kisi court se nahi aaya hai.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Pranay, as far as the matter of revoking a diplomatic passport of a person is concerned, it comes under the Passport Act of 1967. And as per its provisions, a direction should come from the court. Only then it can be revoked. So far, we haven't received any such direction from any court.

Srinjoy, on your question regarding Shaksgam Valley, we have stated our position because this is a vexed issue. We have stated our position very clearly as to how we see developments in that part. Shaksgam Valley, it is our territory and we have been protesting as and when required. And we have always taken a very strong stand on it.

Srinjoy: [Inaudible]

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: It is in general developments that are happening there. So, we have seen some, few developments; so, in that regard. Regarding your question about the Peace Conference, we all aware that Switzerland is gearing to host a Peace Conference on Ukraine. As I mentioned this last time also, we are open to all ideas which can lead to early resolution or can lead to early attainment of peace. No other decision has been taken on that account as of now, as far as participation is concerned.

Rishabh: Good evening, Sir, Rishabh from Times Now. I have two questions. One from Canada. The Canadian Prime Minister has again made statements on allegations of assassination that he has been making since 19th of September last year. And the second from Myanmar. The first batch, as per the Chief Minister of Manipur, first batch of 'illegal immigrants' from Myanmar has been sent back. What's the update on that? He has just tweeted this like three hours ago from now.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: First batch of?

Rishabh: Illegal immigrants from Myanmar who had come to Manipur have been sent back is what the Chief Minister has tweeted. So, if we can have an update on that.

Shailesh: Good afternoon, Sir, this is Shailesh from National Defence. Sir, India-China military standoff is entering in fourth year. Do we have a time frame for negotiation or talks as we see 15 WMCC meetings had happened post Chinese intrusion or the military standoff and 21 Commander level talks. So, in case if there is no resolution, do we have any time frame? Then what would be our action?

Speaker: Thank you. This is [Inaudible]. My question is also related to China. Local medias in Maldives has reported that Chinese survey marine ship has returned to the waters of Maldives. So, what is the reaction or stance on this issue, of India?

Srinjoy: Sir, at this point, in the Indian Ocean, there are Chinese warships off Djibouti, off Durban, in Male, off Male, as was rightly said, off Seychelles, and South of Sumatra, as of today. This seems to be a little excessive, or is this something the Government of India would like to speak on? And these are major warships. There are destroyers here. There are frigates here. There are supply ships here. And of course, these spy ships also.

Dhairya: Sir, Dhairya Maheshwari from Sputnik India. Sir, I have a question regarding India-Nigeria Joint Trade Commission talks which took place after a gap of five years. Sir the statement said that there was a call for expediting the local currency trading arrangement. Now, does that cover the energy imports as well? Thank you, Sir.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Rishabh, regarding Canada, you would have seen our Press Release that we made, when we summoned the Deputy High Commissioner, regarding an event that was attended by the Prime Minister where Khalistan slogans were raised. The other media engagement that you are referring to took place on the sidelines of this event. In our view, Prime Minister Trudeau's remarks, he has made those remarks earlier as well. So it's nothing new. His remarks, to us, illustrates once again, the kind of political space that has been given in the country, in Canada to separatism, to extremism and people who practice violence. This not only impacts India-Canada relations, but also encourages a climate of violence and criminality in Canada to the detriment of its citizens. So you would have seen our Press Release that we issued, that would convey how seriously we've conveyed our concerns to them.

On the question of deportation, there's something that has happened right now. I guess I don't have any information on that, so let me check and revert to you.

Shailesh, regarding your question on India-China relations, we have made our point very clear on India-China ties, where they stand. Our External Affairs Minister has also spoken on this on several occasions. As far as the border issues are concerned, you know that we have ongoing diplomatic talks between India and China, both at the military level and also at the diplomatic level. We have given you an update regarding the last WMCC talks that were held. A readout was placed on the website. Please have a look at that. These issues are serious issues and therefore they take time. We will have next round of engagements very soon to take things forward.

Srinjoy and our friend here, you have asked about Maldives. See, as far as these developments are concerned, especially in our neighborhood and beyond, all these developments which have an impact on our national security, on our economic security, we are watchful of them and we take whatever measures, appropriate measures that are taken to safeguard them. Srinjoy, that would also answer your question. These are developments on which we keep a close eye and take measures as appropriate on our side.

Dhairya, regarding your question on India-Nigeria... you are talking about the Joint Commission that was held some time back?

Dhairya: on 29-30 April.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Now, you know, Nigeria of course is an important partner for us. It is a big country. We have expansive relations with them on the trade side, on investment side, on security side. We also have a large diaspora there. We have a lot of trading interests and there are several issues that form basket of these talks, ongoing conversation that we have, on the trade and investment side. So, we are hopeful that with new initiatives that we want to put in place, we can give an acceleration to our economic and trading links with Nigeria.

Kallol: Hello Sir, Kallol from the Hindu. Sir, in your response on the USCIRF, you have said that it's a biased organization and that their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed. So, my question is... because I have not really heard, at least I don't remember the Ministry saying that the oldest democracy in the world is trying to interfere the electoral process in the largest democracy. I'm curious to know what prompted this sort of response and do you really think that the American government or even... this is a federal entity that we are talking about, right? That they are eager to influence or interfere in our electoral process?

Santosh: Main Santosh Thakur Navbharat se. Sir, Revanna par hi mera question hai, MP Revanna jo Germany chale gaye hain. Kya Sir ye diplomatic passport jinke paas hota hai unke liye mandatory hota hai ki wo government se permission le ke ya unke permission se jaye; aur agar mandatory hai toh kya uske khilaf kuch action bhi hota hai? Aur is mamle me kya kisi tarah ka koi action apne plan kiya hai ya in pipeline. Thank you.

[Question in Hindi: Approximate Translation] I'm Santosh Thakur from Navbharat. Sir, my question is also about Revanna, MP Revanna who has fled to Germany. Is it mandatory for those who have diplomatic passports to obtain permission from the government to travel? And if it is mandatory, is there any action taken against those? And in this matter, has any action been planned by you or is in the pipeline? Thank you.

Pia: Mine is similar. It is basically a clarification because you said he traveled on a diplomatic passport but he didn't seek political clearance. According to Rajya Sabha Parliamentary bulletin that was published on January 30th, 2023; it clearly states that members, even if traveling in private capacity, for private purposes, require political clearance when using a diplomatic passport. So ultimately, did this suspended JD(S) leader break protocol?

Milan: Sir, this is Milan from India Today. Just want to know, Mr. S. Jaishankar yesterday has met with a lot of foreign political party representatives at the BJP headquarters. So if the External Affairs Minister has met them, could you share some details of this particular meeting?

Nivedita: Sir, this is Nivedita from the Sunday Guardian. Turkmenistan has said that the trans-Afghan pipeline project to Pakistan and India is making progress. Is India seized of this progress and what is our stand?

Yeshi: This is Yeshi Seli from the New Indian Express. What were the findings of the high-level committee that India had set up after US had expressed the security concerns following the indictment? Any update on that? And who is heading it, if you could share?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Kallol, to answer your question, you know, on USCIRF 2024 report, we have said what we had to say. We have made our reservations known on this particular organization earlier as well. So please, I would urge you to read our statement in fine print. You will get the answer. Also, I would urge you to look at the report, page to page, and see kind of observations that are made there. You will have your own judgment on those issues.

Santosh ji, aapne sawaal kiya hai ki kya wo diplomatic passport yaani ke rajnayik passport pe gaye? Toh yes, rajnayik passport pe hi gaye wo waha par. Jo Member of Parliament hote hain, unko kyuki Member of Parliament hai, is liye unka ye entitlement hai ki unke pas diplomatic passport rahe.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Santosh ji, you asked whether he traveled on a diplomatic passport? So yes, he traveled there on a diplomatic passport. Members of Parliament are entitled to hold a diplomatic passport.

Santosh: [Inaudible]

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Dekhiye, haan, diplomatic passport pe jaate hain. Maine jaise kaha ki political clearance usse humne nahi diya hai. Ye jo mamla hai ispe investigation chal raha hai. Investigation chalega. Uske baad jo karwahi karni hogi karenge.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Look, yes, he traveled on a diplomatic passport. As I said, we did not give him the political clearance. This matter is under investigation. The investigation will proceed. After that, appropriate action will be taken.

Pia, your question, you raised a question about...and talked about a circular from the Parliament. So therefore, you must take this question to them, because they will have to look into the... these are guidelines that you raised, the guidelines that you are talking about; they are Indian Parliament guidelines. So you will have to seek an answer from them on this particular issue. These are guidelines of the Parliament, Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha...Lok Sabha.

Pia: [Inaudible]

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Yes, he has not taken political clearance. That is what I have said. He traveled on a diplomatic passport. He has not taken a political clearance.

Milan, your question regarding participation of observers, see, that was a party event. So a party event, we are not involved in that. We can't give you an update as to what happened, what sort of issues were discussed. This was purely a BJP party event, where External Affairs Minister as member of the party, he spoke to them.

Nivedita, on TAPI, this is a project which has been going on, in discussion for long now. There are several aspects of the TAPI project. It is a very ambitious project. So we will see, the discussions are still going on.

Yeshi, regarding your high level committee question. We have told you before that this particular issue also came up when we issued a statement on the Washington Post issue, that a high level committee has been set up based on the inputs that were provided to us by the American government. And we take this matter very seriously. The high level committee is doing its work.

Nirmala: Hi, this is Nirmala. I write for The Straits Times. Just a follow-up to the Australia question, how would you describe the state of ties with Australia?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Well, with Australia, we have a strategic partnership. It is an important country. We have strong and vibrant relations with that country. We are partners in Quad. We have a large diaspora there. We have excellent trading relations, investment ties; so very expansive relationship with Australia. And we continue to... want to build it stronger, make it stronger, deeper, and build on it further.

Nirmala: These news reports...

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: These news reports are specifically news reports. These are media reports, you know, media reports of certain kind. On those things, we don't comment, and specifically, if they are of that particular nature and they are speculative in nature. You would have seen similar comments by several other people.

Speaker 2: Yes, Sir. Sir, one from the delegation visit to the Know BJP program. During the election, have we received any interest from any independent or observatory body from abroad on Indian elections? This is my first question. Secondly, Sir, recently, Peru has shown some interest in the line of FTA as well as some potato research center in West Bengal and a couple of other territories of India. At the same time, there are two ports; one in the northern, which is given to the Chinese called Chancay Port, of course, to the Chinese private entity. And they're looking for Indian bidders in the Corio, Corio Port. So do you have any update on that?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: You're talking about Peru?

Speaker 2: Yes, Sir.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So with Peru, there's FTA, which is in the works. And we don't have an update on this particular agreement. But I understand that we are in talks and there is progress on FTA with Peru. Now, your question regarding potato, as all of you know here, Peru is a potato capital of the world. There are some 600 varieties of potato. Huma will know more on that. There's a potato research institute there. We also have a potato research institute here. And we would like to have more collaboration for our food security. It helps everybody. Potato is a product which came from Latin America to all parts of the world. And on the question about ports, etc, I'll have to look into what exactly you're saying. I'll come back to you.

Thank you very much. See you next week.

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Iran announces sanctions on US, UK for supporting Israeli crimes against Palestinians

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 2, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry has announced sanctions on more than two dozen American and British individuals and entities over their support for the Israeli regime in its terrorist acts and human rights violations against the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza.

According to a statement by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday, the blacklisted individuals and entities have also helped the Israeli regime in its acts against regional and international peace.

Here is the full statement by the ministry, which explains why Iran has imposed the sanctions and names the targeted persons and entities:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in conformity with the "Law on Countering the Violation of Human Rights and Adventurous and Terrorist Activities of the United States in the Region" (2017), particularly, Articles 4 and 5, identifies and imposes sanctions as set forth in the abovementioned Act on the following persons and institutions in connection with their support and financing of the Zionist regime of Israel's terrorist acts, glorification and supporting terrorism and gross violations of human rights against the Palestinian people, and in particular, the people of the Gaza strip.

The following US institutions will be placed under sanctions for supporting and complicity in the Israeli regime's heinous acts against the Palestinians especially in the Gaza Strip:

- The Lockheed Martin Corporation, due to its involvement in supplying weaponry to Israeli regime;

- General Dynamics due to supplying 155 mm bullet to the Israeli regime;

- Skydio Engineering Company, due to provision of drones to the Israeli regime;

- Chevron Corporation due to assisting Israeli regime in exploitation of gas wells in the eastern Mediterranean. The revenue of this exploitation is being used by the regime to launch offensives against the Palestinians especially in the Gaza Strip;

- Kharon Company, due to its role in sanctioning Hamas by the United States Department of Treasury and its endeavor to cut off Hamas and the Islamic Jihad's access to the network for transfer of crypto currency under the pretext of money laundering.

The following US individuals will be placed under sanctions for supporting and complicity in the Israeli regime's heinous acts against the Palestinians especially in the Gaza Strip:

- Jason Greenblatt: The executive vice president and chief legal officer to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization and his advisor on Israel;

- Michael Rubin: A senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute;

- Jason Brodsky: The policy director of United against Nuclear Iran (UANI);

- Clifford D. May: The founder and president of FDD;

- Bryan P. Fenton: A United States Army general who serves as the 13th commander of the Special Operations Command;

- Brad Cooper: Commander, US Naval Forces Central Command/ FIFTH Fleet;

- Gregory J. Hayes: CEO of RTX Corporation.

Also, in line with the implementation of the "Law on Countering the Hostile Activities of the Zionist Regime against Peace and Security", ratified by the Iranian Parliament on 20 May 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, following the approvals of related authorities and in the framework of relevant regulations and sanctions mechanisms and on a reciprocal basis, stipulates the following individuals and entities of the UK regime in its sanction list for deliberate support and facilitation of the Israel Zionist regime's actions, including committing terrorist acts against regional and international peace and security, systematic violation of human rights, warmongering, use of heavy weaponry and prohibited weapons against civilian, blocked, displacement of the Palestinian people, expansion of illegal settlement in occupied territory and continuation of occupation:

Entities:

- Royal Air Force Akrotiri in Cyprus

- UK Royal Navy in Red Sea HMC Diamond

- Elbit Systems

- Parker Meggitt

- UK Rafael

Individuals:

- Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom

- James Hockenhull, Commander of the British Army Strategic Command

- Sharon Nesmith, Deputy Chief of the General Staff

- Paul Raymond Griffiths, Assistant chief of the General Staff

- Adrian Bird, Director of Defense Intelligence of British Army

- Richard Kemp, Commander of UK Royal navy in Red Sea HMC Richmond

- Simon Cloke, Commander of Royal Air Force Akrotiri

- Peter Ivans, Commander of UK Royal navy in Red Sea HMC Diamond

All relevant national institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, consistent with the regulations adopted by the related authorities, will take appropriate measures, which are blocking of accounts and transactions in the Iranian financial and banking systems, blocking of assets within the jurisdiction of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as prohibition of visa issuance and entry to the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for effective implementation of the above-mentioned sanctions.

1483**4194

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Operation True Promise: IRGC general says Iran employed only 20% of its military resources to punish Israel

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 10:08 AM

A top commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says only a fraction of Iran's available military resources were used in the retaliatory airstrikes against Israel last month.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Division, said in an interview on Wednesday that during Iran's punitive strikes -- dubbed Operation True Promise -- the United States, Britain and France came to the help of Israel in a bid to repel Iran's attacks.

He, however, added that the Islamic Republic stood against the superpowers and their allies by using only 20 percent of what it had prepared in order to take action against the Israeli regime.

Hajizadeh emphasized that Israel mobilized all its military resources to counter Iran's attacks while the US also deployed its aircraft, cruisers and aircraft carriers in support of Israel.

Although Iran had not employed all it had in power, Hajizadeh said, Isarel and its allies used all they had in power to counter Iran, adding that the US, which had previously claimed that it had no intention to intervene, stood by the Israeli regime.

The IRGC general noted that there are many untold points about the operation, which exposed just a small fraction of Iran's military prowess.

He attributed the success of the operation to the unwavering determination of Iranian forces and the wise guidelines of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

In a multi-pronged attack, Iran launched late on April 13 hundreds of drones and missiles at the occupied territories in response to the regime's aggression on the Iranian diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1.

The Israeli airstrikes on Iran's embassy compound in Damascus had killed two generals of the Quds Force of IRGC, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, as well as five of their accompanying officers.

The Israeli regime's aggression on the Iranian diplomatic facilities in Syria drew widespread condemnation from the international community.

Last month, Press TV reported that all the hypersonic missiles used in Iran's punitive strikes against Israel had hit their targets after evading the regime's air defense systems.

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Iran's Foreign Ministry slaps sanctions on US, UK individuals, entities for complicity in Israel's crimes

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 8:39 AM

Iran has imposed sanctions on some American and British individuals and institutions involved in terrorism and human rights violations through supporting Israel's barbaric acts against Palestinians, especially those in the Gaza strip.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the embargo on US individuals and entities falls in line with the Islamic Republic's human rights obligations as well as commitments to combat terror and counter the financing of the scourge.

The sanctions target the American companies, including Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Dynamics Corporation and Skydio, for supplying the occupying regime with weapons.

Chevron Corporation is also included in the list for providing Israel with revenue by assisting it in the exploitation of gas wells in the eastern Mediterranean.

Additionally, Kharon company is blacklisted due to its role in the banning of the Palestinian Hamas resistance group by the US Treasury Department.

Meanwhile, the American figures that are placed under Iranian sanctions are Jason Greenblatt, executive vice president and chief legal officer to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, and his advisor on Israel; Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Jason Brodsky, policy director of United against Nuclear Iran.

Clifford D. May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, CEO of RTX Corporation Gregory J. Hayes, Commander US Special Operations Command Bryan P. Fenton, and US Navy Fifth Fleet Commander Brad Cooper are among the US individuals blacklisted.

In a separate statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced the names of the British figures and entities sanctioned for supporting and facilitating the Zionist regime's terrorist acts, systematic rights violation, warmongering, use of heavy and prohibited weapons against civilian, displacement of Palestinians, expansion of illegal settlements, and continuation of the Palestinian territories' occupation.

The list includes Royal Air force Akrotiri in Cyprus, Royal Navy in Red Sea HMC Diamond, Elbit Systems, Parker Meggitt company, and Rafael UK.

It further targets UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, along with military commanders James Hockenhull, Sharon Nesmith, Paul Raymond Griffiths, Adrian Bird, Richard Kemp, Simon Cloke, and Peter Ivans.

"All relevant national institutions of the Islamic Republic ... will take the necessary measures, including the blocking of accounts and transactions in the Iranian financial and banking systems, blocking of assets ... as well as prohibition of visa issuance and entry to the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for effective implementation of the above-mentioned sanctions," read the statement.

"Obviously, the sanctions do not exempt the persons from prosecution at competent courts for their involvement in criminal activities. "

Israel waged a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 34,568 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 77,765 others.

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Why Are U.S. Sanctions Against Iran's Oil Exports Ineffective?

By Kian Sharifi May 02, 2024

Iran is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. But restrictions imposed by the United States have largely failed to stymie Iran's oil exports, the backbone of its flailing economy.

U.S. sanctions have cut off Iran from most of its traditional customers, forcing Tehran to find new buyers and sell its oil at discounted prices.

But China's willingness to buy record amounts of Iranian oil, Tehran's mastery of sanctions-evading tactics, and Washington's reluctance to strictly enforce sanctions have made U.S. measures against Iran's energy exports ineffective, analysts say.

'Dark' Fleet Of Tankers

The lifting of U.S. sanctions as part of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers allowed Iran to sell its oil to customers in Europe and East Asia. Oil exports reached a peak in 2018.

But exports plummeted after then-President Donald Trump reneged on the nuclear agreement later that year.

Iran has boosted its sales in recent years by circumventing sanctions, including using its "dark fleet" of tankers to illegally transport oil shipments to China.

The tactic involves ship-to-ship operations to offload the oil, middlemen, hidden money transfers, and rebranding the oil to mask its Iranian origin and make it appear to come from a third country.

"Iran is continuously developing and expanding not just the network of middlemen and trading companies involved in the sale of its oil, but also its own fleet of tankers that it predominantly uses to move its crude," said Nader Itayim, the Middle East editor at the U.K.-based Argus Media.

Chinese Appetite

Growing demand for Iranian oil in China has been key to the surge in Iran's oil sales.

Ship tracking data collected by Argus shows Iran's oil exports currently hovering at 1.5 million barrels per day, with around 85 to 90 percent going to China.

Tehran gives China a steep discount to take its banned oil, taking up to 15 percent off the price of each barrel to make it worthwhile for Beijing to take on the liability of skirting sanctions.

The discounts have raised questions about the long-term profitability of Iran's business with China. But experts said that Tehran still stands to gain.

"Even at heavy discounts, selling Iranian oil is extremely profitable and sustainable," said Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University. "That's because the marginal cost of production in Iran is roughly $15 or less per barrel."

Gregory Brew, an Iran and energy analyst at the U.S.-based Eurasia Group, says U.S. sanctions were once effective at blocking oil exports to China, but that is no longer the case.

"China's rising stature as a new global power lends it greater freedom to defy U.S. sanctions," Brew said.

Reluctance To Enforce Sanctions

Some analysts said Washington has been reluctant to strictly enforce sanctions, while others maintain that sanctions in general have failed.

Resources are required to enforce restrictions while new sectors would need to be sanctioned to keep up the pressure, according to Itayim of Argus Media.

"Otherwise, the target finds ways to evade the sanctions, while at the same time the buyer becomes more complacent as it sees enforcement waning. In the case of Iran and China, I think we have seen a bit of both," Itayim said.

Analysts also argue that Washington is reluctant to strictly enforce sanctions due to the risks associated with forcing Iranian oil off the world market.

"Apart from the impact such action would have on the price of oil, which carries political and economic importance to [U.S. President Joe] Biden in an election year, aggressive enforcement would provoke both Iran and China, at a time when the United States is trying to manage escalatory risk both in the Middle East and East Asia," Brew said.

The lax enforcement of oil sanctions also extends to Venezuela and Russia, Itayim says, noting that it "has been key to keeping a lid" on oil prices.

The U.S. Congress last month passed a security package that included the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, giving the government the authority to further restrict Iran's oil exports.

But experts are not convinced that more sanctions will have an impact.

Hanke said any new measures "will join the long list of failed Western sanctions" on the Islamic republic.

"Sanctions are always subject to workarounds that render the enforcement of sanctions futile," he added.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-oil- sanctions-china/32930848.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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Iran Hits U.S., U.K. Targets With Sanctions Over Israel Support

By RFE/RL May 02, 2024

Tehran has imposed a round of sanctions on a group of American and British companies and individuals, including British Defense Minister Grant Shapps, over their support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on May 2, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said British officials and entities were sanctioned because of the United Kingdom's "deliberate support" for Israel, including "committing terrorist acts" that threatened regional peace.

The sanctions also target several military officials, including Simon Cloke, commander of Royal Air Force Akrotiri, a British air base in Cyprus used by RAF fighter jets to target the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels in Yemen.

In a separate tranche of sanctions, Iran targeted U.S.-based arms manufacturers and senior members of hawkish think tanks for their support of Israel.

Sanction targets include Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, as well as the energy company Chevron.

Among the individuals sanctioned by Iran is Brad Cooper, who is identified as the commander of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Middle East. Cooper turned over command of the Fifth Fleet to George Wikoff on February 1.

The targets of the sanctions will have their bank accounts in Iran frozen and will not be issued visas to enter Iranian territory.

While the impact of these measures remains unclear, they appear to be largely symbolic.

U.S. and U.K. fighter jets targeted Huthi positions several times earlier this year in response to the Yemeni rebels targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Huthis pledged to continue their attacks unless there was a ceasefire was reached in Gaza.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive in October 2023 in retaliation for a surprise attack on Israeli settlements led by Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attack. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says more than 34,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/32930506.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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PM Netanyahu to the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes' Remembrance Day Torchlighters: "If we need to stand alone - we will stand alone."

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

Events and Speeches

The 37th Government

02.05.2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, today, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, met with the Holocaust survivors who will serve as the torchlighters (https://www.yadvashem.org/remembrance/archive/torchlighters.html?id=4332) at the opening ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"Izi (Itzhak Kabilio, one of the survivors) said here: 'The State of Israel is the one and only sanctuary of the Jewish people.' This is so correct, and Michael (Michel Bar-On, one of the survivors) said: 'We cannot rely on the nations of the world who make promises.'

If it is possible to receive the assistance of the nations of the world, I am always for it. However, in the greatest Holocaust, great leaders like Roosevelt, who was told what was happening at Auschwitz and Birkenau and in the [other] death camps, they told him and he knew, his answer was that he would not lose a single pilot and refused to accept the Jews. They were great leaders. Churchill, who I greatly admire, tried to recruit his army but his army rebelled against him.

If we need to stand alone - we will stand alone. If it is possible to recruit the nations of the world, how much the better. But if we do not defend ourselves - nobody will defend us.

The strength at our disposal is the strength that I have heard here, we have no other."

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Myanmar junta bans all men from working abroad

No reason is given for the restrictions, which come as authorities impose military draft.

By RFA Burmese 2024.05.02 -- Myanmar's junta has banned all men from working abroad amid widespread public concern over the implementation of a military draft law.

Since Myanmar's conscription law was announced by junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 10, troops nationwide have attempted to press-gang large numbers into the military, which is seeking to shore up its ranks after a series of battlefield defeats.

It requires men and women aged 18 to 35 to serve in the junta's armed forces for two years - prompting more than 100,000 to flee their homes to avoid the draft, the Burmese Affairs and Conflict Study found last month.

The ban on men working abroad, which went into effect on May 1, is "temporary" and will remain in effect "as needed," Ministry of Labor Permanent Secretary Nyunt Win told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

"Starting from May 1 ... we will only be allowed to send [registered] women as migrant workers," Nyunt Win said in an interview. "Men will not be able to register to work abroad during the suspension period."

Nyunt Win said that men who had registered to work abroad by the end of April will be exempt from the ban, as will "a small number" of workers who made arrangements through intergovernmental employment agencies.

The labor secretary provided no reason for the suspension or indication of its duration.

The International Labor Organization estimates that more than 4 million Myanmar nationals work overseas with the largest number - approximately 2 million - in neighboring Thailand. It's not clear what percentage of overseas workers are men.

Blocking would-be draft dodgers

However, a representative of an overseas employment agency in Yangon region's Thingangyun township told RFA on Thursday that the restrictions on working abroad were likely imposed to prevent men from leaving the country amid implementation of the military draft law.

"The junta enacted the conscription law because it wants young men [to join the military]," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. "Since the day the law was implemented, large numbers of men have been going abroad either officially or unofficially through various means."

In comments marking International Labor Day on May 1, Min Aung Hlaing called workers "an essential force for the country," and said the junta was taking measures to protect their rights abroad.

According to the Burmese Affairs and Conflict Study, the junta has carried out operations to enforce the military service law in 224 townships across the country. Approximately 5,000 young men were sent to 15 military training sites by the end of March, it said.

In addition, more than 2,000 people from 40 townships across Myanmar have been enlisted as militia fighters, the report found.

Translated by Kalyar Lwin. 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 May 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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Landmine toll set to surpass previous years in eastern Myanmar

A state's administrators have warned residents against returning to their homes after clashes.

By RFA Burmese 2024.05.02 -- Thirty people have been injured or killed by landmines in an eastern Myanmar state this year, officials there said, highlighting a problem that the U.N. children's agency says has made Myanmar one of the world's most heavily mined countries.

Civilian officials in Kayah State have warned villagers wanting to go home in areas abandoned by the military junta to get the approval of anti-junta forces before venturing back because of the danger of mines.

"Those who fled the war are now returning. It's been a month or two and they are coming back," Ba Nyar, secretary of the Karenni Interim Executive Council, told Radio Free Asia.

While the landmine toll has risen sharply this year, Ba Nyar said Kayah State has had nearly 100 landmine victims since Myanmar's conflict surged after a 2021 coup, when the military ousted an elected government triggering an intensifying campaign by fighters determined to end army rule.

The council on Wednesday told residents not to go home without getting clearance from anti-junta forces and it appealed for residents to report any mines of unexploded ordnance in their neighborhoods.

A 14-year-old boy was killed by a landmine in Demoso township's Pu Hpar village while herding cattle on Sunday.

The anti-junta Progressive Karenni People's Force said civilian toll from mines had surged since anti-junta forces launched an offensive in November with a strategy aimed at seizing territory from junta control, a member of the anti-junta force said.

Retreating junta forces had left a deadly legacy, he said.

"There are many landmines planted," said the insurgent group member, who declined to be identified. "Villagers have stepped on and been hit by landmines. Some have lost their legs and hands."

Karenni forces have captured seven towns - Kayah State's Mese, Demoso, Ywar Thit, Shadaw, Mawchee, and Shan State's Moe Bye and Nan Mei Khon - since launching their Operation 1111 offensive.

The U.N. Children's Fund said in a report last month that civilian deaths and injuries from landmines and unexploded ordnance throughout Myanmar had nearly tripled to 1,052 in 2023, from 390 the previous year.

The humanitarian group said 118 people, including 59 children, were killed by mines in 20023 and it called on all sides in the conflict to protect civilians and "take immediate steps to halt the use of these indiscriminate weapons.".

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

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 May 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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Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar's Meeting with the Secretary General of OIC

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar met with the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hissein Brahim Taha, on the sidelines of the 15th Islamic Summit, held in Banjul, The Gambia today. During the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister congratulated the Secretary General on successfully holding the 15th OIC Islamic Summit.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar shared Pakistan's grave concerns about rising Islamophobia, as manifested by an increasing number of incidents of discrimination, violence, and incitement against Muslims around the world. He stressed the imperative for joint action to counter Islamophobia, particularly in the context of Israel's aggression against Palestine, which has resulted in a rise in Islamophobic and xenophobic acts around the world.

The Deputy Prime Minister & Foreign Minister briefed the Secretary General on the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the use of excessive force by Indian security forces there. Noting the historic role of the OIC in support of the just struggle of the Kashmiri people, he appreciated the role played by the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir and the Special Envoy on Kashmir and OIC's regular monitoring of the human rights situation in IIOJK. The OIC Secretary General reaffirmed OIC's support to the Kashmiri people and their legitimate right to self-determination as reflected in various OIC resolutions.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister expressed deep concern on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation there. He also expressed alarm at the escalation of the conflict in the region. Stressing upon an immediate ceasefire and unhindered supply of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, Senator Dar reiterated Pakistan's principled position calling for complete withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories including Jerusalem, restitution of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including their right of return to Palestine, and establishment of an independent homeland for Palestinians along the pre-June 1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister also applauded the OIC's efforts and initiatives for peace in the Middle East and expressed full support of Pakistan for these initiatives.

Islamabad

2 May 2024

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Transcript of the Press Briefing by the Spokesperson on Thursday, 2 May 2024

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Assalam-o-Alaikum,



Thank you for joining us for the Weekly Briefing.



Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar is in Banjul, the Gambia to attend the 15th OIC Summit and OIC Council of Foreign Ministers' Meeting preceding the Summit. On the sidelines, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will hold bilateral meetings with leaders and Foreign Ministers participating in the Summit.



At the Summit and CFM, Pakistan will highlight the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, the imperatives of solidarity and unity of the Ummah, rising Islamophobia, issues of climate change, terrorism and other contemporary global challenges. Pakistan will underline the need to find collective solutions to challenges confronting the Muslim Ummah.



This week the US Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass and Principal Assistant Secretary of State Elizbeth Horst visited Pakistan. At the Foreign Office, they held a meeting with Acting Foreign Secretary, Ambassador Rahim Hayat Qureshi on 30 April.



The two sides discussed various aspects of bilateral cooperation and underscored the importance of sustained engagement through various dialogue processes including in the areas of trade, investment, energy, health, education, agriculture and climate change.



Pakistan and the United States have robust bilateral institutionalized mechanisms including on (Trade and Investment, US Energy Security, Climate Change and Environment, Health and Counter Terrorism. Pakistan will continue to engage with the United States to enhance bilateral cooperation and understanding.



As the genocide takes place in Gaza, Israeli occupation forces continue to take illegal steps in the West Bank in violation of international law. Pakistan strongly condemns the rising violations of human rights by Israel and the increasing number of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.



Israel's actions constitute a breach of international law, including international humanitarian laws and pertinent United Nations and OIC resolutions. These acts also undermine any prospects of a two-state solution. Pakistan is also deeply concerned about Israeli leaders' bellicose statements to attack Rafah. Any ground assault by Israel on Rafah is unacceptable.



The international community must exert every effort to prevent Israel from committing these egregious crimes in Palestine. The UN Security Council must impose an immediate, permanent ceasefire to prevent Israel from escalating its aggression any further, and urge Israel to lift the siege of Gaza, facilitate humanitarian assistance, protect the civilians and hold the perpetrators of the Gaza genocide accountable.



Pakistan reiterates its full support to the people of Palestine and renew our call for establishment of an independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian State with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.



In the past few days, different parts of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) have witnessed heavy rains, flash floods and landslides, resulting in loss of life and property. We express our sympathies with the victims of these natural calamities, pray for the eternal peace of the deceased and wish speedy recovery to the injured.



Pakistan strongly condemns India's continued campaign of attacking and seizing the property of Kashmiris in Indian Illegally-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The reality is that the harsh statements and colonial strategies have been unsuccessful in quelling the Kashmiris' determination for freedom and these measures are destined to face similar outcomes in the future.

Pakistan will continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters for the just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions.



Thank you!

***

(Saima Shabbir, Arab News): My question is regarding Indian security forces, allegedly Indian security forces on Sunday arrested 14 Pakistani nationals from Gujarat coast and they claimed to have seized 86 kilograms of contraband drugs worth 600 crore rupees, Indian rupees of course from their position. So, ma'am I need your comment on that.

Spokesperson: We have seen these media reports and we are awaiting independent confirmation of the claims made by the Indian authorities. We will make our comments known once we have details of this incident.

(Naveed Siddiqui, Dateline Islamabad): Ma'am, Pakistan has been demanding Afghanistan to stop its soil from use against Pakistan but we saw more than 77 militant attacks only in April which resulted in more than 70 fatalities including the security forces. Your comments? And has Pakistan taken this issue again with Afghanistan through diplomatic channels?

(Khawaja Nayyar Iqbal, Media Today): Pakistan has been victim of terrorism for decades and recently, the Foreign Minister of Afghan Interim Government talked about terrorism taking place in Afghanistan. They have not named any country responsible for terrorism inside Afghanistan, directly. Your comments? Whom does Pakistan hold responsible for terrorism in Afghanistan?

Spokesperson: Pakistan condemns terrorist acts wherever they take place including inside Afghanistan and we express sympathy for the victims and their families. As far as terrorist incidents in Pakistan are concerned, in cases where law enforcement authorities have been able to identify the links with elements inside Afghanistan, we have conveyed our concerns to the Afghan authorities and we have urged them to take effective action against these individuals and groups which continue to target Pakistan and support terrorist incidents inside Pakistan.

(Anas Mallick, Capital TV): Three separate questions, not linked. Firstly, in your opening statement you mentioned that the Deputy Prime Minister is leading the delegation at the OIC but last week from this podium you had announced that the Prime Minister would be leading the delegation. So, what is the reason that the Prime Minister is not leading now that the Deputy Prime Minister is in charge? Number two, the former adviser to the government, Shahzad Akbar had faced an alleged acid attack last year in November, you had commented on that as well. He has now lodged a case against the Pakistani government implicating senior intelligence officials by naming them. What is Pakistan's take on the matter? And number three over the weekend, we saw some unruly behavior by a diplomatic dignitary, the German Ambassador, during a conference in Lahore, when there was protest that was very well being done under the democratic ambit for Germany's support on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. What is Pakistan's take on the matter? Is this allowed? is this on?

Spokesperson: Okay, regarding your first question, the Prime Minister was planning to visit the Gambia for the OIC Summit. However, because of certain domestic considerations, he had to change his plans and now the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar will represent Pakistan at the Summit and at the Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting. Regarding your second question, we categorically reject the allegations made by Mr. Shahzad Akbar, against the state of Pakistan and its institutions and agencies. These claims are baseless and are politically motivated. As we have said in the past, safety and security of Pakistani nationals, wherever they are, are a matter of priority for Pakistan. It is not the policy of Pakistan to target its own nationals abroad. Several high-profile political dissidents have been living in the United Kingdom for several decades. They have often indulged in vitriol and invective against Pakistan and some of them have maintained links with terrorist entities inside Pakistan. Pakistan has not engaged in any extra-territorial acts against these individuals. So, Mr. Shahzad Akbar's claims are simply preposterous.

On the third question, the exchange between the German Ambassador and students is regrettable. Late Asma Jahangir was an icon of democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Throughout her life, she stood for the freedom of expression and opinion. It is understandable that some participants wanted to exercise their fundamental right to speech at an event honoring her memory. The ongoing genocide in Gaza has distressed people and heightened passions around the world, including in Pakistan. We hope this weekend's incident will be a time for reflection and would trigger a constructive dialogue on selectivity and double standards on human rights issues.

(Mateen Haider, G News): So, after Indian Intelligence Network, which was earlier busted in United States, Canada and in United Kingdom, now that spies network has been detected in Australia. Australian intelligence and Australian Government, they have expelled their spies, detected that network, which was meant to steal information, secret strategic information and also to spy on expatriates. What are your comments? This India's, this intercontinental or you may say transnational spies and terror network is gradually reaching out to several countries and being detected which is a threat to the global security your thoughts?

(Jaleel Akhtar, VOA): This is regarding the Washington Post story, citing unnamed sources, has named the RAW officers in connection with the alleged plot to kill a pro-Khalistan leader in the soil of the United States. What are your comments on that please?

Spokesperson: Okay, so, without going into details of these particular cases, we would like to remind what Pakistan has said in the past that India's network of espionage, subversion and extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings, which has been very active in South Asia, over the last several decades, has expanded to several continents and is now an issue of concern for the international community. Pakistan has presented concrete evidence of involvement of Indian agents in terror attacks inside Pakistan and extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani territory. These acts are illegal. These are a violation of international law, of the UN Charter and the basic precepts of justice and due process. We therefore urge the international community to hold India to account for its illegal acts and for the actions that it is taking in foreign countries in violation of international law.

(Jaleel Akhtar, VOA): Pakistan, China and Iran are set to hold the trilateral meeting on counterterrorism. The last meeting was held in China in June last year. This meeting is happening at that time when Pakistan is also facing some terrorism challenges. The other part of my question is that Pakistan and Iran are set to agree to a security pact and the border management, to deal with the border management issues. Could you share the details of that security pact? And when that is going to happen? Also about the trilateral meeting, when that is due and what will be its venue and a bit detail about its agenda?

Spokesperson: On your first question, Pakistan, Iran, and China trilateral dialogue is an important mechanism. At this point, there are no dates for it to be held. When we have an announcement, we will share with the media. I would however, like to underline that Pakistan and Iran have important channels of communication. These are bilateral channels of communication to discuss counterterrorism and security matters. These channels of communication have been further strengthened in recent months in order to ensure that the border between Pakistan and Iran is peaceful, free of terror activities, and is a border of peace, prosperity and friendship. And we will continue to engage with Iran in further strengthening cooperation in this domain and any further details and agreements, if and when finalized, will be announced by the relevant departments.

(Kausar Lodhi, Waqt Magazine): Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar met with Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia Shahzada Abdulaziz at the World Economic Forum recently. Can you tell us about any progress, outcomes and developments of this meeting?

Spokesperson: Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have a robust dialogue in the energy domain. This dialogue has continued over the last several decades and has gained even more momentum in recent months. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are engaged in consultations with each other in terms of increased Saudi investments in Pakistan, including in the energy domain.

(Anas Mallick, Capital TV): Second round of questions. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the political rally in Karnataka has said that he had particularly informed Pakistan before the Balakot strikes and after the Balakot strikes of 2019 February, and I quote, "I had asked the forces to call the media and inform them but I said before that I will inform Pakistan through telephone about the airstrikes at night and the destruction caused but Pakistan people did not come on the phone. So, I asked the forces to wait and after informing them we later disclosed to the world about air strikes that happened during the night." Your take on the matter?

Spokesperson: First of all, since the incident, that you are referring to in February 2019, there has been a rewriting of history from the Indian side. They have made statements which are not based on facts, and which are many times geared towards political mileage inside India. So, I would not like to comment on this particular statement by the Indian Prime Minister. However, I would like to highlight that as Pakistan demonstrated in 2019, the people of Pakistan and its armed forces are ready to defend the country against all intrusions from any quarters.

(Allah Noor Wazir, Mashriq TV): Ma'am, some Pakistanis overseas and other foreign nationals troll Army and the Army Chief on social media. Has Pakistan contacted those countries or is there any chance of taking action against them?

(Naveed Siddiqui, Dateline Islamabad): In a recent past, action was taken against Adil Raja a retired Pakistan Army Major and still they speak against Pakistani government, Army and Security forces and carry out propaganda. What is being done to stop this? Have we contacted foreign governments to take action against such people?

Spokesperson: We condemn such trolling and baseless media and social media campaigns against Pakistani officials and Pakistani institutions.

(Zeeshan Yousaf Zai, Dunya TV): Ma'am, recently a US delegation visited so, have there been any talks on energy sector? Especially on Iran Pakistan Gas pipeline, on which the Americans have also given some statements. Before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that we don't care for anyone, we will do anything that is in our national interest. So, are there any talks held with them?

Spokesperson: As I said in our opening remarks, the discussions between the Pakistani and the American delegations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were wide ranging and various aspects of bilateral cooperation were discussed and this included a sustained engagement between the two countries through various dialogue processes in the areas of trade, investment, energy, health, education, agriculture and climate change. Pakistan will continue to engage with the United States to enhance bilateral cooperation and understanding. I will not go into details of the conversations that have taken place between the two sides. However, I would like to reiterate what we have said in the past, actually in my last briefing, that as far as Pakistan is concerned, Pakistan does not believe in zero sum relationships. Pakistan has good relations with the United States and it has good relations with Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan will continue to pursue both relationships in pursuance of its national interest.

(Sardar Aamir, Daily Maddar): There is news that Pakistan is going to give two airbases to US. Comments?

Spokesperson: This speculation is completely unfounded and we reject it. There is absolutely no basis of these social media speculations.

(Anwar Abbas, Aik News): I need a clarification regarding previous question because I couldn't hear properly. Have you said that the speculations about providing bases against Iran are baseless?

Spokesperson: Pakistan has no plans to offer bases to a foreign government or military directed against anyone.

(Ali Hussain, Business Recorder): America is a self-proclaimed champion of human rights. Sometimes it lectures us regarding elections and political agitation. What is Pakistan's take regarding the ongoing crackdown on the pro-Palestinian protestors the various universities in the US?

Spokesperson: Okay. As a matter of principle, we do not comment on the domestic affairs of other countries and we expect them to also abide by the same principle of non-intervention and desist from comments on our internal affairs. The war on Gaza has been going on for eight months and during this period over 34,000 people have been killed, of which two-third are women and children. The international community has failed to protect the people of Gaza from massacre and bloodshed and people of conscience around the world are concerned about the situation and are making their voices heard. Pakistan is likewise concerned about the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

(Shahzad Hassan Mirza, Royal News): Prime Minister met Malaysian Prime Minister during his visit to WEF and has invited Malaysian Prime Minister and their delegation regarding trade and business to Pakistan. Can you share something about the schedule of visit? And secondly, Prime Minister also asked the trade and business group of Saudi Arabia to visit Pakistan so, have you got their schedule as well?

Spokesperson: First, Pakistan and Malaysia have very close historic relations and we have emphasized enhanced high level engagement between the two countries, especially at the leadership level. And during the meeting between the leaders of the two countries, this principle was again reiterated by the two sides. We are looking forward to the visit of the Malaysian Prime Minister to Pakistan at an early date. With respect to the visit of Saudi investors, the investors have been coming to Pakistan in recent months and engage with SIFC in terms of exploring opportunities for Saudi investments in Pakistan. This is an ongoing process and we expect similar high level business delegations to undertake visits to Pakistan in coming days and weeks as well.

(Abdullah Momand, Dawn News): Again, the question that opposition leader and National Assembly Ayub Khan has claimed that they have some information that Pakistan is providing bases to United States inside Pakistan. So, what are the basis of these reports?

Spokesperson: This question may be posed to the Leader of Opposition, because I have given you the reality and the facts in response to an earlier question today.

(Kamran Raja, Huashang Media): My question is regarding China. Pakistan's high-profile delegation including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is going to visit China. The 14th of May is the expected date. So, how many people will go in that delegation? Any details regarding this visit?

Spokesperson: 14th of May? I have no such announcements to make from this podium today and when a date is finalized for any high-level visit, we will of course share with the media.

I thank you!

***

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South Korea raises terror alert following reported North Korea threat

By William Gallo May 02, 2024

South Korea's government raised its terror alert level for five diplomatic missions Thursday, warning North Korea could attack South Korean diplomats overseas.

The country's terror watch level was raised to "alert" status, the second-highest level in a four-tier system, indicating a "high possibility of a terrorist attack," according to a statement from South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The statement said the decision was made during a Thursday meeting of South Korea's Counter Terrorism Center.

South Korean officials recently received intelligence that North Korea was planning to harm South Korean diplomats, it added, without disclosing the exact nature of the alleged threat.

The targeted diplomatic missions include South Korean embassies in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as well as consulates in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.

South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to VOA's request for more details.

The two Koreas have remained technically in a state of war since their 1950s conflict ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty. However, it has been decades since major sustained hostilities have arisen. OK?

North Korea has a long history of terror attacks and political assassinations against South Korea. In 1983, North Korea bombed a hotel in Rangoon, Burma, now Yangon, Myanmar, during a visit by South Korea's then-president Chun Doo-hwan. Although Chun survived, 21 others were killed. In 1988, North Korean agents blew up a South Korean civilian airliner, killing 115 people.

After the airliner attack, the United States formally placed North Korea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Pyongyang was removed from the list in 2008 amid negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

In 2017, the United States reinstated North Korea on the terror sponsor list after American college student Otto Warmbier died shortly after being released from North Korean custody.

That year, North Korea also assassinated Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during a brazen attack at a Malaysian airport.

North Korea has denied involvement in any terrorist activities. It has not commented on the South's latest accusations.

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Ulviyya Shahin

The President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Rovshan Najaf, held talks with Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO of Ukraine's Naftogaz, Azernews reports, citing SOCAR.

During the meeting, they explored potential collaborations within the oil and gas sector, such as the potential storage of Azerbaijani gas in Ukraine.

Additionally, they exchanged perspectives on energy transition, decarbonization, and other shared concerns.
Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin

30 April 2024 13:51

815-30-04-2024

On April 30, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin at the initiative of the Russian side.

The foreign ministers exchanged opinions on topical issues related to bilateral cooperation.

Sergey Lavrov informed the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan about the anti-terrorism measures undertaken by the Russian special services in accordance with the Russian legislation. The tragic events at Crocus City Hall were one of the main reasons for stricter screening of incoming foreign citizens. The Russian Foreign Minister emphasised that these measures were temporary and not targeted against any specific nation or religion. He also noted that the situation at checkpoints was gradually returning to normal.

The ministers agreed on the importance of handling the well-established Russian-Tajik relations of strategic partnership and allied interaction with care in order to preserve and maintain their positive momentum.

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Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's meeting with UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy on Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin

2 May 2024 19:42

820-02-05-2024

On May 2, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy on Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin in Moscow.

Mr Lavrov expressed his desire to promote Ms Holguin's efforts to create conditions for the resumption of talks between the two communities of the island. He reaffirmed Russia's consistent position on this issue, according to which a settlement pattern should be fair and sustainable, rest on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and be determined by the Cypriot parties themselves with due account of their fair interests.

Mr Lavrov positively assessed the activities of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the UN Secretary-General's goodwill mission on maintaining stability on the island, which is indispensable for a dialogue between the communities. Mr Lavrov said Russia is ready to continue working to enhance the efficiency of the UN in this area, in particular, by taking part in the UNFICYP.

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US journalist held in Russian prison for 400 days

By Margaret Besheer May 02, 2024

Four hundred days.

That's how long American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been held in a Russian prison.

Russia's Federal Security Service detained him while he was on assignment for U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal in the city of Yekaterinburg and accused him of espionage.

The newspaper and the U.S. government have denied the charges against the now 32-year-old reporter.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday at a U.S.-hosted event on the eve of World Press Freedom Day that reporters are too often wrongfully detained for "simply telling the truth."

"That was Evan's crime. Reporting the facts about Russia's illegal war in Ukraine," she said.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. Gershkovich was arrested a day after publishing a report on how the war had hurt Russia's economy.

Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will not rest until Gershkovich is reunited with his family. His parents and sister were present at the event.

Mariana Katzarova, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, told the gathering by video from Bulgaria that she is very concerned that Gershkovich has been held for over a year without a trial or evidence.

"The arrest and detention of Evan raises serious concerns about his personal safety, as well as the safety of all foreign journalists conducting their legitimate business in Russia," she said.

In October 2023, dual U.S.-Russian national Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, who works for VOA's sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also arrested in Russia. She remains jailed on charges of failing to self-register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

Kurmasheva was in Russia to visit her elderly and ailing mother.

Katzarova said Russia has one of the highest conviction rates in the world.

"Once charged, the likelihood of being found guilty in the Russian court is very high," she said, "raising concerns about the fairness and independence of the judiciary in Russia and about the rights of the accused to a fair trial."

David Rohde, an American journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008 but escaped after seven months in captivity, told the gathering that the source of attacks on journalists has shifted in the past several years.

"There has been a dramatic change where the people detaining and in some places killing journalists has shifted from extremist groups and criminal groups to a large number of states," he said.

"It has been more than a year now, and every day is a day too long," Danielle Gershkovich said of her brother's detention.

"We need to do whatever it takes to bring him home now."

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Taipei, Washington think Taiwan Relations Act adequate: Minister

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2024 03:48 PM

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) Taiwan and the United States have been looking at piece of legislation that has guided their unofficial relations over the past 45 years, and they both think it is adequate for their current needs, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu () said Thursday.

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) provides a legal basis for the U.S. to help Taiwan take part in international organizations and to supply Taiwan with weapon systems to boost its self-defense capabilities, Wu said during a legislative hearing, after an American scholar called for a revision of the TRA.

Citing Section 4 of the TRA, Wu said that the absence of diplomatic relations or recognition between Taiwan and the U.S. does not affect the application of U.S. laws with regard to Taiwan.

The TRA extensively covers almost all aspects of Taiwan and U.S. interactions, and there is no need to revise it, he added.

"The key decision makers in both Taiwan and the U.S." have agreed that the TRA already offers "adequate flexibility" for both sides and meets their current needs, Wu said, when asked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Loh Meei-ling () whether the recent call for a law revision should be heeded.

U.S. scholar Miles Yu () argued during a seminar in Taipei last month that the terms of the TRA only covered Taiwan proper and the Penghu archipelago.

The TRA should also include Kinmen and Matsu off the east coast of China, as well as Dongsha and Taiping, two Taiwan-controlled islands in the disputed South China Sea, Yu said in a pre-recorded address at the April 13 seminar that was held to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the TRA.

Furthermore, the TRA refers to "the people on Taiwan," which would include any foreign visitor, so that should be revised to specify "the people of Taiwan" or "the Taiwanese people," said Yu, who served as the China policy adviser to former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the administration of then President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, however, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant U.S. secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing that the TRA serves as a "foundational element" for U.S. One-China policy, and there is no need to change it.

"We have been able to engage in multiple initiatives and extensive cooperation with Taiwan because the TRA provides the authorities to carry out our unofficial relationship," Kritenbrink said. "We have the framework we need. We do not need to change it. What we need is to respond to the present moment, using all the tools at our disposal."

The TRA was enacted in April 1979 after the administration of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China.

Since then, the Act has served as the legal framework for Washington to guide its unofficial relations with Taipei, including the U.S.' sales of defensive arms to Taiwan.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/pc

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U.S. 'strongly encourages' invitation for Taiwan's return to WHA as observer

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2024 11:37 AM

Washington, May 1 (CNA) American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was "strongly" encouraging the World Health Organization (WHO) to reinstate an invitation to Taiwan to participate as an observer in the World Health Assembly (WHA).

Taiwan's expertise, experience and "exceptional capabilities" can benefit the world and offer "considerable value to inform the WHA's deliberations," Blinken said in press statement, ahead of the annual WHA meeting that is scheduled to start later this month.

"Time and time again, Taiwan has demonstrated a capability and willingness to help address global health crises and support the global health community," he said.

However, while the WHO had invited Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016 without objection, Taiwan has since been excluded from the meetings, Blinken noted.

Taiwan's continued exclusion "undermines inclusive global public health cooperation and security, which the world demands -- and urgently needs," he said.

"Inviting Taiwan to observe the WHA is a critically important step toward affirming the WHO's goal of 'Health for All,'" Blinken said. "The United States strongly encourages the WHO to reinstate an invitation to Taiwan to participate as an observer at this year's WHA."

He said the U.S.' support for "Taiwan's meaningful participation in international fora" is in line with its "one-China policy," guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances.

Since Blinken took office as U.S. secretary of state in 2021, he has been calling for the resumption of Taiwan's participation in the WHA, and Wednesday's statement was his fourth public comment on the issue.

The 77th WHA, themed "All for Health, Health for All," will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from May 27 to June 1.

Taiwan has been excluded from the WHA since 2017, due to pressure from China, and has not received an invitation to participate in this year's meeting.

On Monday, Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (ecza) said Taiwan will seek to participate as an observer in the Pandemic Agreement, which is likely to be finalized at the upcoming WHA meeting.

(By Chung Yu-chen and Wu Kuan-hsien)

Enditem/pc

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10 PLA aircraft cross Taiwan Strait median line: Defense ministry

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2024 10:39 PM

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) A total of 15 Chinese military aircraft and an unspecified number of naval ships were detected in areas around Taiwan on Thursday afternoon, with 10 warplanes and drones crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.

Starting at 4 p.m., MND data showed sorties by Sukhoi SU-30, KJ-500 third-generation airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) planes and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) across the median line of the Taiwan Strait as a part of a joint military patrol exercise with Chinese naval vessels.

In various sorties, the 10 People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft crossed the median line, the unofficial border between Taiwan and China, into Taiwan's northern, central and southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the MND said.

The ministry said it scrambled combat air and naval patrols and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese military aircraft.

In addition, the MND said four Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected in areas around Taiwan from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday.

All four of the warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the ministry added, crossing the median line and entering the north and southwest ADIZ, the MND said.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry has posted information about Chinese planes entering Taiwan's ADIZ since Sept. 17, 2020, amid the growing frequency of incursions by Chinese military aircraft.

China stepped up military maneuvers in early August, 2022, after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on Aug. 2-3, holding live-fire drills in six locations around the country.

An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but it is not part of the country's territorial airspace as defined by international law.

(By Matt Yu and James Lo)

Enditem/AW

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China advised to forego inflammatory actions in Taiwan Strait: U.S.

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2024 01:30 PM

Washington, May 1 (CNA) China should refrain from taking any actions that could "escalate tensions and undermine peace and stability" in the Taiwan Strait in the lead-up to the inauguration of Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te (ea) on May 20, a senior American State Department official said Wednesday.

Furthermore, no such actions should be taken after the inauguration either, said Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, during a hearing in the United States House of Representatives on the future of Taiwan-U.S. relations.

"We've been very clear, including through Secretary [Antony] Blinken's recent visit to Beijing, about our expectation that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead," Kritenbrink said in response to a question from Representative Ami Bera on China's posturing in the two weeks leading up to Lai's May 20 inauguration.

Kritenbrink said the U.S. State Department has been communicating with Beijing, advising that China avoid taking actions during this period that could escalate tensions and undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

He also said that Lai's comments on the issue after his election in January were "very responsible" and indicative of a shared commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

During the hearing, representatives Andy Barr and Gerry Connolly also asked Kritenbrink about whether the State Department's "strategic ambiguity" on the Taiwan issue was contradictory to U.S. President Joe Biden's stated commitment to defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China.

"We don't normally use that term," Kritenbrink said, referring to "strategic ambiguity." The Biden administration is opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either Taiwan or China, he said, adding that the U.S.' one China policy remained unchanged.

The State Department is committed to maintaining the status quo and promoting peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which has been retained for the past 45 years, Kritenbrink said.

On the question of the current delay in arms sales to Taiwan, Kritenbrink said the primary challenge was related to issues in the U.S. defense industrial base.

"We've worked very hard internally at State and DOD (Department of Defense) to expedite our processes, remove red tape," he said, adding that 95 percent of foreign military sales are now being processed within two days.

(By Chung Yu-chen and Evelyn Yang)

Enditem/pc

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Experts call for Taiwan's inclusion in WHO Pandemic Agreement

ROC Central News Agency

05/02/2024 08:22 PM

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) Taiwan should be included in the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement and be able to participate as a "health or economic entity," or attend as an observer, experts said at a seminar on Thursday.

The WHO Pandemic Agreement, which was first initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently being negotiated by the 194 WHO member states, is expected to be finalized and passed during the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA), scheduled to take place from May 27 to June 1.

The objective of the WHO Pandemic Agreement is to "prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics" while being "guided by equity," as outlined in the proposal of the agreement issued by the WHO on April 22.

However, Taiwan -- not a member of the WHO - has neither received an invitation to be a signatory of the agreement nor been asked to participate in the upcoming WHA meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, due to pressure from China.

It is important that Taiwan is part of the agreement, as being so would enable the country to swiftly obtain information and acquire necessary epidemic prevention materials for its citizens, said Tony Chen (ecc), a professor at the College of Public Health at the National Taiwan University.

"If we were to review the COVID-19 pandemic, we would say that if information had been made transparent earlier, and if sharing of epidemic prevention materials and medical equipment had been more evenly distributed worldwide... we might have been able to stave off such a large disaster," Chen argued.

As a global role model in public health, Taiwan could adopt a regional or alliance-based approach as a health or an economic entity and become part of the agreement as a signatory or an observer, he added.

Echoing Chen's views, Lin Shih-chia (zaa), the executive director of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, urged countries supporting Taiwan to advocate for "all states" or "economic or health entities" to be able to become signatories of the agreement during negotiations with other WHO member states.

If Taiwan fails to become a signatory to the agreement, it is hoped that the country can still attend the meetings as an observer and glean epidemic prevention information, Lin added.

The Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name, left the WHO in 1972 following a decision by the U.N. to expel the ROC and recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the only "legitimate representative of China."

The WHA is the WHO's decision-making body, which meets annually to determine WHO policies.

Taiwan was invited to attend the WHA from 2009 to 2016 as an observer but did not receive such an invitation in 2017 due to pressure from Beijing.

(By Sunny Lai)

Enditem/kb

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Remarks on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Statement on the Participation of China's Taiwan Region in the World Health Assembly

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

2024-05-02 18:39

Q: On May 1, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement, saying that "the United States strongly encourages the WHO to reinstate an invitation to Taiwan to participate as an observer at this year's WHA." What is China's comment?

A: The US statement seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint CommuniquAs. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the statement.

There is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. China's position on the Taiwan region's participation in the activities of international organizations, including the WHO, is consistent and clear, that is, this must be handled under the one-China principle, which is also a basic principle enshrined in the UNGA Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1. The DPP authorities have stubbornly stuck to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence," which means that the political foundation for Taiwan region's participation in the WHA no longer exists. The US statement presents this matter in a misleading way essentially to connive at and support "Taiwan independence" separatist activities.

The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the number one red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations. We once again urge the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint CommuniquAs, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, act on the US leader's commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence," "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan," stop using the WHA to create confusion on Taiwan-related issues, and avoid sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

The one-China principle has the extensive support of the international community. It is where global opinion trends and where the arc of history bends. There's no denying or stopping of that trend. Any attempt to play the "Taiwan card" and use Taiwan to contain China will meet the firm opposition of the international community and is doomed to failure.



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Islanders on small Philippine chain worry a China-Taiwan conflict could spill over

The Batanes archipelago, the northernmost part of the Philippines, is actually closer to Taiwan.

By Luna Pham for RFA and BenarNews 2024.05.02 -- Basco, the capital of the island-chain province of Batanes, is a small town of narrow alleys, green hills and, in spring, bright pink blossoms of bougainvillea. Surrounded by the broad waters where the Pacific Ocean blends into the South China Sea, things tend to move slowly here.

"Batanes is a small place," says Mayor German Caccam. "It is like living in a paradise, and we do not like being disturbed by conflicts."

But islanders increasingly fear a conflict could be coming.

Though Batanes marks the northernmost point of the Philippines, it in fact lies closer to Taiwan, which is only 120 miles (193 km) away. On a clear day, islanders say they can see Taiwan's southern tip.

Beyond that lies the Taiwan Strait, another flashpoint in a watery region beset by them. Beijing -- which considers democratic Taiwan one of its provinces and vows to reunite it with the mainland, by force if necessary -- regularly sends warships and airplanes around Taiwan in a show of strength to Taipei.

"The brewing war in the Taiwan Strait brings a lot of concerns to the people of Batanes," says Caccam, a former teacher who has held the post since 2022. "Because of the proximity to Taiwan, Batanes is likely to be affected."

That possibility sets up an interesting dilemma for the islanders.

The people here feel vulnerable. They are served by a single, small airport that frequently closes due to bad weather. And yet they are wary of hosting soldiers or military equipment for fear of provoking China and being caught up in a conflict that isn't theirs.

"We are very worried about the situation in Taiwan," Nida Cartano, a Batanes teacher, told RFA. "Batanes is so small, we don't have facilities to go into a war with anyone, so we are afraid.

"But hopefully there won't be any war any time soon."

The Philippine military has recruited hundreds of reservists in Batanes. In February, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro visited the province to inspect local facilities. He ordered the military to boost the number of Filipino troops stationed in Batanes and to develop more military structures there.

The province is "the spearhead of the Philippines as far as the northern baseline is concerned," Teodoro told reporters.

China and the Philippines are at odds in the South China Sea, including at the Second Thomas Shoal, an area within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone but where Chinese ships frequently run-off Filipino fishermen.

China bases its sovereignty on the so-called nine-dash line, which dips from the Chinese mainland deep into the South China Sea, encompassing the shoal and other nearby features that Manila views as their own.

But Taiwan is a particularly sensitive topic to Beijing. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned the Philippine government against "playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan" and "being exploited by others," implying military cooperation between the Philippines and its treaty ally the United States.

US troops' presence

The Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from Batanes, is a critical choke point for Chinese military operations in the region.

It is also the place where the United States and its allies hold naval drills. Batanes has served as one of the locations for Balikatan, an ongoing annual joint exercise between the American and Philippine militaries.

Filipino media reported last year that the local government and the U.S. were discussing construction of a sea port on the island chain that could also be used for security purposes and facilitate American access to the area.

Local officials last year discussed the possibility of working with the U.S. to construct a sea port in Batanes that could also be used for security purposes and facilitate U.S. access to the area.

The U.S. military ultimately declined to get involved in the-estimated $50 million project - a move some believe is tied to local resistance to the idea.

The decision not to proceed in helping to pay for the port may help remove a source of tension with China. But the U.S. is expected to take part in a couple of other projects in the province, such as helping to upgrade an airport and build warehouses that can also have a dual use.

And in 2023, the Philippines extended the number of its military bases that U.S. forces can access to nine, including three facing Taiwan.

Mayor Caccam said residents welcome the Balikatan exercise, which has been held three times, "because it makes us feel more secure."

"However, as the mayor of Basco, I am not so amenable with the presence of foreign forces, especially the U.S., because that will make us a target."

For now, daily life in Batanes goes on as usual. Women wait in small alleys near the shore to clean and gut the day's catch.

Unlike areas in the South China Sea where China claims territory, the fishermen of Batanes still have access to their traditional fishing grounds.

But as tensions rise throughout the region, the people here can't help but wonder how long their peaceful piece of the world will remain so.

Edited by Jim Snyder and Imran Vittachi

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 May 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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Four men were arrested in connection with an auto burglary at Alamo Square on Wednesday, police said. Authorities recovered stolen property and a gun in the suspects vehicle after a pursuit. Four men were arrested in connection with an auto burglary at Alamo Square on Wednesday, police said. Authorities recovered stolen property and a gun in the suspects vehicle after a pursuit.

San Francisco police said Thursday they recovered thousands of dollars worth of stolen property when they arrested four men in connection with an auto burglary near Alamo Square this week.

The four men were identified as Michael Gebremeskel, 23, of San Francisco, Andrew Maravilla-Lopez, 21, of Hayward, Masiah West-Ayele, 21, of Stockton, and Omarionanthony Holman, 21, of San Leandro.

Holman was arrested on suspicion of burglary of a nonresidence or auto burglary, conspiracy, driving a vehicle with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of people or property, and carrying a loaded gun with the intention of committing a felony, among other charges, according to police. The other three suspects were arrested on suspicion of several charges, including burglary, receiving stolen property, and resisting arrest, in addition to other gun-related charges, police said.

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Police began pursuing the men in the early afternoon Wednesday. At about 12:15 p.m., officers were notified of an auto burglary that had occurred at Steiner and Grove streets, police said. Shortly after, officers located the suspect vehicle, which sped away from police. The vehicle fled to the area of 22nd and Kansas streets, at which point Maravilla-Lopez, West-Ayele and Gebremeskel fled on foot, according to police.

The three were taken into custody while Holman continued fleeing in the car. The pursuit ended at Steuart Street and Steuart Lane, where Holman was taken into custody, police said.

After the arrests, police searched the suspect vehicle and found a gun and thousands of dollars worth of property, including camera equipment that had been stolen in the auto burglary Wednesday. Police said they also recovered property taken from a victim during an auto burglary on April 19 near the Palace of Fine Arts.

An analysis by the Chronicle in November found that Alamo Square is a hot spot for car break-ins, especially in the later months of the year. Tourists have also had their cars broken into at the Palace of Fine Arts, including a viral incident last year minutes before city officials held a news conference at the tourist spot to announce measures to crack down on the crime.
PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan May 2, 2024

ROC Ministry of National Defense

2024/05/02

PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan

1. Dateis

6 to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) Wednesday to Thursday, May 1- 2

2. PLA activitiesis

4 PLA aircraft and 4 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 4 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's northern and 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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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's answer to a media question about Kiev's recent statements regarding the events in Bucha in the spring of 2022

28 April 2024 10:18

812-28-04-2024

Question: On April 24, Kiev's UN mission came up with its own "version" of the events in Bucha, thus replying to a note circulated by the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly. Kiev and the West are persisting in their attempts to put the blame for the gory show they had staged themselves on Russia. How would you comment on these statements?

Maria Zakharova: Russia has repeatedly proved with facts in hand that the so-called Bucha massacre is a cynical ploy.

As usual, the message circulated by the Ukrainian mission contains no evidence, just unfounded accusations and references to the "firm conclusions" by the so-called Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and research by the OSCE's derelict Moscow Mechanism.

What raises the most questions are the fantastical victim numbers. The [Ukrainian] message claims that over 9,000 war crimes were documented in Bucha, resulting in 1,800 deaths.

However, other Ukrainian sources refute these assertions.

For example, Ukrainian media reported that in March 2022, only about 5,000 people remained in Bucha out of the city's population of 37,000. Others had left immediately after the start of Russia's special military operation. This means that each remaining resident would have been a victim of one or two crimes.

Furthermore, doubts about the accuracy of the Ukrainian "statistics" increase when basic mathematical calculations are considered.

It is common knowledge that the Russian military - consisting of several hundred troops - stayed in the city from February 27 to March 31, 2022, for a total of 33 days. If we divide 9,000 crimes by 33 days, we get 272. According to the Ukrainian figures, the Russian military committed 272 crimes per day, or 11 crimes per hour without any break for sleep or food, which is completely unrealistic.

In addition, they managed to provide humanitarian aid to the local population. In total, 452 tonnes of Russian humanitarian cargoes were delivered and distributed in Bucha and other localities in the Kiev Region. The local mobile communications networks remained in operation while the city was under Russian military control. Not a single local resident reported any instances of violence. There were no roadblocks on the routes leading from Bucha, allowing people to freely leave the city, and many did so. At the same time, Ukrainian artillery guns, tanks and multiple rocket launchers continually bombarded Bucha's southern outskirts, including residential areas, 24 hours a day.

It is important to note that, following the Russian withdrawal on March 31, 2022, Bucha mayor Anatoly Fedorchuk posted a video that conspicuously did not mention "extensive Ukrainian casualties." If, as claimed, the Russian military committed 11 crimes per hour for 33 days, resulting in 1,800 dead bodies on the streets, he should have at the very least acknowledged this fact.

The fact that Western media crews were the first to enter the city after the Russian withdrawal, rather than Ukrainian investigators and forensic experts, further indicates that the events in Bucha were orchestrated.

However, the most important point is that a full-scale investigation into the Bucha tragedy has yet to begin. There is still no information available about the victims' names, places of residence, time, location and cause of death, and autopsy results. This can only mean one thing: the leaders of the Kiev regime fear an investigation as it could implicate themselves.

We will not tolerate these fabrications. We will continue to expose the developments in Ukraine to the international community, including attempts to manipulate public opinion.

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China slams US unilateral illegal sanctions against Chinese entities over Russia-Ukraine conflict

Global Times

By Global Times Published: May 02, 2024 04:32 PM

The Chinese Embassy in the US slammed Washington's latest sanctions against Chinese entities over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying that China firmly opposes the US imposing unilateral illegal sanctions on Chinese entities, Russian news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

The US on Wednesday issued a new package of sanctions on hundreds of companies and individuals, including more than a dozen Chinese entities, for "helping Moscow find workarounds to earlier penalties," AP reported on Thursday.

This is one of the most wide-ranging actions against Chinese companies so far in Washington's sanctions targeting Russia, according to Reuters.

"We will uphold the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies," Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the US, was quoted by TASS as saying.

In response to US' unwarranted accusations on Chinese entities of "supporting the Russian economy and its defense industrial base through trade," Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, harshly criticized the US' false accusation as "hypocritical and highly irresponsible."

It is hypocritical and highly irresponsible for the US to falsely accuse China over normal trade and economic exchanges with Russia, while passing legislation to provide massive aid to Ukraine, Wang told a press conference on April 26.

The US Senate on April 23 passed a foreign aid bill totaling $95 billion, with $60.84 billion set aside to support Ukraine.

US aid to Ukraine and its fresh package of sanctions are the last frenzy as part of its failing Ukraine policy, LA Xiang, a research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The Biden administration just wants to put on show its tough stance on foreign policy by imposing illegal sanctions on foreign entities on Ukraine issue. However, this cannot save their already failing Ukraine policy, LA added.

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Deployment of Western troops to Ukraine not ruled out in case front lines breached, Macron says

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 6:59 PM

French President Emmanuel Macron says he does not rule out the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine in case Russia breaks through the Ukrainian front lines and if Kiev makes such a request.

Speaking during an interview with The Economist published on Thursday, the French leader once again stressed that Ukraine receives support from the West, including France, in the face of Russia's battlefield advances.

Answering a question on whether Western troops will be deployed to Ukraine, Macron said if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines, such a question would "legitimately" arise.

Back in February, Macron sent shock waves throughout Europe and unsettled France's allies, including Germany, when said that he would send troops to Ukraine.

He doubled down on his earlier comments in the new interview.

"Absolutely. I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," said Macron when asked if he stood by his earlier remarks made on February 26.

Last week, Macron delivering a keynote speech, declaring that Europe is "mortal" and could "die" partly due to the alleged threat posed by Russia's ongoing "special military operation" in Ukraine that began in February 2022.

"If Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question" about sending troops, describing his refusal to rule out such a move as a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts."

When Macron said he would deploy troops to Ukraine in February, most of France's allies said they would not send any forces.

Macron's remarks on Thursday come as some analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine, which is in desperate need of Western military hardware.

"I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine," Macron further said, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of "a power of regional destabilization" and "a threat to Europeans' security."

"If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighboring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?" the French president asked.

Ukraine war unlikely to end soon: Top US spy

Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said developments trending both at home and abroad are in Putin's favor and that he will likely press on with "aggressive tactics" in Ukraine.

"Putin's increasingly aggressive tactics against Ukraine, such as strikes on Ukraine's electricity infrastructure, are intended to impress Ukraine that continuing to fight will only increase the damage to Ukraine and offer no plausible path to victory," she added.

"These aggressive tactics are likely to continue and the war is unlikely to end anytime soon," Haines stressed.

Russia has repeatedly warned that the conflict in Ukraine could be prolonged due to the support of Western countries, on top of them the US, for Kiev.

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Russia rejects US accusation of violating chemical weapons ban in Ukraine

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 02 May 2024 3:42 PM

Russia has rejected the United States claim that its forces in Ukraine had breached an international prohibition on chemical weapons by employing banned substances such as a prohibited choking agent.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, informed journalists on Thursday that Moscow is still committed to its obligations outlined in the treaty prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.

"As always, such announcements are absolutely unfounded and are not supported by anything. Russia has been and remains committed to its obligations under international law in this area," Peskov said.

On Wednesday, the US lodged an accusation against Russia for breaching international norms by deploying the asphyxiating substance chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and employing riot control agents as a means of warfare in Ukraine.

Despite Russia's claim of no longer having a military chemical arsenal, there is a growing demand for increased transparency regarding their alleged use of toxic chemicals.

Chloropicrin, which is an almost transparent oily substance that induces intense eye irritation, is used as an agricultural pesticide, while its use in war is banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

According to the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety in the US, it was heavily utilized in significant amounts during World War I.

Both Russia and Ukraine have lodged accusations against each other for violating the treaty during their participation in meetings held by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The organization raised alarm in 2022 regarding allegations of Russia deploying chemical weapons during the attack on Mariupol, Ukraine. However, it clarified that no official request has been made for an investigation into the use of banned substances in the country.

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U.S. Weapons Are Coming To Ukraine. But Russian Forces Have The Momentum.

By Mike Eckel and Todd Prince May 02, 2024

Last week, Russian forces broke through Ukrainian lines in the village of Ocheretyne, building on momentum from the February capture of the industrial city of Avdiyivka about 25 kilometers to the southeast. Commanders quickly redeployed exhausted troops from another brigade that had been fighting in the area for more than a year.

About an hour's drive to the north, Russian troops, including elite paratrooper units, have slogged up to an important canal in Chasiv Yar, a height-of-land settlement that offers clearer lines for artillery fire targeting a critical railway supply line for Ukraine's forces.

Hundreds of kilometers to the southwest, meanwhile, Russian motorized rifle infantry pushed into part of Robotyne, a village that Ukrainian troops recaptured during last year's much-hyped counteroffensive that fell far short of its goals.

Ukraine's commander in chief didn't mince words.

"The situation at the front has worsened," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy said in a post to Telegram on April 28. Russian forces, he said, were "actively attacking along the entire front line with tactical successes in some areas."

Beleaguered and outgunned, Ukrainian forces got a jolt of morale-boosting news last week, when U.S. lawmakers finally pushed through a $60 billion aid package dominated by weapons: anti-aircraft missiles; small-arms ammunition; 105 mm and 155 mm howitzer artillery; shells for high-precision HIMARS artillery systems, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and more. It came months after the last substantial deliveries were made.

But Ukraine's battlefield position is bleak.

Its forces are badly outnumbered. Despite the government finally passing a new mobilization law aimed at getting more men into the fight, it will be weeks, if not months, before new troops can be trained, equipped, and able to make any substantive difference at the front.

And Russian commanders appear to have made a calculated decision to increase the tempo of operations, possibly aimed at high-profile victories to brag about before national Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

"In general, we are slowly losing territory," said Ivan Stupak, an analyst with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, a Kyiv think tank, adding that Russia is focusing its rolling advance on a narrow sector of the battlefield in the Donetsk region.

"Russia's General Staff has deployed more manpower and equipment to Donetsk from other directions," he told RFE/RL. "So now Russia is slowly pushing back our defense lines."

"We have reached the point where the situation on the front line is the worst since March 2022," said Konrad Muzyka, a Polish-based defense analyst who travels regularly to Ukraine.

"The Russians' numerical superiority continues to grow, and so does the number of attacks," he said in a post to X, formerly Twitter. "Ukraine has not endured its darkest hour. It is yet to begin."

"Ukraine has no good options, even with the latest aid package. Many military analysts have already come to that conclusion privately but are unwilling to voice that sentiment," wrote Eugene Rumer, a former top Russia analyst at the U.S. National Intelligence Council.

Grim Outlook

Initiative on the battlefield has shifted several times since Russia launched its mass invasion in February 2022. Ukraine thwarted Russia's advance on the capital, Kyiv, but the invading forces seized swaths of territory in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions and in the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions in the east.

Ukraine surprised Russian troops with two localized counteroffensives in the fall of 2022, recapturing substantial amounts of land in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Ukraine then spent much of the following months prepping, training, and equipping nine new armored brigades, with Western armor and assistance from NATO. Another four also received Western weaponry, and in June 2023 Kyiv launched a three-pronged counteroffensive.

It faltered, however, thwarted by extensive Russian defensive lines.

Russia's forces, for their part, ground into higher gear, bolstered by prison inmate brigades and a major mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin. Russia's sprawling industrial infrastructure retooled to supply seemingly endless streams of artillery, ammunitions, and vehicles.

In February 2024, Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from Avdiyikva, an industrial city that had given Ukraine a vantage point over the regional capital of Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy removed the country's popular commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy, after Zaluzhniy gave a publicly pessimistic assessment of the war's trajectory.

The tides have since turned further against Ukraine, in part because the flow of U.S. and other Western weaponry slowed to a trickle amid political infighting in Washington. Russia has taken advantage of the dearth of anti-aircraft defenses, using "glide bombs" -- heavy-explosive "dumb" bombs retrofitted with wings and satellite navigation -- to devastating effect.

"A difficult situation awaits us in the near future. But it will not be catastrophic, let's be clear," Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's military intelligence chief, told the BBC. "There will be no Armageddon, as many are saying.... But there will be a difficult period. Mid-May, early June."

But critics say the Zelenskiy government also was slow to prioritize building its defensive lines across the 1,200-kilometer front line as it became clear Russia's tactical strength was growing. And the government took months to push through new legislation aimed at getting more men to the front.

The lack of fresh fighters was "the most pressing issue" for Ukraine, a problem that was "exacerbated by the lack of weapons and ammunition," said Rob Lee, a former U.S. Marine and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

"The relative manpower situation is likely the most important factor that will determine the war's trajectory, particularly if Russia can sustain recruiting 20-30k a month," he said in a post on X.

Western estimates put Russia's casualties - killed and wounded - as high as 450,000, though a top U.S. Army general last month gave a lower figure: 315,000.

Ukraine's casualties are sizable as well. Zelenskiy in February made his first official acknowledgment of combat losses, saying 31,000 troops had been killed in the previous two years. That number is widely seen as a major undercount.

Ukraine's brigades are currently operating at just 40 percent of their original capacity, in terms of personnel and vehicles, according to Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian open-source research organization run by a Ukrainian reserve officer.

"The situation on the front line is expected to stabilize with the arrival of new ammunition, weaponry, and freshly mobilized but trained recruits," the group said. "Nevertheless, stabilization is not anticipated immediately, as it will take time to arm, train, and prepare new recruits."

'Putin Is In No Mood To Give Up'

Ukrainian and Western analysts say Russia has deployed around 25,000 troops, including several elite paratrooper and motorized rifle brigades, in its push to take Chasiv Yar. Taking it would allow Russian artillery to threaten the railway junction town of Kostyantynivka, to the south, and some of the supply lines Ukrainian units in the district rely on.

That in turn could put at risk the larger cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, about 30 kilometers farther to the north, which still have some industrial factories, larger populations, and are more heavily fortified.

Ukrainian military and open-source analysts say Russian forces briefly crossed the canal on Chasiv Yar's eastern side earlier this week but haven't been able to hold it.

Ukrainian analysts also say Russia is relying on the tactic used in the capture of Bakhmut last year: World War I-style infantry wave assaults, with units comprised of poorly trained former prison inmates trailed by more elite units.

Russian forces have the upper hand, said Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army major general, and they "will be pushing hard to make the most of their opportunity before U.S. military aid arrives in the coming weeks."

In Ocheretye, meanwhile, unconfirmed reports say the Russian breakthrough may have been due in part to a retreat, possibly unauthorized or premature, by the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade. Another NATO-trained and -equipped unit that had been fighting for months in the region, the 47th Mechanized Brigade, was ordered back to the village's district, to stabilize defensive lines.

Military commanders are now reportedly investigating the unit's command, and Ukrainian forces have also had to pull back westward from three villages on Ocheretyne's southern edges.

"The enemy has broken through and gained a foothold in part of" Ocheretyne, Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, a military spokesman, said in televised comments. "All measures are being taken to knock the enemy out of there."

"Ukraine is waging a war against an enemy that shows no inclination to stop its aggression and negotiate in earnest," Rumer, who is now director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in his April 25 commentary. "Having bet his entire presidency on this war, Putin is in no mood to give up. Ukraine's need for help, even with the adoption of a defensive strategy for the long run, is open-ended. Are Washington and Brussels ready for it?"

RFE/RL correspondent Mike Eckel reported from Prague; correspondent Todd Prince reported from Washington, D.C.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia- chasiv-yar-war/32930632.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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Zelenskiy Discusses Ukraine's Readiness To Receive Promised Weapons Deliveries

By RFE/RL and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service May 02, 2024

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he discussed a schedule for receiving weapons shipments from Kyiv's allies at a meeting of Ukraine's military commanders on May 2 after a Russian missile strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa wounded 14 people and damaged critical civilian infrastructure in the third missile attack on the city in as many days.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov's report on the schedule of the delivery of weapons was discussed at the meeting at the headquarters of the General Staff, Zelenskiy said, adding that he also heard a report on the degree of readiness of fortifications in border regions and in the areas of active hostilities.

Zelenskiy said that he instructed commanders to take all possible measures to shorten the time it takes to receive the weapons. This applies especially to the supply of air defense equipment.

The United States said last week it would provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive additional aid package.

Despite U.S. efforts to deliver weapons, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has admitted that Ukraine's allies are behind schedule.

Earlier on May 2, Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa region's military administration, said the strike on Odesa ignited a fire, and the storage depots of the local branch of Ukraine's postal service were damaged.

A Russian attack on Odesa the previous day seriously wounded a man who later died in a hospital.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure for months and repeatedly attacked Odesa in recent days, including on April 29 using an Iskander missile. Five civilians died in that attack and 23 were injured, officials said.

Kuleba said on May 1 in an interview with Foreign Policy that as much as half of Ukraine's energy system had been damaged by Russia's attacks.

Zelenskiy told NATO members last week that his country needs a minimum of seven additional Patriot air-defense systems to counter Russian air strikes amid a shortage of weaponry sparked by delays from the United States, where lawmakers were unable to agree on an aid package for months, while European allies have been unable to deliver ammunition at the scale promised.

An influx of weapons is expected to flow after U.S. President Joe Biden signed the long-delayed $61 billion military aid package last week. Biden said the package would include air-defense munitions to help Ukraine protect its cities and infrastructure, artillery shells, and long-range missile systems.

Faced with the quasi-daily Russian onslaught on its infrastructure, Ukraine has resorted to striking Russia's energy facilities -- especially oil refineries -- with its own drones, whenever possible.

On May 2, Smolensk Governor Vasily Anokhin said on Telegram that Ukrainian drones targeted energy infrastructure in his region.

"Today, the Smolensk region was again attacked by Ukrainian UAVs. In the Roslavl district, the enemy attempted to damage a civilian energy infrastructure facility. There were no casualties. Emergency and law enforcement services are working at the scene," Anokhin said, without giving details.

Separately, Russia's Defense Ministry said its air-defense systems downed 12 Ukrainian drones over several regions.

It said five drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region, three over the Krasnodar region, two over Rostov, and one each over the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone damaged power lines in the village of Ponyri.

Regional officials in three more Russian regions -- Smolensk, Oryol, and Voronezh -- said they had been targeted by Ukrainian drones. In Oryol, Governor Andrei Klychkov said energy infrastructure was damaged in two districts where the electricity supply was partially disrupted.

Ukraine has not commented on the Russian claims, which could not be independently verified immediately.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-drone- anokhin-/32930064.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

02.05.2024

Last night, the Russian Armed Forces have foiled the Kiev regime's attempt to launch terrorist attacks using fixed-wing UAVs against the facilities in the Russian Federation.

12 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down and intercepted by alerted air defence systems: five over Bryansk region; one over Kursk region; one over Belgorod region; two over Rostov region; and three over Krasnodar region.

Department for Media Affairs and Information

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Ukraine's Total Military Casualties in Donetsk Region Reaches Up to 750 in Past Day - MoD

Sputnik News

20240502

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Ukrainian armed forces have suffered up to 750 military casualties in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the past 24 hours as a result of operations by Russian armed forces, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Thursday.

Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr has repelled 10 Ukrainian counterattacks in several DPR settlements over the past day, the ministry said, adding that the Russian forces have taken full control over the DPR village of Berdychi.

"[As a result of clashes with the central grouping of the Russian armed forces], the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost up to 380 military personnel, five armored combat vehicles, eight cars [among other military losses]," the ministry said in a statement.

As a result of clashes with Battlegroup Yug in the DPR, Kiev has lost up to 270 soldiers.

Battlegroup Vostok has also improved its positions in the DPR and repelled a Ukrainian counterattacknear the village of Staromayorskoye, while Kiev has lost up to 100 soldiers, the statement read.

Battlegroup Zapad has thwarted five counterattacks by Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and the Kharkov region, where Ukraine has lost over 150 soldiers, the MoD added.

A Sputnik

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Foreign Secretary visits Ukraine after UK's multi-year commitment to deliver A3 billion of military support

The Foreign Secretary visited Ukraine to reiterate the UK's unequivocal support for the Ukrainian people.

2 May 2024

Foreign Secretary David Cameron was in Kyiv to reiterate UK support to Ukraine

The visit follows the Prime Minister's announcement that the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, and commit to at least A3 billion a year on military support to Ukraine

The Foreign Secretary confirmed a A36 million package of energy support, including A20 million in new emergency funding following Russian attacks.

Visiting Kyiv, the Foreign Secretary reiterated the UK's unequivocal support to Ukraine. Meeting with President Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Shmyhal and Foreign Minister Kuleba, he detailed how the uplift in defence spending announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week, including A3 billion multi-year funding for Ukraine and the largest ever donation of military equipment, would help ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win.

The Foreign Secretary announced that the UK's donation of military equipment would include the provision of precision-guided bombs, and air defence missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams to enable Ukraine to shoot down Russia's drones and missiles.

The UK also committed to doubling its domestic munitions production, by investing a further A10 billion over the next 10 years. This production will help ensure UK national security, whilst sustaining the UK's weapons support to Ukraine, keeping Ukraine in the fight for as long as it takes.

Alongside domestic commitments, the Foreign Secretary also revealed that the UK intends to bring international partners together next month to attract additional contributions to the International Fund for Ukraine to meet Ukraine's urgent capability requirements.

The Foreign Secretary also confirmed a A36 million package for Ukraine's energy infrastructure and investments in future innovations to support Ukraine's energy transition and recovery.

This includes A20 million of emergency funding following the recent barrage of attacks on national infrastructure as Russia intensifies its assault on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, including power plants and gas storage facilities. This takes the UK's total contribution to the Ukrainian energy sector since 2022 to A170 million.

UK funding will provide equipment to repair damaged energy infrastructure, help physically protect existing infrastructure, and provide back-up support - including generators and distributed renewable generation - for use if Russian attacks destroy more infrastructure.

Speaking from Kyiv, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, said:

Ukraine is fiercely defending itself against Russia's illegal invasion, making a war Putin thought would last days, take years. But this war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone. We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win. Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

A further A16 million was awarded to winners of the UK's Innovate Ukraine Green Energy Competition, at a reception hosted by the Foreign Secretary and Ukrainian Minister for Energy, Minister Galushchenko. The 13 winning projects, made up of UK and Ukrainian innovators, partners, businesses and NGOs, launched their innovations to help Ukraine rebuild a greener and more resilient energy grid. This funding was previously announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London and has now been awarded to recipients.

In Kyiv, the Foreign Secretary saw how Ukrainians are continuing to show resilience in the face of Russian attacks, witnessing first-hand how Ukraine is pushing forward with innovative drone development.

The Foreign Secretary also kicked off negotiations with Ukraine on a 100 Year Partnership - a new agreement that will build enduring links between our two countries across the spectrum of trade, security and defence cooperation, science and tech, education, culture, and much more. The UK's commitment to developing this Partnership is a clear signal of its intent to build close and enduring cooperation with Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people, for decades to come.

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Jordan Parker is a breaking news reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. He graduated from Sacramento State University in May 2022 with a degree in journalism. During his time there, he spent three years as a reporter and editor for the university's award-winning student newspaper, The State Hornet. He spent his senior year of college serving as The Hornet's first Black editor in chief, leading the organization to two Pacemaker awards and several other national honors from the Associated Collegiate Press. When he's not chasing down a story, he likes watching movies, traveling and trying new restaurants.
Russia is suppressing the freedom of religion or belief in Ukraine: UK statement to OSCE

As Orthodox Christians in Ukraine prepare to mark Easter, Ambassador Holland raises Russia's suppression of freedom of religion and calls for an end to its illegal war.

2 May 2024

Thank you, Madam Chair. As Orthodox Easter approaches this Sunday, many Christians are preparing to celebrate and to exercise their fundamental human right to practice their faith freely and safely. For over 10 years, Russia and its proxies have relentlessly violated that right in Ukraine. Since 2014 Russia has replicated its domestic repression of this freedom in Crimea and non-government-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine. This trend has intensified and expanded to further seized areas of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion.

Reporting from the UN and other organisations paints a harrowing picture of faith communities in Ukraine facing persecution as repressive Russian laws are brutally enforced. Jehovah's Witnesses, who have long been persecuted within Russia, have been entirely banned. Crimean Tatars have faced some of the harshest repression with many arrested. Religious buildings and places of worship have been seized and transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Religious literature has been prohibited and fines have been issued to those who have committed so-called illegal missionary activities including preaching, praying and disseminating religious materials. Furthermore, religious figures have been subjected to torture, arbitrary detentions, and unlawful deportations - and many have even been killed.

Father Stepan Podolchak, a 59-year-old priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kherson Oblast, was known for his unwavering patriotism and insistence on conducting services in Ukrainian. Stepan resisted pressure from the Federal Security Services to align with the Russian Orthodox Church. In February 2024, Russian authorities forcibly took Stepan to an unknown location. Two weeks later, Stepan's wife was summoned to identify his body. It's reported that Stepan was tortured to death.

Madam Chair, Stepan's tragic death is not an anomaly but fits the brutal tactics of the Kremlin Playbook. Tactics used to subjugate the civilian population and eliminate diversity of religion, culture and identity.

Two Greek Catholic priests, Father Ivan Levitsky and Father Bohdan Geleta, were unlawfully detained by Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in November 2022. To this day, their families do not know where they are or if they will ever be released. Bohdan suffers from an acute form of diabetes, so his family are desperately concerned for his welfare.

The latest Moscow Mechanism report documented the inhumane treatment endured by Ukrainian civilians being detained by the Russian authorities, including the denial of crucial medical care, which has tragically led to the loss of many lives. Such reprehensible actions cannot be tolerated. Russia must uphold its international obligations by immediately halting the persecution of religious figures and unconditionally releasing all those it has unlawfully detained.

The UK, alongside our international partners, will do all we can to ensure that those responsible for Russia's systematic campaign of human rights abuses and violations are held to account. The sole path to fully restoring human rights in Ukraine, including freedom of religion or belief, lies in Russia ending its illegal war and withdrawing its troops from every inch of Ukrainian soil. Thank you, Madam Chair.



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I've Instructed to Work with Partners at All Levels to Speed Up the Supply of Arms, Implementing Packages and Agreements - Address by the President

President of Ukraine

2 May 2024 - 20:30

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Here's a summary for the day.

The Staff. A few main issues. Of course, the situation at the front. There was a report from the Commander-in-Chief. Maximum attention was paid to the Pokrovsk direction. And other directions in the Donetsk region. Southern directions. Kharkiv region. The Commander-in-Chief also made a general report today on the protection of the border with Russia and our respective communities in several regions. The risks are clear. We will destroy the occupier under any circumstances.

The construction of fortifications was discussed separately and in great detail at the Staff meeting. There were reports from the government - Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, from the Office - within the purview of the regional direction of Oleksiy Kuleba, and from Oleksandr Yakovets, the Head of the State Special Transport Service. I am grateful to each and every person who is building fortifications on the ground and working as efficiently as necessary. We are keeping to the schedule.

Today we also discussed the protection of our energy sector - the protection of specific facilities from specific threats. Now we need to combine two processes: protecting the energy sector from current attacks and providing our people with electricity, and it is also time to start preparing for the next heating season. The task is obvious: we have to do the maximum to protect lives, and every aspect of this job - from air defense and electronic warfare at the facilities to the necessary construction and supplies - is the personal responsibility of everyone involved. From the government and the Air Force to energy companies and local services. I am grateful to everyone who takes their job with true diligence.

Also, following the conversation at the Staff meeting, I instructed the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Commander-in-Chief, each at their level, to work with partners to speed up the supply of weapons, implementing packages and agreements. Speed is important. The content of the packages is there, I see no problems with it today. I am grateful to the U.S. Congress for the decision, but the speed of delivery and implementation of decisions is something that should not be a problem either. We are waiting for the weapons to arrive in Ukraine for our warriors.

Today we also continue our preparations. We have held meetings on the results we expect from the coming months and the year as a whole.

NATO: prospects for the year and specifically, our fair expectations from the Summit in Washington. The European Union: preparations for the actual opening of accession negotiations, which we expect in June, and further work with the EU. And, of course, the Peace Summit, a global summit. There is already a specific distribution of government officials and other representatives of our country who will work in those geographical areas where we still need to engage leaders. These days, together with Switzerland, we have completed sending out invitations for the Summit. The specific dates of the Summit are June 15th and 16th. This will be the first phase - essentially the first real opportunity to begin the restoration of a just peace. All of us should understand that it is only global power that can force Russia into peace, and that is why we are working to involve as many participants as possible in the Summit in Switzerland and the corresponding communication. We must also be aware that Putin will try to disrupt this work, our efforts, and weaken Ukraine's positions through various manipulations and attacks by his terrorists. All our positions - on the battlefield, in diplomacy and the information sphere - must be equally solid. For us to be able to exert pressure and achieve our goals, the occupiers must lose their ability to put pressure and gain anything for themselves. Hence, our strength, our capabilities, our weapons, our unity with partners must all work as one. And they will.

I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine! I thank everyone who fights and works for our country and people! I thank everyone who restores normal life after the Russian strikes and who brings us closer to holding Russia truly accountable for this war - a war in which we will definitely defend our independence.

Glory to Ukraine!

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The First Peace Summit for Ukraine Should Become a Platform of Inspiration for the Future Peace Process

President of Ukraine

2 May 2024 - 11:00

The First Peace Summit for Ukraine will be held on June 15-16, following the January agreement between the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the President of the Swiss Confederation, Viola Amherd. The parties have chosen BArgenstock, located near the Swiss city of Lucerne, as the venue.

The organization of the summit is the result of coordinated efforts of the Ukrainian and Swiss sides. It will be attended by state leaders and heads of governments from around the globe. The founding principles of the event were developed and agreed upon during a series of international meetings of political and national security advisors, initiated by the Office of the President to work on the Ukrainian Peace Formula.

The summit will serve as a platform for dialogue on ways to achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter and the norms of international law. All the invited parties have confirmed their respect for these principles.

The purpose of the Summit is to develop a framework for the achievement of this goal in order to inspire a future peace process.

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DUBAI, May 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Popular memecoin $BRETT continues to gather momentum in 2024 as the most popular memecoin and top ten most popular overall on Coinbase Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) blockchain Base, and now approaches $500 million in market cap. With continued community support and positive secondary indicators like crypto ETF approvals, futures trading for flagship memecoin Dogecoin on Coinbase Derivatives, and the anticipation of Bitcoin pricing eventually reaching 100,000 USD, $BRETTs growth picture remains bullish.



We are seeing in real time how memes are not just an easy and funny way to share information on the internet, but to create almost immediate wealth by harnessing the power of these memes, said $BRETT trader Crash. This is the culmination of the grassroots financial movement of the past decade, from Bitcoin to r/WallStreetBets to now $BRETT, allowing people to escape the economic drudgery of living in The Matrix.

Base is Coinbases L2 built on OP Stack in collaboration with Optimism. Coinbase recently released new smart wallet technology built on Base, with $BRETT quickly becoming the most popular memecoin available for purchase there. Coinbase continues to be ambitious in its promotion of Base and the memecoins sold there, with plans to onboard over 1 billion users to the chain. Community response memecoins like $BRETT are also an easy way to boost early liquidity for the developers of new platforms on Base.







$BRETT is one of the original characters of the Boys Club written by Matt Furie, the creator of the famous cartoon that has also inspired the popular Pepe meme and popular $PEPE memecoin. $BRETT involves a fixed total supply of 1 billion tokens, with a 6% transaction tax distributed to liquidity pools and burned tokens, aiming to reduce the overall supply and potentially increase the value over time.

$BRETT continues to hold strong amid recent sideways market movement for memecoins. Even while most memecoins are down 50 percent, $BRETT has seen only about a 30 percent decrease.

To learn more, check out BRETT at:

Tg: https://t.me/basedbrett

X: https://twitter.com/basedbrett

Website: https://www.basedbrett.com/

About $BRETT

Check out BRETT at:

Tg: https://t.me/basedbrett

X: https://twitter.com/basedbrett

Website: https://www.basedbrett.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.
LOS ANGELES, May 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises Global Cord Blood Corporation (Global Cord or the Company) (OTC: CORBF) investors that a lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors that purchased Global Cord securities between June 4, 2019 and May 3, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period).

Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy , by phone 310-692-8883 or email : lesley@portnoylaw.com, to discuss their legal rights, or click here to join the case via www.portnoylaw.com . The Portnoy Law Firm can provide a complimentary case evaluation and discuss investors options for pursuing claims to recover their losses.

On April 29, 2022, Global Cord announced a deal to acquire Cellenkos Inc. for over $1 billion, paid through cash and shares, leading to significant shareholder dilution. Following the announcement, the company's stock price dropped by 28.6%. Subsequently, on May 3, Blue Ocean filed a petition against the acquisition, criticizing its value and the approval process, resulting in another stock price drop of 9.1%. Further complications arose when the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands intervened in September 2022, suspending the directors of Global Cord due to alleged financial mismanagement related to the transaction. This led to a halt in trading of Global Cords shares and eventually, in June 2023, the company was delisted from the NYSE by the SEC.

Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information.

The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims caused by corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq.

Admitted CA and NY Bar

lesley@portnoylaw.com

310-692-8883

www.portnoylaw.com

Attorney Advertising
ROCKLEDGE, Fla., May 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LUKE, a trusted leader in healthcare staffing for the U.S. Government, is proud to announce it has received a 10-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a maximum cumulative ceiling of $43B from the Defense Health Agency (DHA). As part of the unrestricted vendor pool, LUKE will support the DHA Medical Q-Coded Support and Services-Next Generation (MQS2-NG) program for the period of June 1, 2024  May 31, 2034.



The MQS-2 is an enterprise strategic sourcing program that implements a performance-based, strategic sourcing acquisition strategy with respect to entering into contracts for the services of health care professional staff.

"We are honored to partner with DHA in fulfilling its mission, said John Sanders, CEO of LUKE. With our extensive experience in comprehending and meeting the distinct requirements of government clients, alongside a mutual drive to deliver the care deserved by our military and their families, LUKE is committed to delivering nothing short of excellent performance.

The required services include credentialed (privileged and non-privileged) and non-credentialed contract workers across various healthcare labor categories in support of mission requirements within DHA hospitals, clinics, and dental facilities, and health activities in the 50 United States, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and U.S. territories and possessions.

About LUKE

LUKE is a trusted leader in healthcare staffing for the U.S. Government. With a track record of success, LUKE has placed healthcare and caregiving professionals in over 200 job categories to date, including "hard-to-find" positions. Founded in 1996 as Dependable Health Services with a mission of care, the company came together in 2022 with Luke & Associates, a proud provider of healthcare to military personnel and their families. They continue to evolve and today operate under the LUKE name, leveraging their combined strengths as third-party providers in recruiting, training, credentialing, and managing medical professionals, caregivers, and other service professionals. https://lukestaffing.com/

Contact:

Cynthia Guiang

cynthia.guiang@lukestaffing.com


SINGAPORE, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WadzPay, a leading fintech company specialising in blockchain based technology for virtual asset payment solutions, is proud to announce its plan to enter the Stablecoin business, marking a significant expansion of its offerings. With a steadfast commitment to innovation and addressing evolving market demands, the company has strategically positioned itself to capitalise on the growing opportunities within the virtual asset financial services space.



This also marks a shift in Wadzpays strategy to elevate itself from being a blockchain based virtual asset payments company to a blockchain financial services solutions provider. The decision to venture into the Stablecoin market comes as a response to the increasing demand for secure, transparent, and efficient digital payment solutions worldwide.

According to recent market research by Bernstein, the global market for stablecoins is projected to grow from $125 billion to almost $3 trillion in next 5 years. This growth is fueled by factors such as the rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) applications, cross-border remittances, and the need for stable digital assets to mitigate volatility risks in cryptocurrency markets.

By leveraging blockchain technology, WadzPay aims to provide users with a reliable alternative to traditional fiat currencies, offering stability, convenience, and speed at lower cost in transactions for merchants, businesses and individuals worldwide. With a focus on compliance and regulations, WadzPay is poised to address the growing demand for stablecoins while ensuring security and regulatory compliance in its operations. Apart from the traditional use cases, WadzPay will add some new and innovative uses of stablecoins to the mix.

WadzPay will introduce two main products: Stable Coin as a Service and its own regulated USD$ Stablecoin, designed for local and international payments, cross border remittances, and settlements of on-chain transactions related to RWA.

The new solutions will be organised as a new business and new brand. To ensure regulatory compliance, WadzPay will set up a new entity and will pursue approvals in UAE, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

With this strategic move, WadzPay aims to innovate in solving foreign exchange problems and will introduce an innovative first-in-market business model, setting itself apart from competitors. WadzPay will build a world class team under the new leadership to drive this business.

Founder & Group CEO of WadzPay, Mr. Anish Jain, emphasised the strategic significance of this expansion, stating, "Our entry into the stablecoin business reflects our dedication to meeting the evolving needs of our customers and staying at the forefront of technological innovation. With the growing adoption of virtual assets, particularly stablecoins, we see tremendous potential for growth and are excited to offer our expertise in this space, while remaining committed to compliance and regulations."

To lead this strategic initiative, WadzPay is pleased to welcome Mr. Jason Sarria-Solis as the President  Emerging & New Business in charge of the stablecoin business. With over 20 years of experience in the technology and fintech industry, Mr. Jason brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of driving business growth and innovation. He has led multiple projects spanning from founding and scaling a successful telecom startup in the UK to leading digital banking, embedded finance, and blockchain projects in Asia.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Jason Sarria-Solis expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "I am thrilled to join WadzPay at such a pivotal moment in the company's journey. The stablecoin market presents immense opportunities for disruption and advancement in the payments, remittance, and on-chain settlement space, and I look forward to leading our team in delivering innovative solutions that meet the needs of our users and drive the company's growth."

WadzPay remains committed to its mission of revolutionising the virtual asset financial services landscape with blockchain technology, and the expansion into the stablecoin business marks a significant milestone in this journey. With a focus on technological excellence, customer satisfaction, and strategic partnerships, the company is poised to emerge as a key player in the financial services ecosystem.

About WadzPay:

WadzPay was founded in 2018 in Singapore with a commitment to drive financial inclusion and revolutionise the virtual asset financial services landscape. It is a leading global blockchain-based technology provider for virtual assets. The company's innovative platform available as a SaaS offering provides secure, efficient, and transparent technology solutions, catering to businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2B2C). WadzPay works with large international companies, banks, and fintechs to enable virtual asset-based transaction processing, custody, and settlement. It operates across geographies spanning Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

For more information, visit www.wadzpay.com

Media Contact

Arijit Das

PR and Communications

arijit.das@wadzpay.com

+919654930523

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/31287a08-4771-465f-8c63-595aa0259016
Madrid, 3 May. Spanish listed company Lleida.net (BME:LLN) (EPA:ALLLN) (OTCQX:LLEIF) reached a record number of customers in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 1,925.

This is 7.30% more than in the same period last year, when it recorded 1,794 customers.

As the company described to the market, the company has seen a significant rebound in both sales and EBITDA results in the first quarter of 2024.

In the first quarter of 2024, the company recorded a 71% increase in EBITDA to 666,000, compared to 389,000 in the same period of 2023.

These results are the result of the significant effort made by Lleida.net in the reduction of staff in its subsidiaries and branches in Colombia and Peru, the closure of several subsidiaries and a new financial policy.

The first quarter of 2024 saw a notable expansion in terms of international activity. The company billed customers in 55 countries at the beginning of 2024, compared to 49 in the same period of the previous year.

Fifty-three percent of the company's revenues in the period came from customers outside Spain.

Sisco Sapena, CEO of the company has highlighted that this 2024 has started in an exceptional way in Lleida.net. We have seen a significant increase in our customer base and in the number of invoices issued, expanding our international footprint. These facts allow us to say that we are starting our recovery and we continue to see the fruits of our daily efforts.

The company, founded in 1995, floated BME Growth for the first time in 2015 on the Madrid stock exchange.

Its client portfolio includes Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid, LaLiga EA Sports, Santander Global Technology & Operations S.L., Colmedica, Redex SAS, among others.

The Spanish company has accumulated a total of 309 patents in more than 60 countries for its innovations in the field of certified electronic signature, notification and contracting.

Its approach to growth is based on a solid development policy in intellectual property and R&D, as well as a reinforcement of its internationalization policy.

It was subsequently listed on Euronext Growth Paris in 2018 and on OTC Markets in New York in 2020. Its shares are also traded on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

This press release contains statements regarding the future of the company and its innovations. Statements regarding the future may be accompanied by words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "wait", "anticipate", "pretend", "power", "plan", "potential", the use of future time and other terms of similar meaning. No undue reliance should be placed on these claims. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such statements, including uncertainty of the company's commercial success, ability to protect our intellectual property rights, and other risks. These statements are based on current beliefs and forecasts and refer only to the date of this press release. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements, regardless of whether new information, future events or any other circumstance arise.
Dublin, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Water Desalination Market Outlook, 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Water Desalination market is anticipated to cross USD 36.50 Billion by 2029, increasing from USD 21.50 Billion in 2023. The market is expected to grow with 9.43% CAGR by 2024-29.



Water scarcity is a developing global concern, fueled by population expansion, urbanization, and climate change. As traditional freshwater supplies diminish, the significance of alternative water supply alternatives becomes clearer. One such approach is desalination, which converts seawater or brackish water into fresh, potable water. The worldwide water desalination industry has emerged as a critical actor in addressing the pressing issue of water shortages, offering a potential path forward for sustainable water resource management. The global water desalination industry has grown significantly in recent years, driven by increased demand for freshwater in dry and water-stressed countries.







With developments in desalination technologies, the market has extended beyond its traditional strongholds in the Middle East, where desalination facilities have long been a staple in addressing water scarcity. Regions such as North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe are increasingly embracing desalination as a viable solution to augment their water supply.

Technological advances have played an important role in developing the water desalination business. Reverse osmosis (RO) and multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) have long been the primary desalination methods. However, there is a rising emphasis on designing solutions that are both energy-efficient and environmentally benign.



Forward osmosis, membrane distillation, and solar desalination are among the new technologies that have the potential to transform the sector. Governments all around the world are recognizing the value of desalination in ensuring water supply for their citizens. Significant expenditures are being made in research and development to improve and reduce the cost of desalination technology. Public-private partnerships play an important role in promoting innovation and extending desalination infrastructure.



Traditional desalination hubs, such as those in the Middle East, have long relied on these technologies to supply their water requirements. However, in recent years, there has been a noticeable shift, with regions such as North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe recognizing the potential of desalination to supplement their water supply. Desalination is becoming increasingly important to governments around the world in terms of safeguarding water resources for their citizens.



Substantial expenditures in research and development are being made to improve desalination methods, reduce costs, and stimulate innovation. Public-private partnerships play an important role in increasing desalination infrastructure and managing industry difficulties. The geopolitical factor further complicates the worldwide water desalination industry. Access to freshwater resources can be a strategic asset in areas where water shortages are a major concern. Desalination plants frequently become key components of national water security programs.



This geopolitical aspect is visible in the Middle East, where nations have made significant investments in desalination to assure a stable and independent water supply. Another intriguing aspect is the role of innovation in making desalination more sustainable and affordable. Research and development activities are not only aimed at upgrading existing technologies but also at creating decentralized and modular desalination solutions. These developments aim to provide cost-effective and scalable choices for both large urban centers and distant, water-scarce locations, thereby contributing to more inclusive and resilient water infrastructure.



Market Drivers

Rising global water scarcity: The rising issue of global water scarcity is one of the major reasons propelling the global water desalination market forward. As the world's population grows, urbanizes, and the consequences of climate change worsen, traditional freshwater sources are under growing strain. Arid regions, such as the Middle East, have long struggled with water scarcity, necessitating a reliance on desalination technology. However, the problem is no longer limited to these locations, and governments all over the world are looking to desalination as a critical solution to supplement their water supplies. The compelling demand for a sustainable and reliable freshwater source in the face of increasing water shortages is driving the global water desalination industry.

The rising issue of global water scarcity is one of the major reasons propelling the global water desalination market forward. As the world's population grows, urbanizes, and the consequences of climate change worsen, traditional freshwater sources are under growing strain. Arid regions, such as the Middle East, have long struggled with water scarcity, necessitating a reliance on desalination technology. However, the problem is no longer limited to these locations, and governments all over the world are looking to desalination as a critical solution to supplement their water supplies. The compelling demand for a sustainable and reliable freshwater source in the face of increasing water shortages is driving the global water desalination industry. Government initiatives and investments: Government assistance and initiatives play an important role in developing the worldwide water desalination industry. Governments around the world are spending heavily on desalination projects, recognizing the necessity of ensuring water supply for their citizens. These expenditures frequently take the form of research and development funds, subsidies, and the building of favorable regulatory frameworks. Public-private partnerships are also becoming more widespread, encouraging collaboration between governments and commercial groups to speed up the adoption of desalination technologies. Government commitment and financial backing are essential market drivers, giving the industry the impetus to expand and fulfill the rising need for fresh water.

Market Challenges

High capital costs: One of the most significant issues confronting the worldwide water desalination business is the large upfront investment necessary to develop desalination plants. The capital-intensive nature of these projects frequently serves as a substantial barrier, discouraging both public and private companies from entering the market. The sophisticated infrastructure, specialized technologies, and huge facilities required for efficient desalination add to the high expenses. This financial challenge necessitates novel financing structures, public-private collaborations, and government incentives to make desalination projects economically viable and long-term sustainable.

One of the most significant issues confronting the worldwide water desalination business is the large upfront investment necessary to develop desalination plants. The capital-intensive nature of these projects frequently serves as a substantial barrier, discouraging both public and private companies from entering the market. The sophisticated infrastructure, specialized technologies, and huge facilities required for efficient desalination add to the high expenses. This financial challenge necessitates novel financing structures, public-private collaborations, and government incentives to make desalination projects economically viable and long-term sustainable. Energy consumption: The energy-intensive nature of classic desalination techniques, particularly reverse osmosis (RO), presents a significant challenge to the business. High energy consumption not only raises operational expenses but also raises environmental issues, given that the vast bulk of the world's energy comes from non-renewable sources. Striking a balance between the demands for freshwater production and reducing the carbon footprint of desalination facilities is critical. In order to address this essential concern, ongoing research and development efforts are being directed at developing energy-efficient technology, investigating renewable energy sources, and deploying enhanced energy recovery systems.

Market Trends

Increasing adoption of renewable energy in desalination: A significant market trend in the worldwide water desalination sector is the increased emphasis on incorporating renewable energy sources into desalination processes. Desalination plants, which are typically energy-intensive, have come under fire for their environmental impact. However, there is a shift toward sustainability as solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources are used to power desalination plants. This approach not only tackles environmental concerns about traditional energy sources but also offers desalination as a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient solution to water scarcity.

A significant market trend in the worldwide water desalination sector is the increased emphasis on incorporating renewable energy sources into desalination processes. Desalination plants, which are typically energy-intensive, have come under fire for their environmental impact. However, there is a shift toward sustainability as solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources are used to power desalination plants. This approach not only tackles environmental concerns about traditional energy sources but also offers desalination as a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient solution to water scarcity. Decentralized desalination solutions: A noteworthy industry trend is the shift toward decentralized desalination technologies. Historically, large-scale desalination plants served urban areas and regions with high water demand. However, there is a rising understanding of the advantages of decentralized, modular desalination systems. These systems can meet the water needs of small towns, industrial sites, and isolated places with limited access to traditional water infrastructure. The tendency toward decentralization is consistent with the overall goal of building more resilient and adaptive water supply networks.

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 172 Forecast Period 2023 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $21.5 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $36 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 9.4% Regions Covered Global

Competitive Landscape

Competitive Dashboard

Business Strategies Adopted by Key Players

Key Players Market Share Insights and Analysis, 2022

Key Players Market Positioning Matrix

Porter's Five Forces

Company Profiles

Veolia Environnement S.A. Company Snapshot Company Overview Financial Highlights Geographic Insights Business Segment & Performance Product Portfolio Key Executives Strategic Moves & Developments

Acciona S.A.

Doosan Corporation

VA Tech Wabag Ltd.

Hitachi Zosen Corporation

IDE Technologies

DuPont de Nemours, Inc.

LG Chem Ltd.

Toray Industries, Inc

Thermax Ltd

Xylem Inc

Aquatech International LLC

Siemens AG

Metito Holdings Ltd

Abengoa, S.A.

Biwater International Limited

By Technology

Reverse Osmosis (RO)

Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) Distillation

Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)

Others

By Source

Sea Water

Brackish Water

Surface Water (Rivers & Streams)

Wastewater

Others (Industrial Process Water, Produced Water, Agricultural Runoff, Mining Effluents, Highly Saline Springs or Wells, Landfill Leachate, Tailings Pond Water)

By Application

Municipal

Industrial

Others

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cbk17r

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
Today, on 3 May 2024, AS Tallinna Vesi held an investor conference webinar where Chairman of the Management Board, Chief Executive Officer Aleksandr Timofejev, and Member of the Management Board, Chief Financial Officer Taavi Groon, introduced the performance of the 1st quarter and 3 months of 2024.



We thank all the participants! Webinar recording is available here and the presentation is available here.

AS Tallinna Vesis financial and operational results for the 1st quarter and 3 months of 2024 are available here.





Additional information:

Taavi Groon

Chief Financial Officer

AS Tallinna Vesi

(+372) 626 2200

taavi.groon@tvesi.ee
A federal grand jury indicted four people suspected of committing a string of armed robberies and burglaries in the Bay Area, all linked to an Oakland gang. Rafe Swan/Getty Images

A federal grand jury has indicted three men and one woman suspected of committing a string of armed robberies and burglaries in the Bay Area, all linked to an Oakland street gang called Ghost Town.

Defendants Demarco Barnett, Jakari Jenkins, Garland Rabon and Keanna Smith-Stewart could face decades in prison for allegedly conspiring in robberies that affect interstate commerce, according to court filings that describe four intricately planned capers in 2022.

The first took place at a coin and stamp store in SoMa, which Barnett and Jenkins allegedly entered on March 18, 2022, alongside two unnamed perpetrators. The alleged thieves brandished guns at the store owner and his son, zip-tied the sons hands and struck his hands, then fled with jewelry, cash and coins worth more than $300,000, according to the indictment.

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Members of the alleged conspiracy used similarly calculating methods to commit two robberies in November, at a San Pablo jewelry store and an Audi dealership in Oakland. Each incident had a carefully planned setup.

In the jewelry store case, co-conspirators pretending to be customers staked out the place ahead of time, laying the ground for Barnett, Jenkins and Rabon to arrive with at least four other alleged thieves on Nov. 12, three of them wielding guns. The perpetrators absconded in Dodge Charger getaway cars with stolen license plates, into which they tossed jewelry worth up to $500,000, the indictment said.

To facilitate the car dealership heist, Smith-Stewart allegedly bought a black Audi S5 using a stolen Social Security number and fake drivers license. She handed over a down payment of $9,500, which went into a safe that Jenkins, Barnett, and an unindicted associate swiped when they burglarized the business on Nov. 24.

Then on Christmas Eve, prosecutors say the four defendants  and at least four associates  robbed an Oakland marijuana business at gunpoint, drawing weapons and pistol-whipping a worker as they demanded money and budded weed. Members of the robbery crew snatched the workers debit card and a bag of marijuana plant trimmings, the indictment said. On Dec. 26, Smith-Stewart allegedly used the stolen card to buy items worth more than $1,000 at Bloomingdales and Nordstrom in San Francisco Centre, formerly known as Westfield Mall.
MONTREAL, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The entire Bombardier team is proud to celebrate Moodys rating upgrade announced yesterday. This most recent upgrade places Bombardier at a B1 rating with a stable outlook and reflects the companys consistent performance to date throughout its turnaround. As we outlined in our 2024 Investor Day this week, we have a strong foundation upon which to keep improving key balance sheet metrics.



Bombardier continues to build its resilience through growth pathways that thoughtfully diversify revenue streams all while creating additional margin and cash upside. Dynamic businesses like Services and Bombardier Defense not only add value to our company, but they do so by offering our customers unique and flexible solutions.

We have created a lot of momentum, that is well embodied in the launch of our new forward-looking brand identity. Over the past years, Bombardier team members across our various businesses have executed to plan to near perfection, intently focused on what we control. This approach continues to raise us to higher altitudes of performance on debt reduction, earnings and positive free cash flow generation.

About Bombardier

At Bombardier (BBD-B.TO), we design, build, modify and maintain the worlds best-performing aircraft for the worlds most discerning people and businesses, governments and militaries. That means not simply exceeding standards, but understanding customers well enough to anticipate their unspoken needs.

For them, we are committed to pioneering the future of aviationinnovating to make flying more reliable, efficient and sustainable. And we are passionate about delivering unrivaled craftsmanship and care, giving our customers greater confidence and the elevated experience they deserve and expect. Because people who shape the world will always need the most productive and responsible ways to move through it.

Bombardier customers operate a fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft, supported by a vast network of Bombardier team members worldwide and 10 service facilities across six countries. Bombardiers performance-leading jets are proudly manufactured in aerostructure, assembly and completion facilities in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

For Information

For corporate news and information, including Bombardiers Environmental, Social and Governance report, as well as the companys plans to cover all its flight operations with a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) blend utilizing the Book and Claim system visit bombardier.com.

Media Resources
Dublin, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Automotive Air Suspension Market Report by Technology, Component, Application, Sales Channel, Region and Company Analysis 2024-2032" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





Global Automotive Air Suspension Market Projected to Reach US$ 11.20 Billion by 2032

Rapid Growth in Automotive Comfort Technologies





The Global automotive air suspension market, valued at US$ 6.60 billion in 2023, is anticipated to grow robustly at a CAGR of 6.05% over the next nine years. This growth trajectory is poised to culminate in a market size of US$ 11.20 billion by 2032. The surge is underpinned by the increasing demand for ride comfort in heavy-duty vehicles, including buses, trucks, and rolling stock, where air suspension systems are extensively applied.



Emerging Trends and Market Dynamics



The market expansion is further energized by recent consolidations and strategic acquisitions among top industry players, enhancing their capabilities and market reach. Such activities are emblematic of a vibrant and maturing industry, keen on innovation and customer satisfaction.



In parallel, the Chinese market is undergoing a transformation with a burgeoning demand for automotive air suspension systems, especially within its commercial vehicles sector. Premier passenger vehicles are commonly equipped with air suspension, and this trend is expected to propel the overall growth in the global ecosystem.



Technological Advancements and New Product Lines



Leading companies are moving rapidly to capitalize on this growing market through product diversification and the introduction of new technologies. The market is segmented into electronically controlled and non-electronically controlled air suspension systems, catering to a wide array of automotive applications. Such advancements will likely bolster the adoption of air suspension systems across various vehicle segments.



Continental Expansion and Market Penetration



The automotive air suspension market is witnessing geographical expansion, with significant activities occurring in regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. North American and European countries, with their established automotive industries, continue to play key roles in market development. In contrast, the Asia Pacific region is recognized as a rapidly emerging market segment with immense growth potential.



A Look at Key Market Players



The report also envelops a critical analysis of major industry players, outlining their recent developments and revenue analysis. The prominent companies shaping the automotive air suspension landscape include Hitachi, Ltd., AB Volvo, Continental AG, and others, which are driving innovation and setting new standards for air suspension technologies in the automotive sector.



The growth trajectory of the global automotive air suspension market demonstrates a vibrant and evolving industry, with a focus on enhancing the comfort and driving experience in the automotive sector. This industry's commitment to technological advancements and strategic market maneuvers indicates a future marked by growth, innovation, and heightened competition.

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 215 Forecast Period 2023 - 2032 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $6.6 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2032 $11.2 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.0% Regions Covered Global





Companies Featured

Hitachi, Ltd.

AB Volvo

Continental AG

ThyssenKrupp AG

Wabco Holdings Inc.

Dunlop Systems and Components Ltd.

Accuair Suspension

Firestone Industrial Products Company, LLC

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hqyi61

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

HIGHLIGHTS

Significant exploration results delivered across Novo Resources (Novo or the Company) Western Australian gold portfolio , notably at the Becher and Nunyerry North Projects.

delivered across Novo Resources or the , notably at the and Projects. Drill intercepts from the maiden Nunyerry North exploration program completed in H2 2023 were re-analysed by multi-pot PhotonAssay TM . This larger sample methodology has upgraded a number of the original significant intercepts 1 , with new intercepts including: 6 m @ 6.12 g/t Au from 37 m (NC017) 11 m @ 2.52 g/t Au from 22 m, including 6 m at 4.19 g/t Au from 22 m (NC014) 13 m @ 1.89 g/t Au from surface (NC004) 4 m @ 5.71 g/t Au from 40 m (NC015) 17 m @ 1.34 g/t Au from 37 m, including 4 m at 3.77 g/t Au from 50 m (NC022) 14 m at 1.14 g/t Au from 39 m, including 4 m at 2.16 g/t Au from 41 m (NC006)

exploration program completed in H2 2023 were re-analysed by multi-pot PhotonAssay . This larger sample methodology has upgraded a number of the original significant intercepts , with new intercepts including: During Q4 2023, De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) completed over 10,500 m of combined aircore ( AC ) and reverse circulation ( RC ) drilling at the Becher Project , as part of an initial planned 39,000 m drill program, as part of the Egina earn-in/JV 2 , delivering the following results in Q1 2024: RC drilling at Lowe confirmed gold mineralisation associated with a deformed intrusive sill, with a best intercept of 8 m at 4.74 g/t Au from 96 m, including 3 m @ 11.88 g/t Au from 100 m . Follow-up RC drilling into a base metal-gold corridor previously defined by Novo at Heckmair , intersected a significant zone of base metal-gold mineralisation from the two RC holes targeting the corridor. Results include: 10 m @ 0.12 g/t Au, 29.7 g/t Ag, 0.3% Cu, 1.5% Pb and 1.8% Zn from 40 m including

3 m @ 0.20 g/t Au, 59.8 g/t Ag, 0.9% Cu, 2.4% Pb and 2.2% Zn from 47 m. 24 m @ 0.2 g/t Au, 13.2 g/t Ag, 0.1% Cu, 1.0% Pb and 0.1% Zn in hole MSRC0017 from 105 m including 6 m @ 0.48 g/t Au, 20.8 g/t Ag, 0.2% Cu, 1.4% Pb and 2.8% Zn from 105 m.

) and reverse circulation ( ) drilling at the , as part of an initial planned 39,000 m drill program, as part of the Egina earn-in/JV , delivering the following results in Q1 2024: Recent exploration review in the Karratha district has advanced several drill targets, including North Whundo , Railway Bore and East Well 3 . A program of ~3,500 m of RC drilling is proposed to test these prospects immediately after the Nunyerry North program is complete.

, and A program of ~3,500 m of RC drilling is proposed to test these prospects immediately after the Nunyerry North program is complete. North Whundo is defined by a significant 1.2 km long Cu-Pd-Au anomaly, with highly anomalous rock chip results including peak values of 4.1 g/t Au+Pt+Pd and 3.9 % Cu.



is defined by a significant 1.2 km long Cu-Pd-Au anomaly, with highly anomalous rock chip results including peak values of At Belltopper in Victoria, diamond drilling totalling 2,528.9 m was completed, aimed at testing several newly identified, high priority structural, geochemical and geophysical targets with results pending.





diamond drilling totalling 2,528.9 m was completed, aimed at testing several newly identified, high priority structural, geochemical and geophysical targets with results pending. Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) is in a strong financial position to continue its exploration focus on Western Australia and Victoria, with no debt and a cash balance of A$16.7 million (C$14.7 million) and investments of A$47.7 million (C$42.1 million) as at 31 March 2024.

Commenting on the March quarter, Novo Executive Co-Chairman and Acting CEO Mike Spreadborough said, We have made significant strides in our exploration efforts since the start of 2024, highlighted by encouraging high-grade results from Nunyerry North, which included 6 m @ 6.12 g/t Au from 37 m and 11 m @ 2.52 g/t Au from 22 m. We are in the early phase of exploration at Nunyerry with the full potential of the project yet to be determined. The results from last years maiden drill program reaffirmed our view that this high-priority exploration target has the right characteristics to become a significant gold project.

We are focused on maintaining the strong momentum generated at Nunyerry, with a ~4,000 m RC drill program set to commence in the coming days. This has been designed to test multiple new targets along strike of known mineralisation and down plunge of existing intercepts.

De Grey continued to progress its sizeable work program across the Becher Project, as part of our Egina earn-in/JV. De Grey has already completed over 10,500 m of combined aircore and reverse circulation drilling, as part of their planned 39,000 m program. Excellent results have been generated from the Lowe and Heckmair prospects, with drilling on track to re-commence in Q2 2024.

Novo is in a very strong financial position to continue our aggressive exploration push. Our highly experienced geological team have identified further exciting targets across our Karratha district, and we look forward to commencing drilling in the coming months and delivering on a strong pipeline of news for the remainder of 2024.

SUSTAINABILITY

There were no significant safety, environment, or community incidents during Q1 2024.

During the quarter, work advanced with Traditional Owners to ensure appropriate heritage protection for planned Nunyerry North and Karratha District drill programs commencing in Q2 2024 and for eventual exploration in the Yandeyarra Reserve (part of Novos Egina Gold Camp).

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN GOLD PORTFOLIO

Egina Gold Camp

The Egina Gold Camp (EGC) is an 80 km long contiguous tenement package, which hosts Novos current high priority Pilbara targets (Figure 1) at Nunyerry North and Becher. The tenure is focussed on a series of structurally complex, gold-fertile corridors and is hosted by rocks of the Mallina Basin in the north and mafic / ultramafic sequences further south. This belt will be the primary focus for Novos 2024 Pilbara exploration programs.





Figure 1: Novo Pilbara tenure showing main projects and significant prospect.

In addition to the Nunyerry North and Egina JV, several other priority gold targets are also being progressed along the main structural corridors within the EGC (Figure 2). These prospects form part of Novos regional reconnaissance program in 2024.

Nunyerry North (70% Novo / 30% Creasy Group)

The Nunyerry North prospect lies within Exploration Licence E47/2973 in the southern EGC, located 150 km from Port Hedland. The tenement is subject to a Joint Venture agreement, with Novo holding a 70% interest and the remaining 30% held by Rockford Metals Pty Ltd, an entity of Mark Gareth Creasy (The Creasy Group). Novo completed a maiden RC drilling program of 30 holes for 2,424 m at Nunyerry North in Q4 2023.

Initial results from both surface and drilling samples at Nunyerry North in 2023 indicated visible gold or coarse nuggety gold, with early trials conducted to assess gold variability. Based on the results, Novo resubmitted all significant drill intercepts from the maiden RC program for multi-pot PhotonAssayTM whereby all sample material was split over multiple PhotonAssayTM pots. The final assay result was calculated as the weighted average of the pots grade and weight, which resulted in larger overall sample weights and more accurate assay results.





Figure 2: EGC tenure showing significant Au prospects, location of Nunyerry North, and JV interests.

All significant intercepts from the Q4 2023 RC drill program noted below are now derived from multi-pot PhotonAssayTM analysis, with an average sample size of approximately 2 kg, or four pots per sample. Whilst many significant intercepts have improved by analysing a larger sample size, the distribution of coarse gold is, by definition, variable, and consequently not all re-assaying resulted in an assay upgrade.

Updated results1 now include best intercepts of:

6 m at 6.12 g/t Au from 37 m, including 5 m at 7.28 g/t Au from 37 m (NC017)

11 m at 2.52 g/t Au from 22 m, including 6 m at 4.19 g/t Au from 22 m (NC014)

13 m at 1.89 g/t Au from surface, including 4 m at 2.56 g/t Au from 3 m (NC004)

4 m at 5.71 g/t Au from 40 m, including 3 m at 7.47 g/t Au from 41 m (NC015)

17 m at 1.34 g/t Au from 37 m, including 4 m at 3.77 g/t Au from 50 m (NC022)

14 m at 1.14 g/t Au from 39 m (NC006)

Egina Earn-in/JV (De Grey earning a 50% interest)

In the northern EGC at the Egina JV area, Novos partner De Grey Mining Pty. Ltd. (De Grey) completed over 10,500 m combined AC and RC drilling at Becher on tenement E47/3673, mostly following up on Novo AC results from 2022/2023. A total of 271 infill AC holes were drilled for 7,536 m in Q4 2023, targeting the Heckmair/Irvine and Bonatti prospects. In addition, RC drilling commenced, with the first 29 drill holes for 4,154 m completed focusing on the Heckmair/Irvine and Lowe prospects.

No significant results (>0.1 g/t Au) were returned from AC drilling at Irvine or Bonatti, although RC hole MSRC0030 at Irvine returned 1 m @ 6.3 g/t Au. RC drilling at Lowe confirmed gold mineralisation associated with a deformed intrusive sill2, with a best intercept of 8 m at 4.74 g/t Au from 96 m, including 3 m @ 11.88 g/t Au from 100 m (MSRC0031).

Follow-up RC drilling into a base metal-gold corridor previously defined by Novo at Heckmair, intersected a significant zone of base metal-gold mineralisation from the two RC holes targeting the corridor (Figure 3).





Figure 3: Heckmair Prospect  aeromagnetic/gravity images with bottom of hole Pb anomalism in AC drilling.

Results include2 (Figure 4):

 10 m @ 0.12 g/t Au, 29.7 g/t Ag, 0.3% Cu, 1.5% Pb and 1.8% Zn from 40 m (MSRC0016) including 3 m @ 0.20 g/t Au, 59.8 g/t Ag, 0.9% Cu, 2.4% Pb and 2.2% Zn from 47 m

 24 m @ 0.2 g/t Au, 13.2 g/t Ag, 0.1% Cu, 1.0% Pb and 0.1% Zn from 105 m (MSRC0017) including 6 m @ 0.48 g/t Au, 20.8 g/t Ag, 0.2% Cu, 1.4% Pb and 2.8% Zn from 105 m

The base metal corridor trends WNW through the Heckmair intrusion, with broad intervals of anomalous base metals and low-level gold mineralisation mapping a fault to over 1.5 km in strike.

Becher continues to provide new and significant mineralisation, such as the intercepts above and provides significant potential for the discovery of large scale, intrusion-related gold deposits similar to Hemi, as well as shear-hosted orogenic deposits similar to Withnell and Mallina deposits.





Figure 4: Heckmair cross section (619120E)

Karratha District Prospects

In late 2023, a series of Au, Au-Cu-PGE targets were developed to drill testing stage in the Karratha District. High-grade rock chip results were returned from the North Whundo Cu-Au-PGE prospect where surface sampling delineated a 1.2 km long high-order Cu-Pd-Au-(Pt) soil anomaly at >400 ppm Cu and 30 ppb Pd. Mapping and rock chip sampling has returned highly anomalous results in a linear zone over 1 km strike, within and near the contact of a large structurally complex, layered mafic/ultramafic intrusive complex. Peak rock chip results include 4.1 g/t Au+Pt+Pd and 3.9% Cu3.

In late 2023, the Railway Bore Cu-Au target was identified, with peak rock chip results of 9.6 g/t Au, 11.9% Cu and 26 g/t Ag3. Soil sampling by Novo, based on a nominal 80 m x 40 m grid defined a coherent and coincident > 100 ppm Cu and > 10 ppb Au anomaly. The target presents at surface as an E-W trending complex array of malachite-bearing brecciated quartz veins and sericite-silica-sulphide altered suite of porphyritic felsic intrusions. The target strikes over 300 m and is open under regolith along strike.

The East Well Cu-Au-Pd prospect displays a 60 m wide > 200 ppm Cu in soil anomaly (pXRF) trending over a strike of 450 meters, with peak pXRF soil result of 1,750 ppm Cu in soils. Rock chip sampling of quartz vein outcrop and breccia mineralisation near the centre of the soil anomaly returned peak values including 1.3 g/t Au, 214 ppb Pd, 46 ppb Pt and 0.6% Cu3. A narrow high-grade vein related to the vein swarm at Railway Bore extends up to a kilometre to the north-east, with peak rock sample values of 73.9 g/t Au.

Forward Programs  Pilbara

Follow-up drill planning at Nunyerry North in H2 2024 includes ~ 4,000 m of RC drilling. The program will test the 2 km strike extent of the surface soil gold anomaly, down plunge of existing intercepts, and at depth for repeat mineralisation. Diamond drilling will test for multiple stacked lodes below best intercepts to date. The prospective stratigraphy continues along strike towards the east and repeats west of the Aurora Fault (Figure 5). RC drilling to test these positions is ready to commence in May 2024.

At Becher in the Egina JV, De Grey expect to recommence AC and RC drilling during Q2 2024 following up results generated from Heckmair and Lowe in the 2023 programs, and have also planned geophysical surveys for Q2 2024, including a high-resolution drone aeromagnetic survey at Becher, and ground gravity over several selected areas.





Figure 5: Nunyerry project area with interpreted geology, highlighting strike extent of favourable stratigraphy and additional structural targets for further drill testing.

A maiden RC drill program is also planned to test three newly generated prospects in the Karratha district, with programs to be completed at Railway Bore, East Well, and North Whundo. Drilling is scheduled to start early in Q3 2024 and will total ~3,500 m to test gold and gold-copper(+-platinum-palladium) targets defined by a combination of mapping, surface geochemistry and historic geophysics (IP chargeability anomalies).





Figure 6: Location of newly delineated priority prospects in the Karratha District

BELLTOPPER GOLD PROJECT, VICTORIA

In Victoria, diamond drilling at the Belltopper Gold Project (Figure 7) was completed late in the quarter. Summary metrics for the program are 6 holes for 2,529 m and final gold and multi-element assay results are awaited. The program was designed to test multiple high-priority targets, including structural and intrusion hosted/related gold targets, high-amplitude IP chargeability anomalies and favourable structural positions within key anticline corridors, and a developing high-grade zone at the Leven Star Reef.

A program of historical core logging and sampling of several deep diamond holes drilled by previous explorers has also been initiated. This work is expected to be finalised in the first half of Q2 2024.





Figure 7: Belltopper Gold Project location map with focus area for the diamond drilling program.

BATTERY METALS JOINT VENTUREs

Harding Battery Metals Joint Venture (HBMJV)

In December 2023, Novo entered into a tenement sale agreement, joint venture agreement, and coordination agreement with SQM Australia Pty Ltd (SQM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A., in relation to five of Novos prospective lithium and nickel exploration tenements (Priority Tenements) in the West Pilbara. SQM has paid Novo A$10 million (C$8.84 million) for a 75% interest in the Priority Tenements and for an option over additional Pilbara exploration tenements, with Novo retaining a 25% interest, along with 100% ownership of the gold, silver, PGE, copper, lead and zinc mineral rights.





Figure 8: Location of Priority Tenement adjacent to Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS)

Andover Lithium  Nickel Project.

Quartz Hill Joint Venture

In December 2023, Liatam Mining Pty Ltd (Liatam) exceeded the required spend of A$1.75 million (C$1.55 million) at the Quartz Hill Project, pursuant to the earn-in agreement announced by Novo on 15 December 2022, which formed the 80%/20% Quartz Hill JV between Liatam and Novo. Novo retained its 20% share of battery mineral rights as well as all gold and silver rights on these tenements. The area is considered prospective for lithiumcaesium tantalum (LCT) style pegmatite mineralisation.

Work during the Quarter focussed on completing exploration proposals for the Nullagine, Quartz Hill Project Area. No geological mapping or sampling was conducted during Q1 2024 with all geological and field staff working out of the Perth office throughout the Pilbara wet season.

Six RC drill targets are defined, targeting a 5 km strike of lepidolite bearing and lithium enriched pegmatite swarms. A total of 108 RC drill holes for 9,122 m are designed to intersect mapped pegmatites at various depths, testing for modelled zonation characteristics and anticipated spodumene zones.

A large regional, soil sampling program is designed to assist in identifying buried pegmatite swarms in three areas of no or poor outcrop:

Cajuput Creek  799 sample locations at 300 m x 50 m centres, targeting high levels of light rare earth enrichment (LREE) in historical soil samples. Quartz Hill West / Lepidolite Fields Infill - 1,611 sample locations at 200 m x 100 m centres, East Regional - 1,514 sample locations at 300 m x 100 m centres.





CORPORATE

Relinquishment of Tenure

The Companys exploration programs across key Pilbara areas were successful in identifying priority targets for exploration follow-up in 2024, along with identifying tenure that provides little further exploration value or follow-up.

As a result, a planned relinquishment program was completed to reduce land tenure holding costs. The combined relinquishment program, transfer of some tenure in accordance with the HBMJV and the divestment of NGP has reduced the Pilbara tenure area held or managed by the Company to an estimated ~7,000 sq km and reduced annual holding costs.

Financial Update

As at 31 March 2024, Novo had a cash balance of A$16.7 million (C$15 million).

In addition, Novo has an investment portfolio of shares held in ASX-listed and unlisted companies that is valued at A$47.7 million (C$42.1 million), this consists of:

(1) ASX-listed companies, valued at A$1.4 million (C$1.2 million) based on the closing price of those shares on 31 March 2024; and

(2) Unlisted companies, valued at A$46.3 million (C$40.9 million).

Ticker Number of shares held Novo interest Value

A$000 Value

C$000 (1) ASX-listed shares* Kalamazoo Resources Limited ASX: KZR 10,000,000 5.72 % $ 890 $ 785 GBM Resources Limited ASX: GBZ 11,363,637 1.00 % $ 91 $ 80 Calidus Resources Limited ASX: CAI 1,347,089 0.18 % $ 155 $ 137 Kali Metals Limited (commenced trading January 8, 2024) ASX: KM1 566,947 0.39 % $ 252 $ 222 (2) Unlisted shares** Elementum 3D Inc. Unlisted (US$) 2,076,560 8.84 % $ 21,740 $ 19,192 San Cristobel Mining Inc. Unlisted (US$) 2,000,000 4.32 % $ 24,561 $ 21,679

Table 1: Overview and valuation of listed investment portfolio

*ASX-listed shares were converted to C$ using an exchange rate of 1.1329 : 1.

**The valuation of the unlisted shares of E3D is in line with managements valuation as at 31 March 2024, converted using an exchange rate as at 31 March 2024 from US$ to C$ of 1 : 1.3550 and C$ to A$ of 1 : 1.1329. The valuation of the unlisted shares of SCM is in line with managements valuation as at 31 March 2024 based on the private placement that commenced in March 2024, that closed in April 2024, converted using an exchange rate as at 31 March 2024 from US$ to C$ of 1 : 1.3550 and C$ to A$ of 1 : 1.1329.

Shares held in Elementum 3D and San Cristobal Mining are initially recognised at fair value (and remeasured with reference to share prices at which funds are raised with third-party investors) or were based on independent valuations performed. For further information on Novos investment portfolio, please refer to Novos website.

Project Generation

Novo has commenced a dedicated and disciplined project generation and consolidation program to focus on identifying value accretive opportunities across targeted precious and base metals assets that complement the current portfolio.

ABOUT NOVO

Novo explores and develops its prospective land package covering approximately 7,000 square kilometres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, along with the 22 square kilometre Belltopper project in the Bendigo Tectonic Zone of Victoria, Australia. In addition to the Companys primary focus, Novo seeks to leverage its internal geological expertise to deliver value-accretive opportunities to its shareholders.

CONTACT

Investors:

Mike Spreadborough

+61 8 6400 6100

info@novoresources.com North American Queries:

Leo Karabelas

+1 416 543 3120

leo@novoresources.com Media:

Cameron Gilenko

+61 466 984 953

cgilenko@citadelmagnus.com

Authorised for release by Board of Directors.

QP STATEMENT

Ms De Luca (MAIG), is the qualified person, as defined under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, responsible for, and having reviewed and approved, the technical information contained in this news release. Ms De Luca is Novos General Manager Exploration.

JORC COMPLIANCE STATEMENTS

The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information reviewed and approved by Ms De Luca, who is a full-time employee of Novo Resources Corp and holds shares in the Company. Ms De Luca is a Competent Person who is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Ms De Luca has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and the type of deposits under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Ms De Luca consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on her information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information in this news release that relates to Exploration Results at Nunyerry North is extracted from Novo's announcement titled Upgraded Nunyerry North drill results deliver high-grade intercepts up to 6.12 g/t Au, released to the ASX on 27 March 2024 and which is available to view at www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Persons findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

The information in this news release that relates to Exploration Results at the Becher Project (Irvine, Lowe and Heckmair) is extracted from Novos announcement titled Significant drill results at Becher, and released to the ASX on 13 February 2024, which is available to view at www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Persons findings are presented in that announcement have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

The information in this news release that relates to Exploration Results at the Karratha District Prospects (North Whundo, Railway Bore and East Well) is extracted from Novo's announcement titled Follow-up Drilling to commence at Nunyerry North on 1 May 2024 and which is available to view at www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Persons findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcement.

DISCLAIMER

This Business Review constitutes a voluntary disclosure by the Company and is not a Quarterly Activities Report for the purposes of ASX Listing Rules 5.3 and 5.5 for which Novo has an exemption, as a foreign entity with its primary listing on an overseas exchange with a particular obligation imposed by the home exchange that is comparable to the ASX Listing Rule obligation.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, planned exploration and the expected timing of receipt of assay results. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the resource industry and the risk factors identified in Novos annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2023, which is available under Novos profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and in the Companys prospectus dated 2 August 2023 which is available at www.asx.com.au. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. Except as required by applicable law, Novo assumes no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement contained or incorporated by reference herein to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. If Novo updates any forward-looking statement(s), no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

1 Refer to ASX Announcement, Upgraded Nunyerry North drill results deliver high-grade intercepts up to 6.12 g/t Au, 27 March 2024

2 Refer to ASX Announcement, Significant drill results at Becher, 13 February 2024

3 Refer to ASX Announcement, Follow-up Drilling to commence at Nunyerry North, 01 May 2024

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b0ea0d0c-44ad-4204-8e49-424c908f2a12

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc52a808-fe9a-4497-bc1a-c91299b44947

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9c72512b-1753-4f65-bb7f-13197fc5db95

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/430db9a3-bc59-4066-ab81-a36cf2c62da0

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b01436a6-08a6-4575-9a8a-45c990b8ba3c

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c4e42074-7818-4033-a1c6-a47b8a5ae3e2

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3067c729-96a0-40af-b93f-639f058567bc

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17cf9f68-3a2d-46da-86b4-fc764772b9a1




WESTPORT, Conn., May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HMG Strategy, the Worlds #1 platform for enabling technology executives to reimagine the enterprise and reshape the business world, is excited to be hosting its 8th Annual New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit on June 11 at The Harvard Club of New York.







CISOs, CIOs and other cybersecurity leaders at the event will explore the steps needed to safeguard data used in GenAI-focused initiatives.

CISOs, cybersecurity leaders and their teams are having to contend with new and emerging threats, including AI-generated attacks, said Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO at HMG Strategy. Our New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit is focused on the top issues facing cybersecurity leaders along with world-class thought leadership and actionable insights.

Top-tier executives speaking at the 8th Annual New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit will include:

Alissa (Dr. Jay) Abdullah , Deputy CSO & SVP of Emerging Corporate Security Solutions, Mastercard

, Deputy CSO & SVP of Emerging Corporate Security Solutions, Mastercard Alex Bazay , CISO, Align

, CISO, Align Paul Carpenito , Head of Information Security, Loews Corp.

, Head of Information Security, Loews Corp. Marlowe Cochran , CISO, NYSED

, CISO, NYSED Michael Coden , Associate Director, Cybersecurity Research Consortium, MIT Sloan School of Management

, Associate Director, Cybersecurity Research Consortium, MIT Sloan School of Management Cassie Crossley , VP, Supply Chain Security, Schneider Electric

, VP, Supply Chain Security, Schneider Electric Davin Darnt , CISO Americas, Louis Vuitton

, CISO Americas, Louis Vuitton Juan Espinosa , VP, Critical Infrastructure Cyber Security, Parsons Corp.

, VP, Critical Infrastructure Cyber Security, Parsons Corp. Cindy Finkelman , Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal

, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal Ken Fishkin , Senior Manager of Information Security, Lowenstein Sandler LLP

, Senior Manager of Information Security, Lowenstein Sandler LLP Kostas Georgakopoulos , Global CTO & CISO, Mondelez International

, Global CTO & CISO, Mondelez International Kevin Gowen , CISO, Synovus

, CISO, Synovus Kelly Isikoff , CISO, Common Securitization Solutions

, CISO, Common Securitization Solutions Satya Jena , SVP, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Proofpoint

, SVP, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Proofpoint Matthew Lagana , Managing Director, CTO & CISO, MBIA

, Managing Director, CTO & CISO, MBIA Shamla Naidoo , Head of Cloud Strategy & Innovation, Netskope

, Head of Cloud Strategy & Innovation, Netskope Klara Neginsky , Deputy CISO, Royal Caribbean Cruises

, Deputy CISO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Bala Rajagopalan , CISO, Tradeweb

, CISO, Tradeweb Yotam Segev , Co-Founder & CEO, Cyera

, Co-Founder & CEO, Cyera Mike Towers , Chief Security and Trust Officer, Veza

, Chief Security and Trust Officer, Veza Steven Wallstedt , CISO, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, NY

, CISO, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, NY Laura Whitt-Winyard , VP of Security & IT, Hummingbird

, VP of Security & IT, Hummingbird Gernette Wright , IT Security Officer  Americas, Schneider Electric

, IT Security Officer  Americas, Schneider Electric Amit Zimerman, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Oasis Security

World-class CIOs and business technology leaders being recognized at the 8th Annual New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit under HMG Strategys 2024-2025 Global Leadership Institute Awards will include:

Alissa (Dr. Jay) Abdullah , Deputy CSO & SVP of Emerging Corporate Security Solutions, Mastercard

, Deputy CSO & SVP of Emerging Corporate Security Solutions, Mastercard Ken Fishkin , Senior Manager of Information Security, Lowenstein Sandler LLP

, Senior Manager of Information Security, Lowenstein Sandler LLP Kostas Georgakopoulos, Global CTO & CISO, Mondelez International





Valued Partners for the 8th Annual New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit include Akamai, BetterCloud, Box, Cyberstarts, Cyera, Darktrace, Delphix, Fortinet, LastPass, Netskope, Nutanix, Oasis Security, Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, RingCentral, SafeGuard Cyber, SAP, SIM New York Metro, T-Mobile for Business, Tanium, Trustmi, Upwork, Varonis, Zoom, and Zscaler.

To learn more about the 8th Annual New York CISO & Technology Leadership Summit and to register for the event, click here.

HMG Strategy will also be hosting its 16th Annual New Jersey C-Level Technology Leadership Summit on May 23 at The Madison Hotel in Morristown.

World-class executives speaking at the 16th Annual New Jersey C-Level Technology Leadership Summit will include:

Bashir Agboola , CTO, Hospital for Special Surgery

, CTO, Hospital for Special Surgery Roota Almeida , Head of Security Governance, Amazon Stores, Amazon

, Head of Security Governance, Amazon Stores, Amazon Saqib Awan , Founder & Managing Director, GTM Capital

, Founder & Managing Director, GTM Capital Marianne Bachynski , Former CIO, Investments, Enterprise Systems, Corebridge Financial (formerly AIG)

, Former CIO, Investments, Enterprise Systems, Corebridge Financial (formerly AIG) Gene Barskiy , VP IT, Anti-Defamation League

, VP IT, Anti-Defamation League Christopher Callahan , CISO, The Weichert Companies

, CISO, The Weichert Companies Pasquale Cirullo , PMP, ITIL, VP, IT, Richard Manufacturing Co.; President, New Jersey SIM

, PMP, ITIL, VP, IT, Richard Manufacturing Co.; President, New Jersey SIM Mark Coggin , VP, Portfolio Marketing, Rimini Street

, VP, Portfolio Marketing, Rimini Street Richard M. Entrup , MD and Head of Emerging Solutions - Enterprise Innovation, KPMG U.S.

, MD and Head of Emerging Solutions - Enterprise Innovation, KPMG U.S. Shai Gabay , Founder and CEO, Trustmi

, Founder and CEO, Trustmi Mark Goodaire , Director of Automation & Transformation, Automation Anywhere

, Director of Automation & Transformation, Automation Anywhere Elizabeth Hackenson , SVP & CIO, Schneider Electric

, SVP & CIO, Schneider Electric Karen Higgins-Clark , EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Gilbane Building Company

, EVP, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Gilbane Building Company Stuart Kippelman , Chief Innovation Officer, Helton + DataLaw, LLC

, Chief Innovation Officer, Helton + DataLaw, LLC Jim Knight , CEO/Principal, Knight Insights

, CEO/Principal, Knight Insights Warren Kudman , SVP & CIO, The Turner Construction Company

, SVP & CIO, The Turner Construction Company Geoffrey Laissus , Senior Director of Product Management, Automation Anywhere

, Senior Director of Product Management, Automation Anywhere Ravi Mani , SVP & CISO, Quest Diagnostics

, SVP & CISO, Quest Diagnostics Lakshman Nathan , EVP & CIO, Paramount Global

, EVP & CIO, Paramount Global Adam Noble , Operating Partner, IT/CIO/CTO, Littlejohn & Company

, Operating Partner, IT/CIO/CTO, Littlejohn & Company Joseph Puglisi , Chairman & Co-Manager, North Andover Investors Collaborative, LLC

, Chairman & Co-Manager, North Andover Investors Collaborative, LLC Ramesh Razdan , Global CIO, Bain & Company

, Global CIO, Bain & Company Mark Sander , Chief Digital and Information Officer, Azurity Pharmaceuticals

, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Azurity Pharmaceuticals Samir Sethi, SVP , Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Hackensack Meridian Medical

, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Hackensack Meridian Medical Hari Shah , CISO, Tapestry

, CISO, Tapestry Nik Umrani , Global CIO, NSM Insurance Group

, Global CIO, NSM Insurance Group David Walter , Transformation Progress Process Oversight Director, Citi

, Transformation Progress Process Oversight Director, Citi Gabrielle Wolfson , SVP, CIO & CDO, Quest Diagnostics

, SVP, CIO & CDO, Quest Diagnostics Ben Yarom, Director, Lightrun





Valued Partners for the 16th Annual New Jersey C-Level Technology Leadership Summit include Akamai, Automation Anywhere, BetterCloud, BigID, Box, Cyberstarts, Cyera, Darktrace, Delphix, Denodo, Fortinet, GTM Capital, Illumio, LastPass, Lightrun, Moveworks, Netskope, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, Rimini Street, RingCentral, SafeGuard Cyber, SAP, Schneider Electric, SIM New Jersey, T-Mobile for Business, Trustmi, Upwork, Varonis, Zoom, and Zscaler.

To learn more about the 16th Annual New Jersey C-Level Technology Leadership Summit and to register for the event, click here.

To learn more about HMG Strategys upcoming schedule of C-Level Technology Leadership Summits, click here.

About HMG Strategy

HMG Strategy is the worlds #1 trusted digital platform connecting technology executives to reimagine the enterprise and reshape the business world. The HMG Strategy global network consists of more than 500,000 CIOs, CDOs, CISOs, CTOs, senior business technology executives, search industry executives, venture capitalists, industry experts and world-class thought leaders.

HMG Strategy was founded in 2008 by Hunter Muller, a leadership expert who has worked side-by-side with Fortune 2000 executives on strategic planning and career ascent for the past 30+ years. Hunter has published six books on leadership, innovation and business transformation and is currently working on book 7.

In 2024, HMG Strategy will host 100 unique experiences for top-tier business technology leaders, including executive leadership summits, networking dinners and digital roundtables.

Since the inception of its Transformational CIO Awards in 2012, HMG Strategy has recognized hundreds of premier business technology executives who are making a difference in their organizations through the industrys most distinguished and recognizable global leadership awards program.

In 2020, HMG Strategy introduced the Global Technology Executives Who Matter Awards to recognize the top-performing Chief Information Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, Senior Business Technology Leaders, Venture Capitalists and Search Executives who have demonstrated unparalleled leadership in areas such as Innovation, Business Transformation and Digital Disruption.

Now entering its 15th year of recognizing the exceptional contributions of business technology executives, HMG Strategy extended its recognition program beginning in 2021 to honor exemplary technology leaders and their teams who are making outstanding contributions to their organizations under the 2024-2025 Global Leadership Institute Awards.

HMG Strategys global media model generates more than one million impressions per week, providing vast opportunities for business technology leaders and sponsor partners to promote themselves and their brands.

HMG Strategys regional CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Series, authored books and Digital Resource Center deliver unique, peer-driven guidance from CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, CDOs and technology executives on leadership, innovation, transformation and career ascent.

HMG Strategy offers a range of peer-led advisory services such as its Global CIO & CISO Executive Leadership Alliance (CELA) service which bring together the worlds top CIOs, CISOs and technology executives to brainstorm on the top opportunities and challenges facing them in their roles.

HMG Strategys Global Advisory Services are a unique set of peer-driven research services that are designed to keep business technology executives up to speed on the latest leadership, business, technology and global macro-economic trends that are impacting businesses and industries.

HMG Ventures is a venture capital unit thats designed to connect CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and other technology executives with innovative early-stage technology companies from Silicon Valley to Tel Aviv. HMG Ventures provides technology executives with a window into hot emerging technology companies that can help move the needle for their businesses while also offering these executives unparalleled personal investment opportunities. One early-stage investment in an enterprise-level AI-powered service management provider has generated a 100X return.

HMG Strategy also produces the HMG Security Innovation Accelerator Panel, a forum thats designed to connect enterprise technology and cybersecurity leaders with the most innovative technology and cybersecurity companies from across the world.

HMG Strategy: We Build Legends Here.

For more information, contact Tom Hoffman at tomhoffman@hmgstrategy.com or by calling 203-221-2702.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8e7ee377-9b06-4f5f-892c-5e3792b39570




Calgary, Alberta, Canada, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calgary Health Foundation announces a $10M investment over two years from the Government of Alberta in support of womens health initiatives. This commitment will impact healthcare for women throughout southern Alberta. The one-time investment represents a tangible first step toward removing gender disparity in healthcare practice, policy, research, and care.

The Premier gave me a clear mandate to improve the health outcomes of women and children in Alberta. Our goal is to continue leading the way in women and children's health programs and research. These investments will make a real difference in tackling health issues that impact women, promoting overall well-being, and ensuring every Albertan can thrive, no matter their age or stage in life. Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health.

Womens health is one of Calgary Health Foundation's organizational priorities, currently supporting initiatives like an innovative breast cancer project impacting the patient experience; state of the art gynecological equipment, and programs for the pelvic floor clinic in Calgaryall of which will significantly impact womens health. Calgary Health Foundation is committed to further funding female-related clinical care, research, and education.

"This investment will enable us to give the necessary attention, funding, and advocacy to the unique health challenges of women. Through partnerships like the one with Dr. Erin Brennand and the Calgary Pelvic Floor Clinic, the funding will allow us to confront the gaps in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of women's health concerns. We are grateful to the Government of Alberta for its support." Murray Sigler, President & CEO, Calgary Health Foundation.

A reduction in waitlist times, the building of additional examination and treatment spaces, the expansion of existing initiatives, and the creation of new innovative programs focused on priorities identified by women are all possible thanks to the new investment.

This is an important and meaningful investment that will result in positive outcomes for many women and families in southern Alberta. As partners in healthcare delivery, the Government of Alberta and Calgary Health Foundation recognize the need to expand access and enhance care in this critical area, and for that, we are very thankful. Athana Mentzelopoulos, AHS President and CEO.

The unmet need in womens health is a silent epidemic affecting half of our population. Reproductive health, pelvic floor health, mental health, autoimmune disorders, chronic conditions, and diseases like cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis disproportionally impact women.

My hope is that this injection of funds can help us offer resources like a rapid access clinicwhere those with acute illness can receive fast-tracked medical assessments, screenings, and treatment by a multidisciplinary teamand plan for the establishment of a Women's Health Innovation and Research Hub space in Calgary. Dr. Erin Brennand, Urogynecologist and Department Head, Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Calgary & Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone.

Historically, medical research has assumed that womens and mens bodies are alike enough not to warrant women-specific studies. The result has been a considerable gap in the understanding of a womans physiology, specific disease risks and indications, and prevention, screening, and treatment needs.

Women's health issues receive shockingly less funding and attention compared to mens health. A 2021 Alberta Womens Health Foundation (AWHF) report showed that only 3.4 percent of total research funding in the province goes toward female-specific health concerns. This is despite women making up 51 percent of the provincial population.

Alberta tracks lower than the national average of eight percent of medical research funding going to womens health, a statistic the $10M investment hopes to tip in womens favour.

The $10M investment to Calgary Health Foundation, combined with donor support, will launch womens health outcomes in a positive direction.

Calgary Health Foundation is a community-based charity that raises funds to advance healthcare in our city. We find opportunities to invest in excellence across the entire healthcare system, all to enhance outcomes and improve lives. calgaryhealthfoundation.ca

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Dallas, TX, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dickeys Barbecue Pit is making it even easier for their loyal guest to earn FREE pit-smoked barbecue with its new and improved Big Yellow Cup Rewards program.

Starting on Monday, May 6th, the Texas-style barbecue brand will be launching their upgraded Big Yellow Cup Rewards Program that is full of delicious enhancements including:

More personalized rewards, catered specifically towards their favorite barbecue offerings

Extra menu items available for redemption

Treating our most loyal barbecue guests by introducing special Mystery Rewards, which are awarded every four transactions

Offering multiple bonus points opportunities that werent available before

The new program will also introduce Dickeys Barbecue Badges. These badges include the Frequent Face badge, the Sweet Thang badge, and the Weekender badge to name a few. Barbecue badges are a fun way to earn points while also showing off your Dickeys loyalty.

We are so excited about the enhancements to our Big Yellow Cup Rewards Program, giving more benefits to our tried-and-true guests, said Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. Theres never been a simpler way to thank our loyal fans for enjoying our Legit. Texas. Barbecue. We appreciate folks choosing to spend their hard-earned dollars with us when budgets are tight for many, so we want to over deliver on quality and value, and our rewards program is a way to give more back to our guests.

While making these guest-driven enhancements, the barbecue brand has also updated their website and the Dickeys mobile app experience with a more user-friendly interface. These improvements will explain the new program enhancements in detail, display New Available Rewards to the guests, as well as give them the opportunity to view their rewards point history.

For full details on the Dickeys updated Big Yellow Cup Rewards Program click HERE to direct you to the loyalty section on www.dickeys.com.

To learn more, follow Dickeys Barbecue Pit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Download the Dickeys Barbecue Pit app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

To learn more about Dickeys Virtual Concepts follow Wing Boss on Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok; Trailer Birds on Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok ; and Big Deal Burger on Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok .

About Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the worlds largest barbecue concept, was founded in 1941 by the Dickey family. For the past 80 years, Dickeys Barbecue Pit has served millions of guests in 44 states Legit. Texas. Barbecue.  At Dickeys, all our barbecued meats are smoked onsite in a hickory wood burning pit. Dickeys proudly believes theres no shortcut to true barbecue and its why our name isnt BBQ. The Dallas-based, family-run barbecue franchise offers eight slow-smoked meats and 12 wholesome sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. Dickeys Barbecue has 550 locations across the United States and eight other countries.

Dickeys was named to Newsweeks 2022 Americas Favorite Restaurant Chains list and USA Today 2021 readers choice awards. Dickeys won first place on Fast Casuals Top 100 Movers and Shakers list, been named a Top 500 Franchise by Entrepreneur and named to Hospitality Technologys Industry Heroes list. Led by CEO Laura Rea Dickey, who was named among the countrys 50 most influential women in foodservice in Nations Restaurant News, was recognized by Fast Casuals Top 100 Movers and Shakers list and honored by Dallas Business Journal. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Fox News, Forbes Magazine, Franchise Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine and QSR Magazine. Dickeys Barbecue is part of Dickeys Restaurant Brands which has more than 700 restaurants nationwide including brands Wing Boss, Trailer Birds, Big Deal Burger and bbqathome.com. DRB is led by CEO Roland Dickey Jr. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.

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Delray Beach, Florida, May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --





USA Awards is thrilled to announce the esteemed winners and finalists of the 2024 Business Leadership Awards, recognizing trailblazing achievements and strategic leadership across various sectors. This year's accolades highlight the commitment of these leaders and organizations to innovation, cybersecurity, healthcare insights, and global business strategy, reflecting their pivotal roles in shaping a progressive business landscape.

USA Awards 2024 Business Leadership Awards Winners

Daniel Hofmann, Hornetsecurity - Most Innovative Business Leader

Abigail Stuart and Hannah Mann, Day One Strategy Inc - Best Business Leader in Technology

ThreatAware - 2024 International Business Leader of the Year

Peter Miles, Broadstone Risks - Business Leader Award - CEO of the Year 2024

Deep Manishkumar Dave, LTIMindtree - Best Business Leader in Digital Transformation

Puguh Dwi Kuncoro, Kuncoro Leadership Training & Consulting - Best Business Leader in Training and Education

USA Awards 2024 Business Leadership Awards Finalists

Index Engines - 2024 International Business Leader of the Year

Abigail Stuart and Hannah Mann, Day One Strategy Inc - Business Leader Award - CEO of the Year 2024

Dinesh Kalla, Microsoft - Most Innovative Business Leader

Peter Miles, Broadstone Risks - 2024 International Business Leader of the Year

Deep Manishkumar Dave, LTIMindtree - Best Business Leader in Technology

A Celebration of Business Excellence

This year's ceremony showcases a spectrum of achievements that reflect a collective commitment to excellence and forward-thinking within the business world. Award winners and finalists exemplify the profound impact of embracing innovative solutions and strategic insights in their respective fields. From revolutionizing cloud-based security that simplifies protections for organizations worldwide, to influencing the healthcare industry through data-driven strategies that enhance patient care, these leaders are setting new standards.

The recognized individuals and teams have made significant strides in cybersecurity asset management, human resources development, and the integration of AI in safeguarding digital and physical assets. Their contributions underscore the importance of innovative leadership in adapting to the dynamic challenges of today's market and enhancing global business strategies.

The 2024 Business Leadership Awards honor these exemplary professionals for their strategic acumen and inventive approaches, paving the way for future advancements and continued excellence in their industries. Their achievements serve as a beacon for others in the business community, inspiring further innovation and leadership that promises to reshape the global market landscape.

For more information about the 2024 Business Leadership Awards, please contact USA Awards.

Media Details:

Company Name: USA Awards



Website URL: https://USA-Awards.com



Contact Person: Dan Marsh  Content Marketing Manager



Email: info@usa-awards.com



Contact: +1 321 710 9132



City: Delray Beach



State: Florida



Country: USA

The information provided does not constitute endorsement of any activities or claims mentioned in the press release. Neither KISS PR, nor its distribution partners, are responsible for the validity or accuracy of the information provided. Decisions based on the content of the press release are at the reader's own risk. For further inquiries about the company or the content issued, please contact the source company directly. Details about the source company are included in the press release.
ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Representatives from Central State University (CSU) in Ohio today signed a partnership to officially join the HBCU Pathway program offered to Washtenaw Community College (WCC) transfer students.



The partnership was made official during the backdrop of WCCs second annual HBCU Day in which more than 400 high school students are visiting the campus to learn about the pathway that helps students easily transfer to one of the nations Historically Black Colleges & Universities.

With todays CSU signing, WCC is now officially partnered with seven HBCUs throughout the country, with most offering guaranteed admission, in-state tuition, priority housing consideration, ease of credit transfers, scholarship access, advising and many other support services.

WCCs HBCU Pathway partners are:

Alabama A&M

Alabama State University

Central State University (Ohio)

Tuskegee University (Alabama)

Jackson State University (Mississippi)

Mississippi Valley State University

Southern University - New Orleans (Louisiana)



WCC President Dr. Rose B. Bellanca welcomed Central State University guests and community leaders at the signing ceremony.

Washtenaw Community College is committed to student success. This partnership with Central State paves the way for students to achieve their dreams of attending one of our countrys premier HBCUs and to make their mark in the world, Bellanca said.

Dr. Arletha McSwain, Vice Provost of Access & Enrollment Management representing Central State Universitys Interim President, Dr. Alex Johnson, signed the partnership agreement.

We are thrilled to solidify this HBCU Pathway partnership. Our collaboration with Washtenaws students has been ongoing, and we eagerly anticipate this agreement streamlining the transfer process, facilitating more students in achieving their educational aspirations at Central State, McSwain said.

Located in Wilberforce, Ohio, Central State boasts a storied heritage with its roots beginning at Wilberforce University, the oldest private HBCU in the nation. Since its inception in 1887, Central State has been dedicated to teacher training and vocational education, marking the genesis of a legacy honored today. Evolving over the years, Central State achieved independence and stands as Ohios sole public HBCU. It molds leaders in humanities, arts, social sciences, and education while fostering diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Representatives from all of WCCs HBCU partner institutions are on hand throughout the day to share information from their schools with more than 400 visiting sophomores, juniors and seniors from Ypsilanti Community Schools, Ann Arbor Community Schools, Lincoln Consolidated Schools and others throughout the county.

Todays HBCU Day will culminate in a Central State University Marching Band performance and a Divine Nine Fraternity & Sorority Stroll Off in the Community Park on WCCs campus. View last years inaugural HBCU Day photos and HBCU Day video.

Events of the day are sponsored by a grant from Washtenaw County.

About Washtenaw Community College

Washtenaw Community College (WCC), Ann Arbor, Michigan, educates students through a wide range of associate and certificate programs in areas such as health care, business, STEM and advanced transportation and mobility. The college also works through community, business and union partnerships to develop highly specialized training programs to meet the regions workforce talent needs. For more information about Washtenaw Community College, visit www.wccnet.edu.

About Central State University

Central State University, located in Wilberforce, Ohio, is a regionally accredited 1890 Land-Grant University with a 137-year tradition of preparing students from diverse backgrounds and experiences for leadership, research, and service. The University, which has been named HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest, fosters academic excellence within a nurturing environment and provides a strong liberal arts foundation and STEM-Ag curriculum leading to professional careers and advanced studies globally.

MEDIA CONTACT

Fran LeFort

Media Relations Director

flefort@wccnet.edu

(734) 677-5295

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5271fc2b-0f29-41c9-ade5-eb263b8f3d5a
Robin Williams stars in the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire. Archive Photos/Getty Images Robin Williams posing for a photo in Santa Monica, in 2007. Reed Saxon/Associated Press

The three child actors from the 1993 comedy blockbuster Mrs. Doubtfire reunited this week for the first time in more than 30 years to share their memories of making the beloved Robin Williams film.

Mara Wilson and Lisa Jakub joined their former co-star Matthew Lawrence and his brother Joey Lawrence on their Brotherly Love Podcast, to discuss everything from memorable behind-the-scenes moments to the joys and challenges of acting alongside Williams, known for his wild improvisation.

You go on set with Robin and its like, who the f knows whats going to happen now? Jakub recalled of the late Bay Area stars freewheeling acting technique.

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San Francisco director Chris Columbus revealed last year that Williams improvisation led to nearly 2 million feet of film being shot. The former child stars confirmed that Williams would often make up his lines, doing take after take until the cameras ran out of film.

You had to be really present, Jakub said. Were on set and Im like, I am so lost but, you know, were just going to go with it because hes Robin and you can trust him. 

Matthew Lawrence concurred.

That is very true. He was one of the best at going off the book and creating his own stuff. To be in front of the camera with him was quite the experience, he said. If you werent present and you werent ready for any kind of curveball, you were going to get thrown off.

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The film, based on Anne Fines 1987 book Madame Doubtfire, was set in San Francisco and showcased Williams at the peak of his popularity. He played Daniel Hillard, an out-of-work actor and divorced father who disguises himself as an elderly female housekeeper to spend time with his three children, Lydia (Jakub), Chris (Matthew Lawrence) and Natalie (Wilson).

I think I was lucky that a lot of the jokes went over my head, said Wilson, who was just 6 years old when she landed the role. Otherwise I would have been laughing the whole time.

Sally Field, left, Robin Williams, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence and Mara Wilson in a promotional image for the 1993 motion picture Mrs. Doubtfire. FOX

When Williams unexpectedly took his own life in 2014 at his Marin County home at age 63, fans gathered at the Mrs. Doubtfire house in Pacific Heights to pay their respects. Wilson mentioned that she visited the house the day before recording the podcast and noted that the current owners had recently changed the facade due to the high volume of visitors.

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People were still taking pictures of it, she told her castmates.

Jakub said that Wilson and Lawrence still feel like my siblings, even after more than three decades after filming Mrs Doubtfire. The movie was a massive hit, earning more than $440 million worldwide and ranking as the second most popular theatrical release of 1993, just behind Jurassic Park.

I feel like I got the best start possible in film, Wilson said of working with Williams and Columbus, who has described Mrs. Doubtfire as a love letter to San Francisco.

A fan lights a candle at a temporary shrine outside the house where Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed in San Francisco, following Robin Williams death in 2014. Leah Millis/The Chronicle

Joey Lawrence praised the enduring power of Mrs. Doubtfire, which remains a classic, largely due to its realistic depiction of divorce and single fatherhood.

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He called it one of the best family comedies ever and said, Its incredible how much it has meant to people and generations.
Toronto, May 2, 2024 - American Eagle Gold Corp. (TSXV: AE) ("American Eagle" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has upsized its previously announced private placementto up to 7,884,615 charity flow-through common shares of the Company (the "Charity FT Shares") at a price of C$1.04 per Charity FT Share (the "Offering Price") for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$8,200,000 (the "Offering").

Proceeds from the Offering will be used for exploration work at the Company's NAK project located in the Babine Copper-Gold Porphyry district in central British Columbia. The final drill hole of the 2023 exploration season yielded 302 metres of 1.09% within 606 m of 0.74% Copper Equivalent starting from 98 metres downhole. The Company plans to step out from this drill hole to begin the 2024 drill season, set to begin this month.

The Charity FT Shares will qualify as "flow-through shares" (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Tax Act"). An amount equal to the gross proceeds from the issuance of the Charity FT Shares will be used to incur eligible resource exploration expenses which will qualify as (i) "Canadian exploration expenses" (as defined in the Tax Act), and (ii) as "flow-through critical mineral mining expenditures" (as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Tax Act) (collectively, the "Qualifying Expenditures"). Qualifying Expenditures in an aggregate amount not less than the gross proceeds raised from the issue of the Charity FT Shares will be incurred (or deemed to be incurred) by the Company on or before December 31, 2025 and will be renounced by the Company to the initial purchasers of the Charity FT Shares with an effective date no later than December 31, 2024.

The Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Charity FT Shares are being offered for sale to purchasers resident in Canada pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of NI 45-106 (the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"). The common shares of the Company issuable from the sale of these LIFE securities are expected to be immediately freely tradeable under applicable Canadian securities legislation if sold to purchasers resident in Canada. There is an amended offering document relating to the Offering that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and at www.americaneaglegold.ca. Prospective investors should read this amended offering document before making an investment decision.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account or benefit of a U.S. person (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

It is not anticipated that any new insiders will be created, nor that any change of control will occur, as a result of the Offering.

Details of NAK's 2024 Drill Program:

The 2024 drill program will integrate the Company's growing understanding of the relationship between the emplacement of multi-phase Eocene dikes and sills with reactive and permeable host rocks to form the extensive Nak mineralized system. The company is developing models for geology, mineralization, alteration, and structure for the system, which will form the basis for its ongoing planning. The expanded 2024 drill program, currently planned for 15,000 metres, will aim to link, better define, and expand upon the historical North and South zones, which the Company showed in its 2022 and 2023 drill programs to extend to considerable depths (close to 950 m below surface) along a strike length of 750 m and across a width of 400 m. Intercepts from 2023 include 900 m of 0.50% Copper Equivalent from surface in the North zone (Link to NAK23-12 News Release) and 302 metres of 1.09% within 606 m of 0.74% Copper Equivalent starting from 98 metres downhole in the South Zone (Link to NAK23-17 News Release).

Click Here to View the 2024 Drill Plan at NAK

Click Here to View 2024 Drill Plan Webinar Hosted by Geologists Charlie Greig and Neil Prowse

About American Eagle's NAK Project

The NAK Project lies within the Babine copper-gold porphyry district of central British Columbia. It has excellent infrastructure through all-season roads and is close to the towns of Smithers, Houston, and Burns Lake, B.C., which lie along a major rail line and Provincial Highway 16. Historical drilling and geophysical, geological, and geochemical work at NAK, which began in the 1960's, tested only to shallow depths. Still, the work revealed a very large near-surface copper-gold system that measures over 1.5 km x 1.5 km. Drilling completed in 2022 and 2023 by American Eagle has returned significant intervals of high-grade copper-gold mineralization that lie beyond the extent of historical drilling, indicating that several zones of near-surface and deeper mineralization, locally with considerably higher grades, exist within the broader NAK property mineralizing system.

For the latest videos from American Eagle, Ore Group, and all things mining, subscribe to our YouTube Chanel: youtube.com/@theoregroup

About American Eagle Gold Corp.

American Eagle is focused on exploring its NAK copper-gold porphyry project in west-central British Columbia, Canada.

Anthony Moreau, Chief Executive Officer

416.644.1567

amoreau@oregroup.ca

www.americaneaglegold.ca

Q.P. Statement

Mark Bradley, B.Sc., M.Sc., P.Geo., a Certified Professional Geologist and 'qualified person' for the purposes of Canada's National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties, has verified and approved the information contained in this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding whether the Company will be able to complete the Offering as anticipated, the receipt of regulatory approval, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, to complete the Offering, the intended use of proceeds and intended drill program or its anticipated results at the Company's NAK project, the ability of the Company to make the qualifying expenditures as anticipated by management, and other matters ancillary or incidental to the foregoing. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results might differ materially from those suggested in forward-looking statements. American Eagle Gold Corp. assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to American Eagle Gold Corp. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings by American Eagle Gold Corp. with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available under American Eagle Gold Corp. profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the TSX Venture Exchange policies) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/207816
SAGUENAY, May 2, 2024 - Arianne Phosphate (the "Company" or "Arianne") (TSXV: DAN) (OTCQX: DRRSF) (FRANKFURT: JE9N), a development-stage phosphate mining company, advancing the Lac a Paul project in Quebec's Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, is pleased to announce that the Company will be attending the SME Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference in New York on May 20-22, 2024. At the Conference, management from Arianne will participate in a panel discussion May 21st focusing on the financing of early-stage mining projects.

As well, Arianne has granted 500,000 stock options on May 1, 2024, to Mr. Jeffrey Beck, CEO of Arianne Phosphate, fully in lieu of any salary or cash remuneration. These options entitle Mr. Beck to purchase one common share of the Company until May 1, 2034 at a price of $0.255 per share, this being the closing price of the Company's shares on the trading day preceding the date of the grant. The options are subject to a vesting period and are also subject to regulatory approval. Mr. Beck added, "continuing to tie my remuneration to the future fortunes of the Company is a welcomed opportunity as prospects for the Company look very encouraging."

Lastly, as noted in the Arianne's Press Release of April 2, 2024, the Company has engaged Impaq Capital, an arm's length party, to provide investor relation services. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Impaq Capital provides tailored outreach programs for small-cap companies to North American based investment professionals, allowing for an increased awareness for the Company. The contract is for an initial period of 6 months from March 19, 2024, and can be extended for three-month periods thereafter in writing by both parties. Impaq will receive a monthly cash fee of $5,000 and received 150,000 options priced at $0.275, subject to a vesting period. Impaq Capital does not have any direct or indirect interest in Arianne other than the options granted and no intent to acquire such an interest other than the stock options.

Arianne Phosphate ("Arianne Phosphate Inc.") (www.arianne-inc.com) is developing the Lac a Paul phosphate deposits located approximately 200 km north of the Saguenay/Lac St. Jean area of Quebec, Canada. These deposits will produce a high-quality igneous apatite concentrate grading 39% P 2 O 5 with little or no contaminants (Feasibility Study released in 2013). The Company has 202,890,210 shares outstanding.

Qualified Person

Raphael Gaudreault, eng., Qualified Person by NI 43-101, has approved this release. Mr. Gaudreault is also the Company's Chief Operating Officer.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Follow Arianne on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ariannephosphate

Twitter: http://twitter.com/arianne_dan

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArianneResources

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arianneresources

Resource Investing News: http://resourceinvestingnews.com/?s=Arianne

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities regulations in Canada and the United States (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, anticipated quality and production of the apatite concentrate at the Lac a Paul project. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects, "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or the negatives thereof 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 subject to be known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: volatile stock price; risks related to changes in commodity prices; sources and cost of power facilities; the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements; the estimation of labour and operating costs; the general global markets and economic conditions; the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of exploration, development and production; risks associated with currency fluctuations; environmental risks; competition faced in securing experienced personnel; access to adequate infrastructure to support mining, processing, development and exploration activities; the risks associated with changes in the mining regulatory regime governing the Company; completion of the environmental assessment process; risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued exploration and development activities at Lac a Paul project may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issue of common shares; the risk of litigation. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities, no material adverse change in commodity prices, exploration and development plans proceeding in accordance with plans and such plans achieving their stated expected outcomes, receipt of required regulatory approval, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Arianne Phosphate Inc.







Contact

Source : Raphael Gaudreault, COO, Tel. : 418-590-1318, raphael.gaudreault@arianne-inc.com; Info: Brian Ostroff, President, Tel. : 514-908-4202, brian.ostroff@arianne-inc.com


Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (the "Company") is pleased to announce its first quarter operational results from its Don David Gold Mine ("DDGM") near Oaxaca, Mexico, and a corporate update on its other activities.

2024 Q1 Highlights include:

Produced and sold 3,557 ounces of gold and 216,535 ounces of silver

Produced and sold 1,682 tonnes of zinc, 264 tonnes of copper, and 667 tonnes of lead

Cash balance of $5.7 million with no debt and working capital of $13.6 million at March 31, 2024

"Work during the first quarter, included reparations for the planned closure of the third cell of our tailings storage facility ("TSF") and solving fluctuations in the water quality returned to the processing plant from the TSF pond. As a result, plant throughput was reduced, and recoveries were lower during the first few weeks of the quarter until solutions were achieved. Work will continue during the second quarter to further improve recoveries." stated Allen Palmiere, President and CEO. "The Mexican peso continued to remain strong against the US dollar and base metal prices were lower than expected for the quarter. To offset most of these challenges, the mine plan was adjusted to provide higher grade ore and lower our costs. We also continued with our exploration program to better define the areas that have been returning very positive and encouraging results."

Corporate and Financial:

Net loss was $4.0 million or $0.05 per share for the quarter, which was after $0.9 million in expenses for DDGM exploration development and underground drilling.

Total cash cost after co-product credits for the quarter was $1,667 per gold equivalent ("AuEq") ounce and total all-in sustaining cost ("AISC") after co-product credits for the quarter was $2,295 per AuEq ounce. (See Item 2-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Non-GAAP Measures for a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to applicable GAAP measures).

Don David Gold Mine:

In the first quarter of 2024, DDGM produced and sold a total of 5,965 gold equivalent ounces, comprised of 3,557 gold ounces and 216,535 silver ounces at an average sales price per ounce of $2,094 and $23.29, respectively.

The underground diamond drilling program progressed as planned and on schedule during the first quarter, using two drill rigs with continued positive results. During the first quarter, infill drilling focused mainly on upgrading Inferred Resources to the Measured and Indicated Resource categories with a specific focus on the recently discovered Three Sisters and Gloria vein systems. Infill drilling during the first quarter was successful in identifying and defining high-grade ore shoots specifically in the Sandy 1 and Sandy 2 veins of the Three Sisters system. Grade control drilling continued on veins scheduled for production in both the Arista and Switchback systems.

There were no lost time incidents during the quarter, resulting in a year-to-date Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate ("LTIFR") safety record of Zero. Safety at Gold Resource Corp. is paramount. Even with a good track record at DDGM, the Company continues to strive each quarter for improved measures, awareness, and training.

2024 Capital and Exploration Investment Summary

For the three

months ended

March 31, 2024 2024 full year

guidance (in thousands) Sustaining Investments: Underground Development Capital $ 1,350 Other Sustaining Capital Capital 282 Infill Drilling Capitalized Exploration 441 Surface and Underground Exploration Development & Other Capitalized Exploration 2 Subtotal of Sustaining Investments: 2,075 $ 8.8 - 11.0 million Growth Investments: DDGM growth: Surface Exploration / Other Exploration 899 Back Forty growth: Back Forty Project Optimization & Permitting Exploration 205 Subtotal of Growth Investments: 1,104 $ 3.2 - 5.2 million Total Capital and Exploration: $ 3,179 $ 12.0 - 16.2 million

Trending Highlights

2023 2024 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Operating Data Total tonnes milled 117,781 113,510 116,626 111,254 98,889 Average Grade - Gold (g/t) 2.33 1.59 1.52 1.44 1.89 Silver (g/t) 94 86 73 85 88 Copper (%) 0.37 0.37 0.32 0.39 0.37 Lead (%) 1.73 1.64 1.29 1.39 1.25 Zinc (%) 3.88 3.72 3.24 2.95 2.82 Metal production (before payable metal deductions) Gold (ozs.) 7,171 4,637 4,443 4,077 4,757 Silver (ozs.) 322,676 289,816 247,159 282,487 251,707 Copper (tonnes) 336 334 276 341 280 Lead (tonnes) 1,559 1,389 1,048 1,072 812 Zinc (tonnes) 3,837 3,569 3,223 2,884 2,310 Metal produced and sold Gold (ozs.) 6,508 4,287 3,982 3,757 3,557 Silver (ozs.) 294,815 274,257 208,905 258,252 216,535 Copper (tonnes) 332 327 245 327 264 Lead (tonnes) 1,417 1,317 947 820 667 Zinc (tonnes) 3,060 3,141 2,571 2,182 1,682 Average metal prices realized Gold ($ per oz.) $ 1,915 $ 2,010 $ 1,934 $ 1,985 $ 2,094 Silver ($ per oz.) $ 23.04 $ 24.93 $ 23.61 $ 23.14 $ 23.29 Copper ($ per tonne) $ 9,172 $ 8,397 $ 8,185 $ 8,205 $ 8,546 Lead ($ per tonne) $ 2,158 $ 2,153 $ 2,196 $ 2,122 $ 1,977 Zinc ($ per tonne) $ 3,195 $ 2,485 $ 2,195 $ 2,516 $ 2,483 Gold equivalent ounces sold Gold Ounces 6,508 4,287 3,982 3,757 3,557 Gold Equivalent Ounces from Silver 3,547 3,402 2,550 3,011 2,408 Total AuEq oz 10,055 7,689 6,532 6,768 5,965 Financial Data Total sales, net (in thousands) $ 31,228 $ 24,807 $ 20,552 $ 21,141 $ 18,702 Production Costs (in thousands) $ 19,850 $ 20,302 $ 18,957 $ 17,034 $ 16,108 Production Costs/Tonnes Milled $ 169 $ 179 $ 163 $ 153 $ 163 Operating Cash Flows (in thousands) $ 1,024 ($ 551) ($ 7,475) $ 1,783 $ 1,482 Net loss (in thousands) ($ 1,035) ($ 4,584) ($ 7,341) ($ 3,057) ($ 4,021) Loss per share - basic ($ 0.01) ($ 0.05) ($ 0.08) ($ 0.03) ($ 0.05)

Q1 2024 Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call Friday, May 3, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time.

The conference call will be recorded and posted to the Company's website later in the day following the conclusion of the call. Following prepared remarks, Allen Palmiere, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alberto Reyes, Chief Operating Officer and Chet Holyoak, Chief Financial Officer will host a live question and answer (Q&A) session. There are two ways to join the conference call.

To join the conference via webcast, please click on the following link:

https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=617944F2-FF66-4B11-A082-3804BF9CF029

To join the call via telephone, please use the following dial-in details:

Participant Toll Free: +1 (800) 717-1738 International: +1 (289) 514-5100 Conference ID: 45398

Please connect to the conference call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time using one of the connection options listed above.

About GRC:

Gold Resource Corp. is a gold and silver producer, developer, and explorer with its operations centered on the Don David Gold Mine in Oaxaca, Mexico. Base metals, critical to the United States, are also produced as a by-product. Under the direction of an experienced board and senior leadership team, the company's focus is to unlock the significant upside potential of its existing infrastructure and large land position surrounding the mine in Oaxaca, Mexico and to develop the Back Forty Project in Michigan, USA. For more information, please visit GRC's website, located at www.goldresourcecorp.com and read the company's Form 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors associated with its business.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "may," "might," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "seek," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "contemplate," "possible," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. They are not historical facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance. Any express or implied statements contained in this announcement that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the timing and scope of a process to explore strategic alternatives for the Company, including a potential sale of the Company. It is possible that the Company's actual results, financial condition, and developments may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results, developments, and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the time made. However, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. Our Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, without limitation: whether the objectives of the strategic alternative review process will be achieved; the terms, structure, benefits and costs of any strategic transaction; the timing of any transaction and whether any transaction will be consummated at all; the risk that the strategic alternatives review and its announcement could have an adverse effect on the ability of the Company to retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with suppliers, employees, shareholders, and other business relationships, and on its operating results and business generally; the risk the strategic alternatives review could divert the attention and time of the Company's management; the risk of any unexpected costs or expenses resulting from the review; the risk of any litigation relating to the review; and the risks and uncertainties described in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and those described from time to time in our future reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502192046/en/

Contact

Chet Holyoak

Chief Financial Officer

Chet.holyoak@grc-usa.com

www.GoldResourceCorp.com
2 May 2024 - Australia - Jervois Global Ltd. ("Jervois" or the "Company") (ASX: JRV) (TSX-V: JRV) (OTCQB: JRVMF) advises that, in accordance with Listing Rule 3.13.2 and Section 251AA of the Corporations Act, the details of the resolutions and the proxies received in respect of each resolution are set out in the attached proxy summary.

On behalf of Jervois Global Ltd.

Alwyn Davey, Company Secretary.

For further information, please contact:

Investors and analysts: Alicia Brown Group Manager - External Affairs Jervois Global alicia.brown@jervoisglobal.com Media: Nathan Ryan NWR Communications nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au Mob: +61 420 582 887

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The following information is provided in accordance with section 251AA(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and ASX Listing Rule 3.13.2.

Resolution details Instructions given to validly appointed proxies (as at proxy close) Number of votes cast on the poll (where applicable) Resolution Result Resolution Resolution Type For Against Proxy's Discretion Abstain For Against Abstain* Carried / Not Carried 1 ADOPTION OF THE REMUNERATION REPORT Ordinary 694,351,510 91.23% 65,038,323 8.54% 1,786,899 0.23% 1,575,688 711,114,298 91.62% 65,038,323 8.38% 1,575,688 Carried 2 RE-ELECTION OF A DIRECTOR - MR BRIAN KENNEDY Ordinary 698,968,388 91.58% 62,218,961 8.15% 2,077,558 0.27% 3,446,670 730,503,127 92.15% 62,218,961 7.85% 3,446,670 Carried 3 RE-ELECTION OF A DIRECTOR - MR PETER JOHNSTON Ordinary 699,008,954 91.56% 62,308,395 8.16% 2,147,558 0.28% 3,246,670 730,613,693 92.14% 62,308,395 7.86% 3,246,670 Carried 4 RE-ELECTION OF A DIRECTOR - MR MICHAEL CALLAHAN Ordinary 701,519,992 91.89% 59,866,907 7.84% 2,078,008 0.27% 3,246,670 733,055,181 92.45% 59,866,907 7.55% 3,246,670 Carried 5 RE-ELECTION OF A DIRECTOR - MR DAVID ISSROFF Ordinary 698,073,270 91.47% 62,264,790 8.15% 2,927,259 0.38% 3,446,258 730,457,710 92.15% 62,264,790 7.85% 3,446,258 Carried 6 RE-ELECTION OF A DIRECTOR - Dr DANIELA C D SANTOS Ordinary 701,315,612 91.86% 60,022,149 7.86% 2,127,558 0.28% 3,246,258 732,900,351 92.43% 60,022,149 7.57% 3,246,258 Carried 7 RE-APPROVAL OF STOCK OPTION PLAN Ordinary 686,655,004 94.30% 39,450,737 5.41% 2,129,827 0.29% 38,476,009 703,760,720 94.69% 39,450,737 5.31% 38,476,009 Carried 8 OPTION EXERCISE PRICE ADJUSTMENT FOR DIRECTORS AND INSIDERS Ordinary 684,896,944 94.10% 40,812,536 5.60% 2,236,558 0.30% 38,765,539 702,109,391 94.51% 40,812,536 5.49% 38,765,539 Carried 9 ISSUE OF PERFORMANCE RIGHTS TO MR BRYCE CROCKER Ordinary 689,401,972 94.59% 37,452,069 5.13% 2,073,558 0.28% 37,783,978 720,932,711 95.06% 37,452,069 4.94% 37,783,978 Carried 10 APPROVAL OF PERFORMANCE RIGHTS PLAN, AS AMENDED Ordinary 685,204,282 94.55% 37,421,301 5.16% 2,086,558 0.29% 38,040,279 715,544,871 95.03% 37,421,301 4.97% 38,040,279 Carried 11 RE-APPOINTMENT OF AUDITOR Ordinary 747,698,296 97.95% 13,890,461 1.82% 1,790,245 0.23% 3,332,575 778,945,722 98.25% 13,890,461 1.75% 3,332,575 Carried

* Votes cast by a person who abstains on an item are not counted in calculating the required majority on a poll.

Copyright (c) 2024 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, May 03, 2024 - Fireweed Metals Corp. ("Fireweed" or the "Company") (TSXV: FWZ; OTCQX: FWEDF; FSE: M0G) announces the appointment of Peter Hemstead, Director of Fireweed, as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, replacing Brandon Macdonald, effective immediately.



The Company also announces the appointment of Adam Lundin as Strategic Advisor, the appointment of Paul Harbidge as independent Director, and the intention to nominate Jamie Beck for election to the Board at the Company's upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders.

Chair Statement

John Robins, Chair, stated, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Brandon for the role he has played in helping build Fireweed into one of Canada's leading base-metal exploration companies. We are now at an important inflection point to further unlock the district-scale metallogenic potential of the Macpass district. With the backing of the Lundin family as our largest shareholder and the expertise and network of the Lundin Group, we are now positioned to advance this district through its next phase of growth. We appreciate Peter stepping up and leading the Company in the interim."

Adam Lundin Statement

Adam Lundin stated, "We believe Macpass is a district-scale opportunity that we have only scratched the surface of. We look forward to supporting Fireweed's exploration team as they continue to uncover the full potential of this district, define its true scale and take the Company to the next stage of growth we envision. I also welcome Paul Harbidge, who has advanced a global portfolio of high-quality exploration assets as Senior Vice President of Exploration at Goldcorp and as president of GT Gold, and Jamie Beck, who has been a key part of the Vicuna District's growth and success."

Appointments/ Nominations

Peter Hemstead, Interim President and CEO

Mr. Hemstead has over 25 years of management and finance experience in the mining industry. He was appointed as President, CEO and Chair of the Board of Bluestone Resources Inc. after serving as the CFO of Bluestone since 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Hemstead spent 10 years in a senior financial executive role at Capstone Mining Corp. (now Capstone Copper Corp.), leading the finance team through the successful expansion from an exploration and development stage mining company to an intermediate copper producer with multiple operations, including within the Yukon Territory. Mr. Hemstead is a Chartered Professional Accountant with an Honours Bachelor Degree in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Adam Lundin, Strategic Advisor

Mr. Lundin has many years of experience in capital markets and public company management across the natural resources sector. His background includes oil & gas and mining technology, investment advisory, international finance, and executive management. He began his career working for several Lundin Group mining companies in various countries before moving into finance where he specialized in institutional equity sales, ultimately becoming co-head of the London office for an international securities firm. He is currently Chair of Lundin Mining. Previously, Mr. Lundin served as the former President, CEO and a Director of Josemaria Resources Inc. from 2019 until 2022. Mr. Lundin was also President and CEO of Filo from 2017 to 2019, and now serves as the Chair of the Board. He also currently serves on the Board of Lucara Diamond Corp., NGEx Minerals Ltd., and the Lundin Foundation. Mr. Lundin studied Mining Technology and Marketing Management at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Paul Harbidge, Independent Director

Mr. Harbidge is a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in mining exploration and development with a proven track record of discovering world class gold deposits. Mr. Harbidge is President, CEO and director of Faraday Copper Corp. Mr. Harbidge was previously the President and CEO of GT Gold and led the company to a CDN$456 million acquisition by Newmont Mining Corp. in May 2021. Prior to this Mr. Harbidge was the Senior Vice President of Exploration at the multinational gold mining company Goldcorp Inc. from 2016 until its acquisition by Newmont Mining Corp. in April 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Harbidge successfully led the exploration team at Randgold Resources Ltd., resulting in five major gold discoveries including the +5Moz Gounkoto deposit in the Loulo area of Mali and the +4Moz Massawa deposit in Senegal. Mr. Harbidge is also a director of the gold exploration company Japan Gold Corp. is a technical advisor to Kalo Gold in Fiji and Gemdale Gold in Finland. He has a First-class Honours Degree in Geology from Kingston University, London (UK) and a Masters of Science in Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology from Leicester University (UK).

Jamie Beck, Independent Director Nominee

Mr. Beck has more than 15 years of international project management and corporate development experience in the mining industry. He was appointed as CEO and director of Filo Mining Corp. after serving as the President of the Company since 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Beck served as Vice President, Corporate Development and Projects of Filo and Josemaria Resources Inc. (formerly NGEx Resources Inc.). Before joining Filo, Mr. Beck worked in corporate development with Lundin Mining, with a focus on project development, corporate strategy, acquisitions, divestments, and joint ventures. Mr. Beck joined the Lundin Group of Companies in 2009 and has worked with many of the mining companies in the group. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen's University and an MBA from the University of British Columbia.

About Fireweed Metals Corp. (TSXV: FWZ; OTCQX: FWEDF; FSE:M0G): Fireweed Metals is a public mineral exploration company on the leading edge of Critical Minerals project development. Fireweed is well-funded, with a healthy balance sheet, and has three projects located in Canada:

Macpass Project (Zinc-Lead-Silver): Fireweed owns 100% of the district-scale 940 km 2 Macmillan Pass ("Macpass") Project in Yukon, Canada, which is host to one of Earth's largest undeveloped resources of zinc*, a Critical Mineral. The Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits have current Mineral Resources 1 (11.21 Mt Indicated Resource at 6.59% zinc, 2.48% lead, and 21.33 g/t silver; and 39.47 Mt Inferred Resource at 5.84% zinc, 3.14% lead, and 38.15 g/t silver) and a Preliminary Economic Assessment 2 (PEA). In addition, Boundary Zone, Tom North, Tom South, and End Zone have significant zinc-lead-silver mineralization drilled but not yet classified as mineral resources. The Project also includes large blocks of adjacent claims with known showings and significant upside exploration potential.

Macmillan Pass ("Macpass") Project in Yukon, Canada, which is host to one of Earth's largest undeveloped resources of zinc*, a Critical Mineral. The Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits have current Mineral Resources (11.21 Mt Indicated Resource at 6.59% zinc, 2.48% lead, and 21.33 g/t silver; and 39.47 Mt Inferred Resource at 5.84% zinc, 3.14% lead, and 38.15 g/t silver) and a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). In addition, Boundary Zone, Tom North, Tom South, and End Zone have significant zinc-lead-silver mineralization drilled but not yet classified as mineral resources. The Project also includes large blocks of adjacent claims with known showings and significant upside exploration potential. Mactung Project (Tungsten): The Company owns 100% interest in the 37.6 km 2 Mactung Project located adjacent to the Macpass Project. Recently announced Mineral Resources for Mactung (41.5 Mt Indicated Resource at 0.73% WO 3 and 12.2 Mt Inferred Resource at 0.59% WO 3 ) 3 make it the world's largest high-grade resource of the Critical Mineral tungsten*. Located in Canada, it is one of the rare large tungsten resources outside of China*.

Mactung Project located adjacent to the Macpass Project. Recently announced Mineral Resources for Mactung (41.5 Mt Indicated Resource at 0.73% WO and 12.2 Mt Inferred Resource at 0.59% WO ) make it the world's largest high-grade resource of the Critical Mineral tungsten*. Located in Canada, it is one of the rare large tungsten resources outside of China*. Gayna Project (Zinc-Lead-Gallium-Germanium): Fireweed owns 100% of the 128.75 km2 Gayna Project located 180 km north of the Macpass Project. It is host to extensive mineralization including Critical Minerals zinc, gallium and germanium as well as lead and silver, outlined by 28,000 m of historical drilling. A recent reevaluation of the geology supported by recent ground gravity geophysics results, soil surveys, and high grade rock samples, indicate drill targets with potential for high-grade Kipushi-style massive sulphide mineralization.



In Canada, Fireweed (TSXV: FWZ) trades on the TSX Venture Exchange. In the USA, Fireweed (OTCQX: FWEDF) trades on the OTCQX Best Market (www.otcmarkets.com) and is DTC eligible for enhanced electronic clearing and settlement. In Europe, Fireweed (FSE: M0G) trades on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Additional information about Fireweed and its projects can be found on the Company's website at FireweedMetals.com and at www.sedarplus.ca.

Qualified Person Statement

Technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Fireweed's VP Geology, Jack Milton, P.Geo. (BC), a 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101.

ON BEHALF OF Fireweed Metals Corp.

"John Robins"

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Contact: Alex Campbell, VP Corporate Development & Communications

Phone: (604) 646-8360

Email: info@fireweedmetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking" statements and information ("forward-looking statements"), including statements with respect to building Fireweed into one of Canada's leading base-metal exploration companies, being at an important inflection point to further unlock the district-scale metallogenic potential of the Macpass district, being positioned to advance this district through its next phase of growth, the belief that Macpass is a district-scale opportunity that the Company has only scratched the surface of, the Lundin Group supporting Fireweed's exploration team as they continue to uncover the full potential of this district, define its true scale and take the Company to the next stage of growth, the election of Jamie Beck to the Board at the Company's upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders and the estimated mineral resources. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to interpretation of drill results, future work plans, the use of funds, and the potential of the Company's projects, are forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of Company management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Company management and reflect the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include but are not limited to, exploration and development risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, expenditure and financing requirements, general economic conditions, changes in financial markets, the ability to properly and efficiently staff the Company's operations, the sufficiency of working capital and funding for continued operations, title matters, First Nations relations, operating hazards, political and economic factors, competitive factors, metal prices, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulations and oversight, permitting, seasonality and weather, technological change, industry practices, uncertainties involved in the interpretation of drilling results and laboratory tests, and one-time events. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward?looking statements or beliefs, opinions, projections or other factors, except as required by law.

Footnotes and References

* References to relative size and grade of the Mactung resources and Macpass resources in comparison to other tungsten and zinc deposits elsewhere in the world, respectively, are based on review of the Standard & Poor's Global Market Intelligence Capital IQ database.

1: For details, see https://www.sedarplus.ca/ Fireweed Technical Report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Macmillan Pass Zinc-Lead-Silver Project, Watson Lake and Mayo Mining Districts Yukon Territory, Canada" filed on https://www.sedarplus.ca/ on February 23, 2018, and Fireweed News Release dated January 10, 2018. Leon McGarry, P.Geo., Senior Resource Geologist for CSA Global Canada Geosciences Ltd. is independent of Fireweed Metals Corp. and a 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Mr. McGarry is responsible for the Macpass Mineral Resource Estimate.

2: For details, see https://www.sedarplus.ca/ Fireweed Technical Report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report Macmillan Pass Project Yukon Territory Canada" filed on https://www.sedarplus.ca/ on July 9, 2018, and Fireweed News Release dated May 23, 2018. This Technical Report includes a Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) disclosing an economic analysis of mineral resources that is preliminary in nature and does not include any mineral reserves. It is equally emphasized that the mineral resources disclosed within this Technical Report are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Michael Makarenko, P.Eng., Project Manager for JDS Energy and Mining, Inc., is independent of Fireweed Metals Corp. and a 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Makarenko is responsible for the PEA results.

3: For details, see Fireweed news release dated June 13, 2023 "Fireweed Metals Announces Mineral Resources for the Mactung Project: the Largest High-Grade Tungsten Deposit in the World" and the technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Mactung Project, Yukon Territory, Canada," with effective date July 28, 2023 filed on https://www.sedarplus.ca/. Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. is independent of Fireweed Metals Corp., and a 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. Garth Kirkham, of Kirkham Geosystems Limited., is responsible for the Mactung Mineral Resource Estimate.
/THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

VANCOUVER, May 3, 2024 - Getchell Gold Corp. (CSE: GTCH) (OTCQB: GGLDF) (FWB: GGA1) ("Getchell" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has closed the third and final tranche of its previously announced debenture financing (the "Debenture Financing"). In this third tranche of the Debenture Financing, the Company closed on $1,441,900 aggregate principal amount of non-convertible debentures. As part of the Debenture Financing, the Company issued 14,419,000 warrants (each a "Debenture Warrant"). Each Debenture Warrant entitles the holder to purchase a common share of the Company at $0.10 per share until May 2, 2027. 50% of the Debenture Warrants vested on closing and the remaining 50% will vest and be exercisable on July 2, 2025. Combined with the first and second tranches of the Debenture Financing, the Company issued non-convertible debentures in the aggregate principal amount of $4,363,318 and an aggregate of 43,633,180 Debenture Warrants.

In connection with the third tranche of the Debenture Financing, the Company issued 843,900 common shares and granted 843,900 finder's warrants ("Finder's Warrants") as a finder's fee. Each Finder's Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional common share of the Company at a price of $0.15 per common share until May 2, 2026.

The proceeds from the third tranche of the Debenture Financing will be used to conduct exploration work on the Company's properties and for general working capital.

One director of the Company participated in the Debenture Financing for $300,000 principal amount of non-convertible debentures. The Debenture Warrants of this insider are exercisable at $0.16 per share for three years, with the same vesting terms as applicable to the other Debenture Warrants. The insider's participation constitutes a "related party transaction" 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 shareholder approval requirements under section 5.5(a) and section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, on the basis that the fair market value of the securities issued to the related party will not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

The securities issued in connection with the third tranche of the Debenture Financing are subject to a statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance, expiring September 3, 2024, in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Company further announces it has renewed a consulting services agreement with Bonaventure Explorations Ltd. ("Bonaventure"), pursuant to which Bonaventure will provide strategic advisory services to the Company until March 31, 2025, unless the agreement is terminated earlier by either party. Under the agreement, the Company will pay Bonaventure a cash fee of $20,000, issue 650,000 stock options (with an exercise price of $0.15 per share for a period of five years), and issue 150,000 common shares with a deemed price of $0.15 per share. Additionally, for the next five months, the Company will issue Bonaventure 100,000 common shares each month, for an additional 500,000 common shares total. The additional common shares will be priced at the closing market price of the Company's common shares trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange the day prior to issuance. All shares issued to Bonaventure will be subject to a hold period of 4 months from the date of issuance.

The securities offered have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or applicable exemption from the registration requirements.

The Company is a Nevada focused gold and copper exploration company trading on the CSE: GTCH, OTCQB: GGLDF, and FWB: GGA1. Getchell Gold is primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage, 100% owned, Fondaway Canyon gold project, a past gold producer with a large mineral resource estimate. Complementing Getchell's asset portfolio are the 100% owned; Dixie Comstock, a past gold producer with a historic resource and two earlier stage exploration projects, Star (Cu-Au-Ag), and Hot Springs Peak (Au) projects. Fondaway Canyon and Dixie Comstock properties are located in Churchill County, Nevada.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.getchellgold.com or contact the Company at info@getchellgold.com.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with the use of proceeds from the Debenture Financing and future issuances of shares to Bonaventure. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although management of Getchell have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Getchell Gold Corp.
VANCOUVER, May 3, 2024 - Giant Mining Corp. (CSE:BFG) | (OTC:BFGFF) | (FWB:YW5) ("Giant Mining" or the "Company") is excited to announce an update concerning its US trading symbol. Formerly listed as "JUBAD" on the OTC Markets Group, Inc. ("OTC Markets"), Giant Mining has begun trading under its new symbol 'BFGFF' effective today, May 3rd, 2024.

The Common Shares of the company recently commenced trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the new ticker symbol "BFG." This change to a new stock ticker symbol on the OTC Markets is part of the Company's recent rebranding to Giant Mining Corp. Shareholders are not required to take any action regarding the change of either ticker symbol.

Learn more by visiting www.giantminingcorp.com

David Greenway, CEO of Giant Mining Corp., commented on the update, saying, "The transition to our new US trading symbol 'BFGFF' aligns seamlessly with our rebranding efforts and our commitment to enhancing shareholder value, particularly as we continue to advance our operations at Majuba Hill. As we continue to grow and expand our projects, our new identity on both the CSE and OTC Markets will strengthen our visibility and accessibility among investors. We are excited about the future as we embark on this new chapter under a unified symbol that reflects more closely with our long-term objectives."

About The Majuba Hill Copper Project

The Nevada Project contains historic underground mines that produced 2.8 million pounds of copper. In the NI 43-101 Report: "Technical Report for the Majuba Hill Copper Project, Pershing County, Nevada, USA", Jeffrey M. Bickel, C.P.G. described the copper mineralization and developed a 3D block model that measured 50 million tonnes to 100 million tonnes of copper mineralization ranging from 0.15% Cu to 0.30% Cu, with potential for a higher-grade zone of 10 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes grading between 0.40 % Cu and 0.80% Cu. This outlines an initial and significantly expandable potential of 660 million pounds of copper. Copper hit a 2-Year high of USD $4.66 per pound on April 29th, 2024. 1

Table 1

Model (1) Tonnage Range Tonnes (Bickel, 2023) Grade Range Copper (%) (Bickel, 2023) Copper Range (pounds) Calculated Exploration Target - All 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 0.15% to 0.30% 165,000,000 to 660,000,000 Exploration Target - High Grade 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 0.40% to 0.80% 88,185,000 to 352,739,000 (1)The ranges of tonnage and grade of the exploration target are conceptual in nature and could change as the proposed exploration activities are completed.

Exploration

An exploration corridor is emerging as the primary focus zone based on recent and historic drilling, geochemistry, and geophysics. Core drilling intersected a thick oxide zone that outcrops at the surface and extends up to 550 meters (1804 feet) deep. Copper enrichment is shown by deeper zones of native copper intersecting beneath the overlying copper oxides.

The Company is gearing up for an important exploration year in 2024, with plans to significantly expand drilling efforts aimed at exploring the depth and breadth of copper mineralization, which could define the Nevada Project's potential and future development.



Click Image To View Full Size

MHB-9:980 ft (298.6 meters) Native Copper



Click Image To View Full Size

MHB-2: 111.5 to 120.5 feet (34.0 to 36.7 meters)

Exploration Program 2024

The Company is using funds from the Placement to advance our exploration and development program, as outlined in the recent recommendations of the NI43-101 report. The company has committed to drilling 16 reverse circulation (RC) holes and two shallow metallurgical core holes, aimed at evaluating the mineral potential and optimizing future extraction methods. Additionally, Giant Mining will initiate a metallurgical study to enhance our understanding of mineralization and processing efficiencies. Furthermore, our exploration depth will be extended with the drilling of two deep core holes, each reaching 3,500 feet. This strategic investment in deep-core drilling will help precisely assess the vertical extent of mineralization and contribute substantially to our resource evaluation efforts.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by E.L. "Buster" Hunsaker III, CPG 8137, a non-independent consulting geologist who is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43- 101").

About Giant Mining Corp.

Giant Mining Corp. is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage copper and copper/silver/gold assets. This is in direct response to the growing worldwide demand and lack of supply for precious metals fueled by the Green New Deal in the US and most other developed nations with similar programs aimed at addressing climate change. Such programs are heavily reliant on silver, gold and especially copper to produce Electric Vehicles and other renewable power sources, as well as building infrastructure to provide clean and affordable electricity.

The flagship project is the Majuba Hill copper, silver and gold District located 156 miles (251 km) outside Reno, Nevada, USA. Management has been mandated to focus on safe, mining friendly jurisdictions where government regulations are supportive of mining operations.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On Behalf of the Board of Giant Mining Corp.

"David Greenway"

David C. Greenway

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Joel Warawa

VP of Corporate Communications

E: info@giantminingcorp.com

P: 1 (855) 475-0745

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Giant Mining Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Giant Mining Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Giant Mining Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

###

1 Sourced Online: https://www.marketindex.com.au/copper

Copyright (c) 2024 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Oakland coffee shop House of Phin is now offering Vietnamese-style coffee and tea drinks. Mario Cortez / The Chronicle Ribs and burgers are on the menu at the new Bobby Macs BBQ in Crockett. Sarai Foxx / Bobby Mac's BBQ Humphry Slocombe, known for inventive flavors and collaborations, opened its 10th and newest location in Concord. Janelle Bitker

The launch of two barbecue spots in April  one new, one relocated  kept plates in the East Bay stacked with smoked meats in April.

Other new East Bay businesses offer sushi hand rolls, Indonesian laksa and Vietnamese coffee. With the weather warming up, the area also got two notable ice cream shops last month.

Click here for a list of notable restaurants that opened around the East Bay in March.

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Vietnamese coffee shop opens

New Vietnamese-style coffee shop House of Phin is now open in Oaklands Little Saigon stretch. Find drinks like milky-sweet ca phe sua a and a Hanoi-style egg cream coffee brewed on phin drippers, cylindrical filters with perforated pinholes on the bottom, as is customary in Vietnam. Other drinks, like the Saigon by Night and Good Morning Em, incorporate ingredients like black sesame butter and ube milk, respectively. There are also snacks like twice-baked croissants with black sesame and pandan waffles, along with iced tea.

1920 International Blvd., Oakland. instagram.com/houseofphin_

Restaurant brings together Thai and brunch

Find brunch staples like croque madame and Thai tea waffles at the new Skylar Bistro in Clayton. Owner Jureerat Bunteesud told the East Bay Times he was motivated to open the restaurant by a perceived lack of breakfast options in the area. At night the restaurant rolls out its Thai menu, with offerings like pumpkin curry and Laotian sausages.

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6101 Center St., Clayton. skylarbistro.com

Ribs and burgers are on the menu at the new Bobby Macs BBQ in Crockett. Sarai Foxx / Bobby Mac's BBQ

Barbecue reaches Crockett

Bobby Macs BBQ is now open in Crockett, bringing Creole and Southern-style barbecue to this corner of the East Bay. The project is a collaboration between Derrick Jones, a former sous-chef at Pixars headquarters, and Randy Valdez, who owns Lucias Craft Sandwich next to the new barbecue spot. The East Bay Times reports a menu that includes items like pulled pork sandwiches, cheesesteaks filled with smoked brisket, and chicken and waffles during brunch. There are also barbecue plates with your choice of beef brisket, pork-and-beef links and spare ribs.

601 Second Ave., Crockett. bobby-macs-bbq.com

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East Bay welcomes scoop shop

Walnut Creek is home to the Bay Areas first Handels Homemade Ice Cream location, KRON reports. The new ice cream shop offers more than 45 ice cream flavors available in scoops or by the pint. These flavors include classics from chocolate and vanilla to more inventive mixes like monkey business, banana ice cream studded with brownie pieces. Other treats include vegan sorbets, chocolate-covered pops, milkshakes and sundaes. Handels operates locations in 12 states.

1273 Locust St., Walnut Creek. handelsicecream.com

A tray of meat rests on a smoker at Horn Barbecues original Oakland location. The restaurant relocated after a fire destroyed the restaurants former space. Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

Oakland pitmaster returns

Horn Barbecue made its return with a grand opening party at its new Old Oakland home. West Texas barbecue specialist Matt Horn relocated the restaurant, whose original building burned down (an arson investigation is ongoing), into the space that hosted his most recent restaurant, Mattys Old Fashioned. Expect smoked meats by the pound and pulled pork sandwiches like the ones at the previous Mandela Parkway location. Some items from the Mattys Old Fashioned menu, such as the fried bologna sandwich, will remain on the menu.

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464 Eighth St., Oakland. hornbarbecue.com

Indonesian specialist lands kiosk

A popular purveyor of Indonesian baked goods now has a spot at Emeryvilles Public Market. Nusa, which got its start at San Franciscos Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, serves Indonesian staples like beef rendang, slowly cooked in aromatics; grilled satay skewers; fried rice; and soto ayam, a type of turmeric chicken soup. Chef-owner Jennifer Huang will continue to offer her sweets, which include lemper, a stuffed mochi rice roll, and lapis legit, a 20-layer cake with each sheet cooked atop another. Nusa will take over the rotating La Cocina kiosk at the food hall.

Nusa. 5959 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Nusasf.square.site

The turmeric chicken noodle soup is a hearty offering at Nusa, at Public Market in Emeryville. Don Feria/Special to The Chronicle

Eclectic ice cream shop expands

East Bay Nosh reports the popular Bay Area ice cream label Humphry Slocombe is now scooping its offbeat ice cream flavors at the Veranda shopping center in Concord. The companys 10th location will offer cones and to-go pints of its ice cream flavors, with options like peanut butter fudge ripple, Vietnamese coffee and the whiskey-and-corn-flakes secret breakfast. Other treats include ice cream sandwiches, floats and sundaes.

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2045 Diamond Blvd., #34, Concord. humphryslocombe.com

Dublin gets a new taco spot

A new taqueria is now swaddling carne asada, tongue and chicken into burritos and tacos in Dublin. The appropriately named Dublin Taqueria opened in April with a menu that also includes nachos, salads and vegetarian options, Yelp users share. Chilaquiles and menudo specials feature as weekend breakfast dishes.

3986 Summit Road, Dublin.

Eye-catching sushi docks in Oakland waterfront

A new arrival at Oaklands Jack London Square offers temaki, or taco-shaped sushi hand rolls, in a laid-back setting. Kuidaore offers its hand rolls with fillings that include spicy tuna, hamachi, unagi and more luxe ingredients like A5 Wagyu beef and Hokkaido uni. These are available in sets of three, four and five hand rolls. Other dishes include sunomono salads, edamame and crudo plates garnished with serrano chiles and edible flowers. East Bay Nosh first reported the opening.
Even F2, F3 unlikely for F1 hopeful Andretti

Andretti, the hopeful Formula 1 team entrant, will struggle even to get teams up and running in the support categories Formula 3 and Formula 2.

Start, Chinese GP 2024

 Red Bull

As part of its push to convince F1 owner Liberty Media to green-light Andretti-Cadillac's grand prix dream, Michael Andretti revealed that he would also commit to setting up F3 and F2 outfits.

But Bruno Michel, the CEO of both Formula 2 and Formula 3, plays down the likelihood that that happening.

For Formula 3, he told France's Auto Hebdo, "I think it is completely out of the question to increase the number of cars.

"Thirty cars is already a lot and it's a very good number. We'd struggle to find enough drivers for any more teams.

Then, on the track, we also know that at some point, having too many cars is not very good for the races, and also for having a coherent grid, Michel added.

And he says the same basic logic also applies to Formula 2.

We had 26 cars in GP2, then we went down to 20, and then we went back up to 22, the Frenchman explained. "I'm pretty happy with the numbers we have right now, for several reasons.

The first thing is that it has to be viable for the teams, and finding 22 drivers with adequate budgets is never an easy task, said Michel. So I would say that at the moment, I am not very inclined to increase the number of teams.

However, he insisted that he is not trying to lock Andretti out of F1's feeder categories.

They can try to make a deal with an existing team, Michel said, "or they can apply - and if they do, there's always the possibility that a team won't continue or a team doesn't make the cut.

In that case, they would have a chance of coming in. The F2 process happened last year, and the next one will be in three years. For F3, it happens this year, so if they want to join, they will have to go through the selection process.

He explained that he actually hasn't had any talks on the matter with Andretti officials.

I've read a few articles about Andretti saying that they want to join F2 and F3, but haven't been in contact yet, said Michel. I understand that Andretti linked his possible programs to a program in Formula 1, which is also not yet decided at the moment.

(GMM)
Stroll did not apologise for Ricciardo rear-end

Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll are yet to bury the hatchet, two weeks after their bizarre run-in behind the safety car in China.

Lance Stroll, Chinese GP 2024

 Aston Martin Racing

Stroll, whose billionaire father owns the Aston Martin team he drives for, rear-ended Ricciardo's RB in Shanghai and initially blamed the Australian - before turning his attention to the concertina effect.

When he heard that Stroll had blamed him, Ricciardo told the media at the time: F*ck that guy, and I'm being nice.

Two weeks on, and 25-year-old Canadian Stroll was asked by a reporter if he's cleared the air with Ricciardo.

(That's) not for this room, Stroll replied. Those things are done behind closed doors.

So did Stroll apologise to Ricciardo behind those closed doors?

He didn't speak to me and he never called me or sent me a message, Ricciardo is quoted by Le Journal de Montreal newspaper from Miami on Thursday.

When a reporter told the 34-year-old what Stroll had said earlier, newspaper correspondent Francois-David Rouleau relayed: He (Ricciardo) just smiled widely and added that he didn't expect anything else from Stroll.

Ricciardo said: If I was the one at fault, I would have apologised. I had a run-in with Yuki (Tsunoda) a few years ago and that's exactly what I did.

(GMM)
Apple posted its financial results for its second fiscal quarter, which is the period between January 1 and March 30, 2024. Sales of iPhones dropped 10% on a yearly basis, while Services reached its highest result ever, with a 14% increase over the same period last year.

Cupertino's total revenue was $90.75 billion, 4% down from last year. Net income was $23.63 billion, also down compared YoY.

Apple Store in Hong Kong

According to the report, the sales decline came from all across Asia. Net sales were down in Greater China (PRC, Taiwan & Hong Kong), Japan, and the Rest of Asia Pacific, while the Americas and Europe saw an insignificant change that can be rounded up to 0%.

Apple Services includes subscription services, warranties, licensing deals with search engines and payments. The $23.9 billion result was higher than analysts expected, and the US company said it expects another double-digit increase in the next quarter.

Apple's board approved an additional round of repurchases of up to $110 billion of common stock - the biggest buyback program in the company's history. The company also announced a cash dividend of 25 US cents per share, a 4% increase from the previous period.

Source (pdf)
Pedestrians cross in front of trains outside of the West Portal Muni Station in San Francisco. Some area merchants and residents oppose a city plan to redesign the nearby streets. Paul Chinn/The Chronicle 2019

Regarding West Portal street safety plan appears over, but the status quo cant be allowed to prevail (Editorial, SFChronicle.com, May 1): The Chronicles editorial about the street redesign plan for West Portal Station is based on a false premise: that the horrible accident at the corner of Ulloa Street and Lennox Way had anything to do with the design of the intersection. It didnt.

The plan will increase traffic congestion by forcing people to drive out of their way and overloading adjacent streets. West Portal serves a broader area than the immediate few blocks. People from the Parkside, St. Francis Wood and other neighborhoods will continue to drive or  even worse for the vibrant shopping area  stop coming.

There is a better way. A three-way signal, one for each direction on Ulloa and one for West Portal with an override for the Muni Metro trains and a scramble signal for pedestrians, would make the intersection safer without making it impossible to use the services on West Portal. This solution is far preferable to the proposed plan.

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I applaud Supervisor Myrna Melgar for listening to the community and ensuring that alternatives are considered. By contrast, the Chronicle editorial board would let a false sense of urgency drive a bad decision.

David Newman, San Francisco

Include Taiwan in forum

The annual World Health Assembly will be held on May 27 in Geneva. Once again, Taiwan is excluded from this World Health Organization mechanism, despite being a key player in the international community.

Taiwan is Californias third largest trading partner, and there are more than 500,000 Taiwanese immigrants residing in the state. More than 800 international flights transit through Taiwan airports daily, including 51 direct flights a week between San Francisco and Taipei, making the country a central aviation hub in East Asia and an indispensable partner in preventing the spread of disease.

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Moreover, Taiwan has made significant advancements in medical technology across COVID-19, telehealth and biotechnology treatments. Its post-pandemic implementations and robust National Health System are valuable structures that the world could learn from.

Taiwan is a steadfast partner in defending the right to health care for all people. Including Taiwan in the World Health Organization is the key to a comprehensive global health network. Taiwans exclusion creates a gap in global health security and public health advancement.

We call on our allies and friends from democratic countries to support Taiwans regular inclusion as an observer in WHO mechanisms, starting with the 77th World Health Assembly this year.

Scott Lai, director general, Taipei Economic and Culture Office, San Francisco

Why send S.F. cops?

Regarding Cal Poly Humboldt: Police arrest 31 Gaza protesters, clear students out of occupied buildings (California, SFChronicle.com, April 29): I was astounded to read that the San Francisco Police Department supplied some of the 300 or so police officers who arrested protesters in Arcata at Cal Poly Humboldt.

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I read in the Chronicle about smash-and-grab burglaries, how long it takes to get an officer to respond to an incident and how much time it takes officers to do paperwork.

Why would the San Francisco Police Department even consider this? If I lived in the city I would feel betrayed. I urge those who agree to make their position known to their supervisor. I am making opposition to bringing San Francisco cops into Humboldt County known to my local representatives.

Greg Blomstrom, Arcata, Humboldt County

How to force change

Regarding Not all protests alike (Letters to the Editor, April 29): Claude Fischer was exactly right in recalling the successful protest movements  protests that did not frustrate and hurt others, but resulted in new, fair laws and attitudes that worked to make the community better.

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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

We can never forget the eloquence and elegance of the people who sat at lunch counters where they were forbidden to be served and those who occupied seats in busses where they were forbidden to sit.

In silence and in strength, these protesters showed the powerful rightness of their demands with calm dignity. And they won.
A Guam Waterworks Authority official on Friday testified in support of Sen. Sabina Perezs bill that seeks to help low-income customers with rising water rates and the high cost of leak repairs.

People shouldnt be denied access to clean water because they arent able to afford it, GWA Assistant General Manager Chris Budasi said in his testimony on Perezs Bill 273-37 during a public hearing on the measure.

Perez, at the hearing, said her measure proposes to authorize GWA to establish a Customer Assistance Program that would provide supplemental bill assistance, credit discounts and fee waivers for low- or fixed-income ratepayers.

Budasi said there has been a strong push in the last five years by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and national water utility organizations to ensure customer affordability and access to clean water.

The CAPs would also provide assistance for leak detection and repair.

Budasi said low- and fixed-income customers may not be able to afford the resulting high bill from the leak and the cost to repair it.

GWA estimates about 8,700 customers would be eligible for the program, based on statistics that indicate 21-percent of the local population are SNAP recipients.

Budasi said the cost to GWA would be about $5 million.

The lifeline rate would remain the same, and then the next tier where we charge a volumetric rate, we would provide a discount. It could be 20 or 30% just depending on what funding would be available, Budasi said. It should be in that neighborhood to have a true impact to assist low-income customers.

GWA is also considering assistance to all customers by providing rebates for installing water conservation measures, or bill relief for rapid leak repair.

It would give them an incentive to get their leaks repaired quickly. We would discount their bill by 50% from when they had a high bill during the leak, Budasi said.




Haiti - FLASH : Arms traffickers in Colombia could supply Haitian gangs





Tuesday May 1st, 2024 at a press conference at the "Casa de Narino", the President of Colombia Gustavo Petro denounced corruption within the army for the large-scale theft of arms and ammunition.



Following the inspections and inventories of two military bases at Fort Tolemaida, located in the central department of Tolima, and at the base of the 10th Brigade of the Army, in the north of the country, with the Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez and the General Commander of the military forces, Helder Giraldo Bonilla, it turned out that millions of various munitions, rocket launchers, howitzers including missiles had disappeared.



"There have been for a long time networks made up of people from the military and civilian forces dedicated to a massive arms trade using the legal weapons of the Colombian State," declared President Petro believes that the weapons and Stolen ammunition could have ended up in the hands of Colombian guerrillas and other local armed groups and potentially in foreign conflicts, notably sold to criminal gangs in Haiti, recalling that Haiti is only "7 hours by speed boat from the base de La Guajira, one of the stolen arsenals. Also note that Haiti shares maritime borders with Colombia."



President Petro revealed the results of the inspections, while calling these arms thefts a serious problem.



To Tolemaida :

"746 grenades of 81 millimeter caliber are required; 3,712 M-26 hand grenades; 2,880 40-millimeter grenades; 1,590 60-millimeter grenades; 797 40 millimeter grenades on link (in strip for heavy weapons) b; 139,780 ammunition of 7.62 caliber and 668,359 ammunition of 5.56 caliber.



At the base of the 10th Brigade :

"two Spike anti-tank missiles; 37 Nimrod air-to-ground (both Israeli-made); 550 RPG rockets; 22 155-millimeter grenades; 621 106-millimeter grenades; 1,077 105-millimeter howitzers; 1,077 90 millimeter caliber grenades; 960 81-millimeter grenades" and "1,218 60-millimeter grenades."



Also missing from the depots are "4,171 40mm grenades; 9,829 rounds of 162 caliber ammunition; 761,551 rounds of 5.56 caliber ammunition; 57,992 5.56 caliber Slap rounds and 1,262 .38 caliber rounds".



SL/ TB/ HaitiLibre


















A rescuer preps the toboggan used to carry one of the injured climbers down Mount Shasta back to Bunny Flat. U.S. Forest Service Weather on Mount Shasta can quickly turn from clear to cloudy, making climbing activity on the mountain challenging and sometimes dangerous. Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office A pair of snowboarders became trapped in an avalanche on Mount Shasta, seen here in 2022, and were rescued over the course of 12 hours. Gregory Thomas / The Chronicle

A pair of climbers booting up Mount Shastas snowy flank last weekend became caught in an avalanche at high altitude, triggering an 11-hour rescue that involved roughly 20 responders.

Its early in Shastas climbing season, which gets going in mid-April and peaks in May and June when thousands of mountaineers attempt the 14,180-foot summit. Its a technical undertaking requiring crampons and an ice axe, complicated by notoriously fickle bouts of weather that descend on the peak and can quickly morph a sunny outing into a windy whiteout.

Shastas upper reaches last Saturday were socked in by a cloud deck that brought swirling winds and limited visibility as a pair of men in their 30s, who authorities said were both experienced local climbers, strapped their snowboards onto their packs and began their ascent. Theyd planned to trek up the popular and steep Avalanche Gulch route on Shastas south side, then clip into their boards and cruise back down on the thick snowpack plastering the mountains rippling terrain.

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Few climbers were on the mountain that day, authorities said. At about noon, as the first of the two men neared the bottom of a band of cliffs called the Red Banks, which hang above Avalanche Gulch at roughly 12,500 feet, a large slab at his feet ripped loose, sending a cascade of snow down the slope that carried the climbers with it.

A look up at the Red Banks feature at the top of Avalanche Gulch  the horizontal band of partially exposed cliffs  where the avalanche occurred. U.S. Forest Service

Neither man was buried, authorities said. The high climber who triggered the slide was able to arrest his fall, emerging with a knee injury though healthy enough to self-rescue. The low climber who was trapped in the guts of the slide, however, was carried 1,000 feet down and suffered a broken femur, a crampon puncture wound in the same leg, and a laceration to his ribs.

The men dialed 911 from a cellphone, and the call was routed to Nick Meyers, the U.S. Forest Services lead climbing ranger for Mount Shasta. It was clear, Meyers said, that the low climber would need a rescue.

His leg was completely broken, and he said hed never felt pain like that in his life, said Meyers, who is also director of the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center.

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There are about a dozen rescue calls and about one fatality per year on Shasta. Rescues high on the mountain are sometimes performed by a California Highway Patrol helicopter, but the weather last Saturday was too rough for a hoist, Meyers said.

While the climbers hunkered down, Meyers activated five climbing rangers who were joined by about a half dozen mountain guides who happened to be training on the mountain at the time as well as a half dozen search-and-rescue members from the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office. Most of the responders knew the two injured climbers personally, Meyers said, so everyone wanted to help.

Once rescuers had loaded one of the injured climbers into a toboggan, it took four hours of descending in the dark to reach the Bunny Flat Trailhead. U.S. Forest Service

Some of the rescuers were deposited via helicopter near the treeline, about 3,500 vertical feet below the avalanche area. More set out from the Bunny Flat Trailhead farther down. All ascended on foot for what became a long slog in whiteout conditions that made for challenging navigation.

By the time rescuers arrived at the avalanche site, around 6:20 p.m., the wounded men were becoming hypothermic, Meyers said. Rescuers bundled the men in warm layers and the high climber was able to snowboard back to Bunny Flat.

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The man with the broken leg was showing signs of frostbite and was packaged into a sled litter for what Meyers said was an arduous, four-hour journey down the mountain. Rescuers took turns dragging the sled. Any time youre sliding someone out in a toboggan, you need a lot of support, Meyers said.

He is lucky, Meyers said. I dont think he would have survived the night.

First responders launched from the Bunny Flat Trailhead to find, rescue and then receive the injured climbers. Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office

Both men were treated by medical professionals that night, and the man with the broken femur was hospitalized. Its about as positive an outcome as could be expected under the circumstances, Meyers said.

The takeaway for Shasta climbers, Meyers said, is that avalanche danger is prevalent even in springtime as high winds load snow on different aspects of the peak, and climbers should steer clear of snow drifts where they can. Also, Shastas unpredictable and hazardous weather can prolong these types of searches and rescues, Meyers said.

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Haiti - Security : The first Kenyan troops land on May 26, 2024 in Haiti





Fred Mitchell, the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Bahamian media that the first Kenyan troops are expected to arrive in Haiti on May 26, 2024.



He also said that the contingent of officers from the Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) who will join the Multinational Security Support Mission will be on alert from date.



Let's remember that the Bahamas will send three platoons of 50 men to Haiti, who will participate in security operations and infantry operations, are people who have received special training. Among other things, infantry tactics and military missions, carried out by the United States Special Operations Command in the North.



The arrival of Kenyan troops in Haiti will coincide with a visit that Kenyan President William Ruto will make to the United States as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Kenya.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42217-haiti-flash-7-countries-from-africa-asia-and-the-caribbean-will-support-the-pnh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42214-haiti-security-the-caricom-military-contingent-ready-to-intervene-in-haiti.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : The CPT in crisis seeks a solution





The decision of 4 representatives of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) resulting from the Collective of political parties of January 30, 2023 (Edgard Leblanc Fils), the Democratic Resistance/Engaged for Development platform (RED/EDE - Smith Augustin) and the grouping political Historic composed, of the Agreement of December 21, 2022 (Louis Gerald Gilles) and the political party "Pitit Desalin" (Emmanuel Vertilaire), formed into a majority group called "Indissoluble Majority Bloc" (Bloc Majoritaire Indissoluble - BMI) which designated Fritz Belizaire as Prime Minister continues to fuel the crisis within the Council.



The Fanmi Lavalas Party denounces that the BMI wants to transform the Presidential Transitional Council into a pure and simple parliament by establishing a majority bloc. With this attitude, he fears that the 3 members of the minority have become mere observers...



Councilor Lesly Voltaire, representative of Famni Lavalas, denounces the desire of the BMI, apparently at the instigation of Jean Charles Moise ("Piti Dessalin" via his representative Emmanuel Vertilaire), to have taken control of the CPT with this majority bloc relegating the 3 other voting members of the minority to the rank of simple observers



Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) on his X account, expressed reservations about the procedure leading to the appointment of the new Prime Minister



In order to resolve the crisis within the CPT, a change in the voting method would be considered; in the absence of consensus, the decision will no longer be submitted to a vote by a simple majority (4 out of 7) as provided for in the agreement of April 3rd 2024 but by a qualified majority (5 out of 7) to avoid a takeover of the CPT.



Thursday, the Haitian Party Tet Kale (PHTK), member of the January 30 collective, tried to minimize the crisis by affirming that Fritz Belizaire was not a designation imposed by the Prime Minister, but only a proposal... and that each representative could present his candidate to be put to the vote. A dupe proposal which will change nothing if the voting method remains the same, because with 4 votes out of 7, the BMI will always prevail in decisions requiring a simple majority vote.



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Northeast : The Minister suspends the management and teaching permits of a School Director





Nesmy Manigat, the resigning Minister of National Education (MENFP) informs the public in general and members of the educational community in particular, that he has decided to suspend the Management License and the Teaching License of Anebert Joseph , the Director of the Bethel Bethesda National School (North-East), following the serious violence he committed against a child at his school.



The Minister took action following a report from the North East Department of Education confirming serious violence committed against a child inside the school on April 22, 2024.



"The behavior of this Director does not respect any principle linked to the school, nor the legal rules prohibiting physical harassment inside schools," specifies the Ministry which indicates that it will take other administrative measures after the report of the general education inspectorate which will deepen the investigation.



Nesmy Mangat also took steps to provide this student with the psychological support necessary to avoid any damage to his academic career.



The Minister reminds and asks all school principals to respect the right of all children to learn without violence at school.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42236-haiti-flash-a-student-beaten-for-having-been-ridden-by-a-loa-during-class-hours.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Insecurity : Haiti is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists





As part of World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd), UNESCO recalls that the situation of journalists in Haiti is increasingly alarming. Since the deterioration of the security situation, 11 media workers have been killed in the field since January 2022, others kidnapped or injured, highlighting that Haiti has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.



Today, alarmed journalists are fleeing the country, reducing their media coverage or leaving the profession altogether. Media outlets are vandalized, premises ransacked by bandits and equipment completely destroyed. Recent attacks include acts of vandalism against the daily "Le Nouvelliste" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42205-haiti-news-zapping.html



To respond to the most urgent needs of Haitian journalists, UNESCO has been supporting security and risk management training for more than 50 media workers for several months. Faced with a further deterioration of the situation in the country and on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Organization is providing the necessary safety equipment, including gas masks, helmets and tactical vests. This support was made possible thanks to the crisis response mechanism of the Global Media Defense Fund.



According to a survey conducted by UNESCO among 86 Haitian journalists:



76% have faced threats related to their profession;

62% have faced verbal and online harassment;

30% were victims of physical threats;

54% indicated that these threats had an impact on their journalistic work.



These attacks threaten press freedom and seriously hamper the ability of journalists to carry out their profession and provide vital information. Haiti increasingly risks becoming a "zone of silence", with serious consequences on access to information for the local population and the entire world.



Journalists must be able to exercise their essential role in guaranteeing the population's right to information in a crisis context. UNESCO reiterates its condemnation for the death of journalist Ricot Jean https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-39396-haiti-news-zapping.html and calls for an end to the violence as well as the protection of journalists in Haiti.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41055-haiti-flash-haiti-among-the-34-most-dangerous-countries-in-the-world-gpi-2023.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















California announced a settlement with a pharmaceutical company over its alleged role in perpetuating the opioid crisis  the same company Gov. Gavin Newsom is partnering with to produce overdose reversal drugs. Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

SACRAMENTO  California announced a tentative settlement agreement Friday with a pharmaceutical company over its alleged role in perpetuating the opioid addiction crisis battering the state  the same company Gov. Gavin Newsom is partnering with to produce lower-cost opioid overdose reversal drugs.

That means the state could hand any funds it receives from the settlement right back to the company for the overdose reversal drugs it is partnering with the company, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, to produce.

Newsom announced the partnership with Amneal Pharmaceuticals on Monday. Through Californias contract with Amneal, the state will soon begin purchasing the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone below the current market rate through the states prescription drug label, CalRx.

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California has been distributing naloxone to police, community organizations and counties to combat the states opioid overdose crisis through the Naloxone Distribution Project since 2018. Much of the funding for the project comes from the states opioid settlement fund, which consists of money paid to the state by drugmakers and distributors accused of perpetuating the opioid addiction crisis.

On Friday, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Amneal Pharmaceuticals could join the list of drugmakers paying into that fund. The company has agreed to pay up to $272.5 million to states, including $92.5 million in cash and $180 million worth of naloxone. Bonta, in coordination with a group of state attorneys general, accused Amneal of failing to monitor and report suspicious use of its generic opioid drugs in violation of federal law.

Today, I am thinking of the countless families and communities impacted by the opioid epidemic. I cant begin to imagine the immense pain they have been through, Bonta said in a statement announcing the settlement. Todays announcement builds on our efforts to heal our communities and respond to this epidemic from all angles, from recovery services to resources on prevention and treatment.

Amneal sold nearly 9 billion opioid pills between 2006 and 2019, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James office, which also helped negotiate the settlement.

Amneal has not admitted to wrongdoing as part of the settlement and has agreed to pay it out over 10 years. If finalized, the settlement resolves substantially all opioid litigation against the company, Amneals Chief Financial Officer Tasos Konidaris told investors on a Friday earnings call.

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Spokespeople for Newsom did not respond to a question about whether California would receive cash from the settlement and send it back to Amneal under its naloxone contract, and instead referred the Chronicle to the Department of Health Care Access and Information, which oversees CalRx.

Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesperson for the department, told the Chronicle in an email that the contract with Amneal represents a groundbreaking deal that will enable California to scale its naloxone distribution and save more lives.

During the vetting process for a Naloxone Access Initiative partner, CalRx became aware that like many large generic pharmaceutical companies, Amneal Pharmaceuticals was named in some opioid litigation, he wrote. In making its decision to select Amneal for the naloxone program, CalRx prioritized factors such as price, time to market, and ability to meet the anticipated volume demands in California  understanding that more efficiency means more lives saved.

California has agreed to pay Amneal $24 for a two-pack of naloxone nasal spray, a generic version of the brand-name drug Narcan. Thats about 40% below the $41 California has been paying for Narcan.

Newsom and lawmakers previously approved more than $150 million from the opioid settlement fund to purchase and distribute naloxone from 2023 through 2027.

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Last year, Californias Department of Health Care Services spent $75 million on Narcan, according to state purchasing records. In the state budget passed last year, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to spend another $35.8 million on naloxone in the 2024-25 fiscal year from the opioid settlement fund. Newsom and lawmakers are still hammering out details of next years state budget, including how to deal with a huge deficit, meaning the precise amount of money that will be spent on naloxone could change.

California will begin purchasing the new, less expensive naloxone from Amneal next month, said Rodger Butler, a spokesperson for the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, who leads the agency, said that unlike a typical contract to buy a drug already being produced by a pharmaceutical company, California pursued its agreement with Amneal while it was still developing its generic naloxone. That allowed the state to use its huge purchasing power as the home to nearly 40 million Americans to negotiate a lower price and secure a significant supply up front. Ghaly said that Californias early commitment to purchase a large quantity of Amneals naloxone may have helped bring the drug to market sooner.

In Amneals earnings call, CEO Chirag Patel called the partnership with California a great win for us. He and co-CEO Chintu Patel described the drug as a big potential money-maker for the company.

As we continue to grow larger, Amneal is leading a new era of affordable medicines and having a significant societal impact. Nowhere (is) our commitment to this mission more evident than our recent approval of naloxone, Chirag Patel said, according to a transcript of the call. Opioid overdose remains a US public health care emergency We are so proud that this essential life-saving medicine is made in America and manufactured here in New Jersey by Amneal.

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Previously I didnt even known that its allowed to bring a gun into the Parliament, she commented to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday. We should now naturally debate whether its necessary to have a rule that allows you to [do so].

ANNA-MAJA HENRIKSSON , the outgoing chairperson of the Swedish Peoples Party, has questioned the need for a rule that allows lawmakers to store firearms in the Parliament House.

If someone is going hunting, is it necessary to be able to store a gun in the Parliament? This is also a big occupational safety issue: every lawmaker and employee in the Parliament must be able to feel safe every day.

The rule has come under scrutiny due to the suspicions linked to Timo Vornanen, a first-term Member of Parliament for the Finns Party. Vornanen is suspected of causing danger, illegal threat and firearms offence for discharging a small-calibre handgun at the ground outside a nightclub in Helsinki in the early hours of Friday, 26 April.

He is presently on leave from his position as senior constable with Eastern Finland Police Department.

Pertti Rauhio, the administrative director at the Finnish Parliament, said to Helsingin Sanomat last weekend that lawmakers can leave a firearm with the security division for safekeeping if they need it after the workday for recreational purposes, such as hunting.

For situations like these, weve confirmed the administrative instruction that firearms shouldnt be stored in a car or the office or any random place, but they should be handed over to the security division, which puts them in a locked cabinet, he commented to the newspaper.

Rauhio said Vornanen did not leave a firearm with the security division on Thursday.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the firearm used in the shooting was a CZ 92, a 6.35-calibre pistol with only few justified applications in hunting, for example. While licences for such small and lightweight handguns have therefore become increasingly rare in recent years, they continue to have some appeal among collectors.

Criminals, the newspaper wrote, have carried them for self-defence purposes due to its concealability.

Vornanen has told police interrogators that he was carrying the handgun because of previous threats made against him. In a message to the media, he stated that police granted him a licence to carry the handgun years ago on very strong grounds related to his previous work and personal protection.

Police consider firearms licences classified and have declined to comment on questions about the licences for Vornanen.

His suspected involvement in the shooting is outright unprecedented, Henriksson stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday.

Ive been in the Parliament for 17 years, and not once has it even crossed my mind that a representative could have a firearm with them, she said. Its such an alien thought.

Given that were also talking about a person who has served as a police, it makes the situation even more serious and incriminating.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Israeli actions in Gaza in recent months were met with disapproval by 60 per cent and with approval by 21 per cent of the survey respondents. The rest of the respondents were unable or unwilling to say one way or the other.

A CLEAR MAJORITY of Finns do not approve of the military offensive prosecuted by Israel in Gaza, reveals a survey commissioned by YLE .

Anu Koivunen, a media researcher at the University of Turku, on Monday stated to YLE that the survey results are very surprising given the nature of media reporting on the war in Gaza.

[In Finland] the reporting has been very cautious and muted, there hasnt been much room for it. When the Gaza conflict has been discussed, it has been discussed in a reserved fashion. The reports have highlighted the brutal attack by the terrorist group Hamas and the right of self defence of Israel, she elaborated.

Finnish reporting, she summarised, has largely reflected the approach of western states to the situation. In Sweden, for example, reporting has been more diverse given the higher number of correspondents and connections to both Israel and Gaza.

The survey found that men and women have pronouncedly different views on the war. Over three-quarters, or 76 per cent, of women disapproved of Israeli actions compared with 43 per cent of men; seven per cent of women approved of Israeli actions, compared with 35 per cent of men.

Koivunen estimated that the gender divide stems from the high number of civilian and child casualties in the war, but stressed that qualitative data would be required to offer a definitive answer. Over 34,500 Palestinians have been killed and 77,500 have been injured in Gaza since 7 October, according to the local health ministry, which operates under Hamas.

The results also reveal what people relate to. Do you relate to military power and strategy or civilians? Im sure that explains the result at some level, said Koivunen.

Concerns about the civilian death toll have heightened this week, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeating on Tuesday that Israel intends to launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, the southernmost city on the Gaza Strip. The city is shelter to more than a million Palestinians.

Views on Israeli actions also correlated with party affiliation, according to the poll by YLE.

Supporters of the Left Alliance were particularly critical of the actions, with only two per cent approving, followed by supporters of the Green League (5%) and Social Democrats (9%). The Finns Party was the only party with a voter base that largely approved of the actions, with 52 per cent doing so. It was followed by Movement Now (40%) and the National Coalition (35%).

The share of respondents who were unable or unwilling to comment on the issue was the highest among supporters of the Swedish Peoples Party (40%) and Christian Democrats (37%).

Theres always a variety of views behind percentages, reminded Koivunen. Im sure that attitudes toward the war in Gaza are explained by general attitudes toward discipline and order or, on the other hand, to civilians, human rights and suffering.

All political parties, she estimated, will have a variety of opinions on the conflict, with the survey revealing the averages. One should therefore not draw firm conclusions about differences between the supporters of different parties.

Koivunen also viewed that the government-opposition dynamic explains in part the correlation between party affiliation and views on Israeli actions in Gaza. If Prime Minister Sanna Marins (SDP) five-party coalition was still in power and it had made the same kind of decisions at the EU level as the government led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP), she explained, Social Democrats, Greens and Left Alliance supporters could be more sympathetic to the course of action taken by Israel.

Taloustutkimus collected 1,106 responses for the online survey on 2223 April.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
Council appoints Lowrance to vacant seat

Melinda Lowrance takes the oath as a City Council member surrounded by her husband, Jim, McKenna and Marcus Vance and Emrick and Zurie.

The Hendersonville City Council wasted no time filling the seat on the board vacated by the resignation of Debbie Roundtree, voting unanimously on Thursday evening to appoint Melinda Lowrance.

Surrounded by her husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, Lowrance took the oath of office immediately after the vote and took Roundtree's old seat at the council table.

I would like to thank the City Council and all the citizens of Hendersonville who entrusted me with this duty, she said. I will perform to the best of my ability and expect great things out of this City Council now that Im on board.

Lowrance has strong ties to the community and extensive board experience in Hendersonville and Henderson County. A member of the Hendersonville Board of Adjustment since 1998, she was one of the initial members appointed to the citys Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee and serves as the vice chair of the Henderson County Social Services Board. She is also president of the Henderson County chapter of the NAACP. Under her leadership, the NAACP partnered with the Henderson County Education Foundations Grow Our Own Educators scholarship program aimed at increasing opportunities for students of color to pursue teaching careers in their own community.

Lowrance has owned and operated Mop Head Cleaning Service for 35 years and is a life member of the Star Lite Chapter #510 Order of the Eastern Star and a pastor steward, chair of the Trustee Board for St. Paul Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion Church, president of the Hendersonville District Lay Council and first vice president of the Blue Ridge Conference Lay Council. She also serves as a member of the Rotary E-Club of Global Trekkers and the League of Women Voters.

City Manager John Connet said before the meeting the duration of Lowrance's term is up in the air because of two options. The county Board of Elections could accept signups for the seat to a filing period in July  one is already set for a vacant seat on the Saluda Board of Commissioners  for the Nov. 5 election. However, the option the City Council prefers is for Lowrance to serve out Roundtree's full term, which would have expired in December 2026. Connet has made contact with state Sen. Tim Moffitt, who sponsored the legislation that moved City Council elections from odd to even years, to file a bill setting the election for November 2026.

EARLIER COVERAGE:

Melinda Lowrance, who has been active in community service and on city and county advisory boards for many years, is likely to fill the seat on the Hendersonville City Council made vacant by the resignation of Debbie Roundtree.

City Manager John Connet said last week council members have agreed informally to appoint Lowrance, possibly as soon as this weeks council meeting. Whats unclear at the moment is when Roundtrees former seat would be up for election. That could be as early as November if the state set a new filing period, or in November 2026. The term for the seat expires in December 2026. Connet and Henderson County Board of Elections officials will receive guidance on the process from the state Board of Elections this week.

Lowrance has served as chair of the city Zoning Board of Adjustment, on the city Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the county Board of Social Services and is president of the local chapter of the NAACP. She has owned Mop Head Cleaning Service for 35 years.

I'm willing to serve because I think maybe I can bring something to the table that will benefit the citizens from my experience being on city boards and county boards and just dealing with the public in general, she said in an interview Monday. I would like to see concentrating on mental health and opioids and affordable housing. I think I can bring a fresh perspective to this.

She was also invited to participate in the North Carolina Leadership Forums study of affordable housing. She said she would have voted yes on a rezoning to allow 60 affordable apartments for seniors on Greenville Highway at Chadwick Avenue.

There is a growing population of senior citizens  I'm included, she said. But I also think we need to consider affordable housing for the working class, especially our educators and our law enforcement, health workers. We're losing them because they can't afford to live here.

Lowrance said she worries about Hendersonvilles growth.

I just think we need to slow down the growth, she said. I think were growing a little too fast.
SIXTEEN people took part in a 13,000ft skydive in aid of a Goring charity.

They included a number of village traders and their customers with ages spanning 40 years.

They were raising money for the Hub in The Arcade, a community charity run by the Q1 Foundation which provides friendship, guidance and information.

The tandem jump took place at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire on a sunny day and each volunteer was attached to a member of the Red Devils, the army parachute display team.

Gary Smith, owner of Goring Village Butchers, jumped alongside his children, Hollie, 23, and Sam, 20.

Mr Smith, 59, who has taken part in two previous jumps, said he was relieved when his parachute opened and he could enjoy the spectacular views.

Hollie, who was leaping for the first time, said: I wasnt scared until we were on the plane. I didnt realise how high we were until we were up in the air and my feet were hanging off the edge. The first bit was so daunting as I was going so fast. Because youre falling at about 120mph you almost forget to breathe.

A lot of people came to me afterwards saying they wanted to do it and, thinking about it, I might do it again too. It was a really good day and my grandparents came to watch.

Hollie and Sam raised more than 750 with bake sales outside the Dolphin pub in Wallingford.

Sebastian Avery, 25, a part-time firefighter at Goring fire station, described his first jump as quite the experience and said he would do it again.

He said: The week coming up to it, I was surprised how little I was worrying, then the next minute I was on the plane.

All I could think about was trying to make sure my breakfast stayed in my stomach as I whooshed and spun through the air at about 120mph. There was a beautiful blue sky, so in that sense it was amazing.

Betsy Brown, 18, manager of the Village Cafe, jumped alongside three colleagues, Ava Lunt, Sophia Kavongo and Sarah Conde, and customer Rachel Dunn.

She said: It was an amazing experience and I am so glad we raised lots of money.

Jackie Hamstead, 59, from Thame, said: I didnt know what to expect but it was great. I was so nervous but they looked after us so well.

The feeling was unreal as it all happened so fast. When the parachutist jolted me up, he showed me sights such as Stonehenge and the Isle of Wight.

She and Sean Cunningham, a window cleaner from Watlington, raised more than 1,000 for the Hub and Dementia Prevention UK.

Ms Hamstead thanked Watlington Bowls Club for a 85 donation, adding: Everyone is really watching their pounds but to raise 1,000 is great as it giving a little back to members of the community who need it most.

The other jumpers were Ed Crane, of ITM Audio Visual, Liliia Lutsak, of Goring Greengrocers, Blair Sharman, Miller Sherwood and Max Cameron.

They raised a total of 6,500.

Organiser Stuart Rowsell, 87, who took part in two previous jumps but opted out this time, said the money raised was invaluable.

He said: It costs about 5,000 a month to run the Hub, including rent, fuel and salaries. It gets little to no help so any fundraising and sponsorship is always welcomed and appreciated.

The skydive is a great team event and everybody supported each other to overcome thier fears.

Three jumps last year by supporters of the charity raised almost 15,000.

Another jump will take place on June 16. If you would like to take part, call Mr Rowsell on 0118 979 4312 or email stuartrowsell

@gmail.com
Ulviyya Shahin

In May, it is projected that Azerbaijani natural gas supplied through the Bulgaria-Greece Interconnector (IGB) will account for 76.6% of Bulgaria's domestic demand.

According to the information provided by the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) of Bulgaria, the long-term gas contract with Azerbaijan, which is indexed to international oil prices rather than gas hub prices, plays a role in "achieving favorable prices."

As stated by the regulator, the remaining portion of gas for household consumption is provided by Bulgargaz, the state gas company, through a contract for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Bulgarian regulatory authority for public services, EWRC, has approved a 7% reduction in the regulated gas price for May, setting it at 54.7 leva (equivalent to 30 US dollars) per MWh. Transportation costs, excise taxes, and value-added tax are excluded from this price.

Although the regulator did not specify the reason for the price decrease following a slight increase in April, it mentioned considering price trends in international gas markets.

It's worth noting that the Greece-Bulgaria gas pipeline was put into commercial operation in October 2022. The IGB aims to transport "blue fuel" produced within the framework of the second stage of exploitation of the "Shah Deniz" gas-condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to Bulgaria. The state company "Bulgargaz EAD" has signed a contract with the "Shah Deniz" consortium for the supply of 1 billion cubic meters of gas from the "Shah Deniz-2" field.

The total length of the pipeline, which passes through 150 kilometers of Bulgarian territory, is 182 kilometers. It is expected to have an annual transportation capacity of 3-5 billion cubic meters.

Here poses questions:

Given that it is predicted to cover 76.6 percent of Bulgaria's domestic consumption in May, how important is Azerbaijan's role in supplying Bulgaria with gas?

The regulator noted the price trends in the international gas market to lower the gas price. However, knowing the sensitivity of Azerbaijan's gas prices to global market dynamics, especially fluctuations in energy markets makes great sense.

Head of the Innovative Economic Research Center of Azerbaijan Technical University, professor, economist Elshad Mammadov stated to Azernews that establishing cooperation in the direction of gas supply with Azerbaijan is quite beneficial for the foreign trade partners.

"This is because of Azerbaijani gas is transported via pipelines, as is well known. The price of gas transported through pipelines is traditionally more favorable compared to liquefied gas, and this determines significant advantages for the foreign trade partners in cooperation with Azerbaijan. At the same time, Azerbaijan has proven itself as a reliable, durable trading partner. All agreements related to Azerbaijani gas supply bear the signature of the state, and I believe that the signature of the Azerbaijani state is widely accepted in the global arena, demonstrating its reliability and durability," Elshad Mamadov noted.

According to him, furthermore, Azerbaijan prioritizes durable, long-term trade cooperation in its relevant agreements in the energy sector, which undoubtedly promises great opportunities for the foreign trade partners.

"Therefore, I consider that Azerbaijan's cooperation in the energy sector, whether with Bulgaria or other countries in the foreign trade sector, is developing along a promising trajectory, contributing to the formation of economic processes in those countries."

Economist thinks that Bulgaria is not a major gas consumer to that extent.

"There has been a significant decrease in the share of industrial enterprises in recent decades. Nevertheless, gaps in European energy policy today encourage many European countries, including Bulgaria, to return to traditional energy carriers. And Bulgaria is undoubtedly among them. This is because of Bulgaria faces quite serious problems and challenges regarding its energy supply. Cooperation with Azerbaijan should be further emphasized with the exploitation of the interconnector, and I believe that not only Bulgaria but also several other European countries will witness the deepening of their cooperation with Azerbaijan in the near future in terms of gas supply," Mammadov concluded.
Amazon will be closing a fulfillment center in San Francisco. Michael Sohn/Associated Press

As its plans to build a massive logistics center in San Franciscos Showplace Square neighborhood are being vetted by city planners, Amazon is planning to cease its operations at a nearby facility.

The e-commerce giant will shutter a small fulfillment center that it established as an UltraFastFresh site to deliver groceries at 888 Tennessee St., across the street from Esprit Park in the Dogpatch, on June 27, according to a WARN notice issued by the California Employment Development Department on April 25.

The move will impact 85 workers, according to the notice. A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed Thursday that all of those employees will be offered other job opportunities with Amazon, and that it will continue to fulfill customers orders from its other existing sites.

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Were always evaluating our network to make sure it fits our business needs and to improve the experience for our employees, customers, partners, and drivers. As part of that effort, we may close older sites, enhance existing facilities, or open new sites, and we weigh a variety of factors when deciding where to develop future sites or maintain a presence, the spokesperson said in a statement to the Chronicle. In this case, employees at our San Francisco fulfillment center are being offered transfers to other facilities nearby, or support if they choose not to stay with Amazon.

Amazon leases the 38,500-square-foot, two-story industrial building, which was sold to American Realty Advisors in 2022 for roughly $35 million. Last year, the company closed a 75,000-square-foot facility at 435 23rd St. that it began leasing just two years prior. And another Amazon facility in the Bayview district, at 749 Toland St., is slated for redevelopment by industrial giant Prologis.

But Amazon has also made significant purchases in recent years, including its $200 million acquisition of a roughly 6-acre site at 900 Seventh St. in San Francisco in 2020 that it wants to redevelop into a 650,000-square-foot logistics center  the company is currently seeking city approval for its redevelopment plan.

It also picked up San Brunos shuttered 215,600-square-foot SkyPark warehouse at 1000 San Mateo Ave. that year, paying $96 million. Like the Seventh Street parcel in San Francisco, the SkyPark site is also earmarked for redevelopment into a parcel delivery station, and while the company has yet to start work on the project, its spokesperson confirmed Thursday that the plan still stands.
A mural is proposed for the retaining wall along Geary Boulevard around the Japantown Peace Plaza, part of a major redesign of the area. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle Planners envision open space for visitors in the renovation of the Japantown Peace Plaza. San Francisco Public Works Planners envision a mix of greenery and concrete in the renovated Japantown Peace Plaza. San Francisco Public Works

Since the 1960s, Japantowns beloved Peace Plaza has been shut off from Geary Boulevard, blocked behind a retaining wall. But construction to overhaul the plaza just began, and after a two-year, $34 million renovation that retaining wall will probably be terraced with trees and covered by a vivid mural depicting the neighborhoods history.

It will beckon pedestrians up an inviting stairway from Geary to the plaza, where the landmark 100-foot Peace Pagoda will be lighted from within, like a beacon on Geary.

The Peace Plaza really is the heart of Japantown, so this is open heart surgery, said Emily Murase, executive director of the Japantown Task Force. The surgery will include the replacement of 32,000 square feet of slate tile with new porcelain tile on the plaza surface, a stone riser with 300 seats facing the pagoda, and a fresh row of meandering cherry trees around the pagoda stage.

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Juan Antonio, foreman at Swinerton construction, works at the Japantown Peace Plaza on Wednesday as renovation begins. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

The renovated Japantown Peace Plaza will premiere for the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in 2026 to signal the start of what Murase describes as the renaissance of Japantown, a huge makeover that could go far beyond the Peace Plaza.

In March, a $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation planning grant was secured to examine options for community-focused transit planning, which would focus on the Geary Expressway  a thoroughfare of four sunken lanes of traffic that tunnels under Fillmore Street and carves up the neighborhood.

The first planning session is six months away, and ideas are already flying, the boldest being to underground the two-block expressway, from Buchanan to Steiner streets, and build housing on top of it. This would add homes in the wake of the devastating redevelopment that destroyed housing occupied by Black, Japanese and Jewish residents.

The plan is to bring together those communities that were torn asunder by the six-lane Geary freeway, Murase said.

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The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has started a $34 million renovation of the Japantown Peace Plaza. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

The revival of the Japantown, Fillmore and Western Addition neighborhoods is still a dream. But the Japantown Peace Plaza renovation broke ground last weekend, with Mayor London Breed, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Assembly Member Phil Ting and consul general of Japan, Yo Osumi, all putting foot to shovel.

To reach that moment took 60 community meetings over the past five years and funding cobbled together from park bonds and state and federal grants.

This is predominantly a rooftop project. We need to waterproof it, said Marien Coss, project manager for the city Recreation and Park Department, which is undertaking the construction project along with Public Works, which will contribute architecture, landscape architecture and engineering services.

The plaza sits atop a garage for 720 cars that has been leaking rainwater since the last renovation in 2001. To get at the problem, everything but the pagoda must be removed. This means the grove of 24 cherry trees and other trees in planters will be lost, and the benches and surface amenities removed so the surface atop the garage can be jackhammered off.

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During demolition, only the Geary stairway entrance will be closed off. The Post Street entrance will be narrowed but remain open, as will the entrances to the commercial buildings on both sides of the plaza.

Once demolition is complete, the existing grove of 24 cherry trees will be replaced by only seven, but they will be spaced better and have improved dirt and drainage, allowing them to grow taller and fill in around the pagoda, Coss said. There will also be 16 Japanese maple trees in planters.

The pagoda will have its skeleton strengthened before being fitted with a tower of lights that can be controlled to vary the color scheme like Coit Tower, Coss said.

Planners envision a tranquil nighttime atmosphere in the renovated Japantown Peace Plaza. San Francisco Public Works

Plans for the Japantown History Mural to run 300 feet along the Geary retaining wall must still be approved. But $100,000 has been raised by the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, and an artist selected: Rigel Juratovac, who signs his work with the name Crayone and grew up in the neighborhood. The design will be revealed May 11 at a community meeting in Japantown

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If it goes through, the mural on the retaining wall will be the first attempt to brighten the dreary Geary side since the pagoda was completed in the 1960s as a gift from San Franciscos sister city of Osaka.

The first meeting to discuss the Geary Expressway plan will likely take place in early 2025.

While we continue working to address immediate issues in the community, this grant will help us address racist planning decisions of the past, connect the Fillmore and Japantown, and build stronger and more stable communities into the future, Supervisor Dean Preston, who worked to secure funding for the project, said in a statement.
Caregivers entrusted with lives beyond their own should ideally join the 40 percent of Americans who have crafted a will or other estate-planning document. Yet, even the most meticulously prepared estate plan requires periodic review to ensure alignment with lifes twists and turns.

Here are five critical life events necessitating a review of your estate plan:

1) Birth or adoption: Welcoming a new child requires updating your will to designate guardianship. Consider establishing trusts for children or grandchildren to manage assets effectively.

2) Marital status change: Whether marrying, divor...
(JNS) - The United Nations established Jan. 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day to mark the day in 1945 when Auschwitz was liberated. The German Nazis built Auschwitz and thousands of other concentration and death camps to imprison and kill more than 6 million Jews. Humanity pledged "Never Again." Never again would people be killed for their race or religion. Never again would humanity let this happen.

Instead of a relaxing winter break this year, 13 students from Drexel University in Philadelphia and I went to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. We traveled with a group of Jewish studen...
Ludwig"Lou" Ziemba is a retired successful businessman, a descendent of "Jewish royalty'" and a Holocaust survivor.

Lou's story begins in Poland. Rabbi Menachem Ziemba, was the chief rabbi of Warsaw, a renowned holy figure in the Ger sect of the Chassidic movement, and a key player in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising through his pleas that urged inhabitants to fight against their captors.

One of Rabbi Ziemba's nephews was Henoch, son of his brother Moshe. Henoch was a bit of a non-conformist intellectual who spoke several languages and wandered around Europe. Henoch married a woman who was not...
By her son, Dr. Lane Mercer

Claire Mercer, a long-standing Orlando area resident, passed away after a brief illness on April 9, 2024 (1 Nisan 5784). She was 95 years old. Claire was born at the beginning of the Great Depression and spent most of her childhood in Newark, New Jersey. Growing up during the Depression, her childhood was difficult. She would joke that times were so tough her parents could not afford a middle name for her. A graduate of Weehawken High School in Newark, circumstances prevented her from pursuing a career in journalism that she strongly desired. Instead, she worked as an executive secretary in a large insurance company until, on Sadie Hawkins Day 1948, she met Marvin Mercer at a dance at the YM-YWHA in Newark. The two fell in love and married less than six months later.

Both Claire and Marvin, being only children, wanted a large family and had six children. In 1959, Claire fulfilled her desire for a higher education by attending Fairleigh Dickinson University and graduating with a Nursing Degree while raising four children. She proudly practiced her profession as both a hospital and office nurse until 1982 when Marvin retired and the couple moved to the Orlando area where they became very active in the Jewish Community Center of Orlando. After her husbands untimely death, Claire threw herself into the Orlando Jewish Community working with the JCC for 40 years in various capacities. She had served multiple stints as president of the Senior Group The 39ers, as a member of the Board of the JCC, and for 16 years as the volunteer coordinator for Give the Kids the World, an organization that provides critically ill children with vacations to the areas theme parks. Not only dedicated to the Orlando Jewish Community, at 61 years of age, she volunteered in the Israel Defense Force program, Sar-el, assisting soldiers with their non-combat duties. Over the years, Claires dedication to the Jewish Community has been recognized with the JCC Woman of the Year award, Eight over Eighty Award, and The Heritage Human Service Award in 2023.

Claire is survived by her children: Dr. Lane (Suzanne) Mercer, Ellen (Ken) Solomon, Dr. Brian (Nancy) Mercer, Holly (Dan) Soucy, and Dr. Jason (Suzie) Mercer. She is also survived by 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be private. Donations to honor Claires life can be made to the Orlando Jewish Community Center Senior Services or The Jewish Pavilion of Orlando.
(JNS)  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reportedly considering blacklisting the IDFs Netzach Yehuda Battalion under the Leahy Laws, two statutory provisions that, according to the State Department, prohibit the U.S. government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.

Extreme political NGOs and rights organizations often falsely accuse Israel of committing human rights abuses. In October 2022, DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) submitted to t...
(JTA)  Brandeis University, the historically Jewish school outside Boston, has extended its transfer application deadline in a bid to appeal to students who are unhappy with their own schools responses to campus anti-Israel protests.

The university announced the decision on Monday, as encampment protests spread from Columbia University to campuses across the United States. The protests, which take aim at the schools ties to Israel, are spurred by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and have in some places included rhetoric that veers into antisemitism. Jewish groups and some Jewish students say th...
Greg Malin, center, led a development company thats been ordered to pay back millions to investors. Jason Henry/Special to the Chronicle

Troon Pacific, a San Francisco developer of ultra luxury homes in tony neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow, has been ordered to pay back $48.1 million to investors after an arbitrator ruled that it had squandered investors money through a combination of fraudulent self-dealing and wanton dereliction of responsibilities.

In a ruling made public late Wednesday, arbitrator David Garcia, a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge, ordered that Troon Pacific pay back investors who had put $48.1 million into a fund dedicated to renovating and flipping four deluxe residences in the city: 2646 Union St., 2582 Filbert St., 2950 Pacific St. and 63 Carmel St.

Only two of the four projects were completed  the Union Street and Filbert Street properties  while construction never started on the other two homes, according to a petition to confirm the contractual arbitration award, filed in San Francisco Superior Court May 1.

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While the investors never saw a dime of their money, Troon Pacific  which is headed up by Greg Malin  made out handsomely, pocketing $14 million in fees, according to the final award of arbitration. The group took $2.8 million in developer fees, $2.1 million in construction management fees, $1.7 million in general contractor fees, $1.9 million in interior design fees, $1.1 million in asset management fees and $230,000 in lighting design fees.

The case captures the dizzying gold rush of pre-pandemic San Francisco, a time when billion-dollar unicorn tech companies were seemingly sprouting up overnight and capital from around the globe was pouring into San Francisco looking for a piece of the action.

The petition claims that Malins group stole the companys funds through various fraudulent and criminal schemes, artificially inflated their costs and the projected asset values of the properties to justify excessive and improper fees.

Attorney Adrian Sawyer, who represents Troon Pacific, did not respond to requests for comment.

Before the pandemic the company was anything but publicity-shy. With regular features in magazines like Mansion Global and Lux Expose, Troon Pacific promised high performance homes with cutting-edge form and function dedicated to the health and wellness of our homeowners and our planet.

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That includes some of the most progressive homes in San Franciscos most desirable neighborhoods, from the Gold Coast to Russian Hill, the company website says. Troon Pacific believes nothing builds value like a commitment to our high standards and core values of quality execution, the highest levels of sustainability, and complete wellness.

A 2019 headline in Mansion Global on the company states high-tech San Francisco home lists for $29.8 million. Upscale Living Magazine featured Troon Pacific in a story entitled Over The Top Homes for Nature Lovers. A Wall Street Journal headline said: A $46 Million San Francisco Spec House is one of the Citys Priciest Listings Ever.

Yet, the final arbitration report portrays a company where inexperienced people were regularly hired for key roles and the line between the company and Malins personal life was often blurry. Malins personal chef and household manager  a university-trained pastry chef  was put in charge of property management. The chief operating officer and director of construction had never worked for a real estate developer previously, according to the arbitrators report.

There were also instances of double billing and backdating of official documents, the report claims.

The fund, Uni SF V11, indirectly paid the costs of the construction manager, who ostensibly was representing investors, while Malin charged millions of dollars in additional fees for her services, effectively double billing for her services, according to the arbitrators report.

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In addition, the signature of Charlot Malin  Malins late wife  was posthumously added to a corporate resolutions document. (Malins) deceased wifes signature was affixed to several resolutions, the report states.

Kyle Withers, the attorney for the investors who were fleeced, said his clients were happy with Judge Garcias ruling.

In Judge Garcias words, the $50 million award was an equitable and proper result because Gregory Malin engaged in fraudulent self-dealing, corrupted the UNI SF VII fund, and wantonly breached his fiduciary duties to my clients and the other investors in that fund, said Withers, who works for the Lubin Olson & Niewiadomski firm. Several investors in UNI SF VII lost a significant amount of their retirement savings.

Malins net worth is between $40 million and $50 million, according to the arbitrator.

The case is not the first time the builder had come under scrutiny. In 2018, Troon Pacific agreed to pay a $400,000 settlement to the city, without admitting to having done anything illegal, for violating a building permit by removing exterior walls and windows of a historic landmarked Willis Polk-designed home at 841 Chestnut St.

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(JNS)  Jerusalem believes that the International Criminal Court in The Hague will issue arrest warrants against senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Diplomatic efforts to thwart ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khans move have failed, Israels Channel 12 News reported.

International arrest warrants are expected to be filed against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, according the the report.

The broadcaster said the warrants would likely be issued against the background of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the...
(JNS) - The Israel Police has established a dedicated team to deal with the increasing phenomenon of left-wing anarchists who are undermining security and stability in Judea and Samaria, Ynet reported Tuesday.

The special division, which includes detectives from the investigation and intelligence unit who work in cooperation with immigration officers and officials from the Population and Immigration Authority, works under the command of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

"Establishing the anarchist treatment team is consistent with my clear policy that seeks to fight against t...
(JNS)  Israels Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that an imminent military operation in Rafah would be suspended if a hostage release deal is secured, calling it the top priority to free the remaining abductees taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The release of the hostages is the top priority for us, the member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Security Cabinet told Channel 12, adding that if there will be a deal, we will suspend the operation in the last Hamas bastion in southernmost Gaza.

Katz is not a member of the War Cabinet overseeing the operation in Gaza, which entered it...
(JNS)  In part due to the unleashing of Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Hamass Oct. 7 massacre, antisemitism in the United States spiked by a record 140%, according to figures released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday.

Nearly 9,000 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalismincluding more than 5,000 in the post-Oct. 7 periodwere reported across America last year. The figure not only blew away the totals from 2022itself a record yearbut outpaced the marks from the previous three years combined. The ADL began tracking relevant data in 1979.

The numbers in the ADL Audit of Antisem...
The U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package late Tuesday that includes $26 billion in wartime assistance for Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian aid, some of which will be allotted for the Gaza Strip.

The bill passed the Senate on an overwhelming 79-18 vote after the House had approved the package Saturday, sending the legislation to President Joe Bidens desk after months of delays.

U.S. officials told AP that about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the bulk following in the coming weeks.

Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to an...
(JNS)  Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich aims to legalize 68 outposts in Judea and Samaria and has instructed various ministries to prepare to provide them with public services.

Smotrich is also a minister in the Defense Ministry with broad authority over civilian issues in the disputed territories.

We welcome the progress on the approvals for 68 young communities in Judea and Samaria. These are communities established years ago and sanctioned by the country, Yesha Council Chairman Shlomo Neeman said.

The council is the umbrella organization for Israeli municipal authorities in J...
(JNS)  There can be no negotiations with Israel as the Jewish people are slayers of prophets, a top Qatari official told representatives at a recent Arab League summit, according to a translation of the speech the Middle East Media Research Institute published on Wednesday.

Essa bin Ahmad al-Nassr, who serves on Dohas Shura Council legislature and holds the rank of brigadier-general in the Qatari Armed Forces elite Emiri Guard protection unit, threatened the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders and has provided the terrorist organization with hundreds of mill...
(JNS)  The U.N. Security Councils committee on new members reported on Tuesday that it could not reach a consensus on the revived application for full Palestinian U.N. membership.

Algeria, the Arab worlds de facto representative on the council, has drafted its own resolution and plans to put the application up for a decisive vote on Thursday afternoon. Washington has suggested that it would veto such an application.

The Committee on the Admission of New Members, which includes representatives of all the members of the Security Council, met twice last week to discuss the Palestinian applicat...
(JTA)  Columbia University has rejected a demand to divest from Israel and has failed to reach an agreement with pro-Palestinian student protesters who are occupying a portion of the schools New York City campus, according to a letter sent Monday morning, April 28, to the community by President Minouche Shafik.

All year, we have sought to facilitate opportunities for our students and faculty to engage in constructive dialogue, and we have provided ample space for protests and vigils to take place peacefully and without disruptions to academic life, Shafik said. But we must take into accou...
(New York Jewish Week)  An outspoken Israeli professor was blocked from entering a portion of the Columbia University campus and Jewish members of Congress demanded action from the administration on Monday as pro-Palestinian protests continued to roil the Manhattan university.

Shai Davidai, an Israeli assistant professor at Columbia Universitys business school, had announced on social media that he planned to enter the universitys main campus on Monday morning to hold a peaceful sit in in the area of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have occupied the campus lawn since last week.

But the...
Rahni NothingMore. dances during the initial Downtown First Thursdays block party on San Franciscos Second Street. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Mercury Van Sciver watches the action from a bench during the first Downtown First Thursdays block party. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Amy Luo and Sunny Lee play pingpong during San Franciscos Downtown First Thursdays block party. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Aaron Jones leads his son, Hendrix, 4, on bicycles at the first Downtown First Thursdays block party in San Francisco. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Bonita Rose entertains the crowd at the Oasis Stage during the Downtown First Thursdays block party. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle A man dances on Minna Street during the Downtown First Thursdays block party in San Francisco. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

The first of San Franciscos monthly Downtown First Thursdays block parties drew thousands to the citys core as thumping bass, dancing crowds and food vendors enlivened the usually mellow area, with a giant disco ball hanging from a crane taking over Minna Streets alleyway.

Attendees browsed arts and crafts vendors on Second Street, painted a communal mural, and listened to sketch comedy. Lines for food stands hawking Peruvian dishes, oxtail and Nepalese momos stretched along the corridor.

Its the latest in a series of new nighttime events around the city, including the Sunset and Chinatown night markets, efforts to inject energy into areas recovering from the pandemic.

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Second Street was chosen as the connecting line between Yerba Buena and East Cut and because of the presence of a variety of restaurants and bars, said Katy Birnbaum, CEO of Into the Streets, the event organizer.

Block party attendees dance on Minna Street during a Downtown First Thursdays gathering in San Francisco. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Into the Streets previously hosted the South Asian music-themed Bhangra and Beats, in the Financial District, which drew around 10,000 per event and is returning next week.

The event was inspired by Oaklands long-running First Fridays street festival, which is also being held this week.

Before the pandemic, tech and office workers would flood the downtown San Francisco area, especially during rush hour. But due to remote work and tech layoffs, the area is a shadow of its former self.

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The event will be held each first Thursday of the month for the next 12 months in the same area, with sponsorship money for city fees and other costs coming from the Civic Joy Fund. Gap scion Bob Fisher, wife Randi Fisher and Levi Strauss & Co. provided half of the $1.5 million funding goal for the year.

Supremerivi11 paints a mural during the Downtown First Thursdays block party in San Francisco. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Birnbaum, who has also worked on the citys Sunday Streets program, said it was challenging to create a new brand and get partners involved.

If they dont have something to touch and see, it may be tough for people to jump in, she said. Were building and landing the plane at the same time.

Manny Yekutiel, co-founder of the Civic Joy Fund and owner of the events space Mannys, which hosts Chronicle events, was hopeful the gathering will enliven downtown.

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The purpose is to create a new culture around showing up downtown, he said. I remember how it used to be. It is a much sadder state of affairs.
(JNS)  Yale University police arrested 47 anti-Israel protesters for trespassing on Monday morning, as Gaza solidarity encampments continue to disrupt college campuses across the country.

After the arrests in New Haven, hundreds of students continued to rally while university maintenance workers cleared Yales central Beinecke Plaza of tents, the Yale Daily News student newspaper reported.

Anti-Israel students formed the first of the encampments at Columbia University on Wednesday ahead of congressional testimony by Columbia president Minouche Shafik about Jew-hatred on campus. Shafik asked...
The great universities are now paying the price for allowing woke professors to indoctrinate their students with idealogical and political dogma instead of offering them a critical thinking and intellectually honest education.

The result is a vulnerable and naive student body on many of Americas prestigious colleges and universities, egged on by radical outsiders supported by questionably legal funding sources, violently protesting the war against the Arabs in Gaza, and endorsing the delegitimization of the Jewish State.

The attempted takeover of university property, and the unleashing of hat...
(JNS)  Faculty and students are proudly protesting Israels existence and praising Hamas for the slaughter of Jews. Not satisfied, they call for an intifada, and the erasure of Israel and its population from the Middle East. Some of the protesters cannot identify the river or sea they want to be free but chime in with other virtue signalers. Individually, they may not all be antisemites, but their views are antisemitic.

Note to antisemites: Stop complaining that even as you block roads, occupy buildings, hold rallies, propagandize in classrooms and convene academic panels to demonize Isra...
(JNS)  Hamas is a sanctioned Islamic terrorist organization. Its illegal to provide aid to it. And for non-citizens, especially foreign students on visas, supporting terrorists is a deportable offense.

And yet after six months of pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses and in major cities, not a single foreign student appears to have been deported.

The latest Hamas occupations at Yale and Columbia have stopped even pretending to be anything other than outright support for an illegal terrorist group and its ongoing murder of Jews.

Jewish students have been assaulted. Campus rabbis have told Jew...
(JNS)  U.S. President Joe Biden began his Earth Day speech at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia on Monday by singling out a few prominent climate-change figures in attendance. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who introduced him, was one of them.

You know, I learned a long time ago: Listen to that lady; listen to that lady, he said. Were going to talk more about another part of the world, too, real quickly.

It doesnt take a genius to guess what region he had in mind. AOCas the member of his partys radical Squad is familiarly knownhas been vocal in her demand...
Numbers often carry symbolic meanings and energies that can offer insights into various aspects of life. One such number is 3005, which holds a unique and powerful significance in numerology. By breaking down its digits, we can uncover layers of wisdom and guidance to help us navigate our journey. Let's unveil the meaning of the angel number 3005 in numerology. Meaning of Angel Number 3005.(Unsplash)

Number 3 represents creativity, expressing yourself, and growing in all aspects of life. It's like a spark that ignites your imagination and pushes you to explore new ideas.

Number 0 acts as a magnifier, intensifying the influence of the other numbers. It signals the beginning of something new and encourages spiritual growth, like a fresh start on your journey.

And Number 5 symbolizes freedom, adaptability, and embracing change. It's like a reminder from the angels to stay open-minded and flexible, ready to seize opportunities as they arise.

When these numbers come together in angel number 3005, it's a sign from the angels that they're cheering you on to unleash your creativity, take bold action, and embrace the new experiences and opportunities that come your way. It's like a gentle nudge from the universe to step out of your comfort zone and welcome growth and progress into your life.

Why do you see Angel number 3005?

If angel number 3005 keeps appearing to you, it's a gentle reminder from your divine guides to trust your inner voice and follow your instincts. They're encouraging you to take action towards your goals and dreams, knowing that you have their unconditional love, support, and guidance every step of the way. Even when faced with challenges and uncertainties, your angels want you to remember that you're never alone, and they're always there to help you navigate through life's ups and downs. So, listen to your intuition, take those necessary steps forward, and embrace the journey ahead with confidence, knowing that your angels are cheering you on from above.

Also Read Is Angel Number 3004 a manifesting number? Things you ought to know

Is Angel Number 3005 a manifesting number?

Yes, angel number 3005 carries the essence of a manifestation number, suggesting its ability to draw abundance, prosperity, and positive outcomes toward you. Your angels are urging you to direct your thoughts and energy toward your desires and aspirations with positivity, faith, and gratitude. They emphasize that what you focus on tends to grow and manifest in your life. So, by maintaining a hopeful and optimistic outlook and aligning your intentions with the energy of abundance, you can attract more of the blessings and opportunities you seek. Trust in the power of manifestation and allow yourself to believe in the limitless possibilities that lie ahead. Your angels are supporting you every step of the way as you co-create the life you envision.

Spiritual meaning of Angel Number 3005

In terms of spirituality, angel 3005 signifies a profound spiritual growth and enlightenment journey. The angels gently nudge you to deepen your connection with your faith, divine purpose, and higher self. They urge you to trust in the divine plan and have faith that every experience, whether joyful or challenging, serves a higher purpose in your spiritual evolution.

Embrace your values and beliefs as guiding principles on your life's journey. Allow them to illuminate your path and provide clarity amidst uncertainty. By staying true to your spiritual principles, you'll find strength, wisdom, and inner peace to navigate life's twists and turns.

Remember that you're never alone on this journey. Your angels are always by your side, ready to offer guidance and support whenever needed. Trust in their presence and allow their loving energy to uplift and inspire you as you walk the path of spiritual growth and enlightenment.

What does the Angel number 3005 mean in love, twin flame and career growth?

Love and relationships: Angel number 3005 brings promising tidings. The angels are gently reminding you to maintain a bright and hopeful outlook when it comes to love. Stay open to new possibilities and release any lingering fears or doubts hindering your journey. Embrace optimism and joy in matters of the heart, allowing yourself to be guided by love's gentle whispers.

Career and money: 3005 signals a period of growth and abundance. The angels encourage you to tap into your creative potential and explore new avenues for financial and professional advancement. Trust in your innovative ideas and talents, and be bold in pursuing opportunities that align with your aspirations.

Twinflames: In the realm of spiritual connections, for those journeying with a twin flame, angel number 3005 holds special significance. It serves as a gentle reminder to take decisive action together towards shared goals. Embrace collaboration and harmony, leveraging your individual strengths to co-create the life you both envision. Trust in the deep bond you share and maintain a positive mindset, knowing that your angels are steadfastly supporting your journey every step of the way.
Apple Inc. surprised investors with a decent beat on quarterly revenue from China, countering months of data that showed a quickening decline in iPhone sales. Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the 'Wonderlust' event at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, US. (Reuters)

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said iPhone revenue in mainland China grew on a reported basis, before adjustments related to Covid supply chain disruptions in 2022. He reiterated Apples long-term optimism about a market thats shrinking but still accounted for 18% of the companys net sales.

Investors scrutinize the companys performance in China because of its role as both a huge market and global iPhone production base. Cook kept his remarks on the subject brief, leaving analysts to square those with independent data showing the iPhone is rapidly losing ground in the countrys mobile arena. On the call, he fielded questions on China from at least three analysts seeking clarification.

What are we missing, Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers asked, given the data points that were reported throughout the course of the last quarter?

Government data of new device registrations showed the iPhone down heavily in the first two months of the year, while analysts at Counterpoint Research saw a 19% decline in March-quarter sales in China. IDC, generally considered the benchmark for tracking the mobile industry, estimated global iPhone shipments slid 10% in the period. The discrepancy may arise from differences in the way analysts and Apple account for revenue.

We tracked a year-on-year decline in total value generated by iPhones in China in 1Q24, IDC analyst Will Wong said after Apples results. The average selling price played a key part in explaining why theres a difference. IDC counted the street prices (i.e. the prices that consumers paid), while Apple is likely using another price level, such as factory price, in its financial report.

Apples shares gained as much as 7.9% in extended trading Thursday, after it announced a $110 billion buyback and a smaller-than-expected decline in global sales. Suppliers in Asia, from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. to LG Innotek Co., surged on Friday after the report.

Apple doesnt dive deep into geographical data nor reveal iPhone shipments in general, leaving third-party analysts to parse available information. This years iPhone sales in China were more heavily skewed toward newer models, Counterpoint analyst Charles Moon said, nudging up the average selling price per unit. That may help explain how the companys unit sales could be down while revenue was up.

Mostly its the shift in product mix thats supporting the revenue number, Moon said. Counterpoint estimates Apples global ASP for the March quarter was $900, a new high for the period. New models accounted for around 80% share in Q1 2024 versus only two-thirds in Q1 2023, pushing ASPs higher.

The resurgence of Huawei Technologies Co. has transformed Chinas smartphone market since the summer. The Shenzhen-based firm, Apples strongest rival in the premium segment, reported a six-fold profit surge during the March quarter and was top of Canalys rankings for shipments in the country. Like the other researchers, Canalys found iPhone shipments in China down significantly.

On Thursdays call, Cook urged analysts to take the longer view and step back from the 90-day cycle.

What I see is a lot of people moving into the middle class in China, he said. We clearly have work there to do. I think it has been and is through last quarter, the most competitive market in the world.
A row of homeless tents line a block in the Tenderloin in San Francisco in 2020. Nick Otto/Special to the Chronicle 2020

San Franciscos homelessness department fails to adequately track money it spends on housing indigent people or to hold its nonprofit operators to performance goals, and it left hundreds of permanent supportive housing units vacant last year, a new city audit has found.

The audit also found despite increasing its annual spending on the unhoused by hundreds of millions of dollars, unsheltered homelessness jumped by 22% from 2017 to 2022.



Chief among the criticisms are that the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing failed to spend $73 million of $180 million in grant money budgeted for 130 contracts for housing operators in fiscal year 2021-22.

Toro Castano rearranges his tent on Castro Street in San Francisco in August. The citys homelessness department has failed to adequately track its spending, an audit finds. Michaela Vatcheva/Special to the Chronicle San Francisco operated a Safe Sleeping site on Gough Street in 2021. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

The department also failed to hit its targeted vacancy rate of 7% in its supportive housing network of more than 10,000 units between January 2022 and May 2023. That meant hundreds of units sat empty during that period.

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These shortcomings echoed criticisms leveled at the department in the last audit, issued in 2020, despite the citys spending on homelessness rising from $284 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year to $676 million in 2022-23.

The 99-page audit by the Budget and Legislative Analyst concluded that until the homelessness department figures out how to keep its supportive housing units filled and gets a better grip on money being spent on its system, chances of radically alleviating the citys vexing problem of homelessness are small. Homelessness promises to be a top issue in the November election when Mayor London Breed will try to keep her job by fending off three major challengers. Voters will be looking for signs the crisis is improving under her administration.

However, the audit found the department cannot ensure consistent and quality service delivery across its 130 permanent supportive housing contractors as it has not implemented standardized performance monitoring and corrective action practices, the report said. Without consistent metrics that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, the Department may not be able to identify higher-performing versus lower-performing contractors, it said. It argued that the department doesnt sufficiently record whether nonprofits have fixed shortcomings in how they provide services.

The report issued 17 recommendations to improve the department, saying it should do a better job of tracking spending and plans to add supportive housing units. It also should hold its nonprofits to rigorous performance standards, come up with consistent cost-per-unit goals and keep tighter track of what nonprofits are actually spending.

The report did note that the picture was not all bleak.

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The 2023 five-year plan to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50% is a marked improvement over the previous five-year plan, it said. And since its last sharply critical audit, the tracking system used to place people into housing has had significant enhancements, the city has pulled in hundreds of millions of new annual dollars from the 2018 tax measure Proposition C, and the city created the Homelessness Oversight Commission.

The audit also pointed out that the city exceeded its goals for adding shelter and supportive housing units between July 2020 and January 2022, adding more than 3,000 new housing units  double the goal  and 2,402 youth and adult shelter beds, exceeding the target of 2,100.

Unlike every other major city on the West Coast, San Franciscos most recently reported homeless count, taken on one night in 2022, actually dipped  logging in at 7,754, a 3.5% drop over the previous 2019 count. However, the new audit points out that the tally is 13% higher than in 2017.

In her written response to the audit, department Executive Director Shireen McSpadden noted the improvements made since the 2020 assessment.

Many of the reports recommendations are already well underway, and HSH looks forward to implementing many of these strategies in 2024 and beyond, McSpadden wrote.

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Emily Cohen, spokesperson for the homelessness department, echoed that to the Chronicle and said the audit used outdated data that doesnt reflect the significant system changes weve already put into place.

McSpadden also said in her response that she was focused on reducing vacancies. She said that as of the end of January, the vacancy rate was just over the goal, at 7.1%.

One of the major reasons units sit empty is because of needed repairs on aging buildings. Despite recent investments, the audit said the maintenance needs far exceed current allocations.

The Board of Supervisors approved $20 million in this years budget for unit repairs, but the audit states that the departments ability to ensure nonprofits are properly using the funds is limited because the agency does not conduct housing quality inspections. Such inspections are required only on units funded by federal investments, and they are conducted by the Department of Building Inspection.

Supervisor Dean Preston, chair of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, said in a statement that the report highlights crucial improvements made by the department to fill vacant units but also a failure to consistently inspect housing units and monitor nonprofits.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he and his company remains optimistic about Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments during an investors call after the latest quarterly earnings. Apple's quarterly results and forecast beat modest expectations as the iPhone maker unveiled a record share buyback program. Apple increased its cash dividend by 4% and authorized an additional program to buy back $110 billion of stock as the company's quarterly revenue fell. However, Tim Cook said revenue growth would return in the current quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook gestures at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Tim Cook on Apple's investments in AI

Tim Cook said Apple is making significant investments in AI, adding, We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI."

He also said Apple sees generative AI as a very key opportunity across our products" as the company is set to host its annual developer conference  WWDC  on June 10 which is likely to focus on AI-powered innovations.

He told investors, We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI. We believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple's unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration, groundbreaking Apple's silicon, with our industry-leading neural engines and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.

What Apple chief financial officer said on AI

Luca Maestri, chief financial officer, said that Apple has been investing heavily in innovation across the board. He said, We are obviously very excited about the opportunity with Gen AI. We obviously are pushing very hard on innovation on every front and we've been doing that for many, many years."
A Jammu-bound train was searched for 40 minutes at Rani Kamalapti station in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal on Friday morning after one of the passengers claimed that there was a suspicious object onboard, an official of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) said. Representative Image. (HT File)

The Pune-Jammu Tawi Jhelum Express was searched at Rani Kamalapati station around 9 am, but the information turned out to be a hoax, RPF commandant Prashant Yadav said.

One of the passengers onboard the train informed the ticket checker about the presence of a suspicious object, following which the train was halted at Rani Kamalapati station, he said.

However, nothing suspicious was found during the search, which lasted for about 40 minutes, and the train left for its destination at 9.40, the official said.

The passenger is being interrogated, he added.
In a significant breakthrough against cross-border narcotic smuggling operations, Punjab Police on Friday arrested a smuggler and recovered 5kg of drugs, comprising 4kg of Methamphetamine, commonly known as Ice, and 1kg of heroin. Drones were used by a Pakistan-based drug smuggler to transport the drugs in Amritsar district on Friday. (File photo)

Drones were used by a Pakistan-based drug smuggler to transport the drugs.

Also read: Punjab Police recover 48kg of heroin in Jalandhar, arrest three of family

In an intelligence-led operation against trans-border narcotic smuggling networks, CI Amritsar has apprehended one person and seized 4kg Ice (Methamphetamine) and 1kg heroin. Drones were used to transport drugs from Pakistan-based smugglers. An FIR under the NDPS Act has been registered at SSOC, Amritsar, and investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages. Punjab Police is committed to dismantling drug networks and making our state drug-free, Punjab director general of police Gaurav Yadav posted on X.

On April 29, Punjab Police recorded the biggest heroin seizure of 2024 when the Jalandhar commissionerate police busted an international drug syndicate and arrested three operatives, all members of a family. 48kg of heroin was recovered. The accused are members of a syndicate actively involved in trans-border and inter-state drug smuggling. 21 lakh in drug money was confiscated along with a cash-counting machine and three high-end vehicles.

Yadav had posted on X: The syndicates tentacles stretch across Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Canada, alongside a domestic network spanning Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat. Heroin was smuggled via the Gujarat sea route and J&K land route. Turkey-based Navpreet Singh, a resident of Beas near Amritsar is the main handler, who was also involved in a 350kg heroin seizure in 2021 by Delhi Police.
The Delhi high court on Thursday permitted jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia to meet his ailing wife once a week, under the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Manish Sisodia allowed to meet his ailing wife once a week under custody

Sisodia's wife, Seema, has been suffering from an acute attack of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune condition of the central nervous system.

The high court gave the permission while listening to Sisodia's plea challenging a trial court's April 30 order that dismissed his bail plea in the money laundering case. The AAP leader had also urged the court to continue the trial courts order allowing him to meet his ailing wife once a week in custody during the pendency of his pleas. His request was allowed as the counsel for ED submitted that the probe agency has no objection if the order is continued.

Responding to Sisodia's bail plea, Delhi high court's Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma sought a response from the ED and CBI and listed the matter for further hearing on May 8.

The former Delhi deputy chief minister approached the high court on Thursday, two days after he was denied bail by a special court in separate cases against him in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy. According to the special court, Sisodia, individually and along with other accused, contributed to the delay in court proceedings related to the Delhi excise policy.

The CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26 last year, stating that they recovered several incriminating evidence against the AAP leader in the excise policy case. Delhi's Rouse Avenue court later sent Manish Sisodia to Tihar jail. The Enforcement Directorate later arrested him from the jail.

(With inputs from PTI)
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday mocked former Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hours after the party announced that Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from his mother Sonia Gandhis former constituency, Rae Bareli. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in West Bengal (Twitter Photo)

Addressing an election rally at Bardhaman in West Bengal, the PM said that Rahul had run away fearing defeat from Amethi. Modi said he had already predicted that Rahul would lose from Wayanad and look for another constituency and mocked the Congress leader for contesting from a second seat, Rae Bareli.

I had already said that Shehzade (prince) would lose in Wayanad and out of fear of losing in Wayanad he would start looking for a third seat the moment voting ends there. All his loyalists were expecting that he would go to Amethi. But he panicked so much that he ran from there too and is now looking towards Rae Bareli, Modi said.

Rahul is already contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Keralas Wayanad district, where he is a sitting MP.

These people (Congress) keep going around telling people daro mat. Today I will also tell them... Arey daro mat, bhaago ma,. Modi said.

Also Read: Why Congress fielded Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli

Ending days of suspense, Congress on Friday announced that Rahul will contest the Lok Sabha elections from his mothers former constituency, Rae Bareli. The BJP has fielded Dinesh Pratap Singh from the seat.

The Rae Bareli seat was vacated by Sonia Gandhi after she became a member of the Rajya Sabha earlier this year.

Rahul represented the Amethi seat from 2004, serving as its MP for three consecutive terms. In 2019, he was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Partys Smriti Irani. Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma will contest from Amethi. Both constituencies will vote on May 20.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareli, Congress fields KL Sharma from Amethi

Modi also took a dig at the former Congress chief, without naming Sonia, the PM said, I had said in the Parliament when elections were at least two to three months away, that their biggest leader would not dare to contest the election. She will run away out of fear. She fled to Rajasthan from where she came to the Rajya Sabha. That is exactly what has happened, he said.

The Congress, however, hit back saying that Modi was trying to divert the attention from his failures and attacking the opposition on flimsy grounds.

We can name a hundred BJP leaders who have contested from two Lok Sabha seats in the past. Modi has failed as a Prime Minister and is trying to divert the attention. Hence, he is attacking the opposition on such flimsy grounds. He should tell people about what he has done all these years. People know his failures and will vote on that basis, said Soumya Aich Roy, Congress leader in West Bengal.
The Raj Bhavan in Kolkata has witnessed many acrimonious events play out between the elected state government and the Governor. Verbal duels between former governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and chief minister Mamata Banerjee were too frequent as were disagreements over decisions, some of which were made public through letters and open confrontation. West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose. (PTI Photo)

Late on Thursday, the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata was back in the news, for all wrong reasons. An employee has accused West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose of molestation, an allegation he has vehemently denied.

The claim comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis two-day visit to the state. The PM is scheduled to be hosted at the Governors residence as per protocol.

The allegation has further strained ties between the state government and Raj Bhavan. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has dubbed it as shameful and accused Bose of having maligned his position to torture a woman.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has predictably rubbished the allegation and called it a political vendetta. Bose is a former bureaucrat and was appointed Governor in November 2022.

BJP leader Dilip Ghosh criticised the TMC and said, This is nothing new. This is TMCs politics. I dont know how low they will stoop.

HT has reported that the woman, a contractual staffer at the Raj Bhavan, told the police that the Governor molested her at least twice in his chamber since April 24.

In a statement issued by Raj Bhavan, Bose said, Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal

Authorities at the Raj Bhavan have also barred the police from conducting any investigation.

The friction between the state government and the Governor came to light when Boses proposal to create posts of student vice-chancellors from among extraordinary meritorious students at universities was opposed by the state education department. This was followed by the state protesting the Governors decision to appoint interim vice-chancellors for 11 state universities. After the government stopped payment of allowances and other financial entitlements to them, the issue reached the Calcutta high court, which held the appointments as valid.

The state governments relationship with Dhankhar was also marked by acrimony. There were frequent tussles over issues related to administration, law and order, with the governor claiming his authority was being undermined.

In 2020, after one such back and forth between Raj Bhavan and the CMO, Dhankhar shot off a 14-page letter to Banerjee, accusing her of having abjectly failed in combating the crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic. The CM retorted, ...You appear to have forgotten that I am an elected chief minister of a proud Indian state. You also seem to have forgotten that you are a nominated Governor...
KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over contesting from two Lok Sabha seats, saying PM Modi and many others from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have done the same in the past. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee with TMC candidate Mahua Moitra during an election rally in Nadia on Thursday. (ANI FILE)

He (Modi) unnecessarily made a statement this morning. Although CPI(M), Congress and BJP are contesting as partners in Bengal, he referred to the Congress and asked why Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rai Bareli. He (Rahul) has done what he wanted. He has every right. How does it concern you? You also fought from two seats in the past. Many in your party did it, Mamata Banerjee said at a Trinamool Congress rally at the Burdwan East constituency.

It seems he (Modi) has no work to do. A prime minister doesnt even know what should be said, and what shouldnt, Banerjee said, referring to the barbs that PM Modi threw at Rahul Gandhi from an election rally in Bengals Burdwan district after the Congress announced that the Wayanad MP would also contest from Rae Bareli.

She did not elaborate. To be sure, PM Modi contested from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. He won both seats and opted to retain the Varanasi seat.

Also Read: PM Modi mocks Rahul Gandhi over Rae Bareli move, says he panicked

At the Burdwan rally earlier in the day, PM Modi said he had spoken about the Congress losing the elections in his Parliament speech. When their senior leader quit her Lok Sabha seat and entered Parliament through Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, it was evident they sensed defeat, he said, a reference to Sonia Gandhis decision not to contest from the Gandhi family pocket borough Rae Bareli due to health reasons. On Friday, the Congress announced Rahul Gandhi will contest from the constituency.

Now, the shehzada of Congress, who went to Wayanad after losing the Amethi seat, is also contesting from Rae Bareli. He knows he will lose Wayanad this time, Modi said, referring to Rahul Gandhis decision to contest from Rae Bareli.

He said Rahul Gandhi should not be afraid and keep running away.

I had said earlier that the prince, after the polling in Wayanad, would look for another seat, due to fear of defeat in that constituency. Now, he had to run away from Amethi and chose the Rae Bareli seat. They go around and ask people not to feel afraid. I would tell them the same thing - dont be afraid and dont run away, PM Modi said.

Over the past two weeks, Modi has upped his aggression on the campaign trail, first accusing the Congress of trying to siphon away reservations meant for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, and give them to Muslims, then alleging the opposition party wanted to redistribute wealth to Muslims, pointing to a 2006 speech by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had said that the first right over the countrys resources should go to minorities, particularly Muslims. The Congress has said that the BJP is misrepresenting Singhs remark, and that the PM had only spoken of the need to empower the marginalised, including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and Muslims.
Allahabad University (AU) is living up to its reputation as a nursery of politicians yet again as many of its former students are trying their luck in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Dharmendra Yadav, former Samajwadi Party MP from Mainpuri and Budaun, has been fielded from Azamgarh seat this time. Allahabad University has a rich history in Indian politics. (For Representation)

Having done his graduation from AU in 1999, LLB in 2002 and MA (political science) in 2004, he is among the young leaders in the poll fight vying to make it to the parliament again. Neeraj Tripathi, former additional advocate general of UP and son of former West Bengal governor and former UP Assembly speaker Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is in the fray as a BJP candidate from Allahabad seat, is also a former AU student. He did his BA from the university in 1989.

BJP MP from Kaushambi Vinod Sonkar is another alumnus of the Oxford of the East in the race this time. He is striving to retain his seat for third term in a row this time. Sonkar did his BA from AU in 1995. Another AU alumnus in electoral race is Praveen Patel, a two-time MLA from Phulpur seat of Prayagraj and BJP candidate for Phulpur parliamentary seat in 2024.

Patel won his first assembly election from Phulpur in 2007 on a BSP ticket. In 2012, Patel entered the fray again but lost to SPs Syed Ahmed. Before the 2017 assembly elections, he joined the BJP and was named its candidate from the same seat.

He defeated SPs Mansoor Alam by bagging 93,912 (42.24%) votes against 67,299 (30.27%) votes polled by Mansoor. Another AU pass out in the fray is Samajwadi Partys candidate from Prayagrajs Phulpur seat Amar Nath Singh Maurya who did his BA from AU in 1986 and LLB in 1989.

BSP candidate from Kaushambi Shubh Narayan Gautam, a retired deputy SP, is also a former AU student who passed his MA in 1984.

AUs rich history in Indian politics

Allahabad University has given many a top politicians to the country, including a President and two prime ministers. They are former PMs VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar besides former chief ministers like ND Tiwari of UP and Madan Lal Khurana of Delhi to name just a few.

VP Singh, who became the 8th PM of India and also served as UP CM from 1980 to 82, was also an AU alumnus who served even as vice-president of AU Students Union during his college days. The 9th PM Chandra Shekhar did his post graduation in political science from AU in 1951.

Janeshwar Mishra or Chote Lohia is another big name to come from AU campus. Having done his BA from AU, Mishra won for the first time from Phulpur parliamentary seat in 1969 and went on to serve as Union minister of state for petroleum in 1977, for communication in 1989 and became a Rajya Sabha member in 1994. In 1996, he was appointed Union water resources minister.

Former UP CM Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna served as member of AU students union working committee before starting his political career that saw him serving as ministers at various levels between 1958 and 1979.

Murli Manohar Joshi, who did his MSc and later PhD from AU and also served as professor of physics later went on to serve as Union MHRD minister.

Arjun Singh, also a former MHRD minister, ex-Punjab governor and two-time chief minister of MP, was also a product of AU and was an active student leader during his college days.

Even Narayan Dutt Tiwari, former UP and Uttarakhand CM and Andhra Pradesh governor, did his studies at AU and even served as AU students union president in 1947.

Indias 9th President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was also a product of AU and was active in students politics during his student days here.

In 1977, he served as communication minister in the Indira Gandhis government and later served as governor of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab besides Indias Vice-President.

Senior BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi is also a former AU student. After completing her education, she also served as a medieval and modern history professor of the university for years before quitting to devote herself fully to politics.

An AU alumna with a PhD from the university that she earned in 1981, Rita had won the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate in 2019.
A Congress loyalist and silent worker, Kishori Lal Sharma, who has remained associated with Amethi and nurtured the Lok Sabha constituency for nearly 40 years, said he drew his strength from the people and the Gandhi family. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addresses supporters at the party office before filing of nomination papers by partys Amethi candidate Kishori Lal Sharma for the Lok Sabha elections, in Amethi on Friday. (ANI PHOTO)

I draw my strength from the people of constituency and the Gandhi family. I will contest the election on the peoples issues, Sharma said to Hindustan Times.

The Congress has fielded KL Sharma as its candidate from Amethi, once considered the party bastion. Rahul Gandhi, who won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 2004, 2009 and 2014, is contesting the 2024 poll from the neighbouring Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat. He lost the poll to Union minister Smriti Irani in 2019.

After joining active politics, Rajiv Gandhi brought KL Sharma or Kishori (as he is popularly known), to Amethi from Ludhiana, Punjab, in 1983.

On how he will fight the election against Union minister Smriti Irani, who is in the fray in the constituency again, Sharma said. I have consistently worked for the people here since 1983. So, the people of the constituency will contest the election and reply to the issues raised here.

A senior party functionary said KL Sharma initially worked in Tiloi, an assembly segment of Amethi, as party coordinator.

Sharma has now risen to the position of Congress candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. After Rajiv Gandhis death (Rajiv Gandhi won the seat in 1984, 1989 and 1991), he worked with Captain Satish Sharma who won the seat in 1991 (bypoll), 1996 and 1998.

KL Sharma worked as a representative of Sonia Gandhi when she joined politics and became a first- time MP from Amethi in 1999. He became the constituency incharge and MP representative of both Amethi and Rae Bareli when Sonia Gandhi shifted to Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi became the first-time MP from Amethi in 2004.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi reached Amethi on Friday to address party workers before Sharma filed his nomination papers from the constituency. She said she would camp in Amethi from May 6 onwards to the end to campaign for Sharma.
Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) camps heaved a sigh of relief and broke out in jubilation on Friday after a Gandhi family member finally jumped into the poll fray in Uttar Pradesh after months of suspense and tense speculations over the Congress candidacies for Rae Bareli and Amethi parliamentary constituencies. Rahul Gandhi with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh last month. (Ajay Aggarwal/ HT Photo)

Once a family bastion, Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and with sitting Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi entering the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, the opposition camp was in a huddle over the family pocket borough of Rae Bareli. With the announcement on Friday, once again a Gandhi member is contesting for Lok Sabha from the state.

A lot transpired behind the scenes for months, especially over the last three days, before the Congress ended the uncertainty on the last day of filing of nominations for 14 parliamentary seats in UP, including Rae Bareli and Amethi that will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth phase.

SP and its national president Akhilesh Yadav were restive over the perceived concerns that Gandhis for the first time in 25 years might not contest the elections in UP. Yadav, an SP source says, held early morning talks over the phone, separately with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi, with the appeal that the the Gandhi family not contesting Rae Bareli and Amethi would be detrimental to the prospects of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh and the country.

However, there was no definite sign from the Congress to the SP about the candidates for the two seats. On Thursday night, the Congress contacted Yadav to give his opinion on the two constituencies. Yadav reportedly maintained his stance and urged that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi must contest from both.

Prior to this, the Congress held meetings, on Wednesday and Thursday, in Delhi on this matter. The indecision was so complex that some Congress leaders were even asked by the party high command to dial some politically oriented people in UP to get their opinions and even suggest alternatives.

The problem was not on the part of the Congress naming Rahul or Priyanka, but the reluctance of the two leaders to contest the elections. The Congress leadership, both in Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi, had been insisting that the bother-sister duo must take on the challenge after (February this year) Sonia Gandhi relinquished her seat.

Even in a meeting late on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi refused to contest elections from Amethi for he did not want to jeopardise the narrative he painstakingly built of being PM Modis opponent and there was no way that he would dilute it by contesting against Smriti Irani. He was somehow persuaded to move to Rae Bareli citing the heritage and bonding the Gandhi family enjoys with locals, a senior Congress leader said.

Senior party functionary Kishori Lal Sharma being fielded from Amethi did not come as a big surprise to many as his name was doing the rounds, for Rae Bareli, among several other prospective candidates for the two seats alongside former UP Congress MLC Deepak Singh and Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra Mona.

There also was palpable anger within SP over Gandhis stance, for many in our party thought what is the point of a seat-sharing agreement when the Congress were hesitant on fielding winnable candidates on them?. Our party had even opined to the Congress that if not the Gandhis, the Congress should at least field its national president Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior Dalit face of the INDIA bloc, as one Gandhi and one tall Dalit leader could have a good impact. However, Rahul Gandhi and KL Sharma are good choices. Our partys local units as well as the state unit will put all our force behind the two candidates, said one of SPs negotiators in the INDIA bloc.

Sharma is a native of Ludhiana in Punjab but has his political base in Amethi and Rae Bareli being a close confidante of the Gandhi family. He began working with the family when Rajiv Gandhi had won the Amethi bypolls after the death of the then Amethi MP and Rajivs brother Sanjay Gandhi. Sharma had worked in both Amethi and Rae Bareli for the Gandhis in successive elections since then. He was also Sonia Gandhis representative in Rae Bareli since 2004.

UP minister Dinesh Pratap Singh is the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli, a seat the Congress has not lost since 1999.

With this, the Congress and the SP have named their candidates on all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, of which the SP is contesting on 63 and the Congress on 17.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco defended its leader after the Chronicles reporting of his close connections to mayoral campaigns and recent scrutiny of a previous incident in which he was arrested but not charged after a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

A powerful moderate San Francisco political group defended its leader after the Chronicles reporting of his close connections to mayoral campaigns and recent scrutiny of a nearly 14-year-old incident in which he was arrested but not charged after a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault.

Board members from Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, two deep-pocketed nonprofits linked to some of the biggest moderate causes in recent city elections, said in a Wednesday email to donors that after carefully weighing both matters, they will keep Jay Cheng as their executive director.

The email was sent about an hour after Cheng wrote to Nancy Tung, the head of the San Francisco Democratic Party, which recently set up a committee to review reports of sexual misconduct in city politics. Cheng told Tung he wanted to be transparent about the sexual assault allegation, which prompted his 2011 resignation as a student regent for the University of California system.

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Cheng, who denies the allegation, attended UC Irvine at the time and went by his given name, Jesse. While the incident was widely reported, including by the Chronicle, it has attracted renewed attention as Cheng has gained power in San Francisco political circles. In recent days, Chengs opponents have brought up the episode, including on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

Neighbors board members acknowledged the incident in their email, saying that while the accusations against Cheng were of a serious nature, members believe this matter is behind him because no criminal or civil charges were filed against him and no further accusations have occurred.

Backed by billionaire conservative mega-donor William Oberndorf and other wealthy people, Neighbors has thrown its weight behind moderate causes in San Francisco, including the 2022 recalls of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three school board members.

Neighbors has both a 501(c) (3) nonprofit arm that cant participate in political campaigns and a 501(c) (4) offshoot that can do political work. Cheng told the Chronicle that the email defending him came from both boards.

Cheng has been in the spotlight recently because of his ties to two mayoral candidates  particularly the moderate Mark Farrell, a former supervisor and appointed mayor who is one of the most serious challengers to Mayor London Breeds reelection bid.

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The Chronicle reported Monday that Cheng had told a local political insider they could land a $15,000-per-month job as a consultant for Farrell, telling them the offer is open and well hold the position for you as long as you need. Cheng also last year introduced another leading candidate, Daniel Lurie, to a consultant months before he launched his campaign.

Chengs ties to Farrells campaign staffing discussions could pose a problem if his Neighbors group later decided it wanted to take advantage of local laws that allow for unlimited spending to support candidates as long as the groups doing the spending arent coordinating directly with campaigns. Chengs wife runs another moderate advocacy organization, TogetherSF Action, that previously employed multiple Farrell campaign staffers.

Neighbors board members said in their email that in March they became aware of Cheng referring an individual to work for Mark Farrells campaign. Neighbors hasnt taken a position on the mayors race yet, and the board told him he must not have any interactions with any of the mayoral candidates or their campaigns going forward, the board said in the email.



To the best of our knowledge, no such interactions have taken place since that time, the email said. Importantly, after checking with our legal counsel we have been informed that, despite recent press accounts, no legal or ethical lines have been crossed by Jay in making such a referral.

Cheng was arrested in November 2010 on suspicion of misdemeanor sexual battery, but the Orange County District Attorneys Office declined to file charges. An office spokesperson, Kimberly Edds, told the Chronicle this week that it declined to prosecute because there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

A campus student conduct investigation determined that Cheng touched the former girlfriend without her consent, which Cheng denied, the Chronicle reported at the time.

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In a statement released to the press at the time, Cheng said he had done nothing wrong. He said the alleged incident occurred after he broke up with his partner of nearly a year. On one of several occasions when he saw her after the split, Cheng said in the statement, they engaged in consensual contact but did not have sex. A week after that incident, Cheng said in the statement, his former partner accused him of sexually assaulting her and called him as many as 50 times a day. Cheng said that she later demanded he write emails apologizing to her.

Exhausted, I sent out those emails, Cheng wrote at the time. What I said in those emails are not true and did not reflect my behavior, but I thought that by adopting her language and meeting the standards she set out, we could both move forward.

In his email to Tung, the local Democratic Party chair, Cheng wrote, Ive done my best to move forward from the false allegation with humility. Ive dedicated myself to the community & San Francisco and am now raising my young family in the city. I have been married 6 years and my wife and I have a three-year-old son. One of the reasons I want to speak openly about this now is because I dont want our son to grow up with this question lingering in the air.

The committee Tung set up had its first meeting Thursday, attended by about 50 people, some of whom spoke of their own painful experiences when they were sexually assaulted or harassed. Several described the frustration and betrayal they felt after reporting their mistreatment, and being ignored or having their experiences downplayed.

The new committee included members Emma Heiken, Trevor Chandler, Bilal Mahmood, Lily Ho, Carrie Barnes and Michael Nguyen. While Tung created the committee, she did not preside over its first meeting, citing negotiations with her employer about her role leading the group.

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AGRA A day after chief minister Yogi Adityanaths road show in Mainpuri, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said leaders from the BJP were merely coming to see Mainpuri as a formality, but the poll results on June 4 will let them know that the SP has won in the constituency by a record margin. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and sitting MP Dimple Yadav during a public meeting in Kisni village (Mainpuri) on Friday. (Sourced)

Those from Lucknow (chief minister Yogi Adityanath) came and held a road show...stay alert against these outsiders (BJP leaders) who come with false promises, said Yadav in Kisni assembly segment of Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency on Friday.

He was accompanied by his wife Dimple Yadav, sitting MP from Mainpuri that is going to polls on May 7. It is one of the most high-profile seats amongst six Lok Sabha seats going to polls in Braj area during the third phase of elections.

CM Yogi Adityanath had held an impressive road show in the heart of Mainpuri city on Friday. Union home minister Amit Shah, who was also there, asked BJP workers not to be afraid in this Yadav heartland and promised them protection from the Election Commission.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to address a public meeting in the nearby district of Etawah on May 5, seeking votes for BJP candidates in four parliamentary constituencies.

Leaders from BJP are coming to Mainpuri these days...they are merely doing this as a formality. They come here to see Mainpuri...on election day, they will see victory of SP candidate by a record margin, said Yadav.

SP candidate Dimple Yadav was sharing the podium with party chief Akhilesh Yadav for the first time at a major rally this poll season in Mainpuri and termed this election as one for change.

This election is for change...pressure politics is on from the state to central level...this is not good for democracy. In fact, the BJP does not want democracy to flourish in the nation...chief ministers of two states are jailed. We need to fight to save the democracy and constitution, said Dimple Yadav who asked party workers not to be afraid as SP and its leaders were with them.
In Baramati, the home turf of the Pawars and the pocket borough of the Nationalist Congress Party, the contest is between sisters-in-law Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar. Sule is the daughter of the house, was in the Rajya Sabha since 2006 and later elected to the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Pawar, married into the household, was content being wife to Ajit Pawar till this election when the NCP, split last year, propped her up as a candidate of her husbands faction. Whichever way Baramati votes, a Pawar will win. Sunetra Pawar, Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar, Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis at a political rally. Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray's portrait is seen at the back. (HT)

Political work may not have been a family enterprise for all budding politicians but electoral representation has been that in India. Besides, nepotism or dynastic succession has hardly been limited to the Congress party; the list of dynasts runs long in the BJP as well as regional parties. As this trend becomes more entrenched with every election, except in the Left parties, and an increasing number of dynasts bag party nominations and get elected, the approach of consolidating power, command and wealth within the family  as in a business empire  takes precedence over political essentials like ideology and representation.

In Maharashtras politics, as parties like the NCP and Shiv Sena split, this has also meant an erosion of, among other things, all things Maharashtrian. Examples abound. Girgaum in south Mumbai and the Dadar-Parel-Lalbaug belt in central Mumbai were once the citadels of Maharashtrians, representing the identity, culture, language and ethos of the Marathi manus. In the last 15 years or so, these areas have seen an increasing blend of residents from other linguistic communities and cultures  more Gujarati in the by-lanes of Girgaum, more Hindi or Hinglish than before in Dadar-Parel.

This may be a hat-tip to the citys once-admired cosmopolitanism but to many Maharashtrians it sounds and looks like the unmaking of Mumbais Marathipann or what was popularly termed as Marathiasmita. The erosion or transformation  depending on ones perspective  has happened, ironically, under the watch of political parties such as Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena which claimed to speak for and uphold the interests of the Marathi manus.

As the states politics witnessed a changeover to BJP-style socio-political domination over the political landscape, despite the long-standing alliance with the Sena in which the latter had the upper hand, Maharashtrian sub-nationalism and identity appear to have become feeble. The sub-nationalism has had varied expressions  from geography to culture, from the political left to the right, from Dalits to the upper castes. The salute-shout Jai Hind is not complete till Jai Maharashtra is added to it.

Among those who articulated it fiercely in the political arena was the Sena chief, the late Bal Thackeray. The Sena indulged in belligerent and violent expression of the Maharashtrian identity and, wrongly, claimed to be the sole or strongest representative of the interests of Maharashtrians, especially in cities. Despite the self-appointed saviour status and its unbroken majority in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections since 1985, the number of Marathi medium schools in the city dwindled from 483 in 2010-11 to 280 a decade later, a 42 percent decrease, to take but one example.

Whether in cities or beyond them, Marathi sub-nationalism and identity assertion found guardians and advocates in politicians who took them to the corridors of power in New Delhi. With the engineered split of the Shiv Sena and NCP, and the Congress unable to find its once-powerful voice in the state, the Maharashtrian sub-nationalist expression has been sort of flattened. The BJP in Maharashtra has been quiet about Marathi asmita, attempting to subsume it into the pan-Indian Hindu identity it is shaping.

That leaves the question and space open: who speaks for the Marathi manus and Maharashtra in Delhi anymore?

Sure, the state government led by both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde got the Marathi Bhasha Bhavan off the ground but several other issues have been erased from political agendas  declaration of Marathi as a classical language, farmers suicides issue that needs constant airing in the Parliament, the shift of mega investments from Maharashtra to other states, the continued attack on the states ecology  for example, along the pristine Konkan coast  to locate mega projects, the border issue with Karnataka, and so on. Even the reformist and rationalist voices from Maharashtra are heard less, except in select safe circles.

This has to do, at least partly, with the trajectory of state politics turning into family enterprises in recent years when dynastic succession  family name  became the calling card for political success. The Pawars, Patils, Deshmukhs, Shindes, Chavans, Bhonsles, Thackerays, Mohite-Patils, Mahajan-Mundes, Khadses, Ranes, Tatkares, Deoras, Gawlis, Gaikwads and more have their younger generation in the political fray, across political parties, in key roles if not as candidates in elections. Virtually no party in Maharashtra is free of dynasts staking claim at power; though the late Thackeray used to ridicule the Congress about the Gandhi dynasty, not only his second generation (Uddhav and Raj) but even the third generation (Aaditya) is in electoral politics.

Given their clout and hold over the network of cooperatives ranging from banks and credit societies to sugar factories and dairies, the younger generation  often the third since the cooperatives were established  have been parachuted into significant roles in these places irrespective of their familiarity with the ground situation or knowledge of the management of the cooperatives. This feeds their politics. In an era where political ideology matters less and politics is more an enterprise, the key purpose of political power seems to be to keep power within the family or clan.

When four mega projects with a total investment of nearly 1.8 lakh crore, which were to be situated in Maharashtra and provide jobs, moved out of the state within four months in 2022 to relocate to Gujarat, the then leader of opposition Ajit Pawar spoke up for Maharashtra. Taking a swipe at the newly sworn-in government of Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis, he told a news agency: Despite having 100 times more conducive environment for business in the state compared to other states, we are losing the projects. In January 2024, after he had switched loyalties and become deputy chief minister, Pawar remarked that the government would not have sat silent if our projects went to Gujarat.

If Pawar is politically and ideologically fluid to speak on both sides of the debate, and there are others like him, who, then, speaks for Maharashtra?

Smruti Koppikar is a Mumbai-based independent journalist, essayist and city chronicler. This article is part of an 8-segment series about issues that are crucial to Maharashtras development.
A huge cache of explosives including 200 kilograms of gelatin sticks and 200 detonators were recovered in Mizorams Aizawl city, police said. The explosives were recovered from a vehicle which was coming from Mamit district. (Representative file photo)

The operation was conducted by Assam Rifles along with Mizoram Police.

On Tuesday evening, a 45-year-old local resident was arrested for his involvement, officials said.

The explosives were recovered from a vehicle which was coming from Mamit district.

In another case, police in Mizoram seized explosives transported from Myanmar, officials said.

One person was arrested in the case, police said.

Acting on a tip off, the authorities launched an operation on the outskirts of Aizawl on Tuesday morning and intercepted a vehicle coming from Champhai district.

A team of Hnahthial Police Station staff intercepted vehicle and recovered 8,000 gelatin sticks and 1,500 detonators from it, officials said.

Also Read: 17 detonators, 16 gelatin sticks seized from boat in Diva Creek

According to an initial probe, the explosives were transported from Myanmar to Mizorams Sangau town first.

The vehicle was heading towards Aizawl. We are trying to find its original destination. We have arrested the driver of the vehicle, officials added.

The arrested person has been identified and he is a resident of Sangau town in South Mizoram Lawngtlai district.

A case has been registered against him under section 5(a) of the Explosive Substances Act, police said.

Police on Tuesday evening also detained the owner of the vehicle from Sangau town. The owner identified as Straliana is a resident of Bungtlang area of Mizorams Serchhip district, according to the police.
The Hinjewadi IT Park, one of Indias largest IT clusters with over 5 lakh employees, has been deprived of basic amenities and facilities for a while. The Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park consists of three phases and houses about 150 to 200 IT companies, most of which are multinational corporations. The IT Park boosted real estate in its vicinity, and several elite societies and towers came up in the nearby villages like Hinjewadi, Mhalunge, Maan, Marunji, Punawale and Wakad. Traffic seen at Wakad bridge to Shivaji Chowk, Hinjewadi IT Park, Pune. (HT FILE)

The local administration is divided into Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA), Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Gram-Panchayat.

The Hinjewadi IT Park and surrounding villages, where the techies dwell, are mostly part of the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. The IT Park employees are among the highest tax-paying workforces in these areas but suffer to get basic infrastructure. However, considering the long-pending issues, IT professionals are sceptical about their MP meeting their expectations.

Thus far, the elected members have failed to provide basic infrastructure, including water, waste management, traffic management, power supply, and security for the lakhs of IT employees living in the plush towers located in the vicinity.

Pavanjit Mane, an IT employee said most of the IT Park lacks basic infrastructure.

There are huge residential towers and townships which dont get a regular water supply. The residents have to depend on the water tankers for drinking and domestic purposes and spend a significant amount of money on them. Developers are granted construction permissions on the condition that they provide water for two to three years, after that the issue becomes perennial, he said.

As per the locals, several prominent roads in the Hinjewadi area lack pavements. The existing pavements are occupied by unauthorised vendors, with no action from the local authorities. In addition, the safety of women employees working in these companies should be given priority by the elected members.

Another techie, Vijay Patil said, the Metro is a welcome move from the government but will cater to only 10% of the commuters.

There are no good roads, and the area lacks planning, and the recently developed underpass is not up to the mark and not sustainable. Politicians make big promises ahead of elections but fail to fulfil them later. The internal roads in the IT park area are in bad shape and dilapidated. Traffic congestion is a big problem and public transport should be improved, Patil said.

Deepa Dhariwal, an IT Employee and resident of Marunji said, there are frequent power cuts in the society which has over 850 residents living in it.

Every day, the power outages begin at 8.30 am, and when contacted, the MSEB employees respond rudely and unprofessionally. Children and the elderly find it difficult to live without electricity in such extreme temperatures. The situation is similar in other societies, and it is affecting the employees work, she stated.
Yet another prominent college in Pune city is set to become autonomous. The Ness Wadia College of Commerce has applied for autonomy, which is likely to be granted in the next few days by the University Grants Commission (UGC). With this, the number of autonomous colleges affiliated to the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will reach 50. With this, the number of autonomous colleges affiliated to the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will reach 50. (HT FILE)

Vrishali Randhir, principal, Ness Wadia College of Commerce, said, The Ness Wadia College of Commerce has applied to the university for autonomy. It is expected that the college will soon get autonomy from the UGC. Therefore, in future, it will be possible to provide innovative and employment-oriented courses to students through the college. The students will also benefit from these courses.

Ness Wadia College of Commerce, run by Modern Education Society, applied for autonomy to the SPPU a few months ago. The university completed all the procedures and sent the proposal to the UGC along with the recommendation to grant autonomy to the college. The expert and experienced teaching staff of Ness Wadia College constantly tries to teach students in unique ways. The college has carved a niche for itself in the field of education. After getting autonomy, the college will be able to provide different courses to students in the coming academic years.

Earlier, prominent colleges in Pune such as Fergusson College, Modern College Shivajinagar, Ganesh Khind Modern College, S P College, and Garware College all affiliated to the SPPU have applied for and gained autonomy. Along with Pune, colleges in Ahmednagar and Nashik, too, have applied for and gained autonomy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged on Friday that the INDIA bloc government in Jharkhand looted the states resources and urged the voters to punish the Congress for eyeing to change the Constitution and take away reservation of the ST, SC, and OBCs and give it to the minorities based on religion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged on Friday that the INDIA bloc government in Jharkhand looted the states resources (PTI)

Addressing his first election rally in the state in Singhbhum, a Lok Sabha constituency reserved for scheduled tribes, Modi reached out to the tribal community, listing the achievements of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre for their welfare.

Hitting out at the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) over the issue of corruption, Modi said small-time leaders to the former chief minister have been involved in a land scam.

Jal Jungle Zameen (water, forest, land) is the identity of tribals. But the JMM and Congress think they own them and are looting the resources of the state. From small-time leaders to the former CM, they have robbed the state. Illegal mining worth several hundred crores was done in their area, alleged Modi.

Besides grabbing tribal land, they did not even spare the defence land. The state has seen a major land scam. JMM and Congress are competing with each other in corruption. 300 crore cash was seized from a Congress MP. They have maligned the image of Jharkhand. Will you pardon their sins? the Prime Minister added.

The remarks came on a day when the Jharkhand high court rejected former chief minister Hemant Sorens petition challenging his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on January 31 on money laundering charges in connection with an alleged land scam in the state capital.

Hitting out at the Congress manifesto, Modi alleged the party would change the Constitution and give a part of the reservation to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to the Muslims.

They want to survey the properties of the Dalits, Adivasis, poor, and OBCs. They want to give it to Muslims for vote bank politics. They want to change the Constitution. They want to give reservations based on religion. They have done it in Karnataka by issuing a fatwa that all Muslims are OBCs. But rest assured that they wont be able to take away the reservation granted by Babasaheb Ambedkar till the time Modi is alive, said Modi.

The allegations on the party manifesto have been refuted by the Congress leadership on successive occasions.

However, Modi said the Congress is running away from its challenge of giving it in writing that they would not change the constitution and give reservations to Muslims.

Besides hitting out at the Opposition, the Prime Minister also listed several welfare schemes and decisions of the Union government for tribal welfare and giving a global identity to tribal icons like Birsa Munda, whose birth anniversary is now recognised as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas.

The Prime Minister also held a roadshow in Ranchi on Friday on his way to Raj Bhawan, where he stayed overnight and would address two back-to-back rallies in Palamu and Lohardaga Lok Sabha seats on Saturday.

BJP workers and locals were lined up on either side of the around 8-km stretch from Hinoo Chowk near the airport to Raj Bhawan.

Modi arrived in the city after addressing his first election rally in the state in Singhbhum, seeking votes for party candidate Geeta Kora from Singhbhum and Arjun Munda from the neighbouring Khunti.

The party leaders had made special arrangements at different locations on the way, showering flowers on the open jeep Modi was mounted on for the roadshow.

Ranchis sitting MP and partys candidate Sanjay Seth and BJP legislature party leader Amar Bauri joined Modi on the vehicle during the roadshow.

Meanwhile, reacting to the allegations, JMM spokesperson Manoj Pandey said it shows BJPs desperation as they are eyeing defeat.

They have already stopped raising the abki baar 400 paar slogan. The allegations of corruption are baseless. Those who align with BJP get cleaned, while the rest are framed. People of the state would reply to them through the ballot, said Pandey.
Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Friday dismissed former chief minister Hemant Sorens petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges involving a tribal land in Ranchi district. Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren (File Photo)

A high court advocate familiar with the order said, Court had reserved its judgement on February 28. Thus the order came after 66 days since it was reserved.

The advocate citing the courts order said that Soren had moved the Supreme Court on April 25 expressing his concern over delayed judgment. The top court then issued a notice to ED seeking the agencys counter affidavit by May 6 on Sorens bail plea, while also allowing the high court to pronounce its verdict. Thus the order came eight days after he moved the apex court.

Sorens advocate Piyush Chitresh confirmed the order, without deliberating on its merits.

Also Read: SC seeks EDs response on Hemant Sorens interim bail plea

Soren was arrested on January 31 in a money laundering case involving the alleged illegal business of tribal land in Bargain.

On February 28, a division bench led by acting chief justice S. Chandrashekhar reserved its ruling on the matter after an extensive hearing over the issue for two consecutive days.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court sought a response from the ED on Sorens interim bail plea after the latter moved the top court. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought the agencys counter affidavit by May 6.

According to another advocate familiar with the matter, additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, representing the ED, stated to the high court that there was enough evidence against Soren for this plea to be denied.

It was argued before the court that an offence against the schedule is made out. Hemant Soren had acquired 8.5 acres in the Bargain circle with the assistance of sub-inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad, an ED official quoted ASG as saying.

The ASG had further argued that Soren visited this land thrice, and in his WhatsApp chat with Vinod Singh, it has come to light that a banquet hall will be built on this land, the ED official said.

The probe against Soren pertains to an 8.86-acre plot of land in Ranchi that the ED has alleged was illegally acquired by him. The money laundering investigation stems from multiple first information reports registered by the Jharkhand Police against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader.

Another advocate familiar with the development said that during the argument ASG Raju submitted that after Raj Kumar Pahan complained to the Bargain circle officer on August 16 last year about possession of Sorens land, on January 29, 2024, the SAR court finally gave the ownership of the said land to Pahan, suggesting a high-level conspiracy.

ASG Raju had argued that ownership right was also given to Pahan when the agency raided Sorens residence in Delhi, said the advocate mentioned above.

Also Read: Hemant Soren acutely non-cooperative in probe, claims ED

Raju argued that it was only after the first summons, the then-Jharkhand chief minister tried to destroy the evidence related to this case by using his power.

ED had first summoned Soren in the land scam case on August 8, 2023, and he was asked to appear on August 14, 2023. ED had issued 10 summons to Soren for questioning, out of which he appeared before the ED in only two summons.

During the recent hearing, ASG Raju was assisted by advocates AK Das and Saurabh Kumar.

Another high court advocate familiar with the argument said senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal presented his case virtually on behalf of Soren, while advocate general Rajeev Ranjan and advocate Piyush Chitresh assisted him.

Sibal, appearing on behalf of Soren, said that this is not a case of a scheduled offence and no case of money laundering is made out against the former CM.

He argued that the alleged acquisition and forceful possession of the 8.5 acres of land by Soren do not fall under scheduled offences and that the allegation that Soren is being made of tampering in Register 2 of the land records is wrong.
On Thursday, it was announced that Tom has joined the cast of Gandhi along with seven actors  Libby Mai, Molly Wright, Ralph Adeniyi, James Murray, Lindon Alexander, Jonno Davies, Simon Lennon. Tom, who became an international star with his performance as Draco Malfoy in eight Harry Potter movies based on author JK Rowling's bestselling book series, is already shooting for the project in London.

I am so happy that these international stars have come on board for the project. I will be joining the team in London somewhere in June and July. I am really excited to meet the whole team and to work with them. I am sure it will be a fun and enriching experience, Pratik tells us.

An authentic touch to the story

Pratik is essaying the role of Mahatma Gandhi in the show. The series, which will also feature Bhamini Oza as Kasturba Gandhi, is based on historian and author Ramachandra Guhas two books  Gandhi before India and Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World.

The journey of Gandhi, so far, has been so fun. Working with Tom and other actors also marks my first collaboration with international artists, which makes me realise about my journey. I have realised that it has been very fulfilling," he says.

Pratik adds, "Tom is a global star and a big name. I am supercharged about this addition. Gandhi as a subject is very good and it required these collabs to take the subject to a wider audience. With international actors on board, it will bring a lot of authenticity to the story.

Pratik started shooting for the series in February, and has shot in locations such as Mumbai and Gujarat.

About teaming up with Hansal again

Pratik shares a close bond with Hansal, which blossomed after the success of the streaming series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. Now, he is working with him again, and he calls it a dream team. (Read: Hansal Mehta, Jai Mehta exclusive interview on Lootere: We often limit ourselves by the way we think)

It is always a pleasure to work with Hansal sir, and it is fun to collaborate with him, he says, sharing that the series will bring forward untold stories related to the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

The audience can expect fresh stories from Mahatma Gandhis life which we have not read or studied. It brings a very fresh perspective, he shares.

On the work front, Pratik was last seen in Do Aur Do Pyaar, also starring Vidya Balan, Ileana DCruz and Sendhil Ramamurthy. (Read: Do Aur Do Pyaar: How Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi's film normalises infidelity, without glorifying it)
Mumbai, Fardeen Khan says his 2005 film "No Entry" is close to his heart and he hopes the upcoming sequel, which features a new cast, is as good as the original. HT Image

Producer Boney Kapoor recently announced that the sequel is actively being developed and will feature Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Arjun Kapoor in lead roles.

Anees Bazmee, who directed the first part starring Fardeen, Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor, is returning for the follow-up as well.

I've heard the script, it is absolutely hilarious. I think everyone tried hard to work out whether it was from Salman Khan or Boney Kapoor or Anees Bazmee... It's a film that's close to my heart," Fardeen told PTI.

"Wish we could have been a part of it but it wasnt meant to be. So, these things happen. For Anees and Boney, I only have love and my best wishes on the sequel, all I would say is: Don't mess it up, he added.

The 50-year-old actor said he is looking forward to the sequel.

I don't know whether they're doing something different with the sequel but I'm pretty sure it will be close to what Anees had already written. I think it will be incredible. I wish them luck, love, I'm dying to see it when it comes out, he added.

No Entry revolved around two married men , who find themselves in trouble because of their womanising friend, Prem .

Lara Dutta, Esha Deol and Celina Jaitley played the female leads in the first part, with Bipasha Basu in an extended cameo.

No Entry 2 is expected to go on floors in December this year.

Fardeen stars in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Heeramandi" and also has two films lined up for 2024 Akshay Kumar-led Khel Khel Mein and filmmaker Sanjay Guptas home production, Visfot, alongside Ritiesh Deshmukh.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt got really emotional on his mother and actor Nargis Dutts 43rd death anniversary. He took to Instagram to drop special moments with his mother along with a heartwarming note. Sanjay Dutt with mother Nargis.

Sharing poignant throwback pictures, Sanjay penned an emotional note, paying tribute to her enduring memory. (Also read: Sanjay Dutt attends Dhruva Sarjas sons naming ceremony. See inside pics)

Emotional tribute

On Friday, the actor paid tribute to his mother by sharing a few throwback pictures on his social media handle. In his heartfelt post, he reminisced about the cherished moments spent with her as a child. The post read: "Miss you, Maa! Even though you're not here, your presence is felt in every moment. We hold you close in our hearts and memories Maa. Love you."

In one picture, Sanjay is seen as an adolescent, standing beside his mother. In another photo, he is seen in a candid moment with Nargis engrossed in a discussion. In the third picture, Nargis is seen staring at his son with a lot of affection. (Read: Seeking blessings for past, present, and future": Sanjay Dutt performs 'pind daan' in Gaya)

Know more about Nargis Dutt

Nargis is regarded as one of the finest performers of all time. She showed her acting skills in varied projects ranging from comedy to drama. Her film journey as a leading lady started in the early 1940s and continued to perform until 1967. She made her last appearance in the psychological thriller film Raat Aur Din.

She was married to actor and politician Sunil Dutt. She passed away on May 3, 1981 after battling pancreatic cancer. She died just five days before Sanjays Bollywood debut in a leading role. His acting debut was through Rocky. However, he had previously made a memorable appearance as a child performer in Reshma Aur Shera Back in 1971. Rocky and Reshma Aur Shera were both directed by his father, Sunil.

Sanjays work slate

The actor was last seen in the 2023 Tamil film Leo. He will soon be seen in Puri Jagannadhs iSmart Shankar in Telugu, Gippy Grewals Sheran Di Kaum Punjabi in Punjabi, apart from Vivek Chauhans Baap and Ahmed Khans Welcome to the Jungle in Hindi.
AI chatbots could cut down on wait times at the Employment Development Department, where call center workers routinely field tens of thousands of calls a week and hold times can stretch to hours. But will they be allowed to? Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Gov. Gavin Newsom has made clear his interest in the potential for AI to streamline and improve government services. But a law making its way through the legislature could make it harder for the state to replace workers with AI bots. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

When Cheryl Guess lost her job as an event planner in Palm Springs two years ago, she didnt think shed have to leave the state for good.

But thats exactly what happened after a dispute in 2022 with her former employer led to months-long delays in getting the unemployment benefits she needed to keep paying her rent. Guess appealed her case and won. But by that time it was nearly two years later and she had long since run out of cash, left with no option but to go live with her daughter in Oregon after her savings ran dry.

The problem is one that thousands of other Californians have dealt with: getting someone on the phone from the states Employment Development Department. For months, Guess said her appeal documentation seemed to go into a black hole, she said, and when I finally would speak to somebody they had no idea how to help me, Guess said.

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Her experience and that of countless others begs the question as the EDD prepares to launch a $1.2 billion overhaul of its computer systems: Could artificial intelligence help solve the problem of overloaded unemployment insurance call centers? Or would AI-powered chatbots and other such emerging technology just make matters worse?

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made clear his interest in the potential for AI to streamline and improve government services, ordering state agencies to experiment with the technology and releasing guidelines for how to do so in March.

Visitors use the Unemployment Insurance phone bank at the EDD office in Sacramento. During the pandemic, the department was swamped when mass layoffs forced millions of people to seek unemployment benefits. Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Following the governors push, agencies including Caltrans, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, and the California Department of Health and Human Services have said theyre already using it in pilot programs.

Boosters of the technology say AI-powered chatbots could handle some of EDDs more straightforward customer service requests regarding unemployment and disability benefits. For instance, properly trained bots could help people use the departments website or answer queries regarding the status of claims or progress of appeals.

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But the EDD  still swamped with phone calls  is vague about deploying AI to ease its workload.

The department has said it may indeed use chatbots as part of the billion dollar contract with Amazon Web Services to fix its tech issues, and will use some kind of AI at some point in the future. But spokesman Aubrey Henry said in an email that EDD had no additional information to provide regarding the future implementation dates for the use of AI in customer service functions such as voice calls, live chat, and chatbots.

Whats more, a bill moving through the state legislature could make it more difficult for the department to deploy chatbots instead of human customer service agents.

Authored by State Sen. Monique Limon, D-Santa Barbara, and backed by the California Labor Federation and SEIU, SB1220 would bar fully automating away the jobs of state call center workers.

If passed into law, the bill would prohibit a state agency or specified local agency from using, or contracting with a call center that uses, artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision systems (ADS) that would eliminate or automate core job functions of a worker.

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The legislation specifically covers the EDD, but Limon insisted to the Chronicle that neither the EDD nor other agencies would be prohibited from using AI as a tool. Rather, she said, the bill clarifies that human staffers must be available for situations that dont always neatly fit into a box.

An EDD call center in 2009. The EDD is launching a $1.2 billion overhaul of its computer systems, but its not clear whether the overburdened department will be allowed to employ chatbots to answer routine queries from callers. Tony Arias/EDD

During a recent week in April, more than 160,000 calls came through EDD lines. About 59,000 of those were from unique callers, according to state data, although numbers show that some callers must try multiple times to get through, sometimes redialing for hours like Guess.

The agency said it does not track average hold times.

The problem of tied up phone lines isnt nearly as bad as during the height of the pandemic, when mass layoffs forced millions of people to seek unemployment benefits. The agency was caught unprepared, unable to answer up to a third of the calls it received at one point.

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Still, using features like smart chatbots could lighten some of the current load and lead to quicker resolution of simpler questions without callers having to wait on hold or call back multiple times.

AI isnt going to be a silver bullet, a lot of times it wont be able to solve every case, said Ben Sanders, CEO of Hyper, a startup building AI voice software that can intake 311 calls and is working on handling some 911 traffic as well.

Handling simple tasks also could reduce the load on the people who do eventually pick up, he said. Thats because the technology is particularly good at handling more basic requests, taking the mental load off of overburdened call center employees to handle more complex situations.

And when the bot cant come to the rescue, trained staff would still be available.

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Actor Sonali Bendre has spoken about rumours, including affairs, that were earlier falsely linked with her. Speaking with News18, Sonali shared that nowadays, actors are asked if they would want link-up rumours with their co-stars to be floated around. She added that in the initial days of her career, the gossip would just be out there to promote the film, and the actors had no choice. (Also Read | Sonali Bendre says she never felt on top of my game as an actor) Sonali Bendre made her acting debut with Aag in 1994.

Sonali Bendre recalls gossips, linkups about her

Sonali said, Gossips and newsmakers jumping to conclusions  be it about who youre seeing or the affairs youre having or even the fights youre having with your co-stars  come under the gamut of where did that come from? And most of the time, such things that were written about me werent true at all. These days, actors are at least asked if they would want link-up rumours with their co-stars to be floated around."

She added, "During my time, we werent even asked, and those gossips would just be out there to promote the film, and the actors had no choice. There was a motive to link the lead pair up just to be in news. Itne shiddat ke saath yeh karte the ki (They used to do it so diligently) I think they (such gimmicks) may have worked. But I found these things to be really strange.

Sonali talks about perception about an actor

Sonali also talked about "building a perception" about an actor. She said that in the current time, "rags to riches story for an actor is working". Comparing this to the early days of her career, she said that she was told not to give out the fact that "I came from a middle-class family. Sonali shared they were supposed to say that they come from a rich background. The actor recalled that she wasn't comfortable lying, "but I know that a lot of colleagues did do that".

About Sonali's projects

Sonali made her acting debut with Aag in 1994. She also featured in Diljale (1996), Major Saab (1998), Sarfarosh (1999), Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999), and Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000), among others. She has starred in the series Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye (2014) and The Broken News (2022). The second chapter of the newsroom drama, The Broken News, will premiere on May 3.
The much-awaited 20th Century Studios action-adventure spectacle, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is gearing up for its theatrical release on May 10. The early reactions from critics have poured in after the film's world premiere. Critics have hailed it as a much-deserving continuation of the epic franchise, praising its spectacular visual experience and director Wes Balls vision. (Also Read: 'Planet of the Apes' franchise looks to the future with new film 'Kingdom') Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will release in Indian cinemas on May 10

What are critics saying

Matt Neglia, owner & editor-in-chief of Next Best Picture, wrote as part of his post on X, A tremendous visual feat with the best visual effects seen in a movie since Avatar: The Way Of Water while never wavering from its emotional core. Another user posted, 'Apocalypto with Apes,' as Wes Ball promised. An excellent & very entertaining continuation of the new mythology, shared a third user. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is a worthy successor to the throne, echoed another.

Some viewers also shared their excitement for the new direction the franchise is heading into with this new movie. Excited to see where it heads from here after an intriguing ending, wrote a user. Feels like a start to an epic new saga. Need the next one ASAP, posted another.

About the film

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the latest instalment in the sci-fi franchise, is both a sequel and a prequel, its director, Wes Ball, said. The action-adventure is the 10th Planet of the Apes movie and follows the reboot trilogy, which debuted in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and includes the 2014 film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set several generations after the events of the 2017 film and centres on a young and naive but brave ape Noa (Owen Teague). When his peaceful eagle-raising clan is attacked and his family taken away, Noa sets off to find them. Encounters with an elderly orangutan and the first human he has met, Nova/Mae (Freya Allan), along the way teach Noa difficult truths about the past and bear consequences on his, and the planet's future.

Like its predecessors, Kingdom uses motion-capture technology to bring the non-human characters to life. Actor Andy Serkis, who played lead chimpanzee Caesar in the previous three films, was hired as a special consultant to help the actors approach their characters.

20th Century Studios India releases Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in Cinemas, 10th May 2024 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Ryan Gosling scored an Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category for his turn in 2016's La La Land. The much-loved musical rom-com continues to charm fans years after release, but for Ryan there's one moment that he really wishes he could alter. The actor was in conversation with WSJ magazine, when he shared how a dance moment between him and Emma Stone would turn into the poster of the film where his hand placement killed the energy. (Also read: Ryan Gosling's body doubles fly through a poster for impressive stunt at The Fall Guy premiere. Watch) Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a still from La La Land.

What Ryan said

In the interview, Ryan was talking about a role he would like to do over and mentioned La La Land in the conversation. He began, There's a moment that haunts me where we're dancing, Emma [Stone] and I. I didn't know this would become the poster for the movie. We were supposed to have our hands up, and I thought it'd be cool to put my hand like that (shows a flat angle). Even though everyone told me it wasn't cool, I was sure that [a flat hand] was cooler than [pointing up]. Now when I look at it and I have to see it all the time, you know what would have been cooler than this? That.

He further continued, It just killed the energy that way. It was sort of like, all leading to what? Just like a lazy  I call it La La Hand. I thought it would help in La La Land and then, of course, hamburger-hands Gosling over here. It didnt help me at all in the end.

More details

La La Land was nominated for a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations, winning 6, including Best Director and Best Actress for Stone. Ryan lost the Best Actor Oscar to Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea.

Ryan will be next seen in The Fall Guy. The film follows Ryans Colt Seavers, who has retired from the business but returns to find the missing star of his ex-girlfriends (played by Emily Blunt) blockbuster film. The film released in cinemas in May 3.
"Should we call it an official 'Taylor-Made'? Well, the internet is certainly convinced. Kendrick Lamar shows no signs of letting up on his scathing attack on Drake. Just days after his hit Euphoria dominated the charts, the rap feud escalated with the release of his new track 6:16 in LA. The song title is a nod to a format Drake popularised on his recent album For All the Dogs. And who's the producer behind it all? None other than Jack Antonoff. Kendrick Lamar and Drake are dominating Grammy Awards 2019 with most number of nominations. (AFP/Reuters)

Kendrick Lamar launches new attack on Drake

In a surprising move, Kendrick Lamar's latest diss track, 6:16 in LA, features production credits for both Sounwave, a long-time Lamar collaborator, and Jack Antonoff, a name more commonly associated with pop icon Taylor Swift. This unexpected pairing has set the internet ablaze with fan theories.

Also read: I-95 bridge demolition starts after tanker explosion; traffic to remain affected until Monday, schools closed

Antonoff's involvement is particularly intriguing and debatable considering Drake's recent AI-generated diss track aimed at Lamar, titled Taylor-Made. Fans are speculating that Lamar might be turning the tables on Drake by creating the "real" Taylor-made diss, all while subtly referencing Drake's track and taking a jab at the Canadian rapper. What a move, they said.

Kendricks diss was literally Taylor Made, wrote a music lover on X (formerly twitter.) Kendrick Lamar summoned Taylor Swifts producers to his stu after Drake dissed him with a freestyle titled Taylor Made, THATS A FCKIN CHESS MOVE, wrote another. When Drake dropped Taylor Made, it was because Kendricks silence has him spiraling But now that Kendrick dropped 6:16 In LA, itll be considered a victory lap, joined one more followed by others.

Kendrick Lamars new song 6:16 In LA

Lamars first verse of 6:16 in L.A. begins with a line that questions someones sincerity: I think someones lying. I smell somebody lying. As the song goes on, he attacks Drake on every move hes made since the beef started on Like That. He further singles out Drake for escalating things by dragging Lamar's manager, Anthony Saleh, into the feud after Instagram posts. Taking a shot at Drake and his team, Lamar raps, Have you ever thought OVO is working for me?" He didnt hold back, calling Drake a "fake bully."

Also read: Scam Artist: Kendrick Lamar's new barbed Drake diss fires up rap beef saga again in Euphoria

The Big Three rap battle

For the past few months, the ongoing rap beef between Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar has featured lyrical jabs and references in each other's songs. While J. Cole steered clear of any controversy after removing his 7-minute diss track aimed at Lamar, Drake didn't hold back on his response to Like That. In tracks Push Ups and Taylor made freestyle, Drake made his stance clear. He even emulated 2Pac's vocals with an AI-powered strategy, which landed him in legal trouble. 2Pac's estate sent a legal notice to the rapper.
In what seems like an annual ritual, dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been banned by Teheran from attending the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest work, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is vying for the top Palme d'Or. The Festival begins on May 14. Also read | Iran frees filmmaker Rasoulof after 6 months over protests criticism: Report Iranian authorities ban crew of film by Mohammad Rasoulof from attending Cannes Film Festival 2024.

Mohammed prohibited from attending Cannes 2024

Iran's decision came on Thursday, and it has been regularly imposing such harsh and punitive punishment on directors and actors, who have been critical of its administration. Last year, Rasoulof who was to have served on the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury could not because of travel restrictions imposed on him.

These curbs followed his Golden Bear win at 2020 Berlin, where he showed his work, There Is No Evil, a scathing criticism of capital punishment. But it was his subsequent denouncement of the government crackdown on nationwide protestors that saw him jailed. He was temporarily freed in 2023 because of ill health. He was later pardoned, but a travel ban was slapped on him.

Jafar Panahi was also barred from leaving Iran

There have been other Iranian directors who have faced the wrath of Tehran. Jafar Panahi is the most renowned helmer to have faced such punishment. A prize winner at Cannes for his 1995 debut The White Balloon, he has been barred from leaving Iran since 2010 after being found guilty of colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the countrys national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Although he was initially placed under house arrest, the rules of his sentence were subsequently relaxed. He can now move freely within Iran. But a 20-year ban on travelling abroad remains. Also, he cannot speak to the media or make movies.

But can anyone stop Panahi, a man who breathes cinema. He has made at least three films surreptitiously since the ban was imposed. In 2018, his Three Faces competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. He shot two more movies secretly: This is Not a Film, a 2011 documentary detailing his house arrest, and the 2013 Closed Curtain.

The documentary was smuggled into the Cannes Film Festival in a USB flash drive, which was hidden inside a cake! What seemed equally cheeky was the way he shot Taxi in 2015, and got the docu-fiction to play at Berlin, where it won the top Golden Bear. Dressed as a cabbie, he placed a small camera on the dashboard of his taxi and took in passengers in Tehran  right under the nose of the ruling clergy. He recorded their variedly interesting conversations and made a movie out of them. And gave it an equally cheeky title, This is Not a Film.
Mahira Khan was left impressed by a female fan who tried to recreate her style of responding in interviews. The fan had posted a video of herself imitating the accent of the actor as if she were responding to interviews. Mahira left a sweet comment on the video and wished her Lots of love. (Also read: Sanjay Leela Bhansali reveals he wanted to cast Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan in Heeramandi: It was a film back then) Mahira Khan has reacted to a fan video on Instagram.

How Mahira reacted

In the video, the fan is seen talking about how when she was new in the industry, many people told her to get her nose fixed, but she didn't budge. The fan also recreated the moment when Mahira shared how much she enjoys her night-time routines, where she lights a candle and listens to a classical song. Mahira's anecdote about her grandmother was also part of the video.

Soon, the video came under the attention of Mahira, who commented: I laughed out loud watching this! (monkey face emoticon) You are brilliant yaaaar. Lots of love.

A fan commented, That Nani ko itna bura'. Nailed that part. Another said, Wow!!! At first, I thought you were just doing lip sync. A second fan wrote, Sister sounds more Mahira than Mahira Khan (laughing face emoticons).

More details

Mahira had a brief stint in Bollywood, but managed to woo audiences with her turn in Raees, where she was cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan. Did you know Sanjay Leela Bhansali even thought of Mahira for Heeramandi? In a new interview with Lilly Singh at the LA premiere of the May 1 release, the director revealed, "It was a film back then. I then also thought about Mahira Khan, the Pakistani actress, and Imran Abbas and Fawad Khan were also in my mind at one point in time. But I ended up with this ensemble cast.

The actor was last seen in Pakistani blockbuster The Legend of Maula Jatt alongside Fawad Khan. The two actors will also be seen in the upcoming Netflix series Jo Bachay Hain Sang Samait Lo.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are being careful to provide the necessary space for Prince William and Kate Middleton amid Kate's battle with cancer. As per a new report by US Weekly, Harry and Meghan are making sure that they do not add any stress to the existing situation in the British royal family. (Also read: Kate Middleton does it her way, shutting down Prince Harry's 'belittling' assumption about her) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during an appearance outside Windsor Castle with Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2022. (File Photo/AFP)

What the report says

According to the insider, the new report quoted in the cover story, "The Duke and Duchess [of Sussex] want to be super respectful and dont want to add stress to the situation. If Will and Kate want their space, Meghan and Harry will give it to them.

A second insider added that Prince William and Kate are also re-considering their stand on the family situation, saying: "They want a relationship with Meghan and Harry and they dont want the acrimony to carry over to the next generation. They want to mend fences with them for the kids sake."

More details

Prince Harry will be in UK in May to attend the Invictus Games ceremony in London. He will commemorate the remarkable 10-year milestone of the Invictus Games, an initiative close to his heart. Meghan will not accompany him.

Ever since Harry's controversial memoir Spare was released, the relationship between Harry and William has been strained. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle stepped down from royal duties in 2020 which began a rift between the couple and the royal family.

Meanwhile in March, after months of speculation and widespread media attention, Kate Middleton appeared in a video where she revealed her cancer diagnosis. "We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace," Harry and Meghan said in the statement to People.
In the past three years following the pandemic, not many filmmakers have re-imagined its impact on human life  all of the silence, the rupture, the devastation and the renewal  in ways that do justice to the scale of its effect on human life and the human psyche. The prism so far has been the hopelessness of government and civic systems, and the grind-down effect it had on relationships and connections. In India, Anubhav Sinhas Bheed (2023) is the only film that comes close to a robust reimagining of the entirety of its impact.

Subash Sahoos Teen Adhyay is a quiet, exploratory, philosophical documentary film about the pandemic. Over its running time of about half an hour, the camera navigates what the fear and the isolation made us overlook  the continuity of the cycle of life. Sahoo, a renowned sound designer and sync sound engineer in Mumbais film industry with credits in more than 300 films, documented an intimate detail of life unfolding in the window of his home in Mumbai during lockdown: A crow building a nest, laying eggs, the eggs maturing to hatch, and the new bird in flight. Shot from 2020 to 2022, over both the first and second wave of the pandemic, the film is without dialogues and has roving, atmospheric shots of Mumbai and its adjoining rural areas enveloped in silence and stasis. The only human actor is Sahoos son who appears as he was during the pandemic years: A budding athlete who withdrew to himself after the isolation.

Teen Adhyay has three chapters: Vipatti (Calamity), Utpatti (Germination) and Chakra (Continuity). In essence, thats what ancient Hindu philosophy would qualify as existence, says Sahoo. Each chapter has its distinct classical Indian soundtrack a Megh Malhar rendition by Ghulam Ali Khan, and original compositions by Vibhuti Gadnayak, a music composer from Sahoos home state of Odisha. The natural world, the human world and the world of objects intersect in this poetic film thats an evocation of a moment in human history  through Sahoos lens, the silence and the lack of movement in human quarters starkly accentuate the birth and the flights of birds. Sahoo almost glorifies the movements and fluidity of the natural world  as if we were given time to behold it. The films editing by Sahoos long-time collaborator Suvir Nath (who is also a co-producer of the film) complements the languorous yet emphatic pace of Teen Adhyay.

Sahoo recalls how the film was made. At the start, like the rest of the world, my son and I were also gripped by the fear. We started observing a crow nesting on our balcony. With my Canon 5D Mark 3, I started shooting it and got my son also involved. Then it started gathering momentum when I started planning it as a film with Suvir. Nath, who accompanied Sahoo on shoots across the ghostly city and its rural peripheries, says at a time when anxiety levels were at an all-time high, shooting the film was almost like therapy. We were trying to make sense of life by shooting this film, Nath added. The largely two-member team is in the process of sending the film to various film festivals across the world.

Sahoo is from Kendrapara, Odisha, where he grew up taking part in local theatre plays. After securing a degree in sound design from Punes Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in the early 2000s, he came to Mumbai in 2006 with the hope of becoming an actor but ended up becoming a very successful sound designer. His attempts at directing were unsuccessful until the documentary The Sound Man Mangesh Desai (2017), about the legendary and trendsetting sound engineer, which received a lot of acclaim. Sahoo is currently putting the final touches on Mo Bou, Mo Gaan (My Mother, My Village), a personal documentary about his mother set in his ancestral village.

Sahoo, with nearly 20 years in Bollywood, now shoots his own films when he gets respite from his professional work as a sound designer. When I have the extra money, I shoot. For me, filmmaking is a luxury, it is very personal, Sahoo says.

Teen Adhyay has all the qualities of a passion project  a unique, oblique way of looking at an event that changed the world, and which the world is in a hurry to forget.

Short Stream is a monthly curated section, in which we present an Indian film that hasnt been seen before or not widely seen before but is making the right buzz in the film industry and film festival circles. We stream the film for a month on HT Premium, the subscription-only section on hindustantimes.com.

Sanjukta Sharma is a Mumbai-based writer and film critic. Write to her at Sanjukta.sharma@gmail.com
The Aranmanai franchise has worked for director Sundar C in the past and he is back with the fourth installment. While some may have disliked his previous Aranmanai films, the audience just cant seem to get enough of them as Aranmanai 3 released in 2021 turned out to be one of the most commercially successful ones of the year. Also read | Aranmanai 4 trailer: Sundar C, Tamannaah Bhatia, Raashii Khanna headline this spooky thriller about a ghost. Watch Aranmanai 4 movie review: Santhosh Prathap, Tamannaah Bhatia and Raashi Khanna star in the Tamil film.

Aranmanai 4 also follows a similar template that combines horror-comedy and moments of fun for the kids which brings in the family audience. Given that it's a summer release, the family audience may just find it that whets their appetite like Aranmanai 3.

The premise

At the heart of Aranmanai 4 is a large house in the middle of a forest, a supernatural force, a ghost, numerous comic characters, several kids, a godman, pretty women, poojas, a song in honour of the Gods and Sundar C himself who comes to save the day. The story in this film revolves around Selvi (Tamannaah Bhatia) and her husband (Santhosh Prathap) who reside in a large house in the forest with their two kids. They are living a relatively happy life when for some unknown reason her husband suddenly tries to kill her and the kids. The kids survive this horrendous attack but the couple dont and cops intimate Selvis brother, lawyer Saravanan (Sundar C), about this horrible incident. Saravanan and his aunt (Kovai Sarala) rush from the city to Selvis place and Saravanan decides to investigate what really happened.

As Saravanan probes into the entire tragedy along with the police, numerous unexplained deaths start to take place, along with the emergence of a ghost in their house. Maestry (Yogi Babu) and Carpenter (VTV Ganesh) were helping Selvis husband with his work and they also begin to help Saravanan in his investigation. Now, we also have Dr Mayas (Raashi Khanna) grandfather (Delhi Ganesh) living in the house as he has been entrusted with the house. The plan is to sell the house so Maya can build a hospital and do social service.

During Saravanans investigation he discovers a godman who seems to know more about this ghost and when the cops catch him, he reveals theres another evil presence as well. Why is the ghost haunting Selvis house? What is this other evil presence? How can they prevent the deaths taking place and get rid of this presence? How does Saravanan manage to protect his family and does he find out what really happened to Selvi and her husband?

The performances

Director Sundar C has ensured he has added more cast members to this franchise and along with the above-mentioned cast, we also have director KS Ravikumar, Rajendran, Singampuli, Vichu Vishwanath, and V Jayaprakash. Thus, we have at least four comedians to give us some laughs while the glamour quotient is provided by Raashi Khanna. Given the large cast, many of them just come and go (as expected) and no one really stands out as we have seen them all perform similar roles in other films as well. Tamannaah Bhatia, who is central to the story, essays the role of an emotional mother quite admirably and Raashi Khanna too has delivered as Maya. But it is Khushbu (who is married to Sundar C) and Simrans special appearance in the second half of the film which was a pleasant surprise and amped up the film.

Final thoughts

Sundar Cs Aranmanai series is meant for the masses who just want to entertained without too much of logic  they want some jump scares, some funny dialogues and comical exchanges between the cast, some fights, some element of faith, a thumping song and the climax where the evil is vanquished and everyones a happy family once again. With four installments now, the director seems to have aced the concept because this is exactly what Aranmanai 4 is all about as well. Aranmanai 4 is timepass and if you go in with no expectations, you will not come out raving about the film but you wont come out bitterly disappointed either.
Jyothika held a press meet in Chennai recently to promote her upcoming Hindi film Srikanth, directed by Tushar Hiranandani and also starring Rajkummar Rao, Alaya F and Sharad Kelkar. The actor ran into a bit of trouble when she was asked by a reporter why she didnt vote in the recent elections, with netizens trolling her for her reply. (Also Read: Suriya convinced Jyothika to do Rajkummar Rao's Srikanth: He told her) Jyothika was recently seen in Kaathal The Core, Shaitaan and will soon be seen in Srikanth.(X)

Its a private thing

A reporter asked Jyothika, given that she backs message-driven films, why doesnt she set an example in real life too and vote. The actor immediately chipped, I vote every year. When she was corrected that voting doesnt take place every year, she agreed and continued, At times we can be outstation, we can be sick, its a private thing. Sometimes privately also we vote, we might do it online, not everything is publicised. There is a private side to life and we need to respect that and give that space.

Netizens react

Netizens were confused as to how Jyothika could vote online when everyone goes down to the voting booths to cast their votes. Sharing a clip of hers from the press conference, one X user wrote, Question was why didn't you vote and be an example to others.. what followed was a blast. Replying to the post, another wrote, Hi @ECISVEEP @TNelectionsCEO. How can you give special privilege to @Jyothika_offl to "vote online privately" and why we don't have that option? Please explain

An X user sardonically wrote, Mam, looks like you are the brand ambassador of a new policy decision taken by the government  online voting! Could you kindly throw more light? It will help poor people like me who cannot afford to do international travels on taxpayers money like Udhayanidhi! Another added, Pls help me! How can I vote privately online like Jyothika?

One X user pointed out that voting in local elections isnt like voting for Bigg Boss, writing, Youre a special breed to be educated, & remain hilariously dumb. #Jyotika - You cant sit at home privately & press a button on a keyboard to vote. This is not Big Boss. Its okay to abstain from voting, but what hilarious excuses! Another wrote, Social reformer Jyothika, even an uneducated knows election happens once in 5 yrs not every year. I have never known private & online voting in Indian elections.

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Director SS Rajamouli, the mastermind behind the epic RRR (2022), is all set to embark on his next cinematic journey. This time, he's joined forces with the charismatic Mahesh Babu. The film is currently in its pre-production phase and is expected to start rolling this year, much to the delight of their fans. (Also Read: Mahesh Babu fondly recalls watching Krishnas Alluri Seetharama Raju on film's 50th anniversary: I was awestruck) Mahesh Babu's next with SS Rajamouli will be along the lines of Indiana Jones.(Instagram)

SSMB29 to go on floors soon

A source close to the films unit confirms to Hindustan Times that #SSMB29 is expected to go on floors either in August or September this year. They tell us, Rajamouli and producer KL Narayana recently met Mahesh in Dubai to discuss the film while he was vacationing there. The director is currently focused on the extensive pre-production a film of this scale requires. Mahesh is also attending workshops to get in the skin of the character and is dedicated to looking the part. Right now, the plan is to begin shooting in August or September.

Narayana waits 15 years for this

Talking to Mahaa Max in an interview, producer Narayana revealed that he waited 15 long years to do a film with Mahesh and Rajamouli. I took a break because I didnt want to do anything else while I waited for this film. There are also some films that didnt finalise. Rajamouli was busy with Baahubali, later RRR. Mahesh and Rajamouli promised me 15 years ago and stayed true to their word. The film has various episodes, including one in Africa. We have also flown in fighters from Vietnam for the film, he said.

Upcoming work

Mahesh was last seen in Trivikram Srinivas Guntur Kaaram, which was released for Sankranthi this year. While he was lauded for his performance, the film received mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. His film with Rajamouli will be an adventure drama penned by Vijayendra Prasad. At an event held for Satyadevs Krishnamma recently, director Anil Ravipudi asked Rajamouli to give an update on the film, to which he joked, I will pay 10,000 to anyone who beats up Anil, films it and sends me the video.

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What Delhi Police said about missing Gurucharan Singh

News18 quoted Delhi police sources as saying, He left his phone in the Palam area. We are trying to find but it only makes it more difficult for us to trace Gurucharan Singh, because this means that the phone is not with the actor. In the CCTV footage we recovered that he was seen moving from one e-rickshaw to another. Looks like, he had planned everything and has moved out of Delhi.

About Gurucharan's disappearance

The actor went missing on April 22 evening. His father lodged a missing complaint, saying his son had left for Mumbai on April 22 at 8.30 pm. The actor had left his home to take a flight to Mumbai. But he did not reach Mumbai, nor did he return to his home, and his phone was also unreachable, the complaint stated.

A few days later, a team of the Delhi Police Special Cell visited Gurucharan's house to investigate his mysterious disappearance. The Delhi police has already lodged an FIR under Section 365 (abduction). He was last seen on April 22 near the Delhi airport with a backpack, the police had said, citing CCTV footage.

Gurcharan and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

Gurcharan rose to fame after playing the role of Roshan Singh Sodhi in Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. Even though his character was one of the most popular ones on the show, Gurcharan left it in 2013 but returned the next year. He finally left the show in 2020. Gurcharan was replaced by actor Balwinder Singh Suri.
ABC has greenlit its evergreen and fan-favourite shows- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Claim to Fame, and Press Your Luck. The announcement follows the network's summer lineup for 2024. However, that's not all. The broadcaster is ready to shake things up, or should we say spice things up, with the announcement of some of its viral sensations including The Bachelorette, Celebrity Family Feud and more. ABC greenlights iconic shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Claim to Fame, and Press Your Luck for summer 2024 lineup. (Pic- ABC)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to return on ABC

The upcoming season of Who Wants to will celebrate the show's 25th anniversary. Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the last season, will return as the host for this year's edition. The show is scheduled to begin on July 10, 2024. Stay tuned for further updates. The show is slated to bring back celebrities in pairs and allow them an opportunity to win $1 million for charities of their choosing as per Hollywood Reporter.

Also read: Kendrick Lamar's new Drake attack 6:16 in LA is 'literally Taylor-Made,' produced by Swifts guy

Return of the Bachelorette

Ready for another summer of roses and romance! ABC's hit reality series, The Bachelorette, returns for its 21st season, with the lovely Jenn Tran stepping in into the world of love and betrayal. The show has set the premiere date for Monday, July 8th at 8 pm. This time, it's Jenn Tran who will be handing out the roses, hoping to find her happily ever after from a pool of eligible bachelors vying for her heart.

Celebrity Family Feud returns for the 10th season

If youve been missing Steve Harvey, dont worry, weve got you covered! The long wait is finally over as Celebrity Family Feud returns to ABC on July 9th. For the unversed, Family Feud: Celebrating 50 Years of Fun, a special honouring the half-century anniversary of the beloved game show, will air before the upcoming season.

Also read: Britney Spears' ex, Sam Asghari smiles and shares 'shirtless' life update amid hotel room drama

Claim to Fame

Kevin and Franklin Jonas will host the upcoming season of Claim to Fame, a game that challenges the relatives of A-listers to live together under one roof without revealing their identities. They will form partnerships and strategies with the groups inside and battle to win the coveted $100,000 prize.

ABC summer lineup 2024
Mumbai, Streaming service JioCinema on Friday announced that its upcoming series Murder in Mahim, starring Ashutosh Rana and Vijay Raaz, will be released on May 10. HT Image

The investigative drama series is helmed by Raj Acharya, and hails from Tipping Point Films and Jigsaw Pictures.

Adapted from a critically acclaimed book "Murder in Mahim" by author Jerry Pinto, the show is a social commentary that explores the chilling murder mystery and the underbelly of Mumbai, highlighting the reconciliation of a lost friendship between Peter and Jende .

Set against the backdrop of a gruesome murder at Mahim station, the series shows Peter embroiled in the sinister investigation. The stakes are raised when his own son, Sunil, becomes a suspect in the case.

"Amidst this, Peter and Jende are drawn into a world of secret desires, blackmail, and unspoken love as they track down the killer, confronting their personal biases along the way. With each revelation and twist, the series delivers an intense and immersive experience that delves deep into the complexities of human nature and the grim realities of the society, the official synopsis read.

Rana, known for films like Sangharsh, Dushman, War and Fighter, said Murder in Mahim gave him the opportunity to explore something different as an actor.

"When its about complex roles, Im the most excited. Peter is one such character. My attempt is to do something different every time and Murder in Mahim gave me that opportunity. Peters inner struggle amid the complexities of the murder investigation allowed me to add depth to the character.

"It is not just a profound murder mystery, its layered with so many significant plots that mirror the social stigmas around caste, gender and sexuality, with rare sensitivity, the 56-year-old actor said in a statement.

Raaz, 60, said it was fascinating to play a layered character like Jende.

The most fascinating aspect of Jendes character is the various shades to his persona. My effort was to bring a humane touch to this character, which is evident in the investigation scenes, but at the same time, there is aggression on the personal front which comes out in front of his family.

"So, it was exciting to etch out the emotional arc of my character and bring an entire gamut of emotions on screen, said the actor, who has received wide acclaim for films such as "Gangubai Kathiawadi", "Kathal", and "Delhi Belly".

Murder in Mahim also stars Shivani Raghuvanshi of Made in Heaven fame and seasoned actor Shivaji Satam in pivotal roles.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Sanjay Leela Bhansalis highly anticipated web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar  featuring a star-studded cast including Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh and Sharmin Segal  premiered on May 1 on Netflix. Actor Siddharth, whos also Aditis fiance, couldn't contain his excitement and shared his review of the series on Instagram. (Also Read: In Heeramandi, Richa Chadha shines brightest as the doomed Lajjo) Siddharth seemed impressed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Heeramandi, which stars his fiance Aditi Rao Hydari.

Siddharths review

Siddharth was deeply moved by the web series, expressing his admiration for its acting, music, aesthetics, drama. Grateful that we are living in the age of Sanjay Leela Bhansali saab, he wrote, sharing a screen grab of Aditi dressed in a red anarkali kurta and holding a performance. He added, A letter of love and freedom told in the confined of a bygone age with images that mesmerise the heart, music and verse that stir the soul. A work of art that would make K Asif saab proud. He also congratulated the whole team. Aditi plays Bibbojaan in the series, who is fighting for more than just her freedom.

A screen grab of Siddharth's Instagram stories.

About Heeramandi

The 8-episode series charts the lives of courtesans who live in Heeramandi, led by a cunning and ruthless Mallikajaan, played by Manisha. But soon, her niece Fareedan, Sonakshi, returns to Heeramandi, threatening to unveil dark secrets from her past and challenging her power. The series also shows how the stirrings of Indians against the British Raj, with the fight for freedom being the core theme.

The review by Hindustan Times reads, If you're expecting an Aishwarya Rai dashing across with fire on her pallu, or Madhuri Dixit satiating your eyes with a filmy mujra, or Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone passionately making love, Heeramandi is not your Vitamin Bhansali. As ironic as it sounds, each and every mujra insists that the tawaif (courtesan) is dancing only for herself, not for the nawabs, and certainly not for the audience.

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In the aftermath of the record-breaking rainfall in the UAE and Oman, which led to severe impacts on its infrastructure, experts are calling for an urgent revision of urban development and emergency preparedness plans to integrate considerations for extreme weather events, which are quickly becoming more frequent and severe due to the impacts of climate change.

Recently, the UAE, Oman, and surrounding regions experienced an extreme weather event characterised by record-breaking rainfall, leading to significant flooding and widespread disruptions. Dubai, for example, received more than a year's worth of rain in just a day, resulting in extensive impact on infrastructure, including flooding at Dubai International Airport and extensive road inundations. The aftermath of the storm left cities like Sharjah dealing with health hazards from stagnant water, while other cities in the Persian Gulf, such as Muharraq in Bahrain and parts of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, also faced considerable flooding.

In Oman, the situation was dire with heavy rains causing flash floods, particularly affecting Muscat, South Al Batinah, and North Al Sharqiyah. The National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre had forecasted this severe weather, highlighting the significant risks of flash floods and disruptions to transport and infrastructure.

To make matters worse, following fresh weather warnings, heavy rains and thunderstorms lashed the UAE late Wednesday and Thursday, although much less intense than rains in April so far. Numerous flights were cancelled due to heavy rainfall and stormy conditions. Live weather maps and forecasts indicate that these conditions could lead to potential disruptions and hazards impacting daily activities, and possibly causing flooding again in some cities.

Urban planning and infrastructure readiness

Like the Middle East, numerous Asian cities have been grappling with an increase in extreme weather events over the past decade, a phenomenon indicative of broader global climate trends.

Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, former secretary, ministry of earth sciences said, Extreme weather events are fast becoming the new normal, and can occur in any urban area. Cities must be prepared for this possibility. When Dubai was developed, such intense rainfall was not anticipated, which resulted in inadequate drainage systems  a common scenario in many cities. Often, urban planning is based on historical climate data, failing to account for the rapid pace of climate change. This leads to infrastructure that is ill-suited for the future. Given that we now have reliable climate change projections, it is crucial that we use them to plan cities that can withstand future climate conditions."

In India, cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai frequently face severe weather challenges, from monsoonal floods that disrupt daily life to unexpected urban flooding. Similarly, Jakarta in Indonesia contends with significant flooding exacerbated by monsoon rains and land subsidence, while Dhaka in Bangladesh faces disruptive annual floods due to its dense population and inadequate drainage systems. Manila in the Philippines and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam also experience heavy rainfall and flooding due to typhoons and tropical storms. Bangkok is known for its vulnerability to flooding, particularly during the monsoon, due to challenges from its low-lying geography and rapid urbanisation.

"Integrating urban development plans with comprehensive strategies to combat extreme weather events is essential," said Anjal Prakash, IPCC author and research director at Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business. "The latest IPCC data underscores the increasing frequency and severity of these events globally. We need to leverage this data to create resilient urban spaces that are prepared for the future. It is not just about responding to these events but preemptively designing our infrastructure and policies to be robust and flexible in the face of climatic unpredictability."

We have access to reliable climate projections that can guide urban development and infrastructure planning to anticipate extreme weather events at the national, state, and now even the city level thanks to climate action plans," Rajeevan added.

While planning new urban areas, its important to integrate climate projections to enhance resilience, Rajeevan explained. For example, in Mumbai, where significantly changing the landscape or existing structures isn't feasible, our focus should shift towards developing effective mitigation strategies. This includes enhancing drainage systems, reinforcing buildings, and improving emergency response capabilities to reduce the impact of extreme weather events, he said.

Successive floods in Indias urban centres and the recent one in Dubai underline the need for governments to reconsider their approach to urban planning and disaster management. "We all need to prepare for this kind of impact, anywhere and anytime, stressed Rajeevan.

Understanding the severe weather events in the Middle East

Lets take a step back to understand what led to the extreme weather events in the Middle East during the last week of April and the first week of May. Was it a natural process with impressions of climate change or was it cloud seeding?

Prakash refutes this saying, Cloud seeding was not responsible for the severe precipitation. This technique can induce rain on a much smaller scale, but the intense rainfall experienced in Dubai cannot be attributed to cloud seeding.

The World Weather Attribution, an international scientific collaboration that aims to analyse extreme weather events, recently stated that the events experienced in Oman and the UAE were likely linked to climate change driven by fossil fuel emissions. This analysis aligns with observations that such intense rainfall and associated disasters are becoming more frequent and severe as global temperatures rise.

The event in April was caused by a well-defined large weather system, which moved across the region. We are witnessing a similar scenario for the weather event in May as well. The occurrence of rains in UAE and neighbouring countries is a natural process, however, it could be related to climate change. Due to rising temperatures, there is a tendency for more short-duration heavy rainfall spells, explained Rajeevan.

According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the rapid pace of climate change is contributing to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions globally, including the recent heavy rainfall and flooding experienced in the Middle East. This trend is exacerbated by rising global temperatures and sea levels, influenced by the continued emission of greenhouse gases.

Prakash helped break down the science. He explained that El Nino refers to the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, which significantly influences global weather patterns. As global temperatures rise, the effects of El Nino, along with its counterpart La Nina, are increasingly contributing to extreme weather events across various regions. While research is ongoing, it is evident that the El Nino phenomenon played a significant role in the recent heavy rainfall events in the Middle East, said Prakash.

Global warming has increased Earth's average temperature by 1.48 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial age, which has intensified the water cycle by increasing atmospheric moisture, added Prakash. This effect, compounded by phenomena such as El Nino, leads to heavy precipitation in specific regions based on local weather conditions. The influence of El Nino and La Nina is expected to grow more pronounced as global temperatures continue to rise. The synergy between rising global temperatures and the El Nino effect accelerates the water cycle, leading to more extreme weather patterns globally, he said.

Dubai serves as a critical reminder of the perils of climate change and draws parallels to such events being faced in India. This holds more significance this year as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on April 15 predicted that the 2024 southwest monsoon will likely see above-normal rainfall, estimating it at 106% of the long-period average. This contrasts with the previous years when the monsoon rainfall was near normal. In 2023, the rainfall reached 96% of the long-period average, reflecting a slight deficit due to a delayed onset, while in 2022, the rainfall was 106% of the average, indicating a more generous monsoon season. Elements such as inadequate drainage systems, outdated urban designs, and insufficient flood barriers are common across cities that will face increased weather-related challenges.

Rajeevan recommends that urban planners and policymakers use reliable climate projections to plan for both adaptation and mitigation. "We need to reevaluate urban infrastructure, particularly water management, and emergency services, to handle sudden, severe weather conditions more effectively. There is a pressing need to rethink how cities are built and maintained, not only in response to the historical and current climate but also in anticipation of future climatic conditions, he said.

As cities continue to grow and climate patterns evolve, the integration of strengthened emergency preparedness and responsive infrastructure into urban development plans is essential for safeguarding urban populations.

We need to focus on both adaptation and mitigation. The extreme weather events we're seeing in Dubai hint at a future where such occurrences become commonplace unless we meet global climate targets to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 and avoid surpassing 2 degrees. If we successfully curtail warming over the next 50 years, we can prevent these severe events from becoming the norm, said Prakash.
Three private hospitals in Jaipur conducted 184 organ transplant operations in 2023 on the basis of fake no-objection certificates (NOCs), with at least half the cases involving Bangladeshi donors and receivers , the polices ongoing investigations have revealed, according to ACP Gandhinagar Gopal Singh Dhaka. The police also suspect that the racket flourished since 2021, and till last month. (Getty Images)

The Jaipur police on Thursday, meanwhile, also arrested two more people from West Bengal who are part of a Kolkata-based company Med Safar Private Limited with whom the Fortis Escorts Hospital in Jaipur signed an MoU a few years back to supply donors and receivers for the organ transplantation to the hospital.

During the investigation, it was found the people involved in that company used to trade human organs by playing fraud with the citizens. Following the development, a special team of Jaipur police was sent to West Bengal that arrested the director of the company Suman Jana, and also an employee Sukhamay Nandi aka Gopal on Thursday. We are interrogating them. Police are also gathering more information about the background of the company and its staff. Further investigation is underway, said the Jaipur Police commissioner Biju George Joseph.

The three private hospitals are Fortis Escorts Hospital, Eternal Heart Care Centre, and Manipal Hospital, all of which had their organ transplantation licenses cancelled on April 24 by the Rajasthan health department.

The police also suspect that the racket flourished since 2021, and till last month.

The matter came to light when the states Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) caught the assistant administrative officer of Jaipurs state-owned Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Gaurav Singh when he was accepting a 70,000 bribe from EHCC transplant co-ordinator Anil Joshi for issuing fake NOCs. Later, ACB also arrested the two organ transplant co-ordinators of Fortis Escorts Hospital Vinod Singh and Girraj Sharma, whose names came up during their probe. Sawai Man Singh Hospital is responsible for issuing NOCs across 12 hospitals in the state licensed to conduct transplantation surgeries

Gaurav Singh was issuing such fake NOCs since 2021 by forging the signature of the members of the state-level authorization committee of Jaipurs Sawai Man Singh Hospital , added Dhaka.

According to the police, 98 of the cases involving a fake NOC in 2023 are from Fortis; and in 55 of these cases, the donors and recipients were Bangladeshi nationals .

The Fortis Hospital, meanwhile, extended full cooperation to the investigation.

We affirm our commitment to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by NOTTO and SOTTO for all transplant operations, ensuring compliance with required approvals from relevant domestic and international authorities, including NOCs from state departments and embassies for international patients. As an organisation, we prioritise transparency and ethical practices in all medical procedures. Any staff involved in misconduct have been terminated, and we are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations, it said in an official statement issued on Wednesday.

The police added that there were 37 such cases, of which 16 involved Bangladeshis in EHCC, and 49 cases, of which 23 involved Bangladeshis, in Manipal Hospital.

EHCC spokesperson Ashish Khuteta said, The accused co-ordinator was also suspended. We have submitted all the required data the police and Health Department asked. We will fully co-operate with them.

Spokesperson of the Manipal Hospital, Ramesh Dharmani, also said, At Manipal Hospitals, we strictly follow all the protocols and guidelines set by statutory bodies. We are and will continue to cooperate with the investigative authorities on the matter. Patient safety and well-being is of paramount importance and all our processes are aligned to ensure the same.

Police officials say a total of 514 transplants were carried out in the three hospitals since 2019, of which over 40% involved. Bangladeshis.

We suspect a racket that has been working in both countries over the years. However, the matter is yet to be ascertained, said Dhaka.

Of the 514 transplants, 244 took place in Fortis , 115 in EHCC, and 155 in Manipal Hospital.

We have so far not found any cases where the donors and receivers are from different countries. However, the blood relationship of each pair is yet to be verified. Further investigation is underway, added Dhaka.

Indian hospitals have emerged as a popular destination for transplant surgeries for citizens from neighbouring countries. However, because the law demands that the transplants happen only between blood relatives, they travel here with donors from their countries, passing them off as relatives even if they are not, and managing to secure NOCs.

A team of Jaipur police, led by the ACP (Malviya Nagar), Aditya Poonia, visited Gurugram in April after Gurugram police arrested three receivers Muhammed Ahssanul (31), Nurul Islam (56), and Syed Akeeb Muhammed (25) and two donors Shamim Mehndi Hassan (34) and Muhammed Azad Hussain (30), all from Bangladesh, who were being treated at the Fortis Escorts Hospital in Jaipur.

They were brought to India by a broker Murtaza Ansari who contacted a transplantation co-ordinator of Jaipur Fortis Hospital for the fake NOCs. Upon receiving the information of the arrest of two Fortis coordinators (in Jaipur), he shifted the five patients including three receivers and two donors to Gurugrams guest house in Sector 39 on April 1 and went absconding. We found that the donors and receivers were not relatives. Two surgeries had already been done in Fortis while another was pending. We recorded the statements of both the recipients and donor and they revealed the modus operandi and details of two more people who had returned to Bangladesh  said Inderjeet Yadav, the deputy superintendent of police of chief ministers flying squad (CID) who had arrested the suspects.

Based on Poonias report, the state health department, on April 17 lodged a formal FIR at the Jawahar Circle police station against the Fortis management and Ansari. The Gurugram police have also set up an special investigation team (SIT) led by DCP Gurugram East Mayank Gupta to trace Ansaris location.

Meanwhile, during a conversation with HT at a city hospital in Gurugram (where the accused were being treated after the arrest), Ahssanul, an assistant sub-inspector of the Bangladesh Narcotics Department who is one of the organ receivers, said that he got in touch with Ansari through a relative of another patient who was being treated in Bangladeshs IBN-Sina Hospital Dhaka but got a transplantation surgery from Jaipurs Fortis Escorts Hospital last year.

I had an issue with both my kidneys since childhood. When both of them failed, I needed an urgent transplantation through a donor. I contacted Ansari who also found me a donor Muhammed Hassan Majumder. My surgery was done on March 21 following which Majumder returned to Bangladesh, he added.

DSP Yadav said the Bangladeshi nationals have also revealed that the recipients used to pay 10 lakh and the donor used to get 2 lakh for each kidney. Fake documentations were prepared and the hospital did not verify details or a board was formed before finalising the surgery as per the protocol. We suspect that the syndicate may have got kidney transplants in hospitals in other places as well. We are yet to receive complete details from Jaipur regarding the donors and details of more cases of organ donation at the hospital in the last three years, he said.

Another donor, Shamim Mehndi Hassan, said he got in touch with Ansari through Facebook five to six months ago, when he urgently needed money to pay-off his loan. I was drowning in debt when my business took a hit due to Covid. I needed around Takka 400,000 ( 302,330) to pay off the final amount of my loan worth Takka 1,200,000 which I took in 2018 to start a mobile shop, he told HT in Gurugrams city hospital, adding that he agreed to donate his kidney to Nurul Hassan in March.

While Ehsanul said that he paid about a Takka 2,400,000 (around 1,824,220) to Ansari after the surgery, Shamim also stated that he received about a Takka 400,000 ( 302,330) from Ansari.

The Gurugram police added that the transactions were different in all the cases of other donors and receivers with Ansari as well. During the raid, police found that two people were yet to get the surgery done as they were found unfit for it.

The Jaipur Police has also arrested four out of the five Bangladeshi nationals arrested by Gurugram police; the fifth Syed Akid Muhammed (a receiver) was however not arrested as his surgery didnt take place as he developed an infection in the kidneys. However, his was all set to undergo the transplantation from the donor Muhammed Azad Hossain, said DSP Yadav.

ACP Dhaka said: Ansari, a native of Jharkhand, is absconding. The transaction between him and the hospital co-ordinators can be figured out once he is held. We are trying to nab him and also four to five other brokers probably from West Bengal. Two other donors from Nepal and Cambodia are also on our radar.

He added that his team would also investigate members of the SMS authorisation committee after the states health department prepares a report on fake NOC cases across all the 12 hospitals in the last three years.

This team was set up by the state government on April 3. The work is under progress. We are waiting for the data from the SMS hospital. Since it is a huge volume of data, it might take a few more time, said commissioner of medical education, Dr Iqbal Khan.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the Director General of Health Services under the Union health ministry Atul Goel also wrote a letter to Rajasthan Additional Chief Secretary Shubhra Singh on April 16 seeking a report and immediate action against the culprits.

Meanwhile, around six doctors, two from EHCC and four from Fortis are also on ACBs scanner. When we checked their phones, we found some chats deleted following which we seized those devices and sent them for a forensic examination. The FSL report will reveal how many of them are involved, said ACB DIG Dr Ravi.
New Delhi/Bengaluru: The performance as an MP of Prajwal Revanna, the Janta Dal (Secular) representative from Hassan in Karnataka, who is being investigated by the state police for sexual harassment and molestation, captured in 2,972 clips allegedly leaked by his former driver, Karthik, is below the national average on parameters of attendance, questions asked and participation in debates. **EDS: UNDATED IMAGE** Bengaluru: Prajwal Revanna who has been suspended from the JD(S) amid allegations over sexual abuse. (PTI Photo) (PTI04_30_2024_000121B) (PTI)

The Karnataka police has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into a complaint of sexual abuse against Revanna , grandson of former prime minister and JD (S) supremo, H D Deve Gowda, and his father, H D Revanna. Revanna left for Germany on April 27, hours before a case was registered against him. He is slated to return on May 16. The JD(S) and the BJP are allies in the ongoing election.

According to data shared by the PRS legislative research, a non-government organisation that tracks performance of members of Parliament, Revannas Lok Sabha attendance was just 55% between 2019 and 2024 much below the national average 79% for the MPs attending their respective houses.

Revanna asked only 89 questions in five years, which means he asked fewer than 18 questions in a year. This translates into six questions in a session as the Lok Sabha meets three times a year for budget, monsoon and winter sessions, according to the PRS and Lok Sabha websites. The last question he asked was in February 2024, on why Karnataka does not have a All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), to which the health ministry replied that a proposal to have AIIMS in Hubli-Dharwad region has been received but not approved.

In the 17th Lok Sabha, Revanna has the dubious distinction of having asked least number of questions as compared to 27 other Lok Sabha members from Karnataka. The national average of the questions asked by MPs in 17th Lok Sabha was 210.

The only Janata Dal (S) candidate to win Lok Sabha election in 2019, and once considered the partys emerging leader , Revanna participated in just two debates in Lok Sabha in five years.

The first one on 25 June 2019 was on the motion of thanks to Presidents customary address to the first session of a new Lok Sabha. A year later in September 2020, he was among 30-odd speakers on the government resolution for withdrawing the three farmers bills.

Revanna did not introduce any private member bill or resolution in five years as against the national average of two for MPs. He also did not raise any special mention during zero hour, a platform for the MPs to raise issues of importance that may not get covered in discussion and debates that day.

In five years as MP,Revanna was also nominated to Parliamentary standing committees of water and commerce. However, the Lok Sabha website does not provide attendance details of committee meetings he attended.

Responding to the details, Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal said, This is not surprising at all. Now we know what kept him busy. What a horrible legacy he leaves behind as an MP. This must be the only person in history to have assaulted so many women. How did he behave in Delhi? With his staff in Delhi? Also, the courts must stop giving injunctions to elected representatives for their videos. It just emboldens them further.

The BJP spokesperson in Bengaluru refused comment saying it was JD(S) internal matter. JD(S) core committee chairman GT Devegowda didnt respond to the calls made for a comment on the issue.

ends
Air India on Friday said it will resume flight services between Delhi and Tel Aviv on May 16. An Air India flight.(HT File)

The airline has temporarily suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv amid tensions in the Middle East.

In a post on X, Air India said it will resume "services between Delhi and Tel Aviv with five weekly flights from 16 May, 2024".

ALSO READ | Air India cancels flights to and from Tel Aviv after Hamas attacks Israel

On April 19, the airline said Tel Aviv flights will remain suspended till April 30. The suspension was later extended till May 15.

After nearly five months, the Tata group-owned carrier had recommenced services to the Israeli city on March 3.

Tensions remain high in the Middle East due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Soon after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from the Raebareli seat in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP launched multiple attacks at the Gandhi family and the grand old party. Union Home Minister Amit Shah further took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying that Sonia Gandhi tried to launch Rahulyaan nearly 20 times but he will lose the elections from the Raebareli seat. Union Home Minister Amit Shah (PTI File)

Rahul Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from two seats - Wayanad and Raebareli. Meanwhile, BJP fielded party leader Dinesh Pratap Singh from the Raebareli seat.

While addressing an election rally in Belgavi's Hukkeri town, Amit Shah expressed confidence that Singh will defeat Gandhi from the seat by a huge margin.

The home minister said, We launched Chandrayaan-3 and it was successful. On the other hand, Sonia Gandhiji has tried to launch Rahulyaan nearly 20 times and has failed every time. Now he has run from Amethi and is contesting from Raebareli. I want to tell you (Rahul Gandhi) the result from here, 'Rahul Baba' will lose to the BJP candidate, Dinesh Pratap Singh with a huge margin in Raebareli.

Amit Shah further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't take a single leave over the last 23 years, while Rahul Gandhi goes on frequent vacations.

"On one side, there's the Congress party that has done scams worth 12 lakh crore. On the other, we have PM Modi, who has served the nation as a CM and a PM for the last 23 years, without a single allegation to his name. On one hand, we have Rahul baba, who takes a foreign vacation every three months. On the other hand, we have PM Modi, who has not taken one leave since the last 23 years and celebrates festivals with our brave soldiers," he said.

There were speculations of Rahul Gandhi returning to contest the elections from the Amethi seat once again, but Congress declared Kishori Lal Sharma as its candidate from the constituency.

Union Minister Smriti Irani slammed the grand old party for the decision, saying that Congress already would not have fielded a "proxy candidate" (Kishori Lal Sharma) if they were hopeful about the outcome of the polls, already conceding defeat before a single vote was cast.
May 3, 2024: Russia has lost at least ten percent of its combat aircraft since they invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Since the 2022 invasion Russia has lost 347 combat aircraft and 325 helicopters. Ukrainian losses have been similar, with 346 combat aircraft and 270 helicopters lost so far, all or almost all of Russian design. European NATO nations are providing Ukraine with fifty or sixty American-made F-16 fighters. These are arriving in 2024, as quickly as Ukrainian pilots can be trained to fly them. NATO countries have over a thousand F-16s and the U.S. Air Force operates over 900 of them.

European NATO nations offered to supply over 60 F-16 jet fighters and these are already arriving in Ukraine and all of them are supposed to be in Ukraine by the end of 2024. Pilot training is continuing and Ukrainian pilots who have completed their training speak highly of the F-16 and its capabilities, especially compared to the MiG-29, which was designed as the Russian equivalent of the F-16 during the Cold War. MiG-29s and F-16s have never fought each other but many Western pilots have flown the MiG-29 because after the Cold War ended many East European nations were soon NATO members, and still had their Cold War era MiG-29s. The East European MiG-29 pilots preferred the F-16 once they had flown in one. But the pilots who had flown both F-16s and MiG-29s warned that the MiG-29 could be a formidable opponent for an F-16 if the MiG was flown by an experienced pilot. The Cold War ended in 1991 and MiG-29s have not seen much combat since then while the F-16s have. Pilot quality will determine how well MiG-29s do against F-16s.

Russia has a problem replacing lost aircraft. Production of new aircraft in Russia was greatly reduced by economic sanctions, which include the loss of key aircraft components formerly obtained from foreign suppliers. That means Russia is only able to replace five percent of aircraft lost in combat. Meanwhile Ukraine, which also lost hundreds of their Russian-made combat aircraft, most of them Cold War era MiG-29s, and most of which were provided since the war started by NATO nations which used to be Soviet satellites, now has access to hundreds of American and European F-16s which are being replaced by the new F-35s.

Currently some Ukrainian pilots are training in F-16s, which have been the worlds most popular post-Cold War combat aircraft. Communist governments and the Soviet Union collapsed by 1991 and eastern European nations, recently under communist rule, wanted to join NATO so the Russians, Communist or not, would be less likely to return. During the last three decades these former Communist controlled nations joined NATO and have been replacing their Russian weapons, like MiG29s, with Western models that are usually F-16s.

The F-16 and MiG-29 are both considered 4th generation, 1970s and 80s, aircraft. The 5th generation, so far, consists of the American F-22 and F-35 as well as Chinas J-20. The MiG-29 dates from the 1980s and was the last aircraft designed by the now defunct MiG company. Rival Sukhoi later introduced two new aircraft, the Su-24 and Su-35. Both performed poorly in combat over Ukraine. The MiG-29 entered service in 1983. Some 1,600 MiG-29s were produced, with about 900 of them exported. The 22-ton aircraft is roughly comparable to the F-16, but it depends a lot on which version of either aircraft you are talking about. Russia is making a lot of money upgrading MiG-29s. Not just adding new electronics but also making the airframe more robust.

The MiG-29 was originally rated at 2,500 total flight hours. At that time, Russia expected MiG-29s to fly about a hundred or so hours a year. Didnt work out that way. India, for example, flew them at nearly twice that rate, as did Malaysia. Eventually Russia offered an upgrade to the airframe so that the aircraft could fly up to 4,000 hours, with more life extension upgrades promised. This has not been easy, as the MiG-29 has a history of unreliability and premature breakdowns, both mechanical and electronic, which indicates a flawed design.

Western warplanes are built to last longer. The F-16C was originally designed for a service life of 4,000 hours in the air. Advances in engineering, materials, and maintenance techniques extended that to over 8,000 hours. Because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, F-16s sent to these areas flew over a thousand hours a year more than what they would fly in peacetime. That led to a refurbishment program to extend F-16C flight hours to 10,000 or more.

The U.S. Air Force had to refurbish several hundred of its 22-ton F-16 fighters, because their replacement, the 31-ton F-35, had not arrived on time. Most existing F-16s are old, and by 2016, many were too old to operate. Back then the average age of F-16s was over 20 years, and the average aircraft had over 5,000 flight hours on it. In 2009 the first Block 40 F-16 passed 7,000 hours. In 2008 the first of the earliest models, Block 25 F-16s, passed 7,000 hours. While older F-16s are being retired for their age, they tend to have at least twice as many flight hours as their Russian counterparts. Because of greater durability and ease of maintenance, the seemingly more expensive Western fighters are actually cheaper in the lifetime of an aircraft because they last longer and are easier to maintain than equivalent Russian designs.

The Block 70 F-16 was also sold to Slovakia which ordered 14, Bulgaria asked for eight and Bahrain received 16 new F-16s plus twenty older F-16s upgraded to Block 7o. South Korea upgraded over a hundred of its F-16s to the Block 70 standard. The F-16V was the popular choice for post-Cold War members of NATO, like Slovakia and Bulgaria, seeking to replace early model MiG-29s. New users of the F-16 also purchase spares, maintenance equipment, training, aircraft accessories, like look and shoot helmets plus tech support and assistance in setting up maintenance and support facilities. These can be used for other aircraft types and are a good investment. The sale includes air-to-air missiles and smart bombs as well.

The F-16V was introduced in 2012 as the last model of the F-16 but production of the F-16 did not halt as planned in 2016 because possible further sales of the F-16V turned into actual orders for more F-16s. Additionally it became possible to upgrade some or all of the older F-16s to the Block 7o standard. These Block 7o upgrades are not always possible, or practical, for the oldest models of the F-16. These upgrades include replacing many structural elements as well as installing more powerful engines and the most modern electronics and fire control systems available.

Although production of the F-16 ceased temporarily, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin, known as LockMart, continues to do upgrades and refurbishments, and produce new F-16Vs due to buyer demand. The changes in the V model are considerable. The airframe is upgraded and strengthened to enable 12,000 flight hours per aircraft. The electronics undergo an even more extensive upgrade which involves replacing the mechanical radar with an AESA phased array radar, an upgraded cockpit, a Sniper targeting pod, a Link 16 digital data link and upgraded navigation gear. The newly redesigned cockpit is all digital and flat screen touch displays that replace dozens of gauges and switches and make it much easier to fly. AESA and the new fire control system make it possible to track multiple aircraft at once as well as track vehicles on land or vessels at sea. The targeting pod enables the pilot to confirm visually what is on the surface and promptly attack it with smart bombs or missiles. LockMart initially expected to get orders for at least 700 newly built F-16V or less expensive upgrades. An upgrade brings in as little as $10 million per aircraft while five or ten of these upgrades equal the price of one new F-16V. But when you have orders for hundreds of F-16V upgrades you have a lot of F-16 work.

The F-16 thus follows the path of previous best selling fighters. During the 1947-1991 Cold War Russia built over 10,000 MiG-21s and the U.S over 5,000 F-4s. After 1991 warplane manufacturing plummeted about 90 percent. However, the F-16 has been popular enough to keep the production lines going strong into the 2020s. The U.S. still has about 900 F-16s in service, with many of them in reserve units. F-16s built so far went to 27 countries before Ukraine requested them. America has hundreds in storage, available for sale on the used airplane market. The end of the Cold War led to a sharp cut in U.S. Air Force fighter squadrons. Moreover, the new F-35 is on its way to replacing all U.S. F-16s by the 2030. The U.S. has plenty of little-used F-16s sitting around, while many allies need low cost jet fighters. Many current F-16 users planned to replace the F-16 with the F-35 but that aircraft costs more than twice as much as a new F-16V, so air forces are seeking to operate a mixed force of F-35s and late model F-16s. A current example of this is Poland, which is sending its older MiG-29s to Ukraine. These have a few good years left, which is all Ukraine needs.

Since the 1990s most F-16s produced were for export and some cost as much as $70 million each, like the F-16I for Israel. Some nations, like South Korea, built over a hundred F-16s under license. The 16 ton F-16 also has an admirable combat record and is very popular with pilots. It has been successful at ground support as well. When equipped with 4-6 smart bombs, it is an effective bomber. Since first entering service some 4,600 F-16s have flown over 12 million hours. Despite fears that a single engine fighter would be less safe, F-16s have, in the 21st century, suffered an accident rate (loss or major damage) of only 2.4 per 100,000 flight hours.

The most successful F-16 user so far is Israel which set a number of combat records with its F-16s. Israel plans to keep some of its late model F-16s flying until 2030 as it retires the oldest ones. At the end of 2016, Israel retired the last of its 125 F-16A fighters. The first 70 were acquired in 1980 and 1981 and included 8 two-seater F-16B trainers. One of the F-16As achieved a record by being the single F-16 with the most air-to-air kills, 7, all achieved in 1982 using three different pilots. Overall Israeli F-16s have shot down eight or more enemy aircraft in combat. While the F-16 is widely used, its combat operations have almost all involved using missiles or smart bombs against ground targets. So far, where F-16s have operated in a hostile environment, they were able to maintain air supremacy, often to the extent it was air domination.

The Ukrainians are well aware of the F-16s track record, especially when compared to the MiG-29. Thats why Ukraine kept asking for F-16s and eventually got them. By the end of 2024 it will be known how well F-16s operate against similar aircraft and modern anti-aircraft systems the Russians have. The Russians are not looking to this because they cant replace losses while Ukraine has hundreds of F-16s sitting in foreign countries and available to replace Ukrainian losses. The war has lasted long enough, and Ukraine has had so much access to Western pilot-training programs, that it has enough fighter pilots who only need orientation in F-16s.
The top court on Thursday paved way for women to hold top posts in the countrys premier bar body  Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) by directing one-third reservation for women in executive member posts and office bearer positions and implemented the same from this years election to be held on May 16. The top court order observed that the norms, eligibility conditions, membership, membership fee structure etc., cannot remain static for decades (HT)

The top courts ruling came just days after a special general body of the SCBA shot down the resolution for having women reservation in SCBA Executive Committee in its meeting held on April 30. The resolution received 291 votes in its support while an overwhelming majority of 800 lawyer rejected it leading to the resolution getting dropped. A bench of justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan noted with anguish that out of eight resolutions relating to eligibility to contest SCBA polls, not one was passed.

We are of the view that the SCBA is a premier institution and is an integral part of the highest judicial forum of the country, the bench said.

Despite the resolution of special general body disapproving reservation for women, the court was of the firm view that a start must be made by reserving at least one-third posts for women.

Some of the posts in the Executive Committee must be reserved for women members of the Bar, the court said, adding that three out of nine executive committee seats and two out of six senior executive member posts will be reserved for women. In addition, for the post of president, vice-president, secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and joint treasurer, the court said, At least one post of the office bearer shall be reserved for women candidate exclusively by turn and on rotation basis.

The court fixed the date for the upcoming SCBA elections on May 16 and counting of votes on May 19, stating, In the ensuing election for 2024-2025, the post of treasurer of the executive committee is reserved for women.

During the proceedings, SCBA president and senior advocate Adish Aggarwala also that he favours the reservation for women. The matter was raised first before Delhi high court in a petition filed by petitioner lawyer MG Yogmaya through advocate P Sriram seeking sufficient women representation in the SCBA executive committee.

On February 29 this year, the HC disposed the matter on an assurance by Aggarwala that the general body will meet within two months to decide on this issue. Aggarwala did not respond despite repeated attempts made to contact him for his remarks over the issue.

The top court order observed that the norms, eligibility conditions, membership, membership fee structure etc., cannot remain static for decades. It said, Timely reforms to meet with the challenges that may confront the institution from time to time, are required to be carried out.

The court directed the executive committee of SCBA to invite suggestions from all bar members on the eight resolutions that will be considered by the top court in its next hearing. These eight resolutions, besides women reservation, also included eligibility to hold one post for more than four years, eligibility conditions to contest for the post of office bearer including length of practice and fee to be deposited, revision of admission fee for SCBA members, eligibility conditions for contesting on other posts in SCBA executive committee, among others.
The Union government on Thursday accused the West Bengal government of suppression of facts and misleading the court while seeking dismissal of a constitutional suit filed by the state to bar the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from conducting probes in the latters territory in the absence of prior approval of the state. Representing the Centre, solicitor general Tushar Mehta emphasised that actions by CBI cannot be conflated with actions by the Union of India itself (HT)

The Centre underlined that CBI, which is not listed as a defendant by the state in its suit, operates with a degree of independence, thus questioning the causal connection between the Unions actions and the grievances cited by West Bengal.

CBI is not Union of India nor is controlled by the latter. The CBI is an independent legal person and has a separate legal identity outside the Union of India, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told a bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.

Representing the Centre, Mehta emphasised that actions by CBI cannot be conflated with actions by the Union of India itself and that the states suit must be rejected at the threshold on the ground that reliefs have been prayed against the agency, but CBI has not been and cannot be made a party to a suit under Article 131. This provision allows for disputes between the Union and one or more states or between states themselves to be directly adjudicated by the Supreme Court, bypassing subordinate courts.

ALSO READ | Calcutta HC directs Bengal govt to cooperate with CBI in Sandeshkhali probe

The Union of India has neither registered any case in the state of West Bengal, neither can it register any case, nor has it been investigating any case. Yet, as is evident from the prayers, each and every prayer in the present suit is directed either towards restraining the Union of India from investigating any case or towards quashing cases where the Union of India has allegedly registered FIRs, Mehta argued before the bench.

The state government has failed to establish how the cause of action against the central government has arisen when the FIRs have been lodged by CBI that enjoys statutory autonomy, especially in its investigative functions, the SG argued, while adding that the mere fact that an agency is established by the Government of India would not entitle any state to file a suit against the Union of India for the actions of that agency.

A suit under Article 131 can only be filed against a government (either state or central) seeking relief relating to actions of the said government only and not related to the actions of an independent agency. The suit, therefore, filed against the Union of India, in a matter where the CBI is the real party which has done the acts sought to be prevented, is not maintainable and is, therefore, ought to be dismissed without any further inquiry, said Mehta, reading out from his written submissions. Advocates Kanu Agrawal, Madhav Sinhal and Akshay Nain assisted the SG in the matter.

Moreover, Mehta argued that West Bengal did not approach the court with clean hands  a requirement under the high standards expected of litigants in suits of a constitutional nature, given the states failure to disclose ongoing judicial proceedings that directly relate to the orders of other constitutional courts and the pendency of the states similar appeal before another bench in the top court.

ALSO READ | Teacher recruitment scam: SC stays CBI probe into Bengal govt officials' role

The state has deliberately and willfully suppressed several facts which are most material, in absence of which prayers prayed for can either not be decreed or will run contrary to judicial orders in existence. It failed to disclose that any relief granted in the suit or interim order would run contrary to the judicial orders passed by the constitutional courts with respect to the very same FIRs which are made subject matter of the suit as well as this application, stressed the SG. Mehta referred to two FIRs registered by CBI on the orders of the Calcutta high court and some others lodged against the central government employees or having pan-India impact.

It is not understood as to why the state government came in the way of such investigation which would have an inevitable effect of shielding those who are guilty of such multi-state or pan-India offences, stated SGs written submissions.

It added that allowing such a suit to proceed would set a dangerous precedent, enabling any government agency to be wrongly implicated in legal actions meant for the central or state governments, thus potentially opening a pandoras box of litigation.

While wrapping up his arguments on Thursday, Mehta pressed for an outright dismissal of the West Bengals suit on the grounds of misrepresentation, lack of a direct cause of action against the Union, and abuse of the legal process.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, opened his arguments, albeit briefly, due to paucity of time. Sibal highlighted a fundamental concern about the autonomy of state law enforcement versus central investigative agencies such as CBI.

Who will direct the CBI not to enter? The Union! The CBI cannot say: I will not accept what the Union says. I am an independent agency. This proposition of the law should be rejected at the outset, said Sibal, adding CBI probes are followed by the Enforcement Directorates entry into the state. Sibal will continue his arguments on May 9.

Filed in August 2021, the states suit underlined that the Trinamool Congress government had, in November 2018, withdrawn general consent to carry out a probe in the territory of the state, the suit maintained that registration of 12 cases by the central agency despite withdrawal of consent was an instance of constitutional overreach by the Union government.

The state said that CBI has no inherent jurisdiction to conduct a probe in any part of the state, including railway areas, till the time it obtains a prior sanction. Claiming that the agency has been exercising its powers in an unconstitutional manner, the suit said the registration of cases by CBI was an encroachment on the legal rights of the state. The plea demanded annulment of all 12 cases registered by CBI and to restrain the agency from lodging any fresh cases.
Rahul Gandhi is all set to become the the next Mahatma Gandhi, according to Indranil Rajguru, a Congress leader from Gujarat. Rahul Gandhi (File Photo)

Rahul, he also stated, is frank and pure-hearted,' while Gandhiji was cunning."

Write down my words if you want to. In the coming days, Rahul Gandhi will emerge as the next Mahatma Gandhi. While Gandhiji was somewhat cunning, Rahul is totally frank and pure-hearted, Rajguru said at a gathering in Rajkot on May 1.

The ex-legislator further described the former Congress chief as the country's leader.

People have tried to portray him as a pappu (dim-witted) but the country has now accepted him as its leader, Rajguru remarked.

BJP reacts

The BJP slammed the Congress leader, saying that people will show their anger for the Mahatma Gandhi statement by voting against the grand old party in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi becomes third generation Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareli

Gandhiji is the father of our nation and led us to Independence. People of India and Gujarat will not forgive the Congress for such comments. This anger will be reflected in the poll results, said Bharat Boghara, vice president of the BJP's Gujarat unit.

Rajguru responds

Responding to the saffron party, Rajguru pointed to what he termed as reference" in a history book in which the word cunning was used for the Mahatma. The Congress leader also claimed that by cunning, he actually meant clever.

I have read many history books related to Gandhiji and in one such book there was a reference about it (cunning). I have not added my own words. I called Rahul Gandhi the next Mahatma because today, he is the only one fighting the BJP, just like Mahatma Gandhi fought the British. The BJP is trying to destroy India's democracy, the former MLA asserted.

(With PTI inputs)
India issued a sharp retort to Pakistan over Islamabad envoy's comments in the UN General Assembly meeting. India said that Pakistan harbours a most dubious track record on all aspects, and slammed the nation for its destructive and pernicious remarks at the UNGA. India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj speaks at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, on Thursday. (ANI Photo)(ANI)

Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj issued a stern response to Pakistan after the country's UN envoy Munir Akram made certain remarks against India, ranging from topics such as Kashmir, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and Ayodhya's Ram Temple during his address on Culture of Peace.

Kamboj said on Thursday, One final pointin this Assembly, as we endeavour to cultivate a culture of peace amid these challenging times, our focus remains steadfast on constructive dialogue. We thus choose to set aside the remarks from a certain delegation, which not only lack decorum but also detract from our collective efforts due to their destructive and pernicious nature.

She further added, We would strongly encourage that delegation to align with the central principles of respect and diplomacy that must always guide our discussions. Or is that too much to ask of a country that harbours a most dubious track record on all aspects in itself?

Kamboj asserted that terrorism stands in direct opposition to the culture of peace and the core teachings of all religions, which advocate compassion, understanding and coexistence.

It sows discord, breeds hostility and undermines the universal values of respect and harmony that underpin cultural and religious traditions worldwide. It is essential for Member States to work together actively to nurture a genuine culture of peace and to view the world as a united family, as my country strongly believes, she said.

In March this year, India hit out at Pakistan at UNGA for its remarks against the implementation of CAA, which will grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Kamboj called out Pakistan for having sadly stagnant and misguided perspective on these issues, saying, One final point concerns a delegation (and its remarks) that, much like a broken record, remains sadly stagnant while the world progresses.

(With inputs from PTI)
Mumbai, The Enforcement Directorate on Friday opposed the interim medical bail sought by Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal in a money laundering case and said his stay at a private hospital could be extended for a month. ED opposes interim bail to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal; HC to pass order on May 6

Goyal has sought interim bail on medical and humanitarian grounds, citing that both he and his wife, Anita Goyal, suffered from cancer.

On Friday, a single bench of Justice N J Jamadar said it would pass orders on May 6.

A special court had in February refused bail to Goyal but permitted him to be admitted to a private hospital of his choice and seek medical treatment.

Goyal had last week moved the high court seeking interim bail on merits and release on medical grounds.

While Goyal's counsel, Harish Salve, urged the court to consider the case on humanitarian grounds, the ED's counsel, Hiten Venegaonkar, vehemently opposed the bail and said the probe agency did not have a problem if his hospitalisation was extended.

Before closing the matter for orders, Justice Jamadar remarked that taking treatment without restraint would make a difference.

"There is a distinction when a person gets medical treatment without any restraint," he said.

To which Venegaonkar said there was no restraint even now.

"He is getting treated at a hospital of his choice and by doctors of his own choice. His wife is also in the same hospital, and there is no restraint for them to meet and spend time together," Venegaonkar said.

The lawyer said the court may extend his hospitalisation for four weeks and then call for a fresh medical report to assess his situation.

Salve argued that apart from his deteriorating physical health, Goyal's mental health was also not good.

"His mental health is also a point of concern. Being mentally infirm is worse than physical infirmity," Salve said.

The senior counsel said section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is strict on grant of bail to persons arrested for a financial crime.

"But there is a proviso under the section, which says bail may be considered in cases of old age or infirmity. This proviso makes this section more humane," Salve said.

The court may grant interim bail to Goyal and impose the strictest conditions on him, he said.

"He has been told his wife has only six months to live as she has terminal cancer. He has also got cancer. His mental state and his wife's mental state need to be considered. At this stage, they both need love and affection," Salve said.

The ED arrested Goyal in September 2023 on allegations that he had laundered money and siphoned off loans to the tune of 538.62 crore given to Jet Airways by Canara Bank.

His wife, Anita Goyal, was arrested in November 2023 when the ED submitted its charge sheet in the case. She was granted bail by the special court on the same day, considering her age and medical condition.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Like most Indian small towns, Dhubri is a stinging mesh of sights and sounds. On its best day, bulging auto-rickshaws and screeching motorbikes vie for space on its narrow alleys, with cyclists and pedestrians jumping out of the way as two-wheelers swerve to avoid hawkers selling anything from cheap bundled socks to fried snacks. In 2011, Sahida Bibi (left) was arrested on charges of being a foreigner and put in a detention centre. (HT Photo)

The cacophony this generates has only gotten sharper over the past month as a bevy of politicians hit the campaign trail, attempting to connect to each of the 70,000-odd residents of this ancient town in lower Assam that sits at the head of a confluence dominated by the mighty Brahmaputra. Roads have become more congested as street-corner canvassing takes hold, and motorbike rallies are zipping through its few avenues. Even the calmness of the night is now pierced by loudspeakers blaring campaign songs, often fitted on rickshaws and autos for maximum outreach.

But the election fever hasnt gripped Sahida Bibi. The gentle lapping of the Brahmaputra water on its shore here is undisturbed, and the 53-year-old says no candidate or their supporter has reached the village.

No one has approached us. But we will go out and vote, she said, determined to make her voice heard on an issue that most of her fellow countrymen take for granted but one that has upended her life  citizenship.

It was a month after the Assam assembly polls in April 2011, when she and her twin sons, who were just a few days old at that time, were arrested on charges of being foreigners, and put in a detention centre in Kokrajhar district. The arrest came 13 years after a foreigners tribunal, a quasi-judicial body, declared Bibi a foreigner in 1998 in an ex-parte order. At the time, Bibi claims, she didnt even know of the modalities of what that could entail.

A month-and-a-half after her arrest, one of Bibis sons, Nazrul, died in the detention camp from respiratory complications, allegedly aggravated due to lack of medical facilities. Though she was declared an Indian 10 months later in March 2012 after the Gauhati high court directed the tribunal to hear her case anew, the loss was irreparable.

Her husband, who sold off the family land to fight the legal battle, died soon after. Today, Bibi makes a living by rolling bidis at a factory near her home. Her other son, Nabizur Islam, studies in Class VI in a nearby school. I still have nightmares about those days in detention when I had to lose my son, said Bibi.

She is not alone. In Assam, a person can be declared a foreigner if they or their ancestors fail to show that they were residents of the state or another part of the country before March 24, 1971, a date fixed by the Assam Accord of 1985. Those who fail to prove their ancestry and location are sent to detention centres. But sometimes documents arent enough. Bibis father was included in the 1951 National Register of Citizens, which was prepared to detect illegal immigrants in Assam, and his name was also present in electoral rolls prior to 1971. Yet, she found herself the subject of an investigation, and eventual detention.

Cases like this are common in Dhubri, where people get tagged as foreigners and spend time in detention centres. While some are able to prove their citizenship, others are not that lucky and some even die while in detention. In many of these cases, people fail to get the notices sent to them to prove their citizenship and they are declared foreigners in ex-parte judgements passed by the tribunals, said Masud Zaman, a senior advocate in the Gauhati high court.

This thorny question of citizenship and illegal immigration has animated Assams politics for close to half a century. It is these concerns that fueled the six-year-long Assam agitation between 1979 and 1985 and led to the deaths of thousands of people, before the tripartite Assam Accord drew a line under the violence.

Yet, anxieties simmered, especially in lower Assam, which shares a proximate (and sometimes porous) boundary with Bangladesh. The revised National Register of Citizens was ordered to allay these concerns. When it was made public in August 2019, it left out 1.9 million applicants, putting a question mark on their citizenship. The two-step process that was monitored by the Supreme Court was mired in bureaucratese and allegations of opacity, leaving all sides dissatisfied. The final list is yet to be notified by the Registrar General of India and a slew of petitions against it are pending in the top court. This maze of litigation has prevented unsuccessful applicants from taking measures to get their names listed.

This is an unfolding humanitarian story in Assam, one that has sharply pitted the ruling BJP-Asom Gana Parishad alliance against the Congress and parties such as the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). But this time, citizenship is also a key theme in the general elections due to the BJPs push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA -- it fast-tracks citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities who entered India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh on or before December 31, 2014  and its repeated invocations of the bogey of the undocumented migrant to underline its muscular national security credentials.

In Assam, a person can be declared a foreigner if they or their ancestors fail to show that they were residents of the state or another part of the country before March 24, 1971.

History and politics

Surrounded on three sides by the Brahmaputra and Gangadhar rivers, Dhubri has been an important part of Assams history for centuries. Considered the gateway to Assam, the Muslim-majority district has an eclectic mix of people and is an important business centre.

The region shares a 61km boundary with Bangladesh, most of which is along the Brahmaputra as it enters the neighbouring country and is filled with numerous chars (sand bars) making it difficult for security forces to patrol and easier for undocumented immigrants to cross over or smuggle goods ranging from cattle to drugs.

The Dhubri Lok Sabha seat is one of the three among 14 in Assam where Muslims are in majority; since Independence, it is one of a handful of constituencies across India where the parliamentarian has always been a Muslim. Before last years delimitation exercise, which saw a massive redrawing of boundaries of the states 126 assembly and 14 parliamentary seats, there were 10 assembly constituencies across three districts under the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat. But now it has 11 assembly seats  four new ones added and three old ones removed  spread across five districts.

Delimitation has also increased the number of voters in Dhubri. In 2019, the constituency had 1,858,566 voters. But now it has jumped to 2,643,403  a 42% increase in five years. This has caused fevered speculation around the possibility of gerrymandering and its potential impact on voting patterns this time around.

For over three decades between 1971 and 2004, Dhubri was a Congress stronghold. But since 2009, Badruddin Ajmal, the perfume baron who founded the AIUDF in 2005 with a mass base among Bengali-speaking Muslims, many of whom migrated to the region from erstwhile East Pakistan, established a vice-like grip on the seat.

This time, the 68-year-old three-time MP is facing a tight contest with former Congress minister, Rakibul Hussain, and Jabed Islam of the AGP, a partner of the BJP.

The Congress hopes to take advantage of the twin underlying currents in the debate on citizenship  language and religion  and blames the state government of having targeted Muslims under the guise of controversial drives such as those against child marriage.

People in Dhubri have been facing atrocities by the BJP government under various charges including child marriage, fake encounters and even razing of houses on minor grounds. Thats why this time voters have decided to back Congress so that they can live in peace and with self-respect, said Congress candidate Hussain.

In his campaign rallies, Hussain, who hails from Nagaon district and represents the Samaguri seat in the assembly, highlights an alleged alliance between the AIUDF and the BJP, underlining how Ajmal never took up causes such as NRC or foreigner tribunals.

But its not easy to unseat the man whose businesses are the financial engines of the town.

The Congress is investing a lot of money and resources in Dhubri, but Ajmal will win comfortably in the end. People in Dhubri are aware how leaders of Congresss alliance partners in Assam  Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad  wanted 100% reverification of the NRC. It shows that they question the identity and citizenship of Bengali speaking Muslims. Therefore, voters wont back Congress, said Md Aminul Islam , an AIUDF lawmaker.

The foreigners tribunal courts in Assam have issued notices to 19,358 persons between May 1, 2021 and February 28, 2022 asking them to prove their citizenship by appearing before the court. (File)

A proxy battle

The question of citizenship is an election issue on the ground largely in two states. In West Bengal, the Matua community  a quasi-religious sect comprising largely of Dalit people who moved to India from erstwhile East Pakistan around the time of Partition and for roughly two decades afterwards  is one of the targeted beneficiaries of CAA.

And in Assam, a state where tensions have simmered over questions of indigeneity, language and religion, citizenship is a key campaign issue throughout the province, especially in the Bengali-speaking Barak valley and tracts of lower Assam, where Bengali-speaking Muslims live in large numbers.

But the figure of the illegal immigrant has a national footprint. In rally after rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have spelt out the no-nonsense approach of the BJP government to illegal immigration, contrasting that with the Oppositions allegedly lax stance. The Opposition, in turn, has alleged that this is a proxy attack on Muslims.

In Dhubri, a town largely dominated by Bengali-speaking Muslims, this debate has cast an all-too-real shadow. For months, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma repeatedly said that the BJP didnt want votes from miyas for the next 10 years, using a pejorative term that refers to Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam. When elections come, I will request them (miyas) not to vote for us, Sarma said in October last year.

In March, Sarma again said that the BJP will win 13 of the 14 seats in Assam, but not Dhubri. We dont want to win there (Dhubri). Whether they offer garlands or criticise me, we dont want to win there. I will not even go there to campaign, the CM said.

That changed on Thursday when Sarma travelled to Dhubri for the first time during this campaign and addressed three public meetings at Gauripur, Bilasipara and Golakganj, three of the 11 assembly seats under the Lok Sabha constituency.

Pitched campaign

Lost in this polarised environment are a host of other local issues that shape the lives of residents.

Twenty-year-old Abdul Baten will vote for the first time in these elections at Chala Kura-Part II village in a sandbar (char) on the Brahmaputra around 12km from Dhubri. Though he was born there, Baten and his family shifted to the Madhusoulmari village on the outskirts of Dhubri town 12 years ago after nearly 20 bighas of their land was lost due to erosion.

We were forced to move out as our land had disappeared because of erosion. We had to rebuild our lives in the new place. These days my three elder brothers are engaged in small businesses while I work in a timber shop. There are many more families in the chars who have lost their lands and had to shift elsewhere, said Baten.

Along with annual floods, erosion of land along the banks of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries is one of the major problems faced by millions in Assam. According to studies, the state has lost around 7-7.5% of its total landmass (around 4,000 sq km) since Independence, resulting in hundreds of villages and small towns disappearing, and rendering thousands homeless every year.

Another first-time voter, Samim Ali, is pursuing his graduation from Gauripur PB College. But instead of staying back, he wants to leave his village and his family comprising his father (a tailor), mother, two younger brothers and a sister.

Lack of jobs and opportunities is one of the biggest issues in Dhubri. I wanted to join the police, but since my height isnt enough, I will look for a 3rd or 4th grade government job, said the 20-year-old.

Citizenship is also tied to everyday troubles in the region. Take Akbar Ali, a 35-year-old resident of Majerchar Chalakura village, a sandbar on the Brahmaputra located 8km from Dhubri town.

Getting a land patta (a legal document detailing ownership and registration of a plot) is my most important concern. We have 12 bighas of land in char, but despite running around for the past few years, I havent been able to get the patta, said the man who owns a small shop selling plastic furniture.

The state government has a flagship scheme called Mission Basundhara, which allows regularisation of land held by farmers and other occupants without having any pattas. As per the rules, a person or family should be residents of Assam for at least three generations  a condition similar to the NRC  and have been in continuous occupation of a plot for a minimum of three years.

Akbar Ali says he is eligible under the scheme but that his claims remain pending. The Opposition says that the BJP government is targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims without any proof. Sarmas response, though, is categorial  Bengali-speaking Muslims cant avail benefits of Mission Basundhara as they arent indigenous to the state.

As the polling day of May 7 nears, thousands of migrant workers are pouring back into town from all parts of Assam and the rest of the country. But Abubakkar Siddique wont be one of them.

The 35-year-old, who hails from Adabari village, was declared a foreigner by a tribunal in Jorhat in 2016 which held that the documents he possessed, including a voter card, were not sufficient to prove that he is an Indian. Siddique spent nearly three-and-a-half years in a detention camp in Jorhat before his family could secure bail in March 2020 after selling their land. The conditions of bail stipulated that Siddique will have to present himself every week at the Sadar police station in Jorhat, 500km away from Dhubri. I worked in Jorhat as a construction labourer when some people came to the site one day and demanded we prove we are Indians. Despite my papers, I failed, he said.

He now works as a mason in Jorhat, pining to meet his ailing father, a wife and three children. But a trip requires at least four days and 3,000. Siddique has neither money nor time. I dont know how my life ended up like this.
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed former Delhi University (DU) professor Hany Babu, who is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, to withdraw his bail plea citing change of circumstance claiming that he would be moving the Bombay high court which had granted bail to five co-accused. Babu is facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). (HT file photo)

A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal allowed the petition to be withdrawn as not pressed while recording the statement of Babus lawyer Payoshi Roy that he would like to pursue the matter before the high court.

Roy said, There is a change of circumstance. Five of the co-accused have got bail. I would like to go back to the high court and move bail afresh.

Also Read: SC seeks NIAs response on bail plea of former DU prof in Bhima Koregaon case

She requested the court to grant her liberty to approach the high court to which the bench said, You can tell the HC there is a change in circumstance. We will not give you that liberty.

The top court had issued notice on the petition in January this year following which responses were sought from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state of Maharashtra.

The matter was last heard on March 3 when the NIA was granted more time to file a response.

Babu had approached the top court against an order of the Bombay high court of September 19, 2022, refusing bail in the case.

He is alleged to have been part of the conspiracy behind the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018 in Pune in which one person was killed.

NIA claimed that Babu had links with banned terrorist outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The petition filed by the former DU professor claimed he has been in jail for the past four years and there was no immediate prospect of the trial commencing in the matter.

Besides, Babu also claimed innocence as there was no evidence against him except some code names found in his laptop. The HC had discussed these arguments in detail and denied bail.

Babu is facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and in February 2022, the special NIA court had rejected his bail plea making out a prima facie case on his involvement in promoting the agenda of CPI(Maoist) outfit.

The high court order said, The appellant (Babu) is not just a passive member but an active member and the material on record clearly shows his involvement in the larger conspiracy. It further stated that the appellant is not merely a sympathiser with the organisation but is given substantial responsibility, including conducting activities of the Revolutionary Democratic Front, a frontal organisation of the CPI(Maoist).

The high court went through the investigation records submitted by NIA and said that Babu developed code structure for the outfit that was vital for secret communication and evidence was available to show his role in party building and mass mobilisation as part of the outfits larger objective of creating terror.
Compelled to act tough after a series of critical observations from the Supreme Court, the government of Uttarakhand has suspended the licences of 14 products manufactured by the high-profile Patanjali Ayurved Limited, based in Haridwar, and its subsidiary Divya Pharmacy.

The top courts sharply worded observations and directions have landed controversial yoga guru and the companys chief promoter, Baba Ramdev, in a tight spot. His sprawling business empire now faces a deepening credibility crisis.

Nevertheless, few realise that this turn of events is a result of the dogged pursuit for justice of an ophthalmologist from Payyannur in North Kerala. He gathered both the conviction and courage to take on the powerful Patanjali empire, which has been accused of widespread deceitful advertising and the subsequent exploitation of people. The doctor says his fight is part of his conviction to defend ethics and morality in the healthcare sector.

A doctor and a whistleblower

When Hindustan Times reached out to Dr K V Babu, who runs a small clinic in Payyannur that addresses the healthcare needs of the economically poor, the 59-year-old termed his continuing fight against Ramdev as something similar to the mythical David vs Goliath face-off, loosely interpreted as the weak taking on the strong.

Babu, a doctor turned public health activist, uses the Right to Information (RTI) as his primary weapon of choice.

Babu seemed nonchalant about Ramdevs money and influence despite the latter enjoying considerable clout in the country's power circles and even, presumably, having the ability to influence policy decisions.

Babu has advocated ethical and fair healthcare practices since he began practising medicine a quarter century ago. He launched this particular fight against Ramdev after he was convinced that nearly all of Patanjali's widely published and screened advertisements were misleading and in conflict with the country's prevailing laws.

Before targeting the much-hyped Ayurveda major, Babu had become a whistleblower against unhealthy medical practices, even by members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), of which he is a member.

He has a history of fighting even the IMA for endorsing claimed health benefits of certain fruit beverages manufactured by global aerated drinks majors, and they even reached the level of the organisation suspending him for indiscipline.

Babu, in fact, continues to wage a war against media houses, which do not discriminate against false and misleading advertisements, risking public health and exposing the social accountability of pharma majors.

The fight against Patanjali

Before launching the legal battle against Patanjali, Babu submitted more than 100 RTI requests and associated correspondences to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the Ayush ministry, the Ayurveda, and Unani Services of the state of Uttarakhand and the Press Council of India to collect solid evidence to sharpen his arguments as well as to make the fight more informed and authentic.

Five years ago, Babu came across a Patanjali commercial that claimed to provide a one-drop remedy for cataracts and glaucoma: It was at that juncture that he resolved to challenge the unsubstantiated claims. Upon noticing the factual inaccuracy, he turned to X (which was Twitter at the time) and mentioned the Advertising Standards Council of India. But there was no response.

In 2022, he again contacted the authorities regarding a Patanjali advertisement published in newspapers claiming to remedy heart disease and cholesterol. He corresponded with the DCGI who acknowledged the concerns.

On subsequent verifications, Babu discovered that the DCGI had transmitted his complaint to the Ayush ministry, which, in turn, relayed communication to the office of the licencing officer at Uttarakhands Ayurvedic and Unani Services. The licensing authorities in Uttarakhand sent a letter to Patanjali instructing them to promptly delete the deceptive marketing. As a result, Divya Pharmacy decided to cease the publication of the specified advertisements.

Also read: One should not need a microscope to see an apology, SC tells Patanjali

Misleading medical claims

Next, in July 2022, Babu came across another Patanjali advertisement titled "Misconceptions propagated by allopathy."

This advertisement claimed that by registering for a one-week residential cure at Patanjali Wellness, individuals can achieve a permanent solution for lifestyle disorders and incurable, chronic, and genetic diseases, leading to everlasting health.

"It was astonishing to me," Babu recalled.

The products now listed to be suspended include Swasari Gold, Mukta Vati Extra Power, B.P. Grit, Livo Grit, Madhugrit, and Drishti Eye Drop, among others. In addition to a manufacturing ban, the state government had also sought the formula for the drugs from Patanjali to clarify the ingredients.

In August 2022, Babu convinced the IMA to file a case against Patanjali in the Supreme Court, and now the legal war has resulted in the revoking of the license.

In legal battles, IMA and Babu accused Ramdev and Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna of indulging in "misleading advertisements."

The Supreme Court subsequently scrutinised the actions taken by the state government and certain central departments, criticising them for their passivity in the face of a breach of rules by Patanjali Ayurved. Finally, the state government suspended the licences of the Patanjali products under the Drug and Cosmetic Act 1945 provisions.

When asked whether his fight was just against Baba Ramdev and his ayurvedic empire, Babu said he had campaigned for years for ethics in medicine and never missed violators from the allopathic sector including the IMA.

Babu said that despite this ban, the Uttarakhand state licensing authority has not registered any case against Patanjali, even though the company violated the licencing authority's repeated written missives.

Babu said the Ayush ministry had received several complaints against Patanjali in the past and forwarded these to the Uttarakhand licencing authority each time. But no action was taken.

Although Patanjali had claimed in May 2022 to have stopped circulating the misleading advertisements, in July, it released advertisements for five drugs, peddling all of them as cures for diabetes, glaucoma, goitre, blood pressure issues and cholesterol.

Babu said this violated the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, 1945. Both laws prohibit a medicine from being called a 'cure' for some diseases. A conviction under the former can lead to prison sentences of up to a year or more and a fine. He added that even though the state licensing authority frequently wrote to Patanjali about the violations, it did not file cases.

Last month, the Supreme Court rightly expanded the scope of the misleading advertisement case against Patanjali Ayurved to include promoting fast-moving consumer goods.

The judges observed that "FMCG/pharma companies that have been issuing misleading advertisements adversely affecting the health and well-being of babies, young children, women (including lactating and pregnant women), senior citizens, and the sick and infirm" must be 'closely examined'. This will bring about greater change and accountability in our pharma manufacturing sector,'' said Babu.

Babu said that there are two regulatory gaps in AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and homoeopathy) medicines: one is about false claims, which the Supreme Court brought up in its hearing on April 23 regarding Patanjali; and the second is about the approval of proprietary AYUSH medicines.

Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945

The Centre's decision to repeal Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, received harsh criticism from the court in August. This rule gave state licensing bodies the authority to take proactive measures against deceptive advertisements for AYUSH goods.

Interestingly, it was the same union government that introduced Rule 170 in December 2018. According to the Centre's letter dated August 29, 2023, the Ayurvedic Siddha and Unani Drugs Technical Advisory Board advocated for the removal of Rule 170. "It is peculiar, as the judges have observed, that the rule has not been rescinded via a formal decree, yet its execution has been delayed," Babu stated.

Under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements Act) of 1954, it is prohibited to advertise any medicine, whether from the AYUSH or allopathy field, that claims to cure cancer, heart disease, hypertension, or any of the other 50 specified conditions. Rule 170 would have complemented this law. However, this law is more often violated than followed, according to Babu.

AYUSH and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

It is important to ascertain whether AYUSH makers of proprietary medication adhere to the regulations outlined in Chapter IV-A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA). According to this chapter, classical Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani remedies included in ancient writings recognised under the DCA are exempt from clinical testing. Nevertheless, it is impossible to bypass these studies when it comes to proprietary AYUSH medicines, which the manufacturers themselves formulate.

"These 'medicines' frequently accompany extravagant assertions, such as Patanjali's Coronil," Babu remarked.

"The health ministry should provide further clarification on the unrealistic advertisements promoting questionable medical formulations. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is responsible for overseeing the fraudulent marketing of food items, Babu said.

Although the FSSAI is known for conducting thorough tests and frequently moderates advertising claims, many items manage to evade detection. These foods and nutraceuticals are presently exempt from the regulations imposed by the 'Magic Remedies Act. These concerns will be resolved in the upcoming days because of the apex court intervention," he said.

Babu said that he was compelled to take action in the Patanjali case while witnessing the deteriorating condition of a friend's mother, who had transitioned to using Ramdev-promoted medications for glaucoma.

In January of this year, Babu sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) alleging that Divya Pharmacy had consistently violated the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act of 1954.

He urged the PMO to intervene and provide clear instructions to the Ayush minister to end Divya Pharmacy's ongoing violation of the DMR (O.A.) Act 1954.

Babu argued that during the inauguration of the Patanjali research facility in Uttarakhand in May 2017, Reuters revealed that the company received discounts exceeding $46 million for property acquisitions in states under the control of the BJP.

The fight continues

"I am filled with a great sense of pride, knowing that ordinary citizens have the power to bring about change," Babu said when asked for his thoughts on the discontinuation of commercials for Patanjali. "My triumph serves as a testament to our ability to confront formidable adversaries through the means at our disposal, even in the face of adversity. Although it may present difficulties, it has the potential for success," he said.

In addition, he is engaged in a legal dispute with the National Medical Commission (NMC) over the failure of its members to disclose their assets on the official website, which is a violation of the NMC Act of 2019.

KV Babus initiatives have had a lasting impact on the fight against misleading medical claims, especially claims about curing serious diseases. Babus journey highlights the important role watchful citizens play in holding both local governments and private companies accountable.

"Dr Babu's approach is systematic and persistent, embodying the basic attitude of a vigilant citizen watchdog. In a time when commercial interests often triumph over truth, Dr Babu's steadfast commitment serves as a beacon, showcasing the profound influence that one person can have in fostering a more ethical and transparent society," said K K Shailaja, former health minister of Kerala, who emerged as a symbol of successful public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde took time off from hectic campaigning on Friday to speak to Hindustan Times on why there is no need for a reconciliation between the two Sena factions, how the Thackerays are only ever interested in money and why he is not thinking about his next term as chief minister. Edited excerpts: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde. (HT photo)

Two phases of LS polls are done. What, according to you, are the big issues in these elections?

The work done by honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, taking the country on the path of development and improving Indias position globally has resonated in the first two phases. In addition, our government in Maharashtra has performed well in the last two years. In infrastructure, we are the number one state in the country now. All the projects had either halted or shut down [in Uddhav Thackerays government]. The previous CM would sit at home doing Facebook Live sessions, he would not even come to Mantralaya. But governments cannot be run through social media. One needs to be among the people, face disasters head on. We have been doing that 24/7 and now the Mahayuti is way ahead in these two phases, we believe.

You have been criticising Uddhav Thackeray, but the fact is also that people are unhappy with the way parties were broken up. Dont you think this sympathy will work for him?

There is no sympathy factor at play as he betrayed the BJP and the people. We fought the elections in alliance and yet a government (MVA) was formed with other parties in 2019. On a personal level, his greed to become chief minister led to this. They even dumped Balasahebs (Thackeray) ideology. Balasaheb used to say that he would not join hands with Congress, and yet, they went ahead and aligned with the Congress. People wanted a government of the natural alliance of Shiv Sena-BJP.

Ours, on the other hand, is the natural alliance of Shiv Sena and BJP. So, how will they (the Thackerays) who cheated the people and sat at home, get sympathy? For them, those who left the party were traitors while those who are still with them are good. If this was indeed the case and people were sympathetic to them, we would not have got support from the people wherever we go.

Leaders from Shiv Sena (UBT) allege that you were helpless on account of certain actions by the central agencies and that you had, in fact, gone to Uddhav to explain to him why you had to break away. Whats your comment?

All this is a lie. Thackeray wanted to form the government and wanted to become the CM. As soon as the results of 2019 assembly polls were announced, he issued a statement that all the doors were open for us. The Congress and Sharad Pawar got together and Uddhav ji told Pawar to put forward his name.

I had been requesting him to form the government with the BJP but he refused. I have all the information about who used to get money, and who used to think about money day and night. This (money) is the reason he is not a mass leader. He does not care about the people. The entire world knows their properties and how they came by them.

After you formed the government, opposition leader Ajit Pawar joined you, breaking the Nationalist Congress Party. Dont you think this has confused people about your ideology and alliance?

Not at all. I am a grassroots party worker. I was influenced by Balasahebs thoughts and joined the party. Yes, we did leave the party because our ministers were not able to work despite their chief being the chief minister. He was doing nothing in the face of his party workers going to jail and facing cases. We, on the other hand, did fantastic job in Mumbai and Maharashtra after forming the government with the BJP. Ajit Pawar came and joined us on this very issue of development. He was inspired by Modij is work and he did not come with us because he had a problem within his own party.

Is it challenging to run an alliance of three parties?

For us is it not challenging as we want to serve the people and take the state forward. We have performed well in all sectors be it infrastructure, tourism, air connectivity or any other sector.

Is there an understanding with the BJP that you will continue as the CM even after the assembly polls later this year, should you win?

Our priority right now is to make Modi the PM for the third time. Our target is to win more seats in Maharashtra (than in 2019). We want to bring Modi Jis government back in the country. Vidhan Sabha is in the future and we are not thinking about who is going to be the next CM.

You got more seats than the number of sitting MPs from your party. Was it difficult to wrangle that?

Why should it be difficult? We have 13 sitting MPs and we are now contesting 15 seats.

Are you confident of your strike rate after getting these many seats?

Our strike rate will be 100%. It is not true that did not have enough number of candidates in some constituencies. On the contrary, the delay was because w had too many contestants.

People say that after the Maratha agitation in the state, the OBCs are upset with your government?

Not at all. We have given 10% reservation to Marathas without touching the existing quota of OBCs and others. The OBCs are happy because we have given Marathas separate reservation. We are confident that the reservation will stand legal scrutiny.

Then why is Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil upset with the government and appealing to the community to teach a lesson to those who troubled them?

This is not true. We have fulfilled their demands and the demand of the Kunbi certificates is on the verge of completion. The opposition has been propagating their propaganda that Jarange-Patil is against us. He has been fighting for his community and its not a political battle. He has not taken stand against or in favour of any political party.

Is Mumbai losing its status as the pre-eminent financial centre? Especially after GIFT city came up in Gujarat?

Mumbai is an international city, the financial hub, and people from all across the country come here. But nothing was done for the city all these years. It was full of traffic, pollution and garbage...We have taken steps to bring Mumbai on par with other international cities.

What about the allegations of major investment projects being shifted to Gujarat at the cost of Maharashtra?

The people who have been alleging this, are the ones responsible for industries going out to other state. Vedanta-Foxconn went to a neighbouring state because of the Thackeray government. The previous government was interested in securing a commission from the potential investors, rather than facilitating things for them. Things like the bomb scare outside the residence of an industrialist, protests outside the home of another industrialist were things that happened in their regime and led to industries going out of the state. We have turned this around. Maharashtra is once again an industry-friendly state in which investors have confidence.

If your performance were so good, why did you need to bring Raj Thackerays MNS on board too?

Why should anyone have problem with Raj Thackeray? Our government is working well, the Modi governement is working well and which was why he felt like joining us.

Is a reconciliation between the two Shiv Senas ever possible?

Why should one think of this? Ours is the original Shiv Sena. Ours is the party run on the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray. We have the symbol. They call us an unconstitutional government but the Election Commission ruled in our favour. When a court verdict is in their favour, the court is good, but when its against them, the court is at fault. Its the same EVMs. When they win, they dont have a problem, but when we win, they blame the machine. This has been happening because they do not want the party, its symbol or the ideology of Balasaheb Thackeray. They (Thackerays) are interested only in making money. They even withdrew the 50 crore from the party account after the split.

We hear a lot about your complicated relationship with your deputies. How would you describe your relationships with Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar?

We share a very cordial relationship. We are together with the common motto of development and we are not (in it) for politics We are not like the Congress which did not deliver its promises made to the voters of Karnataka last year. Ours is the Modi guarantee, and we keep our word.
Piyush Goyal, Indias textiles, consumer affairs, commerce and industry minister is fighting his first Lok Sabha election from North Mumbai. The 59-year old Goyal, the leader of the house in the Rajya Sabha , considered to be the man behind Indias strong showing in exports, who, over the past five years, has emerged as a key trouble shooter for the government and the party, spoke to HT on the campaign trail . Edited excerpts: Piyush Goyal said that entire Shiv Sena and the entire NCP is with the BJP. (PTI)

You look like you are really enjoying campaigning. What is your pitch to voters?

It is fantastic. The love and affection that people have for Mr Modi is unbelievable. I am only talking about the good work that Mr Modi has done. Obviously, I talk about how Mumbai and Maharashtra will develop and how North Mumbai will become the best place to live in.

Weve seen you as a back room strategist for the party. Is it very different here?

Im truly grateful that the PM has given me this opportunity. Going to the people and connecting with them is a very, very important element of public life. Every day you learn new things. It helps you evolve into a much more sensitive leader. So I am very excited about the prospect

I remember the late Arun Jaitley once saying that those in the Lok Sabha feel superior to those in the Rajya Sabha. Is that true?

Clearly, because they have come from the people and they have been elected by the people. Even though in Rajya Sabha we are equal members of Parliament, we are not directly elected. So its great to see the love and adulation of the people and its a great opportunity to pay them back. Look at the affection that Mr Modi has earned over 10 years for very sensitive and responsive and good governance.

Can you tell us why so many ministers were fielded this time?

The PM felt that having been in the Rajya Sabha for two or three terms, it was good for us to go to the peoples court. In a way, they will also be endorsing our work. And then, it will also give us a chance to build a connect with the people directly.

Would you agree that Maharashtra is perhaps the toughest election for the BJP this time?

Just see this ( gestures to the cheering crowd). If this is what Maharashtra offers, then you can imagine what it is like. We will sweep the state, the Mahayuti (the alliance of the BJP with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party) is going to be the winner in all the seats.

But what about the feeling that many have that the sympathy factor lies with Uddhav Thackeray (of the Shiv Sena- UBT) and Sharad Pawar (of the NCP-SP)?

It will be a sweep.

But many feel that because of the split in the Shiv Sena and the NCP...

Theres no split. The main Shiv Sena is with us. Only a splinter group is with Uddhav Thackeray. He is a failed leader who cannot think beyond his son and completely failed the people of Maharashtra. I do not think he will make any impact this election. The entire Shiv Sena and the entire NCP is with the BJP. Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Uddhav Thackeray cannot look beyond their children. There is no political future for both these gentlemen.

So you are dismissing both as just dynasts?

Yes, its so evident as all the MLAs have come with Mr (Eknath) Shinde and Mr (Ajit) Pawar. They (Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP-SP) are only a splinter group. The people of India do not like those leaders who just foist their children on them. They want truly good service- oriented leaders,who are all with us right now.

You are sure your alliance partners wont weigh you down?

Thats a figment of imagination. Heres the Sena candidate, heres NCP, we are all together as an alliance. Every community is here, all are together in their support for Modi. It will be a clean sweep.

What impact will the Jarange Patil protest seeking rights for Marathas have?

Its not even an issue. Is anyone here talking about it?

The opposition is raising the issue of the caste census and proportionate quotas. Wont that hurt?

The opposition is supposed to raise issues. We respect and welcome that. I only wish they would get out of fake narratives and fake videos and start talking about substantive issues Mr Modi has given a vision to, which make the country move forward; the opposition should do the same.Its a failed alliance they have cobbled together. They are fighting amongst themselves. Look at what happened in Kerala where CPM was cursing Rahul Gandhi and he (was cursing) Pinarayi Vijayan (despite both being part of the INDIA bloc of opposition parties).
May 3, 2024: Serbia is a small, landlocked country in southeastern Europe. The population is 6.6 million and there are 24,500 armed forces personnel. The defense budget is $1.5 billion a year. Serbs, Russians, and Ukrainians all speak Slavic languages. Serbians speak a South Slavic language while Ukrainians and Russians speak an East Slavic language and can understand each other, but Serbians cannot understand Ukrainian and Russian. On the other hand, Serbs and their immediate Croat and Bosnian neighbors speak such closely related languages they can understand each other, though their religions and alphabets are quite different. Serbs are mostly Orthodox Christian using the Cyrillic alphabet, Croats are mostly Roman Catholic using the Latin alphabet, and Bosnians are mostly Muslim using their own combination of the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets with many Arabic and Turkish loan words.

For centuries Serbia was a close ally of Russia and the Russians considered Serbia a friendly ally in the Balkans. That changed after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Serbia was enthusiastically pro-Russian until Russia invaded Ukraine. After that the Serbian government and most of the Serbs backed Ukraine with only a minority supporting Russia. This shift in attitudes was immediate; with Serbia condemning the Russian invasion a month after it took place. Despite that, many Serbs would like to eventually resume their good relations with Russia, which will have to wait until Russia gets out of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Serbia has stopped buying weapons from Russia and has turned to NATO countries for arms. Serbia ordered twelve French Rafale fighter-bombers to replace its fourteen aging MiG-29s. Serbia is also the last operator of the 11-ton twinjet J-22 ground-attack aircraft. Serbia has 17 of these aircraft, which are over thirty years old and rarely flown because of their age. Serbia has also purchased 30 modern French helicopters to replace its elderly 25 Russian Mi-35s and Mi-8s. Serbia also has 18 Chinese and Israeli UAVs with twelve more on order from a Serbian company.

The Serbian army has 13,000 personnel and is equipped with 232 Serbian built M-84 tanks. These vehicles are Serbian variants of the Russian T-72. The M84s were produced in the 1990s and are beginning to show their age. The M-84AS1, a major upgrade was introduced in 2023 and Serbia ordered twelve and hopes it can afford to order more in the future. The M-84AS1 is considered far superior to the Russian T-72B3.
Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad rival Annie Raja on Friday said the Congress should have informed the people of Wayanad that Rahul Gandhi was considering Raebareli as a second seat. Even if the decision was made at the last moment, the party should have told the people about a possibility, the CPM candidate said questioning the injustice that would be meted out to the people of the constituency which Rahul Gandhi would resign if he won both Wayanad and Raebareli. "It poses a question in their morality," Annie Raja said. CPM's Wayanad candidate Annie Raja said Rahul Gandhi should have informed the people of Wayanad about the possibility of contesting on a second seat.

"I am very sure that it is not a certain decision. Even if they had not taken the final call, they should have informed the people of Wayanad that Raebareli was also in consideration. Suppose he wins from both the seats, he will have to resign from one. It will be an injustice to the people. And they have always taken Wayanad for granted," Annie Raja said.

Lok Sabha election 2024: Follow Live updates

Wayanad elected Rahul Gandhi as its representative in 2019 when Rahul Gandhi lost his Amethi seat to Smriti Irani. As Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Kerala before Wayanad went to the polls on April 26, speculations were rife that Rahul Gandhi would also contest from a second seat in Uttar Pradesh. On the last day for filing nominations, it was announced that Rahul Gandhi would contest from Raebareli which Sonia Gandhi vacated as she shifted to the Rajya Sabha citing ill health. Rahul Gandhi's contest in Raebareli will be against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh who lost the seat in 2019 to Sonia Gandhi. Seen as a safe seat, Raebareli can make Rahul Gandhi again an Uttar Pradesh MP but in that case he would have to resign from Wayanad if he wins the Kerala constituency for a second time.

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On a choice between Raebareli and Wayanad, chances are that the Gandhi family would like to keep the family bastion Raebareli with it. Congress leader Manickam Tagore said the party would take this decision later. "Let the election be over first, then the party will decide. Rahul Gandhi will win both seats and we all know that in Wayanad people have great love & affection for him. In Raebareli also, we all know that the family represented it. Be it Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi. We will win both seats with a huge margin," Tagore said.

BJP's Manjinder Singh Sirsa said Rahul Gandhi would lose Wayanad and that is why he is going to contest from Raebareli.

"Wayanad, are you feeling cheated? Dont worry, the Gandhi family has been cheating India for over seven decades now. Rahul Gandhis volte face should serve as a reminder to states like Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra and Maharashtra, where the Congress is still seeking relevance. They will DUMP you, to suit their convenience," BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya wrote on X.
New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the investigation to continue in a case of illegal mining in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand but restrained the CBI from filing a charge sheet in the matter till the next date of hearing. Illegal mining in Jharkhand: SC allows CBI probe to continue but restrains filing of charge sheet

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought response from the CBI on a plea of the Jharkhand government in which it has challenged the February 23 decision of the high court rejecting the plea of the state against the probe by the central agency.

"Issue notice returnable in the week commencing July 8," the bench ordered.

"Investigation can continue, but the charge sheet/final report will not be filed by the CBI till the next date of hearing," it further directed.

It noted the submission of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arunabh Chowdhury, appearing for Jharkhand, that the high court had on August 18 last year only ordered for preliminary inquiry by the CBI.

The state government said the investigation in the case registered by the police was never handed over to the CBI and a closure report has been filed in the matter.

In an appeal filed through advocate Jayant Gupta, the Jharkhand government said that the high court had dismissed the state's petition on the ground that its coordinate bench had in August, last year directed preliminary inquiry in the case by the CBI.

"The high court overlooked a clear bar provided under section 6 of DSPE Act whereby any matter falling within the purview of the state government in this case... could have been investigated upon by the CBI only after having taken consent from the state government and in the absence of such consent the registration of FIR itself was illegal," it said.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Dehradun: Two Nepalese labourers lost their lives in a forest fire incident in Uttarakhands Almora district, while two others sustained injuries in the blaze, officials said on Friday. Several regions in Uttarakhand are grappling with forest fires, destroying hectares of forest land (File Photo)

The injured labourers suffered 30 to 40 per cent burn injuries and were shifted to Sushila Tiwari Hospital in Haldwani, Nainital district, said officials. The deceased have been identified as Deepak Pujara and Gyaneshwar Bahadur.

Almora divisional forest officer (DFO) Deepak Kumar said, Four people employed by a private person for extracting leesa were trapped in the forest fire in the van panchayat area. Two of them died. Deepak Pujara died on the spot. The second victim, Gyaneshwar Bahadur, died during the treatment in the night. The other two victims are out of danger. They suffered 30 to 40 per cent burn injuries.

Also Read: Uttarakhand: 146 cases of man-made forest fires filed in first 4 months of 2024

Several regions in the state have been grappling with forest fires for over two weeks, destroying hectares of forest land. On Friday, state reported 64 forest fire incidents, including 30 in Garhwal, 29 in Kumaon and five in wildlife administrative regions.

According to Nishant Verma, nodal office for forest fires in the state, over 1,000 hectares of forest land have been damaged in forest fires in the last six months.

From November 1 last year till Friday evening, 868 incidents of forest fires have been reported in the state in which at least 1085.9 hectares of forest land have been damaged. Of these, 616.02 hectares have been damaged in the Kumaon region, 390.1 hectares in the Garhwal region and 79.9 hectares in the administrative wildlife regions, he said.

So far, 350 cases have been registered in man-made forest fire incidents against 58 named and 290 unidentified suspects, Verma added.

Last week Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a review meeting to discuss the forest fire situation with the Kumaon Division officials and issued directives to combat the wildfire in the region.

Dhami said that action would be taken against the officers who are responsible for forest fires in the state.

According to official data, Uttarakhand witnessed 113 forest fire incidents between April 23-25. 46 fire incidents were reported on April 23; 13 on April 24 and 54 on April 25. Over 139.63 hectares of forest land were destroyed in just these three days.

Also Read: Weather Bee | How unusual are forest fires in March and April?

The state recorded the highest number of large forest fires between April 25 and May 2, according to the data from the Forest Survey of India (FSI).

Uttarakhand also recorded 3,768 fire alerts, the second highest in the country, after Odisha, according to FSI data.

Since November 1 last year till Thursday, 804 incidents of forest fires have been reported in the state in which over 1011.3 hectares of forest land have been damaged, said Verma. Of the total land damaged, 362.23 hectares were damaged in the Garhwal region, 574.6 hectares in the Kumaon region and 74.43 hectares in the administrative wildlife regions.
NEW DELHI: India on Friday asked its nationals to be vigilant while travelling to Iran and Israel, a modification of its April 12 advisory that urged people not to visit the two countries. An anti-Israel billboard with a picture of Iranian missiles is seen on a street in Tehran, Iran April 19 (WANA via REUTERS)

New Delhi continues to closely monitor the situation in West Asia and has noted that Iran and Israel have opened their airspace for several days now, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

We advise Indian nationals to remain vigilant while travelling to these countries and be in touch with the Indian Embassy, Jaiswal said in response to a media query on the travel advisory for Iran and Israel.

The advisory was issued on April 12, when tensions between Iran and Israel were at a high following an Israeli air strike on a building in the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1.

The strike killed seven people, including Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on April 13.

People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that several factors influenced the decision to modify the earlier travel advisory. They pointed out that there had been a marked decrease in tensions between Iran and Israel, which was reflected in the easing of restrictions on the airspace of both countries.

There has also been a push from Israel to ease the travel restrictions because of plans to hire thousands of Indian construction workers. More than 6,000 Indian workers were expected to be sent to Israel in April but their travel plans were hit by the advisory, the people said.

There have also been calls from Indian citizens in Iran for easing of travel restrictions as a large number of students wished to come to India, the people added.

There are currently about 19,000 Indians in Israel, including nearly 1,000 workers who had gone there in recent weeks after Tel Aviv launched a drive to hire foreign labour, especially for the construction sector, to replace Palestinian workers whose permits were cancelled following the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. The Indians in Israel include a large number of care-givers and professionals.

Iran is home to more than 4,000 Indian nationals, including students, academics and traders.

The April 12 advisory, issued before Iran carried out its retaliatory strikes on Israel, pointed to the prevailing tensions and urged all Indians not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice.

It also called on Indians residing in Iran or Israel to get in touch with the Indian embassies and register themselves. They are also requested to observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum, the advisory said.

Besides urging Israeli authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals being sent to work in the construction sector, India had conveyed its concerns over the situation in West Asia to both Iran and Israel and emphasised the need to avoid escalation.

This message was conveyed by external affairs minister S Jaishankar during separate phone conversations with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahin and Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz.
New Delhi: India and the Maldives on Friday reviewed the process of withdrawing Indian military personnel from the Indian Ocean archipelago, which Male has insisted must be completed by May 10. The new president of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, had formally asked India to withdraw its military personnel from the archipelago (AP Photo)

The fourth meeting of a bilateral high-level core group overseeing the replacement of Indian military personnel with civilian experts in New Delhi. More than 80 Indian military personnel, including pilots, were posted in the Maldives to operate three aircraft used mainly for medical evacuations and humanitarian relief operations.

During the meeting, both sides reviewed ongoing efforts to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medevac services to the people of Maldives, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

A readout from the Maldivian foreign ministry said the Indian government will replace military personnel at the last of the three aviation platforms by 10 May and all the logistical arrangements are going ahead as per schedule.

Also Read: Maldives asks India to withdraw military, to discuss workable solutions

India had pulled out two batches of military personnel from the Maldives in March and April and replaced them with civilian experts. The personnel were deployed in the Maldives to operate and maintain two helicopters and an aircraft.

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, who has moved his country closer to China after winning last years presidential election on the back of an India Out campaign, had set May 10 as the deadline for the withdrawal of all Indian military personnel.

Muizzu has also taken steps to reduce the Maldives dependence on India in areas ranging from maritime security to healthcare and food security by finalising agreements with Sri Lanka, China and Turkiye for medical services and supply of food items and military equipment.

The external affairs ministry said the core group had also discussed wide ranging issues related to bilateral cooperation, including defence cooperation, development cooperation projects, efforts to enhance bilateral trade and investment, and capacity-building initiatives.

The Maldivian readout too said the two sides reviewed existing bilateral cooperation and discussed issues of mutual interest such as development and defence cooperation.

Both sides also agreed to hold the next meeting of the high-level core group in Male. The Maldivian readout said this meeting is expected to be held in June or July.

India and the Maldives had set up the core group following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai in December. By that time, bilateral ties were strained because of Muizzus increasingly pro-China stance.

Muizzu, 45, defeated former president Ibrahim Solih in the presidential runoff last September on the basis of his campaign to send back the Indian military personnel. The ruling coalition led by Muizzu subsequently swept the general election last month, securing an absolute majority in the Majlis or Parliament.
New Delhi: The Indian Army will be studying the military implications of China building a road in Shaksgam Valley as Beijings physical occupation could potentially threaten Indian defences in Siachen Glacier. The 5180 square kilometer of Indian territory in Shaksgam Valley was illegally ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963. The matter is of serious concern to India for if China extends the road to Upper Shaksgam Valley.

While India last week lodged a strong protest against Chinese road construction in the Valley in Delhi as well as in Beijing, the road could be part of an alignment that links Karakoram Highway to Upper Shaksgam Valley, bordering the Siachen Glacier. The new road transverses through 16333 feet Aghil Pass and could provide an alternative alignment to Karakoram Pass via Upper Shaksgam and thereon to Khunjerab Pass in Northern Areas of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The matter is of serious concern to India for if China extends the road to Upper Shaksgam Valley, then the Indian positions on Siachen Glacier will face twin threats---Pakistan in the South and China to the north. It is only logical to assume that the Indian Army will have to plan long term defences to deal with Chinese expansion in the Occupied Shaksgam Valley.

Also read: How Five Eyes Bloc is trying to defang Indias counter-terror & intel apparatus

Although the current road construction is a patch between two possible alignments in the long term, it is quite evident that China wants to link Lower and Upper Shaksgam valley through road and military outposts in order to pressurize Indian Army positions on Siachen Glacier and Saltoro Ridge. This is not to say that the area is largely glaciated with high mountains on all sides and dominated by K 2 peak and the Concordia complex.

Also read: Rapprochement with Taliban is most underrated achievement of Modi government

India has been raising the issue of Shaksgam Valley in the Special Representative Dialogue on Boundary Resolution, the last meeting of which was held in December 2019. Even though Indian Special representative Ajit Doval has met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines in BRICS in South Africa on July 24, 2023, the SR dialogue has virtually been put on the back burner after Chinese PLA threw all the bilateral agreements out of the window and transgressed in East Ladakh in May 2020. The loss of Colonel Santosh Babu and his 19 troopers in a clash with PLA at Galwan on June 15, 2020 has further hardened positions on both sides as India has no intentions in allowing Beijing to unilaterally impose the 1959 line on East Ladakh.

Also read: View: Belligerent PM Modi puts Congress in a fix over Muslim empowerment

By lodging at least two protests in the past two years on road construction in Shaksgam Valley, India has made it clear to China that it is right to protect its territory and will take measures to ensure that road construction is halted in the illegally occupied territory.
Iran has released all crew members of the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship MSC Aries, which had 17 Indians aboard among 25 crews. An official slides down a rope during a helicopter raid on MSC Aries ship.(HT File)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian held a telephone conversation with its Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna on Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

During a telephone conversation between Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia, and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the two sides discussed the latest state of bilateral ties and regional developments.

Ann Tessa Joseph from Thrissur, Kerala, one of the 17 Indian crew members of the Israel-linked cargo ship 'MSC Aries' that was seized by Iran on April 13, returned safely to her homeland on April 18.

ALSO READ | 17 Indians onboard ship 'MSC Aries' seized by Iran, New Delhi presses diplomatic channels

The Israel-linked cargo ship was seized by Iran on April 13, with 17 Indian nationals onboard. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy seized the container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and MSC Aries was last seen on April 12, sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Dubai.

The Ministry of External Affairs recently said that one of the 17 Indian crew members has safely returned to India and others are safe, adding that they will be released once their contractual obligations are accomplished.

"One girl who was there has returned. We had asked for consular access for these 16 people and we received that and our officers met them. Their health is good and there is no problem of any kind on the ship. Concerning their return, there are some technicalities and contractual obligations. Once they are done, it will decide their return," MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal said in a weekly press briefing on April 25.

Iranian Ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, has also said that the Indian nationals, crew members of MSC Aries, are not detained and that they are free to go.

ALSO READ | Kerala woman, part of 17-member Indian crew on ship seized by Iran, returns home

In the wake of the seizure of the container vessel, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, bringing up the release of the 17 Indian crew members.

Responding to the request of the Estonian side regarding the Portuguese ship seized in the territorial waters of Iran and the release of the crew, Amirabdollahian said, "The ship, which turned off its radar in the territorial waters of Iran and endangered the security of navigation, is detained under judicial rules."

Earlier today, during the telephone discussion between Iranian and Estonian officials, Iran stated that it "has already released all the ship's crew members on humanitarian grounds, and if the ship's captain accompanies them, the crew including the Estonians can return to their country."

Amirabdollahian further underlined that compliance with maritime rules and regulations by all ships is necessary and unavoidable in order to maintain maritime safety, according to the statement.

Tensions escalated between Iran and the West amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The Kerala government on Thursday ordered the closure of all educational institutions including professional colleges till May 6 and instructed the police, the fire force and the military units to avoid drills and parades during day time as part of the measures to tackle the extreme heat conditions in the state, people familiar with the matter said. A meeting of the state disaster management authority under the leadership of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was held on Thursday (ANI)

A meeting of the state disaster management authority under the leadership of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was held on Thursday in Thiruvananthapuram to evaluate the situation in the state in the backdrop of declaration of heat wave in several districts by the India Meteorological Department and reporting of illnesses and deaths connected to rising temperatures.

The district collectors briefed the chief minister about the situation in their respective jurisdictions and the measures they are implementing to tackle the heat conditions.

The chief minister asked the public to avoid direct exposure to sunlight between 11 am and 3 pm. Workers in construction, agriculture, roadside shops, fishing and related sectors must organise their work hours as per the earlier direction.

For school students, vacation classes should be avoided between 11 am and 3 pm.

Shops and establishments with tin and asbestos roofs should be shut during these hours. Fire audits should be conducted in shops, market establishments and waste treatment centres where possibility of fire due to heat is high.

At the meeting, the CM asked all the local bodies to gear up for pre-monsoon cleanliness drives and checking of drainage systems to ensure flow of water. Spillways and sluice gates of dams and reservoirs should be checked and all obstructions removed.
KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police on Friday set up an inquiry team to probe the allegations of sexual harassment against West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose by a contractual employee of Raj Bhawan, igniting a political firestorm in the state. West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose after casting his vote for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in Trivandrum on Friday (PTI/Raj Bhawan)

In her written complaint to the Hare Street police station, the woman alleged the governor sexually harassed her, first on March 24, and later on May 2, who summoned her to his chamber on the pretext of offering her a permanent job.

Bose, who denied the allegation on Thursday evening, left for Kerala, his home state, on Friday morning. He also released a statement addressed to Raj Bhawan employees alleging that the womans complaint was a political conspiracy against him.

Raj Bhavan received a confidential report that political forces have planted one more person in the Raj Bhavan with sinister intent. Matter is being verified by concerned agencies. These are just election ploys nothing more nothing less, the statement said, his second in 24 days.

In his first statement, Bose on Thursday described the womans allegation against him as engineered narratives. Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, it said.

Bose also barred the police from entering Raj Bhawan for conducting any inquiry.

Indira Mukherjee, deputy commissioner of police, central division, said: The complaint is against His Excellency the Governor. This is a complaint of a serious nature. The complainant mentioned several dates. We are looking into it. Since she has come to us, we are taking necessary action. We cannot discuss the details.

No criminal case was registered against the governor till Friday evening.

We are consulting our law department and constitutional experts, Mukherjee told the media.

According to Article 361 (2) of the Constitution: No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the President, or the Governor of a State, in any court during his term of office.

Lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who earlier served as advocate general in Tripura said: There is no law that bars police from inquiring into an allegation against a governor. A case, however, can only be registered after a governor resigns. The inquiry can continue till then.

The allegations, which triggered sharp attacks on Raj Bhawan by the ruling Trinamool Congress, coincided with PM Modis arrival at Raj Bhawan at about 10pm on Thursday for the night. He addressed three Lok Sabha campaign rallies in Bengal on Friday.

Mamata Banerjee, who is also in charge of the home department, targeted both Bose and Modi over the allegations, referring to the BJPs repeated attack on allegations of sexual assault levelled at some local TMC leaders at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district.

You are citing Sandeshkhali in your campaign. I never let any such incident happen. There were some land-related problems that officials have solved. But what are you doing? A young woman used to work at the PBX section of Raj Bhawan. What did the governor do with her? Banerjee said at a rally at the East Burdwan constituency.

Banerjee said: Yesterday, you (governor) complained to me about what one of our ministers said. I received thousands of complaints but I never said a word. But yesterday, the tears of this woman shook my heart. Before talking of Sandeshkhali, why dont you ask how can a governor ill-treat an employee? This woman from East Midnapore was molested, not once but twice. A video was sent to me. I saw her crying, heard what she said. You spent the night there (Raj Bhawan) yesterday. You didnt utter a word. Your personnel were present when the girl left Raj Bhawan crying.

The woman is scared to go back to Raj Bhawan and you (Modi) talk of protecting mothers and sisters. You have no shame. You should lose all your teeth and gums while uttering such lies, said Banerjee.

Bose also issued an audio message on Friday, challenging his rivals to bring out all the weapons from your armoury. Use it against me.

I have information that a more sinister plot has been hatched in the Raj Bhawan. We know the characters chosen for this. Beware. I will not be surprised if I am blamed for the Bengal famine of 1943 or the infamous Great Calcutta Killings of 1946. That is the nature of the political forces working in the state. I dont come to Bengal to relax. I have come to work on the ground. Bengal is an uphill task. I am scaling the mountain, he said, adding that he was determined to stay the course.

I was briefed about what I can expect in Bengal from certain political parties. I have braved many storms. I tell the political party plotting against me that this is no storm. This is only storm in a teacup. Do not be surprised if you realise I am the storm, he said in the audio message.

I want to be the captain of the storm, not the captain of the calm. Bring out all the weapons from your armoury. Use it against me. I am prepared.
Hours after a leopard was caught in a snare trap in a forest plantation in Mallinathapura village, in Periyapatna taluk, the forest officials in Periyapatna in Mysuru district on Thursday launched a probe after rescuing the animal. The leopard has been released in DB Kuppe Range Forest (HT)

The officials said that the villagers had been complaining of a leopard menace for the last three months, following which the forest department installed a cage a month ago to catch the animal. However, they failed.

On Thursday morning, the leopard was found caught in a snare trap by the villagers.

Nanjappa Gowda, one of the villagers, said: While going to my agriculture field, I saw the leopard trapped in a cable wire trap in the forest. The leopards have been troubling villagers for many months, and due to drought, the menace has increased in recent times. We were asking officials to catch the leopards and shift to faraway places, but officials did not catch them. Following the incident, the villagers reported the matter to the forest officials who soon came to the area and rescued the animal.

Periyapatna RFO Y K Kiran Kumar said: At around 7 am, we received the information that a leopard was caught in a snare trap. We rushed to the spot along with veterinary doctor Ramesh. He administered a dose of tranquilliser, and then we freed the animal from the trap. The villagers had been complaining of a leopard menace in the region for the last three months, but we could not find the it.

The male leopard, about 4-5 years old, was trapped in the trap that was put by the villagers to catch wild boars, which used to destroy crops, he said.

The official said that the villagers have been instructed not to put any kind of snare traps that kill wild animals, which is a serious offence.

During checkup, we found that the leopard was healthy and did not receive any wounds. We released the animal to DB Kuppe Range Forest under the Nagarhole Wildlife Sanctuary, he added.
Laman Ismayilova

Themed "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity," the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue highlights the significance of addressing major global issues through dialogue and collaboration, Azernews reports.

The forum aims to explore the critical intersections between dialogue facilitation, cooperative frameworks, leadership efficacy, and the complex dynamics of interconnectedness, all in the service of advancing global peace and security imperatives.

During the forum, the 5th Meeting of Culture Ministers was organised, bringing together culture ministers from various countries to discuss matters of global importance.

Azerbaijan Culture Minister Adil Karimli chaired the meeting on the theme "Harmony in Diversity: Fostering Intercultural Dialogue for a Global Cultural Renaissance".

In his speech, Adil Karimli stressed that Azerbaijan is known as the country where representatives of different religious confessions and nations have always lived in an atmosphere of peace.

The minister outlined that at a time when culture and religion divided humanity into communities at war with each other, Azerbaijan became a beacon of hope in the world.

"At a time of tension and confrontation in the world, Azerbaijan remains a country in which representatives of all religions live in conditions of mutual respect and understanding. This is a valuable legacy of our history, the minister said.

Belarusian Culture Minister Anatoly Markevich underscored the importance of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

In his speech, Anatoly Markevich noted that in Belarus, different peoples coexist under conditions of mutual understanding.

"We pay special attention to the preservation of cultural monuments and strive to pass them on to future generations. Representatives of various religions living in our country are citizens of Belarus," Anatoly Markevich said.

He stated that there is currently only one value on the planet, and that is peace.

"Every person is responsible for this. International organisations are of great importance for establishing cooperation between peoples. Along the way we make new friends. We have created a cultural bridge between Belarus and Azerbaijan," he added.

Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova expressed satisfaction with participation in this forum dedicated to intercultural dialogue.

She informed about cultural events held in her country and noted that the main goal is to preserve traditions and equality between people.

The Georgian Minister of Culture, Sports, and Youth Policy, Thea Tsulukiani, said that her country is a state distinguished by its high Christian culture.

Thea Tsulukiani added that relevant documents in the field of cultural diversity have been prepared and adopted in Georgia, bringing to attention that this is beneficial for creating a climate of multiculturalism.

"We highly value our friendship and partnership with Azerbaijan and celebrate this at every international event. We also consider it an honour to cooperate with Azerbaijan," she said.

Chairman of the Malta National Commission of UNESCO, Raymond Bonde, hailed Azerbaijan's rich heritage.

"Azerbaijan has a wonderful heritage, its greatness is amazing. We must live in peace, establish cooperation, and get to know each other. Every effort must be made to preserve the world's cultural heritage. I hope that enough attention will be paid to sights that are important in the history of mankind. I express my deep gratitude to Azerbaijan for holding such important meetings," Raymond Bonde said.

UAE Culture Minister Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi said that this forum coincided with Azerbaijan's preparations for COP29. He expressed hope that COP29 will contribute to solving global climate problems.

"We must strive to promote world peace, work together to achieve our goals, and move towards a global cultural renaissance," he said.

CIS Deputy Secretary General Denis Trefilov expressed his hope for the strengthening and development of intercultural dialogue.He stressed the significance of cooperation between the CIS states.

"We also regularly update the legislative framework to expand cultural ties between the CIS countries," he said.

Libyan Minister of Culture and Education Mabrouka Othman said that the world is currently in a state of struggle, which affects stability and peace on the planet.

"Humanity is now faced with numerous risks. It is necessary to find ways to solve the challenges. We must encourage intercultural dialogue and understanding," she said.

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili noted that international organizations should deal with the issue of maintaining peace and tranquility.

"There is a great need for numerous intercultural projects in this area to achieve peace, unity and equality. And in multinational, multilingual countries, there is a need for such platforms at the regional level," he said.

Representatives of other countries who spoke at the event underlined that the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue would contribute to ensuring peace on the planet.

It was noted that all countries should live in conditions of peace and tranquility. It is necessary to learn lessons from the past and move confidently into the future. The sharing of values on such platforms leads to prosperity and happiness.
by Austin Bay May 2, 2024

On April 30, vile words and violent deeds on New York City's Columbia University campus exposed self-proclaimed pro-Hamas protestors as what they really are: an anti-American proxy army of vicious political saboteurs sponsored by ayatollah Iran and hard-left progressive billionaires.

Prog billionaires don't get all the blame. Fair bet money from authoritarian enemy states like Communist China and Vladimir Putin's Russia paid for the Manhattan proxy warriors' tents and leaders' salaries.

The New York City mayor's office and police department concluded a number of the pro-Hamas protestors were likely paid shills and agents. The New York City Police Department reached that conclusion after police officers evicted, arrested and investigated "actors" occupying Columbia University administrative offices.

According to the mayor's office and NYPD media personnel, the "actors" included students but also individuals "unaffiliated with the university."

Moreover, the office occupiers issued "escalating" demands before Columbia, and NYC officials called on the NYPD to restore order -- meaning the occupation was a propaganda stunt with strategic economic, political and military implications.

The protestor-activists -- whether students or unaffiliated -- demanded the university divest its investments in companies doing business with Israel. Attention Canadians, Americans and Mexicans: That would include corporations developing anti-missile weapons protecting North America from ballistic missile attack by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

As they illegally entered Columbia's buildings, the progressive-thug demanders sought condemnation of U.S. foreign policy in general. In the process of escalating demands and trespassing, the prog-thugs also physically threatened Jewish students and called for the genocide of Israelis.

Attention 1960s political and emotional survivors: If the term "outside agitators" rings a bell, ignore your inner bell. In spring 2024, we're talking paid antisemitic enemy operatives with overseas connections promoting serious Nazi-type mega-genocide. "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" -- a common prog protestor-activist chant -- is the Third Reich Nazi Final Solution expressed in 21st-century Marxist-Islamofascist university liturgy.

In ugly terms, that means eradicating Israelis from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

That is a call for genocide.

Nazis: national socialists. Marxists: international socialists. Common denominator: totalitarian leadership.

Marxy-Nazi progressives. Remember that phrase. Marxy-Nazi progs play word games to confuse, delude and condemn their opponents, but more importantly to camouflage their authoritarian programs, totalitarian personalities and genocidal tools of mass murder and starvation.

Spring 2024's campus protestor-activists are really proto-terrorists on American soil intent on misdirecting U.S. foreign policy and -- potentially -- operating as an enemy army inside America.

The goal of this enemy army within? First goal: terminating U.S. military and financial support for Israel. Secondary goals: threatening law and order, damaging U.S. morale and weakening homeland defenses.

I do not overstate the case.

Begin with this fact: The protestors' physical threats go far beyond First Amendment-protected peaceful protests. Confronting individual students with threats of physical attack is a criminal act.

Moreover, the proto-terrorists act nationwide. Columbia and New York City have received the most coverage, but pro-Hamas proto-terrorist actions have occurred nationwide. California, Massachusetts -- Democratic Party hellholes. Florida and Texas --- havens from smart folks fleeing the hellholes. The spring 2024 proto-terrorist Neo-Nazis have staged coordinated outrages on campuses across the country.

Iran funds numerous proxy armies -- about two dozen throughout the Middle East. My partial list: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis. Iraqi proxies funded by Tehran: Kata'ib Hezbollah, Harakat al Nujaba, Kata'ib Sayyid al Shuhada and Asa'ib Ahl al Haq. Iran funds the Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade, and in Pakistan the Zainebiyoun Brigade.

Remember the old 1960s Students for a Democratic Society campus Marxist terror group? White, wealthy and privileged Bill Ayers, Barack Obama's Chicago friend, was an SDS leader. He detonated bombs, killed people and got away with it.

Iran's 2024 campus proxy army stinks of Ayers' 1968 SDS.
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested Vinod Chauhan, who is accused of transferring bribes allegedly received by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) via hawala, in connection with the Delhi excise policy-linked money-laundering case, people familiar with the development said on Friday. The Enforcement Directorate office in New Delhi ) (ANI/ REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Vinod Chauhan was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is the 18th person to be arrested by ED in the case, said an official who didnt want to be named.

ED previously arrested K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in March. Both are currently lodged in Tihar prison.

Statement of one of the staff members of K Kavitha revealed that he collected two heavy bags containing cash from accused Dinesh Aroras office on Abhishek Boinpallys directions and delivered it to Vinod Chauhan. On another occasion, he collected two such bags containing cash from an address near Todapur, Narayana, New Delhi and again delivered it to Vinod Chauhan. Chauhan then transferred the same for AAP election campaign in Goa through hawala route, the official cited above said.

The agency has claimed that out of 100 crore bribe money given to AAP in Delhi excise policy by a South Group - of which Kavitha was a member - 45 crore was used for Goa assembly elections 2022.

The AAP, Arvind Kejriwal and Kavitha have denied the allegations.

The agency has claimed that Kavitha was in touch with AAPs then communication in-charge Vijay Nair, who was meeting liquor businessmen and politicians at the time of formulation and implementation of the controversial now-scrapped excise policy in the national capital.

It is alleged that businessman Sameer Mahendrus Indospirits Group controlled multiple retail zones in Delhi under this policy, and advance payment of kickbacks worth 100 crore to the AAP leaders by an alleged South Group of which she was a member.

The South Group comprised YSR Congress member of parliament, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghav Magunta, Sarath Reddy (promoter of Aurobindo Group), K Kavitha, and Delhi-based businessman Sameer Mahendru. It was represented by Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Pillai and Butchibabu in meetings with Vijay Nair and other liquor businessmen.

The Delhi governments 2021-22 excise policy aimed to revitalize the citys flagging liquor business. It aimed to replace a sales-volume based regime with a license fee one for traders, and promised swankier stores, free of the infamous metal grilles, ultimately giving customers a better buying experience. The policy also introduced discounts and offers on the purchase of liquor, a first for Delhi.

The plan, however, came to an abrupt halt, with Delhis lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena recommending a probe into alleged irregularities in the regime. This ultimately resulted in the policy being scrapped prematurely and being replaced by the 2020-21 regime, with AAP alleging that Saxenas predecessor sabotaged the move with a few last-minute changes that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.
Guwahati: Prayer meets, rallies and shutdowns were held in various parts of Meitei-majority Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo-dominated hills districts of Manipur on Friday as the northeastern state marked one year of the start of ethnic clashes between the two communities. Prayers being offered at the Wall of Remembrance in Churachandpur district of Manipur on Friday (HT Photo/Sourced)

Security measures in the state were beefed up ahead of the first anniversary of the violence in a bid to prevent any untoward incident. In recent days, gunfights have resumed among armed village volunteers from both sides leading to injuries and deaths.

Personnel from state police and central armed police forces (CAPF) have been posted in strategic locations and a check of vehicles is underway to ensure that there is no breach of peace, said a senior police official refusing to be named.

Since May 3 last year, Manipur has witnessed clashes between the two communities which has claimed at least 225 lives to date and uprooted around 50,000 people, many of whom are still residing in relief centres.

Also Read: Northeastern View | One year on, restive Manipur continues to simmer as the state looks away

At an event was organised by Koujengleima Youth Development Organisation (KYDO) on Friday, seven Meitei women shaved their heads at an open ground in Sekmai in Imphal West district and took out a cycle rally to the Kangla Fort in Imphal, located nearly 20 km away to mark the occasion.

Afterwards, they donned black robes and prayed for those from the community who had lost their lives in the past year before commencing their cycle rally to Kangla Fort.

In the Bishnupur district of Imphal Valley, a commemoration event was held at Moirang College where hundreds gathered to pay homage to those who lost their lives, got injured or disappeared without a trace in the past year.

Federation of Civil Society Organisations (FOCS), an Imphal-based conglomeration of civil society groups, organised a state-level convention at Yangoi Nighthou community hall in Bishnupur district to deliberate on the ongoing conflict and ways to help those affected. The group asked residents to light a flamed torch in front of their homes in the evening.

In Imphal, the coordinating committee on Manipur integrity (COCOMI), a Meitei organisation, held an event titled 365 days of Chin Kuki Nacro Terrorist Aggression in Manipur at the Palace Ground where several eminent speakers spoke on the ongoing conflict.

Displaced Meiteis from Moreh and Churachandpur who are residing at a relied camp in the Akampat area of Imphal East district took out a peaceful rally from the camp to Singjamei Bazar.

They staged a sit-in protest seeking the abrogation of the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with Kuki terror groups and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

In the Kuki-Zo-dominated districts of the state, a complete shutdown was imposed on Friday in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU) respectively.

The organisations marked the day as one of remembrance for those killed. Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the apex body of all Kuki tribes in the state, observed the day as Kuki-Zo Awakening Day.

Also Read: 365 days later, the fires of hatred continue to burn in Manipur

In a statement issued on Wednesday, ITLF asked everyone to hoist a black flag in their homes directed to all businesses, institutions and markets to remain closed as a mark of respect and home to the fallen heroes.

The organisation held an event at the Wall of Remembrance located near the Churachandpur district commissioners office, a condolence service at the cemetery of those killed in the ethnic clashes where families of the deceased laid floral tributes.

Mass prayers were held across the district, lighting candles in every house and a candlelight vigil at the Wall of Remembrance also took place to mark the day.

In Kangpokpi district, COTU a remembrance ceremony was held at the cemetery for those killed in the past year at Phaijang. Speeches, prayers and floral tributes to those killed marked the event.

On Friday, Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), an apex body of the Kuki tribe in the state, submitted a four-point memorandum to Prime Narendra Modi reiterating the demand for a permanent political solution by creating a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo people, measures to ensure the safety of Kuki-Zo people, recovery of bodies of those missing etc.

The memorandum is submitted as an ultimate appeal to the Government of India urging a shift in focus and attention towards the plight of the Kuki-Zo people who have endured systemic oppression and persecution under the Manipur state government, a statement issued by KIM, read.

In a separate memorandum to President of India Droupadi Murmu, the Zomi Council Steering Committee (ZCSC) and sought creation of a separate administration for the Zo-ethnic tribes under the Constitution in the form of Union Territory with legislature.

The ZCSC memorandum stated that separate administration for both the communities  Meitei and Zo  now seems to be the only viable and durable solution for peace.

Since the ethnic violence started, Manipur has witnessed looting of arms and ammunition from government armouries and police stations.

In the past one year, roughly 6,500 arms and 650,000 pieces of ammunition have been looted from government armouries, and to date, only 2,003 weapons and 25,168 weapons have been recovered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will campaign in Andhra Pradesh on May 7 and 8 in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates for the elections to the state assembly and Lok Sabha scheduled to be held on May 13, people familiar with the matter said. The last time when the Prime Minister addressed an election rally in Andhra Pradesh was on March 17. (ANI)

The last time when the Prime Minister addressed an election rally in Andhra Pradesh was on March 17, a day after the announcement of election schedule for the entire country. He addressed a public meeting of three National Democratic Alliance partners  BJP, Telugu Desam Party and JanaSena Party at Chilakaluripet in Palnadu district and shared the dais with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan.

Senior BJP leader G Bhanuprakash Reddy said the state party had received information from the BJP national headquarters on Wednesday that the Prime Minister would address rallies and roadshows in some select constituencies in the state on May 7 and 8.

As per the original schedule, Modi was supposed to tour Andhra Pradesh on May 3 and 4, but because of his hectic programmes, the tour programme has been rescheduled to May 7 and 8. We are awaiting for the official tour programme, Reddy said.

According to the tentative schedule, the Prime Minister will address a public rally at Vemagiri near Rajahmundry at 3.30 pm on May 7, in support of state BJP president Daggubati Purandeshwari who is contesting from Rajahmundry Lok Sabha constituency. At 5.45 pm, Modi will address another rally at Rajupalem in Anakapalli constituency where BJP candidate C M Ramesh is contesting.

On May 8, Modi will address another election rally at 4 pm at Kalikiri in Rajampet constituency, where former Congress chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is contesting on BJP ticket. On the same evening, Modi will take part in a huge roadshow from Indira Gandhi stadium to Benz Circle in Vijayawada (West) assembly constituency, where former Union minister Y S Chowdary is contesting.

As per the schedule, Modis campaign will be confined to only those constituencies where the BJP is contesting. There are no plans, at least for now, for the Prime Minister to campaign in any other constituency, where the other two partners of the NDA are contesting, a senior BJP leader, who refused to be quoted, said.

While Naidu and Pawan Kalyan shared the dais with Modi at the Chilakaluripet rally on March 17, there is no clarity on whether they would join him in his rallies and roadshows on May 7 and 8. It has not come up for discussion yet, a TDP leader said.

He, however, said the TDP and Jana Sena Party candidates contesting in the assembly segments which are part of the Lok Sabha constituencies where the BJP is contesting, might join the Modi rallies.

On Thursday, the TDP held a preparatory meeting with the BJP and JanaSena Party leaders on Modis roadshow in Vijayawada on May 8. The meeting was attended by BJP state election affairs in-charge Siddharth Nath Singh and party candidate Y S Chowdary, besides TDP candidate for Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency Kesineni Shivanath, TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah and others.

The meeting discussed the arrangements to be made by all the three parties, including mobilisation of crowds, for Modis roadshow and steps to be taken to make it a grand success, a TDP statement said.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will also address simultaneous rallies at Vemulawada and Warangal in Telangana on May 8. He will return to Telangana again on May 10 to address rallies at Mahabubnagar and Hyderabad, the party said in a statement.
NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha was a subscriber of ultra-left ideology and was trying to mobilise the masses on various issues to keep hammering and nailing the corpus of India, Delhi Police has said in its charge sheet in the case. NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on October 3 last year (PTI)

Purkayastha, who was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on October 3 last year under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), was also a part of an alleged conspiracy to disrupt and rupture all aspects of India, police added, citing discussions over emails on topics such as communism, issues for the working class, issues in neo-liberal era, Hezbollah, separatist movements and capitalism.

The police made the claims in an 8,000-page document against Purkayastha, the founder and editor-in-chief of the news portal, and company PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd, which owns the portal and has also been named as an accused in the case.

Both Purkayastha and head of human resources of the news portal, Amit Chakravorty, were arrested in October for allegedly being a part of a conspiracy to disrupt Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity, cause disaffection and threaten the countrys unity and integrity.

NewsClick dismissed the police charge sheet as absurd and baseless, and said the allegations were part of an attempt to silence its independent journalism.

The arrests came after an investigation published in The New York Times alleged that the portal was part of a global network that received money for pushing Chinese propaganda. The American newspaper said that Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham funded NewsClick, among other outlets across the globe, to sprinkle its coverage with Chinese government talking points.

Chakravorty later turned an approver in the case and has been named as a witness in the charge sheet. A Delhi court took cognisance of the charge sheet on Tuesday.

In its charge sheet, reviewed by HT, police claimed that emails exchanged between Purkayastha, Singham and some others demonstrate the evolution of a deep-rooted conspiracy which eventually manifested itself in several overt acts aimed at disrupting every aspect of State apparatus ordained by the Constitution of India.

The conspirators, subscribers of ultra-left ideology and practice, aimed at mass mobilization on different, independent issues only to keep hammering and nailing the corpus of India, whenever and wherever they could, to achieve their larger objectives i.e., weakening, destabilising, decimation and ultimate disintegration, police said.

Police added that the larger conspiracy began in 2016 with an intent to spread misinformation and promote Chinese propaganda.

The charge sheet also mentions an alleged influx of funds from various entities under Singham to Purkayastha. Police said that from 2018 to 2021, Purkayastha received close to 10 crore as a consultant.

Activists Gautam Navlakha, Teesta Setalvad and Harsh Mander have also been named in the charge sheet. The police have accused Navlakha and Purkayastha of funding Pakistan-based terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba and Left Wing Extremists (LWE) and distributing cash among rioters during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.

The charge sheet also said that employees of NewsClick physically participated in the Chakka Jam and were members of Delhi Protest Solidarity Group.

On CPI (Maoist)s alleged links with Purkayastha, police said they recovered incriminating literature such as a poster showing five people with the message of Long Live The Invincible Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought in Chinese, and books including Structures of Violence by International Peoples Tribunal, Sahba Hussains Love, Loss, and Longing in Kashmir and Navlakhas War and Politics. Police said the recoveries were made from a person who later on became a protected witness.

While Navlakha could not be contacted, his partner Sahba Hussain said they are yet to get a copy of the charge sheet and will respond accordingly.

NewsClick has no links with the Maoists or any other terrorist organisation.We follow all relevant Indian laws in the course of our business dealings, and in particular, with respect to the receipt of foreign funds. All funding received by NewsClick has been through the appropriate banking channels and has been reported to the relevant authorities. This has been confirmed by the Reserve Bank of India to the Economic Offences Wing in proceedings before the Honble High Court of Delhi, the company said in a statement.

All the UAPA charges levelled against NewsClick and its Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha are completely bogus and untenable. NewsClick and Prabir have neither been involved in any terrorist act nor any conspiracy. These allegations and the persecution of NewsClick are an attempt to silence our independent journalism, it added.

The charge sheet has also accused Teesta Setlavads Sabrang employees of getting their salaries from NewsClick. Police said this was after her trust lost its FCRA license.

Teesta was funded with the directions that she would spend the money to spread communal agenda and disharmony in society through her NGO Sabrang, her husband and others. Payments were made to her husband Javed Anand, daughter Tamara, her son Jibran, and other staff members from NewsClick but they worked for Sabrang, the statement reads.

A protected witness, GAMA 2, named seven-eight people and said that they worked with Sabrang but received salaries from NewsClick. NewsClick responded to this saying payments made by NewsClick were for journalistic work which is in the public domain.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national coordinator Akash Anand on Friday firmly rejected the opposition's claim of the Mayawati-led party being a B-team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), adding that only the BSP can stop the ruling party. BSP national coordinator Akash Anand addresses a public meeting ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Agra on April 11. (PTI)

It is a very good propaganda that has been run over the past few years. We have countered this on the ground. Even Behen ji (Mayawati) is talking about this, Anand told PTI in an exclusive interview.

The 28-year-old politician, who is the nephew and political successor of the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, stated that the BSP was not gaining anything from the BJP.

"So, there is no reason to help them. We field candidates after looking at the backward and the poor community people and their caste combination," he said.

"If any one can stop the BJP, it is the Bahujan Samaj Party and respected Behen ji (Mayawati). There is no other political party that can stop the BJP except the BSP," Anand further stated.

The BSP national coordinator also explained why the party decided to go solo in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

We did not gain any vote-share in the past from any alliance. Therefore, we decided to contest alone. However, if we are in a position to be in the government and serve the people meaningfully, then we will extend support to a government, he noted.

Dharmendra Yadav, the cousin of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, is not capable, Anand asserted.

"We feel that the candidates that we have fielded, will be apt to work in that particular constituency. We are not concerned about who is contesting, be it Dharmendra Yadav or anyone. We think he is not capable, that is why we have fielded a solid candidate from there," the young leader said, when asked about the BSP fielding the highest number of Muslim candidates in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, saying that the country's democracy is at threat under its regime. In an apparent reference to the phone-tapping cases, Tharoor alleged people are scared to say anything on phone because they do not know who in the government is listening. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (PTI)

"When you vote on May 7, one of the great questions you have to ask yourself isWhat kind of India do you want to live in? What kind of India do you want your children to grow up in? Do you want an India that is fearful? People are afraid to express their views openly because of the consequences? he questioned during a corner meeting in South Goa's Verna, reported The Indian Express.

The Congress MP further asked people of the country if they wanted an India where they are free to express their views, free to eat what they want, to dress as they wish, to love whom they like, or are they prepared to accept a government that feels it has a place in your bedroom, in your kitchen, in your safe, in your dining room.

Tharoor, who was recently locked in a three-way contest with BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI's P Raveendran in Thiruvananthapuram, was campaigning for Congress' Lok Sabha candidate from South Goa, Captain Viriato Fernandes.

On BJP's ab ki baar 400 paar slogan, the Congress leader said, When they talk about this, we just ask why.

"The only argument for having such a large majority is to be able to amend the ConstitutionWe are hearing a party devoted not to the idea of everyones equality, but to the slogan of Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan - a monolithic idea of India. They want one nation, one election, one party, one leader, one religion, one God. They want everything to be one, and of course, for there to be one ruler to control all of this, he said, reported The Indian Express.

South Goa will go to polls in the third phase of voting for the Lok Sabha election on May 7. The results will be announced on June 4.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Kolkata on Thursday evening, is scheduled to address three Lok Sabha election rallies in West Bengal today. Upon landing, PM Modi went directly to the Raj Bhavan at around 10:20 pm, where he was welcomed by West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose. The PM stayed the night at the Governor's house.

Narendra Modi in Kolkata: PM to address 3 Lok Sabha election rallies today(ANI)
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Misa Bharti on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image was removed from Covid-19 vaccine certificates as he feared defamation now that doubtful results of the vaccine are coming out. RJD MP Misa Bharti, who is contesting from Patliputra Lok Sabha seat. (X/MisaBharti)

It is the Prime Minister's old habit to take credit of any work. Now, doubtful results of the Corona vaccine are coming out. Therefore, fearing defamation, his picture has been removed from the vaccine certificates, Bharti said at a press meet in Bihar's Danapur.

She also credited the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) with making people aware of why an investigation was needed into the Covid-19 vaccination.

The general public is being aware made by leaders of the Mahagathbandhan. The Corona vaccination should be investigated at every level. Strict action should be taken against the culprits, the RJD candidate from Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency, further said.

To be sure, the Prime Minister's photo has been removed due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that is in place for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The PM's image was removed in early 2022 as well, when assembly elections were held in five states: Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

Misa Bharti's attack on PM Modi stems from the recent admission by British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca, that its Covid-19 vaccine could, in some cases, lead to a rare side-effect called TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome).

In India, Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine's Indian variant, was widely administered. The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) produced and manufactured Covishield, of which a total of 1.75 billion (175 crore) doses, were administered.

(With ANI inputs)
Silchar: The Assam forest department in collaboration with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and local police busted an illegal animal body parts trade racket in Assams Sonitpur district and arrested one suspected rhino poacher, officials said on Friday. Officials said that two other suspected poachers managed to flee the spot (HT Photo/Sourced)

The arrested accused has been identified as Hanif Ali. He was arrested from the Bharali Chapori area of Sonitpurs Jamugurihat on Thursday evening with body parts of animals, including a rhino horn, said officials.

The divisional forest officer (DFO) of Western Assam Wildlife Division, B Piraisoodan, said they received information about an illegal trade of animal bodies, following which an operation was launched on Thursday evening.

There were two other poachers and illegal traders but they managed to flee. We have recovered animal body parts and other proofs. A manhunt has been launched to arrest them, Piraisoodan said.

The DFO said they have sent the recovered rhino horn to the Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA) to examine its authenticity. We are also trying to find when and where the rhino was killed and the horn was removed, DFO said.

In March this year, the Special Task Force of Assam Police arrested three alleged rhino poachers and recovered a rhino horn weighing 7.14 kilograms from Kamrup district.

In January, Assam Police arrested a team of suspected animal poachers who killed an adult female rhino in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. Police also recovered a Rifle of AK Series which was used for killing the rhino.

Assam recorded zero rhino poaching in 2022.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday filed his nomination from the Raebareli seat for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. His nomination comes after weeks of speculations on Congress' pick for the Raebareli and Amethi seat, with businessman Robert Vadra hinting at contesting the polls from the latter. Rahul Gandhi was accompanied by Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as he filed his papers around 2 pm.

After filing his papers for the Lok Sabha seat, Rahul Gandhi penned an emotional note on social media platform X, saying that there is no difference between Amethi and Raebareli for him.

Gandhi wrote on X, Nomination from Raebareli was an emotional moment for me! My mother has entrusted me with the responsibility of the family's workplace with great confidence and given me the opportunity to serve it.

Amethi and Rae Bareli are not different for me, both are my family and I am happy that Kishori Lal ji, who has been serving the area for 40 years, will represent the party from Amethi. In the ongoing fight for justice against injustice, I seek the love and blessings of my loved ones, the former Congress president further said.

I am confident that all of you stand with me in this fight to save the Constitution and democracy, Gandhi said, also sharing a short clip of him filing his nomination and performing puja alongside other senior Congress leaders.

Gandhi's mother Sonia won from Raebareli in 2019, which has returned a Congress candidate in 17 of the 20 elections held there since 1952, mostly members of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi is now a member of the upper house of parliament.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra hinted multiple times at being Congress' pick from Amethi. However, Congress on Friday declared Kishori Lal Sharma as their candidate from Amethi, set to challenge BJP's pick Union Minister Smriti Irani.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders attacked the Gandhi family and the Congress party for Rahul's candidature from Raebareli. PM Modi said at a rally on Friday, "I had said that the prince will lose in Wayanad and in fear of his loss...he will look for another seat."

The first two phases of the Lok Sabha election 2024 - held on April 19 and 26  witnessed low voter turnout.
New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a vexatious question whether there can be different age of superannuation for the allopathic doctors in comparison with the practitioners of Ayurveda and others working in the government hospitals and clinics. SC to examine if allopathic doctors, AYUSH practitioners can have different retirement age

Taking note of the shortage of allopathic doctors, the Rajasthan government enhanced their age of retirement from 60 to 62 years with effect from March 31, 2016, leading to litigations by similarly placed government AYUSH doctors.

The Rajasthan High Court, on February 28, rendered a judgment accepting the grievances of the Ayurvedic doctors and held they will be deemed to be in service up to the age of 62 years if their date of retirement fell after March 31, 2016.

"Those who have been superannuated on attaining the age of 60 years, but have not completed the age of 62 years, be reinstated in service forthwith," the high court further held.

The state government came in appeal in the top court and urged a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the order be stayed.

"Why should we be interfering with this," the CJI observed initially.

However, the bench agreed to consider the appeal of the state government after taking note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The law officer said around 1,000 such doctors will come back to service due to the effect of the high courts verdict.

"We will issue notice," the bench said.

The high court had allowed the plea of the AYUSH doctors that the different age of superannuation was discriminatory as being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

It was submitted by the AYUSH doctors that they are performing the same function of treating and healing their patients and hence, the classification is discriminatory and unreasonable.

The state government, on the other hand, had submitted before the high court that since there is shortage of allopathic doctors serving under it, a decision was taken to raise the retirement age of allopathic doctors from 60 years to 62 years.

However, since there was a large number of AYUSH doctors serving with the state government, similar raising of retirement age for AYUSH doctors was not considered necessary by the government, the state government had said.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
A contractual staffer at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata has accused West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose of sexual harassment. She filed a complaint at the Hare Street police station in Kolkata. However, Bose cannot face criminal charges while in office due to the constitutional immunity granted to his post. West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose. (PTI Photo)(HT_PRINT)

Governor Bose dismissed the accusations as politically driven. He said he would not succumb to orchestrated stories and added that the truth would prevail.

ALSO READ- Woman says harassed by Bengal governor; Bose denies charge

Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal, the statement from the governor said.

The Governor of a state is a constitutional post, as per Article 153, appointed by the President through a warrant under their hand and seal. They serve at the president's pleasure.

ALSO READ- DMK releases Lok Sabha poll manifesto, makes promises related to governors post

What are immunities enjoyed by the governor under the Indian constitution?

According to Article 361 of the Indian Constitution, the president and governors have certain immunities as mentioned in the following clauses:

1. They cannot be held accountable in court for their actions or decisions while in office for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties.

2. No criminal cases can be filed against them in any court during their term.

3. They cannot be arrested or imprisoned during their term.

ALSO READ- In TMC vs guv, new row over Bengal Raj Bhavans order to set up judicial probe

4. Civil proceedings against them for personal actions, whether before or after he entered his office, can only be initiated after a two-month notice, specifying the nature of the proceedings and relief sought.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the Centre of protecting Prajwal Revanna and said no one can travel abroad the country without the knowledge of the Centre -- everyone's passport and visa are checked while travelling internationally. The ministry of external affairs on Thursday said Prajwal Revanna travelled to Germany on a diplomatic passport and a diplomatic passport holder does not require a visa to travel to Germany. No clearance was sought or given to Prajwal Revanna, the MEA said. Siddaramaiah said his government will bring Prajwal Revanna back to India from wherever he is -- Germany or Dubai.

Prajwal Revanna sex tape controversy: Here are the latest updates:

1. According to reports, Prajwal is now flying to Dubai from Germany. Siddaramaiah reacted to these reports and said the SIT will bring him back from wherever he is -- Dubai or Germany.

2. Siddaramaiah said though HD Kumaraswamy distanced himself from the scandal, he and Deve Gowda called lawyers to their house to discuss the issue.

3. Both Prajwal and his father HD Revanna have been named accused in the sexual harassment case -- while a rape charge has been brought against Prajwal and a kidnapping charge against his father.

4. Siddaramaiah said he asked the police to identify, trace and secure the victims after the kidnapping case came to light.

5. A mother of three children was allegedly abducted by Prajwal's father after her 20-year-old son complained to the police.

6. In the kidnapping complaint, the 20-year-old son said her mother worked at Revanna's residence six years ago. Three years ago, she quit her job and returned to her hometown. Five days ago, HD Revanna's aide Sathish Bhabanna came to their house and said police may come to them and they should not reveal anything. Then he said Revana sent him to take his mother, the complainant said adding that his mother was taken on a motorcycle and was traceless since.

7. The complainant said he got to know that there was a video of his mother in the sex tape row.

8. HD Revanna moved a pre-arrest bail after being summoned by the SIT for the investigation. On Friday, he withdrew his bail application after the SIT told the court that the charges against him were not non-bailable.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has booked JD(S) Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna for rape following a fresh complaint by a woman from Hassan alleging that Prajwal Revanna coerced her into having sex. Also, a second FIR was registered against his father HD Revanna, who was also named in the sexual harassment case, on charges of kidnap. People take part in a torch light protest against Prajwal Revanna, in Bengaluru, on Thursday. (PTI)

She (the complainant) has alleged that Prajwal Revanna coerced her into having sex. We are keeping her identity secret as per norms. Unlike the previous FIR, the rape charges have been filed only against Prajwal Revanna, said a senior police officer.

The officer quoted above and aware of the developments said instead of filing a separate FIR on the second complaint they have decided to add rape section under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the FIR lodged on April 28 against Prajwal.

Officials in SIT said that on Thursday night, a second FIR was registered against HD Revanna, father of Prajwal Revanna and an MLA, on charges of kidnap. The case was registered with KR Nagar police station. According to officials, the complaint has been lodged based on a complaint by the woman featured in the video, who alleged that she was kidnapped by Revanna.

A former house help at Prajwals residence on Hassan had filed a complaint on April 28 with Holenarasipur police station alleging sexual harassment by Prajwal and HD Revanna, the former state minister and elder son of Deve Gowda.

The officer, however, clarified that the rape charges have been registered only against Prajwal and not his father as the complaint was against the 31-year-old MP.

The details of the FIR emerged hours after Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara, in a press conference, revealed that two women had come forward to lodge a complaint.

In the first FIR, Prajwal Revanna was charged under sections 354A, 354D, 506, and 509 of the IPC for offences related to sexual harassment, intimidation, and violation of a womans dignity.

On Thursday, SIT authorities produced the woman in the first case before the magistrate and registered her statement under Section 164 of CrPC.

Parameshwara said on Thursday that a lookout circular has been issued to arrest the Hassan MP.

The minister said, A lookout notice has been issued soon after it was learnt that Prajwal Revanna has gone abroad. We have informed all ports and airports about the lookout notice.

The circular has been distributed to all immigration points across India to detain Prajwal Revanna upon his arrival at any airport, seaport, or border checkpost.

Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo, HD Deve Gowda is facing charges of criminal intimidation, sexual harassment and stalking after thousands of videos emerged purportedly showing him in sexual acts with multiple women.

The incident has sparked a political controversy with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Congress blaming each other. Activists and opposition parties have called for his arrest, his party has suspended him, and the BJP has distanced itself from the incident amid allegations that the alliance knew about his alleged crimes before nominating him this year.

Prajwal left for Germany on April 27, hours before a case was registered against him. He is slated to return on May 16.

After Revanna failed to comply with the summons from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for questioning, with his advocate requesting seven days for his appearance, the police issued the lookout notice.

HD Revanna, also implicated in the sexual harassment case, has filed for anticipatory bail following a notice from the SIT. The appeal was filed at the sessions court in Bengaluru and the case has been adjourned for Thursday. On Thursday, HD Revanna, said, I came to know that summons have been issued by the SIT. I am ready to face anything; Im ready to face the SIT.

Last week, in the run-up to the elections in Hassan, a JD(S) bastion, videos emerged that showed purported sexual acts by the 33-year-old parliamentarian, sparking allegations of abuse and assault.

Preliminary investigations showed that a pen drive that was circulated contained 2,976 videos, some a few seconds long and others that last a few minutes, most likely recorded from a mobile phone at the Revanna residences in Bengaluru and Hassan.

Meanwhile, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar have exchanged war of words after the former accused Shivakumar and his brother, DK Suresh, of sending Karthik, the former driver of the Revanna family, to Malaysia.

The drivers video statement was released...where is he, Karthik? From where was it done (video statement) and released? Why was the video hurriedly made and given to news channels? Who gave it? He is in Malaysia, Kumaraswamy said on Wednesday, as he targeted the DK brothers for accusing him of releasing the explicit video clips.

Reacting to Kumaraswamys allegations, Shivakumar on Thursday said, Is it so? Did my brother say so? If my brother has said, my brother has all the information. Let him take information from the centre - who has sent (video), who has done all those things. Am I mad? I will fight on the street, but not by sending someone somewhere. I do not need to do such things, he (Kumaraswamy) may be in need of doing such things.

That boy (Karthik) has said he gave (a pen drive containing explicit video clips ) to BJPs Devaraje Gowda. The advocate (Devraje) has said, he has regards for Kumaranna (Kumaraswamy) and Gowda (Deve Gowda), and he had met him and informed him (Kumaraswamy about clips). Who released the explicit clips is a different matter, lets discuss it later, Im ready for it. Lets not deviate now (from the scandal), he added.

The officials of the SIT said that they are in the process of contacting the women, who were allegedly seen in the videos. Teams have been deployed Hassan to collect statements from the women.

A senior officer, however, refused to comment if any women had given a statement in connection with the case.
Families of the four men who were killed in an encounter with the Telangana police on December 6, 2019, eight days after they raped and murdered a 26-year-old woman on Hyderabad outskirts, are planning to move the state high court challenging the interim orders issued by a single-judge bench not to take any penal action against the police officers involved in the encounter. Police personnel and forensic staff on the encounter site near Hyderabad in 2019. (ANI)

On Wednesday, high court judge justice B Vijaysen Reddy suspended until further orders the report of justice VS Sirpurkar Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Supreme Court, which recommended action against the police officers under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code for killing the four rape-and-murder accused in an alleged fake encounter.

Justice Reddy also directed the state government to refrain from taking any coercive measures using the report of the Sirpurkar Commission against the the police officers till the next date of hearing in July, senior counsel B Rachna Reddy, who argued the case on behalf of the police officials, said.

However, senior advocate PV Krishnamachary, who argued the case earlier on behalf of the families of the four encounter victims, took exception to the interim orders issued by justice Reddy suspending action against the police officers without hearing the version of the victims families.

The police officers, who challenged Justice Sirpurkar Commission, did not include the victims families as respondents, so that the high court could hear their version. The interim orders were given in favour of the officers unilaterally. We shall challenge them in the court, Krishnamachary said.

He also pointed out that a division bench headed by chief justice Alok Aradhe is already hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions (PILs) seeking justice for the encounter victims. The petitions are slated for final hearing. How can the single judge bench pass orders when the issue is already before the division bench? he asked.

The case

The four men  Mohd Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakesavulu  were killed in the exchange of fire with the police at Chatanpalli village near Shadnagar in Ranga Reddy district, about 50 km from Hyderabad on December 6, 2019.

The four were accused in the rape of a 26-year-old veterinarian (referred to as Disha, a pseudonym) at Shamshabad and later burning her alive at Chatanpally. The Cyberabad police arrested the accused within a couple of days. During the course of interrogation in the police custody, the police officials took the accused to Chatanpally for reconstruction of the crime, where they were killed in an exchange of fire.

The police had claimed then that they had to fire in self-defence as one of the accused snatched their weapon and fired at them.

Human rights activists and non-governmental organisations across the country, who accused it as a fake encounter, moved the Supreme Court and on December 12, a division bench headed by then Chief Justice of India SA Bobde appointed a three-member commission headed by former SC judge justice VS Sirpurkar and comprising former Bombay high court judge Justice Rekha Baldota and former CBI director Karthikeyan to enquire into the alleged encounter killings of four men.

The Sirpurkar Commission submitted its report on January 28, 2022 but it was disclosed by the Supreme Court on May 20, 2022. The report found fault with as many as 10 police officers involved in the case and recommended registering of cases against them under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Of these 10 police officers, seven moved the high court seeking suspension of the commission report and further action against them, senior counsel for the police Rachana Reddy said.

She pointed out that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana Police, which simultaneously investigated the alleged exchange of fire between the police and the four accused, gave a clean chit to the police officers involved in the encounter.

The SIT, constituted by the state government on December 8, 2019, as per the directions of the high court, was later permitted by the top court to continue the investigation. The SIT, headed by former Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagavath and comprised seven top police officers who were not connected with the encounter case, submitted its report to the state government and the high court in 2021.

The SIT established that the exchange of fire had indeed taken place and the police had acted according to the police manual, Rachana Reddy added.
University of Hyderabad doctoral student Rohith Vemula, whose suicide in 2016 sparked a nationwide movement on caste discrimination, was not Dalit and died because he was feeling frustrated and over constant fears that his real caste identity would be discovered, the Telangana Police told the high court on Friday, declaring its investigation closed. Rohith Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula holds his photo at a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 3, 2016. (PTI)

The 60-page closure report sparked a controversy, prompting the state police to announce late in the night that it would seek the courts permission for further investigation in the case.

The report, signed by assistant commissioner of police CH Sreekanth, also cleared a host of accused  ranging from then vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, university administration and leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad  of all charges, citing lack of evidence.

The Telangana government is now run by the Congress, which publicly stood by the Vemula family as protests raged in 2016 with senior leader Rahul Gandhi even walking with Vemulas mother Radhika during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022.

ALSO READ | Hyderabad university students burn Roopanwal Commission report on Rohith Vemula

The deceased himself is aware that he does not belong to scheduled caste and his mother got him SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure [of] the same would put him to loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution, said the report, which HT has seen.

Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide, the report added.

The police closed the case registered under section 306 (abetment of suicide) and various sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, because it said Vemula was not Dalit.

Late in the evening, the state director general of police issued a statement, saying that the final report in the case was prepared in 2018 and filed in the jurisdictional court on March 21.

As some doubts have been expressed by the mother and others of the deceased Rohith Vemula on the investigation conducted, it has been decided to conduct further investigation into the case. A petition will be filed in the court concerned requesting the honble magistrate to permit further investigation into the case, the statement added.

PhD student Vemulas suicide in January 2016 at the University of Hyderbad campus sparked a nationwide movement on caste discrimination in educational institutions, especially after his fellow students alleged that he battled months of caste bias by university administration. His last letter, which spoke of the accident of his birth and his dreams, helped kindle a pan-Indian conversation against pernicious casteism and the ecosystem that incubates discrimination.

ALSO READ | Rohith Vemula not a Dalit, says collector; Andhra govt to cancel SC certificate

We are disappointed but wont give up. The police is focussed more on our caste than on finding out what was behind the death of my brother. This is a nexus and we shall fight this in court. Well file a petition soon, said Raja Vemula, Vemulas brother.

He also dismissed the police allegation that they had fraudulently obtained SC certificates.

The family said that it will meet chief minister Revanth Reddy over the weekend, and seek an appointment with Rahul Gandhi, who has repeatedly expressed his solidarity with the Vemulas and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the death. They say Rohit Vemula committed suicide. I call it murder. He was murdered by the indignities he suffered. He was killed because he was a Dalit, Gandhi tweeted in 2017.

The Congress appeared to be caught in a bind. Telangana Congress vice-president G Niranjan said there was no change in the partys stance. Our party will stand by the family and whatever best it can do to secure justice to them, it will do. The party is also committed to bring the necessary legislation, as promised, to prevent atrocities on Dalits and other weaker sections in the educational institutions, Niranjan said.

CH Sreekanth refused to elaborate on the reasons behind the closure report. The unit officers have investigated the case. I cannot speak more because of the election code, he said.

Senior BJP leader and ex-state legislative council member N Ramchander Rao, who was named as one of the accused in the case, said the police had closed the case after thorough investigation and finding that there was no merit in the allegations.

Right from the beginning, I have been telling that I have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the suicide of Rohit Vemula. The Congress party, the ultra-leftists and so-called social activists made a hue and cry only to politicise it, Rao said.

The police report attempted to establish in detail that the Vemula family was not Dalit, alleging that the district-level scrutiny committee in Andhra Pradeshs Guntur district, where the Vemula family hails from, had found that the SC certificates of Rohith Vemula, his mother Radhika Vemula and his other siblings were found to have been fraudulently obtained.

This report conclusively decided the caste of the deceased Vemula Rohith Chakravarthy and his family members as Vaddera falling under BC (backward class)-A category and it was found that they had obtained SC caste certificates fraudulently, the report said.

This is in line with the initial line of inquiry of the police in 2016 and 2017. But Raja Vemula said that the police had not considered a number of witness statements submitted by the family to the district collector, who is the final adjudicator of caste certification. How can the district committee give a final decision when the proceedings before the collector are pending? It seems part of a nexus to deny caste discrimination, he said.

The police also cited a previous government commission report to say that the punishment given by the university authorities to the Dalit students could not have been a reason behind the suicide as this had been challenged it in court.

The suicide did not relate to any activities of the university administration or the above political leaders including vice-chancellor professor Appa Rao Podile. It was wholly a decision of his ownhe was feeling frustrated for reasons best known to him, said the report.

The police said had Vemula been angry with the university, he would have mentioned it in his final letter, but did not do so, indicating that the circumstances in the campus were not responsible for his death.

The police admitted that he wrote a letter in December 2015 to the university authorities against his own expulsion and that of fellow students  in that document, he asked the vice-chancellor to give Dalit students poison since there was pervasive discrimination against them  but concluded that the suicide came a month later, and that his anger didnt continue till then.

There is no evidence of any fact or circumstance available on record which dragged him to commit suicide and no one is responsible for his death, the police concluded.

Student organisations condemned the report and said the police had resorted to falsehoods to twist Vemulas caste identity. We do not want any favour to be done, rather we only appeal for a fair and unbiased investigationWe shall fight until justice is achieved, said the Ambedkar Students Association, of which Vemula was a prominent member.
RAIPUR: Two brothers in Bastars Bijapur district who were suspected of having been abducted by Maoists from their village on Wednesday have been killed, police said on Friday after their bodies were dumped near their village. The Bijapur police said they are yet to confirm if the two were killed by Maoists (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Police suspect that Maoists killed the two over suspicions that they donated a plot of land to security forces for opening a camp.

Inspector General of Police, Bastar range, Sunderaj P, said the investigators are yet to establish whether this was a case of a Maoist killing. We are yet to confirm it but the claim that the security camp has been opened on land owned by the deceased land was baseless as it was opened on government land, the senior police officer said.

Police said the two men were identified as Joga Hunga (37) and Joga Mandavi (35) of village Chhtuwai.

There are reports that the two were abducted from their village under the Tarrem police station on Wednesday and presented before the kangaroo court of Maoists the following day which ordered their murder.

A police officer underlined that Maoists have not yet claimed responsibility for killing the two.
WhatsApp has revealed that it banned nearly 7 crore accounts in India between January and November 2023, as stated in its monthly reports. Last month, WhatsApp launched an integrated safety campaign 'Stay Safe with WhatsApp' in India. (File)

Amid the Lok Sabha elections, the Meta-owned company is rigorously investigating all reports of fraud and illicit telemarketing on WhatsApp to adhere to the Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). The company has been releasing monthly India reports.

As per WhatsApp, the reports are published in accordance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). These reports contain information on actions taken by WhatsApp in response to: Grievances received from users in India via the grievance mechanisms of WhatsApp; Accounts actioned in India through our prevention and detection methods for violating the laws of India or WhatsApps Terms of Service.

Read Here | WhatsApp threatens to exit India: What are new IT rules on tracing originator

Between March 1 and 31, WhatsApp banned 7,954,000 accounts.

As per a report released by WhatsApp in January 2024, the company banned 69,307,254 accounts till November 31 last year.

Last year in January, WhatsApp banned 2,918,000 accounts, 4,597,400 accounts were banned in February, 4,715,906 in March, 7,452,500 in April, 6,508,000 in May, 6,611,700 in June, 7,228,000 in July, 7,420,748 in August, 71,11,000 in September, 7,548,000 in October and 7,196,000 in November.

With the upcoming release of another report featuring December data, it is anticipated that this figure will surpass the 7-crore mark. Additionally, WhatsApp highlighted that over 2 crore (24,378,890) of these accounts were proactively banned before any reports from users were received.

The data shared highlights the number of Indian accounts banned by WhatsAppusing the aforementioned abuse detection approach, which also includes action taken in furtherance to negative feedback received from users, said WhatsApp.

Read Here | Delhi schools bomb threats: Police warns against false WhatsApp messages

According to the monthly reports, WhatsApp received over 79,000 grievances from users between January and November last year, encompassing account support, ban appeals, other support, product support, and safety concerns. In response, the platform took action against 2,398 accounts.

Accounts Actioned denotes reports where we took remedial action based on the report. Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint, WhatsApp said in a report.

Reports may have been reviewed but not included as Actioned for several reasons, including - The user requires assistance from us to access their account; The user requires assistance to use one of our features. The user is writing to us to provide feedback regarding our service; The user requests restoration of a banned account and the request is denied; The reported account does not violate the laws of India or our Terms of Service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attacked the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal while addressing back-to-back rallies, saying that the party "indulges in corruption and politics of appeasement". PM Modi further alleged that the TMC has turned Hindus into second-class citizens in West Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting at Bardhaman (PTI)(PTI)

While addressing rallies in Bardhaman-Durgapur and Krishnanagar on May 3, the prime minister slammed the TMC government for having apathy towards the victims in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas, where allegations of sexual abuse against leaders of the ruling party have surfaced.

PM Modi said, The state government, due to its appeasement politics, didnt touch the main accused in the Sandeshkhali case as his name is Shajahan Sheikh. So many atrocities were committed against women there, and the entire country wanted punishment for the culprits. But, the TMC kept protecting the main accused till the end.

He further questioned why Hindus as being treated as second class citizens in Bengal, referring to the reported remarks TMC MLA Humayun Kabir on throwing Hindus in the Bhagirathi River.

Read more: Supreme Court questions Bengal plea against CBI probe in Sandeshkhali

Why have Hindus become second-class citizens in Bengal... An MLA of TMC gave a statement recently that they will throw Hindus in the Bhagirathi River. What kind of politics is this? Is appeasement more important than humanity for the TMC?, the prime minister said on Friday.

On the recent seizure of arms and ammunition from Sandeshkhali during a raid, Modi wondered whether the weapons were meant for strengthening democracy in the state.

Last month, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the arms and ammunition seized from a house in Sandeshkhali by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were planted by the central agencies.

Read more: Mamata Banerjee claims central agencies may have planted arms recovered from Sandeshkhali

The TMC supremo said that the CBI raid was staged by the central government in an effort to discredit the government of West Bengal amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

While addressing an election rally on April 27, Mamata Banerjee said, Nobody knows where it was recovered from. Maybe, it was brought from their own (CBI) car and presented as recovered items. There is no evidence to show it was found there.

(With inputs from PTI)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday compared the alleged Congress proposal of levying an inheritance tax with the jizya tax, which used to be imposed on the Hindu community during Mughal emperor Auranzeb's rule. Firozabad: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addresses a public meeting for Lok Sabha elections. (PTI)

Addressing a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad, Yogi Adityanath claimed the Congress promised in its election manifesto that it would grant the minorities freedom to choose its food. He claimed the party was referring to eating beef.

The majority of Indians say that we do not eat beef, but some people deliberately encourage cow slaughter to irritate them, his press statement said.

Yogi Adityanath attacked the Congress-SP alliance for proposing the imposition of inheritance tax. He likened this "proposal" to Aurangzeb's imposition of jizya tax on the Hindus, reported PTI.

The row over inheritance tax erupted after Sam Pitroda, the chairperson of the Indian Overseas Congress, had spoken about inheritance tax in the US.

In Etah, Yogi Adityanath said that by bringing religion-based reservation, the Congress seeks to implement Taliban-like governance.

Also read: Yogi Adityanath says Congress trying to defame Sanatanis, foster caste divisions

"By doing so, the Congress is maliciously attempting to sow division in the country once again. Beware of the alliance between the Congress and the SP. These parties aim to prioritise reservation for Muslims over backward castes and Scheduled Castes," he further said.

Yogi Adityanath also carried out a roadshow in Mainpuri. He accused the Congress of undermining reservation to Scheduled Castes, tribals, and backward castes.

"The SP-Congress alliance is part of a conspiracy aimed at dragging India back to slavery. These individuals are plotting to undermine the reservation for the Scheduled Castes, tribals, and backward castes, diverting it to the minorities," Adityanath said.

Last month, Yogi Adityanath said the Congress wants to impose Sharia law in the country.

"The Congress and its allies have betrayed the country and have once again come to you with their false manifesto. If you look at the Congress' manifesto, they say that if they form a government, we will implement Sharia law," Yogi Adityanath had said in Amroha.

In another rally, he had accused the Congress of promoting cow slaughter.

With inputs from PTI
Ive hit the jackpot, says Chaitnya Sharma. The 33-year-old rapper, music composer, actor and producer played striker PK Banerjee in Maidan (2024), but thats not what hes talking about. As rapper SlowCheeta, he recently released the song Kar De Kaa?, from the EP Scene Main Bawaal. The video features actor Ranveer Singh. Thats not what he means, either.

The couple met in 2013 and fell in love aboard a flight from Delhi to Mumbai.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
International Firefighters' Day (IFFD) is a day dedicated to honouring the brave firefighters who risk their lives daily to safeguard communities and the environment. It's also a time to pay tribute to firefighters who have made sacrifices while serving their communities. There are various ways to observe International Firefighters' Day, including expressing appreciation for both current and former firefighters. Another common way is to wear and showcase blue and red ribbons, symbolising the primary elements firefighters encounter: red for fire and blue for water. It's a time when people around the world can honour and recognise the sacrifices firefighters make to keep their environment and communities as safe as possible. (Also read: International Leopard Day 2024: Date, history, significance and all you need to know ) International Firefighters' Day honors brave firefighters who risk their lives daily to protect communities and the environment.(Pixabay)

International Firefighters' Day date and history

International Firefighters' Day is observed every year on May 4, and this time, it will be observed on Saturday. On December 2, 1998, members of the Geelong West Fire Brigade answered a call to aid firefighters combating a wildfire in Linton, Victoria, Australia. A swift shift in wind direction, prompted by a cold front, resulted in the fire truck being overtaken by flames while en route to refill its water tank. Tragically, this event claimed the lives of five Geelong West firefighters: Garry Vredeveldt, Christopher Evans, Stuart Davidson, Jason Thomas, and Matthew Armstrong. This tragic incident ultimately sparked the initiative for the establishment of International Firefighters' Day.

Significance of International Firefighters' Day

International Firefighters' Day is a day of remembrance and gratitude for the brave men and women who selflessly put their lives on the line to protect communities around the world. It commemorates the bravery and sacrifice of firefighters, past and present, and honours those who have lost their lives in the line of duty. It serves as a poignant reminder of the inherent risks firefighters face every day, from fighting fires to responding to emergencies, and highlights the importance of their unwavering dedication and service. The day also fosters a sense of appreciation and solidarity within communities, encouraging individuals to express their gratitude and support for these brave heroes who protect lives and property with courage and dedication.
Yoga Nidra, also known as Yogic sleep, is a profound practice that brings about deep relaxation and rejuvenation. In Yoga Nidra, the practitioner lies down in a comfortable position, focusing on guided instructions for systematic relaxation. Want to unlock inner peace for deep relaxation? Try transformative power of Yoga Nidra or Yogic sleep (Image by yanalya on Freepik)

This ancient technique goes beyond mere physical relaxation, aiming to reach a state between wakefulness and sleep, where the mind is highly receptive to positive suggestions. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Himalayan Siddhaa Akshar, Founder of Akshar Yoga Kendraa, shared, The primary goal of Yoga Nidra is to induce a state of conscious relaxation, providing a powerful tool for stress reduction. The practice typically begins with a body scan, bringing awareness to each part of the body. By consciously releasing tension from different body parts, practitioners can experience a profound sense of physical ease and well-being. He elaborated upon the benefits of Yogic sleep -

Eliminate stress: One of the key benefits of Yoga Nidra is its ability to alleviate stress and anxiety. In today's fast-paced world, individuals often find themselves overwhelmed by various stressors. The guided relaxation and breath awareness in Yoga Nidra help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting a calm and restful state. This, in turn, can contribute to reduced stress levels and improved mental health. Improves sleep quality: Moreover, Yoga Nidra is known for its positive impact on sleep quality. Regular practice has been shown to alleviate insomnia and other sleep-related issues. The deep relaxation achieved through this practice helps balance the nervous system, making it easier for individuals to transition into a restful sleep. As sleep is crucial for overall well-being, incorporating Yoga Nidra into one's routine can lead to improved physical and mental health. Better self-awareness: Beyond its benefits for stress reduction and sleep improvement, Yoga Nidra has been associated with enhanced creativity and increased focus. The practice encourages a heightened state of awareness, allowing individuals to tap into their inner potential. By quieting the mind and creating a space for introspection, practitioners may find themselves better equipped to tackle challenges with clarity and creativity. Promotes relaxation: Yoga Nidra also plays a role in promoting emotional healing. As the practice involves deep relaxation and introspection, it provides an opportunity for individuals to explore and release buried emotions. This cathartic process can be therapeutic, helping individuals overcome emotional blockages and achieve a greater sense of emotional well-being. Good for overall health: Furthermore, the practice of Yoga Nidra has been linked to improved overall health. The relaxation response elicited during the practice has positive effects on various physiological functions, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and immune system functioning. This holistic approach to well-being aligns with the fundamental principles of yoga, which seeks to harmonize the mind, body and spirit.

Himalayan Siddhaa Akshar gushed, Incorporating Yoga Nidra into one's routine doesn't require a significant time commitment. Even short sessions can yield noticeable benefits. This accessibility makes it a practical choice for individuals with busy schedules who are seeking effective relaxation techniques. Yoga Nidra's ability to alleviate stress, improve sleep quality, enhance creativity, and promote emotional healing makes it a valuable addition to one's well-being. Whether practiced as a standalone routine or integrated into a broader yoga practice, the benefits of Yoga Nidra contributes to a more balanced and harmonious life.
Travel by rail and car across China surged on Wednesday, the first day of a major public holiday, as consumers remained focused on keeping expenses down in a challenged economy. In the run-up to the five-day holiday that began with May Day, domestic airline fares were falling and forecasts suggested more travelers were opting to drive rather than fly, or had booked early to save. Travel of all kinds has rebounded since China lifted strict COVID control measures at the end of 2022, but consumer spending on those trips has failed to keep up, limiting the boost to the broader economy. China has set an economic growth target for 2024 of around 5%, which many analysts say will be a challenge to achieve without much more stimulus.(Unsplash)

China has set an economic growth target for 2024 of around 5%, which many analysts say will be a challenge to achieve without much more stimulus. China's manufacturing and services activity both expanded at a slower pace in April, official surveys showed on Tuesday, suggesting some loss of momentum. "There is indeed significant pressure," Lin Yu, 38, who was visiting Beijing from Hangzhou. "Every family's situation is different, and it clearly also depends on the industry you work in."

By the fourth week of April, the average price for an economy flight in China had dropped 38% from the first week of the month to the equivalent of just under $97, according to VariFlight, an aviation data service provider. "Chinese airlines must adapt to these changes," said Zheng Hongfeng, VariFlight, who said the fare declines showed travelers were booking early in a highly competitive market.

About 58 million cars are expected to be on roads every day during the holiday while railways carried more than 20 million passengers on Wednesday alone, state media reported. The number of trips taken during the first quarter was up almost 17 percent from a year earlier, according to state broadcaster CCTV. A three-day public holiday during April was the first time average spending per trip rose beyond 2019 levels. By that measure, spending was up then just over 1%.

Some companies have shifted to try to appeal to consumers watching their spending as they watch the road. Yum China, the operator of KFC in China, said this week 30% of its new stores would be in new cities or roadside locations like highway rest stops. Same-store sales at those locations were up 20% during Lunar New Year in February, Yum China CEO Joey Wat said. "They're key to capturing the spike in travel volume during holidays," she said.
Work has begun in a small Japanese town to erect a barrier blocking views of the country's most famous sight, Mount Fuji, after locals complained of bad behaviour by photo-hungry tourists. Fujikawaguchiko town began building panels of mesh netting at a spot where unending flows of mostly foreign tourists visit daily to take photos of the majestic mountain sitting behind a Lawson convenience store. People gather after watching the sunrise from the summit of Mount Fuji, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) west of the capital Tokyo. Japanese authorities are gearing up to impose crowd control measures for the first time on Mount Fuji this weekend for an expected holiday rush by thousands of sometimes ill-prepared trekkers. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

Photos taken from a narrow stretch of pavement across a busy road from the Lawson store -- which are ubiquitous in Japan -- are widely shared online. Local officials and residents say while the town welcomes visitors, they need to stop tourists from continuously crossing the street, ignoring red lights, littering, trespassing, illegally parking and smoking outside of designated areas.

"It became not uncommon for people to yell at us when we asked them to move their cars, and for them to throw their lit cigarettes (on the ground)," a dentist's office located across the street from the Lawson shop said in a statement. By the middle of this month, the town plans to complete the barrier, which will stand 2.5 metres (8 feet) high and stretch more than 20 metres long to block the view of the mountain, with hopes that it will discourage tourists from loitering there.

The town's move has prompted national and international headlines, as Japan experiences growing problems of overtourism, particularly at popular sites like the narrow private alleys of Kyoto, and even trails on Mount Fuji itself, where tourists love to photograph themselves and post on social media.

The Fujikawaguchiko town hall has been inundated with telephone calls from Japanese people, many of them non-local residents, who have criticised the move to block the view. "It is not that we do not want people to see Mount Fuji. The issue is that there are so many people who are not able to observe basic rules," a town official told AFP.

Basic manners

Having the net barrier is unfortunate but perhaps necessary, area residents say. "We welcome foreigners for the revitalisation of the community, but there are so many violations of basic manners, like crossing the road, dumping garbage and trespassing into people's properties," a 60-year-old resident told AFP.

"After all, they are here for Mount Fuji, so having that barrier is very unfortunate," said the woman, who identified herself as Watanabe. "There might have been other ways to deal with it, but for now I feel it cannot be helped," she said. Some tourists expressed understanding and voiced hopes that the town would create a designated photo spot.

But others speculated that the barrier may only make matters worse. "Stop people? I don't think so because when there is a will there is a way. People will just be on the left side of it or right side of it," said 29-year-old Australian tourist Trinity Robinson. "There definitely will be a way to still get the shot. It will just be more dangerous, really."

As a possible solution, a 37-year-old local man, who gave his name as Ama, called on visitors to check out other scenic locations in the area. "Mount Fuji from here (near the Lawson shop) is fantastic. But there are so many other places around here where you can visit and see beautiful views," he said.
China launched its lunar probe, Chang'e-6, on Friday, with the objective of collecting samples from the far side of the moon. The Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Space launch site in China's Hainan Province. China launches Chang'e 6 moon mission.(CGTN)

This mission is the first-ever attempt to obtain samples from far-side of moon, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The Chinese mission also carries Pakistan's miniature satellite, ICUBE-QAMAR cubesat, developed by the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in collaboration with Shanghai University SJTU and SUPARCO. Around 7 kgs in weight, this satellite has camera to take photo of lunar's far side.

ALSO READ- Scientists find evidence of hidden water ice on Moon: About 5-8 times larger

The Chang'e-6 mission aims to land in the South Pole-Aitken Basin to collect dust and rock samples, offering valuable insights into the lunar region's composition and characteristics.

Alongside Chinese scientific instruments, payloads from France, Italy, the European Space Agency, and Pakistan will be part of the mission, underscoring international collaboration in lunar exploration.

ALSO READ- Hundreds of glacial lakes expanding in Himalayan region, flags ISRO

In 2020, China achieved a significant space mission of returning samples from the moon's near side, a feat not accomplished since the US Apollo programme in the 1970s. Analysis of these samples revealed the presence of water in tiny beads embedded within lunar soil, PTI reported.

Furthermore, within the past week, three Chinese astronauts concluded a six-month mission aboard the country's orbiting space station, just as the replacement crew arrived.

ALSO READ- Why Chandrayaan-3 lift-off was delayed by 4 seconds? Close approach risk, reveals ISRO new report

Chandrayaan-3: India's moonshot

India has made significant strides in lunar exploration with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3, which included the Pragyan rover. This achievement positions India as the first country to softly land near the lunar south pole, marking another milestone in its space exploration endeavours.
A Dehradun engineers post about salary has been doing the rounds on the Internet and has been leaving people with thoughts. Akshay Saini shared a few hard truths about achieving high salaries. Akshay Saini shared tips on how one can achieve high salaries even if they started off on a very low package. (X/@akshaymarch7)

He said that internal appraisals are a joke in most companies in India, and if one thinks they are underpaid, they should consider switching jobs without overthinking.

Hard truth: Switching jobs is the only way to reach high salaries, wrote Saini on X.

He added that if one started off as a software engineer on a low package, then one should definitely switch jobs to reach a high salary.

Saini further shared, If you start with a low salary, switching jobs gets you much more salary hikes!

The engineer also took a dig at the internal appraisals and promotions, saying that they are very low and broken.

He asserted, Salary is as important as good work. If youre underpaid, its your fault.

Saini concluded his post by saying that one should only switch jobs if they really think they are underpaid since greed has no cure.

Take a look at the thread shared on X here:

Many quickly flocked to the comments section of this post and shared their suggestions and experiences. Some even left questions on the post, hoping for answers from Saini.

An individual wrote, True. I switched a job in 6 months. Reached 6.5LPA. Now, switching again after 45 days. Expecting 9.6LPA. God has been gracious.

Hello sir, I have been working for a product-based company for five years. My salary hike for the last five years is given below. Nov 2018- Mar-2020: 12% Mar-2021: 14% Mar-2022: 15% Mar-2023: 22% Mar-2024: 32%. Should I switch my company? asked another.

A third reiterated Sainis message, Salary is as important as good work.

At least every 2 years, you should get interviewed and get an offer; this will help you to understand yourself and your skills demand at the current rate and ask your existing org to match. If they do, works for both, suggested a fourth.
IIT Bombay alumnus Aman Goel, who is also a co-founder and CEO of a startup, took to X to shed light on how one can find a perfect co-founder. He also stressed the importance of co-founders and how conflicts with them can easily kill a venture. Mumbai-based entrepreneur, who is also an IIT Bombay alumnus, expressed that one's definition of success must align with their co-founder. (X/@amangoeliitb)

When looking for a co-founder, look for someone whose definition of success is similar to yours, wrote Goel on X. He explained this with the help of an example.

He added, For instance, if you come from a small, middle-class family, an outcome of 5 crores might be huge for you. However, if your co-founder comes from a wealthy business family, for them, it might be peanuts. This might lead to a large difference in vision/outcome.

The Mumbai-based entrepreneur gave yet another example of how one can be keen to pursue a client, but the co-founder might not be interested.

For instance, you might be keen to pursue that client who will pay 25 lakhs a year because that brings you closer to your goal of 1 crore per year revenue by a fourth. However, your co-founder might not be interested in that client simply because they are aiming for 25 crores per year revenue, and this client would be just 1% of that, Goel further expressed.

He went on to say that whether or not to pursue a particular client depends on how large of an outcome the founders are looking for.

Goel said that differences in appetite might lead to friction in taking this decision, which in turn, leads to co-founder conflicts and kill a venture.

Take a look at the entire post here:

Since being shared a day ago on X, the post has accumulated over 22,800 views and numerous likes and reshares. Many even took to the comments section of the post to share their thoughts.

Check out how people reacted to this post here:

This is good advice, Aman. I was recently privy to a falling out between co-founders exactly because of such life expectations mismatch, wrote Abhijeet Mukherjee, former CEO of Guiding Tech.

Another added, This is a true story that happened to me. Luckily, it did not kill my venture, but part (1) differential wealth is a massive no-go between co-founder.

Dear Aman, although you are much younger than me, you are a lot wiser in terms of wisdom. What you say is pure common sense and simple. Wish you all the success, expressed a third.
In June 2022, a male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus sustained a facial wound below the right eye, apparently during a fight with another male orangutan at the Suaq Balimbing research site, a protected rainforest area in Indonesia. What Rakus did three days later really caught the attention of scientists. The photos show a Sumatran orangutan two days before he applied chewed leaves from a medicinal plant (left) and after his facial wound was barely visible (right). (AP)

Researchers on Thursday described observing how Rakus appeared to treat the wound using a plant known for its pain-relieving properties and for supporting wound healing due to its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antioxidant qualities.

Rakus, a male orangutan with a facial wound, at Gunung Leuser National Park in North Sumatra, Indonesia. (AFP)

The orangutan chewed the plant's leaves to produce a liquid that Rakus repeatedly smeared on the wound and then applied the chewed-up plant material directly to the injury, much like a wound plaster administered by doctors, according to primatologist and cognitive biologist Isabelle Laumer of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany.

Rakus also ate the plant, an evergreen vine commonly called Akar Kuning - scientific name Fibraurea tinctoria, added Laumer, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. This plant is rarely eaten by orangutans in this peat swamp forest area, home to about 150 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.

"To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of active wound treatment with a plant species with medical properties by a wild animal," said study senior author Caroline Schuppli, an evolutionary biologist at the institute.

Rakus, believed to have been born in 1989, is a flanged male, with large cheek pads on both sides of the face - secondary male sexual characteristics. Rakus was one of the area's dominant males.

The researchers said the orangutan's wound self-treatment did not appear to be happenstance.

"His behavior appeared to be intentional. He selectively treated his facial wound on his right flange with the plant juice, and no other body parts. The behavior was repeated several times, not only plant juice but later also more-solid plant material was applied until the wound was fully covered. The entire process took a considerable amount of time," Laumer said.

The wound never showed signs of infection and closed within five days, the researchers said.

"The observation suggests that the cognitive capacities that are needed for the behavior - active wound treatment with plants - may be as old as the last common ancestor of orangutans and humans," Schuppli said. "However, what these cognitive capacities exactly are remains to be investigated. Whereas this observation shows that orangutans are capable of treating their wounds with plants, we don't know to what extent they understand the process."

This photo shows Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia. (AP)

The last common ancestor of orangutans and humans lived about 13 million years ago.

Orangutans are one of the world's great apes - the closest living relatives of humans - alongside chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Orangutans are the least closely related to humans of them but still share approximately 97% of our DNA.

"It is possible that wound treatment with Fibraurea tinctoria emerges through accidental individual innovation. Individuals may accidentally touch their wounds while feeding on Fibraurea tinctoria and thus unintentionally apply the plant's juice to their wounds," Laumer said.

"But it may also be," Laumer added, "that Rakus has learned this behavior from other orangutans in his birth area."

This plant, widely distributed across China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, is used in traditional medicine to treat conditions such as malaria.

Orangutan means "person of the forest" in the Indonesian and Malay languages, and these apes are the world's biggest arboreal mammal. Orangutans, adapted to living in trees, live more solitary lives than other great apes, sleeping and eating fruit in the forest canopy and swinging from branch to branch.

"Orangutans have high cognitive abilities, in particular in the area of physical cognition," Schuppli said. They are known to be excellent problem-solvers. Wild orangutans acquire their skill sets via observational social learning, and skills get passed on from generation to generation. The population where this observation was made is known for its rich cultural repertoire, including tool use in different contexts.
Attacks on two camps for displaced people in eastern Congo's North Kivu province on Friday killed at least 12 people, including children, according to local officials, an aid group and the United Nations. People gather at the side of an explosion in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo.(AP)

The UN said in a statement that bombs hit two camps for displaced people in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.

The UN called the attacks a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime.

Lt. Colonel Ndjike Kaiko, a Congolese army spokesperson, blamed the attacks on a rebel group, known as M23, with alleged links to Rwanda, in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

The M23 rebel group denied any role in the attacks and blamed Congolese forces in a statement published on X.

Details from the area were still emerging on Friday.

A UN spokesperson, Jean Jonas Yaovi Tossa, told the AP that at least 12 people were killed and more than 20 injured in the attacks.

Save The Children, an aid group, said it was present at one of the camps when shells struck close to a busy marketplace ahead of their vehicle. It said dozens were injured, mostly women and children, and the death toll was still unclear.

Congo's president, Felix Tshisekedi, who was travelling in Europe, decided to return home Friday following the bombings, a statement from his office said.

Tshisekedi has long alleged that Rwanda is destabilizing Congo by backing the M23 rebels. UN experts, along with the US State Department, have also accused Rwanda of backing the rebels. Rwanda denies the claims.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron called on neighbouring Rwanda to halt its support for the M23 rebel group during a joint press conference with Tshisekedi in Paris.

The bombings follow the M23 rebel group's capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week.

The town holds deposits of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a key component in the production of smartphones. It is among the minerals that was named earlier this month in a letter from Congo's government questioning Apple about the tech company's knowledge of blood minerals being smuggled in its supply chain.

The decadeslong conflict in eastern Congo has produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with over 100 armed groups fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals. Some are fighting to try to protect their communities.

Many groups are accused of carrying out mass killings, rapes and other human rights violations. The violence has displaced about 7 million people, many beyond the reach of aid.
France on Friday condemned "in the strongest terms" an attack on an International Committee of the Red Cross convoy in war-torn Sudan that killed two staff and injured three others. French flag(Reuters)

"France calls on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, which obliges them to protect humanitarian and health staff and guarantee complete, safe and unhindered humanitarian access," said French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine.

The ICRC said gunmen killed two drivers and injured three staff in South Darfur on Thursday as they returned from a humanitarian mission.

A brutal conflict between the Sudanese army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his ex-deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has torn the country apart for more than a year.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called the "largest displacement crisis in the world".

It has also triggered acute food shortages and a humanitarian crisis that has left the northeast African country's people at risk of starvation.
Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of U.S. universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies. Pro-Palestinian students shine flashlights toward cops as police try to force their way to their encampment on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).(AFP File Photo)

The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and 2,300-plus arrests on 44 campuses across the nation since April 17. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.

Deals included commitments by universities to at least review their investments in Israel or to hear calls to stop doing business with the Middle East nation, a longtime U.S. ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the war grinds on in Gaza.

The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major step on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.

ALSO READ | Joe Biden addresses anti-Israel protest across US campuses, avers 'dissent must never lead to disorder'

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters were caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers  some of whom are Jewish  call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

The University of Minnesota reopened Thursday after administrators said they reached an agreement to end an encampment in the heart of the Minneapolis campus.

Interim President Jeff Ettinger said demonstrators agreed not to disrupt final exams or commencements. In return, student organizations can address the universitys board at a meeting next week, where protesters are expected to demand divestment from Israel.

While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by todays progress, Ettinger said in a statement.

ALSO READ | India reacts to US campus protests: In every democracy, there has to be...

Demonstrators at Rutgers University  where finals were paused due to the protests on its New Brunswick campus  similarly packed up their tents Thursday afternoon.

The state university agreed to establish an Arab Cultural Center and to not retaliate against any students involved in the protest camp.

In a statement, Chancellor Francine Conway noted protesters' request for divestment from companies doing business with Israel and for Rutgers to cut ties with Tel Aviv University. She said the the request is under review, but such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope.

Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island agreed to dismantle their pro-Palestinian encampment Tuesday. School officials said students could present arguments to divest Browns endowment from companies contributing to and profiting from the war in Gaza.

In addition, Brown President Christina Paxson will ask an advisory committee to make a recommendation on divestment by Sept. 30, which will be brought before the schools governing corporation for a vote in October.

Northwesterns Deering Meadow in suburban Chicago also fell silent after Mondays agreement. The deal curbed protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.

The arrangement drew dissent from both sides. Some pro-Palestinian protesters condemned it as a failure to stick to their original demands, while some supporters of Israel said it represented cowardly capitulation.

Seven of 18 members resigned from a university committee that advises the administration on addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and expressions of hatred on campus. They said they felt unable to continue serving with antisemitism so present at Northwestern in public view for the past week.

Michael Simon, the executive director of an organization for Jewish students, Northwestern Hillel, said he resigned after concluding the committee could not achieve its goals.

Meanwhile, arrests of demonstrators continued at other schools.

About a dozen protesters who refused police orders to leave a tent encampment at New York University were arrested early Friday, and about 30 more left voluntarily, according to NYU spokesperson John Beckman. The school asked the New York Police Department to intervene, Beckman said.

NYPD officers also cleared an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village. Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted on X that the school asked the department to disperse the protesters. No arrests were announced.

Authorities said a further 133 protesters were arrested when police broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the State University of New York at New Paltz starting late Thursday. And nine protesters were arrested at the University of Tennessee, including seven students who Chancellor Donde Plowman said would also be sanctioned under the school's code of conduct.

The student protest movement began April 17 at Columbia University, where student protesters built an encampment to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.

More than 100 people were arrested late Tuesday when police broke up the Columbia encampment. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside Hamilton Hall during that operation, but no one was injured, NYPD said late Thursday.

At University of California, Los Angeles, more than 200 people were taken into custody early Thursday, after hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave. Police tore apart a fortified encampments barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told alumni on a call Thursday afternoon that administrators tried to find a peaceful solution and that things had been stable on campus until counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment late Tuesday, leaving at least 15 people injured.

By Wednesday, it was clear police would have to dismantle the encampment, which had become a bunker, Block said. Officers warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd did not disperse. Hundreds left voluntarily, while another 200-plus remained and were arrested.
Hamas said it was considering in a "positive spirit" a proposed truce and hostage release deal with Israel as the bloodiest ever Gaza war claimed more lives on Friday. Hamas weighs Gaza truce proposal

Nearly seven months of war have devastated the Palestinian coastal territory, which the United Nations said would require a rebuilding effort on a scale not seen since World War II.

After months of stop-start negotiations, Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the group would "soon" send a delegation back to Egypt for ceasefire discussions, aiming for a deal that "realises the demands of our people".

Haniyeh told Egyptian and Qatari mediators in calls on Thursday that Hamas was studying the latest proposal from Israel with a "positive spirit".

After a meeting in Cairo last weekend, the Hamas delegation had returned to Qatar to discuss the proposal.

The war began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Gaza's Civil Defence agency and medics said the toll rose overnight when Israeli warplanes struck a neighbourhood in Rafah, southern Gaza, killing six people in a family house.

"It's enough, enough... They must pressure both parties" for a ceasefire, said Bassam al-Hafi whose Rafah neighbourhood was struck.

The destruction there adds to the 72 percent of Gaza's residential buildings which a UN report on Thursday said have been completely or partially destroyed.

"The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented... this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II," said Abdallah al-Dardari, the UN Development Programme's Regional Director for Arab States.

The only truce that mediators have reached so far was a week-long deal in November that saw the release of 80 Israeli hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel estimates that 129 of the captives seized by the militants during their October attack remain in Gaza, while the army says 35 of them are dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces regular protests demanding a deal to bring home the hostages.

He leads a fragile coalition which includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties. Demonstrators accuse Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies, of seeking to prolong the war.

Israel's government said it had confirmed the death of another Gaza captive, 49-year-old Dror Or.

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Or's death emphasises the need to secure the freedom of all captives and to bring home the remains of those killed.

It called on the government to "exhaust every effort to bring Dror and... the other murdered hostages back for honourable burials in Israel".

Israeli soldiers have rounded up hundreds of Gazans during the war, holding them without charge before releasing some in groups.

On Thursday Palestinian advocacy groups said Dr Adnan Ahmed Atiya al-Barsh, 50, head of orthopaedics at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, had died in Israeli custody.

They alleged he had been tortured after his arrest with other doctors in December.

"His body is still being held," the groups said.

Contacted by AFP about the accusation, Israel's army said: "We are currently not aware of such incident."

Hamas has demanded a permanent ceasefire to end the war and the withdrawal of troops, which Israel has refused.

With or without a truce, Netanyahu says, he will send ground troops into Rafah, where humanitarian aid groups estimate 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The truce offer includes a 40-day halt to fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

Prior to Haniyeh's comments, a senior Hamas official had told AFP late Wednesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement's position on the truce proposal was "negative" for the moment.

An Israeli official early this week told AFP the government "will wait for answers until Wednesday night", and then "make a decision" whether to send envoys to Cairo to nail down a deal.

The humanitarian crisis and rising death toll in Gaza have prompted pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world. They began at campuses in the United States and have spread to countries including France and Mexico.

Demonstrators have gathered on at least 40 US campuses, often erecting tent camps.

University administrators have been left with the challenge of trying to balance free speech rights with complaints of criminal activity and hate speech.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog charged that the US universities had been "contaminated by hatred and anti-Semitism".

Turkey on Thursday announced it was suspending trade until Israel allows humanitarian aid to enter Gaza "uninterrupted", a day after Colombia severed diplomatic ties with Israel.

After an Israeli drone strike in early April killed seven workers from a US-based charity, World Central Kitchen, US President Joe Biden suggested to Netanyahu, for the first time, that continued American support could be conditional on protection and aid for civilians.

Israel has since allowed increased aid deliveries. It said the Erez crossing in north Gaza has reopened for aid entry, and assistance has arrived via the Israeli port of Ashdod.

World Central Kitchen resumed delivering food to starving Gazans this week.

"We realised after the kitchen closed that many mouths were left hungry," kitchen manager Zakria Yahya Abukuwaik said, preparing food in Rafah.

While soldiers fight on the ground in Gaza, Israel has also faced a significant increase in cyberattacks from its arch foe Iran and its allies, said Aviram Atzaba, the Israeli National Cyber Directorate's head of international cooperation.

"They are trying to hack everything they can," he said, pointing to Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. He added that so far "they have not succeeded in causing any real damage".

burs-it/fz

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
As leading universities across the US continue to witness protests against Israeli military action in Gaza, India on Thursday said there has to be a right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety in every democracy. Police make an arrest as they face-off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).(AFP)

Hundreds of students were arrested by the US authorities with an aim to quell the protests.

"We have seen reports on the matter and have been following related events. In every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

ALSO READ | Majority of Anti-Israel protesters detained at Columbia, City College are non-students, arrests top 2000: Report

"Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. Afterall, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad," he said replying to a question.

Jaiswal said neither the Indian embassy in Washington nor any Indian consulate in the US has been approached by Indian students or their family seeking assistance regarding any disciplinary action for participation in protests in the universities.

"We expect all our citizens at home and abroad to respect local laws and regulations," he said.
The interim report of the public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada has accused India of such activity and of engaging in a range of activities that seek to influence Canadian communities and politicians. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP) (AP)

However, the Initial Report, released on Friday morning, pointed out the focus of such Indian influence efforts were driven by concerns over Khalistani separatism in Canada. The report noted that Indias undertakes foreign interference activities which aim to align Canadas position with Indias interests on key issues, particularly with respect to how the Indian government perceives Canada-based supporters of an independent Sikh homeland (Khalistan).

Importantly, it recognises Canada-based Khalistani violent extremism though that is described as relatively small and adds that India does not differentiate between that and lawful, pro-Khalistani political advocacy.

These activities, it said, may not be directed at influencing Canadas democratic institutions, but are still significant.

India directed foreign interference activities related to the 2019 and 2021 general elections, it said, adding that proxy agents may have attempted to interfere in democratic processes, reportedly including through the clandestine provision of illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians as a means of attempting to secure the election of pro-India candidates or gaining influence over candidates who take office. In some instances, the candidates may never know their campaigns received illicit funds.

It noted, There was no indication of Indian-based disinformation campaigns in the 2021 general election.

The interim report was issued by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, which is headed by Justice Marie-Josee Hogue and the final report, with recommendations, has to be delivered by December 31.

The report noted that the countrys agencies view China as the biggest threat to the Canadian electoral space by a significant margin.

Other countries engaged in such activity are identified as Russia, India, Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among others.

The report stated Pakistan has conducted foreign interference against Canada primarily to promote political, security and economic stability in Pakistan and to counter Indias growing global influence.

India has already rejected as baseless allegations questions about any interference in Canada. In April, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, in a statement, It is not Government of Indias policy to interfere in democratic processes of other countries. In fact, quite on the reverse, it is Canada which has been interfering in our internal affairs. We have been raising this issue regularly with them. We continue to call on Canada to take effective measures to address our core concerns.
Israel foreign minister Israel Katz criticised Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the latter's recent decision to halt all imports and exports with Israel, effectively shutting down Turkish ports to Israeli trade. Katz called Erdogan " a dictator". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AP/File)

@RTErdogan is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports. This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements, Katz said in a post on X.

Stopping all trade to and from Israel, Turkey cited "worsening humanitarian tragedy" in Palestinian territories. Turkey's trade ministry said in a statement, Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products. Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli Government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

As per Reuters, in 2023, the trade volume between the two nations amounted to $6.8 billion. Last month, Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israel, citing Israel's denial of Ankara's participation in aid air-drop operations for Gaza and its military offensive in the enclave.

Katz also said that he instructed Israel's foreign ministry to initiate alternatives for trade with Turkey.

I have instructed the Director General of the @IsraelMFA to immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries. Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy, he said.

The escalating tensions are likely to further strain relations between the once close allies, which have soured since the Gaza crisis erupted.

Hamas militants have killed approximately 1,136 Israeli citizens since October 7 and took around 250 individuals hostage. In response, Israel deployed troops into Gaza and conducted airstrikes, resulting in the deaths of over 34,000 people, as reported by the Gaza health ministry.
While the business community have been vocal about not hiring from Ivy leagues which has seen vocal anti-Israel protests, one CEO has stepped out of the line. PORTLAND, OREGON - MAY 2: Pro-Palestinian protesters face-off with police at the Portland State University campus on May 2, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Getty Images via AFP)

Andrew Dumdum , CEO of HIMS, a company that deals with male hair loss and erectile dysfunction products said hes eager to hire anti-Israel protesters despite their discplinary records. He wrote on X: Moral courage > College degree. If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going. Its working. There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.

He also posted the link to his company's hiring page.

Among those most vocal about not hiring students from Ivy League was Bill Ackman, head of Pershing Square Capital Management, who said he wouldnt hire students from Harvard who had signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas attack on October 7.

Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, authorities said.

There were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity, officials said. Body camera footage shows when the officer's gun went off, but the district attorney's office is conducting a review, a standard practice.

More than 100 people were taken into custody during the Columbia crackdown, just a fraction of the total arrests stemming from recent campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. A tally by The Associated Press recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different U.S. colleges or universities since April 18. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to limit the number of mountaineering permits issued for Everest and other peaks, a lawyer confirmed Friday, just as expeditions prepare for the spring climbing season. Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to limit the number of mountaineering permits issued for Everest and other peaks, a lawyer confirmed Friday, just as expeditions prepare for the spring climbing season.(AFP)

The Himalayan republic is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of adventurers each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are typically calm.

The verdict was issued in late April but a summary was only published this week.

Lawyer Deepak Bikram Mishra, who had filed a petition urging permits to be curtailed, told AFP that the court had responded to public concerns about Nepal's mountains and its environment.

"It has ordered a limit to the number of climbers... and also given measures for waste management and preservation of the mountain's environment," Mishra said.

ALSO READ| Mount Everest climbers will have to clear their own poop, bring it back to base camp. Here's why

The verdict's summary said that the mountains' capacity "must be respected" and an appropriate maximum number of permits should be determined.

The full text of the verdict has not been published and the summary does not mention any specific limit to the number of permits issued.

Nepal currently grants permits to all who apply and are willing to pay $11,000 to scale Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,850 metres (29,035 feet) above sea level.

Last year, the country issued 478 permits for Everest, a record high.

A massive human traffic jam on Everest in 2019 forced teams to wait hours at the summit in freezing temperatures, risking depleted oxygen levels that can lead to sickness and exhaustion.

At least four of the 11 deaths on the peak that year were blamed on overcrowding.

- 'Give it some respite' -

"We are pressuring the mountain too much and we need to give it some respite," Mishra said.

The court decision also orders restrictions on the use of helicopters for emergency rescues only.

Helicopters have in recent years been frequently used to airlift mountaineering teams to base camps and across hazardous terrain.

Nepal Mountaineering Association president Nima Nuru Sherpa said that such decisions need to be made after a proper study and consultation with the stakeholders.

"It is not clear right now how it will impact the industry. We don't know on what basis the limits will be made and how will this be divided among expedition operators," Sherpa said.

"Our focus should instead be on how we can make the mountains safer."

Nepal has issued permits to 945 climbers for its mountains so far this year, including 403 for Everest.
Members of the team responsible for the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar have been arrested by Canadian police, according to a media report. Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar (File)

The outlet CBC News reported on Friday that have arrested members of an alleged hit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of India with Nijjars killing in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18 last year.

Identities of those arrested were not revealed and police has yet to make a statement in this regard. However, the report stated that police conducted operations across provinces and those arrested were linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

Police are actively investigating three other murders in this connection, including those of Sukhdool Singh Gill in Winnipeg on September 20 last year and Harpreet Uppal and his 11-year-old son in Edmonton on November 9. Both were allegedly connected to gangs.

On Sunday, during an interaction with Punjabi-language media in Toronto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of the ongoing investigation, It is very good and rigorous work. And when the time comes for them to conclude that investigation, there will be some very, very clear things that everyone around the world, including in India, will see as to responsibilities and involvement."

Nijjars killing resulted in cratering of relations between India and Canada after Trudeau stated in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were credible allegations of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder.

India has stated it will act if Canada provides it with specific and relevant information in connection with the Nijjar killing.

The investigation into Nijjars killing was being undertaken by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team or IHIT, part of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP.

According to a report in the outlet the Globe and Mail in December, investigators had some members of the hit squad under surveillance.

Those arrested were believed to have entered Canada as international students and were apprehended from the provinces of Ontario and Alberta.

Regarding reports of arrests in Canada in connection with killing of Nijjar - people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that the Canadian side has not officially shared any specific and credible information with New Delhi.
Three people, including a senior journalist, were killed and eight others injured in a bomb blast that targeted his vehicle in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Friday, police said. A remote-controlled roadside bomb was planted near Chomrok Chowk on the outskirts of Khuzdar town.(HT File)

A remote-controlled roadside bomb was planted near Chomrok Chowk on the outskirts of Khuzdar town and when Maulana Siddique Mengal, a senior journalist and also the president of the Khuzdar Press Club, reached the spot, the bomb was set off, a senior police official said.

Maulana Mengal and two other passersby were killed in the blast, while eight others were injured and taken to the hospital, he said.

Mengal was also a provincial officer-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party. He also used to write for a local newspaper, Watan. The attack on the senior journalist happened on a day when World Press Freedom Day was observed.

A police official said that it is still too early to say whether Mengal was targeted because of his media work or because of his work as a provincial office bearer of the JUI-F.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti strongly condemned the attack and directed the Inspector General of Police to arrest the culprits.

The Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) also staged a demonstration against the killing of Mengal and demanded that the provincial government should arrest the killers at the earliest.

Balochistan has been witnessing a series of terrorist activities for several years.

Most recently, on Thursday at least one died and 20 others were injured in twin landmine blasts that occurred near Thaikedar Naddi in the Duki district of Balochistan. The first explosion occurred when a truck hit a landmine, followed by a second blast as people gathered at the scene.

On Friday last, unknown assailants opened fire in the Kali Tarata area of Pishin district and injured two senior police officers, including a DSP and SHO. In a similar incident in the Tump area of the district, two labourers were killed by armed men.

In 2023, Pakistan ranked 150 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), a non-profit that defends and promotes freedom of information.

According to a report by Freedom Network, an independent national media watchdog, at least 53 journalists were murdered in the country from 2012 to 2022. Only in two cases have convictions been obtained.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has prohibited Chinese nationals from traveling within the province unless they are accompanied by armored vehicles, a senior police official stated on Wednesday. Five Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver on March 26. (AFP)

Speaking to Dawn News, Hazara range deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Tahir Ayub Khan said, As were adopting all possible measures for the safety of Chinese nationals, they shouldnt travel in the province without armoured vehicles in line with the governments directions.

These measures were announced after a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers, on March 26 this year, who were engaged in a dam project in northwest Pakistan. This attack claimed the lives of six individuals. This incident marked the third significant assault on Chinese interests within Pakistan in the span of a single week. Prior attacks had aimed at a Pakistan naval air base and a strategic port crucial for Chinese investments in the southwest province of Balochistan, underscoring growing security concerns for Chinese projects in the region.

As reported by Dunya News, several Chinese nationals were restricted to move only within their hotels amid the rising security concerns. A letter by the police stressed on the need to protect Chinese nationals who are involved in non-China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Pakistan's home department also stated that the projects who have not been using bulletproof vehicles will be stopped unless the changes are made.

Accompanied by District Police Officer Shafeeullah Gandapur, the DIG visited the sites of the Suki Kinari and Balakot hydropower projects to discuss security arrangements for the Suki Kinari project in the Malkandi area of Kaghan Valley, Dawn reported.

He attended security meetings concerning the hydropower projects in the Malkandi and Ghanool areas. The attendees comprised security personnel, Chinese engineers, and project managers from both sites.

Tahir mentioned that the boundary walls of residential colonies, housing Chinese engineers and workers, would be at least eight feet high and might be additionally fortified with barbed wire.

He emphasised that the security personnel would ensure the safety of the Chinese engineers at all costs.

Tahir joined the post after former DIG Mohammad Ijaz Khan was suspended after the attack on Chinese officials.

In the wake of the attack, heightened security concerns have prompted authorities to take proactive measures to minimise risks and safeguard the well-being of foreign nationals.
Australian university campuses witnessed pro-Palestinian protests on Friday. In Sydney, tensions escalated as scuffles broke out between the pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel counter-protesters. These demonstrations mirrored similar protests unfolding on campuses across the United States. Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney. (AFP)

Over the past two weeks, students across major Australian cities have established protest encampments on university campuses. Their demonstrations are in response to Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza. The student protesters are calling for their universities to cut all academic ties with Israel and terminate research collaborations with arms manufacturers. This move aims to exert pressure on Israel through academic and research channels in light of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

At the University of Sydney, Australia's oldest institution, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Friday, facing a counter-protest in support of Israel. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported a scuffle between the two groups, however no arrests were made. This indicates a less volatile atmosphere than scenes unfolding across certain campuses in the US.

Similar protest camps have been set up in Melbourne, Canberra and other Australian cities.

Due to heavy security presence, the protestors from both sides backed down in Sydney.

Addressing the situation, University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott affirmed that there was space for both groups to express their views peacefully on the university grounds.

They may strongly disagree with the matters that have been discussed. ... We can host that conversation and we should be able to do that in a non-threatening way, he said to ABC.

Scott added that not all the protestors were university students and expressed concerns that some of the individuals involved might not be genuinely committed to peaceful and productive engagement on the issue.

We are working with security and police, he said.

Despite being a longstanding ally of Israel, Australia has grown increasingly critical of Israel's conduct in the conflict, especially after an Australian aid worker was killed in an Israeli attack last month.

At the demonstrations, protesters voiced their dissatisfaction with the Australian government's efforts, claiming it has not done enough to push for peace in the region. They led chants against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his administration, expressing their discontent with the government's response to the ongoing crisis, Reuters reported.
Toronto: Two Indians and their Indian-origin grandchild were among four persons killed in a traffic crash in Ontario province on Monday, according to authorities investigating the incident. Police officers investigate a case in the suburb of Barrhaven, Ontario, Canada (Picture for representative purpose only). (REUTERS)

Ontarios Special Investigations Unit (SIU) stated, in a release on Thursday that they included a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, both visiting from India, as well as their three-month-old grandchild.

The tragedy occurred during a multi-vehicle collision in the town of Whitby, which resulted from a police car chase.

At approximately 7.50pm on April 29, Durham Regional Police Service became aware of a robbery at an alcohol outlet. Officers located a cargo van of interest and followed the van through numerous streets in Durham region. Thereafter, the van entered a highway but was going in the wrong direction.

The fatal accident ensued, involving six vehicles. Among those injured were the 33-year-old father and 27-year-old mother of the deceased infant. The parents, residents of Ajax, were taken to hospital for treatment and the mother was treated for serious injuries that she suffered, SIU said.

The 21-year-old driver of the van that was initially being investigated was also killed in the collision, while a 38-year-old male passenger was transported to hospital for treatment of serious injuries.

SIU added that seven investigators, one forensic investigator and one collision reconstructionist continue to investigate this case. Given the involvement of police vehicles in the incident, the SIU stepped in. Its an official agency that probes the conduct of officials that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

As the chase entered the highway with Durham police vehicles also driving against the flow of traffic, a police radio recording had one officer saying, Someone is going to get hurt, according to local media reports.
By Trevor Hunnicutt Biden to honor Olympian Katie Ledecky, actor Michelle Yeoh with Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON - A winner of seven Olympic gold medals, a leader of the Mississippi civil rights struggle and a pioneer of television's tabloid talk show genre are part of this year's class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

U.S. President Joe Biden will extend the highest U.S. civilian award to 19 people, including Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, the assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers and television host Phil Donahue.

The honorees list plays special homage to "firsts" in their field, including the "Everything Everywhere All at Once" actress Michelle Yeoh, who was the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Actress; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space; and Jim Thorpe, the versatile athlete who became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal in 1912.

The awards will be handed out at the White House on Friday.

Biden also included some key political allies in the Democratic Party, from Representative Jim Clyburn, who rescued his 2020 presidential primary bid, to Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded his legislative agenda through Congress as House of Representatives speaker until last year.

Also included are several one-time presidential candidates, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Vice President Al Gore, one-time Secretary of State John Kerry and the previous New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity," the White House wrote of Gore's concession to George W. Bush in the 2000 election, a jab at ex-president Donald Trump, who has never conceded his 2020 loss to Biden.

Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who strayed from the Republican Party he once called home, may become an important financial backer of the president's 2024 reelection campaign.

Biden will also honor Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who founded the gang intervention program Homeboy Industries; Opal Lee, an activist who pushed for Juneteenth to be a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States; Senator Frank Lautenberg, a consumer safety advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; United Farm Workers president Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepard; and Clarence B. Jones, who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Former US President Donald Trump has revealed the timeline when he will announce his vice presidential candidate for November elections. On being asked if he required someone else to campaign for him, Trump, 77, asserted: "I don't think so", adding that "I think were getting the word out.(AP )

Speaking to FOX 6 Milwaukee, the presumptive GOP nominee on Wednesday said: Ill be picking, but probably not too much before the convention, which I happen to be having in the great state of Wisconsin.

On being asked if he required someone else to campaign for him, Trump, 77, asserted: I don't think so, adding that I think were getting the word out.

Notably, Milwaukee will host the Republican National Convention from July 1518. Conventionally, the vice presidential candidate will give a speech to the delegates on the evening before the conference ends.

In the final week leading up to the convention in 2016, Trump selected then-Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, as his running mate, supporting the theory that he will adhere to a similar schedule this time around.

The GOP leader also spoke about his ongoing hush money trial in New York and said that he is not speeding up the process to pick his running money as he has to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on accusations of concealing hush money payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

While Trump has always spoken out about his preferable choice for the running mate position, he never disclosed the specifics of his prospective VP and the date on which he will formally add someone to his ticket.

Who all are on Trump's list and is Kristy Noem out of race amid dog-killing scandal?

According to a Bloomberg's Thursday report, Trump has shorten his potential VP list to four candidates. These include Republican senators Marco Rubio of Florida, J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Tim Scott of South Carolina, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum.

It was reported earlier that Biotech tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy is already out of the race, a source told The Post. Meanwhile, Trump's allies stated that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has no shot at the role following her 14-month-old dog killing scandal.

During a call with fundraisers in February, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also excused himself from being Trump's running mate.

Many of the potential contenders will be seen at Trump's major campaign event this week in Palm Beach.
In a scathing attack, former President Donald Trump has labelled the ongoing hush money trial against him as a "witch hunt," doubling down on accusations against his political opponents. Trump took aim at President Joe Biden, branding him as "crooked," and claimed that his adversaries might be thrilled by the trial proceedings. The post came amid the ongoing trial, with Hope Hicks, a former Trump aide taking the stand and testifying in the court. Former US President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 2, 2024. Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels just days ahead of the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. (Photo by Doug Mills / POOL / AFP)(AFP)

Donald Trump says the trial is a witch hunt against him

On Friday, in a new post on Truth Social, Donald Trump, using his own platform, complained about a tape played in the courtroom the day before and discussed the matter with his followers. He revealed feeling 'very unhappy' by the end of the day and expressed frustration with how things played out. During the lunch break, Trump launched an attack on all the people he believes are responsible for his current situation.

Also read: I-95 bridge demolition starts after tanker explosion; traffic to remain affected until Monday, schools closed

Going all caps lock in his post, he wrote, This isnt a trial, its a political campaign, a witch hunt, just like the highly conflicted and biased judge, Juan Merchan, wanted it to be. Im sure his political friends and allies, and crooked Joe Biden, in particular, will be thrilled that they are getting away with this corrupt, ancient, and highly political attack on his 2024 presidential opponent.

Also read: Former Trump aide Hope Hicks testifies he told her to deny Stormy Daniels affair

Trump vented out his frustration over eight years old stories that emerged before the 2016 election, which he believes are irrelevant to the current legal case against him. these eight-year-old stories, which came out prior to the 2016 election (the voters have already, and loudly, spoken!), and have nothing to do with this fake case, brought by a crooked, Soros-backed New York City D.A., Alvin Bragg, should not have been allowed to be used. virtually every legal scholar and expert calls it a sham and disgrace, election interference. it is an insult to American justice! He added in his post.

Donald Trumps Hush Money Trial update

After a break for lunch, Trump went back to the courtroom. Hope Hicks, who served as the White House's communications director and a long-time associate of the president, is defending herself after it was revealed that she discussed silencing stories about the former president before the 2016 presidential election. The former president and soon-to-be-be 2024 Republican nominee has denied 34 counts of fraudulently altering business documents in connection with a hush-up payment paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.

In her statement, Hicks said that she warned Trump that WSJ will publish the Stormy Daniels story ahead of the 2016 elections. "He wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship," she said.
In the recent series of product recalls, Walmart is now facing a health warning over ground beef products that may have been contaminated with E. coli. On Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture issued a High-Class 1 alert warning for Cargill Meat Solutions products. Approximately 16,243 pounds of raw ground beef shipped to Walmart that may have been infected with the potentially fatal bacteria have been recalled. A Walmart Health center in Pinellas Park, Florida, US, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Walmart Inc. is abandoning its plan to build out a network of low-cost health clinics due to escalating costs and reimbursement challenges. Photographer: Thomas Simonetti/Bloomberg(Bloomberg)

The products that were produced on April 26 and 27 and have the USDA mark of inspection are affected. The establishment reported the issue to FSIS after discovering that previously segregated products were used unintentionally in the production of ground beef. The US Food Safety and Inspection Service released a statement on May 1, stating that the recalled products are as follows:
Commuters in Norwalk, Connecticut, will have to endure massive traffic disruption after a brutal Friday crash of a gasoline-filled tanker, which resulted in a massive fire and destruction on I-95, the primary north-south highway along the East Coast. Warnings were issued for daily commuters, truck drivers, and others to take a detour. Now, in a new development, crews rushed to the site to carry out the demolition process. This emergency demolition, coupled with school closures, threatens to bring the city's traffic to a standstill. I-95 bridge demolition starts after tanker explosion; traffic to remain affected until Monday, schools closed

I-95 Bridge demolition begins

I-95, one of America's busiest highways, has been shut down and schools have been closed in the surrounding areas as workers prepare to demolish the bridge which was severely damaged in the explosion. Gov. Ned Lamont said the demolition process could take several days, causing a shutdown and causing traffic gridlock. Workers arrived at the overpass on Fairfield Avenue at 3:00 in the morning to begin the demolition process. The overpass serves as a major transportation hub for people travelling from Connecticut to New York City.

Also read: Israeli father of three held captive in Gaza confirmed dead after wife was shot; kids orphaned

The heat from the burning fuel compromised some of the bridge, so that bridge is going to have to come down and that demolition is going to start first thing [Friday] morning, Gov. Ned Lamont said, reported by Post.

When will I-95 reopen?

Reportedly, a 13-mile traffic jam plagued the southbound side of the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield, with massive delays reported on the northbound side and nearby roads. People were advised to work from home or stay at home to avoid traffic troubles, and urgent commuters were directed to take alternate routes. Norwalk schools also announced a holiday, which may be extended due to the incident. Meanwhile, the damaged part of I-95 is not expected to reopen until at least Monday.

Weve scheduled some different staggering work times for people so that they can come in later, maybe go home earlier so we can reduce some of the traffic, Mayor Harry Rilling said in a statement.

Also read: Majority of Anti-Israel protesters detained at Columbia, City College are non-students, arrests top 2000: Report

Connecticut highway in flames

Earlier on Thursday, a massive explosion occurred on a Connecticut highway when a large tanker carrying 8,500 gallons (about 32,000 litres) of gasoline burst into flames, involving a car and a tractor-trailer. Fortunately, no fatalities or severe injuries were reported. However, Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto stated that the bridge, which was less than a decade old, was severely damaged due to the spilt gasoline. A state of emergency was declared following the explosion.

Also read: Connecticut highway in flames: Gasoline truck explosion cripples traffic, closes I-95

This emergency declaration will help expedite some of the resources needed for us to respond to this situation. I strongly encourage everyone to avoid this area for at least the next few days while the highway remains closed and to stay alert for updates, the Governor said in a statement.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has seen a significant reduction in his billionaire status, reaching the lowest levels in many years. While Bill Gates is known for his environmental activism, he came under fire over ownership of superyachts.(Reuters)

According to a recent Forbes Billionaire Index study, Gates is currently the ninth richest person in the world, despite having a net worth of approximately $128 billion. He was ranked as the seventh richest on the world's billionaires list just one month ago.

After dominating the billionaire's list for almost thirty years, starting in 1995, Gates' recent fall in the rankings illustrates a major change in the mechanics of global wealth distribution.

Gates' wealth has witnessed a major hit probably due to two significant factors. The first one is -- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has received donations totaling close to $59 billion. The second reason was his divorce with Melina French Gates in 2021 that has made things even worse financially.

While Gates is known for his environmental activism, he came under fire over ownership of superyachts. However, he is now reportedly planning to sell his pair of yachts, according to Benzinga.

The Microsoft co-founder bought The Wayfinder, his first superyacht built by Astilleros Armon, at the cost of $25 million in 2021. The yacht is a shadow craft, usually escorting a larger mothership that was not disclosed to the world yet.

The mothership, also known as Project 821, is being built at Feadship. The mothership is 390 feet long and has an interior volume greater than 7,000 gross tons (GT), will be one of the biggest and most opulent vessels the shipyard has built.

Also Read: Bill Gates sells one of his properties in less than two weeks. It costed only

Why is Bill Gates planning to sell pair of yachts?

The reason for the sales is not clear yet. But some argue that the maintenance and operating cost of the expensive vessels is too high, while others surmise that Gates is becoming more committed to environmental problems since his past remarks have shown his awareness about large carbon footprint.

In 2022 Gates Notes, he wrote: Although I dont care where I rank on the list of the worlds richest people, I do know that as I succeed in giving, I will drop down and eventually off the list altogether.

His statement fits with his long-term objective of giving his majority of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Moreover, Gates seems to be enhancing his reputation as a climate activist. Given the growing worldwide concern about climate change, Gates may want to set an example of reducing luxury consumption and minimising its impact on the environment by selling the yachts.
In another devastating update from the government of Israel, a father of three children who was suspected to be held captive in Gaza has been pronounced dead. This comes months after his two children were reportedly released from Hamas captivity as part of a cease-fire deal, officials said. The man was identified as 49-year-old Dror Or, though the source of the government's information on how they learned the news is still unclear. Israeli father of three held captive in Gaza confirmed dead after wife was shot; kids orphaned(Pic credit: X@Israel)

Israeli man suspected hostage in Gaza dead

We are heartbroken to share that Dror Or who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 has been confirmed as murdered, on May 3, the government of Israel released a statement. They added that the body of the deceased is being held in Gaza only. his body is being held in Gaza.

Who was Dror Or murdered in Gaza?

According to reports, Dror Or was one of roughly 250 people abducted during the Hamas attack, resulting in around 1,200 deaths, including 33 Americans. The Israeli man was held captive in Kibbutz Beeri for around 8 months before he was murdered at the same location. Ors wife, Yonat, is said to have been shot earlier while trying to hide during the attack on October 7. Their two kids, Noam (17) and Alma (13), who were also abducted with him, were released in November. The deaths of both parents have left their kids orphaned.

Also read: Majority of Anti-Israel protesters detained at Columbia, City College are non-students, arrests top 2000: Report

His children Alma (13) and Noam (17) who were held hostage by Hamas and released in November, are now orphans along with their older brother Yahli, the statement read further.

My sister, their mom, was murdered on October 7. The children did not know that. We thought they were together when they were kidnapped, but they were separated from the outset, the kids uncle Ahal Besorai told CNN in November.

Impending 'slaughter' in Rafah raises UN concerns

In its most aggressive offensive yet against the state of Palestine, Israel is set to launch a ground assault on the southernmost city of Rafah in a bid to unseat the Hamas. The plan has sparked global alarm, with fears that it could lead to the death of more than one million Palestinians.

Also read: Stanford University alerts FBI about disturbing photo of Hamas-clad individual amid anti-Israel protests

It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, addressed the issue at a Geneva press briefing.
The prosecution's star witness has yet to take the stand in Donald Trump's hush money trial. But jurors are already hearing Michael Cohen's words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election. Former US President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 2, 2024. Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels just days ahead of the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. (Photo by Doug Mills / POOL / AFP)(AFP)

The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his attorney, discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Trump's defense has worked to poke holes in the credibility of prosecutors' witnesses, and show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by keeping the women quiet. The defense also suggested while questioning an attorney who represented two women in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in fact, the victim of extortion.

The recording played Thursday was secretly made by Cohen shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougals story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougals story to bury it on Trumps behalf.

At one point in the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding.

Trump can be heard responding: What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

Trump suggested the payment be made with cash, prompting Cohen to object by repeatedly saying no." Trump then says check before the recording cuts off.

Prosecutors played the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district attorneys office who performed analyses on iPhones Cohen turned over to authorities during the investigation. Daus will return to the stand Friday morning, and it's not clear who will follow him.

Jurors also heard more than six hours of crucial testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer  the tabloid that bought and buried negative stories in an industry practice known as catch-and-kill. Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump winning the 2016 election.

What have we done? Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became clear that Trump was going to win. Oh my god, the tabloid editor responded.

There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way  strike that  our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Davidson told jurors.

Trumps lawyers sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential harm of Davidsons testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump  only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him, Davidson said.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from things like invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organization records when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.
Police on Friday moved in to clear an encampment at New York University at the request of school officials, a move that follows weeks of pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses nationwide that have resulted in nearly 2,200 arrests with police. New York City police also moved in to clear an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village on Friday.(AP )

Law enforcement sources said that the NYPD detained 13 protestors while issuing them orders to leave the camp on the campus in lower Manhattan.

New York City police also moved in to clear an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village on Friday. Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted on X that The New School has requested our assistance to disperse the illegal encampments inside their university center building and residence hall.

Video posted by Daughtry showed dozens of helmeted officers massed outside the school on lower Fifth Avenue. No details on arrests at either NYU or The New School were immediately released. Messages seeking comment were sent to spokespeople for both schools.

Arrests in Columbia University

Earlier in the week, more than 100 people were taken into custody during a crackdown at Columbia University, where the protests and encampments over the Israel-Hamas war began.

One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia's Hamilton Hall while clearing out protesters camped inside Tuesday, authorities said. No one was injured, the NYPD said Thursday. He was trying to use the flashlight attached to his gun at the time and instead fired a single round that struck a frame on the wall.

There were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity, officials said. Body camera footage shows when the officers gun went off, but the district attorneys office is conducting a review, a standard practice.

A tally by The Associated Press recorded at least 56 incidents of arrests at 43 different U.S. colleges or universities since April 18. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

Early Thursday, officers surged against a crowd of demonstrators at University of California, Los Angeles, ultimately taking at least 200 protesters into custody after hundreds defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds. Police tore apart a fortified encampments barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.

Like at UCLA, tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across other campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers  some of whom are Jewish  call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

Biden decries disorder amid ongoing protests

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.

The demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7 and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.

On April 18, the NYPD cleared Columbia's initial encampment. The demonstrators set up new tents and defied threats of suspension, and escalated their actions early Tuesday by occupying Hamilton Hall, an administration building that was similarly seized in 1968 by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.

Roughly 20 hours later, officers stormed the hall. Video showed police with zip ties and riot shields streaming through a second-floor window. Police had said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance.

The officer's gun went off at 9:38 p.m., the NYPD said, about 10 minutes after police started pouring into Hamilton Hall. The department did not name the officer, whose actions were first reported by news outlet The City on Thursday.

The confrontations at UCLA also played out over several days this week. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told alumni on a call Thursday afternoon that the trouble started after a permitted pro-Israel rally was held on campus Sunday and fights broke out and live mice were tossed into the pro-Palestinian encampment later that day.

In the following days, administrators tried to find a peaceful solution with members of the encampment and expected things to remain stable, Block said.

That changed late Tuesday, he said, when counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. Campus administrators and police did not intervene or call for backup for hours. No one was arrested that night, but at least 15 protesters were injured. The delayed response drew criticism from political leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and officials pledged an independent review.

By Wednesday, the encampment had become much more of a bunker and there was no other solution but to have police dismantle it, Block said.

The hourslong standoff went into Thursday morning as officers warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd  at the time more than 1,000 strong inside the encampment as well as outside of it  did not disperse. Hundreds left voluntarily, while another 200-plus remained and were ultimately taken into custody.

Meanwhile, protest encampments at other schools across the U.S. have been cleared by police  resulting in more arrests  or closed voluntarily. But University of Minnesota officials reached an agreement with protesters not to disrupt commencements, and similar compromises have been made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, Rutgers University in New Jersey and Brown University in Rhode Island. Others have taken steps to hire extra security.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday accused BF Borgers, the independent accounting firm for Trump Media & Technology Group, of conducting a sham audit mill and of committing extensive fraud. SEC charged auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditors owner were charged with massive fraud for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. (AP )

According to the federal regulator, the auditing firm and its owner has been charged for accounting work that impacted over 1,500 SEC filings between January 2021 and June 2023 due to the firm's deliberate and systemic failures.

The Lakewood, Colorado-based auditor, was accused of lying to clients about the compliance of its work with PCAOB standards and of and "fabricating" audit documents. According to the SEC, it fabricated audit documents to give the perception that the work was in accordance with those regulations, and made false claims in audit reports cited in the SEC filings of over 500 public companies that the firm's audits adhered to those requirements.

Without acknowledging or disputing the accusations, the auditor, BF Borgers CPA, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to a permanent ban from practicing accounting before the SEC. They have also agreed to pay a total of $14 million in civil penalties.

In a press release, Gurbir Grewal, Director of SEC Enforcement Division, said: Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets.

As a result of their fraudulent conduct, they not only put investors and markets at risk by causing public companies to incorporate noncompliant audits and reviews into more than 1,500 filings with the Commission, but also undermined trust and confidence in our markets, he added.

Also Read: Donald Trump is more vocal on social media than in court, here's proof

Trump Media reacts as its stock price plummets

The SEC informed corporations in a separate statement on Friday that public companies that employed BF Borgers will have to locate new accounting firms.

Shortly after trading started on Friday, the share price of Trump Media, the company that owns the Truth Social app, fell by 9 percent.

In line with today's SEC ruling, Trump Media revealed its plans to do so.

Speaking to CNN, Trump Media spokesperson Shannon Devine said: Trump Media looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with todays SEC order."

Trump Media registered as an accounting firm before the social media giant went public in March, according to documents. Trump Media's audit committee accepted the appointment of Borgers as the public firm's accounting firm later in March.

The shocking SEC move raised concerns about the financial information submitted in several reports that were released by the firms Borgers audited, including Trump Media, whose primary shareholder is former President Donald Trump.
After spending a day in court for a hush money trial, Queens native Donald Trump was greeted with cheers as he delivered some pizzas to New York City firefighters on Thursday. Trump delivered pizza to a firehouse after a court appearance in his hush money trial, which started with a hearing where prosecutors argued that Judge Juan Merchan should find Trump in criminal contempt again for violating a gag order. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images))

The former president arrived at Midtown with two Xenos Pizza boxes in hand after his campaign distributed 10 boxes of different pizzas to the hungry first responders.

Trump met with the firefighters and posed for photos during his 10 minute stop. The presumptive Republican nominee for president also signed a daybook and wrote: I love you all  special people.

Here's what went wrong in Trump's case

While firefighters described Trump as a nice guy and very personable, the GOP leader came under fire for referring to FDNY as NYFD.

Trump received a fact-check after he botched the Fire Department of New York's acronym in social media posts on Thursday.

A true honor to visit the NYFD this evening in Manhattan..., wrote Trump while sharing a video of his meeting with "FDNY" workers on Truth Social Platform.

Trump complimented the FDNY for being "so respectful", but in a different post that showed him signing a book at the Midtown firehouse, which is situated closer to Trump Tower, he once again referred to the FDNY as the "NYFD."

It is not just Trump who has used the "NYFD" acronym, his son, Eric Trump, committed the same blunder in 2018 while thanking the "amazing men and women of the NYFD for dousing the massive blaze that broke out in a residential flat in Trump Tower.

Also Read: Donald Trump opens up about his plans if he loses 2024 White House race to Biden: 'If we don't win'

Trump faces backlash: Guy loves the firemen so much

Former president Trump, who allegedly once promised food for everyone after departing a Miami eatery, was mockingly dubbed as a "real NYC 'Man of the People'" over wrong acronym.

Taking a dig at Trump, Editor-in-Chief of MeidasTouch.com Ron Filipkowski wrote on X: "The real NYC Man of the People doesnt know its FDNY despite spending his entire life in the city."

"I'm not from NYC like Trump, but I always thought it was FDNY," he said in another post.

Responding to Filipkowski's post, one X user wrote: At the same time NYC firefighters were putting out the flames of the WTC, Donald Trump was on TV bragging that his building was now the highest in Manhattan. He doesnt give a rip about them. I dont understand why all these people he insults love him so much. A bizarre cult.

"Dont worry. Hell make up some reason why to him its always NYFD," another user quipped.

"Guy loves the firemen so much, he gets the agency acronym wrong. Amazing," third user wrote, while the fourth added, It IS FDNY! For a man born and raised in NYC, that is embarrassing!
Amid the ongoing demonstrations in campuses across the United States, Andrew Dudum, the CEO of a hair loss company, followed in the footsteps of Shiraz University in Iran, which has offered free tuition to US students expelled for participating in anti-Israel protests. Extending his support to the student protestors, Andrew Dudum, the Palestinian-American CEO, wrote on Wednesday, "Moral courage > College degree".(HIMS)

Extending his support to the student protestors, the Palestinian-American CEO wrote on Wednesday, "Moral courage > College degree".

"If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going," he continued, stressing that "its working".

He further motivated the protestors by saying that several companies and their CEOs are "eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline."

Dudum didn't stop there as he went on to share a link of his hair loss company for those who want to apply for a job at an online pharmacy that offers products for anxiety, erectile dysfunction and skincare.

Andrew Dudum faces backlash

Critics attacked him as soon as they saw his tweet, declaring that they would be canceling their HIMS subscriptions and urging others to follow suit.

Translation: $HIMS hires antisemites. If there was ever a sell signal, this is it, one X user replied.

If you support Israel, cancel your HIMS subscription s immediately. You can get similar products elsewhere for cheaper anyway, wrote conservative writer Ben Domenech.

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, also chimed in, saying that Real moral courage doesn't involve joining a mindless mob, chanting anti-US and other woke Pablum, following instructions not to debate or discuss your positions at all yet being indignantly righteous, while large numbers in the mob chant for violence and block Jewish students.

Several other users shared screenshots of their membership cancellations, with one X user noting that Your CEO supports Hamas.

Just sold all my HIMS@AndrewDudum. Wearing the Israel or Palestine jersey is not relevant to me but a CEO hiring protestors and wearing a particular jersey is a tone deaf loss of focus. There is no need for a moral position - thats not what the board or shareholders hired you for, Lucas From IntraAlpha.com commented.

Who is Andrew Dudum?

According to Andrew Dudum, his family resides in in Gaza and the West Bank. He founded his hair loss company, HIMS, in 2017.

In a blog post in November, Dudum called for a ceasefire amid the ongoing war and slammed the companies who were still backing Israel amid the killing of innocent Palestinians. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

In a post on Medium, American-Palestinian identified as a "father whose children are both the descendants of Holocaust survivors from Poland and Palestinian refugees who fled the Nakba in 1948".

Dudum, who was born and raised in San Francisco, was expelled from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

Over 2,000 people have been arrested across college campuses amid the ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations. US Police have even used riot gear and flash-bang tolls to remove students from tent encampments and occupied buildings.
Canadian police on Friday charged three people linked to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June 2023, a source directly familiar with the matter said. What led to Canada's arrests over killing of Sikh separatist?

The following is a timeline of key events leading up to the arrests in a killing that has frayed relations between Canada and India.

June 18, 2023: Nijjar, 45, is shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. He was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India.

Sept. 1, 2023: A Canadian trade official says Canada paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with India, an unexpected move that came about three months after both countries said they planned to seal an initial pact this year.

Sept. 10, 2023: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveys strong concerns about Sikh separatist protests in Canada to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of a G20 summit in New Delhi.

Sept. 18, 2023: Trudeau tells parliament that Canada was "actively pursuing credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar.

Sept. 19, 2023: India dismisses Trudeau's assertion as "absurd". Each country expels a diplomat in tit-for-tat moves, with Canada throwing out India's top intelligence officer in the country while India expelled his Canadian counterpart.

Sept. 22, 2023: India suspends issuing new visas for Canadians and asks Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in India. India resumes issuing visas two months later.

Oct. 29, 2023: Tens of thousands of Sikhs turn out in Surrey, British Columbia, at the same gurdwara where Nijjar was killed to vote in an unofficial referendum on the creation of an independent Sikh state.

Nov. 21, 2024: India's anti-terror agency files a case against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist, stating that he warned Air India passengers in video messages shared on social media that their lives were in danger.

Nov. 22, 2024: A senior Biden administration official says U.S. authorities thwarted a plot to kill Pannun in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the government in New Delhi was involved.

Feb. 5, 2024: India's High Commissioner says in an interview with Canada's Globe & Mail newspaper that India will not provide information to Canadian investigators over Nijjar's murder until Canada shares evidence.

April 30, 2024: The White House describes as a serious matter a Washington Post report that an officer in India's intelligence service was directly involved in both Nijjar's killing and the foiled plot to kill Pannun in the U.S.

India's foreign ministry said the report contained "unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations."

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he's not "ruling out" sending troops into Ukraine if Russian forces break through the front lines or if officials in Kyiv request assistance, saying the security of Europe is at stake.

"If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today, we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question," the French leader said in an interview published Thursday in the Economist.

Macron was asked in the interview about comments he made earlier this year about the possibility of Western troops being deployed in Ukraine.

"Absolutely. As I said, I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," he said.

Macron said Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression has destabilized the region and his mounting threats pose an existential threat to Europe.

"I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine," Macron said.

"If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe," he told the outlet. "Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighbouring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?"
A Utah woman who backed out of a suicide pact with her friend is now accused in her slaying after police allege she fatally shot the victim in the head.

Heavenly Faith Garfield, 21, has been charged with murder and felony discharge of a firearm in connection with the death of the unidentified victim, also 21, according to authorities.

It's unclear if Garfield entered a plea to the charges or retained an attorney to comment on her behalf.

Garfield's father called police to report his daughter allegedly shot and killed her friend as part of a suicide pact at their Saratoga Springs, Utah, home Tuesday, the affidavit stated, according to KUTV-TV.

The victim was pronounced dead on the scene.

Several of Garfield's family members corroborated the pact between the friends was made weeks before the alleged killing.

A friend of the victim provided police with text messages indicating she "intended on committing suicide, but was too scared to kill herself," according to the affidavit, KSL-TV reported. The victim planned to "commit suicide with her friend, whom he identified as Heavenly Faith, and that one of them would kill the other, and then kill themselves."

Garfield is being held without bail.
The popular Australian children's show Bluey's missing episode will now be available on its official YouTube channel.

The seven-minute episode 'Dad Baby' is the only installment of the series not available on Disney+.

Creator Joe Brumm discussed the show's themes in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, saying, "You've gotta be really careful in preschool. There are two categories [of things that won't fly]."

He said that there are things that are going to get a kid hurt, and he rarely has an argument for that. He added that the other is more about taste and what is appropriate and offensive.

The showrunner said that he would have to compromise and that ideas would "get dulled down," but he would not back down if he felt a joke was "too funny" to be changed. That was the case for 'Dad Baby,' which "doesn't get shown in America.

"But what are you going to do, not make 'Dad Baby'? I love it," Brumm said.

Bluey's third season ended on April 14 with the emotional 28-minute 'The Sign.' The "super-sized" episode received much praise on social media, with viewers of all ages gushing about how moving it was.

In 'The Sign,' Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli navigate moving to a new city while celebrating Bandit's brother's wedding, a move that Bluey "is not happy about."

Dave McCormack, who voices Bandit, told the LA Times that when it comes to the episode's themes, everyone is trying to make the best choice at that moment, and mistakes are inevitable.

Producer Sam Moor said that fans of the Daytime Emmy-winning series may expect more Bluey on the horizon, although a fourth season has not yet been approved.

Moor told the BBC that it is not yet the end for Bluey. He said they have many more surprises in store for the fans and are thinking about what will be next.
The New York Police Department on Friday said they will begin moving in to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment at New York University after school officials asked them for assistance.

"NYU has requested our assistance to disperse the illegal encampment on their property. As per their request, we are on site and our officers will be assisting with the unparalleled professionalism embodied by our police officers,' NYPD Commissioner, Operations, Kaz Daughtery posted on the social media site X.

#HAPPENINGNOW: @NYU has requested our assistance to disperse the illegal encampment on their property. As per their request, we are on site and our officers will be assisting with the unparalleled professionalism embodied by our police officers.@NYPDnews @NYPDChiefPatrol pic.twitter.com/scHKsot6On  NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024

The encampment at NYU in Manhattan is one of among dozens set up at colleges across the country in solidarity with pro-Palestinian protests that began at Columbia College in New York City last month.

On Tuesday night, the NYPD dismantled the encampment at Columbia after protesters took over Hamilton Hall, and school officials asked them to intervene.

According to a count by the Associated Press, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the country in connection to the demonstrations.



The encampment on UCLA's campus was dismantled early Thursday morning, leaving behind graffiti covered walls and the remnants of barricades. UCLA's academic worker's union is considering a strike in solidarity with the protesters, which if enacted would bring grading for all students on campus to a halt. The union will vote on the strike on Monday.
An investigation is underway after one person was killed and another was injured in an explosion at a home in New Jersey Thursday evening.

The explosion occurred at a residence on Continental Court in South River at around 7 p.m. Thursday, according to the South River Police Department.

Officers arrived at the scene and found two male victims. Kevin Gilbert, 62, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other victim was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for treatment, police said.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and South River Police Chief Mark Tinitigan said an investigation into the cause of the explosion is "active and continuing."

Police are asking anyone with information about the explosion to come forward or submit an anonymous tip.

-With reporting from TMX
The U.S. military believed it killed a top al-Qaida official in an airstrike in Syria in May 2023, but an investigation determined that a civilian was killed in the attack.

U.S. Central Command released a statement on Thursday where it said the investigation concluded that "U.S. forces misidentified the intended al-Qaida target and that a civilian, Mr. Lufti Hasan Masto, was struck and killed instead."

The probe confirmed earlier reports from family members and residents that the May 3 drone strike had killed a civilian.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in the country, said the airstrike at a chicken farm near the town of Harem killed one person, the Associated Press reported.

Later, relatives and neighbors told the AP that the person killed was a farmer and had no connection to the terrorist group.

Mohamed Masto called allegations that his 60-year-old brother was a part of al-Qaida "absolute lies," adding that the killing was an "injustice and an aggression."

He said his sibling was tending his sheep when he was killed.

Central Command, which oversees all military operations in the Middle East, began an investigation into the airstrike in June 2023. It concluded in November.

Investigators on the team visited sites in the U.S., Iraq, and Jordan, and interviewed more than 40 witnesses, Central Command said.

It "also sought information from non-governmental organizations. The team reviewed classified and unclassified information held by DoD and other federal agencies," the statement said.

Saying it couldn't release more findings because they contained classified information, Central Command said the "investigation concluded the strike was conducted in compliance with the law of armed conflict as well as Department of Defense and CENTCOM policies."

"However, the investigation revealed several issues that could be improved. We are committed to learning from this incident and improving our targeting processes to mitigate potential civilian harm," it added.
Turkey has ceased all trade with Israel in response to the offensive in Gaza, highlighting the "worsening humanitarian tragedy" in the strip.

The Turkish Trade Ministry states that these measures will remain in effect until Israel permits an "uninterrupted and sufficient flow" of aid into Gaza.

Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, has accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of behaving like a "dictator."

.@RTErdogan is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports. This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements. I have instructed the Director General of the    Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) May 2, 2024

Katz added that he has further directed the foreign ministry to seek alternative trade options with Turkey, prioritizing local production and imports from other countries.

"Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy," he continued.

Meanwhile, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat criticized Israel's "uncompromising attitude" towards a ceasefire and voiced concern over dire humanitarian conditions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"Turkey has suspended all exports and imports with Israel until a permanent ceasefire is established and aid into Gaza is allowed without any interruption," announced Bolat.

President Erdogan has intensified his criticism of Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7th.

He has frequently criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likening him to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin, and labeling him "the butcher of Gaza."

The Turkish leader has been under increasing domestic political pressure for months from opponents and allies to take action against Israel.

Turkey has limited exports of 54 products to Israel, ranging from iron and steel to jet fuel, pesticides, and construction equipment; however, the trade ministry in Ankara revealed that the action is now being extended to all exports and imports, according to the BBC.

In 2023, Israel was Turkey's 13th largest export market, receiving 2.1% of Turkish exports, while Turkey was Israel's fifth largest source of imports.

Trade between the two countries was worth almost $7bn (5.6bn) last year.
A judge barred former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin from his home after his estranged wife accused him of "aggressive and unsettling" behavior, including following her around the house and into the bedroom, according to a report.

Glenna Bevin filed a motion last week asking the judge overseeing their divorce case to restrict her husband's access to their home in Anchorage without written permission from her and to limit conversations with him through a parenting application on a smartphone, Louisville Public Media reported.

In an affidavit filed with the motion, Glenna Bevin claimed the former Republican governor enters the home and hangs around for hours despite her requests that he leave, saying his visits are "disruptive to the household" where she lives with their two children.

He remains in the home in Anchorage, a suburb of Louisville, even after she goes to bed.

She said her husband tries to strike up conversations about their divorce.

When she refuses, "he follows me from room to room and even into the bathroom or my bedroom, disrespecting my privacy; to me his conduct is aggressive and unsettling."

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Angela Johnson gave Matt Bevin a week to remove his belongings from the home.

After that, he will need to get explicit permission from his wife or the court to reenter the home.

The two must also communicate solely through the parenting app.

"[Matt Bevin] seems to be trying to keep the parties' relationship and maintaining a 'business as usual' environment," Johnson wrote in her order. "However, the truth of the matter is that the parties are getting a divorce. Normalcy and the 'business as usual' environment are gone."

Matt Bevin, who served one term after being elected in 2015, lives in another home the couple owns.

Jesse Mudd, Matt Bevin's lawyer, told Louisville Public Media last week that his client "vehemently denies" the allegations in the affidavit.

He said Matt Bevin "is at a loss" why she would want him barred from the home.
Authorities in Oregon are investigating a possible arson after 15 Portland Police Department vehicles were found burning early Thursday.

Portland Police said they responded to the Portland Police Training Division on 14900 block of Northeast Airport Way to assist Portland Fire and Rescue firefighters responding to a reported fire. Officers arrived to find at least 15 vehicles burning inside a fenced training area.

"The building was undamaged, and no injuries were reported," police said. The fires were extinguished.

The Portland Fire Investigations Unit, which includes fire investigators from Portland Fire and Rescue who are sworn law enforcement officers as well as a Portland Police detective, responded to the scene to investigate possible arson.

Police are asking anyone with information to come forward or submit an anonymous tip.

--with reporting by TMX
A man was stopped at Miami International Airport transporting snakes in an unusual place  his pants, authorities announced.

A camouflage "bag of snakes" was discovered in the man's trousers in the security line Tuesday as the unidentified would-be passenger was heading to an airport gate to board an international flight, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.

A typical body scan at a security checkpoint highlighted a mysterious irregularity, officials explained.

"It showed that there was an anomaly in the groin area and marks it for a pat-down. When the passenger came through they said that they needed to do a pat-down and that's when he admitted that there were snakes in his pants," a TSA spokesperson told The Independent.

Officers at @iflymia detected this bag of snakes hidden in a passengers pants at a checkpoint on Fri, April 26. @TSA called our @CBPSoutheast and Miami-Dade Police partners in to assist, and the snakes were turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. pic.twitter.com/CggJob8IT8  TSA_Gulf (@TSA_Gulf) April 30, 2024

The snakes were turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They weren't identified.

It was not immediately revealed what happened to the man with the snakes, though law enforcement was "contacted," said the TSA spokesperson.

Social media wags were in hysterics, and some couldn't help mentioning the 2006 fan favorite movie "Snakes on a Plane!"
The family of a South Carolina woman said they aren't buying her pastor husband's claims she killed herself after he announced her death during a church sermon.

Michael Francis said his 30-year-old daughter Mica Miller was found over the weekend in Lumberton, North Carolina, "with a fatal gunshot wound." A no contact order and a divorce was filed just days before this tragedy, according to a Facebook post Tuesday. "We are devastated."

While preaching at Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, earlier this week, Mica's husband, Pastor John-Paul Miller, announced her death to the congregation.

He prefaced the news by asking churchgoers to "leave church quietly" and not "talk about the announcement."

"I got a call late last night," Miller said, according to sermon video. "My wife has passed. Yeah, it was self induced."

"I'm just kind of going on adrenaline, right now. So, y'all pray for me and my kids and everybody. And she wasn't well, mentally. She needed medicine that was hard to get to her. And so I'm sure there'll be more details to come. But just keep our family in your prayers," said Miller.

"I'm taking a bit of a break and I don't want to have to worry about the church," he added.

The Robeson County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation into Mica's death, according to WPDE-TV.

"This has to be at least looked into deeply. There's got to be some accountability here," Mica's friend, Kenn Young pleaded, the station reported. "Because yeah, a tragic life was lost, and it's not just as simple as mental health issues."

Miller called his late, estranged wife "probably the greatest wife anyone could ask for."

"She was incredibly affirming. We spent every night together for hours just talking and talking and talking," he said, according to WPDE.

"She had struggled with suicide before. Each time we would help her through it and take her to the doctor, and we got through it and everything was fine," explained Miller. "She even gave a few testimonies here at church that we have on video. She battled suicide but God took care of her and got her through it."

On Facebook, Mica's sister, Sierra Francis, begged the public to "not listen to false stories being shared about her."

"Mica was a God-fearing, joyful, loving woman who did not deserve the abuse she endured," Francis wrote, without elaborating on the abuse. "If you hear anything about this from anyone other than her family please question it, reach out to her siblings or parents."
Two Hyatt-branded hotels set to debut in Madinah as Hyatt House Madinah KEC and Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into management agreements with Knowledge Economic City (KEC) for two new Hyatt-branded hotels, Hyatt House Madinah KEC and Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC. Set to open in a highly anticipated development, Knowledge Economic City in Madinah, the properties will add a combined 576 keys to Hyatt's portfolio in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Further signaling Hyatt's commitment to the strategic growth of its portfolio in key markets that matter to guests and owners, Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC will mark the debut of the lifestyle brand, Hyatt Centric, in the Kingdom.

As the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by population, which is expected to double in the next twenty years, Madinah plays a significant role in Saudi's Vision 2030 and the growing tourism sector in the country. The location of the KEC development project is unique in its direct connection with the five most important roads in Madinah and marks the KEC company as one of the leading developers in Saudi Arabia. KEC is set to develop a world-class destination that will offer residents and visitors of Madinah a lifestyle with integrated service, using technology and knowledge to link together the development's various components.

Hyatt House Madinah KEC will include 446 residentially-styled rooms, ensuring comfortable accommodation for all types of travelers looking for a home away from home. Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC will feature 130 modern rooms and suites with art and styling elements that celebrate the character of Madinah. The lifestyle hotel will seamlessly blend functionality with boutique charm, providing a local home-base for savvy travelers returning from city exploration. Once operational, each property will participate in World of Hyatt, the industry's fastest growing loyalty program, that offers over 44 million members the ability to earn a variety of benefits such as room upgrades, free nights, late checkout, bonus points and more.

The two Hyatt-branded properties will be part of Al Aliyah, the first phase of the newly developed city. Strategically located within the boundaries of the Madinah Sanctuary and the urban range of Madinah, the KEC project is conveniently situated on both sides of the main road linking the Prophet's Mosque and Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport. Spanning an area of approximately 2.6 square miles (6.8 million square meters), KEC's unique location places it in direct connection with the five most important roads in Madinah. The development also connects to the Al Haramain High-Speed Railway, the milestone passenger railway serving the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Madinah.

For information on the Hyatt brand portfolio, please visit www.hyatt.com.

For information on Knowledge Economic city, please visit www.madinahkec.com.

The term "Hyatt" is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

Hotel website
Blending natural beauty with contemporary Chinese aesthetics, the spiritual hideaway invites guests to enjoy elevated experiences.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today the opening of Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing, the first Hyatt-branded hotel in the charming city of Yixing and the latest addition to The Unbound Collection by Hyatt portfolio. Located in the heart of the Yangxian Ecotourism Resort in Yixing, this enchanting sanctuary marks a significant milestone in The Unbound Collection by Hyatt's brand expansion, as the eighth property to open in Greater China. Designed for those who are seeking an escape from the fast-paced urban life, this 102-room hotel is a one-of-a-kind luxurious retreat, offering guests a unique blend of natural wonders and cultural richness nestled where the majestic Taihu Lake begins.

Yixing is located in the south of the Yangtze River, where the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui meet. In addition to its extraordinary natural landscapes and scenery, Yixing is known for its unique geographical location and long-standing heritage that has been present for over a thousand years. Renowned for its purple sand ceramics, it is known within the region as the "pottery capital," as well as the birthplace of calligraphy, painting and academics. Situated within the Yangxian Ecotourism Resort, which is built on a slope among 185,000 acres of bamboo forest and 43,000 acres of tea plantations, the hotel is surrounded by several historical landmarks such as the Bamboo Sea View Area, Zhanggong Cave, and the Taozu Holy Land, creating a tranquil destination to recharge and revitalize.

The architectural and interior design of Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing is a tribute to the serene elegance of the Jiangnan area's traditional aesthetics, seamlessly integrated with modern design philosophies. The hotel's design ethos respects the local heritage while embracing contemporary comfort, offering guests a sanctuary where the past and present coexist in harmony. Every element, from the minimalist grace of the public spaces to the tranquil retreats of the guestrooms and suites, is designed to enhance the interaction between guests and the serene Jiangnan landscape, providing a multi-sensory experience that is both rejuvenating and inspiring.

Guestrooms

Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing features 102 comfortable and modern Chinese-style rooms, including 17 suites, which combine elegant and simple design concepts in the traditional Jiangnan design and architecture. Each guestroom offers a dedicated north and south double courtyard or private balcony, allowing guests to lose themselves in the tranquil beauty of Jiangnan landscapes. French casements are specially designed in each room to give full exposure to the aesthetic application of light and shadow, creating a pleasant atmosphere. All rooms are equipped with luxurious bedding, modern amenities, and separate rain showers and bathtubs, allowing guests to have a luxuriously comfortable stay.

Culinary experiences

Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing not only provides guests a place to commune with nature, but also invites them to enjoy the art of Jiangnan cuisine among the mountains and rivers. JUNIAN, an all-day Chinese restaurant, exquisitely blends local seasonal ingredients with modern culinary styles. The elegant dining environment echoes classic Jiangnan culture from the cutlery to the furniture. Located on the ground floor of the hotel, the Lobby Lounge offers a relaxing atmosphere and a variety of dining options, while a specially designed afternoon tea service brings guests a wide selection of local varieties. Guests can enjoy a cup of coffee or tea at any time of day or opt for a delicious dish from the a la carte menu, making the lounge an ideal place to wind down. With its open-concept design and relaxed atmosphere, The Brook bar offers a wide range of beverages and Chinese and Western style snacks, enjoyed either indoors against a relaxing soundtrack, or outdoors among the hotel's surrounding natural beauty.

Meetings and Events

With a commitment to excellence and innovation, Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing provides a diverse range of event spaces that embody the story-worthy sophistication of Jiangnan. From the expansive elegance of the 6,458-square-foot (600-square-meter) pillarless ballroom to the intimate charm of three salon-style meeting rooms and two chamber meeting rooms, each space is equipped with cutting-edge technology and backed by a professional events team to ensure that every meeting, celebration, or gathering is an unforgettable experience. The outdoor terrace and lawns offer a canvas for creativity, allowing guests to craft events that blend the beauty of Jiangnan's natural landscape with the unparalleled service for which The Unbound Collection by Hyatt brand is known.

Wellbeing and Recreation

Recognizing the importance of wellness experiences in today's world, Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing offers an array of facilities designed to nurture the mind, body and soul. The 24-hour state-of-the-art fitness center, the serene indoor heated swimming pool, and dedicated Camp Hyatt kids club offers guests and their families opportunities for rejuvenation and discovery, ensuring each stay is as restorative as it is memorable.

World of Hyatt Gives Members More Reasons to Stay Somewhere New

In celebration of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt brand's continued growth in Asia, World of Hyatt is providing members with even more ways to be rewarded by offering members the opportunity to earn 500 Bonus Points for qualifying nights at Yada Xishan Hotel Yixing from May 1 to July 31, 2024, part of World of Hyatt's new hotel member offer. Additional participating hotels and their offer stay periods can be found at worldofhyatt.com/newhotelbonus. No registration is required, and members can earn on top of other offers.

Guided by its purpose of care, Hyatt's multi-layered Global Care & Cleanliness Commitment further enhances its operational guidance and resources around colleague and guest safety and peace of mind. More information on Hyatt's commitment can be found here: hyatt.com/care-and-cleanliness.

For more information, please visit www.yadaxishanhotelyixing.com.

The term "Hyatt" is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and / or one or more of its affiliates.

Hotel website
Dream Downtown, a lifestyle hotel with a talented staff that knows the ins and outs of New York City, announces the appointment of Sean Olmstead as the new General Manager. With over 24 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Olmstead brings a wealth of knowledge from his previous roles to Dream, focusing on upholding the hotel's reputation as a premier lifestyle brand, maximizing revenue, and overseeing day-to-day operations. From a young age, Olmstead was passionate about service and hospitality, leading with positivity and looking forward to learning and collaborating with others.

Olmstead began his career in the industry as a pot washer and a cook, working his way into leadership roles at leading lifestyle hotels and brands. In 2000, he began working as the Executive Chef at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco, where he quickly moved into the role of Director of Food and Beverage. There, he managed 150 staff members and became the recipient of awards such as the "Team of the Century Award" and the "Food & Beverage Innovation Award" during the IHG F&B Summit. Following, Olmstead then transitioned into the Regional Director of Food & Beverage for IHG before moving into roles as Executive Assistant Manager and Hotel Manager at various InterContinental properties. Prior to his current role, he was the Vice President and Director of Operations for PUBLIC, an Ian Schrager Hotel, and the General Manager at L'Auberge de Sedona & Orchards Inn and the Standard High Line, where he remained for three years. When he is not working, Olmstead enjoys spending time with his three children, cooking, and listening to music.
CHICAGO  AHLA Foundation hosted nearly 1,000 attendees from across the hotel industry at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place for the annual ForWard conference this week. Over three days, industry leaders gathered to share knowledge and hear from dynamic speakers focused on celebrating, championing, and creating community for women in hospitality.

This years conference theme, Right the Narrative, centered on the power of storytelling and the importance of amplifying the stories and voices of women in the hotel industry. Keynote speakers during the two-day conference included Shola Richards, founder & CEO of Go Together Global and best-selling author; stand-up comedian, actress, and writer Zainab Johnson; and author Liz Plank, CEO of Liz Plank Productions. The program also featured industry leaders including Julienne Smith, Chief Development Officer at IHG and Chair of the AHLA Foundation Board of Trustees; Kevin Jacobs, Chief Financial Officer and President of Global Development at Hilton and Chairman of AHLAs Board of Directors; and Mark Hoplamazian, President and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

AHLA Foundation hosted breakout sessions with topics ranging from the unhustle mindset to the habits of transformational leaders. On the main stage, the event covered topics such as global trends in the hotel industry and the power of advocacy, and heard from next-gen leaders, industry disruptors, leading experts, and more.

The reality is, when women in our industry advance, the industry as a whole benefits. This is an event like no other  the energy and excitement are contagious  and the rapid growth of the ForWard initiative demonstrates the need for spaces that champion and elevate women. AHLA Foundation president Anna Blue

During the conference, the Foundation also announced the launch of its Move Hospitality ForWard campaign. Proceeds from this six-week giving campaign will support the ForWard initiative, which represents an industry-wide effort to support the amplification and advancement of women in the hotel industry through curated programs and events like the annual ForWard conference. To support the campaign, donate here.

About the AHLA Foundation

The AHLA Foundation, the charitable arm of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, works to support the hotel and lodging industry's greatest asset our people. By connecting employees, employers, and their communities, we seek to continuously nurture a culture of professional growth and belonging. When the people who work in our industry thrive, the industry thrives along with them. The Foundation is funded by grants and charitable contributions from generous individuals and organizations who want to support individuals seeking opportunities to thrive in the hotel and lodging industry. Learn more at www.ahlafoundation.org.

Rahkendra Ice

AHLA Foundation
WASHINGTON - A severe and troubling scenario for travelers could play out at airports this summer travel season if Congress enacts an amendment by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and John Kennedy (R-LA) to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill.

According to a U.S. Travel Association analysis, the proposed amendment could result in travelers waiting an additional 120 million hours in TSA lines each year by significantly slowing both TSA PreCheck and standard screening lanes. Further, the senators proposal threatens national security by effectively banning TSAs use of facial recognition technology for non-PreCheck passengerswhich mal-intentioned individuals could exploit.

The proposed amendment to FAA reauthorization is dangerous, costly and threatens to create chaos at Americas airports. Eliminating the use of biometricssuch as facial scanswill set America back by decades and only misinformed members of Congress are to blame. Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association

The Merkley/Kennedy Amendment would enforce a complete and total ban on TSAs use of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) until TSA complies with costly and unworkable requirements, leading to an intense period of expected travel chaos as TSA retrains staff, removes and redeploys technology, and reconfigures screening lanesall at the expense of aviation security.

The proposal would also ban the use of FRT for non-trusted travelers and stop expansion of FRT matching technology to new airports until May 2027, while stopping expansion and enrollment in TSA PreCheck Touchless Identity Solution beyond existing customers and six airports where it is in use today (ATL, DTW, LAX, LGA, JFK and ORD).

This proposed legislation threatens to turn Americas airports into the equivalent of college bars where fake IDs rule the day, said Freeman. TSA, to its credit, is innovating with the latest security technology and members of Congress are threatening to stand in its wayat the expense of the travel experience.

About U.S. Travel Association

U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing the $1.3 trillion travel industry, an essential contributor to our nation's economy and success. U.S. Travel produces programs and insights and advocates for policies to increase travel to and within the United States. Visit ustravel.org for information and recovery-related data.

Greg Staley

U.S. Travel Association
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

Cloudy and windy during the evening. Showers developing after midnight. Low 57F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

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Spotify cuts lyrics for 380M free users in latest blow to Songwriters

Spotify has quietly set limits on lyrics for more than 60% of its 619 million monthly active users who listen using its free tier. The streamer made no announcement of the change and has not commented on it.

Spotify is now adding monthly limit on lyrics for free accounts pic.twitter.com/mrVufudltK  Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 1, 2024

Making unlimited lyrics only available to Premium users will please the major labels who have long pushed Spotify to do more to encourage users to pay for a subscription. In recent days, free users started seeing more messages encouraging paid signup.

Licensing lyrics also comes at a price, so offering fewer on the free tier is a cost-saving move as well.

Putting lyrics behind a paywall could also be tied to upcoming changes that Spotify has said will include new tiers for music-only and audiobooks-only and a rumored super-premium tier that may include higher-quality audio and AI-powered music editing and creation tools.

Less visibilty is latest blow for songwriters

Songwriters and music publishers have long argued that Spotify does not compensate them fairly, and less visibility for songwriters on the streamer comes just days after it announced a new royalty scheme that will effecctively pay less.

Some music publishers and songrwiters are accusing Spotify of trying to radically reduce songwriter payments. By reclassifying some of its subscriptions as music and audiobook only, the streamer can pay a lower US compulsory licencing rate.

It appears Spotify has returned to attacking the very songwriters who make its business possible, says David Israelite, CEO of the National Music Publishers Association. Spotifys attempt to radically reduce songwriter payments by reclassifying their music service as an audiobook bundle is a cynical, and potentially unlawful, move that ends our period of relative peace.

As our industry partners are aware, changes in our product portfolio mean that we are paying out in different ways based on terms agreed to by both streaming services and publishers, retorted Spotify. Multiple digital service providers have long paid a lower rate for bundles versus a stand-alone music subscription, and our approach is consistent.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.

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The Retired Investor: Unions Make Headway Across Nation

The number of U.S. workers who claimed union membership increased ever so slightly last year from 14.3 million in 2022 to 14.4 million. However, as a share of the American workforce, union membership hit a new low. Today only one in 10 workers in America wear the union badge.

Back in 1983, union membership was as high as 20.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, every day we hear of some effort to unionize workers across a wide spectrum of companies and industries. Starbucks, CVS, and Amazon come to mind. In 2023, the United Auto Workers (UAW) occupied headlines for months as they negotiated new contracts with General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis  and won.

It turned out that these hard-fought labor agreements marked the biggest win for the auto unions in 40 years. This was followed by wins by UPS workers and Hollywood writers in their labor contracts. These victories on the labor front have inspired and galvanized efforts to organize across the nation. Even the live performers at Disneyland are organizing a vote to join the Actor's Equity Association.

The UAW, emboldened by their victories last year, has set its sights on the South where unions have been a non-starter historically. This region of the country has opposed unions from legal, business, political, and cultural standpoints. But that has not deterred the UAW.

Last month the first crack in that southern wall of opposition appeared when Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted to become the only non-Detroit automotive assembly plant to be unionized. This was the third time since 2014 that unions fought for the right to organize at that plant.

Also in April, the UAW reached a deal with Daimler Truck in North Carolina that averted a strike and gave workers a 25 percent increase in wages over the next four years. The agreement also included profit sharing, automatic cost-of-living increases, and equalized pay among workers at all of Daimler's North Carolina factories. Next month, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala., will be voting to unionize as well.

Governors in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are fighting back. They have been denouncing the UAW and its efforts. In most of these states, "right to work" laws do make it more difficult for unions to collect dues, but not impossible.

However, countering that pressure are the results of a Gallup Poll that indicates an overwhelming majority of Americans (7 out of 10) approve of labor unions. Another poll by the UAW last year indicated that 91 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents, and 52 percent of Republicans supported unions and their goals. And well they should, given that a study by the Center for American Progress indicated that there is a large wealth gap between workers in unions and those non-union workers across all education levels.

They found union workers make 10-15 percent more than their non-organized brethren. The median wealth of those in unions was $338,482 compared to $199,948 for nonunion workers. However, many other benefits accrue to union workers over time. Job security, defined benefit retirement plans, better health care, and even higher homeownership rates.

Unionized workers lacking a high school degree make more than three times the wealth of their nonunion peers. Those with some college education, like nurses or dental hygienists, earn 2.5 times more. Unionized teachers, college professors, journalists, and government employees also do better than their nonunionized peers.

While the overall number of union members is still tiny compared to the overall workforce, unions do tend to have an outsized influence on the fortunes of the workforce. Their battle for better pay and benefits has had a trickle-down effect. Their gains have been known to impact and influence the economic well-being of most U.S. workers over time.

Some point out that the union's success of late may have more to do with the tightness of the labor market than the prowess of unions. Companies, worried about attrition, may be more willing to negotiate rather than suffer employee departures or suffer strikes. Whatever the case, I will always be on the side of the worker and as such applaud the recent trend and hope it continues.
First Deputy Speaker of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament's Legal Policy and State Building Committee, Ali Huseynli, met with Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Kosachev, Azernews reports, citing Azertag.

During their conversation, they emphasized the significant role parliaments play in strengthening bilateral relations.

The two officials also discussed the celebrated victory of Azerbaijan in the 44-day Patriotic War and the current progress in normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia during the post-war period. They also reviewed the ongoing steps taken to ensure peace and stability in the region.

Konstantin Kosachev expressed confidence that the 6th World Intercultural Dialogue Forum held in Baku would represent a notable milestone in fostering a dialogue based on mutual respect among different peoples, thereby promoting peace and security.

Additionally, Samad Seyidov, Chairman of the International Relations and Inter-parliamentary Relations Committee of the Milli Majlis, also met with Konstantin Kosachev. They mentioned the regular meetings that take place to foster intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary cooperation. Both parties stressed the continued expansion of cooperation between the two countries in political, cultural, and humanitarian fields.

The ongoing hosting of prestigious international events by Azerbaijan reflects the country's increasing influence on a global scale. The 6th World Intercultural Dialogue Forum, held in Baku, is of considerable significance in addressing various issues of shared interest.
May 4 is Wildfire Community Preparedness Day

STOW, Mass.  Wildfire Community Preparedness Day is May 4, and Massachusetts fire service leaders are urging residents to protect their homes and neighborhoods while reducing the risk posed by wildland fires.

"Wildfire Community Preparedness Day promotes awareness of the wildland fire risk to people, property, and the environment," said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine. "We encourage everyone to take time tomorrow to defend their homes and families. Clearing flammable debris, creating an evacuation plan, and committing to outdoor fire safety can reduce the risk of a wildland fire damaging your home."

"Wildland fires aren't just a West Coast phenomenon," said Department of Conservation & Recreation Chief Fire Warden David Celino. "Massachusetts experiences more than 1,000 of these fires each year, and many of them have the potential to put residential areas at risk. Some thoughtful yard work and planning can reduce the hazard to lives and property."

Over 50 percent of Massachusetts homes are within the Wildland-Urban Interface zone, where development adjoins and mingles with the natural environment. Wildland fires in these areas can easily extend to homes, and residential fires can spark wildland fires that spread to hundreds of acres and tax regional fire resources.

So far this year, there have been about 200 wildland fires in Massachusetts. During last year's spring fire season, five homes were severely damaged or destroyed from relatively small backyard wildland fires.

Wildfire Community Preparedness Day is a chance to protect yourself and loved ones from these hazards by reducing flammable fuels from the area surrounding your house. Wildland fires most often spread to homes via small flames or embers, and clearing the home and surrounding area  also known as the Home Ignition Zone  of dead vegetation, mulch, firewood, low branches, and other fuels can reduce that risk. A manageable one-day project could include cleaning gutters and porches, removing debris from under porches and stairs, raking leaves and pine needles at least five feet from the foundation, and moving wood piles further from the structure.

Residents should also know what to do in the event that evacuation from the neighborhood becomes necessary. Pack an emergency kit with three days' worth of supplies for your family members. (You can learn more about emergency supply kits from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency). Plan two ways out of your house, and identify two alternate travel routes out of the area in case your usual route is impassable. Be sure to let family members, guests, babysitters, and others know your home escape and evacuation plans.

Finally, almost all outdoor fires start with human activity  so everyone can also play a part in reducing the occurrence of wildland fires:

Never toss cigarette butts or other smoking materials in dry vegetation, mulch, or debris

Open burning season ends on May 1, so obtain a permit before conducting any open burning prior to that date and remember that open burning is prohibited year-round in some communities

Before setting up a campfire, be sure it is permitted by checking with the local fire department, and once lit attend to them at all times

Always have a hose, bucket of water, or shovel and dirt or sand nearby to put out the fire, and be sure the fire is out cold before leaving.

Keep grills at least 10' from the house and away from low branches and shrubs

If using an ATV, dirt bike, or other off-road vehicle, be sure the spark arrestor is properly installed, as required by Massachusetts law

Don't park an ATV, dirt bike, or other off-road vehicle on or near dry vegetation, and turn the engine off when stopped for an extended period of time.

You can learn more about Wildfire Community Preparedness Day from the National Fire Protection Association, and more about wildland fire prevention from NFPA's Firewise USA program.
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Jerry Seinfelds directorial debut Unfrosted, a feature-length comedy telling the story of the birth of the Pop Tart, has been eaten for breakfast by critics.

The film, which also stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater and Bill Burr, was released on Netflix today (3 May).

It has been savaged by critics including Barry Hertz of The Daily Globe and Mail, who called the film a distressingly laugh-free affair and likened it to a long-lost Lorne Michaels-produced SNL feature from the 90s with jokes so hacky that Kenny Bania wouldnt touch em, and the pacing so slow it rivals Elaines experience enduring The English Patient.

Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times was similarly damning, going so far as to call Unfrosted one of the decades worst movies.

Roeper expressed his surprise that Seinfeld, one of the sharpest and most observant comedic minds of his generation, didnt halt production halfway through, call time of death and apologize to everyone for wasting their time.

He continued, making reference to last years Flamin' Hot film about the origin of Flamin Hot Cheetos: Unfrosted is so consistently awful it makes the aforementioned Flamin Hot seem like The Social Network. If there was a thing called the IMDB Witness Protection Program whereby you could get your name taken off the credits of a particular project, this would be that project.

open image in gallery Melissa McCarthy, Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan in Unfrosted ( Netflix )

Donald Clarke of the Irish Times concluded his two-star review by writing: Oh, well. Perhaps the best response to junk food is junk cinema.

Meanwhile Nick Schager, of theThe Daily Beast, said the film was as bad as youd expect but offered that it is at least superior to Seinfelds prior cinematic offering, 2007s animated Bee Movie.

Bee Movie, which Seinfeld wrote but didnt direct, is about a bee (voiced by Seinfeld) who falls in love with a human woman.

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Other critics were more forgiving, with The Guardians Peter Bradshaw opining: As a whole, its not exactly a masterpiece, but amiable and funny in a way thats much harder to achieve than it looks.

Ty Burr of The Washington Post awarded the film 2.5 stars out of 4, saying: Unfrosted may be the Platonic ideal of the Netflix movie: ephemeral, edible, enjoyable, forgettable.

On reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Unfrosted currently has a score of 40% from critics and 48% from audiences.

Earlier this week, The Independents Adam White argued that Seinfeld was wrong to claim that the extreme left is ruining TV comedy, writing that its not only a ludicrous statement, but ignores the fact that comedy  including his eponymous sitcom  has always navigated when a joke goes too far.
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A former actor has accused Kevin Spacey of groping him ahead of a new Channel 4 documentary investigating several claims against the Hollywood star.

Ruari Cannon, waiving his right to anonymity, claimed that the House of Cards and American Beauty actor intimately touched him without consent in 2013, when he was 21 and Spacey was 53.

Cannons accusation will be included in the forthcoming two-part documentary, Spacey Unmasked.

The allegations have been rejected by Spacey, who has also hit out at Channel 4 and production company Roast Beef over the documentary on social media.

On Thursday (2 May), the American actor posted a statement on X/Twitter, claiming that hed asked Channel 4 to give him more than seven days to respond to allegations made against me dating back 48 years.

Spacey described the claims as anonymised and non-specific, before writing off the programme as a dying networks one-sided documentary about me in their desperate attempt for ratings.

He added: Each time I have been given the time and a proper forum to defend myself, the allegations have failed under scrutiny and I have been exonerated.

After noting that he would be responding to the claims throughout the weekend, Spacey concluded his message: Channel 4 and @RoastBeefTV may find themselves speechless, but I no longer will be.

Ruari Cannon (right) is one of several men who have shared their experiences of Kevin Spacey in a new Channel 4 documentary ( Getty )

The Independent has reached out to representatives of Spacey for additional comment.

Last July, Spacey was found not guilty of sexually assaulting four men in a case held at Southwark Crown Court.

Each of Spaceys four accusers gave evidence in the trial, describing him as a vile sexual predator, slippery and atrocious, despicable, disgusting.

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In response, the two-time Oscar-winner described the allegations against him as madness and a stab in the back. He denied seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The jury acquitted Spacey of all charges.

Prior to this, in 2022, a jury also dismissed claims brought against Spacey by Rent star Anthony Rapp, who was the first man to make public allegations against him in 2017.

Cannon is one of several men who have shared their experiences of Spacey in the documentary, with their testimonies spanning from the 1970s to the 2010s, in both the UK and the US.

The men were mostly young actors, students, or theatre employees when they encountered Spacey.

Kevin Spacey speaks to the press after leaving Southwark Crown Court, south London, on 26 July 2023 ( Getty )

Speaking to the i newspaper, Cannon made claims of a troubling interaction with Spacey while at a West End press night party at the Savoy Hotel in 2013.

Cannon alleged that Spacey sent him an expensive gift to congratulate him on his performance in a new production of Tennessee Williamss Sweet Bird of Youth at the Old Vic, the London theatre of which Spacey was the artistic director.

At the after-party, Cannon claimed he was thanking Spacey when the older actor pulled me in very close with his right hand and sort of turned me 45 degrees before touching his behind in an intimate way.

Later, stating that the interaction had left him feeling totally paralysed, Cannon said that he hoped speaking out in the film would give others the courage to do the same.

What I hope is that this film can help other people feel less afraid, less fearful, he said.

By putting my name and my face to this Im being honest with myself  the impact it had.

Spacey Unmasked airs on 6 and 7 May at 9pm on Channel 4.

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)

If youre travelling abroad and want to stream Spacey Unmasked 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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Daryl Hall has confirmed the end of Hall & Oates, his decades-long partnership with bandmate John Oates, following a months-long legal battle.

In November 2023, Hall, 77, filed a lawsuit against Oates, 76, after the latter tried to sell his share of the duos jointly owned company, Whole Oats Enterprises LLP. Hall called Oatess plan the ultimate partnership betrayal.

It hit me by surprise, Hall told Variety in a new interview. All I can say is people change and sometimes you dont really know someone like you thought you did.

Difficulties can be made from things that arent difficult, and then it goes to a place where it can never come back from. Its unfortunate and untimely, but some things just change. People rewrite history and harbor thoughts you had no idea about.

Asked if fans had seen the last of his former group, he replied: That is correct.

I havent had a creative relationship with John for at least 25 years, he added. We didnt write songs together, we didnt do anything together except perform live shows. We had an arrangement that I couldnt play my solo songs onstage with Hall & Oates  and now I get to.

The Independent has contacted Oatess representative for comment.

Daryl Hall and John Oates perform at Ryman Auditorium on 2 June 2013 ( Getty Images )

On 21 June, Hall will release his sixth studio album, D, which will see him reunite with former collaborator Dave Stewart, who worked as a producer on his second solo record, 1986s Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine.

Hall released his debut solo record, Sacred Hearts, in 1980, followed by Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine, 1993s Soul Alone and 1996s Cant Stop Dreaming.

Formed in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Hall & Oates have been performing as a duo as recently as 2022 and have released 18 studio albums, including their 1972 debut, Whole Oates.

Their brand of blue-eyed soul has scored six No 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including Kiss on My List and I Cant Go for That (No Can Do). They also achieved six platinum albums and many more Top 10 singles like Sara Smile and Shes Gone.

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You think John Oates is my partner?  Hes my business partner. Hes not my creative partner, Hall said during a 2022 appearance on the Club Random with Bill Maher podcast.

John and I are brothers, but we are not creative brothers. We are business partners, continued Hall. We made records called Hall & Oates together, but weve always been very separate, and thats a really important thing for me.
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Kendrick Lamar has doubled down on his feud with Drake by releasing a second diss track in a week  this time taking aim at the Canadian superstars inner circle.

The new track, which he released on Instagram on Friday, is titled 6:16 in LA and parodies Drakes timestamp songs such 2023s 8 AM in Charlotte or 2015s 5 AM in Toronto.

Ratcheting up the beef another notch following the bruising Euphoria, Kendrick takes several swipes at Drakes record label OVO Sound, which he runs with a large crew of signed artists, friends and associates.

Have you ever thought that OVO was workin for me? Lamar asks in his latest track, calling Drake a fake bully who must be a terrible person.

Everyone in your team is whispering that you deserve it, he continues, adding Drake cant Toosie Slide [dance his way] out of this one.

Lamar also suggests the people Drake is in business with are untrustworthy and if the rapper was street smart he would see twenty of his entourage are trying to hustle him.

Back in 2015 when Drake entered a feud with Meek Mill, he released two diss tracks Charged Up and Back to Back before Mill had a chance to respond.

open image in gallery Kendrick Lamar has released a second Drake diss track days after mocking the Canadian superstar on his last single Euphoria ( Getty Images )

In 6:16 LA Lamar references the historic beef, having used the same strategy himself with the release of his latest track so soon after Euphoria.

Back To Back, I like that record / Ima get back to that, for the record, he raps.

Drake and Lamar have been involved in a long-simmering feud for many years.

In March, Lamar took aim at Drake and fellow rap rival J Cole on a new track, claiming that rather than representing the genres big three its just big me.

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open image in gallery Music Festival Deaths ( Invision )

The song, Like That, appeared on Future and Metro Boomins collaborative album We Dont Trust You.

Lamar was directly responding to J Coles verse on First Person Shooter from Drakes 2023 album For All The Dogs.

On that song, Cole rapped: Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.

Lamar is known by his nickname K-Dot, while Aubrey is Drakes birth name.
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Death in Paradise star Ralf Little has issued a heartfelt message to his successor, EastEnders actor Don Gilet.

The BBC announced on Thursday (2 May) that Gilet will join the series as the new British detective inspector Mervin WiIson for the forthcoming 2025 season. DI Mervin will join the police force on Saint Marie, a fictional island continually plagued by murder mysteries.

Little, who played DI Neville Parker from series nine to 13, admitted he had been sitting on the casting news for several weeks, but was sworn to secrecy.

He told fans he was overjoyed by the news and addressed Gilet directly, telling the actor he will be magnificent in the role.

The new detective is the wonderful Don Gilet! And I just wanna say, from me to you, Don, I hope you have the most wonderful time.

Its the most magical experience, and I just hope you just get everything out of it, and I wish you the best of luck, said Little.

Im absolutely sure youre gonna be magnificent. Cheers, mate.

Gilet, who is best known for playing the reformed criminal-turned-preacher Lucas Johnson in the long-running soap EastEnders, said in a statement that getting the Death in Paradise felt like a precious jewel had been placed in his hands.

This is a big show, with a big heart and the love continually grows for it. It is my intention to never lose sight of that and to remain grateful, humbled and dedicated, said Gilet.

open image in gallery Gilet is best known for playing reformed criminal-turned-preacher Lucas Johnson in EastEnders ( @ralf.little via Instagram / Philippe Virapin / BBC )

At the close of the previous series, viewers saw Littles character DI Neville reveal he was leaving the island to go travelling. Then, his love interest DS Florence Cassell (played by Josephine Jobert), who he had long been pining for, returned to the show and the pair rekindled their budding romance.

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After a romantic walk on the beach, Florence and Neville decided that she would join him on his travels. The final frame of the series saw the pair sailing off into the sunset while holding hands.

open image in gallery Ralf Little in his final season of Death in Paradise ( BBC )

The hit BBC series focuses on the detective inspector drafted in from the UK to join the Saint Marie police team solving murder mysteries that continue to shake the island. It typically sees a new male lead join as DI every few years.

Gilet will make his debut as Detective Inspector Mervin WiIson in a feature-length Christmas special later this year, before a brand-new series begins in 2025.

Filming has already commenced in Guadeloupe, with Gilet acting alongside returning Death in Paradise regulars Don Warrington, Shantol Jackson, Ginny Holder, Elizabeth Bourgine and Danny John-Jules.
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Comedian Hasan Minhaj joked about the scandal that reportedly cost him the job of host of The Daily Show.

At the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles on Thursday (2 May), Minhaj hosted a showcase for comedians including his former Daily Show colleague Ronny Chieng, who joked, Im surprised that Hasans able to do this show. I guess cancelling is not what it used to be.

Minhaj pretended to heckle Chieng from the crowd, shouting: You planted that story about me!

Minhaj then joined him onstage, saying: Who the f*** fact-checks stand-up comedy? Only Ronny Chieng would set me up with some f***ing mouth-breathing journalist. It was you.

When Chieng brought up the hosting job, Minhaj responded: A job you f***ed me out of.

Weve all failed in our lives, but have you ever failed so bad, you bring back Jon Stewart? he added. I saved a dying institution. Youre welcome.

open image in gallery Hasan Minhaj pictured in New York in June 2023 ( Getty Images )

Last September, Minhaj was the subject of a New Yorker article that questioned the veracity of his stand-up routines, with the 38 year-old admitting to fabricating and exaggerating certain details, including one major story in his 2022 Netflix special The Kings Jester.

At one point during the 2022 routine, Minhaj told the audience about the time he and his wife were supposedly sent a letter filled with white powder that he assumed was anthrax.

Upon opening the mail, the comedian said the powder accidentally spilt on his daughter, who they then rushed to the hospital. There, the doctor informed them that it was not anthrax.

Minhaj told The New Yorker that in fact his daughter was never exposed to anthrax nor hospitalised.

A month earlier, it had been reported that Minhaj was frontrunner to replace Trevor Noah as the host of the satirical news program The Daily Show. After the scandal broke, former host Jon Stewart returned instead for Monday night episodes, with other correspondents anchoring during the rest of the week.

Minhaj previously responded to the New Yorker article with a video in which he denied using fake racism to advance his career.

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With everything thats happening in the world, Im aware even talking about this now feels so trivial, the comedian said. But being accused of faking racism is not trivial. Its very serious, and it demands an explanation.

For The Independent, comedian Vix Leyton questioned whether a stand-up should be held to account for fabricating elements of the stories they tell on stage, and argued that embellishing anecdotes is just a part of human nature.
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Jimmy Carr has been called out for his rude and disgusting heckling of This Morning chef Clodagh McKenna.

The comedian was interviewed by hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot OLeary, who present the shows Friday episodes in place of the ITV daytime seriess fixed presenters. But he swiftly left viewers enraged by repeatedly interjecting while McKenna was trying to speak.

Carr, who is no stranger to controversy, appeared alongside Hammond and OLeary during a segment that saw Irish chef and author McKenna cook a dish, and explain her methods while doing so.

However, viewers grew increasingly frustrated with Carr, who, at one stage, mocked McKennas pronunciation of certain ingredients and eventually criticised the finished meal she had cooked.

During the segment, Carr questioned McKennas pronunciation of what he believed to be the word thyme, to which the confused chef replied: No, I never mentioned thyme.

As she talked through the recipe in her allotted time, Carr quipped: I need a pen  youre really racing through this, and when she informed viewers on how to make chicken three ways, Carr, sensing the opportunity for a joke, said: What about chicken one way?

His interruptions didnt stop there. When McKenna placed a chicken carcass in a saucepan, Carr chimed in: Have you not got a bin? McKenna attempted to continue, but Carr added: Pop it in the bin! Its gone, the chicken is gone.

After McKenna had finished cooking the meal, Carr questioned its quality, stating You could make that even nicer by leaving out the broccoli.

OLeary, clearly feeling for McKenna, put a reassuring arm around her shoulder, and acknowledged that it seemed hard for her to do her job while being heckled by a comedian.

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open image in gallery Jimmy Carr repeatedly interrupted chef and author Clodagh McKenna on This Morning ( ITV )

Viewers agreed and, after growing infuriated by Carrs interruptions, Carr was branded rude, arrogant and disgusting.

One viewer raged: Jimmy Carrs childish behaviour whilst @clodaghmckenna was trying to do her piece on todays @thismorning was so rude & disrespectful, he even took the P out of her accent.

McKennas Instagram has been flooded with replies from fans complaining about Carr, with one fan writing:"Sell done on biting your tongue with the rudeness of Jimmy Carr. The hosts clearly were mortified.

Another fan wrote: You were amazing under extreme interference.

open image in gallery Jimmy Carr on This Morning' ( Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock )

In 2022, Carr was heavily criticised for a truly disturbing joke he made about travellers in one of his Netflix specials.

The streaming services inclusion of the joke was branded outrageous by viewers, who called the joke indefensible.

Carr has drawn criticism many times over the years for his controversial jokes, which have mocked targets including people with Downs Syndrome, amputee veterans and people with dwarfism.
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Tiffany Haddish has detailed the lengths shes gone to protect herself against the online vitriol shes faced, which she said has exponentially increased after she was accused of child sexual abuse in a since-dismissed lawsuit.

In 2022, a 22-year-old woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a lawsuit alleging that Haddish and fellow comedian Aries Spears had forced her and her 15-year-old brother to perform inappropriate acts on camera when they were both children.

Shortly after filing, Jane Doe asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying in a statement: My family and I have known Tiffany Haddish for many years  and we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us. We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.

Following the dismissal, Haddish said she had lost everything and that the damage had already been done to her career.

The online comments about her became so bad that she was forced to block certain phrases on Instagram, including pedo, not funny and setback, she told the Los Angeles Times in a new interview.

Haddish, 44, said she even went so far as to hire a digital forensics analyst, who discovered that 75 per cent of the death threats she had received were coming from online robots in Malaysia and Iran.

The Girls Trip actor admitted to also having made a fake Instagram account, where an alter ego named Sarah would set out to destroy anybody making hateful comments about her by revealing their personal details.

open image in gallery Tiffany Haddish ( Getty Images )

Ive learned how to find peoples information  like I pull up the credit report, police records. You can do that for $1.99, the AfterParty star said. Sometimes, I get so mad that Ill get they phone number and Ill just call them.

They be shocked that I called. Theyll be like, I cant believe you even saw that. You did a whole video, b****! You made a full, five-minute video! On the internet, people think they can just say whatever and you not gonna say anything. I try my best not to, but Im a human being, Haddish added.

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Earlier this year, the Emmy-nominated actor emotionally defended her decision to travel to Israel in order to learn more about the 7 October attacks and their aftermath.

I cant believe everything that I read, Haddish told TMZ in February. I need to go see for myself. I want to talk to the actual people thats here, the people that actually experienced the situation that happened on the 7th.

Asked whether she would also be looking at Israels retaliation in Gaza, which health officials say has resulted in over 25,000 deaths, Haddish responded: Yes, Im going over there too.

Im a firm believer in: Go see with your own eyes before you pass judgement. Go over there cautiously, be cautious, but go see for yourself. I care about both sides. I care about humanity. Human beings.
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Eighty years ago this spring, the Red Army began the process of liberating the Nazi concentration camps of Eastern Europe. In January 1945, they arrived at Auschwitz, in southern Poland. What they found there would come to define the Holocaust, the Second World War, and our understanding of evil. It has also, counterintuitively, spun off an aesthetic symbology that has inspired generations of writers and filmmakers, producing books, films and TV, the latest of which is Sky Atlantics six-part adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

In a Melbourne apartment, sometime in the early 2000s, an elderly Lali Sokolov (Harvey Keitel) sits down with nervy aspirant author Heather Morris (Melanie Lynskey). Over tea, Lali relates his story. It is the tale of how, as a young Slovak Jew, Lali was sent to Auschwitz, where, through a process of self-preservation, he ended up as one of the camps tattooists, branding new arrivals with a serial number. It is during one of these sessions that the young Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) meets Gita (Anna Prochniak), a vivacious young prisoner being sent over to the womens camp. So, this is a love story, he tells Heather, 60 years later. A love story, of sorts.

The novel that the real Morris extracted from these interviews  The Tattooist of Auschwitz  became an international bestseller. It also faced criticism, in a report laid out by the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre, for its inauthentic depiction of life in the concentration camp and a series of factual errors. The report also accused the book  like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas before it  of assuming an approach that foregrounds the most common and most evocative symbols such as the gates of the camp, bearing the Arbeit Macht Frei slogan; the experiments of Josef Mengele; the gas chambers; and, yes, the tattoos. It is perhaps with these critiques in mind that the show opens with a caption saying the series is merely inspired by the book, rather than a direct adaptation.

To create this distance between the adaptation and its contested source  while retaining the international name recognition, obviously  conversations between older Lali and Heather are introduced as a framing device. I havent got long, he tells her. I am old. It allows Keitel to bring a gravitas that the younger cast lacks, even if his accent is as indecisive as the filmmakers creative choices. The tale that unfolds, a fictionalised version of the real Lalis incarceration and escape, is unflinching. The portrait of Auschwitz is every bit as brutal as Steven Spielbergs in Schindlers List, even while the melodrama of Lali and Gitas love story introduces wistful looks, stolen kisses and sweeping violin strings. Romanticised memories are disputed, but only after the romanticised version is shown.

The question of how we depict the Holocaust  and whether we should  is a vexing one. If Jonathan Glazers The Zone of Interest, which is set in the commandants household at Auschwitz and which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year, was focused on finding the flickering of evil amid the banality of human life, then The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the inverse, a show awash with visible evil, where humanity pricks through like shards of light through slatted wood. Lalis relationship with Baretzki (Jonas Nay), a troubled, violent guard whom Lali tries to comprehend as a lonely, indoctrinated outcast, is at the heart of this. Did you trust Baretzki? Heather asks him, many years later. No, he replies. But I think he needed me.

What does this love story, which blossoms in spite of the pairs circumstances, tell us about the past, the present or the future? If it is not instructive, then the horrors of extermination become ornamental, a way of simply raising the emotional stakes. It begs a false equivalence (He was the same age as my daughter, Heather weeps, as she hears of the death of one of Lalis campmates; the blue skies of 1940s Poland are compared to the blue skies of Noughties Australia) that has little new to say. Instead, it is more wonky half-German, half-English accents; more portentous ruminations on the human condition; more vast CGI depictions of industrialised mass slaughter. As trucks filled with contorted, emaciated corpses roll across the screen, it is hard not to think of how close we are to a world where a prompt engineer inputs some tawdry description, and an AI spits out a new vision of these horrors we can never know. The desire to be unflinching creates the risk that we will forget how to flinch.

open image in gallery Jonah Hauer-King as Lali Sokolov ( Martin Mlaka / Sky UK )

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a strangely self-hating work. In attempting to disavow its airport-novel, schlocky origins, it inadvertently creates a new tension. Dont avert your gaze, we are told, but in turning the worst act of suffering and murder ever perpetrated by humans against humans into yet another tale of survival, The Tattooist of Auschwitz adds little to an over-exploited chapter of our shared history.
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South Koreas foreign ministry has increased the threat level at five of its embassies and consulates overseas as it warned of a North Korean plot to carry out terrorist attacks targetting Seouls officials and citizens living abroad.

Seouls spy agency, the National Intelligence Service [NIS], said it had recently detected numerous signs that North Korea is preparing for terrorist attacks against our embassy staff or citizens in various countries, (such as) China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

The five locations include embassies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as consulates in Vladivostok, Russia, and Shenyang, China, Reuters reported.

The ministry said in a statement: North Korea has dispatched agents to these countries to expand surveillance of the South Korean embassies and is also engaging in specific activities such as searching for South Korean citizens as potential terrorist targets.

The South Korean foreign ministry said the terrorism alert level at the five embassies and consulates had been raised from Attention to Alert, the second-highest level in the countrys four-tier system, which indicates that there is a heightened likelihood of an attack.

The statement from the foreign ministry said that South Koreas National Counter Terrorism Center convened a meeting on Thursday to discuss strategies aimed at safeguarding the countrys diplomatic premises and personnel.

Historically, during the Cold War era, North Korea faced allegations of perpetrating multiple assaults on civilian establishments, such as orchestrating bombings at a Seoul airport and targeting a South Korean airliner in the 1980s.

In 2017, the US placed North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It was earlier removed from the list by George W Bush in 2008.

Both Seoul and Pyongyang maintain diplomatic missions, either embassies or consulates, in all five locations where threat levels were increased.

The end of the pandemic has enabled North Korean agents, previously confined within their country, to travel abroad for missions, while South Koreans are also travelling abroad without any restrictions, Lee Man-jong, president of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies, was quoted as saying by AFP.

Pyongyang appears to be targeting South Korean assets and nationals located in foreign countries with which they have established strong diplomatic ties, he told the outlet.

Since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953, North Korea has been accused of conducting a number of attacks against South Korea and its people. These include an attempt to infiltrate the South Korean Presidential Palace in 1968, where armed North Korean guerrillas disguised as South Korean soldiers attempted to assassinate then-president Pak Chong-hui, resulting in casualties on both sides.

Then in 1983, three North Korean armed guerrillas attempted to assassinate then-president Chun Doo-Hwan of South Korea during a state visit to Myanmar [then known as Burma], resulting in the deaths of South Korean officials and injuries to many others.

In September 1996, a North Korean submarine was stranded in the northeast of South Korea, leading to armed agents infiltrating South Korean territory. Some of these agents were discovered dead in a nearby mountain, while others were killed by the South Korean army.

In June 1998, another incident occurred when nine dead bodies and automatic rifles were found in a submarine that had drifted into South Korean waters.

Earlier this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for his countrys constitution to be changed to declare South Korea its primary foe and invariable principal enemy, as relations between the two countries plummeted to their worst level in years.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Myanmars military junta has stopped issuing permits for men to work abroad just weeks after it introduced military conscription.

In February this year the junta announced new conscription laws, making it compulsory for all young women and men to join the military amid an ongoing civil conflict in the country. The move resulted in thousands of young people attempting to leave the country and avoid being forced to fight.

The controversial consription law and the latest move to suspend working permits for fighting-age men comes as the military struggles to contain an armed rebellion by pro-democracy resistance forces and ethnic minority armed organisations.

On 2 May, the labour ministry said that it had temporarily suspended accepting applications from men who wish to work abroad. The statement added that the move was aimed to take more time to verify departure processes.

The ban on men working abroad, which went into effect on 1 May, was temporary and will remain in effect as needed, ministry of labours permanent secretary Nyunt Win told Radio Free Asia Burmese on Thursday.

Starting from 1 May  we will only be allowed to send [registered] women as migrant workers, Mr Nyunt Win said in an interview. Men will not be able to register to work abroad during the suspension period.

The minister clarified that men who had registered to work abroad by the end of April will be exempt from the ban, as will a small number of workers who made arrangements through intergovernmental employment agencies.

The official did not provide any explanation for the implementation of the ban, or details on its duration.

In 2020, the most recent available figures, the International Labour Organization estimates that over four million Myanmar nationals were working overseas.

According to the military conscription law, those between the ages of 18 and 35 for men, and 18 and 27 for women, may be conscripted into the armed forces for two years. However, in specific professional fields such as medicine and engineering, there are extended age limits of 45 for men and 35 for women, and their service duration is three years.

The introduction of conscription was seen as a tacit admission that the army is struggling to contain nationwide armed resistance against its rule, which began in 2021 after the junta seized power from the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

So what we want to say is that the responsibility of national defence is not only the responsibility of the soldier. It is the responsibility of all people in all parts of the country, the military governments spokesperson Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun said at the time.

National security is everyones responsibility. That is why I would like to tell everyone to serve with pride under the enacted law of peoples military service, he told state television. The first batch of several thousand conscripts have already begun training, according to local media reports.

The junta government said it would impose penalties on those evading conscription, amid growing reports of people trying to leave the country or even join up with resistance groups rather than be forced to fight for the military regime.
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Kate Beckinsale is applauding King Charles III amid his battle with cancer.

The British actor, 50, praised the 75-year-old monarch for being candid about his cancer diagnosis as she reflected on her own relationship with cancer in her family. While attending the Kings Trust Gala in New York City on 2 May, the Underworld star said shes impressed with how open Charles has been about his health.

My moms got cancer and my step dad just died of cancer, and I think having a monarchy that is... you know, people kinda go: Whyve you got it? Whats it for? and all of that. Then theres this, and actually being really open about quite personal things that I think is really important, Beckinsale told reporters at the event, per People.

Im really impressed that hes doing that, she added.

Beckinsale, who previously revealed in a since-deleted post that her mother Judy Loe has been battling gracefully and quietly dealing with stage four cancer for the last six years, noted that her mother and Charles happened to be at the same cancer hospital recently.

I hope everyone gets better. Im f***ing sick of cancer, I really am, the Van Helsing star said.

open image in gallery Kate Beckinsale attends The King's Trust 2024 Global Gala on 2 May 2024 in New York City ( Getty Images )

Her stepfather, Roy Battersby, died earlier this year aged 87 after a brief period of illness, Beckinsale announced on Instagram in January.

The Total Recall stars praise for King Charles comes following her recent hospitalisation for an undisclosed health issue. On 11 March, she shared an Instagram photo of herself in a hospital bed while paying tribute to her mother in honour of Mothers Day, which fell on 10 March in the United Kingdom. She included two pictures of herself in a hospital bed, as she wore a large black headband with a bow on her head. The post also featured a snap of Beckinsales friend visiting her at the hospital.

open image in gallery King Charles III meets with patients at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre on 30 April in return to public-facing duties ( Getty Images )

Thank you to those that love us and support us when its s*** and try to make sure there are some bits that arent, Beckinsale wrote in the caption. And for looking after our dogs when we cant, and lead us to remember happy things when we cant. And turn up when we are sick and sit with us... And send balloons and check in and pull us out of wells with love.

In February, King Charles publicly announced he had been diagnosed with cancer following treatment for an enlarged prostate. The royal family did not specify the form of cancer, but revealed he would be undergoing treatment at the time.

This week, he made his return to public-facing duties for the first time since his diagnosis. Charles met with fellow cancer patients at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre on 30 April, where he reassured the public Im well and spoke about the importance of early diagnosis.

When asked about his health by one patient during Tuesdays visit, the monarch replied: Im all right thank you very much, not too bad.
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Madison Baloy, a TikTok star who documented her journey with terminal cancer, has died at the age of 26.

Her fiance, Louis Risher, confirmed Baloys passing in a statement to People shared on Thursday 2 May. Madison passed away peacefully last night, Risher told the outlet, adding that she was surrounded with love..

She is so special, he said. I turned 27 yesterday, actually. I was holding her hand all day and thats all I needed.

According to her GoFundMe page, Baloy was a kindergarten teacher living in Tampa, Florida, when she was diagnosed with metastatic stage 4 cancer. The TikToker, who gained more than 450,000 followers on the platform, received her diagnosis in February 2023 after visiting urgent care for what she initially thought was a stomach bug.

She immediately underwent emergency colorectal surgery for abnormalities in her large intestine, and they later found numerous cancerous tumors pressing on her large intestine. She was initially given five years to live, People reported.

Since then, Baloy has grown a following on social media for her candid videos showing her journey with terminal cancer. In one of her most popular videos, she shared with followers items on her bucket list, such as to climb Camelback Mountain in Arizona, get a tattoo with her grandma, and meet Gordon Ramsay.

In February, Baloy accomplished item number 12 on her bucket list when she met the celebrity chef at his restaurant in Miami, Florida. GORDON RAMSAY! The biggest honour and the coolest night of my whole entire life, she captioned the TikTok video, which showed her and Ramsay dancing in a kitchen. And for everyone who made this happen; I love you! @Gordon Ramsay.

She also successfully completed another item on her bucket list, to be a guest on a podcast, when she was invited to talk about her cancer journey on The Squeeze podcast hosted by actor Taylor Lautner and his wife Tay Lautner. During the 28 February episode, Baloy explained why she decided to document her terminal cancer on TikTok.

From the start I just wanted to be as open as I could be, Baloy said. I didnt quit anything when I got cancer - continuing my lifestyle of being a girl in her twenties - people think that is insane, but thats who I was before.

Baloy is survived by Risher, her mom Carissa Talmege, 47, and her stepfather Lucky Talmege, 45, according to People.
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Everyone in the service industry has likely experienced receiving a negative review at some point.

One waitress took to TikTok to show one way a bad review doesnt bother her, by wearing it like a badge of honour. Got a one-star review and made a top out of it, text across the screen of Danis video reads.

In addition to showing herself wearing the T-shirt, she provides a closer image of just the shirt and then a screenshot of the review to highlight how the two of them are identical.

We will never be back!!! the review begins. At this restaurant the staff made us feel so uncomfortable. A waitress named Dani suggested the manager outside on the cold when our baby cried because she had headache, she didnt bother to hide her discomfort and looked at us like we were rubbish we obviously left the restaurant straight away.

Very not family-friendly atmosphere in there dont bother to go with kids, the review ended.

The screenshot noted that in addition to an overall one-star review, the family also gave the restaurant one star in the subcategories of likelihood to recommend, atmosphere, value for money, food and drink, and service.

Danis video went on to receive more than two million views with many fellow servers taking to the comments to talk about their bad reviews.

https://www.tiktok.com/@dandanthexanman/photo/7319116721711779105

I got a review saying our waitress left us when her shift ended like YEAH BYE??? one person recalled in the comments.

A similar story in the comments read, I got one that said it truly seemed like she couldnt have cared less about us babe youre literally so correct!!

One server explained how she made a joke out of one of her bad reviews. I got a 1 star review saying I ruined their vibe and now my name on the till is Vibe Ruiner haha, the comment read.

This isnt the first time a waitress has taken to TikTok to talk about some of the situations they find themselves in. Previously one waitress, named Syd, took to the platform to reenact a scenario she had where customers came in with their own food.

It was in the middle of a brunch shift and she arrived at the table asking if the customers wanted any drinks to start to which they replied, We brought our own coffees  I hope thats fine, the customer said, before asking Syd for warm water.

She decided to let it slide and then asked the customers if they wanted any food that was on the menu and they explained that they brought their own granola bars and would leave in a few minutes.

The waitress interpreted this as the customers needing more time with the menu before placing an order but the customer replied, Wow servers really have turned into sales people nowadays. Yeah, well just keep our money in our pockets.

This isnt a public place. Will you be ordering from our restaurant? the server asked.

After the customer replied that they were only there because they needed a place to catch up with their friend, the waitress gave them 15 minutes before asking them to relocate to a Starbucks.
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French police on Friday peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, who had gathered in support of Palestinians, echoing similar encampments and solidarity demonstrations across the United States.

Students waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of residents of Gaza, as Israel continues its offensive following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that triggered the Israeli-Hamas war.

The Sciences Po building had been occupied since Thursday evening. The university administration had closed the main buildings and moved classes online.

Pro-Palestinian students were planning to hold a protest later Friday in front of the Pantheon monument, near the elite Sorbonne University, to call for an end to Israels offensive in Gaza.

On Thursday, similar protests took place in some other universities across the country, including in Lille and Lyon.

The Prime Minister's Office said police had been requested to remove students from 23 sites on French campuses on Thursday and all were evacuated within a few hours.

A police presence will be maintained near Sciences Po to prevent any further blockades, it said in a statement.

Last week, tensions broke out near the elite university, which counts President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal among its many famous alumni. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators faced each other in a standoff in the street outside Sciences Po. Riot police stepped in to separate the groups.

The protest ended peacefully as pro-Palestinian students agreed to leave.
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A hero injured in the sword attack in east London has spoken for the first time since the incident as he recovers in hospital, thanking those who saved his own life.

Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, an IT engineer from Hainault, is currently in hospital after being stabbed in Hainault on Tuesday morning.

Mr De Los Rios Polania was described by his sister, Jessica De Los Rios, 31, as a hero for protecting his family from the assailant.

Police officers look at flowers laid at the scene of the incident in Hainault where 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin was killed on Tuesday ( PA Wire )

He has since shared a photo to social media from his hospital bed, with a message thanking those who saved his life.

I would like to start by thanking all the nurses, paramedics, and the doctors on the NHS for keeping me alive, he said in a post to Instagram Stories, also sending gratitude to the police for risking their lives.

He also thanked friends and family and all those who made sure he did not bleed out.

Mr De Los Rios Polania added: Im recovering. I have a long journey ahead but Im very positive that this trauma will end soon.

Daniel Anjorin was killed as he was walking to school on Tuesday ( PA Wire )

Marcus Arduini Monzo, 36, of Newham, east London, has appeared in court accused of murdering 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin as he was walking to school on Tuesday, and injuring four other people.

Ms De Los Rios previously said her brother was recovering in hospital after sustaining a deep wound to his hand.

Its a very long process to get his hand recovered, due to this wound, she said, adding: Hes awake, hes in hospital, but he lost a lot of blood and its going to be a really long, traumatising recovery for him.

Hes very devastated to believe something like this could happen, she said, adding: To us, hes our hero. He protected them  my niece and my sister-in-law.

They were just literally sleeping, opened their eyes to see a man with a big machete sword.

He felt helpless in the moment but to us he is our hero. It could have been extremely worse.
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A police officer has been sacked after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting an young child on duty.

PC Dean Dempster, 35, a response officer based in Oldham, admitted to sexually touching the child on December 29.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) received a complaint later that day and he was arrested by a supervisor when he returned to duty the day after.

Depster was dismissed from GMP without notice, and added to the college of policing barred list by Chief Constable Stephen Watson, who described Dempsters actions as morally reprehensible.

He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 28 February, where he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child.

Dempster, who joined GMP in 2021 after serving as a special constable and ambulance service paramedic, was sacked and barred from policing in an accelerated misconduct hearing, held by GMP on Thursday.

At the hearing, Chf Con Watson found PC Dempsters conduct amounted to gross misconduct, adding: This sexual assault occurred whilst the officer was on duty and where the victim was totally trusting and reliant on him performing his duties professionally, compassionately and with her welfare uppermost in his thoughts.

It is this most egregious breach of trust of an innocent young child that is most upsetting aspect of this case and something that clearly amounts to an aggravating factor.

I consider this case to be among the most distressing ever presented to me such is the despicable betrayal of all that is inherent in being a decent police officer.

I have no hesitation whatsoever in dismissing PC Dempster from the service with immediate effect.

A GMP spokesman added the force will now be writing to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester to appeal for Dempster to lose his right to a police pension.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Allen, head of GMPs Professional Standards Directorate, said: Dean Dempster is not a police officer, hes a child sex offender who has no right to be in police uniform or in a position to serve the public.

We have no time for people like Dempster who should not be in GMP and does not represent us.

This is why were increasingly using accelerated misconduct hearings to root out and boot out officers who are unfit to serve in our uniform, and this work will continue while ever they remain.

IOPC Regional Director Catherine Bates said: PC Dempsters actions were utterly appalling, and he is now facing the consequences.

This investigation into his conduct was directed by the IOPC to provide independent oversight.

GMP and IOPC investigators have worked quickly to safeguard a vulnerable victim and ensure PC Dempsters prompt dismissal.

PC Dempster is due to face sentencing for his offence in June.
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What is upskirting?

Upskirting is a term used to describe the act of taking a sexually intrusive photograph up someones skirt without their permission.

It is usually performed in a public place, such as on public transport or in a nightclub, among crowds of people, making it harder to spot people taking the photos.

Writer Gina Martin launched a campaign to criminalise the act after being targeted at a festival in 2017. Following the incident, Ms Martin informed the police and learned that upskirting was not a specific offence in UK law.

After a Facebook post detailing her experience went viral, she launched an online petition to get her case reopened with the police and called for upskirting to be made part of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Within days, here petition received 50,000 signatures.

Soon after, Ms Martin received cross-party support from MPs and worked closely with justice minister Lucy Frazer to progress the campaign, which also received backing from a number of celebrities including Laura Whitmore and Dermot OLeary.

The campaign also gained the support of Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse who brought a private members bill backing the creation of an upskirting offence in England and Wales in March 2018.

Upskirting campaigner Gina Martin and lawyer Ryan Whelan ( PA )

When did it become a criminal offence?

The Voyeurism (Offences) (No.2) Bill, known as the Upskirting Bill received Royal Assent on 12 February, 2019, following aMs Martins 18 month campaign. The Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 came into force on the 12 April the same year.

The act added two new offences to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to cover the practice of upskirting, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.

The offences apply when:

Without consent, an individual operates equipment or records an image beneath a persons clothing

The offender has a motive of either obtaining sexual gratification or causing humiliation, distress or alarm to the victim.

Why did it take so long to be made illegal?

In March 2018, MP Wera Hobhouse tabled a private members bill to make it a criminal offence.

However, Conservative MP for Christchurch Sir Christopher Chope single-handedly blocked the bill in the House of Commons in June 2018. Sir Christophers intervention was met with shouts of shame from other MPs and a few days later an anonymous protester showed a more visible sign of dissent by hanging four pairs of knickers across the members office door at the Commons.

Despite the setback, then-prime minister Theresa May said she was disappointed in the objection and vowed that the government would push the law change through parliament. Ms May described upskirting as a hideous invasion of privacy which leaves victims feeling degraded and distressed.

Ms Martins campaign went on to secure government backing on 15 July 2018 and the Voyeurism (Offences) (No. 2) Bill was put before Parliament days later. Speaking after the bill was approved, Ms Martin described the decision as politics and society at its best.

Why was there no law on upskirting in England and Wales before?

Upskirting has been illegal in Scotland since 2010 by the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 when it was listed under the wider definition of voyeurism.

However, it has had a more complicated legislative history in England and Wales.

Before the 2019 Act, victims and police in England and Wales were only able to prosecute upskirting offences under either the offence of outraging public decency or as a crime of voyeurism under the Sexual Offences Act.

Voyeurism applies to filming actions taking place in private while outraging public decency commonly requires someone to have witnessed the action which is rare in cases of upskirting.

Until 2019, if you caught someone upskirting an individual and informed the authorities, the police could request that the image to be deleted, but no further prosecution was possible.

Figures released in February 2018 revealed that girls as young as 10 have been victims of upskirting and that just a third of British police forces in England and Wales report the incidents they encounter.

According to a freedom of information request by the Press Association, of the 78 incidents reported, only 11 resulted in suspects being charged using existing laws on voyeurism, indecency and public order.

A report in October 2018 conducted by British GQ reveals that one in 10 men dont think upskirting is sexual harassment.

Several US and Australian states have legislated against upskirting and it is illegal in New Zealand and India.
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An Irish-Palestinian man who was blocked from leaving Rafah has fled the Gaza Strip and is making his way back to Ireland in the coming days.

Zak Hania previously spoke about his fear of never seeing his family again after they were able to leave Gaza at the end of last year.

Mr Hanias wife Batoul and their four sons were among the Irish citizens who left Gaza via the Rafah border last November and are now living in Dublin.

Mr Hania was not accepted on to the list of evacuees and was left in the besieged territory.

Mrs Hania and her four Irish-born sons, Mazen, Ismael, Ahmed and Nour, spent months pleading for help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

His family said that he crossed the border and is in Egypt, and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr Hania previously told the PA news agency about the nightmare conditions living in Rafah and how he spent months fearing he would never see his wife and sons again.

His son Mazen said they are so excited about being reunited with their father this weekend.
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Gordon Brown has called for a new police investigation into whether the publisher of the Sun and News of the World covered up phone hacking.

The former prime minister said civil court documents show Rupert Murdochs News UK deleted emails at the time of the initial investigation, with 31 million emails lost between 2010 and 2011.

Nine million of those were irretrievably lost, with the publisher insisting that it was clearing out old computer servers rather than engaging in a corporate cover-up.

Rupert Murdochs publisher has paid an estimated 1bn in damages to phone hacking victims (Victoria Jones/PA) ( PA Archive )

Among the new documents are allegations that Mr Brown was involved in a conspiracy to obtain internal emails at the company, which led them to delete editor Rebekah Brooks emails to prevent further leaks.

This included allegations that Labour MP Tom Watson, who was close to Mr Brown, had been handling stolen data from Mrs Brooks and bribing an employee to get hold of emails.

Discussing these claims, the former Labour leader denied ever being passed information relating to Mrs Brooks, and stressed: The police should never have accepted their explanation.

He has now written to Sir Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Met Police, to request a meeting to discuss a new investigation.

In 2014, Mrs Brooks was found not guilty on all charges related to phone hacking after a trial at the Old Bailey, with prosecutors discovered no evidence of corporate wrongdoing at News UK in 2015.

The company accepted that journalists at News of the World were involved in phone hacking and the paper closed in 2011, with damages paid to hundreds of victims. Those targeted included the murdered teenager Milly Dowler and celebrities such as Sienna Miller and members of the royal family.

Rebekah Brooks (right) was cleared of any wrongdoing after standing trial on phone hacking charges ( PA )

Murdochs group has also settled cases brought by those targeted by the Sun without admitting any liability, with a High Court case set for trial next year.

While he has never taken action against the publisher, Mr Brown said he is now considering it and believes his phone may have been hacked during his time as chancellor and prime minister.

If a prime minister was having his phone hacked by News Group, then that is a very serious matter, he told the BBC.

And we need to get all the evidence about what happened, what didnt happen, what was happening at their headquarters.

A spokesperson for News Group Newspapers [NGN] said: Mr  Browns allegations are unfounded and wrong. They relate to events from over a decade ago which are the subject of current legal proceedings in the civil courts.

This is a highly complex and heavily contested area of the litigation. They are denied by NGN in a detailed defence for the court. There is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that Mr Browns voicemails were intercepted and this is denied.

Mr Watson has been approached by the Independent for comment.
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The Government acted unlawfully by approving a strategy to meet the UKs climate targets, a High Court judge has ruled.

Three groups took joint legal action against the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero over its decision to approve the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP) in March 2023.

The plan outlines how the country will achieve targets set out in the sixth carbon budget, which runs until 2037, as part of wider efforts to reach net zero by 2050.

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project argued at a hearing in February the then-secretary of state, Grant Shapps, acted unlawfully by approving the plan as he lacked information on whether individual policies could be delivered in full.

In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Sheldon ruled in their favour, stating that Mr Shapps decision was simply not justified by the evidence.

Three groups claimed the then-secretary of state, Grant Shapps, acted unlawfully by approving the plan ( Reuters )

He said: If, as I have found, the Secretary of State did make his decision on the assumption that each of the proposals and policies would be delivered in full, then the Secretary of States decision was taken on the basis of a mistaken understanding of the true factual position.

The ruling marks a second High Court victory for the three groups against the Government over its climate policies.

In 2022, a different judge ruled the Governments Net Zero Strategy was unlawful as ministers were not properly briefed on how individual policies would help meet climate targets set out in the sixth carbon budget, as required by the 2008 Climate Change Act (CCA).

In the CBDP case, the groups claimed that Mr Shapps had no or inaccurate information from different Government departments about the risks related to enacting climate policies under the plan, which gave a misleading summary of whether they could be put in place.

David Wolfe KC, representing FoE, told the court that some risk tables - used to demonstrate the risks associated with delivering each policy - were recast to remove information about whether plans could be implemented.

The tables were not shared with Parliament, climate bodies or the public, meaning the plan could not be properly scrutinised, the court heard.

The ruling marks a second High Court victory for the three groups against the government over its climate policies ( PA Archive )

Lawyers for the Government said that Mr Shapps had sufficient information which rationally supported his decision.

But in his 50-page ruling, Mr Justice Sheldon said that the minister could not evaluate for himself which policies in the CBDP would fail and which would be delivered based on the information provided.

He said the details in the draft plan were vague and unquantified and did not provide Mr Shapps with sufficient information on whether the plan should be approved.

Following the judgment, Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said: This is another embarrassing defeat for the Government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans.

It shows the strength of the Climate Change Act, brought into force after a successful campaign led by Friends of the Earth and the backing of an overwhelming majority of MPs - to hold the Government of the day to account for meeting its legal requirements to cut emissions.

Weve all been badly let down by a Government thats failed, not once but twice, to deliver a climate plan that ensures both our legally binding national targets and our international commitment to cut emissions by over two-thirds by 2030 are met.

Cutting emissions isnt only essential to avert the worst of climate breakdown, it will create long-term jobs in green industries of the future, boost energy security, bring down our bills and end our reliance on costly fossil fuels.

We urgently need a credible and lawful new action plan that puts our climate goals back on track and ensures we all benefit from a fair transition to a sustainable future. Meeting our domestic and international carbon reduction targets must be a top priority for whichever party wins the next general election.

In response to the decision, a DESNZ spokesperson said: The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change. Not only are we the first major economy to reach halfway to net zero, we have also set out more detail than any other G20 country on how we will reach our ambitious carbon budgets.

The claims in this case were largely about process and the judgment contains no criticism of the detailed plans we have in place. We do not believe a court case about process represents the best way of driving progress towards our shared goal of reaching net zero.

While the CBDP remains government policy, the DESNZ said it will publish a new report within 12 months following the judges decision.
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When Edward and Hazel Short put their life savings into building their fantasy home on the coast, they hoped it would change their lives for the better and give their two children a fabulous childhood.

Instead, more than 12 years later, the luxury house has been relisted for sale once again at knockdown price, the couples marriage is over and millionaire Mr Short is still paying off some of the money he borrowed for the ambitious building project.

It was first listed for sale in February 2022 but despite rumours of celebrities including Harry Styles expressing interest - a buyer failed to emerge.

The house sits on the cliff edge ( Knight Frank )

And now the five-bedroom home is back on the market again, listed by Savills on behalf of Joint Receivers at a knockdown price of 5.5m on Rightmove.

Chesil Cliff House in Croyde, Devon, divides opinion locally to this day. It is certainly a spectacular creation  a clean-lined art deco affair, all white and glass, with a four-storey tower that recalls the lighthouse originally on the site.

Edward Short is still paying off some of the money he borrowed for the ambitious building project ( Tom Wren/SWNS )

Sitting right on the cliff edge, it has triple-glazed floor-to-ceiling windows that give panoramic sea views and an infinity pool.

In 2019, it was featured on Channel 4s Grand Designs, dubbed by viewers the saddest ever episode, as it showed the family borrowing 500,000 from a hedge fund, then another 2.5m from private investors. This was for a smaller house built first, next to the main development, so that he could secure a larger loan.

The Shorts daughters said they were even holding car boot sales to raise money to put towards their parents dream luxury build.

However, as presenter Kevin McCloud said in the introduction to the episode: If a lighthouse has a single message that it shouts out, it is this: Stay away  or risk destruction.

His warning carried perhaps even more portent than he realised. Not only is Chesil Cliff House, which has never been lived in, up for sale for a second time after a first planned deal failed to go ahead but the build cost the couple their 20-year marriage.

The rooms in the tower have panoramic views ( Knight Frank )

Amid rocketing costs, crippling debts, and sleepless nights, Mr Short was put under increasing pressure that he said ultimately contributed to the breakdown of his marriage to Hazel.

While he caveated the build was not the sole reason the couples marriage ended, he told The Sun last July he regrets the stress his messed-up dreams put on his wife and two daughters, Nicole and Lauren.

Theres no doubt what I put Hazel through was horrendous, said the former music industry sales executive. Theres a lot of guilt about that. But there was no way out, once we started. If we didnt finish wed have been in big trouble.

It was awful for the family because I pulled the stability rug from under them, without being able to give answers of how we were going to get out of it, other than that I had to carry on.

The house is pile-driven to save it from falling into the sea when the cliffs erode ( Knight Frank )

The ambitious scheme was hugely expensive and as the cost of the work spiralled over the years, Mr Short was reportedly 7m in debt at one point.

There was also scepticism about it locally. When the Shorts first knocked down the 1950s house on the site and the diggers and lorries descended, there was much muttering about the disruption.

Mr Short brushed off concerns about coastal erosion leaving the house at risk of falling into the sea, saying if it hung over the cliff edge, it would be dramatic.

But during the application for planning permission, local objections included that lights shining through the windows would dazzle drivers on the main road above, as well as loss of uninterrupted views of the cliffs.

And then there was the huge cost, which managed to put some local noses out of joint.

Walls of windows are designed to let light in and give an airy feel ( Knight Frank )

Any potential buyer would need to fork out an estimated 10m in all for the property  7.5m for the main house, and a sum to be negotiated, but thought to be around 2.5m  for the three-bedroom annexe next door.

Its over the top, said Braunton parish councillor Derrick Spear of the design. You could say its avant-garde  or, more likely, it doesnt blend in with its surroundings, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Here we are trying to get affordable homes  which theres a great need for around here  but this is obviously a home for a very wealthy person, added Mr Spear, who said he was horrified by the estimated price tag.

But the television show brought a turnaround in local attitudes, as people saw the human story that unfolded behind the years of building.

The house is at Saunton on the coast ( Google Maps )

After the documentary came out, there was a huge lots of sympathy for Ed, says one north Devon resident. He used to be a parish councillor and I knew him a bit. I cant speak for the people of Croyde, but before the programme people were concerned over the cranes for a long time, the size. For neighbours any building site is difficult.

But what hes done is great. The actual building now is fantastic. It just took a long time.

Even after all these years, the house itself is still not quite ready to live in, with the kitchen still needing work. According to agent Knight Frank, it has been finished as an exciting blank canvas, giving the new owner the opportunity to design their own interior fit-out.

The agents brochure describes Chesil Cliff House as the perfect property to enjoy watching the sunsets, the dramatic storms and the surfers on Down End Point. And privacy at one of the UKs most spectacular newly built coastal homes is paramount, it says.

The infinity pool with views of the sea ( Knight Frank )

To this day, opinions in the area are still divided. Its beautiful, wrote one user on Facebook when the episode was aired again. The rotunda looks great, wrote another. Others branded it an eyesore and wondered how permission was ever granted. Too close to the waters edge for my liking, was one comment.

The local MP, Selaine Saxby, said she was frustrated by the high number of empty properties in the area, including holiday homes, but she had not had complaints about Chesil Cliff House.

Everyone recognises the difficulties behind it and wants to see finished, she said. Its so sad when theyre sitting empty  properties need life breathed into them.

A decade on, Mr Short himself is upbeat - about his life and the property. He has a new fiancee, nurse Jalia Nambasa, while he and Hazel, who also has a new partner, are still the best of friends.

The sea appears to come right up to the house ( Knight Frank )

Theres a happy ending to the story in that, in my opinion, we managed to get through a divorce and ended up with a bigger family and better relationship, he told TheSun.

Daughter Lauren would appear to agree, saying her parents are much happier now than they were.

What happened between my mum and dad, even without the house, would probably have happened anyway, she said in a follow-up episode of Grand Designs last October.

As for the property - an overseas purchaser had reportedly been close to signing on the dotted line last month, but failed to do so.

Mr Short remains confident the deal will go through, a source close to the sale of the property told MailOnline.

He also hopes the house itself will one day lose its saddest ever tag - something that finally getting a 10m signature would no doubt go a long way to solve.
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An intricately stitched roll more than 70ft (21.4 metres) long, created for the Kings coronation, contains just one mistake, its been revealed  a missing dot over an i.

The roll, which consists of 30 pages stitched together by hand, is the official record of Charless crowning.

Calligrapher Stephanie von Werthern-Gill said she worked for 56 days non-stop writing the roll after the coronation almost a year ago, on 6 May.

It bears about 11,600 words, elegantly inscribed, describing the ceremony, from the procession into Westminster Abbey to the anointing and crowning of the king, as well as a list of all those who took part and the official guests.

Rolls have been created for every coronation for centuries, but this is the first to be printed on paper, rather than vellum from animal skins, reflecting the Kings views on animal welfare.

Calligrapher Stephanie von Werthern-Gill said she worked for 56 days non-stop writing the roll ( Victoria Jones/PA Wire )

But when the King saw the roll, which he said went on for miles, he joked: All the right spellings?

In fact, there was a dot missing on a letter i, which Ms von Werthern-Gill had spotted, according to the BBC.

The King praised the team behind roll, telling them: You deserve a very stiff drink.

Camilla peered at a section of the roll spread on a table in Buckingham Palaces 1844 room and said: Goodness me, I wont attempt to read it without my specs and, commenting on how past rolls were written in Latin and French, Charles replied: At least its in English.

The roll includes intricate illustrations by Tim Noad, the designer of the Kings cypher, the logo that will appear on new banknotes, public buildings, uniforms and eventually on new postboxes.

The physical scroll will be stored at the National Archives, alongside the 17 historic Coronation Rolls that have survived.

It was the Kings second public-facing event since his cancer diagnosis and start of his treatment.
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A drag star owed 90,000 from Laurence Fox after successfully suing him for libel over a row on social media has revealed how they will spend his money.

The actor-turned-right-wing-politician was sued by drag artist Crystal and former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake after wrongly calling them both paedophiles in an exchange on X, formerly Twitter, about a decision by Sainsburys to mark Black History Month in October 2020.

In a judgment in January, Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled in favour of the performer, whose real name is Colin Seymour, and Mr Blake, dismissing the Reclaim Party founders counter-claims against the pair and broadcaster Nicola Thorp.

Crystal attending the RuPaul Drag race premiere, Bloomsbury Ballroom, London ( PA Archive )

And in a ruling last week, the judge ordered Mr Fox to pay Mr Blake and Mr Seymour 90,000 each in damages.

Writing for The Independent following the judgment, Mr Seymour spoke of how he felt vindicated upon reading the decision.

Now, the former RuPauls Drag Race UK contestant has explained how he will be spending the money awarded to him by the judge.

Writing for the Metro, he said the total 180,000 damages will be split equally between the three original claimants, even though the judge did not award any to Ms Thorp.

Fox is a former actor and has since become a right-wing-politician ( Getty Images )

With his remaining 60,000, Mr Seymour said he will be donating the majority to charities and saving the rest for himself, with a view to buying a bidet with a fox head spout so that Laurences money can wash my vindicated a**.

Speaking of money, I know youre wondering what Im going to do with the 90k, Mr Seymour wrote. There were three original claimants in our case against Laurence Fox  myself, Simon Blake and Nicola Thorp  so we will be spitting the total 180k damages three ways despite only two of us being awarded them.

I will give the bulk of my sum to charity, focusing on issues I know are close to Laurences heart  trans rights, racial equity, refugee advocacy and Palestinian solidarity to name a few. And I will save a bit for myself  I fancy a bidet with a fox head spout  so that Laurences money can wash my vindicated a**.

Mr Seymour stressed he never pursued court proceedings for the money but for recognition.

The performer added it had become very commonplace for people on social media to use terms such as groomer and paedo and that even after the April ruling, someone had accused him of being a danger to children.

Following last weeks judgment, Mr Fox posted on X that he would be seeking an appeal, describing the ruling as so surreal its almost funny.

Mr Seymour thanked the people who had shown support over the legal case, adding: Whenever a victory has been announced, the outpouring of support has just been so sensational. Its been so fantastic to feel that and also just to feel like its a win for the entire community.

I hope that this emboldens more people to stand up for themselves.
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Pro-Palestine protesters have set up camp outside University College London (UCL) in the latest action by activists outside universities across the country.

It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak backed a police crackdown on any protest that became hostile or antisemitic.

The protests are inspired by similar actions across the United States that have seen thousands of college students arrested for holding out in encampments from New York to Los Angeles.

The demonstrators at UCL have said they are for the long haul as they put out an appeal for supplies on social media.

They have joined a number of tent camps at universities in Bristol, Manchester and Warwick. At Goldsmiths, another university in London, students forced their way into the college library earlier this week protesting the war in Gaza.

Mr Sunaks official spokesperson said on Thursday that it was imperative that while freedom of speech was protected, it was vital that Jewish students must not feel unsafe.

It came as the Union of Jewish Students issued a statement in which they said Jewish students were angry, tired and hurt by the continuous torrent of antisemitic hatred since the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

A spokesperson for Mr Sunak said: The police already have extensive public order powers to tackle disorder at protests and will continue to have our full support in doing so if needed.

Images posted to social media site X, formerly Twitter, showed half a dozen green and orange tents being erected on a square near the main entrance of UCL at Gower Street.

A banner was unfurled in the middle of the square that read: UCL students against genocide.

On Friday, dozens attended a pro-Palestine gathering outside with British-Palestinian plastic surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, who recently spent time in Gaza hospitals, delivering a speech.

British-Palestinian plastic surgeon specialising in conflict injuries Ghassan Abu Sitta speaks to the press during a demonstration in support to Palestinian people at University College London (UCL) main entrance ( AFP via Getty Images )

Students waving the Palestinian flag take part in a demonstration in support to Palestinian people at University College London ( AFP via Getty Images )

It is believed that only a dozen or so protesters are involved in the encampment itself. One local report said that the students had said they were planning to stay here for the long haul till their demands are met.

A spokesperson for the UCL encampment told Middle East Eye they were prepared to continue their protest until the university divests from Israeli institutions that profit from the war in Gaza.

A UCL spokesperson said they were speaking with the organisers of the protest and were carefully monitoring the situation.

We will manage this in line with our legal duty and commitment to promote freedom of speech within the law whilst ensuring the safety and security of our community and enabling our education and research activity to continue, the spokesperson said.

The Telegraph reported that a Metropolitan Police Territorial Support Group van carrying three officers arrived at the university campus on Friday lunchtime, before leaving give minutes later.

When approached by The Independent, the Metropolitan Police said nothing significant had been flagged.

It is not the first time UCL students have launched protests against the war in Gaza.

Last month, students concluded a 34-day occupation of a lecture theatre after securing a meeting with the provost of UCL to demand scholarships for Palestinian students from Gaza, to end UCLs partnership with Tel Aviv University and to call for UCL to cut ties with arms companies.

The latest protest has caused some concern among the Jewish community in London.

The UK charity Campaign Against Antisemitism called for strong action to be taken against the protesters, adding that the fact the protest was allowed to take place was pitiful.
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Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years.

Labour won control of councils in England it hasn't held for decades and was successful in a special by-election for Parliament. Its only negative appears to have been in some areas with large Muslim populations where the party's candidates suffered as a result of leader Keir Starmer 's strongly pro-Israel stance in the conflict in Gaza.

Labour won Blackpool South, a long-time Labour seat in the northwest of England that went Conservative in the last general election in 2019, when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a big victory. In the contest, triggered by the resignation of a Conservative lawmaker following a lobbying scandal, Labours Chris Webb secured 10,825 votes, 7,607 more than his second-placed Conservative opponent.

This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today," Starmer said. This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change."

Thursdays elections were important in themselves, with voters deciding who will run many aspects of their daily lives, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention, in the coming years. But with a general election looming, they will be viewed through a national prism.

The results so far provide more evidence that Labour is likely to form the next government  and by quite a margin  and that Starmer will become prime minister. As of early Friday, with barely a quarter of the 2,661 seats up for grabs counted, the Conservatives were down 115 while Labour was up 60.

The results will roll in through Saturday. Sunak hopes he can point to successes, notably in several key mayoral races, to douse talk that the Conservative Party will change its leader again before the United Kingdoms main election, which could take place as soon as next month.

Key to his survival could be the results of mayoral elections in Tees Valley in the northeast of England and in the West Midlands. The former is due Friday lunchtime and the latter on Saturday. Should Conservative mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen hold on, he may win some respite from restive lawmakers in his party. Should both lose, he may face trouble. Labour's Sadiq Khan is expected to remain mayor of London when results are announced on Saturday..

Sunak could preempt any challenge by threatening to call a general election that has to take place before January 2025. He has the power to decide on the date and has indicated that it will be in the second half of 2024.
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Former Tory deputy party chairman and now Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has insisted his party will win seats at a general election following success in the local elections on Thursday.

His new party narrowly lost out on second place during the Blackpool by-election by only 117 votes.

Mr Anderson - who defected in March - told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that his partys vote is going up and up and up and the Tory vote is going down and down and down.

Lee Anderson has been touting Reforms surge in the polls ( PA Wire )

He praised his party for getting nearly 17 per cent of the vote share in Blackpool as tremendous, adding: Thats above our polling nationally.

Mr Andersons comments come as the partys vote share in Blackpool marks a considerable narrowing of the lead between the Tories and the right-wing challenger party, which is likely to irk some Conservative MPs.

However, Reform is still underperforming when compared to similar tests by Ukip in previous parliaments - leading some commentators to suggest that its vote share says more about a collapse in Tory support than a particularly strong campaign from the party.

The former Labour councillor turned Tory MP turned Reform MP touted the successes of his new party, telling R4 presenter Nick Robinson: Up and down the country we did well. In Sunderland, we beat the Tories in 16 out of 25 seats there and we did very, very well in the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

Some have suggested that a Nigel Farage candidacy could give the Reform party a seat during a general election ( Getty Images )

Mr Andersons insistence that his party will win seats at a general election has been widely disputed by pollsters who have suggested that although Reform may nibble away at the Conservative voteshare, they are not yet making the kind of necessary gains to win an entire constituency.

Many have questioned whether a high profile candidacy - such as Nigel Farage - could propel the party to victory in at least one seat. Thus far, Mr Farage has remained coy about whether or not he would stand for Reform, but has told reporters he plans to give an update within the next few weeks.

Mr Robinson put it to Mr Anderson that it would be bizarre for Mr Farage not to run now because you've just told us you're going to win seats.

An audibly annoyed Mr Anderson responded: Have you spoken to Nigel Farage, Nick?, to which Mr Robinson responded: No, I'm asking you about it.

Mr Anderson replied: Well I can think of lots of reasons why lots of people wouldn't run for parliament. Why don't you run for parliament?

After some heated back and forth, Mr Anderson conceded that Mr Farage is still making up his mind: Nigel has not ruled it out, Nick. He said hes going to make his mind up in the very, very near future. Its up to him whether or not he wants to be a member of parliament.
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Despite being on course to inflict losses of 500 seats on the Conservatives, Labours stance over Israels war in Gaza appears to be costing Sir Keir Starmers party in the local elections, according to his election chief.

Pat McFadden, a senior member of Starmers shadow cabinet, admitted on Sky News that the question over the events happening in Gaza, and Sir Keirs support for Israel, were having an impact on votes.

Sources from the Labours West Midlands team have also claimed that some Muslim voters stayed at home over the issue in protest probably helping to hand victory to the defending Tory mayor Andy Street in a key contest.

Mr McFadden, Labours national campaign co-ordinator, acknowledged Gaza had been a factor in some places, saying that with so many innocent people being killed Im not surprised people have strong feelings about that.

But he added that very local factors had also played a role in Oldham, while council leader Arooj Shah blamed 13 years of austerity and divisive toxic politics in the town which pre-dated the latest outbreak of conflict in Gaza, sparked by Hamass killing of more than 1,100 Israelis.

Follow our elections blog for live updates

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators walk through Kensington to the Israeli embassy in London ( PA )

Asked whether the loss was linked to Sir Keir Starmers position on the conflict, Ms Shah told the BBC: I dont think thats a fair statement to make, given that the issue of Gaza has been over the last year but what weve seen in Oldham is a lot longer than that... what we have had is 13 years of austerity and thats been really, really difficult.

While Labour had already won 20 of a possible 38 councils  and gained four  by midday on Friday, with 69 yet to declare, there were signs that Sir Keirs position on Palestine had hampered his partys ascendancy in some areas.

Most notably, Labour lost its majority of 13 years in Oldham, which had already been whittled down to just one ahead of Thursdays elections as a result of two defections last month  both of whom accused the party of not doing enough to condemn Israels actions in Gaza.

And on Friday morning, it became clear Labours slim remaining majority in the Greater Manchester town had crumbled  as the council was pushed into no overall control.

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for his position on the Gaza conflict ( Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire )

But there were signs that Labours position on Gaza  which has seen multiple defections since October, including the loss of 11 councillors in Burnley in November  was also having an effect elsewhere, as Green Party and independent candidates swept up Labour votes.

Newcastle elected its first-ever Green councillors, who seized two seats in the Labour-held council while, in Bolton, Labour lost two seats to fall five short of forming a majority  with Greens also winning their first seat and independents making gains.

Labours council leader for Bolton, Nick Peel, said: As a direct result of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine many South Asian voters have not supported Labour or the Conservatives.

Despite him having called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the public had expressed real anger over Labours stance, Mr Peel said.

George Galloway is also hoping to snatch more seats from Labour with his Workers Party ( Getty Images )

One Labour source in Birmingham suggested the issue had cost them a victory in the key West Midlands mayoral election, where a defeat for incumbent Andy Street could potentially imperil Rishi Sunaks premiership.

An anonymous source was quoted by Times columnist Patrick Maguire as saying: We have beaten him [Andy Street] as a general rule, but the Muslim vote has collapsed to the Galloway-backed independent.

And in a quote dubbed vile by the Tories, the BBC quoted a senior Labour source as saying: Its the Middle East, not West Midlands, that will have won Andy Street the mayoralty. Once again Hamas are the real villains.

A spokesperson later told ITV: The Labour Party has strongly condemned this racist quote which has not come from anyone who is speaking on behalf of party or whose values are welcome in the party.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at pollster Savanta, said Labour has had a strong set of local elections so far  but warned it could lose further seats over Gaza with councils such as Burnley and Bradford still to declare.

Many Labour supporters are angry over the partys stance on the war as the devastation in Gaza continues ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

He cautioned though that the swing away from Labour in those areas doesnt look large enough at this stage to affect them at a general election.

Noting that the Greens may be heading for their best performance yet in English local elections, polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice looked ahead to the upcoming general election as he told the BBC that Fridays results showed there is potentially a battle between Labour and the Greens for progressive or left-wing voters.

Particularly this is an among younger people, particularly in university towns, perhaps also among some of the Muslim communities, said Professor Curtice, noting that there were wards with large Muslim populations where Labour have actually done quite badly.

Former Labour MP George Galloway has also sought to capitalise on the Gaza issue, winning the Rochdale by-election in February and saying he will challenge Labour with a series of pro-Palestinian candidates at the general election.

Asked whether he was concerned about the impact of his Gaza position, Sir Keir told the BBC: Im concerned wherever we lose votes and we intend to win any votes we have lost back.

But theres no denying that across the country, whether its Hartlepool in the North or Rushmoor in the South or Redditch, a bellwether seat, we are winning votes across the country. And that, I think, reflects a changed Labour Party with a positive case to take to the country.
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Labour has won the Blackpool South by-election on a night of tricky election results for Rishi Sunak.

Chris Webb beat Conservative candidate David Jones in the contest to replace ex-Tory MP Scott Benton, who was forced to quit after becoming embroiled in a lobbying scandal.

Labour had been widely expected to win back the seat, and pollsters had warned the Tories could even finish behind Nigel Farages Reform UK due to the areas strong support for Brexit and social depravation.

Reform UK failed to beat the Conservatives in the seat ( Getty Images )

But, in a rare moment of relief for Mr Sunak on an otherwise challenging night, the Conservatives narrowly held off Reform to finish in second.

Mr Webb won the contest with a crushing majority, gaining 10,825 votes, compared with Mr Joness 3,218. And, in an escape that will still leave alarm bells ringing for Mr Sunak, Reform was just 100 votes shy of upsetting the Tories on 3,101.

Sir Keir Starmer said the seismic win would be the most important result of the local elections. The Labour leader said: This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.

He added: The swing towards the Labour Party in Blackpool South is truly historic and shows that we are firmly back in the service of working people.

I am so proud of the positive campaign we ran. To those who have put their trust in us in Blackpool, and those considering giving Labour their vote, we are ready to serve your interests.

Our new Labour MP Chris Webb has shown that after years of neglect with the Tories, there is a better alternative. The message to Rishi Sunak is clear. Its time for change, its time for a general election.

The result is the third biggest swing toward Labour in by-election history, representing a 26 per cent swing from the 2019 general election. Party sources said it is much bigger than the 12.5 per cent national swing needed to win a majority at the next general election.

Of the 78 years Blackpool South has been a constituency, it has been held by a Conservative MP for 57.

Mr Benton won the seat, which had been held since 1997 by Labour, for the Tories under Boris Johnson in 2019. He had a narrow majority of just 3,690.

In February, Mr Benton was suspended from the House of Commons for 35 days after being found to have breached the rules.

Sir Keir Starmer with Chris Webb, Labours new MP for Blackpool South ( PA Wire )

The House of Commons committee on standards found the MP had given the impression he was corrupt and for sale after he was secretly filmed saying he could table parliamentary questions and provide behind the scenes information for up to 4,000 a month.

Mr Benton was prepared to leak market-sensitive information to an investment fund and ask parliamentary questions on its behalf, in breach of parliamentary lobbying rules, an undercover investigation for The Times found.

He was caught on camera telling undercover reporters posing as investors how he was willing to take actions that would break Parliaments lobbying rules.

Scott Bentons appeal against his suspension from the Commons has been dismissed (Beresford Hodge/PA) ( PA Wire )

In a meeting in March 2023, Mr Benton described how he could support a fake investment fund, which he believed was set up by an Indian businessman looking to make investments in the UK betting and gaming sector, by attempting to water down proposed gambling reforms.

Mr Benton also offered a guarantee to provide a copy of an upcoming gambling white paper to the business at least two days before publication, potentially allowing it to benefit from market-sensitive information.

He also said he could table parliamentary written questions and said he had previously done it on behalf of a company.

Mr Benton said he could offer the direct ear of a minister who is actually going to make these decisions and speak to them outside the Commons voting lobby.

The MP agreed with a fee proposed by the reporters in the range of 2,000 to 4,000 a month for two days work.

More follows on this breaking story...
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As the first results from the May 2024 local elections come in, Keir Starmer has told the prime minister to make way for a general election.

It comes as Rishi Sunak faces a brutal series of losses set to further dampen the partys prospects in the face of a looming general election.

Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice said the election could be one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections of the last 40 years, while Conservative MPs have reluctantly conceded the results from the council elections are poor for the party.

Rishi Sunak is under pressure from his party to change course to reverse their electoral prospects ( PA Wire )

As we await the results of the key mayoral contests and the remaining councils, The Independent asks what the initial results mean for the general election, expected later this year.

When will we get a general election?

The prime minister has long claimed that his working assumption is that the country will take to the polls for a general election in the second half of the year, with many commentators suggesting it is most likely to be in the autumn.

But Westminster whispers suggest that a dire set of local election results could hasten a general election as rebel Conservative MPs move to depose Mr Sunak.

Sir John suggested that the Conservatives could be on track to lose over 500 seats, which would exceed the worst-case expectations offered up by CCHQ.

As of yet, there are minimal calls for Mr Sunak to go, as even his arch-critics have suggested a leadership coup is unlikely.

But the big test will be the mayoral results, which will not come in until the weekend.

Both incumbent Tory mayors in the West Midlands and Teesside are thought to be clinging to their seats on a knife-edge vote between Labour and the Conservatives. The loss of either or both seats would mean the overturning of huge majorites and could trigger substantial anger within the Tory party.

On the other hand, in London, it is widely anticipated that although the incumbent Labour mayor Sadiq Khan will maintain his mayorality the results may be closer than initially thought.

If the Tory candidate Susan Hall were to achieve a relatively high proportion of the voteshare, this could placate Tory insurgents, even if there were huge losses in other areas. Tory strategists suggest even a narrowing of the polls in London could assuage Tory nerves, with the capital offering a helpful blueprint to returning some lost support.

With days to come until the results will be fully digested, disgruntled Tories have plenty of time to strategise the pros and cons of pushing for Mr Sunaks early departure.

What do the results mean for the Conservatives?

Mr Sunaks days in Number 10 appear to be numbered ( Getty Images )

Pollsters have already confirmed that the local council results have verified the series of disastrous poll ratings that the Conservatives have been experiencing.

The most recent YouGov poll gave the Labour party a 26-point lead on the Tories, which, if repeated at a general election would give the party just 36 seats according to the prediction site Electoral Calculus.

Professor Curtice said: I think we have to conclude that the message of the polls of the last 12 months - which is that the Conservative Party under Rishi Sunak has not been making significant progress in narrowing the gap on Labour - that its not been making that progress, and these local results so far fully confirm what those polls have been saying.

The results are therefore unlikely to inspire the party with much hope for an electoral rebound. It looks almost certain that Labour will take the keys to No. 10 - the big question is how sizeable the defeat will be.

And what about Labour?

Keir Starmer hailed the seismic Blackpool by-election success ( AFP via Getty Images )

Sir Keir said Labours win - in the contest to replace ousted Tory MP Scott Benton - was truly historic and the most important result nationally as the party achieved yet another 20-point swing in a by-election.

Blackpool is significant as a key northern battleground which turned blue in 2019, having fought the Tories off by a slim margin in previous general elections.

Todays swing demonstrates a significant drop-off in support for the governing party in a town that has been badly impacted by levelling-up failures, the cost of living crisis and Tory sleaze. As these are all issues that will characterise general election campaign, the partys victory will please Labour strategists.

In the local council elections more broadly, Labour has made gains in areas which have been historically Tory-dominated, such as Rushmoor and Thurrock. In response to gaining Thurrock council, a Labour spokesperson saying: This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election.

Should Labour continue to replicate these kind of successes as the local elections continue to unfold, the party will feel comfortably on track to overturn blue constituencies at the general election and achieve a comfortable majority.

What else can we learn from the results so far?

Reform Party leader Richard Tice will be pleased with the results ( PA Wire )

As is often the case in local elections, challenger and fringe parties have made substantial gains as people tend to vote on localised issues rather than who they want to see in No.10.

Significantly for Labour, both the Greens and independent candidates have made strides in areas where populations are concerned about the oppositions position on Gaza and environmental issues.

The party lost control of Oldham council after independent candidates, several of whom explicitly campaigned in support of Palestine, gained five seats on Thursday night, pushing the council into no overall control.

Labours national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden acknowledged the crisis in Gaza had been a factor in some places, saying that with so many innocent people being killed Im not surprised people have strong feelings about that.

As a result, Labour will be carefully keeping an eye on their vote share in areas with significant Muslim and student populations, keen not to hemorrhage support in voter groups that have typically been seen as a safe bet for the party.

On the right, Reform beat the Tories in 16 out of the 25 seats, which is likely to irk the Tory factions that have been pushing for the prime minister to shift rightwards.

Though Reform MP Lee Anderson insisted his party will win seats at a general election, the party ultimately performed slightly worse than it hoped, taking third place in the Blackpool by-election.

The vote share was narrow - only 117 votes between the Tories and the right-wing challenger party - but still dampening Reforms chances of taking an entire constituency, as the party is still underperforming when compared to similar tests by Ukip in previous parliaments.
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With almost all councils having declared a result, it seems the Conservative Party has faced its worst local election performance in 40 years.

So far, 106 out of 107 councils have declared a result, with Labour grappling four authorities from the Conservatives and an overall increase of 185 councillors  as well as declaring a crushing victory in the Blackpool South by-election.

Follow our local elections live blog here

The Conservatives have so far lost 473 councillors across the country, while the Lib Dems managed to secure 104 more  key results in mayoral elections also saw encouraging results for Labour.

So what are the key wins and losses across the country? The Independent takes a look below.

Basildon

The Conservatives fared particularly badly in Essex at this set of local elections  a part of England that will be another key battleground at the general election.

In Basildon the party saw its number of councillors fall by 13, with Labour up nine and Independents up four, while in Castle Point they were wiped out entirely, losing every seat they were contesting.

Some 13 Conservative candidates failed to appear on ballot papers in Castle Point because of problems with nominations  an issue that has contributed to the new council consisting solely of 39 Independents.

Hartlepool

Three years ago, Sir Keir Starmer is reported to have considered resigning as party leader after Labour lost the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election to the Tories in a humiliating defeat, having previously held the seat since it was created in 1974.

But this year Hartlepool gave Labour cause for celebration, as it won control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six.

( AFP via Getty Images )

West Midlands

Andy Street - who has served two terms as mayor since 2017 - lost the West Midlands mayoralty in a shock defeat for the Conservatives.

Tory candidate Mr Street had hoped to cling on in the West Midlands, but was narrowly defeated in an upset by his Labour rival Richard Parker, party sources said.

Mr Streets loss may have an impact on the Prime Ministers defence against backbench Tory challenges to his authority.

As West Midlands mayor, Mr Parker will represent an area covering Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, and other boroughs across the region.

Harlow

Both Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner toured the Essex town of Harlow 24 hours before the polls opened, in a symbolic visit to a part of the country that will be a key battleground at the general election.

But while Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursdays council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17.

Nuneaton

There has been a complete change in Nuneaton & Bedworth in Warwickshire, with Labour up 15 seats and the Conservatives down 11, enough for Labour to take control of the council for the first time since 2018.

Oldham

A backlash over Labours stance on Gaza also saw the party lose Oldham Council, with independent candidates  several of whom explicitly campaigned in support of Palestine  gaining five seats to push the council into no overall control.

Labours national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden acknowledged the crisis in Gaza had been a factor in some places  but he added that very local factors had also played a role in Oldham, while council leader Arooj Shah blamed 13 years of austerity and a divisive toxic politics.

Rushmoor

There was better news for Labour deep in the so-called blue wall of the traditional Conservative heartland of Hampshire.

Britain Election ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

The party gained seven seats and a majority on Rushmoor council, an area that includes the army town of Aldershot, while the Tories lost eight seats and overall control.

Redditch

Labour will be pleased with its performance in the Worcestershire council of Redditch - another important battleground at the general election - where the party picked up nine seats and overall control, while the Conservatives saw their tally drop by 11.

South Tyneside

It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats.

Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor, in what could be a reflection of anger over Labours position on Israels war in Gaza, or dissatisfaction with local issues, not least a long-running local bin collection strike.

Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens.

Reform narrowly missed second place in the Blackpool South by-election ( Getty )

Sunderland

The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat.

While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs. Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.

Tees Valley

The Tees Valley mayoral race was one potentially imperilling Rishi Sunaks premiership. But despite Labour gains, Tory favourite Ben Houchen comfortably retained the mayoralty, even clinging on in Hartlepool, where Labour simultaneously took control of the council.

In his acceptance speech, however, Mr Houchen  whose rivals claimed had run as a quasi-independent  thanked voters for backing my plan, and said pointedly that, to be frank it doesnt matter to me whether he worked with Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister.

Thurrock

This Essex council was another one of Labours top targets in a key Conservative-Labour election battleground.

The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022.

Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10.

Key mayoral results are still yet to come ( EPA )

Police and crime commissioners

Labour won three of the eight police and crime commissioner elections declared on Saturday, gaining Cheshire from the Conservatives and holding West Midlands and Merseyside.

The Conservatives held Hertfordshire and Dorset comfortably, and had narrow wins in Warwickshire by just 306 votes, 0.26%, Thames Valley by 2,343 (0.52%) and Wiltshire by 2,233 votes (1.79%).

Labour gained nine PCCs from the Conservatives on Friday, as well as holding five.

The party now has 17 PCCs, the same as the Conservatives, with Plaid Cymru retaining Dyfed-Powys.

There are two results to be declared on Sunday, in Kent and Sussex.

These elections get much less attention than those for mayors, councils and the London Assembly  but could be significant as they include many of the shires that traditionally lean towards the Conservatives.

Additional reporting by PA
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Londoners went to the polls on Thursday, 2 May to elect a mayor and 25 London Assembly members.

Around six million people were registered to vote in this years election, which decides who will be in charge of the capital for the next four years.

The ballot boxes were moved from more than 3,600 polling stations across the capital, staffed by around 12,000 people, to 14 counting centres in the city overnight.

But the results are unlikely to be declared until late on Saturday, as verification of the votes does not start until Friday morning at 9am.

Counting of the votes then starts at 9am on Saturday, with three ballot papers needing to be counted.

The mayoral votes will be counted first, followed by the constituency London Assembly members, and then the London-wide Assembly members.

The first results should emerge around midday and it is thought the winner may be clear by as early as 1.30pm on Saturday. But the official announcement is expected to take place in the late afternoon or evening at City Hall - and could be pushed back if there are any delays.

This year there was a new voting system, first past the post (FPTP), similar to what is used in general elections.

In previous mayoral elections voters could make a first and second choice for mayor, however this time people only received one vote.

The London mayoral candidates were officially announced on Thursday 28 March, with 13 candidates running for office.

Here are all the candidates below.

Sadiq Khan  Labour Party

Sadiq Khan ( PA Wire )

Sadiq Khan was running for his third term as London mayor after first being elected in 2016.

The Labour incumbent launched his re-election campaign on Monday 18 March and accused the Conservatives of an abject failure on housing.

He pledged to build 40,000 new council homes by the end of the decade to unleash the greatest council housebuilding drive in a generation if voted back in.

He said the capital would go much further, much faster with Labour running both Downing Street and City Hall and without the Tories holding us back.

The mayor vowed to deliver a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real inroads into solving Londons housing crisis and end the scandal of rough sleeping.

The Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez), one of Khans flagship policies, has been the centre of controversy in recent years.

First introduced in the capital in 2019 to tackle air pollution, Ulez was expanded to every borough in August 2023 despite vocal backlash. Many of the other mayoral candidates vow to scrap the scheme if elected.

Susan Hall  Conservative Party

Susan Hall ( PA Wire )

Susan Hall is a London Assembly member and former council leader.

If she defeats Mr Khan, she will become the first woman to lead London as mayor.

Ms Hall has a five-point plan for London. She vows to reduce crime, scrap Ulez, build family homes, and make London a cleaner and greener city.

The Tory candidate has been a controversial choice since her selection last year.

She previously apologised for liking a string of tweets including Islamophobic abuse of Mr Khan and images of former Conservative politician Enoch Powell, best known for his infamous rivers of blood immigration speech that was widely blamed for heightening racial tensions in the 1960s.

Ms Hall also admitted she does not know the price of bus fares in London.

Rob Blackie  Liberal Democrats

Rob Blackie ( Andrew King/Rob Blackie )

Rob Blackie is an anti-Brexit campaigner and digital marketer who advises start-up tech companies.

The Lib Dem candidate launched his election campaign on Tuesday 18 March, saying his top priority is crime and policing.

Sadiq Khans failure on those issues is the main reason I am standing against him, he said.

Violent crime has risen by 30 per cent in London since Mr Khan has been in office. Sexual offence clear-up rates have halved in the last eight years

Sadiq Khan blames everyone else for this but himself. The buck stops with him and we will call him out in this campaign.

Mr Blackie also described Conservative candidate Ms Hall as beyond the pale.

Zoe Garbett  Green Party

Zoe Garbett ( Zoe Garbett/Green Party/X )

Zoe Garbett is a councillor for Dalston and Hackney.

She tweeted in February: Im overjoyed to have been chosen to be the Green Party candidate for London Mayor. Huge thank you to London Green Party for your support and cant wait to start the campaign.

Ms Garbett called for a two-year rent freeze as one of her main priorities.

Vying to become Londons first Green mayor, she said: If people want to vote Green, they can  and should! The Green Party has consistently come third in London and we are a growing force nationally.

Green Assembly members have a track record of delivering for Londoners. A Green mayor would be much more ambitious tackling the issues that really matter to voters: dealing with the housing crisis, making our city more affordable and a more accountable police service.

Howard Cox  Reform UK

Howard Cox at an anti-Ulez protest in London ( George Lithgow/PA Wire )

Howard Cox is the founder of Fair Fuel UK campaign and Reform UKs candidate for mayor.

Mr Cox has pledged to scrap Ulez as well as low-traffic neighbourhoods.

At an anti-Ulez protest earlier this year, the Reform candidate said: Good, decent, honest, taxpaying, hardworking people are being impacted by Ulez.

Its such a sad thing because we do not need Ulez. Science proves we dont need it.

Stop picking on the motorists, theyre the commercial heartbeat of the economy.

Amy Gallagher - Social Democrat Party

Amy Gallagher is an NHS nurse and psychotherapist.

Ms Gallagher told the BBC she was standing in the election to push back on woke ideology.

Ms Gallagher said London had become more divided and that Sadiq Khan was spending too much money on campaigns that are all about virtue signalling. If elected, her top priority would be to defund divisive diversity and inclusive spending.

She added: Poor living conditions, lack of community, division, increases in crime, unreliable public transport: many people feel like politicians have let them down and they never get the change they were promised.

Ms Gallagher garnered media attention after bringing legal action against the NHS, accusing it of forcing critical race theory on people.

Count Binface  Independent

Count Binface ( PA Archive )

Count Binface describes himself as an intergalactic space warrior.

He previously ran in the 2021 London election and came ninth.

He pledges to enforce a price cap on croissants, rename London Bridge to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and bring back Ceefax.

He also vows to ban loud snacks from theatres and give royal palaces to the homeless.

Other candidates

Brian Rose  London Real Party

Femy Amin  Animal Welfare Party  People, Animals, Environment

Nick Scanlon  Britain First  No To Immigration

Natalie Campbell  Former Conservative hopeful

Tarun Ghulati  Investment banker

Andreas Michli  Health and fitness entrepreneur
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Voters across England and Wales took to the polls on Thursday for the latest round of local elections. Early results indicate strong results for Labour, as the Tories suffer massive losses. Alongside thousands of councillors, several metro mayors are to be elected  including the high-profile Mayor of London.

Incumbent Sadiq Khan is hoping to secure a third term for Labour as he fights off Conservative candidate Susan Hall. They are amongst 11 candidates in total, including the controversial right-wing Reform UK partys Jeremy Cox.

Mr Khan has sought to focus on his succcesses when on the campaign trail. These include an expansion to existing rail and bus lines, as well as frozen fares for Londoners.

Follow our live coverage of the elections by clicking here

The London mayor has also pledged policies which aim to tackle the ongoing cost of living crisis and housing issues many in the capital are facing. Amongst these are free school meals for all children, and 40,000 new council homes.

His competition has aimed to draw the dividing lines in different places. High on the agenda of most candidates is a change or scrap to Mr Khans Ulez expansion, which continues to provoke intense reactions.

Alongside challenges to his record on knife crime and changes to the electoral system, Thursdays mayoral election is likely to be the Labour mayors most difficult  something he has admitted himself.

Here everything you need to know about the three big issues that have shaped Londons mayoral election:

The debate around ULEZ rages on (as Reform UK takes advantage)

People during an anti-Ulez protest in Trafalgar Square (Stefan Rousseau/PA) ( PA Wire )

Londons Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) is an area within the city inside which a 12.50 daily charge is made to anyone driving a non-compliant vehicle. It was expanded by Mr Khan in August 2023 to cover all London boroughs  sparking fierce and ongoing backlash.

The Ulez is designed to improve air quality in the capital and, although studies vary, it is generally considered by experts to be a continuing success. The mayors office claims that the policy reduced harmful pollution levels by around half in its first year, while more conservative research suggests a 15 to 20 per cent reduction.

However, critics have called the new expansion a cost-raising exercise that is unlikely to significantly improve Londons air quality further, but will introduce a poorly-timed new fee to some living inside the M25 amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.

The issue has become a strong division amongst voters in London, and was a focal point during Julys Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election (triggered by Boris Johnsons resignation). Leading up to the election, the area saw vocal campaigning against the expansion, with some Ulez cameras in the area vandalised or even torn down.

Susan Hall, the Conservative London Mayoral Candidate, speaking to protesters during an anti-Ulez protest in Trafalgar Square ( Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire )

Although the policy is devolved to a regional level, and so not within the power of central government to undo, Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwells criticism of the policy has been linked to his narrow victory.

We won it on the fact that it was a referendum on Ulez, Mr Tuckwell told Sky News after his election.

The mayors office continues to push back on the issue. His office has strained to point out that 85 per cent of cars within outer London are already Ulez compliant, and in September ruled out ever introducing a rumoured pay-per-mile system.

But in the run-up to the mayoral election, the issue remains contentious as ever.

In her campaign pledges, Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall has said she would scrap the Ulez expansion as a first priority, and ensure a pay-per-mile charge is never introduced  despite Mr Khans insistence he has no plans for one.

Meanwhile Reform UKs Jeremy Cox has gone even further, claiming he would scrap the entire policy, inner London included, and even refund all the Ulez fees collected since Augusts expansion.

Reform UK London Mayoral Candidate Howard Cox at an anti-Ulez protest in Trafalgar Square ( PA )

The motorist campaigner has also said he will remove Londons low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), which filter traffic away from certain areas to improve air quality and pedestrian safety.

They have become another London resident talking point, creating divisions along the same lines as the Ulez debate. Critics say that LTNs  some of which have been in place for decades  only create higher traffic on diversion routes, to the dismay of commuters and residents.

However, a recent government-backed review found that LTNs generally work well and are popular. And because they are devolved to council level, it is not within the Mayors power to remove them directly.

Knife crime in the capital is rising  but its not so simple

Sadiq Khan inspects new police recruits, 2020 ( PA )

In the run-up to the election, many of the mayors opponents have accused him of not effectively tackling the issue of knife crime in the capital, and argue that cases are soaring.

It is true that cases of knife crime in London have risen since Mr Khans was elected in 2016. From 2015 to 2023, cases recorded by the Met have doubled, increasing from 9,743 to 14,577.

The year ending December 2019 saw the most serious knife-related crimes, at 15,462, with a sharp decline during the Covid pandemic. This has been steadily increasing in recent years.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak recently criticised the mayors record on crime, saying London under Mr Khan was the only place in the country not to meet its police recruitment targets, which he called the reality of Labour in power.

The mayor has pushed back against this criticism, arguing that he is contending with decades of Conservative austerity.

We have been trying to fill the massive hole left by government cuts by investing in young people, youth clubs, after-school clubs and mentoring, he said.

New research by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) backs his position, finding that closures of 70 per cent of Londons police stations since 2010 led to an 11 per cent increase in murders and assaults in nearby neighbourhoods.

And although it remains one of the top four regions with high rates of knife crime in England, London did not have the highest in 2023. Last year, the capitals rate of knife-related offences per 100,000 people was 137, coming second to the West Midlands rate of 167. The average in England is 89.

Theres been TWO big changes to the voting system

Voters must now bring photo ID on polling day ( Getty Images )

The government passed the Elections Act in 2022, bringing in some major changes to the electoral system in the UK. It has majorly changed the way votes are counted in Londons mayoral elections.

In previous years, voters selected their first and second choice candidate in a system known as the Supplementary Vote. This meant that if their first choice candidate was eliminated and neither of the top two candidates received over 50 per cent of the vote, their second choice would then be counted (if it was for one of the top two candidates).

Voters will now only select one candidate under the new First Past the Post voting system  the same that we use for general elections. It means that whoever gets the most votes wins.

In both his 2016 and 2021 victories, Mr Khan was elected in the second round, having failed to secure 50 per cent of first choice votes. However, he still would have won both times under the new system, as he secured more votes than his second-place opponents.

Voters in England and Wales go to the polls on May 2 (PA) ( PA Wire )

Another key change to come from the Elections Act are the controversial new voter ID laws, which means voters must now bring photographic identification to the polling station on election day.

Passports, driving licences and the new voter authority certificate are amongst the accepted forms of ID. The government says the new laws are designed to crack down on election fraud. However, critics point out cases of this in the UK are rare, and that laws may disproportionately affect marginalised communities ability to vote.

Mr Khan has expressed his concerns about the new changes, saying the Conservative party made them to make it more likely their candidate will win.

The mayor called on Lib Dem and Green voters who gave him their second choice vote last time to vote for him alone this time, arguing that the margins will now be tighter.
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Labours Sadiq Khan takes on Tory rival Susan Hall to win a third term as London mayor, with poll results prior to the actual vote unanimously suggesting hed win comfortably.

But, nevertheless, as London waits for the count to begin on Saturday, several journalists at outlets including GB News and the Byline Times have reported anxieties within the Labour camp and, somewhat incredibly, confidence in Conservative Camp Headquartrs that the result will be tight enough for a historic upset.

While polls had tightened in the run-up to the vote, with Savanta putting Ms Hall 10 points behind Mr Khans 42 per cent, the incumbent Labour mayor himself fuelled such nerves when he warned  two hours prior to polls closing  that low numbers of people voting meant the real risk of Tory victory.

Susan Halls campaign for London mayor has been fraught with controversy ( Getty Images )

Despite Mr Khan having faced anger over his Ulez policies and accusations of failing to do enough to tackle knife crime, Ms Hall has never appeared close to posing a serious threat  with Deltapoll director Joe Twyman noting that a Tory victory would represent a polling error far in excess of anything in the history of our industry.

But as rumours swirl on the eve of the count, The Independent has taken a further look at Ms Halls policies and campaign.

When did Susan Hall become the Tory candidate?

The 69-year-old had served as a councillor since 2006, with a stint as Harrow Council leader before replacing now-business secretary Kemi Badenoch in the London Assembly in 2017. She went on to become London Conservatives leader in 2019, during which period she endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 US election and likened Capital rioters to Brexit Remainers.

She was selected as the partys mayoral candidate in July 2023, after the partys first pick, Daniel Korski, was forced to drop out amid groping allegations. CCHQ launched an internal review of its London operation following her selection, insisting it had done so with Ms Halls full support.

Why has she proven controversial?

As throughout much of her time in office, Ms Halls campaign has been fraught with controversy  and The Independent revealed this week that senior Tories had wanted Reforms candidate to run in her place.

Prior to her selection as mayoral candidate, remarks by Ms Hall which had drawn criticism included backing claims of an invasion of refugees and calling TV star Gemma Collins a stupid fat blonde woman.

After her selection, Ms Hall was swiftly reported to have liked tweets praising Enoch Powell and describing Sadiq Khan as a traitor rat.

The following month, Tory minister Nusrat Ghani and the Board of Deputies of British Jews were among those to criticise her claims that Mr Khans divisive attitude was a cause of fear among some Jewish Londoners.

Weeks later, she claimed crime was out of control after her purse was pickpocketed on the London Underground. A member of the public later revealed they had returned it to her complete with cards and cash after finding it lying on a seat.

Susan Hall speaking to protesters during an anti-Ulez protest in Trafalgar Square ( Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire )

Just days before this weeks vote, it was reported that Ms Hall had joined an anti-Ulez Facebook group the day after an expose revealed that it contained Islamophobic hate speech and abusive comments about Mr Khan.

Former Tory cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi has since accused Ms Hall of gutter politics, while Labours shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a win for her would be one for racists, white supremacists and Islamophobes the world over.

What are Ms Halls policies?

Ms Hall has vowed to scrap the Ulez expansion from her first day in office, and pledged to end a war on motorists by reviewing 20mph speed limits on main roads and low-traffic neighbourhoods, while extending Night Tube services, and reinstating travel discounts for over-60s during peak morning hours.

The Tories have also committed to recruit 1,500 more police officers, and to set up two new police bases in every London borough, while taking action to crack down on knife crime, theft and womens safety issues.

Ms Hall has also claimed she would build more affordable homes by prioritising high-density, low-rise developments and prevent the construction of new tower blocks except where appropriate.
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Rishi Sunaks Conservative are on course for one of their worst local elections defeats, with polling experts suggesting they are on track to lose some 500 council seats.

While Labour are benefiting most, the Tories have also been troubled by the ascendancy of Reform UK, which  with 17 per cent of the vote  were just 117 ballots away from snatching second place in South Blackpool, where Sir Keir Starmers party inflicted a crushing by-election defeat on the Tories.

And despite so far failing to win a single council seat, the insurgent right-wing party also succeeded in pushing the Conservatives into third place in 16 town hall seats in Sunderland.

And polling guru Sir John Curtice said Reform UK could have done greater damage to the Conservative vote had it fielded more candidates in the local elections.

Noting that the Tory vote dropped most heavily in wards where Reform fielded a candidate, Sir John wrote in the Daily Telegraph: The only silver lining for Tory HQ was that Reform only contested one in six of the wards where there was an election on Thursday. A full slate would have been even more devastating.

How and when did Reform UK emerge?

The party was initially founded as the Brexit Party in 2018, with the backing of former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

While it stormed to victory in the European elections of 2019, winning nearly a third of the vote while campaigning for a no-deal Brexit, it ultimately stood aside against Boris Johnsons Conservatives in 2019s general election, receiving just shy of 650,000 ballots  2 per cent of the national vote.

Nigel Farage stood down in March 2021 ( Good Morning Britain/ITV )

With Brexit progressing and the Covid pandemic in full swing, Mr Farage announced in November 2020 that he had applied to change the partys name to Reform UK  and planned for the party to focus on electoral and constitutional issues, as well as opposing Covid lockdowns and reducing immigration.

Who is Reforms leader and who are its candidates?

Shorty after the partys rebrand, Mr Farage announced he was resigning as Reforms leader and would be stepping back from frontline politics.

The partys chair Richard Tice assumed the leadership in March 2021, with former North West England MEP David Bull taking the role of deputy leader.

Among the partys more well-known candidates and members have been former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe, GB News host Michelle Dewberry, and former Loaded editor Martin Daubney.

Last June, the party announced a mutual co-operation and support agreement with Laurence Foxs Reclaim Party to allow him to run in the Uxbridge by-election, in which the actor attracted 2.3 pe cet of the vote.

And Reform landed its first MP in March, following the defection of former Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson, who was suspended from the Conservative Party after making racist comments about London mayor Sadiq Khan.

What are Reforms policies?

Sitting to the right of the Tories on immigration, Reform calls for net zero immigration and claims it would turn small boats back to France while leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

It also pledges to make major changes to the unelected cronyism of the House of Lords, the unaccountable civil service and the bloated BBC.

Referring to net zero as net stupid, Reform says it wants to use our own energy treasure under our feet in a nod to fracking and coal mining, and to nationalise 50 per cent of key utility companies, with the other 50 per cent owned by British pension funds.

It has recently been campaigning for English flags to be hung by councils on St Georges Day.

Could Nigel Farage rejoin the party?

There has been speculation that Nigel Farage could return to frontline politics for the general election  but he is also courting advances from the right wing of the Tory party, which looks on course for a period of radical overhaul.

Asked on Friday if Mr Farage could return to Reform, Mr Tice said: The more help Nigel feels able to give the better. Hes got a big decision to make... and of course the clock is ticking.
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A defiant Rishi Sunak has argued that he can still win the general election despite predictions he is on course to lose a near catastrophic number of council seats.

The prime minister admitted his partys overnight results in the local elections in England were disappointing.

But he pointed to results in Harlow and the Tees Valley to suggest he could still lead his party to victory.

Earlier his party chairman had appealed to rebel MPs to wait through the weekend for more results as a bruising set of votes piled further pressure on Mr Sunaks leadership.

But asked whether he needed to convince his own party he could do better when it came to a general election, a defiant PM said: "If Keir Starmer was in Harlow on Wednesday saying that that was a place he needed to win in order to win the next general election - that hasnt happened.

"We still haven't got results from places like Tees Valley with the mayoralty results, which again is a key battleground.

He also told reporters at a military base in North Yorkshire that it was obviously  disappointing to lose good hard working Conservative councillors.

Rishi Sunak ( Getty Images )

Minutes after he finished speaking it was announced that Conservative Ben Houchen had held on in the Tees Valley, although the swing in the vote would see parliamentary seats won by the Tories in 2019 fall to Labour.

Lord Houchen got 81,930 votes (53.6 percent) and his Labour rival Chris McEwan 63,141 (41.3 percent).

However, this was still a collapse in Lord Houchens vote, far below the 78.8 per cent he received in 2021.

The Tory Party chairman has appealed to rebels Tory MPs to "wait through the weekend" for more results, as he insisted Ms Sunak was "the right man" to lead the party.

Richard Holden admitted it had been a "tough night".

Elections experts have warned the Conservatives could be on course to lose 500 seats in what could be their worst performance in 40 years.

Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer hailed a "seismic win" for Labour in the Blackpool South by-election, where the party secured a 26.33 per cent.

Labour's victory was the third biggest swing from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since the Second World War.

Asked whether he was confident Tory MPs would not try to remove Mr Sunak as PM, Mr Holden told Sky News: "Parliamentary colleagues need to look at this and see... and wait through the weekend as well."

Most of the council seats up for re-election in England were last contested three years ago, at the peak of Boris Johnson's popularity and just after the Covid-19 vaccine had been rolled out.
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Rishi Sunaks position as leader of the Tories and Prime Minister is in the balance as voters delivered a damning verdict on his government in the crucial local elections yesterday.

With a general election just months away, Conservative MPs are privately discussing whether to force a vote of no confidence in their leader as the dire poll predictions appear to have been born out at the ballot box this week.

With counts still ongoing across the country, the Tories are on course to lose more than 500 of the council seats they were defending with 122 confirmed losses by 8am. Labour had picked up more than 100 gains with party leader Sir Keir Starmer describing the results as seismic.

Polling guru Prof Sir John Curtice hailed the Blackpool result as spectacular and told Radio 4s Today that they confirm the terrible polls for the Tories over the last year.

Rishi Sunaks Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses at Thursdays local elections (Henry Nicholls/PA) ( PA Wire )

Prof Curtice said of the Blackpool by election result: This is not an isolated case that you can explain away.

It was dramatic evidence that the project Rishi Sunak is meant to be there to achieve, to narrow the gap on Labour  has still to provide any visible benefit.

Meanwhile, Labours Chris Webb won the Blackpool South Parliamentary by election with 26 per cent swing from Tories. Their drop in support since the 2019 General Election is the third biggest fall since the Second World War.

Mr Webb said: The people of Blackpool South have told Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives they have had enough. Prime Minister, admit you have failed and call a General Election.

Worse still for the Tories was that they only narrowly beat Reform UK in the by-election. The results so far showed that where the Tories were facing Reform candidates their vote dropped by 17 percent on average compared to 11 percent where there was no Reform candidate.

Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson now a Reform MP mocked his former colleagues saying: "Reform's vote is going up and up and up, the Tory vote is going down and down and down...Reform will win seats [in the general election]."

According to one leading party critic of Mr Sunak Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the only thing saving the Prime Minister currently is paralysis among Tory MPs.

She said: I dont think the letters are going to go in at the moment. MPs are paralysed.

The Morley and Outwood MP instead proposed a plan B of bringing rightingers like Suella Braverman back into the cabinet and allowing Boris Johnson to return as a canddiate at the next election.

All eyes are on the Tees Valey Mayor election today where Tory Ben Houchen won 78.8 percent of the vote in 2021 but is struggling to hold on against his Labour rival with a result expected at lunch time.

One Conservative backbencher told The Independent: I am going to wait and see what happens with Houchen in Teesside.

Keir Starmer hails incredible Blackpool election win. ( Good Morning Britain/ITV )

Another added: Things are just not good at all.

One of the Tories pushing for a leadership contest told The Independent: It really is now or never. If we dont do anything the party will consigned to oblivion.

A final decision may wait until early tomorrow afternoon with the West Midlands Mayor election result covering a region with almost 30 battleground constituences. Conservative mayor Andy Street also fighting for survival despite removing Conservative symbols from much of his literature.

There is though speculation that if the 52 letters needed do go to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady to trigger a vote of confidence in Mr Sunak then he may resign.

One MP said: I think he would know that he could not survive a confidence vote reputationally even if he wins it. I think he would probably resign.

It did not take long for Tory recriminations over the Partys disastrous performance to surface.

Andrew Jefferies, Tory leader of Thurrock Council in Essex which fell to Labour, blamed the Government for his defeat. He said: People are unhappy with the Government and cannot see what the vision is for the country. The Prime Minister needs to take that and give a positive message to voters.

Tim Montgomerie, founder of the influential Conservative Home website, said of the results: That isnt bad, it is catastrophic. Rishi Sunak is a nice decent man but he doesnt do politics.

Claire Bullivant, efounder of another Tory grassroots website The Conservative Post, claimed members want a new leader.

She said: The country is actually calling out for conservatism. Ask any councillor or campaigner. We heard it on every doorstep. You see it on social media. You read it in every local newspaper. You hear it in every pub. Give us a new leader who is a proper conservative and we can still win the General Election. Bring back conservatism!"

Reforms Lee Anderson mocked former Tory colleagues ( Lee Anderson )

BBC political editor Chris Mason said the results were further evidence that the Rishi Sunak project to resuscitate the Conservative brand is not working - whatever he tries appears to make no difference.

Mason said a key question following the Conservatives dismal showing was whether Tory MPs would now consider what he called the nuclear option of ousting Sunak as leader.

Mason said the Tories local election losses were similar to those the Party suffered in 1995, two years before it was crushed by Tony Blairs Labour Party in the 1997 election.

The votes yesterday came after a Yougov poll had given the Tories an even worse vote share than when Liz Truss was Prime Minister for a disastrous 49 days.

It meant, according to a prediction website Electoral Calculus, that the party was on course for just 32 seats in the general election.

However, as votes were being counted this morning, Tory chairman Richard Holden defiantly said that Mr Sunak was here to stay as leader and will take the party to the next general election.

But a string of groundbreaking results suggest that Labour appear to be on the verge of taking swathes of the country.

Labour described its gain in Rushmoor as a historic result. Rushmoor has never had a Labour majority council and has been run by the Conservatives for the last 24 years. The council also contains Aldershot parliamentary constituency which is a key battleground for Labour at the general election and is the home of the British Army.

Labour also took back Hartlepool a key red wall battleground where Reform UK leader Richard Tice is expected to stand in the general election. In Essex Labour also won Thurrock Council.

Pat McFadden MP, Labours national campaign coordinator, said: These results show that Labour is making progress in the places needed that will decide the general election.

The Tories needed to be making gains in an election year. Instead their vote has collapsed in a key by election and they are suffering losses of council seats. Responsibility for this sits firmly with Rishi Sunak who is being punished by voters for the Tories failure.

These results are sending a clear message that people across the country are demanding change, and only the Labour Party will deliver that. Its time for a general election now.
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Rishi Sunak is nervously awaiting the result of the West Midlands mayoral contest after suffering a series of humiliating setbacks in the local elections.

With the worst local election results for the Tories in 40 years, the prime ministers fate could be tied to whether Tory mayor Andy Street holds on when the votes are counted on Saturday.

Tory rebels have reportedly called off the dogs for now as Teesside mayor Ben Houchen kept his seat despite a huge narrowing of the polls.

But worries persist that a defeat in the West Midlands could reignite calls for the prime minister to step aside.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak has maintained that the Conservatives have everything to fight for.

Rishi Sunak looks on as Ben Houchen celebrates being returned as Tees Valley mayor ( PA Wire )

In an article for The Telegraph, Mr Sunak remained positive about the local council election results, despite a series of disastrous losses for the government.

He wrote: Thursdays results showed that voters are frustrated and wondering why they should vote.

The fact that Labour is not winning in places they admit they need for a majority shows that Keir Starmers lack of plan and vision is hurting them. We Conservatives have everything to fight for  and we will, because we are fighting for our values and our countrys future.

Labour insiders think Mr Street will scrape a frustratingly narrow victory that could be enough to see off an attempted coup by Tory MPs. They point out Mr Street had campaigned as an independent and not allowed Mr Sunak to campaign with him, nor did his electoral literature mention the Conservative Party.

But a senior Labour figure admitted: It would be better for us if he [Sunak] limps on.

In a worrying sign for Downing Street, the leader of a right-wing group of MPs has made it clear Mr Sunak will face increasing demands to move even further to the right in areas such as immigration and the culture wars should he cling on.

Sir John Hayes, leader of the Common Sense Group of around 50 MPs, told The Independent that the result would have been much worse but for the decision to film asylum seekers being rounded up in the back of vans by the government.

He said: We need half a dozen more examples of real conservatism if we are to restore faith with those who voted for us in 2019.

The prime minister has endured Labour seizing control of his own backyard by winning the newly created mayoral office of York and North Yorkshire. Sir Keir Starmers party also seized the East Midlands mayoralty a region the Tories had turned blue in 2019 during the takeover of Labours red wall constituencies.

In the early hours of Friday, Labour won the Blackpool South by-election from the Conservatives with a record 26 per cent swing, while a series of police and crime commissioner posts held by the Tories fell into Labour hands.

A ray of hope for Mr Sunak and his party came in Tees Valley where controversial Mr Houchen defied the odds and pulled off a victory over his Labour challenger. But the 16.3 per cent swing to Labour would be enough to wipe out all the Tory parliamentary seats in the region at a general election.

Mr Sunak made a beeline to celebrate with Lord Houchen, who did not mention the prime minister or the Conservative Party in his victory speech and apparently forgot to wear a blue rosette on the stage.

Lord Houchen, an ally of Boris Johnson, thanked voters for backing my plan for the next four years and was visibly uncomfortable on stage when Mr Sunak arrived for a picture.

By Friday evening, the Tories had lost more than 400 council seats and were closing in on more than 500 losses out of 985 seats  a benchmark some Tory insiders believe would trigger a vote of no confidence by MPs.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves celebrate with new York and North Yorkshire mayor David Skaith on Friday ( PA Wire )

Labour won all three new mayoral posts up for grabs this year, in the East Midlands, North East, and York and North Yorkshire, the latter of which covers Mr Sunaks own Richmond constituency. For the first time in its history, Adur council in West Sussex has been won by Labour, and the Tories lost control of bellwether Basildon in Essex.

There is faint hope in Downing Street and Tory headquarters (CCHQ) that Susan Hall can pull off an unlikely victory in London thanks to low turnout and the unpopularity of Labour mayor Sadiq Khans ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) extension.

However, one senior Tory told The Independent: This is clutching at straws. If Susan Hall wins it will be because of Khan and nothing else but lets face it  shes not going to win.

Although Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the latest results as seismic, there are concerns for him, too.

Analysis by Sky News suggested that if the voting share at this weeks local elections were to be repeated in a general election, then Labour would still fall short of a majority.

Labour also lost control of Oldham council, with campaigns chief Pat McFadden admitting the war in Gaza and Sir Keirs support for Israel was a factor in turning off Muslim voters.

Meanwhile, Conservative MPs considering a move to topple Mr Sunak were holding their counsel until all the results were in. Speaking to The Independent, one former cabinet minister said they cannot comment until I know what has happened in the West Midlands and London.

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a Boris Johnson supporter, already has her letter in to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady asking for a vote but said: MPs are just too paralysed to do anything.

In another suggestion that Mr Sunak could become a prisoner of the right, she called for the return of Mr Johnson and for him to appoint right-wingers Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and Priti Patel to his cabinet.

Nadine Dorries has said ditching Sunak would be madness ( PA Media )

However, another senior MP who has been involved with plotters said: I think it is over. Rishi will lead us into the next election. The results were bad but no worse than already accounted for.

Reform UK had failed to mount a serious challenge in the areas where it stood, getting 15 per cent in red-wall Lincolnshire and failing to be a contender in the Blackpool South by-election, the Tory MP pointed out. I think the Reform factor is being overplayed and actually they are not the threat everyone is claiming they are.

Another Johnson ally, Nadine Dorries, claimed it would be madness to dump Mr Sunak.

However, the prime minister is still facing grassroots unease with David Campbell Bannerman, a leading Brexiteer and chairman of the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), calling for him to be ousted.

Rishi Sunak is buried somewhere in the bunker with his equally useless advisers  a collective cabal with little understanding or experience of politics or of how to do it. He is a liability to the party and our electoral prospects, Mr Campbell Bannerman said.

The depth of the problems was summed up by analyst Professor Sir John Curtice, who said the results confirmed the terrible polls the Tories have had in recent months.
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One in five asylum seekers due to be deported to Rwanda is from Afghanistan, according to a charity supporting the refugees.

Care4Calais says that from the first group it has contacted, 18 per cent were Afghans and another one in five  21 per cent  were Syrians.

Its not known whether the Afghans found by the charity included workers who supported the British armed forces overseas, such as interpreters and pilots.

On Wednesday ministers released pictures of the first asylum seekers being rounded up for deportation to Rwanda after a controversial bill legalising such flights finally obtained royal assent last week.

The House of Lords fought to have Afghans who supported British forces exempted from the legislation, but ultimately lost when it was forced to give way to the government in parliamentary ping-pong.

People protest against the Rwanda deportation bill outside Downing Street ( Getty Images )

The Independent has campaigned for these war heroes to be granted leave to remain in the UK.

Care4Calais also said 15 per cent of the first cohort were Sudanese, while Eritreans and Iranians each accounted for 14 per cent.

The remaining 18 per cent included Kuwaitis, Iraqis and Sri Lankans.

Home Office immigration officers began detaining potential deportees on Monday at their homes or as they arrived at immigration centres, although the first flights are not due to depart until July.

Around 800 officers are being deployed in Operation Vector, and home secretary James Cleverly said they were working at pace.

Care4Calais said that from the first people it was in contact with, it was clear that those detained were predominantly from countries with a high rate of asylum granted by the UK.

Hannah Marwood, head of legal access, said: The governments actions during this election week have been deeply worrying, but we are relieved that a significant number of people detained are now in contact with our caseworkers who will ensure they have access to legal support.

The people detained have not had their asylum claims processed, and its clear from the first cohort we are in contact with that if their claims were processed they would likely be granted refugee status in the UK.

It reaffirms how shameful the Rwanda plan is and why it must be stopped.

A Home Office spokesperson said: We have proven time and again that Rwanda is a safe country, most recently with our landmark Safety of Rwanda Act and joint, legally binding treaty which makes clear that individuals relocated to Rwanda will not be returned to an unsafe country.

We remain confident in the countrys strong and successful track record in resettling people and are working at pace to get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the next to nine to eleven weeks.
EZULWINI - Yesterday, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, unveiled the new Executive Director of the Eswatini Standards Authority, Ncamiso Mhlanga.

Khumalo described Mhlanga as an experienced, values-driven and goal-oriented executive leader, with a remarkable track record spanning over 16 years.Khumalo sais throughout his career, Mhlanga has demonstrated exceptional expertise in various sectors, including water resources management, water supply and sanitation, agriculture and livelihoods, environment, biodiversity and climate change adaptation. He holds a Masters Degree in Integrated Water Resources Management from the University of Dar es Salaam, as well as a Bachelors Degree in Agriculture from the University of Eswatini.

Mhlangas professional journey has seen him work with esteemed organisations such as EWADE, UNDP, WaterAid, and UNOPS, among others. As part of UNDP in Eswatini, he led a ground-breaking National Climate Change Transboundary Water and Agriculture Adaptation project, funded by the Global Environmental Facility and UNDP. His visionary perspective played a crucial role in mainstreaming climate change considerations into policy frameworks and strategies for the water and agricultural sectors in Eswatini.

For the past seven years, Mhlanga has served as the Country Director for an international organization called WaterAid, where he made significant contributions to increasing access to clean water for many emaSwati. Khumalo said Mhlangas exceptional resource mobilization skills have resulted in the generation of over E200 million investment projects that have been successfully implemented across the country. He has also garnered extensive experience in working with multilateral international donors, including the private sector.

Since December 2023, Mhlanga has been employed by UNOPS to support the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs in coordinating and implementing the Nationally Determined Contribution. And now, we are honoured to welcome him as the new Executive Director of the Eswatini Standards Authority, said the minister. The Eswatini Standards Authority, known as SWASA, is a category A enterprise established through the Standards and Quality Act of 2003, which has been recently revised as the Standards and Quality Act of 2023.

Since its inception in 2007, SWASA has been dedicated to providing internationally recognized quality standards and conformity assessment services to improve business performance and promote trade. As a subscriber member of the International Standards Organization (ISO), SWASA adopts standards and international best practices in conformity assessment.

Moreover, SWASA plays a vital role in the development of standards that enable trade in the African value chains, contributing to the creation of a single continental market for goods and services under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative. To date, SWASA has developed and gazetted over 250 National Standards and has certified numerous entities, ensuring adherence to these standards.
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Sadiq Khan faces an anxious wait to find out if he will be re-elected as London mayor amid fears about low turnout and anger over his flagship motoring policy and Labours stance on Gaza.

A Tory Westminster insider close to Susan Halls campaign has told The Independent that the contest is extremely close and Mr Khans rival may have won in what would be a stunning election shock.

The briefing is based on an analysis of the turnouts in the boroughs across London which suggest that strong ones for the Tories have seen voters come out in greater numbers.

The source said: Basically it seems that Khan has lost out because many Muslims have stayed at home because of Gaza and a lot of leftwingers have stayed at home because he was not strong enough on net zero.

It means that it is extremely close, far closer than the polls have suggested and Susan may have won. There are some in the team who genuinely believe she has done it.

In local election results on Friday Labour saw a fall in support in some areas with large Muslim populations, while the partys elections coordinator Pat McFadden admitted the impact of the war in Gaza was an issue in some parts of the country and I think theres no point in me  denying thats the case.

Low turnout in the capital could put Sadiq Khans chances in jeopardy ( Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire )

Along with anger over Labours position on Gaza, Mr Khans expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) has apparently been the strongest motivation in an election which has seen a low turnout.

Another Tory source said: There is no doubt that in a low turnout the most motivated voters were the ones angry about Ulez.

Mr Khan is still the bookies favourite to win against his Conservative opponent Susan Hall, when the results are revealed on Saturday.

But with just two hours to go before voting closed on Thursday night, he released an impassioned plea on social media warning that low numbers of people voting meant the real risk of Tory victory.

He also briefed the Labour shadow cabinet that he was nervous of defeat because of a combination of 900,000 mostly Labour voters not having photo ID and being barred from going to the polls, a potential low turnout, the new first past the post voting system and anger over Ulez.

Labour has significantly stepped up its campaign against Ms Hall in recent days.

Susan Hall could be on the verge of a major upset ( Shiv Gupta/PA Wire )

She only became her partys candidate after its first pick, Daniel Korski, was forced to drop out amid groping allegations.

But she has come under fire for joining a Facebook group which contained Islamophobic hate speech and abusive comments about her opponent.

A former Tory cabinet minister, Sayeeda Warsi accused her of gutter politics in her controversial campaign.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a win for her would be one for racists, white supremacists and Islamophobes the world over.

His stance was defended by former Labour MP and ex-Europe minister Denis MacShane who, asked if Ms Hall was a white supremacist, said she comes pretty close.

But Mr MacShane added that he had been surprised at the hostility in the city toward Mr Khan over his controversial charging policy for the most polluting cars, Ulez (ultra-low-emission zone).

A new poll, conducted by More in Common for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), found 13 per cent of voters said Ulez was a big issue in this election, compared to 45 per cent who selected affordable housing and 36 per cent who mentioned crime.

Wes Streeting made a controversial attack against Ms Hall on X (formerly Twitter) ( Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire )

However, Tory insiders believe with turnout low frustrated motorists will have been more likely to vote.

Pollster and Tory peer Robert Hayward has predicted Mr Khan is likely to avoid a backlash over Gaza, after he broke ranks early in the conflict to call for a ceasefire.

To add to Labour nerves a poll on Wednesday showed Mr Khans lead over Ms Hall had shrunk to its smallest since the campaign began.

The Savanta survey put the Labour mayor on 42 per cent and his Tory rival on 32 per cent.

Changes in the rules for this election mean Mr Khans vote cannot be topped up by second preference votes, which helped him win by a large margin last time around.

Counting will not begin until Saturday, after Friday was set aside to verify ballot papers.
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A former Tory cabinet minister has accused the Conservative mayoral candidate for London of gutter politics following her controversial campaign.

Former Conservative party chair and peer Sayeeda Warsi criticised mayoral candidate Susan Hall, who has been acccused of divisive politics and Islamophobia.

Baroness Warsi - who served as Tory chair between 2010 and 2012 - said on X/Twitter: Why is it that with every London Mayoral election we manage to find a candidate worse than the last and manage to sink that little bit more into gutter politics.

Look @andy4wm [Tory West Midlands mayor Andy Street] and learn @Conservatives - how inclusive and decent politics can be done. Be more #Street and less #Susan.

Mr Streets mayorality is on a knife-edge as voters in the West Midlands went to the polls on Thursday.

With the results of key mayoral contests yet to be declared, one Tory MP told The Independent that a move against Mr Sunak is likely if either Mr Street or Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen lose their jobs.

Speaking on his Political Currency podcast, former chancellor George Osborne said: If Andy Street loses in the West Midlands, thats pretty bad ...[but] If Ben Houchen loses it will be armageddon  because at that point, people will say, We are absolutely headed now for a massive landslide defeat.

Baroness Warsi has slammed the Tory candidate for London mayor ( PA Archive )

Though it is widely expected that incumbent Labour mayor for London Sadiq Khan will keep his seat, some are anticipating the vote to be tighter than previously thought.

Conservative officials think Ms Hall has a chance of beating Mr Khan, despite a controversial campaign filled with blunders and accusations of islamophobia and racism.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting provoked ire when he said that a win for Susan Hall and the Conservatives is a win for racists, white supremacists and Islamophobes the world over.

Mr Streeting was referencing a Ms Hall, joining a Facebook group which contained Islamophobic hate speech and abusive comments about her opponent.

Baroness Warsi has been a outspoken critic of the Conservatives partys approach to tackling Islamophobia, having previously compared it to being in an abusive relationship.

Her comments come as Rishi Sunak refused to say whether or not he would vote for Susan Hall in the mayoral election.

A Conservative Party spokesman insisted the prime minister has voted, but declined to say where he voted, at what time, or if he had done so in person or by post. A Labour source said told the Mirror: Is the Conservative candidate so toxic that even their own leader doesnt want to admit he voted for her?
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The Tories have held on in the Tees Valley mayor race with a result which could save Rishi Sunak from facing a vote of confidence after a terrible set of local election results.

However, as Conservative mayor Ben Houchen won in the north east he snubbed the Prime Minister in his acceptance speech and thanked voters for backing my plan. He also pointedly made it clear he would be happy to work with Sir Keir Starmer if the Labour leader becomes Prime Minister later this year.

Even more concerning for the Tories was that the swing to Labour would see them win back the parliamentary seats won by the party in 2019 fall to Labour.

Lord Houchen got 81,930 votes (53.6 percent) and his Labour rival Chris McEwan 63,141 (41,3 percent). The turnout was just 30.8 percent. Lord Houchen also saw a collapse in his vote which was 73.5 percent in 2021.

In the aftermath of humilating results in council elections and a drubbing in the Blackpool South by-election the result has offered the Prime Minister some hope.

Speaking in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak told Sky News that Tees Valley was a key battleground in a general election and victory shows that he can lead his party to victory.

He later tweeted to congratulate my friend Lord Houchen knowing that Tory MPs were looking at the result as an indication over whether they should call a vote of confidence in his leadership of the party.

( PA )

In his acceptance speech Lord Houchen, who was not even wearing a blue Tory rosette, said he was humbled by his victory but made no mention of Rishi Sunak or the Conservative Party.

He thanked voters in the north east for backing my plan for the region.

Later on Sky News he conceded that it had been a shared effort with Mr Sunak and claimed he forgot his rosette but was wearing a blue tie and blue socks.

However, Lord Houchen also made it clear he would work with whoever becomes Prime Minister including Sir Keir Starmer.

Beofre the result he told Sky News: My job as mayor is to do what I can for local people, and if that means Ive got to work with the Prime Minister, to be frank it doesnt matter to me who that is  Im going to do all I can to make sure I get the best deal for the local area even if there is a change of government later this year or if Rishi is still PM or its somebody else, Ill work with anybody.

Ahead of the result being formally announced, a Labour source has told ITV that its a win for Ben Houchen, not the Conservative Party and Labour is on track to achieve the 12.5 percent swing in the region it needs to win back seats here.

Labour candidate Chris McEwan and Conservative candidate Lord Ben Houchen, during a count of votes for the Tees Valley mayoral election (Owen Humphreys/PA) ( PA Wire )

Labour pointed out that the 16.7 percent swing in Tees Valley was enough for them to win every parliamentary seat in tees Valley back from th etories while it would have taken a 23 percent swing to unseat Lord Houchen.

A Labour spokesperson said: This is swing towards Labour in Tees Valley puts Labour on track to win every single seat in the area in a general election. The Conservatives should be extremely worried that their candidate had to run as an independent to win. If Rishi Sunak doesnt take this result as a major wake up call he is in denial.

Lord Houchen told The Independent earlier in the week that voters in the region have said they would back him on thursday but not support the Conservative Party in a general election.

He said: There are lots of people who will come up to me and speak to me that say that theyre going to vote for me, but they probably wont be voting for the Conservative Party in the general election.

The result is one of the few positives for the Tories on a day of local election counts which see them on track to lose more than 500 of the 985 council seats they were defending.

Sunak believes he can hold on as Tory leader ( Getty Images )

Lord Houchen has been Tees Valley mayor since 2017 and Labour claim he basically ran as an independent ahead of the election on Thursday.

Tory MPs are debating behind the scenes whether to push for a vote of confidence in Mr Sunaks leadership after polls continue to show they are heading for a catastrophic defeat at the next election.

However, many are waiting to see what happens with Houchen in Teesside and West Midlands mayor Andy Street whose result will be announced tomorrow.

Former Chancellor George Osborne warned last night that had Lord Houchen lost it would have been an Apocalypse for the Conservative Party while defeat for Street would be bad.
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Three people are being questioned over the disappearance of an American man and two brothers from Australia, who never made it to their Airbnb in Mexico nearly a week ago.

Aussie brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip in the Baja California peninsula, but their loved ones say they havent been heard from since 27 April.

The brothers family said that Jake had gone to visit his brother, who has been living in the United States, and the trio had headed south of the border to Ensenada  an area popular with tourists but also known for cartel violence.

Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, told reporters on Thursday that authorities had not been notified straight away, so very important time was lost in the search for the three men.

Carter Rhoad disappeared alongside friends Jake and Callum Robinson while they were on a trip to Baja California, Mexico, at the end of April ( Supplied )

A white ute pick-up, similar to the one the group was using, was found burnt out on a farm earlier this week, with abandoned tents also discovered south of Ensenada, the AG said.

The three Mexican citizens, reported to be a woman and two men, were arrested. The woman was carrying a mobile phone with a photo on it matching the description of one of the men, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mexican security forces frisk men at a checkpoint in Ensenada on 2 May 2024. Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found tents and questioned a few people in the case of two Australians and an American who went missing over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California ( AP )

The parents of the Australian brothers, Martin and Debra Robinson, told 9News in a statement that Callun has been living in the US to follow his dream of being a professional lacrosse player.

"He is widely known in the US as the Big Koala," they told the outlet. "We think of him as our big soft friendly giant."

The couple are following the route Jake took two weeks ago to visit his brother, heading to the US/Mexico border region to be as close to the investigation as they can be.

"Callum and Jake are beautiful human beings. We love them so much and this breaks our heart, the couple said.

Ms Robinson later posted that Callum has diabetes, adding a medical concern to the case.

At Thursdays briefing, Ms Ramirez told reporters that her office was working closely with US and Australian authorities.

"A working team [of investigators] is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation," Andrade Ramirez said.

"There is a lot of important information that we cant make public."

The US Department of State advises travellers to reconsider heading to Baja California due to crime and kidnapping.

Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, said three Mexican nationals were being questioned over the disappearances ( FGE Baja California )

In March, Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that keeping citizens safe in the region was getting complicated, with a rise in homicides, murders and robberies.

Cartel activity has been difficult for authorities to control, with a recent killing spree of corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment in nearby Tijuana highlighting the problem.

Baja Californias governor Marina del Pilar Avila Olmeda said Thursday that investigators would not give up on finding the missing men, however.

"We will not rest until we find the whereabouts of Jack Carter, Jake and Callum Robinson, a task in which we will not spare time, resources, or strength, she said in a statement.

We will take the necessary measures to resolve this case because we will not allow Baja California to see its peace disturbed, nor disturb the tranquillity of those who visit us.

A spokesperson for the US Department of State told The Independent that officials are aware of the case.

The US Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas, the spokesperson said.

We stand ready to provide all appropriate assistance.

A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told The Independent that staff at the countrys embassy were working with local authorities.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recognises this is a very distressing time for the family and is in regular contact with them to provide support, the spokesperson said.

Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.
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The cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore  which collapsed in March after a container ship smashed into one of its support pillars  will be between $1.7bn and $1.9bn.

Maryland transportation officials say they estimate that the reconstruction will finish in the fall of 2028.

The bridge collapsed on 26 March when the container ship Dali crashed into one of the bridge's support legs. Eight construction workers were on the bridge at the time of the collapse and were tossed into the water. Two of the men were rescued while the remaining six died.

Chubb, the company that insured the bridge, will pay $350m to the state for the bridge repairs, which will account for only a fraction of the total cost to rebuild, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In addition to the insurance money, federal funds will also go toward the project.

Governor Wes Moore has met with members of the House Appropriations Committee to hammer out the details of federal funding that will go toward rebuilding the bridge. Shortly after the collapse, Joe Biden said federal cash would be made available to assist the state's project.

"We're gonna move Heaven and Earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible," Mr Biden said at the time.

On 11 April, Maryland Congressional leaders introduced the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, which would have the federal government cover 100 per cent of the cost of the bridge replacement project.

Work continues at the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. State officials revealed that the cost to replace the bridge will be between $1.7bn and $1.9bn ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

The bill was introduced by Maryland Democratic Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, along with state Representative Kweisi Mfume and other members of the state congress, CBS News reports.

"The federal government is an essential partner in this gargantuan task of reopening the Port of Baltimore shipping channel and replacing the bridge with one built for modern-day commerce and travel needs," Mr Cardin said in a statement.

Mr Biden said that he believed the federal government should cover the full cost of the replacement following the bridge collapse, and said at the time he expected to have Congress's support on the issue.

Since then, the federal government released $60m in emergency relief funding.

"This is a national issue. I believe we have strong bipartisan support for the traditional 100% reimbursements," Mr Cardin said. "In regards to replenishing funds, we've been able to do that on a bipartisan basis because every community in the nation is impacted by these funds that are in the Department of Transportation to deal with emergency situations."

Congressman Andy Harris, a Republican from Maryland, said during a news conference in early April that the bridge collapse is a national issue, not a partisan issue.

"This wasn't a Republican tragedy, it wasn't a Democrat tragedy and the solution won't be a partisan solution  it'll be a bipartisan solution," he said.

A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

While state and federal legislators work to bring the bridge rebuilding project into reality, search crews are still trying to locate a final worker who died on the night of the collapse.

The body of a fifth construction worker who died in the disastrous collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has been found five weeks after the tragic incident. The fifth member of the lost crew was located on Wednesday, 1 May by Unified Command salvage teams.

The victim has been identified as Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, state officials announced in a news release.

One worker, Jose Mynor Lopez, remains unaccounted for.

We remain dedicated to the ongoing recovery operations while knowing behind each person lost in this tragedy lies a loving family, Colonel Roland L Butler, Jr, superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police said in a statement.

A memorial site to honor the construction workers who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on the side of the road near the blockade to Fort Armistead Park, in Baltimore ( The Baltimore Banner )

Along with our local, state and federal partners, we ask that everyone extend their deepest sympathies and support to the families during this difficult time.

The state police underwater recovery team and the crime scene unit also assisted at the scene.

Divers were able to quickly recover the bodies of 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera a day after the bridge collapse after an initial search for the missing workers recovered a submerged truck.

The body of 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval was found on 5 April by divers as the search continued, and salvage teams found a deceased fourth unnamed worker trapped inside a vehicle over a week later while they were clearing debris from the channel.

While the search for the final worker continues, the Port of Baltimore said it is hoping to reopen its main channel by the end of May. The reopening will help to restore marine traffic and alleviate economic pressures caused by the collapse. Crews also plan to refloat and remove the Dali, which has been stationary near the incident site ever since the collapse.
 Close President Joe Biden insists order must prevail as police shut down college Gaza protests

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Police have arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian students as protests against Israels war in Gaza continued across universities over the weekend.

At least 25 protesters were arrested as police cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia, the university said in a statement.

Dozens of people were arrested for criminal trespass outside the Art Institute of Chicago at a demonstration after the institute called in police to remove protesters.

Meanwhile, students carried flags and banners during the University of Michigans commencement ceremony after the NYPD revealed on Friday morning that a police officer with the departments Emergency Service Unit unintentionally fired his gun while trying to access a locked office at Columbia University.

The bullet hit a wall inside the office. No one was injured.

On Thursday morning, hundreds of police officers dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California at Los Angeles and arrested more than 130 demonstrators.

Live TV footage showed protesters under arrest, kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs with zip ties. Loud explosions were heard during the clash from flash-bang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.

President Joe Biden also denounced protests that turned violent on college campuses on Thursday.
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An Israeli private investigator wanted by the US for allegedly carrying out a cyberespionage campaign has been arrested in London.

Amit Forlit was arrested under an Interpol red notice at Londons Heathrow Airport as he was trying to board a flight to Israel, according to the US authorities. It is unclear when the arrest took place.

His arrest came after he was accused of engaging in a hack-for-hire scheme with an unidentified American PR firm, Amy Labram, a lawyer representing the United States, told a London court on Thursday.

Ms Labram added that the US allegations include that an unnamed Washington-based PR and lobbying firm paid one of Mr Forlits companies 16 million ($20m) to gather intelligence relating to the Argentinian debt crisis.

Mr Forlit is wanted in the US on three charges, including one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

An attempt to extradite Mr Forlit to the US was thrown out by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday on a legal technicality, with the judge ruling that the extradition attempt could not continue because Mr Forlit was not produced in court within the timeframe required under British extradition law.

He was not produced at court as soon as practicable and the consequences of that ... he must  I have no discretion  he must be discharged, Judge Michael Snow ruled.

Mr Forlit is also involved in a separate legal case in New York, where he is accused of computer hacking by aviation executive Farhad Azima.

Mr Azima, whose emails were stolen and used against him in a 2020 trial in London, is suing Mr Forlit and others in federal court in Manhattan.

Mr Forlit previously acknowledged retrieving Mr Azimas emails but has denied hacking, claiming that he innocently stumbled across the messages on the web.
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A man accused of murdering his six-year-old son after allegedly making him run increasingly faster on a treadmill because he was too fat had reportedly met him for the first time just one year prior.

Christopher Gregor, 31, found out about his child, Corey Micciolo, for the first time when he was sued over child support, his attorneys claimed.

Investigators say Corey suffered traumatic injuries  including a final blow to the heart just hours before his death  which are believed to stem from chronic child abuse from his father.

A shocking video played in court at the New Jersey trial, which began this week, allegedly showed Mr Gregor standing by a treadmill watching the youngster run, turning the machine faster and faster. At multiple points, the boy falls off the treadmill onto the floor and is picked up, unwillingly, by Mr Gregor and put back on.

The court heard that it was unclear when Mr Gregor and Coreys mother, Breanna Micciolo, first met, however, he was reportedly not in the childs life until he reached five. The youngster was described as silly by his mother and liked the solar system and playing outside.

In his opening statement, defence attorney Mario Gallucci said that in 2017, Mr Gregor was studying for a masters degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Christopher Gregor, is accused of murdering his six-year old son after making him run increasingly faster on a treadmill because he was too fat ( Court TV )

He was also employed by Urban Teachers, which was a company that employed people to teach in urban areas, when he found out he was being sued for child support for a child he had never met, nor did he know he fathered, Mr Gallucci said.

Referring to the video that was yet to be played, he added: At some point, youre gonna see Christopher, go to that treadmill and speed it up. And youre gonna see Corey fall. And youre gonna see him pick that boy up six times and put him back on the treadmill.

And Im gonna tell you right now youre not gonna like him. And I dont care if you like him.

When you see that video, you are going to be horrified. Youre going to be mortified. But Im telling you right now that the evidence youre going to see... his death had absolutely nothing to do with that treadmill.

Ms Micciolo reportedly burst into tears as she watched her son allegedly abused by his father in the clip, as she became the first witness to take the stand, testifying about text message exchanges between her and Mr Gregor.

The footage obtained by Court TV and filmed on 20 March 2021, shows the little boy forced to run increasingly faster on the exercise equipment as his dad sharply steepened the incline. Unable to keep up with the conveyor belt beneath, Coreys legs buckled and he fell to the floor.

Mr Gregor was allegedly filmed picking up his son, whose legs appeared increasingly weary to the extent that he struggled to stay upright. However, the dad forced him back on the machine. The father then appears to bite his son  which was also noted on the arrest warrant  on the top of his head before finally decreasing the machines speed and incline.

Shocking footage played in court allegedly showed Mr Gregor standing by a treadmill watching the youngster run, turning the machine faster and faster. At multiple points the boy falls off the treadmill onto the floor ( credit Court TV )

Ms Micciolo, who shared custody of her son with Mr Gregor, allegedly reported the boys injuries to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency just days before his death, she told the court.

She was said to have pleaded with the father to take their son to the doctor on April 1 2021. While accompanied by a case worker at the appointment, the six-year-old made a key claim about why he was forced to run: his father told him he was too fat.

The next day, Corey was pronounced dead.

Mr Gregor allegedly rushed the little boy to hospital after he woke up with slurred speech and stumbling on the morning of April 2 2021, according to Court TV. He was also said to have experienced nausea and shortness of breath.

The six-year-old suffered a seizure during a CT scan as medical staff desperately attempted to save his life. Micciolos death was the result of sustaining blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions, acute inflammation and sepsis, the initial autopsy revealed.

Mr Gregor was arrested months later on July 7 2021 on child neglect charges following investigators reviewing the gym footage.

Forensic pathologist, Dr Thomas Andrew, ruled the boys death to be a homicide in September 2021 stemming from chronic abuse. Dr Andrew believes Corey suffered an acute traumatic injury to the heart four to 12 hours before his death.

Mr Gregor was arrested on March 9, 2022, for his sons death. He is being held in Ocean City Jail without bond.

The trial, In New Jersey, continues.
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An 18-year-old mother was brutally stabbed to death more than 120 times while her baby slept nearby in 1966, now her suspected killer has been arrested thanks to new DNA evidence.

Karen Snider was found by her husband in Calumet City, around 23 miles outside Chicago, on 12 November 1966, with the case soon going cold.

Now, 79-year-old James Barbier is facing a murder charge after new DNA testing matched him to blood stains on his pants and Ms Sniders dress.

An arrest warrant was issued on 26 April, with the suspect taken into custody in Missouri a few days later.

"It was probably one of the best phone calls of my life," Paula Larson, Sniders daughter, said of the news police had reopened the case.

Karen Snider was stabbed to death while her baby slept nearby in Calumet City, Illinois, in 1966 ( CBS 2 News )

She has waited 57 years for an answer after her mother died when she was just a couple of months old.

She was a beautiful woman. Absolutely stunning, Ms Larson told reporters of her mother.

Her father, Paul Snider, had been working on the railroad and came home that fateful night to find a trail of blood through their home.

He later explained to Ms Larson what had happened to her mother when she was about 11 years old.

James Barbier is suspected of killing Karen Snider nearly 60 years ago ( Calumet City Police Department/CBS 2 News )

The suspect worked with Mr Snider and even helped to carry his alleged victims coffin.

The police noticed at the funeral that he had wounds, so he was on their radar then, Ms Larson said.

Police questioned Mr Barbier at the time, but never charged him.

Now, that new DNA evidence, obtained following a search warrant in December, could be the key to getting a conviction.

On Thursday Mr Barbier appeared in court, with the judge allowing him to return to Missouri pending trial due to his medical state.

Ms Sniders family said they were hopeful they could finally see justice.

The Independent has approached the Calumet City Police Department and the Cook County States Attorney for further comment.
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The wife of Dharmesh Patel, the doctor who allegedly drove his family off a cliff in a Tesla during a psychotic break, has pleaded for her husband to be released from jail and sent home under a mental health program.

Neha Patel was seated next to her husband when their vehicle fell 250ft down Devils Slide near San Fransisco on 2 January, 2023. Mr Patel, 42, was arrested soon afterwards and charged with three counts of attempted murder for his wife and two children, aged nine and five.

Ms Patel spoke to the court for the first time on Thursday and said her children are in emotional pain while their father is not at home.

He [their son] wished daddy would magically appear on St. Patricks Day when he saw a rainbow, the mother-of-two said.

Dharmesh Patel, 42, has been accused of driving family off a cliff last year and has been charged with three counts of attempted murder ( San Mateo County Sheriffs Office )

Ms Patel has asked prosecutors to drop the criminal charges against her radiologist husband. He has pleaded not guilty.

The family miraculously survived the crash but Ms Patel was left with serious injuries. She initially told first responders telling them that her husband was depressed and that he said he was going to drive off the cliff. He purposely drove off.

Ms Patel also told the court on Thursday that her husbands actions that day were due to a mental health episode beyond any of our understanding or control, according toThe Mercury News.

We need him in our life, said Ms Patel, who was not identified by name in court and spoke over a video call. Were not a family without him.

She said that things will be different if her husband is allowed to return home.

Mr Patels attorneys have asked the San Mateo County Superior Court judge to grant their client entry into a mental health diversion programme, consisting of two-year treatment, which if completed, would lead to his charges being dropped.

The Patel familys Tesla pictured after crashing down a California cliff on 2 January 2023. Mr Patel and his family miraculously survived after the crash ( San Mateo County Sheriff's Office )

His wife added that she will not hesitate to seek help when needed under the plan, which would rely in part on his family reporting any further signs of mental instability to the court.

At his trial last week, two doctors testified for the defense that Mr Patel was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time of the crash and that he believed that his children might be sex trafficked.

His delusions related to concerns about Jeffrey Epstein, The Mercury News said. Epstein, who died by suicide in jail, was accused of running a sex-trafficking ring of underage girls.

Leading up to the crash, Mr Patel also experienced delusions about Russias war in Ukraine and the fentanyl crisis, according to the doctors testimony.

Dharmesh Patel, pictured with his wife and children, is facing attempted murder and child abuse charges after authorities say he deliberately drove his Tesla off a cliff in California ( via KABC )

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said that other doctors, called by the prosecution, found that Mr Patel has schizoaffective disorder, meaning the treatment program would not be effective.

Mr Wagstaffe is arguing Mr Patel should not be admitted to the programme.

Unlike if youre put on probation or parole, you have an officer, Mr Wagstaffe told The Independent last week. In mental health diversion, you dont have that at all. There isnt any oversight on it.

San Mateo County prosecutors have filed motions opposing the request for Mr Patel to be entered in the mental health diversion program, the outlet reports.

Closing arguments are scheduled for 10 May.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
SIMUNYE - A poor sound system cut short the performance of the Qwabe Twins during the Workers Day celebration hosted by the Federation of Swaziland Trade Union (FESWATU) at Goshe Slokay Stadium in Simunye.

The Twins performance proceeded that of Duncan who left the over 2 000 workers yearning for more. The Durban-based Twins performed only four songs that were also cut short in between by sound glitches. The duo apologised to the workers and mentioned that they were grateful to be part of the line-up of performers on the day that jointly with workers commemorated their contribution in the workplace.

Gracing

Gracing the event were Ministry of Labour and Social Security Principal Secretary Makhosini Mndawe, Labour Commissioner Mthunzi Shabangu, FESWATU President Mashumi Shongwe and Senior Labour Officer Thabiso Dlamini. Also rendering performances on the day were the comedian duo Gogo and Silwane who left the workers in stitches, Dumako Brothers, MNation and the Ncandweni Christ Ambassadors. Ncandweni Christ Ambassadors led by their leader and former Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni became the favourites during their two-hour performance.

The Gospel group joined by invited guests had the longest performance on the day with the crowd mobbing Myeni after he descended from the stage to join them. When security tried to prevent them from coming closer to the former legislator, Myeni openly urged the security to stop and allow him to be in the midst of his fans. Also sharing the stage with the artists was Siteki-based DJ Mfundo, who exceptionally outdid himself when he dished out the latest Amapiano mixed with house songs to send the workers into bliss of the moment.

Excitement

FESWATU President Shongwe expressed his excitement with the turnout of workers to celebrate their effort and contribution to the workplace. Shongwe also thanked the artists for honouring the invitation to perform during the day. Shongwe also joined the Ncandweni Christ Ambassadors on stage during their performance. Also noteworthy is that the celebration was marred with occasional escapades of exchange of blows from workers who were in a questionable state of sobriety. However, security officers and the police officers managed to calm the situation after chasing those involved in fist fights out of the stadium.
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A scuba dive boat captain found guilty of so-called seamans manslaughter has been sentenced to four years behind bars in Los Angeles after 34 people died in a fire onboard his vessel.

Captain Jerry Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year. As well as the four-year custodial sentence he will also face three years of supervised release for criminal negligence.

The blaze on 2 September 2019 was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent US history and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.

The charge of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year is a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as seamans manslaughter. It was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

Family members had pleaded with US District Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence, with many tears and impassioned speeches.

Captain Jerry Boylan was the first to abandon ship on September 2 2019, leaving 33 passengers and one crewmember to die onboard the Conception dive boat ( AP )

The vessel  named the Conception  was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet from shore.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped in a bunkroom below deck. Among the dead were the deckhand, who had landed her dream job; an environmental scientist who conducted research in Antarctica; a globe-trotting couple; a Singaporean data scientist; and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.

Robert Kurtz, father of the deckhand, Alexandra Kurtz, brought a small container with him up to the lectern to address Boylan and the court on Thursday. This is all I have of my daughter, he said.

Yadira Alvarez, the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, who volunteered at an animal shelter and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, was the youngest of the victims killed on the boat.

Hes not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here, Ms Alvarez said while sobbing in court. Can you imagine my pain?

Prosecutors said that Boylan was the first to abandon ship and jump overboard. Four crew members who joined him also survived.

During the hearing, Boylans attorney read a statement aloud to the court in which he expressed his condolences and said he has cried every day since the fire.

Susana Solano-Rosas, left, who lost three of her daughters and their father on the boat said she was extremely disappointed by the sentence on Thursday ( AP )

I wish I could have brought everyone home safe, the statement said. I am so sorry.

In determining a sentence, Judge Wu said he took into account Boylans age, health, the unlikelihood of recurrence and the need for deterrence and punishment. He said while Boylans behaviour was reckless, the guidelines for sentencing would not warrant a 10-year sentence.

This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad, Wu said.

The defence had asked the judge to sentence Boylan to a five-year probationary sentence, with three years to be served under house arrest. His appeal is ongoing.

Hank Garcia, whose son Daniel was among the victims, said he is not a vengeful person but he and other family members dont want something like this to ever happen again.

We all have a life sentence, he told the court. We are having a life sentence without these people that we love.

US Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement: While todays sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.

Thursdays sentencing was the final step in a fraught prosecution thats lasted nearly five years and repeatedly frustrated the victims families.

A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of seamans manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars.

Family members of the 34 people who died during the Conception dive boat fire in 2019 hold photos of their loved ones outside the US Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles ( AP )

Boylans attorneys successfully argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.

Although the exact cause of the blaze aboard the Conception remains undetermined, the prosecutors and defence sought to assign blame throughout the 10-day trial last year.

The government said Boylan failed to post the required roving night watch and never properly trained his crew in firefighting. The lack of the roving watch meant the fire was able to spread undetected across the 75-foot boat.

But Boylans attorneys sought to pin blame on Glen Fritzler, who, with his wife, owns Truth Aquatics Inc., which operated the Conception and two other scuba dive boats, often around the Channel Islands.

They argued that Mr Fritzler was responsible for failing to train the crew in firefighting and other safety measures, as well as creating a lax seafaring culture they called the Fritzler way, in which no captain who worked for him posted a roving watch.

Attention will now turn to several ongoing lawsuits.

Cases filed by victims families against the Coast Guard for what they allege was lax enforcement of the roving watch requirement are all pending.

After the sentencing on Thursday, Susana Solano, who lost three of her daughters and their father on the boat, said she and the other family members hoped the judge would listen to their pleas.

Im extremely disappointed, she said. Its just heartwrenching.
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A Utah woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after her friend was fatally shot in what police have said was an incomplete suicide pact.

Heavenly Faith Garfield, 21, was arrested Tuesday and remains jailed in Utah County on Wednesday without bail.

According to family members, she and the unnamed victim, also 21, had been discussing the pact for several weeks.

A friend of the victim provided officers with text messages he had received from her stating that she wanted to die but was too scared to kill herself, an affidavit of probable cause, obtained by the Associated Press said.

That friend also told police the victim had a suicide pact with Ms Garfield.

Ms Garfields father called 911 just before 3.30pm on Tuesday to report the shooting, police said. He said his daughter shot the 21-year-old victim at 10.45am as part of the suicide pact.

Saratoga Springs Police have recommended that Heavenly Faith Garfield, 21, be charged with murder and discharge of a firearm ( Saratoga Springs Police Department )

Detectives on the scene found a 9mm bullet near the victims body, KUTV reported, citing police documents.

Saratoga Springs Police have recommended Ms Garfield be charged with murder and discharge of a firearm. Jail records didnt list an attorney who could speak on her behalf and no charges have been filed as of yet.

A voicemail seeking comment left Wednesday with a phone number believed to belong to Garfields mother was not immediately returned.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A 17-year-old girl was grazed with a bullet after being caught in the crossfire of gunfire near a high school in Washington, DC, police have said.

Officers from the DC Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident around 9.54am local time on Friday, following reports of a shooting victim inside Dunbar High School.

Police said that a teenage female was found with a minor graze injury and had been transported to hospital. Her family is with her. Assistant chief Leslie Parsons said the teenager was totally fine.

It is understood that the incident occurred after a vehicle travelled the wrong way down nearby streets, at which point a series of gunshots were fired. The motive remains unknown.

The girl was struck after bullets smashed through the glass window of the building, police said. It was believed she was inside a classroom at the time of the incident.

Dunbar High School was briefly placed on lockdown but is expected to reopen shortly. Students will be dismissed on the opposite side of the building to where the shooting occurred.

Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said: Even though they have been on lockdown, I want everyone to know they are secure and they are safe.

A neighbour who was present in the area told Fox News that the gunfire had sounded similar to automatic fire and there had been about 20 or 30 shots.

I was sitting there with the window open, watching our kids  it was pretty obvious, we knew immediately, we heard the sirens going off. It was just routine gunfire.

Were used to this, well, were not used to this.

Assistant chief Parsons told reporters that the investigations were still in the preliminary stages, and that little information was currently available.
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A rather vulgar nickname for Donald Trump has now been formally entered into the public record at the former presidents hush-money trial, after his own defence attorney read out the moniker to the court.

Von S****InPantz debuted in court on Thursday after Mr Trumps legal team complained to New York Justice Juan Merchan that the gag order against their client was unfair.

Everybody can say anything they want, except for President Trump, his attorney Todd Blanche explained to the judge.

Mr Blanche then continued to show a series of posts by Michael Cohen, Mr Trumps former personal attorney, to the courtroom that mocked the former president and labelled him with insulting names.

The attorney read aloud a particular post by Cohen, while Mr Trump sat and listened to the crude mockery of himself at the defence table.

This one says, oh my, S****InPantz, Mr Blanche said as he showed a screenshot of the post from 24 April into the court record.

Keep whining, crying and violating the gag order you petulant defendant, Mr Blanche continued, quoting Cohens X post.

Another of Cohens posts on 22 April was shown to the judge, which again recited the same moniker.

Donald Trump and Michael Cohen during a campaign stop in Ohio, 2016 ( Reuters )

The post read: Hey Von S****InPantzYour attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense."

Cohen has previously used that nickname to lash out at his former client on his podcast.

The former presidents legal team attempted to defend Mr Trump over his gag order violations, with Mr Blanche accusing Cohen of inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything hes saying.

Earlier this week, Judge Juan Merchan fined him $9,000 for repeated violations of the order, which bars him from talking about foreseeable witnesses or staff of the judge or DAs office.

Hours after Cohen posted a VonS****InPantz insult, the lawyer wrote on X that he would stop talking about Mr Trump on the platform or his podcast until after his testimony in the trial is over out of respect for Judge Merchan and the prosecutors.

In response to Mr Blanche on Thursday, Judge Merchan said that he did not have the authority to extend a gag order to people like Cohen, as they are not defendants in the case.

However, the judge does have the authority to lift a portion of the gag order removing Cohen from protection.

Former president Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York on Thursday ( AFP or licensors )

Mr Blanche also dished out another defence against his client on Thursday to the judge after President Joe Biden quipped that his election opponent was facing some stormy weather at the annual White House Correspondents dinner on Saturday night.

However, Judge Merchan wasnt so convinced.

Youre saying he cant respond to what President Biden said? the judge replied. Theres nothing in the gag order that says he cant.

Cohen is considered a star witness in this historic case  the first in US history to have a former president stand trial.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to so-called hush money payments given to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to cover up her alleged affair with the then-presidential candidate. The payments were labelled as legal fees.

Cohen has previously claimed that he gave Ms Daniels the $130,000 at the direction of Mr Trump and was then reimbursed by him.

Although Mr Trump has denied the affair and any wrongdoing, the former president has previously admitted to reimbursing Cohen for the payment.

The former fixer pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the hush money scheme. He was sentenced to three years in prison  most of which he spent in home confinement. Cohen sought an early end to his supervised release, but last month, a judge rejected it, suggesting that the former attorney had committed perjury. His supervised release is set to end in November.

Alex Woodward contributed reporting from inside Manhattan criminal court
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Investigators have charged three people in connection with the disappearance of two Australian and one American tourists in Mexico  who officials now believe were likely killed in a robbery-turned-shooting.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend Carter Rhoad, from the United States, were reported missing after failing to show up to their accommodation in Baja California on Saturday 27 April.

Local authorities now believe that the three men were approached by a group who tried to carjack the tourists white pick-up truck. When they refused, the encounter turned deadly, officials said.

When they tried to get the vehicles, the victims opposed the robbery. The robbers were armed with a firearm and then apparently shot the victims, said Baja California Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez.

The news comes after investigators said they had recovered three bodies who they believe to be the missing tourists, according to reports Friday afternoon. The bodies were found in an advanced state of decomposition at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep well, 7News reported.

The three Mexican citizens were charged with a crime equivalent to kidnapping on Friday after being questioned and arrested by local authorities, the Associated Press reported. It not immediately clear whether the three could face additional charges.

All three bodies meet the characteristics to assume with a high degree of probability that they are the American Carter Rhoad as well as the Robinson brothers from Australia, Baja Californias Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade said on Saturday.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson disappeared in Baja California, Mexico and their American friend Carter Rhoad have been missing since 27 April, 2024 ( Supplied )

The grim discovery was made at La Bocana, a popular fishing and camping destination near Ensenada, CBS8reported.

A fourth body was found in the well, who has since been identified as the property owner. Officials said this death is unrelated to the three tourists deaths.

Carter Rhoad had travelled with Jake and Callum Robinson to Baja California, Mexico ( Supplied )

On Thursday, authorities said that three Mexican citizens, reported to be a woman and two men, had been arrested. The woman was carrying a mobile phone with a photo on it matching the description of one of the men, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The brothers family said that Jake had gone to visit his brother, who has been living in the US, and the trio had headed south of the border to Ensenada  an area popular with tourists but also known for cartel violence.

They had not been heard from since last Saturday. Their car was later found burnt out, and three tents abandoned.

The charges come after Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, said on Thursday that evidence found with the tents was linked to the three people being questioned about the missing foreigners. She added, There is a lot of important information that we cant make public.

The top prosecutor told reporters that authorities had not been notified straight away, so very important time was lost in the search for the three men.

Callum and Jake Robinson were reported missing after travelling from California to Mexico on 27 April ( 9News/Instagram )

The parents of the Australian brothers, Martin and Debra Robinson, told 9News in a statement that Callum has been living in the US to follow his dream of being a professional lacrosse player.

He is widely known in the US as the Big Koala, they told the outlet. We think of him as our big soft friendly giant.

The parents were reportedly heading to the area to be close to the search efforts.

Callum and Jake are beautiful human beings. We love them so much and this breaks our heart, the couple said.

Both US and Australian authorities told The Independent that they were ready to assist in the investigation in whatever way necessary.
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Displaced Palestinians are hanging touching signs thanking student protesters across the US advocating against Israels continued attacks on Gaza.

Photographs from Deir al Balah, a town in southern Gaza, show Palestinians crafting signs expressing gratitude to students at several universities in the US for staging protests and encampments. Their signs, which have been hanging in Gaza for over a week, come as tensions boil over between universities and protesters on their campuses.

A sign in Gaza that reads, Thanks for your solidarity! Emory University pictured on 1 May. Dozens of protesters at Emory University in Georgia have established an encampment on campus ( EPA )

Pro-Palestinian protests at schools like Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia  where dozens are staging an encampment  are designed to pressure university authorities to divest from Israeli investments or cut ties with businesses that have connections to Israel.

Officers arrested at least 28 protesters on Emorys campus on 25 April, local outlet WSBTV reports. Protesters have continued to stage an encampment every day since.

The protests come amid Israels ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to officials in the territory. The attacks come in response to 7 October, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 as hostages.

The Associated Press also circulated footage this week of Palestinians thanking the student protesters.

It is so wonderful, Abu Yusuf al-Habeel, a Palestinian who is displaced and currently residing in the Shati refugee camp, told the outlet of the protests.

The wave of student protests started at Columbia University on 17 April, when students staged an encampment on the New York City campus. Their pro-Palestinian encampment was a response to school president Minouche Shafiks testimony to Congress about alleged antisemitism at the Ivy League school.

A sign in Gaza that reads, Thank you, students in solidarity wtih Gaza your message has reached. Thank you students for Coulumbia pictured on 28 April. More than 100 Gaza protesters were arrested at Columbia this week after they occupied a campus building ( AFP via Getty Images )

Since then, more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested at schools across the US.

This week, the New York Police Department arrested more than 100 people on Columbias campus after protesters occupied Hamilton Hall. After barricading themselves inside the building Monday, the protesters renamed it Hinds Hall, in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza by Israeli tanks.

This weeks chaos came after New York officers made more than 100 arrests on Columbias campus on 18 April. In both instances, university administrators requested police come to campus.

After protesters were arrested in New York, tensions also boiled over at the University of California, Los Angeles campus.

Early Thursday, police officers in riot gear dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California, Los Angeles and arrested more than 130 demonstrators. The night before, the protests became violent after pro-Israel demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment.

A man sits in Rafah in a tent with the message thank you students for Columbia painted on the side on 27 April. The New York Police Department has arrested hundreds of protesters at Columbia since their protests began on 17 April ( AFP via Getty Images )

However, some schools are striking deals with demonstrators to discuss their demands.

Protesters at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities are taking down their four-day encampment on Thursday after Interim University President Jeff Ettinger said university administrators are willing to speak with students about their demands, which include divestment from investments with Israeli ties.
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A passenger travelling from Miami International Airport in Florida was stopped by security after he was found with a bag of snakes hidden down his trousers.

Alarms alerted security guards to an anomaly on the mans person and he was taken for a pat-down, where he admitted to concealing the reptiles, on Friday 26 April.

Pictures posted online by the Transportation Security Administration showed the two small, pink snakes that had been removed from a camouflage-coloured bag. Police and Customs and Border Patrol were called and the animals were safely turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The post spawned several risque jokes from social media users, as well as a string of references to the 2006 film Snakes On A Plane, starring Samuel L Jackson.

A TSA spokesman told The Independent that the passenger was attempting to take an international flight but had basically admitted there were snakes in his pants when the alarms had sounded.

open image in gallery Two small, pink snakes were retrieved from a camouflage bag that was hidden down the passengers trousers at Miami International Airport, and turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ( @TSA_Gulf/ X )

Airport security uses Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) to detect irregularities.

It showed that there was an anomaly in the groin area and it marks it for a pat-down. When the passenger came through they said that they needed to do a pat-down and thats when he admitted that there were snakes in his pants, the spokesperson told The Independent.

At that point, they contacted law enforcement from there so I think that he knew that, you know, once the technology flagged him for a search that he was caught and he admitted to it.

The man was subsequently forbidden to board his flight, the spokesperson said, adding that such incidents were not commonplace.

However, in January 2023, TSA agents in Tampa, Florida found a four-foot boa constrictor concealed in a passengers bag that they claimed was an emotional support animal.

At the time the agency shared a pun-laden post on Instagram which showed the danger noodle going through the airports X-ray machine.

Our officers at Tampa International Airport didnt find this hyssssssterical! Coiled up in a passengers carry-on was a 4 boa constrictor! We really have no adder-ation for discovering any pet going through an x-ray machine, TSA wrote.

It is understood that the boa constrictor was also turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The Independent has reached out to the agency for comment about the condition of the snakes discovered in Miami on Friday.
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A Texas woman who travelled out of the state to get an abortion is being threatened with legal action by her ex-boyfriend, who also wants to target those who helped her.

The unnamed woman reportedly sought the abortion, legally, in Colorado in late February and when her ex-partner Collin Davis found out about her plans, he retained anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell.

The lawyer threatened a full investigation, The Washington Post reported, should the woman proceed with the abortion  which she did.

People need to understand that it is not a crime to leave Texas or any other state in the country for an abortion, Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the Post.

However, that hasnt stopped Mr Davis and his attorney from pursuing legal action against the woman and those they claim were involved in the killing of his unborn child, a letter seen by the outlet said.

Mr Davis argument appears to be that those who helped his ex-girlfriend are the ones who broke Texas strict abortion laws, which do allow citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an illegal abortion, even if the woman herself cannot be sued.

Anti-abortion rights supporters take part in a "Rally for Life" march and celebration outside the Texas State Capitol on January 27, 2024, in Austin, Texas. ( AFP via Getty Images )

Crossing state lines to get an abortion is still legal nationwide, however, so there remains a challenge for Mr Davis and his attorney Mr Mitchell. District attorneys told the Post that many abortion laws are difficult to enforce.

The Independent has approached the lawyer, who was instrumental in ensuring Texas current abortion ban, for further comment but he is yet to respond.

He told the Post that fathers of aborted foetuses can sue for wrongful death in states with abortion bans, even if the abortion occurs out-of-state.

Mr Mitchell has had experience in a similar case, where a man is suing three women over an abortion which took place in the weeks after Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.

In that case, the womans friends are accused of helping her get hold of abortion medication, with text messages between the women used as evidence.

Protestors demonstrate at the March for Reproductive Rights organized by Women's March L.A. on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California ( Getty Images )

The Center for Reproductive Rights claims these cases show growing attempts by anti-abortionists to restrict womens rights even further.

Across the country, we are seeing attempts to trap people in states where abortion is criminalised, Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center, said.

The anti-abortion movement wants to deny abortion access nationwide, and this is a terrifying step in that direction.

Abortion remains a big issue heading for the 2024 election, with multiple states seeing fights over near-total bans.

A federal judge recently ruled that some of North Carolinas policies on abortion pulls were illegal, while in Arizona a Civil War-era ban will be overturned but it could be months before restrictions are removed.

Around half of US states have heavily restrictive abortion laws, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris vowing to fight these rules heading into Novembers election.
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Paintings by former President George W. Bush are going on show at Walt Disney World in Florida, as part of a celebration of veterans.

Disney announced the new exhibit, set to open at its EPCOT theme park in June, on Wednesday, saying that it will reflect Mr Bushs personal commitment and ongoing work with service personnel.

More than 60 paintings, many featuring service members the president has come to know personally, will be part of the exhibit in the American Adventure pavilion at the central Florida park.

My hope is that those who have the opportunity to see this special exhibit will also remember the leadership, service and sacrifice behind each of the heroes painted and the unique challenges our service members and their families face when transitioning out of the military, Ken Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, said in a press release.

Portraits set to feature in the new exhibition at EPCOT, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida ( Disney/George W. Bush Presidential Center )

Disney explained that each painting in the Portraits of Courage: A Commanders Tribute to Americas Warriors show will be accompanied by the inspiring story of those featured.

Celebrating those who give so much to our country has been part of the fabric of The Walt Disney Company throughout our 100-year history, Josh DAmaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences, said.

Were grateful to the Bush Institute for allowing us to feature this special collection and share it with our guests.

Mr Bush, 77, was in the White House during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with the George W. Bush Institutes work focusing on those who have served in the military since that time.

When a similar exhibition opened in 2017, President Bush explained that he knew each person he had painted.

The American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT will host the exhibition starting 9 June 2024 ( DISNEY )

"These are people that dont want to be called heroes," Bush told NBC News. "They just want [others] to say thank you for doing a good job and I dont want people to feel sorry for them."

The new version of the exhibition will open on 9 June and run for a year, Disney said, and will feature resources for post-9/11 vets and their families.
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Two famous American men with notorious reputations appeared in downtown Manhattan courtrooms near each other this week, during the latest round in their long list of legal problems.

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein appeared at New York State Supreme Court for a hearing on Wednesday for the first time since a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault of two women.

Weinstein now faces a September retrial, after the appeals court ruled that the judge in the case made egregious errors by letting the prosecution call witnesses with testimony unconnected to the charges.

Just one block away, Donald Trumps hush money trial continued this week at Manhattan Criminal Court. The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The reimbursement to her was later logged as legal expenses. The prosecution argues that the payment in the lead-up to the 2016 election was tantamount to election interference, making the false records a felony.

The judge in charge of Trumps case, Judge Juan Merchan, has ruled that if the former president chooses to testify, prosecutors may ask him about uncharged bad acts, including recent judgements against him, such as being found liable for defamation and fraud.

Could the same legal reasoning that saw Weinsteins conviction appeal succeed help Trump overturn a possible guilty verdict in his New York trial?

Legal experts, including a criminal attorney represented Weinstein and a former San Francisco District Attorney, tell The Independent they think the cases have little to do with each other, and have different arguments over whether any ruling from Judge Merchan will withstand an appeal.

Apples and oranges

Trump handed out pizza to firefighters in New York on 2 May ( Getty Images )

Duncan Levin, a criminal attorney who has represented Weinstein and was also a former top official in the Manhattan District Attorneys office before it brought the case against Trump, tells The Independent that its a case of apples and oranges.

The issue of bringing in prior uncharged acts is something that is examined in every single case where there are uncharged acts, he says.

Levin says some may expect that prosecutors could become more gun shy following the Weinstein appeals ruling. But he notes that in the Trump case, the opposite is true as the prosecution forges ahead.

There was an instance a few days ago where the prosecutor asked the judge to be allowed to cross-examine Trump on the violation of the gag order if he testifies, and that shows that the prosecutors are not afraid of aggressively cross-examining him on uncharged acts of wrongdoing, Levin says.

Trump was recently fined $9,000 for gag order violations during the case.

The attorney adds that he doesnt believe that the issue will impact the trial or the cross-examination in any way.

The Weinstein verdict was overturned because the Court of Appeals found that the prosecution had a narrow, contained case with a small number of alleged victims and that the prosecution was trying to get a conviction using evidence of many more alleged victims, violating his due process rights by broadening the trial and including many uncharged acts, Levin tells The Independent.

Prejudicial versus probative evidence

The prejudice from that outweighed the probative nature of the evidence, Levin says, noting that Judge Merchan will likely take the Weinstein ruling into account when making any final decisions on what Trump can be questioned about.

Prejudicial evidence is that which has a negative impact on the fairness of a case. Examples include misused proof or evidence that is confusing or wastes time. Meanwhile, probative evidence proves the facts of the case.

Chesa Boudin, the Executive Director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law and a former San Francisco District Attorney, says when speaking to The Independent that there are very specific evidentiary rules as related to evidence of sexual misconduct which apply to the Weinstein case but not to the Trump case.

According to the Court of Appeal, the misapplication of those rules was the basis for the reversal of his conviction, he says. I was surprised, frankly, to see the Court of Appeal rule in that way because there are such broad exceptions for prior sexual misconduct coming into evidence.

But he doesnt think the case relates to Trumps ongoing trial because while there are underlying salacious details, Trump isnt being charged with a sex crime, meaning that none of the exceptions to the normal rules of evidence applies to the hush money case.

This, however, wont stop Trump from appealing any possible conviction with claims of error related to evidence admitted against him. But it wont be the same issue as in the Weinstein case.

The legal precedent set by the Weinstein appeal should not have any direct bearing on Donald Trumps case, Boudin says.

Levin adds that the Weinstein opinion is a warning to prosecutors to be fair in the type of evidence that they use  to get a conviction.

But he says that at this time, theres nothing that would raise alarms with the judge.

The attorney and former prosecutor argues that the DAs office in the Trump case is seeking to bring in evidence that backs up the allegation that Trump was in a conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations.

Overzealous approach may be basis for reversal

Trump in court in New York on Friday 3 May ( AP )

One thing the Manhattan DAs office have to prove is that Trump was concerned that past alleged affairs could become a problem for him right before the election to such a degree that he took steps to make the payment to silence the story, Levin says.

It is evidence in the case that gets to the ultimate question of whether Trump was taking action to interfere in the election by paying hush money, he adds, noting that the prosecution will likely be allowed to bring in evidence that supports the charges.

Mr Boudin says the prosecution is doing the right thing by going for an expansive approach in what evidence they can bring up if Trump chooses to take the stand knowing full well that theres always a risk that an overzealous approach  can later be the basis for a reversal.

In such a complicated case with so many documents and technical legal issues, the prosecution has to make sure to paint a full and detailed picture for the jury of what happened so the jury can reach a just conclusion, Boudin adds. And I think the trial judge knows full well that every one of his decisions will be scrutinized and appealed if conviction is the outcome.

Boudin tells The Independent that usually, a trial courts decision will not be reversed even if an appellate court disagrees with it unless an error is found to have impacted the outcome of the case. In Weinsteins case, errors made were found to have been harmful.

If Trump doesnt testify but is convicted, hell likely argue on appeal that the inclusion of such evidence had a chilling effect on his willingness to take the stand. But that argument would fall flat if he does take the stand, Levin notes.

If he doesnt testify, I am sure that one argument they will make is that he did not testify because of the courts adverse ruling against him and have a similar issue on appeal, Levin says.

Opening the door to all manner of evidence

Former film producer Harvey Weinstein at a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on 1 May ( Getty Images )

The question at hand during the Trump hush money trial is if prior bad acts are allowed to be used in evidence.

Boudin notes that even if the judge has previously said that the Access Hollywood tape is inadmissible  if Trump claims on the stand to have never sexually assaulted a woman, that tape can suddenly be used.

If he is on the witness stand, its entirely possible that he will do what we call opening the door to all manner of evidence coming in, he adds.

Some evidence that might not be admissible for its direct probative value may become admissible if a witness makes it relevant by denying something for which they can then be impeached with that same evidence, Boudin says.

In a trial setting, impeachment is the process of showing that a witness isnt credible.

Considering the amount of public statements, audio, and video content that exists of Trump, there are endless ways for him to open the door to fresh evidence.

In Harvey Weinsteins case, they were trying to make the point that he is a serial rapist  but that was so prejudicial, Levin says.

In Trumps case, the prosecutors are seeking to cross-examine based on past court rulings and other allegations that get to the ultimate heart of what hes accused of.

Remember what this case is about, Levin adds. They falsified business records with the intent to commit another crime, the other crime being  violation of the campaign finance laws.

The reason he did it ... was so it would quiet down all these allegations, he says. Thats why they fit into the narrative here in a different kind of way than they did in the Harvey Weinstein case.
DEPRIVING someone of the right to speak or express themselves in a society where they are guaranteed this right by the Constitution of the land is wrong, plain and simple. This is how Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini may have felt when circumstances at the TUCOSWA organised Workers Day forced him to leave before he could address a gathering he had been invited to as a guest speaker.

This was embarrassing for both him and the workers. The PM has described the behaviour of workers as hostile and aggressive, which are terms equally used by some of the workers as reasons for their behaviour. They accuse the government of hostility and aggression towards them when raising their challenges at times.

Divided

The incident has left both sides divided over the PMs invitation and attendance. Workers assert that they received no consultation, whereas some government officials I spoke to say they advised against the PMs attendance. This issue necessitated a tripartite social dialogue forum to assess the possibility of a government head attending a national workers day for the first time in this countrys history.

Ultimately, it was the leaders who had the final say and the outcome has revealed their level of judgement. There are many lessons for the future for all, particularly in dealing with the lack of tolerance and respect among some members of our society. However, what is important to note from this incident and subsequent debate, are the two sides of freedom of expression that were at play. One party, the protesting workers, felt they had a right to express their dissatisfaction over the presence of the PM at their event, while the government felt it had a right to address workers after listening to their submissions, but was deprived of the right to respond by some hostile and aggressive attendees. Among the workers, some complained of being deprived of their right to hear the PM, thus they were denied access to important information that would help them make informed decisions about their lives.

Relate

We, in the media, are all too familiar with this scenario and can relate to the hurt that the PM has felt because we have often been confronted with similar circumstances when it comes to the need to make important things heard. Both sides of the political divide have chastised us for simply doing our jobs and telling a story that is important to those who need access to this information. There is a growing unwelcomed antagonism towards the press, with threats of enforcing statutory measures if it does not toe the line or becomes unquestionably patriotic. On the other hand, there have been threats to the lives of press members and destruction of their property.

It becomes important to draw attention to the need for a free press and how it can build a more tolerant society on a day like today, which marks World Press Freedom Day. We have to reflect on the level of tolerance for views that need to be heard, but may not be what people necessarily want to hear.

It is for this reason that the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of press freedom and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined in Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. Today also commemorates the Windhoek Declaration, acknowledging the crucial role of a free press in fostering democracy and economic growth and addressing the pervasive persecution of journalists, editors and publishers in African nations.

It calls upon the United Nations to identify press censorship as a violation of human rights. Thankfully, the Kingdom of Eswatini has a Constitution that contains the Bill of Rights, which incorporates Article 19, to guarantee freedom of expression. The protection of freedom of expression in this country is found in Section 24. Every right comes with responsibilities, and this section outlines exceptions where the denial of a right does not conflict with or violate a law.

These include situations where a law reasonably requires protection for defence, public safety, order, morality or health; protects reputations; prevents disclosure of confidential information; maintains court authority; regulates communication; or imposes restrictions on public officers, unless it is not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society. Let this day serve as a reminder that the best way to foster tolerance in a society is to have free media, in which people can learn to participate, debate and appreciate other points of view.

It is a platform that can reduce antagonism towards one another and eliminate the need for aggression to convey ones message. To see the media, in any other manner or form is to instill a culture of intolerance and respect, making peaceful coexistence much more difficult to accomplish, not to mention the destruction of our culture of dialogue. Happy Press Freedom day to all.
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Donald Trump has dismissed the idea of debating independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., slamming him as not serious.

I dont know anything about him, Mr Trump said. Look, RFK is polling very low, he is not a serious candidate.

The former president was responding to a question about whether he would debate Mr Kennedy Jr., who he has frequently sparred with throughout his campaign.

They say he hurts Biden; I dont know who he hurts, he might hurt me, I dont know. But he has very low numbers, certainly not numbers that he can debate with. Hes got to get his numbers a lot higher before hes credible, Mr Trump added.

A recent NBC News poll found that the third-party vote - especially RFK Jr - is cutting deeper into Trumps support than President Joe Bidens.

Mr Trump is currently leading Mr Biden by two percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, the poll found, but when the ballot is expanded to five named candidates, Mr Biden is the one with the two-point lead.

The poll found that a greater number of Trump voters in the head-to-head matchup were backing RFK Jr. in the expanded ballot, with fifteen per cent of respondents who picked Mr Trump the first time picking Mr Kennedy Jr. in the five-way ballot, compared with seven per cent of those who initially picked Mr Biden.

In addition, the poll found that Republican voters view Mr Kennedy Jr much more favorably than Democratic voters do.

RFK Jr, who is the son of the late US senator Robert F Kennedy, initially filed candidacy papers for the Democratic nomination in April but later switched to running as an independent candidate.

Following his announcement that he was running for president, his family members released a statement denouncing him as dangerous and perilous for our country.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr ( AP )

Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment, Kerry Kennedy wrote on behalf of four members of the illustrious political dynasty.

RFK Jr has previously been accused of amplifying conspiracy theories  most notably about the Covid vaccine, which he baselessly claimed was linked to brain disorders. He also claimed that the virus which causes Covid-19 was ethnically targeted.

Since his announcement, Mr Kennedy Jr. has frequently sparred with Mr Trump, who he last week called unhinged after a social media tirade from the former Republican president accused the independent White House hopeful of being a Democrat plant and wasted protest vote.

RFK Jr is a Democrat Plant, Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social. A Vote for Junior would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.

Mr Kennedy Jr. responded: When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged. President Trumps rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.

Meanwhile, in April, Mr Kennedy Jr claimed Mr Trump asked him to be his running mate. President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. Im soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer, he wrote on X.

A top aide of Mr Trump disputed Mr Kennedys claim and denied approaching him to join his ticket as vice president.

Chris LaCivita, Trumps co-campaign manager, said: Re-upping this from January was true then and its true now, calling Mr Kennedy a leftie loonie that would never be approached to be on the ticket..sorry!
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Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar says he and his wife are innocent ahead of a potential indictment by federal prosecutors on unspecified charges.

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations, Mr Cuellar said in a statement to ABC News. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.

Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.

Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington, DC, prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.

He added that the actions he took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

Texas congressman Henry Cuellar is facing a potential indictment by federal prosecutors on unspecified charges ( Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Officials with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) are yet to confirm the potential indictments.

Mr Cuellar, a conservative Democrat, has long been a target of progressives given his opposition to abortion rights. Mr Cuellars defenders have long said he is the only Democrat who can win in the heavily conservative Rio Grande Valley.

In 2022, the FBI raided Mr Cuellars congressional office in Laredo and his home. His attorney at the time said the congressman was not the target of that investigation.

That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington, DC, and Texas, a person with direct knowledge of the probe previously told The Associated Press. Mr Cuellar was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

Federal disclosures show that the nine-term congressman travelled to Azerbaijan in 2013. Two years later, Mr Cuellars office announced an agreement between a Texas university and an organisation called the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan to collaborate on oil and gas research and education.

Despite the controversy surrounding the raids in 2022, Mr Cuellar went on to beat back a left-wing Democratic challenger  Jessica Cisneros  for the second time.

A year after the raid on his home the congressman told The Texas Tribune: There has been no wrongdoing on my part... My focus remains the same from my very first day in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.

It is not clear whether Fridays potential indictment is related to the 2022 FBI raids.

In a brief post on X on Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) wrote: Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first. Will House Democrats call for him to RESIGN?

Mr Cuellar has been undaunted by the controversy and has previously vowed to seek reelection to Congress in November, which would be his 11th term.
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Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife have been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy and bribery, after allegedly taking nearly $600,000 from a Azerbaijani-controlled company and a Mexican bank.

The charges were announced on Friday by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), shortly after Mr Cuellar protested his innocence.

It is alleged that from 2014 to 2021, Mr Cuellar and his wife Imelda accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, the congressman agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the US, according to an indictment.

The money was also allegedly laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Ms Cuellar.

Among other things, Mr Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the US House.

The announcement comes after the congressman released a statement earlier on Friday in which he claimed that everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, is now facing charges of conspiracy and bribery, brought by the US Department of Justice ( Getty Images )

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations, Mr Cuellar said. Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.

Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington DC prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.

He added that the actions he took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

A conservative Democrat, Mr Cuellar has long been a target of progressives given his opposition to abortion rights. In 2020 and 2022, Jessica Cisneros staged a primary challenger against him, sending him to a runoff, in which he prevailed both times.

House Democratic leadership has consistently backed him and belive that he is the only Democrat who can win in the heavily conservative and Latino Rio Grande Valley. In his most recent primary in March, he ran unopposed.

Mr Cuellar has also sharply criticised other Democrats for their policies on immigration and started a coterie of Democrats who support stronger measures called Democrats for Border Security Task Force.

He was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

Mr Cuellars family also has a prominent presence in the district. His brother is the sheriff of Webb County while his sister served as a judge for Rio Bravo and Webb County. His concentration of power has earned him the nickname the King Laredo, where he lives.

In 2022, the FBI raided Mr Cuellars congressional office in Laredo and his home. His attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of that investigation.

That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington DC, and Texas, a person with direct knowledge of the probe previously told The Associated Press.

Federal disclosures show that the nine-term congressman traveled to Azerbaijan in 2013. Two years later, Mr Cuellars office announced an agreement between a Texas university and an organization called the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan for the purposes of collaborating on oil and gas research and education.

In 2022, the FBI raided Mr Cuellars congressional office in Laredo and his home, though his attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of the investigation ( Getty Images )

Despite the controversy surrounding the raids in 2022, Mr Cuellar went on to beat back a left-wing Democratic challenger  Jessica Cisneros  for the second time.

A year after the raid on his home the congressman told the Texas Tribune: There has been no wrongdoing on my part... My focus remains the same from my very first day in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.

Mr Cuellar has previously been undaunted by the controversy and has previously vowed to seek reelection to Congress in November, which would be his 11th term.

Following the announcement of charges, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the congressman was entitled to his day in court.

Henry Cuellar has admirably devoted his career to public service and is a valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus. Like any American, Congressman Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process, a statement from Mr Jeffries read.

Pursuant to House Democratic Caucus Rule 24, Congressman Cuellar will take leave as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee while this matter is ongoing.

In contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) wrote in a brief post on X: Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first. Will House Democrats call for him to RESIGN?
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Hope Hicks, the woman who once stood at the heart of Donald Trumps political operations, took the witness stand in her former bosss hush money trial in New York on Friday.

Once a key member of Trumps inner circle, the two have not spoken since 2022. But according to insiders, Ms Hicks remains fond of the ex-president and wants nothing but the best for him - even as she appears under subpoena to give evidence in his so-called hush money trial.

Trump has spent the majority of the past three weeks listening to evidence presented at Manhattan Criminal Court where he is accused of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels after she alleged in October 2016 that they had a sexual encounter a decade earlier. It was a revelation that threatened to sink his bid for the presidency eight years ago.

Trump denies the affair and the 34 felony charges against him.

He has decried the trial as a scam cooked up by his political enemies to discredit him and derail his latest campaign for the White House.

So far, jurors in Judge Juan Merchans courtroom have heard from colourful witnesses summoned by the prosecution  including tabloid publisher David Pecker and Ms Daniels former attorney Keith Davidson  and soon expect to hear from Mr Trumps former fixer Michael Cohen and perhaps Ms Daniels herself.

But Ms Hickss name has been invoked many times throughout the evidence so far.

Donald Trump and Hope Hicks at a Make America Great Again rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on 1 November 2020 ( AFP/Getty )

Ex-National Enquirer editor David Pecker told jurors that Ms Hicks had been in and out of the pivotal August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower at which he, Mr Trump and Cohen had discussed The National Enquirer serving as the campaigns eyes and ears, helping to catch and kill stories that could damage the Republicans chances of victory.

Ms Hicks, now 35, has been described by The Washington Post as the Zelig of Trumpworld who was present for nearly every scandal that caught the scrutiny of special counsels, US attorneys, congressional committees, grand juries and federal prosecutors.

From teenage model to Trump World via Ivankas clothing line

Raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she was a teenage model and lacrosse player, Ms Hicks graduated from Southern Methodist Univeristy in Texas before following her father into public relations in New York City.

She was assigned to work on a campaign for Ivanka Trumps fashion line and two years later, in August 2014, joined the Trump Organization to work for the brand in-house where her role was to expand the line. She also did some modelling for the brands website.

Trump plucked her from his daughters company and by January 2015, aged 26, she was working on his presidential campaign in the role of press secretary, despite having no experience in politics.

Youre going to be my press secretary: the road to the White House

She reportedly said: Mr. Trump looked at me and said, Im thinking about running for president, and youre going to be my press secretary.

But despite her lack of political experience (she had never even volunteered on a campaign), Ms Hicks proved herself a quick study, as sharp as she was liked by Trump staff.

She became the acceptable face of Trumps 2016 campaign, overseeing which media outlets the candidate spoke to and even helped him draft his tweets.

She hadnt planned on being his press secretary for long and was told early in the campaign that she had to choose between working for TrumpOrg or the campaign. According to a GQ article, she chose to leave the campaign but was persuaded to stay.

When Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton to the White House, despite the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape just a month earlier, Ms Hicks stayed on and was appointed White House director of strategic communications.

At Trumps request, she kept a desk right outside the Oval Office - a spot usually reserved for more junior staff - so she would be on-hand to join meetings.

Donald Trump and Hope Hicks at the White House on 2 October 2020 ( EPA )

She was fiercely loyal and publicity-shy, avoiding interviews. But, crucially, she was egoless.

Her ex-coworker Tony Sayegh told The Post she was an egoless presence in an administration laden with large egos.

She was also so trusted by Trump that staff usually sought her approval before presenting ideas to the president.

Mr Sayegh said: There was never an idea that we did not run by Hope first, because we knew that was going to increase the chance of the president agreeing to and approving it.

From there, Ms Hicks stepped in at short notice to serve for six months as Mr Trumps communications director, succeeding the exceedingly short-lived Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted less than a month in the job in July 2017.

She was appointed to the role permanently, becoming the youngest person ever to lead a White House communications team.

In 2017 she was named one of Forbes Magazines 30 Under 30. She was described as a one-woman press team.

From DC to the Golden State - and back again

Within a few months, however, Ms Hicks departed the White House. She moved to Los Angeles in March 2018 to work for the Fox Corporation on a lucrative deal. The move was a reprieve from the limelight over unwelcome tabloid interest in her personal life.

She would eventually be called back to DC by FBI special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which saw him interview her three times and mention her name on 180 occasions in his eponymous report, published in April 2019.

A video of Hope Hicks testifying is played by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack at its final session on Capitol Hill on 19 December 2022 ( AP )

In its wake, the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Ms Hicks to appear for a behind-closed-doors hearing at which she was notoriously prevented from answering no fewer than 155 questions by White House lawyers.

After two years as Foxs chief communications officer, she was welcomed back to the administration in March 2020 as Mr Trumps new counselor to the president, working alongside Kellyanne Conway.

She served in that capacity until the tail end of the Trump presidency  there for the Covid-19 pandemic and the rocky summer of Black Lives Matter protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd  leaving her post six days after the mob attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Life after the White House

She initially remained friendly with the Trumps and visited them at Mar-a-Lago.

But the relationship soured after she was subpoenaed to give evidence to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in October 2022.

She recalled Mr Trump saying: Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose... the only thing that matters is winning.

The committee also discussed text messages sent by Ms Hicks pertaining to the riot that were highly critical of the presidents conduct. These angered both Mr Trump and his daughter Ivanka.

Ms Hicks went on to found a strategic consultancy firm of her own. She is currently engaged to Goldman Sachs banker Jim Donovan, 57, according to the Daily Mail.

But as for the frosty relationship with the man who supercharged her ascent to one of the most prominent jobs in politics, a former administration official who remains close to Ms Hicks told the Washington Post: She still has warm feelings toward the president and a lot of admiration for him.
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President Joe Biden was silent for a bit too long after being told that the families of the US service members who died during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan felt that he spoke too much about his late son Beau Biden.

Thirteen service members were killed in Kabul in August 2021, and Biden later met with their families.

In a new book, Jen Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host, writes that she paused for the president to respond during a call with Biden.

The silence that followed was a bit too long. I worried for a moment that our connection had been lost, she added. Sir, are you still there? I asked.

Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House and the World is set to be published next week. A copy was obtained by The Guardian.

Psaki left the administration in 2022.

Biden had ordered the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in April 2021 after two decades of war in the country. As chaos raged in Kabul on 26 August, a suicide bomber attacked one of the gates at the airport in the city, killing 170 Afghans and the 13 US service members.

The bodies were returned to the US at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on 29 August. The dignified transfer was attended by Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

Of all the presidents duties, this is high on the list of most heartbreaking. For President Biden in particular, it stirred feelings of his own despair about the death of his son Joseph Biden III, a.k.a Beau, Psaki writes in her upcoming book.

Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46 after going to Iraq with the National Guard. Between 2007 and 2015, he was the attorney general of Delaware.

Joe Biden attended the dignified transfer of the remains of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on 29 August 2021 ( AFP via Getty Images )

Biden has brought up the possibility that his sons cancer was caused by so-called burn pits in Iraq. The World Health Organization has stated that emissions from such pits include substances known to be carcinogenic to humans, Psaki notes.

The ex-press secretary goes on to recount how Biden lost his first wife and their one-year-old daughter in a 1972 car crash. His two sons, Hunter and Beau, were in the car but survived.

Biden often refers to these unique and disparate, but nevertheless unbearable, experiences of grief and loss as a way to connect with others, Psaki writes.

She called Biden to tell him that The New York Times was writing a story about the meeting with the Gold Star families.

Beau was rarely, if ever, the focus of a negative story, she notes.

It was one thing to tell the president the media was planning to criticise his Covid response, and quite another to say the media was planning to criticize the way he speaks about his son, who passed away tragically young, she adds.

She writes that she called to warn the president that The Times was writing a story that he referenced Beaus death repeatedly while meeting with families of the soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and which would quote a number of family members making critical comments.

I thought I was helping them. Hearing about how other people went through loss always helps me, Biden told Psaki, who noted that when he finally answered, it was in a softer voice than usual.

One of the parents, Mark Schmitz, who lost his 20-year-old son Jared, told The Times: I respect anybody that lost somebody. But it wasnt an appropriate time.
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Donald Trump was back in court again on Thursday during his third week of the hush money trial in Manhattan, where jurors heard bombshell recordings between Mr Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

The former presidents legal team attempted to defend Mr Trump over his gag order violations on Thursday. Earlier this week, Judge Juan Merchan fined him $9,000 for repeated violations of the order, which bars him from talking about foreseeable witnesses or staff of the judge or DAs office. Ironically, after court adjourned for the day, Mr Trump falsely claimed to reporters that he was not allowed to testify because of the gag order.

The court also saw a different side of Michael Cohen, who has previously been described in the Manhattan courthouse as excitable and pants on fire.

One witness said he thought Cohen was going to kill himself after Cohen found out that Mr Trump, Cohens long-term client, wasnt considering him for top roles in his White House administration.

Here are some takeaways from another day at the hush money trial:

Trumps defence tries to make him the victim

Mr Trumps legal team painted him as a victim, trying to turn the tables days after Judge Juan Merchan fined the former president $9,000 for violating a gag order.

Defence attorney Todd Blanche accused Cohen of inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything hes saying. He showed a series of Cohens posts to the judge, including calling Mr Trump Von Sh**zInPantz.

Mr Blanche also groaned about comments that Joe Biden made at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Donald has had a few tough days lately, you might call it stormy weather, the president said.

Judge Merchan dismissed the argument, saying that there is nothing in the gag order that says he cant respond to Mr Biden.

Judge seemed unimpressed with Trumps comments about jurors

After hearing Mr Blanches defence of Mr Trumps comments, the judge then urged him to switch to defending his clients remarks about the jury.

Mr Trump has previously complained about the fairness of the trial, seeing as it is being held in the blue state of New York  which also happens to be his home state.

Still, the former president previously said that the jury was picked so fast  95 per cent Democrats.

Trump speaks to the media at Manhattan criminal court ( via REUTERS )

Mr Blanche started spewing arguments, claiming the hush money case is political persecution, prompting Judge Merchan to interject.

Did he violate the gag order? Thats what I want to know, he said. He spoke about the jury, right? And he said the jury was 95 per cent Democrats and the jury had been rushed through, and the implication that this was not a fair jury?

Michael Cohen scrambled to reign in Stormy Daniels as she went on TV

Jurors were shown a series of texts dated 31 January 2018 that Cohen sent in rapid succession while he was watching Ms Daniels on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.

He appeared unhappy with how Ms Daniels was presenting her encounter with Mr Trump on television.

Cohen texted, She just denied the letter. He was referring to a statement drafted the day before in which the adult film star denied the affair with Mr Trump had ever happened.

The Trump lawyer then typed, while watching the show, Claiming its not her signature.

He then texted, You said she did it in front of you.

Mr Davidson texted, She did. Impossible - she posted it on her own Twitter page.

Cohen then said, They showed her signature and she claimed it was not hers on Kimmel.

Mr Davidson then replied, Wtf.

Cohen then mentioned Stormys then-publicist Gina Rodriguez. He wrote, Please tell Gina to ensure she responds the same as your statement tomorrow when she does the view. This is not a comedy show!

Mr Davidson replied, Gina is ticked off at stormy because Stormy made her look like a liar. He continued, Gina says she is going to have a LONG talk with Stormy on the plane to New York tomorrow. She assured me that this will get handled.

Cohen thought he would be Trumps attorney general or chief of staff

Former Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson testified that he thought Cohen was distraught by mid-December 2016.

I thought he was going to kill himself, Mr Davidson said.

Before that, the lawyer recalled Cohen saying, Jesus Christ, can you believe Im not going to Washington?

Cohen arrives at a New York courthouse in March. The jury heard recordings of the former Trump attorney on Thursday ( REUTERS )

Ive saved that guys ass so many times you dont even know, Cohen said about his then-boss Mr Trump, Mr Davidson recalled. That guys not even paying the $130,000 back.

Cohen thought he could be tapped to serve as Mr Trumps White House chief of staff or attorney general.

Cohen has 39,000 contacts on his phone

Today, the world learned just how connected Trumps former personal attorney is.

Cohen has 39,750 contacts on his phone, according to an exhibit shown in court while forensic analyst Doug Daus testified.

Is that unusual? asks attorney Christopher Conroy. That is unusual, Mr Daus replied.

Damning audio captures Trump and Cohen discussing hush money catch and kill plot

Prosecutors presented a muffled recording between Cohen and Mr Trump discussing paying off former Playboy model Karen McDougal

Cohen was heard saying, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David [Pecker], you know, so that, Im going to do that right away ... And Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.

Mr Trump then responded, So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?

The audio was indiscernible, but then Cohen can be heard saying, ...funding. Yes. Uh, and its all the stuff.

Mr Trump said, Yeah, I was thinking about that.

Trump watches Davidson is questioned during Trump's criminal trial ( REUTERS )

Cohen then said, Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what hes 

Mr Trump then added, Maybe he gets hit by a truck.

Some moments later, Cohen said, Well, Ill have to pay something.

Trump replied, Pay with cash, to which, Cohen, said, No, no, no.

Mr Trump then recommended: Check.

Mr Trump told Cohen: I hate that fact that we did it

Manhattan prosecutors also played another tape  this time it was a call between Ms Daniels former lawyer Keith Davidson and Cohen.

Cohen said, What would you do if you were me?  Would you write a book?  Would you break away from the entire Trump, you know, well call it, doctrine? Would you go completely rogue?  Any thoughts? Because its not just me thats being affected.

The former Trump lawyer continued, Its my entire family.  Nobodys thinking about Michael. Know what Im saying?  Im saying to myself, What about me? What about me?

Then, in a shocking moment, Cohen said, I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, I hate that fact that we did it.

In the tape, Cohen then said, And my comment to him was, But every person you spoke to said it was the right thing to do.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass clarified who Cohen was referring to; Mr Davidson said he believed Cohen was referring to Donald Trump.

Mr Davison also clarified that the right move meant the settlement with Daniels.
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The former Republican governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin saw his access to the house where his estranged wife lives limited this week after she came forward with allegations that he follows her around inside the house asking questions about their divorce.

In an affidavit connected to an order looking for the exclusive use of the home east of Louisville that they co-own, Glenna Bevin referred to Mr Bevins actions as aggressive and unsettling and disruptive to the household, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Angela Johnson made the ruling following a motion from Ms Bevin asking for the exclusive use of the home, that she and Mr Bevin only speak via a parenting app, that Ms Bevin gets half of the funds from the sale of another property in Jefferson County, and that Mr Bevin be held in contempt for failing to answer discovery.

The judge granted all counts apart from holding Mr Bevin in contempt, saying it would be premature. She pointed to Mr Bevins hesitancy to share some documents because of the risk of having information about the prominent family made public.

Because of the parties well-known status, the Court agrees with the Respondents concerns and believes that a contempt motion is premature, Judge Johnson wrote.

Ms Bevin currently lives in the home in Anchorage east of Louisville with their two children, while Mr Bevin mostly lives in another home that they also co-own in Jefferson County. Judge Johnson ruled that the Anchorage home be listed for sale within 60 days.

Former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin at the unveiling of the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant on 14 March 2019 in Georgetown, Kentucky ( Getty Images )

The judge gave Mr Bevin a week to get essential things from the home, such as clothes and work items, after which he will have to have the permission of Ms Bevin or a judge to enter the home.

Ms Bevin filed for divorce in May last year, calling the marriage irretrievably broken. The ruling stated that Mr Bevin hasnt slept in the home in Anchorage for more than two years.

Judge Johnson wrote in her order that Mr Bevin seems to be a caring father that is trying to maintain as much a sense of normalcy as possible while the divorce proceeds.

While [Mr Bevin] admitted that he did not want the divorce, [he] seems to be trying to keep the parties relationship and maintain a business as usual environment, she added. However, the truth of the matter is that the parties are getting a divorce. Normalcy and the business as usual environment are gone.

The 57-year-old Mr Bevin served as the Republican governor of Kentucky between 2015 and 2019 before losing his re-election bid to Democrat Andy Beshear, who won re-election last year.

Ms Bevin stated in her affidavit that Mr Bevin often refuses to leave until after she goes to bed and that he tries to talk to her about their divorce case, and when she attempts to end the conversation, he follows me from room to room and even into the bathroom or my bedroom, disrespecting my privacy; to me, his conduct is aggressive and unsettling.

Mr Bevins attorney said his client rejects the allegations in response to Ms Bevins motion. He vehemently denies that he follows her around the home and otherwise harasses her about the case.

The attorney wrote that Mr Bevin is at a loss as to why she wants to revoke his access to the home, according to Louisville Public Media.

Such an assertion is simply not true and is designed to embarrass and malign Matt, lawyer Jesse Mudd wrote.

After Judge Johnsons ruling on Tuesday, Mr Mudd moved to request that the case be sealed from the public.

As the Court is aware, the parties to this case are the former Governor and First Lady of Kentucky, and as such, this divorce action has already garnered media attention and public discourse and will likely continue to do so, Mr Mudd wrote. To that end, Matt seeks to protect the parties from the public dissemination of their finances, business interests and other personal information relating to their family.

The Independent has attempted to reach Mr Mudd for comment.
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Mary Trump, former President Donald Trumps niece, has cast doubt over the possibility that her uncle will be convicted in court amid his hush money trial, saying there is always a way out for him.

Mr Trump, 77, is currently on trial in New York, charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an alleged bid to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

He allegedly paid Daniels, 45, $130,000 in October 2016 in exchange for her silence over a 2006 affair Daniels says they had.

Mr Trump denies the affair and has maintained his innocence, but experts have predicted that he could theoretically face more than a decade in prison if he is convicted.

However, the former presidents niece remains doubtful that Mr Trump will ever see the inside of a prison cell.

I think the real split screen we need to think about is Donald Trump, presidential candidate for the Republican Party and Donald Trump, anti-American authoritarian wannabe, Ms Trump said in an interview on MSNBC.

( MSNBC )

And the problem is that were seeing that these are being treated as two entirely different people. Its as if the fact that he is a criminal defendant, the fact that he committed alleged crimes against the United States of America have no impact whatsoever on his relevance or his standing as a candidate for the presidency.

She added that it is really troubling because it seems that theres always a way out for him. Theres always somebody willing to bail him out. Even if it looks like theres no escape. And I dont know it worries me quite honestly that as deep the trouble is that hes in, it may not be enough.

She went on to say she does not want to get too excited since the trial is still in early days, when asked by MSNBC how it feels to see her uncle face accountability, adding that Mr Trump has been able to normalize outrageous, egregious behavior, and make outlandish remarks without any proper liability.

This is a trend thats been happening for decades now. Donald is incredibly good at pushing the envelope and pulling back in those rare instances in which he gets pushed back. But usually what happens is he pushes the envelope, he breaks norms, he defies expectations, and he gets away with it, she said. So being who he is, he pushes the envelope some more to see what else he can get away with.

Ms Trump has been a staunch critic of her uncle in recent months, previously calling him unhinged and saying democracy will be over if he becomes president again.

She previously published a book about Mr Trump titled: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man.
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Prosecutors for the Manhattan District Attorneys office closed out the week at Donald Trumps criminal hush money trial with testimony from a major witness  former Trump aide Hope Hicks.

As one of the closest advisers to the former president, Ms Hicks was present at key moments during the 2016 campaign and for the first year of Mr Trumps administration.

As press secretary to the king of self-promotion, she worked closely with him as election day neared in 2016 just as the Access Hollywood tape and Karen McDougal affair allegations rocked the campaign.

In approximately three hours of testimony, she gave jurors firsthand insight into Trumpworld during a tumultuous few weeks on the campaign trail  giving a strong suggestion that her former boss was involved in payment to Stormy Daniels.

Here are the key takeaways from the day in court:

Trump walks back Thursdays claim gag order stops him from testifying

On Thursday as he left the courtroom and delivered his usual diatribe to the assembled media, Mr Trump claimed that because of the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, he was prohibited from testifying in his own defence.

That was totally untrue.

On Friday morning, on the way into court, he walked back that statement when asked whether the gag order would stop him from testifying.

No. It wont stop me from testifying. The gag order is not for testifying. It stops me from talking about people and responding when they say things about me, the former president said, presumably having been corrected by his legal team overnight.

Once in the courtroom, Judge Merchan began by clarifying the extent of the gag order for Mr Trump in person.

Merchan, diplomatically, said there may be a misunderstanding regarding the order restriction extrajudicial statements.

I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify in trial, he said. That is a constitutional right that cannot be denied  in any way.  It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon.

The gag order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way  or limit or minimise what you say from the witness stand, the judge added that it does not apply to statements made from the witness stand.

Donald Trump in court for his criminal trial on 3 May 2024 ( Getty Images )

Hope Hicks takes the stand

In a trial full of highly anticipated witnesses and with no published list of in what order they will appear  to protect them from being attacked online by the defendant  the appearance of Ms Hicks made narrative sense given the way the prosecution was laying out its case.

Ms Hicks was allegedly part of at least 10 telephone conversations with Mr Trump and Cohen regarding the hush money payments and alleged reimbursements.

Admitting with a laugh that she was really nervous, Ms Hicks began by explaining how she started working with the Trump family straight out of college and then the Trump Organization full-time in October 2014, transitioning over to the 2016 presidential campaign team.

Everybody who works there in some sense reports to Mr Trump  Its a big successful company but its really run like a small family business in some ways, she testified, explaining that by June 2015 she was speaking with the then-candidate every day and eventually became his press secretary  reporting directly to him and travelling alongside him.

Hope Hicks, a former top aide to ex-President Donald Trump, testifies during his criminal trial before Justice Juan Merchan on 3 May 2024 ( REUTERS )

Hicks recalls impact of Access Hollywood tape on campaign

Ms Hicks testified that she found out about the infamous Access Hollywood tape of Mr Trump making remarks about allegedly sexually assaulting women on the afternoon of 7 October 2016  just a month before the election.

She received an email from The Washington Post asking for comment while in her office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower and quickly forwarded the email to other campaign leadership, marking it urgent.

I was concerned. Very concerned, she told the court. I was concerned about the contents of the email, concerned about the lack of time to respond, concerned that we had a transcript and not a tape. There was a lot at play.

Ms Hicks recalled huddling with other campaign staff and Mr Trump while they worked out a response and that the then-candidate was upset.

She recalled being a little stunned and realised that it was a damaging development that would dominate the news cycle for days. An apology video statement from Mr Trump did little to quell the storm.

It was intense. Dominated coverage for I would say 36 hours leading up to the debate. At the time, I got the email  we were anticipating a Category 4 hurricane making landfall somewhere on the east coast and I dont think anyone remembers where that hurricane made landfall.

Hope Hicks walks from Marine One prior to boarding Air Force One as she departs Washington with then-President Donald Trump on 23 October 2020 ( REUTERS )

Hicks says Trump tried to hide news of Karen McDougal affair from Melania

Even closer to the election, Ms Hicks was contacted by The Wall Street Journal regarding a report that a woman named Karen McDougal has a story about Mr Trump purchased by The National Enquirer, which then never published it. The reporter wanted to know if the campaign knew anything about it.

Ms Hicks told the court she looped in Mr Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner to try and buy them some more time through his relationship with the WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch. David Pecker at the Enquirer claimed the payment to Ms McDougal was for fitness columns and magazine covers.

Another denial was prepared and she and Cohen were in constant contact as the story was published.

Relative to some of the other stories we dealt with  it just didnt get a lot of traction, she recalled.

Mr Trump was concerned about the story and Melania Trump finding out, Ms Hicks testified.He was concerned how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers werent delivered to their residence that morning.

After possibly denting Trumps defence, Hicks cries on stand

Under questioning by prosecution attorney Matthew Colangelo, Ms Hicks testified that Mr Trump told her that Cohen made the Stormy Daniels hush money payment on his own.

The former president told her: Michael felt like it was his job to protect him and that he did it in the kindness of his own heart and he didnt tell anyone about it.

Mr Trump also said it was better to do it when he did rather than have it come out before the election.

Ms Hicks was asked whether the idea that Cohen wouldve made a $130,00 payment out of the kindness of his own heart was consistent with what she knew about him.

Id say that would be out of character for Michael, she replied.

Judge Juan Merchan overruled objections from the defence team to the line of questioning.

Asked to elaborate, Ms Hicks said: I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or a selfless person. [He was] the kind of person who seeks credit.

By implication, the former Trump aide appeared to make the prosecutions case against her former boss easier  that Cohen would not have acted alone and instead worked on behalf of Mr Trump, and that action was purposefully taken before the election.

As cross-examination by defence lawyer Emil Bove began Ms Hicks started to cry on the witness stand with a break being called so that she might compose herself.

Hope Hicks cried during her testimony at Donald Trumps first criminal trial ( REUTERS )

Cohen was a fixer but only because he first broke it, says Hicks

On her return to the stand, Ms Hicks was very critical of Cohen and characterised him as an outsider in Trumpworld often going rogue.

She testified that he was not part of the campaign, but would try to insert himself in certain moments.

He wasnt supposed to be in the campaign in any official capacity, she told the court.

Further, she added: He liked to call himself a fixer or Mr Fix It. But it was only because he first broke it.

Hicks paints favourable view of Trump and his family

In addition to her damning assessment of Cohen  a key witness for the prosecution  Bove also pushed softball questions to build up a better image of the defendant Trump while treating her more like a witness for the defence.

Ms Hicks spoke about her work and relationship with her then-boss and gave the impression that damage control over destructive stories was part of the job.

Moreover, ultimately Mr Trump cared about his family  an echo of lead defence attorney Todd Blanches portrait of him as a consummate family man in the opening statements.

Ms Hicks also changed up how she spoke of him, referring to him as the president, as the defence team said they would at the start of the trial.

President Trump really values Ms Trumps opinion, she said of her former boss and his wife. She doesnt weigh in all the time but when she does its really meaningful to him and he really respects what she has to say.

She was concerned about what the perception of this would be, and Mr Trump didnt want anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed, she testified. He wanted them to be proud of him.

Ms Hickss cross-examination concluded the week.

The trial resumes on Monday 6 May at 9.30am.
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The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) intercepted a Russian aircraft that intercepted US airspace on Thursday evening, the command said in a statement.

The aircraft reportedly penetrated North Americas Air Defense Identification Zone, Norad said in a statement.

While the Russian air assets at no time violated US or Canadian airspace, integrated air defence assets in and around ANR and CANR were able to detect, intercept and identify a number of the Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers participating in an annual Russian air force exercise near the coast of Alaska and Canada, said Maj Gen Brett Cairns, Norad director of operations.

Norad launched F-15 fighter aircraft out of the Alaskan Norad Region off the states west coast and CF-18 fighters off the Canadian Norad Region, though Maj Gen Cairns said they were not necessary for the interception.

While this response to the Russian bombers shows how Norad continues to monitor the air approaches to North America, Norad mission also focuses on airspace within North America, it said. Since September 11, 2001, Norad has scrambled or diverted more than 2,200 times to execute its aerospace control mission for North America.

The Pentagon confirmed in a statement that four Russian aircraft went into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.

The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace, it said in a statement. The Pentagon said this type of Russian activity occurs regularly and is not considered a threat.

An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security, it said. Norad employs a layered defence network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. Norad remains ready to employ a number of response options in defence of North America.
Sir,



There is a specification for growth everywhere you are and everywhere you go as a person, and yet oftentimes, there is also the blind sight of an ego and the self-perception that we are unmatched at every step of elevation, which is the enemy of progress. The biggest downfall of a person is their inability to continuously learn and to continuously want to improve themselves in order to deliver quality services. Educating yourself on how to improve as a person and to improve your hustle is an investment in quality management for a small business owner.

Hustling

This comes from the fact that we are a hustling generation, a generation that seeks to grow in something and in what they do and the economic environment  whether fortunately or unfortunately  requires that from a person. The guy with a clothing brand, the girl selling wigs or even the one doing nails to make something for herself are equally important. And beyond the art of hustling, they are also business people, because the hustle requires that persona in order to grow into something bigger. While many young people have the ambition and the skills to start something, they, unfortunately, lack the business element. This knowledge of management and growth in the area of business management strikes from the inability to understand what it means to make non-financial investments.

Ambition

The community we are in and the level of ambition we possess  we become far-fetched from soundness. Why is this? I guess this is a result of the fact that in the plight to find motivation, we fail to tackle sense and discernment and end up looking to the likes of Bill Gates and other successful men, without clearly understanding and articulating the position we are in and the position we want to be in. There is so much to learn from people who have conquered the local market and managed to grow and maintain something for years, which is the step you should be working towards before leaping to Bill Gates level. This does not relinquish the desire to pursue bigger goals.This simply denotes that there is a development in understanding where your hustle is and accepting it for what it is, without trying to present yourself for what you are not and that is the danger. A simple guy growing his brand will, after selling 10 sweaters, suddenly feel better than everyone.

Compliments

The 50 compliments will go to his head and he will suddenly be less humble and behave otherworldly and as soon as the rise was getting ready is as soon as the landing was also coming to show. A little exposure is never truly the big break, it is the beginning of something bigger and lest you ruin it by ego then you are in the process of stunting your growth and the career you are trying to build thereon remains just that. This is to suggest that the business element of your hustle is tied to your perception as an individual and no matter how well versed you are in your craft, for as long as your perception of it is narrow, then so will the growth of your business. There is a strong connection between the two and oftentimes, talented people remain just that.
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Pro-Palestine student protesters seeking action against Israel for its war on Gaza have filled Australias universities in scenes mirroring ongoing demonstrations across American campuses.

Active protests have been reported from campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, with dozens of students camping on lawns like in the US. The students are asking university officials to sever all academic relations with Israel as well as research partnerships with arms manufacturers that are reportedly supplying weapons to the Israeli military.

At Australias oldest university in Sydney, students started encamping last Tuesday and said they would not leave until the administration met their demands. There were reports of a scuffle breaking out between the pro-Palestine students and a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters.

The universitys vice chancellor, Mark Scott AO, rejected their demands and said the institution is not looking to cut any academic ties with Israel.

He also said there is space for both sets of protesters at the university.

They may strongly disagree with the matters that have been discussed. We can host that conversation and we should be able to do that in a non-threatening way, he told ABC.

Mr Scott claimed that not all protesters were students and that some might not be committed to peaceful and productive engagement.

"We are working with security and police," he said.

At Melbourne University, tensions flared on Thursday after pro-Israel protesters gathered to demonstrate against pro-Palestine students who have been camping on the campus in Victoria for the past week.

The encamped students have said they are under no misconception that its not a long fight, but we are here for the long run.

In Adelaide, students have called for solidarity with the protesting students in the US. Students across the US are really, really brave for continuing to come out, a student named El Hall was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Australian authorities have said they fear the protests may go the same way as in the US.

In the United States it has turned violent. People have bombarded and broken windows and turned these encampments into violence, MP Josh Burns said. "I dont want that to happen in Australia.

There have been no reported arrests of student protesters or faculty members in Australia so far.

In the US police have arrested more than 2,100 people from pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings.

A police officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, authorities disclosed on Thursday.

Live TV footage of the police crackdown at the University of California at Los Angeles showed protesters under arrest, kneeling on the ground, hands bound behind their backs with zip ties, as explosions ring from flash-bang charges, or stun grenades, fired by police.

US president Joe Biden has denounced protests that turned violent on college campuses but defended the right to peaceful protest.
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David Cameron said Ukraine absolutely has the right to conduct attacks inside Russia with British weapons as he made his second visit to Kyiv since becoming foreign secretary.

Lord Cameron said it was up to Kyiv to decide how to use the ammunition supplied by Britain.

In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view, it is their decision about how to use these weapons, they are defending their country, they were illegally invaded by Vladimir Putin and they must take those steps, he said.

We dont discuss any caveats that we put on those things. But lets be absolutely clear, Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia.

Asked if Ukraine could strike targets inside Russia, Lord Cameron said the decision rested with Ukraine.

Foreign secretary David Cameron meets Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyivs presidential office on Friday ( Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/PA )

Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself, its getting the Russians out of its country and it has the ability to strike back, he said.

Lord Camerons visit to Kyiv came shortly after prime minister Rishi Sunak announced Britains decision to give at least 3bn in military support to Ukraine this year.

Mr Sunak announced the decision while revealing the Tory governments plan to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by the end of the decade. He described the proposed spending increase as the biggest strengthening of our national defence for a generation.

The foreign secretary separately confirmed a 36m package in energy support to Ukraine. The package includes 20m in new emergency funding following Russian attacks on Ukraines energy infrastructure.

In its latest tranche of weapons for the Volodymyr Zelenskyy regime, Britain has included precision-guided bombs, missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams to enable Ukraine to shoot down Russias drones and missiles.

Ukraine is fiercely defending itself against Russias illegal invasion, making a war Putin thought would last days, take years. But this war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone, the foreign secretary said in Kyiv.

Lord Cameron added that Ukraines allies must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win.

David Cameron speaks to reporters near the British embassy in Kyiv ( Getty )

Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraines energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, he said.

In his meeting with President Zelensky, the foreign secretary reiterated the UKs unequivocal support to Kyiv, the Foreign Office said.

On the battlefield, Ukraine is increasingly on the back foot as the Russian military has ramped up its offensive this spring. Shortage of men and ammunition is forcing outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers to pull back from one village after another, with as many as three being surrendered on Sunday.

A senior Ukrainian military official said on Thursday that the situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine was worsening but claimed that local defenders were holding firm against a concerted push by the Russian military.
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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.

___

Video shows Robert De Niro rehearsing for a Netflix series, not yelling at anti-Israel protesters

CLAIM: Actor Robert De Niro was captured on video yelling at anti-Israel protesters in New York City.

THE FACTS: De Niro was rehearsing a scene for his upcoming Netflix series Zero Day, which was filming on a street in New York City, a Netflix spokesperson told The Associated Press. His comments are part of the script and had nothing to do with the Israel-Hamas war or protests around it.

False claims around the video began circulating online as police cracked down on college protests across the country.

One prominent version of the misrepresented video was labeled, Robert De Niro Stands with Israel! It showed the two-time Oscar winner speaking passionately in a crowd of people.

This is not a movie, De Niro says in the clip. This is not a movie, this is real.

He tells the crowd that they need to listen and let people get their jobs done. He encourages people to offer their support, but to stay behind barricades.

You wanna keep talking nonsense then you gotta go home, he says. He later adds: They say theyre going to do it again! Again! We dont want that.

A caption added to the video makes it seem as though the it he is referring to is the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the current conflict. They say they are going to do it again! (October 7), it reads.

One X post that shared the erroneously captioned video states: Id like to thank the #ProHamas terrorist sympathizers for getting on everyones last nerve. Robert De Niro agrees and with his usual flair admonishes them that they are marching for more #October7massacres and to Go home!

The footage was also misrepresented in posts that suggested the video was shot at the University of California, Los Angeles, where physical altercations occurred between dueling factions of protesters this week. Posts referred to the alleged demonstrators as anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian.

But De Niro was not admonishing protesters, nor was he talking about real events. The actor was rehearsing a scene for Zero Day, an upcoming Netflix series in which he is starring. The series is described as a conspiracy thriller.

This is a rehearsal for a scene for a Netflix series that was shot on Saturday, April 27, the streaming company told the AP, referring to the video spreading online. It was part of a production.

Netflix further confirmed that De Niros speech was from the shows script and unrelated to the demonstrations around the Israel-Hamas war. The company added that while production cameras werent rolling when the video was shot, filming did take place that day in New York.

A subway entrance can be clearly seen in the background of the video with a sign featuring a telephone number that has a New York area code.

Stan Rosenfield, a spokesperson for De Niro, called the social media claims false and confirmed that the video shows a scene from Zero Day.

Actor Jesse Plemons, who is starring alongside De Niro as his characters assistant, can be seen standing behind De Niro in the video.

___

Posts misrepresent Green Party candidates comment on a Jewish homeland

CLAIM: A clip shows Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein saying that the Jewish people have a homeland in Poland during an exchange with a man outside of Columbia University.

THE FACTS: Social media posts misrepresented what Stein said about a Jewish homeland based on an autogenerated caption that accompanied an early video of her speaking at Columbia University on April 25. In the video, Stein says the Jewish people have homeland and does not mention the Eastern European country. But in the video, first posted to Steins social media accounts, the autogeneraged caption said the Jewish people have Poland, according to a spokesperson for the candidate.

Stein later posted another video of the exchange with the caption corrected. She further clarified her comment during an appearance in Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday.

The clip with the erroneous caption shows Stein, who is Jewish, outside an entrance to Columbia speaking against Israels actions in the Gaza Strip. After a man standing behind her, who identifies himself as Jewish, says that the Jewish people have no homeland but Israel, Stein turns to him and responds with a statement that is captioned as Jewish people have Poland.

Jill Stein: The Jewish People have a homeland in Poland, reads one X post that had received more than 6,100 likes and shares as of Friday. Three million Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust at Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camps.

But Stein did not say that Jews have a homeland in Poland. She told the man that the Jewish people have homeland without pointing to a specific place.

As you can see in the video, Dr. Stein clearly says the word homeland, Dave Schwab, a spokesperson for Stein, told The Associated Press in an email. When the video was originally posted with autogenerated captions, the program erroneously rendered some text during the portion when a counterprotester was interrupting and trying to speak over her.

Poland had the largest number of Jews in Europe prior to World War II  more than 3 million. Their presence in the country went back more than 1,000 years, to Jews fleeing persecution in Western and Central Europe. Approximately 85% of Polands Jewish population was killed during the Holocaust. Survivors who returned after the war faced continued antisemitism. The Kielce pogrom of 1946, during which approximately 40 Jews were murdered, is one notable example.

Although there were periods in which Polish Jewry enjoyed tolerance, they also experienced significant persecution. In the 15th century, for instance, 100,000-200,000 Jews were massacred in what was then eastern Poland. There were frequent pogroms in Poland and other Eastern European countries starting in the 19th century that facilitated the rape and murder of Jews, as well as the looting of their property.

Protests over the Israel-Hamas war emerged on a number of campuses, including Columbia University, the University of Southern California, Harvard University, New York University, The Ohio State University, Emory University, the University of Michigan and Yale University.

The students are calling for the universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israels military efforts in Gaza  and in some cases from Israel itself.

___

Posts share fake New York Post story saying a bill would make it illegal to question 9/11

CLAIM: The New York Post published a story with the headline, Congress to Vote on Bill That Would Criminalize Questioning the Events Surrounding 9/11.

THE FACTS: No such article was published, a New York Post spokesperson told The Associated Press. An image made to look like a screenshot of a New York Post article was fabricated and shared on social media.

The fake image mimics how an article would look if viewed on the New York Posts website from a mobile device. It includes the outlets logo, below which appears a series of social media icons. But it is also inconsistent with the appearance of actual New York Post stories.

For example, the text of the headline is centered, uses a different font and is capitalized in its entirety. There is also no tag above the headline indicating the articles section.

With strong support from AIPAC and the ADL, Congress is set to vote on a bill that would criminalize any questioning of the events that took place during the September 11th attacks, reads text below a photo of the World Trade Center after a plane flew into each of the twin towers. The text adds that the bill includes penalties of up to $10,000 and five years in prison for anyone who challenges the official narrative.

One X post that shared the fabricated image states: A law that breaks the first amendment? Orwellian. It had received approximately 6,500 likes and more than 2,700 shares as of Friday.

Searches on the New York Posts website show no record of such an article. Iva Benson, a spokesperson for the outlet, confirmed that the image spreading on social media is fake in an email to the AP.

It appears that the image was created using an actual New York Post story about disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein being moved to Rikers Island after his 2020 New York rape conviction was overturned last week. Both the fake image and the real story say they were published on April 26 at 9:25 p.m.

Marshall Wittmann, a spokesperson for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, told the AP that AIPAC has not supported any such legislation. Anti-Defamation League spokesperson Todd Gutnick called the claims a complete fraud.

Congress is not considering a bill that would make it illegal to question the official narrative of 9/11. Current legislation related to the terrorist attacks include bills to provide the 9/11 Memorial Museum with a one-time grant and to limit the availability of plea deals for anyone responsible for the attacks.

___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
 Close Drone footage shows devastation in Ukrainian city after Russian artillery pounding

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Russia has pushed Ukraine onto the back foot on the battlefield as Kyiv grapples with shortages of troops and ammunition.

Outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers are being forced to pull back, one village after another, as intense fighting roils the countryside surrounding Avdiivka nearly three months after the strategic city fell to Russia.

Ukrainian forces are now racing to build more defensive fortifications at places along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

The sting for Ukraine is sharpened after Russia launched an exhibition on Wednesday which proudly displays over 30 captured military vehicles from Ukraine, including US and UK-made, since the invasion began.

The exhibition was unveiled on Russias International Workers Day and will be open for a month for visitors.

It comes as a Russian ballistic missile struck a postal depot in the Ukrainian port of Odesa late on Wednesday, injuring 14 people and triggering a large fire, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

Pictures and a video posted online showed flames and billowing clouds of smoke engulfing buildings and firefighters training their hoses on areas still ablaze. Most of the loading area appeared to have been reduced to a shell.
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Almost completely paralysed, Oleg could do nothing but sit under the bombing in his own excrement, after his caregiver mother was killed in front of his eyes by a missile attack.

At some point during the three weeks he was stranded alone, Russian soldiers came into the building and stole the wheelchair the 65-year-old Ukrainian was sitting in. They told him they needed it for a wounded soldier, and left.

This was early spring 2022 on the eastern side of Mariupol, a strategic Ukrainian port city that was under one of the fiercest bombardments of Russias invasion. There was no electricity, water or phone connection. Temperatures had dropped to minus 10 degrees celsius.

Due to multiple strokes in the past, Oleg had lost the use of all his limbs bar his right arm and needed around-the-clock care. His mother had been looking after him until she was killed in a Russian strike which swallowed half their apartment block and nearly burned Oleg alive. A neighbour rescued him from the fire and took him to the ground floor entrance of an adjacent building. There others risked being killed by shelling to intermittently bring him food.

I dont know how he managed to survive with the use of only one arm, his only daughter Yanina, 25, tells The Independent, with incredulity in her voice. The technology worker was in Kyiv when Russia invaded and spent months desperately searching for her father in the south.

After the soldiers took his wheelchair, he lay on a dirty mattress half naked, having to go to the toilet on himself for almost a month. He couldnt escape, get to safety.

After Russia took full control of the scorched city, Oleg was taken by Russian soldiers and their Ukrainian proxies to an institution in the occupied town of Makiivka in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, an area made up of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. There he described appalling treatment. Parts of his foot were amputated because of frostbite.

There was barely anything human about them, he told The Independent about the Makiivka authorities that also tried to force Russian documentation on him.

The only thing that kept him going was his daughter, who eventually located him and worked on his rescue.

I thought about what a daughter I have, that she saved me, he added.

Oleg in Mariupol ( Supplied )

Oleg is among tens of thousands of people with disabilities in Ukraine who found themselves trapped along the deadliest frontline of one of Europes bloodiest wars in generations. Often unable to seek shelter, evacuate or look for food or water, by themselves Ukrainians with disabilities have been disproportionately impacted by Vladimir Putins invasion and are suffering the brunt of the horrors of the war, according to the United Nations.

It took Yanina five difficult months to successfully bring Oleg back to Ukrainian-controlled territory and be reunited again in the capital.

The authorities in Makiivka were very aggressive when I tried to get him out. It was like bailing my dad out of a prison, she adds.

But in August 2023, exactly a year after his rescue, he died suddenly. His family thinks those weeks in Mariupol and the treatment in Makiivka, took a deadly toll on his body.

Others who have been through similar ordeals also did not survive. Yanina was trying to help a different man with disabilities called Igor, who was also from Mariupol and in the same hospital room as Oleg. He died mid evacuation, en route to the central city of Zaporizhzhia.

The Independent has exposed the terrible suffering people with disabilities have faced in Putins invasion and uncovered fresh evidence of possible war crimes committed against them including forcible transfer, deportation, and abusive treatment that could amount to torture. The Independent has also received reports they had been used as human shields by Russian soldiers, and deprived of food and medicine resulting in death.

This 18-month has highlighted Ukraines outdated care system that was inherited from the Soviet Union and relied on systematic institutionalisation of people with disabilities, often from childhood.

Ukraine had started the process of reforms before the war started to build a barrier free country for all that was backed by First Lady Olena Zelenska.

But that was stopped short by the war. And ultimately on 24 February 2022, when Moscows men marched on Kyiv, tens of thousands of Ukrainians with disabilities were still living in hundreds of residential institutions across the Ukraine. There, conditions have been described by United Nations experts and a recent European Union commission report as appalling.

Olegs home in Mariupol ( Supplied )

This led to a crisis within a crisis for people with disabilities, says Elham Youssefian from the International Disability Alliance - a group of 14 global and regional organisations that have released a long report about Ukraine.

Because of all the barriers that existed before the war, it put people with disabilities at highest risk, and doubled the situation, she tells The Independent.

It is a crisis in crisis. People with disabilities were among the first to be forgotten and last to be cared about.

Dr Gerard Quinn, who was the UNs special rapporteur for the rights of people with disabilities until recently, said those in institutions in particular - itself a crime- were particularly easy targets.

You have highly vulnerable people, who were congregated in concentrated settings, who do not have a natural constituency to raise an outcry, he says.

The Independent has repeatedly reached out to the Ukrainian authorities for comment on the numbers of people with disabilities and the numbers in institutions, and the lack of evacuation plans, over the last 18 months but has yet to receive a reply.

Dymotro Lubinets, Ukraines Commissioner for Human Rights, told The Independent that officially they had no idea how many Ukrainians with disabilities have been taken to Russia but unofficially the numbers are in the high thousands. He claimed his office had repeatedly appealed to Russia, the United Nations and interactions organisations for information but had been stonewalled.

I specifically asked where the people were who were in special institutions for those with disabilities in Mariupol. We know they were all transported away but we do not know where, he added.

***

Through a green door scrawled with the words children, and down some stairs is the suffocating basement where hundreds of villagers were held as human shields by the Russians for four weeks.

In early March 2022, soldiers seized control of Yahidne, a village in Chernihiv oblast around 110 miles (180km) north of Kyiv. They rounded up more than 350 inhabitants, including dozens of children, and at gunpoint marched into the room underneath the local school that they had turned into a military base. The soldiers kept them there as protection from Ukrainian incoming fire.

Among the group were five people with disabilities, according to United Nations experts who have documented the incident.

Olegs home in Mariupol ( Supplied )

For a month they were held there  in the near total darkness  without enough air and no room to move. Only small groups were permitted above ground to fetch food and water or to use the toilet.

At least 10 people died from the lack of ventilation and disease, their bodies were kept in a separate room. Local inhabitants said people went crazy. A list of the dead is still scratched on the wall.

Jonas Ruskus, the former vice chair of the UNs Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said it was particularly distressing for those with disabilities, saying they were cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, while stuck in this basement.

This is apparently not an isolated incident. Further west in the region of Kyiv, were also harrowing reports of abuse.

In a residential care institution in Borodyanka twelve residents with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities died due to lack of access to medications and food, Ruskus added.

At the start of the invasion, residents of the once quiet satellite town said that this facility was besieged by Russian soldiers. With no way of evacuating, no access to food, electricity and water supplies, a dozen patients died.

Russian soldiers then stationed themselves around the facility and heavily mined the area. At the time the regional administration of Kyiv reported that some Russian units were even firing from within the compound.

They were using us exclusively as a live shield, Maryna Hanitska, the head of the institution, told The Washington Post after Russian forces had withdrawn.

The Independent was told of similar reports of people dying of hunger and cold in institutions for people with disabilities in Strilecha  a town 460km to the east along the border of Russia  which was also occupied for several weeks. It has since been liberated by Ukrainian forces. But in September 2022 Ukrainian officials reported that four medics were killed and two patients injured when the Russian shelled an evacuation of a psychiatric facility there. Russia denies committing any crimes in Ukraine.

***

The war has cast a grim spotlight on Ukraines historic reliance on institutionalisation, a situation which action rights groups and international law experts says violates their right to independent living and has compounded the devastating and deadly impact of the war and occupation. A European Union Commission report urged Ukraine to immediately end the practice of institutionalisation and ensure everyone from those with disabilities to the elderly, can exercise their right to live in the community.

One of the main issues was an apparent lack of evacuation plans in place when Russian tanks rolled through Ukrainian territory, according to Iryna Fedorovych from Fight for Right a Ukrainian disabilities rights group and research centre.

A Russian attack on Mariupol ( AP )

Fedorovych tells The Independent they found that only 46 institutions across the country evacuated when Russia invaded, out of an estimated total of 260 (there is no publicly-available confirmed data on the total numbers of facilities in the country). This is despite the ministry of social policy saying before the war that they had security and evacuation plans in place.

According to Fight for Rights latest report, there are more than 4,000 people with disabilities in institutions that are now under Russian control and more than 8000 living in areas which are under heavy artillery fire.

We are worried that even after the war people with disabilities might be left behind again because they are never considered the most important, she ays.

Olena Prashko - a rights advocate who is working with Ukraines ministry of health on reforms said many places had no time and were too ill equipped to move people.

She fears for the future as the war has set back the programme of reform several years.

The aim is to make sure people can live independently, to reintegrate them into the society, so this doesnt happen,  she says.

We are hoping that after the war all the partners western partners who are supporting Ukraine will also support us on this issue and help us achieve our goals faster.

***

This change will be urgently needed as Ukraine contends with a new generation of people with disabilities.

According to unofficial statistics there are as many as 20,000 new amputees in the country because of this bloody artillery war. That number will only rise as Ukraine is now among the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Backed by Ukraines first lady - Ukraine is building a slew of new cutting edge prosthetics centres to help people adjust to life-altering injuries. The authorities have promised to avoid rebuilding the institutions destroyed in the war but instead work towards reintegration into a truly accessible Ukraine.

But that will be impossible to completely achieve properly while Russia continues to bombard the country and occupy swathes of territory.

For Yanina losing her home, her city, her grandmother and then her father after everything he had gone through was a kind of pain nothing can ever tame. But she vowed to direct her anger into spreading awareness of the plight of those with disabilities.

On the first day, when my dad arrived in Kyiv from the occupied areas, he asked me, Yanina, can you help me with something? I want to sue Vladimir Putin in the International Criminal Court. Of course, that was somewhat of a joke, but we both wished for justice  Yanina says..

He didnt get a chance to witness his first dream come true. But he indeed fulfilled his second wish by telling his story. Because truth can never be silenced.
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Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinpings first trip to Europe in five years, as the Asian giant rebuilds its foreign relations after a prolonged absence during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xi will start the tour in Paris on Monday, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the U.S. On a visit to Beijing last year, Macron courted controversy by saying France would not necessarily always align with the U.S. in foreign policy, an apparent reference to American support for the self-governing republic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

After leaving France, Xi will visit Hungary and Serbia, both seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rebuffing Western criticism of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Xis European visits will be closely followed in Washington for signs of diminishing support for its key foreign policy goals.

The Chinese leader will arrive in France just as Paris is putting the finishing touches on its preparations for hosting the Summer Olympics, an event in which China invests huge amount of national prestige.

France sees Xi's visit, which officially marks 60 years of French-Chinese diplomatic relations, as an important diplomatic moment, and wants to focus on Chinas broader relations with the EU. Macron invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the talks Monday.

It comes a month before Macron, who positions himself as the diplomatic leader of Europe, hosts Biden for a similar state visit.

It is also a sign of the good vibes from Macrons visit to China in April last year," said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College London.

This is a highly strategic visit to Europe by Xi. And in his itinerary you can divine the runes of Chinese policy on Europe now, bolstering the traditional links as far as possible, and reinforcing new ones, Brown said.

Xi's is also visiting Budapest, where Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in power for 14 years, is facing political challenges from the opposition over his authoritarian style.

Hungary has straddled a middle ground between its membership in the EU and NATO and an unusual openness to diplomatic and trade relationships with eastern autocracies such as Russia and China.

Orban, a right-wing populist who has forged close ties with Russia, delayed Swedens entry into NATO for months. China has cited NATO expansion as provoking Russia to invade Ukraine.

Hungary is the first EU member to participate in Xi's signature Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to build billions of dollars of roads, ports, power plants and other infrastructure across Asia, Africa and beyond.

Orban was the only EU leader to attend a conference in Beijing on the BRI, which has been criticized for burying participating countries in debt and failing to deliver on promised investments, something that prompted Italy to drop out last year.

Despite that, Hungarys government has deepened its economic ties with China, with the proliferation of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery factories across the country gaining the most attention. Near Debrecen, Hungarys second-largest city, construction is underway of a nearly 550-acre, 7.3 billion euro ($7.9 billion) EV battery plant, Hungarys largest-ever foreign direct investment.

China has also invested heavily in infrastructure to link Hungary with its southern neighbor Serbia, Xi's next stop on his European tour.

In 2014, Hungary and Serbia concluded an agreement with Beijing to modernize the railway between their capitals of Budapest and Belgrade, part of a Belt and Road plan to link up with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece, to the south, an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

The more than $2 billion project is expected to be completed in 2026, after numerous delays.

In Serbia, Xi will hold talks with President Aleksandar Vucic, with whose government China has built strong relations.

The two countries have a long history of friendship, particularly since 1999, when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese nationals, during the air war to end Serbias brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

The U.S. apologized, saying faulty target selection was to blame, but the incident led to violent attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in China and fueled anti-American sentiment in both countries that endures to this day.

In 2022, shortly after the Russian assault on Ukraine, Serbia took semi-secret delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system flown in on six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes. The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of Chinas growing global reach.

China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict but Xi and Putin declared their governments had a no limits friendship before Moscows attack on Ukraine. China has refused to call the Russian assault an invasion and has been accused of bolstering Russias capacity to produce weapons and its military advantage against Ukraine, which is awaiting tens of billions in Western military aid.

A U.S. military aid bill passed last week allots $61 billion for Ukraine, as well as $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, which China has condemned as a dangerous provocation.

Chinas foreign ministry said the U.S. position on Chinese defense trade with Russia was hypocritical when considered alongside the amount of military assistance Washington is providing to Kyiv.

China denies selling arms to Russia and the U.S. says it has found no direct evidence of such evidence of such. However, China does sell 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 U.S. assessment.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
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An Israeli assault on the Gaza border town of Rafah would bring the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians and be a huge blow to aid operations in the entire enclave, a UN official has said.

Israel has repeatedly warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern city, where around a million displaced people are crowded together, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters' deadly cross-border attack on 7 October.

It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah, said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), at a Geneva press briefing.

Israel has said it will work to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Rafah.

Aid operations in the city include medical clinics, warehouses stocked with humanitarian supplies, food distribution points, and 50 centres for acutely malnourished children, Mr Laerke said. OCHA would do everything possible to ensure aid operations continued, even in the event of an incursion, and the UN was studying how to do that, he added.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) official said at the same briefing that a contingency plan for Rafah had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly seven months of conflict, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.

I want to really say that this contingency plan is a bandage, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, via video link. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.

Other preparations include pre-positioning medical supplies at hospitals further north in case Rafahs three hospitals become non-functional, as has happened multiple times in the seven-month conflict due to Israeli raids and bombings.

WHO data shows that just a third of the strips 36 pre-war hospitals are partially operational. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says its operations against them have been justified by the presence of fighters. Hamas and medical staff deny the allegations.

Mr Peeperkorn added he was extremely concerned that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is currently being used to import medical supplies.

We are pushing and lobbying that, whatever happens, it remains open, he added, saying WHO had raised this issue with Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile, Turkey has said it will not resume trade with Israel  worth $7bn (5.6bn) a year  until a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid are secured in Gaza, becoming the first of Israels key commercial partners to take such a step.

Israels uncompromising attitude and the worsening situation in the Rafah region prompted Ankara to halt all exports and imports, trade minister Omer Bolat said.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz criticised Turkish president Tayyip Erdogans move, enacted late on Thursday, saying it breaks international trade agreements and was how a dictator behaves.

The new ban covers all remaining trade, amounting to $5.4bn in Turkish exports  or nearly 6 per cent of all of Israels imports  and $1.6bn in imports to Turkey last year.

The top Turkish exports to Israel are steel, vehicles, plastics, electrical devices and machinery, while imports were dominated by fuels at $634m last year, Turkish trade data shows.

Reuters
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Turkey has suspended all trade with Israel because of the worsening humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Gaza, the countrys trade ministry said on Thursday.

Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products, the ministry said.

Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Trade between Turkey and Israel was worth almost 5.6bn in 2023.

After the restrictions were first reported, Israels foreign minister accused Turkeys president of acting like a dictator.

Israel Katz wrote on X that Recep Tayyip Erdogan was disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements.

Mr Katz added that he had directed the foreign ministry to work on developing alternatives for trade with Turkey, emphasising local manufacturing and sourcing imports from different countries.

Mr Katz has previously hit out at Mr Erdogan for publicising his meeting with the head of Hamass politburo. The Israeli minister shared a photo on X showing the Turkish president shaking hands with Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul.

Turkey, a staunch critic of Israels war on Gaza, had restricted the export of 54 types of products to Israel last month after Tel Aviv refused to let Ankara airdrop aid to Gazas starving Palestinian population.

Mr Erdogan said at the time that Turkey no longer continued intense trade with Israel. That is done, he added.

On Thursday, it was announced that the country had gone further, stopping all trade with Israel. The Israeli government continues its aggressive attitude, and the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine is worsening, it said in a statement.

Turkey will strictly and decisively implement the new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the statement added.

Israels war on Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people so far, according to local officials, displacing almost two million people and leaving most of the Palestinian enclave in ruins.

Additional reporting with agencies
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Chinas Change 6 robotic mission to retrieve samples from the Moons far side launched on Friday, marking a milestone in the countrys ambitious plans to put boots on the lunar surface by 2030.

Change 6 took off aboard a Long March 5 rocket from Chinas Wenchang Satellite Launch Center off the southeastern coast of mainland China at 9.17am GMT.

As part of the 53-day mission, a robotic lander will touch down on an impact crater on the Moons far side and attempt to collect about 2kg of rocks to be transported back to Earth.

Chinas steady progress in space exploration has raised concerns in Washington with Nasa chief Bill Nelson repeatedly warning of the US being in a modern space race with the Asian nation.

China has made extraordinary strides, especially in the last 10 years, but they are very secretive, Mr Nelson recently said.

We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space programme is military programme. And I think, in effect, we are in a race, he added.
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A crisp spring wind whipped over the River Test, skimming the water that flowed on its path to the Solent. From my open-air viewpoint metres above water, the sunless sky is punctured by one thing only: the hulking red and black funnel that has crowned Cunard ships for almost two centuries.

On Tuesday evening, Southampton welcomed Queen Anne, the latest monarch to join Cunards fleet. There was much fanfare in the south-coast city, with crowds watching her sail in through the arcs of a water salute, Cunards first female captain, Inger Klein Thorhauge, at the helm. The following day, I was among the first to step onto her decks as she docked at her home port, where the lines vessels have been based since 1919. In a swell of container ships and the concrete jungle of the port, Queen Anne beamed as a diamond in the rough.

Even the most reluctant of cruisers should appreciate Cunard Line; its a brand that transcends the industry and peppers history books. Since its first transatlantic crossing in 1840, its ships have been considered the height of luxury at sea  its designs drawing comparisons to The Ritz hotel at the end of the 19th century. Names, from Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to Judy Garland and David Bowie, have sailed under those famed funnels. Cunards Carpathia steamed to the stricken Titanic to rescue survivors in 1912.

open image in gallery Queen Anne makes her grand entrance into Southampton ( Christopher Ison )

Jumping forward to October 2019, I was at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia, southern Italy, to watch the steel-cutting ceremony  the cruise equivalent of a ground-breaking celebration  for an unnamed ship that would become Queen Anne. Built at a reported cost of 500m, its the companys first new vessel in 14 years (sailing two years later than planned).

Read more on Europe travel:

And while the 3,000-capacity Queen Anne (plus space for 1,200 crew members) is the 249th ship to sail under Cunards flag, what makes this such a milestone is her joining the coveted ranks of Cunards queens, which themselves hold a special place in cruise culture, as well as British consciousness.

She expands the current trio  Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria  into a quartet, and is an echo of its regal predecessors. Two are now decommissioned and sit as floating hotels (Queen Elizabeth 2 in Dubai, Queen Mary in California); the original Queen Elizabeth retired to Florida before sailing to Hong Kong, a blaze destroying it in the harbour in 1972.

The challenge for Cunard with Queen Anne has been to successfully juggle that heritage with modernity  something that has been done with aplomb across the 13 decks. While the exterior does little to push boundaries, inside is a sensitive homage to the traditions given contemporary zeal. The concept began in the lines archives at the University of Liverpool, rooting this new addition firmly in the past. Old brochures, fabrics and posters gave inspiration but designers  including Londons David Collins Studio  were determined not to end up with a pastiche.

open image in gallery The Grand Lobby  fit for a queen ( Christopher Ison )

Art Deco nods are found across public spaces, such as the curvaceous central ballroom, and the sheen of metals is paired with a palette of more muted  and more modern  colours. Gaudy carpet patterns, always a concern on cruise ships, cannot be found; my favourite were the blue designs that seem influenced by the water surrounding the hull or the air that would have blown the sails of bygone ships. While anti-cruise snobbery often sees noses turned up at ship accommodation, aboard Queen Anne, the calming tones sit against wooden furnishing and the Art Deco style seeps in; if this was on land it would be a hotel at the higher end of the scale.

Some of the best touches are clear attempts to bring the ship into the 21st century. Take the gallery, where work by Banksy was revealed on Wednesday  yours for a cool 125,000  to sit alongside pieces from Thierry Guetta, better known as the LA-based Mr Brainwash. Theres simply no room for mass-produced dross in the reimagined, elegant spaces, as Cunard president Katie McAlister puts it. While elements such as the white-glove afternoon tea service remain, theyre bolstered by a Himalayan sea salt sauna or DJ booth around the pool.

Even the most reluctant of cruisers should appreciate Cunard Line; its a brand that transcends the industry and peppers history books

A huge coup is the work from chef Michel Roux Jr, who ran the two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche in London before it closed in January. He has revamped the offering inside this Golden Lion, Cunards pub-at-sea concept that can be found on all the queens, adding what he called little details that make a huge difference. He labelled the haddock scotch eggs (I think best served with a pint of Cunard Gold lager) as bang on. Rubbed his belly talking about getting the fish and chips just right.

For me, the most exciting thing is that the chef has brought with him a slightly tweaked version of the laden, three-cheese stovetop toasties from The Wigmore (another pub setup, at the bottom of The Langham hotel in central London, that Michel was tasked with elevating from the ordinary). The other girls in the fleet need not be jealous; Michels approach is being rolled out across the fleet. If you want a sublime dining experience on the water, there are two Le Gavroche at Sea residencies (with Michel on board and behind the pass) on Queen Anne this year, plus two more on Queen Mary 2.

open image in gallery Mines a pint: The Golden Lion pub-at-sea ( Christopher Ison )

As for today, the debutant is getting ready to leave Southampton this evening, sailing to La Coruna in Spain and Lisbon in Portugal (with days at sea bookending each port) before returning home to England. Then its off to the Canary Islands before the 14-night British islands itinerary  including a stop for a naming ceremony in Liverpool, the spiritual home of Cunard. From then, the Med and the fjords beckon; however, cruise fans tell me theyve got their eyes set on Queen Annes maiden world voyage in 2025, stretching over 111 days.

Waking up yesterday after a night moored in Southampton, I stepped out onto the balcony to more of the same rain. What warmed me  even more than the previous long night of champagne and martinis  was the thought of voyages yet to come.

Im too young to know the golden age of cruising, but Cunard has taken a step forward into its renaissance. Long live Queen Anne  and happy holidays at sea for all who sail on her.

Read more: The best Caribbean cruises for a holiday on the water in 2024/2025
Laman Ismayilova

The 4th plenary session themed "Safeguarding our past and future: Cultural heritage in the face of Climate Change" has been organized as part of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Azernews reports.

Moderated by Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the UK National Commission for UNESCO James Bridge, the plenary session highlighted the impact of climate change on cultural heritage monuments, the need for preservation efforts, and challenges in ensuring the longevity of historical sites.

The session emphasized the importance of addressing the threats posed by climate change to both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and the necessity of implementing measures to safeguard these valuable assets for future generations.

Speaking at the event, Azerbaijan Deputy Culture Minister Saadat Yusifova pointed out that Azerbaijan's cultural heritage monuments are not directly insured against the effects of climate change.

"During the relevant excavations conducted in the memorial complex created in Guba to perpetuate the memory of those killed during the Armenian genocide in March 1918, it was observed that soil erosion increased significantly. Petroglyphs in Gobustan have undergone certain negative processes due to the influence of climate change. The decrease in the volume of rains has complicated the current situation of other historical objects such as Damjili Cave. Although architectural objects have passed the test of centuries, they are affected by nature. More biological and chemical factors are revealed here. The work to be done in the direction of their preservation and delivery to future generations is becoming difficult. At least six objects on the UNESCO list which are in danger are located on Azerbaijani territory," Saadat Yusifova said.

She added that climate change negatively affects the national parks and sanctuaries. Research is being conducted in this regard and some proposals were prepared based on the analysis.

"We have drawn up a Road Map regarding the protection of nature and national cultural heritage objects. This has opened up new opportunities for the application of unified strategies. Many countries are facing the same challenges. Therefore, there is a need to develop effective adaptation strategies at both national and international levels. Azerbaijan makes consistent contributions to the fight against climate change. As a country that will host COP29, Azerbaijan is ready to support any strategies that will be put forward in this direction," the Deputy Culture Minister said.

"Unfortunately, along with climate changes, wars also have a negative impact on nature and cultural heritage. The Azerbaijani monuments, which were under the Armenian occupation for almost 30 years, were destroyed and cultural genocide was committed there. Approximately 35 cultural heritage sites of special importance located in Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur have been significantly negatively affected. Among them, we would like to mention the acts of vandalism. Tens of thousands of historical monuments were destroyed, access to more than a hundred monuments was blocked. This is explained by the mining of the roads leading to those areas. The protection of these monuments is an integral part of the Great Return Program," she added.

The Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Jinfeng Zhou noted the impact of industrialization on the environment and the decline of biodiversity, said:

"Until now, we have focused only on certain breeds and species of the animal kingdom. Many species have been overlooked. We have completely lost some breeds. In this case, interaction is needed. If people and societies are well informed about this problem, if they come together, if they understand the issues related to the future, we can prevent negative processes in the field of climate and biodiversity."

Founder and CEO of the Frison Horta Foundation Nupur Tron emphasized the importance of raising the growing generation in the spirit of love for the environment and getting acquainted with the problems of climate change early.

"If we do not raise our voice to the problems of climate change, nature will face a more difficult situation. We must take measures to strengthen the harmony of young people with nature."

Advisor to the ICESCO Secretary General Hesham El Askary said that according to the conducted studies, there are three different warning scenarios related to climate changes.

"The latest studies show that climate change is having very negative effects on cultural heritage monuments. Intangible and tangible cultural heritage monuments are under threat. Research conducted over the past five years has enabled the development of new models. ICESCO focuses on protecting cultural heritage. It's about our past and it's about our future," Hisham Al-Askari said.

In his speech, research anthropologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, curator of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern Ethnology and head of that museum's Asian Cultural History Program Paul Michael Taylor underscored the emergency preparedness and response measures. He stressed that the digital copies of exhibits can play a key role in the preservation of cultural heritage.

Paul Michael Taylor outlined that cooperated with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in the field of cultural heritage protection and even prepared a joint book.

Head of programs at the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) Albino Jopela said that there are places in Africa which are in danger.

"About six percent of them faced danger. Seven percent of listed African monuments are directly affected by climate change. There is a need for different strategies related to the management of cultural heritage objects," said the executive director, thanking the government of Azerbaijan for the invitation to the event, as well as financial support to the African World Heritage Fund," Albino Jopela said.

Head of the State Service for Protection, Development, and Restoration Sabina Hajiyeva drew attention to the fact that Azerbaijan is home to 7,000 archaeological monuments.

"Despite the government's concern for monuments, there are still some problems related to their preservation. "The biggest problem is the monuments in our lands that have been occupied for many years. Since most of the areas are mined, we cannot approach them. We cannot enter places that are very valuable, especially from an archaeological point of view," Sabina Hajiyeva said.

Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the UNESCO Ambassador Dr. Adam Al-Mulla stated that the process of climate change is accelerating, even increasing its speed three times in different places. He stressed that the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue unites everyone in the fight against the threat of climate change.

The 6th edition of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue is underway in Baku under the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity" .

This forum, part of the Baku Process initiated by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in 2008, is organized in partnership with prominent international entities such as the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), UNESCO, UN Tourism, and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).

The forum aims to explore the critical intersections between dialogue facilitation, cooperative frameworks, leadership efficacy, and the complex dynamics of interconnectedness, all in the service of advancing global peace and security imperatives.

Over three days, a series of plenary sessions and panel discussions bring together a diverse array of stakeholders, including government officials, representatives from international organizations, eminent cultural figures, journalists, civil society actors, and intellectuals from across the globe, to deliberate upon pressing global challenges.
MBABANE  Former Assistant Master of Khanyisile Masilela has been accused of demanding payment to speed up the distribution of the late businessman, Sipho Thulani Tsetla Bhembes estate.

Masilela, according to Bhembes widow, allegedly wanted to be paid various amounts, which added up to almost E80 000 to quicken the process of distributing Bhembes estate. The former assistant master of the High Court is purported to have made the demands for payment on different occasions. It was reported that Masilela received only E30 000 from the monies she allegedly wanted to be paid, some of which were paid in cash at the Corporate Place in Mbabane.

This was revealed to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry yesterday, when Bhembes widow, Thabsile, appeared before the commission.

Thabsile was accompanied by Lawyer Zweli Jele of Robinson Bertram. Bhembe died in December 2021 and he owned a homestead at Motshane, a plot in Ngwenya with three-bedroom houses, over 20 kombis, around seven cars and livestock.

Married

He was married to Thabsile in community of property and no children were born of the marriage. However, Bhembe had six children born outside the marriage. According to Thabsile, when her husband died, she reported at the Masters Office and she was given a file for the estate. Thabsile narrated that even before an executor was appointed, she received information that the mothers of Bhembes children had approached the Masters Office, to request the payment of school fees. She alleged that Masilela told her that the school fees had been paid for, which did not sit well with her, because it had been done without her knowledge.

Thabsile stated that a family meeting was then held whereby they were told that an executor had to be appointed. I was told that I did not qualify to be the executor and I was told that I had some doubts about the children. I was told that a neutral person was needed for the estate, Thabsile alleged.

These are allegations, whose veracity is still to be tested. She explained that after the executors appointment, she got a lawyer to object and she was later appointed as a co-executor. She told the commission that she held several meetings with the other executor, discussing issues around the transport business, where they would approach the Masters Office to request some monies to maintain the kombis.

Adding, Thabsile alleged that Masilela demanded E20 000 for her personal use. She testified to the commission that the money was to be disguised as the kombis fees, needed for their maintenance. I was told that the money would be part of the kombis expenses. The day I gave her the money, I was told to come alone. I withdrew the money, and we met at the Corporate Place. I gave her an envelope with the E20 000, she alleged.

Quarrelled

Thabsile went on to report that, on the same day, she received a call from Masilela, who allegedly told her that they would have quarrelled if she did not give her the money. According to Thabsile, as executors, they also made another request to the Masters Office for vehicle maintenance and E30 000 was required. She alleged that the initial E30 000 was increased to E60 000 as per Masilelas directive. Thabsile testified to the commission that the other E30 000 was shared among three people, herself, the other co-executor and Masilela, and they received E10 000 each.

She said all these events worried her that the estate distribution would continue being delayed. I was worried about the estate. I made attempts to engage the Masters Office, which resulted in the first liquidation of the estate. When the second distribution request was made, we found out that Masilela was not handling the file but had handed it over to someone else, she alleged. Furthermore, Thabsile mentioned that in their attempts for a second distribution, she allegedly received a call from Masilela, who demanded a sum of E50 000.

She told the commission that Masilela told her not to tell anyone about the E50 000, not even the other co-executor. Thabsile alleged that Masilela further requested a private meeting to discuss the issue. She said we could have a meeting at The Gables or Woodlands in Mbabane. The meeting was eventually held at the Tandoori Restaurant at the Corporate Place, Mbabane. In that meeting, she then explained how she would approve the estate account, so that she could get the E50 000, Thabsile alleged.

For Thabsile, that decision raised fears about the estate as it was a lot of money. She said upon her further investigations, she also uncovered that Masilela had been transferred to the High Court. She reported to the commission that Masilela did not get the E50 000, but she approached Lawyer Zweli Jele for assistance. She mentioned that this was after receiving objections allegedly from the mothers of Bhembes children about the second estate distribution.

The Masters Office did not like the meetings called by Jele. They had a challenge with Jele representing me and questioned who was going to make the payments, she alleged. Thabsile alleged that Jele verified the monies that went to Masilela and others. She said this was done allegedly by getting bank statements to determine how much money was going out of the account. She also revealed that Jele educated her about the estate battles, in cases where a lot of money was involved. On another note, Thabsile told the commission that the estates second distribution was allegedly stopped since May last year.

Documentation

Adding to Thabsiles testimony, Jele said they would present documentation of all the events that occurred in the estate. Jele also clarified that he was not expecting any payments from the estate. He explained to the commission that he took the matter because of his pastor, who requested his assistance. He said he would not be charging any fees for his service. Jele told the commission that a minimum of four meetings were set to understand the objections filed on the second distribution, but that matter had remained unresolved, with some objections withdrawn.

Meanwhile, Mbabane Assistant Master Vuyisile Mdluli confirmed that the first liquidation was made, which was approved in 2022. Mdluli said the second distribution had not been approved as there were some objections that needed to be addressed. She said some of the objections touched on the surviving spouses shares, maintenance and some monies allegedly uncounted for.
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Air safety 2023: Accidents and fatalities at record low  that was the headline for the first article I wrote this year.

Only two fatal accidents had occurred during the previous 12 months. Both of them involved propeller aircraft on domestic flights. Each of the 86 deaths was a tragedy, but for comparison the same number of fatalities occurs in an average of 35 minutes on the worlds roads.

Two dramatic events early in the new year actually emphasised the extraordinary degree of safety built into modern jet aircraft. On 2 January an Airbus A350 landing at Tokyo Haneda airport burst into flames after striking a coastguard jet that had strayed onto the runway. While five aboard the smaller plane died, all 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines passenger jet successfully evacuated.

Three days later, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max took off from Portland, Oregon on a routine flight to Ontario in California. The plane, a Boeing 737 Max 9, climbed above 16,000 feet  higher than the summit of Mont Blanc. Suddenly, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, the left mid exit door plug departed the airplane.

An employee of the National Transportation Safety Board examines the stricken Alaska Airlines plane ( NTSB/AFP via Getty Images )

Miraculously, while various passengers possessions also departed the airplane, all 177 passengers and crew remained aboard flight AS1282 until the aircraft landed back at Portland.

These terrifying incidents rest very differently in the minds of the travelling public. The Tokyo event revealed the professionalism of the Japan Airlines crew and the safety features of the latest Airbus jet.

But the Portland incident shone a light on shortcomings in the way Boeing builds its planes. All Boeing 737 Max 9s with the same door plug arrangement were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Inspections revealed loose hardware and bolts that needed additional tightening on in-service aircraft.

We have to be better

Although they are flying again, the deepening investigation has revealed some shocking shortcomings about Boeings manufacturing and inspection processes.

We are not where we need to be, said Stan Deal, then president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, 10 days after the Alaska Airlines scare. To that end, we are taking immediate actions to bolster quality assurance and controls across our factories.

Two weeks later, with the planes allowed back in the skies, he apologised for what he called the quality escape and said: Our long-term focus is on improving our quality so that we can regain the confidence of our customers, our regulator and the flying public.

We have to be better. We have to deliver perfect airplanes each and every time.

Recent events have led to big changes in the top roles at Boeing ( Getty Images )

The trouble is, the more the flying public finds out about practices at Boeing, the more anxious passengers may fret. Early in February, Mr Deal pledged to end traveled work  whereby components with known flaws were allowed on the production line, to be fixed as the plane was assembled. Many people were shocked that they had ever been allowed.

The FAA has slowed the planned production rate of Boeing 737 Max jets, which is feeding into higher fares and less choice for UK passengers; Ryanair is cutting back its summer schedule due to slow deliveries of the plane.

Attention has now spreading to other aircraft  notably the 787 Dreamliner, a long-haul favourite with many airlines and passengers. A whistleblower, engineer Sam Salehpour, said excessive force was applied to fit panels together on the 787 assembly line  raising the risk of fatigue that could cause it to break apart.

Boeing robustly rejected his claims during a long media briefing.

Shocking and needless tragedies

The planemaker finds itself in the extremely uncomfortable position of prospective passengers  aided by the media  feeling hypersensitive about almost any incident involving a Boeing aircraft.

In April, for example, an Air Canada Boeing 737 Max flying from Mexico City to Vancouver made a routine emergency landing (yes, there is such a thing, and they are common) in Boise, Idaho. A warning light suggested a possible cargo hold problem. Such an event would probably have gone unreported had an Airbus been involved. But so deep is interest in Boeing, that any story with its name attached is guaranteed prominence.

On 9 May two further incidents involving 737s occured. A 30-year-old plane left the runway after aborting take-off due to a hydraulic failure, and caught fire in Dakar, Senegal. Some passengers and crew were injured in the evacuation of the Transair jet.

At Gazipasa airport in southern Turkey, a Corendon Airlines Boeing 737-800 burst a tyre on landing. The pilots ordered an emergency evacuation.

Stan Deal need no longer feel at the mercy of a feverish media. On 25 March he retired immediately, and was replaced by Stephanie Pope. On the same day, the CEO of Boeing, Dave Calhoun and the companys chair, Larry Kellner, said they would leave by the end of the year.

Mr Calhoun will have been at the top for less than five years. He took up the role in 2020 after the previous CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, left the company. Then, as now, the Boeing 737 Max was at the centre of a storm about safety. But it was an even darker time for the company, with evidence emerging of catastrophic decisions at Boeing that led to the loss of 346 lives.

Dave Calhoun, who will be leaving his job as Boeing CEO at the end of 2024 ( The Associated Press )

The Boeing 737, first launched in 1967, is the worlds most successful aircraft. More than 11,000 have been delivered. But the Max 8 version was involved in two shocking and needless tragedies.

On 29 October 2018, a faulty sensor triggered an anti-stall system that caused Lion Air flight 610 to crash shortly after take-off from Jakarta. All 189 passengers and crew died.

Less than six months later, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was lost, along with 157 lives, in similar circumstances. After the second crash, it emerged that Boeing had installed software that had the power to defy pilots and force the aircraft to plunge to the ground while pilots struggled in vain for control. All Boeing 737 Max aircraft were grounded for 20 months while safety enhancements were made.

The plane re-entered service in December 2020  including at Ryanair, which is by far the biggest European customer for the Max. The aircraft is at the heart of its plans to dominate the continents skies. Yet in January the airlines chief executive, Michael OLeary, revealed the airline had complained loudly about faults on newly delivered Boeing 737 Max aircraft  including a spanner found under the floor on one jet.

We do a 48-hour check on every aircraft when its delivered into Dublin, he told The Independent. Coming out of Covid, we were taking aircraft deliveries and finding lots of small defects and things not fitted correctly.

It is not acceptable that aircraft get delivered at less than 100 per cent.

A bouquet of flowers beside debris at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019 ( Getty Images )

Yet Mr OLeary has been supportive of Boeings soon-to-be-outgoing CEO, Dave Calhoun, and is hungry for more of his aircraft. So much so, that after United Airlines warned it might not take up its order for 737 Max 10s, the Ryanair boss said that he would gladly buy them instead.

Passenger confidence

How confident, though, can passengers be after the succession of revelations about the Max programme? Some passengers used to vow, if it aint Boeing, I aint going. That rings hollow now.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the McDonnell Douglas DC10 jet was involved in a series of crashes, some due to design flaws. As passengers actively chose airlines that did not have the plane in their fleet, orders for the DC10 dried up.

Yet four decades on, aviation is far safer  and, it appears, passengers are unconcerned about the Max variant of the 737. When it reentered service, many airlines offered the option for worried travellers to switch to other aircraft free of charge. There were almost no takers.

Even after the Alaska Airlines episode, Michael OLeary said there had been no pushback from passengers concerned about flying on Ryanairs all-Boeing 737 fleet.

It is possible that some potential customers have quietly moved to airlines that use only Airbus A320 series jets for short-haul flights  such as British Airways, easyJet and Wizz Air.

But for anyone who cares to check the stats: Ryanair is the safest airline in the world in terms of the number of passengers carried without a single fatal accident. The only aircraft type it flies? The Boeing 737.

Which airlines use the Boeing 737?

Top 10 operators of all versions of the aircraft

Southwest 209 United 163 Ryanair 146 American Airlines 59 Flydubai 57 Alaska Airlines 52 Tui 42 Air Canada 40 Copa (Panama) 29 Gol (Brazil) 27

Source: Boeing.com
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A district council in Prague has proposed that outrageous costumes worn by stag and hen party groups be banned to tackle overtourism and reduce the toll of nightlife on locals in the city.

Officials from Prague 1 district council are discussing the potential to prohibit inappropriate fancy dress for tourists in the Czech capital in negotiations with the city municipality.

The suggested silly costume ban intends to address noise pollution and unruly tourist behaviour in the areas nightlife scene.

In the proposal, Prague 1 councillor Bronislava Sitar Baborakova, said the costumes exceed generally acceptable social conventions and negatively impact residents  particularly highlighting the effect on elderly people and children, according to Prague Morning.

Included in the Prague 1 area, most of which is a Unesco World Heritage site, are the medieval old town, Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge.

The pub crawls and beer tours, concentrated around the bars and nightclubs near Wenceslas Square, are particularly popular with British tourists celebrating stag and hen dos in variations of themed fancy dress and inflatable costumes.

According to StagWeb, a leading UK stag do firm, Prague is their 4th most popular European destination for 2024 behind Benidorm, Albufeira and Dublin.

Jon Stainer, StagWebs creative director, said: We completely understand if places want to ban stags from wearing offensive or explicit costumes, but were not entirely sure how that will stop noise pollution.

The majority of guys who dress up are very respectful and just having a bit of fun, so it seems like a strange measure if its a blanket ban.

I get theyre trying to placate the locals whilst still benefiting from the thousands of stag parties that head there, but I dont see the measure having any impact.

The success of such a costume ban is also the subject of debate with city officials.

Adam Zabransky, the councillor for property, transparency and legislation, said that a ban will not solve the problem: I understand the effort made to solve the problem of pub crawls, I also perceive them as very annoying for people living in the centre of Prague. But I dont think we should solve it by banning the childish behaviour of bachelor party participants who dress up in costumes, reports local media outlet Expats CZ.

Previous measures against overtourism including a nighttime ban on cars in the old town area and limited central business hours have been cancelled or were not approved by the city municipality.

One Prague resident has even started a 10-day hunger strike as a result of the noise in the old town.

Stepan Kuchta, a resident of Dlouha Street, told Novinky.cz: My health is already ruined by chronic noise. A hunger strike is nothing against that.

Kuchta added: To date, Prague 1 and the municipality have not done anything at all regarding noise, vibrations and light smog to improve the situation of the remaining residents in the city center. Nothing at all, zero.
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As rail passengers prepare for eight days of disruption from engineering work and industrial action by train drivers, the union boss says he is incredibly upbeat.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers union, Aslef, told The Independent: Its hard not to be enthused. Were 22 months into this  the longest rail strike in history. And were still getting mandates of 94 to 99 per cent. Weve still got picket lines. Theres no wavering.

Network Rail engineering projects will cause significant problems for many passengers between Saturday and Monday.

The final day of the bank holiday weekend coincides with the start of a six-day overtime ban by train drivers belonging to Aslef, as well as three rolling one-day strikes.

The action will mark the third summer of walk-outs since the dispute on pay and working arrangements began. The union has not had talks with the employers  the 14 train operators represented by the Rail Delivery Group  for over a year.

Mr Whelan said: We want to get around the table and resolve this. We are not the barrier. We are not the cause of this problem. We didnt start it. We did not want to be here. We want a resolution.

But it wont be at all costs. It has to be on the right terms for the people I represent. And after five years without a pay rise, I think theyve got a right to ask.

A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: We want to see an end to this dispute and in that spirit, we have written to the Aslef leadership to try and find areas of common ground that will allow us to move to formal negotiations.

The prospect of any meaningful talks before the industrial action looks extremely unlikely.

The aim of the rolling strikes is to cause as much disruption as possible with minimum loss off pay.

Aslef is targeting London commuter services with a walk-out at many train operators serving the capital on Tuesday 7 May. Almost all services will be halted.

The following day, most intercity trains will be cancelled as drivers working for Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, GWR and other firms stop work.

On Thursday 9 May, northern England is the target. TransPennine Express and Northern will cancel all trains, while LNER will operate a skeleton service on the London-York-Newcastle-Edinburgh route.

During the overtime ban, thousands of trains are likely to be cancelled as a result of the refusal of rest-day working.

Mr Whelan said angry passengers should direct their ire at ministers and the privateers  private companies contracted by the Department for Transport (DfT) to provide rail services.

At the root of the dispute is the unions demand for a no-strings pay award, followed by local negotiations on changes to working arrangements.

Ministers, who will ultimately sign off any deal, insist that even a modest increase is contingent on wide-ranging productivity improvements.

Theres no reform on the table, Mr Whelan insisted. All we saw was a land-grab for terms and conditions to maximise the profits of privateers. People want a resolution, but dont want a resolution at all costs.

The union has refused to put the April 2023 pay offer to members, saying repeated overwhelming strike mandates show the strength of feeling among train drivers about the deal.

The Aslef boss had previously told The Independent that it would take a change of government to solve the dispute.

When asked about the prospects for a swift settlement were Labour to come to power, he said: Weve got no guarantees that the new government, if and when they win, will do anything different.

We hope theyd be more sympathetic and want this out of the way.

The transport secretary, Mark Harper, posted earlier this month on X (formerly Twitter): Buried in Labours rail nationalisation plan: greater control for the unions, more ministerial meddling,leading to fewer services. Making things worse for passengers.

Labour would take us back to square one  and the bad old days of British Rail.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: The transport secretary and rail minister [Huw Merriman] have already facilitated a pay offer that would take train drivers average salaries up to 65,000  almost twice the UK average salary.

Aslef are the only union left striking after the government oversaw deals with all the other unions. Instead of causing passengers disruption, they should put this offer to their members and work with industry to end this dispute.

The Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: We can only apologise to our customers for this wholly unnecessary strike action called by the Aslef leadership which will sadly disrupt journeys once again.

It will also inflict further damage on an industry that is receiving up to an additional 54m a week in taxpayer cash to keep services running, following the Covid downturn.

While we are working with our industry partners to keep as many trains running as possible, unfortunately there will be reduced services between Monday 6 and Saturday 11 May. As the level of service will vary across the country, our advice is to check before you travel and follow the latest travel information.

Passengers trying to avoid the industrial action by travelling over the weekend may encounter problems  especially on the West Coast main line.

The line between Birmingham International and Rugby is closed on all three days, while the London Euston and Milton Keynes link will close completely on Sunday.
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One UK city outshines all others in terms of sunlight: Brighton.

On the average day between 1991 and 2020, the South Coast resort enjoyed exactly five hours of sunshine.

The Independent has analysed data from the Met Office covering three decades, which places Brighton well ahead of its rivals.

The three closest cities are also on the south coast of England: Plymouth (4h45m), Southampton (4h40m) and Exeter (4h30m).

Bristol (4h27m) takes fifth place, with Oxford only a minute behind (4h26m).

Among English cities, Manchester performs poorly, with only 3h44m  placing it 26th in the top 30.

Swansea is the sunniest city in Wales, and seventh-brightest in the UK at 4h24m; Cardiff, in 10th place, has five minutes less sunshine.

London enjoys 4h23m of sunshine per day on average, meaning that taking the one-hour train from London to Brighton increases the daily prospect by 37 minutes.

Northern Ireland does not fare brilliantly. Belfast is 25th out of 30 with an average days sunshine of 3h46m. The second city, Derry, is last-but-one in the list, at 3h15m.

Of the 30 cities included in the survey, the highest placed Scottish contender is Dundee  also the only place in the nation that exceeds four hours of sunshine on average each day (4h01m)  takes 18th place. Aberdeen (3h59m) is 20th, while Glasgow and Stirling fill 27th and 28th places respectively

The UKs least sunny city, Inverness, is also in Scotland. Unlike almost everywhere else in the UK, it averages less than three hours of sunshine per day (2h53m).

A Highland Council spokesperson said: The Moray Firth coast, with Inverness located on the western end, is often referred to as being the Sunshine Coast and benefits from relatively warmer weather and lower rainfall than many other places in the UK. This makes a great place to live, work and visit.

Sun-starved Invernesians can fly in 100 minutes to the UKs sunniest airport, Gatwick, and take the half-hour train journey to Brighton.

Councillor Bella Sankey, leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, said: Ive always felt that the sun shines more in Brighton and Hove and so its great to know thats true! There really is nowhere quite like Brighton and Hove  no day is the same and there is so much to do and see.

Jane Austen ascribed to a character in Pride and Prejudice: A visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness.

The Met Office stresses that average figures do not imply the weather will be consistent year after year. A spokesperson said: The UKs weather patterns are often dictated by the position of the jet stream, a ribbon of air high up in the atmosphere.

Subtle difference in its position can influence the dominant weather for the UK, bringing sunshine for some or cloud and rain for others.

30 key UK cities  average daily sunshine 19912020

Brighton: 5h00m Plymouth: 4h45m Southampton: 4h40m Exeter: 4h30m Bristol 4h27m Oxford: 4h26m Swansea 4h24m London 4h23m Lincoln 4h21m Cardiff 4h19m Cambridge 4h18m Hull: 4h16m Norwich 4h14m Hereford 4h10m Birmingham 4h07m Liverpool 4h06m Sheffield 4h01m Dundee 4h01m Leicester: 4h00m Aberdeen 3h59m Newcastle 3h56m Nottingham: 3h53m Edinburgh 3h48m Leeds 3h47m Belfast 3h46m Manchester 3h44m Glasgow 3h37m Stirling 3h16m Derry 3h15m Inverness 2h53m

All figures extracted from data provided by the Met Office.
A delighted King Charles and Queen Camilla have received the official record of the Kings Coronation.

Charles held his second public-facing event since his cancer diagnosis to view the historic document with Queen Camilla on Wednesday (1 May) and marvelled at the handwritten and lavishly decorated artefact.

The King claimed: It goes for miles.

The document follows a centuries-old tradition of creating a handwritten record of a monarchs coronation but is the first to use paper, not the usual animal skin, reflecting the animal welfare views of the King.

It was authored by Antonia Romeo, the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, who signed the document, which is more than 21 metres long.
Lee Anderson clashed with BBC journalist Nick Robinson today as the Reform Party was accused of taking votes away from the Conservatives in the local elections.

Rishi Sunak sacked Mr Anderson from the Tory party after he refused to apologise for comments he made about London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

After losing the whip, Mr Anderson became an independent before joining the Reform Party, created by Nigel Farage.

In a heated debate on BBC Radio 4 Todays programme on Friday (3 May), Mr Robinson asked Mr Anderson about Mr Farage standing in the next election.
A huge fire tore through an apartment complex in Livingston, Texas, on Friday (3 May) displacing residents in an area also affected by flooding this week.

Locals in parts of Polk County were ordered to evacuate due to heavy rainfall Monday.

The voluntary order came after significant downpours and flooding led to an increase in discharge from the Lake Livingston Dam, according to ABC affiliate KTRK.

Josh Mohler with Livingston Volunteer Fire Department told KPRC 2 there were no injuries in the fire and displaced families were either going to stay with friends or relatives or in a shelter already been set up for flood victims.
Payment agreed without admission of wrongdoing.

Grant Thornton Ireland, backed by its insurers, is to pay $19.25m (17.88m) to settle claims made against it in relation to audits of US business TCA.

Grant Thornton Ireland had been accused of taking part in a cover-up by colluding during audits to help a US investment advisory firm persist with fraudulent activity that resulted in a $400m (373m) black hole in the Florida firms balance sheet.

In a statement, Grant Thornton Ireland said it will contribute $19.25m towards the total settlement to close out the cases and any threatened claims in full. It is making the payment without admission of liability or wrongdoing by Grant Thornton, the accountancy firm said.

"This decision was taken in order to avoid prohibitive legal defence costs in the USA and Cayman Islands, and was done without admission of liability or wrongdoing by Grant Thornton. Having issued qualified audit opinions for both years, Grant Thornton maintains its position that its work on the audits complied with applicable professional standards. As part of the resolution, Grant Thornton has agreed not to pursue its demand for arbitration in the Cayman Islands, the firm said.

The agreement was reached through mediation in Florida, resolving all claims arising from the 2017 and 2018 audit engagements with TCA.

The overall agreement is subject to the execution of a written agreement, and approval by the courts presiding over the relevant lawsuits.

In 2020, a case had been launched in Miami by investors in entities connected to Florida-based investment firm TCA Fund Management against TCA and its former executives.

Grant Thornton Ireland and Grant Thornton Cayman Islands were also defendants in that case.

Jonathan Perlman, the receiver of TCA Fund Management Group and related entities, also sued Grant Thornton Ireland and Grant Thornton Cayman Islands in January, claiming that the firms took part in a cover-up by colluding during audits to help the investment firm engage in fraudulent activity.

That fraudulent activity, it had been alleged, resulted in a $400m (373m) black hole in the TCAs balance sheet.

Grant Thornton Ireland rejected the allegations in January when the lawsuit was launched.

Last month, Mr Perlman asked a Florida court to merge the action he filed this year against Grant Thornton Ireland and the accountancy firms office in the Cayman Islands into the 2020 action that was initiated by TCA investors. The settlement agreed with Grant Thornton Ireland will bring both actions to a close.

Grant Thorntons office in the Cayman Islands recently agreed to a settlement in principle in the related 2020 legal action, but that was contingent on Grant Thornton Ireland also reaching a deal.

The mediator in the 2020 action has previously told the court that Grant Thornton Ireland had four layers of insurance, each syndicated with various carriers.
Slump in the mortgage market as numbers drawing down a home-loan down

There has been a significant slump in the number of mortgages being drawn down, despite strong demand from first-time buyers for home loans.

A slowdown in switching has led to a 20pc drop in the number of mortgages drawn down in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year. This amounts to around 2,000 fewer mortgages, figures from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show.

Switching activity has fallen off a cliff in the wake of a record 10 hikes in European Central Bank rates.

By the start of this year, most of those in the market to switch  so they could lock into a lower fixed rate  had probably already done so. This is because the good-value fixed rates that were available have become more expensive.

BPFI figures show that from January to March, 8,419 new mortgages were drawn down by borrowers, to the value of 2.35bn. This is a 19.8pc decrease in volume and an 18pc fall in value on the corresponding quarter of 2023.

In the same three-month period last year, 10,493 mortgages were drawn down.

However, first-time buyers have remained active in large numbers this year. They are the largest segment by volume in the mortgage market, representing close to 60pc of drawdowns. Close to 5,000 first-time-buyer mortgages were drawn down in the quarter.

In contrast, remortgage and switching volumes fell by 53pc year on year.

Brian Hayes, chief executive of the BPFI, said there was an overall slowdown in mortgage drawdowns, with a drop in volume and values across all mortgage categories in the first quarter of this year.

This was driven largely by switching, which was down by more than half, he said.

The figures show the average mortgage on second-hand homes for first-time buyers was 274,535 in the period. This is the highest level since the data series began in 2005. For mover buyers, the figure is 327,069.

Mr Hayes said the first quarter of this year was the 33rd consecutive quarter in which the average first-time buyer mortgage on second-hand properties had increased in year-on-year terms.

A total of 3,779 buyers were approved for mortgages in March, 65pc of them first-time buyers. The number of mortgages approved in March rose by 5.5pc month-on-month and fell by 16.4pc year-on-year.

Mr Hayes said: Despite the overall decline in activity, mortgage demand remains strong.

He said there had been 15,297 applications to the Revenue Commissioners for the Help to Buy scheme in the first quarter of this year, compared with 9,585 applications in the first quarter of 2023.

But he said reports pointed to a shortage of second-hand homes supply.

Mortgage drawdown amounts are getting larger due to surging house prices.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently reported a 2.6pc year-on-year drop in sales of second-hand properties in the first two months of this year. Residential property prices grew at the fastest annual pace in just over a year in February.
MANZINI  Who smuggled a cellphone to Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza in prison?

His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) is grappling with this question after Mabuza, who is awaiting sentencing with his co-accused, Mthandeni Dube, was allegedly found in possession of a cellphone in prison. Mabuza and Dube, together with other terrorism-accused inmates, are detained at Matsapha Maximum Prison. For the third time, Mabuza has been reportedly found with contraband in his cell, during a random search at the Matsapha Maximum Prison. The contraband was a cellphone. According to sources, last week, the former Hosea Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), was allegedly caught with the cellphone in his cell.

Inmates

It is worth noting that the use of cellphones by inmates is prohibited in Correctional Services facilities, as they compromise the security of the institutions and as such, it is regarded as contraband. According to insiders, Mabuza was supposedly using the cellular phone to communicate with people outside the Correctional facility.

In fact, when the cellphone was found in Mabuzas possession, two active investigations were underway, seeking to establish how he had come to possess cellphones while still behind the prison walls. This was because in the first instance, which was on December 10, 2021, the former legislator was found in possession of two cellular phones. The convicted legislator in this instance, issued a statement through his legal team and confirmed knowledge of the contraband.

This resulted in Mabuza being placed in solitary confinement at the maximum prison. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment distinguished by living in a single cell, with little or no meaningful contact with other inmates, strict measures to control contraband, and the use of additional security measures and equipment. The practice is used when a prisoner is considered dangerous to himself or to other inmates and is suspected of organising or being engaged in illegal activities outside of prison.

During this period, Mabuza was reportedly allowed one visitor, who brought him food at the Correctional facility, while his legal team was not allowed to see him for consultations. Subsequent to that, on September 12, 2023, Mabuza was again allegedly found in possession of the contraband.

It was claimed that a Correctional officer discovered that Mabuza had connected headsets to the cellphone, supposedly as a form of disguising it.

According to insiders, the convicted former legislators use of the headsets betrayed him in that they muffled any sounds such that he could not hear any other sound.

This resulted in the cell, which he occupied, being searched by members of the Rapid Response Unit and a Samsung cellphone was found. The repetition of the offence resulted in the HMCS imposing a six-month visitation and communication ban on Mabuza. The curtailing of these rights came after the former legislator was found guilty of having repeatedly flouted the Correctional Services Regulations, which prohibit the possession of articles such as cellphones and unlawful communication.

According to the facility, at least on four different occasions, Mabuza had faced internal disciplinary hearings, which compelled it to curtail not only physical visitation, but also his telephonic communication. The suspension of these rights was disclosed by the authorities of the institution, in its papers, where it was robustly opposing the application filed by Mabuzas children and his wives who sought to visit him.

The suspension of his visitation rights and communication lapsed on March 13, 2024 and about seven weeks later, Mabuza was reportedly found with the contraband again. HMCS Public Relations Officer (PRO) Gugulethu Dlamini confirmed that contraband was found in Mabuzas possession. She said an enquiry file had been opened in order to investigate how the cellphone got into the prison. Dlamini said it was a criminal offence for an inmate to be found in possession of contraband. The PRO further confirmed that the discovery of the mobile phone in Mabuzas possession was the third instance since he was incarcerated in the facility in July 2021.

Investigations

Dlamini said there were still ongoing investigations, which sought to establish how on December 10, 2021 and September 12, 2023, Mabuza got to have cellular phones in his possession. Following the confiscation of the said cellphones, in what was said to be random searches within the Correctional facility, the Commissioner General (COMGEN) Phindile Dlamini, instituted investigations. The former legislator is currently detained at the Matsapha Maximum Prison, with his co-accused, former Ngwempisi MP Dube. Mabuza was recently found guilty of terrorism and murder, among other charges, together with his co-accused.

Meanwhile, the former legislators legal representative, Ben J. Simelane, said he was not aware of his client having been found in possession of a cellphone while in prison. Simelane said he met the two former MPs in prison and did a post-mortem of the court proceedings of Tuesday. On Tuesday, Mabuza and Dube, as well as the Crown, made submissions on sentencing before Judge Mumcy Dlamini.
Months of rainfall have kept sheep indoors, increasing costs and disease rates  and farmers are cutting stock numbers to get through next winter, or quitting altogether

Andrew Phillips says he has 'never known anything like this' CREDIT: Jay Williams

Stella says, 'We managed to save most of the lambs affected but we did lose some'

Stella and Andrew Phillips on their farm at near Brecon in mid-Wales. This lambing season has been one of the most difficult in years, they say. Photos: Jay Williams

Its 5.30am on a damp Thursday morning in Brecon, in mid-Wales, and the barn at Tylebrythos farm is abuzz with activity. 20 ewes are bedding down in the straw, their newborn lambs bleating, while farmer Stella Phillips, 42, is helping out by bottle-feeding some of the weakest.

As Stella says  and Irish farmers will agree this lambing season has been marred by difficulties, creating one of the worst seasons on record.

[The sheep] shouldnt even be in this barn at all, she says. They should be out on the hill fields.

We have a grass-based system in Wales and we want them to be out there grazing like they should be. But the rain has been so terrible, its been impossible for that to happen. Weve not had a year like it. Its been a total disaster.

Wales is known for its rain, but statistics show that its winters are getting wetter and milder. Five of the top 10 wettest years on record have been in the past decade, with this February and March being 60pcwetter than average.

The impact on the Phillips 200ac farm has been striking. Many of their lush green fields have been turned brown, with deep rivets and pools of water.

Stella says, 'We managed to save most of the lambs affected but we did lose some'

For their 650 newborn lambs, this has created huge problems. Some have had hypothermia from lying down in the wet mud, while others have been hit with joint-ill, a bacterial infection that thrives in wet conditions.

With the weather being so extreme, Stella, like many farmers across Wales, has brought her lambs into a large shed close to her farm buildings. But this too has created problems.

When they are together like this, the animals have more of a chance of catching disease, she says. Weve been hit with joint-ill, which causes swelling of the joints, so the lambs cant stand to suckle.

We have to treat it with antibiotics, which we dont like doing. Weve managed to save most of the lambs affected but we did lose some.

It is not just the unnatural circumstances and disease risk of indoor lambing that is a problem, but the cost of providing straw for the animals bedding and hay to eat, too.

Stellas husband, Andrew, 47, says: Im a fifth-generation farmer and have never known anything like this. Straw is in short supply, again due to bad weather, but we have had to buy it at 160/t, and a bale only lasts a day. We also have to pay for the antibiotics, vets and disinfectant.

Its not just the lambs. The calves are in, too, as we cant risk the cows out walking on the fields in this weather. They will do too much damage.



The milder weather has also seen an increase in the Schmallenberg virus (SBV), which arises when midges bite ewes when they are pregnant in the autumn, causing lambs to be born deformed or dead.

In January, the Phillips lost dozens of lambs to SBV, while according to the National Sheep Association, some farms in Wales and England have lost 25pc of their early flocks to the disease.

A spokesman said: The number of lamb losses dont have to be reported, so we dont have an exact figure. But we dont have a vaccine for Schmallenberg and we know it has hit hard this year.

The mild autumns increase midge activity for longer, so lambs born in January were badly hit.

Forty miles away in Pendoylan, Vale of Glamorgan, farmer Tom Rees, 35, has also had his worst lambing season on record. The county has seen 238pc more rain than last year, leaving many of his fields underwater.

He says: We had nearly 1,000 lambs born this season. On our busiest days, we had 30 lambs born in the barn and had hardly any room left. We couldnt turn them out as it was so wet, so we were trying to make pens in any corner we could.

Its been wet before, but not prolonged like this. Its rained virtually every day since last summer.

Many of the lambs had scours because its a warmer environment and theyre not out in the air. They werent going far or moving about, so not using the milk they had, so it was going straight through them. Weve lost a few more than usual, but have just about managed to mitigate it.

Another farmer, Mathew Isaac from Ynysybwl, 15 miles north of Cardiff, has lost 30 lambs this year to the weather.

And this is not just a situation affecting Wales.

According to Joseph Henry, a practising vet in Northumberland in the north of England, and president of the Sheep Veterinary Association, this has been one of the worst years for loss and disease.

He says the problem began in early winter, when the ground was too wet for farmers to give their grazing sheep supplementary feed, such as pellets, silage and molasses.

They couldnt get out to the sheep, he says. Not on quad bikes or tractors or even walking, as it was so muddy. So the lack of nutrition meant the ewes colostrum levels were low, which meant lambs, especially the twins, suffered.

Writer Gwyneth Rees (green hat) feeding lambs with Stella's help

Some had watery mouth, which causes lambs to be lethargic and reluctant to suckle. Others had blue tongue, a bacterial infection which can make them lame.

Joseph adds: Farmers have worked well to cut antibiotic use in recent years, but this year has undoubtedly seen more infection pressure. Lambs are out in the mud, or in damp sheds, so the bacteria is more common.

Some farmers I know are reducing their sheep stock to better manage them, or thinking of changing the time they lamb so it is later in the year, when the weather should be better, but if all the farmers start lambing in summer, which many farmers in Scotland already do, this will affect supply.

Back in Wales, farmers are also looking ahead to what they can do to improve their position next year.

Im investing in drainage so the fields dont get so wet, says Tom Rees. I should be planting crops, but putting drainage in is more important. And this costs money.

Meanwhile, the Phillips family have decided next year to keep their sheep away from the river Usk and other water sources, where the risk from midges is worst.

As their lambs grow and the weather improves, they will turn to planting their crops  oat, wheat and barley  which should already be in the ground by now. This will be used to feed their sheep for next winter.

Stella adds: We are so reliant on spring planting, and its not even in the ground as its been so wet.

This spring has been a disaster, but Im actually more worried about next winters supplies.

Our son, who is only eight, recently heard us talking about all our problems and actually left us a note saying: Please dont stop farming.

Its heartbreaking. We love this work. But with the weather becoming wetter and more extreme, everything just feels out of our control.

 Telegraph
A Catholic bishop urged families to discuss road safety in the home as he expressed concern over the dramatic and troubling increase in road deaths in Ireland from this time last year.

In an appeal to road users on both sides of the border to slow down this bank holiday weekend, Dr Fintan Monahan warned that it is a high-risk period on our roads.

Across Ireland so far this year, there have been 69 road fatalities in the Republic and 21 fatalities in the Northern Ireland.

This loss of human life is a tragedy for our society and is particularly devastating for the families and loved ones of those involved, Dr Monahan said.

Families must take responsibility for this worrying trend and discuss road safety in the home, he said and he welcomed the Taoiseach, Simon Harris prioritisation of road safety in his early days in office.

Where Ireland once led on road safety standards, we now have one of the fastest growing road death rates in Europe, according to figures published by the European Commission in 2022.

Stressing that road deaths are preventable, he highlighted that care, attention and vigilance must always be at the forefront of the minds of road users  from motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists to pedestrians.

Each of us must be conscious that we have a responsibility when we get behind the wheel to ensure we are not putting our lives or the lives of others at risk, he said.

He invited parishes across the diocese of Killaloe to pray for those who have lost their lives in tragic circumstances so far this year, and to pray for the safety of road users.

Dr Monahan commended the Road Safety Authority and all those working to make roads safe, and he also prayed for the success of the RFA's media campaign, which is being launched this weekend to raise awareness about vigilance on the countrys roads.

On Saturday evening, after 6.30pm Mass in the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Ennis, Bishop Monahan will lead a Blessing of the Roads ceremony to pray for the protection of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

He has also suggested that people avail of two prayers which are intended to help people change their driving behaviour, and to help people stay safe on roads this bank holiday weekend.
RTEs Bryan Dobson is to retire from the broadcaster today after almost four decades as one of Irelands leading journalists and anchors.

The 64-year-old has conducted thousands of interviews over the years. Here are five of his best moments:

An appreciation for Anchorman

The RTE veteran has covered countless high-profile news stories over the years, but the journalist showed a lighter side when he admitted he was a fan of Will Ferrells slapstick Anchorman character.

Dobson told The Rumour Room on RTE2 in 2011: I watch quite a lot of news and current affairs. I like a thriller, a political thriller.

He added: Im a big fan [of Anchorman]. I model myself on Ron Burgundy.

The show then revealed a mocked-up version of Dobson as Ron Burgundy. He laughed along and said: Its the tache, isnt it?

Discussing Emma Mhic Mhathuna on The Late Late Show

Dobson told Late Late viewers that mother-of-five Emma Mhic Mhathuna, his late RTE News colleague, had revealed that her great fear was that her smallest child wouldnt remember his mother.

At just 37, she died from cervical cancer in 2018 and Dobson was completely in sync with the importance of marking her passing with a dignified and respectful tone.

He told then host Ryan Tubridy: To any parent, thats like a dagger through your heart. And yet facing that, she spoke out again and again.

Ms Mhic Mhathuna had become well-known for helping to highlight the CervicalCheck scandal.

Her family said they wanted Emmas tragic situation never to happen to another Irish mother or Irish woman again. I suppose if we can say that, at some point, she will certainly be one of those to whom the credit for that will go, he said.

Interview with with Bertie Ahern in 2006

It was one of the biggest TV moments in political history. Mr Dobson quizzed the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on payment irregularities, which rocked the Fianna Fail politicians world.

Ahern went on later to be questioned by the Mahon Tribunal, which had been established in 1997 to investigate allegations of corrupt payments to politicians.

With every question delivered by Dobson, Ahern trailed off on a long response, at times pausing, appearing close to breaking down.

Why was the money raised for you? Dobson asked, when Ahern claimed the money came from friends.

The journalist followed with: As we speak, none of the loan, none of the money, has been repaid. No interest has been paid?.

Ahern responded: Its a debt of honour.

To which Dobson said: You were Minister of Finance, perhaps the second most senior position in the country.

Did you have any qualms about taking this money from these individuals given the position that you occupied?.

Ahern explained the money had come from close personal and political friends and it wasn't big money.

Dobson calls protesters idiots live on air as they campaign against austerity

The then RTE News Six One anchor was interviewing economist Ronan Lyons on the housing crisis when a small group of campaigners gathered behind Lyons and made their views clear to the watching public.

One carried a placard emblazoned with the words: Burn the bonds, not the billions, and another held an Enda Kenny mask aloft.

We have some visitors there, but dont let them distract you from it, Dobson told Lyons.

But the campaigners were going nowhere and Dobson halted the interview.

Ill tell you what, Ronan, Im going to stop that here, as the idiots behind you are a bit of a distraction. So we will try and get rid of those and try to come back to you, he said.

Final goodbye

Dobsons final best bit has to be his final goodbye to his faithful RTE News audience in 2017, when he announced hed be joining Morning Ireland.

As she held back tears, RTE anchor Sharon Ni Bheolain revealed she calls the journalist Dobbo, just as many of his fans do.

She told him: Youve been a rock to us, youve been our anchor, figuratively and literally. Im not going to look at you because I know Im going to get all teary.

From my point of view, youve been a great friend and a mentor and Im sure the whole country joins me this evening in wishing you the very, very best.

She then introduced a package titled: Dobbo through the ages.

His 37 years were wrapped up to the musical backdrop of Dinah Washingtons soulful rendition of Mad about the Boy.

Im completely taken by surprise. Thank you, Sharon, for your kind words. Its been wonderful working with you and everybody now and over the years, Dobson said.

Its been a blast. Im looking forward to pastures new. Ill be on the radio on Morning Ireland from Wednesday of next week. I hate to go but Im afraid I have to leave, so goodnight.
Nicola Hanney on surviving ex-garda Paul Moodys four-year campaign of abuse: The way he saw it, I was pregnant with his child, so I was his property now
The Aoife Johnston tragedy in University Hospital Limerick needs to be a line in the sand and the only surprise has been how few of the many avoidable deaths due to overcrowding have come before the coroners courts, the countrys emergency consultants said today.

The doctors body, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM), offered sincere condolences to the family and friends of Aoife Johnston, and to all those who have been affected by her untimely death from sepsis in Limerick in December 2022 after waiting more than 12 hours.

Quite simply, the delays in her receiving essential care should never have happened.

Sadly, no one working in Irelands emergency departments was surprised at the evidence heard at the inquest.

The only surprise has been how few of the many avoidable deaths have come before the coroners courts given the clear evidence of increased mortality and morbidity associated with both crowding and prolonged waits for admission to a hospital bed for the approximately 25pc of patients deemed to require hospital admission after assessment and emergency treatment, the IAEM said in a statement.

They said the primary cause of emergency department crowding is Irelands grossly inadequate acute bed capacity which means that those patients who need admission to hospital do not get admitted to a hospital bed in a timely fashion, if at all.

This turns them into holding bays for admitted inpatients negating the capacity to provide emergency care to its own patients in a timely fashion that was so evident in the Johnston inquest. This critical capacity issue was identified over a decade ago but there has been little substantial effort to address it to the level required to make our departments safe.

As the majority of those admitted patients who languish on trolleys are over the age of 75 years, perhaps their premature and avoidable deaths are often less obvious than what was described last week.

They added that it is absolutely imperative that Aoifes almost certainly avoidable death in a grossly overcrowded and under resourced ED is seen as a line in the sand. No longer can those who bear management and political responsibility for the provision of a safe environment that, at its most basic, requires sufficient acute bed capacity and appropriate staffing, hide behind the defence of ignorance of the catastrophes that unfold due to overcrowding.

It is vital that all play their part in supporting the work of the emergency department rather than seeing the situation that was laid bare so publicly at the inquest as a matter for it and its staff.

The doctors added that it was absolutely appropriate that the CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, accepted that the organisation he leads failed Aoife Johnston and her family and equally appropriate that the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly offered his apologies and condolences.

"However, unless both finally aggressively address the underlying national hospital bed capacity problem (Irelands acute bed capacity is at most 2.9/1,000 population whereas the OECD average is 4.3 with Limericks situation even worse than the national position), any such utterances are empty and meaningless. Indeed, without concrete action to definitively address Limericks and Irelands acute bed capacity deficit, they are open to the suggestion that their words are meaningless.
Family of six was rescued after their powerboat ended up on the rocks at Lambay Island this afternoon. Photo: Howth RNLI.

A family of six, including four children, was rescued after their boat ended up on rocks at Lambay Island.

A multi-agency rescue operation was underway at Lambay Island this afternoon, just off the north Dublin coast.

A powerboat occupied by a family had suffered engine failure and ended up on the rocks on the northern coast of an island.

It comes as the weather conditions were good with a westerly wind and slight swell.

Howth RNLI was contacted at 2.37pm by the Dublin Coast Guard after they received a 999 call from the family.

Within 10 minutes, a lifeboat with seven volunteers on board was launched for the rescue, a joint operation with Skerries RNLI and Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

Once the crew arrived at Lambay Island, the family had already abandoned their boat and were on the rocks, unable to safely make it ashore.

Flight Radar shows that the Irish Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the scene around 3pm after departing from Dublin Airport at 2.52pm.

Rescue 116 lowered a winchman to assess the family who all were in good health and wearing lifejackets.

The family were winched one-by-one on board the helicopter and taken to Rescue 116s base at Dublin Airport.

The crew in the XP boat, the lifeboats daughter boat, has cleared the area to allow the helicopter to begin the winching operation.

The volunteer lifeboat crew from Skerries RNLI tried to recover the familys powerboat, however they were unable to do so due to weather conditions and the location of the boat on the rocks.

Following the rescue, the Coxswain of Howth RNLI Fred Connolly, who was in command of the lifeboat, has said the family were in good health although shaken.

Today we launched to an emergency involving a family including four children who were washed up on rocks and unable to make their way to safety, he said.

"Once on scene, our crew quickly launched the XP boat so that we could get in close and assess the situation.

"Given the treacherous location, the decision was taken to recover all six casualties on board Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

"The family were all wearing lifejackets and although shaken, were in good health.

"They did the right thing in calling for help as soon as they got into difficulty, he added.

It comes as the May bank holiday weekend marks the start of the busy summer season which sees an increase in demand for lifesaving services.

"Our volunteer crew commit to dropping what they are doing and responding to the pager once it goes off, knowing that lives can be in danger, Mr Connolly said.

"We train regularly for these situations and we are able to do this thanks to the generous donations of our supporters.
Bryan Dobson has said his decision to retire after 37 years with RTE hasnt quite sunken in yet.

A firm fixture of the Irish airwaves, Dobson (64) has presented all of RTEs flagship news programmes across television and radio during his career and anchored coverage of crucial elections and significant world events.

He joined RTE as a reporter in 1987 and was later appointed as business correspondent, before spending 21 years at the helm of the Six One News, starting in 1996.

Speaking to Patrick Kielty on the Late Late Show tonight, Dobson said he will miss his colleagues terribly.

"I dont think it has sunk in yet. I decided myself to retire a bit early, so I picked my date, which is now. I think the summer will take care of itself and well see I think September or October is when itll really sink in.

"My colleagues and how important they are to me and the news team, Ill miss them terribly. I really value their friendship. A newsroom is a wonderfully exciting and stimulating environment to be in. Its a unique kind of workplace so thatll definitely take some adjusting.

Dobson recalled being told he was once on an RTE blacklist before starting with the national broadcaster.

"Im told I was on an RTE blacklist, I did get off it eventually obviously. I began my broadcasting in pirate radio but I was head hunted by a producer in RTE to go and be interviewed as a possible reporter, he said.

He was told he got the job but that the bad news was RTE didnt have any money, to which Dobson told Kielty: Some things never change.

This was met by a round of laughter from the audience.

Mr Dobson described his dear friend Charlie Bird as a tremendous fighter and was devastated by his death.

"He survived against the odds for quite some time, he said.

Dobson became part of the presenting team on Morning Ireland in 2017 and has worked on a number of documentary programmes.

The broadcaster announced his retirement in January, admitting he will miss working with wonderfully talented and hardworking colleagues but that the time had come to move on.

I am grateful, too, to the listeners and viewers who have given me their time and attention over the years. I hope to have repaid that trust with reporting that was relevant, fair and accurate, he said.

He added that he was retiring one year early and would like to spend more time with family and see maybe if theres a new chapter, a new page to turn.

Dobson has spent almost four decades as one of the nations leading broadcasters. He covered key events of the Troubles, the September 11 attacks and the first elections in South Africa.

In 2006, Dobson delivered a landmark interview with the then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern. He also covered the appointments of several taoisigh, the elections of US presidents and even introduced the nostalgic news segment when a man slipped on ice during a bulletin in 2010.

Fellow anchor Sharon Ni Bheolain delivered an emotional tribute to her friend Dobbo when he left the Six One News in 2017, describing him as a rock to us and an anchor, figuratively and literally.

From my point of view, youve been a great friend and a mentor and Im sure the whole country joins me this evening in wishing you the very, very best, she said.

While presenting the News at One in the aftermath of the death of his former colleague Mr Bird in March, Dobson read a poignant message he received from Bird when he announced his retirement.

Perhaps, I will share with you one message that I had from Charlie when I announced my retirement from RTE earlier this year  and his message was, Please enjoy the next phase of your career. I would just love to hug you, he said.

Many of Dobsons colleagues have wished him good luck, with the News at One today being his final programme at the helm. Former newsreader Caitriona Perry this week praised the broadcaster as she contributed to the programme from her post with the BBC in the US.

After all the years working together, it was great to have one last chance to chat with Bryan Dobson on RTE Radio One, she said. He is such a talented journalist and a wonderful colleague. Cant believe he only has a few days left on the airwaves.
Zak Hania's wife Batoul and their four sons Nourmohammed, 11, (front left), Ahmed, 14, (front right), Mazen, 19, (back left) and Ismael, 17, (back right). Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

An Irish-Palestinian man who was blocked from leaving the Gaza strip after his family escaped last November has finally managed to flee the country.

Zak Hania, who had been trapped in Rafah for several months is due to return to Ireland tomorrow, after successfully crossing into Egypt, RTE News reported this morning.

His family said that he crossed the border and is in Egypt, and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr Hanias wife Batoul Hania and their four Irish-born sons, Nourmohammed, Ahmed, Mazen, and Ismael arrived in Dublin late last year, however Mr Hania, an Irish citizen, was not permitted to leave.

The Irish embassy contacted the family and told them to travel to Rafah. They were all on the clearance list, except Mr Hania.

His successful crossing into Egypt follows months of campaigning from his family, who were in contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs in a bid to secure his release from the Gaza strip.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said he is delightedc that Mr Hania is being reunited with his wife and children in Ireland.

"Having met with his family, I know how arduous and worrying these past few months have been for them all, Mr Martin said.

Officials from the Departments Consular Unit and our Embassies in the region maintained constant contact with Mr Hania throughout.

There is a number of Irish citizens and their dependants remaining in Gaza, and my Department continues to advocate on their behalf. We stand ready to provide support where possible.

To date, we have provided assistance to over 100 Irish citizens and dependents to exit Gaza.

Mr Hania had previously said he felt "abandoned" by the Irish authorities after appeals for help to leave Gaza went unanswered.

"My dad was so angry and asked why this happened. He spoke to the Department of Foreign Affairs and we were told that the Israeli authorities had him on the red list," his son Mazen previously said.

"My dad did his masters in journalism in DCU (Dublin City University), and he worked as a lecturer at the University of Palestine but his salary was not good. He resigned and worked as a translator and translates essays and reports.

"I don't know why he is on the blacklist. Since October, he contacted press in Ireland as well as Al Jazeera. He filmed himself talking about the situation and recorded some videos, he added.

At least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. This followed a cross-border assault on Israel which saw more than 1,200 civilians killed and more than 200 kidnapped.

The cost of rebuilding Gaza will total as much as 36bn and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II due unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, according to the United Nations today.

Mr Hania is expected to arrive in Dublin tomorrow.
The Duke of Devonshire, one of King Charles III's closest friends, has been a staunch supporter of the 'Towers and Tales' festival with his family's west Waterford castle being provided as a remarkable host venue for the literacy event.

The 2024 event opens on Saturday (May 4) with a record crowd expected from all over Ireland and Britain.

Now in its tenth year, the festival has developed an international following for its ambitious programme to promote children's literacy and showcase the very best in Irish and European arts.

The festival has also been instrumental in introducing Irish children to their favourite authors and illustrators thanks to a pioneering partnership with Waterford City and County Library.

Hosted at Lismore Castle, on the River Blackwater, this years events attractions include Dungeon Doodle, Knock for a Story, a Lismore Audio Storytrail as well as a Foodie Stable Yard which aims to showcase the very best of Waterford produce.

The event boasts former Laureate na nOg Niamh Sharkey as its co-artistic director.

Towers and Tales are honoured to be collaborating in partnership with Threshold, a charity that believes that everyone has a right to a home, working tirelessly to help prevent homelessness before it starts," she said.

We are thrilled that this audio trail is happening at Towers and Tales. We really hope that it is the start of Threshold Story Trails all over Ireland to help spread the word about the amazing work they do. These stories are kindly provided for free by Threshold, so if you and your family enjoy the audio trail, we'd encourage you to make a direct donation to support Threshold's incredible work.

The festival begins at 10am on Saturday.
Meath couples appeal to save mini mansion built without planning permission still undecided after eight months

Demolition was first ordered by High Court in 2010

The house in Bohermeen, Co Meath, at the centre of the dispute. Photo: Kyran O'Brien

Amy Molloy Fri 3 May 2024 at 03:30

An appeal to An Bord Pleanala over Meath County Councils refusal to grant retention for a mini mansion built without planning permission has still to be decided upon  more than eight months after it was lodged.
Environment minister Eamon Ryan has rejected criticisms that the Government is failing on migration, saying there was no such thing as easy success on the issue.

Mr Ryan was responding to criticisms by Labour leader Ivana Bacik about asylum applicants returning in large numbers to Dublin city centre just a day after their tents were removed from outside the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) offices on Mount Street.

They were bussed to buildings in Dublin and Wicklow where protests have been taking place against their relocation.

It's a real challenge. We have provided accommodation for about 100,000 people whove come into the country in the last two years but the numbers continue to come, he said.

Our first priority, the most important thing we need to do, is to protect those people seeking shelter and provide accommodation for them.

We can understand local concerns but we have to provide basic shelter for people in need.

Mr Ryan said the Cabinet subcommittee on migration met for two and a half hours on Thursday and had recommitted to resolving the Mount Street problem.

Mary Lou McDonald slams Government "incompetence" on immigration

Thats going to be the focus in the coming weeks. The answer to the people on Mount Street has to be the delivery of accommodation on other state lands and thats what Minister Roderic OGorman and his team are going to focus on.

That's the only way we create safe conditions, both for those people and to avoid conflict with local communities.

Mr Ryan stressed Ireland was not alone in grappling with the issue.

"Look at every single country in Europe - were all facing similar challenges because the number of people seeking migration is on the rise.

Theres no such thing as easy success here  we're having to manage very difficult circumstances.

We can do that. Were absolutely committed in government to reforming the migration system, the way we process to speed up the processing but also to providing the necessary accommodation.

He said the rise in migration was in part because of the impacts of climate change and the conflict arising from it so there could be no pulling back from climate action, and the Green Party wanted to see out the current full Government term and return to power to ensure it stayed on the agenda.

We want to go into the next government because this is a decade of change - its not a time to sit on the bench.

We will work with all parties. Some parties are saying we should stop action on climate now, that we should pause the green transition. We disagree. We would work with all parties to make sure Ireland continues to go green.

Were good at it. The Irish people are good at it. Why would we stop?
Research by Sky News also found anti-immigration hashtags such as #IrelandIsFull were predominantly used by commenters based in the US

A protest sign at the bottom of the small road which leads up to the Garda barrier near Trudder House in Newtownmountkennedy. Photo: Frank McGrath

Around 80pc of online posts relating to the protests at Newtownmountkennedy last week originated from social media users based outside Ireland, an analysis by Sky News has found.

Mentions of the town in Co Wicklow spiked on social media platform X on the day of the protest, peaking at 53,907 mentions in the aftermath of the incident compared to just 75 the day before.

An analysis by Sky News showed the role played by international social media users, who were responsible for the most frequent use of the anti-immigration hashtags #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish and #IrelandIsFull at the time of the incident.

Posts shared between April 2 and May 1 were examined by using the monitoring tool Talkwalker, which highlighted the extensive reach discussions about Newtownmountkennedy had online.

More than half of the posts about the town were from users in the US, while posts from Irish users accounted for just 20pc. Almost 10pc of posts came from users based in the UK.

A further 3pc originated in Canada while 10pc were shared from a location marked as other.

Three of the top five accounts that generated the most engagement on posts using the term were based outside of Ireland.

Sky News found the hashtag #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish was used predominantly by American users, while less than 25pc of accounts who shared the hashtag were based in Ireland.

A similar pattern was identified for the hashtag #IrelandIsFull, when over half of posts were from users in the US and less than 30pc came from Irish accounts.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly described the report as a must-view as he shared it to X yesterday.

"The recent surge in far-right hatred and xenophobia were seeing in Ireland is being stoked from abroad, he said. Many decent Irish people being lied to, misled and ultimately manipulated from abroad.

It comes as a large number of arrests are expected in relation to the protests at a building in Newtownmountkennedy that has since been used to house 60 asylum-seekers.

Gardai came under attack from protesters throwing rocks and missiles on Wednesday night last week, while an axe was also recovered at the scene. Three garda cars were damaged and several broken windows and slashed tyres were reported during the incident.

The Garda public order unit was deployed and videos from the scene showed people attempting to gain entry to the grounds, which had been sealed off, as a large fire burned at the entrance of the property.

Several people are before the courts in relation to the violence.

The Irish Government is currently in a stand-off with its British counterparts after prime minister Rishi Sunak insisted the UK would not accept the return of asylum-seekers who have travelled to the Republic via the UK.

The Irish Government has claimed 80pc of migrants were now making their way here over the border with Northern Ireland, in part motivated by the UK plan to send irregular migrants to Rwanda.
Orli Degani, who is a German Jew with Israeli citizenship, was dropped by the party as a local election candidate in Dun Laoghaire.

In a statement, she said she is seeking legal advice and alleged she was deselected after she raised concerns of the local Jewish community with the party.

Israels Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, has now said Ms Degani appears to have been discriminated against.

It is concerning that Orli Degani, who chose to try to be a positive force in her community on local issues, appears to have been discriminated against because of her nationality, she said in a statement to the Irish Independent.

Unfortunately she is one of a growing number in the Jewish and Israeli community here who increasingly feel targeted by an atmosphere of anti-Israel sentiment.

Criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate and democratic but attempts to delegitimise all Israeli people is not, Ms Erlich said.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024

The Social Democrats pushed back against the Ambassadors comments.

A party spokesperson said the party tried several times to resolve issues with Ms Degani.

They said she was deselected after a lengthy and fair process.

We strongly reject the accusation that the Israeli Ambassador has made. Its notable that the Ambassador made no attempt to contact the party before making it, the spokesperson said.

The party attempted, on a number of occasions, to resolve issues with Ms Degani. Those efforts were not successful. Ms Degani was deselected as a candidate following a lengthy and fair process. She chose not to appeal that decision.

Earlier this week, Ms Degani said she raised a concern that local Jewish people were feeling more and more unwelcome and unsafe in Ireland and in Dun Laoghaire.

I was, and still am, concerned about people feeling like they need to hide their identity when they are walking around town, children feeling unsafe and bullied in local schools and universities, and about people online and offline using rhetoric that might eventually lead to violence," she said in a statement.

She said she wanted to constructively engage within the party and raise these concerns.

I could not have expected what came next, she said.

However, Ms Degani did not elaborate, saying she will issue further comment once she takes legal advice.

She is still running as an Independent local election candidate.

It saddens me greatly that taking a stand about local peoples right to be included and welcomed in our community has spiralled to me being deselected by the Social Democrats, she said.

Former Justice Minister Alan Shatter said on X that the Social Democrats are anxious to be like other Irish political parties.

Going with the current zeitgeist more National Socialist than Social Democrat! Maybe considering a name change? he wrote.
A group holding banners with anti-immigration slogans arrived at the Taoiseachs house days after he condemned such protests

Taoiseach Simon Harris describes protest outside his house as his children were preparing for bed

Protesters gathered outside the family home of Taoiseach Simon Harris last night as his children were preparing for bed.

Days after Mr Harris criticised protests outside politicians homes as downright thuggery, a group carrying anti-immigration banners gathered outside his house.

The Taoiseach lives with his wife and two small children in a housing estate in the Greystones area of Co Wicklow.

More than a dozen people were part of a group holding banners with slogans including close the borders, house the Irish first and Eire will no longer run by EU puppets.

Images of the demonstrators outside the Taoiseachs house were posted on social media but their faces were blurred.

Speaking in Belfast today, Mr Harris said he wouldnt describe those sorts of things as protest.

"I have a very clear view in relation to this whether it's me, whether it's an opposition politician, whether it's, it's quite frankly, anybody. I always think people's families and people's homes should be out of bounds.

"It was bedtime for my kids last night when this situation arose. I don't think it's appropriate."

An Garda Siochana attended the scene and the group left after a short time.

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle ONeill who welcomed Mr Harris to Stormont today said the incident was totally inappropriate.

"The Taoiseach has two young kids and I think your home should be your sanctity and I dont think there should be any tolerance for that type of attack on someones home, she said.

Last weekend Mr Harris condemned protesters for targeting TDs private homes. He said too often politicians were being targeted by angry mobs and have been left fearing for their families.

Taoiseach Simon Harris. Photo: Gerry Mooney

We know how this story ends. We have had too many warnings, and we need to take them seriously before the unthinkable happens, he said.

A recent protest outside Equality Minister Roderic OGormans home was branded disgraceful and chilling due to the presence of masked men.

Gardai are also investigating a third call threatening the security of Justice Minister Helen McEntee that was made on Saturday. The threat follows two that were made last Wednesday which prompted the evacuation of Ms McEntees home.

And this week the Irish Independent reported a death threat to People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy was spray-painted on a wall only minutes away from his home.

The words Paul Murphy RIP appeared on a wall near his house in Tallaght over the weekend.

Graffiti near Paul Murphys home in Tallaght

The graffiti has since been removed and Mr Murphy said he will be contacting gardai.

He spoke of his frustration that people on the far right intimidate politicians with abuse and threatening behaviour.

Last nights protest is at least the third time Mr Harris home has been the focus of protesters.

In 2019, he said that he believed those involved in a protest had followed his wife and young baby in a bid to identify his house.

Mr Harris is in Belfast today on his first official visit to Northern Ireland as Taoiseach. He has met with Ms ONeill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

Speaking following a meeting at Stormont Castle, Mr Harris said: It has been a really good engagement.

I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north.

I am very grateful to the First Minister (Michelle ONeill) and deputy First Minister (Emma Little-Pengelly) for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and Im extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in.

More to follow
Taoiseach Simon Harris being greeted on the steps of Stormont Castle by First Minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly as makes his first official visit to Northern Ireland. Photo: PA

Simon Harris hailed the impact of the return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont as he began his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

The Taoiseach met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration.

However, Northern Ireland's deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseach's office had not always been good in the past.

Mr Harris's visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived.

After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs.

After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the "incredible leadership" of Northern Ireland's First and deputy First Ministers during a brief press conference at which there was limited scope for the media to ask questions.

He said: "It has been a really good engagement.

"I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north.

"I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and I'm extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

"I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in."

Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus.

Mr Harris was elected as Ireland's youngest ever Taoiseach last month.

Ms O'Neill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund.

She said: "I am very glad he has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund.

"A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week that's been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road.

"Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again."

She added: "We talked about some of the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects."

The DUP's Ms Little-Pengelly said: "We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseach's office have not always been good in the last number of years.

"But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom.

"But of course there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together.

"Those are set out in terms of the areas of co-operation.

"But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships.

"The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships."

Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders.

The Taoiseach will later have a working lunch with business stakeholders before he is hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queen's University Belfast where Mr Harris will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Government's Shared Island Fund.
Sinn Fein believe they can tame the Far Right movement that has emerged due to record levels of immigration into the country, according to a briefing published by Davy stockbrokers.

The investor memo drafted after a meeting with Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty described the partys economic approach as more like Tony Blairs New Labour than Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party.

The document detailed a conversation between senior Davy investors and Mr Doherty who said the Far Right is a concern but until now it hasnt materialised in a meaningful manner.

Sinn Fein believes it plays an important role in taming this movement as it provides an alternative/viable voice to those disillusioned with the current government, the document said.

Davys view of Sinn Fein following the meeting with Mr Doherty is that the party recognises the key strengths of the Irish economy and the need to maintain policies to support key growth drivers.

The document said Sinn Fein advocates maintaining the status quo on excess corporate tax receipts and fully endorses the Governments decision to invest windfall taxes in a sovereign wealth fund.

Sinn Fein may use some of the funding from record levels of corporate tax receipts to invest in housing and infrastructure but in general Mr Doherty said he fully supports the Coalitions approach.

The briefing said Sinn Fein do not believe the introduction of a new 3pc income tax rate on all earnings over 140,000 would make Ireland less attractive for multinationals in terms of recruiting/retaining talent.

Sinn Fein believes multinationals benefit from Irelands low corporation tax and should sufficiently incentivise their employees regardless of income tax levels.

Mr Doherty told investors Sinn Feins proposal to introduce an additional 1pc wealth tax on all assets over 1m would be reviewed by an expert tax group if they are in power to establish its effectiveness and how much it would ultimately contribute to the exchequer.

The briefing document for investors said Sinn Feins policies on housing and banking differ from the current government but noted the party has removed some of the more extreme policies they had for both sectors.

Mr Doherty told investors a Sinn Fein government would not have challenged the EUs case against tech giant Apple over 14bn in taxes.

He said the train has left the station in terms of the outcome of the case and Sinn Fein will respect the decision by General Court of the European Union.

The document said Sinn Feins primary objective is to form a left government but realises current polling trends mean this isnt realistic and they are open to a coalition with all political parties.

When asked about Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ruling out forming a government with Sinn Fein, Pearse Doherty referred to Fine Gael and Fianna Fail both refusing to enter government with each other previously only for the political goalposts to shift when it mattered.

There may be a protracted period of negotiations, but Sinn Feins view is that the electorate wants change and that failure to try to form a government (by any party) would ultimately be punished if fresh elections are required.

Sinn Fein has been contacted for comment.
Asylum seekers being removed from the Mount Street area this week. Photo: Steve Humphreys

The Taoiseach has defended the Governments handling of accommodation for asylum seekers, after a number of homeless migrants pitched tents in a private park in south Dublin.

Around a dozen asylum seekers arrived at St Marys Church Park in Ballsbridge on Thursday night.

The men had been told by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) that there was no longer accommodation available.

The group of men left the Ballsbridge area at around 9am on Friday. The park is close to Mount Street, where hundreds of tents had been pitched until Wednesday morning when the makeshift campsite was cleared in a multi-agency operation.

The Government has been struggling to accommodate the rising number of asylum seekers arriving into the State.

On Wednesday morning, more than 200 asylum seekers who had been living in tents outside the International Protection Office (IPO) were moved from the area to facilities at Citywest and Crooksling in Co Dublin.

However, a number of men who sought accommodation on Thursday were told none was available.

Simon Harris said that makeshift encampments on public roads and footpaths is illegal, and never the solution.

Over a dozen tents were pitched overnight on Thursday in Ballsbridge, south Dublin (Cate McCurry/PA)

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Harris said: Its also not in the interest of the people who are sleeping in those tents, people who dont have access to proper sanitation.

We did provide 290 people from Mount Street and those who appeared in Mount Street that day with accommodation, with shelter, with access to sanitation, with food, with a much better scenario than had been allowed to develop on Mount Street.

I am very comfortable with the position that we took and I believe it was necessary in relation to that.

Simon Harris said Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home (Liam McBurney/PA)

People did turn up at the International Protection Office yesterday and there wasnt accommodation for all people.

IPAS does have contact details for all those people. It is working to try and provide accommodation solutions for all those people.

I think what we saw in St Marys was a temporary thing being done by people who were being very humane in terms of trying to provide assistance on property that wasnt public.

We work at this every single day but I need to be clear and honest with people coming to our country, we are doing our very best in a very difficult and challenging circumstances to provide accommodation.

But accommodation isnt always readily available but we keeping working at it day by day.

The conversation about migration cant just be one about accommodation, because no matter how much accommodation you have, if its just a conversation about accommodation, accommodation will fill.

It also has to be a conversation about faster processing times, about efficient and effective systems.

Protesters gathered outside the family home of the Taoiseach last night as his children were preparing for bed.

Days after Mr Harris criticised protests outside politicians homes as downright thuggery, a group carrying anti-immigration banners gathered outside his house.

The Taoiseach lives with his wife and two small children in a housing estate in the Greystones area of Co Wicklow.

More than a dozen people were part of a group holding banners with slogans including close the borders, house the Irish first and Eire will no longer run by EU puppets.

Images of the demonstrators outside the Taoiseachs house were posted on social media but their faces were blurred.

Speaking in Belfast today, Mr Harris said he wouldnt describe those sorts of things as protest.

"I have a very clear view in relation to this whether it's me, whether it's an opposition politician, whether it's, it's quite frankly, anybody. I always think people's families and people's homes should be out of bounds.

"It was bedtime for my kids last night when this situation arose. I don't think it's appropriate."

An Garda Siochana attended the scene and the group left after a short time.

On Thursday it was reported that a senior civil servant is to be appointed to tackle misinformation and disinformation around migration.

The civil servant will work within the Department of Children and will work to improve the messaging around migration.

Mr Harris said said it is never too late for any democracy to push back against misinformation, disinformation and indeed interference from abroad on occasion in relation to debate and discourse.

Tents housing asylum seekers near to the International Protection Office, in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Migration is a really good thing, immigration is a good thing, he added.

Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home. They are working in hospitals, they are working in our hospitality sector, and right across many sectors of the economy.

So migration and immigration is a good thing and I think its really important that we say that and that we dont seed that ground or create a vacuum for others to exploit.

Having said that, I think people in Ireland, and I would imagine people in most countries, want to know there are rules in place, they want to know the rules are enforced, they want to know that the system is fair, that its firm, that it helps those who are entitled to help.

That if someone comes to our country and goes through a processing system and isnt entitled to be there, that that person is asked to leave in the first instance and made to leave if they dont.
Mr Arnold, whose phone was tapped under the government of Charles Haughey, worked for the Sunday Independent, The Irish Press and The Irish Times during his career, also serving as the Dublin correspondent for The Guardian.

President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to the late journalist: It may well be the illegal interference with his right to privacy, in relation to his telephone, that will spring to mind for many people on hearing of the passing of Bruce Arnold.

"The discovery and reaction to what was inflicted on him and Geraldine Kennedy was a defining moment in Irish journalism, he said.

However, for those who knew him on a regular basis, what will remain as an abiding memory was his interest, and scholarly contribution, to the various arts in Irish society.

It was possible to disagree with him in the conditions of his deep commitment to courtesy.

"I did so often but one could always be assured of his respect for context and for the presentation of a well-researched opinion on the many subjects with which he engaged.

It is to his great credit that he engaged with and confronted many themes which others thought safer to avoid.

"This was a courage he shared with his late wife, Mavis, he added.

President D Higgins and his wife Sabina offered their sincere condolences to Bruces family and his many friends.

Born in London in 1936, Mr Arnold studied English and French at Trinity College Dublin before entering journalism and later joining the Irish Independent as a political correspondent in 1972.

He wrote a column, Politics and Politicians, and various biographies of figures such as Charles Haughey and Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Arnold later became the London editor for this newspaper before he was appointed literary editor.

It was revealed in December 1982 that the telephones of Mr Arnold and Sunday Press journalist Geraldine Kennedy had been tapped.

The phone tappings were explained as an attempt to discover government leaks and were referred to as Irelands Watergate. Then Minister for Justice Sean Doherty instructed the deputy commissioner of the gardai to tap the phones of both journalists.

Mr Arnold was also a distinguished art historian and wrote numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin and an OBE in 2003.

His wife, Mavis Arnold, with whom he shared three children, died in 2017.

The couple met at Trinity College, with Mavis also working in journalism for titles such as The Sunday Independent, The Guardian and The Irish Press before pursuing a career as a psychotherapist.

A funeral service for Mr Arnold will take place at St Pauls Church in Glenageary at 12pm on Monday 13 May, followed by burial on Tuesday in St Annes Church, Knocknarea, Co Sligo at approximately 1pm.

Bruces family said in an announcement: Bruce was a man of integrity and talent. He was dedicated to his craft, he wrote brilliantly and with great insight and was always on a mission to make the world a better and more truthful place.

"Although he wore his Englishness with pride, he was devoted to Ireland which was his home for over 60 years. He will be remembered for his energy, vitality and great sense of occasion.

"Farewell to a true gentleman, a bon viveur, a family man who led a rich and varied life. He will be greatly missed by his loving family and devoted friends.

They requested that those in attendance wear bright clothes to the service.
Media Minister Catherine Martin will bring the reports to the Cabinet next week. Photo: Mark Condren

Putting RTEs accounts under the taxpayers watchdog is a recommendation of reports into the broadcaster.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is now set to take over the scrutiny of the RTE accounts. The Coalition will publish three reports into RTEs culture, governance, human resources, finance and barter account next week.

The investigations were commissioned after the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal at RTE erupted last summer. Further controversies followed over the spending on the barter accounts, the Toy Show The Musical flop and substantial golden handshakes for executives.

It was found in the reports that there was poor corporate governance in RTE and that the board was not informed of relevant aspects of the operation, including the barter account.

The reviews will also say legislation needs to be brought in to put RTE on a secure financial footing.

The Government has committed to making a decision on the future funding of RTE before the summer break.

Among the recommendations are that RTE should come under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The reports will be critical of the level of independent oversight of the accounts within the organisation.

The Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has already recommended that RTE be brought back under the statutory remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Publishing its report assessing key issues raised after the payments scandal at RTE came to light last year, the PAC put forward 21 recommendations on six issues assessed by the committee.

The topics assessed include the underwriting of payments made to former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy and the understatement of Tubridys earnings.

Media Minister Catherine Martin will bring the reports to the Cabinet next week and they will then be published.

Last summer, Ms Martin ordered two expert reviews into RTE. The first was tasked with examining the broadcasters culture and governance. The second was to look at HR issues, including the payment of contractors fees, the use of agents and short-term employment contracts.

Separately, she also ordered forensic accountants Mazars to examine the use of barter accounts by RTE.

An interim report on the use of such accounts was published last year, but the final one was submitted to the minister last week.

Because the reports were complementary, Ms Martin said she had expected them to be submitted and published together. All of the reports were originally due at the end of February, but were then delayed as they went through a fact-checking exercise and processes to ensure fair procedures.

Professional services firm Crowe Advisory Ireland and legal firm McCann FitzGerald assisted members of the expert advisory committee.

These reports were separate to the reports carried out by RTE into the mysterious payments to Tubridy.

The Media Minister has expressed a preference for scrapping the TV licence and paying RTE directly from exchequer funding.

But there has been pushback from Tanaiste Micheal Martin, Finance Minister Michael McGrath and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.

A decision on the future funding will take account of the drop off in licence-fee payment.
New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 7.5 lakh to the kin of a victim who was mauled to death by stray dogs in the Aligarh Muslim University campus in April last year.

The commission said it found negligence of the authorities in the matter, therefore it directed the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh to pay Rs 7.5 lakh to the next of kin of victim Safadr Ali Khan.

The Commission had registered a suo motu case based on a media report dated 17th April 2023 about the incident and issued the notices to the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh, the Vice-Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, and the Commissioner, Aligarh Municipal Corporation calling for a detailed report in the matter, the NHRC said.

The State Government was expected to inform whether any relief had been given to the deceased's Next of Kin. Based on the material on record received in response from the concerned authorities, the Commission had issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh to show cause why Rs 7.5 lakh should not be recommended to be paid as monetary relief to the next of kin of the victim, it said.

However, the concerned authorities forwarded a letter from the Registrar, AMU stating that the notice of the Commission does not contain any instruction the university must comply with. There is no commission of violation of human rights or negligence in the prevention of violation of human rights and abetments on the part of the university, the NHRC said.

The Commission noted that the concerned authorities were apparently passing the buck in the matter. Therefore, it observed that the benefits arising from the order cannot be denied to the victims of a violation of human rights by the authority due to an act of negligence and abetment by the public servant.

Accordingly, it confirmed the amount of relief of Rs 7.5 lakh as mentioned in its show cause notice recommending that it has to be paid to the victims next of kin, the NHRC said.

A 65-year-old, Safadr Ali Khan was attacked to death by a pack of street dogs when he was out in a park inside Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Campus for a morning walk last year in April. The incident was widely reported and a video of it also went viral on social media.

UNI PSP CS1848
Three Irish men have been charged with more than 60 burglaries in Melbourne. Photo: HANDOUT/VICTORIA POLICE.

Three Irish men have appeared in court after allegedly stealing $1m (612,000) worth of cash, jewellery and designer handbags during dozens of robberies across Melbourne, Australia.

Victoria Police will allege the men, aged 19, 24 and 25, carried out a spate of "sophisticated residential burglaries" in recent months.

The trio - named in court as Christie McDonagh, Michael McDonagh and James Connors - broke into homes in Melbourne's east while residents were not at home and then tried to cover their tracks with cleaning products, police will allege.

They were arrested at a hotel near Melbourne Airport yesterday and charged with multiple counts of aggravated home invasion, aggravated burglary, burglary and theft.

The men appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court today. They did not apply for bail and were remanded in custody until August 9, when their case will appear next.

Police allege they are part of a wider syndicate which led to the arrests of three other Irish men in March in Australia.

"Investigators are continuing to probe whether both groups are linked to any other unsolved burglaries," a police spokesperson said.

Victoria Police have said the alleged gang are behind a spate of fly-in, fly-out burglaries in Australia.

Investigations into both groups of men remain ongoing and anyone with information has been urged to come forward.

With reporting from Associated Press.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024
Downing Street briefing for British press dismissed as spin

The Tories are ratcheting up their diplomatic row with Ireland by now suggesting that the Irish Government will be invited to join the UKs much-derided Rwanda migrant deportation scheme.

Government officials have dismissed the mischievous suggestion as tensions between Dublin and London over migration continue.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin has warned opposition TDs about being taken in by the right-wing Tory press to attack the Irish Government.

A diplomatic row between Taoiseach Simon Harris and British prime minister Rishi Sunak continues to bubble away amid claims that up to 90pc of asylum-seekers arriving in Dublin have crossed from Northern Ireland.

The surge in entries of asylum-seekers from the UK is being linked to Londons controversial plans to send migrants to land-locked Rwanda in central Africa.

Yesterday, officials in Dublin became aware of the latest claims from Downing Street that the UK government will invite Ireland to join the Rwanda plan, the Irish Independent has learned.

No such offer has been made, and the Tories know it would be rejected outright anyway. The story was being planted in the Eurosceptic British press.

The outlandish suggestion was viewed as another example of what the Tanaiste sees as desperate Tory efforts to attack the Irish Government.

The Rwanda plan has drawn criticism from various international bodies, including the Council of Europe and the UN.

But talking tough on migration is viewed as a last refuge for the Tories in their desperation to salvage some losses.

A local elections poll yesterday predicted the Conservatives will lose hundreds of seats in councils across Britain, with a UK general election wipeout also looming this year.

All week long, Downing Street has been picking fights with the Government in Dublin.

Mr Sunak said the UK will not take back asylum-seekers who have come from the UK and crossed the Border from Northern Ireland.

It comes as Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced plans to bring forward legislation to increase fines for airlines that allow passengers on board without proper documentation.

Ms McEntee told a cabinet sub-committee yesterday that Nigerian asylum-seekers in Ireland now face being sent back to Nigeria due to the continuing row with the UK.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee and British prime minister Rishi Sunak

A High Court case recently ruled in favour of asylum-seekers who did not want to be returned to the UK as the country was not safe due to the forthcoming policy of sending unsuccessful international applicants to Rwanda.

Ms McEntee told the committee that Nigerian asylum-seekers whose applications are rejected under the fast-track system may soon be returned to their country of origin.

The British claimed this week that proposals to assign more gardai to immigration duties was a plan to police the Border to stop migrants entering the country and prompted Mr Sunak to attack the alleged proposal.

Mr Martin dismissed the front-page stories it generated as the right-wing Tory press.

The Tanaiste hit back at Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon, who said the Governments recent chaos on migration was a PR boon to the Tory party in their election campaign.

He added: You couldnt make it up.

Referring to the local elections in the UK, the Tanaiste replied: Well see by the end of the night whether its been a PR boon or not.

Mr Gannon said Mr Martin had told his Fianna Fail parliamentary party on Wednesday night that communication and engagement on migration needed to improve on all fronts.

The opposition TD said it was incredible that Mr Martin had to acknowledge it this far into the chaos.

Every couple of months youve promised that you will improve communications, he said. Its very hard to communicate a plan for migration that you very clearly dont have.

Mr Gannon asked when this shambolic government was going to get its act together and put a proper plan in place for migration.

Mr Martin replied: You couldnt make it up  a left-wing deputy like yourself, invoking the right-wing Tory press to attack the Irish Government.

And youre taking the [Daily] Telegraph seriously? There is obviously no one [from An Garda Siochana] at any border.

There are no checkpoints at the Border. But I remember actually a former British prime minister, in my time as taoiseach, when there were blazing headlines across the British press saying, The frigates are going to France.

Mr Martin seemed to be referring to Boris Johnsons often-exaggerated rhetoric over migration.

The Tanaiste told Mr Gannon that such headlines made me stand back and just reflect a bit. He told the Social Democrats TD: Dont get taken in by the Telegraph, deputy.

Ms McEntee told the cabinet sub-committee yesterday evening that the fast processing times for migrants coming from safe countries has reduced the numbers of people coming to Ireland from those countries by 50pc.

She said Georgia was added to the safe countries list when it had the highest number of applicants. It is now no longer in the top 10 when it comes to international protection applications.

The meeting also heard cabinet-approved legislation to close the legal loophole following the High Court ruling that the UK was not a safe country would be passed by June.
Johann Hari: Six months into taking Ozempic, I was losing loads of weight but I felt quite emotionally muted. Not depressed but a bit flat

In his new book, the author investigates the good, the bad and the ugly effects of Ozempic. Here, he talks about his experience of taking the weight-loss drug, how it could impact other addictions and why a cultural shift around food is possible

One of May's most read features was this interview with author Johann Hari about his experiences taking Ozempic.

Suzanne Harrington Fri 3 May 2024 at 03:30

In the winter of 2022, just after the pandemic, writer Johann Hari went to his first party in two years. Like many of us, hed gained weight  around 10kg  during lockdown, and was feeling a bit schlubby. The party was being thrown by an Oscar-winning actor and Hari was curious to see if Hollywood had chubbed out too. He got a shock.
Much like double denim, the trick with a wood-on-wood kitchen is to fully commit and put your own unique spin on the look

A bare wood kitchen on a wooden floor was once a design crime akin to double denim in fashion. Apparently you can have too much of a good thing. Now both styles are trending with a vengeance.

People are scared of wood-on-wood, says John Flannery of Havwoods, a company that specialises in wooden flooring. They dont want to put a wood kitchen on a wood floor, but their opinion changes when they see it somewhere else. Like double denim, the concept is scary but the look can slay.

Floor from Havwoods

Im in the Havwoods showroom in Ballymount, Dublin, getting a crash course in real wood flooring. Its termed real wood because almost any material can be made to look like wood: ceramic, laminate, or composite. Such fakery tricks the eye but not the foot, especially not the stockinged foot, which is how most of us encounter our floors. The floor is the biggest piece of furniture in the room and we use it every time were in the room, Flannery says.

In general, engineered wood floors cost between 50 and 80 per metre. Laminate flooring (a multi-layered synthetic that may or may not mimic wood) is less than half the price. Havwoods is a medium-to-high end brand with floors starting at 80 per metre and most customers spending between 8,000 and 10,000 for the downstairs of a typical three-bed semi-d.

Its also possible to spend a great deal more. Not all wood floors are created equal and appearances can be misleading.

Floor and panelling from Havwoods

Wood floors are complex, Flannery explains. Thats why the showroom is important. A solid wood floor sounds like the gold standard, to be sanded down until the end of time, but actually its strangely volatile. It expands, contracts, and doesnt work with underfloor heating. Havwoods business is in engineered wood, constructed of multiple layers under top layer of hardwood (imagine a club sandwich in cross section). Because the floors look identical from above, its easy to be beguiled by price. A thick layer of hardwood will be more expensive than a thin one, but will also last longer. Whether the cheaper floor is good value depends on how you use the room.

Then, theres the choice of finish. Oiled wood floors look elegant but require regular maintenance; lacquered floors are easy to maintain but dont look as natural.

An oiled floor in a kitchen is going to take a pounding from day one, says Flannery, recommending a lacquered finish instead. The real issue with a wooden kitchen floor isnt style, its about choosing a finish durable enough to withstand high traffic, spills, pivot points and grease.

Cabin with wood panelling, furniture from DFS

You can also spend or save on the size and layout of floorboards. Planks are the most cost-effective, but only if theyre of standard width. The wider the plank, the higher the price. A parquet floor where the wood is arranged in a chevron pattern (a continuous zigzag with the pieces cut to a point) is pricier than a herringbone pattern (an interlocking zigzag assembled from rectangular boards).

Design-wise, its a subtle detail but going for a herringbone layout over chevrons can save you money.

A wall of the showroom shows samples, ranging from smooth to rustic and from dark to light through all the different tones. Some look like exotic woods from far flung places but, surprisingly, all are made of oak.

Living room with blush pink panelling and a wood floor from Covet House

Almost every wood floor is made of oak now, Flannery says. Its fast growing, in hardwood terms, grows in Europe and is easily manipulated in terms of colour.

In terms of sustainability, he suggests you look for FSC, PEFC, or Cradle-to-Cradle certification and check the data sheets. Some unscrupulous companies flaunt the certification, but when you read the small print, you find that certified timber is available on request.

Reclaimed wood flooring is an option from Havwoods, for almost twice the price of a new floor. The wood hasnt been used for a floor before  its not re-used flooring  and has undergone many processes, says Flannery, explaining the cost.

Peach bookcase by Wood Works Brighton

Along with the surge of interest in wood floors, hes also noticed a sharp rise in demand for ribbed wooden wall panelling (130 for a 3m x 600cm panel). Some panelling comes on a flexible backing, so it can be fitted around corners or the curve of an island.

These days you cant lob a brick into a kitchen showroom without hitting a ribbed or fluted panel. The Brera kitchen from Cucine Lube was launched at Salone del Mobile in Milan in April to great fanfare. Its an example of how kitchen companies are pushing sustainably sourced timber, combining fast-growing eucalyptus and paulownia with oak.

Kitchen from Wood Works Brighton

Paulownia (or foxglove tree) is a fast growing species and, due to its light weight, known as the aluminium of timber. A commentator for Live Milano described doors veneered in reeded wood with a suggestive smoked eucalyptus colour. As with double denim, the trick with wood-on-wood is to commit wholeheartedly, but interpret the trend in a slightly unusual way. The Brera kitchen comes to Cucine Lubes Limerick showroom later this month with prices starting at 30,000.

Irish furniture makers have always favoured wood. Its a beautiful natural material to work with and it gives warmth to a space, says Colin Harris. Based in Newcastle, Co Dublin, he makes furniture from wild Irish hardwood, sourced through a sawmill in Bray, Co Wicklow. When a tree dies or needs to be taken down, the tree surgeons send the logs to the sawmill where its kiln-dried and cut into boards.

Kitchen from Wood Works Brighton

At the moment hes working with a client in Co Meath who wants to make a dining table from a dying horse chestnut tree on their land. Wild wood, Harris feels, has more character than commercially grown timber. The branches grow naturally and the tree twists, following the sun, he says. It gives the wood a richness thats quite different from trees grown for uniformity.

As well as bespoke work, Harris has a range of designed items which he makes to order. His current favourites are candle cubes (95 for a set of three) made from Irish redwood. The Californian tree was introduced to large estates in Ireland and Harris has found that by gently scorching the wood, it comes out in stripes. It brings out the difference between winter and summer growth.

cucinelube.ie, havwoods.ie and colinharris.ie
President John F Kennedy, right, with his brother Bobby around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Photo: Getty

At the peak of the Cold War in October 1962, the US discovered that the Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba, which led to the belief that the Soviets intended to use definitive force.
Our decision to resume providing food in Gaza is both the hardest and the simplest one we could make. Hardest because barely a month has passed since Israeli forces killed seven of our World Central Kitchen family, despite knowing their location, movements and the nature of their essential work. Our colleagues risked everything to feed people they did not know.
Tragically, many misinterpret the philosophers to suit their own rigid opinions.

Friedrich Nietzsche  known more for his words God is dead rather than the entire statement of which they are a part  wrote in Twilight of the Idols: When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under ones feet. This morality is by no means self-evident... Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole.

Jean-Paul Sartre said in a 1943 lecture: Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or without himself. He discovers forthwith he is without excuse... Thus we have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm, any means of justification or excuse. We are left alone, without excuse.

Many years before Nietzsche or Sartre were born, another great philosopher strode among people talking in parables. Yet, like many philosophers, his words are misconstrued.

Perhaps this philosopher is misunderstood due to the insertion of dogma  by humans  into his teachings; a dogma that is used by some to fool themselves about the Trinity.

Declan Foley, Melbourne, Australia

Where is the voice of the church when it comes to the debate on migration?

In the ongoing debate and controversy over accommodation for refugees and asylum-seekers, where is the once powerful voice of the Catholic Church?

There was a time when it would preach, with gravitas and authority, on all the moral themes of the day.

However, there has been scarcely a whisper in recent months as the ugly spectre of racism casts a dark shadow across the land.

I cant imagine the church would condone racism, but I dont believe that adopting a position of neutrality on the issue is acceptable either. Im not big into religion and I dont purport to be any kind of authority on the gospels or the Bible or the complex minutiae of canon law, but I ask: Whose side would Jesus be on if he walked among us now?

I suggest he certainly wouldnt be shouting racist slogans or crying Get them out or Were full, we dont want you.

I reckon he would be where he always was in the stories passed down to us defending the poor, the oppressed and the vulnerable, including refugees and asylum- seekers.

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny

Helen McEntee is using degrading language  humans are not returns

Justice Minister Helen McEntee on RTE this week repeatedly referred to returns. She was not referencing the Deposit Return Scheme recently rolled out, but people seeking asylum. Language is important, and referring to people as returns is dehumanising at best.

In addition, she is on record saying she has a sense that 80pc of people seeking asylum here are coming through Northern Ireland, but has no statistics to back this up.

People are not returns, and statistics need an evidence base or are meaningless.

J Burgess, Co Cork

When it comes to movie remakes, there is no need to fix what isnt broken

I recently viewed the 2015 remake of the movie Far From The Madding Crowd. While it was (in my humble opinion) a reasonably entertaining effort, the cast lacked the gravitas of those in the 1966 original. Therein we had Peter Finch, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and Julie Christie.

Other remakes that spring to mind are True Grit and 3:10 To Yuma  again, they did not quite cut the mustard of the originals. Sometimes its better to leave well alone.

Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9

You could bet your house on election outcome  if you were able to buy one

With just over five weeks remaining until the local and European elections, it appears there is limited scope for the Government to sway public opinion on the pressing issue of the day: the housing crisis.

Despite assurances from the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and a host of ministers regarding the construction of a significant number of housing units each year, this alone will not address the affordability crisis.

Many young couples find themselves trapped in a cycle of purgatorial renting, paying exorbitant monthly amounts to essentially fund someone elses mortgage while facing obstacles in securing a mortgage due to the outdated and restrictive earning-to-loan ratio of four times stipulated by the Central Bank.

It is truly perplexing that these marginalised voices can afford substantial rent payments each month yet are unable to access a mortgage for a more reasonable outlay.

One might cynically speculate that this situation is orchestrated to perpetuate a system where the working class remain in perpetual rental arrangements, maximising profits for professional landlords and international investors.

Although local councils may not have direct influence over national housing policies, voters ensnared in the rental dilemma are likely to express their discontent at government candidates through their choices in the upcoming elections. The outcome seems almost inevitable  you can put your house on it.

Thomas OConnor, Crumlin, Dublin 12

US administration seems indifferent to the horrors being unleashed on Gaza

You report that the top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, has called on the Hamas leadership to accept an extraordinarily generous Israeli deal for a temporary pause in the Gaza massacre (Blinken urges Hamas to take new generous temporary ceasefire deal, Irish Independent, May 1).

It is a sign of how utterly indifferent the US administration is to the suffering in Gaza, with more than 14,500 children killed, that its representatives can use Israel and generous in the same sentence.

A pause in the horror would be better than nothing, but what is clearly required is a permanent ceasefire and an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Mr Blinken should listen to the anti-war students currently occupying university campuses across the US.

Fintan Lane, Lucan, Co Dublin
New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Friday told Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals lawyer that it can consider giving interim bail to him owing to the Elections.

While concluding the hearing in Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, a bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta said, Since it will take long to hear the main petition we may hear you on the questions of interim bail due to the elections. So please be prepared to answer on that," the bench told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju.

The Court posted the matter for Tuesday morning and told Kejriwals lawyer, Since it is going to take time, we will be considering the question of interim bail owing to the Elections, the Apex Court said.

The Top Court said, We will be considering this because of the position Kejriwal holds, and asked Abhishek Manu Singhvi whether he wants the Chief Minister to be allowed to sign official files or not.

The Court asked Kejriwals lawyer Singhvi as to when the elections in Delhi were to take place.

Singhvi replied, "Elections in Delhi are on May 25 and campaigning will end on May 23.

He added, Elections were announced on March 16 and Kejriwal was arrested on March 21.

Singhvi said, "Anything and everything done by a political party cannot be attributed to its National Convenor of AAP.

It may be recalled that Kejriwal has not applied for bail till now. He has challenged his arrest by the ED and CBI in the Excise policy scam in formulating Delhis New Excise Policy.

UNI SNG CS1750
Its that time again as the local and European elections draw near, but the list of candidates for the ballots has raised eyebrows. A self-styled shock jock, a former Eurovision Song Contest host and all sorts of anti-establishment headline-makers. Already broadcaster Niall Boylan is running to be an MEP for the new Independent Ireland party in the Dublin constituency.

The host of The Niall Boylan Show on Classic Hits FM is not the only broadcaster to announce they will be standing for the new party. Former RTE broadcaster Ciaran Mullooly is also running for a European seat with the party in the Midlands North West constituency.

Boylan and Mullooly join the ranks of other familiar names including former Rose of Tralee winner Maria Walsh, the champion jockey Nina Carberry and former Eurovision co-presenter Cynthia Ni Mhurchu .

A diverse and novel cast of characters, but some questions still arise before the public take to the polls. Will Fine Gael suffer a shock to the system? And is this the moment for independent and right-wing candidates?

But the most intriguing question of all: why are we seeing so many celebs on the ballot paper this time around?

Today on The Indo Daily, Fionnan Sheahan is joined by Kevin Doyle, group head of news at Mediahuis Ireland, to discuss some of the intriguing candidates looking for your vote this June.
Cork TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire TD has called on the Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys to make a decision on the tapering of social welfare payments for Ukrainian refugees.

Deputy O Laoghaire made the call as the Cabinet Sub Committee on Migration met on Thursday, May 2 to discuss a variety of migration related issues.

The Sinn Fein spokesperson on Social Protection said Minister Humphreys is currently not providing any definite details. It is reported that the Minister for Social Protection is still considering reducing social welfare payments for Ukrainians in the context of the temporary protection directive ending next March. Sinn Fein has been flagging this issue for several months. The Minister keeps mentioning this, but not giving any detail.

There seems to be an attitude that there is plenty of time, said Deputy O Laoghaire. The temporary protection directive ends next March. There needs to be a roadmap. We need supports that are sustainable and in line with other European countries. We have been making the case for several months that payments for those already here should be tapered down gradually in preparation for the end of the directive.

"At that stage, the most likely outcome is that those who do not obtain a work visa would be entitled to apply for international protection here, meaning that they would on the same rate as those in Direct Provision. If a decision is made at an earlier stage, then Ukrainians here are in a better position to decide what is the best route for them to take if they want to stay in Ireland, he added.

The Cork South Central TD said a thoughtful discussion about the transition period needs to take place. Failing to prepare for the future helps no one. The 90-day limit on accommodation for recent arrivals is not realistic and potentially risks forcing people to compete for private accommodation and could see some people end up homeless. That is not right."

The private rented sector is the area of housing under greatest pressure, said the Cork TD. It is a totally dysfunctional market, as we can see from the increases in the RTB report. Properties that are fit to be rented out in the private rented market, or indeed to be bought by local authorities, should not be part of the solution to the emergency accommodation shortfall.

"If this relates to vacant or derelict buildings being brought back in to use, that may be a different matter, but the focus needs to be on state provided accommodation rather than relying on private property being rented. Temporary accommodation for those seeking protection needs to be an entirely separate stream from the mainstream housing system, he added.
The lack of ASD classes in a Ballincollig primary school has been raised by Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould in the Dail.

Deputy Gould raised the lack of special classes in Scoil Eoin Ballincollig and the failure by the Department of Education to fund the school's plan to deliver more special classes.

Deputy Gould said the Ballincollig primary school have been trying to secure special classes for children with autism since 2013. "The principal, the staff and the board of management have done all they can to work with the Department of Education to secure funding to provide these classes, but they have been blocked at every opportunity, he said.

Deputy Gould said the lack of ASD classes in Scoil Eoin is forcing pupils to travel all over Cork City and Cork County to get a decent education. The lack of ASD classes in Ballincollig means that children are being forced to travel all over the city and county to areas like Kinsale, Bandon and Ballinhassig and more, just to get a decent education.

"The school community want to know that the Minister for Education will take the issue seriously, confirm a date on which she will meet with the school and crucially, if the required funding to deliver ASD classes at Scoil Eoin will be provided, he added.

Joe Lynch, who is a Sinn Fein local election candidate for Cork City South West said that the entire community is behind the school's campaign to deliver the required ASD classes. I know well the great work that Scoil Eoin does and the entire village is behind the school's campaign to secure ASD classes. The school requires 4.5 million to knock and rebuild a section of the school to deliver the required classrooms. Given the space limitations, a knock and rebuild is the only viable solution.

This same section of the school requires 800,000 to repair subsistence issues, which has been sanctioned, said Mr Lynch. The Department has also cleared 300,000 to replace an old prefab. This is 1.1 million that would be better spent as part of a rebuild rather than putting sticking plasters on a building that needs to be replaced.

Children growing up in Ballincollig should be able to attend local schools no matter their additional educational requirements. The Department need to step up and deliver, he added.
The evening will be open to anyone living with dementia, family carers, health care assistants or those with an interest in learning more about the condition

The first of a series of free events that aim to inform the public about dementia and supports for those who have it will be held in Midleton on Wednesday, May 8.

The information evening, which will be delivered by Cork Kerry Community Healthcare in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the North Cork Dementia Alliance, will be held from 6.30pm to 9pm at the Midleton Park Hotel and feature stands setup by support and advocacy services and expert speakers.

The Dementia Information Evening in Midleton is open to anyone living with a diagnosis of dementia, family carers, health care assistants (home helps), professionals or those with an interest in learning more about the condition.

Guest speakers who have first-hand experience of dementia will be there to offer advice and share their personal stories. Dr Emma Jennings, a consultant geriatrician, and Amy Murphy, a dementia advisor at Alzheimer Society of Ireland, will be joined by Charlie Drake, who will discuss their experience of living with a diagnosis of Dementia, and Jenny Hanna, who will share her story of being a family carer.

Sorcha Ni Chrualaoich, HSE Principal Community Worker with Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, said that she is delighted to be able to bring the event to East Cork and build on the success of similar previous events held in Cork city and county.

These events are made possible through collaboration between the HSE and Community and voluntary partners. We hope that they will be beneficial to local families living with a diagnosis of dementia, Mrs Chrualaoich said.

Jenny Hanna, family carer, is encouraging everyone who can to attend the event.

It really is so important that we hold events like these to build an understanding around dementia. By listening to the experts, and to those who are living with dementia or caring for a family member with dementia, we can get practical advice and learn all about the support services that we can lean on when needed, Mrs Hanna said.

To book your place at the Midleton event, please phone: 021 492 8389 or email Ciara.Murphy36@hse.ie Mon-Fri 9am to 4pm.
A Cork senator has called for funding required for road maintenance to be allocated to local authorities

Some potholes on roads across west Cork are so large that they look like they were caused by misguided Russian missiles.

Thats according to Cork senator Tim Lombard, who has called for local authorities to receive critical funding to maintain roads and enhance the safety of all commuters and motorists.

This is not just a local issue for me and the Cork County councillors, but a serious national problem that requires immediate attention, the Fine Gael senator said.

Cork itself faces a unique challenge as the Cork County Councils Roads Directorate is responsible for the maintenance of the largest road network of any local authority in the country12,200 km. This represents a staggering 12pc of the entire national roads network.

"I raised the issue of roads funding for Cork with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan in the Seanad last week. On the same day, a delegation of Fine Gael Cork County councillors met with Minister of State Jack Chambers to make the case for additional investment.

"You have to give credit to local authorities across the country for managing funding and the upkeep of roads as best they can. However, the simple truth is current funding levels are not keeping pace with the demands of our national infrastructure.

Senator Lombard said that he is all for public transport but privately owned cars are the main source of commuting from one place to another so it must be ensured that roads infrastructure is improved.

"The never-ending rain weve experienced over the past six months has compounded the issue, causing significant damage to many roads across the country. Large potholes in some roads across West Cork, from Beara to Belgooly, look like they were caused by misguided Russian missiles, the senator said.

Councillors and council officials are left in an impossible situation without the necessary funds to maintain our roads.

According to the Department of Transport's guidelines, each county should resurface approximately 5pc of their roads network annually. In Cork, we are currently only able to resurface 2-2.5pc of our roads each year. At this rate, our roads can only be resurfaced once every 45-50 yearsfar from the recommended rate of once every 20 years.

"This situation just isnt good enough. Poor road conditions are not just inconveniences; they are hazards that can lead to serious accidents. This is an area we can no longer afford to be complacent in.

Recently my Fine Gael colleague, Minister Heather Humphreys announced a record funding allocation of 40m for repairs and improvements work on non-public rural roads and laneways.

"I am calling on Minister Ryan to now follow this and take decisive action and allocate the necessary additional funds for the repair and maintenance of our local and regional roads. We need to act decisively to safeguard the well-being of rural Ireland.
NICU Splash raising money for incubator covers at the Rotunda

A group of Dublin nurses is set to dive into the cold Irish Sea this May Bank Holiday weekend to raise money for premature babies.

This Bank Holiday Monday, Ana Pereia, a nurse at the Rotunda Hospitals Neonatal Unit, and her colleagues are heading to Portmarnock Beach for the NICU Splash Out.

The charity dip hopes to raise money for incubator covers for premature babies in the Neonatal Unit at the Rotunda Hospital.

This is the brain baby of myself and Carol Kamtoh, another one of the other nurses in the unit, Ana told the Irish Independent.

We did a fundraiser swim for Womens Aid back in January. We thought we should start going for swims after it.

Were involved with the Neuroprotective Care Bundle group in the Rotunda, and we wanted to do a fundraiser swim for them.

We really love our jobs and care for the families weve looked after. We wanted to do something that would benefit the babies.

We thought about the incubator covers. Currently, it can be a very noisy place with a lot of bright lights. Its not good for our little babies.

If we could help their little growing brains by providing good quality incubator covers that can block the sound and provide a darker environment, it would ultimately benefit the baby and their brain development.

Special incubator covers cost roughly 500 each. The aim is to buy 10 covers for the intensive care unit used by the most vulnerable babies.

The covers help shield vulnerable babies from excess light and noise which will help their growth and development.

They have committed to doing a NICU Splash in the sea for the babies on Monday, May 6. Ana hopes that lots of people come along on the day to help fundraise and have fun.

Theyre premature babies, when they come out of the womb so early, their brains are developing and theyre still maturing, she said.

Theyll develop differently, theyll be going through a lot of painful procedures and tests we have to do to keep them alive, or if theyve a breathing tube too, theres a lot of things that are part of keeping them alive.

But their brains are developing in a different way compared to as they would inside the womb. They go through a lot of stressful procedures.

By providing the covers, we can mitigate some of the effects. Were using blankets at the moment. We think we could do more and better.

The evidence out there says commercially made incubator covers are better for our babies.

Some of the girls in the unit arent great swimmers and arent used to the Irish Sea. We want to make things fun.

We want to make it inclusive, my own 10-year-old is coming along, shes really excited. The kids will be bringing buckets and spades, and therell be tea and coffee to warm us up after, she added.

You can donate to the fundraiser here.
Nine new static speed safety cameras will be installed around the country

Josie Ribeiro died while cycling in Dolphin's Barn on November 6 last year. Photo: Instagram/irlandapontocom

It shouldnt have taken a tragic death for intervention, one Dublin councillor has claimed after the announcement of new advanced road safety cameras by gardai.

Nine high-tech image recording devices are to be installed around the country by the end of the year, including one at Dolphins Barn Junction in Dublin.

The locations have been selected based on fatal and serious injury collision figures from the last seven years and speed data, as well as feedback from various organisations.

Last November, Brazilian woman Josilaine Josie Ribeiro (36) died in a collision between an e-bike and a truck on Dolphins Barn Bridge.

Cllr Darragh Morarity said that road safety has been a huge issue in the area and intervention shouldve happened a long time ago.

Speeding is a huge issue along the Crumlin Road, Dolphins Barn and onto Cork Street, the Labour councillor told the Irish Independent.

The local campaign group, Calm Crumlin Road, has done great work highlighting this and capturing data on the dangerous speeding along this stretch. We know that speeding kills.

Every day, I cycle past the ghost bike at Dolphins Barn dedicated to the memory of Josilaine Ribeiro. It shouldnt have taken a tragic death for intervention here.

Nine new static speed safety cameras will be installed around the country

Green Party councillor Michael Pidgeon said the community is relieved that the high-tech image recording device is being installed as it will help stop reckless behaviour on what he describes as a mini motorway.

Speed kills and speed cameras save lives. The local community will be relieved to hear that a speed camera is finally going in, he said.

Despite being a residential area, Dolphins Barn has been treated as a mini motorway for too long.

Some motorists drive way too fast through the area, making the street feel dangerous and unpleasant. A new camera should put a stop to that reckless behaviour.

We have had several cyclists and pedestrians knocked down in the Dublin 8 area in recent years.

Josilaine Ribeiro was killed on her bike on this very road, tragically. We need to make our citys streets safe  and forcing drivers to slow down and obey the law is a big part of that.

I can think of hundreds of other spots across the city to roll these out. Its a great start. Slow down, save lives.

Cllr Maire Devine added: Its great news to hear that this extra safety feature will be active at this black spot which has seen so many near misses and sadly, fatalities. Pity it takes such tragedy to prompt action.

The new road layout, yet to be completed, is a most welcome safety addition but we need to ensure that ongoing safety assessments are planned to inform potential amendments, tweaks and improvements for cyclists, pedestrians and road users alike.
Labour Party local election candidate Mike Kennedy has welcomed his partys proposal that would see all workers given paid time off when undergoing cancer scans.

The Health Screening Leave Bill was suggested by Labours Health Spokesperson Duncan Smith in recognition of the critical importance of early detection in the fight against cancer.

Mike Kennedy, who is contesting the Castleisland- Corca Dhuibhne MD welcomed the idea saying there is currently no statutory leave for workers to attend health screening appointments for cervical, breast, or colon cancer.

The Bill will seek to offer the necessary support for workers in order to prioritise their health, without facing financial hardship or job insecurity.

Workers with inflexible employers, or those in precarious working arrangements, are forced to navigate between holiday entitlements or sick leave just to attend a health screening appointment, said Mr Kennedy.

This cannot continue and we need action. Labours Bill ensures that workers, regardless of age, gender, or employment status, can access paid leave for screenings, he added.

Mr Kennedy suggests that underestimating the importance of early detection in the battle against cancer is unwise and that cancer affects every family in Ireland.

The Health Screening Leave Bill is a crucial step towards ensuring that no one faces unnecessary barriers to accessing vital health services. Were calling on the Government parties to support Labours Bill, he said.
Fianna Fail candidate is confident of making a full recovery

Tipperary Local Election candidate Jacqui Kinahan Finnan will be resting for the next two weeks, but is expected to make a full recovery

Tipperary local election candidate Jacqui Kinahan Finnan has revealed that she suffered a heart attack on Tuesday morning but is expected to make a full recovery.

The Fianna Fail candidate from Tipperary town had to be rushed to University Hospital Limerick on Tuesday after taking ill with a serious heart issue. Some people canvass and some work so hard that they give themselves a heart attack, joked Ms Finnan on Wednesday.

The former Mayor of Tipperary town was at home on Tuesday morning. A friend was staying with her, having canvassed together the day before. My husband had gone to work. I woke up and immediately was in agony, she said. The pain struck across her body, down her back and left arm, and across her right jaw.

It was in my head, am I having a heart attack? But of course I was in denial. So I waited for about half an hour, and it still didnt subside. Jacqui rang her friend in the other room, who helped her get to the GP. The Doctor carried out an ECG, who immediately called an ambulance.

The ambulance, luckily enough, was there within two minutes. The Doctor gave me aspirin and a spray under my tongue to keep me going until I got to UHL. On reaching UHL, she had bloods taken and another ECG, and within 20 minutes, she had a stent inserted into an artery.

The Consultant told me that if I had not woken up that morning, I would have been in serious trouble. Im just lucky that I woke up in agony. It could have been a completely different scenario.

Jacqui said she cant thank the staff of UHL enough. Between my GP in Kyle Court Clinic in Tipperary and the staff here in UHL and the Consultants and the nursing staff  everyone has been top class. Here I am this morning now, only four days later, ready to go home. They tell me about it will be about two weeks recovery time.

After that rest, it will be back on to the campaign trail, said Jacqui. Im lucky. I have a great team behind me. Theyre working behind the scenes for me at the moment.

Im not going to get to everyone. These things happen. Im still very hopeful  I know the people of Tipperary and Cashel are very good and they will understand. When something like this happens, theres not a lot you can do about it.

Jacqui said she has been inundated with phone calls and messages of support since Tuesday. People of both towns. I have somebody from Fianna Fail headquarters ringing every day. I just had (General Secretary of Fianna Fail) Sean Dorgan ringing me to check if I needed anything.

On Thursday, Jacqui had a visit from Minister Niall Collins, who wished her well on her recovery

On Thursday Jacqui had a visit from Minister Niall Collins, who wished her well on her recovery. He's so kind, she said. The Minister will visit Tipperary soon to help me catch up with my canvass a bit.

"Get well soon Jacqui, commented Senator Fiona OLoughlin on social media.

Jacqui has lived in Tipperary town all her life. She ran a hairdressing salon in Tipperary for 11 years in the 1990s, and was a Home Help for the elderly for 15 years. She volunteers with Arthritis Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeon in Ireland (RCSI).

Her father, Christy Kinahan, was a long serving Independent Councillor in Tipperary. Previously an Independent Councillor, Jacqui served on Tipperary Town Council before it was abolished. She joined Fianna Fail in 2015 and is the Director for Recruitment and Membership on the partys Womens Network.

Jacqui contested the Local Elections in 2019, and was unlucky not to win a seat, getting to the very last count before losing out by only about a hundred votes as transfers went against her in the end.

In March this year, she was selected to contest the Local Elections on the Fianna Fail ticket in the Cashel Tipperary Local Election Area with her party colleague Cllr Roger Kennedy.
Margaret Power, June Hill and Marion Hobbs attended the coffee day at the home of Ivan and Mary Rynhart in Ballyfoley, Camolin on Friday. Pic: Jim Campbell

Avril Forrest, Joyce Ashmore and Betty Power were pictured at the coffee day at the home of Ivan and Mary Rynhart in Ballyfoley, Camolin on Friday. Pic: Jim Campbell

Kersee Rynhart and Alicia O'Toole pictured at the cake sale during the coffee day at the home of Ivan and Mary Rynhart in Ballyfoley, Camolin on Friday. Pic: Jim Campbell

Mabel Besanson, Mary Rynhart and Dean Leslie Forrest enjoyed the coffee day at the home of Ivan and Mary Rynhart in Ballyfoley, Camolin on Friday. Pic: Jim Campbell

Nearly 100 people arrived at Marys home in Camolin for the coffee day which ran from 11a.m. until 11p.m. Mary has been hosting charity fundraising coffee days at her home for the last 27 years and has raised an incredible 60,000 for the Irish Cancer Society during that time.

"Some of the money comes back to Wexford and also for someone thats terminally ill and the nurse that comes to your house. It also go towards research of course.

"Without my friends that bake and help on the day and the people that support us, it wouldnt be possible, said Mary.

Marys daughter Kersee sells the home-made cakes in the living room which were made by seven of Marys friends. People donate towards teas and coffees. We have a bring or buy, you can bring a cake or a knit and then we sell them. It went really well this year, said Mary.
Guardian Fire & Safety celebrating their 20th birthday presenting New Ross Community Hospital with a cheque for 1,000. From left; Brendan Stamp Guardian Fire & Safety, Soniya Rachel Thomas Director of Nursing, Jean O'Leary, Claire Mullett Senior Operations HR administrator and Delorus O'Leary from Community hospital and Margaret Goldsmith Guardian Fire & Safety. Photo; Mary Browne

Celebrations are going strong at New Ross based Guardian Fire and Safety as they hit their 20 year milestone, of protecting lives and livelihoods.

Founders Brendan Stamp and Margaret Goldsmith were delighted to present a contribution of 1,000 to director of nursing at New Ross Community Hospital, Soniya Rachel Thomas and her colleagues Claire, Joan and Lolo.

Margaret Goldsmith said: New Ross Community Hospital is a wonderful, caring facility for our older people who need it. We have so much admiration for all of the people who make this possible  the founders, the team and the management. As a business based in New Ross, Guardian Fire and Safety really values these amazing efforts to improve the lives of all members of our community.

New Ross Community Hospital is a compassionate and community-driven care home established in 1989, dedicated to providing exceptional care, fostering well-being and building a resilient and supportive local community.

Guardian Fire and Safety has been protecting businesses and lives through the design of cutting-edge safety systems, training and the provision of fire-safety equipment since 2004, across Leinster and Munster.
John Jordan started volunteering with the charity after his beloved wife Jean passed away in 2019. He feels that his work at the shop has given him a second chance at life

Oxfam Mullingar manager Ernesta Slionyte (L) accepted the Manager of the Year award posthumously on behalf of the late Dorothy McGee, while John Jordan (R) was crowned Martin Kenny Volunteer of the Year at the Charity Retail Awards 2024. The honour is presented to a volunteer who has shown exceptional commitment, performance and team spirit.

A familiar face to anyone who frequents the Oxfam shop in Wexford town, John Jordan was honoured to his dedication to charity recently as he scooped the national Martin Kenny Volunteer of the Year Award.

The 77-year-old joined Oxfams crew in 2019 and has quickly gone on to establish himself as the heart and soul of their Wexford shop.

Typically modest, John insists it helps me in more ways than I help Oxfam, but Oxfams Wexford branch manager Leona Hunt says that the opposite is true and having suffered the devastating loss of his wife Jean back in 2019, John has dedicated his time and efforts to volunteering with the charity.

"I thought they were joking! John said after his win. I didnt think I was going to get an award for doing something I really enjoy. The reaction from the staff was unbelievable. Theyre still congratulating me! Were going for a meal later in the week to celebrate.

Rarely held back, John only had his hip replaced six weeks ago, but he is already back behind the till for four shifts a week in Oxfam.

"Im just on one crutch now! he grins. Im delighted to be back. The whole experience came about four years ago, after my wife died. She had Alzheimers. I was in the nursing home with her every day for three years. When she passed away, I hadnt a clue what to do with my time.

"I was passing the Oxfam shop in Wexford one day and I saw a sign in the window. I didnt think I had a chance because I was 72 at the time. I started on one shift a week, and now Im up to four.

I get so much out of volunteering, its unbelievable, John smiles. Its a hard thing to explain. When my wife passed away, it was like half of me was gone. Its a silly way to put it, but since I joined Oxfam Wexford, that half of me is back. Its like being born again. Its given me more than I ever could have thought possible.

A real people person, John loves getting to know customers and meeting new ones.

Lovely customers come in and get to know you, he muses. They come back in when they pass by to have a few words. The management and the staff here are unbelievable. Leona is brilliant.

"I love looking after bits of jewellery and getting items valued, like records and CDs. Honestly, I felt humbled. Instead of Oxfam thanking me, it should be me thanking them! They gave me a second chance. I was honoured with the award, but the real prize belongs to the entire Oxfam Wexford team. Its a group effort.

Store manager Leona Hunt feels that Johns award is well deserved.

I cannot count the ways he has helped our store and our team to thrive, she said. At age 77, I can safely say he is the face of our shop. He has a cheerful hello and a chat for every customer that comes in and is our resident DJ, creating a wonderful atmosphere on our shop floor for everyone.

"He never sits still, she laughs. John loves to see the joy a customer has in finding something special and is thrilled when an item gets a second life.

Finally Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken spoke of Johns unparalleled contribution to the organisations work.

"Johns dedication to his role continues to amaze everyone at Oxfam Ireland, he said. His compassionate, generous approach to his chosen duties are valued and its an honour and a pleasure to have him represent Oxfam.
Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD with Professor Shane Higgins, Master of The National Maternity Hospital, Mary Brosnan (left), Director of Midwifery and Nursing at The National Maternity Hospital and Martina Queally, Regional Executive Officer HSE Dublin and South East. Photo: Mark Stedman

Current and past staff members and service users at Kiruddery for the 25th anniversary of the Hospitals Community Midwifery team.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, with Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain and her five-week-old daughter Doireann, Sabina Higgins and Professor Shane Higgins, Master of the National Maternity Hospital, in Killruddery House, County Wicklow. Photos: Mark Stedman

Having cared for have cared for over 35,000 women in the community since its foundation, The National Maternity Hospital marked 25 years of Community Midwifery Services with an event at Killruddery House, Bray, which was attended by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

The Community Midwifery Service was established in 1999 to provide choice for women who wished to receive midwife-led care within the community. The service was the first of its kind nationally and remains one of the largest community midwifery-led service in the country.

Since it started, in 1999, the service has evolved and expanded to include specialist midwives, lactation consultants, midwife prescribers, newborn examination practitioners, and ultrasound providers.

With a philosophy that pregnancy and birth are a normal life event, the hospitals Community Midwifery Service is dedicated to providing choice for women within the South Dublin and Wicklow catchment area who wish to avail of midwifery-led care in their own locality.

The National Maternity Hospital was the first maternity hospital in the country to establish and sustain a community-based maternity service offering the full range of midwifery-led care, including homebirth.

The services provided by the Community Midwifery team have evolved and expanded over time to respond to the needs of women. They include the Domino (Domiciliary care In and Out of hospital) and Homebirth Service, the Community Satellite Clinics and the Early Transfer Home Service. The team consists of experienced midwives, with specialities in lactation, prescribing, examination of the new-born, and point of care ultrasound.

Since its establishment, the Community Midwifery Service has provided midwifery care for more than 35,000 women, both during pregnancy and post-birth. As part of this, the Domino and Homebirth Service has cared for more than 10,000 women through pregnancy, labour and into the postnatal period, as well as supporting more than 800 homebirths during this period.

The Domino (Domiciliary care In and Out of hospital) and Homebirth Service offers eligible women the opportunity to attend community antenatal clinics in their own local area. Women can also choose to have a home birth (if suitable), attended by experienced National Maternity Hospital Domino midwives. The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

To mark the 25th anniversary, The National Maternity Hospital brought together service users past and present, as well as those who have been involved in the hospitals community care over the last 25 years, to celebrate the milestone with a gathering at Kilruddery.

Commenting on the importance of the service in the community, Minister Donnelly said: "Progressing women's health continues to be a top priority for me and for this Government. I have overseen unprecedented levels of funding in womens health initiatives across the country, including at the National Maternity Hospital.

"The National Maternity Strategy prioritises choice for women and access to midwife-led care. I recognise the important role the National Maternity Hospital has played in progressing the strategys supported model of care. This progress and innovation in care can only be brought about through listening to and supporting women. This is something that I remain committed to doing.

Director of Midwifery and Nursing at The National Maternity Hospital, Mary Brosnan commented: The National Maternity Hospital is very proud to celebrate 25 years of midwifery-led care in the community delivered by our exceptional team of passionate and dedicated Community Midwives.

"Midwifery led care has an extremely positive impact on the pregnancy and birth experience of women. The role of the midwife in womens health and the role they play in womens psychological and physical maternity journey is critical, she continued.

"The National Maternity Hospital is delighted to celebrate the enormous contribution of our committed and innovative Community Midwifery team. We acknowledge the service this National Maternity Hospital team have nurtured and widely expanded on since 1999 with the goal of providing choice and continuity of care to women within their own communities, she concluded.
Award-winning brand strategy expert Lorraine Carter of Persona Design will deliver a presentation on how to build a cohesive personal brand aligned to your business brand, taking place at Wicklow County Campus, Clermont, Rathnew.

Lorraine has over 20 years experience working with clients worldwide to drive commercial growth. Brands like Vision 1, University of Greenwich London, Solas, Nestle, Kerry Foods, Eurofound, Enterprise Ireland, Law Society of Ireland, Radisson Blu among others.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024

She enables businesses and organisations to transform their brands and increase their sales without big marketing teams, using the Persona Brand Leadership Framework, so they own or become the brand their customers are happy to pay a premium for.

Lorraine will cover the enhanced understanding of brandings impact, which will develop a deeper appreciation of how a strong personal brand can positively influence your business growth and success.

She will also provide clarity on personal brand elements so participants are provided with an understanding of their own personal brand and how to articulate and present it effectively in a way that aligns to your business.

Actionable strategies will be identified for aligning personal and business brands, ensuring consistency and coherence. Those taking part in the course will gain insights into tools, frameworks and platforms to help increase personal and business brand visibility. Participants will leave with a personal branding framework or action plan enabling them to continue developing and refining their brand.

The presentation is being organised by Network Ireland Wicklow Branch and takes place on Wednesday, May 8, starting at 7pm. Tickets cost 49.24 and can be purchased from eventbrite.ie.
Fr James Jim Brady was laid to rest at the St Patricks Missionary Society cemetery in Kiltegan on the evening of Sunday, April 28, following his funeral service held in St Josephs Church in his hometown of Loughduff, County Cavan.

Fr Jim was part of the 1968 St Patricks Missionary Society class and passed away suddenly on the morning of Thursday, April 25.

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Jim Brady was a missionary to the core and combined the preaching of the Gospel with practical development projects to improve the lives of the people in Turkana and Lusaka. His warm and kind personality won the hearts of the people who worked with him and co-operated in the establishment of a fishing village, building churches and schools and creating vibrant Christian communities in all the parishes in which he served. No obstacle was too great or got in Jims way in the pursuit of his goal to improve the lives of his people. Jim was a man who wanted to get things right and so paid a lot of attention to detail. His buildings, though basic, were practical and have stood the test of time.

James Brady, popularly known as Jim, was born on February 5, 1943 in Middletown, Loughduff, Co Cavan, to Julia (nee Dalton) and Daniel Brady. Jim was one of thirteen children - five boys and eight girls.

Jim attended St Josephs Primary School, Loughduff, from 1949 to1956 and had his secondary education in St Marys Apostolic School, Moyne from 1956 to 1961.

In September 1961 Jim joined the Spiritual Year in Kiltegan. From 1962 to 1964, Jim studied Philosophy in Cork and then proceeded to Kiltegan for Theological studies from 1964 to 1968. Jim was among twenty-three priests ordained for St. Patricks Missionary Society by Bishop Patrick Lennon on Easter Sunday,1968.

After ordination Jim was appointed to the recently created Prefecture of Lodwar, Kenya, along with four of his classmates. He cut his teeth as a missionary in Katoboi beside Lake Turkana. Here he encountered a nomadic people whose goats, sheep and cattle had died in the famine. Jim established a fishing village along the lake shore whose inhabitants had previously lived in a famine camp in Kakuma.

In Katoboi he took the old adage to heart: If you give a person a fish you feed them for a day; if you teach a person to fish you feed them for a lifetime. For a nomadic people unaccustomed to fishing, this was a whole new way of life. Jim purchased nets and canoes for the people and helped them find markets for their fish. Jim also worked in Lodwar town parish and later in Lorugumu where the focus was more on building churches and schools and starting new Christian communities.

In 1989 Jim transferred to the Archdiocese of Lusaka in Zambia. His first appointment was to the parish of Mpanshya. He also worked in Roma and Kalingalinga parishes. He moved to Moomba in 2003. He built a house at Ten Miles Great North Road very soon after arriving in the area and began straight away to develop the area. He built two primary schools with the help of Direct Aid for Africa Charity. He also built many churches in the parish, which later became new independent parishes. He spent eleven very happy years working in Moomba.

In 2015 Jim moved to St. Patricks, Muchenje, and began a new parish there. It was only an outstation at that time, so Jim had to build a Priests House. It was a very courageous move as the area was very underdeveloped and lacked many resources such as electricity, health facilities and education. This was no obstacle to Jim and after building the Priests House he began the building of St Edmunds Secondary School. This was a school for both girls and boys and was given to the Kasisi Sisters, who are currently managing the school. Jim retired to Ireland in 2020 and this school was to be Jims final project in Africa.

Jim retired to Co Cavan in 2020 and settled in his home parish of Mullahoran. He enjoyed these years of reconnecting with his very large family and wide circle of friends. It gave him an opportunity to appreciate the great support they gave him during his 52 years of missionary service in Lodwar and in Lusaka.

Jim is predeceased by his parents Daniel and Julia, brothers Phil and Sean, sisters Bessie, Susie, Molly, Rose, Agnes, Teresa and Veronica. He is survived by his brothers Danny and Tony, his sister Maggie, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, his wide circle of friends, his mission family in Turkana and Lusaka and his Society Family in Kiltegan.
An afternoon of dancing and music takes place on Wednesday, May 8 in Germaines of Baltinglass to celebrate the start of Wicklows Bealtaine Festival activities.

The tea dance, which begins at 3pm, is part of Creative Places Baltinglass, a community-led three-year project that celebrates Baltinglass people and place, for senior citizens in the Baltinglass area. It is managed by Wicklow County Arts Office and is funded by the Arts Council, as part of the national Creative Places Programme.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024

Bealtaine is Irelands national festival which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age. The festival is run by Age and Opportunity, the leading national development organisation working to enable the best possible quality of life for us all.

Music for the event in Germaines will be provided by Blacknights who will play all your favourite songs. The tea dance is aimed at those aged 55 and over and is free with no need to book.

Elsewhere in Wicklow for Bealtaine, the Mobile Music Machine will host May concerts in a host of nursing homes as part of the Arts Office programme for older persons, funded through the Creative Ireland Programme and Wicklow County Council.

And Wicklow Library will host their own Bealtaine Cafe event on Wednesday, May 22. Afternoon tea will be served in the library in Wicklow town from 12.30pm to 3pm, while there will also be a performance from the Wicklow Community Choir and a few other entertaining surprises.

Commenting on the events running throughout May, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council Cllr Aoife Flynn Kennedy said: It is wonderful to see that Wicklow County Council has a range of creative projects for Bealtaine presented through its Arts Office. We look forward to welcoming as many people as possible throughout the festival.

Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council Emer OGorman said: Wicklow County Council supports this programme as one of many initiatives to ensure that the county is Age Friendly, thus fulfilling the intention of the County Development Plan 2022  2028 to promote a county for all ages to thrive.
Wicklow County Council joined the Polish community in Wicklow and across Ireland as they commemorated the National Day of the Polish Constitution by flying the Polish flag today at the County Buildings in Wicklow town.

Each year on this date, Poland celebrates the anniversary of the adoption of its constitution in 1791. This historic document was the first of its kind in Europe, and is recognised as one of the earliest modern constitutions in the world, marking an important moment in the history of Poland.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024

A strong friendship exists between our two countries, and the contribution of the Polish community have made across the county of Wicklow is recognised and cherished. As demonstrated in the recent census, it was indicated that the largest number of non-Irish citizens living in Wicklow are our Polish friends and neighbours, totalling over 2,400 people.

Speaking on the National Day of the Polish Constitution, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council Cllr. Aoife Flynn Kennedy said, On behalf of my fellow Elected Members, we were delighted to consider the request from Arkady Rzegocki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to Ireland, to acknowledge the celebrations today. We are proud to fly the Polish flag at County Buildings in Wicklow to mark the National Day of the Polish Constitution.

Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council Emer OGorman commented, We extend our warmest wishes to all the Polish community living within Wicklow on this significant occasion. The ties between our two countries continue to strengthen, and we recognise the impact of the many Polish friends and colleagues within our workplace and in the community groups in our towns.
Two new eyed-catching murals have been completed in Wicklow town as part of the Connectivity Project connecting South Quay to Main Street in Wicklow town.

The aim is to reanimate and revitalise the important links between Main Street, South Quay, harbour and Market Square in Wicklow town.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 3rd May 2024

The theme of maritime was chosen as a form of connectivity between the murals, in order to highlight Wicklow towns heritage and historical links to the Irish Sea and all that she has inspired.

The Wicklow Town Team is leading the project, which was funded through the Town and Village Renewal Scheme.

Project leader Evelyn Murray said: Irish artist John Brady has just completed a beautiful mural at Wicklow Sailing Club, depicting the Round Ireland Yacht Race, celebrating the sailing activity that takes place at the harbour and the links between sailing and the town. The Round Ireland race takes place again in June and is a wonderful addition to the local Wicklow calendar.

Curtis Hayden also just completed a smaller mural of the Children of lir at Bridge Street Books, which celebrates our relationship with books and to encourage reading and to encourage people to visit the book shop.

We also have plans for a larger mural at New Street across the road from the library. It will see us moving away somewhat from the maritime theme of the other murals and will have an historical theme instead, focusing on the old ball room that used to belong to the building where the new library is.

These latest murals will compliment murals already in place at the likes of Anchor House, the Scout Hall, Salthouse Lane and the Doctors Steps.

The project has proved so popular, Evelyn and her team have been approached from other residents of the town inquiring about the possibility of painting murals on the walls of their property. Three ornate arches with lanterns are currently being fabricated for installation along the Doctors Steps.

Each mural will have a QR code, which visitors can scan in order to link with the artist responsible for creating the mural, before directing you on to the next mural.

There are also plans for a Golly Trail marking Wicklows longstanding tradition of golly fishing.

Evelyn added: We will have around ten locations and ceramic plates will explain the story. When you scan the QR code you will be welcomed by an animated golly, and will then be sent on to your next location. It will feature all the major golly fishing locations and will be very safe for children. At the last location the animated golly craps all get together for a little dance.

All in all we will have nine large murals to visit as part of the murals trail, and around 12 locations as part of the arts and culture trail. Combined with the golly trail, it would take around two-hours to walk around the town and complete all the trails, which will also compliment the Wicklow Heritage Trail, which is already up and running.

The new mural, arts and culture and golly trails will be officially launched at a as of yet unconfirmed date once Junes local elections have been held.
Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John and Yoko, has said his music collaboration with Sir Paul McCartneys son James came about naturally and was not to fulfil something for the Beatles fans.

The multi-instrumentalist, 48, has released a song called Primrose Hill with McCartney, an ode to Londons panoramic viewing spot in Regents Park.

Speaking about the track to Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music, Ono Lennon said: It was really special for me. It actually happened quite some time ago, so I wasnt sure if the song was going to come out or not.

He had made another record since wed worked on that song.

And so I was very surprised when he gave me a text and said Hey, can we put Primrose Hill out? and I was like Well, its about time I was hoping you would put it out! So yeah, I was thrilled you know. I thought he had forgotten about it or whatever.

But it happened very naturally. I think a lot of people, Ive been seeing just the comments section (which I guess one should avoid) but Ive noticed that people kind of assume were trying to start something or we were doing it in order to fulfil something for the Beatles fans.

But actually it came about very naturally. I was just at his flat in London and he was telling me about a girl he had a crush on, and he was sort of writing a song about it and he kind of wanted me to help him.

And so all I really did was say Well hey, where did you guys go on your first date?

And he was like Well we went and had a picnic on Primrose Hill and we sat on Primrose Hill and I said Alright, and I just wrote that down We sat on Primrose Hill  Next, what happened next? and I just sort of took a dictation really of him telling me the story about his memories and his feelings.

James McCartney in 2012 (Yui Mok/PA)

So thats all I really did. I didnt do much. I just sort of helped him get his ideas down, you know?.

Discussing whether he would collaborate with other Beatles children, he said: That seems like it would take a lot more planning than were probably able to deal with. But we all like each other and were all friends and I do support what they do.

I mean I love Zaks new band Mantra Of The Cosmos, its really cool. Its really cool, what Ive heard so far.

Drummer Zak Starkey is the son of Sir Ringo Starr and he is part of a new alternative musical group formed by Shaun Ryder from the Happy Mondays.

Ono Lennon said he is close with George Harrisons son Dhani as well, who is also a musician.

Sir Paul McCartney and his daughter Mary McCartney (Yui Mok/PA)

Dhani and I are very close because weve been working together indirectly I guess through Beatles stuff, he said.

He added: I mean its unlikely that we would do something, cause the only reason we would do that is because of the Beatles and its a bit too much.

It would be a bit weird I think. But Im not against playing with anybody that I like. Im very open.

I write a lot of songs with a lot of people and I produce a lot of records, so when James wanted help with the song I wasnt going to say no to that because it felt natural and basically Im open to working with people with whom I feel a natural affinity.

But Im not gonna do it because of some expectation or some other idea, if that makes sense.

The Beatles (PA)

The Beatles formed in Liverpool in 1960 and went on to become one of the most famous bands in the word.

This month a remastered version of their 1970 documentary Let It Be is to be released on Disney+.

The film follows on from Peter Jacksons 2021 docuseries The Beatles: Get Back which used audio restoration technology that allowed vocals, music, and conversations among the band to be isolated, enabling a new mix of the Revolver album, sourced directly from the four-track master tapes, in 2022.

After this, filmmaker Jackson and his sound team, led by Emile de la Rey, used software to help separate Lennons vocals from the piano in song Now And Then, which was released last year.
Mark Hamill shows off the sunglasses given to him by President Joe Biden (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill dropped by the White House on Friday for a visit with President Joe Biden and walked away with a pair of the presidents aviator sunglasses and a greater respect for the office.

I love the merch, he said, taking off the glasses during a quick appearance at the White House daily press briefing following his meeting with Mr Biden.

Hamill, 72, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, kidded with reporters that he would take a few questions  as long as they were not about Star Wars.

I was honoured to be asked to come to the White House to meet the president, he said.

Mark Hamill said he loved the merch after being presented with a pair of Joe Bidens aviator sunglasses (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Hamill has been to the White House before, during the Carter and Obama administrations, but he had never checked out the Oval Office, and that was quite something, he said.

Mr Biden showed off photographs and other Oval Office items, Hamill said.

Hamill said the president told him to call him Joe, to which Hamill offered an alternative suggestion: Can I call you Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?

He liked that, said Hamill, who also voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series.

Both Hamill and the White House were vague about his reason for visiting.

But Hamill, a Democrat and Biden supporter with a huge social media following, has been posting about the presidents re-election campaign this week.

May The First Not Quench Your Thirst For Bidens re-election, he wrote on May 1.

On Friday he posted: May The Third Be Absurd That The Guy Who Tried To Steal A Fair Election Is Allowed To Run Again, a reference to Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

May 4 is unofficially Star Wars Day, in part because of the famous Jedi phrase May the force be with you.

The pun goes, May the fourth be with you.

Hamill also lent his voice to Air Alert  a downloadable app linked to Ukraines air defence system.

His voice urges people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.
Yan Lianke at Literary Hub:

In China we have a saying that reading a banned book on a snowy night is one of the true joys of life. From this, one can well imagine the kind of satisfaction that reading a banned book may bringlike candy locked up in a cabinet, it releases a sweet fragrance into solitary spaces. Whenever I travel abroad, I am invariably introduced as Chinas most controversial and most censored author. I neither agree nor disagree with this characterizationIm not bothered by it, but neither do I feel particularly honored by it.

Authors should be very clear that being banned is not synonymous with artistic success. Sometimes, being banned is equated with courageousness, and we can certainly understand Goethes observation that without courage, there would be no art. If we were to extend this logic, we could even say that without courage, there would be no artistic creation. However, many readers view censorship and controversy only at the level of courageparticularly in relation to authors from China, the former Soviet Union, and other so-called third-world countries.

More here.
Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting U.S. troops, a senior U.S. defence told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger's junta to expel U.S. forces.

The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the U.S. to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washington's fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.
LIVE | Labour leader says UK local elections show people are fed up with failed government and calls for general election

One parliamentary seat up for grabs  Labour candidate Chris Webb won it in the Blackpool South by-election with 10,825 votesCounting is now under way in the 107 local councils in England that held elections on Thursday

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (centre) and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves celebrate with David Skaith at Northallerton Town Football Club (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Irish Independent Newsdesk Fri 3 May 2024 at 12:35







Voters in Britain cast their ballots on Thursday for more than 2,000 seats on local authorities across England and a handful of high-profile mayoral elections, including in the capital, London.
Belgian Simone Nestor (81) dances with youths at the Lift Brussels nightclub, during an evening outing organised by the non-profit organisation Papy Booom, which helps older people take part in unusual activities. Photo: Reuters

Jeanine (79) finds todays music too boom boom and she prefers old time tunes but that did not stop her hitting the dancefloor at Brussels largest nightclub along with 10 other elderly residents of three nursing homes in the Belgian capital.
Europe

Africans recruited to work in Russia say they were duped into building drones for use in Ukraine
LATEST | Hostage held in Gaza dies as Israel and Hamas work on a ceasefire deal

Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 othersUN report says if war stopped today it would take until 2040 to rebuild all the homes in Gaza

An Israeli soldier cleans her weapon near the Israel-Gaza border yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Bassem Mroue Fri 3 May 2024 at 03:30







Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said on Friday.
Trump: Im not sleeping during trial... just resting my beautiful blue eyes

Republican nominee hits back at media accusing him of nodding off during hush money criminal trial

Donald Trump appeared at Manhattan criminal court (The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Susie Coen Telegraph.co.uk Fri 3 May 2024 at 08:22







Donald Trump has hit back at claims he has been falling asleep during his hush money trial, insisting he has simply been closing his beautiful blue eyes while listening.
India-Vietnam Investment Opportunities, Market Entry Considerations

India and Vietnam relations have been steadily growing, marked by trade and commercial opportunities as well as and strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. We briefly profile the India-Vietnam trade and investment relationship and discuss how enterprises can structure their operations for success in each of these markets.

India-Vietnam relations have been marked by growing economic, commercial, and strategic engagement in recent years. As of 2022, India ranked eighth among the top 10 trading partners of Vietnam. In 2022, the United Nations COMTRAD database indicated that Indias exports to Vietnam were US$7.08 billion, while Vietnams exports to India were US$7.96 billion.

In a virtual summit held on December 21, 2020, the Prime Ministers of the two nations decided to raise the number of Quick Impact Projects (QIP) projects from 5 to 10 per year to be implemented annually in Vietnam. So far, 37 QIPs have been completed in 33 provinces.

According to the Hanoi Embassy: QIPs particularly support modest socio-economic infrastructure such as building classrooms, old age homes, facilitation of irrigation by developing canals and rural bridges identified by Vietnamese authorities and their implementation is carried out by authorities nominated by the Provinces of Vietnam in coordination with the Embassy of India.

Market entry strategy in India

Market entry strategy in Vietnam

Foreign entities may establish their presence in Vietnam as a limited liability company with one or more members, a joint-stock company, a partnership, a branch, a business cooperation contract, or a representative office.

Limited-liability company

It may take the form of either:

A 100 percent foreign-owned enterprise; or

A foreign-invested joint-venture enterprise between foreign investors and at least one domestic investor.

Joint-stock company

A joint-stock company is a limited liability legal entity established through a subscription for shares. By law, this is the only type of company that can issue shares. A joint-stock company either may be 100 percent foreign-owned or a joint venture between both foreign and domestic investors.

Partnerships

A partnership can be established between two individual general partners.

Representative offices

Foreign companies with investment projects in Vietnam may apply to open representative offices in Vietnam. A representative office cannot conduct commercial or revenue-generating activities. This is the most common form of presence in Vietnam for foreign companies, particularly those in the first stage of a market entry strategy.

Business cooperation contract (BCC)

A BCC is a cooperation agreement between foreign investors and at least one Vietnamese partner in order to carry out specific business activities.

Public and private partnership contracts

A public and private partnership (PPP) contract is an investment form carried out based on a contract between the government authorities and project companies for infrastructure projects and public services.

Indian investments in Vietnam

In October 2023, it was reported that more than 400 Indian companies, small and large, had invested in Vietnam for a cumulative value of more than US$1 billion. In the energy sector, Tata Power, part of Indias Tata Group, is building a US$2.2 billion thermal power project in Soc Trang province. This plant will cater to about two percent of Vietnams power needs when it becomes fully operational by 2030. In 2017, the same group inked a US$54 million deal to build a 49-MW solar park in Vietnams southern province of Binh Phuoc.

In the agriculture sector, Tata International Vietnam signed an MoU with Agribank in 2017 to support Vietnamese farmers, cooperatives, and plantations in terms of credit support, equipment insurance, and access to a wide range of mechanization solutions.

In 2019, Tata Coffee inaugurated its US$50 million freeze-dried coffee plant in Binh Duong. To facilitate investment projects and SMEs, Indias state-owned Bank of India opened its first branch in Ho Chi Minh City in 2016.

According to the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India, in 2021, numerous Indian producers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices made investments in Vietnam in order to capitalize on the countrys expanding medical equipment sector.

In a meeting held in May 2023, the CEO of the Adani Group, Karan Adani, announced that the company is working on a seaport investment project in Vietnam at an investment of roughly US$2 billion.

The Indian government has been actively engaged in stimulating business with Vietnam. In 2014, it had offered a US$300 million line of credit to Vietnam as an impetus to accelerate textile trade and investment between the two countries. In 2017, it approved a Project Development Fund of INR 5 billion (approx. US$75 million) for supporting Indian companies to build production and supply chains in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. This was to benefit Indias industries in terms of business expansion, maintaining cost-competitive supply chains, and increased integration with global production networks.

Bilateral engagement to promote trade and investment

Trade agreement

Both India and Vietnam are members of the ASEANIndia Free Trade Area (AIFTA), which came into effect in 2010. This free trade agreement (FTA) eliminates tariffs for over 80 percent of goods traded between ASEAN and India. The last period for tariff reduction or elimination under the various tariff categories for Vietnam is set for 2024.

In August 2023, Vietnams Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang and Additional Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Agrawal co-chaired the 5th meeting of the Joint Sub-Commission on Trade, whereby bilateral trade and investment relations were examined.

The Joint Working Groups on Agriculture, Healthcare, and Information Technology, and the Joint Sub-Committee on Science and Technology are examples of current bilateral institutional mechanisms for economic, trade, and investment promotion.

Double tax treaty

India and Vietnam inked a protocol on their double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) in 2016.

The amendments introduced through the amending protocol aimed to bring the tax treaty in line with international standards and incorporate provisions outlined in the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI). The inclusion of an exchange of information clause and the introduction of Article 27A, which pertains to assistance in tax collection, serve to enhance transparency and combat tax evasion. The confidentiality of shared information is mandated, and the clause facilitates the routine or request-based sharing of such information. Moreover, the DTAA empowers contracting states to assist in the collection of the revenue claim on behalf of the other country concerning any tax liability of the assessee.

Key provisions of the India-Vietnam DTAA cover various aspects of taxation between the contracting states. These include defining residency for tax purposes, taxation of income from immovable property and enterprise profits, dividends, technical fees, and capital gains. Additionally, provisions address taxation of professional services, directors fees, and income from personal activities.

The agreement aims to avoid double taxation by ensuring that income is taxed only once, with the laws of each contracting state governing taxation except where the DTAA provides otherwise.

Withholding tax rates under the DTAA are as follows:

Indias tax treaty partner Dividend Interest Royalty Fee for technical services Vietnam 10 10* 10 10

*Dividend/interest earned by the government and certain institutions, like the Reserve Bank of India, is exempt from taxation in the country of source.

Import-export profile

Key imports

The top items of imports into India from Vietnam are electronics and electrical goods, metals and articles of metals, chemicals, machinery and mechanical parts, articles of steel, plastic articles, coffee and tea, footwear, rubber articles, fertilizers, and silk.

Key exports

Key items of exports from India to Vietnam include iron and steel, electrical machinery and equipment, machinery and mechanical appliances, auto components, meat and fishery products, cereal, maize, cotton, chemical and chemical products, ordinary metals, gems & jewelry, pharmaceuticals and ingredients, as well as animal fodder & materials.

Trade opportunities

India has enormous growth potential to provide IT and business services, zinc, steel, and fibers to Vietnam. Vietnams exports to India have a remarkable scope to increase in cotton, business support, and knitted clothing in addition to an already strong transport, storage, and trade services sector.

Per a 2020 Standard Chartered report, India had export opportunities worth US$475 million to Vietnam (11 percent of Indias total exports) while Vietnam had an export potential worth US$633 million (10 percent of total exports). Below are a few graphs which are indicative of the bilateral trade prospects  as India seeks a free trade agreement with Vietnam and is negotiating a review of the trade agreement with the ASEAN bloc, the two markets will need to find common ground to achieve better trade balance.

Reasons to invest

Increased market access

Both governments are actively working on key issues to facilitate trade and investment, such as increasing air connectivity and direct containerization. These efforts have materialized into the launch of direct flights by Vietnamese and Indian carriers Vietjet Air & Indigo, which connect Indias New Delhi and Kolkata with Vietnams Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

In May 2020, Vietnam ratified an FTA with the EU named the EVFTA, which came into effect in August of that year. The FTA removes duties from 99 percent of the goods traded between the two regions.

In 2023, India began exploring an FTA with Vietnam, but no clear timelines have been presented to the public. India has an FTA in place with ASEAN, of which Vietnam is a member.

Favorable investment policies

To encourage FDI, Vietnam has put in place a series of incentives for foreign investors. These include preferential corporate income tax rates, import duty exemptions, exemption from taxes on royalties, exemption or reduction of land use or land rental fees, and privileges awarded to build-operate-transfer (BOT), build-transfer-operate (BTO), and build-transfer (BT) projects and projects in special economic zones. The incentives are meant to promote FDI in the high-tech sector, underprivileged regions, labor-intensive industries, and other priority sectors such as education and health.

On its part, India has implemented various reforms to facilitate foreign investments and offers competitive tax and regulatory incentives across top target sectors across the different states.

Despite the significant increase in trade activity between India and Vietnam, the levels of investment have, however, remained relatively modest. Indias investment in Vietnam stands at approximately US$1.9 billion, ranking it as the 25th largest investor in the country. Conversely, Vietnams footprint in India is notably small, with investments totaling just US$28.55 million across six projects. This could increase with the announcement of new projects like VinFasts plant at Tamil Nadu.

Where to invest in Vietnam

Where to invest in India

Investment opportunities in India and Vietnam

Opportunities for investment in India

In the realm of investments, Indias appeal endures, offering global companies substantial scale, skilled talent, and cutting-edge technology. Micro, small, or medium enterprises (MSMEs) remain pivotal in fostering jobs, income, capabilities, and ecosystems for sustained growth in consumption, manufacturing, and infrastructure investments.

Key industries beckoning foreign investors to India include healthcare and insurance, fintech, renewable energy and climate tech, electric vehicles and automobiles, IT and services, real estate and infrastructure, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and R&D, tech innovation, and artificial intelligence (AI). These have all been on a hot streak in recent years, as FDI policies have relaxed and production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes have promoted industry-wise capacity building.

Indias digital economy will continue to attract investors as technology-based solutions are sought to transform peoples lives, governance, and enterprise operations. The rapid growth in demand for online products and services is also a reflection of the increasing spending power of Indias non-metropolitan (tier-2 and tier-3) cities. The digital economy accounted for 4-4.5 percent of the total GDP in 2014 and is currently at 11 percent. The government projects the digital economy to make up more than 20 percent of Indian GDP by 2026.

Opportunities for investors in Vietnam

Agriculture: The countrys favorable climate and soil conditions make it ripe for investments in rice, coffee, and tea production. Additionally, advancements in technology and the development of the value chain offer lucrative prospects for investors.

The countrys favorable climate and soil conditions make it ripe for investments in rice, coffee, and tea production. Additionally, advancements in technology and the development of the value chain offer lucrative prospects for investors. Seafood: Indian seafood processing companies can tap into Vietnams potential, particularly in the Mekong Delta region. Tax benefits and incentives make this an attractive proposition, considering Vietnams significant seafood exports and limited domestic production.

Indian seafood processing companies can tap into Vietnams potential, particularly in the Mekong Delta region. Tax benefits and incentives make this an attractive proposition, considering Vietnams significant seafood exports and limited domestic production. Information technology: As Vietnam undergoes digital transformation, Indian IT firms specializing in e-commerce, digital payments, and smart solutions have ample opportunities. HCL Technologies entry in 2020 exemplifies this trend, with plans to provide advanced IT solutions across various industries.

As Vietnam undergoes digital transformation, Indian IT firms specializing in e-commerce, digital payments, and smart solutions have ample opportunities. HCL Technologies entry in 2020 exemplifies this trend, with plans to provide advanced IT solutions across various industries. Automotive components: Indias expertise in auto components presents an opportunity to support Vietnams burgeoning automotive manufacturing sector. With Indias dominance in tractor and two-wheeler production, theres scope for collaboration to meet Vietnams growing demand.

Indias expertise in auto components presents an opportunity to support Vietnams burgeoning automotive manufacturing sector. With Indias dominance in tractor and two-wheeler production, theres scope for collaboration to meet Vietnams growing demand. Agricultural machinery: Given Vietnams emphasis on agriculture and incentives, theres potential for investment in assembling and manufacturing agricultural machinery.

Given Vietnams emphasis on agriculture and incentives, theres potential for investment in assembling and manufacturing agricultural machinery. Infrastructure: With Vietnams fast urbanization and growing economy, infrastructure needs are escalating. Indian firms can explore projects in roads, renewable energy, vessel-building, hospitality, and healthcare to meet these demands.

Potential investors looking at the Indian and Vietnam markets are advised to seek expert guidance on investment and growth strategies, finding local partners, and managing bureaucracy requirements. For more information on doing business in Vietnam, you may write to us at: vietnam@dezshira.com. For support with your business or investment planning in India, please contact our experts at india@dezshira.com.

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Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Globally, there are substantial differences between females and males (aged 10 and older) when it comes to health, with limited progress in bridging these health gaps over the past 30 years, according to a new study examining the disparities in the 20 leading causes of disease burden between females and males, across ages and regions, published in The Lancet Public Health journal.

Non-fatal conditions that lead to health loss through illness and disability, including musculoskeletal conditions, mental health conditions, and headache disorders, particularly affect females globally, while males are disproportionally affected by conditions that lead to more premature death, such as COVID-19, road injuries, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory and liver diseases.

Importantly, these health differences between females and males continue to grow with age, leaving females with higher levels of illness and disability throughout their lives, because they tend to live longer than males.

The authors explain that 'sex' refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of females and males, while 'gender' pertains to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, and identities of women and menas well as gender-diverse individualswhich are also shaped by historical and cultural contexts. These two factors interact, leading to different health and disease experiences among men and women.

The study is a call to action for countries to increase their reporting of sex and gender data and to use these data to overhaul their approach to health. It clearly highlights the need for sex- and gender-informed strategies that recognise the unique health challenges faced by females and males.

The modelling research uses data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 to compare the total number of life years lost to illness and premature deatha measurement known as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)for the 20 leading causes of disease in females and males older than 10 years at the global level and in seven world regions, between 1990 and 2021.

The authors note that the analysis does not include sex-specific health conditions, such as gynaecological conditions or prostate cancers, but does examine the health differences between conditions affecting both females and males.

The timing is right for this study and call to actionnot only because of where the evidence is now, but because COVID-19 has starkly reminded us that sex differences can profoundly impact health outcomes, says senior author Dr Luisa Sorio Flor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, USA. One key point the study highlights is how females and males differ in many biological and social factors that fluctuate and, sometimes, accumulate over time, resulting in them experiencing health and disease differently at each stage of life and across world regions. The challenge now is to design, implement, and evaluate sex- and gender-informed ways of preventing and treating the major causes of morbidity and premature mortality from an early age and across diverse populations.

Males face a higher disease burden overall

The analysis estimates that for 13 out of the top 20 causes of disease burden, including COVID-19, road injuries, and a range of cardiovascular, respiratory, and liver diseases, health loss was higher in males than females in 2021 (see figure 2 in paper).

For example, overall COVID-19 was the leading cause of health loss in 2021, with males experiencing 45% more health loss from COVID-19 than females (3,978 vs 2,211 age-standardised DALYs per 100,000). COVID-19 disproportionately affected men in all regions, with the widest sex difference observed in sub-Saharan Africa (10,559 vs 5,565 DALYs per 100,000) and Latin America and the Caribbean (8,124 vs 4,473 DALYs per 100,000).

Ischaemic heart disease had the second largest absolute difference in health loss between females and males, with males experiencing 45% more health loss from heart disease compared to females (3,599 vs 1,987 DALYs per 100,000) in 2021. The greatest difference was seen in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, where males experienced a 49% higher burden than females (6,789 vs 3,456 DALYs per 100,000).

For conditions with a disproportionate burden in males, such as ischaemic heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic kidney disease, sex differences tend to be small at young ages and widen over the life course. The exception is the disproportionate toll of road injuries on young males (aged 10-24 years) in all world regions.

Our findings shine a light on the significant and unique health challenges faced by males, says co-lead author Dr Vedavati Patwardhan from the University of California, San Diego, USA. Among these challenges are conditions that lead to premature deaths, notably in the form of road injuries, cancers, and heart disease. We need national health plans and strategies to address the health needs of men throughout their lives, including interventions targeting behavioural risks such as alcohol use and smoking that typically begin at a young age.

The authors stress that progress on health strategies for men has been slow. Globally, new initiatives for men have started to be rolled out, including the 2018 Strategy on the Health and Well-Being of Men in the WHO European Region, which was ratified by over 50 member countries. But to date only a handful of countries (including Australia, Ireland, Iran, Brazil, Malaysia, Mongolia, and South Africa) have designated national-level policies to address mens health.

Disproportionate toll of disability-causing conditions among females

Among the conditions evaluated, the study suggests that the biggest contributors to health loss globally disadvantaging females are low back pain, depressive disorders, headache disorders, anxiety disorders, other musculoskeletal disorders, Alzheimers disease and other dementias, and HIV/AIDS (see figure 2 in paper). These conditions predominantly contribute to illness and disability throughout life as opposed to leading to premature death.

The largest absolute difference in health loss disadvantaging females was seen for low back pain, with DALY rates more than a third higher for females than for males in 2021 (1,265 vs 787 DALYs per 100,000). Regionally, this gap was most pronounced in South Asia, where rates were over 50% higher in females (1,292 vs 598 DALYs per 100,000), and in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, where female rates were about 30% higher (1,807 vs 1,256 DALYs per 100,000).

Mental health conditions disproportionately impact females in all world regions. For example, health loss caused by depressive disorders was over a third higher among females than males (1,019 vs 671 DALYs per 100,000) globally in 2021, with the widest differences disadvantaging females seen in high-income countries (1,300 vs 747 DALYs per 100,000) and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (1,139 vs 624 DALYs per 100,000).

For conditions with the greatest gap disadvantaging females, such as mental health conditions and musculoskeletal disorders, the differences in health loss between females and males begin early in life and continue to intensify with age.

Large causes of health loss in women, particularly musculoskeletal disorders and mental health conditions, have not received the attention that they deserve, says co-lead author Gabriela Gil from IHME. Its clear that women's healthcare needs to extend well beyond areas that health systems and research funding have prioritized to date, such as sexual and reproductive concerns.

She adds, Conditions that disproportionately impact females in all world regions, such as depressive disorders, are significantly underfunded compared with the massive burden they exert, with only a small proportion of government health expenditure globally earmarked for mental health conditions. Future health system planning must encompass the full spectrum of issues affecting females throughout their lives, especially given the higher level of disability they endure and the growing ratio of females to males in ageing populations.

Sex- and gender-responsive approaches to health

These global differences in health loss between females and males have been largely consistent for the past 30 years, but for some diseases, such as diabetes, the difference in DALY rates between females and males nearly tripled between 1990 (56.1 more DALYs per 100,000 among males) and 2021 (142.7 more DALYs per 100,000 among males). At the same time, there has been a disproportionate rise in global health loss caused by depressive disorders, anxiety, and some musculoskeletal disorders disadvantaging females, highlighting that the burden of chronic conditions experienced by females continues to grow.

According to Dr Sorio Flor, This report clearly shows that over the past 30 years global progress on health has been uneven. Females have longer lives but live more years in poor health, with limited progress made in reducing the burden of conditions leading to illness and disability, underscoring the urgent need for greater attention to non-fatal consequences that limit women's physical and mental function, especially at older ages. Similarly, males are experiencing a much higher and growing burden of disease with fatal consequences.

She continues, This kind of critical, comparable, and comprehensive research is important, both to understand the magnitude and distribution of the diverse and evolving health needs of females and males around the world and to identify key opportunities for health gain at all stages of life.

The authors stress that the health differences identified begin to emerge in adolescence, coinciding with a critical time when gender norms and attitudes intensify and puberty reshapes self-perceptions. This pattern underscores the need for targeted responses from an early age to prevent the onset and exacerbation of health conditions and for adopting a life course approach when planning for health systems so that they are well-equipped to handle the needs of the populations they serve.

Ultimately, unravelling the roots of these health differences by collecting and reporting sex-specific data (and gender identity-specific data when possible) and promoting gender-sensitive research is central to health policy decisions that offer the best opportunities for progress towards an equitable and healthy future for all.

But despite repeated commitments from international and funding agencies, there remain substantial gaps in the availability of sex-disaggregated data. Even for COVID-19, around 60% of countries did not consistently breakdown data by sex. And information on gender identity is even more limited.

Dr Patwardhan adds, Our analysis also highlights the need for targeted policies and planning to address the health needs of diverse populations. Without granular insights on risk behaviours, social dynamics, economic conditions, and access to health care for all people in various parts of the world, the systemic barriers that sustain health inequities will remain.

The authors note some important limitations, including that while the study uses the best available data, estimates are constrained by the quantity and quality of past data as well as systemic biases present in epidemiological datasuch as recall bias from self-reported data and the under-representation of population groupswhich may affect the accuracy of the health differences described. Additionally, the analysis was limited to data on females and males and could not produce estimates for gender-diverse or sex-diverse groups, highlighting the need for more data spanning the sex and gender spectrums. Finally, the study did not include female- and male-specific conditions such as gynaecological diseases and prostate cancers to allow for cross-population comparisons and to highlight areas where sex-and gender-responsive interventions could have substantial health benefits.

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Sarah Hawkes from the Institute of Global Health, University College London, UK (who was not involved in the study) stresses that too often sex-disaggregated data are overlooked or simply ignored in decision-making processes. She writes, Even with many decades of empirically robust and rigorous efforts by GBD to report sex differences, we have not seen the same level of attention paid to the question of integrating gender-responsiveness into responses aiming to reduce DALYs or lengthen life expectancy. Yet it is genderie, the unequal distribution of power and privilege in the systems and structures determining health and wellbeingthat is determining a large part of the observed health and life expectancy differences between people. It is beyond time in public health politics, policies, programmes, and practices to ensure we move from sex-disaggregation to gender responsiveness that tackles the root causes of health inequities.
Photo courtesy: Facebook/HD Revanna

Bengaluru/IBNS: In a fresh allegation surrounding the "sex tape" row in Karnataka, former minister and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) MLA H.D. Revanna has been booked for allegedly kidnapping his maid, who appeared in the viral sex tapes involving the leader's son Prajwal Revanna .

Police registered a case against H.D. Revanna and Satish Babanna, who stays in Mysore, under several IPC sections.

For six years, the woman worked at H.D. Revanna's residence and farmhouse in Holenarasipura. She quit her work three years ago.

Last month, Babanna came to the woman's residence and said H.D. Revanna's wife Bhavani wanted to meet her.

As per the First Information Report (FIR), the woman's son said as quoted by The Indian Express, "While I was looking for my mother, on May 1, a couple of my friends asked about my mother featured in the alleged sex tapes of Prajwal.

"I called Satish over the phone to check the whereabouts of my mother and he said that a case had been registered against her and she had to get bail."

The woman, who headed back to H.D. Revanna's house, went missing since April 29. Police could not trace her yet.

Meanwhile, a lookout notice has been issued against Prajwal Revanna, who is also the former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's grandson, who is facing charges of sexual assault of women.

Earlier, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had turned down Prajwal Revanna's request to give him seven days' time to appear before the probe officials.

Prajwal Revanna has been caught in the middle of a massive row in Karnataka after some leaked explicit videos allegedly showed him sexually assaulting multiple women.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has initiated a probe against him, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged that the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna be cancelled, as he has managed to leave the country despite being the key accused in the case.

"Sending the impeding police case and arrest, the accused Member of Parliament and NDA candidate for Lok Sabha Prajwal Revanna has fled the country and travelled abroad. It is learnt from the reports that he is travelling abroad on his diplomatic passport," Siddaramaiah's letter read.

"While the SIT is working round the clock to investigate the allegations of crimes against several women by Prajwal Revanna, getting him back to the country is of utmost importance so that he faces investigation and trial as per the law of the land," he added.

The 33-year-old leader left for Germany on Saturday, a day after polling took place in Karnataka's Hassan from where he is a candidate, and shortly after the videos began circulating online.

The alleged scandal came to light after a woman filed a complaint against Prajwal Revanna over sexual assault. She accused the JDS leader of sexually abusing her on several occasions between 2019 and 2022.
Photo Courtesy: UNI File

Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence, Indonesia , Air Marshal Donny Ermawan Taufanto, M.D.S. co-chaired the 7th India-Indonesia Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) meeting in New Delhi on Friday when they expressed satisfaction at the expanding scope of defence cooperation between the two countries.

The progress made on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives deliberated in meetings of Working Groups on Defence Cooperation and Defence Industries Cooperation was also reviewed by the co-chairs.

In addition, the dignitaries identified means to enhance existing areas of collaboration especially in the field of defence industry ties, maritime security and multilateral cooperation.

During the visit, the Secretary General visited the DRDO headquarters in New Delhi as well as TATA Advanced Systems and L&T Defence facilities in Pune, read the government statement.

He also held deliberations with other Indian defence industry partners like Bharat Forge, Mahindra Defence & Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited and discussed ways to enhance defence industrial capabilities by cooperation in research & joint production.

He also called on the Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan during the visit.

The Secretary General is on a visit to India from May 02-04, 2024. He laid a wreath and paid homage to the fallen heroes at National War Memorial, New Delhi.

India and Indonesia have a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and have arrived at a shared vision of the Indo-Pacific. In current times, this partnership is characterised by closed cooperation in bilateral and multilateral arena, including frequent high-level interactions. Indonesia is an important partner in Indias Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific region.
Photo Courtesy: Arvind Kejriwal Facebook page

The Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate that it may consider the question of interim bail for Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal due to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The apex court even directed the ED counsel to come prepared on this aspect when it takes up the matter on Tuesday.

We may grant or we may not grant. But we must be open to you as neither side should be taken by surprise," a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times, alerting both sides to not assume that the court will grant bail.

Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy.

He will remain in judicial custody till May 7.

The Delhi High Court on April 9 ruled it found nothing illegal about Kejriwal's arrest.
Photo courtesy: Facebook/Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday hit out at Narendra Modi and said that while he had a lot to say during the Sandeshkhali issue, the Prime Minister kept quiet over the sexual harassment charges levelled against Governor CV Ananda Bose despite being in the state when the allegations were made.

The Trinamool Congress supremo also asked Bose how he could talk about the dignity of women when he has been accused of committing the same at his official residence.

Bose had made a series of statements against her government over the alleged sexual harassment of women by now arrested TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides in Sandeshkhali.

Calling the allegations "engineered narratives", the governor has said he expects more such charges to be levelled at him.

Addressing a rally in Bardhaman on Friday, Banerjee said: "He (PM Modi) has given so many messages ('sandesh') on Sandeshkhali. I did not let any untoward incident happen there. There was an issue around land but we solved it by sending officers to the village. But what are you doing? Yesterday, a young woman working at the Raj Bhavan came out and spoke out against the governor's harassment."

"Even yesterday, he (the governor) asked why my minister spoke against him. I have heard of thousands of such incidents but did not bring them up. But yesterday, the tears of the woman broke my heart. The governor spoke about Sandeshkhali but why did he do this to someone working for him? He molested her not once, but twice," she asked.

Stating that she had seen the video of the woman's testimony, the chief minister asked why the Prime Minister, who is in Bengal, had stayed at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday night and not even uttered a word on the same.

"Your people were also there when she left crying and said she was scared of working at the Raj Bhavan. She said he was called at odd hours and was subjected to harassment. And these are the people who talk about the dignity of our mothers and sisters," she alleged.

A temporary employee of the Raj Bhavan filed a complaint against the Governor on Thursday, accusing him of outraging her modesty. Soon after the complaint, West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya reacted to the allegation and said: "I wonder what is happening in the Raj Bhavan, and that too on a day when the Prime Minister is coming to the state."

Bose has denied the allegations. "Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God Bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal," he said on Thursday.

Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God Bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal.  Raj Bhavan Kolkata (@BengalGovernor) May 2, 2024

Reacting again on Friday, he said, "I welcome all the generous allegations and the frequent innuendoes aimed at me by some political forces. I understand, my friends, there is more in the offing. But one thing is clear, none of these absurd dramas is going to deter me from my determined efforts to expose corruption and curb violence... A more sinister plot has been hatched in the Raj Bhavan".

The Governor has also issued a notification blocking the entry of the police and Bhattacharya into the Raj Bhavan premises in Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Barrackpore.

Senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said, "I support the statement that has come from Raj Bhavan. It is a heinous conspiracy by Mamata Banerjee."
Photo courtesy: khalsavox.com

Ottawa/IBNS: Canadian Police Friday arrested members of an alleged gang linked to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia last year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Friday.

According to reports, investigators had identified the suspects in Canada some months ago and had been keeping them under tight surveillance, the CBC said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not made any comments so far.

In September last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the fatal shooting of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

However, India rejected Trudeau's claim as "absurd."

Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. The US later revealed it had foiled an assassination attempt against a Sikh separatist on its soil.

The presence of Khalistani terrorists in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi. Nijjar was labelled a "terrorist" by India.
Photo courtesy: IBNS File photo

Hyderabad/IBNS: Eight years after massive protests and a political controversy that erupted over his death by suicide, the Telangana Police has filed a closure report in the Rohith Vemula case and said he did not belong to the Dalit community, which became a premise for the protests over his death.

In the report, the police have not only said that the University of Hyderabad student did not belong to Scheduled Castes and his certificate was forged but also that he died by suicide as he feared being exposed.

Citing doubts raised by Vemula's family, the Telangana Director General of Police later released a statement saying they have decided to investigate the case further.

The accused in the case included then University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor Appa Rao and BJP leaders like then Secunderabad MP and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and MLC N Ramchender Rao in the case. All of them have been absolved of all charges.

Vemula had died by suicide on January 17, 2016, after he was rusticated by the University of Hyderabad and, in its complaint, the Ambedkar Students' Association - of which Vemula was a member - had alleged that Dattatreya had influenced then Union Education Minister Smriti Irani to take action against Dalit students at the University.

In the closure report, the Telangana Police said, "IrThe deceased himself was aware that he did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother had got him an SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would result in a loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution."

The closure report was filed on March 21 but came to light on Friday, just 10 days before polling in all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana on May 13. Telangana has a Congress government now and was ruled by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi before that.

The Congress had supported the protests seeking justice for Vemula with senior party leader Rahul Gandhi visiting the campus, as had Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Gandhi had also raised the issue in Parliament.

Rohith Vemula's family, which had alleged that he died by suicide as he was harassed based on his caste identity by members of the BJP-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and others, has accused the police of investigating the student's caste status instead of the treatment allegedly meted out to him.

In a statement released later on Friday, Telangana Director General of Police Ravi Gupta said the final report in the case was prepared in the year 2018 based on the probe conducted by the investigation officer - the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhapur - and the final report was filed by him on March 21.

"As some doubts have been expressed by the mother and others of the deceased Rohit Vemula on the investigation conducted, it has been decided to conduct further investigation into the case. A petition will be filed in the Court concerned requesting the Honourable Magistrate to permit further investigation into the case," the statement said.
Photo courtesy: wikipedia.org/Rahul Gandhi Facebook page

New Delhi: In an unexpected post, Russian Chess legend Garry Kasparov took an indirect dig at Rahul Gandhi following remarks by the Congress, who dubbed him as "an experienced player of politics and chess" upon his announcement of contesting from Rae Bareli.

Recently, the Congress shared a video of Gandhi playing a game of chess on his mobile phone during his Lok Sabha election campaign. In the video, Gandhi mentioned Garry Kasparov as his favourite chess player and drew comparisons between the strategies in chess and politics.

In this context, an X user posted a random thought stating Vishwanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov having retired early and not facing the greatest chess genius of our times.

Responding to this post, the former World Chess Champion Kasparov said, Traditional dictates that you should first win from Raebareli before challenging for the top! followed with a laughter emoji.

Traditional dictates that you should first win from Raebareli before challenging for the top!   Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 3, 2024

In a post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh underscored several reasons behind his partys decision and one of them was Rahul Gandhi being "an experienced player of politics and chess".

Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision has befuddled the BJP, its supporters, and its sycophants. The BJPs self-proclaimed Chanakya, who used to talk about paramparagat seat is now not sure how to respond, he said.

This is a long election. There are a few chess moves still left to play. Lets wait for a bit, the Congress MP added.

Many people have many opinions on the news of @RahulGandhi contesting elections from Rae Bareli.



Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion, and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 3, 2024

In the video released by Congress, Rahul Gandhi describes Kasparov as his favourite chess player, saying he considered him a "non-linear thinker".

"...once you get slightly better at it, the opponent's pieces actually operate almost like your own," he said as he drew parallels between chess and politics.

In chess as in politics, every move your opponent makes can be used to your advantage.

: Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/S6GnclGz4A  Punjab Congress Sevadal (@SevadalPB) May 2, 2024

On Friday, Gandhi submitted his nomination from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. He is also running for election from Wayanad in Kerala.

Kasparov, a former world number one and world champion, achieved the distinction of becoming the youngest-ever undisputed world champion at the age of 22 in 1985. He retired from competitive chess in 2005.

At present, he is recognized as a political activist. He is a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and lives in Croatia after fleeing Russia.

The iconic player shares a timeframe with the legendary Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand.

Recently, when 17-year-old D Gukesh surpassed Kasparov's record to become the youngest challenger for the world title, Kasparov expressed his congratulations through a post, referring to Gukesh as "the Indian earthquake".
Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from video

Allu Arjun 's much-anticipated Pushpa 2 : The Rule is set to become the first Telugu film to release in the dubbed version of Bangla.

The film will be released in Bangladesh.

Apart from Telugu and Bangla, the film will be released in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.

Ending the fans' wait, the Pushpa Pushpa single from the film was unveiled a couple of days ago.

The much anticipated teaser of Pushpa 2: The Rule was unveiled by the makers on April 8 on the occasion of Allu Arjun's 42nd birthday.

The 1:08-minute teaser begins with the shot of a ghungroo, then eyes and jhumka, promising a jatara event.

While the viewers will anticipate a woman, it is Allu Arjun who doubles up his swag in his entry into the teaser.

Wearing a blue saree and with a trishul, Allu Arjun pulled off a jatara swag in the teaser.

Apart from Allu Arjun, Pushpa 2 stars Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil in the lead.

The film, which is directed by Sukumar, is slated to release on August 15.
Photo courtesy: PR Team

The latest season transports viewers back to the journey of Ronny, a lazy young adult from Indore with no ambition in life except to live it to the fullest without putting in any effort.

Audiences will have the opportunity to delve deeper into Ronnys world in the latest edition of this franchise with the introduction of new characters and challenges that put his life at a critical point.

Season 3 is a tale of self-discovery for Ronny as he must summon his inner strength to confront challenges head-on.

Starring Zakir Khan alongside Abhimanyu Singh, Amruta Khanvilkar, Alka Amin, Vyom Sharma, Venus Singh, and newcomer Kumar Varun as Kranti in pivotal roles, Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare continues to entertain and engage viewers.

Amruta Khanvilkar portrays the role of Surekha in the series, a careful, soft-spoken political lady.

Speaking of her character in the series, Amruta shared, "Surekha's character is powerful and composed. She knows her path and is focused on it. I have never portrayed a character like her before.

"The show is one of the finest web series I have been a part of. Working on this series felt like returning home to lovely people. I've learned that you can make something amazing out of even the simplest things, I learned throughout this journey."

Furthermore, Amruta also shared her experience working with Zakir Khan on the series.

She said, "I was inspired to work on this project because I've always wanted to meet and chat with Zakir whenever I watched his shows.

"He is genuinely humble and I'm not just saying this because everyone else does. Zakir is someone you should encounter at least once in your lifetime. I would say that just listen and follow what he has to say about life and art."

The new season of Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare is streaming exclusively on Amazon miniTV for free.
Photo Caption: WFP/Ali Jadallah

Amid growing international calls for restraint from Israel in Gaza and reports on Wednesday of further deadly strikes overnight, UN humanitarians underscored the ongoing devastating impact of the war and the need to ensure reliable aid supply lines to people in desperate need in the enclave.

One third of all the families who live here have children under five, so many babies, so many kids, said Matthew Hollingworth, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Palestine Country Director, speaking from a school in Deir Al-Balah, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

What they need is school, though what they need is more clean water, what they need is more stability. They need a normal life, the veteran aid official insisted in a video post on X.

Echoing those concerns, UNRWA noted that there have been more than 360 attacks on its facilities since the beginning of the war. In addition to the tens of thousands of victims, vital infrastructure has been impacted, including the agencys water well in the city of Khan Younis.

Getting the precious water source up and running again will require clearing tonnes of debris which the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has found to contain a lot of dangerous materials and shrapnel, said communications officer Louise Wateridge, which means that instead of coming in with bulldozers and clearing it, it all needs to be removed piece by piece, safely.

Finding refuge at school

The Al Qastal UNRWA school in the central Gaza Strip is now home to around 2,400 families who have been displaced by nearly seven months of war in Gaza.

People come from all over the Strip, from Gaza City itself, from Khan Younis next door, from all of the different neighbourhoods where people have been impacted because of the war, Mr. Hollingworth explained, his comments coming amid unconfirmed reports that two children died in an overnight Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, with more killed when an apartment block was hit in Gaza City.

While deep concerns persist about a possible Israeli invasion of Rafah  which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday would be an unbearable escalation  the WFP official noted that UN aid agencies along with international and local relief partners have worked together successfully to provide lifesaving assistance further north.

In the case of Al Qastal School, assistance includes food and special nutritional supplements for babies and infants to ensure healthy growth, Mr. Hollingworth explained.

Aid access frustration continues

UN aid coordination office OCHA reported that Israeli authorities blocked or excessively delayed the passage of three quarters of all UN-coordinated aid missions to areas requiring coordination across Gaza on Monday.

"One of those missions went to northern Gaza following full coordination with the Israeli authorities, but the team was forced to wait for a combined time of more than nine hours before departing on the way north and on the way back to Rafah."

"Such delays put humanitarian missions in jeopardy and humanitarian workers in harms way as fighting between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces often takes place near checkpoints."

OCHA also reported that when upon returning, the same mission collected the body of a boy who had apparently been killed near the checkpoint.

West Bank demolition update

In a related development and a sign of the worsening tinderbox situation in the wider Middle East, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, published new data from the occupied West Bank, showing that demolition of Palestinian property and displacement continues unabated.

The latest data from OCHA indicated that up to 22 April, more than 380 structures have been demolished in West Bank governorates, uprooting 650 people.

If the destruction continues at this rate, by the end of the year, a record 1,500 properties face being razed, the highest number since OCHA began compiling data in 2009.

Jerusalem governorate saw the highest level of damage, with 80 buildings demolished and 115 people displaced.

Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office for OCHA in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that since

7 October, Israeli forces have destroyed the homes of 1,765 Palestinians across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

This is more than the number of displaced people in any previous full year.

"Historically, displacement was mostly the result of demolitions due to lack of permits, which are rarely granted to Palestinians. More recently, it is the result of operations carried out by Israeli forces in areas where permits aren't required, such as the refugee camps of Nur Shams, Tulkarm, and Jenin," he said.

New scale of operations

"These operations have involved shoulder-fired projectiles, airstrikes, exchanges of fire, fatalities and widespread destruction, including homes and essential infrastructure like roads, water, and electricity networks. This is not something we have seen before at this scale."

The implications are vast, he added, with families losing access to their livelihoods. Some 43 per cent of those displaced are children.

"We are working hard to address these needs as a matter of priority, but humanitarian support is not the solution. Ultimately, such practices cannot continue", he said.

Toll keeps rising

Latest information from Gazan health authorities indicates that at least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October.

Some 1,250 people were killed in Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel that sparked the war, with more than 250 taken hostage. Dozens are still believed to be held captive in the enclave.

New York protest cleared

The development came as hundreds of police officers reportedly cleared a pro-Palestinian protest involving hundreds of people at Columbia University in New York late Tuesday.

At the authorities behest, police removed demonstrators who had barricaded themselves inside a building on campus, while there were reports of major clashes between rival demonstrators overnight on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles.

Hours earlier, UN rights chief Volker Turk cautioned against any heavy-handed steps by some universities in the United States when dealing with Gaza war protests.

The Columbia university president had announced that dialogue with protesters had failed and the institution would not bow to demands to divest itself from Israel.
Photo Caption: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Palestines recent attempt to become a full member of the United Nations was the focus of discussion in the General Assembly on Wednesday.

A 2022 initiative, resolution 262, calls for the UNs most representative body to meet within 10 days if the veto is used in the Security Council by one of its permanent members  China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States  who are granted this special voting power.

During a Council meeting on 18 April, the US vetoed a draft resolution that would have recommended that the General Assembly hold a vote to allow Palestine full UN membership.

Palestine is a Permanent Observer State at the UN, meaning that it can participate in all UN proceedings, except for voting on draft resolutions and decisions in its main organs and bodies.

Council divisions persist

Wednesdays discussion took place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by the bloody 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

It was convened as the divisions in the Security Council persist and hinder the Council's ability to effectively discharge its responsibilities, Assembly President Dennis Francis said in remarks read on his behalf.

He encouraged countries to use the discussion as an opportunity to deliberate on how the two main organs of the United Nations  the General Assembly and the Security Council  can work together to achieve a comprehensive just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question.

US: No opposition to statehood

US Deputy Representative Robert Wood said that as a permanent member of the Security Council, his country has a special responsibility to ensure that its actions further the cause of international peace and security in addition to being consistent with the UN Charter.

He said the report by the Committee on the Admission of New Members reflected that there was not unanimity among members as to whether the applicant met the criteria for membership as set out in Article IV of the UN Charter, including questions around whether it meets the requirements to be considered a State.

In this regard, he said the US has long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms, noting that Hamas, a terrorist organisation, is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the State envisioned in this resolution.

Reiterating that Washington continues to strongly support a two-State solution between Israelis and Palestinians, he said the vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.

Mr. Wood concluded by noting that the General Assembly is holding two meetings on the casting of the same veto as a group of countries has formally requested a meeting of its 10th Emergency Special Session on the matter.

We think that the convening of this meeting today is both inconsistent with resolution 262 and is an improper use of the General Assembly's time and resources, he said.

Palestine: UN membership long overdue

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, Riyad Mansour, said he stood before the General Assembly as the massacres against the Palestinian people continue unabated.

He said an immediate ceasefire  long called for by the Assembly and demanded by the Security Council  is indispensable and cannot be delayed any further.

Stating that Palestines membership in the UN is long overdue, he said we will never accept that the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, to statehood and admission to the UN could be in any way subject to an Israeli veto.

He said Palestine will now bring the matter for consideration by the General Assembly at the resumed 10th Emergency Special Session and urged the Security Council to reconsider its application for admission.

Mr. Mansour called for every State to use the means available to them to end the carnage in Gaza and advance freedom and peace.

The time for recognition of the State of Palestine is right now, he said, expressing gratitude to the more than 140 countries that have taken this important step.

For those who have not yet recognised the State of Palestine, we say there are no grounds for further delay. Those who want to destroy the Palestinian State, and with it any chance for peace, are not waiting, he said.

Israel: No rogue State

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan noted that Tuesday marked the end of the Passover holiday and every Jewish family had an empty hole in their hearts as they were focused on the atrocities of 7 October and the suffering of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas.

Yet, as my people mark this Passover with grief, the UN is again seeking to reward the perpetrators of the horrors, he said. The UN couldn't care less about Israel. To hell with our safety, to hell with our future and to hell with our hostages.

He said, nothing exemplifies the UNs rotten values more than the advancement of a Palestinian statehood.

Mr. Erdan stated that there has never been condemnation of Hamas or a single UN initiative taken for the sake of the Israeli hostages, adding instead, this body has focused only on recognising a Palestinian terror State.

He said the Palestinian Authority does not meet the criteria for statehood, and not one Palestinian leader has condemned Hamas.

Granting Palestine full UN membership would only have two destructive results, he said  furthering terrorism and sending a clear message to the Palestinians that they never have to sit at the negotiating table, let alone make compromises.

These UN sessions will be remembered in the future as one of the primary obstacles to resolving the conflict. Remember my words. The UN today is the main impediment to peace, he said.
Photo Courtesy Unsplash

A blast hit Balochistan's Khuzdar district which left senior journalist Maulana Muhammad Siddique Mengal dead, media reports said on Friday.

As per details, the police officials stated that blast targeted the vehicle of Khuzdar press club president Maulana Muhammad Siddique Mengal, reported ARY News.

Police spokesperson told ARY News that the blast resulted in the death of Maulana Muhammad Siddique and leaving nine others injured.

The injured people were shifted to Khuzdar Teaching Hospital for treatment.

An investigation into the incident is currently underway.

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.

Pakistan is witnessing a surge in terror activities in recent years.
Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Baloch rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch recently expressed concern over the atrocities committed by Pakistan Army on locals in Mashkay region of Balochistan.

The people of Mashkay Tank are facing the worst atrocities in the ongoing struggle of Balochistan, Sammi Deen Baloch was quoted as saying by ANI.

She also informed that about a month ago, an army camp was attacked by separatists in Balochistans Mashkay

She said, After this attack, the locals are forced to work for free in inhumane conditions. They are forced to leave their occupations and jobs. Moreover, all the physically fit men of the area are taken to labour camps and are forced to do labour work for free. They are forced to work as cleaners, sweepers and physical labourers for free.

The right activist even said in some cases the people are used as a human shield to protect the army personnel in case of potential attacks.

They are captured in a live prison, they are not allowed to take care of their families or go back to their farms. For over a month now these men have been working for the army for free, whereas their fields remain barren. Their families are forced to starve and their pockets remain empty," she said.

She claimed three people were victims of enforced disappearance in recent times.
US President Joe Biden. Photo Courtesy: Joe Biden Instagram page

Grouping together with countries like China and Russia, US President Joe Biden has described Japan and India as 'xenophobic'.

He made the comment just weeks after he called the US-Japan alliance "unbreakable".

India is a key US partner.

"Why? Because we welcome immigrants," he added. "Think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants," Biden was quoted as saying by BBC Asian-American audience while speaking at a campaign fundraising event on Wednesday (May 1, 2024).

Criticising the comments, Elbridge Colby, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Trump administration, posted on X: "Japan and India are two of our very stoutest and important allies. We should speak of them with respect, which they command and deserve."

"Applying parochial progressive views to our allies is patronizing and foolish," he said.

The White House, meanwhile, denied that the President made the remarks in a derogatory sense.

US national security spokesman John Kirby was quoted as saying by BBC: "Our allies and partners know well in tangible ways how President Biden values them, their friendship, their co-operation."

Kirby said, "They understand how much he completely and utterly values the idea of alliances and partnerships."
Photo Courtesy: Khalistan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus recent comments on Khalistani elements within Canada have sparked a new round of tension between Canada and India, highlighting a serious issue that extends beyond diplomatic spats and touches on the very fabric of Canadian society. Trudeaus approach, which appears to tolerate and even protect extremist elements under the guise of political freedom and protection of minority rights, is a dangerous game that not only damages Canadas international relations but also cultivates a climate of violence and criminality domestically.

The issue was brought to the forefront again when Trudeau reiterated Canadas commitment to safeguarding the rights of the Sikh community, irrespective of the context. While the intent to protect minority rights is commendable, the failure to strongly distinguish between the Sikh community and extremist factions advocating for Khalistan blurs critical lines. This lack of clarity in leadership messaging can provide unintentional shelter for those who seek not just to express political views but to incite and commit acts of violence.

Furthermore, the External Affairs Ministry of India has rightly pointed out that Trudeaus remarks not only strain India-Canada relations but also foster a homegrown climate of violence and criminality. The killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a known Khalistani separatist, in Surrey and Trudeaus comments linking it to a problem in relations with India underscore the gravity of the situation. Its not just about a diplomatic row; its about acknowledging that such incidents have real, violent manifestations within Canadian borders.

Trudeaus stance might be interpreted as a political strategy aimed at appeasing a specific voter base. However, this strategy is shortsighted. It risks the safety of Canadian citizens by giving extremists a platform and political cover to operate. The boldness of extremists grows when they perceive tolerance or support at the highest levels of government. This emboldening, in turn, increases the risk of violent incidents, as evidenced by the events surrounding Nijjars death.

Moreover, the diplomatic repercussions are stark. Indias response, including the temporary suspension of visa services and the demand for Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence, reflects the severity with which it views Canadas handling of the Khalistani issue. Such measures are not just symbolic; they represent a significant disruption in the lives of ordinary people and businesses in both countries and hint at deeper undercurrents of distrust.

Prime Minister Trudeau must rethink his approach. Protecting the rights of the Sikh community, a vital and vibrant part of Canadian multicultural tapestry, must not equate to providing a haven for extremism. Clear lines must be drawn, and strong, unequivocal messages need to be sent to both protect the Sikh community and deter separatism and violence. Canadas strength lies in its commitment to multiculturalism and political freedom, but this strength should not be allowed to be exploited by those who wish to undermine the very principles Canada stands for. Trudeaus current policy approach does not just strain diplomatic ties; it threatens the social and security fabric of the nation itself.

(Photo and text courtesy: Khalsavox.com)
After its successful theatrical run, the movie "Akelli," starring Nushrratt Bharuccha, is now available for streaming. Directed by Pranay Meshram, this film has moved from cinemas to an OTT platform. "Akelli" is a survival thriller that tells the gripping tale of Jyoti, a woman living and working secretly in a cloth factory in Mosul, Iraq, far from her family in India, who believe she resides in Muscat, Oman. Her life takes a dramatic turn when terrorists storm the city and capture her and several others. The film follows her harrowing journey to survive and escape.

Akelli OTT Release: When And Where To Watch Nushrratt Bharuccha's Survival Thriller

Poster Of Akelli/IMDb

When To Watch Akelli On OTT?

Akelli is made available online starting today, May 3, 2024.

Also read: Baahubali Crown Of Blood OTT Release: When And Where To Watch SS Rajamouli's Animated Series

Where To Watch Akelli Online?

Akelli is streaming on Jio Cinema.

Nushrratt Bharucchas "Akelli" Hits Streaming Service

Jio Cinema announced the OTT release via their Instagram, describing the movie as an epic survival story and urging viewers to witness Jyotis battle for life. The platform released the movie along with an intriguing trailer, which captures the intense essence of Jyoti's fight.

"Akelli" also stars Tsahi Halevi and includes a cast of talented actors such as Amir Boutrous and Piloo Vidyarthi. It is produced by Aparna Padgaonkar and Shashant Shah under the banner of Dashami Studioz.

Also read: Asura Guru Telugu OTT Release: When And Where To Watch Vikram Prabhu Starrer Action Film

Actress Nushrratt has been appreciated for her ability to bring depth to her roles, often playing strong, independent women. Her breakthrough came with the 2011 film "Pyaar Ka Punchnama," directed by Luv Ranjan, in which she played the role of Neha, a manipulative girlfriend. The film was a sleeper hit, and her performance was noted for its charm and effectiveness in portraying a complex character. She continued to collaborate with Luv Ranjan on successful projects like "Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2" (2015) and "Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety" (2018), the latter of which was a major commercial success and increased her recognition significantly.

Apart from these, she has appeared in several other films, including "Akaash Vani" (2013), where she received critical praise for her performance as a woman trapped in an abusive marriage, and "Dream Girl" (2019), where she starred opposite Ayushmann Khurrana. In "Chhalaang" (2020), she took on the role of a computer teacher in a small-town school, showcasing her versatility as an actress.

Also Read: Panchayat Season 3 On OTT: Jitendra Kumar's Salary For The First Two Seasons Revealed

Throughout her career, Nushrratt Bharuccha has also been active on various social media platforms and is known for her fashion sense and style, making her a popular figure among fans.

For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.
Hosted annually on the first Monday of every May, the Met Gala is organised at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to raise money for the museum's Costume Institute. As 2024's Met Gala is around the corner and we are eagerly waiting to get our dose of fashion and couture at its best, let's take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing the fashion choices made by Indian celebs at the event, deemed to be 'fashion's biggest night'.

1. Alia Bhatt

Alia made her debut at the Met Gala in 2023 in an all-white number by Prabal Gurung. Inspired by the iconic Chanel brides, the custom-made gown was adorned with 100,000 pearls. Minimal and dewy makeup rounded off the Bollywood actor's look, giving her a 'princess-like' vibe.

2. Deepika Padukone

Deepika Padukone/Instagram

Deepika made her first appearance at the Met Gala in a chic outfit designed by Tommy Hilfiger in 2017. Following her debut, the actor wore a head-turning red gown by designer Prabal Gurung in 2018. Her most recent appearance in 2019 was the most remarkable where she wore a bubblegum pink strapless number with three-dimensional silver embroidery. The statement Zac Posen gown was accompanied by a tall ponytail and headband, a pair of diamond earrings, and a cuff bracelet to complete the look.



3. Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Priyanka Chopra/Instagram

The global icon has served multiple iconic looks at the event since her debut. At the 2017 Met Gala, Priyanka donned a trench coat dress with a huge train designed by Ralph Lauren. While the fashion girlies loved our 'desi girl' she also became the butt of many a joke as people made various memes featuring her 'never-ending' train'.

At the 2018 Met Gala the actor arrived in yet another Ralph Lauren creation, a maroon velvet gown accompanied by a gold bejeweled hood and a bold red completed her look. In 2019 the actor again stunned audiences in an ornate silver Dior ensemble with equally bold makeup, featuring silver-frosted lashes and brows. In her most recent appearance in 2023, Priyanka dazzled everyone in a black Valentino number with a daring thigh-high slit.

4. Natasha Poonawalla

Natasha Poonawalla/Instagram

Billionaire business icon Natasha Poonawalla attended the Met Gala for the first time in 2018 in an illustrative gown by designer Prabal Gurung. Voluminous hair and a bold red lip completed her look. Following her impressive debut Natasha once again stole our heart in an ice-blue gown by Peter Dundas. In a yet another show-stopping look Natasha paired a Sabyasachi saree with a Schiaparelli bustier at the Met Gala 2022.

Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania, the philanthropist expertly carried look, which is an amazing blend of the flowy drape of the saree and the sharp lines of the bustier. In her fourth appearance at the Met Gala in 2023, Natasha donned a dramatic custom gown by Schiaparelli, that gave her a silhouette subtly resembling a cat, to pay homage to designer Karl Lagerfield's pet Choupette.



5. Isha Ambani

Isha Ambani/Instagram

Isha Ambani, daughter of Asias richest man Mukesh Ambani, made her debut at the Met Gala in 2017 in a Christian Dior gown that featured leafy embellishments and pearls. After which at the 2019 Met Gala Isha donned a voluminous lilac gown with a plunging neckline and feather trims. In her latest appearance at the event in 2023, she wore a satin black saree-gown by designer Prabal Gurung. The hand-embroidered crystals and pearls were a perfect choice for the starry occasion.



6. Sudha Reddy

Philanthropist and businesswoman Sudha Reddy marked her debut at the Met Gala in 2021 in a Falguni & Shane Peacock ensemble. The body-hugging number from the designer duo featured a trail in shades of blue, red and gold inspired by the American flag, reflecting the year's theme - American Independence.

While Reddy is the first Indian celeb confirmed to grace the gala, this year taking place on May 6 with the theme of 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion', we are sure other Indian celebs will also join her at the most awaited fashion event of the year. Do Let us which Indian celeb's appearance are you most excited for?

For more on lifestyle, astrology and health from around the world please visit Indiatimes Lifestyle.


Every year, May 3 is observed as International Leopard Day to create awareness about the big cats and the importance of their conservation. As the world marked International Leopard Day on Friday, Wildlife SOS a prominent wildlife NGO and the Maharashtra Forest Department celebrated the successful reunion of 110 leopard cubs with their mothers.

WILDLIFE SOS

How leopard cubs get separated from mother

In the sugarcane fields of rural Maharashtra, encounters between farmers and leopards have become increasingly common. Maharashtra, being home to the third-largest leopard population in India, witnesses a delicate balance between human and leopard territories.

Also read: Heartwarming Video Shows Leopard Cubs Reunited With Mum

With sugarcane cultivation expanding, leopard habitats have transformed into agricultural land, leading to frequent encounters between humans and leopards, especially during the harvest season from December to March.

"The reunification process is crucial for the cubs as it allows them to acquire essential survival skills from their mothers, including hunting and adapting to the wild. Without maternal guidance, these cubs face a major challenge in their journey to independence," Geeta Seshamani, Co-founder and Secretary of Wildlife SOS, said.

WILDLIFE SOS

Working with farmers to rescue leopards

Female leopards, known for their elusive nature, often choose sugarcane fields as birthing sites due to the dense vegetation providing a protective environment for their newborns.

Also read: Four Leopard Cubs Found In Sugarcane Field Reunite With Mother

However, as farmers begin clearing the fields during harvest, unsuspecting leopard cubs are often discovered, prompting immediate intervention from Wildlife SOS and the Maharashtra Forest Department.

"Since 2007, Wildlife SOS has been at the forefront of leopard conservation efforts in Maharashtra, working closely with the forest department to ensure the safety and well-being of these magnificent big cats," Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said.

WILDLIFE SOS

How leopard rescues are carried out

Moreover, beyond the sugarcane fields, leopard cubs have also been found fallen inside open wells, adding to the urgency of conservation efforts. Open wells pose a significant threat to wildlife, as animals inadvertently fall into these death traps, often resulting in fatal consequences.

"Upon receiving reports of stranded cubs, Wildlife SOS along with the forest department, dispatches expert teams to assess the situation, conduct medical examinations, and facilitate reunions with their mothers," Mahendra Balu Dhore, Project Manager- Maharashtra, Wildlife SOS said.

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A cursed ship that set sail with 14 people on board over a century ago and vanished has recently been located. On May 1, 1909, the Adella Shores set sail from the area around Whitefish Point in the Great Lakes and was destroyed by a severe gale on Lake Superior. By this point, she'd sunk twice and been raised and put back into duty.

It followed another boat that was cutting a route through the ice for it, loaded with salt. However, severe gusts hit the vessels, and the Adella Shores receded two miles behind the boat in front until it was no longer visible.



Ship mysteriously vanished 115 years ago

The ship sank into the water, taking with it all 14 people on board | Image: YouTube

Nobody saw the ship sail again after that; it sank into the water, taking with it all 14 people on board. It was supposed that the boat had struck a chunk of ice and sank swiftly, but The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society discovered it several years later, in 2021.



They used sonic gear to examine the waterways for the ship, which was discovered approximately 40 miles northwest of Whitefish Point.

(Also read: American Couple Abandons Traditional Jobs To Live Year-Round On Cruise Ships For Under $10,000)

The society has only recently announced its findings to ensure that they could conduct an adequate investigation and be certain of what they discovered.

How many times did the ship sink?

Given that it sank for the third and final time with everyone on board, it is assumed that the ship succumbed to a dreadful 'curse' that eventually claimed the Adella Shores as its own.

The ship was believed to be cursed | Image: YouTube

If the vessel was cursed, it was because it was not properly christened with a bottle of alcohol, which is typically regarded as a sign of bad luck for a ship.



The ship, which sank in 1909, was built in 1894 for the Shores Lumber Company and named after the owner's daughter, Adella.

Why was the ship considered to be cursed?

According to CBS, her sister Bessie christened the ship with a bottle of water because the family had strict alcohol policies.



Indeed, christening a ship before its launch has long been a proud and often brutal maritime rite. Ancient civilizations poured "holy liquid" over their boats, whilst Vikings chose to sacrifice their slaves to their gods.

(Also read: Crazy And Restrictive Cruise Ship Rules For Workers Will Shock You)

When they turned to Christianity, they went from slaughtering people to killing goats. Wine was a popular means to christen a ship, but it wasn't until the 18th century that the ritual of breaking champagne on board began to be used.

Failure to christen a ship is considered unlucky, and the Titanic, the most famous shipwreck of all time, not being christened has only fueled this belief.

What do you think about this? Tell us in the comments.



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Ratan Tata, an icon of leadership and vision, is an enduring symbol of business excellence and philanthropy and serves as a timeless source of inspiration for all. Every day, people are treated to new stories and insights about Ratan Tata, adding to the ongoing legacy of his influence and inspiration. There's no denying that he is one of the most admired entrepreneurs globally. Many people know that Ratan Tata has a heart of gold and evidence of this can often be found. In addition to his accomplishments in the business world, Ratan Tata is also known as an animal lover, with a special fondness for dogs.



He frequently showcases his affection for dogs in his social media posts. The Tata Group has shown empathy towards animals and has initiated various campaigns to raise awareness about animal welfare.

But do you know back in the day, there was an event organised by King Charles to honour Ratan Tata with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Buckingham Palace? But Ratan Tata didn't show up?. Do you know why? Because he didn't want to leave his dog alone, who wasn't feeling well. Isn't that heartwarming?

The Heartwarming Tale of Ratan Tata

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In a past interview with a YouTube channel, business and brand consultant Suhel Seth shared why Ratan Tata missed an event organised by King Charles to give him a Lifetime Achievement Award for philanthropy at Buckingham Palace.



Also Read: 75 Per Cent Indians Have Encountered Deepfake Content Says McAfee Study

Everything was set. It (the award ceremony) was under the auspice of the British Asian Trust, Suhel said in an interview.

Suhel mentioned that he was in London around February 2 or 3, 2018, when he received 11 missed calls from Ratan Tata. When he called back, Tata said Tango and Tito, his dogs, one of them had fallen terribly ill, I cant leave him and come. Suhel was surprised by this reason. Later, when he informed King Charles about the situation, the king understood and empathised with Tata's decision, Thats a man. Thats the man Ratan is, Seth quoted Charles saying.

King Charles

Thats why the house of Tata is what it is. Thats why its on a stable course, he added.



This incident shows Ratan Tata's love, particularly towards animals, as he is known to be a dog lover. His philanthropic efforts, including the upcoming opening of Tata Trusts' Small Animal Hospital in Mumbai's Mahalaxmi, demonstrate his commitment to animal welfare. It's worth noting that Mr. Tata's beloved pet dog Tito passed away a few years ago.

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China has experienced remarkable economic growth in the past twenty years, with its annual gross national income rising by an average of over 13%. This growth has positioned China in a unique position concerning international debt. On one hand, it stands as the largest lender to Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), yet on the other hand, it is also the biggest borrower within the same group.

From 2012 to 2022, China received around 40% of the total net financial inflows to LMICs, as reported in Yahoo Finance. During this period, external creditors pumped a total of $4 trillion into China, with 32% of this amount contributing to debt, and the remaining 68% coming in as equity inflows, including portfolio equity and foreign direct investment.

Conversely, China emerged as the primary creditor to LMICs, with the collective external debt owed to China by these countries reaching $180 billion in 2022. A significant portion of this debt financed large-scale infrastructure projects and extractive industries in African nations, which accounted for 44% of the total LMIC debt to China.

Additionally, in South Asia, the debt owed to China surged nearly sevenfold from $6.4 billion in 2012 to $42.9 billion in 2022, with Pakistan alone responsible for two-thirds of this increase. According to reports, China predominantly directs its lending towards three key areas: oil-producing nations, mineral-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and neighbouring countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative.

China Currency | Photo: Reuters

In the world of global economics, debt plays a significant role in shaping the financial landscape between countries. One major player in this dynamic is China, a country known for its strategic investments and lending practices across the globe. As of 2022, several nations find themselves indebted to China, with significant sums owed in external debt. Let's take a closer look at the top 10 countries with the highest debt to China, based on data from the World Bank via Yahoo Finance.



Also Read: China Tops The List Of World's Most Expensive Cities To Raise Children

Pakistan:

At the top of the list is Pakistan, which owes a massive $26.6 billion (Over Rs 2.1 lakh Crore) to China. Over the years, China has invested heavily in Pakistan's infrastructure, including the development of ports, roads, and energy projects. These investments aim to strengthen economic ties between the two nations and boost Pakistan's development efforts.

Angola:

Following closely behind is Angola, with a debt of $21.0 billion (Approx Rs 2.1 lakh crore) owed to China. Angola, rich in natural resources like oil and diamonds, has relied on Chinese loans to fund its infrastructure projects, such as roads, railways, and housing developments. However, the country's economy has faced challenges due to fluctuations in commodity prices and high debt levels.

Sri Lanka:

With a debt of $8.9 billion (Approx Rs 74,000 crore), Sri Lanka has borrowed significantly from China for various infrastructure projects, including the construction of ports, airports, and highways. These investments are part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, aimed at enhancing connectivity and promoting economic development across Asia and beyond.

Ethiopia:

Ethiopia's debt to China stands at $6.8 billion (Approx Rs 56,000 crore), mainly for financing projects in transportation, telecommunications, and industrial development. According to reports, China invested $13.7 billion in Ethiopia to help improve infrastructure and create employment opportunities, but concerns have been raised about debt sustainability and transparency in project implementation.

Kenya:

Kenya owes China $6.7 billion (Approx Rs 55,000 crore), primarily for financing projects in transportation, energy, and manufacturing. Chinese-funded initiatives such as the Standard Gauge Railway have played a crucial role in enhancing Kenya's infrastructure and connectivity within East Africa. However, the country faces challenges in managing its debt levels and ensuring the sustainability of Chinese loans.

Bangladesh and Zambia:

Both Bangladesh and Zambia have borrowed $6.1 billion (Approx Rs 50,000 crore) each from China for infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, and power plants. These investments aim to address critical development needs and stimulate economic growth. However, concerns have been raised about debt sustainability and the terms of Chinese loans in these countries.

Laos:

Laos has accumulated a debt of $5.3 billion (Approx Rs 44,000 crore) to China for investments in hydropower projects, transportation infrastructure, and special economic zones. These projects play a vital role in supporting Laos' economic development and integration into regional markets. However, there are concerns about environmental impacts and debt sustainability associated with Chinese-funded projects.

Egypt:

Egypt's debt to China amounts to $5.2 billion (Approx Rs 43,000 crore), primarily for investments in energy, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure. These projects aim to modernize Egypt's infrastructure and promote economic growth. However, challenges remain in managing Egypt's debt levels and ensuring the effective implementation of Chinese-funded initiatives.

Nigeria:

Nigeria owes China $4.3 billion (Approx Rs 35,000 crore) for investments in railways, roads, and airports to improve transportation infrastructure and stimulate economic development. Chinese-funded projects such as the Lagos-Ibadan railway have contributed to Nigeria's infrastructure development goals. However, concerns exist about debt sustainability and the impact of Chinese loans on Nigeria's economy.

Ecuador:

Lastly, Ecuador has borrowed $4.1 billion (Approx Rs 34,000 crore) from China for projects ranging from energy infrastructure to transportation. These investments aim to support Ecuador's economic development and enhance its connectivity with neighboring countries. However, challenges persist in managing debt levels and ensuring the effective implementation of Chinese-funded projects.

While Chinese investments have the potential to drive economic growth and infrastructure development in recipient countries, it is essential for these nations to carefully manage their debt levels and ensure transparency and accountability in project implementation to safeguard long-term financial stability and sustainable development.

Also Read: Why China & Saudi Arabia Have Signed A $6.9 Billion Currency Swap Deal

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Eurovision betting odds show Greece and Marina Sattis Zari slipping in their chances of winning the song contest a latest round of reversals was completed.

Despite a strong performance in the second rehearsal before the semi-finals, betting odds remain skeptical of Sattis chances to secure a position in the top five. Greece saw

its chances climbing to seventh place in recent days, slipping now to ninth, with Irelands entry significant advances.

The top contender for the Eurovision title has seen a dramatic shift. Croatia has surged back to the lead in the betting odds, pushing the former frontrunner, Switzerland, down to second place. Meanwhile, Ukraine has made a notable jump from fifth to third place, followed closely by Italy in fourth. The Netherlands, previously a strong contender, has now fallen to fifth place in the latest betting predictions.

The Eurovision Song Contest continues to surprise, with performances that could potentially alter the course of the competition.

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An elderly Greek couple has been found murdered in the quiet village of Brodista in Albania, police say.

The victims, aged 88 and 84, were discovered early Thursday with signs of violence upon their bodies.

Authorities said they ruled out any forced entry to the couples home. They investigating the possibility of a relatives involvement in the crime.

The case is under investigation and a special investigative team is working with the local prosecutors office to shed light on the heinous act.

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In the latest uptick in illegal migrant entries, 38 men were rescued south of Gavdos, coast guard officials have announced.

The group was picked up by a Liberian-flagged cargo ship, 17.5 nautical miles from the island that has become a new landing ground for illegal migrants. All of the men

were transferred to Chora Sfakion port by the Coast Guard.

Gavdos and Cretes southern coastline have witnessed a rise in migrant landings in recent months.

More than 1,180 migrants, primarily from Egypt, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, have reached the islands, since the start of the year, marking a substantial jump from the 686 recorded in all of 2023.

The influx poses challenges for Gavdos, a small island with limited resources, prompting local authorities to seek additional support to meet the immediate needs of the migrants before their relocation to Crete.

The situation underscores the shifting patterns of migration routes into the European Union, with increased sea patrols in the eastern Aegean prompting smugglers to explore new paths, including the perilous journey from Libya to southern Crete.

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Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, on Thursday, disclosed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is doing everything possible to frustrate the opposition.

Momodu who stated this in an interview on Channels Televisions Politics Today also accused the ruling party of plotting to crush the opposition.

APC will do everything possible to destroy opposition; buy those who are buyable, to terrorise those who are not buyable and make sure that the party is in disarray, that is all, he said

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READ ALSO: Repentant Boko Haram Insurgents Burn NDLEA, NCS Checkpoints In Borno

According to him, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is stifling the opposition even after thriving as an opposition leader before his party overtook power from the PDP government.

You see part of my admiration for then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos was the role he played as an opposition leader.

But unfortunately, now we have a former opposition leader in government, and they dont want opposition, its an irony, he added.

Momodu, however, said he is optimistic that the PDP will resolve its issues and bounce back as a strong opposition party.
Former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani, on Thursday, adjudged that the mastermind of the 2022 Kaduna-Abuja train kidnapping must face justice.

Sani expressed pleasure that the mastermind of the train kidnapping was arrested.

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Police had disclosed the arrest of the mastermind behind the killing of passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna train in March 2022.

READ ALSO: Nasarawa Police Arrest Fake EFCC Operatives For Robbery, Kidnapping

The mastermind was identified as Ibrahim Abdullahi, also known as Mandi.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Kaduna, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who made this known on Thursday informed the media that the suspect had also participated in the abduction of students from Greenfield University in 2021.

In reaction, Sani wrote on X: Its pleasing and commendable to learn that the Nigerian Police have finally arrested the masterminds of the 2022 Kaduna Abuja Train kidnappings.

They killed and destroyed the lives of others. Justice must be done.
The Lagos State Police Command, on Thursday, disclosed that it has identified the police officer who allegedly shot a young man, Toheeb Eniafe, at a petrol station on Wednesday.

INFORMATION NIGERIA learnt that Eniafe was shot at a petrol station belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited at Obalende in the Ikoyi area of the State.

Reacting to the unfortunate incident in a statement made by the commands Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin on Thursday, said: The person behind the shooting has been identified as a police officer serving at Special Protection Unit (SPU) Base 17, Lion Building, Lagos.

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Investigation is still ongoing and further findings will be made available.

READ MORE: Lagos Police Nab Man While Allegedly Vandalising, Stealing Cables At Midnight

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command is working with the family of the deceased to ensure that there is no miscarriage of justice.

Eniafe was reported to have been shot dead while he and some others were resisting the move by the two identified police officer who arrived the filling station to buy fuel without joining the queue.

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Suspected repenntant Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly set ablaze the checkpoints of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Borno State.

Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication focused on the Lake Chad region, in a Thursday statement, said the incident occurred on Wednesday.

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According to its report, the terrorists dressed in military uniforms invaded the Kasuwan Fara in Maiduguri and chased away the personnel of the agencies.

The publication said the terrorists burnt down all structures at the checkpoint, adding that the insurgents moved to the Kasuwan Fara divisional police office and attempted to release eight of their members in custody.

Makama said those in custody were arrested on April 24 during a raid carried out 4 the police on the notorious spot at the criminals-ridden Kasuwan Fara.

READ ALSO: EFCC Chairman Narrates Encounter With 17-Year-Old Yahoo Boy Who Left Him Stunned With His IT Skill

Due to the rise and persistence of criminal activities and sinister operations by drug peddlers comprising dismissed military personnel, repentant insurgents and other hoodlums, who assemble there to conduct nefarious activities, the area had since been earmarked for closure by Borno state government.

The April 24 raid, where the eight suspected repentant insurgents were arrested and 426 bottles of spirits such as dry gin confiscated, was conducted to sanitize the area, pending the final closure.

The arrested persons were detained at the Kasuwan Fara police division since the day of their arrest.

Subsequently, at about 7:40 am of Thursday, May 2, a dozen of the suspected repentant insurgents in military uniform, stormed the Kasuwan Fara police station in an attempt to rescue their arrested fellows, it said.

Makama said the police operatives engaged the insurgents in a gun battle, adding that the terrorists were overwhelmed and fled the location.
Fatime Letifova

Colonel General Kerem Mustafayev, Azerbaijans Deputy Minister of Defense and Commander of the Combined Arms Army, has paid an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azernews reports.

During the visit, Colonel General Kerem Mustafayev held meetings with Major General Aziz Nasirzadeh, the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with other officials.

The discussions focused on the current situation and prospects of military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran, exchanging detailed views on regional security.
Sola Sobowale, a Nollywood actress, has explained why she abandoned her acting career to work as a caregiver abroad.

Toyin Tomato, as she is affectionately known by fans and colleagues, revealed this during a live conversation on Teju Baby Face Show.

According to her, people felt she was insane for leaving her million-paying acting job to work abroad.

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Recalling her ordeal, she said; One of the top Ogas looked at me and said have I met you before and I said no, while trying to hide her identity.

However, she went back to meet him at the office for clarification.

After I saw him in the office, I went there and asked may I know you sir and he said his name is Seye Fadipe. And I said yes, you have met me before. I said my name is Sola Sobowale. You met me on the television, She said.

The 58-year-old veteran actress stated that things were difficult, but she had to complete the tasks for the sake of her old age.

READ MORE: Nollywood Actress Sola Sobowale Refutes Death Speculations, Drug Trafficking Claims

She said, having disclosed her identity, He looked at me and said are you crazy? I said I am not crazy. He asked what are you doing? You are up there in Nigeria.

But there was something better than that. My future. My children are my future.

There will be a time when the energy that Sola Sobowale will no longer be there. Then it is what you sow that you reap.

At that time, Sola Sobowale was baba career. Career that there was nothing you will not do.

Not senior career or team leader. You will wash. You will carry. You will clean. You will do everything.

WATCH VIDEO BELOW,
Adebowale Adedayo, a famed Nigerian comedian known as Mr Macaroni, has explained why he ceased speaking on political problems in Nigeria.

Mr Macaroni rose to popularity following his involvement in the #EndSARS protest against police brutality in October 2020.

He was particularly vociferous during the 2023 election, alleging threats against him and his family for his activism and political views.

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However, the skit creator has recently been reserved when it comes to political matters.

In a recent interview with Wazobia FM, Mr Macaroni stated that he is no longer concerned about political developments because the people I am fighting for see me as a troublesome person.

To answer the question of being laid back. You notice that even celebrities no just too dey talk. You see Nigeria is a very funny country. Nigerians are also very funny.

And I say it with all seriousness because I am not so happy about how things are going. You keep talking and it seems like you are the troublesome person. The same Nigerians that you speak for turn against you. They start to fight you, he said.

READ MORE: Reason I Said Wizkid Disrespected Don Jazzy  Mr Macaroni

And you are asking yourself I am not looking for anything in this. I look at Nigeria and I do not think I want to get into the political space. Because it seems like the political space in Nigeria corrupts the very best of us.

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Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dele Momodu, has weighed on the rift between Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.

Fubara and Wike have been at each others neck since the governor assumed office on May 29, 2023.

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The fight had affected the state House of Assembly, Local Government Chairmen, and some State Commissioners loyal to both parties.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had intervened in the crisis and prevailed on both factions to sign a peace-pact.

READ ALSO: Forcing Nigerians To Pay Higher For Non-Existent Electricity Unethical  NLC, TUC Demand Tariff Hike Reversal

Despite the peace accord, both parties and their loyalist have continued the cold war.

Momodu however said the political rivalry between Wike and Fubara is due to control of the State treasury.

The veteran journalist disclosed this in an interview on Channels Televisions Politics Today on Thursday night.

He said: They are fighting in Rivers because of politics only. They also need the money in Rivers.

Tinubu has Wike in Rivers. They want him also to get hold of the state to not only give them votes, but a structure of money, structure of having direct access to the treasury Rivers State plays an important role in election in Nigeria.
Protesters holding down an encampment at the University of Pennsylvania want the school to divest its financial holdings from any companies profiting from Israels war on Hamas.

Its a demand by protesters at many of the nations other colleges, too, but so far no university has taken steps to completely divest, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, though several this week struck agreements with protesters to set up committees to take a closer look. Some faculty councils and student governments also have approved resolutions calling for it, and Penns student body is currently voting on a proposal on whether the school should divest from financial holdings benefiting Israel.

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At Penn, which has a $21 billion endowment, the hurdles could be high: The university doesnt disclose its investments, its a private institution and is not required to, so its impossible to know its ties. (Protesters have also demanded that Penn disclose all its financial holdings.)

 READ MORE: The pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn has become a game of cat and mouse between protesters and administrators

In Pennsylvania, state lawmakers have threatened the university and others over their alleged failure to protect students from antisemitism, and one Bucks County Democrat said hes going to reintroduce legislation that would prevent the state from sending funds to any school that divests from Israel.

And, current university policy, dating to 2013, requires that Penn consider divesting only if the organization is considered a moral evil ... that is creating a substantial social injury. There also must be a broad and sustained consensus of the university community on that sentiment.

 READ MORE: Pro-Palestinian advocates pressure Pa. treasurer over millions in Israel bonds

Penns campus, like others, is divided on its stance toward Israel and its military tactics.

The only broad consensus is that these are really challenging times, said Peter Eckel, senior fellow and director of the global higher education program at Penns Graduate School of Education.

Penn also says it has no interest in divesting from Israel.

The University of Pennsylvania strongly opposes sanctions, boycotts, or disinvestment targeted against Israel, a university spokesperson said. We have been clear about this issue for more than a decade. Divestment focused on Israel is also against the law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The university referred to a 2016 law that prohibits the state from entering into contracts with any entity that boycotts or divests from Israel.

The role of the state

Penns veterinary school for more than a century received tens of millions of dollars from the state. Lawmakers last year held up that funding after GOP House leaders created a task force and sent a letter requiring that the school put out an unequivocal public statement that antisemitism and calls for the genocide of Jewish people violate the schools code of conduct. Asked whether Penn ever got the money for 2023-24, a university spokesperson said: Funding is still under discussion.

Republican lawmakers in the state House have also held up funding for state-related universities for the last several years for a variety of reasons, including what research and medical care the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State provide.

 READ MORE: Some Pa. senators say they wont approve more than $31 million in state funding for Penn Vet until Liz Magill resigns

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D., Bucks) said he plans to reintroduce legislation he sponsored in 2015 to prohibit the state from giving funds to any Pennsylvania university that divests from Israel. He said he plans to update that legislation to include a state-level provision of the federal Title VI regulation that requires any higher education institution to protect students from discrimination based on race, color and national origin.

Santarsiero, who is Jewish, said he introduced the legislation originally before his children were going to college, to make sure that they and other Jewish students would not be intimidated.

Students and professors who wanted to speak their mind about Israel were still free to do that, as much as I would disagree with them, Santarsiero said of his original bill. If the schools took the extraordinary step of divesting or boycotting Israel, there would be a consequence.

About the same time, Pennsylvania passed the bipartisan law in 2016 to ward off the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel from taking root in the state.

It is in the interest of the United States and the commonwealth to stand with Israel and other countries by promoting trade and commercial activities and to discourage policies that disregard that interest, says the law, which prohibits the state from contracting with any organization that is boycotting or divesting from Israel.

Several legislative leaders did not respond to requests for comment about whether they would consider Santarsieros bill or take their own action against any Pennsylvania school that divests from Israel.

Another lawmaker, State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) said in a news release Thursday that he introduced legislation to prohibit the state from funding any school that authorizes, facilitates or otherwise supports any event promoting antisemitism on campus, including the encampments.

Penns response and past calls for divestment

Divestment means selling off or getting rid of investments in companies that advocates find objectionable or harmful. The idea is to cause financial harm to the firms perpetuating the targeted acts, but also to make a statement about the target of the divestment.

Penns board chair, Ramanan Raghavendran, did not respond to a request for comment on whether the board would consider the protesters divestment demands. The university in the past has said it does not support divestment against Israel.

Penn has faced calls to divest from other things in the past, including tobacco and fossil fuels. Under its policy, members of the Penn community can ask the university to divest based on thoughtful, thoroughly considered, and sustained social responsibility concerns.

The universitys decisions on investment are largely aimed at maximizing the universitys resources to support its teaching, research and clinical care.

There is a strong presumption against the university making investment decisions based upon political, social, or ethical positions held by members of the community, its guidelines state.

A proposal by some professors to divest from tobacco stocks died in 2014. Efforts to get the university to divest from fossil fuels met resistance at first, but in recent years, the university set the goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions from its endowment investments to zero by 2050.

The university also said it would refrain from making any new commitments in private equity vehicles dedicated to investments in fossil fuel production. It also said it would continue to refrain from making direct investments in companies involved in the production of fossil fuels.

Penns student government last week approved taking a vote by the student body on whether the university should divest from Israel. The vote began last week and concludes Friday, after which the results will be posted. It may become the clearest indication of where the student body stands.

The idea of urging universities to divest is far from a new concept. There were also calls to forgo investments in South Africa during the anti-apartheid movement. Some campuses, including Columbia University, took that step, according to the Chronicle.

Those seeking divestment from companies supporting Israels military often go after Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and other companies that have supplied airplanes and missiles, according to the Chronicle. Rutgers Universitys endowment has $7.7 million in investments with such companies, according to a March article in the Daily Targum, the student newspaper.

Would divestment make a difference?

Some experts have argued that divestment would be more symbolic and would have little financial impact on companies tied to Israel.

The impact of even a lot of universities selling would be negligible, wrote James Mackintosh, senior markets columnist for the Wall Street Journal. There are far more people with huge amounts of money who dont care about links to Israel. ... Investors who sell to protest against Israel will find others willing to buy for purely financial reasons. And some deep-pocketed supporters of Israel may have money to spare that would once have been a university donation.

Protesters would be better off urging the U.S. government to make military assistance to Israel contingent on a plan for peace, wrote Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, in the Forward, a more than century-old independent publication for a Jewish American audience.

I so wish this was the object of student protest against the war in Gaza, rather than the fantasy of divestment, he wrote. Pressuring the American government to insist on a humanitarian cease fire coupled with a concerted effort to release the hostages would do far more to lead us from the narrow place that Gaza has become.

Several colleges have struck agreements with their protesters in recent days that include establishing task forces or committees to look at questions about investments.

Northwestern University will form an advisory committee, made up of students, faculty and staff, that will serve as a liaison to the investment committee. The university said it would answer questions to the best of its knowledge and to the extent legally possible about its investments, according to the Chronicle.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, committed to forming a committee to develop a recommendation on divestment by September and vote on whether to divest financial holdings from Israel a month later, the Chronicle reported.
The pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania Read more

The calls for colleges to divest their financial holdings from issues that some find objectionable have been made for decades on college campuses.

The targets have differed: Tobacco, fossil fuels and most recently Israel and its military effort and government. Thousands of students across the country are staging encampments, holding protests and clashing with their campus administrations, largely in the name of divestment.

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 READ MORE: The pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn has become a game of cat and mouse between protesters and administrators

Heres a look at what that really means.

What is divestment?

It means selling off or getting rid of investments in companies that advocates find objectionable or harmful. The idea is to cause financial harm to the firms perpetuating the targeted acts, but also to make a statement about the target of the divestment.

Its been a popular tactic used by protesters for decades, including against South Africa for apartheid.

What does divestment mean in connection with the college campus pro-Palestinian protests?

At the University of Pennsylvania, protesters have called for the university, which has a $21 billion endowment, to first disclose its investments and then divest from corporations that profit from Israels war on Gaza and occupation in Palestine.

The calls have been similar on other college campuses across the country where encampments have been set up.

What companies might that include?

Some of the companies targeted, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, and Raytheon, which have supplied Israeli Defense Forces with airplanes, missiles and other products.

Who is responsible for Penns investments?

Penns Office of Investments is responsible for investing the schools endowment and pension assets, according to its website.

The vast majority of Penns endowment is invested in the Associated Investments Fund (AIF), a pooled investment vehicle in which the many individual endowments and trusts hold units, its website said.

During fiscal year 2023, distributions from the endowment supplied $976 million toward the universitys budget.

Who votes on divestment at Penn?

The board of trustees has sole responsibility for all investment decisions, including establishing university policy on all investment-driven social responsibility issues that may be raised by members of the Penn community, according to the universitys website.

What criteria must be met for divestment to occur at Penn?

Penns policy lays out four considerations.

A moral evil must exist that is creating a substantial social injury, the policy, created in 2013, states. A specific company or companies must be identified as opposed to an industry or activity. The company must have a significant, clear, and undeniable nexus to the moral evil.

And the proposal to divest must have the support of a broad and sustained consensus of the university community reflected over a sustained period of time.

Will Penn consider divesting from Israel?

The University of Pennsylvania strongly opposes sanctions, boycotts, or disinvestment targeted against Israel, a Penn spokesperson said. We have been clear about this issue for more than a decade. Divestment focused on Israel is also against the law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The university referred to a 2016 law that prohibits the state from entering into contracts with any entity that boycotts or divests from Israel.
Drug manufacturer Endo, whose U.S. headquarters is in Malvern, has been ordered to pay more than $1 billion in fines and other penalties over its marketing of the opioid painkiller Opana ER. Read more

Endo Health Solutions Inc., a Malvern pharmaceutical company that was once one of the countrys largest opioid manufacturers, has been ordered to pay more than $1.5 billion in criminal financial penalties after pleading guilty to falsely marketing the powerful opioid painkiller Opana ER.

The combined penalties  $1.086 billion in fines and $450 million in criminal forfeiture  make up the second-highest court-ordered penalty against a pharmaceutical company, the U.S Department of Justice said Friday in a news release.

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Endo will actually pay far less than that, a company spokesperson said in an email.

Endo Health Solutions (EHSI) and its corporate affiliate, Endo International PLC, filed for bankruptcy in 2022 amid thousands of lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis.

In emerging from bankruptcy, Endo agreed with the federal government to pay $200 million to resolve its civil and criminal claims, the company spokesperson said. The company could pay an additional $100 million over five years to resolve those matters, the spokesperson said.

The company has also paid $450 million into trusts funding state and local efforts to combat the opioid crisis, the spokesperson said, noting this covers the companys criminal forfeiture payment.

Endo pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor, acknowledging its role in introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.

The company admitted that sale representatives falsely claimed that Opana ER, their extended-release brand of the opioid painkiller oxymorphone, was manufactured to deter patients from crushing the pills to snort or inject in order to achieve a quicker and more pleasurable high.

But federal officials said they lacked clinical data to support those claims.

Endo called this weeks court order an important step in our settlement with the DOJ.

The company has made significant changes since the historical conduct of certain former sales representatives, a statement from the company said. We remain committed to operating with integrity and maintaining a culture of compliance and ethics.

Federal officials said that while EHSIs corporate affiliates emerged from bankruptcy last month, EHSI itself will cease to operate in its current form and not emerge from bankruptcy.

Years of warnings about a dangerous drug

Opana ER made hundreds of millions of dollars for Endo, though concerns had been raised for years about oxymorphone, which is three times more powerful than morphine. The Inquirer has reported that as early as 1970, when Endo was marketing the drug as Numorphan, researchers working with people in addiction at the Philadelphia General Hospital noted that a fifth of the 309 patients they interviewed had used Numorphan to get high at least once.

Heroin, the researchers noted, was cheaper and more readily accessible at the time. But the researchers wrote that they suspected they had stumbled upon the first stages in the evolution of a drug abuse pattern.

Endo, which is headquartered in Ireland but operates from Malvern, later pulled the drug from the market.

In 2006, amid a boom for prescription opioid painkiller sales, Endo resurrected its old oxymorphone pills as Opana, marketing the drug in immediate release (IR) and extended release (ER) versions. The ER pills came in higher dosages and were supposed to release into the body over time, increasing the longevity of a patients pain relief.

In 2011, Endo asked the FDA to approve a reformulated version of the drug, and described it as crush-resistant  a key selling point to convince physicians that their patients couldnt use Opana to get high.

Endo proposed including a disclaimer on the reformulated drugs label that said the company was unsure of the new crush-resistant formulas clinical significance or abuse potential. The FDA eventually approved the drug but told Opana they couldnt label it as crush-resistant, saying there wasnt sufficient evidence to support that claim  and that labeling it as such could give customers a false sense of security.

Still, Endo later admitted in its guilty plea that some sales managers at the company knew that salespeople were telling potential customers in 2012 and 2013 that Opana ER couldnt be crushed or tampered with. Some salespeople even smashed placebo pills with hammers to get the point across, federal officials said.

At the federal governments request, Endo pulled Opana from the market in 2017, but it still holds a patent on the drugs.

Staff writer Jeremy Roebuck contributed.
Hilah Kohen, a Ph.D. student in comparative literature, and hundreds of supporters marched into College Hall during a GET-UP rally at the University of Pennsylvania in October. GET-UP, Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania, voted to form a union on May 3. Read more

After more than two decades, graduate student workers at the University of Pennsylvania have voted to form a union.

The vote was 95% in favor of the union, with 1,904 of the 3,700 eligible voters turning out, Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania (GET-UP) announced Friday afternoon. They will join the United Auto Workers, which represents student workers at several other universities across the United States.

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It may be the largest-ever private-sector union formed in Philadelphia, according to research by leaders at the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council.

At Penn, we engage as a community to advance what is important to us all  a dynamic and supportive academic environment, a university spokesperson said. We look forward to working with representatives from the UAW to continue this important mission for Penns graduate and professional students.

Penn is the largest employer in the city of Philadelphia. The university has relationships with existing unions and has seen a wave of organizing activity among previously nonunionized workforces over the past two years.

Employees at the Penn Museum unionized in 2021 and ratified a first contract in June. Residents and fellows in the University of Pennsylvania Health System voted to unionize almost exactly a year ago, and theyre working on negotiating a first contract. A few months later, resident assistants at Penn formed the first RA union in the Philadelphia area, quickly followed by RAs at Swarthmore College and Drexel University.

I see this as something thats larger than just Penn, said Sam Schirvar, a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in history and sociology of science, who has also worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Im looking forward to organized labor being a stronger force in Philadelphia and beyond.

Decades of organizing for Penn grad students

GET-UP filed a petition to unionize in October with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Organizers said about 3,000 student workers submitted authorization cards to join UAW.

But unionizing efforts by Penn grad students started long before that.

The first movement started in 2000 and unsuccessfully pursued union recognition from the university in 2003 and 2017.

A lot of people have put in a lot of time toward getting us to where we are now, said Raghu Arghal, a fourth year Ph.D. student and researcher in electrical and systems engineering. Despite any frustration and how long and difficult this process is, its worth it.

Luella Allen-Waller, a biology researcher and Ph.D. candidate who joined GET-UPs efforts in 2022, said organizers have been referring to the earlier two attempts at unionizing as iterations 1.0 and 2.0. Both of those efforts ended, she said, because organizers were concerned that the NLRB, then operating under Republican presidents, might overturn a union formed by student workers, potentially setting back opportunities for other university movements across the country.

The frustration they must have felt does make this week sweeter for those of us who happen to be here now, Allen-Walker said.

Pandemic push

GET-UPs movement gathered steam amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Schirvar said, and meetings got more crowded.

The early months of the pandemic, we were seeing this large change to all of our lives, and we were seeing this institution we were working for expecting a lot out of us very quickly, Schirvar said.

Allen-Walker said the pandemic was particularly pivotal for those in science, technology, engineering, and math, who have historically been less engaged in organizing because they were often better-compensated than humanities grad students. Then, she said, during the pandemic, some felt uncomfortable with how quickly they were summoned back to campus before a vaccine was available.

That created a lot of frustration, Allen-Walker said. It also created distrust.

After filing an election petition with the NLRB in the fall, GET-UP faced challenges from the university about who should be included in the potential union and eligible to vote. The election was originally scheduled to take place in mid-April, and was postponed until May amid debates.

As a result, organizers said, 3,700 student workers were eligible to have their votes counted this week. The NLRB allowed another 300 potential union members to cast their ballots subject to challenge, since they were only recently added to the voter list, but would not change the result given Fridays count.

Next step: Bargaining

Throughout their rallies and organizing events, GET-UP members have recounted personal struggles with long hours, low pay, and lack of resources  especially for international students. Theyve also expressed desire for a more democratically run workplace and educational system.

Other employees at Penn have rallied in support, including professors who are organized but unable to unionize under the NLRB unless the university voluntarily recognizes it. A coalition has formed at Penn, with support from the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council, to unite the new unions with existing ones.

The next step for GET-UP will be bargaining a contract.

For the Penn Museum workers, that process took two years. The medical residents now are in their eighth month of bargaining and held a rally Wednesday with support from GET-UP to continue raising awareness of their campaign.

Allen-Walker said its been frustrating to watch the other Penn unions slog through bargaining, but Arghal said hes cautiously optimistic after seeing how engaged the student workers have become.

I have no doubt that it will be a tough fight ahead, Schirvar said, But its a fight that Penn graduate workers are prepared for.
University of Pennsylvania students participating in Hey Day stand across from a pro-Palestinian encampment on the College Green in Philadelphia on Thursday. Read more

At the University of Pennsylvanias iconic statue of its founder, Benjamin Franklin, police had dispersed a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters Thursday, only to have a young man break through metal police barricades and rush the statue, scaling it and waving a Palestinian flag high above officers who moved in to stop him.

The 20-year-old Temple University students frantic dash prompted the return of about 60 pro-Palestinian protesters to the statue area, where verbal clashes played out between supporters and detractors of Israels war with Hamas as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Penns College Green entered its second week.

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Demonstrators at times were face to face, hoisting signs protesting the war or draping themselves in the Israeli flag; the same morning, a group of pro-Israel professors and students delivered a petition calling for Penns administration to quell the ongoing protests.

For Elliot Ginzberg-Abt, a Penn junior looking on from the edge of the barricaded area, it was hardly the Hey Day he had expected. For rising seniors at the Ivy League institution, the annual spring celebration has marked the end of the school year since 1965.

But this years event, where Ginzberg-Abt and hundreds of other juniors paraded down the tree-lined Locust Walk, the pro-Palestinian encampment and the skirmishes that surrounded it spurred a noticeable change to the long-held tradition.

Hey Day has been a tradition for years and years, decades, and its been on this grass, said Ginzberg-Abt, disappointed that he couldnt snap a Hey Day photo on the Green. This encampment is on property that we pay for as tuition payers.

Penn reaches out to the city

Across several hours, demonstrations, arguments, and the petition raised tensions under the watchful presence of Penn and Philadelphia police officers, though events remained peaceful. Yet on Thursday evening, Penn said in a statement that it had reached out to the city to ensure we have the necessary police resources to keep our community safe. The mayors office, the university spokesperson said, has asked for more information on what the university needs, and Penn is providing it.

The spokesperson noted that protest activity had escalated overnight Wednesday and continued to build throughout Thursday, triggering the request to the city.

Away from the tense interactions were the juniors who gathered across campus to begin the hallowed Hey Day procession around 10 a.m., as throngs of classmates celebrated wearing the events attire: red T-shirt, top hat, and a wooden cane.

Though they were one block away from the encampment, the students were out of earshot from the drum circles and chants of Free, Free Palestine that have echoed from the site since last Thursday.

As music from Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber blared from loudspeakers, Hey Day revelers munched on barbecue and snapped photos; others danced along the scenic walk, blurting out their mimosa tally for the morning to friends passing by.

Ive just been grinding for finals, said junior Omar Amben, noting that he supported the protest movement even as he focused on school. Im skeptical of people saying its making that big of an impact on their lives.

A Hey Day diversion

If the encampment felt distant, students soon learned of its impact after finding out that the Hey Day procession, which typically ends at the College Green, would be diverted this year. The sea of red shirts was instead met by a group of Penn staff and security officials who guided the students toward a tented area outside the Annenberg Center.

Meanwhile, around 10 police officers stood idly at the barricades around the Franklin statue, at times closely monitoring pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators arguing in tense but nonviolent standoffs.

One pro-Israeli supporter chastised a pro-Palestinian protester over Hamas stance on LGBTQ rights, to be countered by that protesters mentioning of the civilian women and children who have died in Israels military siege of Gaza.

Pro-Israel petition delivered

Elsewhere, around 60 Jewish Penn alumni, faculty and students had gathered on the corner of 34th and Walnut Streets to deliver a petition to the schools administration urging them to remove the encampment, signed by over 3,000 concerned Penn community members.

The university has to uphold its own policies and its own words, said senior Eyal Yakobyyou, who was among a group that marched toward the encampment singing pro-Israeli chants in Hebrew.

By late afternoon, the scene at the encampment remained peaceful.

For students who had attended both Hey Day and recent pro-Palestinian protests, the day was a balancing act between a long-held tradition and a student movement thats rocked campuses across the country.

I think its a real privilege to only have to be concerned about finals, or the location of the Hey Day event, said Sophia, a junior who declined to provide her last name over security concerns, comparing those concerns to the plight of Gazans.

Staff writer Susan Snyder contributed to this article.
Vehicles are under water during flooding in Norristown on Sept. 2, 2021, in the aftermath of downpours and high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ida that hit the Philadelphia area. Read more

I am afraid of the sound of rain.

Not a drizzle, a pitter patter or, as the Irish say, a fine soft day. Im afraid of the roar of a relentless rain and a raging creek  the deluge that precedes the flood. A sound so loud I can yell at someone five feet across the creek and they can barely hear me. When I cant distinguish what is rain from what is creek. Because I, and others who live far from a coast, have been hit by devastating floods of late  here in Pennsylvania, in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Vermont, to name but a few.

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When the rains come at night, Im particularly afraid. I look out our bedroom window, where even in the dark I can often judge from the contour of our serpentine creek how much it is swelling and how high it has jumped its bank. But I cant tell if the pond has breached or whether the dock is submerged, signs that the house is in danger. So I go a little crazy, race around the inside of the house checking likely access points. I flick on the outside lights to see how close the water is to the basement door. Sleep does not come easily.

The creek is close; it runs alongside the house, in front of the barn and next to the driveway, but the creek is not the only problem. Water races so fast down our steep driveway that it becomes a second river, jumps a stonewall, turns that wall into a waterfall and a flagstone patio into a swimming pool. Terra-cotta flower pots are picked up, dumped over, and swept downhill. The combination of creek and newly formed river leaves a path of destruction: fallen tree limbs, rocks, uprooted plants, and so much sediment that the pond turns the color of chocolate milk.

I was not afraid of the sound of water until one day about 20 years ago, when my children and I were watching a movie in the basement of this old farmhouse and one of them said: Mom, whats that noise? and the water overtook us. The downstairs bedroom was flooded, as was my husbands office and the laundry room. The water just kept coming. Wed never had that happen before.

We live partway up the mountain, so its not nearly as bad for us as for those who live by the river in the middle of town. When the rains come, I think of my childrens saintly first-grade teacher, who lives on the banks of Loyalhanna Creek. I shudder to think of what she and her family go through every time.

Floods in Western Pennsylvania are not new. We have lots of rivers and the terrain is hilly. Forty-five minutes away from here is the site of Pennsylvanias most famous flood, the Johnstown Flood of 1889, a horrendous incident that took the lives of 2,209 people. But weve lived here for 36 years, and the drenching rains come more frequently now, often with high winds, fallen trees, and a loss of power. Flash flood warnings are frequent.

The timing is changing, too. Once the floods came in May or June, maybe July, but last August  usually our dry month  we had a flood, and we just avoided one in April. I was driving on Route 30, the old Lincoln Highway, where I saw waterfalls cascading down the hills into the gorge. Smaller roads were closed, buses thwarted, and school canceled. Pittsburgh, an hour away, broke its daily rainfall record on April 9 with 2.77 inches of rain. The first 12 days of April saw more rain in Pittsburgh than any other month on record.

The original part of this old house, built about 1860, is made of logs, large beams, and a stone fireplace. It was placed on a dirt road at the bottom of three hills, out of the wind, where farmers sited houses then. It was not built to withstand todays storms, but weve tried our best to preserve it, to keep the water at bay.

In the basement bedroom there was a clue that the previous owner  who lived here from the 1940s until the 1980s  may have had a problem with water as there was a strip of metal at the bottom of the door. But our problem is so much worse now that weve had to change that door into a window.

We created a swale to divert the water away from the house and weve placed an unsightly row of sandbags that intermingle with my lovely white tulips at the basement window. We added drains along the driveway that we check assiduously before a storm to make sure they are not clogged with leaves or sticks.

The water from our unnamed and seemingly inconsequential little creek runs into the Loyalhanna Creek, which feeds the Conemaugh River, streams into the Kiskiminetas River, joins the Allegheny River, meets the Ohio River and flows into the Mississippi, all of which ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.

We hear all the time about sea level rise, but those of us who live inland are connected by creeks and streams and rivers. And when the rains come, I bet they, too, have come to dread sounds they once loved  rain on the roof, a rising creek, thunder  the sounds of an impending storm.

Daryln Brewer Hoffstot is a freelance writer and the author of A Farm Life: Observations From Fields and Forests.
As someone who remembers when Columbia University students took over Hamilton Hall 56 years ago, let me say that 2024 is not 1968.

Back then, our whole country was engaged in debate over the justice of a Vietnam War that involved tens of thousands of American troops. Today, students are setting up tent encampments to protest a war that is not ours, but where U.S. weaponry is being used to kill thousands of Palestinian women and children  after Hamas murdered and kidnapped about 1,200 Israeli civilians.

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Todays cause is far murkier, since some of the demonstrators are anti-Zionist, which can be seen as wanting an end to the Jewish state. Some are also pro-Hamas, ignoring that terrorist groups murderous pledge to kill all Israeli Jews.

But many other protesters  understandably aroused by videos of starving, maimed, or dying Gazan children  arent thinking that far ahead. They want their universities endowment funds to divest from U.S. companies involved in sales of weapons to Israel that accelerate civilian deaths.

So are the universities justified in calling in the cops? Are the demonstrators current or future antisemites? Or have they opened a debate that even strong supporters of Israel ignore at their peril?

Here are four points that lay out my thinking. Feel free to email me your thoughts.

Why only Gaza?

It stuns, but does not surprise me, that student concern over civilian deaths and starvation does not extend to Vladimir Putins relentless and deliberate bombing of Ukraines schools, hospitals, markets, churches, and apartment complexes. This Russian terrorist campaign has turned dozens of Ukrainian villages, towns, and cities into ash and surpassed Israels destruction in Gaza many times over. The student outrage also ignores the massive and terrible civilian slaughter ongoing in Sudan, especially in Darfur.

Ive concluded, after much reading, online videos, and talking with friends children and grandchildren at various universities, that the draw of the Israel-Hamas conflict is not necessarily antisemitic. It attracts many students who view it as the last white colonial project, where white people kill brown people.

Never mind that half of Israelis are brown or Black, having fled discrimination in Arab or African countries, and many of the rest are descendants of Holocaust survivors. And never mind that pre-1967 Israel was recognized by the United Nations. To undo its statehood by force (as Putin is trying to do to Ukraine) would delegitimize the borders of countless other post-World War II states.

But leaving those inconvenient realities aside, the colonial analogy has gained traction after negotiations failed over establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza (virtually all of whose borders and economy are still controlled by Israel). Now that peace talks are dead, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dominated by right wingers who want Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza, so the colonial analogy becomes more attractive to many students.

Out of that analogy comes the slogan, from the river to the sea, which has been projected onto buildings and shouted by many students on and off campus. This means one Palestinian Arab state that would include Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Many demonstrators and key student organizing groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, along with Jewish Voices for Peace, call themselves anti-Zionist, meaning they oppose the existence of the Jewish state. This cannot help but unnerve Jewish students, whether or not they have relatives in Israel.

What does anti-Zionism mean?

Ive heard students insist that theirs is only a search for justice, with equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis within one state. But no one has yet explained to me how 7 million Jews would be convinced, short of destruction, to dismantle a prosperous modern country.

I doubt that many campus demonstrators have thought through what the term anti-Zionist means or how to establish one Arab state from the river to the sea. The big question: Do those students who fly the Hamas flag even know how Hamas envisions that project? The terror groups conception makes clear why Hamas can have no future role in ruling Gaza or negotiating over a Palestinian state. It also lays bare why student endorsements of Hamas are so ugly  even if they are protected speech.

The Hamas charter calls for killing all Jews in Palestine, with a later version merely calling for a temporary truce if a Palestinian state is established alongside Israel. In late 2021, at a Hamas-funded conference in Gaza, participants discussed how Israeli spoils would be distributed after Palestine was fully liberated from the sea to the river, and a new state established on the ruins. Jewish fighters would be killed, others might be given time to flee. But, said the concluding document, educated Jews and experts would be retained for some time to pay back for the knowledge they had acquired while living in our land.

It is time for pro-Palestinian demonstrators who call themselves anti-Zionists to clarify what they mean by that term, and how the concept differs (if it does) from the death and destruction that Hamas has in mind.

Protests, not encampments

However, and I stress this, students have every right to speak freely and to demonstrate for a Gaza cease-fire, for more humanitarian aid, and for divestment. I have written on conditioning U.S. support on Israel permitting more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and on its safe distribution.

Of course, free speech  including speech some may find offensive  does not extend to blocking or threatening others, whether intimidating Jewish students at Columbia, or attacking pro-Palestinians at UCLA. Nor does it confer the right to disrupt the functioning or safety of the university, including the taking of finals and graduation ceremonies.

Permanent encampments, or occupations of buildings, provide magnets for outsiders and encourage radicalization. Mark Rudd, president of the Students for a Democratic Society who led the 1968 Hamilton Hall occupation, recalled to NPR in 2010 how another SDS student leader burned 10 years of research papers in the Hamilton Hall office of a faculty member who had annoyed him by trying to mediate with students.

Better if university leaders can negotiate a student exodus, as happened at Brown University, and avoid the viciousness of law enforcement at the University of Texas at Austin. But if repeated and final warnings are rejected, along with compromise proposals, the only option for administrators is to call in law enforcement.

Extremists on both sides

Where the student mantra against occupation has legs is in the West Bank. While all eyes are on the Gaza war, Netanyahus far right ministers are encouraging settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank and pushing for massive new Jewish settlements there.

The Israeli far rights openly expressed goal is to make life untenable for Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, and it hopes to drive many Palestinians into Egypt or Jordan. Enabled by Netanyahu, the far rights written objective is a reverse parallel to the Hamas charter: one Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, where reduced numbers of Palestinians can either submit to Israeli rule, leave, or die.

If the right wing succeeds, then future student demonstrations will be protesting against a true apartheid state.

The only way to block Hamas and Israels far right is to reach a humanitarian cease-fire, as the White House is urging. That opens the door for new Palestinian leadership in Gaza, rebuilding the strip, and a possible path to a two-state solution.

But (as of this writing) neither Netanyahu nor Hamas appear eager for such a U.S.-backed cease-fire because it could lead to the political demise of both. Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar says he would be willing to sacrifice 100,000 Palestinians for his goals. Meanwhile, Netanyahus prime goal is clinging to power.

Each will use the scenes of student demonstrations on American campuses to encourage his followers to hew to his destructive hard line. Students, beware.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is scheduled to speak at a conference in Florida this weekend, but the state party's progressive caucus doesn't want him there. Read more

Sen. John Fetterman is being hosted by the Florida Democratic Party this weekend, but a group of Sunshine State progressives arent happy about it.

Fetterman (D., Pa.) will deliver the keynote speech for a Saturday gala at Disneys Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista as part of the Florida partys weekend-long Leadership Blue conference  its most important fundraiser of the year.

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The Pennsylvania senator has been unflinching in his support of Israel since Hamas militants raided the country, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages. But his support has drawn ire from activists angered by Israels war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and displaced about 80% of Gazas population.

The Florida Democratic Progressive Caucus, a group within the states Democratic Party, called for Fettermans speech to be cancelled because of his unwavering support for Israels actions, according to a Wednesday letter shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, by The Bulwark reporter Marc Caputo.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Fettermans 2022 victory against Republican Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor, can serve as a blueprint for the Senate race in Florida this year, in a Tuesday announcement about his speech.

Senator John Fetterman is not your traditional politician, Fried said. He is a powerful voice for the Democratic Party and embodies the spirit of Florida Democrats  never backing down from a fight.

In their letter, members of the progressive caucus argued that it would be a direct affront to the principles of democracy and justice to platform Fetterman, who they accuse of abandoning progressive values and using divisive rhetoric.

John Fetterman, once touted as a progressive champion, has betrayed the trust of his constituents by swiftly pivoting away from the platform he was elected on, the letter said. His recent statements and actions, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stand in stark contrast to the values of equality, justice, and peace that his supporters stand for.

Fetterman has been viewed as casting aside his progressivism through his support of Israel, but he said in an interview earlier this year that he has been open about not being a progressive. He called himself a progressive prior to his 2022 swing-state Senate bid, but described himself as just a Democrat on the campaign trail.

 READ MORE: Progressives say John Fetterman has abandoned them. But he says he hasnt changed.

Like the Florida party chair, Fetterman views his visit in context of the election this year.

I fully embrace a diversity of views within the Democratic party but were 6 months out from the presidential race, and weve got to be united on reelecting Joe Biden, he said in a statement this week regarding the letter. The stakes are too high. Just this week in Florida, weve got an abortion ban going into effect. We cant let these disagreements lead to a second Trump term.

The Inquirer reached out to the Florida Democratic Party for comment about the letter and is awaiting a response.
City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas speaks as City Council holds hearings on Mayor Cherelle Parker's school board candidates, at City Hall last month. He introduced legislation this week to hold hearings examining the board's governance structure. Read more

Philadelphia City Council will hold hearings to review how the city appoints school board members and will consider whether the School District of Philadelphia should have an elected board.

The move to authorize a legislative review of the school board nomination process comes days after Mayor Cherelle L. Parker placed a member on the board despite lawmakers objections.

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Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat who chairs Councils Education Committee, introduced legislation to hold hearings on the districts governance structure and said he wants to explore if an elected or hybrid school board structure could be more effective. Currently, board members are nominated by the mayor, then confirmed by Council.

Most people in our city would agree that a different model of school governance is probably the direction they want to go in, Thomas said Thursday. The point of the resolution is to explore it.

Heres a rundown of what else happened this week:

What was this weeks highlight?

An examination of how school board members are picked: Thomas and a majority of Council opposed Parkers nomination of former board chair Joyce Wilkerson, and last week Council President Kenyatta Johnson announced Council was withdrawing her nomination. Parker then asked Wilkerson to continue serving on the board past Tuesday, when the terms of all former Mayor Jim Kenneys nominees expired.

 READ MORE: What just happened with Joyce Wilkerson and the Philadelphia school board? Heres what we know.

Thomas said in a statement Thursday that the current governance process fosters a dynamic between parties that encourages confusion and distrust. He noted that Washington, D.C. and Chicago have hybrid models that are a mix of appointed and elected board members, and other school boards across Pennsylvania are elected.

Any change in the process would have to be done through an amendment to the citys Home Rule Charter, which is essentially the citys constitution. Charter amendments require approval from voters through a ballot question.

What else happened this week?

Hearings and review of the strategy in Kensington: City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada introduced legislation requesting that City Controller Christy Brady conduct a performance audit of city funding distributed and used in the Kensington area.

The view would examine the policies and procedures of the recipients and their impact on the city of Philadelphia.

Council members this week also announced the members of a new special committee on Kensington, which will examine the citys response to the open-air drug market in the neighborhood.

The committee will include members of the previously formed Kensington Caucus: Lozada, and Councilmembers Mike Driscoll, Mark Squilla, and Jim Harrity. Lozada, Driscoll, and Squilla each represent parts of Kensington. Harrity is an at-large member who lives in the neighborhood.

Other members of the special committee include Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who chairs Councils public health committee, and Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who chairs the public safety committee.

Lozada said the purpose of the committee is to provide much needed oversight of the citys health and safety plan in the neighborhood, as well as of third parties the city pays to provide services there.

Hearings have not yet been scheduled.

A possible change to city contracting: City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, the Democratic majority leader, introduced legislation Thursday to reform the citys contracting process in response to revelations of overspending in the Office of Homeless Services.

Philadelphia has for decades allowed some city departments to grant contracts to nonprofits without going through the usual competitive bidding process. Gilmore Richardsons legislation would remove the exemption.

Who was there?

A mayor sits in on Council: Former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, Sr. and his son, former City Councilmember Wilson Goode, Jr., were in Councils chambers Thursday alongside a bevy of members of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Council honored the group with a resolution marking the 120th anniversary of its founding.

Quote of the week

Im a proud Temple alum and Ive long been a fan of our mascot, Hooter T. Owl.

That was Councilmember Rue Landau, who introduced a resolution honoring Temple University and its esteemed mascot for winning The Inquirers first-ever mascot bracket. Hoot, hoot.
As more NSW residents choose strata living, it is essential they have confidence in the professionals they engage to manage what is often their most valuable asset, he said, as reported by ABC. NSW Fair Trading is committed to ensuring a trusted and accountable strata sector, and this comprehensive response to the issues raised demonstrates the commitment to achieving this.
Kelly McGuinness, Coalitions team lead for Canada in production underwriting and Eastern business development, said: This expansion to enterprise-sized businesses means Coalition can offer all the benefits of Active Insurance to customers with much larger attack surface to defend and, therefore, greater cyber exposures.
Marco and Santiago are experienced leaders whose depth of knowledge of the commercial insurance industry will allow us to capitalize on the strengths of our foundational businesses while generating scale in our accelerated businesses. Their appointments are both a reflection of HDIs growth story to-date and a testament to our continued aspirations in the region to act as our clients true partner in transformation, Clark said.
We are genuinely excited to bring Tri-Cities Insurance Professionals, LLC into the Inszone Insurance fold, Inszone CEO Chris Walters said. Joining forces with such a respected team not only deepens our footprint in the vibrant Washington market but also fortifies our position as a leading insurance provider on the West Coast. This partnership is a testament to our commitment to delivering exceptional service and tailored solutions to our clients in an ever-changing landscape.
We have always been committed to helping clients identify their risks and prevent claims before they happen, he said. As part of Marsh McLennan Agency, our team will gain access to advanced tools and technologies, enabling them to provide enhanced solutions for client exposures, in addition to high-quality professional growth resources.
We are excited to form Malibu Life Re to provide attractive capital solutions in the life and annuity space in partnership with leading insurers, Loeb said. We expect that the nimble, multi-asset class investment strategy we have designed over almost thirty years can be leveraged to deliver favorable long-term risk adjusted returns for Malibu Life Res clients and partners.
In a new report, the global reinsurance broker revealed that insurtech funding in the first quarter of the year amounted to just $912.3 million. This is a 17.3% decrease from the previous quarter, making Q1 2024 the lowest period for global Insurtech funding in four years.
A home health care company failed to protect a visiting nurse who was killed during an appointment with a convicted rapist at a Connecticut halfway house and should be fined about $161,000, federal workplace safety officials said Wednesday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released the results of its investigation into Elara Caring and the Oct. 28 death of Joyce Grayson, a 63-year-old mother of six and nurse for 36 years. The Dallas, Texas-based company, which provides home care for more than 60,000 patients in 17 states, said it disputes OSHAs findings and plans to contest them.

OSHA determined the company exposed home healthcare employees to workplace violence from patients who exhibited aggressive behavior and were known to pose a risk to others, the agency said in a statement.

Elara Caring failed its legal duty to protect employees from workplace injury by not having effective measures in place to protect employees against a known hazard and it cost a worker her life, Charles McGrevy, an OSHA area director in Hartford, Connecticut, said in the statement.

OSHA said the company could have reduced the risk of workplace violence in a number of ways including providing its health care providers with comprehensive background information on patients, giving them panic alert buttons and developing procedures for using safety escorts with certain patients.

The agency said Elara Caring must develop and implement required safeguards including a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program. OSHA cited Elara and two subsidiaries, Jordan Health Services and New England Home Care.

Elara Caring said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that the citation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued to the company is unwarranted, and we intend to contest it vigorously.

The company said Connecticut officials determined the convicted rapist accused of killing Grayson, Michael Reese, was not a danger to the community. Reese, 39, was on probation and living in a halfway house in Willimantic after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 in New Haven.

Post-release, state authorities were responsible for monitoring and managing the patients activities, the company said. The death of Joyce Grayson was a tragedy, and we continue to grieve with the family.

The company has previously said it had safeguards in place to protect workers and was reviewing them in response to Graysons death.

The state court system, which oversees probation, says it does not comment on cases involving potential litigation.

An informal meeting between OSHA and Elara Caring was set for Thursday, an OSHA spokesperson said. The company has until May 17 to respond to the OSHA citation, including complying with the agencys directives or challenging them.

Graysons death spurred a call for greater protections for home health care workers in Connecticut and across the country. Connecticut lawmakers are now considering a bill that would improve safety for health care workers.

On the day she was killed, Grayson had a morning appointment at Reeses halfway house to administer his medication. After she missed subsequent appointments, her daughter called police to request a well-being check.

Grayson was found strangled in the basement of the halfway house, police and the medical examiners office said. She also had blunt-force injuries to her head, torso and extremities, an arrest warrant for Reese said.

Reese is charged with murder, attempted first-degree sexual assault and other crimes in connection to Graysons death. He has not entered pleas, and his public defender has not returned messages seeking comment including an email sent Wednesday.

Kelly Reardon, a lawyer for Graysons family, said the family hopes the OSHA findings will prompt safety changes in the home health care industry.

OSHA has recognized what the Grayson family has known since Joyce was murdered on October 28, 2023  that Elara Caring willfully placed her in harms way by repeatedly ignoring employees complaints about aggressive and violent patients they were required to treat, Reardon said in an email to the AP.

OSHA also cited Elara Caring for a less serious alleged violation  not providing work-related injury and illness records to OSHA within the required four business hours  and proposed an additional fine of $2,300.

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Connecticut
Israeli cyber security startup Apex, which focuses on protecting the rapid use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, said on Thursday it received an undisclosed investment from OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman.

In all, Apex raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, with participation from Altman and others, it said. Altman did not immediately comment.

Apex said it had been running trials with a number of Fortune 500 companies and investment firms and was close to finalizing paid contracts. The new funds will go toward accelerating product development, hiring workers and marketing, the company said.

With demand growing for AI tools  including OpenAIs ChatGPT  that help to complete tasks much faster, their users are seeking ways to protect their own data and prevent threats and inappropriate data from entering their systems.

There is a whole new segment of threats and risks using AI models. It starts with data leakage and problems on the data side. It goes to privacy, compliance and what comes back into an organization, Matan Derman, Apexs CEO, told Reuters.

That marked a pivotal moment for the cyber security industry, which until has focused on prevention and blocking unwanted access, he said.

We started Apex to build the extra layers of security thats needed for enterprises to adopt (AI), he said. We will try to take this as far as we can.

Israel is a global leader in cyber security with hundreds of startups.

Ten months ago, Derman co-founded Apex with Tomer Avni, whom he met when both served as officers in the Israeli militarys elite 8200 intelligence unit. Since then, the company has been operating in so-called stealth mode, working in secrecy with selected companies.

Every board, every CEO, every investor and every entrepreneur is talking about AI and how they can leverage AI, Avni said. So, the need for security is much more imminent.

Avni said that AI is the latest in major shifts in technology, that began with the emergence of personal computers, and then moved to networks and the cloud  with each requiring added security.

AI is probably going to be bigger than all these (prior) revolutions, he said, because AI is just everywhere.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Topics Cyber InsurTech
Yemens Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday.

We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach, he said.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

This has forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilize the Middle East.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Editing by Michael Georgy and Kevin Liffey)

Related:
Cracked steel columns are not property damage, but are building products that are not covered by a contractors general liability policy, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decided in an opinion that lets St. Paul and other insurers off the hook in a botched construction project at Chicagos OHare International Airport.

While U.S. courts have often found that policy wording is ambiguous, in this case, the lower court and the appeals court concluded that a St. Paul Guardian Insurance Co. policy for a subcontractor was clear enough and limited coverage only to damage to property owned by others. Travelers and Charter Oak policies similarly excluded coverage for the steel-making subcontractors own products.

The dispute began in 2003 when the city of Chicago contracted with Walsh Construction Co. to build a canopy and glass-and-steel curtain wall at the airport. Walsh subcontracted with a steel company, which subcontracted with LB Steel LLC to fabricate and install the steel columns to support the wall and canopy.

Per an agreement, LB listed Walsh as an additional insured on its GCL policies. Several years into the project, city inspectors found cracks in the welds on the columns, and the city sued Walsh. Walsh in turn sued LB Steel and won more than $19 million in state court. LB then filed for bankruptcy protection, the appeals court explained.

LBs insurers and Walsh both asked the federal court in Chicago to decide if the carriers owed coverage and a duty to defend in litigation. The district federal court sided with the insurance companies, finding that the cracked welds did not constitute property damage, as narrowly defined by the policy language.

The three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit this week agreed.

Walsh had argued that LBs steel columns were an integral part of the construction project and were destined to become airport property  property owned by others, in other words. The contractor also posited that the cracks threatened the entire project and required it to spend millions on preventive measures, including reinforcing the columns.

But the appellate judges said that Walsh had not met its burden of proving property damage beyond LBs own products.

For example, Walsh has not identified any cracks in the glass, damage to concrete, or alterations to any other parts of the canopy or curtain wall not provided by LB Steel. Walsh does note that it had to install retrofit structures around the affected columns, but those retrofits were only installed to remedy the defects in the columns themselves, appeals court Judge John Lee wrote.

In order to succeed on the coverage question, Walsh must demonstrate some physical injury to tangible property beyond the steel elements fabricated by LB Steel, the court wrote.

Walsh also argued that the defective welds increased the potential for the canopy to collapse. At the same time, it offers no evidence that this structural instability had manifested itself in any physical way (other than in the LB Steel columns themselves).

Under Illinois law, an increased potential for damage does not constitute property damage, the court noted. Citing previous court rulings, the judges found that Walshs preventative measures were economic losses not recoverable under the insurance policies.

To find coverage here would mean that manufacturers like LB Steel could perform defective work without consequence, knowing that they could later recoup any resulting adverse judgments under their CGL policies, the court concluded. That can hardly be what the contracting parties intended.

The opinion can be read here.

Topics Property
Artsana, a maker of child car booster seats, last year agreed to settle claims that it had misled customers about how to use its products, offering $50 to people who had bought Chicco-brand seats.

The company, which did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, knew it sold roughly 875,000 such seats, yet court records show that by the end of October it had received more than 3.3 million claims for payment.

Faced with a wave of questionable claims, Artsana reversed itself and urged the court not to approve the settlement it had negotiated to end the litigation.

Criminals targeted the claims process in this case using sophisticated methods to generate large numbers of fraudulent claims, Artsanas attorneys told the federal court in Manhattan.

The court sided with Artsana and put the settlement on hold, telling lawyers to return after they had sorted out the fraud issue. The case is still pending, so no claims have been paid, records show.

Fraudulent claims have exploded in the last year, siphoning money out of settlements and threatening the class action system itself, said lawyers and claims administrators interviewed by Reuters.

More than 80 million claims submitted in 2023 showed significant signs of fraud, up more than 19,000% since 2021, according to a report expected to be released on Thursday by digital payment processor Digital Disbursements, which works with class action claims administrators.

Its an existential threat to the whole process, said Chris Chorba, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who represents Artsana.

In settlements where a company agrees to pay a set amount, fraudulent claims can reduce the pool of money available for consumers actually entitled to a recovery, the experts said. In cases where companies agree to pay each claimant individually, fraud can blow up the cost of settling.

Exactly how much money is stolen from settlements through fraud is hard to quantify, said Steve Weisbrot, president and CEO of claims administrator Angeion Group, because successful fraudsters evade those trying to stop them. He said it is reasonable to think millions of dollars have been siphoned out of settlements in recent years.

Someone is making money off of it, or it would stop, Weisbrot said.

Plaintiffs attorney Don Beshada, whose software company Claimscore evaluates settlement claims for fraud, said he has identified at least eight settlements in federal and state courts that have been attacked by a similar wave of fraudulent claims since last year.

Among the cases Beshada and other administrators flagged was a class action against Grande Cosmetics over claims that its eyelash growth serum contained a chemical that required regulatory approval. The company settled the case without admitting liability for a little over $6 million. By April, 6.5 million claims had been filed, with just over 110,000 ultimately deemed valid by Claimscore and claims administrator Angeion Group, courtrecords show.

Neither Grande nor its lawyers responded to requests for comment. The company and attorneys for the class have urged the judge to approve the settlement, with plaintiffs attorneys noting the number of claims deemed valid represented a significant portion of the 1 million customers the company had estimated were affected. The judge has yet to issue a ruling.

About 80% of the 14 million claims were likely fraudulent in a $45.5 million settlement in a class action accusing tobacco giant Altria with misleading consumers about the addictiveness of its Juul products, administrators from Epiq Global told the California federal court. Altria settled without admitting liability.

Neither Altria nor its lawyers responded to requests for comment. The settlement, approved in March, will be divided among all claims the administrators deem valid.

Fraud is generally more common in cases involving allegations of false advertising or defective products that yield small payouts and may not require proof of purchase, lawyers and claims administrators say. Companies settling such cases are generally released from liability for essentially all allegations, so even class members who get little or no payout cannot sue again.

This is not a new problem. In 2018, Reuters reported on scammers using automated bots to submit fake claims in class actions. But experts say fraudulent claims now are increasingly submitted not by bots but by groups of people using stolen identities and addresses, collecting payouts via check or digital payment. Some claims administrators suspect fraudsters use masked or stolen IP addresses to hide their locations.

In the short-term, weeding through all those claims can mean more money for administrators who charge defendant companies more to review a higher number of claims, Weisbrot said.

But in the long run, companies may become less willing to settle cases if they believe their money will go to fraudsters, said Chorba, the defense attorney who has represented several companies whose settlements have been targeted.

Plaintiffs attorneys, including Eli Wade-Scott, the head of the class action practice at plaintiffs firm Edelson, told Reuters fake claims are undermining efforts to improve the rate of claims by people who actually are entitled to part of the settlement. Some of the attorneys said overly stringent tactics by administrators to crack down on fraud could make things harder for real claimants.

Claims rates have to be excellent and those claims have to be real, Wade-Scott said.

Topics Lawsuits Fraud Claims Liability Flood
Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive of Binance, was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering at the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Once considered the most powerful crypto industry figure, Zhao, known as CZ, is the second major crypto boss to be sentenced to prison.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle was significantly shorter than the three years sought by prosecutors, and below the maximum 1-1/2 years recommended under federal guidelines.

It was also much lighter than the 25 years behind bars that Sam Bankman-Fried received in March for stealing $8 billion from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX exchange. Bankman-Fried is appealing his conviction and sentence.

Still, prosecutors cheered the outcome of what had been a years-long investigation into Binance and Zhao, a billionaire who had been living beyond U.S. reach in the United Arab Emirates.

This was an epic day, U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman told reporters outside the courthouse. Incarceration was critical in this case and were pleased with the result.

Before handing down the sentence, Jones faulted Zhao for making Binances growth and profitability a higher priority than complying with U.S. laws.

You had the wherewithal, the finance capabilities, and the people power to make sure that every single regulation had to be complied with, and so you failed at that opportunity, he said.

Zhao, 47, did not visibly react upon hearing his sentence.

He wore a navy blue suit and tie in the courtroom, with his mother and several other family members in attendance. Defense lawyers had requested probation.

Crime pays is the message sent today, Dennis Kelleher, head of the financial reform advocacy group Better Markets, wrote in an email, noting Zhao will still get to keep his vast wealth.

IM SORRY

Prosecutors said Binance employed a Wild West model that welcomed criminals, and did not report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions with designated terrorist groups including Hamas, al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

They also said Zhaos exchange supported the sale of child sexual abuse materials and received a large portion of ransomware proceeds.

Binance agreed to a $4.32 billion penalty, and Zhao paid a $50 million criminal fine plus $50 million to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Im sorry, Zhao told the judge before being sentenced.

I believe the first step of taking responsibility is to fully recognize the mistakes. Here I failed to implement an adequate anti-money laundering program  I realize now the seriousness of that mistake.

Much of Binances misconduct, including its weak money laundering controls, was first reported by Reuters.

Zhao will surrender voluntarily to serve his sentence, most likely at a detention center near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Not prioritizing compliance is a few shades below criminal intent. Its bad, but its below the usual requirement of specific intent that would justify a years-long sentence, said Robert Frenchman, a lawyer specializing in white-collar crime.

But given the scale of Binances violations and the massive fines imposed, he should not have expected probation or home detention, Frenchman added.

NOT A MONSTER

Prosecutors had told the judge a tough sentence would send a clear signal to other would-be criminals.

We are not suggesting that Mr. Zhao is Sam Bankman-Fried or that he is a monster, prosecutor Kevin Mosley said.

But Zhaos conduct, he said, wasnt a mistake. This wasnt a regulatory oops.'

Zhao stepped down as Binances chief in November, when he and the exchange he founded in 2017 admitted to evading money-laundering requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act.

In seeking probation, defense lawyers said others who admitted to similar wrongdoing, including BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, were not locked up.

Zhao wanted to make a difference in the world, but made mistakes, defense lawyer Mark Bartlett said.

Jones said the three-year sentence requested by prosecutors was inappropriate because they did not show that Zhao knew in advance about illegal activity.

Its always the case the government asks for more than they think theyll get, said Frenchman. Going that much above guidelines for a pleader is unusually aggressive.

Several other crypto moguls are also in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities after the collapse of crypto prices in 2022 exposed fraud and misconduct across the industry.
For decades, residents of eastern Queens in New York City have complained that theyre more likely to lose power when extreme weather hits, even as lights in other parts of the city stay on. A new study that looks at power outages across New York state suggests theyre right. Its broader conclusion  that different areas, even within the same neighborhood, can be more vulnerable to power outages  arent just limited to New York.

Were focusing on New York state, but power outages are a growing problem nationally, says Nina Flores, a doctoral student at Columbia University and lead author on the study, which was published Wednesday in PLOS Climate. She points to both the nations aging electric grid and damages from storms made increasingly severe by climate change.

A separate analysis published last month by the nonprofit research group Climate Central found that between 2014 and 2023, the US experienced twice as many weather-related power outages as it had during the prior decade. Nationwide, some 80% of power outages that affected at least 50,000 people were driven by weather, according to the report.

Examples of weather-related outages are everywhere. In 2021, the effects of winter storm Uri led to 4.5 million Texas residents going without electricity as temperatures dipped below 6F (-14C)  some for as long as four days. That same year, hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana found themselves sweltering after Hurricane Ida knocked out electricity as the heat index exceeded 100F (38C). Ida also cut power to tens of thousands of people in New Jersey.

The uptick in power outages is coming as the US embarks on an energy transition that, in the interest of slashing greenhouse gas emissions, will make people even more reliant on electricity. At the same time, not having access to electricity during extreme weather  losing access to air conditioning during a heat wave, for example  can make that weather deadlier.

Were moving away from power outages from just being an inconvenience to something that can potentially impact a persons health, Flores says.

The Columbia researchers focused on New York because the state provides more granular data than is typically available, including power access down to the zip code level in intervals of roughly 30 minutes. That level of specificity is really helpful for getting to look at some of the environmental justice questions that we had related to power outages, Flores says.

Across New York, the study found that between 2017 and 2020 roughly 40% of all power outages overlapped with instances of extreme weather, and that those outages werent evenly distributed. Certain regions  eastern Queens, Upper Manhattan, and the Bronx in New York City, along with the Hudson Valley and Adirondack regions  were more likely to lose power during severe weather. Many of those areas overlap with communities that are already socially vulnerable.

Its communities that are already disproportionately burdened by a range of social and environmental exposures, says Joan Casey, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health services at the University of Washington and co-author on the study. So things like poor air quality, lack of green space, lower water quality or social exposures like structural racism or poverty or lower quality housing.

These vulnerabilities make it more difficult to respond to an outage, and tend to make the power cut itself worse for those experiencing it. In rural homes that rely on well water, for example, losing power can mean losing access to water, since well systems rely on electrical pumps to bring water into the home.

People living in homes with poor insulation are more susceptible to temperature extremes during power outages than those in higher-quality housing, Casey notes. By contrast, wealthier people can afford to invest in insulation, generators, solar panels and battery backups to make it easier to ride out an outage  which theyre also less likely to have to do.

The solution, Casey says, is for the US to upgrade its infrastructure. We have power lines that need to be upgraded. We have wiring in buildings that are now in many cases over a century old. We have a mismatch of voltages, she says. We have a large number of problems that will be pretty expensive to fix, but that is a key piece of the problem.

Photo: A fallen tree rests on a power line in the College Point, Queens, New York after Tropical Storm Isaias battered the region in 2020. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.

Topics USA New York Personal Auto
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement.

Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the churchs handling of clergy sexual abuse.

The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as ignored and in many cases covered up.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years, Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. In keeping with this, we also are committed to working with law enforcement in these endeavors.

The warrant contained several new details about the sex-trafficking investigation, including claims that some victims were sexually assaulted in a seminary swimming pool after being ordered to skinny dip. Separately, the warrant says, predatory priests developed a system of sharing victims by giving them gifts that they were instructed to pass on to clergymen at other schools or churches.

It was said that the gift was a form of signaling to another priest that the person was a target for sexual abuse, state police investigator Scott Rodrigue wrote in an affidavit in support of the warrant.

The warrant sought an exhaustive range of personnel records, files contained in any and all safes and documents showing the extent to which the archdiocese continued supporting clergymen even after they were added to the so-called credibly accused list of suspected predators.

The warrant also confirmed a parallel FBI examination of clergy sexual abuse reported by The Associated Press nearly two years ago. That investigation has examined whether priests took children across state lines to molest them.

No one and no institution is above the law, especially when we are talking about protecting children from the horrors of child sexual abuse, said Kathryn Robb, executive director of Child USAdvocacy, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of child sexual abuse accusers. This warrant is the necessary muscle of the criminal system to protect children.

Many of the most explosive church records surfaced in a flood of sexual abuse lawsuits that drove the archdiocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection four years ago. The documents chronicle years of abuse claims, interviews with accused clergy and a pattern of church leaders transferring problem priests, but they have been shielded under a sweeping confidentiality order in the bankruptcy case that has long hampered the state and federal investigations.

We have been forced, against our own professional obligations, to keep them secret, said attorneys Richard Trahant, Soren Gisleson and John Denenea, who represent the accusers.

The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday and rarely weighs in on developments in local clergy abuse cases. But for decades, the message from Rome to local church leaders was to keep clergy abuse files in the secret archives.

To date, the Vatican still has not required abuse cases to be reported to police around the world, though it now says local church leaders should comply with whatever civil reporting laws are in place. In addition, as the clergy abuse scandal has continued to cause a credibility crisis for the Catholic hierarchy worldwide, Pope Francis in 2019 removed the top-level secrecy that covered abuse cases, known as the pontifical secret.

Prior to that, local church leaders regularly invoked the pontifical secret as a reason to resist criminal subpoenas. In theory, the removal of the secret removed any official barrier to such cooperation.

In New Orleans, the search could deepen the legal peril for church leaders, exposing them to potential state court prosecutions even as the U.S. Justice Department has struggled to identify federally prosecutable crimes related to clergy sexual abuse.

Last year, an Orleans Parish grand jury indicted Lawrence Hecker, a now-92-year-old disgraced priest, on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975  an extraordinary prosecution that prompted the broader search of the archdiocese last week.

Hecker has pleaded not guilty to counts of rape, kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft. He is accused of choking the teen unconscious under the guise of performing a wrestling move and sexually assaulting him.

The archdiocese failed to report Heckers admissions to law enforcement while permitting him to work around children until he quietly left the ministry in 2002. Church officials reassigned Hecker even after he was sent to a psychiatric facility in Pennsylvania and diagnosed as a pedophile, the warrant says.

Hecker was not the only member of the archdiocese sent to receive psychiatric testing based on allegations of child sexual abuse, Rodrigue wrote in the warrant.

The age of the Hecker case presents legal and evidentiary hurdles for prosecutors, who also face the political sensitivity of prosecuting a longtime clergyman in heavily Catholic New Orleans. Many predator priests have escaped criminal consequences in Louisiana for those reasons, making the scope of last weeks search even more notable.

One high-profile exception came in 2019 in the case of George F. Brignac, a longtime deacon and schoolteacher charged with sexually assaulting a then-altar boy in the 1970s. Brignac died in 2020 while awaiting trial at the age of 85. He had pleaded not guilty.

Litigation involving Brignac turned up thousands of still-secret emails documenting behind-the-scenes public relations work that New Orleans Saints executives did for the archdiocese in 2018 and 2019 to contain fallout from clergy abuse scandals.

Associated Press reporter Nicole Winfield contributed from Rome.

Photo: Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, including Richard Windmann, left, and John Gianoli, right, hold signs during a conference in front of the New Orleans Saints training facility in Metairie, in January. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
After an investment research firm dropped a bombshell last month and sent shares of Globe Life Inc. plunging by 53%, the insurance company denied the allegations that officers had concealed fraud and sexual harassment issues.

But this week, the City of Miamis employees retirement trust filed a class-action lawsuit against Globe Life, claiming new charges of deceit that had artificially inflated the value of Globe Lifes stock for more than five years.

The lawsuit, purporting to represent thousands of shareholders in Globe Life, argues that the truth emerged when the Fuzzy Panda Research report was published, alleging widespread fraud and a company culture that looked the other way on harassment and even drug use at the insurer. Fuzzy Panda, which advised in its April 11 report that it was short-selling Globe stock, charged that a Globe Life subsidiary had written policies for dead or fictitious people and had added policies to accounts without policyholder consent.

The Miami retirement fund had invested in Globe Life stock, during the years from 2019 through last month, and suffered significant losses after the news of the report broke, the suit said.

In the complaint, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, the plaintiffs attorneys said that their own investigation was based on regulatory filings and financial statements by Globe Life that top company officials had vouched for as accurate. The plaintiffs counsel also examined press releases and news reports about the company, which owns five subsidiaries that sell life, accident and Medicare supplement products.

All of the information shows that Globe Life officers did not mention any of the internal issues, the lawsuit contends.

Because of their positions and access to material non-public information available to them, each of the Individual Defendants knew that the adverse facts specified herein had not been disclosed to, and were being concealed from, the public, and that the positive representations which were being made were then materially false and/or misleading, the complaint claims.

The insurance giant has yet to file an answer to the complaint and Globe Life media and investor relations representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday. After the Fuzzy Panda report hit the wires last month, Globe Life issued a statement: The short seller analysis by Fuzzy Panda Research mischaracterizes facts and uses unsubstantiated claims and conjecture to present an overall picture of Globe Life that is deliberately false.

That helped Globe Life stock recover some of its value, according to Reuters news service and Yahoo! Finance. But the stock price had already plunged, from $105 a share to under $50. By late Thursday, the stock was trading at about $79 a share.

Globe Life Inc., formerly known as Torchmark Corp., is based in McKinney, Texas. It owns five subsidiaries: Globe Life And Accident Insurance Company.

American Income Life Insurance Company.

United American Insurance Company.

Liberty National Life Insurance Company.

Family Heritage Life insurance Company of America.

The episode potentially provides some valuable lessons for directors of other publicly traded insurance companies, including property-casualty insurers. The class-action suit argues that statutory safe-harbor provisions, designed to protect companies stock prices from misstatements by officers, do not apply to the allegedly false statements described in the complaint.

Many of the specific statements described herein were not identified as forward-looking when made. To the extent that there were any forward-looking statements, there was no meaningful cautionary language identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the purportedly forward-looking statements, the complaint contends.

The suit names current and former officers of Globe Life. Frank Svoboda has been co-CEO of the company since January 2023. The suit does not specify damages sought.

The lawsuit, if accurate, also gives some insight into how Globe Life insurance agents are compensated. Agents are paid based on the number of life insurance policies they sell. But at some point in the last few years, the company changed things: Instead of paying bonuses at the end of each year, Globe Life began front-loading sales commission bonuses, which meant that agents would receive their bonus for a new policy in their very next paycheck.

At the same time, Globe Life instituted a claw-back policy, under which an agent would have to pay back any bonus received on a policy that was cancelled within a certain number of months, the complaint reads.

The complaint can be seen here.

Photo: Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team.

Topics Lawsuits Texas Fraud
A California business owner convicted of felony workers compensation insurance fraud was ordered to pay $687,560 in restitution to the victims.

An investigation by the California Department of Insurance determined that Jorge Maldonado, owner of Pro-Care Building Maintenance, under-reported the number of employees working for the business to three insurance carriers  Employers Preferred Insurance Co., Markel Corporation and Atlas General Insurance Services.

This under-reporting, which was between 2015 and 2017, reportedly resulted in the insurance companies losing a total of $687,560.96 in workers compensation insurance premiums for the under-reported number of employees.

On April 18, 2023, Maldonado was convicted of felony workers comp insurance fraud. At a restitution hearing last week, the Honorable Tami Bogert ordered Maldonado to pay $687,560.96 in restitution to the victims.

Deputy District Attorney John MacKenzie, with the Insurance Fraud Unit, prosecuted the case.

Topics California Fraud Workers' Compensation
TORONTO - May 3, 2024 (Investorideas.com Newswire) dynaCERT Inc. (TSX: DYA) (OTCQX: DYFSF) (FRA: DMJ) ("dynaCERT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. James Damien Tansey as a director of the Company.

This news is paid advertisement/ news disseminated on behalf of/issued on behalf of dynaCERT Inc.

Originally trained in environmental sciences, Dr. Tansey brings 20 years of experience at the interface of university research and the private sector. He also brings to dynaCERT expertise in carbon markets, clean technology, social acceptability of novel technologies, impact investing and social innovation. Dr. Tansey has also been an advisor and investor in early stage companies including Gemina Labs, Exro Technologies, Syniad Innovations Inc. and Charitable Impact. He was founder of NatureBank Asset Management and previously CIO of Global Sustainable Capital Management (UK).

Dr. Tansey is the CEO and a Director of Carbon Done Right Developments, Vancouver BC (TSX:V KLX), a public company focused on the development of carbon credits from nature based solutions which to date has developed a portfolio of over 43Mt of carbon credits.

Dr. Tansey is also currently Associate Professor of the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia where he established the Centre for Social Innovation and Impact Investing. He has served as an advisor to the BC Government on Clean Energy strategy and Social Enterprise and was a Committee member for the Federal Social Innovation and Social Finance Advisory Task Force that launched the $755 Million social finance fund.

As CEO and Founder of NatureBank Asset Management he established one of the largest carbon market development companies in Canada and helped establish two of the largest forest carbon projects in the world: Great Bear Rainforest and Mai Ndombe in the DRC. The Company delivered the world's first carbon neutral Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. Until 2006, he was Deputy Director and Lecturer at James Martin Institute, Said Business School at Oxford. Dr. Tansey was also Senior Research Associate of the University of British Columbia and led projects on scenario modelling, impact of genomics and social determinants of health.

Dr. Tansey holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Risk from the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia; a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia and an International Baccalaureate from Atlantic College.

Dr. Tansey was granted the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for environmental contributions to the Province (2013) and was included in the Top 40 under 40 and a Finalist with the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Dr. James Tansey, director of dynaCERT, stated, "dynaCERT's development of proprietary technology aimed at reducing carbon emissions will benefit our world for generations to come. dynaCERT's professional management has a profound understanding of the latest developments and trends in the hydrogen marketplace and is poised to continue advancing as a global leader in this space. I am eager to work alongside dynaCERT's world-class team and being part of a company that is advancing hydrogen innovations."

Jim Payne, President and CEO of dynaCERT stated, "The dynaCERT Board of Directors is very pleased to welcome Dr. James Tansey as a director of the Company. Dr. Tansey has the proven track record to support dynaCERT in its upcoming Carbon Credit programme which will benefit all our clients by providing an annual stream of income to users of our HydraGEN technology in addition to reducing fuel costs. Our entire Company, our stakeholders, clients, dealers and shareholders are joining me in greeting Dr. Tansey as a dynamic strong supporter of the furtherance of our hydrogen technology on a global scale across many industries world-wide."

About dynaCERT Inc.

dynaCERT Inc. manufactures and distributes Carbon Emission Reduction Technology along with its proprietary HydraLytica Telematics, a means of monitoring fuel consumption and calculating GHG emissions savings designed for the tracking of possible future Carbon Credits for use with internal combustion engines. As part of the growing global hydrogen economy, our patented technology creates hydrogen and oxygen on-demand through a unique electrolysis system and supplies these gases through the air intake to enhance combustion, which has shown to lower carbon emissions and improve fuel efficiency. Our technology is designed for use with many types and sizes of diesel engines used in on-road vehicles, reefer trailers, off-road construction, power generation, mining and forestry equipment. Website: www.dynaCERT.com.

READER ADVISORY

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. In particular, information relating to Jeff Zajac cannot be independently verified. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance of achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; the uncertainty of the emerging hydrogen economy; including the hydrogen economy moving at a pace not anticipated; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships and distribution agreements; and the other risk factors disclosed under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the release.

On Behalf of the Board

Murray James Payne, CEO

Contacts

For more information:

Jim Payne, CEO & President

dynaCERT Inc.

#101 - 501 Alliance Avenue

Toronto, Ontario M6N 2J1

+1 (416) 766-9691 x 2

jpayne@dynaCERT.com

Investor Relations

dynaCERT Inc.

Nancy Massicotte

+1 (416) 766-9691 x 1

nmassicotte@dynaCERT.com

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The turbulent days of 2008 still echo vividly in the Irish financial memory  a period when the economy entered a severe recession due in large part to a property bubble, followed by a collapse in the domestic financial system.

It was a time when operating any kind of business required a degree of self-belief that was thin on the ground during that challenging era.

Carol Brick remembers well the efforts involved in getting the fledgling Contracting PLUS Financial off the ground when every week brought darker economic tidings. The business today remains the same  helping clients make informed choices about managing their money, in order to provide for their families and their own future wellbeing. When money is harder to come by and to hold on to, as it was in 2008, and again lately, post-covid, with inflation and socio-economic pressures around affordable homes and mortgages, people need sound workable plans.

The company personalises solutions on all aspects of financial wellbeing, from savings and investments to protection policies, life cover, future-proofed retirement, and tax-efficient savings and investment products. As they say, money is really only important if you don't have any, she says, adding that consumer consciousness is lately more honed, with sustainability now an important consideration in everything from building materials and recycled packaging to green investments.

Most of our clients will say that family is most important in their lives, which is why they take advice on investing, securing their income by having critical illness and life policies, planning living inheritances for children, and a tax-efficient pension pot for getting older.

It is very common now for parents to fund a deposit for a house for their children, or to avail of tax-free annual cash gifting to family members, that is exempt from Capital Acquisitions Tax. At the same time, though, it is obvious that people are living longer. So, while doling out this type of living inheritance to family, there has to be a balance so that there will be sufficient pension provision or investments maturing to fund retirement unless we are all going to work until were 90.

Female professionals

HerMoney was another financial limb added to the business in 2016, due mainly to the growing numbers of women seeking financial advice independently. There are more female entrepreneurs, professionals, and self-employed contractors in business these days, and they too are concerned that the income they accumulate through their hard work will work similarly hard to provide for them and their families, she explains.

Women also look for advice on divorce or separation, where, depending on circumstances, it can take a lot of work to actually become separate from your partners financial situation. Whether there are debts, considerable wealth, pensions and investments, children, a family home, or just a returned deposit on a rental to split, a financial advisor is almost always needed. If starting out on a new, separate life, often with children, then financial security is a huge consideration.

Listing the main financial concerns of clients in the complex marketplace of 2024, it encompasses a mix of everything, and literally from the cradle to the grave.

The company works with new parents to plan out how they will meet the cost of raising kids, their education, and first car, and how to ensure there is an income stream if, for some reason, one or both parents are no longer able to work.

Pensions are also a huge element of the business, and I take absolutely every opportunity to say to younger people, in particular, to prioritise a pension. Employment related company pensions are great if there is one and we don't know when auto-enrolment will eventually happen, or in what guise  so our advice in the interim to our younger clients is to organise a private pension as early as possible.

It is the best financial product you will ever have, she points out, essentially tax-free money, thanks to the Government and the bonus of an eventual tax-free lump sum at retirement. We are living longer, and the State pensions pot is shrinking, so there needs to be a pension or investment plan in place to ensure some degree of comfort for when we stop working.

Of all its financial service offerings, the business experienced a significant post-covid lift in Contracting PLUS, due to its business model.

The Contracting PLUS founder and Chairman, Michael Dineen, originally started the business as a one-stop-shop accountancy, taxation and umbrella companies service for independent professional contractors. The initial isolation of covid meant people were discovering how resourceful they are, how it is possible to be very productive in working from home, and how, maybe, they had not really fulfilled their career potential. This actually saw new enterprises launch with a sizeable increase in the number of experienced professionals deciding to set up on their own in consultancy or contracting.

With specialist accounting, personal finance, and taxation advice in demand from the growing ranks of such self-employed professionals, the company experienced a ramp-up in activity in order to cater for same. Contracting gives people self-determination, flexibility as to when and how they work, and greater earning potential, and it is the biggest growth sector in Irelands labour market.

Looking to the horizon of 2024 and beyond, Carol points to the huge increase in demand for its workplace financial wellbeing workshops. Employers are bringing us on-site to empower their employees with practical knowledge and tools to manage their finances effectively, reduce stress and achieve their financial goals. We offer a range of options and services covering mortgages, retirement planning, saving for the future and providing tailored strategies to help employees manage their finances better on a day-to-day basis.

She underlines the fact that economic challenges are invariably linked to political ones in our global society: What happens in the US and in the Middle East has more impact on the money in our pockets, and on how our businesses or investments perform. Inflation is gradually coming down, although the US markets seem set to stem the ECB rate reductions, for a while anyway, which isn't great for tracker mortgages, or for our cost of living and doing business.

In some ways, it does focus the mind on creating a more sustainable local economy, she believes: If we can spend and invest locally, and create jobs and infrastructure here in indigenous sectors, we become less exposed to global market influences and whatever challenges the multi-national corporations are dealing with.
Apple shares jumped the most in almost a year-and-a-half after the company posted stronger-than-expected sales last quarter and predicted a return to growth in the current period, sparking optimism that a slowdown is easing.

Though revenue fell 4.3% to $90.8bn (84.3bn) in the March quarter, that was better than the $90.3bn predicted by analysts.

Profit also topped projections in the period, and Apple announced the biggest stock buyback in US history.

The shares rallied as much as 8% to $187 on Friday.

It was the biggest intraday gain since November 2022.

Apple had been down 10% this year before results were released on Thursday night.

The results came as a relief to investors, who have been waiting for the iPhone maker to pull out of a long slump.

Apple has posted sales declines in five of the past six quarters, hurt by a sluggish smartphone market and headwinds in China.

The company had warned analysts in February that revenue in the latest period would be down about 5% from a year earlier.

A lack of innovative new devices has contributed to slow sales at Apple, but the company looks to begin rectifying that on Tuesday.

That is when it plans to unveil new iPads  the first updates to its tablet line for 20 months.

Artificial intelligence strategy

It also is planning a long-awaited push into generative artificial intelligence (AI).

In June, CEO Tim Cook is expected to lay out Apples AI strategy at its annual worldwide developers' conference.

"We are making significant investments in the space, chief financial officer Luca Maestri said.

We believe we are well-positioned.

Mr Cook had said on Thursday night that Apple will stand out from its AI rivals by tightly integrating hardware and software, using in-house chips, and making privacy and security a priority.

Apples slowdown in China has been of particular concern to investors in recent months.

Consumers there are flocking to homegrown smartphone brands, and the government has banned the use of foreign technology in some offices.

Counterpoint Research estimated that sales of the iPhone nosedived 19% in China during the first three months of the year, the products worst quarter since 2020.

Worldwide, shipments of the device fell nearly 10% in the quarter, according to IDC, marking the steepest drop since covid lockdowns snarled supply chains in 2022.

Against that backdrop, Apples China results were more upbeat than expected.

The company generated $16.4bn in revenue from greater China last quarter.

Though that number was down from a year earlier, it handily beat the $15.9bn analysts had predicted.

Mr Cook also pushed back on the idea that the iPhone was suffering in the country, saying that revenue from the device actually grew in mainland China.

The weakness stemmed from other parts of the business, he said. Other products didnt fare as well, he said on a conference call.

And so we clearly have work there to do.

Bloomberg
Michel Samson turns 80 this month, and his goal is to change the trajectory of his life.

At 90 or even 100 years old, hed like to be able to do household chores, have good grip strength, get up off the floor without help, and put his luggage in the overhead compartment of a plane.

Im interested in changing the curve of my life. For most people, as they get older, their health starts to fail. Their quality of life isnt ideal. I believe its possible to change the trajectory of the last decades of ones life.

Based in Kentucky, Samson, a violinist who taught at the University of Louisville, tells the Irish Examiner that hes interested in increasing his health span: the number of years he stays healthy.

He has been taking Rapamycin for the past five years, a drug popular in the US for promoting longevity and anti-ageing.

I see Rapamycin as a second-level intervention, says Samson, whose first intervention is exercise.

Hes convinced his weekly 5mg dose of Rapamycin puts him ahead of peers who also exercise.

I go to a gym frequented by a lot of people my age. And Im just more limber. Im more awake in my mental capacity. I dont think its conceivable Id be like that without Rapamycin.

Rapamycin is FDA-approved for kidney-transplant rejection, cardiac stent use, and the treatment of patients with lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare, progressive condition that causes cysts to form in the lungs, kidneys, and lymphatic system.

A prescription-only medicine, in Ireland Rapamycin is sold under the brand name Rapamune.

Here, it is authorised by the European Medicines Agency for kidney-transplant patients and for people with sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis.

However, the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority) says there are certain clinical situations when off-label use of a medicine may be judged in the best interests of the patient, on the basis of available evidence, and such decisions rest with the registered healthcare professional.

Off-label use of authorised medicines is outside the HPRA remit.

Matt Kaeberlein, affliate professor at the University of Washington, with dog Dobs

Matt Kaeberlein, an affiliate professor at the University of Washington and a former director at the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute, was a researcher on a paper published last year on off-label use of Rapamycin.

Several physicians are now prescribing Rapamycin off-label as a preventative therapy to maintain health span, the paper reported.

I think Rapamycin is currently the best candidate drug we have that has likely benefits for ageing, Kaeberlein says, and he outlines the ramifications of Rapamycin, an inexpensive drug, now being off-patent.

Pharmaceutical companies dont want to invest in [costly] trials, though theres a lot of data to say we should for age-related diseases.

Robert Lufkin, physician and professor at USC Keck School of Medicine in California

Bacteria discovery

Rapamycin was collected by scientists in the 1960s from Easter Island, a remote tropical island also called Rapa Nui.

They [found] several strains of unique bacteria that were unknown to science, says Robert Lufkin, a physician and professor at USC Keck School of Medicine in California.

One of the bacteria secreted a compound that had unusual health and biological properties never seen before. Rapamycin.

Lufkins focus is the applied science of longevity and he takes Rapamycin.

Ive never felt better. However, Im doing many new lifestyle changes and its difficult to attribute the benefits to any one intervention, he says.

Lufkin, author of Lies I Taught in Medical School: How Conventional Medicine Is Making You Sicker and What You Can Do to Save Your Own Life, says Rapamycin acts on a molecule called mTOR, a protein present in almost all animal cells, from yeast to human beings. mTOR, says Lufkin, is arguably the single most important signalling protein in all of biology.

When TOR senses the presence of nutrients, it tells the cell to grow. It also turns up inflammation.

If no nutrients are detected, mTOR switches the other way. It turns off cell growth, it turns off inflammation, and it turns up a repair system called autophagy.

Lufkin points to what he calls one of the most exciting theories of longevity and ageing: That, at its most basic, ageing is driven by mTOR over-activation.

mTOR is turned on too much, theres too much cell growth and cell proliferation, too much inflammation. Rapamycin can target this over-activity, says Lufkin. It works on mTOR and specifically turns mTOR down.

Brad Stanfield, New Zealand-based GP

Dr Brad Stanfield is about to start recruiting patients for a trial looking at how Rapamycin affects human muscle performance.

A New Zealand-based GP, Stanfeld says that if mTOR is over-activated, it blocks the separate process of autophagy; basically, a cell-clearance process.

Think of it like our muscles hoarding all these old, damaged proteins and components. By using Rapamycin intermittently, we switch off mTOR and allow autophagy to happen, so that our muscles can clear away these old, damaged components.

Excitement around Rapamycins anti-ageing potential has come from animal studies that have repeatedly shown benefits for a wide range of age-related diseases across multiple species. Studies have reported increased lifespan in laboratory organisms, including yeast, worms, and mice.

Lufkin and other longevity medics believe if we can change certain disease processes, we can increase lifespan. And, of course, health span.

Rapamycin has shown numerous health-span benefits in rodents, including lower cancer incidence, improved cognitive, kidney and intestinal function, preservation of tendons, preservation of ovarian function, and protection against hearing loss.

Over and over again, when Rapamycin is tested in mice, it extends lifespan by over 20%, says Stanfield, who believes that its vital to determine if Rapamycin can offer these benefits to humans.

Very promising

Rose Anne Kenny is regius professor of medicine at Trinity College Dublin, where she heads up the ageing research programme.

She is cautiously positive about Rapamycin.

Of all the supplements [for anti-ageing], that one shows most promise. But it has side effects and it hasnt been approved by the FDA. Its used in oncology treatment, and the way it works in oncology is very similar to the way its anticipated to work in slowing down ageing.

It looks very, very promising, but we need clinical trials to weigh up the benefits and the side effects. And is it going to have an effect on ageing more than getting good sleep and reducing stress? asks Kenny, author of Age ProofThe New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life, who, on the morning we speak, went for a cold-water swim in the Forty Foot.

(Cold water, she says, benefits a range of systems involved in the ageing process. Noradrenaline, a critical neurotransmitter, rises fourfold on cold water exposure, and its released in brain areas that control emotions, concentration and memory).

Kaeberlein estimates that the number of off-label users of Rapamycin for health-span reasons in the US is more than 10,000. I doubt its over 50,000 yet, but now there are a couple of telehealth Rapamycin providers, its possible, he says.

A Rapamycin user himself, he first took it for adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). It was extremely painful. I couldnt sleep, or throw a ball with my son. My doctor said there was nothing I could do, just get back to physical training and itd probably go away in a year, says the 53-year-old.

I realised this was a chronic inflammatory condition of the shoulder capsule. I knew Rapamycin was very potent at knocking down inflammation in animal studies, and that it was pretty safe in the doses people were taking [5-6mg a week].

Within two weeks of taking it, he saw a decline in pain and improvement in mobility. By the end of 12 weeks, I was 95% back to my full range of motion. For me, it was pretty convincing that, at least for some, Rapamycin can have a big benefit for quality of life.

Kaeberlein, who is also CEO of Optispan, takes Rapamycin in cycles of 12 weeks and breaks for six to eight months.

I havent noticed anything profound [since that first time], but then I havent had any severe issues. I do a lot of resistance training. I gradually get more aches and pains in my joints when I lift weights.

At the point where its bothering me, I take Rapamycin. My perception is the aches and pains go down.

Daniel Tawfik, co-founder of Healthspan

With a background in molecular biology, Daniel Tawfik is co-founder of Healthspan, which aims to provide medication that can increase health-span. He had seen a real disconnect between what is happening in the clinical community and the research community. Research showing positive effects of [some] drugs isnt making it in to the clinical frontline.

When his wifes cancer relapsed, she had a stem-cell transplant and was prescribed Rapamycin.

Intrigued by Rapamycins recalibration of mTOR over-activity back to normal levels  and that it seemed from research to be a deterrent against the progression of age-related diseases  Tawfik says: It gives us a foundation to say theres something here.

Most of Healthspans 3,000 patients are on Rapamycin for longevity and health-span.

Tawfiks telehealth service, costing $105 monthly, aims to make a drug like Rapamycin available and assure safety by measuring patient progress. All patients get blood work done at the beginning, and we notify them every four to six weeks to get further blood work done.

On an individual level, were ensuring theres no immune suppression. Its very rare we see [it]. Sometimes there can be [metabolic] effects: elevated lipids or glucose. Monitoring allows us to fine-tune the dosage.

Tawfik says 50% of clients report no benefits from Rapamycin. They dont experience any monumental shift.

But he adds: In their blood work, we may be seeing major indicators of good metabolic health, indicating someones in a healthy state and going in the right direction.

And feedback from patients with systemic inflammation or some inflammatory issue is very positive. If they have some condition thats clearly related to mTOR over-activity, which elevates inflammatory signalling  osteoarthritis, psoriasis  these patients tell us they feel better. Rapamycin is solving an active issue for them.

Tawfik, 39, has been taking Rapamycin for almost four years. Not to feel better specifically, but to slow down the cellular dysfunction that accelerates ageing.

Healthspan doesnt prescribe to 15-20% of clients, and Tawfik cautions that no-one should take Rapamycin like an aspirin: You need to be monitored under medical supervision.

Kaeberlein says its too early to say how Rapamycins anti-ageing promise will play out.

There may be gradual build-up of momentum, where we begin to see [much more] mainstream use of it, rather than just for transplant patients. Theres a growing population of people using it off-label and under supervision. What happens may depend on the data from those individuals.

Whatever else, Kaeberlein believes its time to change how we approach health.

Historically, weve approached it from the lens of disease. Our healthcare system is a reactive disease-care system. We need to change the paradigm and work on keeping people healthy. Targeting the biology of ageing needs to be part of that toolkit.

Rapamycin may become a valuable element of that toolkit for millions worldwide.

We just dont know yet.

Research on potential anti-ageing drug

A paper published in 2023 that evaluated off-label Rapamycin use to promote healthspan in 333 adults found general quality-of-life improvement after starting the drug.

Three out of four reported improvements in health, happiness, brain function, feelings of youthfulness, confidence, calmness, anxiety, and generalised aches and pains.

Greater than fivefold more Rapamycin users agreed [with the statement] that family/friends have commented that I look good than disagreed, the paper reported.

On side effects, the study found that the only significantly more prevalent side effect, compared to 172 non-Rapamycin users, was mouth sores.

[This] makes sense, given that mouth sores are the most common side effect seen at high doses in organ transplant patients. Potentially more interesting is the significant improvements in pain, depression, and anxiety, as well as reduced risk of severe or long covid, says Professor Matt Kaeberlein.

Researchers acknowledged the study is small and that care must be taken not to over-interpret the data.

More research in the pipeline:

New Zealand-based researcher Dr Brad Stanfield is starting a trial to see if Rapamycin can slow or reverse age-related muscle function decline.

We lose about one per cent of our strength per year from the age of 40  that decline accelerates from age 60. Overall, its hoped that by using Rapamycin intermittently, we can restore the mTOR balance and improve muscle strength.

Dentist Jonathan An, based at the University of Washington School of Dentistry, is about to enrol the first participants in a trial examining the potential benefit of Rapamycin for periodontal disease.

Given the correlation between periodontal disease and other age-related conditions  Alzheimers disease, cardiovascular disease and diabetes  treating periodontal disease in older adults could have broader positive effects on age-related health globally, An tells the Irish Examiner.
Ireland has one of the highest rates of ovarian cancer in Europe, along with having the second lowest survival rates for the disease.

According to the Marie Keating Foundation, this equates to an average of 387 women in Ireland being diagnosed annually with ovarian cancer  with more than 50% surviving five years or more.

As World Ovarian Cancer Day (May 8) approaches, the charity warns that poor prognosis, late diagnosis, and a lack of effective treatment options make early detection of the disease even more crucial.

It is the sixth most common cancer in Irish women, after non-melanoma skin cancer, and the fourth most common cause of death from cancer, says the assistant director of nursing at the Marie Keating Foundation, Bernie Carter.

It mainly affects women who have been through the menopause  usually over the age of 50  but can also affect younger women.

Symptoms are often not apparent until a late stage. However, what Grainne Morgan-ORourke thought to be a pulled muscle proved a life-saving early warning.

In July 2022, the mother of two (ages 11 and six) felt a sharp pain in her stomach while lifting her younger child onto a stool.

Thinking she had pulled a muscle, she took painkillers for a couple of days and, while it lingered for a couple of weeks, she thought nothing of it.

A month later, she went to her GP for a routine smear test and mentioned the pulled muscle. Her doctor decided to investigate further and referred her for an ultrasound test, which revealed a large ovarian cyst.

I was unaware of this, as I never suffered any abdominal pains apart from around the time of my period, she says.

My GP had also referred me to a gynaecologist in a local hospital who, on examination, said she could feel the cyst. She explained that she was referring me for a CT and MRI scan and to get blood tests. She said the results would be sent to the Mater Hospital in Dublin for review.

Though the results came back clear, a consultant at the Mater said they were unsure what the ovarian mass was.

I was offered surgery to either remove one fallopian tube and one ovary or undergo a full hysterectomy because, depending on the biopsy results, they may have to operate again.

With this in mind, I opted for the full hysterectomy.

Grainne Morgan O'Rourke from Co Monaghan was treated for ovarian cancer.

The Monaghan woman successfully underwent the procedure a month later. However, a couple of weeks later at her follow-up appointment, she was told that tests on the cyst had revealed it had been cancerous, and she would need treatment to ensure that there were no traces of the disease left in her body.

Initially, I was shocked and upset, she says. The consultant said there were cancer cells within the cyst, but they were contained and hadnt ruptured during surgery, which was good.

I was diagnosed with stage 1A clear cell ovarian cancer, which the surgery had got rid of. However, due to its aggressive nature, I was advised to have chemotherapy as an insurance policy and to go and live my life and enjoy it.

I was so relieved that the cancer was gone and I had been diagnosed at such an early stage, as this is quite rare with ovarian cancer.

The 46-year-old, who is married to David, had her first of four chemotherapy sessions in January 2023.

She lost her hair and experienced side effects such as horrendous pains in her bones, oral thrush, reflux, peripheral neuropathy and exhaustion.

However, anti-sickness medication prevented nausea and vomiting  something she was very grateful for.

Today, almost 18 months post-surgery, she is doing well but still has joint pain and symptoms of surgical menopause. She is unable to take HRT [hormone replacement therapy] as the cancer was aggressive.

She has regular appointments with her medical team at the Mater Hospital and is feeling positive about the future.

Everyone at the hospital has been great and are at the end of the phone if I need them, she says.

I am so thankful to them and my husband, parents, and friends for all their help and support. Yes, there is always the fear of recurrence. Yes, I have serious health anxiety, but I cannot live life in fear of something that may not happen again.

Her advice to other women is to contact their GP if they notice any changes in their bodies, pain, or symptoms that last more than two weeks, no matter how trivial.

Ovarian cancer mainly affects women who have been through menopause, but it can also affect younger women.

Ms Claire Thompson, the consultant gynaecological oncologist who treated Grainne at the Mater Hospital, advises women of all ages to know the possible signs.

The incidence of ovarian cancer is on the increase, she says. The biggest challenge is that over 70% of women present at an advanced stage, so being aware of symptoms is therefore vital in trying to diagnose this cancer earlier.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer can be vague and often very nonspecific. This can mean that women may not suspect there is a problem straight away, and it can also make the diagnosis challenging.

The cancer specialist says women may experience a range of symptoms, however, the Beat acronym represents the most common ones:

Bloating

Eating difficulties and feeling full quicker

Abdominal pain

Toilet changes (need to pass urine often or issue with bowel habit)

Other symptoms may include unexplained tiredness or weight loss and abnormal bleeding.

Your health care provider should always check any post-menopausal bleeding.

For more information, visit:
Of all the adult family roles  mother, father, grandparent, aunt, uncle  none carry quite as much expectation as the mother.

In the olden days, a womans primary identity from her birth was to grow up to be a mother.

You didnt question it, you just did all the child-rearing and domestic work, unwaged  no quibbles.

Today, despite more gender parity and female financial independence, the mother narrative remains much the same, except with a career on top.

While being a parent involves hard work and sacrifice, the cultural weight placed on the female parent remains excessive; we are expected to morph from ordinary women to paragons of nurturing self-sacrifice as soon as our waters break.

Traditionally, a mothers place was in the wrong. For many, it still is. No such societal pressure is placed on dads, even now that they are finally stepping up.

Current perfectionist parenting further adds to this pressure. Never mind shouting at your kids, giving them white sliced bread is seen by some as neglect.

But at least these days we have awareness, insight, psychological tools, and open conversation around all aspects of parenthood, motherhood, and fatherhood.

Oprah and Brooke Shields

A slew of Hollywood women are in recovery from their mothers  Brooke Shields recently spoke to Oprah about her mother wound and how it impacted her life.

(This is not a clinical diagnosis, but refers to attachment dysfunction with a primary caregiver, which can result in a psychological wound of growing up feeling unloved, unlovable, unseen, criticised, abandoned, smothered, controlled, etc).

Both Brooke, 58, and Oprah, 70, have had famously fraught relationships with their mothers. Shields late mother Teri was the first momager, obsessed with her daughters career (think the mother/daughter relationship in Black Swan).

Teri was addicted to alcohol, and her relationship with Brooke was deeply co-dependent. You either spent your life running away from her or running towards her, Brooke told Oprah.

The dysfunction ran deep  Brookes first kiss was aged 11, on camera, with a 29-year-old man.

Teri didnt date because she was in love with me, Brooke said when she appeared as a guest on the Drew Barrymore Show.

Barrymore, 49, told Marie Claire magazine that her relationship with her mother Jaid was the hardest subject in my life.

Jaid used to date Drews boyfriends, which Drew found unsettling. Well, yes.

When it comes to superstar daughters, the mother wound can often run deep.

Jennifer Aniston, 55, disengaged from her mother Nancy when Nancy wrote a tell-all memoir.

In 2015, Aniston told the Hollywood Reporter how growing up, her mother had a temper She was very critical of me... She was also very unforgiving. She would hold grudges.

Further back in Hollywoods murky mummy depths was the infamous mothering styles of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Crawfords daughter Christina broke her silence in 1978 with her memoir Mommie Dearest, which showed Crawford to be unbalanced, violent, and drunk; in 1985, Bette Daviss daughter BD Hyman published My Mothers Keeper, describing much the same.

The difference was that Christina Crawford waited a year after her mothers death before publishing, whereas Hyman published when Davis was very much alive. She was disinherited for her trouble and disowned by the family.

Literature is littered with mother wounds. Jeanette Wintersons mother Mrs Winterson  who appears in Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal  remains memorable as a terrifying example of motherhood, rigid, punitive, unloving.

Other mothers who may not have had their childrens best interests at heart include Matildas mother, Carries mother, Lolitas mother, Hamlets mother, and Brigid Joness mother.

Some are villainous, others just plain comedy-dreadful. When a mother is bad, we categorise them as unnatural, inhuman.

Oprah Winfrey addresses the audience during the 55th NAACP Image Awards, Saturday, March 16, 2024, at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The good enough mother

In real life, all a mother ever needs to be is good enough.

British paediatrician and psychologist Donald Winnicott coined the phrase good enough mother in his seminal 1971 book Playing & Reality  this is a mother (or caregiver) who responds to the needs of the baby fully at first, then as the baby grows, with slightly less immediacy so that the baby learns to self-soothe while still experiencing secure attachment.

When a mother is not attuned enough to respond to a childs needs, the child ends up adapting to the mother instead of the other way around, writes psychotherapist Jasmin Cori in her book The Emotionally Unavailable Mother.

Losing touch with [their] core experience, the child then develops what Winnicott calls the false self.

She adds that a lack of mirroring can lead to a lifelong craving for it.

However, before ultra-conscientious mothers start phoning the child psychiatrist, Cori urges us to remember one core idea: It is not what Mother does that is so critical, but rather her energetic presence and her love that is so important.

By energetic, Cori means her vibe, not her actual physical energy levels. Mothers are nearly always exhausted. This is allowed.

You could do a PhD on mothering, from Freud to Spock, and now we have the internet telling everyone what to do as well, says Dublin-based clinical psychologist Eva Doherty.

From my practice over the years, I have noticed two things that can help heal the mother wound. Firstly, try to forgive what your mother got wrong. She was most likely doing her best. And secondly, recognise that youve got to be your own mother  be more compassionate to yourself, give yourself a break, give yourself a hug. This is not to dismiss serious problems  sometimes the mother wound will never be OK. But be the mother [to yourself] you should have had .

Love yourself first

The greatest way to heal any mother wound is to not pass it on.

Its intergenerational: Oppressed wounded women oppressed and wounded their daughters, who oppressed and wounded their daughters, on and on and on. We can step beyond it.

If youre a mother of girls, remember that those girls are your mini-me  all the expectations for yourself, youll transfer on to them.

Be very aware of the message youre sending, says Doherty. So if you are critical about the appearance of your body, your physical self, youre transferring that message to your mini-me. This is what your daughter sees and hears.

And step away from perfectionism, which will also come across as criticism. The more determined you are to be the best mother, you run the risk of seeming critical in the eyes of your children, continues Doherty.

The genuine desire to be a good mother can translate as criticism. Its better to be a good enough mother than to try to be a perfect one.

Better for it to feel a bit more free and easy. And you have to be really good at regulating your emotions, and being the adult.

Motherhood is a spectrum, from Mommie Dearest to Perfect Mummy  neither extreme is helpful for you or your child. Relax, and aim for somewhere good enough, somewhere in the middle.
DAVID* is a 60-year-old accountant who worked abroad for decades on a contract basis. Taking on projects that last for several months gives me more free time between jobs, he says. When I moved back to Ireland several years ago, I hoped to continue working this way.

But it hasnt been easy. Since he hit his mid-50s, David believes that ageist attitudes have hindered his job prospects.

Ageism is a hidden problem in Irish workplaces, he says. From applying for positions, not being called to interview and seeing who was hired instead, Ive realised that companies use coded language in the recruitment process. Now, when I see words like enthusiastic or energetic in job descriptions, I dont bother applying. I know they only want someone young.

Of the 1,275 complaints detailed in the Workplace Relations Commissions Annual Report 2022, 40% related to discrimination due to age.

A 2023 survey by the recruitment firm Matrix found that 78% of the 1,400 respondents believed ageism was an issue in Irish workplaces. Two-thirds believed that workers over 50 had fewer promotional prospects than younger colleagues and half believed that older workers would struggle to get a new job.

Trudy Corrigan, research fellow at the Anti-Bullying Centre and a co-founder of the Age-Friendly University Initiative

According to Dr Trudy Corrigan, a research fellow at the Anti-Bullying Centre and a co-founder of the Age-Friendly University Initiative, this issue is worldwide.

The 2021 World Health Organisation Report on Ageism stated that one in two people globally are ageist, she says. This manifests in three ways: stereotyping  how we think about older people; prejudice  how we feel about them; and discrimination  how we act.

She argues that all three are at play in Irish workplaces. Our research shows that people begin to feel invisible in the workplace from the age of 50. They arent considered for recruitment, training, or promotion.

The problem is particularly prevalent in recruitment. Were told its difficult to even be called for interview if youre over 50, she says. People go so far as to hide some of their job history on their CVs so that prospective employers dont realise how old they are.

Good investment

Dr Mary Collins, chartered workplace psychologist at the RCSI Centre for Positive Health Sciences

Dr Mary Collins, a chartered workplace psychologist at the RCSI Centre for Positive Health Sciences, says women tend to experience more ageism than men.

Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University in Britain applied for 2,000 jobs using CVs that were identical except for the age and gender of the applicants, she says. They found that a 50-year-old was 4.2 times less likely to be called for interview than a 28-year-old. That rose to 5.3 times less likely if the applicant was a woman.

Collins suggests that bias may be due in part to the relatively recent rise in life expectancy. In 1900, the average life expectancy in Ireland was 49, so 50 was old, she says. Over the course of a century, we gained an extra 30 years of life, but we still view people over 50 as old.

The narrative around older people contributes to ageism too, says Corrigan. All the talk of older people being bed blockers and a burden on society because of pensions doesnt help.

The very language we use can be negative. Take the word elderly, says Collins. It makes you think of someone whos frail and cognitively slow. That sort of language can encourage unconscious bias.

Prof Noreen Heraty, the head of the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the University of Limerick. Pic: Don Moloney

Prof Noreen Heraty, the head of the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the University of Limerick, lists other undesirable attributes we often associate with ageing. We assume older people are set in their ways and unwilling or unable to change, she says. We dont see them as being interested in taking on new roles or responsibilities or as a good investment in terms of future contributions to the workplace.

Its widely accepted that occupations requiring high physical strength or stamina are generally suited to younger workers. With this exception, older employees can work to a high standard in most jobs.

A 2015 study called Dont Put Baby (Boomers) in the Corner found that people perceived baby boomers as lacking energy and innovation, says Collins. But that was at odds with how baby boomers saw themselves. They felt they had developed a wealth of experience and knowledge that they wanted to pass on to younger colleagues.

A 2015 Columbia University study of over 100 small businesses in New York City highlighted more benefits that older workers can bring to the workplace. These included higher levels of emotional intelligence and critical thinking, greater loyalty to their employers, and lower levels of absenteeism.

Heraty maintains that even the area of weakness most associated with older workers  their lack of familiarity with technology  can be overcome once the right training and support are provided.

Its not that people cannot learn as they get older, she says. Its that learning needs to be presented in more accessible ways. But thats something that doesnt just benefit older workers. It helps everyone.

Law bans discrimination

Corrigan reminds employers that theres a legal obligation to treat older workers fairly. The law bans discrimination, which includes discrimination in terms of age, she says. Its important to create widespread awareness of this so that organisations design and enact policies that are inclusive of older workers.

Training can help with this, says Heraty. Often people may not be conscious of the ageist attitudes they hold or how these attitudes impact the people they work with. This is particularly true for managers or decision-makers when it comes to recruitment, performance management, allocation of work and redundancy. Ones age shouldnt determine what opportunities are made available to us.

Collins is particularly interested in the potential of intergenerational workforces. Ive visited tech companies in Dublin where Ive been 20 years older than everyone else, and its felt one-dimensional, she says. There were all these tech-savvy people, but where was the opportunity for mentorship or sharing life experiences?

Shes a strong proponent of reverse mentoring as a way of countering ageism. This happens when a younger and older person learns from one another.

Collins mentor is 26. She helps me maintain my digital presence and as a woman in my 40s, I help her with her career trajectory. We each have skills and experiences to offer the other.

Corrigans work with DCUs Age-Friendly University Initiative is built on the principle of creating a space in which older and younger people can learn from each other. It offers older people from the local community the chance to study unaccredited part-time courses at the university and to engage in workshops with full-time students.

They enjoy getting to know each other, says Corrigan. There can be stereotyping both ways with older people having certain assumptions about younger people and vice versa. But by sitting down and talking with one another, they realise they have more in common than they think.

Corrigan and DCU are also part of a European project that is developing resources and materials to help workplaces tackle ageism. Shes eager to make clear that this isnt about giving older people preferential treatment in the workplace. Its about creating a transparent and fair system for all, she says. We want everyone, no matter what age they are, to feel they are entitled to continue to develop their potential at work.

Thats exactly what David wants too. All anyone should care about is your ability to do the job, fit into the company and work as part of the team, he says. Your age shouldnt come into it at all.
An Irish-Palestinian man who was trapped in war-torn Gaza for months will be reunited with his family in Ireland this weekend.

Zak Hania has finally fled Rafah almost six months after his family made the move back to Ireland.

His family has been campaigning for his return ever since they arrived in Dublin.

The Hania family were among 28 Irish citizens who were evacuated in November by the Department of Foreign Affairs via Cairo to Dublin.

The three brothers and mother had walked for days, making two long journeys from north Gaza to the Rafah Crossing, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

His wife Batoul Hania said her husband is now in Egypt and is expected to arrive in Dublin tomorrow.

It has been a long time coming for the Hania family, who had hoped to be reunited with their father in time for Christmas last year.

He is still back there, and we wait for news every day, Mazen Hania told the Irish Examiner in December.

We dont know why he was not on the list, he is an Irish citizen, so every day we dont know if he will live or if he will die. We want to have all the family here, and safe.

We have left everything behind, but we want our father here, for Christmas and for our family to be together.

Its like we left him there to die. The situation over there is like something you cant even imagine.

Mrs Hania said despite the threat to their lives, fleeing Gaza was one of the most difficult decisions she has ever been faced with  when she was forced to walk away from her husband who could not leave.

I was screaming, I cant go, but my husband and his family said you have to go, just go, she said.
One of the first cuckoos to be tagged as part of a tracking project has landed home at Killarney National Park after a winter spent in the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa.

Cuach KP is the first of three Irish cuckoos to successfully make the 9,000km journey home for the summer months.
I spent last week in Washington DC where I was struck by four words on the wall of the Korean War memorial: Freedom is not free.

The line runs like a multitudinous river, with joining and diverging parts, across the States. It feeds the frenzy, the paranoid patriotism, flags drooped on the dashboards of cars, flaring in wind from buildings.

It is a line that sends military aid to Ukraine and Israel. Freedom is not free is the motto currently arresting pro-Palestinian students across the country.

It is putting guns in the hands of teachers. Yet another bill passed during my short stay, this time in the state of Tennessee  a response by lawmakers to a shooting in a Nashville school last year. Teachers can now carry a concealed weapon following just 40 hours of training. Parents wont know whether their childs teacher is carrying a gun. Already, critics worry that teachers may have to turn their gun on their own students.

Freedom is not free serves as a caption for the very many war memorials across the city, from the Mall to Capitol Hill, and on across the water to the vast stretch of white crosses at Arlington. Everywhere in Washington DC there are soldiers remembered. There are veterans too, wheeled around by boys in uniform.

The whole city feels like a beautiful, majestic cemetery, where the living pay respect to the ghosts of the honourable dead, those who gave their lives for the freedom that cannot come freely.

But this is not just a line for America. It is for every rich country currently doing their best to avoid sharing freedom with the less fortunate. A freedom to which they feel naturally entitled. A freedom they will defend whatever the moral cost.

The first news story I heard landing back into Dublin was the postponed meeting between Minister McEntee and British home secretary James Cleverly.

The UKs Rwanda policy took had an eerie familiarity arriving home, far too close to the story of slaves coming to America. Yet another one-way trip, only back to Africa this time, unwanted rather than stolen. The same misery and abuse again, a tale of moving human bodies around like commodities.

Minister McEntees report that 80% of asylum seekers are now coming across the border from the North is infuriating many in Ireland. People are eager to return asylum seekers to our neighbours.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

These unwanted people have taken on that word, returns as if they are packed in a box, a damaged sticker blaring red and white across the top.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he is uninterested in an asylum seekers returns deal.

Were not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesnt accept returns back to France where illegal immigrants are coming from.

It appears nobody wants them  these returns. Rich countries wanted them enough to own and trade them in the past. I wonder how Sunak would have felt if hed been standing beside me in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC this week.

Would he have noticed the similarities between then and now? Between what he is doing now and what was once done by wealthy British slaveowners  the same people who were compensated for their loss of human property up to 2015.

How might Minister McEntee feel in that museum?

Why do we even have these museums? Why do we visit them and bow our heads in communal shame and then treat people in our own lifetime like animals, worse than animals, locked out of Fortress Europe?

On the walls of the museum, England is listed as having transferred the most slaves out of Africa at the peak of the slave trade. Now the Tory government sees no problem with transporting dark or brutalised bodies once again. Still, they function without any sense of duty, any need to compensate the global citizens who have always suffered the fiercest blows of imperialism and hardship.

The Rwanda policy is a means to suit the ends of a comparably rich country, with little regard to the impact on human beings or the impact on Rwanda, where the current unemployment rate is 53%.

I wonder how asylum seekers will be treated on their trip to Rwanda?

I know how they were last transported by the British during the slave trade, the men often shackled to one another  newly-acquired slaves waking up with their wrists shackled to a corpse. The women on the slave ships went untethered and were routinely raped and abused.

Will Rishi Sunak ensure that conditions are improved this time round?

During the slave trade, on arrival, the African diaspora would have their faces licked as a test for disease. They had their mouths pulled open to survey their gums, their eyelids pulled to inspect their eyes, and most brutally, the emblems of companies marked on their chest with burning irons.

This modern cargo is unwanted, however, so Im supposing the checks wont be so thorough. And they presumably wont suffer the same abuse to ensure submission.

Images in the Washington DC museum show men with lacerated backs, lashed into disfigurement, left looking like a mound of worms was crawling beneath their skin. Lashing the backs of black people was a common deterrent against bad behaviour. As was lynching.

Rishi Sunak refers to the Rwanda policy as a deterrent too. For him, the fact that immigrants are entering Ireland through the northern border is a sign that his deterrent is working. It is a means to an end. Freedom, after all, the freedom of British people, just as much as Americans, is not free.

Where does Ireland stand? It is certainly true that we need to establish a workable system to accept asylum seekers. It is true that we have failed to do this effectively. But we must not become monsters to protect our own freedoms.

The UKs Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) disapplies sections of the Human Rights Act and international law. It has been passed regardless.

On what ground does McEntees rushed law to return asylum seekers stand? I dont know. But it feels morally shaky. Morality matters.

It must matter or we wouldnt spend millions commemorating the victims of the past, the honourable dead, in every rich nation in the world.

The underlying fact of our modern world is that people will keep coming to comparatively safe borders. This is only the beginning. The number of migrants arriving in the UK, despite the Tory governments protestations and deterrents, is 24% higher than this time last year.

This human crisis will define our future; we must deal with it humanely. Freedom is certainly not free if protecting one persons freedom means destroying the freedom of another. It is not free if the price of that freedom is our humanity.

Arriving back in Ireland, I got a taxi home, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. Asylum seekers were being discussed on the radio. My taxi driver quickly adopted the language of Rishi Sunak.

We should send them all back in their bloody boats; there are thousands of them, he said.

I was struck by his accent.

Are you foreign yourself? I asked.

No. Im from England. Unless you consider England foreign, he replied.

We spent the rest of the journey in quiet.
IT SOUNDS like a riddle but its a tasty recipe for design success.

A Kerry homeowner seeks a sleek German kitchen. The solution?

A journey to Cork to meet a Waterford designer.

Darach Breathnach, from An Rinn, Co Waterford, devised a plan to transform the heart of this home in the Killarney area.

Darach Breathnach, senior consultant, Kube.

A senior consultant at the Kube Interiors showroom in Cork, he first met the client in late 2022 when her house and kitchen were being updated.

We went through the homeowners ideas and her wishlist, says Darach.

The house was first built by the owners 20 years ago. They decided to knock the conservatory and modernise the kitchen.

That day, the owner and Darach spent the initial meeting drawing up a dream plan.

The homeowners were looking for a quality kitchen and loved the contemporary style of a Kube German kitchen, so they were happy to travel to Cork. We get a lot of

customers from Kerry as it is not too far from our showrooms.

How did this space appear pre-makeover?

The kitchen was dark and they wanted to make it brighter and more usable for their growing family, says Darach.

The entire project  home and kitchen  was completed in September 2023.

The light bounces off the white-matte units and the steel-grey island provides a contrast.

The handless LED track lighting creates a lovely warm atmosphere in the evening. Quartz statuario worktops give a luxurious feel and are super durable, says Darach.

Storage is impressive. There is a pocket-door pantry where the toaster and coffee machine are hidden from view but easily accessible when required. This pantry also includes shelving and drawers.

A window seat makes the most of the view and is equally practical with storage underneath.

The slide-up tambour unit offers storage and display potential and items can be hidden away when its closed, or slide it up to reveal a gorgeous crockery collection.

Theres also a utility room with a sink, eye-level appliances, and a handy seated area for taking off shoes.

So what was on the original wish list? The client wanted a bright, contemporary kitchen which functioned well for all the family, had lots of storage and made the most of the stunning views, says the designer.

As with most family kitchens, this space would need to work hard and play hard while looking fabulous, as it would be the go-to haven for two adults, four children, a dog and three cats.

The initial meeting included a walkthrough to show examples of styles. After this meeting, we arranged a second one where we presented initial drawings for the kitchen, says Darach. Our fitter then measured up the space and we took it from there. There were then additional meetings to update the design and make final decisions.

The finished product met his and the familys expectations as contemporary, stylish, streamlined and bright living quarters.

Its an ideal family kitchen with heaps of storage including a pantry and utility room, says Darach. The island and window seat are great focal points and the kitchen is a much more social space.

The concept

The original concept was to create a contemporary room with functionality at its core.

The client sought a bright room with a minimal look but also wanted warmth, says the designer.

The owner wanted a kitchen that would work for the next stage of family life. Social spaces were important along with additional storage and a way of capitalising on the view and aspect, says Darach.

Function

And now its been put to work, how does the family find it? The owner is delighted, she says it works brilliantly for their family! There is now room for everyone and there is a place for everything, it feels like a much nicer place to spend time in.

Favourite spot

As an interior design pro, what is Darachs red dot zone in this Kerry kitchen?

As the kitchen designer Id have to say I love the window seat  its a comfy spot for reading and admiring the view and also includes additional drawer storage underneath, he says.

I also love the pocket door pantry, its such a convenient location for the toaster and coffee machine and everything can be hidden from view when necessary. The LED track lighting around the island is a great feature as it creates a lovely atmosphere in the evening.

As for the client?

The owner loves the island and the window seat as it makes members of the family spend more time there. She also loves that the appliances  washing machine, dryer and dishwasher  are all elevated to eye level as its really practical and convenient.

Advice

What is Darachs top kitchen design advice?

Give yourself four months to plan your kitchen, he says.

The initial meetings are so important for ascertaining what the client wants and creating the design. Focus on the layout of the kitchen first before picking colours and finishes. Certain appliances such as an American fridge or a range cooker have a big impact on the layout so they need to be factored in from the beginning. Finishes and colours can be confirmed at a later stage, layout is crucial.

Storage

Storage solutions must function well, adds Darach. Drawers are great as they can be pulled right out and allow ease of access, he says.

Pocket door pantries and tambour units enable you to store items out of sight and keep worktops clutter-free. Ceiling-height cabinets are great for providing extra storage for items that are not accessed regularly.

Trends

Thinking in terms of the latest must-have? The Scandinavian look is on-trend  wood and white together, says Darach.

Handles are also making a comeback and ceiling-height units are being introduced more as they provide so much storage.

There is a move towards warmer tones  bronze/gold/black. Lighting plays a great role in enhancing the kitchen and creating a nice atmosphere in the evening.

Handle-track lighting, under-cabinet lighting, open shelving lighting and pantry lighting are all popular.

The height and width of integrated cabinets for fridges has increased so XXL fridges can now be integrated and are becoming a more popular option than American ones.

See www.kubeinteriors.comtarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">, @kubekitchens
As merger and acquisition (M&A) activities increase, increased pressure from new regulatory scrutiny as well as the changing role of warranty and indemnity (W&I) insurance in M&A transactions are keeping solicitors and their clients on their toes.

New regulation

The concept of regulatory clearance of deals is not new. Traditionally, many deals are subject to the Competition Consumer and Protection Commission (CPCC) scrutiny and until this year, the threshold of the deals was extremely high and had to be above a value of 60 million. However, two new pieces of legislation are set to change the rules.

The first adjustment is the lowering of the threshold for the CPCC to investigate mergers and acquisitions. It was particularly set up to examine potentially sensitive areas such as technology, but it can also look at hyper local situations.

Diarmaid Gavin, partner in the corporate department with legal firm RDJ LLP, explains how it works: For example, consider a small village with two fuel filling stations. If the same person bought both, then the CPCC may get involved, and no one wants the CPCC knocking on their door after they have completed the transaction. So, we advise our clients to engage with the CPCC ahead of any possible worries, just in case, he says.

Diarmaid Gavin, partner in the corporate department with legal firm RDJ.

The second change is Irelands first piece of investment screening legislation, the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the FDI Act), which is expected to commence in the first week of September 2024.

Philip Lea, partner, Corporate and M&A at Dillon Eustace LLP, says the FDI Act will give the Irish government power to review and prohibit certain third country (i.e., non-EEA) investments into critical Irish industries based on a range of security and public order criteria.

A notification will be required where the transaction involves a third-country undertaking or person connected to that undertaking and a change in control over an asset or undertaking occurs or where the transaction relates to, or impacts on, one or critical sectors; and the cumulative value of the transaction in the period of 12 months before the date of the transaction is equal to or greater than 2 million.

Philip Lea, partner, Corporate and M&A at Dillon Eustace.

Similar to the merger control regime, the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment may call in transactions that are not notifiable but where the Minister believes the transaction affects, or would be likely to affect, the security or public order of the State. Dealmakers will need to be prepared to undergo this investment screening where a non-EEA country is involved in the transaction. Given the prevalence of US and UK investment in Ireland and the broad range of critical sectors, the FDI Act is a significant shift in FDI M&A, says Lea.

The Act is being implemented in Ireland following an EU wide regulation.

Gavin says: In order to protect Europe, the EU needed all the member states to put in place a screening regime, so that the Minister could check a transaction if requested by his French or Swedish counterpart, who might have a concern about something in their jurisdiction.

What it does effectively is to allow the Minister to potentially prohibit or modify a transaction on the grounds of public security or public order grounds, he says.

The Irish legislation determines that the target must operate the critical element of its business, or the critical infrastructure must be located in Ireland.

Sectors covered under the act include infrastructure in energy, transport, water, health, communications, media, data processing, aerospace, defence and sensitive facilities as well as land and real estate crucial for the use of such infrastructure.

It also includes critical technologies and dual use items including artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, cybersecurity, aerospace, quantum and nuclear technologies as well as nanotechnologies and biotechnologies.

This new law does not just affect mergers and acquisitions; it can cover an investment or someone taking a stake in a company. It can also be used to patrol the supply of critical inputs, including energy or raw materials, as well as food security, says Gavin.

Finally, access to sensitive information, including personal data, or the ability to control such information, and the media is also covered.

And for the purposes of the act, the definition of third parties is anyone other than the company or individual based in the EU, Switzerland or the European Economic Area. That includes the UK and the US which are a big source of foreign direct investment in Ireland, adds Gavin.

Risk assessment

Adrian Benson, partner and head of corporate and M&A at Dillon Eustace LLP, explains that typical contractual provisions, used in a sales agreement to deal with risk, are warranties and indemnities, (W&I). However, when negotiating W&I the parties' interests are often far from aligned and there may be great reluctance to give a buyer comprehensive W&I at all. Therefore, W&I insurance is a specialist insurance product increasingly being used in private M&A to provide an amicable solution.

Adrian Benson, partner and head of corporate and M&A at Dillon Eustace.

W&I insurance is designed to provide cover against financial loss that may arise from a breach of warranty in an SPA, on a share sale, or from a claim under a tax covenant. It is far more commonly encountered on share deals than asset deals though this is largely accounted for by the fact that most private M&A in Ireland is structured as a sale of shares, he says.

In the case of a policy taken out by the buyer, W&I insurers or underwriters effectively step into the shoes of the seller with the intention of providing, as far as possible, back-to-back cover with the position agreed in the Special Purchase Arrangement (SPA) and other transaction documents. With the insurer providing recourse for the buyer, the seller may be able to cap its liability at a nominal or at least lower amount than would otherwise have been possible, enabling it to achieve a cleaner exit.

The use of W&I insurance is becoming more prevalent in Irish transactions to limit the seller's liability under warranties. Depending on the level of cover acquired, the policy can be used to reduce the seller's liability to as low as EUR 1. However, the seller typically retains risk for the title and capacity warranties, and full liability will apply if the seller has been found to have acted fraudulently or engaged in wilful misconduct or wilful deceit. The policy generally mirrors the warranties set out in the share purchase agreement, but the insurer may modify or carve out certain warranties and indemnities. Many of these limitations and carve-outs may, however, be covered under the policy for an additional premium.

If W&I insurance has been proposed by the seller, the seller may offer to contribute to the premium, either up to a set maximum amount, percentage of cost or what the seller feels is a reasonable policy limit, with any additional requirements, enhanced or higher policy limits options being for the account of the buyer.

W&I insurers typically require that the parties involved accept a certain portion of the risk, and this is reflected in the policy retention (also known as the excess). This is the financial threshold beyond which the insurer will become liable under the policy and below which it is generally not liable, says Benson.
Perfection takes time and refinement.

Irish whiskey is an example of both; a product steeped in craft, patience, attention to detail, and made with high-quality ingredients. There are few better ways of seeing this for yourself than by visiting the new-look Midleton Distillery Experience.

The Cork distillery is the home of seven iconic Irish whiskey brands  Jameson, Redbreast, Powers, Midleton Very Rare, The Spot Whiskeys, Method and Madness, and Knappogue Castle. Here, youll find endless casks containing pure liquid magic  some of which have been aged for several years, even decades, until theyre just right.

Its not just the luscious, warming whiskeys produced at Midleton Distillery that have taken time to reach their fullest potential, however. Midleton Distillery Experience itself has been transformed in recent years; redeveloped into something bigger and better than ever before, that offers exciting new experiences for visitors.

The revamped Midleton Distillery Experience is nothing short of impressive. Thats partially because, like any good whiskey, the project has been years in the making  quite a few more years than initially planned, as David Byrne, Director of the Midleton Distillery Campus, explains.

Midleton Distillery has an incredibly rich history. The first buildings on the site were constructed in 1794 as a woolen mill, and later, following the sale of the site in 1825 to three brothers  James, Jeremiah and Daniel Murphy, distilling commenced. Distilling continued for 150 years until in 1975, when the Old Distillery was decommissioned, and a New Distillery was opened next door.

David Byrne, Director of the Midleton Distillery Campus.

Following a dormant period, in 1992, the Old Distillery re-opened as the Jameson Heritage Centre and the business was a success from the beginning. When David began working on the Midleton Campus in 1998, it was evident future investment would be required in order to preserve and enhance the old distillery buildings.

Over time and due to the volume of business, general wear and tear, the site began to look quite dated. So fast forward to 2019; we decided to embark on a major refurbishment project. Our main objective was to secure the future of the historic buildings which require constant care and attention to keep them from deteriorating.

Here, David and his team in Midleton ran into their first obstacle  the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, not to mention the many stages of lockdown that followed. This resulted in construction on the redevelopment beginning much later than anticipated. It was a very challenging time, as David recalls.

Some of the worlds most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys are made in Midleton.

It was December 2021 when we actually got started. We were determined to remain trading throughout the works so as not to disappoint our visitors. With this objective in mind, we moved out of the building and transferred our team, and business, to a temporary Visitor Center located in an old maturation warehouse, affectionately known as Warehouse No. 8.

It became a big job, much bigger than we first imagined, primarily due to the age of the buildings and, the fact that the entire site is listed as a protected structure. As the fabric of the building was peeled back, we discovered many challenges which had to be addressed including foundations, walls, roof structures, and building services such as power, water, and drainage. Ultimately, the entire structure was refitted from top to bottom.

Incorporating a sustainability agenda into the project was also a priority for the team. This meant installing new heating and ventilation systems; a switch to LED lighting throughout and taking the opportunity to improve insulation.

We completed the project and re-opened the business to the public on September 30th, 2023. The team enjoyed an exciting couple of weeks as we opened our doors to the public  the place looked fantastic, and it was very well received by visitors. Everything was going great, and then of course the infamous events of October 18th occurred.

October 2023 saw Storm Babet bring devastating rainfall and flooding to Midleton. Over just two days, more than 100mm of rainfall fell in the town  the equivalent of an entire month's worth of typical downpours.

We were literally left standing there, in our brand-new building, with water everywhere, David recalls. However most importantly, nobody at the experience or in the town was injured. The response from the team on the day was incredible and the support we received from colleagues, friends and neighbours in the days afterwards, was heartwarming. Like many of our neighbouring businesses affected in Midleton town, we had to close immediately and set about refurbishing, all over again! Our teams worked hard to not only deal with the damage of the visitor centre but also to support the community who were so badly affected in Midleton town.

Our construction partners, P. J. Hegarty & Sons, advised that repairs would take approximately five months and we knew this would be too long for our visitors and team. The only solution was to return to Warehouse No. 8, also damaged in the flood, and begin trading once again. Our second stint in the temporary facility enabled the flood damage repairs to proceed at speed, and five months later, on March 8th, 2024, we returned to the main building to celebrate another re-opening!

Its been a long, difficult road in getting here, but David and the team couldnt be happier with the end result.

Our revamped Midleton Distillery Experience is now bigger, warmer, brighter and offers much more choice to visitors, he shares proudly. Fundamentally, when people visit Midleton Distillery Experience, they want to experience our whiskeys. Now we offer our guests more ways to do that than ever before; be it a distillery tour, a premium whiskey tasting, a whiskey cask opening experience, cocktail classes, or an extended duration tour where visitors go behind-the-scenes to explore our many special distillery buildings, our whiskeys, and our craft.

Weve built a new cafe also, which offers morning pastries, a spot of lunch, and afternoon snacks. The cafe incorporates an external patio area for when the good weather arrives! The refurbished Distillery Shop stocks our entire whiskey portfolio, as well as branded items including clothing, glassware, and giftware. The new Whiskey Vault goes one step further and offers the opportunity to purchase high-end whiskeys and special editions which collectors would not find available in many other shops.

Find limited edition whiskeys that will impress any collector in the new Whiskey Vault shop.

While the new experience is certainly a whiskey connoisseurs dream, you dont necessarily need to be a devoted whiskey lover to enjoy a visit to Midleton Distillery Experience.

Weve designed Midleton Distillery Experience for everybody, David explains. We understand that many visitors are whiskey enthusiasts, whilst others have only a passing interest. We want everybody to find their visit interesting, and so we have an experience for everyone, be it a thirty-minute whiskey barrel opening, right up to a two day, fully immersive, whiskey education experience at our Irish Whiskey Academy. The idea is that the experience is light-hearted enough to entertain everybody, however, for the whiskey enthusiast who wishes to delve deeper into the production process, we can certainly provide options for them to immerse themselves.

As well as catering to people of all interests, Midleton Distillery Experience is also geared towards international visitors as tours are offered in many languages. More than 80% of visitors are from overseas including USA, France, Germany, and Great Britain, however the local and Irish market is also critical. It is our ambition to grow our domestic market, and this means convincing local friends and neighbours to visit also. After all, we believe the distillery is an important part of the town as so many locals have worked here over the past 200 years. We also believe that the people of Midleton are proud of that fact that every glass of Jameson enjoyed around the world is made right here, in Midleton town.

Now that were back up and running, we genuinely hope the people of Midleton, Cork and further afield will come in to visit us and the wider East Cork area  whether for a tour, to experience a cocktail making class, a morning coffee or to enjoy a drink in our impressive new bar or indeed to support other businesses in the community.

Enjoy the perfect serve at one of the distillery experience new bars.

With so much for locals and international visitors alike to choose from at Midleton Distillery Experience, the only tough part will be having enough time to explore it all!

Our classic tour is approximately 1hr 15mins in duration, bringing the visitor face-to-face with worlds largest pot still. Visitors are more than welcome to stay longer in order to enjoy our shop, cafe, bars or tasting rooms, says David. "We never turn anyone away meaning we endeavour to offer an experience to everyone, whether one arrives at 10am or 5pm.

"One experience the team are very excited about is the new Cocktail Class which takes place in the beautiful Kiln Bar, nestled privately in the upper floors within the original distillery buildings. This old building has lain dormant for almost fifty years and is now an incredible space featuring a conservation grade roof structure above the bespoke training bar. Here, under the tutelage of one of Midleton Distillery Experiences expert mixologists and using locally sourced ingredients, participants will learn the art, and enjoy the craic, of creating three specially curated cocktails.

Learn how to make three showstopper cocktails with an expert on the new cocktail class at Midleton Distillery Experience.

Regardless of how you choose to spend your time in Midleton, you wont regret it, David promises. Following your visit to Midleton Distillery Experience, Midleton Town offers a great variety of boutiques, shops, bars, and restaurants, and did I mention the free parking? Further afield, East Corks beautiful landscape is there to be discovered and offers many additional visitor experiences, picturesque towns and villages, as well as great food. Its a great visit. While youre in Cork, though, a trip to Midleton Distillery Experience is a truly unforgettable experience. You get to learn about Irish whiskey  past, present, and future. Weve been distilling whiskey in Midleton since 1825  thats almost 200 years of craft and expertise, and some of the worlds favourite Irish Whiskey brands and expressions to be experienced with our wonderful team. Its a fun, unique experience and I cant think of a better way to spend an hour or two of your time.

To book an experience, visit www.midletondistilleryexperience.com
Germans top diplomat has said that Russia will face consequences after accusing its military intelligence service of masterminding an absolutely intolerable cyberattack.

Relations between the two European countries were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian state hackers were behind a cyberattack last year that targeted the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition.

Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace, she said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide.

We can attribute this attack to the group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia.

This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences, she said.

Ms Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.

The defence co-operation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats, said Ms Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.

Discussions between Ms Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centred on the conflict in Gaza.

I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution, Ms Wong said.
China has sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures after a road collapse killed at least 48 people in the countrys mountainous south.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Friday said vice premier Zhang Guoqing had stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work.

The dispatch of Mr Zhang, who is also a member of one of the ruling Communist Partys leading bodies, illustrates the concern over a possible public backlash over the disaster, the latest in a series of deadly infrastructure failures.

References to the collapse, which left a huge gash in the side of a cliff over which the road was built, largely disappeared from public media on Friday.

A firefighter sprays water on the remains of a car in the aftermath of the road collapse (Xinhua via AP)

Mr Zhangs presence follows calls by President Xi Jinping and the Communist Partys No 2 official, premier Li Qiang, to swiftly handle the tragedy.

About 30 other victims were taken to hospital.

One side of the four-lane road in the city of Meizhou gave way at about 2am on Wednesday after a month of heavy rain in the province of Guangdong.

Twenty-three vehicles plunged into a deep ravine, some bursting into flames and sending up thick clouds of smoke.

Lessons should be drawn from the collapse and more should be done to improve disaster prevention and response capabilities, ensuring the safety of peoples lives and property and the overall social stability, Xinhua quoted the vice premier as saying.

Rescuers working at the site of the road collapse (Wang Ruiping/Xinhua via AP)

Mr Zhang also called for closer monitoring of weather patterns during the annual summer flooding season that strikes large swathes of central and southern China, and for an improvement in early warning systems and response times.

No official word has been issued about any arrests or investigation into the collapse, which followed unusually intense weather, including hailstorms and an April 27 tornado that struck Guangdongs capital of Guangzhou, killing five and injuring 33.

More heavy rain is forecast, with many flights headed south through the region cancelled or delayed.

Over 22 inches of rain has fallen in the past four weeks in the county where the road collapsed, more than four times as much as last year. Some villages in Meizhou were flooded in early April, and the city has received additional rain in recent days.

The Ministry of Emergency Management also issued an urgent circular urging officials to draw lessons from the road collapse and take concrete measures to prevent similar accidents.

The road section collapsed on the first day of a five-day May Day holiday, when many Chinese people travel at home and abroad.
Ukraines president and foreign minister have pressed British Foreign Secretary David Cameron to accelerate the delivery of promised military aid to Kyiv, as Russia heaps battlefield pressure on depleted Ukrainian forces in the third year of war.

It is important that the weapons included in the UK support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social platform X, as Lord Cameron visited Kyiv on Thursday.

He said armoured vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types were top of the list.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who also met with Lord Cameron, said on X that the focus was on speeding up military aid.

That message was rammed home by the deputy chief of Ukraines military intelligence agency, Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, who said Russia is trying to exploit its current advantage in weapons and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.

Our problem is very simple: We have no weapons, Mr Skibitsky was quoted as saying in an interview with The Economist published on Friday.

Vital support pledged by Western allies to help Ukraine fend off the Kremlins forces has been delayed by political disagreements in the United States and a lack of manufacturing capacity in Europe.

That has opened a door to advances for the bigger and better-equipped Russian army, especially along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy the new military aid, especially a fresh batch of US support, in coming weeks and prevent Russia taking more ground.

The pressing concern at the moment is keeping the strategic eastern hilltop city of Chasiv Yar out of Russian hands.

Capturing the city would offer Russia the opportunity of attacking other key cities deeper inside the Donetsk region and hitting important Ukrainian supply lines.

Chasiv Yar is being battered by Russian artillery, drones and missiles. Glide bombs have also been deployed. They are half-ton bombs fitted with wings and launched from aircraft from behind Russian lines. They demolish buildings and leave huge craters, unnerving local defenders.

Russia used a similar strategy of relentless bombardment to force Ukrainian troops out of Avdiivka in February.
A self-described egg collecting addict has been handed a suspended jail-term for illegally amassing a collection of almost 3,000 wild birds eggs.

Daniel Lingham, 71, had served two prison sentences for his illegal egg collecting  in 2005 and in 2018  before he was caught on a wildlife trap camera stealing two eggs from a nightjar nest in 2023.

He was identified in the footage from Holt Lowes in Norfolk, on June 9 last year, by his distinctive walking stick and thousands more eggs were found when police searched his home in Newton St Faith, Norfolk.

Some of the birds eggs found in the possession of Daniel Lingham (Norfolk Police/ PA)

Josephine Jones, prosecuting at Norwich Magistrates Court on Friday, said Lingham said he could not help himself due to his addiction to collecting eggs.

He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months.

Presiding magistrate Matthew Watts said: We believe its serious enough that it does cross the custody threshold but because of the realistic prospect of rehabilitation we are going to suspend (the sentence).

Lingham was also ordered to comply with a 12-month mental health treatment requirement including 15 rehabilitation activity days.

He was told to pay 183 in compensation to the British Trust for Ornithology, 145 in court costs and a 154 victim surcharge.

Lingham covered his face with his coat hood as he left the court building, and told reporters no comment.

Screengrab taken from body worn camera issued by Norfolk Police of Daniel Lingham as his home is searched (Norfolk Police/ PA)

Miss Jones said the defendant said he unfortunately disturbed a nightjar nest and fell into the awful trap of taking the eggs.

He said that thousands more eggs found at his home address on July 25 were from not taken from the wild by him, the prosecutor said.

She said Lingham said they were from an old collection he had in storage when police last raided his address and from a collection he was given by a friend in Essex.

A total of 2,995 eggs were found within his home, including 2,429 eggs from native birds in his bedroom.

Of those, 548 were from native birds on the amber list of birds of conservation concern, and a further 546 were of the most serious concern on the red list including linnet, green finch, yellowhammer and house sparrow.

A further collection of eggs was found behind a bath panel including a box containing a pair of nightjar eggs with a label Nightjar 2, Holt Lowes June 9.

Some of the birds eggs found in the possession of Daniel Lingham (Norfolk Police/ PA)

Officers also found identifying books, binoculars and an egg-blowing kit.

He admitted at an earlier hearing to five offences, including taking the nightjar eggs and possessing 2,429 eggs of a non-schedule 1 wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

He also admitted possessing 22 Schedule 1 bird eggs, possessing articles capable of being used to identify and take eggs and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order which banned him from entering Holt Lowes.

Lingham has two previous convictions for similar crimes.

In 2005, he was jailed for 10 weeks after police found a collection of almost 4,000 eggs in his home.

While in 2018, he was found to be in possession of more than 5,000 eggs for which he was jailed for 18 weeks and handed a 10-year Criminal Behaviour Order aimed at stopping him from committing similar crimes in the future.

Miss Jones told the court: These collectors are motivated by an obsessive desire to find and possess eggs.

Daniel Lingham was previously handed a prison sentence in 2005 for his illegal egg collecting (Chris Radburn/ PA)

Its not for financial gain.

She continued: Theyre kept as trophies for personal gratification.

If the whole clutch (of eggs) is taken and the species is in any way rare, the egg collection will have a damaging effect on the conservation of that particular species, she said.

James Burrows, mitigating, said: Theres an extensive history of some mental health issues.

He said Lingham has expressed being addicted to egg collecting.

Theres no monetary gain in any of this, said Mr Burrows. Its that drive, that addiction that keeps people coming back unfortunately.
Hope Hicks, a former long-time adviser to Donald Trump, took the witness stand on Friday in his criminal trial, where prosecutors are expected to question her about her knowledge of hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Ms Hicks, who served as White House communications director, is the first close Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the Republican former president of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.

Ms Hicks, who is is testifying for the prosecution under a subpoena, acknowledged she was really nervous after stepping up to the microphone.

Referring to her former boss as Mr Trump, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or autumn of 2022.

Donald Trump is accused of making hush money payments to various women (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

While no longer in Trumps inner circle, Ms Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background.

Ms Hicks complimented Trump multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony, describing him as a very good multitasker, a very hard worker.

Ms Hicks served as Trumps 2016 campaign press secretary and was one of a small number of early campaign staffers who joined his administration.

Prosecutors say Ms Hicks spoke with Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election.

Former president Donald Trump with his lawyers at Manhattan criminal court (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without their permission.

Trump has denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for election this November denies any wrongdoing in the case.

Former Trump attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, the prosecutions star witness, has yet to take the stand in the hush money trial.

But jurors are already hearing Mr Cohens words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election.

The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up on Friday, a day after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Mr Cohen, then his lawyer, discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

The former president denies the affair.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally influence the election.

They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Mr Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels 130,000 US dollars (104,000) for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Trumps defence has worked to poke holes in the credibility of prosecutors witnesses, and show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by keeping the women quiet.

The defence also suggested, while questioning a lawyer who represented two women in hush money negotiations, that Trump was, in fact, the victim of extortion.

The recording played on Thursday was secretly made by Mr Cohen shortly before the 2016 election.

Mr Cohen is heard telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougals story from the National Enquirer tabloid so that it would never come out.

The tabloid had previously bought Ms McDougals story to bury it on Trumps behalf.

In the recording, Mr Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organisation chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, about how to set the whole thing up with funding.

Trump can be heard responding: What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

Trump suggested the payment be made with cash, prompting Mr Cohen to object by repeatedly saying no.

Trump then says cheque before the recording cuts off.

Prosecutors played the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district attorneys office who performed analyses on iPhones that Mr Cohen turned over to authorities during the investigation.

Mr Daus will return to the stand on Friday morning, and it is not clear who will follow him.

Jurors also heard more than six hours of crucial testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented Ms McDougal and Ms Daniels in their negotiations with Mr Cohen and the National Enquirer  the tabloid that bought and buried negative stories in an industry practice known as catch and kill.

Mr Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump winning the 2016 election.

What have we done? Mr Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became clear that Trump was going to win. Oh my god, the tabloid editor responded.

There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way  strike that  our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Mr Davidson told jurors.

Trumps lawyers sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential harm of Mr Davidsons testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump  only Mr Cohen.

In fact, Mr Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him, Mr Davidson said.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organisation business records.

The charges stem from things like invoices and cheques that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organisation records when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Mr Cohen for the hush money payment to Ms Daniels.
Canadian police said on Friday that they have made three arrests in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader last June in suburban Vancouver.

The death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar became the centre of a diplomatic spat with India.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said three suspects have been arrested and charged in the slaying of the 45-year-old by masked gunmen in Surrey, near Vancouver.

But he said police could not comment on nature of the evidence nor the motive.

This matter is very much under active investigation, Mr Teboul said.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India when he said in September that there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in the killing of Mr Nijjar.

India had accused Mr Nijjar of links to terrorism but angrily denied involvement in the slaying.

Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a plumber and also a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan.

But he had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The three suspects are Indian nationals Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh, and they were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said.

This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals, Mr Mooker said.

A bloody decade-long Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora.

While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.
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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.
Governments Pausing Puberty Blockers Based on Scientific Evidence

NEWS PROVIDED BY

May 3, 2024



ORLANDO, Fla., May 3, 2024 / Christian Newswire / -- At least eight foreign governments and 23 U.S. states have recently halted or limited the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones for children as scientific evidence exposes these drugs as unnecessary, ineffective, and dangerous. While the 23 states have enacted legislation outright banning administering these drugs on minors, many leading European countries have expressed "caution" and "doubt" about their safety and efficacy and are changing the way they treat children with gender confusion.

For instance, the medical authorities in the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden have either halted, issued strict guidelines, or are investigating puberty blockers while placing more emphasis on counseling and therapy for younger age groups. Specifically, Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare stated the risks of the drugs "outweigh" their benefits, and France's National Academy of Health recommended "great medical caution" due to potential negative and irreversible side effects. In 2023, Russia outlawed all "medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person."

Parallel to these decisions is the substantial increase in both short and long-term studies revealing "remarkably weak evidence" that these drugs yield any positive results. Simultaneously, evidence is mounting suggesting these drugs are especially harmful and unsafe for children. While longitudinal studies exploring the outcomes of puberty blockers and hormone treatments administered on minors have usually been hard to come by, they are now becoming more available  and they are coming from respected scientists, research institutions, and academic journals.

For instance, earlier this year the National Health Service (NHS) in both England and Scotland halted puberty blockers and hormone treatments for children after the groundbreaking Cass Review was published. England's NHS commissioned the independent review, which was conducted by Dr. Hilary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. Dr. Cass delivered a comprehensive, four-year, and 388-page report examining much of the existing and published research on the medical model that affirms gender confusion with puberty blockers and hormones. Essentially, she revealed the model to be without validation stating there is "remarkably weak evidence" supporting the use of puberty blockers and hormones with children, and that many studies lacked "any positive measurable outcomes."

Dr. Cass emphasized that a child's physical and mental health should be treated "holistically" making 32 recommendations to reform "gender-related services" that place the mental health of the child ahead of any "potentially irreversible medical treatments." The results of the review prompted the NHS in England, and Scotland to formally halt puberty blockers citing "not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness." The NHS stated children struggling with gender confusion would instead be treated with counseling and psychotherapy. Previously in 2022, England had shut down its Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) clinic at Tavistock after Dr. Cass led an investigation into the clinic finding that doctors pressured minors as young as 10 years old into taking puberty blockers and hormone drugs while an analysis showed many of these children "deteriorated" in mental health while taking the drugs.

In the weeks since the Cass Review was published, pediatricians and psychiatrists in Belgium have also called for reform in treating gender confusion.

Perhaps fueling these decisions is that the true nature of experimental puberty blockers and hormone treatments are being unraveled by the Cass Review, as well as several other notable studies. Essentially, these reports are finding children often grow out of gender confusion as they progress into adulthood, and that puberty blockers can often deteriorate mental health, increase suicide risk, all while potentially causing irreversible harm.

Children Grow Out of Gender Confusion

The Cass Review stated plainly that gender confusion in children is not "reliably predictive" of a long-term problem and that gender-confused children "are most likely to desist before puberty." One of the many studies Dr. Cass reviewed was a February 2024 landmark report by psychiatrists and mental health researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The study found that indeed most children with gender confusion grow out of it by adulthood. Published in the peer-reviewed Archives of Sexual Behavior, the in-depth study followed 2,772 adolescents for 15 years beginning around the age of 11 and ending around the age of 26 reassessing their mental health in three-year intervals. While 78 percent of the adolescents in the study never experienced gender confusion, 19 percent did but reported that the confusion dissipated with age to the point where they embraced their biological sex. Only the remaining two percent expressed persistent discontent with their gender well into adulthood.

The researchers wrote that gender confusion in early adolescence generally "decreases with age" and appears to correlate with a "poorer self-concept and mental health." They also noted the research is consistent with similar longitudinal studies from 2016 and 2021 by Canadian, Italian and Dutch scientists that found "low persistence rates" of adolescent gender confusion.

Ironically, as the Cass Review explains, it was a doctor from the Netherlands in the 1990s who first used puberty blockers to treat gender confusion, which then developed into international medical guidelines known as the "Dutch Protocol." However, in the same month the University of Groningen researchers published their study, the Dutch Parliament ordered an investigation into the health outcomes of puberty blockers.

Puberty Blockers Do Not Treat Underlying Mental Health Issues or Reduce Suicide Rates

A common trope pushed by proponents of gender-related medical interventions is that puberty blockers and hormones improve mental health and reduce suicides among gender-confused minors. However, Dr. Cass pointed out that the many reports stating puberty blockers improved mental health were of "poor" quality. However, Dr. Cass did find that high rates of minors who were referred to gender-related inventions had some form of childhood trauma, including as high as 67 percent having suffered some form of abuse, while others had experienced domestic violence, abandonment, or had a parent who struggled with mental illness.

Similarly, a pair of 2021 studies published in the Frontiers in Psychology and the National Library of Medicine found that gender confusion in children "arises in association withhigh rates of unresolved loss and trauma," which are likely to include childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and psychological abuse. The reports also indicated a vast majority of children in these studies who had gender confusion also had anxiety, behavioral disorders, or autism.

In July 2023, a group of 21 doctors and medical researchers from nine countries  Finland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States  issued a letter stating that these medical interventions do not treat any underlying mental health problems like counseling and psychotherapy do, so there is "no reliable evidence" that these treatments are effective in improving mental health.

Dr. Cass stated many children with gender confusion have a combination of mental health issues presenting a "complex interplay" between them. Yet, as she explains, all too often the medical profession has a "single focus on gender" where doctors ignore mental health, and as a matter of course, she notes, the results do not support improved suicide rates of gender-confused children.

"Tragically deaths by suicide in [gender-confused] people of all ages continue to be above the national average, but there is no evidence that [these interventions] reduce this," wrote Dr. Cass.

Irreversible Harm

Another study published in 2024, which was conducted by 11 scientists at the Mayo Clinic, found potentially irreversible sterilization linked to puberty blockers. Beginning in 2015, the preprint study involved molecular analysis to examine testicular tissue samples from nine adolescent patients taking puberty blockers. The scientists found "abnormalities" in two of the nine patients and suggested that young males who take puberty-blocking drugs are at risk of developing "atrophied sex glands" that are potentially irreversible.

"We provide unprecedented histological evidence revealing detrimental pediatric testicular sex gland responses to [puberty blockers]," wrote the scientists. Based on their observations, the scientists noted the abnormalities could cut off sperm production, which for them, raised "a potential concern regarding the complete reversibility" of the abnormalities.

As numerous other studies show, the potential for irreversible harm is not just limited to infertility. A 2024 study published in the international peer-reviewed Acta Paediatrica journal suggested pubertal suppression lowered IQ in children. Two additional studies from the Netherlands and Amsterdam University Medical Center showed hormone treatments displayed a higher risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease. And according to a report from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, published in the prestigious journal Elsevier, hormone treatments also come with increased risk of ischemic stroke and blood clotting.

Despite the accumulating evidence that these drugs do not help, but rather harm children, much of the American health care industry still defends these treatments on children, while American medical associations have remained largely silent in the wake of the Cass Review. Even though a growing number of countries are backing off prescribing these drugs to children, the Biden administration has embraced these medical interventions claiming they are "medically necessary, safe, and effective." The Biden administration is going as far as challenging state laws in Tennessee and Kentucky that protect children from irreversible medical mutilation by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to roll back those restrictions. Yet, there are thousands of young men and women who have attempted to "change genders" by using puberty blockers and hormone treatments who are "de-transitioning"  many of them sharing their horror stories of irreversible physical and psychological harm.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "In reality, there are only two genders, and it is impossible to change one's gender. The evidence clearly shows that gender confusion is often linked to underlying mental health issues and can be treated through counseling. There is absolutely no need to give a child puberty blockers and hormone treatments. They harm children and can irreversibly damage them for life. The medical community needs to retether itself to its ethos of 'do no harm' and stop the insanity of mutilating children."

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org




President of Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has sent congratulatory letter to Poland's President Andrzej Duda, Azernews reports.

The letter reads:

"Dear Mr. President,

I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations and best wishes to you and, through you, to all your people on behalf of myself and the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of May 3, Constitution Day.

We are pleased with the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, which are founded on traditions of friendship and mutual respect. Our rapidly developing cooperation in economy, transportation, culture, and other areas serves the interests of both our countries and our people.

We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently to realize the existing potential of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, to expand the scope of our cooperation, and to infuse it with new content.

On this holiday, I wish you robust health, happiness, and success in your endeavors, and I wish the friendly people of Poland constant peace and prosperity.

Respectfully,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 1 May 2024"
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Going back to the late nineteenth century, Zionism has had a complex and storied history, and there have been many strains of the ideology. Some early Zionists did not insist on colonizing Palestine, while others did (and colonizing it was the word they used). All agreed that the Jewish religion should be made a platform for erecting a nation-state, though where and how was initially a somewhat open question. Some Zionists were socialists and some early Zionist labor organizations were open to having Palestinian members, as Zachary Lockman showed. Before the 1940s, most Jews were offended by Zionist ideas, insisting that their religion was not a national ideology and they were loyal citizens of their countries of birth, a loyalty on which they feared the Zionists would cast doubt. Leftist Jews decried Zionism as a form of nationalist chauvinism. Some American Jews say they are Zionists in the sense of just being proud of the considerable accomplishments of the Jewish people, without necessarily buying into feelings of ethnic superiority or entitlement.

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, however, there is only one politically successful tendency in the Zionist movement in Israel. The people in power adhere to forms of right wing Zionism. These are a witches brew of virulent ethno-nationalism and open hatred of the Other. They differ mainly in whether they are secular, as with the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu or Yisrael Beitenu of Avigdor Lieberman, or whether they are rooted in Jewish fundamentalism, as with Religious Zionism and Jewish Power or Shas.

Right wing Zionism has many resemblances with the MAGA movement spearheaded by Donald J. Trump (or spearheaded by him when he was not engaging in massive real estate fraud or shtupping porn stars and then buying their silence).

1. Both are ethno-nationalist supremacy movements. Trump may be the least likely leader for white Christian nationalism, but that is the mantle he has managed to assume. He routinely denigrates Hispanics. He called COVID-19 the Chinese flu and got ordinary Chinese-Americans mugged over it. He referred to the non-white countries of the global south as sh*thole countries. He excoriates immigrants as a criminal class. But some 14% of Americans are foreign born, most immigrated legally, and the success of the US economically and geopolitically depends on them.

If Trump is about white Christians being on top, Netanyahu is all about Jewish supremacy. He has made a career of fomenting anti-Palestinian racism, smearing an entire people as terrorists. He characterized social expenditures on a fifth of Israeli citizens by his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, as giving away millions of shekels to Arabs. One of the reasons given for wanting to neuter the Supreme Court by Netanyahus Justice Minister Yariv Levin was that Arabs are buying apartments in the Galilee and causing Jews to leave. They back the squatter movement of Israelis to move into the Palestine occupied territories and steal privately-owned Palestinian farms and orchards, building Jewish-only settlements on them and going wilding in Palestinian towns, shooting them up and setting fires at will.

Netanyahu takes this line even though 21% of Israelis are of Palestinian heritage and they make up about a quarter of Israeli physicians. But that includes the elderly. In the younger generation, Palestinians are a much bigger proportion of the medical sector. In 2021, nearly half of all new physicians licenses were granted to what I term Palestinian-Israelis (on the model of Italian-Americans).

The Hill Video: Netanyahu Threatens REVENGE If Charged With War Crimes

2. Both movements use apocalyptic and violent language. Running for president the first time, Trump said of oil fields in Syria controlled by the ISIL terrorist movement, I would bomb the s out of them. I would just bomb those suckers. And thats right: Id blow up the pipes, Id blow up the refineries. I would blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. He asked one of his policy advisers what the point was of having nuclear weapons if we cant use them. Of Gaza, Trump says he is impatient for Netanyahu to finish the job.

Netanyahus finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, recently insisted on genocide in what is left of Gaza: No half jobs. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, total and utter destruction. Netanyahu had already invoked the Amalek doctrine, of wiping out the enemy root and branch. He has dropped more than an atomic bombs worth of munitions on the civilian apartment buildings of Gaza.

3. The leaders of both movements put on messianic airs. Trump tells campaign rallies I am the only one that can save this nation.

Netanyahu characterizes himself as the only one who can prevent a Palestinian state, the only one who can handle the Americans, the only one who can create prosperity in Israel through his Neoliberal policies.

4. Both MAGA and right wing Zionism are built on a tissue of lies. Trump has told thousands of lies. He says he won the 2020 election. He says he never slept with Stormy Daniels. He says climate change is a Chinese hoax. He says wind turbines cause cancer. Virulent nationalist ideologies require daily duplicity, since people are all the same and there are no real races in the 19th century sense, so a doctrine of racial supremacy is always in danger of being revealed to be illusory.

Zionists have likewise erected a vast tissue of lies. Palestine was empty, at a time in the early twentieth century when there were a million Palestinians and a few tens of thousands of Zionist colonists. A land without a people for a people without a land. Honest Zionists like Ahad Haam (Asher Hirsch Ginsberg) came out to Palestine and saw that it was full of people, and warned that their rights must not be violated. Other Zionists privately acknowledged that the plan was to render an entire people homeless. Nur Masalha writes, In June 1938, Ben-Gurion told a meeting of the Jewish Agency, I support compulsory transfer. I dont see anything immoral in it.' More recently Zionists have maintained that the Israeli army is the most moral in the world, despite its role in slow-motion ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian West Bank and in rapid ethnic cleansing, not to say genocide, in Gaza. They have said that the UN Relief and Works Agency that provides aid to Palestinians is a terrorist organization, and the world community cut UNRWA off during an investigation that discovered the Israeli government to be lying. These were precious weeks in which an Israeli-imposed famine began in Gaza. In the US, Zionists falsely allege that mere oral critiques of Zionism make them feel physically unsafe, in an attempt to manipulate outsiders.

One could go on.

Both movements are lawless, with Trump vowing to act unconstitutionally and Netanyahu vowing to gut the Israel Supreme Court. Both are corrupt, with both leaders on trial for various forms of corruption.

No wonder there is a budding love fest between Smotrich and Trump, once Trump rejected the two-state solution and renounced the idea of a Palestinian state.

Both movements depend on hogging all the rights for their ethnic group, and reducing others to second- or third-class citizens.
The latest aid package both opposes and facilitates genocide. How crazy is that?

( Foreign Policy in Focus )  The process of crafting congressional legislation is often likened to sausage-making. Best not to look behind the scenes at the mechanics of the process, which is a bloody mess.

But the analogy is not apt. Sure, sausage-making can be ugly. The end product, however, is presentable and usually quite tasty.

The legislation that emerges from the U.S. Congress, on the other hand, is often as ugly and unappetizing as the process that created it.

Consider the recent bill that bundled military assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan along with a fourth provision covering more sanctions on Iran, the use of frozen Russian assets, and a potential ban on TikTok in the United States. The bill passed Congress by considerable margins. The vote was 79 to 18 in the Senate andfor the most controversial piece on Ukraine311 to 112 in the House. The president then swiftly signed it into law.

But the margin of approval belies the months of political infighting that preceded the vote. First came the conflict over immigration provisions that the Dems originally included in the legislation to sweeten the pot for the Republicans only to discover that the Republicans were insisting on harsher measures. President Biden and the Democrats moved further to the right, yet it still wasnt enough. In the end, the final legislation didnt address immigration at all.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) delayed a vote in the House for months because of opposition from members further to his right who objected to providing additional funding to Ukraine. This determined minority threatened to remove Johnson over the issue, which ordinarily should not have discomfited the speaker, except that this same minority had ousted his predecessor. Moreover, Donald Trump had made his opposition to Ukrainian aid very clear, and Republicans, in this election year, have been tripping over themselves to show fealty to the Man. Even the one Ukrainian-born legislator, Victoria Spartz (R-IN), voted against the Ukraine bill in the House, largely because she is trying to get Trumps endorsement in her primary race. Earlier, shed called the Russian invasion a genocide.

Johnson managed to satisfy at least some of his critics by splitting the legislation into four distinct bills (Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, kitchen sink). In this way, House members could, for instance, register their support for Israel and their opposition to more arms for Ukraine. Senators had no such luxury since they had to vote on a single bill, which prompted three progressives to oppose the legislation because it didnt attach any conditions to the aid to Israel (while 15 Republican extremists joined their House compatriots in opposing the Ukrainian provisions).

Progressives were indeed in a quandary over the bill. Imagine a quite different measure that condemned aggressor countries for breaking international law (Russia, Israel) while aiding those forces pushing back against colonial interventions (Ukrainians, Palestinians). It would never have been brought to a floor vote. But who ever said that U.S. foreign policy was principled or coherent? U.S. politics is all about holding ones nose, averting ones eyes from the sausage-making, and voting for the lesser evil.

That said, what impact will the bill have? Will it save Ukraine from being overrun? And is there any chance that all the pro-Palestinian and pro-ceasefire protests taking place around the country will force greater coherence upon U.S. foreign policy?

Ukraine

The war has not really been going Ukraines way for some time. Even when Ukrainian forces were successfully holding the line against Russian occupiers last year, they were suffering a lot of casualties. As Ukraines military supplies began to wane, Russia began to push further westward, potentially threatening large population centers like Kharkiv in the northeast. Russias larger pool of recruits, combined with a five-to-one artillery advantage (more in certain spots along the line of fire), was creating great anxiety that a Russian counteroffensive in the late spring or early summer could overwhelm Ukrainian defenses altogether.



Contradictions, Digital, Dream / Dreamland v. 3, 2024.

Meanwhile, Ukraine couldnt completely defend its population centers and critical infrastructure further to the west. When Russia fired a barrage of 82 missiles and drones at the Trypilska power plant near Kyiv on April 11, Ukraine could only intercept 18 missiles and 39 drones. It had run out of interceptors. The remaining Russian weapons destroyed the plant.

The U.S. military package provides $61 billion in assistance, but the vast majority of the funding (80 percent) does not go to Ukraine. Rather, it allows the U.S. military-industrial complex to replenish the pipeline of supplies heading to Kyiv and fund ongoing Pentagon operations like training Ukrainian soldiers. It will take some weeks before those weapons begin to reach their destination, though the Pentagon, waiting for this moment, is shipping some existing supplies from bases in Germany and Poland. Meanwhile, Russia is trying to press its advantage.

Critics of this assistance to Ukrainea bizarre alliance of the far left and the far rightargue that such shipments only prolong the war, causing needless suffering to Ukrainians. Others see an imperial motive, that the United States is just using Ukrainian bodies like meat puppets to draw the Russians into a quagmire and hamstring an adversary. The more isolationist critics maintain that this war has nothing to do with the United States, which should just stay out of it.

While I am no fan of the Pentagon, the U.S. military-industrial complex, or the obscene amount of money spent globally on what is euphemistically termed defense$2.4 trillion in 2023, a new recordI view these arguments about Ukraine as dangerously naive.

First, it is Russia that is prolonging this war, by continuing to occupy Ukraine illegally, pushing for more territory, and committing war crimes from torturing prisoners of war to bombing civilian sites. The Kremlin continues to claim that Ukraine is not a legitimate country, that it has always been part of the Russian world, that the government in Kyiv is Nazi. It is inaccurate to say that Ukraine is simply fighting for this or that scrap of land. Rather, Ukrainians are fighting to prevent the elimination of their country and their collective identityin other words, against genocide. They know what happens to those who assert their Ukrainian identity in areas occupied by Russian forces (death, deportation, imprisonment). The vast majority of Ukrainians oppose giving up their land for a peace deal with Russiaaround 80 percentand a majority are against peace negotiations with Russia more generally.

Many hawkish voices in the United State would indeed like to see a weaker Russia. But the Biden administration has been clear that it would prefer some kind of settlement to this conflict so that it can focus on other foreign policy priorities. Ukraine is no proxy. It continues to fight not because it is being controlled like a marionette, but because it is exercising its own agency. It fights despite an American ambivalence that is expressed in so many waysa reluctance to share the most advanced weaponry, a failure to deliver aid in a timely manner, and a large share of the Republican Party unwilling to provide any assistance at all.

Finally, theres the question of U.S. interests. I generally prefer to avoid discussions of narrow U.S. national interests, which often boil down to maintaining military dominance, upholding dollar supremacy, and securing access to raw materials. I prefer to look at where U.S. interests can or should overlap with global concerns such as strengthening international law, addressing climate change and biodiversity loss, and reducing global economic inequality.

Viewed from this latter perspective, defending Ukraine is squarely in U.S. national interest. Russias seizure of Ukrainian territory (2014), the invasion of the country (2022), the maintenance of a military occupation (ongoing): these violations of international law are of such great enormity that a failure to punish the aggressorpreferably in court but on the ground if need bethreatens to overturn the very notion of an international community. Russia is paying for this war by pumping out as much oil and gas as the market can bear: in this way, the war is paid for by pollution. And the invasion has put an enormous burden on the worlds poor by reducing the capacity of Ukraine to produce grain. On the basis of these three criteria, the war in Ukraine is very much in the U.S. interest.

Will the recently passed aid package turn the tide of the war? Thats impossible to say. But a better armed Ukraine will have a fighting chance. And future generations will not blame the United States for standing idly by as Russia attempts to commit an act of ethnic cleansing of epic proportions.

Israel

And yet, in the same bill, the Biden administration is not only ignoring another act of ethnic cleansing but is abetting it. The military assistance bill that the president signed includes $26 billion designed to help ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against the very real threats it faces from Iran, as well as Irans proxy groups.

This is an extraordinary misrepresentation of the military aid going to Israel. First of all, Iran was previously urging restraint on its proxy groups after an exchange of incidents with the United States earlier in the year. And then Israel assassinated top Iranian military leaders in Syria in early April, which has set in motion another cycle of escalations.

Second, its not all about defense. Sure, theres $5.2 billion for missile defense (Iron Dome, Iron Beam). But theres also $4.4 billion for Israel to restock its military coffers and $3.5 billion for advanced weaponryso that the Israeli government can continue to wage war in Gaza.

The Biden administration still believes that its military aid provides leverage over the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to demonstrate the opposite. As soon as the aid package passed, he launched more air strikes on Palestinians in Gaza (again killing mostly women and children) and announced that plans were still on track to invade the southern city of Rafah (over U.S. objections).

Washington is now pushing Hamas to accept a 40-day ceasefire. The Palestinian organization has insisted on a permanent ceasefire, though it might be mollified by an Israeli promise of the restoration of sustainable calm. Also on the table, reportedly, is a willingness for full return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza and the withdrawal of the IDF from the corridor that divides the enclave and prevents freedom of movement, according to Axios.

The Biden administration, pushing this ceasefire proposal, is trying to prove that its listening to domestic criticscongressional opposition, voters in swing states, student protestors on campusas well as the more numerous critics of U.S. policy throughout the world, especially in the Global South. The administration must also take into account the most recent report that the International Criminal Court is on the verge of issuing arrest warrants against top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, for actions taken in Gaza.

But the aid package to Israel suggests a continuation of business as usual. None of that military aid was conditioned on the behavior of the Israeli military.

Unless and until a U.S. administration applies some real sticks in its relations with Israel, the gulf between evolving U.S. public opinion and stagnant U.S. policymaking will remain huge.

The Rest of the Sausage

The third element of the aid package provides $8 billion to U.S. allies in Asia to counter China, which includes some key military upgrades for countries like Taiwan.

Although China has indeed been more assertive in recent years, the Biden administration is doing little to repair relations with Beijing. As long as Washington and Beijing get along, Taiwan can prosper in the shadows of international non-recognition. So, this money might have been better spent on collaborative projects with China, which are a more sustainable hedge against war.

Finally, in the bills fourth basket, the Republicans assembled a hodgepodge of initiatives against China (to ban TikTok), Russia (to use frozen assets), and Iran (more sanctions). How long will it take the United States to figure out that punitive measures like these tend to push adversaries together? By all means, lets isolate the one country that has invaded a neighboring democracy. But the United States should be much more strategic about how it can woo Iran and China to make Russias isolation more complete.

But that would require much smarter sausage-making. And so far, U.S. policymakers dont seem up to the task.

Via Foreign Policy in Focus
( Tomdispatch.com )  Helicopters have been throbbing overhead for days now. Nights, too. Police are swarming the streets of Broadway, many in riot gear. Police vans, some as big as a city bus, are lined up along side streets and Broadway.

Outside the gates of the Columbia University campus, a penned-in group of pro-Israel demonstrators has faced off against a penned-in group of anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian protesters. These groups are usually small, often vastly outnumbered by the police around them, but they are loud and they are not Columbia students. Theyve been coming every day this April to shout, chant, and hold up signs, some of which are filled with hateful speech directed at the other side, equating protests against the slaughter in Gaza with being pro-Hamas, and calls to bring home the hostages with being pro-genocide.

Inside the locked gates of the campus, the atmosphere is entirely different. Even as the now-notorious student tent encampment there stretches through its second week, all is calm. Inside the camp, students sleep, eat, and sit on bedspreads studying together and making signs saying, Nerds for Palestine, Passover is for Liberation, and Stop the Genocide. The Jewish students there held a seder on Passover. The protesters even asked faculty to come into the encampment and teach because they miss their classes. Indeed, its so quiet on campus that you can hear birds singing in the background. The camp, if anything, is hushed.

The Real Story on Campus

Those protesters who have been so demonized, for whom the riot police are waiting outside  the same kinds of students Columbia Universitys president, Minouche Shafik, invited the police to arrest, zip-tie, and cart away on April 18th  are mostly undergraduate women, along with a smaller number of undergraduate men, 18 to 20 years old, standing up for what they have a right to stand up for: their beliefs. Furthermore, for those who dont know the Columbia campus, the encampment is blocking nobodys way and presents a danger to no one. It is on a patch of lawn inside a little fence buffered by hedges. As I write, those students are not preventing anyone from walking anywhere, nor occupying any buildings, perpetrating any violence, or even making much noise. (In the early hours of April 30th, however, student protesters did occupy Hamilton Hall in reaction to a sweep of suspensions the day before.)

As a tenured professor at Columbias Journalism School, Ive been watching the student protests ever since the brutal Hamas attack of October 7th, and Ive been struck by the decorum of the protesting students, as angry and upset as they are on both sides. This has particularly impressed me knowing that several students are directly affected by the ongoing war. I have a Jewish student who has lost family and friends to the attack by Hamas, and a Palestinian student who learned of the deaths of her family and friends in Gaza while she was sitting in my class.

Given how horrific this war is, its not surprising that there have been a few protesters who lose control and shout hideous things, but for the most part, such people have been quietly walked away by other students or campus security guards. All along, the main messages from the students have been Bring back our hostages on the Israeli side and Stop slaughtering Gazan civilians on the antiwar and pro-Palestinian-rights side. Curiously enough, those messages are not so far apart, for almost everyone wants the hostages safe and almost everyone is calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a different direction and protect the innocent.

Unfortunately, instead of allowing students to have their say and disciplining those who overstep boundaries, Columbia President Shafik and her administration suspended two of the most vocal groups protesting Israels war on Gaza: the student chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. This only enraged and galvanized students and some faculty more.

The Right Seizes and Distorts the Narrative

Then the right got involved, using accusations of widespread antisemitism to take eyes off the astronomical death toll in Gaza  more than 34,000 reportedly dead as I write this, more than 14,500 of them children  while fretting about the safety of Jewish students instead.

The faculty of Columbia takes antisemitism seriously and we have methods in place to deal with it. We also recognize that some of the chants of the protesters do make certain Jewish students and faculty uncomfortable. But as a group of Jewish faculty pointed out in an op-ed for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, its absurd to claim that antisemitism, which is defined by the Jerusalem Declaration as discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews, is rampant on our campus. To argue that taking a stand against Israels war on Gaza is antisemitic is to pervert the meaning of the term, we wrote. Labeling pro-Palestinian expression as anti-Jewish hate speech requires a dangerous and false conflation of Zionism with Jewishness.

Sadly, thats exactly what the right has succeeded in doing. Not only is the slaughter in Gaza getting lost in the growing fog of hysterical speech about antisemitism on American college campuses, but so is the fact that Arab and Muslim students are being targeted, too. Some students even reported they were sprayed with a mace-like material, possibly manufactured by the Israeli military, and that, as a result, several protesters had to go to the hospital. My own students told me they have been targeted with hate mail and threats over social media. I even saw a doxxing truck sponsored by the far-right group Accuracy in Media driving around the Columbia neighborhood bearing photographs of Muslim students, naming them and calling them terrorists. Again, its important to note that most of the harassers have been outsiders, not students.

No, the real threat to American Jews comes not from students but from the very white nationalist MAGA Republicans who are shouting about antisemitism the loudest.

Then came the Republican hearings.

The Congressional Hearings

Having watched the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania stumble and fall in the face of MAGA Representative Elise Stefaniks bullying accusations of antisemitism in December, Columbia President Shafik did all she could to avoid a similar fate when it was her turn. But when she submitted to four hours of McCarthyite-style questioning in Congress on April 17th  one Republican even asked if there were Republicans among the faculty  Shafik cringed, evaded, and caved.

I agree with you was her most frequent phrase. She never pushed back against the characterization of the Columbia campus by Republican Representatives Virginia Foxx and Stefanik as riddled with antisemitism. She never stood up for the integrity of our faculty and students or for the fact that were a campus full of remarkable scholars and artists perfectly capable of governing ourselves. She never even pointed out that who we suspend, fire, or hire is none of Congresss business. Instead, she broke all our university rules by agreeing to investigate and fire members of our own faculty and to call in the police when she deemed it necessary.

The very day after the hearings, thats exactly what she did.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza was never even mentioned.

A Pandoras Box

Shafiks craven performance in front of Republican lawmakers opened a Pandoras box of troubles. The student protesters swelled in numbers and erected their encampment. Faculty members wrote outraged opinion pieces condemning Shafiks behavior. And when she called in the police to arrest students, more students than ever joined the protests all over the country.

Then, on April 24th, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited Columbia with Republicans Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, and Anthony DEsposito (and even Foxx from North Carolina), acting as if some kind of terrible riot had gone on here. Standing at the top of the steps in front of the grand facade of Low Library, a century-old building meant to symbolize learning and reason, and surrounded by heckling students, Johnson declared that some Jewish students had told him of heinous acts of bigotry, characterized the protesters as endorsed by Hamas, and called for Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to the chaos.

What chaos? said an undergraduate standing next to me on the steps as we listened.

Hes saying a bunch of 20-year-old American college students are in cahoots with Hamas? another asked incredulously.

Johnson then escalated the threats, claiming the National Guard might be called in and that Congress might even revoke federal funding if universities couldnt keep such protests under control.

I looked behind me at the encampment on the other side of campus. In front of the tents on the grass, the students had erected a sign listing what they called Gaza Encampment Community Guidelines. These included: No desecration of the land. No drug/alcohol consumption. Respect personal boundaries. And most significantly, We commit to assuming the best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing. Designated faculty and students stood at the entrance to make sure no outsiders got in, and that nobody entered the encampment unless they had read and agreed to that list of commitments. The noisiest people on campus were the thronging media. But nobody and nothing was out of control.

The Weaponization of Antisemitism

Sadly, despite the reality on the ground at Columbia, the rights wild narrative of virulent antisemitism here has been swallowed whole, not just by Republicans but by a long list of Democrats, too, including President Biden and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, not to speak of New York Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Adriano Espaillat. They have all publicly condemned the supposedly rampant antisemitism on campus without, it seems, bothering to check their facts.

Meanwhile, MAGA Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht posted on X that Columbia has been taken over by radical Pro-Hamas protesters.

Back in the real world, the rights hysteria over such supposed antisemitism hasnt really been about protecting Jews at all, as many faculty members (including us Jewish ones) have written and spoken about. Rather, the right is weaponizing antisemitism as a way of furthering its campaign to suppress the kind of freedom of thought and speech on campus that threatens its authoritarian goals of turning this country Christian, conservative, straight, and white  not to mention their urge to suppress support of Palestinian autonomy.

When Students Dont Feel Safe

My students tell me they feel perfectly safe on campus. They may not like some of the chants they sometimes hear. I myself have caught a few that chilled me as a Jew. Ive also heard chants that sicken me on behalf of my Muslim friends. But those have been rare. And campus is a place where everyone should be free to debate, disagree, express their opinions, listen, and learn. We have to remember that free speech does not mean speech we agree with.

No, where my students do not feel safe is out on Broadway, where extremists on both sides gather. They dont feel safe when the false narratives of Republican politicians draw far-right angry mobs to the campus gates, something that is happening just as Im writing this piece. Most of all, they dont feel safe when police arrive on campus with guns in their holsters and zip-ties hanging from their belts.

I stood and watched that day the police came. Four huge drones hovered overhead, along with those eternally buzzing helicopters. Dozens of police buses were lined up on West 114th Street on the south side of campus as if prepared to deal with some massive, violent riot. Then, in came the police, some in riot gear, to tie the hands of more than 100 students behind their backs and march them onto police buses.

Not a single student resisted. Even the police were quoted as saying they presented no danger to anyone. As NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, To put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.

Not long later, those arrested students were suspended and the ones who attend Barnard were locked out of their dorms. Faculty and friends had to offer their couches and spare beds to save those young women from being homeless on the streets of New York. One of them is in my building staying with a colleague downstairs. Nobody told our parents that we were being evicted, she told me in my lobby.

Faculty Response

Many faculty were so shocked by these events that on Monday, April 22nd, some 300 of us gathered on the steps of Low Library, holding up signs that said, Hands Off Our Students and End Student Suspensions Now. Several professors gave impassioned speeches praising those students for their courage, demanding that academic freedom be protected, and castigating Shafik for throwing us all under the bus.

Still, Gaza was not mentioned. It seemed as if the genocide occurring there was disappearing in the fog.

Im worried that the message of our protest is getting lost, that suspended student told me as we spoke in the lobby. Everyones talking about academic freedom and police repression instead.

Indeed, not only is the protest against Israels pathological spree of murder in Palestine and on the West Bank being drowned out in this debate, so are the student protesters demands, so let me reiterate them here:

That Columbia divest of all investments that profit from Israels occupation and bombing of Palestine.

That Columbia sever academic ties with its programs at Tel Aviv and other Israeli Universities.

That the policing of the campus be stopped immediately.

That the university release a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The other day, on New Yorks National Public Radio station, WNYC, I heard a caller who had been a campus protester in 1968 say something like, Its funny how the protesters of 50 years ago are always right, but the protesters of today are always wrong. The people who demonstrated for civil rights then were demonized, beaten, even murdered, but they were right, he pointed out, as were the people who demonstrated against the Vietnam War. (I would say the same for those who protested against the Iraq War and for the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.)

One day, the students who are protesting the genocide in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians today will be seen as on the right side, too. History will prove it. Until then, lets turn the discussion back to where it belongs: an end to the war on Gaza.

Final Note: This piece was written before the president and trustees of Columbia called in the riot police on the night of April 30th, against the advice of many faculty, to arrest the students in the encampment, as well as those who had occupied Hamilton Hall. Videos show considerable police violence against the students. What happens next remains to be seen.

Copyright 2024 Helen Benedict

Helen Benedict, who is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author most recently of the novel The Good Deed, has been writing about war and refugees for more than a decade. A recipient of the 2021 PEN Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History and the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, she has also written 13 other books of fiction and nonfiction.

Via Tomdispatch.com
For this hundredth episode of the podcast from our dear partners and colleagues at Asymmetrical Haircuts, our guest is Syrian lawyer Mazen Darwish, who is present and active in all the universal jurisdiction processes concerning Bashar al-Assad's regime. According to the former political prisoner, testing the evidence, collecting testimonies, for victims who have no access to international tribunals or justice in their own country, is not only about the verdict, and not a revenge tool, but a tool to say this is what happened, this is true, this how we also preserve the narrative. Darwish underlines the importance of the trials, including the forthcoming one in France, the role of the UN mechanism in particular for the missing persons families, and hopes that this work will help to avoid revenge and another war.

ASYMMETRICAL HAIRCUTS

This podcast has been published as part of a partnership between JusticeInfo.net and Asymmetrical Haircuts, a podcast on international justice produced from The Hague by journalists Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg, who retain full control and independence over the contents of the podcast.
International Criminal Court prosecutors warned on Friday against "individuals who threaten to retaliate" against the tribunal or its staff, saying such actions might constitute an "offence against its administration of justice".

The ICC did not say if the comment related to its investigation into possible war crimes by Israel or Palestinian groups in Gaza and the West Bank.

US media reports have suggested that the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) could issue warrants against both Israeli politicians and Hamas leaders.

Israeli officials have said in recent days that any attempt by the court to take any action against Israel would be "outrageous".

On Friday, the Hague-based office of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on X, former Twitter, that it sought to "engage constructively with all stakeholders whenever dialogue is consistent with its mandate".

"That independence and impartiality are undermined, however, when individuals threaten to retaliate against the court or against court personnel", it added.

"Such threats, even not acted upon, may constitute an offence" against the ICC's "administration of justice", it warned, calling for an end to such activity.

Khan's office declined to say where the threats had come from and which investigation was concerned, when questioned by AFP.

- 'Blatant disregard' -

But one legal expert said it was likely related to the "ongoing investigation in Palestine" given recent Israeli government statements about "threats to the Palestinian Authority in response to the potential issuance of arrest warrants".

Israel's reported retaliatory steps were aimed at the Palestinian authorities, "not at the ICC or the OTP", said Gabriele Chlevickaite, a researcher at the Hague-based Asser Institute for international law.

However, "some statements by Israeli officials could be interpreted as threatening the OTP officials indirectly and, or, interfering with the investigation," she told AFP.

This would not only be an offence under the court's founding Rome Statute "but a blatant disregard of the rule of law," Chlevickaite added.

The ICC opened a probe in 2021 into Israel, as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups, over possible war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Khan has said this investigation now "extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the (Hamas) attacks that took place on October 7, 2023".

- 'Outrageous' -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X on Wednesday that the ICC was "contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals".

"This would be an outrage of historic proportions," he said, alleging that the ICC was "trying to put Israel in the dock".

The United States said on Monday it also opposed the ICC's probe into Israel's conduct in Gaza.

The ICC is the world's only independent court set up to probe the gravest offences by individual suspects, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It has previously issued warrants for national leaders -- most recently Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

The war in Gaza started after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's relentless retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,568 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the besieged Hamas-run enclave.
This verdict is an important milestone in the fight for a liveable climate for all, said Anne Mahrer, co-president of the Senior Women for Climate Protection association, in a press release after the Strasbourg Courts decision. For nine years, we have been fighting for climate justice. We did not win in Swiss courts, but the ECHR today confirms that climate protection is a human right.

On a European scale, this is indeed a first. On April 9, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) handed down a landmark ruling. In this case, the association Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland, which represents over 2,500 Swiss women over the age of 64, accused the Swiss government of violating four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the right to life, to private and family life, to an effective remedy and to a fair trial. And the senior women have, for the most part, won their case.

The case dates back to November 2016, when the association lodged a complaint with the Swiss federal government. It argued the State was not doing enough under its national legal obligations to guarantee the good health of elderly people, who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of sharp temperature rises linked to climate change; nor was it doing enough to implement its international commitments linked to UN climate negotiations, in particular those under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Twice, in 2017 and 2018, the Swiss courts rejected the seniors claims. But they did not admit defeat: inspired by the arguments of the Dutch court which, in 2015, for the first time condemned a State for climate inaction in a case brought by NGO Urgenda, they filed a new climate appeal in 2019 before the Swiss justice system, this time based on the violation of their human rights (in particular Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights). But in May 2020, the Swiss courts once again rejected their complaint. So, six months later, they decided to take the case to a supranational court: the ECHR, a pan-European court whose decisions take legal precedence over those of national courts in the 46 member countries of the Council of Europe.

What was at stake in the ECHRs decision on this case was whether it would uphold the Swiss judgments, or overturn them and follow the pioneering argument of the Dutch courts.

Protection against serious adverse effects

The 17 judges of the ECHR ruled by 16 votes to 1. Exceptionally long (286 pages), demanding and scientifically precise, their ruling of April 9 establishes that Article 8 of the Convention recognizes the right of individuals to effective protection by the State authorities against the serious adverse effects of climate change on their life, health, well-being and quality of life. And the judges go even further, pointing out that, in light of the most recent work of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), States must establish relevant targets and timetables within a domestic regulatory framework to enable effective mitigation measures of greenhouse gas emissions, up to and including net neutrality.

However, with regard to Switzerland, the Court found that the implementation of this framework had serious shortcomings: in particular, a failure to establish a carbon budget, the absence of national limits on greenhouse gas emissions, and an inability to meet its targets. The Court concludes that Switzerland is not effective enough in its fight against climate change, fails to protect its population and violates the applicants right to respect for their private and family life (including health, well-being and quality of life).

Deeming that there was no real and imminent risk to the applicants own lives, the ECHR did not rule on the right to life argument. But it did rule that, in rejecting their appeals three times, the Swiss judicial authorities failed to take account of the incontrovertible scientific data on climate change and failed to take seriously the grievances of the association, which, according to the Court, was therefore denied a fair trial. In the end, the ECHR ordered Switzerland to pay 80,000 to the association for costs and expenses.

Symbolic European significance

In the absence of a claim by the plaintiffs, no damages were awarded. Switzerland's conviction in this case is therefore symbolic. It extends to a pan-European level the scope of victories achieved at national level (by Urgenda in the Netherlands, Notre affaire a tous in France and Friends of the Irish Environment in Ireland). But, unlike in these previous victorious climate cases before national courts, the Swiss government was not ordered to step up its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Nevertheless, the ECHR ruling is historic. It is the first time that an international court has established that a State's failure to take climate action constitutes a violation of human rights. The Court thus recognizes the obligation of State protection against the serious effects of climate change as a new human right for citizens of all Council of Europe member States.

A scandal or a slap in the face?

The ECHR ruling provoked strong reactions in Switzerland, particularly from the Swiss People's Party (SVP), Switzerlands the largest party in the last parliamentary elections which holds the portfolios of Economy, Environment, Transport and Energy in the Federal Council (Swiss government). In a press release, the SVP immediately described the decision as a scandal and a denial of reality, and called for Switzerland's withdrawal from the Council of Europe. For the conservative party, this is simply brazen interference in Swiss politics by foreign judges.

The countrys second-largest political party, the Swiss Socialist Party (PS), took a different view, hailing the court's ruling as a slap in the face for the Federal Council and its climate inaction. In a press release, the party said that this ruling confirms what the Swiss Socialist Party has been arguing for years: only massive public investment will be able to ensure the transition to energy and climate change without leaving anyone behind.

In Switzerland, the Federal Office for the Environment reports that GHG emissions amount to 13 tonnes of CO2 per capita per year, placing the country among the worlds top 20 emitters. According to the World Bank, Swiss GHG emissions are still 40 times lower than those of Russia, the continents biggest emitter.

Impact on other complaints beyond Europe?

According to Dutch lawyer Dennis Van Berkel, who advised the Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection at the ECHR, the ECHR ruling clearly means that European countries need to base their GHG emission targets on a fair share of the remaining carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5 C. Also legal advisor for the Dutch NGO Urgenda, he believes that given the small remaining carbon budget for Switzerland, it will also need to assist poorer countries with their renewable energy transition in addition to reducing GHG emissions within its own territory.

In his view, the ECHRs decision could greatly influence other climate appeals underway before this same jurisdiction, but also before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Inter-American Court of Human Rights and before the International Court of Justice, seized since 2023 at the request of Vanuatu of an opinion on the responsibility of countries in relation to climate change.

By establishing a direct link between climate change and human rights violations, and by setting a legal precedent for the 46 member countries of the Council of Europe, the Courts decision opens the door to new appeals by citizens groups. There have been more and more of these appeals over nearly years, since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Kim Soo Hyun expressed affection by doing THIS to his "Queen of Tears" partner Kim Ji Won on the last day of their shoot.

'Queen of Tears' Stars Bid Farewell to Co-Stars, Crew, Viewers

Just like the viewers who finished watching the series, the "Queen of Tears" cast members couldn't hide their emotions and got teary-eyed over the last day of their filming schedule.

In the uploaded behind-the-scenes clip of the drama on tvN's YouTube channel, covered the cast members saying farewell to each other following months of working together.

Played the series' villain, Yoon Eun Sung, Park Sung Hoon expressed regrets as the shoot officially came to an end.

"It feels like I read the script in awe just the other day, but it's been almost a year. It doesn't quite feel real that we concluded shooting after 11 months."

He went on:

"I'll greet you with a better appearance in another project."

The scene then shifted to Kim Ji Won and the actress shared a short message.

"We finished the big journey of 16 episodes and had the final shoot. It's been a joyful time like the passing of seasons over the past year. I hope you continue to love Hong Hae In until the end because she's a lovely and wonderful person."

Kim Soo Hyun Gives Kim Ji Won Warm Hug & Got Emotional During Last Day of Shoot

The clip also revealed moments of the drama's lead stars, Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won.

In particular, Kim Soo Hyun candidly embraced his co-star Kim Ji Won and said.

"I wasn't feeling this way before, but suddenly I feel a bit restless."

The actor expressed his gratitude towards his co-star, whom he worked with for almost a year and already built a good connection with.

Kim Ji Won, on the other hand, was surprised by her co-star's affectionate gesture.

After her, Kim Soo Hyun went to the director and embraced him. He then said.

"I feel relieved. Now, it feels a bit real."

He started to have tears in his eyes as he continued talking.

Kim Soo Hyun elaborated that it was the first time he had done a project so densely and for so long.

"It feels strange to me. Unlike other works, it feels intimate. I was fortunate to meet great staff."

What's Next for 'Queen of Tears' Stars

Furthermore, before finally saying their farewell to the viewers, the lead cast members will return this May 4 and 5 on the same "Queen of Tears" time slot. They are expected to answer the fans' questions regarding the series and share some never-before-told stories behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, "Queen of Tears" broke a record as it concluded with a viewership rating of 24.85 percent on April 29, replacing "Crash Landing on You's" record. It also became the most highly rated series in tvN's history.

What can you say about the news? Share your thoughts/replies in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Shai San Miguel wrote this.
tvN dropped a new preview for "Lovely Runner" Episode 9, where Kim Hye Yoon made her hilarious return to the past.

'Lovely Runner' Episode 9 Preview: Im Sol Travels Back to Her College Days

On May 3, tvN shared a sneak peek of "Lovely Runner" Episode 9, where Im Sol has her last chance to change her and Ryu Sun Jae's fate.

In the previous episode, as Im Sol (Kim Hye Yoon) finally reunited with Sun Jae (Byeon Woo Seok) and confirmed their feelings for each other, they started a secret relationship.

Unfortunately, as they were only beginning to spend time together, Sun Jae was attacked by Im Sol's previous murderer, giving the audience a total shock.

Many got curious about what would happen next to the main protagonists. Giving the viewers more thrill, tvN uploaded a preview for the next episode.

Im Sol travels to the past during her college days and the moment she wakes up, she finds herself in an embarrassing situation. She is sitting in front of the university's statue. Students are looking at her, and when she's attempting to stay away from the commotion, her foot slips which causes her to fall.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE : THIS 'Idol' Caught Meeting Unknown Woman - Will the Controversy Cost Ryu Sun Jae His Career?

A group of male students rushes to save her, but when they are about to catch her, Im Sol lands on someone's arms safely. She opens her eyes, assuming that she falls on the floor, only to know that it's Ryu Sun Jae, who catches her by surprise.

Their eyes meet and exhibit different emotions as they see each other.

What is Kim Tae Seong's Involvement To Im Sol in the Present Time?

After watching the teaser, viewers are now curious whether Im Sol will be able to change Sun Jae's fate as she only has the last chance to time travel. Adding to the tension is the involvement of the murderer in Sun Jae and Kim Tae Seong's (Song Geon Hee) unexpected appearance in the present.

Viewers are also looking forward to the new romance that Ryu Sun Jae and Im Sol will show during their college years. As the story gets more interesting, fans and viewers can't help but make their different theories, connecting the dots in Im Sol and Sun Jae's lives.

Furthermore, with the increasing number of viewers, "Lovely Runner" continues to make waves in Korea and other foreign countries.

Make sure to catch "Lovely Runner" episodes 9 and 10 this May 6 and 7 on tvN and Viu at 8:50 p.m. (KST).

Regular episodes are available every Monday and Tuesday.

What are you excited about "Lovely Runner" episode 9? Share your thoughts/replies in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Shai San Miguel wrote this.
Son Ye Jin never fails to amaze netizens with her beauty. The top actress recently updated her 8.6 million Instagram followers with a new project.

Despite the "Crash Landing on You" star fully embracing her mom life, the top star continues to entertain fans with her social media engagements.

Son Ye Jin Stuns in Wedding Gown

In Son Ye Jin's Instagram post, the actress looked stunning in a white wedding-like gown, making her fans nostalgic for her wedding with Hyun Bin.

The "Thirty-Nine" star stunned in an off-shoulder Destiny gown from New White Bridal by designer Juliette Kim.

In her caption, the actress revealed that the celebration was for a new endorsement.

"Today, I had a sparkling and beautiful jewelry shoot. Have a night that shines like jewels," revealing that she was in the midst of a jewelry photoshoot."

Over social media, fans gushed over Son Ye Jin's look, lauding her for her goddess-like beauty.

Son Ye Jin married her "Crash Landing On You" co-star Hyun Bin in March 2022, and welcomed their first child in November of the same year.

Since her hiatus, the actress is slowly getting back to her activities, starting off by being active at brand and fashion events as well as photo shoots and more.

As for the on-screen comeback, fans are definitely looking forward to it.

Is Son Ye Jin Returning to K-drama?

Before her wedding and giving birth to her child, Son Ye Jin's last K-drama was the JTBC melodrama "Thirty-Nine," where she starred alongside Jeon Mi Do and Kim Ji Hyun.

Interestingly, outlets cited that the actress was selected to headline a big-screen comeback.

Son Ye Jin is reportedly considering starring in the thriller comedy movie "The Axe," a remake of the French-Spanish-Belgian movie of the same name that is also based on a novel.

The upcoming movie will be directed by the renowned director Park Chan Wook, who also helmed the award-winning movies "The Handmaiden" and "Decision to Leave."

Other than the actress, top star Lee Byung Hun has been offered to join Son Ye Jin as the male lead and is reportedly considering the role.

Adding to the list of lead stars joining the movie is award-winning actor Lee Sung Min.

If Son Ye Jin officially accepts the offer, "The Axe" will be her first movie in 7 years after the hit action-thriller film "The Negotiation" with Hyun Bin.

Other than the possible cast lineup, officials are targeting the release of "The Axe" in 2025.





For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Flores




Friday, May 3, 2024 - The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Wednesday released data showing that the cost of most basic commodities had recorded an annual increase.

This included petrol, diesel, and kerosene which are key determinants of the cost of living.

According to the KNBS data, Petrol and Diesel increased in price by 8 and 11.2 per cent respectively.

Kerosene on the other hand had one of the highest increases in prices posting a 16.6 per cent change.

Cooking gas which is at times used as an alternative source of fuel also registered a 3.5 per cent increase in price.

It should be noted that while fuel costs have registered an annual increase in prices, for April 2024, petrol and diesel prices recorded a drop according to EPRA.

Petrol prices decreased by 2.7 per cent while diesel reduced by 5.2 per cent.

Despite Kenya experiencing good rains late last year, prices of most agricultural products registered an annual increase of prices compared with April 2022 to April 2023 when the country experienced one of the longest droughts in recent history.

Consumers were hit most when purchasing onions as the farm produce recorded a 71% increase in prices.

Oranges, Avocados, and Tomatoes increased in price by 17.9, 15.9, and 10.8 per cent respectively.

Other basic commodities that increased in price include; Sugar (9.2 per cent), Potatoes (5.3 per cent) and Cooking Oil (3.1 per cent).

Kales popularly known as Sukuma Wiki also registered a 2.8 per cent increase in prices with beans registering a marginal increase of 0.7 per cent.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Friday, May 3, 2024  Troubles for the embattled Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi have compounded just a day after MPs approved his impeachment.

This is after President William Ruto's government ordered his arrest and prosecution alongside his Principal Secretary Paul Ronoh over the fake fertilizer scandal.

DCI Detectives were Friday looking for Linturi and Ronoh who are said to have gone into hiding.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution approved charges for the two among others.

Officials said the two and five other senior officials including those from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) had purportedly been summoned for processing.

We are looking for them. They were supposed to come here after being summoned but we are now looking for them, said an official aware of the issue.

It is alleged that NCPB Managing Director Joseph Kimote is among those to be arrested again.

This is a separate file which is being investigated.

The DCI has opened nine separate files into the saga.

They were expected at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi for processing.

Linturi is purportedly among those grilled by police over the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of substandard fertilizer to farmers under the fertilizer subsidy program.

He met police in his office last Friday during which he was grilled for up to two hours, officials said.

Sources aware of the grilling said Linturi who was accompanied by his advisers and legal team denied any role in the scam.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Friday, May 3, 2024  Kenyans have been warned to be alert and prepare for another possible disaster.

This is after it emerged that a huge cyclone was headed to the Kenyan Coast and may have a devastating effect.

President William Ruto's Cabinet was briefed on the looming disaster and warned Kenyans to prepare for impact.

During the Cabinet meeting held at State House, Nairobi, the President and Cabinet Secretaries were briefed on measures to protect Kenyans from the floods that have rocked most parts of the country.

"The Cabinet was briefed on the weather forecast for the next three months, which shows that average to above-average rains will continue in all parts of the country. Consequently, flooding is expected in low-lying areas as are landslides and mudslides," the dispatch read in part.

"Crucially, the coastal region is likely to experience Cyclone Hidaya, which will result in heavy rainfall, large waves, and strong winds that could affect marine activities in the Indian Ocean."

This was the second time in a week that Ruto convened a Cabinet meeting to deliberate on extra measures to mitigate the devastating effects of flooding, mudslides, and landslides in many parts of the country.

To help close to 200,000 households that have been affected by floods, the Cabinet noted that the government would continue distributing food and non-food items.

The exercise is being done in partnership with non-governmental organisations and other charity entities.

Kenyans were further commended for obeying an earlier directive to evacuate from riparian lands.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Friday, May 3, 2024 - President William Ruto has postponed the reopening of all public schools until further notice.

This is due to the ongoing rains that have caused massive flooding in several parts of the country and the subsequent deaths and destruction of properties.

This comes barely hours after Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu insisted the schools be opened on Monday, May 6.

In a circular released on Friday, May 3, Machogu issued a fresh directive over the planned reopening of schools slated for Monday.

He spelt out measures to ensure the safety of learners, teachers, and other staff in various learning institutions.

Machogu has tasked parents of students especially those in day schools to ensure that their kids report safely to schools due to the effects of floods.

Rutos government has been issuing official conflicting statements that have left Kenyans wondering whether government departments were reading from different scripts.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Friday, May 3, 2024  It appears the government of President William Ruto is just looking for any slight provocation to fire employees.

This is after the Ministry of Health suspended the salaries of about 250 employees on grounds of failing to declare their wealth.

While addressing a delegation at Afya House, Health PS Harry Kimtai announced that the Susan Nakhumicha-led Ministry had begun a comprehensive headcount of all workers within the ministry.

The PS noted the move was aimed at realigning its staff with the recently approved structure by the Public Service Commission (PSC).

According to PS Kimtai, there was a need to align staff assignments with the newly established framework, highlighting the importance of technical officers for departmental operations.

Kimtai stated that the exercise was mainly for record updating, placing individuals according to their specialities, and aligning heads of divisions and directorates.

"The headcount aims to ensure payroll accuracy and eliminate discrepancies through certificate verifications, updating records, and streamlining divisions and directorates accordingly," the Health PS stated.

"This reflects the Ministry's commitment to organizational efficiency and accountability," he added.

The PS also noted the scrutiny would involve county health workers and directed the striking medical officers to report back to work and submit the necessary paperwork.

According to the PS, non-compliance by the striking county medical officers would lead to s stiffer disciplinary action by the ministry.

The Ministry of Health urged all staff to submit paperwork by May 7 to avoid salary disruptions and potential disciplinary measures.

The move comes days after doctors vowed to continue with their protests until the government heeds their demands.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Friday, May 3, 2024  President William Rutos economic advisers are among the specialists set to receive Ksh1.3 billion in the financial year 2024/25 proposed by the National Treasury.

According to the Programme Based Budget released on Thursday, the Advisory Services were highlighted as an integral part of the President's Executive Office to fulfill its mandate.

The Ksh1.3 billion formed part of the Ksh5.37 billion allocated to President William Ruto's office, an increase from Ksh4.03 billion churned towards the President's office in the 2023/24 financial year.

The Council of Economic Advisors, led by economist David Ndii, will benefit from its role in providing expert advice to the President and his Cabinet on economic and social matters.

The government Advisory Services will be divided into six sub-programmes: Kenya-South Sudan Advisory, Power of Mercy Advisory Services, and Counter-Terrorism Advisory Services.

Others include Advisory Services on Economic and Social Affairs, Strategic Policy Advisory Services, and Public Entities Oversight Services.

For Kenya-South Sudan Advisory Services, the government seeks to implement 100 per cent of the advisories issued to enhance the ties with the South Sudan government through the Liaison office.

The Power of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC), which carries thorough research into the critical issues surrounding a petition, reviews reports and forwards them to the president annually.

The Committee is also tasked with 56 conducting sensitisation forums yearly.

Counter-Terrorism Advisory Services involve providing strategies to curb terrorism-related activities within a country. One of the strategies involves effective coordination from security organs to neutralise any potential threats.

On matters of Economic and Social Affairs, the Council led by Ndii is tasked with implementing and reviewing policies to aid in improving the country's economy. The council is also tasked with conducting 44 research projects annually.

The Strategic Policy Advisors are required to provide ideas that contribute towards a whole government approach in the delivery of public service.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Friday, May 3, 2024 - Kenya Power's chief pilot was reportedly fired recently by the Managing Director, Joseph Siror, after he refused to engage in a corruption deal.

According to Kileleshwa Ward MCA Robert Alai, Siror wanted to steal taxpayers money through procurement irregularities.

However, the chief pilot, who is the only Airmobile Pilot at Kenya Power, refused to bow down to Sirors demands, and in the process, he lost his lucrative job.

Kenya Power MD Siror recently fired Kenya Powers only Airmobile Pilot without clear reason. Its believed that the Chief Pilot refused to bow down to the procurement irregularities MD Siror wanted, Alai tweeted.

The chief pilot had viral airmobile tasks at Kenya Power.

Some of his roles included using helicopters and linesmen suspended from the aircraft for quicker transmission power line repairs and maintenance, which is faster than traditional methods involving climbing the pylons.

Siror has been incompetent in his job ever since he was appointed.

The country has been witnessing frequent nationwide power blackouts.









The Kenyan DAILY POST.






Friday, May 3, 2024 - The United States has formally accused Russia of using chemical weapons as a method of warfare against Ukraine and imposed sweeping new sanctions on Russian firms and government bodies.

In a statement on Wednesday, May 1,the US State Department said it had made a determination that Russia has used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

It added that Russia had also used riot control agents, or tear gas, during the war in violation of the CWC.

The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield, it said.

Ukrainians say they have faced increased encounters with gas and other irritant chemicals on parts of their frontline with Russias forces in recent months.

In a statement posted on social media in March, Ukraines armed forces said they had recorded more than a thousand incidents where Russia had used tear gas munitions equipped with toxic chemicals that are prohibited for warfare, with 250 cases in February alone.

Russia has previously denied using chemical weapons.

There are no chemical weapons in the stockpiles of the Russian army, as confirmed by international investigations, the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands wrote on its X (formerly known as Twitter) page, according to a report from the state-run TASS news agency in January.

Chloropicrin was widely used as a chemical warfare agent in World War I, but is no longer authorized for military use, and is now mostly used in agriculture, according to the CDC. It irritates the lungs, eyes, and skin, and can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea lasting for weeks, according to the CDC.

Under a 1991 law against the use of chemical and biological warfare, the State Department is re-imposing restrictions on foreign military financing, US Government lines of credit, and export licenses for defense articles and national security-sensitive items going to Russia, it said on Wednesday.

The State Department added that it is sanctioning three Russian government entities linked to the countrys chemical and biological weapons programs and four Russian companies that contributed to those government bodies.

The announcement was part of a tranche of nearly 300 new sanctions against companies and figures in multiple countries for their support of Russias war in Ukraine, including China, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.






Friday, May 3, 2024 - WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has revealed that she contemplated suicide while being imprisoned in Russia.

Recall that the WNBA superstar was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges in August 2022, following a trial. She was ultimately sent to a penal colony in Mordovia, where she was forced to work and cut fabric for military members.

In December 2022, the U.S. agreed to send Russia-convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner's release.

Sitting for a lengthy interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts, Griner said the thoughts crept into her mind just after Russian authorities threw her behind bars for packing vape cartridges in her luggage at a Moscow airport in February 2022.

"I wanted to take my life more than once in the first weeks," Griner said. I felt like leaving here so badly.

The 33-year-old told Roberts, though, she didn't go through with it out of fear that her body wouldn't be released to her family. "I can't put them through that," she said. I have to endure this.

Griner said while imprisoned, she faced awful living conditions, explaining to Roberts her mattress had a big blood stain on it and there was minimal toilet paper and no soap in the bathrooms.

She added that at one point, Russian officials made her pen a letter asking for forgiveness and "thanks from their so-called great leader" Vladimir Putin. "I didn't want to do it," she said, but at the same time, I want to come home.

Griner told Roberts she dealt with guilt over all that happened in Russia, saying she felt like she let everybody down.

But since returning to the U.S., Griner has become an advocate for those wrongfully detained overseas. She's also expecting her first child with her wife, Cherelle. She's still going strong in the WNBA, getting set to kick off another season with the Phoenix Mercury later this month.
By Ruth Anderah

A man who accuses a Bishop of stealing and eating his genitals has further been remanded to Luzira prison by the Makindye Chief Magistrates Court.

Joseph Mukasa Kato accuses Bishop Patrick Makumbi of Gospel Healing Centre Lweza of being a fraudster who concocts miracles.

Grade One Magistrate Allan Gakyaalo has now fixed Katos case for hearing for 6th July 2017 and ordered Bishop Makumbi to come along with his witnesses.

On 5th June 2017, Mukasa a resident of Kalagala in Kiboga district was charged with defamation of the Bishop, a charge he has since denied.

Prosecution led by Happiness Ainebyona states that between February and March 2017 while speaking on various local Radio and Television stations within Kampala, Mukasa uttered statements to the effect that Bishop Makumbi had stolen and eaten his genitals.

These statements, according to prosecution were made with an intention of ridiculing and defaming the profession of Bishop Makumbi within the minds of right thinking members of society.

Kato has had no sureties to stand for him and this left no choice for the presiding magistrate but to further remand him until 6th July 2017.

Katos relatives had declared him missing 2 weeks ago only to learn that he had been sent to jail over defamation.
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khaskhabar.com : , 03  2024 7:02 PM
Gardai have arrested two males and seized drugs worth a total of 590,000 and a firearm in Tallaght in Dublin.

Cocaine worth 50,000 was recovered and two males arrested by gardai during an operation in the Maplewood area of Tallaght, Dublin 24, shortly after 10 am on Thursday, May 2.

In the course of a follow-up operation, a residential property in Dublin 24 was also searched, which lead the discovery of further quantities of cocaine worth 420,000, crystal meth worth 120,000, along with a firearm.

"Both males were detained at a garda station in the Dublin Region under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984," a garda spokesperson said.

"They have since been charged and released from garda custody to appear before Tallaght District Court later this month".

The operation was led by the Serious Crime Unit supported by uniformed gardai and Community Policing Units based at Tallaght Station, and was part of Operation Tara and ongoing investigations into the distribution of controlled drugs and related crime in the Tallaght area.



The drugs seized are subject to analysis by FSI, and investigations are ongoing, gardai said.
Week One, Days 2-5: The Tools of Our Trade.

The tools we use in archaeology are selective and important, determined after years of experience re practicality and versatility. As well as high-tech (GPS, electro magnetometery, drones) we use a variety of hand tools largely unchanged since archaeology started 250 years ago.

We use a heavy pick (foreground) at first to loosen the soil, which is then meticulously sorted with a small trowel into a black soil bucket (processed). We work from the back wall forward, at about 20cm lengths deep, in a line. The heavy pick has a secondary narrow chopping or scrapping blade, and we have what we call a tourea (sp?) pictured in the background, a square bladed pick used to chop square sidings or scrape a soil level towards you (good for floor work).

Note the two large bulks on either side (above). These have steel stakes pounded in and the spike tops are sealed with coloured plastic balls and a string is run straight and true between, at surface level for the length of the site (uphill). This sets right angle squares and matches the reality with what is plotted on the blue field plan. The coloured balls prevent people tripping and pitching head first into a ten foot deep pit often with rocks set in the floor. You have to be careful as the bulks are often very narrow and the edges can collapse. As we find things, the square supervisor can plot the finds on the chart and draw in artefacts in situ. That is valuable data. Without it, artefacts discovered become worthless.

We also use a broom head as a hand held duster, dusting over fragile artefacts of interest and to clean a leveled surface (vertical or horizontal). Other implements include: the universal Marshall hand-held trowel (which does much of the work), a water canteen, vital in Israel. I like the brand pictured (below) at it is light, carries a lot of water, and can be hung in a tree for ready access or hitched over your shoulder while carrying other items.

Everyone wears gloves. I wear quality yellow leather gloves so they dont get lost onsite; and leather is soft yet hard wearing. We are all attired in recommended long sleeves and long trousers (to ward off the UV despite the shading cover; insect bites, and skin snags on the vicious thorn bushes). Over top my trousers I wear heavy-duty knee pads as you spend a lot of time on your knees processing soil. These are a God-send and Im glad I have good quality pads (particularly as Im due a knee op. a week after I return to NZ, so underneath I have a knee brace on as well). Working for hours on your knees and then getting up, is tough on the back and knees. I also carry a large Bear Grylls knife, very useful in the hard soil (but which causes me no end of trouble in Korea- later) and a small Swiss-army-style pocket knife. (I actually get to use the fold out stone from your shoe thingy  first time ever! that no-one ever actually uses). At first I wear sunglasses but dispense with these as they discolour the coloured buckets (and pottery ends up in bone buckets) and its harder to detect the subtle soil differentiations. An Indianna Jones hat is a must. I wear a Scottish gamekeepers-style ghillie. This is best as it has a chin strap for wind, and is vented on top so your head can breathe. Without this you sweat and overheat and salts build up on your forehead. Cowboy hats are not as good. Ghillies also press flat for easy packing.

Once on site I note professor Aren wears a similar hat, so Im glad for this choice. Note Lucys hat behind him (below). After a career in the field in Israel, it is worth noting what he wears. He dons a small backpack with that fluid tube, but I prefer the separate canteen in a tree, as it is impractical to excavate with backpack straps under my armpits (as chief archaeologist he has a different role and function. Im a grunt).

Below: 1) Aren and his backpack, note Lucys hat; and 2) on the trail up to the top of the Tell on the Day 1 Tour of the site. You can see the stoney nature of the surface and the need for robust footwear.

Arriving in Israel I had heavy duty hiking shoes, but these cause me real hell in the heat and after two days Im hobbling with really painful blisters and raw foot soles. So on the first weekend break, I purchase a cheap set of heavy duty soled boots like Arens, with soft sides that breathe, from an Old City Nazareth market store (more later). They only cost me $30 NZ and are a HUGE benefit in Week 2 making the archaeology way less uncomfortable. Israel shekel is 2.5 to $1 Kiwi dollar.

Donkey Work: Achishs Ass

The filled black buckets are lifted up onto the bulk and must then be carried up the hill via the narrow bulk (which has a string on it that must not be disturbed) to a wheelbarrow, which must then be wheeled up a further slope to the upper soil dump site. The barrows can cope with 4 soil buckets each. Anymore, and most people cannot wheel them up the slope. This is strenuous work, and as we are working with Ahuva and Erika, two of our veteran senior women, who cannot lift the soil buckets, John and I do their soil extraction work in 82C as well. As we process with glove, trowel and bucket, we place any pottery into a blue bucket, and bones into a purple bucket (each bucket has two tags, more of which later). Special or unusual finds (such as shells or flint) are passed to our square supervisor Eitan Meer, an ex-Israeli soldier and classics scholar.

Below: The upper soil dump site begins, and grows, and grows. This area is unshaded, so its very hard work in the blazing sun. One of the hardest workers on site is Dr David Kotter (pictured with barrow), Professor of New Testament Studies and Dean of the School of Theology, Colorado Christian University. A true servant to all. David and his colleague Dr Seth lead a student crew from Colorado. What a great bunch of Philistine diggers (verb not noun).

Occasionally artefacts are missed while being processed. Wheel-barrowers extract artefacts in the dump soil and return them to the square they were from (if known) so they can be documented through the process. Significant finds are sometimes extracted from the dump site. This is because when we are processing items, they are always covered in clay or dust and we often cannot see anything of significance, such as paint, so have to learn to bucket-sort by sight and feel what an object might be. For this purpose I keep a bucket with 2 inches of water in it nearby, to give oddities a quick wash swirl to help identify where an item should go: pottery bucket; bones bucket; or dump bucket. Better safe than sorry.

This colourful bichrome Philistine pottery sherd above, for example, was excavated by John and I from 82D but we did not see any of the fab painted decoration on it until it was cleaned 24 hours. It could easily have been tossed but for us discerning it by shape and consistency in gloved hands.

This Philistine leopard/lion rhyton (aka The Happy Hippo) below, I think was recovered from a dump site. It is Tell es-Safis official logo. Next to it Ive posted some my photos from Ertez Museum (Tel Aviv) of similar Philistine zoomorphic sculpture, for comparison. The Philistines were very quirky in their art and clearly loved fauna and flora themes. We find a significant example in Week 3.
A guest post by John Stringer:

As is usual on Kiwiblog (and other NZ sites) there are habitual Trolls. Unfortunately any pro-Israel statements, and even my blog series on archaeology in Israel, attracted anti-semitic comment and statements (haters are everywhere).

However, on Blog #7 of that illustrated series, Tranquil published this very well-researched and definiative comment by Lawrence Auster, which is worth reposting here for those interested

Obviously founder of Kiwiblog DPF has in more recent years researched and celebrated his own Jewish heritage. John Keys mother was Jewish, which makes him Jewish by most definitions.

This article may help to shed some light on the Palestinian claim conundrum.

How Strong Is the Arab Claim to Palestine?-Exactly who has the right to claim I had it first?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1202907/posts

Quote  There is a myth hanging over all discussion of the Palestinian problem: the myth that this land was Arab land taken from its native inhabitants by invading Jews. Whatever may be the correct solution to the problems of the Middle East, lets get a few things straight:

 As a strictly legal matter, the Jews didnt take Palestine from the Arabs; they took it from the British, who exercised sovereign authority in Palestine under a League of Nations mandate for thirty years prior to Israels declaration of independence in 1948. And the British dont want it back.

 If you consider the British illegitimate usurpers, fine. In that case, this territory is not Arab land but Turkish land, a province of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years until the British wrested it from them during the Great War in 1917. And the Turks dont want it back.

 If you look back earlier in history than the Ottoman Turks, who took over Palestine over in 1517, you find it under the sovereignty of the yet another empire not indigenous to Palestine: the Mamluks, who were Turkish and Circassian slave-soldiers headquartered in Egypt. And the Mamluks dont even exist any more, so they cant want it back.

So, going back 800 years, theres no particularly clear chain of title that makes Israels title to the land inferior to that of any of the previous owners. Who were, continuing backward:

 The Mamluks, already mentioned, who in 1250 took Palestine over from:

 The Ayyubi dynasty, the descendants of Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who in 1187 took Jerusalem and most of Palestine from:

 The European Christian Crusaders, who in 1099 conquered Palestine from:

 The Seljuk Turks, who ruled Palestine in the name of:

 The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, which in 750 took over the sovereignty of the entire Near East from:

 The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, which in 661 inherited control of the Islamic lands from

 The Arabs of Arabia, who in the first flush of Islamic expansion conquered Palestine in 638 from:

 The Byzantines, who (nice peopleperhaps it should go to them?) didnt conquer the Levant, but, upon the division of the Roman Empire in 395, inherited Palestine from:

 The Romans, who in 63 B.C. took it over from:

 The last Jewish kingdom, which during the Maccabean rebellion from 168 to 140 B.C. won control of the land from:

 The Hellenistic Greeks, who under Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. conquered the Near East from:

 The Persian empire, which under Cyrus the Great in 639 B.C. freed Jerusalem and Judah from:

 The Babylonian empire, which under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. took Jerusalem and Judah from:

 The Jews, meaning the people of the Kingdom of Judah, who, in their earlier incarnation as the Israelites, seized the land in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. from:

 The Canaanites, who had inhabited the land for thousands of years before they were dispossessed by the Israelites.

As the foregoing suggests, any Arab claim to sovereignty based on inherited historical control will not stand up. Arabs are not native to Palestine, but are native to Arabia, which is called Arab-ia for the breathtakingly simple reason that it is the historic home of the Arabs. The terroritories comprising all other Arab states outside the Arabian peninsulaincluding Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity now formally under the Palestinian Authoritywere originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, mass-murdering, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Pharaonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000 year history.

The recent assertion by the Palestinian Arabs that they are descended from the ancient Canaanites whom the ancient Hebrews displaced is absurd in light of the archeological evidence. There is no record of the Canaanites surviving their destruction in ancient times. History records literally hundreds of ancient peoples that no longer exist. The Arab claim to be descended from Canaanites is an invention that came after the 1964 founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the same crew who today deny that there was ever a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Prior to 1964 there was no Palestinian people and no Palestinian claim to Palestine; the Arab nations who sought to overrun and destroy Israel in 1948 planned to divide up the territory amongst themselves. Let us also remember that prior to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the name Palestinian referred to the Jews of Palestine.

In any case, todays Palestine, meaning the West Bank and Gaza, is, like most of the world, inhabited by people who are not descendants of the first human society to inhabit that territory. This is true not only of recently settled countries like the United States and Argentina, where European settlers took the land from the indigenous inhabitants several hundred years ago, but also of ancient nations like Japan, whose current Mongoloid inhabitants displaced a primitive people, the Ainu, aeons ago. Major native tribes of South Africa, like the Zulu, are actually invaders from the north who arrived in the 17th century. Indias caste system reflects waves of fair-skinned Aryan invaders who arrived in that country in the second millennium B.C. One could go on and on.

The only nations that have perfect continuity between their earliest known human inhabitants and their populations of the present day are Iceland, parts of China, and a few Pacific islands. The Chinese case is complicated by the fact that the great antiquity of Chinese civilization has largely erased the traces of whatever societies preceded it, making it difficult to reconstruct to what extent the expanding proto-Chinese displaced (or absorbed) the prehistoric peoples of that region. History is very sketchy in regard to the genealogies of ancient peoples. The upshot is that aboriginalismthe proposition that the closest descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory are the rightful ownersis not tenable in the real world. It is not clear that it would be a desirable idea even if it were tenable. Would human civilization really be better off if there had been no China, no Japan, no Greece, no Rome, no France, no England, no Ireland, no United States?

Back to the Arabs

I have no problem recognizing the legitimacy of the Arabs tenure in Palestine when they had it, from 638 to 1099, a period of 461 years out of a history lasting 5,000 years. They took Palestine by military conquest, and they lost it by conquest, to the Christian Crusaders in 1099. Of course, military occupation by itself does not determine which party rightly has sovereignty in a given territory. Can it not be said that the Arabs have sovereign rights, if not to all of Israel, then at least to the West Bank, by virtue of their majority residency in that region from the early Middle Ages to the present?

To answer that question, lets look again at the historical record. Prior to 1947, as weve discussed, Palestine was administered by the British under the Palestine Mandate, the ultimate purpose of which, according to the Balfour Declaration, was the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1924 the British divided the Palestine Mandate into an Arabs-only territory east of the Jordan, which became the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, and a greatly reduced Palestine Mandate territory west of the Jordan, which was inhabited by both Arabs and Jews.

Given the fact that the Jews and Arabs were unable to coexist in one state, there had to be two states. At the same time, there were no natural borders separating the two peoples, in the way that, for example, the Brenner Pass has historically marked the division between Latin and Germanic Europe. Since the Jewish population was concentrated near the coast, the Jewish state had to start at the coast and go some distance inland. Exactly where it should have stopped, and where the Arab state should have begun, was a practical question that could have been settled in any number of peaceful ways, almost all of which the Jews would have accepted. The Jews willingness to compromise on territory was demonstrated not only by their acquiescence in the UNs 1947 partition plan, which gave them a state with squiggly, indefensible borders, but even by their earlier acceptance of the 1937 Peel Commission partition plan, which gave them nothing more than a part of the Galilee and a tiny strip along the coast. Yet the Arab nations, refusing to accept any Jewish sovereignty in Palestine even if it was the size of a postage stamp, unanimously rejected the 1937 Peel plan, and nine years later they violently rejected the UNs partition plan as well.

When the Arabs resorted to arms in order to wipe out the Jews and destroy the Jewish state, they accepted the verdict of arms. They lost that verdict in 1948, and they lost it again in 1967, when Jordan, which had annexed the West Bank in 1948 (without any objections from Palestinian Arabs that their sovereign nationhood was being violated), attacked Israel from the West Bank during the Six Day War despite Israels urgent pleas that it stay out of the conflict. Israel in self-defense then captured the West Bank. The Arabs thus have no grounds to complain either about Israels existence (achieved in 48) or about its expanded sovereignty from the river to the sea (achieved in 67).

The Arabs have roiled the world for decades with their furious protest that their land has been stolen from them. One might take seriously such a statement if it came from a pacifist people such as the Tibetans, who had quietly inhabited their land for ages before it was seized by the Communist Chinese in 1950.

The claim is laughable coming from the Arabs, who in the early Middle Ages conquered and reduced to slavery and penury ancient peoples and civilizations stretching from the borders of Persia to the Atlantic; who in 1947 rejected an Arab state in Palestine alongside a Jewish state and sought to obliterate the nascent Jewish state; who never called for a distinct Palestinian Arab state until the creation of the terrorist PLO in 1964sixteen years after the founding of the state of Israel; and who to this moment continue to seek Israels destruction, an object that would be enormously advanced by the creation of the Arab state they demand.

The Arab claim to sovereign rights west of the Jordan is only humored today because of a fatal combination of world need for Arab oil, leftist Political Correctness that has cast the Israelis as oppressors, and, of course, good old Jew-hatred.

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By Fatime Letifova

Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries that is an example of the principles of multiculturalism. This country has national and humanistic traditions. Let's not forget that Azerbaijan is a country with a centuries-old history located on the great Silk Road. Diversity has always been the way of life of Azerbaijani society. In modern times, numerous, different ethnic groups live peacefully in the cities and regions of Azerbaijan and continue their activities with equal rights.

The decree of President Ilham Aliyev "On declaring 2016 as the "Year of Multiculturalism" in the Republic of Azerbaijan" dated January 11, 2016 also shows that the preservation, further development and wide promotion of the traditions of multiculturalism is always in the focus of the Azerbaijan's leadership. For this purpose, numerous international and local important events are held in Azerbaijan every year.

As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue on Dialogue for Peace and Global Security, intercultural dialogue within Azerbaijan has always been very positive.

It is worth noting that for over 70 years, the USSR authorities promoted atheism and prevented many peoples from experiencing humanistic tendencies based on spiritual and religious values. However, the people of Azerbaijan have acquired their values ??with the background of great state support and care during the Soviet period and after independence. Following its independence, the celebration of religious holidays based on Islamic traditions was restored in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and maximum conditions were created for every citizen to enjoy freedom of religion. This has made Azerbaijan an ideal and desirable country where representatives of different nations and religions live side by side.

As we know, Azerbaijan's Garabagh was occupied by Armenia in the early years of independence - in the 1990s. The economic and social difficulties experienced in this period, the attempts of other states to divide Azerbaijan, and even aggressive separatism could not break the solidarity of Azerbaijanis.

Even during the worst period of relations with Armenia, Armenian churches continued to operate in Azerbaijan. However, it is worth to remember that when Garabagh was under Armenian occupation, the Azerbaijani mosques in the formerly occupied territories were used as piggery and historical and cultural monuments were vandalised.

This comparison once again proves that Azerbaijan is a more humanist and respectable country in the South Caucasus given this all conflicts and loss of territories.

One of the greatest examples of Azerbaijan's commitment to multilateralism is its successful chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement. It should be noted that in 2011, Azerbaijan was accepted as a full member of the National Assembly after obtaining the unanimous support of the member states of the Movement in Bali.

In 2019, Baku hosted the Movement's 18th Summit of Heads of State and Government. High-level representatives of 120 UN member states and representatives of 42 international organizations took part in the event. During the Baku Summit, the Movement's Chairmanship for 2019-2022 years, was transferred to the Republic of Azerbaijan. Later, the UN member states applied to Baku regarding Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Movement for an additional 1 year, taking into account the successful chairmanship of the Movement, and the Azerbaijani side gave a positive response to the request. Thus, Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the National Assembly was extended until 2023.

As the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan's constant fight against colonial tendencies caused the displeasure of a number of colonial countries, especially France.

The 6th edition of the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, operating under the theme Dialogue for Peace and Global Security" in Baku, and President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the opening ceremony of the event are on the agenda these days.

The president's views were covered in the press of Turkish, Russian, Georgian, Belarusian, Qatari, Iranian and other countries.

Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan, the country that cultures intersect, continues to develop in all directions and easily adapt to the requirements of the new era.

It is worth noting that Azerbaijan differs in a good way from many other countries with its colorful culture and respect and care for the culture of other nations.
Gloria Yoder lives in Flat Rock, Illinois. She likes to cook, bake, garden and being a mom! Readers can send her mail at P.O. Box 157, Middletown, Ohio 45042. For more recipes and information about the Amish lifestyle go to amish365.com.
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On 2 May the faction of Bolivias ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) that is loyal to former president(2006-2019) threatened to launch protests around the country in protest at a MAS congress organised by Presidents faction of the party.

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On 2 May Mexicos Presidentmet with Cubas Foreign Ministerin the national palace in Mexico City (CDMX).

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On 2 May Brazils Presidenttravelled to the countrys southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, which has been affected by heavy storms and flooding over the past week.

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After a massive outcry when the State Supreme Court of Arizona reinstated the 1864 total abortion ban, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has now signed the bill repealing the law, making the repeal official. However, this would not be taking effect immediately yet.

The 1864 abortion law was in effect since the Civil War. After the US Supreme Court repealed Roe V. Wade, the Arizona State Supreme Court decided to reinstate the law, which bans all forms of abortion except when the mother's life is in danger.

Hobbs signed the repeal inside the state Capitol just a day after the Arizona State Senate passed it with two Republicans defecting from the majority. Despite the massive backlash from the 1864 abortion ban's reinstatement, a majority of state Senate Republicans still voted no to its repeal.

"I've heard from doctors who were unsure if they would wind up in a jail cell for simply doing their job, women who told me they didn't know if it was safe to start a family here in Arizona," said Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs at the signing ceremony. "These excruciating conversations are exactly why I have made one thing clear, very clear: This ban needs to be repealed."

After the bill to repeal the Civil War era law passed the Senate, Hobbs vowed to sign it in order to officially repeal the controversial law, which was first codified in 1901 before Arizona became a US State. Once it got statehood, the 1864 abortion ban was codified again, according to NBC News.

The backlash in Arizona was so massive that even the staunchest conservatives had to change their stances and call for the law's repeal, including Kari Lake who once celebrated the law and called for its reinstatement after Roe V. Wade was repealed. However, Lake has been flip-flopped since, calling for more enforcement of the law, while also calling for its repeal.

Arizona Just the Beginning in Battle for Abortion in Many States

The repeal itself will only begin to take effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which would be around June or July. However, many are already celebrating the victory of the law's repeal.

READ MORE: Arizona: Man Hired by Donald Trump and Kari Lake To Find Voter Fraud Admits He Found Nothing

However, this is only the beginning of the fight for or against abortion, as several big battles are about to happen across the United States at the state level, from North Dakota all the way to Florida.

Around the same time as Hobbs signed the bill repealing the Arizona 1864 abortion ban, a South Dakota abortion rights initiative submitted far more signatures than required to make the ballot, according to the Associated Press. South Dakota residents will now vote if they want to keep their abortion rights.

Over in Florida, however, a law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has now taken effect. This has highlighted the differences in policies across all 50 states in the US.

Abortion Battles Still Consuming US Politics After Roe V. Wade Repeal

The status of abortion in the US is constantly changing as conservatives and progressives duel to pass new abortion laws or challenge them. These include measures against abortion, such as Kansas increasing funding for anti-abortion centers, as well as measures for abortion, like the ones in South Dakota and Arizona.

"Some of it's exactly what we knew would happen," David Cohen, a professor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University who studies abortion policy, told the AP. He added that "others have been big surprises that have put, frankly, the anti-abortion movement on their heels."

READ MORE: Kari Lake Loses Again as US Supreme Court Junks Her Lawsuit Over Electronic Voting Machines

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Arizona governor signs repeal of 1864 abortion ban - NBC News
Brazil President Lula has now arrived in the state of Grande do Sul after severe rains caused flooding that led to dozens of deaths in the state. As Lula arrived there, the death toll has now risen to 29, with the floods also devastating the state's farming industry.

According to Reuters, the severe rains and flooding have now displaced 10,242 residents, with 60 people still missing. A state of public calamity has been declared to handle the disaster as the state's civil defense authorities continue their search and rescue operations.

"It's not just another critical case; it's the most critical that the state will probably have recorded in its history," said Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite during a live broadcast on social media, where he also admitted that this year's flooding was worse than what happened last year.

The heavy rains and flooding also caused a small hydroelectric power plant to burst on Thursday, leaving over 300,000 people without electricity, according to the state's main utility company.

As for Lula, the Brazilian president flew over to the affected areas and met with the governor for an emergency meeting already. He has already pledged support to the federal government for the affected state.

"I told the governor and my ministers that the federal government will make every effort. ... We will take care of this with great care and respect," said Lula during the meeting with Governor Leite.

"President Lula, please immediately send as much air support as possible for RS [Rio Grande do Sul]. We need to rescue hundreds of people in dozens of municipalities who are in an emergency due to the intense rain which has already fallen and which is going to continue falling in coming days," the governor previously wrote on X, begging for Lula's support.

The president responded and vowed that the federal government would "join the efforts of state government and municipalities to get through this difficult time, which is the result of climate change affecting the planet."

READ MORE: Venezuela Election: Brazil President Lula Cheering on Venezuela Opposition

Heavy Rains and Floods in Brazil Lead to Landslides, Residents Stranded on Rooftops

The rains and flooding in the state of Rio Grande do Sul have made search and rescue operations even more complicated, as flooding was so bad that helicopters have been unable to land. This meant that the helicopter-bound rescuers had to lift residents stranded on rooftops to safety.

Two of the people who died were swept away by the floodwaters in the small town of Paverama, while another was killed in a landslide in Salvador do Sul, per the BBC. Several bridges have also collapsed, and dozens of streets have been rendered impassable.

Brazil Floods Interrupt Important Corn and Soy Harvests in One of Brazil's Biggest Farming States

Rio Grande do Sul is considered one of the largest farming states in Brazil, being the country's second-largest soybean and sixth-largest corn-producing state. The harvest of these two important crops has been disrupted by the floods, especially as it has now entered the final stages of its harvest.

So far, the state has already harvested 76% of its soy-producing farmlands when the heavy downpours disrupted the harvest. By now, the state would have harvested 83% of its crops, according to Reuters.

READ MORE: Brazil Supreme Court Denies Jair Bolsonaro's Request To Travel to Israel

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Brazil floods: Governor warns of historic disaster in south - Al Jazeera English
A bloc within Haiti's newly formed presidential council is retracting its decision regarding the selection of the next prime minister.

Instead, they opt to adhere to the initial political agreement, aiming to choose the Haiti transition council's leader from a pool of applicants, the Miami Herald reports.

This shift follows a recent controversial move where four members of the council decided to nominate Fritz Belizaire as the next Haiti prime minister without a public vote.

The bloc, named "The Indissoluble Majority Bloc," comprises four members and represents sectors aligned with former President Michel Martelly's Haitian Tet Kale Party (PHTK).

Haiti has been grappling with significant political and social challenges, including the assassination of a president and a devastating earthquake.

This turmoil has exacerbated a power vacuum, which has increasingly been filled by armed Haiti gangs competing for control.

The violence in the nation has escalated in recent months, with United Nations data reporting more than one person killed in gang violence every hour during the first three months of the year.

READ NEXT: Haiti's Transitional Government Picks Fritz Belizaire as PM

Security Crisis Amid Political Turmoil

Following the announcement of Fritz Belizaire as the new prime minister, Haiti experienced one of its most significant outbreaks of violence in recent times.

Haiti Gangs besieged several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, engaging in prolonged exchanges of gunfire with the police, according to Reuters.

The attacks, which began late Wednesday and continued into Thursday, targeted areas like Solino and Delmas 18, 20, and 24, causing mass displacement and destruction.

Residents faced harrowing experiences as they fled the violence, with homes being burned down and families separated in the chaos.

Many were forced to abandon their belongings and seek refuge elsewhere.

The attacks occurred in areas controlled by powerful gang leaders like Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbecue, who heads the G9 Family and Allies gang federation.

The government's handling of the security crisis has come under scrutiny, especially as the Haiti Transition Council faces internal discord over key appointments.

The unexpected nomination of Belizaire has further strained relations within the council, raising concerns about its ability to govern effectively amid escalating violence and public dissatisfaction.

Calls for Stability and Safety

Haitians are demanding urgent action from their leaders to address the security challenges plaguing the nation.

With Haiti gangs wielding considerable power and influence, civilians feel increasingly vulnerable and marginalized.

The surge in violence has led to a mass exodus from Port-au-Prince, with tens of thousands fleeing to escape the deteriorating situation, AP News noted.

Individuals like Ernest Aubrey, who have endured years of instability, are now abandoning their homes in search of safety.

Despite facing immense hardship, some, like Vanessa Vieux, choose to remain resilient and hopeful, placing their trust in the authorities to restore order and protect their communities.

Haiti stands at a critical juncture, grappling with political uncertainty, social upheaval, and escalating violence.

The decision to revisit the Haiti prime minister selection process reflects the challenges facing the transitional government as it seeks to navigate the country through this tumultuous period.

Urgent action is needed to restore stability, rebuild trust, and address the root causes of insecurity plaguing Haitian society.

READ MORE: Ariel Henry Resigns as Haiti PM Amid Gang Violence

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Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: Inside Haiti's Deadly Gang War Controlling The Country | The War Zone - From TalkTV
President Biden's recent comments at a campaign fundraiser in Washington, DC, sparked controversy as he labeled Japan and India, along with China and Russia, as "xenophobic" for their purported reluctance to embrace immigrants.

Joe Biden underscored the importance of immigration to the strength and vitality of the United States' economy, highlighting his administration's commitment to welcoming immigrants, The Hill reports.

While Biden's remarks resonated with his supporters, they raised concerns about potential diplomatic repercussions, particularly with Japan and India, key allies in America's strategy to counter Chinese aggression.

White House officials sought to clarify Biden's intention, emphasizing his broader point about America's immigrant heritage and the enduring strength of its alliances.

READ NEXT: Biden Forgives $1.6B Student Debt for Art Institute Attendees Amid Fraud Claims

Immigration Policy in Focus

Biden's comments reflect his administration's efforts to address immigration challenges while navigating domestic and international pressures.

Despite facing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over immigration issues, Biden has sought to assert a compassionate and inclusive approach, contrasting with the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Japanese lawmakers expressed confusion and skepticism regarding Biden's characterization of their country's immigration stance, according to Fox News.

Some highlighted the complexity of migration issues and cautioned against oversimplifying solutions.

Meanwhile, Indian officials have not publicly responded to Biden's remarks, indicating a desire to maintain diplomatic relations despite potential disagreements.

Advocates for immigrants had expected President Biden to support a "humane" immigration approach, but the reality has been more complicated.

As border challenges heightened, demands for stricter measures grew, including from Biden's Democratic allies in cities like Chicago, New York, and Denver.

While Biden proposed new legal paths for certain migrants, his policies took a firmer tone.

During congressional talks on immigration legislation in January, Biden indicated a willingness to use it to close the border immediately upon enactment.

Maribel Hernandez Rivera, director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration at the ACLU, expressed hope Thursday that Biden's remarks at the fundraiser signaled a reevaluation of these stricter measures.

Defending Biden's Remarks

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication, John Kirby, defended Joe Biden's comments, emphasizing the broader point about America's immigrant identity and its positive impact on the nation's prosperity, BBC noted.

Kirby reiterated the administration's commitment to its allies and emphasized the value of their contributions to global partnerships, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

Sohei Kamiya, a member of Japan's House of Councilors and leader of the right-wing populist Sansei Party, criticized the United States, implying that issues arising from immigration in America affect Japan's hesitance to follow suit.

"It's not that we're xenophobic, we are being cautious after seeing your failures," Kamiya stated. "You are meddling too much in our internal affairs," she added.

President Joe Biden's remarks on immigration have sparked diplomatic discussion and raised questions about the intersection of immigration policy and international relations.

As the administration navigates these challenges, it faces the complex task of balancing domestic priorities with diplomatic considerations, all while upholding America's commitment to inclusivity and cooperation on the global stage.

READ MORE: Papua New Guinea PM Criticizes Biden for Cannibalism Remarks

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Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants - From Associated Press
The hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding Ecuador's raid at the Mexican Embassy, which led to both countries cutting ties with one another, has now started at The Hague, Netherlands. Ecuador told its side of the argument and doubled down that it was within its rights to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who was hiding inside the Mexican Embassy.

However, the Mexican Embassy in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito is considered Mexican territory. Mexico filed a lawsuit in the ICJ against Ecuador for violating its sovereignty with the raid. Ecuador was also accused of blatantly violating international treaties by storming the embassy just to arrest the former vice president, who was being protected by the Mexican government after giving him asylum.

Currently, Ecuador has found itself alone and without any allies in the international community after its raid on the Mexican Embassy. Leaders all over the Americas, particularly Mexico's North American allies, the United States and Canada, as well as in South America such as Brazil and Venezuela, have all condemned Ecuador's actions.

Despite this, Ecuador is doubling down, with Andres Teran Parral, the leader of Ecuador's legal team, telling the ICJ justices that "Mexico, for months misused its diplomatic premises in Quito to shelter a common criminal." He was referring to former VP Glas.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Celorio Alcantara, legal adviser for Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry, told the ICJ, "There are lines in international law which should not be crossed. Regrettably, the Republic of Ecuador has crossed them."

However, Ecuador argued that the ICJ does not need to act on Mexico's complaint because the Ecuadorian government has already complied with the measures sought by Mexico, with its legal team arguing, "This hearing is unnecessary and unjustified because Ecuador has already provided assurances of its own volition, both to Mexico and to this court, that it will respect and protect the premises of Mexico."

READ MORE: Ecuador Files Lawsuit Vs. Mexico in ICJ Over Granting Asylum to Former VP Jorge Glas

Ecuador Claims Mexico Was 'Blatantly' Interfering With Its Internal Affairs

During the Wednesday hearing, Ecuador blasted Mexico and accused the North American country of "blatant interference" in its internal affairs, according to Reuters.

The hearing is separate from Ecuador's own case that it filed against Mexico. The country argued that Mexico broke international law with its decision to grant asylum to the embattled former vice president. However, it should be noted that it might take years to reach a final judgment in either case.

Mexico Wants ICJ To Decide on Ecuador's Suspension from the United Nations

Former Ecuadorian VP Jorge Glas had been sheltering at the Mexican Embassy since December. Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sought asylum, though just hours later, Ecuadorian special forces and police stormed the embassy to arrest Glas.

This led to Mexico filing its case at the ICJ against Ecuador, wanting the country to be suspended from the United Nations for breaching diplomatic protocols and violating its sovereign grounds.

Mexico accused Ecuador of violating the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which pertains to the rights of countries establishing their embassies in other countries being "inviolable."

READ MORE: Mexico Vs. Ecuador Feud: White House Slams Ecuadorian Government Over Raid Vs. Mexico Embassy

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: ICJ LIVE: Mexico takes Ecuador to top UN court over embassy raid - Associated Press
The 10th day of the Donald Trump hush money trial in New York concluded earlier today, and it was filled with talks of celebrity scandals and even more gag order violations by the ex-POTUS, as well as new pieces of evidence being presented before the jury.

During day 10 of the Trump hush money trial, the former president's defense team cross-examined the lawyer who negotiated payments on behalf of Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, Keith Davidson. As expected, they tried to attack his credibility, but Davidson stuck to his guns and shed more light on the infamous deal.

After the cross-examination, jurors also heard recordings of calls made by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to Davidson, with Cohen lamenting his relationship with Trump during those calls. Davidson even testified that the man who used to be Donald Trump's lawyer and fixer was "depressed and despondent" after the 2016 election.

However, one of the biggest highlights of the day was when it started. when prosecutors asked Judge Juan Merchan to fine Donald Trump an additional $4,000 over more violations of his gag order as he once again attacked potential witnesses, according to The Guardian.

"They are deliberate shots across the bow to everyone who may come to this courtroom to talk about the defendant and what he did," said Manhattan prosecutor Christopher Conroy, adding that Trump's recent comments outside of the courtroom created an "air of menace."

Judge Merchan has already threatened jail time for Trump should he violate the gag order even further. However, Conroy stated that they are not asking Trump to be hailed yet, explaining, "To minimize disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail."

Donald Trump Lawyers Tried To Paint Witness as a Sleazy Hollywood Profiteer

The Trump defense team repeatedly tried to attack Davidson's credibility, and according to the BBC, the questioning grew hostile as the Trump lawyers tried to paint him as a sleazy Hollywood profiteer.

READ MORE: US Crime Drops Significantly Despite Donald Trump Claims

Davidson pushed back, pointing out that the Trump lawyers were wrong in using words like "extortion" to describe valid legal settlements. This was when Trump's lawyer Emil Bove presented d several celebrity scandals that Davidson was previously involved in, including a case regarding actor Charlie Sheen.

Among the celebrity scandals that the defense tried to tie to Davidson included ones involving reality star Tila Tequila, actress Lindsay Lohan, and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. However, Davidson maintained that the settlements he was involved in were fair and legitimate. He also cited attorney-client privilege and never budged when questioned by the defense on these matters.

Donald Trump Continued Attacking Judge Juan Merchan After He Warned Ex-POTUS of Jail Time

Wednesday was an off day for the trial, and Trump spent this time campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin. There, he attacked the judge as soon as he could speak in front of his supporters after being faced with a ton of protesters against him as he stayed in New York for the trial.

"There is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He's a totally conflicted judge," claimed the former president during a speech in Wisconsin. He continued whining, claiming that he was being forced to spend days in a "kangaroo court room" and claimed without evidence that the Manhattan DA was acting under orders from President Joe Biden.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Hush Money Trial Revealed That a Tiger Woods Sex Scandal Was Also Covered Up

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Trump trial: Day 10 - FOX 5 New York
Authorities have confirmed the arrest of Xavier Tate in connection with the murder of Chicago cop Luis Huesca.

The arrest, which took place in suburban Glendale Heights, was a collaborative effort involving the Chicago Police Department and the US Marshals Service, NBC Chicago reports.

Tate, identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of Officer Huesca, was apprehended on Wednesday night.

The operation, led by Chicago police and the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force, targeted an apartment complex in Glendale Heights.

Alderman Brian Hopkins revealed that investigative tools such as credit cards, cell phones, and license plate readers aided in locating Tate.

Tate faces charges including first-degree murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking, and possession of a stolen firearm.

The swift capture of Tate was attributed to the tireless efforts of law enforcement, with the US Marshals now retracing Tate's movements to identify potential accomplices.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling expressed gratitude to the detectives involved in Tate's arrest.

The Huesca family, in a statement, thanked law enforcement for their dedication, expressing hope for swift justice.

Pastor Matt Foley, offering support to the grieving family, saw Tate's arrest as a step towards healing.

READ NEXT: Chicago Police Officer Killed in Violent Carjacking

Tate's Capture: Unraveling the Events

Chicago cop killer Xavier Tate Jr. was found and arrested in an apartment complex in Glendale Heights.

He was taken into custody without incident with the assistance of the US Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Tate was discovered hiding in an apartment unit, reportedly underneath a kitchen sink.

Tate Jr., aged 22, was apprehended using handcuffs belonging to Officer Huesca.

Scheduled to appear in court, the case was postponed by the Cook County State's Attorney's office.

Tate stands accused of fatally shooting Officer Huesca with a 40-caliber handgun during a carjacking incident.

Before Tate's arrest, Caschous Tate, an associate, was taken into custody.

He was found in possession of Huesca's gun, with the serial number partially scratched off. Tate Jr. was listed on the FBI's most wanted list, with a reward offered for information leading to his arrest.

Mourning and Reflections on Huesca's Legacy

During Chicago cop Huesca's funeral, loved ones and colleagues honored his character and dedication to service.

Officer Lucia Chavez, reflecting on the loss of Huesca and another fallen officer, lamented the impact of violence in the city, according to ABC 7.

Notably absent from the funeral were Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker, following a request from Huesca's family.

Despite the ongoing pursuit of justice, attendees at the funeral found solace in honoring Huesca's character and dedication.

Huesca's brother, addressing him as "Lionheart," emphasized his bravery, humility, and dedication to his community and work.

The arrest of the Chicago cop killer marks a significant development in the case of Officer Huesca's murder.

As inquiries persist, the community grieves the passing of a committed officer while pursuing resolution and accountability.

READ MORE: Teen Suspected of Fatal Shooting Killed by Police

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Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: Suspect arrested in murder of Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca - From CBS Chicago
The passing of Maddy Baloy, a vibrant kindergarten teacher who bravely chronicled her battle with terminal cancer on social media platforms like TikTok, leaves behind a profound legacy of resilience, courage, and unwavering determination.

At the age of 26, Maddy's journey touched the hearts of millions worldwide, offering a poignant reminder of the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity, ET Online reports.

On a somber Wednesday night, TikTok Star departed this world surrounded by an outpouring of love and support from her fiance, Louis Risher, and her cherished circle of family and friends.

Despite the heaviness of the moment, there was a sense of serenity in her passing, a testament to the remarkable strength and grace with which she faced her illness.

Maddy's journey with cancer began at the tender age of 25 when she received a devastating diagnosis of metastatic stage 4 cancer.

What started as seemingly innocuous stomach pains quickly escalated into a life-altering battle against a relentless disease.

Unfazed by the formidable obstacles looming ahead, Maddy embarked on a journey of self-discovery, utilizing social platforms to candidly and authentically share her experiences.

READ NEXT: TikTok Sensation Kyle Marisa Roth Passes Away at 36

From Struggle to Triumph: Maddy Baloy's Story

Despite the grim prognosis, Maddy refused to let cancer define her, according to People.

With an indomitable spirit and an unwavering resolve, she faced each day with courage and determination, inspiring those around her with her boundless optimism and infectious zest for life.

Through her TikTok videos, Maddy invited the world into her world, offering glimpses of both the joys and sorrows that punctuated her daily existence.

Throughout her journey, Maddy was buoyed by the outpouring of love and support from her online community, whose unwavering prayers, words of encouragement, and acts of kindness served as a source of solace and strength during her darkest hours.

In turn, Maddy's resilience and grace in the face of adversity inspired countless individuals to confront their own challenges with renewed courage and hope.

Embracing Every Moment: Maddy's Bucket List

Amid her battle, TikTok Star Maddy remained steadfast in her determination to live life to the fullest.

Baloy's dream came true when she met Ramsay in February, The Sun noted.

Ramsay flew her to Miami for dinner at one of his Hell's Kitchen spots and the opening of his new restaurant, Lucky Cat, in South Beach.

They made a TikTok together, with Ramsay twirling Maddy Baloy before embracing her. Ramsay captioned the post, "I hope you had the best time."

From meeting celebrities like Taylor Lautner and Gordon Ramsay to embarking on unforgettable adventures in far-flung destinations like Kyoto, Japan, she embraced each moment with a sense of gratitude and appreciation, determined to create lasting memories that would endure long after she was gone.

READ MORE: Eva Evans, Director of Nightlife and TikTok Influencer, Passes Away at 29

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Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: Maddy Baloy, TikToker With Terminal Cancer, Dead at 26 - From Entertainment Tonight
Two men stole two tankloads of spent cooking oil last month from Lehigh County businesses, state police said.

Pennsylvania State Police in Bethlehem stopped the thieves headed east on Route 22 near Schoenersville Road after 8 a.m. April 13. They had a generator, pump and two large tanks full of spent cooking oil in their van, police said.

Police said the men smelled of cooking oil and were covered in grease. Each man faces theft charges.

Why steal used cooking grease? Thieves can sell it to biodiesel companies looking to convert it to alternate fuel. The Washington Post quoted a trade organization in 2019 that said more than $75 million worth of grease is stolen annually.

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A natural gas leak led to the evacuation of two homes on a Bethlehem street, a utility spokesman said.

John Mason, a spokesman for UGI Utilities Inc., told lehighvalleylive.com a crew from an area water company struck the gas line around 9 a.m. Friday in the 1500 block of Linden Street.

The fuel line was later shut off by a UGI responder. As a precaution, two families were briefly evacuated and have since returned to their homes, Mason said.

There were no reported injuries in the incident. The fuel line was not a service line into houses, so no residences were directly impacted by the leak, Mason said.

Bethlehem Police Capt. Nicholas P. Lechman told lehighvalleylive.com a portion of Linden Street has since been shut down to traffic in the area of Woodlawn Avenue.

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UPDATE: Hundreds rally at Lehigh amid nationwide campus demands to aid Palestinians (PHOTOS)

Lafayette College warned a handful of students about engaging in disruptive activities after a recent pro-Palestine demonstration.

One of the student organizers fears the Easton colleges administration overreacted to a peaceful demonstration because of violence and dissent at campuses across the country that has led to more than 1,000 student arrests.

A Lafayette College spokesman, meanwhile, says the school respects the students right to free speech but is duty-bound to investigate complaints about protesters accused of violating the schools code of conduct.

The Lafayette student protester, who asked to be identified as Lindsay, said the biggest college student-led, pro-Palestine demonstration yet in the Lehigh Valley is planned for Friday afternoon at Lehigh University in Bethlehem.

She plans to join college students from around the Lehigh Valley at the event.

The trend of repression about this issue is why we found it so important to be in solidarity both with Palestinians and with other student organizers, she said.

Lindsay declined to provide her name for fear of doxxing -- online harassment or rescinded offers of employment from those who disagree with her.

She said about 15 individuals massed at Lafayette Colleges Farinon Center on April 19 to oppose the ongoing genocide in Palestine in the Gaza war.

Then the group moved on to Markle Hall, where they chanted through the hallways and stairwells, making their way to a suite of offices that included the office of Lafayette College President Nicole Hurd. A video shows about a dozen students chanting and crowding the office area entrance.

After the protest, seven of the participants received emails from a Lafayette administrator accusing them of engaging in disruptive activities, and explained that activities in violation of the school code of conduct could result in suspension, academic probation or a ban from walking at graduation, according to Lindsay.

Lafayette College spokesman Scott Morse said the college reacted to complaints of possible code of conduct violations by the students.

This review process is not about the freedom to protest or the subject of any individual protest but is about specific actions that seem contrary to the Student Code of Conduct and its role in ensuring a safe learning and working community for everyone on campus, Morse said.

The Lafayette student newspaper reported some tour groups were bothered by the demonstrators. Lindsay said the demonstrators didnt intend to disrupt any tours or activities on campus.

Group members were questioned by campus police, Linsday said. Some were asked to provide their names to police, she said. Lindsay didnt think it was appropriate for police to question individuals engaged in a student demonstration.

Morse said Lafayette supports everyones right to free speech and free assembly.

Lindsay said the students who received the warnings received follow-up emails the next day explaining the initial notes werent meant to cause alarm. Then, the students accepted an invitation to sit down with administrators and talk.

Lindsay hopes to discuss student demands for the preservation of free expression on campus, whether the college has invested funds in Israel or weapons manufacturers, and a student demand to end those investments. The meeting is Friday, May 3.

The goal is to affirm the responsibility of the Lafayette administration to protect the right of students and staff to organize peacefully, Lindsay said.

The Associated Press reports students have set up tent encampments at colleges across the world, and are refusing to leave courtyards or academic buildings until their colleges divest their investments in Israel or weapons manufacturers.

New York City police in riot gear stormed a building on the Columbia University campus on Tuesday after students refused to leave. The Columbia students were forcefully removed after a two-week standoff, the AP reports. More than 100 students who refused to leave a tent encampment were arrested Thursday at UCLA.

Lindsay said she supports the students at other schools but doesnt want to disrupt student life at Lafayette to achieve her goals.

The Lehigh University rally set for 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 3, follows a week of peaceful activities.

We are rallying at Lehigh for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and to demand that our university disclose its investments and cut ties with military contractors that are dropping bombs on Gaza, said Lehigh student protester Sarah Stevens in a news release Thursday.

Lehigh University spokeswoman Amy White said the university is communicating with the demonstrators to support their right to free expression while supporting other students rights to a disruption-free education.

Our priority is the safety and well-being of our Lehigh community, White said. We continue to encourage our community to express themselves in a way that is respectful to all; words and actions that contribute to a hostile environment or threaten to disrupt our mission are not acceptable.

I agree with everything in that statement, 100%, Lindsay said.

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An 18-year-old man has been arrested in a shooting last month on a Phillipsburg street.

Javon Singletary, of Phillipsburg, is facing charges of second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, second-degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and third-degree aggravated assault by attempting to cause bodily injury, the Warren County Prosecutors Office said Thursday evening.

The shooting happened around 10:15 p.m. April 12 in the 200 block of Stockton Street. Phillipsburg officers couldnt find the gunman at the time, authorities said.

Singletary was found Tuesday in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and taken into custody. He currently is being held at the Lehigh County jail awaiting extradition back to New Jersey.

If convicted, second-degree crimes carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in state prison while third-degree crimes carry a maximum prison sentence of five years in state prison.

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A Laois woman who grew up in Ballyfin in the 1950s, has just released her first historic novel, a gripping tale of an Irish family emigrating to the USA.

Anne Donaldson now lives in Ballincollig, Cork, but regularly returns to Laois and has sprinkled her novel with loving mentions of Ballyfin, the Slieve Bloom mountains and surrounding areas.

And They Never Looked Back, is described by publishers Historium Press, Georgia, USA, as "a family story of love, life and emigration".

Anne hopes it will appeal to readers both at home and in the states. She told the Leinster Express / Laois Live how the book was born.

"I started it in Covid, and finished it when we got a batch of bad weather. I'm delighted to get a publisher in the US, she only publishes about 20 books a year," she said.

Her book is a 19th century family story as told by the last surviving member, Anna. The family travel from Ireland, via the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to the pioneering town of Escanaba, Michigan.

"Anna is the last lonely American survivor of a large and loving family. One day she discovers amongst her mothers papers letters that travelled from Ireland. She recorded her familys pioneering story for posterity, discovering family secrets along the way. A must read for anyone of Irish descent anywhere," the publisher says.

Read an extract from the book below story.

The author is the youngest of twelve Hogan children, born and reared on a farm in Ballyfin. She attended St Mary's College boarding school in Mountmellick.

Her heroine Anna is based on the daughter of her grandaunt Maria, who grew up in the same Hogan farmhouse.

"Anna's parents emigrated to the US and Anna was the last survivor of their children. The letters she finds in the story are not real, but are based on my own research as a historian and geneologist.

"I think that people at home will enjoy it, as well as in the states. There are a lot of local references, to the Catholes, the Cut in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, to Portlaoise as Maryborough.

"It started I felt as a women's liberation story, this was a strong woman who survived on her own. It has grown into a story of historic emigration," she said.

Anne lives near Ballincollig, in Cork with her husband Frank, where she has published several accounts of local history. Her lifelong interest in local heritage and history led her to attain an M. Phil on the subject of The Irish County Gaol system. She is also an experienced amateur genealogist. An active member of her local writing group, Litwrits Ballincollig, she has previously published a selection of short stories.

An extract from And They Never Looked Back:

The tears ran down Marias cheeks as she pulled out the front door for the very last time. She packed everyone into the cart. The pony at first refused to accept this enormous load and stuck his hooves in doggedly. Finally, one last heave and a silent heartbroken family left their home farm forever. They plodded along on their way. Waving neighbors along the road, called out safe journey, and the traditional Irish blessing, may the road rise with you all. Everyone blessed themselves as if for the funerals they would never attend in Ireland.

The older generation were always the most heartbroken. Like Dans grandmother in Mountrath, they were often the only family left behind in Ireland, as another family trudged to the emigration boats.

Knowing that their own children had already emigrated or that they planned to join the next ship west was foremost in their heads as they prayed God bless you all to the latest travelers. Families at home in Ireland were always saddened that their emigrant families would die and lie amongst strangers in a strange land rather than in the long-standing family plots in their local churchyard. But, of course, the American strangers were only strange to those at home who didnt know them.

They stopped at St Fintans holy money tree near the ruins of his old monastery at a place called Clonenagh, where they prayed for a safe journey, a good life and the health and happiness of all their families. The holy well water which rises up the trunk of an ancient sycamore tree, supposedly hundreds of years old, is believed to cure many ailments."

The novel is only available in digital format. It has a Facebook page. Buy it on Amazon here.
The fact that almost 80% of children in the Laois Offaly area were denied access to school screening dental appointments last year should be "an embarrassment" for the government.

That's according to Dr. Will Rymer, President-Elect of the Irish Dental Association, who said Laois is "as bad as it gets" when it comes to children not being able to access dental care under the HSE scheme due to a lack of resources.

Speaking to Leinster Express/ Laois Live Dr Rymer said: "Laois Offaly is as bad as it gets. 21% of children screened last year should be a real embarrassment. You have government TDs in Laois Offaly and I don't see any evidence that there has been any particular questions asked in the Dail by them on the dental crisis. Laois Offaly is like an eircode lottery. If you lived a couple of miles up the road and you lived in Tipperary you have a very good chance your children will be seen. If you are living in the capital they get well looked after but Laois Offaly is as bad as it gets and they are being hard done by."

In 2023 there were a total of 7,781 children in Laois Offaly eligible for a school screening appointment and they should be seen in second, fourth and fifth class. However, just 1,607 of these children were actually seen last year. That represents 21% which compares to 67 per cent of school children seen in Dublin.

"We are only seeing a tiny number of children. It's about catching them at the right ages. We target those appointments for specific reasons, they are key developmental stages," said Dr Rymer who has a dental practice in Roscrea, County Tipperary.

"Because of staff resourcing issues they are concentrating on one particular age group, so fourth class screenings but they are so far behind some children are not being seen until transition year in secondary, it's atrocious."

Dr Rymer said when children are presenting in their teens having missed these opportunities for simple checkups when they are younger they are now presenting with cavities and dentists are having to do fillings, root canal treatments and extractions.

"The fact that we are letting down the children and we are condemning them to a lifetime of expensive dental treatment because of something so simple as preventative screening is really a terrible blight on the government, " he said.

Dr Rymer said while staff are doing their best, posts within the HSE have remained vacant for years. He said it is not a service that is particularly attractive to young dentists because of the morale among staff.

Sinn Fein TD for Laois/Offaly Brian Stanley strongly criticized the "chronic waiting times" for the school dental screening scheme in Laois and Offaly which he described as being "at crisis point."

A recent reply to a Parliamentary Question from the deputy revealed that 7,057 Laois children are waiting for basic dental screening under the school dental programme.

In the case of Laois, there are 893 children in fourth year of secondary school, who have never been seen under the school dental scheme. Shockingly, there are 2610 children that are in third year or above in secondary school in Laois that have never been screened under the school dental scheme," said Deputy Stanley.
The low number of women candidates being fielded by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in Laois at the local elections is an unsettling example of 'parish pump' politics, according to a Labour Party hopeful.

Bryan Corrigan, a candidate in the Mountmellick / Borris-in-Ossory, said he is 'disconcerted' by the level of female inclusion on the tickets of both parties in Laois.

"This is more of the same 'parish pump system'", said Mr Corrigan in a statement adding it is proof that "the time for change cannot come soon enough".

He continued: "Both parties are just representations of each other in his area at this stage when it comes to female and gender equality and it is no wonder that more women are not putting themselves forward locally or nationally in politics and or elections," he said.

Mr Corrigan specifically addressed the area where he is hoping to get elected. He said Fine Gael have two and Fianna Fail have five male candidates but no women present.

"It says a lot when the current in Government parties can be viewed as a rehashed Mens Shed in his area, a shed with a rejuvenation chamber with neon lighting out the back that is dusted off and plugged in every five years.

This is a further example of the Government not being in touch with the women in his area of Mountmellick and Borris-in-Ossory and on the ground," he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

The Fine Gael local election team includes two women.

He called for the women in Mountmellick and Borris-in-Ossory to voice their agreement with him to support female inclusion in politics in his area saying nothing will change if its not forced locally.

He said the Labour Party fully supports women in politics and his party leader Ivana Bacik is well recognised as being an advocate for women and their rights.

Mr Corrigan also highlighted recent worthy developments on a Womens Shed in Portlaoise and in particular the great work that its members are doing for women who experience loneliness and other life challenges.

The Labour Party is running one female candidate in Laois - Cllr Marie Tuohy in the Portlaoise Municipal District. Eoin Barry is the party's candidate in the Portarlington Graiguecullen area.

Fine Gael has two candidates in its team of eight - Cllr Thomasina Connell in Portlaoise and Vivienne Phelan in the Portarlington Graiguecullen area. The now Taoiseach Simon Harris launched Ms Phelan's campaign in April before Leo Varadkar resigned. The party has eight candidates.

Fianna Fail has selected one woman from its team of 11 candidates. Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald is running again in Portlaoise.

Some of the Fianna Fail candidates including Cllr Fitzgerald.

Sinn Fein is running four women candidates out of seven in total. Aontu sole female candidate is female and two of the three Geen Party candidates are women. One of the two Independent Party candidates in Laois is female.

A number of women who are not affiliated to any political party are also hoping to take seats when 19 candidates are returned to represent voters on Laois County Council after the June 7 poll.



.
Laois people and those those from other counties who attend Portlaoise hospital have been urged not to attend the Emergency Department (ED/A&E) over the May Bank Holiday unless for urgent medical reasons.

John Joyce, General Manager, Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise, said hospital staff expect to be busy so need the public's help in considering alternatives to the ED before attending.

While we are preparing for a busy Bank Holiday period in the hospital, we ask everyone to consider all options before going to ED. Those who believe they may be seriously ill and require emergency care should of course come to hospital, but we would urge others to consider seeking support from pharmacists, GPs, GP out-of-hours services and injury units. While some patients may regrettably experience long wait times in our emergency departments, urgent patients will always be prioritised for treatment and care.

"Patients who present at the Emergency Department in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise with non-urgent conditions may experience long wait times to be seen. Any patient who needs emergency hospital care will be seen and we would urge such patients not to delay attending the ED," he said

Mr Joyce urged people not to delay in seeking medical attention if you suspect you are having a heart attack or stroke, please dial 999 or 112 in an emergency.

He advised people to plan ahead and make sure you have enough of any medications you might need over the bank holiday, both over the counter and prescription medicines.

The HSE say there are a range of care pathways available to patients who do not need emergency care including:

Visit your pharmacy for advice on common minor illnesses https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/2/pharmacy/

Make an appointment with your GP if youre feeling unwell and it is not an emergency

If you urgently need to see a GP outside of normal hours, contact your local GP Out of Hours service, details below:

Out of Hours Urgent GP Services

The HSE says MIDOC is an appointment only GP service located in the Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath areas. This service is for patients who need urgent medical attention that cannot wait to be seen by their usual GP. Opening Hours: Weekdays, Monday to Thursday 6pm to 8am. Weekends 6pm Friday to 8am Monday. All day on Bank Holidays.

Telephone 1800 302 702 or go to GP Out of Hours service: GP out-of-hours service - HSE.ie for more information.

Injury units

The HSE says an Injury Unit can treat a wide range of injuries such as broken bones, dislocations, sprains and strains, minor burns and scalds for all patients. All units have access to x-ray and basic diagnostic services. For more information see www.hse.ie/injuryunits

The HSE says information on how to manage common illness and advice on when to get emergency help is also available at https://www2.hse.ie/living-well/and https://www2.hse.ie/my-child/ in relation to children.

More info from the HSE on Community Pharmacies

You can visit your local pharmacy if you feel unwell. Pharmacists are qualified healthcare professionals.

They can give you:

 medicines you can buy without a prescription

 medicines you have a prescription for

 advice on minor illnesses, and can tell you if you need to see a GP

 They can also tell you how to take your medicines correctly.

Find a pharmacy

Many pharmacies are open late and on weekends.

Do not visit your pharmacy if you have:

 a temperature over 38 degrees Celsius

 a cough

 breathlessness

 loss or change to sense of smell or taste

 travelled abroad and are self-isolating

 been a close contact of someone with COVID-19

Ask someone to collect your medicines for you. Some pharmacies will deliver medicines to your home.

Services

Services available in your local pharmacy include:

 prescriptions and repeat prescriptions

 medicines and treatments that you don't need a prescription for

 help with taking medicines correctly

 flu vaccine

 COVID-19 vaccine

 morning after pill

 blood pressure check-up

 Vaccines

 Many pharmacists are now giving COVID-19 vaccines. You have to call them to make an appointment.

Medicines without a prescription

Pharmacists can give you treatments for common conditions without a prescription, such as:

 Colds

 pain relief

 temperatures

 hay fever

 rashes

 warts

Schemes

There are some HSE schemes that can help with pharmacy costs:

 Medical cards - check if you are eligible

 Drugs payment scheme

 Long-term illness scheme
A Laois teacher has taken the top position in the body that regulates thousands of teachers across Ireland.

The Teaching Council has confirmed the election of Eamon Dennehy, as Chairperson by the members of the Teaching Council. Originally from Castlemaine in Co Kerry, Mr Dennehy is a teacher of engineering at Heywood Community School, Ballinakill.

The Teaching Council is the regulator of the teaching profession in Ireland. Its role is to protect the public by promoting and regulating professional standards in teaching.

They say they do this through the statutory registration of teachers, ensuring a highly qualified teaching profession, whose members meet and uphold high standards of professional competence and conduct.

To date, Mr Dennehy has chaired the Teaching Councils Registration Panel and he is also a member of the Registration Committee, the Registration Review Group and the Finance Committee.

Im honoured to be elected as Chairperson by the members of the Teaching Council," said Mr Dennehy.

"I believe we must continue to foster an environment where teachers are supported, valued, and motivated around the highest professional standards of teaching in Ireland. Im keenly aware of the broader challenges facing education and I am committed to working collaboratively with all stakeholders in the interests of the teaching profession and its central role in our education system.

Teaching is a role of critical importance which prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of the future and so it must be promoted as an attractive, vibrant, and rewarding career choice. The education system must continue to be empowering for teachers with programmes and initiatives that support their creativity, capability, and capacity to deliver a high-quality education for learners. Equally important is the role of regulation in maintaining continuously high standards and ensuring that the profession is fully aligned with best practices in teaching.

Together, we must all strive to ensure that teaching in Ireland is not only continually recognised as a profession of critical importance but also as a vibrant and rewarding career choice, preparing our students for the challenges and opportunities of the future, he said.

Mr Dennehy joined the Teaching Council in 2022 as a nominee of the ASTI and is a former president of the ASTI. Having graduated from Thomond College, Limerick with a Bachelor of Technology in Education degree, Eamon served on the National Executive Committee of the ASTI in the mid-90s from 2014 to 2020 and was elected President of the association in 2021.

Mr Dennehy commended the contributions of outgoing Chairperson Michelle Keane and Deputy Chairperson, Ann Mulcahy and wished them well and welcomed Mary Curley as incoming Deputy Chairperson and 17 new members of the Council.

The Teaching Council has 37 members including 22 members of the profession (primary and post-primary) who are directly elected by registered teachers, and others including nominees of the Higher Education Institutions, teacher unions, school management, National Parents Council, IBEC and ICTU, as well as Ministerial appointees.

The Teaching Council, including staff and Director, Dr Lynn Ramsey extend best wishes to the new Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and members as they take up their roles.
'Utter, utter rubbish' is being spread about the former Rathangan Convent.

These are the comments that one Kildare-based Senator made while speaking in the Seanad yesterday.

Back in March, the Leinster Leader reported that Kildare County Council had lodged plans to convert the former Sisters of Mercy convent on New Street in Rathangan (also known as St John's Convent) into apartments.

Now, Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O'Loughlin has told the Seanad that false rumours have been circulating around the town.

Commenting on the matter, Senator O'Loughlin, who lives in Newbridge but originally hails from Rathangan, said that the rumours are 'utter, utter rubbish.'

She told the Seanad: "There are very unfortunate rumours and people are peddling stories that it is for drug addicts and people with mental health issues.

"Certain individuals are going up to the school which is beside the convent and giving out flyers with false information to deliberately sow division."

Fianna Fail Senator Fiona O'Loughlin(File photograph).

"I want to call this out in the most public place I can; it is simply not good enough."

"It is very unfair to prey on vulnerable families and children by spreading this disinformation," she concluded.

Senator O'Loughlin made headlines yesterday when she revealed that the Bluebells and Buskers Festival for 2024 has been rescheduled to a date in June.
Ahead of the May bank holiday weekend, Water Safety Ireland, the Irish Coast Guard and the RNLI are jointly appealing to people to be safe and summer-ready when planning an activity on or near the water.

The organisations are urging people to ensure that boats and other watercraft, including kayaks and canoes, are checked and in good working order following the winter period.

Engines should be serviced, and all equipment, particularly lifejackets, should be in good condition. If out on a boat or other water vessel, wear a lifejacket, carry a reliable means of communication  a VHF radio and ideally a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) with mobile phone backup in a watertight case, and ensure that you tell someone where you are going and when you plan to be back.

If planning activities on the water, always bring a means of effectively communicating distress. Use readily available sources of information to check the environmental conditions (weather and tides) in advance of your trip, and seek help immediately if you see somebody in trouble on the water or along the coast by using Marine VHF channel 16 or Dialling 112 and asking for the Coast Guard.

Kevin Whitney, Operations Manager at the Coast Guard, reminded everyone to Plan & Prepare before considering any water-based or coastal activity ahead of and during the summer months.

Do not use inflatable toys in open water or swim out after anything drifting as things can quickly go wrong. Be aware of potential dangers and well prepared before engaging in water-based activities. The Be Summer-Ready website at www.gov.ie/summerready provides good water safety advice and we urge the public to read this before venturing out on the water, he said.

Roger Sweeney, Deputy CEO at Water Safety Ireland said: An average of five people drown in Ireland every fortnight and cold water is often a factor. Sudden immersion can cause a shock to your body, a loss of breathing control, dizziness, and panic. Hypothermia and muscle cooling soon makes swimming difficult or impossible, particularly for children who have less body fat. Keep cold water swims short and enter the water slowly, staying within your depth. Shore anglers should always wear a lifejacket and walkers should carry a mobile phone and keep a close eye on incoming tides to avoid being stranded.

Linda-Gene Byrne, RNLI Water Safety Lead said: Many people will be taking vessels to the water for the first time this year so this is a good time to think about checking your equipment, especially your lifejacket so that it is fit for purpose.

If you see somebody in trouble on the water or along the coast or think they are in trouble, use Marine VHF channel 16 or Dial 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.
With the onset of the breeding season, which is the highest-risk period for the generation of Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) persistently infected cattle, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D has urged renewed caution on BVD over the next number of months.



With the success of the programme and as BVD prevalence reduces, so too does the natural immunity of the national herd to BVD. This, along with decreased overall use of vaccination, places herds at increased risk, if infection enters a herd.

The incursion of BVD into herds with reduced BVD immunity, can have devastating impacts, and lead to the generation of further BVD persistently infected cattle.



Research has shown that a BVD outbreak costs 63 per cow in dairy herds and 32 per cow in suckler herds, and this can lead to very substantial financial losses. In the past year, epidemiological investigations have identified the emergence of a small number of local clusters of infection, with infection having spread between herds  this is thought to result from the movement of animals, equipment and people. The situation in the North Kerry West Limerick area which was a concern in 2023 has improved markedly in 2024.



Further research has identified that herds within 5km of a positive herd are at an increased risk and the risk is highest for those herds within 400 metres of test positive herds. In this context the Minister is asking herdowners to focus on biosecurity  to protect their herds and support the final move towards BVD freedom.



The Minister emphasised that it most important that:

Herds that have BVD test positive results in 2024 promptly engage with the BVD control programme, quickly remove all test positive animals, and complete the vaccination programme.

Herds which had test positive cattle in 2023 complete their follow-up 2024 vaccination programme ahead of the breeding period.

Herds that have been notified of BVD test positive cattle in their neighbourhood should seek advice from their veterinary practitioner, review their biosecurity practices, including vaccination policies, and enhance these where needed.

Concluding Minister McConalogue said Under the guidance of Animal Health Ireland (AHI) and the BVD Implementation Group (BVDIG), Irish farmers have made tremendous progress in the eradication of BVD.

The programme is now at a critical point and I am urging all farmers to be mindful of the importance of biosecurity practices including attention to boundary fences, inward and outward movement of cattle, vaccination, the washing and disinfection of any shared machinery, equipment or facilities, to reduce the risk of infection so that we as a country can achieve BVD free status, providing long term benefit for livestock farmers.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) appeals to road users to consider the devastating consequences of dangerous driving habits in its new campaign Time to Talk.

The hard-hitting campaign calls on friends and family members to Chat to your loved ones about their driving today. So you dont lose them tomorrow. It will be live on radio, social channels, and out-of-home from Bank Holiday Monday.

The campaign features stark funeral imagery, including a hearse and funeral notice, and aims to make people imagine what it would be like to lose a loved one in a road crash.

The campaign was created following the Government's allocation of a further 3 million of funding last month to tackle the increasing number of fatalities on Irish roads.

Provisional analysis from the RSA shows that 69 lives have been lost on Irish roads this year, 16 more than the equivalent period last year.

The new campaign coincides with a call from the RSA and An Garda Siochana for drivers to slow down this bank holiday weekend.

The call comes as a self-report survey commissioned by the RSA in 2023 found that one in four drivers think speeding more than 10km/h over the speed limit is acceptable. The survey also found that 25% of drivers regularly exceed 100km/h limits by more than 10km, and 31% regularly exceed 50km/h limits by more than 10km.

A separate observational study last year found that 58% of motorists were driving over the speed limit on 30km/h roads.

According to the findings of the 2023 self-report survey, the social acceptability of drink-driving has increased since 2019, with a quarter of motorists agreeing that driving short distances after having a drink is acceptable and acknowledging that they may have been over the limit when driving the morning after night out.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport and at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, Jack Chambers, said: Four of the main causes of road fatalities are speeding, intoxicated driving, distracted driving and non-wearing of seat belts. The Road Traffic Act, recently signed into law, targets these killer behaviours and is a strong legislative response to the really worrying trends we have seen in recent times.

We are using the May Bank Holiday appeal to launch this new hard-hitting and incredibly stark campaign which forces road users to consider the real-world consequences and impacts of dangerous driving, he added.

Two people every hour were stopped by An Garda Siochana for either drink or drug driving over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend last month.

Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman, Roads Policing and Community Engagement, An Garda Siochana said: Gardai across the country will be monitoring our roads this May Bank Holiday Weekend to implement a comprehensive Roads Policing operation.

We work all year round to enforce the road traffic laws and detect traffic offences which we know increase the risk of death or serious injury on our roads. This risk is unfortunately elevated during bank holiday weekends when more people will be out and about, he said.
A Ballinamore man who reversed a truck into the gates of the Russian Embassy two years ago in a protest against the war in Ukraine has been acquitted of dangerous driving following a trial.

However, the jury in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of Desmond Wisley was unable to reach a verdict on a second charge of criminal damage.

Mr Wisley (51) of Tully, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim had pleaded not guilty to criminal damage and dangerous driving on Orwell Road, Rathgar on March 7, 2022.

The jury today, Friday, unanimously returned a not guilty verdict in relation to the dangerous driving count, but Judge Elva Duffy was told it was unable to reach a verdict on the count of criminal damage.

Judge Duffy thanked the jurors for the care and attention they had brought to the case and excused them from jury service for five years.

She adjourned the case in relation to the criminal damage charge until May 16 and remanded Mr Wisley on continuing bail until that date.

During the five-day trial which sat this week, a building contractor who repaired the gates on behalf of the Office of Public Works, said it had to be reconstructed at a cost of 13,250 following the alleged incident.

Jurors were shown footage of the incident, along with a video of a family killed in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

During his direct evidence, Mr Wisley said he felt compelled to do something after watching this clip the day before the incident occurred. He said he hatched a plan to knock down the gates of the embassy to put pressure on Russia and stop the war in Ukraine.

Closing the case on behalf of the prosecution, Lisa Dempsey BL noted that people are entitled to peacefully protest, but a citizen can't take the law into his own hands and break it without lawful excuse.

She suggested that Mr Wisley's actions were not justified and while he made every effort to limit the damage, he could have injured someone behind the embassy gates.

Notwithstanding his heartfelt sympathy for the family... it was not for him to take law into his own hands.

In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Wisley, who represented himself, said he wanted to stand against Russia and draw attention to the plight of those poor people who were being murdered.

I believe what I did was a reasonable act to try to save others from being killed in the future. I hoped my actions [would] stop others from losing their loved ones.

Mr Wisley concluded by saying he took this action as (he) believed it was a reasonable action to try to protect other lives in the future and to protect humanity.
A man who was arrested in connection with last year's Dublin riot has been charged and is due before the courts, gardai have confirmed.

More than 30 people have been arrested in connection with incidents in the capital on November 23, which have been described as unprecedented public disorder by gardai.

The rioting broke out after a number of hours after three children and a care worker were injured in an attack outside a primary school and creche on Parnell Square East, for which a man has been charged and appeared before the courts.

Tens of millions of euro of damage was done to public infrastructure during the disorder which saw buses, Luas trams and garda cars set on fire and shops in the OConnell Street and Henry Street areas looted.

On Thursday, a man in his 30s was arrested under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. He was detained overnight at a garda station in Dublin.

In an update, issued this Friday morning, a garda spokesperson said: "A man aged in his 30s, arrested yesterday, Thursday, May 2024, has been charged in connection with this investigation. He is expected to appear before a sitting of Dublin District Court at Court 1, Criminal Courts of Justice at 10:30am this morning, Friday, May 3, 2024."

Gardai say investigations are continuing and they have renewed their appeal for anyone with information about the events on that day or anyone involved in organising or participating in these events to contact them.
SVB Financial Group Enters into Definitive Agreement for the Sale of SVB Capital





Pinegrove Affiliate to Acquire SVB Capital

SVB Capital and Pinegrove to Operate Independently with Common Sponsorship and Shared Mission to Serve the Venture Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SVB Financial Group (Pink Sheets: SIVBQ) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which a newly created entity affiliated with Pinegrove Capital Partners ("Pinegrove") and backed by permanent capital from Brookfield Asset Management ("Brookfield") and Sequoia Heritage, will acquire the Company's investment platform business, SVB Capital. Under the terms of the agreement, SVB Capital would be acquired for a combination of cash and other economic consideration.

Pinegrove is a capital solutions partner for the venture capital ecosystem. Pinegrove provides customized and scalable secondary liquidity solutions for general partners and limited partners with a focus on investing in leading mid-to-late-stage private technology companies.

As part of this differentiated partnership, Pinegrove and SVB Capital will operate independently, each led by their existing management teams, with the common long-term financial backing of Brookfield and Sequoia Heritage and an aligned focus on providing flexible and innovative capital solutions to their trusted clients.

"The SVB Capital business has built an exceptional reputation as the premier investment partner to top venture capital firms and technology companies, and we are pleased to have reached an agreement that will position the business to thrive over the long-term and has the support of SVB Financial Group's major creditor groups," said Bill Kosturos, Chief Restructuring Officer of SVB Financial Group. "We believe the agreement maximizes the value for the benefit of SVB Financial Group's constituents, with a significant cash component as well as the ability to participate in the future upside potential of the business. In addition, the transaction is a strong outcome for the team at SVB Capital, its limited partners and other key stakeholders."

"Over the last quarter-century, our firm has thrived on the deep trust we've cultivated with the most sought-after general partnerships in venture capital. In addition, we have consistently aligned our interests with those of our limited partners. Those foundational principles will guide us into the future. Leveraging SVB Capital's extensive history and track record, our partnership with Pinegrove will expand our multi-strategy platform to directly meet the unique needs of the venture capital and limited partner communities," said Aaron Gershenberg, Founding Partner and Member of the Operating Committee, SVB Capital.

"Pinegrove is honored to partner with Aaron and the SVB Capital team. We are thrilled to work collaboratively on our collective mission of enhancing liquidity options in the venture capital ecosystem," said Brian Laibow, CEO and Founding Partner of Pinegrove.

Transaction Details

The agreement is subject to Bankruptcy Court and regulatory approval, as well as other customary closing conditions. On May 2, 2024, SVB Financial Group filed a motion seeking the Court's authorization to approve buyer protections for the Pinegrove affiliate and consummate a sale of the SVB Capital business. SVB Financial Group intends to seek approval of the buyer protections at a hearing on May 16, 2024, and has requested that the Bankruptcy Court schedule a hearing to approve the sale of SVB Capital on June 5, 2024.

The transaction is supported by SVB Financial Group and key creditor groups, including the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, the Ad Hoc Group of Senior Noteholders and the Ad Hoc Cross-Holder Group.

Court filings and other information related to the SVB Financial Group's Chapter 11 proceeding are available on a website administrated by the Company's claims agent, Kroll, at https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/svbfg or by emailing [email protected].

Advisors

Centerview Partners LLC is serving as financial advisor, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is serving as legal counsel and Alvarez & Marsal is serving as the restructuring advisor to SVB Financial Group as debtor-in-possession. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is serving as legal counsel to Pinegrove.

About SVB Financial Group

SVB Financial Group (Pink Sheets: SIVBQ) is the holding company for various financial services companies, including SVB Capital.

About SVB Capital

Founded in 1999 as a division of SVB Financial Group, SVB Capital is a multi-strategy investment platform targeting the Innovation Economy with approximately $10B of assets under management across venture capital fund of funds, direct funds, and private credit funds. Uniquely positioned to access highly sought-after opportunities in start-up companies and venture capital funds, SVB Capital invests in fund managers and private technology and life science companies throughout the innovation economy around the world.?

About Pinegrove

Pinegrove Capital Partners is a capital solutions partner that provides customized and scalable secondary liquidity solutions for the venture and growth ecosystem, focusing on investing into leading mid-to-late-stage private technology companies. Pinegrove is backed with $1 billion for its strategy inclusive of $500 million from its sponsors, Sequoia Heritage and Brookfield Asset Management. For more information, please visit www.pinegrovecp.com.

About Sequoia Heritage

Sequoia Heritage is a private investment partnership dedicated to compounding long term capital.

About Brookfield

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM) is a leading global alternative asset manager with over $900 billion of assets under management across renewable power and transition, infrastructure, private equity, real estate, and credit. We invest client capital for the long-term with a focus on real assets and essential service businesses that form the backbone of the global economy. We offer a range of alternative investment products to investors around the world ? including public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors. We draw on Brookfield's heritage as an owner and operator to invest for value and generate strong returns for our clients, across economic cycles.

Contacts

For SVB Financial Group:

Media Contact

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

Michael Freitag / Eduardo Rovira

212-355-4449

[email protected]

Investor Contact

SVB Capital

Christie Ma

[email protected]

For Pinegrove:

Media Contact

FGS Global

Monique Sidhom / Suzanne Byowitz

[email protected]

SOURCE SVB Financial Group

2 may 2024 at 23:07

News published onand distributed by:
Narxoz University announces an agreement with Queen's University Belfast for a branch at the Almaty campus, with signing ceremony attended by Lord Cameron





ALMATY, Kazakhstan, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Narxoz University, a leading private university in Kazakhstan and member of Bulat Utemuratov's Group, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a ground-breaking partnership with Queen's University Belfast, a Russell Group university, to ?stablish a branch at Narxoz's new campus. The branch will provide students in Kazakhstan with access to Queen's University's academic programs.

The agreement, signed at a ceremony attended by Lord David Cameron, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, and former UK Prime Minister, marks a significant milestone in Narxoz's history. Since 2007, the university embarked on a transformation journey, initiated and overseen by Bulat Utemuratov, to develop into a world-class institution through investment into academia, infrastructure and international partnerships. The new partnership strengthens the relationship between Queen's and Narxoz, building on their double degree agreement which was announced earlier this year.

Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said: "In line with the President's vision to establish branches of international universities in Kazakhstan, it is significant that we are signing a partnership agreement with a Russell Group university at the time of Lord Cameron's official visit. This signing ceremony is a key moment in Narxoz University's history and forms part of the wider trend of leading foreign universities actively opening branches in our country. I am confident this partnership will contribute to our continuous efforts to provide world-class education and foster the development of science and innovation in Kazakhstan."

Nola Hewitt-Dundas, Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University Belfast, outlined: "As an international University, Queen's University Belfast is delighted to partner with Narxoz University, and this partnership builds on the excellent relationships we have developed with students and university staff. We are confident that Narxoz University students will excel in their studies and through engaging with our staff and other students from across the world, become future leaders across all areas of society in Kazakhstan."

Miras Daulenov, President of Narxoz University, added: "Our partnership with Queen's University Belfast is an example of effective collaboration with a top university. I am confident that the partnership between Narxoz and Queen's University will boost the training of leaders and industry experts, promote cultural exchange, and strengthen the country's profile as an educational hub in the region."

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2404274/Narxoz_University.jpg

SOURCE Narxoz University

3 may 2024 at 07:00

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SREE CHAGUTURU, MD, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, CVS HEALTH, BECOMES CHAIR OF THE AMERICAN TELEMEDICINE ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS





WASHINGTON, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) today announced that Sree Chaguturu, MD, has become Chair of the Board of Directors. Dr. Chaguturu is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health, where he leads the enterprise medical affairs organization spanning across all segments: Aetna, CVS HealthSpire, CVS Pharmacy. He has served on the ATA Board of Directors since December 2020.

Dr. Chaguturu becomes ATA Chair of the Board beginning immediately, succeeding Kristi Henderson, DNP, FAAN, CEO, Confluent Health. Dr. Henderson becomes Immediate Past Chair.

"I'm excited to be taking on this role during such a transformative time in health care delivery," said Dr. Chaguturu. "Telehealth is a key part of the evolution in omnichannel health care, allowing consumers to access quality, effective and safe care when and how they need it."

"Sree is a strategic business leader, a practicing physician and has the breadth of experience to look across the industry and bring his unique perspective that will inform our work in significant ways," said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA. "He is an influential and respected clinical leader who recognizes the immense opportunity to use technology-enabled solutions to bridge gaps in care. His agenda to build clinical evidence and create trust in healthcare, and his commitment to policy and advocacy, will ensure that we successfully advance telehealth as a proven and valued care modality, and strengthen our organization."

At CVS Health, Dr. Chaguturu is focused on advancing the highest possible clinical quality standards, increasing access to care, improving patient safety and outcomes, and reducing overall health care costs across the CVS Health enterprise. He previously served as chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, the company pharmacy benefits management (PBM) business. Additionally, he served as a trusted advisor to employer and health plan clients, their members and CVS Health colleagues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before joining CVS Health, Sree was chief population health officer of Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in Massachusetts. He led the system's accountable care organization and numerous clinical care delivery and innovation programs. He is also a practicing internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Chaguturu earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Brown University and his doctorate of medicine from Brown University Medical School. He completed his internal medicine and primary care training at Massachusetts General Hospital.

ATA Nexus 2024 Annual Conference

May 5-7 ? Phoenix, AZ

ATA Nexus features three full days of dynamic content, including new programming formats and interactive sessions that will explore The Next Chapter in Virtual Care, collaborative workshops, a bustling exhibit floor and networking and social events that will spark curiosity, foster learning, and ignite transformative discussions.

GENERAL REGISTRATION: Visit the ATA Nexus 2024 website for easy online registration .

About the ATA

As the only organization completely focused on advancing telehealth, the American Telemedicine Association is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to safe, affordable, and appropriate care when and where they need it, enabling the system to do more good for more people. The ATA represents a broad and inclusive member network of leading healthcare delivery systems, academic institutions, technology solution providers and payers, as well as partner organizations and alliances, working to advance industry adoption of telehealth, promote responsible policy, advocate for government and market normalization, and provide education and resources to help integrate virtual care into emerging value-based delivery models.

SOURCE The American Telemedicine Association (ATA)

3 may 2024 at 10:23

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The CBSA launches an investigation into the alleged dumping of certain concrete reinforcing bar from Bulgaria, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates





OTTAWA, ON, May 3, 2024 /CNW/ - The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is committed to protecting the Canadian economy and jobs by ensuring a fair playing field when faced with international competition.

The CBSA announced today that it is launching an investigation to determine whether certain concrete reinforcing bar from Bulgaria, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates is being sold at unfair prices in Canada.

The investigation is the result of a complaint filed with the CBSA by AltaSteel Inc. (Edmonton, AB), ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada, G.P. (Contrecoeur, QC) and Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation (Whitby, ON) and is supported by Max Aicher North America Ltd. (Hamilton, ON) and Ivaco Rolling Mills 2004 LP (L'Original, ON). The complainants allege that as a result of an increase in volume of the dumped imports from these countries, they have suffered material injury in the form of lost market share, lost sales, price undercutting, price depression, price suppression, as well as a negative impact on capacity utilization, and financial performance.

The CBSA and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) both play a role in the investigation. The CITT will begin a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the imports are harming Canadian producers and will issue a decision by July 2, 2024. Concurrently, the CBSA will investigate whether the imports are being sold in Canada at unfair prices, and will make a preliminary decision by August 1, 2024.

Currently, there are 150 special import measures in force in Canada, covering a wide variety of industrial and consumer products, from steel products to refined sugar. These measures have directly helped to protect approximately 30,000 Canadian jobs and $11 billion in Canadian production.

Quick facts

The subject goods are certain concrete reinforcing bar (commonly known as rebar). For more product information, please refer to the CBSA's Anti-dumping and countervailing webpage.

The Canadian market for concrete reinforcing bar has been estimated to be over $1 billion annually.

annually. There are currently 4 other special import measures in place on concrete reinforcing bar from: China , South Korea , and Turkiye ( Rebar 1 ) Belarus , Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong , Japan , Portugal , and Spain ( Rebar 2 ) Algeria , Egypt , Indonesia , Italy , Malaysia , Singapore , and Vietnam ( Rebar 3 ) Oman and Russia (Rebar 4 )

A statement of reasons, with additional details about the investigation , will be available on the CBSA's website within 15 days from the date the investigation is launched.

Associated links

Follow us on Twitter ( @CanBorder ), join us on Facebook or visit our YouTube channel .

SOURCE Canada Border Services Agency

3 may 2024 at 11:30

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Seventy percent of environmental journalists from 129 countries, polled in March, reported experiencing attacks, threats or pressure related to their job, UNESCO said Thursday, May 2. Of those, two in five subsequently experienced physical violence, it said in a report released on World Press Freedom Day. More than 900 reporters were questioned for the poll. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization warned of an increase in violence against and intimidation of journalists reporting on the environment and climate.

"Without reliable scientific information about the ongoing environmental crisis, we can never hope to overcome it," UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement. "And yet the journalists we rely on to investigate this subject and ensure information is accessible face unacceptably high risks all over the world, and climate-related disinformation is running rampant on social media."

Read more Subscribers only Ukraine launches investigation into intimidation of journalists

UNESCO said at least 749 journalists and news media outlets reporting on environmental issues were "targeted with murder, physical violence, detention and arrest, online harassment or legal attacks" between 2009 and 2023. More than 300 of those attacks occurred between 2019 and 2023  a 42% increase on the preceding five-year period. "The problem is global, with attacks taking place in 89 countries in all regions of the world," the agency added.

'Fear of being attacked'

At least 44 environmental journalists have been killed for their work in the past 15 years, with convictions in only five cases, said the report.

On top of hundreds of reported physical attacks, "a third of journalists surveyed said they had been censored," it added. "Almost half (45%) said they self-censored when covering the environment due to fear of being attacked, having their sources exposed, or due to an awareness that their stories conflicted with the interests of concerned stakeholders."

At a press freedom conference in Chile this week, UNESCO will announce the launch of a grants program to provide legal and technical support to over 500 environmental journalists facing persecution, said the statement.

Read more Subscribers only Arrest of 11 journalists in Kyrgyzstan underscores the regime's authoritarian turn
A forklift loading boxes of humanitarian aid in Amman, before loading it on a plane destined to Port Sudan, on April 30, 2023. AFP

France on Friday, May 3, 2024, condemned "in the strongest terms" an attack on an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy in war-torn Sudan that killed two staff and injured three others.

"France calls on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, which obliges them to protect humanitarian and health staff and guarantee complete, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access," said French foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine.

A brutal conflict between the Sudanese army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his ex-deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has torn the country apart for more than a year. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called the "largest displacement crisis in the world". It has also triggered acute food shortages and a humanitarian crisis that has left the northeast African country's people at risk of starvation.

Read more Subscribers only Sudan: Torn apart by a year of war
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, D, signs the repeal of the Civil War-era near-total abortion ban, Thursday, May 2, 2024, at the Capitol in Phoenix. MATT YORK / AP

Arizona's Democratic governor on Thursday, May 2, signed a bill overturning an 1864 law banning abortion, a month after the state's supreme court said the Civil War-era rule was valid. When the repeal comes into effect in the summer, terminations will be available again up to 15 weeks gestation.

Katie Hobbs' move caps a quick turnaround in the swing state, which is expected to play a crucial role in this year's presidential election between incumbent Joe Biden and Donald Trump. "I am proud to sign this bill and provide a moment of relief for Arizonans," said Hobbs in a video posted on social media. "We still have work to do."

The western state jumped headlong into the divisive abortion rights debate last month when its supreme court ruled a 19th-century edict was enforceable. That law, which was drafted before Arizona became a state and before women had the right to vote, made it a criminal offense for anyone to carry out an abortion and allowed for prison sentences of up to five years for anyone convicted. It made no exceptions for rape or incest.

The court said since Arizona had relied on the now-overturned national right to abortion guaranteed by the landmark Roe v Wade, the state had to revert to the 160-year-old law. The Arizona court ruling was the latest case of state-level bans being enacted in the post-Roe era and caught Republican leaders off-guard.

Trump led the charge, calling on legislators to moderate the ban, insisting it had gone "too far," while crowing that state-level rules on abortion were working as intended. But the majority of Republicans in the local party were unmoved and staunchly opposed any change.

After several attempts by Democrats, the state's House of Representatives succeeded last week when three moderate Republicans crossed the aisle. That was repeated in the Senate  the upper house  on Wednesday when two of them abandoned their conservative colleagues to give the motion a 16-14 majority.

While rural Arizona remains deeply conservative, the state's fast-growing cities increasingly return Democratic Party candidates to office. The state hangs in the balance in presidential politics, with Biden having carried it in 2020 by just 10,000 votes.

Democrats have been collecting signatures to get an initiative on the November ballot that would see a more sweeping right to abortion enshrined in state law. They hope that if people feel motivated to turn out for that initiative, they will vote in greater numbers for Biden.

Read more Subscribers only Arizona's abortion clinic that won't give up
A MIDDLE-AGED man in County Limerick has lost tens of thousands of euros in a bogus working-from-home scam perpetrated via WhatsApp.

Superintendent Paul Reidy, of Roxboro garda station, said the people behind it are scammers, out to take your money and they'll stop at nothing in order to get it.

Supt Reidy highlighted the fraud at a Joint Policing Committee meeting of the Cappamore-Kilmallock Municipal District. He spoke to the Limerick Leader following the meeting to alert members of the public not to fall foul of the same scam.

Supt Reidy said job offers to work from home are sent to people via WhatsApp.

The scammers continue sending messages to build up a rapport, leading eventually to a situation where they get the person to click on a link to set up a particular account on the presumption that they're going to be able to work for this anonymous company processing goods, and things like that, from the comfort of their own home.

It is done on the promise that whatever transactions they undertake on behalf of this fictitious company generates commission.

So money is transferred from your bank account for certain goods and then whatever amount you pay out, they'll pay you commission on that. They're pretending that you will be part of the business. They say you will get your money back and the commission on top of it at the end of the month. It's happening throughout the country, said Supt Reidy.

He declined to divulge the exact amount defrauded from the victim from east Limerick only to say it was a substantial sum of money running into the tens of thousands that has disappeared in just two weeks.

Supt Reidy said when the innocent party began asking questions and looking for their commission there is no further contact and theyre gone.

READ MORE: Limerick businesses targeted by thieves

He quoted the old saying, if something is too good to be true, then it probably is.

Supt Reidy said messages from anonymous sources and out of the blue should ring alarm bells for every single person.

He urged people not to click on links on WhatsApp messages and exercise the utmost caution when transferring money and with regard to your bank account details.

The garda investigation into the fraud is ongoing.
THE TECHNOLOGICIAL University of the Shannon played host to the inaugural Spotlight on Tourism careers event at their Moylish Campus, Limerick.

The clear message from tourism industry leaders was that tourism graduates are in high demand and critical to the future success of the sector.

Students were given insight into career opportunities in the Irish tourism sector, while also offered an opportunity to meet with more than 30 industry partners and potential employers.

TUS head of Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Wellness, June OByrne-Prior, said, It is crucial that third level institutions work closely with industry to understand how we can best equip our students to take on the mantle of leadership for tourism and hospitality amongst our new graduates. At TUS Mid-West, we see ourselves as the shapers of excellence, in research, education, and practical application, for our graduates joining the sector and contributing in a meaningful and constructive way.

Addressing students Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, chair of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, spoke of the importance of creating pathways from education to industry. The tourism and hospitality sector rely on a skilled graduate cohort willing and able to apply their learned skills and acquire on-the-job learning, to secure the next generation of tourism careers. I see work experience, placements, and early career mentorships as cornerstones to safeguarding excellence in tourism and hospitality futures.

Tourism remains Irelands largest indigenous industry and regional employer, with 13% of the Irish population employed in this sector and a further 20,000 vacancies to be filled.

The panel discussion was headlined by Kate Harold, manager, Lough Gur Visitor Centre and Lakeshore Park; Ollie Gleeson, CEO at Ollie's Tours, and Ivan Tuohy, founder Great Visitor Experience.

At the tourism and education event, Catherine Flanagan, CEO of the Association of Visitor Experiences and Attractions urged students to consider a career working with some of Irelands most iconic tourism offerings.

Visitors to Ireland come because of the highly recognisable landscape, our culture and heritage, and our people, and we need to develop core skills in our young people to ensure we continually deliver on high expectations. Ireland is not a once in a lifetime destination; we want visitors to return again and again, to discover the wonderful experiences and attractions, and to enjoy longer, more meaningful stays.
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FTSE 100 Shares - UK pulling out of recession as services sector growth accelerates; FTSE 100 at record high  business live 03-05-2024 02:05



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Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesnt stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet makers supply chain.

In the opening days of Russias invasion of Ukraine, a maker of a temperature-regulating part for Boeings 787 Dreamliner ceased its Russian operations and shifted production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few of the jets that the supplier, RTX, was able to keep up with demand.

But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of the wide-bodies, and RTXs new factory lines in the U.S. and U.K. arent making enough.

When the invasion happened, it got moved, and the capacity of that supplier has not kept pace with us," Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said this past month.

In a demonstration of how relatively simple glitches can reverberate through a global supply chain, Boeings inability to secure enough heat exchangers, a critical but relatively basic part akin to a radiator, in part led it to warn investors that it wont deliver as many of the Dreamliner jets as anticipated this year.

The slowdown will sap the companys already strained cash flow, with fallout extending to airlines and the flying public.

American Airlines last week blamed Dreamliner delays in announcing moves to trim some international and long-haul routes this year and next. The airline, while not ending service to any destinations, will cut back on fall and winter flights on certain routes to Europe, South America and Hawaii and is ending some summer seasonal routes earlier than planned.

Heat exchangers pull in cool air from the outside to prevent overheating. Each plane has several, which are used on a number of systems. The heat exchangers affected by the shortage help regulate the temperature of electronics on the plane, and for its environmental control system, which runs air conditioning and cabin pressurization. Jet engines also rely on heat exchangers, but those components arent affected by the delays.

RTXs Collins Aerospace unit had been making heat exchangers as part of a joint venture with Hamilton Standard-Nauka in Russia. RTX, previously known as Raytheon Technologies, ended the venture in March 2022 and shifted production to factories in Windsor Locks, Conn., and Wolverhampton, U.K.

The company needed to add lines to make the parts, which are in demand from plane operators that need them as replacement parts, as well as from Boeing and Brazils Embraer.

The plants kept up for many months when 787 production was either stalled or crept along.

Deliveries of the plane were largely halted for nearly two years starting in 2020 amid various production and regulatory issues. Boeing didnt deliver any of the jets for the first seven months of 2022. It rolled out 19 in 2022 and 28 in 2023, according to AIR, an aerospace-industry research company.

Boeing said this past week that the heat exchanger issue is in addition to a shortage of cabin seating, which is also holding back 787 production. Seat suppliers industrywide havent been able to keep up with demand for airplane seating, particularly for premium offerings, amid material shortages and certification delays.

Calhoun said the seating issue will likely take longer to resolve than the heat exchanger shortfall, which he described as discrete, well understood and known.

The company said production will slow in the coming months but that it aims to return to rolling out five a month by the end of the year. Boeing delivered 13 787s this year through March.

Jet manufacturing was among the sectors more severely affected by sanctions imposed on Russia, a big player in the global aerospace supply chain.

Boeing cut ties with a major Russian titanium supplier with which it had launched a joint venture to develop key airplane parts. The company also has halted selling spare parts and maintenance services to Russian airlines that operate its jets.

The 787 holdup comes as Boeing is delivering roughly one-third as many 737 MAX jets as it was at the end of last year as the company works out manufacturing issues following Januarys Alaska Airlines door-plug blowout.

Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@wsj.com
BENGALURU : Reliance Retail-backed Dunzo is in the final stages of closing a transaction" with investors that the cash-strapped startup has been looking to raise for at least a year to clear pending liabilities, including salaries.

The arrangement is also expected to find safety for the company into perpetuity", co-founder and chief executive Kabeer Biswas told employees on Friday in an internal communication, which Mint has seen.

According to a person aware of the developments, Dunzo is in late-stage talks to raise $22 million-$25 million in a mix of equity and debt from a clutch of new and existing investors.

Dunzo did not confirm this, but Biswas in his message to employees said the company will be conducting reviews on 3 and 4 May to finalise the transaction, and that it had also negotiated its liabilities to settle for considerably lower amounts.

Dunzo, which is also backed by Google, is in the middle of a liquidity crisis that has over the past year forced it to pivot business models, delay salaries and vendor payments, and reduce its workforce.

Biswas, one of the two co-founders remaining at Dunzo, the other being Ankur Aggarwal, told employees the firm has requested investors for a bridge loan to settle salaries on priority.

We are expecting closure on this by Monday, and all current" - Mar & Apr salaries to be cleared as soon as that happens," Biswas wrote.

He expects pending March and April salaries to be cleared by next week, and other pending liabilities by 20-25 May, subject to closing of the transaction, as per the communication.

The loan towards clearing employee salaries could be as much as $100,000, said the person mentioned above, declining to be identified.

Dunzo did not immediately reply to Mints queries on the development.

Sorry for saying sorry

Dunzo is yet to pay salaries including full and final settlements to several former employees. In September, Dunzo partnered with payroll servicing firm OneTap to disburse salaries for certain months.

We are trying our best to end this transaction at the earliest. Its a complicated one and has multiple hops. I am sorry for constantly saying sorry even. But given our current situation, few levers stay in our hands, and I apologise," Biswas said in the internal message.

I really do wish to reach a point, where we can stop with the daily/monthly anxieties around salary payments - and hoping the next fortnight allows us to wrap up everything, so that May is the last month of us having to manage this crisis," the CEO added in his message to employees.

Cash flow issues persist

Dunzo, which started as a concierge service and after multiple pivots now labels itself as a convenience platform, last month told employees in an email that it was working towards achieving its first full profitable year" in FY25. the company had also said it hoped to expand the team as it doubled down on certain categories starting July.

However, cash flow issues persist, according to the unnamed person mentioned earlier.

Overall, Dunzo has raised nearly $470 million till date. Reliance Retail holds 25.8% of the firm, making it the single largest shareholder, followed by Google and venture investor Lightbox.

The startup introduced quick commerce under Dunzo Daily in 2021, making the most of a $240-million fundraise led by Reliance's retail venture. However, it soon ran out of money given the cash-guzzling nature of the business.

Dunzo then increased focus on its merchant services business, called Dunzo for Business, as well as its customer-to-customer parcel delivery business to turn around its fortunes.

Dunzo doubled its operating revenue in FY 2021-22 to 54.3 crore from 25.1 crore in the year prior, but its loss more than doubled to 465 crore from 225.7 crore, as per the company's regulatory filings. Dunzo hasn't yet filed its financials for FY23.
A fall in Apples sales in Chinaeven after a rare discount on iPhonesshows that some consumers there no longer see Apples flagship product as the most advanced in technology.

For one thing, iPhones dont yet feature the built-in artificial intelligence functions offered by rivals such as Chinas Huawei.

Apple said Thursday that global sales in the January-March quarter fell 4.3% compared with the same period a year earlier. A big reason was China: Sales in what Apple calls greater China," including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, dropped by 8% to $16.4 billion.

Counterpoint Research, a market-research firm, said iPhone unit sales in China fell nearly 20% in the quarter. The iPhone lost its No. 1 spot among smartphone brands in the country, falling to third behind local rivals Vivo and Honor.

Consumers in China cited the absence of major advancements in hardware and performance as one reason to refrain from getting a new iPhone. Some are switching to Huawei, which has put out advanced phones despite U.S. sanctions, while others are keeping their old iPhones longer.

Tracy Xu, a 41-year-old Shanghai-based human-resources manager, said she found Huaweis camera, battery life and phone reception superior to the iPhone.

She had considered switching to an iPhone after she had trouble using Google Maps on family trips overseas, a hurdle caused by sanctions preventing Huawei from using the latest Google Android smartphone software. Then she unearthed a Chinese app that helped her overcome the problem and access internationally used Android apps.

I have even less of a reason to switch to an iPhone," she said.

Apple executives said they remained confident in the China business. Chief Executive Tim Cook said on a conference call that some iPhones were the top-selling smartphones in urban China, and he said a recent trip to the country had left him optimistic for the long haul.

Theres a high level of interest and excitement for our brand. The brand is very strong in China," said Luca Maestri, Apples chief financial officer, in an interview.

Most of Apples recent phone models sell for more than $600 in China and around the globe, while Chinese rivals have broader lineups with a better chance of capturing consumers during the countrys current economic doldrums.

Yu Deng, a 35-year-old iPhone user from central Chinas Hunan Province, recently looked at replacing his wifes iPhone 13 to get more storage for family photos and videos. He said the couple decided against it after concluding that replacing the phones batteries and upgrading their iCloud storage would give them what they needed for less money.

Deng said recent iPhone releases didnt offer much excitement and seemed to bring minimal hardware improvements. He said he was still an iPhone fan, but Android devices do offer more competitive features nowadays."

Apple, which usually shuns discount sales, ran a multiday promotion in China in January, cutting the price of iPhones by the equivalent of up to $70. The promotion came ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a traditional gift-giving season.

Huawei, which lost access to advanced chips owing to U.S. sanctions, staged a comeback last year with self-developed chips that made its phones compatible with the latest high-speed technology known as fifth-generation, or 5G.

In April, Huawei introduced new models, the Pura 70 series, ranging from about $760 to $1,500, with even more powerful chips than before.

While most Chinese consumers say they pick a phone based on price and performance, geopolitical tensions arent helping Apple. The Chinese government has banned the use of iPhones in government agencies.

Huaweis unit sales in China grew 70% in the January-to-March quarter, according to Counterpoint. It found that in Chinas premium smartphone market, increasing competition from local brands has caused the iPhone 15 series to underperform overall, although the iPhone 15 Pro Max continues to dominate the topmost segment.

Leading Chinese brands including Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Honor have recently introduced smartphones that use AI for purposes such as translating languages and creating and editing images.

Samsung Electronics also entered the AI smartphone market, helping the South Korean company surpass Apple in global smartphone shipments in the first quarter, according to research firm Canalys.

Under Counterpoints definition, more than 10 phone makers have introduced more than 30 smartphones with generative AI capabilities, which have become familiar through programs such as ChatGPT. None of those models comes from Appleyet.

We see generative AI as a very key opportunity across our products and we believe that we have advantages that set us apart," Cook said on the conference call.

He said Apple would say more about its AI initiatives in the weeks ahead. The company is widely expected to do so at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Around the world, Apple holds an advantage in the way it integrates products such as smartphones, tablets, watches and laptops into a single enclosed system, helping users enjoy a unified experience. Apple said earlier this year that there were 2.2 billion devices in circulation at the time using its iOS operating system.

That could serve as a platform for a new growth spurt in China and elsewhere once Apple joins the race to fully integrate AI into smartphones. Analysts said AI was likely to become an essential feature in midrange to high-end smartphones from next year.

Aaron Tilley contributed to this article.

Write to Yang Jie at jie.yang@wsj.com
Apple is Warren Buffetts greatest investment. It has also become one of his riskiest.

In 2016, Buffett made perhaps the most surprising bet of his career. That year, Berkshire Hathaway, the company he runs, began buying up shares of Applethe exact kind of stock Buffett and his longtime partner, Charlie Munger, had long avoided.

A few years earlier Buffett, in a conversation with executives of another firm, had suggested that Apple fit the profile of a stock one might short, rather than a company to buy, according to someone close to the matter. Buffett says he doesnt recall the conversation and over the past 50 years, I have never recommended any stock to be shorted and always advise people not to short stocks."

In 2013, Munger told Reuters: You could hardly think of another business that is more un-Berkshirelike than Apple."

Yet working with proteges, Buffett soon transformed into an Apple bull in a remarkable about-face. After an initial purchase of nearly 10 million shares worth about $1 billion in 2016, Berkshire added to its holdings later that year and then stepped up its buying in 2017 and 2018, spending about $36 billion on the stock over those years. Berkshire later trimmed some of those holdings.

By the end of the third quarter of 2018, Berkshires Apple stake represented about a quarter of its entire investment portfolio. In dollar terms, it was twice as large an investment as Buffett had previously made.

The move has paid off, in a very big way. Today, Berkshires 5.9% stake in Apple is worth about $157 billion, even though Apple has fallen lately. Berkshire is sitting on about $120 billion in paper gains, likely the most money ever made by an investor or a firm from a single stock. Nothing in Buffetts long career comes close. Apple stock represented nearly 50% of Berkshires stock portfolio at year-end.

Berkshire has scored an annualized return of more than 26% from Apple, including dividends, topping a gain of 12.9% for the S&P 500 during the same period, according to a calculation by Cheviot Value Management, a Los Angeles-area investment firm.

Buffetts Apple home run is so big and unlikely that it deserves more acclaim than it receives, say some investors, who argue that it also provides important lessons.

Warrens ability to change his mind is whats so extraordinary because thats what most investors struggle with the most," says Chris Davis, who helps lead the Davis Funds and is on Berkshires board of directors. Most of us anchor ourselves in our past statements, but Apple is a powerful example of the importance of being open to change."

Now, though, Apple is running into problems. The stock is down 10% this year, despite gains for other tech stocks and the overall market. The company faces antitrust challenges, a slowdown in sales in China and criticism for its lagging artificial-intelligence efforts.

As Buffett convenes Berkshires annual meeting this weekend and the 93-year-old increasingly speaks about passing the reins, a difficult question is emerging: What will his successors do with all those Apple shares? Berkshire trimmed some of its holding recently, but the stake remains enormous.

Apple is riskier now because of its elevated valuation, how regulators are focused on its most profitable segment, and the companys slowing growth rate," says Darren Pollock, who runs Cheviot and is a longtime Berkshire shareholder. At the very least, investors should have different expectations for Apple today than they had several years ago," which could weigh on Berkshires performance.

For Berkshire, Apple was something of a team effort. In 2016, Ted Weschler, one of two managers hired a few years earlier to help run Berkshires portfolio, decided on a relatively small investment of about $1 billion in Apple, Munger told The Wall Street Journal in a September interview.

Around that time, Buffett presented Todd Combs, the other investment manager, with a challenge, according to a session with Combs at an investment forum several years ago. Buffett frequently welcomes Combs on Saturdays at Buffetts Omaha, Neb., home, where they chat about markets and Berkshires portfolio, Combs said at the forum.

This time, Buffett asked Combs to identify a stock in the S&P 500 that met three criteria. The first: a reasonably cheap price/earnings multiple of no more than 15, based on the next 12 months projected earnings. The stock also had to be one the managers were at least 90% sure would enjoy higher earnings over the next five years. And they had to be at least 50% confident that the companys earnings would grow by at least 7% annually for five years or longer.

Combss research pointed to Apple, the same stock Weschler had already purchased.

Buffett asked about the customer-retention rate of iPhone users. When he learned it was approximately 95%, he really became intrigued. By then, Buffetts grandchildren had become addicted" to their iPhones, Munger said in the interview. Buffett also was influenced by a story of a friend, Sandy Gottesman, who had been bereft after misplacing his iPhone.

Warren could see how dominant the products were," Munger said in the interview. Munger died last year.

At that point, Buffett still used a flip phone, as did Munger. Buffett only converted several years later, though he still doesnt spend a lot of time on his iPhone, Munger said.

Considering the stock, though, Buffett began to see it as a consumer-goods company with enviable, latent pricing power, rather than as a tech or an electronic-device maker, according to people who have spoken to him. The loyalty consumers had for Apple products, especially the iPhone, suggested to Buffett that they would be willing to pay much more for upgraded versions of the phone in the years ahead, a sure way to boost profits.

Buffett soon began buying Apple in large quantities. It seemed he was late to catch on to the companys strengths, though. Investors including David Tepper, Carl Icahn and David Einhorn had already sold the stock after scoring big gains, in Icahns case after he pushed the company to improve its operations. Apple traded for about 14 times its expected earnings, well above the 10 P/E ratio it had fallen to a few years earlier, suggesting it no longer was such a great bargain.

There were other reasons for Buffett and Munger to steer clear. Apple doesnt own extensive real estate or other physical assets that can provide investors with a certain safety cushion, so it is riskier than some other Berkshire investments, Munger acknowledged to an outside investor. And Buffett and Munger had long avoided technology stocks, saying they didnt fully understand the fast-changing industry. Berkshires foray into International Business Machines had led to embarrassing losses.

Nonetheless, Munger got on board, encouraging Buffett to buy Apple sharesand later needling him for not buying more.

How did we come around? Damn slowly," Munger said. We should have bought more Apple."

Apple shares made tremendous sense in other ways. Berkshire is so big that the universe of companies it can buy in sufficient quantities to affect its returns is limited. Apple, which had a market value of about $584 billion at the beginning of 2016, fell into that category.

People dont understand this about Warren: Hes a natural-born capitalist who doesnt like small and distracting positions," Munger said.

Now, some wonder if Apple will weigh on Berkshire. Mohnish Pabrai, who runs Pabrai Investment Funds and considers himself a Buffett disciple, says he has long-term concerns about Apple, noting that it is hard for dominant technology companies to retain their positions.

In 10 or 15 years, we will not have this brick in our hands all the time," he says.

On Thursday, Apple said revenue declined for the fifth time in the past six quarters, and it authorized $110 billion in stock buybacks, sending shares higher in after-hours trading.

Apple shares remain expensive compared with the overall market despite this years drop, trading at about 25 times its expected earnings over the next 12 months, adding to the positions risk.

There is a compelling reason for Berkshire to hold on to its Apple shares, and it might be the key one Buffett isnt selling: It likely would be hard for Berkshire to find better uses for all the cash that a sale would produce.

We dont need their cash to go to $350 billion by selling Apple," Pabrai says, arguing that the stock will become a smaller percentage of Berkshires portfolio over time, as other holdings grow.

Write to Gregory Zuckerman at Gregory.Zuckerman@wsj.com
Global private equity major KKR and pharma major Novo Nordisk have submitted final bids to acquire surgical sutures firm Healthium Medtech, three people with knowledge of the development said on condition of anonymity. A third, joint bid has come from India-focused PE firm ChrysCapital and Mankind Pharma.

The bids submitted have valued Bengaluru-headquartered Healthium at up to 6,500 crore, the people cited above said. The company is 99% owned by global PE fund Apax Partners.

The final binding bids came in on Wednesday night," the first person cited above said. There were only three final bids from PE and strategic investors."

While KKR and Novo Nordisk have put in separate bids, ChrysCapital has bid along with Mankind Pharma," the second person cited above said.

For KKR, which already acquired Healthiums UK business last year, it is an extension of its belief in the segment. Novo Nordisk and Mankind Pharma are taking a strategic call on the growth in the segment and a natural adjacent category to the businesses they are already in, the third person cited above said.

Largest surgical sutures firm

Formerly called Sutures India, Healthium is one of the largest surgical sutures makers globally. In 2018, Apax Partners had acquired close to 100% stake in the company from then-shareholders TPG Growth, CX Partners and the founders for $350 million.

Spokespersons for Healthium Medtech, Apax Partners, ChrysCapital, Mankind Pharma, and Novo Nordisk did not respond to emailed queries. A spokesperson for KKR declined to comment.

Founded in 1992, Healthium has four key product areaswound closure, arthroscopy, wound care, and infection prevention portfolio. It is one of the largest manufacturers of surgical needles and sutures in the global market. The company and its subsidiaries have seven manufacturing facilities with three R&D centres.

The company has steadily introduced higher value-added products over the past few years, from antimicrobial gloves and barbed sutures to meniscus guns and ligation clips.

As per a 31 January 2024 credit ratings release by ICRA, Healthium has a diversified presence across products and geographies with exports to more than 90 countries. The company has generated revenue of around 394 crore, with operating margin of 27.6% in H1 FY2024. ICRA expects the company to register healthy revenue growth in the full fiscal FY2024, while maintaining its margins.

As per the ICRA report, in FY2023, the company divested its UK business, the Clini group specialising in the urology segment, to KKR.

On a consolidated basis (excluding the discontinued UK business), Healthium witnessed revenue growth of 14.3% to 728.5 crore in FY2023 from 637.1 crore in FY2022, supported by healthy demand from the key end-user industry segments for wound closure, both in the domestic and export markets.

Revenue growth was majorly supported by volume growth on the back of strong distribution network in the domestic markets, new product launches and established relationships with existing clients," the report said.
Rajasthan Board Class 10, 12 Result 2024: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE) is expected to announce the results of the Class 10 and 12 board examinations this week. As per media reports, the board has completed the evaluation process of the answer sheets and can release the result notification regarding the date and time of the much-awaited board results soon.

Students who appeared for the Rajasthan board examination for the academic year 2023-24 can check their results on the official website of RBSE by entering the roll number and application number mentioned on the admit card.

Also Read | GSEB HSC 12 Results 2024 Live: GSEB Class 12 science results likely today As per tradition, the RBSE is likely to hold a press conference to declare the results of both classes. In the conference, the RBSE will reveal the names of the board toppers and pass percentages, besides other important details. After the press conference, the state education board will activate the result links.

Also Read | TN SSLC, HSC Results 2024: Tamil Nadu board likely to release results this week Rajasthan Board Class 10, 12 Result 2024: Websites to check the results Students who appeared in the RBSE board exam 2024 can check their results at the official websites:

rajresults.nic.in

rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in

rajasthan.indiaresults.com Rajasthan Board Result 2024: Here is how to check the results of Class 10, 12 Go to the official websites: rajresults.nic.in OR rajresults.nic.in

Click the separate activated links for Class 10 OR Class 12 board results on the home page

A new window will open; select your stream like Science, Commerce or Arts

Enter the login credentials and click on the submit button

A new window will open, and your result will be displayed on the screen

Download and print the result for future reference. Rajasthan Board Class 10th and 12th Result 2024: Via SMS Open the SMS app on your mobile

Type RAJ10 (space) Roll Number (students of class 12 will replace RAJ10 with RAJ12)

Send the SMS to 56263

The result will be displayed on the screen

Save the result for future reference Rajasthan Board Results 2024: Minimum marks required Students need to get a minimum 33% score to be declared pass in the Rajasthan Board exams. Students who are not happy with their scores can apply for revaluation or rechecking, but some amount of fee will be included, i.e., an application fee.
Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod said on Friday that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should have contested from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he did not want to contest from Amethi.

"We know how Rahul Gandhi migrated from Amethi. Any other leader in his place, who takes decisions after carefully weighing his credibility and acceptability, would have considered contesting directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi if he did not wish from Amethi," Acharya Krishnam told news agency ANI in an interview.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. This is the third time PM Modi is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi. He secured major victories during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the seat and even surpassed the victory margins of his predecessor and BJP stalwart Murali Manohar Joshi.

'Priyanka Gandhi a victim of' Acharya Pramod also called Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi a "victim" of "conspiracy in the family and party". He said, "I said this earlier that Rahul Gandhi will not contest Amethi. I said this, too, that Rahul Gandhi will not let Priyanka Gandhi Vadra fight these elections."

"There is a big conspiracy afoot against Priyanka. She is the victim of a conspiracy hatched by her family and the party," Acharya Krishnam said on Friday.

Krishnam's statement came hours after the Congress declared Rahul Gandhi its candidate from Congress stronghold Raebareli, instead of Amethi, for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Acharya Pramod Krishnam was expelled by the Congress for "indiscipline" in February 2024.

The Raebareli seat was vacated recently by Rahul's mother Sonia Gandhi, who took membership of the Rajya Sabha from Jaipur.

Rahul Gandhi will now fight the Lok Sabha Elections from Raebareli against Uttar Pradesh minister and BJP leader Dinesh Pratap Singh. He is also seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from the Wayanad seat that polled in Phase 2 of the general elections on April 26.

In Amethi, the Congress bastion that fell to the BJP five years ago, in 2019; the Congress will be represented by Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime loyalist of the Gandhi family.
For beer enthusiasts this summer, quenching their thirst could prove a little challenging. The convergence of the Lok Sabha elections and new regulatory hurdles is creating a perfect storm in the beer industry, potentially leading to shortages during the crucial summer months.

Industry experts note that election-related restrictions have disrupted production and supply chains. Further complicating matters, some states like Telangana have implemented unexpected new regulations, such as bans on factories operating three shiftsa move experts said could reduce pan-India beer supplies by 4-5% during this peak season.

Resilient outlook

There are definitely disruptions due to elections, not only on the supply front but also on the production side," said Prem Dewan, chairman and managing director of DeVans Modern Breweries Ltd, which produces popular labels like Godfather.

He elaborated that production has been affected across all states due to reduced working hours enforced by the Election Commission. Additionally, some states have prohibited the import and export of liquor and beer.

Dewan said that the company had anticipated such disruptions and increased its production capacity last year, which has helped minimize the impact. The only state we are suffering in now is Arunachal Pradesh due to the export ban imposed in that state. We as such hope to increase our sales substantially during this summer season."

According to industry estimates, beer volumes fell a little less than 15% year-on-year last year to around 350 million cases as unseasonal rains marred sales during the summer months. Despite beers global popularity, its consumption in India remains modest compared to its population, selling around 400 million cases in FY24.

This year (FY25), the industry still anticipates strong growth despite the obstacles, with sales potentially increasing 13-14% over last summer. Growth could have been higher, even 25%, but for the elections playing spoilsport, experts said.

Last month, Mint reported that United Breweries Ltd (UBL), the maker of Kingfisher and Heineken beers, expected potential supply chain disruptions due to restrictions amid the elections but still anticipated a strong summer season for business, forecasting high single-digit growth over last summer.

Navigating regulatory landscapes remains a challenge, particularly with high taxation and export constraints in key states," noted Kartikeya Sharma, president of AB InBev India.

He also highlighted the socio-economic potential of the beer industry to generate employment, emphasizing its nature as a local and natural product. We are encouraging state governments to embrace the momentum induced by the summer so the industry can grow."

AB InBev India is known for producing popular beers such as Budweiser and Corona Extra.

Gin capitalizes on beer's dilemma

However, there's a silver lining for tipplers looking for alternatives like gin or vodka. The shortfall in beer might turn into a boon for other categories.

Radico Khaitan's managing director Abhishek Khaitan said that premium gins are expected to see at least a 50% growth in the industry this year. "Gin, while still a small part of the entire white spirits category, will see a noticeable jump due to more cocktail drinking occasions. This summer will help both gin and vodka grow," he noted.

The story is similar for other brands in the spirits sector. Greater Than gin, for example, has ramped up supplies and expanded into new states, anticipating continued growth.

"Summer sales are significantly up from last year in all our major markets. While it is still early to project, we expect a 60% increase in the summer season owing to the weather as well as our new launches. We recently launched 'Punk' pink ginour first summer limited edition ginwhich is available in Goa and parts of Karnataka," said Anand Virmani, CEO and cofounder of Nao Spirits.

He said the company sold 1 million bottles of gin in FY24 and that expanding into new states has significantly boosted volumes.

Garam Masala, a new brand importing gin from the UK, and its importer Tandon Enterprises are also preparing to launch their ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages this season, anticipating strong sales.

Meanwhile, for makers of Samsara Gin and its parent company Tilaknagar, which also produces Blue Lagoon gin, sales are expected to remain steady with some temporary positive impact resulting from pent-up demand after the election-induced slowdown, according to a spokesperson of the company.

The share of brands priced above 500 per 750ml bottle stood at 20%, up one percentage point from 2022. The 1,000-plus price segment, although dominated by imported products, saw a sharp rise in the share of Indian products from 18% in FY22 to 20% in FY23, indicating faster growth for Indian products compared to imported ones.

Related Read: EU spirits industry seeks significant cut in tariff in FTA with India
To gird yourself for Auto China 2024, a nine-day motor show which ends on May 4th in Beijing, get there by car. On the opening day, navigating the human traffic eager to glimpse the mechanical marvels on display required the same tenacity as negotiating the Chinese capitals gridlocked roads. Helpfully, the ride to the venue is also useful preparation for understanding the intense competition gripping Chinas car industrywhich the jamboree itself further underscores.

Both on Beijing streets and at the motor show, most of the vehicles are electric. And Chinese marques, some more familiar to overseas visitors than others, and local technology champions such as Huawei and Xiaomi, better known for gizmos you carry than those that carry you, are edging out the foreign manufacturers that once dominated the domestic market.

Chinas carmakers are launching new models more quickly, and much more cheaply, than rivals abroad. Bernstein, a broker, reckons Chinese EVs can cost half as much to buy as European ones, while boasting better tech. In Beijing, Ji Yue, a three-year-old joint venture that combines the carmaking skills of Geely, Chinas second-biggest carmaker, and the tech chops of Baidu, the countrys biggest search engine, showed off a stylish saloon that can be entirely controlled by voice commands and a touchscreen. It plans to sell the cars in China and abroad for $30,000 apiece. Prices for Xiaomis SU7, another handsome model brimming with clever technology, start at roughly the same level. The smartphone-maker has received more than 75,000 orders for it in one month, half its planned production for the year.

Western firms that rely on China for a big slug of revenues and profits are desperate to catch up. On the eve of the show Volkswagen, whose mass-market VW brand was last year surpassed as Chinas most popular by BYD, a local rival, unveiled a new China strategy. The German giant wants to bring new EVs to market 30% more quickly and 40% more cheaply. But its plan relies on working with local partners such as Xpeng, an all-electric startup. On April 28th Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, turned up in Beijing to sign a deal with Baidu to acquire its mapping data. The deal is meant to allow the American EV pioneer to make its self-driving system available in China, and lure back tech-obsessed Chinese buyers who are shunning Teslas in favour of cleverer, cheaper local alternatives.

One thing that could slow the Chinese car industrys breakneck expansion is a brutal price war. Steep price cuts in China contributed to Teslas falling sales and profits in the first quarter. On April 29th BYD, which has also been offering deep discounts, reported rising sales compared with a year ago, but a big miss on revenues. If this leads to a shakeout in the industry, fewer companies will jostle for space at Auto China 2025, to be held in Shanghai. Just dont expect smaller crowds.

 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Indegene Limited, on May 3, garnered over 548.77 crore from anchor investors at the upper price band of 452 per equity share ahead of initial public offerings (IPO).

Indegene IPO, which is scheduled to open for subscription on May 4, has allocated 12,141,102 equity shares to 36 anchor investors, as per the exchange filing.

The IPO Committee of the Company in their meeting held on May 3, 2024, in consultation with Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited (Book Running Lead Managers), has finalized allocation of 12,141,102 Equity Shares, to Anchor Investors at Anchor Investor Allocation Price of 452/- per Equity Share (including share premium of 450/- per Equity Share), the company said in its filing.

The anchor book saw participation from a wide variety of marquee investors, including Capital Group, one of the world's largest investment management firms, Fidelity Investments, Loomis Sayles & Company, Jupiter Asset Management, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, Premji Invest, Custody Bank of Japan, WhiteOak Capital Management, UTI Mutual Fund, Bandhan Mutual Fund, Invesco Mutual Fund, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited, Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited, East Bridge Capital Master Fund Limited, Kotak Funds and Copthall Mauritius Investment Limited.

Indegene IPO price band set at  430-452 per share.

Out of the total allocation of 12,141,102 equity shares to the anchor investors, 48,05,156 equity shares (i.e. 39.58% of the total allocation to Anchor Investors) were allocated to 10 domestic mutual funds through a total of 18 schemes.

The company which provides digital services for the life science sector, has recently announced the price range for the Indegene IPO, set at 430 to 452 per equity share.
The metals market has experienced a strong performance in the past month, largely due to positive PMI data from China and solid economic fundamentals in the US. This has driven up commodity prices, particularly for base metals. Supply constraints in copper and aluminium, alongside a ban on Russian-origin metal from the London Metal Exchange, have further supported metal prices. With the potential for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and an anticipated stimulus from China, the outlook for metals remains positive.

In this environment, comparing Hindalco and Vedanta can help determine which metal stock may offer superior long-term investment opportunities.

Read here: Coal India vs NTPC: Which PSU stock should you pick for long-term investing? Stock Price Trend Vedanta has outperformed benchmark Nifty Metal this year so far while Hindalco underperformed. Vedanta has surged over 61 percent in 2024 YTD while Hindalco is up just 5 percent. In comparison, the Nifty Metal index has gained over 17 percent in this period.

This year so far, Vedanta has given positive returns in 3 of the 4 completed months so far while Hindalco has been positive in 2. Vedanta rallied 46.46 percent in April after a 1.3 percent rise in March. Meanwhile, it fell 2.5 percent in February but rose 6.4 percent in January this year. In the 2 sessions of May, the stock has advanced 5.3 percent.

Hindalco, on the other hand, gained 15 percent in April, extending gains for the 2nd straight month, after a 11.19 percent surge in March. However, it fell in the first 2 months of this year, down 5.7 percent in January and 13 percent in February. It has been flat, up just half a percent in May.

Read here: Nifty Bank vs Nifty IT: Which index should you invest in for long term? Meanwhile, in the last 1 year as well, Vedanta has been the better stock, jumping around 50 percent whereas Hindalco has rallied 45 percent. In comparison, Nifty Metal has surged 110 percent in this time.

Both Vedanta and Hindalco have also hit their 52-week highs in recent times along with Nifty Metal. Vedanta hit its 52-week high of 419 in intra-day deals today, May 3, 2024. The stock has now advanced 101.5 percent from its 52-week low of 207.85, hit on September 28, 2023.

Meanwhile, Hindalco touched its all-time high of 661.30 last month on April 26, 2024, and is currently just 2 percent away from the peak. Currently trading at 646, it has rallied over 64 percent from its 52-week low of 398.00, hit on May 25, 2023.

Moreover, in the long term, 3 years, again Hindalco has emerged as the winner. It has surged 78 percent while Vedanta jumped 61 percent.

Earnings In the March quarter, Vedanta reported a 27 percent decline in its net profit to 1,369 crore on the back of surging finance costs and weak prices of metals such as zinc, copper, and aluminium. It had posted a net profit of 1,881 crore in the same period last year. Meanwhile, its revenue from operations fell 6 percent YoY to 34,937 crore in Q4FY24.

The company said that short-term and long-term demand remains robust in India. "The demand is expected to remain strong in upcoming years due to thriving infrastructure, manufacturing, automobile and EV/renewable sectors," Vedanta said in an investor presentation.

Read here: SBI vs Bank of Baroda: Which PSU bank stock should you pick for long term? Meanwhile, Hindalco has not yet reported its March quarter results. In the December quarter, the firm reported a 71 percent YoY growth in its consolidated net profit at 2,331 crore versus 1,362 crore a year ago. Meanwhile, its revenue from operations in the third quarter fell marginally to 52,808 crore from 53,151 crore in the same quarter of last year.

The copper business registered a record EBITDA, up 20 percent YoY on the back of strong volume growth and robust operations, Hindalco managing director Satish Pai said.

The aluminium upstream business EBITDA rose 54 percent from the year-ago period, supported by stable operations and lower raw material costs, which keeps us positioned in the first quartile of the global cost curve", he said.

Read here: Godrej Properties vs DLF: Which realty stock should you pick for long term? Which metal stock has better long-term investment opportunities? Sanjay Moorjani, Research Analyst, Samco Securities likes Hindalco better Incorporated in 1958, Hindalco Industries Limited is the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. Now, Hindalco is advancing from a manufacturing company to a manufacturing solutions provider by moving further down the value chain and co-creating solutions with customers. The company has announced organic growth investments of around $1.13 Billion which are planned to be allocated to high-growth downstream projects in Electric Vehicles (EVs), e-mobility, packaging, batteries, building and construction and consumer durables. Indias growth story remains strong on account of increased focus by the government on infrastructure, railways, defence and manufacturing.

Additionally, the governments rooftop solar scheme will serve as another tailwind for Hindalco along with the already growing EV market. These futuristic sectors are expected to see a lot of traction going forward and Hindalcos downstream initiatives position it to capitalise on these opportunities fully.

On the other hand, Vedanta is one of the worlds leading natural resources companies spanning across India, South Africa, Namibia, Liberia, UAE, Korea, Taiwan and Japan with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, Nickel, Aluminium, Power & Glass Substrate and foraying into electronics and display glass manufacturing. The proposed demerger in Vedanta would present an opportunity for investors to invest in individual businesses independently, essentially creating pure-play investment options.

However, it's crucial to note that Vedanta's debt obligations persist despite this structural change. Additionally, while Vedanta's shares have experienced notable rallies in recent times, operational performance improvements havent seen any positive surprises. However, the debt obligations of Vedanta would still remain unaffected. In the last month, Vedantas shares have rallied a lot without much of an improvement in its operational performance.

Read here: ITC vs HUL: Which FMCG stock should you pick for long term? While both Hindalco and Vedanta present compelling investment propositions, Hindalco's strategic focus on downstream initiatives aligned with futuristic sectors positions it as a promising long-term investment choice. Investors can consider Vedantas individual businesses post its demerger.

Parthiv Jhonsa, Lead Analyst (Metal and Mining), Anand Rathi Institutional Equities also picked Hindalco over Vedanta Hindalco has a strong aluminium and copper presence in the domestic market along with being one of the largest FRP producers globally (excl. China). As India is the only major economy where domestic demand for metals is expected to outstrip global growth figures, Hindalco is well-set in the non-ferrous sector, especially after the supply crunch caused by the ban on Russian metals in North America and the recent rally in copper.

Sujit Modi, CIO, Share.Market, as well, favours Hndalco A head-to-head comparison between the two stocks based on our factors tells us that both the stocks rank high on short-term measures like Momentum and Sentiment, however, on the longer time frame, factors like Quality & Value seem to favour Hindalco over Vedanta.

Read here: Nifty FMCG vs Nifty Finance: Which sector is better for long-term investment? On the contrary, Aditya Welekar, Senior Research Analyst - Auto & Metals, Axis Securities prefers Vedanta over Hindalco

In the long term, we prefer Vedanta over Hindalco as Vedanta has multiple levers to grow both in volume and cost/operational performance. A vertical merger into six pure-play companies and the probability of an asset sale (steel business in Q1 or Q2FY25) can drive further upside from the current levels. For Hindalco, an update on Novelis IPO and its proceeds will be the key monitorable and critical risk.

Both Hindalco and Vedanta offer distinct advantages, however, more experts favour Hindalco. Hindalco's strategic positioning in high-growth downstream sectors and consistent operational performance make it an attractive option for long-term investors. Vedanta's potential demerger and diversified portfolio present opportunities but come with some risks due to debt obligations.
The Indian stock market benchmarks, Nifty 50 and Sensex, failed to hold the early gains to end around a percent lower on Friday, May 3 dragged profit booking across sectors as well as losses in heavyweight stocks.

The Sensex ended 732.96 or 0.98 percent lower at 73,878.15 while the broader Nifty ended 172.35 points or 0.76 percent lower at 22,475.85.

The benchmark indices hit new peaks today before crashing. Nifty fell 446 points from its all-time high of 22,794, while the 30-stock Sensex dropped 1,628 points from its day's high of 75,095. Analysts attributed this market correction to uncertainties around the upcoming Lok Sabha election results, the ongoing earnings season, and a high level of margin trading.

Read here: Sensex crashes 1%; why did Indian stock market fall today?- explained All sectors experienced significant losses in today's trade, while the volatility index India VIX surged over 10 percent to reach 14.84. The most affected sectors were Nifty IT, Nifty Realty, Nifty Auto, and Nifty PSU Bank indices, reflecting a widespread downturn across the market.

Market experts believe the recent pullback represents a healthy correction at elevated levels. They see the profit booking as anticipated and not a cause for alarm, indicating a natural adjustment following strong market performance. Moreover, they believe that such corrections could aid long-term investors.

Despite this downturn, experts are optimistic that the bullish momentum will continue in the near term.

Read here: Chart Beat: Promoters ditch large caps and mid caps alike as crude worries loom Here's what experts have to say regarding today's crash and what they expect in the near term. Mayank Mehraa, smallcase Manager & Principal Partner at Craving Alpha.

Despite recent tensions between Israel and Iran, markets rebounded, showcasing investor resilience. In the past week, US markets recovered from uncertainty surrounding the Fed's comments, while Chinese markets surged upward. Today's correction could aid bullish investors by providing liquidity for a potential rally next week. These swift corrections prevent complacency, fostering a more sustainable bull run. This adaptability underscores the market's capacity to navigate uncertainty, driven by investor confidence and strategic maneuvers. Despite geopolitical concerns, the market's ability to swiftly recover and capitalize on positive momentum reflects a dynamic and resilient investment landscape, suggesting potential for continued growth in the coming weeks.

Trivesh D, COO at Tradejini A 1000-point Sensex drop suggests a potential course correction after a period of strong gains. The uptick in the India VIX also signifies heightened investor anxiety over the last few days.

This is likely due to a confluence of global factors, such as fears around the Fed's rate hike decision and domestic concerns. In my view, a balanced approach is crucial. Long-term investors might see this pullback as a buying opportunity, but staying cautious until market sentiment stabilizes is prudent.

Read here: After a strong FY24, only 3 IPOs list in April, 2 trade above issue price Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Profit booking and a degree of caution ahead of the release of the US non-farm payroll resulted in selling pressure in the market. However, the absence of significant negative surprises in Q4 earnings thus far, along with a decline in oil prices, might help to mitigate the downside. Though the correction was broad-based, the large-cap stock was the key underperformer due to the moderation of FII's exposure to the domestic market.

Technical View Ajit Mishra  SVP, Research, Religare Broking The sharp drop in the index has nullified the gains made over the past four sessions, although it managed to hold above the support zone represented by the short-term moving average i.e. 20 DEMA. We recommend a selective approach and suggest considering hedged positions if the Nifty fails to maintain the 22,400 level. Besides domestic factors, it's crucial for traders to closely monitor the performance of the US markets for further guidance

Read here: Coal India share price rises up to 4% post Q4 earnings: Buy, Sell or Hold? Ashwin Ramani, Derivatives Analyst, SAMCO Securities Nifty hit an all-time high of 22,795 and immediately came under intense selling pressure, falling 172 points and closing at 22,476. The India VIX rose for all four days in the week, giving huge discomfort to the bulls. The fear gauge rose by a massive 34 percent during the week and closed at 14.62. The India VIX has taken multiple resistance around the 16.5 levels previously and any rise above these levels can cause serious discomfort to the bulls.

Nifty took resistance around Tuesdays resistance of 22,790 levels and fell sharply. Heavy call writing was observed at all strikes from 22,500 to 22,800. The 22,600 & 22,700 Strike also saw put writers exiting, which led to the strong down move in the Index today. The put writers posed a spirited challenge against the call writers at the 22,500 Strike and the option activity at this strike will provide cues about Niftys Intraday direction on Monday.

Bank Nifty fell sharply throughout the day to close at 48,923, down 308 points. All Strikes from 49,000 until 49,500 saw call writing and put writers exiting, which was the reason for the sharp down move in Bank Nifty on Friday. The call writers have a thin lead over the put writers at the 49,000 Strike and the option activity at this strike will provide cues about Bank Niftys Intraday direction on Monday.

Read here: Stock to buy: Anand Rathi recommends Patel Engineering as its pick for the month Aditya Gaggar, Director of Progressive Shares Both the timeframes i,e, Weekly (DOJI) and Daily (Bearish Engulfing) indicate a trend reversal in the Index with a negative divergence in the RSI. We believe that the Index is likely to oscillate in the range of 22,160- 22,770. With a Shooting Star candlestick pattern, BankNifty reversed from the higher end of the rising channel; suggesting a correction in it. The Auto and Metal counters are moving on expected lines which boosts our confidence to remain bullish on the same. From the Energy segment, Coal India- Inverted Head & Shoulder Breakout, PowerGrid- Symmetrical Triangle Breakout, Tata Power-Flag, and Pole Breakout. A strong outperformance can be expected from the Pharma sector once it gives a consolidation breakout. Extreme volatility can be anticipated due to result-oriented activities as well as the progress of the general election.
Piramal Pharma shares jumped 7.35% in today's trading session to a new 52-week high of 153.90 apiece, and this was also the stock's highest level in 18 months. They finished the last six out of seven weeks in green, gaining 32% as investors cheered to multiple positive developments.

However, despite this recent uptrend, the stock has yet to surpass its IPO price of 200, which it hasn't achieved since its listing in October 2022. At the current market price, it remains 24% below the issue price.

After its listing, the stock experienced selling pressure for seven consecutive months until March 2023, before gaining momentum in the subsequent month. Over the past 14 months, the stock has surged by 127.4%, steadily appreciating from 66.85 apiece to its current level of 152.

Piramal Pharma Limited (PPL) is part of the Piramal Group of Companies, which demerged from Piramal Enterprises. The company offers a portfolio of differentiated products and services through its 17 global development and manufacturing facilities and a global distribution network in over 100 countries.

Also Read: Stock to buy: Anand Rathi recommends Patel Engineering as its pick for the month

It operates through three major segments: contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMO), Complex hospital generics (critical care), and consumer healthcare (OTC).

Recent developments The company has recently entered the mens personal grooming segment with the introduction of the BOHEM product range, featuring a hair removal spray, a beard growth oil, and an underarm roll-on. This move reflects Piramal Pharma's strategy to promote more comprehensive self-care practices among men, utilizing scientifically proven ingredients to deliver effective results.

Building on the success of its flagship brand, Lacto Calamine, which has seen significant growth in the oily skin care sector in recent years, the launch of BOHEM underscores the company's commitment to addressing the male grooming market. BOHEM aims to elevate men's grooming routines by offering solutions for personal hygiene and beard nourishment.

Piramal Pharmas India Consumer Products Divisions portfolio comprises over 30 OTC products, with offerings spanning across multiple categories. It aims to be among the top three over the counter (OTC) product companies in India, as per the company's recent exchange filing.

On April 2nd, the Indian government launched an anti-dumping investigation into the import of vitamin A palmitate from China, the EU, and Switzerland. Piramal, as the sole producer of this product in India, had previously filed a petition with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGTR) in June 2022, requesting such a probe, as per the media reports.

The sole producer of the product in India, Piramal, says dumped imports hurt domestic industries; alleges price undercutting and suppression by imports.

Further, global brokerage firm Jefferies in March recommended a 'buy' rating on the stock, anticipating revenue growth for the financial year 2025 (FY25). They set a target price of 170 per share. Jefferies projected a year-on-year revenue growth of 12.5% for FY25 for Piramal Pharma but expressed confidence that the company could surpass this forecast.
The IPO of TBO Tek is scheduled to be open for bidding from May 08, 2024, to May 10, 2024. The price band for the IPO is set at 875 to 920 per equity share. The company plans to raise 1,550.81 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).

The IPO consists of a fresh issue of 0.43 crore shares amounting to 400.00 crores and an offer-for-sale component of 1.25 crore shares amounting to 1,150.81 crores.

The issue is being made through the book-building process, with up to 75% of the net issue available for allocation to Qualified Institutional buyers on a proportionate basis, 15% to non-institutional investors, and a minimum of 10% of the net issue available for allocation to retail investors on a proportionate basis.

The minimum lot size for an application is 16 shares, requiring a minimum investment of 14,720 for retail investors to participate in the IPO. For sNII, the minimum lot size investment is 14 lots (224 shares), totaling 206,080, and for bNII, it is 68 lots (1,088 shares), totaling 1,000,960.

Axis Capital Limited, Jefferies India Private Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited, and JM Financial Limited serve as the book-running lead managers for the TBO Tek IPO, with KFin Technologies Limited acting as the registrar for the issue.

Objectives of the issue The company plans to allocate the net proceeds from the issue to support various objectives. These include expanding the supplier and buyer base, enhancing the value of the platform by introducing new lines of businesses, pursuing inorganic growth through targeted acquisitions, and fostering synergies with the existing platform.

Also Read: Aadhar Housing Finance IPO price band set at 300-315 per share

Additionally, the funds will be utilised to leverage acquired data for the development of customised travel solutions tailored to the needs of both buyers and suppliers.

About TBO Tek TBO Tek is one of the leading travel distribution platforms in the global travel and tourism industry in terms of GTV and revenue from operations for fiscal 2023, providing a wide range of offerings operating in over 100 countries, providing buyers with a comprehensive travel inventory according to the needs of their customers; and supporting a wide range of currencies along with forex assistance.

The company simplifies the business of travel for suppliers such as hotels, airlines, car rentals, transfers, cruises, insurance, rail, and others (collectively, Suppliers), retail buyers such as travel agencies and independent travel advisors (Retail Buyers); and enterprise buyers that include tour operators, travel management companies, online travel companies, super-apps, and loyalty apps (Enterprise Buyers," together with Retail Buyers, Buyers) through our two-sided technology platform that enables Suppliers and Buyers to transact seamlessly with each other.

Business Operations The company operates two main platforms: TBO Holidays, a global travel distribution platform, and Travel Boutique Online, catering specifically to travel buyers in India.

These platforms serve as comprehensive solutions, allowing a wide range of suppliers to showcase their inventory and set prices for a diverse global buyer base. For buyers, the platform offers an integrated, multi-currency, and multilingual interface, simplifying the process of discovering and booking travel arrangements worldwide.

As of December 31, 2023, the company's platform connects over 159,000 buyers from more than 100 countries with over one million suppliers. Key offerings include hotel bookings, global air bookings, holiday packages for various destinations, car rentals, private transfers between airports and hotels, cruise bookings, freight services, and access to global seaman fares.

Additionally, the company provides online learning resources for travel agents and trade partners through its TBO Academy platform.
When you fall ill, you are advised to see a doctor. Similarly, when your credit score is not in good health, it is recommended to see a credit counsellor.

Credit counselling is likely to have a range of effects on your CIBIL score, based on your individual financial situation and how you make use of these services.

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By and large, credit counselling can be a valuable resource for borrowers who are keen to improve their financial literacy. It is important to note that there may be short-term impacts on your credit score, the long-term benefits of debt repayment can outweigh any transient shortcomings.

Also, its important to opt for a reputable credit counselling agency and carefully examine the advice they give. Here are some impacts of credit counselling:

Debt management plans: The credit counselling agency may recommend you to enrol in a debt management plan, or DMP. Under this, you are told to make monthly payments to the credit counselling agency, which then distributes the funds to your creditors according to an agreed-upon plan.

As you are enrolled in a DMP, there might be a neutral or slightly negative effect on your credit score. However, after making consistent payments through the DMP, your credit score may improve gradually.

Financial education: Credit counselling typically involves sessions where you receive guidance on managing your finances, creating a budget, and developing strategies to repay debt. Implementing the advice provided by credit counsellors can lead to better financial habits, which may eventually improve your credit score. For instance, if you learn how to budget effectively and make timely payments, it can impact your creditworthiness in a positive way.

Credit inquiries: When you seek credit counselling, the agency may review your credit report as part of the evaluation process. This is known as a "soft inquiry" and typically doesn't affect your credit score.

However, if you subsequently apply for a debt management plan or other financial products recommended by the credit counsellor, those applications may result in "hard inquiries," which can have a minor, temporary impact on your credit score.

Addressing negative items: Credit counselling can help you address negative items on your credit report, such as late payments or collection accounts. Counsellors may provide guidance on disputing errors or negotiating with creditors to remove negative information. By resolving these issues, you can potentially improve your credit score.

Frequently Asked Questions Do banks make a decision of giving a loan on the basis of the borrower's credit score? Yes, lenders generally use credit score as a key factor in determining whether to approve a loan application. A low credit score may result in denial of credit or approval with less favourable terms.

How can you improve the credit score? You can work on improving your credit score by making timely payments, reducing outstanding debt, and maintaining a healthy credit utilisation ratio (CUR) before applying for a car loan.

Does checking your credit score hurt it? Checking your CIBIL score, also known as a soft inquiry, does not affect your score.
When investors make a decision to invest in a mutual fund scheme, they weigh a number of factors ranging from the historical returns to the fund houses reputation, and overall market scenario to the future outlook.

One of the key considerations that investors invariably factor in is the performance of the mutual fund scheme in the recent past.

Here, we discuss some schemes of a mutual fund category  dynamic asset allocation  which have given good returns, i.e., better than that of their corresponding benchmark index.

A benchmark index is a standard against which a mutual fund schemes performance is measured. Beating the benchmark index is an indication of the scheme's good performance.

At the outset, let us understand what exactly are dynamic asset allocation funds

Dynamic asset allocation funds These mutual funds, also known as balanced advantage funds, refer to investment instruments, which invest in equity/ debt instruments that are managed dynamically (0 to 100 percent in equity & equity-related instruments) and similar proportion in debt instruments at the same time, as per the Sebis categorisation of mutual fund schemes.

These are some of the top-performing dynamic asset allocation funds, which have managed to beat the benchmark index.

As we can see in the table below, the top-performing scheme (HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund) delivered an annualised return of 25.90 percent in the past three years. The distant second in terms of 3-year returns is Bank of India Balanced Advantage Fund which gave a CAGR return of 15.12 percent. This is followed by Baroda BNP Paribas Balanced Advantage Fund which gave a return of 14.50 percent.

Dynamic asset allocation funds Returns (%) HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund 25.90 Bank of India Balanced Advantage Fund 15.12 Baroda BNP Paribas Balanced Advantage Fund 14.50 Edelweiss Balanced Advantage Fund 13.98 ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund 13.49 Nippon India Balanced Advantage Fund 13.33 Tata Balanced Advantage Fund 13.05 Axis Balanced Advantage Fund 12.90 Invesco India Balanced Advantage Fund 12.83 ITI Balanced Advantage Fund 12.59

(Source: AMFI; Returns as on April 30, 2024)

Needless to say the past returns of a mutual fund scheme (just like a stock) do not guarantee its future performance. In other words, if a scheme has delivered a good performance in the past, it doesnt mean that it will continue to give similar returns in the near future as well. Markets are volatile, and so are the returns.
By Jonathan Stempel and Koh Gui Qing

OMAHA, Nebraska, - A longtime Berkshire Hathaway director said Greg Abel, who is expected to succeed Warren Buffett as chief executive, may not get the same leeway from the conglomerate's board of directors to make acquisitions.

Ronald Olson, a Berkshire director since 1997, said at an investing conference on Thursday that the board would not "handcuff" Abel from making acquisitions, in his expected role in allocating Berkshire's capital.

But he also said Abel's recent handling of difficult litigation against the billionaire Haslam family over the acquisition of truck stop chain Pilot Travel Centers cemented confidence in his leadership. It was the first time Olson, a lawyer, said he worked closely with Abel.

"There going to be changes in terms of the confidence level that we had in Warren," Olson said when asked if Abel would have the same latitude as Buffett to spend cash as he saw fit. "I don't know how changes will evolve when somebody replaces Warren. Let's not get too anxious about it. He's going to be around for a while. But once that happens, there may well be changes."

At Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday, Buffett and Abel are likely to get shareholder questions about the conglomerate's future after Abel takes over.

Succession at Berkshire has long been on investors' minds as Buffett aged, working at least two decades past when most top executives retire.

Those concerns grew after his longtime second-in-command Charlie Munger died in November at age 99.

Berkshire acknowledged that Abel was Buffett's successor-in-waiting after Munger let slip at Berkshire's 2021 annual meeting when discussing Berkshire's decentralized, hands-off business model that "Greg will keep the culture."

Abel, 61, has since 2018 been a vice chairman overseeing Berkshire's non-insurance businesses including the BNSF railroad and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, his former home.

After Buffett leaves, his son Howard Buffett is expected to become nonexecutive chairman, while others would handle common stock investments.

The dispute with the Haslams, including Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, centered on how much Berkshire should pay for the 20% of Pilot it didn't already own.

In competing lawsuits, each side accused the other of manipulating Pilot's accounting in bad faith, with the Haslams saying Berkshire was undervaluing its stake, and Berkshire concerned it might overpay.

Tensions had been rising earlier, after Berkshire took an 80% stake and replaced top Pilot management.

Buffett tasked Abel to sort out the issue, and Olson said "it was not pleasant going through the litigation."

But both sides settled in January, and Berkshire paid $2.6 billion for the final 20% of Pilot.

"That was a problem that Warren put in Greg's lap," Olson said. "His preparation and thinking was impressive. He is strategic in his thinking, and he is decisive in his judgment."\

Berkshire also owns several insurers including Geico, the BNSF railroad, a slew of industrial and retail businesses, and hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks including Apple and Bank of America.
By Alimat Aliyeva

The heads of the defense departments of the United States, Japan and Australia have agreed to hold the first trilateral missile and air defense exercises in 2027, Azernews reports.

A corresponding agreement was reached following the results of trilateral negotiations held in the state of Hawaii. In the next two years, the parties agreed to conduct joint exercises using fifth-generation F-35 fighters in service in each of the countries.

The heads of the defense departments of the three countries also signed an agreement on promoting cooperation in the field of modern defense technologies.
(Bloomberg) -- Guyanas tax agency is taking Exxon Mobil Corp. to court after one of the companys suppliers said it mistakenly inflated the value of oil-well equipment by 200 times to about $12 billion.

The Guyana Revenue Authority issued a summons to the oil giant, with a hearing is scheduled for May 10, according to the agencys Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia.

Exxon and Ramps Logistics, a Trinidad-based company, said the overvaluation stemmed from a clerical error that denoted the sum in US dollars instead of Guyanese dollars. A Guyana dollar is worth about one-half of a US cent.

The error was caught early, and nobody suffered any loss, Exxon country manager Alistair Routledge said. The company has updated its procedures to make sure it wont be repeated, he said.

Under Guyanas production sharing contract with Exxon, the government only receives its share of production after costs are deducted, making accurate declarations vital to the countrys oil revenue. Exxon recently approved its sixth development that will help double its production capacity to 1.3 million barrels a day by 2027.

We are now ensuring that before we finalize the second audit that the GRA will go back and check all the back invoices for the past several years to see that there has been no overstatement, Guyana Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said at a new conference Thursday.

Exxon has agreed to comply with the audit.

Ramps called the error unfortunate and said it would be resolved.

It was a mistake, Chief Operating Officer Shaun Rampersad said Friday in an interview. There were some issues that happened in the system, and it is something that we are committed to working with them on.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and daughter of party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, Misa Bharti, claimed on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo was removed from Covid-19 vaccination certificates due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the Covishield vaccine.

"Now that questions are being raised on the vaccine (Covishield), his (PM Modi) photo has been removed," Bharti told news agency ANI.

She said that this is a matter of investigation.

"It is an old habit of the Prime Minister to take credit for any work. Now, when doubtful results of the Corona vaccine are emerging, fearing defamation, the Prime Minister's picture has been removed from the Corona vaccine certificate," Bharti told ANI.

Earlier this week, amid reports of AstraZeneca admitting in court documents in the UK that its COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, could cause a rare side effect known as Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), several social media users had ponited out the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was missing from the vaccination certificates.

However, amid speculations, on May 1, The Print quoted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare saying, "This was due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) being in place for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls."

The report also said that in 2022, at the direction of the Election Commission of India (ECI), PM's photo was removed from vaccination certificates issued in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, and Goa, ahead of the polls.

AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical giant has developed the vaccine in partnership with the University of Oxford. After controversy over rare side effects, the company has reiterated its commitment to patient safety while emphasising the vaccine's overall safety profile amid concerns.

On Thursday, attacking BJP, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that people who got the injection will vote against the party.

"Think what those who have got the vaccine administered will be going through when they see their certificate. Now these people will also come out to vote against the BJP this time because it was looking for an opportunity in a disaster," PTI quoted SP chief as saying.
The Indian government on Friday advised its nationals to remain vigilant and be in touch with the Indian embassy while travelling to Iran and Israel as both the Middle-East countries are in conflict, modifying its April 12 travel advisory that urged its citizens not to visit the two gulf countries.

In response to a media query on travel advisory with respect to Iran and Israel, the Ministry of External Affairs' spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We continue to closely monitor the situation in the region. We have also noted that Iran and Israel have opened their airspace for several days now."

"We advise Indian nationals to remain vigilant while travelling to these countries and be in touch with the Indian embassy," the MEA spokesperson said.

Also Read | Rohith Vemula death: Telangana Police closes case, says not a dalit, caste certificate forged Earlier, in an advisory issued on April 12, the MEA asked the Indian nationals to avoid visiting the two gulf nations amid tensions between Iran and Israel following an Israeli air strike on a building in the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1.

The Israeli air strike killed seven people, including Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran retaliated by firing hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel the next day.

Also Read | Will Shah Rukh Khan visit Wankhede Stadium? Here's why he was banned for 5 years Meanwhile, Israel today confirmed the death of another Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack, news agency AFP reported.

The report said Dror Or, 49, is the latest hostage to have been confirmed dead by Israel after being captured during the Hamas attack that triggered war with Israel.

Also Read | Delhi Police arrests Arun Reddy in Amit Shah doctored video case: Report Or was killed and his body held in the Palestinian territory since October 7. Or's wife was also killed in the initial attack. Two of their three children, aged 17 and 13, were abducted and then freed in November as part of a ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap deal between Israel and Hamas.
India ranked 159 among 180 countries in the latest annual World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF, short for Reporters sans frontieres in French), an international non-profit organization. India had ranked 161 in the 2023 list.

ALSO READ: India slips 11 positions on World Press Freedom Index

Meanwhile, Pakistan ranked seven spots above India at 152. It had ranked 150 in 2023. Norway topped the ranking , while Denmark was on the second rank in World Press Freedom Index. Sweden ranked third on the list.

'Press freedom is in crisis' In its analysis, the RSF claimed that "press freedom is in crisis in 'the worlds largest democracy'  that is India, which has been ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014.

As per the report, nine journalists and one media worker have been detained in India as of today, while no journalist/media worker has been killed in the country since January 2024.

'Draconian laws' The report added that some countries improved rankings in the Index "are misleading inasmuch as their scores fell and the Index rises were the result of falls by countries previously above them".

"This is the case with India (159th), which was pushed up two places despite recently adopting more draconian laws," the report said. It said the Modi govt "has introduced several new laws that will give the government extraordinary power to control the media, censor news and silence critics, including the 2023 Telecommunications Act, the 2023 draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, and the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection Act".

'unofficial state of emergency' The RSF's analysis mentioned that Indias media has fallen into an unofficial state of emergency since PM Modi came to power in 2014 and "engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families dominating the media".

It cited an example, reporting that "Reliance Industries groups magnate Mukesh Ambani...owns more than 70 media outlets that are followed by at least 800 million Indians."

Harassment to journalists The report said journalists, "who are critical of the government are routinely subjected to online harassment, intimidation, threats and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests".

"The situation is also remains very worrisome in Kashmir, where reporters are often harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being subjected to so-called provisional detention for several years," the RSF's analysis added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate for the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency, Ujjwal Nikam, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, asserting that the nation can no longer be dubbed a 'Banana' nation under Modi's leadership.

Nikam, the former public prosecutor who represented the Maharashtra government in several high-profile cases, has replaced incumbent MP Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, as the saffron party's Lok Sabha candidate for the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency. He is contesting the election against Varsha Gaikwad, the sitting MLA and the Mumbai unit chief of the opposition Congress party.

"India's image that PM Modi has created across the world, no one can call our country a 'Banana' nation today... Home Minister has made it clear in the Parliament that old laws need to be changed, and he also changed a lot of them," Nikam told newswire ANI.

The former public prosecutor said that he was not in politics for any gains, adding, Ram Rajya cannot be attained until there is the rule of law amongst the people. I also thought that I should also contribute to the steps taken by the Modi government.

On Thursday, Nikam resigned as a special public prosecutor in all the cases he handled, ahead of submitting his nomination.

Nikam shot to fame after he handled cases related to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and the Khairlanji case, among several others.

Earlier, speaking to PTI, Nikam had said that politics is a new challenge, and he will win the confidence of the common man. I would like to amend extradition laws so that more and more criminals are brought to book. I will float what ideas I have and if the party approves, I will work on them.

When questioned about his opponent, Nikam said, "She is carrying forward her political agenda, while I will do the same for my party. I am confident I will be successful."
Maldives foreign minister Moosa Zameer is likely to visit India next week. Currently, both sides are in touch to finalize the dates, however, sources told The Times Of India that his visit could take place early next week.

This will be the first high-level visit by either since the pro-China president Mohamed Muizzu defeated his India-friendly predecessor Ibrahim Solih and took office last year. Since then, India's relations with its neighbor in the Indian Ocean have suffered repeatedly as a result of Muizzu's efforts to restrict defense and security cooperation with India.

During his India tour, Zameer is expected to discuss Muizzu's potential trip to India later this year with his counterpart S Jaishankar. Maldivian authorities had earlier stated that they had suggested Muizzu pay a visit to India in November, not long after he took the oath of office, the report said.

He is likely to seek a soft approach from India for the repayment of loans take by the Maldivian governments over the years. Muizzu had previously demanded debt relief measures from India for the repayment of "hefty" loans. Muizzu wants to "restore" ties with India on the basis of respect for sovereignty.

The Maldives foreign minister has been trying to build productive groundwork ahead of his visit. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he expressed gratitude to the Indian government for its decision to increase the export of essential items to the Islamic nation for FY25, amid diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

I sincerely thank EAM@DrSJaishankar and the Government of #India for the renewal of the quota to enable #Maldives to import essential commodities from India during the years 2024 and 2025, he said.

This is truly a gesture which signifies the longstanding friendship, and the strong commitment to further expand bilateral trade and commerce between our two countries, Zameer added.

Also, Moosa Zameer's visit coincides with the Lok Sabha elections in India.Zameer would be most likely the last high-profile foreign dignitary India hosts during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term in office.

His visit will also likely coincide with Maldives' May 10 deadline for India to remove its troops and replace them with civilians. Given the country's strategic significancethe majority of the main commerce lanes through the Indian Ocean pass through it, and China has made a sharp resurgence since Muizzu took officeIndia reluctantly gave in to the demand to withdraw its troops.
Top Events of the Day: PM Narendra Modi will hold three rallies in West Bengal. Mumbai Indians (MI) will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 3 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Titan, Britannia Industries, MRF, Tata Tech are among top companies expected to post results on May 3.

Modi's Upcoming Rallies in West Bengal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a series of rallies in West Bengal on May 3. He arrived in Kolkata on Thursday night. His itinerary includes stops in Burdwan, Krishnanagar, and Bolpur. Krishnanagar, in particular, has seen a notable increase in support for the BJP in recent elections.

IPL encounter between MI and KKR: On May 3, the Mumbai Indians, led by Hardik Pandya, will face the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. With three wins from ten matches, Mumbai is currently ninth on the IPL points table.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Rahul Gandhi to contest from Raebareli, KL Sharma from Amethi - Congress leader and Wayanad Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Gandhi will file nomination papers for contesting Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli seat, the Gandhi family stronghold vacated by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, sources said on May 3. Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma could be fielded from Amethi, the seat that Rahul Gandhi lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani in 2019, as per a Mint report.

Launch of Bajaj Pulsar 400: The much-anticipated Bajaj Pulsar 400 is set to be launched on May 3. The motorcycle has garnered considerable interest due to its innovative design and features.

Amit Shah's rally in North Goa: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to speak at a rally in Mapusa, North Goa, on May 3.

Q4 results today: Major corporations, including Titan Co., Tata Technologies, Britannia Industries Ltd., Adani Green Energy Ltd., and MRF Ltd., are poised to announce their fourth-quarter earnings on Friday. Additionally, Godrej Properties Ltd. and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. will also report their results.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers from the party bastion of Raebareli on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed election rallies in Jharkhand. Several leading companies including Titan and Tata Tech released their Q4FY24 results today. Meanwhile pro-Palestine protests expanded to Australia, Canada and Mexico amid growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Here are the top news highlights: Titan announces Q4 results The jewellery and watch maker posted a net profit of 786 crore  a 7% YoY rise from 734 crore in the year-ago period. The company declared a dividend of 11 per share of 1 each.

Rahul Gandhi files nomination from Raebareli Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers from the family bastion of RaeBareli on Friday. Speculative reports had earlier suggested that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would make her Lok Sabha debut from either Amethi or Raebareli  both considered strongholds for the Gandhis. The constituency will go to polls in the fifth phase of general elections on May 20.

ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi files nomination from Raebareli for Lok Sabha Election 2024

Pro-Palestine campus protests go global Pro-Palestine protests erupted across multiple countries this week as the Gaza conflict neared its seventh month. Over 2,000 individuals have been arrested during campus demonstrations in the US in the past two weeks. The protests have since spread to Canada and Mexico  with many urging their governments to sever diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. Similar demonstrations are also underway on college campuses throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

IPL 2024  MI vs KKR Kolkata Knight Riders is facing off against the Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians at Wakhede Stadium. The Shah Rukh Khan-led team is currently second on the table and remains hopeful about breaking its decade-long jinx of not winning an IPL title.
Police in riot gear dismantled the barricades and tents erected by pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California at Los Angeles after violence erupted the previous night with counter-protesters.

Early Thursday, police lined up in rows and began closing in on the protesters, hours after ordering them to leave their encampment in front of the schools Royce Hall theater. More than 200 people were arrested, the Los Angeles Times reported.

UCLA emerged as a West Coast flashpoint as colleges from New York to Texas turned to police this week to shut down escalating campus protests. Demonstrators have been demanding that universities sever financial ties to Israel and grant amnesty to students for rule-breaking, among other goals. The showdowns have grabbed headlines worldwide and sparked both recriminations and support from politicians, faculty and billionaire donors.

Richard Leib, the chair of the University of California Board of Regents, warned late Wednesday that an unsafe environment on the UCLA campus had to be resolved.

Protests that interfere with university operations or threaten the safety of students require immediate enforcement of university policies so that violent situations are prevented, he said in a statement. It is our priority to ensure the safety of all students and allow equal access to education.

Read: Biden Warns Against Violence in Student Protests Over Gaza

Elsewhere in the state at UC Berkeley, the first violent incident at an encampment of more than 100 tents occurred Wednesday evening, as pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with counter-demonstrators.

Dan Mogulof, a university spokesperson, said there was a brief skirmish between the sides that left three people with minor injuries.

We are urging everyone to avoid engaging in pointless provocation and physical conflict, he said in a statement.

In contrast to many other campuses, UC Berkeley hasnt called in law enforcement to shut down its encampment. Protest organizers met with Chancellor Carol Christ to discuss their demands and a potential end to the encampment, the school newspaper reported Wednesday, citing students present. Mogulof declined to comment on the meeting.

The UCLA crackdown lifted the arrest tally to more than 2,000 at college campuses nationwide since New York Citys Columbia University first cleared an encampment in mid-April, according to the Associated Press.

In Los Angeles, police shut down the UCLA encampment about a day after pro-Palestinian protesters were attacked by counter demonstrators, starting a melee. University of California officials said 15 people were injured in that scuffle, including one who was hospitalized.

There must be a full investigation into what occurred on campus, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. Those involved in launching fireworks at other people, spraying chemicals and physically assaulting others will be found, arrested, and prosecuted, as well as anyone involved in any form of violence or lawlessness.

Read: US College Campuses On Edge as Police Move In: Protest Tracker

Classes were canceled Wednesday, with remote learning Thursday and Friday. Even as a sense of normalcy returned to the campus, UCLA students faced a new wave of disruptions from last-minute exam cancellations and rescheduling.

I had a final today that was actually canceled, said Shawn Im, a 20-year-old junior studying math and computer science. Now, its the same day as my other final next week.

With commencement quickly approaching at many schools, the pressure is on administrators to keep order.

At Columbia, more than 100 people were arrested April 18 but protesters reestablished an encampment, spurring a new confrontation with the schools leadership. This week, after the demonstrators barricaded themselves in a university building, police officers entered the campus again, breaking up the escalating protest and arresting 119.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik said she asked police to maintain a campus presence through at least May 17, two days after graduation.

At the University of Texas at Dallas, more than a dozen protesters were arrested Wednesday afternoon after law enforcement broke up an encampment that pro-Palestinian students set up in the morning hours, where hundreds of people had gathered, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Police also made arrests earlier in the week at the Texas schools flagship campus in Austin.

With assistance from Bill Faries, Janine Phakdeetham, Eliyahu Kamisher and Kevin Whitelaw.
Iran has said it released all the crew members of Portuguese-flagged cargo vessel MSC Aries that had 17 Indians among its 25 crews.

Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian mentioned the release of the crew of the ship during a phone conversation with his Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna on Friday, according to an Iranian readout.

Ann Tessa Joseph, the sole woman cadet among the 17 Indian crew members of the Israeli-linked container vessel was released days after the tanker was seized by Iran's military on April 13.

"In response to the request of the Estonian side regarding the Portuguese ship seized in the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the release of the Estonian crew, Amirabdollahian said the ship, which turned off its radar in the territorial waters of Iran and endangered the security of navigation, is detained under judicial rules," the Iranian foreign ministry said.

"He however noted that Iran has already released all the ship's crew members on humanitarian grounds, and if the ship's captain accompanies them, the crew including the Estonians can return to their country," it said.
Canadian police have arrested members of an alleged hit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of India with killing Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, according to a media report on Friday.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September last year of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

New Delhi rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd".

Quoting sources close to the investigation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the police are actively investigating possible links to three additional murders in Canada, including the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.

Members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey in British Columbia, according to the sources.

The men were arrested Friday during police operations in at least two provinces.

Sources said investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada some months ago and have been keeping them under tight surveillance. Police are expected to announce the arrests and share some details of their investigation later Friday, the report said.

Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, was shot dead on June 18, shortly after evening prayers at his Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey.

India had on Thursday rejected fresh comments by Prime Minister Trudeau on the killing of Nijjar and said the remarks once again illustrated the political space given in Canada to separatism, extremism, and violence.

Trudeau addressed a Khalsa Day event in Toronto on Sunday that was attended by some pro-Khalistan people.

On the sidelines of the event, he told the media that the killing of Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year created a "problem" and that he cannot ignore it, in an apparent reference to his earlier allegations of involvement of Indian agents in the assassination.

"PM Trudeau has made such remarks earlier as well. His remarks illustrate once again the political space that has been given in Canada to separatism, extremism, and violence," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi at his weekly media briefing.

"This not only impacts India-Canada relations but also encourages a climate of violence and criminality in Canada to the detriment of its own citizens," he said when asked about Trudeau's remarks.

In his comments to the media, Trudeau, referring to activities by pro-Khalistani elements, said that "our job is not to crack down on political protest".

India on Monday summoned the Canadian deputy high commissioner and lodged a strong protest with him over the raising of pro-'Khalistan' slogans at the event in the presence of Trudeau and several other leaders. Nijjar was a Khalistani separatist and he was wanted in India on various terror charges.

"It is a problem in our relations with India because we cannot ignore that," Trudeau said on the killing of Nijjar.

Days after Trudeau's allegations, India asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country to ensure parity. Subsequently, Canada withdrew 41 diplomats and their family members from India.

India has been asserting that its "core issue" with Canada remained that of the space given to separatists, terrorists and anti-India elements in that country.
Pro-Palestine protests broke out in several countries this week as the war in Gaza neared its seventh month. More than 2,000 people have been arrested during agitations on US college campuses in the last two weeks. Protests have also spread to neighbouring Canada and Mexico with many urging the government to break diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv. Demonstrations and sit-in agitations are also underway on college campuses across large swathes of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The crackdown has also prompted the Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen to offer a place to suspended students. Sanaa University had issued a statement applauding the "humanitarian" position of the students in the United States and said they could continue their studies in Yemen.

We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from US universities for supporting Palestinians. We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can, an official at the Houthi-run Sanaa University told Reuters.
Israel and Hamas are still working to reach a truce amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian militant Group, Hamas  which rules Gaza  is yet to respond to the latest proposal. The proposal has been put before Hamas by the US and Egyptian mediators, reportedly with Israels acceptance.

What does the latest proposal for a truce say? It's a three-stage process. A temporary ceasefire deal is part of the latest proposal.

According to the Associated Press, the deal involves freeing 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas, an immediate six-week ceasefire and the delivery of much-needed food, medicine and water into Gaza. Palestinian prisoners are also expected to be released if Hamas agree to the proposal.

Besides these, there might be negotiations over a permanent calm that includes some sort of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Egyptian officials were quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

As per the New York Times, the proposal also seeks "the return of civilians to the largely depopulated northern part of Gaza". The report cited officials as saying, "Israel would allow displaced Palestinian civilians to return to northern Gaza." This is seen as a "sharp reversal on an issue that has been a sticking point in the talks".

Moreover, it is hoped that a six-week ceasefire will eventually lead to a longer-term ceasefire.

What Hamas wants? A complete end to the war The militant group is seeking guarantees for a full Israeli withdrawal and a complete end to the war. However, the Israeli offer, according to one of the Israeli officials, doesnt include language that refers explicitly to an end to the fighting, the NYT reported.

Hamas is yet to respond to the latest ceasefire proposal. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan was earlier quoted by the New York Times as saying in an interview, "Our position on the current negotiating paper is negative."

The negative position does not mean negotiations have stopped, Hamas press office later clarified, adding, There is a back-and-forth issue. The group has not clearly specified what changes it wants in the latest proposal.

Hamas supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement that the group's negotiators would travel to Cairo to complete the ongoing discussions with the aim of working forward for an agreement.

Last month, Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas political official, had told The Associated Press that the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

In March, Al Jazeera had reported key terms of Hamas' proposal for the Gaza truce. It involved releasing Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire to be divided into three stages, each lasting 42 days.

As per the report, the first phase was about the withdrawal of Israeli forces from al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets. The second phase involved a permanent ceasefire to be declared before any more captives are released and the third stage was about Israel lifting its siege on Gaza, and initiating the rebuilding of the enclave.

'Negotiations will stop if...' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he supports the latest proposed deal. He, however, vowed to carry out a major ground offensive in Rafah with or without a deal.

"The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there  with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory," Netanyahu said as per a an official press release.

Responding to this, Hamas spokesman Hamdan said, If the enemy carries out the Rafah operation, negotiations will stop.

More than one million Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war, the New York Times reported. Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza.

Hamas, Netanyahu in tough spot The NYT report added that Israel's threat to carry out an offensive in Rafah can put pressure on Hamas to take the deal. "But only if Hamas leaders think freeing hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a six-week pause in fighting could eventually lead to a permanent ceasefire and avert a bloody battle in Rafah," the report said.

Meanwhile, the situation has put Netanyahu in tough spot too. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was quoted as saying that if Netanyahu gives up on invading Rafah immediately, a government under his leadership doesnt have "the right to exist".

But, if Israel does agree to end the war in return for a full hostage release, it would be a major turnaround. If Israel and Hamas strike an agreement, it would be the first ceasefire since late November, when a short-lived pause in the fighting allowed for the release of more than 100 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The conflict started on October 7 last year when Hamas launched a surprise attack into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people  mostly civilians  and abducting around 250 hostages. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Boeing whistleblower Josh Dean passed away on Thursday after a sudden illness that has sparked conspiracy theories and murder allegations. His death comes mere weeks after fellow whistleblower John Barnett was found dead from a "self-inflicted" wound. Both individuals had been sharing evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against Boeing at the time of their demise.

Dean was hospitalized after developing breathing problems a little more than two weeks earlier, and struggled with pneumonia and MRSA (a serious bacterial infection). The former quality auditor at a Boeing Co. supplier had raised concerns about the safety of the 737 Max jet and recently deposed in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit. He had also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line at Spirit.

Reports quoting his mother Virginia Green indicate that the family has sought an autopsy to determine exactly what killed Dean.

"This was his first time ever in a hospital," she said. He didn't even have a doctor because he never was sickWe're not sure what he died of. We know that he had a bunch of viruses. But you know, we don't know if somebody did something to him, or did he just get real sick, she told NPR.

The development has sparked debate across social media platforms with many TikTok and X users tagging it as a suspicious turn of events. Others went a step further, accusing the aerospace company of sending a chilling message to those choosing to speak out.

Im not the conspiracy type but the odds of two Boeing whistle blowers, represented by the same law firm, dying within two months of each other seem pretty slim to me, wrote one X user.

Being a Boeing whistleblower is like being a character in the movie Final Destination. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle. Josh died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection, tweeted another.

I dont wish to be alarmist but Boeing is murdering whistleblowers and getting away with it, accused a third.

Boeings safety record and workplace culture is under intense scrutiny after a string of high-profile quality-control problems, including an almost catastrophic midair blowout earlier this year. The incident on an Alaska Airlines flight saw the FAA order a temporary grounding of 171 planes for inspection, while carriers across the globe briefly took their Max 9s out of service. No one was injured and the plane landed safely.

The 737 Max has a troubled history. The jet was grounded by regulators worldwide after deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, which killed the hundreds of passengers on board. A 20-month span followed during which lawmakers and others denounced Boeings safety culture, leading to billions of dollars in lost sales and other costs. The models flight prohibition order was lifted in November 2020 in the US after Boeing made a series of software upgrades and training changes. Other nations then variously followed.
India needs to equip its regulatory authorities and institutions with aviation industry experts to ensure that struggling airlines like Go First can be salvaged and not have to languish in courts. A year of proceedings since Go Firsts filing of a voluntary insolvency application, many of which were unwarranted, have left us with numerous lessons.

The National Company Law Tribunal displayed no sense of urgency in the Go First case. Dates for hearings were given after considerable gaps when the need was to hear the case on priority.

A person with aviation experience would have cautioned that a growing timelapse would mean fading prospects of Go First finding a buyer. In this case, even the ministry of civil aviation and the directorate general of civil aviation did not help the cause.

Go First voluntarily applied for insolvency on 2 May. The NCLT admitted the case on 10 May by placing a moratorium on all the assets of the airline without hearing the other stakeholders, notably aircraft lessors. If there was any prospect of salvaging the airline it lay in dealing with the matter swiftly.

But what we witnessed on 26 April, when the Delhi High Court ordered the DGCA to deregister all 54 Go First aircraft, was an end that had no suspense left for industry watchers.

Go First is not the first airline that has been unable to revive through the insolvency process. Jet Airways is still struggling to revive since its lenders have not been on the same page as the new promoters selected through the insolvency process.

These actions by lenders and the tribunal clearly show that the insolvency court and banks do not realise the urgency when it comes to salvaging an airline in a market environment of rapid and sustained growth.

In the case of Go First, the decision of the promoters to take the airline for insolvency was not only suspect from the very beginning but also laden with mischief. Go Firsts plea for voluntary insolvency resolution was accompanied by an announcement on the suspension of its flights for two days3 and 4 Mayfollowed by about 20 further suspensions to perhaps give an erroneous impression that the airline had been grounded for only a brief period.

Judging from the limited perspective of Go Firsts inability to meet its financial commitments, the voluntary insolvency action can be described as a master strokethe airline gained moratorium on all payments. Simply put, the airline management bought relief for itself by not having to bother about marshalling resources for payments to vendors and lenders.

However, from the perspective of the airline business, it was a disastrous decision since Go First remains grounded, with no solution on the horizon. Unfortunately, as with Kingfisher and Jet Airways, which collapsed in 2012 and 2019, respectively, Go Firsts promoters too continued to display misplaced bravado, making it appear that a resumption of flights was on the anvil when it wasnt.

Lenders pursuing the case ought to have asked themselves a simple question: has any airline after a prolonged suspension of operations taken to the skies again? Even if merely for academic interest, one would like to know from where Go Firsts misplaced optimism emanated when all actions showed that there wasnt any hope for revival. Prolonging the agony was totally unwarranted.

The NCLTs unilateral decision on imposing a moratorium led to 54 aircraft remaining grounded at various airports across the country for around a year, until the Delhi High Court recently decided to let aircraft lessors repossess their capital-intensive assets. The avoidable prolonged delay hasnt helped the countrys campaign of ease of doing business in India.

Jitender Bhargava is a former executive director of Air India and the author of The Descent of Air India
US President Joe Biden has blamed xenophobia" for stalling economic growth in Japan, China and India. His comment will be read with a lot of surprise, especially in India, as will his characterisation of Indias economic growth as stalling", and clubbing it with the decidedly slow-growth club of China and Japan.

Biden made the comment at a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign, so it could be argued that it was for a domestic audience. But it is impossible for any US President to say something like this about other nations and expect it to be ignored outside America.

India prides itself on inclusivity, having pitched for it strongly with the motto of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is a family) at last years G20 summit. China stridently opposed this theme before it was included in the Leaders Declaration, of which Biden was a signatory. The sudden discovery of xenophobia in the signatory countries  including India, China, Russia and Japan  less than a year later is indeed puzzling. For the US to club India with China on this is even more annoying.

Also read: Indian economys report card moving away from the red: Mint tracker

India prides itself as the fastest-growing major economy and to have that repudiated by the US President, even for a domestic audience, rankles. Both the World Bank and the IMF, not to mention scores of investment banks, have upgraded their projections of Indias growth rate not only this year but well into the decade.

While theres no denying that New Delhi has a lot of policy reform to conduct in sectors such as power, tax, land and labour to keep attracting foreign capital, xenophobia is surely not a concern.

Immigration imbalance

Bidens comment was particularly in reference to immigration. He sought to compare the US policy of welcoming immigrants", crediting it as a key reason for the countrys economic growth, with xenophobic" India and others. Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong," the Biden said.

It is true that India does not grant work visas easily  not even to professionals from developed countries, as the work-visa policy is often based on reciprocity". Under these rules, expatriates from countries such as the US and the UK, with which India does not have a social-security agreement, can access 24% of their salaries and allowances only after turning 58. Tax rules on foreign investments have also become more stringent of late.

On the other hand, scores of Indians, especially students and IT professionals, obtain work visas in the US with relative ease. That the quotas for Indians seeking H1B visas is a topic of intense discussion between the two nations makes it easy to overlook this.

Also read: Joe Biden proudest of his work in strengthening India-US ties: Top US official

Yes, if foreign investors are to set up shop in India at scale, our work-visa rules will have to be loosened quickly. We cannot lose sight of that. And yet, the visa regulations and other rules instituted by various ministries for foreign nationals working in India hardly count as xenophobia, which is a distrust of foreigners. The scale of the immigration problem is certainly nowhere close to affecting the growth rate of the Indian economy. That is someone elses problem.

In fact, almost all key countries have in place blanket bans on migration of unskilled labour and stringent restrictions on the migration of skilled workers. Singapore, despite being predominantly dependent on imported workers, has rolled out the Complementarity Assessment Framework (Compass), which poses huge workforce-planning challenges to local and international organisations hiring foreigners to work in the country.

The same is true of the UK, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has seen a political advantage in anti-immigration rhetoric. The number of migrants who arrived in UK in 2022  nearly 7.5 lakh  was "far too high", he said recently.

Playing with fire

But Biden ought to be mindful of playing with fire on this matter. Even conceding that he, too, was playing to the domestic gallery ahead of the elections, if the immigration issue flares up, temperatures between the two countries will rise.

For decades, India has pushed for free movement of labour around the globe known as the Mode 4 issue  at forums such as the WTO. Countering India, both the US and the EU have instead demanded the free movement of capital. Indian negotiators have railed against this.

India is also negotiating free trade agreements with both the UK and the US. Bidens observations, if included in those documents, would represent an unfortunate setback that reduces the room for progress.

Also read: Elon Musk shows why India cant take China-plus-one narrative for granted
Recent world headlines have more and more frequently reported disturbing news on the state of the worlds rivers. The Amazon has experienced its worst drought perhaps in recorded history. The Euphrates, a cradle of civilization, is perilously close to drying up. The Brahmaputra lurches from flood to drought, as do the Nile and Yangtze. Water levels in the Colorado, Rhine and Danube have all declined precipitously, with shipping, transport and power at threat. And in India, at March end, at least 13 rivers draining into the Bay of Bengal had no water.

Since time immemorial, rivers have granted life-giving water and deposited rich sediments that become fertile alluvial soil on which entire civilizations have sprung up. Hunter gatherers have been lured into agricultural domesticity and settled by river banks. With their granaries and stomachs full, settlers had time to create pottery, build cities, create art, play games, punch coins, trade far afield and express their inner muse through writing.

In cognizance of how they sustain life, every culture reveres its rivers. The Ganga embodies this with its Ganga jal believed to sanctify, purify and heal. The Te Awa Tupua in New Zealand is revered by Whanganui tribes as an actual tupuna, or ancestor. Ancient Egyptians saw the Nile as an incarnation of the deity Hapi and its annual flooding was considered so sacred that it marked the New Year in their calendar.

Besides religious spirituality, a rivers curves inspire mathematical wonder. Simon Singh, the mathematician, notes that Einstein was the first to propose that there is a battle beyond order and chaos in the simple poetry of a rivers meander. Even in their craziest meanders, rivers obey a magical symmetry, like much of nature, with an average ratio of  between the actual length and the direct distance between the source of the river and its mouth, where it merges into the sea beyond.

While we may associate rivers with a certain country or state, rivers themselves belong to no nationality. Or rather, they belong to many. The Brahmaputra river begins its life in the Angsi Glacier in the mythically imbued Mount Kailash in Tibet, where it is known as the Tsang Po or Yarlung Zangbo. It enters India in Arunachal Pradesh and is called first the Dihang and then the Brahmaputra. In Bangladesh, its known as the Jamuna until it merges with the Ganga as the Padma and enters the Bay of Bengal through the dense mangrove forests of the Sunderbans.

The Mekong easily and liltingly embraces six names as it flows through Asia: Dza Chu in Tibet, Lancang Jiang in China, Mekaung Myit in Myanmar, Mae Nam Khong in Thailand and Laos, Tonle Thum in Cambodia and Cuu Long Giang in Vietnam. But it is the Danube that boasts of the most nationalities, emerging in Germany and flowing through no less than 10 countries before it empties out into the Black Sea in Moldova and Ukraine.

A rivers identity in many ways is a historical and geographical artefact. Sovereign boundaries dating back to the Treaty of Westphalia are perhaps four or five hundred years old, modern state boundaries maybe a couple of hundred, but a river dates back millions of years. The Narmada, for instance, is estimated to be almost 150 million years old. By contrast, the Brahmaputra, like the young fold Himalayas, is relatively young by riparian standardsonly about 9 million years old. The Indus river arising from the same glacier as the Brahmaputra in Mount Kailash appears to be older (about 25 million years old) and gives its name to the Indus Valley Civilization that arose on its banks.

The Indus, like the Himalayas, is pivotal to understanding the context and navigating the geography of the subcontinent. Known as the Sindhu in Sanskrit, the Hindus to Persians, the Indos in Greek and then adapted by Romans to Indus, the river gave India its name. An Indus tributary, the Jhelum, has been immortalized in a seminal moment in world history in 326 BCE, when Alexander defeated King Porus by secretly crossing the Jhelum in the middle of the night. He landed on a small island in the river, but eventually made his way across and surprised Porus on the other side in the Battle of the Hydaspes, as it was known in Greek. Whether the exchange between Alexander and Porus took place exactly as it has been characterized in legend, lore and history books is a matter of debate, but the fact remains that something in the story has captivated generations. Alexander may have turned back and returned to Macedonia, leaving the land of the Indos, but the Jhelum or Hydaspes has echoed across the ages.

Despite their vital cultural, historical and spiritual legacy, however, rivers have not been protected worldwide even as climate change, pollution and unchecked development have reduced water levels, rendered them toxic and dried them in some cases to a trickle. There have been stirrings around the world to grant rivers legal protection. The 2008 Ecuadorian constitution grants legally enforceable rights to natureincluding rivers, mountains, forests, the air and islands. The Te Awa Tupua in New Zealand was recognized legally in 2017 by the government as a person. Columbias Constitutional Court granted legal personhood to the River Atrato that same year. In 2019, the High Court of Bangladesh recognized the river Turag (and all other rivers) as a living entity with legal rights.

In India, Article 51A of the Constitution states that every citizen has a duty to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife" but this has not amounted to any enforceable protection for rivers. The Uttarakhand high court in 2017 declared the Ganga and Yamuna living entities (on religious grounds), but this was overturned shortly thereafter by the Supreme Court. A movement spearheaded by conservationist Rajendra Singh, the Waterman of India, and the organization Jal Biradari to codify the Rights of Rivers" in Maharashtra is picking up momentum.

It is about time we acknowledged the seminal role of rivers in human culture and existence. Primordial life itself originated in a water hole. Most major rivers predate human civilization itself and have an entire history of their own to tell long before we came along. The Amazon even reversed course to flow into the Atlantic to accommodate the Andes mountain about 100 million years ago. In our after life, our soul crossing the final river is a common metaphor in many religions. Hopefully, on this shore, rivers will be accorded the rights and protection they deserve.

Shonar Lala Chinoy is a Mumbai-based development economist, writer and bibliophile.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the situation of Muslims in today's India is similar to that of the Jews in Germany during dictator Adolf Hitler's era.

"The position of Muslims in today's India is the same as the situation which Jews witnessed or experienced during Hitler's era in the 1930s," Owaisi said in an interview with news agency ANI.

He was quoted as saying, "The gas chamber was the last step. Before that, movies were made, hate speeches took place; there was a whole process to it."

Owaisi also slammed Prime Minister Modi over his "infiltrators" remark during an election rally in Rajasthan. PM Modi had alleged that the Congress plans to give people's hard-earned money and valuables to "infiltrators" and "those who have more children".

Criticising PM Modi for this statement, Owaisi told ANI, "Our PM is saying that Mangalsutra will be removed from Hindu women and given to Muslims. 17 crore Muslims are being called infiltrators."

"Whether Modi ji remains or not, the country will remain. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) among Muslim women has fallen, this is the government's own data," Owaisi said.

"To win an election, you are calling all minorities infiltrators. Hitler also used to say the same thing to Jews that they were not original Germans. Does this language suit the Prime Minister?" Owaisi was quoted by ANI as saying.

Owaisi went on to say that he is ready to prove with suitable data that Muslims are the poorest in the country.

"Is Modi the Prime Minister of only Hindus? They have a fight with Congress, why are we (Muslims) being brought in between? PM should tell that Muslims are the poorest in this country. I am ready to prove this with data," the AIMIM chief said.

BJP leaders react BJP leader Mohsin Raza criticized Owaisi, saying, "He needs to assess his area. He is the biggest Hitler in his area." Raza alleged that Owaisi "himself behaves like a Hitler".

"Under the leadership of PM Modi, the Muslim community is developing and getting benefits from the schemes... They (Congress) have only looted the Muslims... Only Asaduddin Owaisi is talking about the Hindu-Muslim issue. No other Muslim is talking about it...," Raza said.
Rahul Gandhi, who filed his nomination from Raebareli earlier in the day, referred to it as an emotional moment. Further noted that, he has been entrusted with the opportunity to serve at his family's workplace.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the senior Congress leader stated, Nomination from Raebareli was an emotional moment for me! My mother has entrusted me with the responsibility of the family's workplace with great confidence and given me the opportunity to serve it.

Amethi and Raebareli are not different for me, both are my family and I am happy that Kishori Lal ji, who has been serving the area for 40 years, will represent the party from Amethi.

In the ongoing fight for justice against injustice, I seek the love and blessings of my loved ones. I am confident that all of you stand with me in this fight to save the Constitution and democracy, he goes on to add.

Will invigorate the party: Congress on Rahul Gandhi filing nomination from Raebareli Earlier, in the morning, the Congress ended the suspense over Amethi and Raebareli, announcing his candidature from the seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades. She recently moved to the Rajya Sabha.

Gandhi had lost from the adjoining Amethi constituency to BJPs Smriti Irani in 2019, but won from Wayanad in Kerala  a seat he is contesting this time as well. The former Congress president was accompanied by party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as he handed over his papers to district election officer Harshita Mathur around 2 pm on the last day for filing nominations.

His return to the area, albeit for a second constituency, will invigorate the party, Congress officials said.
I was born in September 1939, the month Hitler marched into Poland. My earliest memories are of World War II. Americas menincluding several of my uncles, all incredibly youngwere called up and sent overseas. The home front had a wistful innocence, touched with fear. An emptiness. The long suspense.

Hiroshima broke the spell. I remember images of a mushroom cloudsomething entirely new in the worldon the front pages of the Washington Post and the Evening Star. That terrible flash brought the end of the war. As the years passed, mixed feelings would settle in, the moral fallout.

Out of Europe emerged other images that lodged deep in the mind. These were scenes from the grainy, flickering films of the concentration camps, in which bulldozers pushed skeletal corpses into mass graves and the living dead in filthy striped pajamas hung on the wire, their eyes dark and staring and filled with unknowable horror. That was the American childs first sight of evil.

Antisemitism, I thought, would have been impossible after thator anyway far less likely in the world, in America. I believed that for years.

A child couldnt begin to grasp the meanings of either Hiroshima or Auschwitz. But he felt their power, their primordial significance. As the years passed, he would think about them. He kept changing his mind about whether, morally speaking, Hiroshima and Auschwitz were to be considered opposites or, in their terrible consequences, twins.

He knew that Auschwitz and the rest of Hitlers Final Solution were evil, beyond doubt or discussion: the ne plus ultra of evil, beneath which human wrong could not conceivably descend. Hiroshima was different. It involved the infliction of great death on innocent noncombatants. But was it, for that reason, a great evil? The paradox: Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki saved millions of American and Japanese lives that would have been lost if the U.S. had been obliged to invade the home islands. The journalist Evan Thomas, in his recent book Road to Surrender," has showndecisively, I thinkthat the atomic bombs were necessary, because nothing less would have persuaded the fanatical Japanese high command to surrender.

Are we to think of Hiroshima, then, as a sort of good evil, an oxymoron? A necessary evil? A defensible evil?

It took two years for Abraham Lincoln to find Ulysses Grant, a commanding general who would fight despite the deaths he knew must come: who could face the arithmetic" and accept the hard necessity of great death before the issue could be decided and the Union saved.

Whats the arithmetic in Gaza? Is the Israeli invasion in response to the Oct. 7 massacres a necessary evil? Or just an evil?

Arithmetic is bitter in that part of the world. In the Black September of 1970, Jordans King Hussein saved his Hashemite kingdom from Palestinian fedayeen by killing 25,000 of them. That was Yasser Arafats count; some said the figure was lower. In the 1980s, the Iran-Iraq war produced one million or two million casualties even as, nearby in Syria, Hafez al-Assad responded to a 1982 Muslim Brotherhood uprising by reducing much of the city of Hama to Carthaginian rubble. In three weeks, he killed tens of thousands of his own people. One account stated that Assads forces combed the wreckage of the city for survivors, torturing and executing suspected members of the resistance." Thomas Friedman of the New York Times coined the phrase Hama Rules." Assads son and successor, Bashar al-Assad, employs his fathers tactics against rebel enclaves, using nerve agents and chlorine, destroying hospitals, schools and markets.

Hamas operates by Hama Rules. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators dont tell us how Israel should respond when assaulted thus. A cease-fire now wouldnt be enough, in this viewif Israel had any decency, it would vanish from the face of the earth. Next morning, the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea would revert to the fig tree and the olive grove and the plashing of fountains: to the prelapsarian, pre-1948 never land of all-Palestinian Palestine. And all would be well. From the river to the sea, the land would be, in the Nazis wistful term, judenreincleansed of Jews.

In Gaza the cost of innocent Palestinian lives is high. The arithmetic is bitter indeed. But the grown-up world, if it still exists, must face it. Decent people grieve for the innocent Palestinians. They are victims of Hamas, of its evil leadership and deeds.

Demonstrators who call for the extinction of Israel and even for the killing of Jews are, at the very least, guilty of inexcusable naivete about evil, terrorism and the darkness that, as experience teaches, may easily descend. They havent the knowledge of history or sense of tragedy to understand how horrorsurreal and satanicwill suddenly evolve. It could happen here. Some of these people wish it would happen here. They promise that Oct. 7 will be repeated a thousand times.

That day, with its gleeful mutilations, its rampages, its rapes and beheadings, its baby-killingsuch evil needs crushing, just as slavery needed crushing at Gettysburg, which was the turning point of the American Civil War. In three days, 50,000 men were killed or wounded there. Later, William Tecumseh Shermans march through the Southern heartland was more than a touch Carthaginian. A just war, no less than an unjust one, may involve tragic arithmetic.

Mr. Morrow is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of The Noise of Typewriters: Remembering Journalism."
WASHINGTONThe Pentagon is shifting jet fighters, armed drones and other aircraft to Qatar, repositioning its forces to get around restrictions on conducting airstrikes from an air base long used by the U.S. in the United Arab Emirates.

The U.A.E. informed the U.S. in February that it would no longer permit American warplanes and drones based at Al Dhafra air base in Abu Dhabi to carry out strikes in Yemen and Iraq. That has prompted U.S. commanders to send the additional aircraft to Al Udeid air base in Qatar, the small Persian Gulf monarchy that hasnt imposed similar restrictions, U.S. officials said.

The move highlights the growing tensions between Washington and some Persian Gulf countries that have allowed American forces to be based on their territory but are wary of being drawn into a regional conflict as the eight-month-old war in Gaza has spread.

The U.S. has access to numerous bases across the Middle East that it has used in recent months to conduct airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. It has also intercepted drones and missiles over the Red Sea and in the airspace over Jordan and other countries.

But as regional tensions have risen, the U.A.E. has grown increasingly nervous that it could be targeted by Iranian proxies in the region if it is seen to be publicly aiding U.S. military operations, officials said.

Restrictions have been imposed on strike missions against targets in Iraq and Yemen," a U.A.E. official told The Wall Street Journal, explaining the decision to limit U.S. warplanes based in its territory from conducting airstrikes. Those restrictions are coming from a place of self-protection."

Iraq and Yemen were made off limits to attacks from aircraft based at Al Dhafra because the U.S. was slow to take action to defend the U.A.E. after it came under attack from militias in those countries in early 2022, according to the Emirati official.

The U.S. arranged with the Qataris in recent days to bring in the additional jet fighters, reconnaissance planes and armed drones to Al Udeid, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

U.S. drones have been especially important in the U.S. attacks in Yemen, striking missile launchers and other Houthi targets. Last month, the Houthis said they shot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone with a surface-to-air missile, releasing footage of the wreckage. The Pentagon confirmed one of its drones crashed in Yemen, the third MQ-9 lost during the conflict with the Houthis in the past six months.

U.S. airstrikes in Yemen havent halted Houthi targeting of ships in the Red Sea and even a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war might not end the attacks, Avril Haines, the U.S. director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.

They continue to indigenously produce a fair amount of [drones], other weapons systems and so on and of course, theyre also getting assistance from the Iranians in this respect," Haines said.

Iran last month launched more than 120 ballistic missiles, more than 30 cruise missiles and approximately 170 drones at Israel, following an Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed senior Iranian commanders. The Saudis and Emiratis shared intelligence that aided Israels defense but have declined to publicly describe their role further.

In Yemen, the Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on commercial vessels and naval forces operating in the region, including the U.S., according to a May 1 Congressional Research Service report. In response, the U.S. has targeted the Houthis with airstrikes in an effort to curtail the strikes and pressed for a Gaza cease-fire as part of a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Houthis have said their attacks would end when the war in Gaza ends.

Late last month, for the first time, the Houthis attacked a containership sailing in the Indian Ocean with a drone, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Red Sea attacks.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier that has carried out some of the manned aircraft strikes in recent months, is likely to depart the region by this summer and may not be replaced, U.S. officials said. The carrier is currently in the Mediterranean Sea after completing a port visit in Greece.

The carriers looming departure increased the urgency for the Pentagon to shift planes to Al Udeid, so the U.S. can continue flying missions over Yemen, the U.S. officials said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said U.S. basing partnerships remain critical to our efforts to work with allies and partners to support security and stability in the region," but declined to comment on specific basing agreements.

Al Udeid air base is home to one of the largest hubs for U.S. military aircraft, as well as the U.S. Air Forces regional command center. It was critical to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, allowing a steady stream of cargo ships to evacuate Americans and Afghans and initially housed refugees leaving.

Qatar, a Persian Gulf monarchy the size of Connecticut, has also long hosted Hamass political leadership. It has served as a key intermediary in the effort to negotiate a cease-fire in the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The U.A.E. has been a close partner for the Pentagon over the past several decades and has participated in half a dozen U.S.-led military campaigns in the region.

In addition to shifting operations to Qatar, the U.S. is considering launching strikes from Djibouti, in East Africa, U.S. officials said.

Stephen Kalin contributed to this article.

Write to Nancy A. Youssef at nancy.youssef@wsj.com, Gordon Lubold at gordon.lubold@wsj.com and Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com
SINGAPOREAcross China and among the global scientific community, Fridays launch of a Chinese mission to collect samples from the moons far side has been hailed for its potential for a scientific breakthrough.

But in the U.S., lawmakers and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are closely watching the expedition with trepidation: as a milestone in a rivals campaign to build a base on the moons most strategic location.

The latest frontier of the U.S.-China technological Cold War orbits 240,000 miles above us. Though lacking the specter of nuclear war from the U.S.-Soviet space race six decades ago, this new rivalry puts this centurys superpowers on track to spar over lunar real estate, extraterrestrial weaponry and national pride.

The lunar territory that both countries covet is the south pole. It contains resources that could sustain a crewed base, so supplies wouldnt have to be schlepped in from Earth. It has ice, which can be turned into water and oxygen for humans, and into hydrogen for rocket fuel. Some south-pole regions enjoy round-the-clock sunlight, a potential source of solar power.

My concern is if China got there first and suddenly said, OK, this is our territory. You stay out," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told a congressional hearing last month. Nelson said Chinas aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea offer a clue as to how Beijing would handle a potential lunar dispute.

A crater near the south pole is the destination of the 53-day mission that lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in southern China on Friday afternoon local time. It is aiming to do something no country has done before: collect samples from the moons far side and bring them to Earth. Scientists hope they can help answer longstanding questions about the origins of the moon, Earth and solar system.

China started its lunar-exploration program in 2004, naming it after the Chinese moon goddess, Change. The program has steadily hit milestones. In 2019, China achieved humanitys first soft landing on the moons far side with Change 4. A year later, Change 5 collected soil samples from the moons near side.

What is astounding to me is theyre almost meeting all their stated timelines," said Namrata Goswami, a professor at Arizona State Universitys Thunderbird School of Global Management who focuses on space policy.

The current Change 6 mission essentially combines the previous two missions. The challenge is location. The moon rotates in such a way that the same side always faces Earth. Maintaining communications with a spacecraft on the far side requires China to set up a relay satellite that orbits the moon.

The success of this mission will determine whether China can hit its goal of putting astronauts on the moon by the end of this decade. Sample-return missions follow the exact same steps that any human mission to the moon will go through," said James Head III, a Brown University professor who worked on NASAs Apollo program and collaborated with Chinese scientists on studying Change 6 landing zone. Theres a lot of practicing going on here."

The missions are slowly building toward Chinas goal of building a permanent base on the moons south pole, called the International Lunar Research Station, in collaboration with Russia by 2035.

NASA hopes to have a permanent presence on the moon before then. A plan for its Artemis program, published in 2020, was to establish an Artemis Base Camp on the south pole after American astronauts returned to the moons surface. But a crewed mission to the lunar surface, originally scheduled for 2025, has been delayed to at least September 2026 because of challenges with the spacecrafts heat shield, among other issues.

NASA envisions using the moon as a steppingstone for crewed missions to Mars, using the moons surface as practice for red-planet missions and perhaps lunar ice for fuel.

Besides worrying that China could try to block other nations from accessing the south pole, Nelson said that Chinas space program, despite a stated civilian mission, appeared to harbor military aims. In effect, we are in a race," said Nelson, who was a Democratic senator before he ran NASA."

A moon base could help a government disable enemy satellites, for example, said Goswami, the professor.

NASA and Chinese officials didnt respond to requests for comment for this article. Chinas Foreign Ministry has previously said that China opposes the weaponization of space, while accusing the U.S. of threatening its peaceful use.

Some Washington lawmakers are monitoring the current Change 6 mission. In a congressional hearing with Nelson earlier this week, Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, cited the mission as an example of challenges that NASA faces.

To maintain U.S. leadership in space, we must pay close attention to Chinas space exploration efforts," Lucas said in a statement. There are too many consequences for our competitiveness, our national security and our continued ability to explore space at stake."

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Clarence Leong at clarence.leong@wsj.com
China launched the Chang'e-6 lunar probe atop the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province on Friday.

The lunar probe is set to collect samples from the far side of the moon (not visible from the Earth), making this mission the first of its kind in human history as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

Watch as China's Change'e-6 mission lifts off: The mission, dubbed Change, is named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess. Chang'e-6 is the latest in a series of Chinese lunar missions. This mission will last 53 days. Chang'e-4 mission was the first to visit the far side of the moon in 2019. It included a rover to explore the moon's Von Karman crater.

The Chang'e-6 mission will land in South Pole-Aitken Bason on the far side of the moon, China's state media CGTN reported on Friday. The mission is tasked with collecting and returning samples from the moon's mysterious far side for research purpose. This is the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

The Global Times cited the China National Space Administration (CNSA) as saying that the Change-6 mission will carry a number of international payloads to the Moon, including the European Space Agency's lunar surface ion analyzer, France's radon detection instrument, Italy's laser corner reflector, and a CubeSat from Pakistan.

Pakistan launched its first satellite mission to the moon, iCube Qamar, on board China's Chang'E6 from Hainan, China. The satellite has been designed and developed by the Institute of Space Technology (IST) in collaboration with China's Shanghai University and Pakistan's national space agency SUPARCO.

The primary purpose of CubeSats is to facilitate scientific research, technology development, and educational initiatives in space exploration.

Dr Khurram Khurshid, a member of the Core Committee at the IST, told Geo News that Pakistan's satellite  being carried by China's Long March-5 rocket  will reach the lunar orbit in five days and will circle around the moon for three to six months.
PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1: The smartphone

ACCUSED OF: Stealing your attention, sanity and well-being

REWARD: Some new AI-powered gadget, costing up to $699

After years of smartphone innovation, a new crop of devices aims to free us from them. AI assistants are embedded in your glasses or a pin on your lapel. Some dont even require a smartphone to be nearby. Imagine it! Our hands free once again to eat, push strollers, brush our teeth.

Humane, a San Francisco-based startup, put its AI computer in a $699 pin. Rabbit, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup, put it in a little red $199 box. Meta added AI to its camera-equipped $299 Ray-Ban smart glasses.

They look different but the tech is similar. The virtual assistants, powered by large language models, use cameras to see and microphones to hear. Then they try to assist you. An elephantine emphasis on the word try.

The Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin are more science project than finished product. In my weeks of testing them, I often wondered: What did I do to deserve this? The error messages. The delayed response times. The always-dead batteries. My 2-year-old heard the Humane pin say Input passcode" so many times he started running around the house yelling it.

Meanwhile, Meta has made a simple, smartly priced gadget that should be the envy of other tech giants.

When Apples Siri, Amazons Alexa and Googles Assistant came on the scene a decade ago, we expected assistants with real smarts everywhere. No screens or little boxes required. We never got that. Now, generative AI might succeed in giving us the incredible, invisible computer. These are the first real attempts to deliver it.

The options

Behold, your buffet of AI gadgets:

Humane AI Pin: Your grandmas heavy brooch designed by Iron Mans stylist. Clip the cell-connected device to your shirt, hold down on the touchpad and ask your question. Stick out your hand and the built-in laser ink" display projects right on your palmwhich is hard to see outdoors. Also, good luck not looking like a mime when trying to get it to work.

Rabbit R1: You dont wear the bright red Rabbit. Instead, the box, about the size of a pack of Kraft Singles, comfortably fits in your pocket. Press and hold the button to ask the assistant a question and use the scroll wheel to navigate through the on-screen menus.

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses: Tom Cruises famous Risky Business" Wayfarer sunglasses but with a camera and microphones. Just say Hey Meta" and the assistant is there. Unlike the other two, which connect directly to cellular or Wi-Fi, this one is dependent on a smartphone.

While they all have their own particular hardware foibles, they all share a big one: Since theres no keyboard, youre constantly talking out loud to these things. Hope your friends and family have good noise-canceling headphones.

The tricks

To see them in action, I strapped them all to my body and went on a testing tour.

Visual recognition. The devices cameras and generative-AI connection enable you to ask questions about whatever youre looking at. I visited Bideawee, a pet adoption center in New York. And yes, all three gadgets could tell the difference between a cat and a dog, but only Meta consistently named breeds, which seemed fairly accurate.

Party tricks aside, Meta did a better job with contextual answers, too. When I stared at an adorable puppy and asked what I should feed him, the Meta assistant replied, A Great Dane puppy requires a high-quality, large-breed puppy food that is rich in protein, moderate in fat and contains appropriate vitamins and minerals."

Meta may have a bad rap for data collection and creepy ads, so maybe this will trigger Purina promos. The company says the photos and videos captured arent used for personalized ads though the Meta AI feature is subject to the companys terms of service, which does state it could use AI prompts to improve its products.

Language translation. Humane and Rabbit promise live translation in over a dozen languages, so I stopped by Manhattan Mandarin to meet with my patient new tutor, Michelle Tomizawa.

The Rabbit just wouldnt work. It took four whole minutes to translate a basic guidebook phrase like Wheres the bathroom?" You know whats faster? Checking every hallway in the building. The company says a fix was released in a software update Thursday.

With the Humane pin, though, we had an actual conversationme in English, Michelle in Mandarin. I asked for directions to the bathroom (upstairs and on the left), if there were nuts in the dumplings (no) and what to do in Beijing. (Here I come, Forbidden City!)

Yet when we went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, the pin translated everything the waitress said intoSpanish! It took a hard restart to fix. (Watch my video to see it unfold.)

Metas glasses dont do live audio translation. They will translate the text of select languages in a photo or signjust not Mandarin.

General assistance. These assistants dont just repeat whats on the web, like Siri or Alexa. Each gave me accurate details about planting tulips and grilling a steak.

Yet the advanced AI assistants couldnt do some smart-assistant basics, like set a timer. When I asked the Rabbit to play Taylor Swifts latest album, it promptly played a song from 18 years ago! Plus, getting an answer from Humane and Rabbit can take so long there should be hold music.

Rabbit and Humane have already released software updates to address some issues. They plan to release more.

The future

Tech companies are all talking about the next big phase: AI agents. These personal assistants will anticipate our needs and then go deal with them for us.

It makes sense that this more humanlike assistant will need to live in a gadget that can see and make sense of the world. It also makes sense that it would connect to the most important device in our lives.

So yes, there are two AI gadgets that will be of service to you right now. One is the smartphone you already own.

The other? Those cool Meta Ray-Bans. Not only are Metas AI tools fun and reliable but the glasses built-in cameras make it easier to take pictures and videos when Im playing with my kids.

Life is pretty great when youre not looking down at a screen. Or YELLING AT A BROOCH IN A RESTAURANT!

Write to Joanna Stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com
by Kristen Manning

Platinum Thoroughbreds is pleased to announce its 2024 roster  three well credentialed stallions from three prolific sire lines and great value too!

The Hilldene property is home to Pierros son Bellevue Hill, Snitzels son Jukebox and the Invincible Spirit line horse Scorpz.

One of the outstanding Pierros 37 stakes winners, Bellevue Hill caught the eye early  secured by the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott stable for $400,000 at Easter. And he was straight into form at two, creating a big impression with a five length win at his debut in the Black Opal Preview.

A game second splitting Yes Yes Yes and Dubious with Bivouac fourth in the Gr.2 Todman Stakes at just his second out, Bellevue Hill worked hard in running  atoning for that defeat with an easy all the way victory in the Gr.3 T.L Baillieu Handicap at Rosehill.

Out of a winning daughter of Exceed And Excel from a local speed family, Bellevue Hill has had only limited opportunities to date but his first two runners are both displaying good ability  Diva Las Vegas an easy all the way debut winner at Newcastle for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott whilst Jackpot Bingo has finished off nicely at his first two starts.

The breed are showing good speed, as are the progeny of another under utilized stallion in Jukebox  the talented Gr.3 Vain Stakes winner who is also overcoming the odds to produce smart horses.

Such as the Gr.1 Goodwood bound Johnny Rocker  a Listed winner at two and so brave when second to Imperatriz in the Gr.1 William Reid Stakes.

Boasting a fascinating pedigree with his 4 X 4 cross of Redoutes Choices grandam Dancing Show, Jukebox is by the outstanding sire of sires Snitzel out of the stakes winning juvenile Jestatune  a Rorys Jester mare who also has two stakes winning grandsons; Bruckner and Beethoven.

Completing the Platinum roster is the handsome Scorpz, a Gr.3 winning and Gr.1 New Zealand Derby placed galloper by Invincible Spirits high class son Charm Spirit.

One of that multiple Gr.1 winners 19 stakes winners, Scorpz is out of a Dubawi mare whose stakes winning dam For The Good Times also produced the stakes winners Fast N Rocking and Good N Fast.

Scorpz has his first two-year-olds in pre-training and the studs Rene Hoefchen is excited about their progression.

They are strong, stylish types like Scorpz and we are confident that once they hit the track people are going to start noticing him!

Happy with the strength of the Platinum roster, Hoefchen said that he is looking forward to the future with his three up-and-comers.

Bellevue Hill  $9900 inc GST

Jukebox  $9900 inc GST payable upon live foal

Scorpz  $7700 inc GST

Nestled in the heart of Victorias prime thoroughbred country, Platinum Thoroughbreds is ready to welcome your mare.

For further details, get in touch on 0417 573 661 or [email protected]

https://www.platinumthoroughbredsvictoria.com/
MOSCOW  The prosecution and defense in the Bryan Kohberger case pointed fingers at each other during a Thursday hearing regarding whether certain information about evidence should be made public.

Latah County District Judge John Judge ultimately decided to keep a May 14 hearing closed to the public despite the wishes of Kohbergers attorney Anne Taylor.

Kohbergers defense claims it has submitted requests for more evidence from the prosecution, including cellphone tower information, drive test information, video of a vehicle near the crime scene and audio from a video, Taylor said.

Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the November 2022 stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Taylor accused the prosecution of intentionally withholding this evidence for its own interests.

What is the state trying to hide? Taylor said.

Taylor argued these matters should be discussed in public hearings. She said information about evidence against Kohberger has already been made public, including the alleged DNA on a knife sheath found at the crime scene, and the alleged cellphone data used to track Kohbergers whereabouts the day of the murders.

Bryan is innocent, Taylor said, and he has a right to public hearings.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompsons called Taylors accusations about withholding evidence utter nonsense.

He said his team is providing the defense with everything it can when the prosecution receives it. He also discussed the delays and difficulty of working with federal investigators who have their own rules to follow. Additionally, Thompson claimed that some of the evidence Taylor has asked for does not exist.
A Lewiston man was sentenced to 5-20 years of probation and will have to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a child a few decades ago.

Favor Heath, 53, pleaded guilty to the charges Feb. 20 and was sentenced Thursday at the Nez Perce County Courthouse as part of a Rule 11 plea agreement, which can be accepted by a judge or the defendants guilty plea can be revoked.

Second District Judge Michelle Evans delivered the sentence but suspended it to impose probation for the same length of time. There were several other conditions imposed by Evans including registering as a sex offender, 100 hours of community service, attending treatment and having a no-contact order with the victim for 20 years.

Heath will spend 30 days in jail, which will begin today and continue every weekend for 15 weeks. Evans asked if theres anything preventing him from starting this weekend and Heath mentioned he uses an oxygen tank. Nez Perce County Jail deputies in the courtroom said they could accommodate that. Heath could also serve up to 30 days jail at the discretion of his probation officer.

He will also have to pay a civil penalty to the victim of $5,000 and court costs of $545.50. As part of the agreement, one count of lewd conduct with a minor was dismissed.

The victim in the case gave her impact statement to the court and shared how Heaths actions damaged her mentally, emotionally, physically and financially, and she often becomes emotional.

She said his actions prevented her from developing as a child, and she has post-traumatic stress disorder and continuous traumatic stress disorder, a condition that can occur in people who have been exposed to danger repeatedly or for a long period of time.

She outlined other ways the abuse impacted her mental health, including the onset of chronic anxiety, depression and other health issues like ulcers, cysts and polyps because of the stress. Her anxiety and mental health from the trauma has impacted her academically, which has affected her job opportunities.

She said Heath began to sexually assault her multiple times as a toddler and she was groomed from a young age. She thought the behavior was normal until she learned at school that it wasnt.

My childhood was stolen ... by this monster, she said.

She said no one believed her allegations when she was young, and she kept being brought to Heaths home. She was in an unfathomable amount of pain and attempted suicide.

As she grew up she developed an eating disorder, drinking at 14, smoking marijuana at 16, becoming sexually active and inflicting self-harm. She started therapy but quit because it was too painful. Then at 28 years old she began seeing another therapist and has continued to do so the last 10 years.
Electricity demand in the Northwest is expected to grow more than 30% in the next decade, or about 5% more than estimated last year and triple the prediction three years ago, industry experts said in a new report.

Large data centers, an increase in high-tech manufacturing and growing electrification in homes, buildings and transportation are key factors in the forecast.

The projections are in an annual report published Wednesday by the Portland, Ore.-based industry trade group Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee.

For more than 70 years, the group has analyzed annual demand projections from utilities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana to paint a larger picture of future demand for electricity throughout the region.

In 2022, the committee projected demand would grow about 1% each year to 2032. In its latest report, the committee projects demand in the Northwest will grow at least 3% per year until 2034.

The report said that the rapid expansion of data centers is one of the chief drivers in increased electricity use.

Oregons data center market is the fifth largest in the nation, according to Chicago-based commercial real estate group Cushman & Wakefield. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and X, formerly named Twitter, have massive data centers in eastern Oregon as well as in The Dalles, Hillsboro and Prineville that require enormous amounts of energy to operate.
CHEERS ... to retired Lewiston High School librarian Mary Ann Funk and her fellow self-described library fans who are mounting a local defense of liberty.

The group has presented a resolution of support for the library, which the Lewiston City Council will hear May 13.

The measure comes weeks after Gov. Brad Little acquiesced to the book-banning wing of the Idaho Legislature by signing what he acknowledged to be a stinking library bill. The measure targets libraries for a $250 fine plus legal and liability insurance costs if they resist efforts to remove materials someone deems to be harmful to minors.

Until it takes effect on July 1, no one is quite sure what kind of legal deluge is headed toward public and school librarians. But the author of this yearslong effort, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti, is a self-admitted theocrat who two years ago told the Idaho Capital Sun: We really do have to choose: Its Christ or chaos.

In any event, people such as Idaho Falls Library Director Robert Wright says he has his city attorneys telephone number on speed dial while Meridian Library District trustee Jeff Kohler mused about stopping minors at the library door  unless they brought a parent along.

We couldnt risk the legal liability otherwise, he said.

Enter Funk, whose resolution offers a breath of fresh air:

It reiterates a librarys historical mission as a means for people to access and borrow books to enhance knowledge and be able to attain and read books for pleasure and the pursuit of knowledge.

It cites the synergistic relationship between the First Amendments guarantee to free expression and the right to have a free and unfettered access to books in our public libraries that meet the cultural and social needs of all patrons.

Its a reminder that libraries support self-government by providing citizens with free, equal and open access to information.

Not that ordinary Idahoans need reminding. During a series of legislative hearings on the bill, testimony overwhelming opposed it  and a recent Boise State University Public Policy Survey found 69% trust librarians more than they do politicians.

But a statement of support from the elected leadership of Lewiston  as is happening in other communities across the state  is an act of defiance against a special interest-dominated Legislature that would substitute its judgment for our own.

CHEERS ... to Gabriella Green, the spouse of University of Idaho President C. Scott Green.

So far, shes the sole donor  having contributed $25,000  behind a political action committee, Idaho Deserves Better, which has one target: Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola.

As Idaho Education News Kevin Richert reported this week, Idaho Deserves Betters third-party campaign has already devoted $18,558 to advertising against Foreman.

Its not as if Foreman hasnt earned it. During two terms in the Senate  first in 2016-18 and currently  Foreman has gone out of his way to fight the economic engine in his Latah County-based district.

He famously called Moscow a cesspool of liberalism and accused the UI of pursuing a left-wing, exceedingly liberal agenda.

Last year, he was among eight hard-right Republican senators  including Riggins Cindy Carlson  who opposed allocating $1 million to help the UI cover security costs in the aftermath of the Nov. 13, 2022, murders of students Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Wash.; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur dAlene.
Alabama officials clear way for Biden to appear on states fall ballot
NASHVILLE (AP)  One of the two Black lawmakers briefly expelled from Tennessee's GOP-controlled Statehouse last year will remain on the 2024 ballot after overcoming a challenge from a Republican opponent.

Earlier this year, Rep. Justin Jones submitted 26 signatures to Nashville election officials in order to qualify to run as a Democratic candidate. He needed at least 25 signatures from verified voters in his district.

After one of Jones' signatures was disqualified, Republican challenger Laura Nelson filed a complaint challenging the validity of 10 others.

At a late Thursday meeting, Nelson questioned the authenticity of the list of signatures, noting that at least one of the names on it had been misspelled while another name appeared as a signature when it should have been printed.

At the end of the day, if we dont know how to spell our own name, we should not be signing this legal document, Nelson said, prompting many of Jones' supporters in the crowd to boo and yell.

Jones countered that he had had each person in question sign and submit a notarized affidavit to the Davidson County Election Commission. Some of those who signed the petition testified in front of the commission at Thursday's meeting.

Two members of the Tennessee Three seek to win back remainder of their terms in special elections Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were thrown out of their seats in a move that effectively canceled out the votes of their tens of thousands of constituents.

Jones called Nelson's challenge frivolous and said it was the latest indication of a pattern of political harassment.

Commission members ultimately voted 3-1 to approve Jones' signatures. One member abstained.

Nelson promised to appeal. Meanwhile, commission chair Jim DeLanis urged Jones to gather more signatures next time he runs for political office.

The Republican-controlled Tennessee House ousted Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, a fellow young Black Democrat, last April over their megaphone-amplified protest on the House floor calling for gun control just days after six people were killed in a shooting at a Christian elementary school. Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, was spared from expulsion for her role in the demonstration by one vote.

Jones and Pearson were quickly reappointed back to their positions and then reelected in special elections.
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Parents across Ireland have been urged to be aware that they can claim Rent Tax Credits for rooms their children are renting in college, that the parents are paying for, even if receipts were never provided.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath appealed to parents to apply for the relief that could be a much needed cash boost for families.

The credit was originally brought in in 2022 but has since widened in Budget 2024 to help ease the cost of living for parents who are paying massive rates for accommodation for their children attending college.

Parents can avail of this welcomed credit as long as they can provide as much information as possible to Revenue.

Speaking in the Dail, Minister McGrath said:

"In Finance Act 2023, the eligibility of the credit was extended to parents who pay for their student children's rental accommodation in the case of rent-a-room accommodation or digs.

"This amendments will apply to the years of assessment 2024 and 2025 and retrospectively to the years of assessment 2022 and 2023.

"In circumstances where receipts in respect of a rent-a-room tenancy are not available, an individual can still claim the Rent Tax Credit and should be in a position to provide as much information as possible to Revenue about their rental arrangement when making a claim."

What you need to provide to Revenue:

The amount of rent paid in total

The address o the property

Name of the landlord

Date the tenant began the lease

If the child returns home at the weekends and during holidays, parents can still claim the tax credit.

If the student pays the rent themselves, they can claim the tax credit in their own name, however, the student must be under an agreed tenancy with the landlord and also registered with the Rental Tenancies Board (RTB).

If the student is living in Student Specific Accommodation provided by their college or another private investigation, this must be registered or the tax relief cannot be claimed.

For any claims relating to the 2022 and 2023 assessment year click here.

Claims for the 2024 can be made once the student or parent have already paid 2,500 in rent this year.
Anti-racism groups have criticised the decision not to prosecute gardai involved in the fatal shooting of a black man outside his home.

George Nkencho, 27, died outside his home in December 2020, after being shot multiple times by members of a Garda armed support unit while allegedly brandishing a knife.

He was experiencing mental health issues at the time.

The incident was the subject of an independent criminal investigation by GSOC (Garda ombudsman), which concluded in June 2023 with the submission by GSOC of an investigative file to the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Following the DPPs decision not to prosecute the case, Mr Nkenchos family expressed disappointment as they indicated they would launch an appeal.

On Thursday, anti-racism demonstrators staged a protest outside the Department of Justice in Dublin.

About 40 people gathered and held signs with slogans such as Justice for George Nkencho, Gardai cant be exempt from trial and travesty of justice.

Members of the Nkencho family, including Georges mother, Blessing, were also in attendance.

Pierre Yimbog, co-founder of Black and Irish, said Mr Nkencho needed support and said the decision not to seek a prosecution was a miscarriage of justice.

He added: George suffered and needed support and empathy. Instead, he was met with quick decisions which  in our view  was excessive force.

Liam Herrick, from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, said Mr Nkenchos case was an issue of human rights.

The State has an obligation in these instances  when agents of the state are responsible for the death of an individual  to carry out an effective, independent investigation into the circumstances of that death.

He added: His family still have not had that effective, independent investigation of his death.

They are entitled to know how he died, the circumstances of his death, and have an explanation from the State which answers their legitimate questions.

Mr Herrick said the Nkencho family needed to be provided with answers from the DPP for their decision.

The family deserve justice, and ultimately the family will get justice.

Event organiser and former TD, Ruth Coppinger, warned that there was a rise in racism and the far-right in Ireland, who she said spread misinformation about the incident.

Thats why it was very important for us to mark today with a protest and to show our support for the Nkencho family.
This Heritage Centre tells a very unique story of education in this area covering a period in excess of two hundred years. This dates back to The Hedge Schools of The Penal Law times when schools were forced to move from one location to another, continuing in temporary shelters and barns until finally it acquired a permanent home here in 1897.



Many of the students who attended the school proceeded to study for the priesthood where latin was a very important subject as all church ceremonies were conducted in latin prior to the Second Vatican Council in 1962. For this reason there was special emphasis placed on the learning of this language in the school and so it became known as The Latin school.



The statistics are truly astounding in that over the lifetime of the school which spanned a period from the late 1700s until 1974 in excess of 560 students were subsequently ordained to the priesthood. Being situated in north Longford on the borders of Leitrim and Cavan it catered for students from three provinces, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster. The catchment area also spanned the two dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnois and Kilmore. Many of these students travelled long distances to get to the school and as this was in the era before Free Education and Free Transport they endured many hardships in pursuit of an education.



The parish of Dromard where the school was situated produced 171 priests and its neighbouring parish of Colmcille produced a very healthy number of 104. There were also instances of families where numerous brothers pursued vocations to the priesthood like the OReilly family of Moyne where four brothers became priests. Six former students were ordained bishops including one Anglican bishop, Rt. Rev. William Henry Moorhead from Crealaughta, in the parish of Drumlish. This reflects the ecumenical dimension of the school which pertained right up until 1974.



Students of other religions were always welcomed in The Latin school and there was a cohort of Church of Ireland students in the school down through the years. The peak year for ordinations was in 1878 when eleven former students were ordained. This must be seen in the context of the total number of ordinations from Maynooth College last year where there were eight, at least two of whom were from abroad.



Most of the students who left Moyne to study for the priesthood went to seminaries in Ireland but many travelled abroad to cities such as Rome, Genoa, Paris, Louvain and many other far-flung cities. When ordained the vast majority of these priests served in dioceses across the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad, as well as in many dioceses across England and Wales. A smaller proportion of these priests ministered in Ireland.

Each of these 560 priests and six bishops made a significant contribution to life where they ministered and left a very rich legacy in the parishes and dioceses in which they served throughout the world. A study of each individual contribution will make for interesting work in the future.



Some that come to mind are Bishop Higgins from Drumlish who studied in the Hedge School. After his ordination he was a renowned scholar who subsequently became bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, St Mels Cathedral in Longford still stands as a testament to his dedication, hard work and commitment to his people.



Bishop Gibney who hailed from Killeshandra was another former pupil of The Latin School. He served as a priest in Australia and on one occasion he travelled to the colonies on the East coast. As he travelled between Benalla and Albury he arrived at Glenrowan where he heard that there had been a siege. He left the train on which he had travelled to tend to Ned Kellys injuries, hear his Confession and give him The Last Rights. Along with his bravery on that day he is also renowned for the great work that he did in establishing the Beagle Bay Aboriginal Community.



While The Latin School is renowned for the number of priests that it produced there is another dimension to the school as not all the students who attended the school progressed to the priesthood. The school provided access to education for many in the era before Free Secondary Education became a reality in 1967. Without the school many youngsters would have been forced out of education after Primary School. All the students who studied here will attest to the formative influence that it had on their lives.



Many of them progressed to further education and others went on to pursue careers in banking, agriculture, the Civil Service and many other areas.
Sean Lynch, the legendary Longford Republican, passed away in Our Ladys Manor Nursing Home, Edgeworthstown on 17 April last. Sean was the voice and face of Sinn Fein and Republicanism in County Longford for over sixty years.



On Easter Sunday 1955, Sean Lynch went to Newtownforbes to his first Easter Commemoration, accompanied by his father Sean F, and there he met Ruairi O Bradaigh for the first time. These two, Ruairi and Sean, charted the course of Sinn Fein for decades. Ruairi was a leader at national level and Sean was the undisputed figurehead in County Longford.

Seans father, Sean F, had been a member of Longford County Council for thirty-five years, from 1934-1969. When Sean F died suddenly in 1969, there was a general expectation that his son would be co-opted in his place.

However, in a surprise move, Fianna Fail, who held a majority on the council, decided to co-opt one of their own to the Lynch seat.



At the next local elections in 1974, Sean Lynch, as a Sinn Fein candidate, took the seat. This was the first time in over fifty years that a Sinn Fein candidate won a seat on Longford County Council.

In 1980, Sinn Fein held the balance of power on the council, and Sean Lynch was elected to the position of Cathaoirleach.

This was during the dramatic period of the H-Blocks campaign and the hunger strikes. In an effort to secure the demands of the hunger strikers, a number of republican prisoners were chosen to run as candidates in the Dail election of 1981.

Martin Hurson, then on hunger strike in Long Kesh, was chosen to run in the Longford/Westmeath constituency and Sean Lynch was appointed his Director of Elections. Sean worked exceedingly hard on the election campaign and Hurson came very close to taking a Dail seat.

At the next local elections in 1985, Lynch lost his council seat, due to boundary changes, but he regained it in 1991.

By this stage, the Republican Movement had suffered another split in 1986 and Sean Lynch continued as a Republican Sinn Fein councillor.



There was an eight-year gap until the next local elections in 1999, when Lynch retained his seat, but he lost out at the 2004 election.

In all, Sean Lynch held a Sinn Fein seat on Longford County Council for thirty years from 1974 to 2004, apart from the period 1985-1991. Sheas Sean mar ionadai do Shinn Fein in Olltoghchan na bliana 1982.



Martin Hurson, died on hunger strike in Long Kesh on 13 July 1981, as a result of British intransigence on the hunger strikers demands and Sean Lynch was asked to deliver the oration at his graveside in Galbally, Co Tyrone. This was undoubtedly the most momentous occasion in Sean Lynchs life and one that he frequently spoke about. Sean maintained links with the Hurson family and Galbally throughout the rest of his life and, fittingly, Bernadette Donnelly, (who was engaged to Martin Hurson), paid a final visit to Sean in the nursing home in Edgeworthstown on 17 April, the very day he passed away. Fuair Sean bas nios deanai an trathnona ceanna.



Sean Lynch knew the hardship of being a Republican, as did many others, over the course of his lifetime  his house being searched, his moves being watched.

During the Troubles, his home was raided on numerous occasions by Gardai and Special Branch, and it was even searched twice in the same day.



Sean Lynch also had a lifelong involvement in the GAA, as a player, mentor and supporter. He served as club secretary, vice chairman, county board delegate and treasurer.

A vivid memory is that of Sean walking the sideline at Colmcilles club games in the 1960s, with cap in hand, trying to collect contributions, at a time when there was no such thing as gates or turnstiles at GAA pitches.

He was on the Fr McGee Park committee which developed the fine playing facilities in Colmcille, and he organised reunions of many successful Colmcille teams.



Sean will be mourned not only by his immediate relatives and friends, but also by the wider republican community, and especially Republican Sinn Fein, of which he was a dedicated member.

People of all political persuasions recognised his dedication to the cause of Irish unity and the goal of a 32-county Irish Republic. Fittingly, members of Colmcille GAA had a guard of honour at Seans funeral, as did members and former members of Longford County Council.



Reporting on his death, Sinn Fein Poblachtach said of him A dedicated and faithful Republican, Sean Lynch was Cathaoirleach of Comhairle Chonnacht, Sinn Fein Poblachtach, for many years.

He was elected Life-Vice President in 2018 and Patron of the organisation on the death of Peig King in 2019.

Sincere sympathy to Seans sisters Anne Murray, Kathy Lee and Ita McLoughlin, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews and extended family.



Ta ceannaire na bPoblachtach i Longfort ar lar. Le breis is tri fichid bliain bhi se ina cheannaire. Fear a bhi dilis, duthrachtach agus a chaith a shaol ag tacu le Sinn Fein agus leis an gCumann Luthchleas Gael. Ni dheanfar dearmad ort go deo a Sheain.

(Sean O Suilleabhain)
The May bank holiday is a notorious time for water safety emergencies, and although temperatures are only expected to reach 17C State bodies have issued a warning to the public.

Ahead of the May bank holiday weekend, Water Safety Ireland, the Coast Guard and the RNLI are jointly appealing to people to be safe and summer ready when planning an activity on or near the water.

The organisations are urging people to ensure that boats and other watercraft, including kayaks and canoes, are checked and in good working order following the winter period. Engines should be serviced and all equipment, particularly lifejackets, should be in good condition.

If out on a boat, or other water vessel:

Wear a lifejacket, carry a reliable means of communication  a VHF radio and ideally a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) with mobile phone back up in a watertight case

Ensure that you tell someone where you are going and when you plan to be back

If planning activities on the water:

Always bring a means of effectively communicating a distress

Use readily available sources of information to check the environmental conditions (weather and tides) in advance of your trip

Seek help immediately if you see somebody in trouble on the water or along the coast, or think they are in trouble, by using Marine VHF channel 16 or Dialling 112 and asking for the Coast Guard

If you are swimming:

Water temperatures are still cold at this time of the year, consider wearing a wetsuit to stay warm

Acclimatise slowly

Wear a bright swimming cap and consider a tow float to increase your visibility

Never swim alone and always ensure that your activity is being monitored by a colleague

Kevin Whitney, Operations Manager at the Coast Guard reminded everyone to Plan & Prepare before considering any water-based or coastal activity ahead of and during the summer months: Do not use inflatable toys in open water or swim out after anything drifting as things can quickly go badly wrong. Be aware of potential dangers and well prepared before engaging in any water-based activities. The Be Summer Ready website at www.gov.ie/summerready provides good water safety advice and we urge the public to read this before venturing out on the water.

Roger Sweeney, Deputy CEO at Water Safety Ireland said: An average of five people drown in Ireland every fortnight and cold water is often a factor. Sudden immersion can cause a shock to your body, a loss of breathing control, dizziness, and panic.

Hypothermia and muscle cooling soon makes swimming difficult or impossible, particularly for children who have less body fat. Keep cold water swims short and enter the water slowly, staying within your depth. Shore anglers should always wear a lifejacket and walkers should carry a mobile phone and keep a close eye on incoming tides to avoid being stranded.

Linda-Gene Byrne, RNLI Water Safety Lead said: Many people will be taking vessels to the water for the first time this year so this is a good time to think about checking your equipment, especially your lifejacket so that it is fit for purpose.

Others may be planning a trip to the beach and a swim in the sea. We would encourage swimmers to be mindful of rip currents which can be difficult to spot, but are sometimes identified by a channel of churning, choppy water on the sea's surface. Even the most experienced beachgoers can be caught out by rips so remember dont try to swim against it or youll get exhausted. If you can stand, wade dont swim. If you can, swim parallel to the shore until free of the rip and then head for shore. Always raise your hand and shout for help.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 03 2024

Historic Statewide Increase in Annual Funding of $277 Million Over Two Years Thanks to Governor Hochul and the Legislature.

The State University of New York Board of Trustees today announced the additional allocation of $114 million in Direct State Tax Support across the State-operated SUNY campuses from the FY 2025 Enacted New York State budget.

In Long Island, SUNY has allocated:

$13.6 million allocated to Stony Brook University  a 9% increase over the past year

$2.6 million allocated to Farmingdale State College  a 15.9% increase over the past year

$1.5 million allocated to SUNY Old Westbury  a 12.3% increase over the past year

The funding marks a historic investment under Governor Kathy Hochuls leadership, with the combined 2023-24 and 2024-25 budgets representing the largest two-year infusion in at least five decades with an increase of $277 million in Direct State Tax Support allocated to SUNY.

Last year, the $163 million increase in the 2023-24 Budget made it possible for SUNY to:

Provide double-digit percentage increases in Direct State Tax Support at every State-operated campus  including support for faculty hiring and student services across the System

Invest more than $40 million in mental health services, support for students with disabilities, student internship experiences, expanding research, and addressing food insecurity

Reduce mandatory fees for graduate student workers

Todays Board resolution maintains last years investments and the progress they have generated and, using the $114 million in increased funding:

Provides $102 million to support SUNY faculty and staff, contributing support for salary increases reflected in recent collective bargaining agreements

Provides $4.5 million for additional student internship experiences to improve student success and the student experience, bringing the two-year total to more than $14 million

Allocates $4 million to support faculty and student researchers

Continues to reduce mandatory fees for graduate student workers with an additional $3 million, bringing the two-year total to $6 million

Todays announcement marks a historic investment in our nation-leading statewide public higher education system and will inject critical funding to support our students and faculty, said SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. Governor Hochul and the State Legislatures commitment to public higher education is clear in this years budget. As a result, SUNY has been able to allocate the significant resources our campuses deserve so that we can retain and attract stellar faculty, enroll the largest class of students in a decade, increase paid internships, and expand our research capabilities. There is a place at SUNY for every New Yorker, and this funding further positions SUNY as a leading academic institution that delivers on the promise of student success at an extraordinary value.

This investment in SUNY underscores Governor Kathy Hochul's unwavering commitment to advancing educational excellence and public higher education, said SUNY Board of Trustees. This historic investment in the students and faculty of each of our State-operated campuses reaffirms our dedication to nurture academic talent, propel research endeavors, foster student success and champion innovation by delivering transformative opportunities for generations to come.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said, Our State funded comprehensive network of SUNY educational institutions help ensure college remains affordable and accessible for all New Yorkers. New York prides itself on having not only one of merely the largest networks, but more importantly one of the most affordable ones. Im proud that in this years enacted budget we secured an additional $114M in funding to support our campuses. We are committed to ensuring that current and prospective students have access to a wide array of affordable educational opportunities.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, said, As my colleagues and I continue to work towards providing a world-class education to all New Yorkers - investing in our state colleges and universities is essential. Im proud that the Assembly Majority fought for this funding to ensure SUNY has the resources it needs to keep its programs competitive while lowering the barrier of access for any students looking toward a brighter future.

State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Chair of the Higher Education Committee, said, My colleagues and I were proud to fight and deliver funding for SUNY in the budget last month. Today's vote to allocate funds will bring much needed resources to the hard-working faculty, expand student opportunity and invest in our student workers. I am delighted that there will not be an increase in tuition, and I will continue to advocate for public investment for our public institutions.

Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, Chair of the Higher Education Committee, said, "I was proud to help lead the fight for more operating aid for SUNY's campuses in this year's budget, and we were successful in building upon our progress from last years historic increases. This critical aid will benefit students and faculty alike and continues to ensure SUNYs competitiveness on the national and global higher education stage. I will continue to fight for more funding for SUNY, especially when we know that funding is going to support well deserved contracts for the faculty and staff. Additionally, this continued historic level of investment in SUNY allows for more student success initiatives, opportunity programs, and student internship opportunities. We must continue investing in our public higher education system and usher in a new era for higher education in New York State."

Senator Monica Martinez said, Today, I am proud to announce the historic allocation of $114 million in Direct State Tax Support across the State-operated SUNY campuses. This critical infusion of funds into the SUNY system will empower our campuses, faculty, and student body to excel. As a former educator and having benefited from the SUNY system myself, I am thrilled our campuses are receiving funding which will significantly enhance the educational landscape and opportunities within our state."

Assemblymember Charles D. Lavine said, "I am extremely pleased that the budget includes this additional funding for SUNY which will help our state colleges and universities in many ways. Not only will it improve the academic experience for current and future students, but it also makes college more affordable which is critical as so many are struggling financially."

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. said, I was proud to cast my vote in favor of this increased investment in New Yorks SUNY system. I have long fought to provide sufficient funding for efforts to broaden access to public higher education services and keep the dream of attending college within the reach of all students that I represent on Long Islands East End and across the State.

Assemblymember Kimberly Jean-Pierre said, "The additional allocation of $114 million in funding for SUNY campuses represents an extraordinary commitment to higher education in New York State. This investment, part of the largest two-year infusion in our history, ensures that SUNY remains at the forefront of public higher education nationally. Thanks to Governor Hochul and my colleagues in the State Legislature, we can now support our brilliant faculty and staff more robustly, enhance our research capabilities, and enrich our student internship programs. I'd also like to thank Chancellor King for his leadership, efforts, and advocacy on behalf of the SUNY system. This commitment not only strengthens SUNY's role in fostering academic excellence, but also underscores our states dedication to creating equitable and accessible educational opportunities for all. I'm especially proud of these achievements because they aim to make higher education affordable for our prospective students in an era where education costs are rapidly rising year-over-year. As we invest in our educators and students, we invest in New Yorks futurebuilding a resilient, innovative, and highly skilled workforce."

About The State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNYs 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the countrys oldest school of maritime, the states only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit www.suny.edu.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: May 03 2024

AG James Has Secured More Than $2.7 Billion in Total for New York from Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors, and Marketers.

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a multistate settlement in principle with opioid manufacturer Amneal Pharmaceuticals (Amneal) for its role in fueling the nationwide epidemic of opioid addictions and overdoses. Amneal produces several generic opioid products and was one of the largest manufacturers of opioids from 2006 to 2019, selling nearly nine billion pills. Attorney General James and a multistate coalition of attorneys general allege that Amneal knowingly failed to monitor and report suspicious orders placed by its customers, as it was required to by federal law.

Amneal became one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the world by profiting off the sale of dangerous opioids, said Attorney General James. While this settlement cant fully reverse the damage done as a result of the national crisis, it will provide essential funding and resources for New York and other states to ensure those suffering get the help they need. I am proud to have secured over $2.7 billion to tackle the opioid epidemic in New York, and my office will continue to hold accountable the companies responsible for fueling this crisis.

The settlement in principle announced today will provide $92.5 million in cash over 10 years and $180 million worth of naloxone nasal spray, an overdose treatment medication, to participating states and local governments.

The settlement in principle was negotiated by Attorney General James and the attorneys general of California, Delaware, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia.

In 2019, Attorney General James filed the nations most extensive lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. Since then, Attorney General James has recovered more than $2.7 billion to support New York opioid abatement, treatment, and prevention efforts from companies including Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Publicis Health, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt, Allergan, Endo, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisource Bergen. Attorney General James has also led multistate coalitions in reaching settlements for billions of dollars with CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart for their role in failing to properly regulate opioid prescriptions. Additionally, Attorney General James, co-led a coalition of nearly every attorney general in the nation in delivering more than $573 million  more than $32 million of which was earmarked for New York state  toward opioid treatment and abatement in an agreement and consent judgment with McKinsey & Company.

This settlement with Amneal was negotiated on behalf of New York by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Conrad of the Executive Division, with assistance from Data Scientist Ken Morales and Acting Deputy Director of Research and Analytics Gautam Sisodia of the Research and Analytics Department, Assistant Attorney General Eve Woodin of the Health Care Bureau, and Special Counsel Monica Hanna of the Executive Division.
Just weeks after a landmark housing agreement in the FY 2025 Enacted Budget, Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the first state-owned property targeted for potential housing. The Governor issued a Request for Proposal to purchase and redevelop an approximately 13-acre site on Conklin Street in East Farmingdale. The site, currently owned by the New York State Department of Transportation as part of Republic Airport, has been vacant since the 1990s and serves no direct function for the airport. The property offers a prime opportunity to transform what is currently a blighted and underutilized lot into a thriving mixed-use residential development that enhances housing options for a wide range of New Yorkers. Applicants can view the Request for Proposals document here and a photo of the site here. Proposals should be submitted to Empire State Development by August 7, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. EST.

We just secured a landmark housing deal that will make New York more affordable and livable, and now we're getting to work to turn it into reality, Governor Hochul said. Leveraging state-owned land is a significant opportunity to increase housing supply and help New Yorkers find a place to call home.

Empire State Development President CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, The Conklin Street RFP represents a significant opportunity to create a vibrant, mixed-use development that will enhance the local community and contribute to the region's economic growth. ESD looks forward to bringing this project to fruition and unlocking the full potential of this site.

The project site is located in the Hamlet of East Farmingdale within the Town of Babylon, Suffolk County, bordered by Conklin Street to the south, MTAs Long Island Rail Road tracks to the north, and Broadhollow Road/Route 110 to the west. Currently controlled by the New York State Department of Transportation, the site totals approximately 13 acres. Previously utilized for airplane manufacturing, the structures on the site are now vacant and set for demolition. This location is conveniently positioned a mile equidistant from both the Farmingdale and Pinelawn LIRR stations and offers proximity to Route 110, one of Long Islands largest commercial centers, enhancing its potential for a transformative mixed-use development.

Empire State Development, in close collaboration with the Town of Babylon, aims to establish a mixed-use hub that provides critically needed residential housing and stimulates economic growth and new job opportunities within East Farmingdale and across the region. Additionally, the development will be solicited to provide public open space, enhance pedestrian connectivity to surrounding commercial centers and deliver other community amenities. Empire State Development anticipates that 20 percent of the housing on the development will be affordable housing units restricted to households earning 80 percent of the Area Median Income.

Additionally, the development plan must include sufficient parking, designs that emphasize sustainability, resilience, and energy efficiency to align with the goals of New Yorks Climate Act, and meet all FAA and NYSDOT requirements to allow for the release of the property before development can begin. Some remediation may be needed on site for potential subsurface environmental contamination, which will be supported by an up to $4 million Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to the Town of Babylon, secured by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and U.S. Representative Andrew Garbarino.

This RFP advances Governor Hochul's vision for addressing New York State's housing crisis and builds on a landmark agreement secured by the Governor to increase the states housing supply as part of the FY 2025 Enacted Budget. The budget includes: an opt-in tax incentive program for mixed-income and 100 percent affordable new construction or conversion multifamily rental projects outside of New York City; a $500 million capital fund to develop up to 15,000 new homes on state-owned land; new, strengthened protections for homeowners from deed theft; and more than $600 million in capital investments to support housing statewide.

The RFP also builds on the Governor's five-year, $25 billion Housing Plan announced in the FY 2023 Budget to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations. To date, more than 5,800 homes have been built or preserved on Long Island.

Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas said, Relieving the housing crisis facing New Yorkers requires innovative solutions that unlock our State's potential for growth. By developing the Conklin Avenue site, we will utilize resources left underused for over a quarter-century to create transit-oriented housing in East Farmingdale, with integrated affordable units, where the need is amongst the most critical in the State. Thank you to Governor Hochul for her continued commitment to building a more affordable New York.

Assemblymember Kimberly Jean-Pierre said, "Housing affordability on Long Island is a serious problem. As lawmakers, it is our duty to help fix these problems. Today, we take a substantial step in ensuring additional affordable housing for Long Island. The location's close proximity to surrounding commercial areas and the LIRR makes it a convenient location for potential residents. I am pleased to see this previously underutilized area being used for such an important purpose. I applaud Governor Hochul for taking the lead on this issue and continuing to fulfill her promise of creating affordable housing across the state."

Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine said, The redevelopment of the state owned Conklin Street in East Farmingdale will transform this blighted area while providing much needed housing. I support Governor Hochuls efforts to improve the East Farmingdale community.

Suffolk County Legislature Minority Leader Jason Richberg said, I couldn't be more thrilled with the announcement of this long-awaited project. Suffolk County is in dire need of affordable, sustainable housing, and the property in question has been vacant and in disrepair for decades. This is the perfect opportunity to not only provide housing but also remove an eyesore that has been the subject of complaints for years. I want to thank Governor Hochul for supporting this project and for always looking out for Long Island.

Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said, I commend Governor Hochul for taking proactive steps to address the long-standing blight in East Farmingdale. As Supervisor of the Town of Babylon, I'm pleased to see the state's commitment to revitalizing this site. We will ensure that any development aligns with the needs and values of our residents and community.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former Special Repressive for Afghanistan Reconciliation and the key architect of the Doha Agreement which aided the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan, claimed that Al Qaedas branch in Afghanistan doesnt exist anymore during his closed-door interview with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Nov. 2023. Khalilzads interview also shed light on both the Trump and Biden administrations desire to withdraw from Afghanistan at all costs, their failure to understand the Taliban and its intent to manipulate negotiations to facilitate a U.S. withdrawal, as well as the United States unhealthy reliance on enemies and adversaries to achieve impossible foreign policy goals.

Khalizad was interviewed by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Nov. 8, 2023. The transcript of the interview was released on May 1, 2024.

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has been dismantled

Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in Aug. 2021, Khalilzad has maintained that the Taliban are delivering on their commitment in the Doha Agreement to fight ISIS and prevent al-Qaida from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the US and our allies.

Below are two articles indicating the Taliban are delivering on their commitment in the Doha Agreement to fight ISIS and prevent al-Qaida from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the US and our allies. This is positive. We must remain vigilant against terror. #USA  Zalmay Khalilzad (@realZalmayMK) September 15, 2023

In his testimony on Nov. 8, 2023, Khalilzad maintained this position, and even claimed that Al Qaedas branch in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia has been dismantled.

I have to say for the record, looking back, that Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent has been dismantled, Khalilzad told the committee when questioned about this article, Analysis: Al Qaeda continues to operate throughout Afghanistan, from FDDs Long War Journal. It doesnt exist anymore, according to our intelligence, since the Taliban took over.

Khalilzads position on Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinents demise is not supported by either the United Nations Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team or U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for Afghanistan.

Two recent reports from the UN Monitoring Team since the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan have documented Al Qaedas grown infrastructure in the Taliban-controlled country.

On June 9, 2023, the Monitoring Team reported that Al Qaeda was operating training camps in Helmand, Zabul, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Badghis, and Kunar, or six of Afghanistans 34 provinces. Six months later on Jan. 29, 2024, the Monitoring Team reported that Al Qaeda opened camps in four additional provinces: Ghazni, Laghman, Parwan and Uruzgan. Additionally, the Monitoring Team reported that Al Qaeda was operating five madrasas, a weapons depot and safe houses in Afghanistan that are used to facilitate the movement of its members to and from Iran.

The relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaida remains close, the Monitoring Team noted.

In his Nov. 8, 2023 testimony, Khalilzad dismissed the Monitoring Teams report and questioned the nationality of Dian Triansyah Djani, at the time the chairman of the United Nations Security Council who signed off on the Monitoring Teams report. Khalilzad insinuated that Djani and the staff of the Monitoring Team were not qualified to provide intelligence on Afghanistan. Djani is Indonesian. The Monitoring Teams past reports have been highly accurate and the group is widely respected in the Counterterrorism field.

Yeah, itd be good to see his nationality and where hes worked before and all the committee members that worked on it, Khalizad said. So I am not saying anything that I know as if this was not good or whatever, but I say I relied more on our intelligence and our own people.

Khalilzad relied more on U.S. intelligence, which Khalilzad admitted in his testimony made serious analytical errors in underestimating the strength and intentions of the Taliban and overestimated the staying power and strength of the Afghan government and its security forces. FDDs Long War Journal has documented numerous intelligence failures in Afghanistan with respect to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

General Michael Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, admitted in congressional testimony in March of 2024 that U.S. intelligence capabilities in Afghanistan are challenged.

In Afghanistan, the reduction in collection, analytical resources, and Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance assets means our campaign against Al Qaeda and ISIS Khorasan is challenged; while we can see the broad contours of attack planning, we lack the granularity to see the complete threat picture, Kurilla said.

In the same testimony, Kurilla noted that Al Qaeda remains in Afghanistan, contrary to what Khalilzad claimed. While Kurillas assessment is less dire than the Monitoring Teams reports, he did not present Al Qaeda as a group that has been dismantled as Khalilzad claimed.

Al Qaeda remnants remain in Afghanistan, Kurilla said in his written testimony. While the July 2022 death of Ayman al-Zawahiri set the group back, Al Qaeda desires to rebuild. Though this will take time, Al Qaeda remains a long-term threat to American interests and citizens as well as the homeland.

There are no facts to support Khalilzads claim that the Taliban has aided in the dismantlement of Al Qaeda, nor did Khalilzad present any. Khalilzad even admitted that the presence of Ayman al Zawahiri in a safe house run by the Haqqani Network, arguably the most powerful and influential Taliban faction, in July 2021 is inexplicable. When asked to explain Zawahiris presence in Kabul, he only described it as a violation, full and complete, and  yeah, that  yeah, referring to a violation of the flawed Doha agreement that pulled the wool over everyones eyes, while he continued to falsify things that can be seen in plain sight.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.
Israel Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi speaking with commanders in northern Israel on May 1. (IDF)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on May 1, his office said in a statement. The discussions come as the IDF continues to prepare its forces for a potential operation in Rafah and as internal discussions among its commanders, security officials and war cabinet leave questions about timing of the next steps in Gaza.

Gallant has spoken often with Austin during the war, and Austin has been consistent on his support for Israels war effort. The May 1 call included a focus on operational developments in the southern and northern arenas, as well as the shared commitment of both countries to ensuring the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Gallants office said. He also discussed ongoing operations in Gaza and how Israel is increasing humanitarian aid delivery.

Gallant has pushed for increased humanitarian aid as well as more crossings into Gaza, understanding that international pressure rapidly compounded on Israel in January and February as Gazans fled fighting and appeared to face famine, according to warnings from various international organizations. The increase in humanitarian aid has faced logistical hurdles, prompting Israel to re-open the Erez crossing on May 1.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), opened the Erez Crossing of the Ministry of Defenses Land Crossings Authority today (Wednesday), to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. As part of this effort, after careful security inspection, 30 trucks of humanitarian aid including food and medical supplies for the northern part of the Gaza Strip, arrived from Jordan and entered Gaza today, the IDF said on May 1. Gallant told Austin these efforts, along with trucks arriving from Jordan and Cyprus in addition to other means, have doubled the number of aid trucks entering Gaza.

The Israeli Minister of Defense also raised continued concerns about Hezbollahs daily attacks on Israel. Israel wants to return 50,000 residents to their homes in northern Israel, but the attacks have prevented this. The parties also discussed Iranian threats to regional stability and to Israels security. Minister Gallant emphasized the importance of maintaining a united front and joint regional effort to counter Irans proxy attacks and nuclear ambitions, Gallants office said.

Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi HaLevi journeyed to northern Israel to meet with soldiers and conduct a tour and situational assessment. He met with the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and met the head of the 146th Division, Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer. He also met with commanders of the Etzioni Brigade, which was recently deployed to the north.

During his visit, Hezbollah launched two anti-tank missiles at the Israeli community of Shtula on the border. Israeli warplanes responded the next day with strikes on terror infrastructures in the area of Chebaa. Additionally, a short while ago, IDF troops identified a terrorist operating in a Hezbollah military compound in the area of Markaba, the IDF said. A Hezbollah attack on Israels north eventually followed by a proportional Israeli response has become commonplace.

These incidents occur amid reports in Israeli media of major rifts between the security establishment and the Prime Ministers office over various policies in Gaza and in northern Israel. In addition, the Minister of Defense and Halevi announced the promotion of several commanders who have played a key role in the war against Hamas. They announced that Brigadier General Dan Goldfus will be appointed as Commander of the Northern Corps and Head of the Maneuver Array in the Ground Forces. He will be promoted to the rank of Major General, the IDF said. In addition Brigadier General David (Dado) Bar Kalifa will be appointed as Head of the Manpower Directorate (J1). He will be promoted to the rank of Major General.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDDs Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).
At a Glance Expert's Rating Pros Easy to use.

Works on multiple devices, including iPhone.

Additional power user features. Cons Pricing model feels obtuse.

Virtual server locations feel like a worry. Our Verdict Theres so much to like about PureVPN, from its sleek Mac client to its ease of use and reliable geo-unlocking, but its pricing model is almost aggressively aimed at two-year plans which feel like a gambit in the world of VPNs.

Price When Reviewed

ab 1,88 Euro pro Monat

In our time reviewing VPNs in 2024, its clear the industry has grown to offer some fantastic benefits whether youre looking to unlock Netflix in another country or connect to a Wi-Fi access point you dont quite trust. The other thing thats clear is that VPN companies really want to entice you into a two-year deal.

Thats perhaps unsurprising, and whats good enough for the likes of Surfshark and NordVPN is good enough for everyone else, but PureVPN is offering more than a whopping 80% off its plans if you sign up for 24 months.

On the one hand, thats great  PureVPN is an excellent VPN service with plenty of tools and additional extras to tailor it nicely to your needs. On the other, two years is a long time in a field where legislation threatens to change month to month, week to week. Also, at its standard price, PureVPN is pricier than some of its rivals, so it feels as though it really wants you to hop on board for two years.

There are also some privacy concerns, namely with virtual servers. Theres no guarantee where these are located, meaning their privacy frameworks could differ from country to country.

Still, if youre looking for a flexible VPN service that will get around geoblocking and is easy to use, PureVPN is well worth a look  just be careful before signing up for a lengthy plan.

Find out how PureVPN compares to the other VPNs weve tested in our Best VPNs for Mac round-up. We also look at the Best VPNs for iPhone and Best VPNs for iPad.

Features & Apps

PureVPN offers a quick security checklist to get users started. PureVPN offers a quick security checklist to get users started. Foundry PureVPN offers a quick security checklist to get users started. Foundry Foundry

One of my favorite features of PureVPN is how it looks. That may sound silly, but its a sleek interface that performs well on my MacBook Pro M1 Pro (I noted in my SurfShark review that I had some issues with that app).

First impressions count for a lot with a service you may end up using daily, and PureVPNs Security Progress window lets you work your way through a checklist of items to help reach a more secure browsing experience. Its a neat tutorial that Id like to see more VPNs offer.

The basic plan includes the VPN service and nothing more, while you can add a Password Manager and File Encryption tools in the Plus plan. The Max plan adds Digital Security, which sounds a little nebulous. In reality, its a Digital Privacy Manager that requests your records be scrubbed by data brokers, blocks web trackers, and recommends ways to maximize your privacy on social media.

Its worth noting that none of PureVPNs plans include any malware protection in the same way as NordVPN does. Nord will scan downloaded files for malware, but theres nothing similar with PureVPN.

Whichever plan you opt for youll be able to connect 10 devices at once. Thats four more than Nord, and you can add multiple logins for around $6/5 a month  ideal for busy households or even business uses, and there are a variety of additional purchases you can add on, too.

Port forwarding and dedicated IP and server options are available as extras, but PureVPN doesnt run any additional privacy layers on top of standard VPN fare. Its a little barebones in that aspect, though split tunnelling is available for bypassing the VPN entirely for certain apps and sites if you need it.

PureVPN will run on your iPhone, iPad and Mac, and is easy to use on each to let you connect to over six thousand servers. NordVPN can be installed on just about anything, meaning its got native apps for iPhone, Mac, and iPad, as well as Windows and Android. Itll even run on your Apple TV, and its worth installing it on multiple devices, too, since you can use it on six devices at once.

Performance

Users can add favorite server locations or opt for custom IPs. Users can add favorite server locations or opt for custom IPs. Foundry Users can add favorite server locations or opt for custom IPs. Foundry Foundry

Its expected to lose some speed on your Mac when using a VPN, but what surprised me about PureVPN is the disparity between VPN protocols, and both OpenVPN and WireGuard are supported here.

My internet access isnt fibre-speed as yet, but the drops here were close to the latency of something like ExpressVPN at around 17% drop-off on WireGuard, but OpenVPN was closer to 23% down.

Thats a big difference in the grand scheme of things, so Id definitely recommend switching to WireGuard when using the service. Still, OpenVPN is a handy backup option if you encounter issues while browsing  just be prepared to sacrifice some speed for compatibility.

As far as getting around geo-blocks, I found PureVPN to be as easy as any other service to use. Select a location, load your streaming service or app of choice, and youre off.

Privacy & Security

PureVPN can stop your data being sold without your knowledge. PureVPN can stop your data being sold without your knowledge. Foundry PureVPN can stop your data being sold without your knowledge. Foundry Foundry

As weve covered in other VPN reviews, its important to know if your chosen service is going to be logging any data from your sessions with the VPN.

PureVPN offers one of the more impressive no-logging policies, with an ongoing always-on audit process whereby an auditor can request confirmation of that policy at any time.

Its impressive, and while no-logging is nothing new, the transparency with which its offered here is certainly impressive.

So why the concern about privacy? Its down to the use of virtual servers. These are used to offer closer server locations in areas where bandwidth can be hard to come by. The trouble is, as PureVPNs own blog points out, the location can vary from the physical address you believe youre connecting to.

Connecting to Jordan, via the Virtual Server service, will use an IP address from Jordan, but the VPN server is actually in Egypt.

With those blurred lines, its commendable that PureVPN has wound down many of its virtual servers. There are still 23, with many being retired and two (Chile and the Phillippines) being converted to physical servers. Still, those are 23 virtual servers where there is the potential for them to be located just across the way from where youre expecting.

Pricing and plans

As we mentioned in the intro, PureVPNs two-year plans start from $2.11 (1.69) per month, with additional features to take it up to $3.85 (3.08). A one year plan starts at $3.74 (2.98) per month and, if you arent locked into a contract its from $11.95 (9.51) per month.

As is the same with any VPN, though, its hard to justify signing up for two years when theres every chance it could be brought to a grinding half by new legislation  or at the very least have features and functionality changed.

The result is that wed advise opting for a plan that requires less of a commitment, but PureVPN ends up more expensive than some of its rivals when you shift in that direction, and then there are additional add-ons like the dedicated servers and IP that cost more on top if you need them.

If those features are key for you, youll likely have already made up your mind, but if theyre not, you may find other options more cost-effective. Although the problem with a one year plan is that you will need to hunt down a less expensive replacement in 12 months when the deal is no longer available and the price goes up to the standard monthly price (which in this case starts at $11.95 (9.51).

Verdict

If you do sign up for a lengthy plan and arent leaning too heavily on virtual server locations, PureVPN is a great service.

If youre looking to get around geo-blocked content or ensure some privacy of your browsing activity, itll certainly work well for you, but wed still recommend a trial month or two before taking the plunge.
Thanks to the money you donate, we can research and deliver effective, evidence-based interventions to millions of children and adults at risk across Africa and Asia. As well as resulting in better health outcomes, this also helps alleviate the financial burden of healthcare costs, reducing the likelihood of missing school or work.

As one of the only international non-governmental organisations to be awarded Independent Research Organisation status, developing and delivering evidence-based, effective interventions that provide value for money is at the core of our work.

We believe that our record speaks for itself. We are enormously proud that GiveWell recognises our expertise in delivering high-impact, cost-effective programmes like seasonal malaria chemoprevention and long-lasting insecticidal nets, as well as our proven success in establishing the effectiveness of our programmes through robust monitoring and evaluation.
TORONTO  Less than a week after leaving Toronto confident and in control of their first-round playoff series, the Bruins limped out of the Ontario metropolis on life support.

The Maple Leafs won their second straight game, 2-1, on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena to knot the best-of-seven series 3-3.

Game 7 will be Saturday at TD Garden at 8 p.m.

Playing without Auston Matthews again, William Nylander scored just before the end of the second period and added another on a late breakaway to lift Toronto. Joseph Woll, who has been outstanding since replacing Ilya Samsonov in Game 4, made 23 saves.

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The Maple Leafs had 12 shots on goal compared to one for the Bruins in the first period. Bostons problem wasnt getting shots, it was accuracy. Seven shots missed the net and five were blocked by Toronto. Charlie McAvoy alone had three shots deflected before they reached the net.

But Jeremy Swayman was sharp again in the first keeping it scoreless heading into the intermission.

The second period didnt start much better. After Swayman made a terrific skate safe to rob Jake McCabe, David Pastrnak was called for a four-minute high-sticking penalty, but the Bruins penalty kill allowed just two shots over the course of killing the double minor.

The Bruins had momentum for much of the second period as they started to find skating and shooting lanes. But Nylander, whod been absent for the beginning of the series, ripped a shot through a screen past Jeremy Swayman that appeared to carom off a Bruin on the way through with 54.8 seconds left in the second to give the home team a 1-0 lead heading into the third.

The Bruins made a huge push just over six minutes into the third period, but a flurry of shots, hit the goalie, hit Morgan Rielly and hit the side of the net, but they couldnt break through against Woll.

Nylander beat Swayman on a breakaway with 2:13 left to seal it. Morgan Geekie scored with 0.1 seconds left to break up the shutout.

Swayman finished with 24 saves.
Britney Spears has told fans shes moving to Boston in a recent post on social media.

In a rant posted by the celebrity to Instagram, Spears is speaking on fake news.

It was reported that Spears was allegedly involved in a fight with her boyfriend, Paul Richard Soliz, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, according to Page Six.

Just to let people know...the news is fake!!! she said on Instagram.

The 42-year-old took to Instagram Thursday claiming paramedics showed up at her hotel door illegally when she twisted her ankle.

She added that they never came into her room but that she felt completely harassed.

Im moving to Boston!!!, she finished writing online. Peace.

It is still unclear if Spears will leave her current residence in Calabasas, California. Spears has also not mentioned a reasoning for moving to Boston.
MassLive recently asked readers to identify people who are leaders from the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community throughout the state, working to make a difference in politics, education, business, the arts or another area of interest.

Profiles of these leaders will be published through AAPI Heritage Month in May. These are people our readers have identified as inspirational, who may be doing good acts for their communities. They are being recognized for their accomplishments, leadership and commitment to inspire change.

Daniel Do is an incoming anesthesiology resident at Brigham & Womens Hospital (Courtesy of Rory Vu Mather).Rory Vu Mather

Daniel Do

Age: 28

Community: Boston

His story: Daniel Do is an incoming anesthesiology resident at Brigham & Womens Hospital and a student at Harvard Medical School. He has focused much of his work around cancer, medical research and patient care.

His focus on cancer began in 2018 as a researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital using zebrafish as a cancer discovery tool. He was published in scientific journals such as Cell and Nature. He also volunteered at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

He is currently part of a study at the Massachusetts General Hospital that is assessing the performance metrics of digital breast tomosynthesis, a new method in breast mammography, as a screening tool for malignancy in breast cancer survivors. There have been 30,000 exams for 8,000 patients as part of the study.

Medicine has provided myself the opportunity and blessing to make a positive impact on my community in multiple avenues, Do said.

Do was born to two Vietnamese immigrants who escaped from a war to go to America. He said growing up he knew the value of perseverance, foresight and hard work.

As such, one of his focuses is helping first-generation low-income students get into medical school.

As a future anesthesiology resident at Brigham & Womens Hospital, he aims to add to the body of cancer research and develop new pain management strategies for better caring for cancer patients.

In his words: Medicine needs more individuals from all walks of life especially those of first-generation low-income backgrounds to counteract ignorance and the crippling biases in our healthcare system. And when you reach that point, remember to give back and help the next pre-med in ways that you healthfully can.

Were always open to hearing about more inspiring people. If youd like to suggest someone else who should be recognized, please fill out this form.
A Massachusetts businessman and author was sentenced to two years and three months in prison after filing for and receiving $1.5 million in pandemic relief funds with businesses that were no longer in business or had been created after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joao Mendes, 60, of Brockton, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in December 2023. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $1,542,759 and the forfeiture of assets totaling $1,751,694.

Between June 16, 2020 to Aug. 10, 2020, Mendes submitted multiple fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications through multiple defunct companies, including MB Records, Inc., Palonkon Publishing, Inc., Quantum World Enterprises, LLC, Mendes World Trade, Inc. Maat Holdings, LLC, Lunar Media, LLC and La Femme Media.

In this case, Mendes used the names of companies that had ceased operations (if they ever had any) years earlier to apply for fraudulent loans because doing so made the applications appear more legitimate. Two companies, as noted above, were formed after the start of the pandemic, court documents state.

One of the companies, MB Records, was involuntarily dissolved on or about Aug. 31, 1998. On the application, Mendes claimed it had two employees, $380,000 in gross revenues and $150,000 in goods sold for the 12 months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

$114,900 was approved.

Another business, Quantum World Enterprises, website states it is dedicated to creating positive content with primary focus on music, film, arts, and book publishing. One of its books, co-written by Mendes, is described as spiritually uplifting.

The application stated the business had two employees, $535,934 in gross revenues and $234,589 in cost of goods sold for the 12 months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. EIDL funds totaling approximately $149,900 were given  but officials now say the application information was false.

Multiple of his applications were denied. However, some of them were ultimately approved. Court documents state that he submitted falsified IRS forms with the application, including a Form 940, a W-3, and claimed over $3.3 million in sales.

$1.5 million in pandemic relief funds were approved through the various businesses.

Officials said he took the money and transferred them to other accounts or to cryptocurrency.

Court documents state Mendes was not in dire financial straits when he filed for the money, adding that his wife made a large salary.

He simply got greedy, documents read.

He had a great childhood, strong family relationships and attended college, majoring in business administration, documents state.

He knew what he was doing was wrong. And he did it anyways, court documents read. The defendants personal circumstances do not warrant the variance he requests. They underscore that this was a needless crime, motivated by greed and entitlement.

Mendes also tried to involve his daughter and his niece by encouraging them to fill out fraudulent applications, officials said. But he immediately accepted responsibility when he was approached by federal agents.

On Friday, thousands of dollars from more than 20 accounts including $57,962 from one account and $26,469 from another was forfeited after previously being seized by the government.

The items will be forfeited to the government unless a person, other than Mendes, petitions to claim them.
A 25-year-old Boston man who was the subject of an extensive fugitive investigation by Boston police for his role in a shooting in Dorchester last September that left five people wounded was held on $2 million bail during his arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Haydens office said.

Micah Ennis is charged with five counts of armed (firearm) assault to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of a firearm, Haydens office said.

The charges against Ennis are tied to a shooting at 50 Ames St. on Sept. 17, 2023 where five people were injured, including a young brother and sister, according to Haydens office.

Ennis was arrested in Roxbury on Wednesday.

Im relieved on behalf of the victims and our entire community that the second suspect in this incredibly brazen shooting is in custody and will answer for his actions, Hayden said in the statement. A lot of people were hurt that day in mere seconds, which speaks not only to the callousness of the shooters but also to the firepower they possessed.

Another man, Gianni Johnson, of Dorchester, was arrested in connection with the shooting in October 2023. Johnson has been held on $1 million bail since his arraignment.
When a group of six German Shepards were surrendered to the MSCPA in Boston in April, among them was a sweet, seven-year-old, senior named Una.

Two days after being surrendered from her Middlesex County home on April 10, Una was diagnosed with bilateral coxofemoral osteoporosis  severe arthritis. But the hip replacement surgery is expected $10,000.

We knew immediately after the tests that shell need a hip replacement before shes able to live the happy and comfortable life she deserves, said MSPCA Director of Operations Debrah Bobek. Unas hip replacement is a major surgery, just like it would be for a human.

Read more: Lincoln police investigating potential animal abuse in abandoned dog case

Her surgery is scheduled for Monday, May 6. And the MSPCA is asking for help to offset those costs.

For those interested in helping to offset those costs, donations can be made here.

Bobek said because it is a complicated surgery, it will take a while for her to recover. Una is expected to need about two weeks in foster care before a follow-up appointment, where doctors will remove her staples and check to make sure shes healing correctly.

Were hoping we can start looking for her new home after that, said Bobek.

Of the six canines surrendered from her home, Una is the only one of the group who has yet to find an adopter.

Bobek said that while rehoming the other five dogs is fantastic, Unas situation is complicated.

Unas adopters will need to get x-rays about two months following the operation to ensure that everything is continuing to heal correctly.

Interested adopters are asked to submit an adoption inquiry at mspca.org/bostonadopt.

Unas incredibly sweet and really likes spending time with people. We also believe she may be able to live with another low key dog. We know shell make the perfect pet for the right home, added Bobek.
Under overcast skies, reporters and photographers swooped in Friday afternoon to take photos of a home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton. A group of jurors had just taken in the scene for themselves, along with a judge and lawyers.

A police officer was found dead outside that home more than two years ago. His friend, also a cop, and that friends family, owned the home. John OKeefe was killed, prosecutors believe, by his then-girlfriend.

As a line of cars held up by Massachusetts State Police were allowed back to their homes in the area, one sedan drove by with a paper taped to a back passenger window reading #FKR  internet lingo for Free Karen Read.

Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of OKeefe, who was found on the snow-covered front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton just before sunrise on Jan. 29, 2022. OKeefes body was found cold to the touch the morning of a snowstorm at about 6:10.

Read more: 4 takeaways from Karen Read trial: texts, taillight damage and first witnesses

Norfolk County prosecutors claim that Read drove under the influence of alcohol when she struck OKeefe with her SUV on that snowy night. Read dropped off OKeefe at 34 Fairview Road after a night of drinking with friends amid a turbulent time in their relationship, according to prosecutors.

OKeefe never came home that night and the events that led up to his death have been hotly contested in the Canton community and across the state as Reads defense attorneys have strongly pushed back on the prosecutions theory of the case and instead asserted that others were responsible for OKeefes death and that police conducted an improper investigation.

The trial, presided by Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, is expected to last six to eight weeks.

McLaughlins testimony continues

Before the jury visited the Canton house, testimony carried on Friday with Canton firefighter Katie McLaughlin. Reads defense attorney, Alan Jackson, questioned McLaughlin about when she approached Read to get OKeefes medical history and to describe the scene.

I was really just focused on her trying to get her to converse with me and get those questions, McLaughlin said, adding that Read was moving around the scene at times in circles. I wasnt really noticing anything else at that point and she was just moving around.

Jackson referred McLaughlin to photos taken when she spoke with Read and asked about the group of people around her, which McLaughlin identified as a civilian woman and a police officer.

McLaughlin testified on Thursday about her observations and what she heard Read say on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. Read seemed very upset and visibly distraught, but she also replied to her questions four times with I hit him, McLaughlin told Jackson.

She seemed very upset, McLaughlin told Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally on Thursday. She was just visibly distraught.

It was said in the presence of the police officers so I felt like that information was appropriately transferred, McLaughlin said. I just felt, based on her demeanor, I dont think it wouldve been productive for me to continue to ask her questions at that point.

On Friday, Jackson reiterated to McLaughlin her own testimony about hearing Read say I hit him several times. He asked if she told Lt. Anthony Flematti of the Canton Fire Department that Read said I hit him and if she wrote it down in any document or report.

She did not write any report about what happened, McLaughlin replied.

After a short recess Friday, McLaughlin returned to the stand. Jackson asked if she knew who Caitlin Albert was, someone McLaughlin said she knew of in high school. Jackson suggested she was a friend of McLaughlin, but the firefighter said Albert was an acquaintance, did not know her family and did not recall going to Alberts house.

Caitlin Alberts father is Brian Albert, a Boston police officer. His home at 34 Fairview Road was where first responders found OKeefe dead, according to court filings.

Jackson presented a printed social media post from Caitlin Albert that tagged McLaughlins profile, featuring her in a photo. Jackson asked where they were in the photo but McLaughlin said it must have been a local beach, possibly on the Cape.

I dont know when this picture is from, McLaughlin said. This picture seems old to me. Could be around high school, not sure.

The photo could have been taken around when she graduated from high school, McLaughlin said, in 2014. But she told Jackson that she had never been on a big vacation with a group of people, so it must have been a day trip.

After a back-and-forth about the logistics of the day trip, Jackson concluded with a question that Albert was a friend and McLaughlin grew up with her. McLaughlin pushed back and said they grew up in the same town but were ultimately just acquaintances.

I wouldnt consider her to be a close friend, McLaughlin said.

Jackson then presented a photo of McLaughlin and Caitlin Albert that he described they posed for in bathing suits. McLaughlin looked at the photo and said it appeared to be zoomed in from a larger image and said she did not remember when the photo was taken or who took it.

Do any of these photos remind you that youve been to Caitlins house at some point? Jackson asked.

No sir, McLaughlin said.

She never spoke with Albert about the case despite knowing her, McLaughlin told Jackson .

During cross-examination, Lally asked McLaughlin if she had spent time with Caitlin Albert outside of a large group or if either of them had been to the other womans house. No was McLaughlins answer to each of these questions.

Jackson again reiterated his questions about McLaughlins relationship with Caitlin Albert based on her testimony.

I feel that my testimony has been consistent, McLaughlin said.

I appreciate what you might feel, Jackson said between repeating questions.

After asking McLaughlin if she knew Brian Alberts brother, Kevin Albert, a detective with the Canton Police Department, McLaughlin said no.

Jurors see Canton home

After the mornings testimony, the jury traveled by bus from the courthouse to visit the site where OKeefes body was found. From 300 feet away, reporters, photographers and any onlookers watched as the trial jury walked in front of 34 Fairview Road from about 11:15 a.m. to noon.

Massachusetts State Police troopers blocked Fairview Road with their motorcycles. Amidst the passersby, cars with their turn signals on would start to turn left from Cedarcrest Road before troopers told them to keep out.

The jurors, prosecutors, lawyers and Cannone observed the house and inspected the 2022 Lexus LX-570 SUV that prosecutors believe Read drove and used to kill OKeefe. Troopers ordered any onlookers, including photographers and reporters, to keep their cameras down.

Of the onlookers, if any were present to express solidarity or show support for Karen Read, they were quiet.

After about an hour, the jurors, lawyers, prosecutors and Cannone left and reporters were allowed to approach the home and the Lexus.

Firefighters speak

Canton Fire Lt. Gregory Woodbury took to the stand after lunch and after jurors returned from 34 Fairview Road. He was one of the first responders at the scene when OKeefe was found dead and Read spoke to authorities, he said. His primary responsibility was to conduct a Section 12, or a psychiatric evaluation of Read.

She did not want to go to the hospital, the lieutenant told Lally. She did not think she needed any assistance. Once a Section 12 gets written, we are required to transport [the individual] to the hospital. You have to get evaluated by hospital staff to see how mentally stable you are.

She kept repeating Is he dead? Is he dead Woodbury said. She was very up and down. She was clearly experiencing a lot of different emotions. Her emotional state was all over the place.

Defense attorney David Yannetti asked Woodbury about OKeefes injuries, which he said included a swollen eye and scratches on his arms, which Woodbury said he saw on the body. As part of his questioning, Yannetti showed a photo of OKeefes right arm with fresh scratches in the skin on a screen in the courtroom.

Canton firefighter Daniel Whitley testified next. Whitley said he spoke with Read the day first responders came to 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29, 2022, to which Whitley said yes. Whitley said he was with Woodbury when they conducted the psychiatric evaluation.

We had a Section 12 written, because she made threats against her life, I dont want to live anymore, Whitley said. We thought thats along the lines of a normal grieving process. We didnt feel like it was at the level of a Section 12 to take her to the hospital.

Whitley and paramedic firefighter Jason Becker, who testified next, both said Read was distraught and referred to OKeefe as her husband. Becker wrote the Section 12 medical report.

She had blood on her face, around her mouth, neck and chin, Becker said. With her vital signs, her heartbeat was pretty high but nothing concerning ... She would have periods of calmness and other times agitated because she didnt want to go to the hospital.

Becker said he asked Read if she had used drugs or alcohol. She told him no, Becker said in court.

She asked Could I have hit him? Could he be dead? Becker said. When asked by Yannetti if Becker knew if she had taken any drugs or alcohol, Becker said he relied on Reads answer and nothing else.

Yannetti pressed on this point with his questioning and asked Becker if he told lead investigator and Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor that Read drank alcohol the night before OKeefes body was found. After reviewing Proctors report, Becker confirmed he said so.

Beckers testimony wrapped up the first week of the trial, with Cannone excusing everyone for the weekend until the trial resumes on Monday, May 6.

Opening statements began on Monday, April 29 when Yannetti told jurors Read had been framed and revealed text messages from lead investigator Proctor.

Reads defense team in court has said other people are responsible for OKeefes killing and the presiding judge has allowed them to pursue a third-party culprit defense at trial  but did not allow them to present it during opening statements.

Defense attorneys said previously that three men in the Canton house on the night of OKeefes death had a motive and the means to attack him.

Read pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death.

Her attorneys claim other people are responsible for OKeefes death and that alleged conflicts of interest have compromised the case .

MassLive reporter Luis Fieldman contributed to the reporting of this story.
Had emergency responders known about widespread cellphone outages during the height of last summers deadly Maui wildfires, they would have used other methods to warn about the disaster, county officials said in a lawsuit.

Alerts the county sent to cellphones warning people to immediately evacuate were never received, unbeknownst to the county, the lawsuit said.

Maui officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames. That has raised questions about whether everything was done to alert the public in a state that possesses an elaborate emergency warning system for a variety of dangers including wars, volcanoes, hurricanes and wildfires.

Read more: Pittsfield nurse spends Maui trip on wildfire rescue effort

Major cellular carriers were negligent in failing to properly inform Maui police of widespread service outages, county officials said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court against Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile and AT&T.

We continue to stand with the Maui community as it heals from the tragic fires, but these claims are baseless, T-Mobile said in a statement Thursday. T-Mobile broadcasted wireless emergency alerts to customers while sites remained operational, promptly sent required outage notifications, and quickly contacted state and local emergency agencies and services.

A Spectrum representative declined to comment, and the other carriers didnt immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.

A flood of lawsuits has come out since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through the historic town of Lahaina and killed 101 people.

Maui County is a defendant in multiple lawsuits over its emergency response during the fires. The county is also suing the Hawaiian Electric Company, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

In Mauis latest legal action, lawyers for the county say if the county is found liable for damages, then the cell carriers conduct substantially contributed to the damages against the county.

On August 8 and August 9, 2023, while the Countys courageous first responders battled fires across the island and worked to provide first aid and evacuate individuals to safety, the County notified those in the vicinity of danger through numerous alerts and warnings, including through direct text messaging to individual cell phones, the lawsuit said.

The county sent at least 14 alert messages to cellphones, warning residents to evacuate, the lawsuit said. The county later discovered all 21 cell towers serving West Maui, including in Lahaina, experienced total failure.

As of the date of this filing, the Cell Carriers still have not reported to the County the true extent and reach of the cell service outages on August 8 and August 9, 2023, as they are mandated to do under federal law, the lawsuit said. Had the Cell Carriers accurately reported to the County the complete and widespread failure of dozens of cell sites across the island as they were mandated to do by law, the County would have utilized different methods in its disaster and warning response.
Massachusetts public health officials have activated an emergency operations plan to ensure continued access to medical care as the Steward Health Care hospital system faces an increasingly worrying financial outlook.

While Stewards facilities, including eight hospitals mostly in eastern Massachusetts, remain open, the for-profit company is deeply in debt. State officials, medical providers and patients say they worry about the future of their local health care facilities and the potential loss of affordable and accessible medical treatment.

The states Executive Office of Health and Human Services said in a statement Friday that the emergency operations plan included a regional Incident Command System to coordinate health care access, keep patients safe, and protect providers jobs in the context of Steward Hospitals financial challenges.

The Incident Command System is a well-established public health tool run by the Department of Public Health that brings together state agencies, medical providers, labor organizations, and others in a coordinated response to Stewards woes, the statement reads.

Steward employs some 16,000 people in Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey said earlier this week.

If the company can sell any part of its health care operations, officials said the Incident Command System will also oversee the transition.

The Incident Command System incorporates the ongoing external monitoring in all Steward hospitals, enables DPH to rapidly respond to any clinical needs or issues that arise, and fosters increased communication with other regional health care organizations, first responders and community leaders, Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein explained.

Gov. Maura Healey takes reporters questions about the state budget on Feb. 7 at the Statehouse. (SAM DORAN / STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE)State House News Service

State and national officials have accused Stewards leadership of financial malpractice, bolstered by reports that executives lived lavishly as the healthcare system crumbled.

The company is reportedly tens of millions of dollars in debt due to missed payments to vendors and its de facto landlord, Medical Properties Trust, which bought Stewards hospital properties eight years ago and leased them back to the health care company.

Tales from across Stewards hospital system point to persistent staffing and supply issues as the companys financial troubles mounted.

St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, a Steward Health Care facility in Boston' Brighton neighborhood.Will Katcher/MassLive

In February, Healey called on Steward to wind down its operations in Massachusetts after the company failed to fully comply with her offices request for key financial documents, MassLive previously reported.

The governor said Tuesday that her office was weighing different scenarios as a loan forbearance period for Steward ends.

Steward announced in February that it had secured an additional $150 million in bridge financing, on top of a $600 million loan it received in the summer of 2023, according to Business Wire. That loan would allow Steward to reset its operations and address vendor obligations, the wire service reported.

Dr. Gregg Meyer, a longtime executive at Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization and Dartmouth Health, will lead the states Incident Command System, Health and Human Services officials said in their statement.

He is a practicing primary care physician with extensive experience in hospital operations and crisis management and is nationally recognized for his leadership in hospital quality and safety and population health, the statement read.

Material from previous MassLive stories was used in this report.
A group of men who led Massachusetts State Police on a chase through Concord and into Norwood were arrested early Monday morning when a K9 was able to locate them after they fled into a residential neighborhood.

Michael Gonzalez, 33, of New Bedford, Angel Rodriguez, 50, of Fall River, and Yovaniell Sostre, 29, of Providence, are all facing a series of charges in connection with the pursuit, which State Police say involved a stolen vehicle.

At around 2:40 a.m. on Monday, Acton police asked State Police to be on the lookout for a stolen black Audi. Around the same time, Concord police saw the stolen car pull into a parking lot, three men exit the car and subsequently enter a gray BMW and drive off. Officers pursued the BMW for a short distance before ending the chase, State Police said in a statement.

A State Police trooper in the area saw the gray car speed past his cruiser on Route 2 east, and attempted to catch up to the car, which was heading toward Interstate 95 south. The trooper caught up to the vehicle and determined it had a license plate belonging to a 2008 Honda Pilot SUV, not a gray BMW sedan, State Police said.

The trooper attempted to pull the car over, but the driver refused to stop and continued to drive at a high speed, according to the statement. Troopers began pursuing the car, and deployed Stop Sticks to try and slow it down. The BMW hit the sticks, damaging its front tire. But, the damage did not stop the car and it continued along the interstate.

The car exited the highway, and the trooper saw the vehicle in the median, where it had come to a stop after hitting multiple traffic signs. The trooper then saw the cars three occupants run into nearby woods, according to the statement.

State and Norwood Police subsequently created a perimeter around the woods and a nearby residential neighborhood. A K9 unit trooper and his partner also arrived to aid the search for the suspects, State Police said.

The trooper deployed the K9, Zigo, from the off-ramp of the highway, and the dog soon found a scent and tracked it up an embankment to the tree line where the three men had run off, State Police said. The dogs intensity increased the farther up the hill he went, and he continued to pull intensely along a deer fence.

The dog stopped at an area along the fence that bordered a backyard and showed intense interest in the backyard, State Police said. Troopers entered the backyard, and the dog pulled them toward a gazebo, which was connected to a swimming pool deck. The dog pressed his nose against the trim along the gazebo floor.

Troopers pointed a flashlight at a small crawlspace between the ground and the gazebo floor and saw two of the men who had fled the BMW hiding. The two men were then arrested and identified as Gonzalez, who State Police say was driving the vehicle, and Rodriguez, a passenger.

Moments later, the K9 trooper learned that security camera footage from another home in the neighborhood showed a man trying to enter a motor vehicle parked in the driveway before running into a stretch of backyards when he could not get in, State Police said. Zigo, the K9, showed a change in behavior and increased excitement as he pulled troopers toward two air conditioning units located between two large bushes.

The third suspect, identified as Sostre, was found almost completely covered up in one of the bushes, according to State Police. Troopers pulled the man from the bush and arrested him.

Inside the BMW State Police say the three men stole officials found multiple tools, a crowbar, and a black mask.

Gonzalez is charged with failure to stop for police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, attaching plates, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license - subsequent offense, resisting arrest, speeding, leaving the scene of a crash that caused property damage, disorderly conduct, and possession of burglarious tools.

Rodriguez and Sostre are both charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and possession of burglarious tools. Sostre faces an additional charge of providing a fake name to police.

All three were arraigned in Waltham District Court.

Police do not believe the BMW was stolen.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) is continuing to fight for the removal of MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams, or MCAS, are standardized tests used to help teachers, parents and students know where students are excelling and where they need help, according to the Department of Early and Secondary Education.

The MTA cited its support of the November 2024, general election ballot question to remove MCAS as a requirement, arguing it robs students and educators of authentic learning opportunities due to the amount of time given over to a high-stakes exercise.

The joint House and Senate committee meeting, also held on Wednesday, resulted in all but one committee member, Senator Jason M. Lewis, co-chair of the Education Committee, taking a stance against removing MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.

While supporters of removing MCAS as a graduation requirement argued standardized tests do not capture the performance of students as well as more individualized tests, lawmakers on the panel were not convinced.

Lawmakers argue simply eliminating the uniform graduation requirement, which will allow students to graduate who do not meet basic standards, with no standardized and consistent benchmark in place to ensure those standards are met, will not improve student outcomes and runs the risk of exacerbating inconsistencies and inequities in instruction and learning across districts, according to State House News.

John Schneider, chair of the Committee To Preserve Educational Standards For K-12 Students, claims eliminating MCAS as a requirement would undermine childrens future success by allowing each of the states 300-plus school districts to devise their own graduation standards, State House News reported.

The MTA argues Massachusetts schools succeed because of our high standards ... not because of MCAS exams, and while there is no disagreement that having academic standards is important, MTA believes MCAS itself is not a standard.

Rather, it is a test that measures some of our academic standards.

The MTA believe removing MCAS as a requirement removes the negative aspects of having the standardized test used as a graduation requirement, while keeping the MCAS exams as diagnostic tools.

Educators have begun the second phase of collecting signatures needed to place the MCAS question on the ballot.
A 78-year-old man who co-owned a plumbing and heating supply company in Mattapan is accused of covering up purchases of more than $10 million worth of gold and silver bars with the companys money by writing checks indicating the purchases were for boilers and materials, court documents show.

Claudio Poles, of Dorchester, faces four counts of filing false tax returns in connection with a scheme to purchase the precious metals, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levys office said. Court filings show Poles and federal prosecutors may have reached an agreement on a plea deal but neither Poles attorney nor the U.S. attorneys office could be reached to confirm the deal.

Between 2019 and 2022, Poles hired a tax preparer to complete tax filings for the company, Economy Plumbing and Heating Supply Company. But, prosecutors say, he failed to report all of the companys gross plumbing receipts to the tax preparer, leading the preparer to fail to report some of the business receipts on tax forms submitted under the penalty of perjury.

Poles is then accused of using the excess receipts not reported on the tax form to purchase more than $10 million worth of gold and silver from a bullion dealer, court documents show. To cover up his purchases, prosecutors say he wrote checks saying he was buying equipment for the company.

Prosecutors also accused Poles of falsely reporting losses totaling roughly $75,000 and omitting more than $8.3 million in income he received from the purchase of the bars with money from the business on tax forms between 2019 and 2022. In doing so, court documents show, he cost the IRS about $3 million in tax loss.

The charge of filing a false tax return carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, meaning Poles could face a sentence of up to 12 years if he is convicted of all four counts.
A Billerica man and a Level 2 sex offender previously convicted of child rape will serve time in prison for possessing over 5,000 files of child sexual abuse materials, Acting United States Joshua Levys office announced Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced Eric Robert Johnson, 51, to 10 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release, along with paying restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $38,000, Levys office said in a statement.

Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography and has been in federal custody since he was arrested in February 2022.

At the time, he was identified as a user of an internet-based peer-to-peer network downloading child sex abuse materials, Levys office said. Searches of his home and of his person found 25 electronic devices including a laptop, hard drives and other electronic devices, along with several hard drives found hidden next to Johns bed and inside his basement ceiling, shelves, cabinets and in an ammunition can located in a crawl space.

The laptop was running a program to wipe, delete or remove files from an attached hard drive, Levys office said. It was about 56% complete before it was disabled by a forensic examiner.

Two childrens backpacks were also found under his bed that contained various childrens clothing, like bathing suits, a nightgown, a bag of childrens costumes, childrens diapers and at least three child-sized dolls with the vaginal region sliced to make a hole, Levys office said.

What appeared to be bodily fluids were found in at least two of the dolls, according to the statement.

A forensic examination found that the 5,000 had child sex abuse material on seven devices alone, which included images and video files depicting the sexual abuse and rape of minor victims as young as infants and toddlers, Levys office said.

Other footage also found on the devices, including images and videos of bestiality, photos of womens dead bodies and videos of Johnson engaging in sexual acts with dolls, Levys office said. Further forensic examination determined that 15 of the devices were encrypted or had hardware, and could not be searched.

Mr. Johnson is an extremely dangerous individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his predatory interest in children. He belongs in prison for a long time, Levy said in the statement. The victims of child pornography are not abstractions or objects  they are real kids who experienced sexual exploitation in order for these pictures or images to be distributed and possessed. Although todays sentence cannot erase the ongoing pain endured by the victims from their traumatic abuse, the message about the severe consequences of possessing child pornography should be crystal clear.

Johnson was previously convicted in 1992 in New Hampshire of two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault of a child under 13 years of age for his sexual abuse and rape of two minor victims who, at the time, were 7 and 8 years old.
Editors note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

By Roberto Camacho | Edited by Ricardo Sandoval-Palos

On a warm August night in 2017, Rosa Moreno received the most unbearable news. Her son, Cesar Rodriguez, died in a fight with a Long Beach (California) police officer.

The fatal incident began with Cesars alleged failure to pay a $1.75 train fare.

Rodriguez was riding the Long Beach - Los Angeles Metro, on his way to meet up with his girlfriend. The train was between the Willow and Wardlow stations in Long Beach when two LBPD officers began fare inspections of passengers. Rodriguez was pulled off the train at the Wardlow station after the Metro officer determined Rodriguez hadnt paid his fare. In their report, officers said Rodriguez initially gave the officers a fake name and they decided to search his person. The officers had already decided he was a fare evader and planned to arrest him, but the pat-down resulted in a discovery: a substance that the reporting officer believed to be methamphetamine.

The officers report goes on to say Rodriguez tried to pull away, which they interpreted as resisting arrest; setting off a struggle on the Metro platform. One officer and Rodriguez fell to the ground and Rodriguezs legs dangled over the tracks. He was struck by an oncoming train, dragged about eight feet, and then pinned between the train and the platform. None of the stations cameras captured the incident, but surveillance video from the incoming train recorded a few moments of the struggle before Rodriguez was struck. Rodriguez was declared dead at Memorial Hospital two hours and three minutes later. He was 23 years old.

Moreno and her family didnt learn about Rodriguezs fate until several days later. Only after Rodriguezs godmother was contacted did Moreno learn that her son had died in Wardlow Station.

Family members of Cesar Rodriguez hold photos and banners made in his memory. Photo by Yessenia Camacho for palabraPalabra

The fight for data

Beyond Long Beach, few know of Cesar Rodriguez. The case did not draw large nationwide attention. It did not spark street protests.

But it was far from abnormal, and police reform advocates took note. They added Rodriguezs death to La Raza Database Project, a roster of Latinos who have died in violent confrontations with police. The collaborative project is led by Cal State University San Bernardino and Latino Education and Advocacy Days (LEAD), an organization within the university that addresses both educational and social issues impacting Latino communities.

La Raza database was launched with the intention of accurately documenting Latinos killed by U.S. law enforcement and it notes case after case of official and lethal violence against Latinos  most of it lightly reported by media outside the immediate communities where the deaths occurred.

The bulk of mainstream media attention on racial injustice across the nation remains trained on horrific incidents of police abuse in Black communities. For decades, criminal justice coverage involving Latinos has focused overwhelmingly on immigration. However, La Razas database shows Latinos are disproportionately affected by officials violence. Latinos are the second most likely demographic to be killed by law enforcement in the U.S. relative to their population. According to the La Raza database, at least 6,460 Latinos died in police confrontations or in police custody between 2000 and 2022. The number, researchers say, is likely to be even higher because Latinos ethnicity is often misclassified or undefined in police reports and official documents following fatal encounters.

To address this, La Raza Database Project takes on the frequent improper demographic categorization of Latinos affected by police violence as unknown, unidentified, or even white. The projects researchers say misclassification and incomplete data contribute to undercounting, and shed light on the systematic dehumanization of Latino victims of police violence.

Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, an emeritus associate professor in the Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona and La Raza Database Research Project Founder and Director, began this work as an attempt to document every instance of deadly use of force by police against Latinos.

The late Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, emeritus associate professor in the Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona and La Raza Database Research Project Founder and Director. Photo courtesy of University of ArizonaPalabra

Police violence affecting Latino communities is too often treated as an afterthought in a voluminous catalog of police violence, particularly in communities of color.

According to Rodriguezs introduction to La Razas September 2023 report of findings, the number of those killed or who have died at the hands of, or in the presence of law enforcement, between 2000 and September 2023, is more than 35,000 people. Of those, more than 60% are people of color, Rodriguez said.

The project was Rodriguezs brainchild  he was a survivor of police violence himself  and a passion project he maintained until his death last year, due to heart failure, in Mexico. He was 69 years old.

After working for nearly four decades as an academic advocating for police accountability and Chicano civil rights, Rodriguez partnered with demographer Jesus M. Garcia and social justice activist Ivette Xochiyotl Boyzo in 2020 to create the database. Previously, no entity tracking killings by law enforcement had concentrated its focus solely on documenting Latino deaths in police encounters or in custody.

Ivette Xochiyotl Boyzo, project manager for La Raza Database Project, holds photos of the late Dr. Cintli. Photo by Yessenia Camacho for palabraPalabra

The team encountered a number of barriers preventing accuracy.

Varied methodologies for collecting data (such as omitting deaths occurring in custody of immigration and other federal agencies) complicate the task of properly cataloging Latino deaths, as do inconsistencies among police and coroner reports where ethnicity is not documented properly  if at all.

The La Raza team combed through volumes of data dating back to 2000. They determined a lack of national standards for identifying race and ethnicity leads many people of color to be categorized as white or other. Such categorization decisions are often left to local police officers or coroners, and they follow protocols set by individual cities, counties, and states.

As a group, Latinos have historically been overrepresented in the unknown/unidentified category. This glaring oversight has frustrated researchers of police violence, leaving them to try to fill the gaps and shed light on complicated data sets.

However, researchers note that behind the tens of thousands of data points  and behind coroner, police, and court records  there is a human being. And behind that person are family members left to deal with devastating realities in the wake of their loved ones deaths.

More than statistics

One such family is the Serranos of Jurupa Valley in Californias Riverside County.

Ernie Serrano, a 33-year-old Mexican-American, was killed at a Stater Bros. market on December 15, 2020. He was buying snacks.

Riverside County sheriffs deputies received reports of a man wandering in and out of the store. A 911 caller reported an altercation between Serrano and a security guard. Video from a bystanders camera captured the arrest. It shows sheriffs deputies beating an unarmed Serrano with batons and tasering him before wrestling him face down on a check-out conveyor belt. On the sheriffs body camera video, Serrano can be heard pleading, Let me go, please several times between cries of pain. His face is bloodied and officers put on his face what appears to be a mesh mask that law enforcement refers to as a spit hood.

By minute five of the half-hour body cam video, Serrano stops talking and is no longer struggling. He is completely quiet and unmoving as officers discuss what to do with him. More than a minute more passes before an officer notices that Serrano isnt breathing. Nearly seven minutes into the video, officers pull him off the conveyor belt and move him to the floor. One officer can be heard saying, Pull off the mask, pull off the mask before announcing that they are starting CPR. EMS personnel arrive and take over, conducting CPR for more than 20 minutes before Serrano is taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. An autopsy suggested Serrano died of a methamphetamine overdose. However, attorneys for Serranos family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming he died of asphyxiation as a result of the deputies putting him in a prone restraint. Today, that challenge is making its way through the courts.

Ernie Serrano, center, with his family. Photo courtesy of Sandra SerranoPalabra

Ernies cousin, Natalia Serrano, a Riverside community organizer, believes his death is indicative of a broader trend of police using excessive use of force against Latinos. She says Ernie would have been treated differently by sheriffs deputies had he been white. I do really feel like race was a huge factor (in the way he was treated). There are (numerous) cases of white people who the police were called on, and police had so much more patience and restraint when dealing with them. But when the police have a confrontation with someone whos Black or Brown, they dont care about the life of the person theyre supposed to be serving. At the end of the day the police are not supposed to go and murder; theyre supposed to serve, protect, and do what they can to de-escalate.

Left in the dark to fill in the gaps

La Razas database contains thousands of cases; in many of them, researchers have grappled with the fact that Latino ethnicity is not always plainly visible, nor clearly defined. Defining racial identity among Latinos in the U.S. has proven to be challenging. Under the federal governments current metrics, Hispanics can be of any race.

This ambiguity or lack of clear application of what Hispanic or Latino means has long contributed to the challenges of documenting police violence in Latino communities. Andrew Guerrero, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University who has published critical perspectives on the organization and social consequences of policing, describes how ambiguities around race and immigration have led to Latinos being viewed through a one-dimensional lens that relegates them to discussions regarding immigration. Latines are incredibly diverse: race, socioeconomic status, and geography fail to encapsulate Latines as a category, Guerrero said. Complicating the research, many Latinos have European surnames  while many last names might sound Latino but are not. As a result, many Latinos are missed in databases that use classification by name matching. In an effort to correct misclassification, La Razas researchers painstakingly combed through a combination of four national databases that track police killings, as well as local news reports, public records, and the U.S. Census Bureaus 160,000 surname list file of race/ethnicity, comparing it with the surnames of all individuals cataloged.

The team was made up of volunteers who sifted through new documents in a case that could help establish the race/ethnicity of each person, said Ivette Xochiyotl Boyzo, La Razas project manager. When that didnt work, we relied heavily on court dates and geography. And running the names through the Census Bureau database was also able to give us a more accurate account of which ethnic group the person belonged to.

Ivette Xochiyotl Boyzo and Dr. Cintli in East Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Lizbeth DelgadoPalabra

Database volunteers succeeded in identifying 90% of the 9,000 individuals listed in the roster who had an unknown race/ethnicity. The majority were reclassified as Latino. Researchers identified 30% more Latinos than had been identified as such previously, adjusting the initial count from 4,483 to 6,460 victims. The team was shocked to discover that after Latinos, Asian-Pacific Islander victims were the most likely demographic to be misidentified or labeled as unknown/unspecified. The number of individuals identified as Asian-Pacific Islander was four times higher than the original count, jumping from 497 to an astonishing 2,010 identified individuals.

We expected the undercount with Latinos, but we didnt expect the Asian and Pacific Islander community to have a 75% undercount, Boyzo said. It was shocking.

Despite the teams striving for accuracy, Boyzo noted that the databases numbers likely still reflect an undercount, due to limits on how deeply some personal information on victims can be tracked with open-source tools.

Accountability and access to justice

Advocates believe the database will have a positive impact on families affected by police violence. For some, in the absence of accountability or resolution, the database could be evidence that someone cares about police violence affecting Latino people.

The Riverside sheriffs deputies who arrested Ernie Serrano were never charged or held criminally liable for his death.

Nearly seven years after Cesar Rodriguezs death, his mother still struggles with the loss of her son. She said the toll of fighting for justice has been heavy, despite having been awarded $12.2 million in a civil judgment by the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2023. The court found that the LBPD had acted negligently during Rodriguezs arrest and ultimately bore responsibility for his death. The ruling has been hailed as a rare victory for families of police violence and is the largest police misconduct verdict in history against the LBPD. But it may be a temporary win, as the city of Long Beach has appealed the decision.

My son was a young man with a whole life ahead of him, said Moreno. He wanted to finish school and go into the Navy or have a small career. But he can never do that because one police officer took his life for $1.75.

Rosa Moreno in the company of her daughter and grandchildren, gathered in memory of her son, Cesar Rodriguez. Photo by Yessenia Camacho for palabraPalabra

An uncertain future

After years of collecting data, La Raza Database Project published what may be its final report in September 2023.

As of now, the future of La Raza Database Project is uncertain. Since Dr. Rodriguez passed away (unexpectedly just a few weeks before the report was completed), its unclear whether were going to move forward and how well go about that if we do, Boyzo said. Were not a non-profit; this is all just volunteer work. We were lucky to have Cal State University, San Bernardino host and house the final report. But its unclear if were going to be able to continue this work.

Shes proud that the team showed the importance of accurate data in pursuing transparency and accountability. She hopes the teams findings will bring more attention to police violence in Latino communities.

Theres no way there can be justice without the truth, and there cannot be truth without actual accountability, she adds. If we dont have clear narratives explaining why this is happening, then theres no way that were going to achieve change if our people arent being properly accounted for.

Roberto Camacho is a freelance Chicano journalist from San Diego, California. He is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. His reporting typically focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration, Chicano/Latino issues, Hip-Hop culture, and their intersections with social justice.

Yessenia Camacho grew up in Pomona, CA and is from Mexican background. Her parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. She is a first generation college student with two Bachelors in Sociology and Chicanx Latinx Studies from UC Irvine. She is currently in a dual Masters program at UCLA for a Masters of Public Policy MPP and Masters of Social Welfare MSW. She works as a Case Manager to the unhoused population in Orange County, and is a photographer on the side.

Ricardo Sandoval-Palos is palabras founding editor. He is the Public Editor for PBS, an intermediary on ethics, integrity and standards between the broadcasters audiences and its creatives and journalists. Ricardo is an award-winning investigative reporter and editor. His reporting in Latin America earned awards from the Overseas Press Club and the InterAmerican Press Association. Hes also co-author of the biography, The Fight In The Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.
Gov. Maura Healey thought she was going to answer a question about the high cost of child care during an early afternoon appearance on WGBH-FMs Boston Public Radio program.

But when a woman who identified herself as Meg stepped to the microphone on the campus of UMass Boston on Friday during a live broadcast, the tide suddenly turned.

Thats when Healey found herself on the receiving end of a sharp line of questioning about her response to students protesting Israels war against the terrorist group Hamas.

I was deeply disturbed when I read the governor was perpetuating accusations against student protesters  including Jewish students  of antisemitism without evidence, in order to justify the violent police response, Meg, who identified herself as an educator and a mom, said.

Weaponizing false accusations of antisemitism to silence protest against genocide is dangerous, and [it] manufactures consent for violence against student protesters, Meg continued. Its worrisome to see our Democratic politicians and media personalities engaged in the same tactics as the far-right. Its the far right while ignoring the 15,000 children that have been murdered by Israeli forces.

The question appeared to come in response to Healeys comments earlier this week during an appearance on WBURs Radio Boston program, where she said that there has to be space for both protest and Jewish student safety alike, according to State House News Service.

Unfortunately, weve seen a rise in antisemitism, a rise in Islamophobia, a rise in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment, Healey said, according to State House News Service. And so you know, I think for me, its really important that we stay focused on combating hate, combating racism, and protecting people, making sure that we respect the dignity and worth of everybody, making sure that people are safe on campus.

Hundreds of college and university students across Massachusetts have been arrested, or face disciplinary action, in connection with on-campus protests over the increasingly bloody war between Israel and the terrorist group.

The Associated Press has tallied at least 38 instances since April 18 where arrests were made at campus protests across the U.S.

More than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 schools.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 to protest Israels offensive in Gaza, which followed Hamas launching a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, MassLive previously reported.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition.

Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war, MassLive previously reported.

At UMass Boston on Friday, Meg said she wanted to know why Healey was protecting the funding of genocide over the wellbeing of students in the Commonwealth?

And how can you claim to care about children and students if youre playing dangerous political word games instead of addressing the ongoing genocide? she asked.

The question earned a rebuke from the shows co-host, Jim Braude, who told the crowd that they didnt need to lie about why they wanted to speak.

Healey offered a variation on her comments earlier in the week, saying she was committed to a civil dialogue with those who wanted to have one.

I think anyone with a heart anyone with a heart, sees the grief, sees the agony sees the devastation, and feels for those who have been killed in Gaza, those who have been killed in Israel, she said. It is incredibly agonizing and upsetting its also the case that we as a country, we as a people, as a state, and as a community.

Healey said she also remains committed to fighting antisemitism to fighting Islamophobia to fighting racism, hatred, bigotry, in all forms.

Ill also say that we have a right to protest in this country, including on college campuses. It is also the case that theres a difference between protest and violence and threats of violence and disruption of students access to safe education, she continued.

Thats what I have to say about this and I will continue to speak with people who have differing views. Its important that we engage in a civil way and to be and have discourse and have discussion in this country, about policies. Thats really important, Healey said.

And while she technically wasnt asked about the cost of childcare, the Democratic governor added that her administration was making concerted efforts to address it, because if we want economic growth and development, we want people particularly women back in the workplace, we have got to solve the high cost the challenge of childcare.
State lawmakers who spent nearly six months reviewing Gov. Maura Healeys veterans supports and services bill concluded that it needs eight fewer words.

The Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs has favorably recommended passage of an amended version of Healeys bill among dozens of other proposals that won the panels support.

Their recommended changes to the wide-ranging package Healey filed are limited to a single line: the redrafted bill defines a veteran who served on active duty as someone who was in the military for at least 90 days and did not receive a dishonorable discharging, dropping the phrase to include active duty solely for training purposes.

The package, dubbed the HERO Act, is otherwise unchanged from what Healey filed in November.

It seeks to expand benefits and modernize services for veterans, while expanding state efforts to ensure former service-members of all backgrounds are covered.

Veterans Services Secretary Jon Santiago, a former representative, said Thursday hes excited to see the bill move forward.

That bill is arguably the most comprehensive veterans bill to come out, put forth by a governor, in decades, Santiago told the News Service after an unrelated event. Really, its focused on equity, access, and improvement of services for our veteran community. And so were excited to see it move forward and looking forward to getting it done before the end of session.

Rep. Gerard Cassidy, D-9th Plymouth, who co-chairs the Veterans Committee, told his colleagues during last weeks budget debate he expects a veterans bill to emerge for a vote in the chamber in May.

A spokesperson for House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, confirmed Thursday that Cassidy was referring to the redrafted Healey bill.

Another committee-redrafted bill that Mariano mentioned as on his radar would exempt reimbursement for out-of-pocket health care costs to veterans from calculating income eligibility for subsidized housing.
What does genocide look like?

Its the hairbrushes. Its the coffee pots and plates. The razors and shaving brushes. The safety pins and the broken pairs of glasses.

Its empty suitcases. Its the childs shoe with one sock still in it.

Its the survivors memories of a place thats become synonymous with the worst in human savagery: The woman whose shaved hair mingled with my tears as a barber stripped her of her identity; the man with the numbers on his arm who said his blood still curdled, decades later, every time he heard a childs cries.

And on a cold, gray Wednesday morning in May, hundreds gathered at The Castle at Park Plaza in Bostons Back Bay to bear witness to that history.

An Iron Cross and registry book on display at the "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" exhibition at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston, Mass. Germany's prestigious military award did not inoculate its owner against his eventual fate. (MassLive photo by John L. Micek).John L. Micek

Students stood shoulder to shoulder, in near silence, with parents and grandparents, some of them descendants of survivors of the horrors of the Nazi-run Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp, where an estimated 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, died in just five years.

A historic graphic on display at the "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" exhibition at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston, Mass. (MassLive photo by John L. Micek).John L. Micek

Sid Smith, a retired police officer from Cape Cod, came to see it.

This is really important for people to see, he said as he wended his way through the exhibit. It seems like were forgetting our past. You have to remember what happened.

Thats just what the organizers of the exhibition Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away, which runs through September, are hoping will happen.

Each visitor brings a backpack of experience of how he sees life, Luis Ferreiro Aguirre, the director of Spanish-based Musealia, which produced the exhibition, told MassLive. And we just hope that ... knowing the past makes them better understand our own present.

Auschwitz nowadays is a silent warning, Ferreiro Aguirre added later. It leaves us with no alibi ... We know where certain ideologies lead to, we just have to look back.

According to Ferreiro, the exhibition was conceived and launched years before the terrorist group Hamas launched the brutal Oct. 7, 2023 sneak attack that claimed the lives of 1,269 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage.

The ferocity of Israels counter-attack, which has claimed the lives of 35,060 Palestinians, according to Al-Jazeera  which bases its count on a combination of Israeli and Palestinian sources  has led to charges that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government is engaging in genocide.

That accusation, in turn, has been hotly debated on the left and right in the weeks and months since that sneak attack.

The debate is particularly fraught since Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish jurist who fled advancing German forces in 1939, coined the term in his 1944 book documenting Nazi atrocities.

Those charges, amid an undeniable and deepening humanitarian disaster in Gaza, also have been the basis, in large part, for the protests that have wracked college campuses across the country  including Massachusetts.

A historic graphic on display at the "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" exhibition at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston. (MassLive photo by John L. Micek).John L. Micek

There is no unanimity of opinion.

In an April 20 essay for the right-leaning National Review, Danielle Pletka and Sahar Soleimany argued that such accusations fail to meet the legal standard for genocide, which U.S. law defines as a violent (attack) with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

Instead, the accusation has a malicious ulterior motive: advancing antisemitism, they offered. Indeed, the alarming rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes, documented by the ADL, provides some evidence that this is the case.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaking to a Boston-area mosque last month, warned that Israels war in Gaza could legally be considered a genocide, the center-left New Republic reported.

If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that theyll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so, Warren said, speaking at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, according to the New Republic.

The answer came in response to an audience question about the International Court of Justice ruling that it was plausible Israel had committed acts of genocide in Gaza, the magazine reported.

A historic graphic on display at the "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" exhibition at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston. (MassLive photo by John L. Micek).John L. Micek

There is no such ambiguity in the Boston exhibition, which lays out the brutally and precisely engineered path that Adolf Hitlers Nazi regime took in its effort to eradicate European Jews and marginalized communities, including Roma, LGBTQ Europeans, and others across the continent.

It starts with Hitler inveighing against Jews during his rise to power, blaming them for Germanys defeat in World War I; it moves to their disenfranchisement from German society and their deportation to the death camps, and, ultimately, to the 1942 Wannsee Conference, where Hitler and his lieutenants agreed to the chilling Final Solution.

On one wall, a blow-up of an instruction sheet lays out, in unflinching detail, the most efficient method for executing prisoners. On another, theres a tally of every Jewish citizen in every European nation, all marked for death.

Its horrific, a Virginia woman, who asked not to be named, said as she paused in the middle of the exhibition. Her husband is Jewish, she said, and he recently learned he had relatives from Poland who survived the Holocaust by concealing their identities.

A few feet away, two young people watched a decades-old film of a German firing squad executing Jewish prisoners.

The people are being buried, one said quietly to the other as they watched German forces cover the bodies, which had fallen into a pit with dirt.

Oh, thats horrible, his companion said.

A woman's shoe on display at the "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" exhibition at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston. (MassLive photo by John L. Micek).John L. Micek

Yet, there are moments of humanity in the horror. There are the friendships forged through hardship that helped so many survive the camps. There are the strengthened bonds of community as the Nazis closed in.

To walk through the exhibit is to be reminded that history, while linear, need not be inevitable; that the hatred, and worse, apathy, that first put Germany on course to disaster 91 years ago, yet might be averted, and even forged into a good as we confront it again.

Its awful to think it could happen again, Smith, the retired cop from the Cape, said with eyes that have probably also seen the worst and best that humanity has to offer.

And maybe it starts with the one mind that got changed or the one heart that got touched, on a cold, gray day in early May in Boston.

Maybe.
The long-running CBS News program 48 Hours will air a program Saturday that explores the Westfield homicide case that resulted in the 2023 conviction of a former police detective, Brian E. Fanion.

A 48 Hours crew spent days in the Pioneer Valley this winter gathering information on the case, including an extensive interview with a reporter with The Republican, Stephanie Barry.
AMHERST  The University of Massachusetts Amherst is not doing enough to combat antisemitism on campus, according to a federal complaint filed this week by the Anti-Defamation League and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights in Boston.

The complaint, which goes now to the federal Education Department, cites specifically a Nov. 3 incident when UMass Amherst student Dylan Jacobs was called a Zionist (expletive), and then punched and kicked repeatedly by another student, while Jacobs attended a Bring Them Home solidarity event sponsored by UMass Amherst Hillel.
A 60-year-old Sandisfield man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in federal court in Springfield on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child sexual abuse materials and an unregistered gun, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levys office announced.

Brian Hohman will also serve 10 years of supervised release after his prison sentence is completed, Levys office said in a statement. In January, Hohman pleaded guilty to charges of possession of child pornography and receipt and possession of an unregistered firearm.

During a search of Hohmans residence in September 2023, investigators discovered a sawed-off shotgun not registered to him, and a laptop with more than 300 visually unique images, and at least two videos depicting child sexual abuse. He was subsequently detained and arrested on an unrelated matter, according to Levys office. Investigators also found Hohman had two cell phones and a SIM card containing child sexual abuse materials.
LEYDEN  The recent arraignment of the ex-police chief of Leyden is the latest misstep in a law enforcement career marked by breaches of policy and law, court documents show.

Former Police Chief Daniel J. Galvis, 71, is accused of stealing thousands of municipal dollars after allegedly taking four town vehicles and construction equipment, and selling them in online auctions for his own gain, according to recently released Massachusetts Inspector Generals Office and state police reports.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Africa and the Middle East in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Maggie Nardi visited Mauritius April 25-26, 2024, as part of the United States commitment to strengthening international cooperation in combating drug trafficking and enhancing maritime security across the Indian Ocean region.

This visit amplified the ongoing partnership between the United States and Mauritius and emphasizes the collaborative efforts required to ensure security and justice across the Indian Ocean region.

During her visit, DAS Nardi participated in the First Ministerial Conference on Drug Trafficking and Substance Abuse in the West Indian Ocean, which was held at the InterContinental Resort in Balaclava. She was also joined by representatives from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The conference focused on developing a holistic approach to curbing the drug menace and brought together regional and international stakeholders to discuss strategies in four key areas: prevention, supply chain disruption, enhancement of health and social services, and strengthening cooperation.

During remarks at the Ministerial Conference, DAS Nardi said,

This conference is a pivotal platform for partnership, reflecting our shared commitment to addressing the complex challenge of drug trafficking that affects us all. We are pleased to see Mauritius join the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats. Together, we aim to strengthen our alliances and innovate our approaches to safeguard our communities. 

In addition to her conference participation, DAS Nardi held bilateral discussions with the Mauritius Revenue Authority and Director of Public Prosecutions focusing on strengthening legal frameworks and judicial cooperation against threats posed by international drug trafficking and synthetic drugs.

DAS Nardi discussed the significant support that INL has provided to Mauritius Director of Public Prosecutions, including the procurement of an advanced electronic case management system that will improve the efficiency of case processing and management within the judicial system. This initiative is part of the broader INL efforts to support rule of law projects globally.
The recent report by Professors John Fitzgerald and Edgar Morganroth on the costs of unifying Ireland has sparked a debate that produces more heat than light.

The professors show that Northern Ireland (NI), currently a UK region, cannot pay its own way. The level of public expenditure in NI greatly exceeds the level of revenue, and deficits are funded by transfers from the UK Treasury. If NI were an independent country, its budget deficit would be about 25-35 percent of its GDP. The IMF would have moved in long ago and imposed the kinds of draconian expenditure controls that Ireland suffered after our economy self-destructed during the global financial crisis of 2007-10.

Because of the large size of the NI deficit, the report asserts that it is unlikely that hard-pressed Irish taxpayers would be willing to support the financial burden, even if our government was minded to do so. Until the health of the NI economy dramatically improves, prospects for a united Ireland appear remote. This may even motivate Unionists to resist economic development, particularly if it involves greater co-operation with Ireland.

Its hard to argue with these facts. However, if the unification question continues to be debated in this narrow, economistic and financial way, we will never be able to move forward to more positive engagement.

Consider a hypothetical situation where the leaders of the 1916 Rising decided to seek economic advice as to the wisdom of a break away from the UK and the establishment of an independent state, using violent means in this case. I would imagine that the economists would have said something like the following:

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS? Have you any idea how decrepit the Irish economy is, other than the Belfast region which the British will never let go? Our transport infrastructure is medieval. We have the worst urban slums in Europe. We have almost no manufacturing, other than in Belfast and Derry. Our underdeveloped agriculture sector employs over 70 percent of our people and exports live cattle and butter to Britain, our only export market. Population imploded after the Famine and people are fleeing the country to seek work in Britain. But we have a privileged inside track within the worlds most prosperous and powerful state, with tariff-free access for our farm produce. AND YOU ARE PROPOSING TO LEAVE THE UK! Are you so deluded that you think the Irish people will support this crazy scheme and suffer a massive reduction in living standards?

Economists tend to have very strong views about data but a weak understanding of history. History is influenced by economistic cost-benefit analysis, but not determined by it. If our island is ever to find its way out of the current historical stalemate within NI and between north and south, it will require much deeper imagination, analysis, flexibility and courage.

Partition of our island in 1921 damaged us deeply in ways that are both visible and invisible. After many false starts, Ireland evolved from the rather negative state caricatured above into a modern, prosperous nation that maintains friendly relations with our erstwhile colonial master, sits comfortably within the European Union and plays a constructive role in wider international affairs. However, we in the Northern and Western region continue to be more seriously affected by the border than other regions. The lagging status of our region is mainly due to a peripherality made worse by the border, with Donegal most seriously affected.

Over the decades since the end of the NI civil war and the 1998 signing of the Good Friday agreement, few Northern Unionists have displayed the slightest willingness to deepen north-south co-operation on a pragmatic, friendly and mutually beneficial way, along the lines, say, of the pre-EU Benelux states (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

Throughout the years that I worked in the ESRI on north-south economic research, my efforts were systematically sabotaged by a NI unionist civil service and unionist politicians and there is ample indication that this deep-seated refusal to co-operate will continue. Is it any wonder that Sinn Fein promotes a radical way of breaking out of this stagnation through pressing for unification?

Serious political discussion about the path to unification needs to start now. But lets initially implement a more united Ireland and leave unification for later consideration. Forget about flags and border referenda. Discussion has to focus on ways that the NI economy can be revived and dynamised, initially with the two island administrations working side by side as equal and friendly partners.

The irony is that many northern Unionists find themselves today in a somewhat similar situation to the 1916 leaders before independence: a relatively stagnant economy, low investment, few good job opportunities, crumbling physical and social infrastructure, disruption of markets. But the violent break away from the UK that led to Irish independence can surely take a more constructive path to resolving the poisonous legacy of partition and addressing the economic development challenges currently faced by the people of NI.

The price of such a desirable and mutually beneficial outcome would be well worth paying. The cost of a more united Ireland will be much lower than Professors Fitzgerald and Morganroth calculated. But will the Unionists recognise and accept such a great deal if it is offered to them?

John Bradley is a former ESRI professor and has published on the island economy of Ireland, EU development policy, industrial strategy and economic modelling.
The European Parliament in Ireland has launched the Use Your Vote campaign to drive voter turnout ahead of the European elections on June 7.

Organised by the European Parliament Liaison Office (EPLO) in Ireland, the Use Your Vote campaign is bringing a European Elections 2024 Roadshow to each of Irelands three European Parliament constituencies, including Ireland Midlands-North-West.

EPLO are holding a number of events to demonstrate the impact the EU has on the daily lives of people living in Ireland, including people in Mayo, and why they should vote in the European elections.

The findings of new research into Irish sentiment towards the EU, carried out among the public by Red C, have been published to coincide with the launch of the campaign.

Poll results show that a majority of the population recognises the large contribution EU membership has had on Ireland, including in relation to freedom of travel, the availability of workers, and human rights.

Seven in ten people believe that EU membership has improved the overall quality of life in Ireland.

According to the new research, there is high agreement among people that many of our most important laws come from the EU, providing an important layer of democracy for Ireland.

There is also high agreement that the shared nature of regulations and directives between member states, meaning that no one member state can undercut others by having lower standards, is important for the protection of human rights and equality, workers rights and employment law, online safety, and environmental protection and climate action.

The vast majority of Irish people recognise the importance of EU representation.

According to the poll, and for the majority, it is important for Ireland to have MEPs that will actively advocate for Ireland's interests within the EU.

The research also shows there is an appetite among three in four Irish adults to hear more about the goings-on of the European Parliament.

EU citizens who witnessed first-hand some of the most tumultuous and significant events in Europes recent history feature in a new short film being released as part of the EU-wide Use Your Vote campaign.

Now grandparents, the four-minute film shows them today describing to their grandchildren the world-changing moments they experienced.

Their testimonies are intended as a powerful statement about the importance of voting in the European elections to protect democracy for future generations. The short film can be viewed on the Use Your Vote website.

Attending the launch of the campaign in Midlands-North-West, head of office (acting) of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Ireland, Fionnuala Croker, said: The centre piece of our campaign is our four-minute Use Your Vote film, which features people in Europe who have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of democracy in their lives. These exceptional individuals wanted to pass on their personal stories to their grandchildren and the next generation of Europeans more widely.

Their testimonies paint a story of how voting is not something we should take for granted. The more people who vote, the stronger is our democracy. For this reason, we hope to achieve as high a turnout as possible on June 7.

For more information about the Use Your Vote campaign, visit their website.
THESE late spring mornings are already filled with glorious birdsong, with the annual dawn chorus greeting the rising sun in spectacular fashion. But amid the cacophony, it can be hard to tell who is singing. The curious can join Birdwatch Irelands Mayo branch for a dawn chorus walk this Saturday, May 4, and begin to learn which chirps and whistles belong to whom.

The group will meet in the car park of the North Mayo Heritage Centre in Enniscoe at 6.45am. Depending on numbers and abilities, those gathered will likely split into groups then take a one-and-a-half to two-hour gentle walk around the grounds listening to the symphony. The great spotted woodpecker has been drumming recently, and a great number of songbirds will be singing or calling, which should make for an exciting morning.

For this event, having the excellent Merlin app (Merlin Bird ID) on your phone will be more useful than binoculars. (Last year, Merlin identified common terns long before they could be seen far out on Lough Conn.)

When the walk finishes, the groups will return to base and Danny at the centre will have the cafe open for a welcome cup of tea or coffee and scones, breakfast baps or a full Irish.

All are welcome to join the dawn chorus walk; membership of BirdWatch Ireland is not necessary. There is no charge for this event, but donations to the Mayo branch are always gratefully received.

Remember to wear appropriate clothing for the forecast weather  the paths are often wet in places so waterproof footwear is recommended. Also, its worth noting that if there is a Met Eireann weather warning, the event will be cancelled. Notice will be posted on WhatsApp and, if feasible, by email and on Facebook.
By Nazrin Abdul

The UN General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution designating 2026 as the "International Year of Women Farmers," highlighting the challenges encountered by women in agricultural systems worldwide, Azernews reports.

The resolution underscores the importance of addressing these obstacles and emphasizes initiatives aimed at promoting awareness, implementing effective policies, and adopting measures to support women in agriculture.

The resolution emphasizes that achieving gender equality and empowering women in agriculture requires addressing these challenges comprehensively.

The UN General Assembly urges the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to collaborate with regional agencies to effectively implement the resolution and advance the rights and opportunities of women farmers globally.

United Nations Proclaims 2024 as 'Year of the Camel' to Spotlight Camel Conservation and Welfare Efforts
by Fern Siegel , May 3, 2024

BarkleyOKRP just acquired Adlucent from Advantage Solutions. Financial details were not disclosed.

Based in Austin, Texas, Adlucent, a performance media and marketing technology company, creates custom paid media strategies for retail and service companies across search, display, social and retail media networks. Adlucent is also Googles largest shopping ads agency in the U.S.

Its brand work includes Zappos, The Vitamin Shoppe and Rawlings.

Barkley and OKRP merged in March. This is the independent agency's first acquisition.

BarkleyOKRP fills the gap between holding companies and boutique shops, providing the best of both, said Jeff King, CEO of BarkleyOKRP. This acquisition of Adlucent supports our strategic vision to scale integrated media capabilities, expand our technology offering, and grow our media and data team to more than 250 experts, driving consumer engagement and ROI for our clients.

BarkleyOKRP will now have offices in Kansas City, Chicago, Denver, New York, Pittsburgh and Austin. Client work includes Burger King, Metro by T-Mobile, Planet Fitness and AMC Theaters.

Ashwani Dhar, former CEO of Adlucent, becomes chief performance officer at BarkleyOKRP. Dhar reports to King.
by Fern Siegel , May 3, 2024

Bronx Zoo is touting a milestone  its 125th anniversary.

Comprising 265 acres of park land, the largest metropolitan zoo in the U.S. is noting this historic achievement with a campaign by Six+One, the organization's AOR.

Six+One's 360-degree campaign  "Unforgettable Lives Here"  invites New Yorkers to participate in the Bronx Zoo's ongoing journey, creating their own singular experiences.

The new work positions the Bronx Zoo as a remarkable destination that adds value and memories for families. It is home to over 11,000 animals, more than 640 species.

The year-long campaign appears throughout New York City, with out-of-home takeovers in subway stations, entrance wraps, billboards, digital video, paid social media and display.

Eric Rojas, founder-COO, Six+One, said the agency was honored to bring the Bronx Zoo's story to life. "The zoo has been transporting New Yorkers to remote corners of the world for over 125 years, both physically and emotionally, and we're excited to see the city share in the celebration."

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Known for its diverse animal collection, the Bronx Zoo became the first in the world to keep a James' flamingo, a specie thought to be extinct until 1957. In June 1990, the zoo received a female Sumatran rhinoceros, one of only three in North America to hold the critically endangered species. In 2007, the zoo successfully reintroduced three Chinese alligators into the wild.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 2, 2024

Mobile data broker Kochava may be open to settling privacy charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission, according to court papers filed this week.

In a joint motion filed Tuesday, Kochava and the FTC asked U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill for a five-week extension of a deadline to file certain pre-trial paperwork, writing that the extra time would facilitate settlement talks.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Idaho granted the request on Wednesday, extending the deadline from May 6 to June 14.

A Kochava spokesperson called the move a procedural development, adding that the company has always welcomed productive conversations with the FTC and ways that we can work collaboratively to protect user data.

The FTC declined to comment.

The FTC claimed in a 2022 complaint against Kochava that the company engaged in an unfair business practice by allegedly selling the kind of precise geolocation data that could expose sensitive information, such as whether people visited doctors' offices or religious institutions.

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Among other allegations, the FTC said Kochava sells precise geolocation data as well as mobile advertising IDs -- unique, 32-character identifiers that persist, unless consumers proactively reset them.

Kochava countered in a motion seeking dismissal that the data it sells isn't personally identifiable, and that the agency's allegations -- even if proven true -- wouldn't amount to unfair conduct.

In February, Winmill rejected Kochava's argument and allowed the FTC to proceed with the complaint. Winmill essentially said at the time that the allegations against the company, if proven true, could support the claim that it engaged in an unfair business practice -- meaning it engaged in activity that could cause substantial injury to consumers, and isn't reasonably avoidable by consumers or outweighed by benefits.

Kochava allegedly provides its customers with vast amounts of essentially non-anonymized information about millions of mobile device users past physical locations, personal characteristics (including age, ethnicity, and gender), religious and political affiliations, marital and parental statuses, economic statuses, and more, Winmill wrote in February.

Kochava founder and CEO Charles Manning said at the time that the company was confident it would prevail on the merits.

Kochava has always operated consistently and proactively in compliance with all rules and laws, including those specific to privacy, he stated.

Never in a million years did we imagine that as a small, law-abiding company wed find ourselves in the ring on behalf of an entire industry, Manning added.

Shortly before the FTC sued, Kochava announced a privacy block feature that removes known health services locations from its marketplace. Manning said in February that the feature has been blocking over 2.1 million locations from its data products on an ongoing basis.
by Teresa Buyikian , May 2, 2024

Happy Cinco De Mayo! The event has become a yearly celebration in the U.S. (actually much less popular in Mexico), with restaurants jumping in on the festivities with food and drink promos. Heres a few for this May 5.

Chipotle announced a deal good through May 5: Customers who order online or through the Chipotle website or app and use the code CINCO24 will receive free delivery the entire day.

Chronic Tacos will offer customers $5 off a purchase of $25 or more on May 5 only. The offer from the Southern California-based chain is exclusive to the chains Loyalty Members through the Chronic Tacos App.

Dave and Busters fans can celebrate Cinco De Mayo at the bar with $5 Tres Tequila Rita Margaritas on May 5.

El Pollo Loco is offering customers several deals, including a series of buy one, get one specials for Loco Rewards loyalty members beginning May 3 through May 5. For example, members who buy a Carnitas Stuffed Quesadilla will receive a second one free. Finally, on May 5, members who place an order of $10 or more through the El Polo Loco app will receive two free Shredded Chicken Crunchy Tacos with free delivery. Members can also receive $20 off of a catering order totaling $100 or more this week only, and customers who pay a $50 gift card will receive a $10 bonus through May 5.

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El Torito has multi days of Cinco De Mayo promos for customers. On May 3 and 4, patrons can take part in an all-day Happy Hour, which includes $4, $6, $8, and $10 specials in the cantina. The chain will offer an all-you-can-eat brunch the morning of May 5, with margarita, beer and shot specials with $4 tacos in afternoon and evening.

Taco Bell customers can receive five crunchy or soft tacos for only $5 on May 5. The offer, limited to one per customer, is also exclusive to Taco Bell Rewards members who order through the chains mobile app.
by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, May 3, 2024





Pandora, the Danish jewelry giant best known for add-a-charm bracelets, is basking in the success of recent marketing shifts. Thanks to its Be Love campaign, which focuses on the brands large selection of demi-fine jewelry, sales soared 18% in its just-completed first quarter to about $977 million U.S. dollars.

On a comparable store basis, revenues rose 11%. And with a 9% gain in U.S. sales, its largest market, the mall-based retailer continued to add market share in the U.S.

The latest effort is the second step in the companys Phoenix strategy, which included increased advertising investment that showcased Pandoras position as a full jewelry brand, the company announced.

Based on that momentum, the company also increased its forecast for the coming quarter, anticipating between 8% and 10% sales gains, even as the broader jewelry market struggles.

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Profits at the company, the largest jewelry brand in the world, reached record levels.

Whilst jewelry markets around us generally remain subdued, says Alexander Lacik, president and chief executive officer, in its announcement, our ongoing brand investments allow us to take market share.

Industrywide, Tenoris, a market research company, reports that the U.S. jewelry market dropped 5.8% in 2023. And in December  a month that often rescues the category  dollar sales at U.S. specialty jewelers gained just 0.1%, as unit sales dipped 2.3%.

The company introduced the Be Love campaign as part of multiple efforts to expand its reach, including opening more stores.

Sales of core offerings, including the sale of the charms the company is best known for that still comprise the majority of sales, grew 3%. New collections performed much better. Fuel gained 34%, Timeless advanced by 43%, and revenues for lab-grown diamonds skyrocketed 87%.

Last year, the company launched three new collections of those lab-grown sparklers as part of its Diamonds for All effort. Ads for those collections featured such celebrities as a clean-scrubbed Pamela Anderson, Vogue style icon Grace Coddington and musician/dancer Vinson Fraley.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 3, 2024

Fortnite developer Epic Games recently asked a federal judge to issue an injunction that would force Google to make significant changes to the way it operates the Play store.

Among other requests, Epic asked U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in San Francisco to order Google to allow Android users to sideload some apps -- meaning to download them from sources other than the Play store -- with a single tap and no additional warnings. Epic also wants Donato to order Google to refrain from prohibiting or even discouraging smartphone manufacturers from blocking other companies' pre-installed apps or app stores.

Epic requested the injunction after prevailing against Google on antitrust claims relating to the Play store, including claims that Google monopolized the markets for Android app distribution and Android in-app billing.

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Google -- which has signaled it plans to appeal that verdict -- on Thursday urged Donato to reject Epic's proposed injunction for numerous reasons, including that its provisions would threaten users' privacy.

The proposed remedy would harm Android users because it contains no exceptions to protect user privacy and security and overall user experience, Google writes.

Under Epic's proposal, Google would be unable to adopt reasonable policies to protect users from harmful pre-installed apps or app installers -- apps that have the powerful permission to install other apps, the company says.

The company adds that Epic's proposed injunction would prevent Google from asking a manufacturer to avoid pre-installing software that tracked a users location without consent, or that installed other software that users don't want.

Google also noted that four years ago, Privacy International and other groups specifically asked CEO Sundar Pichai to crack down on pre-installed apps that could compromise Android users' privacy.

The company also noted that it already agreed to streamline procedures for sideloading apps, but said the proposed injunction's terms regarding sideloading are so broad that they would prohibit Google from warning users about risks.

Epic's proposed restrictions would require Google to allow non-Play store apps to be sideloaded by a single tap and no extra warnings, unless the app was known malware, or the app had failed to go through an as-yet uncreated notarization-like procedure.

But Google says it often doesn't know that a non-Play store app is malware.

Instead, Google provides a general warning regarding sideloading when the user enables sideloading, and it may provide additional warnings if it identifies additional risk signals for an app, the company writes. Epic's proposal will prevent Google from providing commonsense warnings in these scenarios.

Google also says Epic's proposed notarization-like process is too vague and fails to address questions such as what the process would involve, which company would conduct it, and what standards Google should apply in reviewing apps.

Google -- and its customers -- would bear the risks of Android being the first consumer operating system to ever implement decentralized notarization for app review, Google writes. If the notarization process fails to catch a malicious app or if an app cleared by Google later turns malicious, Google would face the reputational and brand risk, even though the app was not distributed by Google and was not available on the Google Play store.

Donato will hold a hearing regarding the proposed injunction on May 23.
Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, is encased by myth and legend.

He could be, at turns, both charming and chillingly ruthless. Millions died under his direct orders; even his closest allies and compatriots. It was Stalin, after all, who said I trust no-one, not even myself.

His purge of Russian generals was so proficient and total that it left few experienced commanders to take their places in the field.

Continuing the series of little-known facts, Military History Monthly unveils ten obscure facts, offering insight into the life of the Soviet dictator.

1. Man of Steel

Uncle Joes birth name was Losif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (several other alternative spellings are documented). He started using his assumed name Stalin, roughly translating as man of steel, in 1910. In addition to fostering his hard-lined image, the moniker was supposedly adopted in an effort to shield his real identity from the police whilst involved in evasive revolutionary activity. Some commentators suggest the son of a modest cobbler chose the name in order to distance himself from his Georgian roots.

A fondness of pseudonyms and nicknames began in childhood. He had previously answered to the name of Koba, in a celebration  as opposed to a denial  of his Georgian heritage. Koba was the romantic hero of Alexander Kazbegis 1882 novel, The Patricide, the embodiment of Georgian knightly morality, symbolic of justice and freedom from Imperial oppression.

Some nicknames were perhaps less revered by Stalin. Dissenters labelled him the Little father of the peoples, in a reference to his relatively short 5ft4 height. He was described by Harry S. Truman as a little squirt.

2. Man of the Cloth

Although later a synedoche of atheism and the anti-religious stance of Marxism, Stalin was a student of Theology when he joined the Revolutionary movement. His mother had wanted her son to become a priest in the hope that a career in the clergy would relieve him of poverty and bring opportunity. Many of his earlier writings have a theological inclination to them. The intelligent young man was awarded a full scholarship to the Tbilisi Theological Seminary, with the view to becoming ordained into the Russian Orthodox Church. He was ousted seemingly after reading books by Karl Marx, in his early forays into the revolutionary movement.

His relationship with religion, even later in life, is still fiercely contested, with some suggesting he maintained elements of Christian spirituality, despite an overt Marxist outlook.

3. At Arms Length

In an eerie echo of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Stalin suffered a physical abnormality in his left arm, making it distinctly shorter than the right. Both would try to disguise this in official portraits. Unlike the Kaiser, whose affliction resulted from complications during birth, Stalins was the product of an accident involving a horse-drawn carriage, aged twelve. His arm had to be reconstructed by extensive surgery, leaving it shorter and stiffened at the elbow.

4. Suffering for Art

Stalin was particularly insecure about his physical appearance. He battled small pox as a young child and was left permanently scarred as a result. Official photographs of the dictator would be routinely air-brushed. A far cry from the warts-n-all approach adopted by an earlier anti-monarchical revolutionary, Oliver Cromwell, Stalin had several portrait artists shot for their unflattering depictions of him.

5. The Last Laugh

Graphic accounts detailing Stalins tendency to dispose of those who displeased him often seem too fanciful to be believed. Indeed, whilst many of these may forever remain unresolved, certainly many men and women disappeared in suspicious circumstances. Even more chilling are the alleged exterminations enacted apparently to satisfy his own amusement. One such yarn  depicting a complete indifference towards the value of human life  professes his preferred method of clearing minefields; by ordering his troops to march over them.

The following story implies Stalin could exercise great cruelty, even when in a playful mood. It is common knowledge that Stalin prohibited his guards from entering his private bed chambers on pain of death. One day, in a test of their resilience, Stalin decided to scream as if in great agony. When his loyal guards came to their masters aid, they were duly executed for failing to follow orders.

When Stalin did actually endure a paralysing seizure, whilst alone in his bedroom, none of his guards dared to come to his aid, on the fear of very tangible reprisals. He was later found semi-conscious by Peter Lozgachev, Deputy Commandant of Kuntsevo, on the floor of the room. He died within a week.

6. Man of Peace?

Although known throughout the West as a cruel cold tyrant, Stalin was actually nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice, in 1945 and 1948, for his involvement in bringing the Second World War to a close. He was eclipsed in 1945 by Cordell Hull, an initiator of the United Nations, whereas the second time, in 1948, the prize was not awarded.

Stalins pessimistic views on peace, however, are made clear in the following statement attributed to him: If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a peace conference, you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and aeroplanes.

Despite losing out on the Nobel Peace Prize, Stalin did receive other another international accolade, although perhaps not for promoting global harmony; like Churchill, Stalin was named Time Magazines Person of the Year twice  in 1939 and 1942.

7. King Kommunism

In a story strangely reminiscent of Mary Shelleys Dr Frankenstein, Stalin ordered leading Russian scientists to develop a half human-half ape hybrid. He is quoted, in state-controlled Moscow papers, as saying I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat. Accordingly, in 1926, the Politburo put the Soviet Academy of Science to the task of creating a living war machine.

Stalins ape-men, of immense strength, but with an underdeveloped brain, were to be utilised in strengthening Russias industry and building railroads, in addition to the obvious military applications. The experiments were led by Ilya Ivanov, a prominent Soviet scientist, and expert in animal husbandry. Despite numerous tests involving captured chimpanzees, Ivanov was unsuccessful, leading ultimately to his arrest and exile to Kazakhstan.

8. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

A single death is a tragedy, a million dead is a statistic. The dictators cold logic is summed up in one simple sentence. However, although frequently attributed to him in its various manifestations, there is no evidence that Stalin ever made this statement. The phrase was actually coined by the German writer and pacifist, Erich Maria Remarque.

9. The Wild, Wild East

Apparently Stalin was a big fan of American cowboy films. He would host screenings to friends in his private cinema, which came complete with its own in-house translator.

10. Double Act

Stalin was ever wary of pretenders to his throne. Political opponents, as has been mentioned, were invariably removed from power. He was, however, to make one notable exception; Mikheil Gelovani was the one man who Stalin would allow to imitate him. In 1938, Gelovani, a film actor of noble Georgian lineage, impressed Stalin so much when he portrayed the leader in Diadi Gantiadi, that he was chosen as Stalins only official screen-representative from then onwards.

Whilst this may have seen as a blessing, in practise, the prominent role held Gelovani back from a blossoming film and theatre career, formerly starring in romances and comedies. His idealised portrayal of Uncle Joe brought a warmth to the character, further accentuating Stalins cult of personality, a self-mythologising exercise, which exerted a dominant presence within the arts, place-names and the annals of history. Gelovani, whilst fortunately not suffering the same fate of many of his leaders subjects, did die on Stalins birthday.

WWII Icon Fact-files

Enjoyed these? Take a look at some other bizarre and intriguing facts compiled by Military Times:

What you didnt know about Spitfire

Hitler, the vegetarian dictator

Churchill: the statesman, the artist, the gorilla impersonator?
Troops at Colorado Space Force Base Will Have to Bring Their Own To-Go Boxes for Dining Hall

While the initiative is aimed at reducing waste on base, the spokesperson added that they hope it will give troops on base...
Thirty sailors and Marines were injured Wednesday evening after an incident involving two landing craft during training off the coast of Florida, the Navy said.

Five sailors were medically evacuated for additional care to a hospital in Georgia, though four of them were released after treatment. One sailor remains in the hospital, according to an emailed statement from the service on Friday.

The Navy did not disclose the nature of the incident or during what specific operation the service members were injured, though it did say that it was a training exercise. Of the more than two dozen troops who were injured, several with minor injuries were treated aboard the USS Wasp and USS New York, which are part of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group.

Read Next: Marine Corps Offering Thousands of Dollars in Bonuses in Push for More Intelligence Specialists

The incident is under investigation, the service said, though details on the injuries were not disclosed. The mishap involved two landing craft, air cushion, or LCAC, vessels, which transport troops from ship to shore. The service members who were transported to Georgia were admitted to Savannah's Memorial Health University Medical Center.

The Marines aboard the vessels are part of the Corps' 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU. That MEU is part of the Wasp ARG, which includes three ships: the Wasp, the New York and the USS Oak Hill. The group was training off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.

The ARG spent last month in pre-deployment training, to include non-combatant evacuation missions. MEUs and their accompanying ships are forward-deployed response forces meant to conduct a number of missions abroad.

In March, Military.com reported that the Wasp appeared to have issues off the coast of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Ship watchers spotted the vessel departing the installation, only to return shortly afterward with tugs alongside it. At the time, the Navy would not comment on the ship's status or what may have caused the early return.

Prior to the incident this week involving the two vessels, a Marine with the 24th MEU died after a parachute mishap late last month. That incident occurred during the unit's pre-deployment training.

The Marine was identified as Sgt. Colin Arslanbas, who had just been promoted to sergeant the same month he died. He was a reconnaissance Marine and part of the Maritime Special Purpose Force, or MSPF, a specialized unit within the MEU.

Related: Parachute Mishap Cited as Cause of Death for Camp Lejeune Marine Who Was Training in North Carolina
HONOLULU -- Amid a gathering of top defense leaders from across the Pacific in Hawaii, Pentagon officials said Thursday that the U.S. not only needs to grow its ties in the region but also bolster the number of troops there to deter China.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while standing alongside his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines, said that the four leaders "discussed how we can deepen our trilateral cooperation to strengthen stability and security."

However, one military official also said that the U.S. needs "an improved force posture and it needs to be west of the International Date Line ... so that we can have a lethal and combat credible force" closer to China, Russia and North Korea.

Read Next: Temporary Promotions for Army Noncommissioned Officers to End in June

Austin's day of meetings with his counterparts in the region comes as China continues to expand its campaign of harassing and threatening nearby countries and their ships in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, the Philippine coast guard announced that two of its ships were rammed and shot with water cannons by vessels from the Chinese coast guard. The incident is just the latest in a growing number of skirmishes that are only increasing in frequency.

Defense officials at the Pentagon told reporters that incidents like this are "really worrisome operational behavior and coercion" and "a topic that we're going to focus on together."

Earlier in April, Austin assured Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the long-standing 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," according to Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

However, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Philippine defense secretary, told reporters that he didn't want to discuss "a scenario when or in what occasions the [defense treaty] may be invoked, before noting that its invocation "will be a political decision, at the end of the day."

But as incidents between China and the Philippines continue to simmer, the U.S. military official said there is a worry that there aren't enough U.S. service members in the region to respond to a possible, future incident or offer "a lethal and combat credible force forward."

The military official noted to reporters that, while the Indo-Pacific has about 300,000 assigned forces, only about 80,000 of those are west of the International Date Line, which passes through the center of the Pacific, and the bulk of those are in Japan.

However, simply moving troops into the region permanently is not on the table since there are both legal and political constraints.

In February, the Philippines agreed to increase the number of military camps that the U.S. will be allowed to maintain in the country to nine. However, those are not bases with permanently stationed troops but rather locations that the U.S. military has access to should it need them.

Meanwhile, Australia recently inked a historic deal, commonly called "AUKUS," that will see the U.S. provide the island nation with its much-coveted, nuclear-powered submarine technology. However, the military official noted that "Australia's constitution prevents us basing in Australia."

The solution, officials say, is to continue to build relationships with allies and increase the tempo of exercises and troop rotations through the region.

Austin said that he and the other leaders are "looking to conduct more maritime exercises and activities among our four countries," while officials at the Pentagon said that the aim for the meetings was to generate "'no kidding' proposals for collective action."

"We need to create opportunities for training environments, for locations that they can do rotational visits to," the military official said.

Austin acknowledged that "we're clear-eyed about the challenges that exist throughout the region and so we'll need to continue to work together."

"But that's why we're here -- because we share a common vision," Austin said.

Related: Army Planning Big Boost to Pacific Operations Next Year with More Training, Deployments and Equipment
The Marine Corps needs more counterintelligence and human intelligence specialists, also known as CI/HUMINT, and is offering some Marines thousands of dollars in bonuses to transfer into those jobs.

The service has labeled the military occupational specialty, or MOS, as "high-demand, low-density," adding that "the need for qualified Marines to lateral move to this MOS will remain high for the foreseeable future," according to an official administrative message posted in late April.

The effort is aimed at recruiting current corporals, sergeants or staff sergeants from any other Marine Corps job. Lance corporals and gunnery sergeants can also apply, but must be "determined exceptionally qualified" for the role based on the screening process, according to the message.

Read Next: Temporary Promotions for Army Noncommissioned Officers to End in June

CI/HUMINT specialists conduct "sensitive and complex" intelligence operations in support of Marine units, like the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, or MAGTF, around the world, according to the message.

The job is difficult and selective, according to the Corps, which has helped create an environment where those skills are highly sought after, hence the bonuses and "high-demand, low-density" label.

"That means there's a lot of appetite for our skill set," a senior Marine in the field, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, told Military.com on Thursday. "We just don't have the people to do it."

CI/HUMINT jobs saw significant importance during the Global War on Terror for targeting and information-collecting missions -- and according to the Corps, they are still critically needed for its current and future efforts.

"The wars in the Middle East were primarily focused on the human intelligence side, meaning we were collecting information and targeting the adversary kinetically," the Marine said.

They said those missions included Marines being on the ground in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, talking to sources to collect information about the enemy. Now, as the greater defense apparatus focuses on so-called near-peer adversaries, those jobs are still important but are shifting.

"The priority is China. It doesn't matter what theater you're in, it's still China," the Marine said, adding that Russia, Iran and North Korea are major threats that the CI/HUMINT field is tracking too.

"We have a whole other side," they said, referring to counterintelligence that helps protect information, people and critical systems against foreign espionage and attacks. "It's not as sexy as HUMINT. You don't get instant gratification by doing good counter-intelligence," but it is still critical, they said.

The message said that Marines who accept this role will identify threats posed by hostile intelligence organizations, including those "engaged in terrorism, espionage, sabotage or subversion."

Transfer Bonuses Available

The job still involves information collection, including during interrogations and screening. Marines who accept this billet could find themselves assigned to organizations such as the Marine Corps Fleet Marine Force, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, Defense Intelligence Agency, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and "other unique billets," the message said.

"It doesn't matter where you end up, whether it's ... North Carolina, California, Okinawa or any of these places," the Marine said. "China is expansive all around the globe, and the work that [counterintelligence/HUMINT specialists] will do right now is going to shape a future war."

"That would be my selling point," they said. "Everywhere they go, they will be shaping the next war."

The Marine Corps has added incentives to the proposed transfer, to include what it calls a "substantial" retention bonus. For example, an active-duty sergeant who transfers into the CI/HUMINT role and agrees to serve the Corps for an additional six years will get a $65,000 MOS-specific bonus and a $40,000 "kicker," for a total of $105,000.

The pay incentives work on a sliding scale based on rank, with more junior Marines earning more in bonuses if they transfer, according to information provided by the services Manpower and Reserve Affairs division.

"CI/HUMINT Marines are highly qualified individuals who must pass an intensive screening and training regimen before they earn the 0211 military occupational specialty," said Capt. Sarah Eason, a spokesperson for the division. "As such, it's often a lengthy and difficult process to find qualified applicants that meet the prerequisites."

The Screening Process

That screening process includes ensuring that Marines are meeting and exceeding regular service standards. But the CI/HUMINT accession involves interviews, physical tests, geography and mapping assessments, security clearance prerequisites and written work, to name a few criteria.

A big attribute in the field, the Marine said, is screeners looking at how well the service member will operate under pressure for a role that could lead them to speaking with generals, politicians and embassy personnel, for example.

And that is before the schooling process, which is difficult itself, even begins.

"We have one of the highest attrition rates of any school, probably in the Department of Defense," the senior Marine said, referring to the MAGTF CI/HUMINT course in Virginia. Those who make it through the school will go to their line units, where they will receive further molding by their direct leadership to "make them better and fit into a team," depending on their unit's specific mission, the Marine added.

They urged others looking to transfer into this skill to take a hard look at themselves, especially their personal lives, before committing to that highly sought-after job.

"I would really dig into their personal lives, whether it's [that they] just had children, they just got married, they have financial issues -- anything that could take their mind off of what they could potentially be doing is what I would personally look into, the Marine said.

Marines interested in the job can reach out to a CI/HUMINT recruiter.

Related: Marine General Issues 'Call to Action' Against China Hackers Lurking in US Computer Systems
One good turn, the saying goes, deserves another. The Allied forces of World War II were more than ready to accept a Nazi surrender, but when they realized they might have left a potential loophole for Germany to continue fighting the Soviet Union, however, they had no qualms about forcing their vanquished foe to sign another, more complete surrender.

Adolf Hitlers suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, didnt immediately end World War II in Europe. Though the German capital had fallen to the Soviets, pockets of Nazi troops would continue fighting for more than a week in France, Germany, the Mediterranean and elsewhere. And when the Nazis finally did accede to the Allies demand for unconditional surrender, once-proud German generals had to put their tails between their legs and sign an instrument of that surrender not once, but twice.

Though equally brief, the two surrenders were markedly different in both mood and tenor. The chief difference between them was the Soviets. The fighting on World War IIs Eastern Front was some of the most brutal warfare in the history of mankind, and it showed right up until the staunchly anti-communist Nazi regime was forced to surrender to the Red Army. While Germanys surrender to the Western Allies was somber but cordial, the next days surrender in Berlin was tense, blunt and filled with suppressed anger.

The first surrender came in the early morning hours of May 7, 1945, at Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France. By then, German Adm. Karl Donitz had succeeded HItler as head of state, and he sent Gen. Alfred Jodl to sign the surrender.

Along with Jodl, Germany was represented by Maj. Wilhelm Oxenius and Gen. Adm. Hans-Georg von Friedeburg. Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhowers chief of staff at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), received the Germans as the representative for the American and British forces. Gen. Ivan Susloparov represented the Soviet Union while French Maj. Gen. Francois Sevez signed as a witness.

The 30-by-30-foot room in a red-brick schoolhouse was filled with flood lights and some 60 people, including delegates and journalists. The crowd was reportedly nervous waiting for the Germans to arrive in the map-filled room, which they did at 2:39 a.m. Jodl clicked his heels and the three Nazis sat down. Two minutes later, the documents were signed.

Only the atmosphere of cold military punctiliousness across the conference table was there to remind one of the Compiegne railroad car where the World War I armistice was signed, United Press International war correspondent Boyd Lewis wrote at the time.

The whole thing was over in five minutes, according to one Stars and Stripes reporter. Jodl signed with just his last name and expressed his hope that the Allies would be generous to the German people.

"General, with this signature the German people and the German armed forces are for the better or worse delivered into the victor's hands, Jodl told the Allied delegation. In this war which has lasted more than five years both have achieved more and suffered more perhaps than any other people in the world.

I express the hope the victor will treat them with generosity," he continued, his voice cracking slightly.

Ten minutes later, Jodl met with Eisenhower himself. Ike only asked whether Jodl understood the surrender details, to which he replied that he did, clicked his heels in salute and walked out, tripping on a cable along the way.

General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Army (left), and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Royal Air Force, address the world via motion picture and sound recordings shortly after the German mission signed the instrument of unconditional surrender in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945 (Naval History and Heritage Command)

That might have been the end of the war -- except it wasnt. Fighting between German and Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere continued for at least another full day. Moreover, the Act of Military Surrender ensured the submission of Germanys armed forces, but not its government.

Donitz was determined to continue the German government, unrepentant of Nazism, with the presidential powers Hitler left to him in accordance with the Weimar Constitution. Eisenhower wanted to ensure the German government surrendered while the Soviet Union was concerned the continued fighting on the Eastern Front made it look like the West had brokered a separate peace.

In reality, German troops had signed separate agreements piecemeal since the end of April. In Italy, German and Fascist Italian forces signed their surrender on April 29. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in the Netherlands and northern Germany on May 4. The next day, fighting stopped in southern Germany when the Nazis surrendered to the Americans.

The Soviets, it turns out, had every reason to suspect the Germans were up to something. German forces in the east were fighting their way west in order to avoid surrendering to the Red Army while requesting permission to continue fighting. Writing in The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, renowned historian Ian Kershaw observed that both Donitz and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel wanted to use what remained of the Wehrmacht to rescue as many Germans as possible from Bolshevization and slavery.

German troops surrender en masse to the Red Army, 1945. (Oleg Knorring)

Friedeburg repeatedly made requests to Eisenhower for a partial capitulation, only to the western Allies, but Eisenhower refused anything that didnt include the Soviet Union. Donitz, who had formed a new German government in Flensburg, maintained the hope that the Allies would allow him to maintain his makeshift government as German troops flowed westward.

It took just six hours for the USSR to object to the Reims surrender. Moscow complained that the text of that instrument was different from what the Allies had previously agreed upon and that Susloparov didnt have the authority to sign for the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Kershaw wrote, wanted a tacit acknowledgment that the Red Army had borne the brunt of the fighting and dying by signing a surrender document in the German capital with the highest representatives of the German military command present. Eisenhower agreed.

Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov prepares to sign the instrument of surrender at Karlshorst. (Bundesarchiv)

It was under these circumstances that Keitel, then the overall commander of the German Army; Col. Gen. Hans-Jurgen Stumpff, commander of the Luftwaffe; and Adm. Friedeburg, commander of the German Navy, entered the former mess hall of Germanys military engineering school in Karlshorst on May 8, 1945. At the time, the building was the headquarters for Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

In his book, The Fall of Berlin 1945, historian Antony Beevor wrote that the three German leaders entered the press-filled room looking resigned and imperious. Keitel raised his marshals baton in salute to Zhukov, British Air Marshal Arthur W. Tedder, French Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny and American Gen. Carl Spaatz -- who did not respond. Keitel "sat very straight in his chair, with clenched fists. Just behind him, a tall German staff officer standing to attention  crying without a single muscle of his face moving."

Zhukov invited the Germans to come sign the documents, but Keitel gestured for them to be brought to him. Zhukov then told the interpreters, "Tell them to come here to sign." Keitel "ostentatiously" removed his gloves before signing. Clifford Webb of the now-defunct Daily Herald remarked that the Soviet press was difficult to control.

They surged forwards until they all but engulfed the top table, pushing and struggling amongst themselves to thrust their cameras within inches of Keitel's furious face while he signed. Reporters stood on chairs until other reporters pushed them off," Webb said.

Kershaw wrote that Keitels hand shook as he signed the surrender. When five copies were signed, Zhukov dismissed the German delegation. Keitel again raised his baton, turned on his heels and the Germans left the room.

As the door closed behind them, it was almost as if everybody in the room exhaled in unison, Beevor wrote. The tension relaxed instantaneously. Zhukov was smiling, so was [British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur] Tedder. Everybody began to talk animatedly and shake hands. Soviet officers embraced each other with bear hugs."

Now that the Soviet Union was satisfied and Nazi Germany was officially history, the post-surrender afterparty raged until dawn. Even Keitel and the Germans stuck around for a celebratory meal and drink, according to Kershaw. But the fallout from the surrender was just beginning.

Air Chief Marshal Arthur W. Tedder, Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Gen. Carl Spaatz drink one of many toasts after signing the German surrender. (Bundesarchiv)

Jodl would be charged with war crimes and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Nuremberg Prison on Oct. 16, 1946. His staff officer at Reims, Maj. Wilhelm Oxenius, was held as a prisoner of war until 1948. Donitzs dreams of forming a new German government were dashed when they were all arrested by British forces at Flensburg. Upon learning he would be tried as a war criminal, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg died by suicide. Donitz would spend 10 years in West Berlins Spandau Prison.

Things were far worse for German soldiers. Some 30% of Germanys 10 million troops were captured by the Red Army, Kershaw wrote, with at least one million dying in Soviet captivity.

The lasting legacy of these two surrender documents can be seen in the former allies commemoration of their victory in Europe. The Reims surrender was signed on May 7, 1945, but the news broke back home the next day, leading the Western Allies to celebrate V-E Day on May 8. Since the Soviet Union didnt recognize the Reims agreement and the Nazi surrender in Berlin was signed on May 9, thats the day Russia celebrates its Victory Day.

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TODAY: Raley spoke with Newsdays Tim Healey and other reporters today, and revealed that while his situation is a little more complex and that he doesnt know all the details, he is dealing with bone spurs and some level of UCL damage in his left elbow. Raley will meet with Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday to explore surgical and non-surgical options.

MAY 2: Mets reliever Brooks Raley is facing a possible long-term absence after testing revealed at least fraying in an elbow ligament, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman writes that Raley and the team are currently weighing whether hell need to undergo surgery.

Raley landed on the 15-day injured list with what the team called elbow inflammation two weeks ago. Manager Carlos Mendoza was initially optimistic that the left-hander would return around the time he was first eligible. Subsequent imaging has evidently revealed the issue to be more serious than the team first believed. Mendoza told reporters this afternoon that Raleys recovery timeline was being pushed back, albeit without providing much in the way of specifics (via the MLB.com injury tracker).

Acquired from the Rays over the 2022-23 offseason, Raley has been a quality bullpen piece in Queens. He turned in a 2.80 ERA over a career-high 54 2/3 innings last season. He punched out more than a quarter of opposing hitters and found success against batters of either handedness. The Mets fielded some trade interest on Raley last summer but elected to hold him and trigger a $6.5MM option for this season.

The first three weeks could hardly have gone much better. Raley rattled off seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and only five baserunners allowed (two hits and three walks). He was credited with four holds in eight appearances and was among the clubs highest-leverage arms. Depending on the results of upcoming testing, he could be out for an extended stretch  perhaps the entire season.

That would leave the Mets rather short on experienced left-handed bullpen depth. Free agent pickup Jake Diekman is their top healthy option. The veteran has huge swing-and-miss ability, though his results have been somewhat inconsistent throughout his career thanks to well below-average control. Josh Walker and Tyler Jay have seen limited action, while recent call-up Danny Young made his team debut in this afternoons win. Walker was recently optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, while Jay was outrighted off the 40-man roster and is back in the minors as well.

Depth starter Joey Lucchesi has fared better against left-handed hitters and could theoretically work out of the bullpen. The same is true of David Peterson once he returns from hip surgery that will shelve him at least into late May. (Petersons overall platoon splits are neutral, but his strikeout and walk rates have been much better against southpaws.) Still, this looks like an area the Mets could look to upgrade from outside the organization if Raley misses a significant amount of time.

A long-term absence would be particularly unfortunate for Raley as well. He turns 36 next month and will be a free agent next winter. With a 2.58 ERA and 27.3% strikeout rate since the start of 2022, he has a good chance at a solid two-year deal if hes fully healthy. Its too soon to tell how his market might be affected by this injury, but any kind of surgery (particularly if hes out into 2025) would be a tough blow.
ST. IGNACE, MI  A U.S. Coast Guard crews swift response allowed two people to be saved from disabled boat in Lake Michigan.

Station St. Ignace responded to Epoufette Bay in northern Lake Michigan on Wednesday night after receiving a report of a 14-foot row boat in distress with two people onboard.

The boat was beset by weather and had broken oars, stranding the occupants in the Great Lake.

The crew arrived on scene and rescued the two people. The boat was towed to the Epoufette Boat Launch.

Coast Guard Station St. Ignace is a small boat station that serves the Straits of Mackinac. The stations area of responsibility includes Les Cheneaux Islands, Round Island Passage, and surrounding marinas, such as Cheboygan and Mackinaw City.

Station St. Ignaces missions include search and rescue, homeland security, maritime law enforcement and ice rescue. During the summer, the station assists in 50 to 100 search and rescue cases and conducts approximately 200 boardings each year.
DETROIT -- A Sterling Heights man has been indicted on multiple charges after he allegedly dragged a U.S. Marshal and another officer with his vehicle while trying to flee. The Department of Justice announced Friday that Carl Travis, 52, was indicted on seven counts of aggravated assault by a grand a jury in connection with the March 29 incident.

It is alleged that on the day of the incident, Travis fled from police who were attempting to arrest him as he was wanted in several jurisdictions. As police approached Travis, he ran away and eventually ended up getting into his Mercedes.

As members of the U.S. Marshals and federal task force officers got to the car, Travis reversed the vehicle at a high rate of speed and ended up dragging a Marshal and a task force officer behind the Mercedes. He also hit another officer and nearly hit several others who were on scene.

Travis then hit a parked car, and pushed that vehicle through the wall of an occupied hotel room. At that point officers were able to place Travis under arrest.

Mr. Travis not only attempted to evade arrest but also recklessly endangered the safety of the community and law enforcement personnel, said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. Our brave law enforcement partners place their lives on the line daily to uphold justice, and we will not tolerate any actions against them. Let it be clear: The severity of this offense will not be tolerated, and Mr. Travis will face the full extent of the law for his reckless and careless actions.

It is unclear when Travis will go to trial on the criminal charges.
NEWAYGO, MI - The grandparents of a boy, 5, who police say was fatally shot by his cousin, 6, are facing charges under Michigans new gun storage law.

The Newaygo County Prosecuting Attorneys Office announced that Karl, 62, and Theresa Robart, 64, of Garfield Township, were each charged with one count of a safe storage violation  minor present and inflicted death to another. They were arraigned Thursday, May 2 in the 78th District Court.

The felony charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and, or a $10,000 fine.

Braxton Dykstra, 5, died April 1 after Michigan State Police said he and a 6-year-old boy found a firearm in their grandparents bedroom. The other boy, later identified as a cousin, had the firearm in his possession when it discharged and killed Dykstra.

Dykstras obituary lists the Robarts as his grandparents.

Related: He made everyone laugh: Boy shot, killed should inspire gun safety, father says

The couple is now facing liability under a new Michigan law that requires people to lock up their firearms in the presence of minors. Since it went into effect in February, a Flint man was the first to be charged after his 2-year-old daughter accidentally shot herself in the face with an unsecured firearm.

The law requires prosecutors to prove a defendant left a firearm they own unattended and unlocked when they knew a minor was present. It also requires prosecutors to show that because of negligence, a minor obtained a gun, fired it and inflicted serious bodily harm.

Dykstras father, Domynic Dykstra, previously told MLive the shooting was 150,000,000% preventable and he wants to create legislation called Braxtons Law that takes the safe storage laws further.

I want to make an impact so these kids dont play with firearms, he said. That they know the damage that firearms can do.

The Robarts are scheduled to next appear in court on May 16 for a probable cause conference. A preliminary examination is scheduled for May 23.
CINCINNATI, OHIO -- Attorneys for two men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 want a new trial.

They argued before a three-judge federal appellate court panel on Thursday, May 2, that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that may have swayed the jury, including thousands of text messages showing the FBI directed informants to induce their targets to make violent, anti-government plans.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris first gripped readers in 2017 as a harrowing story detailing how one Slovakian man survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Although it is historical fiction, the story is based on actual memories of Holocaust survivor Lali Sokolov. Full of bravery, devastating reality and the sliver of hope that one man survived on, the widely acclaimed novel has been adapted into a TV series by Peacock.

About the show:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is inspired by Jewish Holocaust survivors Lali and Gita Sokolov who met at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland. Shortly after Lali arrived in 1942, he was assigned to tattoo identification numbers onto fellow prisoners as they arrived. While tattooing one day, he looked up into the eyes of Gita and fell in love.

Per the story, 60 years after they meet, Gita has passed away. Lali meets writer Heather Morris and finds the courage to share his story with the world for the first time through her. Viewers will jump between timelines with Lali as he relives his darkest memories and faces the trauma they caused. But you will also experience love at first sight and a courageous journey to keep the one you love alive. Under constant guard from volatile Nazi SS officer Baretzki, Lali and Gita face several close calls.

The story is told across six emotional episodes which are available to stream now on Peacock.

How to watch:

$5.99/month ($11.99/month for ad-free Premium Plus), register for Peacock and unlock more than 80,000 hours of reality shows, live sports, movies, and next-day streaming on new NBC and Bravo releases. Peacock - With plans starting atfor ad-free Premium Plus), register for Peacock and unlockof reality shows, live sports, movies, and next-day streaming on new NBC and Bravo releases.

Cast:
By Alimat Aliyeva

The United States is moving fighter jets, drones and military transport aircraft from the UAE to Qatar to circumvent restrictions on airstrikes from the Al-Dhafra air base in Abu Dhabi, Azernews reports.

The UAE informed the United States in February that it would no longer allow American Air Force aircraft and drones based at the Al-Dhafra air base to strike Yemen and Iraq.

"Restrictions have been imposed on strike missions against targets in Iraq and Yemen," a UAE official told the newspaper. "These measures were taken in the interests of self-defense," he added.

According to US officials, it was this decision that prompted the American command to send planes to the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, where there are no such bans. As the newspaper notes, this situation highlights "growing tensions between Washington and some Gulf countries," which have allowed American troops to be based on their territory, but are afraid of being drawn into a regional conflict.

The United States has access to several military bases in the Middle East, which it has used in recent months to launch airstrikes against targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. They also intercepted drones and missiles over the Red Sea and in the airspace over Jordan and other countries. However, due to the growing regional tensions, the UAE, according to officials, is increasingly afraid of becoming a target for attacks as a result of US military operations, the WSJ emphasizes.
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Uncovering luxury living and ritual activity in Roman Oxfordshire

Archaeological work in rural Oxfordshire has uncovered the remains of a winged corridor villa that was occupied for much of the Roman period. Carly Hilts spoke to Louis Stafford to learn how the story of this long-lived, high-status residence is evolving as investigations continue.

The remains of a Roman villa are being excavated on the outskirts of Grove, near Wantage in Oxfordshire. Although most of its buildings appear to have been systematically demolished and their materials recycled elsewhere in the late Roman period, vivid clues to its former status can still be seen, including hypocaust tiles testifying to the fact that some of the complexs rooms had underfloor heating. PHOTO: Red River Archaeology Group

On the outskirts of Grove, a village near Wantage in Oxfordshire, archaeologists exploring an area scheduled to become a new housing development for Barratt and David Wilson Homes have uncovered traces of a much earlier des-res: a previously unknown Roman villa. Red River Archaeology have been excavating the site for over a year, working from west to east and recording a diverse array of features, including extensive Roman field systems. When they reached the eastern extent of the planned estate, however, they found signs of something even more significant: the unmistakable outline of a modest villa complex, lying almost outside the area set for investigation.

Scraps of colourful painted plaster and mosaic tiles (here in a modern placement) speak of the grand designs that once adorned the villas interior spaces. PHOTOS: Red River Archaeology Group

The remains of a Roman villa are being excavated on the outskirts of Grove, near Wantage in Oxfordshire. Although most of its buildings appear to have been systematically demolished and their materials recycled elsewhere in the late Roman period, vivid clues to its former status can still be seen, including hypocaust tiles testifying to the fact that some of the complexs rooms had underfloor heating.

The Roman residence was a winged-corridor-type villa, a fairly common design in British archaeology, comprising a central block of rooms linked by a passageway, with flanking ranges of other buildings to the sides. In this case, the (larger) western and (more subsidiary) northern wings of the east-facing villa have been exposed; its eastern range, if it has survived in the heavily ploughed soil, lies outside the scope of the present excavation. Despite this partial picture, though, Red River Archaeology have been able to estimate that the villa complex would have measured around 50m by 45m: not a sprawling, palatial estate, but one that would nevertheless have been a dominant feature of the local landscape, and one that still bore many of the key markers of high-status occupation. Fragments of hypocaust tiles indicate that at least some of its rooms boasted underfloor heating, while quantities of colourful painted plaster  decorated with bright banding and floral motifs  as well as orange and white tesserae from mosaic floors, speak of an attractive interior design. The villas inhabitants were evidently influential enough to access far-reaching trade networks: analysis of pottery from the site is ongoing, but they were using Samian table-wares imported from Gaul.

Even more impressive than the villa, however, was the monumental aisled structure that had once stood next to it. Its well-made and expertly squared-off chalk foundations were much deeper and more substantial than those of the villa, easily sturdy enough to have supported a second storey, and within these walls four large, square chalk bases  possibly supports for columns or large wooden posts  hint at an internal colonnade.

Aisled buildings are known from many villa sites in Britain, though their precise purpose  and their place in the chronology of their respective complexes  remains debated. Some examples are thought to have been built first, before later being incorporated into a larger complex, while others appear to have replaced existing villas. In the case of the Grove aisled building, while its exact phasing is still being pinned down, the current interpretation from the excavation team is that it is probably a later element of the site  and, at 43m by 15m, it is one of the largest examples of its kind known in Britain.

Reconstructing the villa

However imposing the Grove complexs buildings would have been in their heyday, today their remains are reduced to robbed-out footprints plundered so comprehensively that in some places even the foundations have been taken out. The villa appears to have been demolished at the end of its life, probably during the late Roman period, and much of its fabric recycled elsewhere. Senior Project Manager Louis Stafford described his brilliant site team led by Francesca Giarelli as recovering maybe a couple of wheelbarrows of ceramic building material (CBM) from within 100m of the villa, and very little in the way of roof or floor tile: finds that you would normally expect in abundance. By contrast, the team have identified an estimated 50kg of wall plaster, not in situ on collapsed walls, but mainly as tiny fragments found among the rubbish that had been used to back-fill ditches  the opposite way round to what you would expect, Louis said, suggesting that the CBM had been systematically removed from the site.

This provisional site plan, overlaid on a drone photograph of the villa remains, reconstructs its possible appearance. It was a winged-corridor type, and the image below picks out the complexs northern and western ranges, as well as the aisled building. IMAGE: Red River Archaeology Group

In direct contrast to these ghostly structures, however, artefacts lost by the people who lived and worked there have proven plentiful. Over 2,000 small finds have been documented to-date, including more than 400 Roman coins (mainly low denomination) spanning the 1st/2nd centuries through to the late 4th century. It is possible that the villas lifespan was even longer, however: one key piece of evidence to support this suggestion was a distinctive buckle decorated with two outward-facing horse heads. Classed as Type 1B by Hawkes and Dunnings 1961 typology, these objects are thought to have been worn between the mid-4th and mid-5th centuries, and are often associated with individuals linked to the late Roman army. They are known from locations across Roman Britain  search for DUR-455F88 on the Portable Antiquities Schemes database (https://finds.org.uk), for example, for a recent discovery from North Yorkshire, as well as links to other examples from locations as disparate as Northamptonshire, Somerset, Hampshire, and Warwickshire. The collections of Amgueddfa Cymru  Museum Wales include one from Caerwent, too. These brooches also appear to have been carefully curated as curiosities or family heirlooms, as they have been recovered from a number of early Anglo-Saxon graves as well. In the case of the Grove find, this particular buckle might suggest that its owner had connections to social elites linked with the army, or that they at least wanted to be associated with that kind of prestige.

As well as extensive Roman field systems, structural evidence of agricultural activity was found just to the north of the villa remains, including T-shaped dryers that would probably have been used for processing corn and/or hops.

As well as extensive Roman field systems, structural evidence of agricultural activity was found just to the north of the villa remains, including T-shaped dryers that would probably have been used for processing corn and/or hops. PHOTO: Red River Archaeology Group

This buckle, dating to AD 350-450 and adorned with two horse heads, is one of the most telling clues hinting at the villas longevity. Such objects are often associated with the late Roman army, although they have also been found in a number of early Anglo-Saxon graves. PHOTO: Red River Archaeology Group

Other items of jewellery, including rings and brooches, most likely represent the personal possessions of the villa community, but some of the metalwork recovered by the team is more enigmatic. Chief among these are around a dozen small strips of lead, tightly wound to create little coils that are strikingly similar to artefacts commonly called defixiones or curse tablets. Around 300 such items are known from other locations in Roman Britain, concentrated (as Roger Tomlin describes in his 2021 article The Latin curses from Uley and other sanctuaries in Britain) in the non-military south, and associated with two key sites in particular: Bath, which has produced around 130, and Uley in Gloucestershire, where around 80 inscribed pieces of lead were excavated in the 1970s. Further finds (albeit in much smaller numbers) are known from elsewhere in south-west Britain, such as at Lydney, also in Gloucestershire; Brean Down and Pagans Hill, south-west of Weston-super-Mare and Bristol respectively; and Leintwardine in Herefordshire; as well as the legionary fortress at Caerleon, in Newport, Wales  but they are not exclusive to this region, and others are known from places including London, Farley Heath in Surrey, and just outside Venta Icenorum, the walled Roman town near Norwich.

Where their text can be deciphered, these items typically record the prayers of individuals who have been wronged in some way  usually through the theft of items ranging from clothing and jewellery to livestock  and who are seeking the intervention of their chosen deity to secure justice and the return of their property. Various gods and goddesses appear to have been entreated in this way  Uleys tablets mainly call on Mercury, Venta Icenorums example names Neptune, Baths favour Sulis Minerva, and Lydneys invoke another syncretic deity, Mars-Nodens. What these finds have in common, though, is their fairly formulaic phrasing, and the fact that many of them have been recovered from sites where the remains of temples or shrines have also been excavated. No such structure has been identified on the Grove villa estate, though it is possible that one of its rooms or buildings had a ceremonial role on a more informal or domestic level. Unfortunately, although the scrolls were certainly associated with the villa and its occupation, they were not tellingly concentrated in one place but scattered around the site.

Around a dozen lead scrolls have been found scattered around the villa site. Similar examples from other locations such as Bath and the temple at Uley bear texts that have been interpreted as curses, but the ones from Grove are blank. PHOTOS: Red River Archaeology Group

This is an extract of an article that appeared in CA 411. Read on in the magazine, or click here to read it online at The Past, where you can read all of the Current Archaeology articles in full as well as the content of our other magazines, Current World Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and Military History Matters.
Excavating around Salisbury Plain

Last month I began a tour around the final county of the UK that I had yet to visit in these pages: Wiltshire. I began in the north and headed south as far as the Vale of Pewsey. This month I will continue into what is popularly seen as the most fertile of all archaeological hunting grounds, the countys central belt around Salisbury Plain. I will devote future columns specifically to Stonehenge and Avebury, so we will pass through these on this occasion in order to commence a stones throw from the formers eastern edge, in Amesbury.

THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE

The rich archaeological sites of Amesbury are sometimes lost in the shadow of their more famous neighbour  Stonehenge  but there have been some amazing discoveries there over the decades, including the Amesbury Archer, who made the cover of CA 184.

I used to live near Amesbury, and I was always of two minds about the town  is it to its advantage, or rather disadvantage, that it has Stonehenge on its doorstep? It always felt unfairly overlooked in favour of its neighbour, for the town has some stunning archaeology that in any other context would make it famous. Amesburys archer featured as the cover story of CA 184 (February 2003), shortly after his discovery. The first finds made on that site came from a Romano-British inhumation cemetery, but then came the early Bronze Age finds, including the burial of a man aged between 35 and 45, who had died around 2300 BC. He was quickly nicknamed the Amesbury Archer because of the many arrowheads buried with him, but the grave contained far more than just these  indeed, more artefacts than any other British burial of this period, including the earliest known gold objects ever found in England. CA 251 and 265 (February 2011 and April 2012) delve into the detail of both this site and also of a burial at nearby Boscombe (more of which in a moment) but there was also an update on the former in CA 384 (March 2022), when advances in DNA analysis since the Archers discovery revealed he was a first-generation immigrant born in the western Alps along the modern-day Franco-Swiss border.

The sarsen circle made the cover of CA 195.

Back in the early 2000s, another Bronze Age find was then made at nearby Boscombe Down that has become inextricably linked with that of the Archer: the Boscombe Bowmen. CA 193 (August 2004) focused in on this site, where a mass grave of commensurate early Bronze Age date to the Archer was discovered nearby. In total, seven individuals were buried there  three adult men, a male teenager, and three children  and their burial rite was unusual. Analysis of the skulls suggests that the men and the teenager were related to each other and originally came from Wales, and the eldest man was buried in a crouched position with the bones of the others scattered around him, their skulls resting at his feet. They became known as the Bowmen because several flint arrowheads had also been placed in the grave. CA 195 (December 2004) provides the link between the Archer and the Bowmen sites (which lie only a few hundred metres apart): the discovery of a previously unknown sarsen circle 50m in diameter. And as I mention above, CA 251 and 265 examine the complex interconnections of place and people within the wider prehistoric landscape there.

Amesbury is, of course, also associated with the Mesolithic discoveries at Blick Mead, but we will cover that site in more detail next month.

ARCHAEOLOGY ON AND OFF THE BATTLEFIELD

A few miles northeast of Amesbury lie the settlements of Bulford and Tidworth, whose ancient origins are obscured by the modern-day mass of military might built up since the area was developed into a training ground in the late 19th century. I will head on into Salisbury Plain proper in a moment, but Ill pause here first since there have been some excellent finds made not associated with its military use; most notably, as reported in CA 315 and 316 (June and July 2016), a 7th-8th century cemetery that provided unique insights into a tight-knit local community, with burials of men, women, and children ranging in age from newborns to elderly adults and everything in between.

Operation Nightingale has dug extensively in the county, including at a Second World War Camp associated with the Band of Brothers at Aldbourne, which featured on the cover of CA 354.



The wider archaeology of Salisbury Plain has then been repeatedly explored in the pages of Current Archaeology, first in CA 135 (August 1993), again in CA 247 (October 2010), and most recently in CA 408 (March 2024). CA 135 reported on the discovery of a large Roman village at Charlton Down near Upavon, and of a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age settlement at nearby East Chisenbury; CA 247 on the remarkable survival of the remains of First World War practice trenches just north of Larkhill; and CA 408 on the famous lost village of Imber, to the east of Westbury, which was requisitioned by the military in December 1943. The latter two sites involved the work of one of Current Archaeologys most consistent contributors: Richard Osgood, who has worked for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) since 2004, caring for historic sites on their estates across the UK. Richard was, most deservedly, awarded an MBE in January 2021 for his contributions to both archaeology and to the military communities with whom he works and serves; in particular, since 2011, his work on Operation Nightingale, an initiative involving wounded, injured, and sick service personnel in archaeological fieldwork. The book of that project, Broken Pots, Mending Lives, was published in 2023 and is a stunning testament in terms of both its archaeological discoveries and its wider social value (you can read a review in CA 404, November 2023). But Current Archaeology has reported on Operation Nightingale from the outset, both in Wiltshire and more widely. CA 338 (May 2018) provides an insightful overview of the projects national progress at that time, and within the county alone the projects roll call of outcomes is impressive: a Neolithic long barrow near Heytesbury (see CA 400, July 2023); a Bronze Age roundhouse at Dunch Hill near Bulford (see CA 383, February 2022); a Bronze Age barrow and Saxon cemetery at Barrow Clump (see CA 306, September 2015; CA 338, May 2018; and CA 343, October 2018); a First World War chalk-cut kiwi near Bulford (see CA 342, September 2018); a Second World War bomber crash site near Lyneham (see CA 276, March 2013); and a Second World War camp associated with the Band of Brothers at Aldbourne (see CA 354, September 2019 and CA 397, April 2023).

TALL SPIRES AND TIME FLIERS

In south Wiltshire, the deserted medieval village of Gomeldon made the cover of CA 14.

Finally, I will turn to south Wiltshire. The surprise to me when I was researching this column was the relative absence of content from this part of the county. I fear that the richness of prehistoric sites both further north in Wiltshire as well as south into neighbouring Dorset has overshadowed finds made around there, primarily Roman and medieval in date, which feels unfair: Salisbury and its environs, for example, have not only the splendid cathedral (see CA 188, October 2003 and CA 194, October 2004) and the neighbouring museum (see CA 295, October 2014), but also the medieval settlement of Old Sarum  originally an Iron Age hillfort  to the north (see CA 219, June 2008 and CA 299, February 2015). And lets spare a moment too for the areas more recent heritage: Old Sarum Airfield has a serious First World War-era pedigree and beyond (see CA 374, May 2021), and is sadly under threat at present from a redevelopment being fought doggedly by the campaign group Save Old Sarum in the best traditions of community action (see www.saveoldsarum.co.uk/).

Heading south from Salisbury there are also some superb medieval sites and finds, notably Clarendon Park (see CA 115, June 1989 and CA 215, February 2008), Gomeldon (see CA 14), and further south still is then Downton, with its fine Roman villa (see CA 92, June 1984 and CA 251, February 2011). Right on the Wiltshire/Dorset border is then the prehistoric landscape of Cranbourne Chase that I covered in my column on the latter county (see CA 406, January 2024), especially fieldwork around Down Farm, whose land straddles the county boundaries and where the landowner, Martin Green, led work over many years exploring its places and peoples  see CA 67 (June 1979), CA 138 (April 1994), CA 169 (August 2000), and CA 279 (June 2013).

Extensive excavations led by Martin Green at Down Farm featured in CA 14.

In my next column, I will finish my tour of the archaeology of the UK by focusing my attention on two of the big beasts of not just the countys but also the countrys archaeology: Stonehenge and Avebury.

About the author

Joe Flatman completed a PhD in medieval archaeology at the University of Southampton in 2003, and since then has held positions in universities, and local and  most recently  central government. Since March 2019, he has been a Consultancy Manager in the National Trusts London and South-East Region, leading a team working on Trust sites across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. You can follow him on X: @joeflatman.
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. More than 2,000 people have been arrestedat colleges and universities since April 18 as a growing wave ofpro-Palestinian campus protests ripples across the US, CNN reports.

At the University of California, Los Angelesmore than 200 people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of resisting orders to disperse from the now-dismantled encampment on the campus.

At Portland State University at least 30 people were arrested Thursday at the school, where law enforcement was working to clear a library that had been occupied by protesters since Monday, according to authorities.

Eight days after a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up in the center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school has written a letter to the Philadelphia Mayors Office asking for more police resources, a school spokesperson told CNN on Thursday. According to the university, protest activity began to escalate overnight and has steadily continued.

The campus protests in support of Gaza have now spread to nearly 140 colleges in at least 45 states, according to a BBC tally. Demonstrators are demanding that academic institutions sever financial ties with Israel or companies that are connected to the Israeli militarys war in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden, in his first direct remarks about the wave of student unrest, has urged pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses to uphold the rule of law.

Students across other countries have joined the pro-Palestinian protests in recent days, including in Australia, France, Italy, Britain, Canada, as well as in Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt.
Self-care: Orangutan seen apparently treating wound Channel News Asia

How to tell good industrial policy from bad Gillian Tett, FT

Climate

Measuring the Doughnut: A good life for all is possible within planetary boundaries Journal of Cleaner Production

Water

We need the water companies of England to be nationalised Funding the Future

Pandemics

Emergence and interstate spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) in dairy cattle (preprint) bioRxiv. From the Abstract: . The movement of asymptomatic cattle has likely played a role in the spread of HPAI within the United States dairy herd. Some molecular markers in virus populations were detected at low frequency that may lead to changes in transmission efficiency and phenotype after

evolution in dairy cattle. Continued transmission of H5N1 HPAI within dairy cattle increases the risk for 10 infection and subsequent spread of the virus to human populations. Commentary:

It went from Texas to Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Idaho. Kansas to South Dakota. Areas that get more infected cattle will have more opportunities to get to know that reassortment means interspecies transmission and pandemic potential.https://t.co/RZOpyQctzF pic.twitter.com/pAvvRkeznO  Lazarus Long (@LazarusLong13) May 2, 2024

Mobility, just as Taleb said.

Tracking bird flu virus changes in cows is stymied by missing data, scientists say STAT

Avian Influenza A(H5N1) U.S. Situation Update and CDC Activities CDC. Interesting bullet point:

Assess the severity of illness and transmissibility of the virus under different scenarios by infecting ferrets and assessing the outcome. Ferrets are used as a model for people because they get sick and spread influenza viruses in a manner similar to humans.

Airborne Transmission of Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Between Ferrets Science.

Transmission of lethal H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b avian influenza in ferrets (preprint) Research Square

* * *

SARS-CoV-2 Viral Shedding and Rapid Antigen Test Performance  Respiratory Virus Transmission Network, November 2022May 2023 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC. From the Abstract: During November 2022May 2023, among persons infected with SARS-CoV-2, sensitivity of rapid antigen tests was 47% compared with RT-PCR and 80% compared with viral culture. Antigen tests continue to detect potentially transmissible infection but miss many infections identified by positive RT-PCR test results. Four years in.
Yves here. Weve repeatedly pointed out that as much as they are emotionally appealing, wealth taxes do not work well in practice. Even the more cost-effective version of a wealth tax, called an inheritance tax, does a poor job of actually snagging the lucre of the rich. In the US, as we have pointed out, the IRS has lost every large estate valuation case since 1981.

This post by Richard Murphy does a tidy job of explaining why a wealth tax is not a great way to try to skin a cat, and describes why taking income would be far more effective in curbing excessive the further growth of the billionaire class.

By Richard Murphy, part-time Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School, director of the Corporate Accountability Network, member of Finance for the Future LLP, and director of Tax Research LLP. Originally published at Fund the Future.

I was asked to comment on Brazils proposal for a global 2% annual wealth tax on billionaires by a journalist, yesterday. This is what I write to them:

Everyone who has never been involved in the practicalities of collecting tax loves the idea of a wealth tax. And in principle, I agree with them. It would be great if we could tax the wealth of billionaires. The inequality between them and everyone else is economically destructive. I, though, have been involved in the practicalities of collecting tax for decades and that is why I cannot get excited by this idea. The problems of imposing a worldwide wealth tax include: Finding the wealth.

Proving that someone owns it

Agreeing the value of that wealth: what are private companies, works of art, racehorses, esoteric properties and exceptionally rare wines, and so much more, really worth?

Collecting the money before the billionaire has disappeared to a place that refuses to cooperate with this tax

Repeating the process, year in and year out. Any tax authority that tries to undertake this exercise will need access to vast numbers of valuation experts, an armoury of lawyers, and a bottomless pit of funds to take on the legal disputes with the billionaires who theyre trying to tax . Alternatively, countries could have: Seriously progressive income tax rates

Capital gains tax rates in line with income tax rates

Progressive inheritance taxes with strictly capped reliefs for business property that only require assetvaluations once in a lifetime

Progressive corporation tax rates, particularly for private companies

Close company and trust rules that attribute the income of private companies and trusts to beneficiaries annually so that the personal tax rates owing on these sums is not avoided by hiding them in legal entities. My solution is not perfect. However, it has a lot more chance of success than the 2% wealth tax, and will probably raise considerably more money at a lower cost. If that is the real goal, rather than political posturing being the aim, then pragmatism is to be preferred.

I stick by that.

Which is why I wrote the Taxing Wealth Report, because that is my aim. I am not into posturing. I am into practical solutions. I have suggested what that looks like.
Last night, Bloomberg broke the story that Turkiye has suspended all trade with Israel. The Bloomberg account noted that Turkiye had announced the day before that it was joining South Africa in its genocide case against Israel.

A later Financial Times story provides official confirmation after Bloomberg cited two high official providing the scoop. From the Financial Times:

Turkey has halted trade with Israel as it again accused the country of stoking a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, marking the latest sign of deepening tensions between the two nations. Ankaras trade ministry late on Thursday said all export and import transactions related to Israel had been stopped and would not resume until the Jewish state allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ankara in April sanctioned exports in 54 important categories of goods but this latest move will disrupt bilateral trade worth more than $7bn a year. A

Even though Turkiye is depicting the move as temporary, it is conditioning the reversal on Israel allowing adequate humanitarian aid into Gaza, which no way, no how is going to happen. Israel has escalated from sniping Gazans running to get food and supplies from aid deliveries to leaving food-can-like explosives about that go boom on the attempt to open them:

Mohammad Samour (14 years old) is the latest victim of Israeli explosives, which look like food cans. Several citizens, mostly children, fell victim to the Israeli explosives, while Israel continues to starve over 2 million people in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/t3HVjVGF6J  Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 2, 2024

Interestingly, this development is getting varying play in the media. Its now the lead story at the BBC, but below the fold at the Financial Times and nowhere to be found at the Wall Street Journal. The Financial Times and the Twitterverse speculate that this move is due to Erdogans party having performed markedly worse in March elections than expected, and his inaction on Gaza was a big reason why. Erdogan has made multiple rousing speeches in Ankara to very large and enthusiastic crowds, depicting Hamas as freedom fighters, seeking to give the impression that Turkiye might Do Something. The sometimes excitable Scott Ritter read it this way. Erdogan also hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Turkiye in April But the normally wily Erdogan looks to have misplayed this one and is now changing course.

Turkiye in 2023 was only Israels #7 trade partner, but its relative importance may have increased of late with Houthi shelling of ships, since Turkiye presumably already conducts a lot of this exchange over land routes and could shift more that way if necessary. Nevertheless, the original Bloomberg account showed that Turkiye-Israel trade has already taken a hit even before this sanction. One wonders how much was due to the big 4Q contraction of the Israel economy:

Iran Observer points out that Turkiye provides unspecified metal supplies that Israel needs for weapons so this move may indeed inflict some damage. The original Bloomberg story said Turkiyes biggest export to Israel is iron and steel. It isnt clear if these are the metals Israel allegedly so keenly needs or other ones

BREAKING Turkey suspends all trade with Israel, including metal, which is the need of the day for the Israeli arms industry Israel vows retaliation pic.twitter.com/XgSSHM4V94  Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) May 2, 2024

Israel has threatened to retaliate. With Turkiye-Israel being over 3/4 skewed toward exports to Israel, one wonders Israel could strike back. Cutting off trade would seem to forestall meaningful economic retaliation. Bloomberg said that Israels biggest export to Turkiye was refined oil products. Presumably Turkiye can get those many places, such as India, which is a leading refiner and shipper of Russian crude. Admittedly there will be some hassle and higher costs in any switchover.

The US needs Turkiyes support or at least acquiescence for its Ukraine misadventure so the idea of the US retaliating on behalf of Israel risks Turkiye imposing new measures, the most extreme of which would be limiting or denying access to the critical Incirlik air base. Recall Turkiyes lease gives Turkiye much more control than is typical of US airbases abroad. The reason for Ritters enthusiasm for Erdogans bold talk was that Turkiye is the only actor in the region who has the military clout to bring Israel to heel (without causing a nuclear war or destroying many Gulf oil fields).

In other words, if Israel further presses Turkiye, say with a stunt like an assassination, it risks the worst possible outcome, of Turkiye moving into formal opposition to Israel. The last thing the US and Israel needs is Turkiye lining up with Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas. Even soft support or the threat of it would be a further and very large setback.

And it is not as if Turkiye and Isreal had such a great relationship before that. Relevant parts of the BBC account:

In 1949, Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel. But relations have worsened in recent decades. In 2010, Turkey broke off diplomatic ties with Israel after 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed in clashes with Israeli commandos who boarded a Turkish-owned ship trying to break Israels maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. Relations were restored in 2016, but both countries expelled each others top diplomats two years later in a dispute over Israels killing of Palestinians amid protests on the Gaza-Israel border.

Bloomberg noted:

Israel and Turkey restored diplomatic ties last August after a decade of tensions and were exploring ways to increase cooperation until Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state, sparking the war.

The BBC also includes the handwave that the infamous pier will be ready real soon, yessiree, and then adds: However, the UN says a maritime corridor can never be a substitute for delivery by land, and that land routes are the only way to bring in the bulk of supplies needed.

Its doubtful that the US can bribe Erdogan into relenting. The long-lived leader seems to regard getting credibly tough with Israel as essential to his political survival. And Erdogan just went through a round of concession-extraction over Turkiyes vote to admit Sweden to NATO. So the low-hanging fruit has already been provided. And that process took a very long time, when delay in relieving this trade embargo will increase the pain.
BEIJING, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, the largest province-level division in the country, has been rapidly developing economically over the past years as its considered a bridge to Central Asia and Europe and a hub in Belt and Road cooperation.

The multi-ethnic region borders eight countries - Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and India.

In 2023, the regions GDP comprised 1,91 trillion yuan, and the output of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery reached 564,8 billion yuan. Xinjiang has traditionally been an agricultural region, but is also rich in minerals and oil.

Cotton industry, among others, is a major sector in the province.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is the driving force behind the rapid growth. The XPCC is a unique enterprise. The province is actually administered parallel by the XPCC and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional government. The XPCC has a unique and complex history: It was created in 1954 to safeguard the frontier area mainly through agriculture and industry. In other words, soldiers took off their uniforms and switched to farming. It is organized in a military style, using divisions and regiments in its structure, but it is not actually a military organization and the names have been kept as an homage to its history, local officials explained. The XPCC headquarters are in Urumqi, Xinjiangs capital city, and it has presence in multiple other cities, such as Alar and Shihezi.

A public service employee talking to citizens at a service center in Urumqi

It is a special provincial and ministerial-level district and an integral part of the province.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is an important part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Jiang Qingshan, the XPCC Director of the Foreign Affairs Office told reporters. Currently, the XPCC is comprised of 14 divisions, 12 towns, 179 farms, 3 universities and 14 trading companies.

The XPCCs share in the total regional GDP was 369 billion yuan in 2023.

The XPCC is constantly increasing the degree of opening-up to the world and is actively participating in building the main zone of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Jiang Qingshan said.

The XPCC has even developed its own highly efficient water-saving irrigation system for agriculture, which saves 1800 cubic meters of water per hectare.

Agricultural fields with water saving irrigation systems

In 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a visit to the Urumqi International Land Port Area, said that as the Belt and Road cooperation advances, Xinjiang is no longer a remote corner but a core area and a hub.

Healthcare is also rapidly developing in the region. Doctors use 5G-powered robotic surgery technology and remote diagnostics methods at the Sir Run Run Shaw affiliated Alar hospital to treat patients in remote areas during emergencies.

Alar hospital staff demonstrate AI-powered remote surgery equipment

The Shihezi University is a testament to the XPCCs level of attention to education. The public university offers a variety of specialties, such as Agriculture, Medicine, Engineering, Economics and Trade, Literature and Arts, among others.

A lecturer in Shihezi University

The Shihezi University maintains an active network of cooperation with foreign partners, and many academics and students visit it for exchange programs and trainings.

Foreign students at Shihezi University

Viticulture is a highly important sector in the province.

Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa

China's biggest winemaker, Changyu, operates a must-see winery in Shihezi city, called the Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa, named after the companys first winemaker, Mr. Balboa of Belgium.

The winery has the regions largest wine cellar.

Wine Cellar

Another major tourism destination is the Taklamakan Desert, where visitors can have an adrenaline rush driving sandrails or riding camels.

Taklamakan is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world.

Taklamakan Desert

This article has been written within the framework of the China International Press Communication Center (CIPCC) 2024 media exchange program.
We stand in solidarity with Germany following the malicious cyber campaign against a political party, in this case the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and with Czechia following the malicious cyber activities against its institutions.

Allies recognize that Germany and Czechia have attributed the responsibility of the malicious cyber activities in their respective countries to the threat actor APT28 sponsored by the Russian Federation, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). Allies also note with concern that the same threat actor targeted other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance, including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our democratic institutions, national security and free society.

The malicious cyber activities targeting Germany and Czechia underscore that cyberspace is contested at all times. Cyber threat actors persistently seek to destabilize the Alliance.

We remain committed to countering the substantial, continuous and increasing cyber threat, including to our democratic systems and our critical infrastructure. We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses.

We promote a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace. We call on all States, including Russia, to respect their international obligations and commitments to uphold international law and act within the framework for responsible state behavior in cyberspace as affirmed by all members of the United Nations.
2nd Amendment does not exist in some NY courtrooms according to one judge presiding over the trial of a gunsmith

NEW YORK CITY, NY - Dexter Taylor, a 52-year-old Brooklyn man, was convicted last week of 13 weapons charges. The conviction comes nearly two years after Taylor was arrested in 2022 on charges related to gunsmithing.

(Article by Sarah Akey republished from LawEnforcementToday.com)

According to RedState, the software engineer discovered his hobby several years ago. Taylor took up gunsmithing and intended on eventually turning the hobby into a business. That goal was halted when it was discovered by a task force of ATF and NYPD that Taylor was legally buying parts from various companies.

The discovery led to an open investigation and eventually a raid by SWAT that resulted in Taylors arrest.

While two lesser charges were dropped, Taylor was found guilty of prohibition on unfinished frames or receivers, unlawful possession of pistol ammunition, five counts of criminal possession of a firearm, violation of certificate registration, four counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second degree possession of five or more firearms, and second-degree criminal possession of a loaded weapon.

Taylors case is setting up to be a landmark case for the Second Amendment, and not in a good way.

Vinoo Varghese, Taylors attorney, noted that there was evidence from the start of the trial that there would be bias against Taylor. Prior to Judge Abena Darkeh presiding over the case, two other judges presided over the case.

During Vargheses opening statement, Judge Darkeh repeatedly interrupted him. The judge even went as far as telling the defense not to reference the Second Amendment in the proceedings.

Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesnt exist here. So you cant argue Second Amendment. This is New York, the judge said.

A post on social media showing a photo of the judge and her statement has garnered more than 642 thousand views as of April 23 and commenters are scratching their heads.

This thought process is dangerous. And it should terrify and tick off every single American. Our constitutional rights absolutely exist and truly belong in every single courtroom in this country. To dismiss constitutional rights in a courtroom of all places, is irresponsible and un-American.

As Taylors trial continued, so did the bias. The prosecution was determined to make Taylor appear dangerous. Varghese attempted to counter the prosecutions narrative by saying in his opening statement that theres no crime here, theres no allegation of violence.

Varghese explained that he believed the only chance of having the case go in his clients favor was through jury nullification, RedState reported.

Jury nullification is legal, although Judge Darkeh attempted to shut down his argument and led the jury to believe they would face consequences if they did not vote to convict Taylor.

I actually argued that jury nullification is allowed because there is some law from the High Court of New York that talks about lawyers who made jury nullification arguments. And basically, they said that judges shouldnt encourage it, but they cant prevent it. I actually made a pitch directly to Judge Darkeh to allow me to argue during nullification. She, of course, rejected that, Varghese said.

She basically said, You must vote guilty without saying, You must vote guilty, he continued.

Varghese also commented that Judge Darkeh was the most aggressive prosecutor in the room.

Nonetheless, on April 16, Taylor was taken into custody after being found guilty of all but two counts.

Taylor is being held on Rikers Island while he awaits sentencing. He faces 10-18 years in prison. This case is far from over as Varghese and Taylor are prepared to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have a shot at winning in federal court, Varghese said.

Read more at: LawEnforcementToday.com
Bidens censorship priorities: Protect Israels political and financial interests while trampling constitutional free speech

The national security package bill has been signed into law, or railroaded in just a week . The legislation has a provision that could potentially ban the short-form video hosting service TikTok from the United States. It was passed by the House of Representatives on April 22 and then by the Senate on April 24. Sooner than later, it received President Joe Biden's signature.

The fast transition of events gives the platform's parent company ByteDance two options. It has to divest TikTok to an American company in the next nine months, which Biden can extend to twelve if there is "progress" or TikTok will be banned in the United States. (Related: TikTok pressured to ban all truth and push only official narratives.)

U.S. lawmakers alleged that TikTok could be used by the Chinese government for espionage and propaganda as long as it is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Sen. Peter Ricketts said that the platform shows Pro-Palestinian and Hamas videos which "have more reach than the top 10 U.S. news websites combined." "Let's look at where young people are getting their news. Nearly a third of adults, 18-29 [years old] are regularly getting news exclusively from TikTok. Pro-Palestinians and pro-Hamas hashtags are generating 50 times of views on TikTok right now even though polling shows America overwhelmingly supports Israel over Hamas," he said. "This is not a coincidence. The Chinese Communist Party is doing this on purpose. They are pushing this racist agenda intending to undermine our democratic values."

On X, formerly Twitter, the company posted its official statement on the passage of the law and called the impending ban unconstitutional. "We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation."

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.

Our Statement on Enactment of the TikTok Ban: This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S.  TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) April 24, 2024

TikTok also stated the implications that the ban could cause to business owners as well as their freedom of speech. "This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans. As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans from all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy and be inspired," the caption ended.

The hosting service has been considered the fastest-growing social network in the world. It boasts over one billion monthly users and over 170 million active users in America alone. It was also the first app to reach $10 billion in-app spending. Having hundreds of millions of users in the U.S., the news of the TikTok ban was received with overwhelmingly negative reactions, especially since the current regime has been openly declaring its support to Israel.

Cassandra MacDonald, a Gateway Pundit contributor, posted on X: "They will deport people for protesting Israel, but not for breaking into this country illegally or committing crimes against Americans. They will ban TikTok over Israeli criticism, but not for pushing trans crap on children. They will break up peaceful protests against Israel, but not actual violent riots during the Floyd nonsense," she argued. "If you're not pissed, I don't know what to say to you."

They will deport people for protesting israel, but not for breaking into this country illegally or committing crimes against Americans. They will ban tiktok over israel criticism, but not for pushing trans crap on children. They will break up peaceful protests against Israel, https://t.co/5PGfyz8KNa  Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) April 25, 2024

TikTok is not selling and vows to sue over potential U.S. ban

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company already declared that despite the banning threats, it has no plans to sell the platform. A tech-focused U.S. news site reported that the tech company was looking at scenarios for selling TikTok without the powerful secret algorithm that recommends videos to its more than one billion users around the world. However, ByteDance denied it was considering a sale. "Foreign media reports about ByteDance exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue," the company posted Thursday on Toutiao, a Chinese-language platform it owns. "ByteDance does not have any plans to sell TikTok."

The estimated valuations of TikTok are in the tens of billions of dollars and any forced sale would present major complications. Among those with deep enough pockets, U.S. tech giants such as Instagram-parent Meta or Google would likely be blocked from buying the app over competition concerns.

Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has said the company will take the fight against the new law to the courts, but some experts believe that for the U.S. Supreme Court, national security considerations could outweigh free speech protection.

Critics of the "sell-or-be-banned" ultimatum argued that this violates the users' First Amendment rights. The law's opponents, which include advocacy organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, maintain that the government hasnt come close to justifying the banning of the platform.

Associated Press writer Wyatte Granthham-Philips said in an article that lawmakers on both sides have expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data for years or influence Americans by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok. The U.S. government has yet to provide public evidence to support those claims. The writer added that if upheld, legal experts stressed that the law could set a precedent carrying wider ramifications for digital media in the United States.

Censorship.news has more stories related to the suppression of freedom of speech.

Sources for this article include:

GSMArena.com

Bilyonaryo.com

GlobalNews.ca
TikTok ban, Teslas Chinese partnerships mark new phase in brewing U.S.-China data security war

The United States' push to ban the Chinese social media platform TikTok and Elon Musk's electric vehicle manufacturing giant Tesla's recent partnerships with Chinese tech firms mark a new phase in the brewing data security war between Washington and Beijing. If this conflict escalates, it could reshape trade relations between the world's two largest economies.

Following years of attempts to ban TikTok, President Joe Biden has finally signed a new law that will give Beijing-based, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked parent company ByteDance nine months to sell its stake in the company, with a possible extension of three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn't, TikTok will be banned in the United States. (Related: House of Representatives passes legislation to ban TikTok if its CCP-linked parent company doesn't sell its stake in the platform within a year.)

Lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as law enforcement and intelligence officials, have expressed serious concerns that Chinese authorities have too much influence over ByteDance and could end up forcing the company to hand over data on the approximately 170 million Americans who use TikTok.

The concerns are not unfounded, and one root cause of it is a set of Chinese national security laws that allow the CCP to compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering. ByteDance is subject to these laws.

Lawmakers have even warned that the CCP could potentially  either through direct mandate or by exerting its influence  push ByteDance into suppressing or boosting certain content on TikTok if it is in Beijing's interest to do so.

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.

In the same vein, American officials have also raised concerns regarding Musk's Tesla Inc. and its recent inking of a partnership with Beijing-based tech giant Baidu Inc. The partnership puts Baidu in charge of mapping and navigation functions for the EV company's semi-autonomous driving technology. This data will only be entrusted to a select group of Chinese companies which will no doubt fall under the direct control of the CCP.

Foreign companies selling smart vehicles in China are required to use one of about 20 approved local suppliers of mapping and navigation systems, meaning that Tesla's partnership with Baidu was a major regulatory obstacle it had to cross.

Musk is incentivized to keep relations with the Chinese warm as he pushes to roll out and monetize Tesla's "Full Self Driving" autonomous driving system in China as Tesla wrestles with falling sales amid rising competition, including from major Chinese EV carmakers like BYD. Rolling out the tech in China would dramatically increase Tesla's subscription revenues and help keep Tesla cars competitive against an increasing number of competitive EVs from local manufacturers.

"Going balls to the wall on autonomy is a blindingly obvious move," Musk wrote on X earlier in April, right before he began a charm offensive in China.

China, U.S. gearing up to protect their data against adversaries

Chinese President Xi Jinping has long seen control over internet data as a core pillar of his flagship "holistic approach to national security," a strategy which Beijing claims is necessary amid the growing risk coming from sophisticated cyberattacks that leave corporations, entire industries, and even nations vulnerable to information theft.

For its part, Beijing has consistently opposed U.S. data-related restrictions. The China Cybersecurity Industry Alliance, a CCP-backed industry association, recently put out a report accusing Washington of overstretching the definition of national security in its attempt to ban TikTok. It further criticized the ban as a move that reflects the U.S.'s "double standard to maintain its cyber hegemony of controlling and manipulating international public opinion platforms."

In an attempt to sway legislators, ByteDance executives sought unsuccessfully to dispel fears of possible CCP control over the company's data with the initiative dubbed "Project Texas," a program meant to silo American user's data in the U.S., away from the purview of Beijing. It is in the process of pushing a similar program for the data of European users called "Project Clover."

In recent months, the administration of President Joe Biden has stepped up its opposition to unrestricted Chinese access to U.S. data. A recent executive order signed in February prevents large amounts of Americans' personal data from being transferred to "countries of concern."

Biden has also assented to a provision tacked onto the TikTok ban bill that targets third-party data brokers and bars them from selling Americans' personal data to "adversarial countries" like China.

"While the concerns over sensitive data flows to China have been building for some time, TikTok is the big shiny object for Congress to wade into the realm of data security measures," explained Reva Goujon, a director at the market research firm the Rhodium Group. "The TikTok bill sets an important precedent for targeting Chinese tech platforms that have successfully penetrated the U.S. market."

Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explained that the U.S. now appears to be moving "away from an open internet with unrestricted data flows and towards selected fragmentation based on national security concerns."

"While TikTok is currently in the hot seat in part due to its enormous popularity and the scope of its data collection, it is not the first and will not be the last Chinese company that U.S. lawmakers target," said Chin-Rothmann. "It would seem that tech decoupling  or at least reducing dependence on the other  is becoming increasingly popular among both parties."

Read the latest news involving China and the CCP at CommunistChina.news.

Watch this clip from Fox Business featuring TikTok personality Zach Sage Fox discussing why he is in favor of the app divesting itself from its Chinese owners.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ex-TikTok employee claims he was INSTRUCTED to send American users' data to Beijing-based parent company.

Report finds China uses fake accounts and AI-generated content to manipulate public opinion (but so does the U.S. government and the CDC).

FBI warning: Chinese cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure are increasing at unprecedented scale.

Leaked documents from a Chinese contractor offers rare insight into how the CCP operates its cyberwarfare and surveillance operations.

U.S., Canadian companies COLLABORATE with Chinese experts to shape international AI policy.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

APNews.com

FT.com

Brighteon.com
Jack Posobiec: After they indict all the conservatives, the moderates are next

News broke on Wednesday that 11 Arizona alternate electors were indicted over performing their job during the 2020 election, with an AZ grand jury accusing them of falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the state. Left-wing media quickly picked the story up and began labeling the 11 as "fake electors," something that Jack Posobiec pointed out will soon become the false mainstream narrative on Human Events Daily Thursday.

(Article republished from HumanEvents.com)

"They're going to be screaming about that all day long," Posobiec stated, adding that they're legally called alternate electors because "that's the legally allowable nomenclature to go in on when there's a contested election and that's what was happening in 2020."

RNC National Committeeman Tyler Bowyer, who is also the host of Swing State Update and co-host of Thoughtcrime, was amongst the 11 indicted in AZ. He is also the COO of Turning Point Action and is heading the largest vote-chasing operations not only for the Republican party but in "the entire country."

"Not only is Tyler one of us, he's my friend," Posobiec said.

"I have a message, not for the left, not for the cultural Marxists, not for the unhuman ones that are bringing this indictment," he continued, stating that his message is for those who claim to be fighting communism but are doing so with a weak attitude.

"Why don't you people wake up and actually understand what part of the movie we're in?" he said. "They are indicting people for legal activity, legal political activity."

He then directed his attention toward moderates, independents, and centrists.

"I'm not saying you have to endorse, you know, everything that goes on. But I will say this, it is time to put up or shut up. This is gloves-off territory and we are in gloves-off territory now," Posobiec stated.

"You're gonna say, 'Oh, I'm not gonna fight back now, because that would be too controversial. I'm not going to fight back now because I might get in trouble.'"

"Well, guess what? When they're done knocking on everyone's door because they've already indicted them, guess who's going to be getting the knock on the door next? You will.

"No more quitters, no more cowardice, I'm sick of it. Fight back now or we're all going down," he concluded.

Read more at: HumanEvents.com
Newly proposed law would strip non-profit status from all organizations across America that criticize Israel

It is receiving almost no media attention, but a new bill in Congress threatens to remove non-profit status from all organizations in America that in any way criticize Israel.

House Resolution 6408 "To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to terminate the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations" and S. 1436 stipulate that non-profits will be expected to support Israel no matter what, or else face punishment by the IRS. Both companion bills were passed with bipartisan support from both Democrats and Republicans.

"This will give a single U.S. official authority to strip U.S. non-profits [sic] orgs of their non-profit status in a peremptory manner, w/ virtually no limitations, accountability, or meaningful recourse, based merely on his declaration they are "terrorist supporting organizations," tweeted Lara Friedman (@LaraFriedmanDC), president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

"The explicit target of this legislation is orgs involved in / supporting protest against Israel's war on Gaza, most notably SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine). But of course, if passed into law, it could be used against any tax-exempt org working for an objective disfavored by the Admin in power."

(Related: Did you know that nearly all of New York City's top slumlords are Jewish?)

If you don't support Israel 100%, Zionists consider you a "terrorist"

Even in our own comment section there are folks that routinely drop a line about how those who oppose Israel's genocide in Gaza are "terrorists," which is the same position the Zionists in government hold as they chip away at Americans' First Amendment rights.

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.

By simply declaring all speech against Israel to be "antisemitic," Zionists are able to brand anyone opposed to Israel's genocide as basically a member of Hamas who hates Jews  including, bizarrely, Jewish people who also oppose what Israel is doing in the Middle East.

"The intent behind the bill  the targeting of groups engaged in protest for Palestinian rights / lives  has been made explicit  e.g., here's the Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee when it was marking up / passing the bill last November," Friedman further tweeted, referring to this hearing, which if you are interested can also be viewed below:

"Reminder: U.S. charitable organizations  like ALL U.S. entities  are already barred, by law, from providing material support for terror & already face intense scrutiny."

There is still time to stop these bills from being passed and signed into law, but it is going to take a lot of grassroots effort since the media is all but ignoring their existence.

It would seem as though the government and media are working in cahoots to keep this particular legislation a secret since it will not directly affect most Americans in a noticeable way. It will, however, chip away at the rights of those who care about the innocent lives in Gaza that are being slaughtered by the Netanyahu regime.

"The goal of the new legislation is to dispense with the due process (incl the need for evidence) afforded under law to targeted groups, empowering a single U.S. official to act as prosecutor, judge, jury, & executioner of U.S. orgs whose viewpoints that official disagrees with," Friedman warns.

"Those whose prioritize shutting down pro-Palestine protest above all else may view this legislation as excellent news. Those concerned with Palestinian rights / lives, and those who view with concern the rapid erosion of free speech / protest rights in the U.S., may disagree."

"Either way, it is remarkable that this legislation  which has profound implications for protest / free speech in the U.S.  is so far going pretty much unnoticed."

The Zionist lobby is in a panic over waning support for endless wars and genocide in Gaza. Learn more at IsraelCollapse.com.

Sources for this article include:

Twitter.com

Congress.gov

NaturalNews.com

House.gov
EXCLUSIVE: Viktor Orban ran George Soros and his operations out of Hungary  Americans can learn from that

On Monday's episode of Human Events Daily , host Jack Posobiec and guest Mark Ivanyo explained why it is crucial for Americans to be open to learning from other countries and cultures while having an America-first attitude.

(Article republished from HumanEvents.com)

Ivanyo is the Executive Director of Republicans for National Renewal and focuses on international operations. Both he and Posobiec were together at CPAC Hungary last week during which they met with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Posobiec noted that Orban has "given us a way to show us the playbook of how to fight the left," at which Orban has been very successful.

He explained that "Hungary is the country that George Soros originated from. How did Viktor Orban originally become so popular and so strong in Hungary? He ran George Soros and his operations out of the country and he did so without remorse. He did so without apologizing to the left, he destroyed the left. This is the guy who beat Soros in his home country."

When thinking of how to rid America of globalist elites such as Soros, Posobiec asked, "why would you not want to talk to a guy who's already done that?"

Secondly, he said, Orban "showed us the way to reorient nationalist populism" and its perception by speaking on the protection of families within a country and straying away from "anti-immigration" rhetoric.

Not only did this reinforce the conservative value of having more family units and an economy equipped to provide for families, "but then also that you defend your country the way you would defend your family," Posobiec said, adding that "the leader becomes the defender of the country, because they're defending their family."

Ivanyo agreed, pointing out that "one question we never get is, well, where has national populism been implemented and been successful?"

"Well, I think we both know why. Because there's several examples of that and I think Hungary is probably one of the best examples," he said.

Watch the full episode below.

Read more at: HumanEvents.com
Pfizergate: Ursula von der Leyens shady COVID vaccine deals prove she can get away with anything

Forget this whole election charade and just glue the crown onto her head, already.

(Article republished from RT.com)

Ursula von der Leyen, the unelected European Commission President, is up for job renewal in June. Shed have to be re-nominated by the majority of EU member state leaders and then re-confirmed by members of the newly-elected European Parliament. Theyd have to be crazy to dethrone this ultimate incarnation of true EU values, like transparency and foresight (or rather, lack thereof).

One particular tale about Queen Ursula comes to mind that perfectly illustrates the point.

During Covid, the European Union rolled out a bloc-wide QR code system as proof of vaccination for travel, leisure, and in some cases a condition of employment  even as reports started raising doubts about how reliable the shot really was when it came to stopping infection, transmission, and death. Its like there was this interest in Brussels to move fast in getting shots into arms as quickly as possible, and setting up this digital identity system linked to jab status before the scary music stopped or people just tuned it out. Skeptical members of the European Parliament have been demanding to know what kind of deal the blocs leadership actually signed with the manufacturers of these injections. Were talking about 11 contracts, 4.6 billion vaccines, and 71 billion of public money transferred to Big Pharma.

So far, neither the citizens who paid for all of it, nor their elected representatives have been able to get full transparency on those deals. According to research published last year by the French NGO Global Health Advocates, and the UK based health nonprofit, StopAids, the European Commission agreed to extensive confidentiality requirements with pharmaceutical corporations that may not be fully consistent with EU legislation, and that of the contracts analyzed with AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna, the Pfizer contract was the most significantly redacted. Specifically, they noted that the European Commission redacted the most information about product safety and indemnification in the Pfizer and Moderna contract, concluding that it looks like most of the risk was borne by the EU in a desperate attempt to get access to these vaccines.

The reports also draw attention to the lack of interest on the part of certain Big Pharma CEOs when it comes to accountability towards their customers  their end-clients who received and ultimately paid for the jabs: average EU citizens. We provided Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna the opportunity to react to the claims but we did not receive a response, the NGOs said.

It turns out that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is also the same person who was exchanging private text messages with von der Leyen the month before the Pfizer contract was negotiated. How do we know that? Because she said so herself in April of 2021 in a New York Times interview. While she was busy doing that, questions arose over how German defense contracts were being awarded. Politico reported on it in 2019, citing the increased use of consultants during her time in office, and she ultimately copped to mistakes having been made. Nor would they be the last of their kind, apparently.

By 2020, von der Leyen told the New York Times, she was going back and forth with the Pfizer chief via text message for a month at the height of the pandemic, with the result being a 1.9 billion dose order from Pfizer (to be precise, a 900 million order with another 900 million option that hasnt been exercised) through 2023, according to the newspaper, with 4.6 billion doses in total ordered from all drug manufacturers. Why so many doses for a EU population of just 448 million? I am convinced that we are in this for the long haul, she told the newspaper in April 2021.

Good thing that contracts worth 71 billion euros (in the case of Covid) arent based largely on the whims and feelings of freewheeling unelected bureaucrats and involve transparency and open debate and discussion about any terms in an effort to avoid any potential future pitfalls, right? Whoops, too late. By December 2023, von der Leyens long haul had derailed, dumping doses all over the continent, with about 4 billion in Covid vaccines ending up in landfills across Europe, according to Politico.

More recently, individual EU member states have been left to do the litigation tango with Pfizer themselves, as the company sued them over failing to pay for doses that they didnt need or want anymore now that they cant force the jab on anyone or scare people into taking it. The original Pfizer-EU contract was amended last year to reduce the original number of doses purchased, but Brussels told member states that they were still on the hook for having to pay a cancellation fee for each dose they no longer want. And instead of pumping the jabs into arms by 2023 to liquidate the stock, the EU would have three more years to try drumming up continued interest among its citizens.

Not that anyone has any idea what the original contract even was. Perhaps von der Leyens text messages could provide a clue. But theyve magically vanished, and she doesnt seem too interested in making an effort to recover them forensically. The New York Times is suing to get a hold of them, and the European Public Prosecutors Office has recently taken over from Belgian authorities in investigating criminal allegations of interference in public functions, destruction of SMS, corruption and conflict of interest.

European parliamentarians on the blocs Covid-19 committee expressed their interest in having von der Leyen answer to their committee on these contract negotiations in person, but she doesnt share that interest. Nor does Bourla  which led the committee to request that his access privileges to the EU parliament be revoked. Not that he needs them anyway when he has Queen Ursulas direct line.

Its important for European democracy to be safe and secure, von der Leyen said in February in announcing a desire to remain on her throne after Junes EU parliamentary elections, in which she refused to run in her home country despite being encouraged to do so for petty reasons of democratic legitimacy. Safe and secure from what, exactly? Russia, of course. Its actually kind of surprising that she hasnt yet accused Moscow of deleting her texts with Bourla, too.

Von der Leyen has proven to be an unstoppable tank when it comes to crushing pesky formalities, rolling right over Pfizergate like a minor speedbump.

Just last month, she was confronted in writing by EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, Internal Markets Commissioner Thierry Breton, and some of their colleagues over her commissions selection of the EUs small and medium-sized business envoy, who just happens to be a fellow German from her own CDU party back home, while also scoring the lowest among the candidates up for the job. EU lawmakers have also lamented the lack of transparency in selecting someone for a position worth 17,000 a month.

Ursula von der Leyen talks a good game about transparency, despite demonstrating a tenuous personal grasp of the concept. Kind of like the entire EU does on a regular basis. Virtue-signaling democratic values while making a mockery of them is what makes this Queen the perfect reflection of her Kingdom.

Read more at: RT.com
Beverage company that promotes environmental sustainability found to be among Californias top sprayers of PARAQUAT in 2021

A beverage company that purportedly touts its "sustainability initiatives" has been found to be among California's top sprayers of the toxic weed killer paraquat for the year 2021, according to a new analysis.

The analysis published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that The Wonderful Company (TWC) was the Golden State's second-largest paraquat sprayer. TWC sprayed almost 57,000 pounds of the weed killer on its fields, accounting for over 13 percent of the state's paraquat use. Only the J.G. Boswell Company used more paraquat in the state, spraying more than 58,000 pounds.

The analysis, which drew data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and county agriculture commissioners, also found that both TWC and J.G. Boswell sprayed 27 percent of all the paraquat used in California. It ultimately found that just 10 farms and companies  including TWC and J.G. Boswell  sprayed 40 percent of all paraquat used in California in 2021. (Related: EWG study: Economic benefits of paraquat herbicide DO NOT outweigh its health risks.)

TWC  which owns POM pomegranate juice, Fiji Water and other popular brands  has been reportedly recognized for its sustainability initiatives.

According to TWC's website, "environmental sustainability" is at the center of its work. The company, "in all its operations, must be a deeply responsible steward of the environment, and lead by example to create a sustainable future." To this end, the firm has invested $400 million in sustainable agriculture.

Paraquat is a widely used commercial herbicide in the United States. However, it has been linked to Parkinson's disease (PD)  which has led to its ban in 60 countries including the European Union and China. Paraquat, along with the pesticide rotenone, is routinely used in research as one of the ways to induce and study PD in animal models.

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.

Based on current research, scientists believe that PD is most likely caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The interactions between genes and the environment can be quite complex. Some environmental exposures may lower the risk of PD, while others may increase it.

Paraquat banned in other nations, but not in the U.S.

Geoff Horsfield, a policy director at EWG who works on pesticides and other agricultural issues, remarked: "Folks have known about paraquat for a while. But I think it's clear that the public doesn't fully appreciate where these pesticides are being applied and how close it is to their communities."

According to him, many countries initially banned paraquat because it is incredibly lethal when ingested  even in tiny amounts. In South Korea and other nations, the herbicide was widely used as a method of suicide.

But Horsfield explained that the primary way people are exposed to paraquat is by inhaling it. Thus, both farm workers and community members whose homes border farms where the herbicide is sprayed are at risk form paraquat exposure.

"If you live near an almond grove, a vineyard or a cotton field, we know that especially now  given drought and weather changes  pesticide drift can be a real threat," the EWG policy director said.

Horsfield also mentioned that while paraquat is used in some California vineyards, it is banned in France and Italy  countries both famous for their wines. He remarked: "We know these products can be successfully grown in California without the use of paraquat."

Check out Weedkiller.news for more stories about paraquat and its dangers.

Watch Jefferey Jaxen and Del Bigtree discussing the "Paraquat Papers" that link the herbicide to Parkinson's disease on "The HighWire with Del Bigtree."

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

PFAS in biosolids fertilizer sparks damages lawsuit.

Lawsuit accuses Synagro of poisoning farms with PFAS-contaminated BIOSOLIDS "fertilizer."

The toxic herbicide industry  guilty of causing cancer  is seeking LEGAL IMMUNITY across the United States.

Reducing Parkinsons disease will require phasing out common pesticides and herbicides across agriculture.

Lawsuits piling in against Syngenta over paraquat weedkiller, which causes Parkinsons Disease.

Sources include:

TheNewLede.org

EWG.org

Brighteon.com
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Russian and US troops have been operating out of the same military base in Niger for at least several weeks, a US defense official and another source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The Russians have beenusinga separate hangar on the base, known as Air Base 101, the sources said, and are not operating in the same space as the Americans.But it is not that big of an area, one of the sources told CNN.

The Russian presence at the base has been a major point of contention betweentheUS and Nigers military junta, which seized power in a July 2023 coup. The countrys ruling junta has made clear it wants US forces to leave. According to CNN, this further underscores US officials concerns that Niger, whichhas served as a crucial footholdfor US counterterrorism operations in the region for nearly a decade,is turning toward Russia.

In March, US diplomatic and military officials including Gen. Michael Langley, commander of US Africa Command, and Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, visited Niger and expressed concern about the escalating Russian military presence in the country. They also raised questions about the future of Air Base 101 and whether it would be ceded to the Russians, CNN previously reported.

The meeting was tense, officials said at the time, and just a few days later Niger announcedthat it was ending the accord that has allowed US military personnel and civilian staff to operate in the country since 2014.

The US military is now working with Nigerien officials to carry out an orderly withdrawal of troops from the country, the Pentagon has confirmed.
U.S. runs out of spare Patriot missiles for Ukraine, spelling impending Russian victory

According to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the United States has run out of so-called "Patriot" missiles to send to Ukraine, which means the Zelensky regime is now persisting on fumes.

In an interview with MSNBC, Sullivan told the cable news outlet that a recent request from Volodymyr Zelensky for "at least seven" more Patriot batteries will not be met by the U.S., Kiev's main sponsor, because there are no more available to spare.

"The U.S. Patriot systems right now are being deployed around the world, including in the Middle East, to protect troops," Sullivan said.

"If we can unlock further American Patriot batteries, we would send them. But we are doing a lot of the supplying of the actual missiles that go into those batteries that get fired."

What Zelensky is asking for would completely undermine not just U.S. military troops but the entire country, putting it at serious risk. This is of no issue to Zelensky, though, who only cares about himself and his friends who are exploiting U.S. taxpayers for their own gain.

(Related: Did you know that Donald Trump now fully supports sending an endless supply of your tax dollars to not just Ukraine but also Israel?)

U.S. begging Europe to send Zelensky more missiles

Unwilling to risk their own national security, U.S. officials have begun to start begging other Ukraine sponsors in Europe, as well as NATO member states, to share their air defense weapons with Ukraine. The Pentagon, meanwhile, pledged another new "historic" $6 billion assistance package to Kiev.

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.

The problem with that package is it will take months or even years to kick in, not to mention the fact that the weapons pledged will not even come from Pentagon stockpiles. As a result, Zelensky will be weaponless  as he should be  for an undetermined period of time in the interim.

In an announcement, the Pentagon revealed that the $6 billion package "represents the beginning of a contracting process," meaning it will take some time to take effect.

If you are unfamiliar with what a Patriot missile actually is, consider the fact that a single one costs over $1 billion. Manufactured by mega arms dealer Raytheon, MIM-104 Patriot batteries consist of multiple truck-mounted units that are equipped with power, radar, antenna, engagement control and other support vehicles. They are also equipped with up to eight launchers bearing interceptor missiles.

Over the years, the U.S. has produced more than 1,100 Patriot launchers with hundreds said to currently be both in active service and in storage. So far, the U.S. has sent just one battery to Ukraine, which is not enough for Zelensky who wants "at least seven" more immediately.

Germany also donated two of its full batteries to Ukraine while the Netherlands shared two individual launchers.

"In the meantime, what we're going to do is work with European partners and partners in other parts of the world to get them to provide additional air defense capability to Ukraine," Sullivan explained.

Other countries that currently operate Patriot systems include Poland, Greece, Romania and Spain. Berlin has promised to send another Patriot battery to Ukraine in the coming days, but Warsaw says it has no extra air defense systems to spare for the Zelensky regime.

Spain, meanwhile, says it can only provide a "small number" of Patriot interceptor missiles from its stocks, but none of the actual systems. Greece is likewise resisting outside pressure to send over its air defense systems to Ukraine with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stating demonstratively that no action will be taken "that could even remotely endanger our nation's deterrent capabilities or air defense."

Will Ukraine under Zelensky last even through the end of the year? Find out more at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

RT.com

NaturalNews.com
BOMBSHELL: CIA, government insiders illegally kept intelligence information from President Trump

During his tenure in the White House, President Donald Trump was purposely kept in the dark about important matters that the intelligence community deep state decided was too sensitive for him to know, we have learned.

James O'Keefe's Undercover American Swiper, now part of the O'Keefe Media Group (OMG), discovered this and more from an undercover interview with Amjad Fseisi, a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and CIA program manager with top-secret clearance who implicated the highest levels of government in a massive coverup scheme.

Because they feared that Trump would spill the beans about their wrongdoing, the deep state withheld pertinent information from a sitting president, which is both illegal and treasonous.

"So the agencies kind of, like, all got together and said we're not going to tell Trump," Fseisi admitted to the undercover reporter  watch below. "Director of the CIA would keep [information from Trump] ..."

BREAKING  EXPOSING THE CIA: So the agencies kind of, like, all got together and said, were not gonna tell TrumpDirector of the CIA would keep [information from Trump] A project manager working in Cyber Operations for the @CIA and an @NSAGov contractor with top-secret pic.twitter.com/TXq8ZjJEBq  James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 1, 2024

(Related: Did you hear that the CIA may also be operating online Ukrainian anti-Trump "troll farms" to try to steal another election from Trump?)

Deep state considers Trump a Russian asset

According to Fseisi, just about everyone around him was involved in keeping Trump out of the know concerning matters that he as Commander-in-Chief needed to know about in order to properly lead the nation. This included executive staff members as well as intelligence directors and their subordinates.

"We're talking about former CIA directors like Gina Haspel ... and I believe Mike Pompeo did the same thing, too," Fseisi said about those who "kept information from him (Trump) because we knew he'd ... disclose it."

"There are certain people that would ... give him a high-level overview but never give him any details. You know why? Because he'll leak those details ... He's a Russian asset. He's owned by the ... Russians."

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.

Beyond this, the intelligence deep state also used The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to spy on Trump and his team. To this very day, in fact, Trump and his associates are being surveilled through FISA by the very same people that spied on him during his presidency.

"We monitor everything," Fseisi admitted ominously. "We also have people that monitor his ex-wife. He likes to use burner phones."

Deep state steals information, hacks other countries

Fseisi must have though he was in good company with the undercover reporter because he also revealed that the intelligence deep state, including the CIA and other three-letter agencies, routinely steals information and hacks other countries "just like that."

A current employee within the CIA's China Mission Center, Fseisi further revealed precisely how the deep state obtains information, describing the system as broken in that the CIA does not "share information across agencies" because it is "very reluctant" concerning the "careless" NSA.

A lot of this from Fseisi is information we have known for some time, including the fact that the U.S. intelligence community illegally spied on and surveilled the Trump campaign in 2016. Through this, the deep state was able to obtain information, albeit illegally, that was later used to justify the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) probe, called "Crossfire Hurricane," into Trump.

As we know, Special Counsel Robert Mueller then used the information the FBI obtained to try to put together the Russian collusion hoax, which ended up being a colossal failure.

"Contractors like Fseisi hold the duty to withhold sharing confidential or national security information," O'Keefe tweeted about these latest revelations. "In denying his statements, Fseisi may have realized he could be held liable for violating internal agency provisions and federal laws like the Executive Agency ethics provisions, which restrict what he may share with others outside of his contracted-to agency."

"Additionally, any government worker or agency head who withheld information from a superior (i.e., President Trump) may violate: (a) obstruction of justice by deception (18 USC 1512); (b) conspiracy to obstruct (18 USC 371); and false statements (18 USC 1001). Agency regulations may also provide offenses related to insubordination, reflecting poorly on the agency in public, or misrepresentation or dishonesty."

Fseisi later fired from CIA after O'Keefe footage dropped

O'Keefe later caught up with Fseisi on the streets of Washington, D.C., to further discuss the matter, but Fseisi would not reveal to O'Keefe whether he had top-secret clearance. He also denied making the statements that were clearly captured on camera in the above footage.

"It looks like me," is all Fseisi would say when presented with video footage depicting him spilling the beans about everything he denied to O'Keefe's face. When then asked directly if he works for the CIA, Fseisi responded with, "I can't tell you that."

Not long after that, O'Keefe obtained confirmation that Fseisi was terminated from the CIA as a result of OMG's undercover reporting. When asked for comment, a CIA spokesperson provided an exclusive statement denying the things Fseisi said, calling them "absolutely false and ridiculous."

"CIA is a resolutely apolitical institution that provides intelligence support to policymakers including the President of the United States, irrespective of who occupies the office," the agency claims. "We are a foreign intelligence focused Agency and do not monitor the former President."

"The individual making these allegations is a former contractor who does not represent CIA. In the video which was taken last week, the CIA official waves his intelligence community green badge. Green Badges are specifically hired for those contracted by the agency. Kash Patel, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, said 'An individual possessing a contractor Green badge is only allowed to lawfully possess it while officially employed as a contractor to the intelligence community. Upon any termination, credentials are returned to the home agency and destroyed immediately.'"

On X, someone added to the conversation concerning Mike Pompeo that he never trusted the guy, seeing as how he is the one "who talked Trump into not releasing the rest of the JFK files." Should Trump get elected this fall, perhaps in time he will release all of the JFK files before ultimately disbanding the CIA entirely.

"This is more significant than anything the media has exposed in the past 30 years," commented another person about the contents of the above video from O'Keefe's OMG. "Amazing. The CIA is panicking."

The latest news about Trump's third bid for the presidency this fall can be found at Trump.news.

Sources for this article include:

Twitter.com

NaturalNews.com
Big win for election integrity in PA as court confirms improper absentee ballots wont be counted

Common sense has prevailed in Pennsylvania  at least for now  as the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled in favor of keeping a Pennsylvania rule intact that states absentee ballots that are not properly dated will not be counted.

You might think that a ballot that has not been signed or dated simply wouldnt be counted, but Democrats, in their unending quest to manipulate the mail-in ballot system so they can stack the vote in favor of their candidates  actually had a lawyer, Mark Elias, challenge these regulations. He even went so far as to say that it was one of the most important cases this year.

The case was driven by voter advocacy groups such as the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP branches, who were challenging state laws that dismiss absentee ballots that are not dated correctly. Multiple county boards of elections and the Secretary of the Commonwealth argued that requiring the ballots to be dated is a necessary measure in order to uphold the sanctity of the voting process.

Thankfully, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals would not let them get away with this nonsense, denying to even hear a case about whether the date requirement for absentee ballots is enforceable in a 9-to-4 vote.

One can only hope that the vote will set a precedent for much stricter rules regarding the mail-in voting process. The decision is being hailed as a big win for election integrity.

Absentee ballots with incorrect information or without dates often pose issues in elections and lead to disqualifications. Although the specific rules vary by state and locality, there are often requirements related to the voter signature and date on an inside envelope or the postmark date on the outside of the ballot.

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Arizona courts uphold voting laws related to proof of citizenship

The ruling brings Pennsylvania in line with other states that have been cracking down on absentee ballot abuse after the 2020 presidential election fiasco. For example, Arizona courts have recently upheld voting laws related to presenting proof of citizenship. In March, a U.S. District Judge ruled that Arizona's new voting laws requiring voters to present proof of citizenship are not discriminatory. The ruling was related to a provision requiring counties to verify the status of all registered voters who have not supplied proof of their American citizenship and to cross-check their registration information against government databases.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton wrote: Considering the evidence as a whole, the court concludes that Arizonas interests in preventing non-citizens from voting and promoting public confidence in Arizonas elections outweighs the limited burden voters might encounter when required to provide (documentary proof of citizenship).

Alabama, Mississippi and Texas have all passed laws targeting the practice of harvesting absentee ballots since the 2020 election, restricting factors such as the number of ballots that a single person can witness, who is allowed to witness individuals signing their absentee ballots, and who is permitted to return these ballots on behalf of voters.

Several other states have also made tweaks to make their election processes fairer and more dependable, but there is still more work to do to close the door to abuse.

Sources for this article include:

Revolver.news

NBCNews.com
Former Arizona state senator sentenced to 1 YEAR in prison for child sex abuse

A former state lawmaker in Arizona has been sentenced on April 26 to a jail term of one year after being found guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Former Arizona State Sen. Otoniel "Tony" Navarrete, a Democrat, faced multiple sex charges involving a minor. However, he was only found guilty on one count. According to AZFamily, the April 26 guilty verdict followed a jury delivering a split verdict in February in his child molestation case. At the time, a jury deemed him not guilty on one count of molestation of a child and sexual conduct with a minor  but convicted him on a separate charge of sexual conduct with a minor.

"During sentencing, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered one year in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for his single count of child sex crime. He is also now required to register as a sex offender," the outlet added.

The former politician was arrested in 2019 and indicted in 2021 on seven child sex crime charges. A mistrial was declared in October 2023 because jurors were split on a decision about the allegations against him.

According to court documents at the time, Navarrete sexually touched the victim multiple times over a few years. The 35-year-old repeatedly apologized to his under-aged victim, regretting his actions in a phone call recorded by law enforcement.

Navarrete reportedly claimed he "wasn't well" when the abuse happened. He resigned in August 2021, concurrently releasing a statement that said he "adamantly denied all allegations" and would prove his innocence.

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.

Navarrete was first elected as state representative for Arizona's 30th District  which encompasses Maricopa, La Paz, Mohave and Yavapai counties  in 2016. He served one term in the Arizona House of Representatives before being elected to the Arizona Senate in 2018. Following Navarrete's 2021 resignation, Democratic State Rep. Raquel Teran took over the seat he vacated.

Commentators decry Navarrete's lenient punishment

Fox News reported that a fourth charge of attempting to commit molestation of a child was brought forward against Navarrete. However, this was dismissed by a motion filed by prosecutors on Feb. 22. During the April 26 sentencing, the sex offender's attorney announced they would file a notice of appeal to overturn his conviction.

The measly one-year prison term imposed on Navarrete did not sit well with several commentators. The Libs of TikTok account took note of this, comparing it to the more draconian sentences on pro-life activists.

"[Navarrete] was just sentenced to one year in prison for molesting a minor. Meanwhile, six pro-lifers are facing 11 years in prison from [President Joe] Biden's DOJ [Department of Justice] for standing in front of an abortion clinic," they wrote. "The 'justice system' is broken."

The official X account for the 2014 documentary "An Open Secret" also chimed in, noting that Navarrete's crime of "sexual conduct with a minor" was a Class 6 felony. "He had many friends in high places," the account posted.

This wasn't the first time a Democrat got a mere slap on the wrist for child sexual abuse. Back in November, Patrick Wojahn  the former mayor of College Park, Maryland  pleaded guilty to 140 counts of child pornography and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. However, the judge in charge of the case suspended his sentence to 30 years. (Related: Gay former Democratic mayor sentenced to 150 years behind bars for 140+ counts of child pornography, but will only serve 30 years.)

According to InfoWars, Wojahn  who was mentored by Transportation Secretary and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg  found himself serving a lighter sentence thanks to Prince George's County Circuit Judge Karen Mason.

Moreover, "nonviolent" are eligible for parole after serving one-fourth of their sentence under Maryland law  which amounts to seven-and-a-half years. Upon release, Wojahn must undergo five years of supervised probation and register as a sex offender.

Visit Twisted.news for similar stories.

Watch Alex Jones talk about former Arizona State Sen. Tony Navarrete's 2019 arrest in the clip below.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Democrat Tom Malinowski lobbied for sex predators, now trying to silence QAnon from exposing pedophiles.

Fairview Elementary School's 2020 Teacher of the Year arrested, charged with sex crimes.

Prominent Philadelphia LGBT activist ARRESTED for allegedly sexually assaulting 2 kids.

Gay Democrat mega-donor paid $200K hush money to abused 15-year-old boy.

CA teacher nabbed for alleged sexual crimes against 7 students.

Sources include:

100PercentFedUp.com

AZFamily.com

FoxNews.com

InfoWars.com
U.S. State Department says Israels Netanyahu has absolute diplomatic immunity against ICC arrest warrants for genocide, war crimes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be arrested and charged for war crimes in Gaza because he maintains absolute diplomatic immunity against anything the International Criminal Court (ICC) might try to do to hold him accountable, according to the U.S. State Department.

In a statement, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel condemned the Hague-based tribunal for daring to even suggest that Netanyahu should be held to account for alleged crimes against humanity, arguing that Netanyahu is above the law on this one.

"We think that they do important work as it relates to Ukraine, Darfur, Sudan, but again, in this particular instance, I'm sorry, they just do not have jurisdiction," Patel told reporters about how Washington, D.C., views the ICC concerning Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The Times of Israel reported that leaders in West Jerusalem are deeply concerned that the ICC is going after not just Netanyahu but also Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Since Israel is neither a signatory to nor does it recognize the ICC, leaders of the Jewish state claim their territory is off limits when it comes to international law.

(Related: ICC investigators are interviewing staff at hospitals in Gaza to gather evidence of Israeli war crimes.)

Netanyahu lashes out against ICC

In a video he released earlier this week, Netanyahu personally condemned the ICC's efforts to deliver justice to him and his cabinet, calling the move "an outrage of historic proportions."

"Branding Israel's leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism," Netanyahu said, emphasizing that Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

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.

Netanyahu would further state in his video address that he believes the ICC is attempting to "paralyze Israel's very ability to defend itself.

The United States, by the way, is not a party to the ICC either, which is very convenient as the U.S. functions as the war arm of Zionist Israel.

Netanyahu says he will not back down in finishing the mission he started. The Israeli army, he revealed, will not stop bombing and attacking Gaza until Hamas is fully neutralized to the point "that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again."

Back in January, the United Nations (UN) International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that, based on the evidence it has reviewed, it is entirely "plausible" that the IFD's actions in Gaza amount to genocide. The ICJ is in the process of reviewing a case brought forth by South Africa accusing Israel of war crimes.

In response to that legal proceeding, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the allegations "atrocious and preposterous," denying any wrongdoing of the IDF in Gaza.

As of this writing, there are more than 34,000 confirmed deaths in Gaza caused by the IDF, many of these women and children.

"The ICC needs to issue warrants on the Biden administration as well because without America's 'aid,' this genocide would not have taken place," wrote a commenter at RT about the matter.

"It is interesting to note that war criminals say that the ICC does not apply to them but that it does to Russia's actions in Ukraine."

Another wrote that Zionism at its core stems from Jewish deviance, i.e., those from the Old Testament who were condemned for worshiping the golden calf.

"How many Jews have been deceived and led into error by this Satanic movement?" this person further asked.

Someone else added to the conversation that all the lies and propaganda in the world will never change the fact that what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to genocide, plain and simple.

The latest news about what's going on in the Middle East can be found at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

RT.com

NaturalNews.com
Russia flaunts Western military equipment CAPTURED from Ukraine ahead of Victory Day parade

Russia has displayed in an outdoor exhibit the Western military equipment it captured on the Ukrainian battlefield ahead of the country's Victory Day parade on May 9.

The exhibit organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) opened on May 1 and is set to last for a month. The captured military vehicles were exhibited at a World War II memorial venue in western Moscow. Firearms, military papers and other documents were also put on display.

Those on exhibit include a British Saxon armored personnel carrier, which is thought to have been donated to Ukraine in 2015. A Swedish CV90 armored combat vehicle, an American Bradley Fighting Vehicle and a French-made AMX-10RC armored fighting vehicle are likewise on display. A Leopard 2 tank and a Marder armored infantry vehicle, both from Germany, are also present for visitors to see.

According to the Daily Mirror, the vehicles displayed were emblazoned with red banners stating "Our victory is inevitable." The tabloid added that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to parade the armored vehicles on display, some of which have American and British flags, during the May 9 Victory Day parade to celebrate the "special military operation" in Ukraine. The parade commemorates Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.

During the 2023 Victory Day parade, Putin launched into a furious 10-minute address in front of the Kremlin. He denounced "Western global elites" during that speech and asserted that civilization was at "a decisive turning point." The Russian leader has compared his actions in Ukraine to the earlier struggle against the Nazis almost 80 years ago.

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"Ukraine, which lost proportionately more ground to Russia during WWII, accuses [Moscow] of abusing its common past to support aggression," the Mirror noted. "Following Moscow's initial blitzkrieg attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, more than 3,000 tanks have been damaged or destroyed in the two years of conflict."

Peskov: Exhibit of captured Western combat vehicles a "brilliant idea"

"History is repeating itself. Strength is the truth. It's always been that way, in 1943 and today," the MOD said in a statement. "These war trophies reflect our strength. The more of them there are, the stronger we are. No Western military equipment will change the situation on the battlefield."

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov lauded the exhibition at the Russian capital as a "brilliant idea" set to "attract great interest."

"The exhibition of trophy equipment will attract great interest from Moscow residents, guests of our city and all residents of the country," he said. "We should all see the enemy's battered equipment."

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urged foreign diplomats in the Russian capital to take the opportunity to visit the exhibition.

"This exhibition will be interesting to all those who still believe in mythical 'Western values' or fail to notice an aggression unleashed by [the] NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] against Russia and our people," she remarked. Zakharova added that the exhibition will make visitors see how "the West destroys peace on the planet."

Meanwhile, Russian military bloggers drew parallels between the current exhibit and the exhibits of captured Nazi military equipment that the Soviet Union held during and after WWII.

For the state-controlled Channel One, the star of the show was a captured M1 Abrams tank. According to the outlet, the captured tank had been taken out by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine using a guided rocket and kamikaze drones. (Related: Biden sends 31 Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine after previously warning that doing so would lead to World War III.)

A correspondent for the state channel clambered over the tank while holding his microphone. He told Russians checking out the exhibit that the M1 Abrams had been billed in its country of origin as an indestructible "wonder weapon."

"But that was all nonsense," the Channel One correspondent continued. "Look at this. All of its reputation has been destroyed."

Head over to WeaponsTechnology.news for more stories like this.

Watch this clip about the exhibit of captured military equipment from Ukraine in Moscow.

This video is from the Vampire Slayer channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Western tanks are priority targets for Russian forces, Putin says.

Ukraine running out of tanks as military struggles to repair machinery damaged by Russia.

Ukraine-bound tanks sent by Germany are OUTDATED and NON-FUNCTIONING, official admits.

Counteroffensive: Western tanks fight Russians for first time, one German Leopard lost, reports claim.

Military analyst: Precise number of tanks Poland has left is unclear due to UNDISCLOSED tank shipments to Ukraine.

Sources include:

Mirror.co.uk

MSN.com

Reuters.com

Brighteon.com
Senate passes bill BANNING the importation of Russian uranium

On April 30, the United States Senate unanimously passed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Exports Act

This legislative action represents a pivotal step in the ongoing efforts to impose sanctions on Russia following the commencement of Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

The bill is poised to become law once President Joe Biden approves it. Its passage with bipartisan support underscores the widespread consensus within the U.S. government regarding the need to address Russian aggression.

The Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act is designed to halt imports of enriched uranium from Russia until 2040. This measure aims to sever financial ties between Russia and the U.S., as proceeds from uranium exports reportedly provide Moscow with an estimated $1 billion in income annually.

By cutting off this revenue stream, the U.S. seeks to undermine Russia's ability to sustain its military operations and fund its war efforts in Ukraine. (Related: U.S. seeks to reduce its heavy reliance on Russian uranium for nuclear power.)

While the legislation imposes a blanket ban on Russian uranium imports, it includes clauses that provide the U.S. with limited exceptions to the ban. For example, the Department of Energy may issue temporary waivers under specific circumstances, such as in the case of an anti-dumping agreement between Washington and Moscow.

These waivers are intended to provide flexibility while ensuring that the ban remains effective in its overarching goal of curbing Russian influence in the nuclear fuel market.

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.

Notably, the inclusion of nuclear fuel in the list of sanctioned products represents a significant escalation in the economic pressure exerted on Russia. It underscores the severity of the situation and reflects the United States' commitment to employing a range of measures to hold Russia accountable for its actions.

As tensions persist between Russia and Ukraine, the passage of this legislation underscores the resolve of the U.S. government to stand firm in support of Ukraine and to push back against Russian aggression on multiple fronts.

Biden considering passing executive order banning Russian uranium

The Senate's Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act follows up on a similar bill banning the importation of Russian nuclear fuel that was passed by the House of Representatives in December but languished in the Senate immediately after its passage.

Congress' bill now awaits the signature of President Joe Biden. His administration is reportedly still weighing the broad ban on enriched uranium from Russia. But earlier reports did indicate that the president was willing to use his executive authority to prevent enriched uranium imports from Russia from making their way into the U.S., in a move meant to circumvent possible gridlock in Congress.

The possible executive order was being crafted with help from the Department of Energy and the National Security Council, and it would have created a wide ban on enriched uranium with waivers that would allow for continued importation of fuel until 2028. While executive orders carry significant legal weight, Congress retains the ability to pass legislation that could supersede such orders.

Both the Biden administration and stakeholders within the nuclear industry prefer congressional action to address the issue through legislation.

Russia currently stands as the primary foreign supplier of enriched uranium to the U.S., providing nearly a quarter of the fuel used in American nuclear reactors.

Last year alone, the U.S. imported a record-high $1.2 billion worth of Russian uranium, marking a substantial increase in annual uranium shipments.

Given the national security implications, the White House has underscored the importance of developing domestic uranium enrichment capabilities.

Earlier this year, Congress allocated $2.7 billion for this purpose, with the Biden administration advocating for a concurrent long-term ban on Russian fuel imports. Despite possessing its own uranium reserves, the U.S.'s domestic resources are insufficient to meet the demands of the country's nuclear power sector.

In contrast, Russia boasts the world's largest uranium enrichment complex, accounting for nearly half of the global capacity.

Experts estimate that it would require at least five years of substantial investment for the U.S. to reduce its dependence on Russian uranium imports.

Watch this short statement from Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation General Director Alexey Likhachev bragging about how Russia now has the world's second-largest supply of uranium.

This video is from the channel Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Nuclear war ahead: US to send DEPLETED URANIUM rounds to Ukraine.

Russian missile strikes destroy massive Ukrainian ammo dump containing dangerous, environmentally unsound depleted uranium shells.

Fallout from ammo depot explosion in Ukraine that destroyed DEPLETED URANIUM shells reaches the United Kingdom.

Sources include:

KyivIndependent.com

RT.com

Brighteon.com
Thomas Renz drops bombshell on Brighteon TV about Trump campaign manager Susie Wiles who has dark ties to Big Pharma, deep state

You may be wondering why Donald Trump continues to endorse RINOs (Republicans in name only) who time and time again stab him in the back. Well, it could be because of his campaign manager Susie Wiles, who Lawfare attorney Thomas Renz warned on his Brighteon TV program is a deep state, pharmaceutical industry hack.

Since Trump is very busy campaigning right now, not to mention dealing with a litany of legal troubles, he relies on others, Renz says, to vet the politicians he endorses at his rallies. The problem is that many of these politicians seemingly hate Trump, and yet he endorses them anyway.

According to Renz, Trump is probably dealing with a fox in the henhouse type of situation with Wiles who may not have his best interests at heart. And it is up to We the People, Renz maintains, to keep an eye out for who surrounds Trump.

"Donald Trump doesn't take the time to get to know every single person he endorses," Renz said on a recent episode of his show, which you can watch below. "He's got races all over the country and it's not like he's going to spend hours and hours with every single person he endorses  that's not possible."

(Related: Did you know that Renz sued EcoHealth Alliance back in late 2022 for its direct involvement in the Wuhan coronavirus [COVID-19] "pandemic" coverup?)

Are Trump's people aligned with America First?

While Trump does get to know some of the higher-up politicians he endorses, the ones who are lower on the totem pole tend to slip by him. As such, Trump may inadvertently be aligning himself with America Last folks rather than those who are America First like he claims to be.

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.

Renz's friends and others who live across America call him regularly to ask about Trump's endorsement anomalies, which Renz says can be traced back to the people his closest advisors are telling him to support.

All of this is Renz's opinion, just to be clear. He says he believes that Trump is simply trusting those around him to tell him the truth when some of them may not be as truthful as he is assuming they are.

"I started looking into this and what I found  though I can't prove this  is that Susie Wiles is the right hand, is the person who is the gatekeeper, and is the person who has a lot of influence on who he is recommending," Renz explained.

"It became pretty clear, pretty quickly, that Susie Wiles is listed as a co-chair for a company called Mercury LLC. Mercury LLC is probably listed as being owned by Omnicom, a large media consulting company. Mercury LLC represents GAVI, the vaccine alliance, Pfizer, Gilead, and the UN Foundation."

Renz kept digging and discovered that Omnicom is listed as a World Economic Forum partner that is proudly affiliated with the Klaus Schwab organization. This would seem to explain why Wiles is not, according to Renz, informing Trump about things like the dangers of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "vaccines."

"If his closest advisor, if the person who controls who he is getting information from, if the person is making sure all he's hearing is pro-vaccine nonsense and telling him his base loves the vaccine, I guess that would make sense, wouldn't it?"

If you would like to hear the rest of what Renz says he uncovered, be sure to watch the full video up above.

Are you planning to vote for Trump this fall, or is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the better bet? Find out more at Trump.news.

Sources for this article include:

Brighteon.com

NaturalNews.com
Turkey to join South Africa in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice

Turkey has expressed its desire to join South Africa as a plaintiff in the African nation's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The move follows previous efforts by Turkey to pressure Israel into agreeing to a ceasefire during the conflict, including imposing restrictions on economic activity between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

During his televised remarks, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan highlighted the meticulous examination by Turkey's legal experts on how to participate in the ICJ case against Israel.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's approval of the plan signals Turkey's readiness to provide legal backing to South Africa's case and submit its application to the court promptly. Turkish involvement hopes to add significant weight to the collective pursuit to stop Israel's ongoing genocide. It also aligns with efforts by other nations like Nicaragua and Colombia against Israel. (Related: Turkey files lawsuit against Netanyahu, accusing him and Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.)

Furthermore, Turkey's engagement with members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation indicates broader support within the Muslim world for addressing the Gaza crisis through legal channels.

This announcement follows Erdogan's recent meeting with a Hamas delegation, where he condemned Israel's actions, emphasizing Turkey's stance on defending the rights of Palestinians.

In addition to diplomatic efforts, Turkey has been actively involved in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Turkey planning participation in ICJ case for months

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart in Ankara, Fidan stated: "I would like to announce, for the first time, that Turkey has decided to join the case filed by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

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.

We will submit our formal application to the ICJ once we finalize the legal text, putting this political decision into action, he added.

Under Article 63 of the Statute of the ICJ, parties have the right to intervene in the proceedings. Earlier in April, Colombia and Nicaragua formally applied to the ICJ to intervene in the case.

Fidan revealed that Turkey has been collaborating with regional and other countries supportive of Palestinian statehood to encourage them to join the case. He refrained from disclosing whether the decision was discussed with foreign counterparts but reiterated Turkey's commitment to standing by Palestine on all issues.

South Africa alleges that Israel's actions violate the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. In a recent BBC interview, Joan Donoghue, former head of the International Court of Justice, stated that the court found a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide and ruled in favor of South Africa's right to bring the case.

Fidan noted that Turkey had been planning this move for months, coinciding with intensified actions to increase pressure on Israel after the ruling Justice and Development Party faced setbacks in nationwide local elections.

Opposition parties criticized the government's perceived lack of support for Gaza Palestinians during the campaign, with the New Welfare Party emphasizing "stop trade with Israel" as one of its slogans.

In response, the Turkish government implemented trade restrictions on numerous product groups in its trade with Israel in April.

Watch this clip of a family in Gaza receiving a food aid parcel from Turkey.

This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

ICC prosecutors interview hospital staff in Gaza to gather evidence of Israeli war crimes.

Israeli sources: Netanyahu confessed to Biden that he is AFRAID of ICC arrest warrants.

Turkey announces ban on certain exports to Israel until a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza.

Erdogan REBUKES "terror state" Israel and its Western backers.

Turkish leader pushes to end conflict in Gaza Strip, calls Israel a WAR CRIMINAL.

Sources include:

MiddleEastEye.net

Al-Monitor.com

Brighteon.com
Ukraine RUNNING OUT of soldiers to fight Russia

American military advisors working with the Armed Forces of Ukraine have warned that the number of Ukrainian soldiers receiving training in United States bases across Western Europe has dwindled in recent months, indicating a severe shortage in manpower amid Kyiv's ongoing fight against Russian forces.

The U.S. training initiative for Ukraine began in April 2022 at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany. This program initially saw around 3,100 Ukrainian soldiers under U.S.-led drills. In January 2023, the program expanded to include training for 12 brigades ahead of Kyiv's ill-fated summer counteroffensive that year.

In addition to the U.S.-led training, three Ukrainian brigades received training from other European nations. Furthermore, other American instructors have advised a tank battalion and two Ukrainian National Guard battalions on combined arms tactics.

The last brigade trained in Germany departed Grafenwoehr in late January or early February. No other Ukrainian units have received training in the base since then. This development strongly suggests a depletion in the supply of personnel available for training. (Related: Ukraine purchases 50,000 womens uniforms amid worries that females could be conscripted.)

Reports on Ukraine's manpower challenges have surfaced in Western media since late last year, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly downplaying the extent of casualties. American and Ukrainian officials acknowledge that the official casualty figures are significantly underestimated, emphasizing the need for Zelensky to motivate more Ukrainian men to join the front lines.

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.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims that Ukraine lost over 160,000 troops during last summer's counteroffensive alone, out of nearly half a million casualties since the conflict's inception in late February 2022. A former presidential adviser to Zelensky suggests a casualty figure of around 300,000.

To address the manpower shortage, Zelensky's government has recently taken measures to boost mobilization efforts. In December, Zelensky announced plans to mobilize an additional 500,000 troops and introduced legislation to lower the conscription age for men and impose stricter penalties for draft evasion.

In a recent move, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry prohibited men aged 18 to 60 from obtaining or renewing documents, including passports, at consular offices outside Ukraine unless they are registered for mobilization, further reflecting the urgency to bolster military manpower.

Ukrainian soldiers angered by extended service terms

Among the provisions of the amended mobilization law is a clause that extends the service terms of deployed conscripts. Previous versions of the law had promised demobilization after 36 months of service. This limit has been removed, and veterans and active servicemembers are angry.

Without these limits, and in the wake of last year's failed counteroffensive and prolonged delays in Western military aid, they now fear that their service may only conclude with disability or death.

"The government has demeaned and insulted them," lamented a soldiers wife Alina, who resides in Kyiv with her two children. "They're not immortal. They want to witness their children's growth, to be present at home."

Despite the widespread discontent among seasoned soldiers, Zelensky has refrained from announcing a formal mobilization call amid heightened fears of public backlash and anti-government protests.

Instead, he has directed attention to the new law, which passed with 283 votes in favor in the 450-member parliament, largely due to the support of Zelensky's Servant of the People party.

While the law includes provisions for increased pay for frontline service and enhanced death benefits for families, critics, including Zelensky's political rivals, denounce the removal of service limits.

"The law lacks incentives and is punitive in nature," remarked Volodymyr Aryev, a parliamentarian from the opposition party European Solidarity. "It treats defenders as a mere resource, rather than heroes."

Following the law's adoption, the parliament urged the government to draft additional legislation concerning the demobilization and rotation of frontline servicemen. However, the elimination of service limits has understandably angered experienced soldiers, especially those who began their service in 2014 amid the conflict's escalation.

The uncertainty surrounding demobilization has taken a toll on servicemen and their families alike, evoking feelings of depression and demoralization.

Read more stories about Ukraine at UkraineWitness.com.

Watch this clip of Ukrainian law enforcement attempting to detain a man in Odesa so he can serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ukraine has lost almost 500,000 troops in the conflict against Russia  about 10 times that of Moscow.

Ukraine warns its frontlines could COLLAPSE at any time as generals fear severe losses from upcoming Russian offensive.

Ukraine suspends visa renewals for military-aged Ukrainians living overseas as punishment for NOT DYING in battle with Russia.

Sources include:

RT.com

AlJazeera.com

Brighteon.com
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. A consultation was held in the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during which issues concerning the water sector were discussed.

During the consultation, the distribution within the water sector, the implemented policy, issues related to Lake Sevan, the Ararat artesian basin, the protection of water resources, and problems related to drinking and irrigation water supplies were discussed, the PM's office said.

According to the source, an exchange of ideas took place, during which various observations related to the existing problems were presented. The designation and implementation of comprehensive steps for the efficient use of water resources, the reduction of losses, the formation of a financial scheme for the system, and the resolution of other issues were highlighted.

In this context, Prime Minister Pashinyan instructed to form an interdepartmental working group, which will address the steps to solve the existing problems in the water sector and present an annual action plan.
OINK SOYNK: USDA green-lights genetically modified soybeans that produce pig proteins

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) just gave the green light to genetically modified soybeans that produce pig proteins . A UK-based company named Moolec has developed a genetically modified strain of soybeans that produces a mixture of soy protein and porcine myoglobin, or pig proteins. The company claims the new hybrids will have the same taste, texture and nutritional value of animal meat and eventually become the "alternative" to traditional meat. These Frankenfood soybeans are expected to be harvested in traditional ways, but they will be used to create various plant-animal hybrid proteins and be incorporated into a newly-contrived market of fake meat products.

In recent years, animal husbandry has been depicted as a global threat to the environment and is being gradually phased out around the world in favor of genetic experiments and highly processed vegan substitutes. Globalists and venture capitalists have invested in designer GMO crops, insect factories, mRNA-tainted crops and synthetic meats to exploit the population.

Globalists look to feed the population piggy soybeans and pea protein that is infused with cow meat

Piggy soybeans are the latest in a series of genetically engineered soybean hybrids that promise to revolutionize the soybean industry. Additionally, the company claims it is working on a new strain of pea plants that will produce cow protein. Researchers are concerned about the potential genetic and generational implications of this experimental gene editing. The company claims the new soybeans will splice conventional soya into a soybean hybrid that has 26.6 percent animal protein. The interior portion of the soybean hybrid has a pink flesh color. The exact animal genes used in this new Frankenfood are classified as trade secrets.

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.

One study shows that using CRISPR-Cas for gene editing causes significant damage to the plant genome. A CRISPR induced DNA break can lead to crossover, chromosome loss and chromosome rearrangements similar to those seen in chromophagy. The same process of gene exchange, gene re-arrangement and gene loss occurs in both human and animal cells that are subject to gene editing.

"The consequences of 'cutting' the genome are to some degree unpredictable and uncontrollable," Test Biotech says. When both strands of DNA have been cut, as is usually the case with CRISPR-Casthe ends of the chromosome can lose contact with one another. If repair of the chromosome break is unsuccessful, the severed ends may be lost, rearranged or incorporated elsewhere.

This soybean-pig hybrid protein is a new, novel substance that will be introduced to the population without adequate testing. The USDAs Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has already determined that Piggy Sooy and its genetic variants wont pose a greater pest risk than regular soybeans. Because of this one assumption, which completely ignores the human health risk factors, the agency believes that the product doesnt need to be further regulated.

John Fagan, Ph.D. co-founder, CEO and chief scientist of Health Research Institute spoke about the risk of eating this new class of genetically modified foods. He said this product is particularly concerning, because until now most GM foods fed to humans have been a minor ingredient within a product, whereas here the GM ingredient will be the primary ingredient. He told the Defender that this product poses a whole lot more risk because people who eat this type of GM food will eat a much larger amount than what theyve eaten in the past. He said there is always a very real and serious concern that there will be unanticipated and unpredictable side effects.

Stay up with latest on gene editing and the exploitation of the food supply at GMO.News.

Sources include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

GlobalResearch.ca
In the National Parks Service, the idea of introducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades of Washington in partnership with the US Fish & Wildlife Service has been decided.

Key Element Of Ecosystem

Authorities said that this area was considered to be a place where the animals once roamed. They noted that this bear used to occupy the North Cascades region for thousands of years as a vital part of the ecosystem.

They usually distribute native plant seeds and keep other wildlife populations in balance. However, populations were observed to have declined primarily because of the direct killing by humans.

Meanwhile, based on official records, the last confirmed sighting of a grizzly bear in the US part of the North Cascades ecosystem was in 1996.

Concerned agencies have decided to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades ecosystem through the translocation of grizzly bears from other ecosystems that are situated in the Rocky Mountains or interior British Columbia.

The decision was the culmination of an Environmental Impact Statement process that started in 2022.

Agencies will seek to move three to seven grizzly bears per year for a period of five to 10 years and the goal is to establish a population of 25 bears.

So far, the US portion of the North Cascades ecosystem is roughly 9,800 square miles in size and it is considered to be larger than the state of New Jersey.

Experts said that the area contains some of the most intact wildlands in the contiguous US and around 85% of the mountainous region has been placed under federal management.

According to Don Striker, superintendent of North Cascades National Park Service, the public is going to once again see grizzly bears on the landscape, with the aim to restore an important thread in the fabric of the North Cascades.

Reports said that there is no set timeline for when the translocation of grizzly bears to the ecosystem could begin.

The National Park Service said that it would publish updates on the park website and notify their partners and the public regarding the implementation plans as they develop in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Read Also: Grizzly Bear With Aggressive Behavior Attacks, Kills Couple, Dog In Canada

Massive Mammal

The grizzly bear is a massive animal that has humped shoulders and an elevated forehead that contributes to a somewhat concave profile.

Experts said that the fur is brownish to buff, and the hairs are usually silver- or pale-tipped, giving the grizzled effect for which the bear is named. The term grizzly bear, however, is often applied informally to brown bears of North America regardless of subspecies.

Large adult grizzlies may be about 2.5 metres or 8 feet long and weigh about 410 kg or 900 pounds.

Due to their bulk and their long straight claws, grizzly bears rarely climb trees.

Related Article: Grizzly Bear Stalks Man for Days, Until He Was Rescued by Coast Guard After Spotting SOS Sign




Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley can experience a wetter weather outlook this week, according to a National Weather Service (NWS) report on May 2. Commuters can expect slower travel due to the rainy outlook.

In the Pacific Northwest and northern California, outdoor enthusiasts can anticipate a strong cold front, with a chance of widespread heavy precipitation and late-season mountain snow.

Additionally, an active weather pattern can unload in the Central to Southern Plains, with additional severe weather, flash floods, and heavy rains.

Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic Weather Outlook

As reported by the NWS short-range forecast discussion, a wetter weather outlook can unload in Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic.

In the Ohio Valley, relief is underway due to the recent dry weather outlook in the region. On Thursday, record-high temperatures can occur. The forecast added that cooler temperatures are likely this weekend in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

In the late week, potential rainfall and blowing winds can unfold. For New York residents, the advisory reveals that high pressure can unload in New England on Friday, easing the dry conditions in the region. Temperatures can reach 50s and 60s.

In Boston City, potential showers and brief heavy downpours are possible, with a chance of small hail and thunderstorm conditions.

Additionally, a high-pressure system could unleash dry and warm conditions in Pittsburgh. Temperatures are expected to be above normal. According to a forecast, people at risk of hotter temperatures are older adults, children, newborns, pregnant women, and people with medical conditions.

NWS Miami reports that warm and dry weather can unload. Overnight lows can reach the mid-60s to low 70s. General minimal rainfall can also occur, including in parts of Florida.

In the Northeast, warm weather outlook can unload on Friday in the following areas:

New York

Washington

Virginia Beach

Charleston

On the weekend, potential rainy conditions can spread in the following areas:

Boston

New York

Washington

Charlotte

Memphis

Dallas

Kansas City

Chicago

Houston

Charlotte

Jacksonville

As the Northeast encounters hotter temperatures, prolonged exposure to scorching heat is not advisable, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Weather in Other Parts of U.S: What Can People Expect?

The NWS advisory reveals that active spring weather is possible in the central U.S. Due to potential flooding and heavy rains, Flood watches are issued in parts of southern Oklahoma, eastern Texas, and northwest Louisiana.

Homeowners near flood-prone or poor drainage areas are vulnerable to flooding risks. Meanwhile, motorists should stay updated with the travel forecasts this week, particularly in portions of Texas and Oklahoma.

With looming tornadoes, keeping alert for tornado advisories is crucial to keep safe from dangerous situations. Limiting outdoor travel is the best option, particularly for vulnerable areas.

Related Article: US Severe Weather Forecast: Cleanup Underway After Tornado Outbreak from Great Plains to Midwest U.S.

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
The greatest herd of sea lions in the past 15 years was gathered at Pier 39 in San Francisco, numbering over 1,000.

Gathering Of Sea Lions

Although sea lions have been hanging out at the pier on a regular basis since roughly 1990, the species' numbers have increased to about 1,000 this week, creating a commotion and drawing more attention from both locals and visitors.

The pier employees claim that the reason for the group's attendance is a feast of anchovies in the bay. The enormous school of anchovies provides a consistent food source, which makes the sea lions especially active this week, the pier tweeted from its official account.

When the docks registered a record of 1,700 sea lions in 2009, it was the last time the sea lion population was this high.

Sea lions from California are renowned for their liveliness, intelligence, and loud barking.

Pier spokesperson invite tourists to witness this; however, they cautioned that there might be a strong smell, so be ready for it.

"Because there are so many of them, sometimes it smells a little funky," said Pier 39 spokesperson Sue Muzzin.

There is a daily live broadcast of seal activity available on the pier for those who are unable to visit in person.

Experts are pleased to see the mammals lingering around in such a huge number and think it's a positive indication.

Adam Ratner, the Marine Mammal Center's director of conservation outreach, says this indicates that San Francisco Bay is "doing well."

He continues by saying that he believes this is occurring because the fish they eat-which are typically found elsewhere at this time of year-are getting closer to the bay, which is also pulling the sea lions in.

Professor Dan Costa of UC Santa Cruz, an expert on marine mammals, speculates that many of the males at Pier 39 might be stopping there en route to the Channel Islands, which are off the coast of southern California. There, they will mate with females.

"These are wandering, nomadic critters who tend to work their way north and work their way south throughout the year," Costa said.

Read Also: Bird Flu Virus Mutates, Kills Hundreds of Sea Lions in Argentina, Health Authority Calls Event 'Unusual'

Migratory Pattern

The mobility and migration patterns of sea lions along the western coast remain mostly unknown to researchers.

In an effort to learn more about the migratory patterns of these creatures and to observe potential differences in their travel and foraging strategies based on ocean conditions, Costa's group has started following female and juvenile sea lions around the California coast.

With time, scientists may also learn more about how the species will be impacted by the climate catastrophe and rising ocean temperatures.

"But I bet a number of these guys are frequent visitors to Pier 39. Probably it's one of their favorite places, and they keep coming back for the good food," said Costa.

Related Article: Endangered Sea Lion Facts: Threats, Conservation Status and Efforts




A study predicts that the global effects of a changing climate might reduce global average income by almost 19% by the middle of the century, to $38 trillion annually, as many parts of the world experience extreme weather.

Financial Cost Of Climate Change

Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said their calculations were predicated on the likelihood that nations like Germany would meet their carbon reduction targets.

Since it appears doubtful that most nations would meet these goals, the cost burden may even outweigh the severe harm anticipated.

The study's estimates suggest that the financial cost of climate change might exceed the predicted cost of keeping global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by six times, to the tune of $38 trillion per year.

According to the research, the losses are already fixed and unaffected by decisions on emissions in the future.

The report's co-author, Maximilian Kotz, said that there isn't much the globe can do to lessen the effects.

"What we find is that over the next 25 to 30 years, impacts on the economy will be consistent across different emissions scenarios, regardless of whether we enter a high-emission or low-emission world," he said.

The study examined economic and climatic data from over 1,600 global areas during the previous 40 years in order to project future effects. The worst affected are probably those who contribute the least to global pollution.

The authors estimate that the cost of lowering greenhouse gas emissions would be only one-sixth of the $38 trillion impact of climate change by 2050 and conclude that addressing climate change would be significantly less expensive than putting up with the economic damage.

"Important channels such as impacts from heatwaves, sea-level rise, tropical cyclones, and tipping points, as well as non-market damages such as those to ecosystems and human health, are not considered in these estimates," the report said.

Read Also: Global Wildlife Trade Fueled by Income Inequality and other Social Injustice

Poorer Nations Hit Harder

The analysis makes clear that while harm would impact diverse areas to varying degrees, poorer areas and those with the lowest contributions to global warming would be most severely affected.

"Countries least responsible for climate change are predicted to suffer income losses that are 60% greater than those of higher-income countries and 40% greater than those of higher-emission countries," said Anders Levermann, a senior PIK scientist.

The PIK estimate, according to observers, probably underestimates the true economic impact.

Others drew attention to the fact that the new research seems to support findings from the so-called Stern Report, which economist Nicholas Stern prepared in 2006 at the UK government's request.

In addition to predicting that the expense of addressing the damage caused by climate change would be significantly greater than that of preventing it, Stern also stated that by the middle of the century, the global GDP would have decreased by 20% due to climate change.

The World Bank projects that, absent the impact of climate change, the world economy would double from its $100 trillion level in 2022 to $2 trillion by 2050.

Related Article: Climate Change To Reduce Global Income By 19% In The Next 25 Years, Study Says
8 Oct, 2024 - 9:13 | Naval News Navy 2024

According to information published by the UK MoD on October 1, 2024, fast jet operations have returned to its aircraft carriers for the first time ...
The final season may have concluded in 2022 but the BBC isnt letting go of legal drama The Split just yet, with a Barcelona-set special greenlit three months after a Manchester spin off.

Abi Morgans show ended in 2022 after three seasons but the BBC has since ordered The Split Up in February and is now heading to Spain for a two-parter with Nicola Walkers Hannah and family, while Toby Stephens is set to join the cast.

More from Deadline

In the special, the Defoes are back and have gathered for a beautiful wedding at a vineyard, nestled in Catalonias wine region. Set across one sun soaked weekend, The Split special will encompass break-ups, reunions and plenty romance.

Stephens (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Black Sails) will play new character Archie Moore, while most of the original cast are set to return.

In a world of brutal break ups and tantalising make ups, the Defoe family are invited to a destination wedding of their own, promising all that audiences have grown to love about The Split, said Morgan.

The Split, which aired on Sundance TV and BBC America in the U.S., was one of the BBCs most popular new dramas of the past few years and has sold to nearly 120 territories, with four local format adaptations. The spin-off featured on a mega BBC slate earlier this year and will be penned by Ursula Rani Sarma (Smother).

The series is produced by Chernobyl maker Sister and is sold by BBC Studios. The Split special is written by Morgan (River, Suffragette, The Hour), directed by Giulia Gandini (Shetland) and produced by Jennie Fava (The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin). EPs are Jane Featherstone (Chernobyl, Giri-Haji, This is Going to Hurt), Lucy Dyke (The Split, Black Mirror, Ripper Street) and Morgan.

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Tom made an 'impulse decision' to buy the bargain Seiko watch at Vinnies not realising how much interest it would attract.

Tom found the unassuming Seiko watch, which had the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) logo, in a Vinnies store in Canberra. Source: Supplied/Google Images

Part of the charity shop appeal is sifting through the often crowded racks and shelves, hoping something fun or quirky catches your eye.

But Aussie man Tom had no idea a seemingly modest Seiko watch he found at a Vinnies store last week, priced for "less than the cost of a meal", would be so valuable after he spotted it in a glass cabinet in Canberra.

"Its pristine and seemingly unworn," he told Yahoo News Australia. But what piqued his interest was a small detail on the dial  the words 'Australian Bureau of Statistics' emblazoned on it. "My guess is it was a corporate custom gift for someone at the ABS at some point," he suggested  and he was right.

The government agency confirmed to Yahoo News Australia that the ABS "previously recognised staff who completed 30 years of service by awarding them a watch". Now, ABS staff are awarded a "lanyard pin" for 20, 30 or 40 years of service. "These awards are presented at an annual long service award ceremony hosted in each ABS office," the agency said.

Charity store shopper sells Seiko ABS watch for $500

When Tom shared his find on social media, it got "a tonne of interest" he told Yahoo. After receiving "a lot of offers to buy it" he decided to list it on eBay where on Tuesday he sold it for over $500.

It's been about five years since the watches were handed out, the ABS said, perhaps contributing to the intrigue as they're now considered rare. "There are some enthusiasts who are very keen and they've been messaging me," Tom added.

The shopper said he had "no idea" it would be so valuable when picking it up in the store, adding "I just made an impulse decision to buy it. I had to leave and I just paid for it".

Noticing the interest, the shopper listed the watch on eBay where he sold it for $510. Source: eBay

The watch appeared brand new, never worn and still in its box with tags. Source: eBay

Watch 'not very valuable', experts say

Despite Seiko being a reputable Japanese watchmaker, interestingly, the model of the watch isn't worth too much at all, Ari from First State Auctions told Yahoo.

"That particular model watch is not a very valuable one, maybe $50," he said. "So we wouldn't offer it at our auctions because we only sell (more luxurious) models" like Rolex or Cartier.

Ari said he was surprised by there being "quite a bit of interest" in the watch. It's likely because of the "unique ABS detail," he added.

Nick from Crown Auctions, which specialises in Swiss watches and fine Jewellery, agreed "the Seiko watch in question will not be worth huge money because the base watch is cheap".

The watch was found at a Vinnies store in Canberra. Source: Google Images

Branded watches 'very common in the past'

Nick said watches with company logos "were very common in the past," especially in the 70s. "Some of the notable ones include McDonald's, Dominoes and Google, which are still made today however less frequently and in very small batches," he explained.

Most recently, Australia Post came under fire for rewarding four senior executives $20,000 Cartier watches  while a corporate gift, they were not branded.

The added corporate name can sometimes make the watch more valuable," Nick suggested. At the very least, it can make a humble base watch far more interesting.

"The most valuable co-branded pieces are the ones that come from prestigious brands like Rolex and Patek Philippe which are expensive to begin with, and company branding can add extra value to a watch," he said. In Tom's situation "the ABS logo has added quite a bit of value to the watch" he added.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Microsoft to invest $2.2 bn to fuel Malaysia's cloud, AI transformation

M

icrosoft on Thursday announced to invest $2.2 billion over the next four years to advance new cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Malaysia.

The investment will allow Microsoft to meet the growing demand for cloud computing services in the country, as well as enable Malaysia to capitalise on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by the latest AI technology, according to the company.

This marks the single largest investment in Microsoft's 32-year history in the country.

"Our investments in digital infrastructure and skilling will help Malaysian businesses, communities, and developers apply the latest technology to drive inclusive economic growth and innovation across the country," said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft.

This investment will create AI skilling opportunities for an additional 200,000 people in the country, as well as support the growth of Malaysias developer community.

"This strategic emphasis on AI not only boosts economic growth but also promotes inclusivity by bridging the digital divide and ensuring everyone gets a seat at the table, so every Malaysian can thrive in this new digital world," said Andrea Della Mattea, President of Microsoft ASEAN.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it will provide AI skilling opportunities for 2.5 million people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states by 2025.

This training and support will be delivered in partnership with governments, nonprofit and business organisations, and communities in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

 Microsoft to invest $2.2 bn to fuel Malaysia's cloud, AI transformation

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Mahindra Auto sells 41,008 SUVs in India in April, registering 18 pc growth

M

ahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday announced that it sold a total of 41,008 SUVs in the domestic market in April, registering an 18 per cent (year-on-year) growth compared to the same month of last year when it sold 34,694 SUVs.

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday announced that it sold a total of 41,008 SUVs in the domestic market in April, registering an 18 per cent (year-on-year) growth compared to the same month of last year when it sold 34,694 SUVs. The company also mentioned that it sold 41,542 units of passenger vehicles in the utility vehicle segment, including both domestic and export numbers.

The SUV maker's overall auto sales for April stood at 70,471 vehicles, a growth of 13 per cent, including exports.

"We sold a total of 41,008 SUVs in April, a growth of 18 per cent and 70,471 total vehicles, a 13 per cent growth over last year," Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd, said in a statement.

"In April, we launched the XUV 3XO, tailored to a broad spectrum of customers across categories. With a unique blend of innovation, safety, comfort, performance and price starting at Rs 7.49 lakh, the XUV 3XO is set to be the new disrupter in the compact SUV space," he added.

The domestic sales for commercial vehicles stood at 22,102, the company said.

 Mahindra Auto sells 41,008 SUVs in India in April, registering 18 pc growth

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'Initially hesitant' Debattama Saha overcomes water phobia for 'Krishna Mohini'

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ctress Debattama Saha has shared how for a pivotal scene in the show 'Krishna Mohini', she faced her fear of water head-on by plunging into a river, showcasing her dedication to her craft and her determination.

Talking about the sequence, Debattama, who plays Krishna, shared: "Krishna's character has different layers, and one of them is her fierce attitude. When the scene required me to jump into a river, I initially hesitated due to my fear of water. However, the role required me to battle my fears, and with the help of a harness, I took the leap."

"The rush of adrenaline that followed was hard to put into words, and I felt an overwhelming sense of achievement. It felt very fulfilling to have the director and my co-actors commend my courage. This experience taught me the power of confronting fears and gave me the satisfaction that comes with pushing past limits to create something meaningful on screen," she added.

The show tells the story of Krishna, who prioritises her brother Mohans (portrayed by Ketaki Kulkarni) happiness above everything else.

'Krishna Mohini' airs on Colors.

 'Initially hesitant' Debattama Saha overcomes water phobia for 'Krishna Mohini'

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Chess: Gukesh takes a giant leap in World ranking and ratings

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eenaged Grandmaster D Gukesh has entered the top ten chess players club in the World with an ELO rating of 2,763.

Gukesh, now ranked sixth in the open category, is ahead of the seventh-ranked World Chess Champion Chinese GM Ding Liren with a rating of 2,762.

What is further interesting is that another Indian chess sensation GM Arjun Erigaisi is ranked eighth in the world with a rating of 2,761.

According to the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Gukesh gained twenty points after winning the FIDE Candidates Tournament that concluded in Canada recently.

By virtue of winning the Candidates Tournament, Gukesh has become the challenger for the world title now held by Liren.

It was a huge jump for Gukesh to be ranked sixth now as he was ranked 16th before the Candidates Tournament.

In the epic Ramayana, the Hindu God Lord Hanuman made the jump from India to Sri Lanka in search of Lord Rama's wife Goddess Sita.

"I believe Gukesh will be the slight favourite against Ding Liren. The world champion is a very good player. However, he has not been very active and his form is not at its peak," GM Susan Polgar former womens world champion (1996-99) told IANS when queried about the Indian's chances of becoming a world champion.

On his part, Erigaisi gained five points, as per the rating list issued by the FIDE.

Perhaps this is also for the time in the FIDE list, two Indians figure in the top ten chess clubs in the world.

According to FIDE, two Indian Woman Grandmasters (WGM), Priyanka Nutakki (rating 2,357) and P.V. Nandhidhaa (2,359) gained 83 and 81 points last month in different rating tournaments while GM R.Vaishali gained 14 points at the Womens Candidates Tournament.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

 Chess: Gukesh takes a giant leap in World ranking and ratings

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Gautam Adani meets new British envoy to India, wishes her to boost bilateral ties

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autam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, on Thursday, met Lindy Cameron, the new British High Commissioner to India, and wished her the best in continuing to enhance relations between the two countries.

In a post on X, Gautam Adani said it was an honour to meet and hear from Cameron on a wide range of subjects.

"Fascinating to learn about a wide set of topics ranging from her tenure across the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, to cybersecurity, the future of nuclear and so much more," the Adani Group Chairman commented.

"We wish her the best in her pivotal role to continue to enhance India-UK relations".

Appointed as British High Commissioner to India in succession to Alex Ellis, Cameron is the UKs first woman envoy to the country.

In a post on X last month, Cameron said that she is immensely proud to be appointed the next British High Commissioner to India.

"Huge thanks to @AlexWEllis for leaving such a great legacy. So looking forward to working with the amazing @UKinIndia team. I cant wait to get started!" she had posted.

From 2020 to 2024, she was Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre. She has also served as Director General of the Northern Ireland Office in the UK. Cameron also worked at the UKs aid agency, the Department for International Development (DFID).

 Gautam Adani meets new British envoy to India, wishes her to boost bilateral ties

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ICRISAT develops portable technology for testing crops' nutrition level

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he International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) on Thursday announced that its researchers are leading a transformation in crop testing, combining AI-driven models and pocket-size near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) devices.

These portable sensors allow for quick evaluation of nutrition levels in indigenous food grains right at the farmer's gate or in research fields.

ICRISAT Director General, Dr Jacqueline d'Arros Hughes, championed the integration of this disruptive technology into breeding pipelines and key points of relevant value chains.

Aligned with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) strategy, she foresees the tool as a catalyst for the production of nutrient-dense crops, both in breeding programmes and in farmers' fields, a crucial element in the global fight against malnutrition.

"This technology is poised to expedite the breeding of nutrient-dense crops while facilitating their integration into the value chain. Our goal with this intervention is to provide quality assurance for the distribution of nutritionally fortified crops, so that they reach those who need them most," she added.

Traditionally, assessing the nutritional quality of grains and feedstock could take a number of weeks, involving manual or partially automated processes and laboratory instruments.

In contrast, mobile NIRS devices are more cost-effective and can assess over 150 samples per day per person, ICRISAT said.

These non-destructive and robust grain quality measuring devices provide timely information on grain composition and can be used to promote quality-based payments in the marketbenefiting food producers, grain processing industries, and farmers alike.

"We see the adoption of portable technology for assessing grain quality as an important step in decentralising and democratising market systems, essential to promote the consumption of nutri-cereals. This transition can facilitate quality-driven payments for farmers, while providing quality assurance to health-conscious households moving forward," noted Dr Sean Mayes, Global Research Director of the Accelerated Crop Improvement Program at ICRISAT.

In Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, ICRISAT recommends its Girnar 4 groundnut variety to ensure premium prices for farmers and to differentiate the crop from lower-value varieties. ICRISAT's Girnar 4 and Girnar 5 groundnut varieties boast oleic acid levels of 75-80 per cent, far surpassing that of the standard variety at 40-50 per cent.

Oleic acid is a heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acid, which holds considerable importance for the groundnut market, as it provides new end-uses for the crop. Growing consumer awareness of its advantages spurred market demand for high oleic acid content in oils and related products.

This pioneering approach, initially applied in peanut breeding, could be replicated across other crops, offering efficient and cost-effective solutions to address poor nutrition.

ICRISAT's Facility for Exploratory Research on Nutrition (FERN laboratory) is expanding its prediction models to encompass various traits and crops beyond groundnuts.

"We are currently focusing on developing methods to assess oil, oleic acid, linoleic acid, carotenoids, starch, moisture, and phosphorus in various cereals and legumes, such as finger millet, foxtail millet, pearl millet, sorghum, maize, wheat, chickpea, mungbean, common bean, pigeon pea, cowpea, soybean, groundnut, and mustard," said Dr Jana Kholova, Cluster Leader. Crop Physiology and Modelling, ICRISAT.

 ICRISAT develops portable technology for testing crops' nutrition level

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The tradie admitted he waited his 'whole life until he noticed this' convenient little trick. Have you tried it?

Why wheel back two bins when you can do just one? Source: TikTok/@kylehume7

A savvy Aussie homeowner has stunned social media after sharing a viral wheelie bin hack that solves a common problem faced by many of us after bin night.

Trying to wheel two bins back down your driveway from the kerb is a source of frustration for many people, but Aussie TikToker Kyle Hume has shared a "mind-blowing" hack which offers an alternative way to bring the bins back.

In the video, the tradie demonstrates how to easily join two bins together to wheel them with one hand.

Ive been wheeling two bins my whole life until I noticed this, he captioned the clip.

Using a rubbish bin and a green waste bin, the TikToker showed how easy the hack was. Source: TikTok/@kylehume7

Lining the two bins up in front of each other, he opens the back bin lid first before opening the front bin lid and placing it onto the open back bin. He then closes the back bin lid on top of the front bin lid and simply tips the back bin up to wheel it.

The second bin gets lifted off the ground along with the first, making it fairly easy to manoeuvre both bins with one hand.

Bin hack goes viral worldwide

The ingenious hack has been going viral ever since it was shared on TikTok by creators in the US and Canada recently and one of the videos  posted by creator Cade Grier  has since racked up more than 16.4 million views.

While the earlier videos demonstrate the same concept, the bins in the US and Canada are quite different from Australian bins.

Grier's video sparked a flurry of comments from hundreds of people worldwide, including Aussies, totally dumbfounded by the idea and wondering whether it would work on different types of wheelie bins.

"What?? Are you freaking kidding me?" one person wrote. "Were so behind in Australia, said another.

"Wait what? What just happened? How did you do this?" questioned another.

The viral hack is being tried and tested all over the world, with the trick seemingly working on different sized bins. Source: TikTok/@cadegrier

One person confirmed the hack did indeed work on Aussie bins too, with another adding an extra tip to ensure it works properly.

"The lid of the bin thats being towed should be pushed inside of the other, the plastic bends fine and if it does deform a day in the sun puts it right back," one person confirmed.

But while many thought it was a handy hack, others weren't quite so convinced.

"Its easier to just do them side by side behind you," one person said, while another added: "I just push one forward and pull the other or just pull both at once."

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Viksit Bharat Ambassador: India getting global recognition under incumbent govt, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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ri Sri Ravi Shankar, the spiritual guru and the Founder of Art of Living Foundation on Friday addressed the Viksit Bharat Ambassador event in Varanasi's BHU and said that the country was witnessing all-round development under the incumbent government.

The event also saw the presence of Bollywood actor Vikrant Massey.

Vikrant Massey posed a couple of questions to Ravi Shankar to which Sri Sri replied and explained in detail, including the realisation of the 500-year-old dream of grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also made an appeal to everyone to exercise their franchisee by casting ballots.

He said that elections should be seen like festivals and every citizen should take part in it.

At the Yuva Samvad with Viksit Bharat Ambassadors programme, actor Vikrant asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar over what led to the delay of 500 years in the construction of a grand Ram Temple and were the earlier governments hesitated and hindered its realisation?

Ravi Shankar, replying to this, said that there are many instances when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the first initiative and set the stage for further reforms.

"He said that opening a bank account was a troublesome task earlier, especially in villages. People were posed with multiple questions but now most of those hurdles have been removed and processes simplified. Many archaic laws have been given away. The country is progressing ahead in all fields including entrepreneurship, start-up business and spiritual growth," Ravi Shankar said.

He also said that the countrymen going abroad are brimming with confidence today and they no longer change their names to look like foreigners, adding that this is a welcome change.

Overall, the country has found new recognition on the world stage, he added.

In an apparent reference to PM Modi's push for domestic tourism, Ravi Shankar asked why people should opt for Maldives, whereas Lakshadweep offers plenty of tourism potential.

"It's good that the country has got a new vision under the leadership. People listen to what he speaks an0+d also follow, this is a good thing," he said.

 Viksit Bharat Ambassador: India getting global recognition under incumbent govt, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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Our grave cultural flaws came to the fore at the rally in Canberra recently and it's essential that we all act now, Miriam Sawan writes.

The message of those at the rally against gendered violence was crystal clear. Source: AAP

I believe wholeheartedly the safety of women in every country is every persons responsibility, including the prime ministers. There is plenty of debate on who said what at the rally against gendered violence held in Canberra recently and frankly, every bit of oxygen used on that debate is taking away from the critically important conversation that the nation needs to have about womens safety.

Tens of thousands of Australians gathered together in our nations capital to rally against the unaddressed epidemic of violence against women and to call out grave cultural flaws that have grossly failed the victims of murderous men.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Thats the number of reported deaths where women had their lives taken from them through alleged male violence in Australia in 2024, according to figures from Counting Dead Women Australia.

Its only May.

TWENTY-EIGHT mothers, sisters, aunts, friends.

TWENTY-EIGHT women who will never have the privilege of another sunrise.

TWENTY-EIGHT women who need us to focus on the way forward but sadly, since the rally, politics has taken the focus away from those in need.

The rally was important and I firmly support it. And Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended, but he completely missed the brief by asking the organiser to use her rally for his media opportunity.

The prime minister obviously thinks the issue is important, that's why he showed up to the march, Miriam Sawan writes. Source: AAP

A prime minister at any rally would ordinarily be invited to speak and if they said nothing, that would also be problematic. There would be critics on both sides.

It is the alleged disregard of organiser Sarah Williams request and the fear and intimidation he created, reducing the organiser to tears, that are truly problematic.

A prime minister does not need to request a platform. He is given one on any day of the week at any time that he requests. The reduction of a womans voice at her own event speaks to the very issues that brought women to this protest.

Refusing to give women space to say, feel and to think freely is the issue. When women cant even go for a Sunday morning jog without fear of being attacked  like Victorian woman Samantha Murphy was that is the issue, and these issues start with cultures of men who dont want to listen to our concerns.

It was truly problematic to see the PM reduce the organiser to tears. Source: AAP

PM well-intentioned but his actions reveal privilege

I think the prime minister was well intentioned. By attending the rally he was showing his support for women. He has often spoken of his love for his single mother and I believe shed be incredibly proud of the heights he has reached.

I have mixed feelings about Anthony Albanese but I do believe he loved his mum and wouldnt want the women in his life to feel unsafe but by creating an environment of fear, by intimidating a woman at a womens rally, his actions spoke louder than his words.

Maybe his actions simply demonstrate his privilege but they also speak to his disregard of the central issue at this rally, womens wishes must be respected.

Miriam Sawan (pictured) writes that public debate since the rally is focusing on the wrong thing. Source: Supplied

If I was confronted by a man in a position of power who publicly asked me to speak, the "nice girl" in me, the people-pleaser, who most women are trained to be, would be inclined to say yes, even if it wasnt what I wanted, even if there was no plan for it.

Most women are raised to make space for those around them. Not all men have been raised with that same consideration.

When I think of how this should have been handled, my first thought is that the most respectful thing to do, would be for a man to wait to be asked to speak, giving all power to the person who invited him to make the calls on the agenda at her own event.

So how do we move forward?

Since the rally, Williams still says she has not been approached by Albaneses government to discuss a way forward for women, which makes the Prime Ministers attendance at the rally seem a little disingenuous.

If you want to help women, listen to them and create holistic plans to protect them when they report abuse.

At the start of his term in leadership, Anthony Albanese introduced 10 days of Domestic Violence leave, a step in the right direction but it doesnt do anything to educate the dozens of men perpetrating this violence.

It also potentially creates an opportunity where a victim is isolated for a perpetrator's next attack.

Everyone should be outraged by the situation with gendered violence in Australia, Miriam Sawan says. Source: AAP

The systems we already have in place to support women in domestic violence situations simply don't seem to be working. We need to do more to help women and it starts with listening to them. Too often women's complaints to police don't seem to be taken seriously enough, quickly enough.

Police need to understand the Herculean bravery it takes women in these situations to even report these crimes.

If you want to help women feel safe, educate men on the importance of giving women space to exist.

If you want to model a culture of respect, respect a womans wishes.

Let her yes mean yes, and accept that her no means no.

The power imbalance is clear.

Even as a woman, aware of the gender biases in this country, I too have asked men to "let" women exist, as if the opportunity to grant such freedom rests in the hands of men.

That is already an injustice, but it is also our reality, or the 28 women who have died at the hands of men in 2024 in Australia, would still be alive.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.

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Due to a later melatonin onset and increased alertness in the evening, teenagers often find it hard to fall asleep at a time that would allow them to clock up the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep each night.

It is also during teenage years when increasing school demands, activities, more independence from parents, and relationships with peers begin to compete with sleep. The role of social context, however, is often overlooked when studying adolescents' sleep. Now, researchers in Sweden and Australia wanted to find out how popularity among peers affected sleeping habits of teenagers aged 14 to 18.

"Here we show that popular teenagers reported shorter sleep duration. In particular, popular girls  but not boys  reported more insomnia symptoms," said Dr Serena Bauducco, a sleep researcher at Orebro University and first author of the Frontiers in Sleep article. "Most interestingly, popularity also seems to negatively impact sleep both before and after the advent of smartphones."

Popular and sleepless

In a sample of more than 1,300 Swedish teenagers, almost half of them female, the researchers examined if popularity coincided with shorter sleep duration. They asked teenagers to nominate up to three friends, and those receiving the most nominations, were defined as more popular. These teenagers slept less than their peers, the most popular ones up to 27 minutes.

When the researchers looked at boys and girls separately, they also found a correlation between popularity and insomnia symptoms: More popular girls experienced more insomnia symptoms, such as difficulties to fall or stay asleep or waking up too early. Popular boys did not experience these symptoms to the same extent.

These sex differences are not yet fully understood, but the fact that boys and girls engage in differing friendship behaviors might offer insights.

Girls express more care and concern with their friends and engage in helping behaviors more than boys. This might mean they carry these concerns when it's time to fall asleep." Dr. Serena Bauducco, sleep researcher at Orebro University

Phones may not explain the popularity-sleep link

"We also see that popularity has been associated with worse sleep both before and after the development of handheld communication technology," said Bauducco. This suggests that it may not be smartphones that cause popular teenagers to sleep less; instead, other mechanisms could be at play.

The researchers speculate that more friends may mean more time dedicated to them which could result in less time left for sleeping. More emotional investment, too, could lead to sleeping difficulties. Both explanations would apply to times before and after smartphones became common. This, however, needs to be investigated in detail, the researchers said.

Racking up sleep debt

"Teenagers are arguably the most sleep deprived population throughout the lifespan," said Bauducco. "Previous studies show that 30 minutes of extra sleep can lead to improved mental health and better school performance."

With schools starting early, many teenagers try to catch up on sleep on weekends  a strategy that can backfire. "Suppose a teen sleeps in on Sunday until 1pm. Falling asleep that night to be ready for school the next day will be a struggle, because they won't feel tired," Bauducco pointed out. "Delaying wake-times too much can contribute to maintaining the problem of sleep debt racked up during the week."

The researchers believe that discussing social norms about sleep and expectations of peers around bedtime are a missing component of existing sleep interventions for adolescents. Additionally, further research is needed to examine the mutual relationship between social connectedness and sleep and to shine light on the discovered sex differences.
Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) affects about one-quarter of reproductive-age women and is linked to adverse health outcomes, such as increased HIV risk. Yet for decades, BV treatment in the United States has largely relied on antibiotics, and BV recurrence is common following antibiotic therapy.

Now, two European clinical trials have shown limited success with a different type of medication used to treat BV called dequalinium chloride (DQC). DQC-;an antiseptic-;has been in use for several decades in countries throughout Europe as an alternative treatment for BV. It is not currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In a commentary published May 2 in JAMA Network Open, researchers from the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) within the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) have called for more robust clinical trials in the United States to confirm if DQC is as good or better than existing BV treatments.

For women suffering from BV, there is a critical need for more effective treatments. We need more robust clinical trials to fill in the knowledge gaps of what we know about DQC from the European studies." Rebecca Brotman, PhD, MPH, corresponding author, researcher at IGS and UMSOM Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health

In the commentary, the authors discuss three main knowledge gaps from the European trials.

"First, we know that vaginal microbiota may vary regionally and the DQC clinical trials so far have only been conducted in Europe," said first author Kayla Carter, PhD, MPH, a postdoc in the Brotman Lab at IGS. "In addition, the trials did not last longer than five weeks, so we don't know long-term outcomes after DQC treatment; and, finally, there's very limited data on its use and its safety during pregnancy."

DQC works differently than current treatments because it is an antiseptic with antibacterial and antifungal activity, rather than an antibiotic. It also is an intravaginal tablet, not an oral treatment. The antibiotic treatments currently available to U.S. women are metronidazole and clindamycin as first-line medications, with alternatives of secnidazole and tinidazole. While these treatments are generally effective in the short term, as many as 50 percent of women will have a BV recurrence by six months after treatment.

"We've seen a growing investment in innovative BV treatments in recent years, including live biotherapeutics and vaginal microbiome transplants, but those are still in relatively early stages of development," said Dr. Brotman. "In the meantime, the European trials indicate that DQC could be a viable, well-tolerated alternative BV treatment. That's why it deserves further investigation with well-funded clinical trials."

Susan Tuddenham, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine also contributed to this commentary.
The Sydney suburb has been impacted by several major weather events of late, with the latest incident infuriating residents.

A car parked on a road in Sydney's Palm Beach was crushed by a six-tonne slab of sandstone during a landslide caused by wet weather on Wednesday. Source: Facebook

With up to ten days of rain expected to fall across New South Wales, which started from Tuesday, millions of Aussies can expect an increased danger on wet roads.

But the heavy deluge over the past couple of days has left a Sydney community shaken after a landslide caused a six-tonne sandstone slab to fall on and crush a parked car.

Photos shared by a local woman show a silver sedan stopped on the side of Whale Beach Road in Palm Beach, on the city's Northern Beaches. A huge sandstone slab is still resting up against one side of the vehicle after claims it fell from above, landing on the roof and smashing the windscreen.

Thankfully, no one was in the car at the time and there were no injuries, the resident told Yahoo News Australia. The road was allegedly closed off to residents for some time until it was cleaned up council.

The large slab fell on the roof of the car, smashing the windscreen and windows as well as crushing part of the vehicle.

New development blamed for erosion causing landslides

It's understood the area has recently been impacted by several major weather events with landslides, or landslips a regular occurrence during heavy rain. Residents were quick to blame ongoing construction in the area for the incident.

"Many dwellings are being built into the rock face which affects groundwater flow and increases erosion," one concerned resident shared in a Facebook community group where the pictures were shared on Wednesday.

"This is the result of hacking into the land to create homes that wont fit without destruction of the environment," another said.

Council responds to landslide claim

Northern Beaches council however told Yahoo News Australia "there are no construction sites directly adjoining or uphill of the landslip site that could have contributed to the landslips" and that "landslips can occur at any time with little warning".

"Council arranged an immediate clean-up of the landslip site at Whale Beach Road, Palm Beach," a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. "Council crews installed a concrete block catch basin at the roadside as a precaution for any further slippage at this site.

"The site has been inspected by Councils Geotechnical consultant and the NSW public works engineer who are supportive of the measures implemented."

There could be up to 10 back-to-bay days of rain in NSW. Source: Weatherzone

More rain to sweep across NSW

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) confirmed to Yahoo on Tuesday there's expected to be at least seven days in a row of rain in NSW with other major forecasters predicting that figure could blow out to 10 days.

"Over the next seven days there's a high to very high chance of showers or rain across large areas of the NSW coast, particularly along the northern and central coast," a BoM spokesperson said. "There could be 10mm and above recorded over consecutive days.

"There is also an increased chance of showers and rain with the risk of potentially heavy falls and flash flooding over the weekend, as a coastal trough deepens in the later part of the week, possibly forming into a low-pressure system."

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New data demonstrate the superiority of radial arterial access compared to femoral arterial access for coronary interventions. Findings showed radial access was associated with lower rates of in-hospital mortality, major access bleeding, and other major vascular complications compared with femoral access. The late-breaking results were presented today at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2024 Scientific Sessions.

Historically, femoral arterial access, through the groin, for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was the standard. Radial access, or the use of the radial artery in the wrist as the entry point for the catheter, is an alternative and provides potential benefits, such as reduced bleeding complications, infection rates, and readmissions. While recent research supports these advantages, the broader adoption of transradial PCI in the U.S. is unknown.

The retrospective cohort study used data from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry's CathPCI Registry including PCIs performed between 2013 and 2022. The comparative safety of radial versus femoral access for PCI was evaluated using instrumental variable analysis exploiting operator variation in access preferences.

During the study period, 6,658,479 PCI procedures were performed, of which 40.4% (n= 2,690,355) were performed via radial access, increasing from 20.3% in 2013 to 57.5% in 2022, representing a 2.8-fold increase over the past decade. This increase was seen in all geographic regions and across the full spectrum of presentations, with the largest relative increase seen in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

2,244,115 PCIs met inclusion criteria for the instrumental variable analysis, which showed radial access was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (absolute risk difference [ARD] of -0.15%, P< 0.001), major access site bleeding (ARD of -0.64%, P< 0.001), and other major vascular complications (ARD of -0.21%, P< 0.001) but a higher risk of ischemic stroke (ARD of 0.05%, P< 0.001). There was no association with the falsification endpoint of gastrointestinal or genitourinary bleeding (P= 0.89).

The study demonstrates a sea change in the manner in which PCI is performed in the US in response to trial data but also highlights the continued opportunity for practice improvement with dramatic interoperator variation. It confirms that the benefit observed for radial access in RCTs has also been seen in real-world practice, including the largest benefits for the highest-risk patients. Finally, it shows a highly credible novel finding in the increased in stroke risk." Reza Fazel, MD, FSCAI, cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and lead author of the study

Session details:
Marisol Pantoja Toribio found a lump in her breast in early January. Uninsured and living in California without legal status and without her family, the usually happy-go-lucky 43-year-old quickly realized how limited her options were.

"I said, 'What am I going to do?'" she said in Spanish, quickly getting emotional. She immediately worried she might have cancer. "I went back and forth  I have [cancer], I don't have it, I have it, I don't have it." And if she was sick, she added, she wouldn't be able to work or pay her rent. Without health insurance, Pantoja Toribio couldn't afford to find out if she had a serious condition.

Beginning this year, Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, expanded to include immigrants lacking legal residency, timing that could have worked out perfectly for Pantoja Toribio, who has lived in the Bay Area city of Brentwood for three years. But her application for Medi-Cal was quickly rejected: As a farmworker earning $16 an hour, her annual income of roughly $24,000 was too high to qualify for the program.

California is the first state to expand Medicaid to all qualifying adults regardless of immigration status, a move celebrated by health advocates and political leaders across the state. But many immigrants without permanent legal status, especially those who live in parts of California where the cost of living is highest, earn slightly too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal.

The state is footing the bill for the Medi-Cal expansion, but federal law bars those it calls "undocumented" from receiving insurance subsidies or other benefits from the Affordable Care Act, leaving many employed but without viable health insurance options.

Now, the same health advocates who fought for the Medi-Cal expansion say the next step in achieving health equity is expanding Covered California, the state's ACA marketplace, to all immigrant adults by passing AB 4.

"There are people in this state who work and are the backbone of so many sectors of our economy and contribute their labor and even taxes  but they are locked out of our social safety net," said Sarah Dar, policy director at the California Immigrant Policy Center, one of two organizations sponsoring the bill, dubbed #Health4All.

To qualify for Medi-Cal, an individual cannot earn more than 138% of the federal poverty level, which currently amounts to nearly $21,000 a year for a single person. A family of three would need to earn less than $35,632 a year.

For people above those thresholds, the Covered California marketplace offers various health plans, often with federal and state subsidies, yielding premiums as low as $10 a month. The hope is to create what advocates call a "mirror marketplace" on the Covered California website so that immigrants regardless of status can be offered the same health plans that would be subsidized only by the state.

Despite a Democratic supermajority in the legislature, the bill might struggle to pass, with the state facing a projected budget deficit for next year of anywhere from $38 billion to $73 billion. Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced a $17 billion package to start reducing the gap, but significant spending cuts appear inevitable.

It's not clear how much it would cost to extend Covered California to all immigrants, according to Assembly member Joaquin Arambula, the Fresno Democrat who introduced the bill.

The immigrant policy center estimates that setting up the marketplace would cost at least $15 million. If the bill passes, sponsors would then need to secure funding for the subsidies, which could run into the billions of dollars annually.

"It is a tough time to be asking for new expenditures," Dar said. "The mirror marketplace startup cost is a relatively very low number. So were hopeful that its still within the realm of possibility."

Arambula said he's optimistic the state will continue to lead in improving access to health care for immigrants who lack legal residency.

"I believe we will continue to stand up, as we are working to make this a California for all," he said.

The bill passed the Assembly last July on a 64-9 vote and now awaits action by the Senate Appropriations Committee, Arambula's office said.

An estimated 520,000 people in California would qualify for a Covered California plan if not for their lack of legal status, according to the labor research center at the University of California-Berkeley. Pantoja Toribio, who emigrated alone from Mexico after leaving an abusive relationship, said she was lucky. She learned about alternative health care options when she made her weekly visit to a food pantry at Hijas del Campo, a Contra Costa County farmworker advocacy organization, where they told her she might qualify for a plan for low-income people through Kaiser Permanente.

Pantoja Toribio applied just before open enrollment closed at the end of January. Through the plan, she learned that the lump in her breast was not cancerous.

"God heard me," she said. "Thank God."

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Apples quarterly results and forecast beat modest expectations on Thursday, as the iPhone maker unveiled a record share buyback program, sending its stock up 6% in extended trade. Apple increased its cash dividend by 4% and authorized an additional program to buy back $110 billion of stock. The buyback is the largest in the companys history.

Apples quarterly revenue fell, but less than analysts had expected, and CEO Tim Cook said revenue growth would return in the current quarter.

The results and guidance suggest the company may be regaining its footing in the smartphone market, despite stiff competition and regulatory challenges.

The surge in Apples shares following its report lifted its stock market value by over $160 billion.

Apple said fiscal second-quarter revenue fell 4% to $90.8 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $90.01 billion, according to LSEG data.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday said the company grew strong double-digit in India, clinching a new March quarter revenue record amid an incredibly exciting market. Describing India market as a major focus, Cook said Apple is working on the entire ecosystem from developer to the market to operations, and that he is very pleased with the growth numbers.

We did grow strong double-digit (in India). And so we were very, very pleased about it. It was a new March quarter revenue record for us. As you know, as Ive said before, I see it as an incredibly exciting market and its a major focus for us, he said in India specific call-outs during the tech titans Q2 earnings.

Cook further added: In terms of the operational side or supply chain side, we are producing there; from a pragmatic point of view, you need to produce there to be competitive.

The Cupertino-based iPhone maker has set revenue records in more than a dozen countries and regions. These include, among others, March quarter records in India, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as Canada, Spain, and Turkey.

For Apples current quarter, which ends in June, Cook told Reuters the iPhone maker expects to grow low-single digits in overall revenue. Wall Street expected 1.33% revenue growth to $82.89 billion, according to LSEG data.

Long considered a must-own stock on Wall Street, Apple shares have underperformed other Big Tech companies in recent months, falling 10% this year as it struggles with weak iPhone demand and tough competition in China.

Apple expects current-quarter services and iPad revenue to grow by double digits, CFO Luca Maestri told analysts on a conference call. The company expects gross margins of between 45.5% and 46.5% for the fiscal third quarter.

Apple faces a raft of challenges across its business. Smartphone rivals such as Samsung Electronics have introduced competing devices aimed at hosting artificial-intelligence chatbots.

On the regulatory front, Apples services business, which contains its lucrative App Store and was one of the few areas of growth in the fiscal second quarter, is under pressure from a new law in Europe. In the United States, the Department of Justice in March accused Apple of monopolizing the smartphone market and driving up prices.

For the fiscal second quarter, iPhone sales fell 10.5% to $45.96 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $46 billion. Apple executives said in February that the year-ago fiscal second quarter had benefited from a $5 billion surge in iPhone sales as the company caught up from supply-chain snarls during pandemic lockdowns.

Excluding that one-time phenomenon, iPhone sales were down only slightly as the Cupertino, California, companys signature product faces stiff competition. In China, Huawei Technology has gained market share.

Cook said that iPhone sales still experienced growth in some markets, including China.

Apples revenue decline in China was not as steep as analysts expected, with Greater China sales of $16.37 billion for the fiscal second quarter that ended March 30, down 8.1% and above analyst expectations of $15.59 billion, according to data from Visible Alpha.

Apple has said little about its product plans for artificial intelligence, the technology on which rivals Microsoft and Alphabets Google are placing huge bets. The company started ramping up research and development spending last year, and Cook said the company has spent more than $100 billion on R&D in the past five years.

We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and were making significant investments, he said. Were looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers at events later this year, Cook said.

As it races to bring AI into its products, Apples massive buyback program may appease investors who have been bruised by its sinking stock price.

Its certainly a great time to resort to this strategy as, on the one hand, the stock remains relatively fairly priced, and, on the other hand, it needs to garner solid support for a structural shift that may very well take several quarters to play out, Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro said in a client note.

Apples quarterly earnings per share were $1.53, above Wall Street estimates of $1.50, according to LSEG data.

Sales in Apples services segment, which also represents Apple Music and TV offerings, rose to $23.87 billion, above analyst expectations of $23.27 billion, according to LSEG data.

Analysts had expected Mac sales to decline in the fiscal second quarter, but they instead grew to $7.5 billion, compared with estimates of $6.86 billion, according to LSEG data.

They were really driven by the strength of the new MacBook Air thats powered by the M3 chip, Cook said. About half of our MacBook Air buyers during the quarter were new to the Mac.

The companys sales in the iPad segment declined to $5.56 billion, below analyst expectations of $5.91 billion.

In the companys wearables segment, which represents sales of Apple Watches and AirPods headphones, sales fell to $7.91 billion, compared with analyst estimates of $8.08 billion, according to LSEG data.

(With Inputs From Agencies)
Gold Rate Today In India: As of May 3, the price of 10 grams of gold fell amid weak demand in the spot market. The price for pure 24-carat gold stood at Rs 71,730 per 10 grams, with 22-carat gold maintaining its value at roughly Rs 65,750. The silver market also witnessed a decline on Friday, reaching Rs 83,500 per kilogram.

Gold rate today in India: Retail gold price on May 3

Gold Rate Today In Delhi

As of May 3, 2024, in Delhi, the current price for 10 grams of 22-carat gold is approximately Rs 65,900, whereas 10 grams of 24-carat gold is priced at around Rs 71,880.

Gold Rate Today In Mumbai

Currently in Mumbai, the price of 10 grams of 22-carat gold stands at Rs 65,750, while the equivalent amount of 24-carat gold is valued at Rs 71,730.

Gold Rate Today In Ahmedabad

In Ahmedabad, the price for 10 grams of 22-carat gold is Rs 65,800, and for the same amount of 24-carat gold, its Rs 71,780.

Check gold rates today in different cities on May 3, 2024; (In Rs/10 grams)

City 22 Carat Gold Price 24-Carat Gold Price Delhi 65,900 71,880 Mumbai 65,750 71,730 Ahmedabad 65,800 71,780 Chennai 65,150 72,160 Kolkata 65,750 71,730 Gurugram 65,900 71,880 Lucknow 65,900 71,880 Bengaluru 66,750 71,730 Jaipur 65,900 71,880 Patna 65,900 71,780 Bhubaneshwar 66,750 71,730 Hyderabad 65,750 71,730

Gold Price Outlook: Expertspeak

Rahul Kalantri, vice-president (commodities) at Mehta Equities, said, Gold price touched 73K mark recently due to geopolitical tensions and continuous purchasing from central banks. Historical precedent has taught us that gold tends to rise in price in the face of geopolitical tensions. The yellow metal is considered a safe haven asset, meaning that investors tend to folk to it in times of uncertainty, instability and geo-political crisis. However, there are several other factors also that affect gold price. Conflicts or wars between countries can lead to currency devaluation or depreciation. Investors may turn to gold as a hedge against these currency fluctuations, as gold is not tied to any specific currency and retains its intrinsic value.

Now that the risk of a broader conflict in the Middle East has subsided massively and made it difficult for gold to build a bull run. Meanwhile, hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve (Fed) officials lifted the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield to its highest level since early November 2023, near 4.7 per cent, and didnt allow gold to sustain at a higher level, he added.

Although gold remain in structural bull markets, it is not advisable to take fresh positions for short to medium terms. In the short term, we are expecting some more correction in gold price till $2265 in international and Rs 69,800 in domestic market. We suggest now anyone who wants to take a fresh position should do only above $2420 in the domestic market; its above Rs 73,200, Kalantri said.

Options available in India to invest in Gold are first and popular mode is physical buying but it has certain limitations to overcome this limitation nowadays the digital route is also available which includes such as Digital Gold, Gold ETFs, Gold Mutual Funds, and Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB). For short term investors we suggest to go for digital gold and gold mutual funds whereas Physical gold and SGB are more suitable for medium term to long term investors, he added.

Retail Cost of Gold

The retail gold price in India, denoting the ultimate cost per unit weight for consumers purchasing gold, is subject to various influences beyond the metals inherent value.

In India, gold holds immense cultural significance, serving as a valuable investment and maintaining traditional ties to weddings and festivals.

Amid ongoing market fluctuations, investors and traders closely monitor these dynamics. Stay tuned for further updates on this evolving story.
A Class 10 girl student from Nampally locality in Hyderabad, Telangana has shocked everyone with her willpower, determination, and commitment by appearing for the public exam on ventilator, with severe injuries after she met with a road accident. Despite that, the TS SSC student scored high-grade points in the recently released exam results.

Kirpan Kaur Khanuja has been pursuing Class 10 at Slate  The School at Abids in the city. In general, most educational institutes conduct pre-final exams for class 10 students. She also appeared in the pre-final exam at her school on the first day of March and while returning home with her mother, the duo was hit by a motorist where Khanuja was severely injured in the accident.

She was immediately shifted to Care Hospital in Nampally where the doctors declared that blood was clotted in her brain and started the treatment. Though she was somehow recovered, the doctors had advised her parents that she had to take total rest at any cost. But Kirpan refused to take rest and was very much determined to appear for the SSC final examinations.

She didnt want to see supplementary on her SSC certificate. Her parents tried to convince her but her interest in pursuing education and the pressure she mounted upon them made the parents go with her proposal. Under the observation of the doctors and school principal, she appeared for the Class 10 exams on the ventilator.

Even the doctors said that it is not advisable for appearing the examination. But Kirpan requested and forced them to permit it. Finally, she appeared for the examinations and passed with good marks. Really, I am proud of my child. Despite all the difficulties, she took the exams. Ashmeet Kaur, mother of Kirpan told News18. She also stated that parents often encourage their kids but children also should have the will to do things.

She scored 8.7 grade points in the recently released TS SSC 2024 exam results. Everyone, including the teaching and non-teaching staff of her school, appreciated the brilliant girl student. Speaking to News18, Director of Slate Schools, Vasireddy Amarnath said, We are proud of our student. It is an inspiring story. Despite her health condition, she could secure an 8.7 GPA.

Stay Informed With Live Updates On Gujarat HSC Science Result 2024 . Get Latest Updates On Date And Time Of CBSE Results 2024 & ICSE Result 2024 on our website. Stay ahead with all the exam results updates on News18 Website.
A little over three weeks before Delhi goes to polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has finally formed its coordination committee in the Capital to work with the Congress on the ground.

The move is significant as the AAP had, in mid-April, announced its campaign Jail ka Jawab Vote Se in East, West, South and New Delhi constituencies  the four seats where it is contesting  leaving out the other three on which Congress has fielded its candidates  North East, North West and Chandini Chowk. When asked about the selective campaign, AAP leader Gopal Rai had said the party will take a call if there is a request from the Congress. However, in a big shift on May 3, Rai was present when Congress candidate Udit Raj filed his nomination for the North West constituency.

AAP MP and General Secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak has formed a committee which will coordinate within the INDIA bloc  mainly with the Congress  for the upcoming elections in Delhi. For the first time, AAP and Congress are contesting elections in an alliance.

AAPs Rajinder Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak, who is also a member of the partys highest decision-making body  Political Affairs Committee  will be the coordinator of the new committee which will have another seven members. These will be Rajesh Gupta in the New Delhi constituency, Naresh Balyan in West Delhi constituency, Dinesh Mohaniya in South Delhi, Pawan Sharma in Chandini Chowk, Mukesh Alwahat in North West, Sanjeev Jha in North East and Dilip Pandey in East Delhi constituencies.

Speaking to News18, Pathak said: My primary responsibility is to ensure that there are no hurdles in the campaign in all the seven constituencies. It is to make sure that AAP and Congress fight as one force and not as a divided house.

Pathak will schedule the availability of AAP and Congress leaders for each others campaigns, organise joint padayatras wherever necessary, and cover maximum ground via door-to-door campaigns. He will also share the partys media strategy, issues and ground intelligence with the Congress.

Asked if top AAP leaders will be available to campaign in the three Lok Sabha constituencies that the Congress is contesting from, Pathak replied in the affirmative.

Similarly, it will be Pathaks responsibility to ensure participation of Congress leaders in the constituencies where AAP is contesting, should there be a demand from the candidates. On whether Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals wife Sunita will lead road shows in these three constituencies, Pathak said: Nothing is final yet. Our work is in the nascent stage now.

Sunita Kejriwal has led two roadshows in Delhi in support of AAPs East Delhi candidate Kuldeep Kumar and West Delhi candidate Mahabal Mishra. To begin with, the introduction of candidates of each party to the others cadre, MLAs, ex-MLAs and councillors is going on in all the seven constituencies.

Even though Sandeep Pathak had been talking about the need for a coordination committee ever since the alliance was finalised and was working on it behind the scenes, the announcement came after Congress North East and North West candidates Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj met Sunita Kejriwal and expressed their support for the Delhi chief minister who is currently in judicial custody after being arrested on March 21 under charges of money laundering linked to the Delhi Excise policy case.

This renewed push in the AAP on the coordination committee is important in the context of Vidhan Sabha elections next year where there is already some talk of contesting in an alliance.

The move is also important as it comes in the wake of the storm unfolding in Delhi Congress unit following the resignation of its chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and two former MLAs. Even as the Grand Old Party moved quickly to accept Lovelys resignation and appoint Devender Yadav as interim chief, the haemorrhage of some support in the grassroots is evident and does not bode well for the alliance. Lovely, it may be remembered, had cited alliance with AAP and tickets being given to Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj among the reasons for his resignation.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
On Thursday, as the Congress camp on the ground waited anxiously for the announcement of who will contest from Amethi and Raebareli, Union minister Smriti Irani was busy holding three Jan Sammelans (public meetings) in Amethi. On Friday, as Congress announced family confidante and lightweight KL Sharma as its Amethi pick, Irani is doing a dozen nukkad sabhas in Amethi. By the end of the day, she would have done nearly 200 programmes in Amethi in this particular campaign leg.

Didi will touch 400 programmes in total by the end of the campaign period on May 18. She would have covered the entire constituency twice in one month, a BJP leader in Amethi said, explaining the expanse of Iranis campaign.

Sharma has just two weeks to campaign and is an outsider to Amethi, having concentrated on Raebareli for the last three decades as Sonia Gandhis manager. Priyanka Gandhi may lead Sharmas campaign now but the Congress has a lot of ground to cover, given their virtual absence from Amethi in the last five years since Rahul Gandhi lost from the seat.

BJP is predicting a walkover for Irani from Amethi now. She is seen as a local now in Amethi, having built a house in Gauriganj. Of the five assembly seats in Amethi, three are held by BJP and one SP MLA (from Gauriganj) Rakesh Kumar Singh has come out in favour of Irani. Amethi is now virtually a BJP fortress, and not a Gandhi bastion.

Senior BJP leaders said the decision of the Gandhis to not contest from Amethi shows they do not have the stomach to fight and have abandoned the seat, leaving their voters in the seat disillusioned.

News18, during its travel to Amethi last week, found some voters saying they missed being a VIP Gandhi constituency and had predicted a tough fight if Rahul Gandhi chose to take the plunge. Amethi is a seat that has been with the Congress and the Gandhi family since 1967, besides once in 1977 when Janta Party won the seat. Rajiv Gandhi was a 4-time MP from here, Sonia Gandhi represented Amethi once and Rahul Gandhi represented Amethi three times.

Smriti Iranis spirited campaign in 2014 and 2019 registered the point that development had eluded Amethi despite it being a VIP constituency, and though she lost in 2014, people reposed their faith in her in 2019 with a winning margin of 55,000 votes.

Irani, while speaking to the media, said the Gandhi family had surrendered in the fight in Amethi by not choosing to contest from here.

Kaun Kehta Hai Aasmaan Mein Surakh Nahi Ho Sakta Irani had said after her historic 2019 win. In 2024, with Rahul leaving the Amethi fight and not choosing to try avenging his defeat in 2019, many say Smriti has won the seat even before polling and Gandhis may have well lost Amethi forever.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination for the Raebareli parliamentary seat on Friday, surrounded by mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and senior party colleagues  including Mallikarjun Kharge, sparking contrasting emotions in the prestigious Uttar Pradesh seat that has landed at the centre of a big political debate.

In the morning, Congress and ally Samajwadi Party (SP)s workers gathered at the Congress partys office; their flags fluttering side by side, in an indication that they stood united behind Rahul, whose candidature was announced after a prolonged suspense and only on the last day of nomination-filing for the seat. Media cameras zoomed in on Rahuls cavalcade as it moved towards the collectorate, where he would file his nomination moments later. In a show of adulation, Congress workers turned up in large numbers. Photos emerged on social media showing Rahul handing the papers to polling officials and smiling at the camera. There was no confusion anymore. A Gandhi had returned to the Raebareli fight amid zindabad slogans.

       !                          -  ,           40           pic.twitter.com/g4E94zuOVf  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 3, 2024

But then, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers were not amused. A video that emerged on social media  and shared by news agency ANI  was a testament to that fact. In the video, Rahul Gandhi go back chants rang out loud and clear.

Rahuls Raebareli foray has triggered a heated debate, sending the political mercury soaring. For the much of the past weeks, India has discussed who the candidates for Raebareli and Amethi would be. The seats, which have had deep links to the Congress, will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on May 20.

Five years ago, Rahul, the incumbent MP from Amethi back then, lost the seat to the BJPs Smriti Irani. He got elected to Parliament from Keralas Wayanad, a constituency that he is contesting this time as well. But the result meant a Congress citadel had been breached. And in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Rahuls mother, Sonia Gandhi, who was the MP from Rae Bareli till recently, decided not to contest the election, triggering speculations over what next in the Congress stronghold.

After Rahuls Raebareli nomination on Friday, the BJP sharpened its attack on the Congress leader, saying he deserted Amethi due to the fear of loss (the Congress has fielded Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi). It had even attributed the Congresss delay in announcing candidates to the same reason. The Congress, on the other hand, says it will win both seats, and has described Rahul as a fighter.

I am in a rush because I have to leave for Raebareli to attend the nomination filing of bhaiya [Rahul]. Kishori Lal Sharma is going to contest from Amethi, and you know him for 40 years. He is well aware of the issues of Amethi. We will fight together and will ensure Kishori Lal Sharmas victory, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in Amethi on Friday morning, soon after the official announcement of candidates.

Union minister and BJP leader Irani, who is once again contesting from Amethi, did not agree. No member of the Gandhi family contesting from Amethi is itself an indication that the Congress has accepted its defeat here even before elections, she said.

The BJPs Raebareli candidate, Dinesh Pratap Singh, for his part, accused the Gandhis of betraying voters in that constituency. Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have betrayed the people of Raebareli. The people chose Sonia Gandhi as an MP, but she gave the power to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and she later gave it to Kishori Lal Sharma. In the last 10 years, neither Priyanka Gandhi Vadra nor Sonia Gandhi met the people of Raebareli

Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, like other Congress leaders and their allies, made light of the allegations. Everyone is happy. Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Raebareli. Both [KL Sharma and Rahul Gandhi] are going to win with a huge margin, he said.

Find Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) SS Ahluwalia has been an MP from Bengal twice and this time he is contesting from Asansol. After actor Pawan Singh decided not to contest from Asansol, the BJP gave him ticket.

Amid his campaign, News18 spoke to Ahluwalia, who said his fight is for the Sanatan ideology, which has been destroyed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Edited excerpts:

This is a hot seat  both in terms of temperature and politically

It may be a hot seat, but I am cool. The smiling faces of people are giving me energy. Every day, I am stepping out. Its difficult to meet every single voter from the 18 lakh voters in the constituency. The weather is not in our favour, but we are still managing. You can see how people are coming out to show their support. In Bengal, this is the time when Bengalis sleep, but they are coming out to meet me. I am travelling in a jeep for eight hours to meet people.

Why does your constituency change every time?

It is not my fault. The leadership decides. Every time they send me to a place where we have to regain ground. Its not a problem. I am a Sardar, but I am also a son of this soil. I was born and brought up in Asansol. I served different constituencies like a jajabor (gypsy). My roots are here. My cry to serve my people has been heard by Modi ji, who directed me to this constituency.

The complaint is that you are absent from constituencies after winning

See in Darjeeling, Baichung Bhutia was a local, who was against me. With the blessings of my guru, I defeated him with 2 lakh votes. Then they demanded statehood. I am basically a nationalist. I am not sectarian. I dont want to divide my country. Thats why I recused myself from that place. If you go and do audit in Darjeeling, you will see the work I did is being inaugurated by the present MP .

Bardhaman was a surprise to me. They thought they will defeat me. They put up hoardings saying I was absent in Darjeeling. They did not take me seriously, but I gained the seat in 15 days. Now I am here. TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee targeted me, without mentioning my name, when she came here. My candidature is pinching them thats why she criticised me during her campaign. They are afraid.

Whats your take on your competitor, TMCs Shatrughan Sinha?

He is a former colleague, he was a BJP member and a minister and then he suddenly changed his ideology! This is a fight for ideology. He left the ideology of sabka saath sabka vikas. He has now joined a party which does not believe in the Constitution and system.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath ji came here and asked us to arise and awake, in the words of Swami Vivekanand ji. Bengal gave us the national song and even national anthem, but now this place is being handled by those involved in the Sandeshkhali alleged sexual assault and land grab. This is unfortunate. It defeats the idea of Swami ji. Sanatan thinking is destroyed here. Ideology will decide who will win.

Babul Supriyo had also won this seat. You are fighting two colleagues?

Babul did not win, it was the BJPs charisma that did the magic for him. You remember the time when Babul had said that we dont need the TMC. Now he is saying the TMC is everything. How can you change like this?

Whats the biggest issue here?

People are educated, but they dont have jobs. There are no industries here. This is because of the TMCs policy. The CPM and TMC finished the place. We have Har Ghar Jal mission, but it is not implemented here.

Locals tell me water is an issue here and I will try to do something. I dont run for money. I will work for people. I will embrace them and heal them.

Are you confident of regaining this seat?

I cant be arrogant or snatch the rights of people. It will be peoples verdict. I can see their body language and face. I can see it in their eyes. Eye contact says it all.

Do you think you candidature was announced late, only after Pawan Singh refused?

Thats a closed chapter now. We are going to people and we will win. Reality is that I am moving with people.
Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency is one of 28 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka. This is a General category seat and comprises part of the Belgaum district. As many as eight Assembly segments fall under the Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency, with the BJP currently holding five (Arabhavi, Belgaum Uttar, Belgaum Dakshin, Saundatti Yellamma, Ramdurg) and the Congress three (Gokak, Belgaum Rural, Bailhongal). The constituency, also known as Belagavi, will vote in the third phase of general elections on May 7, 2024.

Sitting MP  Mangala Suresh Angadi (BJP)

Candidates  Jagadish Shettar (BJP), Mrunal Ravindra Hebbalkar (Congress)

Political dynamics

The BJP has dominated Belgaum constituency since 2004 with the late Suresh Angadi winning on the trot, followed by his wife in the 2021 by polls. This time, the constituency is witnessing a high-stakes clash between two first-time Lok Sabha aspirants. The BJP has opted for experience with Jagadish Shettar barely months after he returned to the party and the Congress is placing its bets on youth with Mrinal Hebbalkar, the son of Belagavi Rural MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar.

BJP: Of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, BJP is contesting in 25, and JD(S), which joined the NDA in September last year, in three. The Belgaum seat is part of the BJP kitty.

Of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, BJP is contesting in 25, and JD(S), which joined the NDA in September last year, in three. The Belgaum seat is part of the BJP kitty. The BJP has been facing a dearth of leadership in Belgaum district, especially after the demise of several influential leaders like Umesh Katti, Suresh Angadi and Anand Mamani.

As speculated following his return to the BJP, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar will contest from Belgaum (Belagavi) constituency. A win, the BJP hopes, would fill its leadership vacuum in the district.

The 68-year-old is a senior Lingayat leader who hails from the North Karnataka region, which is also known to be one of the strongholds of the BJP.

Shettar, a six-time MLA who also served as MLC for three months, was made the Karnataka Chief Minister at BS Yeddyurappas insistence for 10 months between 2012 and 2013.

Shettar, a BS Yediyurappa loyalist, was apprehensive about contesting from Belgaum because he does not belong to the Panchamsali sect, a predominant sect of the Lingayats who enjoy influential numbers in the constituency. He reportedly wanted to contest his maiden Lok Sabha election from Dharwad or Haveri, but BSY convinced him not to refuse the Belgaum nomination. Even before the BJPs official announcement, BSY had declared that Jagadish Shettar would be the partys Belgaum candidate.

Shettar comes from an influential political family which was associated with the Jan Sangh. It was Shettars uncle Sadashiva Shettar who opened the Jan Sanghs first account in South India. Later, his father Shivappa Shettar became the Mayor of Hubballi.

Shettar, The Party Hopper: A staunch RSS man, Jagadish Shettar had quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket from Hubballi-Dharwad Central, a seat he had been winning since 2008.

A staunch RSS man, Jagadish Shettar had quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket from Hubballi-Dharwad Central, a seat he had been winning since 2008. The Congress gave him a ticket for the 2023 Assembly polls from the same constituency, but despite his long-standing association with the seat, Shettar suffered a defeat, losing by a margin of over 30,000 votes to BJPs Mahesh Tenginakai.

Though he had lost the Assembly election, the Congress made him a Member of the Legislative Council.

In January this year, the former Karnataka CM returned to the BJP citing his long association with the party.

According to political analyst SA Hemanth, it was a foregone conclusion that Shettar would not last long in the Congress. Born into a Jan Sangh family and given the fact that he has been anti-Congress, his blood is also anti-Congress. It was unnatural for him to be in that party, explained Hemanth.

Angadi Family Factor: The Belgaum seat is currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the wife of the late Suresh Angadi, former Minister of State for Railways.

The Belgaum seat is currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the wife of the late Suresh Angadi, former Minister of State for Railways. She had won with a slender margin of over 5,000 votes in the 2021 by poll against Congress strongman Satish Jarkiholi when the seat fell vacant in 2020 after her husbands death due to Covid-19.

Jagadish Shettar also happens to be a relative of the Angadi family. Mangala Angadis daughter Shraddha Angadi is married to Shettars son Sankalp Shettar, a businessman.

He was the poll in-charge of this seat when Mangala Angadi fought the by poll.

Mangala Angadi has welcomed Shettars candidature from her current seat, saying she had requested BJP chief JP Nadda a ticket for the family and the party delivered by picking Shettar.

It is the residence of Mangala Angadi in Vishweshwaraiah Nagar that has turned into the action centre of BJPs campaign in the constituency.

However, when Shettars candidature was announced, posters had been put up in Kannada by unidentified people, suspected to be BJP cadre, saying Shettar was welcome for lunch as the in-law of Ms. Shraddha Angadi but not as a party candidate for the Lok Sabha elections.

Outsider Tag: Shettars candidature from Belgaum was not without controversies since he had been MLA from the Hubli-Dharwad Central seat from 2008 to 2023.

Shettars candidature from Belgaum was not without controversies since he had been MLA from the Hubli-Dharwad Central seat from 2008 to 2023. Within the party, there was said to be considerable discontent over an outsider being fielded in the Belgaum seat.

A section of the local party unit had even resorted to a Go Back Shettar campaign to protest his ticket.

Among the aspirants ignored in Shettars favour was BJP leader and former MP Ramesh Katti, also a Lingayat who was said to have the support of Marathi-speaking people in Ramdurg, Saundatti and Bailhongal.

Insiders say Shettar quickly quelled the rebellion against his candidature, personally reaching out to every leader opposing his ticket and successfully convinced them to root for him.

During campaigning, too, Shettar has been pushing hard to counter the outsider tag, saying Hubbali is his janmabhoomi but Belagavi is his karmabhoomi.

Sources say his campaign hopes the familial links to the Angadi family would also help Shettar counter the outsider tag.

Congress: Belgaum election is a matter of prestige for the Congress which wants its revenge on Jagadish Shettar for returning to the BJP barely a year after joining the Congress. The grand old party had given Shettar an MLC position despite the former chief minister losing the Assembly elections.

Belgaum election is a matter of prestige for the Congress which wants its revenge on Jagadish Shettar for returning to the BJP barely a year after joining the Congress. The grand old party had given Shettar an MLC position despite the former chief minister losing the Assembly elections. The Congress has tasked Belagavi Rural MLA Laxmi Hebbalkars son Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar with the job. Laxmi Hebbalkar is also the Karnataka Women and Child Development Minister.

The election is a personal quest too for Mrinal since his mother had lost the Belagavi Lok Sabha election in 2014.

Mrinal says his mothers electoral defeat in the 2013 Assembly elections, where unparliamentary language was used by Hebbalkars arch-rival and now BJP MLA Ramesh Jarakiholi to insult her, fuelled his decision to enter active politics.

Armed with a degree in civil engineering, Mrinals campaign strategy has been to expose the unfulfilled promises made by the BJP parliamentarians who were elected from Belgaum for 25 years while promising to make it a twin city to Bengaluru.

Youth vs Experience, Son of the Soil vs Outsider: The battle for Belgaum is pitted as one between youth and experience. Mrinal, in his Lok Sabha elections debut, is up against Jagadish Shettars political expertise and manoeuvring.

The battle for Belgaum is pitted as one between youth and experience. Mrinal, in his Lok Sabha elections debut, is up against Jagadish Shettars political expertise and manoeuvring. Mrinal Hebbalkar says his experience as a Youth Congress leader and now as Karnataka State Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress has given him enough exposure and expertise.

The main component of Mrinals election campaign is that he belongs to Belgaum while Shettar is an outsider.

Speaking to News18 earlier this month, Mrinal taunted Shettar, saying the former Hubli-Dharwad Central MLA may not know or understand Belgaum as a seat.

Nepotism/Dynasty Politics Charge: The Congress has faced several allegations of nepotism while handing out tickets for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. Mrinal Hebbalkar is among five Congress candidates who are children of state ministers.

The Congress has faced several allegations of nepotism while handing out tickets for the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. Mrinal Hebbalkar is among five Congress candidates who are children of state ministers. The BJP has been quick to weave the fact into its election narrative, accusing the Congress of indulging in dynasty politics.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar defended the choice of candidates, saying winnability was a key factor in their selection.

Panchamsali Lingayat Factor: Both BJP and Congress candidates belong to the Lingayat community, which forms close to 17-18% of Karnatakas voting population and also has a significant say in the formation of governments in the state.

Both BJP and Congress candidates belong to the Lingayat community, which forms close to 17-18% of Karnatakas voting population and also has a significant say in the formation of governments in the state. While the Lingayats are traditionally BJP supporters, the sub-caste of the candidates too is an important decider at the constituency-level.

Jagadish Shettar belongs to the Banajiga sub-caste among Lingayats, while Mrinal Hebbalkar is a Panchamasali Lingayat leader.

While Banajiga Lingayats enjoy considerable influence due to their investments and involvement in educational institutions and cooperative societies, Belgaum has a higher number of Panchamasali voters.

Mrinals mother, Belagavi Rural MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar, is said to enjoy the support of Banajigas as well as Panchamsalis.

Observers, however, predict a 70-30 split in Panchamsali votes in favour of the BJP.

Maratha Politics and Voting Pattern: With Belgaum falling on the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra, the constituency counts more than 2 lakh Maratha community voters.

With Belgaum falling on the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra, the constituency counts more than 2 lakh Maratha community voters. It has also become the political hotspot of the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Steering the Maratha community as a voting bloc is the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES). The outfit has invited Manoj Jarange (Patil), who is spearheading the Maratha reservation agitation in Maharashtra, to Belgaum on April 30.

Marathi-speaking population of Belgaum has traditionally voted for the BJP but not if the MES puts up a strong candidate.

This time, however, the MES has put up a candidate considered to be weak electorally  Mahadev Patil who will be contesting as an Independent.

Observers say Marathi voters are likely to side with the BJP over the MESs Independent candidate.

With the presence of a large number of Marathi-speaking voters, Belgaum is also a bilingual constituency. Mrinal Hebbalkar says that as a Belgaumite, he can tread the linguistic balance in the constituency, adding that the same cannot be said about Shettar.

Modi Popularity: Political observers say the Modi factor has been predominant in the last few elections in Belgaum and was the reason Suresh Angadi was able to stretch his run in the seat by two more wins in 2014 and 2019.

Political observers say the Modi factor has been predominant in the last few elections in Belgaum and was the reason Suresh Angadi was able to stretch his run in the seat by two more wins in 2014 and 2019. Even the bypoll victory of Angadis wife Mangala in 2021 is said to be because of the Modi wave in the seat.

The PM campaigned in the constituency on April 28.

The Feuding Sahukaras of Belagavi: There are many powerful political families in the Belagavi district, the leaders of which are fondly called sahukaras. They include the Jarkiholis, Kattis, Hukkeris, Jolles, and now the Hebbalkar family.

There are many powerful political families in the Belagavi district, the leaders of which are fondly called sahukaras. They include the Jarkiholis, Kattis, Hukkeris, Jolles, and now the Hebbalkar family. The Jarkiholis hold a strong control over the district with three MLAs and an MLC from the same family. Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of Congress minister Satish Jarkiholi, is in the fray from the Chikkodi seat.

Laxmi Hebbalkar is a cabinet minister and her brother Channaraj Hattiholi is an MLC while her son Mrinal now is contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

For five years now, theres been a big feud between Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi and minister Laxmi Hebbalkar.

It all started during the PLD Bank elections back in 2018. Ramesh Jarkiholi was embroiled in a sex-for-job scandal and was forced to quit his ministership.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, Jarkiholi propped up his candidate, Nagesh Mannolkar, against Hebbalkar in Belagavi Rural, but Hebbalkar won comfortably. Jarkiholis see Mrinals election run as a chance to settle scores.

Key constituency issues

Karnataka-Maharashtra Border Row: The border issue dates back to 1957 when states were reorganised on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population, and over 800 Marathi-speaking border villages that are currently a part of Karnataka.

The border issue dates back to 1957 when states were reorganised on linguistic lines. Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi, which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, as it has a sizeable Marathi-speaking population, and over 800 Marathi-speaking border villages that are currently a part of Karnataka. Karnataka maintains that the demarcation done on linguistic lines as per the States Reorganisation Act and the 1967 Mahajan Commission report is final.

To assert that Belagavi is an integral part of the state, Karnataka built the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha there, modelled on the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the state legislature and secretariat in Bengaluru.

On October 31 last year, the Belagavi administration had banned three Maharashtra ministers and an MP from entering the border district as they were expected to participate in the black day event organised by Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) on November 1, the Karnataka formation day.

MES, which has been fighting for the merger of several Marathi-speaking areas and villages of the state with Maharashtra for long, observes Karnataka Rajyotsava as a black day every year.

Panchamsali 2A Quota Demand: The influential Panchamasali caste has been demanding inclusion in the Category 2A of the reservation list in the state.

The influential Panchamasali caste has been demanding inclusion in the Category 2A of the reservation list in the state. To allay the community, the previous BJP government in the state had decided to create separate categories called 2C and 2D to include the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities, respectively.

The BJP government had also increased the reservation for Lingayats in 2D category from 5% to 7%, post which the Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swamiji of Panchamasali Peeth ended his two-year old agitation.

The demand to be included in the 2A category, however, has not been abandoned by the community, though observers say its less of a factor in Lok Sabha elections than it was in the Assembly elections last year.

In March last year, a PIL was filed in the High Court against any move to include the Panchamasalis in the 2A category based on an interim report of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. The petition stated that since such a request was rejected by the body in 2000 itself, the court was requested to prevent the government from making the inclusion now.

However, on March 23, 2023, the Karnataka High Court vacated a stay granted based on the PIL on the Panchamasali caste reservation, paving the way for the state government to take a decision on it.

Lack of Development On Par With Bengaluru: Belgaum is considered to be Karnatakas second capital but is yet to see the kind of development to match up to a Tier 1 city. Parties and candidates have been promising infrastructure projects for the region, MNCs to create more jobs and the setting up of SEZs, but all has remained on paper.

Belgaum is considered to be Karnatakas second capital but is yet to see the kind of development to match up to a Tier 1 city. Parties and candidates have been promising infrastructure projects for the region, MNCs to create more jobs and the setting up of SEZs, but all has remained on paper. Demand to Rename Airport: The Karnataka government is considering demands to name the Belagavi airport after Veera Rani Kittur Chennamma.

The Karnataka government is considering demands to name the Belagavi airport after Veera Rani Kittur Chennamma. Rani Chennamma (17781829), the queen of erstwhile princely state of Kittur in Belagavi district, had fought against the British, and is remembered as a folk hero in Karnataka.

If the state government wants to rename any airport in the state, a resolution to this effect has to be tabled and passed in both houses of the state legislature, and the proposal sent to the Centre.

Drought: Belagavi is one of the drought-hit districts in Karnataka. In October last year, the Siddaramaiah government had informed an inter-ministerial central team that the state is facing a green drought, and requested that its assessment be made based on factors like crop growth and yield.

Belagavi is one of the drought-hit districts in Karnataka. In October last year, the Siddaramaiah government had informed an inter-ministerial central team that the state is facing a green drought, and requested that its assessment be made based on factors like crop growth and yield. A green drought is generally understood to mean a period when there is limited rainfall due to which there is growth of new plants, but the growth is insubstantial.

In December, Karnataka Minister for Sugar and Agriculture Marketing Shivanand Patils statement that farmers wish for repeated droughts in the state so that their loans get waived had caused a stir. He had made the offending remark in Belagavi.

Water crisis: The district is also staring at shortage of water with depleted water levels in both Hidkal Dam and Renuka Sagar reservoirs due to the drought.

The district is also staring at shortage of water with depleted water levels in both Hidkal Dam and Renuka Sagar reservoirs due to the drought. In response, local authorities have reportedly changed water supply from once every 34 days to once a week.

Woman Stripping Case: One of the first challenges faced by the Congress government after coming to power in Karnataka last year was the case of a 55-year-old Dalit woman being stripped and beaten, paraded naked and tied to an electric pole in a village in Balagavi district, after her son eloped with a girl who was to get engaged with someone else. The incident, which unfolded in December in New Vantamuri village, had become a political flashpoint between the Congress and BJP.

One of the first challenges faced by the Congress government after coming to power in Karnataka last year was the case of a 55-year-old Dalit woman being stripped and beaten, paraded naked and tied to an electric pole in a village in Balagavi district, after her son eloped with a girl who was to get engaged with someone else. The incident, which unfolded in December in New Vantamuri village, had become a political flashpoint between the Congress and BJP. The BJP contended in the Assembly that such incidents had not taken place when the saffron party was in power in Karnataka, and accused the Congress government of being soft on crimes against women and Dalits.

The Congress had in turn lashed out at the BJP for politicising the incident and assured strict action against the perpetrators.

On April 25, 2024, the Karnataka High Court directed the trial court to complete the proceedings within a year.

The Karnataka government told the HC that the victim was given a two-acre piece of land and Rs 5 lakh as compensation.

Voter demographics

Social composition

SC  12.1%

ST  6.2%

Religious composition

Buddhist  0.02%

Christian  0.39%

Jain  3.73%

Muslim  11.06%

Sikh  0.04%

Literacy rate

63.85%

Major infra projects in Belgaum

Four-laning of NH748A: The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has sanctioned Rs 2,675.31 crore for the four-laning of the Belgaum-Hungund-Raichur section of National Highway-748A in Bagalkot and Belgavi districts of Karnataka on the hybrid annuity basis.

The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has sanctioned Rs 2,675.31 crore for the four-laning of the Belgaum-Hungund-Raichur section of National Highway-748A in Bagalkot and Belgavi districts of Karnataka on the hybrid annuity basis. The initiative spans a total length of 92.40 km and is an integral part of the Panaji-Hyderabad EC10 corridor.

EC10 connects pivotal industrial hubs, including Panaji, celebrated for fishing, and tourism; Belgavi renowned for food grains, and milk products; Raichur, recognised for rice, cotton, groundnut, and pulses; and Hyderabad, distinguished for IT, pharma, and healthcare.

Flyover Project: The project to construct a 4.5km flyover to reduce traffic congestion in Belagavi city finally kicked off in January this year.

The project to construct a 4.5km flyover to reduce traffic congestion in Belagavi city finally kicked off in January this year. The pet project of Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi will come up between Pune-Bengaluru NH48 and Channamma Circle. It will pass through Ashok Circle and RTO Circle.

The project is estimated to cost Rs 350 crore.

Belagavi Railway Station: On February 27 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the Belagavi Railway station building, which has been redeveloped at an approximate cost of about Rs 190 crore to provide world-class amenities to the passengers.

On February 27 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the Belagavi Railway station building, which has been redeveloped at an approximate cost of about Rs 190 crore to provide world-class amenities to the passengers. Rail Line Doubling Project: PM Modi had also launched the rail line doubling project between Londa-Belagavi worth Rs 930 crore.

PM Modi had also launched the rail line doubling project between Londa-Belagavi worth Rs 930 crore. The project will enhance line capacity along the busy Mumbai-Pune-Hubballi-Bengaluru railway line, leading to promotion of trade, commerce and economic activities in the region.

Vande Bharat: In February this year, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave in-principal approval for the much-awaited Belagavi-Pune Vande Bharat Express.

In February this year, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave in-principal approval for the much-awaited Belagavi-Pune Vande Bharat Express. The service is likely to be launched once the ongoing electrification work on the track is completed which may take a year.

In March, the Vande Bharat train connecting Bengaluru and Dharwad was extended to Belagavi. The train takes 7 hours and 45 minutes from Bengaluru to Belagavi, which is more than two hours faster than the earlier fastest train.

Railway Overpass: As per local reports, a railway overpass is being planned at the bypass road of Hudali village, replacing the existing manual railway gate. The project is estimated to cost Rs 2.35 crore.

As per local reports, a railway overpass is being planned at the bypass road of Hudali village, replacing the existing manual railway gate. The project is estimated to cost Rs 2.35 crore. Lake augmentation: The Siddaramaiah government in February this year greenlighted the filling up of 20 tanks in Uchagaon and Santibastavad Hoblis of Belagavi Taluk of Belagavi district. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 287.55 crore.

The Siddaramaiah government in February this year greenlighted the filling up of 20 tanks in Uchagaon and Santibastavad Hoblis of Belagavi Taluk of Belagavi district. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 287.55 crore. Similarly, 61 lakes in Hirebagewadi in Belagavi district are to be augmented at an estimated cost of Rs 519.10 crore, excluding GST of Rs 106.5 crore.

Stadium: A well-equipped district stadium is also in the works in Belagavi at an estimated cost of Rs 60 crore. Reports say the initial phase of the project, costing Rs 10 crore, was to commence in 2023-24, with subsequent phases to be completed in the following years.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Greater gliders were listed as endangered in 2023 and habitat loss has been flagged as a major contributor of their destruction.

Australias greater gliders are on the verge of extinction and new regulations were supposed to protect them from loggers. But a new report alleges theyve been breached 188 times since they were enforced in February.

The guidelines for detecting gliders in forests are quite simple  wait outside the tree hollows they live in just after sunset and see if they come out. When gliders were spotted, the tree would be protected from the chainsaws and a 50 metre exclusion zone would be placed around it.

Asked to respond, Forestry Corporation of NSW said its "intention" had been to follow the rule.

Forestry Corporation of NSW agreed to comply with new regulations to protect endangered greater gliders. Source: WWF-Australia

The guidelines were created after a glider was found dead just metres from forests logged by Forestry Corporation of NSW which is owned by the state government. During a review of its practices, the company admitted it had routinely been searching for the nocturnal marsupials during the day while they were sleeping, and unsurprisingly few were ever documented.

In February, following a public outcry, the NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) introduced a new rule requiring Forestry Corporation of NSW to search for gliders no more than one hour after sunset. But the company has since reported 77 per cent of its searches occurred later.

Of those late night searches, some of which occurred after midnight, not a single glider den was identified. When they were done correctly, signs of the elusive animals were detected.

Loggers accused of 'botching' greater glider searches

In a joint letter from World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, Nature Conservation Council NSW, Wilderness Australia, North East Forest Alliance and South East Forest Rescue, the EPA was asked to issue stop work orders on five active forestry operations.

South East Forest Rescues Scott Daine later called on the EPA to throw the book at the logging agency.

Forestry Corps behaviour is outrageous. Once again were doing the EPAs work by exposing these botched searches as time is running out to save greater gliders, he said.

The endangered greater glider seen in a tree hollow at night. Source: David Gallan/WWF-Australia

Nature Conservation Council of NSWs Clancy Barnard warned NSW will lose the last of its greater gliders if the EPA does not step in.

Yet again Forestry Corporation [of] NSW has shown itself to be a rogue operator by repeatedly flouting rules meant to protect threatened and endangered species like the iconic Greater Glider, he alleged.

Forestry Corp responds to rule breach allegations

After Yahoo approached Forestry Corporation of NSW for comment, it said it was reviewing a letter from the conservation groups and it planned to engage with the EPA.

It is always our intention to apply the rules and since the Site Specific Biodiversity Condition came into effect in February, we have been working closely with the regulator on implementing these new rules, it said. "That has included sharing all search and survey data with the EPA over this time."

The EPA confirmed with Yahoo it is currently investigating the matters raised by conservation groups in relation to greater glider surveys.

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The Congress has been against providing reservation to the Dalits and the backwards and the party also attacked the Constitution by inserting the word secular in the Preamble when it was in power, the BJP alleged on Friday.

The BJPs charge comes at a time when the Congress has been claiming that the saffron party is seeking more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls to change the Constitution and also end the reservations provided to the members of the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) if voted to power.

Slamming the Congress at a press conference in the BJP headquarters here, party national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam said, They are repeatedly saying the Constitution will be changed. Ambedkar used to say that the Preamble of the Constitution is its soul. But they added a word secular in it, which was the biggest attack on the Constitution.

Asked if the Preamble will be restored to its original form if the BJP is voted to power again, he said, This? Yes. The word secular should not have been inserted in it (Preamble). This hurt the soul of B R Ambedkar.

Gautam alleged that the Congress has been against providing reservation to the Dalits and the backwards since its birth and brought the provision of creamy layer during its rule to end reservation.

In a letter to all chief ministers on June 27, 1961, Jawaharlal Nehru (then Prime Minister) had clearly stated that he dislikes any kind of reservation, especially in services. The Congress and its leaders did not show any regard for the Constitution as it provided nothing in the name of reservation at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia (Millia) Islamia, the BJP leader charged.

Asked if the BJP will provide quota for the Dalits and the backwards at AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia if voted to power, Gautam said, For this, we will prepare a draft and make all efforts. They should get reservation. We have fought for the Dalits earlier also.

Gautam alleged that the Congress denied reservation to the Dalits and the members of the backward classes in Jammu and Kashmir (J-K) by giving special status to the erstwhile state under Article 370.

The Narendra Modi government, on August 5, 2019, abrogated Article 370, thus, ending the special status given to J-K, and bifurcated it into two Union Territories  J-K and Ladakh.

The BJP leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a strong defender of SC, ST and OBC reservations.

He said the prime minister has publicly asserted that as long as he is alive, no one will interfere with reservations for the Dalits and the backward classes.

Speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Modi allocated Rs 200 crore to establish Dalit chambers in 1.25 lakh bank branches for the Dalit community, he added.

Gautam alleged that the Congress wants to redistribute the resources of the Dalits and the backward classes to a specific community by imposing inheritance taxes.

The anti-Dalit and anti-backward mentality within the INDI alliance has reached such an extent that they question Prime Minister Modi for consecrating Bhagwan Shri Ram simply because he belongs to the Teli (oil-pressing)community, he charged.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Davanagere is one of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka which comprises eight assembly segments spread over Devanagere and Vijaynagara districts. The assembly segments are Jagalur (Congress), Harapanahalli (Independent), Harihar (BJP), Davanagere North (Congress), Davanagere South (Congress), Mayakonda (Congress), Channagiri (Congress) and Honnali (Congress). The current MP is GM Siddeshwara of BJP while those in the fray for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are Gayathri Siddeshwar (BJP), Prabha Mallikarjun (Congress), and Vinay Kumar GB (Independent). The constituency will vote in phase 3 on May 7 and results will be declared on June 4.

Political Dynamics

BJP Banks on Development and Modi: The BJP has continuously held Davanagere Lok Sabha constituency since 1999. Since 2004, senior leader GM Siddeshwara has been representing the constituency in the Lok Sabha. This time, the BJP has entrusted his wife, Gayathri Siddeshwara, with the responsibility of winning the seat. Davanagere is a BJP bastion of sorts, which no party has been able to breach since 1999 when it comes to Lok Sabha polls. However, when one looks at the assembly constituencies, the Congress has MLAs in six of them. In the 2023 assembly polls, the BJP could bag just one assembly constituency  Harihar. Harapanahali, meanwhile, was won by an independent candidate. The Congress emerged victorious on all the other segments. This is what has filled with Grand Old Party with confidence for its prospects in the ongoing elections. On ground, the voters are happy with the BJPs vision of development. Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship schemes, like providing houses, tap water and electricity connections, free ration, LPG connections, health insurance and other basic amenities are benefitting people to a large extent.

The BJP has continuously held Davanagere Lok Sabha constituency since 1999. Since 2004, senior leader GM Siddeshwara has been representing the constituency in the Lok Sabha. This time, the BJP has entrusted his wife, Gayathri Siddeshwara, with the responsibility of winning the seat. Davanagere is a BJP bastion of sorts, which no party has been able to breach since 1999 when it comes to Lok Sabha polls. However, when one looks at the assembly constituencies, the Congress has MLAs in six of them. In the 2023 assembly polls, the BJP could bag just one assembly constituency  Harihar. Harapanahali, meanwhile, was won by an independent candidate. The Congress emerged victorious on all the other segments. This is what has filled with Grand Old Party with confidence for its prospects in the ongoing elections. On ground, the voters are happy with the BJPs vision of development. Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship schemes, like providing houses, tap water and electricity connections, free ration, LPG connections, health insurance and other basic amenities are benefitting people to a large extent. BJPs Challenges: However, the BJP has had to face its fair share of problems here. First, the party is combatting allegations that a single family has dominated the politics of Davanagere for decades now  that of Gayathri Siddeshwara. Her husband has been an MP since 2004, while her father-in-law, G Mallikarjunappa, had represented the constituency from 1996 to 1998 and then from 1999 to 2004. In fact, the BJPs decision to field Gayathri Siddeshwara had invited the ire of other influential leaders in the constituency, including former minister SA Ravindranath, MP Renukacharya and G Karunakara Reddy. The trio even organised a protest meet where slogans against Gayathri Siddeshwara were raised, following which the rebels asked the BJPs high command to change the candidate. It was the intervention of BS Yediyurappa that brought the BJPs divided house back in order. A team of BJP leaders comprising parliamentary board member Yediyurappa successfully doused the rebellion in the district unit of the party after a three-hour meeting on March 26. SA Ravindranath has consequently been entrusted with the election responsibilities here. It is estimated that the constituency has got over 50,000 new voters, mostly youth. The constituency is home to an equal number of Veerashiva-Lingayats and Kurubas, followed by Valmiki Nayakas, Muslims, Dalits, Upparas, Devangas, and other communities. For the saffron party, ensuring Hindu voter consolidation is crucial. The Lingayat vote, as always, remains of utmost importance to the BJP.

However, the BJP has had to face its fair share of problems here. First, the party is combatting allegations that a single family has dominated the politics of Davanagere for decades now  that of Gayathri Siddeshwara. Her husband has been an MP since 2004, while her father-in-law, G Mallikarjunappa, had represented the constituency from 1996 to 1998 and then from 1999 to 2004. In fact, the BJPs decision to field Gayathri Siddeshwara had invited the ire of other influential leaders in the constituency, including former minister SA Ravindranath, MP Renukacharya and G Karunakara Reddy. The trio even organised a protest meet where slogans against Gayathri Siddeshwara were raised, following which the rebels asked the BJPs high command to change the candidate. It was the intervention of BS Yediyurappa that brought the BJPs divided house back in order. A team of BJP leaders comprising parliamentary board member Yediyurappa successfully doused the rebellion in the district unit of the party after a three-hour meeting on March 26. SA Ravindranath has consequently been entrusted with the election responsibilities here. It is estimated that the constituency has got over 50,000 new voters, mostly youth. The constituency is home to an equal number of Veerashiva-Lingayats and Kurubas, followed by Valmiki Nayakas, Muslims, Dalits, Upparas, Devangas, and other communities. For the saffron party, ensuring Hindu voter consolidation is crucial. The Lingayat vote, as always, remains of utmost importance to the BJP. Congress Hopes for the Best: The Congress is buoyed by its win in the assembly elections of Karnataka last year. Add to that, the Congress won six assembly segments of Davanagere. This appears to have convinced the party that it stands a chance of defeating the BJP. On ground, the Congress is putting its best foot forward. The Congress campaign appears to be more visible and catchier, even though the contest itself may be neck-to-neck. The Congress is attacking the BJP for the fact that the saffron candidate, Gayathri Siddeshwara, happens to belong to a strong family which has been involved, and in fact dominated, the regions politics for decades. The irony here is that the Congress own candidate, Prabha Mallikarjun, is also from an influential family involved in politics. In fact, the BJP and Congress candidates families are also related to each other. Prabha Mallikarjuns husband, SS Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Congress government of the state.

The Congress is buoyed by its win in the assembly elections of Karnataka last year. Add to that, the Congress won six assembly segments of Davanagere. This appears to have convinced the party that it stands a chance of defeating the BJP. On ground, the Congress is putting its best foot forward. The Congress campaign appears to be more visible and catchier, even though the contest itself may be neck-to-neck. The Congress is attacking the BJP for the fact that the saffron candidate, Gayathri Siddeshwara, happens to belong to a strong family which has been involved, and in fact dominated, the regions politics for decades. The irony here is that the Congress own candidate, Prabha Mallikarjun, is also from an influential family involved in politics. In fact, the BJP and Congress candidates families are also related to each other. Prabha Mallikarjuns husband, SS Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Congress government of the state. Rebellion in Ranks: While the BJPs internal tussle seems to have been quelled, the rebellion Congress faces is much more severe, and promises to dent the partys prospects on polling day. The decision to field Prabha Mallikarjun has not gone down well with a section of Congress leaders, especially Vinay Kumar GB. Vinay Kumar, an up-and-coming politician in the constituency, is the founder of Insights IAS. He has grown a substantial base among young voters. For the Congress, Vinay Kumar represents a big thorn in its path to victory in Davanagere. Fighting as an independent candidate, he is expected to a cause a significant dent to the Congress vote share. Vinay Kumar GB was hopeful that the Congress ticket for Davanagere will be given to him. However, with Prabha Mallikarjun being fielded, Vinay Kumar was left enraged and believing that the decision to not field him had a lot to do with him not having a family member as a minister in the state cabinet. This is why despite Congress many attempts, and Siddaramaiahs own intervention, Vinay Kumar could not be convinced to withdraw his nomination. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and Davangere South constituency MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa made a highly distasteful remark against the BJP candidate. Speaking at a party workers meeting, Shivashankarappa disparaged Siddeshwaras qualifications, claiming that she lacks the ability to address public issues effectively. He added that they know only to cook in the kitchen in a misogynistic take on women at large.

Key Issues

Demand for an Airport: For quite some time now, the people of Davanagere have been demanding an airport here to improve the constituencys connectivity with other parts of the state and the country at large. Last year, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai revealed that five new airports are being built in Shivamogga, Vijayapura, Hassan, Raichur and Karwar. He also said the feasibility studies for airports at Davanagere and Koppal have been completed. However, any further movement on development of these two airports is yet to be seen. Voters in Davanagere, therefore, are yet to see one of their biggest demands getting fulfilled. Importantly, Davanagere is referred to as the Manchester of Karnataka. What puzzles people on the ground is why despite such a loaded tag, the constituency is yet to get an airport of its own.

For quite some time now, the people of Davanagere have been demanding an airport here to improve the constituencys connectivity with other parts of the state and the country at large. Last year, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai revealed that five new airports are being built in Shivamogga, Vijayapura, Hassan, Raichur and Karwar. He also said the feasibility studies for airports at Davanagere and Koppal have been completed. However, any further movement on development of these two airports is yet to be seen. Voters in Davanagere, therefore, are yet to see one of their biggest demands getting fulfilled. Importantly, Davanagere is referred to as the Manchester of Karnataka. What puzzles people on the ground is why despite such a loaded tag, the constituency is yet to get an airport of its own. Special Economic Zone: Voters of Davanagere also want to see a special economic zone being set up in their constituency. In the past, the constituency was referred to as the industrial hub of Karnataka. However, in recent year, this hub has been losing its sheen. Most of the industries in the district, including Anjaneya Cotton Mill, have shut shop. People hope that with the creation of a special economic zone, industries will feel incentivised to set base in the constituency.

Voters of Davanagere also want to see a special economic zone being set up in their constituency. In the past, the constituency was referred to as the industrial hub of Karnataka. However, in recent year, this hub has been losing its sheen. Most of the industries in the district, including Anjaneya Cotton Mill, have shut shop. People hope that with the creation of a special economic zone, industries will feel incentivised to set base in the constituency. Unemployment and Migration: The exodus of industries from Davanagere has exacerbated the already severe unemployment situation here. In the absence of employment opportunities, people are being forced to look for jobs elsewhere in the state and country.

The exodus of industries from Davanagere has exacerbated the already severe unemployment situation here. In the absence of employment opportunities, people are being forced to look for jobs elsewhere in the state and country. Civic Issues: People also want an improvement in the civic infrastructure of Davanagere. While the education scene looks pretty much sorted, there is a growing demand for the constituencys health infrastructure to be improved. Besides, there are also complaints that development is unevenly progressing. For example, the allegation is that while South Davanagere is seeing substantial development, North Davanagere is not. Similarly, there is a concern that the border areas of the constituency are being neglected.

People also want an improvement in the civic infrastructure of Davanagere. While the education scene looks pretty much sorted, there is a growing demand for the constituencys health infrastructure to be improved. Besides, there are also complaints that development is unevenly progressing. For example, the allegation is that while South Davanagere is seeing substantial development, North Davanagere is not. Similarly, there is a concern that the border areas of the constituency are being neglected. Hindutva: With the Karnataka government including Muslims in the OBC category, polarisation on religious lines is expected to pick up pace. The BJP will be hoping that allegations of Congress being a Muslim-first party will reap electoral dividends for it. Meanwhile, the Ram Mandir inauguration and the BJPs own image of being rooted in Sanatan culture is expected to boost the partys prospects. There is also Love Jihad  which the BJP has been aggressively posturing against recently.

With the Karnataka government including Muslims in the OBC category, polarisation on religious lines is expected to pick up pace. The BJP will be hoping that allegations of Congress being a Muslim-first party will reap electoral dividends for it. Meanwhile, the Ram Mandir inauguration and the BJPs own image of being rooted in Sanatan culture is expected to boost the partys prospects. There is also Love Jihad  which the BJP has been aggressively posturing against recently. Development: The clear consensus among the people of Davanagere is that they want to see a major development push happening throughout the constituency. This is expected to benefit the BJP, which has of late associated itself almost exclusively with development and the idea of a Viksit Bharat. Development will be one of the deciding factors when Davanagere goes to polls.

Development

Vande Bharat and Railways Work: Davanagere is connected to the Vande Bharat express since 2023. The Bengaluru-Dharwad Vande Bharat has a stoppage at Davanagere railway station, providing people here with the luxury of travelling on what is Indias best passenger train yet. Meanwhile, in March, the state government had sanctioned Rs 50 crore for railway work on the Tumakuru-Davangere route. The Tumakuru-Davangere railway project will connect Tumakuru with central Karnataka, is important from the perspective of the states development facilitating faster commute to parts of North Karnataka.

Davanagere is connected to the Vande Bharat express since 2023. The Bengaluru-Dharwad Vande Bharat has a stoppage at Davanagere railway station, providing people here with the luxury of travelling on what is Indias best passenger train yet. Meanwhile, in March, the state government had sanctioned Rs 50 crore for railway work on the Tumakuru-Davangere route. The Tumakuru-Davangere railway project will connect Tumakuru with central Karnataka, is important from the perspective of the states development facilitating faster commute to parts of North Karnataka. Software Technology Park: In 2022, the Karnataka government (at the time of the BJP) had announced the establishment of a Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centre in the district headquarters town of Davanagere. The centre, spread across 10,000 square feet, has plug-n-play 102-seater incubation facility, network operations centre, 16-seater conference room and provisions for high-speed data communication facilities and other amenities and services. The same year, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar inaugurated a Digital India start-up hub at the STPI centre at Davanagere.

In 2022, the Karnataka government (at the time of the BJP) had announced the establishment of a Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centre in the district headquarters town of Davanagere. The centre, spread across 10,000 square feet, has plug-n-play 102-seater incubation facility, network operations centre, 16-seater conference room and provisions for high-speed data communication facilities and other amenities and services. The same year, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar inaugurated a Digital India start-up hub at the STPI centre at Davanagere. Six-Lane Highway: In 2023, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari announced a six-lane national highway project between Chitradurga and Davangere which is expected to speed up the connectivity between both the towns in Karnataka. The 72-kilometer national highway will cost the central government Rs 1,400 crore and it will be built using sustainable methods. Work on the project is said to be ongoing.

Demographics

Total Voters: 16,34,472

SC Voters: 328,529 (20.1%)

ST Voters: 194,502 (11.9%)

Rural Voters: 1,098,365 (67.2%)

Urban Voters: 536,107 (32.8%)

Muslims: 275,887 (16.9%)

Voter Turnout in 2019 General Election: 73%

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who has a political career spanning over four decades, is all set to fight one of the most important elections of his lifetime.

I have a proven track record of the work that I have done for the development of united Andhra Pradesh. For the last five years, we have really suffered. One of the major causes of suffering for Andhra Pradesh has been the bifurcation of the state, Naidu told News18 in an exclusive chat.

The emotional issue on which he walked out of the NDA  special status for Andhra Pradesh  still remains an unfulfilled promise, says the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief. I was very sensitive towards the cause of the people of Andhra Pradesh, and thats the reason I walked out of the NDA. CM Jagan Mohan Reddy has not done anything so far. For me, the emotions of the people of Andhra Pradesh were most important. Our people suffered a lot during the bifurcation, he said.

If the battle between the TDP and Jagans YSRCP in the state was not enough, daggers were drawn after Naidu was arrested in the skill development scam in September last year, leaving many thinking if Naidu would seek revenge from Jagan if he comes to power. Why should I have anything against him? I have known his father for a very long time. But Jagan is a different person altogether. He is someone who wants to destroy every voice of dissent, whether it is political leadership, social activists, or any common citizens.

From the times of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to Narendra Modis regime, Naidu said he had tested waters enough and nobody could point a finger at his integrity. The statement comes even as Jagan has gone on record to say that Naidu has been the most corrupt chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

I have been in the public eye for the last 45 years and nobody can call me corrupt. I remember Jagans father who would also go to court with some cases just before every election and the court would send him back, asking for proof. Even my harshest political opponent could not prove anything against me. This person did not give me a single notice and cooked up stories about my corruption. I was arrested without any intimation or proof, the 74-year-old politician said.

During his regime, Naidu had announced that Amaravati would be the capital of the state. However, his successor toyed with the idea of three capitals.

He is known to destroy everything that has been created by me. There is absolutely no logic in wanting three capitals. His father took a lot of projects ahead that I had proposed during my tenure but Jagan wants to destroy everything that has been created by me, Naidu argued.

The Congress has propped up Jagans younger sister Sharmila as a candidate from Kadapa in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and the Andhra Pradesh chief minister has accused Naidu of being hand-in-glove with CM Revanth Reddy to ensure the same.

The question is not who will win and who will lose. The question is why are brother and sister fighting? You have to answer why you have not given your sister an accommodation? Sharmila has alleged that Jagan has not given her a share in the property despite there being equal rights for both son and daughter in Andhra Pradesh. It is for Jagan to answer.

The politics of Jagan Mohan Reddy has largely been around distributing freebies which has hurt the economic prospects of Andhra Pradesh, said Naidu.

Wealth is important for development along with welfare. If you do not have any revenue, how will you ensure welfare? Jagan has gone on a borrowing spree. He feels that he has done the biggest service to the state by allowing people to get freebies. Just pressing the button for a Direct Benefit Transfer does not make you a great leader. Why do we need a chief minister for that? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has several schemes where benefits to the stakeholders are given through DBT. Have you ever seen him take credit for it?

The former chief minister said he decided to forgo his political differences with several leaders, including PM Modi, and return to the NDA fold as the state is in distress. I do not have any political interest in mind but the state of Andhra Pradesh is in doldrums. Jagan has borrowed over Rs 13-14 lakh crore already, he said.

Naidu added: For any state to prosper, it is important to attract investment and create a positive environment for wealth creation. After 10 years, Jagan is talking about having three capitals instead of Amaravati alone. What is the logic? The capital is an extremely important place for attracting business and he still seems to be toying with the idea of having multiple capitals. Nothing has been done and there is no confidence either that he will do something.

In the last election in the state, Jagan swept not just the Lok Sabha polls but also the assembly elections, leaving Naidu on the sidelines for five years. But the TDP chief is confident that the scenario will change this time. We are working hard and are confident that we will win all 25 of 25 Lok Sabha seats. In the assembly, we will cross 160, he said.

Andhra Pradesh, which holds simultaneous elections for both Lok Sabha and assembly, will vote on May 13. The state has 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 assembly seats up for grabs.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
A meeting of AAP and the Congress coordination committee was held on Friday to discuss the alliances strategy in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections.

Polling for the national capitals seven seats will be held in the sixth phase on May 25.

Devender Yadav, the interim chief of the Congress Delhi unit, said the meeting was held for improved coordination between the two parties workers.

Today, we held a meeting in order to improve coordination between the workers of both parties. We took some important decisions. Seven coordinators have been elected, he said.

The meeting was attended by Yadav, along with senior leaders Subhash Chopra and Anil Bhardwaj from the Congress. AAP MLAs Durgesh Pathak, Dilip Pandey and others attended the meeting.

Pathak said, When the alliance was formed, it was very important that coordination takes place. For that, a meeting of all the coordinators was held. Under a seat-share arrangement between the two INDIA bloc constituents, the Congress has fielded candidates from three seats while AAP is contesting from four.

AAP MLA Rajesh Gupta will be the coordinator for the New Delhi constituency while the West Delhi seat will be looked after by another party MLA Naresh Balyan.

Dinesh Mohaniya, another AAP MLA, has been appointed coordinator for the South Delhi constituency. Party leaders Pawan Sharma and Mukesh Ahlawat have been tasked with overseeing the Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi constituencies, respectively.

AAPs Burari MLA Sanjeev Jha is coordinator for the North East Delhi constituency while Timarpur MLA Dilip Pandey will take charge of the East Delhi seat.

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Friday asserted that India needs a leader with a 56-inch chest and not someone who flees from battle, as he mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for running away from Amethi and instead contesting from Rae Bareli.

People like Gandhi want to lead the country, the senior BJP leader said in a swipe at the former Congress president at a public meeting here and claimed that many Congress leaders wanted Gandhi to contest from Amethi but he chose to run away.

He could not gather the courage to contest from Amethi I am concerned that he may be given a different name after running away from this battle, Singh said wryly.

People like him (Gandhi) want to lead the country. One should have a 56-inch chest to lead the country, he said, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership for Indias growing economy and global power.

Modi has often described himself as a leader with a 56-inch chest to make a point about him being strong and decisive.

The Congress earlier announced that Gandhi would contest from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat and not Amethi, the constituency from where he lost to the BJPs Smriti Irani in 2019 after representing it for three consecutive terms.

His mother Sonia Gandhi has been winning from the Rai Bareli seat since 2004 and has now become a Rajya Sabha MP.

When the elections are finished, the Congress toll will be finished, Singh claimed, slamming the opposition party over Pakistani leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussains praise for Rahul Gandhi.

Hussain had earlier supported the Pulwama terror attack in India, he told the crowd.

Noting Indias retaliatory attacks on terror camps in Pakistan after terrorists struck in Uri and Pulwama during Modis first term, the former BJP president said it sent the message that the country was no longer weak.

Under Modi, India is a strong country whose voice is given due attention at global platforms, he added.

India has given the message that India can kill (terrorists) inside as well as outside its borders, the defence minister asserted.

Noting that Mahatma Gandhi had wished after Independence that the Congress should be dissolved and not be in politics, Singh said people should fulfil his wish in the elections and finish off the main opposition party.

India under Modi has emerged as a strong country whose voice is heard globally, he said, adding that its economy has also become the fifth-biggest in the world.

Over 25 crore people have been lifted out of poverty as well, Singh said.

Modi spoke to Russian and Ukrainian leaders when the war between the two countries broke out to ensure a ceasefire for over four hours so that Indian students could be evacuated from the war zone, he said.

Singh accused the Congress of practising divisive politics and cited the recent row over its leader Sam Pitrodas reference to inheritance tax to slam the party.

The defence minister said the BJPs victory in the Lok Sabha polls has begun with its candidate getting elected unopposed from Surat and hit back at the Congress for its criticism of the ruling party, saying Congress nominees have been so far elected 20 times unopposed in several polls earlier.

Polling will be held in all 10 seats of Haryana in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 25. The BJP won all the seats in the state the last time.

Rohtak has long been a bastion of Congress stalwart Bhupinder Singh Hooda before the BJP won it in 2019 as its candidate Arvind Sharma rode the Modi wave to defeat his son Deepender Singh Hooda by a narrow margin of over 7,000 votes.

Both candidates are in the fray again.

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A man hurled a shoe at the national president of Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party Swami Prasad Maurya during a rally here on Friday.

The man, identified as Dharmendra Dhakrey, has been and further action is being taken against him, Dauki SHO Rampal Singh said.

A spokesperson of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) claimed that Dhakrey is associated with the organisation.

Maurya in February left the Samajwadi Party and formed the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party. The incident happened this evening when Maurya was addressing a rally in support of the party candidate from Fatehpur Sikri in Dauki.

Talking to PTI, ABHM spokesperson Sanjay Jaat said, One of our members hurled a shoe at Maurya when he was delivering his speech in Dauki. We were against the leader over his remarks against Ramcharitmanas.

Maurya striked a controversy by alleging that certain verses in the Ramcharitmanas, a sacred text in the Awadhi language based on the epic Ramayana, insult a large section of the society on the basis of caste and hence, those should be banned.

We have also written letters in blood and appealed to admit him in a mental asylum for disrespecting the Hindu saints and Ramcharitmanas, Jaat said.

The members of the mahasabha also threw ink on Mauryas cavalcade and brandished black flags when it was passing from Fatehabad. The members threw black ink on the cavalcade and chanted Jai Shri Ram slogans. We have been following Mauryas cavalcade from the Fatehabad toll on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

Some of the members protested at Fatehabad and showed black flags when it was passing. Besides, they also threw ink on his car, Jaat said.

While leaving the party, Maurya accused the SP leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.

He had joined the Samajwadi Party leaving the BJP ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, contesting the elections unsuccessfully from Fazilnagar.

Before joining BJP in 2016, Swami Prasad Maurya was in the BSP and was leader of opposition in the Akhilesh yadav regime. Recently, Maurya announced to contest the elections from Kushinagar Lok Sabha seat.

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Hours after Congress announced KL Sharma as its candidate from Amethi, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday took a jibe at the Gandhis for fielding a proxy from the constituency and not one of the family members to reclaim their lost bastion. Claiming that the Congress was scared of its defeat in Amethi, the actor-turned-politician said, The Gandhis would have fought themselves and not fielded a proxy if they felt they could win.

Iranis reaction came after Congress, earlier in the day, ended the Amethi suspense, and fielded KL Sharma from the seat instead of the Gandhi siblings  Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi vadra. Sharma is believed to be a loyalist of the Gandhi family and is known be to associated with them since 1983.

In the last 3 years, I have seen in Raibareli that Congress top leadership was not available for people of the constituency. In 2019, the people of Amethi rejected the Gandhi family and thats the reason why they are scared to contest from the seat, the Union Minister said while talking to the reporters.

Further slamming Rahul Gandhi for no development works in Amethi, the Union minister said, I extend my best wishes for Congress candidate from Raibareli. Gandhi family members not fighting from Amethi shows that they have accepted their defeat here.

BJP Hits Back With Daro Mat Jibe

Soon after the Congress announced the candidature of KL Sharma from Amethi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hit back at the party claiming that the grand old party was scared of its defeat against the saffron party in Amethi, the seat which was termed as the Gandhi familys traditional seat.

Addressing a rally in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a jibe at the Congress, saying he had earlier predicted that the Gandhi scion would run away and look for a safe seat after polling in Wayanad is over.

Without directly pointing toward Rahul Gandhi, the Prime Minister asked him not to get scared and run away.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak also slammed the Congress decision to field Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli and said that the people of the constituency will never accept him.

No Gandhi Contender In Amethi In 2 Decades

For the first time in 25 years, a Gandhi family member will not be contesting election from the Lok Sabha seat. Considered a citadel of the Gandhi family since its creation as a constituency in 1967, Amethi has been represented by a Gandhi family member for about 31 years since then.

This election, Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha election from the Rae Bareli seat, while Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Kishori Lal Sharma, or KL as he is called, always dresses in a safari suit with a prominent moustache. The man who would dash in the opposite direction when a mic came close to him is known more as the silent spokesperson of Sonia Gandhi and manager for the Gandhis in UPs Raebareli and Amethi.

But now, KL will find it tough to walk away after the party he cares for has chosen him to take on Union minister Smriti Irani in the battle for 2024.

Sharma, who is originally from Punjabs Ludhiana, took over the reins in 1983 but it was after Rajiv Gandhis death that he became Sonia Gandhis trusted lieutenant, ensuring whatever she wanted was delivered in Amethi and Raebareli. His visits to Delhi and 10, Janpath, were few and only for work. They were also always kept under wraps.

Sharma had caught the eye of Rajiv Gandhi and he came to Raebareli in 1983, staying on since then. He had also joined the Youth Congress. Sonia Gandhi is said to have unflinching faith in KL, who is often described as a tough, no-nonsense man with a grip on party workers.

Soon after his name was announced, the reticent KL spoke to News18. I abide by the decision of the Gandhis. No, I dont think I am a weak candidate. I know Amethi more than Smriti Irani does.

The choice of Sharma is being seen as a walkover for Irani. Two messages seem to have gone out with his selection  One, Rahul Gandhi has run away after a loss in 2019 and second, a seat which the Gandhis have called their home has been given up forever. Its bound to have a lasting impact on Congress UP politics and this is being seen as the final goodbye to Amethi.

One of the planks on which Irani came to power was fighting the entitlement of the Gandhis. The perception gets solidified with the choice of KL. Sharma has been an adviser for the Gandhis, looking after their logistics. While being close to power, he himself has had zero experience in politics. He would always be seen accompanying the Gandhi siblings during their visits to the constituencies. It was tough to get him to even confirm a news. Remaining silent was his USP and hallmark. But now, KL has found his voice. His Masters Voice.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongman from Sangli Sanjaykaka Patil is back in the ring for General election 2024. This time, his aim is to win the Lok Sabha election for the third time and turn the Sangli constituency into a BJP bastion. Sanjaykaka contested his first general election in 2014 and defeated the then-central minister Pratik Patil (grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil), who was very close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. In 2019, Sanjaykaka defeated Congress leader Vishal Patil, who had contested on the ticket of the Swabhimani Party of Raju Shetty. This election, Sanjaykaka Patil has been challenged again by Vishal Patil, who didnt get a ticket from Mahavikas Aaghadi, and is, hence, contesting as an Independent.

Sanjaykaka Patil said he feels satisfied that he could work for the people of Sangli in a positive way, which is helping the entire district grow. I am happy that due to the efforts we made, we successfully completed the expansion of the railway track from two lines to four lines. Due to the electrification of the railway, now one can reach Pune and Mumbai within a few hours from Sangli. I successfully brought heavy funding for different irrigation schemes for the Sangli district. We have floated tenders for the expansion of these irrigation schemes, and soon it will be completed, said Sanjaykaka Patil.

Patil claimed that he is working on the project of a Dry port, which the people of Sangli had demanded. He claimed that the proposal which he had received has been sent to the Centre for further consideration. This project will be completed with the help of MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation). Patil is confident that within the next six months, the work on the project will begin. Sangli district falls in western Maharashtra which always looks green, and farmers cultivate sugarcane, grapes, and pomegranates at a large scale. But few talukas of this district fall in a rain-shadow area due to which they face water scarcity. Patil said that he has brought heavy funding from the Centre for water distribution through various irrigation schemes for talukas which fall in rain-shadow areas.

Due to less rain which happened last year, there is not enough water in the local rivers and dams, hence, we have got an order from the Centre to divert water to these areas from the hydraulic energy plant so that during the summer season locals will have some relief. We have approached the state government to give our district more water which is pending with them, he said.

Despite the district being an educational hub and known for its health infrastructure, the youth of Sangli moves out to cities like Pune and Mumbai for jobs due to no big infrastructure or absence of IT companies. Sanjaykaka Patil has kept this on his priority list to invite big industries which can create jobs for locals. We are in touch with big industries but there are prerequisites for their business like good air, rail and road connectivity, uninterrupted water supply. So considering their demands, we have started road works which will further connect to the main Mumbai-Delhi National Highway. We have also demanded the state govt to create Kolhapur-Sangli development authority which will connect Sangli directly to Kolhapur and both cities will be benefited. We are also working on an airport project very closely; there is a growing demand for the Sangli airport. For this, we require more than 375 acres of land. We have told the state govt to identify that land and will make the Sangli airport under the Udaan 2 scheme of the central govt, said Patil.

Patil criticised his opponents who have been trying to corner him for not doing anything in the last 10 years. Without taking the name of Vishal Patil (Independent Candidate), he said, One family got a chance to represent the Sangli constituency for 12 times, how much money they brought to the constituency? In the last 35 years, they should explain to people how much money they got from the Centre and state for development? In this election on social media, my opponents have started some trend against me, but let me tell you this post and position is to do the work of people and not to do any parivarvaad, said Sanjaykaka Patil.

I want to make Sangli, which earlier was a bastion of the Congress Party, a bastion of the BJP. We contest the election to win it, but this time I can see that people of Sangli have taken this election in their hand and I am confident that they will vote for progress and will give me another opportunity to serve them. I am confident that I will win with a margin of 2 lakh votes, said Patil.

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
The decision of the Congress to field Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli  a seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for years  has triggered a political war of words in the midst of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with the Opposition mocking the Grand Old Partys indecision.

Communist Party of Indias (CPI) candidate Annie Raja, who will be squaring off with Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, said his decision to contest from Raebareli too showed no morality was left in the Congress. Wayanad voters taken for granted by Rahul Gandhi. Why did he not inform that this was his plan all throughout. [After] Calling Amethi family, Wayanad family, now he will call Raebareli his family. This shows no morality is left in Congress, she said.

Cheer for BJP

Since the Congress announcement, the BJP has been celebrating the move as Congress admission of defeat even before elections are held in Amethi  which was wrested from Rahul Gandhi by Union minister Smriti Irani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a jibe at the opposition party, saying he had earlier predicted that the Gandhi scion would run away and look for a safe seat after polling in Wayanad is over. Without naming Rahul Gandhi who is the sitting MP from Keralas Wayanad, the Prime Minister asked him not to get scared and run away.

PM Modi said, I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. She ran away to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha I had already said that the Shehzada was going to lose in Wayanad. I had said that as soon as the polling was completed in Wayanad, he would start looking for another seat He is so scared of Amethi that he is running towards Raebareli. They ask everyone Daro Mat. Today, I also ask them, Daro Mat, Bhago Mat

Addressing a rally in Karnatakas Chikkodi Lok Sabha constituency, Union Home minister Amit Shah said:  Sonia Gandhi has launched Rahul Baba 20 times, but the launch hasnt been successful. Today, he has run away from Amethi to file a nomination from Raebareli. I want to tell you (Rahul Gandhi) the result from here, Rahul Baba will lose to the BJP candidate, Dinesh Pratap Singh with a huge margin in Raebareli.

BJP leader and Patna Sahib Lok Sabha candidate Ravi Shankar Prasad said fear and hesitation of defeat were evident in Rahul Gandhi. He (Rahul Gandhi) did not want to fight, must have been imposed on him. After defeat in Amethi, he went to WayanadNow it seems there is hope of defeat from there (Wayanad) as well Fear and hesitation of defeat is quite evident in him (Rahul Gandhi).

Smriti Iranis spirited campaign in 2014 and 2019 registered the point that development had eluded Amethi despite it being a VIP constituency, and though she lost in 2014, people reposed their faith in her in 2019 with a winning margin of 55,000 votes.

BJP leader Shaina NC said: Rahul Gandhi is a fugitive. He fights from Amethi, faces defeat; fights from Wayanad and wins from Wayanad; for five years he does not even go to Wayanad and now he fights from RaebareliThe parivarvaad that has continued in the Gandhi family for 60 years is a betrayal with the people of Amethi and RaebareliFor five years, he (Rahul Gandhi) did not even show his face in Uttar Pradesh and suddenly he showed up. I believe people will respond to him and on June 4 you would come to know that Congress or Gandhi party is no more in this country

BJPs Wayanad candidate K Surendaran took to X to attack Rahul Gandhi, asking which seat he would give up if he won from both. The manipulative tactics of the @INCIndia and @RahulGandhi are evident once more. First, he labeled Wayanad his second home for votes. Now he is also contesting from Raebareli. If he wins both seats, which one will he give up?

Rahul Gandhi A Fighter, Says Congress

UP Congress president Ajay Rai said both Rahul Gandhi and KL Sharma (who is contesting from Amethi) have been among people and served them. It was our demand for a long time that Rahul Gandhi contests from Uttar Pradesh. From Amethi and Raebareli, both are family members (as contestants). It is Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli and KL Sharma from Amethi. They have been among the people and served them This (Rahul Gandhis candidature) is going to affect the entire election results. It is final that INDIA bloc will form the government Rahul is a fighter, he cannot back off

The Grand Old Partys MP Shashi Tharoor said the seat had been with the Gandhis since 1950s. Its Rahul Gandhis decision. The Raebareli seat has been with the Gandhi family since the 1950s. We are happy that he is contesting from Raebareli. Sanjay Gandhi contested an election from Amethi. We have a core support base in Raebareli. Rahul Gandhi will win from here, he said. He added that Rahul Gandhi was not scared of fighting from Amethi but it was his decision to contest from Raebareli.

T Siddique, Congress MLA, called the decision a surgical strike against BJP and PM Modi. Rahul Gandhi is clear and the most important person having the correct courage and strength against BJP. Through his candidature, we are grabbing some more benefits and additional seats from BJP. The INDIA blocs movement will be strengthened by his candidature.

He added that BJPs allegations of Rahul Gandhi running away were baseless. First, BJP said Rahul Gandhi is not contesting from the Hindi belt. Now, when he decides to contest against BJP, they are saying he is running away.

The sentiment was echoed by former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot who said it was Irani who was scared of defeat. Everyone is happy. Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Raebareli. Both (KL Sharma and Rahul Gandhi) are going to win with a huge marginWho is she (Smriti Irani) to say anything, she is scared

Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (Rakez) has showcased the strategic advantages of investing in Ras Al Khaimah during a recent business event in Jaipur, India.

Experts from Rakez, accompanied by representatives from various entities in Ras Al Khaimah, participated in business roundtables and other discussions at the event organised by the UAE-India CEPA Council, in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The trips key focus was on fostering bilateral trade and investment opportunities and encouraging further economic cooperation in various sectors.

Dynamic hub

The discussions highlighted Ras Al Khaimah as a dynamic hub for key industries such as tourism, manufacturing, startups, real estate, and technology. This platform saw over 30 Indian businesses from diverse sectors engaging with the Rakez team, demonstrating their keen interest in leveraging the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) for mutual benefit. The event not only reinforced existing ties, but also opened new avenues for future collaboration and investment.

Rakez Group CEO, Ramy Jallad, said: The recent discussions with Indian entrepreneurs and industry leaders have been fruitful, enhancing our mutual understanding and uncovering exciting avenues for future collaborations under the CEPA framework. At Rakez, we are committed to our strategy of enhancing the economic landscape of Ras Al Khaimah by promoting its strategic location as a gateway to Mena region and global markets, and robust infrastructure to foster an environment that is conducive to the growth and success of businesses from India and around the world.

The team also had the opportunity to engage in targeted meetings to discuss potential collaborations and share knowledge for mutual growth and development with business leaders and stakeholders from prominent sectors  including chemicals, building materials, metals, IT, digital technology, and renewable energy.

Collaborations

Particularly in healthcare, the team explored opportunities for collaboration in telemedicine, medical tourism, and specialised healthcare facilities, which are rapidly gaining traction in global markets. In the technology sector, discussions focused on forging partnerships in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital transformation, setting the stage for innovative collaborations.
It is believed the message was in response to the airline's acknowledgement of country.

A handwritten note scribbled on the front of an in-flight magazine on a Qantas flight has been called out for being racist by passengers, with the husband of a former Indigenous senator and Olympian seeing it on his flight.

Scott Appleton, the husband of Nova Peris, was travelling from Alice Springs to Darwin on Tuesday when an elderly woman sitting beside him reportedly saw the message in the console in front of her. The message was a derogatory slur against Indigenous Australians and was believed to be in response to Qantas's acknowledgement of country which is announced during every landing.

Peris shared an image of the message online and said, "Here's to hoping Qantas tell their cleaning contractors to remove Qantas books from planes with racist messages written on them."

Aussies called out the note for being "disgusting" and "shameful".

"In a country that says its not racist, this is what our First Nations members have to tolerate," one man wrote.

Qantas cabin crew handled incident 'well'

It is understood Appleton flagged down a flight attendant and handed over the vandalised in-flight magazine. He was reportedly pleased with how the cabin crew responded, saying they were shocked at the content of the cover. It is understood the in-flight magazine was removed by cabin crew immediately.

"They handled the situation very well, and were extremely sensitive in the way it was handled," Appleton told the National Indigenous Times.

Qantas 'appalled' by graffiti

Qantas told Yahoo News it is committed to supporting Indigenous Australians as the national airline.

"We are appalled that someone would make these racist remarks," a Qantas spokesperson said. "We are committed to supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and are proud that our crew acknowledge country for every flight landing in Australia."

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The morning shows the day. When at 7.50 am, the Congress finally cleared the air and released the names of their Amethi and Raebareli candidates, the picture, however, became more blurry. Why has Rahul Gandhi chosen Raebareli? And why KL Sharma and not Priyanka Vadra for Amethi?

Sources give many reasons which were thrashed out during the discussions within the Congress family on the future of Amethi and Raebareli.

The main reason why Rahul was chosen was the legacy or inheritance factor.

Congress big twist in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections sends shockwaves as Rahul Gandhi opts for contesting in Raebareli. Congress fields Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi#RahulGandhi #Raebareli #LokSabhaElections2024 #Amethi | @_pallavighosh pic.twitter.com/kAksCl2TKT News18 (@CNNnews18) May 3, 2024

THE RAEBARELI LEGACY

The Gandhis have been MPs from here since 1952 with small break. Feroze Gandhi first contested from here and then Indira Gandhi took over. She lost to Ram Narain in 1977 after Emergency. When Sonia Gandhi finally got over her aversion to politics and contested for the first time in 1989, she chose Amethi. But in 2004, when Rahul took the poll plunge, she shifted to Raebareli.

Even today, Raebareli evokes memories of Indira Gandhi. And it is this memory which Rahul has tried to evoke to ensure that he comes across as the inheritor. Thats the main reason.

ALSO READ | Amethi Walkover for Smriti Irani? Why Rahul Gandhis Absence May Snatch Bastion from Congress

Congress leader and spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said: Raebareli has not only been Sonia jis seat, but also Indira Gandhis seat. This is not a legacy, but a responsibility, a duty. Priyanka ji is campaigning vigorously and is alone shutting up Narendra Modi by answering his every lie with the truth. That is why it was necessary that she should not be limited to her constituency only. Priyanka ji will reach the house by contesting any by-election. Today Smriti Iranis only identity is that she contests elections from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi. Now Smriti Irani has lost that fame too.

Many people have many opinions on the news of @RahulGandhi contesting elections from Rae Bareli.Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion, and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 3, 2024

THE UP FACTOR

But there is also the Uttar Pradesh factor.

Rahul was told that the perception that the north doesnt matter for the Congress cannot be accepted. It would hurt the partys chances forever in UP and in the north, if he stayed away. So it was Rahul.

ALSO READ | No Gandhi In Amethi Contest For First Time In 2 Decades, Smriti Irani Says People Rejected Them In 2019

But where does this leave Priyanka?

It was Priyanka who ran self-help groups from Raebareli and looked after her mothers work. Her looks, very similar to Indira Gandhi, gave the impression to many that she would be chosen. But Congress sources say that Rahul said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be even more emboldened if three Gandhis contested from here. Priyanka also opted out saying she would prefer to campaign than contest.

The story does not end here. In case Rahul wins from both seats, which one will he keep? Who will take over from him?

Picture abhi baaki hai.
The Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP), also known as the vampire facial, may be considered by many as the fountain of youth, but there is little evidence to show whether it works or not. The non-surgical treatment has become popular over time after many celebrities such as Kim Kardashian were seen promoting it.

Recently, three women have contracted HIV after getting the vampire facial from an unlicenced medical spa in New Mexico.

Cosmetic surgeries have become increasingly advanced and accessible, with any treatment available from Botox, and dermal fillers to surgical operations like facelifts and breast augmentation.

What is a Vampire Facial?

The process involves three steps: blood is drawn from a patients arm and then it is placed in a centrifuge machine, which spins at high speed to separate the components of blood. This process isolates PRP from other components. While the PRP is being prepared, the patients face is prepared by cleansing it thoroughly.

Then a microneedling device is used to create tiny, controlled injuries on the skins surface. Microneedling stimulates the skins natural healing process and enhances the absorption of PRP.

Once the PRP is ready, it is applied topically to the skin or injected into specific areas of the face, depending on the patients needs and the practitioners recommendation. One can experience some pain, bruising and swelling, which usually disappear after a few days.

The cost of the treatment could be anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 (1,600) at a licensed medical spa, according to estimates from providers online, as mentioned by BBC.

The results of vampire facial can last for about 18 months.

How Did New Mexico Women Contract HIV?

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) became aware of an American woman aged between 40 and 50 years who tested for HIV while she was abroad.

She reportedly had no history of injection drug use or recent blood transfusions, and did not have recent sexual contact with anyone other than her current partner. But she reported having done a vampire facial that year at a spa in New Mexico.

A CDC investigation revealed that that it was an unlicensed spa centre and had been practising multiple unsafe infection control practices such as unlabelled tubes of blood and medical injectables and unwrapped syringes, as per BBC.

The BBC report also said that CDC had identified at least one client who had tested positive for HIV before visiting the spa, and some of the blood vials showed signs of being reused.

Is Vampire Facial Safe?

Few studies have been conducted because the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesnt require the large, complex studies necessary for new drugs. Since PRP uses needles and a centrifuge, the FDA classifies PRP as a medical device.

The biggest risks come from the way the blood is handled. Its essential that the blood removed from the body be kept sterile. Otherwise, a person can develop an infection.

Published medical research papers and trial suggest that the treatments are effective for some sport injuries, acne, eczema and other skin conditions.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, the procedure when done correctly is safe.

Experts say those looking to get cosmetic treatments should do a research of the provider beforehand to make sure the facility is licensed.

Dr Rinky Kapoor, dermatologist and dermato-surgeon at The Esthetic Clinics, said, as quoted by The Indian Express, To understand how vampire facial can cause HIV, it is important to know that HIV is a bloodborne virus. If a particular needle used in the procedure of vampire facial is not properly disinfected or if the same needle is used on multiple individuals without being appropriately sanitised, there is a high risk of transmitting HIV or other bloodborne infections.

Botulism, a serious illness that is caused by counterfeit Botox injection, has sickened 22 people in 11 states in the US  some of whom were even hospitalized. Botulisms symptoms include blurred vision, difficulty swallowing and breathing, slurred speech and fatigue.

How It Became A Viral Beauty Treatment?

American reality television star Kim Kardashian shared a selfie after the vampire facial procedure in 2013 where her face appeared bloody. A few years later Kardashian said she would not get the treatment again, writing on her website that it was really rough and painful for me.

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow in an interview warned that the treatment hurts, according to media reports.

What are PRP Goals?

In theory, the vampire facial has growth factors and proteins in PRP that help promote skin renewal, improve overall texture and tone of the skin, and stimulate the synthesis of collagen.

The goal of treatment is to maximise the benefits of both PRP application and microneedling for skin renewal. However, its very important to consult a qualified and experienced practitioner to ensure safety and effectiveness.

The success of vampire facials may vary based on a number of factors, including skin type, general health, and age. To guarantee a safe and satisfying result, possible risks and side effects should also be discussed with the practitioner in advance.
Amidst the Lok Sabha Election, West Bengals Trinamool Congress government has accused governor CV Ananda Bose of sexual harassment, a claim vehemently denied by him. This time, the TMC is in direct conflict with the Governors office  taking politics in the state to a new low.

What exactly is the complaint against the governor? A woman employee of Raj Bhavan since 2019, who lives in the residential quarters at the Governors House, has accused Bose of inappropriately touching her. The matter came to the fore after she approached the police inside the Governors House and alleged that Bose had molested her.

In her complaint, she mentioned that she was sexually harassed twice  on 19 April, Governor asked me to take some time out and meet him with my CV. On second occasion, On 24 April, around 12.45 pm, he called me to his office room and after some discussion touched me. I somehow managed to leave the office room. He called me once again today, on May 2. I took my supervisor along with me to the conference room because I was scared. After talking for a while about work, he asked the supervisor to leave. He prolonged the conversation by talking about my promotion. He said he will call me at night and asked me not to tell anyone. When I refused, he tried to touch me. I protested and left.

Deputy Commissioner of Central Division, Indira Mukherjee confirmed the complaint, saying: Around 5 pm, a complaint was lodged at the police outpost. It was forwarded to Hare Street police station. The complaint is against His Excellency the Governor. An inquiry is on.

TMC vs Governor

The Mamata Banerjee-led party has accused Bose of disrespecting Raj Bhavan. In a post on X, TMC wrote, Appalling and unthinkable! The sanctity of Raj Bhavan, a symbol of our constitutionality, has been tarnished. Hours before PM Narendra Modi was supposed to arrive at Raj Bhavan to spend the night, a woman was allegedly molested by the Governor under the false pretext of a job.

Meanwhile, the governor has banned the police from accessing the Raj Bhavan under the guise of conducting unauthorised, illegitimate, sham and motivated investigation to placate political bosses during elections, escalating the conflict with the state administration.

Raj Bhavan stated, The Attorney General of India has been contacted for advice on further legal steps against the minister. The Honble Governor also banned the entry of police into the Raj Bhavan premises in the guise of conducting unauthorised, illegitimate, sham and motivated investigation to placate political bosses during elections.

Can Article 361 Save Governor?

According to Article 361, which provides immunity to the President and Governor, they shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties

The provision also says: no criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be initiated or continued against the President, or the Governor of a State, in any court during the term of his office. No process for the arrest or imprisonment of the President, or the Governor of a State, shall issue from any court during his term of office.

In the landmark 2006 ruling in Rameshwar Prasad v Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the position in law is that the Governor enjoys complete immunity, even on allegations of personal malafides.

Governor is not answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties, the SC said.

When Criminal Action Against Governors Were Halted

In 2017, the Supreme Court allowed fresh charges of criminal conspiracy against BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid. The trial did not take place against former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh since he was then the governor of Rajasthan.

The Supreme Court had said Kalyan Singh being the governor of Rajasthan is entitled to immunity under Article 361 as long as he remains Governor of Rajasthan. It said the Court of Sessions will frame charges and move against him as soon as he ceases to be Governor.

Then Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan in 2017, following a nudge from the Centre, resigned after allegations of sexual harassment levelled by Raj Bhavan staff. In 2009, then Andhra Pradesh Governor ND Tiwari also resigned on health grounds following an alleged sex scandal in Raj Bhavan.
Amid the ongoing probe in connection to the sex tape controversy involving Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, the Karnataka government formed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday filed a rape case against the suspended JD(S) leader. This is the second case filed against Prajwal in connection to the case.

The case has been filed under Section 376 of the IPC. It lists charges under Section 376(2) (N) (committing rape repeatedly), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354A(1)(ii) (demand for sexual favour), 354(B) (assault or criminal force on a woman with the intention to disrobe her), and 354(C) (uploading of nude or semi-nude pictures), and the IT Act.

According to a report published in India Today, Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, has been named as the sole accused in the FIR.

After the sex videos involving Prajwal Revanna surfaced on social media, a case was registered against him and his father HD Revanna for sexual harassment, intimidation, stalking and outraging the dignity of a woman based on a complaint by a woman who worked at their house.

However, Prajwal has alleged that the videos were morphed and also lodged a complaint in the matter.

Meanwhile, the anticipatory bail application plea filed by HD Revanna in Bengaluru has been withdrawn by him. This came after the SIT filed an objection application against the anticipatory bail of Revanna. The SIT stated that no non-bailable offenses has been evoked and anticipatory bail application is not required when it is bailable section.

Meanwhile, a lookout notice was issued against incumbent Karnataka MP Prajwal Revanna by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday. The development has come after the father-son duo failed to appear before the SIT, which was constituted by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah-led Karnataka government to investigate the sexual abuse allegations against the Hassan MP.

The panel issued the notice after it had rejected Prajwal Revannas request to allow him 7 days to appear for an inquiry.

Find Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Iran has announced the release of the crew members, including 16 Indian nationals, from the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps near the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, 2024.

Sources said that the Indian sailors could be home soon after some documentation was over.

The information was shared by Iranian Finance Minister Amir Abdollahian with Estonian Finance Minister Margos Tasakana informing him that the decision has been taken based humanitarian aspect.

The Iranian Finance Minister said, The ship seized in the territorial waters of Iran turned off its radar and endangered the safety of the sailors during the detention There is a judicial decision, but Iran has released all its crew with a human eye, and in the presence of the captain of the ship, the possibility of their return to their country, including Estonia, is available.

This diplomatic breakthrough comes after weeks of uncertainty and negotiations following the incident, which initially saw the sole woman sailor among the Indian crew, Ann Tessa Joseph, being released and sent back to India on April 18.

The Portuguese-flagged vessel, with 25 crew members on board, was apprehended by Iran amid heightened tensions in the region. The ships seizure was a direct response to an Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus, highlighting the complex geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East.

Indian authorities had been in constant communication with their Iranian counterparts to ensure the safety and early release of the Indian nationals on board. The Ministry of External Affairs had expressed concern over the situation and worked tirelessly to secure the release of the sailors.

Indias efforts were supported by international diplomatic channels, with the Indian foreign minister urging Iran to consider the release of the Indian crew members. This move was part of Indias broader strategy to de-escalate tensions in the region and protect the interests of its citizens.

The Iranian governments decision to release the crew members is seen as a gesture of goodwill and a step towards de-escalating tensions in the region. The announcement was made by Irans Foreign Minister, who stated that the release was a humanitarian act aimed at promoting peace and stability in the region.

The development comes as a relief for the families of the sailors and a testament to the effectiveness of diplomatic efforts in resolving international disputes. It also underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication and cooperation between nations, even in the face of geopolitical challenges.

As the crew members prepare to return home, the focus now shifts to the broader implications of this incident and the ongoing efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East.

Find Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
Karnataka State Police has introduced a new website to pay fines related to traffic violation cases. Traffic Additional Director General of Police, Alok Kumar, has shared information about this through a tweet. He tweeted, Karnataka Police has launched a website with url: https://payfine.mchallan.com:7271, to facilitate pending fine amount for the state except Bangalore City Citizen can check the pending fine against their vehicles too. An effort to minimise inconvenience & visit to Police Station.

Karnataka Police has launched a website with url : https://t.co/f0wjyib8BI, to facilitate pending fine amount for the state except Bangalore CityCitizen can check the pending fine against their vehicles tooAn effort to minimise inconvenience & visit to Police Station pic.twitter.com/RfdATledgy  alok kumar (@alokkumar6994) May 2, 2024

One of the users, however, had a concern regarding this new step by the administration. The user tweeted that the data of this website appears to be unsafe. As per the user, for any vehicle that has a pending fine, the owner and his address are being displayed without being masked.

Sir  the data appears to be very insecure. Any vehicle which has a pending fine, the owner and his address is being displayed without being masked. Santhosh (@saintist47) May 2, 2024

The ADGP assured the user that the name and address of the traffic rule violated will be hidden for the next 24 hours.

Will mask the name & address of the violator within next 24 hrs alok kumar (@alokkumar6994) May 2, 2024

Before the website was launched, the traffic rule violators had to visit the respective traffic stations in their localities to pay the fines. The fines were paid through the Karnataka One or Bangalore One website as well. Now, with the opening of a website only for traffic fine collection purposes, it is expected to minimise the load on traffic stations. This will facilitate the online payment of the penalty amount. As per the ADGP Traffic & Road Safety Alok Kumar, 3.25 traffic-violation-related cases are pending as of now.

Despite such a heavy workload of cases, a fine of Rs 1700 crore could be collected till the end of March. Now, a fine of Rs 1425 crore has to be collected from Bengaluru city. Collection of such massive fines had become an uphill task for the Bengaluru police due to which they asked the opinion of the public regarding this matter.

The police have also written to the transport department to consider amending the Motor Vehicles Act. As per the police, this will allow impounding and auctioning of vehicles involved in multiple violations. C Mallikarjuna, Additional Commissioner of Transport (Enforcement, South), said that this is not a workable solution.

Find Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
In a major development, Karnataka Police have registered an FIR against HD Revanna a JD(S) MLA and son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda in connection with the kidnapping of one of the victims in the sex video scandal involving his son Prajwal Revanna.

The senior JD(S) leader was booked after the son of one of the victims approached police naming HD Revanna as the prime accused in the case of abduction and sexual harassment of his mother.

HD Revannas relative Satish Babu has been named as the second accused in the FIR.

Following the complaint, the KR Nagar Police in Mysuru District lodged an FIR against HD Revanna and Satish Babu under several sections of the Indian Penal Code on charges related to kidnapping, among others.

The kidnapped victim is an aged lady, who was allegedly sexually exploited by HD Revannas son and NDAs Hassan candidate, Prajwal Revanna, in spite of pleadings. The video has created public outrage.

HD Revanna has sought anticipatory bail in the case. Meanwhile, Prajwal Revanna is absconding and has left the country.

Prajwal Revannas obscene videos showing sexual harassment and abuse of women have taken the political circles in Karnataka by storm.

What Did The Complainant Say?

The son of the elderly victim has alleged that his mother has disappeared in the backdrop of the surfacing of the sex video containing footage showing her being sexually assaulted by Prajwal Revanna.

Her son has stated that the second accused Satish Babu had come to their house and taken his mother on a bike saying that HD Revanna wanted to see her. He noted that since then she had not returned home.

The complainant stated that on April 29 at about 9 p.m. his mother was taken away forcefully by Satish Babu after threatening the family with a police case if they did not let her go.

He also alleged that his mother was locked up in an undisclosed location and pleaded with the police to help him find her and initiate legal action against HD Revanna and Satish Babu.

In his complaint, the son stated that his mother had worked at the residence and farm of Revanna for six years and she quit the job three years ago.

He said that just three days before polling on April 26, Satish Babu took his mother from their residence saying that HD Revannas wife Bhavani Revanna wanted to see her. However, on the day of polling his mother was dropped back to their house and warned by Satish Babu not to speak to the police.

The son said that Satish Babu threatened that if they spoke to the police a case would be lodged against them, and also asked them to intimate him if cops approached them.

Satish Babu also said that he would shift the victim in case the police approached them, the complaint stated.

At 9 p.m. on April 29, Satish Babu again came to their home and maintained that if the police located the victim, she would land in trouble, there would be a case and she would be jailed.

He claimed that HD Revanna had asked him to bring the victim to him and forcefully took her away on his bike, the complaint stated.

The complainant has pleaded that he has no idea where his mother is being kept.

He said that the next day his friends and relatives asked him about the videos of his mother being raped by Prajwal Revanna being released.

The son stated that the relatives also explained that the case had taken a big twist.

The complainant said he had called Satish Babu and asked about her whereabouts and insisted that he should bring her back. However, Satish Babu maintained that there was a photo of his mother holding a stick while Prajwal Revanna was involved in a fight with someone and an FIR had been lodged in this regard. Satish Babu further maintained that bail had to be obtained for the victim.

The son has said in his complaint that Satish Babu suggested that he should be talking from some other persons phone.

(With IANS Inputs)

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Telangana Police on Friday filed a closure report in the Rohith Vemula death case and absolved the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, and Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leaders and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.

The report stated that Rohith committed suicide as he was stressed out for several reasons, including his poor performance on the academic front due to his political engagements on the campus and his mother arranging a fake Scheduled Caste (SC) certificate for him.

Hours after the closure report was filed, Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Ravi Gupta, however, ordered further probe into the Vemulas death case after the deceaseds mother and brother expressed doubts about the closure report filed by the police earlier in the day.

If the studies of the deceased were seen, it appeared that he was involved more in student political issues in the campus rather than in his studies. He discontinued his first Ph.D after pursuing it for 2 years and he joined another Ph.D which also did not progress much because of non academic activities, the police report read.

According to the report, Rohith was aware of the fact that his mother had arranged an SC certificate for him and was worried that his reputation could get affected if his peers found out about it.

In addition to this, the deceased himself is aware that he does not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure the same would put him to loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution, the report read.

Thus, the deceased had multiple issues worrying him which could have driven him to commit suicide. Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide, the report added.

The report comes just 10 days before voting in Telangana for the Lok Sabha polls on May 13.

Rohiths brother reacts

Hours after the Telangana Police submitted its closure report in the Telangana High Court, the deceased students brother expressed dissatisfaction.

He said, Instead of investigating how my brother was targetted, harassed, and finally killed, police investigated his caste status.

ROHITHS SUICIDE

26-year-old Rohith died by suicide in his hostel room at Hyderabad Central University on January 17, 2016. The next day, protests erupted on the campus and spread to as far as Delhi, where the Modi government was forced to deny allegations of being anti-Dalit.

He was a member of the Ambedkar Students Association, which advocates for the rights of Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) students on the campus. He was one of five Dalit students who were protesting against their expulsion from the universitys housing facility.

The five faced allegations last year that they attacked a member of the ABVP, the student wing of Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They all denied the charge and the university cleared them in an initial inquiry, but reversed its decision in December. The sociology department students friends used to describe him as a hard-working, brilliant and kind-hearted person.

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Days after AstraZeneca acknowledged that its COVID vaccine can lead to a rare blood clot side effect, the parents of a young woman who allegedly died after being given Covishield are planning to sue the British pharma giant and worlds largest vaccine maker.

The development comes after AstraZeneca admitted in the UK court that their vaccine can cause rare side effects that can lead to blood clots and low platelet count.

Notably, while AstraZeneca developed the COVID-19 vaccine, it was manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under the name Covishield. The vaccine was widely administered in the country. However, SII is yet to comment on this matter.

Reacting on AstraZeneca admission, Venugopalan Govindan, who lost his 20-year-old daughter Karunya in 2021, said the admission was too late and came after so many lives have been lost.

Taking to X, he wrote, The Serum Institute should have stopped the vaccine supply after the 15 European countries had restricted its usage over deaths from blood clots. He said the grieving parents are fighting for justice in various courts, but are not getting a hearing.

The manufacturer Serum Institute of India, the Government who advertised these vaccines throughout the nation at huge expense to exchequer as safe and effective without sufficient data (and when data emerged about the adverse events from around the world, they chose not to stop the rollout or at least sensitise people and medical fraternity about it), the regulatory bodies that approved it and subsequently didnt intervene to stop it when data emerged about the dangers, are all culpable in the death of my daughter and countless others who have died after taking this so-called vaccine, he added in the post on X.

Serum Institute of India and Adar Poonawalla will have to answer for their sins. For the lives lost, Govindan said in another post, accusing government authorities for approving the rollout of the vaccine.

What is TTS, Covishields Rare Side-Effect?

AstraZeneca (AZ), UKs pharmaceutical giant, has admitted its Covid vaccine, sold under the brand name of Covishield in India, in very rare cases can cause a blood clot-related side effect, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media.

The pharmaceutical giant admitted that the COVID-19 vaccine may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS). TTS is an extreme immunological reaction that occurs after COVID-19 immunisation.

TTS is a rare disease that was observed in individuals who received a COVID-19 adenovirus vector-based vaccination. It is a kind of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), in which clots of blood develop in the venous sinuses of the brain, blocking the flow of blood out of the brain. This lowers the platelet count and increases the risk of bleeding or blood clots in different body areas.

Blood clots can occur in the stomach or brain, among other places. A limited number of individuals who got the Covishield vaccination have reported experiencing TTS syndrome, a significant and uncommon side effect, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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Saudi Arabia confirmed in a letter to the United Nations that a female fitness instruction who was popular online received an 11-year prison sentence but did not specify any of her alleged terrorism offenses.

Though the kingdom insisted the case had nothing to do with the instructors online presence, human rights activists say the conviction levied against Manahel al-Otaibi shows the limits of expression in Saudi Arabia.

It also highlights another side of the kingdom, now run day-to-day by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who under his 88-year-old father King Salman has dramatically liberalized some aspects of womens lives in the country.

Her charges related solely to her choice of clothing and expression of her views online, including calling on social media for an end to Saudi Arabias male guardianship system, publishing videos of herself wearing indecent clothes and going to the shops without wearing an abaya, said Amnesty International and ALQST, a London-based group advocating for human rights in Saudi Arabia thats followed al-Otaibis case.

The human rights organisation issued joint statements on Tuesday about al-Otaibis prison sentence, first revealed in Saudi letter dated January 25 and sent to the UNs Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In its letter, Saudi Arabias permanent mission to the UN in Geneva did not outline any of the evidence that convicted al-Otaibi while saying there had been unfounded and uncorroborated allegations and claims made about her case.

Al-Otaibi, who posted fitness videos on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, faced charges of defaming the kingdom at home and abroad, calling for rebellion against public order and societys traditions and customs, and challenging the judiciary and its justice, according to court documents earlier seen by The Associated Press.

Her posts included advocacy for liberal dress codes for women, LGBTQ+ rights and the abolition of Saudi Arabia male guardianship laws. She was also accused of appearing in indecent clothing and posting Arabic hashtags that include the phrase overthrow the government. Al-Otaibi has been detained since November 2022. Her sister Fouz faced similar charges but fled Saudi Arabia, according to ALQST.

The kingdoms letter said the Saudi government wishes to underscore the fact that the exercise and defense of rights is not a crime under Saudi law; however, justifying the actions of terrorists by describing them as exercising or defending rights is unacceptable and constitutes an attempt to legitimize terrorist crimes. Since 2018, women have been allowed to drive and other restrictions have been lifted in the once-ultraconservative kingdom as it tries to rapidly diversify its oil-based economy. That came as Prince Mohammed solidified his power, partly by imprisoning members of the Saudi elite as his father retains formal control in the kingdom.

Several activists have been arrested for denouncing Saudi rules, or following dissidents who do so, on social media. This includes Salma al-Shehab, a former doctoral student at Leeds University who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence.
One Icon of the Seas cruise passenger was not happy when she discovered how the ocean looked from her balcony at night.

A railing on the side of Icon of the Seas has left one passenger less than impressed. Source: TikTok

A Royal Caribbean cruise passenger has ignited a debate about obstructed views on cabin balconies after complaining about a fixture on the outside of her balcony.

The woman named Abbie, who was enjoying a holiday on the world's largest cruise ship Icon of the Seas, earlier this year, questioned whether her room should be considered an 'obstructed view' room, arguing that a railing on the outside of the ship messes up the way the ocean looks at night.

In a video posted to social media, Abbie shares her view and explains the railing which spans the length of the ship cuts off the bottom of her view of the ocean down below when shes sitting on the balcony.

This rail goes all the way down, Abbie, who was travelling with her husband, explains. So you sit on the balcony, you should be able to just see right down at the ocean. But you can't.

It's obstructed about a foot or so. And that messes up the way that the ocean looks at night. It's really pretty at night.

Abbie says the white railing on the outside of her balcony obstructs her view. Source: TikTok

What is an obstructed view?

According to cruise giant Royal Caribbean, an obstruction is something that blocks a proportion of the direct outward view from a stateroom. They go on to explain that the type of obstructions are usually lifeboats or the outer structure of the ship.

Abbie claims the bottom 30 centimetres of her view of the ocean is blocked by the railing but many responded to say shes gotta be joking.

No, that is not considered to be an obstructed view, said one viewer. Obstructed view balconies will have equipment [blocking] the view. But Abbie argues the railing is equipment, saying its still a rail blocking my view. A rail that holds equipment.

I cant believe someone would COMPLAIN about that view, said another of the stunning scenery in Abbies video.

Royal Caribbean was contacted for comment on the matter by Yahoo News.

Cruises growing in popularity across all generations

While it was feared the cruise industry would never fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2023/24 travel period has had roughly 50 per cent more passengers than the year prior to the pandemic.

Whats more, in the past, many have assumed the clientele on cruises with the older generation, but Gen Z and millennials are increasingly attracted to setting sail for their holidays.

Carnival Australia said earlier this year there has been a steady increase in young Australians going on cruises in the past few years, with Cruise Lines International Association managing director Joel Katz telling the public broadcaster the average cruise age of 49 is "much younger than it used to be".

And operators are now moving to attract younger passengers offering onboard services such as state-of-the-art gyms, tattoo parlours and late-night pizza stands.

One such attraction has been Royal Caribbean's nine-month Ultimate World Cruise which has become a TikTok sensation with content creators like Aussie comedian Christian Hull documenting his adventures on board.

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Eight years after Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vemula died by suicide, Telangana police have filed a closure report in the case, absolving all accused. Hours later, Telanganas top cop ordered further probe into the 26-year-old PhD students death case. Vemula died on January 17, 2016, leaving behind a note where he said he felt his birth was his fatal accident.

In its closure report, police said Vemula wasnt a Dalit and died by suicide because he feared his real caste identity would be revealed. The then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, and ABVP leaders and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani were accused in the case.

Later, in an official statement, Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Ravi Gupta said that as some doubts have been expressed by the mother and others of the deceased Rohit Vemula on the investigation conducted, it has been decided to conduct further investigation into the case.

A petition will be filed in the Court concerned requesting the Honble Magistrate to permit further investigation into the case, he added.

Born on January 30, 1989, Vemula hailed from Andhra Pradeshs Guntur district. He was a PhD student at Hyderabad Central University where he was a part of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) on campus.

Timeline of Rohith Vemulas Death

The university stopped Vemulas monthly stipend in July 2015, leading to accusations of targeted discrimination due to his activism under the banner of ASA.

However, officials denied the allegation saying the delay was due to paperwork.

Later, on 5 August 2015, an inquiry was opened against Rohith and four other ASA members, two days after they allegedly assaulted ABVP leader N Susheel Kumar.

They all denied the charge and the university cleared them in an initial inquiry.

The situation reportedly escalated further after the BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya characterised the university as being a hotbed of casteist, extremist, and antinational politics.

This intervention reportedly resulted in the suspension of all five students in September 2015. On December 17, 2015, the decision was upheld.

Vemula, along with his fellow suspended students, resorted to a hunger protest in protest against the financial strain and institutional ostracization.

In a handwritten letter to the Hyderabad University vice-chancellor on December 18, 2015, Vemula said, Please serve 10 mg of Sodium Azide to all Dalit students at the time of admission with directions to use when they feel like reading AmbedkarSupply a nice rope to the rooms of all Dalit students from companion, the great Chief Warden.

However, on January 17, 2016, Vemula tragically took his own life. His death prompted nationwide protests against discrimination towards Dalits in universities.

What Did The Closure Report Say?

The report, which police submitted in the Telangana High Court on Friday, said Vemula committed suicide in fear of his real caste being revealed as he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste category. It also alleged that the family forged the caste certificates without providing any evidence for the same.

Notably, Rohiths mother Radhika Vemula has claimed that she belonged to the SC Mala caste while his father Mani Kumar belonged to the Vaddera OBC community. As per Radhika Vemula, Mani Kumar abandoned her and her children after he discovered her Dalit identity.

While the case of 26-year-old PhD students death was primarily registered under Section 306 (Abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act, the closure report focused on Vemulas caste location.

The report also blames Rohith for appearing to be involved more in student political issues in the campus than studies, despite his friends describing him as a hard-working, brilliant and kind-hearted person.

There is no evidence of any fact or circumstance available on the record which dragged him to commit suicide and no one is responsible for his death, the report read.

Aabsolving university administration and political leaders against whom the students had filed the case, the report stated that Rohith had his own problems and was not happy with worldly affairs.

If he would have been angry with the decision of the University, certainly either he would have written in specific words or would have indicated in this regard. But he did not do the same. It shows that the circumstances prevailing in the university at the time were not the reason for Rohiths death, the report added.

Interestingly, the report on the controversial death case just 10 days before Telangana votes in the Lok Sabha polls on May 13.

The closure report was released around four months after the Congress government came into power in Telangana. After Rohith died in 2016, Congress extended support to the Justice for Vemula campaign. The party also promised to bring a law named Rohith Vemula Act to safeguard the right to education and dignity for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and minorities.

So far, the Congress government in Telangana has responded to the closure report

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Every year on May 3, the whole world celebrates Press Freedom Day. The day is commemorated to highlight the significance of press freedom globally and to recognise the challenges encountered by journalists. The day also pays tribute to all the journalists who have lost their lives. World Press Freedom Day was first declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993. This declaration came after a recommendation made in 1991 at the twenty-sixth General Conference session of UNESCO. The year will mark the 31st anniversary of World Press Freedom Day.

World Press Freedom Day: History

The initiative to celebrate World Press Freedom Day was first started by an African journalist during a UNESCO conference in Namibia in 1991. In December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly decided to celebrate it after the recommendation of the UNESCO General Conference. The main purpose of this day is to remind the government and the world about the importance of the press in a democracy. It also highlights the freedom that the press needs to express themselves.

World Press Freedom Day 2024 Theme

Every year, the day is marked around a particular theme that highlights the importance of freedom of the press.

In 2024, the theme for World Press Freedom Day is A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.

Below are the themes of the previous years as well:

World Press Freedom Day 2023: Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for All Other Human Rights.

World Press Freedom Day 2022: Journalism Under Digital Siege

World Press Freedom Day 2021: Information as a Public Good

World Press Freedom Day: Significance

One of the most significant points that World Press Freedom Day addresses is that it puts pressure on countries that try to curb and harm the freedom of the press. It is a day to stand against authoritarianism. The day also shows how much we value the public service provided by honest journalists committed to uncovering the truth. The day also remembers and honours the journalists who gave their lives to keep people informed.
Pooja Sawant is one of the leading actresses in the Marathi film industry, who married her long-time lover Siddesh Chavan in February earlier this year. After her marriage, she appears to have shifted to Australia in her new home. She often posts her family pictures and videos for her fans to keep them updated about her life. On the occasion of Maharashtra Day, on May 1, Pooja Sawant shared a special post. Every Maharashtrian is a proud devotee of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Pooja Sawant is no exception. She shared a picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajs idol, as she enshrined it in her new home in Australia. The post is now making rounds on social media.

While sharing her love for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, she wrote that she always aspired to have the idol of Shivaji Maharaj at her new home in Australia just like her house in Mumbai. I had spoken this wish to my team before the wedding, wrote Pooja Sawant. The idol was gifted to her by Manoj Ruke (Spot Dada) as a gift for the wedding. She wished her fans Happy Maharashtra Day while sharing pictures.

After that, I brought this image of Maharaj to Australia in a very careful manner. Finally, now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj has sat in our Australia house too, wrote Pooja Sawant. In the pictures, she was seen wearing a saffron saree, while she posed with the idol of Shivaji Maharaj at her home.

Fans were quick to reach the comments section of the post. Many wished her Happy Maharashtra Day, while others praised her for propagating the Marathi culture overseas. Wherever we go in the world, we should not forget our culture. A great example, wrote one of the users.

Pooja Sawant was last seen in the movie Musafiraa, which was directed by debutant Pushkar. She has given numerous blockbusters in her career which include movies like Kshanbhar Vishranti, Zhakkas, Poshter Boyz and Dagdi Chawal. The fans are now eagerly waiting for her comeback.
Parks and Recreation is one of the most popular US sitcoms with a global fanbase. Even though the show concluded in 2015 after a successful seven seasons, fans have always held hopes for the shows reboot or a spin-off. The political satire mockumentary, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, was based in the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee in Indiana, USA. The cast of Parks and Recreation came together in 2020 to make a remotely filmed special fundraiser episode for the non-profit Feeding America. The special episode reignited the hopes of a reboot amongst many fans.

Recently, actor Adam Scott, who played Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the possibility of a reboot. Scott, who joined the show in its second season, said that so far there have been no talks about any reunion or reboot. Scott said that he was happy with the conclusion of the show and added that if his fellow cast members Mike Schur, Amy Poehler, Greg Daniels and others want to reprise their roles then he would be up for it, even though it looks unlikely.

He added, We did do something over the pandemic where we all got back together and made an episode to raise money for Feeding America. I dont know if there would ever be any more, but I mean, I really dont know. I love the show and love all the people. Its always fun seeing any of them. I havent seen the show in a long time just because I miss it and I feel like it would be sad to watch it, but its just such a lovely show and lovely group of people.

In 2018, Parks and Recreation was put on top OTT platforms like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. This introduced a new audience to the show. As per Nielsen data, Parks and Recreation was one of the ten most-streamed shows on Netflix in 2018 based on time spent watching. During the pandemic, many old shows like Parks and Recreation and The Office, saw a new-founded surge in viewership.

Even though Parks and Recreation is not getting a reboot or spin-off anytime soon, The Office is confirmed to have a spin-off series. In April, Screen Rant reported that former showrunner Greg Daniels will be writing the show. The new series will not be a sequel or prequel to The Office, even though it will be set in the same universe.
Ever since Arti Singh tied the knot with Dipak Chauhan, she has shared several pictures and videos from her wedding ceremony on social media. On Friday too, Arti took to her Instagram handle and dropped a video from her Bidai ceremony.

The video begins with bride Arti throwing rice backwards, which is a part of the Hindu culture and means that she wishes wealth and happiness for her house. The actress is then seen getting teary-eyed as she bids adieu to her family members. She cries inconsolably as she also hugs her brother, Krushna Abhishek and sister-in-law, Kashmera Shah.

In the heartwarming video, Arti looked gorgeous in a baby pink saree. Her traditional jewellery was the star of the show, adding a layer of allure to her overall look. The red chunri that she carried with her pink saree complemented her look. Dipak, on the other hand, looked no less in his royal prince outfit.

Goodbyes are tough, but @dipakchauhan09 you gave me strength like always , she wrote. Watch it here:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arti singh sharma (@artisingh5)

Arti Singh married Dipak Chauhan on April 25, 2024. Their wedding ceremony took place at the ISKCON temple in Mumbai. Previously, Arti also shared glimpses of her pheras and jaimamla ceremony.

Arti Singh and Dipak Chauhans wedding was a star-studded affair which was attended by several celebrities. Krushna Abhisheks The Great Indian Kapil Show co-stars Kapil Sharma, Archana Puran Singh, Sunil Grover and Rajiv Thakur graced the wedding. Arti Singhs Bigg Boss 13 co-contestants including Shefali Jariwala, Vishal Aditya Singh and Hindustani Bhau also attended to bless her.

The highlight of Arti Singhs wedding was undoubtedly her actor-uncle Govinda. He was not on talking terms with his nephew Krushna Abhishek, Artis elder brother. The duo had a huge fallout in 2016 and have often made statements against each other. Therefore, everyone was unsure about Govinda attending Artis wedding especially after he skipped the TV stars Haldi, Sangeet and Mehendi ceremonies. However, Govinda graced the wedding reception and surprised all.

Later, Govinda also blessed Arti and Dipak and told Instant Bollywood, Ishvar se praarthana hai, jo kripa Arti par hui hai kisi prakaar ka vastu dosh na lage (I pray for her wellbeing and may god protect her from evil eyes).
Popular 90s star Deepak Tijori recalled the time he was offered Baazigar before it landed in Shah Rukh Khans kitty. For the unversed, Baazigar released in 1993. The movie, directed by director duo Mustan-Abbas, was said to be an unofficial remake of A Kiss Before Dying and was a landmark film in Shah Rukhs career. The film marked Shilpa Shettys acting debut and also starred Kajol in the lead. In an interview last year, Deepak said that he had given the director duo the idea to remake the film.

However, in a new interview, Deepak clarified that he was never offered Baazigar. He added that he was doing a separate film with the director duo at the time. In our trade, in our business, we dont hang on to things. We move on, we let things go. So whatever really happened, it wasnt like I was offered, I was simultaneously making another set up with the same directors. But things went haywire. I believe no matter what, its just a matter of time and a matter of work, my actual work starts now. So I think the better of me will be seen now, he told Zoom TV.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama last year, Deepak claimed he had watched A Kiss Before Dying and told the story to Abbas-Mastan. They loved the film and he suggested they remake it for Bollywood. I said I want to play this bad guy because A Kiss Before Dying was about Matt Dillon being a bad guy, he said last year.

However, he later realised that the filmmakers were making the film with SRK and was shocked. He reached out to Shah Rukh, who was his friend at the time, and asked him not sign the film. When I met Abbas-Mustan, they told me, Deepak ji galti ho gayi hai (We have made a mistake) We will compensate. We will do something together in the future, he said. Deepak hinted that he was not compensated.

Baazigar went on to become a blockbuster. Shah Rukh went on to do a string of grey characters in films such as Darr and Anjaam. Speaking with NDTV in 2017, he revealed the reason he signed these films was because other actors were turning down these roles.

The reasons I agreed to do roles which the other guys were saying no to (for whatever their mindset was), a Darr or a Baazigar, was because I thought Im not good-looking enough to be a hero, so let me just get a villains job. I didnt do it because I was gutsy or because I knew I could pull it off, Im such a great actor, he said at the time.

Coincidentally, SRK and Deepak worked together in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, which released in 1994. Besides that, Deepak was seen in films such as Aashiqui, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, Sadak, Khiladi and the famous Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. He turned director with films such as Khamoshh Khauff Ki Raat, Fareb, and Tom, Dick, and Harry.

He will now be seen in Tipppsy.
Ranveer Singh will be headlining Don 3. The Farhan Akhtar directorial was announced last year and also revealed that Kiara Advani will be seen opposite of Ranveer. However, he has kept his plans for the film under the wraps. A new report now has revealed that the filming for Don 3 will take place at the end of this year and the team is eyeing to wrap the shoot within four months. The report also added that most of the shoot will take place internationally.

A few days ago, Farhan Akhtar has reached London with the core team of this film. He has gone there to finalize the location for the shooting of Don-3. Apart from London, the production team will also go to Germany. It is possible that apart from London, the film will also be shot in many cities of Germany, reported Dainik Bhaskar.

Citing sources, they also claimed that the shoot will begin after August this year and will complete it by December. Farhaan and team are yet to react to the reports.

Farhan Akhtar confirmed last year that Ranveer will be replacing Shah Rukh Khan in the Don series. He also dropped a teaser to make the announcement. Sher jo so raha hain woh jagega kab, puchte hai yeh sab. Unse keh do phir jaag utha hoon main, aur phir samne jald aane ko Ranveer said in the promo. Social media was divided over the news.

Later in an interview with BBC Asian Network, Farhan broke his silence on the backlash he received for replacing SRK in Don 3. Im just really looking forward to get it going. I mean Ranveer is amazing. Hes great for the part. Hes also as you can imagine, really excited and really nervous, about the thing youre filling some big shoes before you. But we went through the same emotional process when Shah Rukh did it and everyone was like Oh my God, how can you replace Mr. Bachchan?. That whole thing happened then, he said.
Two years after making her digital debut with The Broken News, Sonali Bendre is returning to reprise her character as Amina, a credible journalist who believes and champions ethical journalism, in the second season of the show. The Zee5 series tackles the conflict between ethical and sensational news and its second season explores the consequences of how truth often gets sensationalised to grab eyeballs.

Sonali, who began her acting journey with Aag in 1994, has also often been a victim of yellow journalism and tabloid culture. In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, she shares she has often been linked up with her male contemporaries back in the day and opens up on how that ended up making headlines.

She tells us, Gossips and newsmakers jumping to conclusions  be it about who youre seeing or the affairs youre having or even the fights youre having with your co-stars  come under the gamut of where did that come from? And most of the time, such things that were written about me werent true at all.

While she believes that its a trend that is prevalent even today, in the nineties, producers used to intentionally sell off such rumours to the newsmakers to increase the buzz surrounding their films. These days, actors are at least asked if they would want link-up rumours with their co-stars to be floated around. During my time, we werent even asked and those gossips would just be out there to promote the film and the actors had no choice.

The Hum Saath Saath Hain actor further adds, There was a motive to link the lead pair up just to be in news. Itne shiddat ke saath yeh karte the ki I think they (such gimmicks) may have worked. But I found these things to be really strange. For the unversed, Sonali was linked with Suniel Shetty in the 90s.

Sonali agrees that perception building is important in show business but she was told to manufacture a narrative about coming from a financially strong background to fit into the prototype of a film actor. To what extent is one comfortable about building a perception is the question. Today, curating a rags to riches story for an actor is working. At my time, they told me to not give out the fact that I came from a middle-class family, she reveals.

Though she was against lying about herself, her peers often had to succumb to these exercises. We were supposed to say that we come from a rich background. But Ive always maintained since the very beginning that I belong to a middle-class family because I thought it was obvious. I wasnt comfortable lying but I know that a lot of colleagues did do that. But what happens is that when you give out fake stories, you get caught up in them. And the moment theres a lie, people go about finding the truth, Sonali says.
Krishnamma, the Telugu crime drama, is headed for its release on May 10, 2024. It features Satya Dev as the protagonist. The makers of the film recently hosted a pre-release event. Besides the cast and the crew, renowned filmmakers like Siva Koratal, SS Rajamouli, and Anil Ravipudi also attended the event. A video from the event is being widely circulated on social media. It depicts a funny banter between the RRR director and Ravipudi.

It all began when Anil Ravipudi asked Rajamouli to reveal the opening day of his most anticipated project with Mahesh Babu in the lead. Putting the Baahubali director on the spot, he said that the director would discuss the story on the films opening day.

Rajamouli participated in the fun banter as well. Referring to the crowd present at the venue, he offered a reward of Rs 10,000 to punch Ravipudi. Not one to back down, Ravipudi immediately retaliated saying that the amount was too much adding that two rupees would be enough.

Notably, SS Rajamouli has joined forces with the charismatic Mahesh Babu for the film tentatively titled SSMB29. As per the recent reports, the film is currently in its pre-production phase. It is expected to go on the floor later this year. A source close to the team informed Hindustan Times, Rajamouli and producer KL Narayana recently met Mahesh in Dubai to discuss the film while he was vacationing there. The director is currently focused on the extensive pre-production a film of this scale requires. Mahesh is also attending workshops to get in the skin of the character and is dedicated to looking the part. Right now, the plan is to begin shooting in August or September.

As for Krishnamma, the films trailer was released on May 1. Written and directed by VV Gopala Krishna, the film centers around the protagonists journey as he gets callously framed in a case. In the film, Athiraj plays the female lead whereas Laxman Meesala and Raghu Kunche will be seen in key roles.
After ruling the theatres in 2023 and bagging all the major awards with their films, Barbie and Oppenheimer, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have teamed up for the action-comedy film, The Fall Guy. As the actors remain excited about their latest release, they are presently on a promotional spree, leaving no stone unturned to connect with the audiences. In a recent stint, Emily Blunt appeared on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and we can say there was not a single dull moment as the actress opened up about her co-star. Taking to Kimmel, Emily recalled how Ryan Gosling made a heartwarming gesture with special gifts for her daughters.

As Jimmy inquired about her daughters meeting with the Barbie star, Emily shared that they were excited. She also shared how Gosling brought them a massive box of roses.

When Emily Blunts daughters met Ryan Gosling

It was on Saturday Night Live when Blunts daughters, nine-year-old Hazel, and seven-year-old Violet, met Ryan Gosling. During this time, her daughter not only got to meet the actor but also got lucky to receive a Ken-type from her, which made the girls feel giddy.

They are so obsessed with Ken. So, they did get to meet him finally. He popped over with Eva (Mendes) and the girls to say goodbye. They stayed in New York while he was doing SNL and he brought them this massive box of roses that he had in his dressing room for SNL that spelt Ken. And he just said to the girls, I just want to really thank you for all the support for Ken. And they literally were like swooning, the 41-year-old actress recalled.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jimmy Kimmel Live (@jimmykimmellive)

Further, Blunt also shared that her daughters loved the roses that smelled so good. While it is clear that the little girls just love the Barbie actor, the picture is quite the same with Goslings daughters as well. The actor on the Today show revealed that his kids, Esmeralda and Amanda, refer to Blunt as a mystical character and call her Mary Poppins.

About The Fall Guy

Directed by David Leitch, The Fall Guy is loosely based on the 1980s Lee Majors television series, focusing on a stuntman. Besides Ryan and Emily, the film also features stars like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, and Winston Duke.
Keegan Payne's celebrations were cut short after being questioned about his past during a live TV interview.

Sky News host Peter Stefanovic has been called out for his line of questioning with teenage Million Dollar Fish winner Keegan Payne. Source: Sky News

Peter Stefanovic has apologised to teen millionaire Keegan Payne after a controversial line of questioning during a Sky News interview following the 19-year-olds victorious Million Dollar Fish win.

Payne, from Katherine in the Northern Territory, appeared on the network's First Edition with Stefanovic on Wednesday morning who, after celebrating the $1 million prize, quizzed the teen about an incident in his past.

The teenager was made to answer to his troubled younger years admitting hed been involved in a vehicle theft three years prior. His former boss Bob Cavanagh, who hed been accused of stealing from, later told Yahoo News Australia there were no hard feelings and that Payne was a good and deserving kid.

Backlash over Keegan Payne interview

The live TV interview, and the treatment of Payne, received a wave of backlash with some on social media calling it disgraceful. On Friday afternoon, it appeared Stefanovics social media accounts, including X and Instagram, had been removed. Yahoo contacted Sky News Australia for confirmation.

Keegan Payne, 19, won $1 million after catching a huge barramundi in the Million Dollar Fish competition. Source: Supplied

Sky News issues apology to Keegan Payne and family

The network has since issued a written apology to Payne and his family which was shared on their website on Friday. The apology was on behalf of the network and also Mr Stefanovic himself, it said.

During the interview, Mr Stefanovic asked Mr Payne questions about claims he had been involved in the theft of a Polaris Ranger and Polaris Quad from his former employer in 2021, it reads

Mr Payne confirmed the claims and apologised to his former employer on air. Mr Paynes former employer subsequently told Sky News Australia that he did not proceed with police charges and had accepted Mr Paynes apology.

Sky News Australia and Peter Stefanovic apologise to Mr Payne and his family for raising these claims during the live interview about his million dollar win in the fishing competition, it continues.

Mr Stefanovic has reached out to Mr Payne and his family directly to convey his apology.

The teen was on a fishing trip with family and a friend in the early hours of Sunday morning at Katherine River when he reeled in the fish. Source: Supplied

Teen 'really happy' after million-dollar fishing win

The young teen found stardom this week after hooking a barramundi with a million-dollar price tag. The Million Dollar Fish competition, which has been running for nine years, saw eight keen anglers score a prize of $10,000 each, with one lucky person, Payne, walking away with $1 million.

Accepting his prize on Tuesday, an elated Payne, who was accompanied by his parents and siblings, said hes "really happy" admitting the win "means so much".

"This is crazy for us, were a big family, theres eight of us. This is more money than we could ever ask for. This is just great," he said. "I can buy what I want, maybe help dad and mum out with the home loans".

Cavanagh, Payne's former boss, said the win "has been great for the whole town" of Katherine and said "it's sad" such negativity has come from it.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Hansal Mehtas highly-awaited web series Gandhi just got a lot bigger with a new cast announcement. British actor Tom Felton, best known for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, is onboard for a significant role in the show. According to a Deadline report, Felton will play Josiah Oldfield, a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi during his time in London while he was studying law. While Pratik Gandhi will essay Gandhi, Bhamini Oza will play Kasturba Gandhi. The series is based on Ramachandra Guhas two books, Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World.

The director himself announced the fresh casting on social media and wrote, Were in the thick of our shoot. Thrilled to be directing this stellar international cast  Tom Felton, Libby Mai, Molly Wright, Ralph Adeniyi, James Murray, Lindon Alexander, Jonno Davies, Simon Lennon.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hansal Mehta (@hansalmehta)

The Harry Potter star has already begun filming for the series. Felton recently opened up about his feelings on playing such an important role. He also spoke about the relationship between Mahatma and Josiah, explaining that their lives would have been different if they had never met.

It is about the relationship between the two of them (Gandhi and Josiah) and how they found each other at exactly the right time. And how, without meeting each other, their lives would have definitely been different. Certainly, Gandhis would have been, and therefore the whole world would have been a very different place, the actor told Variety at the shoot location.

Felton also shared how he did a lot of research before playing Oldfield and took his grandfathers help, whom he describes as very wise in history.

Most of my research has been done on the spot, literally live with the director. Thats the best thing about working with not only an Indian crew but someone who knows a lot more about it than Wikipedia, he added.

Tom Felton Astonished With Pratik Gandhis Performance

During the conversation, Tom Felton also shared his experience while working alongside Pratik Gandhi. Noting that it was difficult for him to keep up with the lead actor who plays Gandhi, he couldnt stop praising Pratik for his astonishing performance.

He is astonishing at getting into character very quickly, and I have never heard him slip one line. Ive slipped quite a few. Its amazing to be surrounded by such effortless talent. It brings your game up, Felton said.

Prior to this, the 36-year-old actor expressed his excitement about being a part of Gandhis journey, describing the chance to work with Hansal Mehta and Pratik Gandhi as an honour and pleasure.
Mira Rajput recently stole the spotlight as she graced the ramp for renowned designers Monica and Karishmas fashion label, Jade by MK. The event showcased the designers latest collection titled Legacy of Deft Hands and Miras presence added an extra layer of elegance and allure to the affair. The stunning wife of Bollywood heartthrob Shahid Kapoor made a grand entrance as she strutted down the runway in a regal lehenga ensemble.

Held at CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya), Mumbai, Mira effortlessly commanded attention in a waistcoat lehenga ensemble, combining tradition with a contemporary twist. The waistcoat features a striking V neckline, halter neckline and a tantalising backless design. It is adorned with intricate embroidery in vibrant shades of purple and pink. Meanwhile, the voluminous flare of the lehenga perfectly complemented the top, creating a balance. Completing the ensemble, Mira adorned herself with a two-layered necklace, featuring a chic choker and a delicate pendant chain. Her choice of subtle makeup and a sleek high ponytail perfectly rounded off the look.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Viral Bhayani (@viralbhayani)

Netizens flooded the comment section with an outpouring of love and praise. One user wrote, Her walk, our heart, while another admirer commented, She is looking very beautiful. However, a portion of social media users criticised her walk and described it as masculine. A user wrote, Shes walking like a macho man, while another commented, This is a ramp show not a wrestling field.

Miras magnetic charm and flawless appearance consistently make her a favourite among fashion enthusiasts. Shes active on social media and frequently drops pictures of her stunning looks. At GQ Most Influential Young Indians 2024s red carpet, Mira donned a vibrant orange gown from the renowned designer label Deme by Gabriella Demetriades. Her gown featured eye-catching ring cut-outs at the center, sides and hips, coupled with a plunging neckline and a floor-sweeping hem length. Mira accessorised it with minimal jewellery, including rings and hoop earrings. Meanwhile, her hair styled into a sleek, side-swept, twisted low bun, finished the look.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mira Rajput Kapoor (@mira.kapoor)

Miras stunning sense of fashion continues to inspire and dazzle, with each appearance reaffirming her position as a trendsetter in the industry.
The strategic partnership between India and the United States runs on two parallel tracks. The first is collaborative and focused. The 2+2 dialogue between the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries, the Quad, joint naval exercises, quiet talks on critical and emerging technologies (iCET), defence purchases, and participation in annual G7 summits.

This years G7 summit is in Italy on June 13-15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as in past G7 summits, will attend as a special invitee. His meeting with US President Joe Biden will be of particular interest.

There is, however, a second parallel track, mostly out of the public eye, where conversations between India and the US-led West are strained. It began with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing in Parliament on September 18, 2023, that authorities in Canada were investigating the role of agents connected with the Indian government in the murder on June 18, 2023, of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist and local gangster.

Canadas English-speaking cousins (Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US) backed Trudeaus charge. America had by then already arrested an Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta. Detained at Prague airport under US instructions and awaiting extradition, Gupta remains in a Czech jail.

India meanwhile denied Canadas allegations of Nijjars murder and expelled 41 Canadian diplomats from India. Annoyed at the treatment meted out to Anglospheric Canada, the US unsealed an indictment against Nikhil Gupta in a New York court on November 30, 2023, on charges of murder-for-hire.

Cloak and Dagger

How Gupta was arrested reveals the borderline-legal methods the US and its European allies (in this case the Czech Republic) employ.

An investigation by The Washington Post published on April 29, 2024, reported: US agents used their informant to persuade Gupta to travel to the Czech Republic for what he was led to believe would be a clandestine meeting with his American contact, according to officials familiar with the operation. Gupta arrived in Prague on June 30, 2023  11 days after Czech authorities, acting at the behest of US officials, had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him.

As he exited Vaclav Havel Airport, Gupta was intercepted by Czech police, who ushered him into a vehicle in which two US federal agents were waiting, according to court filings submitted by Guptas family in India. He was questioned for hours while the car meandered around the city. His laptop was seized and his phone held to his face to unlock it.

Between June and September 2023, US President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi first at a State visit to Washington, and then travelled to India for the successful G20 Summit held under Indias presidency.

Nikhil Gupta had by then been in a Czech jail without charge since June 30, 2023. Nijjar was murdered on June 18, 2023. Talks between Indias National Security Advisory (NSA) Ajit Doval and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan were ongoing through this period.

FBI director Christopher Wray made an unusual trip to India on December 11-12, 2023. It was the first visit to India by an FBI director in 12 years. In January 2024, Biden politely declined Modis invitation to be the chief guest at Indias Republic Day, citing a tight election schedule at home.

The US was by now distracted with the Gaza war and the continuing conflict in Ukraine. NSA Jake Sullivan twice postponed scheduled meetings in Delhi with Doval in February 2024 and again in April 2024.

The embedded US media

When the US wants to deliver a message to an ally that is not part of the Anglo-Saxon Five Eyes or the broader Western alliance, it uses newspapers like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

On April 29, 2024, The Washington Post published an investigative story. It wrote: That India would pursue lethal operations in North America has stunned Western security officials. In some ways, however, it reflects a profound shift in geopolitics. After years of being treated as a second-tier player, India sees itself as a rising force in a new era of global competition, one that even the United States cannot afford to alienate.

The newspaper claimed that an Indian operative identified by anonymous sources as Vikram Yadav, an officer in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), discussed the planned assassination of proscribed terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, noting his New York address.

The Washington Post added, again quoting anonymous sources: Yadavs identity and affiliation, which have not previously been reported, provide the most explicit evidence to date that the assassination plan  ultimately thwarted by US authorities  was directed from within the Indian spy service. Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of the sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modis inner circle.

In reports that have been closely held within the American government, US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. That finding is consistent with accounts provided to The Washington Post by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation and said Goel was under extreme pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas. US spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modis national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAWs plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasised that no smoking gun proof has emerged.

Track 2, track 1

While External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been blunt while addressing Western annoyance with Indias neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has largely maintained a diplomatic tone, even in the face of aggravations from mainstream US media and occasionally State Department spokespersons.

This changed last week when the MEA dismissed The Washington Post story, based entirely on anonymous officials in India and the US, with this terse comment: Democracies should display understanding in regard to other democracies. After all, we are judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.

The allusion was to the recent violence and polarisation that has undermined US democracy.

While punch and counter-punch was being exchanged in Washington and New Delhi, the first parallel track of the India-US strategic partnership proceeded at a stately pace. Washington is fully aware that India is an indispensable power in the Wests strategic contest with China.

Beijing is monitoring the India-US relationship. If it could drive a wedge in that strategic partnership, it would. But the US administration, alive to that possibility, will not let the relationship sour tactically beyond a point.

Nikhil Gupta meanwhile remains in Pragues Pankrac Prison awaiting extradition to the US. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, designated as a terrorist by India, travels freely under US protection between America and Canada.

The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
With just hours left before the deadline to file nominations, the Congress partys scion finally took the call. Rahul Gandhi will contest from Uttar Pradesh. But he wont contest from his own pocket borough Amethi. Instead, Rahul has opted for his mother, Sonia Gandhis vacated seat, Raebareli.

Raebareli is a much safer option. It has been nursed by a Nehru-Gandhi since independent Indias first election in 1952. Most importantly, it has only ever turned its back on a Gandhi family member once. That was in 1977 when Indira imposed the Emergency and alienated the public.

In the end, by opting for a safe seat, Rahul Gandhi appears to have lost the stomach for a fight against the BJPs Smriti Irani who unseated him. By demonstrating that he has no desire to reclaim what was his, even if it is only to stamp his authority back on the electoral scene, many will assume hes thrown in the towel.

ALSO READ: A Gandhi-Less Fight in Amethi, No Sonia Show in Raebareli This Time, History of Congress Citadels

Even so, there are perhaps three tactical reasons why Rahul Gandhi has decided to opt for Raebareli.

First, to signal that in the line of succession, he gets first dibs and not his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. After all, as already pointed out, Raebareli is well and truly the true-blue Gandhi bastion  and thus a worthy inheritance. It is for Rahul Gandhi now to decide who will succeed him.

Second, given Raebarelis tight embrace with all things Gandhi, it will be easier for Rahul to justify opting to hold on to it over his seat in Wayanad if he were to win both contests. With Kerala Assembly polls scheduled for mid-2026, Rahul cant afford to give voters there the impression that he only used the state as a conduit to the Lok Sabha. The Congress believes that Kerala voters will be far more understanding when they realise that Rahul Gandhi gave up Wayanad not for just any seat, but for a family heirloom.

Third, by forsaking Amethi, Rahul Gandhi wants to send out the message that the democrat in him was ready to sacrifice his seat to provide an opportunity to a party colleague to enter the Lok Sabha. The Congress believes that the Amethi sacrifice blunts PM Modis entitled Gandhis charge.

While the Congress scion has his reasons, the BJP, particularly Modi, is wasting little time in driving home the point that Rahul Gandhi has fled a contest against Smriti Irani. This alleged cop-out, the BJP claims, is confirmation that the Congress and Rahul Gandhi have accepted that the BJP is entrenched in Uttar Pradesh and beyond.

ALSO READ: Daro Mat, Bhaago Mat: PM Modi On Rahul Gandhi Ditching Amethi For Raebareli

This is not to say that Rahul Gandhi is assured of a victory in Raebareli. The Congress isnt sitting pretty there either. Sonia Gandhis own victory margins in the bastion have been shrinking. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJPs Dinesh Pratap Singh managed to halve Sonia Gandhis winning margin. That erosion mirrors the chunk of votes Smriti Irani shaved off Rahuls winning vote tally in Amethi in 2014. Five years later she defeated him. Will Singh be 2019s giant killer?

Interestingly, Dinesh Pratap Singh, who is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath state cabinet, is no stranger to Rahul Gandhi or the Raebareli Congress unit. Singh only quit the Congress in 2018 to join the BJP. Besides the Singh factor, the Congress performance in Raebareli hasnt been up to the mark.

On some key socio-economic indicators, the constituency lags substantially. Infant mortality rates in Raebareli are almost twice that of the national average. On neo-natal fatalities, it also trails the national average. This is perhaps because only five of 52 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) were operational 247 in the constituency according to a UP government report for 2022-2023. On the question of fully functional tap water connections too, it underperforms when compared to the national average.

In the Modi era, voter aspirations have gone through the proverbial roof. And theres now plenty of data to show that voters are a lot less obliging. According to a study conducted by political scientist Pradeep Chibber, bastions held by political parties are no longer safe. Studying granular polling booth level results for 2014 and 2019 general elections, Chibbers study concludes that the same party was able to capture more than 50 per cent of the votes only in about a quarter (25 per cent) of the localities. The data reveals that only an incumbents productivity matters, not his parivars legacy.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
The latest broadside by The Washington Post (WP) team against India on its purported official level involvement in the attempted murder of US/Canadian Khalistani terrorist on US soil thwarted by the US agencies typifies the long-standing deep animus of WP against India. The article is full of innuendoes, speculation, tentative assessments and distortions. The WP shows no qualms in pushing a narrative to serve a political purpose in connivance with US agencies. The low and unethical standards of WPs journalism are manifest.

The WPs so-called investigative team is frank that their information source is serving and former security officials in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, as well as India. All are anonymous, except former R&AW chief A.S. Dulat, so that one cannot judge the level of responsibility of these officials in the intelligence apparatus, whether they relayed first-hand or second-hand information, or what their hidden motives were in speaking to the press.

There is no reason for the Indian reader to believe in the integrity of persons who are obviously part of a deliberate hit job. A spate of articles has appeared in the Anglo-Saxon press about Indias involvement in planning assassinations of dissidents abroad and putting the country in the company of Russia, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. An insidious reference is made in this context to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the killing of Khashoggi. This is part of the narrative about democracy backsliding in India, the rise of authoritarianism and muscular Hindu nationalism under Modi.

The WP report talks of differences within the Justice Department and the agencies about becoming tougher with India over the Pannun affair. Is the leak the handiwork of elements who hold some grudge against India and want to unauthorizedly speak to the press? What stops them from purveying misleading, half-baked information as part of a larger political game financed by anti-Indian individuals and lobbies? If in the indictment process, the name of CC-1 was not released officially, who within the US agencies has gone beyond due process and made the name public?

The WP is being unscrupulous and unethical in using innuendos to substitute for facts, knowing that when insinuations are made, the seeds of suspicion of culpability are planted in the public mind. A larger purpose is served, even as the paper can say it made no definitive accusations.

The WP article talks of the CIA and FBI mapping the potential links of the attempted murder to Modis inner circle. That it was approved by the then R&AW chief is consistent, it says, with the accounts provided to the WP by former senior Indian security officials with knowledge of the operation. They claimed that the R&AW chief was under extreme pressure to counter the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas.

The article also says that according to former officials, the decision to entrust Vikram Yadav with the operation sparked recriminations with R&AW. They also told WP that the operation would not have taken place without the approval and protection of the seniors. A.S. Dulat claimed that this was not part of R&AWs repertoire during his tenure, which suggests that this could have changed. In the same breath, the article mentions that the US agencies have tentatively assessed that NSA Ajit Doval was probably aware of the operation but no smoking gun proof has emerged. This is a way to damn a person and also claim that he might not be guilty!

It is inconceivable that those within R&AW with knowledge of the operation will speak to the WP correspondent in Delhi. If they did, it would mean that persons within R&AW are hobnobbing with foreign journalists to give substance to the allegations against their own organisation and country. This seems either an invention by the WP journalist or, if not, he is doing intelligence work on behalf of the CIA and the FBI, which should open him to charges of visa violations and breach of Indian security.

The WP article also says that attempts were made to contact Vikram Yadav (CC-1) but he could not be located. It is effrontery on WPs part to contact an intelligence operative and interfere in Indias own investigation. Expulsion would normally be in order in such a case. Whether the government will do so is another matter. A probe should also be made into who these R&AW operatives are with knowledge of the Pannun operation who have spoken to the WP and condign action should be taken against them, if required.

The WP alleged several times in the article at different places that high-level persons were involved in the Pannun operation, while also simultaneously claiming that proof of this is lacking. At one place, the article talks also of current and former officials saying that the operation involved higher ranking officials with ties to Modis inner circle, including ex-R&AW chief Samant Goel and NSA Ajit Doval, though admitting again that there was no direct evidence of their complicity. It mentions a third time in the body of the article that the CIA believes Doval probably knew or approved. It repeats these insinuations for the fourth time by mentioning that the US and Western officials told WP that such an operation could not have taken place without a clear understanding that doing it would be met with Prime Ministers approval. Why repeat the same point in different ways? Slipshod writing? Editorial incoherence? Or this is a sly and devious way to hammer the same point repeatedly to cast a slur on Modi and his entourage.

US and Indian security officials are quoted by WP as saying that R&AW was told that Pannuns murder was a priority now. How would the US know this? Did they intercept written or oral orders? How would Indian security officials- presumably retired ones- know this except by hearsay? Is all this gossip shared over a drink with WPs correspondent in Delhi whose appointment, in any case, was based on a mandate to tarnish Modis India?

WPs deep bias against India is reflected in the way it refers to persons hostile to India. Pannun is described as one of Modis most vocal critics in the US. Is his sin only criticism? The article talks of 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists living in exile but labelled as terrorists by the Modi government who have been killed in Pakistan. The implication is that they were unfairly labelled as terrorists and were not sheltered by the ISI in Pakistan. They were simply in self-exile there, with no complicity in terror activity directed at India.

The US can have a long list of those it sees as terrorists but there is something suspect in India declaring anyone a terrorist. The article sows suspicion that Avtar Singh Khanda might have been killed in the UK because of R&AWs record of aggressive activity there, although British authorities have said that he died of leukaemia. The paper also quotes Pannun as saying that he is targeted in order to stop the ongoing referendum movement for the secession of Punjab from Indian occupation. The WP finds this statement politically within norms as it is considered fit to be carried without comment.

India is accused of surveillance of Sikhs and other groups overseas perceived as disloyal to the Modi government. The Khalistan movement long precedes the arrival of the BJP to power. The demand of a separate Sikh state, referendums held in support of that, the attacks on our missions, the death threats to Modi as well as our ambassadors, and the attack on our missions, is mere disloyalty to the Modi government for the WP. Which are the other groups targeted is not mentioned. This is chicanery on the part of the paper, which sees nothing wrong in Canadian intelligence officials monitoring Indian embassy communications.

Freedom House, which has an alleged intelligence connection, is quoted as accusing India of transnational repression against Indian citizens- dissidents, activists, journalists abroad. This is a blanket statement made without any proof. Which Indian journalist, activist or dissident abroad is repressed by the Indian government? This is not elucidated. Is this journalism or slander?

History is distorted in favour of Sikh separatism by baldly stating that in 1984, Sikh separatists took over the Golden Temple when the government rejected demands for more autonomy, and that the crackdown that followed prompted the exodus of Sikhs to Canada, the US and Britain. There is no mention of terrorism in Punjab and the targeting of the Hindus. That migration from Punjab has continued despite the Akali government being in power for years in Punjab, and now the AAP government. has escaped WPs attention. Citing human rights organisations questioning the designation of Nijjar and Pannun as terrorists on the specious ground that due process was not followed, shows WPs unwillingness to admit the reality about the Khalistani criminals. Even the float in Brampton in Canada celebrating the assassination of Mrs Gandhi only seemed to the WP to have glorified violence. Seemed? The spate of photographs accompanying the article is intended to give a lot of publicity to the Khalistan cause, with Nijjar and many others projected as martyrs.

The paper says that the US side sees no indication that Indias investigation would implicate senior officials in the Modi government, which suggests that the US wants a preordained result.

The WP journalists back the US argument that its extra-territorial counterterrorism operations were in ungoverned territories unlike those of India. Was Iraq ungoverned territory when Irans Soleimani was killed at the Baghdad International Airport in 2020, or was Libya ungoverned when it was bombed in 1986 or in 2011 when Gadaffis compound was bombed? In 1993 when Bagdad was bombed by Clinton because of the alleged plot to assassinate George Bush Sr in Kuwait, was Iraq under Saddam Hussein ungoverned territory?

The WP deliberately distorts the meaning and thrust of Dovals reference to offensive defence, which was in the context of countering terrorism from Pakistan, not elimination of anti-Indian terrorism in the Anglosphere. Likewise, it is unpardonable to twist Modis statement that the new India will come to your home to kill you in order to present him as supporting assassinations everywhere, knowing well that he was referring to the surgical strikes and the Balakot operation against Pakistan in retaliation for its terrorist strikes against India.

The paper says that White House officials warned the Indian government that The Washington Post was close to publishing an investigation but failed to tell the paper. This is a silly way to pretend that the US authorities had no hand, direct or indirect, in promoting this highly warped and propagandist story.

Kanwal Sibal is a former Indian Foreign Secretary. He was Indias Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Google is aware of major fake apps problems on the Play Store which can be exploited by bad actors. Now, the company is offering genuine badges for apps that belong to Government entities.

The changes have come into effect on the Play Store in markets like India and we independently verified to see the new feature on the Android app store. Google realises that millions use the Play Store to download apps and when they are advised to use the platform to get new apps, these badges offer them extra surety about the developer.

Google Play Store App Badges For Govt In India: What You Get

When you open the Play Store and search for apps like mAadhaar, Digi Locker or mParivahan, you will see the Govt icon right below the listing. When you tap on the badge, the pop-up box shows up with a message as seen below, saying, Play verified this app is affiliated with a government entity.

This is the badge that Google has added recently on the Play Store for users in India. The company has pointed out that over 14 countries are now part of these badges roll out that covers across 2,000 state and central government apps. These badges are essential to keep users informed about the genuine apps, which can be a challenge for many, who end up falling into the trap of fraudulent apps claiming to be from the government.

Google claims that its security checks on the Play Store are solid but previous instances have shown us there are chinks in its armour which it is hoping that badges like these will help people differentiate between the real and the fake apps. The government badge cannot be just handed out to any developer, and it warrants the app publishers to use the official email IDs to host their apps for the consumers.
The latest Windows 11 update has taken a toll on VPN connections that Microsoft has been forced to quickly look into and fix at the earliest. Some Windows 11 users have complained about the problem after installing the April 2024 Windows 11 update. The update was officially rolled out on April 9 and some users observed that these VPN connections with TPM-backed certificates are failing.

Microsoft has confirmed the issue and is working on fixing it via another update which should be released in the next few days. For the affected Windows 11 users, they have been advised to uninstall the April 2024 update and see if the changes help them get the VPN connections working again.

Issues like these tend to come up with new releases even though Microsoft has its Insider program to help them avoid such problems when the public version is released. Having said that, it seems the VPN connection issue doesnt look widespread but even then Microsoft will be looking to get it rectified soon.

In other Microsoft news, the Indian government has warned users about a major security issue concerning the Microsoft Edge web browser this week. The new security bulletin via the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In gives the security warning a high rating.

The security agency claims that the web browser from Microsoft has multiple security vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to cause denial of service conditions, remote code execution and bypass the security of your device and give them access to the data.
To bring good fortune, prosperity and luck, many unusual activities are carried out across the globe. Several ancient beliefs are still prevalent in many cultures and societies that have gained significant international attention. Recently, Nakizumo also known as the crying baby sumo festival was celebrated in Japans Tokyo on April 28. The contest took place for the second time almost four years after the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 100 infants participated in this spectacular event. Let us find out more about this unique fest.

Significance of Nakizumo festival

Nakizumo is an event that celebrates the growth and well-being of infants through a playful sumo-themed ritual. It is organised annually across various regions in Japan. The origins of Nakizumo can be traced back four centuries, as per reports. It is believed that the sound of a babys cry wards off evil spirits and brings about good fortune. This tradition is held in high regard, particularly among parents and families seeking blessings for their newborns.

How is it marked?

During the festival, as a part of the ritual, the sumo wrestlers hold the infants and attempt to make them cry. It is said that the louder and more fervently a baby cries, the greater the protection and prosperity the respective families receive.

Venue of the festival

In 2024, the festival was held at the historic Sensoji Temple in Tokyo. However, it extends beyond Tokyo, taking place at various shrines and temples across Japan. Dressed in ceremonial sumo aprons, babies were cradled by their parents as they squared off in the wrestling ring. Sumo wrestlers engage in amusing antics to evoke tears from the babies. It creates a lively atmosphere filled with laughter and applause from the audience. Parents also participate in the event.

Shigemi Fuji, chairman of the Asakusa Tourism Federation which organised the event, acknowledged that while some might question the practice of making babies cry, the event is cherished by parents and spectators alike, the Moneycontrol report suggested.

Importance for sumo wrestlers

Besides the families involved, even for the sumo wrestlers, the festival represents a break from their monotonous competitive matches. It allows them to showcase a softer, caring side as they interact with the infants and involve themselves in various antics.
A four-month-old baby is now in a coma after his grandmother mixed wine accidentally with his milk powder. It is suspected that the infants grandmother mixed the liquids after confusing the wine bottle with the babys dark-coloured glass water bottle while preparing the milk, according to local reports. The woman, from Francavilla Fontana in the southern Italian city of Brindisi, gave the baby the bottle around midday on Monday. He drank some of the milk powder-wine mixture and then refused to drink any more.

After smelling the bottle, she rushed her grandson to the nearby Perrino Hospital, where he received urgent treatment and had his stomach pumped. He was subsequently intubated and transferred to the Giovanni Childrens Hospital in Bari yesterday, where he remains in intensive care.

According to local media, the childs condition is stable and improving and there is currently no threat to his life. Prosecutors and local officials are aware of the case and are reviewing the babys medical records to decide whether to press criminal charges.

Last year, two women narrowly avoided jail after recording a video of a little girl being given wine. The chilling video shows a woman shoving a glass bottle into the mouth of the child, who was just 18 months old. The footage was taken in Midlothian on the outskirts of Edinburgh on January 20, 2020, and shows the babys head being forced back as the woman raises the bottle to her lips.

The camera then zooms in on the little girls face, which is out of focus, before she throws her head back and lets out a scream. Two women, both in their 20s, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday to face child protection charges.

Sheriff Alistair Noble said although it appears the baby was fed alcohol, the woman has admitted a lesser charge and there is no evidence to support the more serious abuse allegations. As reported by the Daily Record, both have pleaded guilty to displaying threatening and abusive behaviour by creating the video.

Sentencing yesterday, Sheriff Noble said: You have pleaded guilty to a charge that is quite different to the original charge. You have both pleaded guilty to creating a video showing (the mothers child) drinking alcohol, although there is no suggestion that it was alcohol that she was given to drink.

The pair admitted that they caused distress and fear to the public by the nature of the video and therefore pleaded guilty. He added that a prison sentence was not warranted for the offence.
Small gestures of kindness can go a long way towards having a great impact on a persons life. A kind act might not always be one involving money, it can simply be a means to bring a smile to the other persons face. Sometimes it can be a heart to heart conversation, even if they are complete strangers to you. This was the case with a woman based in Bengaluru, who ended up having an unexpected talk with an auto driver. The driver wanted to gather information about his daughters higher education and the passenger experienced a memorable ride.

In an X post, a Bengaluru resident, Namrata S Rao recounted her interaction with an auto driver. He enquired about various entrance examinations for his daughter, who is currently in Class 11. Namrata shared a post, calling it a cute Bengaluru moment. The woman stated that it all began when she randomly asked the driver Tumba seke alla? (Its really hot outside, isnt it?) The driver was quite surprised to find out that she spoke the native language, Kannada. He then went on to discuss various entrance exams his daughter could attempt such as CET, NEET and others.

Cute #Bengaluru moment. While I started asking Tumba seke alla?, he replied Oh kannada baratta to then discussing about CET, NEET & other entrance exam that his daughter could attempt who is now in Class 11. I asked if he discusses on these with others too. He replied pic.twitter.com/1zkEMRdfhP Ar. Namrata S Rao (@NamrataSRao) April 29, 2024

Illa madam, we understand people, we get vibes too. I could feel you that were genuine person to ask on this, thats why. Else, the passenger will be with ear phones & Ill be staring at the road, just like any other day. I agree with him, sometimes its all about the vibes. Ar. Namrata S Rao (@NamrataSRao) April 29, 2024

However, the sudden conversation left the woman confused, who asked him if he discusses this with others as well. The driver replied, Illa (No) madam, we understand people, we get vibes too. I could feel you were a genuine person to ask about this, thats why. Else, the passenger will be with ear phones & Ill be staring at the road, just like any other day. I agree with him, sometimes its all about the vibes.

Since being shared online, the post has gone viral. It reminded people of the valuable connections that can be formed through unexpected interactions.

One user appreciated the woman taking an initiative to talk to the driver and said, Yes, it is a good gesture to start a conversation with a taxi driver or auto driver if he/she is willing. Otherwise, life is extremely transactional and frankly, boring.

Another individual resonated with the view and replied, I am following this every time. Nowadays I am trying to talk to people everywhere and those discussions will give a much better vibe, realisation, peace etc.

Yes it is a good gesture to start a conversation with a taxi driver or auto driver if he/she is willing. Otherwise life is extremely transactional and frankly boring. Srivathsa Kalale Nadaddur(Modi Ka Parivar) (@srivathsa_kn) April 29, 2024

I am following this every time. Nowadays I am trying to talk to people everywhere and those discussions will give a much better vibe, realisation, peace etc.., Vishnu (@dstvishnu) April 29, 2024

Sad part is the driver is surprised learning that the passenger know kannada. We have reached such levels of migration in Bangalore VinayA (@a1vinay) April 29, 2024

Many other users also pointed out, Sad part is the driver is surprised to learn that the passenger knows kannada. We have reached such levels of migration in Bangalore.
Everything is not what is seems, despite the lake having a crocodile warning sign.

The tourist was shocked to see people swimming in 'infested' Lake Eacham in Queensland. Source: TikTok

It's no secret crocodiles have the ability to inflict significant injury on those who get too close, and the warning signs scattered around every creek and river in the northeast of the country drives home this point.

So it's understandable why one tourist couldn't quite understand why she spotted people swimming, and even snorkelling, in a lake which was supposedly "infested" by the animals.

The tourist found five people, including two children, swimming in Lake Eacham, Queensland near a sign saying 'stay clear of the crocodile'. In the footage, she shows the warning sign goes into detail about a crocodile who is known to live in the area, before spanning over to the swimmers splashing around in the water.

"POV [point of view] you are watching people swim in a crocodile infested lake in Queensland," she wrote online.

Locals offer insight to shocked tourist

After the video was shared many Aussies informed the tourist the lake was actually a popular swimming spot, with the water only inhabited by one freshwater crocodile with the animal "practically a water puppy".

The signs says the freshwater crocodile in the lake is timid and not life-threatening, but people are warned to take care if swimming and not to approach the animal. Lake Eacham in the Atherton Tablelands region is described on the Queensland Government Parks website as a clear, blue lake surrounded by cool rainforest, offering swimming, birdwatching, canoeing, picnic areas and shady walking tracks.

"Yeah it's not croc infested at all. One fresh water croc that avoids all human interactions," one woman said, with others confirming they had personally swam in the lake many times and "nothing" there can harm swimmers.

Expert warns against complacency with crocodiles

Freshwater crocodiles are considered timid and very few incidents involving people have been reported in the country. Crocodile expert Tommy Hayes told Yahoo News that "freshies" are indeed "virtually harmless" but urged against complacency in croc country, saying it can be lethal.

"You can have all the knowledge in the world and still be killed," he said, speaking about the importance of respecting crocodiles in their natural habitat. "I think the signs are there more so people don't torment the little freshie who lives in the lake.... [but there is] a massive sense of entitlement and its out of control in Queensland."

He said there are many other spots in Queensland where some chose to push what's considered safe, even if saltwater crocodiles are known to live there.

"They think they can do whatever, whenever and its everyone else's fault when something happens with crocs," he said. "The locals there know the area better than anyone, still it is crazy to enter any water in the territory."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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The entire nation is reeling under intense heat waves currently. From north to south, the people are reluctant to face the brunt of scorching heat. Even drizzle at times gives much respite to the public. However, most cities in India have not received rainfall since the onset of summer. Recently, after five months, Bengaluru experienced a refreshing relief from the scorching heat as heavy rain drenched parts of the city on May 2. Reports suggest that the humidity levels soared to 47 per cent and this sudden downpour was a welcome relief.

Interestingly, the residents of Bengaluru quickly turned to X (formerly Twitter) to share the latest updates about the rain status. As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the prolonged heat wave gripping the city can be attributed to the impact of El Nino.

Check The Post Here:

Finally some rain in Bengaluru  pic.twitter.com/bcDWqV8j4L Arpita Dhir  (@ArpitaDesigns) May 2, 2024

Responding to the video shared by, a user wrote, I left Bangalore three days ago and its raining now..what on earth. Arrrgghhh!!!

Another X user posted a video with the caption, Finally! The smell of the rain How long! Finally raining in BENGALURU! Rain Im not crying! The sky is.

Finally! The smell of the rain How long! Finally raining in BENGALURU! #BENGALURU #bangalore #Rain I'm not crying! The sky is pic.twitter.com/9RgEtORz2B Mayur N Gayakwad (@mayurgayakwad27) May 2, 2024

Another commented, Just in time I see. Although its insanely humid here.

IMD Warning About Severe Heat Wave:

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had warned of a severe heat wave, impacting Karnataka from April 3 to April 6, with coastal Karnataka enduring oppressive conditions from April 2 to April 6, and the southern regions feeling the heat from April 2 to April 4, the Indian Express reported.

The city experienced record-breaking temperatures, with some areas even surpassing 40 degrees Celsius. The heavy rain lashed the city on Thursday evening after 150 days. The relentless heat wave has sparked concerns as the city is known for its moderate climate. Moreover, the water crisis problem added to the woes.

Water Crisis In The City:

The Silicon Valley of India has been facing the problem of acute water scarcity for quite some time now. The residents there are encountering water shortages, forcing inhabitants to seek other ways to conserve water for daily use. From dependency on groundwater to unplanned urban growth and more, several factors have contributed to this alarming situation.
Only humans are known to use medications and balms to cure wounds. But, scientists in Indonesia saw an orangutan purposefully treat a facial wound using a medical plant. CNN claims that this is the first time that a conduct like this has been observed in an animal other than humans. The climbing plant Akar Kunings leaves were initially consumed by the orangutan named Rakus, who then repeatedly applied the liquid to his facial wound.

Rakus, an orangutan, chewed the leaves of a climbing plant called Akar Kuning before repeatedly applying the juice to a gash on its face. Orangutans rarely eat this plant in this peat swamp habitat, which is home to approximately 150 severely endangered Sumatran orangutans.

Rakus then covered the incision with chewed-up leaves, which CNN reported are used in traditional medicine to treat conditions like malaria, diabetes, and diarrhoea. The wound did not exhibit signs of infection and healed in five days, according to the researchers. The journal Scientific Reports has released a study that details this.

According to study lead author Isabelle Laumer, they are very excited by the observations made in June 2022 in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesias Suaq Balimbing research area. This possibly innovative behavior presents the first report of active wound management with a biological active plant in a great ape species, she told CNN.

The scientists concluded that the 30-year-old male animal was healing its wound since he refrained from smearing any other area of his body, as per the Science Alert report. Meanwhile, chemical analysis of the plants composition indicated antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antioxidant capabilities, all of which aid in wound healing.

The orangutan is believed to have suffered the wound during a fight with another male. Rakus also rested for half of the day during his recovery period, which astonished the research crew.

As per reports, Rakus is a flanged male with prominent cheek pads on both sides of the face, secondary male sexual traits. He is thought to have been born in 1989. Orangutans are among the worlds great apes, the closest surviving cousins of humans, along with chimps, bonobos, and gorillas. Orangutans are the least closely related to humans, however, they share over 97 percent of our DNA.
A young fifth grader from Thomas Ultican Elementary in Missouri, US is on a mission to raise funds for his classmates school lunch debts. Daken Kramer, an 11-year-old from the Kansas City area, understands the importance of a healthy meal for students. Although Blue Springs School District provides lunches for all students and free breakfasts for those in need, many schools have generated over $225,000 (approximately Rs 18 Lakh) lunch debt. While the district receives help from local businesses to manage the debt, individuals like Daken coming out to help the unprivileged are rare. Only two weeks are left before he moves to middle school, but Daken is determined to make a difference by fundraising. To support his cause, a PayPal account has been set up, allowing others to contribute to clear the lunch debt.

As per ABC7, Daken said, Its important for kids to eat. Like, I dont think they could make it through the day without eating a school lunch. While his mother, Vanessa Kramer adds, If everyone kind of gets the notion that we can pull together we can make a difference.

Despite receiving donations, the facility of lunch and free breakfast in the school has led to massive unpaid school lunch debt. Dr Alison Longwell, the principal of Thomas Ultican Elementary, highlighted the issue, stating that their elementary school has alone accumulated over $3,000 (approximately Rs 2.50 Lakh) in debt and the districts total debt has surpassed $225,000.

In the PayPal account, Daken Kramer wrote, I am a 5th grader at Thomas Ultican Elementary. That means this is my last year of elementary school. TUE has shaped me into an outgoing, kind, compassionate, respectful, strong leader. While I can never repay this school for all of the hard work that has gone into my education and well-being, I would like to do something to show my gratitude. I am collecting money to help pay off student lunch debt.

I am challenging friends, family and local businesses to donate what they can to this cause. My mom, Vanessa, will be handling the money part and we will keep everyone updated on the amount we collect. Thomas Ultican is a Title 1 school, which means a high number of students enrolled come from economically challenged homesuz

. A lot of the kids at my school already benefit from reduced lunches and some are still not able to pay their lunch debt, he adds.

Surprisingly, Daken Kramer, who initially focused on raising $3,500 (approximately Rs 2.90 Lakh), but his initiative has exceeded the expectations, as he so far collected $6,040 (approximately Rs 5 Lakh).
Birthdays are always a special day to celebrate. Many people plan for months about what they want to do and make the best out of their birthdays. Being in a relationship, celebrating such special days with partners are must. But what if they are staying far or in another country? In such a scenario, planning a surprise visit on your partners birthday is best. Just like this video, a man travels to India from Canada to surprise his girlfriend on her birthday. The man has just set the bar a notch higher for all partners.

In the viral clip, a man can be seen travelling to the airport to pay a surprise visit to his girlfriend. As the video progresses, he lands in India early morning and heads toward his girlfriends home. He purchases a flower bouquet for her in the early morning. He reaches his girlfriends place around 6 am in the morning when everyone is asleep. In the video, he tries to wake up his girlfriend. She is surprised after looking at him. The man greets the girl with a bouquet. The girl happily accepts it and hugs the boyfriend. The video captures the whole surprise visit and his cute birthday wish to his girlfriend. The special part about the video is the man surprises his girlfriend at her home.

This heartwarming video was posted on an Instagram account named @ti_and_ka. Sharing the video, the user wrote, Surprise visit to India. The hardest part was not coming from Canada but finding flowers for her at 5 am & also waking her up. But finally so happy to be reunited again after 6 months.

Also Read: Two Koreans Celebrate Indian Culture, Speak Fluently in Hindi and Bangla in Viral Video

Watch the boyfriends sweet surprise for his girlfriend:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tripti & Kaushank  (@ti_and_ka)

Also Read: Heavy Rain Brings Respite From Scorching Heat In Bengaluru After 150 Days

The post was shared a few days ago and since then it has collected thousands of views and likes. The numbers are still increasing. The video has received a flurry of reactions on Instagram with users expressing their thoughts. Full marks for the efforts, commented a user. Ek aisa banda toh mai bhi deserve krti hu (I also deserve a guy like him) wrote a second. Wow, the way you manage to bring flowers at 4 am, appreciated a third. Wow, what a surprise, added a fourth.
Cartier is a high-end luxury brand that makes jewellery and watches. The jewellery that the brand makes can usually cost thousands of dollars, and it becomes difficult for a common man to afford it. Recently, a man named Rogelio Villarreal from Mexico, who knew nothing about the luxury brand, bought a pair of diamond earrings for just $28. The actual price of the diamond earrings was around $28,000, but just because of a typo in their advertisement, the company had to send the earrings at an unbelievably low price. It was also found that Rogelio fought months-long legal battles with the brand and ended up winning them.

Rogelio Villarreal noticed a pair of 18-carat rose-gold diamond earrings that were priced at just 237 Mexican pesos (around $14). He was instantly shocked to see the remarkably low price of the earrings and decided to buy a couple of pairs. After he placed his order, the price of the earrings was adjusted on the website to a much higher price. What had actually happened was that there was a mistake by the brand while advertising their earrings. As reported by the New York Times, Rogelio decided to file a lawsuit against the brand for misleading their customers and demanding the earrings at a price that he had seen.

Rogelio added that after buying the earrings, he received emails from the company to cancel the order. When he made no moves to cancel the order, he started getting calls from their representatives, who stated that the earrings were ordered at an incorrect price, which is why they wanted him to cancel the order. He revealed that the company also offered him a compensation  a complimentary bottle of Cartier Cuvee champagne and a leather Cartier item. However, Rogelio decided to reject their offer and continue to exercise his consumer rights.

After month-long tussles between the brand and Rogelio, Cartier finally agreed to settle the case and deliver two pairs of 18-carat rose-gold diamond earrings at the price at which Rogelio had placed his order. He even decided to gift one of the pairs to his mother.
France estimates that 150,000 Russian soldiers have been killed during Moscows invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said in an interview published on Friday.

Speaking to Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe, Sejourne said Paris estimated total Russian casualties, including wounded, at 500,000 in the war, now in its third year.

Europe and its partners will remain united and determined, for as long as necessary. Russias military failure is already apparent. We estimate Russian military losses at 500,000, including 150,000 deaths, he said.

All of this for what? he asked. This can be summed up in two words: for nothing, he said.

Russia has not disclosed information on its casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that 180,000 Russian troops had been killed in the war.

Britain estimates that approximately 450,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine.

The BBC reported in April that more than 50,000 Russian military personnel have died, citing its own reporters, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody attrition war, isolating Russia from the West.

Some military analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.

Speaking about frozen Russian assets in the European Union, Sejourne reaffirmed that the funds could be used to fund the defence of Ukraine against the invasion but did not give specifics.

With the rise in rates, these assets have generated almost 4 billion euros in revenue in 2023. We want them to be used to finance defence and reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.

Novaya Gazeta Europe was founded by exiled journalists from Russias top independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Canadian police have reportedly arrested members of an alleged hit squad linked to the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June last year.

Members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported quoting sources.

The men were reportedly arrested on Friday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were not immediately available for comment. India is also yet to release any official statement on the matter.

The alleged hit squad members were identified by Canadian authorities some months ago and investigators have been keeping them under tight surveillance, CBC sources said.

Canadian police are reportedly also investigating possible links to three additional murders, including the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.

Canada and India had a major diplomatic row after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September 2023 that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the fatal shooting of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. New Delhi rejected Trudeaus claim as absurd.

Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. The U.S. later revealed it had foiled an assassination attempt against a Sikh separatist on its soil.

In an excerpt from a year-end interview with public broadcaster CBC, Trudeau said the US indictment appeared to have softened the Modi governments stance toward Canada.

I think there is a beginning of an understanding that they cant bluster their way through this and there is an openness to collaborating in a way that perhaps they were less open before, he said.

Theres an understanding that maybe, maybe just churning out attacks against Canada isnt going to make this problem go away.

PM Modi also told the Financial Times that India was deeply concerned about the activities of certain extremist groups based overseas.

He added that these elements, under the guise of freedom of expression, have engaged in intimidation and incited violence.

(With inputs from agencies)
A video allegedly showing a Chinese man assaulting and whipping his African employees has gone viral on social media. The video has triggered widespread outrage among netizens, who have accused the man of being a racist.

The video was originally shared by a journalist named Dom Lucre, who likened the treatment of the workers to that of Trans Atlantic slaves.

This disturbing footage of a Chinese employer in Africa treating his employees like Trans Atlantic slaves is going viral across the internet. Viewers have begun discussing how it appears the Chinese are far more racist than the White man in Africa, he captioned the video.

In the now-viral disturbing clip, the employees, mostly black workers, can be seen sitting in what looks like a container while the Chinese man is yelling at them for something.

BREAKING NEWS: This disturbing footage of a Chinese employer in Africa treating his employees like Trans Atlantic slaves is going viral across the internet. Viewers have begun discussing on how it appears the Chinese are fare more racist than the White man in Africa. pic.twitter.com/4zTnliEQea  Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) May 2, 2024

The man then takes out, what appears to be a stick or whip and begins to brutally assault the workers who can be seen covering their heads in fear to avoid any serious injury.

While News18 could not verify the video, it is now viral on X and has garnered more than 12 million views on the platform so far.

The video has sparked massive outrage on social media with netizens slamming the man for the slave-like treatment towards his workers adding that the act was far racist than a white man. They have also called for the man to be held accountable for his actions and demanded justice for the mistreated employees.

Everyone rails against America while completely ignoring the human rights abuses going on all over the world, a X user commented.

Every race has owned slaves, and every race has evil people among them. Its time for all the good people, who make up the majority in each race, to stand together against those in all races who are evil, another comment added.
As protests across US campuses in support of Palestinians continue, students at Rutgers University presented a list of 10 demands to the administration during demonstrations against the Gaza war. One of these demands referred to Kashmiris an occupied people.

The ninth demand from the students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick called for the display of flags representing occupied peoples on the campus, as per an X post by controversial historian and author Audrey Truschke on Friday.

Truschke, also an associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in New Jersey, shared the ten demands made by student protesters at the university on her handle.

Today, students at Rutgers-New Brunswick compelled our administration to make substantial headway on eight of their ten demands. Lessons Protest works, Truschke wrote .

Today, students at Rutgers-New Brunswick compelled our administration to make substantial headway on eight of their ten demands. LessonsProtest works. The Palestinian movement is growing stronger. University presidents dont have to call in brutal cops.#Gaza #Rutgers pic.twitter.com/0mifYdYBXP  Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) May 2, 2024

Display the flags of occupied peoples  including but not limited to Palestinians, Kurds, and Kashmiris  in all areas displaying international flags across the Rutgers campuses, the ninth demand from the pro-Palestinians protesting students at Rutgers stated.

As per Truschkes post, the college administrators in response to the demand, stated: The Office of the Chancellor will take stock of flags that are displayed across RutgersNew Brunswick campus, and ensure appropriate representation of students enrolled in academic and other spaces.

The protest encampment was dismantled on Thursday after Rutgers administrators and university students reached a deal on their fourth day of the encampment.

They accepted eight of the 10 [demands] but not the most important, which is divesting, so thats what we want to do but we also want to respect the campus, one protester told CBS News.

The ongoing encampment at Rutgers University in support of Palestinians began on Monday. Protesters are demanding that Rutgers terminate its relationship with Tel Aviv University and divest from companies engaged in business with Israel.

The university announced its agreement to review the students requests. However, a rally on campus Thursday morning prompted the administration to take the unprecedented step of postponing final exams on campus.

The administration said that 28 scheduled exams were disrupted, impacting over 1,000 students, but assured that they would be rescheduled.

Right Balance needed: MEA

Commenting on the protests across the American universities, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said there should be a right balance between freedom of expression, a sense of responsibility, and public safety in every democracy.

Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noted.

Jaiswal further stated that no Indian students or their families have contacted the ministry so far for any help.

Neither the Embassy nor any Consulate has been approached by Indian students or their family seeking assistance regarding any disciplinary action for participation in protests in the universities. We expect all our citizens at home and abroad to respect local laws and regulations, he added.

Not anti-Semitism protest

In the past few weeks, at least 30 universities across the United States have rallied or established tent encampments demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as divestment from Israel and companies associated with the Israeli government and its army. The protests call for colleges and universities to cut financial ties with Israel due to the Israel-Hamas war.

The demonstrations have posed a significant challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate.

However, the protesters have denied accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing their actions are only aimed at Israels government and its prosecution of the conflict in Gaza.

(With inputs from agencies)

Find Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
After US President Joe Biden referred to Japan and India as xenophobic countries that do not welcome immigrants, the White House clarified his statement, saying he was making a broader point.

He was making a broader point. Our allies and partners know very well that how much this president respects them, stated White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre on Thursday.

Speaking about this country and speaking about how important it is to be a country of immigrants and how it makes our country stronger. And so, thats what he was talking about, she said. It relates to our relationship with our allies, that continues. Obviously, we have a strong relationship with India (and) with Japan. And the President, if you just look at the last three years, has certainly focused on those diplomatic relationships, Jean-Pierre added.

Biden made the remark during a campaign fundraising event on Wednesday, where he referred to Japan and India as xenophobic, grouping them alongside Russia and China as countries that dont want immigrants.

During the event, Biden emphasised that the US election in November was centered around freedom, America, and democracy.

You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants, he said.

Further adding: We look to the reason look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants.

The US President hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State Visit last year, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the White House in April for an official visit. Biden has faced criticism from his opponents and the Republican Party for his immigration policies, as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants enter the United States every month.

Immigration remains a contentious issue in the upcoming November 5 presidential election, where Biden will be challenged by former president Donald Trump, the presumptive candidate from the Republican Party.

(With inputs from agencies)
The bird on Hamilton Island appears to have the untreatable Psittacine Beak and Feather disease (PBFD) which spreads easily through flocks of Australian birds.

Aussies were shocked to see a sick cockatoo among the thriving population on Hamilton Island. Source: TikTok/Facebook

Tourists visiting Queensland's Hamilton Island are worried about the health of the local birds after one woman spotted a native cockatoo without most of its feathers.

The holidaymaker was visiting the popular destination in the Whitsundays in late March when she saw the iconic bird walking along a railing by the pool, looking unwell and missing its distinctive yellow crest and fluffy white plumage.

The animal appears to have the untreatable Psittacine Beak and Feather disease (PBFD) which causes immunological suppression in native birds. It's a "dreadful disease" that spreads easily through flocks of birds, wildlife advocates often warn, and causes birds to lose their feathers leaving them unable to fly. It can also cause abnormal beaks and claws.

Hamilton Island is known to have a large cockatoo population with the cheeky birds often caught terrorising visitors. Previously, a woman returned to her hotel room to discover it had been trashed by the boisterous birds.

Aussies react to 'devastating' sight at Hamilton Island

A woman named Annaliese first spotted the bird and shared a video of the animal on TikTok. "Poor guy, hope its just a rough moult," she wrote.

Commenting on the video, another woman agreed "it's devastating" to see the contagious disease spread through the bird population.

"Volunteer wildlife carer here. Sadly this is beak and feather disease," another confirmed. "Its highly contagious in our parrot populations but the locals try to catch them to help prevent the spread".

"Ive heard the population of cockatoos is really high in Hamilton Island and its so contagious amongst them," another shared. While another admitted they too saw an infected cockatoo when they visited in Feburary.

What causes PBFB in cockatoos?

PBFD is thought to have originated in Australia and is found in a wide range of species including kookaburras, rainbow bee eaters, raptors, powerful owls, peregrine falcons, wedge-tailed eagles and white-breasted sea eagles.

It's commonly thought people feeding the birds aids the spread of the disease.

A Hamilton Island spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia staff "share our guests' concerns about the well-being of cockatoos" on the island and said they're "committed to nurturing the cockatoo community".

"The presence of this disease is something we encounter infrequently, but it does occur a few times throughout the year," a spokesperson said. "While PBFD management is complex, we recognise that removing 'sick-looking' birds isn't a long-term solution, considering the birds' mobility between islands and the mainland.

"Contrary to popular belief, the disease is not directly caused by public feeding, but rather weakened health from such feeding makes the birds more susceptible to PBFD," they added. Despite this, Hamilton Island actively discourages guest feeding through multiple communication channels, "aiming to protect our avian friends from harm".

Previously, Yahoo spoke with an Australian woman Carly about her featherless pet cockatoo Sookie which also has PBFD but is "living his best life".

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UPDATE

May 4, 2024 4:30 PM CDT

Japan and India on Saturday rebutted President Biden's assessment of them as "xenophobic" countries unwelcoming to immigrants. A Japanese official who declined to be named said Biden misunderstands the US ally's policies, the AP reports, while adding that the government understands the president was trying to stress the importance of immigrants to the US. A government official in New Delhi said Biden also has India all wrong. "We are actually not just not xenophobic, we are the most open, most pluralistic and in many ways the most understanding society in the world," External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said at a roundtable.

May 2, 2024 6:45 PM CDT

Three weeks after hosting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a state dinner at the White House, President Biden put Japan with different company in remarks at a campaign reception on Wednesday night. The president was expressing support for the US history of accepting immigrants when he said, per CNN: "Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants."
Israel's bombardment of Gaza over the past seven months has left many high-rise concrete buildings in rubble, creating what a United Nations official called a "moonscape" of destruction. Palestinian statistics show that about 80,000 homes have been destroyed since the strikes began after Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, Reuters reports. Another 370,000 have been damaged, per the Guardian . UN experts have tried to assess what rebuilding the destroyed homes will entail: Best case is 16 years and $40 billion.

The 2040 projection only holds if construction materials are delivered five times as fast as they were in 2021, the last Gaza crisis. If the schedule is more like it was after other recent conflicts, the United Nations Development Program report says, it could take "approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units." On top of that, a UN assessment of satellite images found that 85% of schools have been damaged and that over 70% of schools will need major construction, if not rebuilding. The director of the UN program for Arab states made an appeal Thursday for $100 million to start the rebuilding and for a plan to administer Gaza from "the day after" the war ends.

"Imagine if there's a ceasefire tomorrow and we will need six more months at least to have a plan and start implementing," Abdallah al-Dardari told the Guardian. "Those six months will be very dangerous." The report said this level of destruction of housing hasn't occurred since World War II, per the AP. "Every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians," said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN program. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
Donald Trump spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on his swing through crucial Wisconsin this week, and he declined to commit to accept the swing state's election results. "If everything's honest, I'd gladly accept the results," Trump told the newspaper. "If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country." He added that "I'd be doing a disservice to the country if I said otherwise." Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that President Biden would accept the results and put no qualifiers on it.
They've been regular visitors to San Francisco's Pier 39 for 35 years, and this year's turnout is a pretty stellar one. More than 1,000 sea lions have congregated on docks along the pier. While that's shy of the record 1,700 or so that some years have seen, it's said to be the largest number to mass there in 15 years. The Guardian reports the "mounds of floppy, delightfully ungraceful marine mammals" were attracted by a large school of anchovies in the bay.

SFGate reports it all started thanks to one "plucky male sea lion" that settled on a dock by Pier 39 in 1989 and was soon joined by hundreds more. The numbers have fluctuated over the years, even hitting zero for periods in 2009 and 2014. The current numbers could potentially swell, notes SFist, which reports the dock usually sees the most sea lions over the September-to-November period.

As for those present now, UC Santa Cruz ecology professor Dan Costa tells the Guardian the males are in many cases headed south to the Channel Islands to mate. "These are wandering, nomadic critters who tend to work their way north and work their way south throughout the year," Costa said. (You can take a look at the scene for yourself via Pier 39's livestream.)
The NYPD has confirmed that a rumor circulating among Columbia University students is true. A police spokesperson told the City on Thursday that an officer fired a shot when police stormed a campus building occupied by student protesters Tuesday night. The spokesperson said the officer was using a flashlight on his firearm to illuminate a barricaded area in Hamilton Hall when he accidentally fired a shot. The NYPD said the bullet hit a frame in a wall a few feet away and nobody was injured, the New York Times reports.

Police said officers were the only people "in sight or sound" of the shot, per the New York Daily News. Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office, said the incident is being investigated by the office's Police Accountability Unit, reports the New York Post. "It is our policy to review such incidents," he said. Body camera footage has been turned over to the DA's office. The City reports that word of the shooting spread among students quickly Tuesday night, when the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine group posted a video on X of an officer texting, "Thought we f------ shot someone." (More 2024 campus protests stories.)
No one is doubting South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's account of killing her young dog and other animals, but people aren't so quick to buy other claims in her upcoming memoir. According to the Dakota Scout , Noem writes in No Going Back about meeting Kim Jong Un while serving on the House Armed Services Committee from 2013 to 2015 and about canceling a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron after he "made what I considered a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press." Macron's office said he never had a meeting scheduled with Noem. Meanwhile, a dozen Capitol Hill staffers said they'd never heard of Noem meeting Kim. "It's bullshit," said one who worked on the committee at the time in question.

Experts agree the claim is, basically, impossible. President Obama didn't even meet Kim. "And I have never heard of Kim Jong Un meeting congressmen or congresswomen," North Korea expert and Virginia Commonwealth University professor Benjamin Young tells the Scout. "There's no way." Fellow expert George Lopez of the University of Notre Dame says Kim didn't leave North Korea from 2011 to 2018, meaning Noem would've had to visit that country. But the Scout could find no congressional record of such a trip. Noem mentions the supposed meeting while remarking that "I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders." Of Kim, she writes, "I'm sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I'd been a children's pastor, after all)."

Of Macron, she writes she was "slated to meet" him while in Paris for a political conference but "decided to cancel." The president's office said Noem never received a "direct invitation," though it's possible she and Macron were scheduled to attend the same event. In response to questions, Noem's office said she doesn't discuss her meetings with foreign leaders, though the book clearly disputes that. The Scout was later told the publisher would be "addressing conflated world leaders' names in the book." Read the full report here. (More Kristi Noem stories.)
China launched a lunar probe on Friday to land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. The rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probenamed after the Chinese mythical moon goddesslifted off at 5:27am Eastern from the Wenchang launch center on the island province of Hainan, the AP reports. Huge numbers of people crowded Hainan's beaches to view the launch, which comes in the middle of China's five-day May Day holiday.

After orbiting the moon to reduce speed, the lander will separate from the spacecraft and begin scooping up samples almost as soon as it sets down. It will then reconnect with the returner for the trip back to Earth. The entire mission is set to last 53 days. Free from exposure to Earth and other interference, the moon's somewhat mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Because the far side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.

The launch is the latest advance in China's increasingly sophisticated space exploration program. In 2020, China returned samples from the moon's near side, the first time anyone has done so since the US Apollo program ended in the 1970s. Earlier this week, three Chinese astronauts returned home from a six-month mission on the country's orbiting space station after the arrival of its replacement crew. China's space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030, as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next is scheduled for 2027. (More China space program stories.)
Stick out your thumb and pinky, curl the other fingers down, and you've got a shaka, which is about to become America's first official state hand gesture. Hawaii legislators have passed a bill to recognize the shaka and it is on its way to the desk of Gov. Josh Green, Hawaii News Now reports. The gesture, known elsewhere as the "hang loose" sign, is used in many contexts. "If you say thank you, you give people a shaka," Maui kayak guide Ryan Arcia tells the Times of London. "If you see somebody that you know from across the way, you just throw each other a shaka. If you're letting somebody into your lane on the highway, you throw a shaka."

State Sen. Glenn Wakai, who sponsored the legislation, describes it as a "symbol of happiness," the Economist reports. Wakai says he wanted to make it the official state gesture before it was claimed by somewhere like California, which made surfing its official state sport in 2018. "Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing," he says. "How in the world did California claim it?" The gesture is also widely used in countries including Brazil. "As the shaka is now used around the world, this Act ensures that Hawaii retains recognition as the birthplace of the shaka," the bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday states.

According to a bill passed by the state House earlier this year, the shaka "generally consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the wrist may be rotated back and forth for emphasis." Steve Sue, writer and director of the documentary Shaka: A Story of Aloha, says there are numerous theories about the origin of the shaka, the Times reports. His film, which premieres Friday, looks at six of them. In the most widely known story, Hamana Kalili, a Native Hawaiian man who lost three fingers in a sugar mill accident, made the sign as an all-clear when he was working as a guard on a sugar train. (More Hawaii stories.)
With the 2024 election just over six months away, President Biden is working with two big thorns in his side that threaten to damage his reelection bid: Israel's continued war against Hamas in Gaza, and the subsequent campus protests that are roiling colleges and universities across the US. Axios notes that the commander in chief is routinely heckled now at his various public appearances over these topics, but there's one group in particular that may prove especially worrisome for Biden: young voters from his own party, with support plummeting at an "increasing pace of concern," Elise Joshi of Gen-Z for Change tells the Hill. More:



Poll I: It's not great news for Biden on this front. A Harvard Youth Poll from last month showed that 45% of young adults ages 18 to 29 would vote for Biden, with 37% for Trump. For context, at this point in the 2020 election, Biden led Trump 60% to 30%.

It's not great news for Biden on this front. A Harvard Youth Poll from last month showed that 45% of young adults ages 18 to 29 would vote for Biden, with 37% for Trump. For context, at this point in the 2020 election, Biden led Trump 60% to 30%. Poll II: In a CNN poll released last month, Biden trailed Trump by 11 percentage points among voters under the age of 35; the poll does note that "Biden's deficit with voters in that group is driven largely by those who did not vote in 2020." Once that group was removed from the equation, it's Trump 47%, Biden 46%.
The auditing company responsible for keeping tabs on the parent company for Donald Trump's Truth Social platform apparently needed an auditor for itself. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused BF Borgers of "massive fraud," saying the "sham audit mill" found "deliberate and systemic failures" in upward of 1,500 filings from January 2021 through June of last year. CNBC reports that the firm and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, didn't have to admit or deny the allegations against them, but to settle the SEC's charges, they agreed to permanently hanging up their accounting hats, as well as fork over a combined $14 million in civil penalties ($12 million from the firm, $2 million from Borgers himself).

The Washington Post notes that the period in question "was before Trump Media & Technology Group went public, suggesting that its filings were not among those investigated as part of the review." BF Borgers noted previously that it has served as the Trump Media auditor since 2022. The SEC had accused BF Borgers of multiple transgressions, including "falsely representing to their clients that the firm's work would comply with [Public Company Accounting Oversight Board] standards; fabricating audit documentation to make it appear that the firm's work did comply with PCAOB standards; and falsely stating in audit reports included in more than 500 public company SEC filings that the firm's audits complied with PCAOB standards."

The Financial Times spotted some notable errors last month in filings made by Benjamin Borgers: the misspelling of its own name. The Times notes it unearthed 14 variations (e.g., Ben F Brogers, Blake F Borgers, Ben F orgers), which the publication says may just be simple spelling mistakesperhaps because Borgers is "overworked" or "fat-fingered." Even if Trump Media's records weren't included in the review, the SEC's allegations "raised questions about the accuracy of the financial information in thousands of reports that were issued by the companies Borgers audited," including Trump Media. A Trump Media rep tells CNBC that the company "looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today's SEC order." Trump Media's share price fell about 9% soon after trading opened on Friday. (More Trump Media and Technology Group stories.)
Harish Lodhia, Fiji's honorary consul in Auckland and owner of Sona Sansaar, expressed similar sentiments after being attacked on 10 February.

"I still wake up in the middle of the night shaking and sweating," Lodhia said. "After the incident, my staff couldn't come to work for weeks, and many of them are still undergoing counselling.

"Apart from the obvious substantial financial loss, which often runs into millions, the trauma faced by victims of aggravated robberies is an ongoing tragedy often ignored."

Gurdeep Singh, owner of Pooja Jewellers in Papatoetoe and one of the first Punjabi jewellers in New Zealand, said things used to be very different 20 years ago when he opened his shop.

"When an aggravated robbery happens at a jewellery store, one's entire life's work goes out of the gate in matter of seconds," Singh said.

"When we started two decades back, we didn't have any cages, strong doors or any kind of fear," he said. "We were migrants trying to make an honest living. And we made our businesses brick by brick. To see all that shattered within minutes is traumatic."

Siva Kilari, National Party candidate for Manurewa and the highest-ranked Indian-origin candidate on the party's list in the 2023 election, defended the coalition government's work on tackling crime over the past six months.

"It is absolutely devastating [that] our community is being hit hard by crime and experiencing these setbacks far too often," Kilari said. "Since taking office six months ago, the National-led coalition has taken decisive action to address crime.

"They've prioritized rehabilitation efforts through initiatives like the boot-camp program to divert young offenders from a life of crime," he said.

"Resources have been reallocated to better support victims, redirecting funding from cultural reports to enhance victim services such as counselling and court attendance support," he said.

"Our approach is simple - tougher consequences for crime. Imposing stricter penalties is essential in deterring criminal behaviour."

Kilari said Police Minister Mark Mitchell directly contacted Raju of Glitter Jewellers to offer his support following the attack.

"I am also aware that Manurewa police are providing ongoing victim support and the local community have rallied around the jewellery store owner," he said.

Mitchell elaborated on measures the government wanted to see in place to prevent further aggravated robberies.

"I have made my expectations very clear that I want to see an increased presence of officers on the beat in our CBDs," Mitchell said.

"We have a plan to recruit 500 more police. We are giving them powers to come down hard on gang offending and illegal firearms. We are establishing youth military style academies, bringing back Three Strikes and bringing in tougher sentencing," he said.

"Over the last six years we've seen our police up against an overwhelming increase in crime. It's going to take time to get on top of it, but we are committed to cracking down on serious offending and gangs, working hard alongside police to turn things around."

Indian owners of independent jewellery stores were sceptical such measures would make much impact.

"The crime scene is getting worse," Singh said. "During the election campaign, promises were made by Mr Luxon and his team, but they are failing to control crime. We just see a blame game going on.

"We need harsher punishment for offenders, and we need to make the parents of young offenders accountable. Without this, I don't think the boot camps initiative [will] make any difference."

Raju agreed.

"We used to think [the high crime rates were] because of the Labour government, but it's been six months now since the National-led coalition was sworn in, but nothing has changed."

Lodhia called on the government to introduce immediate changes.

"These kids need to be in school, and they need to be put through the right channels to make them better citizens of this country," Lodhia said. "People are fed up."

RNZ
School principals say they're becoming "increasingly concerned" about the pace of change the new Government is "imposing" on schools.

It comes a day after the Government announced major changes to the way literacy is taught in New Zealand.



The Principals Federation warns a raft of changes are happening "without critical consultation with the sector".



"First came cell phone bans, next one hour each of reading, writing and maths, then attendance, and now, we are being directed to implement a structured literacy approach," the Federation said in a statement.



From term 1 next year, all state schools will have to teach reading using a structured literacy approach - which involves phonics, decoding and word understanding.



Education Minister Erica Stanford announced a change in approach on Thursday, which will be supported with $67 million in funding for professional development and resources.



But education unions, including the Principals Federation, worry the government is putting a one-size-fits-all system in place.



"We know that a single option will not be effective in every context or for every student in our culturally diverse country," Federation President Leanne Otene said.



"Mandating a single literacy approach for all schools would be a mistake and would not on its own get the increased achievement rates that we all strive for."
Public organisations were typically required to invite multiple contractors into the procurement process to ensure that public funds were spent responsibly.

But Ryan said the University of Waikato did not engage in a competitive procurement process and had reached out to Joyce directly.

"Where there has been a direct procurement like this, and one that to date has cost well over $1 million of public money, we would expect to see a clear and documented reason for the services that were needed," he said.

"That explanation, and the assurance it would provide to the public that public money has been appropriately spent, is missing."

He said the matter was a "useful reminder" for public organisations to be transparent while hiring contractors.

The University of Waikato said it accepted the Auditor-General's comments.

"[We] will ensure any future variations to university policies will be reported to the University Council," a spokesperson said.

"The university accepts it is accountable for the expenditure of public money and for the outcomes resulting from that expenditure."

The spokesperson noted the process used to originally hire Joyce Advisory in 2019 was "permissable under the University's Procurement Policy and Independent Contractor Policy."

But it promised to "provide additional documentation when making future variations to contractor agreements, to ensure there is a robust reporting process".

RNZ
The political controversy overshadowed a speech Peters gave on Friday morning on China.

During it, he rolled out New Zealand's well-trodden lines about our differences with our biggest trading partner.

He raised "serious concerns about human rights abuses", "growing tensions and hardening rhetoric across the Taiwan Strait", and "increased engagement in Pacific security sectors" amongst other things.

But it's differences with former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Carr that's stealing the limelight.

Carr's lawyers have written to Winston Peters regarding comments he made about the Australian on RNZ. Newshub's obtained the letter which says, "the statements are indefensibly defamatory of our client and have no basis in fact".

"We place you on notice that we are now in the process of instructing New Zealand lawyers to advise in relation to the immediate commencement in New Zealand of defamation proceedings against you."

Peters wasn't initially so keen to chat about it all right after his China speech.

"The purpose of this press conference is to talk about what I just talked about," he said.

But it didn't take long to get to Carr.

"I am not going to get deviated on this matter, but this is not my first legal rodeo either... I am not cowed like you are in standing up for the rights and principles of a free society."

Peters said he hadn't yet seen the legal letter and urged others not to rush to judgment about what happens next.

He continued to criticise Carr for appearing at Labour's anti-AUKUS event at Parliament last month.

"I would never go to another country and start telling them what to do on a major issue," he said.

Speaking on Thursday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Peters' remarks weren't ones he'd make, but they were made in the rough and tumble of politics. Labour has called them embarrassing for New Zealand and is doubling down on calls for Luxon to remove Peters from the Foreign Affairs role.

"Christopher Luxon needs to show some leadership. Winston Peters should not still be in that role," Chris Hipkins said on Friday.

"Ultimately Christopher Luxon should be putting the country's best interests first, not his own political interests first."
Alongside these topics, Peters said he and Wang also talked at length about areas where New Zealand and China have different views such as human rights issues.

Peters said we have consistently made clear New Zealand's concerns about human rights abuses against ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, and violations of human rights in Hong Kong and Tibet. He said New Zealand will continue to call on China to uphold its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other core treaties.

The deputy Prime Minister said China has a responsibility to encourage de-escalation and ease tensions, such as in ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas.

He encouraged China to be clear it does not support Russia's unlawful war in Ukraine and urged Beijing to halt actions that help Moscow to rebuild its war-fighting capability and prolong the conflict.

"We strongly believe that in a mature relationship like ours, it is possible to discuss differences openly, respectfully and predictably. We will continue to share our concerns with China, where we have them," Peters said.

Another issue he raised was cyber-attacks that "are intended to influence, disrupt or subvert New Zealands national interests".

In March, Government officials announced a Chinese state-sponsored group stole data relating to New Zealand MPs in a hack on Parliament back in 2021.

The Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service were targeted in the attack by the group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 40 (APT40), Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) Minister Judith Collins said. The hackers also had accessed some information from New Zealand MPs.

That announcement came just hours after the UK revealed new details about a Beijing-backed group targeting its electoral commission. The US and Australia have also said they were hit by the cyber-attack.

During Peters' speech on Friday, he said the Coalition Government "remain vigilant" to such threats.

"In recent weeks the Coalition Government has also raised examples of cyber-attacks and interference efforts that are intended to influence, disrupt, or subvert New Zealands national interests.

"These are deeply concerning and completely unacceptable."

Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, denied China was to blame for the cyber-attacks.

"We have firmly fought and stopped all kinds of malicious cyber activities in accordance with the law and advocated joint response from all countries through dialogue and cooperation," Wang said in March. "We have never, nor will we in the future, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including New Zealand."

Peters' comments come after the NZ Herald revealed earlier this week New Zealand representatives on the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) were hit by a cyber-attack in 2021. They include former Labour MP Louisa Wall, ex-National MP Simon O'Connor and academic Professor Anne-Marie Brady - all three had previously represented New Zealand in IPAC.

The GCSB learned of the attack targets from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2022.

Wall and O'Connor told the Herald they were never told about the attack and have requested an independent investigation.

Despite also happening in 2021, the cyber-attack that allegedly targeted Wall and O'Connor was a separate attack by a different group.
Fairbanks, AK (99701)

Today

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 33F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph, becoming SSW and decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 33F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph, becoming SSW and decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The High Administrative Court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a foreign national seeking an ID card for his daughter before obtaining a passport for her in her nationality.

The court emphasised that issuing an ID card for a foreigner requires the name to be recorded as it appears in the passport or the nationality statement issued by the competent authority in the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence, along with the passport details for non-Bahrainis.

The plaintiff had filed a lawsuit before the Lower Administrative Court, requesting the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) to issue a birth certificate for his daughter, born in 2017, along with an ID card, and to register this in its official records.

He indicated that he had submitted a request to the defendant, iGA, to issue a birth certificate, but they refused to do so except by a court order.

The Court ruled to oblige the iGA to issue a birth certificate for the plaintiff s daughter and register it in its official records.

However, it ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the request to issue an ID card and referred it to the competent High Administrative Court.
Council of Representatives adopts timeshare bill to regulate property ownership and boost tourism

Council of Representatives adopts timeshare bill to regulate property ownership and boost tourism

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Council of Representatives, upon the recommendation of its Committee on Services, yesterday unanimously adopted a 36-article draft law that aims to regulate the activities associated with property timeshares.

In simple terms, a timeshare is understood to be a type of holiday abode whose proprietorship is fractioned amongst a consortium of purchasers.

Under this arrangement, the propertys cost is apportioned between the owners, granting each a guaranteed period of occupancy annually.

Timeshares are typically comprised of smaller accommodations within a more extensive resort complex.

The principal aim of the proposed legislation is to bolster the economic and commercial milieu within the Kingdom of Bahrain.

It endeavours to stimulate investment within the realms of real estate and tourism.

The bill further introduces greater latitude in contract issuance and offers enhanced versatility in contractual dealings amongst stakeholders.

In addition, it institutes legal safeguards to uphold the rights of all involved parties and delineates their obligations with precision.

Moreover, the legislation aspires to sow seeds of trust in the hearts of consumers, encompassing citizens, residents, and visitors of the kingdom, as they engage with firms specialising in timeshares.

Trust

This trust is envisaged to germinate into societal benefits, yielding a harvest of reliability and openness within the industry.

MP Dr. Ali AlNoaimi, expressing great enthusiasm for the proposal, said, This law will significantly contribute to our economy and serve the interests of investment.

We also urge the Ministry [of Tourism] to include Southern Governorate tourism sites in their initiatives.

MP Muneer Seroor cautioned, We are obligated to safeguard the interests of both transactional parties, particularly as this bill may inadvertently unlatch the gates to fraudulent sales.

Feasibility

MP Eman Showaiter queried, Does Bahrain truly need a law allowing timeshares, especially considering the lack of feasibility observed in the implementation of timeshares in other Arab countries?

She also raised concerns about compensation mechanisms in cases where a beneficiary receives property negatively impacted by a previous occupant.

In retort, Her Excellency Fatima Al Sairafi, the Minister of Tourism, asserted, The introduction of this law is imperative, for it aligns with the burgeoning tapestry of our tourism infrastructure, as well as the liaison between investors and the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), alongside the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

Enterprises

These entities have closely collaborated and observed the instrumental role of this legislation in magnetising further investments into the tourism sector.

A multitude of enterprises have signalled their eagerness. It falls upon us, as the Ministry of Tourism, to formulate explicit guidelines to strengthen both beneficiaries and developers.

MP Dr. Hisham Al-Ashiri acknowledged the established nature of the timeshare system but stressed the need to address potential loopholes that could be exploited by investors.

We must carefully consider the potential impact of these laws on our country and provide guarantees to prevent misuse for purposes other than promoting tourism, he stated.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On May 1, XPeng Inc. ("XPENG" or the "Company"), a prominent Chinese smart electric vehicle company, disclosed its vehicle delivery figures for April 2024.

XPENG X9; photo credit: XPENG

In April, XPENG delivered 9,393 smart electric vehicles, marking a 33% increase compared to the same month last year and a 4% rise from the previous month. Notably, the XPENG X9, the company's all-electric MPV, recorded 1,959-unit deliveries this month, with cumulative sales nearing 10,000 units since its debut.

So far this year, XPENG has delivered 31,214 smart EVs, up 23% year-over-year.

In urban driving scenarios, the monthly active user penetration rate of XNGP (XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot) function reached 82% in April.

Also in April, XPENG made progress in testing its NGP functions on Germanys highways, advancing its R&D efforts for introducing the highway NGP to international markets.

At the Auto China 2024, XPENG unveiled its latest AI-driven innovations, including the XOS 5.1.0, also known as Tianji OS. This new system, set for launch on May 20, 2024, is the industry's first to integrate AI across both smart cockpits and autonomous driving features.

Leading the way in smart driving technology, XPENG also introduced the XPlanner, one of the first large-scale neural network-based models for planning and control, enhancing the human-like decision-making capabilities of its XNGP ADAS. Additionally, XPENG previewed the AI Valet Driver, an advanced AI system with exceptional visual perception and control that can store and customize up to 10 driving routes of 100km each.

Moreover, XPENG announced its new brand, MONA (Made of New AI), set to debut in June 2024.
For every Pampers Swaddlers diaper pack and Sensitive Wipes sold at Walmart in store and online in May and June, Pampers Canada will donate to the CPBF and Prema-Quebec.

TORONTO, May 3, 2024 /CNW/ - Approximately 30,000 babies are born prematurely every year in Canada, spending their first weeks or months in the NICU. This can be an incredibly difficult time for families as they navigate the uncertainties that come with staying in the hospital. The transition back home can also be an exhausting and stressful period as families adapt to caring for their baby's health concerns on their own.

Some of that additional care at home includes protecting a premature baby's skin. Preterm babies' skin can be up to two times thinner than full-term babies, making it extra sensitive to the touch and irritants1.

Choosing the right diaper and establishing a skin regimen designed for babies with heightened sensitivity to skin irritation is so important for premature babies. A few years ago, as the #1 Canadian Pediatrician Recommended Brand, Pampers partnered with NICU nurses to develop a special diaper designed for babies weighing as little as one pound, the first major diaper brand to do so.

To continue this support, Pampers Canada is once again partnering with the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation (CPBF) and Prema-Quebec to support families with premature babies across May and June.

"We know that having a premature baby can be overwhelming and stressful for many Canadian families. That's why Pampers is partnering with Walmart Canada to bring attention to the impact of prematurity on babies and their families and provide financial assistance to two wonderful charitable organizations that are working to educate, support and advocate for premature babies and their families," said Irena Kahn, Brand Director, P&G.

To help babies and their families when they need it the most, Pampers Canada is participating in these initiatives:

In partnership with Walmart Canada*, Pampers Canada will donate 8 cents to the CPBF and Prema-Quebec for every Pampers Swaddlers diaper pack and for every pack of Pampers Sensitive Wipes sold at Walmart from May 1 to June 30, 2024 .

will donate to the CPBF and Prema-Quebec for every Pampers Swaddlers diaper pack and for every pack of Pampers Sensitive Wipes sold at Walmart from . This funding will go towards support programs for families of premature babies, including mental health and wellness resources.

For more information about CPBF's support programs, visit: www.canadianpreemies.org

For more information about Prema-Quebec's support programs, visit: www.premaquebec.ca

"The experience of premature birth can be traumatizing, frightening and filled with unknowns, but Canadian families don't have to go through it alone. The CPBF is dedicated to helping them with peer support programs, resources and research leading to improved outcomes and experiences for babies and families. Thanks to these generous donations from Pampers Canada, we will be able to continue this support for Canadian families," said Fabiana Bacchini, Executive Director, Canadian Premature Babies Foundation.

Those who would like to donate to the CPBF and Prema-Quebec through this initiative can purchase Pampers Swaddlers diaper packs and Sensitive Wipes in store at any Walmart location in Canada.

For more information, please visit pampers.ca.

About Pampers

For more than 50 years, parents have trusted Pampers to care for their babies. Pampers is a part of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and is the #1-selling diaper worldwide. Every day, more than 25 million babies in 100 countries around the world wear Pampers. Pampers offers a complete range of diapers, wipes and training pants designed to provide protection and comfort for every stage of baby's development. Visit www.pampers.ca to learn more about Pampers products, join the Pampers Rewards program, and find ideas and information to help you and your baby.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks, and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

About Canadian Premature Babies Foundation

As a national parent-led charitable organization, the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation (CPBF) provides education, support, and advocacy for Canada's premature babies and their families. Approximately 30,000 babies are born prematurely every year in Canada. CPBF's goal is to build momentum by continuing to develop peer support programs, distribute helpful materials and resources to families and health care professionals, and investigate how it can better the lives and experiences of premature babies and their families.

About Prema-Quebec

Prema-Quebec's mission is to improve the quality of life of premature infants by offering services and educational, psychological and financial support to their parents. Created in 2003, the organization is supported by doctors, nurses and other neonatal care professionals. It is the only organization in Quebec that supports parents of prematurely born children, from birth through to their return home, and sometimes beyond. Since its foundation, Prema-Quebec has helped over 45,000 families.

References

1 Visscher MO and Narendran V. "The Ontogeny of Skin." Adv Wound Care 3, no. 4 (September 25, 2013): 291303. doi:10.1089/wound.2013.0467.

SOURCE Pampers Canada

Media Contact: MSLGROUP (for Pampers): Camille Massicotte, 514-893-2117, [email protected]
VANCOUVER, BC, May 2, 2024 /CNW/ -- Scope AI Corp. (CSE: SCPE) (OTCQB: SCPCF) (FSE: VN8) ("Scope" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on new developments of Scope's artificial intelligence driven recognition technology called GEM (General Enterprise Machine Learning) system. With the latest advancements to Scope's proprietary technology, Scope's focus has broadened in addition to past announced realized technology applications to developing a one-stop web solution for developers and individuals, as well as businesses, large and small, to create, build, and use their own image detection, behavior analysis and neural network systems for their customer business case.

Highlights of New Developments

Broad based one tool solution for businesses to develop their own artificial intelligence object detection and visual information system.

Application will focus on allowing companies to test how visual variations in creatives and user flows affect performance

GEM will allow companies in any industry to harness the power of neural networks for their own unique use cases

Beta version of new GEM system expected to launch in late May 2024 .

Over the last few months, Scope's management and technology team have devoted a significant amount of time diversifying the GEM system. The new one-tool-solution for businesses to develop their own object detection and visual information system will be offered through a proprietary platform launch by Scope in the second quarter of 2024. In particular, users will be offered the ability to easily render their own neural networks, annotate datasets and verify the inference improvements through various state of the art analytics tools.

The new GEM Platform comes as a SaaS web-application with advanced user management for administrators or supervisors (CRM), enhanced login and account security, as well as full data encryption built natively into the platform. Scope's initial target market is the advertising, gaming and health care industries. Businesses of any size can easily onboard and start using the intuitive web-interface to build custom solutions for their respective businesses. An advanced Application Programming Interface (API) will also be made available later this year.

The beta version will allow Scope to determine optimal economics for the product offering as well as an initial industry focus. Currently, Scope is contemplating a recurring revenue subscription fee structure and a pay-as-you-play model on the platform in order to best meet the needs of the client in a flexible way. A final decision on a revenue model will be determined after beta testing.

About Us:

Scope AI Corp is an artificial intelligence-based technology company focusing on its recognition system called GEM - General Enterprise Machine Learning. The company, located in Vancouver, British Columbia is consistently developing the AI-driven software and intellectual property for use in analyzing which the company intends to use for any "visual" application. The vision of the Company is to expand the capabilities of its GEM Platform and provide a one-tool solution in any visual information systems.

For more information please visit Scope AI Corp. , [email protected] , or follow along on social media.

LinkedIn: scope-ai-corp

Facebook: Scope AI Corp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScopeAICorp

Contact Information

James Young, Chief Executive Officer

(604) 416-1720

[email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that constitute forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical statements of fact are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, future, strategy, objectives, goals and targets, and more specifically, the use of proceeds of the Offering. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable and reflect expectations of future developments and other factors which management believes to be reasonable and relevant, the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "expects", "aim", "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. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and are based on assumptions and analyses made by the Company in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, including, but not limited to, those risks and assumptions described in the Company's prospectus dated August 10, 2022, a copy of which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. While Scope considers these assumptions to be reasonable, based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. In addition, forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions, continued satisfaction of Canadian Securities Exchange requirements, product safety and recalls, regulatory compliance and risks associated with the Company's business. For more information on the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause anticipated opportunities and actual results to differ materially, please refer to the risk factors set out in the Company's prospectus dated August 10, 2022, a copy of which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the business of the Company and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof.

SOURCE Scope AI Corp.
There were huge fears that Apple would have bad earnings and bad guidance. Apple is buying back a lot of shares. The company is boosting its buyback program by $110 billion. For context, Apple upped its authorization by $90 billion a year ago, and analysts were expecting a similar increase this time around.

Apple being stronger than expected is good for the overall US stock market and world economy.

That buyback announcement paired with a 4% hike to the companys quarterly dividend, which will become 25 cents a share.

China business remains in decline, but was not as bad feared or expected. Apples Greater China region generated $16.4 billion in revenue, down from $17.8 billion a year before. Analysts, though, were fearing $15.3 billion.

Services marked a high point for Apple, as the segment raked in record revenue of $23.9 billion, which compared with the $23.1 billion consensus view.

Apple will have revenue growth for Q2 despite weak iPhone sales.

The massive share buybacks and dividend increase are short term moves. Apple could have invested in long term growth and innovation but has not. Apple has performed about $650 billion worth of stock buybacks.
Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and energy solutions, has been awarded a contract by Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) for digitalisation services at HPLs ethylene plant in West Bengal, India.

For more than two decades, we have collaborated with HPL and provided them with best-in-class process technologies, said Ujjal Mukherjee, Chief Technology Officer, Lummus Technology.

This latest award showcases our integrated offering where we provide technologies and other solutions throughout the life cycle of a plant. HPL will be able to leverage Lummus proprietary know-how, process expertise and digital solutions to enhance the plant for peak performance and optimise OPEX.

First O3STM award in India

The award is Lummus first O3STM award in India. Lummus will provide its digitalisation, training and knowledge transfer services for HPLs ethylene plant. Previously, Lummus was awarded a contract for the license and basic engineering for the same unit, which builds on the 25-plus years HPL has licensed Lummus technologies for its operations.

O3STM is part of a broad array of training and digitalisation services Lummus provides to licensees to meet specific and individual requirements. These services include hands-on opportunities to simulate plant operation, which enables operational teams to run the plant in a safer, more productive way, leading to better performance, higher efficiency and less waste.--TradeArabia News Service
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On May 1, BYD Company Limited ("BYD") disclosed its latest monthly sales results, reporting that the company sold a total of 313,245 new energy vehicles in April. This figure marks a 48.96% soar over the same period last year, and a modest growth of 3.57% from the previous month.

In a detailed breakdown of sales by brand or product series, the BYD Dynasty/Ocean series took the lead with 297,864 vehicles, followed by DENZA at 11,122 units, FANGCHENGBAO with 2,110 units, and YANGWANG at 952 units.

Notably, after last year's introduction of the YANGWANG U8, the YANGWANG brand launched its second model, the U9, in February of this year priced at 1.68 million yuan. The third model, the U7, was unveiled at the Auto China 2024 and is scheduled for market release in the latter half of this year, completing the brand's luxury lineup with offerings in the SUV, supercar, and sedan categories.

Photo credit: BYD

April was a pivotal month for BYD, transitioning from intense price competition in the first quarter to a period marked by significant product introductions. Key launches included the updated DENZA N7 at the month's start, the company's inaugural pickup truck, the BYD SHARK, and several others unveiled at the Auto China 2024 such as the Qin L, Seal 06 DM-i, Sea Lion 07 EV, YANGWANG U7, and OCEAN-M models.

Beyond satisfying domestic demand, BYD continues to push into overseas markets. Since announcing its foray into overseas markets for passenger vehicles in May 2021, BYD has expanded its presence to 83 countries across six continents.

In terms of international performance, BYD set a new record in April with export volume of new energy passenger vehicles reaching 41,011 units (+176.6% YoY). Since the company began tracking this data in July 2022, its cumulative overseas sales of these vehicles have surpassed 430,000 units, with nearly 140,000 of sales occurring between January and April 2024.
SAN FRANCISCOFalcon|NakedSword exclusives Beau Butler and Max Konnor lead the cast of new kink release Giving In from director Jasun Mark and Fetish Force. Also starring Quin Quire, Siren Santiago, Adam Wirthmore and Colt Spence, the movie is now available on DVD and as a digital download at the Falcon|NakedSword store, and has begun rolling out on FistingInferno.com.

Describes a company synopsis, "Muscle hunk Max Konnor and fetish fucker Quin Quire are joining forces to flog and eat out a bound and submissive Siren Santiago. Wanting to see just how much more Siren can handle, the two tops spit-roast the bottom with an oversized dildo and Maxs 10-inch cock before zapping his hole with an electrical wand. The leather-clad threesome then reaches a creamy climax as Max and Quin begin pumping their big bareback dicks into Sirens slit and breeding his insides with their oversized loads of cum.



"In future episodes of Giving In," the synopsis continues, "Max Konnor and Quin Quire continue to be in total control as Quin takes a sounding rod to his own piss slit and Max moves his metal pinwheel across Sirens throbbing cock. Colt Spence is the next hung top to dominate some ass as he teams up with Beau Butler to spit-roast and breed Adam Wirthmore. Never satisfied with just one release, Colt then restrains Beau Butler and Adam Wirthmore, smothers them with his bare feet, and releases them before continuing to pound out their hairy holes."

Promotion of Giving In is available through the Buddy Profits affiliate program. For more information, contact the affiliate manager at [email protected].



For DVD retail and wholesale purchasing, contact John Gunderson at [email protected]. Contact Cameron Greer at [email protected] for any additional information.
A 71-year-old man was arrested Friday, about two weeks after a woman recorded him yelling racially charged slurs at her and others riding in a motorcade in support of Palestine, according to police.

The woman went to the Teaneck Police Station in Bergen County on April 14 to report she was participating in a motor vehicle procession on Teaneck Road when a man began yelling from a passenger seat in a vehicle next to her.

A rear-seat passenger spit at the victim and the driver allegedly brandished a knife, the woman told police.

The victim recorded the altercation and provided the video as evidence of the criminal conduct, Teaneck Police Chief Andrew R. McGurr said in a statement.

McGurr said police identified the driver as Ebrahim Yehounatan, of Flushing, New York.

Yehounatans name was entered into a national crime database and he was arrested on a warrant Friday in Ocean County by officers with the Lakewood Police Department, McGurr said.

Teaneck police charged Yehounatan with second and fourth-degree bias intimidation, a third-degree weapons offense, and harassment as a disorderly persons crime.

Yehounatan was taken Friday to the Bergen County Jail ahead of a court appearance, according to police. Attorney information for the man was not listed in court records on Friday afternoon.

The person who spit at the motorcade was not charged. The rear-seat passenger of the vehicle was identified and a legal review of his conduct determined that his actions did not rise to the level of criminality, McGurr said.

Anyone with information about the incident or other investigations is asked to call the Teaneck Police Department at 201-837-2600.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A celebrated YouTuber with nearly 19 million subscribers will be giving a commencement speech this month at Stevens Institute of Technology, school officials announced Thursday.

Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, graduated in 2015 from Stevens business school.

Brownlee launched the YouTube channel @mkbhd  which stands for Marques K. Brownlee high-def  in 2008 while attending Columbia High School in Maplewood. He soared to fame via reviews of smartphones, tablets, monitors, headphones and other tech equipment, Stevens said in announcing his selection to speak at the May 22 ceremony.

The Shorty Awards named him Creator of the Decade in 2018.

One of my favorite hard-to-believe-but-true facts is that many of the students graduating from Stevens in 2024 will go on to have long and successful careers in fields that havent even been created yet. And no matter what they go on to do, theyre now armed with the technical background and the problem solving skills required to pursue it at the highest level, Brownlee, 30, said in a statement.

The university-wide commencement ceremony will be held May 22 at 9 a.m. at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.

Brownlees YouTube channel had more than two million subscribers by 2014. It has risen to 18.8 million as his following as a tech reviewer has grown. One of his recent videos, on using Apple Vision Pro, has 26 million views.

In addition to his YouTube prominence, Brownlee is the founder and co-host of the Waveform podcast, known as WVFRM, which offers analysis of tech news and interviews with industry leaders. He also plays with the New York Empire in the Ultimate Frisbee Association.

Marques Brownlee is an exemplary Stevens alumnus who embodies the core values we cherish  innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship, said Stevens President Nariman Farvardin.

With his captivating insights, authenticity and remarkable influence in the tech world, Marques has inspired millions worldwide. Our graduates will greatly benefit from his wisdom and experiences as he addresses the Class of 2024, Farvardin said.

A second Stevens alumnus, Michael Kakos  a scientist, entrepreneur and global business leader  will address graduate students in a second ceremony starting at 4 p.m.

Stevens will be awarding approximately 3,336 undergraduate and graduate degrees to one of the largest classes in the schools 154-year history, officials said.

Last year, Stevens commencement was criticized for poor planning after one ceremony at the Prudential Center in Newark was plagued by delays and a second ceremony at Newark Symphony Hall had additional problems when graduates were told to leave the ceremony due to overcrowding.

Stevens Institute of Technology refunded each graduate $250 after the ceremonies.

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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
A former Giants All-Pro wide receiver is headed to his fourth different team since leaving New York.

Odell Beckham Jr. signed a contract with the Miami Dolphins Friday morning, according to NFL Networks Tom Pelissero. The deal is for one year at $3 million, but it can reach up to $8.25 million, according to CBS Jonathan Jones.

Beckham was the No. 12 pick in the 2014 NFL draft and won the AP Rookie of the Year for the Giants. He spent five seasons with the Giants, where he was a three-time Pro Bowler in his first three years. Injuries limited him in his last two years in New York, but totaled 5,476 yards and 44 touchdowns in 59 games.

In 2019, the Giants traded him to the Cleveland Browns for a first- and third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers. He stayed in Cleveland for two-plus seasons as he battled more injuries before being traded to the Los Angeles Rams, where he won Super Bowl 56, but tore his ACL in the first half of the game.

Beckham spent the next season rehabbing then signed with the Baltimore Ravens for 2023, before being cut this offseason. He caught 35 passes for 565 yards and three TDs.

Now, Beckham, 31, is on his fifth NFL team in 10 years, but he hasnt started more than 10 games for one team in a season since 2019, which was also the last season he had more than 600 yards in a campaign.

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Three Jersey City school board members are demanding a fellow trustee resign after he uttered a pro-Palestinian slogan that has been condemned by many as antisemitic at a recent public board meeting.

The call for Younass Barkouch to step down comes on the same day he resigned from his position as aide to three Hudson County state legislators  Sen. Raj Muhkerji and Assembly members John Allen and Jessica Ramirez.
Martin Bloch is alive today only because his mother knew before many others the genocidal horrors that the Nazis would inflict during World War II.

Blochs mother knew being rounded up and place the Ivje Ghetto in Belarus in 1941 was a death sentence, so in December she and her two young sons escaped through barbed wire to a Christian farmer she knew. Days later the remaining Jews in Ivje were killed. Blochs father had been killed by the Germans in August.

Bloch, now 89, will be the guest speaker at Bayonnes annual Holocaust Remembrance Service Monday in the Dorothy Harrington City Council Chambers (630 Avenue C). The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Bayonne and the Bayonne Interfaith Clergy, and is hosted by the city of Bayonne.
Three people were released from care and one remained hospitalized Thursday evening, a day after they were injured in an explosion at Superior Signal Company that killed one employee, Old Bridge police said.

Authorities have yet to determine the cause and origin of the explosion that killed one employee and sent a nearby public school into lockdown as authorities doused the subsequent fire.

Superior Signal did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday evening.

The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said Wednesday afternoon the initial investigation by state and local authorities did not suspect the explosion to be suspicious in nature.

Authorities responded to the companys facility on West Greystone Road around 11:45 a.m. Wednesday for reports of an explosion. Eileen Marko, 73, of South River was located and pronounced deceased at the scene, according to the prosecutors office.

A message left at a phone number associated with Markos family was not immediately returned Thursday night.

Four other employees were injured in the explosion and transported to Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, officials said Wednesday. Two of the victims were flown to the hospital by medevac, a 51-year-old woman and 29-year-old man, authorities said.

The woman had burns to her face and the man suffered burns to his hands, authorities said. The two other employees, a 65-year-old woman and 62-year-old man, were transported by ambulance with burns to the arms and injuries from smoke inhalation, according to authorities.

The explosion is still under investigation, Old Bridge Police said.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, and witnesses were still being interviewed (Thursday), police said. " Further interviews will continue (Friday).

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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Matt on X
NEW YORKThe sixth day of testimony in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump concluded with new revelations as to how Keith Davidson, an attorney for adult star Stormy Daniels who represented her during negotiations of the catch-and-kill deal, believes his actions aided in the win of the former president during the 2016 presidential election.

Davidson, an attorney from Los Angeles, represented both Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during negotiations for the rights to their stories. Davidson negotiated a deal between McDougal and the tabloid National Enquirer to secure the rights to the story that she had an affair with Trump from 2006 to 2007. McDougal was paid $150,000. Davidson also negotiated directly with Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, to secure a hush-money settlement for Daniels' allegations.

Daniels and Trump used pseudonyms in a contract negotiated between Davidson and Cohen. Daniels was referred to as "Peggy Peterson," and Trump was "David Dennison." This was a strategy to ensure the confidentiality of the agreeing parties; it is, in fact, a common tactic to choose "P" and "D" pseudonyms in a scenario such as this one when a risk of legal action exists, representing the potential Plaintiff and Defendant in the possible case.

Davidson testified in court that he believes this deal between Daniels and Trump aided in the latter winning the election against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Davidson also admitted that if Trump lost the election, Daniels would have no leverage over the then-political candidate. Meanwhile, Davidson testified that he expressed regret about his actions in a text exchange with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard, who worked for then-publisher David Pecker and the defunct American Media Inc. parent company that previously owned the tabloid outlet. On election night in 2016, evidence presented by prosecutors shows Davidson texting Howard: "What have we done?" Their collective "activities may have, in some way," helped Trump secure his victory.

This is central to the prosecution's argument that Trump authorized the payments to hush up Daniels and McDougal to sway the election. Cohen held a central role in the scheme, Davidson testified, which contributed to the allegations that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to falsify business recordsresulting in the 34 felony counts stemming from the Stormy Daniels catch-and-kill.

Earlier in the prosecution's case, Pecker admitted to the court that he used the National Enquirer to benefit not just Trump personally but his presidential campaign. In essence, the failure to disclose these contributions potentially violated campaign finance laws in both New York state and at the federal level. Other testimony from Davidson highlighted how Cohen became despondent when the former president didn't ask him to join him in Washington, D.C., as a part of the newly minted Trump administration. Davidson said Cohen would call him often in the weeks following the election. Davidson testified to one specific conversation that occurred in mid-December 2016. "It was a long call, and he had told me he was depressed and despondent and said that I ... he used very colorful language about that stage in his life," Davidson said, speaking of Cohen on the other end of the phone line, via CBS News online.

Davidson recalled that the conversation was to the effect: "'Jesus Christ, can you fucking believe I'm not going to Washington, after everything I've done for that fucking guy?'" Davidson added that Cohen told him he was never compensated for the $130,000 he paid to Stormy Daniels for her silence through a shell company and bank account that Cohen's personal banker at the time, Gary Farro, confirmed in testimony earlier in the trial. Davidson also said Cohen was delayed in transferring the funds to accounts he managed on behalf of Stormy Daniels at the time. Davidson also recalled further fallout in the aftermath of the revelation that Daniels was compensated to keep her story quiet. This arose after the Wall Street Journal ran a piece that the former president used Cohen as a go-between to pay and settle Daniels' allegations against Trump.

A text exchange between Cohen and Davidson shared by the prosecution highlights the two coordinating the response to the Wall Street Journal report. Both discussed intentions to make sure that Daniels released statements of denial, calling the assertions in the article to be false. Daniels never fully agreed to the statements, and it eventually resulted in Daniels maintaining that she and Trump had an affair in 2006. Later on in the trial day, a digital forensics investigator for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Douglas Daus, testified that he conducted an analysis on devices once belonging to Michael Cohen. Reportedly, Cohen had nearly 40,000 contacts on his cell phone, including Melania Trump and former White House communications director Hope Hicks. Daus said this was not normal, adding that Cohen's second device had about 385 contacts, which is average for most people on their devices.

It was also revealed in testimony that the late Larry Flynt even offered to pay $1 million to Stormy Daniels to break the agreement between her and Trump, and cover her legal fees.

Cohen, Hicks and Daniels are expected to testify in the trial.

There was another hearing today on violations of the court's gag orders. Prosecutors argued to Judge Juan Merchan that Trump has continued to violate the gag orders. Trump was already fined $9,000 for nine violations and was threatened with jail if he continued to defy the court's orders. If found to still be in violation of the orders, Trump could be the first former president to be jailed.
The CEO of dozens of companies, including some in New Jersey, was sentenced to over six years in prison after pleading guilty last summer to selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of counterfeit networking equipment that made its way into sensitive places including U.S. fighter jets, federal authorities said Thursday.

Onur Aksoy, 40, of Miami, Florida pleaded guilty in U.S. district court on Jun. 5, 2023 to two counts of conspiring with others to traffic in counterfeit goods, to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, authorities said. Aksoy, who was also known as Ron Aksoy and Dave Durden, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court.

Through an elaborate, years-long scheme, Aksoy created and ran one of the largest counterfeit-trafficking operations ever, Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna said. His operation introduced tens of thousands of counterfeit and low-quality devices trafficked from China into the U.S. supply chain, jeopardizing both private-sector and public-sector users, including highly sensitive U.S. military applications like the support platforms of U.S. fighter jets and other military aircraft.

Federal prosecutors said Aksoy, who also holds citizenship in Turkey, sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of counterfeit Cisco networking equipment that made its way into schools, hospitals and onto fighter jets like the F-15, F-18 and F-22.

Some of the equipment made its way into highly sensitive areas of the federal government, including combat and non-combat operations in the Air Force, U.S. Army and Navy, and even touched classified information systems, authorities said.

Aksoy was accused of running at least 19 companies spread across New Jersey and Florida. Prosecutors said he sold the devices through a network of companies on Amazon and eBay under an umbrella company called Pro Network Entities. Five of those companies were formed in New Jersey in 2017 and 2018; Easy Network, Ace Netus, My Network Dealer, 1701 Doral and Team Tech Global, according to the federal indictment.

Authorities said Aksoy imported low-quality equipment from suppliers in China and Hong Kong with counterfeit Cisco labels, stickers and boxes that gave the appearance of high-quality branding and trademarks. According to court records, the equipment was typically older, lower-models of authentic Cisco equipment that was modified and then made to appear as genuine version of higher quality devices.

We applaud the decisive action taken by the U.S. Department of Justice and all of the U.S. law enforcement agencies involved for their investigative actions, the successful indictment, and the diligent work that led to todays outcome, a spokesperson for Cisco said in a statement sent to NJ Advance Media Thursday.

The scheme generated over $100 million in revenue, netting Aksoy millions of dollars in personal profits, officials said.

Between 2014 and 2022 the federal Customs and Border Protection Agency seized approximately 180 shipments to Pro Network Entities sent from China and Hong Kong, and Aksoy submitted false paperwork to the CBP for the shipments under the alias Dave Durden, the identity he used to communicate with foreign conspirators, officials said.

Cisco sent seven Cease and Desist letters to Aksoy between 2014 to 2019 and through his attorney responded to at least two letters with forged documents, authorities said. In July 2021, federal investigators raided Aksoys warehouse and seized 1,156 counterfeit devices valued at over $7 million.

In addition to his prison term, Aksoy was fined $40,000 and must spend three years on supervised release, officials said. Restitution will be decided at a separate hearing, according to authorities.

An attorney for Aksoy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Hicks, who served as White House communications director, is the first close Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the Republican former president of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.

Hicks, who is is testifying for the prosecution under a subpoena, acknowledged she was really nervous after stepping up to the microphone. Referring to her former boss as Mr. Trump, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or fall of 2022.

While no longer in Trumps inner circle, Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background. Hicks complimented Trump multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony, describing him as a very good multitasker, a very hard worker.

Hicks served as Trumps 2016 campaign press secretary and was one of a small number of early campaign staffers who joined his administration.

Prosecutors say Hicks spoke with Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without their permission.

Trump has denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for election this November denies any wrongdoing in the case.

Former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, the prosecutions star witness, has yet to take the stand in the hush money trial. But jurors are already hearing Cohens words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election.

The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday, a day after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his attorney, discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally influence the election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Trumps defense has worked to poke holes in the credibility of prosecutors witnesses, and show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by keeping the women quiet. The defense also suggested while questioning an attorney who represented two women in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in fact, the victim of extortion.

The recording played Thursday was secretly made by Cohen shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougals story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougals story to bury it on Trumps behalf.

In the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding.

Trump can be heard responding: What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

Trump suggested the payment be made with cash, prompting Cohen to object by repeatedly saying no. Trump then says check before the recording cuts off.

Prosecutors played the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district attorneys office who performed analyses on iPhones Cohen turned over to authorities during the investigation. Daus will return to the stand Friday morning, and its not clear who will follow him.

Jurors also heard more than six hours of crucial testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer  the tabloid that bought and buried negative stories in an industry practice known as catch and kill. Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump winning the 2016 election.

What have we done? Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became clear that Trump was going to win. Oh my god, the tabloid editor responded.

There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way  strike that  our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Davidson told jurors.

Trumps lawyers sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential harm of Davidsons testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump  only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him, Davidson said.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from things like invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organization records when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels
A pair of New Jersey state senators are calling on the state Department of Education to open an inquiry into a public charter school network accused of ethics and nepotism violations and paying its executives what have been described as astonishing salaries, NJ Advance Media has learned.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, and state Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said the charter network  College Achieve Public Schools, known as CAPS  should be required to answer questions about how its revenue, which originates through taxpayer dollars, is being spent, among other inquiries.

Im calling upon the state Department of Education to call in the leadership of this school district and have them open their books to see what the public money is being used for, and then make a recommendation to the legislature, Sarlo said. Clearly the overhead and salaries are outrageous.

When youre dealing with a public institution, public funds should be spent with the childs desk at the classroom, Ruiz added. The numbers appear to be extraordinarily high in light of what some of our greatest administrators make here in the state.

The state Department of Education did not immediately response to emails seeking comment Friday.

The movement comes the day after NJ Advance Media published an investigation showing CAPS executives to be the highest paid charter school officials in New Jersey, as well as nepotism and ethics allegations regarding one institution in the network.

CAPS founder and CEO Michael Piscal earned a base salary of $444,714 and $252,814 in deferred compensation and retirement benefits, according to tax forms filed by the organization in 2023. Meanwhile, Gemar Mills, the executive director of College Achieve Paterson, earned $433,734 in total compensation, and Jodi McInerney, the executive director of College Achieve Asbury Park, earned $323,245 in total compensation, according to tax forms. Three other CAPS officials earned more than $209,000 in total compensation, tax forms show.

College Achieve Asbury Park also was accused of nepotism and ethics violations by hiring McInerneys husband and mother as principal and interventionist at the school.

This is another area where either legislatively or the department has to look at, said Ruiz, the Senate majority leader.

CAPS denied any nepotism or ethics violations, saying the principal job was posted publicly and the interim Monmouth County superintendent signed off on both hires.

The network also said that because Piscal, Mills and McInerney are not traditional public school employees eligible for the state pension or benefits, CAPS pays compensation they said is comparable to other senior public education employees in New Jersey. Piscal, Mills, McInerney and other senior executives work for College Achieve Public Schools, Inc., a charter management organization (CMO) that oversees the schools in the network.

In response to the NJ Advance Media reporting, New Jersey Education Association communications director Steven Baker said his organization has long called for charter schools to be held to the same high standards of accountability and transparency that all other New Jersey public schools must meet.

All of this comes on the heels of another NJ Advance Media investigation from March showing that College Achieve Asbury Parks varsity basketball team  in its first season of existence  utilized a loophole that allows for students to attend a charter school outside the town in which they live if the charter school is not at full enrollment. College Achieve packed its roster with 11 elite transfers from across New Jersey, prompting the state athletic association and even lawmakers to propose an overhaul of state rules and regulations.

The ironic part here is their effort to build a superpower high school basketball team brought the whole institution into the spotlight, Sarlo said. Now that you peel back the onion, you see theres a lot more to it.

Ruiz said CAPS first got on her radar after it put together its dominating basketball team, which included adding three players from Payne Tech, a Newark school in her district.

When youre talking about poaching kids who are an hours distance away, there are a lot of questions that are starting to arise with this particular institution, Ruiz said. Certainly I would support the chairmans initiative in asking the DOE to take a deeper dive.

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NEW YORK  A lawyer who negotiated a pair of hush money deals at the center of Donald Trumps criminal trial recalled Thursday his gallows humor reaction to Trumps 2016 election victory and the realization that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to the win.

What have we done? attorney Keith Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer, which had buried stories of extramarital sexual encounters to prevent them surfacing in the final days of the bitterly contested presidential race. Oh my god, came the response from Dylan Howard.

There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way  strike that  our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Davidson told jurors.

The testimony from Davidson was designed to directly connect the hush money payments to Trumps presidential ambitions and to bolster prosecutors argument that the case is about interference in the 2016 election rather than simply sex and money. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

This is sort of gallows humor. It was on election night as the results were coming in, Davidson explained. There was sort of surprise among the broadcasters and others that Mr. Trump was leading in the polls, and there was a growing sense that folks were about ready to call the election.

Davidson is seen as a vital building block for the prosecutions case that Trump and his allies schemed to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He represented both porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal in negotiations that resulted in the rights to their claims of sexual encounters with Trump being purchased and their stories then getting squelched in exchange for money, a tabloid industry practice known as catch-and-kill.

He is one of multiple key players testifying in advance of Michael Cohen, the star prosecution witness and Trumps former lawyer and personal fixer whom Davidson has depicted as determined to protect Trump at all costs.

Trumps lawyers sought to blunt the potential harm of Davidsons testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump  only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

He also said that he was unfamiliar with the Trump Organizations record-keeping practices and that any impressions he had of Trump himself came through others.

I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him, Davidson said.

The line of questioning from Trump attorney Emil Bove appeared intended to cast Trump as removed from the negotiations and to suggest that Cohen was handling the hush money matters on his own.

Bove also noted that Davidson had been involved in similar hush money payments for clients that had nothing to do with presidential politics, grilling him about previous instances in which he solicited money to suppress embarrassing stories, including one involving wrestler Hulk Hogan.

By the time Davidson negotiated hush money payments for McDougal and Daniels, Bove asked Davidson whether he was pretty well versed in coming right up to the line without committing extortion, right?

I had familiarized myself with the law, Davidson replied.

Earlier Thursday, jurors viewed a confidential agreement requiring Daniels to keep quiet about her claims that she had a tryst with the married Trump a decade earlier. The agreement, dated less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, called for her to receive $130,000 in exchange for her silence.

The money was paid by Cohen, and the agreement referred to both Trump and Daniels with pseudonyms: David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.

It is understood and agreed that the true name and identity of the person referred to as DAVID DENNISON in the Settlement Agreement is Donald Trump, the document stated, with Trumps name written in by hand.

After the $130,000 payment was made to Daniels, Trumps company reimbursed Cohen and logged the payments to him as legal expenses, prosecutors have said in charging the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records  a charge punishable by up to four years in prison.

While testifying Thursday, Davidson also recalled Cohen ranting to him about Trump in a phone conversation about a month after the 2016 election, complaining that he had been passed over for a job in the new administration and that Trump had yet to reimburse him for the Daniels payment.

He also recalled Cohen telling him that he and Trump were very upset when The Wall Street Journal published an article that exposed a separate $150,000 National Enquirer arrangement with McDougal, who has said she and Trump had an affair, just days before the election.

He wanted to know who the source of the article was, why someone would be the source of this type of article. He was upset by the timing, Davidson said of Cohen. He stated his boss was very upset, and he threatened to sue Karen McDougal.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied relationships with either woman, as well as any wrongdoing in the case.

Before the start of testimony, prosecutors requested $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judges gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a $9,000 fine that Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed Tuesday related to nine separate violations that he found.

The defendant is talking about witnesses and the jury in this case, one right here outside this door, prosecutor Christopher Conroy said. This is the most critical time, the time the proceeding has to be protected.

His statements are corrosive to this proceeding and the fair administration of justice, Conroy added.

Trumps lawyer Todd Blanche countered that Trumps candidacy and the massive media attention he receives have made it impossible for him not to be asked about, or comment on, the trial.

He cant just say no comment repeatedly. Hes running for president, Blanche said.

Merchan did not immediately rule on the request for fresh sanctions, though he indicated he was not particularly concerned about one of the four statements flagged by prosecutors.

Yet the mere prospect of further punishment underscored the challenges Trump the presidential candidate faces in adjusting to the role of criminal defendant subject to rigid courtroom protocol that he does not control. It also remains to be seen whether any rebuke from the court will lead Trump to adjust his behavior given the campaign trail benefit he believes he derives from painting the case as politically motivated.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is losing the support of some of Washington D.C.s most staunch conservative lawmakers.

Texas Ted Cruz is the latest to slam Greene after she announced Wednesday that she will call a vote next week on ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson, forcing her colleagues to choose sides in a difficult showdown, have Democrats cheering.

Look, I think it is silly. I think it is seriously counterproductive, Cruz said on a Real Clear Politics podcast when asked if he supported her effort.

I think Mike Johnson is a strong conservative whos been given an almost impossible task. He has a tiny majority in the House, just a two-vote majority, that means any three House members run off to the hills and the majority evaporates, and I think Marjorie Taylor Greene, to try to topple the speaker, increases the chances of chaos and increases the chances of handing control to the Democrats, he added.

Cruz is the latest Republican to criticize Greene, who is a close Donald Trump ally.

She is about to realize her inevitable irrelevance, a senior House Democrat recently told Axios after Greenes announcement.

I think this is all about wanting more attention and not producing actual results, New York Congressman Marc Molinaro recently said on CNN.

We have to understand this is not a junior high school, reality television show, Tennessees Andy Ogles has said.

The standoff with Greene risks throwing Republican control of the House into a fresh round of chaos as rank-and-file lawmakers will have to choose between ousting Johnson as speaker or joining with Democrats to keep him on the job.

Johnson, in his own statement, said Greenes move was wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country.

Democrats see in Johnson a potential partner, a hard-line conservative who nevertheless is willing to lead his Republican Party away from the far-right voices obstructing the routine business of governing, including funding the government and, more recently, supporting Ukraine and other U.S. allies overseas.

Greene was dubbed Moscow Marjorie by former Republican Rep. Ken Buck and the NY Post recently mocked Greene on its front page after she failed to stop aid from going to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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It has the chance to sink Joe Bidens reelection.

Bernie Sanders sounded the alarm that the Israel-Gaza war has the potential to be Bidens Vietnam and can hand the presidency over to Donald Trump.

Lyndon Johnson in many respects was a very, very good president domestically and brought forth some major pieces of legislation, Sanders said on CNN. He chose not to run in 1968 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam.

He added: I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base in terms of his views on Israel and this war.

Biden on Thursday rejected calls from student protesters to change his approach to the war in Gaza while insisting that order must prevail as college campuses across the country face a wave of violence, outrage and fear.

Dissent is essential for democracy, Biden said at the White House. But dissent must never lead to disorder.

The student protests have created a new and unpredictable challenge for Biden as he resists calls to cut off U.S. support for Israel while trying to hold together the coalition of voters hell need for reelection.

The protests at Columbia University in New York and other campuses have captured global media attention and resurfaced questions about Bidens lagging support from young voters. His handling of the Middle East conflict is also being closely watched by both Jewish and Arab American voters in key swing states.

At best for Biden, the protests are a passing distraction while the White House presses forward with negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas while pushing Israel to limit casualties with more than 34,000 Palestinians dead. At worst, they build momentum toward the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, potentially triggering scenes of violence that could recall the unrest of protests against the Vietnam War during the partys convention there in 1968.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In the heart of Newark on Thursday, political leaders from New Jersey and beyond celebrated the life of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr.

On a brisk morning, the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart stood against the citys horizon while honor guards stood watch. Outside was a processional and bagpipes. There was the somber pageantry that comes with a funeral of a public official of importance.
An incident Thursday at the Warren County Public Safety Building and 911 Communications Center in Franklin Township sent county employees to the hospital.

Outside contractors working on the 1024 Route 57 building accidentally triggered a fire suppression system discharge, county spokeswoman Holly Luberto said in a news release.

It occurred shortly before 11 a.m. Emergency radio broadcasts carried the 911 center dispatching its own emergency before employees evacuated.

As a precaution County employees were taken to the hospital where they were checked, cleared and released, Luberto stated.

County officials immediately established temporary 911 emergency communications using their Fieldcomm mobile communications vehicle in conjunction with Phillipsburgs dispatch center, according to the release.

Regular county 911 communications were expected to be back online by Thursday evening, the release states.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
Are the New York Yankees paying Aaron Judge $40 million a year to hit .197? Absolutely not, but its only May 3 and there are still 129 games remaining for Judge to recapture his elite form.

That hasnt stopped some Yankees fans (and local hosts) from expressing angst about what this could mean for the rest of Judges Yankees career.

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I dont like being right about Judge  what I said (in spring training) was were never going to see the dominant Aaron Judge from 2022 again, WFAN host Keith McPherson said Thursday night.

In 149 plate appearances (33 games) of the 2024 season, Judge has six home runs and 18 RBI  perfectly acceptable power numbers for most anyone not named Judge. He has walked 16.1% (less than last year) and struck out 26.8% (less than last year) of the time, though hes slashing .197/.331/.393  with an OPS+ of 108. Hes gone hitless in his past three games (nine games).

But now that he has the $40 million-a-year contract, before he got the captaincy, that was before he ran into the wall at Dodger Stadium. Its unfortunate for us as Yankee fans, McPherson said. It just seems like you sign a Jacoby Ellsbury, hes hurt, hes MIA. Not a good signing. You sign Aaron Hicks, he falls off a cliff  even Giancarlo Stanton. Hes not completely washed, but think about what we thought we were getting.

Judge signed his nine-year, $360 million contract in December 2022, which became the third-largest deal in baseball history. Judge was productive in its first season (.267 average, 175 OPS+ with 37 home runs and 75 RBI) but he played in only 106 games because of a torn ligament in his toe suffered when he crashed into the Dodger Stadium wall. In spring training, Judge, 32, dealt with abdominal soreness that sidelined him.

It just looks like its not gonna be a good contract, and Im worried about the guy, McPherson said. I love Judge just as much as any Yankee fan. ... I know what the guy is, though, but right now, its what he isnt  his timing, his eye, the strikeouts, something is up.

A glance at Judges Baseball Savant page shows a hitter with elite max exit velocity and hard-hit rate, though his barrel rate is 13.3% compared to his career average of 21.4% (last season he had 27.5% mark). He is swinging through a lot of pitches (10th percentile), though he is not chasing much. His expected batting average is .240, which would be the lowest mark since his rookie year when he played 27 games.

McPherson believes that Judge is still banged up and Judge and the Yankees are not being forthcoming about his health.

Maybe its the toe injury and hes feeling that in his leg, his oblique, his abdominal  the guy has not been the same, McPherson said. Im not hating on Judge, but Im concerned about Judge.

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The Blue Springs Ball Diamond Association was approved for a Visitors Improvement grant at the Gage County Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday.

Tourism coordinator Dakota Hurley said the group was requesting the funds to be used for a sign.

The total project cost is $8,000 and they are requesting half, she said. There are lots of things going on in Blue Springs right now. Currently there are no signs at the ball diamond.

The sign were looking at getting is a limestone sign, said association President Brent Schlake. It kind of matches the trailhead sign. Were trying to beautify the entrance of the ball diamond.

The association is a nonprofit formed in 1998 and runs one of the few fields that is not operated as a city park. The land is owned by the city, but everything at the diamonds is done by volunteers and sponsorships.

A 12-team tournament last weekend had teams from Nebraska and Kansas.

Schlake said a lot of the people stay in area hotels and eat at local restaurants.

A lot of people at the two-day tournaments stay at hotels and a lot of the money actually comes into Beatrice, he said.

Chairman Erich Tiemann thanked Schlake for his work.

Thanks for doing this, he said. The amount of time that put into these projects is crazy, Im sure.

The board voted unanimously to approve the $4,000 grant.
GARY  One of the Calumet Region's most historic sites, one which draws visitors from all over the world, does not actually have a historic plaque or National Historic Landmark status.

Indiana Landmarks plans to change that.

The statewide preservation group is putting together an application to get the modern ranch house at house at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary's Midtown neighborhood where the Jackson Five grew up the designation, said Eunice Trotter, director of the Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Program.

"It's not on the register yet. We're in the process of applying to get it on the National Register of Historic Places. That makes it a national landmark. And it should be," she said. "It's a distinction that's given to places of significance throughout the country. It elevates its status on a national level to be a distinctive historic landmark site."

The city has installed wayfinding signage along Interstate 80/94 and Broadway to the house where Joe and Katherine Jackson raised Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and the rest of the Jackson family of entertainers.

"Right now as you come into Gary, you'll see signage that says Jackson 5 home. But there's no historical market in front of that house," she said. "It's a process to apply for that designation. It will be submitted to the state. We're in that process now."

A previous attempt to get it listed on the National Historic Register fell short, due in part to being submitted too soon after Michael Jackson's death.

"It was previously turned down because of the approach that was taken by the historian," Trotter said. "The application focused on Michael Jackson, who had not been dead 25 years at the time. Now we're taking a bigger approach. It's not just Michael Jackson's impact on pop culture. It's the entire Jackson family's impact on pop culture nationally and internationally. We believe we have a good case we're making it should be the national registry."

The Indianapolis-based historian Leon Bates is putting together an application, which will be submitted to the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology. The process takes a couple years, she said.

There's a common misconception that getting listed on the National Register of Historic Places prevents buildings from being torn down or modified. It generally does not offer such protection unless there's a federally funded government project and is more honorific in nature, Trotter said.

"It's a distinction. It's a designation that raises the significance. It does not protect it," she said. "Typically, local protections come from local designations. Gary does not have a local preservation commission so there's no way to give it local preservation protection at this time."

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the Jackson family still owns the home and it's important to have their support for anything involving the property. It's a major draw to the city.

"Hundreds of people a day drive by that home to take pictures and have an opportunity to celebrate and honor that entire family," he said. "That's something we as a city want to protect and preserve while making Midtown more attractive and safe as we're planning our new neighborhood stabilization efforts here of street paving, demolition of blighted structures and streetlights to beatify and make it safer."

Fans of the King of Pop flock to the house every year on the anniversary of his birth and death.

"Thousands of people come every year from around the world," Melton said.

Gallery: 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death 10th Anniversary of Michael Jackson's death
Jump to: Tricky Clues

FRIDAY PUZZLE  Lets say that youve decided to make your very first crossword puzzle. Where do you start?

There are many good resources for learning the rules of construction: The New York Times Crossword teams series on how to make a puzzle, Patrick Berrys excellent guide, the Daily Crossword Links resource list, as well as tips and tricks that can be picked up from experienced constructors on Facebook (Cruciverb and Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory) and Discord.

But theres something else that distinguishes constructors who get published versus those who dont. You have to do the hard work of seeking out fresh words and phrases with which to fill a grid, and add them to your word list. Prune out the fill that is nonsensical or boring. And you need to spend the time creating clever clues that are not simply copied and pasted from other puzzles.

Ostensibly, the reason you are making a puzzle is to entertain (the bragging rights are a given here), which is an admirable goal. But that means you cant just stuff a grid with any old fill.
Pop-Tarts were invented over four hectic months in 1964. Jerry Seinfeld has been developing jokes about them for over 10 years, first in his stand-up act, and now as a full-fledged, fully ridiculous feature comedy targeted to the audiences sweet-and-salty dopamine receptors. Unfrosted, directed by Seinfeld with a script by him and longtime collaborators Spike Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder, gives the comic his first-ever live action leading film role as Bob Cabana, a fictional cereal flack who revolutionizes the breakfast industry. (William Post, the real-life person who helped create Pop-Tarts, died in February at the age of 96.) Cinema has endured branded biopics on everything from Air Jordans to the BlackBerry to Flamin Hot Cheetos. This is the only corporate saga whose main ingredient is high-fructose sarcasm.

Should we care about the history of the Pop-Tart? Seinfeld postures that the Kelloggs launch of a mylar-wrapped, shelf-stable, heatable pastry is a technological innovation on the scale of the space race and the Manhattan Project. One pivotal move comes when Cabana hires Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) away from NASAs beakers of Tang. As the launch date nears, the cinematographer William Pope shoots close-ups of scorching toaster springs with the drama of a roiling booster rocket.
A federal jury in Virginia said on Thursday that it was unable to reach a verdict in a lawsuit filed by three Iraqi men who said they were tortured while being held by the United States at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago.

The jurors had deliberated for almost eight days, and with the panel still deadlocked the judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, declared a mistrial on Thursday.

The three plaintiffs had sued a defense contractor, CACI Premier Technology, asserting that CACI employees working as interrogators at the prison directed U.S. military guards to abuse the men in an effort to soften them up.

The testimony of the three men last month was the first time a civilian jury had heard allegations of post-9/11 abuses directly from detainees.
The hallmarks of a state dinner were there: lavish floral displays festooning the White House, the first lady arriving in a floor-length sequined gown, and members of Congress and cabinet secretaries mingling with attendees. But the honored guest was not the president of France or the prime minister of Japan.

It was Missy Testerman of Rogersville City School in rural Tennessee.

Jill Biden, the first lady, kicked off a new format for delivering the National Teacher of the Year award on Thursday by hosting this years winner, Ms. Testerman, and dozens of other teachers from across the country at the White House with a ceremony emulating the pomp normally reserved for foreign dignitaries.

Dr. Biden, who has kept her day job as an English professor while serving as first lady and has worked to support community colleges from the White House, spoke in support of teachers unions in her opening remarks and stressed the need of helping educators after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tonight we celebrate you because teaching isnt just a job, its a calling, Dr. Biden said, adding, To answer this call of service is in itself an act of hope.
The largest employee union in the University of California system said on Thursday that it was preparing to ask some or all of its members to authorize a strike over the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The announcement by United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents some 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and other student workers across the state, came hours after police officers arrested about 200 demonstrators at U.C.L.A. for failing to leave.

U.A.W. 4811 intends to file unfair labor practices charges that, in essence, accuse U.C.L.A. of discriminating against pro-Palestinian speech and unilaterally changing policies protecting employees free speech without bargaining, said Rafael Jaime, the unions co-president and a Ph.D. candidate in the universitys English department.

The group said the university failed to protect union members who were among the pro-Palestinian student protesters when counterprotesters attacked an encampment that had stood since April 25.
The title of Independent is something of a manifesto, said Matthew Higgs, who has been the curatorial adviser to the New York art fair Independent since its founding in 2010 by Elizabeth Dee.

Higgs and Dee, interviewed together at Spring Studios in TriBeCa, where this years fair will be staged, have steered Independents defining invitational process since the beginning. (Distinct from other fairs where galleries typically apply to participate, Independent is invite-only.) They aim to juxtapose new and established dealers within open, egalitarian floor plans at architecturally distinctive spaces  an alternative to the aisles and booths of convention centers and the piers that host fairs in many cities.

We wanted it to feel like a biennial layout, Dee explained, with long sightlines to encounter different works and immersive, intimate spaces for people to be more in conversation across different presentations.

Dee, who ran her own gallery for more than two decades, first held Independent at the former Dia Center for the Arts building on West 22nd Street. In 2016, she moved it to Spring Studios, a former telephone-switching station that nodded to the areas industrial past.
May is a huge month for art and design in New York City, with numerous fairs and events taking place throughout the boroughs. The largest and most established include Frieze New York (Thursday through Sunday) followed by TEFAF New York (May 10-14), the NYCxDesign Festival (May 16-23) and, for major design aficionados, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (May 21).

But fairs and galleries arent the only places to see remarkable design in the city. Aesthetes visiting after a years absence will find an abundance of eye candy in neighborhoods like TriBeCa, Chelsea and the Lower East Side. And theres intriguing design to be found in new hotels, restaurants, cultural institutions and even retail establishments. The ten spots below dont fit into one neat category  some are over-the-top maximalist, others are ultraspare or Brutalist. But one thing is certain: They will provoke discussion and debate.

Warren Street Hotel
When Gliceria Tupinamba, an Indigenous Brazilian artist, first visited the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, she had an encounter that would change her life.

It was 2018 and museum officials had invited Gliceria  a member of the Tupinamba people  to see a mantle, or feathered cape, that her ancestors had made hundreds of years ago. Gliceria expected to simply study the artifact, she recalled in a recent interview. But upon seeing its plumage, she said, she started experiencing spectacular visions.

Suddenly, I see myself facing an ancestor, Gliceria recalled, and this ancestor shows me images from the past, and speaks to me with this vast and female energy.

Gliceria set out to learn everything she could about the capes, including how to make them herself. She also started a treasure hunt, to find other mantels that Europeans had obtained from her homeland, so that she could commune with them and, potentially, take some back to the Tupinamba in Bahia, Brazil.
Han shot first.

As we celebrate the most hallowed of holidays  May the Fourth, also known as Star Wars Day because, you know, may the Force be with you  let us all agree that a long time ago, in a galaxy that now feels very far away indeed, Han shot Greedo first. No amount of special editions or George Lucas declarations will change that, even if, uh, Lucas actually did change that scene. If you seek the originals, these arent the films youre looking for.

A rebellion began in 1997, when Lucasfilm first released altered special editions of the first trilogy, adding new or revised scenes, computer-generated effects and expanded worlds. Ever since, fans have clamored for high-definition releases of the unaltered movies. Lucas has resisted and has continued altering them, insisting he is fulfilling his vision for the films, which was technologically and financially impossible when they were first made  though he once called altering art barbaric.

So if you want to see the original Star Wars trilogy  as they were shown in theaters, a bit softer and grainier (and with Han Solo definitely shooting the bounty hunter Greedo first, not in self-defense, as he now does)  youll have to rely on some rebel fans like Robert Williams.

Williams, a Philadelphia-based computer programmer, is part of a group of five people called Team Negative One, one of a few Star Wars fan groups that, for more than a decade, have collected 35-millimeter prints of the first Star Wars movies and laboriously restored them in 4K. Known as Project 4K, the movies are titled by the years they were released: 4K77, 4K80 and 4K83.
An accounting firm that audits the financial statements of hundreds of public companies including former President Donald J. Trumps social media company can no longer do so, U.S. securities regulators said on Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm, BF Borgers, with fraud, saying that it had failed to comply with accounting rules. In settling with the S.E.C., the firm agreed to immediately stop filing audited statements on behalf of its clients.

The regulator held BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, responsible for deliberate and systemic failures to comply with accounting rules. The accompanying settlement requires both the firm and Mr. Borgers to pay a total of $14 million in civil penalties. Many companies that used BF Borgers must now find new auditors.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the Truth Social platform, has been a client of BF Borgers since 2022, according to regulatory filings. But for most of that time, Trump Media was a private company.
Desperate to stem protests that have convulsed campuses across the country, a small number of universities have agreed to reconsider their investments in companies that do business with Israel.

The deals, which have eased tension on campuses with only a few days left before students break for the summer, would have been unthinkable even a week ago. And theyre a gamble, potentially putting universities on a collision course with influential donors, politicians and students who support Israel.

The schools are still far from pulling money: Brown University, the liberal Ivy League institution, agreed this week only to hold a board vote this fall on whether its $6.6 billion endowment should divest from any Israeli-connected holdings. In exchange, the pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus's main lawn was dismantled.

Northwestern University and the University of Minnesota have also struck deals with student protesters to clear camps in exchange for a commitment to discuss the schools investment policies around Israel. The moves could add pressure on administrators at Columbia University, the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina, among others, where protesters have made divestment from Israel a central rallying cry.
About 80 miles southeast of Louisianas coast, 100,000 metric tons of steel floats in the Gulf of Mexico, an emblem of the hopes of oil and gas companies.

This hulk of metal, a deepwater platform called Appomattox and owned by Shell, collects the oil and gas that rigs tap from reservoirs thousands of feet below the seafloor. Equipment on the platform pipes that fuel to shore.

Political and corporate leaders have pledged to reduce planet-warming emissions to net-zero by 2050. But oil companies like Shell are betting that the world will need oil and gas for decades to come. To serve that demand, they are expanding offshore oil and gas drilling into deeper and deeper waters, especially here in the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore production, oil executives argue, is not only crucial to power cars, trucks and power plants but also better for the planet than drilling on land. Thats because such operations emit far less of the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet than producing the same amount of oil and gas on land, according to industry estimates.
Their updates come in harried bursts. Real-time narrations of the scene at Columbia Universitys protest encampment in Manhattan, interspersed with the calmer voice of a host in the studio, directing live on air the dozen or so student journalists covering the moment police officers in riot gear moved in to clear an occupied university building Tuesday night.

Do we have a field reporter over on Amsterdam? We have word that arrests are happening on Amsterdam, if we could get a field reporter over there.

Sorry, Sarah, do you need to go?

Its getting really hard for us to report from this vantage.

The stream from the Columbia University student-run radio station, WKCR, was so popular that night that its website crashed. As pro-Palestinian demonstrators seized Hamilton Hall, theirs was one of the most extensive broadcasts from the scene because the school had limited access for professional journalists.
Sometime in the next few years  no one knows exactly when  three NASA satellites, each one as heavy as an elephant, will go dark.

Already they are drifting, losing height bit by bit. They have been gazing down at the planet for over two decades, far longer than anyone expected, helping us forecast the weather, manage wildfires, monitor oil spills and more. But age is catching up to them, and soon they will send their last transmissions and begin their slow, final fall to Earth.

Its a moment scientists are dreading.

When the three orbiters  Terra, Aqua and Aura  are powered down, much of the data theyve been collecting will end with them, and newer satellites wont pick up all of the slack. Researchers will either have to rely on alternate sources that might not meet their exact needs or seek workarounds to allow their records to continue.

With some of the data these satellites gather, the situation is even worse: No other instruments will keep collecting it. In a few short years, the fine features they reveal about our world will become much fuzzier.
Soon after their arrival in late December 2020, the Covid-19 vaccines turned the pandemic around and opened a path back to normalcy. They prevented about 14.4 million deaths worldwide, according to one estimate.

In a small percentage of people, they also produced side effects.

Over the course of more than a year, The New York Times talked to 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid vaccines. Their symptoms may turn out to be unrelated to the shots. But they  along with more than a dozen experts  felt federal officials are not doing enough to investigate their complaints.

All vaccines carry some risk of side effects. More than 270 million Americans received about 677 million doses of the Covid vaccines, and even rare side effects  occurring, say, in just 0.001 percent of patients  might mean thousands of recipients were affected.

Indeed, more than 13,000 have submitted claims to a government fund that compensates people for Covid vaccine injuries. So far, however, only a dozen people have been compensated, nearly all of them for a heart problem caused by the vaccines.
Within minutes of getting the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, Michelle Zimmerman felt pain racing from her left arm up to her ear and down to her fingertips. Within days, she was unbearably sensitive to light and struggled to remember simple facts.

She was 37, with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and until then could ride her bicycle 20 miles, teach a dance class and give a lecture on artificial intelligence, all in the same day. Now, more than three years later, she lives with her parents. Eventually diagnosed with brain damage, she cannot work, drive or even stand for long periods of time.

When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much Ive lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend, said Dr. Zimmerman, who believes her injury is due to a contaminated vaccine batch.

The Covid vaccines, a triumph of science and public health, are estimated to have prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths. Yet even the best vaccines produce rare but serious side effects. And the Covid vaccines have been given to more than 270 million people in the United States, in nearly 677 million doses.

Dr. Zimmermans account is among the more harrowing, but thousands of Americans believe they suffered serious side effects following Covid vaccination. As of April, just over 13,000 vaccine-injury compensation claims have been filed with the federal government  but to little avail. Only 19 percent have been reviewed. Only 47 of those were deemed eligible for compensation, and only 12 have been paid out, at an average of about $3,600.

Some scientists fear that patients with real injuries are being denied help and believe that more needs to be done to clarify the possible risks.
More than 100 students were slumped around the oak-and-marble lobby of Hamilton Hall, the main hub of Columbia College, fighting off sleep.

The students had barricaded the entryway of the building with desks from nearby classrooms, and had threaded chains through the main doors push-bar handles. Just outside, a half-dozen campus security guards patrolled the area, the sound of the erratic clicks and beeps from their radios spiking the momentary quiet.

The students were occupying the building for a second day, and I was the only reporter in the room. On the first night of the takeover, I slept on the floor, hoping that the organizers would soften and talk with me. But after a day of my stalking around, none of them had.
Cuddly Daniel Tiger would definitely not feel at ease in the real-world forests of India, which are home to about 70 percent of the planets tigers. In this Disneynature documentary, filmed over the course of 1,500 days and narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, we get to know one of these creatures: a tigress named Ambar, who protects her cubs from pythons, prowls the forest for food and survives brutal monsoon seasons to roam another day.

The hunting scenes are not nearly as gory as nature shows aimed at adults tend to be, and the filmmakers do a good job of editing around any real carnage. Still, the sight of a tiger chasing and killing a deer or a sloth bear might be too much for younger children; the film is probably more suited to older kids who are mesmerized by nature and understand that these magnificent creatures need meat to survive. Directed by Mark Linfield (Planet Earth, Frozen Planet) and co-directed by Vanessa Berlowitz and Rob Sullivan, this documentary boasts gorgeous visuals (expect to repeatedly ask, How the heck did they capture that moment?) and could spark important conversations about conservation and the protection of endangered species.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Watch it on Prime Video.
First, there was the Flamin Hot Cheetos biopic (complete with an Oscar-nominated song). Then came Tetris; Air, about Nike Air Jordan sneakers; BlackBerry; and Barbie.

It is, in other words, a golden age for product-origin-story movies.

The latest is Unfrosted: The Pop-Tarts Story, a satirical history that Jerry Seinfeld has expanded from his stand-up act. The film, which he directed and stars in alongside Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant and Amy Schumer, arrives Friday on Netflix. Unlike its predecessors, its not really concerned with actual events. Heres what to know about the true history of the Pop-Tart  and what the movie gets right and wrong.

But first, how did Kelloggs and Post both end up with headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich.?

You would think ground zero in the Breakfast Wars of the 1960s might be somewhere most people could locate on a map. But Battle Creek, Mich., was home to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, known for its water and fresh air treatments, and managed by Will Keith Kellogg and his brother, John Harvey Kellogg. W.K. Kellogg developed a method of creating crunchy pieces of processed grain for his patients (read: Corn Flakes), and one of those patients, C.W. Post, would go on to start his own company in 1895 selling several foods that were veeeery similar to those at the sanitarium.

W.K. Kellogg noticed Post profiting from his recipes and established his own firm in 1906, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. Within three years, it was cranking out more than 100,000 boxes of Corn Flakes a day, and, thanks to the success of Kellogg, Post and many other cereal companies, Battle Creek became known as the Cereal City.
A police sergeants gun accidentally fired inside a Columbia University building where officers were removing pro-Palestinian protesters from the campus this week, the New York Police Department said on Friday.

The sergeant had broken the glass of a locked office on the first floor of the building and switched his firearm  a 9-millimeter handgun with a flashlight mounted on it  from his right hand to his left hand to reach through the broken glass to unlock the door from the inside, said Carlos Valdez, assistant chief of the Emergency Services Unit.

As he switched hands, the gun went off. The bullet traveled through the glass, hit a frame of a wall and landed on the floor, the police said.

After the firearm discharged, the sergeant immediately assessed his team and ensured that nobody was injured, Chief Valdez said. The team gained access to the office and found that nobody was inside.
A 15-year-old girl was arrested on Thursday and charged with murder in the stabbing death of another teenager in the Bronx earlier that day, the police said.

Officers responded to a call on Thursday afternoon about a 17-year-old girl who had been stabbed at an apartment building in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx. The building, at 1105 Boynton Avenue, was within walking distance of her home, according to the police. The victim, later identified by the police as Emery Mizell, was transported to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition and later pronounced dead.

Im devastated, Im numb, Im in disbelief, said Emerys father, Tony Mizell, 39, in an interview on Friday. He said his daughter was caring, talented and smart, and that she loved to rap and dance. My daughter was a beautiful soul, he said.

Image Emery Mizell, who was killed Thursday, was caring, and loved to rap and dance, her father said. Credit... via Tony Mizell

The 15-year-old suspect, who has not been identified, has also been charged with manslaughter and unlawful possession of a weapon, the police said. Officials described the weapon as an unknown cutting instrument and said they had not identified a motive.
It is a problem bedeviling local governments nationwide: How can they pay for city services at a time of limited funds and rising costs?

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has found an answer: resurrect a funding mechanism that has been called a hidden tax on New Yorkers.

The city plans to charge its own Water Board more than $1.4 billion in rent over four years to lease its water and sewer systems from the city, according to budget documents reviewed by Rahul Jain, a New York State deputy comptroller.

The citys Department of Environmental Protection, in turn, is now proposing that the Water Board raise its rates for homeowners and landlords by 8.5 percent in July, according to a proposal released Friday by the board.
Kari Lakes appearance at Arizona State University last week was billed as a town hall, but it wasnt really, because only representatives of young conservative groups were permitted to ask her anything.

Their questions were largely airy softballs about leadership, the border, and getting Republicans to turn out in November. Lake won applause for a casual threat of violence against trans women, saying that, if she had ever seen a man walk into a locker room while her daughter was changing, he wouldnt have walked out. Later she spoke about the gun she bought her daughter for her 21st birthday: I said, if anybody attacks you, unload that thing, baby. Unload it. The crowd laughed appreciatively.

Only one question, from Danise Rees, president of the campus chapter of Students for Life, was at all challenging. As Rees noted, Lake had taken conflicting positions on Arizonas 1864 abortion ban. Two years ago, Lake called it a great law. But last month, after a court ruling upholding the statute generated widespread outrage, she came out against it, and even lobbied Republicans to repeal it. Then she waffled again, bemoaning the state attorney generals decision not to enforce the law.

Rees wanted clarity about where Lake stood. Weve seen both your opposition and your support for this law in the past, she said. Can you please define your values and tell us how you will remedy the doubts that pro-lifers have in you right now?
Friday is World Press Freedom Day, and The Times is lending its pages to amplifying the cause of bringing home the hundreds of missing or jailed journalists across the globe.

The need for factual and reliable information has never been greater, write The Timess publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, and its executive editor, Joe Kahn, alongside the leaders of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, in an open letter published Friday morning, but threats to journalists around the world are more prevalent than ever.

Russia has wrongfully detained Evan Gershkovich, a former Times colleague now at The Wall Street Journal, for more than a year. Austin Tice, a schoolmate of mine and freelance journalist for The Washington Post, has been held in Syria for 11 years, his parents allowed very little to no information about his condition. Unfortunately, there are many like them.

Since Oct. 7, at least 97 journalists, the majority of them Palestinians, have been killed amid the Middle East conflict. And Israel continues to deny reliable access to Gaza to facilitate international, independent coverage, as Jodie Ginsberg, the head of the Committee to Protect Journalists, recently detailed for Times Opinion.
The forced withdrawal, announced last month, of more than 1,000 U.S. Special Operations troops and drone operators in Niger and Chad should raise the alarm for Washington. In Africa, our policy of strengthening security partnerships rather than supporting democracy has not worked. The United States needs a new approach.

The troops had been dispatched there as a key part of Americas effort to confront terrorism, and the pullout follows the governments demands for new rules and regulations on U.S. military operations.

Russia, and increasingly Iran and other countries, are already stepping in to exploit a growing power vacuum in the region. That should be yet another reason for America to change course. Africa is less secure and less democratic today than when the United States sent those forces a decade ago. Given the rising influence of these other nations, that current is certain to speed up.

With Washington now forced from the front line of fighting terrorism in the region, it has the opportunity of taking a different approach: directly helping African countries deal with their economic and social problems by pushing for inclusive governance and stronger institutions. A commitment to promoting democracy, once pejoratively called nation-building, is often the first thing to go when the United States becomes ensnared in responding to local crises, as it had with terror threats in the Sahel, a semiarid area south of the Sahara.
A somber gathering of artists and illustrators took place at a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on a recent Friday evening. They were there for a Wright auction preview of the drawings and personal belongings of Jason Polan, the celebrated New York street artist who died of cancer at 37 in 2020.

The auction, I Want to Know All of You: The Art & Collection of Jason Polan, is part of a new initiative to preserve his legacy, but as the night carried on, Mr. Polans friends seemed content just to be in the presence of objects that let them feel closer to him.

A few guests wiped away tears as they looked at his impressionist sketches of city life. They included scenes of a hot dog vendor on Broadway, a woman carrying balloons on Canal Street and the fashion influencer Derek Blasberg ambling down Greene Street.
Madeline Claire Whittle and Charles Norton Bramesco first hit it off over a horror movie  not as theatergoers, but as judges serving on a panel at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival in October 2019.

Ms. Whittle, an assistant programmer for Film at Lincoln Center, and Mr. Bramesco, a freelance film and television critic, had followed each other on social media for a while and met briefly at film events, but hadnt talked much until then. In discussions about the festivals films, Charles and I tended to align in our opinions, Ms. Whittle, 33, said. They both liked Swallow, a film about a woman who develops a compulsion to eat inedible objects.

By the festivals end, Swallow had multiple awards, and Ms. Whittle had a crush.

Weeks later, Ms. Whittle, who goes by Maddie, sent Mr. Bramesco, 30, a message asking if hed want to go out sometime. He suggested a few days later. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, they met for their first date at a cocktail bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Mr. Bramesco wore his lucky green shirt, and they talked about family and film over jazz and Lambrusco wine.

[Click here to binge read this weeks featured couples.]

I was surprised by how quickly we got into really substantive things, Mr. Bramesco said. Ms. Whittle had read his work  he has written for The Guardian, New York Magazine and The New York Times, among other publications  and wanted to hear about his experience as a writer. He knew the festivals she worked on and had attended retrospectives she organized.
Although the Met Gala serves as a branding event for Vogue, it has long accepted sponsorships from the tech giants that have threatened the very survival of legacy media publications.

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, appeared as the balls honorary chair in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was a Met Gala sponsor, its chief executive, Tim Cook, showed up in tux and tails. And Instagram supplied cash in 2022.

The 2024 event is sponsored, in part, by TikTok, the social media goliath whose future looks murkier than that of Conde Nast, the publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and other magazines, which has laid off employees and shuttered or sold off some of its publications in recent years.

TikTok found itself in jeopardy last month, when President Biden signed a bill that gave ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell off the app or face a ban in the United States. In the wake of that political firestorm, Shou Chew, the 41-year-old chief executive of TikTok, is expected to join dozens of celebrity guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Monday evening.
As a girl, Sofia Coppola liked to melt down her lipsticks, mixing colors and consistencies to make a tint that conformed to her aesthetic ideal.

She was after the look of Tess, the titular character in Roman Polanskis 1979 film adaptation of the novel Tess of the dUrbervilles, portrayed by Nastassja Kinski. In one scene, Ms. Coppola recalled, the character was nibbling on strawberries that left her with perfectly berry-stained lips.

That tint, it turns out, is the cosmetic expression of a subtlety that has long been Ms. Coppolas hallmark as a filmmaker, writer and director. From an early age, she brought her coolly observant, hyper-feminine sensibility to movies like The Virgin Suicides, her first film, released in 1999, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and, most recently, Priscilla, Ms. Coppolas adaptation of Priscilla Presleys memoir, Elvis and Me.

The style of her work is all of a piece, Ms. Coppola, 52, said on Monday in a phone interview; her taste, for the most part, is genteelly uncompromising. Im making a world, she stressed, that I want to look at and share.
While living in Warsaw in 2009, Tusia Dabrowska was always on the hunt for potential creative collaborators. Friends suggested that she meet Wiktor Maria Freifeld, who, like her, was Polish and Jewish, and making art.

We met at a party that I dont remember, Ms. Dabrowska, 44, said. Then we met twice to talk about a project.

We still need to finish it, Mr. Freifeld, 47, said of the video project they discussed.

About five months after their first meeting, Ms. Dabrowska was leaving Warsaw for a graduate program in creative writing at N.Y.U., and told Mr. Freifeld, who had recently arrived in the Polish capital, that he could sublet her apartment for a short period.

Mr. Freifeld was born and raised in Krakow, Poland, where he received a bachelors degree in graphic design from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. He has designed exhibitions for museums and live projections for contemporary music and modern dance performances, and is currently working toward a masters degree in projection design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
The U.S. governments landmark antitrust trial against Googles search business is nearing its conclusion. But the parade of major federal cases challenging Big Techs power is just getting going.

Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission started investigating Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and WhatsApp, for monopolistic behavior. The government has since sued all four companies  Google twice  in what it says is an effort to rein in their power and promote more competition.

The companies have denied the claims and are fighting back.

Closing arguments wrap up on Friday in Googles first antitrust suit on allegations that it has a monopoly in internet search. The judges ruling, expected in the coming weeks or months, is likely to set precedents for the remaining cases.

Heres the latest on the state of the U.S. government v. Big Tech.

Amazon

In September, the F.T.C. and 17 states sued Amazon, accusing it of protecting a monopoly by squeezing sellers on its vast marketplace and favoring its own services. The practices also harmed consumers, the F.T.C. argued, and resulted in some cases of artificially higher prices because Amazon prevented those selling goods on its site from offering the same products on other online sites for less.
The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (Added) and Trends Research & Advisory are strengthening the emirates economic competitiveness by enhancing research and data intelligence.

Added and Trends have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) covering key areas of collaboration and joint research, studies, and polls to support economic development.

They will be exchanging experts, hosting joint research activities, training, and workshops, and sharing research publications. These activities will follow international best practices to support both the public and private sectors.

Economic expansion

By further strengthening Abu Dhabis research capabilities, the agreement underlines Added and Trends steadfast commitment to support the emirates economic expansion, growth, and prosperity.

The MoU was signed by Rashed Abdulkarim Al Blooshi, Undersecretary of Added and Dr Mohammed Abdullah Al-Ali, CEO of Trends Research and Advisory, with several senior representatives from both entities also attending the ceremony.

Al Blooshi said: This agreement enhances our relentless efforts to strengthen the cooperation between the various sectors to support Abu Dhabis socio-economic development. Our partnership with Trends, with its extensive research expertise, will contribute to achieving our shared goals, and represents another step in our journey towards strengthening the emirates economy.

Dr Al-Ali said: We are proud to partner with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, the catalyst for economic growth and diversification. This MoU serves as a model for cooperation between the public and private sectors in supporting economic development. As we are foreseeing the future through knowledge, we constantly seek to create knowledge and data that enhance scientific research. The centre aims to bolster its support to institutions and society, providing data that would help develop innovative solutions to overcome challenges.--TradeArabia News Service
On Tuesday, Googles employees gathered for an all-hands meeting named T.G.I.F. These companywide meetings are rarely held on Fridays these days, but the name has stuck.

Executives shared highlights from a recent earnings report and cloud-computing conference, and warned workers against taking disruptive actions in the wake of internal protests against a cloud-computing contract with Israel.

But no one in the meeting, two employees said, broached a topic that could have a dramatic impact on Google: its landmark antitrust trial with the Justice Department, where arguments are finally coming to an end this week.

For eight months, while tech policy experts have tried to divine what a Google victory or loss would mean for the power of tech giants in the United States, Googles employees have mostly ignored the antitrust fight, according to interviews with a dozen current and recent workers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the legal matter.
When Anton Chekhov wrote The Cherry Orchard, his 1904 play about a financially beleaguered aristocratic household in turn-of-the-century Russia, he thought of it as a comedy. Generations of theater directors  starting with Konstantin Stanislavsky in its original Moscow run  had other ideas, preferring to render it as a somber tragedy. In London, a new production sets out to do justice to the playwrights vision by leaning in to the plays comedic elements.

Directed by Benedict Andrews, an Australian based in Iceland who had London hits with A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the show runs at the Donmar Warehouse through June 22. It is a funny and, at times, raucous take which, despite some flaws, breathes new life into this old classic.

The German actress Nina Hoss gives a controlled performance as Ranevskaya, who returns to her family estate after a grief-stricken exile to find its residents depressed and broke. She is a poignant picture of frayed dignity, her aristocratic self-possession increasingly brittle as the story progresses toward it sad denouement. But the real star of the show is Adeel Akhtar (Murder Mystery) as Lopakhin, the rapacious self-made magnate who persuades Ranevskaya to put the estates prize jewel, her beloved cherry orchard, up for auction.
At a rally at the University of California, Los Angeles, last Sunday, Elan Carr, the leader of an Israeli diaspora group, told more than 1,000 demonstrators that Jewish mobilization at universities was beginning.

We will take back our streets. We will take back our campuses from Columbia University to U.C.L.A. and everywhere in between, Mr. Carr, chief executive of the group, the Israeli American Council, told the crowd.

The U.S. and Israeli national anthems were sung, and there were prayers, speeches by Jewish leaders and Israeli pop songs. But close to the rally, hundreds of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters faced off, shouting insults and threats. Fights broke out after a barrier that the university had erected to separate the two sides was breached.

It was a volatile start to what would become one of the most violent stretches of campus unrest. Days later, scores of counter demonstrators stormed the pro-Palestinian encampment at U.C.L.A. and clashed late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.
Police officers cleared two pro-Palestinian encampments and arrested student demonstrators at New York University and the New School early Friday morning after officials at the universities asked for their assistance, New York Police Department officials said.

Police officers arrested 56 people  13 at N.Y.U. and 43 at the New School  according to preliminary information from the Police Department.

Student demonstrators had been sleeping in tents inside a New School building and on sidewalks outside of N.Y.U. buildings since last week. Officials at the two universities asked for the Police Departments assistance to disperse the illegal encampments.

The arrests on Friday come after a turbulent week on college campuses across the country, where a wave of student activism, motivated in large part by concern for the scale of suffering in Gaza, has caused several schools to call in law enforcement agencies for help. More than 2,000 arrests have been made on campuses nationwide, according to a New York Times tally.
During a military exercise with the Philippines that began last month, the U.S. Army deployed a new type of covert weapon that is designed to be hidden in plain sight.

Called Typhon, it consists of a modified 40-foot shipping container that conceals up to four missiles that rotate upward to fire. It can be loaded with weapons including the Tomahawk  a cruise missile that can hit targets on land and ships at sea more than 1,150 miles away.

The weapon, and other small mobile launchers like it, would have been illegal just five years ago under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibited U.S. and Russian forces from having land-based cruise or ballistic missiles with ranges between about 300 miles and 3,400 miles.

In 2019, President Donald J. Trump abandoned the treaty, in part because the United States believed Russia had violated the terms of the pact for years. But U.S. officials said that China, with its growing long-range missile arsenal, was also a reason the Trump administration decided to withdraw.
Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in a crucial swing district, and his wife were charged with participating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.

The accusations against Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his wife Imelda, 67, center on allegations of bribery and money laundering in connection with their efforts on behalf of an oil and gas company owned by Azerbaijans leaders as well as an unnamed bank based in Mexico City, according to the 54-page complaint.

Mr. Cuellar, a Laredo native first elected in 2004, is also accused of acting as an agent of a foreign entity while a U.S. government official  by delivering a speech favoring Azerbaijan in Congress and inserting provisions into aid bills to benefit those who were paying bribes to his family.

The government claimed that Mr. Cuellar, who once served as Texas secretary of state, was paid to back legislation intended to stymie regulation of the payday loan industry, which has been accused of predatory lending practices against the poor. He also tried to weaken money laundering laws that affected Mexicos banking sector, according to prosecutors.
Tens of thousands of people who were brought to the United States illegally as children will be able to obtain health care through the Affordable Care Act under a new federal rule, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The new eligibility applies to people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as Dreamers, who are protected from deportation and allowed to work legally in the United States. More than 500,000 of them have DACA protections but are ineligible for benefits such as federal health insurance programs.

A rule published by the Health and Human Services Department changes that, granting those immigrants access to health coverage and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act starting in November.

Im proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed, President Biden said in a statement on Friday.
The new book by Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, a biography that will be released on Tuesday, will be corrected to remove a false anecdote about her meeting Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, a spokesman for Ms. Noem said on Friday.

Ms. Noem, who has been widely talked about as a potential running mate for former President Donald J. Trump, has already spent the last week defending a grisly excerpt from the book in which she describes killing a family dog.

Ms. Noems new book also includes an error about when a phone call with Nikki Haley took place. That will be corrected in future editions of the book, too, said Ian Fury, the chief of communications for Ms. Noem.

It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book No Going Back has two small errors, Mr. Fury said. This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong-un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldnt have been.
Last Sunday, as Russia put pressure on Ukrainian forces across a 600-mile front line, Ukraine received a shipment of anti-armor rockets, missiles and badly needed 155-millimeter artillery shells. It was the first installment from the $61 billion in military aid that President Biden approved just four days earlier.

A second batch of those weapons and ammunition arrived on Monday. And a fresh supply of Patriot interceptor missiles from Spain arrived in Poland on Tuesday. They would be at the Ukrainian front soon, a senior Spanish official said.

The push is on to move weapons to a depleted Ukrainian army that is back on its heels and desperate for aid. Over the last week, a flurry of planes, trains and trucks have arrived at NATO depots in Europe carrying ammunition and smaller weapon systems to be shipped across Ukraines borders.

Now we need to move fast, and we are, Mr. Biden said on April 24 when he signed the bill approving the aid. He added, Im making sure the shipments start right away.
Senator Eric Schmitt, a freshman Republican from Missouri, is new to the Senate but has already figured out that the so-called upper chamber is not always on the up and up.

The only time you to get to offer an amendment in this place, he declared in a recent mini-rant on the Senate floor, is if it is sure to fail.

Mr. Schmitt might have exaggerated slightly. But it is true that on some of the most significant recent pieces of legislation, the only proposed changes that were allowed to be considered by what is sometimes called the worlds greatest deliberative body were ones that had absolutely no chance of being approved.

Making even the most minor modification could have doomed what were essentially must-pass measures or sent them back to the House for reconsideration, jeopardizing their chances in the current dicey legislative climate in which even basic measures are exceedingly heavy lifts.
A man who fired at law officers during a high-speed chase a year ago and was arrested after officers fired dozens of shots at him on a south Bismarck street was sentenced Friday to nearly 17 years in federal prison.

Kyle Johnson, 35, earlier had pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, to possessing meth with the intent to distribute it, and to possessing and discharging a gun in furtherance of drug trafficking. U.S. District Judge Dan Traynor sentenced him to 16 years and eight months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. The U.S. Attorney's Office listed Johnson as being from Mandan; authorities previously said he was from Jamestown.

The chase on April 22, 2023, began when Burleigh County sheriff's deputies attempted to stop Johnson -- whom they considered armed and dangerous -- on county and municipal warrants. The chase that authorities said reached speeds of 120 mph on rural roads ultimately ended near Ivy Avenue and South Washington Street in Bismarck that Saturday evening.

Johnson during the chase allegedly weaved through traffic, forced vehicles off the road, and fired shots at pursuing officers. Federal court documents indicate the gun was a 9 mm handgun that had its manufacturer's serial number removed. Serial numbers help police trace guns used in crimes.

A female passenger in the car allegedly told investigators that Johnson reloaded his gun once, and by the end of the chase had apparently run it out of bullets, according to state Bureau of Criminal Investigation reports the Tribune obtained last year through an open records request. The passenger -- a friend who had gotten a ride from Fargo with Johnson -- also allegedly told police that Johnson had done meth before the incident.

A North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper used spike strips south of Rawhide Avenue to deflate the front tires of Johnsons car. Johnson drove on rims at speeds up to 100 mph on Expressway, disregarded traffic signals, and struck a car and a guard rail, according to authorities. He allegedly stopped the car between the Bismarck Elks and Red Carpet Car Wash, got out, raised the handgun and pointed it at his own head before retreating into the vehicle when officers began firing at him.

All four officers fired, leaving 44 "bullet hole defects" in his car, according to the BCI reports. Metro-Area Ambulance Service reports state that a bullet grazed Johnson's left palm, leaving a cut an inch long and a few centimeters deep. He was treated at a hospital before being booked into jail.

Johnson allegedly told investigators that he was a drug dealer and carried a gun "when I make runs." Authorities said they found meth in his car. Johnson has a lengthy criminal history.

The investigation found no bullet damage to the roadway, street signs or nearby buildings. One other vehicle in the area might have been struck by a bullet, according to the BCI reports. The passenger in Johnson's car ran into a nearby convenience store before the shooting and was not hurt. The documents state she cooperated with police. She was not charged.

Bismarck Police Officers Cody Berger, Richard Jensen and Brandon Rosen, and Burleigh County Sheriff's Deputy Briar Lebeau were put on administrative leave following the incident, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. State's Attorney Julie Lawyer later deemed their actions justified, and they all returned to full duty by late May.

Johnson was prohibited from possessing a firearm due to multiple felony convictions from 2012 through 2023. At the time of the chase he was wanted on a warrant related to a November 2022 traffic stop in Burleigh County in which authorities said they found meth and a loaded handgun in the vehicle.

Johnson initially was charged in the April incident in state court, with seven felonies and four misdemeanors. The state case ultimately was dismissed in favor of federal prosecution. The November incident state charges also were dropped.

Lawyer told the Tribune last year that she turned over prosecution of the case because she believed Johnson was more likely to get a stiffer sentence if convicted in federal court. There is no parole in the federal system.

U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider in a Friday statement said This is a fitting sentence for someone who violently put the lives of law enforcement officers and Bismarck residents at risk. Our partners at the Bismarck Police Department and Burleigh County Sheriffs Office deserve the credit for bringing this individual to justice before he hurt anyone."

Burleigh County Sheriff Kelly Leben said Johnson "displayed a deliberate and violent disregard for the law, and he commended the officers and prosecutors in the case. Bismarck Police Chief Dave Draovitch said Johnson's actions "could have had significant consequences to innocent bystanders in the city that my department protects and serves. We are grateful for the outcome, and this shows how you cant outrun the collaboration of local, county, state and federal law enforcement when they work together.
Schools were closed, roads were flooded and residents were told to evacuate as heavy rain continued to lash the Houston area and other parts of Southeast Texas on Friday, placing thousands of people under flood warnings.

Flood warnings were issued on Friday for a large section of southeast Texas, including suburbs near Houston, through Saturday morning.

The prospect of more rain came after Judge Lina Hidalgo of Harris County issued a disaster declaration on Thursday as the San Jacinto River, on the outskirts of Houston, continued to rise.

People in neighborhoods near the east fork of the river were ordered to evacuate.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County said on social media that neighborhoods near the San Jacinto River could see dangerous flooding.
They are crosstown rivals and civic landmarks. One is public, one private. One is surrounded by some of the priciest real estate in the nation; the others neighborhood is decidedly more working-class.

Over the past couple of weeks, though, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, have had one thing in common: being publicly slammed for mishandling campus protests.

After anger over a canceled valedictory speech culminated in an uprising at U.S.C. last week that led to 93 arrests on campus, the universitys president faced criticism that she had called in the Los Angeles police too quickly. This week, U.C.L.A.s chancellor is fielding accusations that the universitys call for police backup took too long.

U.C.L.A. had taken a relatively tolerant approach to protests, adhering to a University of California-wide policy of avoiding calling in outside law enforcement unless absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of the public campus. But on Tuesday, the school declared that an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at U.C.L.A. was an unlawful assembly.
Liberias president has signed an executive order establishing a war crimes court, the culmination of a decades-long effort to bring justice to victims of the countrys two civil wars, which killed an estimated 250,000 people from 1989 to 2003.

Lawmakers in Parliament  including some who are expected to face prosecution under the court  had passed a resolution calling for the move last month.

For peace and harmony to have a chance to prevail, justice and healing must perfect the groundwork, President Joseph Boakai said as he signed the order on Thursday, to the applause of lawmakers and ministers.

Although some of those behind the violence have faced prosecution abroad, no one has been held legally accountable within the country for the massacres, rape, torture and conscription of child soldiers that left deep scars on generations of people in Liberia, a West African nation founded 200 years ago by freed slaves from the United States.
Gangs stormed the neighborhood of Haitis police chief, Frantz Elbe, in March, broke into his house, set it afire and killed his dog.

Mr. Elbe and his family were not home at the time, and he did not want to discuss what happened in any detail. But the attack, which was captured on video, sent a chilling message through police ranks and to residents of the countrys embattled capital, Port-au-Prince.

It symbolized that no one was safe, said Reginald Delva, a Haitian security consultant and former Haitian government minister.

The torching of the police chiefs house deepened fears among Haitians that their country was on the brink of collapse in the face of an onslaught by a coalition of armed gangs that had seized control of many parts of Port-au-Prince and were threatening key institutions, like the National Palace.
Three Indian men were charged in the brazen slaying of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil, the police said on Friday, a killing that set off a diplomatic clash with New Delhi after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed agents of the government of India for orchestrating the shooting.

Indias government called the claim absurd and took steps that led Canada to withdraw more than 40 of its diplomats from the country. But amid the denials, Canada said it had a smoking gun, supported by information from the United States. And a federal indictment in New York linked the Indian government to another murder-for-hire-plot against another Sikh separatist.

The three men were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of the Sikh nationalist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The suspects  Karan Brar, 22; Kamalpreet Singh, 22; and Karanpreet Singh, 28  had been living in Canada for three to five years but were not permanent residents of Canada, the police said.
Iran has released the crew of a container ship with links to Israel that it had detained last month, but is continuing to hold the vessel, the countrys foreign minister has said, according to Iranian media.

Iranian forces seized the Portuguese-flagged ship, the MSC Aries, as tensions between Iran and Israel were rising. Israel and the United States have condemned the seizure, with the U.S. National Security Council calling on Iran to release the vessel and its crew immediately.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said that the crew had been released with a humane approach and that it is possible for them to return to their home countries, Tasnim News, a semiofficial news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported on Thursday.

The ship itself is still under judicial detention, the agency quoted him as saying. Israel and the United States did not immediately comment.

The MSC Aries, a 1,200-foot cargo vessel, had 25 crew members on board, according to its operator. It is operated by MSC, a major shipping company, but belongs to an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is part of the Zodiac Group, owned by the Israel-born billionaire Eyal Ofer.

At the time it was detained on April 13, MSC said the vessel had been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter as it passed the Strait of Hormuz. A video published by Iranian state news media showed a military helicopter hovering above what appeared to be the stern of the ship, with at least two soldiers descending by rope onto the deck.

The soldiers were part of the Revolutionary Guards, according to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency.

It was not the first time Iran had seized a commercial vessel. In January, Irans navy seized a tanker loaded with oil off the coast of Oman. In that seizure, soldiers also descended from a helicopter. Before the war in Gaza, the United States said that Iran had harassed, attacked or interfered with more than a dozen internationally flagged merchant ships in recent years.
For months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has avoided detailed public discussion about Gazas postwar future. Trying to placate both his far-right allies, who seek to rebuild Israeli settlements in Gaza, and Israels foreign partners, who want Gaza returned to Palestinian governance, Mr. Netanyahu has stopped short of any specific declaration.

Behind the scenes, however, senior officials in his office have been weighing an expansive plan for postwar Gaza, in which Israel would offer to share oversight of the territory with an alliance of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the United States, according to three Israeli officials and five people who have discussed the plan with members of the Israeli government.

According to that proposal, Israel would do so in exchange for normalized relations between itself and Saudi Arabia, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

Far-right members of Mr. Netanyahus coalition are almost certain to dismiss such an idea, and so are the Arab countries mentioned as possible participants. But it is the clearest sign yet that officials at the highest levels of Israels government are thinking about Gazas postwar future, despite saying little in public, and could be a starting point in future negotiations.
Turkey said late Thursday that it had halted all trade with Israel until uninterrupted and adequate humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza, signaling further deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Turkeys Trade Ministry said in a statement that exports and imports for all products would pause. On Friday, the trade minister, Omer Bolat, said that the suspension would remain in place until Israels bombardment of Gaza stops.

Until a permanent cease-fire is established and uninterrupted humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza, suspension of trade with Israel will be implemented for all imports and exports, Mr. Bolat said at a news conference to announce monthly trade figures.

The move, which was initially reported by Bloomberg, prompted the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, to lash out at Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements, Mr. Katz said in a post on social media. Mr. Katz added that he had instructed the Foreign Ministry to create alternatives to trading with Turkey, focusing on local production and imports from other countries.

Turkey reported $5.4 billion in exports to Israel in 2023 and $1.64 billion in imports, according to United Nations figures.

Mr. Erdogan did not comment publicly on any changes in Turkeys trade ties with Israel. But the Turkish leader has strongly criticized Israels bombardment of Gaza, which began after Hamas led an Oct. 7 attack into Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the abduction of about 240 others. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed amid Israels bombardment of the territory, according to health officials in the territory.

The Turkish leader has also forcefully defended Hamas and recently met with Ismail Haniyeh, the groups political leader, and other Hamas officials in Istanbul on April 20. Mr. Erdogan told reporters then, Israel will certainly pay the price of the atrocities it has been inflicting on Palestinians one day.

The decision by Turkey to halt trade came after its Trade Ministry imposed export restrictions on Israel on April 9 in 54 product groups, including cement and jet fuel, and said they would remain in force until Israel declares an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

The Trade Ministry defined Thursdays suspension as the second step in intergovernmental measures and cited worsening humanitarian tragedy in Palestine.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, also announced on Wednesday that Turkey would join South Africas genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In a preliminary decision in January, the court ordered Israel to ensure that its forces were not committing genocide in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian students at one of Frances most elite universities, Sciences Po, occupied a campus building overnight. Like-minded demonstrators at University College London set up an encampment. And tents with Palestinian flags stretched out this week across university campuses in Australia.

The tensions gripping universities in the United States appear to be spreading to other countries, where student activists have challenged their own schools stances on the war in Gaza and ties to Israel.

Demonstrators at several universities in France have put pressure on administrators to more forcefully condemn Israels military offense in Gaza and review partnerships with Israeli universities and private donors.

Police officers went into Sciences Po on Friday morning to clear out a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a campus building overnight and refused to leave until their demands were met, according to a statement from the university. The intervention came after a town hall debate about the Gaza war on Thursday at the university  which counts top politicians, civil servants and business leaders among its alumni  failed to defuse tensions.
Source: Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman  Note: Tax rates shown include levies paid at all levels of government. Government transfers such as Social Security benefits have not been subtracted. In the 1960s, the 400 richest Americans paid more than half of their income in taxes. Higher tax rates for the wealthy kept inequality in check and helped fund the creation of social safety nets like Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. Today, the superrich control a greater share of Americas wealth than during the Gilded Age of Carnegies and Rockefellers. That's partly because taxes on the wealthy have cratered. In 2018, America's top billionaires paid just 23 percent of their income in taxes. For the first time in the history of the United States, billionaires had a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.

Opinion Guest Essay Its Time to Tax the Billionaires

Until recently, it was hard to know just how good the superrich are at avoiding taxes. Public statistics are oddly quiet about their contributions to government coffers, a topic of legitimate interest in democratic societies.

Over the past few years, I and other scholars have published studies and books attempting to fix that problem. While we still have data for only a handful of countries, weve found that the ultrawealthy consistently avoid paying their fair share in taxes. In the Netherlands, for instance, the average taxpayer in 2016 gave 45 percent of earnings to the government, while billionaires paid just 17 percent.

Billionaires avoid taxes outside the United States, too United States Netherlands Italy France 0 25 50% total tax rate Lower earners 0-50th percentile Middle earners 51-90th percentile High earners 90-99.99th percentile Billionaires Billionaires avoid taxes outside the United States, too United States Netherlands Italy France 0 10 20 30 40 50% total tax rate Lower earners 0-50th percentile Middle earners 51-90th percentile High earners 90-99.99th percentile 18% 23% Billionaires 17% 26% Sources: Demetrio Guzzardi, et al., Journal of the European Economic Association; Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman; Institut des Politiques Publiques; Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis Note: Data is from 2015 for Italy; 2016 for the Netherlands and France; 2018 for the United States.

Why do the worlds most fortunate people pay among the least in taxes, relative to the amount of money they make?

The simple answer is that while most of us live off our salaries, tycoons like Jeff Bezos live off their wealth. In 2019, when Mr. Bezos was still Amazons chief executive, he took home an annual salary of just $81,840. But he owns roughly 10 percent of the company, which made a profit of $30 billion in 2023.

If Amazon gave its profits back to shareholders as dividends, which are subject to income tax, Mr. Bezos would face a hefty tax bill. But Amazon does not pay dividends to its shareholders. Neither does Berkshire Hathaway or Tesla. Instead, the companies keep their profits and reinvest them, making their shareholders even wealthier.

Unless Mr. Bezos, Warren Buffett or Elon Musk sell their stock, their taxable income is relatively minuscule. But they can still make eye-popping purchases by borrowing against their assets. Mr. Musk, for example, used his shares in Tesla as collateral to rustle up around $13 billion in tax-free loans to put toward his acquisition of Twitter.

Jeff Bezos arriving for a news conference after flying into space in the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket on July 20, 2021. Getty Images

Outside the United States, avoiding taxation can be even easier.

Take Bernard Arnault, the wealthiest person in the world. Mr. Arnaults shares in LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate, officially belong to holding companies that he controls. In 2023, Mr. Arnaults holdings received about $3 billion in dividends from LVMH. France  like other European countries  barely taxes these dividends, because on paper they are received by companies. Yet Mr. Arnault can spend the money almost as if it were deposited directly into his bank account, so long as he works through other incorporated entities  on philanthropy, for instance, or to keep his megayacht afloat or to buy more companies.

Historically, the rich had to pay hefty taxes on corporate profits, the main source of their income. And the wealth they passed on to their heirs was subject to the estate tax. But both taxes have been gutted in recent decades. In 2018, the United States cut its maximum corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. And the estate tax has almost disappeared in America. Relative to the wealth of U.S. households, it generates only a quarter of the tax revenues it raised in the 1970s.

The falling U.S. corporate tax rate 52% 50% 40 34% 30 Reagan tax cuts 21% 20 Trump tax cuts 10 0 1960 1980 2000 2020 The falling U.S. corporate tax rate 52% 50% 40 34% 30 Reagan tax cuts 21% 20 Trump tax cuts 10 0 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 Source: Internal Revenue Service Note: Tax rates are for each years highest corporate income bracket.

So what should be done?

One obstacle to taxing the very rich is the risk they may move to low-tax countries. In Europe, some billionaires who built their fortune in France, Sweden or Germany have established residency in Switzerland, where they pay a fraction of what they would owe in their home country. Although few of the ultrawealthy actually move their homes, the possibility that they might has been a boogeyman for would-be tax reformers.

There is a way to make tax dodging less attractive: a global minimum tax. In 2021, more than 130 countries agreed to apply a minimum tax rate of 15 percent on the profits of large multinational companies. So no matter where a company parks its profits, it still has to pay at least a baseline amount of tax under the agreement.

In February, I was invited to a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers to present a proposal for another coordinated minimum tax  this one not on corporations, but on billionaires. The idea is simple. Lets agree that billionaires should pay income taxes equivalent to a small portion  say, 2 percent  of their wealth each year. Someone like Bernard Arnault, who is worth about $210 billion, would have to pay an additional tax equal to roughly $4.2 billion if he pays no income tax. In total, the proposal would allow countries to collect an estimated $250 billion in additional tax revenue per year, which is even more than what the global minimum tax on corporations is expected to add.

Bernard Arnault watching the mens singles final at the French Open on June 8, 2014. Abaca Press

Critics might say that this is a wealth tax, the constitutionality of which is debated in the United States. In reality, the proposal stays firmly in the realm of income taxation. Billionaires who already pay the baseline amount of income tax would have no extra tax to pay. The goal is that only those who dial down their income to dodge the income tax would be affected.

Critics also claim that a minimum tax would be too hard to apply because wealth is difficult to value. This fear is overblown. According to my research, about 60 percent of U.S. billionaires wealth is in stocks of publicly traded companies. The rest is mostly ownership stakes in private businesses, which can be assigned a monetary value by looking at how the market values similar firms.

One challenge to making a minimum tax work is ensuring broad participation. In the multinational minimum tax agreement, participating countries are allowed to overtax companies from nations that havent signed on. This incentivizes every country to join the agreement. The same mechanism should be used for billionaires. For example, if Switzerland refuses to tax the superrich who live there, other countries could tax them on its behalf.

We are already seeing some movement on the issue. Countries such as Brazil, which is chairing the Group of 20 summit this year and has shown extraordinary leadership on the issue, and France, Germany, South Africa and Spain have recently expressed support for a minimum tax on billionaires. In the United States, President Biden has proposed a billionaire tax that shares the same objectives.

To be clear, this proposal wouldnt increase taxes for doctors, lawyers, small-business owners or the rest of the worlds upper middle class. Im talking about asking a very small number of stratospherically wealthy individuals  about 3,000 people  to give a relatively tiny bit of their profits back to the governments that fund their employees educations and health care and allow their businesses to operate and thrive.

The idea that billionaires should pay a minimum amount of income tax is not a radical idea. What is radical is continuing to allow the wealthiest people in the world to pay a smaller percentage in income tax than nearly everybody else. In liberal democracies, a wave of political sentiment is building, focused on rooting out the inequality that corrodes societies. A coordinated minimum tax on the superrich will not fix capitalism. But it is a necessary first step.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and Threads.


biography of John Hopcroft

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John Hopcroft is a highly acclaimed computer scientist known for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of algorithms and computer science education. Here's a brief biography of John Hopcroft:

Early Life and Education:

John Hopcroft was born on October 7, 1939, in Seattle, Washington, USA.

He attended the Seattle Public Schools and developed an early interest in mathematics and science.

Academic Career:

Hopcroft earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Seattle University in 1961.

He continued his studies at Stanford University, where he completed his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1962 and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1964.

After completing his Ph.D., Hopcroft joined the faculty at Princeton University, where he became a full professor in 1970.

In 1987, he moved to Cornell University, where he held the position of IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics until his retirement.

Contributions to Computer Science:

Hopcroft is best known for his pioneering work in the design and analysis of algorithms.

Along with Jeffrey Ullman, he co-authored the influential textbook "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation," which has been widely used in computer science education.

He made significant contributions to various areas of computer science, including graph algorithms, formal languages, and computational biology.

Hopcroft's research laid the foundation for many fundamental concepts and algorithms used in computer science today.

Recognition and Awards:

John Hopcroft is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors.

In 1986, he was awarded the A.M. Turing Award, considered the highest distinction in computer science, for his contributions to the theory and practice of algorithms and data structures.

He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, among other professional organizations.

Legacy:

Hopcroft's work continues to influence computer science research and education worldwide.

His contributions to algorithms and computer science theory have had a lasting impact on the field and have helped shape the way we understand and solve computational problems.

John Hopcroft's career exemplifies excellence in both research and teaching, and his work has significantly advanced the field of computer science.



tell his name of "82  |  The Voice  The Voice "

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The name of the 82-year-old foreign professor at Peking University mentioned in the article is "James T.C. Liu" ().

You

wrong. He is Caucasian

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My apologies for the oversight. The 82-year-old foreign professor at Peking University mentioned in the article is "William W. Finan."

You

He is prof. at Cornell Univ., got Turing award

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I see, you're referring to the renowned computer scientist and Turing Award recipient, John Hopcroft. He indeed taught at Peking University () at the age of 82. Hopcroft is a professor at Cornell University and received the Turing Award in 1986 for his fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures.
Brood XIII cicadas Brood XIX cicadas Brood XIII cicadas Brood XIX cicadas

Maps of Two Cicada Broods, Reunited After 221 Years

This spring, two broods of cicadas will emerge in the Midwest and the Southeast, in their first dual appearance since 1803.

A cicada lays eggs in an apple twig. Insects: Their Ways and Means of Living, by Robert E. Snodgrass, 1930, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Brood XIII, the Northern Illinois Brood, hatched and burrowed into the ground 17 years ago, in 2007.

Brood XIX, the Great Southern Brood, hatched in 2011 and has spent 13 years underground, sipping sap from tree roots.

Historic maps adapted from The Periodical Cicada, by Charles L. Marlatt, 1907, via the Biodiversity Heritage Library; modern brood maps adapted from Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University N.D. MINN. WIS. S.D. N.Y. Brood XIII MICH. IOWA NEB. PA. ILL. OHIO MD. MO. IND. W.VA. KAN. VA. KY. N.C. TENN. OKLA. ARK. GA. S.C. ALA. Brood XIX MISS. TEX. LA. FLA. N.D. MINN. Brood XIII S.D. N.Y. MICH. IOWA NEB. PA. OHIO MD. IND. W.VA. KAN. VA. KY. N.C. TENN. OKLA. ARK. GA. S.C. ALA. Brood XIX MISS. TEX. LA. FLA. MINN. Brood XIII N.Y. MICH. IOWA PA. OHIO MD. IND. MO. W.VA. VA. KY. N.C. TENN. ARK. GA. S.C. ALA. Brood XIX MISS. LA. The entomologist Charles L. Marlatt published a detailed map of Brood XIX, the largest of the 13-year cicada broods, in 1907. Historic map of cicada emergence. He also mapped the expected emergence of Brood XIII in 1922. Historic map of cicada emergence. This spring the two broods will surface together, and are expected to cover a similar range. Modern map of cicada emergence.

Up to a trillion cicadas will rise from the warming ground to molt, sing, mate, lay eggs and die.

A Name and a Number

Charles L. Marlatt proposed using Roman numerals to identify the regional groups of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas, beginning with Brood I in 1893.

A brood can include up to three or four cicada species, all emerging at the same time and singing different songs. Long cicada lifespans of 13 or 17 years spent underground have spawned many theories, and may have evolved to reduce the likelihood of different broods surfacing at the same time.

Large broods might sprawl across a dozen or more states, while a small brood might only span a few counties. Brood VII is the smallest, limited to a small part of New York State and at risk of disappearing.

N.Y. Brood VII PA.

At least two named broods are thought to have vanished: Brood XXI was last seen in 1870, and Brood XI in 1954.

Not Since the Louisiana Purchase

Brood XIII and Brood XIX will emerge together this year, for the first time in more than two centuries. But only in small patches of Illinois are they likely to come out of the ground in the same place.

Maps adapted from An Historical Geography of the United States, 1911, via the Library of Congress In 1786 and 1790, the two broods burrowed into Native lands, divided by the Mississippi River into nominally Spanish territory and the new nation of the United States. An historic map of the United States from 1783. Brood XIII entered the ground in 1786, and Brood XIX in 1790. (Expected 2024 ranges are overlaid on the map.) An historic map of the United States from 1783. As the ground was warming in April 1803, France sold the rights to the territory of Louisiana, which it acquired from Spain in 1800, to the United States for $15 million. An historic map of the United States from 1801. That spring, Brood XIII and Brood XIX emerged together into a newly enlarged United States. An historic map of the United States from 1803. Their descendants  13 and 17 generations later  are now poised to return, and will not sing together again until 2245. An historic map of the United States from 1868.

A Great Visitation

After an emergence of Brood X cicadas in 1919, the naturalist Harry A. Allard wrote:

Although the incessant concerts of the periodical cicadas persisting from morning until night became almost disquieting at times, I felt a positive sadness when I realized that the great visitation was over, and there was silence in the world again, and all were dead that had so recently lived and filled the world with noise and movement. It was almost a painful silence, and I could not but feel that I had lived to witness one of the great events of existence, comparable to the occurrence of a notable eclipse or the invasion of a great comet. Then again the event marked a definite period in my life, and I could not but wonder how changed would be my surroundings, my experiences, my attitude toward life, should I live to see them occur again seventeen years later.
The California Conservation Corps, which was created in 1976 by Gov. Jerry Brown, wants to hire a firm to handle PR and marketing services to promote its brand image and boost enrollment. The budget is set for $800K per year.
FNK IR has signed on to handle investor relations duties for PLBY Group, the company whose flagship brand is Playboy. The agency will be working closely with Playboy to develop and execute a comprehensive and proactive capital markets strategy with a full suite of investor relations services. The account will be led by FNK IR founding partners Matt Chesler and Rob Fink. PLBY Group serves consumers in four major categories: sexual wellness, style & apparel, gaming & lifestyle, and beauty & grooming. The Playboy brand drives billions of dollars in consumer spending annually across approximately 180 countries.

5W Public Relations takes on AOR duties for Rewardown, a company that produces recycled down products used in bedding, outdoor apparel and home furnishings. With a strategic focus on earned media and award submissions, 5WPR will aim to spotlight Rewardown's approach to sustainability through consumer engagement and industry outreach, leveraging narratives that underscore Rewardown's methodology in producing recycled down. The agency will also spotlight Rewardown's capacity to supply large-scale companies with an environmentally friendly alternative. Our growing business has a strong story to tell, and were thrilled that our unique approach to recycled down is being widely shared through 5W as our PR agency partner, said Rewardown marketing executive Fiona Chou.

Colangelo & Partners, which works with clients in the wine and spirits industry, is engaged to develop and execute a strategic and comprehensive media relations campaign for Santa Rita Estates, which includes Chilean vineyards Vina Santa Rita, Vina Carmen and Sur Andino as well as Dona Paula in Argentina. The agencys work will focus on increasing brand awareness and press coverage for all wineries that are part of the group. "We are delighted to ally with Colangelo & Partners to enhance our image and expand our communication efforts with an agency with a distinguished track record in the wine and spirits sector, said Santa Rita Estates corporate affairs, sustainability and tourism director Elena Carretero. Santa Rita Estates, which is a leader in developing the sustainable wine sector, sells its wines in more than 50 countries.
The House committee probing potential national security threats from China wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether TikTok violated child privacy laws when it launched a last-ditch lobbying blitz to defeat the bill requiring ByteDance, TikToks owner, to divest it.

TikTok pushed a message calling for users to contact their Members of Congress, and urge them to vote against the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which is now law.

Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the China panel, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member, want the FTC to probe whether TikTok sent pop-up messages to children under the age of 13 in violation of the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act.

We are gravely concerned that an app controlled by the Chinese Communist Party appears to have the unfettered ability to manipulate the American public, including Americas children, they wrote in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan.

They noted reports that TikToks message impacted young children in classrooms, and in one instance, a child called a Congressional office and threatened to commit suicide in response to the false message that the app was going to be banned.

TikTok would only be banned in the US in the event that ByteDance doesnt unload it over the next nine months.

The China panel is called the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party.
Rhode based Cllr Liam Quinn has welcomed Bord na Monas Strategic Partnership Agreement with Amazon Web Services.

Under this agreement web providers have the opportunity to construct co-located data centres adjacent to wind and solar farms.

This partnership has the benefit of allowing the development of Data Centres without creating additional strain on the National Electricity Grid.

Said Cllr Quinn: I believe the Eco-Energy Park at Derrygreenagh is the ideal location for this type of enterprise, which hopefully will see spin off industries attracted to this area also. The Eco Energy Park at Derrygreenagh offers a solution to large companies who wish to move their business to a sustainable, climate neutral model.

The availability of serviced, cut away peat lands and the availability of onsite Renewable Power gives Offaly a competitive advantage over other counties who have absorbed the majority of this type of development to date.

Bord na Mona outlined how their Eco Energy Park offering is transforming approximately 3,000ha across Bord na Monas landbank in the coming years, and will be designed to enhance Irelands security of energy supply, supporting the delivery of several of the States climate, renewable energy and enterprise objectives.

Each Park will generate sufficient renewable energy to power a number of sectors that play an important role in Irelands social and economic development, such as, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Agrifood, ICT, Transport, Green Hydrogen derived E-Fuels and Logistics.

On foot of this announcement, I will be writing to the Department of Climate Action and Offaly County Council to see that these developments deliver significant benefits for the communities living in this area.

The current RESS Guidelines that govern Community Gain Funds are too restrictive and offer no opportunity to amalgamate resources. I also believe this development should be used to explore the possibilities of a district heating system, using the excess heat generated by data centres. It is also imperative that Offaly County Council identify land for additional house building projects.

Historically, Bord na Miona and the ESB assisted in providing housing for the communities living beside them. Will policy makers now be bold enough to examine the possibility of building housing estates in our area that can use heat generated from these industries in a modern and sustainable way? 
THE Slieve Bloom Walking Festival, one of Irelands oldest walking festivals, is twenty-eight years running this year.

Over the years the dedicated walk leaders have taken walkers into the magical unspoilt landscape that is the Slieve Blooms. This festival is not just a walking festival for the serious walker but a special social event for people to meet, chat and enjoy the outdoors. But dont take their word for it, come and see for yourself!

Walkers who come along and join for the festival weekend are offered free membership for weekend walks that take place all year round. Many of the walkers who enjoy it so much come back weekend after weekend. Its a real opportunity to get out and get active, make friends and have fun.

This year there is a choice of seven great walks ranging from easy woodland to more challenging treks in remote wilderness areas of the Slieve Blooms.

The festival gets under way with grades A and B walks departing from Clonaslee Community Centre on Saturday May 4th. The grade A 13km walk to Knockastumpa for experienced walkers, and a grade B 9km moderate walk around Brittas Lake and woodlands. Glenbarrow Car Park is the starting point for the grade C 6km walk, an amazing walk among the bluebells in Capard Woodlands that begins at 1pm. Registration for A and B walks is at 10.15am in Clonaslee and 12.45pm for C Walk in Glenbarrow.

On Sunday May 5th the walks start from Kinnitty Community Centre. There is a Grade A 10km walk through Pauls Land and Spink Mountain, a Grade B 9km moderate walk in Kinnitty woodlands and also a Grade C walk around the beautiful Knockbarron Woodlands. Registration for A and B walks at 10.15am and 12.45pm for C Walk.

Bank Holiday Monday features a Grade A 10km walk on Conlawn Hill which departs from The Deadmans Inn Ballyfin at 11am.

The fee is 8 per walk (accompanied children are free). If you wish to join the Slieve Bloom Walking Club and avail of guided walks every Sunday of the year then annual membership is 20 (single) or 30 (family).

For more details please visit slievebloom.ie or facebook.com/slievebloomoutdoors or phone (086) 8210056.
Whether or not Israel's actions in Gaza are characterized as genocide, they are, by their sadistic nature - e.g. burying thousands of people alive under collapsed stone buildings, preventing food from reaching more than 2 million people for months - and the indiscriminateness of the killing - morally comparable to the slaughter of Jews, Roma, and others by the Nazis that led to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Thus I agree with the New Yorker's Jewish-Russian-American writer Masha Gellen, who likens the slaughter in Gaza to the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto ( " In the Shadow of the Holocaust : How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today ," The New Yorker, Dec 23, 2023 )

As Americans, we must demand that the US immediately bring pressure on Israel to stop the killing in Gaza and to allow unlimited amounts of food and humanitarian supplies to enter the strip. If Israel does not immediately comply, the US should cut off military aid.

After so many months of slaughter, I am glad that many American University campuses at long last are seething with student protests against the genocide. So when I heard on local news that a protest encampment of Students for Justice in Palestine had begun on the UNC campus, where I am an alumnus, I hurried to have a look and determine how I might support it. Upon arrival in mid-afternoon, April 26, I found two to three hundred students sitting or standing on the lawn in front of the South Building. They had a lot of good signs and banners about stopping genocide. They also were chanting very loudly. Because of the cacophony of the mix with other noises (apparently, for part of the time, a boom box with pertinent rap music) I could not understand most of the words. Occasionally, I could make out the familiar refrains "Free, free, free Palestine," and "From the river to the sea." Many, perhaps half, of the students were wearing kaffiyehs. There could not have been so many Palestinian students, so I infer that the kaffiyehs worn by other students symbolized solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

My superficial impression from the high-spirited chanting and the scene filled with kaffiyehs was that the encampment was not so much demanding an end to genocide as supporting the Palestinian national cause. There is a difference. Suppose that during the holocaust there had been demonstrations to demand that the allies take military actions to destroy the rail lines to the death camps or facilities for extermination, but that the demonstrators had chanted instead slogans of Jewish or Israeli nationalism. I think that turning the hypothetical protest into a nationalist rally would have obfuscated the original purpose of stopping genocide, and I think that campus protests that become Palestinian nationalist rallies also distract from the goal of ending the slaughter by cutting off US military aid to Israel.

Moreover, Palestinian nationalist slogans or signs could be, or could be interpreted to be, supportive of Hamas, in which case they would be promoting more killing and possible repeats of the atrocities of October 7. It is unlikely that more that 1% of demonstrators on any of the campuses actually would support Hamas - perhaps none - but, by focusing on nationalist slogans and chants, the students give the impression to onlookers that they support Hamas and give fodder for the defamatory reporting on Fox news and for the McCarthyist tactics of politicians like Elise Stefanik.

The news reports often begin by characterizing the demonstrations as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel. I wince whenever I hear either phrase. As Americans, regardless whether pro- or anti- this or that we should protest against genocide wherever it occurs. We also should demand that our government do what it can to end the senseless killing happening in Myanmar, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We do not have to be patriots of any of those countries to raise our voices, nor do we have to take any position toward the Palestinian national cause to protest the slaughter in Gaza.

At the protest I spoke with a young lady who had been leading some of the chanting with a megaphone. She was wearing a kaffiyeh. I mentioned that I was Jewish and she said that she was, too. She told me that the demonstration was anti-Zionist, without mentioning genocide or, I think, even Gaza. I told her that I had come to protest genocide in Gaza, but that I favored a two-state solution and so could not identify as anti-Zionist. She thought that I did not, then, belong at the demonstration.Then she backtracked and said repeatedly that I was welcome to stay and have some of the food available to the demonstrators, while still implying that I was not part of the event. So I stayed a while longer, but left with no intention of returning or otherwise supporting the encampment. I would, however, continue to raise my individual voice to protest genocide, to call for cutting off military aid to Israel, and also call for freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.

I hope that somehow all our separate protests will have a combined effect leading to decisive action by the American government to end the slaughter. Otherwise these campus protests will be viewed historically as having sociological, but not political, interest.






Imperial Doublethink

(Image by tomblanton1957) Details DMCA



[This is slightly revised from an article published at 911blogger.com in 2008 and in my book The Transparent Conspiracy(2010). It seems even more relevant today as the so-called "deep state" not just openly but brazenly, and in my opinion transparently and intentionally in order to keep us feeling forever helpless, displays itself in Gaza and Ukraine. I have added some links and changed some of the wording.]

Somewhere between George Bush and Noam Chomsky, who believe the 9/11 Commission Report, and David Ray Griffin, who believes "the Bush-Cheney administration orchestrated 9/11" (Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, 2006, p. vii-viii, ), there is Peter Dale Scott in The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (2007).

Scott doesn't say who did it, but as Ola Tunander puts it:

Peter Dale Scott exposes a shadow world of oil, terrorism, drug trade and arms deals, of covert financing and parallel security structures - from the Cold War to today. He shows how such parallel forces of the United States have been able to dominate the agenda of the George W. Bush Administration, and that statements and actions made by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld before, during and after September 11, 2001, present evidence for an American "deep state" and for the so-called "Continuity of Government" in parallel to the regular "public state" ruled by law. Scott"s brilliant work not only reveals the overwhelming importance of these parallel forces but also presents elements of a strategy for restraining their influence to win back the "public state," the American democracy.

This is not very different from the more widely held "rogue network" theory described, for example, by Webster Tarpley, as "an outlaw network of high officials infesting the military and security apparatus of the United States and Great Britain" (9/11 Synthetic Terror, 2007, p. vi) Tarpley sees this network as "ultimately dominated by Wall Street and City of London financiers," but many other candidates have been proposed (Bilderbergers, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, Illuminati, CFR, CIA, Mossad, Federal Reserve, World Economic Forum, etc.).

What these two points of view have in common, if indeed they are different at all, is the idea that there is, or still is, a "public state" (or "non-rogue" network) at all. This sounds comforting, to the extent that it encourages us to think that if we can just expose and get rid of the bad guys, we can "win the country back." The latter expression brings us all the way back into mainstream politics, where anyone dissatisfied with the status quo can complain about the country having gone to the dogs and being desperately in need of change.

It is along this continuum that we lose Chomsky and other advocates of a "structuralist" or "institutional" approach, which they oppose to "conspiracy theory" generally. The system cannot be fixed, they say, by superficial reforms, or by getting rid of the bad guys, because it is based on capitalist imperialism and the profit motive. Even if the "deep state" were exposed and removed, things would not improve significantly because the public state is the real killer. Chomsky's entire (political) oeuvre is dedicated to showing how the US government (and its allies) wreak havoc in the world, not by conspiracy but openly and consistently as the logical and predictable consequence of the economic system it serves.

I think both points of view are flawed. Why Chomsky et al. refuse to acknowledge the evidence for high-level government complicity in "deep state" events like the JFK assassination and 9/11 is simply not comprehensible. They fit easily (and politically very effectively) into a "structural" analysis: both events precipitated imperialist wars -- the latter undeniably (the War on Terror), the former arguably ( Vietnam ).

On the other hand, is this notion of a coexisting deep and public state not precisely the state of doublethink George Orwell described in 1984 -- "holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them"? How is it possible, logically, to propose two things at the same time that, as it seems to me, are mutually exclusive? If the deep state exists, there can be no public state, by definition. The same is true of the rogue network. There can be no rogue network within the government controlling the government, because if that is the case the rogue network is the government.

This is not "semantics." Scott is not talking about the public face, the propaganda mask, that "bad" governments use to disguise their evil nature. There would be nothing new about that. He is talking about two governments ("states"), a good one and a bad one, that are so intertwined they can hardly be told apart, like Jekyll and Hyde. This is what Scott's oeuvre is all about -- showing us how closely intertwined they are. My problem with this is that precisely because they are so intertwined, I see no point in trying to distinguish them.

Worse, Scott's theory in the end exonerates the very institutions (CIA, FBI, military intelligence, etc.) he impugns. Like John Newman , who can present a mountain of evidence proving that Oswald was a CIA agent without implicating the CIA as an institution (Oswald and the CIA, 1995), Scott does not locate the deep state in the CIA or any other government agency, or in the government at all, since what he calls the "overworld" extends far beyond the US government into organized crime, international banking and finance, transnational corporations, foreign intelligence agencies, etc. Thus "9/11 was an inside job," for Scott, does not mean the (US) government did it. Ditto for JFK, and all other "deep events."

As long as this doublethink holds, one is paralyzed. One cannot blame the government, or agencies of the government, because they didn't do it. Despite the overwhelming evidence tying them to all sorts of misdeeds, they are innocent as institutions because they are, after all, part of the "public state." This is where Newman leaves us, and it is where Scott leaves us. Maybe there is something about being a former intelligence officer (Newman) or a (Canadian) diplomat ( Scott ) that prevents them from taking the final, logical step. If everything, or even half, of what they say is true, the government did do it, and only the government can solve the so-called "mysteries" and rectify the situation, whereupon it follows that we must try to remake the government into a true "res publica." Rather than exonerate the CIA as an institution, for example, it should be completely reformed (or abolished) as an institution. Since this can probably not be done without reforming the overarching institution, the government, of which it is a part, we can now rejoin Chomsky et al. in calling for fundamental change (not to say revolution). I wonder if Maj. Newman and Prof. Scott would be with us on that one.

N.B. Here are a few quotes from Scott's book that I think illustrate my point:

But the consequences of global inequality cannot be shielded from Americans forever, as this country learned with a shock on September 11, 2001 (p. 252). In the wake of 9/11, Americans were encouraged not to think of al Qaeda with compassion, or even to consider the reasons why jihadists had attacked the United States (p. 261).

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A few days ago, while reading Vijay Prashad's speech, delivered at the World Gathering for An Alternative Social Agenda, I paused over a question he posed. Prashad is discussing political leadership in the US, which seems attracted to the pursue of power. Power for the sake of power! Pomp and Ceremony!





Occasionally, a political leader might think of their legacy . The presidential library , filled with documents and artifacts"





But there are self-serving political leaders. And nuts, such as the former President Nixon or, worse, dangerous nuts like the former President Trump who want to crown their existence atop a golden throne with a seal displaying the fasces-- an "assemblage," writes professor T. Corey Brennan in The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol, "of wooden rods" bound by leather straps together with a singled-headed axe." The fasces was used "to inflict either corporal or capital punishment."





Why is it that this nation, claiming itself "great," won't allow itself to think out of the box? To think like someone with intelligence. West countries, writes Prashad, such as Germany, England, and the US produce "mediocre" leadership. Prashad asks the question, "'How is it possible that these countries with immense wealth cannot produce even one intelligent leader?'"





Why is it the mediocre, the dangerous, the fascist?





In the year, 1932, Franz von Papen is ordered by Paul von Hindenburg to extend "an olive branch" to Hitler, writes Timothy W. Ryback, author of Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power. Hindenburg is thinking about building "the widest possible coalition of nationalist parties." With the usual suspects! As Ryback writes, Hitler "smelled blood." He was insulted. As far as he was concerned nothing short of the chancellorship will do. Papen and Hindenburg are old school. Hitler thinks himself a new breed of politician. A few days later, he sends Papen an extended letter saying thanks, but no thanks! What's the point in meeting "if his demand for absolute power were not met."





The letter sounds as if penned by a child in the throes of a tandem. Hitler writes of what he's learned in the 13 of his "struggle for Germany." His struggle to "put the great cause" he serves "above" himself. After all, he is suffering right along with the people as he watches Papen squander "the vast amounts of 'hope, belief, and trust' that the Germany people had placed in him as chancellor." He, Hitler, has been watching all that goodwill turn "'to pain and grief.'" He suffers with the people of Germany!





Ryback recounts how Hitler railed against the German leaders, condemning them for betraying "the public trust." It's this betrayal, Hitler argues, that has convinced him to run for the chancellorship. He, and he alone, could "overcome the crisis in the country." He could turn German around.





And, as Ryback writes, Hitler turned around and sends a copy of the letter to the press.





For the German leadership, there is a crisis, and its name is Hitler. Dr. Alfred Hugenberg, offers to met with Hindenburg. What to do with the clown? The loose screw? What to do next if Germany isn't to fall to Hitler?





Papen decides to resign. It was unthinkable to serve in a Hitler cabinet.





Hugenburg points to a wobbling Hitler. One day, when questioned, Hitler declares he doesn't want the presidency or the chancellorship, and, on the next day, he demands the chancellorship. And the chancellorship-- only! "'I don't believe Hitler honors the agreement he makes,'" Hugenburg tells Hindenburg. Besides, it's difficult to work with someone like Hitler if "'given any political leadership.'"





As Ryback shows, Hitler is straightforward, for in seeking a "dictatorship without constraints," Hitler, as the Vossische Zeitung noted, means to be out of the reach of the authority of the Reich and the Reichstag. Very straightforward.





When Hindenburg meets with Hitler, Ryback writes, he wants to calm the violence already evident on the streets thanks to Hitler's storm troopers. In acknowledging the newcomer's leadership of a large movement, he tries to urge the younger man to consider the Fatherland . "'Set aside past animosities'" and "'personal interests.'" The German leadership, Hindenburg argues, must unite. I can only imagine the would-be-dictator's face when he hears that phrase. For Hitler has no intentions of uniting with the Germany leadership! As Ryback writes, Hitler states that he has "a claim to the chancellorship." Anyway!





Hindenburg continues appeal to Hitler's "intelligence," if not his duty to return German to "a constitutional" society "with the majority rule." To which Hitler reiterates his position: He must have "absolute authority." He doesn't wish to work in a coalition with 18 million Marxists and some 14 to 25 million communists. He believes in "' Fuhrung. '" He believes in a leadership "that could provide guidance and direction."

Perhaps too Hitler sees the fasces everywhere, acknowledging his political power.





Could Hindenburg trust Hitler with a single party (Parteikabinett)?





As Ryback writes, the meeting was over, with neither men coming to an agreement, the next day, Hitler returns to Hindenburg's office with a 3-page letter, "detailing his conditions for assuming the chancellorship."





The older man losses his patience and, through Meissner, sends off a letter to Hitler. "'The Reich president fears that a presidal cabinet led by you would inevitably lead to a party dictatorship with all the attendant consequences of a dangerous exacerbation of the polarization among the German people, which he cannot justify before his oath or conscience.'"





Meissner releases the letter to the press after sending Hitler the original.





In a meeting with his henchmen, Hitler, writes Ryback. declares that the "system" must be "smashed if the German nation is not to be destroyed." That is, democracy must be destroyed! This allowance of difference! Racial, sexual, religious, ethnic"





There will be no debates about how to improve democracy to include justice and freedom for all citizens. It's democracy or fascism! Period!





It appears that thinking on what's best for humanity is just too difficult.





And so the fight goes on"












On April 23, National Public Radio reports, the US Federal Trade Commission voted "to ban nearly all noncompetes, employment agreements that typically prevent workers from joining competing businesses or launching ones of their own." The ban is largely retroactive, but does exclude existing agreements for the high-salary "senior executives" most people associate with the idea of noncompete agreements.

It's a terrible idea, and not just because it's likely unconstitutional in at least two ways (the Constitution forbids ex post facto legislation and only allows the federal government to control interstate, not local, commerce).

Yes, we've all heard the horror stories about low-wage retail workers being told they can't leave one coffee shop or restaurant to draw espresso shots or make sandwiches for another. In that context, noncompete clauses look less like a way to keep key leadership personnel away from competitors, and more like a tool that lets vengeful, authoritarian managers/owners continue abusing former employees who don't like working for vengeful, authoritarian managers/owners.

But the existence of vengeful, authoritarian managers/owners is a terrible reason for letting a vengeful, authoritarian Federal Trade Commission seize even more control over how American businesses operate.

If you have a problem with a prospective employer's demand that you accept a noncompete clause, there's a simple solution: Don't accept the job.

Yes, that might make it harder for you to find the job you want or even need.

MANY things can make it harder for you to find the job you want or even need.

Maybe the workplace is 30 miles from your home, and you don't own a car, and can't afford one. Should the FTC mandate that all employers buy cars for all their employees? If you answer "yes" to that one, we're simply not on the same political page and you can probably give up on this column now.

The "problem" of noncompete clauses for low-wage workers is in the process of "solving" itself right now. Unemployment rates are low -- it's a worker's, not an employer's, market. When vengeful, authoritarian managers/owners end up working double shifts because nobody wants to hire on, they'll tone down the vengeful authoritarianism or they'll go out of business.

Standing up for yourself instead of settling for whatever you're offered may be hard, but it's a better solution than turning more control of the American economy over to Lina Khan and Company. Your interests and theirs are not the same.
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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)

"A Vote for 'ABBB' (Any Body But Biden) is a Vote for Trump and Republo-Fascism" (S. Jonas, March, 2024)

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As my regular readers know (and some of my occasional readers will know it too), I have been writing on Israel, the Israeli Right, and the awful plight of the non-Israeli Palestinians (and yes, there are Palestinians who are full Israeli citizens, even including judges) on a regular basis for the past year or so. (See the listing of those columns just below.) In fact, I have been writing on the Israeli Right (which I now call the Israeli Nationalists) on and off at least since 2006. In this column, I am going to review some of the arguments made/positions taken, in the columns referenced just below.

OpEdNews Op Eds 4/28/2023: "The Current Israeli Constitutional Crisis --- What it is Really About: Palestinian Expulsionism." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 10/12/2023: "On the Gaza Crisis, 2023 (1): Primarily on the Historical Background of Zionism." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 10/20/2023: "On the Gaza Crisis, 2023(2): Who Benefits?" URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 10/27/2023: "Israel: Fighting Six Wars, Plus One: A Civil War." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 11/10/2023: "The SJ 'Killer Fence,' Israel's detector fence, the GAZA attack, Mike Johnson, and 'The Devil's Triangle.' " URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 1/18/2024: "Response to a Commentary by Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center on the Gaza Conflict." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 1/25/2024: "Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and Anti-Zionism." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 2/1/2024: "Why the Current Israeli Government Will Not Negotiate." URL: Click Here

OpEdNews Op Eds 3/15/2024: "Israeli Nationalism: Creating the New International Anti-Semitism; Conflating Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism." URL: Click Here

And so, on to brief reviews of a selection of the issues covered in greater detail in the columns above.

1. The Origins of the Policies of the Current Israeli Government, which I now refer to as Israeli Nationalist, go back about a Century.

In my view the current Israeli government should have a name that more truly describes it and its objectives than "Right-Wing Coalition," "Likud Coalition," or even "Anti-Palestinian Rights Coalition." And for that I have chosen "Israeli Nationalism." It reflects an ideology and policies that go back for about a century, to the time of its historical founder, one Ze'ev Jabotinsky, a post-World War I emigree to what in the early 1920's became the (British) Palestinian Mandate.

He was an early promoter of the "It's all ours" ideology. As I said in a column published last year:

"In the Woody Allen movie Sleeper, when his character awakens from a (very) deep sleep (very) long after the end of a catastrophic world war which he obviously survived, he is asked about what started the war. He replies, 'well, there was a man named Albert Shanker.' (Only older readers, especially from the New York City area, will know who he was. But he was a bad guy, except among his most devoted followers.) For Israel and Expulsionism going back in history, there was a man named Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He was a right-wing Zionist who in the 1920's laid down the dictum that that long-range solution for what would become Israel was to establish an exclusively Jewish state within what has been held for millennia by certain Jews to be the boundaries of 'The Land of Israel' 'granted to the Jews' 'by God.' Questions of logic, history, and legality do not figure into this particular configuration for a modern State of Israel.

"For Jabotinsky the solution to the problem of the Arab peoples living in the Mandate there was a simple one: expulsion. In the 1930s, the social democrat David Ben Gurion, the future first Prime Minister of Israel, referred to Jabotinsky as the 'Jewish Hitler.' There is a direct line from Jabotinsky down to the present Israeli leadership. Netanyahu's father was a secretary to Jabotinsky. Ariel Sharon's parents were close associates of his, and the first right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin (who led the pre-1948 Jewish anti-British terrorist organization Irgun) was strongly influenced by him."

2. Although many current users of the word "Zionism" don't recognize this fact , the word has had multiple meanings over time. Before the late 19th century in Central Europe, it had a sort of romantic form, "Next Year in Jerusalem," without a particular plan for just how that goal was to be achieved. Then came the first meaning with a political/economic basis, which lead to the first significant modern emigration to a province of the Ottoman Empire. It is very important to recognize that the late-19th/early-20th century Zionism of Theodor Herzl developed as a direct outcome of a new, political, use of the doctrine of the anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is a doctrine founded on prejudice against Jews as a people, actually first came into existence before the Common Era. It is what I refer to as "The Default Hate."

Significantly, in the late 19th century, it was for the first time being politicized, by several Austrian and German politicians. It started to take hold in the general population of Central Europe, with (ironically) an expulsionist (of the Jews) element to it. In response, Herzl and his colleagues essentially said: "You don't want us? Well, while some of us will go to America, others of us will just go to Palestine, which was, a long time ago, known as 'Judea.' "

In the Between-the-Wars period, particularly as anti-Semitism became central to the policies of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, an increasing number of Jews, especially in central Europe, wanted to leave. But, as the "Evian Conference" of 1938 proved conclusively, there were virtually no countries in the World who take any of them. One might say that a "Zionism of Desperation" overtook European Jewry at that time. And some numbers of Jews did make it to the Palestine Mandate between the Wars. Then, after World War II, when again few countries showed any inclination to take in any significant number of the survivors of the Holocaust, it happened again. Those who did indeed had no place else to go, who could get to Palestine and then (early) Israel, went there.

The subsequent history of Israel is well-known. It has been unfortunately marked by three significant wars with surrounding Arab countries: in 1948 just after Partition (which included the horrific "Nakba"), the "Six Day War" in 1967, and the "Yom Kippur War" of 1973. These wars were all caused at least in part by the status of certain Palestinians who lived in what has come to be known, in a term developed by the Right-wing Israelis whom I describe as "Expulsionists," as the "Occupied Territories." The Partition into two independent states envisioned in the original UN Resolution which created the State of Israel, has never happened.

Most importantly, although there have been Israeli governments that attempted, to a great or lesser extent, to come to some kind of reasonable settlement for the Palestinians living in those parts of Greater Israel (see "Oslo"), for the past 25 years, the Israeli Right (what, again, I am now calling the Israeli Nationalists), with various coalitions in the Knesset over time, have made sure that nothing that could possibly have come of "Oslo" has ever happened. And in my view, the "Gaza" horror is all about, from the Israeli side, making sure that nothing ever does.

This policy is "Zionist," all right, in the sense that "Zionism" is taken to mean "It's All Ours and Everyone Else Must Leave, As Soon as Possible." This, for example, is what is going on in the West Bank with increasing Israeli Nationalist fury (for which, by the way, the Gaza Horror is providing a convenient news/information cover). But, and this is a big BUT, historically, as briefly illustrated above, this is not only one kind Zionism. To review, there have been:

1. The fanciful Zionism of Russian Jews trapped behind the Pale of Settlement and certain other European Jews;

2. The political Zionism of late 19th century Europe responding the first development of political anti-Semitism.

3. The Zionism of the between-the-Wars period , which had both its Palestinian-expulsionist (Jabotinskyite) wing, and its (majority) "we-are-going-to-have-to-work-something-out" wing, which was a major factor that led eventually to the UN resolution which formally established Partition-for-Palestine. It was accepted by the then majority Labour wing of the new Israeli government (created under the auspices of the Jewish Agency) led by David Ben-Gurion. But it was rejected by the minority wing of the Jewish

Agency, the ancestors (in some cases literally) of the current Expulsionist Israeli government.

4. To repeat, the Expulsionist Zionism of the current Israeli government does NOT exclusively define "Zionism" as it has existed over time.

Why am I drawing these distinctions between the various historical forms of Zionism? Because in my view there are too many critics of the Israeli Nationalist government which describe it as "Zionist" without drawing any distinctions between the various forms of "Zionism" that have existed historically, and in the minds of some of us Jews who support the existence of the State of Israel but hardly under any form of its current Expulsionist government, we refer to one or more of those forms of Zionism.

To define our position of what Israel should be, we begin by referring to a clause of the Israeli Declaration of Independence:

"The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

3. In summary, representing "Zionism" in its best sense, and recognizing that modern Zionism would never have existed if it had not been for: a) the development of political anti-Semitism in the late 19th century; and b) the between-the-wars-and-immediate-post-World-War-II refusal of virtually all nations in the World to take in any significant number of European Jews. Further, there were, and still are, a significant number of Israelis who would like to make a fair settlement with the Palestinians in the (sic) Occupied Territories. Thus, the modern use of the term "Zionism" in criticizing the policies of the current Israeli Nationalist government, without making it clear that it is being used to describe the policies of Israeli Nationalism only, is counter-productive.

4. Finally, on the matter of what I call the "New International Anti-Semitism," just as the long-held notion that there is some kind of "International Jewish Conspiracy," based on some version of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," is finally beginning to fade (although it is still being circulated in certain quarters), the actions of the Israeli Nationalist government are providing a basis for its rebirth. Congratulations, Bibi Netanyahu!

At the same time, in the U.S. a modern version of that imaginary conspiracy is coincidentally being developed by Donald Trump and the Republo-fascists (click here), who frequently (Trump in particular) use the words "George Soros" (who is of course a well-known and long-time Jewish philanthropist) in campaign speeches. As Seth Cohen has said in Forbes: "Behind the spectacle of paranoid outrage, there is a troubling and undeniable truth about the constant attacks on George Soros: Anti-Semitism." Yes indeed, the name "George Soros" has become for the Trumpist-right the symbol for "Jew." It is indeed the successor to the name "Rothschild," which, when I was much younger, was very commonly used as that symbol by anti-Semites around the globe. And then what happens is that in certain quarters, "anti-Zionism" becomes code for their true anti-Semitism. Yes indeed, anti-Semitism is The Default Hate.

In conclusion, the history of the State of Israel is obviously a highly complicated one. So is the group of social/political movements called "Zionism" which, in certain cases, have little in common with each other, either in terms of their history or their politics. Indeed, among its Jewish population Israel itself is hardly a unified country, and never has been. The Israeli Nationalists' majority in the Knesset is in the range of only 8.

And so, I think that progressive critics of Israeli policy in re both Gaza and the West Bank, with whom I certainly agree on the substance (except that I for one clearly label it "Expulsionist"), when they use the term "Zionism" should make it very clear just which branch of Zionism they are talking about. They should also make it very clear that they know that the current Israeli Nationalist government rules by the slimmest of majorities, that in Israel there is a strong minority opposition to them and their policies, and that were it to get back into Government it would pursue a radically different policy. Otherwise, the critics' critique-from-abroad cannot be regarded as useful for resolving the current crisis.

(Article changed on May 03, 2024 at 12:19 PM EDT)
Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed to pressure from some of his own generals and political allies to attack Iran after Iran's massive bombardment of Israel, which ended with no causalities or damages. The Israeli military claimed 99% of the projectiles were brought down.

But, ultranationalist Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir described the Israeli strike on Iran as "feeble" or "lame".

Israel has come under huge international pressure from the US and other Western allies not to take any action which risks turning the long-running proxy war between Israel and Iran into a direct conflict.

Israel started this latest cycle of violence after a striking the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed six Iranian officials and six Syrian civilians who were passersby.

The October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas set the region on edge, met by the Israel revenge attack which has now killed almost 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mainly women and children.

The war in Gaza is six months old, and with no end in sight. Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon trade almost daily strikes on each other. The Houthis in Yemen have captured or hit ships connected to Israel in the Red Sea as a sign of their support for the Palestinians.

The fear is that the Middle East is on the brink of an all-out war, with global as well as regional dangers.

The root cause of all these incidents and violence in the region is the ongoing occupation of Palestine. The people of Gaza and the West Bank live lies of oppression, and now genocide in Gaza. They are deprived of all human rights, while their Jewish neighbors live a modern lifestyle condoned and supported by the democratic western nations.

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Historical grievances and iconic countrymen, whose esteemed revolutionary speeches carry a leftist order, have boosted South Africa's foreign policy, amid ostensible tectonic shift in global power.

As the world's 24th largest country, and bigger than rich G7 countries France, Germany and former colonial master Britain combined, is of conviction that it can therefore, move geopolitical mountains in an instant, from the Gaza-Israel debacle.

This, amidst rare display of ethno-racial sentiments, came closer to reality immediately after the country dragged Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), against violations of the Genocide Convention of 1948.

Alongside invocations of post-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela's South Africa-Palestine brotherhood, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government in Pretoria, and global south counterparts view the Palestinian cause at the ICJ, as "jewel in the crown" of the country's 21st-century foreign policy.

From genocidal accusations, to petition against the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to halt an assault against Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah, among some provisional measures, the ICJ has become a de facto South African court, and the country's laws, the ANC domain.

Late last year, the country's lawmakers voted in favour of a motion calling for the closure of Israel's embassy in Pretoria, and suspending all diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, citing the Jewish state's "refusal to respect international law".

Now threats of arrest, have been issued against citizens fighting in IDF, upon returning to the country.

There are reports of South Africans of Jewish descent who have fought for Israel on several occasions, and Naledi Pandor the Foreign Minister, reiterated this at a solidarity conference with Palestinians in Pretoria.

Nonetheless, the country that is basking in convenient political echo chambers, is 9,395 kilometres away from Israel.

A "remarkable democracy" in the leftist and liberal mindset, just like BRICS counterparts Brazil and India but, illiberal realistically and structurally, post-apartheid South Africa is capitalising ideologically on the politics of identity, and a sharp demographics shift in Western capitals.

Since the tragic events of October 7, antisemitic incidents and pro-Palestinian protests in major European and American cities not least elite colleges and universities, are proof of South Africa's political niche and wager.

Indeed, Pretoria boldest foreign policy against the State of Israel amid calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, has been glorified in the entire Middle East and war-torn enclave, including West Bank city of Ramallah, which immortalized Mandela in 2013.

However, in order to win the lucrative and fiercely contested multipolar gamble, the country's human rights crusade, is justifiable around its immediate and vast borders.

Pro-East South Africa, which shares the northern border with ideological and revolutionary ally Zimbabwe, a failed and lawless state under veteran dictator Robert Mugabe, is notorious for xenophobic attacks against African immigrants.

On one hand, the country brags of mainstream media's favourite political figures and activists such as Julius Malema, leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), an offshoot of the ANC party, and Ntokozo Qwabe, a Rhodes scholar.

Both are anti-white demagogues. The former has on many occasions threatened with impunity "to defer the slaughtering of the country's whites", and has extended similar warnings to the Indian community.

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

I live reasonably close to Columbia University. Over the years, on my daily walks, I've often wandered through the gates of its striking campus on 116th Street, crossing from Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue, passing students, admiring the enormous Low Library and the scene generally. About noon on a recent day (but before students there occupied Hamilton Hall and were violently cleared out of it by the police), with Columbia Professor Helen Benedict's piece in mind, I decided to walk to that now embroiled, embattled campus.

Everything looked normal as I headed up Broadway until I hit 110th Street and noticed that there were police officers on every corner. As I went farther uptown, the sidewalk suddenly narrowed because part of each block now had metal police barricades with plastic white police tape on them, clearly meant to hold possible protesters outside the school later in the day. The smaller (but still huge) gate I often enter at 114th Street was bolted shut with a giant "kryptonite evolution" lock on it and a security guard standing behind it. I could at least peer in and see a few of the on-campus tents that Columbia students protesting the nightmare in Gaza were now living in. Another block up and it was just police, police, police, plus a few orthodox anti-Zionist Jews with strange protest signs and a man waving an Israeli flag and shouting at them. And then there were all the TV cameras waiting for something, anything, to happen.

As I stood there, with police everywhere and not a demonstrating student in sight, I thought: how strange that all of this had happened on the very campus where, in 1968, amid the Vietnam War and after the killing of Martin Luther King, the cops had similarly been called in on demonstrators in a way that would prove historically memorable. Live and learn? Not a chance. The present Columbia president, Minouche Shafik, despite (as Benedict told me) the advice of her faculty, did it again and, in the process, not surprisingly created a nationwide movement against the nightmare in Gaza that's already spread to more than 40 campuses and is still growing.

Sometimes, it seems as if no one ever learns anything. A striking but solitary protest over Gaza and then throw in the modern version of McCarthyite Republicans, a cowed university president, and the decision to call in the police on a peaceful set of demonstrators. The next thing you know, you have a national movement embroiling campus after campus. But let Benedict, author most recently of the novel The Good Deed, in her second TomDispatch piece, explain the madness of it all in a distinctly up close and personal fashion. Tom

The Distortion of Campus Protests over Gaza

How the Right Has Weaponized Antisemitism to Distract from Israel's War

By Helen Benedict

Helicopters have been throbbing overhead for days now. Nights, too. Police are swarming the streets of Broadway, many in riot gear. Police vans, some as big as a city bus, are lined up along side streets and Broadway.

Outside the gates of the Columbia University campus, a penned-in group of pro-Israel demonstrators has faced off against a penned-in group of anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian protesters. These groups are usually small, often vastly outnumbered by the police around them, but they are loud and they are not Columbia students. They've been coming every day this April to shout, chant, and hold up signs, some of which are filled with hateful speech directed at the other side, equating protests against the slaughter in Gaza with being pro-Hamas, and calls to bring home the hostages with being pro-genocide.

Inside the locked gates of the campus, the atmosphere is entirely different. Even as the now-notorious student tent encampment there stretches through its second week, all is calm. Inside the camp, students sleep, eat, and sit on bedspreads studying together and making signs saying, "Nerds for Palestine," "Passover is for Liberation," and "Stop the Genocide." The Jewish students there held a seder on Passover. The protesters even asked faculty to come into the encampment and teach because they miss their classes. Indeed, it's so quiet on campus that you can hear birds singing in the background. The camp, if anything, is hushed.

The Real Story on Campus

Those protesters who have been so demonized, for whom the riot police are waiting outside -- the same kinds of students Columbia University's president, Minouche Shafik, invited the police to arrest, zip-tie, and cart away on April 18th -- are mostly undergraduate women, along with a smaller number of undergraduate men, 18 to 20 years old, standing up for what they have a right to stand up for: their beliefs. Furthermore, for those who don't know the Columbia campus, the encampment is blocking nobody's way and presents a danger to no one. It is on a patch of lawn inside a little fence buffered by hedges. As I write, those students are not preventing anyone from walking anywhere, nor occupying any buildings, perpetrating any violence, or even making much noise. (In the early hours of April 30th, however, student protesters did occupy Hamilton Hall in reaction to a sweep of suspensions the day before.)

As a tenured professor at Columbia's Journalism School, I've been watching the student protests ever since the brutal Hamas attack of October 7th, and I've been struck by the decorum of the protesting students, as angry and upset as they are on both sides. This has particularly impressed me knowing that several students are directly affected by the ongoing war. I have a Jewish student who has lost family and friends to the attack by Hamas, and a Palestinian student who learned of the deaths of her family and friends in Gaza while she was sitting in my class.

Given how horrific this war is, it's not surprising that there have been a few protesters who lose control and shout hideous things, but for the most part, such people have been quietly walked away by other students or campus security guards. All along, the main messages from the students have been "Bring back our hostages" on the Israeli side and "Stop slaughtering Gazan civilians" on the antiwar and pro-Palestinian-rights side. Curiously enough, those messages are not so far apart, for almost everyone wants the hostages safe and almost everyone is calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a different direction and protect the innocent.

Unfortunately, instead of allowing students to have their say and disciplining those who overstep boundaries, Columbia President Shafik and her administration suspended two of the most vocal groups protesting Israel's war on Gaza: the student chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. This only enraged and galvanized students and some faculty more.

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Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

The students in America and Canada have a war to stop, and they are determined to protest the Israeli war on Gaza. The US and Canadian government's undying support for the genocide in Gaza has brought them under massive protests across university and college campuses, and the students are not backing down, and more campuses in Europe and Australia are joining in a global solidarity movement.

The students are asking for their individual institutions to stop investing in companies aligned with the Israeli war on Gaza. Higher education is a big business and institutions have financial portfolios which include companies benefiting from, or connected to, the war. The students know they can achieve results, because student protests in the 1980's played a huge role in the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Similarly, US companies doing business with the oppressive regime in South Africa were pressured to divest of interests, while the American public were pressured by protests to boycott all products made in South Africa. The student protests were part of the successful end to apartheid.

Some universities began threatening students in an effort to stop the protests which have disrupted schedules. Students were threatened with expulsion, and with Princeton University tuition at $50,000 per year, they are taking a monumental risk to protest for freedom for Palestine, a ceasefire, and university divestment. This proves just how passionate these young people are.

McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, has seen protests and rallies since October calling for the school to divest from companies that supply weapons and other items to Israel's military. Documents on McGill's website show that it holds investments in companies including Lockheed Martin, a defense contractor that has sold fighter jets to Israel, and Safran, a French air and defense company.

Canadian media, CBC, reported protesters were demanding McGill and Concordia universities "divest from funds implicated in the Zionist state as well as [cut] ties with Zionist academic institutions".

Is it really anti-Semitism?

Some are pushing a false narrative, that students and faculty in the US are supporting anti-Semitism. Students and faculty are open-minded people who are committed to the core values of America, which are unity, individualism, equality, self-government, liberty, and diversity. One of the greatest values in America is self-government, which is democracy. Palestinians lack self-government and live under a brutal military occupation.

Around the world, calls for a ceasefire ending Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza sparked protests with the slogan: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." This chant has been heard on campuses in the US, and the backers of Israel have accused the users of the slogan with anti-Semitism. The chant only asks for Palestine to be free, the same as their Jewish neighbors in Israel. This is the heart of the protests, as young, educated students and their faculty ask the question: why does the US government deny the right of freedom to Palestinians?

From the US State Department, we find the definition of anti-Semitism. "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews." They go on to state, "However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic."

Jewish students are participating as well because the issue is freedom and human rights, it is not about religions.

"I do believe that as a Jewish person, I have a particular responsibility to resist the instrumentalisation of my heritage, and to say that I do not believe that genocide in Gaza or occupation and apartheid in greater Palestine is supportive of my personal safety," said Ariela Rosenzweig, a 23-year-old student at Brown University in Rhode Island.

The UK Labor party had in the past been led by Jeremy Corbyn, who was an outspoken supporter of freedom for the Palestinian people. Corbyn often criticized the Israeli government, or officials, for denying the basic human rights of the Palestinian people living under a brutal military occupation in the West Bank, and under blockade in Gaza. Supporters of the oppression of the Palestinian people devised a successful campaign against Corbyn, by accusing him of anti-Semitism. He was removed from office, even though he was never anti-Semitic.

The Vietnam War protests are lessons for today

On Oct.15, 1969, more than two million citizens took part in the Moratorium -- a one-day national strike against the Vietnam war. In hundreds of cities, towns and campuses throughout the country, people from all walks of life took the day off to march, rally, vigil or engage in teach-ins.

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(Image by World Union of Deists) Details DMCA



One thing all people have in common is innate reason. Far too often that priceless gift from The Supreme Intelligence/God is short-circuited by manmade religions. If not corrected, the religious assault on God-given reason can lead to individuals mired in fear-based and irrational superstitions and can bring about a theocracy that is ruled by religious fanatics.

The Christian Bible-based theocrats are making important gains in their work to turn the US into an ungodly and oppressive Christian Bible-based theocracy. Currently, the person who is number two in the line of US presidential succession is the Christian theocrat, Mike Johnson. Johnson believes God made him Speaker of the House of Representatives because God wants him to be the modern-day Moses!

The vast majority of US politicians from both parties are deep in the pockets of Israel's wealthy and powerful lobby. This is a primary reason for their strong opposition to the ongoing demonstrations on US college campuses that are opposed to the Jewish state of Israel's ongoing slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. As of this writing, over 13,800 children have been killed by Israel in Gaza. Recently the politicians conducted a congressional interrogation of Columbia University President Nemat Shafik regarding the demonstrations going on at Columbia. During the interrogation, Republican Congressman and Christian theocrat Rick Allen asked Shafik if she was familiar with Genesis 12:3. She responded that she did not recall that biblical passage. Allen told her,

It was the covenant that God made with Abraham, and that covenant was real clear: 'If you bless Israel I will bless you, if you curse Israel I will curse you.' Do you consider that a serious issue? Do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God? Young people are being indoctrinated by these professors to believe this stuff, and they have no idea that they're going to be cursed by God, the God of the Bible and the God over our flag.

Deists, and all freethinkers, need to DO ALL WE CAN to educate people that the American Republic was not created as a Christian nation and that the god of the Bible is not "over our flag." This page gives important facts that can help us do that.

The delusion that the Christian Bible, or any man-made book, is the Word of God needs to be dispelled. The best way to accomplish this is to objectively read the Bible and apply your God-given innate reason to it. The Bible, nor any of the "holy" scriptures, cannot withstand the test of God-given reason. The very best book to guide you on an objective study of the Bible is Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Download it for free and make good use of it!
But will it actually serve as an efficient formula for facilitating aid?

The construction of this pier, officially termed a "Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore" (JLOTS) operation, involves deploying a floating pier system that connects to a long causeway anchored to the shore. This setup is meant to allow for the effective transfer of supplies from ships to the Gaza coastline.

The pier is part of a broader strategy to mitigate severe humanitarian issues in Gaza, including food shortages and medical supply deficits. When operational, this system is anticipated to enhance the capacity for delivering aid significantly, with the capability to handle the transfer of up to 2 million meals per day to the region. This would supplement the more limited aid flow currently managed through traditional land routes, which have been severely disrupted by infrastructural damage and security issues.

Security for this operation will be managed in collaboration with the Israeli military, ensuring that the maritime aid corridor remains protected and functional. The U.S. military's construction efforts for the pier involve modular components assembled off-site and transported to the location, minimizing the need for a direct military presence on Gaza's shores. The completion of the pier is expected to not only provide immediate relief but also establish a more sustainable channel for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The United States has historically played a pivotal role in providing humanitarian aid to regions affected by conflict, such as Gaza. This aid can significantly alleviate suffering through various means. The U.S. can deliver essential supplies like food, water, and medical aid, either directly or through support to NGOs and international organizations active in the area. In addition to immediate relief, U.S. aid efforts often encompass medical support, helping to bolster overwhelmed healthcare facilities with emergency services, medicines, and supplies.

U.S. assistance frequently extends to the reconstruction of vital infrastructure, including schools, roads, and hospitals, which is essential for long-term recovery and stability.

Beyond direct aid, U.S. diplomatic initiatives aimed at mediating and resolving conflicts can lead to ceasefires and peace agreements, ultimately facilitating safer and more effective delivery of humanitarian assistance. By addressing both immediate and long-term needs, U.S. humanitarian efforts not only cater to survival but also foster resilience and recovery among affected populations.

The United States has a long history of providing humanitarian aid to citizens of foreign countries during times of war. Here are a few notable examples:

World War II - The Marshall Plan: After World War II, the U.S. launched the Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program) in 1948. This initiative aimed to rebuild war-torn Europe, revitalize its economy, and prevent the spread of Soviet communism. The plan provided more than $12 billion in economic assistance (equivalent to over $100 billion today) to Western European countries.

Korean War - Aid to South Korea: During and after the Korean War (1950-1953), the U.S. provided substantial humanitarian assistance to South Korea. This aid helped to manage the devastation and displacement caused by the war, and supported South Korea's recovery and economic development in the ensuing decades.

Vietnam War - Refugee Assistance: Throughout the Vietnam War, and particularly after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the United States offered significant humanitarian assistance to Vietnamese refugees, including those fleeing by boat (often referred to as "boat people"). This aid included resettlement programs, financial support, and other resources to help refugees integrate into new communities, primarily in the U.S. and other Western countries.

Bosnian War - Aid in the 1990s: During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), the U.S. was active in providing aid to the affected populations. This support was part of a larger international humanitarian effort that included food, medical supplies, and shelter to civilians caught in the conflict.

Syrian Civil War - Recent Aid Efforts: Since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the United States has been a significant contributor to humanitarian aid efforts aimed at helping millions of displaced Syrians. This aid has included food, water, shelter, and medical aid to Syrians both within the country and in refugee camps in neighboring countries.

These examples, as well as the current effort in Gaza, reflect the ongoing American commitment to providing humanitarian support during conflicts, emphasizing both immediate relief and longer-term recovery and rebuilding efforts.

Hopefully, this new pier will indeed allow for greater aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza.
American Travel writer Paul Theroux befitting quote "Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going" has inspired millions across the globe. For Ruskin Bond who wrote The Great Train Journey and many more authors, trains have been the central theme of several all-time great books. Famous writer Agatha Christie quote goes as "Trains are wonderful - To travel by train is to see nature and human 
On a very special Why Tho? The Podcast, advice columnist Lizzy Acker and social media producer Destiny Johnson discuss the very concept of giving advice in the first place and share some sad news: This is the final episode of the podcast, at least for now.

They had so much fun doing this podcast and if you love it and want it to come back, send Lizzy an email at lacker@oregonian.com and she will forward it on to the people in charge of podcasts!

All is not lost, Why Tho? fans. The column isnt going anywhere. You can still read it every Tuesday at oregonlive.com/whytho.

Listen, share, send in your questions! And, if youre sad, listen to Taylor Swift!

Have a burning question? Send Lizzy an email at lacker@oregonian.com or tweet @lizzzyacker! Or, if you want to ask a question with total anonymity, use this Google form.

Read and listen to more Why Tho? here.
UPDATE: Portland police on Friday morning said TraVeon Lewis was found safe in Southeast Portland at approximately 6:45 a.m.

A 5-year-old boy went missing Thursday night and has possibly been kidnapped by strangers, Portland police said.

TraVeon Lewis disappeared from a bus stop near Southeast 162nd Avenue and Division Street at about 8 p.m. Thursday, according to police. He was later spotted with a man and a woman on a bus driving on Division Street.

Officers are concentrating their search along Division Street between Southeast 122nd and 162nd avenues, the police bureau said.

Police describe the man seen with Lewis as a white male wearing a tan hooded sweatshirt over an orange sweatshirt, blue backpack, wearing a blue facemask. The woman is a white female with long blonde hair in two braids, a black shirt with round silver decorations, gray or black leggings, and a necklace with a cross medallion.

Police add that the man and woman have been seen pulling a red wagon and pushing a black wheelchair.

Lewis was last seen wearing a red shirt, and shorts depicting Toy Story characters. Police ask anyone who sees Lewis or has any information to call 9-1-1. For non-time-sensitive information, people can send an email to missing@police.portlandoregon.gov.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive; dperry@oregonian.com
Hours after police cleared Portland State Universitys Millar Library on Thursday morning, a small group of people worked to re-establish an encampment, covering a chain-link fence with tarps and getting back inside the building.

It was unclear how many people got into the library around 6 p.m., but people could be seen moving past some of the five-story buildings windows.

A crowd of about 150 people, many dressed in black and wearing masks looked on from the South Park Blocks. An organizer yelled, if you have visible tattoos cover them. Cover your eyebrows. Cover your mouths.

Dozens of police officers returned, ordered the crowd to break up and leave, and made eight arrests. Overall, police arrested 30 people throughout the day, according to preliminary figures released by Portland police.

The latest clash capped a volatile day at the downtown campus that drew hundreds of onlookers, students and protesters who variously milled about, chanted, shouted and at one point threw a volley of bottles after police cleared the library and then maintained a visible presence for hours around the building before leaving.

13 1 / 13 Portland State University pro-Palestine protest May 2, 2024

A PSU spokesperson said university officials didnt realize police would be pulling back from the library, which is near several dorm complexes.

In an email at 7:30 p.m., Mike Benner, a Portland police spokesman, wrote that officers had moved back in and cleared the area. The crowds did leave the area near the PSU library, marching east away from campus.

In a 10 p.m. news release, Portland police wrote that theyd secured the library with plywood and erected a fence, and as planned, Portland officers left the scene. The press release acknowledged that people tore down the fence and got back into the library. The release said that officers will continue to monitor for criminal activity and will make arrests when lawful and appropriate.

The release stated seven officers suffered injuries Thursday, including a serious knee injury that required ambulance transport.

Occupation of the library began on Monday and school officials canceled classes for the next three days. A tour of the library late Thursday showed much graffiti on the walls, damage to ceilings and trash.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive staffers Julia Silverman, Matt Kish, Fedor Zarkhin and Destiny Johnson contributed to this report.
Americas Backyard Gold, the latest series featuring Dave Turin, of Gold Rush fame, airs its season finale Friday, May 3. While we dont yet know if the Discovery Channel show will have a second season, the first season winds up with Episode 7, titled Montana Hard Rock Heaven.

(No cable or satellite? You can stream Americas Backyard Gold on Philo, which offers a free trial; with Fubo, which also offers a free trial; or on Sling TV. The series also streams on Max.)

Turin grew up in Oregon and, in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, said he divided his time now between Oregon and Idaho. Viewers first grew familiar with Turin during several seasons of Gold Rush, in which Turin hunted for gold with his fellow Oregonian, Todd Hoffman, and crew.

Turin left Gold Rush at the end of Season 7, but he returned to the Discovery Channel in his own series, Dave Turins Lost Mine, which aired for four seasons.

In Americas Backyard Gold, Turin travels around the country, helping everyday people search for gold in their own areas. Episodes have seen Turin meet with do-it-yourself prospectors in states including California, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, George, Alabama, North Carolina, and Oregon.

Heres the synopsis for Fridays Episode 7, Montana Hard Rock Heaven: Dave Turin shows you the small-time miners bringing in gold hard cash from Montanas hard rock. When a city slicker asks him to assess an old family mine, he goes on a mission and brings cool 21st century tech to determine its riches.

The season finale of Americas Backyard Gold airs at 9 p.m. Friday, May 3, on the Discovery Channel.

 Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist

Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
Two candidates competing to represent the Portland area in Congress took the unusual step of joining forces Thursday to decry big outside spending benefiting their opponent.

Susheela Jayapal, a former Multnomah County commissioner, and Eddy Morales, a Gresham city councilor, accused state Rep. Maxine Dexter, their rival in the 3rd District Democratic primary, of hypocritically benefiting from undisclosed donors, even though she is a vocal proponent of campaign finance reform and transparency.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Thursday that his proposed budget for next fiscal year will spare a popular non-police intervention program from the chopping block.

In addition to fully funding Portland Street Response, Wheeler said he will seek to stave off all potential cuts to the citys cash-strapped Fire Bureau and protect other public safety services from being scaled back.
Portland State University reopened its campus Friday, a day after police removed pro-Palestinian protesters who had been holed up in the universitys main library for several days.

Portland police and Portland State University police arrested 31 people throughout Thursday  starting with 12 people, including four students, as they cleared Millar Library in the morning, and then more throughout the day as crowds of onlookers waxed and waned for hours near the building, ending with eight arrests in the evening after a small group returned.

During the big sweep of the library, police arrested three people inside, including one who they said deployed a fire extinguisher against them. The rest of the occupiers fled the library. One of them tried to hit an officer with a shield and was arrested, police said.

A hostile crowd surrounded a police van carrying suspects as it tried to leave the campus Thursday morning, and the crowd then followed the van, prompting more arrests, police said.

A map provided by the Portland Police Bureau shows the precise location of the Portland State University library that was the site of a multi-day occupation by pro-Palestinian protesters.Portland Police Bureau

Portland State University work crews put up a fence around the library after police left Thursday morning. In the early evening, some people returned, tore down the fence and broke into the library again, police said. Officers returned and, in the ensuing police operation, made eight more arrests. One of those arrests was made by a Portland State University officer.

Portland police released a list of everyone arrested during the operations Thursday, including their names, age and the charges they could face. Those arrested ranged in age from 18 to 60, according to the list. Most faced a charge of second-degree trespassing, a misdemeanor. Other charges included resisting arrest, third-degree escape and burglary. At least six of those arrested were students, Portland police said.

Portland State University reopened the campus Friday morning. The library, however, remains closed.

The occupiers not only extensively vandalized the exterior and interior walls, but they stole some of our valuable collection and equipment, PSU President Ann Cudd said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the university wouldnt confirm which pieces of the librarys collections are missing, saying in an email that it will take quite a while to catalog the extent of what was damaged or stolen.

Friday morning, police caution tape cordoned off the library as Portland police officers stood by their cruisers on the northeast and southeast ends of the library and work crews removed graffiti from the walls. There were no protesters in the area.

 Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.
Talk to Luke Russert, and youll instantly assume hes from Buffalo. Sipping a Labatt at a South Buffalo bar is one of his go-to forms of chilling. He speaks with pride about Buffalos renaissance. Hes getting married this summer and promises the Buffalo Bills Shout! song is on the playlist.

But no, Russert is a man of Washington, D.C., where his late father became famous as one of Americas most influential journalists. The late Tim Russert  who did grow up in South Buffalo, and went on to become moderator of NBCs Meet the Press  often took Luke to his hometown, essentially passing on a father-to-son love for Western New York.

Shortly after Tim Russert died of a heart attack in 2008, Luke was hired as a political reporter by NBC. He did the job for eight years, then left to travel the world and, in his words, find myself. He chronicled his journey in a book, Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself.

When the memoir was released last spring by HarperCollins, Russert launched a lengthy book tour, visiting talk shows, signings and  of course  Buffalo. He drew a standing-only crowd for a signing and reading at the Blackthorn Restaurant & Pub on Seneca Street in South Buffalo, where he returned Sunday this weekend as the paperback version is released.

Russert will be signing books and giving a talk from 3 to 5 p.m. May 5 at the Blackthorn, with proceeds benefiting the Cazenovia Neighborhood Library.

I spoke with Russert by phone about the impact of his book, his new job as host and creative director of a live-events series for MSNBC, and Buffalo. Following are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Congratulations on your engagement. I assume youll be playing the Bills Shout! song at the wedding?

Russert: Absolutely, 110%, well play the Shout! song at the wedding. Thats been predetermined. That was an essential point of the contract. I dont know if Ill go through a table though.

Whats the story behind your new position at MSNBC?

Russert: Its interesting. They reached out to me after the book tour, and I was anticipating a question about perhaps returning to some sort of on-air role, which I wasnt necessarily excited about. I mean, its always nice to be wanted but they actually called up and said, Hey, we saw you have these great conversations around the country in regards to your book. We really want to get into a space where we have these live events. They will start out in the Washington and New York areas, but eventually try to get them around the country where there are solutions-based conversations with the leading policymakers and thought leaders from all different areas: arts, academia, labor, politics, sports, et cetera.

It was something I found attractive because it allowed me to have worthwhile conversations, substantive conversations, but not the relentless schedule of a beat reporter, which is something I did for eight years. I really enjoyed that time. But it was something that I didnt necessarily want to go back to, and I also didnt want to just be a talking head on TV. I actually wanted to go out and communicate with people.

When so much content now is digital, distanced and packaged in short pieces, this idea of deep conversations in-person sounds refreshing.

Russert: Its honestly kind of a startup within a major corporation. It really kind of hearkens back to this idea of in-person events connecting with an audience, hearing them out on a local level, getting their feedback, and also learning things. I think oftentimes we try to paint people into black and white when often life is very much in the gray. Theres a lot of nuance out there, and I think having thoughtful conversations where you can get beyond the typical cable TV sound bite is really worthwhile. Its been fun putting it together.

Looking back one year ago to your book tour, it struck me that you were out there, on TV, talking a lot about your dad every day. What was that like during the experience, and how did you feel about it afterward?

Russert: Good question, because when I went out on that media circuit, I hadnt been on TV or radio for seven years. I did a few things here and there, but for the most part, I had been dark. And when I did that tour, I started to realize that the book had really connected with people. Grief is a subject that  despite the fact that we live in a more open society now than maybe five or 10 years ago  is still relatively taboo. No one has the right answer for how to deal with grief. Its still awkward to bring up for a lot of people.

So is the idea of self-discovery. It can be awkward to admit that maybe you didnt have all the answers, or maybe you were weak at a certain moment. So talking about that publicly, I really fed off the energy of the audience, and I got countless letters and texts and DMs just from people saying, Hey, I really am relating to what youre saying out there, I was paralyzed after a loss, or Im still getting over a loss, or Im 50 years old, and I dont know if Ive been doing the right thing my entire life.

That really struck me. It added some fuel to all those appearances that I was really trying to connect with people on that level. But after it happened  and I write about this in the new afterword in the paperback  I realized the magnitude of that. A lot of people had passed on their stories, and relatively heavy moments in their life, onto me. I saw the responsibility that came with that.

I write about the period of getting all those letters and seeing something that I didnt think was going to happen when it first came out. I thought it would resonate with some people, but the big difference was people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s. I got letters from people in their 90s saying, This book helped me grieve somebody.

It makes you stand still. Its mind-blowing. It certainly was a journey, but Im very happy with where it all ended up.

Do you feel the book also helped people grieve your dad, in their own way?

Russert: Yeah, I think theres an element of that for sure. People saw the grief journey that I went on, and saw that I came out OK on the other side. I think a lot of people could relate to that. When the book came out, it was close to the 15th anniversary of his passing. I was struck by the degree to which people still thought of his passing as if it had happened a week ago. So many people would say, I never really got over that. But then I saw that over course of time, theres this sort of warm nostalgia that has filled the void a little bit. When Im out there talking about my dad and Im smiling and Im not sad, a lot of people bought into that in a good way. Im happy when his face is up there now. I miss him, but its really neat to see him being celebrated all these years later.

What does it mean to come back to Buffalo?

Russert: I love the energy of the city. I feed off of it. The city was so good to me the last few times I was there in 2023, so Im happy to get back in 2024. There are few things that fill me with more joy than being in the Blackthorn, sipping a Labatt Blue, having some wings and just talking with people, hearing stories. What I learned last time was that just about every single person in the vicinity of South Buffalo babysat my dad at some point! It was fun to meet all those folks.

I think Buffalo is very much going through a renaissance. Its so neat to see that every time I get back there. Hopefully its capped off with a Super Bowl soon.
According to authorities, four kids are among the six persons wounded in a drive-by firing at a Fort Worth, Texas, apartment complex.

Children Injured at Apartment Complex in Fort Worth

The circumstances happened around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, with five of the casualties transferred to a hospital while one refused medication, as reported by Officer Brad Perez of the Fort Worth Police Department.

Their present situation has not been revealed, and Perez specified in an email on Thursday morning that the police are still in the process of collecting data regarding the shooting.

While no arrests have been made public, Police Chief Neil Noakes convicted the act, characterizing it as "stupid" and conveying his antipathy at the attack.

"Noakes expressed his anger, stating, 'It makes me angry, I am mad.' He emphasized that there is absolutely no justification for such violent, reckless, and heartless behavior that results in children being shot," Noakes said.

He further guaranteed the public that the firing seemed to be isolated circumstances, with no continuing threat to the community.

Perez detailed that the casualties' ages ranged from 3 to 19 years old and that they were shot by someone in a passing vehicle while they were outside the apartment complex.

Perez also noted that the police have yet to find out the accurate ages of all the injured persons.

The Fort Worth Police Department verified that a suspect vehicle was seen passing by the location, from which one or more persons fired shots toward all victims present.

The investigation, led by the Gun Violence Unit, is ongoing, and authorities are actively seeking the suspect vehicle and any suspects involved.

Anyone with data is pressed to contact the Fort Worth Police Department at 817-392-4222, with the choice to give tips unknown.

Read Also : California Man Sentenced 40 Years to Life for Shooting 6-Year-Old During Road Rage Incident

Police Officers Help Save Injured Child in a Drive-By Shooting

According to police information, a child was seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting on December 13, 2023 night in Longmont, Colorado.

The circumstances happened in a mobile resident park situated in the southern part of the city, with no detentions made thus far.

The suspect or suspects, driving a dark-colored sedan, fired shots into a home at 8:01 p.m. in the Countryside Village Mobile Park, located on the 1400 block of South Collyer Street.

The front entryway of the home was boarded up on Thursday morning, with holiday lights still adorning the front roof.

The casualty, a 3-year-old girl, sustained a torso wound from what police termed as an "unidentified projectile." Quickly medical attention was given by responding police officers and other first responders.

She was afterward transferred to the hospital, where she underwent surgery. Authorities acknowledge the immediate actions of the first responding officers for possibly saving the child's life.

Persons with any data pertinent to the inspection are urged to contact either Detective Sloan-Stogsdill at (303) 651-8544 or Detective John Winship at (303) 774-3698.

Additionally, Longmont police are looking for any available video footage from homes in the vicinity that could help in determining the suspect(s) or their vehicle.

Donations for the girl's family are being accepted through the Longmont Emergency Fund, as stated by the Longmont police department.
Utah's public schools are hastily gearing up as the state implements stricter measures starting Wednesday to ensure compliance with new restroom regulations for transgender individuals.

Utah's New Guidelines for Transgender Restroom Usage

These regulations, mandating the use of bathrooms and changing rooms based on assigned birth sex in government-owned buildings, have been largely unenforced since their signing into law by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Jan. 30.

However, with the introduction of significant penalties for non-compliance, schools, and government entities are now under pressure.

The implementation process has been marred by confusion among Utah families due to varying plans across districts, a situation mirrored in other Republican-led states with similar restrictions.

Utah State Rep. Kera Birkeland, the primary sponsor of the bill, argues it's necessary to safeguard against potential misuse of gendered spaces, although evidence of such incidents is lacking according to transgender residents.

Communication about the changes is at the discretion of each school district, with methods ranging from classroom presentations to private meetings with affected families.

Despite differing approaches, major school districts share a common goal of ensuring the safety of affected individuals while managing issues internally.

Principals in several school districts have been trained to address bathroom concerns with discretion and empathy for LGBTQ+ students. However, some individuals like 11-year-old Graham Beeton find the mandated accommodations isolating.

Transgender individuals in Utah can only use facilities aligning with their gender identity if they've legally changed their birth certificate gender and undergone certain surgeries, which are rare among minors.

The rollout has prompted early exits and support gatherings among parents, who express concerns about the practical enforcement of the law on children and its impact on their lives.

Some students, like fourth graders Lila and Sophia, are confused about the rationale behind the law and worry about its effects on their peers' self-esteem.

Transgender teacher Bree Taylor-Lof, emotionally affected by having to explain the policy to students, received support from their students, highlighting the youth's sense of justice and inclusion.

Read Also : Five Republican-Led States File Lawsuits Against Biden Administration on Expansion of Title IX Regulations

Using Bathrooms According to the Sex Assigned at Birth

Utah, led by Republican Governor Spencer Cox, enacted a law requiring individuals to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings based on their assigned birth sex.

The legislation allows transgender individuals to defend themselves by demonstrating gender-affirming surgery and changes on their birth certificates, though not all states permit such alterations.

It mandates schools to create "privacy plans" for transgender students, but critics fear this could inadvertently expose their identities. Similar laws are in place in at least 10 other states, with nine regulating transgender students' bathroom usage in schools.

The law also requires new government buildings to have single-occupant bathrooms but lacks funding for upgrades in existing buildings.

Sponsored by Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland, the law aims to address safety concerns, but opponents argue it targets transgender individuals rather than behavior.

The ACLU criticized the law for perpetuating discrimination and warned of potential discriminatory enforcement. Violators could face trespassing charges if their presence causes alarm, with penalties including loitering, lewdness, or voyeurism.

The bill was amended to exempt public school students from criminal charges for using bathrooms aligning with their gender identity, but Equality Utah still opposed it. There were no objections to the provision allowing the state to enforce certain federal Title IX provisions.
Princess Charlotte, the second kid of Prince William and Kate, the Princess of Wales, is celebrating her ninth birthday.

Palace Shares New Photo of Princess Charlotte

Kensington Palace currently revealed a new photo captured by Kate in Windsor over the past few days. The photo was shared on social media along with the message, "Happy 9th Birthday, Princess Charlotte! Thank you for all the kind messages today."

Charlotte, born on May 2, 2015, made her public appearance shortly after her birth at St. Mary's Hospital in London. Her full name, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, pays reverence to her late great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, and late grandmother Princess Diana.

As the only daughter of William and Kate, alongside her two brothers, Princes George, 10, and Louis, who currently turned six, Charlotte is expected to celebrate her ninth birthday privately with her family in Windsor, where they currently live.

Mirroring Charlotte's arrival, Kate shared in a 2016 interview with ITV how excited family members, including the late queen, were about having a girl join the family.

Charlotte has progressively appeared in public alongside her parents and siblings as she has grown older. Especially, in 2022, she participated in one of her first royal engagements with her family during the Platinum Jubilee celebration at Cardiff Castle.

Charlotte and her brothers also attended the queen's funeral, with Charlotte wearing a horseshoe brooch gifted by Elizabeth.

The following year, the siblings attended their grandfather King Charles III's coronation at Westminster Abbey. Charlotte's most current public presence was in December, accompanying her family to the Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham.

Since then, the family has largely remained out of the public eye, as both Kate and William have taken time off from public duties due to Kate's health.

Kate underwent abdominal surgery in January and later revealed in March that she had been diagnosed with cancer, commencing a course of preventative chemotherapy in late February.

During a current royal engagement, William guaranteed a well-wisher that the family was doing well.

Princess Charlotte Celebrates 9th Birthday

Princess Charlotte marks her final single-digit birthday with a traditional Royal Family tradition: the debut of a new portrait.

Captured by her mother, Princess Kate, the photograph portrays Charlotte leaning against a hedge adorned with soft pink flowers, her long honey-colored hair cascading loosely.

Despite the springtime in the UK, she is adorned in layered attire consisting of a shirt, jumper, and cardigan.

The caption extends birthday wishes to Charlotte and expresses gratitude for the kindness received. Posted on Thursday night AEST in honor of Charlotte's May 2 birthday, the photo has already garnered thousands of well-wishing comments from supporters of the Royal Family.

Among the remarks, some note a striking resemblance to Princess Diana, speculating on Charlotte's future appearance. Others commend Kate's photographic prowess and praise Charlotte's casual outfit choice.
I published this article in Meridian Magazine on Wednesday, 1 May 2024. But I have been so very busy over the past week or so that I neglected to call your attention to it: A Puzzling Mystery in the Last Chapters of Mark.

I hope that you might perhaps find it interesting, and maybe even helpful.

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I spent the first part of yesterday with a Scripture Central film crew in the Kirtland Temple and the Newel K. Whitney store. Then I spent the rest of the day (and into the early hours of this morning) returning home. We were all seated and waiting on a plane in Detroit when it was finally determined that, owing to problems with its sanitation system, it could not be flown. Which led to a long delay, the finding of another airplane, the transfer of crew, flight attendants, passengers, and baggage to the second plane, and a very, very late (or, depending on your vantage point, a very, very early) arrival in Salt Lake City. So Im playing catch-up here. Happily, though, there is quite a bit on which to catch up.

Two new articles appeared on the Interpreter Foundation website today:

That They May Once Again Be a Delightsome People: The Concept of Again Becoming the Seed of Joseph (Words of Mormon 1:8 and Mormon 7:45), written by Matthew L. Bowen

Abstract: In Words of Mormon 1:8, Mormon declares, And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people. The expression that they may once again plausibly reflects the Hebrew idiom wayyosipu or wayyosipu od. Mormons apparent double-use of the wayyosipu (od) idiom in Words of Mormon 1:8 (or some Nephite scribal equivalent), like 2 Nephi 5:23, recalls language in the Joseph story (Genesis 37:5, 8). The original Lamanite covenant, as an extension of the Abrahamic covenant, involved the complete abandonment of fraternal hatred and the violent means through which they had given expression to it (see Alma 24:1213; 1518); Mormon declared that a similar commitment would again be necessary when the descendants of Lehi (the remnant of this people who are spared, Mormon 7:1) were restored to the covenant in the future (Mormon 7:45). Thus, Mormons prayerin the tradition of the prayers of Nephi, Enos, and othersis that the descendants of the Lamanites (and Nephite dissenters) would, through iterative divine action, regain their covenant identity as the seed of Joseph and partakers of the Abrahamic covenant.

Interpreting Interpreter: The Seed of Joseph Once Again, written by Kyler Rasmussen

This post is a summary of the article That They May Once Again Be a Delightsome People: The Concept of Again Becoming the Seed of Joseph (Words of Mormon 1:8 and Mormon 7:45) by Matthew L. Bowen 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 Interpreterseries is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/. The Takeaway: Bowen argues that the phrase that they may once again in the Book of Mormon could represent wordplay on the name Joseph, and that its application to the Lamanites (e.g., that they may once again become a delightsome people) implies the overcoming of fraternal hatred and their eventual covenantal restoration as the seed of Joseph.

And this appeared on the website yesterday: Hugh Nibley Observed: Beyond Scholarship: Scenes behind the Nibley Written Legacy, written by John W. Welch

I am very pleased to speak at this occasion, on this program, in honor of the centennial of Hugh Nibleys birth on March 27, 1910, and to mark the completion of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. We miss Hugh in many ways, he having died five years before his signature series was finally completed. I hope that my comments here will help the next generation of serious readers, genuine disciples, and broad-gauged scholars everywhere to find, appreciate, and make solid use of the valuable written contributions generously left behind for us by our inspiring mentor, dedicated friend, and gleeful gadfly, Hugh Nibley. Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/hugh-nibley-observed/.

I also want to call your attention to this note from his family with regard to an upcoming event that will honor a dear friend and a longtime associate. The full text of the note appears on the Interpreter Foundation website: Celebration for George L. Mitton:

Dear family and friends, We wanted to make you aware of a celebratory event being held for my father George L. Mitton on Friday, May 10th from 7:00 pm. It will be held in the second floor meeting area of his apartment building: Legacy Village Provo

4146 North University Ave.

Provo, UT 84604 The occasion will mark the introduction of a new book which compiles some of his published essays by the Interpreter Foundation  where he has volunteered on the Board of Advisors since its inception in 2003. As you may know, Dad will turn 97 this year and it is remarkable that he is still publishing! The book is entitled Joseph Smith and our Preparation for The Lords Final Judgment and will be available on Amazon. We would enjoy seeing you at this get-together if circumstances allow.

At sunset on 21 January 1836, the presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and several others, including Joseph Smiths scribe Warren Parrish and the bishoprics of Missouri and of Kirtland, met on the third floor of the Kirtland House of the Lord in the presidents room, which is also called the west school room, to administer the ordinance of anointing. (I was just in that room a couple of days ago.)

Afterwards, the heavens were opened and Joseph and others beheld visions and revelations. Warren Parrish recorded the Prophets narrative of those heavenly manifestations, including a description of the celestial kingdom and of those who would dwell in it, in Josephs journal. (See Doctrine and Covenants 137.) This vision of the celestial kingdom added details to the 1832 vision given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, which revealed a division of the afterlife into three kingdoms of heavenly glory: celestial, terrestrial, and telestial.

Bishop Edward Partridge recorded that a number of others present at the evening meeting also saw visions. Josephs journal notes that some of them saw the face of the Saviour, and others were ministered unto by holy angels, and also that the power of the highest rested upon us, the house was filled with the glory of God, and we shouted Hosanah to God and the Lamb.

The next morning, instead of studying as usual, Joseph and others spent the time in rehearsing to each other the glorious scenes that transpired the evening before.

Part of Josephs account of what he saw during that evening in late January 1836 was canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 137 during the administration of President Spencer W. Kimball. Part, however, was not. But it still catches my interest:

I saw the 12, apostles of the Lamb, who are now upon the earth who hold the keys of this last ministry, in foreign lands, standing together in a circle much fatiegued, with their clothes tattered and feet swolen, with their eyes cast downward, and Jesus <standing> in their midst, and they did not behold him, he the Saviour looked upon them and wept . . . Also Eldr Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far southwest, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men of colour, who, appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in their own toung, and the angel of God standing above his head with a drawn sword in his hand protecting him, but he did not see it, and I finally saw the 12 in the celestial kingdom of God, I also beheld the redemption of Zion, and many things which the toung of man, cannot discribe in full.
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See my introductory article for this series. Excerpts from the Augsburg Confession (AC) will be identified and indented, in regular black font. Replies from the Catholic Confutation (C) will be in blue, and counter-replies from the Lutheran Apology of the Augsburg Confession (AAC) in green. Neither will be indented. My own comments will be in regular black font. My own scriptural citations will be drawn from the RSV.

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Article IV. Of Justification. 1 Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christs sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christs sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.

To Article IV. In the fourth article the condemnation of the Pelagians, who thought that man can merit eternal life by his own powers without the grace of God, is accepted as Catholic and in accordance with the ancient councils, for the Holy Scriptures expressly testify to this. John the Baptist says: A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven, John 3:27 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, James 1:17. Therefore our sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor 3:5. And Christ says: No man can come to me, Except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him, John 6:44 And Paul: What hast thou that thou didst not receive? I Cor 4:7. For if any one should intend to disapprove of the merits that men acquire by the assistance of divine grace, he would agree with the Manichaeans rather than with the Catholic Church. For it is entirely contrary to holy Scripture to deny that our works are meritorious. For St. Paul says I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, 2 Tim. 4:7 & 8. And to the Corinthians he wrote We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, 2 Cor. 5:10. For where there are wages there is merit. The Lord said to Abraham: Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward, Gen 15:l. And Isaiah says: Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him, Isa. 40:10; and, chapter 58:7, 8: Deal they bread to the hungry, and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up. So too the Lord to Cain: If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? Gen. 4:7. So the parable in the Gospel declares that we have been hired for the Lords vineyard, who agrees with us for a penny a day, and says: Call the laborers and give them their hire, Matt 20:8. So Paul, knowing the mysteries of God, says: Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor, I Cor. 3:8. 6. Nevertheless, all Catholics confess that our works of themselves have no merit, but that Gods grace makes them worthy of eternal life. Thus St. John says: They shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy, Rev. 3:4. And St Paul says to the Colossians, 1:12: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Article V. Of the Ministry. That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christs sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christs sake. They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.

To Article V. In the fifth article the statement that the Holy Ghost is given by the Word and sacraments, as by instruments, is approved. For thus it is written, Acts 10:44: While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And John 1:33: The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. The mention, however, that they here make of faith is approved so far as not Faith alone, which some incorrectly teach, but faith which worketh by love, is understood, as the apostle teaches aright in Gal 5:3. For in baptism there is an infusion, not of faith alone, but also, at the same time, of hope and love, as Pope Alexander declares in the canon Majores concerning baptism and its effect; which John the Baptist also taught long before, saying, Luke 3:16: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

Article VI. Of New Obedience. Also they teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, and that it is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of Gods will, but that we should not rely on those works to merit justification before God. For remission of sins and justification is apprehended by faith, as also the voice of Christ attests: When ye shall have done all these things, say: We are unprofitable servants. Luke 17:10. The same is also taught by the Fathers. For Ambrose says: It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is saved, freely receiving remission of sins, without works, by faith alone.

To Article VI. Their Confession in the sixth article that faith should bring forth good fruits is acceptable and valid since faith without works is dead, James 2:17, and all Scripture invites us to works. For the wise man says: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Eccles. 9:10. And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering, Gen. 4:4. He saw that Abraham would command his Children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment, Gen. 18:19. And: By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing I will bless thee and multiply thy seed. Gen 22:16. Thus he regarded the fast of the Ninevites, Jonah 3, and the lamentations and tears of King Hezekiah, 4:2; 2 Kings 20. For this cause all the faithful should follow the advice of St. Paul: As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith, Gal. 6:10. For Christ says: The night cometh when no man can work. John 9:4. But in the same article their ascription of justification to faith alone is diametrically opposite the truth of the Gospel by which works are not excluded; because glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good, Rom. 2:10. Why? because David, Ps. 62:12; Christ, Matt. 16:27; and Paul, Rom. 2:6 testify that God will render to every one according to his works. Besides Christ says: Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father, Matt. 7:21. 4. Hence however much one may believe, if he work not what is good, he is not a friend of God. Ye are my friends, says Christ, if ye do whatsoever I command you, John 15:14. On this account their frequent ascription of justification to faith is not admitted since it pertains to grace and love. For St. Paul says: Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. 1 Cor. 13:2. Here St. Paul certifies to the princes and the entire Church that faith alone does not justify. Accordingly he teaches that love is the chief virtue, Col. 3:14: Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Neither are they supported by the word of Christ: When ye shall have done all these things, say We are unprofitable servants, Luke 17:10. For if the doors ought to be called unprofitable, how much more fitting is it to say to those who only believe, When ye shall have believed all things say, We are unprofitable servants! This word of Christ, therefore, does not extol faith without works, but teaches that our works bring no profit to God; that no one can be puffed up by our works; that, when contrasted with the divine reward, our works are of no account and nothing. Thus St. Paul says: I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8:18. For faith and good works are gifts of God, whereby, through Gods mercy, eternal life is given. So, too, the citation at this point from Ambrose is in no way pertinent, since St. Ambrose is here expressed declaring his opinion concerning legal works. For he says: Without the law, but, Without the law of the Sabbath, and of circumcision, and of revenge. And this he declares the more clearly on Rom. 4, citing St. James concerning the justification of Abraham without legal works before circumcision. For how could Ambrose speak differently in his comments from St. Paul in the text when he says: Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight? Therefore, finally, he does not exclude faith absolutely, but says: We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Article XX. Of Good Works. 1 Our teachers are falsely accused of forbidding Good Works. 2 For their published writings on the Ten Commandments, and others of like import, bear witness that they have taught to good purpose concerning all estates and duties of life, as to what estates of life and what works in every calling be pleasing to God. 3 Concerning these things preachers heretofore taught but little, and urged only childish and needless works, as particular holy-days, particular fasts, brotherhoods, pilgrimages, services in honor of saints, the use of rosaries, monasticism, and such like. 4 Since our adversaries have been admonished of these things, they are now unlearning them, and do not preach these unprofitable works as heretofore. 5 Besides, they begin to mention faith, of which there was heretofore marvelous silence. 6 They teach that we are justified not by works only, but they conjoin faith and works, and say that we are justified by faith and works. 7 This doctrine is more tolerable than the former one, and can afford more consolation than their old doctrine. 8 Forasmuch, therefore, as the doctrine concerning faith, which ought to be the chief one in the Church, has lain so long unknown, as all must needs grant that there was the deepest silence in their sermons concerning the righteousness of faith, while only the doctrine of works was treated in the churches, our teachers have instructed the churches concerning faith as follows: 9 First, that our works cannot reconcile God or merit forgiveness of sins, grace, and justification, but that we obtain this only by faith when we believe that we are received into favor for Christs sake, who alone has been set forth the Mediator and Propitiation, 1 Tim. 2:5, in order that the Father may be reconciled through Him. 10 Whoever, therefore, trusts that by works he merits grace, despises the merit and grace of Christ, and seeks a way to God without Christ, by human strength, although Christ has said of Himself: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. John 14:6. 11 This doctrine concerning faith is everywhere treated by Paul, Eph. 2:8: By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of your selves; it is the gift of God, not of works, etc. 12 And lest any one should craftily say that a new interpretation of Paul has been devised by us, this entire matter is supported by the testimonies of the Fathers. For 13 Augustine, in many volumes, defends grace and the righteousness of faith, over against the merits of works. 14 And Ambrose, in his De Vocatione Gentium, and elsewhere, teaches to like effect. For in his De Vocatione Gentium he says as follows: Redemption by the blood of Christ would become of little value, neither would the preeminence of mans works be superseded by the mercy of God, if justification, which is wrought through grace, were due to the merits going before, so as to be, not the free gift of a donor, but the reward due to the laborer. 15 But, although this doctrine is despised by the inexperienced, nevertheless God-fearing and anxious consciences find by experience that it brings the greatest consolation, because consciences cannot be set at rest through any works, but only by faith, when they take the sure ground that for Christs sake they have a reconciled God. As Paul teaches Rom. 5:1: 16Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. 17 This whole doctrine is to be referred to that conflict of the terrified conscience, neither can it be understood apart from that conflict. Therefore 18 inexperienced and profane men judge ill concerning this matter, who dream that Christian righteousness is nothing but civil and philosophical righteousness. 19 Heretofore consciences were plagued with the doctrine of works, they did not hear the consolation from the Gospel. 20 Some persons were driven by conscience into the desert, into monasteries hoping there to merit grace by a monastic life. 21 Some also devised other works whereby to merit grace and make satisfaction for sins. 22 Hence there was very great need to treat of, and renew, this doctrine of faith in Christ, to the end that anxious consciences should not be without consolation but that they might know that grace and forgiveness of sins and justification are apprehended by faith in Christ. 23 Men are also admonished that here the term faith does not signify merely the knowledge of the history, such as is in the ungodly and in the devil, but signifies a faith which believes, not merely the history, but also the effect of the historynamely, this article: the forgiveness of sins, to wit, that we have grace, righteousness, and forgiveness of sins through Christ. 24 Now he that knows that he has a Father gracious to him through Christ, truly knows God; he knows also that God cares for him, and calls upon God; in a word, he is not 25 without God, as the heathen. For devils and the ungodly are not able to believe this article: the forgiveness of sins. Hence, they hate God as an enemy, call not upon Him, 26 and expect no good from Him. Augustine also admonishes his readers concerning the word faith, and teaches that the term faith is accepted in the Scriptures not for knowledge such as is in the ungodly but for confidence which consoles and encourages the terrified mind. 27 Furthermore, it is taught on our part that it is necessary to do good works, not that we should trust to merit grace by them, but because it is the will of God. 28 It is only by faith that forgiveness of sins is apprehended, and that, for nothing. 29 And because through faith the Holy Ghost is received, hearts are renewed and endowed with new affections, so as to be able to bring forth good works. 30 For Ambrose says: Faith is the mother of a good will and right doing. 31 For mans powers without the Holy Ghost are full of ungodly affections, and are too weak to do works which are good in Gods sight. 32 Besides, they are in the power of the devil who impels men to divers sins, 33 to ungodly opinions, to open crimes. This we may see in the philosophers, who, although they endeavored to live an honest life could not succeed, 34 but were defiled with many open crimes. Such is the feebleness of man when he is without faith and without the Holy Ghost, and governs himself only by human strength. 35 Hence it may be readily seen that this doctrine is not to be charged with prohibiting good works, but rather the more to be commended, because it shows how we are enabled to do good works. 36 For without faith human nature can in no wise do the works of the First or of the Second Commandment. 37 Without faith it does not call upon God, nor expect anything from God, nor bear the cross, but seeks, and trusts in, mans help. 38 And thus, when there is no faith and trust in God all manner of lusts and human devices rule in the heart. 39 Wherefore Christ said, John 15:5: Without Me ye can do nothing; 40 and the Church sings: Lacking Thy divine favor, There is nothing found in man, Naught in him is harmless.

To Article XX. In the twentieth article, which does not contain so much the confession of the princes and cities as the defense of the preachers, there is only one thing that pertains to the princes and citiesviz. concerning good works, that they do not merit the remission of sins, which, as it has been rejected and disapproved before, is also rejected and disapproved now. For the passage in Daniel is very familiar: Redeem thy sins with alms, Dan. 4:24; and the address of Tobit to his son: Alms do deliver from death and suffereth not to come into darkness, Tobit 4:10; and that of Christ: Give alms of such things as ye have, and behold all things are clean unto you, Luke 11:41. If works were not meritorious why would the wise man say: God will render a reward of the labors of his saints? Wisd. 10:17. Why would St. Peter so earnestly exhort to good works, saying: Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence by good works to make your calling and election sure? 2 Pet. 1:19. Why would St. Paul have said: God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed towards his name? Heb. 6:10. Nor by this do we reject Christs merit but we know that our works are nothing and of no merit unless by virtue of Christs passion. We know that Christ is the way, the truth and the life,. John 14:6. But Christ, as the Good Shepherd, who began to do and teach, Acts 1:1, has given us an example that as he has done we also should do, John 13:15. He also went through the desert by the way of good works, which all Christians ought to pursue, and according to his command bear the cross and follow him. Matt. 10:38; 16:24. He who bears not the cross, neither is nor can be Christs disciple. That also is true which John says: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked, 1 John 2:6. Moreover, this opinion concerning good works was condemned and rejected more than a thousand years ago in the time of Augustine.

Melanchthons answer to this is extremely long (since this deals with one of the two pillars of Protestantism and Articles IV-VI and XX), so I cant reply to all of it. I will, however, make a significant counter-reply. First of all, it should be understood that Philip Melanchthon had introduced a completely novel view of justification (going beyond even Luthers stance). No one need take my biased Catholic word on that. Protestant scholar and expert on the history of the doctrine of justification, Alister McGrath strongly asserts it:

Whereas Augustine taught that the sinner is made righteous in justification, Melanchthon taught that he is counted as righteous or pronounced to be righteous. For Augustine, justifying righteousness is imparted; for Melanchthon, it is imputed in the sense of being declared or pronounced to be righteous. Melanchthon drew a sharp distinction between the event of being declared righteous and the process of being made righteous, designating the former justification and the latter sanctification or regeneration. For Augustine, these were simply different aspects of the same thing . . . The importance of this development lies in the fact that it marks a complete break with the teaching of the church up to that point. From the time of Augustine onwards, justification had always been understood to refer to both the event of being declared righteous and the process of being made righteous. . . . The Council of Trent . . . reaffirmed the views of Augustine on the nature of justification . . . the concept of forensic justification actually represents a development in Luthers thought . . . . Trent maintained the medieval tradition, stretching back to Augustine, which saw justification as comprising both an event and a process . . . (Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 2nd edition, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1993, 108-109, 115)

Protestant apologist Norman Geisler concurs with this view as well.

. . . since the adversaries understand neither what the remission of sins, nor what faith, nor what grace, nor what righteousness is, they sadly corrupt this topic, and obscure the glory and benefits of Christ, . . .

In other words, the unbroken, unanimous soteriological tradition described by Protestants McGrath and Geisler (including the patron saint of Protestantism, St. Augustine), didnt have the slightest understanding of faith or grace or righteousness or the benefits of Christ. Fortunately, Melanchthon arose in order to explain to all of those poor ignorant misguided folks, the true doctrine of justification, that had never been seen before.

the adversaries select the Law, because human reason naturally understands, in some way, the Law (for it has the same judgment divinely written in the mind); [the natural law agrees with the law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments] and by the Law they seek the remission of sins and justification. Now, the Decalog requires not only outward civil works, which reason can in some way produce, but it also requires other things placed far above reason, namely, truly to fear God, truly to love God, truly to call upon God, truly to be convinced that God hears us, and to expect the aid of God in death and in all afflictions; finally, it requires obedience to God, in death and all afflictions, so that we may not flee from these or refuse them when God imposes them. Here the scholastics, having followed the philosophers, teach only a righteousness of reason, namely, civil works, and fabricate besides that without the Holy Ghost reason can love God above all things.

Johann Eck, in the C (To Article V) mentioned the Holy Ghost four times, yet Melanchthon has the insolent audacity to claim that Catholics deny this crucial, indispensable role of the Holy Spirit. Equally outrageous is the attribution of this heinous view to the scholastics. St. Thomas Aquinas, is  all agree  the ultimate exemplar of that viewpoint, and he wrote the following about natural reason, grace, and the Holy Spirit:

. . . in matters directed to the supernatural end, to which mans reason moves him, according as it is, in a manner, and imperfectly, informed by the theological virtues, the motion of reason does not suffice, unless it receive in addition the prompting or motion of the Holy Ghost, according to Rm. 8:14,17: Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God . . . and if sons, heirs also: and Ps. 142:10: Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right land, because, to wit, none can receive the inheritance of that land of the Blessed, except he be moved and led thither by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, in order to accomplish this end, it is necessary for man to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. (ST [Summa Theologica] 1-2, q. 68, a. 2c) By the theological and moral virtues, man is not so perfected in respect of his last end, as not to stand in continual need of being moved by the yet higher promptings of the Holy Ghost . . . (ST 1-2, q. 68, a. 2, ad 2) . . . man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life; and for this a higher force is needed, viz. the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life . . . (ST 1-2, q. 109, a. 5c)

I collected eleven additional similar statements in the book that I edited, The Quotable Summa Theologica (Jan. 2013, 200 pages), on pages 90-93, in the section, Grace Alone (for Justification and Salvation).

If Melanchthon is implying that the Ten Commandments (and other commandments of God) are irrelevant to salvation itself (and are relegated only to non-salvific sanctification), note what Jesus thought about it:

Matthew 5:16-20 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [17] Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. [18] For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. [19] Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [20] For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:16-19 And behold, one came up to him, saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life? [17] And he said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. [18] He said to him, Which? And Jesus said, You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, [19] Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Note how in both sayings, keeping the commandments (i.e., basically good works and expressions of love as opposed to faith alone) was central in the process of salvation and attaining to heaven and eternal life. The rich young ruler expressly asked Jesus how one can attain eternal life. The first thing Jesus mentions isnt faith, but observing the ten commandments. Then He later urged him to sell all he had, in order to be saved: another meritorious work, and not (needless to say) faith. Thats not to say no faith is involved; but I am highlighting how important works also are in the entire equation of justification and salvation.

In this manner they teach that men merit the remission of sins by doing what is in them, i.e., if reason, grieving over sin, elicit an act of love to God, or for Gods sake be active in that which is good.

Its not just reason (as St. Thomas Aquinas clarified in the above citations). It is man cooperating with Gods grace. C expressly stated that in the first sentence of To Article IV: the condemnation of the Pelagians, who thought that man can merit eternal life by his own powers without the grace of God, is accepted as Catholic and in accordance with the ancient councils, for the Holy Scriptures expressly testify to this. Likewise, in To Article XX, Eck reaffirmed: Nor by this do we reject Christs merit but we know that our works are nothing and of no merit unless by virtue of Christs passion.

St. Augustine famously observed (and we fully agree) that merit was simply God crowning His own gifts. As so often in these theological disputes, the Protestant is quixotically warring against a caricature or straw man of Catholic teaching, rather than the actual thing. The tied Pelagian  or sometimes, Semi-Pelagian  charge sent our way is one of the most constant and slanderous. Its sad. I hate to keep pointing this out, but I cant deny the obvious.

If we can be justified by reason and the works of reason, wherefore is there need of Christ or regeneration [as Peter declares, 1 Pet. 1:18ff ]? . . . the philosophic righteousness must be sought after. . . . even great theologians at Louvain, Paris, etc., have known nothing of any other godliness or righteousness (although every letter and syllable in Paul teaches otherwise) than the godliness which philosophers teach.

Classic case in point. We notice that Melanchthon doesnt offer any citation along these lines from an official, magisterial Catholic source. The ultimate reason for that would be because it doesnt exist. Thus, Melanchthon chooses to fight the straw man rather than produce actual documentation of supposed Catholic espousal or Pelagianism, and ridiculously claims that we supposedly deny the necessity of Christs redemptive, salvific work for us and of regeneration. In fact, the Catholic view of baptismal regeneration is in fact stronger and more powerful in terms of grace and gifts received, than the Lutheran view.

We see books extant in which certain sayings of Christ are compared with the sayings of Socrates, Zeno, and others, . . .

Yeah; even St. Paul committed this terrible sin of comparing true aspects of pagan belief to Christianity. If the New Testament is supposedly so opposed to Greek philosophy and indeed all pagan Greek thought whatsoever, then why did Paul  in the midst of evangelizing  cite pagan Greek poets, philosophers, and dramatists (and the Greeks started philosophy and excelled in it): see Acts 17:28 (Aratus: c. 315-240 B.C., Epimenides: 6th c. B.C.), 1 Corinthians 15:33 (Menander: c.342-291 B.C.: bad company ruins good morals), and Titus 1:12 (Epimenides, described by Paul as a prophet)? In fact, the line that Paul cited on Mars Hill in Athens (Acts 17:28), from Aratus, was actually, in context, referring to Zeus (see that full quote in another of my articles).

So Paul used a pagan poet, talking about a false god (Zeus) and Christianized the thought, applying it to the true God. Thats Pauline apologetic method. The Church has done this, historically, by co-opting pagan holidays and baptizing them, thus eventually wiping out the old pagan holidays. The citation from Epimenides (the poem Cretica) involves the same thing; it was originally written about Zeus; Paul (Acts 17:28 again) takes it and applies it to Yahweh, the true God. But Melanchthon wants to argue that comparing some aspects of the sayings of Jesus (Who often employed Socratic method) to Socrates is reprehensible and unChristian? Choose dear readers (when there is contradiction): St. Paul or Philip Melanchthon. As for me and my house . . .

Thus they bury Christ, so that men may not avail themselves of Him as a Mediator, and believe that for His sake they freely receive remission of sins and reconciliation, but may dream that by their own fulfilment of the Law they merit the remission of sins, and that by their own fulfilment of the Law they are accounted righteous before God; while, nevertheless, the Law is never satisfied, since reason does nothing except certain civil works, and, in the mean time, neither [in the heart] fears God, nor truly believes that God cares for it. And although they speak of this habit, yet, without the righteousness of faith, neither the love of God can exist in man, nor can it be understood what the love of God is.

If there is no such thing as merit, that can remit sins, St. Peter sure wasnt informed of it:

1 Peter 4:1, 8-11, 13, 17-18 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, . . . [8] Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. [9] Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another. [10] As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of Gods varied grace: [11] whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. . . . [13] But rejoice in so far as you share Christs sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. . . . [17] For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? [18] And If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear?

Their feigning a distinction between meritum congrui and meritum condigni [due merit and true, complete merit] is only an artifice in order not to appear openly to Pelagianize.

The nefarious 2000-year-old conspiracy to cover up our true works-salvation nature . . .

Melanchthon then goes on and on for many paragraphs, making points that Catholics 100% agree with (particularly concerning initial justification); pretending that we dont. Its intellectually disgraceful. I sure hope he does better than this in other sections.

For the Law requires of us our works and our perfection. But the Gospel freely offers, for Christs sake, to us, who have been vanquished by sin and death, reconciliation which is received not by works, but by faith alone.

Why, then, did Jesus tell the rich young ruler, who asked him how to attain to eternal life, whether he observed the commandments, and then said that He would have to give away all that he owned to be saved? Why didnt He simply say, have faith in Me? Elsewhere, He did say things like that, too, but this is our point. Faith alone excludes all works from the process, which is patently unbiblical. It cant be harmonized with a passage like this one, or many others, such as fifty passages about works being a central consideration with regard to who enters into heaven.

they teach only the righteousness of the Law, and because they do not teach the righteousness of the Gospel, which proclaims the righteousness of faith in Christ.

More lies, not worth responding to. I simply register my protest against Catholic teachings being systematically misrepresented.

they say nothing concerning faith, . . .

Melanchthon apparently didnt even read that which he is ostensibly replying to: Ecks Confutatio. As he noted in the beginning of this portion, he was replying to Ecks critical comments on Articles IV-VI and XX. Eck mentions faith four times in his To Article V and twelve times in To Article VI. Thats sixteen times more than nothing. It would be a nice novelty if Melanchthon actually lowered himself  imagine that!  to direct interaction with his theological critic.

The adversaries nowhere can say how the Holy Ghost is given. They imagine that the Sacraments confer the Holy Ghost ex opere operato, without a good emotion in the recipient, as though indeed, the gift of the Holy Ghost were an idle matter.

Martin Luther, in his Large Catechism, wrote:

Therefore every Christian has enough in Baptism to learn and to practise all his life; for he has always enough to do to believe firmly what it promises and brings: victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, the grace of God, the entire Christ, and the Holy Ghost with His gifts. . . . God sanctifies many of them who have been thus baptized, and has given them the Holy Ghost; . . . God confirms Baptism by the gifts of His Holy Ghost . . . (41, 49-50)

Elsewhere he referred to:

baptism, in which we have been washed by Christs own blood and anointed with his Holy Spirit for eternal life, . . . (The Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, Oct. 1533, tr. Martin E. Lehmann; in Luthers Works, v. 38)

So for Luther  and Lutherans  , the Holy Spirit comes to indwell human beings at baptism. Luther said not a word about emotions. Indeed, most Lutheran baptisms  like Catholic ones  are of infants, who dont have the slightest idea (let alone emotion) about what is going on. The Catholic Church had taught the same for many centuries, based on these Bible passages in particular:

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Following this explicit scriptural thought, the Decree for the Armenians, in the Bull Exultate Deo of Pope Eugene IV, promulgated at the Council of Florence (1431-1437) stated:

Holy Baptism holds the first place among the sacraments, because it is the door of the spiritual life; for by it we are made members of Christ and incorporated with the Church. And since through the first man death entered into all, unless we be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, we can not enter into the kingdom of Heaven, as Truth Himself has told us.

Philip Melanchthon, a highly educated man, surely must have known this, but he exhibits precious little indication of it in his polemics in the AAC. Instead, he makes out that Catholics  DUH!  cant even figure out how one receives the Holy Spirit. Luther even referred to baptism as being born again: precisely as Catholics do:

Concerning this birth, Christ also declares (Jn. 3, 3): Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . This takes place in baptism when he believes, for faith is this renewing. . . . Note here, the water answers to the washing; to be born again, to regeneration and renewing; and the Spirit, to him whom Paul mentions as the Holy Spirit. (Second Christmas Sermon; Titus 3:4-8, 1522; in Sermons of Martin Luther, The Church Postils; edited and partially translated by John Nicholas Lenker, 8 volumes. Volumes 1-5 were originally published in Minneapolis by Lutherans of All Lands, 1904-1906. Volumes 6-8 were originally published in Minneapolis by The Luther Press, 1908-1909; vol. 6) [I]n this washing [previously cited Titus 3:5] man is born again and made new. As Christ also says, in John iii, Except ye be born again of water and the Spirit of grace, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. [John 3:5] For just as a child is drawn out of its mothers womb and born, and through this fleshly birth is a sinful man and a child of wrath, [Eph. 2:3] so man is drawn out of baptism and spiritually born, and through this spiritual birth is a child of grace and a justified man. (Treatise on Baptism, Nov. 1519; tr. C. M. Jacobs)

Note that in the last statement, Luther even says that one result of baptism is being justified. Even Melanchthon wrote in AAC (72):  to be justified means that out of unjust men just men are made, or born again, . . .

Therefore, by faith alone we obtain remission of sins, when we comfort our hearts with confidence in the mercy promised for . . .

Even Lutherans dont believe this without exception, since they believe in baptismal regeneration, which remits sins. In adults, the decision to get baptized is a work, being an act of obedience. Its more than simply faith or mental assent. Its a sacrament (as Lutherans agree).

we receive remission of sins for Christs sake, only through faith.

Why is it, then, that Jesus told His disciples (obviously the prototypes of future clergy): If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven (Jn 20:23)? Why does it take one man to forgive another persons sin, as Gods representative, if supposedly all that is needed to do that is faith? Likewise, why does St. Paul talk in the following terms?: Any one whom you forgive, I also forgive (2 Cor 2:10). Why is he forgiving folks sins that have nothing directly to do with any offense to him, if indeed all remission of sins come through a simple act of faith: man to God?

we receive remission of sins and the Holy Ghost by faith alone,

We do not. We receive remission of sins also through repentance, penance, contrition, and priestly absolution, and the Holy Spirit through baptism (and in greater measure at confirmation), which are acts that we do as human beings, and in infant baptism, without our own faith or even understanding.

My patience with Melanchthons cynical, sloppy method (in terms of this topic) is exhausted. Ive written scores of times about the false and unbiblical doctrine of faith alone and the infused nature of justification. Its not that I have no responses on this subject. Quite the contrary! See the first section of my Salvation, Justification, & Faith Alone web page. I also did a book-length dialogue on justification last year with Brazilian Calvinist Francisco Tourinho: Justification: A Catholic Perspective (Aug. 2023).

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Summary: Catholic-Protestant dialogue consisting of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran, 1530), Catholic replies (then & now), & Philip Melanchthons counter-reply.
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See my introductory article for this series. Excerpts from the Augsburg Confession (AC) will be identified and indented, in regular black font. Replies from the Catholic Confutation (C) will be in blue, and counter-replies from the Lutheran Apology of the Augsburg Confession (AAC) in green. Neither will be indented. My own comments will be in regular black font. My own scriptural citations will be drawn from the RSV.

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Article VII. Of the Church. 1 Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. 2 And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and 3 the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. 4 As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Eph. 4:5-6.

To Article VII. The seventh article of the Confession, wherein it is affirmed that the Church is the congregation of saints, cannot be admitted without prejudice to faith if by this definition the wicked and sinners be separated from the Church. For in the Council of Constance this article was condemned among the articles of John Huss of cursed memory, and it plainly contradicts the Gospel. For there we read that John the Baptist compared the Church to a threshing-floor, which Christ will cleanse with his fan, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, Matt. 3:12. Wherefore this article of the Confession is in no way accepted, although we read in it their confession that the Church is perpetual, since here the promise of Christ has its place, who promises that the Spirit of truth will abide with it forever John 14:16. And Christ himself promises that he will be with the church alway unto the end of the world. They are praised also, in that they do not regard variety of rites as separating unity of faith, if they speak of special rites. For to this effect Jerome says: Every province abounds in its own sense (of propriety). But if they extend this part of the Confession to universal Church rites, tis also must be utterly rejected, and we must say with St. Paul: We have no such custom, 1 Cor. 11:16. For by all believers universal rites must be observed, St. Augustine, whose testimony they also use, well taught of Januarius; for we must presume that such rites were transmitted from the apostles.

Article VIII. What the Church Is. 1 Although the Church properly is the congregation of saints and true believers, nevertheless, since in this life many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled therewith, it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, etc. Matt. 23:2. Both the Sacraments and Word are effectual by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, notwithstanding they be administered by evil men. 3 They condemn the Donatists, and such like, who denied it to be lawful to use the ministry of evil men in the Church, and who thought the ministry of evil men to be unprofitable and of none effect.

To Article VIII. The eighth article of the Confession, concerning wicked ministers of the Church and hypocritesviz. that their wickedness does not injure the sacraments and the Wordis accepted with the Holy Roman Church, and the princes commend it, condemning on this topic the Donatists and the ancient Origenists, who maintained that it was unlawful to use the ministry of the wicked in the Churcha heresy which the Waldenses and Poor of Lyons revived. Afterwards John Wicliff in England and John Huss in Bohemia adopted this.

Article VII and VIII. Of the Church.

The Seventh Article of our Confession, in which we said that the Church is the congregation of saints, they have condemned, and have added a long disquisition, that the wicked are not to be separated from the Church since John has compared the Church to a threshing-floor on which wheat and chaff are heaped together, Matt. 3:12, and Christ has compared it to a net in which 2 there are both good and bad fishes, Matt. 13:47. It is, verily, a true saying, namely, that there is no remedy against the attacks of the slanderer. Nothing can be spoken with such care that it can escape detraction. 3 For this reason we have added the Eighth Article, . . .

Melanchthon and the AAC miss an important qualifying fact of Ecks response. He wrote: The seventh article of the Confession, . . . cannot be admitted without prejudice to faith if by this definition the wicked and sinners be separated from the Church [my bolding and italics]. Its a conditional. The brief Article VII of the AC didnt clarify this wheats and tares aspect, whereas Article VIII did. Therefore, Eck stated that Article VIII was accepted.

For this reason the true teaching and the Church are often so utterly suppressed and disappear, as if there were no Church, which has happened under the papacy; it often seems that the Church has completely perished.

This is what I would describe as a quasi-defectibility position (i.e., the Lutheran view towards Catholics). The Church almost died, they say, but not quite. It hung on by a hair. And, as many Protestants would have it, it likely would have died, but for the savior Protestantism, which allegedly restored the true gospel and the Bible, etc.

Martin Luther himself  a thing not well-known by non-Lutherans  was actually much more pro-tradition and pro-Catholic, and often noted that he greatly preferred Catholics to folks like the Anabaptists or Zwinglians (Protestants to the ecclesiastical left of Lutheranism): particularly because of their denial of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. In December 2014, I edited an entire book along these lines, called The Catholic Luther : An Ecumenical Collection of His Traditional Utterances (read the Introduction). Melanchthon was more radical, and more Protestant than Luther, according to what the movement eventually became.

And it says Church Catholic, in order that we may not understand the Church to be an outward government of certain nations [that the Church is like any other external polity, bound to this or that land, kingdom, or nation, as the Pope of Rome will say], but rather men scattered throughout the whole world [here and there in the world, from the rising to the setting of the sun], who agree concerning the Gospel, and have the same Christ, the same Holy Ghost, and the same Sacraments, whether they have the same 11 or different human traditions. . .

This is contradicted by the notorious Lutheran caesaropapist policy of the state Church. Germany was not one united nation in those days. In each area, it would be determined if it were to remain Catholic or become Lutheran. And whatever was decided, the people in the area were bound to follow. This is hardly freedom of conscience and religion. And it grossly contradicts the founding principles of Protestantism (private judgment and the supremacy of the individual conscience). What Melanchthon describes is far more applicable to Catholicism than Lutheranism. Here is an example of the absurdity of both the Lutheran and Calvinist unbiblical idea of the state church:

In 1556 the Pfalsgraf, Otto Heinrich, declared the doctrine of Luther to be the exclusive religion of the land. But his successor, Frederick III, only three years later, established Calvinism as the State religion. His son, Ludwig, however, in 1576 brought Lutheranism in again, and banished from the country all Calvinist ministers, teachers and officials. In 1583 the pendulum swung back once more, and Ludwigs brother Johann re-established Calvinism. Thus the unhappy people, in the space of less than forty years, were compelled to change their religious faith four times, to say nothing of the original change from Catholicism to Protestantism! (John L. Stoddard, Rebuilding a Lost Faith, New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1922, 98)

Melanchthon himself famously regretted  to the point of deep depression and disillusionment  the divisions and wanton sectarianism of the Protestant Reformation and actually longed for bishops to return, as opposed to the initial Lutheran schema of having princes in effect replace bishops. He wrote the following letter to Cardinal Campeggio, on 4 August, 1530 (the same year as the AC):

For this reason I have often shown that if a few things were kept in the background, these divisions could be healed. In my opinion it would contribute very much to the quiet of the Church and to the dignity of the Roman See, to make peace on the conditions which I have mentioned. For also our priests should in turn render obedience to the bishops. Thus the Church would unite again in one body, and the Roman See would have its own honour, so that, if anything wrong remains in the churches, it can gradually be corrected by the care of the bishops. It is also our earnest desire to be freed from these contentions, that we may give our whole attention to the diligent improvement of doctrine. And unless this be done, wise men can easily foresee what, amid so many sects, will come upon posterity. And in this matter it is easy to see how indifferent those are whom you now oppose to us. Yesterday the Confutation of our Confession was read. If it shall be published, condemning us, believe me it will not have great admiration among judicious men, and will irritate the minds of ours. Thus there is danger that by the renewal of this whole tragedy, greater commotion than ever will ensue. Hence I desire that these evils of the Church be not increased in virulence. Therefore I beg you to indicate to me in a few words, whether you have spoken with your Reverend Master about those conditions, and what hope he will hold out. If I can obtain anything favourable I will take care that the Roman See may not repent its kindness. The feelings and desires of many good men are united in this matter, who will do all they can to enlarge the authority of the bishops and to establish the peace of the Church. (Philip Melanchthon: The Protestant Preceptor of Germany, James William Richard [Lutheran], New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1898, 213 [online link] )

they set up the worship of saints, call upon them instead of Christ, the Mediator, etc.

First of all, we do not worship saints; we venerate and honor them, which is quite biblical (see, e.g., Hebrews 11). Nor is invoking them in opposition to invoking Christ. Quite the contrary! It is a way to reach our Lord Jesus Christ by means of creatures who are holier than we are. The Bible persistently teaches that if one wants to have a prayer answered, one seeks out the holiest person they can find (per James 5:16), to intercede on their behalf.

Jesus Himself taught in the story (not a parable) of Lazarus and the rich man in Hades, that the rich man made three petitionary requests of Abraham (not God). The notion is never condemned; nor did Abraham correct the rich man who requested things of him (telling him to make such requests of God only). Since Jesus told the story, it didnt (and cant) have uncorrected false doctrine in it. If Jesus taught that human beings can call upon creatures, then obviously Jesus didnt think this was contrary to the practice of praying directly to Him.

Neither must we transfer to the Popes what belongs to the true Church, namely, that they are pillars of the truth, that they do not err.

Why, then, did Martin Luther write the following (more than any pope ever said), if this sort of idea (papal infallibility) is rejected in Protestantism?:

I need not have any title and name to praise highly the word, office, and work which I have from God and which you blind blasphemers defile and persecute beyond measure. I trust my praise will overcome your defiling, just as my justice will overcome your injustice. It does not matter if, with your blasphemy, you are on top for the moment. Therefore, I now let you know that from now on I shall no longer do you the honor of allowing you  or even an angel from heaven  to judge my teaching or to examine it. For there has been enough foolish humility now for the third time at Worms, and it has not helped. Instead, I shall let myself be heard and, as St. Peter teaches, give an explanation and defense of my teaching to all the world  I Pet. 3:15. I shall not have it judged by any man, not even by any angel. For since I am certain of it, I shall be your judge and even the angels judge through this teaching (as St. Paul says [I Cor. 6:3 ]) so that whoever does not accept my teaching may not be saved  for it is Gods and not mine. Therefore, my judgment is also not mine but Gods. (Against the Spiritual Estate of the Pope and the Bishops Falsely So-Called, July 1522; in Luthers Works, Vol. 39: Church and Ministry I; pages 239-299; translated by Eric W. and Ruth C. Gritsch; this excerpt from pp. 248-249)

How is that authoritarian blast not expressing infallibility? I would contend that it is an assumed type of prophetic quasi-inspiration that goes far beyond infallibility.

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Summary: Catholic-Protestant dialogue consisting of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran, 1530), Catholic replies (then & now), & Philip Melanchthons counter-reply.
I first wrote this article titled Who Will Milk the Cows? in 2013 and unfortunately, the issue it addresses is as pertinent today as it was eleven years ago. On May 1st, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed a bill into law that will force local sheriff and police departments to check the immigration status of detainees, a job of the federal government. A person without a criminal record, if pulled over for a busted tail light, could end up being deported. Victims of crime will likely refuse to contact the authorities or cooperate due to fear of deportation. A US citizen could be detained if he or she is unable to demonstrate legal presence in the United States to a police officer during a routine traffic stop. Immigration is always a pertinent topic, but in the end, the root issues are never addressed by those in authority. The same arguments circle around, and nothing changes. Today, I address my initial question a bit differently, Governor Kemp, who will milk the cows?

Some time ago I heard a news story on the radio reporting that currently two thirds of cow milkers in the United States are undocumented immigrants. Coming from a four-generation dairy family and having spent many hours in a milking parlor, I immediately took interest in the story. Dairy farmers are very attentive to the immigration reform debate since the most basic and most necessary step of their industry is in jeopardy, the milking of the cows. Cows must be milked, and be milked twice a day (and sometimes three times), every single day of the year. Without a labor force, who will milk the cows?

This dilemma points to the heart of the current immigration situation in our country. There is a high demand for low paying, low skilled workers but these workers do not come into the United States through authorized channels. Why dont they come in legally? Many naively state today, my ancestors came here legally, these people must go back, get in line and come in legally. This is a naive statement because those who say it are unaware of the current immigration system. Asking an immigrant today to get in line like an immigrant one hundred years ago can be compared to asking Saint Peter to show you his iphone. It is impossible. There is no line.

The United States Conference of Bishops issued a statement answering the question Why Dont Unauthorized Migrants Come Here Legally? The answer provided is simple: there are no legal paths for most migrants to enter the United States. Currently one can enter the United States legally under one of three conditions: 1) An immediate family member who is a US citizen or resident petitions you, 2) You are fleeing political persecution in your home country and there is fear you may be killed, 3) You are a high-skilled worker and a US company sponsors you.

Most unauthorized immigrants in the United States are low-skilled workers. They work in agriculture, meatpacking, landscaping and construction industries which do not qualify as high-skilled work. An estimated 300,000 undocumented low-skilled workers enter the United States yearly and the US government officially makes available only 5,000 greencards for low-skilled workers. Temporary work visas exist (66,000 per year), but US companies shy away from these because the red tape is tremendous and the expenses are high. ***(these are 2013 numbers)***

The United States Bishops firmly believe that immigrants should come into the United States lawfully, but they point out that the current immigration system does not recognize the countrys need for low-skilled labor. The demand far exceeds the supply. The Church calls for a reform that increases the number of visas available for low-skilled workers which will decrease the number of unauthorized entries into the country. The Church does not call for open borders since a country without borders is not a country at all. The United States benefits from the labor of these workers, yet they remain in the shadows, and mainstream society shuns them. A solution at the core of the problem would be to provide legal avenues for the workers we currently need to enter the United States  something that currently does not exist.

In 2002 I asked a simple question at the South Carolina Republican Primary Gubernatorial debate at my college. I asked the candidates, If you enforce the laws which are in the books regarding illegal immigration, where will you find a workforce to replace the deported immigrants? None of the candidates answered my question. All of them spoke strictly and blindly about enforcing the law. This same question I posed to the candidates in 2002, I pose today to Governor Kemp as he signs this bill into law, Governor Kemp, who will milk the cows?
The fact that IT is such an exciting topic has a lot to do with the constant changes. In hardly any other industry do new technical developments follow each other so closely. Ground-breaking new products are launched on the market in rapid succession and often become widespread very quickly.

However, it often happens that after a few years, competing products emerge that replace their predecessors thanks to having a better concept, a modern interface, greater functionality adapted to current requirements, or simply lower costs.

In this article, we present a series of examples in which programs that were previously regarded as a kind of standard have been replaced by new developments, and explain the background and reasons for the change in each case.

Further reading: 13 important Windows settings to adjust immediately

Microsoft Defender instead of Avira Free Antivirus

The Defender included in Windows 8, 10 and 11 has replaced third-party antivirus programs such as Avira Free Antivirus on many PCs. The Defender included in Windows 8, 10 and 11 has replaced third-party antivirus programs such as Avira Free Antivirus on many PCs. Foundry The Defender included in Windows 8, 10 and 11 has replaced third-party antivirus programs such as Avira Free Antivirus on many PCs. Foundry Foundry

The German company Avira launched Antivir, one of the first professional antivirus programs, in 1988 under the name H+BEDV Datentechnik. Avira Free Antivirus, the free version for private users, was soon to be found on almost every computer whose owner took the increasing number of warnings about viruses and other malware seriously.

Microsoft hesitated for a long time before integrating its own antivirus tool into Windows. Windows 7 already included a program to defend against adware and spyware, but it was ineffective against classic malware.

However, as the danger posed by computer viruses increased exponentially and many users still went online without protection software, Defender was integrated into the operating system with Windows 8. Up until the first editions of Windows 10, however, the detection rates were low and the program was therefore not recommended.

However, this changed with Windows 11 at the latest, and the software is now on a par with other free antivirus solutions. As it does not need to be installed, uses few resources, and does not display ads, it has largely replaced Avira and other competitors on private PCs.

Google Chrome instead of Firefox

Google Chrome was able to prevail over Firefox thanks to its sober user interface and superior speed. Google Chrome was able to prevail over Firefox thanks to its sober user interface and superior speed. Michael Crider/Foundry Google Chrome was able to prevail over Firefox thanks to its sober user interface and superior speed. Michael Crider/Foundry Michael Crider/Foundry

The market share figures for the major browsers from March 2024 show a clear winner: According to market researchers from Similarweb, Google Chrome has a share of 64.7 percent on U.S. desktop computers. Edge is in second place with 14.71 percent, while Firefox has a paltry 5.32 percent share.

Looking at the global figures, the gap between the browsers is just as pronounced: Chrome leads on the desktop with 67.51 percent, followed by Edge with 14.83 per cent, Safari with 7.9 percent, and Firefox with 6.21 percent.

In 2010, Firefox was the second-most popular browser with an average share of 30 percent, topped only by Internet Explorer with a market share of between 40 and 50 percent, although a strong downward trend was already apparent. What has happened since then?

Firefox was popular because, as open source software, the browser offered an alternative to Microsofts proprietary Internet Explorer. Users also liked the large number of available extensions with which they could customize the browser.

However, when the number of users of the now outdated Internet Explorer fell, it was not Firefox that benefited, but Google Chrome, which was only launched in 2008. The browser had a cleaner and more organized structure than Firefox, was also faster, and was considered more secure, as each tab runs in its own process, which is executed in a sandbox.

Although Firefox has been extensively revised since then, the manufacturer Mozilla has not yet been able to build on its old successes.

7-Zip instead of Winzip/Winrar

Winzip was created in the early 1990s as a Windows user interface for the original Pkzip packing program. Although it was shareware, it was initially included with numerous book and magazine CDs as an unlimited trial version and thus became widely used by private users.

Winrar, on the other hand, is a packing program for the somewhat differently structured RAR compression format. It can also create and open ZIP files, whereas Winzip can only unpack RAR files due to license reasons.

Winrar is distributed as an unlimited trial version: After 30 days, the user receives a message that they must license the software. However, the program can still be run without a license.

For several years now, Winzip has only been available free of charge for 21 days, after which the user must pay for the software at prices starting at around $36. Together with the integration of a ZIP tool in Windows, this has led to a sharp decline in user numbers.

Todays Windows users either use the operating systems zip function instead or resort to the free open source software 7-Zip, which has an extended range of functions compared to Windows and can also securely encrypt ZIP files and protect them with a password, for example.

A new version of the free Teams client has been included in Windows for a few weeks now. You can use the program to chat or hold video conferences. A new version of the free Teams client has been included in Windows for a few weeks now. You can use the program to chat or hold video conferences. Microsoft A new version of the free Teams client has been included in Windows for a few weeks now. You can use the program to chat or hold video conferences. Microsoft Microsoft Teams replaces Skype Microsoft Teams is currently in the process of replacing Skype. Microsoft designed Teams from the outset as a central tool for collaboration within and outside of companies. Voice calls are just as possible as video calls, and Teams is also linked to other applications from the Microsoft cosmos. Participants in a meeting can, for example, view PowerPoint presentations or edit Excel sheets together. At the same time, access to SharePoint, Outlook, and the OneDrive storage is possible. Skype also allows you to make phone calls and hold video conferences. However, you can tell that the program was originally designed as a messenger. It offers very few functions for collaboration in groups. Microsoft is expected to discontinue Skype in the next few years. Skype for Business Online has already been discontinued and the version for the local data center is expected to be discontinued in 2025. Only the version of Skype for home users does not yet have an end date.

VirtualBox instead of VMware Player

from Oracle offers an easy-to-understand interface for its virtual environment. from Oracle offers an easy-to-understand interface for its virtual environment. Foundry from Oracle offers an easy-to-understand interface for its virtual environment. Foundry Foundry

VMware is one of the pioneers of the virtualization trend of the past 20 years. The company targeted its products at companies and public authorities.

This also applied to the free VMware Player, a lightweight program with which the user could start virtual machines. Today, the software is offered under the official name VMware Workstation Player.

From the mid-2010s, when PCs for private users were also suitable for working with virtual machines thanks to multicore processors and ample RAM, users increasingly turned their attention to the open source tool VirtualBox from Oracle.

It offered more functions than the VMware Player right from the start and has maintained this lead to this day. Many users also find it easier to use.

For this reason, VirtualBox is the preferred choice for private users and smaller companies.

Further reading: The best free software for your PC

The current version of Microsoft PowerToys includes around two dozen modules that extend Windows, such as PowerRename. The current version of Microsoft PowerToys includes around two dozen modules that extend Windows, such as PowerRename. Microsoft The current version of Microsoft PowerToys includes around two dozen modules that extend Windows, such as PowerRename. Microsoft Microsoft

In the days when hard drives were still slow and small, CPUs were weak, and RAM was scarce, numerous tools were created to make Windows leaner and faster.

They searched for orphaned entries in the registry, deleted or deactivated unnecessary services, searched for duplicate and no longer needed files, defragmented the hard drive, and emptied the autostart. The effect on the execution speed was small, but at least the tools freed up some memory.

With the advent of faster and ever larger SSDs, more powerful processors and inexpensive memory, most optimization tools became superfluous. The hardware had become so powerful that it made no difference whether the registry was a few megabytes larger or smaller or whether a few more or fewer services had to be loaded.

Hard disks and SSDs now also offered so much storage space that users no longer needed to worry about free space.

The optimization tools needed a new concept. One possible variant is demonstrated by Microsoft with its free PowerToys.

This collection of tools continuously adds functions to Windows, such as a color picker that picks up a color from the desktop and copies it to the clipboard, FancyZones for designing window layouts, or an editor for the Windows hosts file. The desired functions can be selected as required.

Further reading: Supercharge Windows with Microsofts free PowerToys

OneDrive instead of Dropbox

Dropbox was the first popular file hosting and file sharing service on the internet. It used a simple and efficient method for uploading files, which was later adopted by all major file hosting services: The user copies the files to the Dropbox folder on their local hard drive, from where they are automatically synchronized with the Dropbox server.

The user can create a link to each file. If he sends it by email, the recipient  provided she has the necessary access rights  can access the file and download it.

In this way, Dropbox solved many problems with the transmission of particularly large files, which were often not accepted by the email provider due to size restrictions.

The major drawback of Dropbox has always been the limitation of the free basic service to 2GB of free storage. This value could be increased in 500MB increments by recommending the service to other people, but even this was too little for many users. However, users had to take out a paid subscription for more storage.

Google Drive, for example, offers an alternative with 15GB of free storage. Finally, Microsoft provides every Windows user with a Microsoft account with 5GB of storage. Subscribers to the Microsoft 365 Office package even receive one terabyte for free.

In other words, for $70 a year, the user gets one terabyte of free storage, and Microsoft adds an Office package on top.

By way of comparison, 2TB currently cost $9.99 per month with Dropbox, and additional software is not included in this subscription. Microsoft can also point out that its cloud storage OneDrive is closely integrated into Windows and allows automatic backups, for example.

Tip: Windows Explorer with two-window view Use the Maximize icon in the title bar to access a graphical overview of the options for arranging multiple windows in Explorer. Use the Maximize icon in the title bar to access a graphical overview of the options for arranging multiple windows in Explorer. IDG Use the Maximize icon in the title bar to access a graphical overview of the options for arranging multiple windows in Explorer. IDG IDG The major disadvantage of Windows Explorer compared to tools such as Total Commander has always been its limitation to one window. For copying and moving files, however, two adjacent windows would be more advantageous. However, you can realize this view with just a few mouse clicks. First start an instance of Explorer. Now open the program a second time. You have various options here: For example, you can call it up in the first Explorer by double-clicking on the explorer.exe file under C:\ Windows  or, if the Explorer icon is in the taskbar, start a copy by right-clicking and selecting Explorer. In one of the two Explorer windows, move the mouse over the square at the top right of the title bar, i.e. the Maximize icon, and click on the Group | Start display in the small overview window. Windows will now arrange the two Explorer windows next to each other.

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.
The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has signed another Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to recruit 10,000 qualified persons to serve the Secondary, Junior High and primary schools across the country.



These 10,000 personnel who will be recruited under the MoU will serve as kitchen assistants, security guards and teaching assistants to augment and fill the gaps within the GES.



Giving an address on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of YEA, Deputy CEO in charge of operations, Alhaji Bashiru Ibrahim said the current agreement is the third MoU that the agency is signing with the GES.



He mentioned that the YEA in 2015 and 2018 signed MoUs with the GES, having good working relations as far as those agreements are concerned.



According to him, this agreement will enable the YEA recruit 4000 kitchen assistants, 4000 security guards and 4000 teaching assistants to beef up staffing situation in schools across the country.



This MoU is for the YEA to assist the GES to run educational services effectively; and in doing so, they need requisite staff, hence the YEA is coming on board to assist the GES in some respective areas by recruiting teaching assistants, kitchen assistants and security guards for schools, he said.



Alhaji Bashiru Ibrahim also noted that persons who will be recruited as teaching assistants in the Senior, Junior and Primary schools must have a minimum qualification of Diploma certificate.



This set of personnel, according to him, shall receive monthly allowance of GHC 1,000.



He averred that the YEA has recognized the qualifications within the GES and decided to follow it to recruit the teaching assistants under the program.



For both the security guards and kitchen staff, they will receive GHC 500 as monthly allowance.



He explained that the YEA is supporting the GES with part of its entitlements under the GETFund and called on prospective applicants to apply for any of the vacancies.



Stephen Kweku Owusu, Deputy Director General (Management Service), also expressed gratitude to the YEA for assisting the Service.



According to him, the 10,000 personnel, when recruited, will boost teaching and learning in our schools.

Source: Youth Employment Agency









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Concerned residents of Kasoa have voiced their frustration over the misrepresentation of their community in response to recent media reports attributing criminal activities to the area.



This follows the shooting of military personnel at the District Police Command in Millennium City, which falls under the Gomoa East District in the Central Region.



Residents of the area are calling for accurate reporting and a cessation of the unwarranted association of Kasoa with criminal incidents.



In a statement issued on May 1, 2024, the concerned residents expressed their discontent with the events.



We are extremely unhappy with the continuous misrepresentation of our community in the media. Kasoa has unfairly become synonymous with crime, despite many incidents occurring outside our municipality, the residents noted.



They stressed the importance of precise reporting to avoid tarnishing the reputation of Kasoa and hindering its economic potential.



As residents, we do not find it tasteful that the bad name tag is associated with Kasoa, as it is blocking our business potential, they said.



The residents also highlighted the recent shooting incident as an example of the inaccurate portrayal of their community.



We are disturbed that a state security agency like the police could not define the jurisdiction accurately. It must be noted that the Millennium City, where the shooting took place, is natively known as Gomoa Bantama and falls directly under Gomoa Fetteh in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region, while Kasoa falls within the Awutu Senya East Municipality.



In a similar incident, an alleged missing manhood case that happened at Nyanyano Kakraba, also in the Gomoa East, was widely reported as happening in Kasoa, the statement said.



The residents entreated all Ghanaians, particularly media organisations and state agencies, to do due diligence and avoid mentioning Kasoa other than the specific locations where crimes are perpetrated.



They, however, commended the police for acting swiftly to arrest the perpetrator of this recent murder and urged the outfit to investigate further to arrest other accomplices if any and to also work more efficiently to curb these violent land disputes, which have become a menace.





Source: class fm









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Days after he was censured by a judicial conduct committee for shoving a Buffalo police officer during a heated neighborhood dispute, Mark J. Grisanti faces an uncertain future as a state judge.

Commission censures Judge Mark Grisanti for shoving Buffalo cop handcuffing his wife The state Commission on Judicial Conduct said acting State Supreme Court Judge Mark J. Grisanti exhibited exceptionally poor judgement during the incident and fell far short of holding up the standards of behavior expected from a judge.

A holdover appointee since last July, Grisanti awaits word from Gov. Kathy Hochul on whether she will reappoint him to his judgeship, which pays $232,600 annually.

But if Hochul reappoints Grisanti, the chairman of the State Senates Judiciary Committee told The Buffalo News he doubts that body would confirm the appointment.

Its the Governors prerogative to appoint a replacement for this judge, which I hope she does before the end of the legislative session. The report from the Commission on Judicial Conduct is highly damning of the judges character and demonstrates a disturbing pattern of conduct unfit for a public official. While the commission narrowly decided not to remove the judge, confidence in our judiciary demands that the judge be replaced, said Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, D-Manhattan, in a statement emailed to The News.

The judicial conduct commission was highly critical of Grisanti, a Buffalo resident, when it censured him Tuesday for his behavior during a June 22, 2020, confrontation with police and some neighbors.

That conduct  including Grisanti shoving an officer and threatening and swearing at police  went viral a few months later. Video from a police officers body camera was published by Law360, a criminal justice website, and later by The News and other media.

The incident began when Grisanti called 911 to complain about a neighbor who had legally parked in the street close to the judges driveway. According to police documents, Grisantis wife, Maria, bit one of her neighbors and the judge had his shirt ripped off by the same neighbor.

The video showed Grisanti shoving and making threats against an officer who had pulled Maria Grisanti to the ground and was putting handcuffs on her.

Police handcuffed the judge, put him in a patrol car and drove him to their station for questioning but did not charge Grisanti or Grisantis wife after he apologized for his actions.

The judge said he was concerned for the safety of his diminutive wife when an officer took her down to the ground.

In its censure decision, the commission said Grisanti exhibited exceptionally poor judgment during the incident and fell far short of holding up the standards of behavior expected from a judge.

By a narrow 6-4 margin, members of the commission decided not to remove him from his job.

The commission also censured Grisanti for failing to recuse himself from eight cases involving Matthew Lazroe, a Buffalo lawyer who owed him money for the purchase of Grisantis former law firm.

The commission cited Grisantis impeccable record as a judge and as a lawyer in deciding not to remove him from his post.

Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commissions administrator and chief counsel, said he backed removing Grisanti from office. So did three members of the commission.

I hope Judge Grisanti appreciates how close he came to being removed, and that his future conduct will exemplify the integrity and dignity required of his high office, Tembeckjian said after the censure.

Grisantis attorney, Terrence M. Connors, said Friday that he hopes Hochul will follow the commissions lead and keep Grisanti in his judgeship.

Grisanti, 59, has never run for judicial office. A former Republican state senator, he was appointed as a Court of Claims judge in 2015 by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after Grisanti cast a key vote on legislation to legalize same-sex marriages in New York and lost his re-election bid in 2014.

Grisanti has been assigned since 2015 as an acting State Supreme Court judge. His appointment ran out at the end of July.

Matt Janiszewski, the governors upstate press secretary, declined to comment when asked whether Hochul will reappoint Grisanti, but told The News that Hochul has the utmost respect for the men and women of law enforcement and believes that all New Yorkers should treat them with respect.

The commission has determined that disciplinary action is appropriate in this case and we are reviewing its determination, the Hochul spokesman added.

Connors said Grisanti was under extreme stress at the time of the 2020 incident because of tensions with his across-the-street neighbors, difficulties with the Covid-19 epidemic and several deaths and illnesses in his family.

Grisanti at the time was caring for his sick mother, who died a few weeks later, Connors said.

Connors said the neighborhood incident was unfortunate but had no bearing on Grisantis solid performance as a judge.

A retired judge who served in one of the states highest courts  Eugene F. Pigott Jr., formerly of the Court of Appeals  testified as a character witness for Grisanti, court officials said on Friday.

Colleagues who testified at Grisantis hearing before the commission called him a hard-working, fair and courteous judge, Connors said.

Nobody should be judged based on their conduct during the worst two hours of their life, Connors said.
The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has told the clergy in the Western Region that God can use him for something good for Ghana.



He is of the view that he has some innate qualities that God will want him to use in transforming the fortunes of Ghana.



Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is in the Western Region of Ghana as part of his campaign tour, met with the clergy in the region.



He said, I believe that I can do something for Ghana. I believe that God uses everybody that He wants to use to change society. The good book tells us that. In the Bible, God used Cyrus. Someone asked me, Can anything good come from Walewale? I think that something good can come from Walewale. If God says it should come from Walewale, it will come from Walewale.



Speaking on Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer indicated that Ghana is a blessed country.



Ghana is a very blessed country. Sometimes I am just in awe of how blessed this small country is. Last week I had the privilege and honour of visiting his holiness, the Pope, and we had a conversation about Ghana, and one of the things he was commending Ghana for is the peace and tolerance in this country. He is knowledgeable about this country. The peace and tolerance we have in Ghana are second to none, he said.





Source: ghanaweb.com









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Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has criticized President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his comment that "only an NPP MP can convince me to bring development to Ejisu" during the Ejisu parliamentary by-election.



According to the journalist, Akufo-Addo's remarks in Ejisu and past comments to some chiefs from Elmina and Volta flood victims only confirm the belief that the president is a New Patriotic Party president and not the leader of the whole of Ghana.



Pratt Jnr, speaking on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana programme, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, said that he was shocked and terrified when Akufo-Addo made the statement because it means that the president has indeed been bringing development to only those he thinks voted for him.



"We have a president who doesn't see himself as the president of Ghana. He sees himself as president only for the NPP, and it is frightening.



"But it doesn't end there; he says, 'If your area is underdeveloped, you don't have roads, and so on, and you want action to be taken, you have to realize that action can only be taken if you have an NPP member of Parliament who comes to speak to an NPP president.' Wow!'



Pratt Jnr, the managing editor of the Insight Newspaper, added, "I think this is the greatest devaluation of the presidency. And I'm really shocked and surprised that this statement came from the mouth of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has been in the political game long enough to realize how damaging this statement can be to himself and to the New Patriotic Party."



He also stated that the president's comments show that Ghana is in serious trouble because the country's leaders came to serve only the people who voted for them.



"... I'm indeed horrified. If this is where we have come to, then this country has a huge problem to deal with - where presidents no longer see themselves as presidents of the Republic but as presidents of political parties. It is clearly unpardonable."



What President Akufo-Addo said:



Akufo-Addo said that until he leaves power, no independent candidate can influence any form of development in the constituencies.



According to him, until January 7, 2025, when he leaves power, he has the final say in the country and its developmental projects.



The president made this comment after former MP Kwabena Owusu Aduomi decided to quit the NPP and run as an independent candidate in the by-election in Ejisu.



"From today to January 7, 2025, the NPP government is in power under the leadership of Akufo-Addo. If you're looking for someone who can convince the NPP president, then we need an NPP member and not an independent member whom we don't know. It won't happen.



"I came here to plead with you to help me. You can see what is happening in Parliament now. We need a majority, even if it's one vote, to help us compete in Parliament, and that one vote is Kwabena Boateng.



"I know that Members of Parliament for Ejisu are mostly Ministers, and even though there is a shorter time, I will see what I can do about it if you vote for him," he told a cheering crowd in Ejisu.















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 University of Tehran professor has made a chilling prediction about the ongoing protests on U.S. college campuses, saying the Iranian regime wants to see it continue as the protesters will be their supporters if there is ever a conflict between the two countries.



Professor Foad Izadi, who, according to the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, earned his masters degree from the University of Houston, was seen in a video published to social media and translated by MEMRI.org, being interviewed about the protests in the U.S.



"Sooner or later, this kind of support for the Zionist regime by the American regime will diminish. It might not stop completely, but its diminishing is important," he said in the MEMRI video. "This is why the demonstrations [on U.S. campuses] are important."



Izadi spoke as a member of the Islamic Republic, and oftentimes said, "we," referring to him and the republic.



"We are watching the demonstrations and like what we see, but it should not end with this," Izadi said. "If not for the Islamic Republic, the case of the Palestinian idea would have been closed years ago. The idea of resistance belongs to Iran, but on the operational level, when it comes to recruiting connections and building networks, the [Iranian] state has not been involved in a sufficient level.



"These (American students) are our people," he continued. "If tensions between America and Iran rise tomorrow or the day after, these are the people who will have to take to the streets to support Iran."



Izadi said there are Hezbollah-style groups in the U.S. that are much larger than those in Lebanon. "America is the Great Satan and our main enemy, but we have hope in these areas," he said.





pic.twitter.com/eCSOzYHAgp

Tehran University Professor, Foad Izadi, claims the pro-Palestinian students on US campuses are traitors to America and will be used by Iran to undermine the sovereignty of the US, just like Iran did in Lebanon with Hezbollah. He insists that these  Liza Rosen (@LizaRosen0000) May 1, 2024





















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A Pennsylvania man has been convinced after being charged with the murder of a woman he tricked into believing they were taking a trip to Las Vegas.

NBC 10 reports that John Matthew Chapman, 44, was found guilty in a Nevada court of kidnapping which resulted in death, and now faces a life sentence.

Chapman admitted that he convinced a woman, whose name was not released, that the two were taking a road trip to Las Vegas for a photo shoot in 2019. On the trip through the Nevada desert, he tied her up and suffocated her.

Police conducted welfare checks for the woman, who had not been seen in months in her Bethel Park neighborhood. Instead, neighbors saw Chapman around the house, prompting their concerns.

Authorities reportedly found Chapmans identification with his name and photo, the victims cellphone, zip ties and a roll of duct tape. Prosecutors said that Chapman admitted to killing the woman for money, and they added he pretended to be her on her Facebook messenger account and lived at her residence after the killing.

Chapmans sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 2.
Note: This story was updated at 6:50 p.m. to include further details about the incident.

Police in Carlisle on Thursday arrested a 52-year-old man they said was caught on security cameras placing an antisemitic note at the Asbell Center for Jewish Life at Dickinson College earlier this week.
Someone broke into a vacant building in Harrisburg and spray-painted racist symbols and words, a city spokesman said Friday morning.

A resident told a Harrisburg employee about the vandalism in a long-vacant traffic engineering building at South 19th and Caledonia streets, spokesman Matt Maisel said in a news release.

Someone spray-painted a swastika and the N-word multiple times after the building was broken into. When the break-in and vandalism happened is unknown, Maisel said.

City workers plan to secure the building after Harrisburg police investigate.

Mayor Wanda R.D. Williams said in a statement: I urge whoever did this to come forward, because we are going to find out. I want to be very clear: Hate has no place in Harrisburg. This is not just an attack on our Black and Jewish population. These words and symbols are anti-Hispanic, anti-LGBTQ and in general, just anti-American, and does not represent us.

We are in a time where a lot that is going on in the world is dividing us, so I call on Harrisburg  my Harrisburg that I grew up in, that I know at its core is just as upset about this as me  to band together and push this hate out. While this hurts today, it will make us stronger and more unified moving forward.

More:

Police arrest man they said left antisemitic note at Dickinson College

Athletic director at Maryland high school used AI to fake racist recording of principal, police say

At least 2,000 arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses, AP tally shows
The ongoing feud between famed rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar has reached an all-time fever pitch recently with the release of Lamars Euphoria, a jam-packed, six-minute long diss track aimed at the Gods Plan crooner.

Upon release on April 30, the Pulitzer Prize-winning rappers diss track topped the Spotify and Apple Music charts.

Its the latest song in a series of back-and-forth diss tracks between the two and its a direct response to Drakes recently deleted Taylor Made Freestyle track.

Trading bar for bar, fans are now debating which musician comes out on top in this latest round.

In the since-deleted track Taylor Made Freestyle earlier this month, the Hotline Bling star called Lamar a coward and came at the Poetic Justice rapper with AI-generated vocals from fellow West Coast musical icons Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur.

On the Euphoria track, the rapper labeled Drake as a master manipulator and a habitual liar and also took shots at his rapping ability: You not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of bing accepted.

The Humble rapper went on to continuously shoot at the One Dance star and directly told his opponent how he feels about him.

This aint been bout critics, not about gimmicks, not about who the greatest / Its always been about love and hate, now let me say Im the biggest hater / I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk / I hate the way that you dress / I hate the way you sneak diss, if I catch flight, its gon be direct, the musician added.

If youre confused as to where this all began and how things have escalated the way they did to now, the feud first sparked on Oct. 6, 2023, when Drake and fellow rapper J.Cole released a track called First Person Shooter in which J. Cole refers to himself, Drake, and Lamar as the big three of rap.

Fast forward to March 22, 2024, Lamar responded on his verse on Metro Boomin and Futures song Like That, torching their idea of the big three, instead rapping: Its just big me.

Some weeks later on April 5, J. Cole released his own diss track called 7 Minute Drill, where warning shots were aimed at Lamar as he accused the rapper of seeking attention.

But just two days later on April 7, after releasing his own diss track, J. Cole bowed out from the feu, due to feeling pressured to respond because the world wanna see blood.

Days later, on April 13, Drakes response to Lamar, Push Ups, was leaked online before its April 19 release and contained lyrics that poked fun at Lamar being shorter in height and for his mainstream collaborations with Taylor Swift. He also had not-so-friendly words for Rick Ross and The Weeknd.

Two days later on April 15, Ross entered the feud and responded to Drake with Champagne Moments, where he accused the Passionfruit artist of having multiple cosmetic procedures done, including a nose job and ab surgery, not to mention accusing the artist of using a ghostwriter.

Four days later on April 19, Drake dropped the Taylor Made Freestyle diss track with the assistance of the AI-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and Tupac to diss Lamar. Drake then tells Lamar We waitin on you.

Drake performs at Forbes Arena at Morehouse College on Oct. 19, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage

Two days later on April 21, Kanye West jumped into the feud on a remix of Like That and took shots at Drake, excited to witness the elimination of Drake.

A couple of days later on April 30, we finally arrive at the release of Euphoria, where Lamar shined a spotlight on Drakes biracial identity, the fact that he shouldnt be able to say the n-word, his parenting skills in addition to questioning his authenticity as a rapper.

On May 1, Drake responded to Lamars diss by posting a clip from the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You on his Instagram Story, in which Julia Stiles character Kat reads off all the reasons why she loathes Heath Ledgers character Patrick. This reminds fans of Lamars lyrics in Euphoria, where he directly list all the reasons why he hates the Spin Bout U rapper.

Today, Lamars Euphoria climbed from No. 19 to No. 1 on Spotify.
Rayson Winery and Vineyards, in Mocksville, North Carolina, recently made its debut at the Winemaker Challenge in San Diego.

Participating in the international competition held in mid-April, the winery announced it had won four silver medals, for its Riesling, Chardonnay, rose and Cabernet Franc. What made these awards significant is that they came on the heels of a late 2023 purchase of what was RayLen Vineyards & Winery for almost 25 years, one of the pioneers of a rising East Coast industry that today includes around 250 wineries and vineyards.

JW and Kristen Ray are the new owners of the Mocksville landmark, putting a similar spin on the name of this winery located between Winston-Salem and Charlotte off Interstate 40, one of that regions main highways. Sons Joey and Logan (hence the name Rayson) are expected to contribute greatly to the transition and rebuilding of the brand that shares similarities with the other winery they opened 10 years ago, called JOLO (using the first two letters in each of the sonss name).

JOLO has a perch at Pilot Mountain, one of the states most distinctive natural features that rises around 2,500 feet above sea level and includes a state park. Its located about an hours drive north of Mocksville, not far from the Virginia line.

In the decade since it opened, JOLO has built a sterling reputation for food and wine, developing a wine club that tops 3,000 members, continually building on a long list of awards that included Best in Show at the American Fine Wines rose competition in 2023, and gaining accolades from Open Table in 2021 and 2022 for operating one of the top 100 brunch spots in the country.

The purchase was covered in this December 2023 story on PennLive.

Ray said in a recent interview that buying the second winery serves several purposes, from giving them a second related business to develop in a growing area of the state while also providing a source of grapes from an established 35-acre vineyard thats growing a mix of varietals  Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Vidal Blanc  rather than having to purchase them from elsewhere. Basically the cost of the property is what Im paying in grapes, he said. I still gotta farm it, of course, but its lot easier when you have the scale and the same people and similar varietals and things like that. It also provided, he said, several cross-pollination opportunities and the ability to maximize the processes we already have in place and the wines and styles we are making.

JW Ray, with sons Joey and Logan, are overseeing the growth of their family business that now features two wineries in North Carolina.JOLO Winery & Vineyards

JOLO is open Thursdays through Sundays and in season is about as maxed out as we could be, he said, for parking, for seats, for wine tastings, for dinners and lunches, and so on. For us, here theres only so much sausage that you can still fit into the casing, so it made better sense just to look for like a sister property to be able to go to, you know, extend the brand, if you will, but do something a little bit different, almost like [Napa producer] Far Niente and Nickel & Nickel, where its a different brand but people understand who the main brand is. So we were just looking for something along those lines without trying to open up here another three days a week, which would be nonsuccessful.

The opening of Rayson also allows the business a chance to give whats already a very capable staff full-time work by being able to shuttle between the two wineries. In addition, it provides a perfect training ground for his two sons, Ray said, who both graduated from North Carolina State and want to work in the family business.

For me, you know, I have two full-time superstars that are eager to learn with a lot of energy, he said. So having the other place really made a lot of sense, too. I have more bandwidth now through them and then they get to learn how to grow up from the ground up as well.

JOLO primarily makes dry varietals and blends, including an anniversary wine comprised of 65% Cynthiana, 25% Petit Verdot and 10% Cabernet Franc. A glance at Raysons portfolio on the website shows, as expected, a similar makeup.

Overall, business has been good albeit showing a bit of a dropoff from last year, more an industry trend than unique to JOLO. I think everybody will admit that if theyre honest, he said of the decline. For us, its marginal, but its, you know, its still a slight drop off. But here, where were located, North Carolina is a very fast-growing state, and kind of where were located specifically in the Yadkin Valley, you have a pretty good proximity to Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro, some of the largest cities in the country. And theyre growing: Apples building a billion-dollar plant in Raleigh and Toyota is building a huge new plant for their electric batteries. So theres just a lot of growth here with people that have a lot of disposable income and high net worth, those type folks, and usually they love wine.

Among the planned upgrades at Rayson is the opening of a new restaurant, Bistro Europa, on the property, which is projected to open this summer. It will feature executive chef Daniel Zbiegien, who among other places worked at The Farmhouse at Veritas Winery in Virginia, which in 2020 was named the best restaurant at an East Coast winery.

The view from the driveway of Rayson Winery & Vineyards, formerly RayLen, in Mocksville, North Carolina.Rayson Winery & Vineyards

Restaurants have increasingly become a complement to the tasting room over the past decade. Ray said he and his wife decided to include what is called the End Posts restaurant when they built JOLO after traveling to wineries overseas and nine times out of 10, or 99 times out of 100, you had to leave that location because you were starving. Then you would eat and go back to another winery somewhere.

So, for us, he added, it made a lot of sense to turn it into a destination where visitors can make a day of it and have a world-class meal, world-class wine, do a tasting, have a nice lunch or dinner, and then just hang out on the patio and look at the grounds and hang out the day there. So that was kind of what we decided to do from day one, have that food and wine experience.

End Posts is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, and offers what he called an eclectic menu of appetizers, sandwiches, dinners and desserts.

Yes, its a lot of extra work, he said, which not everyone wants to take on.

I get that a lot of people dont understand the restaurant business, and its not inexpensive to run a restaurant, especially if youre outside the city limits [where] you have to put your own septic in, and grease traps and stuff like that. So if you dont have the experience in the industry, it is hard, unless youre loaded with cash and you roll the roll out of bed in the morning and cash just falls out of your pockets. But for most mortals, its a big undertaking, a full-time industry by itself with a high failure rate.

The view from the back deck at JOLO Winery & Vineyards in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina.JOLO Winery & Vineyards

But these days, he acknowledged, especially in the Yadkin Valley, you could shoot a cannon through and not hit anybody that doesnt have some sort of food on the weekends, like a food truck or things like that. They didnt do it just to do it, they did it because people would complain that they wanted to hang out all day and have two bottles of wine, but they needed something to eat.

Ive seen a lot of that just in the last five years. Everybodys trying to get to the restaurant business in one way, shape or form at the wineries.
Mothers in rural Pennsylvania are facing a maternal healthcare crisis, as labor and delivery units across Pennsylvania shutter. Wednesday marks the closure of the labor and delivery ward in Penn Highlands Elk, the only hospital in Elk County.

This leaves six counties  Elk, Cameron, McKean, Clarion, Clinton and Forest  without a birthing hospital. Thats an area nearly twice the size of the state of Delaware.

Mothers will be left traveling an hour south to Penn Highland Dubois, an hour and a half to Mount Nittany Medical Center or two and half hours northwest to Saint Vincent Erie to receive care when its time to deliver their babies.

Sara Nelis, project manager for the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative, says this leaves mothers and their babies at risk.

Theyre not going to be able to get to that care as easily in the moment of an emergency, Nelis said. But even prior to that, if they have a complication, each of those visits is going to be harder to get to.

Nelis says that the closure of Penn Highlands Elk comes down to population, the number of births, and finances.

According to the Department of Health, rural Pennsylvania has seen a significant decrease in births in the last fifteen years. In fact, all but 8 rural counties in Pa. have seen more deaths than births since 2010.

Theres a certain number of births that hospitals need to hit to essentially break even, and so these hospitals kind of look at it as this is costing us. Theyre not making enough off of the births that they are having in a year to maintain that economically, Nelis said.

The birth rate problem is projected to get worse. According to the Center for Rural Pennsylvanias October 2023 report on population, rural counties are projected to decline 5.8 percent over the next 30 years with counties farther north and west witnessing more population decline. Elk and Forest counties, both impacted by Wednesdays hospital closure, are projected to decline at 15.4% and 19.7% respectively.

These decreases ultimately lead to hospitals losing money by keeping labor and delivery services running.

Rural hospitals and clinics are also challenged by staffing shortages.

Lisa Davis, Director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, says that it has been challenging to recruit and retain healthcare providers in rural communities.

When someone is in training, they get very used to all the technologies that are available to them, the camaraderie, the collegiality, the schedules and so on. That is not really the case in rural communities, Davis said.

Staffing shortages in rural communities have long been blamed on salary differences, said Davis, but she now understands that salaries are the same or negligibly different.

Many healthcare specialists are not attracted to a rural lifestyle, and even if they are, their spousal and family situations often contribute to physicians choosing to stay urban or suburban.

So, as birth rates continue to decrease and rural counties continue to see decline, what remains for rural communities when it comes to serving expectant mothers and rural healthcare needs?

Medicine on the Move

With 33 hospital closures in 20 years, Pennsylvanias health deserts are increasing with a clear disparity between urban and rural. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, 32,000 women in Pennsylvania live in maternity care deserts.

A practicing family physician in southwestern Texas, Dr. Adrian Billings is working to improve access to care in health deserts, also referred to as medically underserved areas (MUA).

Billings, associate academic dean of rural and community engagement at Texas Tech University Health Science Center, is seeing similar maternity care deserts across Texas. A hospital in Alpine, Texas three hours east of El Paso and 5 hours west of San Antonio  has 25 beds and serves a 12,000-square-mile area, about the size of Massachusetts, with a population of approximately 25,000. Some women travel as far as 150 miles to get to that hospital.

Sometimes because of that long distance, women are delivering in the ambulance, Billings said. And sometimes, Ive had some patients, over the past 17 years, deliver in a rest area because they just couldnt make it.

Medicine on the Move is a mobile health clinic that delivers telehealth to communities with limited or no access to healthcare.

These telehealth camera kits are equipped with basic medical equipment, such as a stethoscope to listen to the heart or breathing and an otoscope to look in eyes and ears.

The camera then transmits the data to the receiving clinician, a resident physician on the other end in Odessa, Texas, for a more robust examination.

Although there is no doctor physically assisting the patient, sometimes a medical student or technician accompanies the camera.

We found that even having just a medical student present really increased interest and trust in the telehealth clinic, Billings said. There is a live person there to build some trust with the community, increase volume and increase access to care.

Billings said that these telehealth cameras could possibly improve access to rural maternity prenatal care services in the future.

At a prenatal visit, the biggest thing beginning at about 12 to 14 weeks of gestation is to listen to the fetal heart tones. If we were able to use a fetal heart tone monitor with the patient, and with some direction from the OBGYN or the family physician on the other side, we can direct them to where to place that fetal heart monitor to listen to fetal heart cam, Billings said.

Although Medicine on the Move isnt available in Pennsylvania, similar in-office telehealth care is already available in optometrist offices in southwestern Pa. as a way of addressing patients during weekend hours and staffing shortages.

Midwives

While midwives have long served women in rural counties, particularly in Pennsylvanias Amish communities, the exact number of midwives serving the commonwealth is unknown. There are three types of midwives, one of which works almost exclusively in hospitals and must be registered nurses.

While Pennsylvania has the fifth highest number of nurse midwives in the U.S., this is not helpful to mothers located far from hospitals. Theyre heavily concentrated in eastern counties. However, certified midwives and a certified professional midwives dot the state and serve mothers with home births.

In 2022, Pennsylvania had the seventh-highest rate of home births. However, since COVID, all states have seen a significant increase in home births.

Kelsey Martin is a certified professional midwife practicing in State College. She has a medical office in her home, and travels to her clients for the birth, as well as pre- and post-birth checks.

We do bloodwork, we do heart tunes, all the prenatal care, Martin said. Were there for the delivery and postpartum care up to six weeks. We take care of the baby, we do all the testing, and screening that happens afterwards.

Martin said that the closure of labor and delivery units in rural hospitals, combined with the emergence of COVID-19, has exponentially increased the interest in home births and midwifery care in the last four years.

Although Martin typically travels 30 minutes to her clients in Pennsylvania, she is no stranger to going great distances, as she used to work in rural Oklahoma and Kansas.

When I used to practice in the Midwest, I would travel up to two and a half hours for someone because I was serving a rural area with very few hospitals, and very few midwives, Martin said.

Martin brings standard equipment to each birth, as well as what she needs to handle complications, from newborn screen tests to what shed need for a resuscitation.

Whether its 30 minutes away or two hours away, I have everything in there that I need for an emergency, Martin said.

Martin said that midwives are helpful to rural mothers because it eliminates the need for extra appointments with their family physician or OBGYN, making obstetric care more accessible.

I make one visit out to their house a month before their due date, so I know how to get there. If Im in a hurry, Im not trying to find a new house. Martin said. And I go over all their stuff at home to make sure that they have everything that theyre supposed to have.

Midwife care is also highly personalized, Martin ensures that all her clients can reach her on her personal cell phone, so she can answer questions immediately.

If theyre living way out in the middle of nowhere, and they have to drive 45 minutes or an hour to a clinic for an appointment, it just makes it a lot more accessible for them if they can contact their provider directly, Martin said.

Recruiting Doctors

While innovative telehealth solutions and midwives can address Pennsylvanias growing health deserts, counties and hospitals continue to look for new ways to draw doctors.

Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health Director Davis said that a successful way to recruit doctors is to offer financial incentives through loan repayment programs.

National Health Service Corps (NHSC), which is a federal program, is another great way, Davis said. In exchange for four years of service, you receive a sizable reimbursement to put towards your medical debt or your educational debt.

However, such programs are not always seamless. A medical practice is only eligible if it is federally designated as an MUA.

Its a Catch-22 because, if your designation is still active and you recruit  lets say youre really successful  you recruit a physician, you recruit a nurse practitioner, then you may skew things the other direction, Davis said.

Successful recruiting could mean that rural practices no longer meet the benchmarks to be considered an MUA, this is further complicated by population size. As a designated area loses population, it risks losing its MUA designation. Ultimately, this process can make rural communities feel like theyre being set up for failure.

Fourteen percent of Pennsylvanians live in medically underserved areas, according to a report released by Drexel University and AARP Pennsylvania. Most live in rural communities. That means 1.8 million residents of the commonwealth have limited or no access to local healthcare.

Caroline Quick is a journalism student at Penn States Bellisario College of Communications. This story was published by PennLive in collaboration with The News Lab at Penn State.
Update: I-95 in Connecticut reopens after flaming crash left it closed for days

By SUSAN HAIGH and PAT EATON-ROBB, The Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  The major traffic artery linking New England with New York will be closed in Connecticut for days after a tanker fire damaged a bridge over Interstate 95, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday.

The tanker truck filled with gasoline burst into flames in a three-vehicle crash Thursday on I-95 in southwest Connecticut, closing the East Coasts main north-south highway and causing major traffic jams. While Lamont said there were no serious injuries in the 5:30 a.m. accident in Norwalk, the crash caused damage to the bridge above it.

The heat from the burning fuel compromised some of the bridge, so that bridge is going to have to come down, and that demolition is going to start first thing tomorrow morning, Lamont said at a briefing Thursday evening in Hartford.

In this image provided by the Connecticut Governor's Office, emergency personnel work at the scene of a fiery early morning crash that left both sides of Interstate 95, the East Coasts main north-south highway, shut down in southwestern Connecticut. (Norwalk Fire Department/Connecticut Governor's Office via AP)AP

He said the hope is to reopen the interstate by Monday morning.

The incident was reminiscent of last years deadly crash in Philadelphia along I-95 when a tractor-trailer carrying gasoline lost control and caught fire, destroying a section of the highway. It was closed for about two weeks.

In Connecticut Thursday, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said his citys schools will be closed on Friday. He urged local employers to consider allowing employees to work from home on Friday, if possible, or use the MetroNorth commuter rail. Additional trains are being added to the rail line, officials said.

While the bridge was less than 10 years old, the damage was pretty severe due to the amount of gasoline that was in the tanker ignited directly underneath the bridge structure, Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said. The steel did begin to overheat and warp.

The tanker had been carrying a load of about 8,500 gallons when it crashed beneath the Fairfield Avenue bridge, officials said. The overpass did not appear in danger of collapsing, said Scott Hill, chief engineer for the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Eucalitto said its unsafe to allow any traffic to pass underneath the bridge in either direction, so the entire bridge, which has beams that cross both spans of highway, has to be removed.

In this image provided by the Connecticut Governor's Office, emergency personnel work at the scene of a fiery early morning crash that left both sides of Interstate 95, the East Coasts main north-south highway, shut down in southwestern Connecticut., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Norwalk Fire Department/Connecticut Governor's Office via AP)AP

Large equipment was being brought to Connecticut Thursday evening to complete the demolition, which is expected to begin around 3 a.m. on Friday. Lamont said the work could take 24 hours or longer to complete. After that, the roadway may need to be repaved before it can reopen.

It will likely take about a year to replace the bridge, a major artery for the city of more than 91,000 people. Lamont said he is hoping to receive federal reimbursement to cover the cost.

The cause of the crash remains under police investigation and no charges have been filed.

About 160,000 vehicles travel that portion of I-95 in both directions daily, Eucalitto said.
Several witnesses helped stop an attempted sexual assault Wednesday, according to Buffalo police, and a man, who is not a U.S. citizen, has been charged in the case. Juan Escalante Gudiel, 31, who is in the United States legally, but with no permanent address, faces a litany of charges, including attempted sexual misconduct, third-degree assault, first-degree harassment and forcible touching.

Police received a call at around 10:40 a.m. about a woman being attacked on the 300 block of Virginia Street. Gudiel allegedly followed the victim to a porch and attempted to take her pants down, knocking her over and injuring her arms and legs, police said.

When two witnesses  a male and a female who were passing by  intervened, Gudiel fled, before being found by officers several blocks away at South Elmwood Avenue and Tracy Street.

Border Patrol has placed an immigration detainer on Gudiel for immigration proceedings if he is convicted, officials added. He was arraigned in City Court on those charges, and the judge ordered a forensic examination, Acting DA Michael J. Keane said at a news conference Friday afternoon. Gudiel will remain in custody pending those results.

- Debadrita Sur
By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer

TOKYO (AP)  Nippon Steel said Friday it has postponed the expected closing of its $14.1 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by three months after the U.S. Department of Justice requested more documentation related to the deal.

Tokyo-based Nippon Steel Corp. said the deal, already approved by U.S. Steels shareholders, is still expected to go through.

Nippon Steel will continue to fully cooperate with the examination of the relevant authorities, it said in a statement.

The sale has drawn opposition from President Joe Bidens administration on economic and national security grounds, and from former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate in Novembers election.

The new timing could push the closing beyond the election, but Nippon Steel denied the delay was related to that.

Initially the deal was supposed to have closed by September. Now it will close by December, meaning it could still close as early as September, according to a company spokesperson, who requested the anonymity customary at Japanese companies.

More than 98% of the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. shares approved the takeover. Nippon Steel has said it has prepared adequate financing to go through with the deal.

Announced in December, the merger of U.S. Steel into Nippon Steel has raised concerns about what that might mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security.

The United Steelworkers union has opposed the acquisition.

When Biden visited the Pittsburgh headquarters of United Steelworkers recently, he reiterated his opposition to the Nippon Steel purchase, stressing U.S. Steel has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain totally American.
By Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON  A bipartisan group of senators is pushing for restrictions on the use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration, saying they are concerned about travelers privacy and civil liberties.

In a letter on Thursday, the group of 14 lawmakers called on Senate leaders to use the upcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as a vehicle to limit TSAs use of the technology so Congress can put in place some oversight.

This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSAs development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs, the senators wrote.

The effort, led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., would halt facial recognition technology at security checkpoints, which has proven to improve security effectiveness, efficiency, and the passenger experience, TSA said in a statement.

The technology is currently in use at 84 airports around the country and is planned to expand in the coming years to the roughly 430 covered by TSA.

The FAA reauthorization is one of the last must-pass bills of this Congress. The agency regulates airlines and aircraft manufacturers and manages the nations airspace.

TSA, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, has been rolling out the facial recognition technology at select airports in a pilot project. Travelers put their drivers license into a slot that reads the card or they place their passport photo against a card reader. Then they look at a camera on a screen about the size of an iPad that captures their image and compares it to their ID. The technology is checking to make sure that travelers at the airport match the ID they present and that the identification is real. A TSA officer signs off on the screening.

The agency says the system improves accuracy of identity verification without slowing passenger speeds at checkpoints. The technology is not being used as a surveillance tool to compile a database or monitor people in and around the checkpoints, according to the TSA. It says the photos and IDs are deleted after the passenger goes through the checkpoint.

Passengers can opt out, although David Pekoske, the TSA administrator, said last year that eventually biometrics would be required because they are more effective and efficient. He gave no timeline.

Critics have raised questions about how the data is collected, who has access to it, and what happens if there is a hack. Privacy advocates are concerned about possible bias in the algorithms and say it is not clear enough to passengers that they do not have to submit to facial recognition.

It is clear that we are at a critical juncture, the senators wrote. The scope of the governments use of facial recognition on Americans will expand exponentially under TSAs plans with little to no public discourse or congressional oversight.
NEW YORK  Donald Trumps 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed Trump bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission, longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified Friday at his hush money trial.

Hicks, a former White House official, was compelled to testify by Manhattan prosecutors, who are hoping her remarks bolster their argument that the uproar over the infamous Access Hollywood tape hastened Trumps then-lawyer to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to bury a negative story that could imperil his 2016 presidential bid.

Once one of Trumps closest confidants, Hicks provided a window into the chaotic fallout over the tapes release just days before a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton. It was recorded in 2005 but was not seen by the public until Oct. 7, 2016, about a month before Election Day. Hicks described being stunned and huddling with other Trump advisers after learning about the tapes existence from the Washington Post reporter who broke the story. Hicks forwarded the reporters request to campaign leadership with the recommendation to deny, deny, deny, she said.

I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days, Hicks testified. This was a damaging development.

She added: This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.

Prosecutors called her to the witness stand to strengthen their case alleging Trump worked to prevent damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

Hicks told jurors that Trump claimed he did not know anything about his then-attorney Michael Cohen paying $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from going public with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump. But, Hicks said, Trump eventually came to believe that burying Daniels story was prudent, saying he thought it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.

At other points, Hicks testimony appeared to help the defenses contention that the former president was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he has slammed as an effort to derail his campaign to reclaim the White House in November.

Under questioning by Trumps attorney, Hicks told jurors that he was worried about the effect of the Access Hollywood tape on his family. And when the Wall Street Journal published a story revealing ex-Playboy Model Karen McDougals affair allegations right before the election, Hicks said Trump was concerned about his wife seeing the story and asked Hicks to make sure newspapers werent delivered to their residence that morning.

But when asked if Trump was also worried about the storys impact on the campaign, Hicks responded that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign. Trump would often asking her, How is it playing? as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters, she said.

Hicks proximity to Trump over the years has made her a figure of interest to congressional and criminal investigators alike, who have sought her testimony on multiple occasions on topics ranging from Russian election interference to Trumps election loss and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

She appeared reluctant to be in the courtroom, taking a deep breath as she stepped up to the microphone and acknowledging she was really nervous. She later started crying on the witness stand, forcing the court to take a brief break, when Trump lawyer Emil Bove started to ask her to reflect on her time at the Trump Organization before he brought her onto his 2016 campaign.

Referring to her former boss as Mr. Trump and later President Trump when speaking about their time in the White House, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or fall of 2022. While no longer in Trumps inner circle, Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background.

She recounted how the political firestorm that ensued after the release of the tape was so intense that it knocked an actual storm out of the headlines. Before the tape became public, the news was dominated by a Category 4 hurricane that was charging toward the East Coast.

I dont think anybody remembers where that hurricane hit, Hicks told jurors.

Hurricane Matthew, which hit Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 storm, made landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Oct. 8, 2016, the day after the Access Hollywood tape was made public.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case charging Trump with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid Daniels for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Testimony will resume Monday. The trial could last another month or more, with important witnesses who have yet to be called, including Cohen and Daniels.

One of the most pivotal pieces of evidence disclosed to jurors this week was a recording of a meeting between Trump and Cohen before the 2016 election in which they discussed a plan to purchase the rights to McDougals story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougals story to bury it on Trumps behalf.

At one point, Trump can be heard saying: What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

In a victory for Trump just as court was ending for the week, Judge Juan M. Merchan denied a request by prosecutors to ask Trump, should he choose to testify, about being held in contempt of court for gag order violations in the case. Merchan said allowing it would be so prejudicial it would be very, very difficult for the jury to look past that.

Trump this week paid his $9,000 fine for violating the gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.

His attorney, Todd Blanche, told the judge Friday they are appealing the finding that Trump violated the gag order. Blanche said that they took particular issue with penalties for what are known as reposts  instances where Trump shared someone elses post with his followers.
A left-wing Democratic group in Florida is demanding that the state party there cancel U.S. Sen. John Fettermans appearance at an event this weekend over his divisive rhetoric and abandonment of progressive values, citing his unapologetic pro-Israel stance.

On Wednesday, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida (DPCF) asked the state party to rescind the invitation to Fetterman to be the keynote speaker at the partys Leadership Blue conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., according to a statement shared on X/Twitter by a reporter from thebulwark.com.
By Brian Witte, The Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md.  Maryland plans to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in just over four years at an estimated cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, a state transportation official said Thursday.

The state plans to build a new span by fall of 2028, said David Broughton, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Transportation. He said the cost estimate is preliminary, and detailed engineering specifics have not been confirmed.

As salvage efforts continue, authorities also announced late Wednesday they had recovered the body of a fifth person who was missing after the bridges March 26 collapse, which shut down the port of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports in the country.

Six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths when a container ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridges supporting columns. The Key Bridge Response Unified Command announced that the victim found Wednesday was identified as Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland. All of the victims were Latino immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

We continue to pray for Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, his family and all those who love him, acknowledging the anguish they have experienced since the Key Bridge collapsed, Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement Thursday. We pray for comfort, we pray for healing, and we pray for peace in knowing that their loved one has finally come home.

Salvage teams found one of the missing construction vehicles Wednesday and notified the Maryland State Police, officials said. State police investigators and Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers and the FBI responded to the scene and recovered the body inside a red truck. The state police underwater recovery team and crime scene unit also assisted.

Meanwhile, the broker for the bridges insurance policy confirmed Thursday that a $350 million payout will be made to the state of Maryland in what is expected to be the first of many payouts related to the collapse.

Chubb, the company that insured the bridge, is preparing to make the $350 million payment, according to WTW, the broker. Douglas Menelly, a spokesperson for WTW, on Thursday confirmed plans for the payout, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Chubb did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The Maryland Transportation Authority said Thursday that the states treasurer filed a claim on the day of the bridges collapse against our $350 million property policy and put on notice our $150 million liability policy first tier carrier on behalf of MDTA.

We expect the full property policy to be paid very shortly, the agency said in a news release.

Maryland transportation officials noted that the states estimates for the cost to rebuild the bridge are in line with similar projects of this scale and complexity. Federal funding, insurance proceeds and other reimbursements will bring a variety of resources toward the rebuild and recovery effort, the officials said, and the state is pursuing other recovery options to minimize net cost to taxpayers and toll customers.

The Dali container ship has been stationary amid the wreckage since the collapse, but crews plan to refloat and remove the ship, allowing more maritime traffic to resume through Baltimores port. Officials expect to have it removed by May 10, according to a Port of Baltimore news release.

Salvage and demolition crews were still working around the clock to clear wreckage from the collapse site. Theyre now focused primarily on freeing the Dali from a massive steel span that came crashing down on the ships bow.

Flowers are seen at a memorial site to honor the construction workers who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP

That will allow the ship to be refloated and guided back into the Port of Baltimore. It will also allow most maritime traffic to resume through the busy East Coast port.

On Thursday morning, crews were preparing for a controlled demolition that will break down the largest remaining span and send it tumbling into the water. Then a massive hydraulic grabber will lift the resulting sections of steel onto barges.

The hydraulic grabber, which officials have called the largest in the country, was also in motion Thursday morning. Moving ever so slowly, the giant claw descended into the depths of the Patapsco River and emerged with a steel beam in its trusses. It was operating in tandem with the Chesapeake 1000, one of the largest cranes on the Eastern Seaboard.

Associated Press journalists Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, and Lea Skene in Baltimore, contributed to this report.
A new exhibit at.the State Museum of Pennsylvania features the work of a late Harrisburg-based artist who chronicled scenes in all 67 Pennsylvania counties for a U.S. bicentennial project completed unveiled in 1976.

Pennsylvania in Watercolor: Revisiting Nick Ruggieris Bicentennial Series, showcases the county-by-county series of paintings the artist began in 1970.

The series was commissioned by The Patriot News to commemorate Pennsylvania places for the countrys bicentennial celebration.

Ruggieris water colors and oil paintings are a snapshot in time of Pennsylvanias rural, small town and industrial landscapes from battlefields and town squares to historic mansions, barns, bridges and coal fields.

Ruggieri travelled to all the counties to paint a representative scene he chose for each one  an octagonal schoolhouse in Chester County, a circular barn in Fulton County and the state Capitol in Dauphin County, among them.

Its a time capsule of the 1970s, said exhibit curator Amy Hammond. You could walk up and see some of the places that are just the same while others are completely gone.

The exhibit features 52 paintings from 49 counties. Not all the county paintings are included because of space and some of the artwork is undergoing conservation.

The paintings help connect people to their communities, said Hammond, ticking off some of the landmarks featured in Ruggieris artwork, including Independence Hall in Philadelphia and architect Frank Lloyd Wrights masterpiece, Fallingwater in Fayette County.

Exhibit at the Pennsylvania State Museum celebrates the bicentennial series by the late artist Nick Ruggieri.Pennsylvania State Museum

Ruggieri, who was born in Italy, spent most of this life as an artist and educator in the Harrisburg area, including more than 40 years as a commercial artist working in newspapers. He retired in 1980 as art director of the Patriot News.

He really did show his admiration for Pennsylvania the way he painted it, said Hammond, who urged visitors to study the details in the paintings. Thats where you see his masterwork.

Ruggieri was active in the Scholastic Arts Awards, a president of the Art Association of Harrisburg, and founder of the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society.

The exhibit runs through June 16. On May 5, at 2:00 p.m., the State Museum will host an informal discussion with Rosemary Baer, Nick Ruggieris daughter and Peter Durantine, an area writer familiar with Ruggieris work.
A Philadelphia police officer shot and killed a dog after it and three others attacked a man on Wednesday.

The incident occurred around 10:16 a.m. along the 3900 block of Fairmount Avenue, according to reports from 6ABC and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The officer was on patrol when someone pointed out several dogs -- a cane corso and three pit bulls -- were running loose nearby, police said.

The officer then saw a 53-year-old man get attacked by the dogs.

A video cited by both news outlets purportedly shows several people attempting to help the man as he is dragged to the ground but being forced back by the dogs.

The officer attempted to use a siren to scare the dogs away but was unsuccessful.

The officer then got out of his vehicle and fired his gun several times at the cane corso, police said, killing it. The three pit bulls then ran away.

The man, who had bite wounds all over his body according to 6ABC, was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition.

Police said they do not know who owns the dogs or why they were running loose.

Its important to know where are they coming from, are they often loose? Are they never loose? Is this a rare occasion? Making sure to talk to the owner, just find the owner and figure out the details of it and also, for the victims sake, were they vaccinated? Were they not? Sarah Barnett, the executive director of ACCT Philly, said to 6ABC.

I feel terrible for the individual who is injured. I feel terrible for the police officer who went through having to shoot a dog ... and I feel bad for the dogs too, Barnett said.

The officer has been put on administrative leave while the investigation into the incident proceeds.
Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of the Pennsylvania State Police gathered early Thursday evening for a ceremony at the state police headquarters to honor fallen trooper Jacques F. Jay Rougeau Jr. and others who sacrificed their lives while on duty.

Today marked the 119th anniversary of the department as Governor Shapiro and many state troopers gave remarks about the life of Trooper Rougeau.

In June 2023, Rougeau had been assigned to Troop G, Lewistown Station. He was fatally shot after serving three years with the state police. Rougeau had responded on his day off to join in the search for a gunman near Mifflintown when he was killed on June 17, 2023.

Colonel Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, presented Rougeaus widow with the Pennsylvania State Police Cross during the ceremony. This award is given to the next of kin of the fallen troopers family whose lives were taken under honorable circumstances in the performance of duty.

In addition, a plaque with Rougeaus name has been added to the Pennsylvania State Police memorial wall with 104 names.
NEW YORK  Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of U.S. universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies.

The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses across the nation since April 17. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.

Deals included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime U.S. ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the war grinds on in Gaza.

The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major step on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.

I think for some universities, it might be just a delaying tactic to diffuse the protests, said Ralph Young, a history professor who studies American dissent at Temple University in Philadelphia. The end of the semester is happening now. And maybe by the time the next semester begins, there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Some university boards may never even vote on divesting from Israel, which can be a complicated process, Young said. And some state schools have said they lack the authority to do so.

But Young said dialogue is a better tactic than arrests, which can inflame protesters.

Talking at least gives the protesters the feeling that theyre getting somewhere, he said. Whether they are getting somewhere or not is another question.

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israels critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters were caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers  some of whom are Jewish  have called it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

The University of Minnesota reopened Thursday after administrators said they reached an agreement to end an encampment in the heart of the Minneapolis campus.

Interim President Jeff Ettinger said demonstrators agreed not to disrupt final exams or commencements. In return, student organizations can address the universitys board at a meeting next week, where protesters are expected to demand divestment from Israel.

While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by todays progress, Ettinger said in a statement.

Demonstrators at Rutgers University  where finals were paused due to the protests on its New Brunswick campus  similarly packed up their tents Thursday afternoon. The state university agreed to establish an Arab Cultural Center and to not retaliate against any students involved in the protest camp.

In a statement, Chancellor Francine Conway noted protesters request for divestment from companies doing business with Israel and for Rutgers to cut ties with Tel Aviv University. She said the the request is under review, but such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope.

Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island agreed to dismantle their pro-Palestinian encampment Tuesday. School officials said students could present arguments to divest Browns endowment from companies contributing to and profiting from the war in Gaza.

In addition, Brown President Christina Paxson will ask an advisory committee to make a recommendation on divestment by Sept. 30, which will be put before the schools governing corporation for a vote in October.

Northwesterns Deering Meadow in suburban Chicago also fell silent after an agreement Monday. The deal curbed protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.

The arrangement drew dissent from both sides. Some pro-Palestinian protesters condemned it as a failure to stick to their original demands, while some supporters of Israel said it represented cowardly capitulation.

Seven of 18 members subsequently resigned from a university committee that advises the administration on addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and expressions of hatred on campus, saying they couldnt continue to serve with antisemitism so present at Northwestern in public view for the past week.

Michael Simon, the executive director of an organization for Jewish students, Northwestern Hillel, said he resigned after concluding the committee could not achieve its goals.

Faculty at Pomona College in California voted in favor of the school divesting from companies they said are funding Israels war in Gaza, a group of faculty and students said Friday.

The vote Thursday is not binding on the liberal arts school of nearly 1,800 students east of Los Angeles. But supporters said they hope it would encourage the board to stop investing in these companies and start disclosing where it makes its investments.

This nonbinding faculty statement does not represent any official position of Pomona College, the school said in a statement Friday. We will continue to encourage further dialogue within in our community, including consideration of counterarguments.

Meanwhile, arrests of demonstrators continued elsewhere.

About a dozen protesters who refused police orders to leave a tent encampment at New York University were arrested early Friday, and about 30 more left voluntarily, according to NYU spokesperson John Beckman. The school asked the New York Police Department to intervene, Beckman said.

NYPD officers also cleared an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village on the request of school administrators. No arrests were announced.

Authorities said a further 132 protesters were arrested when police broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the State University of New York at New Paltz starting late Thursday. And nine protesters were arrested at the University of Tennessee, including seven students who Chancellor Donde Plowman said would also be sanctioned under the schools code of conduct.

The student protest movement began April 17 at Columbia University, where student protesters built an encampment to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.

More than 100 people were arrested late Tuesday when police broke up the Columbia encampment. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside Hamilton Hall during that operation, but no one was injured, NYPD said late Thursday.
The United Methodist Church has taken a bold stand to repeal its ban on LGBTQ+ clergy, and the move is likely to have a significant impact on dozens of churches in our region. Thats a good thing.

The decision leaders of the UMC took during their General Conference in Charlotte could save the denomination in Pennsylvania and beyond. Now, more people are likely to feel welcome walking through the doors of UMC churches, especially walking into those that call themselves affirming.

Thats the term the Rev. Kris Sledge, the young pastor of the Journey Church in Harrisburg, used in describing his congregation. The church he started with the Rev. Deb Port recently celebrated its 5th anniversary, and its seats were packed for two services.

You saw something at The Journey many churches would envy. Kids were running around the hallways, and young adults, even teens joined in the singing. Its not that way at many United Methodist Churches in our region. And its no secret that many of the denominations churches have aging congregations with few younger people engaged in worship. Many of their pews are empty on Sunday mornings.

The Rev. Deb Port is one of the founding pastors of The Journey Church in Harrisburg. She spoke at its recent 5th anniversary celebration.Joyce M. Davis

The Journey is among those in the UMC pointing a way to change that.

The new church emerged from a tumultuous time only a few years ago when the denomination closed most of its churches in the City of Harrisburg and sold off their properties. The signs were clear; most of the churches were dying. The dwindling congregations of the closed churches were invited to consolidate, but most were unwilling to accept the kind of changes that the UMCs leadership has now confirmed.

To be clear: no UMC church is being forced to accept LGBTQ clergy or to allow same-sex weddings. But no church is being forbidden from doing so, either.

Churches like The Journey are embracing the change. It transformed its style of worship, livened up the music, and even pulled out the pews to create a new, more relaxed atmosphere.

But more than the superficial changes, the Journeys pastor and congregation represent a new attitude toward the community. They welcome everybody, intentionally reaching out to people of different races and ethnicities; as well as to people in the LGBTQ+ community.

The historic Grace United Methodist Church on State Street in Harrisburg has done the same to be more inclusive and welcoming. Its congregation even put up a giant sign in the sanctuary apologizing to the LGBTQ community for past mistakes that hurt and excluded many people.

Thats a step too far for many churches who have decided to leave the UMC over this very issue. In the past year, more than 7000 churches have left the denomination, tired of fighting the changes they saw coming. The split has been playing out over the past year here in Pennsylvania, as well.

Members of the congregations that departed believe homosexuality is a sin, and many have united under the new Global Methodist Church. And more churches in the United States and around the world may decide to leave after the General Conferences decision to repeal the ban on LGBTQ clergy.

But something even better could emerge from this turmoil. The new UMC could become a stronger body of believers united in their determination to reach more people with their message of Christianitys universal love.

That would be a good thing for both the church, our communities, and the world. We wish them well.

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Every year, PennLive provides several photo galleries of students unique styles across the commonwealth but for a second year in a row viewers will have the chance to catch it all live here at PennLive.com.

This event gives parents, grandparents or even family friends the opportunity to check out their students stylish outfits live as they make their way into prom for the 2024 season.

The PennLive red carpet livestream event is back again as the weekend kicks off Friday night at the Penn Harris Hotel for the Central Dauphin high school prom.

On Saturday, we are back again at the Penn Harris hotel for the Cumberland Valley high school prom to end the weekend. PennLives Kaylyn Greene will be our host as she greets students dressed in their stylish attire.

You can subscribe to PennLive here and access more coverage of central Pennsylvania high school proms and much more, all year long.

Tune into our site later today and tomorrow for posts to watch both Central Dauphin and Cumberland Valleys red carpet live.
A Maryland man with an active felony warrant for sexual assault was arrested Thursday at the Peace Bridge border-crossing, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Port of Buffalo.

Bereket Mengesha, 46, an Ethiopian citizen who is a lawful resident of the U.S., was turned over to the Buffalo Police Department and is currently being held by the Erie County Sheriffs Office, awaiting extradition.

Mengesha was entering the U.S. from Canada on a commercial bus returning to his residence in Maryland, according to officers. An inspection of Mengesha revealed the active warrant for strongarm rape of a minor with the Montgomery County Police Department, a first-degree felony in Maryland. Officers said they also discovered an additional charge for sexual abuse of a minor, also a felony.
Mystery Bounty Winner Crowned at EPT Monte Carlo

Sava Krink Live Events Assistant Copy link

The 3,000 Mystery Bounty event at Sporting Monte-Carlo, part of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo, was quite the ride. 743 entries created a prize pool of 1,274,988 in addition to 743,000 in bounties.

Adrian State seized the top spot and the trophy after a thrilling journey, collecting the top prize of 232,898 along with 45,000 in bounties. Despite starting the day second in chips and slipping to third at the final table, State battled through some tough hands early on. But he didn't back down. Instead, he fought tooth and nail, overcoming challenges one by one. Notably, he outlasted contenders like Jamie Flynn, who was making steady progress throughout.

Follow all the EPT Monte Carlo action Head to our live reporting hub

When they reached heads-up, Flynn and State briefly discussed an ICM deal. Flynn had almost double the chips of State, but State opted to play for the win, a decision that paid off. Just one hand later, he doubled up, and after a lengthy back-and-forth in the heads-up phase, he ultimately emerged victorious.

Although State is far from an unknown face at live stops, according to The Hendon Mob, this is also his biggest career win. Upon realizing his victory, he became very emotional and shared his joy with his friends.

Adrian State

3,000 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize (EUR) Bounties Total Earnings 1 Adrian State Romania 232,898 45,000 277,898 2 Jamie Flynn Ireland 145,530 15,000 160,530 3 Nicola Grieco Italy 103,950 14,000 117,950 4 Romain Lewis France 79,950 13,000 92,950 5 David McConachie United Kingdom 61,510 9,000 70,510 6 Mohamed Mehalleg France 47,310 47,310 7 Javier Fernandez Spain 36,400 33,000 69,400 8 Sergi Reixach Spain 28,000 27,000 55,000 9 Gediminas Uselis Lithuania 21,530 7,000 28,530

When it came to pulling bounties, Yiannis Liperis and Ghassan Bitar snagged the two largest ones, each worth 75,000, adding an extra payday as both players cashed in the event.

The player with the most bounties was Sylwester Fortuna with 11, his biggest draw being 10,000. Unfortunately, Fortuna couldn't make it to the final day as he finished 17th for 10,450.

In second place for most collected bounties was finalist Sergi Reixach with nine, two of them worth 10,000 each. Reixach went on to finish in eighth place.

EPT Mystery Bounty

16 players returned to the felt for Day 3 of the 3,000 Mystery Bounty. With all the top bounties already claimed on the previous day, the tournament was set to play out like a freezeout.

In the first two hours of play, seven players were eliminated, leading to the final table being reached. Mathieu Di Meglio, who started third in chips, finished in 11th place. Paul Runcan was the final table bubble.

Nicola Grieco

Nicola Grieco, who secured third place, showed impressive consistency throughout the tournament. He kicked off the day as the chip leader and held onto that position until the final three. Grieco's bold moves paid dividends, with few losses incurred. Widely seen as a favorite at the table, Grieco eventually exited in third place after gradually losing his chips to Flynn and State.

Jamie Flynn

Flynn, who finished second, dominated the final day by eliminating most of the players from the tournament and collecting their bounties. In total, he secured five bounties. Flynn consistently built a solid stack throughout the day, steering clear of any major errors or situations that could have jeopardized his chip count. One of his most memorable hands was likely when he had trips jacks against another player's trips jacks, securing victory with the better kicker.

The heads-up battle between Flynn and State lasted for nearly another hour. Both players displayed a strong determination, refusing to concede anything to the other and maintaining a fair and competitive spirit throughout the tournament. At various points, they were almost evenly matched in chips, highlighting the intensity of the competition. Ultimately, State emerged victorious, claiming the title much to his delight.

With that, PokerNews wraps up its coverage of the event. Stay tuned for further updates from Monte Carlo, including the conclusion of the EPT Main Event.

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Philipp Wenzelburger Rises Following Explosive Day 4 of EPT Monte Carlo Main

Matt Warburton Live Reporter Copy link

It was nothing short of an explosive Day 4 from start to finish in the PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo 5,300 Main Event.

It all began with a flurry of bustouts that saw 14 players hit the rail during the first level of play at Sporting Monte-Carlo. We've seen hero calls, a chip leader emerge from the ashes, and a bluff gone wrong that left one of the remaining 16 players with just a single big blind as chips were bagged and tagged.

The player who thrived the most in the madness was Philipp Wenzelburger, who was down to just 13 big blinds early in the day only to win three huge hands in a row to take the overall chip lead. Wenzelburger returned for only his second EPT Monte Carlo. In his first, at the 2016 EPT Monte Carlo, he gained a huge chip lead in the 1,100 FPS Main Event only to bust in 21st place, earning himself the nickname "German Train".

There looks to be no derailing the train this time. Wenzelburger had 6,545,000 chips at the end of Day 4, a significant lead over second place Jonathan Guedes, who bagged for 3,570,000.

Close behind Guedes is Jovan Kenjic in third with 3,255,000, followed by Natan Chauskin in fourth with 3,180,000, and Canadian crusher Jamil Wakil rounds out the top five with 2,470,000.

Tough competition also sits outside of the top five, including Adrian Mateos (2,405,000), who earned himself nearly a full double up at the end of the day when David Docherty triple-barrel bluffed only to run into Mateos' rivered full house, a confrontation that left Docherty with just a single big blind.

You know what they say... chip and a chair, and all that.

Adrian Mateos

Also among those still in the mix is Niclas Thumm (1,430,000), the streamer known as "Flushii" who mentioned that his friend has caught him talking in his sleep about winning the EPT.

PokerNews caught up with Thumm after the tournament and he's thrilled to be here.

"It feels very warming. I see all the same people around here that make me feel comfortable. It's amazing to be at another PokerStars event."

Here's how the chip counts look at the end of Day 4.

End of Day 4 Chip Counts

Rank Player Country Chips Big Blinds 1 Philipp Wenzelburger Germany 6,545,000 164 2 Jonathan Guedes Brazil 3,570,000 89 3 Jovan Kenjic Serbia 3,255,000 81 4 Natan Chauskin Belarus 3,180,000 80 5 Jamil Wakil Canada 2,470,000 62 6 Adrian Mateos Spain 2,405,000 60 7 Boris Angelov Bulgaria 2,395,000 60 8 Rania Nasreddine USA 2,135,000 53 9 Jonathan Pastore France 2,060,000 52 10 Francisco Benitez Uruguay 1,845,000 46 11 Derk van Luijk Netherlands 1,660,000 42 12 Niclas Thumm Germany 1,430,000 36 13 Jozef Cibicek Slovakia 1,400,000 35 14 Javier Caballo Spain 1,105,000 28 15 Nathan Tetart France 750,000 19 16 David Docherty United Kingdom 40,000 1

A Flurry of Bustouts

In what was a truly explosive start to Day 4, a total of 14 players hit the rail within the first level of play, many of those falling within the first half an hour.

It all started when Javier Caballo, currently 14th in chips, scored a double knockout in the very first hand of the day, eliminating both short stacked Maxi Lehmanski and not-as-short-stacked Enis Rouissi when his pocket tens held against their ace-x hands.

From there, the bustouts kept on coming. Birger Ohl, Matthias Lipp and Christophe Morbee fell moments later, then Aaron Olechnowicz ran into Jozef Cibicek's pocket queens, all within less than 20 minutes of play.

Bryan Paris then lost a flip and was knocked out by Rania Nasreddine, herself something of a dark horse in the competition who has been pushing around other players with an aggressive style throughout the day.

PokerNews spoke to Nasreddine when her table broke. She usually plays live poker over in the USA and is at only her second stop ever.

"I have to say, there's a class element that EPT brings to an event and it's amazing! It's been an honor to be here."

More and more players fell at the wayside, including Victor Castanedo, who made the first payjump of the day, out in 39th for 20,100.

By the first break, only 35 players remained.

Rania Nasreddine

Wenzelburger Rises to the Top

Wenzelburger is already guaranteed to walk away with a cash nearly double his overall live scores, at least 40,600, although it's likely he'll go a lot further.

Not bad for someone who says he is "not a professional poker player" but is "on holiday at the moment."

Speaking of his rise to the top, Wenzelburger said it happened in "a really short time, half an hour, I think, from the basement to the chip lead." He described the experience as an "amazing journey."

In one such hand, Wenzelburger held with his pocket nines to win a flip and knockout Danilo Velasevic, which brought his chip stack up by another million or so following an already hot run.

Of course, his victory is by no means a given, which Wenzelburger himself recognises.

"Everybody wants to be first. That's the problem!"

Philipp Wenzelburger

That Final Hand

David Docherty, who had the year of his life last year when he topped the Irish Open Main Event and went on to win the UKIPT Leaderboard, looked to be in a firm position to challenge his peers for the trophy as Day 4 drew to a close.

He was responsible for knocking out Alexander Seibt, aka "Wolfgang Poker", in 18th place, leaving just one more player to go before the tournament's temporary conclusion.

All eyes were on Table 2 for the final bustout of the night as Kenjic held to knockout Vladimir Troyanovskiy in 17th place, signalling that action was about to stop.

But over on the TV table a hand was still running. Mateos had pocket sixes out of position and was facing multiple barrels from David Docherty, who was running a bluff over several streets.

The river brought Mateos a full house with his sixes and he checked it to Docherty, who moved almost his entire stack into the middle. Mateos looked perplexed, but he'd hit the mother of all bluff catchers and wasn't going anywhere. He made the call, leaving Docherty to return for Day 5 with just a single big blind.

David Docherty

Still, Docherty is one of the 16 players who returned for Day 5, which got underway on Friday, May 3rd at 12 p.m. local time. Action resumed with 47 minutes left at Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante.

The outright winner is set to lock up 1,000,000 and the coveted PokerStars trophy.

PokerNews will be following the action as the Main Event plays down to the final table.

EPT Monte Carlo Trophy

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It was nothing short of an explosive Day 4 from start to finish in the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo 5,300 Main Event.

It all began with a flurry of bustouts that saw 14 players hit the rail during the first level of play at Sporting Monte-Carlo. We've seen hero calls, a chip leader emerge from the ashes, and a bluff gone wrong that left one of the remaining 16 players with just a single big blind as chips were bagged and tagged.

The player who thrived the most in the madness was Philipp Wenzelburger, who was down to just 13 big blinds early in the day only to win three huge hands in a row to take the overall chip lead. Wenzelburger returned for only his second EPT Monte Carlo. In his first, at the 2016 EPT Monte Carlo, he gained a huge chip lead in the 1,100 FPS Main Event only to bust in 21st place, earning himself the nickname "German Train".

There looks to be no derailing the train this time. Wenzelburger had 6,545,000 chips at the end of Day 4, a significant lead over second place Jonathan Guedes, who bagged for 3,570,000.

Close behind Guedes is Jovan Kenjic in third with 3,255,000, followed by Natan Chauskin in fourth with 3,180,000, and Canadian crusher Jamil Wakil rounds out the top five with 2,470,000.

Tough competition also sits outside of the top five, including Adrian Mateos (2,405,000), who earned himself nearly a full double up at the end of the day when David Docherty triple-barrel bluffed only to run into Mateos' rivered full house, a confrontation that left Docherty with just a single big blind.

You know what they say... chip and a chair, and all that.

Adrian Mateos

Also among those still in the mix is Niclas Thumm (1,430,000), the streamer known as "Flushii" who mentioned that his friend has caught him talking in his sleep about winning the EPT.

PokerNews caught up with Thumm after the tournament and he's thrilled to be here.

"It feels very warming. I see all the same people around here that make me feel comfortable. It's amazing to be at another PokerStars event."

Here's how the chip counts look at the end of Day 4.

End of Day 4 Chip Counts

Rank Player Country Chips Big Blinds 1 Philipp Wenzelburger Germany 6,545,000 164 2 Jonathan Guedes Brazil 3,570,000 89 3 Jovan Kenjic Serbia 3,255,000 81 4 Natan Chauskin Belarus 3,180,000 80 5 Jamil Wakil Canada 2,470,000 62 6 Adrian Mateos Spain 2,405,000 60 7 Boris Angelov Bulgaria 2,395,000 60 8 Rania Nasreddine USA 2,135,000 53 9 Jonathan Pastore France 2,060,000 52 10 Francisco Benitez Uruguay 1,845,000 46 11 Derk van Luijk Netherlands 1,660,000 42 12 Niclas Thumm Germany 1,430,000 36 13 Jozef Cibicek Slovakia 1,400,000 35 14 Javier Caballo Spain 1,105,000 28 15 Nathan Tetart France 750,000 19 16 David Docherty United Kingdom 40,000 1

A Flurry of Bustouts

In what was a truly explosive start to Day 4, a total of 14 players hit the rail within the first level of play, many of those falling within the first half an hour.

It all started when Javier Caballo, currently 14th in chips, scored a double knockout in the very first hand of the day, eliminating both short stacked Maxi Lehmanski and not-as-short-stacked Enis Rouissi when his pocket tens held against their ace-x hands.

From there, the bustouts kept on coming. Birger Ohl, Matthias Lipp and Christophe Morbee fell moments later, then Aaron Olechnowicz ran into Jozef Cibicek's pocket queens, all within less than 20 minutes of play.

Bryan Paris then lost a flip and was knocked out by Rania Nasreddine, herself something of a dark horse in the competition who has been pushing around other players with an aggressive style throughout the day.

PokerNews spoke to Nasreddine when her table broke. She usually plays live poker over in the USA and is at only her second stop ever.

"I have to say, there's a class element that EPT brings to an event and it's amazing! It's been an honor to be here."

More and more players fell at the wayside, including Victor Castanedo, who made the first payjump of the day, out in 39th for 20,100.

By the first break, only 35 players remained.

Rania Nasreddine

Wenzelburger Rises to the Top

Wenzelburger is already guaranteed to walk away with a cash nearly double his overall live scores, at least 40,600, although it's likely he'll go a lot further.

Not bad for someone who says he is "not a professional poker player" but is "on holiday at the moment."

Speaking of his rise to the top, Wenzelburger said it happened in "a really short time, half an hour, I think, from the basement to the chip lead." He described the experience as an "amazing journey."

In one such hand, Wenzelburger held with his pocket nines to win a flip and knockout Danilo Velasevic, which brought his chip stack up by another million or so following an already hot run.

Of course, his victory is by no means a given, which Wenzelburger himself recognises.

"Everybody wants to be first. That's the problem!"

Philipp Wenzelburger

That Final Hand

David Docherty, who had the year of his life last year when he topped the Irish Open Main Event and went on to win the UKIPT Leaderboard, looked to be in a firm position to challenge his peers for the trophy as Day 4 drew to a close.

He was responsible for knocking out Alexander Seibt, aka "Wolfgang Poker", in 18th place, leaving just one more player to go before the tournament's temporary conclusion.

All eyes were on Table 2 for the final bustout of the night as Kenjic held to knockout Vladimir Troyanovskiy in 17th place, signalling that action was about to stop.

But over on the TV table a hand was still running. Mateos had pocket sixes out of position and was facing multiple barrels from David Docherty, who was running a bluff over several streets.

The river brought Mateos a full house with his sixes and he checked it to Docherty, who moved almost his entire stack into the middle. Mateos looked perplexed, but he'd hit the mother of all bluff catchers and wasn't going anywhere. He made the call, leaving Docherty to return for Day 5 with just a single big blind.

David Docherty

Still, Docherty is one of the 16 players who will return for Day 5, which commences on Friday, May 3rd at 12 p.m. local time. Action will resume with 47 minutes left at Level 25 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante.

The outright winner is set to lock up 1,000,000 and the coveted PokerStars trophy.

PokerNews will be following the action as the Main Event plays down to the final table.
Day 5 of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour 5,300 Main Event is underway, with 16 players returning to Sporting Monte-Carlo in pursuit of the title, trophy, and the 1,000,000 prize awaiting the champion.

Action begins at 12 p.m. local time, expected to conclude when the tournament reaches its final six players.

Day 4 started explosively, with 14 players eliminated in the first level of play, many within the first half-hour. At the forefront heading into the finale is Philipp Wenzelburger (6,545,000), who staged an impressive comeback from just 13 big blinds.

Following at a considerable distance is Jonathan Guedes, holding the second spot with 3,570,000 in chips. In close pursuit are Jovan Kenjic (3,255,000), Natan Chauskin (3,180,000), and Canadian player Jamil Wakil, ending the day with 2,470,000.

EPT Monte Carlo Main Event Chip Counts

Rank Player Country Chips Big Blinds 1 Philipp Wenzelburger Germany 6,545,000 164 2 Jonathan Guedes Brazil 3,570,000 89 3 Jovan Kenjic Serbia 3,255,000 81 4 Natan Chauskin Belarus 3,180,000 80 5 Jamil Wakil Canada 2,470,000 62 6 Adrian Mateos Spain 2,405,000 60 7 Boris Angelov Bulgaria 2,395,000 60 8 Rania Nasreddine United States 2,135,000 53 9 Jonathan Pastore France 2,060,000 52 10 Francisco Benitez Uruguay 1,845,000 46 11 Derk van Luijk Netherlands 1,660,000 42 12 Niclas Thumm Germany 1,430,000 36 13 Jozef Cibicek Slovakia 1,400,000 35 14 Javier Caballo Spain 1,105,000 28 15 Nathan Tetart France 750,000 19 16 David Docherty United Kingdom 40,000 1

Rania Nasreddine, the last woman standing, held the second-highest chip count on Day 2. However, she started Day 4 with one of the lowest chip stacks, but managed to climb back into the middle of the field. Nasreddine typically plays live poker in the USA and is only on her second tour stop.

David Docherty

David Docherty still clings to the chip-and-a-chair dream after losing almost his entire stack on the final hand of the previous day, attempting a bluff against Adrian Mateos. Docherty was left with just one big blind as the day concluded.

It was Docherty who dealt the final blow to Alexander Seibt, known as "Wolfgang Poker," eliminating him in 18th place, with only one more player remaining before the tournament's temporary conclusion.

Kenjic sealed the end of yesterday's proceedings by sending Vladimir Troyanovskiy to the rail in 17th place.

EPT Monte Carlo Trophy

All players have secured a minimum payout of 40,600, which increases to 48,800 after the first elimination of the day. Today's goal is to play down to the final six players, who will compete tomorrow to determine the champion. Currently, there are 47 minutes and 20 seconds left in level 25, with blinds set at 20,000-40,000 and a big blind ante of 40,000. After this level, the blinds will increase to 25,000/50,000.

You can catch all the live stream action, featuring cards-up coverage and commentary, on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels. PokerNews updates will be posted with a 30-minute security delay to align with the broadcast.

Keep following PokerNews for live updates as the tournament progresses towards the final table.
Jason Aken raised to 16,000 from early position and Kenny Allen three-bet to 50,000 on his left, with Aken making the call.

The flop came K104 and checked through.

The turn was the Q and Aken check-called a bet of 30,000 from Allen.

The river brought the 6 and a repeat of the action, with Aken this time check-calling a bet of 95,000 from Allen.

Aken turned over KQ for top two pair, but Allen tabled KK for top set of kings to take it down.
President Biden announced that he will be expanding Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients.

The White House said in a fact sheet:

Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administrations actions, todays final rule will remove the prohibition on DACA recipients eligibility for Affordable Care Act coverage for the first time, and is projected to help more than 100,000 young people gain health insurance. Starting in November, DACA recipients can apply for coverage through HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces, where they may qualify for financial assistance to help them purchase quality health insurance. Four out of five consumers have found a plan for less than $10 a month, with millions saving an average of about $800 a year on their premiums.



Todays rule also reinforces the Presidents enduring commitment to DACA recipients and Dreamers, who contribute daily to the strength and vitality of our communities and our country. On day one of his Administration, President Biden committed to preserving and fortifying the DACA policy. While only Congress can provide Dreamers permanent status and a pathway to citizenship, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to vigorously defend DACA against ongoing legal challenges and strengthened DACA by codifying the 2012 policy in a final rule.

In a statement, President Biden said, Nearly twelve years ago, President Obama and I announced the DACA program to allow our young people to live and work in the only country theyve called home. Since then, DACA has provided more than 800,000 Dreamers with the ability to work lawfully, pursue an education, and contribute their immense talents to make our communities better and stronger. Im proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed. Thats why Ive previously directed the Department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to preserve and fortify DACA. And thats why today we are taking this historic step to ensure that DACA recipients have the same access to health care through the Affordable Care Act as their neighbors.

HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra told PoliticusUSA why this rule change is important during a call with reporters, Dreamers as DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general US population and individuals without health insurance. I think we all know they are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings. They delay necessary medical care and they incur higher costs and deaths when they do finally seek care. So making Dreamers eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and well-being and strengthen the health and well-being of our nation and our economy.

The rule change will save lives and promote better health outcomes among DACA recipients. One of the reasons why a second Biden term will be important is that the President is seeking permanent status for Dreamers and a pathway to citizenship. There is no reason why Dreamers should not have been eligible for Obamacare.

Once again, President Biden is demonstrating his administrations commitment to improving peoples lives.

Biden is keeping his promises and showing what a good, thoughtful government can do to help people.

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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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Matthew Christian is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. He covers the Savannah River Site, city of Aiken, politics and public safety and courts.

Matthew previously covered government and politics for the Morning News in Florence. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law and the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

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Cade Klubnik passed for three touchdowns and Phil Mafah added two short touchdown runs as No. 10 Clemson rolled past Wake Forest 49-14 for its fifth straight win. The Tigers turned a couple of interceptions into touchdowns as they started to pull away with a 28-point second quarter. Klubnik threw for 309 yards and Mafah gained 118 yards on 20 carries. Wake Forest dropped its fourth consecutive home game. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier was limited to 126 passing yards with a pair of interceptions and two touchdown tosses before he was replaced midway through the third quarter. Read moreKlubnik and Mafah spark Clemson in a blowout win at Wake Forest
COLUMBIA  U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn was among nearly 20 Americans from all walks to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony May 3 from longtime friend President Joe Biden.

Clyburn was named along with 18 other individuals as recipients of the award tied to those who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors, a media release said.

These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better, Biden said in a statement. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.

Clyburn, 83, has represented South Carolina in Congress since 1993.

During the White House ceremony, Biden noted Clyburns decades of service to South Carolina and the country.

Were a great nation because of we have Jim and Emily Clyburn, Biden said, including the congressmans late wife in his praise.

Jim is the best, he added.

As a close friend of Biden, Clyburn is largely credited for delivering him the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 with his endorsement during the South Carolina presidential primary.

Clyburn stands as an icon of racial progress in South Carolina. Before becoming the first Black man elected to represent South Carolina in Congress since 1893 and, later, the first Black House Majority Whip in the history of Congress, Clyburn served as the chairman of his hometown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and played a key role in the election of Charleston City Councilman St. Julian Devines bid to become the first Black member of council since reconstruction.
COLUMBIA  A new Asian restaurant proposed for the location of a shuttered Five Points bar will not be allowed to stay open past midnight  a decision that came after vocal opposition from state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia.

Columbias Board of Zoning Appeals denied a request from restaurateur Yu Sing Tam to allow his proposed new Five Points restaurant to serve food and alcohol until 2 a.m.  past the standard midnight curfew  in a 4-1 vote at a May 2 meeting.

The new Asian eatery, Chicken Boom and Luna Kitchen, will be located at 724 Harden Street. The property formerly housed The Horseshoe, a staple Five Points bar which closed in 2019. The property has been vacant since then.

The extended hours would have allowed the restaurant to cash in on late-night diners leaving other Five Points establishments after closing, Tam said.

Members of the zoning board said letting the restaurant stay open later would lead to more late-night drinking and potential underage consumption.

The board invited Tam to reapply for the exception after a year of operating the restaurant under current restrictions to prove it could operate without underage drinking violations.

Harpootlian, a longtime state senator and attorney, attended the meeting to oppose the extension and suggest the yearlong waiting period before reapplying.

Who goes out at midnight to get food? Harpootlian said at the meeting. By the way, theres a Waffle House 200 yards away if you want food. People that come in at midnight are there to drink.

Tam emphasized at the meeting the restaurant will not primarily operate as a bar and said the business will implement I.D. scanners to cut down on underage drinking.
North Charleston City Council members held a town hall forum to discuss the state of education and schools with community members, as well as to gather the publics input on a referendum vote to split from Charleston County School District.

Council members Jerome Heyward, Rhonda Jerome, Mike Brown and community liaison William Leon led the May 2 forum, which around 30 community members attended. Some CCSD staff members were also in attendance, such as North Charleston High School principal Henry Darby and Jacqueline Hayes, associate superintendent for acceleration schools.

Heyward said that the potential separation of North Charleston from CCSD came as a result of council members touring schools last year and seeing the what was termed deplorable conditions of schools in the area.

Council members showed concern about students low test scores as well as school building conditions, infrastructure and facilities. Some of the schools discussed were North Charleston High School, RB Stall High School, Deer Park Middle School and North Charleston Elementary.

According to state report cards, these schools are rated below average or unsatisfactory in regard to the criteria needed to ensure students meet the profile of a South Carolina graduate.

Just take a tour at the schools yourselves. Just go look at them and then drive over the bridge and go to Mount Pleasant. You think this is fair? Heyward said. We want the community to decide what were going to do.

Community member Aaron Hicks, who is also a parent and CCSD graduate, said that he signed up to be a substitute teacher after hearing testimonies from North Charleston educators about their schools at a luncheon organized by his church, where they voiced frustration from lack of support and resources.

Im grateful for city councilmen and the mayor putting on this forum tonight because its a need for us to come together and push the school district, Hicks said. Its not only going to take council people and elected officials, its going to take the community. We have to show up.
ATLANTIC BEACH  Atlantic Beach leaders are trying to "subvert democracy" by preventing a new Town Council member from taking her seat, according to a complaint filed last week.

Town Councilwoman Carla Taylor, who was sworn in April 5, asserts that town officials are trying to prevent her from fully assuming her duties.

Taylor alleges she won't be allowed to participate in a May 6 council meeting, her first since being sworn in, because town officials have canceled orientation sessions without explanation, failed to reschedule them and failed to recognize her as councilwoman.

She has asked the court to force the town to acknowledge her position and to prohibit town officials from making it impossible for her to act in an official capacity.

"There are no proper reasons why she should not be recognized," Taylor's April 26 complaint stated. "Defendants are improperly preventing (her) from serving as a Town of Atlantic Beach council member to the present and future detriment of (her) and Atlantic Beach citizens."

In her complaint, Taylor names former Mayor Jake Evans, Town Manager Benjamin Quattlebaum, Mayor Pro Tempore Josephine Isom and Town Councilwoman Jacqueline Gore as those who have contributed to her plight.

"Defendants Evans, Gore, Quattlebaum, and Isom seek to improperly divest (Taylor) of her duly elected position and subvert democracy and the will of the citizens of Atlantic Beach by refusing to recognize her as an Atlantic Beach council member," the complaint stated.

Town Council members John David and Edward Campbell, as well as election commissioners Kenneth McIver, Caroline Gore and Derrick Stevens, are also included in the defendants' list, though Taylor does not claim that they have prevented her from being seated.
You know how Charlestonians get when they see snow falling? That was Pickens Rep. Neal Collins the morning Tropical Storm Helene arrived at his Easley home. He stood in his garage and shot video of the rain. I woke up before my 5am alarm with unexpected excitement, he posted on social medi Read moreScoppe: 'We are being manipulated by people who don't have our best interests at heart'
Just last month, New York held its presidential primary. Youre forgiven if you didnt know it. Unless youre a die hard voter, who never misses an election, ballot proposal or school board vote, you probably joined more than 95% of eligible voters who skipped it. Low turnout is nothing new in New York State and thats why we need to make more changes to convince voters to go to the polls.

One way to help voters feel like their voices are being heard is to tweak the system and impose term limits for our statewide elected leaders. Over the past year, Unite NY polled voters statewide and found 80% of them said they support term limits for our statewide offices.

That same polling shows only 10% of voters think were ahead of the curve when it comes to voting reforms. New York cant call itself progressive, when its one of just 13 states without any term limits for the office of governor. Thankfully, one local official has heard this call and has taken action.

Assemblymember Monica Wallace, who represents Cheektowaga and Lancaster, introduced common sense legislation that meets these demands for term limits, calling for the governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller, and attorney general to be limited to three terms. This bill will build on voting reforms already enacted by the state legislature, including mail-in and early voting.

Dont forget what happens when elected officials overstay their welcome. Since 2008, two governors, a lieutenant governor and even the state comptroller were all forced to resign thanks to corruption scandals, while a state attorney general resigned over allegations of abuse. If thats not a public service announcement for term limits, I dont know what is.

Term limits wont solve all the ills of state government, but are a smart first step to ensure more voters have access to better options and perspectives among our elected officials, not lifetime office appointments and career politicians. 12 years is more than enough time for our statewide elected officials to see their job through.

We need to make sure that there are more election reform champions who will give New Yorkers what they want. There is bipartisan support (the governor proposed it in her 2022 State of the State) and Republican leaders in Albany have also touted term limits). Now we need other legislators like Sen. Sean Ryan and Sen. George Borrello and Assemblymembers Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Mike Norris, to join their colleague Monica Wallace and give us one more reason to vote, by supporting and sponsoring term limits for New Yorks statewide elected officials.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
COLUMBIA  South Carolina lawmakers took a major step toward becoming the 25th state to ban gender transition health care for minors after the state Senate approved a House bill to do so.

After a lengthy debate May 2, Senate Republicans narrowly broke a Democratic filibuster, then passed the bill 28-8.

Supporters of the ban, which has become a major rallying cry on the right, said children should not be making decisions about medically transitioning until they are adults and cast doubt about the safety of gender transition procedures.

Male and female, he created them, Sen. Richard Cash, a Powdersville Republican who has been the driving force behind the bill, intoned from the Senate floor, invoking Genesis.

Its rooted in creation. Its rooted in the creator, and those that oppose that are, in some sense, opposing the nature of creation itself, he continued.

Opponents said drugs that pause puberty are safe and are only prescribed after significant deliberation. Decisions about whether to prescribe them should be left to patients, parents and doctors, they said.

The whole bill was a bad bill. I think it was an attack on children, an attack on parents, an attack on doctors, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, told reporters shortly after the vote. Let the children be who they are.

The bill heads back to the House as the Senate made several changes to the legislation the lower chamber passed 82-23 in January.

The bill would ban doctors from providing gender transition care, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender reassignment surgery, for minors. Doctors in South Carolina do not currently perform gender reassignment surgery on minors.

The measure would exempt the use of puberty blockers for those with sexual development disorders like de la Chapelle syndrome and precocious puberty, and their use to prevent imminent death or serious injury.
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Aclara Resources Inc. ("Aclara" or the "Company") (TSX:ARA) is pleased to announce that the Company has joined the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, encompassing a 10-principle-framework guiding responsible businesses around areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and links these actions to the objectives of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.United Nations Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, with over 24,000 companies participating in 160 countries. Aclara commits to incorporating the principles of the Global Compact into the Company's strategy, culture, and operations, and to participating in collaborative projects that promote the United Nations' sustainable development goals. "At Aclara, we believe that sustainable development is the path to the future. Our work ethic, along with the innovation we apply to promote a greener world, and the close collaboration with our communities reflect this commitment. We are a driving force for global decarbonization for building a better world. Today, we join the United Nations Global Compact to accelerate the pace towards sustainable development together," said Ramon Barua, CEO of Aclara.Aclara aims to be the cornerstone of a green revolution. Building a sustainable value chain that results in clean and traceable extraction of rare earth minerals, is a vital step for the development of electromobility and clean technologies aimed at decarbonizing the planet. The Company's patented "Circular Mineral Harvesting" process, pursuant to which heavy rare earths are extracted in a sustainable manner, prioritizes environmental responsibility and transparency. This closed-loop system offers several key environmental benefits:No explosives: Simple extraction requires only loading and hauling of the ionic clays.Low Carbon Footprint: No crushing or milling results in minimal energy usage.Eliminating Waste: No generation of any solid or liquid residues avoids the need for a tailings dam.Circular Economy Principles: Recirculation of up to 95% of the water used and 99% of a common fertilizer main reagent.Land Reclamation: Aclara proposes a sequential closure and a commitment to fully revegetate all the extraction zones at its projects.Aclara's commitment to environmental responsibility extends beyond the process itself. The Penco Module will use 100% recycled water, eliminating the need to tap into natural water sources. Furthermore, Aclara is committed to reforesting over 200 hectares at the Penco Module by planting native species and to promote conservation efforts. These practices ensure Aclara's DyTb production remains traceable and environmentally responsible, offering a reliable alternative to China's dominant rare earth supply chain.In recent years, Aclara has been internationally recognized for its innovations and attributes, in line with the principles of the Global Compact, including recognition by the Business Intelligence Group as a Sustainable Initiative in the 2022 Sustainability Awards and further ranked as among the 50 most sustainable companies in the world at the 2023 SEAL Awards.The UN Global Compact Commitments and ReportingLaunched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is a multi-stakeholder platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices. Companies that join commit to integrating the UN's Ten Principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption into their operations. Beyond this, the Global Compact aligns businesses with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, creating a shared roadmap for a sustainable future. Participation signifies a commitment to both sustainability and transparency, requiring annual reporting on progress towards these goals.Ten Principles of the UN Global CompactAbout AclaraAclara Resources Inc. (TSX:ARA) is a development-stage company that is focused on heavy rare earth mineral resources hosted in Ion-Adsorption Clay deposits. The Company's rare earth mineral resource development projects include the Penco Module in the Bio-Bio Region of Chile and the Carina Module in the State of Goias, Brazil.Aclara's rare earth extraction process offers several environmentally attractive features. Circular mineral harvesting does not involve blasting, crushing, or milling, and therefore does not generate tailings and eliminates the need for a tailings storage facility. The extraction process developed by Aclara minimizes water consumption through high levels of water recirculation, made possible by the inclusion of a water treatment facility within its patented process design. The ionic clay feedstock is amenable to leaching with a common fertilizer main reagent, ammonium sulfate. Furthermore, harmful levels of radionuclides, typical of hard rock rare earth deposits, are not concentrated within Aclara's processing flowsheet.In addition to the development of the Penco Module and the Carina Module, the Company will continue to identify and evaluate opportunities to increase future production of heavy rare earths through greenfield exploration programs and the development of additional projects within the Company's concessions in Brazil, Chile, and Peru.Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events, including, without limitation, statements with regard to management's commitment to continuing to build and develop an environmentally sustainable supply chain and anticipated outcomes resulting therefrom. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to risks related to operating in a foreign jurisdiction, including political and economic problems in Chile and Brazil; risks related to changes to mining laws and regulations and the termination or non-renewal of mining rights by governmental authorities; risks related to failure to comply with the law or obtain necessary permits and licenses or renew them; compliance with environmental regulations can be costly; actual production, capital and operating costs may be different than those anticipated; that the Company may be not able to successfully complete the development, construction and start-up of mines and new development projects; risks related to mining operations; and dependence on the Penco Module and/or the Carina Module. Aclara cautions that the forego
"The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia's continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond," Josep Borrell, the bloc's foreign policy chief, said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the 27 member states.

"The EU will not tolerate such malicious behaviour, particularly activities that aim to degrade our critical infrastructure, weaken societal cohesion and influence democratic processes," he added, referring to the June elections to the European Parliament.

Using similarly critical language, NATO called on Moscow to abide by its "international obligations" and stressed the alliance would "employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats."

Both put the blame on APT28, an acronym for Advanced Persistent Threat Actor 28, a cyber espionage group linked to Russia's military intelligence service (GRU).

In Germany, APT28 is accused of compromising e-mail accounts of members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the leading force in the ruling coalition. Berlin has already summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy.

"This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences," said Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

In the Czech Republic, the group is said to have targetted some state institutions by exploiting a "previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook," the country's foreign affairs ministry said on Friday. The interference began in 2023, it noted.

The publishing of findings by the two countries prompted the denouncing statements by the EU and NATO, which were released almost simultaneously.

The news comes amid a high-alert atmosphere in Eastern and Nothern Europe over the dangers posed by Russian hybrid warfare.

In recent days, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland have sounded the alarm about the jamming of GPS signals, which forced Finnish airline Finnair to suspend services to Tartu, a city in Estonia. The phenomenon is seen as a new attempt by the Kremlin to retaliate against sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

"These incidents are part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies," NATO said on Thursday. "This includes sabotage, acts of violence, cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations."
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MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Americas Generators, a leader in backup generator solutions, today announced an industry-first rapid customization service that delivers custom diesel generator sets to clients within just two weeks. This significant improvement in delivery times sets a new industry standard for speed and reliability in critical power supply.To achieve these faster customization speeds, Americas Generators has expanded its team, bringing in additional staff skilled in engineering and product management. Americas Generators increased the quantity of in-stock generators to over 300 to offer this just-in-time custom product. This expansion not only accelerates the customization process but also enhances the precision and quality of each tailored generator.Traditionally, obtaining a custom generator could span several months to over a year from design to delivery. Now, Americas Generators has reshaped the landscape, allowing customers to configure in-stock diesel generators to match specific needs in a fraction of the usual time.Eric Johnston, CEO of Americas Generators, highlights the impact of this initiative: "In our fast-paced world, reliable power is crucial. Our clients operate on tight schedules where delays can result in lost revenue and missed opportunities. By delivering custom generators in as little as two weeks, we provide not only rapid power solutions but also a competitive advantage and peace of mind." While many customizations can be completed in as little as two weeks, more complex adjustments may take longer. Factors such as highly specific technical requirements or the integration of advanced features can extend the customization timeline. Americas Generators is dedicated to transparency and will provide realistic timelines during the consultation phase, ensuring clients are well informed about their expected delivery schedule.Americas Generators' enhanced customization service caters to a wide range of industries, including construction, data centers, healthcare, and emergency services, ensuring that these sectors have access to power when it is most critical. With over 300 generators in stock, customers can select the required voltage, frequency, and additional features like trailers for mobility and external fuel tanks for extended operation.The lineup includes:Tier 4 Final Generators: These fully mobile and rental-grade generators meet stringent emissions standards and are ideal for environmentally sensitive areas.EPA Certified Generators: Compliant with EPA certification standards and UL2200 listed, these generators are designed for critical applications in healthcare, data centers, and industrial settings.Export Generators: Tailored for international markets, these units meet various regional requirements and offer reliable power solutions for global clients.Each generator is crafted with utmost precision, maintaining the high-quality standards that Americas Generators is renowned for. This ensures that, regardless of the location or compliance requirements, there is a suitable power solution available.For more information about the custom generator service, contact Americas Generators at:Website: www.americasgenerators.com Email: info@ gopower.com Phone: 305-592-6800With over 30 years of experience, Americas Generators continues to lead in providing dependable generator sets for global clients across commercial and industrial sectors, committed to ensuring uninterrupted power supply.Contact InformationYamile CarpioMarketing Managerycarpio@ gopower.com 3055926800SOURCE: Americas GeneratorsView the original press release on newswire.com
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V:BAY)(OTCQB:ATBHF) ("Aston Bay" or the "Company") advises that it has filed an amended Offering Document under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption, which reflects a correction to a date in Part 7. The Company also refiled its condensed interim financial statements for the nine months December 31, 2023 to reflect two corrections to Note 5 - Share Capital in respect of the warrants. The first correction was to a typographical error in the number of warrants issued on October 5, 2023, which was 31,297,375 instead of 13,297,375. The second correction was to reflect that the warrants expiring on December 31, 2023 had expired instead of being outstanding. Other than these changes, and the resulting change to the aggregate number of warrants outstanding, there were no other changes to the financial statements and the refiled financial statements replace and supersede the previously filed interim financial statements in respect of the same period filed on February 28, 2024.About Aston Bay HoldingsAston Bay is a publicly traded mineral exploration company exploring for high-grade copper and gold deposits in Virginia, USA, and Nunavut, Canada. The Company is led by CEO Thomas Ullrich with exploration in Virginia directed by the Company's advisor, Don Taylor, the 2018 Thayer Lindsley Award winner for his discovery of the Taylor Pb-Zn-Ag Deposit in Arizona. The Company is currently exploring the Storm Project property and Epworth property in Nunavut, as well as the high-grade Buckingham Gold Vein and critical metals prospects in central Virginia and is in advanced stages of negotiation on other lands with high-grade copper potential in the area.The Company and its joint venture partners, American West Metals Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tornado Metals Ltd. (collectively, "American West") have agreed to form a 20/80 unincorporated joint venture and enter into a joint venture agreement in respect of the Storm Project property, which hosts the Storm Copper Project and the Seal Zinc Deposit. Under such agreement, Aston Bay shall have a free carried interest until American West has made a decision to mine upon completion of a bankable feasibility study, meaning American West will be solely responsible for funding the joint venture until such decision is made. After such decision is made, Aston Bay will be diluted in the event it does not elect to contribute its proportionate share and its interest in the Storm Project property will be converted into a 2% net smelter returns royalty if its interest is diluted to below 10%.Further details are available on the Company's website at https://astonbayholdings.com/ The Company's public disclosure documents are available on www.sedarplus.ca Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer thomas.ullrich@astonbayholdings.com (416) 456-3516SOURCE: Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 22:46:04

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PARKERSBURG, WV / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Discovery World on Market is teaming up withFight4VetsandJan Dils, Attorneys at Law , to sponsor museum admission for military families with participation as a Blue Star Museum.About Blue Star MuseumsBlue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and participating museums across America offering free admission to the nation's active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve. The 2024 Blue Star Museums program begins on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 18, 2024, and ends on Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024. For a list of participating museums, visit arts.gov/bluestarmuseums "We are thrilled to be partnering with Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law, to sponsor museum admission for active-duty military families," says Wendy Shriver, executive director of Discovery World on Market. "As a registered Blue Star Museum, Parkersburg will be listed on the map as a destination for military families looking to visit our children's museum for free this summer," adds Shriver. "In addition, Jan Dils Attorneys at Law is expanding the reach to also cover admission for ANY veteran and their family of the armed services free admission to Discovery World on Market during this timeframe by showing their credentials," says Shriver."Our Veterans mean the world to us, and we are delighted to be able to give back by sponsoring free museum admission for our military families. This is a wonderful museum for children with fun exhibits and educational benefits for all," says Jan Dils, founder and CEO of Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law.The free admission program is available for those currently serving in the United States Military-Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force, members of the Reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and up to five family members. Qualified members must show a Geneva Convention common access card (CAC), DD Form 1173 ID card (dependent ID), DD Form 1173-1 ID card or the Next Generation Uniformed Services (Real) ID card for entrance into a participating Blue Star Museum.For a complete list of upcoming programs, classes, and events taking place at Discovery World on Market, visit our website at dwonmarket.org or check out our Facebook page.About Jan Dils, Attorneys at LawAttorney Jan Dils and her staff have helped thousands of individuals get the Social Security and Veterans Disability Benefits they deserve. As a highly rated personal injury attorney, Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law have helped many individuals fight back against insurance companies so their clients can receive the compensation they deserve.Fight4Vetsis the Veteran-specific practice of Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law.Since 1994, Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law has given back to the Mid-Ohio Valley. The firm is heavily involved with the Veteran Community. They often participate in the annual Parkersburg Veterans Day Parade and support local organizations focused on the advancement of Veterans. Each year the firm hosts an annual 5K race which provides funding for Operation Transportation, We Have Your Six, and the Jan Dils Scholarship for Veteran recipients and various other organizations.Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law has five offices in West Virginia, and one in Charlotte, NC, Jan Dils and her staff of over one hundred and fifty have the knowledge and power to help individuals get the disability benefits and personal injury compensation they deserve. They Won't Take No For An Answer. Call today for a Free Consultation at #304.428.8900. You can also visit them online atwww.jandils.comorwww.Fight4Vets.com Contact InformationJan DilsPhone: (304) 428 8900 info@ jandils.com SOURCE: Jan Dils, Attorneys at Law
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 23:10:57

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Leader in Primary and Behavioral Health for Post-Acute Care Facilities Increases Value-Based Care Expertise and Expands Service Areas to New StatesCHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Eventus WholeHealth ("Eventus"), a private equity-backed full-service, physician-led provider of interdisciplinary healthcare to individuals residing in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, announced today that it has acquired Premier Geriatric Solutions ("Premier"), a pioneer and market leader in value-based medical directorships, primary care and behavioral health services in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.The merged multispecialty group practice will have a total of more than 800 clinicians and employees providing integrated primary care, specialty care, and behavioral health services to more than 44,000 patients in long-term care facilities and will be the largest provider of integrated value-based care services.Premier Geriatric Solutions founder and CEO Bradley Goad, DO, is highly regarded as one of the physician pioneers in long-term care. The book he co-authored with Jamie Smith, Geriatric Notes Jones & Bartlett Learning, is considered by most to be the top reference book for geriatric primary care.Brent King, DO, founder and CEO of Eventus, stated, "With the establishment of our own Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), Eventus is poised to revolutionize Value-Based Care within LTC communities. Our goal is to enhance communication, streamline coordination of care, and integrate best practices throughout the care continuum. This initiative will not only improve efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability but also set a new standard for medical practice in the LTC space, fostering stronger, more collaborative partnerships within these communities." Established in 2020, Premier Geriatric Solutions quickly grew to become one of the largest integrated providers of primary care and mental health services to long-term care facilities in the state of Virginia. Most recently, it achieved the added success of being a top performer in value-based care Accountable Care programs.Dr. Goad said, "By joining two successful organizations, we will create one company better prepared to meet the increasing needs of our medically vulnerable patients while outperforming value-based care measures. I am excited to combine forces with Eventus to shape the future of long-term care." "We are excited to welcome Premier to the Eventus platform and, by extension, the Enhanced Healthcare Partners portfolio," said Matthew Thompson, Partner at EHP. "This is a bold step that reflects our ongoing commitment to Eventus' strategic growth and development plans." The combined entities will begin joint operations as Eventus while maintaining the celebrated Premier Geriatric Solutions brand. Premier founder and CEO Bradley Goad, DO, will serve as Chief Medical Officer, and Premier COO Holly Roy, PA-C, will lead clinical operations for the combined organization as the Vice President of Clinical Operations.About Eventus WholeHealthEventus WholeHealth, private equity-backed by Enhanced Healthcare Partners, was founded in 2014 to provide physician-led healthcare services for residents and patients of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. With our highly trained team of primary care physicians, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychotherapists, podiatrists, and support staff, our comprehensive, evidence-based model provides collaborative interdisciplinary care with the seamless and vital integration of a wide range of specialties. For more information, please visit www.eventuswholehealth.com Contact Information Samantha Frontera(847) 703-0529 sfrontera@ exclusivepr.biz Contact InformationSamantha Fronterasfrontera@ exclusivepr.biz 847-703-0529SOURCE: Eventus WholeHealthView the original press release on newswire.com
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 11:02:04

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Globe Life Inc. ("Globe Life" or "the Company") (NYSE:GL) and certain of its officers.Class Definition:This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Globe Life securities between May 8, 2019 and April 10, 2024, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/GL Case Details:According to the Complaint, Globe Life is an insurance company headquartered in McKinney, Texas, that offers a wide range of insurance products, including life insurance, mortgage protections, and supplemental health insurance. Globe Life operates five wholly owned insurance subsidiaries. The largest, by both premiums collected and number of sales agents employed, is American Income Life Insurance Company ("AIL").Throughout the Class Period, according to the Complaint, Globe Life touted its consistent revenue growth, particularly from AIL, which accounted for 50% of the Company's profits in 2022 and 2023. During the Class Period, Globe Life reported consistent premium revenue growth at the Company, led by consistent premium revenue growth at AIL. The Company also represented that its employees adhered to a Code of Conduct that expressly prohibited various forms of misconduct, and which required that all Globe Life employees comply with relevant laws and regulations, purportedly ensuring that the Company would maintain a workplace free from violence, threatening behavior, and illegal drugs.The Complaint alleges that as a result of Defendants' misrepresentations, shares of Globe Life common stock traded at artificially inflated prices throughout the Class Period.The truth emerged on April 11, 2024, when, according to the Complaint, investment research firm Fuzzy Panda published a report alleging that Globe Life had engaged in wide-spread insurance fraud, while permitting a culture of unchecked sexual harassment. Specifically, the report alleged that several Globe Life subsidiaries were underwriting policies for dead and fictitious people, as well as adding policies to existing users' accounts without their consent. In addition, the investment research firm uncovered evidence that the subsidiaries maintained a hostile workplace where sexual harassment, drug use, and sexual assault went unchecked - conduct that violated the Company's Code of Conduct.As a result of these disclosures, according to the Complaint, the price of Globe Life common stock declined $55.76, or 53%, from a closing price of $104.93 per share on April 10, 2024, to a closing price of $49.17 per share on April 11, 2024.What's Next?A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/GL or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Globe Life you have until July 1, 2024, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.There is No Cost to YouWe represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.Contact:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Nathan Miller,332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 13:00:54

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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / HNR Acquisition Corp (NYSE American:HNRA) (the "Company" or "HNRA") is an independent oil and gas company focused on the acquisition, development, exploration and production of oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin in New Mexico. Today, the Company announces its initial six-week results as an operating company beginning November 15, 2023, and for the year ended December 31, 2023.Prior to November 15, 2023, HNRA operated as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In accordance with GAAP, the reported results of operations prior to November 15, 2023 are that of the predecessor entity.Total revenues for the first six weeks ended December 31, 2023 were $2,975,661 for HNRA. The combined successor and predecessor total revenues were $27,214,142 for the year ended December 31, 2023, a 23% decrease from the predecessor total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2022 of $35,403,940. The decrease in revenues for 2023 was due primarily to lower production volumes as well as a reduction in market oil prices.Net Income for the six weeks ended December 31, 2023 was a loss of $9,001,202 and a combined loss for the year of $4,030,338. These results were impacted by one-time charges included in G&A and acquisition costs totaling $12.5 million. Net income (loss) per common share was ($0.77) on a full year combined results based on weighted average shares outstanding of 5,235,131."Following the acquisition, our team executed a plan focused on assessing the condition of field surface and subsurface assets. As a result, we found more work was needed to improve critical infrastructure - mostly flow line work - which is now underway. In addition, we found more oil reserves were in place than first believed, so we prepared a well work program to perforate and stimulate test wells to prove these reserves. This work is just now ready to begin this month", Joseph V Salvucci Sr, Chairman of the Board stated."HNRA's strategy involves optimizing effective drilling conditions and sustaining production growth which drives revenues and earnings," Dante Caravaggio, President and CEO stated. "Our successful water injection project in the Seven Rivers leads us to believe that, through enhanced oil production with technology, we can see a very healthy and increased cash flow. We also have the opportunity to optimize well-spacing through new completion techniques and oil recovery, which can also increase our cash flow and profits," he concluded."Although we recorded a Net Loss of approximately $4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, this included a one-time charge for acquisition costs of approximately $12.5 million. Without such a one-time charge, the Company would have instead seen positive Net Income.," Mitchell B. Trotter, CFO explained. "At the end of 2023, we introduced a two-year hedging program on pre-sold oil production. In 2024, we hedged 207,000 barrels of oil at a minimum of $70.00 a barrel and 180,000 barrels of oil at approximately $70.00 a barrel which will cover debt service requirements and operating expenses against oil price decreases. We believe this is a good financial position to be in at this time and should provide HNRA with a solid operating cash flow." "Since taking over operations in mid-November, we were met with many challenges that were not anticipated, but our management and field teams were able solve a number of these issues," Jesse Allen, Vice President-Operations said. "The resilience of our team enabled us to reengage our chemical vendor to restart scale and corrosion inhibition programs as well as perform several downhole acid cleanups on several of our wells resulting in production increases. Since November 2023, we have engaged a second oil rig to assist, repair and restart on a number of water injection wells, as necessary, and I am happy to say we have been able to maintain daily production. In addition, since our acquisition, we have identified an additional number of wells that need stimulation, which will increase production over the next few months," he concluded.About the Oil Field PropertyIn November 2023, the Company acquired LH Operating, LLC ("LHO") including its holdings in New Mexico of oil and gas waterflood production comprising 13,700 contiguous leasehold acres, 342 producing wells and 207 injection wells situated on 20 federal and 3 state leases in the Grayburg-Jackson Oil Field. The Grayburg-Jackson Oil Field is located on the Northwest Shelf of the prolific Permian Basin in Eddy County, New Mexico.Leasehold rights of LHO, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, include the Seven Rivers, Queen, Grayburg and San Andres intervals that range from as shallow as 1,500 feet to 4,000 feet in depth. The December 2023 reserve report from our third-party engineer, William H. Cobb and Associates, Inc. ("Cobb"), reflects LHO to have proven reserves of approximately 15.4 million barrels of oil and 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The mapped original-oil-in-place ("OOIP") in the LHO leasehold is approximately 876 million barrels of oil in the Grayburg and San Andres intervals and 80 million barrels in the Seven Rivers interval for a total OOIP of approximately 956,000,000 barrels of oil.Our primary production is currently from the Seven Rivers zone. In addition to proven reserves, the Company believes we may access an additional 34 million barrels of oil by adding perforations in the Grayburg and San Andres formations. With proven oil reserves of over 15 million barrels, combined with the potential 34 million additional barrels from the Grayburg and San Andres zones, LHO should produce oil and a revenue stream for more than two decades with a slow decline rate.About HNR Acquisition CorpHNRA is an independent upstream energy company focused on maximizing total returns to its shareholders through the development of onshore oil and natural gas properties in the United States. HNRA's long-term goal is to maximize total shareholder value from a diversified portfolio of long-life oil and natural gas properties built through acquisition and through selective development, production enhancement, and other exploitation efforts on its oil and natural gas properties. On November 15, 2023, HNRA acquired its operating entity, LH Operating, LLC, whose assets include interests in the Grayburg-Jackson oil field in the prolific Permian Basin in Eddy County, New Mexico.HNRA's Class A Common Stock trades on the NYSE American (NYSE American:HNRA) and a class of our public warrants trades on the NYSE American (NYSE American: HNRAW). For more information on HNRA, please visit the Company's website%3
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 22:30:26

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BROOKLYN, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / IEH Corporation (OTC Pink:IEHC) announced today that in the past 8 weeks it has booked over $5 million in new orders for its Hyperboloid connectors in support of various US military programs, as part of efforts to arm and support our overseas allies while replenishing our munitions and equipment inventory.Dave Offerman, President and CEO of IEH Corporation commented, "IEH is proud to support our nation's primary defense contractors in their efforts to equip and arm our allies, while providing a much-needed replenishment to our nation's munitions reserves. IEH's signature Hyperboloid connectors continue to be in great demand across the spectrum of platforms in which they are employed; missile defense, airborne radars, laser-guided munitions, aviation equipment, radios and more. In these times of heightened tensions in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, it is imperative that our nation's warfighters and those of our allies have the most advanced, reliable equipment available, and IEH's Hyperboloid interconnects are a vital element in those systems. On the heels of the funding recently approved by Congress, our Hyperboloid connectors will continue to see higher demand, and we stand ready to support our nation's defense and that of our valued allies." About IEH CorporationFor 80 years and 4 generations of family-run management, IEH Corporation has designed, developed, and manufactured printed circuit board (PCB) connectors, custom interconnects and contacts for high performance applications. With its signature Hyperboloid technology, IEH supplies the most durable, reliable connectors for the most demanding environments. The company markets primarily to companies in defense, aerospace, space and industrial applications, in the United States, Canada, Europe, Southeast and Central Asia and the Mideast. The company was founded in 1941 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995Certain statements contained in this press release, and in related comments by the Company's management, include "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical facts, including, without limitation, statements or expectations regarding our financial condition, statements or expectations regarding our revenues, cash and backlog, expectations regarding future cash requirements, revenue and revenue recovery, including for fiscal year 2024 and beyond, projected timelines for making our SEC filings or successfully preventing our registration from suspension or revocation and expectations regarding our efforts and ability to resolve our inventory accounting issues are forward-looking statements. These statements often include words such as "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," "will," "may," "would," "should," "could," or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These statements are based on certain assumptions that the Company has made on its current expectations and projections about future events. The Company believes these judgments are reasonable, but you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results, and you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company's actual performance or results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, both positive and negative, as they will depend on many factors about which we are unsure, including many factors beyond our control. Among other items, such factors could include: any claims, investigations or proceedings arising as a result of our past due Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") periodic reports, including changes in the proceedings related to the SEC's Order Instituting Administrative Proceedings and Notice of Hearing pursuant to Section 12(j) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; our ability to remediate our inventory accounting issue; our ability to reduce costs or increase revenue; changes in the macroeconomic environment or in the finances of our customers; changes in accounting principles, or their application or interpretation, and our ability to make accurate estimates and the assumptions underlying the estimates; our ability to attract and retain key employees and key resources; and other risk factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on October 6, 2023, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, we do not undertake or intend to update or revise our forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information or future events or developments. Thus, you should not assume that our silence over time means that actual events are bearing out as expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. You should carefully review and consider the various disclosures we make in our filings with the SEC that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect our business.Contact:Dave OffermanIEH Corporation dave@ iehcorp.com 718-492-4448SOURCE: IEH Corporation
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 15:52:34

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Indiana Toll Road to commence pavement improvements on both the east and west ends of the corridorELKHART, IN / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / ITR Concession Co. LLC (ITRCC), the operator of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR), is releasing its schedule for the Spring 2024 Pavement Rehabilitation Mill and Fill Project at locations on the western (mile marker 10 - 20) and eastern (mile marker 123 - 157) segments of the ITR. These projects will deliver improved pavement conditions within the regions that were most impacted by the severe winter freeze/thaw cycle in early 2024.ITR Concession Company LLC The project is scheduled to commence in early May and is expected to be largely completed prior to the Memorial Day holiday. Where possible, construction will be performed during non-peak travel times (8 p.m. to 8 a.m. ET) to limit customer inconvenience and delays. Motorists are encouraged to exercise caution and obey construction signage and posted speed limit reduction."Whilst road construction is necessary to ensure that our pavement conditions meet customer expectations, we also look to execute the work in a manner that minimizes motorist disruption and delays," said Rick Fedder, Chief Operating Officer of ITRCC.Additional pavement and bridge rehabilitation projects are currently under design within these regions, with construction expected to be completed in late 2024 and 2025.About the Indiana Toll RoadEstablished in 2006, ITR Concession Company LLC (ITRCC) responsibilities are detailed in the Concession and Lease Agreement with the Indiana Finance Authority, such as the construction, maintenance, repair, and operation of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road. Headquartered in Elkhart, the Toll Road spans northern Indiana, linking Chicago with the Eastern Seaboard. Designated as part of Interstate 80/90, the Toll Road serves as a vital transportation link in the Midwest.For current traffic and construction updates, visit www.indianatollroad.org or follow @IndianaTollRoad on Facebook or X (Twitter).Contact InformationYvette LeyvaCommunications Specialistyleyva@ indianatollroad.org 5742614028SOURCE: ITR Concession Company LLCView the original press release on newswire.com
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 21:55:12

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NASHVILLE, TN / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Gaylor Electric is excited to announce that Jen Stutzman, the company's first female General Superintendent, has been honored by Construction Dive Magazine as a construction champion for 2024. This recognition was announced during National Women in Construction Week.Jen Stutzman's recognition by Construction Dive Magazine celebrates her remarkable journey in electrical construction, spanning over 15 years. Starting as a young apprentice at Gaylor Electric, Stutzman's journey to becoming the company's inaugural female General Superintendent highlights her commitment to excellence in an industry that's been historically dominated by men.As a jobsite leader, Jen Stutzman manages multiple responsibilities, promoting collaboration among craft crews, supervisors, colleagues, and clients. Her deep understanding of various trades ensures clarity in project scope and responsibilities, facilitated by meticulous planning, scheduling, and organizational skills crucial for meeting deadlines and visualizing completed work prior to installation.Stutzman's leadership extends to managing field supervisors and lead persons, ensuring adherence to proper work practices that promote production. She oversees the proper usage of tools, materials, and equipment, conducting routine inspections to verify accurate and timely installations. Her proficiency in reviewing construction plans, shop drawings, and interpreting complex diagrams demonstrates her comprehensive grasp of all relevant codes, including NEC, state, and local regulations.Safety is paramount under Jen Stutzman's guidance as she enforces jobsite safety requirements and prioritizes OSHA compliance, emphasizing the well-being of the workforce. Her effective communication with project leadership cultivates seamless collaboration with project partners, and customersBeyond technical expertise, Stutzman challenges stigmas as one of the few females in this craft leadership role, consistently exceeding expectations and proving that dedication and competence transcend gender biases. Her journey serves as an inspiration, showcasing how women can thrive in construction through industry knowledge, skills, compassion, and strength - developing a positive work environment grounded in teamwork and support.While commenting on Stutzman's milestone, Gaylor Electric CEO Chuck Goodrich said, "Jen Stutzman's recognition by Construction Dive Magazine marks a progressive shift within the company and the industry as a whole. By celebrating Jen's achievements, we celebrate the potential for every individual, regardless of gender, to leave a mark on the construction industry." Mr. Goodrich added, "Jen's Story is an inspiration for women aspiring to define their paths in construction, reaffirming the importance of developing a diverse workforce." Gaylor Electric delivers on their Cornerstone of Reliable Resources, Outcomes, Insights and Genuine Care for People; dedicated to Innovation, Quality and being Measurement-Centric accountable. The organization is comprised of multiple national production and innovation-driven locations that provide innovative industry expertise, and client-focused solutions. As the Highest Performing National Contractor of Excellence, Gaylor Electric offers design-build electrical construction, 24/7 on-demand electrical support, and utility service. Their teams provide an unparalleled commitment to cultivating strong business relationships, resulting in continued client loyalty nation-wide. Visit Gaylor.com for more information.Contact: Gaylor.com Michael Krauter mkrauter@ gaylor.com 317-832-2290SOURCE: Gaylor Electric
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 04:50:57

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NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2024 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until June 24, 2024to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), if they purchased or otherwise acquired the Company's securities between November 4, 2020 and November 2, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Lincoln National and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-lnc/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court byJune 24, 2024 .About the LawsuitLincoln National and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On November 2, 2022, post-market, the Company released its 3Q 2022 financial results, disclosing a net loss of $2.6 billion for the quarter, compared to a net income of $318 million for the third quarter of 2021 the previous year, due to "net unfavorable notable items of $2.0 billion, or $11.62 per share, related to the company's annual review of DAC and reserve assumptions," and that the Company "incurred a $634 million goodwill impairment to the life insurance business." On this news, the price of Lincoln's shares fell by $17.27, or 33.2%, to close at $34.83 per share on November 3, 2022, on unusually heavy trading volume.The case is Meade v. Lincoln National Corporation, et al., No. 24-cv-01704.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com Contact:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partner lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com 1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 15:00:51

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Mairs Family Dentistry is proud to announce that they have been awarded the esteemed "2024 Best of Mile High" Award in the Family Dentist category. This recognition is a testament to the exceptional service and care provided by Mairs Family Dentistry to the Denver community.ARVADA, CO / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / The Best of Mile High holds an annual "Best of" poll where communities get to vote on who they believe is the best in a given category. Mairs Family Dentistry was honored to be nominated and thrilled to win for " Best Family Dentist of 2024".Dr. D and Dr. N Dr. Daren and Dr. Nichole in scrubs in front of the office buildingUnlike traditional awards programs, Best of Mile High stands out by offering free participation, stringent fraud prevention measures, consideration of online reviews, and evaluation of Better Business Bureau ratings. This unique approach ensures that winners are truly the best in their respective categories.Mairs Family Dentistry has distinguished itself through its comprehensive range of dental services, including preventive care, restorative treatments, cosmetic dentistry, and emergency services. The practice is known for its state-of-the-art facilities, experienced dental team, and dedication to patient comfort and satisfaction.The "Best Family Dentist" award is a reflection of the trust and confidence that the community has placed in them, recognizing their dedication to delivering exceptional results, unparalleled patient experiences and the best dentistry possible.Gratitude from Our Mairs Family Dentistry TeamDr. Daren Mairs extends his appreciation to the communities."Our team is dedicated to helping patients achieve healthy, beautiful smiles while ensuring a relaxed and stress-free experience. To be recognized by our community as the best family dentists is truly an honor. It pushes us to keep challenging the way dentistry should be done." This sentiment expressed by Dr. Daren Mairs resonates deeply within the entire team as each member shares in the joy and gratitude of being voted the best family dentist.Unrivaled Comprehensive Family DentistryUnderstanding that each patient has unique dental needs and desires is why they offer a wide range of treatments. Botox treatments that enhance facial aesthetics to, Invisalign procedures that straighten teeth discreetly, Oral sleep appliances that offer relief to snorers or CPAP users, their practice is equipped to address a diverse array of concerns.Their success in family dentistry is further validated by the countless testimonials from their patients.The library of patient testimonials speak volumes about the positive impact that Mairs Family Dentistry has had on the lives of their patients, reinforcing the commitment to delivering the best care with compassion and professionalism.Trusted by the CommunityWith nearly 400 5-star reviews, Mairs Family Dentistry has earned the trust and confidence of our community since our inception in 2010.A comprehensive range of services, including general dentistry, restorative procedures, cosmetic enhancements, oral surgery, and cutting-edge technologies, makes them the preferred choice for all dental needs.Our win for "Best Family Dentist" not only celebrates our excellence in family dentistry but also underscores our unwavering commitment to community-centric care, continuously transforming smiles, and elevating patient experiences.As Mairs Family Dentistry celebrates its triumph, the practice extends its heartfelt gratitude to the community for their unwavering support and trust. With a steadfast commitment to delivering exceptional care and creating beautiful, healthy smiles that enrich lives and inspire confidence, Mairs Family Dentistry invites individuals to join them on their journey towards dental excellence.Contact InformationSara SandersOffice Managersarasanders30@ live.com 3034203310Saren MairsDentist, Presidentdarenlamirs@ gmail.com 3034203310Nichole MairsDentistnichole.mairs@gmail.com 3034203310Related Files2024BestOfMileHigh_winner_SMpost0e99a562-b5c3-4726-b811-68c5a41d3a73SOURCE: Mairs Family DentistryView the original press release on newswire.com
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 06:30:31

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New Expert Advisor Utilizes Advanced Grid Trading Strategy to Enhance Trading Efficiency and ProfitabilityDUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / In an exciting development for forex traders and financial technology enthusiasts, Avenix Fzco has officially launched Majestic EA, its state-of-the-art Expert Advisor for the MetaTrader 5 platform. This innovative trading software is designed to revolutionize the way traders engage with forex markets, offering an advanced grid trading strategy combined with superior automation capabilities.Majestic EA's introduction into the market comes at a time when traders are increasingly seeking automated solutions that can offer precision, reliability, and ease of use. The software's grid trading approach allows for the execution of multiple trading positions at varying price levels, providing significant opportunities for profit while managing potential risks. This method proves especially effective in capturing gains in a fluctuating forex environment.Majestic EA, an advanced forex robot for MetaTrader 5, features several key functionalities to enhance forex trading. It operates 24/7, ensuring that no profitable trading opportunities are missed due to downtime. Additionally, it offers customizable strategies, allowing traders to adjust trading parameters and risk levels according to their individual preferences and goals. The system also performs real-time market analysis, automatically adapting its strategies to optimize trading effectiveness in response to market conditions.The launch is accompanied by a promotional offer, slashing the price of Majestic EA from $8,000 to $4,000. This initiative is aimed at making advanced trading technology accessible to a broader audience, from novice traders to seasoned professionals. More details can be found here.Majestic EA is more than just a tool; it represents a pivotal shift in automated forex trading. By handling complex trading strategies and decision-making processes, Majestic EA allows traders to focus on refining their strategies and scaling their trading operations.About Avenix FzcoAvenix Fzco is a leader in developing forex trading solutions that combine innovation with user-friendly interfaces. The company is dedicated to providing tools that traders of all levels can use to increase their trading accuracy and efficiency. For more information about Majestic EA, visit majesticea.com Media ContactOrganization: Avenix Fzco Contact Person: Robert Swanton Website: https://majesticea.com/Email: support@ majesticea.comCity: Dubai State: Dubai Country: United Arab EmiratesSOURCE: Avenix Fzco
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 16:01:12

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / When considering home improvements, such as swapping out kitchen cabinets or building an inground pool, it's best to think about how these changes could affect the resale value of a home. While some upgrades may enhance the appeal and value of a property, others may not ensure a significant return on investment.Understanding which renovation projects might not increase resale value may prevent individuals from draining their savings or applying for home improvement loans if they don't need to. Here are some common examples below:1. Custom WallpaperAny type of unique customization could alienate potential buyers when a home is put up for sale. Custom wallpaper is one example of this. Even if it might look great to the current homeowners, prospective buyers may want to replace it, which could lower the price they're willing to pay.2. Creative Landscaping ProjectsEdward Scissorhands created some fun shrubbery figures that attracted spectators from miles around, but he was a character in a movie. Topiary animals and funky landscape designs may be more likely to turn off potential buyers than increase resale value. It's better to go with a well-manicured lawn and simple hedges. They're cheaper to maintain and likely to appeal to a wider audience.3. Swimming Pools and Hot TubsThe cost of installing a swimming pool or hot tub is high, and neither is guaranteed to significantly increase a home's resale value. However, adding these water recreation features can increase overall maintenance costs, potentially making these additions a hindrance when the homeowner attempts to sell the house. Prospective buyers may not want to take on the burden of that expense.4. Converting the Garage into a Living AreaGarages where homeowners can park their cars and/or store tools and equipment are one of the features home buyers commonly seek out, especially in colder climates that get snow in the winter. Converting a garage into a living space or office removes it from the "features" list homebuyers look for.5. Four-season Sunrooms and SolariumsAdding a four-season sunroom or solarium to a home may be a nice benefit while living in it, but it may not increase the resale value. The homeowner may pay much more for the renovation than they could recoup during the selling process. Sunrooms are also a feature that potential buyers may not be looking for.The Bottom LineHomeowners should carefully assess the potential return on investment before embarking on costly renovations. Prioritizing upgrades that enhance functionality, energy efficiency, and overall appeal without overspending on extravagant or overly personalized features may maximize the chances of a profitable resale. By avoiding these common pitfalls, homeowners can make informed decisions that benefit both their enjoyment of the property and its future resale value.Source:Sponsored ContentAbout OneMain FinancialView WebsiteOneMain Financial is the leader in offering nonprime customers responsible access to credit and is dedicated to improving the financial well-being of hardworking Americans.Contact InformationSonakshi MurzeManagersonakshi.murze@iquanti.com SOURCE: OneMain FinancialView the original press release on newswire.com
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 21:00:28

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / PPX Mining Corp. (the "Company" or "PPX") announces that it has entered into debt settlement agreement with an arm's length creditor of the Company (the "Creditor") to settle C$20,000 of outstanding debt (the "Debt Settlement") through the issuance of 400,000 units of the Company (each a "Unit"). Each Unit has a deemed issue price of C$0.05 per Unit pursuant to the Debt Settlement. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable to purchase an additional common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of C$0.07 per Warrant Share for a period of two years from the closing date of the Debt Settlement transaction.The Debt Settlement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") and execution of definitive debt settlement agreements. All securities to be issued to the Creditor will be subject to a hold period expiring on the date that is four months and one day after the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the Exchange.About PPX Mining Corp:PPX Mining Corp. (TSXV: PPX.V)(BVL:PPX) is a Canadian-based mining company with assets in northern Peru. Igor, the Company's 100%-owned flagship gold and silver project, is located in the prolific Northern Peru gold belt in eastern La Libertad Department.On behalf of the Board of Directors Brian ImrieExecutive Chairman82 Richmond Street East, Toronto,M5C 1P1, Ontario, Canada416-361-0737Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Cautionary Statement:This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") as such terms are defined by applicable securities laws, including, but not limited to statements regarding the completion of the Debt Settlement, the anticipated effect on the securities of the Company held by the creditors, shareholder approval and regulatory approval of the Debt Settlement. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance and often contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," and "intend,", statements that an action or event "may,""might," "could," "should," or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the Company's control, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to many various factors. Such uncertainties and risks include, among others, delays in obtaining or inability to obtain required regulatory and shareholder approvals in connection with the Debt Settlement. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. The timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, one should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of today's date, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law.SOURCE: PPX Mining Corp
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 18:41:19

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NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, DISSEMINATION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATESVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / South Pacific Metals Corp. (TSX-V:SPMC)(FSE:6J00) ("SPMC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Kelly as the Company's Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Kelly's qualifications and experience make him a valuable addition to SPMC's senior management team.Mr. Kelly is a management, accounting, and finance professional with over 20 years of experience providing senior level management, accounting, and financial services to various public and private companies with large scale resource assets throughout North and South America.Mr. Kelly has assisted and managed companies through all stages from IPOs through to successful acquisitions by major multi-national corporations. He has acted as CFO of Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. and Mako Mining Corp., V.P. Finance for Pediment Gold Corp., CFO of Ely Gold Royalties, and serves as CFO for Dryden Gold Corp. Mr. Kelly obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Royal Roads University in 2001.The Company also takes this opportunity to thank the outgoing CFO, Martin Cooper, for his services and commitment to a seamless handover to Mr. Kelly.Executive Chairman, Michael Murphy, stated "On behalf of the Company, I would like to welcome Scott to South Pacific's senior management team. He brings a wealth of industry experience to the Company and is an integral part of our plan going forward to execute growth strategies and initiatives to generate significant shareholder value." About South Pacific Metals Corp. (SPMC)SPMC is an Asia-Pacific focused copper and gold exploration company with four highly prospective projects: KRL South, KRL North, Kili Teke and the May River Project. All projects are located in premier exploration mining regions in Papua New Guinea. KRL South and KRL North both have the potential to host copper-gold porphyry and high-grade epithermal mineralisation, similar to that being currently mined in the adjacent high-grade Kainantu Gold District. Kili Teke is an advanced exploration project only 15 km from the world-class Porgera Gold Mine and hosts an existing Inferred mineral resource with multiple opportunities for expansion and further discovery. The May River Project is adjacent to the world-renowned Frieda River Copper-Gold Project, and historical drilling indicating there is potential for a significant copper-gold mineralized system. SPMC has a highly experienced leadership team with experience working together in the region and with established in-country partners.For further information:Adam Clode, Interim Chief Executive Officer (Tel: 604.649.2350)Email: info@ krl.com.sg 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.Disclaimer and Forward-Looking InformationMineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's property. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainty affecting the business of SPMC. In making the forward-looking statements, SPMC has applied certain assumptions that are based on information available, including SPMC's strategic plan for the near and mid-term. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. SPMC does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.SOURCE: South Pacific Metals Corp.
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 01:00:48

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Not for dissemination or distribution in the United States and not for distribution to United States Newswire servicesESTES PARK, CO / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2024 / Taranis Resources Inc. ("Taranis" or the "Company") (TSXV:TRO)(OTCQB:TNREF) is pleased to announce efforts that will enable the Company to test for the presence of a porphyry body under the Thor epithermal deposit. This includes the exercise of warrants and terms for a financing that will enable the Company to complete its objectives. Taranis has prepared a geological overview of the 2024 exploration program and it can be found by clicking on the following link: https://www.jjgmining.com/uploads/2/7/0/2/27029932/2024_deep_drilling_v1.pdf Exercise of WarrantsTaranis recently received $250,000 from the exercise of 1,250,000 share purchase warrants at a price of $0.20 per share. These 1,250,000 shares will be issued shortly.FinancingTaranis also announces a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of up to $1,400,000. The Offering will consist of the sale of:(a) up to 2,592,592 non-flow-through units (the "NFT Units") at a price of $0.27 per NFT Unit, to raise gross proceeds of up $700,000; and(b) up to 2,333,333 flow-through units (the "FT Units") at a price of $0.30 per FT Unit, to raise gross proceeds of up to $700,000.Each NFT Unit will consist of one common share and one common share purchase warrant (a "NFT Warrant"), with each NFT Warrant to entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.35 per share for a period of 24 months from closing. Each FT Unit will consist of one flow-through common share and one common share purchase warrant (a "FT Warrant"). Each FT Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.35 for a period of 24 months from closing.The proceeds from the sale of the FT Units will be used to incur exploration expenses that qualify as Canadian Exploration Expenses to conduct further exploration at Taranis' Thor property in southeastern British Columbia. The proceeds from the sale of the NFT Units will be used for general working capital purposes.Finders' fees or brokers' commissions may be paid in accordance with TSX Venture Exchange policy. All securities issued as part of the Offering will be subject to a hold period in Canada of four months and one day from the closing of the Offering. The Offering and the payment of any finders' fees or brokers' commissions are subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.Taranis anticipates that insiders may subscribe for a portion of the Offering. The participation of insiders in the private placement would constitute a related party transaction, within the meaning of TSX-V Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - "Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions" ("MI 61-101"). Taranis intends to rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of MI 61-101 on the basis that the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of insider participation in the Offering would not exceed 25% of Taranis's market capitalization.Outline of 2024 Exploration ActivitiesTaranis views 2024 as the most impactful in its sixteen-year long exploration of the project. As the knowledge base at Thor has improved, it has become apparent that there are several important targets that exist under the Thor epithermal deposit. Although Taranis has recently updated the Mineral Resource for its epithermal deposit (See Taranis News Release dated February 26, 2024), the Company has been aggressively developing deep targets. The geological thesis is that the Thor epithermal deposit originated from an underlying intrusive. This is commonly seen in many porphyry deposits throughout the world. Drilling and exploration will be focused on three targets, each of which could yield important new mineral discoveries at Thor.The first of these is an intrusive target measuring 1,000 x 800m that lies underlies the main Thor epithermal deposit. This feature called the Elephant' has been outlined through a variety of exploration surveys, including airborne magnetics and magnetotelluric surveys. The intrusive target occurs at the south end of the epithermal deposit and is estimated to lie at a depth of at least 300-400m below the surface. At surface near Broadview, the target is capped by intense lime-green colored phyllic alteration, The phyllic alteration is underlain by a magnetite-quartz altered unit with potassium enrichment. Taranis believes that a dome-shape magnetic-low located under the magnetite-quartz altered unit could be a large, concealed copper-gold bearing intrusive. Alteration patterns such as those observed at Thor are commonly in sediment-hosted copper-gold porphyry deposits such as Elatsite mine in Bulgaria. The secondary targets are two several-km-long conductive Tusks' that wrap around the intrusive target discussed above and are only identified on the MT survey. As the tusk reference implies, these features have a close spatial relationship to the Elephant. The North Tusk' is associated with a massive gossan that is located on the North side of Thor's Ridge and has never been explored owing to its depth. Megagossan has ore-grade nickel and cobalt deposited by leaching at surface and overlies a deeply buried conductive feature. Groundwater is interpreted to have leached metals and iron sulfides from this conductive target and these have been transported by groundwater up to surface, forming the gossan. All of the known epithermal deposits at Thor were previously discovered by exploring gossans. The South Tusk' appears to be the same type of feature that occurs on the south side of the intrusive target. It is known to have anomalous antimony seeping from the target that is buried 200-250m below the surface. The third target was discovered late in 2023 and occurs west of the known Thor epithermal deposit. This target is believed to be a continuation of the Thor epithermal deposit and as such is part of the Trunk' of the elephant. The up-dip end of the main Thor epithermal deposit has been downfaulted to the west along the Ripper Fault, and it appears that an undiscovered portion of the Thor epithermal deposit occurs downfaulted in this area. Although this was long postulated at Thor, there was no direct evidence to support this theory until a high-grade boulder field (Horton) was found in September of 2023. Exploration efforts in 2024 will seek to discover the source of these high-grade boulders, which occur to the west and up-slope from the known Thor epithermal deposit. Taranis' knowledge of the Thor epithermal deposit has shown
PR-Inside.com: 2024-05-03 15:31:21

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Zach Sanns shares his journey in exclusive interview on Inspirery.JERSEY CITY, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2024 / Former United States Marine and noted academic scholar Zach Sanns shares his unique journey and expert insights in a detailed interview with Inspirery. His story, marked by a distinguished transition from military discipline to academic excellence, highlights the integration of rigorous military skills into strategic consulting and historical analysis.After serving with distinction in the Marines, Zach Sanns leveraged his experiences to forge a successful career in academia and consulting, focusing on the intersection of military history and modern strategic practices. In the interview, Sanns discusses the motivations behind his career shift, the challenges he faced during the transition, and how he turned these experiences into a thriving consulting service that offers strategic solutions to complex challenges faced by various organizations.Professional Journey and Business InsightsSanns delves into his initial steps into the business world, outlining the strategic thinking and discipline that guided him through uncertain times and led to profitability within two years. He emphasizes the role of resilience, a skill honed in the military, in navigating the early days of his consultancy and how it helped maintain his focus on long-term goals despite potential setbacks.Engagement and AchievementsThroughout the interview, Sanns reveals how networking and speaking engagements have been instrumental in growing his business. His first client, secured at a military history conference, set the stage for a career that blends academic rigor with practical application. Sanns also highlights a significant moment of satisfaction in his career: successfully advising a non-profit on strategies to educate the public about historical conflicts, demonstrating the real-world impact of his work.Future Aspirations and MentorshipLooking ahead, Zach Sanns is optimistic about the expansion of his consultancy to more international clients, particularly in emerging markets. He believes that understanding historical conflicts can greatly aid in political and social development. Additionally, Sanns expresses a strong commitment to mentorship, underscoring his willingness to give back to the community by guiding the next generation of leaders.Inspiration and AdviceInspired by seminal works like "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, Sanns continues to apply lessons from these books in his professional life. His advice to his younger self and others is to proactively seek mentorship and embrace every learning opportunity.To read the full interview,click here .About Zach SannsZach Sanns is a former United States Marine, academic scholar, and consultant known for his expertise in historical military strategy and risk management. His professional and personal journey is characterized by a profound commitment to integrating disciplined military insights into innovative business solutions. An enthusiast of extreme sports, Sanns embodies a philosophy of continuous personal and professional growth.Contact: info@ zacharysanns.com SOURCE: Zach Sanns
On a Saturday morning in early January, farmers in Abana, a farm settlement in Ondo West Local Government Area, lined a narrow path as they headed into the forest for the days labour. The settler farmers had grown cocoa, kolanuts and oil palm in the area for generations. The mood was upbeat among the farmers as the cocoa season had just opened with the price shooting up to unprecedented levels due to the plummeting value of the naira, the Nigerian currency.

At about N10,000 per kilogramme, a tonne of cocoa would make a farmer a multi-millionaire.

But their moods quickly changed to apprehension as they approached their farms and the sound of heavy equipment became louder. They knew what the sound foreboded. Workmen, with the police providing them cover, were busy clearing their farms.

After three months of the exercise in five communities across the forest reserves of Ondo West Local Government Area, thousands of hectares of cocoa, kolanuts and palm trees were cleared and the land was made bare.

For Toyin Akor, the world seemed to have come to an end. The 52-year-old woman had been farming cocoa in the forest for over 20 years. I had about two hectares of cocoa, where I made at least N2 million annually, but everything was cleared in one day, she told this reporter.

No one told me anything before they came. We heard that government has sold the land to a Chinese company, that is all we heard and no one is ready to listen to what we have to say or what has happened to us, she told PREMIUM TIMES.

Last month, this reporter met Muyidat Suleiman trying to salvage what she could from her palm trees after they had been felled by bulldozers. Her cocoa and kolanut trees lay mangled in the clearing that for many years was her farm. With teary eyes, she said her livelihood had been destroyed.

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We expect that someone would admit that there were crops on this land and pay us for the destruction, but they have not paid any compensation, Mrs Suleiman said.

Ojo Akinyosoye, 25, had moved to the settlement five years ago in a bid to fight poverty. He had just married and was looking forward to harvesting his cocoa crops at the end of the year. That may never happen, because his farm too had been marked for clearing.

I have spent so much money on the farm in the last five years. The trees have started producing but the crops are not ready for harvest. I dont know how to start again or where to go, Mr Akinyosoye said.

Gbemiga Ogunleye is the leader and spokesperson of the farmers in Abana. The father of three was making about N4 million annually from cocoa sales and had hoped to raise his earnings to N20 million this year, he said.

My children are in higher institutions and paying fees is now impossible because all my investments are gone with the farms, he said.

Some of our colleagues died after their farms were demolished, some had stroke and are bedridden and they have no money for treatment.

Mr Ogunleye said the communities made several efforts to get the state government to either reverse the eviction order or give them enough time to harvest the crops but all to no avail. Even the current Speaker of the House of Assembly told us they cannot help us, Mr Ogunleye said.

The land belongs to the government, that is why we have little to say and we appear to be helpless, he added.

Protests

Representatives of the affected farmers on 27 March took their grievances to the paramount ruler of Ondo kingdom, the Osemawe, Victor Kiladejo, who promised to pass their petitions to the state government.

Mr Ogunleye said the protest was the third that they had held. They have also taken their case before the state high court. He said the court granted an injunction last year for the destruction of the farms to stop, but the reprieve was brief, as the bulldozers resumed work at the beginning of this year.

We protested to the company, SAO Agro Allied Company, but they said the government did not tell them there were crops on the land, Mr Ogunleye said. They said the government told them it was just a forest.

There was a similar protest by farmers in Idanre over the sale of lands to the same company. The Oloja of Eruwa, the monarch of one of the communities in Ondo West LGA, Olalani Ibitoye, appealed to the state government to let the farmers be, considering the current economic hardship in the country.

We confirm that our farmlands had been sold to China by the immediate past administration of Akeredolu, we saw that they have brought in bulldozers to clear some parts in which we have witnessed, the community head said.

We felt we have been left alone to farm after we protested last year. We had written petitions because this land belongs to our forefathers, but recently we saw them (Chinese investors) around again. We are appealing to all the authorities involved that we have no other place to go, we do not want to be out there as hoodlums, thieves.

We have been here for many years and I cannot go anywhere with my children. I am old. We are just asking the government to have mercy and leave us alone here.

Red gold project

As part of an investment drive, former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolus administration initiated a project for massive production of oil palm through hi-tech agro-allied companies. The government wants to attract agro-industries to the state, raise internally generated revenue and provide jobs.

In 2023, Nigeria produced 1.4 million metric tonnes of palm oil, according to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform. Between 2009 and 2023, production increased, registering the highest growth in 2010 of 14 per cent.

There is also a growing domestic consumption of palm oil with about 1.8 million metric tonnes consumed in Nigeria in the 2021/2022 crop year. This figure was higher than each of the 10 preceding years. Most local consumption is for industrial purposes, while a smaller percentage is used by households.

In June 2021, the late Mr Akeredolu flagged off the Red Gold Project by inaugurating a privately owned Gas Inland LPG Terminal and Oil Palm Mills in the Ore Industrial Park in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state. The Red Gold Project was a partnership between the state government and the National Oil Palm Producing Association of Nigeria (NPPAN).

It was gathered that the government initially planned to use 60,000 hectares of land for the project and create 500,000 jobs. But in 2022, when the governor inaugurated another farm in Ore by JB Farms Limited, he said over 70,000 hectares had been allocated to six companies under the Red Gold Project. He said 10,000 hectares were approved for JB Farms in Ore.

This is a farm that we are projecting to stand on a total land area of 10,000 hectares and more, and this is just the first one and I believe it will be more than this, Mr Akeredolu had said. As of today, we have given out 70,000 hectares to investors, about five or six of them.

By the end of 2022, the state government had expanded the project to 80,000 hectares. In recognition of the states commitment to the project, NPPAN conferred an award of the Distinguished Champion of Red Gold on Mr Akeredolu. The land of the farmers in Abana is part of the Red Gold project.

Mr Akeredolu died on 27 December and it is yet unclear if his successor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, inherited his passion for the project. The state is holding another governorship election in November.

Paying rent

At Tokunbo, the headquarters of farming communities such as Temidire, Onipako, Tale, Olorunsogo, Oloruntedo, and Abana, farmers urged the government to stop the destruction of their crops. The villages lie several kilometres in the forest after Bagbe town, off the Ondo-Ore highway.

The Chief Imam of Tokunbo central mosque, Oyewo Bolarinwa, said farmers had been in the area for over 30 years.

According to him, the farmers started paying rent to the state government under the Akeredolu administration.

Each farmer was required to pay N10,000 to the state government as rent annually, he said. We continued to pay that amount until suddenly we were told the land had been sold. We were painting the N10,000 from 2018 until 2022. That was four years before the issues started.

We have sought legal actions, we have protested and we have appealed to the relevant authorities, but nothing positive has happened. We have lost billions of naira and lives as well. We are saying what you have destroyed is enough, stop further destruction so that those who are alive can survive.

Ondo forest reserves

Ondo State has an expansive forest reserve over which it has been engaged in a losing battle for decades to stop farmers from encroaching. PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed that the state government mapped out 300,000 hectares of forest reserves for its Gold Project initiative. It however planned to leave 100,000 hectares for the use of local farmers.

The consideration of the local farmers was motivated by the security situation in the South-west where bandits used forests as hideouts. Several high-profile individuals in the state fell victim to banditry, including Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader Reuben Fasoranti, in July 2019. Her killers were said to have operated from Oluwa Forests Reserve in Ore in Odigbo LGA, carrying out attacks on users of the Ore-Ijebu-Ode expressway.

State government officials said the farmers who had encroached on the reserves were aware of the incursions of the terrorists there but failed to report the developments to the government. They said the forests were also being used for large-scale farming of Indian hemp, with hundreds of hectares of economic trees destroyed by cannabis farmers.

There was a need to open up the forest, Akin Olotu, the senior special assistant on agriculture and agribusiness to the late Mr Akeredolu, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Akeredolu agreed to create an enclave for the farmers, instead of having scattered farms and a waste of land. By that design, the farmers will be in clusters and would be given improved seedlings for a more fruitful and organised cocoa and oil palm production, but they refused, Mr Olotu said.

Mr Olotu said the cluster farming was successful at Oluwa where the farmers were registered under the Atewolara Cocoa Farmers Cooperatives. However the majority of the farmers were not ready for change and insisted on practices contrary to the policy of the government, he said.

He denied that the farmers were not given notices before the bulldozers were sent to their farms.

We gave them a soft landing. We gave them the opportunity of relocating to a new enclave where they would be allocated lands and grow improved seeds and get more yields, but they turned it down, he said.

When we met with their heads and informed them of what the government is doing, the camp heads dont relay to the farmers the truth because of what they get from the farmers as fees.

Company reacts

SAO Agro Allied Company is a leading investor in oil palm production in Nigeria. It also claims to be the lead investor in the Ondo Special Agro Processing Zone, backed by the AfDB and the state government. It aspires to produce 160,000 tonnes of oil palm by the end of next year.

The company is also projecting to become a dominant force in cashew production through the establishment of a cutting-edge processing facility, with a capacity to process 50 metric tonnes of cashew daily.

Its ongoing project in Ore, Ondo State also plans to produce 25,000MT of cassava to fortify its supply chain, all of which would require several thousands of hectares from the state government. According to Mr Bolanle, unless the policy is reviewed, more farmers in yet-affected areas will lose their farmlands.

SAO said on its website that it currently runs a farm operation covering 20,000 hectares. However, it is not known how many of these it has in Abana and Idanre.

Responding to PREMIUM TIMES inquiries in Abana, an official of the company, David Olijogun, stated in an email that its land was legitimately acquired from the state government.

This Red Gold programme, if you are not aware, was initiated by government to redevelop the oil palm belt of Ondo State through the declassification of degraded Government Forest Reserve solely owned by government, and concessioning to qualified investors to develop commercial oil palm estates and to most importantly to reforest the degraded forest land to tackle climate change, he said.

Regarding the issue of compensation, farmers and occupiers who are on the land illegally in these locations were invited numerous times by the state government almost two years ago and duly informed of the change of ownership from government to private investors and for them to vacate the land to enable investor start the above mentioned project.

Compensation and process to execute this will have been initiated by government as the assurance from government before making these huge investments in acquiring the land and developing the estates were assurances of hitch-free activities on the land.

Upon the above, after giving them a lengthy grace period to harvest their crops, we have since commenced work on the land with massive investments and infrastructure development creating mass employment for different communities around us, which is evident in the fact that most of the farmers and occupiers are cooperating with us due to socio-economic benefits accruing to them, this includes also Abana and Tokunbo Camp, however, one or two of the farmers who are disgruntled due to the removal of their farms planted illegally have sued us to court joining in the lawsuit other farmers who have openly condemned the suit, exonerated themselves by going to court to remove their names from the suit and counter suing these farmers for wrongfully including them as a plaintiff.

A few days ago, members of the above communities mentioned by you also approached us through the King, the Akogbe of Ajue land to plead that we give them an additional six months grace period to further harvest their crops which we gracefully obliged them.

Mr Olijogun further noted that the calls for compensation and grace time came to the company as a shock as these issues had been taken care of and the company had been going on with its legitimate business.

We did experience farmer protest when we started last year, violence from them from time to time. However, we have since brought them on board, provided over 1000 jobs since inception, healthcare to anyone needing it, and with plans to develop schools, health centres, we havent experienced any protests because we have given them enough soft landing, having been notified about two years now, the company said.

However, contrary to the companys claim, farmers in Abana like Mrs Suleman and Mr Akinyosoye said they have received no compensation.

Governor Aiyedatiwas dilemma

The present government led by Lucky Aiyedatiwa said it has received petitions and protests from farmers in the affected areas.

But Mr Aiyedatiwa was part of the government that initiated the Red Gold Project and participated in the activities leading up to the present situation. However, his Special Adviser on Information, Olugbenga Omole, said the government would address the issue squarely at the appropriate time.

A lot of illegalities happened in the past year, but I cannot go into the details right now, he said. But I can assure you that Governor Aiyedatiwa is going to look into the situation and bring succour to the people. The present government will not sit down and allow the peoples heritage to be destroyed.

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The Nigerian government on Friday said four International Oil Companies (IOCs) will divest from a total of 26 oil blocks in the country.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said the proposed oil blocks belong to Nigerian Agip Oil Company, ExxonMobil (Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited), EQUINOR and Shell (Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited).

Mr Komolafe disclosed this during the industry dialogue on divestment in Abuja on Friday.

He said Oando is seeking to acquire NAOC assets from Eni while Seplat is bidding to take over Mobil assets.

The Equinor divestment to Chappal includes a stake in the prolific Agbami oil field and Renaissance to acquire the onshore assets of Shell.

He explained that these blocks have an estimated total reserve of 8.211 million barrels of oil, 2,699 million barrels of condensate, 44,110 billion cubic feet of associated gas and 46,604 billion cubic feet of non-associated gas.

This, he said, is a significant contribution to the nations hydrocarbon resources.

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Additionally, Mr Komolafe said these blocks contain P3 reserves estimated at 5,557 million barrels of oil, 1,221 million barrels of condensate, 14,296 billion cubic feet of associated gas and 13,518 billion cubic feet of non-associated gas.

It is worth noting that a substantial part of the P3 reserves is located in or near producing assets. This means that a competent successor could easily mature them to 2P reserves.

Additionally, the current average production from these blocks is 346,290 barrels per day (bpd) (NAOC-28,018 bpd, MPNU-159,378 bpd, EQUINOR-36,155 bpd and SPDC-122,739 bpd).

But the technical production potential is much higher  standing at 643,054 barrels (NAOC-147,481 bpd, MPNU-244,268 bpd, EQUINOR-39,203 and SPDC-212,102 bpd), he said.

He added that these blocks have the potential to significantly boost national production, which would benefit all stakeholders.

Our regulatory goal is to ensure that parties in the divestment process conform to the approved divestment guidelines. We aim to ensure that the companies that take over these blocks have the necessary financial resources and possess the technical expertise required to responsibly manage the blocks throughout their lifecycle in accordance with good asset stewardship practices.

Furthermore, we must ensure that the inherent environmental, host communities and end-of-life liabilities, i.e. decommissioning liabilities, are accurately identified and assigned to the party best equipped to bear the associated risks.

This necessitates a comprehensive understanding of regulatory requirements, industry best practices, and the unique challenges associated with oil and gas operations, he said.

He added that President Bola Tinubu is committed to creating a favourable investment environment in the upstream petroleum industry.

As part of this initiative, he said the president has directed the commission to ensure a smooth entry and exit framework for the ongoing divestments by IOCs.

To this end, we have implemented robust measures to streamline regulatory procedures and eliminate unnecessary barriers to investment.

In line with the presidential directive, the commission has developed a divestment framework consisting of seven cardinal pillars in addition to the extant petroleum laws, to guide the assessment of applications for Ministerial consent by the divesting entities, he added.

Additionally, he noted that the divestment framework is aimed at ascertaining compliance with extant petroleum laws and the assignees capacity to assume the responsibility of developing the assets acquired.

To achieve the divestment framework objectives, he said the commission has engaged two leading global oil and gas decommissioning consultants, S&P Global Commodity Insights (SPGCI) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to carry out due diligence on the assets to be divested.

One of the objectives we hope to achieve in this workshop is to ensure that the environmental, host communities, and end-of-life liabilities associated with these assets do not become the financial responsibility of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

To achieve this, he noted that the commission is proposing that the divesting entities should either agree to the grant of ministerial consent to the divestments, on the condition that they will retain the liabilities until the commissions investigation is concluded and the liabilities are allocated to the proper party.

In this case, he said the divesting companies will be required to issue an undertaking to retain the liabilities until confirmation of the release by the commission of all or part of the retained liabilities.

Alternatively, he said the divesting entities can agree that ministerial consent will not be granted until the commission has identified and assigned all liabilities to the capable party.

In this situation, the divesting entities will also be required to issue a waiver, waiving their rights to deemed consent as provided in Section 95 (7) (b) of the PIA.

Please note that the commission expects the divesting parties to indicate their preferred option and issue the applicable instrument within two weeks of the date of this workshop. I want to make it unequivocally clear that the NUPRC is dedicated to ensuring that investment processes are smooth, transparent, and efficient.

The requirement to sign an undertaking or waiver is solely aimed at preventing any unwarranted financial obligations from falling back on the Federal Government of Nigeria. I assure you that the commission is eager to close the divestments within the shortest timeline upon the receipt of any of the required instruments, he said.

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What is that one movie that comes to mind when you think of iconic controversial sex scenes in Nollywood classics?  The 1994 movie, Glamour Girls.

Regarding memorable controversial love scenes in Nollywood classics, Glamour Girls immediately steals the spotlight.

The cherished flick among Nollywood fans scored big for its take on gender equality in a male-dominated society.

Directed by Chika Onukwufor, the movie trails young women diving into the realm of prostitution, wrestling with dreams, desires, and societal norms.

This two-part classic was a sensation in Nigeria, and it even got a Netflix remake in June 2022.

The original 1994 film starred a stellar cast, including Liz Benson, Ngozi Ikpelue (now Ngozi Ezeonu), Eucharia Anunobi, Pat Attah, Ernest Obi, Zack Orji, and more.

Plot

Set in Nigerias traditionally patriarchal society, the story revolves around independent single women navigating their lives. Sandra, portrayed by the late Jennifer Okereke, moves to Lagos seeking better opportunities. She is supported by her friend Doris, played by Gloria Anozie.

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Sandras life turns when she meets wealthy Esiri, who offers her marriage and a job at his bank. But her choice between him and struggling job-seeker Dennis, portrayed by Pat Attah, sparks conflict.

The second part delves deeper into their struggles with prostitution for survival.

This is where the movie also explores the subplot of Jesse, played by Tina Amuziam, and Fred, portrayed by Zack Orji.

Fred introduces Jesse to prostitution in Italy to raise money but later abandons her for another woman. And guess who this other woman was? None other but Eucharia Anunobi.

Infamous bathtub scene

One of the most memorable scenes in Glamour Girls features Eucharia and Zack sharing a bathtub in an erotic moment.

Just imagine younger Zack, the charming leading man, and Eucharia, the epitome of elegance, sharing a heated bath moment.

It was reported that this scene caused quite a stir, with some even suggesting that both actors should step away from their church roles.

Interestingly, compared to todays erotic scenes in recent Nollywood, this bathtub scene is relatively subtle.

The scene was detailed and erotic, with little or no exposition of nudity, yet it got Nigerians talking.

It gets steamier

Now, lets set the scene. After returning from Italy, Fred (Zack) hurried to meet Anita (Eucharia), his wifes best friend, who was still in school. Excited about his new house, he extended an invitation to her.

Anita stopped by Freds new place in Lagos to freshen up quickly. She soaked in the luxurious bathtub, surrounded by fluffy bubbles, and called Fred for assistance.

Responding to Anitas call, Fred entered the bathroom and was greeted by an alluring sight.

Anita then asked for his help scrubbing her back, though her instructions seemed somewhat lax. She warned him not to steal a glance at her body.

Despite his best intentions, Fred couldnt resist the temptation and complimented her figure, earning himself a playful splash from Anita for his boldness. Now wet from the splashes, Anita invited Fred to join her in the bathtub.

Anitas invitation wasnt just words; she drew Fred closer, kissing him tenderly and caressing his body softly.

Despite being married, Fred couldnt resist and found himself in the bathtub with her.

Soft tunes played in the background as they engaged in a passionate make-out session, marked by tender kisses, gentle touches, and mutual scrubbing in the warm water. Anitas legs crossed over Freds head as he became utterly lost in the moment.

But it didnt end there; in the subsequent scene, Fred emerged from the bathroom clad in a red-striped bathrobe while Anita adorned a matching towel.

The intensity only heightened as they resumed their passionate kissing, with Anita gently removing Freds robe, prompting him to reciprocate, leaving both garments discarded on the floor as they continued their encounter.

The setting shifted to a luxurious bedroom, where Fred and Anita were beneath a sky-blue duvet, enjoying each others company.

However, their intimate moment was interrupted by the ringing of Freds phoneit was Jessy, his wife, checking in on him.

Despite the interruption, their romantic mood persisted. Subsequent scenes captured them sharing tender moments in the gym and by the swimming pool, their love seemingly undiminished by the outside world.

Implications

What made this bath scene stand out wasnt just its explicitness and the nuanced performances by Zack and Eucharia.

They brought depth and vulnerability to their roles, humanising characters often relegated to stereotypes. Through their on-screen chemistry, they immersed viewers into the characters they portrayed without displaying nudity, which is not found in todays Nollywood flicks, which aim to depict an erotic scene.

Another thing that made these scenes stand out was their audaciousness. At a time when Nollywood was still finding its footing, Glamour Girl fearlessly delved into themes of desire, power, and exploitation. The bathroom scenes, in particular, pushed the boundaries of on-screen intimacy, presenting a raw and unfiltered portrayal of human relationships, which are relatable and unoffensive, even in contemporary times.

Moreover, the performances of Zack and Eucharia were nothing short of mesmerising. Their chemistry crackled on screen, drawing audiences into the complex dynamics of their characters relationships.

They brought depth and authenticity to the controversial scenes through subtle gestures and intense exchanges, elevating them beyond mere sensationalism. This was when acting was beyond body shape, as that would have been the case if the same scene was to be shot in a movie today. It was purely a case of talent.

However, with its boldness came controversy. The explicit nature of the bathroom scenes raised eyebrows and sparked debates about the portrayal of intimacy in the Nigerian film industry at the time.

Why all the fuss, you ask? Well, imagine the cultural shockwaves rippling through conservative Nigerian society at the sight of two beloved actors sharing such an intimate moment on screen. It was scandalous, it was daring, and it was downright too juicy. In a conservative society like Nigeria, at least in the early 1990s, where discussions about sex and nudity are often taboo,

But beyond the scandal, there was something undeniably captivating about this scene. It wasnt just about titillating the audience;

Of course, the controversy only fueled the films popularity, cementing Glamour Girls as a must-watch for Nollywood aficionados. Some praised the films daring approach, applauding its willingness to tackle taboo subjects head-on.

As for Zack and Eucharia, they emerged from the steamy bath scene as icons, forever etched in the movie industry as legends.

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China opposes U.S. statement encouraging Taiwan's presence at WHA

Xinhua) 09:15, May 03, 2024

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the statement from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he said the United States encourages the World Health Organization (WHO) to invite Taiwan's presence as an observer at this year's World Health Assembly (WHA), a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

"The U.S. statement seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the statement," said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson noted that there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. China's position on the Taiwan region's participation in the activities of international organizations, including the WHO, is consistent and clear, that is, this must be handled under the one-China principle, which is also a basic principle enshrined in the UNGA Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1.

The spokesperson added that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have stubbornly stuck to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence," which means that the political foundation for Taiwan region's participation in the WHA no longer exists. The U.S. statement presents this matter in a misleading way essentially to connive at and support "Taiwan independence" separatist activities.

"The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the number one red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations," the spokesperson said.

"We once again urge the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, act on the U.S. leader's commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence,''two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan,' stop using the WHA to create confusion on Taiwan-related issues, and avoid sending wrong signals to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces," said the spokesperson.

"The one-China principle has the extensive support of the international community. It is where global opinion trends and where the arc of history bends. There's no denying or stopping of that trend. Any attempt to play the 'Taiwan card' and use Taiwan to contain China will meet the firm opposition of the international community and is doomed to failure," the spokesperson added.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on Thursday turned away from a polling station after forgetting to bring a photo ID.

The PA news agency understands Mr Johnson was told by polling station staff he would not be able to vote without proving his identity.

The requirement to provide a photo ID was introduced by Mr Johnson during his time in Downing Street as part of the Elections Act 2022.

It is understood Mr Johnson was later able to vote, and that he voted Conservative.

Thursdays election is the first time many voters in England and Wales have had to present ID to vote under provisions first rolled out at last years local elections.

Acceptable forms of ID include a passport, driving licence, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (Pass) cards, Blue Badges, and some concessionary travel cards.

The government has also said it intends to make veterans ID cards a valid form of voter identification after former service personnel were turned away from polling stations.

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer apologised to those unable to use their veterans ID card to vote in the local elections on Thursday, vowing to do all I can to have it added to the list of valid identification.

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A Number 10 spokeswoman said: It is our intention for the new Veteran Card, which was rolled out in January, to be added to the official list.

The government is consulting on adding the card to the list of acceptable voter IDs, which already includes armed forces identity cards.

Mr Mercers apology came after Army veteran Adam Diver complained he had been turned away from his local polling station after presenting his Veteran Card.

Mr Diver, 48, had been looking to place his vote in Fleetwood, Lancashire, but was turned away after presenting his card, saying the experience left him feeling gutted.

I felt clearly deflated, I felt gutted to be fair and upset  I felt angry at the point, Mr Diver, who served in the Army for 27 years, told the PA news agency.

I felt like my time served was invalidated and I just thought to myself, What was the point in that?

Ive served in pretty much every war going; Ive spent 27 years away from my family.

I thought you could use it as an ID card. Its like a driving licence, you cant get any more official and it didnt strike me one bit that it wouldnt be validated.

Labour said the government has had years to ensure the Veteran Card was included on the list of valid voter ID, having begun rolling out the cards in 2019.

Downing Street said it had no wider concerns about the operation of the voter ID requirement, adding that only 0.25 per cent of would-be voters had been turned away from polling stations for lacking the correct documents.

(dpa/NAN)

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As the international community marks World Press Freedom Day, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) have urged Nigerian authorities at all levels of government to stop using repressive and anti-media laws such as the Cybercrimes Act and some codes of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to target, intimidate and harass journalists, critics and media houses.

The statement followed the interactive session on the state of press freedom in Nigeria held today at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja. The event was jointly organized by SERAP and NGE to mark the World Press Freedom Day.

In a joint statement, SERAP and NGE said that the government of President Bola Tinubu, the countrys 36 governors and FCT minister must now genuinely uphold press freedom, ensure access to information to all Nigerians, obey court judgments, and respect the rule of law.

The groups expressed serious concerns about the escalating crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law by authorities at all levels of government.

The groups note that the suppression of the press in recent times takes various forms ranging from extrajudicial to unlawful detentions, disappearances, malicious prosecutions and wrongful use of both legislation and law enforcement.

The statement, read in part: We would continue to speak truth to power and to hold authorities to account for their constitutional and international obligations including on freedom of expression and media freedom.

Nigeria as a country has a long and unpleasant history of press gagging and clampdown on media freedom, which is evidence of extensive state censorship of media and in some cases, the utter control of state-owned media houses.

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This position has not changed considerably despite almost 25 years of unbroken democratic rule in the Fourth Republic.

We are concerned that press freedom remains under threat, especially due to economic challenges and other challenges such as navigating digital surveillance, hacking, online harassment and internet shutdowns.

Freedom of the press is one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. Journalism is not a crime; it is fundamental to a free society.

Freedom of the press is closely related to the freedom of expression, found in article section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the provisions of international human rights treaties such as article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

Press freedom is essential for journalists and media organisations to report freely in the public interest. Press freedom also has wider significance, as a free and independent media contributes to transparency and accountability of government.

Press freedom is therefore essential not only for free speech as a public good but also for the enjoyment of other human rights.

It is important not only to journalists and media organisations, which publish the information but also to citizens, who have a right to access information from a diversity of sources.

This in turn is essential to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to participate in ones government and the proper election of the peoples representatives.

Extensive research has been carried out on the existing legislation and the deliberate proposing of Bills aimed at silencing dissenting voices and muffling the press. In addition, there are a plethora of cases of threats, intimidation and actual aggression employing law enforcement, regulating bodies, and State might.

There are incessant reports of censorship and surveillance, all aimed at identifying and silencing dissenting opinions rendered in mainstream media or other social media channels.

We are concerned that freedom of information requests are frequently refused by authorities at all levels of government. Inadequate funding and lack of access to independent funding have also been identified as major hindrances to media freedom.

We therefore urge the Federal Government to take effective and concrete measures to review existing laws to reflect respect for media freedom and human rights.

The NBC must stop using its codes to clamp down on broadcast stations and to impose arbitrary fines on them. The NBC must review its codes to bring them in line with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and international human rights standards.

We urge the Federal Government to review laws like the Official Secrets Act, Criminal Code Act and Cybercrime Act for potential restrictions on free speech and press; and amend them in line with international human rights standards and Agreements, including the Windhoek Declaration for the Development of a Free, Independent and Pluralistic Press.

We urge the Federal Government to strengthen the independence of regulatory bodies like the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Nigerian Press Council (NPC) to ensure impartial regulation and promote self-regulation within the media.

We urge the Attorney General to push for the immediate amendment of the Cybercrimes Act and other repressive legislation, and bring these laws in line with the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) and international human rights obligations to which Nigeria is a state party.

We urge the Attorney General to advise President Bola Tinubu to promptly obey all outstanding court judgments including the ECOWAS Court judgment directing the Federal Government to repeal the repressive Cybercrimes Act and bring it in conformity with Nigerias international human rights obligations and commitments.

We urge the Minister of Information to promptly review restrictive and oppressive media legislation in Nigeria and pursue the immediate revision of any provisions that violate the right to freedom of expression, access to information including online and media freedom, and ensure that any restrictions on media freedom are necessary, proportionate and the least restrictive.

We urge the Minister of Information to ensure that the regulatory mechanisms including the National Broadcasting Commission are independent and promote self-regulation of the media.

We urge the Minister of Information to publicly express commitment to the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and access to information including online and media freedom in Nigeria.

We urge state governors to ensure that security agencies, the Nigeria Police Force and other authorities drop all charges against journalists, bloggers and other media workers, and critics, and cease further arbitrary closures of radio and television stations.

We urge state governors to publicly support and commit to the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of expression, access to information and the media freedom, including public reporting of sensitive political and other issues within their states.

We urge state governors to ensure that any government or security officials found responsible for obstructing, abusing, or attacking journalists, critics or media organisations are appropriately disciplined or prosecuted.

We urge state governors to publicly support and ensure the direct and full application of the Freedom of Information Act within their respective states.

We urge state governors to ensure adequate compensation and reparation for victims of human rights violations in their respective states, including restitution, satisfaction, and guarantee of non-repetition.

We urge the National Assembly to immediately harmonise all laws pertaining to freedom of expression, media freedom and civic space in Nigeria to confer authority on a specific independent agency that will oversee the collection, maintenance, usage, and dissemination of the personal information and records of all citizens and prioritise fundamental human rights.

We urge the National Assembly leadership to sponsor a resolution condemning the persistent violations of freedom of expression, media freedom and crackdown on civic space in Nigeria and all harassment, intimidation, and attacks on journalists, critics, bloggers and media organisations by state governors and the Federal Government.

We urge the National Assembly to promptly and comprehensively review the Cybercrimes Act and other restrictive legislation, and revise them as appropriate to bring them into line with Nigerias international human rights obligations and commitments regarding the right to freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom.

We urge the National Assembly to immediately drop any social media and other bills that would restrict freedom of expression, media freedom and civic space and undermine the effective enjoyment of these rights in Nigeria.

We urge the international community to encourage the Nigerian authorities to uphold constitutional and international human rights obligations on human rights and to respect, protect, promote and fulfil these rights including freedom of expression and opinion, access to information and privacy online and offline, and ensure a free and independent media landscape.

We urge the international community to hold Nigerian authorities to account for violations of human rights in the country including by calling on the authorities at both the Federal and state levels to immediately and unconditionally release anyone detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights and to immediately withdraw any charges against them.

The interactive session was attended by senior members of the media, civil society groups and other stakeholders. Those who attended the event included: Gbenga Adefaye, Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism; Richard Akinnola; Eze Anaba, President, NGE; Dr Iyobosa Uwugiaren, NGEs Secretary; Lanre Idowu, CEO of Diamond Publications Ltd; and Abiodun Odusote, Professor of Law, UNILAG.

Others who attended the event included: Mustapha Isah, former president of NGE and Silverbird news director; Fred Braimoh, deputy director FRCN; and Paulyn Ogbodaga, executive director of AIT.

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The police in Enugu State, South-east Nigeria, have arrested 195 crime suspects for various offences in the state.

The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Kanayo Uzuegbu, disclosed this while parading the suspects at the State Police Headquarters on Friday.

The suspects

Mr Uzuegbu said the suspects were all arrested within April.

The police commissioner said 29 of the suspects were arrested for their alleged involvement in kidnapping and abduction, 28 for armed robbery, 25 for robbery and stealing, seven for murder and culpable homicide and, 20 for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

He added that four suspects were arrested for rape, 37 for cultism, while 45 people were arrested for vandalism, burglary, and other offences.

Majority of the suspects arrested have been arraigned in court and remanded in the correctional custodial centre, while others are still being investigated.

Interestingly, two male suspects involved in conspiracy and abduction were arraigned, convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment, he said.

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I wish to appreciate and commend officers and men of the Enugu State Police Command for the diligence, resilience and commitment shown towards the actualisation of these operational successes.

Recovered arms and ammunition

Mr Uzuegbu said several arms and ammunition were recovered from the suspects during separate operations.

The police commissioner said some of the arrested suspects confessed to the crimes.

Ten AK-47 rifles, one sub-machine gun, 37 locally fabricated rifles, and 67 live ammunition of different calibres were among the items recovered from suspects, according to the police.

Others were 78 live cartridges, 25 vehicles, 15 tricycles and 25 motorcycles.

Nimbo attack, killings

Mr Uzuegbu also spoke on the recent attack in Nimbo Community, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state where at least five people were killed by suspected herders.

The police commissioner said upon receipt of information about the attack, he quickly ordered the deployment of police operatives to track down the killers.

These operations will be sustained until the perpetrators, and others involved in similar crimes, are arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law, he said.

He praised Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, for their support and commitment to security in the state.

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A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has advised the ruling All Progressives Congress and other political parties in Nigeria to expel their members accused of corruption.

A member of the coalition, Auwal Musa, who leads Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), gave the advice at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, Mr Musa, also known as Rafsanjani, noted that democracy thrives when the political leadership imbibes the virtues of transparency and accountability.

But, he argued that democracy in Nigeria functions under a cover of secrecy and lawlessness.

We urge the ruling All-Progressive Party APC and other political parties to take decisive action in purging its ranks by denouncing and breaking support with their members who are currently being investigated by anti-corruption agencies, Mr Rafsanjani said, criticising President Bola Tinubu for appointing tainted politicians into his cabinet.

This can be operationalised by suspending all members tainted by corruption allegations and ensuring they are held accountable before the law.

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Procurement of political appointments by some suspected or investigated looters who are serving under the current administration as ministers, legislators, or occupying leadership positions of the ruling party, has exposed anti-corruption work to serious setbacks and deliberate sabotage that cripple the efficiency of the anti-corruption agencies.

In President Tinubus administration, there are public officers enmeshed in corruption allegations, some of who have been invited by the EFCC for interrogation.

For instance, Nigerias minister of state for defence and immediate-past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, was accused by the EFCC of stealing N70 billion from the states treasury,although he has denied the allegations.

The corruption allegation came barely 10 days before Mr Matawalle left office as the Zamfara State governor. But he denied the allegations, accusing the EFCC of political witch-hunt.

He said the real issue with Matawalle is that he is being investigated by the EFCC, over allegations of corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over N70 billion.

Also, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, had been invited by the EFCC for questioning over a corruption allegation.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and ex-minister of Niger Delta Affairs, has also denied the allegations.

The current chairperson of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, also faces raging allegations of accepting bribes in dollars as governor of Kano State, over which the states anti-corruption agency still seeks to prosecute him. The allegation the basis for the move by his party members at his ward in Kano State to suspend him.

There are also members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who are facing trial because of corruption allegations.

A former governor of Benue State and a top contender in PDP national chairmanship race, faces corruption charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Many of the corruption cases involving politically exposed persons are stuck in court for years unending.

Corrupt politicians attack anti-graft agencies

The coalition also addressed other corruption-related matters on Thursday.

Pointing at the seeming lack of deterrence against coruption in Nigeria, Mr Musa said many serving lawmakers and ministers have corruption allegations against them. This is producing a culture of impunity, where politicians engage in corrupt practices without fear of consequences.

He also noted that instead surrendering themselves for trial, many politically exposed persons facing corruption allegations resort to malicious attacks and deliberate efforts to blackmail anti-corruption agencies through sponsorship of influencers, incentivised opinion publications in some national dailies, online and electronic platforms, all targeted at discouraging anti-corruption efforts and shielding the kleptocrats from a thorough investigation..

Mr Musa who doubles as the chair of board of trustees, Amnesty International in Nigeria, blamed judicial corruption as a major obstacle to the countrys anti-corruption measures.

The looters have repeatedly used their influence to manipulate the judicial process and system, to block and/or delay the arrest or prosecution of suspects, he said.

Inadequate budget hampering anti-corruption agencies

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Chido Onumah, said inadequate budgetary allocations to key anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigeria Police, have hampered their ability to effectively investigate and prosecute corruption cases.

Mr Onumah said the recruitment of young people into criminal activities, including cybercrime and human trafficking, poses a grave threat to Nigerias future.

He added that the exploitation of vulnerable youth by corrupt politicians exacerbates societal instability and perpetuates the cycle of corruption.

He said the recent withdrawal of police personnel from the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission has raised concerns about the impartiality and independence of law enforcement agencies.

He explained that the move, viewed as an attempt to obstruct ongoing corruption investigations, underscores the challenges faced by sub-national anti-corruption institutions in Nigeria.

He requested the reinstatement of police personnel withdrawn from the Kano Anti-corruption Commission boss.

We urge IGP Egbetokun to promptly reinstate the police personnel withdrawn from the Kano State Anti-Corruption Commission, to facilitate the effective execution of Commissions duties. Nigeria Police must avoid actions that may portray it as being submissive to politicians, he said.

Mr Onumah urged the government to adopt a comprehensive approach in tackling corruption.

He admonished the judiciary to uphold its independence and integrity.

In a remark, Jibrin Ibrahim of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) shed light on how corruption is undermining Nigeria.

He accused the judiciary of its inability to check corrupt officers and use the instrumentality of the law to punish offenders.

He added that there are concerted efforts by political actors to thwart the efforts of anti-corruption agencies, making their work impossible.

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Police officers intervened in a clash between some youths and hoodlums in the Ile-Epo, Abule Egba area of Lagos State.

The Lagos police spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, in a statement posted via X on Thursday, said that the divisional police officer heading the axis led security operatives to the scene and doused the situation.

Arrests

The police said that at least 50 suspects have been arrested.

Over 50 suspects have so far been arrested while the shanties they occupied have been destroyed, effectively dislodging them, the spokesperson said.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Adegoke Fayoade, has directed the prompt prosecution of the arrested hoodlums and has equally warned that the Command would decisively deal with anyone found breaching the peace, in accordance with the law.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Operations), Area Commander Alagbado and other Divisional Police Officers under the Area Command are currently on ground to forestall further breakdown of law and order, he said.

Back story

According to TheCablenewspaper, a trader played a betting game and won some money.

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However, when the trader walked to the Lotto vendor to claim his money on Wednesday, there was a disagreement over the exact amount won.

The disagreement led to a heated dispute between the trader and the lotto vendor. It snowballed into an ethnic squabble and a free-for-all fight, which hoodlums hijacked.

Traders and customers scampered for safety as fire was set to a section of the market.

Shops were looted and burnt. The faceoff continued until the police intervened on Thursday.

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Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has said that a policy that would enforce road worthiness of truck heads plying roads in the state would implemented.

Addressing the Minister Stateate for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, and his entourage, who paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, after visiting the site of last Saturdays explosion on Thursday, Mr Abiodun said attention would also be paid to gas cylinders used by the trucks to ensure quality and standard.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Lekan Adeniran, the governor said the steps became necessary for gas utilisations preponderance.

I was very worried when the report of the incident reached me, and the reason for that is that Ogun State is the industrial capital of Nigeria with over 6,000 manufacturing industries and companies. We enjoy gas reticulation more than any other state in Nigeria.

With the explosion of questions were asked as to what happened, how it happened, and the lessons learnt. We have received a preliminary report from the Ministry of Environment.

We have taken some steps to forestall future occurrences. We have shut down the company involved to conduct a safety audit, and investigations are ongoing to determine the immediate cause of the incident and how to ensure that it does not repeat itself, he said.

Mr Abiodun stated that the state would ensure truck heads that convey gas are roadworthy. We are going to put in place a policy that enforces road worthiness of trucks and looks at issues around standards. These issues will govern quality and assure us of the quality of the gas cylinders.

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The governor told the entourage that he was worried about how the public would perceive the incident, especially with the constitution of the Presidential Task Force on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to deepen the provision, utilisation and off-take of gas across the country.

He stressed the need for the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to be up and doing, as the gas industry was fast evolving, noting that it was necessary to ensure adequate regulation of the industry.

While appreciating President Bola Tinubu for commiserating with the government and the people of the state on the incident, Mr Abiodun assured that his administration would collaborate with the federal government to find out the immediate cause and what needed to be done to guide against future occurrence and how to support those affected.

I am glad that you have come and demonstrated that utmost responsiveness and concern, which is heartwarming. I am sure that your comilf will assure the people of Ogun State that they are not alone in this incident and we, both the state and the federal government, are cooperating and collaborating to find a solution to the incident, the governor said.

Speaking earlier, Mr Ekpo said he was in the state as the minister in charge of gas on behalf of the president, to assess the extent of damage done by the explosion and report the same for a proper and prompt response.

While sympathising with the families of the victims and those who lost property and businesses, the minister said despite the incident, there was a need to continue with the CNG initiative to drive the economy as it is the cleanest source of energy.

Mr Ekpo said he came with managers of the gas industry to find out what happened with a view to looking at how to address it to prevent future occurrences, even as he appreciated the governor for rising up to the occasion to assuage the sufferings of the people.

Let me assure you that at the Ministry, we are taking gas infrastructure very seriously and by the time we complete the AKK, the conveyance of gas through the visual means will be reduced.

We are also working to ensure that the company pipes the gas to end users so that we do away with these unforeseen circumstances that took place here, the minister added.

Speaking while receiving the minister and the deputy governor of Ogun State in his company premises, the Managing Director of Gasco Marin Segun Ogunwunmi described the gas explosion as unfortunate, as the company, over the last five years since it commenced operations, had recorded no incident.

He said facilities at the company were top notch while the drivers were trained by officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

The premises, too, are checked regularly to ensure compliance with safety standards, he said.

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As the world celebrates the 2024 World Press Freedom Day, the federal government has restated its commitment to protect the rights of journalists and promote responsible journalism in the country.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation made this known in his remarks at the Ministerial Press Briefing to celebrate the day on Friday in Abuja.

The event also featured the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Environment, Iziaq Salako and UNESCO country representative in Nigeria, Abdourahamane Diallo.

The event with the theme, A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis was organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation.

Guild of Editors commends journalists

Also, in commemorating the day, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) commended journalists working under the current harsh economic conditions in the country.

The professional body of editors and media executives in Nigeria gave this commendation in a statement signed on Friday by its President, Mr Eze Anaba and the General Secretary, Iyobosa Uwugiaren, to commemorate the 2024 World Press Freedom Day.

We celebrate the courageousness and commitment of journalists across the country, who continue to risk everything to bring us the truth and reliable/credible information.

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We also acknowledge the growing threats to press freedom  from violence and censorship to disinformation and economic pressures.

We pay tribute to the journalists who have lost their lives or faced persecution, and we stand in solidarity with those under threat or attack and those who continue to work under very harsh economic conditions, the NGE said.

The forum reaffirmed that media freedom, freedom of expression and access to public information are crucial to democracy and must be at the heart of the Nigerian governments values and actions.

The NGE said it recognised the crucial role played by journalists, media workers and free/ independent media in protecting the countrys democracy and advised them not to give up in spite of the prevailing economic challenges.

The guild also requested the National Assembly to initiate and adopt a law to protect journalists, who speak out on matters of public interest, especially about abusive and strategic lawsuits, which are regularly initiated to silence them.

According to the NGE, the 2024 World Press Freedom Day is dedicated to emphasising the importance of good journalism amidst the current global environmental crisis.

In line with the theme of this years celebration, we believe that journalism and freedom of expression are crucial in the context of the current global environmental crisis.

Journalism and freedom of expression help raise public awareness about environmental issues, hold power accountable, amplify marginalised voices, and promote transparency and accountability.

It also helps in fostering public debate/engagement and providing a platform for solutions, the body said.

The NGE added that 2024 World Press Freedom Day provided an opportunity for every stakeholder in the media community to continue to drum it to the hearing of both state and non-state actors  about the importance of press freedom and the challenges being faced by journalists.

The editors said that such challenges included censorship, harassment, imprisonment and violence.

The guild said that the government urgently needed to take deliberate and sustained action to promote press freedom and good journalism in the country.

The NGE added: The federal government will fundamentally be promoting the enabling environment for media to operate responsibly if it adopts a law to protect persons who speak out on matters of public interest against abusive lawsuits meant to silence them.

The federal government should take a clue from the European Union and other democracies around the world, who have adopted similar laws to protect journalists and media houses against Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP suit).

More so, there are still many obnoxious and anti-media laws in our statutory books that are targeted at journalists and media houses. The National Assembly (NASS) must take an immediate step to repeal them.

The guild also urged government at all levels, international organisations and civil society organisations to protect and promote press freedom.

The editors urged them to ensure the safety and security of journalists and media houses and repeal all restrictive laws and policies targeting the media.

The guild said it would continue to advocate for press freedom, freedom of expression, and access to information, adding that they are crucial to good governance, democratic societies, and fundamental human rights.

World Press Freedom Day

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the World Press Freedom Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, is observed annually on May 3.

It is set aside to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, assess the state of press freedom throughout the world, defend the media from attacks on their independence, and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The day also reminds governments of the need to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It highlights the importance of a free, independent, and pluralistic media in fostering transparency, accountability and democracy.

(NAN)

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The National Security Adviser (NSA) office has called for the full enforcement of Nigerias amended cybercrime law.

The NSA office made the call in a statement on Friday against the backdrop of a recent High Level African International Counter Terrorism meeting.

The meeting, according to the NSA statement, was held in Abuja between 22 and 23 April.

One of the resolutions of the meeting called for the improved deployment of greater support and resources towards strengthening cybersecurity activities in Africa.

The resolution also urged governments to take concrete steps to prevent the use of social media and other platforms by terrorists and organised criminal groups.

In view of the need to secure Nigerias Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), counter-terrorism and violent extremism, strengthen national security and protect economic interests, this notice calls for the full implementation of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Amendment Act 2024, including the operationalisation of the National Cybersecurity Fund by all regulators and businesses specified in the second schedule of the Act, read the NSA offices statement signed by Head, Strategic Communication, Zakari Minjinyawa.

About National Cybersecurity Fund

The operationalisation of the National Cybersecurity Fund, which appears to be part of the focus of the new efforts to implement the cybercrime law, targets 0.005 per cent of all electronic transactions by businesses patronised.

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The affected businesses listed in the second schedule of the law are GSM service providers and all telecommunication companies, internet service providers, banks and other financial institutions, insurance companies and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced in a 1 March 2018 public notice that it had opened a National Cyber Security Fund account has been opened in line with section 44 (1) and (2) of the Cybercrime [Prohibition, Prevention, etc.], Act 2015, which established the Fund.

According to the statement by the office of the Director of Banking Supervision, the new account is domiciled in the CBN.

Consequently, all banks are hereby directed to comply with the statutory provision for the collection and remittance of the 0.005% levy on all electronic transactions by the businesses specified in the second schedule of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act.., the statement said.

Conformity with regional, international standards

The NSA office noted on Friday that Nigeria, on 6 July 2015, joined 66 other countries that have signed and ratified the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime to enhance international cooperation.

The convention, according to the office, provides a common platform and procedural tools for efficient and safe cyberspace pursuant to section 41(2) (a) of the Cybercrime Act 2015, requiring conformity of Nigerian cybercrime and cybersecurity laws and policies with regional and international standards.

It added that the convention was further emphasised in one of the resolutions reached during the High-Level African International Counter Terrorism Meeting, which was held in Abuja in April.

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The Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja, on Friday, adjourned until 9 May for defence to study additional proof of evidence submitted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Emefiele was charged with $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud.

The judge, Rahman Oshodi, in a short ruling, said he had considered the submissions of both the parties and was satisfied with the reasons given by the defence for adjournment.

He said: I have considered the conflicting submissions regarding whether I should adjourn for further continuation of trial or not.

I am satisfied with the reasons given by the defence.

For the adjournment sought, I grant it.

I adjourn until 9 May for continuation of trial.

Earlier, Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), counsel for the ex- CBN governor, had informed the court that the prosecution filed an additional proof of evidence and he needed enough time to go through it.

Mr Ojo argued that Mr Emefiele had not seen the document and that justice rushed was justice crushed.

I am constrained at this point to ask your lordship to do justice, the proof must be served early enough but I was being served this morning.

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Defence may find anything useful in the additional proof of evidence to cross-examine the witness in the box.

I humbly urge the court to adjourn this matter so that I can thoroughly go through it and study it, he said.

The second defence counsel, Adeyinka Kotoye a SAN, also aligned himself with the submission of the first defence counsel.

Mr Kotoye argued that it was only in Nigeria that prosecution would be conducting investigation, while a case was already ongoing in court.

He, therefore, urged the court to adjourn the case in the interest of justice and adequate opportunity to study the additional proof of evidence.

I urge your lordship not to entertain this trial by ambush and put a stop to it.

I also apply your lordship mandate the prosecution to supply us all relevant materials.

Therefore, in the spirit of fairness, I urge your lordship to adjourn the case, Mr Kotoye said.

The EFCCs prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, also a SAN, had informed the court that the second prosecution witness was in court for the continuation of cross-examination and that he had served the defence the statement of one John Adetola as an additional proof of evidence.

Mr Oyedepo, while opposing the submissions of the defence counsel, had prayed the court for the continuation of the cross-examination of the second prosecution witness.

He said it was unfair for a Senior Advocate of Nigeria whom he held in high esteem to describe his team and its activities as prosecutorial unfairness.

According to him, Mr Adetola was the fifth on the list of prosecution witnesses included in the proof of evidence.

Mr Oyedepo said Mr Adetolas statement was contained in the Volume Two of what was served on defence on 4 April.

He said: In preparation for his testimony that will be coming up not today, not even on 9 May, the prosecution, rather than wait for defence to formally place a demand on us on what is in the device, diligence prosecution made me make the device available to defence.

My lord, how does that amount to prosecutorial unfairness?

I plead with defence not to delay this case unnecessarily as we have a witness in the box who had given evidence and he is being cross-examined by the first defence counsel.

If defence is angry that I served them the proof of evidence today, we can withdraw it and serve the same on a later day.

The prosecution told the court that the society was interested and watching the proceeding of the case.

The society is interested, they are watching us, will this matter be adjourned based on the evidence of another man who is not the witness in the box?

We are not rushing or crushing justice, rather, we are aiding the oil of justice to rise steadily.

Expeditious determination of case is of utmost importance and so we urge your lordship to allow the cross-examination, Mr Oyedepo said.

NAN reports that a former Director of Information Technology of the CBN, John Ayoh, had on 29 April narrated how he allegedly collected $600,000 for contract gratification for Mr Emefiele.

The EFCC on 8 April arraigned Mr Emefiele on 23 counts of abuse of office, accepting gratifications, corrupt demand, receiving property fraudulently obtained and conferring corrupt advantage.

Also, his co-defendant was arraigned on three counts bordering on acceptance of gift by agents.

Mr Emefiele also faces trial in Abuja over corruption charges preferred against him by the EFCC over his activities in office as the CBN governor.

(NAN)

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The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a stay of execution and proceedings in the contempt suit filed at the Kogi State High Court by former Governor Yahaya Bello against the chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olu Olukoyede.

A three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Joseph Oyewole, gave the order on Friday after taking an ex-parte application from the EFCC chairmans lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa.

Other members of the appellate court panel include  Peter Obiora and Okon Abang.

Details of the proceedings were shared by Mr Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on Friday.

In granting the order, Mr Oyewole held that the EFCC chairpersons request to stay execution of the contempt proceedings had merit.

Also, the Court of Appeal ordered substituted service of all the filings in the suit to be affixed No 9 Bengazi Steet, Wuse Zone 4 Abuja, being the last known address of Mr Bello.

The justice adjourned the hearing of the motion on notice to the 20 May.

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Background

The Kogi State High Court in Lokoja presided over by Isa Jamil on 26 April ordered Mr Olukoyede to appear before it on 13 May to show why he should not be jailed for allegedly disobeying its earlier order.

Mr Bello had initiated a contempt charge against the EFCC chair as part of the ex-governors efforts to stop his arraignment and trial on N80 billion money laundering charges instituted against him after he left office as governor in January.

In his application, Mr Bello accused Mr Olukoyede of committing contempt by allegedly violating the courts order barring the EFCC from arresting him.

The anti-graft agency recently charged Mr Bello at the Federal High Court in Abuja with money laundering involving over N80 billion. But efforts by the EFCC to arraign the former governor have been met with stiff resistance from the latter.

Mr Bello resisted arrest on 17 February when operatives of the commission attempted to execute a controversial arrest warrant against him at his residence in Abuja.

He was absent from court for his arraignment on the pending N80 billion money laundering charges on two occasions  18 and 23 April.

At the 23 April proceedings at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the judge, Emeka Nwite, issued an order of substituted service, permitting the EFCC to serve the defendant through his lawyer.

Mr Bello and his lawyers have justified his absence from court, citing a court order shielding him from arrest, which they accused EFCC of violating.

But the anti-graft agency has denied violating any court order with its moves to arrest and arraign Mr Bello.

It argues that its move to arrest and arraign Mr Bello was based on the warrant of arrest the Federal High Court in Abuja issued on 17 April.

The agency also argues that the order issued in favour of Mr Bello by the Kogi State High Court in a fundamental enforcement suit does not preclude him from being prosecuted for crimes he allegedly committed.

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There have been several allegations of judicial officers receiving bribes from politicians and politically exposed persons in-order to circumvent the law. This has watered down the respect, trust and confidence of citizens in the judiciary and negatively impacted the fight against corruption. Nigerians have witnessed too many situations where courts have granted injunctions which deterred anti-corruption agencies from inviting and prosecuting corrupt government officials and politically exposed persons.

Yesterday, civil society organisations under the leadership of Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) held a press conference in Abuja to express their alarm at the bold, supported and fearless manner that politically exposed individuals are fighting against all attempts by anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute them. It was Nuhu Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who told Nigerians so many years ago that if you fight corruption, it fights back. Today, fighting back has reached the critical phase where state institutions are being subverted and domesticated by the corrupt. Presently, across the country, millions of Nigerians have invested their hopes in our democracy. There is a groundswell of expectations that as our fledgling democratic system of government takes shape, it will address the deprivations faced by long-suffering citizens. Citizens are now waking up to the fact that their aspirations are continuously being dashed by the ruling class.

It is widely accepted that transparency and accountability are crucial elements that enable democracies to flourish. In Nigeria, however, our so-called democracy has persistently functioned under a veil of secrecy and lawlessness. The management of the countrys resources has consistently disregarded the fundamental principles of democracy. Over the past few weeks, we have observed with great concern, the malicious attacks and deliberate efforts to blackmail anti-corruption agencies through sponsored influencers, incentivised opinion publications in some national dailies, online and electronic platforms, all targeted at discouraging anti-corruption efforts and shielding kleptocrats from thorough investigation. The pattern is clear: there is an unfolding plot of surreptitious moves to backpedal on the progress made by anti-corruption agencies, that we outline below:

Judicial corruption constitutes a major challenge to anti-corruption work in Nigeria. The looters have repeatedly used their influence to manipulate the judicial process and system, to block and/or delay the arrest or prosecution of suspects. This blatant disregard for the rule of law has eroded public trust and reinforced the perception that Nigerias democracy is nothing more than a facade. Clearly, the judiciary is not living up to its responsibility of ensuring that the rule of law and provisions of the constitution are upheld.

There have been several allegations of judicial officers receiving bribes from politicians and politically exposed persons in-order to circumvent the law. This has watered down the respect, trust and confidence of citizens in the judiciary and negatively impacted the fight against corruption. Nigerians have witnessed too many situations where courts have granted injunctions which deterred anti-corruption agencies from inviting and prosecuting corrupt government officials and politically exposed persons.

Nigerians have witnessed with alarm numerous cases featuring a high number of foreign enablers from Switzerland, Monaco, Panama, British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom (UK) who are facilitating corruption. Enablers from the UK are particularly strongly linked to Nigerian cases. Of course, Nigeria also has a large coterie of internal enablers who facilitate and protect the corruption process and its key actors. The core issue is the procurement of political appointments by treasury looters who are serving under the current administration as ministers, legislators, or occupying leadership positions of the ruling party. They have exposed the anti-corruption work to serious setbacks and deliberate sabotage that cripples the efficiency of the anti-corruption agencies. It is distressing to see people facing corruption allegations being appointed by the president into various positions of authority. Today, many serving lawmakers and ministers have corruption allegations against them. This is producing a culture of impunity, whereby politicians engage in corrupt practices without the fear of consequences. This has eroded public trust in the government and undermined the legitimacy of the democratic process.

We are also concerned by the recent withdrawal of Police from the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission. This withdrawal of about 40 Police officers who were responsible for security and investigative tasks has not only hampered the work of the anti-corruption agency in Kano State, but also endangered the Polices obligation to operate with impartiality and independence.

The budgetary allocations to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Nigeria Police, among others, are inadequate. Poor resource allocation is a calculated attempt to gradually push these agencies towards extinction. By limiting their resources, the government is effectively crippling their abilities to function effectively and independently.

One of the most dangerous developments in the country is the massive recruitment of young persons into different forms of criminality. These include traditional sectors such as political thuggery and cultism, but also newer sectors such as cyber-crimes, alongside human and drug trafficking. More youths are daily becoming engaged in criminal activities including ritual killings, cyber-crimes, kidnapping, prostitution, robbery and banditry. In the process, the youths, whose collective future has been continuously mortgaged by our morally bankrupt and corrupt politicians, have to take a clear stand today. A good future for them would require that they take a plain stance in the struggle against corruption and all forms of criminality.

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We are also concerned by the recent withdrawal of Police from the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission. This withdrawal of about 40 Police officers who were responsible for security and investigative tasks has not only hampered the work of the anti-corruption agency in Kano State, but also endangered the Polices obligation to operate with impartiality and independence. It appears that this move is not unconnected to the attempt to frustrate the ongoing investigations into corruption allegations levelled against the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

To sustain the struggle against corruption, growing concerns over the declining levels of autonomy and integrity of the judiciary must be addressed. The National Judicial Council must diligently monitor its members and promptly remove any corrupt judicial officer found to be compromising the judicial system. By doing so, it will significantly contribute to the restoration of sanity and the promotion of accountability within the nation.

To truly establish a flourishing democracy, transparency and accountability must be strictly adhered to in governance. This requires holding politicians accountable for their actions and inactions, strengthening institutions to combat corruption, and ensuring that the allocation of resources is done in a fair and equitable manner. Only through these measures can Nigeria overcome its socio-economic challenges and build a democracy that truly serves the interests of the citizens.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties should take decisive action in purging their ranks by denouncing and breaking support with their members who are currently being investigated by the anti-corruption agencies. This can be operationalised by suspending all members tainted by corruption allegations and ensuring that they are held accountable before the law.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties should take decisive action in purging their ranks by denouncing and breaking support with their members who are currently being investigated by the anti-corruption agencies. This can be operationalised by suspending all members tainted by corruption allegations and ensuring that they are held accountable before the law.

Adequate resource allocation to the anti-corruption agencies has become imperative to uphold their independence and enhance efficiency in the anti-corruption process. It is essential to prioritise adequate funding and support for anti-corruption agencies to prevent corruption and promote accountability. Through this, the present administration will demonstrate its commitment to fighting corruption.

Opinion leaders, including journalists, academics, and social media influencers, have the power to shape public discourse and raise awareness about the negative impacts of corruption. By using their platforms to expose corrupt practices, hold public officials accountable, and advocate for anti-corruption measures, they can help mobilise public opinion and pressure governments to take action against corruption.

Civil society organisations, such as non-governmental organisations, advocacy groups, and watchdog organisations also play a crucial role in the fight against corruption. They can conduct research, monitor government activities, and raise awareness about corruption issues. By working with other stakeholders, including religious leaders, community leaders, and opinion leaders, they can help build coalitions and mobilise collective action to combat corruption at all levels of government and society.

Let all Nigerians stand to be counted in the struggle for a corruption-free Nigeria!

A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.

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Fellow Nigerians! Have you ever wondered why some nations seem to be stuck in a cycle of poverty, insecurity, hunger and underdevelopment? The answer is often corruption. Corruption is a disease that eats away at the very fabric of a society, destroying trust, undermining institutions, and eroding the rule of law. In this sermon, In Shaa Allah I will explore how corruption destroys nations by examining its impact on economic growth, social cohesion, and political stability.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation; may Allah extol the mention of our noble Prophet Muhammad in the highest company of Angels, bless him and give him peace and securityand his family, his Companions and all those who follow him correctly and sincerely until the establishment of the Hour.

Dear brothers and sisters! The original sources of Islam, the Noble Quran and Sunnah, employ a variety of terminologies and narrations to elucidate and condemn a broad category of behavioural digressions involving corruption, including bribery, nepotism and rule substitution. Corruption is seen to stem from the abuse of administrative power of any kind, judicial power, political authority and financial dominance. Further, all corrupt acts are construed as lacking in virtue from a moral perspective and unjust in relation to the principles that safeguard rendering to everyone their due, thereby undermining communal harmony.

This position matches well with the shift in social scientific thought from viewing corruption as grease that oils the economic wheels to a menace that undermines economic growth. Where the two differ is with respect to remedial action. The Western approach focuses on designing systems and institutions that seek to root out corruption, while minimising opportunities and enticement for corruption. In short, it emphasises constraints external to the individual.

By comparison, Islam seeks to go beyond such constraints, and also instils in believers a clear second-order preference for non-corrupt behaviour. It recommends developing a firm belief in transcendent accountability and stresses character building through practising moral virtues and shunning vices. In essence, in circumstances where the chances of detection are low, the restraint comes from within. It is our contention that both emphases are important in eliminating corruption.

Respected brothers and sisters! Corruption, in the view of Islam, is defined as the term, Akhzul Amwal Bil Batil, which means consuming other peoples property in a manner of vanity. This term refers to the surah al-Baqarah verse 188 and surah al-Maidah verse 42.

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Correspondingly, corruption is associated with Ghulul, which means stealing peoples property or public property.

Corruption has been considered a crime for the survival of the bureaucracy. At the same time, corruption has become the most destructive social disease in the system of social values in Islam.

As described in Surah al-Fajr verses 15-20 as social upheaval, corruption itself is not only a matter of money but also moral matters that have been damaged, and the loss of self-confidence.

In terms of Islamic law, corruption cases fall into the area of muamalah Maliyah (the socio-economic) or fiqh siyasah (constitutional law) based on the problem of Maliyah (objects).

Some existing writings on Islam and corruption discuss moral education in Islam used to prevent corruption. However, Muslim-majority countries viewed from a Western perspective are seen most often as highly corrupt by the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Indexes.

In Islam, corruption is highly condemned and corruption is pervasive, which opposes corrupt practices.

Corruption that is widely practised in this Muslim-majority country has significantly impacted Islamic banking. This disease of corruption has prevented Islamic banking from becoming a more effective and meaningful pathway for poverty alleviation and economic development. And a solid legal system can increase perceptions of control over cases of corruption.

Dear brothers and sisters! In January 2023, the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International released its annual corruption perception index, which ranks the perceived level of public sector corruption across 180 countries worldwide. That years report painted a grim picture that revealed that many countries have failed to make any progress in the fight against corruption since 2017.

The report reveals a clear connection between insecurity and corruption, something that is rarely interrogated. The Nigerian experience confirms that governments plagued by corruption lack the capacity to protect their people from criminality and insurrection. Despite the government spending billions of dollars to fight insecurity at both the national and sub-national levels, security continues to worsen. Cases of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism have become frequent across the whole country.

Sometimes, the security agencies have not been able to adequately respond leaving some parts of the country under the control of terrorists and bandits who collect tax from local farmers. There are even instances where the kidnap victims spoke of collaboration between the state security agencies and the kidnappers after their release.

In 2022 alone, media reports estimate about 4,545 people were killed while another 4,611 were kidnapped by non-state actors. Gunmen have attacked several government buildings mosques and churches across the country, leaving many people dead.

Terrorists, bandits and criminal organisations across the country have been emboldened, while citizens live in constant fear and corrupt officials thrive in impunity.

The Government Defense Integrity Index published in 2020 revealed that Nigeria faces a high risk across its defence institutions with minimal controls in operations. The country ranks 143 out of 163 on the Global Peace Index in 2022, alongside nations like Iran, Cameroon and Colombia.

Fellow Nigerians! Have you ever wondered why some nations seem to be stuck in a cycle of poverty, insecurity, hunger and underdevelopment? The answer is often corruption. Corruption is a disease that eats away at the very fabric of a society, destroying trust, undermining institutions, and eroding the rule of law. In this sermon, In Shaa Allah I will explore how corruption destroys nations by examining its impact on economic growth, social cohesion, and political stability. I will also discuss why it is so difficult to root out corruption and what can be done to combat it. So buckle up and get ready to dive into the dark world of corruption and its devastating consequences.

Corruption is a malignant cancer that eats away at the very fabric of a nation, and one of the most devastating effects of corruption is its impact on economic growth. When corruption is rampant in a society, it creates an environment of uncertainty and instability that discourages investment and stifles economic growth because it undermines the rule of law, erodes public trust in government institutions, and creates a culture of impunity where those in power can act with impunity.

Moreover, corruption diverts resources away from productive activities and into the pockets of corrupt officials and their cronies. Corruption leads to a misallocation of resources and a distortion of the economy, as resources are directed towards activities that generate rents rather than those that create value. As a result, corruption leads to a decrease in productivity, a decline in competitiveness, and a loss of confidence in the economy. Ultimately, the consequence of corruption leads to a decline in economic growth, which can have devastating consequences for a nations development and prosperity.

Corruption is a cancer that eats away at the fabric of society, and its impact on social cohesion cannot be overstated. When corruption is rampant, it undermines the trust that people have in their government and institutions. This lack of trust can lead to a breakdown in social cohesion, as people become more divided and less willing to work together for the common good of their nation.

In addition, corruption often leads to unequal distribution of resources, as those with power and influence can use their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of others, thereby creating a sense of resentment and injustice among those left behind, further eroding social cohesion. Ultimately, corruption destroys the sense of community and shared purpose that is necessary for a nation to thrive, and it is up to all of us to work together to root it out and build a more just and equitable society.

Corruption has a detrimental impact on political stability. When corruption is rampant within a government, citizens lose faith in their leaders and the political system as a whole, thereby leading to protests, civil unrest, and even violent uprisings. In addition, corrupt officials often use their power and influence to suppress opposition and dissent, further eroding political stability.

Furthermore, corruption can also lead to a lack of accountability and transparency within the government. When officials are more concerned with personal gain than serving the public, they are less likely to prioritise the needs and concerns of their constituents. This lack of accountability can lead to policies that benefit the corrupt few at the expense of the many, further eroding political stability and undermining the democratic process. Ultimately, corruption undermines the legitimacy of the government and can lead to a breakdown in the rule of law, posing a serious threat to the stability and prosperity of a nation.

Corruption is a complex and multifaceted problem that is difficult to root out. One of the primary reasons is that it often involves powerful individuals or groups who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. These individuals may use their wealth, influence, and political connections to protect themselves and their interests, making it difficult for law enforcement agencies and other authorities to hold them accountable.

Another reason why corruption is so difficult to combat is that it often involves a culture of impunity and a lack of transparency. In many cases, corrupt individuals are able to operate with impunity because there is no effective mechanism for holding them accountable. It can be due to weak or ineffective laws, a lack of political will, or a lack of resources and capacity within law enforcement agencies.

One solution to combating corruption is to increase transparency and accountability in government and business practices. This solution can be achieved through measures such as implementing anti-corruption laws, establishing independent oversight bodies, and promoting a culture of ethical behaviour. It is also important to educate citizens about the negative effects of corruption and encourage them to demand transparency and accountability from their leaders. Ultimately, rooting out corruption requires a collective effort from all members of society, including government officials, business leaders, religious leaders and citizens alike.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions and his true followers.

Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of: Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah Mosque; and Late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okene Mosque, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com; or +2348038289761.

This Friday sermon (Jumuah Khutbah) was prepared for delivery today Friday, 24 Shawwal, 1445 AH (May 03, 2024).

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Eleven people, including a pregnant woman, were killed when gunmen, suspected to be warlords from a neighbouring community, attacked the residents of Inikiri, a village in Ezza Effium Community, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigerias south-east.

The incident happened on Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES gathered.

Ezza Effium and Uffiom Communities in the Ohaukwu Local Government of the state have been engulfed in dispute for some years now, which has resulted in the loss of several lives, displacement of hundreds of people and destruction of properties worth billions of naira.

How it happened

Residents told PREMIUM TIMES that the hoodlums invaded the community at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday and shot sporadically till 6 p.m. of the same day, killing the victims at the spot.

Children between the ages of two and 12 were among the 11 persons killed during the attack, according to the residents.

The identities of the attackers were yet to be ascertained. However, some residents of Ezza Effium claimed the hoodlums were Uffiom warriors.

Meanwhile, the Ezza Effium Community has a joint military and police checkpoint, which the state government set up for peacekeeping in the area.

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

But one of the residents, Chuks Nwafor, told this newspaper that the attackers operated without a challenge from both the soldiers and police operatives stationed in the area.

The residents said a Primary Healthcare Center was built for the community by an international organisation, and over 30 residential houses were razed during the attack.

Police speak

When contacted on Friday afternoon, the police spokesperson in Ebonyi State, Joshua Ukandu, told PREMIUM TIMES that police authorities in the state had initiated efforts to investigate what happened in the community.

We have received the information (about the attack), and we are working to confirm what happened, Mr Ukandu, a deputy superintendent of police, said.

On the alleged failure of some soldiers to confront the attackers, the police spokesperson said there was no evidence that the attack happened close to the military checkpoint.

So, I dont think that the incident happened within the area where the mobile police officers and military men are present, but we are still trying to assess what happened, he added.

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The Lagos State Police Command said it has identified the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Toheeb Eniafe at a petrol station in Obalende.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the police spokesperson, made this known via his X handle on Thursday.

The person behind the shooting has been identified as a police officer serving at Special Protection Unit (SPU) Base 17, Lion Building, Lagos, he said.

Investigation is still ongoing and further findings will be made available.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command is working with the family of the deceased to ensure that there is no miscarriage of justice, he added.

According to a witness, who spoke with the Vanguard newspaper, some security officials drove into the station to buy petrol while many others were in the queue.

READ ALSO: Lawmaker petitions House of Reps over killing of youth corps member by police

The actions of the armed officers were met with stiff resistance from people who had been waiting in the queue for over five hours. The deceased, Toheeb Eniafe, was one of the people who spoke loudly against the officers, asking them to join the queue like everyone else.

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Quickly the verbal confrontation degenerated into a fisticuff. One of the men shot the young man and immediately fled the incident scene, leaving the area in disarray, the witness recounted.

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ODESSA, Texas, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Grossman Law Offices, with its principal office in Dallas, TX, extends its support to the individuals involved in a two-truck accident that occurred on April 3, 2024, around 9:30 a.m. along State Highway 302 in Ector County, TX . Two people sustained injuries in the incident.

Details About the Ector County Truck Accident:

According to authorities, a 54-year-old man was traveling east in a Freightliner on S.H. 302 in the vicinity west of Tripp Avenue when the accident occurred.

Simultaneously, a Kenworth truck occupied by a 56-year-old man and a 23-year-old man was attempting to merge into the eastbound lanes of the highway from Yukon Road. Officials indicate that, for reasons yet to be determined, the Kenworth failed to yield the right of way at a yield sign, entering the highway at an unsafe time. This resulted in a collision between the front-end of the Freightliner and the back-end of the Kenworth.

The man from the Freightliner was reportedly seriously injured, while the 56-year-old from the Kenworth suffered moderate injuries. They were each transported to a local medical facility by EMS to receive necessary treatment. No other injuries have been reported and the accident is still under investigation.

Related Reading: The Media Is Missing Serious Accidents: What Is to Be Done?

About Grossman Law Offices:

Grossman Law Offices is a Texas-based personal injury and wrongful death firm with a commitment to educating the public about road safety awareness. For more than 30 years, their firm has highlighted crashes that don't make the news.

For More Information:

For additional details about this incident or to learn more about Grossman Law Office's public outreach and educational initiatives, please visit our website at Grossman Law Offices or contact us at 866-513-3847 .

SOURCE Grossman Law Office, P.C.
Redevelopment of James Allen Jr. Place recognized

ATLANTA, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta Housing (AH) announced today that the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies (NALHFA) has selected James Allen Jr. Place for the Redevelopment Award of Excellence. The NALHFA Award of Excellence is the most prestigious national recognition in the local affordable housing finance community. The award recognizes outstanding achievements, innovation, and community impact in redevelopment projects within the affordable housing sector. In a category with dozens of award nominees, Atlanta Housing was among the 2024 Award of Excellence honorees.

"Atlanta Housing is deeply honored to accept the Redevelopment Award of Excellence from the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies," stated Terri M. Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Housing. "This recognition is a testament to our unwavering commitment to answering Commissioner Allen's poignant question: 'Affordable for who?' Commissioner Allen's legacy of advocacy for the most vulnerable, including seniors and youth, lives on through this award. Every detail of our redevelopment efforts, from safety measures to comfort enhancements, reflects his compassionate spirit and dedication. This achievement underscores the power of collaboration between public and private entities in creating lasting positive impact."

Last year, Atlanta Housing celebrated the completion of a $36 million renovation of James Allen Jr. Place. The transformative project preserved 129 affordable apartment homes for residents aged 55 and older and persons with disabilities. The redevelopment was made possible through collaboration with Atlanta Housing, Invest Atlanta, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

James Allen Jr. Place, built in 1982, required extensive renovation to meet modern quality standards and address structural issues. The site was converted to a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) property in 2022. Columbia Residential, through a competitive procurement process, was awarded the right from Atlanta Housing to recapitalize and redevelop the building. Today, James Allen Jr. Place offers residents community amenities, such as an arts & crafts room, movie theater, and package room. Common areas, including the community room, laundry room, computer room, meeting room, and fitness room, were expanded or reconfigured to better meet residents' needs. The community features a gated entrance, surface parking, new elevators, and a covered entry for pick-ups and drop-offs. Most notably, the property includes a primary healthcare clinic offered exclusively to residents by Matter Health, enhancing healthcare accessibility and undoubtably improving health outcomes.

"Columbia Residential is honored to have led the renovation and redevelopment of James Allen Jr. Place in partnership with Atlanta Housing, Invest Atlanta, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. We applaud Atlanta Housing for their leadership in this transformative project, which exemplifies the power of public-private partnerships and its people-first commitment to elevate the quality of life for the residents we serve," said Carmen Chubb, President of Columbia Residential.

"I would be remiss to not congratulate Invest Atlanta for receiving an award of excellence from NALHFA in recognition of Intrada Westside," continued Lee. "We are so proud to have been able to impact that project by providing subsidies through 25 HomeFlex project-based vouchers, which afforded us another opportunity to further our mission of using quality, affordable housing as a vehicle to empower people."

ABOUT ATLANTA HOUSING

President and Chief Executive Officer Terri M. Lee leads The Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia (AH), the largest housing authority in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. One of 139 Moving to Work (MTW) public housing authorities in America, AH is an industry leader in providing and facilitating affordable housing resources for nearly 27,000 low-income households comprised of approximately 45,000 people, including AH-owned residential communities, tenant-based vouchers, supportive housing, as well as down payment assistance, where innovation leads the approach to making the dream of home ownership attainable for more Atlantans. Programs are funded and regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Visit AH at atlantahousing.org or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at @housingatlanta.

SOURCE Atlanta Housing
CHICAGO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nationally recognized women's health advocate and former White House aide Alejandra Campoverdi will be Northeastern Illinois University's May 2024 Commencement speaker. Campoverdi is the bestselling author of "First Gen: A Memoir", which examines the emotional toll of social mobility on those she refers to as "first and onlys."

"NEIU is honored to welcome Alejandra Campoverdi as our May 2024 Commencement speaker," said Dr. Katrina E. Bell-Jordan, Interim President of Northeastern Illinois University. "A trailblazer and nationally recognized advocate for women's health, Ms. Campoverdi embodies the tenacity, and spirit of innovation and service we seek to instill in our graduates. Her remarkable journey, from her humble roots to the White House and on the forefront of health advocacy, is inspirational. We look forward to hearing her insights and wisdom as we celebrate the achievements of our graduates."

Campoverdi served in the Obama White House as the first White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media. She produced and appeared in the groundbreaking PBS documentary "Inheritance: Women, BRCA, and Hereditary Cancer" and founded the Latinos & BRCA awareness initiative in partnership with the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center. Latinos & BRCA provides education and resources for the U.S. Latino community around BRCA-related cancers. She earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California.

COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY

WHEN: Friday, May 10, 2024, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Credit Union 1 Arena, 525 S. Racine Ave. in Chicago.

RSVP: Media are asked to RSVP by noon on Friday, May 3, if you plan to

attend or send a camera.

ABOUT NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

Northeastern Illinois University offers more than 40 undergraduate degree and certificate programs and more than 50 graduate degree, certificate, licensure and endorsement programs. The Main Campus is located on 67 acres in an attractive residential area on the Northwest Side of Chicago. The University has additional locations in the metropolitan area, including the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, El Centro and the University Center of Lake County.

SOURCE NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
VICTORIA, Seychelles , May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading digital asset exchange Bitrue continues its community-driven approach with the listing of a new Bitcoin Runes token, GPTVAIPEPEKING (GPTV). This follows the recent addition of several other Bitcoin Runes tokens to the platform, including SATOSHINAKAMOTO (SATOSHI) , LOBOTHEWOLFPUP (LOBO) , RSICGENESISRUNE (RSIC) , and DOGGOTOTHEMOON (DOG) . Trading for the GPTV/USDT pair commenced on April 30th, 2024.

What is GPTV?

GPTV is the native token of AI PEPE KING, a project claiming to be the "largest AI Meme Community" with a presence on both the Polygon (AIPEPE) and Bitcoin Runes (GPTV) blockchains. Notably, AI PEPE KING secured a $10 million investment to develop AI-powered customer service tools leveraging the ChatGPT technology. Additionally, they are building a "Dream Lottery" system. Revenue generated from these products is earmarked for buybacks and burns of both AIPEPE and GPTV tokens, potentially influencing their long-term value.

Staking Opportunities with Attractive Yields

Bitrue is also offering users staking opportunities for those holding BTR, AIPEPE, RSIC, or DOG tokens. By staking their holdings, users can earn rewards in GPTV, with estimated annual percentage yield (APY) varying on the staked token, with BTR offering 22.15%, AIPEPE at 23.18%, RSIC boasting a higher 31.37%, and DOG coming in at 23.62%. These yields present a potentially lucrative opportunity for users to grow their cryptocurrency holdings, but also come with financial risk and the potential for investment to return much lower yields.

Bitrue's Focus on Community Engagement

The listing of these Bitcoin Runes tokens is a testament to Bitrue's commitment to its user base. The decision to add these tokens stemmed from a community poll conducted through an X poll on Bitrue's X account. This highlights the exchange's dedication to incorporating community feedback into its decision-making process, fostering a sense of collaboration and shared interest.

With the addition of GPTV and the introduction of staking opportunities, Bitrue continues to expand its offerings for users interested in the burgeoning world of Bitcoin Runes tokens. The exchange's focus on community engagement further strengthens its position as a platform that prioritizes user input and satisfaction.

About Bitrue

Launched in July 2018, Bitrue is a diversified digital asset exchange that supports trading, loans and investments. Bitrue aims to utilize blockchain technology to bring financial opportunities to everybody regardless of their location or financial position. With offices in Asia and Europe, the business continues to develop new features at a rapid speed to fully service the new wave of the digital economy. More information is available at Bitrue's website .

SOURCE Bitrue
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Diamond Growers, the largest almond processor and marketer, issued a statement of support following the release of two separate farm bill frameworks by the chairs of the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

The Company issued the following statement:

"Blue Diamond applauds House Agriculture Committee Chairman Thompson and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow for their diligent work in moving the 2024 farm bill process forward. As a global brand and grower owned cooperative, programs supporting market access and crop insurance are vital to export expansion and production risk mitigation for family farms. The Farm Bill is a critical tool to ensuring U.S. food security for millions of Americans. We urge bipartisan collaboration as Congress moves through the process to ensure a farm bill is signed into law this year."

About Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond Growers, a grower-owned cooperative representing approximately 3,000 California almond growers, is the world's leading almond marketer and processor. Established in 1910, it created the California almond industry and opened world markets for almonds. Blue Diamond is dedicated to delivering the benefits of almonds around the world and does so by providing high-quality almonds, almond ingredients and branded products. Headquartered in Sacramento, the company employs more than 1,800 people throughout its processing plants, receiving stations and gift shops. Blue Diamond markets and sells a wide range of almond-based snacks, beverages, and ingredients, including Blue Diamond Snack Almonds, Nut-Thins crackers, almond flour and Almond Breeze almondmilk and almondmilk creamers. For more information, visit www.bluediamond.com or like us on Facebook and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

SOURCE Blue Diamond Growers
BOSTON and YOKNEAM, Israel, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Butterfly Medical Ltd, an early-stage medical device company focused on alleviating suffering in patients with BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia), is excited to announce the hiring of Patrick MacCarthy as CEO.

With over 20 years of global healthcare leadership experience, Mr. MacCarthy has led teams to successfully commercialize multiple medical devices in fields including gastroenterology, pulmonology, thoracic surgery, gynecology and urology. Mr. MacCarthy was most recently head of the Urology and Gynecology business unit for Olympus America, Inc.

"We are thrilled to welcome Pat as our new CEO for Butterfly Medical", said Greg Parekh, Chairman of the Board for Butterfly Medical, Managing Partner of New Rhein Healthcare Investors and former Head of M&A at Novartis. "With deep cross-functional expertise in large and start-up healthcare companies, Pat is well positioned to lead Butterfly Medical to clinical and commercial success. We are committed to helping the more than 90 million men globally1 who suffer from BPH symptoms, one of the fastest growing and most prevalent disease-states."

"The Butterfly Medical team has created an innovative, anatomically-shaped device designed to treat urinary obstruction from BPH, without the significant side-effects seen in drugs or surgical treatments", states Mr. MacCarthy. "I chose Butterfly Medical because I saw significant value in its unique technology and because of the strength of the management team, clinicians, partners and investors. Having obtained regulatory approval and CE Mark in Europe, we are focused on completing our U.S. pivotal clinical study and achieving FDA Clearance."

The Butterfly device has been successfully used in over 250 patients in Israel, Europe and the U.S and has over five years of outcomes data. It is currently being evaluated in a multi-center, randomized and sham-controlled trial, through the FDA Investigational Device Exception process.

About BPH: Over 15 million men in the U.S., and over 90 million globally suffer from the effects of BPH, which include weak urine stream, frequency and urgency of urination, and nocturia  waking up during the night to urinate. Untreated, these symptoms can cause a loss of bladder function and even permanent catheterization. A growing number of men are considering minimally invasive procedures to avoid issues from medicines and surgery. Pharmacological therapy can cause adverse reactions such as dizziness, loss of sex drive and sexual dysfunction. Surgical therapies come with risks of hematuria, infection and erectile dysfunction.2 The market size for BPH treatment devices is estimated at $1.42B, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.9%.3

About Butterfly Medical: Butterfly Medical's purpose is to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). With a team of seasoned medical, technical, clinical and commercial experts, we have created a novel device and ground-breaking procedure to mechanically and minimally invasively open the prostatic urethra in men with BPH.

About New Rhein Investors: New Rhein applies a private equity business model to life sciences venture capital investing. Combining significant deal-making expertise with deep operating experience, New Rhein takes significant stakes in a small number of companies and actively manages their value creation. New Rhein typically invests between $20 and $40 million per portfolio company. Prior investments have included medicines or medical devices for Alzheimer's disease, ophthalmic disorders, respiratory disease, critical care, urology and oncology. Our managing partners and advisors are former senior executives of leading pharmaceutical firms with outstanding operational and investment track records.

1 The global, regional, and national burden of benign prostatic hyperplasia in 204 countries and territories from 2000 to 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019; Lancet, October 2022

2 Efficacy and Side Effects of Drugs Commonly Used for the Treatment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Associated with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia; Zeng et al.; Frontiers in Pharmacology; May 2020

3 Grandview Research; Report ID: GVR-4-68040-119-1

SOURCE Butterfly Medical, Inc.
It's apt, then, that Campari has chosen the opening of the 77th Festival to launch its We Are Cinema campaign. Its role is to acknowledge human stories as the inspiration for some of the world's greatest cinema. Building on Campari's role as curator of aperitivo occasions, Campari celebrates those real-life moments that become remarkable stories. Viewers of the new campaign can expect a melody of cinematic moments artistically brought to life and told through the vivid red lens of Campari's creativity.

As both the festival and campaign unfurl, Campari will again host and promote a series of events from the Campari Lounge in the Palais de Festival, over-looking the famous red-carpet. This year, the brand also introduces Hyde Beach by Campari, a new iconic space on Boulevard de Croisette, where stars and guests will be welcomed, and events hosted throughout the festival.

Amongst their exciting program, Campari is honored to announce both new and returning collaborations:

Cole Walliser will be based in the Campari Lounge, interviewing guests and celebrities. The director and celebrity host, famous for the behind-the-scenes GlamBOT clips, will eagerly tune into his entertaining dispatches covering the red-carpet action from the lounge.

Campari is also rejoining forces with The Hollywood Reporter, recording a special festival edition of the Awards Chatter podcast with Kevin Costner  director, writer, producer and star of Horizon: An American Saga. Costner will join THR's Executive Editor of Awards, Scott Feinberg, live to talk about his returning to the big screen Western, premiering at this year's Festival de Cannes.

One of the most anticipated events has to be the Official Cannes After Party for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. During the festival Campari will host this star-studded event at Hyde Beach by Campari in celebration of the latest installment of this epic franchise.

Campari will also partner for the third year with Breaking Through The Lens, a non-profit organization which empowers women in film by facilitating access to vital funding. Together, they will host the 'Crossing Borders' gala to celebrate women who have transcended cultural borders. The evening will include a panel discussion with globally renowned actress, Diane Kruger, who will be joined by other industry figures - including Campari Group Head of Marketing, Julka Villa - to share their own unique experiences.

Campari is more than an aperitif. With such unmistakable characteristics, the brand has long been a source of passionate inspiration. Since its birth, Campari has always been at the forefront of cocktail culture, inspiring passion in bartenders across the world. With Camparino in Galleria, master mixologists, serving up their famed cocktails - including Negroni and Campari Spritz  the Campari Lounge and Hyde Beach by Campari are the perfect places to raise a toast to inspiring stories and the talent behind them.

Campari Group Head of Marketing, Julka Villa comments: "We are delighted to return to Festival de Cannes, this year bringing our passion for cinema and stories through our global We Are Cinema campaign to the iconic Festival setting. With a strong and enduring legacy in the cinema world, creativity and passion remain at the heart of everything we do. This year, we look forward to continuing to bring this to our audience through a program of remarkable moments throughout the Festival."

Please follow Campari's social media channels for further information @campariofficial @CampariUSA.

Campari reminds you to enjoy responsibly.

#CampariCinema #WeAreCinema #Cannes2024 #FestivalDeCannes #DrinkResponsibly

https://www.campari.com/en-us/

https://www.youtube.com/EnjoyCampari

https://www.facebook.com/CampariUS

https://www.instagram.com/campariusa/





ABOUT CAMPARI

Campari, the iconic, Italian red spirit sitting at the heart of some of the world's most famous cocktails. Campari was founded in Milan in 1860 by Gaspare Campari, and pioneered by his son, Davide, who created something so distinctive and revolutionary that its secret recipe has not been altered since. Vibrant red in colour, Campari's unique and multi-layered taste is the result of the infusion of herbs, aromatic plants and fruit in alcohol and water. As well as being unique and distinctive, Campari is extremely versatile, offering boundless and unexpected possibilities. As a source of this passionate inspiration since its creation seen through its founders' creative genius, artists in different fields and the world's best bartenders, Campari stimulates your instincts to unlock your passions, inspiring limitless creations.

ABOUT CAMPARI GROUP

Campari Group is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands, spreading across Global, Regional and Local priorities. Global Priorities, the Group's key focus, include Aperol, Appleton Estate, Campari, SKYY, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier. The Group was founded in 1860 and today is the sixth-largest player worldwide in the premium spirits industry. It has a global distribution reach, trading in over 190 nations around the world with leading positions in Europe and the Americas. Campari Group's growth strategy aims to combine organic growth through strong brand building and external growth via selective acquisitions of brands and businesses. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Campari Group owns 22 plants worldwide and has its own distribution network in 26 countries. Campari Group employs approximately 4,700people. The shares of the parent company Davide Campari-Milano N.V. (Reuters CPRI.MI - Bloomberg CPR IM) have been listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001.

ABOUT CAMPARI AMERICA

Campari America LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Davide Campari-Milano N.V. Campari America has built a portfolio unrivaled in its quality, innovation and style, making it a top choice among distributors, retailers and consumers. Campari America manages Campari Group's portfolio in the US with such leading brands as SKYY Vodka, SKYY Infusions, Grand Marnier, Campari, Aperol, Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Courvoisier Cognac, American Honey, Russell's Reserve, The Glen Grant Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Forty Creek Canadian Whisky, BULLDOG Gin, Cabo Wabo Tequila, Espolon Tequila, Montelobos Mezcal, Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur, Appleton Estate Rum, Wray & Nephew Rum, Coruba Rum, Ouzo 12, X-Rated Fusion Liqueur, Frangelico, Cynar, Averna, Braulio, Cinzano, Mondoro and Jean-Marc XO Vodka.

For more information: http://www.camparigroup.com/en.

Please enjoy our brands responsibly.

ABOUT FESTIVAL DE CANNES

The Festival de Cannes is an event that brings together the world's film professionals around an official competition and an International Film Market, whose highly media-oriented aspect makes it one of the first annual international events, contributing to the world cinematic influence.

ABOUT CAMPARINO

Camparino in Galleria is the legendary bar opened by Davide Campari in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in 1915. The bar was opened opposite to Caffe Campari, the establishment opened by Gaspare Campari - Davide's father and the creator of the bitter liqueur - in 1867. An instant hit with the people of Milan, the bar became synonymous with the city's aperitivo tradition and in 2015 marked its 100th anniversary. Following a renovation project, the bar reopens to the public in autumn 2019 with a refreshed identity and food and drink offering designed to consolidate its status as one of the most influential establishments in the world for lovers of mixology and gastronomic innovation.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvXtxwfBNcQ

Foto - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2403838/Campari_bottle.jpg

Foto - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2403837/Campari_Lounge.jpg

Foto - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2403839/We_are_Cinema.jpg

SOURCE Campari

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Canon to showcase solutions for commercial print, promotional communications, publishing, label packaging print, and much more.

DRUPA, the world's largest trade fair for the printing, packaging, and related industries, is set to take place from May 28 to June 7, 2024 .

DUBAI, UAE, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Canon Middle East, a leader in printing and imaging solutions, has announced the launch of its GCC-wide pre-DRUPA roadshow. These roadshows will provide customers in the Gulf with invaluable insights and an exclusive sneak peek into the groundbreaking technologies and solutions that Canon will showcase at the upcoming DRUPA 2024 exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany.

DRUPA, the world's largest trade fair for the printing, packaging, and related industries, is set to take place from May 28 to June 7, 2024. The event, which started in 1951, is held every four years and serves as a global platform for industry players to present their products, solutions, and services related to printing, packaging, and the graphic arts.

These roadshows will be held in multiple locations across Saudi Arabia, including Khobar (May 6), Riyadh (May 8), and Jeddah (May 15). Canon will also collaborate with partners to host events in Oman (April 29), Kuwait (May 8), Jordan (May 15), Lebanon (May 16), and an online event for Iraq (May 20). Two highly successful sessions in Qatar and Dubai have already taken place.

As a global industry leader, Canon's participation at DRUPA is highly anticipated. The company is expected to showcase revolutionary solutions for commercial print, promotional communications, publishing, and label packaging print, among other innovations. Beyond technology, Canon will share insights that offer customers real, tangible business value.

Ayman Aly, B2B Marketing Director at Canon Middle East, said, "By organizing these pre-DRUPA events, we aim to empower our customers with the knowledge and tools they need to make the most of their DRUPA experience. We are committed to delivering exceptional value and support to our customers, and these events are a testament to that commitment. We want to inspire our customers to embrace the future of printing and imaging and to discover how Canon's innovative solutions can transform their businesses and help them thrive in the digital age."

Attendees at Canon's pre-Drupa events will benefit from several key advantages. They will gain a deeper understanding of the showcased technology before the show, receive a valuable guide and checklist for self-assessment, unlock the true potential and understanding of digital printing technology tailored to their business needs, and ensure thorough preparation to navigate DRUPA successfully.

Canon Middle East reaffirms its commitment to being a trusted partner and a catalyst for growth in the printing and imaging industry. As we look ahead to DRUPA 2024 and beyond, Canon is poised to shape the industry's future, empowering customers with innovative solutions and insights to help them thrive in the digital age.

About Canon Middle East

Canon Middle East, a subsidiary of Canon Europe, is the operational headquarters for Canon in the Middle East based in Dubai, UAE.

Founded in 1937, the desire to continuously innovate has kept Canon at the forefront of imaging excellence throughout its 80-year history with its commitments to invest in the right areas and capture growth opportunities. From cameras to commercial printers, and business consultancy to healthcare technologies, Canon enriches lives and businesses through imaging innovation. Canon's corporate philosophy is Kyosei  'living and working together for the common good'. In EMEA, Canon Europe pursues sustainable business growth, focusing on reducing its environmental impact and supporting customers to reduce theirs using Canon's products, solutions and services.

Canon invests heavily in R&D, delivering the richest and most innovative products and services to satisfy customers' creative needs. From amateur photographers to professional print companies, Canon enables each customer to realise their own passion for image. Further information about Canon Middle East is available at www.canon-me.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2267778/4520268/Canon_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Canon Middle East
PROVO, Utah, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital Community Bank (CCBank), a leader in Utah community banking, is excited to announce the successful acquisition of Security Home Mortgage (SHM), a well-respected provider of home mortgage solutions since 1999. This landmark deal marks a significant milestone in CCBank's growth strategy, expanding its portfolio of financial services and reaffirming its commitment to fostering the financial well-being of the communities it serves. The business combination results in SHM becoming an independently operated subsidiary division of CCBank.

Better Together

This acquisition of SHM is a testament to CCBank's strategic vision to offer a comprehensive suite of financial products that cater to the evolving needs of its customers and community. By integrating SHM's expertise in home mortgages with CCBank's robust banking solutions, customers can look forward to a one-stop, locally-owned financial hub offering unmatched convenience and excellence in service.

"Today, we bring together two established Utah companies to better serve our clients in the financial services space," said Matt Field, CCBank's President & CFO. "CCBank and Security Home Mortgage are well-established Utah companies, and this partnership enables us to strengthen our market position to continue delivering industry-leading financial products, services, and home mortgages to our friends, families, and neighbors who entrust us with their financial well-being."

This acquisition reflects a shared vision between CCBank and SHM of empowering individuals and businesses to achieve their financial goals, fostering economic growth, and contributing to the prosperity of the communities these companies serve. Together, CCBank and SHM are poised to make a more significant impact, offering enhanced financial stability and support to customers while jointly exploring new products and offerings.

"Looking ahead, we are excited about the opportunities this acquisition presents. We are dedicated to leveraging the combined strengths of CCBank and SHM to innovate and enhance our product and service offerings, ensuring we remain at the forefront of the banking and mortgage industries to meet the diverse needs of our customers, partners, and personnel," explained Jon Chamberlain, President of SHM.

Continued Commitment to Excellence

CCBank and SHM are committed to a seamless transition of the business combination, ensuring that existing customers continue receiving exceptional service without interruption. As a result of this business combination, SHM customers will gain access to CCBank's comprehensive array of commercial and personal lending and deposit products.

"This acquisition will be seamless for all involved, and we expect no impact on SHM's customers or personnel. We will maintain the excellent infrastructure SHM has in place and welcome all SHM personnel to the CCBank family with Jon Chamberlain and Charlie Green continuing their leadership of SHMwith Chamberlain continuing his role as President of SHM," said Field.

About CCBank



Founded in 1993, CCBank is a community-focused financial institution with branch offices located in Salem, Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, Sandy, and St. George to serve the banking needs of Utah residents and businesses. The bank prides itself on being a longstanding community bank focused on Utah communities' financial and social health through its industry-leading rates, personalized service, financial technology, and quick decisions made at the local level. The bank concluded 2023 with approximately $871 million of total assets and $127 million of equity capital. CCBank is an Equal Housing Lender | Member FDIC. Online: https://ccbank.com

About Security Home Mortgage

Security Home Mortgage, a locally-owned mortgage lender, was founded in 1999 by Jon Chamberlain and is known for being dependable and catering to every client's needs. A majority of the company's business comes from repeat or referral customers, a testament to the trust and credibility SHM instills into each loan closed. Locally-owned and operated, SHM employs over 90 mortgage lending experts and uses industry-best technology. From pre-qualification to application and closing, each loan stays in-house, providing a seamless and quick experience for every customer. Online: https://securityhomemortgage.com/

For further information, please contact:

Lee Lamb, Vice President  Marketing & Brand

Cell: (801) 330-1192

[email protected]

SOURCE Capital Community Bank
CHICAGO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today reported April monthly trading volume statistics across its global business lines.

The data sheet "Cboe Global Markets Monthly Volume & RPC/Net Revenue Capture Report" contains an overview of certain April trading statistics and market share by business segment, volume in select index products, and RPC/net capture, which is reported on a one-month lag, across business lines.

Average Daily Trading Volume (ADV) by Month Year-To-Date



April 2024

April 2023

% Chg

March

2024

%

Chg

April 2024

April 2023

%

Chg Multiply-listed options (contracts, k) 10,223 9,810 4.2 % 10,570 -3.3 % 10,606 10,768 -1.5 % Index options (contracts, k) 4,347 3,507 23.9 % 4,057 7.1 % 4,157 3,575 16.3 % Futures (contracts, k) 309 186 66.2 % 217 42.5 % 244 221 10.2 % U.S. Equities - On-Exchange (matched shares, mn) 1,310 1,354 -3.3 % 1,464 -10.5 % 1,457 1,467 -0.7 % U.S. Equities - Off-Exchange (matched shares, mn) 66 75 -12.2 % 75 -11.9 % 74 86 -13.9 % Canadian Equities (matched shares, k) 157,295 135,428 16.1 % 159,704 -1.5 % 149,145 147,247 1.3 % European Equities (, mn) 10,503 10,413 0.9 % 10,248 2.5 % 10,064 11,173 -9.9 % Cboe Clear Europe Cleared Trades1 (k) 107,680 87,863 22.6 % 96,734 11.3 % 402,005 447,281 -10.1 % Cboe Clear Europe Net Settlements1 (k) 937 716 30.8 % 828 13.1 % 3,461 3,378 2.5 % Australian Equities (AUD, mn) 761 708 7.5 % 814 -6.5 % 764 745 2.6 % Japanese Equities (JPY, bn) 316 166 91.0 % 357 -11.5 % 316 179 76.7 % Global FX ADNV ($, mn) 51,307 40,599 26.4 % 47,346 8.4 % 46,804 43,959 6.5 %

1 Cboe Clear Europe figures are totals (not ADV) for the months and years-to-date. As of April 2023, data has been restated to reflect both On-Book and Off-Book cleared trades.

April 2024 Trading Volume Highlights

U.S. Options

Trading in Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) options was the highest since March 2020 , with a monthly ADV of 928 thousand contracts.

Cboe Japan

Cboe Japan achieved a monthly lit market share record of 5.4%, its second consecutive month with record market share.

Global FX

Global FX reported overall spot ADNV of $50.0 billion , its second-best month behind March 2020 .

, its second-best month behind . Spot Full Amount ADNV reached a new record of $15.1 billion

About Cboe Global Markets

Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to people around the world. Cboe provides trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives, FX, and digital assets, across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Above all, we are committed to building a trusted, inclusive global marketplace that enables people to pursue a sustainable financial future. To learn more about the Exchange for the World Stage, visit www.cboe.com .

CBOE-V

Cboe, Cboe Global Markets, Cboe Volatility Index, and VIX are registered trademarks of Cboe Exchange, Inc. or its affiliates. Standard & Poor's, S&P, SPX, and S&P 500 are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services, LLC, and have been licensed for use by Cboe Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Any products that have the S&P Index or Indexes as their underlying interest are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Standard & Poor's or Cboe and neither Standard & Poor's nor Cboe make any representations or recommendations concerning the advisability of investing in products that have S&P indexes as their underlying interests. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and its affiliates do not recommend or make any representation as to possible benefits from any securities, futures or investments, or third-party products or services. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. is not affiliated with S&P, FTSE Russell, or iBoxx. Investors should undertake their own due diligence regarding their securities, futures, and investment practices. This press release speaks only as of this date. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. disclaims any duty to update the information herein.

Nothing in this announcement should be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell any securities or futures in any jurisdiction where the offer or solicitation would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. Nothing contained in this communication constitutes tax, legal or investment advice. Investors must consult their tax adviser or legal counsel for advice and information concerning their particular situation.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and its affiliates make no warranty, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties as of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness or timeliness, the results to be obtained by recipients of the products and services described herein, or as to the ability of the indices referenced in this press release to track the performance of their respective securities, generally, or the performance of the indices referenced in this press release or any subset of their respective securities, and shall not in any way be liable for any inaccuracies, errors. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. and its affiliates have not calculated, composed or determined the constituents or weightings of the securities that comprise the third-party indices referenced in this press release and shall not in any way be liable for any inaccuracies or errors in any of the indices referenced in this press release.

There are important risks associated with transacting in any of the Cboe Company products discussed here. Before engaging in any transactions in those products, it is important for market participants to carefully review the disclosures and disclaimers contained at: https://www.cboe.com/us_disclaimers/.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all market participants. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person should review the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (ODD), which is required to be provided to all such persons. Copies of the ODD are available from your broker or from The Options Clearing Corporation, 125 S. Franklin Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60606.

Trading in futures and options on futures is not suitable for all market participants and involves the risk of loss, which can be substantial and can exceed the amount of money deposited for a futures or options on futures position. You should, therefore, carefully consider whether trading in futures and options on futures is suitable for you in light of your circumstances and financial resources. You should put at risk only funds that you can afford to lose without affecting your lifestyle. For additional information regarding the risks associated with trading futures and options on futures and with trading security futures, see respectively the Risk Disclosure Statement Referenced in CFTC Letter 16-82 and the Risk Disclosure Statement for Security Futures Contracts.

SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc.
MOORPARK, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Kennel Connection, a leader in FinTech pet care facility management software, proudly commemorates its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of unmatched innovation, growth, and leadership in the pet care industry. Founded on the principle of delivering client-centric solutions, Kennel Connection has consistently set the standard for excellence, evolving from a visionary idea into a revolutionary force that has transformed pet care business management.

From its inception, Kennel Connection has been at the forefront of technological advancement, beginning with its first DOS-based software in 1994 and the groundbreaking release of its Windows version in 1996. These early achievements laid the groundwork for a legacy of innovation, culminating in the recent launch of Kennel Connection Cloud in 2024the company's first fully cloud-based platformand the strategic merger with PawLoyalty in 2023. This merger expanded its suite of solutions, helping small business owners run their operations more efficiently and increase profitability through various FinTech Software Platforms. Ultimately, Kennel Connection has reinforced its position as an industry frontrunner and remains the only FinTech solution in the space to date back 30 years.

Jeff Brodsly, CEO of Kennel Connection, reflects on this momentous milestone: "Celebrating 30 years is not just about looking back at what we've achieved; it's about acknowledging our ongoing commitment to innovation and the future we're building. Our journey has been shaped by a relentless drive to meet the evolving needs of the pet care industry, and this dedication to helping the small business owner has fueled our growth and success."

Mark Gorrie, the original creator of Kennel Connection in 1994, shares his thoughts: "It's been amazing to see it grow from that one local client to thousands worldwide. I assembled over the years one of the best teams I've ever had the opportunity to work with, many of whom are still with the company today."

Kennel Connection's ethos of listening to and growing with its user base has been a key factor in its longevity and success. Keith McSwain, a veteran user, and CEO of The Pet Lodge of Pinehurst, praises the software's adaptability and user-focused evolution, stating, "Kennel Connection has been crucial to the efficiency and continued growth of our facility. Its responsiveness to our feedback and continuous improvement has made it an invaluable partner in our success."

The company's latest innovations, including Text-To-Pay, Client Portal, Online Reservations, and Business Intelligence, are all part of the brand-new Kennel Connection Cloud, launched to mark the 30-year milestone. These features underscore Kennel Connection's commitment to delivering flexible, state-of-the-art solutions that meet the unique challenges of the pet care industry. With these advancements, Kennel Connection ensures unparalleled reliability and accessibility, providing pet care facilities with the essential tools they need to thrive, regardless of location or internet reliability.

As Kennel Connection looks to the future, it remains dedicated to driving FinTech innovation, enhancing user experiences, and providing technology that allows its clients to work smarter, not harder. With a comprehensive suite of management tools, from reservation management to integrated payment solutions, Kennel Connection continues to empower pet care professionals with technology that optimizes operations, enhances customer service, and ensures the well-being of pets under their care.

About Kennel Connection

Kennel Connection, powered by 100GROUP, is a leading provider of innovative software solutions for pet care businesses, offering a comprehensive suite of management tools designed to streamline operations and enhance customer experience. With a focus on empowering pet care professionals, Kennel Connection's feature-rich platform encompasses reservation management, client communication, billing, and reporting, alongside innovative features such as Text-To-Pay, digital contracts, advanced online booking, and integrated credit card processingall aimed at driving efficiency and organization in day-to-day operations. Kennel Connection leverages cutting-edge technology to deliver tailored solutions that cater to the unique needs of pet boarding facilities, grooming salons, and dog daycare centers.

For more information about Kennel Connection and its suite of innovative pet care business management solutions, visit www.kennelconnection.com.

SOURCE 100GROUP
Doubles Constructel's Revenues in the US to over $250 million | US to Become Top-3 Country for Constructel alongside France and the UK | Balances US Operations between Telecom and Energy | Strong Balance Sheet to Support Continued M&A

PLYMOUTH, Mich., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Constructel Visabeira ("Constructel"), a subsidiary of Grupo Visabeira and a leading global provider of telecom and energy engineering services backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives ("Goldman Sachs"), today announced its acquisition of Verita Telecommunications Corporation ("Verita"), a leading wireline and wireless services company in the Central US region with over $100m in revenue.

Verita is Constructel's tenth acquisition since 2021 in its core markets of France, UK, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, and the US. With Verita, Constructel gains a strong platform in the large and growing US telecom services market, doubling Constructel's revenues in the US to over $250m and balancing Constructel's US business between energy and telecom engineering services.

Verita, headquartered in Michigan, boasts a workforce of approximately 500 employees and is engaged in engineering, construction, and maintenance of both fixed and mobile telecommunication infrastructures. With operations primarily in Central US, Verita has achieved double digit revenue growth since 2021.

With a reputation for excellence, Verita's expertise, paired with its client-centric approach and proficiency in delivering turnkey solutions, aligns seamlessly with Constructel's growth strategy for the US. By leveraging Verita's established presence and capabilities, Constructel aims to deliver high-quality turnkey solutions to the burgeoning fibre and 5G deployment landscape.

Verita's current management team, under the leadership of Verita's founder and CEO Michael A. Falsetti, will continue to lead the company with a focus on strong client relations, commitment to employees and partners, and relentless focus on quality of delivery to drive the next wave of growth.

According to Michael A. Falsetti, "this strategic partnership will allow us to accelerate our growth, not only by providing new opportunities to better serve our existing customers while facilitating new relationships, but also by fostering the digital and management transformation that was already taking shape."

For Nuno Marques, CEO of Constructel Visabeira, "this investment marks a significant milestone. It positions us at over $250m in sales in the US, while effectively balancing our growth across the US Energy and Telecommunications sectors. As we execute our expansion strategy in the US, where we hold strong long-term ambitions, this investment will play a pivotal role." He added that "drawing on our shared values and common vision for the future, coupled with our deep understanding of Verita's strong foundations, I am confident that we can leverage commercial and operational synergies to realize the broadband aspirations of our clients while advancing a trajectory of sustained profitable growth. Further, the strength of our balance sheet will allow us to continue to execute on our growth priorities and strategic M&A strategy in years to come in the US and Europe."

In addition to its M&A track record, Constructel has delivered double-digit organic revenue growth and double-digit EBITDA margins since 2021, reaching over 1.3 billion in revenues. These figures reflect a year-on-year sales and EBITDA growth ahead of 20%, underpinned by a combination of strong organic expansion and a successful M&A track record, anchored on a strong balance sheet. Constructel has significantly grown its Energy Engineering Services business, supporting customers with investments in transmission and distribution grids, renewable energy and EV charging infrastructure, which contributes to more than 30% of the company's revenues. In parallel, Constructel has strengthened its international presence with France & Belgium, UK, US, and Germany together contributing over 1bn to the Company's revenues.

The transaction is expected to complete in Q2-2024.

About Constructel Visabeira

With more than 40 years of experience, Constructel is one of the leading European telecommunication and energy service providers in Europe, with unique know-how that enables a diversified offer of turn-key solutions. Constructel's key services include design, implementation, construction and maintenance of telecommunications and energy networks. With an increasing international outreach, the company is currently present in 11 countries (specifically, Portugal, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United States) and counts more than 5,900 employees.

For further information, please visit www.constructelvisabeira.com

About Verita Telecommunications Corporation

Founded in 2013 by Michael Falsetti, Verita is one of the leading wireline and wireless services providers in the US Central region. With a client-centric approach and a track record of excellence, Verita offers turn-key solutions including design, engineering, and construction services. Verita has offices in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri and has projects completed in eighteen states.

For further information please visit www.Veritacorp.com

SOURCE Verita
DURHAM, N.C., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Corevist, the B2B ecommerce platform that powers customer-central digital channels, today announced the winners of the inaugural Golden Bull Awards, which recognizes outstanding achievements in B2B digital commerce, spotlighting clients who have excelled in utilizing the Corevist platform to enhance their online sales channel.

Eight manufacturers have been awarded for their exceptional use of the Corevist B2B ecommerce platform, which has enhanced their revenue and improved customer experiences. As B2B purchasing expectations shift, these companies lead the way by adopting scalable, modern tools to align with customer demands. Corevist supports these efforts by providing user-friendly customer portals and an intuitive online ordering platform. Its solutions are seamlessly integrated in real-time with SAP ECC and S/4HANA to ensure 100% ecommerce accuracy 100% of the time.

Corevist Announces Eight Manufacturers as Winners of the 2024 Golden Bull Awards for Excellence in B2B Ecommerce Post this

"The number of companies opting for digital transactions in the B2B sector is at an all-time high and continues to rise," stated Andy Martin, CEO of Corevist. "These awards showcase the exceptional commitment and creativity our clients bring to enhancing this channel. The Golden Bull Awards signify the profound transformation and strategic achievements our clients realize through our platform. Congratulations to all the winners for establishing new standards in digital commerce."

The categories for the Golden Bull Awards include:

-Overall Excellence Award for best use of the entire Corevist platform

-President's Club Award for top sales achievements in the ecommerce channel

-Innovation Trailblazer Award for best suggestions for ongoing platform innovations

-SAP Technical Champion Award for best SAP-driven workflows for operational excellence

-UX Mastery Award for most user-friendly and engaging user experience

Among a group of outstanding clients, the 2024 Golden Bull Awards winners include Chicago Faucets, awarded for Overall Excellence; Bioventus and Oregon Tool, both recognized in the President's Club; Emmerson Packaging, celebrated as the Innovation Trailblazer; and Kids2, acknowledged for UX Mastery. Additionally, four other manufacturers, both private and publicly traded, received awards across the different categories.

Winners were selected using unique data insights from the Corevist Performance Dashboard, which tracks ecommerce metrics critical to B2B manufacturers. This tool enabled an objective review of each nominee's use of the platform, emphasizing quantifiable achievements in digital commerce.

Todd Clark, VP of Client Success at Corevist, said, "This year's winners come from different manufacturing industries and show how creatively and effectively our platform can be used. These awards are not just about what they've achieved but also the solid partnerships we've built with each winner, which have propelled them to excel in their respective categories."

The 2024 Golden Bull Awards mark a new chapter in celebrating excellence in B2B digital commerce, highlighting Corevist's essential contribution to the industry. To discover how the Corevist platform assists manufacturers in creating high-performing B2B ecommerce sites, please visit corevist.com.

For more details on the Golden Bull Awards and to explore the achievements of the winners, visit corevist.com/golden-bull-awards.

About Corevist

Corevist empowers SAP-based enterprises to deliver exceptional service through integrated B2B portals and ecommerce solutions. Processing over $2 billion in transaction value annually, Corevist's SAP-certified integrations with S/4HANA and NetWeaver streamline complex operations for a global client base in North America, LATAM, EMEA, and Asia. For more information, contact (919) 424-2120 or visit corevist.com

SOURCE Corevist
TORONTO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Cybeats Technologies Corp. ("Cybeats'' or the "Company") (CSE: CYBT) (OTCQB: CYBCF), a company bringing industry-leading cybersecurity technology to the global market, is pleased to provide an update on its growth and fortified value proposition.

Cybeats. Software Made Certain. (CNW Group/Cybeats Technologies Corp.)

As a global cybersecurity Company, Cybeats continues to achieve a number of important milestones while serving the needs of a diverse blue-chip customer base and pioneering the industry with the most comprehensive product offering to store, enrich and distribute Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) at scale.1 In line with several recent announcements, Cybeats has delivered on its most important mission - customer satisfaction - as evidenced by 100% client retention and 144% net revenue retention, 322% revenue growth to $2.1M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), zero client churn and a high conversion rate on pilot projects.2

"As the team has excelled in delivering consistent commercial expansion, the market for Cybeats solutions presents a substantial opportunity for growth, driven by a surge in regulatory focus on software transparency through SBOM. Both industry regulators and global organizations recognize the essential need to increase software transparency. SBOM Studio offers the world's most compelling SBOM solution that addresses urgent cybersecurity challenges and operational demands," said Justin Leger, CEO, Cybeats.

Cybeats has already secured four of the global top 10 Industrial Control Systems (ICS) companies as clients, and with enhanced regulatory pressures on U.S. and EU critical infrastructure, continues to be one of the largest market opportunities with the highest demand for Cybeats' technology. The opportunity pipeline primarily includes U.S. and global infrastructure companies, medical device manufacturers (MDM), and other organizations belonging to sectors with heightened regulatory pressures on SBOM and software supply chain security. The Company recently closed several commercial deals, including with a global top 10 MDM3, a U.S. electrical grid technology provider4 and notably broke into the EU telecom market with a top 3 provider that has a $30 billion market cap.5

"By leveraging our growing industry credibility and our integral role in developing the SBOM Standard, Cybeats has commercialized a product that serves major global enterprises. By continuously incorporating new product features and strengthening infrastructure to deliver on a product led growth strategy, we have expanded our capacity to deliver our technology to customers, and created new opportunities for revenue growth. Stay tuned for significant product announcements that we are excited to bring to market," said Dmitry Raidman, CTO, Cybeats.

SBOM Studio is revolutionizing the handling of vulnerabilities from open source and third-party software componentswhich make up over 80% of modern applications6onto a single platform. By streamlining and automating prioritization and remediation processes, and moving away from the outdated, cumbersome practice of using 50 to 100 spreadsheets daily, SBOM Studio empowers customers to better understand and address security risks efficiently.

The relevance of SBOM is further highlighted by its inclusion in the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan by the White House, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's requirement for SBOM submissions for new medical device approvals. As a result, Cybeats has engaged a strategic advisor to explore corporate opportunities, including potential sector consolidation. Gartner, a leading IT research firm, continues to give coverage to SBOM and software supply chain, referring to Cybeats in 4 Hype Cycles, 3 guides, and 3 reports.

About Cybeats

Cybeats is a cybersecurity company providing SBOM management and software supply chain intelligence technology, helping organizations to manage risk, meet compliance requirements, and secure their software from procurement to development and operation. Our platform gives customers comprehensive visibility and transparency into their software supply chain, enabling them to improve operational efficiency and increase revenue. Cybeats. Software Made Certain. Website: https://cybeats.com

SUBSCRIBE: For more information, or to subscribe to the Company's mail list, visit: https://www.cybeats.com/investors

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the products described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Company filings are available at sedarplus.ca.

_______________________________ 1 https://www.cisa.gov/sbom

2 https://softwareanalyst.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-application-security

3 https://shorturl.at/afho9

4 https://shorturl.at/EJRZ7

5 https://www.cybeats.com/news/cybeats-signs-cybersecurity-deal-with-top-3-european-telecom-leader

6 State of Dependency Management 2023 | Endor Labs. (n.d.). https://www.endorlabs.com/learn/state-of-dependency-management-2023#:~:text=80%25%20of%20code%20in%20modern,towards%20software%20supply%20chain%20security.

SOURCE Cybeats Technologies Corp.
CENTER VALLEY, Pa., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A transformative gift from Kathleen Waterbury and J.B. Reilly is paving the way for a new era of education at DeSales University.

The gift, the largest in the University's history, will help to establish the new Kathleen Waterbury and J.B. Reilly School of Business, slated to open in the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year.

"As parents, we know that education has the power to change lives and communities," the couple says. "And as longtime members of the DeSales community, we know how important this University is to higher education in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. We are proud and excited to lay the foundation for the Reilly School of Business and to empower the next generation of business leaders to inspire innovation, promote ethical leadership, and advance corporate-community relationships."

Kathleen is a current member of the University's Board of Trustees, a position she has held since 2020. Her husband previously served as a Board member from 2002 to 2012. J.B. is also president and cofounder of City Center Group, a real estate development and management company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Reilly School of Business is part of a larger transition of DeSales' academic structure from divisions to a four-college/school model. Under this new model, the University will also launch:

A College of Arts, Education, and Humanities, which will comprise a School of Education and a School of Performing Arts.

A College of Sciences.

A College of Healthcare Professions with a designated School of Nursing.

The change is a result of the University's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, Connecting to Our Future, which outlines avenues for future growth, advancing academic excellence, enhancing the student experience, and developing new external partnerships.

DeSales University, in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, is a Catholic, private, coeducational, four-year liberal arts university. Founded by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales in 1965, the 550-acre suburban campus is located about 50 miles north of Philadelphia and 90 miles southwest of New York City.

A total enrollment of nearly 3,000 includes undergraduate day, evening, and graduate students. DeSales has approximately 130 full-time faculty members and offers more than 50 bachelor's degrees and 14 graduate programs in a wide range of disciplines.

Media Contact: Janelle Hill, [email protected]

SOURCE Desales University
When she resigned as chief of the UW-Madison police department, Kristen Roman was facing allegations of nepotism toward a romantic partner, inappropriate fleet vehicle use, and misreporting of outside-of-work earnings.

Catalogued in a 32-page investigatory report released to media Thursday morning, the complaints allege that multiple policy violations by Roman, who resigned in February. These were Roman's only recorded infractions during her six-year tenure on the force.

Kristen Roman Roman became UW-Madison police chief in 2017

The initial investigation into Roman's alleged misuse of fleet vehicles and lack of mileage tracking unearthed allegations of the now-former chief having a romantic relationship with an unnamed employee in the department, who was not an officer, and subsequently showing favoritism toward that individual.

The favoritism allegations include Roman requesting a pay raise for the employee, spending a considerable amount of one-on-one time with the employee on the clock, and including the individual in meetings that historically only would have included officers. UWPD captains thought that Roman dismissed their input in favor of hearing from the employee, despite the individual's lack of law enforcement experience, the report said.

Roman and the employee told investigators that they had been in a romantic and sexual relationship beginning in January 2024, but investigators said the relationship may have begun earlier, citing Teams messages dating back to late June that included messages about how they missed one another, heart and wink emoticons and speaking at length about how much they meant to one another.

While she admitted to the relationship, Roman denied making a formal request for the employee to receive a raise, indicating that she had asked for the employee to be short-listed for raise consideration. The former chief also told investigators she had included the employee in meetings for additional input after two incidents that could have potentially evoked a "strong community response."

Department policy bars employees from engaging in consensual relationships, defined as "romantic, physically intimate, or sexual in nature, and to which the parties consent or consented," unless the parties report the relationship to human resources immediately. Roman said she hadn't reported the relationship to human resources due to being out of the office with an illness and then going on vacation the week of Jan. 15. The employee told investigators that they hadn't felt the need to disclose the relationship to human resources as they had been "exploring the viability" of their dynamic in early January.

As for the nepotism complaints, the department necessitates that university authorities, tenure committee members or supervisors "must not participate in any decision to hire, manage, retain, pay, promote, supervise, or grant tenure to an individual with whom they have a familial or close personal relationship." Like the consensual relationship policy, this policy entails immediate reporting of relationships.

Fleet vehicle, parking complaints

An anonymous complaint also alleged that Roman had used a UWPD vehicle for personal reasons without paying for mileage and parking.

The chiefs individually assigned squad car is a Qualified Non-Personal Use Vehicle, and as such, would not require Roman to reimburse the university for mileage to or from her residence, according to an unnamed official with whom investigators consulted.

Roman confirmed that, on occasion, she would leave her squad car at home and drive her personal vehicle, parking it in her designated stall in the UWPD garage. She also confirmed that she had used her fleet vehicle for personal matters like appointments outside of work.

All UW-Madison employees are to pay for parking and Roman is required to report any parking fees to payroll as tax-reportable fringe benefits.

Roman had an RFID sticker on her personal vehicle, which have been given to officers since the current UWPD garage was built in 2017.

Looking ahead

The oath Roman took when she embarked on her policing career in 1990 still applies, she said.

"I accept responsibility for these policy infractions, and I hope that my legacy is not defined by them. It has truly been an honor to have served my community and my alma mater for the past 34 years, and Im humbled to have done so alongside so many dedicated men and women," Roman said in a statement Thursday morning.

"To my colleagues and community partners, Im proud of our collaboration and the positive difference we made together over the years. And to those among you who have reached out since my resignation, thank you for your kind words of appreciation and support."

Best colleges in Wisconsin Best colleges in Wisconsin #10. University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee #9. Northland College #8. University of Wisconsin - Superior #7. Milwaukee School of Engineering #6. Wisconsin Lutheran College #5. Concordia University - Wisconsin #4. Lawrence University #3. University of Wisconsin - La Crosse #2. Marquette University
The Digital Map Market is expected to grow from USD 28.3 billion in 2024 to USD 47.8 billion by 2029 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.1% during the forecast period, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. A digital map visually represents spatial information, including streets, landmarks, topography, transportation networks, points of interest, and more. To create detailed and interactive representations of the physical world, utilize various data sources and technologies, including satellite imagery, aerial photography, geographic information systems (GIS), and crowdsourced data.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Digital Map Market"

324  Tables

62 - Figures

314  Pages

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Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market Size Available For Years 20192029 Base Year Considered 2023 Forecast Period 20242029 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Segments Covered Offering, Mapping Type, Purpose, Scale, Application, and Vertical Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America Companies Covered Google (US), Apple (US), TomTom (Netherlands), NearMap (Australia), Esri (US), INRIX (US), HERE Technologies (Netherlands), LightBox (US), ServiceNow (US), Inpixon (US), Microsoft (US), Maxar Technologies (US), Emapa (Poland), Dabeeo (South Korea), Caliper (US), MapmyIndia (India), GeoVerra (Canada), Orbital Insight (US), DigiMap (US), MapQuest (US), IndoorAtlas (Finland), Mapsted (Canada), Mapidea (Portugal), Geocento (UK), Geospin (Germany), Jawg Maps (France), and Barikoi (Bangladesh)

By application, the routing and navigation data segment will hold the largest market size during the forecast period.

Routing and navigation data in digital maps are critical for providing accurate and efficient directions to users. Road networks are detailed information about roads, streets, highways, and other pathways, including their geometry, connectivity, speed limits, and classifications. Turn restrictions include legal or physical limitations on turning movements at intersections, such as no-left-turn or no-right-turn restrictions. Elevation data is the information about changes in terrain elevation, such as hills, mountains, valleys, and slopes. Elevation data is essential for route planning, especially for hiking, biking, and driving in mountainous regions. Transit information is the data on public transportation services, including bus routes, train lines, subway systems, schedules, stops, and fares. Transit information lets users plan multi-modal journeys and includes details like service frequencies, departure times, and transfer points.

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By region, the Asia Pacific will grow at the highest growth rates during the forecast period.

The digital maps market in the Asia Pacific region is propelled by technological advancements, notably the widespread adoption of smartphones and the increasing popularity of location-based services. Navigation and mapping applications play a pivotal role in this growth trajectory. Factors such as the rising demand for location-based services, the rapid expansion of e-commerce and on-demand delivery services, and increasing smartphone penetration contribute to the robust market growth. Despite data privacy concerns and internet connectivity issues in remote areas, the demand for real-time and dynamic mapping solutions is expected to fuel further market expansion. Major players in the region include Apple, Inpixon, and INRIX. With the rapid urbanization and infrastructure development in countries like China and India, there's a growing demand for accurate and up-to-date digital maps for urban planning and logistics optimization. Mobile navigation applications are gaining popularity in densely populated cities, driving the growth of the Digital Map Market in the region. Governments in the Asia-Pacific region are investing in geographic information systems (GIS) for better urban planning, disaster management, environmental conservation, and public service delivery.

Top Key Companies in Digital Map Market:

Some of the key players operating in the Digital Map Market are  Google (US), Apple (US), TomTom (Netherlands), Esri (US), Here Technologies (Netherlands), Nearmap (Australia), Inrix (US), Lightbox (US), ServiceNow (US), Inpixon (US), Microsoft (US), and Maxar Technologies (US).

Recent Developments:

With the latest upgrades, Google Maps offers an enriched user experience through AI-powered functionalities; this includes Lens in Maps for improved location comprehension, upgraded map visuals for enhanced navigation accuracy, and expanded electric vehicle charging information. Additionally, Immersive View for routes offers comprehensive previews, while advanced search delivers photo-centric results and themed recommendations. These advancements signify a new era in navigation, blending cutting-edge technology with user-centric design.

Esri introduced Landsat Explorer, an online app offering easy access and analysis of Landsat multispectral imagery. It will provide decision-makers with intuitive tools to explore land changes over time, aiding in natural resource management and environmental monitoring.

Here Technologies and Targa Telematics collaborated to integrate HERE Platform APIs, enhancing fleet management solutions. This partnership aimed to provide real-time insights, optimize operations, and promote sustainable mobility practices, empowering fleet managers with valuable tools for informed decision-making and improved driver safety.

Nearmap acquired Betterview, a top property intelligence and risk management platform in the insurance industry. This strategic move aimed to bolster Nearmap's offerings for insurance customers by integrating Betterview's AI solutions into its technology stack, enhancing visualization capabilities, and improving underwriting processes.

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Digital Map Market Advantages:

Users can view digital maps at any time and from any location using a variety of devices, including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Digital maps, as opposed to traditional paper maps, can be updated instantly to show the most recent modifications to roads, landmarks, and points of interest. This guarantees that the information given to users is as accurate as possible.

Users of digital maps can move between locations more effectively by using the thorough navigation and directions that are provided. Delivery services, commuters, and travellers will find this especially helpful.

Digital maps can be altered by users to suit their requirements and tastes. Users have the option to save their favourite locations, choose from a variety of views (such as street view and satellite view), and overlay extra information (such as traffic patterns and public transportation routes).

Weather predictions, restaurant ratings, and ride-sharing apps are just a few of the services and apps that may be connected with digital maps. This integration adds features and improves the user experience.

Digital maps can be used by companies and organisations for geospatial analysis, including urban planning, site selection, and market research. These maps offer insightful information on regional trends and patterns.

Digital maps are essential for emergency response because they give emergency services precise location data, which makes their arrival at the scene quicker and more effective.

Large geographic areas, especially isolated and rural places, are covered by digital maps, giving users access to data about almost anyplace on Earth.

Report Objectives

To define, describe, and forecast the Digital Map Market based on offerings, solutions, services, mapping type, scale, purpose, application, vertical, and region

To provide detailed information about the major factors (drivers, opportunities, restraints, and challenges) influencing the growth of the market

To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments of the market

To forecast the market size concerning five central regionsNorth America, Europe , Asia Pacific , the Middle East & Africa , and Latin America

, , the & , and To analyze the subsegments of the market for individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall market

To profile the key players of the market and comprehensively analyze their market size and core competencies

To track and analyze the competitive developments, such as product enhancements, product launches, acquisitions, partnerships, and collaborations, in the Digital Map Market globally.

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MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. We have the widest lens on emerging technologies, making us proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients.

Earlier this year, we made a formal transformation into one of America's best management consulting firms as per a survey conducted by Forbes.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion of new revenue streams that are substituting existing revenue streams in this decade alone. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines - TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we work with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies - helping them stay relevant in a disruptive ecosystem. Our insights and strategies are molded by our industry experts, cutting-edge AI-powered Market Intelligence Cloud, and years of research. The KnowledgeStore (our Market Intelligence Cloud) integrates our research, facilitates an analysis of interconnections through a set of applications, helping clients look at the entire ecosystem and understand the revenue shifts happening in their industry.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Info-Tech Research Group's latest blueprint delivers essential strategies for organizations to maintain continuity during power outages, emphasizing the importance of preparedness for operational resilience. This research outlines proactive measures to safeguard operations against the increasing frequency of electrical disruptions, enhancing both strategic planning and crisis response capabilities.

TORONTO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - In today's digital landscape, having uninterrupted operations during power outages is critical for any organization, as disruptions can lead to significant operational and financial losses. To assist organizations in enhancing their resilience against power disruptions, Info-Tech Research Group has released a new blueprint, Maintain Continuity in a Power Outage. This newly published research highlights the importance of preparing for specific outage scenarios, conducting regular tests, and performing comprehensive business impact analyses to safeguard operations and reduce the risk of significant downtime.

Info-Tech Research Groups Maintain Continuity in a Power Outage blueprint provides organizations with insights to hone their ability to respond to and maintain continuity during a power outage. (CNW Group/Info-Tech Research Group)

"There is a significant risk of rolling blackouts around the world due to potential natural gas shortages and weather events such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires, as well as crumbling power grids in some developing countries," says Mark Tauschek, Vice President, Research Fellowships and Distinguished Analyst at Info-Tech Research Group. "We generally discuss disaster response planning (DRP) and business continuity planning (BCP) as comprehensive plans that cover all technology domains and business processes. However, it is advisable to narrow the scope to a single incident or event if there is a materially higher risk of it happening."

Info-Tech's blueprint details how organizations can specifically prepare for and manage power outages to maintain operational continuity. It emphasizes the need for organizations to undertake thorough business impact analyses and develop focused disaster response strategies that address the most likely scenarios, such as power interruptions. This approach includes crafting detailed, scenario-specific recovery workflows and regularly testing these plans to ensure readiness.

Our guidance is to prepare for power outages as if they were a near certainty. If you don't have a documented DRP or BCP or if they are dated and untested, take this opportunity to laser focus on a single event  a loss of electricity," explains Tauschek. "Understand the business impact and risk, conduct comprehensive and honest tabletop planning, develop recovery workflows, and test your capability to maintain business continuity during a power outage.

The firm also stresses the importance of a layered backup power strategy, incorporating solutions like uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, generators, and possibly renewable energy options to ensure resilience during prolonged outages. This multifaceted approach can help organizations respond effectively to immediate disruptions and sustain critical operations during extended power failures, aligning with best practices for business continuity in unpredictable environments.

Every organization should maintain comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plans. However, Info-Tech advises that organizations in areas particularly vulnerable to power outages prioritize refining the following processes to enhance their ability to respond to and sustain operations during such disruptions:

1. Conducting a business impact analysis (BIA):

Understand the dependencies and impacts and define recovery time and recovery point objectives for a power outage.

2. Execute tabletop planning:

Tabletop exercises are the most effective ways to test and increase business confidence in business recovery capabilities.

3. Make recovery workflows practical:

Document the steps identified in the tabletop exercises to create a draft recovery workflow.

4. Pull the plug  test backup and recovery:

Real-world testing of recovery workflows is essential to ensure the process is effective.

By implementing the strategies outlined in Info-Tech's blueprint, organizations can maintain critical functions even under adverse conditions, thereby protecting assets, minimizing downtime, and upholding service reliability. This strategic preparedness is invaluable for fostering resilience and confidence among stakeholders, positioning organizations for sustained success in an unpredictable environment.

For exclusive and timely commentary on this topic from Info-Tech's experts and access to the complete Maintain Continuity in a Power Outage blueprint, please contact [email protected].

Info-Tech LIVE 2024

Registration is now open for Info-Tech Research Group's annual IT conference, Info-Tech LIVE 2024, taking place September 17 to 19, 2024, at the iconic Bellagio in Las Vegas. This premier event offers journalists, podcasters, and media influencers access to exclusive content, the latest IT research and trends, and the opportunity to interview industry experts, analysts, and speakers. To apply for media passes to attend the event or gain access to research and expert insights on trending topics, please contact [email protected].

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

To learn more about Info-Tech's divisions, visit McLean & Company for HR research and advisory services and SoftwareReviews for software buying insights.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

For information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group
SILVER SPRING, Md., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is providing an at-a-glance summary of news from around the agency:

Today, the FDA announced the availability of draft guidance for industry (GFI) #290 (VICH GL61) entitled "Pharmaceutical Development" for veterinary drug products. This draft guidance has been developed for veterinary use by the International Cooperation on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH). VICH is a trilateral program, officially launched in April 1996 , which aims to harmonize technical requirements for the approval of veterinary medicinal products in the European Union, Japan , and the United States , and includes input from both regulatory and industry representatives. In support of wider international harmonization of regulatory requirements, VICH guidelines are also available for use by other countries. The FDA is accepting public comments on the draft guidance.





, which aims to harmonize technical requirements for the approval of veterinary medicinal products in the European Union, , and , and includes input from both regulatory and industry representatives. In support of wider international harmonization of regulatory requirements, VICH guidelines are also available for use by other countries. The FDA is accepting public comments on the draft guidance. On Thursday, the FDA announced the public meeting, "Evaluating the Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Clinical Trials," to discuss approaches to developing drugs to treat the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and disseminate important regulatory considerations for programs designed to evaluate these drugs. The workshop will be August 16, 2024 , both on-site and virtual. Registration is only required for on-site attendance.





, both on-site and virtual. Registration is only required for on-site attendance. On Thursday, the FDA published a final rule that revises certain pre-harvest agricultural water provisions for covered produce (other than sprouts) in Subpart E of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. Specifically, this rule replaces the previous pre-harvest water microbial quality criteria and testing requirements for covered produce (other than sprouts) with requirements for systems-based, pre-harvest agricultural water assessments for hazard identification and risk management decision-making purposes.





On Thursday, the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research announced the 2024 Regulatory Education for Industry (REdI) Annual Conference that will be held on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 , and Thursday, May 30, 2024 . There is no cost to register and registration is now open.





, and . There is no cost to register and registration is now open. On Thursday, the FDA's Office of Translational Sciences (OTS) within CDER published its 2023 annual report. The report organizes OTS' achievements by its core activities: drug development and regulatory review, substance use disorders, inspections, science and research, knowledge management, and outreach and communications efforts.





On Wednesday, the FDA announced the issuance of warning letters to 14 online retailers for selling unauthorized e-cigarette products popular among youth. These warning letters cite the sale of disposable e-cigarette products marketed under popular brand names such as Elf Bar/EB Design, Esco Bars , Funky Republic, Hyde, Kang, Cali Bars, and Lost Mary.





, Funky Republic, Hyde, Kang, Cali Bars, and Lost Mary. On Wednesday, the FDA announced the qualification of a new tool to assess atrial fibrillation burden estimates within clinical studies through the Medical Device Development Tools (MDDT) program. The Apple Atrial Fibrillation History Feature is the first digital health technology qualified under the MDDT program, providing a non-invasive way to check estimates of atrial fibrillation (AFib) burden within clinical studies. The device is designed to be used as a biomarker test to help evaluate estimates of AFib burden as a secondary effectiveness endpoint within clinical studies intended to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of cardiac ablation devices. It is also designed to be used throughout the clinical study, both before and after cardiac ablation treatment, to monitor a study participant's weekly estimate of AFib burden.





On Wednesday, the FDA announced it was taking important steps to advance the FDA's regulatory process for intentional genomic alterations (IGAs) in animals. The agency released updated guidance documents that underscore the agency's commitment to further modernize its approach to evaluating and supporting the development of innovative animal and veterinary products to increase regulatory flexibility, predictability and efficiency. In addition, the agency established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to clarify roles and responsibilities for regulation of IGAs in animals.





On Tuesday, the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) published the 2023 Office of New Drugs (OND) Annual Report, which captures the office's major achievements of 2023 to include notable drug approvals, guidances, publications, participation in meetings, workshops, webinars, conferences, and more. The 2023 OND Annual Report reflects the wide-ranging efforts of the office in supporting drug development, conducting extensive application reviews leading to important drug approvals, advancing policy through workshops and new guidances, and continuing to assure careful post-approval drug assessments.





On Tuesday, the FDA issued an outbreak advisory for a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections linked to organic walnuts from Gibson Farms, Inc. of Hollister, California that were distributed to multiple natural food and co-op stores in AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, LA, MT, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, and WY and sold in bulk bins. On April 27, 2024 , Gibson Farms, Inc. initiated a voluntary recall and contacted their distributing customers. Distributors and retailers that may have received recalled bulk organic walnuts should follow the recommendations in the advisory and contact their customers. A full list of store names and locations where recalled walnuts may have been sold is available. FDA is working with the firm and its distributors to determine whether additional store locations, products, or states are affected.





O157:H7 infections linked to organic walnuts from Gibson Farms, Inc. of that were distributed to multiple natural food and co-op stores in AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, LA, MT, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, and WY and sold in bulk bins. On , Gibson Farms, Inc. initiated a voluntary recall and contacted their distributing customers. Distributors and retailers that may have received recalled bulk organic walnuts should follow the recommendations in the advisory and contact their customers. A full list of store names and locations where recalled walnuts may have been sold is available. FDA is working with the firm and its distributors to determine whether additional store locations, products, or states are affected. On Tuesday, as part of its celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the FDA announced the release of the latest episode of the Health Equity Forum Podcast: "Engaging Native Hawaiian Communities in Clinical Trials." In this episode, OMHHE Acting Director Dr. Christine Lee speaks with Dr. Todd Seto and Dr. Deb Taira of the Queen's Medical Center on their research with the Hawaii Health Equity Research and Outreach Network (Hawaii HERON). Dr. Seto and Taira's work with Hawaii HERON aims to address and reduce health disparities experienced by AA and NHPI communities.

Additional Resources:

# # #

Media Contact: FDA Office of Media Affairs, 301-796-4540

Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, radiation-emitting electronic products, and for regulating tobacco products.

SOURCE U.S. Food and Drug Administration
VANCOUVER, BC, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Galiano Gold Inc. ("Galiano" or the "Company") (TSX: GAU) (NYSE American: GAU) advises its Annual General Meeting of shareholders ("AGM") will be held virtually on Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 10:00 am PDT. Shareholders who intend to participate in the AGM should refer to the Company's management information circular (the "Proxy Circular") for details regarding how to participate.

The AGM is being held to: (i) receive the audited financial statements of the Company for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, and the report of the auditor thereon; (ii) fix the number of directors to be elected at seven; (iii) elect directors of the Company for the ensuing year; (iv) appoint the auditor of the Company for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors to fix their remuneration; and (v) authorize and approve a non-binding advisory resolution accepting the Company's approach to executive compensation.

The Company has nominated seven nominees for election as directors, being current directors Paul Wright, Judith Mosely, Dawn Moss, Greg Martin and Matt Badylak, and two new nominees Moira Smith and Navin Dyal. Current director Michael Price will not be standing for re-election as a director of the Company. The Company thanks Mr. Price for his outstanding service and commitment as a director of the Company.

The Company has elected to use the notice-and-access provisions under National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations and National Instrument 54-101  Communication with Beneficial Owners of Securities of a Reporting Issuer for the AGM. Materials for the AGM, including the Proxy Circular, have been filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and are also available on the Company's website at www.galianogold.com/investors/annual-meeting. Any shareholder who wishes to receive a paper copy of the Proxy Circular should contact the Company at Suite 1640, 1066 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 3X1, by telephone: (604) 683-8193, by telephone toll-free: 1-855-246-7341, by fax: (604) 683-8194 or by email: [email protected]. A shareholder may also use the toll-free number noted above to obtain additional information about the notice-and-access provisions.

About Galiano Gold Inc.

Galiano is focused on creating a sustainable business capable of value creation for all stakeholders through production, exploration and disciplined deployment of its financial resources. The Company owns the Asanko Gold Mine, which is located in Ghana, West Africa. Galiano is committed to the highest standards for environmental management, social responsibility, and the health and safety of its employees and neighbouring communities. For more information, please visit www.galianogold.com.

SOURCE Galiano Gold Inc.
ST. LOUIS, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, has named Steven Bourbeau as District Vice President for the company's Chicago District, effective June 1, 2024.

A 29-year Graybar veteran, Bourbeau joined the company in 1995. He currently serves as Director of Finance in Chicago, a position he has held since 2005. As District Vice President, he will lead Graybar's business operations in a territory that includes portions of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

"We congratulate Steve on his promotion to District Vice President," said Graybar Senior Vice President and General Manager Dennis DeSousa. "Steve has extensive knowledge of the markets served by the Chicago District and is highly respected for his business acumen, his customer focus, and his ability to achieve results. I look forward to working with him to serve our customers and grow our business in this region."

Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of more than 345 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network, automate and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR.

Media Contact:

Tim Sommer

(314) 578-7672

[email protected]

SOURCE Graybar
NEW YORK, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Guild Garage Group ("Guild"), a newly formed alliance of residential garage door service companies focused on replacement, repair and installation, has announced the completion of its partnership with All Four Seasons Garage Doors ("All Four Seasons"), a leading family-owned and operated residential garage door service company based in Atlanta, Georgia, with an additional location in Nashville, Tennessee.

Guild Garage Group announces partnership with All Four Seasons Garage Doors. Post this Guild Garage Group is actively looking for leading garage door service businesses across the country. Founders and advisors interested in learning more should contact Jordan Dubin at [email protected]

"The addition of All Four Seasons to the GGG team is an exciting milestone for us," said Tim O'Reilly, CEO of Guild Garage Group. "This partnership plays a crucial role in expanding our footprint in the southeast, a key market for us."

"Dan is a phenomenal operator and has built an exceptional company that is trusted and admired throughout the greater Atlanta and Nashville markets. We look forward to working with Dan and his team to amplify All Four Seasons' achievements as they continue to scale," said Joe Delaney, Co-Founder of Guild.

"After weighing several options, it became clear that Guild was the partner best suited for All Four Seasons. We have always focused on a 'customer-first' approach, and the culture at Guild aligned perfectly with this priority," said Dan Watkins, owner of All Four Seasons. "I believe Guild's remarkable growth over the past few months is a testament to their unique business model and culture."

Guild is actively looking for leading garage door service businesses across the country. Founders and advisors interested in learning more should contact Jordan Dubin at [email protected].

About Guild Garage Group

Guild Garage Group is a newly formed alliance of residential garage door service companies and is actively looking to partner with owners of industry-leading companies. Guild is guided by the vision of being the preferred partner to business owners through a "made for you" brand positioning and invests in companies with strong management teams and cultures to create unmatched growth opportunities for them. Guild allows owners to take chips off the table but retain "unit level ownership" so they continue to benefit through annual distributions and an eventual full exit as their business grows. Guild retains the employees and management teams of the companies they partner with, and provides them with the resources and processes they need to better serve their customers, employees, and communities. More information about Guild can be found at https://www.guildgaragegroup.com/.

About All Four Seasons Garage Doors

All Four Seasons is a family-owned and operated garage door services business established in 1999. The business is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company boasts over 2,500 positive Google reviews and maintains an A+ Rating by BBB and 4.9 Stars on Google, making them a preferred choice for garage door replacement and repair in both Georgia and Tennessee. All Four Seasons offers a range of services related to garage doors, including repair options, garage door replacement, and installation. More information about All Four Seasons can be found at https://www.all4seasonsgarages.com/.

SOURCE Guild Garage Group
The Argyros family's giving to nursing excellence at Hoag now totals more than $32 million

Sarah Turecek named Hoag Nurse of the Year for 2024

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoag announced today at its annual Nurse of the Year celebration a $15 million gift from philanthropists Julia and George Argyros that will further enhance Hoag's nationally renowned nursing services and support the Julia Argyros Center for Nursing Excellence, which funds continuing education for nurses.

The generous gift brings the Argyros family's cumulative giving to Hoag to over $32 million, which has provided thousands of scholarships to Hoag nurses.

"The support of Hoag's renowned nursing program reflects the Argyros family's passion and respect for the critical role nurses play in Hoag's quality and culture of compassionate care," said Robert Braithwaite, Hoag President and CEO. "We are beyond grateful for Julia, George, Lisa and Stephanie's generosity. This gift will empower nurses to continue achieving their educational goals, take on advanced clinical roles in patient care, broaden their skillsets, mentor new Hoag nurses, and enhance patient care, which is the heart of what we do."

This latest gift by the Argyros family builds upon their ongoing generous philanthropy directed to Hoag's nursing. In 2016, Hoag established the Julia Argyros Center for Nursing Excellence in recognition of the family's dedication.

"It is an honor to be able to support Hoag nurses, help them realize their dreams of higher education, and support their continual efforts to provide wonderful care to our community," said Lisa Argyros, daughter of Julia and George, who serves on the Hoag Hospital Foundation Board of Directors. Her sister and fellow philanthropist Stephanie Argyros has also continued her parents' commitment, saying: "When we think of Hoag, we think of the many compassionate and talented nurses who make up its exceptional nursing program and how vital that is for the health and wellbeing of so many people."

Thanks to philanthropic investments, 88% percent of Hoag nurses hold their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degrees or higher, and many have gone on to receive advanced degrees, including their Master of Science in Nursing. This commitment to nursing excellence has helped Hoag retain the prestigious Magnet recognition since 2005. Awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the designation is the highest honor an organization can receive for professional nursing practice. Since the 1980s, the Argyros family has given tens of millions of dollars to Hoag to advance care in numerous areas, including cancer, diabetes, nursing, and heart and vascular. This latest gift will continue the Argyros family's legacy of advancing health care excellence.

2024 Nurse of the Year

The gift was announced at Hoag's annual Nurses' Day celebration in Newport Beach that recognized Sarah Turecek, MSN, RN, PCCN as 2024 Nurse of the Year. Sarah is a Sub-ICU nurse on Hoag's 10 West floor serving high acuity patients.

Nominated for her patient-centered approach, clinical expertise and compassionate care, Sarah was selected for Nurse of the Year for going above and beyond the call of duty. Sarah holds herself and her peers to the highest standards of evidence-based practice while delivering exceptional patient care.

"Sarah exemplifies the essence of a Hoag nurse  kind, compassionate, caring and outstanding at her job," said Hilary Stagliano, BSN, RN, SCRN, director of Sub and Neuro ICU. "Every day is an opportunity for Sarah to provide not just excellent care, but extraordinary care. She is a wonderful role model for her fellow nurses, advocates for her patients and is always working to improve clinical excellence at Hoag."

Caring for patients at Hoag for more than 12 years, Sarah started at Hoag as a patient care assistant and has worked her way up to a clinical nurse IV. She received her BSN and MSN from Vanguard University. She is also a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and has her Progressive Care Nursing Certification.

"Sarah exemplifies what it means to be a Hoag nurse," said Rick Martin, Ed.D, MSN, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of Hoag. "Our nurses ensure that all patients receive extraordinary care with compassion on a daily basis, which makes all the difference for our patients and the community. We want to thank Julia, George, Lisa and Stephanie Argyros for their overwhelming generosity, along with many other donors. Their incredible support helps us to create a learning environment that promotes the advancement of evidence-based practices and fosters a commitment to healing."

Hoag's Nursing Program has received numerous awards and accolades, as well as community support. As part of the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program, Hoag has been recognized for its continued dedication to high-quality nursing practice. This voluntary credentialing program is the highest honor an organization can receive for professional nursing practice. Only 8% U.S. hospitals achieve Magnet recognition, only 3% have achieved the distinction four times in a row.

For more information on Hoag Nursing, visit hoag.org/about-hoag/nursing.

ABOUT HOAG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

Thanks in large part to philanthropy, Hoag has become one of the nation's finest health care systems, serving a diverse and growing population. The Hoag Hospital Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hoag, is an integral partner in Hoag's vision to become a trusted and nationally recognized health care leader. Through the generosity of Hoag's dedicated donors, the Hoag Hospital Foundation's Boldly Hoag campaign is supporting the expansion of Hoag, starting on the Irvine campus. Scheduled to be complete in 2026, the new Sun Family Campus will provide increased access to specialized services for cancer, digestive health, and women's health for communities throughout South Orange County. For more information, visit boldlyhoag.org or hoaghospitalfoundation.org.

ABOUT HOAG

Hoag is a nonprofit, regional health care delivery system in Orange County, California. Delivering world-class, comprehensive, personalized care, Hoag consists of 1,800 top physicians, 16 urgent care facilities, 11 health & wellness centers, and two award-winning hospitals. Hoag offers a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes seven institutes providing specialized services in the following areas: cancer, digestive health, heart and vascular, neurosciences, spine, women's health, and orthopedics through Hoag's affiliate, Hoag Orthopedic Institute, which consists of an orthopedic hospital and four ambulatory surgical centers. Hoag is the highest ranked hospital in Orange County by U.S. News & World Report and the only OC hospital ranked in the Top 10 in California, as well as a designated Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). For more information, visit hoag.org.

SOURCE Hoag
SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- California Vitality, a dynamic new brand offering a range of high-quality supplements, is thrilled to announce its official launch. With a focus on promoting holistic wellness, California Vitality aims to empower individuals to take control of their health and embrace a life of vitality.

Inspired by the vibrant energy of California, California Vitality is committed to transparency, integrity, and excellence. The brand provides premium supplements designed to support various aspects of health and wellness, from energy and focus to overall well-being.

California Vitality is for those seeking a better way to live. We believe in the power of self-rejuvenation, and we are dedicated to helping people unlock their full potential. Whether you're an athlete striving for peak performance, a busy professional seeking balance, or someone exploring new ways to improve your health, California Vitality has something for you.

California Vitality products are available for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/CaliforniaVitality/page/07DA443F-4168-4CED-9508-FFC8C5C748DD?ref_=ast_bln and the official website www.livecaliforniavitality.com . Each product is carefully crafted, using premium ingredients to ensure quality and effectiveness.

The brand also seeks affiliates to join its growing community of wellness advocates. Affiliates interested in promoting California Vitality can sign up at www.livecaliforniavitality.com.

As a California Vitality affiliate, you will have access to exclusive products and promotions and the opportunity to earn commissions for your support.

California Vitality is excited to build a community that values health and vitality and looks forward to partnering with those who share our passion for wellness and want to inspire others to live their best lives.

For more information about California Vitality and its products, visit Amazon or www.livecaliforniavitality.com.

Follow California Vitality on social media for the latest updates and wellness tips.

About California Vitality

California Vitality is a wellness-focused brand that provides high-quality supplements to support a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Inspired by the energy of the Golden State, California Vitality aims to inspire and empower people to take control of their health. For more information, visit www.livecaliforniavitality.com.

SOURCE California Vitality
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Browse in-depth TOC on "IoT Technology Market"

110  Tables

80  Figures

250  Pages

IoT Technology Market Report Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2024 $ 945.6 billion Estimated Value by 2029 $ 1,377.8 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% Market Size Available for 20202029 Forecast Period 20242029 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Node Component, Software Solution, Platform, Service, End-use Application, Geography Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge High power consumption by wireless sensor terminals/connected devices Key Market Opportunities Increased potential for the incorporation of IoT in electric and hybrid vehicles Key Market Drivers Emergence of 5G communications technology

The network management IoT technology platform segment is expected to account for the largest share of the IoT technology market in 2024.

The network management segment is a significant market for IoT technology. A network management platform is a common platform to manage the entire network of an organization. The platform ensures that users are able to receive IT services from anywhere and at any time. By using the platform, a network administrator can easily detect any failure in the network and resolve issues in real time or inform support personnel. A network management platform also assists in analyzing the amount of data that is being transferred over a network and automatically routes them to avoid congestion that can result in a crash of the network. For critical application areas, such as mobility and transport, logistics, energy, and manufacturing, seamless and faster data transfer is required. This requires the appropriate configuration of network devices, which is possible only through a high level of visibility provided by a network management platform.

The industrial segment is expected to have highest CAGR in the forecast period.

The industrial segment is projected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Healthcare, automotive & transportation, building automation, manufacturing, retail, BFSI, oil & gas, agriculture, and aerospace & military are among the industrial end-use applications. The building automation market has developed as a result of the demand for more energy-efficient solutions, more security, more venture capital funding, and ongoing efforts to improve lifestyle. After beginning with wired technology, building automation has transitioned into the era of wireless technologies like Bluetooth and ZigBee Wi-Fi. Additionally, more stringent regulations and growing awareness of energy saving and building regulations, the development of many smart grid technologies, and the accessibility of several open protocols are propelling the market for building automation.

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The Asia Pacific market is expected to witness the highest CAGR in the IoT technology market during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific is projected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The main countries in Asia Pacific contributing to the growth of the loT technology industry are China, India, South Korea, and Japan. Some of the major factors supporting the expansion of the lot technology market in Asia Pacific are the expanding consumer base, rising disposable income, increasing internet penetration in both business and residential areas, and improving IT infrastructure. Furthermore, the market for IoT technology for commercial applications in countries like China, South Korea, and Japan is growing primarily due to the trend of industrial automation and the use of cloud-based services. Furthermore, China's involvement in the adoption and development of lot is vital for the expansion of these businesses because it is the key hub for semiconductor production and manufacturing. China is a manufacturing hub and is the leading producer of manufactured goods such as textiles, electronic equipment, and agricultural products. In the production process, IoT is used to monitor the machinery, employees, and environmental conditions. The data can be further used to analyze, control, and prevent risks and avoid economic losses. End-to-end automation is a new concept gaining momentum in the current technology market in China.

Key players

Key players in the IoT technology companies include Intel Corporation (US), Qualcomm (US), Texas Instruments Incorporated (US), Cisco Systems, Inc. (US), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (US), IBM (US), STMicroelectronics (Switzerland), Microsoft, PTC Inc. (US), and Amazon Web Services (US), and among others.

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WILLARD, Utah, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ISI VidMobile, a pioneer in cutting-edge mobile security solutions, celebrates a significant milestone in its journey with the signing of a 5-year contract to supply solar-powered mobile security units to the State of Utah.

VidMobile Surveillance VidMobile Utah

Tailored to meet the evolving demands of government and businesses, VidMobile's advanced technology provides unmatched features and cost-effective alternatives to conventional security measures. Our innovative surveillance system operates entirely on solar power, ensuring independent and eco-friendly operation without the need for external power or WiFi connectivity.

Expect exceptional performance and reliability with VidMobile's surveillance system, boasting crystal-clear 4K UHD resolution for enhanced monitoring across various settings. Key highlights include intelligent alerts and rules, customizable notifications, cutting-edge AI capabilities, automatic 960X Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) tracking for seamless monitoring, and enhanced night vision up to 600 feet for optimal surveillance round the clock.

For more information about VidMobile's cutting-edge surveillance system and comprehensive security solutions, visit www.vidmobile.us.

About ISI VidMobile

Interconnect Services Inc (ISI) VidMobile, established in 1997, is a leading provider of innovative security solutions. We specialize in offering state-of-the-art mobile surveillance systems for businesses and organizations committed to ensuring the safety and security of their premises. With over two decades of experience, we continue to deliver cutting-edge technology and unparalleled service to meet the evolving needs of our clients.

Media Contact:

Brad Noles

VidMobile

Phone: 801-510-2569

[email protected]

SOURCE ISI VidMobile
CHESAPEAKE CITY, Md., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Maryland auctioneers Alexander Historical Auctions, known internationally for their sale of historic letters and documents, will be offering at auction one of the most provocative criminal relics of modern times  the personal address and telephone book owned by American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The small, plastic-bound 64 page book contains 386 individual printed entries with two handwritten entries penned on the last page. Each entry varies in length from only a few lines to over 10-15 lines or more, and contains Epstein's contact's name, address, and telephone number. The great majority of the entries also include contact information for private residences, and often numbers for pagers, aides, employees, parents, and even girlfriends. Ninety-four of the names bear black, hand-applied checkmarks, and five have been highlighted in yellow. These five names, including that of former president Donald Trump, are those of well-recognized financial and industrial figures. In addition to former president Donald Trump, other notables within include current presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr., attorney Alan Dershowitz, Frederic Fekkai, Christy Hefner, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and many dozens of other giants in the fields of finance, manufacturing, real estate, politics, film, television, law, fashion design, and so on.

Financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's book of contacts including names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Being offered for sale via sealed by auctioneers Alexander Historical Auctions. Detail of a page from financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's book of contacts including names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Being offered for sale via sealed by auctioneers Alexander Historical Auctions.

There is also a good deal of information hinting at Epstein's sordid past, including the very first entry: contact information for the front desk and five apartment numbers (only) of residences maintained by him for girlfriends, models, and attorney. An entry for 'Masseuse/Masseur' lists 24 women's names and numbers, some with pager numbers as well, with one bearing the descriptive: 'ugly back up,' along with eight women listed under 'Exercise people.'

The book was found on a Fifth Ave., New York sidewalk in the mid-1990s and was later sold to a party in the Northeast. Internet journalists Business Insider submitted the book for forensic analysis which provided a positive result. The journalists then undertook calls to dozens of those listed within the book. Many of the respondents were incredulous that their numbers had been revealed, and some spoke candidly of their relationship with Epstein. Others were indignant or simply hung-up.

The auction house stresses that the fact that an individual's name appears within the book in no way implies any connection with Epstein's criminal activities, nor does it imply any relationship with Epstein whatsoever.

This criminal relic is initially being offered for sale by sealed bid with offers being accepted by the auction house from May 15  June 15, 2024. All offers will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Bidding details appear on the Alexander Historical Auctions website. Should the book fail to attract a satisfactory bid, it will be offered at public auction in mid-July, 2024.

Alexander Historical Auctions may be reached at 203-276-1570, email: [email protected], website: historyauctioneer.com.

SOURCE Alexander Historical Auctions LLC
As students glorify Adolf Hitler and chant "F*** the Jews,"

DOE accused of empowering antisemitism.

NEW YORK, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Walden Macht & Haran and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit against Origins High School , the City of New York , the New York City Department of Education , David C. Banks , Michael Prayor , John Banks , and Dara Kammerman on behalf of a public-school teacher and a campus administrator. The suit accuses the City and other defendants of failing to address persistent antisemitism against teachers, including Plaintiff Danielle Kaminsky, at Origins High School in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, leading to a hostile workplace. When the situation got so dangerous that a campus administrator, Plaintiff Michael Beaudry, demanded action from DOE, the Defendants are accused of retaliating against him and removing him from the school.

The suit describes acts of antisemitism and hate speech against Jewish people generally, and Kaminsky specifically, between October 8, 2023 and March 2024, which include students marching through the campus chanting "F*** the Jews", aggrandizing Adolf Hitler (including referring to him as the G.O.A.T.), drawing swastikas on a Jewish student's property, and exclaiming to a Jewish teacher that they "want to kill all jews." The complaint also details how school officials, especially Interim Acting Principal Dara Kammerman, sought to shield students from any disciplinary action, including against a student who brought explosives to school after engaging in other antisemitic acts. The complaint alleges that DOE's complicity caused the antisemitism to fester, and, facing no consequences, that some students started attacking and assaulting LGBTQ+ members of the school community.

"It is disgusting that these acts occur at all, let alone in a public school in the most progressive and enlightened city in the world. But it is simply shocking that DOE refused to protect its own people andworseretaliated against them to put a lid on the vile, antisemitic behavior," said Jim Walden, the attorney for Ms. Kaminsky and Mr. Beaudry. "Sympathizing with hateful behavior only empowers it, allows it to escalate, and eventually bubble over to the LGBTQ+ community. This is a case study of how NOT to handle hate and antisemitism."

With antisemitism on the rise, as cited in the complaint, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes a 140% increase in 2023 of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, and assault in the United States. Meanwhile, public school teachers, sworn to educate the future, were met with inaction by administrators and the New York state authorities.

"Above all else, safety must be a school's #1 priority. Yet, New York City and Origins officials not only ignored violent, targeted threats, they attempted a complete cover-up. They shielded dangerous perpetrators, punished whistleblowers, and left Jewish teachers and students utterly vulnerable," stated Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. "Dereliction of duty is an understatement here."

The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for The Eastern District of New York by Jim Walden, Adam Cohen, Marc Armas, and Stephen Gardiner of Walden Macht & Haran.

SOURCE Walden Macht & Haran LLP
LIVINGSTON, Texas, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- U-Haul is extending its disaster relief program to flood victims in and around Livingston, making 30 days of free U-Box portable moving and storage container usage available to residents affected by the ongoing rains north of Houston.

Due to severe flooding this week, many Livingston residents have been evacuated and may be facing significant water damage to their homes and personal belongings. Accessibility to mobile storage can aid in the community's recovery efforts.

U-Haul Co. of Northeast Houston is making 30 days of free U-Box storage available to flood victims in and around Livingston, Texas.

"We just want people to know U-Haul is here to help," said Robert Abidin, U-Haul Company of Northeast Houston president. "Once the flooding stops, we anticipate a lot of families dealing with property clean-up. If any of our impacted neighbors need a U-Box container for that process, we will gladly offer our portable storage product at no cost for one month."

The disaster relief offer applies to new U-Box rentals and is based on availability. People seeking more information or needing to arrange 30 days of free U-Box container usage should contact:

U-Haul Co. of Northeast Houston

Traffic Department

(346) 888-4128

With 257 cubic feet of storage space and one-ton capacity, U-Box containers can be delivered to your home or picked up at a U-Haul facility with our custom-designed trailer. U-Box containers can be kept on-site or stored in our secure warehouses until you are ready to pick them up or have them delivered.

In addition to its 30 days free storage disaster relief program, U-Haul is proud to be at the forefront of aiding communities in times of need as an official American Red Cross Disaster Responder.

About U-HAUL

Founded in 1945, U-Haul is the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers with more than 23,000 rental locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. The enhanced U-Haul app makes it easier for customers to use U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 to access trucks anytime through the self-dispatch and self-return options on their smartphones through our patented Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to 192,200 trucks, 138,500 trailers and 44,500 towing devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in North America with 967,000 rentable units and 83.3 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities. U-Haul is the top retailer of propane in the U.S. and the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. Get the U-Haul app from the App Store or Google Play .

Contact:

Yasmine Esparza

Jeff Lockridge

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6194

Website: uhaul.com

SOURCE U-Haul
Signed Agreement Makes Way for Cleaner Marine Vessel Technology

NEW ORLEANS, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Maritime Partners, LLC ("Maritime Partners"), a leading provider of maritime financing solutions primarily focused on Jones Act vessels, has received a Design Basis Agreement ("DBA") from the U.S. Coast Guard for the M/V Hydrogen One towboat that includes e1 Marine hydrogen generator technology that will be utilized for the vessel's power plant.

M/V Hydrogen One is being designed as a first-of-its-kind vessel using new, cleaner, fuel cell technology that works by converting stored methanol to hydrogen. The produced hydrogen is output, on-demand, to the fuel cell to generate power for the vessel. A successful string test of this technology was completed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June 2023, proving it to be a viable option as the sole power generation source for vessel propulsion.

"The signing of this agreement opens the pathway for us to deploy our technological capabilities," said Bick Brooks, co-founder and CEO of Maritime Partners. "With this, Hydrogen One is one step closer to becoming the world's first vessel to utilize hydrogen generator technology greatly reducing emissions, increasing efficiency and providing a model for cleaner energy use as the industry continues to seek ways to decarbonize."

The DBA process was established by the U.S. Coast Guard to set the rules for new and novel technology proposed for installation on marine vessels. Maritime Partners worked with several industry leaders on the Hydrogen One project, including Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group, who is designing the towboat; Bourg, La.-based Intracoastal Iron Works who is the selected shipyard; e1 Marine, RIX Industries, Power Cell Group, among others, in order to work through the U.S. Coast Guard requirements.

"Maritime Partners is strongly committed to developing and utilizing sustainable, clean energy solutions, as the entire maritime industry continues to seek alternative fuel options that are cleaner, greener and more efficient. The development of Hydrogen One is part of that commitment," said Dave Lee, Maritime Partners' VP of Technology & Innovation.

The signing of this DBA ensures that as the M/V Hydrogen One project advances Maritime Partners will be working towards an agreed upon framework with the U.S. Coast Guard for the design, arrangement, and engineering aspects of the power system and associated safety systems for plan review, inspection, and eventual certification of the M/V Hydrogen One.

ABOUT MARITIME PARTNERS

Maritime Partners, LLC is a leading provider of maritime financing solutions, specializing in vessels that are used in the domestic Jones Act trade. With a managed fleet of approximately 1,850 vessels in service, we offer tailored leasing services to operators across the full spectrum of credit quality. A privately held company founded in 2015, Maritime Partners, LLC provides the assets that transport the commodities that represent the primary building blocks of the domestic economy, including agricultural products, chemicals, aggregates, crude oil, and refined petroleum products. Our management team leverages more than 50 years of operational experience in chartering, asset management, shipbuilding, and financing across all marine asset classes. To learn more about Maritime Partners, LLC please visit www.maritimepartnersllc.com.

CONTACT:

Greg Chase

Maritime Partners, LLC

[email protected]

(504) 264-5870

SOURCE Maritime Partners, LLC
Enhancement, new adapter increase device's appeal to professional musicians

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Chaos Audio, developers of a multi-effect, app-controlled guitar pedal called Stratus, has taken steps to increase the device's utility to professional musicians as they move from the studio to the stage.

The addition of MIDI control functionality and the introduction of Knot, their USB host adapter, underscore Chaos Audio's commitment to facilitating the creative process and enhancing performance among even the most accomplished guitar players.

Chaos Audio's Knot MIDI USB host adapter. Now available for preorder. Knot serves as an interface between pedalboard MIDI controllers and the company's Stratus multi-effects pedal.

The guitarist with his hands full had been limited in what he could do with his feet to change effects using Stratus. The device, a small target for a big foot, is equipped with just two switches  a knob and a foot switch.

Enter MIDI control.

"This allows players to connect a multi-switch controller to the USB port on the back of Stratus and configure it to communicate with the pedal," said Chaos Audio CEO Landon McCoy. "Now they have access to a bunch of foot switches that they didn't have before we added MIDI control functionality."

That is, barring a compatibility issue that Chaos Audio has also addressed.

Some MIDI controllers have a USB port that does not play well with Stratus. To work around that problem, the company is releasing an adapter in partnership with Intech Studio, a company that specializes in MIDI synthesizer controls. Stratus can be hooked up to any controller via the adapter to ensure compatibility.

Preorders are currently being accepted for the Knot USB host adapter, which is initially being produced in limited quantities. Anyone placing a preorder will receive $20 off the regular price.

"We are proving that performing musicians can use Stratus in a live setting and have all the controls they need readily available to them," McCoy said. "That's important to us. Stratus absolutely can be used as a tool for professional guitarists."

For more information, contact Chaos Audio CEO Landon McCoy at [email protected] or via phone at +1 (850) 290-2033. Product details are available at chaosaudio.com/products/stratus and chaosaudio.com/products/knot-midi-usb-host.

SOURCE Chaos Audio
STOCKTON, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting this week, Little Manilla Rising, University of California, San Francisco, and Community Medical Centers in Stockton, CA will host the All of Us Journey, a traveling educational exhibit that brings the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program to communities across the United States. The Journey features interactive activities, videos, games, quizzes, and moreall designed to demonstrate the power of participation in health research. Interested attendees will learn how they can help shape the future of health for themselves, their families, and their communities for generations to come. Attendees will also have the opportunity to register for the All of Us Research Program during their visit.

WHAT:

Stockton is one stop on the All of Us Journey's national tour. The public are invited to attend and learn how they can help change the future of health as participants in the All of Us Research Program.

WHEN and WHERE:

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

9am-1pm

San Joaquin County Fairgrounds Flea Market

1658 S Airport Way

Stockton CA 95206

Thursday, May 9 to Friday, May 10, 2024

10am-4pm

Community Medical Centers, Dorothy L Jones,

2044 Fair St

Stockton CA 95206

Saturday, May 11, 2024

11am-6pm

Ube Matcha Culture Crawl

Courthouse Plaza

306 East Main St

Stockton, CA 95202

See the full list of events in Stockton from May 3 to May 18 here.

The All of Us Research Program, led by the National Institutes of Health, aims to recruit at least one million participants that reflect the diversity of the United States. All of Us will help researchers understand more about why people get sick or stay healthy. To learn more about the All of Us Research Program and upcoming events, visit https://www.joinallofus.org/onthego.

About the All of Us Journey

All of Us is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The Journey is managed by Montage Marketing Group in collaboration with Scripps Research Translational Institute, and funded by the National Institutes of Health award OT2OD035580.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Reyes, Outreach Engagement Manager

Phone: 703-454-9168 ext: 144

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Montage Marketing Group
HAMILTON, N.J., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pickleball Kingdom, the international leader of indoor pickleball, announces its first of many locations in the state of New Jersey at 1100 Negron Dr. Hamilton NJ 08691. This is another exciting step as part of Pickleball Kingdom's ambitious expansion plans.

Ace Rodrigues and Sam Sood Pickleball Kingdom Chandler

Ace Rodrigues, Founder and CEO of Pickleball Kingdom, could not be more pleased, stating, "The expansion into Hamilton is only the beginning, it paves the way for many New Jersey locations to come. With franchisee Sam Sood leading this location, we know that he will be ushering in new era of pickleball in New Jersey."

Hamilton's Home for Community and Pickleball

Answering the call for premier indoor pickleball, Pickleball Kingdom's Hamilton facility will boast 14 state-of-the-art indoor courts that include outdoor surfaces. This gives players the best of both worlds and eliminates the problem of inclement weather. In addition, this location will have conference rooms, meeting areas, a lounge, ample parking, and a mezzanine overlooking the courts.

With a focus on building community, this venue will be a staple for pickleball enthusiasts and novices alike. Some of the offerings will include open play sessions, leagues, tournament, professional instruction, and corporate and social events.

"Pickleball Kingdom is a place where everyone is welcome,' said Sam Sood. "The Hamilton location will embody the wonderful community aspects of pickleball while providing a premier and authentic pickleball experience. The sky is the limit for what we can accomplish here." Sam continued, stating, "Looking to the future, we have our eye set on Tom's River, New Jersey next."

Continued Expansion

As Pickleball Kingdom expands its reach globally, an invitation is open to ambitious individuals to explore the prospect of joining their franchise network. Prospective franchisees stand to gain from an opportunity to partner with the leader of the burgeoning world of pickleball.

Rob Streett, the COO of Pickleball Kingdom, remarked, "This presents an unprecedented entry into the nation's fastest-growing sport. The possibilities for expansion are endless, with significant advantages awaiting pioneers in all markets."

For more information about franchise opportunities with Pickleball Kingdom, visit www.pickleballkingdom.com/franchise

About Pickleball Kingdom

Pickleball Kingdom is the premier indoor pickleball franchise in the United States, dedicated to promoting the sport of pickleball through high-quality facilities, instruction, and community engagement. With a vision to create a nationwide network of pickleball venues, Pickleball Kingdom is poised to redefine the landscape of recreational sports.

For Franchise & Media Inquiries:

COO Rob Streett

[email protected]

888-788-0999

About Sam Sood

Sam Sood is a visionary entrepreneur with a proven history of turning innovative ideas into thriving businesses. Under Sam's leadership, his urgent care franchises received accolades for exceptional patient care, short wait times, and a skilled medical team.

Today, Sam Sood continues to be a prominent figure in the world of entrepreneurship and franchising. His portfolio of successful ventures and his ability to inspire and lead teams are a testament to his exceptional vision and business acumen. He remains committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and driving positive change in the industries he touches.

For questions and up to date information about the Hamilton, New Jersey location, contact/follow here:

Phone: 609-200-6291

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: Pickleball Kingdom Hamilton

Instagram: Pickleball Kingdom Hamilton (@pickleballkingdom.hamilton)

SOURCE Pickleball Kingdom Franchising
Nationally renowned business litigation and trial firm Reid Collins & Tsai LLP leads pro bono prosecution of civil rights case alongside the ACLU of Louisiana .

pro bono Verdict is first jury trial victory for the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab initiative challenging racially discriminatory policing practices.

Jury finds St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputy liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress upon 14-year-old who attempted to record the violent arrest of his mother.

NEW ORLEANS, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, national trial firm Reid Collins & Tsai LLP ("Reid Collins") obtained a jury verdict on behalf of client Mr. De'Shaun Johnson in its prosecution of his federal civil rights case in Louisiana. Johnson is the son of Teliah Perkins, who was violently arrested at her own home in Slidell, Louisiana in May 2020 in response to a minor traffic violation she did not commit. Reid Collins is representing Mr. Johnson and Ms. Perkins pro bono in partnership with the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab.

On Wednesday, the Eastern District of Louisiana jury, composed of citizens of the greater New Orleans area, awarded Johnson $185,000 for the intentional infliction of emotional distress by St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputy Ryan Moring as Mr. Johnson tried to film the violent and unnecessary arrest of his mother.

On May 5, 2020, officers Kyle Hart and Moring arrested Ms. Perkins while her son and nephew watched and tried to record on their phones. Hart and Moring tackled Ms. Perkins to the ground and held their body weight on her as she told officers "You're choking me!" As Mr. Johnson started to record the incident on his phone, Deputy Moring stepped in front of him to prevent him from capturing the incident. Moring pushed Mr. Johnson (14 years old at the time) in the chest and aimed his Taser directly at him. When Mr. Johnson objected "You can't Tase a child," Deputy Moring responded: "Watch me."

Since the incident, Mr. Johnson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and received treatment as a result.

"We are proud to represent De'Shaun and to have worked with the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab on this important matter," said Keith Cohan, Reid Collins & Tsai LLP partner. "There should be accountability for law enforcement officers who seek to intimidate those observing them in the line of duty. With this victory, that's exactly what happened today."

"We are thrilled to see justice served for De'Shaun," said Nora Ahmed, ACLU of Louisiana legal director. "As we face imminent threats to our rights to record police in Louisiana, the Justice Laband our pro bono partners and colleagues like the Reid Collins & Tsai LLP team with whom we prosecuted this casewill continue to fight for brave individuals like Ms. Perkins and her son and fight for a world of justice and safety for all people."

Perkins v. Hart marks the first jury trial-to-verdict victory for the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab initiative (https://aclujusticelab.org/). Reid Collins is proud to be a part of the Justice Lab's litigation campaign to challenge racially discriminatory policing practices and combat police violence against people of color.

The case is captioned Teliah C. Perkins et al. v. Kyle Hart et al., U.S.D.C. Eastern District of Louisiana, Civil Action No. 2:21-CV-00879.

About Reid Collins

Reid Collins & Tsai LLP is one of the nation's leading plaintiffs' trial firms, litigating complex business disputes and achieving billions of dollars in settlements and judgments for its clients. Its team is comprised of accomplished trial lawyers who have extensive experience prosecuting financial fraud, corporate wrongdoing, bankruptcy and insolvency related litigation, employment and partnership disputes, professional liability claims, and cross-border disputes. The firm represents fund managers, investor groups, trustees, receivers, liquidators, international banks, companies, governmental entities, and individuals in federal and state courts across the country.

For more information visit www.reidcollins.com

Austin | Dallas | New York | Washington D.C. | Wilmington

Contact:

Alexander Coxe

212.365.4792

[email protected]

SOURCE Reid Collins & Tsai LLP
KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- S Hotels Jamaica  a luxury hotel brand designed to seamlessly fuse Jamaican soul and culture into an urban sophistication, formerly known as Crissa Hotels  is proud to announce that its two esteemed properties, S Hotel Jamaica and S Hotel Kingston, have been recognized in the prestigious Tripadvisor's 2024 Travelers' Choice Awards.

S Hotel Montego Bay, a luxury adults-only all-inclusive property overlooking the emerald waters of Doctor's Cave Beach, has achieved remarkable success, earning multiple distinctions in Tripadvisor's 2024 Travelers' Choice Awards. Among its notable recognitions, S Hotel Montego Bay has been honored as one of Tripadvisor's Best of the Best Hotels, placing in the top 1% worldwide. The property has secured its position as:

#3 in Top 25 All-Inclusive Hotels in the Caribbean

#10 in Top 25 Hotels in the Caribbean

#21 in Top All-Inclusive Hotels in the World

These remarkable rankings underscore S Hotel Montego Bay's dedication to providing unparalleled guest experiences, offering luxurious accommodations, world-class amenities and impeccable service in the heart of Jamaica.

Additionally, S Hotel Kingston (formerly known as Spanish Court Hotel), situated in the vibrant capital city of Jamaica surrounded by lush mountains, has been honored with Tripadvisor's 2024 Travelers' Choice Award, placing it within the top 10% of hotels worldwide. This recognition speaks volumes about S Hotel Kingston's distinctive blend of luxury, comfort and vibrant energy, resonating with travelers seeking a memorable stay in Kingston.

"We are immensely proud of the achievements of both S Hotel Montego Bay and S Hotel Kingston in Tripadvisor's 2024 Travelers' Choice Awards," said Mr. Christopher Issa, CEO of S Hotels Jamaica. "This recognition is a testament to our team's dedication to creating exceptional guest experiences and showcasing the unique charm of Montego Bay and Kingston. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to our guests for their ongoing support and feedback."

S Hotels Jamaica remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of service excellence across both of its properties and looks forward to continuing to delight guests with exceptional hospitality experiences.

For more information about S Hotel Montego Bay and S Hotel Kingston, please visit https://www.crissahotels.com/.

Press Office Contact Details

Hue & Cry

[email protected]

SOURCE S Hotel Jamaica
Sentynl, a Zydus Group company, receives worldwide proprietary rights to Zokinvy, adding to portfolio of biopharmaceuticals for rare and ultra-rare diseases

Zokinvy is approved in the U.S. (2020), European Union and Great Britain (2022), and Japan (2024) for the treatment of progeria, a collection of ultra-rare, fatal, genetic premature aging diseases that accelerate mortality in young patients

SOLANA BEACH, Calif. and AHMEDABAD, India and PALO ALTO, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sentynl Therapeutics, Inc. (Sentynl), a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company wholly-owned by Zydus Lifesciences, Ltd. (Zydus Group), and Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC: EIGRQ), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative therapies for rare metabolic diseases, today announced the closing of the sale of Eiger's Zokinvy (lonafarnib) program to Sentynl.

Zydus (PRNewsfoto/Sentynl Therapeutics) Eiger BioPharmaceuticals logo

Zokinvy is the first and only treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to target the cause and symptoms of progeria, also known as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and processing-deficient progeroid laminopathies (PDPL), in young people 12 months of age and older. Collectively known as progeria, HGPS and PDPL are ultra-rare, fatal, genetic premature aging diseases that accelerate mortality in young patients. Following its U.S. approval in 2020, Zokinvy secured approval in the European Union and Great Britain (2022) and in Japan (January 2024).

Speaking on the acquisition, Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director of Zydus Lifesciences, said, "This acquisition marks an important milestone in growing our portfolio of medicines for rare and orphan diseases, which can have devastating consequences if left untreated. We are focused on supporting patients to live healthier and more fulfilled lives. The acquisition of Zokinvy directly furthers this mission, as it has a demonstrated meaningful impact on young patients and their families."

"It is an honor to add Zokinvy to our portfolio of products that have a tangible impact on the lives of rare disease patients, whose needs are too often unmet or overlooked," said Matt Heck, President & Chief Executive Officer of Sentynl. "We are firmly committed to provide best-in-class global access to Zokinvy and are eager to serve the patients and their families affected by progeria. We are grateful to Eiger and The Progeria Research Foundation for their dedicated effort to develop and secure availability of this life-changing product."

"We are pleased to complete this agreement with Sentynl, given our shared commitment to supporting patients of life-threatening, rare conditions with high unmet medical needs," said David Apelian, MD, PhD, MBA, CEO of Eiger. "We thank The Progeria Research Foundation for their continued support of Zokinvy."

Audrey Gordon, President and Executive Director of The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF), added, "Without Zokinvy therapy, children with progeria die of the same heart disease that affects millions of normally aging adults, but by an average age of 14.5 years old. Zokinvy gives these beautiful children longer, healthier lives. Since we first launched PRF in 1999, we have achieved tremendous progress in global awareness, breakthrough research, and treatment of progeria. We are thankful for our successful partnership with Eiger, and are excited to now join forces with Sentynl in our journey to continue advancing the research and treatment of this syndrome, with the ultimate goal to find the cure."

As previously disclosed by Eiger, on April 1, 2024, Eiger and its direct subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code (Chapter 11 Cases) in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas (Bankruptcy Court). On April 17, 2024, following the completion of the auction held as part of the Eiger's court-supervised sale process, Sentynl was designated the winning bidder with a final bid during the auction of a base price in the amount of $46.1 million less a credit in the amount of $0.9 million for the termination fee resulting in a net base price in the amount of $45.2 million, subject to certain purchase price adjustments, including a reduction of $100,000 per diem if the sale closed after April 24, 2024. At a hearing held on April 23, 2024, the Bankruptcy Court approved the sale to Sentynl, with the sale closing on May 3, 2024. Under the terms of the acquisition, Sentynl acquired global rights to Zokinvy and will be responsible for its manufacture and commercialization.

For questions on continued access to Zokinvy, please contact the Sentynl Cares support team at 1-888-251-2800 Monday-Friday, 8 am-8 pm ET. For inquiries after hours, follow the recorded instructions.

About Progeria

Collectively known as progeria, Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome and progeroid laminopathies are ultra-rare, fatal, genetic premature aging diseases that accelerate mortality in young patients.

HGPS is caused by a point mutation in the LMNA gene, yielding the farnesylated aberrant protein, progerin. Progeroid laminopathies are genetic conditions of accelerated aging caused by a constellation of mutations in the LMNA and/or ZMPSTE24 genes yielding farnesylated proteins that are distinct from progerin.4,5

Without Zokinvy therapy, children with HGPS commonly die of the same heart disease that affects millions of normally aging adults (arteriosclerosis), by an average age of 14.5 years. Disease manifestations include severe failure to thrive, sclerodermalike skin, global lipodystrophy, alopecia, joint contractures, skeletal dysplasia, global accelerated atherosclerosis with cardiovascular decline, and debilitating strokes.3

About Zokinvy (lonafarnib)

Zokinvy is a first-in-class disease-modifying agent that blocks the accumulation of defective progerin and progerin-like proteins which leads to cellular instability and premature aging in children and young adults with progeria. Zokinvy has demonstrated a statistically significant survival benefit in children and young adults with HGPS.1,4

The most commonly reported adverse reactions were gastrointestinal (vomiting, diarrhea, nausea), and most were mild or moderate (Grade 1 or 2) in severity. Many progeria patients have received continuous Zokinvy therapy for more than 10 years.1,2

Zokinvy is FDA approved for the treatment of patients 12 months of age and older with a genetically confirmed diagnosis of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome or a processing-deficient progeroid laminopathy associated with either a heterozygous LMNA mutation with progerin-like protein accumulation or a homozygous or compound heterozygous ZMPSTE24 mutation.

For Important Safety Information and prescribing information for Zokinvy in the U.S., please visit www.zokinvy.com.

Eiger licensed exclusive worldwide rights to lonafarnib for the treatment of H-G progeria from MSD, the tradename of Merck & Co., Inc, Rahway, N.J., USA. MSD provided lonafarnib free of charge for clinical studies supported by the PRF and waived royalty and milestone obligations on lonafarnib from Sentynl for people living with the condition.

Eiger and AnGes entered into an exclusive distribution agreement for the treatment of HGPS and PDPL indications, Zokinvy (Lonafarnib), in Japan on May 10, 2022. In March 2023, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare designated Zokinvy as an orphan drug.

About Sentynl Therapeutics

Sentynl Therapeutics is a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing innovative therapies to patients living with rare diseases. The company was acquired by the Zydus Group in 2017. Sentynl's experienced management team has previously built multiple successful pharmaceutical companies. With a focus on commercialization, Sentynl looks to source effective and well-differentiated products across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas to address unmet needs. Sentynl is committed to the highest ethical standards and compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and industry guidelines. For more information, visit https://sentynl.com.

About Zydus Group

Zydus Lifesciences Ltd. with an overarching purpose of empowering people with freedom to live healthier and more fulfilled lives, is an innovative, global lifesciences company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of healthcare therapies. The group has a significant presence in cancer related therapies and offers a wide range of solutions with cytotoxic, supportive & targeted drugs. The group employs over 26,000 people worldwide, including 1,400 scientists engaged in R & D, and is driven by its mission to unlock new possibilities in lifesciences through quality healthcare solutions that impact lives. The group aspires to transform lives through path-breaking discoveries. For more information, visit https://www.zyduslife.com/zyduslife/.

About Eiger Biopharmaceuticals

Eiger is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative therapies for rare metabolic diseases. Eiger's lead product candidate, avexitide, is a well characterized, first-in-class GLP-1 antagonist for the treatment of post-bariatric hypoglycemia (PBH) and congenital hyperinsulinism (HI). Avexitide is the only drug in development for PBH with Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA. On April 1, 2024, Eiger and its direct subsidiaries filed the Chapter 11 Cases in the Bankruptcy Court.

Eiger's securityholders are cautioned that trading in Eiger's securities during the pendency of the Chapter 11 Cases is highly speculative and poses substantial risks. Trading prices for Eiger's securities may bear little or no relationship to the actual recovery, if any, by holders thereof in the Chapter 11 Cases. Accordingly, Eiger urges extreme caution with respect to existing and future investments in its securities. In particular, Eiger expects that its securityholders could experience a significant or complete loss on their investment, depending on the outcome of the Chapter 11 Cases.

About The Progeria Research Foundation

The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) was established in 1999 by the family of Sam Berns, a child with Progeria. Within four years of its founding, the PRF Genetics Consortium discovered the Progeria gene, a collaboration led by Dr. Francis Collins, Acting Science Advisor to the President of the United States and former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PRF has funded and co-coordinated all Zokinvy associated clinical trials for Progeria and Progeroid Laminopathies, conducted at Boston Children's Hospital, and supports scientists who conduct Progeria research worldwide. PRF's International Patient Registry includes over 393 children with Progeria in 72 countries. PRF is the only non-profit organization solely dedicated to finding treatments and the cure for Progeria and its aging-related conditions, including heart disease. The organization fills a void, putting these children and Progeria at the forefront of scientific efforts. For more information and to support PRF's mission, please visit www.progeriaresearch.org.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements of Eiger

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding the continued commercialization and manufacturing of Zokinvy, the outcome of the Chapter 11 Cases, business strategy and plans and objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Various important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements that Eiger makes, including additional applicable risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section in Eiger's Quarterly Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and Eiger's subsequent filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on information currently available to Eiger and speak only as of the date on which they are made. Eiger does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.

References:

1. Data on file, Eiger BioPharmaceuticals.

2. Summary of Product Characteristics, July 2022.

3. Gordon LB, Brown WT, Collins FS. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. 2003 Dec 12

[Updated 2019 Jan 17]. In: Adam MP, Ardinger HH, Pagon RA, et al., editors. GeneReviews [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2020.

4. Gordon LB, Shappell H, Massaro J, et al. Association of lonafarnib treatment vs no treatment with mortality rate in patients with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. JAMA. 2018;319(16):1687-1695. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.3264.

5. Marcelot A, Worman HJ, and Zinn-Justin S. Protein structural and mechanistic basis of progeroid laminopathies. FEBS Journal. 2021:288:2757-2772. Doi:10.111/febs.15526.

SOURCE Sentynl Therapeutics
Esh's Utility Buildings Makes Financial Times' Fastest Growing List With Extensive Growth

BURKESVILLE, Ky., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Esh's Utility Buildings, a shed and building manufacturer in Kentucky, has been featured on America's Fastest Growing Companies 2024 . The list by Financial Times is a compilation of 500 of the most rapidly growing companies in North or South America. Coming in at #121 on the list, Esh's Utility Buildings has sustained an incredible growth rate of 398% from 2019 to 2022.

Tiny Home Cabin Shell High Wall Shed

Ever since 1984, Esh's Utility Buildings has been making storage sheds for the community in Kentucky. In recent years, they have seen significant growth, expanding their capabilities from primarily storage sheds and garages to include animal shelters, tiny home shells, and playsets.

CEO Chad Gingerich said, "We are a God-first organization. I believe that our success is due to our core values of integrity, professionalism, and service. Our team works hard to create a positive environment for our customers."

With the growth they have experienced, Esh's Utility Buildings has been able to open other locations to serve other communities. Currently, they have eight locations across Kentucky and Tennessee besides their main location in Burkesville, KY.

For customers searching for portable structures, Esh's Utility Buildings has a full line of shed products, as well as tiny home cabin shells, garages, and animal shelters. Additional structures include greenhouses, hunting blinds, and playsets.

Customers also have the capability to design their own customized portable building with the 3D Builder which gives a 3-dimensional rendition of the building. "If a customer is looking for a portable building," says Gingerich, "we are able to get them what they need."

As Esh's Utility Buildings looks to the future, they remain dedicated to serving customers. "With an efficient operation, we are able to keep costs down which also keeps our prices low," says Gingerich. "Our customers deserve our best efforts to keep prices affordable." The team at Esh's believes that their business will continue to grow as they continue to prioritize customers. For more information regarding Esh's Utility Buildings, visit their website at www.eshutilitybuildings.com .

About Financial Times Fastest Growing List

The Financial Times, a world-leading news organization, creates an annual list of fastest growing companies that are headquartered in the Americas. Using data gathered by Statista, they choose the top 500 companies to feature in their FT ranking: The America's Fastest-Growing Companies 2024 article. Although the list is not exhaustive, the list gives a good look at which companies, like Esh's Utility Buildings, are leaders in their industries in the Western Hemisphere.

Contact:

Judson Hibner

(270) 479-8505

[email protected]

SOURCE Esh's Utility Buildings
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Simplified IT Consulting, a Managed Service Provider (MSP) supporting small to medium-sized businesses, proudly unveils its newest member: Koko, a charismatic mascot inspired by the majestic Komodo dragon. Specializing in managed IT services and cybersecurity solutions, we operate with simplicity as our core belief, streamlining complexity, developing creative solutions, uniting diverse talents, and perpetually evolving to meet the ever-changing demands of the digital landscape. With a blend of intelligence, tech-savviness, and a hint of nerdiness, Koko is poised to captivate hearts and minds alike.

Koko - Simplified IT Consulting mascot

Standing tall as a symbol of ancient resilience and modern ingenuity, Koko embodies our commitment to progress and innovation. Donning sleek glasses that accentuate his keen intellect, Koko exudes approachability and warmth, ready to embark on a journey of learning and discovery alongside our community.

"As Simplified IT Consulting continues to evolve in the digital age, we sought a mascot that could bridge the gap between tradition and innovation. Koko represents not only the formidable strength of the Komodo dragon but also the boundless potential of technology to empower and connect us all, inspiring a future filled with possibilities," remarked Vincent Darmawan, Chief Technology Officer at Simplified IT Consulting.

"Koko symbolizes the essence of Simplified IT Consulting, embracing simplicity, fostering innovation and collaboration, and promoting continuous learning. Koko embodies resilience and the cumulative experience across our team members. Just as the Komodo Dragon navigates its environment with efficiency and agility, we streamline complexity, develop creative solutions, unite diverse talents, and perpetually evolve to meet the ever-changing demands of the digital landscape," added Jack Kushnatsian, the Director of Operations at Simplified IT Consulting.

The creative design of Koko was brought to life by Nizar, a talented freelance graphic designer from Bandung, Indonesia, and the founder of Nizart Design. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Nizar for his creativity and dedication in designing Koko.

More than just a symbol, Koko represents a commitment to knowledge-sharing, problem-solving, and a passion for making a difference. Whether delving into the latest technological advancements or helping, Koko epitomizes the spirit of collaboration and community.

Join us on an exciting journey with Koko by our side as we redefine the embrace of progress with wisdom and grace. We invite you to join this adventure as Koko shares insights, adventures, and perhaps even a few nerdy jokes. Let's unite in building a community fueled by our shared passion for progress and innovation, where every voice is valued and heard.

Stay tuned for more updates as we unleash the power of Koko, the tech-savvy Komodo dragon, upon the world!

Media Contact:

Crystal Swan

818-357-5877

[email protected]

SOURCE Simplified IT Consulting
DHL Teamsters Question Board of Directors, Call Out Anti-Worker Corporate Actions

BONN, Germany, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, DHL Teamsters from across the U.S. called out the alarming union-busting and anti-worker tactics of the global delivery and logistics giant during DHL Group's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bonn, Germany.

Rank-and-file Teamsters, organizing committee members from DHL's global hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), and Teamsters International Vice President At-Large Juan Campos attended the meeting to condemn DHL executives face-to-face. Union workers grilled company executives and directors about poor safety conditions, racial discrimination, and anti-labor behavior practices in the U.S.

"DHL's upper management in the U.S. has created an attitude of us-versus-them when it comes to hardworking Teamsters like me and my brothers and sisters at CVG," said Francisco Chacon, a 29-year DHL Teamster and shop steward with Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago. "Waging war against the workers who make you successful is no way to run a business. It is important that DHL's Board of Directors and the company's shareholders understand that."

DHL-CVG sort workers are currently organizing to become Teamsters. Despite falsely claiming to investors and German consumers that the company respects freedom of association and collective bargaining, DHL has launched an anti-union campaign to try to intimidate and prevent CVG workers from exercising their rights.

"The Teamsters' presence at DHL's annual shareholder meeting signaled to CEO Tobias Meyer and the board that the company's treatment of American workers is unacceptable," said Michael Morency, a member of the CVG Sort Workers Organizing Committee. "While DHL presents itself as an 'employer of choice,' there is a clear disparity in how we are treated compared to our German brothers and sisters. Today, we highlighted this reality to both German shareholders and consumers."

Meyer has condoned DHL's reprehensible, anti-worker behavior by dismissing the company's illegal labor practices as a "local management issue."

"DHL's top executives in Germany turn a blind eye to the exploitation of American workers for the sake of profit," said Bill Hamilton, Director of the Teamsters Express Division and International Vice President for the Eastern Region. "Tobias Meyer has the power to end this abuse but chooses not to. He is responsible for fostering an environment where local management in the U.S. blatantly disregards our labor laws and universal basic human rights. The Teamsters will continue to shine a spotlight on these abusive practices in DHL's backyard of Germany and across the U.S."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Daniel Moskowitz (770) 262-4971

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
FITZGERALD, Ga., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power forged ahead in the fight against child malnutrition by announcing a $200 million investment in the procurement and distribution of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)  a lifesaving, peanut-based medical food that treats children suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition. The Administrator made the announcement at Mana Nutrition's RUTF manufacturing facility in Fitzgerald, Georgia, where three million packets of RUTF are produced daily using American peanuts.

The Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF), a U.S.-based private philanthropy dedicated to ending global malnutrition, was present at Mana to celebrate Administrator Power's announcement. Philanthropist Chris Hohn was also in attendance and affirmed a $50 million investment to bring RUTF to children around the world, which builds on his past investments and history of leadership in the fight against malnutrition, including $200 million of support to Mana's facilities and operations.

45 million children currently suffer from wasting, and this global crisis has escalated in recent years due to conflicts, the effects of climate change, and worldwide economic volatility. Humanitarian crises in Sudan, Gaza, Haiti, and other high-burden countries have also increased the urgency to reach children who are in emergency situations that have caused famine or near-famine conditions. Worldwide, child wasting claims the lives of one in five children under the age of five. But wasting is treatable if children are provided RUTF. This shelf-stable product is made from peanuts, milk powder, oil, sugar, and a blend of nutrients. It costs less than $1 a day to treat a child with RUTF  and it is remarkably effective, with recovery rates up to 90 percent.

Today's announcement follows USAID's historic investment in RUTF in 2022, the largest ever single investment in wasting treatment, which included related commitments from a diverse coalition of public and private partners. That combined investment led to UNICEF's greatest malnutrition response on record, when the agency reached 7.3 million children suffering from wasting with RUTF in 2023  a 35 percent increase from the year prior. The Administrator's announcement in Fitzgerald continues this momentum, and serves as a reminder that donor governments, philanthropies, and nongovernmental agencies must work together to maintain these gains and further expand coverage, so that every child who needs RUTF has access to it.

Prior to today's press conference, Administrator Power toured Mana's new facility with Hohn and Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA-08). The new facility is the culmination of two years of planning, engineering, and construction, and has the capacity to make millions of RUTF packets each day. Peanut farmers, community leaders, and Mana employees were also in attendance to celebrate the announcement.

"It was an honor to host Administrator Power for a tour of Mana's expanding Fitzgerald RUTF facility, and for our factory to serve as the site of her announcement, which continues the commitment to our collective fight against child malnutrition," said Mark Moore, Founder and CEO of Mana. "At Mana we like to say, 'We are the village.' This U.S. government investment in RUTF, like the one before it, can save millions of the most vulnerable children in our global village  and it will enable Mana to draw upon the strength of our local village in Georgia, which proudly supplies the workforce and key ingredients required to produce RUTF."

ECF also commends this announcement. As part of its ongoing commitment to optimizing wasting treatment and expanding coverage, ECF recently launched a partnership with Action Against Hunger to accelerate local adaptation and country-led uptake of the new World Health Organization wasting guidelines. The new guidelines include recommendations on treating children with reduced dosages of RUTF and guidance on treating children who are classified as "moderately wasted" with RUTF, among others. ECF has also made investments in countries such as Senegal to combat child wasting.

"Every 11 seconds, a child dies of malnutrition  a heartbreaking reality that we can put an end to. RUTF offers children suffering from severe malnutrition a chance not only to survive, but to thrive. Today, USAID has taken historic steps to invest in RUTF, which means millions of kids will get the treatment they need," said Kim Cernak, Managing Director of ECF. "We commend USAID for continuing to take leadership on the issue of deadly malnutrition, and we commend Congress for asserting U.S. commitment to a healthier and more secure world. We know that when we join together, we make progress that positively impacts lives around the globe. We urge all donors to sustain this momentum with additional support for RUTF, so that every child who needs this lifesaving treatment can get it."

About the Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF):

The Eleanor Crook Foundation is a growing U.S. philanthropy fighting to end global malnutrition through research, policy analysis, and advocacy.

About Mana

Mana Nutrition is a non-profit producer of RUTF and other lifesaving products for UNICEF, USAID and the WFP in the fight against malnutrition. Mana owns and operates 500,000 square feet of facilities in Fitzgerald, GA, and at the port in Savannah, GA.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Eleanor Crook Foundation

Nyequai Harte, Associate Director of Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE The Eleanor Crook Foundation
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Three distinguished institutionsThe University of Notre Dame, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the University of Padua, Italyrecently joined the ranks of the prestigious Universities Space Research Association (USRA). Following their election by USRA's existing university members, these institutions were formally inducted into the Association on March 22, 2024, bolstering the Association's membership to 120 universities.

Joining Universities Space Research Association (USRA) means becoming an integral part of a dynamic international network comprising of 120 Ph.D.-granting universities deeply engaged in space science and aerospace research and development. As members, universities wield influence in shaping the trajectory of USRA programs and institutes, extending benefits not only to their own researchers but also to counterparts worldwide.

The eligibility criteria for USRA membership includes demonstrated significant contributions in space- or aeronautics-related research by faculty, and a substantial commitment to a course of studies and dissertation research leading to the doctorate in one or more related fields. Members participate in the governance and operations of USRA through the election of members to the USRA Board of Trustees, the establishment of the Association's bylaws, and other activities.

Each of these universities selected by USRA has a demonstrated capability in space research and exploration.

The University of Notre Dame has active research programs in Physics, Astronomy, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and Earth Sciences. Research at the University of Notre Dame is built around a robust framework of strong interdisciplinary and collaborative activities both within in-house departments, and with other renowned national and international institutes. The faculty is well regarded in the fields of aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, civil engineering and Earth sciences, computer science and engineering and electrical engineering.

has active research programs in Physics, Astronomy, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and Earth Sciences. Research at the is built around a robust framework of strong interdisciplinary and collaborative activities both within in-house departments, and with other renowned national and international institutes. The faculty is well regarded in the fields of aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, civil engineering and Earth sciences, computer science and engineering and electrical engineering. The University of Padua, Italy , founded in 1222, is one of the oldest universities in the world and among the most prestigious in Italy for its contributions to scientific and scholarly research. The centuries-old astronomical endeavors initiated with Copernicus and Galileo continue today, with involvement in research projects at the highest international competitiveness in fundamental physics, applied physics and astronomy. The University is one of the most important research centers for physics and astronomy in Italy offering Ph.D. programs in both disciplines. It hosts a section of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and a unit of the Italian Interuniversity Consortium for the Physical Sciences of Matter (CNISM), and cooperates with the Paduan Astronomical Observatory of the Italian Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). In collaboration with INAF, the Department runs the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory, where a variety of instruments are available for research and student training.

, founded in 1222, is one of the oldest universities in the world and among the most prestigious in for its contributions to scientific and scholarly research. The centuries-old astronomical endeavors initiated with Copernicus and Galileo continue today, with involvement in research projects at the highest international competitiveness in fundamental physics, applied physics and astronomy. The University is one of the most important research centers for physics and astronomy in offering Ph.D. programs in both disciplines. It hosts a section of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and a unit of the Italian Interuniversity Consortium for the Physical Sciences of Matter (CNISM), and cooperates with the Paduan Astronomical Observatory of the Italian Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). In collaboration with INAF, the Department runs the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory, where a variety of instruments are available for research and student training. The University of Texas at San Antonio offers many courses in engineering and has a joint mechanical engineering program with Southwest Research Institute. It has active research programs in astrophysics, including collaborations on a first-ever image of a black hole (Event Horizon Telescope) and an exoplanet. It conducts interdisciplinary space-related research, with more than 20 centers and research facilities and has collaborations with ground based and space-based observatories. With an outstanding faculty in disciplines such as mechanical engineering, computer engineering, Earth and planetary sciences, space science, and astrophysics, it has recognized expertise in many diverse fields.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Isaacson, USRA's President and CEO, said, "We are very pleased to welcome these three universities to our Association. Their work adds to the collective strength of USRA, and we look forward to their active engagement with, and contributions to, USRA's Council of Institutions."

About USRA

Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology, and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities and conducts other major research and educational programs. It is an association with 120 university members. USRA engages the broader university community, employs in-house scientific talent, and offers innovative research, development, and project management expertise.

More information about USRA is available at www.usra.edu.

Contact:

Suraiya Farukhi

[email protected]

443-812-6945

SOURCE Universities Space Research Association
Lockheed Martin's open systems architecture is advancing the future of AI-enabled autonomous flight with human oversight

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin Skunk Works (NYSE: LMT) joined the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and other government and industry partners in hosting U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall to fly in the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA), a one-of-a-kind aircraft modified to test artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy capabilities.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, onboard the X-62 VISTA, takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, May 2. (Air Force photo by Madeline Guadarrama)

VISTA is an AI pathfinder that facilitates development and testing of cutting-edge AI techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs. This work is essential to realizing distributed teaming. In less than a year, the teams installed initial live AI agents into the X-62A's systems, demonstrated the first AI versus human dogfight and completed over 100,000 lines of flight-critical software changes across 21 test flights.

"The need for innovation at speed and scale is greater than ever. The X-62A VISTA is a crucial platform in our efforts to develop, test and integrate AI, as well as to establish AI certification standards that will revolutionize the future of aerospace," said John Clark, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. "Our proven hardware and software architecture enable safe and controlled environments for AI agents and advanced algorithms to rapidly prototype and develop."

Lockheed Martin's open systems architecture, which leverages Skunk Works' Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS), enables highly complex tests. These important updates enhance VISTA's capabilities while maintaining its rapid-prototyping advantage, allowing for quick changes to software and the ability to conduct flight tests with great frequency, accelerating the pace of AI and autonomy development to meet urgent national defense priorities.

This architecture has proven to be reliable and robust enough to transition into third-party distributed hardware to replicate safe and controlled flight test objectives as demonstrated by VISTA. Lockheed Martin is at the forefront of fusing AI-enabled platform autonomy with human oversight to accelerate operational speed, maximize agility and cut sustainment costs.

The achievements of and technologies developed through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program will serve as a foundation for future advances in safer, more reliable, and more efficient aviation  both for military and commercial domains.

Secretary Kendall's flight closely follows several major VISTA recognitions for work done as part of DARPA's ACE program, including being nominated as finalists for the 2023 Robert J. Collier Trophy and receiving the Society of Flight Test Engineers' James S. McDonnell Award and Aviation Week's 2024 Laureate Award for Defense.

About Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is a global defense technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery. Our all-domain mission solutions and 21st Century Security vision accelerate the delivery of transformative technologies to ensure those we serve always stay ahead of ready. More information at Lockheedmartin.com.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
IRVINE, Calif., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- VESICA HEALTH, INC., a leading multi-omics liquid biopsy company dedicated to improving the management of hematuria patients and the early detection of bladder cancer, today announced the launch of its laboratory-developed AssureMDx test.

Christopher Thibodeau, Chief Executive Officer of Vesica Health, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "We are delighted to officially introduce AssureMDx for patient testing. With an extensive evidence dossier of over 22 peer-reviewed publications, including three clinical validation studies, coupled with the recent successful completion of our analytical validation, we stand prepared to empower hematuria patients and their physicians with this vital tool for enhancing patient care."

Vesica Health Launches AssureMDx for Clinical testing Post this

Laura Caba, MPH, President of Vesica Health, underscored the significance of this innovation, declaring, "We are reshaping the landscape of early bladder cancer detection and fulfilling our commitment to elevating patient care and clinical outcomes."

AssureMDx represents a significant leap forward in bladder cancer diagnostics, offering unparalleled accuracy and reliability backed by rigorous scientific validation. This transformative test embodies Vesica Health's unwavering dedication to advancing the standard of care for hematuria patients worldwide.

About AssureMDx

AssureMDx is a multi-omic noninvasive urine-based DNA test designed to transform the triage of hematuria patients. By providing physicians with a precise method for identifying patients at increased risk for bladder cancer, AssureMDx facilitates immediate urological referral and clinical evaluation when needed. Importantly, the test also helps physicians effectively distinguish patients at very low risk, who may bypass invasive procedures and avoid unnecessary CT scans, thereby reducing potential radiation exposure risks. Backed by extensive research, the AssureMDx epigenetic and somatic biomarkers have been reported in 22 peer-reviewed studies involving over 6,000 patients, including multiple prospective clinical validation studies. These studies consistently demonstrate the test's robust clinical performance, notably 0.96 AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve), 99% Negative Predictive Value (NPV), and 96% Sensitivity for the detection of bladder cancer in hematuria patients. Moreover, AssureMDx will provide urologists a noninvasive means to monitor bladder cancer patients at heightened risk of recurrence following treatment, thereby enhancing patient management and improving outcomes.

About Vesica Health, Inc.

At Vesica Health, our mission is clear: to revolutionize the management of hematuria patients, enhance the early detection of bladder cancer, and improve patient survival. Hematuria, characterized by blood in the urine, affects an estimated 17 million (1-in-5) adult Americans annually, serving as the most common symptom of bladder cancer. Despite guideline recommendations, only 12% of patients are referred to urology for clinical evaluation, resulting in approximately 20,000 diagnoses missed each year. Delayed detection leads to later-stage disease and increased mortality rates. Conventional diagnostic methods like cytology and cystoscopy, while widely used, suffer from lower sensitivity and often fail to detect bladder cancer. Moreover, the fear of undetected cancer prompts a high rate of CT scans, exposing patients to unnecessary radiation and an increased risk of secondary cancer later in life. Drawing from 20 years of advanced multi-omics research in bladder cancer detection, AssureMDx is a clinically validated, noninvasive test that helps improve the evaluation of hematuria, enhance early disease detection, and enable effective recurrence monitoring. For more information on our groundbreaking initiatives, visit www.vesicahealth.com.

For more information:

Vesica Health Corporate Communications

[email protected]

This company announcement contains forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of Vesica Health and the market in which it operates. Such statements and estimates are based on assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable but may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict, may depend upon factors that are beyond the company's control, and may turn out to be materially different. Vesica Health expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this announcement to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless required by law or regulation. This company announcement does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of Vesica Health in any jurisdiction. No securities of Vesica Health may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. securities laws.

NOTE: The Vesica Health wordmarks and logos, including Vesica Health, and AssureMDx are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vesica Health, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Vesica Health
NEW YORK, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ron Zacapa, the renowned luxury aged rum born of Guatemala, announces the launch of an exclusive collaboration with Raul Lopez, the visionary fashion designer behind the groundbreaking label, Luar. Lopez has joined forces with the iconic rum brand to design a limited-edition collection, weaving together the two brands' shared commitment to craftsmanship and heritage with the world of high fashion. The kit draws inspiration from Luar's iconic Ana bag  named after the influential women in Lopez's life, as well as Zacapa's iconic Petate1, which adorns every bottle and is handcrafted by skilled female artisans in Guatemala, keeping the artisanship of handcrafted weaving alive. This work has been handed down through generations of women in local communities for over 25 years. Similarly, Lopez's design is deeply influenced by his familial ties and upbringing in proudly vibrant Dominican communities. With this kit, he pays homage to the Canasto, the woven bag his mother and grandmother carried on their arms, telegraphed via Zacapa's signature Petate weave.

Raul Lopez with Zacapa y Luar Decanter and Zacapa XO

Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9266551-zacapa-rum-raul-lopez-of-luar-unveil-limited-edition-collection/

"I'm beyond excited to introduce this incredible collection, a true game-changer for those moments we gather to celebrate in style," shares Raul Lopez. "Collaborating with Zacapa has been an enriching experience, a celebration of our shared Latino heritage and a tribute to the roots that ground us. The craftsmanship of the incredible women of the Petate weaving communities fills me with immense respect. It's an honor to weave their craft into my designs. Knowing that Zacapa supports over 700 female artisans in this tradition makes me incredibly proud to highlight their beautiful work in our collaboration."

The collection celebrates the crown jewel of Zacapa's portfolio, Zacapa XO, a blend of rums aged 10 - 25 years, crafted with hand-selected barrels and finished in French oak casks. The exquisite rum is complemented by a curated selection of stylish accessories, including a custom shaker, cocktail spoon, linen cocktail napkins, leather and Petate woven coasters, and glassware. Accompanying this ensemble is a stunning glass decanter, enveloped in Luar's signature leather and Petate sleeve, a celebratory vessel for showcasing the exquisite rum. The collection is not just a functional ensemble but a stylish addition to any gathering, perfect for entertaining and impressing friends.

"Zacapa is thrilled to join forces with Raul Lopez of Luar, celebrating a partnership that beautifully bridges the worlds of luxury spirits and fashion," says Sam Salameh, Vice President of Zacapa at Diageo North America. "This collaboration is more than just a limited-edition collection; it's a vibrant celebration of heritage, innovation, and a shared vision that captivates and inspires."

Celebrating Latin American communities is deeply ingrained in both Zacapa and Luar's ethos. This exclusive collaboration, launching ahead of Dia de las Madres, pays tribute to the women who have not only shaped Lopez's career but also contributed to Zacapa's storied heritage. At the helm of Zacapa is a female, Lorena Vasquez, the brand's Master Blender, who stands as a pioneering figure in the traditionally male-dominated world of spirits. An industry luminary with an unparalleled passion and deep appreciation for the rich heritage of Zacapa, Lorena has skillfully combined time-honored traditions with innovative techniques to create a process that will be passed down to future blenders.

"Every time I hold a bottle of Zacapa, I'm filled with pride, inspired by the extraordinary skill and spirit of the Petate weavers whose artistry stands as the icon of our brand, uniting us in our Guatemalan roots," says Lorena Vasquez, the Master Blender at Zacapa Rum. "For these remarkable women, the art of Petate weaving is a profound source of empowerment, allowing them to sustain and cultivate brighter futures for their families and community. In partnership, we blend their stories of tradition and mastery into every drop of Zacapa, making each sip a homage to the rich tapestry of our country's culture."

This collaboration follows Zacapa's recognition of Raul Lopez. The brand honored Lopez with the first-of-its-kind, 'Visionary of the Year' award at the 2023 Latin American Fashion Summit (LAFS) in Miami, Florida, marking a natural progression of the partnership with Lopez. Zacapa's acknowledgment of Lopez extends beyond celebrating his remarkable achievements in the world of high fashion  it also pays tribute to Lopez's unwavering dedication to community empowerment through the celebration of shared values. Sharing a profound commitment to giving back to the communities and advancing the artistry of their crafts, Zacapa will donate a portion of the proceeds of the collaboration to the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). NALAC's dedication to supporting Latino artists and artisans resonates deeply with Zacapa's commitment to uplifting Guatemalan communities through the art of Petate weaving and the visionary craftsmanship of Raul Lopez.

A limited quantity of the complete Zacapa y Luar Collaboration Collection is available online exclusively through the luxury e-commerce retailer, ReserveBar, sign up to get access to the presale.

In celebration of Dia de Las Madres, Zacapa will present The Zacapa Orchid Shop, an exclusive pop-up event taking place on Friday, May 10th. Experience an exclusive first look at the Zacapa y Luar Collaboration Collection and a special appearance from Raul Lopez himself. Located at Lume Studios (93 Broadway, New York, NY 10013) in Tribeca, this gathering will be open to the public, transporting guests into the captivating world of Zacapa. Guests can look forward to discovering a one-stop-shop of gifts tailored to celebrating mothers, all while savoring the exquisite flavors of Zacapa XO as they explore this one-of-a-kind destination.

Zacapa reminds consumers 21+ to please sip responsibly. For additional information on Zacapa Rum, visit www.zacaparum.com. Stay up to date on the collaboration by following the brand on Facebook and Instagram @zacaparumusa.

About Zacapa Rum

Created in Guatemala, Zacapa Rum is a work of art and an expression of patience, richness, quality, and master blending. Zacapa's Master Blender of over 39 years, Lorena Vasquez, is one of the few female leaders in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Zacapa No. 23, Zacapa Edicion Negra, and Zacapa XO are available at fine liquor stores, bars, and restaurants around the world. For more information, visit www.zacaparum.com .

1 To learn more about Zacapa's Petate Weavers please visit www.zacaparum.com/en-us/our-story/petate-weaving

SOURCE Zacapa Rum
BOSTON, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresh city air and guilt-free online shopping could be two benefits of electric and fuel cell trucks. With the growth of environmental awareness and the hydrogen economy, zero- and low-emission trucks could see larger-scale adoption over the next decade.

Environmental care

Online shopping won't have to be such a large contributor to emissions because electric and fuel cell trucks won't negatively impact the environment with deliveries. With the growth of retail industries and online shopping platforms, more transportation is required for these industries to flourish, meaning zero-emission trucks couldn't come at a better time. Hand in hand with the CO 2 emission legislation becoming stricter, cleaner air is becoming a central focus of many companies from an environmental and business competitiveness perspective.

Cities and built-up areas could be protected from excess fumes from fuel as the air becomes cleaner, and a large contributing factor to poor air quality is removed. Large trucks currently consume anywhere between 30 and 40 litres of fuel per 100km, with cars sitting approximately between 4 and 7, with trucks also racking up a much greater annual mileage. Electric and fuel cell trucks could be a window to turning these figures on their head, and over the past few years, battery electric trucks have moved from prototypes to commercial models. In their report on the topic, "Electric and Fuel Cell Trucks 2024-2044: Markets, Technologies, and Forecasts", IDTechEx predicts that by 2044 82% of zero-emission trucks sold will be battery electric out of approximately 1.8 million zero-emission trucks sold per year.

Hydrogen economy

The flourishing of the hydrogen economy will make way for more fuel cell trucks to get onto the road. Due to the cost, lack of infrastructure, and struggle to produce hydrogen for trucks alone, processes of making hydrogen for cleaner, widespread energy sources will greatly benefit the fuel cell industry.

The benefits of fuel cells are perfect for long haul journeys and in colder weather, where battery performance might suffer. Hydrogen has a greater energy density per kilo in comparison to batteries, and it is quicker to refill a tank than to charge up a large battery, so lowering costs could be a long-term goal for hydrogen companies. Battery electric trucks are currently much more common but can be restricted to short-haul journeys due to the weight of large batteries, limited range, and reduced performance in cold weather.

The electric and fuel cell trucks sector is expected to reach US$207 billion by 2044 and are both part of the solution to achieving a zero-emission transport sector. Government support is available for the first companies to make moves towards this. Subsidies for the purchasing of trucks could incentivize companies to make investments in these future transport methods, and the future of truck driving and retail industries could see their reputations reinvented.

For more information, please see the IDTechEx reports "Electric and Fuel Cell Trucks 2024-2044: Markets, Technologies, and Forecasts" and "Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles 2024-2044: Markets, Technologies, and Forecasts". Downloadable sample pages are available for these reports.

For the full portfolio of electric vehicles market research from IDTechEx, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research/EV.

About IDTechEx:

IDTechEx provides trusted independent research on emerging technologies and their markets. Since 1999, we have been helping our clients to understand new technologies, their supply chains, market requirements, opportunities and forecasts. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.IDTechEx.com.

Media Contact:



Lucy Rogers

Sales and Marketing Administrator

[email protected]

+44(0)1223 812300

Social Media Links:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/IDTechEx

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/IDTechEx

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/478371/IDTechEx_Logo.jpg

SOURCE IDTechEx
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Lucknow, May 3 : The Lucknow police have arrested two members of a gang of Tamil Nadu residents, posing as furniture sellers and duping people in the name of discounted rates, the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) West, Durgesh Kumar, said, "The accused have been identified as Vijay Saurirajan, 58, and M. Ganeshan, 51, both residents of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur. They were nabbed from Dubagga on Thursday. After targeting Lucknow, the men were now planning to target people in Jharkhand and had already set up a shop but were arrested before they could succeed."

"The duo has duped at least 30-40 people in the Thakurganj area of Lucknow, and there is the possibility that they have duped many people across India. Their crime history is being searched," the DCP added.

Explaining their modus operandi, the police said that the men used to first set up a shop in a city and would properly register it by taking a GST number to look authentic.

The accused duo would then lure customers by giving them 50 per cent discount offers on furniture, electronic items, and items usually given as part of a bride's trousseau, by promoting themselves through pamphlets.

Once prospective customers had been trapped, the fraudsters would then ask them to make advance payments, telling customers to collect the item after 15 days.

After winning the customers' confidence, they would shut shop and escape.

In financial dealings with customers, the accused would also exchange counterfeit currency.

Keeping in mind the large number of victims, earlier, a case was registered under IPC 420 (cheating), and a crime team of DCP West and Dubbaga police was formed to work out the case.
Baghdad, May 3 : A Shia militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a missile attack on three sites in the cities of Tel Aviv and Be'er Sheva in Israel.

The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in two online statements that on Thursday noon, its fighters launched three attacks with long-range al-Arqab upgraded cruise missiles on two vital sites in Tel Aviv and one in Be'er Sheva in southern Israel, without providing additional details about the specific location targeted or any resulting casualties, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statements stressed that the attacks were carried out "in solidarity with the people of Gaza" and pledged to persist in targeting "enemy's strongholds".

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and US bases in the region.
Damascus, May 3 : Israel launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights against a military site near Syrian capital Damascus, injuring eight soldiers and causing material losses, the Syrian Defence Ministry said.

While the Defence Ministry statement spelled no further details, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday that explosions were heard in the southwestern countryside of the capital Damascus, precisely along the administrative boundary shared with Quneitra province and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

According to the Britain-based watchdog group, the explosions were accompanied by the flight of suspected Israeli drones, Xinhua news agency reported.

The observatory's director, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said that this is the only available information at present.

This attack follows a reported decline in Israeli attacks over the past month, which the Syrian observatory's director attributed to the strikes on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1.

The targeted areas are known strongholds for elements of Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, according to the observatory.
Ankara, May 3 : Turkey halted all trade activities with Israel due to the latter's "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Turkish Trade Ministry said.

The move follows Turkey's imposition of restrictions on an array of exports to Israel since last month, which Ankara said on Thursday would remain in effect until a ceasefire in Gaza is achieved.

In a statement, the Ministry recalled that Ankara previously restricted the export of 54 product groups to Israel in April because the "massacre, humanitarian catastrophe, and physical destruction caused by Israel continued," and the Israeli government "ignored" international ceasefire efforts and blocked humanitarian aid, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is observed that the Israeli government continues its aggressive behaviour and the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine worsens," the Ministry said.

"In this respect, the second phase of the measures taken at the state level has been initiated and export and import transactions with Israel have been suspended for all products," said the statement.

Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows the uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, it added.

On the other hand, the Turkish Trade Ministry is coordinating with Palestinian authorities to ensure that Palestinian people "who are forced to live under occupation" are not affected by these restrictions, the Ministry noted.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, trade between the two countries amounted to $6.8 billion in 2023, with Turkish exports accounting for 76 per cent of the total.
New Delhi, May 3 : Hours after the Congress announced that party's former president Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Raebareli, the BJP on Friday said that the people of Rae Bareli will end his political career.

Slamming the Congress leader, BJP National Secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, "After accepting defeat in Amethi, he has accepted defeat from Wayanad too and will face defeat in Rae Bareli as well."

He said, "Rahul is contesting from Rae Bareli as he is losing elections from Wayanad".

Citing Rahul Gandhi's "inability to manage" his constituencies, the BJP leader emphasised that the people of Rae Bareli will "teach him a lesson and defeat him with a huge number of votes because someone who cannot manage their constituency has no right to talk about the country."

Furthermore, he said that Congress was in such a bad shape that no leader was ready to contest from Amethi, the seat which was once a stronghold of the Gandhi family, and K. L. Sharma from Punjab has been fielded to contest from Amethi.
New Delhi, May 3 : Early this year, in the spirit of the New Year, realme unveiled the brand's current slogan -- 'Make it real'. This new slogan, while retaining the essence of its predecessor, 'Dare to leap', expands the narrative of its brand story. It reflects a greater emphasis on young users and embodies the brand's aim to bring tangible, clear, and real benefits to their lives.

New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) Early this year, in the spirit of the New Year, realme unveiled the brandas current slogan -- aMake it reala. This new slogan, while retaining the essence of its predecessor, aDare to leapa, expands the narrative of its brand story. It reflects a greater emphasis on young users and embodies the brand's aim to bring tangible, clear, and real benefits to their lives.

The introduction of 'Make it real' marked a significant milestone in realme's journey, reflecting the brandas evolution from being a challenger in the market to establishing a solid brand identity centred around user needs and aspirations. This shift underscores realme's commitment to becoming a tech brand that resonates with young users, further enhancing its connection with youth.

As realme approaches its sixth anniversary, the brand takes a moment to reflect on its journey from inception to becoming a beloved global phenomenon. realme's growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. The brand has over 120 million fans worldwide and, according to realmeas shipment records, nearly 100 million shipments in India alone.

The brand's ethos, 'Make it real', is more than just a slogan. It embodies realme's relentless pursuit of excellence and dedication to delivering groundbreaking technology that enhances everyday life.

In 2024 alone, realme launched 10 new smartphone models, including its flagship number series, the bestselling NARZO series, and a brand-new series curated specifically for the Indian market. These launches stand as a testament to realmeas commitment to innovation and its ambition to lead the Indian mid-premium market.

The past year, since its fifth anniversary, has been particularly eventful for realme. The brand introduced over 20 new devices in the market and surpassed many significant milestones. Since its inception, realme has achieved over 200 million global shipments, becoming only the fourth smartphone brand to do so, with 100 million shipments in India alone.

Reaffirming the loyalty of its user base, realme shipped a total of 17.4 million units in 2023, with a record 4.5 million units in Q4 alone, as per a Canalys report. This marked its highest offline shipment share in that quarter and positioned the brand among India's top five smartphone brands for 2023 in 18 countries across three major regions.

realme's ability to adapt skillfully to the ever-shifting tech environment sets it apart. With a firm commitment to innovation and a design approach centred around the user, the brand's remarkable achievements in 2023 underscore its unwavering commitment to innovation and user-centricity in the highly competitive tech industry.

As realme celebrates its sixth year in the Indian market, the brand takes this opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the mid-premium segment. The Number series and GT series stand as a testament to realme's pursuit of innovation, relentless quest for superior quality, and unwavering commitment to its customers.

Looking ahead, realme has set its sights on targeting the mid-premium market segment in the coming year. The brand is determined to deliver flagship-level performance to customers, promising ambition, attitude, and confidence.

Furthermore, realme is excited to introduce the next GT phone in India, further solidifying its commitment to bringing cutting-edge technology to its user base.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 3 : With Rahul Gandhi deciding to contest from the Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency also, his rival in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, Annie Raja of the CPI, slammed him on Thursday, saying he should have revealed this earlier.

Wayanad went to the polls on April 26 in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

"He should have shown the political morality. He should have informed the people of Wayanad about Rae Bareli. It is not acceptable that he kept this away from the people of Wayanad," said Annie Raja.

She is the wife of the CPI General Secretary D. Raja and was a surprise choice of her party, as CPI is part of the INDIA bloc.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad was a huge surprise and he won with the highest margin of 4.37 lakh votes from Kerala.
Islamabad, May 3 : At least 20 people were killed and 21 others injured after a passenger bus fell into a ravine in Pakistan's Daimer district on Friday.

The incident occurred around 5.30 a.m. as the driver of the bus lost control over the wheels, Dawn reported.

The bus carrying 43 people was proceeding towards Gilgit from Rawalpindi.

The injured have been rushed to hospital.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi have expressed grief over the loss of lives and extended condolences.

Details are awaited.
Adelaide, Australia : German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyber attack on the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

"Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace," Baerbock said in Adelaide during a visit to Australia, adding there would be consequences.

In June 2023, the SPD, the dominant party in Germany's ruling coalition, said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyber attack earlier that year.

According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," a SPD spokesperson said.

According to Baerbock, the German government's investigation into the matter, led by the Foreign Office, has now been concluded.

"We can now clearly attribute this attack from last year to the APT28 group, which is controlled by the Russian secret service GRU," said Baerbock. "This is completely unacceptable and will not be without consequences."

--IANS/DPA

sd/svn
Seoul, May 3 : A North Korean economic delegation has returned home from Iran, Pyongyang's state media said Friday, ending a rare trip that raised suspicions of possible weapons cooperation between the two nations.

The delegation, headed by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong-ho, arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday after visiting Iran, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a one-sentence dispatch.

The latest dispatch marked the first state media report on the visit since an April 24 dispatch announcing the delegation's departure, Yonhap news agency reported.

It is rare for a ranking North Korean official to visit Iran. The last such visit took place in 2019 when Pak Chol-min, then North Korean vice chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, visited Iran to discuss cooperation.

Having established diplomatic ties in 1973, Pyongyang and Tehran are known to have close ties while under international sanctions for their weapons programs. The countries have been suspected of exchanging ballistic missile parts and technology, especially during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The recent trip raised speculation that along with economic cooperation, North Korea may seek to deepen military ties with Iran amid Russia's war with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Tehran are known to be key providers of weapons to Moscow to support the war.

The Iranian foreign ministry has dismissed such speculation as "biased," saying the North Korean delegation attended a trade show and held talks with officials from the government and private sector.
New Delhi, May 3 : A hardcore criminal and member of the infamous Gogi gang, who had three non-bailable warrants against him and was wanted in three cases, including murder, was arrested after a brief exchange of fire in the national capital, an official of the Delhi Police's Special Cell said on Friday.

The accused was identified as Md. Faijan a.k.a Nanhe a.k.a Kalu a.k.a Goga (35) and is a resident of Sawda in Delhi.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Amit Kaushik said that specific input was received that Faijan would be coming near Japanese Park, Sector-10, Rohini, Delhi at about 2.15 a.m. on Friday on his black colour motorcycle to meet his associates.

"Based on the above said information a trap was laid near gate No.3 of Japanese park, Rohini, Delhi. At about 2.30 a.m. a motorcycle rider was intercepted. When he came to know that police had surrounded him, he immediately opened fire on the police team and tried to run from the spot," said the DCP.

The police team also in self-defence fired back and Faijan sustained injuries in his right leg. "One sophisticated semi-automatic pistol used by him, and three live bullets were recovered. He has been shifted to Dr. BSA Hospital. Legal Action as per law is being taken against him," the DCP added.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 3 : With Rahul Gandhi deciding to contest the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh also, there was a mixed response from people in Kerala's Wayanad.

Elections were held in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat on April 26. While some people said there was nothing wrong for him to contest Raebareli too, a few said it was wrong on his part.

At a wayside shop in Wayanad, one person said there was nothing wrong with Gandhi's decision to contest from two seats. "He is leading the INDIA bloc and hence there is nothing wrong in it," said one, while another said, "if he wins from both the seats, it's most likely that he will vacate the Wayanad seat."

"If he does it, then it might not look good. Anyway let us wait," said another.

However, veteran Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikutty said there was nothing wrong at all in his decision to contest from Raebareli also.

"The fact of the matter is we (IUML) requested the Congress party's national leadership that Rahul should contest from one more seat other than Wayanad. Did not PM Modi contest from two seats? We feel that this decision will be a boost for the INDIA bloc," said Kunhalikutty.

Rahul won the 2019 polls from Wayanad but lost the Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh. This time at Wayanad, he was pitted against CPI leader Annie Raja and state BJP president K. Surendran.
Kolkata, May 3 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal government wants to make the Hindus second-class citizens in the state.

"The entire country is aware of what happened with the women in Sandeshkhali. After that Trinamool Congress wanted to protect the principal accused since his name was Sheikh Shahjahan," the Prime Minister said while addressing a rally at Burdwan on Friday.

He also referred to a recent and controversial comment made by Trinamool Congress legislator Humayun Kabir publicly without directly naming the latter.

"I came to know that a Trinamool Congress MLA recently made a statement at a public meeting threatening that Hindus would be drowned in River Bhagirathi. What is happening in West Bengal? Appeasement politics is the only aim of Trinamool Congress," the Prime Minister said.

He also referred to the recent order by a division bench of Calcutta High Court cancelling as many as 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools in West Bengal.

"I understand that there were many innocent candidates who got their jobs honestly. I have advised our party's West Bengal unit to open a legal and social media cell and provide legal support to the genuine candidates who have proper documents to prove they got their jobs honestly. Those who secured jobs through unfair means will have to suffer. But our party will be beside those who got their jobs honestly," the Prime Minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi also said that he has not become the Prime Minister for his own enjoyment. My only dream is to fulfil the dreams of the people. I do not have an heir of mine. Only the people of the country are my heirs," the Prime Minister said.
Mumbai, May 3 : Priyanka Chopra feels inspired to be a part of the documentary 'Women of My Billion' (WOMB), directed by Ajitesh Sharma, which she described as "stories of courage, strength, and resilience."

Priyanka shared a glimpse of the documentary on Instagram, highlighting its focus on the fight against all forms of violence faced by women in India.

It also showcases the journey of Srishti Bakshi as she walks from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering 3,800 km over 240 days to uncover and share stories about women.

Captioning the post, Priyanka wrote: "Very rarely do you come across people whose strength leaves you in awe and ignites a fire within you to tell a story that can truly make a difference."

"Presenting WOMB, a film created by these incredible women @srishtibakshi @apoorvab that features stories of courage, strength, and resilience. Being a part of this journey has been nothing short of inspiring. These stories of change belong to you now," she added.

The show, which began streaming on May 3, is produced by Apoorva Bakshi and Monisha Thyagarajanas Awedacious Originals in association with Priyanka Chopra Jonasa Purple Pebble Pictures.
Kolkata, May 3 : Taking another dig at the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the "Shehzada" fears defeat in Wayanad which is why he has also been fielded from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh which will act as an "escape route".

"I said it before that the 'Shehzada' (prince) will be defeated from Wayanad and soon after the elections at Wayanad will be over, he will go in search of a second seat. His followers were claiming that he will fight from Amethi. But, it seems that he is scared of Amethi too. So now the 'prince' is trying to find an escape route from Raebareli," PM Modi said while addressing a rally at Burdwan in West Bengal.

"I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. She ran away to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha.. Today, I am also telling them not to be scared. Do not escape," he added.

Prime Minister Modi launched a scathing attack against Congress and other allies of the opposition INDIA bloc, accusing them of speaking about "vote-jihad" during the ongoing elections.

"Previously they practised 'vote-jihad' silently. Now they are publicly announcing it. Their allies like Trinamool Congress and the Left parties are remaining silent in support," said PM Modi.

He said that the only aim of Congress is to introduce religion-based reservation in India.

"As per the Indian Constitution, religion-based reservation is not permissible. But Congress is exactly trying to do that. They are planning to do this by reducing the reservation quota for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. I challenged them to give it in writing that they are not in favour of religion- based reservation but they have remained silent," he said.

He also asserted that it seems that Congress is in the mood to punish people from SC, ST and OBC backgrounds since they have overwhelmingly supported BJP in the last few elections.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking that information about the arrest of politicians be immediately provided to the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct.

The court ruled that such a requirement lacks legal rationale and undermines existing legal safeguards.

The PIL, filed by a final-year Law student, was seen as indirectly challenging the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently in judicial custody.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P. S. Arora noted that Kejriwal is capable of pursuing legal recourse on his own, evidenced by his active cases in both Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court.

The court said that all arrested persons are legally required to be presented before a magistrate within 24 hours, making the provision of separate notifications to the ECI redundant and potentially disruptive to established legal processes.

It also dismissed the related request for a policy allowing arrested political figures to campaign virtually, pointing out that the ECI does not govern the rights of undertrials.

Acknowledging the petitioner's status as a student, the court refrained from imposing costs despite considering the PIL frivolous and seemingly aimed at gaining publicity.
New Delhi, May 3 : Apple watch has saved yet another life, this time a 35-year-old woman from the national capital who suffered from Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) -- a rapid and abnormal heart rhythm.

Speaking to IANS, Sneha Saha, a policy researcher, said that late in the evening on April 9, she started experiencing a rapid heart rate.

She ignored it, dismissed it as a panic attack due to stress, and started doing deep breathing exercises and drinking water, but had no respite.

When the heart palpitations persisted, she used her Apple Watch Series 7, which she bought in 2022, to assess her condition. It showed a high heart rate and advised visiting a doctor.

She again ignored it as it was nearing midnight. However, later, the Apple Watch alerted Sneha of extremely high heart rate (230+ bpm) and onset of AFib.

Sneha, who lives in Munirka, was then rushed to the Emergency at the nearby Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, where doctors could not read the blood pressure in her body.

Assessing her condition further, they had to administer three delivery of direct current (DC) shocks (50+50+100 joules) to revive her heart's sinus rhythm. Subsequently, she was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

"Had the Apple Watch not alerted me of the serious heart condition, I would not have gone to the hospital in the middle of the night and would have lost my life," Sneha told IANS, noting that the watch has now become her "constant companion."

"I would not have measured my heart rate, had the watch not been there. Whatever I had to say to the doctors was based on Apple Watch readings," added Sneha, who is on her way to recovery.

The doctors diagnosed her condition to be a type of Tachycardia -- an increased heart rate for any reason -- which can get triggered by exercise or stress.

After returning home, she wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 23, thanking him and the Apple team "for making such an advanced and precise recording ECG app."

Within a few hours, he responded: "I am glad you sought the medical attention and treatment you needed. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us."

"After the harrowing experience, I realised it is very important for us to understand our health, our sleep patterns, our heart rates as we all deal with stress," Sneha said.

"Smartwatches are a very good way of keeping track of your daily activities, your heart rate," added the Ph.D. degree holder in Science Policy Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Seoul, May 3 : South Korea and the US could explore expanding bilateral energy cooperation dialogue to a trilateral format involving Japan in the future, given the importance Washington puts on its two Asian allies, a US official said on Friday.

Geoffrey Pyatt, US assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Energy Resources, made the remarks in response to a reporter's question on the prospects of expanding the talks to include other like-minded countries, such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Yonhap news agency reported.

"I think there is a possibility for us to do more, in the North Asia context, leveraging what the United States has strongly supported in terms of the deeper cooperation between Japan, Korea and the United States," Pyatt said during an online press briefing.

While agreeing that the energy area certainly offers opportunities for the three countries or more, Pyatt struck a cautious note in that developing such possibilities would need "more work."

"There are certainly some areas where I could imagine the US-Japan-Korea relationship meeting that test, but that's going to require more work by all of us, and we're not quite there yet," he said.

"The relationships are different," Pyatt said. "I think we've got more work to do if we want to develop those opportunities for multilateral cooperation."

"But this is very much something that's on the agenda as we look to the future," Pyatt said.

In the latest Energy Security Dialogue between Washington and Seoul earlier this week, Pyatt said he and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Hee-sang, deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, discussed efforts to secure critical energy supply chains, such as solar energy, away from Chinese dependence on sourcing.

The discussions also included talks on ways to work together to accelerate the clean energy transition in Southeast Asia and across the Indo-Pacific, Pyatt added.

On South Korea's energy dependence on Russia, such as coal imports, Pyatt noted that reducing the portion of fossil fuels is more of a broader goal to achieve the green energy transition than a matter concerning the ties with Russia.

"Korea has already gone to zero on certain key fossil energy imports from Russia, its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas down by about half, compared to before the full-scale invasion began," he said.

"It's less a matter of phasing out of Russia than phasing out of coal writ large. This is a goal which the Korean government shares...every country will have to manage this transition out of coal in a way that is sustainable."
Beijing, May 3 : China is set to launch its Chang'e-6 lunar probe to the Moon's mysterious far side to Earth -- the first endeavour of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Friday.

According to the CNSA, the Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to be launched between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (Beijing Time) (2.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. IST) on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Chang'e-6 mission aims to collect and return samples from the Moon's mysterious far side to Earth.

The Long March-5 Y8 rocket, which will carry the Chang'e-6 probe, has begun the process of taking on liquid oxygen cryogenic propellant at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan, the CNSA added. This propellant will serve as fuel for the carrier rocket.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.

The mission will carry four payloads developed through international cooperation. Scientific instruments from France, Italy, and the European Space Agency are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, while a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter.

About 50 guests from 12 countries and international organisations have been invited by the CNSA to attend a workshop focusing on the international payloads carried by Chang'e-6 and witness the launch in Hainan.

An impact crater known as the Apollo Basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon, has been chosen as the primary target landing and sampling site for the Chang'e-6 mission.

After the spacecraft reaches the Moon, it will make a soft landing. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, while a drill will be used to bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the Moon and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit. The returner will then carry back the samples to Earth, landing in Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The entire mission is expected to last about 53 days, the CNSA said.
Seoul, May 3 : Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, on Friday, met with a senior German official and discussed Berlin's unification experience and the possibility of a unified Korea, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.

Kim met with Carsten Schneider, the minister of state for East Germany and equivalent living conditions, at his office, as Seoul is working on drawing up a new unification vision amid North Korea's pledge not to seek unification with South Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.

Kim asked for Berlin's cooperation and support for South Korea's "unwavering" commitment to pursuing a peaceful unification of the two Koreas based on liberal democracy, according to the Unification Ministry.

Schneider also voiced the need to strengthen solidarity between Seoul and Berlin over the issue and shared South Korea's unification vision, it added.

The meeting came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two countries hostile to each other" and vowed not to seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea.

Schneider was visiting South Korea to attend a meeting of the Korea-Germany Unification Advisory Committee held in the southeastern port city of Busan from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The two nations launched the unification advisory committee in 2011 to share Germany's unification experience and have held an annual meeting since then. Vice Unification Minister Moon Seoung-hyun and Schneider co-chair the committee.

Later in the day, Schneider told reporters that South Korea could seize an unexpected opportunity only when it does not give up the goal of unification.

"We did not know in the spring of 1989 that the Berlin Wall would collapse in November of that year. If South Korea wants to catch such a chance (for unification), it should not lose the goal of unification while keeping close tabs on North Korean people's situations," he said.
Ahmedabad, May 3 : Severe heatwave was prevailing across Gujarat and the Meteorological Department said that the conditions will persist with forecasts indicating hotter days ahead.

A yellow alert has been activated for the next four days till May 8, signalling temperatures to soar above 41 degrees Celsius. Surendranagar is currently enduring the brunt, recording the highest temperature in the state at 42 degrees.

The extended forecast suggests that the state will continue to experience intense heat for at least the next 10 days.

Temperatures may even surpass 43 degrees this month, potentially reaching up to 45 degrees in some urban areas. Regions like Saurashtra, Kutch, and South Gujarat are specifically predicted to face heatwave conditions.

Temperature readings across various cities illustrate the severity of the heat.

Ahmedabad has registered 41.4 degrees, closely followed by Bhuj and Amreli at 40.6 degrees. Rajkot and Gandhinagar are not far behind, recording temperatures of 40.3 and 40.2 degrees, respectively. Lesser but still high temperatures are noted in other parts of the state, with Chhotaudepur at 39.8 degrees, Vadodara at 39.6 degrees, and Deesa at 38.6 degrees.

The Meteorological Department has urged the public to take necessary precautions to mitigate the effects of the heat and to stay informed through regular updates.

A yellow alert signifies that severe weather conditions are currently present and could potentially worsen, disrupting daily activities. This warning encourages residents to be vigilant and prepared for changes that could affect safety and routine.
Kolkata, May 3 : West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Friday claimed that one more person has been planted at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata with sinister intent.

He said this a day after a complaint was filed at a local police station by a woman staff at Raj Bhavan accusing him of outraging her modesty.

In an audio message released on Friday, the Governor claimed that Raj Bhavan received a confidential report that political forces had planted one more person in the Raj Bhavan with sinister intent.

He also claimed that the matter was being verified by the concerned agencies and that "these were just election ploys". In the audio message, the Governor also asked the general staff at Raj Bhavan to be cautious.

In the message, the Governor said that no efforts to malign him with vicious intents will be able to deter him from his determined effort to expose corruption and curb violence.

Expressing confidence that the truth will be revealed, the Governor said that he was not afraid of such false allegations. He said that god may bless those who want to reap election benefits by maligning him.

"I will continue with my fight against corruption and violence," the Governor said.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress has continued with its attacks on the Governor over the complaint filed against him.

Admitting that under Article 361 of the Constitution, a criminal proceeding cannot be instituted in a court against the Governor during his term of office, the state Commerce & Industries and Women & Child Development Minister Dr Sashi Panja on Friday also questioned whether the legal provisions for protection were justified in this nature of the complaint.

Minister of State in charge of the Finance Department (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya reacted to the statement from Raj Bhavan on Thursday night barring her entry to the Governor's House premises. "There is no point in scaring me. No one can stop my entry into Raj Bhavan," she said.
Ahmedabad, May 3 : Media convener and spokesperson for the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, Dr. Manish Doshi, on Friday, launched an attack on the BJP, accusing it of unethical practices.

He accused the BJP leaders in Rajkot of "attempting to tarnish the reputation of Khodaldham and the Congress to achieve their objectives."

Dr. Doshi alleged, "There is a conspiracy to ensnare workers of the Khodaldham Youth Committee by circulating anonymous newspapers spearheaded by an agitated former BJP page head."

Dr. Doshi further criticised the alleged "misuse of police to hinder fair election processes", claiming that the "police are acting under BJP directives to detain individuals arbitrarily to prevent any internal issues within the party from surfacing."

The Congress spokesperson called for transparency and accountability, urging the public to keep a vigilant eye on these developments.

He emphasised the need for "integrity in the political landscape", especially with the forthcoming elections, and denounced the BJP's tactics "that are damaging to the democratic fabric of the region."
Gaza/Tel Aviv, May 3 : Another hostage being held in the Gaza Strip is dead, according to the Israeli government.

Like dozens of others, the man had been kidnapped from Israel by Hamas in a terrorist attack on October 7.

The government announced late Thursday on the social media platform X that his body is still in the Gaza Strip. The cause and time of death were not specified. It was also unclear from what source Israel learnt of his death.

His wife was reportedly murdered during the massacre on October 7, and two of his three children were abducted to the Gaza Strip.

His 13-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son were released in November as part of an agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas.

Israeli media reported, citing the Beeri kibbutz where the family lived, that the 49-year-old had already been killed on October 7. The forum of hostage relatives also reported that Hamas had brought his body to the Gaza Strip that day.

Militants from Hamas and other extremist groups had abducted more than 250 people to the Gaza Strip during the attack.

As part of an agreement, Hamas released 105 hostages during a week-long ceasefire at the end of November. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its jails.

Several weeks ago, Israel had assumed that just under 100 of the 130 remaining hostages were still alive. However, it is now feared that significantly more of them may already be dead.

--IANS/DPA

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New Delhi, May 3 : Fursatganj airstrip in Raebareli was buzzing with activity on Friday morning. Luxurious chartered flights touching down, one after another. It seemed like a venue for a family reunion -- Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hugging, patting and greeting each other after alighting from the aircraft with senior leaders Ashok Gehlot and K.C. Venugopal standing at a close distance, the aides hurriedly pacing to ensure that logistical arrangements were in order.

The Congress had kept the suspense going over whether or not Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest from Amethi and Raebareli, till the early morning of the last day of nomination filing. The declaration came with a twist, Rahul Gandhi opted out from Amethi, deciding not to take on a feisty sitting MP and Union Minister Smriti Irani and moving to his mother's erstwhile seat, an adjacent Raebareli. From Amethi, an old-time family loyalist, Sonia Gandhi's representative Kishori Lal Sharma was named as Congress candidate.

During election time, since it is actually people who choose their representative, it becomes important what people perceive, believe and talk about a leader.

It is being talked about in political circles, including Congress, that neither Rahul Gandhi nor Priyanka Gandhi was willing to take on Smriti Irani. It doesn't matter whether this is right or wrong because this is fast percolating in popular perception.

Contesting from Amethi and losing to her for the second time would have huge repercussions for Rahul Gandhi. The same applies to Priyanka Gandhi. What if she someone whom Congress has for long been projecting as their "Brahmastra", loses to Smriti Irani? This was something, which Congress would dread to even dream of.

The problem with Congress is that the much-delayed decision, suspense, speculation and source-based information are giving the impression that Rahul Gandhi is a reluctant candidate and was forced by the circumstances to contest from Raebareli.

It now seems that Amethi is now a cakewalk for the BJP in Amethi, the only suspense for Amethi would be what voting percentage and margin Smriti Irani wins. Kishori Lal Sharma, originally from Punjab, has been the Gandhi family's representative in this region for decades but it is also a fact that he is not particularly liked by many Congress workers and supporters.

The BJP surely has a reason to be happy. An early indication of how BJP's campaign is going to be against Rahul Gandhi in Raebareli can be observed from what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his very first election rally on Friday. PM Modi used Rahul Gandhi's often repeated assertion to mock him "Daro Mat, Bhago Mat (Don't be afraid, don't run away)".

PM Modi said much before the announcement of the elections he had predicted that top leaders, due to fear of losing, were unwilling to contest the Lok Sabha election, some choosing a safer Rajya Sabha route and some abandoning the idea. Sonia Gandhi chose to give away Raebareli and be a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan.

Though all members of the Gandhi family and party president Mallikarjun Kharge were present when Rahul Gandhi filed the nomination, Raebareli is going to be a tough contest for him. In the last parliamentary election, Sonia Gandhi's victory margin dropped by almost half. The BJP has nominated the same candidate, Dinesh Pratap Singh, who had contested against Sonia Gandhi in 2019. The impression that Rahul Gandhi was an unwilling, reluctant candidate may make things a bit difficult for him.

In the 2022 Assembly election, Congress couldn't manage to win even a single seat from the region. Sonia Gandhi did make an emotional appeal to people, earlier through a letter and now by siding with son Rahul in Raebareli.

Rahul Gandhi's shift from Amethi to Raebareli spices up the poll campaign for the upcoming phases.
Hyderabad, May 3 : A city court on Friday granted conditional bail to five members of the social media unit of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) arrested for circulating a morphed video of Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, on social media.

Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police on Friday announced the arrest of Pendyala Vamshi Krishna, Manne Sathish, Pettam Naveen, Asma Tasleem and Koya Geetha.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crimes Hyderabad, Dara Kavitha said they were circulating the morphed video of the speech delivered by Amit Shah during a public meeting.

They were produced before the Nampally Court, which granted them conditional bail.

They were asked to deposit a personal bond of Rs.10,000 each with two sureties and the court directed them to appear before the Investigation Officer every Monday and Friday till further orders.

The arrests were made in connection with the case registered on a complaint by BJP state General Secretary, G. Premender Reddy, in which he stated that the Telangana Congress Pradesh Congress Party in its X account posted morphed/fabricated video of HM Shah.

Cyber Crime Police, Hyderabad had registered a case under Sections 469, 505(1)C, 171 G, 502(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 125 RP Act 1951.

Police seized five mobile phones, one Ball Slide (Tab), two Acer laptops and two CPUs.

According to the police official, the five accused work in the TPCC social media unit and their job was to monitor social media posts related to political parties and upload them on their official and personal X handles.

HM Shah delivered a speech on April 23 during a public meeting at Medak. The police officer said Vamshi Krishna, who received a morphed video of the speech in WhatsApp, uploaded the same on the @INCTelangana X handle and shared it in various WhatsApp groups.

The remaining four accused saw the video and further shared it to their individual X handles. When notified by X about sensitive content, they deleted it.

Thus, they violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The DCP has cautioned people not to circulate any videos or photos related to political parties as this may breach the MCC related to the ongoing election for Lok Sabha.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the withdrawal of the bail plea filed by Delhi University's Professor Hany Babu, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.

A Bench presided over by Justice Bela M Trivedi was requested by Babu's counsel for withdrawal of the Special Leave Petition challenging an order of the Bombay High Court which had denied him bail.

He submitted that Babu  an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Delhi University and a resident of Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh  will apply afresh for bail before the court.

In January this year, the top court issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Maharashtra Government, and sought their response within a period of three weeks in the matter.

Earlier, the Bombay High Court in September 2022 had refused to interfere with the judgment of Greater Mumbai's Special Court rejecting the bail application filed by Babu.

A Bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and NR Borkar of the Bombay High Court had said, "We find that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusations of the NIA against the Appellant having conspired, attempted, advocated and abetted the commission of a terrorist act/s and the act/s of preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, are prima facie true."

The case pertains to organisation of the Elgar Parishad at Pune, Maharashtra on December 12, 2017 which promoted enmity between various caste groups and led to violence resulting in loss of life and property and state-wide agitation in Maharashtra.

In its investigation, the NIA revealed that Prof Babu was allegedly in contact with Paikhomba Meitei, Secretary Information and Publicity, Military Affairs, Kangleipak Communist Party (MC), an organisation banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and was propagating Maoist activities and Maoist ideology and was a co-conspirator with other accused.
Srinagar, May 3 : Jammu & Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. K. Pole, on Friday, inspected the counting centre and the strong rooms in Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency.

The CEO was accompanied by Returning Officer (RO) 1-Baramulla Parliamentary Constituency, Minga Sherpa, Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Amod Ashok Nagapure, Nodal Officer Model Code of Conduct (MCC), Syed Qamar Sajad, Assistant Returning Officer, Sopore, Shabir Ahmad Raina, Dy District Election Officer, Ab Rehman Bhat and other concerned officers.

During the inspection, the CEO reviewed the facilities and arrangements at the counting centre and the strong room to guarantee a smooth and transparent counting process.

"P. K. Pole also assessed security measures in place to maintain the integrity of the electoral process.

"The CEO was comprehensively briefed by the RO regarding the arrangements to ensure a smooth electoral process and was informed that the district administration had diligently implemented all necessary measures in compliance with the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.

"In a proactive step towards environmental conservation, P. K. Pole planted saplings within the premises of the counting centre to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the centre's surroundings while promoting ecological sustainability.

"Speaking during the visit, P.K. Pole underscored the critical importance of robust arrangements and strict adherence to electoral protocols set by the Election Commission of India for safeguarding the sanctity of this democratic process," the official statement said.

The constituency votes on May 20.
Jakarta, May 3 : The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), in partnership with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia and Embassy of India in Jakarta, hosted the inaugural Jakarta Futures Forum on May 2 and 3. The Roundtable was supported by the Asia Group and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Jakarta Futures Forum is a realization of a long-standing vision and a commitment to build together. The success of this pilot project requires a collective effort and innovative solutions.

India and Indonesia need to redefine what inclusion means across various sectors and issues, ensuring a fairer and more equitable world. Inclusion must be at the "forefront of our agenda", as reflected in the Indonesian and Indian G20 communiques.

As India and Indonesia celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relationship, this forum will look to celebrate this special relationship between these two nations and identify new dimensions for this bilateral relationship as well as broader relationship with the Indo pacific. To take this vision forward, the Jakarta Futures Forum focused on three thematic pillars, namely, Capitalising on Climate: Road to a Sustainable Future; Claiming the Digital Horizon; and The Road to Equality: Investing in Women-led Sustainable Developments.

The Jakarta Futures Forum brought together distinguished policymakers and practitioners from India, Indonesia and like-minded countries from around the world underscoring the importance of the themes discussed and forging a way forward.

Dino Patti Djalal, Founder and Chairman of Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), highlighting the conference theme, said at the inaugural, "The theme of this conference, 'Blue Economy and Blue Horizons in a Green Economy', was inspired by real-life cooperation between our countries, reflecting our shared interests and goals. The vibrant expatriate community here speaks volumes about Indonesia's welcoming culture. Jakarta, in particular, is the heart of Indonesia, and we should aim to highlight its significance."

Echoing Indonesia's commitment to the relationship, Samir Saran, President of Observer Research Foundation, said "As we navigate a multipolar world fraught with competition for resources, it is imperative for India and Indonesia to collaborate on issues like climate security and geopolitical rivalries. Just as in 1955, when we rejected the binary options of the Eastern and Western blocs, we must now shape a 21st-century narrative for Asia, one that reflects our aspirations and priorities."

The Jakarta Futures Forum had the privilege of hosting Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Indonesia. He said, "Historical and cultural resemblances shared between Indonesia and India present an opportunity for potential collaborations. Economic activities in the blue economy and opportunities for the business sectors of the two countries will be the double engine of growth."

The inaugural plenary, Charting New Horizons: Navigating the Evolving Landscape of India-Indonesia Relations in the Indo-Pacific, highlighted three key points: (1) India-Indonesia's economic ties shine amidst global volatility. Exceeding 5 per cent growth, both nations mirror economic impact. (2) Trade milestones surpass $40 million, outpacing US trade. (3) With direct connectivity & 50 per cent finance contribution, opportunities abound.

Sandeep Chakravorty, Ambassador of India to Indonesia and Timor Leste, succinctly summarized that, "Development aspirations unite India and Indonesia as they navigate resource constraints within democratic frameworks. Both nations recognize the potential of sustainable growth and are turning towards solutions beyond outdated paradigms."

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs of Indonesia, in his keynote on the second day of the forum, said that "Indonesia has the potential to become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2045, driven by its large population, coastline, and renewable energy resources. With proper regulation and international collaboration, Indonesia can achieve its economic goals and become a major player in the global economy."

On the occasion of the Jakarta Futures Forum, an MoU was signed by Dr Samir Saran, President, Observer Research Foundation, India and Dr Curie Maharani Savitri, Executive Director, Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence, Indonesia.
New Delhi, May 3 : Extending continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) -- a type of breathing device -- for two weeks among premature babies, can help in their lung growth, finds a study.

Lungs of premature babies, born before the 37th week of pregnancy, are not fully formed and this leads to altered lung development and breathing issues that can last longer, into adulthood.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University in the US found that extending CPAP treatment for two weeks can help increase "lung volume and lung diffusion capacity".

While the treatment is commonly used for preterm infants suffering from breathing issues, the team noted "there is no consensus on optimal treatment length when the preterm infant is doing well".

"Extending CPAP treatment may be a simple and safe approach to improving preterm infant lung function and breathing in the absence of a lung growth therapy," said Cindy T. McEvoy, Professor of paediatrics at Oregon.

"The studyas findings solidify CPAP treatment as beneficial for preterm infants without requiring pharmaceuticals," she added.

For the study, the team kept a group of preterm infants on CPAP treatment for an additional two weeks. Six months later, the preemies who received the extra treatment had larger, healthier lungs than those who did not.

The findings, to be present at the ongoing Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, in Toronto, can help clinicians determine an appropriate length of treatment.
Geneva, May 3 : The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the threat of famine still hangs over the war-torn Gaza Strip.

More food has reached the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, but the WHO's representative to the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said the risk of famine has not yet been averted.

The coastal strip has been under attack from the Israeli military for more than six months since Hamas launched bloody attacks on Israel on October 7.

The WHO reported that more than 40 severely malnourished children under the age of five have been brought to hospitals in the Gaza Strip with additional health problems since March.

Some 2-year-olds weighed only around 4 kilograms, far under the average weight of 10 to 14 kilograms.

Before the outbreak of fighting in October, malnutrition was practically non-existent in the territory.

The consequences of childhood malnutrition will be far-ranging, said Peeperkorn. "We will see the effects for years to come," he added.

Ahmed Dahir, the WHO's top doctor in Gaza, told reporters in Geneva via video link that the supply of food was still fragile and that he "cannot say the risk of famine is past."

According to Palestinian health authorities, a total of around 25 malnourished children have died in the territory in recent weeks.

Peeperkorn emphasised that the children had not starved to death, but that malnutrition had contributed to the complications that ultimately led to their deaths.

The information provided by the Palestinian authorities cannot be independently verified, but UN officials have previously considered their estimates to be reliable.

--IANS/DPA

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New Delhi, May 3 : Nifty closed at 22,476 with a loss of 172 points on Friday as the index faced selling pressure at higher levels.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said that the Nifty after marking a new high at 22794 levels, witnessed profit booking and came under pressure.

Volatility index India VIX rose sharply by 8 per cent at 14.62, indicating cautiousness in the market. Barring Pharma and Healthcare, all sectors ended in red.

A relief rally was seen in Bajaj Finance after RBI lifted restrictions from its eCOM, Insta EMI Card with immediate effect which was a major overhang on the company, he said.

Nifty opened higher on the back of positive cues and made a new high of 22794, just six points below the 22800 mark. The index witnessed profit booking amid increasing volatility and nervousness at the higher zone, he added.

Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates, said that the domestic benchmark indices opened higher on Friday, boosted by favourable global cues. Following that, the Nifty recorded an all-time high of 22,794.70. Thereafter, there was a substantial amount of profit booking in the market as expected.
New Delhi, May 3 : Meta-owned WhatsApp has said it banned more than 79 lakh accounts in India in the month of March, in compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Between the March 1-31 period, 7,954,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned and 1,430,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, the company said in its monthly compliance report.

The messaging platform, which has more than 500 million users in India, received a record 12,782 complaint reports in March in the country, and the records "actioned" were 11.

"Accounts Actioned" means reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the plaint and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.

"We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket. An account is 'actioned' when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint," the company said.

Between February 1-29, the company had banned "7,628,000 accounts".

About 1,424,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.

According to the company, in addition to safety features and controls, "We employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts."
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi High Court has issued directives to combat the use of spurious Oxytocin hormone in the dairy colonies across the national capital, stressing the need to address animal cruelty and public health concerns.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P.S. Arora ruled that administering Oxytocin without proper authorisation constitutes an offence under the relevant legislation.

The bench was dealing with a plea alleging violations of various laws in Delhi's dairy colonies, filed by Sunayana Sibal, Asher Jessudoss, and Akshita Kukreja.

The court asked the Department of Drugs Control, GNCTD, to conduct regular inspections and ensure that cases of spurious Oxytocin usage or possession are registered under the pertinent laws.

Moreover, the Intelligence Department of the Delhi Police has been tasked with identifying the sources of Oxytocin and taking legal action against the offenders.

The plea pointed to the necessity of relocating dairies to areas with adequate infrastructure and sanitary conditions to safeguard public health and prevent animal cruelty.

Expressing concern over the dairies located near the landfill sites, the court stressed the urgency of relocating such facilities due to potential health hazards posed by contaminated feed and milk.

While acknowledging the need for relocation, the court deferred issuing binding directives pending further consultation with the relevant officials. The court also directed the key officials from the municipal bodies, veterinary departments, and food safety authorities to participate in the proceedings on May 8.

Officials have been tasked with exploring suitable relocation sites and coordinating efforts to address the complex issues surrounding dairy operations in Delhi.
New Delhi, May 3 : Amid the political hullabaloo over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's nomination from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli, his second after Kerala's Wayanad constituency for 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a dig at the Gandhi scion, saying 'he can easily win elections from Pakistan'.

The Assam Chief Minister, while speaking to reporters on Friday, said: "Rahul Gandhi is very popular in Pakistan. If elections are held in Pakistan and Rahul contests from there, he will win the elections by a big margin. There is no doubt about it.

"Rahul Gandhi cannot be defeated in Pakistan, he will certainly emerge victorious," he said in further jibe.

The Assam CM's taunt at Congress' 'Yuvraj' comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into the grand old party at a poll rally, saying that Pakistan wanted to elect him as India's next Prime Minister.

"He won't have any success here, as people connect only with only Modi Wave," Himanta Biswa Sarma further said in response to a question by the reporters.

Notably, PM Modi and BJP leaders have launched an unsparing attack on the Gandhi scion after a former Pakistan minister shared a video of the Congress leader and captioned it, "Rahul on fire".

Fawad Chowdhry, a former Pakistan minister, showered praise on Rahul Gandhi and reportedly said that "it was important to stop Narendra Modi".
Kolkata, May 3 : A day after a temporary female staff at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata filed a complaint with the police accusing Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose of 'outraging her modesty', Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'silence' in the matter.

Addressing an election rally at Raina in East Midnapore district on Friday, the Chief Minister said without naming the Prime Minister, "You were there on Thursday night, but you did not utter a single word on this issue. You said a lot of things about Sandeshkhali. But I did not allow such things to happen there. There were some land-related problems, which my officials have solved. But what have you done?"

CM Banerjee also claimed that she received similar complaints like the one that surfaced on Thursday before.

"I received such complaints before as well. But I did not say anything. I have seen the tears of the woman who filed the (latest) complaint. A video in this regard has come to me, which I have seen minutely," the Chief Minister said

In a startling development on Thursday afternoon, a temporary female staff at the Raj Bhavan filed a written complaint with the police accusing Governor Bose of outraging her modesty.

Police sources said the woman, reportedly attached to the Peace Room in the Raj Bhavan, approached the officer-in-charge of the police outpost located inside the Governor's House and accused Ananda Bose of molesting her on the pretext of providing her a permanent job.

Later, she submitted a written complaint at the Hare Street police station, under which the Raj Bhavan falls.

The Governor, on his part, described the complaint as an engineered narrative to malign him to gain electoral benefits.

"Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal," read a brief statement issued by the Governor's office on Thursday night.

Incidentally, the Prime Minister was in West Bengal on Friday where he addressed three election rallies.
Mumbai, May 3 : Inaugurating the Mumbai Art Fair at the Nehru Centre on Friday, acclaimed poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar opened up on why he does not like to speak words of inspiration when he is invited to preside over events.

Interacting with the media, on being asked to share inspirational words for the benefit of young artists, the poet, dressed in his trademark flowing kurta and churidar, said, "Sharing inspiring words, or giving inspiration, these are very condescending and patronising things to do. I really don't like doing it, I have great respect for young people."

Talking about why he believes young people are special, he said, "I think they are finding their own ways. They will think what I can't think, they will see what I can't see. Painters are your eyes in a way, they show you what you missed."

When asked about best art work to caught his eye at the fair, Akhtar said, "You can't say that this work of art is the best. There are different artists who has different aesthetics and different sensibilities, a different understanding or point of view."

He then went on to say, "But I can tell you, there are quite a few, more than a few of them, who are exceptionally good. That is how it is in every field of life. There are many people who work, some are good, some are really good and some are learning."

Actor-turned-painter Suchitra Krishnamoorthi also showcased her paintings on the opening day of the Mumbai Art Fair.
Mumbai, May 3 : : The RBI on Friday tweaked rules to reduce the risk faced by banks in their exposure to capital market in the case of issue of Irrevocable Payment Commitments (IPCs).

The RBI issued a circular stating that "only those custodian banks will be permitted to issue IPCs, who have a clause in the agreement with clients giving the banks an inalienable right over the securities to be received as payout in any settlement."

However, this clause will not be insisted upon if the transactions are pre-funded i.e., either clear INR funds are available in the customer's account or, in the case of FX deals, the bank's nostro account has been credited before the issuance of the IPC.

The maximum intraday risk to the custodian banks issuing IPCs would be reckoned as Capital Market Exposure (CME) at 30 per cent of the settlement amount.

This is based on the assumption of 20 per cent downward price movement of the equities on T+1, with an additional margin of 10 per cent for further downward movement of price, the RBI said.

In case the margin is paid in cash, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin paid. In case the margin is paid by way of permitted securities to Mutual Funds / Foreign Portfolio Investors, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin after adjusting for a 'haircut' as prescribed by the Exchange on the permitted securities accepted as margin, the RBI added.

Under T+1 settlement cycle, the exposure shall normally be only for intraday. However, in case any exposure remains outstanding at the end of T+1 Indian Standard Time, capital will have to be maintained on the outstanding capital market exposure in terms of the Master Circular  Basel III Capital Regulations dated April 1, 2024, as amended from time to time.

The underlying exposures of banks to their counterparties, emanating from the intraday CME, will be subject to limits prescribed under Large Exposure Framework dated June 3, 2019, as amended from time to time.

The RBI said that these instructions shall come into force with immediate effect.

The RBI also explained that the risk mitigation measures prescribed in its earlier circular were based on T+2 rolling settlement for equities (T being the Trade day). The Stock Exchanges have since introduced T+1 rolling settlement, and accordingly, the extant guidelines on issuance of IPCs by banks have been reviewed.

Henceforth, all IPCs issued by custodian banks under the T+1 settlement cycle will comply with the new instructions.
[Fred Potzer] knew the town overspent, but he did not inform council. Each year the financial picture got worse. The town spent, the debt grew and none of that was considered when budgets were drafted.

Sound familiar?

That may paint a picture of modern day Newville, but it was actually published in the Times Leader, a Wilkes-Barre newspaper, on June 4, 1993, the day after Potzer resigned as Kingston Townships administrator amid a separate but similar financial crisis.

In January 2022, following the discovery of financial discrepancies, Potzer was fired after 28 years as Newvilles borough manager.

Last month, he was charged with felony tampering with evidence and unauthorized use of an access device, as well as misdemeanor misapplying entrusted funds and tampering with records.

Potzer has not returned a request for comment.

This is the first time he faces charges, but several newspaper articles from the 1990s piece together financial difficulties experienced by another community he served.

Kingston1993

Kingston Townships then-Mayor Frank Sorochak first suspected a financial issue in August or September 1992, according to a Times Leader article on May 23, 1993.

By the end of 1992, the township had a number for its debt: $1.1 million, about 20% of its $5.1 million budget for 1993.

Kingston had reportedly overspent by about $1.6 million.

In June 1993, the township held three days of hearings in which Robert Gillespie, who was a former Luzerne County district attorney, questioned accountants and township employees.

I have reached the conclusion that the reason the township is suffering financial difficulty right now was the direct result of expenditures that exceeded revenues in 1990, 1991 and 1992, he told the Times Leader.

Debts included bank loans, overspending on police and fire services and employee hires among other expenditures, the article said.

Prior to the hearings, Sorochak and then-Finance Secretary Carol Urban blamed each other, according to the Times Leader.

Gillespie, however, pointed to Potzer.

It is very clear from Mr. Potzers testimony that in fact he and only he knew the extent of unpaid bills and it was he who didnt show council reports, he said.

Sorochak, who ran for reelection later that year, said in an October 1993 article that he placed too much faith in Potzer and had no knowledge of the fund transfers.

He would tell me everything was fine, Sorochak said in the article. I depended on the information I was being fed.

Potzer took responsibility for the debt, the Times Leader reported, and resigned the week of the hearings.

[Potzer] doubts hell look for another administrators job in the county and doesnt know what hell do now, the Times Leader reported on June 4, 1993.

Newville1994

A 1994 article in The Sentinel helps fill in the gaps. The headline: Newville hires $30,000/year manager.

The story offers a glimpse into Potzers background, saying he graduated from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre and served as assistant borough secretary, borough secretary and then director of public works in Plymouth from 1982 to 1985.

He managed Kingston Township from 1985 to 1988 and became its municipal administrator from 1989 to 1993, according to the article, which made no mention of Kingstons financial challenges at that time.

Potzer spent about a year as business development director of Police Safety Systems Inc. in Dallastown before becoming Newvilles manager in August 1994, according to The Sentinel.

But he was not the borough councils first choice for the role.

Potzer replaced Matthew W. Evans, the article said, who resigned days after he was hired due to a scheduling conflict with regular council meetings.

While Evans, a recent college graduate, was to be paid $18,000 without benefits, the council unanimously selected a more experienced Potzer from 24 screened candidates to be paid $30,000 annually with benefits.

Efforts to contact council members and borough officials at the time of Potzers hiring were unsuccessful.

Newville2022

After about 28 years as Newville borough manager, it was in November 2022 that Potzer announced his intention to retire in the spring, the same month Borough Secretary Jody Hoffman noticed something was off.

I had questioned Fred in November concerning the bank account and his words to me were, Whos asking? Hoffman said. And I said, I am, and he said, Well, dont worry about it, it all works out. ... He was good at explaining things and he did explain something that sounded reasonable.

Still, a weird feeling nagged her as she wondered how the borough would recover money that wasnt in the account.

In December 2022, Potzer was hospitalized after preparing reports for the borough councils meeting later that month. On Dec. 20, Hoffman realized something was wrong.

Sitting at her desk preparing materials for the councils meeting that evening, she found discrepancies between the bank statement and treasurers report Potzer had prepared.

I couldnt believe it, Hoffman said. I just had a sick, sick feeling in my stomach.

She immediately informed the council.

We quoted what Fred said, but that we were unsure of that and I remember [in] my agenda, I even put a question mark next to it, Hoffman said.

On Dec. 28, Newville Water and Sewer Authority Board members approached her with bills they thought Potzer had paid.

Thats when we we went upstairs and found other bills for water and sewer that were not paid that Fred had said were going to be paid, Hoffman said.

Shortly after, the Cumberland County District Attorneys Office launched an investigation.

Newville2023

On Jan. 31, 2023, the council unanimously fired Potzer for what it said was willful misconduct.

We believe that the finances that we were presented by him were not accurate, and he knew they werent accurate and he didnt tell us they werent accurate, Borough Solicitor Marcus McKnight told The Sentinel last year.

Potzer also didnt take any days off, McKnight said. That was the biggest tell that we didnt pick up on. Potzer was such a doer, he said, that the borough didnt have the normal system of checks and balances in place.

The reality is Fred was such a warm personality and well respected throughout the borough and was willing to step in and do the hard work for various activities and events, McKnight said, that in terms of managing the finances, he was unquestioned.

Hoffman, who has been with the borough since January 2021, described Potzer as well respected and well liked.

I thought he was great, she said. Hes very, very knowledgeable. I had no reason to question him.

In August 2023, Pennsylvania designated Newville a financially distressed community under Act 47, qualifying the borough for financial assistance from the state to stay afloat.

Even with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of dollars in state loans, residents faced hikes in real estate and earned income taxes. The borough also cut jobs, including a police officer, to balance its latest budget.

Newville2024

After more than a year of investigating, Cumberland County District Attorney Sean McCormack announced charges against Potzer last month.

Officials say there was no sign of embezzlement, but police believe Potzer was robbing from Peter to pay Paul, using money from the water and sewer authority to cover borough expenses.

The review found that 65 treasurers reports from December 2017 through November 2022 were inaccurate, reads the affidavit against him. Potzer provided these fraudulent reports to the Borough of Newville Council and the Newville Water and Sewer Authority Board at their monthly meetings.

With Potzers preliminary hearing scheduled for later this month, McCormack does not believe any other borough or authority officials were involved.

Ive just been blamed by others for being part of it or whatever, and thats been very hurtful and stressful for me, Hoffman said.

Her words mirror how Kingston Township officials felt in 1993.

Kingston Council President Kevin Boylan said he felt embarrassed and betrayed in a June 4 article in the Times Leader.

Its taken a toll on a lot of people and a lot of families, he said. It hurts to have been involved in a situation like this with people youve known a long time.

Photos: 2024 Newville Little League Opening Day Festivities
Bengaluru, May 3 : The sexual assault videos case has taken an even more serious turn, with the family of one of the victims coming forward to register an FIR against former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna on charges of repeated rape, threat and blackmail.

This is the second FIR in the case as on Friday the Karnataka Police registered a complaint against Deve Gowda's son, JD(S) MLA HD Revanna in connection with the kidnapping of one of the victims in the sex video scandal involving his son Prajwal Revanna. The son of one of the victims has filed a police complaint over the abduction of his mother and named HD Revanna as the prime accused in the case.

In the second FIR, the other victim, who is a local leader and also married, has recounted her horrific experience.

In the complaint that she lodged with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the victim stated that she did not dare to lodge a complaint as Prajwal Revanna threatened her with making her rape video viral.

Now, as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the scandal, the victim has come forward after gathering courage, the FIR stated.

With this development, the arrest of Prajwal Revanna has become imminent.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has declared that the NDA's candidate for the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency would be arrested from wherever he is hiding.

According to sources, at present, the suspended JD(S) leader is hiding abroad and is frequently changing locations.

The victim has recounted the horror in her complaint.

"I approached MLA and MP for public work and to get them to make calls for the officers. In 2021, I had met JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna in connection with getting seats in hostels for college students. On the first day, he maintained that he was going out in an emergency and asked me to meet him the next day.

"I went to the MP's office in Hassan the next day that is located in MP Quarters. The ground floor was full of people. The staff directed me to another floor telling me that women were there.

"Prajwal Revanna came from the ground floor, spoke to other women and sent them away. I was all alone and he called me into his room. When I went inside he held my hand and closed the door.

"I asked him why he was closing the door and he maintained that nothing would happen and made me sit on the bed. Then he warned that my husband is assertive and he should be talking less. If not he would not spare him. He added that because of my husband his mother lost her MLA ticket.

"Later, he asked me to remove my clothes and told me that if I obliged he would help my husband's political career grow. I refused to strip and he insisted. When I warned him that I would scream, he maintained that he had a gun and threatened he would finish me off and also my husband.

"He started raping me and even as I tried to get out of his clutches, he held my hands tightly. He threatened me not to scream. I got scared and remained quiet, as he raped me.

"Before the act he took out his mobile and started recording. He raped me and recorded the complete act. Later, he threatened that if I told anyone, my video would come out and he was not visible in it.

"He warned that he would keep the video with him and whenever he wanted, I should be entertaining him. If not, he would make the video public and finish off my husband.

"He continued to threaten me in the same fashion and made video calls, asked me to go nude and strip in front of the camera. Likewise, he tortured me mentally and committed sexual assaults on me many times.

"Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna has misused his power, threatened my life, and committed repeated sexual assaults on me. He had recorded the acts of sexual assault and used them to commit more sexual crimes on me by threatening that he would make them viral."

The SIT has booked cases under IPC Sections 376 (2) N (committing rape repeatedly on same woman), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354 (A) (1) (behaving in unwelcome way, explicit sexual behaviour, demanding sexual favours), 354 (B) (using criminal force on woman) and 354 (C) (voyeurism, capturing image of a woman in a private act without her consent) and Under Sections of the Information Technology Act.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 3 : West Bengal Governor C.V.Ananda Bose, presently under a cloud over a complaint of allegedly outraging the modesty of a woman staff member at the Raj Bhavan, on Friday said he will have the last laugh in the case.

Arriving at his home state here, he said his struggle against corruption and violence will continue.

"My tirades against corruption and violence will continue. One Trinamool Congress leader is working against me, but truth will triumph and I will have the last laugh in this case," the Governor told the media.

On Thursday afternoon, a temporary female staff at the Raj Bhavan, reportedly attached to the Peace Room, approached the officer-in-charge of the police outpost located inside the Raj Bhavan and accused the Governor of molesting her on the pretext of providing her with a permanent job. Later, she submitted a written complaint at the Hare Street police station, under which the Raj Bhavan falls.

After the news spread, Bose on Thursday denied any wrongdoing.
Imphal, May 3 : Showcasing the continuing ethnic hostility, the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities on Friday organised separate events in their respective areas of Manipur to mark the one-year of ethnic violence in the northeastern state.

Different organisations of both the non-tribal Meitei and Kuki-Zomi tribals, however, in their separate programmes, paid their tributes to those killed in the ethnic riot, which began on May 3 last year.

Seven women, as part of their symbolic protest, shaved their heads and took part in a cycle rally to spread the message of peace and unity. Donning black clothes and displaying placards, with the slogan: "We want peace, no to separate administration, protect territorial integrity". travelled 19 km from Sekmai to Kangla, at the heart of Imphal city.

Shanti Devi, one of the seven women, said that the women shaved their heads as a part of their symbolic gesture and to protest the governmentas incapability to curb the sporadic incidents of violence, especially on the fringe areas in between the Imphal Valley and the hill areas.

M. Sobita Devi, a spokesperson of women activistsa organisation aMeira Paibia, said that Manipur, during the past year, has lost a huge number of human lives, and suffered damage to enormous and unaccounted numbers of government and non-government properties, while the economy, education, trades, and business were impacted.

"Today we once again remember the immense losses in all spheres of society. We are still shocked recounting the horror of violence, atrocities committed on farmers, daily wage earners, poor people, women, elderly persons," she told the media.

Displaced persons, sheltered in relief camps, also organised various programmes on one year of completion of violence. The Federation of Civil Society Organisations (FOCS) has urged the people to observe May 3 emphasising the importance of unity and peace.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the apex body of the Meitei community, observed the completion of one year of the ongoing conflict at Sumang Leela Sanglen, Palace Compound in Imphal East under the banner of "365-Days of Chin-Kuki Narco-Terrorist Aggression in Manipur".

Meanwhile, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), the apex body of the Kuki-Zomi tribals, observed a shutdown in tribal-dominated Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and other districts on Friday and urged all members of the Kuki-Zo community to hoist a black flag on every household as a mark of remembrance and solidarity.

"All business establishments, institutions, and markets remained closed as a sign of respect and homage to our fallen heroes. Let us come together as one community to reflect on our journey, reaffirm our oneness, and strengthen our resolve towards a brighter future for the Kuki-Zo people," an ITLF statement said.

Hundreds of tribals belonging to the Kuki-Zomi community paid respect and organised various commemorative events as a mark of respect to those killed in the ethnic violence.

Kuki-Zomi community organisations also held commemorative events cum protest programmes at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

Over 220 people, comprising both communities, have been killed, more than 1,500 injured and over 70,000 people displaced after the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi community broke out on May 3 last year. The riot also destroyed thousands of houses, government and non-government properties and religious installations.

The riots began after a aTribal Solidarity Marcha was organised in the hill districts to protest the Meitei communityas demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipuras population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley comprising six districts while tribals -- Nagas and Kuki-Zomi-Chin a" constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in ten hill districts.

Since the ethnic riot began a year ago, 10 tribal MLAs belonging to Kuki-Zomi communities and several leading tribal organisations, including the ITLF and Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), have been demanding separate administrations or a separate state for the tribals living in the state.

--IANS sc/
New Delhi, May 3 : US President Joe Biden's assertion linking 'xenophobia' in India, China, Russia, and Japan to "stalled economic growth" overlooks the remarkable economic progress India has made in recent years, particularly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) US President Joe Biden's assertion linking 'xenophobia' in India, China, Russia, and Japan to "stalled economic growth" overlooks the remarkable economic progress India has made in recent years, particularly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While acknowledging the challenges of xenophobia in various parts of the world, it is essential to recognise India's significant strides in becoming one of the world's top economies.

At an event in Washington, President Biden claimed that "xenophobia" is stalling the economic growth of China, Japan, and India. He also claimed that migration has been beneficial for the US economy.

Biden's assertion regarding the contributions of immigrants to the United States is not merely a platitude; it is a well-supported economic fact.

However, his juxtaposition of immigrant contributions against alleged xenophobia in countries like India, China, Russia, and Japan is overly simplistic and fails to grasp the nuanced dynamics of India's economic growth trajectory.

The global community, including the US, has witnessed how under PM Modi's leadership, India has implemented bold economic reforms aimed at fostering growth, investment, and innovation. These reforms have contributed to India's emergence as one of the fastest-growing major economies globally.

The country's GDP growth rate has consistently outpaced many developed nations, reflecting its resilience and potential as an economic powerhouse.

Furthermore, India's demographic dividend, characterised by a young and dynamic workforce, has been a driving force behind its economic progress.

Immigrants, both within the country and from abroad, have been integral to leveraging this demographic advantage and fueling growth across various sectors, including technology, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

Moreover, India's economic ascent has been accompanied by a growing emphasis on international collaborations and partnerships. The country has actively sought foreign investments, forged strategic alliances, and engaged in trade agreements to bolster its economic resilience and competitiveness on the global stage.

What the global community cannot remain oblivious to is the fact that the Modi government has demonstrated a commitment to fostering inclusivity, promoting diversity, and leveraging the talents of its diverse population to drive economic growth and development.

Biden's assertion regarding xenophobia as a hindrance to its economic growth overlooks India's ascent to becoming one of the top five economies in the world in what is a clear testament to its resilience, innovation, and the unique policies to address various issues, including the issue of immigrants.

Undoubtedly, immigrants bring diverse skill sets, entrepreneurial spirit, and cultural richness that have historically fueled innovation and economic growth in the United States.

From Silicon Valley to Main Street, immigrants have founded or contributed significantly to some of America's most successful businesses, driving job creation, productivity, and competitiveness.

India is not just a source of immigration but also a destination for skilled workers and investments. There is no denying that in today's interconnected world, talent flows across borders in response to opportunities, creating a dynamic exchange that benefits both the sending and receiving countries.

India indeed has a significant immigrant population, primarily from the neighboring countries.

These immigrants often come seeking better economic opportunities, escaping political instability, or for various other reasons. The proximity of India to these countries and the historical ties contribute to the movement of people across borders.

India has long been a refuge for those fleeing persecution and seeking safety and opportunity. The experiences of the refugees settled across the nation paint a picture of acceptance, support, and resilience, which is a powerful rebuttal to any notion of India's lack of acceptance towards refugees or immigrants.
New Delhi, May 3 : A 29-year-old prisoner was stabbed to death by another inmate inside Delhi's Tihar Jail, officials said on Friday.

The deceased inmate, who worked as a 'sewadar', was allegedly attacked inside Jail Number 3 after a dispute over food.

He was identified as Deepak (29), a resident of Shakurpur, who was lodged in prison in a robbery-cum-murder case.

Sharing the details, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vichitra Veer said that the Hari Nagar police station on Friday received information from DDU Hospital that undertrial prisoner Deepak had been brought dead.

"He had sustained one stab injury in the chest. Deepak was lodged in Central Jail-3, Tihar Prison. An information regarding the same has been given to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (West) for appointing a MM (Metropolitan Magistrate), West Tis Hazari Court, for conducting proceedings under section 176 CrPC," said the DCP.

The DCP further said that it was learnt that the deceased was attacked by a fellow inmate with a sharp metal object.

"The accused identified as Abdul Bashir Akhondzada (44), a citizen of Afghanistan, is lodged in an attempt to murder case registered at Lajpat Nagar police station," he said.

The DCP further said that the incident took place at around 12:30 p.m. and no gang angle has come to notice in this.

"As per the information received, some altercation has taken place between the accused and the deceased in the morning over food," he added.
Hyderabad, May 3 : The Telangana Police's CID has arrested a couple absconding for 11 years after defrauding a bank and finance companies to the tune of Rs 87 crore, a police official said on Friday.

Manikonda Anjaneyulu and his wife Manikonda Reeta were arrested in Bengaluru, police said.

According to Additional Director General, CID, Shikha Goel, the couple had been absconding since 2013.

Anjaneyulu was the Managing Director and his wife the Director of Adarsh Communications Pvt. Ltd, a company dealing with the import of communication equipment and the sale of multi-brand cellular phones and other products.

The couple had approached the State Bank of India's (SBI) Balanagar branch for financial assistance to meet their working capital and obtained a loan of Rs 27 crore.

After availing the loan, the couple became defaulters and absconded. On a complaint by bank officials, a case was registered in 2013 against them under sections 420, 406 and 403 of the Indian Penal Code at Balanagar Police Station, Hyderabad.

The case was subsequently transferred to CID.

During the course of investigations, it came to light that the accused was also involved in four other cases in Hyderabad City and one case in Cyberabad Commissionerate in which they cheated finance companies and private investors to the tune of Rs 60 crore.

On the direction of ADG Goel, a special team led by investigation officer DSP P. Sreedhar, was formed recently, and traced and arrested the couple from Bengaluru.
Chandigarh, May 3 : The INDIA bloc candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, Manish Tewari, on Friday assured the residents of the city that he will make up for the loss of 10 years under the BJP rule if voted to power.

Unlike the BJP, the Congress has a multi-pronged vision for development, which not only takes into account the needs of the nation as a whole but also the local needs, besides reaching out to help needy individuals like the unemployed youth or poor families by providing them direct monthly income, the senior Congress leader said.

Tewari was interacting with people at various markets and residential areas in Sectors 52, 21, and 22.

He said Chandigarh lost 10 years due to the 'callous' indifference of the BJP dispensation that ruled right from the city up to the national capital.

"The BJP had everything at its disposal and yet the city slid in every aspect, so much so that the City Beautiful is no longer counted among the cleanest cities in the country," Tewari said.

"I have a vision, which I will soon spell out, for building a prosperous and progressive Chandigarh, where development won't take the backseat anymore," he told the people during his interactions.

Tewari, who has been a decorated Parliamentarian and former Union Minister, maintained that the Congress has a multi-pronged strategy and approach towards progress and development.

He said that while there is a well-defined vision for nation-building, the Congress also has specific plans for local area development and above all, reaching out to individuals like the unemployed youth and poor women, by providing them direct monthly income.

Tewari referred to the party's 'Grahlakshmi' scheme promise under which one woman in every poor family will receive Rs 8,500 every month, which comes to Rs 1 lakh a year, directly into her bank account,

In Chandigarh, Tewari is up against BJP's Sanjay Tandon, whom the party picked after dropping two-term sitting MP and actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher.

While Tandon has connected with the people of Chandigarh for four decades, Tewari is backed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has named three-time city councillor Hardeep Singh Saini as its candidate, making the election a three-cornered contest.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, SAD was in an alliance with the BJP.

Tewari (59), who has been labelled an "outsider" by the BJP despite being born and brought up in the city, has been the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the UPA government. He's the outgoing MP from Anandpur Sahib, and a former MP from Ludhiana, both in Punjab.

During his pre-university days in Chandigarh, Tewari, who was a nominated councillor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation from 2011-2016, joined the youth wing of the Congress and rose to become the All India Youth President before becoming the Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

BJP nominee Tandon's father, Balramji Dass Tandon, was a founding member of the Jan Sangh in 1951.

He was also the Deputy CM of Punjab from 1969-70, and served as an MLA for six terms. He was the President of Punjab BJP from 1995 to 1997.
New Delhi, May 3 : Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the spiritual guru and the Founder of Art of Living Foundation on Friday addressed the Viksit Bharat Ambassador event in Varanasi's BHU and said that the country was witnessing all-round development under the incumbent government.

The event also saw the presence of Bollywood actor Vikrant Massey.

Vikrant Massey posed a couple of questions to Ravi Shankar to which Sri Sri replied and explained in detail, including the realisation of the 500-year-old dream of grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also made an appeal to everyone to exercise their franchisee by casting ballots.

He said that elections should be seen like festivals and every citizen should take part in it.

At the Yuva Samvad with Viksit Bharat Ambassadors programme, actor Vikrant asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar over what led to the delay of 500 years in the construction of a grand Ram Temple and were the earlier governments hesitated and hindered its realisation?

Ravi Shankar, replying to this, said that there are many instances when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the first initiative and set the stage for further reforms.

"He said that opening a bank account was a troublesome task earlier, especially in villages. People were posed with multiple questions but now most of those hurdles have been removed and processes simplified. Many archaic laws have been given away. The country is progressing ahead in all fields including entrepreneurship, start-up business and spiritual growth," Ravi Shankar said.

He also said that the countrymen going abroad are brimming with confidence today and they no longer change their names to look like foreigners, adding that this is a welcome change.

Overall, the country has found new recognition on the world stage, he added.

In an apparent reference to PM Modi's push for domestic tourism, Ravi Shankar asked why people should opt for Maldives, whereas Lakshadweep offers plenty of tourism potential.

"It's good that the country has got a new vision under the leadership. People listen to what he speaks an0+d also follow, this is a good thing," he said.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi Police have arrested Arun Reddy, who manages the 'Spirit of Congress' X handle, in connection with Union Home Minister Amit Shah's doctored video case, a senior Delhi Police officer confirmed on Friday.

Sources said Reddy was arrested from Delhi.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police arrested five persons, identified as Pendyala Vamshi Krishna, Satish Manne, Pettam Naveen, Asma Tasleem and Koya Geetha -- all residents of Hyderabad, who were circulating the doctored video of the Home Minister.

According to police, Home Minister Shah made a speech during a public meeting in Telangana's Medak on April 23. "Pendyala Vamshi Krishna received a morphed video of the speech on Whatsapp. He then uploaded the morphed video on the 'INCTelangana' Twitter (X) handle and shared it in various WhatsApp groups," said the Hyderabad Police in a statement issued on Friday.

Later, the Delhi Police registered an FIR after receiving complaints from the BJP and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The case has been registered under Sections 153, 153A, 465, 469, and 171G of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66C of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

The investigators are yet to receive any response from social media giants X and Meta in connection with the doctored video, a Delhi Police source told IANS.

The Delhi Police had also summoned Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for questioning in connection with the case.
A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and other charges Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison.

Heather Pressdee, 41, was given three consecutive life sentences and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars during a hearing in Butler, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. She played a role in the deaths of at least 17 patients who lived in five health facilities in four counties between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors said.

The victims ranged in age from 43 to 104. Coworkers often questioned Pressdees conduct and said she frequently showed disdain for her patients and made derogatory comments about them, authorities said.

Pressdee, who could have faced a death sentence, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder. She initially was charged in May 2023 with killing two nursing home patients and injuring a third. Further investigation led to dozens of more charges against her. During a February hearing in which she argued with her attorneys, she indicated that she wanted to plead guilty.

Pressdee said little as she entered her pleas, responding to most questions with a single word. When one of her lawyers asked her why she was pleading guilty, Pressdee replied, Because I am guilty.

The plea hearing was expected to last through Friday because several people wanted to give victim impact statements, officials said. Some who spoke in court Thursday told Pressdee that she had wrongly tried to play God, adding that although some of her victims were elderly or very ill, none were ready to die.

Pressdee didnt look at the speakers or react to their comments, even when one shouted an expletive at her that led the courtroom gallery to break out in applause, according to news reports.

Another speaker told the court: She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified. ... I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father.

Prosecutors alleged that Pressdee, of Harrison, gave excessive amounts of insulin to patients, including some who werent diabetic. She typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts, when staffing was low and the emergencies wouldnt prompt immediate hospitalization.

Her nursing license was suspended early last year, not long after the initial charges were filed.

According to court documents, Pressdee sent her mother texts between April 2022 and May 2023 in which she discussed her unhappiness with various patients and colleagues, and spoke about potentially harming them. She also voiced similar complaints about people she encountered at restaurants and other places.

Pressdee had a history of being disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated, prosecutors said in court documents. Beginning in 2018, Pressdee held a number of jobs at western Pennsylvania nursing homes and facilities for short periods, according to the documents.

Other health care workers have been convicted of killing patients. Among them is William Davis, a Texas nurse who was convicted of capital murder in 2021 for injecting air into the arteries of four patients after they underwent heart surgery. He was sentenced to death but is appealing his conviction. Another nurse, Charles Cullen, killed at least 29 nursing home patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but some experts believe he may have killed many more.
New Delhi, May 3 : After the conclusion of Yuva Samvad with Viksit Bharat Ambassador programme at BHU, which saw the participation of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and actor Vikrant Massey, a lot of Varanasi youth and locals spoke to IANS and shared their views on how they viewed this initiative and what they thought about developed India dream status by 2047.

Ayush Pandey, a student of a nursing college, said that such programmes serve as an eye-opening experience for the youth.

"This will inspire the youth to take active participation in progressive schemes of government and do their bid in the nation's growth journey," he said.

He further said that Varanasi has undergone sea-change in terms of development in the past few years and will have many more opportunities in the near future.

A director of fashion design technology described Viksit Bharat event as one of the best initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government and called it a first step towards realisation of Developed India dream by 2047.

"Till now, we lived with the baggage of the past and always underestimated our worth. As the Viksit Bharat vision seeks to make India a developed India by 2047, it calls upon us to first shed this baggage and start valuing our worth. Only then, will real growth come," he said. Another faculty of the same fashion design institute heaped praise on the Viksit Bharat 2047 mission and said that this will spur the nation on a fast growth path, much like what Varanasi has witnessed in past few years.

Bhavana, a Viksit Bharat event participant, said that with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and actor Vikrant Massey endorsing the event, it found an instant connect with the city's youth and masses.

"Today, the youth are excited and eager to realise their dream and want to match steps with nation's growth," she said, adding such events will encourage them to make a greater push in this direction.
Gadchiroli : , May 3 (IANS) The Maharashtra Police have arrested a notorious Maoist, who is accused of serious crimes like murder and carrying a reward of Rs 1.50 lakh for his capture, an official said here on Friday.

The Jan Militia man has been identified as Shankar Vanga Kudyam, 34, hailing from Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, and he was captured in a joint operation with the Telangana Police.

Kudyam was wanted in connection with the cases lodged against him after a fierce gun battle in the Modumadgu forests of Revanpalli region in the Maoist-infested district on March 19, said Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Neelotpal.

Investigations revealed that Kudyam was involved in murder cases of 3 civilians in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, and four major police encounters including 3 in Chhattisgarh and one in Maharashtra.

Besides, he is accused of providing shelter, arms and ammunition, rations and other types of logistics support to the Maoist groups active in the region, forcing villagers to attend Maoist meetings, indulging in illegal gatherings to hatch conspiracies against the security forces, plus running propaganda for the outlaws.

With Kudyamas arrest, the Gadchiroli Police have notched a huge success of nabbing 79 feared Red rebels, including women, with many carrying big and small cash rewards for their capture, since January 2022, said Neelotpal.
May 3 : The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the CBI to submit a report to the court on May 7 explaining the agency's stand on who is the competent authority to grant necessary approval for initiating the trial against the state government officials accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case in West Bengal.

May 3 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the CBI to submit a report to the court on May 7 explaining the agencyas stand on who is the competent authority to grant necessary approval for initiating the trial against the state government officials accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case in West Bengal.

A division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth passed the direction after the counsels of two accused former state government officials, both under judicial custody, contended that Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, and not Chief Secretary B.P. Gopalika, is the competent authority to approve the initiation of trial against them.

The same bench on Thursday questioned the 'real intentions' of the Chief Secretary for the delay in granting the necessary approval for the initiation of the trial process.

On Friday, the counsels for the former President of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), Kalyanmoy Ganguly, and the ex-Chairman of West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), Subiresh Bhattacharya, questioned the administrative authority of the Chief Secretary in approving the initiation of trial.

The counsels also argued that since both their clients were appointed by the Governor, the approval for initiating the trial should also come from the latter.

After hearing the arguments, the bench directed Additional Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi to ask the CBI to submit a report to the bench on May 7, clarifying the central agencyas stand in this matter.

The bench also observed that if the arguments of the counsels of Gangopadhyay and Bhattacharya hold true, the Chief Secretary's approval won't be needed as the trial could be initiated with the Governor's nod.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi Police along with the National Security Guard (NSG) are conducting security mock drills across several locations including Kashmiri Gate and the New Parliament Building in the national capital, an official said on Friday.

As per sources, the drills to ensure preparedness to thwart any untoward incident are also being conducted at schools.

This comes two days after several schools in Delhi-NCR received bomb threat via emails.

A Delhi Police source told IANS that the drills are being conducted at various sites such as metro stations, schools, temples, and government buildings. "Over 10 locations have been chosen for these drills, which will continue till late night," said a source.

The drill at the New Parliament Building commenced at around 3 p.m. and continued till 3:30 p.m.

"The DCPs and their teams oversaw the drills, with the presence of canine units, bomb disposal squads, and other specialised teams," said a senior police official.
Hyderabad, May 3 : The Cyberabad police has filed a closure report in the suicide case of University of Hyderabad research scholar Rohith Vemula, who it said was not a Dalit, and absolving university authorities and leaders of the BJP and the ABVP.

Stating that multiple issues would have driven him to end his life, the police concluded that it found no evidence to establish that the actions of the accused persons drove him to the extreme step.

Citing "lack of evidence", the police filed the closure report before the court on March 21 but it has now come to light.

Vemulaas suicide in his hostel room on January 17, 2016, triggered massive unrest on the central university campus, led to huge protests in various other universities, and raised questions about the treatment meted out to students from marginalised sections of society.

A case under Section 306 (Abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Prevention of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) Atrocities Act was registered at Gachibowli police station of the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate.

The case was registered on a complaint by research scholar and leader of the Ambedkar Studentsa Association (ASA) Dontha Prashanth.

University Vice Chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile, BJP Legislative Council member N. Ramachandra Rao and ABVP activist Susheel Kumar were named in the First Information Report (FIR).

Susheel Kumar had complained of an assault by activists of the ASA), of which Vemula was a member, in 2015. That led to the suspension of five Dalit scholars, including Vemula.

The ASA leaders had said that then Secunderabad MP and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya influenced then Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani to take action against Dalit students at the UoH. More than eight years after the incident, the police have absolved former Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, Dattatreya, Ramachandra Rao, and ABVP activists

The police ruled out that Vemula belonged to a Scheduled Caste. The closure report mentioned that the acaste clarification reporta by the District Level Scrutiny Committee constituted by the District Collector, Guntur, conclusively decided that Vemula and his family belong to BC-A (Vaddera) caste but they had obtained SC certificates fraudulently.

The closure report suggests that Vemula's suicide was driven by the fear of his true caste being disclosed, as he did not identify himself as belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. According to the report, Vemula was aware that he did not belong to the SC category and that his mother got him an SC certificate.

This could be one of the constant fears, as the exposure of this would cause him to lose his academic degrees earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution, the report said. The police noted that Vemula had multiple issues plaguing him which could have led him to kill himself.

The police investigations covered various aspects like the letters Rohith Vemula addressed to the Vice Chancellor, the suicide note, the records and discrepancies related to his scholarship disbursal, and the University Boardas recommendations and disciplinary action. The police also relied on the inquiry and findings in the report of the Commission headed by Justice Ashok Kumar Roopanwala (retd), which deliberated "whether the punishment awarded to Rohith Vemula was the circumstance to commit suicide?"

Police said that no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused had driven Vemula to kill himself.

--IANS

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Ranchi, May 3 : Launching yet another blistering attack against the opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress and the JMM of "openly looting" Jharkhand's massive resources.

"There's a race between the Congress and the JMM in Jharkhand - a race for corruption and looting. Recently, Rs 300 crore was recovered from the hideout of a Congress MP here. Whose money was it? It's the money of the poor, labourers, farmers, Dalits, and tribals of Jharkhand's villages. Is this not a loot of your money," PM Modi asked while addressing a public event in Singhbhum.

Prime Minister Modi also said that the people of Jharkhand are echoing 'Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar' (Modi government, once again) because they are now fully aware of the "vile intentions" of the other parties.

"With what face do the Congress and JMM leaders come to you? They are so shameless that even after getting caught in scams and corruption, they don't care. Why do you think they are so eager to form the government? Do you think it's for your good? They want to form a government in Delhi because they want to unleash unrestrained loot in the country. Before 2014, they did nothing but loot the country," he said.

"The Congress, JMM, and their allies prioritise their vote bank over everything else. They provide shelter to infiltrators in Jharkhand, leading to the occupation of tribal land. Consequently, the number of tribals, especially in areas like Santhal Pargana, is decreasing," the PM added.

During his speech, PM Modi stated that the BJP has a "special bond" with Jharkhand as it was the government led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which had created the state.

"Only the BJP understands the state and its people. We initiated the creation of Jharkhand under Atal Ji's leadership, while Congress opposed it. Congress also stalled development and exploited resources," he said.

PM Modi also said that it is the BJP government that has given a "new identity" to Bhagwan Birsa Munda's birth anniversary by celebrating it as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas, as he recalled inaugurating the museum at Bhagwan Birsa Munda's sacrifice site in Ranchi.

"Congress opposes respect for tribal history and the progress of the tribal society. They opposed making Draupadi Murmu Ji, a tribal woman, the President of India, unable to accept that tribal women can hold the highest post in the country," the Prime Minister said while asserting that the BJP government has always prioritised tribal development.
Pune, May 3 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Maharashtra has the capacity to change the country's future as it is steeped in the Congress' ideological culture of making sacrifices, and taking all sections along the path to progress, here on Friday.

"Whenever I come to Maharashtra, I feel very happya it is a state soaked in the blood of the freedom fighters, the teachings of its great icons and idols. I am seeing an army of 'tigers' here. The people of this state are like the backbone of the Congress. They are progressive and can give a new direction to the country," said Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing a massive election rally for the INDIA-Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates here, he slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS for their plans to change the Constitution, and warned that

"if this happens, then you won't recognise India".

The Congress is committed to protect the Constitution given by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, which gives rights to all the people of the country, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to snatch the rights of the masses, said Rahul Gandhi.

Dwelling on how 90 per cent of the masses are deprived of any stake in the country's government and power structure, corporates, judiciary, media and other sectors, Rahul Gandhi said that once the INDIA government comes to power, "we will change all this at one stroke". "The country comprises 15 per cent Dalit population, 8 per cent tribals, 50 per cent OBCs, plus the minorities, which make up nearly 90 per cent of the people in the country. But they have almost no representation anywhere and are mostly reduced to doing physical labour or menial jobs," Rahul Gandhi said.

"When our government comes to power, we shall scrap this 'artificial ceiling' of 50 per cent quotas to enable even Marathas and Dhangars get justice and throw jobs in the government open for the people from the deprived sections, the poor and the deserving," said Rahul Gandhi. Citing several studies done by the Congress, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is working only for the top affluent classes in the country and has ignored the remaining 90 per cent of the population.

He pointed out that just 22 people hold the wealth equivalent to 70 crore Indians, only one per cent of the population holds 40 per cent of India's wealth and resources, and the BJP government only works for the rich people.

"After coming to power, we shall conduct a Caste Census, an economic survey of each section of society, we shall ascertain their representation in government, corporates, higher education, private medical sector, media, etc to give them their due. It would be a revolutionary measure and everything will come out in the open. This shall awaken the country and a new era of politics will begin," Rahul Gandhi said.

He reiterated that he would remove the Agniveer Scheme for the armed forces, scrap the GST in the present form and introduce a single-slab low tax GST in the country, and other far-reaching measures.

The Congress leader recalled how, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, many youth met and lamented that they were rendered jobless by the BJP regime, but when they asked the PM for jobs, he told them to 'sell pakoras'.

"We are making a list of all the families pushed into poverty during the BJP rulea we shall select one woman from each of these families and provide her with Rs 1 lakh per annum, directly into her bank accounts. This will help the entire family as she looks after all at home," he added.

Rahul Gandhi also assured the jobless youth that the new INDIA bloc government would enact a law guaranteeing all educated youngsters a job for minimum one year to give them start, plus deposit Rs 1 lakh a year into their bank accounts.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was accorded a warm and traditional Marathi style welcome with a 'Puneri feta' (headgear), a shawl, and a statuette of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Supreme Court on Friday urged the Parliament to consider making necessary changes in the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, providing punishment to the husband and his family for inflicting any cruelty on a married woman.

A bench, headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala said that Sections 85 and 86 of the new penal code, which is to come into force with effect from July 1, are nothing but verbatim reproduction of Section 498A of the IPC, 1860 and the issue requires a relook by the legislature taking into consideration the pragmatic realities.

"The only difference is that the Explanation to Section 498A of the IPC is now by way of a separate provision, i.e., Section 86 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023," it said.

The bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Misra, said that the apex court more than a decade ago had urged a serious relook of the entire provision of matrimonial cruelty by the legislation.

The Supreme Court was considering a special leave petition against an order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court which had declined to quash the charge sheet filed against a husband for the offences punishable under Sections 323, 406, 498A, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

The FIR lodged by the wife alleged that the husband and his family members had demanded dowry and caused mental and physical trauma to her.

Further, she stated that her husband is an alcoholic and used to regularly beat her and treat her inhumanely.

In its order, the apex court noted that the plain reading of the FIR and the charge sheet papers indicate that the allegations levelled are quite vague, general and sweeping, specifying no instances of criminal conduct. It said that if a person is made to face a criminal trial on some general and sweeping allegations without bringing on record any specific instances of criminal conduct, the same is nothing but an abuse of the process of the court.

"We have reached the conclusion that if the criminal proceedings are allowed to continue against the appellant (husband), the same will be nothing short of an abuse of process of law & travesty of justicea(The proceedings) pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Hisar are hereby quashed," it added.

The Supreme Court ordered its registry to send a copy of the judgment to the Union Law Secretary and Union Home Secretary, who may place it before the Union Minister for Law and Justice as well as the Union Home Minister.
Bhopal, May 3 : Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari has been booked for making "derogatory" remarks against state BJP leader Imarti Devi.

Although Patwari has tendered an apology, the BJP leader on Friday lodged an FIR against him at Gwalior's Dabra police station.

The Congress leader has been booked under Section 509 (insult the modesty of any woman) and provisions of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, said Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Niranjan Sharma.

The alleged offensive statement against Imarti Devi, a staunch supporter of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, was made by Patwari on Thursday when he was speaking to reporters in Gwalior. The Congress leader played on words using the term 'imarti' -- a sweet -- to criticize the BJP leader in response to a reporter's query.

Union Minister Scindia later took to X to condemn Patwari's remark. "These are not just his words, but the mentality of the entire Congress party. Insulting Dalits, especially women, has become the norm of this party. Babasaheb Ambedkar has inspired the women and Dalits of the country to fight for their respect," he posted on X late on Thursday.

On Friday, a group of BJP supporters also staged a protest outside the state Congress chief's residence in Indore.

Patwari, however, maintained that his statement on Imarti Devi, a former minister, was distorted. "One of my statements is being distorted and presented in the wrong context. My intention was only to avoid answering the question. Imarti ji is like my elder sister. An elder sister is like a mother. I express my regret if anyone is still hurt," he said on Friday.

Imarti Devi was among the Congress MLAs who joined the BJP along with Scindia in March 2020, which led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government in the state.
Mumbai, May 3 : Twenty years after leaving the Shiv Sena, former MP and ex-Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam joined the party in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde here on Friday.

"There was a problem in working with the Congress while adhering to the ideas of Balasaheb Thackeray. That problem is now over as I have joined the Shiv Sena to strengthen the party. After 20 years, I have returned to my family," Nirupam said, adding that the MahaYuti will win all the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai.

Last month, Congress expelled Nirupam from the party for six years, citing "indiscipline and anti-party statements" as reasons.

Welcoming Nirupam into the party, Eknath Shinde said that his entry will benefit the Shiv Sena given Nirupam's vast experience in the field of politics.

CM Shinde also said that it is impossible to defeat PM Narendra Modi who has built the Ram Temple and abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

"Defeating Narendra Modi is just difficult, but impossible," he said.
Nepal was enchanting.

To Mary Slusser, it was never-never land: an unexplored world where beauty married the mundane. Slusser, a recently arrived wife of an attache with the U.S State Department, wandered Kathmandus streets in awe, dipping in and out of ancient Buddhist monasteries and marveling at her luck in life to be posted in an open-air museum.

Her love affair with Nepal morphed into a career of scholarship. Slusser became the pre-eminent translator of Nepal to the West, earning the equivalent of a knighthood from the Nepalese monarchy for outstanding contributions to the Himalayan mountain country.

At the same time, Slusser began collecting artifacts, buying what she could from dealers who sought her out  a white foreigner with a disposable income. Sacred Buddhist artworks, some hundreds of years old, seemed to find their way to her.

Kids brought us a tiny bronze Siva-Parvati figure which Im sure they had just stolen, Slusser wrote in her typewritten diaries in 1967. It is really a very sweet piece and I dont think the temple will miss it at all.

Half a century later, her trove of Nepalese art primarily resides in museums in the United States, including at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, which was given first dibs at her estate when she died in 2017. The collection includes masterpieces that were likely removed from the country illegally. Art repatriation activists and Buddhist monks from the Kathmandu valley are calling for their return.

Last December, the museum returned 44 stolen antiquities to different corners of the world. The collection included ancient Roman marbles and ancient Greek vases. The pieces were sold to the museum by shady dealers across Europe.

The museums collection from Slusser  some 241 statues, manuscripts and holy figurines  has not yet been claimed by law enforcement agencies as the returned antiquities were. So far, museum curators denied an independent request for one artifacts return, saying they are waiting for an official, evidence-backed request from Nepalese authorities. Two are currently on display.

Our director is saying this all the time. If it doesnt belong to us, we dont want it here, said Jan Hatchette, a spokesperson for the VMFA. But we have to have a claim.

Nepalese seek artifacts return

At least two groups in Nepal are requesting the return of Slussers collection.

The first is a group of monks from a 1,500-year-old monastery south of Kathmandu. The monastery boasted a 16th century painting known as the Pictorial Pilgrims Guide. A month after Slussers first visit to see it, the painting was being shopped around by a local Nepalese dealer on the back of a bicycle, according to Slussers diary.

Slusser said she wanted to save it.

Already in lamentable condition, the bundled-up painting daily became more degraded as it was trundled around town on the back of a bicycle in search of a prospective customer, Slusser wrote in her diary. This important painting otherwise seems to have been slated for an ignominious end in someones dustbin.

The VMFAs curator of South Asian art, John Henry Rice, describes the painting as a masterpiece that is both art and historical document. Its been on display and loaned out to museums across the United States.

In 2021, a group of monks from the monastery requested that the VMFA return the painting, which is known in Nepalese as a pauba.

Two of our most senior monastic community members recognized the Pauba on your website. They confirmed that it did belongs (sic) to our monastery, wrote Asha Ratna Shakya, the chairman of the monasterys preservation committee. Knowing where the Pauba is, we would like to humbly request you to return it to us.

The museum pursued an alternative option: paying for a $45,000 replica, which the monastery said it would accept.

But talks for that option broke down when lawyers for the VMFA requested that the monastery relinquish its claim to the original as part of the deal.

Both sides went legal at this point, as Rice later described in an email to a graduate student, Andrea Wollein, who facilitated the request. The conversation was abruptly shut down when the monastery was asked to relinquish its ownership claim to the original, which the monks would not accept.

A group of art repatriation activists are also hoping to open talks with the VMFA over Slussers works. The group, the Nepali Heritage Recovery Campaign, has successfully returned more than 40 Nepalese pieces from museums abroad.

The group locates Nepalese pieces abroad, then submits claims through the Nepalese governments Department of Archaeology, who then transmit the claims to museums.

Roshan Mishra, a volunteer with the campaign, said he appreciated that museums kept pieces of Nepals cultural heritage safe. But times have changed, with Nepal emerging from decades of strife-ridden monarchic rule in 2008. Since then, the people of Nepal, with the help of social media, have become more aware of their lost art.

If were talking about being ethical, now is the right time to start this conversation, said Mishra, whose day job is directing the Taragaon Museum in Kathmandu.

The group has yet to formally request the return of Slussers pieces from the VMFA. The campaigns efforts began in 2021, inspired by a Facebook page called Lost Arts of Nepal. The page, run by an anonymous internet sleuth, routinely identifies suspect Nepalese artworks at museums and collections around the world.

Sanjay Adhikari, a lawyer who volunteers his time with the campaign, says the theft of artifacts from Nepal has left a psychological tear in the communities from which theyve gone missing. Unlike repatriated European art, Nepalese artifacts are considered living gods.

In February, worshippers in Nepal celebrated the return of masks and idols from the Brooklyn Museum in New York. The return of artifacts are regularly cause for celebration at the monasteries from which they were removed.

They are not a dead thing, said Adhikari. Its a part of our living culture. Every time a piece is stolen, our community goes into a gap. Thats why we keep on telling museums, its not something that should be in a sterile, room-temperature environment. People need to worship them everyday.

In a 2023 email released via a Freedom of Information Act request, VMFA curator Rice wrote to a colleague at Harvard that the Nepalese arent demanding the return of most of these things. Its the NY Assistant DA, being fed leds by these same researchers, who is hunting things down and foisting them upon the Nepalese authorities.

Rice later said he thought the emails were private.

I dont know what hes talking about. But I am a citizen of Nepal and I want it back. The government wants it back. The future generations of Nepalese have a right to their cultural property, Adhikari said.

Claims test Nepalese law

The campaign says that Slussers exports from Nepal were illegal. In 1970, museums around the world signed onto ground rules prohibiting the export of illicit art. Pieces before 1970 must have strict provenance  histories that traces an artifact from the display case to its point of origin.

Nepal, wary of foreign influence, had even stricter rules on exporting art. The country was closed to the outside world until 1951. In 1956, the Nepalese monarchy issued a decree prohibiting cultural exports without permission.

Slussers diary entries show she was aware of those regulations. She exported an initial batch of artifacts to the Smithsonian by way of the Army Post Office, which she had access to through the U.S. Embassy, and typed out her concern with Nepalese customs agents.

A 1968 profile on Slusser in the Washington Post states she was only collecting materials they use in their daily lives, rather than valuable art objects, whose removal is frowned on by the government.

The strength of that law is currently being tested by the Rubin Museum in New York City, which is fighting to hold onto a Nepalese statue acquired by Slussers sister.

The Rubin Museum has contested the claim and argued that the 1956 law didnt take effect until 1969, when it was publicly announced in a Nepalese newspaper.

The case is being brought in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorneys office  the same prosecutors responsible for seizing the VMFAs classical antiquities in 2023.

I figure its only a matter of time before they work their way down to Virginia, Rice wrote in another email.

In an interview, Rice and Michael Taylor, chief curator at VMFA, said they are not opposed to returning Slussers collection, but they wont do so without a formal claim backed by evidence of theft and supporting research. Taylor says the museums track record has been ethical, most recently with the antiquities surrendered in 2023.

Emails show that it was Taylor who volunteered one of the most valuable pieces: an Etruscan marble of a young boy, despite investigators from Manhattan not asking to review the piece originally. The statue, worth north of $250,000, was ultimately removed from active display to be repatriated.

Taylor described Slussers diary entries as chilling.

Slussers collection has received no such requests from the Manhattan DA, said Taylor, who explained that the VMFA cant begin bending its standards to informal claims from communities around the world.

It cant just be a letter from a graduate student, said Taylor. "That was not a claim."

Taylor said if a formal claim were made by the Nepalese government  such as for the monasterys Pilgrims Guide  he wouldnt fight its removal. Thats my promise, said Taylor. I wont stonewall it.

The VMFAs position frustrates art expert Erin Thompson, a lawyer and professor of art crime at the City University of New York. Thompson is an adviser to the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign and published a 2023 article that raised ethical questions about Slussers collecting practices in Nepal.

Museums often reply with a similar argument, that they are waiting for an official request as if there are magic words that have to be spoken in order to prompt their action, said Thompson.

And in this case, it seems particularly ridiculous to say you are waiting for an official request when the community who lost the piece has made its desire to have it back known.

PHOTOS: Nepalese art
Aizawl, May 3 : The Assam Rifles and the Mizoram Police, in three separate joint operations, have seized heroin, foreign cigarettes, and a consignment of explosives, officials said on Friday.

Assam Rifles officials said that acting on a tip-off, the para-military troopers and police conducted a joint operation at Falkland, near Aizawl, arrested two drug peddlers, and recovered 598 grams heroin, valued at Rs 4.18 crore from them, on Thursday night.

In another raid, the security personnel apprehended one person and recovered 22,000 packets of foreign cigarettes valued at Rs 16 lakh from Lungpuk in Siaha district on Thursday evening.

In the third operation, the Assam Rifles and the police seized 1,622 gelatin sticks (approx 200 kg) and 200 detonators, along with one vehicle, at Silaimul, near Aizawl and apprehended one person on Thursday.

Mizoram Police, in collaboration with the members of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), also seized eight fully loaded trucks of dried areca nuts smuggled from Myanmar at Seling in Saitual district, a police official said adding that ten people have been arrested in connection with the seizure.

Official sources said that the Assam Rifles, which guards the 510 km India-Myanmar border in Mizoram, have stepped up their efforts against illegal drug trafficking and smuggling of various contraband substances from across the border.
New Delhi, May 3 : The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea of NewsClick's Human Resources head Amit Chakravarty, in a case lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over allegations that the media outlet received money to spread pro-China propaganda.

On Tuesday, Delhias Patiala House Court took cognisance of Delhi Policeas first charge sheet filed against the news portalas founder-editor Prabir Purkayastha, Chakravarty, and others. The matter will come up for arguments on charges on May 31.

On Friday, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court reserved the order following submissions from Chakravarty's counsel, who argued that he has been named as a prosecution witness after becoming an approver, and that the charge sheet has already been filed in this case.

Chakravarty's lawyer cited Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which grants the high court discretionary power to grant bail.

The counsel for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stated that the prosecution has no objection to granting relief to Chakravarty.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police on March 30 filed its charge sheet under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The judicial custody of Purkayastha and Chakravarty was also extended on Tuesday.

On January 9, the court granted permission to Chakravarty to become an approver in the case after he filed an application seeking pardon.

He claimed to possess material information, which he is willing to disclose to the Delhi Police.

Alleging the portal's role in the riots stemming out of the anti-CAA protests in 2020, the Delhi Police's charge sheet against Purkayastha claimed that its probe revealed a deep-rooted conspiracy by the portal and others "aimed at the deliberate creation of a false narrative against the Citizenship Amendment Act".
Jaipur, May 3 : The Rajasthan Police on Friday arrested a juvenile along with his two accomplices for killing his friend in Kota, apparently to become popular on Instagram.

Two days back, it was reported that a student died in Kota while making a Reel with a country-made pistol, which accidentally went off. Later, his family members filed a complaint alleging that it was a planned murder.

Now, the police in Kota's Mahavir Nagar area have arrested a juvenile for fatally shooting his friend with a country-made pistol.

The accused's accomplices, Ajay Salvi and Deepak Prajapati alias 'Laddu Shooter', were also arrested from Kota.

Kota SP Amrita Duhan said the complainant alleged that his son was shot by Ajay Salvi, Deepak Prajapati, and others at a tea stall in front of a community centre on May 1.

Acting on a tip, the accused juvenile was detained and his aides, Ajay Salvi and Deepak Prajapati, were arrested by the police.

The police also recovered the country-made pistol and an empty cartridge used in the crime.
Jaipur, May 4 : In a shocking incident, a man's nose was chopped off by his in-laws in Rajasthan's Pali for his only fault that he opted for a love marriage with their daughter, the police said.

The incident was reported late on Thursday night in Jodhpur's Jhanwar station area, said the police, adding that a case had been registered on Friday on a complaint filed by the victim's brother.

Transport Nagar Station House Officer (SHO), Anita Rani, said, "One Chelaram had a court marriage with a girl from his village in March this year. However, the girl's relatives lodged a missing complaint on March 30. When police arrested the two, they confessed to their court marriage. They were later released as both of them were adults."

Later, Chelaram rented an accommodation and started living with his wife in Pali in April this year. His brother Sujaram also stayed in a house nearby.

The woman's family came to Chelaram on Thursday at 9 a.m. and demanded a patch-up and asked them both to get ready and join them to visit the girl's house.

Later on the Pali-Jodhpur highway, the woman's parents attacked Chelaram and continued hitting him till they reached Jhanwar at 11 p.m.

The woman's parents also broke the victim's limbs and chopped his nose as well leaving him injured and fled.

Further investigations are underway, the SHO added.
New Delhi, May 4 : A day after Congress released a video showing Rahul Gandhi discussing chess, his 'favourite' international player and former world champion Garry Kasparov posted a cryptic tweet, saying that tradition says "first you win Raebareli and then challenge for the top post".

New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) A day after Congress released a video showing Rahul Gandhi discussing chess, his 'favourite' international player and former world champion Garry Kasparov posted a cryptic tweet, saying that tradition says "first you win Raebareli and then challenge for the top post".

The post from the chess legend's X handle set social media on fire.

However, it is not confirmed whether the post was to troll the senior Congress leader or a coincidence, as inquired by many netizens.

Just to ponder the readers' mind, Rahul Gandhi recently drew a parallel between the strategies in chess and politics. He also revealed Kasparov as his favourite chess player.

Answering a query about the best chess player among the Indian politicians, Rahul Gandhi simply stated, "Me."

On Friday morning, the Congress announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest from the Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency, a seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi, ending days of suspense.
Imphal, May 4 : The Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on Friday served notice to police officials concerned about 30 murder cases pending for investigation for decades in the state's Thoubal district only.

MHRC sources said that Commission Chairperson, Justice Utpalendu Bikash Saha (retd) recently made a surprise visit to the Thoubal Police Station and Thoubal Women Police Station and found at least 30 murder cases pending investigation for 10-30 years.

Justice Saha, a former judge of the Gauhati, Tripura, and Manipur High Courts, in his notice to the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Range-II), Superintendent of Police, Thoubal, and Officer-in-Charge of Thoubal police station, said that due to delay of investigation, both the family of the victim and the accused person are denied a fair trial as well as justice.

"... delay of investigation is nothing but denial of justice which a citizen is entitled to from the political government and its administrative authority including police administration. It is not clear to us why the investigation of a case lodged by a citizen for the murder of his/her dearest/nearest in the year 1993 is still pending and for whose fault," the MHRC notice said.

A copy of the MHRC order would also be sent to the Home Commissioner and Director General of Police for taking necessary action.

"We hope and trust that DGP, Manipur would ask the concerned authority, not only the SP, Thoubal district but in other districts also to complete the investigation of murder cases and also POSCO cases within a reasonable time, so that the family of the victims and the accused persons may get the proper justice and far trial as they deserve, in accordance with the law," the MHRC said.

The matter will come up for hearing in the MHRC next on May 7.
Hyderabad, May 4 : A group of 12 student organisations on Friday expressed shock over the closure report filed by Telangana Police in University of Hyderabad research scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide case, absolving university authorities and leaders of the BJP and the ABVP.

The student groups, which were part of the Joint Action Committee that spearheaded the movement for justice for Rohith Vemula, termed the report an "exact reiteration of BJP-ABVP narrative around Rohithas 'institutional murder'".

Claiming the report has "inaccuracies, falsehoods and on purpose omissions", they said it made a mockery of the eight-year struggle for justice.

In a joint statement, they said they were shocked that the report absolved then Vice Chancellor P. Appa Rao, BJP leaders and then Union Ministers Bandaru Dattatreya, and Smriti Irani and ABVP leader Sushil Kumar of any responsibility, while the "catastrophic miscarriage of justice meted out under the newly elected Congress government in Telangana is a source of greater distress".

They recalled that the Congress leadership, including President Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi, had consistently voiced their support for justice for the Vemula movement from its initial days, and enactment of the Rohith Act against institutional discrimination in higher education institutes is a central plan of the Congress manifesto for the ongoing parliamentary elections.

They noted that Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula joined Bharat Jodo Yatra hoping that a change in government could further the prospects of justice for Dalits in India.

"The timing of the report being submitted to court immediately after the Lok Sabha election code of conduct without handing a copy of the same to the complainant raises suspicion over the motives of the officers in charge," the statement said.

The groups appealed to the Congress government in Telangana to ensure that justice prevails, and demanded action against two investigating officers "who floated false and fictitious narratives, siding with the accused and derailing justice for Dalits".

The statement was issued by the All India OBC Students Association, the All India Students Association, the Ambedkar Students Association, the Bahujan Students Front, the Democratic Students Union, the Students Federation of India, the Muslim Students Federation, the National Students Union of India, the Students Islamic Organisation, the Telangana Students Federation, the University of Hyderabad Students Union, along with the family of Vemula.

They noted that the closure report made "grave insinuations about the victims themselves", including that Vemula was not a Dalit but had forged documents to get a caste certificate, and "speculates without any proof that it was the fear of this being exposed that was responsible for suicidal thoughts in Rohith Vemula".

It said that despite his stellar academic record, the report tries to character assassinate Vemula by portraying him as someone more interested in politics than studies, said the statement.
Jaipur, May 4 : In a shocking incident, the parents of a woman in Rajasthan's Jodhpur district allegedly chopped a man's nose, objecting to his love marriage with their daughter, the police said on Friday.

The incident was reported late on Thursday night from Jhanwar, the police said, adding that a case was registered on Friday following a complaint filed by the victim's brother.

Transport Nagar SHO Anita Rani said, "Chelaram married a girl from his village in March this year. However, the girl's relatives lodged a missing complaint on March 30. When the police arrested the two, they confessed to their court marriage. They were later released as both were adults."

Later, Chelaram started living in a rented accommodation with his wife in Pali. His brother Sujaram lived in a house nearby.

The woman's family met Chelaram on Thursday and asked him to visit their house along with his wife.

Later, the woman's parents attacked Chelaram on the Pali-Jodhpur highway and continued the assault till they reached Jhanwar.

The woman's parents allegedly broke the victim's limbs and chopped his nose.

Further investigation is underway.
Istanbul, May 4 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey's decision to suspend trade with Israel had one singular purpose, which is to compel the Israeli government into a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

He made the remarks on Friday during a meeting with the board of directors of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association in Istanbul, according to the Presidency's website.

The President also noted that the government will coordinate and consult with the business community to manage the consequences of halting trade with Israel, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkey on Thursday halted all trade activities with Israel due to the latter's "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Turkish Trade Ministry.

Erdogan also said that this decision would set a precedent for other countries unsettled by the current situation.
Jerusalem, May 4 : Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced several measures to be taken against Turkey following the latter's decision to halt all trade activities with Israel due to "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry said on Friday in a statement that in a discussion carried out by senior officials from the Foreign and Economy ministries, as well as the Israel Tax Authority, it was decided to work towards reducing any economic connection between Turkey and the West Bank and Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.

Additionally, it was decided to take action in international economic forums to explore sanctions against Turkey for violating trade agreements, to create an alternative list for the Israeli economy across various sectors and products, and to support affected Israeli export sectors.

It noted that Turkey is the Palestinian Authority's largest importing country.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, Israeli exports of goods to Turkey amounted to $1.57 billion, while Israeli imports from Turkey reached $4.61 billion.

Meanwhile, Israel filed a complaint to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against Turkey for its decision to suspend trade, said a statement from Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat.

Both Turkey and Israel are OECD member countries.
Ramallah, May 4 : The Palestinian Presidency has said that President Mahmoud Abbas had undergone routine medical examinations in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A statement issued by the Presidency said that Abbas took routine medical examinations at the Arab Consultative Hospital on Friday, and the results were reassuring, after which he left the hospital.

The statement did not provide further details on the matter, Xinhua news agency reported.

Abbas, born in 1935, had previously received medical examinations at the same hospital last February and July 2022.

In April 2021, he travelled to Germany for medical examinations.

In May 2018, Abbas stayed at a hospital in Ramallah for eight days to receive treatment for pneumonia.

Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005 following the death of his predecessor Yasser Arafat.

Before that, he served as the Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) this week announced the winners of the inaugural 2024 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards.

In the history category, Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London by Simon P. Newman (University of London Press, 2022) took home the top honor. In a statement, the judges called the book a well-argued, and effectively presented, exploration of slavery's deeply embedded history in Britain and the Atlantic world.

In the multimodal category, the award went to As I Remember It: Teachings (ms tw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder by Elsie Paul with Davis McKenzie, Paige Raibmon, and Harmony Johnson (University of British Columbia Press/RavenSpace, 2019). The judges called the book a massive intellectual contribution preserving a lost language, culture, and folkways."

Administered by ACLS and supported by the Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge, the prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open access humanities books published from 2017 to 2022. The winning authors will share a cash award of $20,000, and the winning publishers will share a grant for $30,000 to support the immediate open access publication of at least two new books.

In a statement, ACLS officials reiterated their commitment to open accessby which publishing costs are covered upfront and the resulting works are freely accessible readersas a way to share knowledge and scholarship, and praised the 2024 winners.

Their books freely provide communities worldwide with accurate research on topics that have been historically and often intentionally held at the margins of academic inquiry, said ACLS President Joy Connolly. We look forward to continuing our work with Arcadia to cultivate an ecosystem in which humanistic publications thrive in a larger circle of readers.

Each prize winner was selected by a distinguished panel of judges from a shortlist of five finalists. Submissions for the 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards will open in May 2024.
The best line of the 2024 International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries (Congress PCI), held in Abu Dhabi last week, was delivered not by a publisher of books, but a publisher of video games. In a disquisition on the status of the Arabic language and culture in the global creative industries, Fawzi Mesmar, the v-p of global creative for French video game company Ubisoftpublisher of the Assassins Creed series, which often employs settings and storylines from the Middle Eastasserted: Arabic is not exotic, but iconic.

Congress PCI, organized by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, brings together key figures from the United Arab Emirates annually, for conversation and networking with international professionals from the worlds of book publishing, comics publishing, filmmaking, and video games. Now in its third year, this years event attracted 380 attendees and featured 35 speakers including a group of international literary agents and publishers, among whom were Nora Rawn, manager of subsidiary rights for Harlequin, and Stu Levy, founder of TokyoPop, among others.

The message in Mesmar's statement echoed throughout the congress. In his opening remarks, Ali Bin Tamim, director of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, stressed his desire for "the Arabic language to have its rightful place in the amazing space of creative and cultural industries." And in the opening talkbetween Mohamed Al Khalifa Mubarak, chair of the Department of Culture and Tourism at Abu Dhabi, and Egyptian American economist Mohamed El-Erian, now based at Queens' College at the University of Cambridgethe speakers emphasized that investing in the creative industry Arab community would pay dividends for the region and the broader world alike.

El-Erian began by pointing out that "one of the biases in the West is to forget that the Arab world was at the forefront of mathematics, astronomy, architecture. This long history of creativity, he added, means that there is a deep well of Arabic cultural heritage from which to draw.

Mubarak highlighted the potential for leveraging educational and cultural "building blocks" to raise the profile and place of Arabic in world culture. "We have to make sure that we create incentive schemes, that we generate funds to really invest in these creators, to create fantastic Arabic content, he said. He went on to emphasize the need to fill the void in Arabic content, and pointed to the recent launch of Sandstorm, a new U.A.E.based graphic novel publishing company, whose books feature stories rooted in Arabic culture and published in bilingual Arabic and English editions.

Adaptation and Multiplatform Content Creation

The event's opening keynote panel discussion, "Filmmaking Alchemy: The Dynamic Relationship Between Literature and Film Adaptations," delved into the intricate process of transforming novels into films. Panelists including director Marwan Hamed, actor Karim Abdel Aziz, and author and screenwriter Ahmed Mourad shared their insights on collaborating on the film adaptation of Mourads novel The Blue Elephant.

"When a novel undergoes film adaptation, it becomes a universal translation of the author's vision," Mourad said. "This intricate process involves a myriad of talents, from the script writers and directors to actors, cinematographers, sound teams, and music composers."

Hamed, who directed the movie, shared that "adapting a novel requires a deep understanding of the source material and the ability to translate its essence into a visual medium. Abdel Aziz, who starred in the movie, added that, as an actor, it's crucial to immerse yourself in the world of the novel and understand the nuances of the character you're portraying." He continued: "It's a collaborative effort between the actor, director, and screenwriter to ensure that the essence of the character is captured.

The panelists also discussed the avenues for showcasing and profiting from film adaptations, including the opportunities streaming has brought to the Arabic-language film industry and the the importance of international film festivals as a distribution strategies to reach a wider audience. And the following panel, "Evolving Consumer Tastes and Consumption in the Era of Multi-Platform Content Creation," explored the changing landscape of content consumption as providers expand across multiple platforms, often utilizing recycled content from a single intellectual property.

Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of Starzplay, emphasized the complexity of consumer behavior within the region. "The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] is very different from North Africa, which is very different from the Levant," Sheikh said. "As much as we, the service providers, need to simplify to the outside, on the insideeach of these regions and segmentsthe consumer behavior is quite complex."

Sheikh also highlighted the importance of language and platform experience in catering to the younger generation. "Language is important, but so is the [lived] experience that they get," he added.

Mazen Hayek, a well-known business advisor and media influencer in the region, concurred, noting that there is an ongoing transformation in the relationship between with broadcasters and consumers. "TV, whether you put it in a linear perspective or a streaming perspective, is not the first point of call for most people," Hayek said. "Most people's life experiences still affect how they consume content."

Ashley Rite, v-p of marketing and growth at OSN, a U.A.E. broadcaster, spoke about the convergence of platforms and the value of consumer attention. "Consumers might not like longform content, but they're happy to sit on their devices for two to three hours," Rite explained. "It's a very difficult thing to balance longform versus shortform content."

One specific challenge, panelists agreed, is determining how to personalize the experience of content consumptionsomething all the more important in the face of an ever-increasing amount of content. Sheikh said that Starzplay has experimented with AI-driven personalization models, but noted that extensive data to train these models is needed in order to effectively cater to individual preferences.

Artificial Intelligence

AI was at the center of a subsequent panel, "Beyond Bytes: Impact of Generative AI on Humanity," which delved into the profound societal impact of the latest technological advancements in publishing and the intersection of technology and society. Panelists addressed the ethical and social implications of generative AIemphasizing the need for regulation, user awareness, and development of value-aligned AI systemsas well as its vast business potential.

Nadim Sadek, founder and CEO of Shimmr AI, emphasized the rapid pace of the technology's development and its effect on human understanding and collaboration. "AI has really accelerated our ability to understand things and to collaborate in a way that we haven't previously understood," Sadek said. "It's mesmerizing. I think it's making some of us fearful to deal with it.

Sadek also highlighted the potential for AI to redefine creativity and the importance of accepting machine creativity. "I think we should accept machine creativity. And I think, for example, hallucinations, which are always dismissed as a bad thing, are actually quite interesting bits of creativity," he added.

Hoda Al Khzaimi, Director of the Center for Cyber Security at New York University Abu Dhabi, stressed the need for a diverse approach to technological development. "The current ecosystem mandates this kind of diverse approach," Al Khzaimi said. "It mandates the philosophers to be part of this equation, the social scientists to be part of the equation, psychologists, the economists, and as well as the technology developers to build that next technology product that should go to market."

The U.A.E. is bullish on AI technology, panelists noted: the country is home to one of the first academic institutions wholly dedicated to studying AIMohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligenceand has supported the development of its own large language model, called Falcon. Preslav Nakov, a professor a Mohamed bin Zayed University, discussed the challenges and opportunities surrounding AI for students and the importance of using the technology as a copilot. "Humans are not going to go awayjust like in the past, we have invented the calculator, we have invented the computer," Nakov said. "Those are things that have made us more productive."
Chinas support of Iran in the current Middle East crisis is a chilling reminder of its global aggression, much of which has recently been directed towards Taiwan. Americas capital markets are unprepared for the cataclysmic economic impact of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and although U.S. military experts have undoubtedly prepared for all potential Taiwan scenarios, no economic response plan exists.

Without a dedicated effort by the federal government and private sector financial firms to create such a plan, the impact on U.S. markets would be devastating and could eclipse the most severe stock market crashes of the past century. The aftermath has the potential to shut the valve of capital that sustains Americas businesses, farms, and housing sectors.

Analysis conducted by my firm GTS, which makes markets for more than 900 public companies on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization over $13 trillion, has estimated a short-term stock market plummet of up to 34% after an invasion, as uncertainty about the U.S. response may lead institutional and retail investors to quickly exit their equity positions while market makers struggle to accurately price stocks in this volatile environment.

This short-term crash would only preview likely long-term market devastation. Bloomberg estimates that a full-scale war in Taiwan would reduce global GDP by 10%. This drop would be almost twice what was observed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and Covid pandemic, events which triggered peak to trough declines of 57% and 35% in the S&P 500.

The economic pain caused by these events could ultimately complicate any U.S. military response should the economy seize up and American savings become impaired.

Bipartisan legislation introduced this month in the U.S. House aims to tackle this challenge by fast-tracking the development of an economic response plan designed to manage and mitigate catastrophic market outcomes. Co-sponsors Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) cited the GTS analysis when introducing the bill, which would create an advisory committee under the auspices of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, whose members already include key federal financial regulatory agencies. This committee of policy makers, capital markets participants and experts on geopolitical risks would be tasked with identifying areas of risk to the financial markets and solutions to mitigate their impact. Only through active dialogue between the public and private sector can we effectively prepare for the disruption that a Taiwan conflict would have on the U.S. economy.

During Covid we all learned how dependent the U.S. is on imports from China. It is also well known that China and Taiwan help finance the U.S. deficit through purchase of U.S. Treasuries. Less attention has been focused on what a war would mean for our capital markets. Our markets are time-tested resilient, yet a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would present a drastically more intense challenge than anything in our history given how deeply those economies are integrated into the U.S. financial system.

The statistics are alarming. China accounts for almost 30% of the $1.3 trillion MSCIs Emerging Markets Index. The U.S. has over 500 listed equity ETFs that maintain significant exposure to stocks listed in China. And as of February 2024, 256 Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges have a total market capitalization of $848 billion.

These are but a few of the examples of the financial interconnectedness of our respective countries and markets and the pain would reverberate across the American landscape  as approximately 58 percent of American households own stocks, according to a Federal Reserve survey. We must do everything we can to ensure the resiliency of our markets and protect American investments in pension plans, 401(k)s, IRAs, and 529 college savings plans. Together the government and private sector can meet this challenge head on, but there is no time to waste.
The emergence of the gig economy has been a defining feature of the last decade as gig workers have emerged to take care of one-off tasks like grocery shopping, food delivery, dog walking, and more. However, as these side hustles have grown in popularity, a growing number of gig workers have come to rely on this nontraditional form of work as their primary source of income. This shift to full time gig work has come at the expense of traditional work-related benefits. That is, until last year, when Utah passed an innovative idea for portable benefits into law.

The prevailing notion of work fifty years ago was a rigid nine-to-five shift. But the gig economy has transformed the way many think about work, serving as one of many examples of the way workers today can earn on their own terms. Despite this transformation, however, U.S. labor law has hardly budged from its roots in the workplaces of the past. An unintended side effect of this outdated regulatory structure is that full-time gig workers, hardly imagined decades ago, are unable to receive work-related benefits without giving up the flexibility these opportunities afford.

Fortunately, in 2023, Utah passed SB 233, based on an innovative idea to open up gig worker access to portable benefits. SB 233 is a simple but powerful bill which allows companies in Utah to voluntarily contribute to worker-controlled portable benefit plans, without the fear of incurring employer liabilities. These plans were intended to be a diverse set of worker-related benefits that workers could pick-and-choose from, and maintain access to no matter who they work for.

Utahs voluntary approach clearly deviated from the paths taken by states like California to mandate rideshare company contributions to a limited set of benefits. Yet, despite its near-unanimous bipartisan support in the Utah legislature, some viewed the bill as unrealistic and overly optimistic. However, one year later, and following a collaborative effort between industry, state regulators, academics, and nonprofit research organizations, the portable benefit plans envisioned in Utahs SB 233 have begun to materialize.

Recent months have witnessed the first glimpses of company-provided gig worker benefits in practice. Major announcements from delivery companies and investment apps represent a crucial progress toward the sustainability of the gig economy, whereby companies are stepping up to match flexible work with flexible worker benefits.

But the most promising development to date, Stride Healths new Portable Benefit Contribution Program, is something more long-term. Strides program, launched in Utah, would allow gig economy platforms to contribute to worker-controlled savings accounts which can then be used by workers to choose from a diverse set of benefits.

Strides program is sure to be an industry-leading tool for gig economy platforms to support gig workers, attract better talent, and further legitimize the flexible future of work. But Strides decision to launch in Utah is a clear indication of what regulatory reform in labor policy can accomplish, in terms of positive outcomes for workers, when built atop of forward-looking ideas that embrace worker flexibility and industry innovation.

The path forward for gig workers in the U.S.highlighted by Stride's new program and the broader movement towards flexible worker benefitsis a future of work thats not only flexible but also genuinely sustainable. Whats more, the reform passed in Utah, SB 233, offers a blueprint for a more secure and equitable labor market for independent workers.

For other states, and even the federal government, looking to improve the lives of gig workers, the experiences of those in Utah and beyond will serve as a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in shaping the future of work.
After three decades of fighting, it appears the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has finally come to an end. On April 28, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke with one another on a phone call discussing a forthcoming treaty and a conclusion to the war. During the session, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that Armenia would hand over four villages to Azerbaijan in an attempt to stabilize relations between the two countries.

The Armenian leader said that it was a priority to ensure that peace became a reality. By making this decision, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that he believed that it would help with the feasibility of peace.

The Armenian official has previously stated that he was seeking solutions to try to resolve the conflict peacefully. Prime Minister Pashinyan also fears that there could be future conflicts between the two countries. Thus, by pursuing peace, and by trying to collaborate with his Azerbaijani counterparts, the Armenian leader is hoping that this will limit the probability of future attacks as well as a new conflict.

His decision, however, was met with stiff opposition. While the Armenian leader is working to bring an end to the bloody and ongoing conflict, dozens of Armenians have protested the announcement. Opponents of the peace agreement have argued that Armenia should not capitulate to Azerbaijani authorities after the brutal attack on Nagorno-Karabakh last year. They also believe that Azerbaijan is seizing territory that rightfully belongs to Armenia.

These sentiments are understandable, given the long and complicated history between Armenia and Azerbaijan. When the conflict first began in the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia. Similarly, nearly half a million Armenians were forced to leave Azerbaijan. Thousands of citizens have died throughout the three-decade conflict, and many more have been injured.

Now, both governments face a new problem. As Azerbaijan looks to claim the new villages, as well as the region, thousands of Armenians have been forced to relocate. The Armenian government is now working hard to try and incorporate these Armenians into the country. However several challenges remain. First, according to the World Food Programme, nearly one-fourth of Armenias population faces. In addition, according to the World Bank, one-fourth of Armenians live within the poverty rate. Unfortunately, the introduction of refugees will put a further strain on the Armenian economy.

But helping these displaced Armenians is the right thing to do. It will be challenging, but the Armenian government feels an obligation to help its people, especially with the brutal aftermath of Azerbaijans surprise attack last year.

Meanwhile, reintegration efforts for Azerbaijan have also been challenging. Following the recent developments in the region, the Azerbaijani government stated that residents in Nagorno-Karabakh would be treated equally. They would also be granted Azerbaijani citizenship. Despite these promises, the Azerbaijani government has not said how it would provide citizenship documents and other forms of identification to these individuals.

Furthermore, many Azerbaijanis have opted to relocate to Nagorno-Karabakh. But as the region begins to transform under Azerbaijani hands, it is unclear how the socio-economic situation will unfold in the area. This could lead to further complications for residents in the area.

In other words, while Armenian and Azerbaijani officials may be meeting to try and resolve the conflict, the reality on the ground is far from over. The Armenian government and the Azerbaijani government will need time, money, and resources to ensure that citizens of both countries are compensated for the damages that occurred during the conflict. These displaced individuals will need necessities like food, water, clothing, and shelter. They will also need jobs in order to make stable incomes, and they will have to adjust to the new reality.

In short, while the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan may be over, there is much more that needs to be done to ensure that peace is maintained. Otherwise, if Armenian and Azerbaijani citizens are unable to assimilate in their new homes, and if further strains are put on the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments, then this could lead to greater and more drastic problems for the region.

Now, more than ever, the international community should provide financial and humanitarian assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan to assist these countries with this latest development. Such actions may help stabilize the region, and perhaps even lead to true peace.

Mark Temnycky is an accredited freelance journalist covering Eurasian affairs and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center. He can be found on X @MTemnycky
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Market players await new policy around F&O stock inclusion

Stock exchanges are expanding the buffet of index derivatives even as the number of stocks permitted to trade in this space, generating an average daily turnover of Rs 450 trillion, is shrinking.

This week, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) started issuing futures and options (F&O) contracts based on the Nifty Next 50 Index, bringing the total count of index derivatives to five.

The exchange, which generates one of the highest F&O volumes globally, already offers trading in derivatives based on the Nifty 50, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, and Nifty Select Midcap indices.

Meanwhile, BSE offers index derivatives contracts on two indices  the Sensex and the Bankex.

Sources said the bourses are looking to add even more products to the derivatives space as the competition among them heats up while generating growth on an already higher base becomes a challenge.

However, their proposals are hitting a wall, with not even a single new stock getting added to the derivatives space since January 2020, while some of the existing ones are being weeded out.

At its peak, NSE offered F&O contracts on nearly 200 stocks.

At present, the list is down to 182.

According to rules, companies that are allowed to trade in the F&O segment are only eligible to be constituents of the index.

Consequently, exchanges are unable to add some large or newly listed companies such as DMart, Zomato, Jio Financial Services, and Life Insurance Corporation of India to any of the indices that trade in the derivatives segment.

It is impossible to have an index trade in derivatives which have non-F&O stocks.

"While on one hand, exchanges want to take the relatively less volatile index derivatives route to expand their derivatives presence, they will be unconstrained unless the regulator starts allowing new stocks to the derivatives space, said one broker.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is expected to float a consultation paper over the next few weeks proposing fresh criteria for the inclusion of stocks in the derivatives segment.

While the framework was expected a year ago, the regulator has been cautious amid concerns that the derivatives segment is encouraging excessive speculation and attracting gullible retail investors.

Sources said a panel composed of officials from Sebi and the Reserve Bank of India has been deliberating ways to address concerns around rising retail participation, monitoring mechanisms, and criteria for selecting stocks eligible for the derivatives segment.

While new methodologies for calculating eligible stocks are in the works, other factors like risk management for clients and traders might also be addressed in the consultation paper that will follow.

Moreover, one of the stock exchanges has already started conducting sessions with trading members or stockbrokers to explain and create awareness of new methodologies for open interest, also known as the delta equivalent open interest.

Under the current framework, a stock may be pushed into the F&O ban period if some people take deep out-of-the-money options contracts.

"The regulator may be more comfortable allowing more stocks in the derivatives if the approach is changed.

"A white paper will be published, and discussions will follow. It is still awaited, said a person familiar with the developments.

According to regulations, a scrip is kept in the ban period to avoid excessive speculative trading in the derivatives segment.

Another person with knowledge of the developments said that a new methodology of future equivalent is under discussion.

Last year, the market watchdog introduced a risk disclosure framework for stockbrokers, wherein they were directed to display and prompt traders to read the risks associated with trading in F&O.
'All those who participated in the agitation were branded as anti-nationals.'

IMAGE: Fishermen protest against the Adani group's port development project at Vizhinjam. All Photographs: Kind courtesy Father Eugene H Pereira.

The Vizhinjam International Seaport in Thiruvananthapuram is a port owned by the Government of Kerala and is being built by Adani Vizhinjam Ports Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd.

The agreement is that the port will be operated by the Adani Group for 40 years.

When the construction started in December 2015, it was expected to complete the first phase by December 2019 but the project got delayed because of the protests by the fishing community under the leadership of the Catholic archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram.

The protest that began on July 20, 2022 outside the state secretariat ended on the 6th of December after the Vizhinjam protest committee and Kerala chief minister held talks.

A few days before polling in Kerala, in a pastoral letter read out in all churches, Archbishop Thomas J Netto said the church was struggling to meet its routine expenses after the church accounts were frozen because of the protest against the seaport in 2022.

Father Eugene H Pereira, Vicar General, the Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, who was in the forefront of the agitation against the Adani group, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why the state and central governments are against the church, and why the church accounts are frozen.

Do you feel the church and the fishing community are being punished both by the state and the Centre for protesting against the Adani port at Vizhinjam?

You have to understand why the fishing community of this area decided to protest against the port.

It was because the livelihood of more than 300 families were affected for about 3-4 years and nothing went beyond the many talks we had with the authorities.

The government was not ready to move an inch from its tough stand.

People remained quiet in the early days because of the pandemic.

You withdrew the agitation in December 2022 saying it was only temporary, but you didn't resume the protest.

And the building of the port has been going on ever since...

We stopped the agitation at that time because they tried to divide the community on religious lines. There were also concrete efforts from their side to create hostility and tension among the people.

You mean by the government?

Yes. By the state government. They wanted to create a horrifying situation, but we didn't want them to be successful in their efforts to divide the agitating community.

That was the reason why we decided to temporarily withdraw the agitation.

Why I am talking about an incident that happened in 2022 is because I want to highlight what the state and the central governments were up to from the beginning.

They just wanted to stop us from protesting against the Adani group.

The state government went to the extent of using the RTO to stop our protest. RTO officials warned us that if any vehicle came to the state capital with people from the nearby coastal regions, it would be booked.

Have you ever heard of the RTO being used to stop protests by people?

From the beginning, the government had no intention to solve the problems of the people but make the agitation a failure.

They filed cases against all those who came to support the agitation including those in the church.

And all those who participated in the agitation were branded as anti-nationals.

When were the bank accounts of the church frozen?

While the Kerala government used the state police to silence us and make us powerless, the Centre used other means.

We were unexpectedly told on the 11th of February 2023 that the FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act) licence of the Trivandrum Social Service Society and the archdiocese would not be renewed.

The FCRA license was valid till March 2023, and we had already begun the renewal proceedings.

But we received a letter from the home ministry in February itself that we would not be able to renew it.

IMAGE: A protest against the Vizhinjam port project in Thiruvananthapuram.

Did they say it was because of the Vizhinjam agitation?

Yes. We were given a Speaking Order which said, because we had used the funds for the agitation that our FCRA was not renewed.

You should understand that they had not conducted any enquiry before coming to such a conclusion.

So, we filed a revision petition saying the contribution was never used for the agitation against the port.

We had not used a single paisa on any agitation; we use the contributions only on the healthcare of the fishing community, the women and children.

The Church also spends around Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) every year on priest training programmes, caring for the retired clergy, etc.

When we sent the revision petition, we at the Thiruvananthapuram Social Service Society did not get any reply.

But the Archdiocese got a reply accusing that we participated in the agitation, and that was why the license was denied.

If you remember, the state government had filed cases against 15 priests during the agitation.

We had requested the state government to remove from the chargesheet the names of the priests including the bishops who were not part of the agitation at all.

As per the request by the chief minister, in December 2023 itself, we had submitted the list of the church officials to the government authorities.

But nothing was done till the elections were declared in 2024.

While the state government used the police to suppress us, the central government harassed us by not renewing the FCRA license.

Both Aniyan Bava and Chettan Bava (younger brother and elder brother) are hand in hand in these activities.

IMAGE: Congress candidate Dr Shashi Tharoor and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar flank Father Eugene H Pereira at Meet the Candidate programme.

Who is the younger brother and who is the elder brother?

Younger brother is our state government and the elder brother, of course is the central government.

The strategy of both is silencing all those who speak. But we were following all democratic norms.

They use all means to suppress the democratic voices of the labour class.

You have a Communist government in Kerala. Is it not strange that such a government is suppressing the voices of the working class to support the number one capitalist in India?

Yes, it is strange! They speak in loud voice against capitalists in front of Raj Bhavan. But they actually support the Blue Economy.

Take, for example, the Adani port, the Sagarmala project, the mining projects in the Western Ghats..

IMAGE: Dr Shashi Tharoor, the Thiruvanathapuram MP, speaks at the Meet the Candidate programme as Rajeev Chandrasekhar looks on.

Have you been relying on foreign contributions for your activities?

We reply on foreign contributions for all the social welfare activities we have been doing through the Social Service Society, Thiruvananthapuram.

When it stopped, we had to slow down our activities. We tried to gather donations locally to continue with whatever we have been doing.

But we were not in a position to take up any new projects.

Now, on the 21st of April, the Archbishop wrote a letter to be read out in all the churches explaining the tough financial situation because of the freezing of our accounts and the need to collect funds to continue with our activities.

How will this be reflected in the parliamentary election? Kerala went to polls on the 26th...

There is a common feeling among the coastal community that no party worked for the cause of the fishing community in an honest manner.

You mean the state and the Centre?

Yes. They joined hands to suppress our agitation.

IMAGE: Father Eugene H Pereira.

Shashi Tharoor as the MP also supported building the port...

Yes, he supported the port.

The fishing community of the area is unhappy with the stand taken by Tharoor.

They are also against the way they were confronted by the state and central governments.

When some areas decided against boycotting the polls, we made them realise that what was needed was not a boycott but A conscience vote.

That's why we organised a Meet the Candidate programme of both the Thiruvananthapuram and Attingal candidates so that people could decide who to vote for after hearing them. We also submitted a note with 18 demands.

We wanted people to be part of the democratic process in a responsible manner, and not boycott the process.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
'... dividing society not just on religious lines, but also creating rift in families and among brothers and sisters.'

IMAGE: Congress leaders Paresh Dhanani, extreme left, Amit Chavda and Rajiv Satav protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Ahmedabad in 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo

The Congress's Paresh Dhanani, who defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's Parshottam Rupala in the 2002 assembly election, is once again pitted against Rupala in the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, considered one of the most watched after contests in Gujarat.

The Rajput community in the state has been up in arms against Rupala, the BJP's sitting MP from Rajkot, and have been vowing to defeat him after his allegedly offensive remarks against their womenfolk. While Rupala has been apologising for his remarks the controversy seems to have earned the BJP the wrath of the Rajput community not only in Gujarat but across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Dhanani, who was initially reluctant to enter the fray against Rupala, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore, why he accepted the Congress invitation to contest the Rajkot seat against the Union minister, who is considered a confidante of Prime Minister Narendra D Modi.

Dhanani, a Patidar, just like Rupala -- while Dhanani belongs to the Leuva Patel denomination of Patidars, which make for nearly 80 per cent of the community in Rajkot, Rupala is a Kadva Patel -- refused to entertain questions that revolved around how caste equations would play out in this constituency.

Earlier you were reluctant to contest from Rajkot but entered the fray only when it became evident that the BJP candidate Parshottam Rupala was facing the wrath of the Rajput community. Does this new development improve the Congress's chance of victory in Rajkot?

I am not contesting to win this election. My only goal in coming to Rajkot is to protect the honour and pride of my mothers and sisters. Some people in politics enjoy humiliating our ancestors' bravery for petty political gains. It is time to teach such people how to respect and honour our ancestors and their bravery.

I am a true son of Gujarat and share the same lineage of Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India.

Under Sardar Patel, the Congress looked upon every section of society with equality and respect. But a new socio-religious ecosystem that took roots in Gandhi and Patel's Gujarat in the last three-four decades, underpinned by the British policy of dividing and ruling on the basis of caste, religion, creed, was espoused by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP has so mastered this narrative of divisive politics that, on the eve of every election, it unleashes this demon dividing society not just on religious lines but also creating rift in families and among brothers and sisters.

I have come to Rajkot to douse the flames of these very rifts that the BJP has been using for more than three decades now to win elections and establish its political supremacy in Gujarat.

How do you see the ire of the Rajputs against Parshotta Rupala playing out electorally in Rajkot, from where you are contesting against him, and across Gujarat?

I have not come here to win an election and become an MP from Rajkot; I want to win the hearts of people of Rajkot.

I have come here to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the people here. Let the people of Rajkot decide who wins the election, but I am promising the people of Rajkot that I will work for them as their friend and brother.

I have come here with a renewed confidence that the people of Rajkot and Gujarat today have seen through the BJP's dirty politics and are sincerely looking for an alternative that can give them development as well as treat them with honour and respect.

Every section of Gujarati society today is angry with the BJP government's misrule in the state as well as at the Centre.

The BJP has been ruling India's villages and Parliamentm but instead of giving them justice they have been heaping injustices upon the people of India using their brute Parliamentary majority.

The BJP became the centre of people's hope, but instead of solving their problems the ruling dispensation, through their speeches, expressions and conduct is only espousing a sense of hopelessness among the people. They are more interested in humiliating different sections of society than in working for their socio-economic progress.

The arrogance of the BJP's leaders is responsible for converting the progressive, fun-loving people of Rajkot to those gunning for a fight in the political battlefield.

I am confident that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections the people of Rajkot will give a decisive verdict and stamp out the arrogance of the BJP and its top leadership.

The Congress will protect the honour of the people of Gujarat and will do an encore of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and win double-digit seats (from zero in 2019) from Gujarat.

IMAGE: Parshottam Rupala, the BJP candidate for the Rajkot constituency, during a 'Sneh Milan' ahead of the Lok Sabha polls at Gopin village in Surat. Photograph: ANI Photo

Wouldn't the Congress manifesto that talks about five nyays and 25 guarantees play a role in the party improving its performance in Gujarat?

Or is the Congress planning to play only on the ire of the Rajputs against the BJP because of Parshottam Rupala's remarks against the women of the Rajput community?

We have been connecting with the masses of Gujarat and propagating the salient features of our manifesto, which emphasises on the importance of social, religious and economic equality for all sections of Indian society. That will remain our primary objective.

We are telling them that it was Gandhiji who got India Independence and it was Sardar Patel who successfully realised Nehru's dream of unity in diversity and it is Narendra Modi's BJP which is today destroying the legacy of our freedom fighters but consigning the nation into the fire of socio-economic inequality and religious hatred.

We are telling the people of Gujarat and India how the BJP today is trying to finish off Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution and trampling it under its feet.

The BJP is systematically destroying our Constitutional rights, our Fundamental Rights. Those who raise their voices against such mala fide actions are threatened by false cases with the help of the CBI, ED, and income tax, and browbeaten using brute police force to toe their line.

The BJP has been busy trampling the Fundamental Rights of those Indian citizens who are fighting against their arrogance to save the Constitution. Different sections of our society, at various points in the last ten years, have faced the ire of the BJP's arrogance and dictatorial DNA.

We have been trying to convince the people of Gujarat that their issues, problems might be different from one another, but the BJP is responsible for all their problems. We are seeking the support of the people of Rajkot and Gujarat to come join us, defeat the BJP's arrogance and take ahead their fight for self-respect and honour.

Are you fighting this contest against Parshottam Rupala on the emotive issue of honour and self-respect or tje Congress manifesto that promises 25 guarantees?

Aagey aagey dekho hota hai kya (Wait and watch how we defeat Parshottam Rupala).

What is your message for the people of Rajkot?

I bow to the swabhimani (self-respecting) people of Rajkot. On the first day of my campaign in Rajkot I have been beseeching people to join our fight against dictatorship, which is also responsible for the woes of the people of my constituency and this nation.

It is this attitude of arrogance that emboldens a political party to humiliate the bravery and honour of our ancestors.

If we fight unitedly then we can find a solution to the problems of price rise, unemployment, poverty, corruption, injustice. We need to fight this battle for justice together.

The BJP believes in snatching away the rights of the people and the Congress fights against such forces.

It was the Congress that fought against the British and drove them out of the country; today the same Congress will drive out the modern-day British out of India.

They (the BJP under Narendra Modi) have been working towards dividing India, but we are striving to unite India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that Congress' tally in the Lok Sabha polls will be an all-time low, as he mocked its leader Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat, sensing defeat at Wayanad where he is a sitting MP.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a rally in the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat. Photograph: ANI on X

Addressing a rally in the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat, Modi said that if Congress is voted to power, it would snatch quotas meant for the Scheduled Caste, Dalits and OBCs and give those to its jihadi vote bank to pursue the party's appeasement politics.

Modi also slammed the opposition bloc INDIA and Congress for supporting the "vote jihad" comments made by a candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP), an ally of the grand old party in Uttar Pradesh.

There is no need for opinion polls or exit polls, as I had talked about their (Congress) defeat long back in Parliament. When their senior leader quit her Lok Sabha seat and entered Parliament through Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, it was evident that they sensed defeat, Modi said, in an apparent dig at Sonia Gandhi.

"I told you earlier that the shehzaada would start looking for another safe seat for himself, fearing defeat in Wayanad. He was so afraid after losing Amethi in 2019 that he bolted all the way down South, to Wayanad. Now, he has escaped to Raebareli. These people often go around telling people, Daro maat (don't be afraid). It's now my turn to say the same to them -- Arey daro maat, bhaago maat (don't be afraid! don't flee!)," he added.

The prime minister challenged the Congress to give in writing that it will not amend the Constitution to provide reservations based on religion.

They (Congress and INDIA bloc) have to give a written statement that they will not take away the reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs and give those to their vote bank on the basis of religion, Modi said.

He also came down heavily on the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, alleging that the party has made Hindus "second-class citizens" in the state.
Canadian authorities, who arrested three Indian nationals in connection with the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, have said that their investigation has not concluded and "others" who played a role in the homicide would also be arrested.

IMAGE: Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh, the three Indians charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to the murder in Canada of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 . Photograph: Integrated Homicide Investigation Team handout via Reuters

Karan Brar, 22, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, all Indian nationals residing in Edmonton have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Friday said they are investigating if the Indian government was involved in the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

The three are believed to be members of an alleged hit squad tasked by the government of India with the killing of Nijjar, 45, outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023.

The investigation does not end here. We are aware that there are others out there that played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to identifying and arresting each one of them, Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, Officer in Charge of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) said.

The three men were arrested for the murder of Nijjar Friday morning by IHIT investigators, with the assistance of members from the British Columbia and Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Edmonton Police Service.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said they are not able to make any comments about the nature of the evidence collected by police nor can we speak about the motive behind Nijjar's murder.

When asked whether there are any Indian "sleeper agents" in Canada, Teboul said he could not say more because the issue is "very much at the centre of evidence and ongoing investigations", CBC News reported.

Asked whether the public should consider the men to have been "guns for hire," police said more information would come out in court, it said.

However, understanding this situation has attracted considerable and very broad public interest, I will say this matter is still very much under active investigation. I will underscore that today's announcements are not a complete account of the investigative work currently underway.

"There are separate and distinct investigations ongoing into these matters, certainly not limited to the involvement of the people arrested today, and these efforts include investigating connections to the Government of India.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September last year of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

India has dismissed Trudeau's charges as "absurd" and "motivated."

During the press conference, Superintendent Mandeep Mooker, who leads the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said, "IHIT is releasing photos of the accused men in hopes of furthering its investigation. Anyone who may have seen these individuals, in or around Surrey, in the weeks leading up to the homicide, or anyone with information about the homicide is asked to contact IHIT.

He said that the suspects "were not known to the police" before the investigation into Nijjar's death, according to reports.

Mooker said all three are Indian nationals and have been living as non-permanent residents in Canada for the last three to five years.

He said coordination with India has been "challenging and rather difficult for the last several years".

Mooker said that his investigation has relied on the Sikh community's support.

"We would not be at this point without the bravery and courage of the Sikh community coming forward with information for this investigation," he said, adding that he believes they will continue to come forward for any future investigations, according to the report.

Citing sources, a report in Global News said that the suspects had entered Canada on student visas but may have been working at the direction of Indian intelligence when they shot Nijjar.

According to court records, Brar has been charged with a murder that occurred in Surrey on June 18, 2023. He also faces a charge of conspiracy to murder on May 1, 2023, in Edmonton and Surrey, the report said.

Talking to reporters, Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc declined to confirm the Indian government connection, saying such questions are best addressed by the RCMP.

"I have full confidence in the security apparatus of the government of Canada and the work of the RCMP, and the work that the (Canadian) Security Intelligence Service does," Leblanc said.

"I think the police operation that you see ongoing today confirms that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously. But questions with respect to particular links or non-links are properly put to the RCMP," he added.

The indictments Friday allege the conspiracy unfolded in both Surrey and Edmonton between May 1, 2023, and the date of Nijjar's killing.

Quoting sources close to the investigation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that the police are actively investigating possible links to three additional murders in Canada, including the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.

Members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, according to the sources.

Sources said investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada some months ago and have been keeping them under tight surveillance.

India on Monday summoned the Canadian deputy high commissioner and lodged a strong protest with him over the raising of pro-Khalistan slogans at the event in the presence of Prime Minister Trudeau and several other leaders.

Nijjar was a Khalistani separatist and he was wanted in India on various terror charges.

Days after Trudeau's allegations, India asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country to ensure parity. Subsequently, Canada withdrew 41 diplomats and their family members from India.

India has been asserting that its "core issue" with Canada remained that of the space given to separatists, terrorists and anti-India elements in that country.

Following Trudeau's allegations last year, India temporarily suspended the issuance of visas to Canadian citizens. The visa services were resumed several weeks later.
The Criminal Investigation Department investigating the sexual abuse allegations against Janata Dal-Secular leader and National Democratic Alliance's Hassan Lok Sabha candidate Prajwal Revanna has registered a case of rape against him, based on the complaint by a party worker.

IMAGE: NSUI supporters along with the students of the Maharani College stage a protest against JD-S MP Prajwal Revanna over his alleged involvement in the sex scandal, in Bengaluru, April 30, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

The crime investigation department booked Prajwal, grandson of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, after a JD-S worker from Hassan lodged a complaint against him.

Besides the rape charges, the CID invoked sections against Prajwal pertaining to voyeurism, disrobing and making videos and taking photographs by threatening the complainant.

In the complaint, the woman said Prajwal had raped her at gunpoint and made videos on his mobile phones.

She said Prajwal had taken her to the MP quarters where he perpetrated the crime at gunpoint and threatened that he would kill her as well as her husband, if she revealed to anyone what he had done.

The accused allegedly forced her to satisfy his lust whenever he demanded, and threatened to make her video public if she did not cooperate.

Prajwal is facing allegations of sexually abusing several women. The state government-constituted Special Investigation Team is investigating the case.

Scores of explicit video clips allegedly involving the 33-year-old MP sexually abusing several women had started making the rounds in recent days.

Prajwal is the BJP-JD-S alliance's candidate from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency where polling was held on April 26, after which he left the country on a diplomatic passport.

The JD-S had joined the NDA in September last year.

The JD-S leadership has suspended Prajwal from the party.
The police have filed a closure report before a local court in its probe into the death of Rohith Vemula, a student of the University of Hyderabad, claiming he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.

IMAGE: Students in protest over suicide of University of Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula, in Hyderabad, January 25, 2016. Photograph: ANI on X

The police also gave a clean chit to the accused in the case, citing a lack of evidence.

The then UoH vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, former Bharatiya Janata Part MP Bandaru Dattatreya, former BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao, along with some ABVP leaders, were among the accused in the case.

The Cyberabad police that investigated the case informed the court that Rohith Vemula did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that he was aware of it.

Vemula died by suicide in 2016.

"The deceased had multiple issues worrying him which could have driven him to commit suicide," the report said.

"In addition to this, the deceased himself was aware that he did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him a SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would result in a loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution."

Further, the report said, "Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide."

Vemula's death in 2016 snowballed into a political controversy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacking the Central government and the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani slamming alleged attempts to project it as a caste battle.

The Congress had then attacked Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya and other BJP and ABVP functionaries in connection with the suicide of Rohith Vemula and over alleged discrimination against students from marginalised sections in universities.

When contacted, Rohith Vemula's brother Raja Vemula declined to comment.

Citing the closure report, BJP's IT department in-charge Amit Malviya said, "truth prevails".

He said on X, "Telangana Police files closure report in Rohith Vemula case, claiming he was not a Dalit and died by suicide, absolves then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, MLC N Ramchander Rao and University of Hyderabad V-C Appa Rao, besides Union Minister Smriti Irani and ABVP leaders. Truth prevails."

He referred to a 2017 post by Rahul Gandhi in which the Congress leader had alleged that Vemula was "murdered" because he was a "Dalit" to slam him.

Gandhi's irresponsible campaign vitiated the environment in higher learning educational institutes across India and put Vemula's family through immeasurable pain and misery, Malviya alleged.

"But he (Gandhi) had no compunction raising the spectre of caste oppression, to suit his sinister agenda, using thousands of students, particularly from the Dalit community, as canon fodder for his regressive politics. He should apologise to both, the student and Dalit communities," Malviya said.

Meanwhile, a group of students protested at the University of Hyderabad and raised slogans against BJP, Smriti Irani and former UoH Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray continues to get a steady stream of Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leaders visiting him for support in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls despite his party not being an active player in the political theatre currently.

IMAGE: MNS chief Raj Thackeray meets Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in New Delhi, March 19, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

Earlier this week, following the announcement of their candidature, Chief Minister Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde, who is contesting from Kalyan, and Naresh Mhaske, who has been fielded from Thane, met the MNS supremo at his Shivaji Park residence.

Lawyer-turned-politician Ujjwal Nikam, who has been fielded by the BJP from Mumbai North Central, also met Thackeray.

The BJP and Shiv Sena, which along with Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party comprise the ruling Mahayuti, for some time now have been courting Thackeray, who founded the MNS in 2006.

During the MNS' annual Gudi Padwa rally in Mumbai last month, Thackeray said his party would not contest the Lok Sabha polls but announced his unconditional support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also asked his party men to campaign for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

Espousing the cause of Marathi manoos (sons of the soil), the MNS failed to win a single seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but managed to eat into the Shiv Sena-BJP votes across the state, especially in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik.

In the 2009 assembly polls that followed, the MNS had its brightest moment under the sun winning 13 seats riding high on the Marathi manoos plank.

It failed to win a seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and its tally in the 2014 and 2019 assembly polls stood at one each. It did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Though Raj Thackeray has not had electoral success, he is a formidable face who speaks aggressively against Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray, opined political commentator Prakash Akolkar.

"Uddhav Thackeray has now become the face of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (the opposition alliance in the state comprising Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar). Shiv Sena-UBT workers are campaigning even for Congress candidates. They (Mahayuti) want a face that challenges Uddhav Thackeray," Akolkar said.

Nobody doubts Raj Thackeray's oratory skills, charisma and even his ability to occupy the media space, Akolkar pointed out.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Raj Thackeray will hold a rally to canvas votes for Union Minister Narayan Rane, who is contesting from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat, on Saturday, and is also expected to hold a rally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month.

MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said though the party was unsuccessful in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it still has sway over voters.

The party has dedicated voters in some pockets, Deshpande said, citing Mumbai's Mahim assembly segment, where he garnered 46,000 votes in the 2019 state elections and stood second.

"Coupled with this, Raj saheb has charisma that can influence voters," Deshpande asserted.
The party's calculation behind fielding Rahul from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi, also rests on the conclusion that Rae Bareli is a better, safer seat for the former Congress president, who lost Amethi to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 by nearly 50,000 votes.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a rally in Shivamoga, Karnataka. Photograph: @INCIndia/X

The surprise nomination of Rahul Gandhi from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli brings the focus back on the VVIP segment which was first represented in the Lok Sabha by the former Congress president's grandfather Feroze Gandhi, who held the seat in the first two elections after Independence.

The strong foundations that Feroze Gandhi laid in the constituency were later nurtured and strengthened by his wife and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who won from the seat in 1967, 1971 and 1980, followed by friends and family members of the Gandhi family.

Indira Gandhi contested from two seats in 1980 -- Rae Bareli and Medak in Telangana -- and chose to retain the Medak seat. Arun Nehru won the 1980 bypoll and subsequently in 1984.

From Arun Nehru, who was late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's right-hand man, to Sheila Kaul, another Gandhi kin, Rae Bareli returned several of the Gandhi family members and aides to the Lok Sabha.

The seat was held by Congress' R P Singh in the 1960 bypoll after the demise of Feroze Gandhi, and by another Congress leader Baij Nath Kureel in 1962.

Sheila Kaul, an aunt of Indira Gandhi, represented the seat in 1989 and 1991.

In 1999, another friend of the Gandhis, Satish Sharma represented the Rae Bareli constituency, till Sonia Gandhi shifted there.

The only time the Congress did not represent the seat was in the wake of the Emergency in 1977 when Janata Party's Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister, and BJP's Ashoke Singh in 1996 and 1998.

Although Sonia Gandhi upon entering electoral politics chose to make her electoral foray from neighbouring Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 1999, a seat her husband Rajiv Gandhi had held earlier, she soon vacated it for her son Rahul's debut in politics in 2004.

Sonia Gandhi subsequently held Rae Bareli four times between 2004 and 2019, although of late, her winning margins began dwindling.

The party's calculation behind fielding Rahul from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi, also rests on the conclusion that Rae Bareli is a better, safer seat for the former Congress president, who lost Amethi to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 by nearly 50,000 votes.

Amid criticism that the Congress had given a walkover to Irani in Amethi, sources said, the party in its wisdom believed that Rae Bareli's historical, emotional and electoral importance for the Gandhi family was higher than that of Amethi.

In her farewell message to the people of Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi had expressed confidence that the seat which always stood by her and the Gandhis will continue to support her family in future also.

In the message on February 15, former party chief Sonia Gandhi informed voters of her Rae Bareli constituency that she will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls due to health and age issues.

In an emotional message to the constituents of the segment she has represented since 2004, the 77-year-old also threw subtle hints of a possible entry of a member of her family from Rae Bareli.

"I am proud to say that whatever I am today, I am because of you and I have always done my best to honour your trust. Now on account of health and age issues, I will not contest the next Lok Sabha election," she said in the message.

"After this decision, I will not have the opportunity to serve you directly but my heart and soul will always remain with you. I know that you will stand by me and my family in future, just as you have in the past," she said in the message.

The message to the voters came a day after she filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan.

She entered the Rajya Sabha for the first time and was the second member of the Gandhi family to do so, after Indira Gandhi who was a member of the upper house from 1964 to 1967.

In the message to voters, Sonia Gandhi further said, "My family in Delhi is incomplete without you. It completes when I come to Rae Bareli and meet all of you. My ties with you are very old. I have inherited these ties as a good fortune from my in-laws."

Noting that ties of her family with Rae Bareli are "very deep rooted", she said Rae Bareli sent her father-in-law Feroze Gandhi to Lok Sabha in the first general election held after Independence.

After that, you accepted my mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, she noted, adding that ever since, our relationship grew stronger on the difficult road to affection despite the highs and lows of life and our faith in this bond grew stronger.

"You allowed me space to walk along on this shining path. I came to you after losing my mother-in-law and husband and you accepted me with open arms," the former Congress chief said.

Sending her respect to elders and love to youngsters, she had said in her message, "I will see you soon".
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Mostly clear this evening followed by increasing clouds and a few showers after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly clear this evening followed by increasing clouds and a few showers after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Mostly clear skies during the evening giving way to clouds and a few showers after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies during the evening giving way to clouds and a few showers after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
Deputy prime minister met with representatives from the US, UK and French Embassies.

Passengers cross the Bassac river by ferry to Takhmao town in Kandal province May 24, 2011.

The Cambodian government official overseeing a proposed US$1.7 billion canal told diplomats on Friday that the project has been studied for two years and wont have a negative impact on the environment.

So far, only Vietnam has said that it opposes the 180 km (112 mile) Chinese-built project, said Sun Chanthol, a deputy prime minister and the former minister of public works.

There is nothing to worry about, but they keep raising it, he told reporters after the meeting in Phnom Penh, referring to Vietnam. I have already explained to them. We studied it in detail. Do not worry. Do not worry.

The Funan Techo canal, officially known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project, will connect the Cambodian coastal province of Kep on the Gulf of Thailand with the inland provinces of Kandal and Takeo and the capital of Phnom Penh via a tributary of the Mekong River.

The Cambodian government has said it would cut transport costs and reduce dependence on Vietnamese ports. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year and could be completed within four years.

Map of the proposed Funan Techo canal. (Cambodia National Mekong Committee)





A group of Vietnamese experts suggested last week that Hanoi should push for a delay to allow further discussions about the projects environmental and geopolitical impacts on the Mekong delta, which is home to 17.4 million people.

The experts said the canal could reduce the flow of the river by up to 50% in the delta, leaving it vulnerable to sea water incursions.

Senior Vietnamese officials have also asked that the Mekong River Commission be allowed to evaluate the project. The commission works with Cambodia, Thailand and Laos and Vietnam to manage the shared water resources and the sustainable development of the Mekong River.

10,000 jobs

Sun Chanthol, who also serves as the first vice president of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, met with representatives from several embassies, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

He told reporters afterward that the project will create jobs for at least 10,000 people, most of them Cambodian.

Only a few Chinese will be technical advisers, he said. China cant spend money to send their thousands of workers here.

Ly Van Bon, owner of the Bay Bon fish pond located in the Mekong river which was affected by sediment, speaks with tourists in Can Tho, Vietnam, May 25, 2022. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)





Cambodia plans to allow a Chinese state-owned company, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, to build the canal under a 50-year construction, operation and transfer agreement.

The U.S. Embassy has said that while it respects Cambodias sovereignty in internal governance and development decisions, the Cambodian people as well as people in neighboring countries would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water and agricultural sustainability.

Former Prime Minister Hun Sen, now the president of the Senate and still retains much power, told a business banquet last week that construction of the canal will go ahead as planned, emphasizing the project was of national interest.

Sun Chanthol is scheduled to give a public presentation on the project at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on Saturday.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
Press freedom has declined in 26 of 32 countries or territories across Asia, group says.

Hong Kong democracy activist Frances Hui outside Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in DC in Washington, D.C., May 2, 2024.

Press freedom has worsened in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a Reporters Without Borders report released Friday, which has been designated World Press Freedom Day, as journalists continue to face threats, repression and imprisonment for doing their jobs.

Vietnam has ramped up efforts to target journalists and bloggers, while in Hong Kong, once a bastion of free media and expression in Asia, the passage of the national security law known as Article 23 raised concerns that journalists could be arrested on dubious charges.

Across Asia, 26 of the 32 countries and territories have seen their scores fall in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index put out by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

The regions dictatorial governments have been tightening their hold over news and information with increasing vigor, said RSF, which acts to protect the freedom and independence of journalists around the world.

In London and Washington, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation staged large-scale wall projections to highlight the detention in Hong Kong of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen and the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, which was shut down in 2021.

Portraits of Lai and other journalists in custody were projected on Tower Bridge in London, while the slogan Close It Down was projected onto a building in Washington where Hong Kong has its Economic and Trade Office.

Closing bureaus in Hong Kong

The crackdown on individual and press freedoms in Hong Kong has prompted several news organizations to close their operations in the city. Radio Free Asia closed its bureau there in March.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal announced it was shifting the headquarters of its Asia operations from Hong Kong to Singapore as part of a restructuring.

A portrait of Jimmy Lai, a journalist in custody, is projected on Tower Bridge in London, May 2, 2024. (RFA)





Meanwhile, information continues to be tightly controlled and censored in Tibet, one of the most restrictive places in the world for press freedom, according to Aleksandra Bielokowska, Advocacy officer at Reporters without Borders.

Its a region where a foreign correspondent faces restricted travel and cant operate freely to report, she told RFA. Its a place where Tibetan sources are often persecuted and detained for simply sharing information from within the region.

World Press Freedom Day serves as a reminder of the resilience of journalists, said Bay Fang, Radio Free Asias president and chief executive. But its also a reminder of the immense threats they face, from transnational repression, to digital harassment, to imprisonment and even death, she said in a video statement on Thursday.

Press freedom is a human right  one that is integral to a healthy global society. But, sadly, as we are witnessing in Asia and around the world, it is not a guarantee.

Cambodia and Vietnam

In Cambodia, 15 journalists have been killed since 1994  12 of them were reporting on sensitive issues when they died, according to human rights group Licadho.

Journalists gathered at a Phnom Penh hotel Thursday, more than a year after the government ordered the closure of the Voice of Democracy, one of the last independent media outlets in the country.

Cambodian journalists highlighted the harassment and violence they face in the country, even though the countrys 1993 constitution guarantees press freedom. Civil society officials and environmental activists joined editors and reporters in urging the adoption of an information access law.

If that draft law is passed and goes into effect, it would be easier for journalists as well as the public to get information, said Chhorn Chansy, the editor-in-chief of CamboJa.

Journalist and author Pham Doan Trang, who was sentenced to nine years in prison after being accused of generating anti-state propaganda. (Paul Mooney/CPJ)





Later this month, Vietnamese journalist and author Pham Doan Trang, who is serving a nine-year sentence after being accused of generating anti-state propaganda, will be awarded the 2024 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award  in absentia.

Trang published several books about democracy, including Non-Violent Resistance, Politics for the Common People and A Handbook for Freedom Fighters.

Sentenced to life in prison

In Myanmar, award-winning documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe was sentenced to life in prison in January for violating the Anti-terrorism Law.

The 51-year-old is known for her work highlighting the challenges facing Myanmars environment and the impact of conflict on civilians following the 2021 military coup.

The prison sentence was seen as another bid by the military junta to stamp out criticism by using lengthy sentences to instill fear.

Shin Daewe, a documentary filmmaker and journalist in Myanmar, has been sentenced to life in prison by a junta court in Insein Prison court in Yangon. (Mg Ko Oo via Facebook)





Since the coup, the junta has revoked the publishing licenses of 14 news organizations, according to the Detained Journalists Information Myanmar group.

Last year, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Myanmar as the second-worst country in the world  after China  for arresting and imprisoning journalists.

But the junta doesnt just repress members of the news media, said Maw Oo Myar, senior reporter for the Kantarawaddy Times, a media outlet that operates in Kayah state. They also arrest and punish journalists sources, he said.

Even the people with whom we have friendly relations do not warmly welcome us if they know we are working for news, he said. The public is also reluctant to answer the questions for news freely and confidently as before.

Translated by Sum Sok Ry and Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

RFA Tibetan contributed to this report.
China's export-led economic structure is baked in, while its people lack the spending power to consume more.

Industrial overcapacity in China is the result of a number of political pressures and structural changes in the country's post-lockdown economy, and is unlikely to change any time soon, economists told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

U.S. officials have recently accused the Chinese government of over subsidizing certain industries, leading to overcapacity and a tendency to flood global markets with cheap products.

The issue, which Beijing says is a ploy by Washington to suppress it as a global competitor, was a key topic on the agenda during recent visits to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who criticized China's "unfair trade practices and the potential consequences of industrial overcapacity to global and U.S. markets, citing electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels in particular.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi retorted that "China's legitimate right to development is being unreasonably suppressed," calling on Washington to "stop hyping up the false narrative of China's overcapacity, lift illegal sanctions on Chinese companies and stop Adding Section 301 tariffs that violate WTO [World Trade Organization] rules," state media reported on April 30.

'Blind expansion'

So what does overcapacity in China look like? And how can it be addressed?

The top 20 automakers in China have a combined production capacity of some 35 million cars, but are currently only operating at less than 50% of capacity, according to a recent report from the Jiangsu Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center.

Many have benefited from government subsidies under a 10-year green energy development policy set and subsidized by Beijing, analysts told RFA Mandarin.

The report blamed "blind expansion" of capacity and "miscalculating development trends in the clean energy sector," adding that the mistake has cost Chinese automakers dear. Figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics show that the auto industry only garnered profits of 5% for the whole of 2023, for example.

Part of the issue is that, structurally, the Chinese economy is geared up to fill export orders, with more than 2% of its GDP reliant on exports, according to a former U.S. trade official.

Another issue is the tendency of the ruling Chinese Communist Party to order certain industries to ramp up production  in this case, green energy  to meet long-term political goals, namely, the 10-year "Made in China" action plan, which launched in 2015, former U.S. Department of Commerce official Patrick Mulloy told RFA Mandarin.

Such plans inevitably involve huge amounts of government subsidies for targeted industries, evidence of which Mulloy said he had seen personally on official visits to China while serving on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in an undated photo (AFP)

The fundamental problem is that we have a complete imbalance in our economic relationship with China, Mulloy told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

I think the Chinese leadership has decided no, we want to be dominant in these new industries  electric vehicles, batteries, solar, all of these sorts of things. And they have decided that they're going to pump their money in, to subsidize these industries and exporting them.

'The deformed monster'

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have little recourse to the WTO, because Beijing doesn't supply all of the data they would need to make a case through that body, hence the harder line now being taken in public by U.S. officials on the issue, Mulloy said.

"The most fundamental reason for overcapacity in China is top-down, autocratic control exercised by the Chinese Communist Party," Xie Tian, a professor at the University of South Carolina's Aiken School of Business. "Or rather, it's the deformed monster produced by the fusion of a market economy with that autocratic system."

Taking electric vehicles as an example, Xie said China currently has more than 200 electric vehicle factories, with an overall production capacity that exceeds domestic demand.

Over-investment leads to diminishing returns, forcing companies to engage in life-or-death price wars just to survive, Xie said, adding that many of those companies would never have gotten started in the first place in a market economy.

"The central government comes up with a policy, and subsidies, and everyone wants a slice of the pie," Xie said. "So they rush to production without worrying whether or not these products will sell."

"They don't care about that, because this is a way for local government officials to show off their political achievements," he said, adding that the promotion prospects of local officials is heavily influenced by local GDP figures during their tenure, and new factories inflate those number for long enough for the official to be promoted elsewhere.

Yet much of this "growth" is illusory, and there is scant political will to allow any of these subsidized companies to go bankrupt, which is what should happen in a market economy, Xie said.

"That would mean a self-created wave of unemployment and bankruptcies," he said, adding that the government may eventually be forced to allow this to happen.

'Overcapacity if back'

Excess industrial capacity is nothing new in China, according to a March 26 report from the U.S.-based Rhodium Group.

"China has a long history of structural overcapacity," the report said, adding that the last severe episode happened in 2014-2016, a few years after the government launched a massive stimulus package in response to the 2008-09 global financial crisis.

"After years of retreat, anecdotal evidence is mounting that overcapacity is back in China," the report said, citing clean technology in particular.

Robotic arms assemble electric vehicles at a Leapmotor factory in Jinhua in eastern China's Zhejiang province, April 26, 2023. (Reuters)

Capacity utilization rates for silicon wafers fell to 57% in 2022 from 78% in 2019, the report said, while adding that production of lithium-ion batteries was 1.9 times the volume of domestically installed batteries in 2022 and that similar problems are also now being seen in the industrial sector as a whole.

The report said inventory levels -- the amount of goods that have yet to exit the factory gates -- are also sky-high.

U.S.-based economist Cheng Xiaonong agreed.

"There is no industry in China that doesn't have overcapacity," Cheng said. "The problem is that the production capacity structure in China has been based from the start on the concept of China as the 'workshop of the world.'"

"The problem is that this dream is now shattered," he said.

Cheng said he doesn't believe that ongoing tensions with the international community are actually caused by this issue, however. He believes foreign governments are using trade as a way to contain and curb a newly aggressive China, which they see as a threat to global peace and stability. Blinken, for example, took issue with China's export of materials to Russia that could aid its war effort in Ukraine.

"The trade war isn't caused by overcapacity; rather, there is a trade war because China threatens the peace and security of every country," Cheng said. "The trade war is a means for other countries to sanction China."

Antidote to overcapacity

Economists in China and overseas believe that the antidote to overcapacity in China is to stimulate domestic demand. But is this even possible?

Cheng doesn't think so, citing recent figures that show that, in 2021, more than 42% of the population was getting by on less than 1,090 yuan, or US$150, a month, while another 41% makes somewhere between that figure and 3,000 yuan, or US$415, a month.

"When 84% of the population has a per capita income of less than 3,000 [yuan] a month, it's not easy to stimulate consumption," he said. "Meanwhile, the Chinese government isn't using the money it has to improve people's lives  it's investing in military expansion and preparation for war."

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with US President Joe Biden at the APEC Summit in California, Nov. 15, 2023. (Associated Press)

U.S.-based current affairs commentator Zheng Xuguang believes that the Xi Jinping administration will be forced back into the old economic model, importing raw materials in huge quantities from overseas, and exporting the finished products.

"This coastal development strategy has driven growth in the central and western regions, in a pattern that still hasn't changed to this day," he said.

And that means China is likely to keep on trying to export all of those excess goods for the time being, according to Xie Tian.

"The Chinese Communist Party doesn't want unemployment to rise, so it doesn't want to reduce production capacity," he said. "When the domestic Chinese market can't absorb [the excess goods], it is forced to export them and to subsidize it further."

"That means manufacturers in other countries can't compete."

Additional reporting by Jenny Tang. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
Russia sent over 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea in March alone, say US officials.

Russian and North Korean flags fly at the Vostochny osmodrome, the venue of the meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, Sept. 13, 2023.

Russia delivered more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to North Korea in March alone, U.S. officials said, noting the U.S is working with South Korea, Japan and other partners to roll out new sanctions this month against those aiding it.

In March alone, Russia shipped more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum (to the North), said the U.S. National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby on Thursday. Given the close proximity of Russian and North Korean commercial ports, Russia could sustain these shipments indefinitely.

Under U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions, Pyongyang is banned from importing more than 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per year.

The United States is going to continue to impose sanctions against all those working to facilitate arms and refined petroleum transfers between Russia and the DPRK, Kirby added. DPRK, or the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is North Koreas official name.

Separately, Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, said that Washington was working with its partners, including South Korea, Britain, Australia, the European Union, New Zealand and Japan, to announce new coordinated sanctions designations this month.

His remarks came after U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Wednesday that 50 U.N. members, including the United States, Japan, and South Korea, were considering alternatives to ensure continued objective and independent monitoring of sanctions on North Korea after the recent dissolution of a panel investigating suspected violations.

The U.N. panel of experts, tasked with investigating violations of sanctions related to North Koreas prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs, was officially dissolved on Tuesday. This followed the U.N. Security Councils failure to renew the panels mandate on March 28 due to a veto by permanent council member Russia.

Russias veto at the U.N. Security Council came amid accusations by the U.S. and South Korea that North Korea was providing weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine. Both Russia and North Korea deny that.

But the expert panel, in a report released in March, provided photographic evidence of Russias sanction-violating arms transactions with North Korea and confirmed investigations into these transfers.

Cybersecurity advisory

The U.S. also issued a cybersecurity advisory against a North Korea-linked hacking group called Kimsuki on Thursday, accusing it of using malicious emails to U.S. government officials and experts to gather information about U.S. policy toward the North.

Kimsuki seeks to gather information about North Korea, including geopolitical events and foreign policy strategies, by hacking into the emails, documents, and devices of U.S. government officials, think tanker members, and journalists, according to the advisory released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department and the National Security Agency.

Kimsuki, affiliated with North Koreas General Reconnaissance Department, was added to the U.S. Treasury Departments sanctions list in December last year.

A State Department official explained that North Korea has been cut off from the outside world for the past four years due to COVID-19 and had refused to engage in diplomatic dialogue, suggesting that the government may be resorting to hacking because it is not using the usual means to gather information about other countries.

Edited by Mike Firn.
Experts say the workers are at risk as the military and ethnic rebels vie for control of the region.

Workers walk on a road as China's oil pipeline project is seen in the background on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar October 7, 2015.

China has sent more than 300 technicians and workers to a deep sea port project in western Myanmars Rakhine state amid intense fighting between the military and ethnic rebels, according to residents.

A ship carrying the crews, along with heavy machinery and food, docked at Maday Island in Rakhines Kyaukphyu township on the evening of April 28, the residents told RFA Burmese, after receiving permission from the junta to work on the project in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, or SEZ.

The deployment comes after six months of clashes in Rakhine between junta troops and the Arakan Army, or AA  part of an alliance of three ethnic armies that have pushed the junta back in the western and northern parts of the country.

Experts say the ethnic army victories mark a turning point in the war that began soon after the junta took control of the government in a February 2021 coup detat.

The Kyaukphyu SEZs deep sea port complex is a key Chinese-led venture for which Beijing had requested heightened security. The project was approved in 2023 by the junta and attempts to recruit locals for work have been met with controversy and distrust.

A resident of Kyaukphyu who, like others interviewed in this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that some of the Chinese nationals who arrived on the ship are now residing in hotels in the township.

"Both the workers who were already there and those who recently arrived travel to Maday Island in the morning and return to the city in the evening using hovercrafts, he said. The ship that arrived carried Chinese experts, including engineers responsible for the power lines and water systems."

The Myanmar militarys Danyawaddy Naval Base near Thit Poke Taung village in Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, seen here in Jan. 26, 2023. (Airbus)

Residents said the ship departed from Maday Island on the morning of April 30.

Attempts by RFA to reach Hla Thein, the juntas attorney general and spokesperson for Rakhine state, for additional information about the deployment and the status of the project went unanswered.

China and Myanmar signed an agreement to implement the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port Project and SEZ in November 2020, under the National League for Democracy government, which was deposed months later in the military coup.

On Dec. 26, 2023, the two nations signed another agreement specifically for the deep sea port project during a meeting in Naypyidaw. Despite the agreements, residents say the project has yet to be fully implemented.

The deep sea port project is a joint venture between the neighboring countries, with Myanmar contributing 30% of the investment and China providing the remaining 70%. The port is expected to include 10 wharfs capable of docking container ships.

Developing a war zone

Kyaukphyu township has been at the forefront of fighting in recent months between the military and the AA, which in November ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup. Since then, the ethnic army has taken control of eight of Rakhine states 17 townships, as well as one township in neighboring Chin state.

Clashes and exchanges of territory occur on a near daily basis in the state.

On Thursday evening, the AA captured the pro-junta Border Guard Police Command, at which some 600 junta troops were stationed, and two pro-junta Border Guard Force camps in Maungdaw township, residents told RFA.

The AA first attacked the police command on April 25, and the capture ended a week of fighting, residents said. Hundreds of border guard troops retreated from the police command to Shwe Zar ward in the town of Maungdaw following the seizure, they added.

A day earlier, the AA captured two military outposts in the Mayu mountain range near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border where around 100 junta troops were stationed, according to sources close to the Rakhine rebel group. The seizure ended a nearly three-week bid by the AA for control of the camps, they said.

Residents said Friday that the Rakhine state capital Sittwe  a city of 100,000 people with typically crowded beaches and markets  has become a ghost town, as the AA captured nearby towns in recent months.

Those who lack the funds to relocate face a shortage of commodities and skyrocketing prices, while some are starving, they said. Junta troops have tightened security in the city since April 10, when AA chief Major Gen. Twan Mrat Naing urged residents of Sittwe and Kyaukphyu to flee to his armys controlled territories.

A jetty for oil tankers is seen on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar in this October 7, 2015 file photo. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Meanwhile, the AA and junta forces are in a fierce fight for control of Rakhines Ann township, which is the base of militarys Western Command, as well the townships of Buthidaung and Thandwe townships.

The latest developments follow the AAs March capture of Ramree township, which shares Maday Island with Kyaukphyu township.

A resident who has closely watched the progress of Chinese projects in the region told RFA at the time that the AA had assumed control of most of the areas within the Kyaukphyu SEZ and said the ethnic army would likely have a say on how Chinese development proceeds.

Protecting Chinese interests

Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia analyst at the National War College in Washington  who writes commentaries regularly for RFA  said that despite assurances to Beijing by both the military and the AA that they would protect its interests in Myanmar, Chinas decision to deploy workers and technicians to the Kyaukphyu SEZ is putting [them] in harms way.

They're both giving assurances for the protection of Chinese interests, but they're still very much in competition over the control of Kyaukphyu, he said, noting that fighting has increased around the township seat in recent weeks.

Right now, the Arakan Army is in fairly solid control of most of northern Rakhine  [and] is going to have to move on Kyaukphyu at some point, he added.

A boy runs barefoot as he plays in front of a clinic which was donated by China's oil pipeline project on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar October 7, 2015. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

China has said it wants to play a constructive role in stabilizing the situation in Rakhine as soon as possible, but observers say Beijing is likely motivated by concerns for Chinese development projects in the state, which also include gas and oil pipelines that cross from Rakhine to Chinas Yunnan province.

While the junta is believed to have asked Beijing to mediate as it continues to lose ground in the state, its unclear whether China has enough influence over the AA to end the conflict.

Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
Only 295 private hospitals nationwide have business licenses from the military, a ministry spokesperson said.

Junta officials shuttered a hospital in southeast Myanmar for hiring staff who oppose the military regime, sources close to the hospital told Radio Free Asia.

Military junta administrators ordered the private Aye Thandar hospital, in the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine, to close for three months, the sources said.

Military junta officials, including staff of the junta-led State Ministry of Health, sent a notice telling the hospital to close from Wednesday, one of the sources said.

It was ordered to close for three months, not even two months like the hospitals in Yangon and Mandalay, said the source, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals, referring to hospitals closed in Myanmars two biggest cities for similar reasons.

They said it was temporarily closed for employing Civil Disobedience Movement workers, the source said.

RFA called Mon States junta spokesperson Aung Myat Kyaw Sein to ask about the directive, but he did not answer his telephone.

The Civil Disobedience Movement, which at one time included more than 350,000 striking state employees erupted in opposition to military rule after a coup in 2021, when the generals ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

Doctors and nurses were at the forefront of the protests that swept the country in the weeks after the coup but

Teachers, doctors, and other public employees were later forced to make difficult economic decisions to secure their livelihoods.

Many medical professionals have sought work at institutions opposed to the junta or providing healthcare to ethnic minority insurgent organizations battling the military, sometimes making themselves a target in the process.

The regimes minister of health, Thet Khaing Win, told an annual Myanmar Private Hospitals Association ceremony on Wednesday that private healthcare providers that failed to comply with business license rules would face action in accordance with the private health businesses law.

In all, 295 private hospitals had been granted business licenses throughout the country, he said.

Authorities in Yangon closed two hospitals this year, both for two months.

Six hospitals in Mandalay, where doctors launched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 2021, were forced to close in 2022 after being accused of employing workers opposed to the junta.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
Under the change, Australian and British firms could import US military technology without needing licenses.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, second right, walks during a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, second left, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, at Point Loma naval base in San Diego, Calif., on March 13, 2023.

The U.S. State Department has opened the public review process for proposed changes to export controls that would allow defense contractors in Australia and the United Kingdom to import American military technology without needing to obtain licenses.

Australia and the United Kingdom would join Canada as the only countries with exemptions from licensing requirements under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, which is meant to stop U.S. defense technology falling into the wrong hands.

Public comment on the proposed exemptions  central to Pillar 2 of the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States  is being sought by May 31, according to a statement issued by the State Department on Thursday.

The change would create a license exemption supporting billions of dollars in license-free defense trade between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and allow for deeper security cooperation and innovation among AUKUS partners, it said.

All three nations are committed to working with our private sectors and our research communities  those who will use these exemptions  to ensure the exemptions, taken together, support the goals of the AUKUS enhanced security partnership, the statement added.

The Virginia-class attack submarine Pre-commissioning Unit (PCU) John Warner (SSN 785) is moved to Newport News Shipbuilding's floating dry dock in preparation for a christening August 31, 2014 in Newport News, VA. (U.S. Navy/John Whalen/Huntington Ingalls Industries/Handout/Reuters)

AUKUS Pillar 2 aims to create a broad and seamless defense industry across the three nations amid ongoing production backlogs in America as its defense industrial base is stretched by growing commitments to allies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

However, the proposed ITAR changes have been criticized by some U.S. lawmakers, including the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, who has asked whether Australia can protect defense secrets from Chinese spies.

ITAR exemption

Officials at the State Department last year also expressed concerns about the proposed ITAR exemptions, arguing that Australian and British firms can already freely access U.S. military technology after being vetted and going through the licensing process.

Proponents of Pillar 2, though, said the process is bureaucratic and burdensome for many foreign firms, and that exemptions are needed to facilitate production innovation across the three AUKUS countries.

Congress ultimately approved the possible exemptions in last years defense spending authorization bill, and gave President Joe Biden until last month to evaluate whether Australia and the United Kingdom had appropriate safeguards in place to protect U.S. military secrets.

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN 780) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a scheduled deployment in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility, Sept. 1, 2021. (Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP)

On April 19, though, the State Department said Biden had not yet reached such a determination and would again evaluate the allies in 120 days, at which time the exemptions could be finalized.

Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho and his partys ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the decision at the time as undermining the AUKUS pact.

The Biden Administrations determination that the U.K. and Australia do not have a system of export controls comparable to those of the United States is deeply misguided and further delays the implementation of AUKUS, Risch said in a April 22 statement.

This judgment means our trade with the U.K. and Australia will continue to operate under the existing ITAR rules for at least the next four months, he said. It is time to deliver on the promise of AUKUS. Continued failure to do so would demonstrate the administration is fundamentally unserious about competing with China.

Last year, Risch noted that Australia and the United Kingdom were  along with Canada and New Zealand  already trusted as part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance with the United States.

Widening net

Those critical of the exemptions point out that Five Eyes is an arrangement with trusted foreign governments, while the changes to ITAR would put U.S. defense technology into the hands of private companies who would then be responsible for safeguarding it.

Australian and British companies would no longer need to seek approval from the State Department prior to any export, reexport, retransfer, or temporary import of defense articles from America, according to a filing on the U.S. Federal Register.

In order to mitigate the risks involved with that, the proposed exemptions say individuals in Australia and the United Kingdom with access to sensitive U.S. technologies would need the equivalent in their countries of Secret-level clearance in the United States.

The exemptions would also not be comprehensive.

The State Department will compile a list of defense articles and defense services excluded from eligibility for transfer under the proposed new exemption, the Federal Register filing says.

Whatever the case, the Biden administration seems intent on passing the exemptions that could dramatically expand military production amid fears about Chinas aims of territorial expansion in the Pacific.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell  who until February was Bidens top advisor on Asia  said last month that Pillar 2 of AUKUS was basically  the way forward from the massive backlogs that he said have plagued the Americas defense industrial base.

National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to examine his nomination to be Deputy Secretary of State on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

In time, U.S. officials say that Pillar 2 could be expanded to include more allies. Last month, officials indicated Japan could be the first extra country added, but also said Tokyo has to wait until the arrangement with Canberra and London is fully fleshed out.

South Korea this week also expressed its interest in joining.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.
Welcome to The Azadi Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that unpacks the key issues in Afghanistan. To subscribe, click here.

I'm Abubakar Siddique, senior correspondent at RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. Here's what I've been tracking and what I'm keeping an eye on in the days ahead.

The Key Issue

Flash floods caused by spring downpours have wreaked havoc in most provinces in Afghanistan.



The Taliban said at least 103 people were killed and over 60 injured in floods and heavy rains between March 21 and April 29.



The downpours have also damaged thousands of houses, while over 100,000 acres of farmland have been destroyed.



Snow and hail have ruined my apricot, apple, and cherry trees, Sayed Gul Badshah, a farmer in the central province of Maidan Wardak, told RFE/RLs Radio Azadi.



Saed Akbar, a farmer in eastern Nangarhar Province, said heavy rain and hail have "utterly wrecked" his wheat and vegetable crops.



In the northern Faryab Province, farmer Abdul Qureshi said floods "washed away" scores of houses in the district of Pashtun Kot.



After a prolonged dry spell in autumn and winter, Afghanistan and its neighbors have been witnessing unusually heavy rains and snowfall in the spring.

Why It's Important: Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.



Experts say climate change has worsened the frequency and severity of extreme weather events -- from droughts and heat waves to floods and storms  around the world.



Afghanistans ability to adapt and difficulties in attracting international aid under the unrecognized Taliban government are seen as major obstacles to dealing with the situation.



Extreme weather conditions have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the worlds largest.

What's Next: There are signs that the international community is responding to the crisis by empowering local Afghan communities to combat climate change.



But it is unclear if the initiatives will help mitigate against large-scale natural disasters caused in part by climate change.



Deadly floods and extreme drought in recent years have uprooted millions of Afghans, some of whom have been forced to flee abroad.

What To Keep An Eye On

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed alarm about the situation of scores of exiled Afghan journalists who are staying in neighboring Pakistan.



Celia Mercier, head of RSF's South Asia desk, on April 30 urged the Pakistani authorities and international community to help protect Afghan journalists who fled their homeland for fear of retribution by the Taliban.



Mercier told Radio Azadi that Afghan journalists living in Pakistan should be able to utilize their journalistic skills or be allowed to move to a third country willing to host them.



Most of the nearly 200 journalists fled after the Talibans return to power in 2021 and are now waiting to be relocated to Western countries.



RSF said that the journalists lack access to education, health care, and employment.



Mohammad Idris Sadat, one of the stranded journalists, said many are suffering from "mental health problems because they face uncertainty" as their immigration cases are taking too long.

Why It's Important: After returning to power, the Taliban has attempted to erase the once vibrant Afghan media landscape.



Fear of reprisals by the group has forced hundreds of reporters and media workers to flee the country. Those remaining have faced beatings, arrests, and harassment.



Hundreds of print and electronic media outlets have been either shut down by the Taliban or closed due to a lack of funding.

That's all from me for now.

I'm off next week. The next Azadi Briefing will appear on May 17.

Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have. You can always reach us at azadi.english@rferl.org

Until next time,

Abubakar Siddique

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a visit to Berlin on October 11 that it was important that Ukraine's allies do not decrease their assistance next year as he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskiy has been on a whirlwind tour of major European capitals meant to win backing for his "victory plan" aimed at ending the war with Russia.

His main goal in his visits to London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin, his final stop, was to press for additional military and financial aid as Kyiv faces difficult months ahead in its fight to stop a slow but continuous Russian advance in the east.

In Berlin, Zelenskiy thanked Germany for its backing and said that "it is very important for us that this assistance does not decrease next year."

He said he would present Scholz with his plan for winning the war, repeating his hope that the conflict would end no later than next year.

"Ukraine more than anyone else in the world wants a fair and speedy end to this war," Zelenskiy said.

After his stops in London, Paris, and Rome on October 10, Zelenskiy said on X that he had "outlined the details" of his proposed "victory plan" to defeat Russian forces during his meetings with the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy.

He added that he and the other leaders agreed to work on the plan together but gave no details on what it says.

Scholz said he and the Ukrainian leader agreed on the need for a peace conference that includes Russia, but that peace "can only be brought about on the basis of international law."

"We will not accept a peace dictated by Russia," Scholz said.

Scholz also announced a 1.4 billion-euro ($1.53 billion) military aid package for Ukraine from Germany with partner countries Belgium, Denmark, and Norway, saying it includes more air defense, tanks, combat drones, and artillery and sends a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that "playing for time will not work" and vowing "not let up in our support for Ukraine."

During a 35-minute meeting with Pope Francis on October 11, Zelenskiy sought the Vatican's help in securing the return of adults and children taken prisoner by Russia, he said on X, formerly Twitter.

"The issue of bringing our people home from captivity was the main focus of my meeting with Pope Francis," he said.



Zelenskiy gave Francis an oil painting called the Bucha Massacre, depicting the mass killings of civilians by Russian troops in the Ukrainian city in 2022.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Zelenskiy's arrival in Berlin comes after an October 12 summit of the Ramstein group of Ukraine's main backers was canceled at short notice when U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, abandoned their travel plans as the southern U.S. states braced for Hurricane Milton.



The White House said in a statement that Biden spoke to Scholz on October 10 and noted "his intention to continue our strong collaboration on geopolitical priorities, including supporting Ukraines defense against Russian aggression."

The United States has been Ukraine's main backer and by far the main contributor in terms of financial and military aid, but a victory by Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump in the election could cast doubt about Washington's continued support for Kyiv.



Zelenskiy's diplomatic efforts are taking place as Russia continues to keep up the pressure on Ukraine's cities.

As Zelenskiy arrived in Berlin, the number of civilians killed in a Russian missile strike on Odesa on October 11 rose to nine, including a teenage girl, and Russian troops struck the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

"A two-story building where civilians lived and worked was destroyed," Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

Odesa, Ukraine's main hub for grain exports, has been repeatedly struck by Russian forces since the start of the war.

Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said there were no injuries in one strike but an inspection following another missile strike on the Derhachiv community of Kharkiv was ongoing.

Outside Kharkiv, a 38-year-old man was killed by a Russian drone strike on the village of Kozacha Lopan, the region's military administration reported.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital was targeted by Russian drones early on October 11. The military administration of the Ukrainian capital later reported on Telegram that all the attacking drones had been shot down, without specifying a number.

On the battlefield, outmanned and outgunned Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian troops inside the strategic city of Toretsk in the eastern region of Donetsk after abandoning Vuhledar, another strategic hub in the region, last week.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces carried out fresh attacks near Vremivka, Kharkiv, Kupyansk, and Siversk, the General Staff of Ukraine's military reported on October 11.

Separately, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said at least 208 civilians were killed and 1,220 injured in Ukraine in September. That made it the month with the highest number of civilian casualties in 2024, the mission said.

The organization said that 46 percent of the dead were over the age of 60. In addition, nine children were killed and 76 were injured in September.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the release of all imprisoned journalists, including RFE/RL's Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, who have been detained in Russia on charges they, their employers, and their supporters reject as politically motivated.

"Journalism should not be a crime anywhere on Earth," Biden said in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

"In Russia, American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva have been imprisoned in connection with their work for The Wall Street Journal and for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty," Biden said.



Kurmasheva, a Prague-based journalist with RFE/RL who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenships, has been held in Russian custody since October 18 on a charge of violating the so-called "foreign agent" law, which critics and rights groups say is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent.



Kurmasheva, who is 47, has also been charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.



RFE/RL and the U.S. government say the charges are a reprisal for her work as journalist for RFE/RL.

Gershkovich has been held in detention since March last year on spying charges both he and the newspaper vehemently deny, saying the 32-year-old was merely doing his job as an accredited reporter when he was arrested.



Moscow has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.



"On World Press Freedom Day, the United States calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all journalists who have been put behind bars for simply doing their jobs," Biden said, also mentioning Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist kidnapped and held in Syria since 2012.



Biden said the U.S. administration will soon announce concrete steps in response to the wrongful detention of journalists worldwide, calling the repression of press freedom a "grave threat" to America's national security.



"I will authorize measures, including sanctions and visa bans, against those who take abusive actions to silence the press," he said. "Today and every day, we recognize their courage, support their right to do their jobs, and stand with them for press freedom."

Kurmasheva is one of four RFE/RL journalists -- Andrey Kuznechyk, Ihar Losik, and Vladyslav Yesypenko are the other three -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all four, saying they have been wrongly detained.

Losik is a blogger and contributor for RFE/RLs Belarus Service who was convicted in December 2021 on several charges including the organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RLs Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of creating or participating in an extremist organization.

Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was sentenced in February 2022 to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea after a closed-door trial. He was convicted of possession and transport of explosives, a charge he steadfastly denies.
TBILISI -- Protesters who rallied against the Georgian government's plan to approve a controversial "foreign agent" law say they were beaten by security forces who launched a violent crackdown with water cannons, volleys of tear gas, and, according to some eyewitnesses, rubber bullets.

Tensions remained high as tens of thousands of people returned to the streets late on May 3 as the standoff continued between the government and demonstrators who have been staging mass protests in the center of the South Caucasus country's capital.

Tbilisi's main Rustaveli Avenue once again appeared blocked late on May 3 and early into the morning, with some protesters holding candles and EU and Georgian flags in the Kashveti Church.

Thousands of protesters moved to an area near the Paragraph Hotel, where a meeting of the Asian Development Bank is being held. The hotel is owned by an investment fund controlled by former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, the influential billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party

At least one person was detained near the hotel for allegedly insulting police officers, the head of the Tbilisi Police Patrol told RFE/RL.

Authorities said police had arrested at least 23 people overnight, bringing the total to at least 100 detained over the past three days. The Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that detainees have been accused of administrative offenses, petty hooliganism, and disobeying police officers.



Eyewitnesses, including two injured men, told RFE/RL that what they called "provocateurs" arrived by car around 1 a.m. in Heroes' Square and physically assaulted some of the protesters.

It was the continuation of days of protests over the proposed law, denounced by opponents as being inspired by similar repressive legislation in Russia that Moscow has used to stifle dissent.

The bill would require organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence." Opponents warn that implementing the law could jeopardize the country's move toward European Union membership.

The bill was passed in a second reading on May 1, followed by a violent crackdown by riot police against demonstrators that ended with some 15 people being hospitalized. A parliamentary session on May 2 was subsequently canceled.

In at least eight cases on May 1, the victims claimed that, in addition to water cannons and tear gas, police also used rubber bullets. RFE/RL gathered eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence of injuries, interviewed three of the injured, and filmed the rubber bullets at the scene where they were reportedly fired.

Freelance reporter Davit Tamazashvili showed his injuries to RFE/RL on May 2 and recalled the events of the previous night, telling RFE/RL he was adjusting his camera when shooting suddenly started and he felt three bullets hit his legs.



The evidence seen by RFE/RL is consistent with injuries caused by rubber bullets, but Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze denied the use of rubber bullets against demonstrators when he addressed reporters at a press briefing.



Darakhvelidze told reporters early on May 2 that "no rubber bullets" were used by law enforcement officers, "although there were sufficient legal reasons for their use."



Georgia's Special Investigation Service said a probe into excessive force against the demonstrators was ongoing.

Nika Demurishvili, 24, who was hospitalized after protests on May 1, told RFE/RL by phone on May 3 that he was back at home after being hit in the eye by a suspected rubber bullet. He said he was still in pain and unable to open his damaged eye.

"I was wearing an gas mask that also had an eye protector" while attempting to help other protesters who had been knocked down by authorities, he said.

"It was like a rubber bullet hit me. What else could it have been.... I don't know exactly, but if it were a gas cylinder, I wouldn't have been hit directly in the face," he added.

Doctor Vako Lobzhanidze told reporters that "there is a serious injury to the [victim's] right eye, although the eye survived, adding that it did not appear that surgery would be needed.

Eyewitness Nana Bagalishvili told RFE/RL while on Queen Tamara Avenue that she was walking home from Heroes Square when saw tall men dressed in civilian clothes, likely security personnel or athletes, assaulting a man in a car, where his son, probably under 10 years old, was also present.

"They attempted to forcibly remove the man from the car and beat him. A woman in the car was also subjected to physical assault," she said, adding that other cars and men dressed similarly in black were "assaulting rally participants of the rally.

Nikoloz Butkhuzi told RFE/RL through Skype that he saw four men assaulting a single person who was lying on the ground.

He said he attempted to aid the fallen person before the men turned their attempt to him.

They assaulted everyone indiscriminately. It was deliberate and premeditated, he said.

Not all claims from the streets can immediately be independently verified.

The May 1 demonstration -- one of the largest the country has ever seen -- took place after the legislation was advanced in a second reading. A third and final reading is expected on May 17.

A large protest against the bill is currently being planned for May 11, one of the organizers told RFE/RL.



I want you to remember this date. Lets all organize a very large demonstration on May 11. A large, peaceful, strong, confident manifestation. Put it on your calendars, the unnamed organizer said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced concern about the authorities' treatment of protesters. Turk also urged authorities to withdraw the bill and engage in dialogue with civil society and journalists, who risk being affected by the proposed legislation.



"I am concerned by reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by law enforcement personnel against demonstrators and media workers in Georgias capital, Tbilisi, this week," he said.



A wave of anger has washed across Georgia since the ruling Georgian Dream party said it was reintroducing a slightly modified version of legislation that protests forced it to back away from last year.

Critics call the bill "the Russian law," a reference to the "foreign agent" law in Russia that the government in Moscow has used to silence its critics. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who has distanced herself from the policies of the ruling party, has promised to veto the law if it is formally adopted in a third reading, as expected.



The Georgian Foreign Ministry on May 2 refused an invitation from the United States to speak directly with U.S. officials, U.S. Ambassador Robin Dunnigan said.



"Recently, we have invited senior members of the Georgian Government to engage directly with the most senior leaders in the United States to discuss our strategic partnership and any concerns with U.S. assistance; unfortunately, the Georgian side chose not to accept this invitation," she said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

A statement from the Georgian Foreign Ministry said the invitation was rejected because there was a condition that the parliament temporarily stop the discussion of the draft law. This prerequisite "does not correspond to the spirit of partnership," the ministry statement said.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze later accused the United States of making "false" statements over the controversial law, saying Washington's words are similar to previous statements that "encouraged" violence during other times of unrest in the Caucasus nation.

Dunnigan's statement, which also urged Georgia to "recommit the country to its Euro-Atlantic future, as written in Georgias constitution," makes no reference to any conditions for holding talks.
TBILISI -- Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has come out swinging against one of his nations biggest backers, accusing the United States of making "false" statements over the controversial "foreign agent" law being pushed through parliament.

In his May 3 tweet, Kobakhidze also accused the former U.S. ambassador to Georgia from 2020-23, Kelly Degnan, as well as foreign-funded NGOs of supporting two attempted revolutions.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"It requires a special effort to restart [bilateral] relations against this background, which is impossible without a fair and honest approach," said Kobakhidze, a member of Georgian Dream, the ruling party accused by opponents of being partial to Russia.

The United States has stood up for Georgian independence and territorial integrity since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, allocating more than $6 billion in aid over that period -- from helping small business and diversifying the economy to strengthening the rule of law and democracy. It has also fervently backed Georgia's integration into Western institutions, including the EU.

William Courtney, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia from 1995-97, said that what he called the "hijacking" of Georgia's government by Georgian Dream, a party founded by a billionaire who made his money in Russia, is straining Tbilisi's relations with the United States and the West in general.

"Georgian Dream is trying to take Georgia in the direction of being a Russian satellite like Belarus," he said. "Kobakhidze has been and seems to remain one of the most ardent Georgian proponents of an autocratic future for the country."

Courtney said Kobakhidze's accusation against Degnan and NGOs is a page of the book of authoritarian leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Kobakhidze published his tweet following talks with Derek Chollet, the State Department's policy adviser, on May 2. The United States and the EU have been calling on Georgia to withdraw its "foreign agent" law, which is seen mimicking the repressive legislation pushed through by Putin.

The law requires civil-society organizations and media outlets that get foreign funding to report that fact to local authorities and submit to oversight that could encompass sanctions for as-yet-undefined criminal offenses. The debate over the bill comes ahead of elections in October.

The legislation advanced this week through parliament to a third and final reading expected on May 17, sparking tens of thousands of people to take to the streets in protest. Dozens have been detained and many have been injured.

"Georgian Dream may fear defeat in any free and fair election, hence it likely views the foreign agent law as a way to eliminate independent civil society organizations which it believes oppose it prior to the election," said Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at the Washington-based Rand Corporation think tank.

Nicholas Lokker, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, says the introduction of the bill is a sign the Georgian Dream government is trying to maintain good ties with the Kremlin.

"I'm sure there's some element of not wanting to antagonize Moscow very much at the moment. They are worried about the potential security implications" of integrating with the EU, he said.

Russia maintains thousands of troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway Georgian regions that Moscow recognized as independent states following a five-day war with Georgia in 2008.

The EU in December granted candidate status to Georgia and there had been some hope that the bloc would agree to the next stage of accession talks as early as this year. Lokker says the passage of the bill could stall further progress on EU accession.

"If this law passes, it severely jeopardizes the chances of [accession] occurring, given that it does require unanimity within the European Union, and a lot of EU member states, I think, would be hesitant to do that after this bill," Lokker said.

Courtney says passage of the bill could lead to a cut in U.S. aid, saying some of the civil society organizations currently supported by Washington could be shut down.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funds about three dozen programs in Georgia, rejected accusations that it was somehow involved in supporting revolutions in the country. USAID, which began supporting Georgia in 1992, currently allocates more than $70 million a year for the various projects.

"All of our assistance throughout these 32 years has been to advance our mutually shared goals of advancing Georgia's security, stability, prosperity, and Euro-Atlantic integration," it said in a statement to RFE/RL, adding that farmers, teachers, and small-business owners had been helped by programs is supports.

"USAID is in regular contact with our government of Georgia counterparts about our programs. Everything that we've done in Georgia has been in partnership with its people, and we will continue to stand in support of their vision for the future."

With reporting by Todd Prince in Washington
TBILISI -- Rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, beatings, and other tools of repression.

Protesters, journalists, and others, including opposition politicians, at mass demonstrations in Tbilisi over a controversial "foreign agent" bill have either suffered their effects or testified to witnessing them firsthand in the past three days.

Authorities in Georgia have defended their use of crowd-suppression tactics they said were justified or, in the case of rubber bullets, denied their use despite documented wounds and spent shells at the scene seemingly consistent with their use.

In fact, the official statements in some cases are contradicted by multiple videos captured by RFE/RL or on social media as well accounts to RFE/RL's Georgian Service by alleged victims and witnesses -- including reporters -- at rallies in Tbilisi on May 1 and 2.

Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said early on May 2 that "no rubber bullets" were used by law enforcement, "although there were sufficient legal reasons for their use." The country's Special Investigation Service is said to be looking into whether excessive force was used against the demonstrators.

But several people spoke of injuries they received on May 1 as a result of being hit by rubber bullets, with some displaying their wounds. Reports have also alleged that not only police and special forces attacked protesters but unidentified masked individuals, as well.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Tbilisi for more than two weeks now to protest the so-called "foreign agents" legislation introduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The United States, Britain, and the European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, have criticized the bill and suggested it could halt Georgia's progress toward EU integration. If adopted, it would require organizations and groups to register as "agents of foreign influence" if they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

Georgian Dream and its allies appear to have the votes to override a promised veto by President Salome Zurabishvili if it passes in a third reading as expected on May 17.

Critics say the bill is similar to legislation in Russia. Russia's "foreign agent" law, introduced in 2012, first targeted NGOs and rights groups before its scope was expanded to include media organizations, individual journalists, YouTube vloggers, and others who receive money from outside Russia.

As crowds in Tbilisi swelled in size and police tactics sharpened, UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced concern about Georgian authorities' treatment of protesters. "I am concerned by reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by law enforcement personnel against demonstrators and media workers in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, this week," he said.

Shot In The Eye

Nika Demurishvili, 24, was taken by ambulance to the hospital after suffering a wound around his right eye during the May 1 rally in the Georgian capital.

"His vision has not been damaged, but there was severe bruising. The whole picture [of the extent of the injury] wasn't clear from the ultrasound. During his checkup, then we will see exactly how bad it is. His eyebrow was also cut and required eight stitches," his wife, Mari Jokhadze, told RFE/RL's Georgian Service.

Jokhadze said her husband believes he was hit by a rubber bullet, the impact of which threw him back into the crowd behind him.

Demurishvili was likely spared more serious injury thanks to the glasses he was wearing. "At least these glasses protected him. If not, the bullet would have gone straight into his eye," Jokhadze said, adding that her husband was hit while trying to help others clear out when police fired tear gas.

Jokhadze learned of her husband's injury at 11:15 p.m. on live TV coverage of the demonstration. Against the advice of doctors, Demurishvili requested to leave the hospital and was released on May 2.

Tsotne Koberdize, one of the leaders of Girchi-More Freedom, an opposition group, says he was struck by rubber bullets in the arm and torso at the same rally.

"I didn't understand how it happened; how two [rubber bullets] hit me at the same time. I was bleeding," Koberidze told RFE/RL, adding that a doctor who quickly treated him extricated a "small rubber ball" from the wound on his arm. His request to keep the object as a "souvenir" was denied by those treating him, Koberidze said.

Koberidze says the objects struck him when he was at a side entrance to the parliament building on Chitadze Street. He says he decided to head there after getting word that security forces were using tear gas against protesters, hoping to help anyone in need of assistance.

"Rubber bullets are really dangerous, especially if they hit you in the eye. I was relieved that didn't happen to me," Koberidze said.

Rights groups have warned in recent years of increased use by authorities of rubber bullets, and their use by Georgian police in 2019 stoked public anger in the midst of skyrocketing political tensions.

But despite official denials this month, video and testimony -- including that gathered by RFE/RL's Georgian Service -- contradicts that assertion.

Konstantine Chakhunashvili showed marks on his hand and foot that he says were caused by rubber bullets in Tbilisi late on May 1. "I was standing on April 9 Street and shining a laser," Chakhunashvili recounted, referring to a street nearby the parliament building.

Like others, he alleged that security forces started firing rubber bullets after tear gas had been used against protesters, escalating tensions in the standoff.

"I heard the sound of a shot, and when I saw blood trickling from my hand I realized that I had been hit by a bullet. As I was walking, I soon felt my leg hurt. I then noticed my pants were torn and I saw the wound on my leg," Chakhunashvili told RFE/RL.

Chakhunashvili says he finds it hard to believe the Georgian authorities deny using rubber bullets. "The rubber bullets were seen by many people" at the rally on May 1, he said. "I am a journalist!"

Not only those taking part, but others covering the demonstrations have also reported being targeted by Georgian security forces.

Robi Zaridze, a journalist working for iFact, a Georgian news outlet, says he was beaten at around 4 a.m. on May 1 by what he described as special forces following several raids on the rally. Zaridze says one of what he called "robocops" -- a term protesters have given to the security forces in riot gear -- quickly grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into the middle of a group of law enforcement colleagues.

At this point, Zaridze alleges, they beat him on the legs and hands while hurling abusive language at him. His screams that he was a journalist did not stop them, Zaridze says. "After the beating, one of them lifted me up. I asked the same: 'Why? For what? I didn't do anything wrong,' I said," Zaridze recounted to RFE/RL.

After the alleged beating, which Zaridze says left him with injuries to the head and a torn lip, security forces changed their minds about releasing him. "Let's arrest him. I'll make his mother cry too," Zaridze said one of the officers boasted.

His hands cuffed, Zaridze says he was thrown into a police van with "at least seven people." He managed to call a fellow journalist before his smartphone was seized and smashed by police, Zaridze says. This call, the journalist says, ultimately led to his release from the van.

Before that, Zaridze says his attempts inside the van to display his press credentials did not seem to register with the riot police inside the vehicle. "They wanted to hand me over to a patrol, but there was no patrol in that area," Zaridze told RFE/RL. Eventually he was released near a church not far from parliament.

As he made his way down the streets, he serendipitously came upon an ambulance. "They cleaned my blood, treated my wound, wrote down my name, surname, and age, and let me go," he said, adding that he planned to file a complaint with the police demanding an investigation into his treatment. Zaridze says he still feels the impact of the beating.

Media Ombudsman, a Georgian media watchdog NGO, has claimed Georgian security forces targeted media covering the protests, saying that between April 28 and May 1 10 journalists were targeted, including Zaridze. It urged the authorities to quickly investigate.

Ex-Soldier Beaten, Then Arrested

Gia Kikacheishvili, a 60-year-old former soldier with battle experience defending Georgia, was arrested on Rustaveli Avenue, the central boulevard in Tbilisi, just after midnight on May 1. He was sent to a detention center as his family searched in vain for him all night. Before his arrest, Kikacheishvili says he was physically assaulted by a group of special forces.

Security forces dragged Kikacheishvili away from a group of protesters and questioned him aggressively about what he was doing with them in an expletive-filled interrogation, says Mariam Pataridze, a lawyer with the Social Justice Center who is representing Kikacheishvili.

"There are injuries to his face, his nose is swollen, his eye is bruised. He also has bruises over his body -- in the areas of his shoulders and arms. He also has scratches on his hands," Pataridze said. Her client, she said, was charged with "blocking the road," a charge she says is preposterous.

Gia Kikacheishvili's son, journalist Tamar Kikacheishvili, who now lives abroad, told RFE/RL that on the morning of May 1 his Facebook account appeared to have been hacked in what he believes may have been related somehow to his father's arrests.

Tamar Kikacheishvili has also been active in efforts to derail the "foreign agents" bill, including taking part in demonstrations in Belgium in 2023 against the first effort to pass a slightly different version of the current bill.

'Couldn't Breathe'

Mariam Zedginidze, 20, says she evaded trouble for hours at the rally on April 30, when security forces were reported to have used water cannons, tear gas, and chemical spray on protesters. She witnessed a protester tearing up and struggling for breath after a cannister with tear gas landed nearby.

"I was with my friend at the rally. By about 2 a.m., it was very peaceful and quiet. Suddenly people started running away. I was shocked; I didn't understand what was happening. I ran too, but tears were welling up in my eyes so much that I couldn't open my eyes and I couldn't breathe anymore," Zedginidze told RFE/RL.

As she struggled to breathe, a friend handed her a gas mask. "I tried to put it on my face, but it was too late," Zedginidze said, adding that she was pulled away by fellow protesters and given first aid at a nearby building used by demonstrators.

Opposition Politicians Not Spared

Levan Khabeishvili, chairman of the opposition United National Movement party, appeared to show signs of a severe beating after a demonstration on April 30. Despite his injuries, including bruises to the face, Khabeishvili turned up in parliament on May 1 when the bill was being debated and voted on.

"I feel no pain: The head will heal, the eye will heal, and the body will heal. It will go. The struggle against the Putinists must continue," he said in a jab at Georgian Dream's motives and perceived sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He wasn't the only opposition politician injured at the April 30 rally. Aleksandre Elisashvili, leader of the opposition Citizens party, also alleged that he was physically assaulted by law enforcement officers -- the second time he had been attacked in recent days.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping's upcoming trip to France, Serbia, and Hungary will focus on China's economic ties to Europe and escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Brussels.

But China's position on Russia's war in Ukraine will also take center stage, especially during Xi's visit to France, two EU officials told RFE/RL.

High on the agenda is China's participation in a Kyiv-backed international conference set for mid-June in Switzerland that will discuss the prospects for ending the war in Ukraine.

Russia has said it will not participate. But Kyiv is actively pushing for Beijing, a key partner of Moscow, to attend.

Xi's trip to Europe comes as China aims to carve out a larger diplomatic role around the war in Ukraine while still preserving its strong ties with Moscow.

The EU officials said Brussels is increasingly skeptical about the role Beijing can play in any future peace process. But the issue will be raised when Xi meets with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris on May 6.

"Beijing's conditions are that it won't be a full-blown summit, so they could then likely send some sort of envoy instead of a top level official, and they want other' peace plans on the table alongside [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy's," one of the EU officials told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity in order to discuss matters openly.

"Brussels thinks that Beijing is paving the way for Moscow's participation in similar meetings in the future," the official added.

Xi's five-day European tour beginning on May 5 comes as Kyiv faces setbacks on the battlefield and lingering questions over future levels of Western military support.

Since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China has maintained that it is neutral in the conflict but also continued to deepen its political and economic ties with Russia.

European officials have pressed Beijing to use its influence to moderate Russia's behavior and help bring it to the negotiating table. But those efforts have not yielded any breakthroughs.

"Many people would like to see China play a constructive role, but I think now that we're in the third year of the war, this idea is wearing a bit thin," said Theresa Fallon, director of the Brussels-based Center for Russia Europe Asia Studies.

In February 2023, Beijing unveiled its own outline for a potential peace process in Ukraine. But the document has been criticized by Western officials for being too accommodating to Moscow.

"Kyiv still believes that getting China to the table for the peace summit would be beneficial for Ukraine, but there are risks to Chinese involvement as well," said Yurii Poita of the Kyiv-based Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies. "Beijing could also hamper the process and use its presence to push Russia's narratives."

While there is no direct evidence that China has sold arms to Russia, it does sell dual-use goods such as machines, civilian drones, semiconductors, and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.

During a trip to Beijing in April, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China was "overwhelmingly the No. 1 supplier" for Russia's military industry and that this support has had a "material effect" on the battlefield.

French officials have said Macron intends to press the issue of Chinese dual-use goods when he meets with Xi. An EU official told RFE/RL that Macron plans to be "firmer" with Xi than in the past and the atmosphere is unlikely to be "super-friendly."

Chinese messaging around Ukraine is expected to be different when Xi travels to Belgrade and Budapest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has forged close relations with China and Russia while angering Brussels for refusing to join EU sanctions against Russia or allowing, like other NATO countries, arms shipments to Ukraine.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also has strong ties with Beijing and Moscow and will welcome Xi on May 7, the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade. A large Chinese cultural center has been built at the former site of the embassy, and Xi is expected to visit a memorial there in honor of Chinese diplomats killed during the accidental strike.

"Xi will be underscoring that there are different interpretations within Europe regarding the war in Ukraine and the economic relationship with China," said Janka Oertel, director of European Council on Foreign Affairs' Asia program. "This will dilute the tough signaling that is to be expected in Paris."
By Cate McCurry, PA

An Irish-Palestinian man who was blocked from leaving Rafah has fled the Gaza Strip and is making his way back to Ireland in the coming days.

Zak Hania previously spoke about his fear of never seeing his family again after they were able to leave Gaza at the end of last year.

Mr Hanias wife Batoul and their four sons were among the Irish citizens who left Gaza via the Rafah border last November and are now living in Dublin.

Palestinian Batoul Hania, who is an Irish citizen, at her accommodation in West Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Hania was not accepted on to the list of evacuees and was left in the besieged territory.

Mrs Hania and her four Irish-born sons, Mazen, Ismael, Ahmed and Nour, spent months pleading for help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

His family said that he crossed the border and is in Egypt, and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr Hania previously told the PA news agency about the nightmare conditions living in Rafah and how he spent months fearing he would never see his wife and sons again.

His son Mazen said they are so excited about being reunited with their father this weekend.
By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Anti-racism groups have criticised the decision not to prosecute gardai involved in the fatal shooting of a black man outside his home.

George Nkencho, 27, died outside his home in December 2020, after being shot multiple times by members of a Garda armed support unit while allegedly brandishing a knife.

He was experiencing mental health issues at the time.

The incident was the subject of an independent criminal investigation by GSOC (Garda ombudsman), which concluded in June 2023 with the submission by GSOC of an investigative file to the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

George Nkencho died after being shot multiple times by gardai outside his home in Clonee, west Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

Following the DPPs decision not to prosecute the case, Mr Nkenchos family expressed disappointment as they indicated they would launch an appeal.

On Thursday, anti-racism demonstrators staged a protest outside the Department of Justice in Dublin.

About 40 people gathered and held signs with slogans such as Justice for George Nkencho, Gardai cant be exempt from trial and travesty of justice.

Members of the Nkencho family, including Georges mother, Blessing, were also in attendance.

Pierre Yimbog, co-founder of Black and Irish, said Mr Nkencho needed support and said the decision not to seek prosecution was a miscarriage of justice.

He added: George suffered and needed support and empathy. Instead, he was met with quick decisions which  in our view  was excessive force.

Liam Herrick, from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, said Mr Nkenchos case was an issue of human rights.

The State has an obligation in these instances  when agents of the state are responsible for the death of an individual  to carry out an effective, independent investigation into the circumstances of that death.

He added: His family still have not had that effective, independent investigation of his death.

They are entitled to know how he died, the circumstances of his death, and have an explanation from the State which answers their legitimate questions.

Mr Herrick said the Nkencho family needed to be provided with answers from the DPP for their decision.

The family deserve justice, and ultimately the family will get justice.

Event organiser and former TD, Ruth Coppinger, warned that there was a rise in racism and the far-right in Ireland, who she said spread misinformation about the incident.

Thats why it was very important for us to mark today with a protest and to show our support for the Nkencho family.
Unemployment figures from the euro area and Spain, and the purchasing managers' survey results for the services sector from the U.K. are the highlights on the economics front on Friday.

Eurozone jobless rate is expected to remain steady at 6.5 percent in March. Eurostat is set to release the data at 05:00 am ET.

Official data is expected to show a decline of 74,500 in Spain's unemployment total in April. The labor ministry is scheduled to release the data at 03:00 AM ET.

In the U.K., the S&P Global services and composite PMI final data for April is due at 04:30 am ET.

The flash estimate had showed that the services PMI rose to 54.9 from 53.1 in March. The composite measure climbed to 54.0 from 52.8.

In other news, industrial production figures for March are due from France's statistical office INSEE at 02:45 am ET. Economists have forecast a 0.3 percent monthly gain after February's 0.2 percent increase.

Italy's jobless rate remained unchanged at 7.5 percent in March, data from the statistical office ISTAT is expected to show at 04:00 AM ET.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
Borussia Dortmund posted a preliminary third quarter consolidated net loss after taxes of 21.7 million euros compared to a loss of 15.2 million euros, prior year. Consolidated earnings before taxes or EBT was negative at 25.4 million euros compared to a negative EBT of 18.8 million euros.

Consolidated revenue in the third quarter was 98.2 million euros compared to 100.8 million euros, prior year.

The full quarterly financial report will be available from 10 May 2024.

For more earnings news, earnings calendar, and earnings for stocks, visit rttnews.com.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
TransAlta Corporation (TAC, TA.TO), a Canadian electricity power generator and wholesale marketing firm, on Friday reported a decline in net profit for the first-quarter.

The company said: "TransAlta's first quarter results exceeded our expectations given the anticipated decline in Alberta spot power prices to C$99 per MWh in 2024, as compared to elevated spot power prices of C$142 per MWh in 2023. The 30 per cent decline in spot prices year over year was primarily due to milder weather, lower natural gas prices and incremental generation from the addition of new wind and solar supply in the market."

For the first-quarter, the company posted a net income of C$222 million or C$0.72 per share, lesser than C$294 million or C$1.10 per share, reported for the same period of last year.

Funds from Operation or FFO, which is non-IFRS measure, stood at C$239 million or C$0.78 per share, compared with C$374 million or C$1.40 per share a year ago.

Earnings before income taxes slipped to C$267 million from C$383 million in 2023.

Excluding items, EBITDA stood at C$328 million, lesser than last year's C$503 million.

Revenue was C$947 million, down from C$1.089 billion a year ago.

Looking ahead, for the full year, TransAlta expects to post adjusted EBITDA of C$1.150 billion to C$1.300 billion. The company aims to pay a dividend of C$0.24 per share, for the year.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Hahn Air has agreed to pay $26.8 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to remit to the United States certain travel fees that the commercial airline company collected from passengers flying into or within the United States.

Hahn Air USA Inc is the Minneapolis-based subsidiary of Hahn Air Lines GmbH, a commercial travel company based in Germany.

Pursuant to its model, Hahn Air Lines GmbH collects certain mandatory travel fees, including certain passenger fees that are owed to the United States.

The settlement resolves allegations that from 2012 to 2018, Hahn Air avoided paying to the United States certain travel fees that it had collected from passengers.

"Companies cannot pocket, for their own benefit, government taxes and fees that they collect from their customers," said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. "This settlement shows that companies that intentionally do so will face stiff penalties."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Academics and staff members who spoke to first-year students. [Credit: Andrea Cole]

By Lance Myburgh

On 26 April 2024, Rhodes University students and academic staff gathered at Barratt Theatre Complex for the second in a series of sessions designed to create pathways to success for Rhodes University's first years.

As part of the Extended Orientation Programme, the discussions under the theme Pathways to Success: Conversations with First-Year Students provided insights and practical strategies to equip and empower first-year students to thrive in academic pursuits.

The event kickstarted with a warm welcome from Ms Thando Qeqe, the Programme Coordinator. In her welcoming remarks, she underscored the significance of recognising the event as a platform to share input, experiences, and constructive feedback from the first years.

Director of Student Services and Development, Dr Pakiso Tondi, expanded on the welcoming atmosphere by emphasising that the event facilitated discussions on academic support. He highlighted the importance of learning to prioritise tasks and cultivating friendships with individuals who share similar goals and aspirations to succeed in university.

The keynote address was delivered by Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs, Professor Mabokang Monnapula-Mapesela, who highlighted that the university journey demands consistency, diligence, and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. By encouraging the students, Prof Monnapula-Mapesela further declared that challenges encountered during the tertiary education journey should not serve as obstacles but as sources of motivation to persevere.

She stated, A life without challenges is a very boring life.

University academic staff then delivered messages of support and encouragement. In his opening remarks, Professor Sandile Khamanga, the Dean of Pharmacy, emphasised the foundational values essential for first-year success: Discipline, Drive, Dedication, Dynamism, and Diligence. Prof Khamanga further defined success as small steps one must take to succeed.

Dr Christine Lewis, the Manager of the Rhodes University Counselling Centre, reassured students that the centre provides essential services tailored to their needs. During her presentation, she addressed effective strategies for managing examination anxiety, emphasising the importance of self-care, maintaining good sleep hygiene, and cultivating disciplined study habits. Dr Lewis also stressed the significance of adequate exam preparation to help students navigate academic challenges successfully.

These sentiments were echoed by Ms Tsidzo Hove, a senior student at Rhodes University. She provided insightful remarks on peer support for the first years. Drawing from her personal experiences, she shared valuable lessons learned about the importance of reaching out to the community for assistance as a student. Ms Hove emphasised that fostering connections and engaging with the community supports individual growth and enriches the collective experience within the academic environment.

The event concluded with an engaging Question and Answer session facilitated by Mrs Kelly Vorster, a Student Academic Development Lecturer at the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL). During this session, first-year students raised important topics for discussion, including the mindset required for adjusting to university life, effective time management strategies, adulthood expectations, examination preparation, and the importance of personal responsibility and discipline in academic success. These discussions sparked insightful conversations aimed at equipping students with valuable insights and practical approaches to thrive in their university journey.

The event imparted valuable lessons to the students, equipping them with essential skills to help them navigate through university challenges effectively. The tools and advice gained from this event have the potential to support first-year students throughout their university careers.

First-year students are encouraged to attend the upcoming engagement sessions:

02 August 2024

27 September 2024

Further details and information about these sessions will be circulated closer to the time via the StudentNews mailing list.
Honda has become No 1 two wheeler brand in India, overtaking Hero MotoCorp in April 2024 by 8,361 units

In a historic turn of events, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. has emerged victorious over longstanding rival Hero MotoCorp, reshaping the hierarchy of the Indian two-wheeler market. For years, Hero has reigned as the undisputed champion, but April 2024 marked a pivotal moment as Honda surged ahead, outperforming its rival and clinching the coveted top spot.

Two Wheeler Total Sales April 2024  YoY Comparison

Honda led the charge with a staggering 44.62% year-on-year growth, achieving a total sales figure of 5,41,946 units in April 2024. This remarkable feat marks a substantial increase of 1,67,199 units compared to the corresponding period last year, solidifying Hondas dominance in the market with a 27.47% share. Majority of Honda sales in India are thanks to their Activa brand of scooters.

Hero MotoCorp slipped to No 2, notching up a commendable 34.71% growth, with sales reaching 5,33,585 units. Despite facing stiff competition, Hero managed to carve out a 27.04% market share in the list. Heros star sales performer is the Splendor motorcycle, which is also the No 1 motorcycle in India.

TVS Motor Company recorded a robust growth of 27.07%, clocking in at 3,74,592 units in April 2024. Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto Ltd. and Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd. showcased commendable performances, albeit at a slightly slower pace. Bajajs sales figures stood at 3,41,789 units, reflecting a growth rate of 18.68%, while Suzuki witnessed a 12.00% increase, selling 99,377 units. Both brands continued to command significant market shares of 17.32% and 5.04%, respectively. Royal Enfield, revered for its iconic retro-style bikes, also experienced a notable upswing, with sales climbing by 11.94% to reach 81,870 units.

Two Wheeler Total Sales April 2024  MoM Comparison

Taking a look at the month on month sales performance, Honda marked a substantial increase of 1,55,491 units in April 2024, compared to March. Hero sales figures reached 5,33,585 units in April, reflecting an 8.80% month-on-month growth.

TVS recorded sales of 3,74,592 units, reflecting an 8.75% month-on-month increase, while Bajaj achieved figures of 3,41,789 units, marking an 8.89% growth compared to March. Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd. encountered a slight decline in sales, with figures dipping to 99,377 units in April. Royal Enfield witnessed a growth in sales, with figures totalling 81,870 units last month, growing from 75,551 units in March 2024.

Despite this monumental shift, the competition between Honda and Hero is far from over. Both brands are expected to intensify their efforts, leveraging their respective strengths and capabilities to regain or maintain their positions at the helm of the two-wheeler market.
New 4th-gen Maruti Swift gets a 360 degree upgrade with improved looks, premium features, more mileage and enhanced safety

One of Marutis bestsellers for several years, the Swift hatch will soon be introduced in its new-gen avatar. Bookings are currently open for a token amount of Rs 11,000. Launch is scheduled for 9th May and deliveries are expected to commence later this month. Ahead of that, new Swift has started arriving at dealer showrooms.

New 4th-gen Maruti Swift  Exterior and Interior updates

While Maruti Swift already has a highly likeable design, the new model gets an improved aerodynamic profile. While making the hatch visually more appealing, the highly efficient aerodynamic design also contributes to enhanced fuel efficiency.

Front fascia has also been revised to achieve a more muscular and bolder stance. A rugged feel is noticeable with the updated bonnet, grille, polygonal fog lamp housings and a sharper bumper design. The updated package also includes LED projector headlamps and LED fog lamps.

Side profile has been enhanced with changes to sheet metal panelling. 4th-gen Swift gets a new set of alloy wheels. The C-pillar mounted rear door handles have been replaced with regular units. At the rear, the new Swift gets a signature wrap around design.

Inside, a comprehensive range of updates are noticeable. The hatch gets a driver-oriented cockpit and centre floating design. Other key changes include a digital AC panel, sophisticated ornamentation with 3D texture, unique asymmetrical dials, block embossing pattern with ribs on the base and 3-point seatbelt and reminder for all passengers.

New Swift has Type A and Type C USB charging ports, rear AC vents, wireless charger, 9-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Arkamys Surround Sense and Suzuki Connect connectivity suite.

New 4th-gen Maruti Swift  Enhanced safety kit

With awareness, carmakers have worked to improve passenger safety. Working on the same lines, Maruti has introduced 6-airbags as standard with the new Swift. The hatch also gets hill hold control and LED projector headlamps.

New Swift had recently achieved a 4-star rating in Japan NCAP crash tests. However, the ratings may be different in India due to the differences in the equipment list.

New 4th-gen Maruti Swift  New engine, massive mileage

Swift has always been preferred for its agile performance. The experience gets even better with a new Z series, 3-cylinder engine. Users can expect an optimal combination of power packed performance and best-in-class fuel efficiency. Output numbers are 81.6 PS and 112 Nm. The new engine delivers higher torque at lower RPMs, which makes the hatch an excellent choice for city drives.

Users also benefit from an outstanding 25.72 km/L of fuel efficiency. Thats a gain of over 3 km/L over the current model. Existing Swift has mileage of 22.38 km/L with the MT and 22.56 km/L with the AT. New Swift is also environmentally friendly, as the engine has lower emissions.

Source
Sporting a color-changing blue and silver sequin jacket that was soon to be hers, 11 year-old Daisy Brown beamed with pride, exuding a joyfulness that gave no hint of the tragedy that she and her three older siblings had just suffered.

That was exactly the point of the Saturday Target shopping spree organized by the Larry Himmel Neighborhood Foundation. The not-for-profit, which helps people and organizations in need, learned through a hospice volunteer that Brown, her two brothers and sister had recently lost their mother to a difficult battle with cancer.

Our purpose is to make people feel better about the place they call home, said Miles Himmel, founder of the foundation and the 26 year-old son of local TV news reporter Larry Himmel who died of cancer in 2014. (Hospice Volunteer Coordinator) Cindy (Gilcrest) reached out to us and said, Weve got this family  and the kids are being split up.

So we said, What can we do to get them their basic needs as they restart their journey? 

Diagnosed with uterine cancer in February, Dorienda Zollicoffer-Jackson decided to switch to in-home care through Hospice of the South Coast after developing an infection to chemotherapy treatment. She died on July 14 at the age of 34, leaving behind her four children, 15 year-old Joseph Fielder, 13 year-old Shemaiah Jackson, 12 year-old Jeremiah Jackson (JJ) and Daisy.

The kids, who have been living with family friend Leandrea Guston in Oceanside, will eventually move in with relatives in neighboring town, likely after Zollicoffer-Jacksons funeral service scheduled for Aug. 11. Daisy and JJ will live with their aunt Destini Jackson, Shemaiah will live with her grandfather and Joseph is going to another aunts house. The families will make an effort to bring the youngsters together on a weekly basis, Gilcrest said.

And so Saturdays focus was about living their moms personal motto  family first  which was also tattooed on her body.

Brought together by Gilcrest and Destini, the children joined Himmel, his mother Joan, foundation board member Kristin Hill and hospice nurse Jennifer Ervin for breakfast at Dennys in Oceanside followed by an all-expenses-paid trip to Target.

At breakfast, Shemaiah and Daisy reminisced about regularly dancing with their mother; Joseph and JJ recalled some of the physical and personality traits they share in common with their mom. Joseph, for instance, said people often comment on his dimples, which he got from his mom.

Later at Target, the kids, who were now more comfortable with their hosts, split up into two groups  boys and girls  and goofed around as they strolled through the aisles, stopping first to stock up on clothing.

Daisy found the sparkly jacket, Shemaiah demonstrated the floss dance while trying on dresses, and the boys, self-described pranksters, went in search of Nerf guns.

They were all individual but very playful with each other when we were shopping, Gilcrest said. The boys even found things for the girls. And I was really impressed by their ability to be around a group of people that theyve never met.

Altogether, the kids walked away with more than $2,000 in clothes, shoes, school supplies and toys. The foundation also gifted the family friend, Guston, with a $400 Target gift card.

They were so grateful. I was impressed by them all getting along so well in such a sad situation, Hammil said, adding that Daisy had really warmed up to him by the time the group finished shopping.

A story like today is exactly why we created the foundation.

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
LUCASVILLE, Ohio  An Ohio man asked for a survivors forgiveness before he was executed Tuesday for a rampage at a pet supply company in 1991 where he murdered two co-workers and shot another, then tried to run over him with a truck.

Roderick Davie, 38, died by lethal injection at 10:31 a.m., moments after he apologized to the victims families and the former co-worker whom he shot three times and tried to gouge out his eyes with a stick.

John, I hope you can let it go, man, and forgive me, Davie said as he looked at William John Everett. You hear me, John?

Everett, sitting in the second row of witnesses, silently stared back at his attacker.

Davie confessed to shooting Everett and John Coleman in the head at a pet supply warehouse near Youngstown, where he had been fired months before. When he ran out of bullets, he beat 21-year-old Tracey Jefferys to death with a metal folding chair.

Strapped down to a gurney on Tuesday, Davie apologized to Jefferys mother, who rocked back and forth and held the hand of a victim advocate.

To Ms. Jefferys, Im sorry, Davie said, part of a tattoo peeking out from the medical tape and tubes that covered his left arm. I dont know if it means anything, Ms. Jefferys, but from the bottom of my heart, I mean that. Im sorry.

Randy Coleman, whose brother was hired after Davie was fired, held a sepia photograph of three men as Davie apologized to his family. Next to him, another of his brothers looked straight ahead at the gurney.

Davie said he was done and the warden took the microphone. His lips continued to move like those of a praying man, but the words were lost.

He turned toward the window separating him from the witnesses and closed his eyes. A curtain was closed over the window, separating the witnesses from Davie. The room was silent, except for the rustling of cellophane as Everett opened a piece of candy. Then the warden said Davie had died.

In 1991, then-19-year-old Davie had been working at the Veterinary Companies of America for just under a year. He got along well with co-workers, including Everett and Jefferys. He was fired in April 1991 after a fight with the buildings owner, according to the states clemency report.

Less than three months later, Davie went back to the warehouse. He ordered Everett, Jefferys and Coleman to lie face down on the floor.

He shot the men and beat Jefferys, then snatched Everetts wallet from his back pocket and took Jefferys change purse before he left the warehouse.

Everett stumbled into the parking lot, where Davie got into a truck and tried to run him over. But he crashed, hopped out and tried to gouge out Everetts eyes with a stick.

Davie fled when he saw someone watching and was later arrested. He confessed that he flipped out and went down to VCA and shot em up, according to the clemency report.

A federal appeals court upheld Davies death sentence in 2008 and rejected claims that police questioned him illegally. Davies attorney declined to comment.

Davie spent the hours before his scheduled execution praying and visiting in person and on the phone with family, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said.

Davie, who also goes by an Islamic name, fasted until sundown on Monday. He was served a vegetarian meal and drank several cups of coffee during the night.

Davie was the seventh person executed in Ohio this year, tying a record the state set in 2004.
Malaysias special purpose company for 5G deployment Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) partnered with Ericsson to boost digitalisation in the country, with microchip giant Intel also involved.

Ericsson said in a statement the agreement was formalised in a series of memorandums of understanding.

Intels role in the agreement will be as a technology partner to collaborate for the development of 5G use cases and spur adoption of it by enterprises.

Ericsson and DNB will work with Swedish manufacturer Scania, vehicle automation software provider eMoovit and bearing specialist SKF Malaysia. They will develop solutions, innovations and capabilities based on 5G connectivity to address challenges in the digital journey of enterprises.

Ericsson Head of Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, David Hagerbro said: The digital infrastructure that the 5G network has enabled in Malaysia makes doing business in the country more competitive and attractive for foreign investors.

DNB Chief Strategy Officer Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid added: Due to the world-class 5G network that we have today, Malaysia is in a very unique position to accelerate its digitalisation. The network already covers more than 80% of the population and has one of the best experiential and consistent performances in the world.










Hot on the heels of similar announcements in Indonesia and Thailand, Microsoft announced an even bigger deal in Malaysia on Thursday, pledging to invest US$2.2 billion over the next four years in new cloud and AI infrastructure in the country.

On the third leg of its Microsoft Build: AI Day tour across southeast Asia, Microsoft said at its event in Kuala Lumpur that the multi-billion dollar investment is the single largest investment Microsoft has made in Malaysia since it entered the country 32 years ago.

In addition to building cloud and AI infrastructure, the investment covers AI skilling opportunities for 200,000 people in the country, building up Malaysias developer community, and partnering with the government to establish a national AI Centre of Excellence, as well as enhance the countrys cybersecurity capabilities.

Microsoft said the investment builds on its Bersama Malaysia initiative, announced in April 2021, to support inclusive economic growth. That initiative also included plans to establish Microsofts first data centre region in Malaysia.

That data centre has yet to be built. However, last month, Malaysian property development firm Crescendo Corporation Berhad (CCB) said that Microsoft had purchased a 102,560sqm plot of land in Johor, which has become a hotbed of data centre development in Malaysia. According to CCB, Microsoft bought the plot for a cash consideration of RM132.4 million (US$27.8 million).

Microsoft made similar announcements earlier this week in Indonesia and Thailand in which it made major commitments to building cloud and AI infrastructure, as well as AI upskilling. For Indonesia, Microsoft said it would invest US$1.7 billion over the next four years in Indonesia. No financial details were given for the Thailand announcement, which also included the establishment of Microsofts first data centre region there.

Microsoft committed to building a data centre region in Indonesia in 2021, and says it is currently building data centres in West Java.

The AI skilling programmes included in all three announcements are part of a broader regional initiative announced by Microsoft on Tuesday. Under that initiative, Microsoft committed to providing AI skilling opportunities for 2.5 million people in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam by 2025 in partnership with governments, non-profit and corporate organizations, and communities in those countries.

Research from Kearney forecasts that AI could contribute nearly US$1 trillion to Southeast Asias GDP by 2030. According to the study, Thailand could potentially capture US$117 billion of that, while Indonesia could reap US$366 billion.

The advent of ChatGPT created a new vertical in the startup world. As more companies embrace the power of AI, having the right digital infrastructure in Malaysia is key to future-proofing our nations economy, said Malaysias economy minister Rafizi Ramli in a statement. Microsofts investment will help accelerate the adoption of generative AI, building a pipeline of AI-driven startups, and benefitting our economy through increased productivity and higher wages.
Primatologists in Indonesia have observed a wild male Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) who sustained a facial wound. Three days after the injury he selectively ripped off leaves of a liana with the common name Akar Kuning (Fibraurea tinctoria), chewed on them, and then repeatedly applied the resulting juice onto the facial wound. As a last step, he fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves. This behavior presents the first systematically documented case of active wound treatment with a biologically active plant by a wild animal and provides new insights into the origins of human wound care.

In the early 1960s, the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall first described the presence of whole leaves in the feces of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Gombe Stream, Tanzania.

By the 1990s, this behavior  now called whole leaf swallowing  was documented at several African great ape study sites, along with bitter pith chewing, and demonstrated to have therapeutic, anti-parasitic function.

Since then, various forms of self-medication have been observed in wild great apes.

In June 2022, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior researcher Isabelle Laumer and her colleagues observed a male orangutan in the Suaq Balimbing research area in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia.

During daily observations of the orangutans, we noticed that a male named Rakus had sustained a facial wound, most likely during a fight with a neighboring male, Dr. Laumer explained.

Rakus chewed the stem and leaves of Akar Kuning, a climbing plant used in traditional medicine to treat wounds and conditions such as dysentery, diabetes, and malaria.

This and related liana species that can be found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia are known for their analgesic and antipyretic effects and are used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases, such as malaria, Dr. Laumer said.

Analyses of plant chemical compounds show the presence of furanoditerpenoids and protoberberine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities of relevance to wound healing.

Rakus repeatedly applied the resulting juice onto a wound on his right cheek for seven minutes, which he had sustained three days prior.

He then smeared the chewed leaves onto the wound until it was fully covered and continued feeding on the plant for over 30 minutes.

The researchers reported no signs of wound infection in the days following their observations. The wound had closed within five days and was fully healed within one month.

As Rakus repeatedly applied plant material to his wound but no other body parts and the entire process took over half an hour, it is likely that he intentionally treated his facial wound with Akar Kuning.

The scientists do not know whether this was the first time that Rakus treated one of his wounds or had previously learnt this behavior from other orangutans from his birth area.

As it appears that Rakus did intentionally treat his wound, this suggests that the behavior could have arisen in a common ancestor shared by humans and great apes.

The treatment of human wounds was most likely first mentioned in a medical manuscript that dates back to 2200 BCE, which included cleaning, plastering, and bandaging of wounds with certain wound care substances, said Dr. Caroline Schuppl, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

As forms of active wound treatment are not just human, but can also be found in both African and Asian great apes, it is possible that there exists a common underlying mechanism for the recognition and application of substances with medical or functional properties to wounds and that our last common ancestor already showed similar forms of ointment behavior.

The teams paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

_____

I.B. Laumer et al. 2024. Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan. Sci Rep 14, 8932; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58988-7
New research by Telstra suggests that Australian small businesses might be missing out on the benefits of technology.

Finding new customers and meeting the changing customer expectations ranked amongst the top concerns with technology. Having a current website is a simple way to meet changing expectations with more than two-thirds of customers (72%) saying they were less likely to buy from a business if

their website wasnt up to date. Despite this strong demand, more than half of businesses dont prioritise updating their website.

Telstras Business Tech State of Play report shows more than half (58%) of business owners say that using digital technologies is a priority to become more efficient and 69% agree that

technology is now about much more than efficient working and has become part of how a business competes.

Time and money have become scarcer commodities in the past five years. Growing revenue and managing increasing costs ranked as the top two concerns, and business owners are almost twice as concerned than they were five years ago about having the time and capacity to get everything done.

The pressure being felt by small business owners today is reaching boiling point, said Amanda Hutton, Group Executive, Telstra Business.

There is a real untapped opportunity for businesses to use technology in the right ways to help improve efficiency, attract and retain customers, and reduce cost pressures.

Cyber Security and AI low on the priority list

Cyber Security is a growing concern but focus is overshadowed by other more pressing concerns. Despite the growing cost of cyber crime on Australian business almost half dont have basic cyber security measures in place.

AI adoption is still relatively nascent with just 7% actively using it across a broad range of use cases. Data analytics and content creation are the most popular use cases, but others include using chatbots, virtual shop assistants and augmented reality in customer service, through to financial management and recruitment.

Of the businesses already using AI, 64% believe it is a competitive imperative and that businesses that fail to adopt AI in the next five years will lose their ability to compete.

Reliable connectivity top priority

The technologies businesses said will have the most positive impact in the next 1-2 years include:

1. Access to fast, reliable and secure internet connectivity (57%)

2. Cyber security solutions (34%)

3. Digital payment technologies (28%)

4. Cloud-based communications services (e.g. cloud-based phone systems, video

conferencing and collaboration tools (27%)

5. Artificial Intelligence (27%)

Untapped opportunity to attract and retain staff

A majority (79%) of workers surveyed want to learn more digital skills to further their career but only 39% of businesses offer training in this area. This presents an untapped win-win opportunity for businesses wanting to attract and retain talent.

One practical way business owners can meet this need and improve their business cyber

resiliency at the same time is by signing their team up to COSBOAs free online Cyber Wardens program, which is Australias first-ever cyber safety workplace certification program that will equip employees with basic cyber security skills to help protect against cyber security risk.

Businesses need support with technology

While the opportunities are clear and Australian businesses show an appetite to embrace new technology, more than half of respondents (54%) agree its hard to stay up to date with

developments and know what to invest in, and 40% agree they want more support to help use digital technologies more effectively.

Telstra has 26 Telstra Business Technology Centres around the country with teams of business technology specialists ready to help provide strategic advice to businesses about their technology needs.

Australian businesses are adaptable and entrepreneurial by nature, but they need help keeping up with the pace of change and prioritising what to invest in. In an environment where theres no time or money to waste, businesses need good support and advice to adopt technology that will deliver the highest returns for their business, Ms Hutton said.

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Heres a recap of recent funding developments from Australia, India, the US and beyond.

PsiQuantum Strikes $620m Deal with Australian Government

PsiQuantum, a front-runner in quantum computing, has secured a monumental $620 million deal with the Australian government. The partnership aims to establish the worlds first utility-scale quantum computer near Brisbane Airport in Australia. With a strategic investment totaling $940 million AUD from the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland Governments, PsiQuantum is on a mission to have the site operational by the end of 2027.

Co-founded by Australian-born Jeremy OBrien and Terry Rudolph, PsiQuantum is poised to revolutionize computing, offering unprecedented data processing power that could propel advancements in medicine, AI, and sustainability.

CoreWeave, AI Startup Backed by Nvidia, Surges to $19b Valuation

CoreWeave, an AI startup backed by Nvidia Corp., has skyrocketed to a staggering $19 billion valuation following a $1.1 billion funding round. Led by investment firm Coatue and joined by Altimeter Capital and Lykos Global Management, this injection marks a significant leap from CoreWeaves previous valuation of $7 billion.

Specializing in AI system deployment, CoreWeave rents out chips housed in data centers across the U.S., leveraging Nvidias technology to drive innovation in artificial intelligence.

Enviz: Australian Proptech Reinvents Itself, Raises $1.5m to Expand Globally

Enviz, formerly known as EnvisionVR, has undergone a transformation to better reflect its vision and capabilities in the architectural visualization industry. The Australian proptech startup, renowned for its virtual property experiences, has raised $1.5 million in funding led by investors Michael and Henry Holm from Balmain Private.

With a focus on scalability as a Software as a Service (SaaS) technology company, Enviz is poised to revolutionize property visualization and buyer engagement on a global scale.

Xefco Secures $10.5m to Revolutionize Textile Industry Emissions

Xefco, a sustainable manufacturing tech company, has raised $10.5 million in its latest funding round led by Main Sequence, a prominent Australian deep tech fund. This investment, supported by Breakthrough Victoria and Virescent Ventures, will fuel the commercialization of Xefcos water-free textile finishing and dyeing solution, Ausora.

Co-founded by Tom Hussey and Brian Conolly, Xefco is at the forefront of reducing emissions in the fashion industry, with its innovative textile solutions already adopted by leading brands worldwide.

Matrak Raises $2.9m in Series A Round

Matrak, a Melbourne-based construction startup, has closed a Series A funding round of AUD 2.9 million led by G&M Capital and Our Innovation Fund. With a focus on enhancing construction supply chains through connected materials tracking, Matrak is expanding its global footprint, including the launch of Matrak China.

Launched in 2018, Matraks platform streamlines supply chain operations, leading to increased efficiency and reliability in construction projects.

Australian Space Machines Company Launches $8.5m Mission to Combat Space Debris

Space Machines Company, a leading Australian in-space servicing firm, has unveiled Space MAITRI (Mission for Australia-Indias Technology, Research and Innovation), a joint initiative aimed at managing space debris and fostering a sustainable space future. With an $8.5 million grant from the Australian Government, Space MAITRI will demonstrate space situational awareness and debris mitigation payloads, fostering collaboration between Australian and Indian space industries.

As satellites continue to proliferate, Space Machines Company is pioneering solutions to ensure a sustainable and scalable space economy.

Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Positive steps toward quelling the violence and chaos in Haiti were taken in late April when the Transitional Presidential Council was sworn into power at the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.

The installation of the Transitional Presidential Council is a very important step for Haitis path toward democratic governance, new elections and improved security, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols:

This group embodies a broad consensus of Haitian society in favor of a new path forward. Its the outcome of months of negotiations among a very broad group of stakeholders, and I think it is a very, very positive moment.

The Council was tasked with appointing a new prime minister, cabinet, and an electoral council that will prepare the country for general elections in February 2026.

The move paves the way for the deployment to Haiti of a Kenyan-led multinational United Nations security support force to help Haitis national police deal with horrific gang violence.

Assistant Secretary Nichols pointed out that the strength of Haitian gangs has been building for years:

Haitian society has not been able to deliver the kind of opportunities for young people, jobs, education that it needs. At the same time, the state in Haiti has been fragile for many years. With the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH, the security profile in Haiti began to weaken, and gang violence, which has been a problem in significant measure since the 1990s, really started to grow. And then, with the tragic assassination of President [Jovenel] Moise in July 2021, we saw the weakness of the state really in stark relief.

Assistant Secretary Nichols said, We hope that improved security, with the presence of the multinational security support mission and strengthening the Haitian national police, coupled with intensive action in terms of economic development, gang diversion programs, refocusing on education and services in the most vulnerable areas will help both address the immediate problem of crime, while preventing more youth from entering into gang activity.

The United States is the largest provider of assistance to Haiti, noted Assistant Secretary Nichols. But other countries and international organizations also need to step forward and provide assistance, he said. This is a global responsibility, not just the United States responsibility.
(photo: Khanh Dinh)

Zoe Hana Mikuta is a Korean American YA author, currently attending the University of Washington in Seattle. She is the author of the YA sapphic mecha sci-fi novels Gearbreakers and Godslayers. When she is not writing, Mikuta can be found embroidering runes on her jeans pockets or curled up with a cup of caramel coffee and a bloody but heartwarming book. She recently spoke with Shelf Awareness about Off with Their Heads (out now from Disney Hyperion)--a YA fantasy horror reimagining of Alice in Wonderland--genius versus madness, and building an eclectic body of work.

What differences and common elements should fans of your mecha duology expect to find in this new story?

Besides the general genre shift, I would say Off with Their Heads lacks the overall softness of the Gearbreakers duology but, at the same time, is told with a more whimsical tone by a classic fairytale narrator who's a bit of a sadist. Though I've written a sapphic romantic subplot again, it's far from being lovey-dovey like my mecha duology. Honestly, you'll find no heroes in Off with Their Heads. Everyone is being generally terrible all the time. Common elements include angry girls.

This book is a whirlwind of timeline shifts, magic, elements of classic fiction, and horror. The word "ambitious" barely touches it as a descriptor.

I was definitely trying out a new writing style in Off with Their Heads, and I had a lot of fun working with such a lighthearted tone even as horrible, horrible things were going on. My editor has called it my Wonderland prose.

This book was also my quarantine project--for months and months it was just me and Caro and Icca and Hattie. I think having that solitude helped to get it all out. The majority of the challenge was, frankly, getting over myself. I wanted to do the story I had in my head justice, but because Off with Their Heads isn't my debut, I felt a lot of self-pressure to show my growth as a writer. It totally terrified me that, as the manuscript got longer and longer, it was all going to fall apart, and because I want to do stories as multilayered as this one in the future, it'd mean The End.

But it's done!

I'm gravitating toward having a career of eclectic books; I want them all to be distinctly different, because I want to try out myriad writing styles and genres. With Off with Their Heads, the first book I've done in the fantasy genre, I discovered this "vision" I have of my career will definitely involve going outside my comfort zone.

How did you get from Alice in Wonderland to Off with Their Heads?

I've been enamored with Alice in Wonderland for a while now, and have a soft spot for its horror retellings especially. The story is so versatile for that genre, just from its sheer strangeness and how sanity isn't necessarily a given.

To start, I had a copy of Alice in Wonderland that I annotated with my Off with Their Heads darlings in mind. This was pretty much the only part of the drafting that was in any way organizational. I'm really not someone who writes from a synopsis. I don't know the ending until I get there! I had some structuring scenes in mind--the entering of Wonderland, the mad tea party, the trial--and the relationships between the characters, and then I had to see what I'd end up writing in between. Bless my editor.

Your Red Queen Hattie November Kkul walks the line between artistry and madness.

The line between artistry and madness gets blurred with the onset of obsession. Those elements come together under the umbrella of the "obsessed artist" character trope. I loved playing with this trope. There's such a satisfying contrast between its connotations of creation and deterioration. Over the course of Off with Their Heads, Hattie certainly begins to lose herself in her art of stitching together monsters, even with her initial motivation being to use the medium for self-reflection and self-discovery. I'm hoping her character arc will unsettle readers and strike a chord with the artistic ones, especially as Hattie doesn't mind that she's losing herself if it's all for the glory of her art.

What drew you to write an inside-out love story with a lovers-to-enemies twist?

I haven't seen a ton of sapphic lovers-to-enemies character arcs, and I feel like most of what's on the market for sapphic romance right now is generally on the softer side, my debut included. I asked myself, cackling and having a grand time writing Caro and Icca's disaster of a relationship, "Where's the representation for the sapphics that might be absolutely horrible people?" I wanted to write two girls who were off their respective rockers but also quite enamored with the horrible world around them. Carousel is definitely the bubblier of the two, while Icca is the classic, bleak, "chip on her shoulder" character, but I wanted to make them complement each other through their shared obsession with strangeness. I wanted to make them so weird that the reader couldn't help but dote on them a little.

How do you feed your creativity?

I read a lot, and I have a lot of tea, and pretend they're magic potions that will solve all my plot holes. I have to accept that my creativity comes in waves. The best thing I can do to feed it is be patient. It is definitely blocked when I try to force it. "Write without fear; edit without mercy," is the eternal, internal chant to keep from scaring the creativity off.

In a world where writers are often advised to write to the reader's expectations or genre standards, how do you find the self-assurance to take big swings?

My editor, Rebecca [Kuss], and literary agent, Laura [Rennert], are constantly encouraging me to write as weird as I want and to take risks. Having that creative freedom has been everything. As for self-assurance, the thought that I'm writing something strange and entertaining pushes me forward. I think for a while, when people heard "YA" they thought of a certain specific writing style, cleaner-cut and easily digestible. I see so many writers now who stand out because of their unique voices, even if their work might not have been "sellable" 10 years ago. It absolutely lights me up when I see YA prose that goes off the beaten path. Some authors that come to mind are Andrew Joseph White and Joan He.

What strange beauty should we expect from you next?

My next book is another YA fantasy horror, and it's going to be bleaker than Off with Their Heads. A quick teaser: in a world where witchcraft has the nasty side effect of psychological erosion, a coven comes together to find a cure for magic. They're certain it's waiting for them just on the other side. Or maybe they're just addicted to the cozy slew of death and resurrections. Or maybe to each other. --Jaclyn Fulwood
photo: Ashley Suttor

Nick Medina was born in Chicago, Ill. and is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. He appreciates local and Native folklore, which, along with research into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) epidemic, inspired his debut novel, Sisters of the Lost Nation. His new novel, Indian Burial Ground (available now from Berkley), addresses the long-lasting impact of buried trauma, along with other issues that affect many Native and Indigenous communities.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Indian Burial Ground is a mythological horror story that forces its characters to address buried trauma that resurfaces years after it left its initial scars.

On your nightstand now:

I never read in bed, so it's technically not on my nightstand, but I'm currently rereading Stephen King's Pet Sematary. In preparation for the release of Indian Burial Ground, I decided to read (or reread) many of the stories that incorporate the Indian burial ground horror trope. Pet Sematary incorporates the trope but puts a twist on it by making it clear that Natives aren't responsible for creating the burial ground through magic, mysticism, or evil spirits. Rather, the burial ground has always been there (and always will be); the Micmacs just happened to occupy the land it's on. I don't scare easily, but this novel consistently gives me the chills. Tough to read at times, it's a horror classic for a reason.

Favorite book when you were a child:

I don't recall having a specific favorite, but when I was really young, I collected the Serendipity books written by Stephen Cosgrove, each about a creature--some ordinary, some fantastical--and which always had a moral to consider. When I got a little older, I was drawn to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz, which eventually led me to seek longer horror stories and, lucky for me, the first Goosebumps book by R.L. Stine came out right about then. From then on, I read dozens of Stine's books and still find myself uneasily running my fingers over the raised bumps on the covers whenever I pull them from my shelves.

Your top five authors:

This is tough because it changes almost every time I read something that blows my mind. Since I'm currently rereading Pet Sematary by Stephen King, which has reawakened the awe I experienced the first time I read it, I'll put King at the top. Few authors have been around since before my birth who continue to give us all something new year in and year out. I admire that about him. I'm grateful for it too.

Other authors on my "must read" list are Paul Tremblay (what an honor it was and is to have a blurb from him on the front cover of my debut novel, Sisters of the Lost Nation), Rachel Harrison (I'm not just saying that because there's a blurb from her on the cover of Indian Burial Ground; I've loved everything she's written), Patricia Highsmith (a true master of mystery, thrillers, and suspense), and an up-and-coming writer named Cody Lakin (his first two novels, The Family Condition and The Aching Plane are wholly unique, smart, and haunting).

Book you've faked reading:

Do people really do this? I pick up books that I want to read. Faking it wouldn't do me any good.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. And now that I think about it, Olde Heuvelt should be on my top five authors list because I've loved everything I've read by him. Hex, about a small town trying to keep a witch under wraps, gave me literal nightmares. That's as good as it gets in my book.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I don't recall ever buying a book just because of its cover, but I recently saw an edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a very cool and creepy depiction of the monster on the cover. I might have to add that one to my shelves.

Book you hid from your parents:

Unfortunately, I don't remember the title or the author, but I read a book I found at the library that very graphically detailed the killings of several serial killers (crime scene photos included). No question, I was too young to read that book when I did. My mother wouldn't have approved.

Book that changed your life:

I recently had the privilege to read a book that, as I am writing this, has yet to be released called Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel. It's a horror novel about sibling love and loyalty that addresses issues of racism, abandonment, and poverty. The way Viel writes about the fears and struggles her Black characters endure helped me understand and relate to certain racial issues in a way I never had before. It's a brilliant book.

Favorite line from a book:

Speaking of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a line immediately comes to mind from that novel. "Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." It says a lot. Can any of us truly be fearless? Will we ever know such power?

Five books you'll never part with:

I'm of the belief that books should be shared, and I'm usually happy to pass them along once I've read them. There are, however, several that I cling to for one reason or another. Among them are:

A 1977 edition of Stephen King's The Shining with the original book jacket, which I found buried beneath books at a used book sale.

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison. Rachel was the first author to send me a signed copy of her book after I got my own book deal. It was a pretty special moment for me.

A signed copy of Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith written by Joe Perry with David Ritz. Perry is one of my musical heroes, and it was a thrill to have him sign this book in person.

My Roots, an unpublished book written by my great-grandfather that details what he went through as an immigrant coming to this country.

Finally, the first copy I ever held of my very own book, Sisters of the Lost Nation.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Perhaps The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Rarely do I have to set a book down because I'm so disturbed. I had to do that with this one. I almost didn't want to know what was going to happen next. For me, it was a challenging and incredible reading experience.
During his recent visit of China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked President Xi to end Chinas support of the Russian defense industry. Indeed, We have engaged with China from the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and urged them not to provide Russia with arms, with weapons that would fuel the aggression, said Secretary Blinken.

And I think its fair to say that China has not directly supplied Russia with weapons, with missiles, with munitions. Iran is doing it; North Korea is doing it, he said.

However, what China is doing is providing invaluable support to Russias defense industrial base thats helping Russia deal with the mass oppression thats been exerted through sanctions, through export controls, and other measures.

If you look at what Russias done over the last year in terms of its production of munitions, missiles, tanks, and armored vehicles, its produced them at a faster pace than at any time in its modern history, including during the Cold War as the Soviet Union, said Secretary Blinken.

How has it been able to do that? Because its getting massive inputs of machine tools, microelectronics, optics, mostly coming from China. Seventy percent of the machine tools, 90 percent of the microelectronics are coming from China. Now, these are dual-use items, but we know very clearly where so many of them are going.

This poses two problems, said Secretary Blinken. It is enabling Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine, so its perpetuating a war that China says it would like to see come to an end, as all of us would. But second, its also enabling Russia to rebuild a defense industrial base that countries throughout Europe are deeply concerned will be turned against them after Ukraine is done.

And so it is that even as China is seeking better relations with countries in Europe, its also fueling the greatest challenge to European security since the end of the Cold War, said Secretary Blinken.

I know the deep concern that Europeans have about this support for the defense industrial base in Russia, because, again, this poses a threat to Europes security  not only Ukraine, but all of Europe, he said. And as I shared with my Chinese colleagues, you cant have it both ways.
On April 27, veteran booksellers James Crossley and Amanda Clark will unveil their new bookstore, Leviathan Bookstore.

While they plan to open a permanent bricks-and-mortar location in St. Louis, Mo., before the end of 2024, Leviathan Bookstore will make its debut as a pop-up shop within Dunaway Books, a rare, used, and out-of-print bookstore located near Tower Grove Park that has been in business since 1965.

The Leviathan pop-up will encompass about 250 square feet within Dunaway Books and feature a "representation" of what Crossley and Clark plan to offer. Leviathan will sell all-new books for all ages, with a "little bit of everything for every taste," with Crossley noting that, personally, he likes "a lot of small press, translated fiction," and other titles that are "a little off the beaten path." He remarked that the plan is to be very "book forward," with minimal sidelines.

The pop-up will run through at least the end of the summer, and Clark and Crossley have a book cart trailer they plan to bring to farmers' markets and other destinations around St. Louis. They've talked with the Dunaway Books team about using their space for events, and they're up for doing off-site events as well.

James Crossley and Amanda Clark

In the meantime, the pair will be looking for a storefront to call their own. Asked if they were looking in any particular neighborhoods, Crossley said they were "open to everything," but being in the city itself has "the most appeal." He noted that there's a "city-county divide" in St. Louis that "once you're on the ground, you feel conscious of all the time," and they want to be in "the heart of the city."

On the subject of the store's name, Crossley explained that they liked it because of the "strong literary connections" as well as its connection to local history. In the early 19th century, a man named Albert Koch opened a museum in St. Louis featuring something called the Missouri Leviathan. Purported to be the remains of a truly massive prehistoric mammal, it turned out to be a work of fiction, with scientists eventually coming to the conclusion that Koch had "jammed multiple mastodon skeletons together."

Despite "this minor error in judgment," the pair wrote, "Koch is an inspiration for the scope of his vision, his eagerness to please the public, and yes, his chutzpah. That's why we're rolling up our sleeves, using what we find, and creating something we know will be truly grand...."

Together, Crossley and Clark have decades of experience in bookselling. Clark was a frontline bookseller and events and marketing manager for the Novel Neighbor in Webster Groves, Mo., before founding a tour company called Renegade STL and becoming a public historian and tours manager for the Missouri Historical Society. Crossley, meanwhile, began his bookselling career in Seattle, Wash., more than 20 years ago and most recently was the founding manager at Madison Books.

The pair met in 2018 while attending BookExpo, and what began with "trading bookselling tips" turned into a "cross-country relationship." Over the course of many visits, Crossley "got to really like St. Louis the city," and he became acquainted with Dunaway Books first as a customer.

Clark recalled stopping by Dunaway one evening to discuss the plans for Leviathan Books with Dunaway's owners Claudia Brodie and Kevin Twellman. When she and Crossley mentioned they were interested in launching as a pop-up before opening a permanent bricks-and-mortar location, "Claudia and Kevin immediately jumped in with what the next step would be, and it wasnt long before the four of us had planned Leviathan's pop-up grand opening on April 27."

The IBD celebration, which will feature live music and refreshments from 5-7 p.m., will mark not only Leviathan's debut but also Dunaway's anniversary.

Crossley called St. Louis a "good bookstore town" with "room for more," and with Leviathan Bookstore, he and Clark hope to "make it an even better bookstore town." --Alex Mutter
Paul Auster

Paul Auster, "the prolific novelist, memoirist and screenwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s with his postmodern reanimation of the noir novel and who endured to become one of the signature New York writers of his generation," died April 30, the New York Times reported. He was 77. Auster published more than 30 books, including 18 novels and several acclaimed memoirs and assorted autobiographical works, along with plays, screenplays and collections of stories, essays and poems.

"Auster played brilliantly throughout his career in the game of literary postmodernism, but with a simplicity of language that could have come out of a detective novel," said Will Blythe, the author and former literary editor of Esquire. "He seemed to view life itself as fiction, in which one's self evolves exactly the way a writer creates a character."

In 1969, after earning a master's degree in comparative literature from Columbia University, Auster "did a stint working on an oil tanker before moving to Paris. There he scraped together rent money by translating French literature while starting to publish his own work in literary journals," the Times wrote. He published his first book, a collection of translations called A Little Anthology of Surrealist Poems, in 1972. In 1974, he returned to New York City.

Auster's career began to gain momentum in 1982, with his memoir The Invention of Solitude, a rumination on his distant relationship with his recently deceased father. His first novel, City of Glass, was rejected by 17 publishers before it was published by a small press in California in 1985. The book became the first installment of the New York Trilogy--along with Ghosts (1986) and The Locked Room (1986)--three novels later packaged in a single volume.

His other novels include In the Country of Last Things (1987), Moon Palace (1989), Leviathan (1992), The Book of Illusions (2002), 4 3 2 1 (2017), and Baumgartner (2023). Among his memoirs are Hand to Mouth (1997), Winter Journal (2012), and A Life in Words (2017). Other books include The Story of My Typewriter (2002, with illustrations by the painter Sam Messer), Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane (2021), and Bloodbath Nation (2023).

He also wrote several screenplays, including Smoke (1995), directed by Wayne Wang and based on a Christmas story Auster published in the Times, which noted that it "drew deeply from his life in Park Slope, where he shared a brick townhouse with his wife, the novelist Siri Hustvedt." The director and writer also collaborated on a follow-up, Blue in the Face. Auster would go on to write and direct Lulu on the Bridge (1998) and The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007).

Auster was named a chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1991. He was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

"I think he was a really exciting and compelling voice of his generation," Alys Moody, a professor who teaches postwar American literature, told NPR. "Auster will be remembered for being one of the leading figures in a post-modern tradition that's reimagining how central language is, and how central writing is, and how central above all storytelling is."

Faber posted on social media: "Paul was a towering figure on the Faber list and among the truly great innovators of the literature of the past half century. We are a company of Paul Auster fans and many of us will be thinking today of our first Paul Auster book and the path it led us on."

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, where Auster had previously served as a v-p, commented: "In addition to shaping the worldviews of generations of Americans through his bracing and beloved novels, Paul Auster was a writer's writer, consistently standing in solidarity with authors in China, Iran, Russia and around the world who were persecuted for what he was able to do freely: exercise his imagination and tell stories."

The Guardian featured several tributes from fellow authors, including Ian McEwan, who said, "If his imagination seemed so spacious it was because he was as much a European as an American writer. If he had Thoreau at his back, he also had Beckett. It is possible to cross a Paul Auster Platz and walk down a rue Paul Auster. Not many novelists have been so honored."

Colum McCann observed: "One of the beauties of literature is that it remains with us even beyond death, and the thing we can celebrate is that we will have Paul's words still speaking to us down through those years yet to come."

"All along, my only ambition had been to write," Auster observed in his brief memoir, Hand to Mouth (1995). "I had known that as early as 16 or 17 years old, and I had never deluded myself into thinking I could make a living at it. Becoming a writer is not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.... All I wanted was a chance to do the work I felt I had it in me to do."
India and Nigeria are set to boost their economic ties by focusing on key areas such as crude oil, natural gas, pharmaceuticals, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), local currency settlement systems, and the power sector. A recent visit from a seven-member Indian delegation, led by Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce Amardeep Singh Bhatia, discussed these potential areas of collaboration with their Nigerian counterparts.

The Indian delegation included officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), EXIM Bank of India, and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Both nations aim to enhance bilateral trade and mutually beneficial investments by resolving market access issues and fostering cooperation in critical sectors such as renewable energy, agriculture, food processing, education, transport, and MSMEs.

Local Currency Settlement System Agreement promptly, which will further strengthen their economic relationship. Nigeria is India's second-largest trading partner in the African region, but bilateral trade has seen a decline from USD 11.8 billion in 2022-23 to USD 7.89 billion in 2023-24. The two sides agreed to conclude apromptly, which will further strengthen their economic relationship. Nigeria is India's second-largest trading partner in the African region, but bilateral trade has seen a decline from USD 11.8 billion in 2022-23 to USD 7.89 billion in 2023-24.

Indian investments in Nigeria amount to USD 27 billion across various sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing, and consumer goods and services. Around 135 Indian companies are actively engaged in these areas. This collaboration underscores the strategic partnership between India and Nigeria and their shared commitment to fostering economic growth and development.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The NYPD is asking for the publics help to locate a 29-year-old man who has been reported missing from his home in South Beach.

Edon Kraja most recently was seen on Thursday at about 9:30 p.m. at his home in the vicinity of Linwood Avenue and Hylan Boulevard, according to a statement from the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police described Kraja as standing about 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing about 250 pounds, with a large build, brown hair and brown eyes. He was seen wearing a hat, eyeglasses, gray shirt, black pants and black sneakers.

The NYPD released the photo of the man.

Anyone with information in regard to the whereabouts of this individual is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.
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Report for G7 shows how urban planning, digitalisation and grid investment can help cities manage the impacts of climate change and growing energy dem. . .
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Police arrested 56 pro-Palestinian protesters and dismantled their encampments at two college campuses in Manhattan on Friday morning.

Officers took 13 individuals into custody at New York University and apprehended 43 individuals at The New School, according to a spokeswoman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

The @NYPDnews proudly protects everyones right to free speech and peaceful protest.



Heres a look at just some of the inflammatory literature and signage we observed today at the illegal encampment on @NYU property:



Enough with De-Escalation Trainings: Where are the pic.twitter.com/Zo3hSF55rG  NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Cinco de Mayo might be an Americanized tradition. But a swath of the Mexican community on Staten Island offers it as a springboard for a family-friendly celebration with food as a great focus.

This Sunday, May 5 from 3 to 5 p.m., several organizers will pitch tents in the parking lot of St. Rochs R.C. Church at 602 Port Richmond Ave., Port Richmond. The event is free.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  An SUV careened into a utility pole in New Dorp on Friday afternoon, snapping the pole and leaving it dangling from wires, prompting a large emergency response that blocked traffic on the busy street.

The crash occurred on Hylan Boulevard at Bancroft Avenue just past 4 p.m. according to a spokesperson for the FDNY.

One individual was transported to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze, the FDNY reported. The patients condition was not immediately clear.

The FDNY and NYPD were on scene, directing Tottenville-bound traffic off of Hylan for a period of time.

An SUV with significant front-end damage could be seen on the sidewalk, cordoned off by police tape.

Emergency officials respond to a crash on Hylan Boulevard near Bancroft Avenue in New Dorp on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)Staten Island Advance

The top portion of the snapped utility pole rested on the vehicles windshield as it dangled from wires overhead.

At about 4:30 p.m., officials began letting traffic through, although the bus lane was blocked.

The traffic lights in front of the NYPDs 122nd Precinct station house and at the intersection of Hylan and Bryant Avenue were out following the crash.

This is a developing story and additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

Emergency officials respond to a crash on Hylan Boulevard near Bancroft Avenue in New Dorp on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)Staten Island Advance

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NEW YORK, N.Y.  Hope Hicks took center stage Friday in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump related to alleged hush money payments.

Trumps former communication aide, Hicks, broke down on the stand when defense attorney Emil Bove began questioning her briefly, which delayed the proceedings.

When the trial resumed about five minutes later, Hicks didnt offer an exact explanation for her breakdown, but said at the beginning of her testimony that she was nervous. She offered an apology to Bove, who accepted and continued his questioning.

Most of Hicks testimony focused on the 2016 presidential campaign, and a broader hush money scheme designed to keep negative stories about Trump out of the press.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump last year with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which carries a maximum sentence of four years incarceration, according to the state court system.

The case is related to business records allegedly falsified to repay former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen after he paid pornstar Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 affair she had with Trump ahead of the 2016 election.

That story eventually reached the mainstream media in January 2018 when the Wall Street Journal reported the hush money payment Cohen has admitted to paying.

Braggs office has sought to paint the hush money payments as done by Cohen on behalf and to the knowledge of Trump, and when prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked Hicks if she thought the payments were something Cohen did independently of the former president, she didnt mince words.

In this 2018 photo, President Donald Trump poses for members of the media with then White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.AP

I didnt know Michael [Cohen] to be an especially charitable person or selfless person. [He is] the kind of person who seeks credit, Hicks said.

Her comments marked the latest barb tossed Cohens way with several of the prosecutions witnesses testifying that they found Cohen unpleasant and difficult to work with.

In fact, Hicks said Cohens self-appointed designation as Trumps fixer was a fitting moniker for reasons the lawyer may not have realized.

I used to say that he liked to call himself a fixer or Mr. fix-i, but it was only because he first broke it, she said.

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, another witness who expressed less than positive opinions about Cohen, said earlier in the trial that the lawyers fix-it qualities took on a new life following a meeting the two had with Trump shortly after the 2015 announcement of his candidacy.

Braggs case relies largely on a scheme among the three men to suppress negative news about the candidate ahead of the 2016 election.

That strategy followed an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting among the trio and led to a National Enquirer catch-and-kill scheme Pecker ran with the tabloids editor-in-chief Dylan Howard.

Pecker would alert Cohen whenever he heard about a potentially damaging story, including multiple instances when they paid sources to keep quiet about their Trump stories.

One of those was a payment to a former Trump Tower doorman who said he had a story about a love child Trump fathered with a house keeper. The other two were payments to women who claimed sexual affairs with Trump, including Daniels.

Attorney Keith Davidson, who testified earlier this week, represented Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal in their hush money negotiations.

Both Davidson and Pecker testified that Cohen became particularly interested in suppressing Daniels story after the contents of the infamous Access Hollywood tape were first reported by the Washington Post in the weeks before the 2016 election. The Wall Street Journal also published a story about McDougals hush money payment just days before the election.

Braggs office has sought to link Trump directly to the hush money payments, in part, by showing he was worried about the impact they would have on his political aspirations, but Boves questioning of Hicks offered another, more human, explanation.

Hicks said that she thought Trumps reactions to the stories when they came out were more about protecting his family, particularly his wife, Melania Trump.

President Trump really values Mrs. Trumps opinion and she doesnt weigh in all the time, but when she does its really meaningful to him. He really respects what she has to say so I think he was just concerned about what her perception of this would be, she said. I dont think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him

While Trumps defense hasnt landed any major blows against Braggs case, the alternate explanations for Trumps behavior and general distaste for Cohen could bolster their main argument that Cohen is a dishonest man playing along with the governments case against Trump in order to protect himself.

Two other witnesses, employees of Braggs office, testified Friday.

Douglas Daus, a digital forensics specialist, shared some of the contents of Cohens two phones he used to communicate around the time of the alleged incidents, and Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal, testified about social media accounts from Trump and others involved in the case.

Part of Longstreets work has included listening to Cohens podcast, Mea Culpa, and she brought a brief moment of brevity to the courtroom.

Almost universal laughter ensued when Trumps team asked her if shed listened to all episodes of the podcast and she responded with an emphatic absolutely not.

The trial is set to resume Monday and expected to last until at least the end of May.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Those with sights set on hunting season with the hope of setting sights on game will want to note that changes are being implemented for hunters and sporting enthusiasts in the state of New York.

Fortunately, in 2024, tags and sporting licenses will be made more readily accessible.

THE MODERNIZATION OF TAGS AND LICENSES

State sporting licenses and carcass tags paper are changing, according to The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). As opposed to the special stock synthetic paper in use today, by Aug. 1, they will be plain paper.

This change modernizes the license purchasing process and enables quicker access to licenses and tags by offering at-home license and tag printing options, the DEC reports.

DECs transition to paper tags will provide the sporting community with a streamlined process to go afield, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. This cost-effective shift to paper tags will reduce the states carbon footprint and ensure our sporting license program is at the forefront of emerging technologies. In recent years, supply chain issues have made it increasingly difficult and more expensive for fish and wildlife agencies to acquire synthetic paper and many have successfully made the switch to plain paper licenses. New York state looks forward to joining our partner states in this transition to modernize our system.

The option to purchase licenses in-person at an issuing agent, online, or over the phone will remain available, however, the DEC says this development offers more flexibility in license delivery, including printing at the point-of-sale or emailing and printing at home. When out in the field and required to provide proof of a license, hunters and anglers can now present their license digitally through the HuntFishNY mobile app. Additionally, the app serves as a convenient option for sportsmen to report game harvests.

The new tags and licenses will go into effect for the 2024-2025 license year and will commence with sales starting Aug. 1, 2024. Lifetime license holders should anticipate receiving their 2024-25 licenses and tags on plain paper by mail by Sept. 1, 2024.

The switch to plain paper does not apply to the spring 2024 turkey season.

For details on deer and bear hunting seasons in New York, click here.

FREE FISHING DAYS

Those hoping to cast a line and reel in some fishing expeditions with family should note that there are a few days in 2024 on which you can enjoy fishing without a license.

2024 Free Fishing Days:







Although a license is not required, all other fishing regulation apply.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An independent Staten Island would likely make life more expensive and reduce services and benefits for the roughly half-a-million residents who call the borough home, according to a new report.

In recent years, numerous Staten Island elected officials, including Borough President Vito Fossella, Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), have reignited decades-old calls for the borough to break away from New York City, arguing that decisions being made at the citywide level are routinely against the wishes and best interest of borough residents.

But a new report issued by the citys Independent Budget Office (IBO) found that secession could result in multiyear legal battles, increased costs and a potential reduction in services, as the borough would need to replace municipal services currently provided by the city, including police, fire, and correctional services, waste removal and snowplowing, schools and libraries.

While some have depicted secession as simple, the facts speak to the probable deep disruption for businesses and residents, need for new ballot referendums and drafting of an independent Staten Island City-County charter, likely litigation, and the resulting uncertainty that would ensue, according to the report.

With property taxes serving as the largest source of tax revenue in the borough, the report claims that an independent Staten Island would need to significantly increase property tax rates in order to fund the municipal services it would no longer receive from New York City.

With most New York City employees required to live within the city during their first two years of employment, and in specific counties any time after that, secession could have employment-altering impacts on the roughly 43,000 Staten Islanders currently employed by the city and those looking to join the workforce.

In terms of transportation, an independent Staten Island would need to negotiate with the MTA to continue bus and rail services, which are subsidized by the city, and the Staten Island Ferry, operated by the city Department of Transportation, would need to be legally restructured and could see fares reimplemented for the first time in decades.

In short, secession is highly complex, would take many years to implement, and would either be more expensive for Staten Island residents, require an independent Staten Island to reduce benefits and services to residents, or both, according to the report.

The report was completed at the request of Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Bay Ridge), chair of the City Councils Finance Committee.

While rumors have swirled as to whether the Brooklyn official is considering a run for New Yorks 11th Congressional District, a seat spanning Staten Island and South Brooklyn currently held by Malliotakis, Brannan told the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com that he is not running for Congress and that the request simply stemmed from his duties on the Councils Finance Committee.

While its easy for elected officials in Staten Island to blame all their problems on the rest of the city, and to win support for a bogus cure thats never coming and wouldnt work anyway, the hardworking people of Staten Island deserve elected officials willing to do the hard things instead  working with their citywide partners to deliver actual results. Instead of perpetuating this fake panacea, lets work together to ensure Staten Island forgets they ever referred to themselves as the forgotten borough, Brannan said in an emailed statement.

When asked about the report, Borelli said that it doesnt say anything that local elected officials dont already know regarding potential tax increases or service cuts.

We already knew we would face potential tax hikes or need to cut services. Cutting the waste of NYC is literally the point. The scare tactics on taxes were tried in 1993, and guess what, the city raised our taxes anyway and we still dont have any real say in it, the councilman said.

Fossella and Malliotakis did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
The U.S. State Department has issued a new advisory urging travelers to Europe to be extra vigilant when visiting Germany due to concerns about potential terrorist activity.

The advisory, a Level Two  which suggests heightened caution was released on May 1 and highlights ongoing threats from terrorist groups in Germany, cautioning travelers to remain alert as attacks could occur with minimal warning, noting that terrorist groups keep planning attacks in Germany.

The advisory states: They target tourist locations and transportation hubs. They also target markets/shopping malls and local government facilities. They target hotels, clubs, and restaurants. They also attack places of worship, parks, and major sporting and cultural events. They target schools, airports, and other public areas.

For reference, Level Three (Reconsider Travel) and Level Four (Do Not Travel) advisories represent more critical levels. However, Germanys Level Two advisory is noteworthy, given its significant size in central Europe, robust economy, and second-largest population after Russia.

Over the past year, the most severe travel advisories in Europe were primarily linked to the conflict in Ukraine. Do-not-travel advisories were issued for Ukraine (May 2023), Belarus (July 2023), and Russia (September 2023) due to the ongoing hostilities.

If you must travel to Germany, the State Department recommends:

OTHER TRAVEL ADVISORIES ISSUED BY U.S. IN 2024

With Jamaica and Bahamas under travel advisories, which Caribbean islands are safe to book your next vacation?

Following nationwide state of emergency, State Dept. issues travel advisory to South American spot

Amid do-not-travel alert, major cruise line stops visits to popular Caribbean resort
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NASEO, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and the National Governors Association (NGA) hosted a joint site visit . . .
We try to not even talk about [the COVID-19 recovery period]. I think we all have PTSD. Im sure there are things about the industry that have changed permanently ... Our workforce is more transient for example, but I think were officially stabilised and focusing on growth rather than fixing issues, she said. Jetstar is focused on expanding its international market share, traditionally the worst performing part of Australian airlines due to the lower yields and higher costs. Tully said shes not deterred, that Jetstar has an operating margin of 13 per cent overall and its international arms, Jetstar Asia, Japan and New Zealand are profitable. Jetstar currently flies about 10 per cent of the international market underpinned by its frequent services flying millions of Australians to Bali every year. Jetstar is trying to increase its international capacity by 30 per cent by the end of this financial year  and by another 25 per cent in the 2025 financial year  and is revamping its fleet of Boeing 787s to do so. If the carrier is successful in its capacity goals, itll add another 2 million seats and take the business to 150 per cent of 2019 flying levels. Its launched six international routes this year including Sydney to Rarotonga and Melbourne to Fiji. The airline has confirmed another three new routes will be unveiled this month and is considering destinations including Sri Lanka and South Africa to join the previously announced Perth to Phuket, Bangkok and Singapore routes.

Jetstar is also awaiting its twelfth Airbus A321 neo to arrive this month, with 38 A321 neos expected to arrive by 2029 to make up its narrow-body fleet. The global airline industry has been decimated by late orders and parts shortages due to issues at manufacturers Airbus and Boeing and their second and third tier suppliers. Loading Tully said engineering teams across the industry have had to work harder than ever to meet delivery timelines: Theyre doing things that were never required before COVID-19 ... They now need better relationships with repair shops who can turn around parts more quickly. They have to carry more spares than theyd have to do in the past. Theyre constantly looking to Europe and carriers including EasyJet and Ryanair to see how we can get better and stronger at maintenance as well. She was appointed chief executive of Jetstar at the end of 2022 after 18 years with the broader Qantas business across its loyalty and marketing divisions. Shes one of the many aviation executives who started her career at Ansett and lost her job when it collapsed in 2001.

At the time Tully took over Jetstar following the departure of industry stalwart Gareth Evans, Jetstars cancellation rate was worse than all of its competitors. Half of its long-haul fleet of Boeing 787s were out of operation due to a string of engineering issues which sent its average cancellation rate for the year to above 6 per cent. To make matters worse, its parent group Qantas had plummeted to being one of Australias least trusted brands. Some staff at Jetstar had initial reservations about the idea of a slick Qantas marketing executive swanning in as chief executive at a time when Qantas was so on the nose, but Tully has a frank approachability to her that won people over quickly. More than one staff member said Tullys approach to the chief executive role can be summed up by her appearance at the airlines latest Christmas party where she reportedly spent most of the night head-banging to Shannon Noll on the dance floor. Jetstar is focused on expanding its international market share. Credit: James Brickwood Tully knows many of the customers who were let down by Jetstar over this period remain reluctant to ever trust it again. Jetstar customers dont often fly as frequently as others. They remember their last experience ... I think when people are flying Jetstar again after a previously challenging experience they probably realise things have changed, but it takes a while for that perception shift to stick.

I think people get caught up in trying to change brand perception, but you have to deliver. What we do is more important than what we say well do, she said. Loading Tully said the COVID-19 recovery hurt Jetstar employees even more than its passengers because they lived through the heartache of ruined holidays, reunions and business trips every day  often due through no fault of their own. She travels to Melbourne once a week from her Sydney base and said she always requests to sit in the cockpit to talk to the pilots, a break from the usual airline executive routine of rotating through the cabins. I came in at a really challenging time. The priority was stabilisation and to stop letting people down but to also fix the morale of our people. Their jobs are better when were letting fewer people down. I think you can tell people are back feeling motivated to be here, and its pretty happy most days which is a good place to be after the first six or so months, Tully said. She admitted she was initially hesitant to take over Jetstar after so many years working on the Qantas brand. I now think Jetstar actually makes me more emotional because every customer that flies with us has a story. Theyve worked hard to get there.
What exactly is a Future Made in Australia? You can read the long speech Anthony Albanese made about it and still not be sure. My guess is its a slogan designed by spin doctors to mean whatever youd like it to mean.

As I wrote on Monday, what I hope it means is that the government intends to secure our economic future by ensuring all the income were going to lose from the worlds decision to stop buying our exports of fossil fuels is replaced by us using our new-found comparative advantage of being able to produce renewable energy more cheaply than most other countries.

Credit: Matt Davidson

We can produce masses of the stuff but, because its expensive to export, we can set up new industries which use the renewable energy to produce green iron, green aluminium and various other green minerals and then sell them to the world.

Because such industries dont yet exist, the businesses that start them will inevitably make mistakes from which later businesses will learn. So it makes hard-headed economic sense for the government to cover much of the cost of this learning-by-doing positive externality  this spillover benefit to the wider economy for which the original businesses will go unrewarded.
Contemporary art is a gigantic billboard for political platitudes, but if there is one artist who consistently transcends the overwhelming shallowness, its William Kentridge. As a South African who lived through the fall of apartheid, this may have given Kentridge a more complex understanding of history and politics than so many of his mono-dimensional peers. Or it may be simply a matter of personality. With the possible exception of Anselm Kiefer, theres not another living artist who approaches a subject with such intense intellectual commitment.

The central work in Kentridges show at Annandale Galleries, Day Will Break More than Once (for which Ive written a brief catalogue essay), is a film called Waiting for the Sibyl, in which the pages of a book are turned, revealing a succession of puzzling statements: Old Gods have retired I have brought news. I have forgotten the message The third martini Beware of insects with moustaches You will never see that city

Confusion and uncertainty: The works of William Kentridge on display at Annandale Galleries. Credit: Document Photography

The film relates to a piece of music-theatre performed at the Sydney Opera House late last year, based on the Cumaean prophet Sibyl, who would sit in a cave, reading the future and writing her discoveries on oak leaves. When the wind scattered the leaves, it became impossible to align prophecy with petitioner, rendering the predictions useless.

Apollo had granted the Sibyls request for eternal life, but because she had forgotten to ask for eternal youth, her body gradually withered away until she was nothing but a voice. Her story illustrates the futility of overreaching our mortal state, of trying to outstay our welcome on the planet or foresee what destiny holds in store.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size As if speaking to one of the worlds leading legal minds isnt intimidating enough, before our interview I learn that Geoffrey Robertson KC also goes by the title of Master of the Middle Temple. Dont worry, its not a medieval position, he assures me. The title refers to the Doughty Street Chambers in central London, where Robertson is founder and co-head. The building was once the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the 13th century. It doesnt provide me with any Harry Potter-like skill, Robertson adds. Although I think our hall was used for the Harry Potter films. Robertson grew up in Sydney, and moved to England when he won a Rhodes scholarship to study law. He had planned to return, until he was given work on the legal defence of Australian expat Richard Neville, the publisher of underground satirical magazine Oz, which was charged with conspiracy to corrupt public morals after running a cartoon of Rupert the Bear in a sexually explicit position. While that defence failed, Robertson decided to stay in England and was called to the bar in 1973. One of Robertsons early cases was the obscenity trial of the three editors of the controversial Oz magazine. Credit: United Press International By the late 70s he was specialising in human rights, and hes argued landmark cases across media, constitutional and criminal law in the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court, the UN War Crimes court and others. He was involved in the prosecution of dictators Augusto Pinochet and Hastings Banda, and the defence of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on corruption charges, and Julian Assange (who briefly holed up in his attic). Other high-profile clients have included author Salman Rushdie, boxer Mike Tyson and even the Sex Pistols. Oh, and he exposed the Medellin Cartels gun-running in the Caribbean and helped restore democracy in Fiji  and this isnt even an exhaustive list. Not surprisingly, hes an old hand when it comes to receiving death threats. But despite their frequency, he says he has rarely feared for his life.

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Especially not if theyre done by email. There was one that I was concerned about  my chambers reported it to the police and a day or so later I got the most grovelling apology from this fellow in America because hed had a visit from the FBI! He said he was in a bad place and had lost control of his mind at the time. In my game, death threats are an occupational hazard. Geoffrey Robertson on the set of Hypotheticals in 2000. In 2018, Robertson was awarded an Order of Australia for distinguished service to the law and the legal profession as an international human rights lawyer and advocate for global civil liberties. And in the 1980s, he hosted the popular ABC program Hypotheticals (there have also been several specials in the intervening years), in which he moderated discussions of topical social issues and moral dilemmas with a panel of prominent guests. Robertson with former wife, Kathy Lette, at their home in London in 2012. Credit: Julian Andrews Robertson, who met and married author Kathy Lette in 1990 (the pair, who divorced in 2017, have two children), is still a frequent visitor to Australia, and next month, hes back for a series of live shows, in which he will grapple with the state of Australia and the world. Hell offer insights into his famous cases, and his learned views on many topics, and pose the question of the shows title, How Do We Fix A Turbulent World? Its just Robertson on stage and each show will likely be different. I give the audience the benefits of my views and observations, learning about particular matters, which are generally topical, he says. It will depend on the news of the day, but there are certain topics I will address.

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One thing hell discuss in each city on his national tour is the debate around the date of Australia Day. Whenever I come back to Australia over the last few years, people are arguing about that, he says. And I do have some thoughts on where to move Australia Day, and how to solve that perennial dilemma. And then, of course, there has been an excess of defamation cases; you cant open the paper without reading about those. And I can tell you, because Ive done a lot of work in that area in Britain, that Australia is really behind the times with defamation. TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GEOFFREY ROBERTSON Worst habit? My addiction to orange juice. It used to be regarded as the healthiest drink ... Greatest fear? Losing the love of my life. No, I wont say who that is. The line that stayed with you? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. From the Bible, via Immanuel Kant. Biggest regret? Uh, I dont have many ... the inevitability of death! Favourite room? The room closest to the fridge. And the orange juice. The artwork or song that you wish was yours? I reckon Happy Birthday, because the copyright fees would be trillions! Everyone sings it and plays it on the radio  itd be a valuable song. If you could solve one thing It would be the Australia Day question. He may also discuss juries and the issue of whether it is appropriate to blame a juror for doing research; Robertson believes jurors should be entitled to look at academic articles, citing the Brittany Higgins case as a recent example. Whenever you read about the Higgins cases, theres always a statement about the juror. If the judge hadnt reacted in that way, if the jury had not been discharged and all that followed  I mean, they would have convicted or acquitted and life would have gone on  but all that has followed, the defamation cases, the cases involving the DPP, all these other events would not have followed. Roberston is also a prolific author, and hell be talking about his latest book, The Trial of Vladimir Putin, published this month. Looking at the title, you probably think, a hypothetical too far, he quips. Because of course, hes in control, and hes got quite a few nuclear weapons at his back. But the first point I would concede is that its unlikely that he will be brought to trial, but he may be, and he may end up like [former Serbian president Slobodan] Milosevic, who seemed to be impregnable.

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The Trial of Vladimir Putin puts the case for trying Putin for war crimes. I was able to encompass some lessons from the death of Alexei Navalny, and I think if his position can be weakened then  there are various ways in which an overthrow could be envisaged, he says. With Milosevic, he was overthrown to stop the sanctions and they surrendered him to The Hague. So it is not beyond question that he will eventually end up in the dock. And the crime with which he should be charged, Robertson asserts, is the crime of aggression, which sounds fairly tame but is, he says, the worst of all crimes. As a matter of law, the aggressor, the person who starts a war, is responsible for all of the calamities in that war; for the bombings and the killings and the dismemberments, the killings of children and the environmental damage and so forth, he says. Loading Theres a certain irony though, to the fact that Putins defence is one created by former US president George W Bush, which he used to justify his invasion of Iraq. Its something George Bushs lawyer invented, called pre-emptive self-defence, Robertson says. In his live show, Robertson will discuss the arguments he makes for trying Putin in absentia, and his theory that should Putin be tried fairly even in his absence, a guilty verdict could give pause to other countries looking to challenge democracy.

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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Goran Stolevski has lived in Australia  firstly in Melbourne, now in Sydney  since he was 12, but he says he has never felt at home there. His childhood was spent in Macedonia. As a teenager in the 90s, he likes to say now, his best friends were Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman. He didnt feel any more at home in Macedonia on regular family trips back to Skopje  and even less so now. As a queer person here, its not a fun thing, he told me on a Zoom call when he was shooting his new film, Housekeeping for Beginners. I definitely have to censor myself, so its not home in that way. And the Macedonia I grew up in doesnt exist any more. I dont say that as a bad thing. Its kind of like an interesting adventure. At the same time Im making movies, I find myself living in places I never would, normally. So it feels like Im travelling, being here. Its just convenient I speak the language. Stolevski has always said his films are not autobiographical  even Of An Age, his 2022 drama about gay teenagers set in an outer suburb of Melbourne, draws on aspects of his growing up but the events are entirely fictional. But that longstanding sense of being an outsider permeates Housekeeping for Beginners. It is set in a once stately house that the middle-aged owner Dita (Anamaria Marinca) and her Roma partner Sauda (Alina Serban) have allowed to become a safe house for a motley crew of other social pariahs. Goran Stolevskis Of an Age charts the lives of gay teenagers in outer Melbourne. Ditas moody gay friend Toni (Vladimir Tintor) has just asked his much younger, obviously unsuitable Roma boyfriend Ali (Samson Selim) to move in. The traditionally nomadic Roma people are treated with open contempt by other Macedonians, says Stolevski. I would witness racism, then hear my actors tell me stories of everyday life, not even as experiences of racism but just normality for them. Three young lesbians who have been thrown out of various homes have also moved in. Then there are Saudas children: a snappy adolescent girl Vanesa (Mia Mustafa) and little Mia (Dzada Selim), who is just five but holds her own among these scrapping, posturing, edgy folk.

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It isnt exactly a functioning family; there is a good deal of shouting under a perpetual pall of smoke. When youre on your guard in the outside world, says Stolevski, there is a constant tension. He felt it, too: within a couple of weeks of working in Skopje, his own awareness that he must never touch his partner in public was so firmly inscribed on his muscle memory that he didnt reach out to him even when he walked in front of a car. He could have been killed, with Stolevski having done no more than tell him, too late, to stop. And then its like this anger collects in you, and you need to vent, but there isnt anywhere safe to do it. Goran Stolevski: Its like this anger collects in you, and you need to vent, but there isnt anywhere safe to do it. His characters are bonded by that need for a safe space. Even as theyre fighting, they feel safe. Even if they hit each other. This violence is not as affecting on a primal level as it would be outside. It is only a provisional safety, however. Sauda is dying of cancer, which has focused her mind in alarming ways. Swear to look after the children, she shouts at Dita, holding a knife over her own arm. Dita swears against her will; she has no interest in motherhood and the girls do not want her. Loading But when Vanesa calls the police in a fit of teenage pique, telling them she has been captured by a gay cult, Dita turns into a maternal avenger. This is all the authorities need to confiscate the children, the house and Ditas job. Get rid of anything that looks gay, she shouts. Stuff goes into cupboards. The police duly arrive to find Dita in a frock sitting on a couch with Toni, the consummate married couple. Funny though it is, it is in this moment that we see these people are living in fear. In fact, Stolevski did not set out to tell a story about Macedonia. The idea of making a film about a queer household was sparked by a photograph of a similarly sprawling Melbourne household of the 70s that was posted on social media by Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres. It was just a casual photo from one day in their lives and Tony and his boyfriend  who is still his boyfriend  where they were living with eight women. I loved that energy and that space, but the decision to set it in Macedonia came pretty quickly after that.

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It is the second feature he has made there; the first was an extraordinary story of witches stealing children called You Wont Be Alone (2022). He has never wanted to be defined or confined by his ethnicity but, he says, this hothouse of the oppressed would not make sense set in contemporary Melbourne; the prevailing boots-and-all homophobia wouldnt ring true. Noomi Rapace in You Wont Be Alone. Credit: Causeway Films It was really the idea of a cocoon that I responded to, so I wanted to set it in Macedonia where that space still means something very different from what it would in Australia now. Loading Also that sense of home. You know, I grew up in a tiny apartment with multiple generations of people and cousins coming in and out at all times. The multiple generations were the crux of it. The same scenario would work in Poland or Romania, he adds. But, as a Macedonian, I could get financing in Macedonia. Most of the characters are played by non-actors who were launched into their roles without rehearsal, encouraged to bring their own experiences to the process. I often encourage people to improvise because I know theyll end up saying exactly whats written in the script much more evocatively, says Stolevski. Because theyre trying to come up with the next thing to say based on what theyre feeling, but theyre working it out for themselves.

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Tips & adviceSupermarkets From apps to ugly veg: Four simple ways to cut up to 40% off your grocery bill Feeling the pinch? Innovative online tools are helping shoppers save at the supermarket, or bypass it altogether. Bianca Hrovat May 3, 2024 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Shoppers are saving up to 40 per cent on groceries by signing up to price comparison apps, imperfect produce delivery services and online food co-operatives in response to supermarket price increases. Food prices have risen about 4 per cent each year since the pandemic hit, compounding the cost-of-living crisis and leading more Australians to shop around for savings, according to the ongoing ACCC inquiry into supermarket pricing. Josh Ball and Josh Brooks-Duncan, founders of delivery service Farmers Pick. Justin McManus Australians are increasingly going online to find innovative ways to save. Joanne Bianchi, a 63-year-old customer service representative from Bayswater, Victoria, signed up to receive fortnightly supplies of imperfect (and cheaper) fresh produce from delivery service Farmers Pick after seeing a post on Facebook. She says she was sick of scrounging for bargains at her local supermarket, and now saves up to $45 a week on produce.

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Shes not alone. Farmers Pick subscriber numbers have nearly doubled since January. Were seeing a momentum shift, says founder Josh Ball. Families are just looking for something different because the status quo isnt cutting the mustard. Melbourne-based not-for-profit social enterprise The Community Grocer has seen customer numbers double at their weekly produce markets over the past year, and now serves more than 300 households each week. The Community Grocer works closely with farmers to obtain fresh fruit and vegetables at low prices, selling produce for around 35 per cent less than surrounding shops and produce boxes from $20 through Open Food Network - an open-source software platform enabling community groups and farmers to cut out the middle man, and sell directly to consumers. Anyone is welcome to shop at The Community Grocer, and general manager Georgia Savage says many are feeling the increasing financial pressure. People who visit our markets or order a box are often surprised by the quantity of fruit and veg theyre able to purchase with $20, and we can see the relief on their faces, she says.

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More than 12,000 people in NSW have joined Box Divvy, an online food co-operative where neighbourhood groups (hubs) band together through an app to buy produce at wholesale prices. Many of their 250 hubs are now at capacity. Box Divvys prices have always been between 30 and 40 per cent lower than supermarkets, says Anton van den Berg, a former supermarket analyst who founded Box Divvy with Jayne Travers-Drapes in 2019. But people are feeling it more now because their paychecks dont go as far. A food hub run by Box Divvy. Supplied The pair will open a new Sydney warehouse next week, expanding their range of products from 300 to 1500, and plan to eventually open in Victoria and Queensland. We want to become a major player in the grocery arena, and give Coles and Woolies a run for their money, van den Berg says.

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In 2023, another imperfect produce subscription service, Oddprod, launched in Sydney. And in March, Danish app Too Good to Go announced it planned to expand into Australia, connecting users with cheap surplus food from restaurants and stores. Struggling to afford groceries as a single dad, Melbourne-based Adrian Liu used to spend hours poring over supermarket catalogues and websites to find the best prices. In 2018, he created an app to automate the process. WiseList now saves its 220,000 active users an average of between $20 and $34 each shop, he says. When the supermarket inquiry began earlier this year, we saw a 35 per cent increase in our user base, and it just continues to grow, Liu says. Screenshots from the price comparison app WiseList. Supplied

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Groceries became the fastest-growing category on Australian price comparison website BuyWisely in January, says founder Andrew Yang. Weve noticed a significant uptick in user engagement  with half of our price alert subscriptions focusing on groceries, highlighting consumer sensitivity to price changes in this area, he says. Here are four ways to use technology to cut your shopping bill. Compare prices Price comparison apps take your grocery list and scan supermarket websites to deliver up-to-date product information, revealing where to shop to save between 10 and 30 per cent.

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Tech start-up UpUp has created an app that reveals whether Coles or Woolworths offers a better price on users groceries that day. UpUp developers Trevor Lu and Laurent Tu say most users prefer to split their shop between the big two supermarkets to maximise savings. UpUp co-founder Trevor Lu has helped develop an app that compares supermarket prices. Dominic Lorrimer For a greater selection, Australian website BuyWisely tracks more than 3 million products across 10 million e-commerce websites, from supermarkets to major retailers such as Amazon and eBay. It shows pricing history for each product, allowing users to determine the best time to buy, and set alarms for price drops. UpUp, apps.apple.com/au; play.google.com/store/apps

WiseList, wiselist.app

BuyWisely, buywisely.com.au

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An example of the imperfect produce in produce boxes from Oddprod. Supplied Embrace ugly produce Supermarkets reject about 2.4 billion kilograms of produce a year for failing to meet cosmetic standards. Subscription services such as Farmers Pick, Good & Fugly and Oddprod work with farmers to divert that ugly produce from landfill to produce boxes, delivered weekly, fortnightly, or on a one-off basis. Subscribers can save up to 30 per cent on fresh produce. The larger the box, the greater the value, as it can better absorb the cost of delivery. In the US, UK, Europe and Canada, popular apps reduce food waste by providing a platform for restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets to resell surplus food at discounted prices. In Australia, WA app Foody Bag has saved more than 135,000 food items from landfill, and Queensland app Gander highlights clearance items for sale at supermarkets.

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Farmers Pick, farmerspick.com.au

Oddprod, oddprod.com.au

Good & Fugly, goodandfugly.com.au The Community Grocer markets across Melbourne sell affordable produce boxes through Open Food Network Justin McManus Cut out the middleman Buy directly from local farmers and community food enterprises using the Open Food Network. The open-source software, now in its 12th year, hosts virtual farm gates selling everything from bunya nuts (at Cazuarius Produce in Otford, NSW) to pine mushrooms (at Somerset Farm in Seymour, Victoria); as well as food cooperatives with cheaper bulk goods. Not-for-profit group The Community Grocer in Melbourne aims to combat food security  an issue faced by 3.7 million Australian households  by selling produce boxes from as little as $20.

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Were about community food resilience by [facilitating] shorter supply chains, says food systems programs manager Prue Rothwell. It supports less reliance on one dominant food system. Open Food Network, openfoodnetwork.org.au Membership-based online shop Wholesome Market provides savings on sustainable pantry items. Supplied Band together Online food co-operatives allow members to buy goods at wholesale prices, with few overheads and savings of between 30 and 40 per cent.

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Detective Inspector Michelle Ritchie leads the south-west Sydney Domestic Violence High-Risk Offenders Team. If a police command needs to hunt down or arrest a high-risk or dangerous offender, it will hand the case to her team or another like it. Detective Inspector Michelle Ritchie at Bankstown police station. Credit: Kate Geraghty Just this week, her heavily armed team tracked down a man with a violent history who had tried to strangle his partner and been on the run for a week. The victim fled with her children and she was in a safe house, she said. Sometimes we get the offenders within 20 minutes and other times it can take a week. Sometimes it takes months. They use intelligence and covert strategies to hunt the offenders down. These high-risk offender teams, situated around the state, conduct regular sweeps under the banner of Operation Amarok. The Amarok strategy is similar to one successfully used against outlaw motorcycle groups. It was known as Strike Force Raptor and, as one senior officer once put it, harassed bikies within the bounds of the law to make sure they know we are there.

Police from Operation Amarok arrest a domestic violence suspect in Sydney. Amarok monitors people who have been charged with at least one so-called trigger offence  such as sexual assault, grievous bodily harm, or non-fatal strangulation  within the past two years, and does a blitz on AVDO, bail and weapons prohibition compliance checks. It has found fugitives hiding under trapdoors, tracked down hundreds of wanted men, seized dozens of firearms and sprung weapons caches, including one home with two daggers, a double-edged sword, a multi-use hatchet and knuckle dusters. During a four-day blitz in February, police arrested almost 600 high-risk domestic violence offenders and laid 1193 serious charges. Since the operation began, 3000 have been arrested. Were definitely seeing a difference, said Ritchie. When you look at the stats after Amarok and the number of offenders that are being charged and the amount of weapons being seized, were definitely saving lives.

Two key external reports have shaped the police domestic violence reforms. One was from the NSW Auditor-General in 2022, which highlighted the lack of expertise available to support officers. Another from the police watchdog last year criticised record-keeping and training. The auditors criticism that just six people provided policy support to the entire force helped prompt the countrys first Domestic Violence Registry, which brings together specialists in investigations, the law, intelligence and victim support. They can advise police around the clock. The registry particularly focuses on intelligence about high-risk, dangerous and repeated offenders. Almost a quarter of domestic violence offenders reoffend within two months of the first incident and more than half reoffend within the first five months. These officers [at the registry] track the worst of the worst, said Police Minister Yasmin Catley. They know who these people are, where they are, and can tap into that information at any time.

Loading The registry can flag escalating, serious and repeat offending and from there, police can intervene, potentially saving a life. The registry is leading a redesign of the 10-year-old Domestic Violence Safety Assessment Tool (DVSAT), which assesses risk by asking victims whether their partner has ever been violent towards them, choked them, hurt or killed a family pet or stalked them  all key indicators that something more serious may be imminent. The update was prompted after a 2019 review found the DVSAT was not always used well and could put victims at greater risk of harm. The new version will include the risks that have been identified since the first was developed in 2014. Weve discovered since [the test was first designed] that there are additional risks involved in the DV sphere, and one of those is obviously coercive control, said the acting head of the DV Registry, Acting Assistant Commissioner Andy Holland. At the moment, its a cumbersome tool, theres a lot of intricacies, it takes a lot of time for police to fill out.

Police are also looking at other ways to reduce the enormous amount of time officers spend on domestic violence cases. One incident can result in a crew filling out paperwork for the remainder of their 12-hour shift, curtailing their ability to respond to other calls. There are so many screens on our [computer system], then youre talking about statement-taking and DVAC recording, and putting briefs together, and time before the court, said Ritchie. Michelle Ritchie spends a lot of her time on paperwork. Credit: Kate Geraghty Tanya Whitehouse, the manager of Macarthur Womens Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, argued police were under-resourced, as were the services and shelters which kept women and their children safe from the abuser after they reported them to police. DV is next level at the moment, she said. What were seeing is an increase in numbers and an increase in risk. There were not enough duress alarms for at-risk victims, and her local shelter was turning back nine women for every one they accepted.

I think its bigger than the police, she said. Theres good and theres bad in every part of the justice process, and every part of the DV sector. I think the bigger issue is  what happens after the police arrest someone. Catley also stressed the importance of co-operation across services. Police were at the crisis end of the epidemic, but they can only do so much, she said. Thats why services aimed at prevention and early intervention need to work alongside crisis support services. Whitehouse said police were leading one of the best reforms to domestic violence response in her 30-year career, the Safety Action Meetings. With police as the chair, they bring together multiple services such as health, child protection, education, corrections and victim support. Victims are referred if they are identified as at risk by the DVSAT, and agencies share information about the case, which could range from the addiction record of the perpetrator to concerns held by the childrens principal, agrees on an action plan, then reports back after two weeks. Theyre extraordinary, she said. We talk about our responsibility, what does she need now to make her safe, said Whitehouse.

But Abigail Boyd, the NSW Greens spokeswoman on gendered violence and abuse, said police could improve their domestic violence response and there were still recommendations from the auditor and LECC reports that had not yet been acted upon. The Auditor-Generals report criticised the software used to record and review incidents, the Computerised Operational Policing System, as cumbersome and time-consuming. Police couldnt search the system for a particular name, but instead had to manually search for connections between events or people, or for patterns. The limitations would be a particular problem for coercive control offences, as they often involved patterns. Boyd said an upgrade was commissioned in 2014, but due to a series of problems, that capability wont be in place until 2027, she said. Boyd also highlighted the auditors finding that the force did not set expectations for ongoing training for officers once they graduated beyond their probationary period, and said there had also been insufficient training for new coercive control laws to be introduced mid-year.

She said the training rolled out before the new laws, to come into effect in July, has been cursory and has failed to include any questioning to check officers understood the information. We dont know if theyre paying attention, she said. Boyd also called on police to follow recommendations made by both the auditor-general and the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission that police within a particular command should not investigate colleagues accused of domestic violence offences. What were asking for is that they at least transfer it to another command, Boyd said. The message that sends the community, when you have alleged perpetrators with access to all those police resources, is that you cant be serious about addressing family violence. Liz Snell from the Womens Legal Service backed the calls for thorough coercive control training, and said victims would also benefit from regular audits of the way police respond to sexual, family and domestic violence. Such audits can identify where things are working well, as well as highlighting gaps in police responses and identify steps which can be taken to improve policing and ultimately, the safety of victim-survivors of such violence who are primarily children and women, she said.
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Nor is the link yet clear between the six charged this week and the church attacker, though one described him as a mate. The others, police say, were identified as they began investigating associates of the knife-wielding 16-year-old. The most striking feature of the group remains their youth and yet, this would have come as no surprise to law enforcement and intelligence authorities. In an address to the National Press Club last week, ASIO chief Mike Burgess noted that in terms of minors, weve been talking about this for a long time. They had comprised half of ASIOs priority counter-terrorism caseload just a couple of years ago, and its picked up again, he said. They are a vulnerable cohort. He singled out social media as one driver, though not the only one. Speaking at the same event, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw cited evidence of Syrian-based radicals endeavouring to groom a child in Australia via an online gaming platform. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess told the press club that young terror suspects were not a new problem. Credit: AAP In a report released on Thursday responding to the raids, the influential Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said that young Muslims growing up in a post-9/11 world find themselves having to navigate ... complex identities and prejudices from a very young age. This led to constant pressure to prove their loyalty to Australia, which coupled with the internal conflict between their Australian and Muslim identities can lead to significant psychological stress and isolation. The phenomenon of radicalised teens is not unique to Australia. In Germany last month, a boy and two girls, aged 15 to 16, were arrested on suspicion of planning an Islamic State terrorist attack using knives and Molotov cocktails.

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Burgess has also spoken about society needing to stare into this problem earlier, to catch kids early and understand how to quickly help them and be deradicalised. But Muslim community leaders say that message looks hollow against the way in which last weeks highly publicised raids were conducted. Muslim leaders have slammed authorities for not exploring alternatives to the counter-terrorism raids in Sydney last month. Credit: Police Media The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils report slammed the raids excessive force ... [which] not only directly impacted the individuals involved but  resonated negatively across the broader community. The federation says the failure of authorities to consider alternatives to a security-only approach risks creating a cyclical problem where heavy-handed security measures feed the very radicalisation they aim to prevent. It is now calling for an overhaul of the countrys national security regime, including the removal of religious cause from the definition of terrorism, adoption of a more nuanced approach where minors are identified as a terrorism risk, and redoubled resourcing for community engagement, early prevention and mental health. Federation chief executive Kamalle Dabboussy says: The policing response should be the last resort, but it appears to be the first resort at the moment.

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Rather than the last resort, policing seems to be the first response to dealing with young people at risk of radicalisation, says Kamalle Dabboussy. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone Clarke Jones, a criminologist at the Australian National University with experience in countering violent extremism, says relations between authorities and Islamic communities in Sydney and Melbourne are probably at the lowest ebb I have ever seen. There are lots of other things happening that are causing divisions between Muslim communities and the government and police, Jones warns. These include anguish over the mounting death toll in Gaza, following the Hamas terror attacks of October 7 that precipitated a massive Israeli bombardment; the failure of the Australian government to bring home the remaining women and children trapped in camps in north-east Syria following the collapse of IS; and two public references Burgess has recently made to the risks of Sunni violent extremism. (In fairness to Burgess, he did so while also highlighting the growing risks of right-wing extremists seeking to fan race warfare here, and noting a recent Christian religious fundamentalist terror attack.) The speed with which police designated the church stabbing a terrorist incident, just hours after it occurred, remains another source of grievance. The death toll in Gaza is fuelling community discontent in Australia. Credit: Bloomberg Jamal Rifi, a former GP with deep links in western Sydneys Arabic-speaking community, has been in extensive contact with the family of the church attacker, and says there should have been an early mental health assessment before he was labelled a terrorist.

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I was shocked to find out that there is a life-long history of behaviour that indicates a mental health issue, that unfortunately has gone untreated, Rifi says. This boy is still a minor, he hasnt been treated, and now he is getting a potential life sentence. Rifi is struck by the contrast with the Wieambilla siege in Queensland in December 2022, when Christian fundamentalists gunned down three people, including two police. It took two months, not a few hours, for police to decide that was a terror attack, he says. More broadly, Rifi says authorities have dropped the ball on the long-haul task of maintaining strong connections with Islamic communities and investing in engagement and prevention. Jamal Rifi was shocked to learn the 16-year-old accused of harming Mar Mari Emmanuel had a history of mental illness that had gone untreated. Credit: Janie Barrett You build your friendship at the time of peace so you can count on it in the time of crisis. And what happened in the time of peace? The director-general of ASIO twice pointed the finger and says the risk to Australia stems from Sunni Muslims. To be honest, all my life we have worked to improve relations with the NSW police in particular and the Australian Federal Police. Unfortunately, I feel that relationship has weakened recently. Earlier this week, Rifi met with AFP chief Kershaw in Sydney, one of a series of meetings with Islamic community representatives that appear to have been hastily arranged after last weeks raids. Of the meeting, Rifi says: We agreed this is a crucial time  we need to improve the relationship. Jones urges authorities to expand their range of contacts within the Islamic community, and says nothing can happen without trust and mutual respect. He is critical of the fact that we have thrown [millions of dollars] into countering violent extremism. But how much has gone into helping around mental health, and supporting and preventing kids from stupid behaviour? The system has failed.

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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has pledged a royal commission into domestic violence if one is required to unearth the evidence to end mens violence against women, particularly in Indigenous communities.

Weighing into weeks of debate about whether governments must take more action to address the crisis, Dutton said there was a strong argument for a federal inquiry.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says there is a strong case for a royal commission. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

I think theres a strong argument for a royal commission if we know that its going to produce the evidence that can give us a pathway and an answer to [this] scourge, he said in a preview of an interview, which will be aired on Saturday on radio station 4BC in Brisbane.

Former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet also backed the case for a federal royal commission into domestic violence this week. He said it would guide meaningful action, particularly on systemic cultural issues such as young boys access to violent pornography.
NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car says the Minns government will deliver an emergency domestic violence package within days, with crisis accommodation a top priority, following an urgent cabinet meeting convened to consider how to stem violence against women.

Car declined to divulge details or funding commitments from the cabinet meeting but said the immediate focus needed to be on frontline and crisis emergency response.

She said Fridays meeting was not about decisions but was about listening to experts and those with lived experience.

Deputy Premier Prue Car said attitudes of men towards women had to change and schools had an important role to play in that cultural shift. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

The former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, addressed the cabinet meeting and urged the government to focus on prevention and education.
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- On Saturday, May 4, 2024, the Government of Sint Maarten will observe National Remembrance Day, (Dodenherdenking) like the other countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

During this National Commemoration Day, all Dutch victims  civilians and soldiers  who have been killed in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or anywhere else in the world in war situations or during peace-keeping operations since the outbreak of the Second World War (WWII) are commemorated.

This years theme is Freedom: prelude to 80 years of freedom. The years 2024 and 2025 mark a lustrum of 80 years since WWII ended.

The regular commemoration ceremony, taking place at the Captain Hodge Wharf in Philipsburg, will feature several key elements: an invocation by Archdeacon Father Rawlins, the official wreath-laying ceremony by the Governor, the President of Parliament, and the Prime Minister.

Following the wreath laying, the Last Post will be played, succeeded by two minutes of silence after the tolling of the bells. This segment is concluded with the Dutch Anthem and Sint Maarten Song at around 6:00 p.m.

Additionally, the top management of various uniformed troops  Police, Marines, Sint Maarten Voluntary Corps (VKS), and the Marechaussee  will jointly lay a wreath in honor of the fallen.

As has become tradition, two distinguished guests, Elsje Bosch and Bernadine van Veen, wife of the late Gerard van Veen, have been invited. Both Bosch and Gerard van Veen experienced World War II during their childhoods. The two ladies will lay a wreath on behalf of all the children affected by the fight for freedom over the years.

This year well-known poet Lysanne Charles will present a poem that she specifically composed for this occasion. Trumpetist Wilfred Phelipa will accompany the ceremony with musical performances.

Furthermore, all invited guests will have the opportunity to lay a single flower at the War Memorial Monument, which bears the names of World War II victims primarily from Sint Maarten.

The public is encouraged to attend to attend the ceremony, which will commence with a march by uniformed law enforcement and military groups.

The event will also be rebroadcasted on social media. Special thanks go out to the Port Sint Maarten Group of Companies (PSG) for annually facilitating this event.

Business owners are reminded to fly their flags at half-mast and each citizen is encouraged to honor the two minutes of silence after the tolling of the bells at around 6:00 p.m.

The public is hereby notified that the roads leading to and the access to the Captain Hodge Wharf will be closed off for vehicles in the late afternoon of Saturday, May 4, 2024.
GRAND CAYMAN, CI:--- Today, May 2nd, the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten received the GOLD Award for its service to the community of Sint Maarten at the Rotary District 7020 Conference, "Create Hope in the World". The award was presented to the Club by Rotary District 7020 Governor, David Kirkaldy, at the Grand Cayman Marriott and was accepted, on behalf of the Club, by its President, Jeffrey "Dr. Soc" Sochrin.

"The Rotary Club of Sint Maarten has been serving the local community for more than 52 years. We look forward to continuing this service for many more years to come and by simply doing good in the world. Thank you to the District Governor for recognizing our efforts and thank you to all of our members and sponsors for making this award possible", stated Sochrin.

For more information about the Rotary Club of St. Maarten, please contact the Rotary Club of St. Maarten Press Officer at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website www.rotarysxm.com.



# # #



About the Rotary Club of St. Maarten:



The Rotary Club of St. Maarten was chartered on March 17, 1972 as result of a September 1970 meeting to form a club on the island. Since its formation, the Rotary Club of St. Maarten has grown in membership and has assisted in the formation of new clubs in the District, including Anguilla (1978), St. Martin Nord (1988), St. Martin Mid-Isle (1997) and St. Martin Sunrise (2004). For more information, visit the club website at www.rotarysxm.com.
China to launch first probe to return samples from Moon's far side



Wenchang, China, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



China is set Friday to launch a probe to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), officials have said.

It is the latest leap for China's ambitious space programme, which Washington has warned is being used to mask military objectives and an effort to establish extraterrestrial dominance.

The Chang'e-6 aims to collect around two kilograms of lunar samples from the far side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

It is a technically complex 53-day mission that will also see it attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

"Chang'e-6 will collect samples from the far side of the Moon for the first time," Ge Ping, vice director of China's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told journalists.

The probe is set to land in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system.

Once there, it will scoop up lunar soil and rocks, and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.

It must then lift off from the Moon's surface and retrace its steps back home.



- Space dream -



Plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing has ploughed huge resources into its space programme over the last decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers -- the United States and Russia.

The country has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or "heavenly palace", to which it sent a fresh crew of three astronauts last month.

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made China only the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.

The rapid advance of China's space programme has raised alarm bells in Washington, with the head of NASA warning last month that the US was now in a "race" against Beijing.

"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.



- Dark side of the Moon -



Chang'e-6 is the first of three high-wire uncrewed missions to the Moon planned by China this decade.

Its successor, Chang'e-7, will scour the lunar south pole for water, while Chang'e-8 will attempt to establish the technical feasibility of building a planned base, known as the International Lunar Research Station, with Beijing saying a "basic model" will be completed by 2030.

Scientists say the Moon's dark side -- so-called because it is invisible from Earth, not because it never catches the sun's rays -- holds great promise for research as its craters are less covered by ancient lava flows than the near side.

That might mean it is more possible to collect material that sheds light on how the Moon formed in the first place.

"The samples collected by Chang'e-6 will have a geological age of approximately 4 billion years," Ge said.

"Collecting lunar samples from different regions and geological ages, and conducting experiments is of great value and significance for humanity."
On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a long-delayed $95.3 billion foreign-aid package to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The legislation would also seize frozen Russian assets and force the sale of the Chinese-controlled social media app TikTok.

The House passed four separate bills on April 20, with more than 300 votes supporting each, involving shifting bipartisan coalitions. The Senate approved them as a package on April 23 in a 79-to-18 vote.

At the center of the legislation is U.S. self-defense. The bills will expand U.S. weapons production, from 155mm artillery shells to Patriot missiles.

The legislation has about $60 billion for Ukraine, most of which would flow to the U.S. defense industry for additional weapons such as ammunition and rocket launchers.

About $23 billion of the Ukrainian portion will replenish U.S. weapon stocks with better equipment than what the U.S. has given the Ukrainians. Included also is $11 billion marked for U.S. troops in Europe for ship and aircraft maintenance work and more.

The GOP House changed roughly $9.5 billion in economic aid to Ukraine into forgivable loans rather than grants, an idea from former President Donald Trump.

It requires the Biden administration to produce a document detailing their strategy in Ukraine within 45 days.

The $60 billion in new aid to Ukraine comes in addition to the more than $100 billion in assistance given Kyiv since the Russians invaded two years ago.

The measure also contains $26 billion for Israel, which includes direct aid, money for replenishing U.S. stockpiles and supporting U.S. operations in the region. It provides $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza.

The legislation allocates about $8 billion to support Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. The Pacific bill provides $3.3 billion to increase the U.S. pace on producing attack submarines. Thats crucial to deter China in the region and selling subs to our Australian allies.

Support for our partners in the Indo-Pacific won overwhelming House approval by a 385-34 vote, proof of bipartisan consensus on the Chinese Communist Party threat.

The House passed the Israel aid bill 366-58, with 37 pro-Palestinian progressive House Democrats and 21 House Republicans voting against aid to Israel.

Three Senate Democratic caucus members opposed weapons for Israel. Sens. Jeff Merkley, Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders cited concerns about Israels military operations in Gaza.

House Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line and showed leadership on aid to Ukraine, which passed the House 311-112. All the votes against Ukraine aid came from Republicans.

Speaker Johnson made a more effective case than has been made by President Biden in explaining whats at stake in Ukraine.

The 101 House Republicans who voted to support Ukraine are bolstering a weak Commander in Chief. Biden appears to want Ukraine to survive but not to defeat Vladimir Putin.

With 112 House Republicans voting against Ukraine aid, Johnson had to defy an isolationist impulse on the right.

Fourteen far-right Republicans voted against all four House bills. Their votes mean these members dont believe the U.S. should support allies threatened by authoritarians on the march.

Like the America First Republicans in the 1930s who ignored Hitler and Japan, these Republicans apparently think America can keep terrorists and tyrants at bay in blissful isolation.

If history is repeated and they prevail, Americans would eventually have to fight.

Bidens history of slow-walking requests for arms may have doomed Ukraine, critics worry. The U.S. and NATO are now shipping to Kyiv many of the weapons systems that the Ukrainians have requested since 2022.

This includes battle tanks (the M1A1 Abrams), long range precision artillery (HIMARS), and fighter jets (the F-16). Biden feared the wars escalation and Putins nuclear threats.

Congress proved theres large majority bipartisan support for a strong America and for helping allies  Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan  who want to help themselves.
China launches first probe to collect samples from far side of Moon



Wenchang, China, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.

A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), AFP journalists near the site said.

Heavy rain engulfed the site just minutes before the launch began, they said, with hundreds of onlookers gathered nearby to witness the latest leap for China's decades-long space programme.

Washington has warned that the programme is being used to mask military objectives and an effort to establish dominance in space.

The Chang'e-6 aims to collect around two kilograms (4 pounds) of lunar samples from the far side of the Moon and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

State news agency Xinhua hailed it as "the first endeavour of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration".

It is a technically complex 53-day mission that will also see it attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

"The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking," Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-6 mission, told Xinhua.

The probe is set to land in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system.

Once there, it will scoop up lunar soil and rocks, and carry out other experiments in the landing zone.

It must then lift off from the Moon's surface and retrace its steps back home.



- Space dream -



Plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing has ploughed huge resources into its space programme over the past decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers -- the United States and Russia.

It has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or "heavenly palace", to which it sent a fresh crew of three astronauts last month.

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon and made China only the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.

The rapid advance of China's space programme has raised alarm bells in Washington, with the head of NASA warning last month that the United States was now in a "race" against Beijing.

"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.



- Dark side -



Chang'e-6 is the first of three high-wire uncrewed missions to the Moon planned by China this decade.

Its successor, Chang'e-7, will scour the lunar south pole for water, while Chang'e-8 will attempt to establish the technical feasibility of building a planned base, known as the International Lunar Research Station, with Beijing saying a "basic model" will be completed by 2030.

Scientists say the Moon's dark side -- so-called because it is invisible from Earth, not because it never catches the sun's rays -- holds great promise for research because its craters are less covered by ancient lava flows than the near side.

That might mean it is more possible to collect material that sheds light on how the Moon formed in the first place.

"The samples collected by Chang'e-6 will have a geological age of approximately 4 billion years," Ge Ping, vice director of China's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told journalists.

"Collecting lunar samples from different regions and geological ages, and conducting experiments is of great value and significance for humanity."
French lawmakers sound alarm over alleged Chinese hacking



Paris, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



A group of French parliamentarians has sounded the alarm over what they say is an inadequate government response to cyberattacks targeting their computers and attributed to China.

The seven deputies and senators said they received virus-infected emails in 2021 sent by a hacker group called APT31, which several countries, including the US and Britain, believe to be linked to the Chinese government.

Their concerns emerged ahead of a state visit to France by Chinese President Xi Jinping, beginning with his arrival on Sunday, part of Beijing's efforts for deeper political and economic ties in Europe to counterbalance difficult relations with Washington.

"We are clearly faced with wide-ranging foreign interference by China," said Olivier Cadic, a centrist member of the French Senate.

The seven targeted parliamentarians all belong to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international non-profit body for legislators who see China's policies as a threat to democratic values.

The French parliamentarians only discovered they had been hacked in March of this year after the US Justice Department indicted seven Chinese nationals "associated with the Chinese government" for sending malicious emails to US and foreign critics of China, including IPAC members.

Ex-senator Andre Gattolin, a former co-president of IPAC's French branch, said the US indictment was proof that a "Trojan Horse"-type email he received in 2021 came from the Chinese hacker group.

"At the time I was writing an extremely sensitive report about foreign interference in universities and research," he said.

But when he asked France's National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) to investigate further, "I couldn't get anybody's attention" there, nor at the anti-espionage agency DGSI, he told AFP.

He filed a police complaint last month, and IPAC got in touch with US law enforcement agency FBI which, he said, told them that they had informed the French authorities of their suspicions as early as 2022.

"But nobody told us anything," Gattolin said.

"I would like to understand why I wasn't alerted before," added deputy Anne Genetet.

The handling of the case by French authorities was "lightweight", she told AFP.

"It's unimaginable that I am the only National Assembly member this has happened to," she said.

The Paris prosecutors' office declined to comment on the case when contacted by AFP.

"I am concerned about how China's actions are met with complete silence," said Gattolin. "We may as well let Chinese spies walk right into our offices."

Asked in the Senate on Tuesday about the matter, government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said French services "are paying close attention" to APT31, "including under legality aspects".

But Cadic said such statements were insufficient. "We're dealing with an open official attack, and the authorities know it," he said. "What has been done to us is an act of war."
The Bac Ninh province delegation takes a photo with CII members. (Photo: bacninh.gov.vn)

In India, the Bac Ninh province delegation visited the Vietnamese Embassy in India. Mr. Chung emphasized the long-standing friendly relationship between Vietnam and India. In particular, in 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries' relationship has developed rapidly and deepened with the upgrade to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" in September 2016. On that foundation, over the past years, Bac Ninh province has always been interested in promoting cooperation with Indian partners in all fields.

He expressed his hope that the Vietnamese Embassy in India would pay attention to supporting Bac Ninh province to encourage Indian businesses to invest in the province, especially in strong fields of Indian businesses such as biotechnology, automation, new materials technology, clean energy and pharmaceuticals; and support the province in implementing information exchange activities and promote unique cultural values, heritage sites and famous tourist destinations to Indian people.

He proposed the embassy suggest the Indian Government provide scholarship programs for students, civil servants and public employees in most fields; and create favorable conditions for the Bac Ninh community in India to live, study, work and contribute to the nations socio-economic development.

During the visit, the delegation visited and worked with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi. This is a non-governmental and non-profit organization with about 9,000 members. It has been establishing centers in the fields of logistics, green business, sustainable development, water, food and agriculture.

The CII is committed to supporting and promoting economic connection to ensure sustainable economic relations between India and Vietnam, and with Bac Ninh province.

The two sides exchanged and shared information on a number of issues of mutual concern, related to promoting investment, accessing export markets for agricultural products, craft village products and promoting tourism - culture between the people of the two countries.

Working with the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of Nepal, Mr. Chung affirmed that on the path of development, the Vietnamese people, including Bac Ninh province, always appreciate the sincere feelings and active support of the Government and people of Nepal in the struggle for national independence and liberation of the country in the past, as well as the current cause of building and protecting the Fatherland.

He hoped that the two countries would open markets for each country's agricultural products, expand cooperation in high-tech agriculture, and exchange agricultural experts. He also expressed his wish that Nepal would support the province in implementing information exchange activities and promoting unique cultural values and heritage to the Nepali people.

Head of the Central Foreign Affairs Committee of the Communist Party of Nepal Rajan Bhattarai appreciated Vietnam's socio-economic achievements under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Realizing that there is much potential for cooperation and exchange between the two countries, especially in trade, investment promotion and cultural exchange, he hoped that the relationship between the two Parties and the two countries would be promoted. He also confirmed the opening of diplomatic representative offices in each country and a direct flight between the two countries./.
Israeli strikes injure 8 Syrian soldiers: ministry



Damascus, May 2 (AFP) May 02, 2024



Syria's defence ministry on Friday said eight soldiers had been injured in Israeli air strikes near Damascus.

On Thursday night, "the Israeli enemy launched air strikes from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a site near Damascus... injuring eight soldiers," the ministry said in a statement.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel had struck a government building in the Damascus countryside that has been used by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group since 2014.

The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of a civil war in its northern neighbour in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters.

But the strikes increased after Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group launched a deadly attack against Israel.

On April 19, Israeli strikes targeted a Syrian army position in the country's south, Syria's government and the Observatory said, as US media reported Israel had hit Iran.

Overnight on April 13, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Israel in an unprecedented attack that came in retaliation for a deadly strike -- widely blamed on Israel -- on Tehran's consulate in Damascus.

Syria's war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.
Myanmar junta bans men from applying to work abroad



Yangon, Myanmar, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



Myanmar's junta has suspended the issuing of permits for men to work abroad, it said, weeks after introducing a military conscription law that led to thousands trying to leave the country.

The junta, which is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule, in February said it would enforce a law allowing it to call up all men to serve in the military for at least two years.

The move sent thousands queuing for visas outside foreign embassies in Yangon and others crossing into neighbouring Thailand to escape the law, according to media reports.

The labour ministry has "temporarily suspended" accepting applications from men who wish to work abroad, the ministry said in a statement posted by the junta's information team late Thursday.

The measure was needed to "take more time to verify departure processes and according to other issues," it said, without giving details.

More than 4 million Myanmar nationals were working abroad in 2020, according to an estimate by the International Labour Organization citing figures from the then-government.

Analysts say many more work abroad off the books.



- Recruits -



The military service law was authored by a previous junta in 2010 but was never brought into force.

It allows the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years.

That law also has a stipulation that, during a state of emergency, the terms of service can be extended up to five years and those ignoring a summons to serve can be jailed for the same period.

The Myanmar junta announced a state of emergency when it seized power in 2021, with the army recently extending it for a further six months.

A first batch of several thousand recruits has already begun training under the law, according to pro-military Telegram accounts.

A junta spokesman said the law was needed "because of the situation happening in our country", as it battles both so-called People's Defence Forces and more long-standing armed groups belonging to ethnic minorities.

Around 13 million people will be eligible to be called up, he said, though the military only has the capacity to train 50,000 a year.

More than 4,900 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent since its February 2021 coup and more than 26,000 others arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
Russian troops deploy to Niger base housing US soldiers: Pentagon



Washington, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that Russian soldiers had deployed to an air base in Niger that also houses American troops, after the country's military rulers decided to expel US forces.

Niger's junta, which seized power last July, said in March it was ending a military cooperation agreement with Washington, which has agreed to withdraw its troops and sent a delegation to Niamey to work out an orderly departure.

Prior to the 2023 coup, Niger was a linchpin of US strategy to combat jihadists in West Africa, housing a $100 million American drone base and roughly 1,000 US troops.

The Russian deployment to Air base 101 in the capital Niamey puts Russian and American soldiers in close quarters at a time when Washington and Moscow are fiercely at odds over the war in Ukraine.

Asked about it at a news conference on Thursday, Austin said the Russian deployment did not pose a "significant issue... in terms of our force protection."

"Air base 101 where our forces [are], is a Nigerien air force base that is co-located with an international airport in the capital city. The Russians are in a separate compound and don't have access to US forces or access to our equipment," he said at a news conference in Hawaii.

At a briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm or deny reports of the Russian presence at the Niger base, saying only that Moscow was cultivating ties with African countries in all areas including defense.

Following the overthrow of elected president Mohamed Bazoum, Niger's junta kicked out soldiers from former colonial power France.

Russian military instructors arrived in Niger last month with an air defense system and other equipment, Nigerien state media reported, after talks between military ruler General Abdourahamane Tiani and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US pullout would mark a new regional gain for Russia, which has ramped up its focus on Africa, backing military regimes in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger faces violence by Boko Haram jihadists and militants from the Islamic State West Africa Province in the southeastern region of Diffa near Nigeria.
'Slightly' more food available in Gaza but famine still looms: WHO



Geneva, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



The availability of food in the Gaza Strip has very slightly improved, though the risk of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory remains, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"The food situation has a little bit improved. There's a bit more food," Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told a press briefing in Geneva via video-link from Jerusalem.

Compared to a few months ago, "definitely there is more basic food, more wheat, but also a little bit more diversified food on the market", he said.

This was "not just in the south (but) also in the north", where people have been surviving on fewer calories per day than those contained than a can of beans.

Peeperkorn stressed that local food production in the densely populated Gaza Strip -- such as fruit, vegetables and fish -- had been "destroyed" by the war.

The threat of famine had "absolutely not" gone away, he said.

Ahmed Dahir, the head of WHO's Gaza sub-office team, said that in previous weeks, "thousands" of people had been rushing at WHO trucks heading to northern Gaza -- which is most at risk of famine -- in the hope of finding food.

"It has changed in the last few weeks. Now there is more food coming and going to the north," he said, speaking from the Gaza Strip.

Dahir said food availability nonetheless remained "fragile" in Gaza and people trapped there also lacked the cash to pay for food in the markets.



- Risk of famine persists -



"We cannot say the risk has passed," he stressed.

"Access to food now has to be sustained."

Israel has repeatedly accused the United Nations and non-governmental organisations of not distributing aid quickly enough.

The aid agencies blame the trickle of essential food into the beseiged Palestinian enclave on restrictions and inspections imposed by Israel.

Peeperkorn condemned the snags holding up WMO operations around the Gaza Strip.

"Sometimes, what we could do in one mission, we have to do in four. It's incredibly labour intensive and also incredibly costly," he said.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war started after an attack on southern Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

- 'Could lead to slaughter' -



Israel's relentless retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 34,622 people in Gaza -- most of them women and children -- according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Hamas said it was considering in a "positive spirit" a proposed truce and hostage release deal with Israel.

With or without a truce, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will send ground troops into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where humanitarian aid groups estimate 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Peeperkorn said that because almost all medical supplies pass through the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt, the WHO and its partners were preparing contingency plans for the territory's health system in case of an Israeli offensive.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said the United Nations had long ago warned that a military operation in Rafah "could lead to a slaughter".

"For agencies already struggling to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, a ground invasion would strike a disastrous blow," he told reporters.

He stressed that Rafah, which has land crossings with Egypt and Israel, was essential to humanitarian relief operations in Gaza.

"Most importantly, there are hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled to Rafah to escape bombardment, an imminent famine and disease," he said.

"For them, any ground operation would mean more suffering and death."
8 DR Congo troops handed desertion death sentence



Goma, DR Congo, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo's war-torn east on Friday handed a death sentence to eight soldiers, including five officers, for desertion and cowardice when fighting M23 rebels.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against 11 soldiers on trial in the same case, but the Goma court acquitted three of them, ruling that the charges against those soldiers were "not established".

The troops were fighting against the mostly Tutsi M23 (March 23 movement) rebels, who took up arms again in late 2021, seizing large swathes of North Kivu province.

"They never fled from the enemy nor abandoned their position -- on the contrary," said Alexis Olenga, lawyer for one of the five officers facing charges.

Olenga said the soldiers were based at Lushangi-Cafe, a federal army position close to the strategic town of Sake, 20 kilometres (12 miles) down the road from North Kivu's capital Goma.

These were the first capital punishment sentences since authorities decided on March 13 to lift a suspension on executions that had been enforced since 2003.

The failure of the army and its auxiliaries to halt the advance of the M23 rebels has raised suspicion that the security forces had been infiltrated.

Several military personnel as well as members of parliament, senators and business leaders have been arrested and accused of "complicity with the enemy".

For the last 20 years, death sentences have been handed down in the DRC, especially in cases involving the military or armed groups, but have systematically been commuted to life in prison.

Human rights groups and the Catholic Church have called on the government to abolish capital punishment for any crime.
Hundreds in Burkina protest US reaction to massacre report



Ouagadougou, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



Hundreds protested outside the US embassy in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou on Friday, against Washington's reaction to Human Rights Watch accusations of an army massacre of civilians, an AFP journalist saw.

On Monday, Britain and the United States said they were "gravely concerned" a few days after HRW published a report accusing soldiers of killing at least 223 people, including 56 children, in revenge attacks on two villages on February 25.

London and Washington jointly urged Ouagadougou to "thoroughly investigate these massacres and hold those responsible to account".

The military rulers of Burkina Faso dismissed the report as "baseless".

Shopkeepers and private-sector workers marched towards the embassy mid-afternoon, draped in Russian and Burkinabe flags, chanting anti-imperialist slogans. The embassy was protected by riot police.

"We have come to deliver a message to the Americans to put an end to these accusations against our armed forces who are defending the country at the cost of their lives," Mahamadou Ouedraogo, spokesman for the "Burkind Faangf meenga (liberation) federation of pan-Africanists", which organised the demonstration, told AFP.

In response Burkina suspended a swathe of international news organisations for airing accusations of an army massacre of civilians, including the British BBC and the US Voice of America.

The government on Thursday summoned the charge d'affaires of the US embassy, Eric Whitaker, over the reaction, according to Burkina's state news agency AIB.

"Where are these human rights defenders when terrorists are massacring our populations? What are they doing?" asked Halidou Ouedraogo, a member of the liberation federation.

The West African nation has been battered by a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, troops and police have been killed, two million people have fled their homes, and anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022.
It was actually the 1968 film that made me want to be an actor, when I realised that the people behind the rubber masks were actually humans, I was relieved to know that, Durand told the PA news agency on the red carpet.
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So how does an ordinary architecture post-grad end up marrying one of the most famous men in the world? Well, firstly, she works for him. After working as student architect for three years at Melbourne-based architecture agency DP Toscano, Censori joined Yeezy as an Architectural Designer in 2020 and moved to Los Angeles. Quite the leap, but Censori was gifted. It was surprising because she was still so young in the profession, her former boss Joe Toscano told the Sydney Morning Herald. It was only the fact that it had happened so quickly and so soon, not because I didnt think that she had the skills to do it [...] She obviously made an impression on Kanye West, and she made that impression because shes actually very talented.
Around one in 50,000 vaccine recipients under the age of 50 were said to be at risk of getting the blood clot with low platelets. This compares to around one in 12,500 dying in childbirth and one in 100,000 dying after receiving a general anaesthetic.
In the initial attack by Hamas on Israel last fall by Hamas, reportedly 1200 Israeli citizens lost their lives, hundreds more were injured and hostages were taken. These violent acts were condemned by most of the world. However, what has unfolded since October 7 has literally rocked the world. The massive retaliation by Israel on Gaza would have not been possible without the $4 billion annually from the U.S. government. This fact has not been lost on students across the country.

Zionism and Maga

We have witnessed the unholy alliance between the Zionists in Israel, always claiming anti-Semitism as their justification, and the white right wing in the US who have gone after Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with a vengeance.

In addition to pro-Palestinian protests in the streets, there are spirited student protests going on from coast to coast. Young people want to make a difference in this war. They are playing a critical role in organizing protests, vigils, encampments, and rallies. Their efforts are helping to document this moment in history; what was the American peoples response to the Palestinian genocide?

The retaliation by the Israeli forces had been unparalleled. The well-trained, well-armed Israeli army has been relentless in its attacks against the Palestinian people. This has resulted in nearly 35,000 deaths, thousands of injured and tens of thousands displaced.

Reports by the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and World Health Organization have put the lopsided losses into focus. Over half of Gazas homes have been destroyed or uninhabitable, 90% of school buildings have been hit and a third of the thirty-five hospitals are inoperable. Places of worship have not been exempt from the bombings. The intensity of the destruction is unprecedented.

Retaliation by university administrations has been swift. There have been arrests, injuries and student suspensions. Some campuses have even cancelled graduation ceremonies. The general demands by students include a ceasefire, the end of U.S. military aid to Israel and the divestment of university funds that benefit Israeli aggression. Wash U student demands to their administration were specific cut ties with Boeing immediately. The St. Louis-based aerospace giant has a long history with Israel and provides the weaponry being used against the Palestinian people.

This heavy-handed approach by both the Israeli forces and militarized police at home has motivated even more protests around the world. Those who initially sought to remain neutral have been knocked off the fence.

We have witnessed the unholy alliance between the Zionists in Israel, always claiming anti-Semitism as their justification, and the white right wing in the US who have gone after Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with a vengeance.

Visuals from the war-torn areas of Gaza and the West Bank are powerfully convincing that Israel will not stop unless the nations of the world intervene or until Gaza is a pile of rubble and Palestinians are forced from their homeland.

The students are organizing around the key demands of disarmament and disinvestment. They saw how an international campaign during the U.S. anti-apartheid movement was successful in bringing South Africa apartheid to its knees.

We dont know the end to this saga. We can predict that as the academic year comes to a close, student protests will probably dissipate. Their voices and actions have energized the militant responses to Israeli attacks and elevated discussion of their unjust war in righteous ways that only young people can do. They are definitely having an impact on contemporary history.

Jamala Rogers is a columnist for The St. Louis American and one of the founding members of the Organization for Black Struggle based in St. Louis.
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A 1st Congressional District candidate forum that risked having a lack of candidates Thursday actually ended up with a full slate of hopefuls  highlighted by a snippet of sniping between one challenger and the incumbents spouse.

The Hadley and Clayton Democratic Township groups extended invitations to U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis; St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell; former state legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal; and Ron Harshaw.

By Thursday afternoon, organizers were not sure if Bush would attend. Given the lack of Bushs confirmation, Bells campaign said it would not participate.

But both Bush and Bell ultimately did show up, making their appearances shortly after 8 p.m. for the event that began at 7 p.m. and was set to end at 8:30.

Bush began her five-minute speech about 8:05 p.m. and was about two minutes into it when Bell entered the conference room at the Richmond Heights community center.

Bell arrived in time to hear Bush lambast him for accepting donations from the American Israel Political Action Committee, a powerful lobbying group that supports Israeli causes.

This shot at Bell would later become a key component of a brief but pointed exchange between Bell and Bushs husband, Cortney Merritts III.

In her speech, Bush decried Bell for taking money from AIPAC, pointing out that the lobby is supporting anti-abortion candidates, Republicans and insurrectionists.

AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups reportedly have set aside millions of dollars to defeat Bush and other members of Congress who they say do not support Israel.

On another subject, a member of the audience asked Bush about her vote against the Biden administrations $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which eventually passed and included big-ticket projects for the St. Louis area.

Bush replied that she was in favor of the bill, but voted against it because it did not include funding for a separate bill of projects that Bush endorsed.

When it came time for Bells five-minute speech, he pounced on Bushs infrastructure explanation, calling it twisted logic, to say you supported it but voted against it.

He also said voters should replace Bush so they could return grounded, reasonable leadership to the 1st Congressional District.

After Bell was done with his set piece, a member of the audience asked how Bell could accept money from AIPAC, given its support of positions in opposition to Democrats.

Bell responded that AIPAC is a special interest group and, like most other such groups, supports candidates based solely on their stands on a specific issue.

Then, Bell noted that Bush has received staunch support from a person who has advocated violence, literally against Jews.

At that point, Merritts called out from the back of the room for Bell to name the person. When Bell asked Merritts to repeat his question, Merritts said, Whats the name?

Bell shot back, You can look it up yourself.

Bells campaign manager, Jordan Blase Sanders, said Bell was referring to Neveen Ayesh, who previously has been called out for making threats against Jews and Israel.

Ayesh, a leader of the Missouri chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, has been prominent in recent area protests, including the unrest Saturday on the Washington University campus.

The storm around Ayesh goes back to 2014, when on social media she said, I want to set Israel on fire with my own hands & watch it burn to ashes along with every Israeli in it.

Ayesh has since disavowed several antisemitic statements, saying she was young, dumb and said horrible things that I never acted on, that I would never act on, because I am not that person.

After the forum broke up, Merritts declined to discuss the exchange with Bell. Im just a citizen who spoke out, he said.

Merritts, who joined Bushs campaign staff in 2022, has been at the center of controversy before.

After he and Bush were married in February 2023, Bush kept him on her campaign payroll and pays him $5,000 a month. Bush has confirmed that federal investigators are looking into her spending on security services.

The candidates will face off in the Aug. 6 primary. The district covers St. Louis and parts of north and central-west St. Louis County. Because it is heavily Democratic, the primary winner is virtually assured of victory in the November general election.

With about three months left before the primary, Bell holds a more than 2-to-1 lead in campaign cash on hand, according to the latest federal election reports.

While a lesser-known candidate, Ron Harshaw, addressed Thursday audience by telephone, former state legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal was the only one to show up by the forums starting time.

Her remarks  which were made before Bell and Bush showed up  focused on Bells failure to prosecute dangerous criminals and Bushs failure to fight hard to get compensation for victims of radiation exposure.

She opened by saying, Legislating is not just protesting.

And her closing line about her campaign promises drew laughs from the crowd. I promise no drama, she said. My opponents have drama.

Editors note: This story has been edited to correct the dollar amount of the infrastructure bill.
ST. LOUIS  Jurors began deliberating Thursday in the case that hinges on whether a Florida man was mentally ill when he shot and killed a St. Louis police officer in 2020.

Thomas Kinworthy Jr. is facing nine charges, including first-degree murder, after he barricaded himself inside a Tower Grove South home on Aug. 29, 2020 and shot at two St. Louis police officers, killing one of them.

During a nine-day trial, jurors heard testimony from police officers, hostage negotiators, crime scene technicians and neighbors who testified about the chaotic scene that unfolded.

But the crux of the case centered on the testimony of conflicting expert witnesses  one who found that Kinworthy was having an "acute psychotic episode" that night and could not be held responsible for his actions, and another who said he was faking it.

"He's in the grips of a psychotic, paranoid episode where he believes he's under threat," public defender Brian Horneyer said during closing arguments.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Tanja Engelhardt said: "Don't be fooled, don't be manipulated by this cunning murderer."

Kinworthy arrived in the St. Louis area in the late summer of 2020 hoping to reconnect with his estranged father. He had been going through a rough time, his ex-wife testified this week, where he had lived in a storage unit, in the woods and then on his ex-wife's couch for several weeks.

On Aug. 29, Kinworthy arrived in Tower Grove Park. He shot a random homeless man in the arm and then barged into the home of Steve and Mimi Haag in the 3700 block of Hartford. He was carrying a gun and said things had "gone too far."

Kinworthy went upstairs and shot Bohannon in the head through a window. Minutes later, he shot another officer in the leg. The house was soon surrounded by law enforcement.

Kinworthy stayed in the house for several hours, occasionally calling his ex-wife, sounding like he was saying goodbye. He cut his wrist with a razor and trailed blood throughout the house. He rummaged through drawers and even went downstairs to the kitchen to get a drink of milk.

Hostage negotiators tried to get Kinworthy to come out, but still, he did not emerge. Police reported hearing gunshots inside the house and saw Kinworthy turning the lights on and off. SWAT team members shot dozens of rounds of chemical munitions through the home's windows.

Kinworthy was finally arrested in the early morning of Aug. 30, 2020, after being cornered in a bathroom. Officer Bohannon was taken off life support.

Doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital noted Kinworthy was disoriented when he got to the facility. They said he was suffering from an "acute psychotic episode."

But prosecutors argued all of that was an act by a man who had hit his head on a bathroom sink during an arrest and may have been high on amphetamines.

Patricia Zapf, a psychologist hired by defense attorneys, evaluated Kinworthy in 2022. During an eight-hour interview over two days, she noted he was acting psychotic and had a hard time putting his thoughts in order.

She outlined a life of severe trauma characterized by physical and emotional abuse. When he was a child, his mother prostituted him to friends and drug dealers. Both parents were addicts, she said.

Kinworthy only had spotty memories of the night of Aug. 29 and could not remember shooting the officers, she said. He speculated he may have shot them when he was shooting at a wall. He said he was hearing voices.

Zapf diagnosed Kinworthy with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, which is essentially a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder characterized by periods of mania and then depressive episodes.

A jail psychiatrist also diagnosed Kinworthy with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and prescribed him medications.

But a different psychologist who works with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, Rachael Springman, said she believed Kinworthy was faking it. She reviewed hundreds of hours of jail calls and reviewed available jail and health records and found no evidence of a previous diagnosis of mental illness, she said.

Springman diagnosed Kinworthy with anti-social personality disorder, substance abuse disorder and malingering  or faking symptoms of a mental illness.

Prosecutors focused on that point during closing arguments Thursday, focusing on Kinworthy's state on the day of the crime. They noted he had a warrant out for his arrest from a sexual battery and kidnapping case in Florida and forced himself into the house to get a perfect vantage point to shoot police officers who tried to arrest him.

"He waits until he has a perfect shot," said prosecutor Mary Pat Carl. "This was not a man out of control."

Kinworthy's attorneys, however, argued that psychosis was the only explanation for his actions that day. They said he had no reason to shoot the homeless man in the park, tried to kill himself inside the house and told his ex-wife on the phone that people were out to get him.

"His actions in the house are not calculated and logical," he said.

Jurors left the courtroom to deliberate at around 12:30 p.m.

Photos: Thomas Kinworthy Jr. on trial for murder of St. Louis Police officer Tamarris Bohannon
ST. LOUIS  A man who killed a motorist at a stoplight in April had been shot by the same motorist in a dispute four years earlier, authorities alleged this week in court documents.

Samuel Lamont Hayes Jr. was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in an afternoon attack April 13 at the intersection of Page Boulevard and North Sarah Street.

The motorist, Bryan Boyle, was sitting in his car, waiting for the streetlight to change, when a gray Dodge Charger car pulled alongside him. Police said the driver of the Charger shot Boyle then drove away.

Boyle, 35, was shot in his torso and died at a hospital. He lived in the 1400 block of Enright Avenue.

Hayes, 30, was being held without bond Friday. He lives in the 3000 block of Franklin Avenue in St. Louis.

According to court documents, Hayes and Boyle had a violent run-in before. They were in a dispute in 2020 when Boyle shot Hayes. No charges were filed in that old case, St. Louis police Detective Benjamin Lacy said in court documents. Authorities didn't say how badly Hayes was injured.

After the April 13 homicide, detectives found that a bar's surveillance camera showed the Charger pulling alongside Boyle's vehicle. Police checked the Charger's license plate number and the vehicle was registered to Hayes' girlfriend. Hayes was seen entering a store in the area shortly before the shooting.

The next day, police found Hayes' girlfriend driving the car. She told police that she had been at work the day before and that Hayes had access to her car.
ST. LOUIS  More than 1,500 students, alumni and faculty members at Washington University have signed letters condemning the schools response to a protest Saturday that ended with more than 100 arrests.

Criticism against the private university has mounted over the past week, with many accusing the school of applying a heavy-handed police response to what would have otherwise been a nonviolent demonstration.

One letter accused the university of restricting free speech and described the schools response as authoritarian and appalling. Another accused school officials of fabricating a false narrative about the protest. A third said students were ashamed to attend the school.

Our leaders are now the greatest threat to safety on our campus, reads one of at least four letters to the university.

The protest was one of dozens at campuses across the U.S. in protest of the war in Gaza in recent weeks. Many ended with injuries and arrests, including at Washington University, where a 65-year-old professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand after being crushed by St. Louis County police officers.

Six police departments responded to the protest, and at least 23 students and four university employees were arrested. Protesters gathered to demand the university cut ties with Boeing Co., which sells warplanes and munitions used by Israel in the war, but they were arrested as they attempted to set up an encampment.

We would have expected the chancellor and the university administrators to take these demands seriously and form an official committee  to discuss the next steps in carrying out these demands, as any institution that claims to be a part of a community would do, reads the letter signed by Washington University students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members.

Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Julie Hail Flory did not respond to a request for comment on the letters Thursday afternoon.

Though the universitys critics have been vocal, some students are grateful for administrators actions.

Sophomore Charlie Weingarten said she heard antisemitic chants at Saturdays protest, and she said shes received hate for being critical of the protest in interviews and on social media.

Id be lying to say Im not afraid, Weingarten said.

Weingarten applauded Chancellor Andrew Martins Monday statement on the protest, which Palestine supporters blasted this week for spreading fears about potential harm without any evidence.

Im grateful to be at an institution that gives a (expletive), Weingarten said. I have many friends at other places who dont feel seen or heard.

Two of the letters condemning the university were sent on Thursday  one day after a protest at St. Louis University presented a markedly different scene from the one at Washington University.

At its peak, about 500 protestors marched on SLUs campus, and toward the end of the night, about 300 performed an hourlong sit-in on Grand Boulevard while St. Louis police blocked traffic in both directions.

No arrests were made during the demonstration, though two students were detained after a brief tussle as protesters dispersed.

SLUs response set the standard for protest response, Board of Aldermen President Megan Green wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.

Green, an adjunct professor at Washington University, was put on leave by the school after attending Saturdays protest. The university accused her of using her school-issued badge to let people into prohibited areas, but she has denied that claim.

She told the Post-Dispatch this week that the protest could have gone differently, and it should have gone differently.

And the letters sent to the school administration shared similar sentiments.

On Thursday, the protest group Resist WashU released a letter from 56 former student organizers of Washington University. Some of the signatories protested the universitys participation in the Vietnam War, others protested the police killing of Mike Brown, for the university to pay its workers a living wage, or against the universitys links to Peabody Energy.

The former students encouraged Washington University to negotiate with students and cut ties to genocide profiteers.

Their solidarity with Palestinians inspires us all and continues a legacy of student dissent of which we are proud to have played a part, the letter reads.

Students, faculty and alumni from Washington Universitys School of Law jumped into the conversation with a letter of their own that blasted the administration for appearing to have actively facilitated and endorsed violence against students.

Also on Thursday, the majority of Washington Universitys Student Union Senate delivered a letter to top administrators that claimed the police response and resulting student and faculty suspensions are overt examples of the silencing of pro-Palestine voices on campus.

And one day earlier, 140 signatories lambasted the universitys characterization of events in their messages to the public and students.

Far from a substantial threat to university operations, the demonstration, by all accounts, was calm and without incident in the moments before police moved in, the school of law letter reads.

Washington University faculty placed on leave, students houseless after Gaza protest Students scrambled for housing and professors wondered if they'd teach again after they were barred from Washington University's campus following an anti-war protest that ended in mass arrests.

Protesters dispute Washington Universitys account of Saturdays demonstration Organizers say over 20 protesters injured; SIUE professor suffered broken ribs during arrest.

Hundreds gather at SLU to protest war in Gaza. Its my universitys turn. About 300 protesters shut down Grand Boulevard for almost an hour Wednesday evening in protest of the war in Gaza.
EDWARDSVILLE  There is growing frustration and concern with the leadership of the Edwardsville School District over safety, curriculum changes and students bad behavior, according to a recent letter from the officers of the teachers union.

Morale is even lower than when staff were subjected to seven years of salary freezes, reads the letter sent last month to Superintendent Patrick Shelton and the school board from the Edwardsville Education Association.

A spokeswoman for the school district did not respond to questions Thursday.

Teachers are stressed over rapid changes to school schedules, curriculum and technology along with a shortage of substitutes, according to the letter. Some elective courses in the middle schools are being taught online or by teachers who arent certified in the subjects, one parent told the Post-Dispatch.

The union letter states the pressure on teachers is compounded by an increase in negative student behaviors, lack of disciplinary consequences, and lack of support in buildings.

Students are not held accountable for bad behavior, the teachers assert. At Edwardsville High School, the number of out-of-school suspensions fell from 183 in 2021-2022 to 134 last year, the most recent numbers available from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Suspensions across the districts 13 schools dropped from 314 to 250 over the same period. Most of the suspensions were for drugs or violence.

Extremely disruptive elementary students are sent back to class with no consequences or direct follow-up with student support personnel. High school students are basically free to wander the halls at any point in the day, detentions are not served, and referrals are not actually addressed, the letter reads. The lack of enforcement of consequences at the high school is openly known and discussed by students.

The union officers said the district is losing staff at a high rate, and called on the superintendent and board to meet with teachers to discuss their concerns. The district had a staff retention rate of 94% last year, according to the Illinois education department.
JEFFERSON CITY  The Missouri attorney generals office is representing three state senators who have been accused of defamation in federal court, an office spokeswoman said Thursday.

Three members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus  Sens. Denny Hoskins, Rick Brattin and Nick Schroer  were sued last month after they all shared false information online in February that claimed a man detained by police was the shooter at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade and an illegal immigrant.

Hoskins and Brattin also shared a post on X claiming the shooter was 44-year-old migrant named Sahil Omar.

But the man pictured in the posts, Denton Loudermill, is actually from Olathe, Kansas, KMBC-TV in Kansas City reported after the posts.

Loudermills attorney told the station that he had been detained for being intoxicated and failing to leave a crime scene. She told the news station he was eventually released without being cited or arrested.

He sued the three lawmakers in federal court in Kansas for defamation, along with U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican.

Like Attorney General Andrew Bailey, all three of the state senators are Republicans.

Yes, Madeline Sieren, spokeswoman for the attorney generals office, said Thursday when asked if the attorney generals office was representing the three in the defamation lawsuits.

Court records Thursday showed attorney Jeremiah Joseph Morgan Sr. was representing Brattin. Morgan is a deputy attorney general. He was not listed as the attorney for the other two senators.

A motion to dismiss Morgan filed Thursday argues the lawsuit is barred by absolute legislative immunity.

Brattins post sharing the false information was directed at President Joe Biden and said CLOSE THE BORDER!

State officials asserting their constituents views to an executive power is possibly the oldest legislative function in our nations history, Morgan said.

Plaintiffs expansion of this Courts personal jurisdiction, if exercised, would suddenly open up the risk of state officials being dragged into any district court across the country simply because they posted online about an event occurring in their home state, the motion says.
I was fascinated but not surprised by the research about the effect of political campaign debates in the op-ed Moving on from presidential debate expectations (April 25 Post-Dispatch print edition).

Writer Stuart M. Brotman suggested that time and money allotted for presidential debates would be better spent on promoting conditions that matter in elections, like voter turnout, voter registration and early voting. I heartily agree.

The premise that debates no longer matter was also indicated by a 2019 study of undecided and uncommitted voters by researchers Vincent Pons and Caroline Le Pennec. And in polling following the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton was agreed to have won  yet the election went to Trump.

At the time of the first televised presidential debate in 1960, the outcome of the election reflected the outcome of the debate, both favoring John F. Kennedy.

Yet the consequences were considered less in the arguments and more in the television charisma of Kennedy and the lackluster style of Richard Nixon, including his unbecoming five oclock shadow. Hardly what we expect from debate analysis.

What that analysis proved, if it can be believed, was that Americans were more interested in the medium than the message, to use the famous phrase coined by author Marshall McLuhan.

That explanation makes more sense than the conclusion that the debate did not matter at all. But it does not explain why facts, data and rational arguments offered up in debates today appear to have no impact on election results.

So I will offer another theory: Former President Donald Trumps style of debating was to offer bluster and unsupported facts, whereas Hillary Clinton offered conclusions based on sources she cited. That pretty much continued in media appearances until the election.

Whether voters watched or not, they responded to the personas of the candidates more than their validity of documentation.

What do we remember from the Reagan-Carter debates of 1980? There you go again, said Ronald Reagan, essentially nullifying Jimmy Carters arguments.

From the 1988 debate between George W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, we remember Willie Horton, who committed rape while furloughed from prison under a Massachusetts program when Dukakis was governor. There was no analysis of crime statistics indicating a pattern of such violence under that program. That would get too deep into the weeds. But the single example of Willie Horton was decisive to many voters.

Proven facts or authoritative evidence no long matter in campaign debates, whether in debate performances or in other media appearances. Everyone has conflicting studies or statistics that support their claims, and sometimes the claims themselves are ignored. To get into the validity or sources of evidence or the reliability of statistics requires more time and patience than the average voter can schedule.

As a result, Trump can confidently claim, The Blacks love me, without citing a single source. Sources dont matter; they dont translate into soundbites and social media. And when everyone has conflicting statistics, who do you believe?

The lack of refined debate means that policies are always dualistic: pro-choice or pro-life; pro- or anti-immigration; pro or con validity of elections. Theres no middle ground or nuanced policies that take into account conflicting positions.

It is ineffective to say, I think immigration policy needs reform, but it needs more efficient naturalization than preventative measures. So that means youre pro-immigration, right? Not really.

This turns elections into confidence schemes. You sell your personality, not your political platform. We dont know if the car were buying is good, but we like the approach of the salesperson. Seems trustworthy, sounds confident. The car is endorsed by some organization we dont know, but it sounds impressive. We take a test-drive, it feels good. Reliable? Who knows?

We learn very little from presidential debates or town forums, because they are staged presentations. Its either a good con or a suspicious personality. The evidence? Too complicated. The candidates record? Easy to fake. The candidates reliability? Just a sales job.

This is why the candidates record or argument no longer matter. Its why every campaign appearance is merely a sales job. We are left with subjective impressions  and thats all that matters.
As a student pursuing a Master's degree in education, principles and practice at Saint Louis University, I am deeply concerned about the pervasive issue of bullying in our communities, particularly within the St. Louis Public Schools. Through my coursework, I have had the opportunity to closely examine the conditions of bullying within our schools, and the findings are alarming.

Bullying is not just a rite of passage or a harmless childhood behavior; it is a serious problem with detrimental effects on the well-being and development of our children.

Research consistently shows that bullying can lead to profound psychological and emotional consequences for both the victims and the perpetrators. It can result in decreased self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts among those targeted. Moreover, bullying often goes unnoticed or unaddressed by adults, perpetuating a culture of fear and silence among our youth.

This is why parental involvement is essential in combating bullying. Parents play a crucial role in creating a safe and supportive environment for their children. By actively engaging in conversations with their kids about bullying, teaching them empathy and respect for others, and monitoring their online and offline interactions, parents can help prevent instances of bullying before they escalate.

Furthermore, parents must advocate for comprehensive anti-bullying policies and resources within our schools and communities. This includes supporting initiatives that promote inclusivity, tolerance, and conflict resolution skills among students.

Let us come together as a community to stand against bullying and ensure that every child feels safe, valued, and respected.

Clararose Louis

St. Louis
Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer meets the service's newest recruiters during a ceremony Dec. 21, 2023, at Fort Knox, Ky. Weimer signed a memo this week explaining policy changes to professional military education, while announcing the end of temporary noncommissioned officer promotions. (U.S. Army)

The Army is changing its professional education requirements for noncommissioned officer ranks up through master sergeant, and it also will stop issuing temporary promotions for noncommissioned officers.

The purpose of the changes is to help reduce excessive pressure on soldiers and their commands to get them fully qualified for promotion, as well as to meet readiness requirements, the Army said.

Soldiers previously promoted with a temporary promotion will not revert to their former grade and are considered promoted to their current grade without further conditions, according to new guidance issued Thursday in an Army memo.

The temporary promotion provision has been in effect since January 2022. Its intent was to have most NCOs meet the professional military education requirement for promotion, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer said Thursday in a letter to the force posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

After two years, on average, half of the monthly promotions still require use of a temporary promotion, Weimer said.

The new guidelines apply to the ranks of sergeant through master sergeant. They affect soldiers in the regular Army, National Guard and Army Reserve, according to the memo.

Under the guidance, the PME requirement is shifting one grade lower than the current promotion system. The Master Leader Course is no longer a requirement for promotion to master sergeant and soldiers no longer need a PME course to be promoted to sergeant.

To be promoted to staff sergeant, soldiers need to go through the Basic Leader Course. Promotion to sergeant first class requires graduation from the Advanced Leader Course, while attaining the rank of master sergeant will require completion of the Senior Leader Course.

Attending resident PME remains important and integral to developing our NCO corps, Weimer said.

To show that the Army is still emphasizing the need for PME, specialists and sergeants competing for promotion will be awarded an additional 150 promotion points for completing it ahead of schedule, Weimer said in the letter.

The Army will apply this bridging strategy while it reevaluates the relationship between training and education to shape future policy that does not require an extensive use of exceptions and temporary promotions, he added.
Army Master Sgt. Daniel Brooks receives the Christophorus Medal for lifesaving actions under difficult circumstances from Bavarian governor Markus Soder during a ceremony at the Munich Residence in Germany, on May 2, 2024. (Zoe Tourne/U.S. Army)

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany  Army Master Sgt. Daniel Brooks had very little time to react once he saw the knife.

The career counselor from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was marching in a Christmas parade in December at a shopping mall in Bayreuth when he saw a man make a move toward Santa Claus at the head of the column.

Brooks, 36, stepped in front of St. Nicholas, slapped a 3-inch kitchen blade out of the attackers hand and subdued him until German authorities took him into custody. The assailant had been targeting a nearby woman with whom he had a relationship, police said.

On Thursday, Brooks was awarded the Christophorus Medal by Bavaria governor Markus Soder for his life-saving actions.

Its in times of crisis where the character of an individual is shown the strongest, Soder said during the ceremony, according to a transcript provided by the Army. Youve been at the right place at the right time and did the right thing.

The Christophorus Medal is awarded by Bavaria to anyone who risks their life to save someone else from mortal danger under particularly difficult circumstances, according to the states website. Only 1,930 people since 1983 have received the distinction.

Army Master Sgt. Daniel Brooks, seen here in the background, traveled to Munich, Germany on May 2, 2024, to receive the Christophorus Medal for lifesaving actions from Bavarian governor Markus Soder during at ceremony at the Munich Residence. (Zoe Tourne/U.S. Army) The Christophorus Medal is a Bavarian honor given to people who risk their life to save someone else from mortal danger under particularly difficult circumstances. It was awarded to U.S. Army Master Sgt. Daniel Brooks at a ceremony on May 2, 2024, in Munich. (Zoe Tourne/U.S. Army)

Brooks, whose mother is German, grew up in an Army family in Georgia. He has maintained close ties to family and friends in Germany since childhood, he said by phone Wednesday.

On Dec. 16, he arrived at the Rotmain-Center shopping mall dressed as a bellhop to support family friends who had organized the parade. Bayreuth is about 20 miles northwest of Rose Barracks in Vilseck, where Brooks is based.

The parade participants were walking around the mall greeting patrons when they saw a crowd gathering and stopped. The crowd parted and Brooks eyed a young, angry-looking man.

I ran around (Santa) to kind of get in between them, and (the German man) pulled out a knife, Brooks recalled. Thats when I just kind of smacked the knife away and jumped on top of him.

Security arrived a short time later. The woman had a slight hand injury from a previous altercation with the man and was treated at a clinic, a statement from Upper Franconia police said at the time. The man was arrested and charged with making threats.

At Thursdays ceremony, Brooks stood before Soder in the antiquarium of the Munich Residence in his military dress uniform, where he was hailed as a hero.

Brooks attributed his actions to his upbringing.

I just reacted to the event as it happened, he said. I knew that this was a dangerous situation, and the preservation of life was of the utmost importance.

Stars and Stripes reporter Alexander Riedel contributed to this report.
Crew members from Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley conduct helicopter operations with a Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew in the Bering Sea on Jan. 8, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard )

The admiral leading the Coast Guard told a congressional budget panel Wednesday that the service is ready for a larger role in national defense but will need the funds to do the job.

Demand for Coast Guard missions has never been higher and we must continue to adapt to an evolving global security environment, Adm. Linda Fagan, the services commandant, testified to the homeland security subpanel of the House Appropriations Committee.

The Coast Guards budget request for fiscal 2025 is $13.8 billion, slightly down from $13.9 billion in 2024. Service officials have said the requested amount is primarily to meet the congressionally mandated goal of a 1% budget reduction in most federal budgets.

The proposed Defense Department budget is slightly less than $900 billion.

The Coast Guard has about 50,000 active-duty and auxiliary personnel who operate 259 cutters, 143 helicopters, 157 fixed-wing aircraft, and more than 1,600 smaller boats and launches, according to the service website.

The expanding worldwide role of the Coast Guard includes helping challenge Chinese shipping, patrol the Arctic region, lead anti-terrorist port safety, and train foreign partners in drug and illegal shipping interdiction. These efforts are all in addition to maintaining its traditional roles of water emergency rescues, inspecting ship safety, and enforcing environmental regulations on waterways.

Fagan said the Coast Guard has been able to plan for fewer months than in 2024, but a combination of increased roles in Asia and the Arctic, keeping pace on planned cutter purchases, and the age of much of the existing service fleet will undercut the basic upkeep of what the Coast Guard already has.

Our maintenance budget does not cover our planned asset maintenance projects next year, she said. The service needs increased and reliable funding for many high priority acquisition programs to ensure the service can sustain ships, aircraft and shore infrastructure.

Despite its relatively small size, the Coast Guard has been part of the Pentagons plan to increase American maritime presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Coast Guard has increased its patrols in the western Pacific and is training partner nations on how to interdict commercial vessels carrying illegal cargo, including the synthetic opiate fentanyl, which has created a spike in addiction and drug-related crime in the United States.

An expansion of Coast Guard facilities and personnel in the Seattle area is partly to address increased Chinese military and commercial shipping in the Arctic region.

The service is looking at eventually increasing the number of icebreakers in the region. The United States now has one operational icebreaker available. Russia has about 40 military and commercial ships.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee during a hearing in July 2023 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)

Fagan called building icebreakers a top priority as Russia and China expanded operations in the Arctic. Icebreakers will allow the United States to stay and operate in more areas longer.

Actual presence is required to ensure our own national security and sovereignty in the Arctic, she said.

To pay for the increased operational tempo, the Coast Guard has stretched the procurement of two offshore patrol cutters, while the last of 11 national security cutters is nearing completion. This enables the Coast Guard to cut its spending for the ships from $73 million in 2024 to a request of $13 million in 2025.

The savings can double the allocation for the purchase of smaller cutters, barges, tenders, and shallow-water craft used in inland waterways to $135 million in the 2025 proposal.

Fagan said funds would also be used to modernize existing equipment, including the shift to the MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter from the MH-65 Dolphin, some of which have been in service since the 1980s.

Questions from subcommittee members ranged from geopolitical to societal to parochial.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, the top Democrat on the committee, praised the Coast Guards presence alongside the Navy to counter Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific.

For example, in the Taiwan Strait in the South China Sea and your work with the Philippine Coast Guard are important steps to make sure that we sent out the strong message, he said.

Lawmakers also asked the admiral about service plans to fix the sexual harassment, abuse and assault issues at the Coast Guard Academy. Problems at the New London, Conn., school surfaced when an internal report titled Fouled Anchor was leaked to the media. The report focused on the failure of senior officers to pursue discipline or charges against perpetrators identified by victims.

We will continue to work together to strengthen a workplace climate aligned with our core values, Fagan said.

But the admiral said her goal was to extend significant reforms throughout the service, not just at the training ground for future officers.

Whats different today? Why is this different from other times that weve been held accountable as an organization for failing about sexual assault, harassment, bullying, retaliation, or retribution? Fagan asked. Whats different this time is an acknowledgment that these behaviors are not appropriate in our service, and were going to move to eradicate them. This is not a checklist thing.

Other lawmakers asked about using waterway patrols to reduce the number of undocumented migrants crossing into the United States via coastal routes through the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean.

We remain engaged and in position to counter anyone attempting those illegal and perilous attempts to reach our shores, Fagan said.

She said using uncrewed catamaran-like sail drones with sensors and cameras can tip off Coast Guard cutters when a group departs on a water route to the United States.

This is lifesaving work, Fagan said. When people take to sea in unseaworthy conveyances, the risk of loss of life is substantial.

While the hearing dealt with geopolitical hot spots, drones, drugs, emergencies at sea, and other wide-scope issues, it was also a chance for committee lawmakers to ask questions about the Coast Guards priorities in their districts.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, asked where the services wish list ranked a new ship to replace the USCGC Wyaconda, a nearly 60-year-old cutter based in Dubuque on the Mississippi River.

Fagan called the Wyaconda an icon that needed to be replaced.

The admiral said the Wyaconda was not in the first round of service requests for new ships.

But Fagan said she plans on retiring the venerable cutter at some point.

It will be replaced, she said.
A Navy diver prepares to deploy a groundwater boom designed to prevent fuel contaminants from entering the pump system at the Red Hill well on the outskirts of Honolulu in January 2022. (Stephanie Butler/U.S. Navy)

HONOLULU  Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Jessup was bathing his 10-month-old son at their Honolulu home in November 2021 when his wife called from work with an urgent plea: Dont use the tap water.

She was very concerned, panicked, Jessup, a special operations diver who retired from the Navy last year, testified in Hawaii federal court Thursday.

His wife, Sheena Jessup, said customers had been telling her that the Navys water system for housing on and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam was contaminated.

Jessup and his daughter, Breanna, 16, testified via Zoom in Feindt vs. United States, a civil suit that came to trial Monday in Hawaii U.S. District Court.

The suit filed by 17 plaintiffs seeks compensation for injuries arising from Navy tap water contaminated with jet fuel in late 2021 from the nearby Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

The lawsuit is the first of several filed in Honolulu stemming from water contamination at military housing in and around the joint base. U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi is hearing the case without a jury.

Jessup testified that on that day in 2021 he whisked his son from the bath and then made certain none of his other three children were using water.

That call set off the familys months-long saga, during which they underwent strange, new health problems, even as they used only bottled water to drink, cook and bathe for half a year.

In May 2022, his wife and children moved to Arizona and remained apart from Jessup for 10 months until he took an earlier-than-planned retirement.

Sheena Jessup and the four children are among the plaintiffs, which do not include any unformed service members. Brian Jessup is a plaintiff in a separate civil case filed last year on behalf of only active-duty members.

More than 7,500 additional plaintiffs have joined several other lawsuits also seeking compensation.

Bathing from saucepans

Many of the thousands of families affected by the contaminated water temporarily relocated to hotels for several months as the Navy sealed off the well and flushed the system.

The hotel room offered to the Jessups was not suitable for a family of six, as it had only two small beds and no Wi-Fi access that the children needed for their studies, Brian Jessup testified.

Instead, they continued to live in their Radford Terrace neighborhood, first using water distributed by the military and, when that ended, buying their own.

Fearful of using the tap water for showering or bathing, the family heated saucepans of water on the stove, then carried them to the bathroom to sponge off as best they could, Jessup said.

The entire family experienced symptoms they say arose from contact with the tainted water, he testified.

Among them were stomach pains, nausea, dizziness and headaches. Their eldest son, Beau, now 18, began experiencing tremors in his arms and hands soon after contamination, which has continued to worsen to this day, Jessup said.

Beau had planned to join the service and follow in his fathers footsteps, but that now seems unlikely because of his tremors, his father testified.

A lot of decisions

It was very difficult, Breanna Jessup testified of the months following the contamination.

Bathing became an oppressive chore that altered the familys routine, she said.

You couldnt go out as much, she said. You could go to the beach, but having sand all over your body, in your hair, salt water, it just took so much water to get it off you.

After the Navy flushed the water system, Jessup said, she pleaded with her mother to let her finally take a proper shower with tap water.

When I was done with the shower, I got burns, rashes on my arms, she testified. The ones that burned the most were on my forearms. The best way I could describe it is, have you ever been stung by a jellyfish? It kind of stings and burns at the same time.

Brian Jessup testified that he decided that he had to send his family to Arizona, where his wife was raised.

I had to make a lot of decisions I didnt want to make right then, he said.

He said the family could not afford to also rent him an apartment in Hawaii, so for months he slept on a cot in his office.

Happy, healthy lives

Brian Jessup said he and his wife agonize over the future.

Were very worried about our children, he testified. We want them to have long, happy, healthy lives. Its common sense that when youre exposed to these chemicals, there are going to be some repercussions to that.

The government has acknowledged responsibility for the contamination but maintains that the Navys quick response prevented widespread and lengthy exposure by residents.

The lines of cross examination by government attorneys since the trial began Monday suggests their defense will assert that the cause of maladies experienced by residents was largely due to preexisting conditions and stress over the coronavirus pandemic.
Parachutes glide toward earth as some 550 paratroopers reenacted the 101st Airborne Division D-Day jump, in Normandy, France, June 5, 1994. Nineteen of them were veterans of the actual landing 50 years ago who had fought to liberate the small town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. They were the first to jump, together with 22 other World War II combat paratrooper veterans. (John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes)

In the months and days leading up to the 80th Anniversary of D Day, Stars and Stripes will be republishing a number of articles, as reported by its staff writers at the time. This article first appeared in the Stars and Stripes London edition, June 14, 1944. It is republished unedited in its original form.

(This story was written by Philip H. Bucknell, Stars and Stripes staff writer who landed with American paratroopers at Ste. Mere Eglise. Bucknell suffered a broken leg when he struck ground and now is convalescing at U.S. hospital in England.)

WITH AMERCAN AIRBORNE TROOPS, Ste. Mere Eglise, France, June 8 (delayed)  One-and-a-half hours after American paratroopers hit the DZ (Drop Zone) the American flag flew over the vital communications key-point of Ste. Mere Eglise.

The Americans swept into the town, winkling out the enemy from their strong points. They were reinforced by glider-borne troops. Simultaneously other units landed at other DZs in the vicinity and bottled up the road networks, holding down the line of attack for the troops which came in by sea.

Those amphibious forces were scheduled to reach us by noon D-Day  they came in some hours later. In the meantime the airborne troops held their positions against ever-increasing enemy counter-attacks, against artillery zeroed in on their positions and in the face of diminishing ammunition and non-existent rations. They held, and when at 10:30 AM on Wednesday the tanks came up, the two bridgeheads were waiting for their crossing.

Parachutes unfold as paratroopers jump out of a C-130. The paratroopers were some of the 550 reenacting the 101st Airborne Division D-Day jump. Nineteen of them were veterans of the actual landing 50 years ago who had fought to liberate the small town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. They were the first to jump, together with 22 other World War II combat paratrooper veterans. (John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes)

Stand Up; Hook Up

Now the land forces have moved on and beyond this town, and so have the airborne troops who survived the 32 hours of incessant and savage battle.

The trip across was easy, and the paratroopers took it easy. Most of the men in my plane slept until we hit the French coast. Then  Stand up; hook up called the battalion commander, a lieutenant-colonel whose third combat jump this was. Flak started coming up at us as we crossed the coast, and by peering over his shoulder I could see yellow and green tracers reaching up at us. On the ground, apparently, was more opposition than we had expected.

The ground began to take the shape of the sand tables we had studied back in England. This is it, fellers. Lets go, said the battalion commander quietly.

We went.

They were shooting at us as we came down, and we had to slip our chutes violently to escape the fire. That accelerates the speed of drop, and the impact of landing was too much for this reporter, who received a broken leg. This kind of injury was fairly common throughout the drops.

For the next seven and a half hours I watched the campaign from the position in which I landed. I could hear combat teams forming, moving stealthily to rendezvous points. There were angry bursts of machine-gun fire and the explosions of grenades. In the distance was the sound of mortar firing and way out towards sea was the sound of our naval fire.

Parachutes glide toward earth as some 550 paratroopers reenacted the 101st Airborne Division D-Day jump, June 5, 1994, in honor of D-Days 50th anniversary. (John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes)

Throughout the night came other paratroops, and gliders towed by the Ninth Troop Carrier Command swooped down searching for landing places.

I was not exactly lonely in my field, but I was mighty isolated.

In the morning I was found by the medical aidemen and they carried me in to a post near the chief CP, where I was able to keep up with the progress of the fighting.

The reports were good. The battalion commander, with whom I jumped, had collected a force of men and made a two-way penetration into Ste. Mere Eglise. Other forces were out on the flanks protecting communications and establishing road blocks.

Prisoners began to come in. Some were pathetic, obviously inferior coastal defense troops, either too young or too old. Then there were some impressed troops  non-Germans. Some of them fought well and furiously  they had been told we would slit their throats if we captured them.

Surrendered Without Fight

Others preferred to take a chance and surrendered without fight. One glider crew of medics, unarmed, of course, were surrounded by 42 Axis troops, fully armed with automatic weapons  they formally surrendered.

All that night the attack kept up, and by dawn the next morning the Germans had artillery within 800 yards of the chief command post, and snipers had infiltrated through to points of advantage not more than 300 yards away.

A paratrooper glides toward solid ground as he lands. Some 550 paratroopers reenacted the 101st Airborne Division D-Day jump. (John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes) A paratrooper glides towards solid ground as he lands. (John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes)

Soon after dawn Ninth Troop Carrier Command C47s swooped down daringly over our positions in face of continual fire and dropped us equipment bundles. Unfortunately, a lot of them dropped within sight of the enemy, who trained machine-gun fire on troops trying to reach them.

At 10 AM I was told by a staff officer that it seemed that the CP would have to be given up, and our troops would try to re-form nearer the town.

At 10:30 AM the first of the seaborne troops came through, and Sherman tanks began to arrive. And now we advance.

This is not the complete picture. It misses out too many things  about the glider artillery crew who landed and started firing within 20 minutes, and the mortar battered town of Ste. Mere Eglise that second morning when there were wrecks of German Mark IV tanks within 75 yards of the town center, but no closer. It misses the story of fighting at other points around the perimeter of our positions.

This is just the story of how an outnumbered, outgunned force of American paratroops and glider riders accomplished the mission they have trained so long to do, and then held their positions for 22 hours longer than the plan called for.
(John Bohmer/Stars and Stripes)

Amfreville, Normandy, France, June 5, 1994: Parachutes glide toward earth as some 550 paratroopers reenact the 101st Airborne Division D-Day jump. Nineteen of them were veterans of the actual landing 50 years ago who had fought to liberate the small town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. They were the first to jump, together with 22 other World War II combat paratrooper veterans.

They preceded about 500 active-duty American and French paratroopers. The American paratroopers were from the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions, and the 3rd Battalion, 325th Airborne Battalion Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy. All landed in a 300-acre drop zone in Amfreville, about 3 miles from Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

Read Stars and Stripes reporter Philip H. Bucknells 1944 eyewitness account from that jump, published in Stars and Stripes London edition, June 14, 1944, here.
Tech. Sgt. Jacob Kozlowski prepares to download cargo from a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules at Air Base 101, in Niger in February 2023. Russian forces are now operating inside the base, but they pose little risk to American personnel there, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this week. (Michael Matkin/U.S. Ari Force)

STUTTGART, Germany  Russian forces are now operating inside an air base in Niger where U.S. troops also are positioned, but they pose little risk to American personnel there, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this week.

Im always focused on the safety and protection of our troops. ... But right now, I dont see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection, Austin said during a news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.

Austin said the Russians are in a separate compound at the base in the Nigerien capital of Niamey. The Russian troops dont have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment, Austin said.

Austins comments came in response to a question about the situation in Niger following a report by Reuters, which stated that the Russians were using a separate hangar at Air Base 101 in Niamey.

U.S. Africa Command, which is based in Stuttgart, said Friday that the arrival of the Russians happened several weeks ago.

The base in Niamey comprises several different compounds, which were previously set up for visiting foreign forces, such as the French, AFRICOM said.

This is not a new development. However, we do continue to monitor the situation and to take all necessary and prudent measures to ensure the security of U.S. forces, facilities and equipment, AFRICOM said in a command statement.

The Russian presence at that base, positioned next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, is the latest twist in the unraveling of AFRICOMs mission in Niger.

U.S. military officials are in Niger for discussions related to the looming departure of roughly 1,100 troops from the country. The talks are in response to a demand by Nigers military junta last month that all U.S. forces leave.

While Niger has been the centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in western Africa, the overthrow of the countrys democratic government last summer brought most of those operations to a halt.

Since then, U.S. troops have been waiting it out in Niger, mostly concentrated at a separate drone base in the city of Agadez that went into operation several years ago at a cost of more than $110 million.

The breakdown in relations between the U.S. and Nigers military junta has opened the door to Russia, which has dispatched troops to the country at the invitation of Nigers new leaders.

For the U.S., a series of coups in western Africa, including Burkina Faso and Mali, has left the military with a shrinking number of partners for its counterterrorism efforts.

Chad, historically another close military partner, last month followed Niger and indicated that it wanted U.S. troops out of its country. Talks between Chad and the United States remain ongoing.
U.S. Army Spc. Rem Mendoza, top, Cpl. Christian Grantham, center, and Staff Sgt. Aaron Agsaoay, right, inspect a Patriot air-defense battery at Clark Air Base, Philippines, May 2, 2024. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)

CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines  The U.S. Army for the first time has deployed Patriot missile launchers to this sprawling facility shared by commercial and military aircraft north of Manila.

A pair of launchers from the Okinawa-based Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment pointed skyward Thursday from a field at Clarks Air Force City, home to Filipino airmen who share a nearby runway with commercial jets visiting Clark International Airport.

Around 50 soldiers from Bravo Battery are training to defend Clark from incoming missiles. Its the same drill theyve done across the Indo-Pacific in recent years as China rapidly grows its missile forces and vows to reunify the free and democratic island of Taiwan, by force if necessary.

In a conflict, experts expect U.S. installations in Japan, including on Okinawa, to come under heavy attack, which has led commanders to seek alternative air bases in the region to disperse their forces.

In 1991, Clark, then Americas largest overseas air base, suffered extensive damage from falling ash during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The installation was returned to the Philippines soon after but has continued to host visiting U.S. forces.

Last March, for example, F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from the Alaska-based 525th Fighter Squadron were photographed training at Clark.

The Patriot launchers, along with radar, an engagement control station and a command post, are deployed for the annual Balikatan exercise involving 16,000 mostly American and Filipino troops. Balikatan  Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder  began April 22 and wraps up May 10.

U.S. Army Spc. Rem Mendoza, left, Cpl. Christian Grantham, center, and Army Staff Sgt. Aaron Agsaoay, right, inspect a Patriot air-defense battery at Clark Air Base, Philippines, May 2, 2024. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes) An antenna mast group vehicle, part of the Patriot's minimum engagement package, is staged at Clark Air Base, Philippines, May 2, 2024. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes) U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Aaron Agsaoay watches Spc. Rem Mendoza climb down from a Patriot launcher at Clark Air Base, Philippines, May 2, 2024. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes) Equipment and vehicles, part of the Patriot air-defense system's minimum engagement package, are staged at Clark Air Base, Philippines, May 2, 2024. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)

The American troops were sweating under a canopy next to a pile of water bottles Thursday while the sun beat down on their equipment and a nearby obstacle course.

In the past week theyve conducted around 10 drills to rapidly position their gear or pack it up -- what they might do to make sure theyre not pinpointed by the enemy. Its tough, physical work, made harder by the tropical heat.

The presence of civilians nearby  much of Clark has been converted from military facilities to business and leisure space in recent years - makes the training challenging, said battery commander Capt. April Dilidili as she stood near one of the launchers.

The air-defense soldiers are in the final portion of six months of training to certify the unit for real-world operations, she added.

The Patriot first came to Balikatan in 2022, when soldiers landed launchers in northern Luzon on Navy hovercraft. Last year, a Patriot fired for the first time in the islands, at Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui, also on Luzon.

Bravo Batterys higher headquarters, the 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Sagami General Depot near Tokyo, has been looking for new places to deploy the Patriots, said Maj. Trevor Wild, a brigade spokesman.

The air-defense battery is training alongside members of the Philippine air forces 960th Air and Missile Defense Group, stationed at Cesar Basa Air Base, a short drive from Clark, he said during a break in training.

The Filipino airmen operate newly acquired Spyder air-defense systems, Wild said. They are made by the Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., the maker of the Iron Dome.

Spyder systems employ short-, medium- and long-range missiles to defend friendly forces, including maneuvering forces and wide areas, against threats from combat aircraft, helicopters, unmanned vehicles, bombers, cruise missiles and stand-off weapons, according to Rafaels website.

Members of the U.S. brigade have been at Basa, one of several bases in the islands where American forces can operate under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, teaching their counterparts to deconflict fires from the Patriot and Spyder systems, Wild said.

Theyve also been working with civil aviation authorities to avoid commercial aircraft operating near the air bases, said Maj. Jackson Cobb, an operations officer for the brigade.

He said about 25 soldiers from the brigade headquarters are providing command and control for Bravo Battery, as well as members of 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery, a North Dakota National Guard unit, deployed to Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui.

The 25 Guard troops are equipped with Avenger short-range air-defense systems designed to shoot down manned and unmanned aircraft, Cobb said.

Our objective is to conduct air- and missile-defense operations and also expeditionary deployment operations, he said.

The training doesnt involve firing live missiles, but the troops are training as if they are defending Clark, he said.
The headquarters building for U.S. Forces Japan at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo. (Stars and Stripes)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  Personnel with U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force worked from alternate locations Friday after a fire struck their building the night before at this airlift hub in western Tokyo.

The fire occurred on the east side of Building 714s second floor, facing Davis Street, according to an email Friday from Master Sgt. Nathaniel Allen, spokesman for Yokotas 374th Airlift Wing. Investigators were still assessing the full extent of the damage, he said.

The buildings workforce was dispersed to other locations Friday out of an abundance of caution for health and safety until that damage assessment is complete, USFJ spokesman Maj. Tom Barger said via email Friday.

The mission of U.S. Forces Japan and Fifth Air Force continues unabated as there are multiple systems and procedures in place designed to ensure the continuation of operations in the event of a crisis or contingency that affects our infrastructure, he wrote.

Yokotas fire-alarm monitoring service automatically alerted first responders Thursday evening, Allen said. Eyewitnesses also reported to the base fire department that flames were coming from the building.

Base security and first responders established a 500-foot cordon around the structure and cautioned anyone in the area to stay away, according to an 8:09 p.m. Thursday text alert and subsequent post on Yokotas official Facebook page.

Emergency responders were on scene within minutes of the initial report, Allen wrote. This exceptionally swift response was crucial in managing the situation effectively and speaks to the exemplary training and preparedness of Yokota first responders.

No injuries resulted from the fire, Allen said.

USFJ serves as a liaison between the U.S. military throughout the country and the government of Japan. Its headquarters is a sensitive area where scores of U.S. and Japanese civilians and U.S. service members work together.

The head of USFJ, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, is a dual-hatted commander also in charge of 5th Air Force, which has authority over 15,000 airmen at three Air Force wings in Japan: the 374th at Yokota, the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa in northeastern Japan and the 18th Wing at Kadena on Okinawa.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping toast during their dinner at The Palace of the Facets, a building in the Moscow Kremlin, Russia, on March 21, 2023. (Pavel Byrkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool )

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit China little more than a week after starting his new term in office, underscoring the growing importance of ties between the two countries.

The visit is scheduled for May 15-16, a person familiar with the Kremlins plans said. The dates may yet change slightly, but even if they do, the trip for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping will be Putins first travel abroad after his inauguration at the Kremlin on May 7, the person said, declining to be identified as the information isnt public.

Putin last month said he was planning to visit China in May, though he didnt specify the exact dates.

The timing of the visit will be made public in due course, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a question from Bloomberg News. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing didnt immediately respond to a request to comment made during a holiday in China.

Putin will arrive in China after Xi completes his first visit to the European Union in five years. Hes due to travel to France, Serbia and Hungary in a tour starting May 5, with Russias war in Ukraine likely to be among the issues for discussion.

While China hasnt openly supported the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing have declared a no limits friendship that has so far helped Russia to weather unprecedented sanctions imposed by the US and its allies. Driven by Russian oil sales and purchases of electronics, industrial equipment and cars, Moscows trade with China hit a record $240 billion in 2023, more than double the $108 billion reached in 2020.

Despite the growing economic ties, Chinas exports to Russia fell almost 16% in March from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data. Putin may raise the need to bolster trade volumes between the two countries during his talks with Xi, a person with knowledge of the matter said in April. Meanwhile, Chinas state-owned banks tightened curbs on funding to Russian clients after the US authorized secondary sanctions, people familiar said in January.

Putin last visited China in October to attend a forum on Xis signature Belt and Road initiative, a rare foreign trip for the Russian leader since a warrant for his arrest on alleged war crimes was issued by the International Criminal Court in March last year.

Putin extended his almost quarter-century rule over Russia for a further six years in the presidential election in March, receiving a record 87% in a vote tightly controlled by the Kremlin and in which he faced no serious competition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talk with Britains Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

KYIV - British Foreign Secretary David Cameron announced that Britain has given Ukraine permission to strike targets on Russian territory with the weapons in a new $3 billion multiyear aid package it is providing.

Camerons remarks - in an interview with Reuters during a visit to Ukraine - mark a sharp reversal in the position of one of Ukraines staunchest supporters.

Kyivs Western allies, including the United States, have so far forbidden Ukrainian forces from using Western-supplied arms to target locations within Russia, for fear of escalation and possibly being drawn further into the conflict. Ukraine has used its own weapons systems, such as long-range self-destructing drones, to strike critical infrastructure deep inside Russia.

On Thursday, Cameron said some of the military equipment provided by the United Kingdom was actually arriving in Ukraine today, while Im here. He said Ukrainian officials would be the ones to decide whether to target Russian territory.

Ukraine has that right, he told Reuters. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself.

The military equipment would include the provision of precision-guided bombs, and air defence missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams to enable Ukraine to shoot down Russias drones and missiles, a statement on the U.K. government website said.

These comments - along with French President Emmanuel Macrons remarks that Paris did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine - amount to a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukraine conflict that may be potentially dangerous for European security and the entire European security architecture, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

On Friday, Cameron released a video, in front of St. Michaels Golden Domed Monastery in central Kyiv, in which he said Britain was the first country to sign an agreement giving security guarantees to Ukraine and now it was the first to provide the country with an annual $3.75 billion aid package.

The money is needed to push back Russian President Vladimir Putin, so that there will be a just peace and Ukraine recovers its sovereignty, Cameron said. This is not just an investment in Ukraines security, but the best possible investment that Britain could make in its own security and prosperity, he said.

There is an alternative scenario, where we dont back Ukraine sufficiently, where Putin scores a win here in Ukraine, Cameron said. Well be living in a far more unsafe and uncertain and dangerous world that will cost us in so many ways.

Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with Britains Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the UK to speed up weapons deliveries during a visit by Foreign Secretary David Cameron as ammunition shortages undercut Kyivs ability to hold the frontline.

Providing this package along with a super-important decision from the US on aid is very significant to us at this crucial moment, Zelenskyy said in Kyiv, according to a post on his Telegram channel, after updating Cameron on the war with Russia.

Six months of waiting as US Republicans held up a $61 billion aid package had allowed Vladimir Putins military to seize the initiative, Zelenskyy said last month. Among allies stepping up support, the Netherlands committed an additional $1.5 billion.

The urgency of plugging the scarcity of ammunition is underscored by Russian advances on the eastern city of Chasiv Yar, while air defenses have failed to intercept missile and bomb attacks that have destroyed half of the countrys power generation and frequently kill civilians in Kharkiv and Odesa. Russia shelled Kharkiv again Friday, killing at least one person and destroying private houses, mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. A search and rescue operation is underway.

Zelenskyy and Cameron also discussed preparations for upcoming international events, including a planned conference on Ukraines peace blueprint to be held in Switzerland.

Ukraine is fiercely defending itself against Russias illegal invasion, making a war Putin thought would last days, take years, Cameron said in Kyiv, according to a UK government statement. But this war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone.

The UK doesnt impose any caveats on how Ukraine deploys donated weapons, Cameron said. Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine, and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia, he said.

Cameron repeated Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks commitment to spend at least $3.8 billion a year on military support over multiple years. He said the UK is providing precision-guided bombs, air defense ammunition and equipment for 100 mobile air defense teams to enable Ukraine to shoot down Russian drones and missiles.

A 36 million energy support package includes 20 million in new emergency funding to help repair and protect power plants attacked by Russia, and generators to bolster power supplies.

Russian missile attacks have destroyed multiple power plants across Ukraine in recent months, including the largest in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions and a hydroelectric generator in Zaporizhzhia. About half of the energy system is destroyed, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Foreign Affairs.

With assistance from Alex Wickham.
Ukrainian recruits with the Aidar Battalion train in the eastern Donbas region. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)

KYIV - With Ukraine desperate for soldiers to reinforce its crumbling defenses against Russias invasion, Ukrainian embassies have temporarily suspended consular services for fighting-age men, placing new pressure on them to go home to fight.

The suspension of citizen services, such as passport renewals, is intended as a preliminary step to a new mobilization law that will go into force on May 18. It will require all men ages 18 to 60 to update their personal information with a local draft office within 60 days.

Martial law, in effect since the start of Russias invasion in February 2022, prohibits men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country. But many men who were afraid of being sent to the front have fled. Thousands of others were already living abroad. Now, all of them face pressure under the new rules, which could restrict their movements.

We all felt like the ground was pulled out from under us, said Oleksandr, a 42-year-old from Kyiv now living in Austria. That Ukraine no longer wants to support us. Like other men interviewed for this article, Oleksandr agreed to speak on condition that he be identified only by his first name because he feared being ostracized or facing other repercussions.

Supporters of the mobilization law say men living outside Ukraine - potentially numbering in the tens of thousands - are not sufficiently supporting their country in its time of greatest need.

Ukrainian officials insist that the mobilization law will add fairness to the draft, removing many exceptions and streamlining the conscription process. They also say the government urgently needs accurate information about those citizens who are eligible for military duty.

In Ukraine, men who provide their information to a draft office will receive documentation, which they then must show when conducting any official business in Ukraine, such as registering a marriage or obtaining a drivers licensee. Those living abroad will need the same documentation to receive consular services.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Oleksandr, who has lived in Austria since before the invasion, said he felt persecuted, as if the Ukrainian government was hunting him. It was done as a go to hell move - we will now catch you, to make you feel bad, punish you, he said.

I am not afraid to die, Oleksandr added. My biggest fear is to be captured and experience torture.

Other men targeted by the policy expressed similar anger. And the requirements of the mobilization law are casting new light on a deepening rift between those men who have gone to the front lines and those who have not, between families whose loved ones are at risk every day and those who are living safely, in some cases many thousands of miles away.

If successful, the mobilization law could provide hundreds of thousands of new soldiers for the war effort - troops desperately needed to halt Russias recent advances, Kyiv officials say.

There will be no restrictions or forced return of Ukrainian citizens of any gender or age to a country that is at war, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said in remarks published by Deutsche Welle on Tuesday. But she added: There are no easy solutions to war issues, and lets not forget that the war is ongoing, and we have to win it.

How many Ukrainian men could be denied consular services is unknown. Many men left Ukraine legally - for medical treatment or to study, among other reasons.

Officials at Ukraines Foreign Ministry say they are trying to compile a total number of those living abroad. On Saturday, in an interview with Polish broadcaster TVN24, Ukraines ambassador in Warsaw, Vasyl Zvarych, said Ukrainian authorities estimate that there are tens of thousands of people of military age in Poland alone.

Andriy, 38, who lives in Poland, said he thought the Ukrainian government was acting impetuously. I feel like the country I love and cherish is behaving like an immature, offended teenager, Andriy said.

I have always positioned myself, and will continue to position myself, as a Ukrainian in all situations, he said. But if the state considers me a traitor, I must admit its not a pleasant feeling for me at the moment.

Weeks after Ukraines parliament adopted the mobilization law, the measure continues to raise as many questions as answers, and many Ukrainian men are struggling to understand what it might mean for them personally.

The law presents separate problems for thousands who fled to avoid the draft, potentially leaving them stuck where they are, forced to apply for asylum or in legal limbo.

Some said they feel betrayed, while others said they fear that the Ukrainian government could resort to even more draconian measures to fill the countrys military ranks - possibly by forcing men living outside the country to return to Ukraine.

Some men said they understood the governments position. Savelii, 35, who is living in London, said the government was forced to choose from a range of bad options.

Some of this is about restoring some kind of balance, Savelii said. Its unfair that men in Ukraine have to live like this right now. He added, There is a sense that we men who live outside the country have more privileges and liberties.

But the situation is not black-and-white, he added. There are also people still living in the country who pretend that there is no war right now, and people living outside who work every day to support Ukraine.

European officials appear divided over the prospect of trying to compel Ukrainian men to return home to fight.

Anneli Viks, an adviser to Estonias interior minister, said Tuesday that her country has no plan for the forced repatriation of Ukrainian citizens legally residing in Estonia who fled because of the war, local media reported.

But others were less categorical. We definitely wont protect draft dodgers, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said on Polish television.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has described the restriction of consular services as a matter of basic equity, but even some men who were not immediately affected by the new rules said they were unhappy.

Olexander, 53, who lives in Britain, said his passport was valid for three more years. This hasnt caused me any inconvenience personally, although its insulting because I havent violated existing laws of Ukraine, Olexander said.

But I dont exclude the possibility that services may be needed. What to do then, theres no plan, he added.

Olexander said he has never stopped being Ukrainian and would like to return and be useful in the future. But he has serious doubts about returning, at the moment because hes not ready to entrust my life to the current government.

Vladyslav, 36, who is living in Spain, said he left Ukraine legally, under an exemption for men with three or more children. When the new electronic registry begins to operate, Vladyslav said, he will immediately register and provide his details.

Still, he said he worries that more restrictions on those living abroad could lie ahead, such as blocking access to Ukrainian bank accounts.

If they suddenly start blocking, just like that, then it wont be okay for me personally, Vladyslav said. Because I conduct business in Ukraine and pay taxes there. He added: If I suddenly lose access to banking services, then Ill have to fully transition to E.U. residency.

Vasily, 40, who lives in Germany, said he applied for a second passport but now wonders if he will receive it. Vasily said the laws greatest danger is that it will sow divisions among Ukrainians. Russia wont destroy Ukraine on its own, until Ukrainians help it, he said.

With such actions, he said, the government had simply burned bridges for many whose lives fit in a suitcase - including women and children.

Vasily said he often thinks of a friend serving on the front lines - a dialogue without words, he said. The friend is the only person in front of whom I feel ashamed, he said.

Maybe he wont want to talk to me, Vasily said. But I want him to understand me.

Kostiantyn Khudov contributed to this report.
Pro-Palestinian protesters clash with a pro-Israeli supporters at an encampment at UCLA on May 1, 2024. (Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times/TNS)

BEIRUT (Tribune News Service)  People across Gaza on Wednesday sent messages of appreciation to demonstrators on U.S. campuses, thanking them for their protests against the Gaza war.

Children, parents and medical staff assembled in the courtyard before Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, with many of them unfurling banners carrying university insignias with Thank you for supporting our cause.

Others brandished signs with the words Your voices pierce the wall of silence and reach the victims in Gaza!, The killing of children in Gaza must stop and Palestine is everywhere.

In recent days, as protests and encampments have bloomed in dozens of campuses across the U.S., people in Gaza have taken note of the outpouring of solidarity, both in America and abroad.

They in turn have responded  on social media, in rallies, in videos, by words scribbled on tents  with messages of support of their own. Many view the protests as a positive omen in a time of unrelenting bleakness in Gaza. At another event also in Deir al Balah, others hoped for similar protests to spread in European and Arab countries.

This was a gathering of thanks and pride for the efforts by students in American universities, said Baraa Safi, an English teacher interviewed by a local broadcaster on Wednesday.

It makes a big difference in our lives and it gives us hope that people are still hearing us; that people want to help us, stand with us and end the war were living through every day.

A protester at UCLA sits in front of an encampments particle-board wall after an order to disperse was given by law enforcement early Thursday morning. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Universities across the U.S. have been rocked since mid-April by demonstrations demanding universities endowments divest from Israel-linked investments and companies and calling on Israel to end its bombardment and ground attacks in the Palestinian territory.

Israels war on the Hamas militant group has lasted 209 days and has so far killed at least 34,596 people and wounded a further 77,816, according to Palestinian health authorities in Gaza. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but officials, aid groups and activists say the majority are women and children.

Israel launched its military offensive in the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, when Hamas operatives stormed more than 20 sites in southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Slightly more than half of the hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, including 34 that are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.

Israels ambassador to the United Nations characterized the campus protests as the murderous cries of the pro-Palestinian mobs and castigated universities for allowing Nazi-like behavior.

We always knew that Hamas hides in schools, Gilan Erdan said in a speech to the U.N.s General Assembly on Wednesday.

We just didnt realize that its not only schools in Gaza. Its also Harvard, Columbia and many elite universities.

He also accused the U.N. of spreading anti-Israel vitriol and said the organizations days were numbered.

Pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israel activists clash at an encampment at UCLA early Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

The protests in the U.S. have added to domestic and international pressure on President Joe Biden to push through a deal between Hamas and Israel that would end the fighting and release detainees.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said there is a proposal on the table and the time is now for a deal. He blamed Hamas for the delay, a charge the groups leaders denied.

On Thursday, Hamas said its negotiating team would return to Egypt soon for additional talks and a response to a proposal given earlier this week. The groups chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a call on Thursday to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani that Hamas was studying the cease-fire proposal with a positive spirit.

Negotiations have stumbled over the permanence of a cease-fire and whether the displaced will be able to return to their homes in Gaza. Mediators have offered a 40-day cease-fire and exchange of Israeli hostages and many Palestinian detainees.

2024 Los Angeles Times.

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Ismail Haniyeh, the Doha-based political bureau chief of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, speaks during a briefing in Tehran on March 26, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

Hamas is studying a proposal for a temporary cease-fire with Israel in a positive spirit, as international pressure mounts on the two sides to reach a deal and end a conflict that has shaken the Middle East.

The Iran-backed militant group plans to send a delegation to Egypt as soon as possible to continue negotiations, according to comments by senior leader, Ismail Haniyeh, posted on Telegram on Thursday.

Haniyeh was speaking to Abbas Kamal, head of Egypts general intelligence directorate. The Hamas leader also discussed the situation with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the two agreed to continue talks with the aim of reaching an agreement.

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union.

Israel said it will only consider joining cease-fire talks if Hamas responds to the latest internationally mediated proposal for a temporary truce and release of hostages taken by the groups militants during their Oct. 7 invasion. The conflict has been raging in Gaza for the almost seven months since, and much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble.

About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, with about 250 more taken hostage. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the subsequent Israeli onslaught, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to quickly reach a decision on terms for a pause in hostilities, describing the offer as extraordinarily generous.

The U.S. is seeking the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, alongside a pause that could pave the way to an end to the war.

Haniyeh stressed the positive spirit in which Hamas is approaching the latest proposal, and aims to reach an agreement in a way that achieves the demands of our people and stops the aggression against them.

Hamas has previously called for Israeli forces to withdraw entirely from Gaza. Israel has refused to go that far, and is instead preparing to invade the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge.

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a meeting in Riyadh on Dec. 6, 2023. (Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik, Pool/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

Saudi Arabia has stepped up the arrest of citizens for social-media posts related to the Israel-Hamas war as the kingdom signals a readiness to agree to diplomatic relations with the Jewish state  if it commits to Palestinian statehood.

Detaining people for online comments  even those more than 10 years old  and restrictions on free speech and political expression are the norm in Saudi Arabia. Yet the recent spate of arrests are motivated by security concerns specifically linked to the deadly Oct. 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas and its aftermath, according to Riyadh-based diplomats and human rights groups.

Israels retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, and left many more in urgent need of food and health care. Thats triggered a popular anti-Israel backlash across the Arab world and in Western countries including the U.S., where violent clashes have taken place on university campuses. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested in the U.S. on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia and regional allies like Egypt and Jordan have been alarmed by the trend, fearing that Iran and Islamist groups could exploit the conflict to incite a wave of uprisings, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified due the delicate nature of the matter. Memories of the Arab Spring more than a decade ago remain fresh among regional rulers, who are desperate to avoid a repeat.

Recent Saudi detentions have included an executive with a company involved in the kingdoms Vision 2030 economic transformation plan  a cornerstone of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans agenda  according to people inside and outside Saudi Arabia with knowledge of the matter. The detainee expressed views on the Gaza conflict deemed by authorities to be incendiary, they said.

A media figure who said Israel should never be forgiven has also been arrested, the people said, as has an individual calling for the boycott of American fast food restaurants in the kingdom. The people shared information on condition that neither they nor those arrested be identified.

The Saudi Ministry of Interior and the governments Human Rights Commission did not respond to requests for comment.

A person familiar with the Saudi governments thinking acknowledged the arrests and attributed them to what he called a high level of alertness post-Oct. 7 and a desire by authorities to deter people from making online statements about the war that might impact national security.

Saudi opposition figures and activists are on Thursday in the U.S. holding their largest conference since the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a royal-court-insider turned critic, by Saudi agents in 2018. They are expected to unveil what they call the peoples vision for the kingdom which priortizes free speech and release of all political prisoners.

Hard Line

The Saudi arrests for Gaza-related posts indicate Prince Mohammeds regime will take a hard line against citizens not toeing the line when it comes to normalizing ties with Israel  a topic the kingdom was working on with the U.S. before the events of Oct. 7 muddied the waters. Riyadh and Washington resumed their talks on a defense pact and U.S. cooperation in launching a civilian nuclear program earlier this year, and, with an agreement close, Israel will be invited to join a three-way pact or risk being left behind.

Since Oct 7, Saudi Arabia has harshly criticized Israel for its war in Gaza and demanded an immediate cease-fire, while indicating it remains open to warmer relations if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdraws troops and commits to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The latter outcome remains a distant prospect, however, especially while Netanyahus far-right coalition remains in power.

A clampdown on pro-Palestinian sentiment on social media may be a sign Riyadh is serious about normalization with Israel, said Jane Kinninmont, a Gulf expert who is policy and impact director at the European Leadership Network.

If they want to change their policy and go and visit Israel and have Israelis come to Riyadh, when the war looks different, then they do not want there to be a kind of established pro-Palestinian movement that would be protesting at that sort of thing, she said.

Broader Arrests

There are no precise figures on the number of people Saudi Arabia has arrested since Oct. 7.

One Saudi man, who regularly visits a family member held for a pre-war online post in a prison south of Riyadh, said his relative has told him of a significant increase in prisoners at the maximum-security facility over the past six months. This was corroborated by several diplomats in the Saudi capital and human-rights organizations, who said they have been tracking a spike in social media-related arrests since Oct. 7.

However, they said the reasons included comments about other Saudi issues such as the cost of living, or anything critical of the kingdom or its leadership.

Manahel Al-Otaibi, a Saudi fitness instructor and womens rights activist, was sentenced in January to 11 years in prison and accused of terrorist offenses for social-media posts demanding more freedoms for women and videos showing herself in public spaces without the traditional abaya cloak, said Amnesty International and Saudi rights group ALQST.

People are very upset about whats happening in Palestine and expect a strong response from their country but they dont see it, said Yahya Assiri, a London-based Saudi opposition leader who founded a group that tracks human-rights violations in the kingdom. Anger over the war in Gaza is often linked to discontent over other government policies, particularly on the economic front, said Assiri, who was granted political asylum by the UK in 2017.

These linkages are very worrisome for them but their fears are exaggerated, he said, referring to Saudi security services.

With assistance from Fiona MacDonald and Kate Seaman.

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Students at Bahrain Elementary, Middle and High School are set to return to their campus Sunday, nearly three weeks after the school was closed because of significant water damage from a major rainstorm that hit the Persian Gulf region April 15-16, 2024. (Shannon Renfroe/Stars and Stripes)

MANAMA, Bahrain  Students at the Department of Defense Education Activitys school in Bahrain are set to return to classrooms Sunday, nearly three weeks after water damage caused by torrential rainfall forced the campus in Juffair to close.

The 564 pupils at Bahrain Elementary, Middle and High School had to shift to remote learning as a result of the April 16 shutdown. During an open house Tuesday, public works lead supervisor Cmdr. Riley Smith noted the collaboration in addressing the damage.

We learned all the different ways water can get into a building that you wouldnt normally have, but we also learned a lot about coordination with the school and landlord and how it was really a team effort to get it all done, he said. No one person or entity did it all.

The storm, which hit April 15, brought 2.66 inches of rain over two days and wind gusts up to 44 mph, according to the Bahrain meteorological directorate. Flash flooding occurred across the Persian Gulf region, which saw its second-highest rainfall total in 123 years,

The school adapted during the remote learning period to minimize disruption to the academic schedule.

Many of my students were concerned about their AP classes because AP tests start next week, and they were concerned they were going to miss instruction and not be prepared, said Shana Seawright, secondary principal of Bahrain Middle-High School. But we added extra AP classes in the afternoon for teachers and students to have that time together to get that last-minute information.

Sailors assigned to Bahrain help restore damaged classrooms April 23, 2024, at the Bahrain Elementary, Middle and High School. More than 35 sailors volunteered to move classroom furniture and expedite repairs. The 24-acre campus in Juffair was closed April 16 following near-record rainfall in the Persian Gulf region. (Shayla Hamilton/ Navy)

More than 35 sailors from NSA Bahrain volunteered to move classroom furniture and expedite repairs, including carpet removal, ceiling tile replacement, electrical testing and the installation of air purifiers.

Some areas still need repairs, which are scheduled for the summer and expected to be completed before the next school year starts.

The volunteers were terrific, Smith said, adding that without their efforts, it would have been difficult to open as planned.

DODEA officials in Bahrain worked closely with others to prepare their staff to transition back to physical classrooms.

We had so much support from subject-matter experts that I could turn my attention to being the educational leader and support our teachers with making sure that our online instruction was up and running quickly as possible, said Penelope Miller-Smith, principal of Bahrain Elementary School.

We had over 95% attendance in our first day of instruction, so it showed students wanted to get back into their classrooms, even if that classroom was remote, she added.

The original DODEA school in Bahrain was located in Awali and consisted of a teaching principal and three teachers, who catered to 40 students across grades one through eight. It was founded in 1968.

Sailors assigned to Naval Support Activity Bahrain renovate a classroom in Juffair, Bahrain, on April 23, 2024. Juffair is the site of the 24-acre campus of Bahrain Elementary, Middle and High School, which closed April 16 because of extensive water damage from a major rainstorm. (Shayla Hamilton/ Navy)

By 1970, it expanded its admissions to English-speaking Bahraini students and those not sponsored by the Defense Department, leading to significant growth.

By 1972, the student body had grown to about 200, encompassing elementary and correspondence secondary students. The school relocated to its current 24-acre campus in 1972.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a briefing in Ankara, on April 24, 2024. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming under pressure over his tricky balancing act regarding Israel, with an increasingly popular and vocal opponent calling for the closing of a NATO defense system allegedly used to support the Jewish State.

Islamist politician Fatih Erbakan this week added his voice to those demanding the shutdown of the Kurecik radar installation. Erdogan has denied that Israel has access to intelligence from the southern Turkey facility, which can detect the firing of missiles from the region, including from Iran, in order to alert European defense systems.

Kurecik is a NATO base and intelligence shared with the US and the UK is directly used to protect Israel, said Erbakan, 44, who shot to prominence after abandoning an alliance with Erdogans AK Party to record the third-best result in March local elections. This base must be closed, he said in an interview in Ankara.

The call by Erbakan, the son of Turkeys first Islamist prime minister, the late Erdogan mentor Necmettin Erbakan, is the latest challenge for the president as he strives to balance Turkeys membership of the NATO Western alliance with opposition to Israel from his religious base.

Erbakans role in Turkish politics is much greater than the size of his party: His recent rise demonstrates the appeal of a popular Islamist - and anti-Israel - movement that could derail Erdogans goal to extend his already record two-decade rule.

Erdogan has previously said hed be prepared to shut down Kurecik amid a dispute with the US over the acquisition of Russian air defenses, but he is very unlikely to do so now. Such a move would severely strain ties with US-led NATO allies that support Israel.

At the same time, Turkey on Thursday confirmed that it would halt all trade with Israel until that country allows uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, after two officials familiar with the matter said the pause went into effect earlier in the day.

The president dismissed allegations that the Israeli military might have access to information obtained by the radar installation, which Iran has threatened to target in the event of a war with the Jewish state. Its not known whether the facility played a part in Israels largely successful defense of about 300 drones and missiles launched last month from the Islamist Republic.

The radar center in Kurecik does not and cant have any relationship, bond or contact with any state other than the security of our country and our alliance, Erdogan said April 26, adding that Islam does not tolerate disseminating lies.

Before Israel invaded Gaza in October, a response to the deadly assault by Hamas into southern communities on Oct. 7, Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were exploring ways to increase cooperation in energy and trade after more than a decade of tensions. That was derailed by the ongoing conflict, which has triggered a popular backlash across the Arab world and even in the US.

Erdogan called Hamas militants freedom fighters before the elections and repeatedly criticized Israels conduct in the war, which health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed 34,000 Palestinians.

Unlike the US and the European Union, Turkey doesnt consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Erdogan hosted Hamass political leader in Istanbul on April 20 to discuss the need for a permanent cease-fire and accelerated humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Yet Erbakans Islamist New Welfare Party, which backed Erdogans reelection as president a year ago, was able to speak out over the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza in more stringent terms than Erdogan on the local-election campaign trail.

The prize was more than 6% of the vote, which contributed to crushing wins for the pro-secular opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, in Istanbul and other major cities, alongside unprecedented inroads into former AK Party strongholds.

Erdogan appeared to criticize Erbakans electoral strategy in comments on Friday.

Some parties that, as you know, are the cruel face of politics in our country, used this very ruthlessly during the election atmosphere, he said in comments about Gaza to reporters, without naming anyone. We wanted to evaluate this process without rushing.

Turkeys decision to halt all trade with Israel after earlier restricting exports drew a swift response from Netanyahus government.

This is the behavior of a dictator who tramples the interests of the Turkish people and business community, while ignoring international trade agreements, Israels Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Thursday in a post on the social media platform X.

The Israeli government will work to create immediate alternatives for trade with Turkey by increasing local manufacturing and finding other suppliers, he said.

Turkey agreed to host the radar installation in Kurecik, which lies some 700 kilometers (435 miles) west of the Iranian border, as part of the missile defense architecture of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2011. The system is capable of detecting launch of ballistic missiles in the region.

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US President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Dec. 12, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  In the analog days of the 1970s, long before hackers, trolls and edgelords, an audiocassette company came up with an advertising slogan that posed a trick question: Is it live or is it Memorex? The message toyed with reality, suggesting there was no difference in sound quality between a live performance and music recorded on tape.

Fast forward to our age of metaverse lies and deceptions, and one might ask similar questions about whats real and whats not: Is President Joe Biden on a robocall telling Democrats to not vote? Is Donald Trump chumming it up with Black men on a porch? Is the U.S. going to war with Russia? Fact and fiction appear interchangeable in an election year when AI-generated content is targeting voters in ways that were once unimaginable.

American politics is accustomed to chicanery  opponents of Thomas Jefferson warned the public in 1800 that he would burn their Bibles if elected  but artificial intelligence is bending reality into a video game world of avatars and deepfakes designed to sow confusion and chaos. The ability of AI programs to produce and scale disinformation with swiftness and breadth is the weapon of lone wolf provocateurs and intelligence agencies in Russia, China and North Korea.

Truth itself will be hard to decipher. Powerful, easy-to-access new tools will be available to candidates, conspiracy theorists, foreign states, and online trolls who want to deceive voters and undermine trust in our elections, said Drew Liebert, director of the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, or CITED, which seeks legislation to limit disinformation. Imagine a fake robocall [from] Gov. Newsom goes out to millions of Californians on the eve of election day telling them that their voting location has changed.

The threat comes as a polarized electorate is still feeling the aftereffects of a pandemic that turned many Americans inward and increased reliance on the internet. The peddling of disinformation has accelerated as mistrust of institutions grows and truths are distorted by campaigns and social media that thrive on conflict. Americans are both susceptible to and suspicious of AI, not only its potential to exploit divisive issues such as race and immigration, but also its science fiction-like wizardry to steal jobs and reorder the way we live.

Russia orchestrated a wave of hacking and deceptions in attempts to upset the U.S. election in 2016. The bots of disinformation were a force in January when China unsuccessfully meddled in Taiwans election by creating fake news anchors. A recent threat analysis by Microsoft said a network of Chinese sponsored operatives, known as Spamouflage, is using AI content and social media accounts to gather intelligence and precision on key voting demographics ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

One Chinese disinformation ploy, according to the Microsoft report, claimed the U.S. government deliberately set the wildfires in Maui in 2023 to test a military grade weather weapon.

A new survey by the Polarization Research Lab pointed to the fears Americans have over artificial intelligence: 65% worry about personal privacy violations, 49.8% expect AI to negatively affect the safety of elections and 40% believe AI might harm national security. A poll in November by UC Berkeley found that 84% of California voters were concerned about the dangers of misinformation and AI deepfakes during the 2024 campaign.

More than 100 bills have been introduced in at least 39 states to limit and regulate AI-generated materials, according to the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan organization that tracks election-related legislation. At least four measures are being proposed in California, including bills by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) that would require AI companies and social media platforms to embed watermarks and other digital provenance data into AI-generated content.

This is a defining moment. As lawmakers we need to understand and protect the public, said Adam Neylon, a Republican state lawmaker in Wisconsin, which passed a bipartisan bill in February to fine political groups and candidates $1,000 for not adding disclaimers to AI campaign ads. So many people are distrustful of institutions. That has eroded along with the fragmentation of the media and social media. You put AI into that mix and that could be a real problem.

Since ChatGPT was launched in 2022, AI has been met with fascination over its power to re-imagine how surgeries are done, music is made, armies are deployed and planes are flown. Its scarier ability to create mischief and fake imagery can be innocuous  Pope Francis wearing a designer puffer coat at the Vatican  and criminal. Photographs of children have been manipulated into pornography. Experts warn of driverless cars being turned into weapons, increasing cyberattacks on power grids and financial institutions, and the threat of nuclear catastrophe.

The sophistication of political deception coincides with the mistrust of many Americans  believing conspiracy theorists such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.  in the integrity of elections. The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was a result of a misinformation campaign that rallied radicals online and threatened the nations democracy over false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Those fantasies have intensified among many of the former presidents followers and are fertile ground for AI subterfuge.

A recently released Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum warned that disinformation that undermines newly elected governments can result in unrest such as violent protests, hate crimes, civil confrontation and terrorism.

But AI-generated content so far has not disrupted this years elections worldwide, including in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Political lies are competing for attention in a much larger thrum of social media noise that encompasses everything from Beyonces latest album to the strange things cats do. Deepfakes and other deceptions, including manipulated images of Trump serving breakfast at a Waffle House and Elon Musk hawking cryptocurrency, are quickly unmasked and discredited. And disinformation may be less likely to sway voters in the U.S., where years of partisan politics have hardened sentiments and loyalties.

An astonishingly few people are undecided in who they support, said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law scholar and professor at Loyola Law School. He added that the isolation of the pandemic, when many turned inward into virtual worlds, is ebbing as most of the population has returned to pre-COVID lives.

We do have agency in our relationships, he said, which lessens the likelihood that large-scale disinformation campaigns will succeed. Our connections to one another will reduce the impact.

The nonprofit TrueMedia.org offers tools for journalists and others working to identify AI-generated lies. Its website lists a number deepfakes, including Trump being arrested by a swarm of New York City police officers, a photograph of President Biden dressed in army fatigues that was posted during last years Hamas attack on Israel, and a video of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg resigning after clearing Trump of criminal charges in the current hush-money case.

NewsGuard also tracks and uncovers AI lies, including recent bot fakes of Hollywood stars supporting Russian propaganda against Ukraine. In one video, Adam Sandler, whose voice is faked and dubbed in French, tells Brad Pitt that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cooperates with Nazis. The video was reposted 600 times on the social platform X.

The Federal Communications Commission recently outlawed AI-generated robocalls, and Congress is pressing tech and social media companies to stem the tide of deception.

In February, Meta, Google, TikTok, OpenAI and other corporations pledged to take reasonable precautions by attaching disclaimers and labels to AI-generated political content. The statement was not as strong or far-reaching as some election watchdogs had hoped, but it was supported by political leaders in the U.S. and Europe in a year when voters in at least 50 countries will go to the polls, including those in India, El Salvador and Mexico.

Im pretty negative about social media companies. They are intentionally not doing anything to stop it, said Hafiz Malik, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I cannot believe that multi-billion and trillion-dollar companies are unable to solve this problem. They are not doing it. Their business model is about more shares, more clicks, more money.

Malik has been working on detecting deepfakes for years. He often gets calls from fact-checkers to analyze video and audio content. Whats striking, he said, is the swift evolution of AI programs and tools that have democratized disinformation. Until a few years ago, he said, only state-sponsored enterprises could generate such content. Attackers today are much more sophisticated and aware. They are adding noise or distortion to content to make deepfakes harder to detect on platforms such as X and Facebook.

But artificial intelligence has limitations in replicating candidates. The technology, he said, cannot not exactly capture a persons speech patterns, intonations, facial tics and emotions. They can come off as flat and monotone, added Malik, who has examined political content from the U.S., Nigeria, South Africa and Pakistan, where supporters of jailed opposition leader Imran Khan cloned his voice and created an avatar for virtual political rallies. AI-generated content will leave some trace, said Malik, suggesting, though, that in the future the technology may more precisely mimic individuals.

Things that were impossible a few years back are possible now, he said. The scale of disinformation is unimaginable. The cost of production and dissemination is minimal. It doesnt take too much know-how. Then with a click of a button you can spread it to a level of virality that it can go at its own pace. You can micro-target.

Technology and social media platforms have collected data on tens of millions of Americans. People know your preferences down to your footwear, said former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America. Such personal details allow trolls, hackers and others producing AI-generated disinformation to focus on specific groups or strategic voting districts in swing states in the hours immediately before polling begins.

Thats where the most serious damage can be done, McQuade said. The fake Biden robocall telling people to not vote in New Hampshire, she said, was inconsequential because it was an uncontested primary. But in November, if even a few people heard and believed it, that could make the difference in the outcome of an election. Or say you get an AI-generated message or text that looks like its from the secretary of State or a county clerk that says the powers out in the polling place where you vote so the elections been moved to Wednesday.

The new AI tools, she said, are emboldening people because the risk of getting caught is slight and you can have a real impact on an election.

In 2022, Russia used deepfake in a ploy to end its war with Ukraine. Hackers uploaded an AI-manipulated video showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordering his forces to surrender. That same year Cara Hunter was running for a legislative seat in Northern Ireland when a video of her purportedly having explicit sex went viral. The AI-generated clip did not cost her the election  she won by a narrow margin  but its consequences were profound.

When I say this has been the most horrific and stressful time of my entire life I am not exaggerating, she was quoted as saying in the Belfast Telegraph. Can you imagine waking up every day for the past 20 days and your phone constantly dinging with messages?

Even going into the shop, she added, I can see people are awkward with me and it just calls into question your integrity, your reputation and your morals.

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An Army lieutenant colonel assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested Thursday, May 2, 2024, on federal charges for importing firearms parts from Russia and other countries and dealing in firearms without a federal license to do so, according to the Justice Department. (Samuel Shore/U.S. Army)

AUSTIN, Texas  An Army lieutenant colonel assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested Thursday on federal charges for importing firearms parts from Russia and other countries and dealing in firearms without a federal license to do so, according to the Justice Department.

Frank Ross Talbert, 40, faces a 21-count federal indictment in the Middle District of Tennessee that charges him with eight counts of importing defense articles without a license, eight counts of smuggling firearms parts into the United States, one count of firearms trafficking, two counts of possession of unregistered machine guns, one count of transporting a machine gun without a license and one count of dealing in firearms without a license.

If convicted, Talbert faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $1 million.

Talbert pleaded not guilty Thursday. An attorney listed for him declined to comment Friday. A trial is scheduled for June.

The charges involve activity between October 2022 and October 2023, and involve acquiring firearm parts from Russia, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to court documents.

Talbert, who serves as deputy commander of the 52nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group, smuggled accessories for AK-style firearms including grips, hand guards, muzzle devices, sights, folding stock pieces and gas tubes.

On Sept. 12, 2023, Talbert sold a partially destroyed machine gun kit, as well as transported it from Tennessee to Kentucky, according to court documents. He also possessed an unregistered machine gun on Oct. 18, 2023.

Talbert has been in the Army since 2006 and has served overseas in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and France, according to his official service record. His previous awards include two Bronze Star Medals, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, three Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and two Army Commendation Medals. He also earned the Combat Action Badge, two Combat and Special Skill Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal Badge, the Parachutist Badge, and the Air Assault Badge.

Fort Campbell is in Kentucky along the border with Tennessee. Its largest unit is the 101st Airborne Division.
A police officer looks on as protesters shout after breaking through barricades to enter the University Yard encampment at George Washington University in Washington on Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Jordan Tovin for The Washington Post)

New York police had just poured into Columbia University, clearing protesters out of an occupied campus building and arresting more than 100 people in a far-reaching crackdown at the epicenter of the nations uprisings over the war in Gaza.

But within hours of the police moves Tuesday night, Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student leader, said he and others were already planning their next action.

Or actions, said Khalil, foreshadowing the continued resolve of the movement. Until we finish this semester and come back next semester.

Khalils determination to press the movement forward, repeated by countless students at universities across the country this week, showcases how protesters are determined that their calls for the end of the war and university disinvestments from Israeli companies wont slow down much over the summer.

No one plans on leaving this summer, Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University student who is part of the still-growing encampment at George Washington University in Washington, said Wednesday. That is very clear among the people with us today, and its something we meet about, something we chant in our slogans.

The stakes over what this summer may hold has far-reaching consequences for students, college administrators, big-city mayors, police agencies and President Biden. Some Democrats worry that scenes of upheaval this summer, especially at the partys August convention in Chicago, could damage Bidens reelection campaign.

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Biden appeared to recognize that there would be no quick end to the demonstrations, even as he sought to carve out a middle ground.

Dissent is essential to democracy, Biden said. But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.

Yet at least for college administrators, many of whom have asked for police to break up their schools encampments, the end of spring classes leaves some room for optimism that their campuses will see a bit of break in the action over the summer. Just how much, however, is rooted in a more fundamental debate over whether the protests that rocked colleges this spring represent a sustained generational movement or a short-term political fad.

Answering that question is complicated because experts are divided over whether the student-led movement is really just getting started or destined to fail when most students scatter for the summer. Some experts point to the struggles other social movements, including the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests against corporate greed, faced once they no longer had an anchor or highly concentrated encampments and command centers from which to carry out their movement.

Many of those students, except for the most die-hard activists, are going to go home - and thats going to de-escalate and demobilize it, said Dana R. Fisher, a professor at American University and author of a book about activism. Any campuses where you have most of the student body in student housing  in the summer, youre going to really lose people.

The trajectory of a social justice movement has vexed historians and political leaders in the past. The most successful movements stay relevant by crowding out other news while melding into history books by continually challenging and surprising authorities, they said.

During the civil rights protests, young people found ways to step up their activism over the summer by congregating in specific communities to press their demands, such as the Freedom Summer voter registration drives in the South in 1964.

During the Vietnam War, student protesters congregated at music festivals and high-profile political events - including the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago - to continue pressing their demands. And fours year ago, when the nation was largely shut down due to the pandemic, the summer season did little to prevent students from mobilizing in their individual cities to condemn the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

Protesters march by the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center on May 1, 2015, after it was announced that criminal charges would be brought against all 6 officers involved in the Freddie Gray case (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

But all those movements were far larger than the pro-Palestinian student movement remains today. At many colleges, a relatively small number of students are leading the calls for a cease-fire or changes to university investment policies.

To sustain and grow their movement, experts say, these students will have to find ways to align and coordinate with other left-wing interest groups and potentially shift their tactics farther away from campuses.

The failure to do that effectively was one of the downfalls of the Occupy Wall Street movement, said the Rev. Michael Ellick, a pastor who led the occupy faith component of the movement that took over New Yorks Zuccotti Park until a series of police raids on the encampment in the fall of 2011. Even those camps that police allowed to remain operating for longer periods of time, such as the one on National Park Service land in Washington, eventually fell victim to internal divisions, filth, drug abuse and rats.

The key to sustaining the movement was everyone being there in person and having a culture develop, Ellick said. As soon as those camps got wiped away, that movement was basically hard to keep going in the same way.

Then it depended on old-fashioned organizing, Ellick added. Like relying on community relationships, and building solidarity with different networks, which some aspects were really good at, but some were not at all so of course it faded away.

Lisa Fithian, a veteran liberal activist who has been demonstrating since the 1980s and now teaches guerrilla tactics to younger activists, said she is fully confident in the pro-Palestinian demonstrators ability to press - and intensify - their movement over the summer.

Earlier this week, Fithian was at City University of New York (CUNY) and Columbia holding impromptu trainings about how protesters can place their bodies on the line to affect social change.

Fithian, a veteran of protests over both Iraq wars and the Standing Rock demonstrations over the Dakota Access pipeline, said the students have already built the network of support needed to sustain the movement.

Fithian also said the police crackdown on the protesters offers to promote synergy between their demands and those of the broader racial justice anti-police-brutality groups, which she expects will continue to energize the protests.

You have a generation that is both very upset, very disturbed, and very angry over now being met with a state response that is completely disproportionate, Fithian, 63, said.

Eva Borgwardt, national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a Jewish-led pro-Palestinian group, noted the students are already part of a coalition of protesters who have been working for years to bring more attention to the plight of Palestinians. That movement, Borgwardt noted, has far more outlets to vent their frustration than just college campuses.

This moment is the result of decades of organizing and movement building, Borgwardt said. And we are watching todays organizers learn from prior movements, and apply those lessons in real time in the street.

At a protest encampment at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, students were handing out papers that detail their demands, instruct participants how to act and whom they should not talk to, and how to treat ailments such as handcuff injuries.

The students, none of whom would agree to be identified by their full names, vowed their movement is just getting started and will persist all summer.

But Benjamin Jancewicz, a photographer who has been documenting the Baltimore protest movement since the uprising over the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody, cautions that being well organized may not be enough unless the demonstrators form alliances with other Baltimore-based social justice groups.

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag in front of a few hundred students protesting the Israel-Gaza war Tuesday, at Johns Hopkins Universitys Homewood Campus in Baltimore. (Wesley Lapointe/The Washington Post)

He noted Baltimore has a history of activism that stretches back to the Black Panthers but its relatively rare for demonstrations to grow large enough to elicit broad public attention.

All of those groups have different things that they are fighting for. All of them have different things they believe in, Jancewicz said. But occasionally something like this will happen, and people will be like, okay, we are going to put our stuff at the side for the moment and march with you guys. So we will see if that happens.

In Louisville, a city consumed by protests in 2022, veteran Black Lives Matter activist Chanelle Helm believes the pro-Palestinian activists have already formed a tight alliance with racial justice demonstrators. Helm, who is Black, believes many racial minorities already feel sympathy toward the Palestinians, and the police tactics being used against pro-Palestinian demonstrators only strengthen that bond.

I dont see these as cross movements, as we would look like at environmentalism or technology movements, said Helm, who was at the forefront of the demonstrations over the death Breonna Taylor in Louisville in 2020. The lines have already been meshed. The Middle East is full of Black people.

With fewer students on campus this summer, Helm said the demonstrators may briefly shift to new venues. And even if protests briefly die down, Helm said, it would be a mistake to assume that the movement had petered out.

The most important thing that people have to understand about protests is that the actual protest is only like 5 percent of the work, said Helm, adding the vast majority of time is spent on creating narratives, reading up on history, building resources and allies, and training demonstrators.

At the George Washington University encampment, Al-Shihabi said that is precisely how the students plan to spend their summer.

Al-Shihabi said student leaders are already forgoing summer jobs and internship plans to continue their activism.

Every single student here obviously needs money, she said, while standing in an encampment that now includes a shower and portable toilets, as well as at least one large rat that felt safe enough to scurry past in the middle of the day. Everyone needs to have future careers.  But they are putting all of that at bay because they care about the greater good of humanity.

Kaden Ouimet, an American University student government leader who has been protesting at the George Washington University encampment, also plans to stay in Washington this summer instead of returning to his hometown in Arizona. He plans to help craft a detailed plan for university divestment, conduct research, and strategize over how to woo incoming freshman to the pro-Palestinian cause this fall.

We hope we can come back from summer stronger in our convictions than ever, Ouimet said.

At many schools, the fall courses will restart in mid-August, around the time of the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 19 through Aug. Aug 22.

Justin Hansford, executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University, said he believes this summer has the potential to be the culmination of protest politics because the students protesting today started taking lessons when they were in high school during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

I think what could happen this summer could be even bigger than the George Floyd one, said Hansford, who was a Black Lives Matter protester before he became a law professor. There are a number of people being brought into the [movement] not just from a racial perspective, but also religious tolerance and antiwar politics  so there is not a lot to make me think this is just going to let up.
Police take a pro-Palestine protester to a Denver sheriffs bus to be processed as law enforcement officers cleared a protest encampment on the Auraria Campus on April 26, 2024. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post/TNS)

WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service)  Protests on college campuses related to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian crisis inside Gaza that turned violent this week handed President Joe Biden a political headache and former President Donald Trump a new attack line. The unrest showed the risks of being the incumbent and allowed Trump to  once again  push his hardline views as disrupter in chief.

Biden and his campaign aides have mostly dismissed criticism from Arab American groups for months over his ironclad backing of Israel. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israels brutal response i to Hamas Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,000 Israeli citizens.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, jousted with a number of reporters Wednesday over the protests  but she never directly addressed them nor gave a clear reason why Biden had not publicly done so.

Bidens seeming goal of avoiding ownership of the campus violence and his silence, which ended with previously unannounced remarks Thursday morning from the White House, created a vacuum at the start of the week  one that Trump seemed happy to fill.

The protests shine a perfect light on the two candidates contrasting styles. There is really no federal jurisdiction over the incidents of campus unrest. As a result, you see Biden playing a sober, hands-off role, using the bully pulpit cautiously, former Florida GOP Rep. David Jolly said in an email. Conversely, Trump and his allies are reaching for hyperbole and spectacle, promising crackdowns and a boorish strength without any grounding in the realities of governing, nor the delicate balance between rights of speech and assembly, violations of the rights of others, and the complexities of a war we dont control.

Biden is exercising the presidency within its contours. Trump promises to shatter those contours.

As Biden was out of public view for four days after headlining a Washington gala on Saturday evening, he drew fire from all sides  including Arab American groups who have led anti-Biden vote drives in swing states during the Democratic primary.

The use of city police to dismantle peaceful protests on college campuses in the United States, coupled with proposed legislation to punish Americans for criticizing Israel, is a dangerous assault on our democracy and a sign of the very creeping authoritarianism infecting so much of the world, said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, said in a statement.

The Biden administration has been a shameful accomplice in sacrificing American free speech and civil society at the altar of Israeli interests and demands, Whitson added.

Trump also pounced as Biden was out of sight fighting, in his own words, a bit of a cold.

To every college president, I say remove the [protesters] encampments, immediately. Vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn, he said Wednesday at a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis.

When you see that video of raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers at Columbia and other colleges, Trump added, his thought trailing off as he started a new one. But when you look at it, I say, where did these people come from? I dont know people like that.

He also made the claim that Bidens southern border and migration policies would create the conditions for an Oct. 7th-style attack right here in America.

Trump made similar claims later Wednesday at another campaign rally in another Rust Belt swing state, Michigan. As he spoke, Biden was meeting with Asian American donors at a fancy Washington, D.C., hotel, calling India and Japan, along with China and Russia, xenophobic  but not mentioning the campus unrest nor the situation in the Middle East, according to a transcript released by the White House.

Without violence

It was not until late Thursday morning that Biden broke his silence on the matter, which lasted for more than a week.

Biden condemned college campus protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict that have turned violent, saying from the White Houses Roosevelt Room that violent protest is not protected under U.S. laws.

Its against the law when violence occurs, destroying property is not a peaceful protest  its against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest, the president said.

Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. Its against the law, Biden said. Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder.  I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions. In America, we respect the right, and protect the right, for them to express that.

But it doesnt mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate and within the law.

Jolly said that politically, any domestic unrest is bad for an incumbent  both know this, so Biden is being careful not to own what are otherwise internal university matters, while Trump and his allies are working hard to nationalize resentment and hostility toward the protests and in turn pin that concern on the president.

Before his Thursday appearahce, Biden had not commented on the campus protests since April 22. That was before some turned violent or law enforcement officers were called in by the leaders of several major universities to quell unrest and vandalism.

That day, Biden was asked by a reporter about the protests. His response during an Earth Day event in Triangle, Va. was: I condemn the antisemitic protests. Thats why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who dont understand whats going on with the Palestinians.

Brad Bannon, a Democratic political strategist, said in an email that the carnage in Gaza and the college campus confrontations here are a serious problem for President Biden.

Things will get even worse for him if Israeli strongman [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu widens the conflict and invades the southern Gaza city of Rafah, he added.

The chaos here and abroad threatens the presidents reelection campaign. The ghastly images of dead Palestinian children have turned young Democrats against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, he said. The president needs overwhelming support from his base to win reelection. The violent clashes between police and students contribute to voter concerns that the nation is out of control and headed in the wrong direction with Biden in charge.

Thats just the message that Trump was delivering to loyalists and anyone else listening during his Rust Belt campaign stops.

We do not need a jihad in the United States of America. We do not need our once-great cities to become hotbeds of terrorism, Trump said in Wisconsin.

And on day one of the Trump presidency, Im restoring the travel ban, suspending refugee admissions and keeping terrorists the hell out of our country like I had it before, he said. I had it before  so good, you know, when Biden went to the beach all the time.

Wheres SLEEPY JOE?

Rather than addressing the the campus unrest in real-time, Bidens team at the White House and his campaign were focused on other issues, including abortion and student loan debt relief, as well as a White House push for Congress to reload a COVID-19 pandemic-era broadband subsidy for underserved areas.

Trump even posted a question on Truth Social on Wednesday morning: Wheres SLEEPY JOE? Hes SLEEPING, thats where!!!

That became a common question by Tuesday night, as New York Police Department officers in tactical gear entered protest-riddled Columbia University and arrested protesters who had barricaded themselves inside a building. The same night, law enforcement stepped in when protesters clashed at the University of California at Los Angeles.

As campus protests heated up late last week, Biden was off the public grid for almost 12 hours, spending the night in New York City before turning up  unannounced  on SiriusXMs The Howard Stern Show. White House and campaign aides had little  sometimes nothing  to say about Bidens whereabouts and activities each time he was out of sight.

On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre did not use her opening remarks during a media briefing to address the previous nights sometimes-violent scenes and arrests. Instead, she announced a Biden speech to commemorate the Holocaust and criticized states abortion bans.

Trump has tried in recent weeks to drive a further wedge between Biden and Arab American voters, even telling reporters on April 23 at a Manhattan courthouse that Biden is no friend of the Arab world  ignoring that Biden has helped steer the Middle East away, for now, from a wider conflict that could put Israel against Iran and possibly other Arab countries.

Trump, as usual, ignores the nuances of diplomacy and goes full speed ahead in support of Israels actions. Meanwhile, the president criticizes Netanyahu without acting against him, Bannon said. The president needs to cut through the fog and make a clean break with the prime minister if he expands the conflict.

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The court heard gardai had gathered thousands of hours of high-quality CCTV evidence and could track the accused for hours during the incidents

A FATHER of one accused of burglary, rioting and criminal damage to three Garda vehicles and a fire brigade truck during a large-scale public order incident in Dublin has been refused bail.

Mark Spain, 37, was charged with 11 offences during an outbreak of incidents on November 23, "known as the Dublin City Riots", Judge Monika Leech heard today.

The incidents broke out in reaction to the stabbing of three children at Parnell Square.

Mr Spain, a former electrician who lives at Canal House, Rathmines, Dublin 6, is accused of six counts of criminal damage, one attempted criminal damage, theft of a Garda car's registration plate, rioting, and two burglary offences at O'Connell Street, Parnell Street, and Lower Abbey Street.

Garda Tom McEvoy of Store Street detective unit said Mr Spain made no reply to the charges.

The officer objected to bail and cited the seriousness of the case.

The court heard gardai had gathered thousands of hours of high-quality CCTV evidence and could track the accused for hours during the incidents.

Garda McEvoy alleged that Mr Spain smashed the front door window of a Gala shop on Lower Abbey Street and gained entry before he left, but he returned and smashed the tills.

He allegedly kicked the mirror off a Garda car and removed its number plates. The officer claimed Mr Spain removed wing mirrors and smashed the windows and lights on two other Garda cars with a metal pole.

It was alleged he tried to damage a Dublin Fire Brigade tender with a metal pole.

The court heard he was part of a large group who "breached the outer core of a crime scene cordon" and part of a large number of people who "surrounded" and attacked members of An Garda Siochana.

A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Defence solicitor Yvonne submitted that the seriousness of the offences alleged was not a reason to deny bail, and she gave the example of people accused of murder who get released pending trial. She submitted that there was no evidence of drug addiction or other charges pending, and there was an imprimatur in favour of bail.

The court heard Mr Spain, who has yet to indicate a plea, was an electrician but unemployed because he is now a carer for his mother.

The judge denied the application, but the solicitor urged the court not to refuse outright but to grant bail with conditions and a surety. The garda considered that and said it would have to be a "large sum."

However, Judge Leech said she was not disposed to grant bail and remanded him in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on May 9.

Legal aid was granted.

Mr Spain, dressed in a black hoody with a green stripe and dark tracksuit bottoms, did not address the court.

Gardai have already brought dozens of people before the courts on criminal damage, public order, weapons, thefts and various other charges connected to the riots.

Other proceedings stemming from the November 23 disturbances involved allegations of arson of a Garda car and a Luas tram.

Those cases have heard that it was "One of the most serious and largest scenes of public disorder that has ever occurred in the history of the State".

The unrest in the city erupted after a girl, aged five, was severely wounded in a stabbing at Parnell Square on that afternoon.

Two other children and a creche worker were also injured.

Riad Bouchaker, 50, who has no fixed abode, was charged on December 21 with the attempted murders of two girls and a boy, as well as assault and production of the 36-centimetre knife. He remains in custody on remand pending trial.
The accused, who is a native of Georgia, also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife contrary to the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act

A Georgian asylum-seeker has been jailed for 18 months in prison and ordered to leave Ireland on his release from prison over an incident in which he stabbed another resident of a direct provision centre last year.

Ramazi Nakhutsrishvili (40), a married father of two, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing harm on another male outside the former Bray Manor nursing home on Meath Road, Bray, Co Wicklow on August 6, 2023

The accused, who is a native of Georgia, also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife contrary to the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act which he waved in the direction of another resident who had intervened as a good Samaritan.

Detective Garda Niamh Lacey told a sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court that the incident occurred after a row broke out among a group of asylum seekers sitting at a table outside the former nursing home.

Det Garda Lacey said the accused first hit his victim with his fist and then produced a knife and started chasing after the man who had run away.

CCTV footage showed Nakhutsrishvili pursuing another male out onto Meath Road in an incident which lasted around 10 minutes.

The court heard that the victim was stabbed a number of times by the accused including once to the left side of his neck.

Det Garda Lacey said the injured man was brought to St Vincents University Hospital in Dublin where he required stitches and staples to treat at least five clear puncture wounds to his body.

In a victim impact statement, the man said he feared for his life and was off work for two months with his injuries.

He called for the accused to be treated with the full severity of the courts for the physical and psychological damage he had suffered.

Det Garda Lacey said Nakhutsrishvili was arrested at the scene and made admissions about the offences.

She told counsel for the DPP, James Kelly BL, that a group of asylum seekers from Georgia from the direct provision centre had gone to the beach in Bray earlier that afternoon to mark the death of some relative who had died back in their homeland.

Det Garda Lacey said the accused believed his victim was rude and ignoring him while he tried to toast the deceased person and they had become embroiled in a physical fight which fizzled out.

However, she explained that the row erupted again when the group had returned to the direct provision centre as Nakhutsrishvili believed someone had insulted his mother.

Counsel for the accused, Justin McQuade BL, said Nakhutsrishvili had left Georgia due to low wages and had not seen his family in two years.

Mr McQuade said he had travelled to Ireland via France and had destroyed his passport on the airplane.

The court heard Nakhutsrishvili, who has no previous convictions, had been working on a building site and earning 700 per week.

He was also prepared to offer 1,500 in compensation to his victim which Mr Kelly claimed was an insult.

Nakhutsrishvili told the court he was asked to leave Bray Manor following the incident and had stayed with an uncle before moving into rented accommodation in Malahide.

Mr McQuade explained that the insult directed at the accuseds mother was considered a particular slur in Georgian culture where the male was supposed to kill the person who had insulted his mother.

The barrister said Nakhutsrishvili blamed alcohol for the original fist fight which broke out on the beach but accepted he had later carried out an extreme reaction for which he expressed remorse.

The court heard the Georgian army veteran came to Ireland for economic reasons and had applied to remain in the jurisdiction on humanitarian grounds.

Judge Terence OSullivan described the accused as an economic migrant who had carried out a very serious offence during a prolonged incident in a residential area.

It could have resulted in significant harm, the judge observed.

He added: The cultural difference does not cut any ice with me.

Sentencing Nakhutsrishvili to two years in prison, Judge OSullivan suspended the final six months on condition that he leave the jurisdiction within six months on his release and not return to Ireland for a period of five years.
Kamran Waris, 32, attacked fellow chef Noman Shiakh causing him harm at The Spicy Grill in Ramelton.

A chef who beat up another chef in the kitchen of a restaurant in a row over who was a better cook has avoided going to jail after paying his victim 2,000.

Kamran Waris, 32, attacked fellow chef Noman Shiakh causing him harm at The Spicy Grill in Ramelton.

The pair fell out after Waris claimed his kitchen rival thought he was better than him and that he shouted a lot at him and taunted him.

Waris was an Indian chef while his victim was a fast food chef and both worked in separate parts of the kitchen.

Letterkenny Circuit Court heard that on February 13, 2021, matters came to a head between the pair.

Spicy Grill in Ramelton

CCTV footage of the bizarre attack showed Waris having a heated debate with his fellow chef Noman Shiakh as they both prepared food.

As the debate got more animated, the row turned to pushing and shoving before the accused man reached for a pair of silver tongs and used it to strike his victim a number of times.

The victim can then be seen holding his head as blood flows from his wound onto the floor of the kitchen.

Garda Mark OSullivan gave the background to the case saying both men were from Pakistan and spoke the same language but were from different cultures.

On the night of the incident Gardai received a report to say there had been an incident at the Spicy Grill and when they arrived they found an injured man standing outside the premises.

Mr Shiakh was bleeding from his head and there was blood on his face and he claimed that his colleague, Kamran Waris, had struck him in the head with an object.

Waris was spoken to and Gardai noticed he had minor cuts and also had bruising and redness on his right hand.

The victim said the impression he got from Waris, with an address at Cannon View, Carnamuggagh Upper, Letterkenny, was that he thought he was better than him and that he shouted a lot at him and taunted him.

On the night in question a row had allegedly started about the pressing of a bell in the kitchen to get the attention of their boss.

CCTV footage of the incident clearly showed the incident including efforts by the manager of the restaurant to come between the men before Waris reaches for the food tongs and strikes his workmate a number of times.

Mr Shiakh was taken to hospital for treatment where he received three staples to his head, was given painkillers and also a tetanus injection.

When interviewed by Gardai on February 21st, Waris claimed the other chef was getting physically aggressive with him and that his tone was loud.

He claimed he pushed him and that he tried to punch him as he held him and that he fell against a fryer and burned his hand on some oil before picking up the tongs.

Letterkenny Circuit Court. Photo: North West News Pix

In his victim impact statement, the injured chef said the incident affected himself and his family and that he had suffered psychologically from it as well as encountering a lot of stress.

He added that he had lost his job as a result of the incident, his life had changed in the past three years and that many people in his own community had given him a hard time.

Barrister for Waris, Mr Sean McGee, BL, said his client had no previous convictions and had not come to Garda attention since the incident.

He said the court had heard that there were arguments in the kitchen over the division of labour but a Probation Report had outlined that his client was of a low risk of reoffending.

He had no addiction issues, had a good work record and was in a stable relationship with his wife and that the couple had not any children yet.

He said he had found work with a security company but his wife, who is a trained psychiatric consultant, could not work because she suffered from a Covid-related illness and required a lot of treatment including some which cost more than 12,000.

He had two references in the court both from his current employer and a former employer at the Village Tavern in Kerrykeel.

Mr Magee said Waris has been in Ireland since 2015 and had never been in trouble before.

The incident happened in a highly-pressured work environment and was not premeditated but also accepted that this did not excuse his behaviour on the night.

He added that his client, due to his wifes illness and not being able to work, had had great difficulty getting compensation together but could get 500 as a token gesture.

He also added that there could also be a civil recourse in the matter.

Waris also took to the witness box and personally apologised to his victim saying I dont have anything personal with him. Im really sorry for your suffering and it should not have happened. I am just asking to say sorry for what I have done, whatever I have done I should not have done.

Passing sentence in January last, Judge John Aylmer said that this was a serious assault with a weapon and while there was an argument going on, it did not amount to self-defence.

He added that it was fortunate Mr Shiakh did not suffer more serious injuries after the large kitchen tongs had left the victim with a nasty cut on the head.

He placed the offence at the lower end of the scale of such offences but it was on the borderline given the use of the weapon and the blow to the head and one which merited a sentence of 18 months in prison.

However, in mitigation, the accused has no previous convictions, was a hard-working man and was clearly remorseful for what he had done.

This was clearly out of character for him adding it was an aberration after he simply lost his temper in what should have been an ordinary row between employees.

After mitigation he reduced the sentence to one of 12 months before asking Gardai to check if the victim was open to an offer of compensation to which he was informed he was.

Judge Aylmer added that he still considered the offer as insufficient and ordered Waris to pay his victim a further 1,500, a total of 2,000 compensation.

He said that if this was done he would not impose a custodial sentence and adjourned for one year.

The accused returned to court this week after his solicitor, Mr Frank Dorrian, said that he had managed to raise the balance of the compensation, 1,500, and this was handed into court.

Judge Aylmer said he was satisfied the terms of his order had been met and the accused was allowed to walk free.
Mohamed Mohamud Mohamed (26) asked the woman why she was screaming during the attack, telling her I am saying please

A man has been jailed for his predatory actions in following a woman to the isolated toilets of a bar at closing time and attempting to rape her.

Mohamed Mohamud Mohamed (26) asked the woman why she was screaming during the attack, telling her I am saying please.

The court heard the woman screamed so much during the ninety-second attack that she lost the ability to scream or use the high-pitched register of her voice for months afterward.

Women should not feel unsafe completing simple tasks.. such as going to the toilet, she said in her victim impact statement. The feeling of fear never goes away, she said.

Mohamed, with a former address on Townsend Street, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to attempted rape and sexual assault at a Dublin city centre bar on November 12, 2022.

Mohamed, who has been in custody since January 2023, has no known previous convictions.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he was satisfied that Mohamed deliberately targeted the woman and followed her to the toilet, where his intention was clearly to rape and sexually assault her.

He said she had endured a terrifying experience at the hands of a stranger who had followed her to the isolated and empty bathroom. He said the consequences for the woman had been devasting both emotionally and socially. She had lost her sense of security and safety in doing ordinary things.

Terror accompanies her in ordinary everyday life, he noted. He said she had shown a high degree of courage and considerable strength of character.

The judge commended the gardai for their clever investigative work in tracking down Mohamed from till receipts. He said little was known about Mohamed, and what was known was unverifiable.

He set a headline sentence of seven years for the attempted rape and four years for the sexual assault. He took into account the mitigating factors including his guilty plea and work history.

Mr Justice McDermot noted that Mohamed seemed to be an isolated person and that he would be serving his sentence as a foreign nation in an Irish prison.

He imposed concurrent sentences totalling five years and six months.

The judge said given the predatory nature of Mohameds actions, he would impose four years post-release supervision to ensure his offending was addressed and to protect the public.

An investigating garda told Cathleen Noctor SC, prosecuting, that the young woman asked to use the toilets in the bar at closing time and was told where they were.

She went into a cubicle and found the door could not be locked, so she put her phone down on the toilet roll holder and attempted to hold the door closed with her feet. She became aware someone was trying to get in and thinking it was another female, told the person it was occupied.

She then realised it was a man and demanded to know what he was doing. Mohamed entered the cubicle and closed the door behind him, as the woman attempted to pull up her pants. He put his pint glass down on top of her phone.

Mohamed grabbed her by the wrist and appeared to be masturbating, he then attempted to rape her.

He asked her why she was screaming, telling her I am saying please. He also told her Please, please, I need this.

The woman continued to try and push him away and contemplated smashing the glass at him but feared she might be seen to be in the wrong if he was bleeding.

He blocked the door with his shoulder as she tried to get out, but she managed to get her phone. He inserted his fingers in her vagina.

The woman finally managed to push him away and pull up her trousers. She ran from the toilet and alerted security but the offender had escaped.

Gardai were alerted and tracked the attackers movements via CCTV. Gardai were able to see him pay for drinks and used information from his mode of payment on the till receipts to track his banking details and ultimately his address.

The woman was taken to a sexual assault treatment unit on the night of the attack, and semen was found on her trousers. A DNA match was found between the semen and a sample taken from Mohamed.

Mohamed was interviewed by gardai and said there had been consensual touching and his semen was present because he masturbated in front of her.

The court heard Mohamed claimed to be from Somalia, which he had fled in 2017. He was in direct provision in Italy before being refused asylum in Germany, Italy and France. He travelled to Holland, where he got a false Swedish passport, which he destroyed while travelling to Ireland.

He applied for asylum in Ireland on his arrival in February 2022 and was placed in hotel accommodation in Dublin, where he lived until his arrest. His asylum application has not been decided.

In her victim impact statement, the woman outlined how the offence has impacted her life.

She said she had attempted suicide, thinking she could not live without nightmares or fear. Her mental health was affected but she did not get help for a year as she refused to think about it.

She described how she had to turn down a job offer as she was unable to focus or work with a team full of men. She said the fear of something similar happening was unbearable.

She said she had been unable to feel happiness and spent a really long time at her lowest.

John Peart SC, defending, said his client had said he had not been used to drinking so much and this was an explanation, not an excuse. He said he has been instructed to indicate his clients apology and remorse for his actions.

He asked the court to take Mohameds guilty plea at the first opportunity into account and give him the benefit of it being a first offence.

Mr Peart said Mohamed would be serving his sentence as a foreign national in an Irish prison and asked the court to be as lenient as possible.
Paul Farren, 34, launched an attack on Castle Street which resulted in the other man briefly blacking out, it was claimed

A man who throttled a passer-by for intervening as his partner was having a seizure in Belfast city centre has been jailed for five months.

Paul Farren, 34, launched an attack on Castle Street which resulted in the other man briefly blacking out, it was claimed.

Farren, of John Street in Derry, pleaded guilty to common assault and non-fatal strangulation.

Belfast Magistrates Court heard he lashed out while giving medical assistance to a woman he knows on February 23 this year.

The victim was hit, grabbed by the throat and briefly lost consciousness.

Defence barrister Michael Boyd described Farren as a street drinker who had made a rare foray into Belfast.

The lady having a seizure on the ground is his partner and he was trying to help her, counsel said.

This other individual got involved and a fight broke out between them where the defendant claims he was called all sorts of names.

Mr Boyd added: (The defendant) struck out at him and grabbed him by the throat.

Under current magistrates laws, the maximum penalty in non-fatal strangulation cases is two years imprisonment.

But noting that it was not a domestic situation, District Judge George Conner ordered Farren to serve five months in custody.
A woman who admitted making a false rape allegation against a man has been given a chance to take part in a restorative justice programme.

Ann Marie Keenan (37), who repeatedly stuck to her untrue story in garda statements, had her case further adjourned after a court heard the man did not wish to make a victim-impact statement. Judge Monika Leech remanded Keenan on continuing bail when she appeared in Dublin District Court.

Keenan, from Kildonan Avenue, Finglas, pleaded guilty to making false statements tending to show rape offences had taken place.

The statements were made at Fitzgibbon Street garda station on August 13, 2022, and January 4 and February 14 last year.

The accused entered her plea last November and the case came back before the court for a victim-impact statement and finalisation.

Garda Sergeant Michelle Lynch told Judge Leech the victim did not wish to make a statement.

The court had heard the accused had psychiatric issues. A report had been prepared on her and was read by the judge.

The defence solicitor said the report was excellent and helpful.

Judge Leech said she felt restorative justice was the most appropriate and best avenue to explore.

I dont think the injured party will participate, I think hes happy for it to be over and done with, he just wants it finalised, Sgt Lynch said.

The judge said restorative justice was a collaborative process and the victim could participate, but there was no obligation on him to do so and it should be explained to him what the court was doing.

She said she would defer hearing the facts of the case until the next day and remanded the accused on continuing bail to a date in July.

At a jurisdiction hearing last year, the court was told Keenan alleged to gardai she was the victim of an assault at a location in Dublin, leading to an investigation being launched.

When inconsistencies were discovered and put to her, she maintained her allegations.
Mr English was giving evidence for the defence in Mr Burkes defamation case over an article published weeks after he was first imprisoned in 2022.

Teacher Enoch Burke, with his mother Martina Burke (left) and his sister Ammi Burke leaving the High Court in Dublin. Photo: PA

The editor of the Sunday Independent has said an allegedly defamatory article about jailed schoolteacher Enoch Burke raised no red flags before it was published, and came from a previously reliable source.

Alan English told the High Court it was accepted that mistakes were made in the report that stated Mr Burke had to be moved within Mountjoy prison for his own safety because he was annoying other inmates.

He said the publishers had put our hands up and apologised for the inaccuracy, but profoundly disagreed that the story was a gross defamation.

Mr English was giving evidence for the defence in Mr Burkes defamation case over an article published weeks after he was first imprisoned in 2022.

Mr Burke was sent to Mountjoy jail that September over his refusal to stay away from Wilsons Hospital School in Co Westmeath, which had suspended and later dismissed him for what he says was standing up for his religious beliefs on transgenderism.

He has now been in prison for more than 340 days after being jailed for a second time for contempt by returning to the school in defiance of court orders.

Mr Burke claims a Sunday Independent article of October 9, 2022, was utterly false and he had been held up to ridicule.

The publisher, Mediahuis Ireland, denies Mr Burke was defamed, pleading fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest.

In evidence today, Mr English said the subject of gender identity had become a hot potato at the time and was of great public interest, as was Mr Burkes refusal to comply with the court order.

I would say he was one of the most talked about people in the country, he said, and like any other newspaper we found the story to be compelling".

Mr English was first made aware at a Thursday news conference that journalist Ali Bracken had a potential story about how Mr Burke was getting on in prison.

It was absolutely of news interest and public interest, he said.

Going through the editorial steps, he said the legal department was on hand for pre-publication advice and everything was scrutinised carefully, while he was responsible for final sign-off.

I read the piece and nothing presented itself. Ali Bracken is a reporter of long-standing, a reporter of the utmost integrity", he said.

Nobody raised any red flags about it and it was published in the normal fashion."

He got emails of complaint the following day from Mr Burkes parents and replied that the matter would be investigated, but made it clear it was not our view that the article was defamatory.

When he was told that Wednesday that Enoch Burke had taken steps to injunct Mediahuis, it was decided to take the article down from the independent.ie website pending the result of the investigation.

When the story was checked, it became clear there were a couple of minor mistakes where it stated Mr Burke had been moved from the prisons general population to a progression unit. It was also stated Mr Burke was annoying other prisoners through his expression of his religious beliefs.

The Irish Prison Service gave a statement that Mr Burke had been moved for operational reasons and the publishers included this in their apology, published on January 1, 2023.

We accepted that mistakes had been made in the article, we were quite happy to apologise, Mt English said.

However, the Burkes were seeking an apology accepting gross defamation and we were profoundly in disagreement with that, he said.

In cross-examination, Mr English accepted that the headline, stating Burke moved to new jail cell as he is annoying other prisoners was inaccurate.

Mr Burke asked if Mr English accepted that he was not annoying other prisoners.

I cant say if its false because I cant say for sure if you were annoying other prisoners, Mr English said, but he accepted the prison service statement about the reason Mr Burke was moved.

He accepted that it was inaccurate that Mr Burke was moved for his own safety, insofar as we are aware. Mr Burke asked if he accepted a reference to him repeatedly expressing his outspoken views and beliefs to his fellow prisoners was false.

I have no evidence that its true, Mr English said.

He said Ms Brackens source was previously reliable and authoritative but in this instance the source had clearly made a couple of errors.

He said mistakes are sometimes made in news media and its in the nature of what we do.

Earlier, Mr Burkes mother Martina gave evidence that she was horrified and humiliated to read the article.

However, she said she had not been distressed when he was sent to prison because he was standing for his religious beliefs.

The case continues before Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy.
Kevin Murphy (41) told gardai he was shocked when three black bags containing just under 15 kilos of cannabis were delivered to him.

A Dublin man who accepted a delivery of almost 300,000 worth of cannabis told gardai he had been expecting a much smaller package.

Kevin Murphy (41), of Allenton Drive in Tallaght, told gardai he was shocked when three black bags containing just under 15 kilos of cannabis were delivered to him in a BMW jeep last year.

He pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs for sale or supply at an address in Mountain Park, Tallaght on February 20, 2023.

Murphy was sentenced to four years in prison at a sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

The court heard that Murphy got a phone call a day earlier telling him a delivery would be made, but that he was expecting it to be a small package.

Gardai Brian Foran said Murphy had not been the target of a garda surveillance operation which had been set up on the day in question.

Gda Foran told Emer Ni Chuagain BL, prosecuting, that gardai saw another man retrieving three large black sacks from a white Ford Transit van and transferring them into a BMW jeep.

The jeep was then driven to Mountain Park, where Murphy was seen moving his own car out of the way to allow the jeep reverse into the driveway.

Men were seen moving two of the black sacks and putting them into a different vehicle used by Murphy, before gardai attended and found a third black sack on the ground.

In all there were 30 packages of vacuum-packed cannabis retrieved, with a street value of 298,760.

Murphy was arrested and made full admissions, apologising for his involvement.

He has seven previous convictions including three for assault.

Gda Foran agreed with Garnett Orange SC, defending, that another accused had been targeted as part of this intelligence-led operation.

Gda Foran also agreed that Murphy had become ill and had broken down during his interviews with gardai, speaking at length of tragedies that had befallen his family.

The court heard that one of Murphy's children had died, and that he had been first on the scene when another relative was found dead in tragic circumstances.

Mr Orange said his client had been beset by ill health and by addictions to cocaine, alcohol and gambling, but that he was now a different man who has made enormous strides in his recovery.

The court heard that Murphy had run up a drug debt and was susceptible to pressure being put upon him by people to whom he owed money.

He is utterly and abjectly remorseful for his behaviour, said Mr Orange, describing his client as a good family man.

A psychological report was submitted to court detailing extremely traumatic events in Murphy's life from childhood on, while several letters from his family praised his good character.

The court heard that Murphy is very active and well-regarded in his community and by his neighbours.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Murphy had been a mere transporter and holder of the drugs on the day and that he was not the owner of the cannabis.

Judge Nolan said Murphy's culpability was at the lower end and that there had been other, more important third parties involved in the operation.

Murphy was sentenced to four years in prison.
He said it was with some hesitation he was not going to send him to jail but instead ordered him to serve a two-year probation order and complete 100 hours of community service

A top young chef who repeatedly assaulted his partner put her through a horrible ordeal, according to a judge.

Matthew Cole narrowly avoided going to jail after admitting assaulting his then-partner five times on five separate occasions.

The 30-year-old has worked for some of the top restaurants in Belfast, including The Waterman, under the tutelage of celebrity chef Niall McKenna, though he no longer works there.

But the bullying thug found himself in hot water when his partner decided shed had enough of his behaviour and called the cops.

Ballymena Magistrates Court heard how his ex-partner had reported him to police last October to detail a catalogue of incidents and told them she was the victim of a violent domestic relationship.

On one occasion Cole, who appeared in the dock on Thursday dressed smartly in a shirt and tie, slapped her arm and pushed her fingers back causing her great pain.

Matthew Cole pleaded guilty to a number of charges

The court heard how between July and October last year Cole pleaded guilty to assaulting her on five occasions and also admitted a fourth charge of criminal damage when he threw a heavy-duty role of cling film at her wall, leaving a hole.

Other charges of criminal damage and assault were withdrawn by the PPS after Cole pleaded guilty to the rest.

District Judge Nigel Broderick told the court he had read Coles ex-partners victim impact statement which he described as very detailed but said it also detailed a number of incidents which werent part of the case against Cole.

References were handed to the judge, including one from Coles current employer, an unnamed business where he was working once again as a sous chef, having been working for a supermarket until recently.

His defence barrister told the court Cole acknowledged the seriousness of the charges and had had no contact with his ex and did not object to a two-year restraining order.

Judge Broderick asked his defence barrister if Cole had revised his attitude to a probation order, making the point the chef had been shifting responsibility with the general theme he wasnt wholly accepting of his need for rehabilitation.

The judge added: I dont want him wasting probations time and resources, I want him going in with his eyes open.

Telling Cole to stand up and addressing him directly, the judge said: Be under no illusion this court takes a very dim view of this type of behaviour.

He added: From reading the very detailed victim impact report it was clear the physical damage was far outweighed by the emotional trauma his ex suffered at his hands.

I have no doubt you put this lady through a horrible ordeal, he said, telling Cole that normally prison would be under serious consideration had it not been for his clear record and guilty plea.

He said it was with some hesitation he was not going to send him to jail but instead ordered him to serve a two-year probation order and complete 100 hours of community service which, should he fail to comply with, hed have no hesitation in revoking the order and bringing him back to court to be resentenced.

Speaking to the Sunday World, a former colleague of Coles said he wasnt surprised Cole had ended up in court as he had a shocking temper.

Matthew Cole has a shocking temper which he just couldnt hide, said a chef who had worked with him in a Belfast restaurant.

By the sounds of it he made this girls life a misery  shes done the right thing getting away from him so fair play to her.

He was always flying off the handle at the smallest of things. People used to give him a wide berth because of it.

The bad-tempered thug no longer works at The Waterman restaurant but he had also worked at other top restaurants including Hadskis and the Bar and Grill.

A source close to the case told the Sunday World Cole and his partner had been together for about a year when he moved into her house in Co Antrim.

Coles behaviour continued to get worse and there were a succession of minor assaults and damage caused to walls and doors from his quick temper.

Police arrested Cole on October 16, having already been out in August after his ex-partner reported a number of previous incidents.

She has been very brave and hopefully she will be able to put this behind her, said the source.

Hopefully others will read this and see you dont have to suffer abuse in any form. The police will take you seriously if you report it.
Jade Kenny (26) is accused of assaulting the woman, who was left with swelling to her eye, a court was told.

A young woman struck another woman in the face, injuring her without provocation in an attack at a city Dart station, it is alleged.

Jade Kenny (26) is accused of assaulting the woman, who was left with swelling to her eye, a court was told.

Judge Monika Leech adjourned the case at Dublin District Court, for a medical report on the alleged victims injury.

The judge said it would be unwise to decide on jurisdiction which will determine an ultimate court venue for the case until the report is available.

Ms Kenny, of no fixed address, is charged with assaulting a woman, causing her harm, at Grand Canal Dock Dart station on March 18 this year.

The DPP consented to the case being dealt with in the district court, subject to the judge considering the issue of jurisdiction. Judge Leech asked for an outline of the allegations.

A garda sergeant said an assault was reported on the day.

Gardai arrived and were told the accused had been making her way to the Dart station with friends.

The alleged victim was struck by Ms Kenny in the face without provocation, the sergeant said.

She suffered swelling to the left of her eye and sought medical attention.

The accused was at the scene and was abusive to gardai and the public, it was alleged. She was arrested and charged.

The court heard the alleged victim was still seeking medical attention for the injury and Judge Leech said she would not decide on jurisdiction until she saw a medical report.

She said if there had been any more developments in this, it would be unwise to decide on jurisdiction.

Ms Kenny has not yet entered a plea to the charge, which is under Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
The number of prisoners in custody is about to reach a staggering 5,000.

Prison officers fear there may be major disturbances in the countrys prisons this summer as tensions among inmates rise due to overcrowding.

Officers also say they are very concerned that drones may be used to get weapons into the hands of feuding prisoners.

Speaking at the Prison Officers Associations annual conference in Sligo, deputy general secretary Gabriel Keaveney said: Roll on to the present overcrowding and we know now we are facing into and are absolutely fearful of disturbances over the summer.

Details of the shocking number of prisoners housed within the system were outlined by POA president Tony Power.

Today, he said, the number of prisoners in custody is about to reach a staggering 5,000.

That is an incredible 25pc increase on the figure five years ago.

And needless to say, there has not been a commensurate increase in prison spaces to deal with this explosion in numbers.

Statistics released by the POA during the conference outlined the stark level of overcrowding and it effects prisoners as a result of a lack of prison spaces.

The Midlands Prison has 100 more prisoners than it has space for, Cloverhill Prison has 70, Cork Prison, the countrys newest, has 52 prisoners sleeping on the floor, while Mountjoy Prison with 845 prisoners has seen a 25pc rise in the last five years.

In one wing at Castlerea Prison, every single cell is doubled up with another ten inmates sleeping on the floor.

Mr Power described the levels of overcrowding as unsafe and unacceptable.

He said their attempts to highlight the issue have fallen on deaf ears.

Nothing happens, he said, adding that this is a disgrace.

The Irish Prison Service said this week it has no control over the numbers committed to custody as it must accept all prisoners committed by the courts.

It also said 200 prison spaces have come online already through new construction and modernising works, while plans are outlined for four capital projects at Castlerea, Cloverhill, the Midlands and Mountjoy that will create an additional 670 spaces.

A problem long associated with overcrowding in the prison system is increased levels of violence.

The POA says its members are already encountering this and need additional personal protection equipment.

Over the years we have sought appropriate levels of personal protective equipment for our staff, so that they could protect themselves and others in prisons, - but without success, Mr. Keaveney said.

If we could secure access to such items as incapacitant spray, concealed batons and conflict resolution dogs, we could take more decisive action and add to overall safety.

"This is clearly not just about the safety and welfare of staff. We often have very vulnerable prisoners seriously assaulted for no other reason than their vulnerability.

This is an issue which requires urgent and focused attention from prison management, or all involved could be facing the most serious consequences.
The searches were part of ongoing investigations into the distribution of controlled drugs and related crime in the Tallaght area.

Drugs seized during the operation in Tallaght

Two men have been arrested after garda seized a handgun and drugs worth 590,000 following a series of raids yesterday.

A garda spokesman said searches were part of ongoing investigations into the distribution of controlled drugs and related crime in the Tallaght area.

Gardai attached to the Serious Crime Unit at Tallaght Garda Station recovered cocaine worth 50,000 and arrested two men during the operation in the Maplewood area of Tallaght shortly after 10am yesterday morning.

In a follow-up operation, a home in Dublin 24 also was searched, leading to the discovery of further quantities of cocaine worth 420,000, crystal meth worth 120,000.

Gardai also discovered a firearm during the search.

A garda spokesman said the arrested men have been charged and will appear before a court later this month.

Drugs seized during the operation in Tallaght

"Both males were detained at a Garda Station in the Dublin Region under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

They have since been charged and released from Garda custody to appear before Tallaght District Court later this month.

The drugs seized are subject to analysis by FSI.

The operation was led by the Serious Crime Unit supported by uniformed Gardai and Community Policing Units based at Tallaght Station.

Investigations are ongoing. The seizures were made as part of Operation Tara; an enhanced national anti-drugs strategy, which was launched by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on 2nd July 2021.

Operation Tara aims to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels.
A number of the bags had been checked-in in the names of his children, who were travelling with him

Some of the cannabis that was seized

A Spanish national has been arrested after he was caught with eight suitcases packed with cannabis at Manchester Airport.

Fernando Jacobo Mayans Fuster (51) from Zaragoza in Spain, has been charged with drug smuggling offences by the National Crime Agency (NCA) following the airport bust.

After arriving at the airport on Wednesday, May 1,from Los Angeles in the US, via London Heathrow Border Force officers located 278 packages in eight separate bags.

A number of the bags had been checked-in in the names of his children, who were travelling with him.

In total more than 158 kilos of cannabis was recovered, which would have had a street value of around 1 million if sold in the UK.

After being interviewed by NCA investigators Mayans Fuster was charged with importing class B drugs.

He is expected to appear before Stockport magistrates later today, Friday, May 3.

NCA senior investigating officer Charles Lee said thus was is one of the biggest cannabis seizures seen at Manchester Airport in recent years.

The drugs would have generated significant profits, Lee said.

NCA officers are determined to work with our partners at Border Force to stop drug smuggling and disrupt the criminal networks behind it.
Research by Sky News also found anti-immigration hashtags such as #IrelandIsFull were predominantly used by commenters based in the US

A protest sign at the bottom of the small road which leads up to the Garda barrier near Trudder House in Newtownmountkennedy. Photo: Frank McGrath

Around 80pc of online posts relating to the protests at Newtownmountkennedy last week originated from social media users based outside Ireland, an analysis by Sky News has found.

Mentions of the town in Co Wicklow spiked on social media platform X on the day of the protest, peaking at 53,9078 mentions in the aftermath of the incident compared to just 75 the day before.

An analysis by Sky News showed the role played by international social media users, who were responsible for the most frequent use of the anti-immigration hashtags #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish and #IrelandIsFull at the time of the incident.

Posts shared between April 2 and May 1 were examined by using the monitoring tool Talkwalker, which highlighted the extensive reach discussions about Newtownmountkennedy had online.

A protest sign at the bottom of the small road which leads up to the Garda barrier near Trudder House in Newtownmountkennedy. Photo: Frank McGrath

More than half of the posts about the town were from users in the US, while posts from Irish users accounted for just 20pc. Almost 10pc of posts came from users based in the UK.

A further 3pc originated in Canada while 10pc were shared from a location marked as other.

Three of the top five accounts that generated the most engagement on posts using the term were based outside of Ireland.

Sky News found the hashtag #IrelandBelongsToTheIrish was used predominantly by American users, while less than 25pc of accounts who shared the hashtag were based in Ireland.

A similar pattern was identified for the hashtag #IrelandIsFull, when over half of posts were from users in the US and less than 30pc came from Irish accounts.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly described the report as a must-view as he shared it to X yesterday.

"The recent surge in far-right hatred and xenophobia were seeing in Ireland is being stoked from abroad, he said. Many decent Irish people being lied to, misled and ultimately manipulated from abroad.

It comes as a large number of arrests are expected in relation to the protests at a building in Newtownmountkennedy that has since been used to house 60 asylum-seekers.

Gardai came under attack from protesters throwing rocks and missiles on Wednesday night last week, while an axe was also recovered at the scene. Three garda cars were damaged and several broken windows and slashed tyres were reported during the incident.

The Garda public order unit was deployed and videos from the scene showed people attempting to gain entry to the grounds, which had been sealed off, as a large fire burned at the entrance of the property.

Several people are before the courts in relation to the violence.

The Irish Government is currently in a stand-off with its British counterparts after prime minister Rishi Sunak insisted the UK would not accept the return of asylum-seekers who have travelled to the Republic via the UK.

The Irish Government has claimed 80pc of migrants were now making their way here over the border with Northern Ireland, in part motivated by the UK plan to send irregular migrants to Rwanda.
High Court ruling means international applicants arriving from UK could be sent back to country of origin

A significant number of Nigerian asylum-seekers face being sent back to Nigeria due to the ongoing row with the UK, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has told a Cabinet sub-committee.

A senior government source said Ms McEntee told the meeting there has been an increase in the number of Nigerians coming to Ireland from the UK.

The minister said Nigerian international protection applicants now face being sent back to Nigeria, once their cases are heard by international protection officials, due to the recent High Court case which raised questions about returning asylum seekers to the UK.

Ms McEntees comments follow a diplomatic row over comments she made about at least 80pc of asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland from the UK across the Border.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said his government will not accept asylum seekers being returned from Ireland unless other parts of the EU accept returning migrants from his country.

The Minister told the meeting the fast processing times for safe countries has reduced the numbers of people coming to Ireland from those countries by 50pc.

Minister McEntee said Georgia was added to the safe countries list when it had the highest number of applicants. Its now not in the top ten.

The meeting also heard legislation the cabinet approved to close the legal loophole following the high court ruling the UK was not a safe country would be passed through the House by June.

A High Court case recently ruled in favour of asylum-seekers who wanted to be prevent being returned to the UK as the country was not safe due to the forthcoming policy of sending unsuccessful international applicants to Rwanda.

Minister McEntee is drafting legislation with Attorney General Rossa Fanning to ensure migrants can be returned to the UK under a post-Brexit deal agreed by both governments.

However, Mr Sunak has insisted his government is under no legal obligation to accept asylum seekers from Ireland even if they have status in the UK.

Ms McEntee told the Cabinet sub-committee that asylum seekers who are being processed through the fast-track system, which includes Nigerians even though it is not designated safe country, will be processed shortly and may be returned to their country origin, if their international protection application is rejected.

The Government recently decided to fast-track applications from countries with the majority of people arriving even if their home states are deemed unsafe. At present, the highest volume of asylum-seekers are from Nigeria.

The expedited process, which mostly deals with applicants from safe countries, means cases are decided on within three months and asylum-seekers are allowed stay or given deportation orders.

Asylum-seekers can appeal but the majority of decisions are upheld.

The Cabinet Sub Committee on Migration also decided extra resources will be made available to assist communities where asylum-seekers are being accommodated.

A senior official will also be appointed to the Department of Integration to coordinate the accommodation of migrants with communities. The Government is also working on a campaign to tackle disinformation.

The committee met after gardai and other state agencies moved to clear a migrant encampment from outside the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street in Dublin.

The Government is grappling with the immigration crisis which escalated in the last week following Ms McEntees comments about the Northern Ireland border.

On Wednesday, the Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting heard calls from James OConnor for the minister to address a meet and outline what she is doing to address the on going crisis.
Mr Johnson, who was prime minister for three years from 2019 to 2022, had been trying to cast his vote in the local elections in South Oxfordshire, according to Sky News.

Boris Johnson fell foul of legislation he introduced himself as UK prime minister  when he was reportedly turned away from a polling station after failing to take photographic identification.

Mr Johnson, who was prime minister for three years from 2019 to 2022, had been trying to cast his vote in the local elections in South Oxfordshire, according to Sky News.

But staff at the polling station had to turn the former Conservative Party leader away because he could not produce ID, Sky said.

Elections were taking place in 107 local authorities, with 2,636 seats up for grabs.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson did not deny he had failed to bring ID, saying only: Mr Johnson voted Conservative.

The Elections Act requiring photo ID was passed in 2022 and took effect last year.

Voters arriving at polling stations are now required to show a form of photo identification, such as a passport or driving licence.

Other forms of identification accepted include biometric residence permits, defence identity cards, and national identity cards issued by the European Union, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.

Under Mr Johnsons legislation, ministers argued the change was required to reduce electoral fraud.

Expectations among the governing Conservatives are low, but prime minister Rishi Sunak was hoping his party would retain at least one mayoralty.

Such an outcome could help stem calls for him to quit before the parliamentary election, which he says will likely take place in the second half of this year.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said his party needed to make gains in the elections.

We have to show that people have the confidence and the trust to vote for this changed Labour Party, he said.

The local polls will offer the last glimpse of voting patterns before the UK national election, which opinion polls say the Conservatives are set to lose.

A YouGov/Times voting intention poll put the Conservatives on just 18pc  their lowest level since 2019  against Labours 44pc.

Polling stations closed at 10pm last night and some of the results were due to trickle in overnight, with others being declared throughout today and into tomorrow and Sunday.

However, a clear picture of the results  and what they mean nationally for each party  will start to develop this afternoon, when around one-third of councils will have declared.
Passengers travelling on international flights from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new scanners.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown says it would create a more efficient and seamless travel experience for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement.

This would also reduce the risk of flight delays, he says.

New Computed Tomography (CT) scanning machines now being used at Auckland Airports international screening point will be rolled out to more passenger screening points across the country.

The machines will be rolled out at domestic airports across the country between now and December, reducing pressure on aviation security lines, Simeon says.

The CT scanners create high quality 3D images in real-time that allow aviation security officers to better assess the contents of bags. They have already been introduced in some other countries.

The volume of liquids, aerosols and gels, carried by travellers on an international flight still applies, and should be carried in individual containers of 100ml or less, with the total number of containers that are 100ml or less must not exceed one litre.

International travellers departing from Christchurch and Wellington Airports have been able to leave laptops and liquids in carry-on since December.

Auckland Airport is the departure point for the majority of New Zealands international flights with about 75 per cent of New Zealands international departures.

-NZ Herald
New Zealands female secondary school students are taking their place among New Zealands major civil infrastructure companies to try out different career opportunities as the industry looks to solve critical skills shortages.

Throughout May and June, female secondary school students from around the country will take part in industry experience days, onsite with companies in the civil infrastructure, electrical supply and water industries, and at some of the countrys major infrastructure projects, as part of Girls with Hi-Vis (GWHV).

While there, theyll get hands-on experience of the skills required by these employers and hear from women already working in these sectors.

GWHV is an annual event and a key initiative of infrastructure training provider, Connexis.

The events aim to connect female school students with employers keen to attract more women into key trade and technical jobs providing the vital services that keep New Zealand running.

This years GWHV is set to be the biggest yet, with aabout 900 students from 97 schools expected to attend 46 GWHV events around the country.

While onsite the students will don their hi-vis gear to turn their hand to key tasks such as installing a water meter, working in confined spaces and heights training in a real-life pipe simulation, driving diggers and trucks, climbing power poles, cable jointing, and checking out some of New Zealands largest infrastructure assets and projects like windfarms, hydro power stations, highway construction and water treatment plants.

Connexis Executive Director Kaarin Gaukrodger says as the countrys leading infrastructure training provider Connexis works hard to promote infrastructure careers as the industry competes with more well-known and traditional trades to attract newcomers.

These events are specifically targeted to women as employers seek to increase diversity in their workforce to address critical skills shortages around the country.

It is still far too rare that these types of roles are presented as really viable career options to young women. We find when they do learn more about the scale of infrastructure industries and the vast range of careers available, there is a huge level of interest from students getting ready to leave school.

This year Connexis has also partnered with other training providers to extend the types of trades and industries available to experience through GWHV.

EarnLearn, provider of specialist trades training in areas such as electrical, plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying (PGD), and scaffolding; and BCITO, training provider to the building and construction sectors are also participating in GWHV events in 2024.

There are a lot of different trades out there that recognise the potential in young women to help them address skills shortages, but also to address the need for greater diversity in different industries that are typically male-dominated, Gaukrodger says.

Women can approach work differently, see things differently, and communicate differently which can add huge value when it comes to building effective and successful work crews and innovative project teams.

Beyond that, building a skilled workforce across all these sectors is vital to keeping New Zealand running, from keeping the power on and building new assets, to connecting the country via roads and telecommunications.
My feelings are all over the place! Poor Jessie.

Pauline McCowan, the Western Bay Museum volunteer whose research set SunLive on the trail of Jessie  the uninym, the enigma, the love interest, in the World War II battlefront diary of Katikati soldier Lieutenant Russell Freeland Walford.

The 29-year-old was killed in the Italian campaign in December 1943.

He left behind his 1940 diary with dozens of heartfelt references to the mysterious Jessie.

When SunLive published the story of the soldiers little red leather diary, Jessie was just a Christian name. No-one knew who she was.

But the mystery has been solved. We can give Jessie a surname, a face and a backstory.

Yes, my Aunt Jessie, confirms Russell Clague when SunLive made a guesswork call to Russells Whitianga phone number last week. Aunt Jessie was Jessie Alice Clague.

As a wee fella Russell would holiday with Aunt Jessie in Blockhouse Bay, Auckland. She was really nice, loved her.

And so, when Lieutenant Russell Walford fondly entered: ..wrote to Jessie between air raids in his little red leather bound diary on Sunday May 12, 1940, he was referring to Jessie Alice Clague, formerly of Katikati, then nursing sister at Auckland Public Hospital.

Jessies first love  Lieutenant Russell Walford, killed 1943 in the Italian campaign. Photo: supplied.

A lead

A curious reader, unrelated to SunLives Whos Jessie? story last edition, provided a lead when he uncovered a 1941 newspaper notice.

The engagement is announced between Sergeant Russell F.Walford .and Jessie Alice, only daughter of Mr and Mrs J.T.Clague, Katikati.

Its understood Walford returned home during the war to train soldiers to drive tanks. Perhaps thats when he proposed? Even then, the couple was cheated of a date at the altar. Walford was killed in 1943 during the Italian campaign.

Bloody war! says Pauline, who transcribed 365 days of entries in the little red diary that now sit safely in the Western Bay Museum.

A wedding

But out of loss and grief came love and marriage. It was 1948.

A wedding took place recently at St Peters Church, Katikati, when Jessie Alice, only daughter of Mr and Mrs J.T.Clague was married to John, younger son of Mrs G.Gardner of Auckland. It was a very pretty wedding. The bride wore a low waisted gown of white faconne with a high neckline and fitting bodice.

Well, I hope it was a long and happy marriage, says Pauline. It was hope fulfilled.

Jessie and John were married for 54 years and had five children, the only daughter being Debbie who lives in Auckland. She was wonderful  always there for us.

So the great nurse was a great Mum. She had a wonderful sense of knowing when you were sick and how to look after you without being in your face.

The invitation to Jessie Alice Clague and John Gardners wedding. Photo: supplied.

Debbie lost her Mum in 2009, just short of her ninetieth birthday. Even now when I am sick, I think: Where are you Mum? The nurse is gone, but shes still called upon 15 years later.

Another nearly lost

And WWII, which had claimed one love of Jessies just about claimed another. Because John Gardner, service number 33411, of the Second Expeditionary Force, became Prisoner of War serial number 7525 after his capture in Greece. He spent the war in Stalag XVIII-A  a WW II German Army Wehrmacht POW camp  in Austria.

Gardner survived bullets and bombs, the ravages of a POW camp and typhus, but came home with tuberculosis  white death.

It hospitalised him for a year and nephew Russell remembers the soldier being pretty crook. They flattened a lung  artificial pneumothorax, the first positive treatment for TB.

That, and light, and love, and hope worked for the soldier. Because one evening in 1947 Jessie Clague stepped out from the Auckland Hospital nurses home on a blind date.

Waiting for her was John Gardner in a rather sharp jacket. Everything clicked for soldier and nurse. They would marry, raise a family and grow hot house tomatoes in Blockhouse Bay.

Jessie finds happiness  marrying John Gardner in Katikati in 1948. Photo: supplied.

Mum wasnt academic but very practical, says Debbie. And she was a bit more serious. Dad, or John, on the other hand, was a bit of a hard case.

Reasonably good-looking, dark hairand a big nose. Debbie chuckles. And he played the mouth organ. The all-round Dad who adored his Jessie. Yes, a good man, a good father and a good husband. And despite the war, and TB, he would live to 86.

A beautiful outcome

Jessie would talk of Russell Walford. Not often, and not much, but he wasnt a secret. She told us they were engaged, recalls Debbie.

And when told that museum researcher Pauline McCowan held Walford up as a really decent bloke after reading his diary, Debbie could absolutely believe it.

I cant imagine Mum being engaged to someone who wasnt. And after losing one good man, shed been blessed with another.

That is a beautiful outcome, says Pauline. Now Debbie wants to read the little red diary  to learn more of the man who loved her Mum. Pauline will make that happen.
A Rotorua mother and her young daughter with cancer returned from hospital to find they had been burgled, with thieves taking laptops, phones, gaming equipment and medicine.

Tina Maria Grey says she and her 12-year-old daughter Autumn Tangohau - who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2022 - have been in Aucklands Starship hospital for Autumns cancer treatment since Sunday.

When they returned to Rotorua about 4pm on Tuesday, Tina noticed their Glenholme home was a mess and Autumns medicine cupboard emptied.

They went through every room, Tina tells the Rotorua Daily Post.

She says she wants to actually feel safe in our own home again.

My main thing is I just want my daughters stuff back.

Bathroom window forced open

Tina says the first thing she noticed was her clothesline chair had been moved.

When I opened the door, the house was just a mess.

All the drawers were open ... her [Autumns] medical cupboard was emptied.

I went into my daughters room and noticed that they threw everything around the room to try and find everything for her Nintendo Switch.

She says Autumns school and personal laptops, gaming headset and Nintendo Switch were taken.

Tinas laptop, two spare mobile phones, and her security cameras were also taken.

She says it appears the bathroom window had been forced open.

Family looking to move somewhere safe

Tin says she and Autumn had lived in their home for more than a year and have never had any issues.

However, after the burglary, she says Autumn doens't feel safe at home.

She couldnt sleep til about 3am [yesterday] morning. Every little move [or] sound outside, shell flinch.

Were looking at relocating somewhere safe because no one wants to come home to that ... no one should have done that.

Tin says she's not coping well.

Its just a challenge ... [its] enough to try and keep my daughter healthy and alive, really, and thats a stress in itself and just coming home to your house being vandalised and just personal space being tampered with and just being robbed.

I dont think Ill ever get over this ... were already vulnerable.

Tina has reported the incident to police.

A spokesman says police are making inquiries into the burglary and forensics has been taken at the scene.

Police are appealing for any information that could assist with inquiries. Please contact the police by calling 105 or visiting the 105 police website, and referencing file number 240430/1469.

The family has set up a Givealittle page.

-Rotorua Daily Post.
A lane of State Highway 2 is blocked after a crash in Papamoa.

There has been a two vehicle crash on SH2 near Bruce Road [Papamoa] at 5:14pm, says a police spokesperson.

"There are no injuries.

"One lane is blocked."

At the scene?

Phone 0800SUNLIVE or email newsroom@thesun.co.nz
A further two people have been arrested today in relation to an aggravated burglary at a Michael Hill jewellery store in Whakatane yesterday afternoon, says Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander inspector Nicky Cooney.

"Four people fled the scene in a vehicle yesterday following the burglary.

"Police spiked the vehicle they were travelling in, which stopped on Stanley Road following a pursuit.

"Two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested at the scene, while the two other men in the vehicle, aged 21 and 22, fled on foot into steep bush

"Because of the dangerous topography and concerns for their safety, a large-scale search was launched, involving Police staff, a dog unit and Search and Rescue teams.

"With daylight running out, the Police Eagle helicopter was tasked from Auckland.

"The helicopter was equipped with a forward looking infrared camera, night vision equipment, and a spotlight.

"Despite the significant search effort, the pair werent located.

"That changed, at 7:54am today, when a person called Police to report two men walking through a paddock off State Highway 2 in Taneatua.

"As Police arrived, the men again fled on foot into bush.

"Despite them crossing a river, a Police dog unit tracked their scent and led officers to where the men were hiding.

"One of the men was treated at the scene for a dog bite.

"Police have since charged all four men with aggravated burglary.

"They appeared in the Whakatane District Court this morning and were remanded in custody to reappear on Wednesday 22 May.

"The public have played a significant role in this successful result, and we want to extend our appreciation to members of the community for their assistance and the information they provided.

"The community has played a key part in helping us resolve this so quickly.

"The staff at Michael Hill also deserve a huge amount of praise for their response to such a traumatic event.

"We understand the effect this will have on them, and they are being offered support.

"Coincidentally, it was only days ago our Prevention Manager and Area Investigations Manager visited each jewellery store in Whakatane to understand what plans they had in place for incidents like this.

"Those conversations included discussing staff safety, exit plans, and the process of calling Police if their store was a subject of an attack.

"We also outlined our response to these retailers to help them understand the process in those situations.

"The response planning by both Police and retailers worked really well and that result was shown yesterday, despite no-one expecting to action those plans so soon.

"I am also proud of the efforts of our Police staff, who swiftly detained two suspects, and embarked on a search for two more people in hazardous bushland.

"We understand this was an unsettling and distressing incident, but this incident shows the lengths we will go to protect our community.

"We would still like to hear from anybody who witnessed the incident or may have video footage from the incident.

"If you can assist, please 105, or make an online at 105.police.govt.nz, using Update Report.

"Please reference the file number 240502/9091.

"As this case is before the courts, Police are unable to comment further."
Jose Antonio Guerrero Alpujarra de la Sierra Friday, 3 May 2024, 05:10 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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About a year and a half ago, Jose Antonio Gomez, mayor of Alpujarra de la Sierra, on the southern side of the Sierra Nevada in Andalucia's Granada province, came up with the idea of transforming the only disused telephone box left in the village into a kind of mini public library where locals could leave one book and pick up another, with the idea of encouraging reading and the exchange of novels, short stories and poems.

A retired rural doctor, 67-year-old Jose Antonio's recipe for bringing culture to his former patients has worked "very well". Given the success of the initiative, he wants to ask Telefonica for a dozen more old kiosks and extend the project to other places in the municipality which is home to 900 inhabitants spread over Mecina Bombaron, Yegen, El Golco, and Montenegro, where just six people live.

Of the 42,000 phone booths counted in Spain in 1990, only three ended up in Alpujarra de la Sierra, of which just one has survived; the current one in the town hall square of Mecina Bombaron, now reconverted into a literary space with shelves and around 30 books.

"As nobody told us to take it away, we started to use it as a literary exchange point. You can see that they have spared its life", joked the mayor, who emphasised how well cared for the small glass enclosure is and how respectful the residents are with the books they borrow.

"They are in perfect condition. There is a very nice movement around the books and they are being encouraged to read more", said the mayor, who points out that the works of the Granada writer and poet Federico Garcia Lorca are proving to be the most popular.

The best medicine

Before working as a doctor for four decades - the last 27 years in the Alpujarra villages - Gomez worked as a typographer, a trade in which he cultivated his love of literature; a medicine he has prescribed all his life, including the five terms he has been mayor of Alpujarra de la Sierra, perched at an altitude of 1,200 metres and surrounded by fresh water running through springs, irrigation channels, fountains and old washing places. "Books, culture and nature are not a bad combination," said the mayor, who wants Alpujarra de la Sierra to be known as 'El Pueblo Libro' (the book town).

Zoom A child reads a book after picking it up from the kiosk. Jose Antonio Gomez

There is no shortage of literary inspiration in the area: a very young Gerald Brenan lived in Yegen around a century ago from where he wrote about the traditions of the Alpujarra in his book South of Granada. His illustrious friends from the Bloomsbury circle, Virginia Woolf, Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachey and the philosopher Bertrand Russell all came to visit him there.

In fact, the inn to which Brenan moved on his arrival in Yegen in 1920 has been preserved in its original state. "We have it as Brenan space and it would be a good place to put another cabin," says Gomez.

In addition, the municipal library has received a donation of eight thousand books from the widow of Pio Navarro, grandson of Niceto Alcala Zamora, author of an anthropological study of Mecina Bombaron (very much in the humanist vein of Al Sur de Granada) which led him to spend several months in the village and become fond of its people.

On that basis, the mayor wants to set up a reading club and continue to take steps to ensure that the residents of the Alpujarra de la Sierra continue this great literary tradition.
Jose E. Cabrero Granada Friday, 3 May 2024, 07:59 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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Alba Sanchez is working late in the laboratory at the University of Leuven. She arrived back a week ago and is still recovering. "I am returning to reality, it has been a spectacular experience," says the biotechnologist from Granada.

"The landscapes we had were immense. It was crazy. Everything was so real, so immersive, that I came to believe in the journey. I thought I was on Mars," Alba says.

On 28 March a team of seven young researchers from around the world landed in the desert in Utah, USA. They were the new crew of the Mars UCLouvain mission, the most realistic simulation possible - without leaving Earth - of a space station on Mars.

"When we saw the facility we were shocked," recalls Alba. "It was bigger than we thought. It was mind-blowing." The complex includes laboratories, a greenhouse, an observatory and living quarters. All under strict living conditions as close as possible to those on the red planet. "As soon as we arrived we did a three-hour training session to learn what we had to do every day, how to communicate with the control centre in case of an emergency. After that, the isolation began."

Zoom

Alba and her team stayed at the station for thirteen days, during which time they had to complete several scientific experiments: analysis of meteorological parameters, terrain mapping, use of technologies, drone manoeuvres, particle studies, and so on. But to do all this, they had to go out into the inhospitable valleys of Mars. "I had very high expectations, but when I put on the suit, it surpassed all of them."

The schedule was the same every day. The alarm would go off at seven o'clock, then breakfast and the exploration shift. "We went out in groups of four, so we took turns. There was only one morning we couldn't go out because there was a big sandstorm and it was dangerous. The rest of it was incredible. The space suit, the harness, the belt, gloves, boots," Alba says, adding, "Everything was absolutely real, so that not a centimetre of the body was in contact with the air. We also had the radio system in the helmet, so we could communicate with each other."

Before stepping out onto the rocks of Mars they waited five minutes in a small decompression chamber. Once outside, the rover was waiting for them. "We'd get in the rover and go around the area. Then we would walk around a lot. During the exploration, I was amazed because even though I knew it was a simulation, I thought it was Mars: you couldn't see anything but the desert, the land, your companions.... You couldn't hear anything else. It was so real."

The trips lasted between two and three hours. "They were very tiring. On the way back to the station they would help us take off our suits. And there was always a special euphoria on the way home: you've done it! Good job!" exclaims Alba.

Freeze-dried food

Those who did not go out on mission were in charge of the kitchen, which was no easy task. "The freeze-dried food thing went surprisingly well. We had cubes of all kinds of products: carrots, potatoes, chicken, hamburger meat. We had to hydrate them in a pan of boiling water and then we could do something with them. Cooking was a real adventure, some of us even managed pizzas!"

After lunch the team spread out in the labs to work on their personal projects. In addition, they had to report to the control centre every day. "We each had a specific task within the station. I was in charge of communication, so I prepared a daily summary with photos and videos," explains Alba.

The evenings consisted of dinner, a group meeting and some activity together: "Card games, mime games... anything to make a team. We had a great time. We learned a lot".

- What was the big lesson?

-What I take away most from the experience is the realisation of how small I am. How big what we have around us is, that we are nothing, that we have to make the most of every moment and give our best. It has changed my life. I am in a moment of change, to be honest. Mars has had more impact than I thought it would have.

Now back in the lab, Alba knows what she wants to do after her PhD. "I'd love to follow this path and see if I can get there," she says, adding, "It was an unfulfilled dream and this has been so fulfilling that I want to give it a go. I'm going to apply to be an astronaut candidate for the European Space Agency.

Mars was just the beginning. The journey continues.
Regina Sotorrio Malaga. Friday, 3 May 2024, 13:49 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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Much of Maria Blanchard's story rests on assumptions, clues and even legend. It is not known why she moved away from cubism; it is said that she died poor but there is no evidence to confirm it; nor is her entire list of works known. There are losses, gaps and decades of neglect. "But there is her work," states Jose Lebrero, the exhibition curator, standing in a room of over 80 works of art. Museo Picasso Malaga does the Spanish painter justice with a tour of 20 years of her work, two decades during which Maria Blanchard became the "best cubist painter" in history, before developing her own artistic avant-garde style.

Maria Blanchard, Pintora a Pesar del Cubismo (Maria Blanchard, A Painter in Spite of Cubism) is open to visitors until 29 September 2024.

The exhibition reveals an exceptional artist who was treated "condescendingly" by the art world, when she was not ignored altogether. Her life was never easy. She was a woman creator in a world of men, the only woman cubist painter in Paris at the start of the 20th century.

She painted the feminine universe in a unique way, through costumbrist scenes of women who read and work

"She was not going to be a role model, or a muse, or a lover, or wife to a genius." But nor would she integrate into women's intellectual circles of the time, with people such as Gertrude Stein. She was, moreover, a sad and tormented woman, who since birth was trapped in a body misshapen by kyphoscoliosis, which caused a serious back deformity. And finally, she was an "expatriate" in the literal sense through her move to Paris, but also in the figurative, because her exit from cubism "does not conform with" the canon of dominant discourses.

The exhibition, sponsored by Fundacion Unicaja, is the fruit of research carried out by Jose Lebrero, symbolising his return as curator after 14 years at the helm of the museum, a position he left in December. The new director, Miguel Lopez-Remiro, publicly congratulated Lebrero for his "superb" exhibition.

Picasso regarded Blanchard as another member of his "fighting and heroic" group of artists

The show, which has almost 50 lenders, among them museums and private collections (some have banned photos being taken of their pieces), offers a renewed image of Blanchard with never-before-seen paintings. We must also remember that this is only the third retrospective dedicated to the enigmatic painter, the previous one having taken place twelve years ago in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Born in 1881 into a wealthy family from Santander, a young Blanchard moves to Madrid to take up her art studies. The opening of the exhibition reflects this stage of her life, featuring small academic portraits from the 20th century which illustrate classic themes such as Gypsy Woman (1905-06) or Woman from Brittany (1928-30). But a portrait that follows breaks with this tradition: Woman in a Red Dress (1913). This is no longer a real model; we are entering the world "of illusion, where the vision of a woman is being constructed". By now Blanchard has been to Paris (she arrived for the first time in 1909) and has experienced the aesthetic radicalness of Juan Gris, Diego Rivera, or Picasso himself, which is reflected in marked shapes and a non-realist use of colour.

Cubism

The next step happens naturally and occupies almost half of the room. It presents the "most canonised and recognised" Maria Blanchard, the cubist painter. And not in vain, as she is the first Spanish woman to adopt this geometric and fragmented style that represented absolute modernity.

At this exhibition, furthermore, her star painting from the Museo Reina Sofia, Cubist Composition (1916-1919), is on show, as well as Woman with a Fan (1913-15), a replica of the work that she brought to the controversial cubist exhibition in Madrid, Los Pintores Integros, organised by Ramon Gomez de la Serna in 1915.

Zoom Salvador Salas

After receiving fiercely harsh criticism, she left Spain for good, settling permanently in Paris. In her cubist phase she mainly painted still life, but also feminine figures with children that precede her later works depicting maternity.

Another piece that precedes Blanchard's definitive change is Girl at Her First Communion (1914), with a dramatic face whose makeup she does in a unique way. This work hints at her post-cubist phase and her return to figurative painting, but with a style and theme that is totally different to those of her contemporaries.

The exhibition highlights Blanchard's feminine universe, as she painted women reading and working in the home, as well as costumbrist scenes with other women, such as Two Sisters (1921).

There is the cook, the embroiderer, the washerwoman and the fortune teller, this last one painted a l'italienne or in the style of Spanish Baroque painting that reveals her profound art history knowledge.

And she captures women at lunch, at the dressing table, and in maternity, with several images of women breastfeeding, in an aesthetic that was hardly the norm at the time: not naturalist and with marked shadows.

This tour of the new Blanchard includes La Boulonnaise (1922-1923), the work that sparked a war between the Museo del Prado (which bought it) and the Museo Reina Sofia (which believed that, due to its historical period, it corresponded to its collection); and the pastel on paper, Girl at an Open Window (1924), usually kept at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, has been lent especially for this occasion. It has never been exhibited outside the UK, just like the works Lunch (1922) and Girl with a Bracelet (1922-1923), one of the many paintings that she did of children, though she herself was not a mother.

Her last years

Blanchard's last years saw much of her pessimism and pain. The faces of her portraits are blurred and her expressions reveal sadness, such as that in Women from Brittany (1928-1932). They are paintings that speak of a "painful" ending, on a physical level, with her body already in a poor state. Maria Blanchard died in Paris in April 1932 at the age of 51. It is said that she died poor, but there is no evidence of this. "What is definitely known is that she did not die rich; she had a modest life," Lebrero says.

The exhibition, which features works from almost 50 lenders, is the third retrospective dedicated to this enigmatic artist

Despite the difficulties she faced, Blanchard was considered by Picasso to be one of his own. They had a lot in common: both were born in 1881 in the suburbs and both left for Paris as young adults to experiment with the avant-garde. There was hardly any information documented about the relationship between the two, but during his research Lebrero found a revealing testimony: a letter that Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro wrote to his mother after "poor" Blanchard's funeral in 1932. In it he speaks of the sadness felt by all of his friends regarding her untimely death, including that of Picasso, saying: "How our group is dwindling, our first fighting and heroic group, how few of us are left."

Maria Blanchard, A Painter in Spite of Cubism follows in the footsteps of other exhibitions held in the Museo Picasso Malaga, which help to rewrite art, through the contributions of many women who have been silenced.

"It's not happening as a mere occurrence or to follow a trend," Lebrero clarifies, who encourages the new director to "continue this line of work".
Nuria Triguero Friday, 3 May 2024, 14:05 | Updated 14:13h. Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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Complex computer attacks on companies, massive cyber fraud affecting thousands of citizens, cases of 'sextortion', cyberstalking... The range of crimes faced by the team led by Andres Roman is very varied, although they always have a common denominator: they are committed in the digital space. Roman is chief inspector of the National Police and head of the cybercrime section of the Malaga provincial police station. With a degree in Computer Science and Criminology from the University of Malaga and Police Sciences from the University of Salamanca, he joined the National Police in 1999 and has developed his professional career in different positions of responsibility in Malaga and Cadiz. In this interview he explains the reasons behind the spectacular increase in cybercrime and, in particular, cyber scams targeting the general public.

-The latest crime report shows cybercrime as the fastest-growing type of crime: 52% by 2023, and 90% of these are computer-related scams. What's behind this alarming increase?

-The internet has many advantages for thieves. Cybercriminals can want two things from you: your wallet, in 90% of cases, or to harm you; but that is not a cybercriminal, it is someone who wants to harm you. And what do they take advantage of? The possibility of carrying out massive attacks and reaching a large number of victims. In the old days, the criminal had to get close to you. Now they don't, they just press a button.

And there are other advantages. One is anonymity. Anonymity on the internet is very easy: VPNs, proxies, servers abroad. The offender works from home, he no longer has to move. Another is the increased efficiency of making a profit thanks to cryptocurrencies. Never before has it been so easy to dispose of the proceeds of crime; you move them at the speed of light. In the old days there were tax havens; now there is a single digital haven based on crypto that allows for real-time availability.

All these ingredients make it easier to commit crimes on the internet, which has become the real haven for those who want to make money. Drugs are outdated; it's primitive: you have to grow it, transport it, distribute it.... On the internet, money is made at the click of a mouse. That's why organised crime is moving towards cybercrime. What happens is that it requires a certain qualification, a certain knowledge. But you don't need to be an expert either. And if you ask me what is making the difference, it is cybercrime as a service.

-Cybercrime as a service... Sounds like a respectable business.

-Until a while ago, to be a cybercriminal you needed to be computer literate. Now you don't. A minimum knowledge is enough because the weapons needed to attack are outsourced or rented. There are kids on Telegram channels who buy panels [programmes or applications created to carry out massive 'phishing' or 'smishing' attacks]. On the other hand, they buy a list of customer data that has been stolen from some entity and with this combination all they have to do is press a button to send 10,000 messages and wait to see who falls for the scam.

There is a whole industry dedicated to the theft and sale of data to banks, large companies... So I steal it, I put it at your disposal and you scam, because it is not profitable for me to scam, what is profitable for me is to sell it through anonymous channels. The dynamics of the cybercrime ecosystem, understood as a business, would be like this: we have the 'entrepreneur', who is the cybercriminal, and who does not necessarily have to be a specialist. He hires cybercrime 'suppliers' as a service; those services are the attacks. And then we have the 'customers', who are the victims. The 'check-out' is done through digital 'mules', immediate digital means of payment and cryptocurrencies for laundering. This is very dangerous because cybercrime has been democratised and it is now very easy to do it anonymously from home, if you know the procedures.

-And without violence.

-And without violence. And then there is supra-territoriality: multiple countries involved. Here's an example, a fake e-commerce site. The website is hosted in Singapore, but the cybercriminal uses a VPN from Croatia. And he has used an identity to receive the money through a fake offer on Infojobs. This offer was placed in the United States and the money was deposited in an exchange in Nigeria. This makes it more complicated to confront him.

- You have explained how the 'supply' side works, i.e. the cybercriminals. Continuing with the business analogy, for crimes to be committed there have to be 'customers', i.e. victims. Has our vulnerability also increased?

-The culprit of making cybercrime surge is not so much the criminal as the vulnerabilities we have in our 'digital body'. The bad guys do nothing more than tap into human passions that make us tremendously vulnerable.

Why would we hand over millions to a so-called cryptocurrency investment firm without even looking up references on the internet? Why would we open the doors of our privacy to someone we don't know in the form of sexual photographs? Why would we fall in love with a charlatan and give him 50,000? Would we do that in real life? No.

This [points to the screen] produces a cognitive disturbance. We become disconnected from the real world and a number of psychological processes are altered. We more easily believe what we are told; our perception of risk decreases. Because in the real world we perceive, but here we imagine. All this was catalysed and accelerated by the pandemic.

"Screens produce a cognitive disturbance. They disconnect us from the real world, we more easily believe what we are told and our perception of risk decreases"

"What moves us human beings? Sex, love, greed.... Through these passions we are stimulated... and we bite"

-So the screens widen the gaps through which criminals sneak in.

-Yes, indeed. In the end, the problem with cybercrime is not so much that there are criminals, but that they take advantage of our vulnerabilities. Infection of your 'digital body' is easier if you open your mucous membranes. What moves human beings? Sex, emotions, love, greed? Through these passions we are stimulated... and we bite. With greed, they lure you with the promise of easy gain. As our grandparents used to say, nobody will give you something for nothing, but sometimes we think they do.

Broker scams, for example. A few weeks ago I received a complaint about one of the most spectacular cases I have ever seen: 3,200,000 euros were swindled from a businessman from Malaga through a website that made him believe he had investments in Bitcoin. This is not mass fraud, it is more elaborate; there were also calls, which helped to create a link. The victim saw how his supposed income went up and, in addition, he was given part of the profits to feed his greed.

What is the background to this type of case? Simply promises and calls to gain the victim's trust and to feed that passion, which is legitimate, of greed. For sex, we arrive, for example, at sextortion. Every day we have cases of adults who fall into this kind of blackmail. And for love we come to romantic swindling, which is a great unknown. They are also more elaborate jobs because they have to maintain contact, but they are the most profitable, because the person who falls in love and is certain that he or she is helping another person pays huge amounts. In short: the problem is in the person; it is not in the offender. The offender is simply taking advantage of that weakness. Add to that the new digital magic tricks, such as spoofing, and you have the perfect cocktail to increase that vulnerability.

-What is spoofing?

-A set of techniques through which an attacker impersonates a different entity by falsifying the data in a communication. It can be applied to email, text messages or calls. In this way, we receive an email with the official domain of the tax agency or we receive a call identified on our phone as 'Univia'. It can be combined to be more effective: I send you an email that your mail server will probably identify as malicious and send to the spam folder, and at the same time I warn you with an SMS that I have sent you an email with important information so that you can rescue that email from the trash. If we add these digital sleight-of-hand techniques to all the ingredients that contribute to increasing vulnerability on the internet, it is the perfect cocktail to trick us.

-What are the main channels of entry for digital scams?

-There are four: email, text messages, calls and 'publiphishing'.

-How does 'publiphishing' work?

-In Malaga we coined this term, which has become the fourth way of digital infection. It is the technique by which criminals attack us through advertising or search engines. It is very effective. For example, I want to buy from Stradivarius, I search for it on Google and the first result that comes up is a fake website. That sponsored link lasts only a few hours; enough for someone in the global village to click on it and it is already profitable. The other side of the coin is social media advertising. This technique is being widely used to spread a scam that is growing enormously: that of fake jobs or fake job offers.

- How does that work?

-I contact you through 'publiphishing' or Telegram and offer you a very easy job that consists of giving 'likes' or leaving comments on a website. We have a case today where the victim starts to earn 3 euros, 5 euros, 10 euros .... They always have to pay money up front: for example, you pay 15 and they give you back 20. It's a sham: it's just a way to gain your trust. And there comes a time when they may offer to do more important jobs: they ask you to advance 1,000 euros in order to make 200 euros profit. In the end, they either keep those 1,000 euros, or they capture you as a digital mule, so that you are receiving money from crimes and you are bouncing it to other accounts in exchange for a commission. This case is very paradigmatic because the victim has been used to carry out 18 operations that in all likelihood come from other crimes, and has also lost 11,000 euros. So victims not only believe they are doing a job and end up being swindled, but they are also instrumentalised to become financial 'mules' for cybercrime.

-Can the victims of these frauds end up being accused of collaborating in these crimes?

-Indeed, they may end up in trouble because they are considered to be collaborating in the crime of money laundering. Until a few years ago, financial 'mules' were always innocent because they were not even aware of these movements, because it was easy to usurp identity and open bank accounts in someone's name. But in the last few years, banks have become more vigilant and the 'onboarding' process now requires video and other requirements. Even so, there are cases where it works, and if it doesn't, there are always the neobanks, the exchanges... Cybercriminals are always going to use levers that are not subject to economic control.

"The general rule to avoid being scammed is to reverse the initiative. Be wary of any SMS, call or email"

-Are there any tips or guidelines that we can apply in a general way to avoid falling into this increasingly sophisticated bait?

-Reverse the initiative. When you receive a warning of anything by SMS, phone call or email, be suspicious and be the one to call the company, the bank or wherever. This is the way to unravel the mess. With this rule alone, we would avoid many cases. For example, the man who was swindled out of more than three million could have Googled the company in which he was going to invest his money. There had already been references on the internet to it being a scam since autumn last year.

- The victim didn't even do a simple Google search? That's where cognitive bias comes in, isn't it?

-I call it the victim's certainty principle. In love scams, even if they come to the police station to report it, they still think that the person they have fallen in love with is real and that they have been cheated. Yes, these are cognitive biases.

-How is Malaga positioned in the investigation and prosecution of cybercrime?

-Malaga is a laboratory, a wonderful diagnostic centre for everything that is happening in cybercrime, because it is a big city and a lot of things happen here. Although we are not experts in cybersecurity, but in cybercrime, we have a knowledge of what is happening that is very much at the forefront, because we are in contact with citizens. I am talking, for example, about techniques such as spoofing: we were already aware of it when practically nobody knew about it.
The remains of the tower from which Torre del Mar gets its name.

Jennie Rhodes Torre del Mar Friday, 3 May 2024, 16:02 | Updated 19:41h. Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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Torre del Mar forms part of the municipality of Velez-Malaga and is one of eight coastal towns and villages that come under this local authority.

According to Velez-Malaga historian Francisco Montoro Fernandez, "Almost without a doubt the origin of the centre of Torre del Mar started during the Phoenician period." He argues that it is "logical" given the town's "natural port" and that the Phoenicians would have arrived via the sea.

Furthermore, there are a number of remains from this period in and around the town, for example Los Toscanos near to the Rio Velez.

The historian says that the first written reference to the town comes from the 11th century, from Abd Allah, the last Ziri king of Granada, and in the 12th century Al-Idrisi wrote, in Description of Spain, of his journey through Torre del Mar in which he refers to a "small fortress".

This small fortress dates back to the Islamic period when it was known as 'Torre Alcozaiba'. The name was changed to Torre del Mar, literally tower of the sea, in 1487 by the Catholic monarchs after they captured Velez-Malaga during the Reconquista.

Zoom How historians believe the castle looked originally. SUR

Montoro says that the word 'torre' indicates the important "military origin" of the town and that the castle "formed part of the defence system of the old Al-Andalus coastline".

Over the centuries it has served both as a strategic military fortress and a customs house, from where local products such as raisins, almonds and sweet wines would have been exported to northern Europe.

It also played a vital role in the Battle of Velez-Malaga during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704, shortly after Britain took Gibraltar.

What is left of the original castle can be seen on Plaza de la Axarquia. Although there are practically no remains of the castle, it is still possible to see the circular house located to the right of the square, which would have been one of the towers.
Ignacio Lillo Malaga Friday, 3 May 2024, 16:15 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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He's preparing his last gazpachuelo, a distinctly Malaga dish whose recipe is a key benchmark in many great kitchens. And he does it in what has been his home since 2015, the Balneario restaurant. In fact, after almost 70 years in the kitchen he could be praised for many things in his professional career, but the one that will surely go down in local restaurant history is for having been the architect pushing for the restoration and return to splendour of the Banos del Carmen spa, one of the most iconic places in the city centre.

Adolfo Jaime, the doyen of Malaga's restaurateurs, has retired. He hung up his jacket this week at the age of 81 (he will turn 82 in December). When he arrived for the first time at this forgotten part of Pedregalejo there was much to do as it was a cardboard city for the homeless, a place marked by decades of neglect. Now he leaves with the restaurant's reservation book full, with dozens of weddings and social events scheduled for the events season, and with a permanent team of more than 60 staff between kitchen and dining room that rises to over 80 from this month as high season commences.

Zoom The veteran cook, reflected in the lid of his tureen of gazpachuelo. Salvador Salas

He is proud to be able to say that they serve a thousand diners for lunch and another thousand for dinner on the busiest days. He adds that his team, forged in the sort of 'culinary school' that he has created there, is so well-oiled that they are capable of serving 200 gazpachuelos, a dish that cannot be kept on the go, it must be prepared on the spot and served up immediately.

"This is my life, it's like a drug, I love my profession with all my heart; I would have liked to die in the kitchen"

Hardly surprising then that, on 1 May, they already had more than 400 diners booked in, with many more for the weekend. "The staff I have here are to be highly valued, because they give their heart and soul. When I said goodbye to them, I didn't have the words to say goodbye, because I'm never going to say it." His workers are left with his great example, because he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, sometimes working from seven in the morning to one in the morning the next day. All that and only one day off a week.

He leaves despite not wanting to

The chef admits that he is leaving with a heavy heart, and it is not because his strength is failing him. He would not leave if it were not for the fact that his wife and family need him to spend more time at home. "This is my life, it's like a drug, I love my profession with all my heart; I would have liked to have died in the kitchen", he says with the determination of his first day at work. Yet at the same time he acknowledges that he owes them the many hours he has not spent with family, above all to his wife, Mari Carmen (77), his two children and his three grandchildren. "Here I have no fixed time to go home, but I cannot leave my wife alone for so many hours."

It is his last day, but Adolfo still shows us his hands covered with dough, after having coated some prawns and mint in batter for frying to a crisp. The very same hands with which he started work tending to the charcoal-fired cookers at the age of 12 in the now defunct Hotel Cataluna in Plaza del Obispo. Those hands would be blackened with charcoal as he loaded the fuel for the fire. "And I know less and less every day, because now there are new techniques and equipment", he says in a humble voice.

A master of masters

From now on he will cook very little, as at home his wife has always been in charge of what goes on the table. "Don't ask me what I'm going to do, I don't even want to think about it because I haven't slept for a week now knowing that I'm not going to come here every morning", he sighs.

But his head is buzzing with projects, and the first ones will happen at the hands of his friend Fernando Rueda, president of the Gastroarte association, who has come to help him in his last hours at the helm of the business. They are already planning events and meetings in which he will once again don his chef's gear, although this time he will be in charge of giving the orders as to when dishes will be served.

"Cooking has wormed its way into my life and it won't go away; I'm going to do stuff and keep in touch with my colleagues". In fact, most of the young chefs in Malaga regard him as their teacher and benchmark.

"We have created a school in the Balneario without realising it; here I leave a good legacy as a culinary concept, as much in the kitchen as in the dining room", and he has trained almost all of them personally. From now on, Antonio Banos, as maitre d', and Haddin as head chef, will take up the reins. The veteran restaurateur is also regarded as a sort of oracle to whom businesses turn whenever they need a reliable chef, maitre d' or sommelier.

"Whatever my colleagues need, I am always at their disposal, because in this way we enrich our cuisine. The fact that good young people come to the fore and pass through various places enriches our offer". He adds: "We're going to leave behind the places offering ready meals and franchises, we're going to do good things, let the restaurants create their own dishes and enrich the cuisine of Malaga."

"I can't get rid of this bug I've got in my body; I'm still going to do things and keep in touch with my colleagues"

The chef also has words of thanks for the Balneario restaurant's partners: "They have been really brave, they were visionaries because when they came here there were only homeless people, and they knew that this was going to be an important place in Malaga, and they have created just that and are now reaping the rewards."

As his only request on his last day, Adolfo Jaime calls on the city authorities to come to an agreement to protect the monument (it is an Asset of Cultural Interest): "Take care of this corner of Malaga that is unique in Spain; they have to do something to prevent it from flooding during storms because the spa suffers a lot."
La Concepcion reservoir is at 75 per cent, with practically the same amount of water as last year.

Ignacio Lillo Malaga Friday, 3 May 2024, 17:14 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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The storms in Spain that began last Saturday and Sunday (27 and 28 April), and which offered their last downpour during the public holiday on 1 May, have left accumulated rainfall of up to 20mm in Malaga province, , according to data from the Junta de Andalucia's Hidrosur Network.

The rain that fell in April has made it possible to feed and keep alive the runoff from the rivers and streams on their way to the province's reservoirs, which are still increasing. This has made it possible not only to irrigate the fields and reduce urban consumption, but also to shore up reserves for the summer. From now on, it is unlikely that any new weather front of any significance will arrive to bring more rain.

The net gain in the last week has not been huge, at around one cubic hectometre, and it has been distributed mainly between the reservoirs of La Concepcion (which supplies the western strip of the Costa del Sol) and La Vinuela (Axarquia). In fact, both reservoirs continue to gain runoff. rainfall.

The storms last Saturday left a maximum of 16mm in Alcaucin; more than 10mm in La Vinuela and 9mm in the Benamargosa river. Therefore, the Axarquia was the area that benefited most from this latest episode. This allowed the Axarquia reservoir to add 0.3 Hm3, up to 31.6 as of Thursday afternoon (19.2%), according to the water resources management service of the Junta de Andalucia. And the best thing is that this figure continues to grow.

Rainfall has revived runoff from the land, so water levels in the reservoirs are still increasing

Last Sunday, once again, the eastern area of the province benefited the most from a downpour that even saw small hailstones in the area east of Malaga city and accumulated almost 8mm in Alfarnatejo, which also benefited the same reservoir.

The other major points of interest last weekend were on the western Costa del , with 13mm in Mijas Pueblo; 11.5 in Los Reales de Sierra Bermeja; and 10 in the Sierra de Mijas (very good for the important aquifers in this area) and in Pujerra (Serrania de Ronda). At Malaga Airport, 8mm were recorded, according to Aemet and Hidrosur data.

The last of the spring storms on Wednesday, 1 May, brought up to 20 mm in places such as Canete la Real; 18 in the Guadalhorce river as it passes through Bobadilla; 15mm in the same riverbed, but in Archidona; more than 13 in the Fuente de Piedra lake and 11 in El Torcal de Antequera. In addition to these, some of which will flow into the reservoirs of the Guadalhorce system, water has also been collected in the Guadalteba (8) and Conde (7) reservoirs. These directly supply Malaga city.

La Concepcion gains

La Concepcion reservoir on the Costa del Sol, was the reservoir that gained the most, exceeding 43.1 Hm3 (at 75 per cent of its capacity) after having added 0.6 Hm3 in the last few days (and it continues on an upward trend). The most notable thing in this case is that it is already very close to the level it had at the same time last year (43.7).

Added to this is the increased capacity of the Marbella desalination plant, which this summer will produce twice as much fresh water as in the high season of 2023, so consumption is more than guaranteed for the high tourist season.

As for the Guadalhorce system, there have also been small gains, thanks to the rain that fell on 1 May, when the storm was concentrated in this area. The most notable is that of the Conde de Guadalhorce, which had gained 0.2 Hm3 up to yesterday.
Regina Sotorrio Friday, 3 May 2024, 14:55 Opciones para compartir Copiar enlace

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They are exact replicas: on parchment of the same thickness, with the animal skin covers treated with the same techniques of old, even down to the holes left by a hungry moth a hundred years ago or the fingerprint mark left by some sultan as he leafed through its pages. It is said that they even smell like the originals. In Malaga they are on exhibition, kept safely behind glass in their display cases, so it is impossible to appreciate that odour.

Nevertheless, you can make out the delicate and lavish details that made these codices authentic treasures of knowledge and culture, these bound sets of manuscripts, the precursors to books that once occupied the libraries of kings and emperors and that now have been carefully cloned by M. Moleiro Editor, the specialist publishing house for facsimile books and codices. The Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais is exhibiting until 18 May at its headquarters in Malagas Plaza de la Constitucion a selection of these exclusive and invisible replicas of the originals that so few get to see. The exhibition is entitled The Cabinet of Wonders. Illustrious codices (8th-16th centuries).

Zoom The Bible of Saint Louis. S. Salas

The originals are now kept under lock and key in the Morgan Library in New York, the British Library in London, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, the Russian library in St Petersburg and Toledo Cathedral. Manuel Moleiros team has travelled to all these places, and so many more, to replicate the likes of: the prayer book of Isabella the Catholic; the bible that Alfonso X the Wise treasured like a precious jewel; the treatise on happiness that Murad III had commissioned for the second-born of his 110 children; and the complete medieval treatise on the stars by the Arab astrologer Albumasar.

Such originals are priceless, both in monetary and cultural value, which makes them excessively protected, so much so that they are inaccessible to the general public. If they were paintings they would be hung up on display. You would go to a museum, pay the entrance fee and view them. But this is different. Some of these manuscripts have never before been studied and their images have never been seen.

In these papers and parchments is hidden the wisdom of centuries of history, knowledge accompanied by very precise and brilliant drawings, luxuriously illuminated with gold leaf. There are works dedicated to the perception of time, because people needed to know the cycles of life and to deal with the climate. There are reproductions of the codex known as the Hours of Henry IV (1510), with a golden background on all pages with text, and that of Charles of Angouleme (1485), illustrated by the French painter Robinet Testard. There are treatises on art and well-being, like The Pleasure of Women, from the late 18th century, a book from an area of modern-day Pakistan where the different types of women and the most favourable moments for love are described in Persian. Or The Book of Felicity, the most illustrated in the Muslim world, a meticulous work commissioned by Murad III to ensure his second daughter did not miss out on the very best advice available when choosing the best life partner.

Zoom Book of Felicity. S. Salas

The exploring spirit of man is reflected in richly illustrated atlases, such as that of Vallard (1547) with 15 nautical charts, or Millers (1519), one of the most famous examples of cartography in history. The strong presence of faith and devotion in many medieval societies is evident in the wealth of religious manuscripts. There is the breviary (an abridged order of daily prayers) or simply known as the prayer book of Isabella the Catholic, the original of which ended up in the British Library in London after the assault on the Escorial by Napoleonic troops. They say that the queen was presented with the manuscript to commemorate the double marriage of her children to those of Emperor Maximilian of Austria. It is full of political details, with messages to her descendants and references to the conquest of Granada and the discovery of the Americas.

The treasure of the collection

Perhaps the greatest treasure among the collection is the Bible of St Louis (1226-1234), the most lavish book ever created by human ingenuity. It contains 4,887 different paintings that illustrate each passage of the biblical story. It was commissioned by Blanche of Castile, Queen of France and widow of Louis VIII, as a gift to her son Louis IX of France (eventually becoming Saint Louis). Some time later it would turn up in the library of Alfonso X The Wise (or Learned - nicknamed as such for being a very scholarly monarch). In his will, he wrote that it was a gift from his relative, the king of France, and he stipulated that it should only be given to whomever held power in Castile as it was a work made solely for kings.

It took twelve years for that bible to be completed, and it took Manuel Moleiro six to create his copy. That is why it is known to be the most expensive piece in the collection on exhibition in Malaga with a market value of 22,000 euros. Other reproductions, such as The Genealogy of Christ, cost around 800 euros.

The first edition of the clones is on show here, but the publisher releases 987 or 777 copies of each replica. Everything has a reason: Seven is perfection, explains the editor. Perfection is his motto. A multidisciplinary team from the publishing house, with the agreement and permission from the institutions, copies and studies each codex, reproducing the content from high-quality photographs and procuring the right materials. Parchment and paper for the pages, velvet or leather for the covers.

But they are made of skins not found in Europe, because here they are always tanned on an industrial level, with rapid production in which chemicals, chlorine and chromium are used... and that closes up the pores. In their case, they obtain skins from countries where they are still worked in the old school ways of the artisan, involving long and time-consuming processes.

Moleiro emphasises the contribution to culture that his publishing house makes, cloning manuscripts so they can be studied in depth and originals replaced where necessary. In fact, his replica of the Bible of St Louis was the only non-original piece that was exhibited in the large exhibition that France dedicated to the saint for the 800th anniversary of his birth. The replicas of that bible are in Girona cathedral and in the Metropolitan in New York. And now, for a few days, also in the centre of Malaga (Monday to Friday, from 11am to 2pm and then from 6 to 9pm; Saturday from 11am to 2pm and from 5 to 9pm). English speakers might be pleased to know that there is an audio guide available in English.
The China Science Writers Association's (CSWA) Science Fiction Creation and Research Base held its seventh annual meeting and academic forum in Beijing on April 27, bringing together prominent writers and professionals looking to boost China's sci-fi industry.

Participants at the annual conference and academic forum of the China Science Writers Association's Science Fiction Creation and Research Base pose for a group photo during the China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing, April 27, 2024. [Photo courtesy of Beijing Yuanyu Science Fiction and Future Technology Research Institute]

The annual conference and the Academic Forum of Science Fiction Works were held as part of the China Science Fiction Convention 2024. The event saw participation from over 70 experts, writers, editors, entrepreneurs, and professionals from the sci-fi sector and associated industries, including acclaimed writers Liu Cixin and Wang Jinkang, Spanish sinologist Agustin Alepuz Morales, and Japanese novelist and translator Tachihara Toya.

Several new books were launched at the event, with the most notable being "The Mountain, the Pine, and the Moon," a three-volume collection featuring stories by 56 Chinese sci-fi writers envisioning their hometowns through the lens of science fiction and fantasy. Later that day, a book signing event drew hundreds of enthusiastic fans eager to meet and get autographs from eight writers, including industry luminaries Liu Cixin, Wang Jinkang, and Dong Renwei.

During the meeting, Wang Weiying, the base's executive deputy director and secretary-general, summarized the base's achievements in 2023 and outlined the work plan for the upcoming year. She discussed their focus on sci-fi book publishing, research and academic exchanges, industrial transformation, and education and talent development within the sci-fi field. Wang also emphasized the commitment to continuing efforts in publishing, research, industrial innovation, talent development, and promotional exchanges throughout the year, outlining the next steps in these areas.

During the meeting, a plaque unveiling ceremony was held to inaugurate the newly established writer's studios of Xiao Xinghan and Bao Shu. With these additions, the sci-fi base has so far established studios for 16 writers.

In his keynote speech during the academic forum, Liu Cixin, the world-renowned Chinese sci-fi writer and president of the Beijing Yuanyu Science Fiction and Future Technology Research Institute, highlighted the significant progress in various areas made by the science fiction base last year, after being founded in December 2016, and expressed his hope that in the future, there would be a focus on strengthening talent, expanding the sci-fi sector, creating more outstanding sci-fi works, and igniting society-wide enthusiasm for sci-fi culture.

A display of new books, including "The Mountain, the Pine, and the Moon: 56 Chinese Science Fiction Writers' Fantasies of Their Hometowns," is seen at the annual conference of the China Science Writers Association's Science Fiction Creation and Research Base and the Academic Forum of Science Fiction Works during the China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing, April 27, 2024. [Photo/China.org.cn]

Qiu Huadong, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, pointed out that sci-fi literature is an important way to envision the future. "The development of Chinese science fiction relies on urban development and the progress of Chinese modernization. On this basis, generations of new sci-fi writers are emerging. The development of Chinese sci-fi literature is timely, and the China Writers Association will continue to support both sci-fi literature and the sci-fi industry," he said.

Wang Ting, vice chairman of the CSWA and director of the Chinese Research Institute for Science Popularization, mentioned that the nation's great attention to the sci-fi industry has created a favorable environment for its development. He pledged that the CSWA will support the growth of the sci-fi industry, expressing hope that the sci-fi base can gather talent from around the world, play a leading role, and inject new momentum into advancing China's high-level technological self-reliance and high-quality development.
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Syracuse, N.Y.  A 29-year-old man was sentenced to a decade in federal prison this week for drug charges he racked-up while working in a drug ring with his father, prosecutors said.

Ivan Rodriguez Jr., of Utica, was charged with possessing and distributing fentanyl from at least June 2021 through October 2021, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of New York. He was sentenced to prison on Wednesday.

In his guilty plea Rodriguez Jr. admitted he worked with his father, Ivan Rodriguez Sr., 48, Eric Ares, 39, and others, prosecutors said. The group distributed fentanyl and a mixture of fentanyl/heroin in and around Oneida County and elsewhere, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez Jr. also admitted that with Ares and his father they arranged to purchase, pickup and delivery 6.6 pounds of fentanyl and a mixture of fentanyl/heroin to sell in the Utica area, prosecutors said. Rodriguez Jr. also admitted he sold fentanyl to a co-conspirator, they said.

Rodriguez Sr., of Utica, was the head of the drug trafficking organization which sold heroin, fentanyl and cocaine throughout the Utica area, the prosecutors said.

Rodriguez Sr. pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl and money laundering in December of 2022. He was sentenced to 10 years in March.

Ares also plead guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and distributing fentanyl in 2022. He was sentenced earlier this week to 10 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez Jr. was ordered to pay a $200 special assessment and a $75,000 money judgment representing the money he made from drug trafficking, prosecutors said.

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.
Tracy Letts remarkable August: Osage County fits the mold of a particularly American type of masterpiece. It has all the drug abuse and family disfunction of Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey to much less dour effect. Theres the requisite anger and regret, and before the curtain comes down, a host of family secrets are revealed. At turns howlingly funny, bitter, and searing in its insight, Osage requires a brave and skilled ensemble. Happily, the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild and director Adam Shatraw have assembled one.

August: Osage County was first performed by Chicagos famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2007 and moved to Broadway, where it ran for 648 performances and won a Pulitzer Prize. When performed well, as it is at BTG, the three act, more than three hour drama is an investment of time for the audience that pays off in spades.
DeWitt, N.Y.  Parts of Collamer Road and Kinne Street will be closed to traffic for most of the day after a truck pulled down some wires, police say.

A tractor trailer was driving near Bull & Bear Roadhouse at 6402 Collamer Road around 8:27 a.m. when the trailer pulled wires down, according to Onondaga 911 dispatchers.

Collamer Road between New Venture Gear Drive and Northern Boulevard is closed, said Lt. Jerry Pace of the DeWitt Police Department.

Kinne street between Route 298 and East Molloy Road is also closed, he said.

Police expect the streets to be closed for 6 hours as the wires are repaired, he said.

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.
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Smart home gear will make your home life easier. Be it smart thermostats that can automate your homes temperature, color-changing light bulbs that can be controlled from your phone, or smart speakers that can do almost anything with simple voice commands. But did you know that some smart home tech can also you save money? We found through our research that smart home tech that can help protect against property loss can also earn you a notable discount on your homeowners or renters insurance.

After talking to seven of the nations top insurance companies, we learned that smart home gear that can prevent property theft and/or fire or water damage are the most likely devices and systems that will score you discounts. The discounts range from 5 to 20 percent, which fluctuate depending on where you live and the kind of device youve installed. Here are the smart home product categories most insurance companies offer policy discounts on. Scroll down and well give you more specific information from insurance companies we polled for this story.

Home security systems

Ring Alarm Pro (8-piece kit) Read our review

Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the insurance companies we spoke with said they offer discounts for home security systems that include components such as motion and door/window sensors, security cameras, smoke detectors, water leak detectors, and the like. In most cases, however, the insurance company will only offer a discount if the system includes professional third-party monitoring, a paid subscription service offered by the system manufacturer. Dont worry, none of the systems weve reviewed require long-term contracts, and theyre all relatively inexpensive.

You wont need to hire professionals to install a home security system for you, either. Provided you have a screwdriver and a little technical knowhow, you can do it all yourself. One of our favorite DIY home security systems, the $250 Ring Alarm Pro, is very easy to set up and expand, and it comes with an integrated Wi-Fi 6 router with LTE backup should your primary broadband service temporarily fail. Rings professional monitoring service is also relatively affordable, coming in at just $20 a month.

Another excellent example is the Abode Iota, which has a 1080p security camera integrated into its hub (as with Rings product, you can add more). You can get the Abode for $300 on Amazon, and you can sign up for professional monitoring for about $20 a month.

Youll find links to many of our other smart home system reviews at the preceding link.

Security cameras and video doorbells

SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor Camera Read our review

Some insurance companies also offer discounts for security camera systems, especially if theres professional monitoring involved. Amica, for example, does offer discounts for systems even without monitoring, but the discounts are much better when theres a third-party watching over your property.

One example of a security camera system that would fit this criteria is Arlo, especially if you opt for the top-tier Arlo Secure Plus plan, which adds 24/7 professional monitoring. It does cost $25 a month, but that covers an unlimited number of cameras, which include the smaller security cameras as well as a video doorbell, both of which Arlo offers. An Arlo Essential camera is around $40 while the Arlo Video Doorbell is about $130.

Theres also SimpliSafes Fast Protect professional monitoring service, which offers 24/7 live guard protection. Professional agents can even access your cameras video feed and microphone to divert a threat. The company recently announced plans to use artificial intelligence in addition to human agents to monitor its customers security systems. The service is a bit on the pricier side though, at around $30 a month.

If those dont fit your needs, heres where youll find our other home security camera reviews.

Smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide alarms

Nest Protect Read our review Best Prices Today:

Losing your home to a fire is a terrifying prospect, which is why every home should have a smoke alarm in every bedroom. Many insurance companies offer discounts for some kind of fire or smoke detector. But a smart smoke detector can alert you even when youre not at home, which is helpful for protecting not just your loved ones but also your valuable assets.

We think the $119 Nest Protect is the best smart smoke alarm overall, thanks to its user-friendly app and overall reliability. The alarms are varied and it has voice alerts as well. We also liked the Kidde Smart Detection Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Alarm, which emits voice warnings for fire and carbon monoxide danger in addition to the usual beeps. It retails for around $116.

If you have a fire alarm thats integrated into a monitored home security system that can contact the local fire department, so much the better. Abode, Ring, and SimpliSafe all offer such integrations.

Looking to protect your family and home from fire? Dont miss any of our in-depth smart smoke detector reviews.

Water leak sensors and smart shut-off valves

Phyn Plus smart water assistant + shutoff (2nd Gen) Read our review

While fire is a legitimate fear for most homeowners, water is actually a far more likely cause of property damage. Be it from a burst pipe, a hole in the roof, or a clogged toilet, water leaks are a veryand costlycommon occurrence. Thats why a water leak sensor is a wise investment for most homeowners. Plus, a lot of insurance companies offer discounts if you install them. Its best to install these sensors in areas where leaks are most likely to occur, such as laundry rooms, bathrooms, and water heater closets.

The Phyn Smart Water Sensor is our pick for the best smart water leak detector for a few reasons. It sends an immediate warning the second water touches it, it operates on a couple of AA batteries, and its relatively inexpensive at just $40. If you also own the Phyn Plus smart water valve, it can automatically turn off your main water supply as well.

Our runner-up is the $50 Flo by Moen Smart Water Detector, which can let you know about the presence of water in places it shouldnt be. Of course, if you already have a Flo by Moen Smart Water Shutoff valve, its a no-brainer. It also informs you of water pressure and ambient temperature and humidity if they fall outside of normal range.

As with smoke detectors, some smart home system vendors either offer their own products in these categories, which you can integrate into their broader home security system, or they partner with third parties for the same. Abode, Arlo, Notion, Ring, SimpliSafe, and Wyze Labs all do this.

Flo and Phyn arent the only games in town. Be sure to read our other water leak detection product reviews.

What some of the major insurance companies offer

The following are a few more details on the kinds of smart home tech discounts that some of the countrys major insurers offer. Deals vary wildly depending on the device and where you live. Most companies simply encouraged customers to call their local representatives for more information. That said, we did get some specifics that well share below.

Allstate told us that it offers customers up to a 5 percent protective device discount for items like a smoke detector, fire extinguisher, connected security cameras, home security systems and water leak detectors. The validation process is different for each device, but generally speaking, you will want professional monitoring to have the best chances to qualify. A representative also told us that some devicessuch as a burglar alarm with third-party monitoringwould need documentation, but a simple smoke detector would not.Amica

Amica rewards policyholders with discounts for a wide array of smart home tech that include burglar alarms, smart temperature detection devices, smart security devices, fire and smoke alarms, electrical fault monitoring, as well as smart water leak detection tech. Amica also offers heftier discounts from vendor partners like Moen, Guardian, StreamLabs, Flume and Kangaroo.

Though the discounts vary depending on where you live, Amica states that you get the best discount for professionally monitored products.

Farmers Insurance has a 5 to 20 percent discount for smart home devices that reduce the risk of fire, theft or water damage. Bigger discounts are typically given to devices that have an outside signal and connection to local authorities.

Nationwide is able to give a Smart Home discount for select devices, depending on which state they live in. For the best discounts, it recommends you install devices from the following partner vendors: LeakBot, Notion, Phyn, Resideo, SimpliSafe, and Ting.

Progressive policyholders may earn discounts for alarm systems, which include burglar and fire alarms. Centrally monitored security systems and automatic fire sprinklers might also be eligible for a discount, depending on your location.

State Farm offers a home security insurance discount if you installed a fire, smoke or burglar alarm or any other home monitoring system. It is currently partnered with ADT to offer a special ADT Home Security Savings and Insurance Discount of up to 6 percent for a few select states.

Additionally, State Farm has expanded its Ting fire safety program where it hands out a free Ting smart plug-in sensor to eligible customers. The plug-in sensor monitors your home for dangerous electrical arcing that could cause a fire. Installing a Tin wont earn you a discount on your insurance, but customers who have one receive a $1,000 credit for professional remediation of electrical fire hazards if any are required.

Travelers policyholders should be able to get a small discount in their insurance premium if they install an alarm system, with greater savings if theres third-party central monitoring rather than self-monitored systems. There also might be additional discounts if you have water sensors and emergency shutoff valves, such as a Flo by Moen or Phyn Plus.

What about your insurance company?

Dont see your insurance company listed here? We contacted many of the largest insurance providers, but by no means all of them. We encourage you to call yours to find out what theyll do for you should you decide to install a home security system or one or more of the home safety devices weve listed above.

And if they dont, maybe its time you shopped around for one that can give you a better deal!
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What just happened? In another example of why (cyber)crime doesn't pay, a Ukrainian hacker has been sentenced to 13 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay $16 million over his involvement with the REvil ransomware group. Yaroslav Vasinskyi (aka Rabotnik) played a role in more than 2,500 ransomware attacks that cost targeted organizations and individuals more than $700 million.

Vasinskyi conducted thousands of ransomware attacks using the Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware, encrypting victims' systems and demanding payments in return for the decryption key.

Vasinskyi and his co-conspirators also used double-extortion tactics: stealing data from the systems they encrypted, allowing them to further blackmail any victims who refused to pay up by threatening to post their sensitive information online.

"Deploying the REvil ransomware variant, the defendant reached out across the globe to demand hundreds of millions of dollars from US victims," deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said in a statement.

Vasinskyi, 24, was arrested on Poland's border with Ukraine on October 8, 2021, and extradited to Dallas, Texas, in March 2022. He pleaded guilty to an 11-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Justice Department writes that in 2023, it obtained the final forfeiture of millions of dollars worth of ransom payments. It included 39.89138522 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $2.3 million, and $6.1 million that was traced to ransomware payments made to Vasinksyi and another REvil ransomware gang member, Yevgeniy Polyanin.

One of REvil's best-known crimes was perpetrated against Kaseya's VSA cloud-based system management platform  used for remote monitoring and IT management. The 2021 attack, which exploited a zero-day bug, is thought to have impacted over 1,500 businesses, hitting everything from pharmacies to gas stations.

REvil was also behind the attacks on JBS, for which the world's biggest meat processor paid an $11 million ransom, and tech giant Acer.

REvil operates a ransomware-as-a-service plan in which it rents out the malware to other criminals for a cut of the victims' payments. At one point, those renting the malware complained that REvil was stealing their ransoms.
A hot potato: TikTok, the Chinese app that has surged in popularity in recent years, is on the verge of a critical juncture. The platform, widely favored among Gen Z for video sharing, faces a potential ban in the US, with Europe considering its own measures for censorship.

US President Joe Biden recently signed a bill that will compel ByteDance to either sell TikTok to an American-based venture or face a ban from major mobile app ecosystems. The video hosting network could encounter a similar fate in Europe, where the topic has entered the electoral campaign, spurred by a remark from a German politician.

Ursula von der Leyen has served as the 13th president of the European Commission since 2019 and is currently the lead candidate of the center-right European People's Party for the 2024 European Parliament elections. When asked about the Biden Administration's bill regarding a potential TikTok ban, the EU politician commented that a similar censorship attempt against the Chinese-owned network in Europe is "not excluded."

The European Commission was the "very first institution" to ban TikTok on its corporate smartphones, according to Von der Leyen, as they "know exactly" the danger posed by the app. In an earlier report, it was stated that Von der Leyen has opted to refrain from using TikTok in her campaign for June's EU elections. The German politician aims to reach European citizens with a new "personal" approach, but TikTok poses too much of a security risk.

TikTok recently halted a reward program for users of the TikTok Lite app after the European Commission initiated an investigation into the app's potential violation of content moderation rules outlined in the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).

Under the new DSA regime, TikTok is also under scrutiny for its alleged failure to provide adequate protections for minors using the app. The EU regulation grants the Commission the authority to force TikTok to suspend its services as a last resort.

While von der Leyen expressed clear willingness to suspend TikTok in Europe, other politicians participating in the same election debate were less certain about a ban. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the lead candidate for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party in June's elections, suggested that European institutions should adopt a more pragmatic approach to TikTok's policies and behavior regarding content moderation.
Forward-looking: Big tech companies are proposing the use of passkeys as a more secure and easy-to-use alternative to traditional passwords. Microsoft has hailed passkeys as the future of authentication, stating that they eliminate the need for the "complex" password creation process and the hassle of remembering (or storing) them.

Google introduced support for passkeys in 2022 during World Password Day. Now, the company is revealing how far the authentication technology has come and where it is heading. According to the search giant, passkeys have been used as an authentication measure over 1 billion times, across 400 million-plus Google accounts.

Google highlights how passkeys are resistant to phishing, as they rely on fingerprints, face scans, or PINs for user authentication. They are 50 percent faster than passwords, and they are now the most used authentication method on Google accounts when compared with "legacy" technologies such as SMS-based one-time passwords (OTP) or app-based OTPs.

Google will soon start supporting passkeys in the company's strongest security offering, the Advanced Protection Program. APP has been designed to protect high-risk users such as campaign workers and candidates, journalists, human rights workers, activists, and more. The authentication method usually requires a hardware security key as a second factor, but it will soon support passkeys as well.

APP support for passkeys will be critical during this year's elections, Google added.

Another significant improvement for passkey adoption is the ability of third-party password vendors to use Google's passkey management APIs on Android and other operating systems. Popular password managers such as Dashlane and 1Password can now provide passkey support, an important update that gives users more control along with the ability to store passkeys on security keys.

The technology industry is showing significant support for passkey-based authentication, and the list of Google's partners keeps growing. In just 12 months, early adopters of the technology (eBay, Uber, PayPal, WhatsApp) were joined by Amazon, 1Password, Dashlane, DocuSign, Kayak, Mercari, Shopify, and Yahoo! Japan.

In explaining how the technology works, Google stated that passkeys will replace passwords and essentially solve the many issues brought to the industry by a password's inherent vulnerability. Even more sophisticated security measures such as multi-factor authentication, SMS messages, and authentication mobile apps will be replaced by passkeys, Google predicts.
In a nutshell: A judge has sentenced the CEO of 19 fraudulent tech firms to six years in prison on conspiracy and fraud charges. The Florida man headed up a scam that sold counterfeit Cisco networking equipment. Authorities estimate the criminal enterprise sold more than a billion dollars worth of gear.

Onur "Ron" Aksoy was arrested and indicted in 2022 on wire and mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. A year later, Aksoy signed a plea deal to receive a reduced sentence. The judge ordered that he spend the next six years in prison and pay $100 million to Cisco and other victims of his fraudulent dealings.

Aksoy operated 19 online companies under the umbrella corporation Pro Network Entities. The scattering of front firms sold counterfeit networking equipment through sites like eBay and Amazon from 2013 to 2022 under at least 25 storefront aliases. Some of his customers included the US Army, Navy, and Air Force. He also sold gear to other government agencies, schools, hospitals, and private enterprises.

The quality of the fraudulent gear was substandard, suffering poor performance and complete failures after installation. In a Thursday press release, the Department of Justice indicated that Pro Network sourced its devices from China, the top supplier of counterfeit electronics. The devices started life as Cisco rejects. Counterfeiters made a few alterations, created forged documentation, loaded the equipment with authentic but pirated software, and labeled them "refurbished."

In 2014, only a year after Aksoy began selling the knockoff devices, Cisco and law enforcement became aware of the suspicious activity. Cisco sent Pro Network seven cease-and-desist notices, but Aksoy replied with forged invoices using aliases and fake addresses. So, US Customs began seizing shipments destined for the scammer.

Between 2014 and 2022, agents confiscated approximately 180 shipments of fake Cisco equipment. However, Aksoy used fake names and documents to recover many of these seizures. The most concerning aspect of the scheme was its scale and the way it virtually compromised large portions of the US infrastructure.

"Through an elaborate, years-long scheme, Aksoy created and ran one of the largest counterfeit-trafficking operations ever," Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna for the District of New Jersey. "His operation introduced tens of thousands of counterfeit and low-quality devices trafficked from China into the US supply chain, jeopardizing both private-sector and public-sector users, including highly sensitive US military applications like the support platforms of US fighter jets and other military aircraft."

Despite selling the products at discounts as deep as 94-percent compared to the MRSP of genuine equipment, Aksoy managed to sell at least $1 billion in fake gear. Upon arrest, authorities confiscated another 1,156 devices worth $7 million from Aksoy's warehouse.

Caveat emptor.
In a significant privacy violation, a facial recognition system deployed across numerous bars and clubs in Australia has been compromised, revealing the sensitive personal data of countless individuals.

This breach, involving the Australian company Outabox, has triggered alarming concern and regulatory scrutiny, underscoring the perils of deploying AI-powered surveillance technologies in public venues.

Outabox Data Breach

Outabox, which operates across Australia, the United States, and the Philippines, introduced a facial recognition kiosk during the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor visitors' temperatures. These kiosks were later utilized to identify individuals participating in self-exclusion programs for gambling.

However, a recent development revealed that a website named "Have I Been Outaboxed" has emerged, purporting to be set up by former Outabox employees in the Philippines.

This site claims that over a million records were mishandled, including facial biometrics, driver's licenses, and other personal identifiers.

Related Article : Racially Biased AI Poses Significant Risks, Particularly in Facial Recognition Tech

How Serious is the Recent Outabox Data Leak

According to the allegations on the "Have I Been Outaboxed" website, the leaked data consists of extensive personal details such as facial recognition biometrics, driver's licenses, club memberships, addresses, and more.

The site also suggests that comprehensive membership data from IGT, a key supplier of gaming machines, was compromised, and a claim was denied by IGT representatives.

This breach has prompted a vigorous response from privacy advocates and regulators, given the severe implications of such extensive personal data exposure.

"Sadly, this is a horrible example of what can happen as a result of implementing privacy-invasive facial recognition systems. When privacy advocates warn of the risks associated with surveillance-based systems like this, data breaches are one of them," Samantha Floreani, head of policy for Australia-based privacy and security nonprofit Digital Rights Watch, told WIRED.

Follow-Up Regarding Outabox Breach

Outabox has acknowledged the breach and actively coordinates with affected clients to manage the situation. Concurrently, the New South Wales police and federal and state agencies have launched an investigation, leading to the arrest of a suspect involved in this data extortion, as per The Guardian.

Despite these efforts, the full extent of the breach and the veracity of the claims on the website remain under investigation.

According to the authorities, there were 1,050,169 records inside the leaked database. The 46-year-old man from Sydney was expected to be charged with blackmail, which affected one million residents from ACT and New South Wales.

Facial Recognition Systems in Public Spaces

The breach has reignited debates over the ethical use of facial recognition technology in public spaces.

Many individuals affected by this breach have reported inaccuracies in recognition, with errors leading to misidentification. Such instances highlight the technology's potential flaws and implications for personal privacy.

Since biometric technologies gather a person's facial data, they need to be protected from being used by hackers or scammers for malicious purposes.

Digital rights advocates argue for substantial reforms to prevent similar future breaches and ensure that surveillance technologies do not undermine fundamental privacy rights.
A convicted sex offender filed a petition to the Norwegian Supreme Court to allow him to use social media for the reason that it is a fundamental human right.



On Thursday, the court heard the case of a man convicted of assaulting a juvenile and using Snapchat to contact boys, as reported by SCMP.

The unnamed criminal received a 13-month jail sentence and a two-year Snapchat ban last year. His lawyers say restricting his platform access breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.



The argument depends on social media platforms' growing relevance for free expression, despite the court's need to interpret rules from before their existence.

It's Freedom of Expression

According to defense lawyer John Christian Elden, his client's case raises essential questions about the extent of social media access restriction, as these online platforms serve as "significant tools for exercising the right to freedom of expression" and maintaining relationships.

In November 2023, the defendant's Snapchat exploitation of children justified the ban, but the state's appeal failed.

The Appeal Court ruled that the offender could use other social media sites throughout the suspension. If the Supreme Court agrees, the criminal may appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.



This is not the first Norwegian court case to use the European Convention on Human Rights. Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in 2011, failed to challenge his solitary imprisonment under the convention as harsh.



Snap Inc.'s Snapchat allows users to send and receive disappearing messages and reveal their whereabouts. Snap permits anonymous account creation but prevents child sexual exploitation.

In the second half of 2023, the firm deactivated 343,865 child sexual exploitation accounts worldwide, including 879 in Norway. The number of accounts permanently removed remains unknown.



The Norwegian Supreme Court will decide in a few weeks.



Approximately 500,000 online predators operate daily, targeting 12-15-year-olds for grooming and manipulation, according to the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center.

While the FBI claims that over 50% of internet sexual exploitation victims are of this age, Internet chatrooms and instant messaging services account for 89% of juvenile sexual approaches.

Over 25% of reported exploitation incidents include predators requesting sexually explicit images from children.

Two in 10 children ages 8 to 11 worry about outsiders obtaining their personal information. To get friends or followers, 40% of kids adjust their privacy settings on social media.



Online predators usually use prominent social media sites to impersonate their victims. Groomers use false profile images, shared hobbies, presents, and effusive praise to earn the child's confidence.

Kentucky Legislators: Sex Offenders Must Use Real Name Online

To improve internet safety against online sex predators, Kentucky legislators recently filed Senate Bill 249, which requires registered sex offenders to use their true identities on social media.

Social media is crucial for forging relationships in the digital era, but its anonymity raises concerns. By making online sexual predators easier to spot, SB 249 reduces these dangers, per Fox News.

SB 249 sponsor Lindsey Tichenor stresses online openness. According to Tichenor, the law would require registered sex offenders to post their real identities on social media, allowing anybody to verify their identification.

To implement this policy, Tichenor suggests a monitoring system similar to the one for reporting dwellings. This method would track registered sex offenders' social media.

As long as a sex offender's legal name is public, Tichenor says they can use a number or symbolic identity instead of their real name on social media.

Kentucky Senator Chris McDaniel stresses the severity of the penalties, which start as a Class A misdemeanor and escalate to a Class D felony for repeat violations.

While acknowledging the importance of free speech, Senators Tichenor and McDaniel argue that SB 249 is essential to protecting vulnerable individuals from online sexual predators.
The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) officially opened its doors after 26 years of planning and construction. The world's tallest optical-infrared TAO telescope measures 6.5 meters on Mount Chajnantor in Chile's Atacama Desert, at 18,500 feet.

According to The Verge, TAO, taking over from MiniTAO, surpasses the University of Madrid's Chacaltaya Observatory, which lies at 17,191 feet on Mount Chacaltaya in Bolivia.

The top five tallest observatories are in Chile's Atacama Desert, with James Ax Observatory (17,100 feet), Atacama Cosmology Telescope (17,030 feet), and Llano de Chajnantor Observatory (16,700 feet) following. The area's clear skies and tax incentives make it a hub for astronomy research.

Best View of The Cosmos

With its high altitude and low moisture levels, TAO can see a wide range of near-infrared wavelengths, including mid-infrared, unlike any other ground-based telescope.

The University of Tokyo notes that terrestrial observatories may take higher-resolution celestial photographs than space-based ones.

In 2025, TAO will begin scientific observations to solve puzzles about galaxy and planet formation. It will also enhance ALMA telescope investigations by revealing the same cosmic objects at multiple wavelengths.

However, construction workers at a tremendous altitude require careful medical examinations and supplementary oxygen.

Even researchers at the site must avoid altitude sickness. The team proposes running TAO remotely from a lower base site to mitigate these risks.

Adding TAO to the European Extremely Large Telescope and European Very Large Telescope in the Atacama region improves astronomical research at one of the world's most coveted celestial observation sites.

SWIMS is one of these devices that captures images of early galaxies to shed light on their mysterious creation from dust and gas, per Space.com. Many parts of this cosmic development remain unknown after decades of research.

According to the project's mission plan, the MIMIZUKU device will study primordial dust disks where stars and galaxies form.

Its been 26 years in the making, but construction of the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory in Chile is finally complete.https://t.co/vXXwrjG5hh  The Japan News (@The_Japan_News) May 2, 2024

It Took Decades to Build TAO

Riko Senoo, a University of Tokyo graduate student and TAO researcher, stressed the importance of high-quality astronomical observations in comprehending celestial events.

Senoo stated in a post that the TAO provides researchers with "better astronomical observations of the real thing" so that they can conduct more accurate experiments.

Prof. Yuzuru Yoshii of the University of Tokyo in Japan, who led TAO for 26 years, said building the TAO was an "incredible challenge" not only technically but also politically.

Nevertheless, according to a WION report, he expressed gratitude to everyone who helped make their vision come true.

He and his colleagues built and operated a 1-meter telescope on the summit in 2009 before building the bigger telescope. The miniTAO telescope observed the Milky Way's core.

Two years later, it won the Guinness World Record for being the tallest astronomical observatory.

In 2006, after 26 years of negotiations, the observatory built its first access road to Mount Chajnantor's peak and installed a weather monitor.
China reportedly plans to use an unmanned spacecraft to become the first country in history to gather samples from the moon's far side.

Only a few years have passed since the nation's unmanned spacecraft performed two successful landings on the moon's near side and successfully retrieved samples from the Moon.

A Long March 5 rocket carrying the 8.2-ton Chang'e 6 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off at the country's southernmost spaceport, the Wenchang Space Launch Site, on the subtropical island of Hainan, at 4 p.m. local time on Friday (4 a.m. ET).

A Chinese tale tells of a woman named Chang'e who flew to the moon after drinking an elixir of life.

The probe is anticipated to land in the Apollo crater in the wider South Pole-Aitkin basin of the moon. It was initially constructed as a backup for China's 2020 mission to the moon's near side.

Over twice as long as its predecessor, Chang'e 6 will return with over two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of samples from the side of the moon that is hidden from Earth's view in 53 days.

Chang'e 6, according to deputy chief designer Wang Qiong of state broadcaster China Central Television, is intended to update China's scientific data about the moon by conducting systematic, long-term research on the moon's far side to examine the composition, structure, and physical characteristics of lunar soil.

Because scientists on Earth cannot directly contact via radio signal with spacecraft in the remote region, it is challenging to do research on the far side, which has more craters and fewer signs of volcanic activity.

China claims to have found a solution with its Queqiao, or "Magpie Bridge," relay satellite system.

China deployed a relay satellite in March to improve communication between Chang'e 6 and Earthly ground stations. The satellite is planned to support two additional lunar expeditions, tentatively scheduled for 2026 and 2028.

Multi-Nation Effort

China has granted permission for the United States and other nations to use Queqiao relay satellites for their lunar explorations, according to a report published by the state-run Science and Technology Daily last year. However, the report did not provide specifics.

Pakistan, France, Italy, and the European Space Agency provided instruments for Friday's trip. A sizable military transport plane supplied by Russia, which intends to establish a lunar research base alongside China, helped move Chang'e 6 components to the launch pad.

China's Progress Worries the US

NASA is not involved since it is prohibited from working with any Chinese enterprise by the Wolf Amendment of 2011. China's progress continues to worry the US. Just this March, a US general warned that China's space expansion could affect the country's interests.

General Stephen Whiting, the chief of US Space Command, warned of China's explosive space technology development, highlighting the possible risks to US interests on Earth and in orbit.

Ahead of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Whiting emphasized China's "breathtaking" advancements in counter-space and military space capabilities, intended to prevent the US and its allies from accessing space assets when needed.

As evidence of its developing space capabilities, China has set ambitious goals for 2024, including the launch of 100 rockets to place 300 spacecraft into orbit.

Furthermore, according to Whiting's projections, China is determined to become a global military force and challenge US dominance in space by 2030, achieving world-class status in major space technology domains.
The FCC is seeking increased funding from Congress to aid telecom providers in removing and replacing equipment manufactured by Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese technology giants flagged as national security threats.

Urgent Funding Needed for Huawei, ZTE Replacement

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is urging increased funding to help internet service providers remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment.

In a letter addressed to Congress, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel highlighted the shortfall in government allocations.

Only $1.9 billion is designated for provider reimbursements, which falls significantly short of the estimated $4.98 billion required by the FCC to cover the costs.

Following the 2020 classification of Huawei and ZTE as national security threats, former President Donald Trump enacted legislation mandating telecom providers remove and replace the flagged equipment from their networks.

However, due to insufficient funding, progress has been hindered.

As of January, the FCC reported that only five program participants had successfully completed removing, replacing, and disposing of Huawei or ZTE-manufactured equipment from their networks.

Rosenworcel's letter highlights a pressing concern: nearly 40% of program participants lack the financial means to replace their equipment without further assistance.

She underscores the potential ramifications, suggesting that certain companies may face closure without additional funding, potentially resulting in service disruptions in affected areas.

Importance of Equipment Replacement, Funding Allocation

Rosenworcel also emphasizes the importance of fully removing, replacing, and disposing of covered equipment and services within the Reimbursement Program, highlighting potential national security risks if any recipient fails to do so.

Additionally, the FCC is mandated to allocate funds first to providers serving fewer than 2 million customers, with coverage limited to 39.5% of their costs due to the funding shortfall.

Firms that have begun to receive financial assistance must adhere to specific deadlines for removing and replacing covered equipment. These deadlines vary from May 29th, 2024, to February 4th, 2025, depending on the timing of fund disbursement to each company.

Also read : US Plans to Bar Chinese Telecoms Over National Security Concerns

The FCC's decision to classify Huawei and ZTE as threats to national security results in a prohibition for telecommunication providers, barring them from utilizing government subsidy funds from the $8.3 billion Universal Service Fund to procure equipment from these companies for their networks.

However, the FCC voted unanimously to prevent telecoms from using federal funds to acquire Huawei equipment in November 2019.

The Verge reported that both corporations have consistently refuted allegations of posing threats to US national security.
Two new bills are reportedly looking to help the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) stay afloat as its funds dry up by the end of May. Over the past few years, millions of Americans have had $30 deducted from their broadband bills thanks to the ACP.

On Wednesday, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) unveiled the first bill, the Promoting Affordable Connectivity Act of 2024. It would double the FCC's Universal Service Fund and guarantee continuous funding for the ACP.

Funding for it would come from assessments on "edge service" platforms and home and business broadband providers, much like the USF contributions that telecom operators currently make.

On Friday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced another bill, the Spectrum and National Security Act of 2024. Its first focus is to increase the amount of wireless spectrum accessible for the Internet and other purposes.

It would also reinstate the FCC's ability to auction off spectrum, which Congress had strangely allowed to expire last March for the first time in thirty years, confusing the sector.

Additionally, most of the $7 billion in additional revenue would go toward funding the ACP again.

$3.08 billion, or another ten-figure allotment, would replenish the money available to compensate wireless operators who replace and unplug network equipment from Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. Carriers predict that their overall bill will be $5.6 billion.

The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act of 2024, a minor bill that would allocate $7 billion to fund the ACP through the current fiscal year but not extend the program's duration, comes before these two acts.

However, Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) approval is apparently necessary for the bill to proceed in the House, even with 230 cosponsors and bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.

Causes of ACP's Lack of Funding

According to sources, the US Federal Communications Commission had to shut down the ACP because a vote to continue the program because Congress did not pass a vote.

Per Pew Research, twenty million individuals signed up for the ACP. These clients reportedly saved money by paying an average of $40 a month, which allowed them to support working-class college students, Medicaid beneficiaries, and families with other essential expenses.

However, Congress hasn't provided any further financing for the ACP since its allocations in 2021, so the organization's funds are starting to run low.

Applications for new members in the popular program were closed on February 7 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

ACP's Success

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion package signed by the Biden administration, included the ACP, first implemented in 2021.

It contributed $14.2 billion to lower-income consumers' access to high-speed internet.

If their income is less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, a household might receive a $30 credit on their monthly broadband payment. Families living on approved tribal territory could receive up to $75 monthly.

The FCC deemed the ACP, which had a five-year initial plan, to be the largest and most effective broadband affordability initiative in US history.

However, the program's demand exceeded expectations, and the FCC announced earlier this year that it would have to end the program two years sooner than anticipated due to a lack of funding.

ACP's running out of funds might impede efforts to close the digital gap.
Following a well-known trend in the country where wealthy corporate leaders speak out against unions, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy took to the media in 2022.

His message? Warning about the potential negative impact of labor unions on the workplace.

Jassy's Remarks on Unions Breach Federal Laws

A recent judgment from a labor judge has underscored that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's remarks concerning labor unions violated federal laws.

In a media appearance back in 2022, Jassy voiced apprehensions about the potential impact of unions on workplace efficiency, citing concerns about increased bureaucracy and slower operations.

While such anti-union sentiments are not uncommon among corporate leaders, this instance coincided with a notable surge in union-organizing activities within Amazon.

Despite Jassy's efforts to discourage unionization, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) intervened, concluding that his statements violated federal labor regulations.

This recent development, as Engadget reported, underscores the persistent friction between corporate agendas and efforts to uphold labor rights.

It occurs within a shifting landscape of workplace dynamics, where the traditional power dynamics between employers and employees are being redefined.

With increasing demands for greater employee representation and rights, the clash between corporate interests and labor advocacy intensifies.

This tension reflects broader societal discussions on the equitable treatment of workers and the balance of power in the modern workplace.

Legal Scrutiny, Company Response

In April 2022, Jassy appeared on CNBC, expressing his belief that if employees opted to join a union, they might experience reduced empowerment and anticipate a slower and more bureaucratic environment.

Similarly, during an interview with Bloomberg, he suggested that the ability to initiate changes directly on the job might be constrained if workers were part of a union.

He concluded his anti-union stance at The New York Times DealBook conference, where the CEO asserted that a union-free workplace isn't synonymous with bureaucracy or sluggishness. This remark adds to Amazon's extensive track record of opposing labor unions.

According to NLRB Judge Brian Gee, Jassy infringed upon labor laws by insinuating that employees would experience diminished empowerment or improved conditions without a union.

However, Gee noted that the CEO's remarks regarding changes in worker-employer dynamics were permissible.

The distinction lies in the more assertive statements that extend beyond mere commentary on the employee-employer relationship.

Furthermore, Gee emphasized that the statements conveyed a sense of intimidation toward employees, suggesting that joining a union would result in diminished empowerment and hindered efficiency.

As a remedy, the judge proposed that Amazon cease making such remarks in the future. Additionally, the company must disseminate a notice regarding the judge's ruling to all its employees across the United States.

An Amazon spokesperson conveyed that the judge's decision negatively influences the current state of free speech rights.

They questioned the essence of a free country if a retail mogul is restricted from sharing cautionary tales with low-income workers about the potential consequences of voting to enhance their workplace empowerment.
Microsoft has reportedly banned the United States Police Department from utilizing Azure OpenAI's artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition technology.

The terms of service for Azure OpenAI Service were amended on Wednesday to more clearly forbid integrations with Azure OpenAI Service from being used "by or for" facial recognition in U.S. police departments.

This includes integrations with OpenAI's existing and possibly future image-analyzing models.

A new bullet point specifically prohibits using real-time face recognition technology on mobile cameras, such as dashcams and body cameras, to identify a person in uncontrolled, wild conditions.

The policy modifications occur one week after Axon, a manufacturer of technology and armaments for law enforcement and the military, unveiled a new product that summarizes audio from body cams using OpenAI's GPT-4 generated text model.

Critics were quick to draw attention to the training data's racial biases and possible hazards, such as hallucinations. This is especially troubling because individuals of color are much more likely than their white counterparts to be stopped by the police.

According to Tech Crunch, even today's top generative AI models fabricate facts.

It is allegedly unknown whether Axon was using Azure OpenAI Service to run GPT-4, and if so, it's unclear if the policy was altered in response to Axon launching a new product.

Previously, OpenAI has restricted the application of its models to face recognition through its APIs.

Read Also: Police Says Latest Technology Key to Recent Successful UK Murder Investigation

Microsoft's Partial Ban

Microsoft has some wiggle flexibility under the new terms as police in the United States are the only authorities affected by the total prohibition on using Azure OpenAI Services.

Furthermore, it excludes facial recognition using stationary cameras in controlled settings, such as a back office.

In February, Microsoft's Azure Government platform included Azure OpenAI Service, which added more compliance and control tools targeted at government organizations like law enforcement.

AI-Powered Cameras in Other Countries

Some nations have already started using cameras with AI capabilities. To prepare for the cameras' planned deployment during the 2024 Paris Olympics, the French police trialed AI-powered surveillance equipment as recently as March.

Paris police installed six AI-equipped cameras across the Accor Arena to monitor crowd movements and identify odd or risky activity.



The primary objective of the experiment is to prepare for the upcoming Paris Olympics, which is expected to provide a significant security challenge for law enforcement in the coming months. More than 30,000 officers are expected to be on duty to protect the opening ceremony.

AI-powered cameras are one of the few new security measures being implemented for the 2024 Olympics. Locals who live near Olympic sites would reportedly also need to apply for a QR code to bypass security checks.

Residents of the forbidden areas would also need to register visitors who might want to watch the action from their rooftop, houseboat, balcony, or window.

Related Article: Massive Data Breach in Australian Facial Recognition System Raises Alarm

(Photo: Tech Times)
United States Department arms control official Paul Dean is reportedly urging both Russia and China to make a declaration that artificial intelligence will never control the deployment of nuclear weapons.

The US, Britain, and France had already made the declaration.

Dean said in an online briefing that Washington had made a clear and unwavering commitment that people were in total control of nuclear weapons. He continued by saying that the US would support a similar statement from China and the Russian Federation.

Dean's remarks are consistent with U.S. President Joe Biden's wants to increase the scope of bilateral discussions with China about nuclear weapons policy and the advancement of artificial intelligence.

The Chinese Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Blinken reports that the two sides have agreed to meet bilaterally for the first time in the coming weeks to discuss artificial intelligence. They will also share strategies on how to best handle the risks and security related to technology.

Read Also: US Army to Build a Massive Floating Pier to Deliver Aid to War-Torn Gaza

AI-Powered Weapons Discussions

In January, U.S. and Chinese officials resumed discussions about nuclear weapons as part of normalizing military communications, although formal arms control negotiations are not anticipated anytime soon.

In February, China, which is developing its nuclear weapons arsenal, encouraged the world's superpowers to begin talks on a non-first-use deal.

AI continues to raise concerns as it continues to be utilized in military weapons. Austria recently raised the alarm on the urgent need for global action to regulate AI in weapons systems amid growing concerns over the development of so-called killer robots.

Austria held a conference on Monday, April 29, to restart conversations about this urgent matter. Austria spoke at the conference about the moral and legal issues raised by the use of AI in combat.

During the meeting, Alexander Schallenberg, the foreign minister of Austria, emphasized the need for international agreements and standards to guarantee human control over AI weapons.

He argued for human intervention in crucial decision-making processes and cautioned against the grave consequences of letting machines decide "who lives and who dies."

On the other hand, there has been no progress in UN negotiations on deadly autonomous weapons (LAWS), which has raised fears about a closing window of opportunity for action.

Autonomous Military Aircrafts

AI being used in combat is a current reality rather than just a theoretical worry. AI-enabled drones, such as those seen in Ukraine, have already shown that they are capable of locating targets on their own when communication with humans is interrupted.

Furthermore, rumors suggest that the US is looking into how the Israeli military is using AI to pinpoint targets in Gaza for attack.

Most notably, the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) recently released a video featuring the first-ever demonstration of an unmanned, AI-controlled F-16 aircraft practicing several aerial combat scenarios against a human pilot.

The US Air Force caught two F-16 aircraft dogfighting in September of last year at Edwards Air Force Base in California. This footage was captured at the base.



The two planes engaged in dogfighting or combat within visible range, performing aggressive and protective maneuvers at up to 1,200 miles per hour. At one point, they were separated by just 2,000 feet (610 meters).

(Photo: Tech Times)
A new artificial intelligence-powered cardiac procedure is reportedly being utilized by Florida-based AdventHealth Zephyrhills.

The new procedure, CathWorks, leverages AI to detect artery blockages that cause heart disease and help prevent heart attacks.

Debbie Moore, a nurse, has worked in AdventHealth Zypherhills' Cath Lab for almost 30 years. During that time, she has witnessed the advancement of methods and tools for diagnosing and treating cardiac issues.

She is currently a member of the first Advent team in Florida to employ an AI-powered process.

The AI-powered tool measures coronary artery blockages, blockages that can result in heart attacks and heart disease.

Doctors can use the application to decide whether a patient requires a stent by seeing the percentage of blocked arteries. Doctors reportedly deal with big stakes and millimeters when it comes to obstructions.

According to cardiologist Dr. Ghazanfar Khadim, the approach eliminates the need for invasive wires and blood thinners by replacing the standard invasive process used to measure blockages.

Overall, it eases patients' lives and significantly reduces their risk, all the while giving cardiologists access to corroborating data.

After a month of possession, the team has executed roughly thirty processes with the program. They claimed that patients have already benefited from it.

Although Khadim acknowledges that using AI is advantageous, he does not rely exclusively on the technology. They must still make the appropriate decision by applying their knowledge and experience.

AI-Assisted Doctors in Canada

AI in healthcare proves to continuously be utilized in different aspects. Most recently, Canada deployed an AI-powered patient visit summarizer to free up doctors' paperwork.

With their consent, the trial initiative will use artificial intelligence software called Scribe to help with condensing patient encounters into electronic medical records.

Research from other jurisdictions, according to sources, suggests AI software can liberate up to 50% of a doctor's after-hours time that would otherwise be spent on paperwork, enabling them to see more patients.

According to Dr. Andrew Park, president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), primary care doctors' "burden of unnecessary administration" takes up more than 19 hours of their workweek, preventing them from seeing more patients and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

According to the OMA, about four of those total hours are spent gathering federal medical forms and writing sick notes.

AI Malpractices in Healthcare

While some medical practitioners see the value of AI in healthcare, in late March, professionals convened to discuss whose accountability it is when AI-assisted doctors, unfortunately, commit malpractice.

According to American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld, lawsuits are already being filed.

While AI advances have the potential to improve healthcare, the group argues that the realization of AI healthcare is contingent upon physicians having confidence in the systems and being protected from legal danger.

According to more than a dozen prominent figures in technology, law, and health, more is at stake than millions in medical malpractice payouts.

Judges, legislators, and regulators are shaping what a medical system that treats patients with artificial intelligence owes them regarding high-quality care and the right to be reimbursed if something goes wrong.

According to several hospitals and health tech businesses, physicians who have the final say on patient care are ultimately responsible for their conduct.

(Photo: Tech Times)
A Ukrainian individual has been sentenced to more than 13 years in a Texas prison for his involvement in ransomware attacks orchestrated by the infamous REvil hacking group based in Russia, according to the US Justice Department.

US Sentenced Ukrainian Hacker to Over 13 Years in Prison

The sentenced individual, Yaroslav Vasinskyi, also known as Rabotnik, was found guilty of conducting over 2,500 ransomware attacks and demanding ransom payments amounting to over $700 million.



The Justice Department emphasized its collaboration with international partners in combating cybercrime and ensuring accountability for those involved. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland highlighted the department's commitment to identifying cybercriminals and seizing their illicit gains.



Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco also underscored the Justice Department's global reach, emphasizing the disruption of cybercriminal activities that target US victims. She highlighted the significant global impact of cybercrime and the department's efforts to dismantle such operations.



"Deploying the REvil ransomware variant, the defendant reached out across the globe to demand hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. victims," Monaco said in a press release statement.



"But this case shows the Justice Department's reach is also global-working with our international partners, we are bringing to justice those who target U.S. victims, and we are disrupting the broader cybercrime ecosystem."

How Vasinskyi Reportedly Operated Ransomware Attacks

As per court records, Vasinskyi utilized a ransomware variant known as Sodinokibi/REvil to execute thousands of ransomware attacks.

This type of malware encrypts data on victim computers, enabling cybercriminals to demand ransom payments in exchange for decryption keys. The perpetrators demanded payments in cryptocurrency and employed various tactics to conceal their profits.



Vasinskyi and his accomplices infiltrated thousands of computers globally and applied ransomware encryption, according to Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, who leads the Justice Department's Criminal Division.



They subsequently demanded over $700 million in ransom payments and threatened to expose victims' data publicly if payment was withheld.



Argentieri emphasized that Vasinskyi's sentencing is a warning to ransomware perpetrators that law enforcement will pursue and hold them accountable for their actions.



Vasinskyi has admitted guilt to several offenses, such as conspiracy to commit fraud, damaging protected computers, and conspiracy to launder money. According to the Department of Justice, he was extradited from Poland to the United States to answer for these charges.



Additionally, the department reported the successful seizure of millions of dollars in ransom payments through civil forfeiture cases in 2023.

The seizure included 39.89138522 Bitcoin and $6.1 million in US dollars, which were reportedly connected to ransom payments received by other members of the conspiracy.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. A serviceman injured in the accident has passed away, Trend reports, referring to the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan.

"A serviceman of the Azerbaijani Army, Ahmadov Fuad, who was injured in the accident of his car on May 3 in the territory of Kalbajar district, has passed away. Other military servicemen injured as a result of the accident and hospitalized in a nearby military medical institution are under doctors' observation. An investigation is underway in connection with the road accident that occurred off-duty," the information notes.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
The evolution of Twitch, originally conceived as a platform for streaming video game content, is redefining the boundaries of journalism as it ventures into news coverage, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Oregon.

The research was led by media and game studies professor Maxwell Foxman, highlighting Twitch's emergence as a news source and the unique challenges it poses to traditional journalistic practices.

Twitch Enters the News Sphere

Foxman and his co-authors, Brandon C. Harris and William Clyde Partin delve into the innovative ways in which established news organizations and digital influencers are engaging with audiences on Twitch to deliver news content.



They emphasize the importance of adapting journalistic methods to meet the expectations of Twitch users and to navigate the platform's distinct dynamics.



The study underscores Twitch's potential as a valuable addition for news organizations seeking to broaden their revenue streams and enhance audience engagement. It suggests that journalists could benefit from embracing new approaches that resonate with audiences.



One of the key insights from the study is the transformation of live streaming platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok into significant players in the realm of "live" news delivery.



According to the researchers, digital-age streamers on platforms like Twitch are challenging conventional journalistic norms by actively involving audiences in the news-making process.

This collaborative approach, termed "co-construction" by co-author Harris, fosters deeper engagement and trust among viewers, albeit through unconventional means.

Read Also : Twitch Introduces New Feed for Streamers, Inspired by TikTok

The Impact of Twitch on Journalism

Twitch's dominance in the live video space, with an astonishing 1.6 billion hours of content produced monthly, underscores its growing influence beyond gaming. While the platform primarily features live gameplay streams, it has increasingly become a hub for news dissemination and public discourse.



Foxman's research examines Twitch's impact on journalism by analyzing three distinct channels on the platform: The Washington Post, political influencer Hasan Piker, and Patriots' Soapbox, a channel associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.



The study analyzed about 1,000 hours of content from June 2020 to June 2021, including Twitch coverage of President Donald Trump's impeachment and the Capitol riots.



Foxman noted a key distinction in how the three channels managed audience interaction. Twitch users engage in real-time discussions with streamers via text chat, redefining the "live news" concept by allowing audiences to contribute and analyze information alongside content producers.



Piker actively engages with viewers during live broadcasts, addressing their questions and comments in real-time. This dynamic interaction not only enhances viewer popularity but also boosts revenue through advertisements, subscriptions, and "Bits", according to the study.



Meanwhile, Patriots' Soapbox took a more interactive approach, occasionally letting fans host the channel.



The Washington Post differentiated itself by separating hosts' videos from audience dialogue, a strategy that Foxman suggests could improve engagement and trust-building on social media.

Foxman said in a statement, "Games and the news may seem disconnected, but often economically, socially, or culturally, they interact."

The findings of the team were published in Digital Journal.
Dubai is renowned for its ambitious architectural feats, including the world's tallest skyscraper and a forthcoming residential tower that will reach new heights.



Now, a local firm named Urb is proposing a colossal coastal regeneration project that aims to transform Dubai's shores with the planting of over 100 million mangrove trees, a move intended to fortify the city against erosion and rising sea levels.

The Dubai Mangroves Project

Urb, the driving force behind projects like the Dubai Reefs and The Loop, has unveiled the Dubai Mangroves project as part of the Dubai 2040 Master Plan.



This initiative seeks to redefine coastal regeneration by integrating ecological preservation with urban development. Spanning a vast 72 kilometers of coastline, the Dubai Mangroves project is poised to become the world's largest coastal regeneration effort in hopes of positioning Dubai as a resilient city by 2040.



At the core of this ambitious endeavor are mangrove trees, renowned for their capacity to sequester carbon, safeguard coastal areas from erosion, and support marine life and food security.



Mangrove forests provide habitats for a wide variety of wildlife, including fish, birds, and mammals. These ecosystems support local fisheries, contributing to food security for coastal communities. Mangroves also filter water, improving its quality by trapping pollutants and sediment.



In short, mangrove trees are vital for ecological sustainability, and Urb's upcoming project wants to emphasize this.

"Setting a Global Standard"

Baharash Bagherian, CEO of Urb, has articulated the project's vision, highlighting its potential to serve as a global model for harmonizing urban and environmental innovation.



Bagherian underscores the transformative power of integrating ecological preservation with urban growth, asserting that the Dubai Mangroves project represents a paradigm shift in balancing planetary needs with human interests.



"This project is much more than coastal regeneration or resilience; it's about setting a global standard for how cities can balance the needs of the planet with the needs of the people," Bagherian said in a press release statement.



In addition to its ecological objectives, the project incorporates edutainment elements such as the Mangrove Visitor Hub, designed to educate and engage communities and visitors about the significance of mangroves and broader environmental issues.



The Botanical Museum and Nature Reserve Conservation Center will be built as hubs for research, education, and advocacy, fostering environmental stewardship.



The Dubai Mangroves project aligns with the broader goals of the Dubai 2040 Master Plan, which aims to enhance the city's sustainability and resilience.

"Dubai Mangroves stands as a vibrant testament to Dubai's commitment to sustainable urban growth and environmental responsibility. By merging ecological conservation efforts with the city's developmental ambitions, the project not only aims to fortify Dubai's shoreline resilience but also to enrich its green infrastructure," Urb wrote in a press release about the project.




AI-powered deception detectors have been touted as potential tools to identify lies, but experts caution against premature adoption.

The Universities of Marburg and Wurzburg research team emphasizes that while AI holds promise for understanding deception, it is still not ready for real-world applications.

Can AI Really Identify Lies?

The experts underscore that identifying lies is complex and challenging. Scientists have long sought reliable methods for detecting deception, and AI has emerged as a new frontier in this pursuit.

There is considerable optimism surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in deception detection, such as identifying travelers with suspicious intentions at EU borders in Hungary, Greece, and Lithuania.

The cautionary stance on AI's current readiness for lie detection comes from researchers at the Universities of Marburg and Wurzburg. They view AI as a valuable tool for foundational research into the psychological mechanisms behind deception but urge skepticism about its application in practical settings.

Kristina Suchotzki and Matthias Gamer, professors at the respective universities, led the study published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Suchotzki specializes in lie detection research, while Gamer focuses on credibility diagnostics.

Their study identifies critical issues with AI-based deception detection. Firstly, the algorithms used lack transparency, making it unclear how AI arrives at its decisions.

The researchers note that this lack of transparency limits the ability to critically evaluate results and understand why certain classifications are made.

Another issue is biased results due to the selection of input variables and biased training data. AI was hoped to mitigate human biases, but the reality often falls short due to inherent biases in the data used for training, according to the researchers.

The third problem they cited arises from the technology's fundamental nature.

AI-based deception detection assumes the existence of unique cues for deception, but the experts note that decades of research have not conclusively identified such cues or a predictive theory.

Read Also : AI Priest Gets Demoted After Saying Babies Can Be Baptized with Gatorade, Making Other Wild Claims

AI Research in Deception

Despite their reservations, Suchotzki and Gamer do not discourage AI research in deception detection. However, they stress the need for rigorous conditions before considering real-world applications.

They recommend verifying that AI algorithms meet quality standards, including controlled experiments, diverse and unbiased datasets, and validation on independent datasets to avoid false positives.

Suchotzki and Gamer also advise limited use of AI-based deception detection in highly controlled situations, where behavioral and statement differences could signal deception.

Their recommendations also include a caution to policymakers, drawing from historical lessons on the implications of deploying deception detection methods prematurely.

"History teaches us what happens if we do not adhere to strict research standards before methods for detecting deception are introduced in real life," the researchers said in a statement.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Microsoft has warned about a major cybersecurity threat affecting many Android users worldwide. According to a recent Microsoft security blog (via Phone Arena), over 4 billion users could be at risk due to vulnerabilities identified in popular Android applications.

Microsoft Identifies Critical Flaw Affecting Over 1.5 Billion App Installations

The vulnerability identified by Microsoft revolves around an improper implementation of "app isolation." This flaw allows malicious apps to manipulate other apps, potentially compromising sensitive user information. Microsoft warns that the flaw can give threat actors access to a victim's account and sensitive info.

Among the applications highlighted in the report are Xiaomi's File Manager and WPS Office, both widely used, with over a billion users and 500 million installations, respectively. These apps were found to have issues related to the vulnerability pattern identified by Microsoft.

Microsoft emphasized the severity of the threat, stating that depending on how an app is implemented, the vulnerability could result in arbitrary code execution or token theft.

The company urged users to ensure their devices and apps are up to date, stressing the importance of having the latest versions of apps running on their phones and downloading apps only from trusted sources.

Read Also : Finnish Hacker Sentenced for Major Data Breach, Blackmail in Psychotherapy Center Case

SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 04: In this photo illustration, the Facebook and Instagram apps are seen on the screen of an iPhone on October 04, 2021 in San Anselmo, California. Social media applications Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are experiencing a global outage that started before 9 a.m. (P.S.T.) on Monday morning.

Microsoft Warns Against Vulnerability in Xiaomi's File Manager and Other Apps

Xiaomi's File Manager, in particular, poses additional risks due to its capability to connect to remote file shares using FTP and SMB protocols. Microsoft cautioned users of this app to reset credentials and monitor for any unusual activity.

The company followed a responsible disclosure process, notifying developers about the vulnerability and working closely with them to address it. Collaboration with Google was also highlighted, with guidance for Android developers on the Android Developers website.

Microsoft's security blog outlined the technical details of the vulnerability, focusing on the exploitation of Android share targets. This method allows a malicious app to overwrite files in the vulnerable app's home directory, potentially leading to critical file overwrites.

A case study on Xiaomi's File Manager was provided to illustrate the vulnerability's real-world impact. This practical example helps developers and users understand the risks associated with the flaw.

In addition to addressing the immediate concerns, Microsoft hopes its findings will encourage publishers to examine their apps for similar vulnerabilities. The company stressed the importance of avoiding introducing such flaws into new apps or versions.

For developers, recommendations include following best practices such as verifying file integrity and ignoring filenames from remote providers. Users are advised to keep their apps updated from trusted sources and to reset credentials if accessed through vulnerable apps.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.
With slow iPhone sales, Apple's recent earnings report showed a revenue drop. Despite this setback, the tech behemoth exceeded Wall Street's forecasts, sending its shares up after-hours.



In a pre-call statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook reported $90.8 billion in March quarter services revenue, a record. The company's sales fell 4% year-over-year but outperformed expected earnings of $90.1 billion, The Guardian reported.

Apple also raised its cash dividend to $0.25 per share by 4%. However, iPhone revenue fell 10% to $45.96 billion from last year, below Wall Street's projection of $46 billion. Reports also indicated board clearance for a $110 billion stock buyback.

Apple Facing Stiff Competition

Apple's iPhone sales fell in the first quarter as Huawei gained market share, notably in China. Apple surpassed Samsung as the world's leading smartphone vendor last year, but Samsung recaptured the top rank in 2024 with a smaller volume reduction.



Tim Cook Cook and Apple CFO, Luca Maestri, addressed worries about the company's performance in China during the earnings call's Q&A session, noting a reduction in demand but highlighting a better condition than expected.



Cook also announced large generative AI investments in the coming quarter, following Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta. He called the MacBook Air the "best consumer laptop for AI."



He stressed that Apple continues to "feel very bullish" about its chance in generative AI. "We are making significant investments, and we're looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers soon," Cook said during the call.



After canceling its electric vehicle project in February, Apple prioritized AI projects. After cutting departments, the business laid off workers and ended Titan's decade-long autonomous EV effort. Apple's decision to cancel Project Titan startled the public and its staff, despite its projected $10 billion cost.



Apple has been more cautious about its generative AI efforts than Microsoft and Google. However, it is apparently building an AI research hub in Zurich and attracting AI experts. Apple has also published AI research papers, suggesting new product features.



Apple's voyage into generative AI is less documented, but experts expect the company to reveal more smartphone AI ideas later this year.

(Photo : YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

Apple CEO Tim Cook reacts as he leaves the Apple Developers Academy during his visit to Indonesia in Tangerang, a suburb of Jakarta, on April 17, 2024.

Apple Investors Raise Concerns Over AI Development

The Vision Pro, Apple's first new product since the 2015 Apple Watch, is a mixed-reality headset. Its sales impact is modest. According to Al Jazeera, Apple also faces perceptions of falling behind Microsoft and Google in AI technology development.



Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed investor worries in a Thursday conference call, highlighting the company's AI work. He promised to discuss Apple's AI projects in the coming weeks.



TechTimes previously reported that Apple rival Samsung regained its global leadership with a 20.8% market share and 60.1 million smartphone sales in Q1. Apple recorded a 17.3% market share and sold 50.1 million units during the period.



Samsung Electronics' first-quarter 2024 financial performance was good, up from last year. As memory chip sales recovered, operating profit rose by over 930%.



Demand for AI-specific servers, memory, and storage fuels this rebirth. Q1 2024 saw Samsung's memory chip division return to profitability after 2023 macroeconomic issues. Demand for DRAM, NAND, SSDs, and servers drove prices.



In 2023, Samsung's quarterly revenues grew 12.8% to KRW 71.2 trillion ($52.2). TechCrunch announced a 330% increase in net profit to KRW 6.75 trillion ($4.88 billion).
Germany's top diplomat warned Russia that its military intelligence service had staged an "absolutely intolerable" hack and that sanctions would follow. This Friday announcement followed NATO and EU assurances that they would not allow Russia's "malicious" cyber conduct without a reaction.

Germany's military assistance for Ukraine's battle with Russia strained relations with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock blamed Russian state hackers for a cyberattack last year at a press conference in Adelaide, Australia. According to AP News, she named the Social Democrats, Germany's ruling coalition party, as targets of the online assault. Additionally, the German Interior Ministry reported that hackers targeted German corporations, particularly defense and aerospace firms, and entities involved in the Ukraine war.

"Russian state hackers targeted Germany in cyberspace," Baerbock said, identifying the group known as APT28, under the direction of Russia's military intelligence service, as the one responsible for the cyberattack.

Russia to Face Sanctions, Germany Warns

Baerbock called the situation "absolutely intolerable and unacceptable" and promised Russia repercussions.

According to the Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry, the same group also targeted Czech institutions in a cyber campaign. By 2023, GRU-affiliated APT28 exploited a previously undiscovered Microsoft Outlook vulnerability.

The Czech ministry warned that cyberattacks against political entities, state institutions, and key infrastructure threaten national security and democratic processes in free democracies. The attacks did not specify any specific targets.



According to NATO, cyber threat organization APT28 targeted national governments, vital infrastructure operators, and other entities in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden.

This cyber danger prompted NATO's main political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, to use its powers to discourage, defend against, and fight all cyber attacks. The Council also stressed coordinated responses to such threats.

Moreover, in light of China's growing influence in the Pacific, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji to discuss security strategies, as reported by France 24.

During her visit to Australia, Baerbock underlined Germany-Australia defense cooperation, stating a willingness to strengthen and extend it owing to shared security concerns. Moreover, her discussion with her counterpart Penny Wong focused on the Gaza conflict.

Read Also: Massive Data Breach in Australian Facial Recognition System Raises Alarm

Germany's Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock speaks during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna People from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, at Possum Park in Adelaide on May 3, 2024.

NATO Warns of Russia's Hostility Across Europe

In a Thursday statement, NATO warned of "hostile" Russian activity across Europe. The 32-member military alliance called Moscow's recent moves a danger to Western security.

The statement blamed Russia for misinformation, sabotage, violence, cyber and electrical meddling, and hybrid operations, as reported by Euronews. These measures have affected Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the UK, according to NATO.

NATO criticized Russia's conduct and offered support to impacted countries, calling the instances part of an expanding campaign. The alliance pledged to strengthen resilience and use instruments to discourage and protect against Russian hybrid threats.

European countries and Washington support Kyiv because of Russia-West tensions heightened by President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This has raised rhetoric and encouraged hybrid warfare, which combines military power with unorthodox economic, political, and social actions.

Margus Tsahkna, the Foreign Minister of Estonia, stated that Moscow could potentially use migrants as hybrid attackers by crossing borders. Baltic nations have also highlighted worries about Russia deliberately jamming GPS navigation systems, disrupting air traffic.

Following these events, NATO reaffirmed its commitment to providing Ukraine with military and financial support in its battle against the Russian army, emphasizing that member nations will remain unfazed.
Elon Musk's plea for faith in Tesla Inc.'s self-driving vehicle delivery has highlighted the company's high value, which implies success.



Tesla's shares are far more expensive than those of AI pioneers Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Nvidia and Microsoft's earnings forecasts are rising, while Tesla's are falling due to declining EV demand, according to Bloomberg.



Roundhill Investments CEO David Mazza underlined Tesla's problem of sustaining its story as more than an EV producer despite diminishing core company growth. Despite recent drops, Tesla's stock remains pricey due to this challenge.



Tesla's valuation exceeds that of Nvidia and Microsoft by 63 times its projected earnings. Analysts' lower Tesla profit forecasts, especially after a dismal first-quarter report, have compounded this expensive price.

Elon Musk's AI Ambitions Fuel Tesla's Stock Increase

The EV manufacturer's stock fell until Elon Musk's recent quarterly results call, where he announced lofty autonomous car and AI goals. Since then, the firm's stock has risen nearly 24% in anticipation of China approving its driver-assistance software.



Tesla has hurdles in pursuing future aspirations. Self-driving vehicles are still a long way off, and the company's first quarterly sales loss since 2020 indicates decreasing EV demand. Tesla's abandonment of crucial initiatives like its charging network increases investor concern.



Critics say Tesla has yet to establish its autonomous car capabilities, especially compared to Cruise, Ford Motor Co., and Volkswagen AG's Argo AI, which have struggled. Despite giving free driver assistance software trials, Tesla's autonomous driving goals are unclear.



Tesla's market valuation exceeds major automobile manufacturers, demonstrating investors' trust in Elon Musk's vision. Nevertheless, as self-driving feature competition intensifies and its value detaches from its core endeavors, Tesla faces pressure to fulfill its promises.

Tesla is a "faith-based stock," according to Interactive Brokers chief analyst Steve Sosnick, dependent on investors' faith in Musk's vision. Despite earlier successes, the company's future depends on implementing these principles.

Read Also : Apple Beats Estimates Despite iPhone Sales Slump

Tesla cars are parked in front of a Tesla showroom and service center on May 20, 2019 in Burlingame, California.

Tesla Cars Pass Security Restrictions in China

This week, Tesla's China-made cars met data security standards, resulting to local Chinese authorities easing restrictions on Tesla electric vehicles.

According to CNBC, the development took place during Beijing's first major car show in four years, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's surprise meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Due to data collection concerns, certain government buildings in China banned Tesla's automobiles, which are among the most popular electric vehicles.

Tesla's press announcement did not name the local authorities that loosened limitations, but the Biden administration had previously investigated Chinese automobiles' data collection capabilities and national security dangers.



Moreover, Tesla recently released a rare update on Cybertruck manufacturing, confirming 1,000 units each week, per Electrek.

The electric car maker has warned that Cybertruck production might be difficult because of distinctive characteristics like the stainless steel body. Since the start of production in November 2023, there have been no updates since production began in November 2023.



Tesla noted that while it produced 1,000 Cybertrucks in April, this doesn't ensure ongoing production. Tesla's Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, announced in the conference call following the release of the shareholders' deck that Cybertruck manufacturing had surpassed 1,000 units per week two weeks ago.

The Tesla official acknowledged new technology and supplier constraints, but volume manufacturing is essential for cost reduction. While increasing output, Tesla prioritizes cost efficiency and quality.
Chinese scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in anti-aging research. Using blood from younger mice, they have extended the lifespan of laboratory mice to the human equivalent of 120-130 years, the South China Morning Post reports.

The study, led by researchers from the School of Life Sciences at Nanjing University, focused on isolating an anti-aging component found in the blood of young mice.

CHENGDU, CHINA - AUGUST 3: (CHINA OUT) A lab worker inspects a white rat which has tumours and is used for cancer gene therapy research, at the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy established by the West China Medical School of Sichuan University on August 3, 2005 in Chengdu of Sichuan Province, southwest China. The lab has carried out gene therapy, immunotherapy, cell therapy and other researches, using thousands of white rats, according to local media.

Study Finds Youthful Blood Component Extends Lifespan in Mice

The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Ageing on April 16, revealed remarkable results. Male mice aged 20 months, typically with a lifespan of 840 days, were given weekly injections of this blood component. The researchers observed a remarkable 22.7% increase in lifespan, with the longest surviving mouse living up to 1,266 days.

According to Zhang Chenyu, co-leader of the study, and his colleagues, the injections extended lifespan and reduced age-related functional decline in various organs, including the hippocampus, muscles, heart, testes, and bones.

However, the study's findings also sparked concerns about ethical implications and potential misuse. Zhang addressed these concerns, emphasizing that any potential treatment derived from this research would be administered as drugs rather than through direct plasma exchange. The goal, he stated, is to identify potent rejuvenating factors for targeted treatments.

SCMP tells us that the study sheds light on the mechanism involving small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), which are crucial in reversing age-related degenerative changes in older rodents. These sEVs, found in various body fluids including blood, transfer nucleic acids and proteins between cells, mediating the exchange of information.

By recognizing and exploiting this mechanism, the researchers observed longer survival times than in previous animal studies.

Can Blood Exchange Stop Aging?

While this breakthrough is significant, previous attempts at similar interventions must be noted. Bryan Johnson, a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur, conducted a multigenerational plasma exchange with his son and father in hopes of influencing age-related brain decline. However, after six young plasma exchanges, Johnson concluded there were "no benefits."

Discontinuing therapy: completed 6, 1L young plasma exchanges. 1x/mo (1 w/ my son). Evaluated biomarkers from biofluids, devices and imaging, no benefits detected.



Young plasma exchange may be beneficial for biologically older populations or certain conditions. Does not in my  Bryan Johnson /dd (@bryan_johnson) July 5, 2023

American blood transfusion startup Ambrosia previously sold young plasma transfusions but shut down following a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning. The FDA has also issued a statement against plasma transfers for age-related diseases, citing a lack of proven clinical benefits and potential risks.

Moving forward, the Chinese research team acknowledges that their study is just the beginning. Many scientific questions still need to be answered before the findings can be clinically tested and developed into a treatment. The researchers also said that trials on large primates closer to humans are necessary steps in this process.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.
Are you looking for The Pirate Bay proxy list for 2024 to unblock the Pirate Bay and download torrents?

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Lots of ads and malware

Fake torrents with malware VPN To Unblock The Pirate Bay Proxy Sites The Pirates Bay and several of its mirror and proxy sites are banned in many countries and regions, and this torrent site has also faced many legal issues in different regions in the past. Well, you can use VPN services for accessing The Pirate Bay and its proxies in these regions. You can even check out our list of the Best VPNs for torrenting. It is worth noting that, in some regions like the USA and Australia its important to use a VPN service to access even The Pirate Bay proxy sites. Use Tor Browser to Unblock Pirate Bay You can even use the Tor browser or browsers like Opera browser which has an inbuilt VPN to unblock Pirate Bay and its mirror torrent sites. Tor browser routes your IP and helps Unblock Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay Mirror Sites You can even use Pirate Bay mirror sites if you dont want to use proxies. Mirror sites are exact replicas of the original Pirate Bay hosted on different servers. https://thepiratebay.rip/

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https://pirate-bays.net/torrent-search The Pirate Bay Alternatives Below we have mentioned some of the best Pirate Bay alternatives that you can use for torrenting.

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1337x was the ultimate torrent site back in the period between 2010 to 2014. Then like every popular torrent site, it was blocked virtually everywhere.

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TPB houses everything ranging from retro games to movies, and it is considered the best torrent site out there. Consider Yify/YTS as the best for movie torrents, having the best prints available in the least possible size.

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Yify offers torrent files alone, and there are no magnet links available. Use the torrent files for downloading movies on your device using an excellent torrenting client.

We have Torlock, where all the torrents are verified, hosting a tracker library of over seven million torrents.

As we were lurking on the site, we came across a distinct category  image, which we dont often find on other torrenting sites.

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The last one here is Anidex, which is the best TPB alternative for downloading anime and manga torrents.

They house over a million different anime torrents here, with the manga ones in .cbz format, easy to read. Find diverse anime games here in a dedicated section.

Finding the proper subtitles is a real problem for anime. Search for them here as they are listed in different languages, from German to Arabic.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 4. Permanent representative of Azerbaijan to the UN Yashar Aliyev handed over to his colleagues in the world organization letters of invitation to COP29 addressed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the leaders of a number of countries, the press service of the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the UN said, Trend reports.

"As preparations for COP29 continue, invitation letters addressed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the heads of state and government of El Salvador, Libya, Micronesia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Palau, Senegal, Seychelles, Syria, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Venezuela were handed over by the permanent representative of Azerbaijan [at the UN] to his distinguished colleagues accredited at UN headquarters in New York," the statement said.

This November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Baku will become the center of the world and will receive about 70,00080,000 foreign guests.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. COPthe Conference of the Partiesis the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
70% of environment journalists report attacks, threats, pressure: UN



Santiago, May 2 (AFP) May 02, 2024



Seventy percent of environmental journalists from 129 countries, polled in March, reported experiencing attacks, threats or pressure related to their job, UNESCO said Thursday.

Of those, two in five subsequently experienced physical violence, it said in a report released on World Press Freedom Day. More than 900 reporters were questioned for the poll.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization warned of an increase in violence against and intimidation of journalists reporting on the environment and climate.

"Without reliable scientific information about the ongoing environmental crisis, we can never hope to overcome it," UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.

"And yet the journalists we rely on to investigate this subject and ensure information is accessible face unacceptably high risks all over the world, and climate-related disinformation is running rampant on social media."

UNESCO said at least 749 journalists and news media outlets reporting on environmental issues were "targeted with murder, physical violence, detention and arrest, online harassment or legal attacks" between 2009 and 2023.

More than 300 of those attacks occurred between 2019 and 2023 -- a 42 percent increase on the preceding five-year period.

"The problem is global, with attacks taking place in 89 countries in all regions of the world," the agency added.



- 'Fear of being attacked' -



At least 44 environmental journalists have been killed for their work in the past 15 years, with convictions in only five cases, said the report.

On top of hundreds of reported physical attacks, "a third of journalists surveyed said they had been censored," it added.

"Almost half (45 percent) said they self-censored when covering the environment due to fear of being attacked, having their sources exposed, or due to an awareness that their stories conflicted with the interests of concerned stakeholders."

At a press freedom conference in Chile this week, UNESCO will announce the launch of a grants program to provide legal and technical support to over 500 environmental journalists facing persecution, said the statement.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The long history of Polish-Azerbaijani friendly ties is a good foundation for further development of bilateral relations, Rafa Poborski, Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan, told Trend in an exclusive interview.

"The dynamics of contacts over the last four years differs. In 2020-2021 period we observed a slow-down caused by COVID-19 restrictions. However, since 2022 Poland and Azerbaijan have not only managed to return to the pre-pandemic level of contacts but also started developing cooperation in new areas. One of the important steps that enabled us to foster people-to-people contacts and economic cooperation was the opening of direct flights between Warsaw and Baku in May 2022. This connection, operated by Polands national carrier LOT Polish Airlines, is very popular among Azerbaijanis traveling to Poland for studies and work. It also contributes to increasing the number of Poles visiting Azerbaijan, for tourist but also business purposes. It naturally helped to facilitate contacts between state institutions too," he said.

Ambassador Poborski believes that in 2024 the bilateral cooperation between Poland and Azerbaijan will be even more intensive than over the past couple years. He expressed hope that the long-planned Polish-Azerbaijani meetings at the highest level will take place in the coming months.

Furthermore, the diplomat pointed out several areas where Azerbaijan and Poland have already established successful cooperation. Regarding the transport sector, he noted that Poland and Azerbaijan are situated at the crossroads of international transport corridors that link Europe and Asia.

"So, growing roles of our countries as logistic and distribution centers are natural. Within the emerging and developing transport corridors, we support the development of transport and logistics cooperation with Azerbaijan while also building its position as an international transport and logistics hub between East and West. After the Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 24, 2022, and due to international sanctions that affect connections via Belarus and Russia, the Middle Corridor is an interesting alternative. Polands interest in the development of this corridor was confirmed by signing a letter of intent on cooperation between the Baku International Sea Trade Port and the Polish Port of Gdansk in 2022. A few meetings of the bilateral working group of both ports representatives have already taken place," he elaborated.

He mentioned that there is also strong potential for cooperation in the renewable energy sector between the two countries. Specifically, several Polish producers could enter the developing green energy market in Azerbaijan

"In addition to its huge hydrocarbon reserves, Azerbaijan is also a potential green energy powerhouse, and therefore, we welcome the decision of your authorities to pay more attention to renewables, the role of which will only increase in the future. Polish companies could contribute to building this new and lucrative branch of Azerbaijani economy just as Polish engineers helped develop your oil and gas industry more than 100 years ago. We will be happy to support any initiatives to strengthen our cooperation in this area," he said.

According to the ambassador, Poland is successfully diversifying away from the reliance on fossil fuels, and the share of renewable energy resources in its energy mix is steadily growing.

"The capacity of renewable energy installations in Poland reached a record of over 28.8 GW at the end of 2023. Renewables generated 26 percent of Polands electricity in 2023, up from 19.3 percent the previous year. The increase  together with the dynamic and abrupt development of renewables  would not be possible without the technical thoughts, innovations, and solutions in this field contributed by Polish entrepreneurs. The Polish domestic energy companies are playing a key role in this process by developing photovoltaic projects and initiating the implementation of offshore wind energy projects on a large scale. We also see enormous potential for hydrogen technologies that could be implemented in industries where electrification is not technically or economically feasible. This is reflected in the activities of our research institutes and companies successfully developing hydrogen technologies across the entire value chain," Poborski noted.

The diplomat also provided an update on the implementation of cooperation with Azerbaijan within the V4-Azerbaijan Tech Bridge (V4ATB) program, initiated by the Polish Embassy in 2022 and completed in 2023.

"The one-and-a-half-year program was implemented by the Visegrad Group (V4, Czech-Hungarian-Polish-Slovak) consortium led by the Startup Hub Poland Foundation. Its goal was to enhance cooperation and interaction between V4 countries and Azerbaijan startup ecosystems. And this goal was achieved. Over 160 Azerbaijani startups applied to participate in the program. The international jury selected 80 out of them who took part in the intensive training, workshops, bootcamps, and meetings with partners (like investors, accelerators, and business angels) from the V4 countries. The 10 best Azerbaijani projects reached the semi-finals of the program which took place in Baku in June of 2023. As a result of the program, many V4 investors had the opportunity to take a closer look at the potential of Azerbaijani innovators, and Azerbaijani startups gained knowledge about V4 markets and ecosystems," he explained.

As a result of this cooperation, the ambassador believes that new joint innovative technological solutions and products of Polish-Azerbaijani origin could emerge in the European and world markets.

"Relations established during the V4ATB program and its finale in Baku are already paying off and will continue to bear fruit in the future. The number of visits of representatives of the Azerbaijani innovation ecosystem to Poland is increasing, and we also expect further visits of Polish partners to Azerbaijan. We are ready to implement similar programs if there is interest from the Azerbaijani side. Poland, with its current innovations and startup support programs, is the best place for young high-tech companies interested in developing their business and ideas on the UE market. Polish investors, venture capital, and private equity funds are actively looking for attractive investment targets and innovative projects around the world. Azerbaijani startups and innovative entrepreneurs could take advantage of this offer and the related opportunities. As a result of such cooperation, new innovative technological solutions and products of Polish-Azerbaijani origin could appear in the European and world markets," he said.

Rafa Poborski also emphasized that fields of cooperation such as education, science, and culture are key factors in the development of bilateral relations between Poland and Azerbaijan.

"During my more than four-year term as ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Baku, I have always attached great importance to people-to-people contacts, believing that they allow us to get to know and understand each other better. For example, almost every month delegations from Polish universities and think tanks come to Azerbaijan to develop bilateral scientific and student exchange as well as to promote study opportunities in Poland. Currently, a delegation of over 20 scientists and students from Postgraduate Eastern Studies at Warsaw University is staying in Baku - during their visit, they have been meeting with Azerbaijani experts to better understand Azerbaijans history and current developments in the South Caucasus," the ambassador noted.

He also pointed out the successful cooperation between Polish and Azerbaijani artists, and spoke about the role of the Embassy in enhancing these relations.

"In December 2023, our Embassy and the Arts Council Azerbaijan co-organized workshops Poland through the eyes of Azerbaijani artists for 10 Azerbaijani painters who made artworks thematically related to Polish history, culture, etc. This event took place in the open studio formula at the Nur Art House gallery at Bakus old town with the participation of i.a. the Polish community and Azerbaijani art lovers. In March 2024 we presented in the State Puppet Theater in Baku a photographic exhibition Polish Puppetry Art, showing examples of puppets and marionettes from Poland photographed by the Azerbaijani artist and art curator Aydin Sadikhov. The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Baku organizes events to promote knowledge about Poland in Azerbaijan and Polish-Azerbaijani historical and cultural ties. One of our most recent projects in this area concerns the contribution of Polish engineers living at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the development of oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan. At the beginning of 2024 we sponsored the publication of the book on Witold Zglenicki (1850-1904) - a Polish inventor, geologist and philanthropist, little known in Azerbaijan, whose discoveries made a significant contribution to the development of the Azerbaijani gas and oil sector. In February the Embassy and the National Museum of the History of Azerbaijan organized the promotion of this book in Azerbaijani language version. In April 2024 we promoted the English version of this publication to readers in Azerbaijan," he said.

When speaking about the future prospects for the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, the ambassador emphasized that recent months have seen many developments that have created favorable conditions for this process.

"With newly created governments in Poland and Azerbaijan we gained new dynamism in political ties. We count on participation in major international gatherings in Baku such as COP29 and National Urban Forum. My country welcomes the steps taken by Azerbaijan to normalize relations with Armenia and the delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian conditional border in April 2024. Stability and peace in the South Caucasus will surely bring new opportunities for inhabitants of the region but also for Poland. It could be related to the reconstruction of Karabakh and liberated territories for example. Polish experts - architects, engineers, but also specialists in the protection and reconstruction of historic monuments - could provide support to the Azerbaijani side in projects implemented in these areas. But there are also other business chances that I presented, educational cooperation, people-to-people contacts, cultural ties and so on. We should do our outmost to fully use the existing potential of Polish-Azerbaijani cooperation. I believe that we are on the right path," he added.

Ambassador Poborski, highlighting the celebration of Poland's national holiday, Constitution Day, noted that it laid the foundation for good and active Polish-Azerbaijani cooperation at the beginning of the 20th century and in the past three decades.

"Today we celebrate a special day for Poles around the world  233rd anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of May 3rd 1791. This Constitution was the first one in Europe and the second in the world after the United States. It was a modern basic law regulating the state system and the relations between authorities and citizens of multiethnic and multi-confessional Republic of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania that together constituted the Commonwealth of Two Nations. It was so modern that authoritarian neighbors of Poland - being afraid of its influence on their own subjects - invaded, partitioned and occupied the country for the next 123 years. But the Constitution of May 3rd 1791 was a guiding light for Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and many other repressed nations that fought in Europe for their freedom in the XIX century. Also for nations seeking independence in the Tsarist Russian Empire, Azerbaijanis among them. It is no coincidence that soon after achieving political independence in 1918 both Poland and Azerbaijan adopted Constitutions based on fundamental freedoms and equal democratic rights for all their citizens irrespective of their ethnic, religious, political or gender status. That phenomenon repeated in 1990 when Poles and Azerbaijanis were getting rid of the Communist legacy. It created the fundaments of good and active Polish-Azerbaijani cooperation at the beginning of the XX century and in the past three decades. The legacy of the Constitution of May 3rd 1791 is still valid today for Polish-Azerbaijani relations," Rafa Poborski concluded.
Rains, mudslides kill 29 in southern Brazil's 'worst disaster'



Capela de Santana, Brazil, May 3 (AFP) May 03, 2024



Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday visited the country's south where floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains have killed 29 people, with the toll expected to rise.

Authorities in Rio Grande do Sul have declared a state of emergency as rescuers continue to search for dozens of people reported missing among the ruins of collapsed homes, bridges and roads.

Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000.

Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with "the worst disaster in (its) history."

"With the deepest pain in my heart, I know it will be even more," the governor said of the death toll.

Lula, who has blamed the torrent on climate change, arrived in the town of Santa Maria in the morning with a delegation of ministers and held a working meeting with Leite and other officials to coordinate rescue efforts, the government said.

The president promised "there will be no lack of human or material resources" to "minimize the suffering this extreme event... is causing in the state."

The federal government, he added, "will be 100 percent at the disposition" of state officials.

Central authorities has already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, a press statement said.

As the rains continued, forecasts warned the state's main Guaiba River, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, would reach an extraordinary level of three meters (9.8 feet) by Thursday and four meters the next day.



- 'Completely destroyed' -



Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul state have been completely cut off as persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without even telephone or internet services.

Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stuck on rooftops to escape rising waters.

"I've never seen anything like this... it's all under water," said Raul Metzel, a 52-year-old machine operator in the municipality of Capela de Santana.

A dam collapsed in the town of Cotipora, raising the level of water in the Taquari river.

"I came here to help people, to get them out of the flooding because it is very dangerous. The current is very strong," said fisherman Guilverto Luiz, who was helping rescue efforts in Sao Sebastiaio do Cai, about 70 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital.

Authorities have urged people to avoid areas along state highways due to a risk of mudslides, and those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to electricity and drinking water, while classes have been suspended state-wide.

On Wednesday, the state's deputy governor, Gabriel Souza, said damages have been estimated at $20 million.

Mayor Sandra Backes of Sinimbu said the situation in her town was "a nightmare."

"Sinimbu is like a war zone, completely destroyed... All the stores, businesses, supermarkets -- everything is devastated," she said in a video posted on Instagram.

Elsewhere, in Santa Cruz do Sul, lifeguards used boats to transport residents, many of them children, to safety.

The region's rivers had already been swollen from previous storms.

Last September at least 31 people died as a cyclone hit the state.

South America's largest country has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.

The floods came amid a cold front battering the south and southeast, following a wave of extreme heat.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. ADB supports Azerbaijan in holding COP29, director for climate change in ADB's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department Noelle O'Brien told reporters, Trend reports.

"We support Azerbaijan's hosting of COP29. We have stated to the government of Azerbaijan that we support this, and we are currently exploring with them how ADB can directly support them in hosting this event. There are several ways. We are bank observers in the negotiations, and we don't intervene in the substantive issues. But we are providing some capacity-building support to the government that is in the negotiation process," she said.

She said various negotiations will be part of the priority for this year's conference.

"This includes issues such as new collective quantitative targets that represent a level of ambition beyond the current expected $100 billion. We expect that to be part of the process. The allocation of funds for adaptation and other aspects of the global agreements is also a matter of concern. So, at the request of Azerbaijan's government, we will provide support in terms of engagement. We're also obviously discussing with them what investments the country wants to make. And this is an area of work that involves our sector teams and our regional team in the Central West region," she concluded.

To note, the theme for the 57th Annual Meeting takes place from May 2 through May 5, titled Bridge to the Future.

The opening session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening session marks the official start of the annual meeting. The guest of honor from the host country attends this high-profile event. Remarks will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa the Minister of Finance of Georgia and Chair of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The annual meeting is an opportunity for ADB governors to consider development issues and challenges facing Asia and the Pacific. Several thousand participants, including finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, members of the private sector, representatives of international organizations and civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media, regularly join the meeting.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
AccessBank, proudly announces the financial support from its investor responsAbility Investment AG, a prestigious international financial institution. AccessBank has structured the Loan Agreement with two financial inclusion funds managed by responsAbility. The bank concluded a 3-year Loan Agreement securing a total amount of USD 3 million and a loan of USD 2 million. The funds raised will be utilized for initiatives aimed at encouraging and developing entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan, including the financing of microloans, which is one of the Banks top priorities.

We are thrilled to secure this financial support from our esteemed investor, responsAbility Investment AG. This transaction is not merely a business transaction, but also the establishment of a trusting relationship, underscoring our commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and small businesses in Azerbaijan. With these funds, we will further strengthen our initiatives to foster economic growth and prosperity in the region. Each loan is an opportunity to reach new horizons, and we are proud to be a part of this journey. Our goal is to be a reliable partner on the path to financial stability and prosperity for our customers, said Davit Tsiklauri, Chairman of the Management Board of AccessBank.

responsAbility is recognized as one of the world's leading impact asset management and development investment companies. The Company operates a series of investment vehicles that provide private placements of debt and private equity, primarily in unlisted companies with business models in developing and emerging economies. Their involvement in this Loan Agreement reflects their confidence in AccessBank's vision and capabilities. responsAbility has more than USD 4.5 billion in assets invested in more than 250 companies across nearly 70 countries.

AccessBank, a pioneer in the microfinancing market, has been providing services to small and medium-sized enterprises since 2002. The Bank's shareholders include the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and other international organizations and investment funds. With 33 branch offices, including 14 in Baku and 19 in regions, AccessBank continues to offer accessible financing options for MSMEs. For more detailed information on the branh offices, please follow: http://bit.ly/accessbank-filiallar

For more information on the services provided by AccessBank, call 151 or visit the website at www.accessbank.az. You can also follow the bank's social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

AccessBank CJSC operates under license No. 245 dated 25 October 2002, issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The bank's Head Office is located at 3 Tbilisi avenue, Yasamal district, Baku city.
Mick Jagger goes to the front of the stage during the The Rolling Stones performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
When Vladimir Putins tanks poured over the Ukrainian border, the world changed dramatically. With Russias status as a lethal pariah state confirmed, the time had come for everyone to pick a side.

For Western companies, it meant making some tough but very obvious decisions about their presence in Russia. Choosing to stay in the country was effectively the same as choosing to fund Putins war machine  chief executives knew the financial implications of continuing to do business with the Kremlin, not to mention the massive propaganda victory it handed Moscow.

Vladimir Putins tax coffers are getting topped up by Western banks. Credit: AP

The same applied to any organisation doing business with a Russian organisation or individual, or helping to facilitate Russian trade whether its oil, gas, coal or other exports.

Most Western outfits grasped the nettle and got out quickly, often suffering sizeable losses on the businesses they abandoned. Others dragged their feet but exited eventually, and at times under visible duress. Some said they wanted to get out but provided a whole variety of reasons as to why they couldnt immediately.
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Eating outRestaurant news Who has replaced star chef Rosheen Kaul at Etta, and whats next for her? She helped make the Brunswick East wine bar an essential Melbourne dining experience. And with such big shoes to fill, who is taking over as head chef? Tomas Telegramma May 3, 2024 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

One of Melbournes most exciting and endearing chef-owner partnerships, Ettas Rosheen Kaul and Hannah Green, has come to an end. After three-and-a-half years, Kaul put in her last shift at the hatted Brunswick East restaurant on April 27. Rosheen Kaul with Etta owner Hannah Green. Simon Schluter Green opened Etta in 2017 and the restaurant earned a hat in 2019, but it soared to new heights with Kaul helming the kitchen. She put her Chinese, Singaporean, Filipino and Kashmiri heritage on the plate to create a quintessential Melbourne dining experience. We kicked goals that restaurants and chefs would only dream of, Kaul says. We have our [chefs] hats. We made the [Worlds] 50 Best Discovery list. Some of my culinary idols have come in to dine. Her meteoric rise in the industry brought with it a cookbook, recipe columns and regular appearances, on top of her head chef responsibilities. Something had to give.

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Kaul has left her gig as head chef at Etta Dining. Eddie Jim At the end of the day, Im a human and I only have so much capacity. I poured my heart and soul into Etta and left very little for myself. In my hands, I dont think it could go any further. While Kaul takes a break from the stresses of service to finish her second cookbook  all about delicious sauces, she says  and figure out whats next, the Etta team will continue to serve her menu until new head chef Lorcan Kan takes the reins in July. Etta restaurants new head chef Lorcan Kan with owner Hannah Green. Kristoffer Paulsen Kan and Green are old friends who met working at Attica in the early 2010s as senior chef de partie and assistant manager, respectively. Kan, born in Ireland and raised in Australia with Chinese-Malaysian heritage, has staged and worked in kitchens across Asia, the United States and the UK  most notably at Manchesters Where the Light Gets In, which has a Michelin green star for sustainable gastronomy. Since returning to Melbourne, hes hosted regular pop-ups under the Things Palace moniker.

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His plans for Etta include sustainability-first practices like whole-animal butchery, dishes that explore the crossing of cultures, and a tongue-numbing chilli-oil parfait. Its a huge thing but Im really excited, Kan says of the role. Rosheens left an amazing mark on Etta. I have the utmost respect for her contribution ... I want to build on that. Abalone and lardo skewers, one of Kauls signatures. Chloe Dann For Kaul and Green, its a bittersweet end a few months in the making, but they insist theres no bad blood. The last three-and-a-half years with Rosheen have been mind-blowing, says Green. She really helped me find my voice in doing what I do.

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Etta has such a strong identity without me, Kaul adds. Its heart is Hannah Green. Kan will serve his first menu on July 2. 60 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, ettadining.com.au

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This story is a part of the May 4 edition of Good Weekend. See all stories .

I see the poor mans Grange, Penfolds Bin 389, is now retailing at more than $100 a bottle. Werent the Chinese super-tariffs supposed to put downward pressure on premium wine prices?

M.M., Thirroul, NSW

Photo: Simon Letch

The Chinese authorities have now repealed their huge tariffs on Australian wine, imposed for supposed dumping. China was a big market for Penfolds high-end red wines, but these wines are in big demand worldwide. No doubt the tariffs, which peaked at more than 200 per cent, hurt Penfolds, but it has diversified its markets and the good thing about its kind of red is that it ages well; it can wait.

When wine prices fall, they do so mostly in lower-priced bottles. Discounting a $15 wine doesnt damage a brands name in the same way as discounting a $100 wine does. For this reason, wineries are less likely to drop their prices on big-name bottles.

Theyre adept at finding alternatives to lowering their prices, too. They can move surplus stocks through less visible means, such as wine clubs, online retailers, special deals where the price of the wine isnt disclosed or by selling it as a hidden label or a buyers own brand wine.
Fake websites that look and function just like the official stores of popular fashion brands are scamming consumers out of potentially millions of dollars and leaving them exposed to identity theft.

So-called shadow websites have become more prevalent in the past few years, and have targeted brands including Mimco, Country Road, Decjuba, Peter Alexander, Bared Footwear and others, an investigation by this masthead has found.

Real or fake? The genuine Oroton website, and a shadow one claiming to sell the same item. Credit: Stephen Kiprillis

Often, the shadow websites claim to stock the brands items at heavily reduced prices. However, in most cases, they are just glorified scam or phishing sites that trick consumers into parting with their credit card details, and can end up costing much more than the initial purchase.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission estimates there were more than 2700 reports of fake websites last year, resulting in losses of more than $500,000. Online shopping scams generally cost Australians more than $7 million in 2023.
We cant see them, but forever chemicals are everywhere. We eat them, inhale them, slather them on our skin, wear them, cook with them, sit and play on them. Inevitably, they end up in our water supply, and we drink them too.

When the Biden administration recently dramatically lowered the safe limits of PFAS, better known as forever chemicals, in drinking water, the implications rippled across the worlds waters: the levels of these toxic chemicals allowed in Australian tap water are now 140 times the US rate.

Australian drinking water is safe, but what can you do if youre concerned about PFAS levels? Credit: Dionne Gain

A new study by UNSW researchers, looking at PFAS levels in groundwater water samples found high concentrations in Australia, with many locations above recommended drinking water levels.

We are stuck with forever chemicals forever, so what do we do about them? What is the best way to minimise our exposure?
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size My phone pings with an ABC News alert and I scan for the words: woman, mother and death. Satisfied they are not there, I turn back to my computer to complete my notes for the seven women who came to see me for legal advice that day. Their stories move through my head as I write them down: mother of children aged two and four, dislocated jaw, considering separation. Pregnant woman, bite marks to bridge of nose, seeking apprehended domestic violence order. Woman aged 40, child sexual assault, considering reporting to police. Woman aged 55, no access to money and nowhere to live, seeking a property settlement. Mother of children aged nine and 13, threats to kill, family law parenting proceedings. Woman aged 30, in a refuge, seeking divorce advice  These are just snippets; passing numbers and facts. What stays with me are the feelings of love, heartbreak, denial, fear, anxiety, sadness, desperation, frustration, anger and hope that emanate from these women when they tell me their stories. Underneath that, I feel my own anxiety. I check and re-check my advice and my assessment of their safety. When I am satisfied, I close each advice and I prepare for the next day. Pia Birac is a senior solicitor for Legal Aid NSW who specialises in domestic violence. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos I am a senior domestic violence lawyer at Legal Aid NSW, which provides free legal advice and representation to victim-survivors of domestic and family violence across NSW. I started working as a domestic violence lawyer 11 years ago. When I finished my law degree, I fell into family law, then domestic violence law, because of its intersection with womens issues and systems that have historically ignored the issue of domestic and family violence. The number of women being killed by an intimate partner each year has reached crisis levels, yet at the same time there is public debate raging in relation to over-zealous prosecutions of rape cases. This has compelled me to share my experience of the scale and impact of this issue, the ongoing and increasing need for specialist response services and funding to primary prevention work. Loading There is a specific skill set one develops as a domestic violence lawyer doing extensive duty and advice work. Ostensibly clients come to see you for a legal problem. The reality is that their legal problem is also a social one  this is true of many areas of law but none more so than domestic violence and family law. The clients walking through your door come in to tell you, a complete stranger, the most intimate details of their life and things they may never have disclosed to anyone else. They are never happy disclosures. They are living in the problem and often will have no choice but to return to the risk. I am often asked non-legal questions by my clients: Should I separate from my partner? Is this domestic violence? Am I to blame? Should I report the sexual assault? Should I continue with this pregnancy? How can I get him to come back/be a better parent/stop? Of course, these have legal components, but they are largely questions for a counsellor or psychologist. These women come at various points in the cycle of violence and stages of denial and acceptance. Over years of practice and life experience I have become more confident stepping into this non-legal space. Because if not me, there may be no one else that says to this woman: This is not your fault. I am here to tell you this behaviour is not acceptable.

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The life of a DV lawyer in the non-profit sector is a mix of scheduled in-person and phone advice, duty lawyer work in the Family Court and Local Court (which is providing advice and representation to unrepresented people at court) as well as litigation casework. On an average day of phone advice, I speak to six or seven clients, in time slots of one hour each. On duty in the Family Court or Local Court I speak to anywhere between three and 10 over the course of a day. Loading The number of women seeking assistance is near endless, and at times overwhelming. I sometimes feel like a GP with a waiting room full of sick patients and other times like a doctor in an Emergency Department where injuries could be life-threatening in the sense that I am in a constant state of triaging  juggling multiple critical cases, where risk is significant, difficult to assess and mistakes can be catastrophic. As I finish with one client, I walk them out to call in the next. I have limited time to triage, assess the problem and provide a solution. On those Emergency Department days, I patch them up, send them home and hope they wont die. The Domestic Violence Crisis On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.

Men are more commonly the perpetrators of physical violence, sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Women are more likely to experience violence from someone they know than by a stranger (35 per cent v 11 per cent).

One in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

One in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.

Legal Aid NSWs Domestic Violence Unit has had a 36 per cent increase in calls to its hotline and a 61 per cent increase in duty lawyer services provided in the two years to 30 June 2023.

National Legal Aid this week called for $317 million in funding nationally to meet demand. Source: Our Watch, Justice on the Brink: A National Legal Aid report In the local court, which can have up to 100 matters scheduled on days set aside for Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVO), I provide duty services to the women in the safe room. There, I give legal advice to women who need an ADVO, which police often apply for on their behalf. Some of these women do not want the ADVO, despite agreeing they are a victim of violence. I have learnt to put aside my fear for them and focus on their choice and empowerment  they are often the expert in their own safety. Many are thrown into a legal system not by any choice of their own. Every woman has an individual response to the situation they find themselves in. There is no place for judgment of womens choices in my work  many other people and systems take that role. I provide information and advice about options, both legal and social, for moving forward after a significant rupture in their life. I sit, I listen, I help weigh each option. I recommend, I educate, I encourage. While on duty in the local court, if it is safe, I move between my client in the safe room and the defendant outside to negotiate ADVO conditions, the return of belongings and, sometimes, parenting agreements. On one day, I assisted a woman in the safe room who had her two very young children with her, who were the same age as my own. Her husband had assaulted her badly. She had left her home in the middle of the night with nothing but the children and moved into a refuge. She had no family in Australia to support her. She asked me if I could ask her husband for a particular set of cups her children were attached to and some bedsheets for them. He said no. That woman stayed in the safe room all day waiting for her matter to be heard while her children climbed the walls. Her husband was free to walk the corridors of the court. In the Family Court, victim-survivors see me for advice about anything from how to apply for a divorce, advice about how the court makes orders about parenting arrangements, property settlements or relocation of children to different states and countries. Often, clients attend the duty service after their child has been taken from them by their former partner in distressing circumstances and where there has been a history of violence. I represent these clients in urgent applications for the safe return of their child to their care. Its not uncommon to meet a client and be drafting an urgent application to prevent their child from boarding a plane out of the country without their consent that same day.

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I do my best to reset between each client, to provide them a space in which to feel safe and heard. Im not always successful. Often, I usher in the woman explaining I might need to pop into court for a different case, or step out to assist a colleague in an urgent matter. As they sit down and tell me why they are there I quickly begin to calculate exactly what she needs from me that day, how to build rapport, what the legal issue is, how best to explain legal options, what I think she can take in, what other support and referrals are necessary, what the risk is and how it could be mitigated and what follow-up work I would need to do. I do this with the knowledge there are other women waiting, some that require my assistance in court, some that had worked up courage for days, months, years to come and see me. My colleagues buoy me through this work. They are the ones who patiently listen to me debrief after clients have rattled my heart with their stories. They listen and mutter support for me and outrage and anger for the client  even though theyve heard it all before and worse. They listen while I fret over suicidal clients, MIA clients or clients I worry will be killed. My colleagues watch out for me at court, appearing at the door of my duty room when they hear clients in high distress or if things become heated. It was my colleague who called security when an angry father threatened to hit me at court, and my colleague who hugged me while I cried after. Loading When I started doing this work I prided myself on my tough exterior and felt it was core to this practice. It was only after the birth of my first child that I came to realise that having a tough exterior was not sustainable. I had been warned  there was an unofficial policy of not booking in clients with staff who had children the same age  it was too close to home. And it was true, after having my first child I felt raw and cracked open. I took myself off and learnt how to develop good boundaries so I could completely be there for each client without taking on their distress  how to keep myself in the window of tolerance. I learnt to become comfortable and, indeed, empowered by my vulnerability and in turn encouraged my clients to feel empowered by theirs. This is the human experience of working in domestic and family violence. Yet, it is something still not easily discussed. Working in domestic and family violence is a conversation killer. Talking to people about my work, I invariably get one of two well-meaning responses  That must be so hard and awful or you are amazing to do that work! While I truly appreciate the good intent of these comments, both make me uncomfortable. Those comments imply domestic and family violence is experienced by others somewhere else, when in reality it pervades all sections of society here and now. It does not matter your cultural background, wealth, gender identity, sexuality or age. However, it is not inevitable  it is preventable. Which is why I choose to share my experience and contribute to the call for cultural change and for continued funding for primary prevention and frontline services. Loading Recently, I finalised a clients case after years in the family court system. She obtained final orders for her children to live with her and spend no time with their father. In the circumstances of her matter  which were some of the most extreme I have seen  these were appropriate and safe. Among other violent behaviour, the father had made repeated and detailed threats to kill her and the children. The legal proceedings were over, but my client now had to go on and build a life under the long shadow of those threats. We both worried what his response would be to the orders being made, but there was nothing more that could be done through the legal system to increase her protection. We planned for her safety and I wished her the best. After I closed that matter, my fear for her stayed in the back of my mind. She is on my long mental list of high-risk clients, whose names I scan for each time an ABC News alert pings on my phone bringing news of another domestic violence death.
They sow crops over vast areas and harvest when the size and season is right. But these farmers work the sea and not the soil, feeding Australias growing appetite for fresh and locally grown mussels.

Thirty-five years ago, this industry was tiny with few Victorians interested in eating the shellfish. But now the industry is poised for further expansion. Some mussel farmers say they need more room to grow as the government prepares to release additional areas within existing aquaculture reserves.

Fresh Victorian mussels harvested during the week. Credit: Joe Armao

Phil Lamb, managing director of the Victorian Shellfish Hatchery and partner of Sea Bounty mussel-growing company, said the availability of more water would help the industry reach its potential.

Portarlington mussels are renowned in Victoria. Id like to see them gain a similar reputation internationally, he said.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, walks to the site of an expressway collapse on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou, south China's Guangdong Province, May 2, 2024. Zhang has stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work after a section of an expressway collapsed early Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Following General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping's instructions and Premier Li Qiang's request, Zhang led officials in charge of relevant departments to the scene to guide the rescue and disaster relief work. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work after a section of an expressway collapsed early Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks on Thursday when guiding the emergency response work of the disaster in the city of Meizhou, Guangdong Province.

Following General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping's instructions and Premier Li Qiang's request, Zhang led officials in charge of relevant departments to the scene to guide the rescue and disaster relief work.

Zhang learned about rescue operations on the site and then went to the Meizhou People's Hospital to inquire about the condition of the injured, requiring all-out rescue and treatment.

When chairing a meeting on the rescue and disaster relief work on Thursday evening, Zhang urged efforts to ensure timely rescue work and minimize disabilities caused by injuries.

Efforts should be made to repair the damaged roads and restore traffic order as soon as possible, said Zhang, adding that information should be released timely in response to public concern.

Lessons should be drawn from the collapse and more should be done to improve disaster prevention and response capabilities, ensuring the safety of people's lives and property and the overall social stability, the vice premier said.

Zhang also called for efforts to monitor the weather in the flood season closely and strengthen early warning and joint emergency responses, so as to minimize disaster losses.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Asian Development Bank (ADB) already offers its support to Azerbaijan for the successful hosting of COP29, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said answering Trend's question during the briefing at the 57th annual meeting of the bank in Tbilisi.

"I have been invited to COP29, which will take place in November in Azerbaijan. I am thrilled that the ABR can contribute to Azerbaijan's efforts to make COP29 as successful as possible. We have already offered our possible assistance to Azerbaijan as chair of COP29. Azerbaijan is a huge producer of oil and gas. So it is very meaningful to Azerbaijan to chair COP29 to discuss how to ensure the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy. That's also ADB's priority. We are more than happy to continue to discuss with Azerbaijani government on what kind of assistance could ADB offer to make COP29 a great success," he said.

This November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. The COP28 plenary meeting in Dubai on December 11 last year made this decision. Baku will become the world's center, receiving about 7080,000 foreign guests.

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the United Nations signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change as an agreement to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The COPthe Conference of the Partiesis the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. 198 countries sign the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
The legal fight against the demolition of Melbournes high-rise public housing towers has been dealt a major blow after the Supreme Court revealed on Friday it would dismiss the class action brought on behalf of hundreds of tenants.

The state government has also indicated it will pursue the lead plaintiff  a public housing resident of 26 years  for its costs related to the case, a suggestion that shocked lawyers for the tenants.

One of the first public housing towers set for demolition at Holland Street in Flemington. Credit: Chris Hopkins

Justice Melinda Richards told the court on Friday that she would summarily dismiss the class action case because she did not accept one of the key pillars of the legal arguments put by lawyers for the residents relating to cabinets authority to greenlight the plan.

But she left the door open for a new class action trial to go ahead if they were able to reframe their argument at a later date.
NSWs specially convened cabinet meeting on Friday, the day after Molly Ticehurst was laid to rest after being allegedly murdered by an ex-partner, achieved one crucial thing. It locked the state into treating violence against women as a top priority.

But it also bought the state government more time to act on a problem that is not new.

Deputy Premier Prue Car was clear in her messaging that a big spend emergency domestic violence package was only days away. Not weeks, not months, she stressed.

Deputy Premier Prue Car with Housing Minister Rose Jackson (left) and Environment Minister Penny Sharpe on Friday. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

The fact that the government is prepared to make a significant investment in saving the lives of women is welcomed, but it took two weeks of national anger after Ticehursts death before the work started. There will also be medium and long-term solutions to come, Car said.
Loading The sensitive documents were collected over this period by support units run out of Monash Medical Centre, the Queen Victoria Hospital and Southern Health. All of these services are covered under the broader Monash Health organisation, which had employed ZircoDATA to scan their archived documents. In February, a statement on ZircoDATAs website said the company discovered an unauthorised third party had accessed its system and encrypted some files. A post on the dark web on February 22 claimed to have stolen data from the company, prompting an investigation and reports to federal authorities, including the Australian Federal Police.

Through these investigations, Monash Health was informed that its data had been compromised. To ensure the safety of those affected, the service is validating the identities and addresses of these 4000 people before contacting them. This is to ensure they do not inadvertently expose the victims to reprisals from the hackers. Monash Health has also urged anyone who believes they may be on the list to come forward.

Loading Monash Health chief executive Professor Eugine Yafele said he was deeply sorry about the breach  which did not affect Monashs internal systems  and was continuing to work with the ZircoDATA investigation. Of utmost importance to us is providing support to those people who may be impacted by this breach, he said. We are deeply disappointed to be in this position and understand the distress this may cause any impacted clients. We take any matter involving cybersecurity extremely seriously. Our team is working tirelessly and diligently to verify those who are impacted and understand what data was compromised.

The National Cybersecurity Co-ordinator said the disclosure of details about the sexual violence and assault support units was distressing for affected victim-survivors. This is a distressing development for those who have, or believe they may have, been impacted by this exposure, McGuiness said on X. Assessing the full extent of the breach is a time-consuming process and ZircoDATA is still trying to determine the full list of affected persons and organisations. Disclosures occur once there is certainty around the information affected, the safety of victims and readiness of support services. Anyone who may be affected has been urged to call a dedicated Monash Health hotline on 1800 491 663 or visit their website for information and to register for updates.

Australia is grappling with a family violence crisis amid an increase in the rate at which men are allegedly killing women. On Wednesday, federal and state leaders met to discuss solutions and the Commonwealth announced $925 million over five years to expand a financial support scheme for women fleeing violent relationships. Loading Meanwhile, a separate incident shut down the website of key family violence support service The Orange Door. The Orange Door  a key service in Victoria  has also been forced to shut down its website and redirect to a Victorian government page. An account on the social media platform X, CyberKnow, claimed a hacking group was behind the disruption. A Department of Families, Fairness and Housing spokesperson said no personal or sensitive data was held on the site, which served as an access point to information about services and was hosted by a third-party provider.

A redirect is in place to ensure visitors to the site can still access the information they need on family violence support services, they said. On Friday afternoon, Melbourne Polytechnic announced enrolment information for 60,000 past and present students, collected and stored by ZircoDATA, had also been accessed. In a statement, the training provider said the breach involved low-risk identity attributes and included details such as full names, student identification numbers, physical addresses when enrolled and dates of birth. Melbourne Polytechnic chief executive Frances Coppolillo said everyone affected by the breach had been offered no-cost access to a cyber support and identity service.

Loading Melbourne Polytechnic apologises unreservedly to everyone affected by this incident, she said. We have contacted every current student impacted and are endeavouring to contact past students, many of whose contact details may have changed over the past 10 years. IDCAREs specialist team can provide the best advice on how to deal with what for many will be a stressful situation. Cybersecurity firm Sophos this week released a report into the prevalence of ransomware, surveying 5000 respondents involved in IT and cybersecurity across 14 countries.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It was five months ago, in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable administrative hearing before the Victorian County Court, that a barrister representing the Health Department lit a fuse that this week blew up the only criminal prosecution against the states ill-fated hotel quarantine scheme. Rob ONeill is not known for courtroom flourishes. After briefly coming to prime-time prominence as the baby-faced, grand prize winner of a rebooted version of Sale of the Century, he has spent the past 20 years advocating for clients in less glamorous contests about occupational health and safety and employment law. But, to anyone paying attention that day, ONeills comments to the judge before a scheduled eight-week trial to determine whether Victorias Health Department was criminally culpable for the quarantine failings that led to Melbournes deadly, second-wave epidemic foreshadowed a potential showstopper. Relief workers prepare to deliver food to residents inside a locked down public housing tower in June 2020. Credit: Jason South Theres at least one issue which we think needs to be determined some weeks out from the trial, he told Judge Trevor Wraight during a directions hearing on December 7. Were not yet sure how broad an issue it is, but Section 80 of the Inquiries Act provides that documents and evidence produced to an inquiry ... cannot be used in any other proceeding. He went on to explain that two years earlier, as Melbourne was emerging from the last of its COVID lockdowns, a Supreme Court judge presiding over another case had considered the same provision and established a new precedent. If the court took the same, broad view of how the provision should be applied, the implications for this trial would be significant, ONeill warned. This week in the County Court, ONeills observations were shown to be devastatingly prescient, when WorkSafe Victorias four-year pursuit of the Health Department over alleged, criminal breaches of occupational health and safety laws came to a shuddering halt.

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The Office of Public Prosecutions was due to open a trial this Monday involving 34 charges against the department for failing to provide a safe workplace inside Melbournes quarantine hotels. Instead, it abruptly dumped the lot, revealing that a pre-trial ruling made on April 9 on the very question raised by ONeill had gutted its case. Loading WorkSafe, the state regulator responsible for occupational health and safety, expressed its frustration with the OPPs refusal to either appeal the pre-trial ruling or present the evidence it still had. In a terse statement, the regulator said it was deeply disappointed with the decision to discontinue a case it began investigating in July 2020, after outbreaks from two quarantine hotels spread the virus across Melbourne and plunged the city into its first COVID winter. In the months that the second-wave epidemic followed, the virus seeped into aged care centres and public housing towers, infected healthcare and transport workers, forced the closure of schools and businesses and killed 768 people. Childrens playgrounds were taped off during Melbournes second-wave epidemic. Credit: Joe Armao The OPP insists it did not lightly abandon its prosecution. In the absence of Director of Prosecutions Kerri Judd, who is on extended leave, acting DPP Diana Piekusis, KC, consulted three other lawyers within her office. Their consensus was that the pre-trial ruling was sound, and without the evidence it had stripped from the case, the prosecution was doomed to fail. How did WorkSafe and the OPP get such a high-profile prosecution so wrong? Court documents seen by this masthead and reflections provided by lawyers and prospective witnesses involved in the case but unable to discuss it publicly present a baffling picture.

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The pre-trial ruling, made by pinch-hitting judge Andrew Palmer while Judge Wraight was busy with another trial, centred on the evidence of 10 Department of Health officials who WorkSafe and the OPP planned to call as witnesses. These prospective witnesses included Victorian Chief Health Officer Clare Looker, who at the time of the quarantine outbreak was responsible for Victorias contact tracing and management of COVID cases; Dr Charles Alpren, an epidemiologist who genomically linked Victorias entire second-wave epidemic to infected guests at two quarantine hotels; and department officials seconded to run Operation Soteria, the codename given to a quarantine program hastily established after a snap decision by national cabinet in March 2020 to detain for two weeks people returning to Australia from overseas. Victorias chief health officer, Dr Clare Looker, is one of 10 Health Department officials the OPP had planned to call as witnesses. Victorias Inquiries Act, a law that sets the ground rules for royal commissions and boards of inquiry, offers protection for witnesses called to give evidence. Under the Section 80 provision cited by ONeill, evidence provided by witnesses to these inquiries cannot be used against them in other proceedings, including criminal prosecutions. The 10 Department of Health witnesses all provided testimony to a board of inquiry chaired by Jennifer Coate into the hotel quarantine program in 2020. WorkSafe, despite ONeills December 7 warning and the precedent established by Victorian Supreme Court judge John Dixon in a case known as 5 Boroughs NY, believed it was legally entitled to rely on evidence the witnesses provided to the Coate inquiry. Loading WorkSafe had previously successfully prosecuted the owners of the Hazelwood coal mine over a 2014 fire that cloaked the Victorian town of Morwell in noxious smoke. Its case was built, in part, on evidence Hazelwood employees provided to an earlier board of inquiry. WorkSafe sought the advice of two external Kings counsels and was assured that because the hotel quarantine case was against the Health Department and not the individuals being called as witnesses, their statements and testimony to the Coate inquiry should be admissible at trial.

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The regulators confidence was shattered on April 8, when MinterEllison special counsel Caitlin Ible filed a lengthy affidavit on behalf of the Health Department detailing how each prospective witness had prepared their statements and testimony for the Coate inquiry. As Judge Palmer noted in court the next day, each of the witnesses worked with Department of Health lawyers to develop their statements, which were only provided to the inquiry after their contents were approved by an associate secretary within the department. This process, which was agreed to by Victorias Crisis Council of Cabinet  a group of senior ministers chosen by former premier Dan Andrews to lead the pandemic response  meant that, legally, the evidence of the health officials couldnt be separated from the department they worked for. On the basis of the material in the affidavit, I find that each of the 10 witnesses were effectively providing material to the board on behalf of the department, Judge Palmer said. Or to put it another way, I find that the department gave or produced that material to the board by means of the witnesses. Either way, the material couldnt now be used in a criminal proceeding against the department, the judge ruled. WorkSafe can reasonably argue it had no way of anticipating the extent to which Department of Health employees worked hand-in-glove with their bosses to prepare statements and testimony for the Coate inquiry. In this much, they can count themselves unlucky. In another respect, WorkSafes approach towards this investigation  and the failure of the OPP to insist on a more rigorous approach  left this case badly exposed. Retired judge Jennifer Coate chaired a board of inquiry into Victorias hotel quarantine program. Credit: James Ross WorkSafe did not sit down with the Department of Health officials it planned to call as witnesses, ask them questions and draw up a statement for them to sign. Instead, it asked them to sign a short, pro forma statement saying that what theyd told the Coate inquiry was true and correct. In other words, they made no attempt to gather evidence from these witnesses separate to or beyond what they told the inquiry four years ago.

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One of the Department of Health witnesses told this masthead they met with WorkSafe only once, about three years ago, to sign over their statement prepared for the Coate inquiry. At the time the case collapsed, the witness had not been questioned by anyone from the OPP about the evidence they intended to give. They never sat down at any point to discuss my statement, the witness said. Even this year, in the months between ONeill belling the cat about Section 80 and the OPP abandoning its prosecution, WorkSafe made no attempt to secure independent statements from Department of Health officials. Judge Wraight during the December 7 hearing described this as a sensible approach. Other lawyers are perplexed by the practice. I dont know what they were thinking with that, said Damian Scattini, an experienced commercial litigator and Sydney-based partner with Quinn Emanuel, a large, global firm that employs more than 800 trial lawyers. The OPP, under a memorandum of understanding it has with WorkSafe to share information about criminal cases likely to end up before a higher court, was either aware or should have known from early in the investigation how WorkSafe was gathering its evidence. While WorkSafe was responsible for compiling the brief of evidence, the OPP has had responsibility for prosecuting the case since March 2023, when the Health Department was committed to stand trial. WorkSafe declined to explain why it didnt gather its own statements from the 10 Department of Health witnesses. An OPP spokesperson, when asked the same question, said the OPP had no further comment to make. Whatever the mistakes made by WorkSafe and the OPP, hotel quarantine is not off the hook just yet. At the height of the second-wave epidemic, Melbourne was placed under a nighttime curfew. Credit: Simon Schluter

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Just when it seemed that the 1860s, the decade of the American Civil War, provided the historical touchstone for contemporary America, along comes a torrent of student protests that recall the 1960s, the last time the United States was so flagrantly disunited. Back in April 1968, Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York was occupied by students protesting over the war in Vietnam and black civil rights, a takeover broken up by officers from the NYPD. Fifty-six years on, almost to the day, officers cleared the very same building of students angry over the war in Gaza.

Much like the 60s, the protests are part of a nationwide movement. By strange historical coincidence, the Democrats are holding their convention this year in Chicago, where the party gathered in 1968 amid running street battles between anti-war protesters and police. The news cycle doubles also as a historical cycle, which brings to mind the words of the American playwright Eugene ONeill: There is no present or future  only the past, happening over and over again  now.

NYPD officers from the Strategic Response Group form a wall of protection against the pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University. Credit: AP/Stefan Jeremiah

Widely it was thought that the most electorally significant event to take place in New York at this critical juncture of an election year would be the first criminal trial of Donald Trump, which is unfolding in a courthouse in Lower Manhattan. But the disturbances at this Ivy League institution have thrown up a west side story which also has the potential to affect the outcome of the race.

A lesson from 1968  and, indeed, from the 1972 election  is that campus unrest favours the Republicans. Richard Nixon won in 1968 and achieved a landslide victory four years later. His promise in the late-1960s to restore law and order helped him pull off an improbable comeback, after his defeat by John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election and the humiliation of losing his bid for the governorship of California two years later, a setback thought to have been politically terminal.
What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? Trump asks, later adding: What financing? Well have to pay him something, Cohen said. Trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen. Credit: Getty The recording was made by Cohen and has been previously released, but it was the first time the 12-member jury heard Trumps voice since the trial began almost three weeks ago. A separate recording was also played that related to a $US130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels, to stop news of her own tryst with Trump leaking on the eve of that election.

In that conversation, Cohen can be heard telling Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson that Trump hates the fact that we did it. Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (left) and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Credit: AP Asked who this call referred to, Davidson told the jury it was a reference to the former president, appearing to corroborate the prosecutions claim that Trump was involved in a conspiracy to sway the election. Trump currently faces 34 counts of falsifying business reports  and the prospect of jail  over the payment to Daniels, which Cohen says he paid using a shell company set up to conceal its true purpose. Prosecutors allege Trump then reimbursed Cohen by fraudulently filing the money as a legal expense, even increasing it to $US420,000 ($643, 700) paid in instalments, so it looked more legitimate.

Loading As the jury heard the recordings, Trump, wearing a dark suit and yellow tie, watched silently from the defence bench. After the hearing, he once again claimed the trial was a witch-hunt, before heading to a New York fire department to deliver pizza to first responders on his way back to his Fifth Avenue penthouse. The evidence capped off another day in a trial that has laid bare the seedy world of backroom celebrity deals and tabloid publishing. Last week, Howard, who is currently in Australia and will not be appearing in the trial due to a spinal condition, was named as a co-conspirator in the case, with text messages read in court showing him discussing potentially being pardoned for electoral fraud if he was ever charged.

And on Thursday, Davidson  who was one of Howards key sources  painted a picture about the celebrity-driven media world in which they lived. Different tie: Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks to the media after the days court proceedings in New York. Credit: AP In a bid to undercut Davidsons credibility as a witness, Trumps lawyer fiercely pressed the lawyer about several former clients he had, accusing him of aggressively extracting money from them. For instance, the jury heard how Davidson helped a client try to get a $US2 million payment out of Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen, and that he had been investigated for extorting wrestler Hulk Hogan over a sex tape. Davidson also texted Howard in 2016 to tell him: I have a blockbuster Trump story  a reference to Trumps affair with McDougal while married to his current wife, Melania.

Howard responded immediately. Talk 1st thing, he replied. I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why... About the oh, my god, text message exchange, Davidson told the court it was sort of gallows humour. Charlie Sheen. Credit: AP It was on election night as the results were coming in. There was sort of surprise among the broadcasters and others that Donald Trump was leading in the polls and that there was a growing sense that folks were about ready to call the election, he said.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, themed Dialogue for Peace and Global Security, and speech of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony of the event still spotlight media attention in a number of countries around the world, Trend reports.

The news published by the Turkish Anadolu Agency, portals Milliyyet, Hurriyet, Yeni Safak, CNN Turk, TR Haber, IHA, Istiklal, Turkiye Press, Son saat, Yeni gun, media structures TRT, Haber Global, TV 100, Beyaz qazete, Aksam newspapers and other media highlighted that the landmark 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue aroused great interest.

The news give a large place to the President Ilham Aliyev' s statements about Azerbaijan's contributions to intercultural dialogue, the forum's importance in this context, the countrys role in regional development, steps taken to solidify peace and stability in the region, efforts to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, about that representatives of various ethnic groups and religions live in Azerbaijan as one family.

Information presented under the headlines "President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev: The world should not turn a blind eye to this disgusting practice of neo-colonialism, which is leading to forceful assimilation", "Ilham Aliyev: We are moving towards peace with Armenia", Message to Armenia from Aliyev: We are working very actively, New statement from Aliyev before a critical meeting: At what stage are the negotiations? quoting the statements of the president, noted that institutions such as the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe try to interfere in the internal affairs of countries not situated in Europe, while neo-colonial tendencies are hushed up.

The articles also highlighted statements by President Ilham Aliyev about the steps taken towards achieving peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia without any mediation, the beginning of work on delimitation and demarcation, Azerbaijans preparation of basic principles for a peace agreement with Armenia and a draft peace agreement.

Turkish news media emphasized the statement of President Ilham Aliyev that Azerbaijan has historically been a place of intersection of cultures.

"The multicultural and ethnically diverse Azerbaijani society has managed to protect the most important values throughout the centuries; values of tolerance, mutual respect, friendship, and partnership. One of the main reasons for successful development of Azerbaijan as an independent country, I'm absolutely sure, is exactly that. All the people who live in Azerbaijan, representatives of different ethnic groups and religions, live as one family, as great citizens of Azerbaijan, as patriots of our state and statehood," the head of state said.

The Russia 24 TV channel extensively highlighted the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, noting that the main theme of this prestigious event is related to dialogue for peace and global security.

Moreover, the TV channel informed the audience that representatives of more than 100 countries, including Russia, are participating in the forum at which President Ilham Aliyev made an opening speech.

Special Representative of the President of Russia for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy in an interview with the TV channel said that at the event, against the backdrop of the development of a multi-polar world concept, issues of intercultural dialogue are discussed.

Ukrainian media also widely covered the speech of President Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony of the forum.

Articles published on the 1news, Meta, Ua24news portals and other resources, focused on President Ilham Aliyev's views on steps to strengthen peace and stability in the region and normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

Articles citing the speech of President Ilham Aliyev noted that stability in the South Caucasus has been achieved thanks to the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The articles emphasized that Azerbaijan is actively working to achieve peace with Armenia, negotiations are being conducted on the basis of a document prepared by Azerbaijan.

Besides, the articles said that currently, there are seen positive trends on the peace track, and along with the delimitation of borders, demarcation has also started.

The border delimitation and demarcation are carried out on the basis of agreements reached between the two countries, without mediators, the articles added.

The speech of President Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony of the forum was the center of attention of the Serbian media.

Thus, Politika, Tanyug, Novosti, Alo.rs, Pink.rs publications, as well as the Voyvodine TV and radio channel cited quotes from the speech of President Ilham Aliyev, especially regarding neo-colonialism. Articles were published under headlines such as Aliyev challenges neo-colonialists: We cannot afford some European countries to continue colonizing other peoples, The world should not turn a blind eye to this disgusting practice of neo-colonialism.

The publications paid special attention to the following quote from the speech of the President of Azerbaijan :

"Today in the 21st century, we cannot afford to allow some big European countries to continue colonizing other peoples. This is absolutely unacceptable. When we raise our voice nationally, and previously as the chair of NAM, it's not because we are acting against any country. Its just because we defend justice and international law. This issue should not be ignored. The world should not turn a blind eye to this disgusting practice of neo-colonialism, which is leading to forceful assimilation," the head of state noted.

The publications also cited the statements of President Ilham Aliyev about the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the start of work of delimitation and demarcation commissions of both countries, and the need for carrying out this process without the participation of mediators.

Arabic-language media also widely covered the forum in Azerbaijan.

Thus, Egyptian Ahram, Shorouknews, 2lkhbr.com devoted publications to the speech of President Ilham Aliyev and the topics raised during the speech.

The news highlighted the steps taken during the successful chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the Non-Aligned Movement, the structures created at the initiative of Azerbaijan - the Parliamentary Network of the Movement, the Youth Organization, and the Women's Platform.

The news published on the media resource Algere54, broadcast in French, notes that President Ilham Aliyev sharply condemned the neocolonial policies of France.

The Moroccan media resources Mapexpress, Hespress, 2M.ma, the Qatari edition of Gulf Times, the Yemeni Pressbee, as well as the Bahrain news agency reported that 700 people from more than 100 countries are taking part in the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

The media outlets noted that four plenary sessions and 12 panel sessions within the forum will discuss issues related to education, youth policy, climate change, artificial intelligence, preservation of cultural heritage, illegal migration, and other important topics.

The articles cite statements by President Ilham Aliyev, who noted that Azerbaijan has been a place for cultures to meet for centuries, and that the multicultural and ethnically diverse Azerbaijani society has managed to protect the most important values throughout the centuries; values of tolerance, mutual respect, friendship and partnership.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. UNESCO should not turn into a tool in the hands of one person or be reduced to the level of management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of any country, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, Hikmet Hajiyev, said, Trend reports.

He made the comment during a meeting with permanent representatives of UNESCO member states.

"In Baku, we held broad and open discussions with permanent representatives and ambassadors of UNESCO member states. I informed my colleagues about the regional peace agenda, Azerbaijan's cultural diplomacy policy, and Armenia's destruction of our cultural and religious heritage during the occupation. We agreed that UNESCO belongs to all of us and the international community. We must protect and develop this organization. UNESCO should not become a tool in the hands of one person or be reduced to the level of management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of any country," Hajiyev added.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Baku has hosted the opening ceremony of the "The Social Processes in the Context of Media" forum organized by the Media Development Agency of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The forum was attended by representatives of government agencies, media structures, heads of civil society organizations, and other participants.

The event started with the performance of the national anthem of Azerbaijan. Then it continued with the screening of a documentary film about the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev's life and activities.

Announcing the opening of the official part of the event, Executive Director of the Media Development Agency Ahmad Ismayilov informed about the development of media in Azerbaijan and upcoming tasks.

Then Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population Sahil Babayev, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children Affairs Bahar Muradova, and Chair of the Milli Majlis Family, Women's, and Children's Affairs Committee Hijran Huseynova addressed the event, talking about the role of media in coverage of public processes.

Then the forum continued with panel discussions.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. There has always been a positive intercultural dialogue within Azerbaijan, political scientist Azer Garayev told Trend.

According to him, the VI World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue on the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security" is one of the prestigious events held by Azerbaijan.

Garayev noted that the Forum is a very important and influential international platform. Representatives of 110 countries take part in the forum. Azerbaijan's initiative unites intellectuals, politicians, decision-makers, media representatives, and civil society representatives.

"Cultures have merged in Azerbaijan for ages. Our placement between East and West has contributed to this trend. Azerbaijani society, culturally and ethnically diverse, has kept the most essential qualities of tolerance, mutual respect, friendship, and partnership for millennia. Azerbaijanis of all ethnicities and beliefs live as one family. They are valuable Azerbaijanis and sincere, true patriots. Azerbaijan has always had a great intercultural dialogue. In daily lives, Azerbaijanis show it. Azerbaijanis live multiculturally," he said.

He mentioned that Azerbaijan is strongly committed to multilateralism and has actively promoted the values of multilateralism in the Non-Aligned Movement, which has had 120 countries as members since 2019.

"The voices of countries with terrible colonial histories must be heard and not ignored, and new colonial tendencies must be fought. We cannot allow 21st-century European countries to treat other nations as colonies.

The world must not turn a blind eye to the abhorrent practice of neocolonialism, which leads to forced assimilation.

Forced assimilation carried out in more than a dozen French coastal territories is unacceptable and must be stopped," Garayev emphasized.

The political scientist also noted that Azerbaijan ensured peace through war.

"For 30 years, Azerbaijani lands were under occupation. 20 percent of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan was under occupation from the first years of independence until 2020, and about a million Azerbaijanis were refugees and IDPs, the Azerbaijani people were subjected to ethnic cleansing.

The four UN resolutions adopted by the Security Council did not work. Because there was no implementation mechanism. Those who passed these resolutions did nothing to make them enforceable. Therefore, we had to achieve peace through war, and in 2020, we liberated most of our territories as a result of the II Karabakh War," Garayev added.

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Google is spicing up phone calls for Android users with a new feature that adds a hilarious twist - particularly if you love a fart joke.

The next Google Phone app update will bring in a bunch of 'audio emojis', including the classic poo emoji that lets out a fart sound when you tap it.

When you're on a call and pick one of these "Audio Emojis," not only do you get a cool animation but also a sound that lasts a few seconds. And yes, both sides of the call get to hear it!

The lineup includes applause for celebratory moments, laughter for when you're cracking up, party noises for festive vibes, a trombone's "womp-womp" for disappointments, a ripping fart sound from the poo emoji, and a classic drum "ba dum tss" for comedic effect.

The six new emojis have been tested and shared by @9to5Google on X (formerly Twitter).

9to5Google also reports "there's a bit of a 'cooldown' in between that prevents you from playing sounds back to back".

That's probably for the best - we all know someone who would absolutely mash those buttons and make all phone calls intolerable forever.

So what do we reckon? Is this a new ick or do you reckon we need an iPhone version too?
Action on Youth Congress office-bearers exposes factions within Congress party





Staff Reporter

Against the tall claims made by Congress that it is united, the sudden action by its youth wing on 49 of its office-bearers of Vidarbha has brought to the fore factions within the unit. According to some of the leaders in city, while taking action, some specific office-bearers were made target. It seemed conspiracy against some workers as by declaring their names, the high command tried to defame them. In the midst of the elections, the office-bearers are feeling demoralised. a senior party leader, on condition of anonymity, told The Hitavada. The news of the show cause notice against a total of 49 Youth Congress office-bearers in Vidarbha spread across the State on Wednesday. In case of dereliction of duty, such notices are sent, but the names were never made viral. Everyone has a question as to who defamed the Youth Congress by taking notices and spreading the list on social media. Usually, in any party, the youth wing workers or office-bearers have affiliation to some or the other leaders of the parent unit. In this particular action, the office-bearers of particular groups have been targeted, pointed out one of the workers.

The letter that was issued by Udhay Bhanu did not mention any specific reasons while issuing notices. The office-bearers and workers both are active since long. Many of the 49 office-bearers against whom action has been taken have been in the Congress since the beginning, some have started their socio-political career with the Congress. However, the office-bearers have felt that the action was taken with the intention of political revenge. Some youth workers had pointed out that the IYC issued notices without taking its Maharashtra Pradesh Congress President Kunal Raut into confidence. But, some workers raised question that in Congress, no action is taken without letting its State President. Some workers suspected that why the notice was not served to state leader.

On the other hand, notices were sent to the regional vice president, general secretary, and secretary. Before issuing the show cause notice, a report of the work done during the election period should have been sought. If that report is found unsatisfactory, a show cause notice is issued. However, due to the attempt to take action with a political motive, the office-bearers have also warned of complaining to the seniors in Delhi against the party officials concerned. During the election period, office-bearers in Vidarbha took many responsibilities. They worked to increase the attendance of women and youth in meetings and other things which are considered important and necessary for getting elected. The office-bearers who issued the notice, President of the Indian Youth Congress B Srinivasa and national in-charge Krishna Allavaru have been approached and action has been demanded against those responsible for defaming the Congress party and loyal office-bearers.

Many office-bearers assumed that the action was taken alleging that they did not contribute to the party campaign during Lok Sabha polls held in Vidarbha on April 19 and April 26. But, the attendance by most workers in the meeting convened by Satyajeet Tambe, who stood rebellion in Graduates polls, was seriously taken notice of. Tambe had defied party orders and contested the polls even after ticket was denied to him. There are majority youth wing office-bearers attended Tambes meeting. Most workers and office-bearers feeling demoralised. When IYC took action against Gadchiroli and Nagpur Rural President, it did not show courtesy to first issue the notice. Both Presidents were suspended. This action gave birth to anger and resentment among the office-bearers of Youth Congress.
Admissions to PG courseof Radiotherapy in GMCH





Staff Reporter

Citing the inadequacy of essential equipment in the Department of Radiotherapy in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), the Post Graduate Medical Education Board of National Medical Commission (NMC) has stopped the admissions to MD (Radiation Oncology) at GMCH for the year 2024-25. Shockingly, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court, in 2017, had directed then Medical Council of India (now NMC) not to stop the admissions to the PG seats of Radiotherapy course till the proposed Cancer Hospital or Institute comes up in GMCH premises. However, NMCs order tells a different story. The letter by NMC says, The Board got the assessment of GMCH done for verification of infrastructure, clinical material, faculty for all-round training of students, as per curricular requirement. It says, the Board found deficiencies, such as inadequate OPD workload in the department, procurement of Linear Accelerator under process at Government-level, and Brachytherapy machine not functioning.

The Medical College wont be able to admit students in the course of MD (Radiation Oncology) for the academic year 2024-25. However, subsequent restoration of seats will be based on the assessment of the medical college/institution, as per the maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023. Students admitted by the medical college till the academic year 2023-24 will not be affected by this stoppage of admissions and their PG degrees will be considered as recognised for the purpose of registration of the degrees awarded by the University. In the judgment delivered by Nagpur Bench of Bombay High court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr Krishna Kamble, it was made clear that the PG course offered in Radiotherapy was rare in Maharashtra in a Government set-up. The then State Government had proposed Cancer Hospital/Institute in GMCH premises.

Considering the hospital aspect, the then Division Bench had directed MCI -- the apex body in medical education that was later changed to National Medical Commission -- to continue the recognition of PG course in Radiotherapy or Radiation Oncology by carrying out inspections from time to time as per law, till a Cancer Hospital/Institute is established in the GMCH premises. According to an expert, stopping the PG admissions to GMCH is contrary to what High the Court had said. It will add to the woes of the students as well as college. This region is facing maximum cases of cancer and against that backdrop the admissions to the course like Radiotherapy related to this dreaded disease should not be stopped, pointed out one Oncologist.
Delhi bomb scare Senders intention was to create mass panic: FIR





NEW DELHI :

THE intention of the bomb hoax emails received by nearly 200 Delhi schools was to create mass panic and disturb public order, the Delhi Police says in an FIR registered by its Special Cell. According to an official source, who has access to the FIR, at least 125 bomb threat calls were received from different schools from 5.47 am to 2.13 pm on Wednesday. The person said that after receiving the calls, PCR vehicles were rushed to schools, and district police, BDS, MAC, Special Cell and Crime Control Room, DDMA, NDRF, Fire CATS and several other agencies were alerted. Movement of these units to the schools resulted in massive inconvenience, read a part of the FIR, according to the source. The officials evacuated the schools in an elaborate exercise and carried out anti-sabotage checks across the city, he said. The emails were apparently sent with the conspiratorial intention of creating mass panic and to disturb public, the source said. The FIR has been registered at Special Cell Police Station under IPC sections 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), and 120 (B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy).

Around 200 schools in Delhi-NCR received an identical threat email Wednesday claiming that explosives had been planted in their premises, triggering massive evacuations and searches as panic-stricken parents rushed to pick up their children. Nothing was found during searches by authorities which later declared it a mass hoax. Low attendance in Delhi schools day after bomb scare: A DAY after around 200 schools received hoax bomb emails, educational institutions in the city witnessed a slightly lower attendance, even as principals revisited evacuation plans for such emergencies in the future. Around 200 schools in Delhi-NCR on Wednesday morning received a hoax bomb threat via email which led to widespread panic among parents and students, prompting authorities to suspend classes and ask parents to pick their wards from the school.

Many schools on Thursday reopened to normalcy but attendance has taken a hit even in schools where the threat was not received, principals of some schools told PTI. Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu School, said she revisited the schools evacuation plan on each floor and also wrote to disaster management authorities to conduct mock drills and awareness activities for them. Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School in Dwarka, said parents were still scarred and anxious about the safety of their children in schools. DELHI POLICE WRITES TO CBI SEEKING INFORMATION ON HOAX BOMB THREAT E-MAIL: The Delhi Police has written to the CBI seeking information through Interpol channels about a hoax bomb threat e-mail sent to more than 150 schools in the National Capital Region (NCR), officials said on Thursday. The agency is likely to forward the information sought by the Delhi Police to the Interpol, which in turn will send it to all the member law-enforcement agencies of the world, the officials said. The Delhi Police is investigating the IP address used to sent the e-mail, besides the sender and origin of the mail to decipher the conspiracy and motive behind the hoax threat that resulted in panic across Delhi-NCR on Wednesday.
Elephant that killed 3 in Bhamragad returnsto Chhattisgarh forests







Staff Reporter

The male elephant that killed three persons in Bhamragad taluka of Gadchiroli district in last one week, has entered Chhattisgarh State after spreading panic among people of Maharashtra and Telangana. The tusker first entered Telangana State from Chhattisgarh where it destroyed crops and properties in villages situated in forest fringes. It also killed villagers there and then it entered into Gadchiroli district. We were monitoring the movement of the elephant across the forest areas of Gadchiroli, specially in Bhamragad taluka, where it killed three villagers. As per his movement, we can say that it is travelling very fast and covering 30-35 km a day, Shailesh Meena, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Bhamragad told The Hitavada. The elephant had come from Chhattisgarh, and now we can say that it returned to the Chhattisgarh forests, which is a good sign. An elephant herd is already dwelling in Gadchiroli forest which was also came from Chhattisgarh.

However, this male tusker entered alone from the neighbouring state, said Meena. The male elephant wreaked havoc in Bhamragad taluka as it killed three persons in a single day last week in two different villages. First it killed a farmer working in his field when it attacked on him and killed the person. Thereafter, the elephant attacked on a crowed in Hidur village where a programme was underway. In that attack, three women got injured in which two were died next day in Chandrapur hospital. Both women died due to serious injuries on legs and stomach. After back to back two attacks in a single day, the forest department came in action and started monitoring the movement of the jumbo.
Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations and best wishes to you and, through you, to all your people on behalf of myself and the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of May 3, Constitution Day.

We are pleased with the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, which are founded on traditions of friendship and mutual respect. Our rapidly developing cooperation in economy, transportation, culture, and other areas serves the interests of both our countries and our people.

We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently to realize the existing potential of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, to expand the scope of our cooperation, and to infuse it with new content.

On this holiday, I wish you robust health, happiness, and success in your endeavors, and I wish the friendly people of Poland constant peace and prosperity," the letter reads.
Rahul contesting Rae Bareli seat out of fear of defeat from Wayanad: MP CM Yadav





Bhopal, May 3 (PTI)

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Friday took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, saying the Congress leader who currently represents the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, has now changed the constituency and decided to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat out of fear of defeat.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had contested from Amethi as well as Wayanad seats. While he won from Wayanad, he lost the Amethi seat to Union minister Smriti Irani.

In a press statement, Yadav said, "Rahul Gandhi ran to Kerala last time after losing from Amethi, now he is running to Rae Bareli seeing the possibility of defeat in Wayanad. He will face defeat from Rae Bareli also."

"Rahul was thinking of contesting from Amethi out of fear of defeat from Wayanad, but Irani did excellent work during the past five years and the Congress lost deposits on four out of five assembly seats of Amethi," he said.

Earlier this week, Yadav held a roadshow in Amethi after accompanying local BJP candidate Smriti Irani when she filed her nomination form.

Yadav said the Congress was not able to select the candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli seats till the last minute as a result of the enthusiastic atmosphere created for a third term for the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Entire Uttar Pradesh is filled with the charisma of PM Modi. The BJP is going to break the past record, he claimed.

The MP chief minister said people will give a befitting reply to the Congress for hampering development and talking lightly about Modi.

The Rae Bareli seat was held by Rahul Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades. Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, the Congress said in a statement on Friday.
Biden administration says 100,000 new migrants are expected to enroll in 'Obamacare' next year





Washington, May 3 (AP)

Roughly 100,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children are expected to enrol in the Affordable Care Act's health insurance next year under a new directive the Biden administration released Friday.

The move took longer than promised to finalise and fell short of Democratic President Joe Biden's initial proposal to allow those migrants to sign up for Medicaid, the health insurance programme that provides nearly free coverage for the nation's poorest people.

But it will allow thousands of migrants to access lucrative tax breaks when they sign up for coverage after the

Affordable Care Act's marketplace enrollment opens Nov 1, just days ahead of the presidential election.

While it may help Biden boost his appeal at a crucial time among Latinos, a crucial voting bloc that Biden needs to turn out to win the election, the move is certain to prompt more criticism among conservatives about the president's border and migrant policies.

The action opens up the marketplace to any participant in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, or DACA, many of whom are Latino.

Xavier Becerra, the nation's top health official, said Thursday that many of those migrants have delayed getting care because they have not had coverage.

They incur higher costs and debts when they do finally receive care," Becerra told reporters on a call. "Making Dreamers eligible to enrol in coverage will improve their health and well-being and strengthen the health and well-being of our nation and our economy.

The administration's action changes the definition of lawfully present so DACA participants can legally enrol in the marketplace exchange.

Then-President Barack Obama launched the DACA initiative to shield from deportation immigrants who were brought to the US illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants, also known as Dreamers, were still ineligible for government-subsidised health insurance programmes because they did not meet the definition of having a lawful presence in the US.

The administration decided not to expand eligibility for Medicaid for those migrants after receiving more than 20,000 comments on the proposal, senior officials said Thursday. Those officials declined to explain why the rule, which was first proposed last April, took so long to finalise. The delay meant the migrants were unable to enrol in the marketplace for coverage this year.

More than 800,000 of the migrants will be eligible to enrol in marketplace coverage but the administration predicts only 100,000 will actually sign up because some may get coverage through their workplace or other ways. Some may also be unable to afford coverage through the marketplace.

Other classes of immigrants, including asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces of the ACA, Obama's 2010 health care law, often called Obamacare.
Politics is a new challenge, confident of victory: Nikam





MUMBAI,

RENOWNED lawyer and the BJPs Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North Central seat Ujjwal Nikam on Thursday said, politics is a new challenge and asserted that he accepted all kinds of challenges while helming criminal cases.

In an interview to PTI, Nikam (71) said, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party because the stellar work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enhanced the countrys standing in the world. Politics is a new challenge and I will win the confidence of the common man, he said. Emphasising he would work to implement the BJPs manifesto, Nikam said, he wanted to participate in the process of making laws in Parliament so that the commons man faith in democracy is strengthened.

I would like to amend extradition laws so that more and more criminals are brought to book. I will float what ideas I have and if the party approves, I will work on them, said Nikam, who appeared as special public prosecutor in some of the countrys most high profile cases, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist apprehended after the 26/11 raid.

Speaking about his Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat, Nikam said, the party chose it for him and added he was trying to learn about issues of its residents and looking for ways to ensure it is solved by the Governments in the State and at the Centre. Queried about his opponent Varsha Gaikwad, who is sitting MLA and the Opposition partys Mumbai unit chief, Nikam said, she was a senior politician. She is carrying forward her political agenda, while I will do the same for my party. I am confident I will be successful, Nikam asserted.
Shrikant will break previous records; win by margin of 5 lakh votes: Eknath Shinde





MUMBAI,

MAHARASHTRA Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief leader Eknath Shinde on Thursday said that his son and the party nominee from Kalyan-Dombivli constituency, Dr Shrikant Shinde will break previous records in the forthcoming elections and win by a record margin of five lakh votes. CM Shinde was speaking at the rally which witnessed a massive turnout of Shiv Sena, BJP, NCP and RPI cadres at the time of filing of nomination by Dr Shinde. He is pitted against the Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Vaishali Darekar. Dr Shinde was accompanied by Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Public Works Minister Ravindra Chavan, MNS Legislator Raju Patil and former NCP MP Anand Paranjape.

In the last 10 years, Dr Shrikant Shinde has left his mark through his work. Todays rally is a victory rally. With the hard work of the activists and the blessings of the voters, all the previous records will be broken in the upcoming elections as he will win by a margin of five lakh votes, said CM Shinde, adding that his son was set to score a hat-trick. There has been a strong wave in favour of the Mahayuti in the entire State. Even in the scorching heat of Vidarbha, activists took to the streets in large numbers. Todays rush in Kalyan-Dombivli is a testimony to that. The work done by Dr Shinde in his two terms (2014 and 2019) has been acknowledged in todays rally, said CM Shinde.

He further stated that funds wont be a problem in further pushing the development in the constituency. CM Shinde exhorted the Mahayuti workers to reach out to the voters and bring them to the polling station, especially amid the ongoing wedding season and vacations. A vote for Shrikant Shinde means a vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a vote for bow and arrow means a vote for Modi and a vote for the grand alliance means a vote for Modi, so everyone should work hard till May 20. The MP will serve you for the next five years, said CM Shinde.
Start thinking abt contributions to society and nation's future: Chandrasekaran to IIT-B grads





Mumbai, May 3 (PTI)

Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran on Friday urged graduating students at the IIT-Bombay to start thinking about contributing to the future of our society and nation.

Addressing the commencement event at the institute here, Chandrasekaran advised the students to focus on the mantras of building trust, character and having a purpose to have fulfilling careers and a life.

"It's better to start thinking (about) how you will contribute to the future of our society and our nation. Such a purpose will enrich your life and I guarantee you, will make it very, very fulfilling," he said.

The chairman of the diversified group told the students from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) that they will create huge impacts in various fields, and pointed out that some of them will become entrepreneurs, some will go into academics, or pursue science as a researcher or some of them may also become Nobel laureates.

Citing the case of the salt-to-software group, Chandrasekaran said the purpose of serving society is hard-wired through the 66 per cent stake in the group holding company held by philanthropic trusts.

The profits earned by the group companies have been used for creating cancer hospitals, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research or the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, he said.

Tata's hospitals, TIFR and TISS have also been used for COVID and other disaster relief, heritage conservation, supporting artisans, education, empowering tribals, helping people access safe drinking water etc, he said.

He said people have seen the Tata group operating since over 150 years and hence, the group has gained trust because of its consistent conduct.

"In all these years, I can say we have not been perfect all the time. But we always try to be transparent, honest, collaborative and be companies who are easier to do business with," he said.

He described the character as the "capacity to prioritise values over instincts", and asked the students to be very diligent in building this virtue.

Chandrasekaran also asked the students to imbibe discipline, which provides an orderly structure to one's life and helps focus on matters of high priority.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in his congratulatory letter to President of Poland Andrzej Duda on the occasion of May 3 - Poland's Constitution Day, Trend reports.

"We are pleased with the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Poland, which are founded on traditions of friendship and mutual respect. Our rapidly developing cooperation in economy, transportation, culture, and other areas serves the interests of both our countries and our people.

We highly value Poland's position, as a member state of the European Union and as an initiator of the Eastern Partnership program, which contributes to shaping the EU's policy aimed at fostering regional cooperation that spans the entire South Caucasus.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently to realize the existing potential of Azerbaijan-Poland relations, to expand the scope of our cooperation, and to infuse it with new content," President Ilham Aliyev said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijan is one of the countries suffering from mines, and the problem of landmines hampers the peace process and causes serious damage to the cultural heritage, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, Hikmet Hajiyev said, Trend reports.

He made the statement during the event on the European Team's Mine Action Initiative.

Additionally, noting that Azerbaijan needs great support in the demining process, he emphasized the importance of this issue for the security of Europe.

Hajiyev mentioned that a group of mine-affected countries has been established within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement, and Azerbaijan is a member of this group.

Referring to the importance of the European Team's mine action initiative, Hajiyev praised the European Union's (EU) support for Azerbaijan. He emphasized the importance of EU consultations for assistance coordination and practical implementation.

"We believe that this initiative of the European Union will contribute to strengthening ties between Azerbaijan and the EU, as well as Azerbaijan's mine-related activities," Hajiyev added.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The EU has launched the Team Europe mine action initiative in Azerbaijan, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan Peter Michalko said at an event of the European Mine Action Team, Trend reports.

We are here today to mark another step in supporting the EU, and that is the Team Europe initiative, which is a comprehensive initiative bringing together the institutions of the European Union and EU Member States, open to all Member States and financial institution partners.

It unites all projects, initiatives, and forms of support provided to Azerbaijan in the field of mine action. This is just the beginning of a program that will continue in the coming years. We recognize Azerbaijan's immense needs in this area.

Today it was announced that the European institutions will allocate another funding package of 2 million euros to Azerbaijan this year, and together with funding from EU member states, this amount will amount to almost 3 million euros, Michalko said.

According to him, the European Union has for many years provided support to Azerbaijan in demining and its institutions, in particular ANAMA.

Last month, 141 anti-tank, 191 anti-personnel mines, and 2,502 unexploded rounds of ammunition were found and neutralized in the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from Armenian occupation.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has left on a working visit to the Republic of Gambia, Trend reports.

Additionally, it was noted that within the framework of the visit, Jeyhun Bayramov is scheduled to participate and speak at the 15th Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to be held on May 4-5 in the city of Banjul, as well as hold bilateral meetings with a number of officials.

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You are here: China

One tourist was killed and five others injured by falling rocks in the Hengshan Mountain scenic area in north China's Shanxi Province on Thursday, according to the scenic area's administration center.

Those who sustained injuries are receiving hospital treatment and none are currently in life-threatening condition.




BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Military personnel and aviation equipment of the Azerbaijan Army participating in "Anatolian Phoenix - 2024" International Search and Rescue Exercises have left for Konya, Turkiye, Trend reports via the Ministry of Defense.

Azerbaijan will be presented by the servicemen of the Air Force and Naval Forces in the exercises to be held with the participation of military personnel from various countries.

Two Su-25 attack aircraft of the Azerbaijan Air Force will participate in the military exercises that will last until May 17.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. A meeting between Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev and his Russian counterpart Alexei Overchuk has taken place in Moscow, Trend reports.

The talks discussed current issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the countries, which are on the agenda of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia.

Special attention was paid to the development of cooperation in the trade and economic spheres, industry, energy, transport, agriculture, finance, healthcare, culture, science, interregional interaction, education, and tourism.

The co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission confirmed their readiness to continue constructive dialogue aimed at strengthening Azerbaijani-Russian relations in all areas of cooperation.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The first day of the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup competitions has started at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Trend reports.

Seniors will participate in individual apparatus qualification competitions today. At first, graces will demonstrate exercises with a hoop and ball, and after 16:00 will present to the attention of judges and spectators programs with clubs and ribbons.

According to the competition's first day results, finalists in individual subjects and individual all-around will be determined.

To note, the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup takes place on May 35 at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku. Representatives from 37 countries around the world participate in the competition. Gymnasts perform in two age categories "seniors" (individual program and group exercises) and "juniors" (individual program).

The competitions are characterized by a new format. Therefore, the seniors' individual all-around competition will adopt a cross-battles format. The European Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup's total prize fund amounts to 40,000 euros.

Azerbaijan is represented by Zohra Aghamirova and Kamilla Seyidzade in individual competitions, and a team consisting of Gullu Aghalarzade, Kamilla Aliyeva, Yelizaveta Luzan, Darya Sorokina, Leman Alimuradova, and Zeynab Hummatova in group movements. Fidan Gurbanli, Ilaha Bahadirova, Govhar Ibragimova, and Shams Aghahuseynova are among the "junior" athletes performing in individual programs.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Observance of objectivity, media principles in the investigation of individual appeals of persons representing vulnerable groups, and clarification of information from an official source are also important points, Labor and Social Protection Minister Sahil Babayev said, Trend reports.

He made the statement during the forum on Public Processes in the Media Plane's opening ceremony.

According to him, nowadays, mass media play an important role in regularly informing the public about reforms in the spheres of labor, employment, social protection, social support programs, innovative innovations in these spheres, etc.

To note, Baku is hosting a forum on "Public Processes in the Media Plane" organized by the Media Development Agency of Azerbaijan. The event will include panel sessions on "Proper use of media in the fight against drug addiction," "Proper media coverage of social issues and sensitive topics such as domestic violence and early marriage," "Effective fight against cyberbullying in media and cyber awareness," and "Media Agenda in the Year of Solidarity for a Green World."

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Article 355 of the Constitution of India

|

Naorem Umakanta Singh (Advocate)

Contd from previous issue

The Soviet Union pressed for inclusion of ideological aggression and also the promotion of the propaganda of fascist- nazi views, racial and national exclusiveness, hatred and contempt for other peoples. Iran pressed for inclusion of indirect aggression, of intervention in another States internal or foreign affairs, including direct or indirect incitement to civil war, threats to internal security, and incitement to revolt by the supply of arms or by other means.. Many States wanted the definition to include economic aggression. Shri M. Jaipal of India advocated that in view of modern techniques of coercion the definition of aggression should have included economic pressures and interventionary and subversive operations (See page 97 of the book) Julius Stone has quoted the following comments of Charles de Visscher, on the notion of aggression : aggression, in the present state of international relations, is not a concept that can be enclosed in any definition whatsoever : the finding that it has occurred in any concrete case involves political and military judgments and a subjective weighing of motives that make this in each instance a strictly individual matter.

Rapporteur Spiropoulos explained to the International Law Commission that a determination of aggression can only be given in each concrete case in conjunction with all constitutive elements of the concept of the definition. According to the author what needs also to be kept in mind is that this is precisely because the aggression notion is a fact value complex of such vast range. (See pages 108-109 of the book). Therefore, aggression is a word of very wide import having complex dimensions and would to a large extent depend upon fact situation and its impact. 34. There was a large scale influx of persons from the then East Pakistan into India before the commencement of December 1971 Indo-Pak war. On 3rd November, 1971, one month before the actual commencement of the war, Dr.Nagendra Singh, Indias representative in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly on the Definition of Aggression, made a statement, wherein he said :-

......The first consideration, in the view of the Indian Delegation, is that aggression must be http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA Page 32 of 44 comprehensively defined. Though precision may be the first virtue of a good definition, we would not like to sacrifice the requirement of a comprehensive definition of aggression at any cost. There are many reasons for holding this view. Aggression can be of several kinds such as direct or indirect, armed in nature or even without the use of any arms whatsoever. There can be even direct aggression without arms......

We would accordingly support the categorical view expressed by the distinguished delegate of Burma, the U.K. and others that a definition of aggression excluding indirect methods would be incomplete and therefore dangerous.

* * * *

For example, there could be a unique type of bloodless aggression from a vast and incessant flow of millions of human beings forced to flee into another State. If this invasion of unarmed men in totally unmanageable proportion were to not only impair the economic and political well-being of the receiving victim State but to threaten its very existence, I am afraid, Mr. Chairman, it would have to be categorized as aggression. In such a case, there may not be use of armed force across the frontier since the use of force may be totally confined within ones territorial boundary, but if this results in inundating the neighbouring State by millions of fleeing citizens of the offending State, there could be an aggression of a worst order......

What I wish to convey, Mr. Chairman, is the complexity of the problem which does not permit of a four-line definition of aggression much less an ad-interim declaration on it.

[See Vol. 11 (1971) Indian Journal of International Law p. 724]

This shows that the stand of our country before the U.N.O. was that influx of large number of persons from across the border into India would be an act of aggression.

57. In the later part of nineteenth century large number of Chinese labour had started going to U.S.A. The U.S. Congress passed legislations to restrict and then to totally stop their entry in the country. One such Chinese labourer who had earlier worked there for over ten years and had a certificate to that effect came back after a visit to his home in China but was detained in the ship in San Francisco port. His habeas corpus petition was dismissed by the circuit court and then an appeal was taken to U.S. Supreme Court. Certain observations made in the judgment, which is reported in 130 U.S. 581 (Chae Chan Ping vs. United States), are very illuminating and are being reproduced below: -





(To be contd)


BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. After completion of the European Cup, I will stay in Baku for training camp, Participant in the European Cup on rhythmic gymnastics, athlete representing Montenegro Nina Dragovic told Trend.

"The feelings from the competition are positive; it's nice to perform. The first exercise did not go as planned; I was confused and overexcited, but the second exercise allowed me to gather myself and complete the program successfully. I expect to do better in the European Cup than in prior competitions. I enjoy the atmosphere in Baku's Gymnastics Arena; there are always many fans in the stands, and everyone applauds regardless of whose country the gymnast represents," she noted.

Nina Dragovic emphasized that the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku has created excellent conditions for athletes.

"After the European Cup, I'll stay in Baku for a four or five-day training camp. There are fantastic facilities here, including a large training area, high ceilings, and a choreographic hall. I've already held trainings here, and they helped me figure out the program, get acclimated to the hall, and get acclimatized before the start," the athlete added.

To note, Baku's National Gymnastics Arena hosts the European Cup in Rhythmic Gymnastics on May 35. Athletes representing 37 different nations will be competing in the event. The senior division will have both individual and group routines, while the junior division will be more focused on solo performances.

Azerbaijan's representation in the seniors category includes Zohra Aghamirova and Kamilla Seyidzade in individual events, along with a team comprising Gullu Aghalarzade, Kamilla Aliyeva, Yelizaveta Luzan, Darya Sorokina, Laman Alimuradova, and Zeynab Hummatova in group performances. Additionally, Fidan Gurbanli, Ilaha Bahadirova, Govhar Ibrahimova, and Shams Aghahuseynova are among the junior category athletes competing in individual programs.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. I enjoy the ambiance of the competitions in Baku, a participant of the European Cup in Rhythmic Gymnastics in Baku, Czech athlete Nikol Novakova told Trend.

"With its breathtaking location and world-class gymnastics arena, the European Cup in Baku is sure to be a fascinating event. I will take a little break to prepare for the clubs and ribbon performance after I have done the first two routines smoothly. I'm crossing my fingers that the new routine components will work out well," said the athlete, who is in the Azerbaijani capital for the second time.

The National Gymnastics Arena in Baku is hosting the European Cup in Rhythmic Gymnastics from May 3rd to May 5th. Athletes from 37 countries are participating in the event, showcasing their talents across two age categories: seniors, which includes individual and group routines, and juniors, focusing on individual performances.

Azerbaijan's representation in the seniors category includes Zohra Aghamirova and Kamilla Seyidzade in individual events, along with a team comprising Gullu Aghalarzade, Kamilla Aliyeva, Yelizaveta Luzan, Darya Sorokina, Laman Alimuradova, and Zeynab Hummatova in group performances. Additionally, Fidan Gurbanli, Ilaha Bahadirova, Govhar Ibrahimova, and Shams Aghahuseynova are among the junior category athletes competing in individual programs.

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If the BJP is voted back to power there will be incidents of genocide like Manipur across the country and this will be announced from the rampart of Red Ford, said professor Parakala Prabhakar this afternoon.

He was present at the inauguration of his book titled, The Crooked Timber of New India  Essays On A Republic in Crisis at Press Club this afternoon. State education minister Bratya Basu, Trinamul Congress MP Jawahar Sirkar, educationists Om Prakash Misra and former VC Debnarayan Bandyopadhyay were present at the function. The function was organized by the West Bengal College and University Professors Association.

Prof Prabhakar said one of the features of New India is that organizations who did not take part in the Indian freedom movement are claiming themselves to be patriots. In New India the top 1% of the population holds 40% of the nations wealth and this is alarming. There is so much inequality and the country is facing the largest, highest youth unemployment, which is 24% in New India.

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He said, It is really funny that our bhakts claim that we are the 5th largest economy in the world and we have overtaken Great Britain. If that be so then we are a developed country. The Prime Minister said that by 2047 we would be a developed country. His statement contradicts the tall claim of the bhakts, he remarked.

He said there is a tendency to deny the world hunger index where India occupies a very low position. There are people who say that this index does not have any basis and it is done by the Western world to malign India. Interestingly, the central government has announced that 81 crore people will be given free ration for 5 years. This confirms the apprehension that as there will be no jobs, people will have to be given free ration, he observed.

He warned people that if BJP comes back to power then in New India there will not be any election and democracy will be slaughtered by people who do not like people to ask questions. There will be a deep economic, social, political and moral crisis in New India, he said, adding, It is unfortunate that the bhakts are weaponising religion for political gain. Earlier, religion was followed privately but now it is used to determine citizenship, he said.

Prof Prabhakar narrated how the publishers backed out and refused to publish his book before June 2024. They showed great interest to publish the book initially, but then they backed out and agreed to publish it after June 2024. The indication is clear. But now it has been translated into Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and some other Indian languages.
I n a scathing attack on the BJP-led Central government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, campaigning in Tehatta, in Krishnagar Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, accused it of attempting to marginalise the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Speaking at a rally in support of TMC candidate Mahua Moitra at Harichand Guruchand Stadium in Tehatta, Miss Banerjee criticised the BJP governments policies and warned against any attempt to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country. Miss Banerjee lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging his government was spreading falsehoods about the benefits of the UCC and cautioning that its implementation could jeopardise the rights of marginalised communities.

She emphasised that the BJPs agenda could potentially undermine the existence of SCs, STs, and OBCs and voiced strong opposition, vowing not to let it happen. The TMC chief accused the BJP of spreading lies over the past decade regarding citizenship benefits for marginalised communities through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). She warned that the CAA could strip individuals of their existing citizenship rights and lead to their being sent to detention camps. Miss Banerjee further criticized the UCC, arguing that it would inhibit various communities, tribes, and sects from practicing their own customs and rituals. She also cautioned the electorate against what she described as BJPs manipulation of voting figures, alleging potential bias on the part of the Election Commission. Expressing bewilderment over the Election Commissions announcement of increased poll percentages days after the actual voting took place, Miss Banerjee refrained from casting direct aspersions but voiced skepticism.

She pledged to resist any attempts by the BJP to intimidate or pressure state officials and vowed to uphold the integrity of West Bengal. Miss Banerjee cautioned against the BJPs tactics of manipulating voting figures and alleged threats by BJP leaders to IAS and IPS officers in West Bengal and vowed to resist any attempts to undermine the states integrity. Intimidation, threat and pressure by the Narendra Modi government on state ministers, officials or people will not work in Bengal, she said. She accused the BJP of depriving Bengal of its rightful share and making false promises to communities like the Matuas.

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She also criticised the BJPs handling of corruption allegations against the Delhi government and expressed confidence that the India Alliance would bring about change. With the PM scheduled to campaign in favour of his party candidate Amrita Roy, in the same constituency on Friday, Miss Banerjee rallied support for Mahua Moitra, emphasising the importance of retaining representation that resonates with the people. Though they expelled her from Parliament, they could not expel her from peoples minds. Accept her again and show us, even if they expel her, we accepted her, Miss Banerjee declared, rallying behind Ms Moitra. Criticising the Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhurys alleged comment  better to vote for the BJP than TMC, Miss Banerjee said: The Congress leader in Lok Sabha is saying, vote for BJP or Congress. Think about it, there is neither ideology nor ideals. Some selfish people like him have sold off the country.
In a startling development, a temporary female staff at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Thursday filed a written complaint with the police accusing Governor C V Ananda Bose of outraging her modesty.

Police sources said that late on Thursday afternoon, a woman claiming to be a temporary staff attached to the Peace Room in the Raj Bhavan approached the officer-in-charge of the police outpost located inside the Governors House and accused Ananda Bose of molesting her.

The officer immediately contacted the local Hare Street police station, under which the Raj Bhavan falls, following which the police reached the Governors House.

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Later, the woman was taken to the Hare Street police station from the Raj Bhavan, where she registered a written complaint accusing the Governor of molesting her on the pretext of providing her a permanent job.

Till the time of filing of this report, no official reaction or statement came from the Governors House in the matter.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach Kolkata later on Thursday and is supposed to spend the night at the Raj Bhavan.

The Prime Minister will address three election rallies in West Bengal on Friday.

Security measures have been tightened in and around the Raj Bhavan following the police complaint against the Governor.
India and Nigeria identified several areas of focus for enhancing bilateral trade as well as mutually beneficial investments and committed to facilitating trade promotion between the two nations.

A seven-member delegation from India held a Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting with their Nigerian counterparts in Abuja this week to review recent developments in bilateral trade and investment ties, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said on Friday.

The members undertook a detailed review of recent developments in bilateral trade and investment ties and acknowledged the vast untapped potential for further expansion.

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The delegation from India was led by Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Amardeep Singh Bhatia, accompanied by High Commissioner of India to Federal Republic of Nigeria, G Balasubramanian and Economic Adviser, Department of Commerce, Priya P Nair.

The JTC was co-chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment, Nigeria, Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi; and Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce.

Both sides identified several areas of focus for enhancing both bilateral trade as well as mutually beneficial investments. These include resolving of market access issues of both sides, and cooperation in key sectors such as Crude oil and Natural Gas, Pharmaceuticals, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Local Currency Settlement System, Power Sector and Renewable Energy, Agriculture & Food Processing, Education, Transport, Railway, Aviation, MSMEs and Development. Both sides agreed to the early conclusion of the Local Currency Settlement System Agreement to further strengthen bilateral economic ties.

In a concerted effort to bolster bilateral trade, both sides committed to expeditiously address all issues impeding bilateral trade and facilitate trade promotion between the two nations.

A business delegation led by CII also accompanied the official delegation comprising representatives from various sectors like power, fintech, telecommunications, electrical machinery and pharmaceuticals.

The deliberations of the 2nd Session of India-Nigeria JTC were forward-looking, indicative of the amicable and special relations between the two countries.

Official delegation from India consisted of officials from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), EXIM Bank of India and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The officials of both sides actively engaged in the proceedings of the JTC.

The discussions were held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere and were fruitful. There was enthusiastic response towards greater cooperation, addressing pending issues, boosting trade and investment, greater people to people contacts.
Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) has made significant strides in realising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths vision of transforming Uttar Pradesh into an industrial powerhouse.

In the financial year 2023-24, UPSIDA has achieved a remarkable feat, recording an operating revenue of Rs 1359 crore. This achievement marks a doubling of revenue compared to the financial year 2018-19, indicating a robust trajectory towards industrial growth in the state.

While UPSIDAs revenue surged due to intensified efforts for industrialisation in Uttar Pradesh, the authority concurrently achieved a commendable 9 per cent reduction in administrative expenses compared to the FY 2018-19.

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Moreover, UPSIDAs strategic emphasis on bolstering infrastructure in industrial zones to attract investors resulted in a four-fold increase in infrastructure development expenditure. This allocation soared from Rs 104 crore in FY 2017-18 to Rs 415 crore in FY 2023-24.

UPSIDA CEO Mayur Maheshwari said here on Friday that the authority was committed to expanding Uttar Pradeshs industrial landscape. UPSIDA is also doing significant work in the area of land allocation. As a result, there has been an increase in land allocation, with 693 plots allocated just in 2023-24. This initiative has benefited investors on one hand and strengthened the authoritys financial position on the other.

In addition, UPSIDA has succeeded in gaining the trust of investors by transparently allocating land through e-auctions and Nivesh Mitra portal, which enables entrepreneurs to get online clearances/NOC from the concerned department with ease and minimal running around . As a result, a record number of more than 1600 plots have been allotted to investors in the last three years, helping Uttar Pradesh become the engine of industrial development of the country.

Digitisation has played a crucial role in the economic development of Uttar Pradesh. Through Nivesh Mitra, UPSIDA is currently providing 34 online e-services, which were only 2 before COVID-19. As a result, more than 31,000 applications have been disposed of with a satisfaction rate of 96 per cent.

Additionally, to promote skill development and increase womens participation in the workforce, the Authority has developed women centric facilities like Pink Toilets and Pink Dormitories under initiatives like Atal Industrial Infrastructure Mission (AIIM) and Secure Industrial Zone Projects. As a result of these efforts, there has been an increase in womens participation and employment in industrial parks.

Furthermore, the authority has established a Citizen Facilitation Center to address the issues faced by investors and entrepreneurs. Through these centers, immediate and satisfactory solutions to questions related to various departments are being provided.
The benchmark indices failed to hold on to opening gains and ended lower in yet another volatile session on Friday.

Selling was seen in heavyweights and stocks across sectors, barring metal.

Sensex opened higher at 75,017.82, and climbed to a high of 75,095.18 in early trades, but gave up its gains to fall more than 1 per cent and touch a low of 73,467.73.

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Nifty 50, opened higher at 22,766.35, climbed to a fresh peak of 22,794.70. It fell more than 1 per cent soon after to touch a low of 22,348.05 as investors made a beeline to book profits

At close, Sensex was down 732.96 points, or 0.98 per cent at 73,878.15 while the Nifty 50 was down 172.35 points, or 0.76 per cent at 22,475.85.

Out of the 30 on the BSE Sensex, only six stocks, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, SBI and ICICI Bank, ended in the green.

Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki India, Reliance Industries, Nestle India, and Bharti Airtel were the top losers for the day.

On the Nifty 50, Coal India, Grasim Industries, ONGC, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, and Hindalco were the top gainers for the day, while Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki India, Nestle India, Reliance Industries, and Bharti Airtel, were the top drags.

Among sectors, except metal, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with capital goods, realty, telecom and PSU Bank down one percent each, while oil & gas, auto, Information Technology and Media fell 0.5% each.

A volume spike of more than 500% was seen in Torrent Power, Cummins and Bajaj Finance.

Further, a long build-up was seen in Coal India, BHEL, NMDC, while a short build-up was seen in Coforge, MRF and SRF.

Experts believe that the frontline indices of the Indian stock market are rising and making a series of new highs due to robust Indian economic developments in the previous month.

India has registered the highest auto sales, highest GST collection, highest power consumption, highest monthly home sales, lowest bank NPA, and highest UPI transaction in April 2024 leading to the market gains.

The selloff was broad-based as the BSE Midcap index fell 0.21 per cent while the Smallcap index declined 0.55 per cent.

The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dropped to nearly Rs 406.2 lakh crore from nearly Rs 408.5 lakh crore in the previous session.

Some of the notable performances were of CEAT whose shares plunged 9.8 per cent in morning deals. In the Q4 results, the tyre maker reported a 23 per cent YoY decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 102 crore.

Experts are of the view that the market is witnessing healthy corrections at the higher levels. They find this profit booking in line with expectations and do not consider it a matter of concern.

On the global parameters, the shares were firmer ahead of key US non-farm payroll numbers, underpinned by reassurance from the Federal Reserve that the next move in rates would be down.

Asian shares surged to their highest in 15 months on Friday led by tech and Hong Kong stocks.

The MSCI All Country stock index was up 0.23 per cent at 762.23 points, down 3 per cent from its lifetime high in March.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Deputy Defense Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan - Commander of the Separate Combined Arms Army Colonel General Kerem Mustafayev has visited the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trend reports, referring to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

"Within the framework of the visit, meetings were held with First Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Major General Aziz Nasirzadeh, and other military commanders.

A comprehensive dialogue took place regarding regional security matters during the meetings, encompassing an assessment of the present condition and future potential of military collaboration between Iran and Azerbaijan.," the information says.

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Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva slammed Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi for blaming the saffron party for the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Arvind 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.

In a statement on Friday, Sachdeva said instead of blaming BJP leaders for the arrest of AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi should tell Delhiites why Kejriwal has not been able to get bail despite running from one court to another, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, since his arrest on 20 March.

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Calling Atishi a master in spreading lies, the Delhi BJP president said she has again tried to spread lies today.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is steeped in corruption and has no positive achievements or agenda for the future to show to their electorate, hence they keep trying to make Arvind Kejriwals arrest in a corruption case a political issue, Sachdeva said.

He said since AAP leaders have nothing to show on the development front, they keep trying to set false narratives through doctored videos, etc.

People of the country know well that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has all along tried to misguide the investigation agencies like the ED after evading several summonses forcing the agency to arrest him, he added.
For any educational institution, pursuing the ideology that led to its setting up and then constructing a bridge so that the best of the past and the present could be given to the students is undoubtedly a great task.

This has been silently done at the 87-year-old Womens College, Calcutta. The present premises in Bagbazar were set up in the early 1980s. There are around 2,000 students in the college, along with 100 teaching and non-teaching staff. It offers 17 undergraduate and 7 postgraduate courses.

Dr Dhirendra Lal Dey, who had obtained a PhD from the United Kingdom, came to Kolkata and set up the Womens College on Cornwallis Street to impart education to the girls following the ideology of Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji had said, I want that education by which character is formed, strength of the mind increased, intellect expanded and by which one can stand on his own two feet. He further said, Education is the manifestation of perfection already in a person. He always believed that education is the development of faculties, and it is the duty of the educational institution to help the students develop their faculties. It is interesting to note that after the formation of the college, Bata used to give footwear to the students twice a year, while refreshment was given to them from the college.

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There are few colleges in Kolkata where the students, along with their studies, actively take part in social work.

Srijan, an organisation comprising past and present students, is doing social work around the year to assist girls coming from economically challenged backgrounds to become economically self-reliant. The girls from the nearby slums are given training in skill development, and they regularly take part in the cultural programmes organised by the college.

Based on the principle earn while you learn, the college authorities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wadhani so that AI training can be given to the students. The skill-based education is offered by Ramkrishna Math in Bagbazar, while Sri Sarada Math at Rashik Bhita gives the students training in computers. Spoken English classes are regularly held, and steps have been taken to offer courses in Japanese, which helps to fetch jobs.

The college, through WhatsApp messages, informs the students about job opportunities in the government and private sectors.

The recent development of the college is the result of the relentless work of its principal professor, (Dr) Anupama Chowdhury. She said in the past nine events, 876 big events had taken place in the college. On special occasions, like Environment Day, more than 35 programmes are held. The students go out in the neighbourhood to create awareness about the preservation of the environment. Three events, which include seminars and workshops on different topics, are held at the college almost every day.

The college has a very rich library and a huge collection of old books and periodicals. Prof. Chowdhury said the students are interested in reading books and using the library. Cine Club and Drama Club have helped the students gain first-hand knowledge of contemporary cinema and documentaries.

The college authorities have taken up a scheme to set up a new block where the history of Bagbazar will be preserved. Bagbazar has a rich heritage. The area had played an important role in the religious and cultural movements in Bengal. Sri Ramakrishna used to come to the house of Balaram Bose. At this house, Swami Vivekananda set up the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897. Mayer Bari is the house where Ma Sarada used to live, and it is now an international tourist spot. Sister Nivedita started her school on Bosepara Lane. Swami started Udbodhan, the Bengali monthly organ of the Ramakrishna Mission. The magazine has the record of uninterrupted publication for 125 years in any Indian language. Girish Chandra Ghose, the father of the Bengali modern stage, was born in Bangbazar along with Amritalal Bose and Kshirode Prasad Vidyabinod. The famous painter Nandalal Bose was a resident of Bagbazar. We are carefully studying the book on Bagbazars history, titled Dhanya Bagbazar, to set up the heritage block, said Prof. Chowdhury.

She said attempts are on to start courses in physics, chemistry, biology, and economics. We have approached Calcutta University and hope that CU will clear it soon, she said, adding, Our students do well in the university examination. But that is not all; we want them to be effective individuals who will serve society in better ways, she maintained.
Revising its travel advisory for Iran and Israel, the government on Friday advised Indian nationals to remain vigilant while travelling to these countries and remain in touch with the Indian embassies there.

We continue to closely monitor the situation in the region. We have also noted that Iran and Israel have opened their airspace for several days now. We advise Indian nationals to remain vigilant while traveling to these countries and be in touch with the Indian Embassy, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The government had issued a travel advisory on April 12, urging Indian citizens to not travel to Israel and Iran in the backdrop of escalating military tensions between the two West Asian rivals. The advisory came after the April 1 Israeli strike on the Iranian Embassy in Syrian capital Damascus that killed several top Iranian commanders. Iran swore vengeance after that attack.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) formed an electoral alliance with the RJD and the Congress which had strongly opposed the formation of a separate Jharkhand and looted its natural resources during their governments.

Addressing a BJP election rally at Singhbhum in Jharkhand, he said the states natural resources belonged to its people, but the JMM and the Congress treated them as their property and indulged in their open loot. There has been a big liquor scam under the JMM government. Minerals and sand have been looted by illegal mining, and all party leaders including the former Chief Minister are involved, he said.

After looting the tribals lands, they have targeted the Armys land also, the Prime Minister said. The Congress and the JMM have hurt the self-esteem of the State, he said. I ask you, will you pardon those looting the State, he said.

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Mr Modi said there is a big race between the Congress and the JMM for loot and corruption. At the residence of a Congress MP, over Rs 300 crore were recovered in cash, he said. Machines were called from banks to count the notes, and they appeared to fail.

To whom the money really belonged? This money and wealth really belongs to the poor, kisan, adivasi and workers. This is a loot of your money, the Prime Minister said.

After this, how can the JMM and Congress seek your vote? They have been caught for crimes, but are not ashamed. Why do they want to form a government in Delhi, for the future of the youth? No, they want to form a government in Delhi to continue their loot unchecked all over the country. They have done nothing else before 2014 also, Mr Modi said.

The Prime Minister said while the BJP under late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee formed the State of Jharkhand and gave a push to its development, the Congress is planning to commit a dacoity on your property. The Congress says if it comes to power, it will conduct surveys on property of people. They oppose survey of property of thieves, but want to survey property of ordinary citizens, including silver, gold, streedhan, farms etc, the Prime Minister said.

They want to tell you there will be a limit on the property you can keep. Five acres out of your 10 acres can be taken. They want to deprive you of your property and give it to its vote-bank who are talking of Vote Jihad, the Prime Minister said. The Congress says the first claim on the nations property is of minorities, meaning Muslims, he said, but Modi says it is of the Dalit, adivasis, poor and women.

He said the Congress wants to commit a dacoity on the reservation share of the Dalits, Adivasis and the OBCs. Actually, they are angry that the BJP has the largest number of MPs and MLAs from adivasis and Dalits.

They are so angry with this that they want to teach a lesson to the Dalits, adivasis and OBCs and deprive their reservation share given to them by the Constitution and Ambedkar; and then give it to the Muslims on the basis of reservation of religion, he said.

Should we allow them to do so, should we allow this mess up with the Constitution, the RJD leaders of Bihar and Congress leaders talk of the Constitution but really want to violate it, he said.

Mr Modi said the Congress government of Karnataka overnight declared all Muslims backwards, whether they were rich or educated, and included them in the 27 per cent reservation share of the OBCs. They want to enforce this model now all over the country, he said.

Let the JMM and the Congress and RJD hear, as long as Modi is alive, you will not be able to loot the reservation of the OBCs, STs, SCs reservation. I give you guarantee, BJP gives you guarantee, no power on earth can touch our Constitution and the reservation given to you by Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Prime Minister said. He said he had asked the Congress to give it in writing that they would not touch the OBCs quota, but there was no response from the party.

He said the Congress, JMM and their allies will do anything for their vote bank. In Jharkhand, they are giving shelter to infiltrators, who are occupying the tribals land. As a result, in Santhal-Pargana region, the share of the adivasis in population is coming down, they have done this in Bengal also, he said.

In Bengal adivasis are suffering terrorism because of this. They want to create similar conditions in Jharkhand also. The JMM is doing this for vote bank, Mr Modi said.
As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from Raebareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh, CPI Kerala secretary Binoy Viswam on Friday said his party will support the Gandhi scion in Raebareli.

Speaking to media persons in Palakkad, Viswam said Rahul Gandhi had fought from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat forgetting about the fact that Congress main rival is BJP.

The CPI leader said the lack of far sightedness of Congress leaders in Kerala made a leader of the stature of Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayand.

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It was a political blunder from the part of the Congress. Now they have come to their senses and corrected their mistake. As they have corrected their mistake, the CPI has decided to support Rahul Gandhi in Raebareli, he said.

If Rahul wins both Wayanad and Raebareli, there is a possibility that he would resign from Wayanad. If it happens, it would be like betraying the voters of Wayanad, the CPI leader added.

Meanwhile, CPI leader Annie Raja, who was one among Rahuls rivals in Wayanad constituency, slammed the Congress leader for concealing his plan to contest from \ Raebareli from the voters of Wayanad.

Rahul Gandhi should have shown political morality. He should have informed the people of Wayanad about his plan to contest from Raebareli. It is not acceptable that he kept this away from the people of Wayanad, said Annie Raja.

If there was such a plan, the Congress should have announced it before the Wayanad elections, Annie Raja said.

The Wayanad constituency went to polls on April 26 in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections

In this connection, BJP Kerala president K Surendran said that Rahul Gandhi has proved that he is the biggest coward in Indian politics by deciding to contest in Raebareli.

By contesting from Raebareli, the only seat won by the Congress in UP last time, Rahul has proved that he is a coward, Surendran said.

BJPs allegation that Rahul Gandhi will cheat the people of Wayanad and Kerala after the second phase of polls has turned out to be correct, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will file his nomination papers from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on May 14.

Party sources claimed on Friday that he will reach the temple city in the evening of May 13 and hold a road show the next day before filing the nomination. He is also expected to pay obeisance at Kashi Vishwanath.

May 14 is the last day for filing of nominations and voting will be held on the Varanasi seat in the seventh and last phase on June 1.

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Sources said the party will leave no stone unturned to make Prime Minister Modis victory historic this time.

National and state leaders of BJP will start reaching Varanasi from the second week of May. They will hold small public meetings with Panna Pramukhs and also contact the voters. Apart from this, meetings will be held with different people of the society.

A list of leaders who will reach Kashi is also being prepared.

To make the Prime Ministers road show a grand success, BJP National General Secretary Sunil Bansal and Jagdish Patel, who came from Gujarat, have started meetings. Mahila Morcha is also going to play a major role in this.

Sources said apart from the womens group, youth will also be there on bikes and all the top leaders will also reach Varanasi a day before the nomination. After this, some leaders will stay in Varanasi till the voting and will take up the responsibility of the election campaign here.

Apna Dals National President Anupriya Patel and SBSP president Omprakash Rajbhar will hold public meetings in rural areas.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav will also address public meetings in Varanasi soon .

This time, PM Modi is pitted against Congress state president Ajay Rai from the INDIA bloc, while Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Syed Niaz Ali Manju as its candidate.
Tension ran high at an election meeting in the Taj city on Friday when Brijesh Bhadauria, an All India Hindu Mahasabha official, hurled a shoe at former minister Swami Prasad Maurya. The incident occurred during a public meeting in Doki, where Maurya was campaigning in support of Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj candidate Uttam Singh Nishad.

Earlier, Hindu Mahasabha workers stopped Mauryas convoy in Fatehabad and splattered ink on his car after showing black flags.

According to reports, the moment former minister Swami Prasad Maurya took the mike at the meeting organised in support of Uttam Singh Nishad, Bhadoria, an official of the Hindu Mahasabha, threw a shoe at him which hit the mike.

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However, the policemen deployed there caught hold of Bhadoria with the help of villagers present there.

Before this incident, agitated Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha workers stopped Swami Prasad Mauryas convoy and waved black flags. They also threw ink on his car. Subsequently, an altercation ensued between the police and the Hindu Mahasabha workers. Maurya retreated after agitators raised slogans asking him to go back.

The Hindu Mahasabha supporters were agitating against Mauryas past statements against the Hindu religious books and the Sanatan Dharma.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, a flurry of doctored clips and forged documents doing the rounds on social media is keeping the police on their toes.

On Friday, Congress candidate from Karimnagar V Rajender Rao was booked for reportedly sharing an edited audio clip of sitting BJP MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Earlier, five members of the social media team of the Telangana Congress were arrested by the Hyderabad Police for sharing an edited video of Union Minister Amit Shah on reservations. While Shah had accused the Congress of allowing Muslims to avail of reservations the edited clip suggests that he was in favour of scrapping the quota of the SCs, STs, and OBCs.

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Following a complaint by the BJP, the five, including their social media in-charge Satish Manne, were first detained, and then arrested. They all got bail after being produced in court.

Incidentally, the Delhi Police had registered a case following a complaint by the BJP in its jurisdiction.

Although the five got bail easily, in the case of BRS social media convenor Krishank, the bail hearing was pushed to Monday. He got into a spat with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy over the closure of the Osmania University hostel.

Reddy had posted a notice issued by the chief warden dated last year announcing the closure of the hostel. The letter also suggested there was a scarcity of water and power.

However, Krishank called the notice fake and posted another claiming it to be genuine, where there was no mention of scarcity of water and power.

He was arrested and sent to judicial remand. The chief ministers office was also busy on Friday disclaiming that a person had died in Nizamabad after being struck by a vehicle in his convoy. The allegation was made by BJP candidate from Nizamabad Arvind Dharmapuri forcing the CMO to release a CCTV grab and case diary.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stressed that the Gandhi family was in Amethi for the politics of truth and for the victory of Kishori Lal Sharma, the party candidate, who filed his nomination papers on Friday.

Priyanka said, People of BJP contest elections with money power but we will win by fighting with public power. She told the party workers that this was their election to fight and to win.

I have full confidence that you all will make the Congress candidate win, Priyanka said while addressing the party workers at the Congress office here.

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She also enquired about the well being of the workers and also appealed to them to work for the victory of K L Sharma.

Praising Sharma, she said ,Kishori Lal ji knows every village of Amethi. He recognises everyone and has been monitoring the work here for a long time.

Earlier, Congress candidate Sharma filed his nomination in the afternoon from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat which is considered to be the stronghold of the Gandhi family.

Before filing the nomination at the collectorate, he took out a road show from the Congress office where hundreds of party workers were present.

It is being said that Sharma was rewarded for his loyalty to the Gandhi family.

He is originally from Ludhiana, Punjab. In 1983, Rajiv Gandhi brought him to Amethi for the first time. Since then, he has stayed here. Even when the Gandhi family stopped contesting elections from here after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, Sharma continued working for the Congress.

After Sonia was elected MP from Rae Bareli, he worked here as her representative. When she did not contest the elections, Kishori was considered a contender from Rae Bareli, but the party fielded him from Amethi instead of Rae Bareli.

Gandhi family has held the Amethi constituency, one of the high profile seats of UP, since 1999 when Sonia Gandhi contested her first election from here.

Later she vacated this seat for her son Rahul Gandhi in 2004. Rahul won the elections in 2004, 2009, 2014 but lost in 2019 to BJPs Smriti Irani.

In 1998, Captain Satish Sharma, close to the Gandhi family, had contested elections from this seat but lost to Sanjay Singh of the BJP. Since then, this seat has been continuously reserved for the Gandhi family.

Except in 1977,1998 and 2019, in all the Lok Sabha polls, Congress has won Amethi since independence.

Late Rajiv Gandhi won Amethi four times, Rahul thrice while Sonia Gandhi and Late Sanjay Gandhi once each.
Expressing his disappointment at bureaucratic non-performance, in a longish speech in Parliament, on 10 February 2021, PM Modi broke an unspoken taboo, by questioning the operational capability of IAS officers. Actually, much before the PM noticed the declining efficiency of Government servants, citizens had often suffered when Government machinery failed them in crunch situations. Even after the PMs tongue lashing, things are no better; one gets the distinct impression that tragedies like armed clashes in Manipur, riots in Haryana or floods in Delhi could have been handled much better.

On Independence, after the British left, and after the myriad rajas and maharajas had been pensioned off, the country expected that able men and women would take over the reins of administration and lead India to glory, but administrators of the requisite calibre were hard to find, in a newly independent country. Realising that the British had successfully administered India through the minuscule Indian Civil Service, the Indian Army and the Indian Police, Sardar Patel, decided to continue with these institutions ~ much against the wishes of his cabinet colleagues, including Pandit Nehru.

Imbued with a sense of patriotism, and the heady feeling of independence, the Indian bureaucracy fully justified the Sardars confidence. Acknowledging the contribution of civil servants in nation building, Sardar Patel stated in the Constituent Assembly: I wish this to be recorded in this house that during the last two or three years if most of the members of the services had not been serving the country efficiently, practically the Union would have collapsed. Sadly, post-Independence, a new generation of bureaucrats with totally different values, are in office. Under the guise of Indianisation, timeless values of honesty, integrity, and responsibility have been discarded ~ to be replaced by a culture of brazen commercialism and avarice.

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The same bureaucracy that was credited with rendering stellar service to the nation seventyfive years ago, now stands accused of runaway corruption and inefficiency. The primary reason for the diminishing performance of civil servants is the interference of politicians in bureaucratic decision-making. Before Independence, bureaucrats were accustomed to exercising unbridled power, but after Independence, real power passed into the hands of ministers, who came from a different milieu, and had a vastly different set of values, so conflicts developed between politicians and bureaucrats.

Soon, civil servants understood that circumspection rather than pure efficiency was needed to make things work, and politicians realised that civil servants, with their vast knowledge of procedure, were vital for any initiative to succeed. Therefore, peaceful co-existence and collaboration became the operative mantra. The bureaucratpolitician partnership smoothened administrative wrinkles and could have been transformative for the country, had it not been mostly used for ulterior purposes. Over the years the bureaucratic machinery has become increasingly slothful and corrupt; most Government schemes fail to deliver desired results because they are implemented by ill-trained and lethargic bureaucrats ~ who treat Government employment as a sinecure ~ making the common man the worst sufferer of bureaucratic non-performance. Worse still, Government servants often engage in pursuits they are duty bound to prevent, for example, policemen are often found involved in offences like robbery and extortion.

Similarly, a number of bureaucrats and bankers have been charged with bribery, defalcation of public funds etc. In fact, in a viral video, policemen are seen running, with the CBI team in hot pursuit ~ a case of cops and robbers both being policemen. One wonders, if the police cannot prevent their own colleagues from engaging in criminal activities, can a common man hope that the police would prevent criminals from targeting him? Similarly, if bureaucrats are on the side of dishonest contractors, smugglers and tax evaders, then who will work to augment Government revenue?

Forgetting official statistics, if one goes by newspaper reports, criminals of all hues ~ cyber criminals, extortionists, vigilantes, murderers and thieves ~ appear to be having a field day. Again, through newspaper reports, one gathers that the administrative and police machinery is in deep slumber, waking up only to collect hafta or at politically opportune times e.g., to demolish the houses of suspected criminals. No wonder, the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) that ranks 215 countries and territories on six dimensions of governance viz.

Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; Control of Corruption, placed India at 68th place with a meagre score of 48.9 out of 100. WGI attracted the ire of the Indian Government. Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran found the World Governance Index  purely based on the subjective opinions of some so-called expert institutions which do not have presence on the ground  Some years ago, the Principal Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance, gave a presentation on ways to improve Indias ranking in WGI, which emphasised on countering the negative commentary on India by think tanks, survey agencies and international media ~ but not by improving governance.

The days seem long gone when a few upright men of sterling character, with meagre resources but full determination, could provide good governance to the entire country. The present lot of administrators is much better placed in terms of resources ~ financial, infrastructural and technological ~ yet the output is definitely poorer, with good reporting substituting for good governance. With time, the public has lost all hope in a system in which administrators blame politicians and vice versa, and both curse the elements, foreign powers, or even Jawaharlal Nehru, when things go wrong. Just before the elections, on 11 February 2024, the Supreme Court directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to supply details of donations received through Electoral Bonds (EBs) to the Election Commission by 12 March 2024.

After much hemming and hawing, SBI provided lists of donors and donees, but without the crucial unique identifier which could connect donees and donors. After another dressing down missing, details were furnished and donors and donees were linked ~ the entire process, which the SBI averred would take months, was completed in a few days. This sequence of events is a sorry reflection on the morality and truthfulness of Indias leading banker. Once details of donations through Electoral Bonds were published, more damaging conclusions were postulated; it appeared that some companies had donated money after the visit of enforcement agencies. Others had donated money, before or after award of lucrative government contracts.

Surprisingly, some companies had donated money many times in excess of their net worth, pointing to those companies being fronts for others, indicating violation of both taxation and electoral laws. Instead of initiating penal action against the erring corporates and political parties, several members of the government denied any wrong-doing, going so far as to say that the country had been pushed towards black money in elections, after the Supreme Court scrapped the Electoral Bonds scheme and that on honest reflection, everyone will regret it. The actions of enforcement agencies appear so one sided to laymen that at election time, the PM is being forced to defend their impartiality. This is a sad commentary on the working of our premier organisations.

Recently, the Election Commission has drawn flak for failing to act firmly against apparent violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The credibility and purity of the electoral process could have been preserved, if, befitting their exalted status, our top bureaucrats had been blessed with more spine. Looking at the bureaucratic efficiency displayed during the much-reviled Emergency, when targets were met, trains ran on time and officers were available in office during office hours, one easily concludes that wielding a big stick is required to make government functionaries perform. So, the middle and lower rungs of bureaucracy, who are the first point of contact for citizens, can easily be reformed by streamlining the convoluted procedure to book delinquent officers.

However, top bureaucrats are reined in only by their conscience; acting in cahoots with politicians they are capable of inflicting immense damage on the body politic. As Goswami Tulsidas wrote in the Ramcharitmanas, centuries ago: If influenced by greed or fear a guru praises his shishya unnecessarily, then dharma is destroyed, likewise if a physician does not tell the truth to his patient, then the body is destroyed, and if a minister does not give true advice to the King, then a kingdom is destroyed.

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. A meeting of the AFFA Disciplinary Committee was held, Trend reports via Idman.biz.

The meeting discussed the events that occurred in the XXXII round of the Azerbaijani Premier League. In the match Gabala - Kapaz the hosts, four of whom received yellow cards, were fined 700 manat ($411.5).

Bruno Gonsalves, who received a red card for aggressive behavior in the match Neftchi vs. Turan Tovuz, was disqualified for 4 matches, 2 of which were conditional, and the club was fined 3000 manat ($1,763). The probationary period is 3 months. Neftchi will pay 1000 manat ($587.8) for the fact that the Emergency Ministry's car arrived late. After the match, the Baku players were fined 500 manat ($293.9) for not creating comfortable conditions for the players to get on the bus. Due to the mass insults of fans towards referees, Turan Tovuz incurred a loss of 1000 manat ($587.8).

The stadium owners were fined 800 manat ($470.3) after the match between Sumgayit and Qarabag for the entry of unauthorized persons on the field. Aghdam Club will pay a fine of 800 ($470.3) manat for the fact that Qarabag fans threw foreign objects on the field.

Besides, Araz-Nakhchivan FC will compensate for the damage caused to the roof of the technical area by the team's players in the away match against Zira.

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While the dastardly Hamas attack on 7 October last, and the Israeli response thereafter have been discussed often in these columns, as indeed they have been around the world, the one-sided conflict raging in West Asia, with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip bearing the brunt of Tel Avivs aggression, is now beginning to draw responses that threaten to rip open fault lines in Western societies.

A boycott of KFC outlets in Muslim-majority Malaysia, to register protest against Americas support for Israel, may be entirely predictable. But the fires of protest ignited on university campuses as far apart as New York and California, or New Mexico and Florida, in an American presidential year, suggest that the Western worlds perception of a David v Goliath confrontation is hardening. A May Day demonstration in London emerging as a pressure point to stop Britain from supplying arms to Israel is another link in a chain of protests to express revulsion for what is being seen as an indiscriminate assault on innocent occupants of the Gaza Strip for the crimes of some of their compatriots.

A few weeks ago, nearly 800 serving American and European officials had in a statement said that the actions of Western governments could amount to grave violations of international law. They had accused Israel of showing no boundaries in its Gaza military operations, and charged their own governments with failing to heed advice from those who understood the region. The statement was signed by officials from the US, the European Union and 11 European nations including the UK, France and Germany. Observers had then noted that coordinated dissent by so many officials from different countries was itself unprecedented. But such dissent was confined to the rarefied corridors of decision-making, unlike the protests being witnessed on university campuses now. These are growing by the day notwithstanding the risk of punitive actions being initiated by authorities. Already more than 1,000 protestors have been arrested, including faculty members; more than 20 campuses have been affected, and some have been forced to take early semester breaks, and demands that universities sever ties with Israel and with companies involved in the conflict have been repeatedly raised.

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While American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have characterised the protests as anti-Semitic, the presence of several Jewish groups at protest sites suggests that the anger defies easy description. Already, some commentators have compared the situation on American campuses to the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s. It is clear that todays youth sees the West Asia conflict as a manifestation of the military-industrial complexs evil designs and seeks to force participants to stop the violence which has already claimed several thousand lives while having displaced hundreds of thousand Gaza residents. The West is sitting on a powder keg, and its leaders are emerging as a discredited lot in the eyes of their youth. The Gaza war has come to Americas streets.
In the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the debate over the Minimum Support Price (MSP) has taken centre stage, reflecting the deep-seated concerns of Indias agrarian community. The issue, once relegated to the side lines, has now garnered widespread attention, with political parties jostling to articulate their positions on this critical matter. The Congress party has unequivocally thrown its weight behind the demand for a legally guaranteed MSP. With the legacy of the National Food Security Act of 2013 and the establishment of the National Commission on Farmers under its belt, the Congress sees itself as a champion of farmers rights.

It claims unwavering support for a robust MSP regime. On the other side of the spectrum, the ruling BJP-led dispensation finds itself treading a fine line between appeasing farmers and maintaining its pro-business stance. While the government has made overtures towards addressing farmers grievances by expressing willingness to procure certain crops at MSP, its insistence on crop diversification as a precondition has drawn criticism. Critics argue that such conditional support falls short of addressing the systemic issues plaguing Indias agricultural sector and may be perceived as a half-hearted attempt to placate farmers ahead of the elections. The crux of the matter lies in finding a balance between market dynamics and the welfare of farmers.

Calls for a comprehensive legal framework to enforce MSP have been met with apprehension, with concerns raised about its feasibility and effectiveness. The debate surrounding the budgetary implications of guaranteeing MSP cannot be ignored. While detractors argue that the fiscal burden would be untenable, proponents point to the relatively modest allocation required compared to the overall Union budget. With careful planning and strategic allocation of resources, the government can mitigate any perceived financial strain while upholding its commitment to farmers welfare.

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There is also a need for nuanced policy interventions that address the root causes of price volatility and market distortions. Furthermore, it is crucial to acknowledge the role of middlemen in exacerbating the challenges faced by farmers. The prevalence of price manipulation and delayed government intervention due to collusion between middlemen and market administrators underscores the need for comprehensive reforms in agricultural marketing systems. Streamlining procurement processes and empowering farmers to bypass intermediaries can help alleviate the financial burden on farmers and ensure a fairer distribution of profits along the supply chain.

At its core, the issue of MSP transcends political rhetoric and partisan agendas. It is about safeguarding the livelihoods of millions of farmers who form the backbone of Indias economy. As the Lok Sabha polls progress, it is imperative for political parties to rise above narrow electoral considerations and work towards consensus-based solutions that prioritise the interests of farmers. Only through collaborative efforts and a shared commitment to agrarian reform can we hope to address the longstanding challenges facing Indias agricultural sector
Karnataka and Gujarat, the top performers in 2023, maintained strong performances in 2024. They continue to perform well in power sector decarbonisation and are well-positioned to accelerate the transition, with adequate market enablers facilitating further growth.

Progress in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh needs to improve. The pace of the electricity transition in these states continued to be comparatively slower than in other states, despite changes in our assessment parameters. The states need comprehensive planning to enable a power sector transition.

Odisha has sufficient market enablers to drive decarbonisation in the power sector. However, its performance has not quite matched its progress in establishing these enabling conditions.

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Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh all showed strong progress in two dimensions: decarbonisation and the readiness and performance of the power ecosystem. However, their performance in the Market Enablers dimension was not as strong as that of other states, which may affect their ability to drive further decarbonisation.

23 April 2024 (IEEFA South Asia and Ember): Karnataka and Gujarat continued to showcase their leadership in the progress towards the clean energy transition, a new joint report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember shows.

This marks the second year of IEEFA and Embers collaboration on the Indian States Electricity Transition (SET) report, which evaluates the clean electricity transition preparedness at the subnational level. In 2024, the report adds five more states, totaling 21 states and representing about 95 per cent of Indias annual power demand in the past seven financial years (FY) 2018 to 2024 (up to November). This year, the assessment parameters have been updated to better align with states electricity transition progress, incorporating stakeholder feedback and data availability.

Despite the changes, Karnataka and Gujarat showcased strong performance across dimensions, effectively integrating renewable energy sources into their power sectors and making strong strides in decarbonisation. But progress in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh needs to improve, similar to last years findings. While these states are in the early stages of their transition, they now need to focus on increasing renewable energy deployment, enhancing short-term market participation, and strengthening their distribution companies.

The report is released when temperatures in India have started to soar, leading to the Ministry of Power preparing for a projected peak power demand of 260 gigawatts. Harsh summers also offer the chance to utilise more clean energy, like solar power. Although this requires the preparedness of states to transition to clean sources of electricity,.

Cyclical weather conditions coupled with faster economic activity are pushing Indias peak electricity demand higher every year. While the central government is taking steps to integrate more renewable energy into the grid, states, too, need to be prepared to do so. Gauging subnational progress now requires constant monitoring of several parameters at the state level. A purely national overview can often overshadow subtle intricacies at the state level, which may stymie the countrys electricity transition, says the reports contributing author, Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, IEEFA.

The report finds that while the national-level progress towards the electricity transition is progressing well, it is far more uneven at the state level.

Some states have developed progressive steps, such as boosting decentralised renewable energy deployment, promoting solar pumps for agricultural needs, and enhancing storage solutions to ensure more renewable energy in their electricity systems. But the transition to clean electricity is still in its infancy in many states. These states should look to accelerate the efforts to access the benefits of a transition to clean electricity and to ensure that they are not left too far behind the better-performing states, says the reports contributing author, Aditya Lolla, Asia Programme Director, Ember.

One of the striking findings from our analysis for the 2024 report was that several states are exhibiting preparedness to embrace the electricity transition. They perform well in the readiness and performance of the power ecosystem and market enabler dimensions but need to improve in the decarbonisation dimension.

Delhis power system is well-prepared for decarbonisation, while Odisha has robust market enablers to support decarbonisation in the power sector. However, their actual decarbonisation progress so far does not match their strengths in these aspects, highlighting the importance of performing well in both dimensions to effectively achieve decarbonisation goals, says co-author Neshwin Rodrigues, Electricity Policy Analyst, Ember.

The report also notes that state-level decarbonisation can be further accelerated by strengthening the power ecosystem and having the right enablers. Some states that are decarbonising well also lack the right market enablers; others struggle with the readiness of their power ecosystems.

Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra all exhibited considerable progress in certain aspects but also lower performance in other aspects. For example, Kerala and Punjab need to improve when it comes to market enablers for decarbonisation, while Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra need to focus on the readiness of their power ecosystems, says co-author Tanya Rana, Energy Analyst, IEEFA.

Despite achieving relative success in decarbonising the sector thus far, states must address deficiencies in readiness and market enablers to sustain their momentum, says Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Energy Specialist, India Clean Energy Transition, IEEFA.

The report recognises the considerable efforts that states are making towards transitioning to clean electricity and, thus, recommends some key steps to accelerate the pace of transition.

We recommend the strengthening of state-level regulatory ecosystems. This not only ensures compliance but also promotes growth, data tracking and monitoring, and a conducive environment for business, says Michael.

India has formulated many central and state-level policy schemes to reinforce its goal of energy independence by supporting various reforms and regulatory interventions across the value chain. However, actual implementation has not been adequate and transparent, she adds.

The report also calls for a shift in focus from national-level to state-level studies to fully understand the nuances of the electricity transition in India.

Each state faces unique challenges in decarbonising its power system, necessitating tailored policy interventions. By tracking decarbonisation progress, assessing the power systems readiness for transition, and monitoring the advancement of market enablers, state-specific challenges and potential interventions can be better understood, says Neshwin.



About IEEFA: The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) examines issues related to energy markets, trends, and policies. The Institutes mission is to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy. (ieefa.org)

About Ember: Ember is an independent energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy. It creates targeted data insights to advance policies that urgently shift the world to a clean, electrified energy future. (ember-climate.org)
Israel launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights against a military site near Syrian capital Damascus, injuring eight soldiers and causing material losses, the Syrian Defence Ministry said.

While the Defence Ministry statement spelled no further details, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday that explosions were heard in the southwestern countryside of the capital Damascus, precisely along the administrative boundary shared with Quneitra province and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

According to the Britain-based watchdog group, the explosions were accompanied by the flight of suspected Israeli drones, Xinhua news agency reported.

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The observatorys director, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said that this is the only available information at present.

This attack follows a reported decline in Israeli attacks over the past month, which the Syrian observatorys director attributed to the strikes on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1.

The targeted areas are known strongholds for elements of Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, according to the observatory.
Fears that Pakistan is moving towards a complete economic meltdown are rising in the country.

The notion originates from multiple factors including slow economic growth, ever-increasing external debts, continuing bailout programmes, lack of cohesion between institutions, absence of clear and firm direction from the leadership and serious political differences among political parties, who are engaged in a paralyzing confrontation, which drains most of the energy and creates doubts over credibility and legitimacy.

The increasing spread of militancy, political uncertainty and an escalating dominance of Pakitans military establishment over a democratically-elected government, coupled with the suppression of other political parties, its workers and the overall political freedom, has further intensified the countrys woes.

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It is because of these factors that Pakistan finds itself in a bad fix and is deemed unfit and unequipped to handle the challenges.

Currently, Pakistan lags behind much of the world and most of its neighbours in human development and economic indicators.

The country is stuck in a spiralling debt cycle as the government is constantly looking at other countries to seek short-term loans or extensions of its existing external debts.

Pakistans newly elected Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was in the US to have detailed table talks with the IMF, seeking another bailout programme worth $10 billion. Upon his return, he said that the IMF was very receptive to considering a larger-longer programme.

The efforts have been forced to seek external financing in terms of investments, through privatization and bailout programmes, completely being blind to the pivotal factors that lack progress and development.

Labour productivity, one of the most critical and crucial factors for economic prosperity, has remained among the worlds lowest for the past three decades in the country.

In comparison with the regional neighbours, Pakistans labour productivity growth has hovered around 1.3 per cent per annum while all of its neighbouring countries have remained well ahead.

Between 1990 to 2018, China tops the labour productivity race with a robust growth percentage of 8.12 per cent, India stood at 4.72 per cent and Bangladesh achieved a growth rate of 3.88 per cent.

In contrast to its neighbours, Pakistan has seen a major decline in labour productivity in at least six out of twelve sectors including mining, utilities, transport, real estate, construction and trade.

And because of snail-paced progress in important sectors, policymakers have been compelled to rely on external debt to secure economic progress.

In January 2024, the State Bank of Pakistan stated that the countrys external debt servicing obligation is about $29 billion over the next 12 months, amounting to about 45 per cent of the countrys dollar earnings.

Pakistan has recently introduced the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a new platform to provide better, easier, and faster business facilitation for foreign direct investments.

While the formation of SIFC with additional powers to the Army Chief General Asim Munir over financial matters is a step taken to provide a one-stop shop solution to investing countries and companies and provide ease of doing business; many believe that its formation is ill-timed, insisting that formation of a council with additional powers would be counter-productive and would further increase uncertainty.

Experts warn that the current path Pakistan is on presents serious risks and threatens complete chaos, adding that the country is on the edge of a collapse, and any wrong move now, can result in a disaster.
Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday urged Indian students enrolled in US colleges and universities to abide by local laws and regulations with regard to the ongoing protests that have swept across American institutions for higher education against Israels ongoing war in Gaza.

There have been no reports yet of the involvement of Indian students in these protests and the ministry has also said no student or their family has contacted Indian missions for help.

We expect all our citizens at home and abroad to respect local laws and regulations, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a news briefing in New Delhi in response to a question about protests at Columbia University.

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So far no Indian students or their families have contacted us for any assistance in regard to disciplinary action which has been taken for their participation in the protest, he added.

Hundreds of thousands of Indian students are enrolled in US colleges and universities in graduate and undergraduate courses. Many of them desire to work after college and settle down here. They are unlikely to participate in protests or take part in an action that pits them against the law, which could jeopardize their future.

Protests have spread across US colleges and universities against Israels ongoing war in Gaza, with students demanding an end to US support for Israel and, as in the case of Columbia University, cutting with businesses and other entities with investments in Israel.

These protests have turned violent in many instances with students taking over parts of the university building as they did in Columbia. Police have arrested scores of students and are breaking up their encampments, as their tents pitched around the campuses are being called.

Disclose, divest. We will not slow, we will not rest is what protestors at Columbia University have been heard chanting. They want the university to divest in Israel and cut ties with companies that invest in Israel or have supported its war effort.

President Joe Biden addressed the violence in a speech from the White House saying that the freedom to protest must be accompanied by respect for the law. Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is, he said.

Its against the law if violence occurs. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. Its against the law. Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder, or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education, the US President said.

The US President also appealed for an end to anti-semitism and Islamophobia or discrimination against supporters of Palestine.

There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether its anti-semitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian Americans. Its simply wrong. Theres no place for racism in America. Its all wrong, he said.

College authorities and law enforcement agencies have blamed some of the violence on outsiders joining student protestors. New York police found professional agitators among protestors at Columbia.
A Shia militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a missile attack on three sites in the cities of Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva in Israel.

The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in two online statements that on Thursday noon, its fighters launched three attacks with long-range al-Arqab upgraded cruise missiles on two vital sites in Tel Aviv and one in Beer Sheva in southern Israel, without providing additional details about the specific location targeted or any resulting casualties, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statements stressed that the attacks were carried out in solidarity with the people of Gaza and pledged to persist in targeting enemys strongholds.

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Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and US bases in the region.
AGHDAM, Azerbaijan, May 3. Construction of 719 houses in Khidirli village of Aghdam district, 203 houses in Sarijali village, and 292 houses in Kangarli village is planned to be completed by the end of 2026, Deputy Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Bashir Hajiyev said, Trend reports.

He made the statement during the "Impact of landmines, improvised explosive devices, and unexploded ordinances on cultural property" special session held in Aghdam city during the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

To note, participants of the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity are on a visit to the city of Aghdam, liberated from Armenian occupation. A special session on "Impact of landmines, improvised explosive devices, and unexploded ordinances on cultural property" is being held at the Aghdam Conference Center as part of the forum.

The session is moderated by Ambassador Elman Abdullayev, Permanent Delegate of Azerbaijan to UNESCO.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Competing in European Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup is a new and exciting experience, Daniela Munitz told Trend on the event's sidelines.

"I was delighted to learn that we had a new competition on our calendar. The European Cup is played in a new format, which is a fascinating experience. At competitions, I want to demonstrate my best performance, and if I manage to win awards," she emphasized.

The Israeli gymnast mentioned that the Baku audience supports the participants of the European Cup well.

"The competition hall at Baku's gymnastics arena is vast and gorgeous, with everything looking really nice. The audience provides wonderful support. I admit that I was nervous throughout the ball workout. It was the first event, therefore I was a little frightened before getting on the mat," she noted.

Speaking about Azerbaijani gymnasts, Munitz emphasized that she likes performance by Zohra Aghamirova.

"It will be interesting to watch her performance at the European Cup," she added.

To note, the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup takes place on May 35 at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku. Representatives from 37 countries around the world participate in the competition. Gymnasts perform in two age categories "seniors" (individual program and group exercises) and "juniors" (individual program).

Azerbaijan is represented by Zohra Aghamirova and Kamilla Seyidzade in individual competitions, and a team consisting of Gullu Aghalarzade, Kamilla Aliyeva, Yelizaveta Luzan, Darya Sorokina, Leman Alimuradova, and Zeynab Hummatova in group movements. Fidan Gurbanli, Ilaha Bahadirova, Govhar Ibrahimova, and Shams Aghahuseynova are among the "junior" athletes performing in individual programs.

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Job Title: Project Officer (Gender)

Organisation: The AIDS Support Organization (TASO Uganda)

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Senior Technical Advisor Gender

About US:

The AIDS Support Organization (TASO Uganda), is an organisation contributing to a process of preventing HIV infection, restoring hope and improving the quality of life of persons, families and communities affected by HIV infection and disease.

Job Summary: The Project Officer Gender will provide technical assistance to project and project staff, Sub recipients, and Community-Based structures in integration of a gender perspective to the Global Fund work; ensure that gender is mainstreamed and strengthened; effective linkages and referrals for quality HIVIAIDS prevention, care, treatment and support responses in the target districts.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Project Management

Develop quarterly and bi-annual work plans in consultation with project team members, lead implementation and monitor the work plans to ensure compliance and adherence to timelines.

Support sub recipients, Stop GBV Champions and community activists to develop monthly plans based on the work plan.

Support the sub recipients in awareness raising activities, including the provision of information on available GBV and HIV services and ensure effective referrals and linkages.

Plan and implement capacity-building activities in GBV related to the projects health service delivery / gender responsive programming and services in collaboration with targeted districts.

Develop and maintain effective networks with relevant stakeholders including partner agencies, Government Institutions, community leaders and service providers to ensure collaboration, synergy and sharing of experiences on gender issues.

Provide guidance regarding HIV and GBV prevention and post care services and ensure referral pathways are shared and understood by the sub recipients, community activists and Stop GBV Champions.

Support in follow up and case management of Gender Based Violence Cases and ensure proper documentation, assessment, case plan implementation, follow up and information management of all GBV cases.

Ensure that all project activities are implemented and meet expected standards, as per implementation guidelines.

Maintain up-to-date statistics and program data on services for the project supported Sub Recipients in collaboration with the M&E department.

Work with the local sub recipients and CBOs to conduct community mobilization and awareness to generate demand for GBV and HIV services and ensure the uptake of GBV and HIV Counselling and Testing Services for children, adolescents and adults in a child-friendly manner at community level.

Supervise the Stop GBV Champions and Community Activists to conduct referrals, follow ups and reporting.

Work with the local CBOs to establish new and strengthen existing peer support groups (PSGs) at community level to promote retention into care and prevention among AGYW.

Strengthening the multidisciplinary linkage coordination at the national and Community levels.

Support Continuous Community Quality Improvement approaches for Gender based Violence and HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment in target districts.

Prepare high-quality comprehensive monthly, quarterly and annual reports and ensure timely submission of regular. Contribute to development of project reports on activities, achievements, best practices and lessons learned.

Design, monitor and report on key activities related to scale-up of HIVIAIDS and Gender based Violence prevention interventions.

To coordinate, track, implement and report project activities to ensure their effective and efficient implementation.

Ensure that all HIV grant and other related deliverables are achieved according to the Global Fund Guidelines and TASO Principles,

Documentation, Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, accountability and Knowledge Management for Policy Advocacy

Maintains records of activity implementation

Organizes learning and accountability meeting

Prepare Monthly work plans and reports

Conduct quality checks of all GBV data and ensure filing and entry into specific database.

Document lessons learned, best practices and case studies from the project districts.

Support sub recipients to submit quality timely reports in conformity with signed agreements.

Prepare reports on GBV, Gender and AGYW programme to be shared with senior management, UCCM and other relevant stakeholders.

Programme Management and Technical Support

Provide necessary technical guidance to district and community partners during the course of the project

Support Partners and Sub Recipients to adhere to work plans and implementation guides.

Work closely with Stop GBV Champions and Community Activists to manage and monitor ongoing program implementation in the area of GBV for Adolescent Girls and Youth women for the general population

Key Outputs

Work plans and budgets for sub recipients prepared and submitted.

Standards for the provision of Gender and HIV related services developed.

Quality of Gender and HIV related service delivery coordinated.

Technical support for efficient and effective Gender and HIV related services provided to the

facility and community-based structures.

Gender and HIV related technical capacity of facility and community structures strengthened.

Case Management Approaches in the community and facility setting Implemented.

Adherence and Disclosure guidelines in community setting Implemented and monitored.

Effective referrals and linkages in the target districts.

Differentiated service delivery models and community support programs plans in collaboration with health facilities implemented.

Quality Improvement approaches in improving linkage to care so as to reach the UNAID95-95-95 targets applied.

High quality project monthly and quarterly reports compiled and submitted on time.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Bachelors degree in any of the following fields; Humanities but not limited to Social Sciences, Education, SWASA, Development Studies, Community and Adult Educat10n, Community Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Public Health, Guidance and counselling, Human Rights, adolescent Health among others majoring in Gender.

Additional Training: Postgraduate training in Gender and Human Rights Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender Based Violence issues and their application in HIV AND AIDS settings is an added advantage.

Three years of direct gender, rights and psychosocial/counselling, adolescent health, child counselling and programme/project management in the public sector or private reputable agency. This experience shall involve working with survivors of violence, adolescent girls and young women and providing technical assistance and mentorship of Project Assistants in HIVIAIDS prevention, linkages and referrals within MGLSD and MoH structures and systems. Substantive work experience in the field of Gender-Based Violence, Gender and /or Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights will be an added advantage.

Clear understanding of Psychosocial, gender dynamics, abuse of power, and issues surrounding GBV/VAC

Ability to maintain confidentiality, professional ethics and respect for AGYW, survivors and beneficiaries at all times

Strong ability to lead, train, facilitate and motivate others in their respective tasks in a professional, respectful and supportive manner.

Comprehensive knowledge and experience in gender-based violence and HIVIAIDS management, prevention and community-referral and linkages as per the national and community referral and linkages framework.

Good working knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention programs, strategies, processes and techniques used to plan, develop, implement and evaluate results of HIVIAIDS programs among adolescent girls and young women.

Knowledge of Quality GBV standards, survivor handling methodology, policies, procedures and tools.

Knowledge of community mobilization, social development and facilitation techniques.

National and international gender, human rights and HIVIAIDS guidelines, declarations and commitments.

National gender, human rights and HIVIAIDS frame work including policies and procedures.

Managing grants and sub grantees.

Knowledge of Gender, HIV and Human Rights programming, policies and regulations, MGLSD, MoHand district procedures and practices.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills including the ability to work effectively in a team.

Counselling skills

Computer skills in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Experience of capacity strengthening through formal and informal training

Ability to plan strategically, and communicate with key actors in a dynamic and unpredictable operating environment

Problem solving and decision making

Understanding of gender, age and other socio-cultural factors

Ability and willingness to work in a participatory manner with a diverse range of beneficiaries and communities

Other Qualities/Attributes: Integrity, Emotional control, Confidentiality, Openness, Team player, Self-driven, Empathy, Result Oriented, analytical, team player, effective communication and Ability to handle pressure and work under minimum supervision.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified candidates who meet all the above requirements are invited to submit their resume, copies of certified academic certificates, testimonials, and three referees, two of whom should be the present employer immediate supervisor or last employer if unemployed, or any other if it is the first employment being applied for. None of the referees should be a relative, friend, or business associate. All referees designations should be stated and contact details included i.e. physical address, telephone/ mobile numbers, and email contacts.

All interested Candidates MUST fully fill out the TASO Online Job Application Form, scan and save all the relevant documents as one document (labelled with the candidates full names), and forward only online applications with the relevant credentials to the link below.

Click Here

Note:

Also, note that only applications received online shall be considered.

While TASO appreciates all interested applicants, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interviews. In case you do not hear from TASO Uganda One (01) month after the closing date, please consider yourself unsuccessful.

Please note that any form of canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.

Deadline: 16th May 2024

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline

Date Posted 2024-05-03T14:20 Valid Through 2024-05-16T17:20 Employment Type FULL_TIME Hiring Organization The AIDS Support Organization (TASO Uganda) Job Location Kampala, Kampala, Kampala , 0256, Uganda

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New Delhi (India), May 3: Andrew Spira has emerged as a significant proponent of Universal Basic Income (UBI), advocating for its adoption to address societal inequities and enhance economic stability. Spira's efforts are part of a broader movement that sees UBI as a financial aid and a transformative tool for social justice.

UBI's Global Experiments

Universal Basic Income has been tested in various forms around the globe, from the villages of Kenya to the cold expanses of Alaska and, more recently, England. These experiments have provided valuable insights into the potential benefits of UBI.

For instance, in England, a recent pilot program initiated by the think tank Autonomy has provided 30 residents with approximately $2,013 monthly, observing the impact on their economic status and quality of life.

Similarly, in Alaska, the Permanent Fund Dividend has provided residents with annual payments derived from oil revenues since 1982. This initiative has not only helped Alaskans financially but has also contributed to a more stable local economy. In Iran, a nationwide unconditional cash transfer program has compensated citizens since 2011 for the phase-out of subsidies on essential goods, significantly impacting household incomes.

The Impact of UBI on Employment and Health

Studies and real-life implementations have shown promising outcomes in terms of employment and health improvements. For example, a Finnish study highlighted that recipients of UBI had higher life satisfaction and reported better health than those who did not receive the payments. In Stockton, California, a UBI trial resulted in increased full-time employment as recipients had the financial freedom to seek better job opportunities rather than juggling multiple part-time jobs.

Andrew Spira sees UBI as a crucial step towards a more equitable society where financial security is not a privilege but a right. His advocacy is driven by the belief that UBI can empower individuals by providing them with the stability needed to pursue personal and professional aspirations without the constant pressure of financial survival. Spira's work, particularly through educational campaigns and public speaking, aims to shift public perception and policy toward embracing UBI as a viable and necessary economic policy.

The Road Ahead for UBI

As UBI continues to gain traction globally, the movement spearheaded by leaders like Andrew Spira is set to play a pivotal role in shaping future economic policies. The ongoing experiments and the growing body of research supporting UBI's benefits are paving the way for more countries to consider this bold approach to economic welfare and social justice.

Spira's relentless advocacy for Universal Basic Income places him at the forefront of a significant shift towards rethinking economic stability and social equity. His vision and efforts are instrumental in driving the conversation and implementation of UBI, promising a future where economic barriers do not hinder the potential for prosperity and dignity for all.
New Delhi (India), May 2: Investing in a high-potential equity fund cannot guarantee high returns. You must regularly check if your equity fund investment aligns with your investment objectives and allocate your assets accordingly. Read on to know about the importance of asset allocation in equity funds.

What is asset allocation?

When an investor allocates their money across multiple asset classes like equity, fixed income, debt, and cash, they are practising asset allocation. You can reduce the overall risk associated with your investment portfolio by allocating money across assets. Another advantage of asset allocation is that it helps you reduce your net loss. Asset allocation, therefore, helps you earn better returns by reducing net losses and spreading overall risk across asset classes.

Why is asset allocation important when investing in equity funds?

Asset management is a key factor among all the factors affecting equity fund returns. Here are three reasons why asset allocation is important when you invest in equity funds :

 You can reduce the overall risk posed by equity funds by allocating your assets effectively: Equity funds pose a high risk to investors since they are impacted by market fluctuations. Your portfolio risk can range between moderate and very high depending on the type of equity fund you select. Small-cap equity funds, for instance, are highly volatile and pose a very high risk to investor. Asset allocation can help you reduce this risk significantly.

 Asset allocation helps you achieve your financial goals on time: Investors generally fix their financial goals before investing in any mutual fund scheme. However, oftentimes, despite having invested in the best mutual fund , you can end up straying away from your financial goals. Asset allocation helps you remain aligned with your financial objectives.

 You can optimise your equity fund returns through efficient asset allocation: You can achieve the perfect balance between risk and returns by allocating your assets efficiently.

How to practise effective asset allocation in equity fund investments?

Any investor who regularly assesses their equity funds to practise asset allocation must consider two important factors: their investments time horizon and their risk appetite. Here is how you can consider these two factors to allocate your assets effectively:

 Liquidity and time horizon generally go hand-in-hand: Certain investment options might offer high returns over a long term but have a lock-in period. If you wish to access your investment amount regularly, you can fix a shorter investment horizon. Having shorter investment horizons while investing in equity funds can help you regularly assess your investment portfolio and allocate assets according to your risk appetite.

 You must carefully assess your risk-taking capacity while investing: You must invest in an equity mutual fund only after carefully assessing your risk appetite. You must keep this rule in mind even while practising asset allocation. A good practise to follow is defining your investment objectives in advance and analysing your risk appetite accordingly.

You can use an online mutual fund return calculator to decide your investment amount and investment horizon after fixing your financial objectives.
Balmorex Pro is a natural pain relieving cream. It is formulated by including natural ingredients. This formula helps to reduce joint pain, muscle soreness, and other issues. It is used externally to reduce pain. It works by offering fast relief by addressing the pain precisely. In this Balmorex Pro review, lets learn more about this pain-relieving formula.

Balmorex Pro Reviews: Can It Provide Long-Lasting Relief For Joint And Muscle Pain?

Joint and muscle pain can be felt because of many reasons. It ranges from mild to severe conditions. The pain in the joints and muscles can be constant or sometimes it comes and goes. If the condition is constant, it may interfere with your quality of life.

The pain occurs when the joint is inflamed. People usually complain about the effectiveness of treatments and ointments available in the market. If the pain-relieving remedies do not find the root cause, it wont work for you.

Click To Access The Official Website Of Balmorex Pro

Balmorex Pro pain relief support is something different from the marketed ointments and creams. Many people have used this formula and shared their experiences. The manufacturer also claims multiple health benefits of this formula. However, these claims do not make any sense if scientific studies do not back it.

In this Balmorex Pro review, lets find out about the scientific background of the formula and other factors including its working mechanism, ingredients, health benefits, pros and cons, side effects, pricing, and more.

So, lets get started.

Supplement Name: Balmorex Pro

Type : Pain relief cream

Manufacturer: PhytoThrive Labs

Ingredients : Arnica oil MSM Hemp seed oil Indian Frankincense Epsom salt Aloe Vera Shea Butter Ginger Root



Usage Instructions : Apply directly to the affected area, use once a day

Quantity: 118 ml

Benefits : Provides long-lasting pain relief Improves blood circulation Reduces muscle soreness Increases flexibility

Side Effects : No reported side effects

Bonuses: Bonus #1: Shortcut To Wellness Bonus #2: Immunity Upgraded

Price : $79

Refund Policy : 60-day money-back guarantee

Availability : Available only on the official website

Official Website: Click Here

What Is Balmorex Pro?

Balmorex Pro is a pain recovery cream that is balanced to offer long-lasting and exceptional results. This formula comes with a deep-penetrating and non-greasy texture. According to the official website, it supports healthy joints, back, and muscles. This creamy formula relieves pain and reinforces the skins protective barrier.

It also helps stimulate collagen production and deeply nourishes the skin. Beyond temporary relief, it supports the overall recovery of joints and muscle issues. Balmorex Pro relief and recovery cream alleviate discomfort and provide long-term benefits. The potent ingredients in the formula support the smooth motion of joints and muscles. This formula is suitable for arthritis or other neuropathic pain.

The manufacturer has blended this formula in a strict and sterile lab that is approved by the FDA and follows GMP guidelines. The manufacturing process has been done under the supervision of an expert to thoroughly check the quality. Balmorex Pro muscle health formula is a non-GMO and it is also free from stimulants, preservatives, artificial chemicals, or toxins. As per the creator, it is a fast-acting formula that contains domestic ingredients.

How Does Balmorex Pro Pain Relief Formula Work?

This is a natural pain relief aid that is formulated with organic ingredients. Each Balmorex Pro ingredient is selected by conducting detailed research and clinical trials. This formula targets the root cause of joint and muscle pain. The ingredients in the cream help to reduce the inflammation in the joints which causes pain.

Studies show that inflammation in the body is responsible for severe pain and discomfort. The ingredients come with anti-inflammatory properties that help to eradicate inflammation in the joints effectively. The analgesic effect of the muscle health formula reduces the sensation of pain. It accelerates proper blood circulation in the body to deliver oxygen and nutrients.

The properties of the ingredients interact with the receptors which help to effectively block the pain signals. It blocks the release of pain-inducing chemicals in the body. Apart from these, Balmorex Pro chronic pain relief cream provides a soothing effect on the joints and muscles.

Curious To Know More About Balmorex Pro? Visit The Official Website

Core Ingredients Used In Balmorex Pro

The creator of this cream has used scientifically researched ingredients. This section aims to check the health benefits of the Balmorex Pro ingredients.

MSM

MSM is used to reduce inflammation in the body. It provides anti-inflammatory action that protects from health conditions such as arthritis, allergies, and skin conditions. It helps reduce joint pain and maintain general functional well-being.

Arnica Oil

Arnica Oil has been used for medicinal purposes such as inflammation, swelling, and other issues. This Balmorex Pro ingredient helps to reduce muscle soreness and pain associated with arthritis.

Hemp Seed Oil

Hemp Seed Oil modulates the activity of pain receptors in the body. It blocks the pain signals to the brain. It soothes pain in the joints and muscles and provides long-lasting relief. It helps reduce inflammation and swelling.

Indian Frankincense

Indian Frankincense is a traditional medicine that helps manage arthritis, asthma, and other health conditions. It is an herbal extract from the tree called Boswellia serrate tree. It also helps manage diabetes, renal impairment, dermatological ailments, and other health issues.

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera in this cream helps to keep the skin moisturized. It gives the formula a creamy texture so that the ingredients can easily penetrate the skin. As per the expert research , it has anti-inflammatory properties which alleviate joint pain.

Shea Butter

Shea Butter is rich in vitamins, fatty acids, and other health properties. These Balmorex Pro ingredients act as a protective layer on the skin to prevent moisture loss. The anti-inflammatory properties of this ingredient help reduce pain and swelling.

Other ingredients include Ginger Root and Epsom Salt.

Click To Read About Other Ingredients Used For Making Balmorex Pro Formula

Benefits Of Using Balmorex Pro Cream

This formula not only provides joint and muscle comfort but also provides multiple health benefits. In this section, lets check what health benefits we can expect from the regular use of the Balmorex Pro joint support formula.

Provides long-lasting pain relief

This formula stands different from other formulas as it provides long-lasting pain relief. It targets the real cause of the pain and repairs it from the roots. So, you can notice relief in pain for the long term.

Improve blood circulation

The active ingredients in Balmorex Pro help to increase blood circulation in the body. So each corner of the formula gets enough nutrients and oxygen.

Rescue muscle soreness

This reliving cream helps reduce the feeling of pain in the muscles caused by exercises or unfamiliar acts. Balmorex Pro cream deeply penetrates the skin and targets the muscles that are injured.

Increase flexibility

This long-lasting pain relief formula not only helps to reduce severe pain but also improves flexibility. After using this cream, you can have a smooth and speedy movement.

Check The Availability Of Balmorex Pro On Its Official Website

Analyzing The Pros And Cons Of Balmorex Pro

In this Balmorex Pro review, let's analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this natural pain relief cream to gain a better understanding of its potential benefits and drawbacks.

Pros of Balmorex Pro

Free from harmful chemicals

This is a quick-acting and non-staining formula

Safe to use

Made use of 100% natural and safe ingredients

The manufacturing process is carried out in FDA-approved and GMP-certified lab facilities

It is free from side effects

Cons of Balmorex Pro

It can be purchased only from the Balmorex Pro official website

May get out of stock quickly

Balmorex Pro Dosage: Instructions To Use

Balmorex Pro is designed in the form of an easily penetrating cream. You can directly apply this formula to the affected area. Take a small amount of cream apply it on the affected part and make sure the area is clean. It is necessary to make the surface free from dirt, sweat, or debris.

You do not need to massage the cream for a long time. You just need to apply and make sure it completely gets absorbed into the skin. According to the manufacturer, it is enough to use Balmorex Pro cream once a day.

Remember to not take the formula more than the recommended amount. Also, this cream is only for external use. Do not apply it to the wounds or cuts. If you notice redness, irritation, or a burning sensation, you should thoroughly rinse the area with clean water. However, if you are already in treatment, you can get the advice of your doctor before using Balmorex Pro.

Check If Balmorex Pro Is Currently Available On The Official Website

Are Any Side Effects Associated With Balmorex Pro?

The manufacturer assures that Balmorex Pro joint pain relief formula is a safe and side effects-free formula. The people who have used are satisfied with the results and have not reported any severe side effects. This formula is 100% free of chemical coating and other non-essential fillers.

It provides long-lasting and exceptional results with regular use. The point to remember is that you may cause issues if you exceed the Balmorex Pro dosage. You may notice redness, puffiness, or a burning sensation if the cream is applied more than the dosage.

Manufacturing Quality And Safety Standards

As per the Balmorex Pro official website, it is made in the USA in an FDA-approved and GMP-certified lab facility. All the ingredients are carefully handled according to the USDA National Organic Program. The lab facility used to manufacture the formula is injected regularly by experts.

Regular inspection of the process ensures the quality of the joint support formula. The manufacturer says that Balmorex Pro relief and recovery cream is designed only for external use. You should keep the bottle in an airtight container in a cold place. This formula is not recommended for children under the age of 18.

Check The Official Website To See If Balmorex Pro Is Currently In Stock

Are The Balmorex Pro Customer Reviews Positive?

Since the formula was introduced in the market, it has been used by a lot of people. This cream has helped people to get rid of severe joint and muscle pain. There are plenty of Balmorex Pro customer reviews available on the internet. From the responses of the users, it is clear that the cream has helped provide pain relief support.

This pain-relieving formula has helped elders with weak joints and muscles. They commented on their experiences on the social media platform. From their responses, we can understand that the Balmorex Pro formula has been a helping hand for old people. The customers are satisfied with the results.

Purchasing Balmorex Pro: Pricing And Refund Policy

It is only available on its official website. You cannot find it on other e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. If you are interested in purchasing, visit the Balmorex Pro official website . There you can find different value packs at reasonable prices. The manufacturer has provided discounts and offers on the website to benefit people.

In this section, you can find the details about the Balmorex Pro pricing of each value pack.

Get one bottle at $79 + small shipping charge

Get three bottles at $59 each + free US shipping

Get six bottles at $49 each + free US shipping

You can save money by purchasing any of these packs. Also, each pack is backed by a 100% money-back guarantee for the first 60 days. If you are not satisfied with the results, the Balmorex Pro manufacturer is ready to refund you every cent. You will not be asked any questions. Simply you need to return the bottles and contact the manufacturer. You will be refunded with your money back within 2 to 3 working days.

Click Here To Order Balmorex Pro From Its Official Website

Bonuses Offered With Balmorex Pro

The manufacturer provides free bonuses with 6 or 3-bottle packs. These bonuses will help you to improve your health. You will get two free bonuses which is an ebook. In this section, lets understand more about the Balmorex Pro bonuses.

Bonus #1- Shortcut To Wellness

Shortcut To Wellness is an ebook that comes with solutions to improve the health of your mind and body. The book contains hacks that are created inspired by modern technology. You will get a clear picture of biohacking which optimizes your mind and body through the use of biology, research, and technology.

Bonus #2- Immunity Upgraded

This Balmorex Pro bonus is also an ebook that contains the best expert recommendations on topics such as a healthy immune system, customized activities, and much more. You will get more than 50 extra resources that will help you deepen your knowledge about the immune system.

Click Here To Buy Balmorex Pro From Its Official Website

Summarizing Balmorex Pro Reviews

In conclusion to this Balmorex Pro review, we can say that it seems to be a promising natural pain relief cream that targets the root cause of joint and muscle discomfort. It can be used by all adults to relieve severe pain. People who have used are satisfied with the results. With the right application, people have witnessed long-lasting relief from pain.

All the ingredients in the Balmorex Pro formula work synergically to promote a quicker return to a pain-free state. Due to its creamy composition, it can easily penetrate the skin and start its function. If we take the safety of the formula, it is made with 100% natural and side effects free ingredients.

Each ingredient is backed by scientific studies that explain the health benefits. The manufacturing process of this formula is done in an FDA-approved and GMP-certified lab facility. Considering all these factors, it does seem that Balmorex Pro is a legit formula.

Click Here To Make A Purchase From Balmorex Pro Official Website

FAQs About Balmorex Pro Cream

Can I use it with other medication?

Yes. Balmorex Pro is crafted with natural ingredients that do not have reactive properties. So, you can use the cream with other pain relievers.

Does it cause an allergy?

Balmorex Pro formula does not cause allergies or any skin issues. If you have sensitive skin, take a patch test before applying it to the entire body.

Should I make multiple payments to purchase?

No. you do not need to pay multiple bills. This is a one-time payment option. There are no other future payments needed.

How long does delivery take?

On average, the real shipping time is between 5 to 10 business days for domestic orders.

What if I am not impressed with the results?

If you do not benefit from the Balmorex Pro pain relief cream, you can stop using it and request a refund. This option is valid for the first 60 days.
Not long after the passing of John Barnett Mitch, another whistleblower who warned against the manufacturing defects in aviation major Boeing's 737 Max planes died on Wednesday. The passing of 44-year-old Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems was announced by his family on Friday.



"I am grateful for the prayers of my family and friends for this young man. He passed away yesterday morning, and his absence will be deeply felt. We will always love you Josh," Carol Dean Parsons the late man's aunt, posted on Facebook.

Following two Boeing 737 Max fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, Joshua Dean had reportedly filed a complaint against his employer with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alleging serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line. He was fired by Spirit AeroSystems in 2023, forcing him to reach out to the Department of Labor with a complaint. Joshua Dean alleged that the termination was an act of revenge by the company for going public against them, The Guardian said in a report.

In March, 62-year-old John Barnett Mitch, another worker who had accused the company of serious violations, was found dead in his apartment. The cause of his death was said to be a self-inflicted gunshot.

Joshua Dean was unwell for at least a couple of weeks. He was hospitalised after a breathing difficulty escalated. Dean developed pneumonia and a serious infection and required intubated, The Guardian said in a report. However, his life couldn't be saved.

Ahead of going to the FAA with his observations, he had tried to reason with the Spirit management. But his concerns fell on deaf ears and decided to take matters into his own hands. Dean had reportedly recorded his observations, which included improperly drilled holes in the aft pressure bulkhead -- a critical component for maintaining cabin pressure.
A day after a temporary female staff at the Raj Bhavan filed a written complaint with the police accusing West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose of outraging her modesty, the governor issued an order on Thursday night banning the entry of the police and Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya, into the Raj Bhavan.

Bose also called the allegations "engineered narratives", stating that he won't be cowed down by the allegations.

A statement issued by the Raj Bhavan read: "For defamation and anti-constitutional media statements against Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, a junior gubernatorial appointee Chandrima Bhattacharya, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Department of Finance, has been banned entry into the Raj Bhavan premises in Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Barrackpore," read a statement issued by the Governor's office.

The statement added that Bose would not participate in any function attended by the Minister, adding that the Raj Bhawan has contacted the Attorney General of India for advice on further legal steps against the Minister.

"The Hon'ble Governor also banned the entry of police into the Raj Bhavan premises in the guise of conducting an unauthorised, illegitimate, sham and motivated investigation to placate political bosses during elections," the statement added.

According to police sources, the woman, a temporary staffer at Raj Bhavan, approached the police post located inside the Governor's House and accused Bose of molesting her. She was then taken to Hare Street where she filed a written complaint accusing the governor of molesting her on the pretext of offering her job.

Senior police officials said they received a complaint and are looking into it. "We have received a complaint and are conducting an investigation. We are also consulting the matter with constitutional experts of the law department. As per the woman's allegation, she was molested inside Raj Bhavan," Deputy Commissioner of Central Division Indira Mukherjee told reporters.

TMC leaders soon reacted to the accusations calling it appalling and horrifying. "BIG. Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose was accused of molesting a woman. How utterly appalling and Horrifying. Ahead of @narendramodi visit to Kolkata who is supposed to stay overnight at Raj Bhavan, a woman has alleged that she was molested while she went to meet the Governor at Raj Bhavan today. The complainant has been taken to the Hare Street police station to file a complaint. The woman has accused the Governor of molesting her. Shocking and disgraceful," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said in a post on X.

However, the governor took to X to dismiss the accusations. "Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal."

Sources in the Governor House told PTI that the "woman employee with the help of her alleged boyfriend who is also an employee of the Raj Bhavan was blocking complaints (from people) being sent to the Election Commission of India."

"When she was reprimanded for that, she went outside and alleged molestation. She is in the habit of throwing tantrums against her colleagues because of some disease."

The incident comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to address three election rallies in West Bengal on Friday, arrived in state capital Kolkata on Thursday evening. Modi went straight to the Raj Bhavan from the airport where he would stay for the night.
After the Election Commission of Indias (ECI) directive on BJPs complaint, the Odisha government transferred Sujata Rout Kartikeyan on Friday. The wife of BJD leader V. K. Pandian, Sujata, a senior bureaucrat, was transferred and posted as special secretary in the finance department.

Earlier, she held the post of secretary, Department of Mission Shakti with an additional charge of secretary, Odia language, literature and culture department.

Pandian who quit IAS and joined BJD before the elections, is now campaigning for the party virtually in different districts.

Born in Tamil Nadu, Pandian began his career as an IAS officer in 2000 along with his wife Sujata, who is from Odisha. After a long stint in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks office, Pandian took voluntary retirement and joined BJD and he is the party's star campaigner in this election next to the CM and the party president.

While he is speculated to be Patnaiks political successor, Opposition parties have been criticising his political role long since he was in CM's office.

Recently, his wife Sujata came under attack from the Opposition as she was handling the self-help groups (SHG) of women under the Mission Shakti department. Women through SHGs have become the core vote base of BJD.

BJP had approached the EC saying that Sujata was allegedly compelling and coercing SHGs to propagate and influence voters to choose BJD in upcoming Lok Sabha assembly elections. BJP demanded that she be relieved from the Mission Shakti department as she indulged in grave misconduct through the misuse of authority, government machinery and manpower for influencing voters through the SVEEP programme to ensure electoral gains for the BJD.

Based on the complaint, the ECI on Thursday ordered the transfer of Sujata from her post in the Mission Shakti department. The EC had asked the government to post her to a non-public dealing department with immediate effect. Accordingly, the state government has ordered Sujatas transfer to the Finance Department as Special Secretary.

Shalini Pandit, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare has been given additional responsibilities of Sujatas departments.

On the other hand, BJD has alleged before the EC that Binoy Srikant Pradhan, IFS, working as Consul General of India in New York, USA 'campaigning' for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who is BJPs Lok Sabha candidate in Sambalpur in western Odisha. Binoy, who is from Odisha was working in the office of the union minister from 2014 to 2019 when he was the petroleum and natural gas minister.

BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra, MP told media that the party has demanded the EC to take immediate action on its complaint. Meanwhile, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a press conference on Friday has said Odia's pride, heritage, culture, and future protection of the new generation will be the issue in the current election.
The Telangana Police have filed a closure report before a local court in its probe into the death of Rohith Vemula, a student of the University of Hyderabad (UoH). The closure report claimed that the research scholar was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real identity" would be discovered. The then UoH vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile and incumbent Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya were among the accused in the case.



The Cyberabad police that investigated the case informed the court that Rohith Vemula did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that he was aware of it, reported news agency PTI.

In fact, the caste clarification report by the District Level Scrutiny Committee constituted by District Collector, Guntur, conclusively decided that Rohith Vemula and his family belong to BC-A (Vaddera) caste. They had obtained Scheduled Caste certificates fraudulently, The Hindu quoted the report as stating.

"... The suicide did not relate to any activities of the university administration or the above political leaders, including Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile. It was wholly a decision of his own. His suicide note is on the record, which shows that Rohith Vemula had his own problems and was not happy with the worldly affairs, the daily quoted the reprt as saying.

"The deceased had multiple issues worrying him which could have driven him to commit suicide."





"If the studies of the deceased were seen, it appeared that he was involved more in student political issues in the campus rather than in his studies. He discontinued his first Ph.D after pursuing it for 2 years and he joined another Ph.D which also did not progress much because of non academic activities."

"In addition to this, the deceased himself was aware that he did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him a SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would result in a loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution."

"Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide."

(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050, Tele Manas - 14416 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)
In the last week of April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in public meetings in Zaheerabad in Telangana, Munger in Bihar, Pune in Maharashtra, and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh. In the first three days of May, he addressed crowds in Krishnanagar in West Bengal and Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Whats common among all these constituencies is that they will go to polls in the fourth phase of parliamentary elections slated to be held on May 13.

However, the PM is yet to visit another stateAndhra Pradesh which will witness polling on the same day. Modi last visited AP in March during a combined meeting of NDA partners, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and actor Pawan Kalyans Jana Sena Party (JSP).

Modis impending visit was scheduled for May 3 and May 4, but the tour was deferred.

BJPs second-in-command and Home Minister, Amit Shah, is yet to step into the state in this poll season, although he has made his presence felt in neighbouring Telangana.

As per the communication received by the state BJP unit, the PM will visit the state on May 7, only after visiting Odisha, which has a lower number of MP seats than AP. One reason for the top leadership giving less priority to AP may be because it has no representation from the coastal Telugu state. However, it has also given rise to speculations that the central leadership of the party is not completely comfortable backing the poll narrative set by its regional allies, the TDP, and the JSP.

A few days back, a common manifesto was unveiled by the TDP national president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, and JSP President, Pawan Kalyan, whose images adorned the front pages of the manifesto. Surprisingly, the face of NDA, Modi, was missing from the manifesto. Also missing on stage was the state president of the BJP party, D. Purandeswari. The leader who mattered the most from BJP was AP BJP co-incharge, Sidharth Nath Singh, who refused to hold the copy of the manifesto in front of the media.

TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan during the release of manifesto of NDA alliance in Andhra Pradesh | PTI

Since his actions resulted in a controversy with the ruling YSRCP quickly alleging that the BJP did not endorse the manifesto, Singh issued a clarification. He said that the NDA had already released a national-level manifesto. Hence, the BJPs role was limited to supporting the manifesto that was drafted by the JSP and TDP.

The contents of the joint manifesto do not exactly align with the spirit of the vision of Modi and NDA. To start with, the alliance is loaded with promises of introducing various welfare schemes catering to different sections of the state. Some of them are Rs 3,000 monthly unemployment allowance to youth, Rs 15,000 annually for every school student, Rs 20,000 financial assistance to farmers, Rs 1,500 monthly pension to women, and free bus travel for women across the state.

Political analysts have raised concerns about the high expenditure that would be incurred by the state treasury to implement the promises and wondered if the BJP was on the same page. The TDP and JSPs idea of welfare is in contradiction to Modis stance of being against freebies or Revdi culture.

The TDP and JSP have also promised in their manifesto that they will repeal the Land Titling Act brought in by the YSRCP government. The alliance leaders have been alleging that YSRCP leaders want to usurp the lands of the poor through this act. The YSRCP has hit back, reminding the alliance that they were only following the guidelines issued by the central government.

Senior BJP leaders have so far been mum on the issue. The land titling act was borne out of the central governments move to reduce litigation in land ownership. The NITI Aayog framed a draft bill and sent it to states, and AP became one of the first states to implement it by taking up a re-survey of the lands. The idea is to have conclusive land titles that will be recognized by the respective state government in case of disputes and compensations. The TDPs efforts to ban the Act may work against the NDA's idea of land reforms.

The TDP and the BJP are also on different sides when it comes to Muslim reservations. Of late, Naidu has been vocal about preserving 4% reservation for Muslims in AP under the OBC quota. In contrast, PM Modi has also been vocal about removing the Muslim reservations. The local chapter of the BJP leaders too are against Naidus poll assurance. Meanwhile, a section of the senior BJP leaders is upset with the party as they feel that TDP is dominating the campaign and working as per its interests.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it may consider Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals interim bail plea during next hearing as trial in the money laundering case could take further time.

The apex court heard the Aam Aadmi Party leaders plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case on Friday. A bench comprising of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta heard the arguments for about two hours on Tuesday and observed they would consider the question of interim bail plea on Tuesday.

Justice Khanna told Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, If it is going to take time, it does appear it may take time, we may then consider the question of interim bail, because of the elections. We may hear on that part because of elections," LiveLaw reported. However, the additional solicitor general said he would oppose the bail plea.

The top court asked Raju to come prepared for arguments on the interim bail plea on May 7.

The Delhi chief minister is currently lodged in Tihar Jail here under judicial custody after his arrest on March 21. The top court issued the ED a notice on April 15 and sought its response to Kejriwal's plea.

On April 9, the high court upheld Kejriwal's arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with "little option" after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.

-with inputs from agencies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhis decision to contest Lok Sabha polls from Raebareli instead of Amethi and said the latter is scared. The prime minister made the comments while campaigning in West Bengal for Lok Sabha polls on Friday.

Referring to Congress leader Sonia Gandhis election to Rajya Sabha, Modi said, I had already said in the Parliament that their (Congress) biggest leader will not dare to fight elections and she will run away. She ran away to Rajasthan and came to the Rajya Sabha. I had already said that the Shehzada was going to lose in Wayanad. I had said that as soon as the polling was completed in Wayanad, he would start looking for another seat. He is so scared of Amethi that he is running towards Raebareli. They ask everyone 'Daro Mat'. Today, I also ask them, 'Daro Mat, Bhago Mat', ANI reported.

The Congress party on Friday announced Rahuls candidature from Raebareli. K.L. Sharma, a confidant of the Gandhi family is contesting from Amethi.

The prime minister also attacked the Trinamool Congress and said the party overlooked victims of Sandeshkali to appease its vote bank. I want to ask TMC, in Sandeshkhali, our Dalit sisters were served huge injustice. The whole country was demanding action. The TMC saw shielding the culprit, he charged. He added, Was TMC shielding the culprit because his name was Shahjahan Sheikh? The TMC is busy with appeasement. Can a vote bank be above humanity?

Modi also charged Congress wants to change Constitution, snatch Dalit and OBC quotas and provide reservation to its 'jihadi' vote bank.

-with inputs from agencies.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), poses a serious challenge to the Indian criminal jurisprudence inasmuch as it permits arrest of a person twice: by the Enforcement Directorate under Section 19 of the Act, and by the police/CBI in the Predicate Offence(s) under any of the laws enumerated in the schedule. It is to be noted that the predicate offence and the offence of money laundering are committed in course of one and the same transaction and yet a person is liable to be arrested twice. This clearly signifies flawed architecture of PMLA from the jurisprudential stand point.

A case under PMLA is registered only after the registration of an FIR relating to the commission of one of the Scheduled Offences by the police/CBI. The agency for the investigation of money laundering offenses is the Enforcement Directorate under the PMLA. As per law, the ED can register the ECIR only after the registration of the FIR because money laundering per se is not an offence under PMLA.

Multiple amendments in PMLA



The PMLA was enacted to meet the challenge of money laundering in line with various international initiatives. The Act was repeatedly amended from time to timein 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2019. The Finance Acts of 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 also amended it. Pertinently, the Principal Act had a very small category of scheduled offences but these offences increased exponentially by virtue of these amendments resulting in the law becoming more stringent. However, the purpose of this article is to focus only on one aspect of the law, that is, the liability of a person to be arrested twice by two investigating agencies on the basis of one FIR.

Two investigating agencies

The PMLA comes into play after the registration of a predicate offence by the police/CBI. Based on it, the ED registers the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report). Now two agencies carry out separate investigations simultaneously. The police agency investigates the FIR and the ED, the ECIR. On conclusion of investigation, the police may file a chargesheet against the accused under section 173 CrPC in the Special Court. Likewise, the ED may file a criminal complaint under Section 44(b) of PMLA in the same court. The Special Court tries the police chargesheet and the EDs criminal complaint jointly under Section 44 of the Act.

The unprecedented and unsavory feature of this legal architecture is that an accused is liable to be arrested twice by the two agencies. He, thus, suffers from double whammy. The result is that the remand jurisprudence laid down in section 167 CrPC has turned on its head inasmuch as he is liable to be taken into police custody remand by the two agencies separately, one after the other. Thus, the maximum police remand period has effectively increased to 30 days, as against 15 days in non-PMLA offences.

Arrest u/s 19 is violative of human rights

It is trite that arrest of a person not only restraints his physical movements but also affects him psychologically. He loses social prestige and the people start looking at him with suspicion and derision. An arrested person cannot conduct his routine trade and business and becomes a social and economic parasite. An unnecessary/avoidable arrest is also violation of his human rights. The arrest should be avoided unless a person is involved in a grave crime and only once for all the offences committed by him in the course of the same transaction.

Arrest provisions in PMLA & CrPC

The ED can straight away arrest a person under Section 19 of PMLA but the grounds of arrest have to be communicated in writing to him/her as per the Supreme Court ruling in Pankaj Bansal (2023) SCC OnLine SC 1244. This provision, however, is in stark contrast to section 41A of CrPC which mandates the investigating officer to first issue a notice to the person against whom a complaint has been made and to take his version on it before taking any punitive action. This opportunity, however, is not available to a suspect under the PMLA.

Challenge to Section 19 of PMLA in Supreme Court

In my view, a half-hearted challenge was made to the constitutional validity of Section 19 before a three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary (SLP (Crl.) 4634 of 2014 decided on 27.07.2022). The Union government basically took the stand that there are adequate safeguards in section 19 which make this provision constitution-compliant such as arrest can be made only by a senior officer of ED; the arresting officer should have adequate material in his possession before making the arrest; he should be satisfied that the person has actually committed the offence; that issuing notice to the person would jeopardize investigation; and that only 313 arrests have been made under PMLA during last 17 years etc.

The bench accepted all these contentions and upheld the validity of Section 19, besides placing reliance on its earlier judgments in Ramesh Chandra Mehta (1968) SCC OnLine SC 62 and Padam Narayan Aggarwal (2008) 13 SCC 305.

In my opinion, the contentions raised by the Central government and the precedents relied upon by the bench are not relevant to the issue being raised here. In my view, this contention was never raised before the Bench.

Section 19 should be scrapped

It is to be emphasized that Section 19 does not satisfy the jurisprudential test. A person cannot be arrested twice and taken into police custody remand twice for committing an offence even if such offence encompasses money laundering. In fact, this legal arrangement is inconsistent with the general law of the land i.e. Section 220 of CrPC which provides for trial ofmore than one offences committed in the course of the same transaction.

Further, the argument advanced on behalf of the Central government in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary that only 313 arrests were made during last 17 years has become outdated and irrelevant inasmuch as the ED is now making arrests at the drop of a hat during the last few years. For instance, 17 persons have so far been arrested in Delhi excise scam alone. In any case, even one unnecessary arrest is far too many and this needs to be avoided.

More importantly, the arrest of a person under Section 19 does not have any practical utility for theED for the following reasons: Firstly, the ED arrests a person under Section 19 for the purpose of thoroughly interrogating him to elicit information regarding the contours of crime, the names of his accomplices and their whereabouts etc. and for tracing out the proceeds of crime. The experience shows that this argument has no force as the persons involved in money laundering, generally speaking, are well-healed persons and under legal advice, they do not disclose any incriminating evidences to the ED during their custodial interrogation.

Secondly, for successful prosecution, the ED is required to establish the money trail which is basically record based (manual or electronic). Hence, even if the arrested person discloses incriminating information against himself and his accomplices, it is not going to have any legal weight unless it is supported by the money trail. The ED can establish money trail even without arresting a person and taking him in the police custody remand. Thus, the arrests made under Section 19 have not proved useful for collecting substantive evidence against the arrestees.

Thirdly, there may arise a situation where the ED arrests a person under Section 19 but the police/CBI investigating the predicate offence does not file the chargesheet in the predicate offence for lack of evidence or inadequate evidence. As a result, the arrested person would rot in jail for long time due to the stringent bail provisions for grant of bail but he cannot be put to trial on the money laundering charge if the police has not filed the chargesheet against him. Such situations are not imaginary and raise a jurisprudential challenge.

To conclude, the arrest of a person under Section 19 of PMLA is jurisprudentially untenable; it is inconsistent with section 220 of the CrPC; it has not helped build up substantive evidence against the money launderers; and, it has bred undesirable practices in the investigative process. For these reasons, the constitutional validity of this section needs to be reassessed by the Supreme Court of India.

(M.L. Sharma IPS (Retd) is the former special director, CBI & former Central Information Commissioner. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK)
Former Karnataka minister and JD(S) MLA H.D. Revanna and his son Prajwal Revanna have been booked in a kidnapping case based on a 20-year-old's complaint alleging that his mother was abducted after a video of her being raped emerged.

The 'missing' woman was among the many women featured in the alleged sex tapes of Prajwal Revanna. According to the complainant, his mother was kidnapped by Revanna. She is a resident of Krishnaraja Nagar town in Mysuru district.

According to the police, the case was registered on Thursday night. Revanna, who is a JD(S) MLA from Holenarasipura constituency in Hassan district is the son of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

Prajwal, the sitting JD(S) MP from Hassan, has been accused of sexually abusing women. A Special Investigation Team has been constituted to probe the case after the video clips emerged involving the MP.

A case of molestation was already registered against the father-son duo at Holenarasipura police station. While, in the latest case, the complainant said that his mother worked at Revanna's residence in Holenarasipura six years ago. She had quit the job three years ago and returned to her hometown.

Revannas close aide Sathish Babanna had come to his house about five days ago and warned that police may come to them for an inquiry and they should not reveal anything.

By about 9 pm on April 29, Babanna came to our house and said if your mother is caught then you will be in trouble and you may all go to jail, said the complainant.

Revanna has asked me to take you. He then took her on a motorcycle, the complainant added. He further said that he had no clue where his mother had been taken away. However, on May 1, he said he received a call from his friends who told him that a video showing his mother tied with a rope had surfaced online and Prajwal allegedly raped her.

There is a threat to my mothers life, said the complainant.
It was right before the deadline for the nomination for the twin Lok Sabha seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli was to expire that the Congress announced its candidates for the two constituencies today. This in itself shows that it was not an easy call to take for the party, and especially the Gandhis.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be contesting from the family bastion of Rae Bareli. The seat was recently vacated by Rahul's mother, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, who has now moved to the Rajya Sabha. Contrary to what was expected, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has decided to stay away from the electoral fray.

Amethi, Rahul's original Lok Sabha seat from where he lost to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019, will have Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma in the fray this time.

It was earlier widely believed that Rahul would return to Amethi in this election, and Priyanka would contest from Rae Bareli. However, according to party sources, Priyanka has been steadfast in her resolve to not contest elections and focus on campaigning for the party across the country. She is learnt to have conveyed her decision to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge well in advance. She was under tremendous pressure from leaders and workers to contest from either of the two seats, but she was clear that she saw her role in this election only as a campaigner for the party.

The decision to have Rahul in the fray from Rae Bareli emanates from the concern that contesting from Amethi would have resulted in the BJP putting all its might in the constituency to try and defeat him. According to a senior Congress leader, Rahul would have been pulled into a confrontation with Irani which would have then grabbed the media headlines and distracted from the party's larger campaign for the elections and also the projection and campaign of the former Amethi MP.

The leader said the party has taken the decision while being fully aware that the BJP would use the situation to describe Rahul as someone who has run away from the contest in Amethi. He also said that had Priyanka also contested, the BJP would have intensified its attack on the Congress and the Gandhi family for propagating dynastic politics.

The party also expects the BJP to talk about Rahul betraying the people of Wayanad. However, the party felt it was important for Rahul to contest from a seat in north India, and since it was crucial to ensure that Rae Bareli also did not go out of its hold, it was only natural that he should fight from there.

According to the leader, the decision on the two seats was primarily taken by the Gandhi family. Sharma, who has been a long-time family representative in Amethi, has been given the task of taking on Irani. He is described as an authority on the political scenario in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Sonia had in 2004 moved from Amethi to Rae Bareli, leaving the seat for Rahul to make his electoral debut. She had since represented Rae Bareli before recently getting elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that the country has released all the crew members of the Israeli-linked ship which was seized recently by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz.

The development comes weeks after the Portuguese-flagged ship was seized by IRGC on April 13. The ship, MSC Aries, was manned by a crew of 25, of which 17 were Indians. However, over 16 crew members remain onboard at present after the sole woman, Ann Tessa Joseph, was released on April 18 by Iranian authorities.

Amirabdollahian said the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and

they could return to their countries along with the ship's captain. But, the control of the vessel will remain with Iran under judicial detention.

The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier said the return of the Indian crew was dependent on several factors, including their contractual obligations. "All of them are in good health. We are in touch with Iranian authorities also for their release," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said when asked about the fate of the 16 sailors.

According to Iran, the seized ship had turned off its radar in Iran's territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed militia Houthis continue to target merchant ships taking the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing the ships to pass through the Indian Ocean.

Many shipping companies have switched to a longer route to avoid Houthi attacks on the approaches to the Suez Canal in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. However, Houthis began extending their target area hundreds of miles out in the Indian Ocean. Last month, a merchant vessel MSC Orion was attacked by a drone when it was some 600 kilometers (375 miles) off the coast of Yemen. This was the first confirmed deep-sea assault claimed by the Houthis.

The attack raised questions about how the Houthis could have carried out an assault hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the shores of Yemen on a moving target. Their primary area of attack so far has been in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the two waterways key for international trade. Those are close to Yemen's shoreline, unlike the site of the MSC Orion attack.

The Houthis are not known to operate an expeditionary naval fleet, nor do they have access to satellites or other sophisticated means of controlling long-distance drones.
Amid the worsening Palestinian situation, Turkey has halted trade with Israel until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The Turkish trade ministry said the measures would be in place until Israel allowed an "uninterrupted and sufficient flow" of aid into Gaza. Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat criticised Israel's "uncompromising attitude" towards a ceasefire.

"Turkey has suspended all export and import with Israel until a permanent ceasefire is established and the aid into Gaza is allowed without any interruption," he said.

Trade between the two countries was worth almost $6.8 billion last year.

Meanwhile, Israel's foreign minister accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of acting like a "dictator". Erdogan was "disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements, Katz said on X.

He also added that the foreign ministry was instructed to find alternatives for trade with Turkey, with a focus on imports from other countries.

Since the Gaza war after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year, Erdogan has been strongly criticising Israel.

Turkey is negotiating "with our Palestinian brothers on alternative arrangements to ensure that they are not affected by this decision", he added while announcing April trade figures.

Last month, Turkey curbed exports of steel, fertiliser and jet fuel among 54 product categories over what it said was Israel's refusal to allow Ankara to take part in aid air-drop operations for Gaza. All remaining trade, which amounted to $5.4 billion in Turkish exports and $1.6 billion in Israeli imports last year, is now halted, reported Reuters.

Steel, vehicles, plastics, electrical devices and machinery were the top Turkish exports to Israel.
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As the pro-Palestine protest spreads across the campuses in the United States, Andrew Dudum, CEO of HIMS sparks controversy by offering jobs to those raising anti-Israel slogans.

"Moral courage > College degree, Dudum wrote on X.

Moral courage > College degree



If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going. Its working.



There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.  andrewdudum (@AndrewDudum) May 1, 2024

"If youre currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your universitys divestment from Israel, keep going. Its working...There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline, he added alongside the HIMS job openings link.

The CEO faced a huge backlash from critics after his tweet about offering jobs to the protesters. Several people slammed his offer and declared that they would be cancelling their HIMS subscriptions and urged others to follow suit.

If you support Israel, cancel your HIMS subscriptions immediately. You can get similar products elsewhere for cheaper anyway, wrote conservative writer Ben Domenech.

Translation: $HIMS hires antisemites. If there was ever a sell signal, this is it, one X user replied.

According to Andrew Dudum, his family resides in Gaza and the West Bank. He founded his hair loss company, HIMS, in 2017.

Dudum had called for a ceasefire amid the ongoing war and slammed the corporates still backing Israel amid the killing of Palestinians. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the war.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Dudum was expelled from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

On Thursday, over 2,000 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested from US college campuses including the University of California, Los Angeles. US Police have even used riot gear and flash-bang tolls to remove students from tent encampments and occupied buildings.
Sivakumar Krithivasan, BU Head  India, Midas Safety India, & Hemant Sapra, President, KARAM Group, announce successful acquisition, expanding reach and product range.



Delhi, May 3rd, 2024: KARAM Safety, a leading global PPE player and fall protection solutions provider, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of Midas Safety India, a prominent player in the hand protection safety products industry. This strategic move marks a significant milestone in KARAM Group's journey towards expanding its presence and enhancing its product offerings. The acquisition of Midas Safety India strengthens KARAM Group's position as a market leader in the safety industry, combining KARAM's expertise in fall protection and personal protective equipment (PPE) with Midas Safety India's extensive portfolio of hand protection safety products. This synergy will enable KARAM Group to offer customers a comprehensive range of high-quality safety solutions to meet their evolving needs.



The 25-year-old KARAM Group, with a turnover of INR 1000 crore, has acquired the operations of Midas Safety India having a top line of INR 110 crore through a slump deal. Hand protection products are a major revenue contributor to Midas Safety India which was established 16 years ago. Today, KARAM proudly carries out that tradition in delivering premier products under Midass brands, Ninja, Techtion, Valpro and Frontier. The acquisition will be a good strategic and financial fit for KARAM Group and will open up significant market opportunities in the fast growing PPE market in India. KARAM Group is growing at a CAGR of 15% year on year and is targeting a revenue of INR 1400 crore with this additional product portfolio by 2025.



While commenting on the acquisition, Hemant Sapra, President, Global Sales & Marketing, KARAM Group said, With KARAM's acquisition of Midas Safety India, two leading PPE industry players have united. We warmly welcome Midas Safety India to the KARAM family, aligning with our vision of global safety leadership and commitment to excellence. This union expands our product range, offering high-quality PPE to our customers. By joining forces, we bring together a rich history, talented people, and innovative products. We are dedicated to promoting indigenous manufacturing growth, contributing to India's global manufacturing prominence in occupational health and safety. This acquisition combines our organizations' strengths, creating a powerful entity to deliver exceptional value to stakeholders, customers, and employees. Through synergies in resources, technologies, and talents, we aim for greater scale, market presence, and product diversity. Together, we're shaping the future of manufacturing in India and beyond.



While expressing excitement, Sivakumar Krithivasan, Business Unit Head  India, Midas Safety India said, Midas Safety India brings a wealth of experience and expertise to KARAM Group, with a strong presence in key markets across the country. The acquisition will enable KARAM Group to leverage Midas Safety Indias distribution network, manufacturing capabilities, and brand reputation to drive growth and innovation in the safety products market. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead as we integrate Midas Safety India into the KARAM Group. Together, we are well-positioned to capitalise on emerging trends and deliver value-added solutions to our customers across Industries.



The acquisition of Midas Safety India underscores KARAM Group's commitment to expanding its product offerings, enhancing customer service, and driving sustainable growth in the safety industry. The employees are the cornerstone of the companys success, and their dedication and talent are instrumental in driving the business forward. Both the organisations are fully committed to supporting the team members throughout this transition, providing them with the resources and opportunities they need to thrive going forward. The organisations will continue to uphold the highest standards of quality, integrity, and innovation, while also embracing new opportunities for growth and advancement.



The Indian Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market shows a bright future, expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.20% from USD 841.4 million in 2023 to USD 1482 million by 2029. The market is experiencing a surge due to numerous driving factors such as workplace safety regulations and industrialisation as primary factors. With a significant increase in awareness around workplace safety and the pressing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a heightened demand for protective gear across various sectors, namely auto, healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. The emergence of health concerns and hygiene maintenance has notably influenced the PPE market space. Market players are countering through technological innovation, customisation, and leveraging online procurement to enhance market accessibility.



About KARAM Group



KARAM is a leading global occupational safety brand with a vast portfolio of over 3500 certified products conforming to multiple national and international standards and export their safety solutions to over 100 nations. The company has a team of 4000 professionals who have been relentlessly developing, testing, and evaluating products, earning KARAM a reputation as one of the finest global companies that provide world-class personal protective equipment (PPE), fall protection solutions and fixed-line systems. KARAM is a responsible brand that values empowering people, uplifting society and enriching the environment.



About Midas Safety India



Midas Safety Private Limited, India was established in 2008 and offers best-in-class hand protection and other PPEs to various customers. Midas Safety India employs 350 plus people across various functions and has strong manufacturing, supply chain, sales and service capabilities to serve a wide customer base spanning Automotive, Chemical, Electronics, Energy, Healthcare, Food Processing, and Infrastructure industries. It has well-established distributor network, across India. Its ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturing plant at Coimbatore produces gloves, sleeves, helmets, and respirators with well-equipped laboratory, assuring testing and compliance with global standards  ISI, CE and ANSI. The facility is certified under Module D (EU PPE Regulations 2016/425) for production of Category III PPE and ISO 13485 -International standard for medical device quality management systems.



For more information about KARAM Group and Midas Safety India, please visit:



https://www.KARAM.in/



https://www.midassafety.in/



For further media queries, please contact:



Sonia Kulkarni | Hunk Golden and Media



9820184099 | sonia.kulkarni@hunkgolden.in



(Disclaimer : The above Press Release is provided by HT Syndication and PTI will not take any editorial responsibility of this content.). PTI PWR

PWR
Mumbai, May 3 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices pared all early gains and were trading lower in mid-session on Friday, with the Sensex tumbling 779.69 points and the Nifty falling from its lifetime peak, amid profit-taking and decline in the shares of blue-chip Reliance Industries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 779.69 points to 73,831.42 in the afternoon trade after soaring 484.07 points earlier in the day. From its intra-day high of 75,095.18, the benchmark tanked 1,263.76 points to the day's low of 73,831.42.

The NSE Nifty also declined 193.4 points to 22,454.80. The benchmark hit a record peak of 22,794.70 in the early trade.

From the Sensex basket, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Maruti, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro and Nestle were among the major laggards.

Bajaj Finance traded over 1 per cent higher, while Bajaj Finserv also climbed more than 1 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Bajaj Finance on sanctioning and disbursal of loans through eCOM and Insta EMI Card, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

In November last year, the central bank had directed Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products -- eCOM and Insta EMI Card -- due to the company's non-adherence to the extant provisions of digital lending guidelines.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong traded in the positive territory while Seoul and Shanghai quoted lower.

Wall Street ended with gains on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.27 per cent to USD 83.90 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 964.47 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark climbed 128.33 points or 0.17 per cent to settle at 74,611.11 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty went up by 43.35 points or 0.19 per cent to 22,648.20.
Colombo, May 3 (PTI) Sri Lankas rupee, which suffered severe depreciation because of the island nations unprecedented economic crisis since 2022, has started to make gains in comparison to other currencies, State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said on Friday.

He said during the first four months of the year, the Sri Lankan rupee had appreciated by 9.1 per cent against the US dollar, 12.7 per cent against the Euro, 10.8 per cent against the UK pound, 11.4 per cent against the Chinese Yuan, 21 per cent against the Yen, 9.5 per cent against the Indian rupee and 14.2 per cent against the Australian dollar.

When the Sri Lankan economy slumped during the first quarter of 2022, which led to the announcement of its first-ever sovereign default, Sri Lanka was assisted by India for imports of essentials. The Sri Lankan rupee was boosted by the Reserve Bank of India's extended currency swaps.

The Indian assistance was worth over USD 4 billion which provided a lifeline to the ailing economy until the deal for an IMF bailout of USD 2.9 billion was sealed in March 2023.

Siyambalapitiya on Thursday said the country has maintained strict financial discipline while taking unpopular decisions to facilitate economic recovery and continues to service its multilateral debt despite the default announced in 2022.

He said USD 2.5 billion debt in 2022 and USD 2.6 billion debt in 2023 had been repaid to multilaterals such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Only the bilateral external debt payments had been suspended with the announcement of the debt default in mid-2022.

We have maintained strict financial discipline while taking unpopular decisions to facilitate economic recovery, Siyambalapitiya said.
Colombo, May 3 (PTI) Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has welcomed direct private investments from China and greater Chinese participation in sectors like agriculture, renewable energy, IT and education.

The issue of direct private investment came during a meeting of Prime Minister Gunawardena and Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong on Thursday when they discussed ways for the early implementation of the agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) reached between the two countries during the formers official visit to Beijing in March.

A statement from the Prime Ministers Media Office said Gunawardena and Qi met at the Temple Trees, the official residence of the Sri Lankan prime minister.

During the talks with Ambassador Qi Zhenhong, the Prime Minister stated that in addition to the implementation of the MoUs, Sri Lanka would also welcome direct private investments from China as well as investments in agriculture, renewable energy, IT, education and water supply sectors to provide long term solutions to economic issues, the statement said.

Ambassador Qi said he was pleased to see the resilience of Sri Lanka to overcome difficulties and assured Chinas continuous support to Sri Lankas current efforts at debt restructuring and meeting economic challenges, it added.

Earlier on March 30, a joint statement by the two countries as Gunawardena wrapped up his official weeklong visit to China, said that China will play a positive role in easing the financial difficulties of cash-strapped Sri Lanka and its bid to achieve debt sustainability while Colombo will accelerate the formulation of a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation plan to advance Beijings projects in the island nation.

On March 27, China and Sri Lanka had signed nine agreements as Gunawardena met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing amid Colombo's efforts to restructure its to revive its bankrupt economy.

China is Sri Lanka's largest bilateral lender owning 52 per cent of the USD 40 billion external debt when Sri Lanka announced its first sovereign default in 2022.

In March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had said it has reached a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka for the next phase that would enable it access to USD 337 million from the nearly USD 3 billion bailout approved in 2023 for the island nation.

Two tranches of USD 330 million each were released in March and December 2023 even as the global lender has praised Colombo for its macroeconomic policy reforms, which it said, are starting to bear fruit.
Karachi, May 3 (PTI) A senior journalist was killed and seven other people were injured in a bomb attack in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Friday, police said.

Muhammad Siddiq Mengal, a senior journalist and also the president of the Khuzdar Press Club, was killed when a remote-controlled bomb hit his vehicle on the Sultan Ibrahim highway on the outskirts of Khuzdar town," a police official said.

"Seven other people were also injured in the blast," he said.

Balochistan has been witnessing a series of terrorist activities for several years.

Most recently, on Thursday at least one died and 20 others were injured in twin landmine blasts that occurred near Thaikedar Naddi in the Duki district of Balochistan. The first explosion occurred when a truck hit a landmine, followed by a second blast as people gathered at the scene.

On Friday last, unknown assailants opened fire in the Kali Tarata area of Pishin district and injured two senior police officers, including a DSP and SHO. In a similar incident in the Tump area of the district, two labourers were killed by armed men.

In 2023, Pakistan ranked 150 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), a non-profit that defends and promotes freedom of information. According to a report by Freedom Network, an independent national media watchdog, at least 53 journalists were murdered in the country from 2012 to 2022. Only in two cases have convictions been obtained.
Lahore, May 3 (PTI) Pakistani law enforcement agencies have arrested a TTP terrorist for killing three policemen in Punjab province, police said on Friday.

During the last week, three policemen were gunned down by unidentified shooters in Lahore and the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had taken responsibility for the attacks.

According to Lahore police, the prime suspect in the killing of three policemen has been arrested in Lahore's posh Defence area. The suspect is identified as Abdullah Jan alias Usman Khorasani. Usman was a part of the Khorasani Group of the TTP. Police said that Khorasani had planned to target more policemen.

In a statement issued on social media with the title Khoon Ka Badla Khoon (blood for blood), the Khorasani network of the TTP claimed responsibility for the attacks on policemen in Lahore, saying the three policemen were killed by the firing of Mujahidin (freedom fighters).

The Khorasani Group was formed by Abdul Wali, known as Omar Khalid Khorasani. He was considered close to Osama Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda.

The group carried out some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan, including a bombing in Lahore in 2016 that killed at least 75 people from the Christian community on Easter Sunday. Khorasani later dissolved Jamaatul Ahrar and rejoined the TTP in the groups drive to reunify several estranged groups. He was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan in 2022.
Peshawar, May 3 (PTI) At least ten people were killed when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous terrain and plunged into a ravine in northwest Pakistan on Friday, authorities said.

The incident occurred on the Karakoram Highway in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan region when the bus with at least 30 passengers aboard was on its way from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, a police official said.

Rescue efforts are in progress and the injured as well as dead bodies are being shifted to hospital, the official said.
Honolulu, May 3 (AP) Defence chiefs from the US, Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered on Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China's operations in the South China Sea.

The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a news conference after their discussion that the drills strengthened the ability of the nations to work together, build bonds among their forces and underscore their shared commitment to international law in the waterway.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.

Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order, Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.

Austin hosted the defense chiefs at the US military's regional headquarters, US Indo-Pacific Command, at Camp H.M. Smith in the hills above Pearl Harbour.

Earlier in the day, Austin had separate bilateral meetings with Australia and Japan followed by a trilateral meeting with Australia and Japan.

Defence chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.

The US has decades-old defence treaties with all three nations.

The US lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged China's claims to virtually the entire waterway. The US says freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is in America's national interest.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea. Beijing has refused to recognise a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.

Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila in particular have flared since last year. Earlier this week, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels off off Scarborough Shoal, damaging both.

The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course. The US has warned repeatedly that it's obligated to defend the Philippines  its oldest treaty ally in Asia  if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

President Joe Biden's administration has said it aims to build what it calls a latticework of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as the US grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing says the strengthening of US alliances in Asia is aimed at containing China and threatens regional stability. (AP) PY

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Peshawar, May 3 (PTI) At least 20 people were killed and 21 others injured when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous terrain and plunged into a ravine in northwest Pakistan's Gilgit Baltistan region on Friday, authorities said.

The incident occurred around 5:30 am on the Karakoram Highway in Diamer district when the bus was on its way from Rawalpindi to Hunza, a police official said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle which then overturned and landed near the banks of the Indus River, the official said.

As many as 43 passengers were aboard the bus when the incident took place, the official said.

The injured were moved to the Chilas hospital, the official said.

The official said the rescue efforts assisted by army helicopters were over and the dead and injured were moved to the hospital.

The source said the death toll was expected to rise further as many of the injured were in critical condition.

Gilgit Baltistan Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan expressed condolences over the incident and directed the administration to provide immediate medical aid to the injured.

Giltgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said an emergency was declared at the Chilas Hospital after the accident.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief on the loss of lives and conveyed his sympathies to the bereaved families.

He instructed authorities to provide the injured with every possible medical treatment.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also expressed his condolences on the incident and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Some synergies already exist between climate change work and procurement, director for climate change in ADB's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department Noelle O'Brien, said, Trend reports.

He made the statement at ADB's annual meeting in Tbilisi during the panel discussion on Sustainable Procurement - Contributing to ADB's Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Goals.

"There is already some synergy, and from our perspective, the potential is huge. More importantly, this approach to procurement allows us to deal with change at a system level. Therefore, when procurement decisions align with these objectives, they can stimulate change and innovation within the supply chain.

I think we already have a very expanded view of the role that finance ministries can play concerning public procurement. We see this engagement with the finance ministry as critical to scaling up climate impact. ADB has already launched an initiative where we are aligning our work with a global coalition of finance ministers on climate action. We are collaborating with several regional networks because we believe this is a critical approach to achieving this change.

We recently launched the Climate Resilience Finance Facility for Asia and the Pacific. This aims to strengthen the capacity of finance ministries to scale up and align finance with low-emission and climate-resilient development. We recently concluded a specific policy agreement with the Association of ASEAN Finance Ministers, and we look forward to scaling up this process to other regions, including Central and West Asia, as well as the Pacific and South Asia," she said.

The 57th Annual Meeting, "Bridge to the Future," takes place from May 2 through May 5.

The opening session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening session marks the official start of the annual meeting. It is a high-profile event attended by the guest of honor from the host country. Remarks will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, the Minister of Finance of Georgia, and Chair of the ADB Board of Governors Lasha Khutsishvili.

The annual meeting is an opportunity for ADB governors to consider development issues and challenges facing Asia and the Pacific. Several thousand participants, including finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, members of the private sector, representatives of international organizations and civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media, regularly join the meeting.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
London, May 3 (AP) Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as an array of election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a UK general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years.

Labour won control of councils in England it hasn't held for decades and was successful in a special by-election for Parliament that if repeated in a general election in coming months, would lead to one of the Conservative's biggest-ever defeats.

Its only negative for Labour has been in some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Oldham in northwest England, where the party's candidates appear to have suffered as a result of leader Keir Starmer's strongly pro-Israel stance in the conflict in Gaza.

Perhaps most important in the context of the looming general election, which has to take place by January but could come as soon as next month, Labour won back Blackpool South in the northwest of England that went Conservative in the last general election in 2019, when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a big victory.

In the contest, triggered by the resignation of a Conservative lawmaker following a lobbying scandal, Labour's Chris Webb secured 10,825 votes, 7,607 more than his second-placed Conservative opponent.

This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today," Starmer said. This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak's Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change."

Thursday's elections were important in themselves, with voters deciding who will run many aspects of their daily lives, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention, in the coming years. But with a general election looming, they will be viewed through a national prism.

The results so far provide more evidence that Labour is likely to form the next government  and by quite a margin  and that Starmer will become prime minister.

As of Friday morning, with barely a quarter of the 2,661 seats up for grabs counted, the Conservatives were down 122 while Labour was up 52. Other parties, such as the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are also making gains. Reform UK, which is trying to usurp the Conservatives from the right, can also point to a successful set of election results, even thought it contested a minority of council seats.

The party's threat to the Conservatives was evident in Blackpool South, where it was less than 200 votes from second place.

Labour has won in areas, which voted heavily for Britain's departure from the European Union and where it was crushed by Johnson, such as Hartlepool in the northeast of England, and Thurrock in southeast England. It also seized control of Rushmoor, a leafy and military-heavy council in the south of England where it has never won.

John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said the results so far indicate that the Conservatives are losing around half of the seats they are trying to defend.

We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," he told BBC radio.

The results will roll in through Saturday. Sunak hopes that he can point to successes, notably in several key mayoral races, to douse talk that the Conservative Party will change its leader again before the UK's main election.

Key to his survival could be the results of mayoral elections in Tees Valley in the northeast of England and in the West Midlands. The former is due Friday midday and the latter on Saturday. Should Conservative mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen hold on, Sunak may win some respite from restive lawmakers in his party. Should both lose, he may face trouble. Labour's Sadiq Khan is expected to remain mayor of London when results are announced on Saturday..

Sunak could preempt any challenge by threatening to call a general election that has to take place before January 2025. He has the power to decide on the date and has indicated that it will be in the second half of 2024.

Sunak became prime minister in October 2022 after the short-lived tenure of his predecessor, Liz Truss, who left office after 49 days following a budget of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs for homeowners surging.

Her chaotic  and traumatic  leadership compounded the Conservatives' difficulties following the circus surrounding her predecessor Johnson, who was forced to quit after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over lockdown breaches at his offices in Downing Street.

Nothing Sunak has tried to do appears to have shifted the political dial, with Labour consistently 20 percentage points ahead in opinion polls, which would lead, if translated into a general election, to a landslide victory on a par with that achieved by Tony Blair in 1997.

Whether anyone else can do better is a question that may occupy the minds of nervous Conservative lawmakers in Parliament heading into the weekend. (AP) PY

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Jerusalem, May 3 (AP) Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said Friday. Or marks the 38th hostage killed, the forum said.

He was one of about 250 people abducted when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Dozens of people demonstrated Thursday night outside Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release the hostages. Meanwhile, Hamas said it would send a delegation to Cairo as soon as possible to keep working on cease-fire talks. A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of talks languishing in a stalemate.

Across the United States, tent encampments and demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war have spread across university campuses. More than 2,000 protesters have been arrested over the past two weeks as students rally against the war's death toll and call for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel's military efforts in Gaza.

The Israel-Hamas war has driven around 80 per cent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine. The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and the territory's entire population has been driven into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Currently:

 Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks in the latest sign of progress. What's on the table for Israel and Hamas in the latest cease-fire talks?

 Colombia breaks diplomatic ties with Israel, but its military relies on key Israeli-built equipment.

 Turkey halts all trade with Israel over military actions in Gaza.

 Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses.

 The unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza hasn't been seen since World War II, the United Nations says.



Here's the latest:

HOSTAGE IN GAZA HAS DIED, HOSTAGES FAMILIES FORUM SAYS

TEL AVIV  Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said Friday. Or marks the 38th hostage killed, the forum said.

He and two of his children were abducted from Kibbutz Be'eri when Hamas attacked on October 7 and his wife, Yonat, was killed. His children, 17-year-old Noam and 13-year-old Alma, were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages. A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of talks languishing in a stalemate. Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks, in a new sign of progress.

Some families worry that Israel's war aims of eliminating Hamas and launching an incursion into Gaza's southern city of Rafah will derail negotiations. Dozens of people demonstrated Thursday night outside Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release the hostages.



US DEFENCE SECRETARY SAYS CONDITIONS ARE NOT FAVORABLE' FOR AN ISRAELI OPERATION IN RAFAH

HONOLULU  United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, while at a news conference Thursday in Hawaii, was asked by a reporter what consequences Israel would face from the US if Israel conducted an offensive operation in Rafah without appropriately taking into account civilians in the area.

Austin said it would be up to President Joe Biden and he wouldn't speculate on that, but that currently, "conditions are not favourable to any kind of operation."

What we've highlighted for the Israelis is that it's really important to make sure that the civilians that are in that battle space move out of that battle space before any activity is conducted. And that if and when they return to any kind of operation that it be conducted in a more much more precise fashion, Austin said.

He noted there were about 275,000 people living in and around Rafah before the conflict started but there are now about 1.4 million.

That's a lot of people in a very small space. There's a good chance that without taking the right measures that we'll see a lot more civilian casualties going forward. So before anything happens, we certainly want to see them address that threat to the civilians, Austin said.

Right now, the conditions are not favourable to any kind of operation. And we've been clear about that. It is necessary to take care of the civilian population that's in that area before anything else happens, he said. (AP)



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Beijing, May 3 (PTI) China on Friday launched a lunar probe mission to collect samples for the first time from the far side of the moon and bring them to Earth for scientific studies.

The Chang'e-6 mission is tasked with collecting and then returning samples from the moon's far side to Earth -- the first endeavour of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration, China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

The lunar probe was carried by a Long March-5 Y8 rocket which blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan.

Chang'e 6 consists of four components: an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a re-entry module, according to a report by the state-run China Daily.

After collecting dust and rocks on the moon, the ascender will transport the samples to the lunar orbiter for transfer to the re-entry module, which will carry them back to Earth.

The CNSA said earlier that the mission is poised to make breakthroughs in key technologies, such as automatic sample collection, take-off and ascent from the far side of the moon. Meanwhile, the probe will carry out scientific exploration of the landing zone.

The CNSA has announced that scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency/Sweden will be on board the lander of the Chang'e-6 mission and a Pakistani payload on the orbiter. A major space power, China in the past successfully launched unmanned missions to the moon which included landing a rover. China has also sent a rover to Mars.

Earlier, China announced plans for a manned lunar landing by 2030.

India became the first country to land near the little-explored lunar south pole region last year when its Chandrayaan-3's lander, carrying the Pragyaan rover successfully landed there.
Kyiv (Ukraine), May 3 (AP) Recent statements by France's president and Britain's foreign secretary about the war in Ukraine are dangerous and will deepen international tension around the conflict, the Kremlin's spokesman said Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview published Thursday, repeated an earlier comment that he doesn't exclude sending troops to Ukraine. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, meanwhile, said during a visit to Kyiv the same day that Ukraine will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia  a possibility that some other NATO countries providing weapons have balked at.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded Macron's comment a very important and very dangerous statement. Remarks by Macron about possible direct French engagement in the conflict represent a very dangerous trend, he said.

Cameron's statement about Ukraine's right to use British weapons provided to strike facilities inside Russia is another very dangerous statement, Peskov told reporters.

This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which potentially may threaten European security, the entire European security architecture, Peskov said.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 significantly heightened tension between the Kremlin and NATO countries. The alliance countries have provided much of the military hardware that Kyiv is using to fight Russia, ensuring that the tension has continued to simmer. Russia, in turn, has sought help from China, Iran and North Korea, according to the US.

As Russia heaps battlefield pressure on depleted Ukrainian forces and appears poised to launch a major offensive, that antagonism has become sharper.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Friday that Russian troops had captured more than 500 square kilometers (200 square miles) of territory from Ukrainian forces since the start of the year.

The Russian groups of forces continue to break through the enemy's strongholds along the entire line of contact, Shoigu said at a meeting with top military brass.

It was not possible to independently verify claims about the battlefield.

Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that Russian forces have an overwhelming advantage in troops, weapons and ammunition.

Ukraine's president and foreign minister pressed Cameron during his visit to accelerate the delivery of his country's promised military aid.

It is important that the weapons included in the UK support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social platform X.

He said armored vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types were top of the list.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who also met with Cameron, said on X that the focus was on speeding up military aid.

That message was rammed home by the deputy chief of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, who said Russia is trying to exploit its current advantage in weapons and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.

Our problem is very simple: We have no weapons, Skibitsky was quoted as saying in an interview with The Economist published Friday.

Vital support pledged by Western allies to help Ukraine fend off the Kremlin's forces has been delayed by political disagreements in the United States and a lack of manufacturing capacity in Europe. That has opened a door to advances for the bigger and better-equipped Russian army, especially along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against the clock to deploy the new military aid, especially a fresh batch of US support, in coming weeks and prevent Russia taking more ground.

The pressing concern at the moment is keeping the strategic eastern hilltop city of Chasiv Yar out of Russian hands. Capturing the city would offer Russia the opportunity of attacking other key cities deeper inside the Donetsk region and hitting important Ukrainian supply lines.

Chasiv Yar is being battered by Russian artillery, drones and missiles. Glide bombs have also been deployed. They are half-ton bombs fitted with wings and launched from aircraft from behind Russian lines. They demolish buildings and leave huge craters, unnerving local defenders.

Russia used a similar strategy of relentless bombardment to force Ukrainian troops out of Avdiivka in February. (AP) NPK

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Moscow, May 3 (AP) The military defector was killed in a hail of gunfire and then run over by a car in Spain. The opposition figure was struck repeatedly with a hammer in Lithuania. The journalist fell ill from a suspected poisoning in Germany.

Since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, attacks and harassment of Russians  prominent or not  have been blamed on Moscow's intelligence operatives across Europe and elsewhere.

Despite attempts by Western governments to dismantle Russian spy networks, experts say the Kremlin apparently is still able to pursue those it perceives as traitors abroad in an attempt to silence dissent. Opponents of Putin increasingly fear the long arm of Moscow's security services, including in countries they once thought were safe.

We just escaped Russia and had this illusion that we've escaped prison, said journalist Irina Dolinina, who works for the independent outlet Important Stories, based in the Czech capital of Prague.

Dolinina and colleague Alesya Marokhovskaya were harassed in 2023, leading to fears they were under surveillance. They were sent threatening messages via comments on the media outlet's website and told not to travel to a conference in Sweden. To underscore the point, the threat included their airline ticket numbers, seat locations and hotel booking.

It was a mistake for us to think that here, we are safe, Dolinina told The Associated Press.

The Kremlin, which routinely denies going after its opponents abroad, has been blamed for decades for such attacks.

The most famous cases include Soviet revolutionary-turned-exiled dissident Leon Trotsky, who was killed in 1940 in Mexico after being attacked with an ice ax by a Soviet agent, and Georgi Markov, a dissident working for the BBC's Bulgarian language service, who died in 1978 in London after being jabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella.

Britain was the site of other poisonings blamed on Russian security services under Putin. Defector and former intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko died after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, and former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter fell gravely ill but recovered following an attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent in 2018. The Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement in the British cases.

Now, with a full-scale domestic crackdown underway inside Russia, most of the Kremlin's political opponents, independent journalists and activists have moved abroad. There are strong suspicions, as well as accusations from officials, that Moscow is increasingly targeting them.

The breadth of those individuals pursued by Russia, even if they look and sound completely insignificant, is because Russian authorities believe they might come back to the country and destroy it completely, said security expert Andrei Soldatov.

There are multiple reports of exiles being persecuted not only in former Soviet countries with a large Russian diaspora but also in Europe and beyond.

Activists and independent journalists have reported symptoms that they suspect to be poisoning.

Investigative journalist Elena Kostyuchenko fell ill on a train from Munich to Berlin in 2022, and German prosecutors later said they were investigating it as an attempted killing.

Natalia Arno, the head of the US-based Free Russia Foundation, told AP she still suffers from nerve damage after a suspected poisoning in Prague in May. She believes Russian security services tried to silence her because of her pro-democracy work.

In an especially brutal incident, the bullet-riddled body of pilot Maksim Kuzminov was found in La Cala, Spain, near the eastern port of Alicante, after being shot and run over with a car. Threats against him surfaced soon after he stole a Russian Mi-8 helicopter in August, flew it to Ukraine and defected.

Kuzminov, 33, became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime, said Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's foreign intelligence service.

In March, Leonid Volkov, chief of staff to the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny, had his arm broken in a hammer attack in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Lithuania's security service said the assault was probably Russian-organised and implemented." On April 19, Polish police detained two people on suspicion of attacking Volkov on the orders of a foreign intelligence service.

In the decades Putin has held power, the Kremlin has denied multiple times that it is targeting its enemies at home and abroad. It has not commented on the suspected poisonings and Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declined comment on Volkov's case, saying it was a matter for Lithuania's Interior Ministry.

Even fledgling anti-war groups find themselves in Moscow's sights.

Russians in Stockholm, Sweden, who in May 2022 formed one of the first organizations to support Ukraine and political prisoners, burned an effigy of Putin labeled war criminal outside the Russian Embassy.

Six months later, Russian authorities designated the group an undesirable organization, threatening members with fines and prison. Their relatives were visited at home in Russia by police, and their personal data was leaked, members told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears for their security.

The Russian Orthodox Tsargrad media outlet suggested the group's members could be recruited by foreign intelligence services and dubbed them terrorists. The pro-Kremlin outlet warned them of a nasty surprise if they continued opposing the war.

Days later, while visiting relatives in St. Petersburg, a group member named Marina said a police car stopped right in front of her as she exited a shop. Three men got out, asked for her documents, forced her into the car and drove to a police station, siren blaring.

It was really scary. How the hell did they know my exact location? Marina told AP, declining to give her surname because she fears for her safety.

She was confronted with the leaked data and video of the embassy protest, and investigators demanded she identify other members of the group, reveal its funding source and asked her views on the war. One even questioned why she was leaving Russia before her father's birthday - making clear they knew the identity of her family.

She was charged with an administrative violation, usually punishable by a fine. As police prepared to drive her to her parents' apartment, it was suggested she cooperate and become an informant if she wanted to see her family again without fear of detention, Marina said.

It's a known modus operandi for Russian intelligence and the Russian regime to follow opponents in the Russian diaspora in other countries and subject them to different types of harassment or intelligence work, Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, spokesperson for the Swedish Security Service, told AP.

Soldatov said the Kremlin is going after a wide range of opponents because it fears pro-Western uprisings like those in Georgia and Ukraine and wants to prevent the seeds of dissent from growing into something new.

Even though Western countries expelled hundreds of Russian spies in coordinated actions after the 2018 poisoning of the Skripals and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russians abroad say they are concerned Moscow still can reach them.

Marokhovskaya, the investigative journalist in Prague, received anonymous threats, including one indicating close surveillance that said, We'll find her wherever she walks her wheezing dog.

She and Dolinina told AP they experienced such observation inside Russia, including after publishing award-winning investigations of corruption in Putin's family.

After moving to Europe, Dolinina said she initially thought she was experiencing constant paranoia. When she got the anonymous threats and was followed on Prague's streets, however, she realized the fears were well-founded.

Neither journalist has concrete proof that Russian security services targeted them, but they said they believe the personal data - flight information, passport numbers and home addresses - and physical surveillance were likely orchestrated by a state actor.

I was really shocked that it's happening in Europe, Dolinina said.

Although the many incidents the West blames on the Kremlin fuel speculation that Moscow still can intimidate Russians abroad, not everyone has been silenced.

This is not the reason to quit, Marokhovskaya said. "It's the reason to keep working. (AP)



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Washington, May 3 (PTI) Observing that the USCIRF's recent annual report that criticised India for alleged violations of religious freedom is based on omission and commission of facts utilising partial data, an Indian diaspora think-tank has urged the US State Department to reject it.

In its annual report on Wednesday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that India be designated as a "Country of Particular Concern (CPC)", alleging that the status of religious freedom in the country has worsened.

India on Thursday blasted the Congressional-appointed body's report for attempting to interfere in its electoral exercise and continuing to indulge in propaganda against the country, masquerading as part of an annual report.

"The US Commission on International Religious Freedom is known as a biased organisation with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi.

In a statement on Thursday, the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) characterised the USCIRF report as biased, presenting partial data and flawed conclusions.

Khanderao Kand, Chief of Policy and Strategy at FIIDS, stated that the USCIRF report is based on "omission and commission of facts, utilising partial data, hiding the full context, generalising isolated incidents, and questioning the implementation of the law of the land."

This report used partial and isolated incidents to wrongly brand the largest democracy in the world with a population of 1.4 billion, missing the opportunity to indicate positive recent trends against the background of a complex and violent past history, he said.

Khanderao added that the USCIRF is wrong to recommend the largest democracy and largely peaceful civilisation as a country of particular concern.

Moreover, it is highly questionable recommendation asking to evaluate India under FATF (Financial Action Task Force), especially when India itself has been a target of terrorism, he said.

In a detailed analysis of the report, FIIDS said that USCIRF's position on India contrasts with its analysis of 2023, indicating significant year-over-year improvement.

FIIDS' analysis concluded that the Manipur riots were inter-tribal, resulting from historical rivalry exploited by drug mafias and Myanmar infiltrators, impacting all religions.

However, the USCIRF only singled out Christians. Moreover, we contrasted this with the position of the Archbishop of Bombay," said FIIDSs analyst Mohan Sonti.

The report wrongly held India responsible for implementing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), preventing illegal and improper use of foreign funding. Why can't NGOs follow reporting and usage laws? he asked.

The USCIRF report failed to mention India's constitutional guarantee to freedom of religion, with prohibitions on coercive, fraudulent and forced conversion, he said.

"Instead, it complained about the enforcement of laws trying to protect gullible, underprivileged people," he added.

As there were no major Hindu-Muslim riots in India in 2023, instead of mentioning it as a year free of such riots, the report presented isolated incidents to generalise and brand without acknowledging India's large Muslim population, FIIDS said.

FIIDS' raises doubts and questions regarding any influence or agenda against the third-largest economy and a strong ally of the US. Considering the consequential nature of US-India relations in 2021, FIIDS recommends that the US Department of State should carefully evaluate and reject USCIRF recommendations, the organisation said in a statement.
Ottawa, May 3 (PTI) Canadian police have arrested members of an alleged hit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of India with killing Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, according to a media report on Friday.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September last year of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

New Delhi rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd".

Quoting sources close to the investigation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the police are actively investigating possible links to three additional murders in Canada, including the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.

Members of the hit squad are alleged to have played different roles as shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey in British Columbia, according to the sources.

The men were arrested Friday during police operations in at least two provinces.

Sources said investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada some months ago and have been keeping them under tight surveillance. Police are expected to announce the arrests and share some details of their investigation later Friday, the report said.

Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, was shot dead on June 18, shortly after evening prayers at his Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey.

India had on Thursday rejected fresh comments by Prime Minister Trudeau on the killing of Nijjar and said the remarks once again illustrated the political space given in Canada to separatism, extremism, and violence.

Trudeau addressed a Khalsa Day event in Toronto on Sunday that was attended by some pro-Khalistan people.

On the sidelines of the event, he told the media that the killing of Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year created a "problem" and that he cannot ignore it, in an apparent reference to his earlier allegations of involvement of Indian agents in the assassination.

"PM Trudeau has made such remarks earlier as well. His remarks illustrate once again the political space that has been given in Canada to separatism, extremism, and violence," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi at his weekly media briefing.

"This not only impacts India-Canada relations but also encourages a climate of violence and criminality in Canada to the detriment of its own citizens," he said when asked about Trudeau's remarks.

In his comments to the media, Trudeau, referring to activities by pro-Khalistani elements, said that "our job is not to crack down on political protest".

India on Monday summoned the Canadian deputy high commissioner and lodged a strong protest with him over the raising of pro-'Khalistan' slogans at the event in the presence of Trudeau and several other leaders. Nijjar was a Khalistani separatist and he was wanted in India on various terror charges.

"It is a problem in our relations with India because we cannot ignore that," Trudeau said on the killing of Nijjar.

Days after Trudeau's allegations, India asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country to ensure parity.

Subsequently, Canada withdrew 41 diplomats and their family members from India.

India has been asserting that its "core issue" with Canada remained that of the space given to separatists, terrorists and anti-India elements in that country.

Following Trudeau's allegations last year, India temporarily suspended issuance of visas to Canadian citizens. The visa services were resumed several weeks later.
Kathmandu, May 3 (PTI) Nepal on Friday announced the printing of a new Rs 100 currency note with a map that shows the controversial territories of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, already termed as artificial enlargement and untenable by India.

The meeting of the council of ministers chaired by Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda took a decision to print the new map of Nepal, which includes the Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani in the Rs 100 denomination bank notes, government spokesperson Rekha Sharma told media persons while briefing about the cabinet decision.

The cabinet approved to re-design the banknote of Rs 100 and replace the old map printed in the background of the bank note during the cabinet meetings held on April 25 and May 2, Sharma, who is also the Minister for Information and Communication, added.

On June 18, 2020, Nepal completed the process to update the countrys political map by incorporating three strategically important areas Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas by amending its Constitution, something that India reacted sharply, calling it a "unilateral act" and terming as untenable the artificial enlargement of the territorial claims by Nepal.

India maintains Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belongs to it.

Nepal shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states - Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Gadchiroli, May 3 (PTI) A 'jan militia' member of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) with a reward of Rs 1.5 lakh on his head was arrested on Friday in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, a police official said.

Shankar Kudyam (34) is a resident of Chhattisgarh and was arrested during 'nakabandi' (road block check) on Sironcha-Kaleshwaram road, the official said.

"Our probe found he is a Naxal sympathiser and provided ultras rations, put up their posters and gathered people for their meetings. There was a bounty of Rs 1.5 lakh on Kudyam," he added.
Medininagar (Jharkhand), May 3 (PTI) A 60-year-old man was shot dead allegedly by his son in a dispute over Abua Awas in Palamu district, police said on Friday.

Abua Awas is a Jharkhand government-sponsored housing scheme.

The incident happened at Ratnag village within limits of the Naudiha Bazar police station on Thursday night when the man's younger son shot him dead with a country-made pistol, the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Chattarpur, Naushad Alam, said.

The accused has been absconding since the incident took place, the police officer said. The deceased was identified as Krishna Singh who was allotted a house under the Abua Awas scheme.

According to the statement given to police by the deceased person's daughter and another son, a dispute happened over Abua Awas between their father and brother on Thursday night after which their father was shot dead by the accused, the officer said.

The deceased wanted to build the house on the land of his elder son but his younger son did not agree to it, the SDPO added.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. The influence of multilateral development banks is disproportionate to their amount of funding, Deputy Director General and Chief Procurement Officer of ADB's Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Division, Jeff Taylor said, Trend reports.

He made the remark during the panel discussion on "Sustainable Procurement - Contributing to ADB's Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Goals" at the ADB Annual Meeting.

"The impact of multilateral development banks (MDBs) is disproportionate to their amount of financing. We pay to lead, lead by example, or advise many of our member countries. And we, as members of the MDB community, have a responsibility to take a leadership role in this, not a reactive role, and to be proactive. This is part of the evolution of the MDBs.

I mentioned the old way of procurement, the risk-free way. As an MDB group, we are all working very hard to move away from that old model. It is not easy, but the process is well underway, and it is irreversible. It started with the concept of value for money. And now we realize that sustainability is a value that we must incorporate into our approaches. And we have a unique understanding of that," he noted.

The theme of the 57th annual meeting, scheduled for May 2 to 5, is "Bridge to the Future".

The first session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening will mark the official start of the annual meeting. This event is attended by distinguished guests from the host country. Statements will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and the Minister of Finance of Georgia, Chairman of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The annual meeting provides ADB governors with the opportunity to discuss development issues and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region. Several thousand participants regularly attend the meeting, including finance ministers, central bank governors, high-ranking government officials, representatives of the private sector, international organizations, civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media.

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New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) The NHRC on Friday said it has found "negligence" by authorities in a stray dog attack incident that took place last year on Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus that killed a 65-year-old man.

In a statement, the National Human Rights Commission said it has recommended payment of a relief amount of Rs 7.5 lakh to the next of kin of the victim.

Safdar Ali Khan was mauled to death by a pack of street dogs when he was out on a morning walk in a park inside the AMU campus last year in April.

The incident was widely reported and a video of it also went viral on social media.

The NHRC "finds negligence of the authorities" in last year's stray dog attack resulting in the death of a person at the AMU campus in Uttar Pradesh, the rights panel said in the statement.

The NHRC has asked UP government, through its chief secretary, that it pay Rs.7.5 lakh to the next of kin of Khan, it said.

A compliance report of the proof of payment has also been sought within eight weeks, the statement said.

The commission had registered a suo motu case based on a media report dated April 17, 2023 about the incident and issued the notices to the chief secretary, government of Uttar Pradesh, the vice-chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University, and the commissioner, Aligarh Municipal Corporation seeking a detailed report on the incident.

The state government was expected to inform whether any relief had been given to the next of kin of the deceased, the statement said.

Based on the material on record received in response from the authorities concerned, the commission had issued a notice to the chief secretary to show cause why Rs 7.5 lakh should not be recommended to be paid as monetary relief to the next of kin of the victim, it added.

However, the authorities concerned forwarded a letter from the registrar of the AMU, stating that the notice of the Commission "does not contain any instruction the university must comply with," the statement said.

There is no commission of violation of human rights or negligence in the prevention of violation of human rights and abetment on the part of the university, it said, quoting the response of authorities to its notice.

The commission noted that the authorities were "apparently passing the buck in the matter".

"Therefore, it observed that the benefits arising from the order cannot be denied to the victims of a violation of human rights by the authority due to an act of negligence and abetment by the public servant.

"Accordingly, it confirmed the amount of relief of Rs 7.5 lakh as mentioned in its show cause notice recommending that it has to be paid to the victim's next of kin," it added.
Bengaluru, May 3 (PTI) The Criminal Investigation Department investigating the sexual abuse allegations against JD(S) leader and NDAs Hassan Lok Sabha candidate Prajwal Revanna has registered a case of rape against him, based on the complaint by a party worker.





The CID booked Prajwal, grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, after a JD(S) worker from Hassan lodged a complaint against him.







Besides the rape charges, the CID invoked sections against Prajwal pertaining to voyeurism, disrobing and making videos and taking photographs by threatening the complainant.



In the complaint, the woman said Prajwal had raped her at gunpoint and made videos on his mobile phones. She said Prajwal had taken her to the MP quarters where he perpetrated the crime at gunpoint and threatened that he would kill her as well as her husband, if she revealed to anyone what he had done.





The accused allegedly forced her to satisfy his lust whenever he demanded, and threatened to make her video public if she did not cooperate.







Prajwal is facing allegations of sexually abusing several women. The state government-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) is investigating the case.





Scores of explicit video clips allegedly involving the 33-year-old MP sexually abusing several women had started making the rounds in recent days.







Prajwal is the BJP-JD(S) alliance's candidate from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency where polling was held on April 26, after which he left the country on a diplomatic passport.



The JD(S) had joined the NDA in September last year.







The JD(S) leadership has suspended Prajwal from the party.
Kolkata, May 3 (PTI) The Election Commission (EC) will deploy 578 companies of central forces for the fourth phase of polling, scheduled to take place in eight Lok Sabha constituencies across five districts of West Bengal on May 13, a senior official said on Friday.

According to him, Purba Bardhaman will get 152 companies, Birbhum (130), Asansol-Durgapur (88), Krishnanagar (81), Murshidabad (73) and Ranaghat (54). Over 150 Quick Response Teams (QRTs) will also be deployed, he added.

Meanwhile, the EC transferred the officer-in-charges of two police stations, Diamond Harbour and Anandapur, to the police headquarters. These officers will not be assigned any election-related duties, the official added.
Pune, May 2 (PTI) Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said victory for his daughter Supriya Sule, his party's Lok Sabha candidate from Baramati, would reduce support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi by one MP in Parliament.

He was campaigning for Sule in Pune district's Purandar tehsil, which comes under the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, where she is pitted against NCP candidate Sunetra Pawar, her sister-in-law and wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

"We have given candidature to Supriya Sule so press the button next to her name on EVM in the election (on May 7). Your vote will not only determine her victory, but ensure that there is one more MP who is not supporting Modi," the senior Pawar said.

The former Union agriculture minister said under the BJP government at the Centre, the condition of farmers has become miserable.

"If we want to change the scenario and have farmers-centric approach in policy-making, then change needs to be brought," he said.

The veteran political claimed the BJP-led dispensation is not in favour of giving remunerative prices to farmers for their agricultural products.
Bagalkote (Karnataka), May 3 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said a rape case has been booked against JD(S) leader and NDAs Hassan candidate Prajwal Revanna.







He said he has directed police to identify, trace and secure the victims in view of the alleged kidnapping of a victim at Krishnaraja Nagar town in Mysuru district.







The mother of three children was allegedly abducted by Holenarasipura MLA and Prajwals father H D Revanna and his confidant Sathish Babanna from her home after her 20-year-old son complained to the police.







He said videos showed that his mother was allegedly tied and raped by Prajwal Revanna.







Police have arrested Sathish Babanna and are interrogating him in connection with the case, a police source said.







H D Revanna is the son of former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda.







The Chief Minister said BJP committed a wrong in Prajwal Revanna case.







Both the BJP and the JD(S) knew about Prajwal Revannas videos. Prajwal Revannas case is not just sexual harassment. He has raped women. A rape case has been registered (against him), Siddaramaiah said.







Supporting the complainants, he said, Will a woman lie that she has been raped? Wont her life get destroyed after the complaint? If a married woman says openly that she has been raped then we have to accept it.







He said there is a law of presumption. Women never lie (on these issues). Victims wont lie. Shouldnt this be accepted? Why did they give ticket (to Prajwal) despite knowing it? Why did they (BJP) forge an alliance (with the JD-S)?







To a question, he wondered that if the JD(S) leadership said they will cooperate with the investigation, why did Deve Gowda and his son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy call lawyers and discuss with them on Thursday.







The Chief Minister took a dig at Kumaraswamy saying that they have separated themselves from Revanna but during the election, he campaigned for him and said his son Nikhil and nephew Prajwal Revanna were not different.







Whatever they do, they do it together  be it politics or misdeeds, he said.







On Prajwal staying in Germany, Siddaramaiah said wherever he has escaped, the government will ensure that he is caught and brought back.







Whichever country he is staying in, we will get him from there. Thats why I have written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to cancel his diplomatic passport, the Chief Minister said.







He said once the passport is cancelled, the Hassan NDA candidate cannot stay there and he has to return to India.







He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke the diplomatic passport.







Questioning the JD(S) alliance partner BJPs stand on the issue, he said the party gave Prajwal a ticket and helped him flee the country.







Can he go abroad without the knowledge of the Centre? Centre knows who and how many people are going abroad and to which country. Can anyone enter the country without sharing information? Centre is protecting Prajwal Revanna, he alleged.
Kolkata, May 3 (PTI) Development, or the alleged lack of it, and recurrent floods in every monsoon are the key issues of the erstwhile red bastion Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal's Hooghly district, an SC-reserved political hotspot of the state in terms of law and order volatility.

The TMC may have won the 2014 and 2019 editions of parliamentary polls in Arambagh, but the party's steady decline in vote share over the last two editions coupled with BJP trumping Trinamool in four of Arambaghs six assembly seats in Hooghly in the 2021 state polls are signs of an upcoming battle which Mamata Banerjee's party may find tougher to tide past than what appears on paper.

That's perhaps why Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Arambagh to kick start his poll campaigns in Bengal and addressed one of the poll season's first public meetings on March 1 from where he slammed the Mamata Banerjee government for "betraying the people of the state".

The state's ruling dispensation has replaced its two-time MP Aparupa Poddar with Hooghly Zilla Parishad member Mitali Bag who debuts in parliamentary polls. The BJP nominated Arup Kanti Digar, also a first-timer.

People, especially farmers, are in deep distress because of recurrent floods, Digar told PTI.

"Floods are a routine affair in places like Pursura, Goghat, Khanakul and Chandrakona during July-August every year. The TMC government has grossly misutilised Central funds to undertake measures like dredging of water bodies and building barrages while offering no more than lip service to the Ghatal master plan to control flood damages in neighbouring Paschim Medinipur," he said.

He also accused the state government of discriminating against the area by neglecting the creation of employment opportunities for youths.

The panchayats withheld disbursal of central funds for several welfare schemes of the Narendra Modi government among the poor, the BJP candidate further alleged.

Rubbishing Digar's narrative, his TMC counterpart claimed that women and youths of the constituency benefitted from various schemes implemented in the state by the Mamata Banerjee government.

Bag said, "The less BJP talks about Arambagh's flood, the better. Despite constant pleas by our government and our MPs, the BJP-run Centre is yet to act on the Ghatal master plan or the Mayurakshi and Keleghai flood control projects."

"An integrated plan is needed to prevent flooding of the basin-like area during monsoon, but the Centre's discriminatory attitude has proved to be the stumbling block in all these years," she alleged.

The CPI(M) which had won Arambagh ten times before 2014 has fielded Biplab Maitra, a primary school teacher.

A district leader of the CPI(M) stated that the party was virtually wiped out from the seat over the last decade on account of "terror unleashed by the TMC".

The CPI(M) bagged 1,00,520 votes in 2019, which was less than seven per cent of the votes polled.

This time, however, the situation is different, he claimed.

"The young generation, particularly the unemployed graduates, are upset with the TMC for not only failing in industrialization but also turning the state's education sector into a mess by perpetrating job scams of unprecedented levels. We hope to do well if the polling is free and fair," the CPI(M) leader said.

Arambagh is home to vast swathes of agrarian land and comprises mostly rural assembly pockets like Haripal, Tarakeswar, Pursurah, Arambagh, Goghat, Khanakul. It also includes Chandrakona, the only assembly segment falling in the neighbouring district of Paschim Medinipur.

Election observers are of the opinion that the fight between the TMC and BJP is likely to go down to the wire this time around.

"The TMC seems to be on a bit of a sticky wicket this time due to grassroots grievances on development in the area and recurrent flooding. The school job recruitment scam is likely to have an impact as well. A sizeable number of young teaching job aspirants hail from Arambagh in particular and Hooghly district in general," academic and Pursura resident Ashis Bera said.

Bera, a political science professor at Burdwan University, stated that the Sandeshkhali incident may also cast a shadow on the prospects of the ruling dispensation.

"There is a strong undercurrent of support for Mamata Banerjee among women. It needs to be seen if her social welfare schemes can tilt the balance in her favour. Arambagh is also a microcosm of the entire southern part of West Bengal. Hence the trend here can largely reflect on the ruling party's poll fortunes in the other so-called 'safe seats' of the party south of the Farakka barrage," he said.

Digar said that Banerjee's decision to remove Aparupa Poddar, the two-time winner from Arambagh, from the poll fray shows everything is not well within the TMC. She claimed factional fights within the TMC will adversely impact its electoral prospects.

"TMC won by only 1,142 votes last time. Keep watching which way the wind blows when the votes are counted on June 4," the BJP nominee said.

Bag, however, dismissed her opponent's claims and stated that such averments were mere political ploys which had little truth in them..

Arambagh will go to polls in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 20.
Barpeta (Assam), May 3 (PTI) Blaming Congress for "failing" to put up a united candidate in Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency, where another opposition party TMC too is contesting, CPI(M) nominee Manoranjan Talukdar feared that anti-BJP vote will be divided and it may create "some difficulties" for him.

Talukdar, however, expressed optimism that he will give a "tough fight" against all opponents and will win the election from Barpeta, which has become a Hindu-majority seat after the delimitation exercise last year.

"This is unfortunate and Congress is only responsible for what happened in the constituency. We had talked about contesting from Barpeta a long time ago... A wrong message has gone because of the opposition parties fighting separately," he told PTI in an interview here.

From the ruling front, AGP has nominated senior leader, former minister and sitting Bongaigaon MLA Phani Bhusan Choudhury to contest from Barpeta. Congress nominated its state Seva Dal chief Deep Bayan, while TMC has named Abul Kalam Azad for the seat.

Congress, CPI(M) and TMC are members of the United Opposition Forum Assam (UOFA), formed in the state with 16 parties in line with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

"The Congress gave an excuse that we needed a face to contest from Barpeta and Manoranjan Talukdar should be the face. We agreed to it and declared my candidature. Despite that, Congress gave its candidate here," said Talukdar, the lone MLA of the CPI(M) in Assam Assembly.

He pointed out that 77 leading intellectuals from the state had appealed to Congress to withdraw their nominee so that only one opposition candidate remained in the field to take on the NDA contestant, but the grand old party did not listen and decided to remain in the contest.

On TMC giving a candidate in Barpeta, Talukdar claimed that the West Bengal-based party does not have any influence in Assam, organisation or office, and it has no presence at the booth level.

Asked if failure to have a unanimous candidate will cost the opposition bloc, he said: "Some votes will obviously be divided because of Congress, but there will be no impact due to TMC or any other party. Due to Congress, there might be some difficulties here."

The veteran Left leader, however, exuded confidence and said he will "give a tough fight and will win".

Barpeta is presently represented by Congress MP Abdul Khaleque, who had resigned from the party last month after he was denied a ticket. However, he later withdrew the resignation following a meeting with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi.

When asked if Barpeta becoming a Hindu-majority seat has made the equation more challenging for the opposition, especially the CPI(M), Talukdar said: "CPI(M) had opposed the latest delimitation from the beginning. BJP's agenda was to execute delimitation by dividing the constituencies communally.

"We are approaching minorities and majorities both with real issues. That is the real strength and it gives us acceptance. We are being received very well here. Our approach is secular and so getting support from both sides."

From Barpeta, three Muslim majority assembly seats have been added to Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, while three other Hindu-dominated assembly segments have been included in Barpeta, he added.

There are nearly 19.8 lakh voters in Barpeta, a religiously and linguistically sensitive place, and around seven lakh of them are Muslim electors.

On AGP's Choudhury, who is the longest-serving MLA of Assam for eight consecutive terms since 1985, Talukdar said: "It is a myth that he has a huge support base. He has influence in only two constituencies -- Bongaigaon and Abhayapuri, where Koch-Rajbongshi community is the dominant factor."

"As he is from that community, he has the support in that area. I don't consider him as a big leader. He won eight times by indulging in community-based politics. His leadership quality is not very appreciable. I have spent three years with him in Assembly and he has not spoken even three sentences in this period," the CPI(M) candidate said.

AGP's support base in other areas have declined in the last few years and it has almost vanished in some locations, he claimed.

"While going to different areas, we have seen that their influence on Assamese-speaking people has nosedived. AGP's strength was regionalism, but it turned into a nationalist party in 2001 after joining hands with BJP," the CPI(M) leader said.

He also claimed that AGP's stand on Citizenship (Amendment) Act has also cost the regional party its base as it was the same party which was born out of Assam Agitation and its leaders were instrumental in getting the Assam Accord.

Talking about his campaigning, Talukdar said he is seeking votes on issues like price rise, unemployment, flood and erosion havoc of Assam, pension scheme and CAA.

"CAA is an important issue as Assamese people are very angry. Nobody wants to accept the CAA. Earlier, there was a big movement. But as the election came, so no such big agitation has taken place. However, the entire opposition is against CAA. Our party's stand is very clear that we don't accept the CAA. It is a vital issue in this election," he added.

The communist leader said he is raising the issue of electoral bonds with youths, who are understanding the "scam committed by BJP" very well.

The veteran politician also claimed that the ruling BJP-led NDA will get 6-7 seats only out of 14 in Assam during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

"BJP is facing a tough contest this time. Their claim of winning 12 seats will not happen," he added.

The BJP has nine MPs in the current Lok Sabha from the state, while its allies AGP and UPPL have no representation. The Congress holds three seats and the AIUDF one, while another is an Independent candidate.
Banda (UP), May 3 (PTI) Three people, including a minor, were killed after their motorcycle collided with a Bolero jeep here, police said on Friday.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajveer Singh said the incident occurred on Thursday night when the victims, identified as Gulam Mohammad (18), his brother Rajju (12) and their neighbour Kamlesh Sahu (26), were returning home from a market in Musiwa village.

A Bolero jeep hit the victims motorcycle on Kamasin-Dadaun road near the Sikri bus stop, the DSP said.

Upon receiving the information, the police rushed the victim to the Community Health Center (CHC) where the doctors declared Kamlesh Sahu and Ghulam Mohammad dead on arrival. While Rajju died on the way to Kanpur for treatment, he said.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem. A case was registered and efforts are being made to arrest the jeeps driver who fled after the accident, he added.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. ADB is negotiating with Azerbaijan to develop an action plan for cooperation in sustainable procurement, ADB's Deputy Director General and Chief Procurement Officer of the Asian Development Bank's Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Department Jeff Taylor told reporters, Trend reports.

"We are holding consultations with the Azerbaijani government." Then, based on that, we will create an agreement and an action plan. ADB has conducted diagnostics in this area in Azerbaijan. Sustainable procurement is a developing practice. I can think of India as an example. India has introduced green professional certification for environmentally friendly products. There are several similar initiatives, and we are looking at them opportunistically. When we see them, we will support them. We will be more than happy to support Azerbaijan. I am sure that initiatives worthy of additional support and attention are being implemented there," he said.

To note, the theme for the 57th Annual Meeting to be held from May 2 through May 5 is Bridge to the Future.

The opening session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening session marks the official start of the annual meeting. It is a high-profile event attended by the guest of honor from the host country. Remarks will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa the Minister of Finance of Georgia and Chair of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The Annual Meeting is an opportunity for ADB governors to consider development issues and challenges facing Asia and the Pacific. Several thousand participants, including finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, members of the private sector, representatives of international organizations and civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media, regularly join the meeting.

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A bipartisan group of senators is pushing for restrictions on the use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration, saying they are concerned about travelers privacy and civil liberties.

In a letter on Thursday, the group of 14 lawmakers called on Senate leaders to use the upcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as a vehicle to limit TSAs use of the technology so Congress can put in place some oversight.

This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSAs development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs, the senators wrote.

The effort was being led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan.

The FAA reauthorization is one of the last must-pass bills of this Congress. The agency regulates airlines and aircraft manufacturers and manages the nations airspace.

TSA, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, has been rolling out the facial recognition technology at select airports in a pilot project. Travelers put their drivers license into a slot that reads the card or they place their passport photo against a card reader. Then they look at a camera on a screen about the size of an iPad that captures their image and compares it to their ID. The technology is checking to make sure that travelers at the airport match the ID they present and that the identification is real. A TSA officer signs off on the screening.

The agency says the system improves accuracy of identity verification without slowing passenger speeds at checkpoints.

Passengers can opt out, although David Pekoske, the TSA administrator, said last year that eventually biometrics would be required because they are more effective and efficient. He gave no timeline.

Critics have raised questions about how the data is collected, who has access to it, and what happens if there is a hack. Privacy advocates are concerned about possible bias in the algorithms and say it is not clear enough to passengers that they do not have to submit to facial recognition.

It is clear that we are at a critical juncture, the senators wrote. The scope of the governments use of facial recognition on Americans will expand exponentially under TSAs plans with little to no public discourse or congressional oversight.

(AP)
The situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine is worsening but local defenders are so far holding firm against a concerted push by Russias bigger and better-equipped forces, a senior Ukrainian military official said Thursday.

Russia has amassed troops in the Donetsk region in an effort to punch through the Ukrainian defensive line, according to Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukrainian strategic command in the east of the country.

The enemy is trying to seize the strategic initiative and breach our defense, Voloshyn said on national television.

The enemy is actively attacking along the entire front line, and in several directions they have achieved certain tactical advances, he said. The situation is changing dynamically.

Russia has pushed Ukraine onto the back foot on the battlefield as Kyiv grapples with shortages of troops and ammunition. Ukrainian forces are now racing to build more defensive fortifications at places along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Ukraines difficulties have been deepening for months as the military waited for vital new military aid from the United States. The support was held up in Washington for six months.

Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Avdiivka, a city in the Donetsk region, in February under a withering Russian barrage that had sapped their fighting strength and morale. Since then, the Kremlins forces have used their military might to take village after village in the area, bludgeoning them into submission, as they look to capture the parts of Donetsk they dont already occupy.

Cities in Russias crosshairs, including recent target Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, are pulverized by Moscows missiles, drones and glide bombs.

The Donetsk and Luhansk provinces together make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a focus from the wars outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014.

Also, Russia launched its third attack in a week on Odesa, firing ballistic missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city and injuring 14 people, local officials and emergency services said.

The attack hit a sorting depot belonging to Ukraines biggest private delivery company, Nova Poshta. No staff were injured, the company said, but the strike started a major fire.

On Monday, six people were killed in a Russian missile strike on Odesa, and two days later three people died there when the Kremlins forces targeted civilian infrastructure.

Long-range strikes have been a feature of Europes biggest conflict since World War II, which mostly has focused on attrition. Kyiv officials have pleaded for more air defense systems from Ukraines Western partners, but they have been slow in coming.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia had launched more than 300 missiles of various types, almost 300 Shahed-drones, and more than 3,200 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine in April alone.

Odesa, a key export hub for millions of tons of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, has been repeatedly targeted by Russia. Thursday was the 10th anniversary of clashes in the city between pro- and anti-Russia demonstrators that left 48 people dead.

Ukraine has deployed increasingly sophisticated long-range drones to hit back, aiming at targets on Russian soil, especially infrastructure that sustains the Russian economy and war effort.

The governors of three Russian regions reported that energy facilities were damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. Oryol region Gov. Andrei Klychkov said energy infrastructure was hit in two communities. The Smolensk and Kursk governors reported one facility damaged in each region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Bryansk, Krasnodar, Rostov and Belgorod regions. Most were intercepted in Bryansk, where five were brought down, it said.

(AP)
Herbert Rubinstein was 5 years old when he and his mother where taken from the Jewish ghetto of Chernivtsi and put on a cramped cattle wagon waiting to take them to their deaths. It was 1941, and Romanians collaborating with Germanys Nazis were rounding up tens of thousands of Jews from his hometown in what is now southwestern Ukraine.

It was nothing but a miracle that we survived, Rubinstein told The Associated Press during a recent interview at his apartment in the western German city of Duesseldorf.

The 88-year-old Holocaust survivor is participating in a new digital campaign called #CancelHate. It was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.

It features videos of survivors from around the globe reading Holocaust denial posts from different social media platforms. Each post illustrates how denial and distortion can not only rewrite history but perpetuate antisemitic tropes and spread hate.

I could never have imagined a day when Holocaust survivors would be confronting such a tremendous wave of Holocaust denial and distortion, but sadly, that day is here, said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference.

We all saw what unchecked hatred led to  words of hate and antisemitism led to deportations, gas chambers and crematoria, Schneider added. Those who read these depraved posts are putting aside their own discomfort and trauma to ensure that current and future generations understand that unchecked hatred has no place in society.

The Claims Conferences new digital campaign comes at a time when antisemitic incidents, triggered by Hamas deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israels ensuing military campaign in Gaza, have increased from Europe to the U.S. and beyond, to levels not seen in decades, according to major Jewish organizations.

Hamas and other militants abducted around 250 people in the attack and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians. They are still believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of some 30 others. The war has ground on with little end in sight: Israels offensive in Gaza has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, displaced around 80% of the population and pushed hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine.

The war has inflamed tensions around the world and triggered pro-Palestinian protests, including at college campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere. Israel and its supporters have branded the protests as antisemitic, while critics of Israel say it uses such allegations to silence opponents.

The launch of the Claims Conference campaign also comes days before Yom HaShoah  Israels Holocaust Remembrance Day  next Monday.

In one of the videos, Rubinstein reads out a hate post  only to juxtapose it with his personal testimony about his familys suffering during the Holocaust.

We have all been cheated, lied to, and exploited. The Holocaust did not happen the way it is written in our history books, he reads and then says: That is a lie. The Holocaust happened. Unfortunately, way too many members of my family died in the Holocaust.

Rubinstein then continues to talk about his own persecution as a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

While forced into the ghetto of Cernisvtsi, his family managed to obtain forged Polish identity documents, which were the only reason he and his mother were taken off the cattle train in 1941.

They fled and hid in several eastern European countries until the war ended in 1945. After that, they briefly went back to his hometown, only to find out that his father, who had been forced into the Soviet Red Army during the war, had been killed. They moved on to Amsterdam, where his mother married again, and eventually settled in Duesseldorf.

I lived through the Holocaust. Six million were murdered. Hate and Holocaust denial have returned to our society today. I am very, very sad about this and I am fighting it with all my might, Rubinstein says at the end of the video. Words matter. Our words are our power. Cancel hate. Stop the hate.

Even at his old age, Rubinstein, who calls himself an optimist, says he will continue fighting antisemitism every single day. And he has a message, especially for the young generation of Jews.

Dont panic, Rubinstein says. The good will win. You just have to do something about it.

(AP)
Without wielding the gavel or holding a formal job laid out in the Constitution, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries might very well be the most powerful person in Congress right now.

The minority leader of the House Democrats, it was Jeffries who provided the votes needed to keep the government running despite opposition from House Republicans to prevent a federal shutdown.

Jeffries who made sure Democrats delivered the tally to send $95 billion foreign aid to Ukraine and other U.S. allies.

And Jeffries who, with the full force of House Democratic leadership behind him, decided this week his party would help Speaker Mike Johnson stay on the job rather than be ousted by far-right Republicans led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

How powerful is Jeffries right now? said Jeffery Jenkins, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California who has written extensively about Congress. Thats significant power.

The decision by Jeffries and the House Democratic leadership team to lend their votes to stop Johnsons ouster provides a powerful inflection point in what has been a long political season of dysfunction, stalemate and chaos in Congress.

By declaring enough is enough, that its time to turn the page on the Republican tumult, the Democratic leader is flexing his power in a very public and timely way, an attempt to show lawmakers, and anyone else watching in dismay at the broken Congress, that there can be an alternative approach to governing.

From the very beginning of this Congress, House Republicans have visited chaos, dysfunction and extremism on the American people, Jeffries said Wednesday at the Capitol.

Jeffries said that with House Republicans unwilling or unable to get the extreme MAGA Republicans under control, its going to take a bipartisan coalition and partnership to accomplish that objective. We need more common sense in Washington, D.C., and less chaos.

In the House, the minority leader is often seen as the speaker-in-waiting, the highest-ranking official of the party thats out of power, biding their time in hopes of regaining the majority  and with it, the speakers gavel  in the next election. Elected by their own party, its a job without much formal underpinning.

But in Jeffries case, the minority leader position has come with enormous power, filling the political void left by the actual speaker, Johnson, who commands a fragile, thread-thin Republican majority and is constantly under threat from far-right provocateurs that the GOP speaker cannot fully control.

Hes operating as a shadow speaker on all the important votes, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

While Johnson still marshals the powerful tools of the speakers office, a job outlined in the Constitution and second in the line of succession to the presidency, the Republican-led House has churned through a tumultuous session of infighting and upheaval that has left their goals and priorities stalled out.

In a fit of displeasure just months into their majority, far-right Republicans ousted the previous speaker, the now-retired Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last fall in a never-before-seen act of party revolt. He declined to specifically ask the Democrats for help.

Johnson faces the same threat of removal, but Jeffries sees in Johnson a more honest broker and potential partner he is willing to at least temporarily prop up  even though Johnson, too, has not overtly asked for any assist from across the aisle. A vote on Greenes motion to vacate the speaker is expected next week.

As Johnson sidles up to Donald Trump, receiving the presumed Republican presidential nominees nod of support, it is Jeffries who holds what Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita, has referred to as currency of the realm  votes  that are required in the House to get any agenda over the finish line.

Pelosi said in an interview that Jeffries as the minority leader has always had leverage because of the slim House majority.

But its a question of him showing that hes willing to use it, she said.

Jeffries has been masterful, she said, at securing Democratic priorities, notably humanitarian assistance in the foreign aid package that Republicans initially opposed.

But Pelosi disagreed with the idea that Democrats lending support to Johnson at this juncture creates some sort of new coalition era of U.S. politics.

Our House functions because were willing to be bipartisan in making it function, she said. Hes not necessarily saving Speaker Johnson  hes upholding the dignity of the institution.

Jeffries is a quietly confident operator, positioning himself, and his party, as purveyors of democratic norms amid the Republican thunderclap of Trump-era disruption.

The first Black American to lead a political party in Congress, Jeffries is already a historic figure, whose stature will only rise further if he is elected as the first to wield the gavel as House speaker.

Born in Brooklyn, Jeffries, 53, rose steadily through the ranks in New York state politics and then on the national stage, a charismatic next-generation leader, first elected to Congress in 2012 from the district parts of which were once represented by another historic lawmaker, Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.

A former corporate lawyer, Jeffries is also known for his sharp oratory, drawing on his upbringing in the historically Black Cornerstone Baptist Church, a spiritual home for many grandchildren and great-grandchildren of enslaved African Americans who fled to Brooklyn from the American South. But he also infuses his speeches and remarks with a modern sensibility and cadence, bridging generations.

Last year, when Republicans could not muster the votes on a procedural step for a budget and debt deal, it was Jeffries who stood intently at his desk in the House chamber, and lifted his voting card to signal to Democrats it was time to step up and deliver.

Repeatedly, Jeffries has ensured the Democratic votes to prevent a federal government shutdown. And last month, when Johnson faced an all-out hard-right Republican revolt over the Ukraine aid, Jeffries again stepped in, assuring Democrats had more votes than Republicans to see it to passage.

Ahead of the November election, the two parties are in a fight for political survival to control the narrowly divided House, and Jeffries would most certainly face his own challenges leading Democrats if they were to gain the majority, splintered over many key issues.

But Jeffries and Johnson have both been in a cross-country sprint, raising money and enthusiasm for their own party candidates ahead of November  the Republican speaker trying to keep his job, the Democratic leader waiting to take it on.

(AP)
Russia has circulated a U.N. resolution calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space for all time a week after it vetoed a U.S.-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space.

The Russian draft resolution, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, goes further than the U.S.-Japan proposal, not only calling for efforts to stop weapons from being deployed in outer space but for preventing the threat or use of force in outer space, also for all time.

It says this should include deploying weapons from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council when he vetoed the U,S.-Japan draft that it didnt go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.

The vetoed resolution focused solely on weapons of mass destruction including nuclear arms, and made no mention of other weapons in space.

It would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that the U.S. and Russia ratified, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.

Before the U.S.-Japan resolution was put to a vote on April 24, Russia and China proposed an amendment that would call on all countries, especially those with space capabilities, to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces.

The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 yes votes in the 15-member Security Council required for adoption.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.

Todays veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding, she asked. Its baffling. And its a shame.

Putin was responding to White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a troubling anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after casting the veto that the U.S.-Japan resolution cherry picked weapons of mass destruction.

He said much of the U.S. and Japans actions become clear if we recall that the U.S. and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons  in outer space.

Nebenzia also accused the U.S. of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking dangerous nuclear rhetoric, walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction.

Much of the Russian draft resolution is exactly the same as the U.S.-Japan draft, including the language on preventing an arms race in space.

It calls on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Thomas-Greenfield said the world is just beginning to understand the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space.

(AP)
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

There certainly may be heated discussions in the shuls across the country where there are multiple minyanim on an erev Shabbos. The Shuls Rav cannot be everywhere, and at times people are unaware of his particular ruling for Sefiras HaOmer when Maariv ends well before sunset.

Typical conversations may sound like this:

Listen, Boychik, ven I vas much younger in da Bronx, the ruf of de shul of Bais Shraga allowed it. Dats gut enuf for me. If its gut enuf for Maariv  it should be gut enuf for Sefiras HaOmer.

The Mishnah Berurah says that when the mechaber says mibod yom, its referring to after bein hashmashos.

Look, the Vilna Gaon says its OK.

So what is the halachic story with couting an early Sefiras HaOmer?

THE DEBATE IN THE RISHONIM

The issue dates back to the times of the Rishonim. The Rosh in Pesachim (10:40) rules that one can still recite the blessing before the time of definite darkness. The Rashba in a responsum disagrees (Vol. I #154). The Maharil (siman #13) writes that one may not recite a blessing on Sefiras HaOmer while it is still day.

RAV KAROS RULING

Even though there are various views among the Rishonim, the general rule is that we follow what is written in Shulchan Aruch by Rav Yosef Karo. In this case, however, the exact interpretation of the Shulchan Aruchs words is a matter of much debate. The Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 489:3) writes that one who davens with a congregation mibod yom counts with them without a berachah. If he remembers at night, he makes a berachah and then counts.

The debate centers around what the words mibod yom mean in the Shulchan Aruch. Do they mean what they would mean in contemporary usagewhile it is still day, before the sun has set? Or perhaps they should be understood to mean bein hashemashos, twilight, which was still considered day during his own time?

THE TRUE DAYLIGHT VIEW

Some of the great Acharonim understood Rav Karo to be referring to daylightthat his case refers to when one had davened Maariv and it was still before sunset. These Acharonim are:

the Levush

the Eliyahu Rabbah

the Chavos Yair

the Maamer Mordechai

and the Nehar Shalom.

They all understand the words mibod yom as referring to any time after 10 hours of the day, Plag HaMinchah.

THE TWILIGHT VIEW

Others have explained that Rav Karo is referring to the time of twilight, when it is neither day nor night. This is the explanation of the Vilna Gaon and others. This is the view that the Mishnah Berurah accepts.

HOW DOES EARLY SHABBOS ACTUALLY WORK?

There is a wide debate whether Tosefes Shabbos, adding on to Shabbos, is a biblical concept. If it is biblical, then when one makes Shabbos early, it is actually Shabbos from a biblical perspective too.

The Rosh (Pesachim 10:2) and the Ohr Zarua (Hilchos Erev Shabbos 14) hold that early Shabbos is biblical, while the Rambam (Shabbos 29:11) holds that it is only rabbinic. The Mordechai (Megillah 2:798) holds a middle-ground position that adding onto Shabbos before Shabbos is rabbinic but adding onto Shabbos after Shabbos is biblical.

There is another approach, which we find in Tosfos, both in Berachos (27a DRav) and in Pesachim (99a Ad). The Tosfos write that one fulfills the mitzvah of Kiddush when recited early, according to the position of Rabbi Yehudah. There is a famous debate about the latest time one may daven Minchah and the earliest time one may daven Maariv (mishnah in Berachos 26a).

According to Rabbi Yehudah, we may only daven Minchah until Plag HaMinchah (10 hours of the day) and we may begin Maariv immediately after Plag HaMinchah. According to the Chachamim, we may daven Minchah until evening and we may only daven Maariv after eveningnot before. How do we ultimately rule in the debate between Rabbi Yehudah and the Chachamim? We rule like either one of them, according to the Gemara, but not both on the same day, as we will explain later.

According to the simple reading of Tosfos, it seems that early Kiddush on Friday night is only according to Rabbi Yehudah and not the Chachamim.

THREE EXPLANATIONS

Thus, there are three explanations as to how it works. The first is that Tosefes Shabbos is biblical; the second is that the Rambam holds the mitzvah of Kiddush can be made even before biblical Shabbos; and the third is that it goes in accordance with Rabbi Yehudah and we may pasken like him.

As far as these three answers, how do we pasken?

The Mishnah Berurah paskens that Tosefes Shabbos is dOraisa, biblical. Therefore, there would be no need to recite the Kiddush again if it was recited before sundown.

BUT SHOULD WE DO IT?

The above discussion centered on how the concept operates. Another question arises, howeverwhether or not to do it.

The Kuntres Eitz Chaim (p. 154) cites the Baal HaPardes (brought down by Rav Moshe Shternbuch in Teshuvos vHanhagos II #51) that when one makes a late Shabbos during the summer months, one violates the Torah prohibition of tzaar baalei chaim because of the suffering caused to ones wife and little children. It is unclear whether Rav Shternbuch is truly of this opinion or if he is exaggerating the point to ensure that the husband will comply. The Aruch HaShulchan further writes (O.C. 267:4) that communities should make early Shabbos in order to avoid Shabbos violations.

RAV ELYASHIVS VIEW

Rav Elyashiv ztl (Kovetz Teshuvos Vol. I #23), on the other hand, writes that in Eretz Yisrael all effort must be expended not to daven before the correct time (unless there are extreme circumstances). Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichos Shlomo Tefillah 14: note 10) was less emphatic than Rav Elyashiv but did recommend that in Eretz Yisrael, bnei Torah should refrain from davening Maariv earlier.

EARLY DAVENING

As far as davening earlier on Fridays, in general, there is the debate we have just mentioned between Rav Yehudah and the Chachamim. The Gemara tells us that one may choose any opinioneither like Rabbi Yehudah or like the Chachamim.

Most Rishonim understand the Gemara to mean that we cannot be inconsistent. We cannot do a tartei dsasrei, an internal contradiction, by ruling like both opinions on the same day. We cannot daven Minchah after Plag in accordance with the Chachamim and then daven Maariv before evening like Rabbi Yehudah.

Some people are careful to always daven in accordance with the Chachamim. However, the Magen Avraham points out that on Shabbos one may daven earlier, like the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah, because there is a mitzvah to add onto Shabbos from the week. One should be careful, however, to daven Minchah before the Plag.

The Mishnah Berurah (267:3) cites the opinion of the Derech HaChaim that when dealing with a tzibbur one may be lenient and daven Maariv while it is still day even though one has davened Minchah after the Plag. The Mishnah Berurah, however, rejects this position (in both the Mishnah Berurah and the Biur Halachah). He writes that it would only be permitted bshaas hadchak, when one is in a bind, and even then Maariv must be said only during bein hashemashos at the earliest.

It is interesting to note that numerous shuls, for some reason, are going with the Derech HaChaim during these summer months rather than the Mishnah Berurah. Since regarding all other issues we generally rule like the Mishnah Berurah, a question arises: How can they do this?

One rationale perhaps is that they are lenient because people do not want to start the Friday-evening meal so late. It may take away from their oneg Shabbos. Rashi in Yevamos (93a) writes that oneg Shabbos is a biblical obligation, as does the Rashba, both on Yevamos and in his responsa (1:127). The Rivash (responsum 513) also rules that it is biblical. Even though the Rambam (Shabbos 36:1) holds that it is only rabbinic, the views of the other Rishonim may make it fit into the criterion of shaas hadchak. It could be that in Europe, from an economical and logistical point of view, it was not viewed as oneg Shabbos to accept Shabbos earlier.

But what about the Maariv part during bein hashemashos? Many of those shuls that make early Shabbos and are not careful to daven Minchah before the Plag still do not daven Maariv during bein hashemashos. How can they do this? Perhaps they may rely on a number of factors:

The first Tosfos in Berachos, Veimasai, as well as the Rashba there seem to hold that one is permitted to do an action that contains the internal contradiction in regard to tefillah. Even though this position is rejected by the Mishnah Berurah (M.B. 233 and 235), this view may perhaps be used in conjunction with other views. It could be that the aforementioned ruling of Tosefes Shabbos being a biblical concept may change the issue of Maariv and allow it to be recited early. It could be that we may accept the view of the Derech HaChaim on account of the shaas hadchak.

This is not to suggest that a shul should do this ideally; it is just to provide a limud zchus for those that do it.

It should also be noted that there are two ways to calculate the Plag HaMinchah. According to the Gra, Plag HaMinchah is calculated as 10 hours between sunrise and sunset. According to the Magen Avraham it is calculated as 10 hours between dawn and when the stars come out.

When this author posed the question to Rav Dovid Feinstein a number of years ago, he suggested that a shul may use Plag HaMinchah and it would not be considered tartei dsasrei, an internal contradiction.

The Ideal Time For Minchah

There is also another issue: When is it the most ideal time to daven Minchah? The Shulchan Aruch rules (O.C. 233:1) that the essential main time in which Minchah should be davened is from Minchah Ketanah onwardthat is from 9 hours onward.

The Mishnah Berurah (233:1), however, cites Rishonim that hold that one may even daven ideally at Minchah Gedolah, which is at 6 hours of the day. Indeed, the Shaar HaTziyun (233:3) cites the Vilna Gaon as agreeing to this position as well.

So what about early Sefira? The Mishna Brurah says no if it is before Shkiya. However, if a shul does it, then there is nothing wrong with counting without a blessing on condition that if one remembers later on  then the counting later on will be the one that counts. If one forgot to count later, however, most Poskim hold that he has lost his ability to count with a bracha.

The author can be reached at [email protected].
A report by Galai Tzahals Amir Bar Shalom has revealed that only two out of eight SM-3 missiles launched by the US military during Irans large-scale missile and drone attack on Israel on April 13 successfully intercepted their targets, amounting to a 75% failure rate.

The SM-3, a ship-based surface-to-air missile, was used for the first time in combat to intercept short and medium-range ballistic missiles launched by Iran. While an American Patriot missile battery did manage to shoot down at least one ballistic missile, the SM-3 didnt perform well.

However, the report highlights that this was only a small part of the US contribution to Israels defense that night.

In contrast to the missile defense system, US Air Force pilots, along with British, French, Jordanian, and Israeli forces, successfully shot down hundreds of drones before they could reach Israel. Additionally, no issues were found in the interception of drones and cruise missiles, and the US systems provided a crucial wide radar image of the missile attack, enabling many successful interceptions.

They should be thanked for what they did, Bar Shalom said of the American forces.

Israels own air defense systems had an impressive interception rate of over 90%, although this may have been lower without the assistance of other countries militaries intercepting many enemy projectiles before they approached Israeli airspace.

Irans attack on Israel consisted of approximately 170 attack drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and over 120 ballistic missiles, making it one of the largest missile and drone assaults in military history. With the help of the US, UK, France, and Jordan, Israel and its allies were able to intercept nearly all of the threats, with only about five ballistic missiles succeeding in reaching their targets and causing minor damage.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz excoriated Colombian President Gustavo Petro following his announcement on Wednesday that he is cutting off diplomatic ties with Israel due to its genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Petro, who was elected as Columbias first left-wing president in 2022 and is a champion of progressive values, previously suspended arms purchases from Israel, said that the IDF doesnt regard Palestinians as humans, and called IDF soldiers Nazis.

Katz wrote on X [in Hebrew and Spanish]: History will remember that Gustavo Petro made a decision to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind  who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians.

Relations between Israel and Colombia have always been warm  not even an anti-Semitic and hate-filled president will be able to change that. The State of Israel will continue to fearlessly protect its civilians.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Jewish students at Northwestern University met with members of Congress on Wednesday and told them about the shocking and scary antisemitic acts they have been exposed to on campus, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The university made headlines earlier this week when its president, Michael Schill, made numerous concessions to pro-Hamas students to convince them to disband their illegal encampment instead of arresting them, including offering five full scholarships exclusively to Palestinian students, guaranteed faculty jobs for Palestinian academics, and reserving space and housing for Muslim students. [They were subsequently hit with a civil rights complaint for discrimination against non-Palestinian students.]

According to Free Beacon, the Department of Education is investigating numerous antisemitic incidents at schools, including the parading of Hamas flags and incidents of professors canceling classes to encourage students to attend anti-Israel protests.

At the encampment, I was told to go back to Germany and get gassed, said a freshman civil engineering student named Mia. I overheard in my dorm people talking about the white Jewish power on campus, and what we have to do to address this Jewish power. To me [this is] really, really shocking and scary, she said. Its leaking everywhere on campus, not just the [protest encampments].

In the entrance of Deering Meadow this week, which is where the camp is set up, I found a Jewish star with an X on it, said Jaime, a Northwestern senior. It definitely made me and others feel very unsafe.

Another student, Toby, said there has been a very concerning decrease in Jewish students wanting to express their identities, such as wearing jewelry or religious items that could identify them as Jewish.

James, a freshman at Northwestern said he was concerned about the amount of people who are not students who have been allowed to come onto campus, camp on campus, live on our private campus. I have female friends who feel unsafe.

These students have been victims of harassment and discrimination like youve never seen and could never imagine in America at any point in time in the last 30, 40 years, said Michael Teplitsky, a Northwestern alumnus who helped organize the visit. These administrators that are running these institutions are complicit in a crime.

House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) said she was disturbed by the stories of repeated antisemitic attacks and harassment at the school.

Instead of addressing these attacks and protecting their Jewish student body, Northwesterns leadership has chosen to reward the violent pro-Hamas mob by submitting to their outrageous demands, emboldening others across the nation to follow suit, she said. Congress will continue to hold these failed higher education institutions accountable.

Following the universitys concessions to the pro-Hamas mob, Israels Chicago consulate issued a statement saying that the university had declared itself a safe space for antisemitism.

We are appalled by Northwesterns decision to turn its back on Jewish and Israeli students who have been targets of hateful harassment and intimidation, the consulate wrote. This decision rewards the pro-terror, anti-Israel, and anti-American aggressors on campus. This appeasement agreement is a dark day in Northwestern history.

Sarah van Loon, the director of AJC Chicago, said she is appalled by the universitys cowardly actions.

In order to avoid exhibiting real leadership by enforcing its own recently amended policies, Northwestern succumbed to the demands of a mob, which has intimidated Jewish students, espoused antisemitic, hate-filled speech, and whose members have celebrated Hamas terrorists, she stated.

StandWithUs, The Louis D Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and the ADL Midwest issued a joint statement calling on Schill to resign.

For days, protestors openly mocked and violated Northwesterns codes of conduct and policies by erecting an encampment in which they fanned the flames of antisemitism and wreaked havoc on the entire university community, they wrote. Rather than hold them accountable  as he pledged he would  President Schill gave them a seat at the table and normalized their hatred against Jewish students.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Certain changes are taking place in climate change projects that make them quite suitable for financing. ADB Vice President for Market Solutions Bhargav Dasgupta told reporters, Trend reports.

"To achieve a favorable financing outcome, I don't believe concessional capital financing is required. We select projects to finance in the most emerging areas. They are new technologies that are very important in the long term, but the business is not scaling to a level where the costs have come down to make them commercially viable without some support," he said.

He noted that, if you look at solar panels 10 years ago, they were not commercially viable without some consumerization.

"So when I talk about profitability, we are still interested in financing these projects," he added.

To note, the theme for the 57th Annual Meeting to be held from 2 through 5 May, is Bridge to the Future.

The opening session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The Opening Session marks the official start of the Annual Meeting. It is a high-profile event attended by the Guest of Honor from the host country. Remarks will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa the Minister of Finance of Georgia and Chair of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The Annual Meeting allows ADB Governors to discuss Asia-Pacific development issues. The meeting attracts several thousand finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, private sector members, foreign and civil society groups, youth, academia, and the media.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Turkey has prohibited exports to Haifa and Ashdod ports in Israel, sources familiar with the matter told Globes. Despite no official statement, Turkish ports have begun enforcing the instruction, and Israeli goods arriving at Turkish ports are not being allowed to unload their cargoes.

This move is a further crackdown on Israeli ties by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently declared, We no longer maintain close commercial ties with Israel, its over. Businesspeople in Turkey are experiencing a crisis unseen even during the Marmara Gaza flotilla crisis in 2010.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz has accused Erdogan of breaking agreements and ignoring international trade agreements, stating, This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen. Katz has instructed officials to find alternative trade options, pledging, Israel will emerge with a strong and daring economy. We Win, and They Lose.

The move violates free trade agreements between Israel and Turkey in place since the mid-1990s. Last month, Turkey announced export trade restrictions to Israel on 54 products, including construction materials, in response to the war in the Gaza Strip. Turkish exports to Israel totaled $437 million in March, a record since the start of the war, while Turkey imported goods worth $167 million from Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
A groundbreaking US-Saudi deal is nearing completion, but its success hinges on Israels willingness to meet certain conditions, according to a new op-ed by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times.

The deal requires Israel to get out of Gaza, freeze the building of settlements in the West Bank, and embark on a three- to five-year pathway to establish a Palestinian state in the occupied territories, Friedman writes. In return, Saudi Arabia would normalize diplomatic ties with Israel.

However, the establishment of a Palestinian state is also contingent upon the Palestinian Authority implementing reforms to become a trusted and effective governing body.

The current Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is unlikely to agree to these terms. As a result, the deal may be finalized with the stated proviso that Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with Israel the minute Israel has a government ready to meet the Saudi-US terms.

If successful, the deal would not only bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer together but also provide Saudi Arabia with security assurances from Washington, further distancing it from US rivals.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Senior officials in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office are considering a comprehensive plan for Gazas post-war future. The plan, which has not been publicly announced, proposes shared oversight of the territory with an alliance of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the United States.

According to sources, the plan would involve the Arab-Israeli alliance, working with the US, appointing leaders in Gaza to redevelop the devastated territory, overhaul its education system, and maintain order. After a period of 7-10 years, Palestinians would be allowed to vote on whether to be absorbed into a united Palestinian administration governing both Gaza and the West Bank.

While the plan does not explicitly guarantee Palestinian sovereignty or statehood, it suggests greater flexibility among Israeli leaders than their public statements indicate. However, Arab officials and analysts have expressed skepticism, citing the lack of a clear path to Palestinian statehood and the continued involvement of the Israeli military in Gaza.

The proposal has been discussed with US officials and other international partners, but its implementation would require significant political will and cooperation from all parties involved. Netanyahus political allies and much of the Israeli public oppose Palestinian sovereignty, making it a challenging sell domestically.

Despite these hurdles, the plan represents the most detailed proposal for post-war Gaza to date, and its consideration indicates that Israeli officials are thinking seriously about the territorys future, even if publicly they remain vague.

As international efforts to secure a cease-fire and eventual truce continue, the fate of Gaza remains a critical issue, and this plan may serve as a starting point for future negotiations.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Hamas has requested additional time to respond to the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal, citing significant concerns with the existing plan. According to Al Akhbar, Egyptian and Qatari brokers have received indications that Hamas response will likely be negative, prompting intense negotiations between Egypt, the US, and Israel to prevent the talks from collapsing.

Egyptian sources revealed that Cairo has extracted a promise from Israel to delay any military operation in Rafah until the end of the week, providing a temporary reprieve. Meanwhile, a new Hamas delegation, led by Khalil al-Hayya, is set to arrive in Cairo with proposed amendments to the agreement.

Hamas is insisting on several key conditions, including the full withdrawal of IDF forces from all areas in Gaza, particularly Wadi Gaza and Netzarim, and confirmation of complete freedom of movement between the northern and southern Strip. Additionally, Hamas demands the cancellation of a paragraph discussing civilians and military personnel, and is adamant that no non-Palestinian Arab body be present in any part of the Gaza Strip.

The terror group is also pushing for a comprehensive ceasefire and wants Turkey to be a guarantor to the agreement, alongside the US, Egypt, and Qatar. This comes after the US refused to allow Russia to be a guarantor.

According to Egyptian sources, the US is keen to reach a deal and is pressuring the Israeli government, with one reason being a desire to end violence on US campuses. The coming hours will be decisive, since the US is discussing guarantees to not return to the war if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire. You cannot pressure Israel more than what is happening now, they said.

Hamas leadership in Gaza, led by Yahya Sinwar, has emphasized that their conditions for a ceasefire, withdrawal, and freedom of movement are basic and cannot be deviated from. The outcome of these negotiations will be crucial in determining the fate of the conflict and the prospects for a lasting peace.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Incoming: Nik Jhangiani intends to join Diageo as chief financial officer this autumn

The finance boss of Coca-Cola's largest bottler is moving to Diageo as the Guinness producer seeks to boost struggling sales.

Nik Jhangiani intends to join Diageo as chief financial officer this autumn following an eight-year spell at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), which earned over 18billion in turnover last year.

He will replace Lavanya Chandrashekar, who has been the company's CFO since July 2021 but wants to return to the United States.

Jhangiani has worked in senior roles within the Coca-Cola system for two decades, including at another major anchor bottler, Hellenic Bottling Company.

He also spent time at Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and began his career employed at accountancy group Deloitte & Touche and pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb.

His appointment at Diageo comes as the FTSE 100 company struggles to achieve the impressive growth achieved under former bosses Paul Walsh and Sir Ivan Menezes, who died shortly after standing down as chief executive last year.

In the final six months of 2023, Diageo's revenue fell by 1.4 per cent to 8.6billion due to unfavourable exchange rates and demand slumping across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Trade across the territory was hit by lower sales of spirits, such as Johnnie Walker, Buchanan's, and tequila brand Don Julio.

Turnover was further impacted by a weak performance in North America, its largest market, due to sliding rum and vodka volumes.

Despite robust results in Europe, partly caused by bumper Guinness sales across the British Isles, Diageo's half-year profits declined by 11 per cent to 2.6billion.

Debra Crew, the firm's chief executive, admitted the period had been 'challenging' but said organic net sales and operating profits are anticipated to improve in the second half of the financial year.

Crew became CEO last June, succeeding Menezes, who helped boost Diageo's market value from 42billion to around 75billion during his decade in charge.

The former US Army officer ran Diageo's North American business for two years and was its chief operating officer for nine months until she was promoted to the top job.

She previously worked for Kraft Foods, Nestle, Mars, and PepsiCo and ran the tobacco group Reynolds American until its takeover by British American Tobacco.

Crew told investors that Jhangiani has 'a proven global track record of generating growth across multiple consumer businesses and industries. Nik's experience and international mindset will make him a strong addition to our leadership team.'

Jhagiani said he had 'long admired' Diageo, calling it 'one of the world's most respected and trusted consumer businesses.

'I look forward to working with my new colleagues to drive value for Diageo's shareholders, and to support the company's strong track record of building and sustaining exceptional brands.

Diageo shares were 1.1 per cent up at 2,758.5p on Friday morning but have plunged by approximately a quarter over the past 12 months.
Pharma giant Novo Nordisk has seen the booming demand for its weight loss drugs outstrip supply.

The Danish companys revenues have surged thanks to an explosion in popularity for its diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

The frenzy means it has pumped cash into making more. Sales for the first three months of the year rose 24 per cent to 7.4billion compared to a year earlier.

As a result, it is now expecting annual sales to increase by between 19 per cent and 27 per cent this year, an upgrade from the 18 per cent to 26 per cent it forecast in January.

Wegovy is a weekly injection and tricks the body into thinking it is full. It is available on the NHS but the drugs popularity has taken off in the US.

Fat jab: Novo Nordisk's revenues have surged thanks to an explosion in popularity for its diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy

Celebrity fans include eccentric billionaire Elon Musk and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Novo is signing up more than 25,000 new patients for Wegovy every week in the US. But it warned there will be continued periodic supply constraints.

Holding on to half of the worlds market share for medical treatments of this kind, Novo Nordisk has seen its share price rise 55 per cent in a year.

And Novo is set to grow even more as stars show off their new looks. It is set to debut Wegovy in China this year.

And analysts believe the price  around 170 in UK pharmacies but 1,078 in the US  will fall, drawing in a new wave of patients.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: The buzz around Wegovy makes it more than just a must-have product.

Its in danger of becoming a status symbol with the rich and famous eager to take it.
The City watchdogs boss Nikhil Rathi is under increasing pressure over plans to name and shame firms it is investigating  as peers demanded answers amid an intensifying row.

Rathi has been summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee as it launched an inquiry into the proposals.

His response so far to questions isnt acceptable, the Lords financial services regulation committee said. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive looks increasingly isolated after upsetting City trade bodies and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

At stake are plans for the regulator to drop its policy of only naming firms it is investigating in exceptional circumstances. Instead, it would decide whether to do so is in the public interest.

A consultation ended this week. The financial sector says it will damage competitiveness.

Pressure: Financial Conduct Authority chief exec Nikhil Rathi (pictured) looks increasingly isolated after upsetting City trade bodies and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, chair of the Lords committee, wrote to Rathi last month expressing concerns about the disproportionate effect on firms that are named but turn out to be blameless.

But the FCA said it had been urged to be more open about probes such as those it carried out into the likes of Woodford Investment Management and Greensill Capital.

Officials have said the aim is not seeking to shame firms but to shine a spotlight on a case in a way that will deter others.

But Forsyth wrote to Rathi to express the committees disappointment. It has now launched an inquiry and said it will invite the FCA boss to appear before it.

The committee said it was unhappy that Rathi did not respond to a request to pause changes until after it had taken further evidence.

Forsyth said: The FCA response failed to directly address our concerns. This isnt acceptable.

The FCA said: We have received the letter and will respond. The latest developments come after 16 trade bodies expressed their opposition in a letter to the Chancellor.

Hunt said: I hope the FCA re-look at their decision.

He told the Financial Times the plan doesnt feel consistent with the FCA duty, made law last year, to support the UKs international competitiveness, alongside its main objective of protecting consumers.

The furore leaves Rathi looking more isolated and comes as, on a separate matter, he is at odds with the Bank of England, after telling the FT he was not convinced private equity firms pose a systemic risk  a contrast with the Banks warnings about the sector.

But Rathi won the backing of Lord Tyrie, the former Tory MP who, as chair of the Treasury select committee, grilled bankers on the financial crisis.

He told The Times: If a large number of consumers look as if theyre being ripped off... disclosure is likely to be in the public interest.


AIM-listed late-night bars group Nightcap is looking to shake up the sector in a cheeky bid for Revolution Bars.

Revolution met Nightcap to discuss proposals up to and including a full offer for the struggling business, and added that talks are not part of the formal sales process it unveiled in early April.

The bar operator said then it had received commitments from investors under a 12.5million fundraise to keep it afloat as it undergoes a restructuring.

In January, it announced that eight sites would be shut and has said up to a quarter of Revolutions 80 venues could be closed.

Nightcap, co-founded by former Dragons Den star Sarah Willingham, is assessing options including buying certain sites or operating subsidiaries of Revolution.

Takeover bid: In January, Revolution Bars announced that eight sites would be shut and has said up to a quarter of its 80 venues, could be closed

Nightcap acquired the Dirty Martini cocktail chain and central London brasserie Tuttons in a 4.65million deal last year.

Revolution, which has a market cap of just north of 4million, rose 13.8 per cent, or 0.2p, to 1.65p, while Nightcap was up 2.4 per cent, or 0.1p, at 4.25p.

The FTSE 100 was up 50.91 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 8172.15 to resume its run of closing highs, but still below this weeks all-time peak.

The FTSE 250 found gains after recent falls, adding 125.74 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 20,052.33.

Smurfit Kappa rose 5.8 per cent, or 200p, to 3674p as earnings rose and it reported more improvements in demand in Europe and the Americas.

In September, the paper and packaging firm agreed to merge with US firm WestRock to form Smurfit Westrock.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered rose 8.8 per cent, or 61p, to 756p, a six-month high, after the emerging markets-focused lenders first-quarter profit delivered a significant beat to expectations, driven by non-interest income growth.

Stock Watch - Kinovo Kinovo rose 21.5 per cent, or 8.8p, to 49.8p as the London property services group expects results for the year ended March 31 to beat expectations. It now anticipates a 22 per cent advance in earnings to 6.7million, up from 5.5million, on revenues of around 64million. Chief executive officer David Bullen said a strong performance reflected the strength of its growth strategy following legacy issues with its former construction subsidiary.

Melrose led FTSE 100 losses  down 2.9 per cent, or 18.2p, to 603p  despite strong first-quarter trading.

It was boosted by strength in its Engines division, which saw revenues jump by 21 per cent.

It is now a pure play aerospace business, based around its acquisition of GKN, having spun off its automotive engineering businesses as Dowlais last April.

Spectris lost 2 per cent, or 64p, to 3208p as the supplier of high-tech instruments, test equipment and software for industry reiterated its annual guidance, although it reported an 8pc fall in first-quarter like-for-like sales.

TI Fluid Systems rose 4.3 per cent, or 5.8p, to 142.2p as the fluid engineering specialist held guidance after first-quarter revenues fell 0.4 per cent, in line with expectations.

International Personal Finance added 3.3 per cent, or 3.5p, to 109p, after a solid first quarter, with customer lending rising 5 per cent.

But insurer Hiscox fell 1.8 per cent, or 21.99p, to 1175p although it reported healthy growth in first-quarter premiums despite a drop in the London market.

Surface Transforms fell 62.3 per cent, or 1.77p, to 1.08p as the maker of carbon-ceramic brake discs raised 6.5million in a share placing.

And Smiths News rose 3 per cent, or 1.6p, to 55p as it said it was on track to deliver full-year results in line with expectations.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The European Commission has doled out nearly 720 million euros to seven renewable hydrogen projects across Europe, chosen through the inaugural competitive bidding process of the European Hydrogen Bank, Trend reports.

These victorious contenders will churn out renewable hydrogen within Europe and snag subsidies to narrow the cost gap between their production expenses and the prevailing market price dominated by non-renewable producers, stated the Commission. They highlighted that this renewable hydrogen will find utility in various sectors like steel, chemicals, maritime transport, and fertilizers.

Collectively, the winning projects aim to yield 1.58 million tons of renewable hydrogen over the span of a decade, averting over 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, as disclosed by the Commission.

The selected projects will now embark on crafting their respective grant agreements with the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), with the aim to seal them by November 2024 at the latest.

As per the Commission's directives, the projects must commence renewable hydrogen production within a maximum of five years post-signing of the grant agreement. They'll receive the fixed premium subsidy awarded for up to a decade for certified and verified renewable hydrogen production.

Funds for this auction stem from the proceeds of the EU Emissions Trading System, with the Commission gearing up to kick off a second European Hydrogen Bank auction by the close of 2024.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 4. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is financing an innovative geothermal heating project, Eavor-LoopTM, in Bavaria, Germany, with a loan close to 45 million euros, Trend reports.

According to the bank, Eavor, based in Canada, will deploy its closed-loop geothermal technology for the first time at a commercial scale in the Bavarian town of Geretsried. Unlike traditional geothermal methods, Eavor-LoopTM extracts heat directly from underground rocks, bypassing the need for subsurface water or steam reservoirs.

This pioneering project, supported by a 91.6 million euro grant from the EU Innovation Fund, is co-financed by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), ING Bank N.V. (ING), and Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Mizuho), with insurance provided by Japan's Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). It qualifies as a green loan under the Loan Market Associations Green Loan Principles. The combined support from EIB, JBIC, ING, and Mizuho totals 130 million euros, facilitated by financial advisor Green Giraffe Advisory.

Eavor's total investment is projected at 350 million euros. The Eavor-LoopTM will supply heating to households and businesses, with an on-site power station converting geothermal heat to electricity. Initial heat delivery is scheduled for 2026, with gradual increases thereafter. Additionally, Eavor-LoopTM is developing a second project in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, aiming to meet 15-20 percent of the district heating demand.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and ACWA Power have signed an executive agreement on a 200 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project and a framework agreement on a 200 MW onshore wind power project, the statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy said, Trend reports.

The ceremony was held in the presence of Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, Minister of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan.

During the meeting preceding the signing, the sides noted that Azerbaijan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have brotherly relations, and the development of friendly relations and energy cooperation between the countries' leaders is of mutual importance.

The importance of implementing the Energy Cooperation Agreement and the activity of the Joint Technical Committee in the multifaceted development of energy relations between the countries in a bilateral format were also discussed during the meeting. Particularly, the important role of the Green Energy Partnership was emphasized, which strengthens energy cooperation on a long-term basis and ensures solidarity between Azerbaijan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the fight against climate change and a just energy transition.

The sides discussed interactions within the framework of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). The meeting reviewed the current state of cooperation with ACWA Power on the development of wind power projects with a total capacity of 2.5 GW onshore and offshore.

Additionally, the importance of accelerating the implementation of renewable energy projects was noted. Support was expressed for the participation of "ACWA Power" in renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan, the development of cooperation in the areas of integration of renewable energy sources, production, and transmission of electricity, as well as energy efficiency through the exchange of knowledge and experience.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The website of this years international climate conference, COP29, went live today. The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to use its full name, will be hosted by Azerbaijan in November 2024.

The website provides updates on the work of the COP29 Presidency in preparing for the Conference, as well as on all organizational aspects of interest to the Conference parties and the media.

With important news about the status of the negotiating process, and key climate action initiatives put forward by the host country's leadership, the website https://cop29.az/en will show Azerbaijan's journey towards hosting COP29. All the news will be presented promptly and accurately in both English and Azerbaijani, making the platform accessible to local and global audiences alike.

The newly launched website for COP29, also conveys the key messaging on Green Transition Strategy initiatives of Azerbaijan and the Presidencys Framework for Action. The accessibility of user information and the facilitation of the effortless navigation of the visitor inquiries are among the top priority qualities of the platform.

Designed for local and global audience, the aforementioned e-services will provide operational data and establish seamless connectivity with associated platforms.

The COP29 website is accessible via the following link: https://cop29.az.
 Flash

More than 100 Chinese and French experts gathered in Paris on Thursday to explore ways to build a multilateral future by deepening global governance reforms.







At the second China-France forum on global governance, former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said France and China "share certain close -- even identical -- visions on global governance."

Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius speaks at the second China-France forum on global governance in Paris, France, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)





He said that multilateralism appears as "the most effective way to address most issues in our multipolar world," in such areas as security, economy, environment, and many others.



Fabius called on the two countries to work together to tackle global challenges, adding that by practicing true multilateralism, France and China will benefit the entire world.

The forum, held in the year that marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese-French diplomatic relations, is aimed at upholding the "China-France spirit," pooling more consensus and wisdom, and building a more solid and dynamic bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group (CICG), said in his opening speech.

Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group (CICG), speaks at the second China-France forum on global governance in Paris, France, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)







He said the forum called for true multilateralism and pushing forward global governance in a fairer and more equitable direction.



Experts from both sides held in-depth discussions on four modules including building and maintaining peace, science and technological innovation and development, low-carbon and sustainable development, and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

They expressed their common belief that true multilateralism is essential in improving global governance and pushing forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

The forum was sponsored by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies and China-Europe-America Global Initiative, under the guidance of the State Council Information Office of China and the CICG.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Asian Development Bank (ADB) supports Georgia in becoming a regional hub, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said during a briefing on the sidelines of the annual meeting of ADB, Trend reports.

ADB is one of Georgias largest partners. We have allocated more than $3.9 billion to Georgia in the form of loans and technical assistance grants.

Our country partnership strategy covers three main areas: economic development, social development, and public administration development. We'll continue to support Georgia. In light of Georgia's location between west and east, we support regional cooperation," he noted.

The theme of the 57th annual meeting, scheduled for May 2 to 5, is "Bridge to the Future".

The first session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening will mark the official start of the annual meeting. This event is attended by distinguished guests from the host country. Statements will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and the Minister of Finance of Georgia, Chairman of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The annual meeting provides ADB governors with the opportunity to discuss development issues and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region. Several thousand participants regularly attend the meeting, including finance ministers, central bank governors, high-ranking government officials, representatives of the private sector, international organizations, civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media.
The Taoiseach has defended the Governments handling of accommodation for asylum seekers, after a number of homeless migrants pitched tents in a private park in south Dublin.

Around a dozen asylum seekers arrived at St Marys Church Park in Ballsbridge on Thursday night.

The men had been told by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) that there was no longer accommodation available.

The group of men left the Ballsbridge area at around 9am on Friday. The park is close to Mount Street, where hundreds of tents had been pitched until Wednesday morning when the makeshift campsite was cleared in a multi-agency operation.

The Government has been struggling to accommodate the rising number of asylum seekers arriving into the State.

On Wednesday morning, more than 200 asylum seekers who had been living in tents outside the International Protection Office (IPO) were moved from the area to facilities at Citywest and Crooksling in Co Dublin.

However, a number of men who sought accommodation on Thursday were told none was available.

Simon Harris said that makeshift encampments on public roads and footpaths is illegal, and never the solution.

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Harris said: Its also not in the interest of the people who are sleeping in those tents, people who dont have access to proper sanitation.

We did provide 290 people from Mount Street and those who appeared in Mount Street that day with accommodation, with shelter, with access to sanitation, with food, with a much better scenario than had been allowed to develop on Mount Street.

I am very comfortable with the position that we took and I believe it was necessary in relation to that.

People did turn up at the International Protection Office yesterday and there wasnt accommodation for all people.

IPAS does have contact details for all those people. It is working to try and provide accommodation solutions for all those people.

I think what we saw in St Marys was a temporary thing being done by people who were being very humane in terms of trying to provide assistance on property that wasnt public.

We work at this every single day but I need to be clear and honest with people coming to our country, we are doing our very best in a very difficult and challenging circumstances to provide accommodation.

But accommodation isnt always readily available but we keeping working at it day by day.

The conversation about migration cant just be one about accommodation, because no matter how much accommodation you have, if its just a conversation about accommodation, accommodation will fill.

It also has to be a conversation about faster processing times, about efficient and effective systems.

On Thursday it was reported that a senior civil servant is to be appointed to tackle misinformation and disinformation around migration.

The Irish Examiner reported that the civil servant will work within the Department of Children and will work to improve the messaging around migration.

Mr Harris said said it is never too late for any democracy to push back against misinformation, disinformation and indeed interference from abroad on occasion in relation to debate and discourse.

Migration is a really good thing, immigration is a good thing, he added.

Ireland is a better place for the many people who have come and made Ireland their home. They are working in hospitals, they are working in our hospitality sector, and right across many sectors of the economy.

So migration and immigration is a good thing and I think its really important that we say that and that we dont seed that ground or create a vacuum for others to exploit.

Having said that, I think people in Ireland, and I would imagine people in most countries, want to know there are rules in place, they want to know the rules are enforced, they want to know that the system is fair, that its firm, that it helps those who are entitled to help.

That if someone comes to our country and goes through a processing system and isnt entitled to be there, that that person is asked to leave in the first instance and made to leave if they dont.
Irelands premier has described a suggestion that his government could sign up to the UKs Rwanda scheme as more satire than news.

Simon Harris dismissed the idea as he made clear Ireland would pursue its own policy in regard to migration.

On Friday, the Daily Telegraph reported a Downing Street source indicating that the UK government would be prepared to explore the potential for Ireland to join its controversial scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Mr Harris was asked about the report during a visit to Belfast on Friday.

Can I just say in relation to that issue of Ireland and Rwanda, thats more satire than news and Ireland has its own policy in relation to migration, he said.

Weve every right to have our own policy, and indeed will seek to advance migration policy through our membership to the European Union.

Tensions between London and Dublin have increased in recent days after Irelands justice minister Helen McEntee claimed there had been an upsurge in asylum seekers crossing the border from the UK into the Republic of Ireland following the passing of the Safety of Rwanda Act at Westminster.

Mr Harris said there was a need for a sense of calm following the diplomatic dispute with the UK over immigration.

After the week that has been there is a need for a sense of calm here, there is need for a bit of a deep breath, he said.

We have a Common Travel Area between the two islands, that is a Common Travel Area that is in place for a very long time when both countries were in the European Union and it is still in place now when one country is within the European Union and one isnt.

I am determined to work as Taoiseach constructively to make sure that the Common Travel Area is protected, the Common Travel Area is never abused.

There is a range of measures we need to take on an Irish level in terms of improving our migration systems.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Asian Development Bank (ADB) seeks to achieve a sustainable future for the South Caucasus, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said on the sidelines of the 57th annual meeting of the bank in Tbilisi, Trend reports.

"ADB is actively monitoring the situation in Georgia, recognizing that political stability is fundamental to prosperity, with civil societies playing a crucial role. ADB has forged partnerships with diverse civil society organizations, recognizing their significance in enhancing governance. Our commitment remains steadfast in realizing a sustainable future for the region," he said.

The theme of the 57th annual meeting, scheduled for May 2 to 5, is "Bridge to the Future".

The first session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The opening will mark the official start of the annual meeting. This event is attended by distinguished guests from the host country. Statements will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and the Minister of Finance of Georgia, Chairman of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.

The annual meeting provides ADB governors with the opportunity to discuss development issues and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region. Several thousand participants regularly attend the meeting, including finance ministers, central bank governors, high-ranking government officials, representatives of the private sector, international organizations, civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The energy ministries of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia have discussed matters of cooperation and investment opportunities between the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Saudi Arabian companies in Baku, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani ministry.

"Discussions revolved around collaborative efforts and investment prospects within the realms of oil refining, petrochemical product supply, low-carbon fuel, and associated technologies," the report says.

The meeting concluded with the signing of the Protocol from the third session of the Joint Technical Committee of Energy Ministries from both countries.

To note, Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power entered the Azerbaijan market in 2019.

In addition to the Khizi-Absheron WPP, ACWA Power has a memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan's Ministry of Energy to investigate the feasibility of establishing a one-GW onshore wind power plant, a 1.5-GW offshore wind power plant, and the development of hydrogen projects in the nation.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Something to consider . . .

The County Counselor basically works for the Exec.

What this story is REALLY about . . .

As we noted in The Exec's statement on the proposal . . . Political disagreements at The Courthouse remain the biggest obstacle in any future negotiations.

Here's the best line that offers the latest update so far . . .

"The Jackson County, Missouri, counselor said Thursday hell advise legislators against a proposal to place a specific question on Novembers ballot to help fund stadium upgrades for the Kansas City Chiefs because he believes state law prevents it."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

How a Chiefs-only sales tax question could work this year If Jackson County leaders want to push a Chiefs-only sales tax question on the November ballot, they may be able to, but not using the same tax they tried in April.

Jackson County counselor weighs in on proposals for Chiefs stadium question in November The Jackson County, Missouri, counselor said Thursday he'll advise legislators against placing a parks sales tax question to help the Chiefs renovate their stadium on November's ballot.
For those who don't believe that violence in this town is getting worse . . . We share a not so fun fact this evening . . .

KANSAS CITY WHEELCHAIR DRIVE-BY SHOOTING SIGNALS THE OFFICIAL START OF SPRING/SUMMER VIOLENCE!!!

At the very least, it's not a good sign for the nicer & warmer weather that awaits us . . . Take a look:



Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department detectives say shortly after 2:30 a.m., a man and woman were sitting on their porch in the 3400 block of Monroe, when a man passed by in a wheelchair and opened fire.



Both victims are reportedly in stable condition.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
A local conservative blog offers apropos criticism amid recent uprisings on college campuses.

Here's the crux of their comments and then AN EXCEPTIONALLY CLEVER post title . . .



Its been a total disgrace, (Missouri Senator Josh) Hawley told The Heartlander Thursday of the universities handling of the antisemitic insurrections.



These students, they dont know right from wrong; they dont know any history, clearly. Theyre out there chanting what amount to Nazi slogans. They know no history, they know nothing about right and wrong, but yet they want their food delivered to them, you know, gluten-free, vegan, hot please. No bagels. You look at the list of their demands, its absurd.



This has got to be the most coddled generation in American history, but also one of the stupidest based on what they are saying out there.



The culture of selective outrage and blind rage has been fertilized by the push for Critical Race Theory, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Schmitt adds.



Its cultural Marxism, its race essentialism, (Missouri Senator Eric) Schmitt told the Heartlander

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

The Heartlander: Coddled college students falling prey to cultural Marxism in campuses takeover by anti-Jewish mobs, Missouri senators Hawley, Schmitt argue


A local Indigenous-owned pot shop in Georgina is fighting a legal battle over the sale of cannabis off-reserve without a licence, invoking Indigenous rights as defence.

Situated on 120 High St. in Sutton, 8th Fire Co opened its doors in February, only to encounter a York police raid on March 7. Store owner Jared Big Canoe says he intends to "vigorously defend" his case during the upcoming court session on May 8 in Newmarket.

I have the legal right to sell cannabis plant medicine in my traditional territory, Big Canoe, a well-travelled Chippewa from Georgina Island First Nation, told YorkRegion.com. I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm not a criminal.

This is our traditional territory. Georgina is my family's hunting ground. I'm just continuing the tradition of hunting and trapping and collecting to feed my family in this territory.

A team of nine York Regional Police officers conducted a raid on his store, confiscating $8,000 worth of cannabis and $2,000 in cash as evidential material.

YRP filed two charges under the Cannabis Act (2017): Possession for the Purpose of Cannabis Distribution and Distribution of Illicit Cannabis. If convicted, Big Canoe could face two years of imprisonment, or a fine of $250,000, or both.

Big Canoe is seeking to have his charges withdrawn and the cannabis and cash seized by police returned. But more importantly, he wants to affirm his right as an Indigenous person to sell cannabis off-reserve without a provincial licence.

Big Canoe highlights the glaring omission of Indigenous communities in the discourse surrounding cannabis legalization in Canada. They didn't factor us in when they drafted the legislation. So we're left in a grey area, he said, noting that charges were dropped in a similar case in Nova Scotia.

Big Canoe contends that specific provisions within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms grant Indigenous peoples the authority to engage in cannabis sales on their traditional lands.

In the Canadian Constitution, Sections 25 and 35 address the Indigenous people's right to self-determination and the preservation of their traditional practices. Historical research suggests that cannabis was used in North America prior to colonization.

While 8th Fire Co might be Georginas first, it certainly isnt the sole sovereign cannabis dispensary in Canada. According to a map compiled by the website Dispensing Freedom, more than 250 similar shops are operating coast-to-coast.

Legal experts suggest that owners like Big Canoe could make a case for the legality of Indigenous trade and medical use of the cannabis plant by pointing to its historical significance prior to colonialism.

Pull Quote There is no licensing, no following the rules that they impose on you. It has to be nation to nation.

My ancestors fought so that this could be Canada. I need to prove we have the right to be here, said Big Canoe. There is no licensing, no following the rules that they impose on you. It has to be nation to nation.

Its called the Two Row Wampum. My nations boat travels this way, and Canadas boat goes another way. Our boats are supposed to run parallel in our own path and not overlap. Thats the treaty that we made together.

Identifying as a member of the Anishinabek nation, Big Canoe emphasizes that his fight extends beyond himself, advocating for the rights and future of his generation.

Our nation faced near annihilation and depletion. It's my job to ensure a future for my people on this land. Beyond entrepreneurship, I aim to inspire fellow Indigenous individuals to assert their rights and actively participate in the economy, he said.

I'm proud to be arrested so my children don't have to go through this, said Big Canoe, a father to a seven-year-old daughter. I'm going to fight for our rights like a true leader back in the day.

Big Canoe has initiated a GoFundMe campaign to assist with his legal expenses.

As the legal battle unfolds, Big Canoe, who was empowered as a child with his culture and education, keeps his store open and proudly embraces the role of an Indigenous cultural ambassador.

He perceives his arts and crafts shop not only as a business, but also as a platform for educating Canadians about Indigenous culture and heritage.

We're reigniting our culture through this store. It's like my job to educate Canadians on the parts of Indigenous people's lives that they may not know, Big Canoe explained.

We're more the same than we are different.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. bp has announced the initiation of an educational initiative aimed at establishing a new master's degree program in chemical engineering at Sumgayit State University, Trend reports.

During a press tour arranged by bp Azerbaijan to Sumgayit University, it was highlighted that the 13-month curriculum is customized to meet industry demands, encompassing subjects such as chemical and production processes, as well as environmental sustainability.

The program's training materials have been meticulously crafted to address the requirements of industrial and technological enterprises in Sumgayit.

"We view this project as yet another successful initiative towards aligning specialist training with the demands of business and industry. Compared to other cities in the country, Sumgayit has a particularly high demand for the "chemical-technologist" specialization. Given Sumgayit's status as one of Azerbaijan's primary industrial hubs, boasting numerous modern industrial and technological enterprises, there exists a significant demand for highly skilled chemical engineers," said bp's Vice President for the Caspian region Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, speaking at the university.

The new master's program is projected to initially take 15 students, offering two areas of specialization: "Chemistry and Technology of Basic Organic Synthesis" and "Chemical Technology of Polymers." Over the next five years, the program aims to expand, incorporating four additional areas of specialization and accommodating up to 95 students.

Furthermore, within the project framework, up to 15 university educators will undergo training to enhance their knowledge and skills based on the new curriculum. Subsequently, a cohort of teachers will receive opportunities to attend foreign universities to stay abreast of the latest advancements in their fields. Moreover, prominent international trainers and experts will be enlisted to impart their experience, knowledge, and skills to the program's teaching staff.

As part of their training, students enrolled in the program will engage in industry-driven projects for a significant portion of their coursework. Additionally, state-of-the-art technology and equipment will be installed in chemical engineering and chemistry laboratories and classrooms.

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Americans have been caught up in the tough ammunition laws of the Turks and Caicos Islands after they were found with bullets in their luggage. The incidents occurred at Howard Hamilton International Airport on the island of Providenciales.

The first case involved Ryan Watson, who was detained on April 12 as he and his wife were leaving the islands. They had been in the Turks and Caicos Islands to celebrate friends' 40th birthdays.

Unexpected Trouble in Turks and Caicos Islands

Airport security discovered four rounds of ammunition in Watson's duffel bag, which he said were accidentally left from a previous deer hunting trip. Although his wife, Valerie, was initially charged, she was released and allowed to return to their home in Oklahoma on April 23.

Ryan Watson, however, had to post a $15,000 bail and remain on the island as his passport was taken. He awaits a court hearing set for June 7.

As per CNN, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) admitted that these rounds were not detected during the initial screening at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, which allowed the ammunition to enter the Turks and Caicos Islands unnoticed.

The TSA is reviewing its procedures to prevent such oversights in the future.

Another tourist, Bryan Hagerich from Pennsylvania, faces a similar situation. He was detained in February and has pleaded guilty to carrying 20 rifle rounds. He claimed these were also mistakenly left in a bag from previous hunting trips.

The Turks and Caicos Islands enforce very strict laws against unauthorized weapons and ammunition. Visitors can face a minimum of 12 years in prison for violations, although judges can lower this in exceptional cases.

The U.S. Embassy has issued advisories reminding travelers to thoroughly check their luggage before flying to avoid inadvertently breaking these laws.

Related Article : How is the Caribbean Adapting to Climate Change with Sustainable Tourism and Hurricane Resistant Measures?

Turks and Caicos Islands Ensure Safety Amid Ammunition Cases

The Turks and Caicos Islands are working hard to keep their reputation as a safe and welcoming vacation spot. This effort follows the recent legal issues involving four Americans charged with having ammunition, a serious offense under the local Firearms Ordinance.

Tourism Minister Josephine Connolly stated the islands are committed to ensuring the safety and satisfaction of all visitors, Caribbean National Weekly reported. The government wants to make sure tourists feel secure and enjoy their time in this beautiful destination.

As a British Overseas Territory, the Turks and Caicos Islands follow strict common law procedures. The local organization, Experience Turks and Caicos, advises all travelers to double-check their luggage for any banned items before arriving.

This is to prevent any legal troubles and to help maintain the high safety standards of the islands.

Looking forward, the islands anticipate a record number of tourists through August. Officials are confident that with careful security checks, visitors will have a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

The islands are known for their luxury, peacefulness, and beautiful settings, all of which contribute to their reputation as a top-tier travel destination.
Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has teamed up with Getmyboat, the world's top boat rental and charter platform, to provide special boating discounts to their premium cardholders.

The new partnership focuses on Visa's Platinum, Signature, and Infinite cardholders, enhancing their travel by making luxury boating more accessible and affordable.

Getmyboat and Visa Deliver Exclusive Traveler Perks

The collaboration between Visa and Getmyboat introduces exclusive benefits such as unique discounts, priority booking, and custom boating packages. These perks are designed to attract travelers who enjoy water activities and are looking for memorable experiences on their trips.

By providing these special offers, Visa and Getmyboat aim to make every journey unforgettable with a day spent on the water.

Doug Bird, the Vice President of Sales & Business Development at Getmyboat, expressed excitement about the partnership.

According to Travel and Tour World, he emphasized that teaming up with Visa allows them to elevate the travel experiences of their customers significantly.

Yuri Topunov, Visa's Vice President and Head of Products for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also shared his enthusiasm. He mentioned that the initiative is part of Visa's commitment to adapt to the evolving needs of its affluent clients by offering them seamless and luxurious travel adventures.

The partnership aligns with Getmyboat's mission to make boating enjoyable and accessible everywhere. By combining forces with Visa, Getmyboat continues to innovate and provide exceptional value to travelers around the globe who seek unique and lavish experiences on the water.

This strategic move is set to redefine leisure and luxury travel for Visa cardholders, promising them both cost savings and extraordinary adventures.

Related Article : What You Should Know Before Going on a Boat Safari in Lake Naivasha, Kenya

Getmyboat and Your Boat Club Expanded Boat Rental Options

In January, Getmyboat, a popular platform for boat rentals and charters, partnered with Your Boat Club to broaden their rental fleet availability. This move allowed Your Boat Club's boats to be booked through Getmyboat.com.

The partnership was part of a broader collaboration with Groupe Beneteau, enhancing access to Beneteau's Glastron brand and ensuring seamless rental experiences for customers, as per Trade Only Today.

Bird emphasized the importance of firsthand boating experiences in attracting new enthusiasts. He stated that the partnership aimed to create a comprehensive boating service ecosystem.

The ecosystem is designed to cater to various consumer needs if they want to try, buy, rent, or subscribe to a boating service.

Your Boat Club also launched "try and buy" locations as part of its expansion strategy. These sites enable direct-to-consumer sales and provide potential buyers with on-the-water test experiences before purchasing.

Luke Kujawa, owner of Your Boat Club, highlighted the club's continuous efforts to grow its membership base. He expressed confidence that the partnership with Getmyboat would boost growth opportunities and enhance the convenience, variety, and quality that customers expect from both brands.

The collaboration is set to significantly benefit both Getmyboat and Your Boat Club by making boating more accessible to a wider audience.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. All projects financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will take sustainability into account, ADB Deputy Director General and Chief Procurement Officer of ADB's Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Division, Jeff Taylor said, Trend reports.

He made the statement during the panel discussion on "Sustainable Procurement - Contributing to ADB's Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Goals" on the sidelines of ADB's annual meeting.

"We are a financial institution; we provide money, and this can be through loans, grants, guarantees, and other financing mechanisms for climate change mitigation. We will use that money to implement sustainable development and sustainable procurement strategies, which will partially underpin everything we do in procurement," he said.

Taylor noted that the second way the bank has tried to make a positive contribution is through technical expertise.

"There is a very rich conversation going on right now on sustainable procurement, and I'm pleased that ADB is leading the way on this. We are building our capacity to participate and contribute to sustainable procurement," he said.

Taylor emphasized that old-fashioned procurement was very process-oriented and limited to the flow of bids.

"Unlike old-fashioned procurement, sustainable procurement requires a holistic approach, looking at not just the transactional process but also the project's design. The benefits of sustainable procurement are very clear. It also includes an economic competitive advantage for societies. It's about economic and social development, circular economic benefits, better governance, and improving the country's supply chain and sustainability," he concluded.

To note, the theme for the 57th Annual Meeting to be held from 2 to 5 May, is Bridge to the Future.

The opening session of the Board of Governors will take place on May 4. The Opening Session marks the official start of the Annual Meeting. It is a high-profile event attended by the Guest of Honor from the host country. Remarks will be made by ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and the Minister of Finance of Georgia and Chair of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili.



The Annual Meeting is an opportunity for ADB Governors to consider development issues and challenges facing Asia and the Pacific. Several thousand participants, including finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, members of the private sector, representatives of international organizations and civil society organizations, youth, academia, and the media, regularly join the meeting.

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The Russian Federation plans to implement a plan to destabilize Ukraine this month, which consists of three factors.

According to Ukrinform, this was stated in an interview with The Economist by Deputy Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Major General Vadym Skibitskyi.

According to him, May will be a key month when Russia uses a three-factor plan to destabilize Ukraine.

Skibitskyi emphasized that the main factor of this plan is the military direction.

Despite the fact that the US Congress belatedly "gave the go-ahead" to increase military aid to Ukraine, it will take several more weeks before it reaches the front lines, he said.

The second factor is Russia's disinformation campaign in Ukraine, which is aimed at undermining Ukrainian mobilization and the political legitimacy of President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose presidential term is set to expire on May 20. At the same time, the Constitution of Ukraine clearly prohibits holding presidential elections in wartime.

Skibitskyi added that the third factor is Russia's relentless campaign to isolate Ukraine internationally. "They will shake the situation as much as they can," he said.

Read also: Two civilians killed in Russian shelling of Donetsk region on May 2

As reported, the head of the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Russia was conducting a special operation called "Maidan-3" to create a situation to "question the legitimacy of not only the President, but decision-making in general in Ukraine after May 31 and 20."

Volodymyr Zelensky was sworn in as President of Ukraine on May 20, 2019.

According to the law, presidential elections are to be held on the last Sunday of March in the fifth year of the current president's term.

According to the martial law regime introduced by the Verkhovna Rada on February 24, 2022, elections are prohibited in Ukraine.
Naftogaz Group Board Chairman & CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov and State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) President Rovshan Najaf have met and discussed the prospects of cooperation between the two companies, namely in terms of gas storage services.

The relevant statement was made by Naftogaz Group Board Chairman & CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov on Facebook, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

A productive meeting with State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) President Rovshan Najaf. We discussed cooperation prospects in the oil and gas industry, including the possibility of storing Azerbaijani gas in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities, Chernyshov wrote.

In his words, the two companies are working to expand cooperation.

A reminder that Naftogaz Group expects to deepen cooperation with Turkish energy companies, namely in terms of gas storage services.

Partner news

Photo: Oleksiy Chernyshov, Facebook
Connecticut legislators have recently made a significant decision regarding legacy admissions preferences, shifting their focus from a proposed ban to a requirement for colleges to report data on such preferences.

This shift comes after a prolonged debate between lawmakers and private colleges, including Yale and Fairfield Universities, which oppose state intervention. The move underscores the complexities and controversies surrounding legacy admissions in higher education, especially in the wake of the Varsity Blues scandal and the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

The Backstory: Legacy Admissions and the Legislative Battle

Legacy admissions, the practice of giving preference to applicants with familial connections to alumni, have long been a contentious issue in higher education. Proponents argue that it helps maintain a sense of tradition and loyalty within institutions, while critics view it as perpetuating inequality and hindering merit-based admissions.

Connecticut's recent legislative journey began with a proposed ban on legacy admissions preferences, which advanced from committee in March. However, facing opposition from private colleges, the state Senate opted for a different approach. Instead of an outright ban, they passed a bill requiring colleges to report data on legacy admissions to the legislature, a move aimed at increasing transparency around the practice.

The decision reflects a broader national conversation on legacy admissions. Last year's Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action in college admissions sparked renewed scrutiny of legacy preferences, leading to legislative actions in several states.

READ MORE : Ending Of Legacy Admissions In California Higher Education Proposed Amidst Equity Concerns

The Role of Private Colleges and the Legacy Debate

Private colleges, particularly Yale and Fairfield Universities, played a significant role in shaping Connecticut's approach to legacy admissions. These institutions, which have seen nearly 15 percent of their recent classes composed of legacy admits, vehemently opposed the proposed ban.

Their opposition highlights the challenges of addressing legacy admissions, especially at prestigious universities with deep-rooted traditions. Critics argue that such preferences perpetuate privilege and create an uneven playing field for applicants, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds.

Despite this, some private institutions have taken steps to address legacy preferences. Johns Hopkins University, for example, ended the practice in 2020, even before Maryland became the first state to prohibit preferences for relatives of alumni at both public and private institutions.

The Impact on Higher Education and Future Legislation

Connecticut's legislative shift could have broader implications for higher education policy nationwide. While the bill requiring reporting on legacy admissions has passed the state Senate, it still awaits a vote in the House. If passed, Connecticut would join Maryland in banning legacy preferences, setting a potential precedent for other states.

The decision also reflects a broader trend of states reevaluating legacy admissions in the aftermath of the Varsity Blues scandal and the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. Bills to ban legacy preferences at public and private colleges are currently under consideration in several states, including New York and Massachusetts.

Connecticut's legislative journey regarding legacy admissions preferences underscores the complexities and controversies surrounding this practice in higher education. While the state initially considered a ban, it ultimately opted for a transparency measure, highlighting the challenges of addressing legacy admissions in prestigious private institutions.

The decision reflects a broader national conversation on legacy admissions, with states reevaluating their policies in light of recent legal and ethical considerations. Ultimately, the debate over legacy admissions is far from over, and the actions taken by states like Connecticut could shape the future of college admissions policies nationwide.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. Azerbaijan has a very important role to play in his COP29 presidency, Dean a.i. and Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, Kelly Sims Gallagher, told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) 57th annual meeting in Tbilisi, Trend reports.

"Azerbaijan has a very important role to play in his COP29 presidency to make sure that we reach a positive decision on the new quantitative climate finance target," she said.

Gallagher believes that it is necessary to look for new creative solutions to climate finance.

"So it's not only operationalizing the existing funds; we also need each country to think about how they can contribute to global finance. So that can be done through meeting this new quantified goal, but it also could be done through nationally determined financial contributions," she said.

To note, the theme of the 57th ADB Annual Meeting in Tbilisi, which runs from May 2 through May 5, is "Bridge to the Future".

The inaugural session of the Board of Governors is scheduled for May 4, marking the official commencement of the annual meeting. Distinguished guests from the host country will be in attendance. ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Georgia's Minister of Finance and Chairman of the ADB Board of Governors, Lasha Khutsishvili, will deliver statements.

The annual meeting provides ADB Governors with a platform to address developmental issues and challenges confronting the Asia-Pacific region. The event typically attracts several thousand participants, including finance ministers, central bank governors, senior government officials, private sector representatives, members of international and civil society organizations, youth, academics, and media personnel.

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Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) is embroiled in a legal dispute with its faculty union over the refusal to provide a full, unredacted copy of a campus safety report.

The report, completed in September by an independent contractor, was prompted by a stabbing incident on campus in November 2022. The college's faculty association filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the report but was denied access to the complete document. This article examines the context of the dispute, the arguments presented by both sides, and the implications for campus safety and transparency.

The Dispute

The dispute between HVCC and its faculty union escalated when the college administration declined to provide the complete safety report, citing concerns over security risks. The faculty union, represented by the college's Faculty Association, argued that access to the full report is crucial for addressing safety concerns on campus. Robert Whitaker, president of the Faculty Association, emphasized the importance of transparency and collaboration between the union and the college administration in ensuring campus safety.

According to CBS 6, the safety report was initiated in response to a stabbing incident involving a student in a campus parking lot in November 2022. The incident raised fears and concerns among the college community, prompting calls for improved campus security measures. The completion of the safety report was intended to assess the existing security protocols and identify areas for improvement.

The Legal Battle

The Faculty Association's decision to file a lawsuit against HVCC, its president, board, and the surrounding county reflects the escalating tensions between the union and the college administration. The lawsuit, filed under the Freedom of Information Act, seeks to compel the college to release the full, unredacted copy of the safety report. The union argues that the report is essential for addressing the safety concerns raised by its members and ensuring a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff.

In response, Dennis Kennedy, executive director of communications and marketing at HVCC, defended the college's decision to withhold the full report. Kennedy stated that the report contains confidential information, potential security vulnerabilities, and areas of risk that, if disclosed, could threaten the safety of the college community. The college administration maintains that it is committed to ensuring campus safety and is working to address the concerns raised by the Faculty Association.

Implications for Campus Safety and Transparency

The legal battle between HVCC and its faculty union has broader implications for campus safety and transparency in higher education. The dispute highlights the challenges of balancing the need for transparency with the imperative of maintaining campus security. While transparency is essential for fostering trust and collaboration within the college community, security concerns must also be taken into account to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff.

The outcome of the lawsuit could set a precedent for how colleges and universities handle similar requests for information related to campus safety. It could also impact the relationship between faculty unions and college administrations, influencing future negotiations and collaborations on campus safety initiatives.

The dispute between HVCC and its faculty union underscores the complex nature of ensuring campus safety in higher education. While both sides have valid concerns, finding a balance between transparency and security is essential for fostering a safe and collaborative college environment. As the legal battle unfolds, the college community awaits a resolution that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all its members.
A perfect storm for smuggling: New UNODC research on migrant smuggling in Southeast Asia reveals why people seek out smugglers

Rohingya refugees arrive in Ulee Madon in North Aceh, Indonesia after a perilous journey at sea.  UNHCR/Amanda Jufrian

Bangkok (Thailand), 3 May 2024  I left Myanmar because I felt unsafe.



Ibrahim*, a Rohingya man in his twenties, said armed conflicts and intentional burnings of his village had forced everyone to flee.



Hes not the only one. New research from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that tens of thousands of people from Myanmar, other parts of Southeast Asia, and from outside the region are smuggled to, through and from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand every year.



The study Migrant Smuggling in Southeast Asia, the latest research to be published by UNODCs Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants, finds that persecution, statelessness, a lack of legal channels for asylum and labour migration, and corruption are the primary drivers of the demand for smuggling services.

Breaking point: The need to flee

Demand is massive in terms of people needing to flee awful circumstances, needing to flee conflict, particularly out of Myanmar, said one informant interviewed for the research in Thailand. And then the lack of legal pathways to get to where they need to go just culminates in a perfect storm for the need for smuggling services.



The research demonstrates that demand for smuggling is driven by various and often complex factors  and arises among refugees and migrants because they perceive a lack of alternatives for regular migration. Some, like Ibrahim, are fleeing conflict, violence and persecution.



Others, like Indah*, an Indonesian woman in her mid-forties, feel they have limited access to regular channels for labour migration.



My friends also told me that the chance of getting into Malaysia is lower if we come on our own, she reported. Some people get rejected at immigration if they dont use a tekong [smuggler], because the tekong pays a bribe to the immigration authorities, which they call guarantee money.



Still other would-be migrants and refugees are stateless or lack travel or identity documents.



I did not have travel documents, said one Chin woman from Myanmar. I just came here with the help of the agent [smuggler]. We never applied for documents because the soldiers were everywhere in the country, even at the airport.

Corruption both enables and drives smuggling, the research shows. 25% of smuggled people surveyed reported giving officials a gift, money, or a favour in order to obtain a service. Corruption also drives demand for migrant smuggling, with smuggled people perceiving that they need smugglers to help them deal with corrupt authorities.



The services provided by the tekong included transport, food, accommodation in a hotel, passport and guarantee money to the immigration authorities, Indah added.



Smuggling fees per person range from 100s to 1,000s of US dollars, depending on the mode of smuggling  land, sea, air or a combination  and are usually paid in cash, so the amounts are rarely traceable.

A difficult journey

Regardless of the reason behind their migration journeys, most of the 4,785 migrants and refugees surveyed for the research  75%  experienced some form of abuse en route.



Agents are meant to abuse you, said one Rohingya man. That is the law by which agents live.



65% of smuggled migrants and refugees experienced physical abuse perpetrated by the military, police, smugglers, border guards or criminal gangs. 11% of women and 6 % of men experienced sexual abuse, while 9% of men and 6% of women witnessed deaths.



The journey was scary, admitted Lian*, a 19-year-old Chin man from Myanmar describing his eight-day journey from Yangon to Kuala Lumpur. We only travelled at night. We couldnt use any lights and were just following the person in front of us without knowing what was going to happen. Sometimes, people would get lost.



It was very difficult for me to survive in the mountains, agreed Aung*, a 19-year-old woman from Myanmar recounting her journey to Thailand. I heard some gunshots, and there were rumours about the authorities searching for illegal border crossers. Even though I was resourceful, I still faced difficulties in finding enough food and water. Climbing the mountains was also very challenging; it was scary because there was a risk of falling.

A price worth paying?

Yet almost half (48%) of smuggled migrants and refugees surveyed said that they would have taken the journey anyway, knowing what they did now about the conditions; 40% said they would not have, while 12% were undecided.



This is a testament to the intensity of the demand for migrant smuggling in the region, the determination to travel at all costs  and the profits that can be made from this illicit industry.



The full research study, including interactive and static maps and graphs, infographics, case studies and research methodology, can be accessed here. The Observatory is UNODCs principal knowledge source to develop the evidence base on smuggling of migrants, as a service to Member States to inform their counter-smuggling responses to combat the crime of smuggling of migrants and to protect the rights of smuggled migrants.



*Name changed to protect privacy
United Nations World Space Forum 2024



"Sustainable Space for Sustainability on Earth" Organized by The United Nations in collaboration with Germany, United Arab Emirates and Peru UN-Campus, Bonn, Germany 03 - 05 December 2024 Registration for the WSF2024 is open! Submit your application HERE.

Latest Information

Registration: Click here to register for the WSF2024

The deadline to apply for funding closes 01.09.2024 The call for poster abstracts closes on 01.09.2024 Deadline for registration to attend in person with visa support request but without funding closes: 03.11.2024



Practical information:

To help you prepare your travel and find recommended accommodation, please download the WSF2024 Practical Information guide. To navigate around Bonn, you can check out this map.



#WSF2024 | Background

As the planet faces increasing environmental and societal challenges, it requires effective legal frameworks, strong partnerships and global cooperation in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development. Space science and technology bring an abundance of unique and fundamental benefits to humanity. With growing technological innovation, space exploration serves as a key provider of applications for life on Earth. Space tools enable and drive sustainable development by providing essential data for climate action, disaster management and monitoring progress on global commitments in sustainable development goals. In an increasingly complex world with a growing participation of different stakeholders, this forum offers a unique opportunity for exchange and knowledge transfer to actors from politics, industry, science and society. The "Space2030" Agenda provides a road map for achieving sustainable development through the use of innovation and technology derived from space exploration. Another central goal is to deliver insights on how to improve global space governance, focusing on economic, societal, accessibility and diplomatic issues. With the upcoming midterm-review of the implementation process of the "Space2030" Agenda, the Forum will play a pivotal role in providing a platform for inclusive stakeholder discussions and contributions.

#WSF2024 | Setting the Stage



The World Space Forum event series aims to strengthen partnerships and advance the ongoing dialogue among the global community on a wide range of space issues to facilitate socio-economic sustainable development. The Forum promotes the implementation of the " Space2030" Agenda: space as a driver of sustainable development and its implementation plan " adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 76/3 through the broad involvement of all relevant space actors.

This year's event in Bonn, Germany, will have a special focus on the UN Summit of the Future held in September 2024 in New York. The Summit of the Future seeks to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and to address gaps in global governance. The Pact for the Future, to be adopted during the Summit, aims to reaffirm existing commitments and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that can effectively tackle future challenges, including the peaceful use of outer space. The World Space Forum 2024 provides an opportunity to draw attention to space solutions that effectively support the areas identified in the Pact, offering an opportunity for participants to discuss its implementation regarding space just three months after its adoption.

Furthermore, the outcomes of the Forum will be reported to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in the context of the upcoming mid-term review of the Space2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly.

After successfully hosting the High-Level Forum in 2018, we are pleased to continue the space dialogue with the World Space Forum 2024 in Bonn, Germany.

#WSF2024 | Objectives

The World Space Forum 2024 aims to: Start the dialogue on the implementation of the space-related sections in the Pact for the Future and the role of COPUOS in this endeavor

Discuss the implementation of the Space2030 Agenda and set the stage for the upcoming midterm review in 2025

Debate the on-going development of Global Space Governance

Reaffirm and strengthen the contribution of space activities and space tools for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

Promote international and public-private partnerships for the development of a sustainable, future-oriented and strong space environment

Address the need to improve existing communication approaches on the benefits of outer space technology and its applications

Involve young people, as future space leaders, to address issues of importance for future generations

Foster dialogue and close cooperation for developing a common space vision

Bring space actors together to exchange best practices and explore ways to jointly address challenges to humanity and sustainable development issues

#WSF2024 | Who is it for?

The WORLD SPACE FORUM brings together experts and policy makers from international, regional, national and local institutions, private organizations, academia, and non-governmental organizations. This multi-stakeholder composition allows for a truly inclusive, diverse and multilateral dialogue around the four pillars of space economy, space society, space accessibility and space diplomacy.

The organizers strive to support gender mainstreaming in their program and are working towards a broad representation in terms of geography, age and gender, both among the visitors and among the active participants in order to achieve a truly inclusive and multilateral exchange.

#WSF2024 | Sessions overview Sessions Panels / Description TUESDAY 03, DECEMBER 2024 09:30 - 11:00 Opening Session 11:30 - 13:00 Session I: Retrospective Contributions of various stakeholders from society and member states. 13:00 - 14:15 Lunch 14:15 - 18:00 Session II: Space4SDGs Panel 1: The cooperation of science and industry to tackle climate change

Panel 2: International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' and UN-SPIDER

Panel 3: SDG 17 - Partnership for the Goals 19:00 - 23:00 Welcome Reception WEDNESDAY, 04 DECEMBER 2024 09:00 - 13:00 Session III: Sustainable Space Activities Panel 4: Preserving the Outer Space Environment (I): Space Debris Mitigation

Panel 5: Preserving the Outer Space Environment (II): Space Debris Remediation

Panel 6: Global initiatives

Panel 7: Securing Space Sustainability: How to implement Space Traffic Management? 13:00 - 14:15 Lunch 14:15 - 18:00 Session IV: Sustainable Lunar Explorations Panel 8: Sustainable Lunar Activities

Panel 9: Information Exchange 19:00 - 22:00 Dinner Reception

(pre-registration required) THURSDAY, 05 DECEMBER 2024 09:00 - 11:05 Session V: Implementation of the Pact of the Future Panel 10: Balancing the Needs of Science and Industry

Panel 11: Continuing the Outer Space Dialogue: The Multilateral Way Forward for Space Governance

Panel 12: The Pact for the Future and the Space2030 Agenda 11:15 - 13:00 Closing

followed by Lunch 13:00 Transfer to technical tour

(pre-registration required)

#WSF2024 | Exhibit?

An exhibition will be organized in addition to the WORLD SPACE FORUM to provide a platform for space agencies, international organizations, industry and other actors to promote their work. Registration with further information will be opened in June.

Submission and deadline for application

Click here to register for the WSF2024

Please take note of the following deadlines when submitting your registration:

The deadline to apply for funding closes 01.09.2024 The call for poster abstracts closes 01.09.2024 Deadline for registration to attend in person with visa support request but without funding closes: 03.11.2024

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.

All applicants interested in participating in the World Space Forum must complete the following:

1. Registration form

2. Send the signature form in PDF with the file name below adjusted to your surname and name:

Surname_Name_signature form (e.g. Smith_Mary_signature form)

3. Accompanying documents/process for funded participants - 01.09.2024

Why is this form necessary? To confirm that you have adequate health insurance; to confirm if you need funding; and to confirm that the organization that you represent (which can also be your own company) has approved your potential participation. If you are applying in your individual capacity, the latter element will not apply. Instructions are detailed in the signature form.

Only completed applications with all the requested information and documents will be considered.

Besides this, applicants who wish to be considered to contribute to the event as a speaker or to present a poster will be asked to include an abstract of maximum 250 words in the online application form. Please note that this is not mandatory, but it is recommended in case you want to apply as a fully/partially funded participant. Please also note that if you submit an abstract and are selected as a participant, this does not automatically imply that you will be selected as a speaker.

Please note that only applications submitted through the online form will be accepted.

The United Nations encourages all qualified applicants, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds or disabilities to apply.

Successful candidates will be contacted by email in October. Organizers will announce when the selection is completed on the event webpage. Due to the high number of applicants, unsuccessful candidates will not be notified individually, and organizers will not able to provide individual feedback.

Selection Criteria

Criteria to select participants include motivation and experience in the space sector. Presentation and poster abstracts will be evaluated based on relevance of topic, alignment to World Space Forum objectives, concrete application on the proposed subject, and sound structure.

To encourage equitable access to opportunity, the selection process will consider additional criteria, including regional representativeness and gender balance.

Life and health insurance

Life/major health insurance for each of the selected participants is necessary and is the responsibility of the candidate or their institution or Government. The co-sponsors will not assume any responsibility for life and major health insurance, nor for expenses related to medical treatment or accidents.

Contact Information

World Space Forum Organizing Team

E-Mail: worldspaceforum[@]un.org and wsf2024[@]dlr.de
PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur highlighted the importance of freedom of the press for democracy in his message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day being observed across the globe, including Pakistan.

In his message, Ali Amin Gandapur said, "The purpose of celebrating this day is to highlight the importance of a free press for democracy."

"The role of the free press is to strengthen democracy and democratic values in any society," Ali Amin Gandapur said.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, he said, I pay tribute to the journalists of the whole country, especially of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Ali Amin Gandapur said, "The role of the journalist community for the freedom of journalism and expression is worthy of praise."

"Journalists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are performing their duties despite extremely unfavorable conditions," Ali Amin Gandapur added.

"In the war against terrorism, along with the people and forces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, journalists here have also made great sacrifices," said the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

I salute the victims of journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty, Ali Amin Gandapur said.

He said, "Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf fully believes in freedom of the press."

Our government will always welcome positive media criticism, Ali Amin Gandapur added.

We will take steps to improve in the light of positive media criticism, and the welfare of journalists and the solution of their problems are among the priorities of our government," said Ali Amin Gandapur.

"The present provincial government will work together with journalists to ensure freedom of the press," he concluded.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) urged the government to take proactive steps for the promotion of poultry farming and the resolution of issues attached to this important sector

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) urged the government to take proactive steps for the promotion of poultry farming and the resolution of issues attached to this important sector.

The demand was made by SCCI Senior Vice President Sannaullah Khan while addressing as chief guest at Pak International Poultry Expo 2024, said a statement here on Friday.

Sanaullah Khan on the occasion assured that the chamber would take up issues facing the poultry farming community and would play an effective role in their amicable resolution. He also invited the poultry farmers and business community attached to this sector to the upcoming SCCI Investment Conference, which is likely to be held in mid-May.

The Expo was attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister for Agriculture Maj (R) Sajjad Barkwal, Secretary Livestock Dr Ambar Ali Khan, Principal Veterinary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Dr Syed Masoom Ali, Poultry Association president Raj Wali, along with poultry farming community in a large number.

The SCCI senior vice president, minister of agriculture and other high officials on the occasion agreed to jointly take steps for the promotion of the poultry sector.

Sanaullah asked the poultry sector to send problems in writing to the chamber and assured that these issues would be taken up with the authorities concerned.

The SCCI SVP stressed the need to use modern technology and machinery to increase poultry production so that KP would be less dependent on Punjab and become sufficient in poultry production.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Friday revealed the comprehensive schedule for the Hajj flight operations, offering a detailed insight into the pilgrimage journey set to commence from May 9 and culminate on June 9.

The Ministrys Spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt outlined a meticulously organized plan, delineating the phases of the operation.

For the initial 15 days, all flights are designated to land directly at Madina Airport, affording pilgrims a seamless entry into the sacred journey, he said adding that from May 24 to June 9, a strategic shift will see the majority of flights landing at Jeddah Airport, streamlining the pilgrimage process and ensuring efficient travel arrangements for the influx of pilgrims.

Highlighting the inaugural day's departure statistics, Umar informed that a total of 11 flights would transport 2,160 pilgrims from various embarkation points across Pakistan. Islamabad will witness the departure of 680 Hajj pilgrims through 3 flights, while Karachi and Lahore will contribute 330 and 670 passengers through two and three boarding flights respectively, for the revered journey, he added.

Umar said Multan would see off 329 pilgrims via two flights, while Sialkot would mark its presence with 151 pilgrims departing for Madina in a single flight.

He also disclosed the commencement dates for flights from Quetta and Sukkur, with the former initiating its operations on May 11 and the latter on May 27, further solidifying the nationwide participation in the Hajj pilgrimage.

He further apprised that more than 68,000 official pilgrims were slated to embark on their journey to Saudi Arabia through a total of 259 Hajj flights, underscoring the scale and significance of the annual pilgrimage.

Umar said the Hajj flight operations would draw to a close on June 9, marking the culmination of a profound spiritual voyage for thousands of pilgrims.

In a subsequent development, he said on June 20, the first flight carrying pilgrims would embark on their return journey, signifying the beginning of the pilgrimage's conclusion and the pilgrims' homeward bound trajectory.
(@FahadShabbir)

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Khuzdar Press Clubs President among three died and eight others sustained injuries in blast near Sultan Ibrahma Khan Road area of Khuzdar town on Friday.

According to SHO Khuzdar City, the blast was occurred near the vehicle of the victim Journalist namely Muhammad Siddiq when he was crossing the way to go the University of Khuzdar in a vehicle from his house.

As a result, he died on the spot and ten other suffered injuries.

The police reached the on the spot and cordoned off the entire area.

The body and the injured were shifted to nearby hospital where two among the injured succumbed to their injuries during initial treatment processes.

The SHO said that unknown armed men had opened fire at local journalist Muhammad Siddiq few months ago but he had escaped in the attack.

The blast was reported to be of remote control bomb.

Further investigation was underway.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) strongly condemned the attack on the local journalist and demanded the provincial government to take measures to arrest those attackers involved in killing of the journalist to provide justice to the families of the victim.
(@FahadShabbir)

The World Press Freedom Day observed across the world including Pakistan on Friday to celebrate hard work, dedication and services of the journalists for bringing positive change in the society by unearthing truth

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) The World Press Freedom Day observed across the world including Pakistan on Friday to celebrate hard work, dedication and services of the journalists for bringing positive change in the society by unearthing truth.

A number of walks, events and special ceremonies were held across the country including Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) to uphold the international right of press freedom and promoting responsible journalism.

In Islamabad, the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP), National Press Club and other media organizations held seminars, walks and special events to recognize the contributions of journalists community to the society, and also highlight importance of responsible journalism.

President Asif Ali Zardari has emphasized the need to initiate measures for the safety and security of the journalists enabling them to freely report on important issues, without fear.

"The Constitution of Pakistan guarantees the freedom of the press; however, it is also the responsibility of the media to abide by journalistic ethics and report responsibly and accurately, keeping in view the national interest," the president said in his message on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in his message, assured that the incumbent government would make all-out efforts to uplift the media industry and resolve the issues confronting it.

The prime minister also reiterated the resolve for government's maximum cooperation to protect the rights of media industry as well as the media workers.

He paid tribute to the journalists, media workers, writers and cameramen and lauded their fight for truth.

Chairman Senate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani called for collective working for the collective rights and welfare of the journalist community.

On the World Press Freedom Day, the Senate Chairman extended his profound acknowledgement and commendation to journalists in Pakistan and across the globe for their invaluable contributions to society.

On this important day, let us reaffirm our shared commitment to guarding and sustaining freedom of the press which plays a pivotal role in upholding democracy, promoting accountability, and providing a platform for diverse voices, he said.

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has extended sincere solidarity to journalists and media professionals worldwide on World Press Freedom Day.

Emphasizing the paramount importance of press freedom, he reaffirmed his partys staunch support for the invaluable role of a free and independent press in fostering democracy.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Institute of Space Technology (IST) a leading high-end university of Pakistan had the distinct honor of launching a Cube Satellite ICUBE-Qamar (ICUBE-Q) in Lunar orbit onboard the Chinas Chang `E-6 Mission on Friday at 14:18 PST from Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan, China.

CubeSats are a class of small satellites used by academic institutes for experimental and research purposes in Low Earth Orbits, generally with an altitude of less than one thousand km.

However, these satellites are now finding many applications in higher orbits and deep space missions. Moon is in an elliptical orbit at an average distance of around 384 thousand km from the earth which makes it challenging to communicate with and control small satellites.

According to a news release issued by IST, the opportunity to release CubeSat in Lunar orbit from Chang-E`6 mission was offered by China National Space Agency (CNSA) through Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) to APSCO member states.

After thorough evaluation, Pakistans proposal was accepted out of all APSCO member states.

The design, development and qualification of ICUBE-Q was led by faculty members and students of the IST in collaboration with Chinas Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and support from Pakistan National Space Agency SUPARCO.

ICUBE-Q carried two cameras as payload for imaging Lunar surface and Earth/Moon images from Lunar orbit besides having 3-axis altitude control for desired orientation, onboard computer, thermal control, telemetry and tele-command and payload data communication modules for connecting through deep space network.

ChangE6 rocket will take five Earth days to reach Moon orbit.

ICUBE-Q will be deployed on May 08 in a carefully selected 12-hour elliptical orbit that will allow imaging of the desired Lunar surfaces.

IST is a federally chartered university that pioneered the development of CubeSats in Pakistan by launching its first CubeSat ICUBE-1 in Low Earth Orbit in November 2013.

According to the Head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at IST and co-lead on the satellite project, Khurram Khurshid, This is Pakistans first deep space mission which is a historic moment that would pave the way for launching other deep space missions in the future.

Around 100 students, along with the faculty members, contributed to various aspects of the satellite, including electrical engineering for electronics, aerospace engineering for control systems, computer science for software and mechanical/materials engineering for identifying materials suitable for the moons harsh environment, he said.

According to the timeline of the launch of Chang'e 6 probe, at 5:27pm (BJT) on May 03, the Long March 5 Y8 rocket, carrying Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from Wenchang Space Launch Site.

About 37 minutes after the liftoff, the Change 6 probe separated from the rocket, and was sent to the Earth-Moon transfer orbit with a perigee of 200km and an apogee of about 380,000km.

Next, it will make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon, to collect lunar samples and carry out scientific detection work.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the moon and dock with the orbiter-reentry capsule combination in lunar orbit. The re-entry capsule will then carry the samples back to Earth. The entire process is expected to last about 53 days.
Goma, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Blasts killed at least nine people Friday in a displaced persons camp on the outskirts of Goma in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local sources said.

According to witnesses, "bombs" fell on huts housing displaced people, during fighting between M23 (March 23 movement) rebels and the government.

After eight years of dormancy, the mostly Tutsi M23 rebellion took up arms again in late 2021, seizing large swathes of North Kivu province, some forty kilometres (25 miles) northwest of its provincial capital Goma.

The origin of Friday's blasts has not been clearly established, but government spokesman Patrick Muyaya accused "the Rwandan army and its M23 terrorist supporters" of being responsible on X.

According to Kinshasa, the United Nations and Western countries, neighbouring Rwanda is backing the M23, something Kigali denies.

"I saw nine bodies in front of me" including several children, Dedesi Mitima head of the Lac Vert neighbourhood to the west of Goma, told AFP. Another official gave a provisional death toll of 10.

The huts were either side of the road leading from Goma to the strategic town of Sake, about 20 kilometres from the capital.

The UN estimated at the end of 2023 that nearly seven million people had been displaced in DR Congo, including 2.5 million in North Kivu alone.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov has held a meeting with Director-General of the European Commission for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR) Gert Jan Koopman, Trend reports.

The Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan reported that discussions included the implementation of the Economic and Investment Plan in Azerbaijan, aligned with the priorities of the EU Eastern Partnership for 2021-2025, and explored partnership opportunities with the EU for COP29.

Additionally, potential areas of cooperation were deliberated based on joint priorities for the upcoming years.

This November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Baku will become the center of the world and will receive about 7080,000 foreign guests.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. COPthe Conference of the Partiesis the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th May, 2024) The WHO chief on Friday begged countries negotiating a global agreement on handling future pandemics to "get this done", as they prepare for one final week of last-ditch talks.

World Health Organization member states have spent the last two years drafting an international accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

However, negotiations have gone into overtime -- and even that is now running out.

Countries decided to return Monday to the WHO headquarters in Geneva for a fortnight of do-or-die extra talks, to try to break the deadlock over issues such as equitable access to vaccines, and how to share data on emerging pathogens.

Five days in, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that for some, the agreement is either too specific, not specific enough, too strong, or too weak.

But he urged naysayers not to block everyone else from coming to a deal.

"I have one simple request: please, get this done," Tedros said, in a direct appeal in the negotiating room.

"I appreciate that it has been a difficult and sometimes painful process and that it's not over. I appreciate that all of you are making compromises you did not want to make.

"I recognise that there may be delegations who despite their good faith efforts, may not be in a position to join a consensus, but they have a choice: they can choose not to block consensus."
UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Marking World Press Freedom Day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has highlighted an uptick in violence faced by journalists covering environmental issues, which has made the profession increasingly dangerous.

In a message released on Friday, the UN chief said journalists and media workers have a key role in informing and educating the public about the worlds current environmental and climate emergency which stands as a threat to future generations.

It is through this work that people can have a greater understanding of environmental factors affecting the world and advocate for change, he said.

However, based on recent UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report, journalists, especially environmental journalists, face violent attacks, and even death, for simply doing their job.

Dozens of journalists covering illegal mining, logging, poaching and other environmental issues have been killed in recent decades, Guterres noted. But, In the vast majority of cases, no one has been held to account.

Analyzing the violence environmental journalists face, UNESCO's report found that journalists and news outlets reporting on environmental issues dealt with about 750 attacks in the past 15 years. the Secretary-General said.

In an interview with UN News, Guilherme Canela, UNESCOs Chief of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists, said the report found that 70 per cent of journalists doing environmental reporting dealt with at least one form of violence, and a quarter of the surveyed journalists dealt with legal attacks.

Additionally, Canela said that over the past 50 years, 44 journalists covering environmental stories were killed.

He said it is important to remember that journalists are important observers of conflict zones and that they provide life-saving information for civilian populations affected by these conflicts.

Canela said, UNESCO is sounding the alarm that we need to take care of the protection of those journalists covering environmental issues, because raising that awareness about what's going on in the environment and holding powerful actors accountable is absolutely essential to face the current environmental challenges that the planet is having.

In a statement for World Press Freedom Day, Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said losing a journalist means losing a human rights defender, and that the world needs independent, ethical and quality journalism perhaps now more than ever.

Turk said journalists  emphasizing environmental journalists  need stronger commitments from their governments and their employers to protect them, safer work environments, and the right to work without attacks.

The Secretary-General also recognized journalists invaluable work and their efforts to keep the public informed and engaged and is calling on governments, private sectors and civil societies to recommit to protecting press freedom and the rights of journalists and media professionals globally.

APP/ift
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks were more muted Friday after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order

New York, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks were more muted Friday after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.

Police in Manhattan cleared an encampment at New York University after sunrise, with video posted to social media by an official showing protesters exiting their tents and dispersing when ordered by loudspeaker.

The scene appeared relatively calm compared to crackdowns at other campuses around the country -- and some worldwide -- where protests over Israel's war in Gaza have multiplied in recent weeks.

University administrators, who have tried to balance the right to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, have increasingly called on police to clear out the protesters ahead of year-end exams and graduation ceremonies -- and some clashes with counter-protesters.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the United States, some during violent confrontations with police, giving rise to accusations of over-use of force.

President Joe Biden, who has faced pressure from all political sides over the Israel-Gaza war, gave his first expansive remarks on the protests Thursday, saying that "order must prevail."

"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," Biden said in a televised statement from the White House.

"But neither are we a lawless country. We're a civil society, and order must prevail."

His remarks came hours after police moved in on demonstrators at University of California, Los Angeles, which had seen a violent confrontation when counter-protesters attacked a fortified encampment there.

A large police contingent forcibly cleared the sprawling encampment early Thursday while flashbangs were launched to disperse crowds gathered outside.

Schools officials said that over 200 people were arrested.

On the opposite US coast Thursday, protesters at New Jersey's Rutgers University agreed to take down their camp after reaching a compromise with administrators, like a similar deal at other institutions, including Brown University.

Republicans have accused Biden of being soft on what they say is anti-Semitic sentiment among the protesters, while he faces opposition in his own party for his strong support for Israel's war on Gaza.

"There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students," Biden said.

education Secretary Miguel Cardona echoed the condemnation in a letter to university leaders on Friday and pledging to investigate reports of anti-Semitism "aggressively," CNN reported.

Meanwhile, similar student protests have popped up in countries around the world, including in Australia, France, Mexico and Canada.

In Paris, police moved in to clear students staging a sit-in at the Sciences Po university.

An encampment has grown at Canada's prestigious McGill University, where administrators on Wednesday demanded it be taken down "without delay." However, police had yet to take action against the site as of Friday morning.

The Gaza war started after attack on Israel on October 7 that left more than 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,600 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Palestine territory's health ministry.

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 3. The volume of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian International Transport route in the first quarter of 2024 increased by almost 50 percent compared to the same period in 2023, said Deputy General Director for Logistics of Kazakhstan's KTZ Express Aibek Kapar, Trend reports.

"Providing high-quality service has made it possible to significantly increase cargo transportation along the Middle Corridor. "If we compare the results of the first quarter of 2024 with the same indicators as last year, we can observe a significant increase in cargo transport by an average of 50 percent, both in transit traffic and in export and import traffic," he said.

According to him, the Middle Corridor has become a priority in the companys logistics strategy.

"Kazakhstan plays a key role, controlling most of the land roads and ports on the Caspian Sea. Along this route, KTZ Express transports grains, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, chemicals, and food products. It takes three days to travel along the land section of the Middle Corridor from Altynkol station to Aktau. In this case, the total turnover, taking into account the return of the railcar, is 910 days," Kapar noted.

The Middle Corridor is a transportation and trade route that connects Asia and Europe, passing through several countries in the region. It is an alternative route to the traditional Northern Corridor and Southern Corridor.

The route starts in China and crosses Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. It then passes through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye before reaching Europe.

Bypassing the lengthier maritime routes, the Middle Corridor offers a land link between Europe and eastern Asia, including China.
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VOA  CONNECT

EPISODE # 328

AIR DATE: 04 26 2024

FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT





SHOW OPEN

((Animation))

((VO/NAT/SOT))

Handbells for Seniors

((SOT))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Playing music engages both sides of your brain because not only are you doing the artistic side, but you also have the dexterity side.

((Animation))

The Heart of Cajun Music

((SOT))

((Trish McGee

Owner, Freds Lounge))

Welcome to Fred's Lounge in Big Mamou, Louisiana.

Fred's Lounge was built in 1946, and it's an icon all over the world.

((Animation))

Programming AI to Dream

((SOT))

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

This tool is intelligent. This tool can enhance the human mind and our capacity of imagination, learning, remembering. Our cognitive capacity can be enhanced by AI.



((TITLE)) HANDBELLS

((TRT: 8:18))

((Banner: Playing Handbells and bringing people together))

((Reporter: Marsha James))

((Camera/Editor: Philip Alexiou))

((Map: Reston, Virginia))

((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))

((Sub characters: 3 female; 0 male))

((Blub: Anyone can play handbells no matter how old you are. It just takes patience and drive.))

((Banner: Executive Director Alan Payne of Music to Free introduces hand bells to seniors while fellowshipping through music.))

((NATS: ((Alan Payne))

Dont forget your music. Here we go. Ready? 49.

One, two, three, four. ((Repeated))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

I think playing any type of music is just a great brain activity and on different levels. Listening to music just helps to elevate your mood, helps to relieve some of the symptoms of depression.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Playing music engages both sides of your brain because not only are you doing the artistic side, but you also have the dexterity side. And so that's where the name Music to Free came from, is when I am practicing or when I'm playing music, I push out all the other noise in my life, and it just frees my mind to be in the moment and be present to play the music. And with handles, you have an ensemble of people, so you're fellowshipping in general, just by the nature of the instrument. And it's a very social, engaging activity that is so very important, especially for seniors that often live alone, are widows or widowers, and they have limited social interaction at times.

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

So this is an opportunity to come together and do something where you are part of something that's much bigger. My kids started playing handbells at church, and I had an interest in that, and was substituting for some of the ringers when they were out, and eventually just joined the adult choir. And I'd been playing handbells for almost 20 years. So, the reason I liked handbells for this, is we would bring the church handbell choir out here to do a Christmas program for the residents. And after the concert, the residents would come up and want to see how to ring the handbells. And some of our ringers were ringing two and three bells in each hand, and they were just fascinated how they had the coordination and how we set the bells up to do that. And so that was kind of the genesis for starting Music to Free because I asked about coming and doing a handbell program for the residents. ((NATS))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Music to Free started in October of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, and we decided to formulate a formal nonprofit so that we could come and do our teaching programs under the umbrella of that, and also look for donors and sponsors for some of our programs, because we provide the programs at no cost to the residents or the facility.

((NATS: Alan Payne))

One, two, three, four. ((Repeated))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Anyone can ring handbells in my opinion, whether you have a musical background, whether you read music or not. The ladies that are playing here at Reston, three years ago, none of them had any musical experience, none of them had played an instrument. And we started from the very basic. How do you read music? What's a quarter note? What's a half note? And how to ring the handbells? And in two and a half years, they've been able to progress to the point where they can get a new piece of music, look through it, and play it for the first time and do a good job.

((NATS: Alan Payne))

One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

So, the ladies that are ringing here at the Fellowship House in Reston, range in age from about 72 [years old] to 92 [years old].

((Greer Casey Martin

Handbell Ringer, Music to Free))

Greer Casey Martin. Im 72 years old. I love playing the handbells. I think Im doing pretty good.

((Zhangying Chen

Handbell Ringer, Music to Free))

My name is Zhangying Chen. I am 87 years old. I love handbells. Teacher is very nice. Jane (social worker) also is very nice.

((Zhenhua Gao

Handbell Ringer, Music to Free))

My name is Zhenhua Gao. Im 88 years old. I love handbells very much. We have a wonderful teacher and a very wonderful social worker to arrange all the things. I enjoy the lessons and make me active. And life is so much beautiful.

((NATS))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

When we started, I learned quickly to group them by their origin and nationality. We have those from China, those from Korea, those from Vietnam. And although English is not their primary language, they all speak it very well and understand it. But when we introduce something new musically or something new, a new technique with the handbells, having them grouped together by their nationality, they break off into their own little subgroups and just talk about it, and whoever has the best concept of the idea, explains it to the rest of them. And so, as soon as we introduce something new, you'll hear people going off in Chinese people in Korean, people in Vietnamese.

And then we have some others from other countries, and they just all work together, and then it all comes together in the end.

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Its a very controlled movement, so even those that have limited mobility or they might have the use of only one hand, they can still ring handbells and be part of an ensemble. You don't need the dexterity you do for playing piano, playing clarinet, a violin, and cello. So it's very accessible. And the bells are light, the higher pitched bells are light. So, you don't have to worry about injuring yourself. Our movement is a very controlled movement. And that's why it's so accessible to seniors, and it's just a total brain workout, learning how to play a musical instrument.

((NATS))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

It's up to the individual. Trevor, who did the solo at our Christmas concert, I think has been ringing for almost 40 years, and he has rung with various church choirs around the country where he's lived. Hes run with different community groups that are typically advanced handbell ringers, like Bronze Unlimited. So, he does have a lot of experience, but it comes down to your drive and your willingness to practice.

((NATS))

((Alan Payne

Executive Director, Music to Free))

Its all volunteer work for me, which is whats so gratifying, because I get to give back to the community, both our micro community and then a larger community, out here with the seniors.

((NATS: Alan Payne))

One, two, three, four. ((Repeated))





TEASE

((VO/NAT/SOT))

Coming Up

((Title))

The Heart of Cajun Music

((SOT))

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Blake Whitmire

Musician))

Its justit's dance music.





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((SOCIAL MEDIA PKG.))

((TITLE)) FREEDOM ON WHEELS

((TRT: 01:00))

((Original Reporter/Camera/Producer: Genia Dulot))

((Social Media Producer/Editor: Lisa Vohra))

((Blurb: Meet Tracie, a woman who embraces her wheelchair as a source of liberation.))

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

Because you have a wheelchair doesnt mean you cant do an extreme sport.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

I kept on having vertigo and things would happen, like my hands started not functioning well and I was doing sculpture and I couldnt hold the tools and I was dropping them on my feet and those are really sharp.

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

Finally, I am diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So the lady whose chair I tried said to me, A wheelchair is just a tool. And that made sense to me.

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

A wheelchair improved the quality of my life and it gave me a sport. Its just, that moment was one of the best in my life.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

I just want people to see when I am out there, that this is possible. And its possible at 17. Its possible at 20. Its possible at 30. And darn it, its possible at 60.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Tracie Garacochea

Adaptive Skateboarder))

It feels like you are flying.





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((TITLE)) FREDS LOUNGE, THE HEART OF CAJUN MUSIC

((TRT: 11:00))

((Banner: Freds Lounge, The Heart of Cajun Music))

((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))

((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))

((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))

((Map: Mamou, Louisiana))

((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))

((Sub characters: 5 female; 4 male))

((Blurb: Open only on Saturday mornings, Freds Lounge has been hosting Cajun bands and keeping Cajun culture alive since 1946.))

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Courtesy: Richard DesHotels))

((Mike Perron

92.5-KVPI-FM))

Thank you all for joining us. They're going to be here till five o'clock. Like I said, at least this band isthey got a lot going on here at Fred's Lounge all weekend.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Trish McGee

Owner, Freds Lounge))

Welcome to Fred's Lounge in Big Mamou, Louisiana.

Fred's Lounge was built in 1946, and it's an icon all over the world. We have people from Germany, Australia, France, just to come and listen to our music, and dance and drink a Bloody Mary every once in a while. We're only open on Saturdays. From 7:30 [am] till 1:30 [pm] the band plays, but if it's packed, we stay open the rest of the day.

((Blake Whitmire

Musician))

I'm here at Fred's Lounge because this is the place where you're going to find the best Cajun music in Louisiana.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Donny Broussard

Musician, Donny Broussard and Louisiana Stars))

This is the third generation. My grandfather had the band, and my uncle and I played with him until he passed away, so we just kept it going. This is, like I said, this is the third generation of the band. It was always Cajun music.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Keri McGee Miller))

I feel sorry for people who aren't Cajun. We grew up in a community that everybody's close, you know. Everybody is justwe speak French. People look at us as weird, but I feel sorry for other people. It's justits awesome. The people, the music. I mean, I listen to this, and my hips just go to the music. It's justit's awesome.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Barry Jean Ancelet

Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies

University of Louisiana at Lafayette))

What is now Louisiana became a state in 1812, and immediately there was pressure applied to this non-English speaking place to Americanize itself. So that's when the Renaissance startedwas right after World War II. We began to see Cajun music, which had been neglected by the recording studios for a decade.

They began to be recorded again and there was this new appreciation for who we are, not to get sort of drowned out in this vast Americana.

((Courtesy: Richard DesHotels))

((Barry Jean Ancelet

Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies

University of Louisiana at Lafayette))

They were reading the signs that were beginning to emerge at that time. You know, Fred told me when Iry LeJeune's first record came out, the first time Cajun music was recorded in quite a while, was on their jukeboxes. And he said, if he never heard the Evangeline Special again in his life, that would be fine, because it was all that played all day long, every day, for months, because as soon as that record was there, people said, Yeah, that's what I like. That's what it is I want. They kept shoving nickels in the jukebox and listening. It became sort of, you know, a mantra, basically for this sense of renewed interest in ourselves.

((Barry Jean Ancelet

Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies

University of Louisiana at Lafayette))

Fred was conscious, self-conscious of this, but, you know, of course they were all aware that something was happening and that it felt good to not have to feel bad about yourself again. They were just really great hosts. Tante Sue made everybody feel, you know, welcome, and she was always so joyous, and she was way more than a barmaid. She was like an animator, an animatrice that we call it in French.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Steve Riley

Musician

Steve Riley and Mamou Playboys))

Anyone who knows Fred's Lounge knows Tante Sue. She was a barmaid, who would have a holster with her schnapps and her drinks, and she would serve people, and she would sing with the band. And she embodies what Mamou is, the joie de vivre [enjoyment of life] of Fred's coming together around the music, the culture, every Saturday morning, and it's broadcast for the world to hear.

She was there from the beginning. She saw it all come together. She saw the Cajun Renaissance happen. When people realized that what we had here was great, it started being exported outside of Louisiana, and therefore, people started coming here. Dignitaries, you know, just people who fell in love with the music and the culture.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Rachel Lafleur

Freds granddaughter))

About staying in Mamou.

((Tante Sue

Freds Lounge Bartender))

I will go all over the world with yalls camera without leaving Mamou.

((Rachel Lafleur

Freds granddaughter))

She's going to go all over the world on film, but stay in Mamou.

((Tante Sue

Freds Lounge Bartender))

This is Fred. This is a portrait of Fred.

((Rachel Lafleur

Freds granddaughter))

I think it was in 1942. He and his twin brother bought it. It was Tate's Bar. His twin brother went missing in the Bermuda Triangle, and then he purchased it in 1946. Fred bought it and it became Fred's Bar.

I've been going to Fred's as long as I can remember. Mom would let us. She would bring us on Saturdays, sometimes just for us to listen to the music and be with our grandparents.

((Tante Sue

Freds Lounge Bartender))

I was 16 years old. I graduated from high school, May the 28th, 1948. I refused to get married at 16 [years old]. So, I made my 17th birthday on June the 3rd. I got married June the 9th to Fred. I started popping hot damn. We couldn't keep enough bottles in the place to sell. Once I started once, Ill pop a drink, and I'd give everybody a drink if they wanted one. Then they'd all buy a half pint.

I was born and raised French. And it just so happened with Fred owning the bar, we were able to promote Cajun music, and Cajun language, and Cajun living. Joie de vivre, joys of life.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Wanda Verrette

Treasurer, Mamou Cajun Music Festival))

When Fred was alive, the bar was open every day. I don't know about Sunday, but, you know, almost every day. They had people coming in during the day and drinking. And on Friday afternoons, you know, everybody would gather there after work. And when he got sick is when it started just opening on Saturdays, and we're not sure what year that was.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Blake Whitmire

Musician))

It's all feel to me. Like you can probably hear it in the background right now, but it's justit's dance music. And I think it's first purpose is to serve as a thing for people to dance to. And so, it's always grooving.

((Tante Sue

Freds Lounge Bartender))

Dancing was my favorite thing. I was just like every other Cajun though. I'm a hard worker. Work was a challenge to me, but I love to dance.

((Rachel Lafleur

Freds granddaughter))

So the bands that come are strictly French music. A lot of people call it Cajun music. We call it French music. For all my children, I have three boys, they were all brought up with Cajun music. They all love Cajun music. My youngest son is actually with us in the Cajun Music Festival Association. So, I do my part in trying to keep it, get my family involved. I think that the more we promote it with our kids and our younger generations, the further it'll go.

((Ashlee Eastin Wilson

Writer, French Teacher))

Cajun music was born here in the prairies of South Louisiana. It's where the natives, the French, the German, the Spanish, and the Africans all met. I mean, out here, we were all kind of sharecropping, doing the same thing, and so there was a lot of cultural overlap. We had the same religion. We had the same foodways. And so there was a lot of sharing at house dances and just between neighbors. So, there was a special breed of music that was born of that. There's the German accordion, and then, of course, the African rhythms, and the French or Acadian fiddle. So I would say when you have the rhythm, and then the fiddle and the accordion, that those are the keys to Cajun or Zydeco music.

((NATS/MUSIC))

((Tante Sue

Freds Lounge Bartender))

Cajuns like having a good time, and bon temp is good time. They like eating. They like drinking liquor. But they like working also. They work very hard. They love working. Working is a joy. Joy of life. Cajuns are always happy. It is true. They have a very joyous outlook on life. Your Cajun people do. Hot damn!

((NATS))



((PKG)) AI AS AN ART FORM

((TRT: 4:25))

((Topic Banner: Programming AI [Artificial Intelligence] to Dream))

((Reporter/Camera/Editor/Producer: Genia Dulot))

((Map: Los Angeles, California))

((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))

((Sub characters: 0 female; 0 male))

((Blurb: Refik Anadol, an artist at the forefront of data painting and AI-generated art, explores the fusion of technology and creativity. By leveraging machine-learning algorithms, Anadol is known for innovative media works and showcases the creative potential of AI)).



((MUSIC/NATS))

((Opening shots are Courtesy of MoMA 00:00:00-00:10:09))

((Courtesy: MoMA))

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

It was 2008 when, I think, I coined the term data painting, and Im still looking for anyone else before 2008 who used this wording. In 2008, I started to work with custom algorithms and softwares, which is allowing me and team to understand the invisible pattern of data around us. In 2016, I was one of the first-generation artists working with AI [Artificial Intelligence] at Google. And Google invited an artist to learn how to use AI to create art. And the idea here is to try to create experiences with using collective memories of humanity. This can be the image archive such as nature, or space such as NASA JPL [Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory], Mars, ISS [International Space Station], Hubble [Hubble Space Telescope],

((Courtesy: MoMA))

or it can be culture such as MoMA, Museum of Modern Art archives.

((end Courtesy))

((MUSIC))

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

So in the studio, we are working with a diverse amount of archival data sets, and letting machine-learning algorithms to learn from them to create machine hallucinations or machine dreams.

So here, we are seeing an incredible amount of millions of images about nature. Like specifically this part you are seeing here is the flowers. And from this data, if you come here, we trained an AI. And this is a real time AI application. It may be one of the first in the world that allows us to look at what AI learned from that data.

So here, Im flying literally in the mind of a machine. And on the right side, this algorithm can create almost realistic photos of flowers. And as you see here is also real time, can interact with AIs mind.

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

This, for example, algorithm can real time go and find an image here and represents what the machine can dream.

So what you are watching here is, for example, this one. Its literally taking 300 million raw image archives from nature and reconstructing the data sculpture.

Here, we are watching an AI kind of dreaming the dreams of a satellite, such as ISS, MRO [Magdalena Ridge Observatory], and Hubble Telescope. And Hubble Telescope by NASA JPL is recording the universe for us, the galaxies for us. And the question was, what would be the dream of a telescope, and how can we visualize the dreams?

((MUSIC))

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

AI, in my mind, is a collaborative co-creator, the idea of working with large data sets that are beyond our capacity of, as humans' capacity of imagination, and even, I guess, cognitive capacity. Like lets imagine a million images of all the flowers in the world. There is no single way to remember all the flowers in the world. But with AI algorithm, I can easily say that in this AI model, there is all the flower types in this AI model. Now, I want to imagine a brush that I can put in this mind of a machine and paint with this pigmentation. To me, the artmaking is still the artmaking. But the brush itself is invented, the pigment is invented, the context is invented from scratch.

((MUSIC))

((Refik Anadol

Artist))

This tool is intelligent. This tool can enhance the human mind and our capacity of imagination, learning, remembering. Our cognitive capacity can be enhanced by AI. I see a lot of possibilities in a good way. Instead of pushing humans out, Im just more seeing that as a human, using AI for me, enhancing my skill set. AI is allowing me to go beyond what I can do. Im seeing, not a threat, but more like an advantage of like applying to my conscious model, cognitive capacity. AI can bring an extreme positive possibilities for humanity. Its really all about how we look from and where we look from. And I do believe AI is just a form of mirror. And thats about humanity, not about AI.

((MUSIC))

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((PKG)) NATURE: Plane Watch

((Title: Nature: Plane Watch))

((TRT: 2:00))

((Reporter: Philip Alexiou))

((Camera/Editor/Producer: Philip Alexiou))

((Location: Arlington, Virginia))

((Description: Along the George Washington Memorial Parkway is Gravelly Point run by the National Park Service. A spot for bikers, walkers, picnics and one of the best places in the country for airplane-watching.))

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IN COMING WEEKS

((VO/NAT/SOT))

In coming weeks

((Title))

The New Bronze Age

((SOT))



((NATS/MUSIC))

((Carol Newmyer

Bronze Sculptor))

The expression I like to use is participatory art. I like the fact many of my pieces can be taken apart, put in many different positions. Changed. and you can interact with them. So if art is meant to communicate, then the person who is interacting with the piece is communicating back. So it's a full cycle communication experience through art.

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((SOCIAL MEDIA PKG.))

((TITLE)) FROM BUCHENWALD TO BROOKLYN

((TRT: 01:00))

((Original Producer: Marsha James))

((Original Camera/Editor: Kaveh Rezaei))

((Social Media Producer/Editor: Lisa Vohra))

((Blurb: Martin Greenfield, a Holocaust survivor, arrived in the United States in 1947 as an orphan. Starting as a floor boy in a NYC suit factory, he eventually became the owner and the tailor for celebrities and U.S. Presidents, leading Martin Greenfield Clothiers since 1977 and authoring a book detailing his journey.))

((Martin Greenfield

Holocaust Survivor, Tailor))

When somebody comes to buy something, I know how to measure him. And I know when I fit him, he gets a perfect suit.

((Martin Greenfield

Holocaust Survivor, Tailor))

I was born in the Carpathian Mountains in Czechoslovakia. I was taken when I was very young to Auschwitz. My family I lost. The Germans killed them.

((Martin Greenfield

Holocaust Survivor, Tailor))

They gave me different kinds of jobs, so I could survive. Because my father always said, think about surviving.

((Martin Greenfield

Holocaust Survivor, Tailor))

My name is Martin Greenfield and I am the tailor for all presidents. President Clinton, President Obama came to see me. All my life, I started like I was nobody, but I became somebody because of my ability to learn and to do the job the best.





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SHOW ENDS
A bus veered into a ravine in Pakistan's far north early on Friday, a local government spokesman said, killing 20 passengers, while 21 injured were rescued and taken to hospital.

The bus was headed to the mountainous northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan from the garrison city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab, when the accident happened in the early hours.

"The bus was passing through Diamer district in Gilgit-Baltistan when it fell into a deep ravine," Faizullah Firaq, a spokesman for local government authorities in the area, told Reuters, adding that 21 people were injured.

The government immediately launched a rescue operation to evacuate all the injured, who were taken to hospital, he added.

Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads in many rural areas are in poor condition.

For decades Pakistan has done extensive work in carving roads through its dramatic rugged northern terrain, home to some of the world's highest mountain ranges, approached by narrow roads perched on sheer cliffs.

Militant attacks, including one in March nearby in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that killed six people, pose another risk to travelers in the area, targeting Chinese-backed dams and hydropower infrastructure projects.
Reporters and media analysts in Afghanistan report steadily increasing censorship and deteriorating conditions for local journalists.

Media on the ground feel as though no stories can be filed without Taliban approval, said a Kabul-based journalist who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

The journalist has been covering politics and security issues in Afghanistan for more than a decade. He said he used to be able to go straight to the scene of an incident, get eyewitness accounts and ask officials for their story.

But no one can imagine doing that [now], he told VOA. We must have the Talibans account of a story first or else we cannot publish it.

Dawood Mubarak Oglu No media source currently available 0:00 0:00:59 0:00

Government control over content is just one of the challenges the countrys journalists face, media advocates say. Female reporters face dress code regulations. And in April alone, Taliban officials in Khost province detained three journalists and blocked access to the privately owned channels Noor TV and Barya TV, according to media reports.

Officials said the broadcasters were not respecting national and Islamic values.

Afghan journalists try their best to cover stories, but it is challenging, said Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum.

Censorship is increasing day by day. The Taliban aim to control what the media say, Graan said. By control, I mean, whatever they want is covered, and whatever they do not want is not covered.

That environment is reflected in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, which saw Afghanistan drop 26 points over the past year. The country ranks 178 out of 180, with 1 assigned to the country with the best media environment, in the report published Friday by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

Mirwais Zazai No media source currently available 0:00 0:01:04 0:00

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is the most repressive country in South Asia, said Celia Mercier, who covers the region for RSF. Directive[s] of all kinds that are restricting press freedom, she added.

Neither the Taliban spokesperson nor its Foreign Ministry responded to VOAs request for comment. But the Taliban have previously said that media outlets have unrestricted freedom and support from the government if they follow the country's laws and Islamic values.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center has recorded more than 450 media violation cases since the Taliban took power.

These include three journalists killed, 219 detentions and 235 cases of threats and physical violence, said Ahmad Quraishi, the centers executive director.

Quraishi told VOA that when the Taliban took over, they announced that the countrys existing media law would remain in effect. But then they issued about 17 edicts that are in opposition to media law, he said.

Beh Lin Yi, head of the Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia program, said the Taliban try to control media so that Afghans and the world wont know what was going on in the country.

Anonymous Afghan Journalist No media source currently available 0:00 0:00:59 0:00

Beh said the international community should speak up for the female journalists who are bearing the brunt of the Taliban crackdown on the media because they have been denied an equal opportunity to work inside Afghanistan.

More than 80% of the country's female journalists lost their jobs in the first four months of the Talibans takeover, according to RSF.

Among all female media workers including journalists, the drop-off was 73% during those months, according to RSF.

Those women who continue to work as journalists in Afghanistan face strict limitations. The Taliban require all women to wear the hijab. But female journalists were also told they must be covered from head to toe. And they also have to grapple with the restrictive mandates imposed on all Afghan women, such as not being allowed to travel more than short distances unaccompanied by a male relative.

The limitations made it impossible for women journalists to continue their work, said Farogh Tarin, who used to work for the Pajhwok News Agency in Kabul.

Farogh Tarin No media source currently available 0:00 0:01:14 0:00

I was not allowed to go to events or attend conferences, interviews and protests. Therefore, I was forced to leave Afghanistan, she told VOA.

Tarin left Afghanistan in March 2022 and is now living in France.

Despite the restrictions, journalists in the country and those in exile are still working hard to cover events.

One reporter in Khost province, who asked for anonymity, said there are limitations on coverage but in general, we continue to report.

Samiullah Jalalzai, Najiba Salam and Mohammad Ahmadi from VOA's Afghan Service contributed to this report. This article originated in VOA's Afghan Service.
Multiple achievements made in China-Hungary BRI conference

Xinhua) 09:16, May 03, 2024

President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua addresses a conference focused on cooperation between China and Hungary under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework in Budapest, Hungary, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/He Canling)

BUDAPEST, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Multiple achievements were made on Thursday at a conference focused on cooperation between China and Hungary under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework.

Under the guidance of China's State Council Information Office, the conference was co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and Hungary's ATV Media Group in Budapest.

Xinhua has always been committed to concentrating efforts and contributing to the joint building of the Belt and Road between the two countries, President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua said while addressing the event.

The conference aims to further implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and promote pragmatic cooperation at various levels across the board so as to make new and greater contributions to the Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries with more innovative results, Fu said.

At the conference, the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP), which was initiated by Xinhua News Agency, inaugurated an Eastern European liaison office.

The China NGO Network for International Exchanges launched a non-governmental Belt and Road cooperation project with Hungary.

The official website of the BRI introduced a dedicated sector for industrial cooperation between China and Hungary.

A report on investment and cooperation between the two countries under the Belt and Road framework was also released.

About 200 people, including government officials, representatives from chambers of commerce and the business sector, as well as heads of major media outlets and think tanks from both countries joined the event.

Fu noted that Xinhua will continue to provide in-depth coverage of high-level interactions between the two countries and present major achievements of the two countries' high-quality Belt and Road cooperation in an all-round and multi-perspective manner.

Stressing efforts to strengthen exchanges with Hungarian think tanks, Fu also urged making full use of platforms and mechanisms including the World Media Summit and the BREIP to roll out even more tangible results.

Fu also stressed the importance of providing services for China-Hungary cooperation in various areas and better promoting the in-depth integration of the BRI cooperation and Hungary's "Opening to the East" policy.

Hungary and China have achieved fruitful results in Belt and Road cooperation, Hungarian Minister for National Economy Marton Nagy said at the conference, citing the Hungary-Serbia railway project as an example.

Hungary sees China's economic development as an important opportunity, Nagy said, stressing that investment from Chinese companies including Bank of China, CATL and BYD has been driving the development of related industries.

Nagy said Hungary is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in areas such as infrastructure and high-tech, and act as a link between China and Europe.

Liu Hongcai, deputy head of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, called for efforts from various sectors of the two countries to thoroughly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further promote people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.

More momentum for future-oriented cooperation should be fostered and cooperation platforms at all levels should make full use of their advantages to respond to global challenges, Liu said.

Liu voiced his hope that people from all walks of life in the two countries will make active contributions to promoting bilateral relations.

During the past years, economic ties and trade between the two countries have flourished, said Tamas Kovacs, CEO of ATV.

Based on the extensive cooperation between ATV and Chinese media outlets, the audience is able to have a better understanding of the fruitful achievements of the two countries' joint efforts, Kovacs said, adding that such cooperation will be carried on to help the two peoples to better understand each other's culture and values.

Participating guests also visited a photo exhibition on the pragmatic BRI cooperation between China and Hungary.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
 Flash

China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the statement from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he said the United States encourages the World Health Organization (WHO) to invite Taiwan's presence as an observer at this year's World Health Assembly (WHA), a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

"The U.S. statement seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the statement," said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson noted that there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. China's position on the Taiwan region's participation in the activities of international organizations, including the WHO, is consistent and clear, that is, this must be handled under the one-China principle, which is also a basic principle enshrined in the UNGA Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1.

The spokesperson added that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have stubbornly stuck to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence," which means that the political foundation for Taiwan region's participation in the WHA no longer exists. The U.S. statement presents this matter in a misleading way essentially to connive at and support "Taiwan independence" separatist activities.

"The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the number one red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations," the spokesperson said.

"We once again urge the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. Joint Communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, act on the U.S. leader's commitment of not supporting 'Taiwan independence,''two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan,' stop using the WHA to create confusion on Taiwan-related issues, and avoid sending wrong signals to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces," said the spokesperson.

"The one-China principle has the extensive support of the international community. It is where global opinion trends and where the arc of history bends. There's no denying or stopping of that trend. Any attempt to play the 'Taiwan card' and use Taiwan to contain China will meet the firm opposition of the international community and is doomed to failure," the spokesperson added.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 3. The opening ceremony of the National Guard airbase was held in Astana, Trend reports via Akorda.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the opening ceremony.

Addressing the ceremony, Tokayev noted that the opening of the airbase is the most important event not only for the National Guard but also for the entire army of the country.

"The airbase will significantly increase the potential of law enforcement agencies and provide opportunities for operational sorties in aviation. The state pays the closest attention to equipping the Armed Forces and developing military infrastructure," he said.

He mentioned that during unprecedented floods in Kazakhstan, servicemen were on the front lines, demonstrating a vivid example of loyalty to their oaths.

Tokayev also recalled that Kazakhstani servicemen successfully participated in various international missions under the auspices of the UN.

"This year, for the first time, they started independently carrying out tasks in the Golan Heights. This demonstrates the high level of training of our troops and the growing authority of Kazakhstan on the world stage," he added.

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Ivan Brehaut was 8 years old when he first visited the Amazon with his father. In the South American rainforest, he found his childhood heroes among the missionaries, who glowed with excitement from their adventures.

But when Brehaut returned as a forestry sciences student at age 21, he found a very different scene.

This Amazon was much more dangerous due of the activities of criminal organizations and the Peruvian insurgent group "Sendero Luminoso," or "Shining Path." Plus, there was a general lack of governmental authority across the territory, which spans Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

Brehaut left forestry science for journalism in 2006 and now works with the Peruvian news website La Mula. He is still drawn to the region.

"For the past 30 years, I've been traveling back and forth in the Amazon, and I love what I do," Brehaut told VOA.

Brehaut reports on illegal mining, fishing and logging; drug trafficking; and the human rights violations resulting from those activities.

A grant from the Rainforest Journalism Fund has helped drive his reporting on environmental crimes in the Ucayali region of Peru. He has also collaborated with a group focused on Indigenous media and communications.

"Many things that are happening are vastly underreported," Brehaut said. "The growth of mostly drug trafficking-based unlawful enterprises and the illegal exploitation of resources is rampant."

He says crimes affecting the region are nearly always linked to violations of human rights, including forced labor, human trafficking and even murder.

"There is organized violence, and these are disputed territories between organizations from Brazil, Colombia, as well as some Peruvian groups," he said. "International efforts are insufficient to address such a complex issue."

Making up more than half of the world's tropical rainforest, the Amazon is one of the world's most biodiverse regions, with about 30,000 plant species alone. It also plays a crucial role in global climate regulation by absorbing carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, from the Earth's atmosphere.

About 34 million people call the Amazon home. Of those, around 9% are from native communities, according to data from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Amazon, however, can be a hostile habitat for the journalists covering the environmental and climate change issues that are shaping it. A report published by the media watchdog the International Press Institute in February found that globally, reporters investigating these issues encounter violence, arrest, and legal and online harassment.

Adding to the danger are "illegal actors" with "unchecked power" ruling remote areas and attacks on journalists going unprosecuted, the report found.

Brehaut says he has been threatened for his reporting. Now he remains constantly alert to risks to his safety.

"In five years living in one site in the Amazon, I've moved four times," he said.

Brehaut's experiences are like those of two journalists who covered the Amazon from Colombia, who also told VOA about the threats they face for their work.

Both asked to remain anonymous because of the safety concerns.

"There is no security for journalists or media outlets that want to investigate," one of the journalists said. "It means risking our lives to tell a story that needs to be seen."

Threats can also come through online harassment and smear campaigns, Brehaut said. Assailants, he said, "defame environmental activists, Indigenous leaders, anyone who opposes fraudulent practices, polluting practices, abuses committed from positions of power, from companies."

The journalists say covering these environmental stories means balancing the need to expose wrongdoing with personal safety.

Brehaut says he lives far from his children and keeps a low profile on social media.

"You have the dilemma: On one hand, there is a group of communities whose security, whose future is at stake due to the threat of an illegal activity, such as drug trafficking," he said. "And on the other hand, it's me, the one investigating, publishing, denouncing."

His commitment, Brehaut said, comes from the legacy he wants to leave his children.

"I cannot shy away from the social commitment inherent in journalism, nor could I tell my 12 and 14-year-old children, 'Fight for what you believe in, struggle for your ideals, be firm and dignified if I don't do it myself,'" he said. "That is what I try to do: I fight for them."

This article originated in VOA's Spanish Language Service.
Tesla CEO Elon Musks visit this week to Beijing, where he met with Premier Li Qiang and received tentative approval for the full rollout of the companys complete driver assistance software, has been described in China as the same as receiving a golden key to the worlds biggest electric vehicle market.

The pledge from Chinese authorities to relax regulations on Teslas full self-driving or FSD feature and an expected loosening of restrictions on where the cars can go in China removes major hurdles for the company.

It also comes as Tesla struggles with an EV price war that has seen its market share shrink.

Analysts say that while the breakthrough in China could help, it may not necessarily be a game changer for the automaker.

Richard Du, founder of Auto Weekly Magazine in Sydney, tells VOAs Mandarin service that Tesla's market share in China is likely to decline even further.

"Tesla is making progress, and so are Chinese cars, Du said. But Chinese cars are making progress faster than Tesla, and the biggest advantage [Chinese car companies have] is the entire industry chain, especially car batteries. It has various advantages in terms of cost, technology and patents."

Du said that while Chinese car companies have struggled to match Tesla's profitability, they have received support from national policies and subsidies.

David Lin, an auto expert and vlogger in Taipei, said Musk can still maintain a leading position in the market if China follows through on the tentative FSD approval and relaxation of regulations, and the market settles down.

"Tesla, of course, must quickly implement FSD software and no longer be involved in the cost-cutting war in the Chinese market," he said.

Over the past four years, Tesla has offered limited FSD features in China, such as lane-change assist, by subscription, according to Reuters.

Teslas Chinese website opens the door for purchasing the FSD software priced at RMB 64,000 (~$9,000), though features such as recognizing and reacting to traffic lights and stop signs and autonomously assisted driving on city streets are still displayed as "coming soon."

Online Chinese magazine Sina Technology said the approval was like Musk receiving "a golden key from China."

The report said that leading up to Musks visit, Tesla passed a regulatory milestone in China  becoming the only foreign car company on Beijings list of intelligent cars compliant with its data security requirements.

That compliance should remove some restrictions on Tesla, allowing its vehicles to enter areas deemed sensitive such as military bases, airports and train stations, reports the Wall Street Journal. There are still questions, however, about whether Tesla might eventually be able to export the data its cars collect in China to help improve its self-driving software. Tesla currently stores that data in China in line with its national security laws.

While Tesla's FSD software was held back by regulations in recent years, Sina Technology reports that Chinese intelligent driving technology suppliers such as Huawei and Xiaopeng seized the opportunity to introduce their own autopilot-like software features.

Last year, Tesla lost its top spot as the worlds largest electric vehicle maker to Chinas BYD, and its vehicle deliveries fell in the first quarter of this year for the first time in four years.

Meanwhile, China overtook Japan to become the worlds largest vehicle exporter, driven by sales to Russia and sales of EVs and hybrids.

The FSD approval reflects increasingly close relations between Musk and the countrys communist leaders.

Premier Li Qiang, whom he met Sunday, helped Tesla set up its Shanghai factory, now its biggest in the world, when he was the citys Communist Party secretary.

Musk has repeatedly expressed goodwill toward China in recent days, calling himself a "fan of China" and saying he is happy to see its development of electric vehicles.

At the end of his trip to China, Musk posted on his platform X, formerly Twitter, on April 30 that the long-awaited launch date of Teslas Robotaxi  a completely self-driving vehicle  is set for August 8.

"I did partly pick it because 8/8 is a lucky number in China! Also, the birthday of my triplets, who are now 17," he wrote.

The number eight in Chinese is seen as lucky because it sounds similar to the word for prosperity and wealth.

Chinas low priced EVs have prompted the U.S. and Europe to enact tariffs and other measures to prevent Chinese carmakers from taking over their domestic markets.

Theyve also put Musk in the awkward position of advocating restrictions on importing China-made cars to the U.S., Teslas largest market, while lobbying Chinese authorities for support and promoting his made-in-China cars for European markets.
Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally Thursday. Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages. the U.S. has reached out to China and Russia to match declarations by the United States and others that only humans, and never artificial intelligence, would make decisions on deploying nuclear weapons. We talk to Lance Hunter a Professor at Agusta University and co-author of The military application of artificial intelligence technology in the United States, China, and Russia and the implications for global security. And its Press Freedom Day. Well look at how Moscow has cracked down on Russian media outlets that offer independent reporting on the war in Ukraine, prompting hundreds of journalists to flee and work in exile.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says Hamas does not appear poised to attack U.S. forces who are building a pier off the Gaza coast to deliver aid to the war-torn strip by sea. A mortar attack targeted the pier site earlier but caused no injuries. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Thursday he does not see signs that Hamas is going to attack U.S. forces who are building a pier off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid to the war-torn strip by sea.

"I don't see any indications currently that there is an active intent to do that," Austin told reporters at a press conference in Hawaii.

Austin stressed that the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla, has put several security measures in place to keep the troops who are building the pier and helping with aid distribution safe.

"Our allies are also providing security in that area as well, and so it's going to require that we continue to coordinate with them very closely to ensure that if anything happens that, you know, our troops are protected," Austin said.

The new port is just southwest of Gaza City. Last week a mortar attack targeted the port site but officials said no one was hurt.

"This is an accident, a very serious accident waiting to happen," Bradley Bowman, the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

Bowman, who is also a U.S. Army veteran, said Thursday that efforts to feed those in desperate need are "laudable," but security concerns since the inception of this U.S. mission appear to remain unanswered while some of the plans are still being developed.

"The kind of terrorists, the kind of person  I hesitate to use that term  that would  wage the October 7 terror attack, use human shields and hold innocent men, women and children as hostages, those are the very same people that will not hesitate to attack those trying to bring food and water to hungry and thirsty people," Bowman said.

Crews from the USNS Roy P. Benavidez and several Army vessels started building the floating platform for the operation last week, according to a senior military official. Next will come construction of the causeway, which will be anchored to the shore by the Israel Defense Forces.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said they hope to complete construction and begin operations this month.

The senior military official told reporters the Pentagon expects deliveries to "begin at about 90 trucks a day  and then quickly increase to 150 trucks a day."

Aid has been slow to get into Gaza because of long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points. The U.S. and other nations have been air-dropping food into Gaza, but each military plane only holds about one to three truckloads of food, a U.S. official told VOA.

Aid organizations have said several hundred truckloads of food are needed in Gaza each day.

Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza following Hamas October 7 terror attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage. In the nearly seven months since the attack, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Gazan health officials.
U.S. President Joe Biden has called for the release of all imprisoned journalists  including three American reporters  who have been jailed over their work, in a Friday statement commemorating World Press Freedom Day.

Journalism should not be a crime anywhere on Earth, Biden said in the statement. On World Press Freedom Day, the United States calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all journalists who have been put behind bars for simply doing their jobs. And we call for the protection of journalists everywhere, including during military operations.

At the end of 2023, 320 journalists were jailed for their work around the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

That total includes three American journalists: Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva in Russia, and Austin Tice in Syria.

Gershkovich, a Russian correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, has been jailed since March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The State Department has also declared him wrongfully detained.

Were so proud of him. I cant believe hes holding up so well. And he works so, so hard to be able to keep his spirits up, Gershkovichs sister Danielle said at a Friday in Washington Friday commemorating World Press Freedom Day.

Danielle said her family manages to stay in touch with Evan through letters.

I get a letter from him  its like Christmas morning. And I hear his voice in my head when Im reading it. And it just feels like I get to chat to my brother. It's a lifeline to my parents and I, she said at the event, which was held at The Washington Post headquarters.

Since his jailing, Russian authorities have not publicly revealed any evidence to substantiate the spying accusations against Gershkovich, who was accredited by Russias Foreign Ministry to work in the country. The reporter will be held in pretrial detention until at least June.

Meanwhile, Kurmasheva, a Prague-based editor at VOAs sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been jailed for more than six months and is also set to be held in pretrial detention until at least June.

The dual U.S.-Russian national traveled to Russia in May 2023 for a family emergency. Her passports were confiscated when she tried to leave the country in June 2023. She was waiting for them to be returned when she was arrested in October 2023.

Kurmasheva stands accused of failing to self-register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russia military. The journalist and her employer reject the charges against her.

Shes the mom of two wonderful young women who had to grow up awfully quickly over the last six months that she's been in prison, RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said at the event.

In a prerecorded video message, Kurmashevas 15-year-old daughter Bibi called for her mothers immediate release.

My mom, Alsu, has been behind bars in Russia for six months now, because she is a journalist, she said. My sister and I are so proud of her, and we miss her so, so much. She needs to be freed immediately so she can come home to us. Free Alsu.

Press freedom groups have criticized the State Department for not yet declaring Kurmasheva wrongfully detained, which would open additional resources to help secure her release.

Russias Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOAs email requesting comment.

This years World Press Freedom Day takes place against a backdrop that experts say is concerning for journalists around the world.

Media freedom is under siege, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday in a statement. Without facts, we cannot fight mis- and dis-information. Without accountability, we will not have strong policies in place. Without press freedom, we wont have any freedom. A free press is not a choice, but a necessity.

In particular, the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has led to the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, began gathering data in 1992. As of Friday, at least 97 journalists have been killed since the war began, including 92 Palestinians, two Israelis, and three Lebanese, according to CPJ.

Journalists are civilians, so they need to be protected as any civilian is during a war zone. They shouldnt be targeted, CPJ chief Jodie Ginsberg said at the event on Friday.

New York-based CPJ has accused Israel of targeting journalists, which the Israeli government has denied.

About half of the worlds population is set to vote in national elections in 2024, which has press freedom experts concerned about the safety of reporters and potentially harmful effects for press freedom.

This year is going to be really indicative not just of the future of a free press, but the future of democracy, because how we treat our media in the run-up to these elections is a litmus test for how the other freedoms that we enjoy, and the other democratic rights we enjoy, are likely to be treated afterwards, Ginsberg said.

Discussions about press freedom tend to center on the negative, but Clayton Weimers, the head of the U.S. office of Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said its also important to recognize governments that are defending press freedom.

World Press Freedom Day should be a celebration of the values of the free press, Weimers said.

RSF on Friday released its annual press freedom index, which ranks 180 countries and territories in terms of media freedom. Norway and Denmark topped the list this year.

Theres no freedom without press freedom, Weimers said. Its the freedom on which all the others are based.
A bomb blast in southwestern Pakistan ripped through the car of a regional journalist Friday, killing him and two passersby on World Press Freedom Day.

Local police said that the afternoon attack in the Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province injured seven people, mostly passersby. They identified the slain journalist as Siddique Mengal, the district press club president, and said he apparently was the target.

Ghulam Mustafa Rind, an area police officer, told VOA by phone that Mengal was wheeling slowly through a busy crossing when an unidentified motorcyclist attached a homemade magnetic bomb to his vehicle.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs office said in a statement that he expressed deep sorrow and grief over the martyrdom of Mengal.

No group immediately claimed reasonability for the bombing in natural resources-rich Baluchistan, which has lately experienced almost daily attacks mostly claimed by ethnic Baluch insurgents. Militants loyal to the Islamic State terrorist group and the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are also active in the province.

Pakistani security forces are also accused of targeting critics of their counterinsurgency operations in the province with attacks and enforced disappearances.

Fridays attack is yet another instance of the dangers that journalists face in their line of work in Pakistan, both from government forces and militants. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, which promotes press freedom globally, lists Pakistan as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished.

RSFs annual World Press Freedom Index, released Friday, dropped Pakistans ranking from 150 to 152 in 2024, indicating a worsening situation for press freedom in the country. The index assesses the level of freedom available to journalists and media outlets in various countries.

Death threats

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, on Friday urged Pakistan to immediately investigate death threats and online harassment targeting a prominent television anchor, Hamid Mir.

The global press freedom advocate said in a statement that Mir, who hosts the flagship political show Capital Talk on Geo News and has survived at least two previous assassination attempts, told CPJ that he had received multiple death threats on social media and warnings that his life was in danger from two journalists familiar with the situation.

Mir, who has 8.4 million followers on his social media platform X, posted a video of Fridays attack in Khuzdar, with an accompanying comment that suggested the violence could be a message to all independent journalists in Pakistan.

The threats and online hate campaign against one of Pakistans most prominent television anchors illustrate the severity of intimidation and pressure faced by journalists in Pakistan, said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia program coordinator. She called on Pakistani security agencies to urgently act against those trying to silence Mir and hold them accountable.

Pakistan ranked 11th on CPJs 2023 Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries by how often the killers of journalists go unpunished.

Sharif, in a statement on World Press Freedom Day, said that his government was determined to ensure the safety of Pakistani journalists, stating that freedom of expression "is the foundation of democracy and protection of civil rights."
Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.

Nijjar, 45, was shot to death in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi.

Police said the matter was still under investigation and other probes were being carried out. The three men were named as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22 and Karan Brar, 22.

"We're investigating their ties, if any, to the Indian government," Mandeep Mooker, a police superintendent, told a televised news conference.

Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi, which had labeled Nijjar a terrorist.

Last week the Biden administration expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States.

Canadian police said they had worked with U.S. law enforcement agencies, without giving additional details.

The trio, all Indian nationals, were arrested in the city of Edmonton in Alberta on Friday without incident, police said. The three are to arrive in British Columbia by Monday.

Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar. New Delhi rejected Trudeau's claim as absurd.

Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. Last November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.
Angry youths in Chad are pulling down campaign posters of transitional President General Mahamat Idriss Deby in protest of what they call his attempt to seize power. Deby's main challengers in the May 6 election, including former opposition leader and current Prime Minister Succes Masra, say several hundred of their supporters have been arrested. Some among the disgruntled opposition are calling for an election boycott.

Several hundred civilians shout as they pull down campaign posters of Chad's transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The posters have come down in several towns, including Chad's capital, N'djamena, and Moundou, the central African nation's second-most-populated city.

In the audio extracted from videos circulating on social media, especially Facebook and WhatsApp, the civilians say they need a leadership change in Chad and an end to what they call a Deby dynasty.

Deby took power as a military ruler in April 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled the country for 30 years, was killed by rebels.

Chad's opposition and civil society have always condemned what they call Debys seizure of power, asking him to hand power to civilians.

The younger Deby told Chad state TV this week that campaigning for Chad's May 6 polls has faced major hitches, including attacks on his campaign officials and the pulling down of his posters.

Deby says he has asked government troops, the guarantors of peace and security, to restore order and end growing hate speech and preelection violence. He says when he took power three years ago, he vowed to maintain Chad as a peaceful country before handing it to constitutional order after the May 6 presidential polls.

Deby did not accuse his challenges of ordering or allowing their supporters to pull down his campaign posters. But he said civilians who are planning to disturb the elections have been arrested.

Debys main election rivals, Prime Minister Masra and Pahimi Padacke Albert, who also served as Chad's prime minister under Deby from April 2021 to October 2022, say hundreds of their supporters are in jail illegally.

Meanwhile, opposition candidates also accuse Deby of ordering government troops to crack down on his challengers campaign caravans.

Masra says Deby wants to crack down on his rivals to maintain his grip on power. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app from N'djamena Friday.

Masra says he and his supporters will not be intimidated into stopping the fight for the rule of democracy in Chad. He says he is committed to making sure that all Chadians have access to electricity, water and security, which are basic needs Deby and his father have not been able to give civilians for more than three decades. And yet, he says, the Deby family wants to stay in power eternally.

Some opposition and civil society groups have intensified their campaign for a total boycott of the election. They assert that Deby controls Chads election commission, the National Agency for Elections Management, or ANGE.

Djimet Clemen Bagaou, president of the Democratic Party of Chadian People says ANGE will declare Deby the winner, so there is no point to the elections.

ANGE rejects that line of thinking, saying the countrys more than 8 million registered voters should count on its independence to ensure a free, transparent and credible vote. It is urging Chadians to come out to the polls.

Deby says he will respect the verdict of the ballot and hand over power if defeated.
The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 29, local authorities said Thursday evening, as the state government declared a state of public calamity to handle the dramatic situation.

The storms, which have caused the greatest devastation in the state in recent years, also left 60 people missing and 10,242 displaced in 154 cities, according to Rio Grande do Sul's civil defense.

"It's not just another critical case; it's the most critical that the state will probably have recorded in its history," state Governor Eduardo Leite said in a live broadcast on social media, adding that the situation is worse than last year's rains in the state.

More than 300,000 people have also been left without electricity after a dam at a small hydroelectric power plant burst on Thursday, the state's main utilities company said.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the affected areas and met with Leite in Santa Maria on Thursday for an emergency meeting.

"I told the governor and my ministers that the federal government will make every effort. ... We will take care of this with great care and respect," Lula said during the meeting.

In a video posted on social media, Leite called for coordination in the efforts to rescue people, asking for "full force" as he declared a state of public calamity citing the risk faced by the state as a result of climate events.

Lula told Leite in a call late Wednesday that he would send as many men as necessary to help deal with the situation, the president's office said.

Brazil has faced a recent spate of natural disasters. More than 50 people were killed in Sao Paulo state last year after massive downpours caused landslides and flooding.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The Memorandum of Cooperation between Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan on interconnection of energy systems of the republics assumes further study of this issue, a source at the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan told Trend.

"The memorandum implies further investigation into the possibility of the interconnection of energy systems. Nowadays, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan pay special attention to the "green" agenda. Accordingly, the energy produced by renewable energy sources will also need to be exported to make it profitable," the source stated.

The ministry noted that the implementation of this project will allow Kazakh energy to be exported through Azerbaijan, including to Europe.

"The memorandum can be called the first step in working out this issue and details will be studied," the source noted.

To note, ministers of energy of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan signed a memorandum of cooperation on the interconnection of the energy systems of the republics within the framework of the Tashkent International Investment Forum on May 1.

The signed memorandum's purpose is to define the basic conditions of cooperation within the project's framework on the interconnection of energy systems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

The document assumes that the participants intend to investigate the possibilities of connecting energy systems by laying a high-voltage cable along the Caspian Sea bed and in other countries with the implementation of the most optimal trade in "green" energy from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

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Local officials and media reports in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo say at least nine people  most of them children  were killed Friday following an explosion or explosions at displaced persons camp in the eastern city of Goma.

From his X social media account, DRC journalist Daniel Michombero reported an explosion at the Mugunga displaced persons camp in Goma. He posted a video to his account showing the bodies of children among the rubble. VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

It was not immediately clear what kind of explosive device was used or who was responsible for the attack.

Witnesses and local officials reported seeing at least nine bodies at the scene and at least 20 wounded. A local hospital official told the French news agency AFP the facility had received 32 wounded and four bodies.

In a statement on his official X account, DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya blamed the Rwandan army and its terrorist auxiliaries the M23 rebels for the attack. He called the bombing barbarity and horror in its most serious form!

The DRC government, along with the United Nations and other Western countries, say M23, backed by the Rwandan government, has been waging an offensive in mineral-rich eastern Congo since 2021. The Rwandan government has denied its involvement.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting in March, U.N. special envoy for Congo Bintou Keita said that in recent months, the rebel group has made "significant advances and expanding its territory, creating a more disastrous humanitarian situation.

She reported 23.4 million people suffer from food insecurity in the DRC, meaning that 1 in 4 Congolese faces hunger and malnutrition, making the Democratic Republic of Congo the country most affected by food insecurity."

Earlier this year, U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood condemned "the aggressive military incursion" into eastern Congo by the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defense Force and attacks. He called on Rwanda and Congo to walk back from the brink of war," the sharpest warning yet of a looming conflict.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The Pentagons confirmation on April 24 that the U.S. secretly sent to Ukraine long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, which can reach deep into Russian-occupied areas, sparked angry responses in Russia and North Korea.

President Joe Biden approved the transfer in March as part of $300 million in aid to Ukraine, with Congress stalled on passing the roughly $60-billion-plus security package, ratified later in April.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Bidens decision to provide those missiles came on the back of Russia receiving and using [North Korean] long-range ballistic missiles and renewing and escalating its attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Washington warned Moscow last year that if Russia used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, the U.S. would provide Kyiv with the same capability, The Associated Press reported, citing anonymous U.S. official.

Russia and North Korea denied the arrangement, but a growing body of evidence confirms that North Korea has provided Russia with long-range missiles and that Moscow used them to attack Ukraine, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

Yet responding to the U.S. supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine, Russia and North Korea accused Washington of aggression.

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to expand the sanitary zone  the term Moscow uses for Ukrainian territory that is not under Russian occupation and a legitimate military target for Russian attacks. Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov amplified the threat, promising Ukraine more victims and more destruction.

In a statement, the North Korean Ministry of National Defense implied direct U.S. participation in the war, calling the government in Kyiv the Zelenskiy puppet clique, and promised victory to the heroic Russian army and people.

The U.S. administration, which had kept itself aloof from the delivery of long-range missiles, saying that it did not encourage Ukraine's strike on the Russian mainland, has betrayed more clearly its true colors as a harasser of peace aggravating war by providing Ukraine with such missiles. This time it has adopted such a mean policy as offering even long-range missiles for attacking the Russian territory to their lackeys, the ministry said in a statement on April 28.

That is false.

Washington has made clear that Kyiv cannot use the missiles to strike within Russian territory.

After a vigorous review process, one White House official told The New York Times, the Biden administration had formulated a clear use case for providing Ukraine ATACMS. That includes striking Russian air bases, supply lines, and other military targets on occupied Ukrainian territory that Ukrainian forces previously could not reach.

North Korea does not appear to have applied similar restraints on Russias use of its ballistic missiles.

Following Pyongyangs statement, an expose from Reuters on April 29 bolstered earlier reports Russia had used a North Korean ballistic missile to strike a civilian target in Ukraine.

Reuters cited the United Nations sanctions monitors' April 25 report to the Security Council's sanctions committee, which concluded that "debris recovered from a missile that landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on January 2, 2024, derived from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series missile.

The U.N. investigators also said the missiles trajectory indicates it was launched within the territory of the Russian Federation and that "such a location, if the missile was under control of Russian forces, would probably indicate procurement by nationals of the Russian Federation."

That procurement would violate the arms embargo the United Nations Security Council placed on North Korea in response to its first nuclear test in 2006, Reuters reported.

Hwansong-11 is North Koreas first missile to have military significance when armed with a conventional warhead, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS, a global think-tank, said in a special report documenting Pyongyangs military capabilities.

North Korea developed this solid-propellant long-range missile, capable of reaching up to 140 kilometers (87 miles), based on a Soviet-designed Tochka missile obtained from Syria in the early 2000s. Since its deployment in 2013, Hwansong-11 has no known failures, the IISS said.

Footage published by Reuters along with an image published by The Kyiv Independent showed that the North Korean missile debris was recovered from the site of a Russian attack on civilian infrastructure.

The U.N. report corroborates research from the U.K.-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research, which first reported on Russias use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine in January, documenting remnants of a North Korean ballistic missile recovered in Kharkiv on 2 January 2024.

The Kharkiv-based Gwara Media reported Russia had damaged 134 residential buildings in Kharkiv in strikes conducted on December 29, 30 and 31 and January 2.

In February, Ukrainian authorities said that Russia had launched 24 North Korean missiles over a multiweek span. Only two missiles reportedly struck military targets; others killed at least 14 Ukrainian civilians. That included the January 2 attack on Kharkivs city center, which killed three people and injured 64 others.

The U.S. accused North Korea of providing Russia with weapons in October 2023.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby condemned the move, saying Russia would use the weapons to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians and further Russia's illegitimate war.

We will not allow the DPRK [North Korea] to aid Russia's war machine in secret, Kirby said.

In January, the U.S. further accused North Korea of providing Russia with ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Russias U.N. representative claimed the U.S. was spreading false information over North Korea missile delivery allegations.

In a joint statement in January, the European Union and 48 countries condemned Pyongyangs export of ballistic missiles to Moscow and Russias use of these missiles against Ukraine on December 30, 2023, and January 2, 2024.

The transfer of these weapons increases the suffering of the Ukrainian people, supports Russias war of aggression, and undermines the global non-proliferation regime, the statement read.

In February, South Korea said Pyongyang had provided Russia with possibly more than 3 million artillery shells.

The U.S. had previously given Ukraine a version of the ATACMS with a shorter range, which Kyiv first used in October 2023.

U.S. officials told Reuters Ukraine had used long-range missiles against a military airfield in Russia-occupied Crimea on April 17.
Germanys Foreign Ministry summoned the acting charge daffaires of the Russian embassy  Russias top embassy official  accusing Moscows military intelligence agency of launching cyberattacks against Germanys ruling coalition party dating back to last year.

At a Berlin news briefing Friday, government deputy spokesperson

Wolfgang Buchner told reporters German intelligence agencies have determined Russias GRU military intelligence was responsible for a 2023 cyberattack on Germanys Social Democratic Party or SPD.

In June 2023, the SPD announced that cybercriminals targeted email accounts belonging to its executives earlier that year.

Buchner said the German government  with the backing of the European Union, NATO and international partners  condemns in the strongest possible terms the campaign by the state-controlled Russian cyberespionage group APT28 or Fancy Bear, under direction of the GRU.

Speaking during a visit to Australia Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed the 2023 attacks could be attributed to Russian intelligence and warned that Russia will face consequences.

While Baerbock offered no specifics regarding the consequences, German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christian Wagner told reporters in Berlin that Germany will use the entire spectrum of measures to respond to Russias attacks, including diplomatic actions and sanctions.

Last month, Germanys cybersecurity agency, working with researchers from Googles parent company, Alphabet, determined a similar Russian-controlled group called APT29 had been caught targeting several German political parties, aiming to burrow into their networks and steal data.

NATO and the EU issued separate statements Thursday and Friday expressing concern and condemning Russias malicious cyber campaign not only against Germany, but Britain, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden.

Through State Department spokesperson Andrew Miller, the United States issued a statement as well Friday, condemning the cyberattacks and joining Germany in attributing them to the Russian-controlled APT28 espionage group.

The NATO statement said the attacks included cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations. The EU statement said the cyber campaign targeted democratic institutions, government entities, and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
After months of negotiations, Hamas is offering hope that a cease-fire agreement with Israel could be near, while the threat of an Israeli incursion into the southern city of Rafah is looming.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the militant group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the UK and other Western countries, will "soon" dispatch a delegation to Egypt to complete ongoing cease-fire discussions with an agreement that "realizes the demands of our people."

Haniyeh, the leader of the militant group's political wing, spoke on the phone with Egyptian and Qatari negotiators Thursday, and he said that Hamas was looking at the latest proposal from Israel with a "positive spirit."

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been leading efforts to broker a deal for a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month war between Israel and Hamas. CIA Director William Burns is visiting the Egyptian capital Cairo Friday for discussions about the conflict in Gaza, an Egyptian security source and three sources at Cairo airport said, according to Reuters.

Israel's truce offer was described by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as "extraordinarily generous," and he urged Hamas to accept it.

The proposed cease-fire being considered includes a 40-day pause of fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

Hamas is mulling Israel's proposed cease-fire proposal, while protesters in Israel demand their government negotiate the release of the remaining hostages.

Israel has repeatedly warned it is planning to launch an assault against Hamas cells in the southern Gaza city where about a million displaced people are crowded together, having fled months of Israeli attacks on the enclave.

"It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, or OCHA, at a Geneva press briefing.

Among the aid operations in Rafah are medical clinics, warehouses stocked with humanitarian supplies, food distribution points and 50 centers for acutely malnourished children, Laerke said.

Israel has promised to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Gaza's border city with Egypt.

A World Health Organization official said at the same briefing that a plan for Rafah had been prepared, and it included a new field hospital. He underscored, however, it would not be enough to prevent a significant increase in the death toll in the event of an assault.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, said via video link that he was "extremely concerned" that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a corridor currently being used to import medical supplies.

Meanwhile, a prominent Palestinian doctor has died in an Israeli prison after being detained there for four months, according to two Palestinian prisoner associations.

Adnan al-Bursh, the head of orthopedics at Gazas al-Shifa Hospital, was detained by Israel while temporarily working at al-Awada Hospital in northern Gaza.

The prisoner groups described the doctors death as an assassination and said his body remains in Israeli custody.

Israel has confirmed the doctors death.

The World Health Organization and other medical groups have called for hospitals and medical workers to be off limits in Israels war on Hamas. However, Israel says Hamas uses the facilities for military purposes.

Nearly 500 medical workers have been killed since October 7, according to a Gaza Health Ministry statement.

At least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed and 77,867 have been injured during Israel's military offensive on Gaza since the beginning of the war, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement Friday.

Israel's counteroffensive on Gaza was triggered by Hamas' October 7 terror attack in southern Israel. The attack killed approximately 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and the assailants abducted more than 230 people.

An Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack has been confirmed dead, according to the Israeli government on Friday and the kibbutz where he had lived.

Dror Or, 49, is the latest hostage to have been confirmed dead by Israel after being abducted by Hamas.

"We are heartbroken to share that Dror Or, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, had been confirmed as murdered and his body is being held in Gaza," the Israeli government said on social media platform X.

Or's wife Yonat was killed in the initial attack, and two of their three children, Noam and Alma, ages 17 and 13, were taken hostage and then freed in November as part of a cease-fire and hostages-for-prisoners swap deal between Israel and Hamas, where 105 hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel estimates that 35 hostages out of the 129 remaining in Gaza are dead.

Meanwhile, the U.N. warned it will take decades to rebuild Gaza.

"The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented ... this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II," Abdallah al-Dardari, the UNDP's Regional Director for Arab States told a briefing in Jordan.

The UNDP assessment predicted that it would take generations of Palestinians to rebuild Gaza's socio-economic infrastructure and called for an urgent ceasefire.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Human rights group Asylum Aid on Friday said it will file a court challenge to the British government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, an initiative championed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The policy could send detained asylum seekers to the Central African country within weeks.

Britains parliament passed a law last month declaring Rwanda a safe country for migrants, a move designed to overrule a ruling last year by the U.K. Supreme Court declaring the policy unlawful.

Asylum Aid launched the legal challenge Friday due to discrepancies in language in the policy regarding the safety of Rwanda.

The human rights group says a government document published this week, which told case workers they need to now consider Rwanda safe, wasn't consistent with wording in a law allowing asylum seekers to appeal in certain circumstances.

"We have brought forward this legal action to ensure that the Home Office properly considers any individual cases against removal to Rwanda, including on the grounds that they would be returned from Rwanda to the place they fled," said Alison Pickup, Asylum Aid's executive director.

Pickup said that "there is a lack of information on when flights to Rwanda will take off and who will be on them," and that "the government has made clear that it is determined to act quickly as we have already seen the Home Office carrying out forcible detentions."

While the number of detentions has not been confirmed, the British government says it expects to send 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.

Sunak, who is planning on sending the first flights within 10 to 12 weeks, says the initiative will act as a deterrent for smugglers profiting from bringing migrants in boats from France.

Critics say the move is an expensive stunt with human rights implications, already costing the government millions of pounds.

Protests broke out in London Thursday as police forces moved to detain migrants from temporary accommodation. During the protests, 45 people were arrested while attempting to stop police from detaining the migrants.

Similar protests have been held or will be held throughout the country to try to stop the detention of migrants, according to Agence France-Presse.

British authorities released data Thursday that showed 711 migrants traveling from northern France were brought ashore Wednesday. That was the most migrants brought ashore in a single day this year after trying to cross the English Channel in small boats.

Last week, the Rwandan government urged those opposing the U.K. plan to allow the deportations to occur, adding it would take however many migrants Britain sends.

Since Britain officially separated from the EU in 2020, immigration has become a hot-button topic among politicians, and the government has promised to secure its borders. Approximately 122,600 people have been brought ashore since 2018 after being intercepted in British waters.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical refuge from the horrors outside.

Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement chapel at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Russian troops occupied the village in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraines capital, Kyiv, 60 kilometers to the east.

"The fighting was right here," the Rev. Hennadii Kharkivskyi said. He pointed to the churchyard, where a memorial stone commemorates six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle for Lypivka.

"They were injured and then the Russians came and shot each one, finished them off," he said.

The two-week Russian occupation left the village shattered and the church itself  a modern replacement for an older structure  damaged while still under construction. Its one of 129 war-damaged Ukrainian religious sites recorded by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization.

"Its solid concrete," the priest said. "But it was pierced easily" by Russian shells, which blasted holes in the church and left a wall inside pockmarked with shrapnel scars. At the bottom of the basement staircase, a black scorch mark shows where a grenade was lobbed down.

But within weeks, workers were starting to repair the damage and work to finish the solid building topped by red domes that towers over the village, with its scarred and damaged buildings, blooming fruit trees and fields that the Russians left littered with land mines.

For many of those involved  including a tenacious priest, a wealthy philanthropist, a famous artist and a team of craftspeople  rebuilding this church plays a part in Ukraine's struggle for culture, identity and its very existence. The building, a striking fusion of the ancient and the modern, reflects a country determined to express its soul even in wartime.

The building's austere exterior masks a blaze of color inside. The vibrant red, blue, orange and gold panels decorating walls and ceiling are the work of Anatoliy Kryvolap, an artist whose bold, modernist images of saints and angels make this church unique in Ukraine.

The 77-year-old Kryvolap, whose abstract paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, said that he wanted to eschew the severe-looking icons hed seen in many Orthodox churches.

"It seems to me that going to church to meet God should be a celebration," he said.

There has been a church on this site for more than 300 years. An earlier building was destroyed by shelling during World War II. The small wooden church that replaced it was put to more workaday uses in Soviet times, when religion was suppressed.

Kharkivskyi reopened the parish in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and set about rebuilding the church, spiritually and physically, with funding from Bohdan Batrukh, a Ukrainian film producer and distributor.

Work stopped when Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Moscow's forces reached the fringes of Kyiv before being driven back. Lypivka was liberated by the start of April.

Since then, fighting has been concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, though aerial attacks with rockets, missiles and drones are a constant threat across the country.

By May 2022, workers had resumed work on the church. It has been slow going. Millions of Ukrainians fled the country when war erupted, including builders and craftspeople. Hundreds of thousands of others have joined the military.

Inside the church, a tower of wooden scaffolding climbs up to the dome, where a red and gold image of Christ raises a hand in blessing.

For now, services take place in the smaller basement, where the priest, in white and gold robes, recently conducted a service for a couple of dozen parishioners as the smell of incense wafted through the candlelit room.

He is expecting a large crowd for Easter, which falls on Sunday. Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter later than Catholic and Protestant churches, because they use a different method of calculating the date for the holy day that marks Christs resurrection.

A majority of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians, though the church is divided. Many belong to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with which the Lypivka church is affiliated. The rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the patriarch in Moscow until splitting from Russia after the 2022 invasion and is viewed with suspicion by many Ukrainians.

Kharkivskyi says the size of his congregation has remained stable even though the population of the village has shrunk dramatically since the war began. In tough times, he says, people turn to religion.

"Like people say: Air raid alert  go see God," the priest said wryly.

Liudmyla Havryliuk, who has a summer home in Lypivka, found herself drawn back to the village and its church even before the fighting stopped. When Russia invaded, she drove to Poland with her daughters, then 16 and 18 years old. But within weeks she came back to the village she loves, still besieged by the Russians.

The family hunkered down in their home, cooking with firewood, drawing water from a well, sometimes under Russian fire. Havryliuk said that when they saw Russian helicopters, they held hands and prayed.

"Not prayer in strict order, like in the book," she said. "It was from my heart, from my soul, about what should we do? How can I save myself and especially my daughters?"

She goes to Lypivkas church regularly, saying its a "place you can shelter mentally, within yourself."

As Ukraine marks its third Easter at war, the church is nearing completion. Only a few of Kryvolaps interior panels remain to be installed. He said that the shell holes will be left unrepaired as a reminder to future generations.

"(Its) so that they will know what kind of brothers we have, that these are just fascists," he said, referring to the Russians.

"We are Orthodox, just like them, but destroying churches is something inhumane."
A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury said it was deadlocked in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq two decades ago.

The mistrial came in the jury's eighth day of deliberations. The deliberations went far longer than the trial itself.

The eight-member civil jury in Alexandria deadlocked on accusations the civilian interrogators who were supplied to the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers there to abuse detainees as a means of "softening them up" for questioning.

The trial was the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment  accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse  shocked the world during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Reston, Virginia-based CACI had argued that it wasn't complicit in the detainees' abuse. It said that its employees had minimal interaction with the three plaintiffs in the case and that any liability for their mistreatment belonged to the government, not CACI.

Multiple jurors told The Associated Press that most of the jury sided with the plaintiffs, but they declined to give an exact numerical breakdown among the eight-member panel.

CACI, as one of its defenses, has argued it shouldn't be liable for any misdeeds by its employees if they were under the control and direction of the Army.

The plaintiffs' lawyers tried to bar CACI from making that argument at trial, but the jury was allowed to consider it.

Both sides argued about the scope of the doctrine. Fundamentally, though, if CACI could prove its interrogators were under the command and control of the Army at the time any misconduct occurred, then the jury was instructed to find in favor of CACI.

The issue of who controlled CACI interrogators occupied a significant portion of the trial. CACI officials testified that they basically turned over supervision of the interrogators to the Army.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued otherwise, and introduced evidence including CACI's contract with the Army, which required CACI to supervise its own employees. Jurors also saw a section of the Army Field Manual that pertains to contractors and states that "only contractors may supervise and give direction to their employees."

In their note explaining their deadlock, the jury said the Field Manual was one of the pieces of evidence over which they disagreed.

The jurors who spoke to AP said there was conflicting evidence in the case about whether CACI retained control of its employees while they were in Abu Ghraib.

The plaintiffs can seek a retrial.

Asked if they would do so, one of their lawyers, Baher Azmy with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said that "the current expectation is that we'll continue to fight."

The lawsuit was first filed in 2008 and was delayed by 15 years of legal wrangling and multiple attempts by CACI to have the case dismissed.

CACI's lawyers declined to comment as they left court. A company spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment.

While it took a monumental effort on the plaintiffs' part to get the case to trial, it's possible that a retrial might be easier to conduct than normal. Many of the witnesses testified through recorded depositions that could simply be replayed. The three plaintiffs, though, provided live testimony  one in person and the other two through video hookups from Iraq.
Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, says press freedom in Asia continues to see a decline, with 26 out of 31 countries falling on its annual index.

According to the groups latest press freedom index, Asia is the second-most difficult region for practicing journalism. Five countries in the region  Myanmar, China, North Korea and Vietnam  are among the worlds 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings.

There are no countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the top 15 ranking for press freedom.

China, North Korea and Vietnam, three of the worlds remaining communist governments, have long been near the bottom of RSFs press freedom index ranking of 180 countries. This year, China was ranked 172, Vietnam 174 and North Korea 177.

Overall, its the countries and territories that have shown a drop in press freedom in recent years that have contributed to East Asia becoming a difficult place for media to operate.

Hong Kong was once a model for press freedom in the Asia region, but the citys ranking recently dropped from 80 to 148 following political unrest and new laws that affect media freedoms.

Since the Beijing-imposed national security law came into force in 2020, at least a dozen media outlets have closed. Beijing says the law has been necessary to stabilize the city following mass political unrest in 2019.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer at RSF, said Hong Kongs media freedoms still havent improved.

The worst for Hong Kong is the political and legal factors. Hong Kongs position is very low; the situation remains very difficult, she told VOA.

Hong Kong is in the middle of two high-profile national security trials. Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, faces national security charges for collusion with foreign forces that could see him sentenced to life in prison. Stand News, which ceased operations in 2021 after a police raid, is also on trial, with its chief editors facing charges under Hong Kongs colonial-era sedition law. The verdict was recently postponed until August.

Hong Kongs Justice Secretary Paul Lam recently said that press freedom still exists in the city and that media can criticize the government.

But Emily Lau, a former journalist and former chair of Hong Kongs Democratic Party, said many reporters are unsure whether that is the case.

There is concern. I dont know whether that is reassuring. Journalists themselves are concerned. People are not sure whether it is really true, she told VOA.

Due to the sensitivity of the cases and concerns over press freedom, several media experts in Hong Kong declined to speak to VOA when requested.

Although RSF ranked Hong Kong up five spots to 135 in 2024, that doesnt mean press freedoms have improved.

The reasons for that are because of the movement of other countries inside the index itself, Bielakowska said.

RSF said the deteriorated media environments in Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea, which are the bottom three countries of the rankings, have pushed other countries further up the list.

The same can be applied with Myanmar. The new RSF rankings puts Myanmar up two places to 171, but it doesnt mean press freedom is improving.

Today, the Southeast Asian country is the worlds second-worst jailer of journalists, only behind China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Following a military coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing and his troops in 2021, Myanmars junta has been accused of arbitrary arrests, harassment and torture, while at least four journalists have been killed by the military, rights groups say.

At least a dozen media outlets have had their licenses revoked by the military government in three years, while hundreds of journalists have been arrested.

Media outlets who are allowed to legally report in Myanmar must be registered with the military government to operate. But registering for press accreditation means journalists must provide the junta with their personal details, which discourages them from doing so over fear of arrest. For the journalists who have continued to report, they have had to work undercover to avoid being targeted by military personnel.

Aung Naing Soe, a Myanmar reporter, said journalists are a primary threat toward the militarys attempts to rule.

The junta arrests not only journalists but everyone against them. They see journalists as one of their primary threats since before the coup, he told VOA.

Since the junta attempted to rule, ousted politicians formed a civilian-led government, while civilian defense forces and ethnic political groups have taken up arms against the military.

But Aung Naing Soe, who is also the filmmaker of the documentary Undaunted about the uprising against military rule  added that the difficulties in reporting come from both sides.

"Everybody knows the risks from the military's intimidation. We expected a little bit of press freedom from the revolutionary groups, but lately we've started seeing some [rebel] groups attempt to control the media," he said.

"Like everyone else in the country, Myanmar journalists are getting tired. Sometimes we don't have any energy left to write a short story or make a short interview. We're all emotionally drained."

There was some encouraging news for media freedom in East Asia. Thailand saw the biggest jump in the 2024 rankings, moving up 19 spaces to 87. Thailands security performance was one of the main reasons for the jump, according to Bielakowska.

There was less violence than in other years, and the electoral campaign for the general elections of May 2023 did not result in demonstrations of violence against journalists, she said.

On the other hand, she said that despite the political transition, there has not been notable improvement in the overall political environment.
Reporting on our planet has become a risky business, according to a new report published Friday on World Press Freedom Day. It found hundreds of journalists worldwide have been attacked and dozens killed over the past 15 years covering issues like climate change, mining and deforestation.

The survey by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, and the International Federation of Journalists offered a chilling snapshot of the dangers of environmental journalism  along with the risk posed by environmental skeptics and deniers of key issues like climate change.

"The most concerning data is the overall result  that 70% of journalists interviewed said to us that while reporting on environmental issues, they have suffered at least one type of violence or attack. Which is very high, said Guilherme Canela, who leads UNESCOs Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists section.

The studys findings are based on interviews with more than 900 journalists reporting on environmental issues in 129 countries between 2009 and 2023. They show a sharp rise in attacks  by more than 40% over the last five years. That includes everything from physical attacks, like assaults and arrests, to lawsuits and digital or online aggression.

Over the past 15 years, it found, 44 journalists have been killed and another 39 jailed covering environmental stories.

"Of the 44 killings, in only five cases, there was a judicial decision regarding these killings," Canela said. "So, its not only a high level regarding the killings but also a high-level impunity rate regarding these killings."

A case in point, Canela said, was the 2022 killing of British journalist Dom Phillips, who was investigating the environmental devastation in the Amazon. Phillips had received death threats before he was killed. Brazilian police have since arrested several suspects.

Canela can only theorize about why environmental attacks are rising.

"First, it shows that journalists are reporting more on environmental issues, and therefore, probably annoying more all the powerful interests, whichever they are, that, that are related to this," Canela said.

Additionally, environmental reporting often means going to remote locations. The report notes that small, underfunded news outlets and independent reporters tend to be those covering environmental stories  making them all the more vulnerable to danger.
Nigerian authorities said Thursday they have arrested the mastermind of a 2022 terrorist attack on a moving train that killed 10 passengers.

Police arrested Ibrahim Abdulahi, who is also known as Mande, during a raid in January at the Abuja-Kaduna road flyover near Rido junction, Police Force public relations officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi told journalists.

"The suspect confessed to being the leader of the kidnap syndicate terrorizing Abuja-Kaduna highway," Adejobi said.

Police had received a tip-off about Abdulahis whereabouts, Adejobi said, adding that Mande admitted to participating in several deadly attacks on citizens, including the kidnapping of 20 Greenfield University students in Kaduna in 2021 and the 2022 attack on the train.

On March 28 of that year, armed terrorists bombed the passenger train traveling from Abuja to Kaduna and opened fire on passengers. Ten people were killed, and the attackers abducted at least 61 passengers. The abductees were freed many months later.

The attack sparked fear and widespread criticism of the government. Authorities shut down the train service for nine months and, when they reopened it, provided improved security and escorts on each trip.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu praised the arrest but said authorities must be more proactive.

"What actually Nigerians want is to be sure that never [happens] again, Iroegbu said They [shouldnt] wait till people get kidnapped before they start taking actions, whether militarily or through ransom payments. Nigerians want the kidnappings to end.

Insecurity is one of the major problems standing in the way of prosperity in Africas most-populous country.

In the past year, gangs have kidnapped more than 4,700 people, according to security consulting firm SBM Intelligence.

Last month, Nigerias president said the country would no longer pay ransom to armed gangs to free hostages and pledged that gangs will face the full force of security agencies. Many victims and relatives of those in captivity are hoping the decision does not ruin their chances of rescuing their loved ones.
TBILISI, Georgia, May 3. ADB (Asian Development Bank) supports Kazakhstan's strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, President, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ADB Masatsugu Asakawa said during a briefing on the sidelines of the bank's 57th annual meeting in Tbilisi, Trend reports.

"Countries must fast switch to 'green' energy and eliminate fossil fuels to meet our goals. Due to Kazakhstan's energy-intensive economy and fossil fuel dependence, the ADB supports the government's 2060 carbon neutrality strategy," he emphasized.

According to him, the so-called ETM (The Energy Transition Mechanism), which aims to initiate a safe and economically efficient phased transition away from coal-fired power plants and towards environmentally friendly energy, has been decisively supported by the government of Kazakhstan.

To note, Kazakhstan joined the ADB in 1994. Since then, the ADB has allocated approximately $7 billion in the form of government and private sector loans, grants, and technical assistance.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Save the Children says more than 140,000 people in the Malian town of Menaka, including 80,000 children, face malnutrition and disease due to a blockade by Islamic State-linked insurgents. The organization warns that the months-long blockade has driven supplies to alarmingly low levels as aid agencies and Malian government programs struggle to deliver basic necessities.

In a statement this week, Save the Children said that unless aid gets to the Menaka communities soon, the area could see many deaths in coming months.

The London-based organization said some of its workers who went to assess the populations needs had been trapped for more than three weeks.

The blockade in Menaka follows a siege in Timbuktu that began last August and has trapped more than 136,000 people, 74,000 of them children.

In Timbuktu, however, some aid supplies are able to reach people in need, according to Save the Children. David Otto, a Nigerian-based security analyst, says the lack of government presence in northern Mali is complicating aid efforts.

Humanitarian activities within that region also have been very, very much limited," said Otto. "Not just due to insecurity, which is one of the main factors, but also due to the fact that the regime or the military government has limited access to that region for humanitarian organizations on the basis of jihadist groups.

Aid agencies say Mali is locked in a complex crisis, facing criminal organizations, an Islamist insurgency, socio-economic challenges, and climate change.

More than 7 million people need humanitarian assistance, and the situation is worse in conflict-affected areas of northern and central Mali.

According to Cadre Harmonise 2024, a framework used to identify food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa, over 40,000 residents of Menaka already face emergency levels of hunger.

Aid agencies warn the situation is expected to deteriorate in June, by which time nearly 50,000 people will be food insecure and needing urgent support.

Kevin Oduor teaches International Criminal Law at Technical University in Kenya. He says the starving the population in Menaka is a war crime.

Blocking aid getting to the people is tantamount to exposing them to murder, exposing them to situations that would hinder them from living their full life," said Oduor. "So, these are actually war crimes.

Malis military junta recently launched a joint operation with the military governments in Burkina Faso and Niger to fight jihadist and insurgent groups that have destabilized parts of West Africa.

The junta says it sees the operations as one way of easing the suffering of its people in the hands of armed groups.

However, the government has been unable to break the sieges of either Menaka or Timbuktu.

Meanwhile, the government has ordered the U.N. mission in Mali to close its offices and end the support it was providing to the population.

Otto says saving lives and feeding its people is not a top priority for the military government in Mali.

The government is now focusing a lot on dealing with security issues rather than actually looking at the humanitarian aspects within that area," said Otto. "This is why you are seeing an increase in the number of people living in very dire circumstances within that region. Right now, the government is focusing on consolidating its power from a military and defense point of view rather than actually providing some kind of economic or sustainable assistance to the people living in this area.

Experts warn Malis unwillingness to work with regional and international institutions may worsen the humanitarian situation in the country.
Russia said Thursday that it saw no point in attending a conference in Switzerland to discuss how to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Switzerland is expected to host the talks June 15-16 at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said more than 100 countries would be invited to the gathering.

The first country that we spoke with, after Ukraine, of course, was Russia, because a peace process cannot happen without Russia, even if it wont be there for the first meeting, Cassis told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern.

"We know that it doesn't make sense to have Russia at the table if you cannot ensure that they act in good faith," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine published this week.

Kuleba said putting pressure on Russia on the battlefield and bringing together countries "who share principles" should help to make Moscow more willing to engage in dialog.

The conference is "practically the first real chance to start restoring a just peace," Zelenskyy said Thursday in his nightly video message.

The Swiss government said Thursday that Russia was not currently invited to the conference. It said it was open to including Russia, but Moscow repeatedly expressed it had no interest.

Russian strikes

Russia struck Ukraine twice on Thursday. A Russian guided bomb attack injured at least eight children and one adult in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said. Two Ukrainian officials said a separate Russian missile attack injured 14 people at a postal facility in the southern city of Odesa.

Russia has denied targeting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine but has repeatedly struck Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles during more than two years of attacks.

Russian officials reported Ukrainian drone attacks Thursday targeting several regions.

Russia on Thursday rejected U.S. accusations of using a banned chemical agent in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the allegation baseless.

The United States accused Russia on Wednesday of breaching a global chemical weapons ban by deploying the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

The State Department also accused Russia of using riot control agents "as a method of warfare" in Ukraine.

"The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces' desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield," the State Department said in a statement.

Russian forces have also used grenades loaded with CS and CN tear gases, according to the Ukrainian military. It said at least 500 Ukrainian soldiers have been treated for exposure to toxic substances, and one was killed by suffocating on tear gas.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Russian forces have gained a "foothold" in the village of Ocheretyne, with a prewar population of 3,000, Ukraine's military said, noting that fierce fighting continues in the area as Ukrainian forces struggle to repel the Russians in Ukraine's Eastern Donetsk region.

Russian troops have been barraging Kyiv's ammunition-depleted forces with artillery, drones and bombs.

Drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows Ocheretyne obliterated by Russian strikes, with not a single building in the village untouched after the attacks.

Ukraine's Kharkiv and Dnipro regions also were hit by Russian drones overnight. At least six people were injured, including a 13-year-old child, when the drones struck commercial and residential buildings, regional officials said Saturday.

While the Ukrainian Air Force said it downed all 13 Shahed drones targeting the regions, the debris from the falling drones in Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv struck civilian targets, injured four people and caused a fire in an office building that has been brought under control, the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, said in a post on the Telegram app.

Russian state news agency RIA reported Saturday that Russian forces targeted a drone warehouse overnight in Kharkiv that it said had been used by Ukrainian troops. The state media cited Sergei Lebedev, a self-described coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas.

His comments could not be independently verified, AP said.

In the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were wounded, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak, who said a critical infrastructure facility and three houses were damaged.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday its air defense forces shot down four U.S.-produced long-range missiles known by the acronym ATACMS over the Crimean Peninsula. The ministry said that in the past week it has downed 15 ATACMS.

The United States has quietly shipped the long-range missiles to Ukraine in recent weeks.

During a press briefing 10 days ago, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that a "significant number" of the missiles had been sent to Ukraine and added "we will send more."

Sullivan said Ukraine committed to using the weapons only inside Ukraine, not in Russia. He said the missiles used for the first time in the early hours of April 17, however, were deployed against a Russian airfield in Crimea, about 165 kilometers from the Ukrainian front lines.

The U.S. official added that initially the Pentagon was reluctant to send the ATACMS, fearing Ukraine would fire inside Russia, leading to an escalation of tensions between the Kremlin and Washington.

Nevertheless, Sullivan noted, Russia's use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine last December and January, despite U.S. public and private warnings not to do so, led to a change of heart.



Meanwhile, Russia is lashing out at NATO's four-month-long military exercises, known as Steadfast Defender. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in statement Saturday that NATO's exercises close to Russia's borders are proof that the Western alliance is preparing for a potential conflict with Russia.



Zakharova dismissed NATO accusations that Russia is engaged in hybrid attacks on NATO member states, calling them misinformation aimed at distracting people from the alliance's activities.

The Kremlin also criticized as dangerous some comments by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and French President Emmanuel Macron that indicated their countries' direct involvement in Ukraine's war against Russia.

"This is a direct escalation of tension around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security, to the entire European security architecture," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday at a press briefing.



During a visit to Kyiv, Cameron told Reuters that Ukraine has the right to strike in self-defense. "Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself," he said.

Cameron promised $3.7 billion of annual military aid for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" on Thursday, adding that London had no objection to its weapons being used inside Russia.

In a separate interview Thursday, Macron repeated an earlier comment of his that he doesn't exclude sending troops to Ukraine, an act, Russia said, that would lead to a direct and dangerous escalation of tensions around the conflict.

On Saturday, Russia put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a wanted list, according to Russian state news agency TASS, citing the Interior Ministry's database without providing any further details.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for Ukrainian and other European politicians since the beginning of its invasion on Ukraine in 2022.

Among them are Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania's culture minister, as well as members of the previous Latvian parliament, for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court prosecutor who issued a warrant last year for Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
Marking World Press Freedom Day on Friday, Somali journalists continue to struggle with reporting on climate change and environmental issues in their country because of insecurity and the dangers connected to environmental journalism.

This year, Somalia marks the day as El Nino, a naturally occurring climate pattern associated with increased temperatures worldwide, worsens the abnormally heavy rainfall hitting the countrys south and central regions.

Farah Omar Nur, the secretary general of the Federation of Somali Journalists, a Mogadishu-based agency that advocates for reporters rights and safety, said environmental journalism is not easy, especially in Somalia.

In Somalia, reporters and the news outlets do not always get the funding and the proper training for environmental journalism, and those who try often face challenges, including insecurity and threats from the armed groups, Nur said.

Nur said that the small amount of training given journalists for environmental reporting has helped many to understand the significance of reporting about the planet.

With the help of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, we have been able to provide training to some journalists for environmental issue reporting, but that is not enough, Nur said.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, heavy rains have led to localized flooding affecting more than 120,000 people. The worst-affected areas are Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest states of Somalia.

Nur says another challenge is the logistics of reporting on environmental problems.

The rain has caused flooding in many areas of Somalia, destroying roads, bridges and other important infrastructure. Therefore, it is not easy for a journalist to travel to remote rural locations, Nur said. In addition, armed clan militias and the al-Shabab militant group  who are not friendly with independent journalists  have [a] huge presence in many areas.

Marking World Press Freedom Day, the United Nations in Somalia raised the importance of the work Somali journalists do in reporting on the climate challenges facing their country and encouraged increased coverage.

Somalia is on the front line of climate change, with the climate crisis affecting the lives of millions of Somalis, especially the most vulnerable. Much more needs to be done to raise awareness of all aspects of the environmental crisis, and journalism is indispensable for this purpose, said the U.N. secretary-generals special representative for Somalia, Catriona Laing.

For Somalia to achieve its goals of stability and sustainable development, it is necessary for journalists to report accurately, timely and comprehensively on environmental issues and their consequences, as well as on possible solutions, she said.

The U.N. General Assembly established World Press Freedom Day in 1993. The theme this year is A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis. Its dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis.

It aims to highlight the significant role that the press, journalism, access and dissemination of information play in ensuring a sustainable future.

A new report published by UNESCO on May 3, warns of increasing violence against and intimidation of journalists reporting on the environment and climate disruption.

The report said about 749 journalists or news media reporting on environmental issues have been attacked in the last 15 years, and online disinformation has surged dramatically in this period.

UNESCO is calling for stronger support for environmental journalists and better governance of digital platforms.
This years World Press Freedom Day theme is journalism in the face of the environmental crisis, and a South African media outlet called Oxpeckers focuses on exactly that. For VOA, Kate Bartlett spoke to some of its journalists about what drives and challenges them as they report on people and practices that hurt the planet. Camera and edit: Zaheer Cassim
VOA marks World Press Freedom Day with a conversation with the director of Reporters Without Borders. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin does not think that Hamas is planning to attack American troops. Israeli reaction to college protests, plus elections in Chad and an update from Kyiv.
South Korean calls to acquire nuclear weapons, which were subdued for the past year following steps to strengthen the U.S.-South Korea alliance, are once again bubbling to the surface ahead of the possible return of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump, who appears locked in a tight race with President Joe Biden as Novembers election approaches, sparked concern this week after making comments that many Korean media interpreted as a threat to pull U.S. troops from South Korea.

In an interview with Time magazine, Trump lamented that U.S. troops are in a precarious position  a reference to nuclear-armed North Korea  and said Seoul should pay much more for U.S. protection.

Why would we defend somebody  and were talking about a very wealthy country, asked Trump, who elsewhere in the interview said U.S. troops were in a lot of places they shouldnt be.

Those kinds of statements are not new. Trump has long questioned the value and necessity of the U.S. military presence in South Korea.

Trumps supporters say the comments are simply a negotiating tactic meant to persuade South Korea to pay more for the cost of hosting approximately 28,500 U.S. troops. Trump, they insist, does not intend to abandon Seoul.

South Koreans appear less certain about Trump, who once said he could go either way on the idea of U.S. troops staying in South Korea.

Many are also concerned Trump could pursue a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that would effectively recognize the North as a nuclear weapons state.

We cant allow this. We must have our own nuclear arsenal, in a limited sense, Yoon Sang-hyun, a five-term conservative lawmaker, said in a Facebook post this week.

Conservative South Korean newspapers have also begun publishing articles reassessing the idea of nuclear arms  an idea once considered unthinkable.

"The level of concern is really high, said a researcher at a government-linked think tank in Seoul, who supports South Korea considering nuclear weapons in certain Trump-related scenarios.

Almost every research institution has a project on preparations for the Trump administration, said the researcher, who noted growing support among colleagues for acquiring a nuclear deterrent.

Many, including the Seoul-based academic, are hesitant to publicly disclose their openness to attaining nuclear capabilities, seeing little incentive to make statements that would risk antagonizing the current or potential leaders of a country that South Korea has relied on for protection for over 70 years.

Public support

If South Korea ever pursues a nuclear arsenal, the decision will come with massive economic, reputational and regional security risks.

Not only could the move upend South Koreas alliance with the United States, but it could also prompt others in the region to pursue similar weapons, invite international economic sanctions, and would almost certainly elicit a fierce reaction from China, according to analysts.

Despite such barriers, opinion polls consistently indicate between 60% to 70% of South Koreans support their country developing nuclear weapons.

Even many national security experts, who are presumably more aware of the consequences, back such a move.

According to a poll released this week by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, 34% of South Korean elite support acquiring nuclear weapons. That support likely would increase significantly if Trump wins in November, the poll found.

Kim Gunn, who will soon begin a term in South Koreas National Assembly after recently stepping down as the countrys top nuclear envoy, said he can fully understand the sentiment of wanting a nuclear deterrent, considering North Koreas development of tactical nuclear weapons.

But Kim does not advocate for acquiring nuclear weapons. Instead, he says, it is vital that the South Korean public be assured that the U.S.-South Korean alliance is well-prepared to cope with any eventuality.

Last January, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made global headlines when he suggested South Korea could easily develop its own nuclear arms if the security situation with North Korea worsens.

At the time, South Korea was seeing an unprecedented wave of mostly conservative academics, ex-officials and other commentators calling for nuclear weapons.

Reassurances

Those calls subsided after Yoon and Biden agreed in April 2023 to strengthen the U.S. defense commitment to South Korea in a document known as the Washington Declaration.

In the statement, the United States vowed to deploy more strategic assets, such as nuclear-capable submarines, long-range bombers and aircraft carriers, to South Korea. In return, South Korea reaffirmed it would not pursue nuclear weapons.

The problem is if Trump comes back to the White House, he will probably undermine the very basic pillars of extended deterrence  that is, the deployment of strategic assets and joint military exercises, said Park Won-gon, a professor at Seouls Ewha University.

As president, Trump often slammed what he said were provocative and expensive military exercises with South Korea. During his first summit with Kim in June 2018, Trump unilaterally suspended what he referred to as war games with South Korea, stunning some observers in Seoul.

Blunt talk

There is also growing concern about recent comments by former Trump officials, who have hinted at major changes to Washington's South Korea policy, Park said.

Most recently, former senior Pentagon advisor Elbridge Colby told VOAs Korean Service last month that South Koreas nuclear armament should no longer be seen as off-limits.

Nuclear proliferation, even to our allies, is a bad thing. But we live in a world of hard choices, so I think everything needs to be on the table, said Colby, who is viewed as a leading candidate for a top national security position in a second Trump administration.

Colby also said the United States may not be able to live up to its defense commitments to South Korea if North Korea can conduct nuclear attacks on American cities.

We need to have clarity between ourselves and our own thinking so we come up with a strategy and force posture  that actually mitigates this threat from North Korea, Colby said.

While analysts have long questioned whether the United States would really sacrifice an American city to save that of a U.S. ally, Colbys comments stand in sharp contrast to those of U.S. officials, who regularly insist that the U.S. defense commitment to Seoul is ironclad.

Those kinds of simple statements can seriously undermine the U.S. commitment to defend allies, said Park, who predicts a huge wave of nuclear advocacy in Seoul if such comments continue.

Actions or words?

Not all Trump allies support South Korea getting nuclear weapons.

One of those who opposes the idea is Alex Gray, chief of staff in Trumps White House National Security Council. In an interview with VOA, Gray rejected the notion that Trump should serve as a rationale for any U.S. ally, including South Korea, to acquire nuclear weapons.

I would really encourage everyone to look at the policies that came out of the first Trump administration  not just the media reporting, not just language and statements, Gray said.

In Grays estimation, Trump was only trying to drive a hard bargain in military cost-sharing negotiations so that the alliance could become more beneficial to the United States.

But Gray also hinted at tensions ahead  especially after U.S. and South Korean officials last week launched early negotiations on a new military cost-sharing arrangement, 20 months before the current six-year deal expires.

The negotiations, which have been characterized by some media as an attempt to Trump-proof the alliance, show a lack of respect for Trump, Gray said.

Robert Rapson, who served as a senior U.S. diplomat in Seoul during Trumps terms, said the cost-sharing negotiations and other efforts to mitigate the risks of a second Trump presidency are fully understandable but also risky.

I would suggest that ROK officialdom not let its angst over the uncertainty drive them to take preemptive actions that dont necessarily help them with Trump and may even backfire, he said.

Rapson, however, cautions anyone from feeling too sure about how Trump might act toward South Korea.

The only real certainty about a prospective second Trump administration, he said, is that there will be a high degree of uncertainty.
The U.N. human rights chief on Thursday asked Georgia to withdraw a controversial draft "foreign agents" bill that has been met with large protests in the capital, Tbilisi.

Volker Turk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, urged authorities to talk to members of civil society and journalists who are at risk of being affected by the law, which would target organizations that receive foreign funding.

"I am concerned by reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by law enforcement personnel against demonstrators and media workers in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, this week," he said.

On Wednesday, police in Tbilisi used water cannons and tear gas to try to disperse one of the largest protests in Georgian history, according to media reports, after the legislation was advanced in a second-reading vote. A third and final reading vote is set for May 17.

The U.S. government and the European Union have also expressed concern about the bill.

We are deeply concerned about this legislation  what it could do in terms of stifling dissent and free speech, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said at a briefing.

Gert Jan Koopman, director general of the European Commission's enlargement directorate, repeated the European Unions warning that the bill would threaten Georgias efforts to join the European bloc.

There are concerning developments in terms of legislation. The law ... as it stands is unacceptable and will create serious obstacles for the EU accession path, he said during a news conference in Tbilisi.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto the law if it is formally adopted in the third reading. But the ruling Georgian Dream Party and its allies have enough seats to override her.

Georgian Dream in early April reintroduced an adjusted version of the bill that lawmakers considered last year but eventually shelved following widespread protests.

If adopted, the law would require groups to register as foreign agents if they obtain more than 20% of their funding from abroad. Organizations that don't register would face fines.

Georgian Dream says the law would bolster transparency. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream and former prime minister, said the law would enhance Georgian sovereignty amid what he said were Western attempts to set Tbilisi against Moscow.

Critics have compared it to a similar foreign agents law in Russia that the Kremlin has used to target and silence opposition voices.

Press freedom groups have expressed concern about the bill's reintroduction.

"Georgian authorities' revival of a bill that would smear media outlets as foreign-controlled is deeply concerning and utterly incompatible with their claim of aligning with European democratic standards and threatens press freedom ahead of the October parliamentary elections," said Gulnoza Said, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, in an April statement.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Defense ministers from the United States, Australia, Japan and the Philippines met for a second round of quadrilateral talks in less than a year this week amid further aggression from the Chinese military. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb reports on the allies growing military ties.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Hawaii on Thursday to meet with leaders from Australia, Japan and the Philippines amid increasing concerns about Chinese military aggression in the Pacific.

Defense officials said the talks would continue the allies historic progress on cooperation in their defense industries and military activities, including air and missile defense.

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called the quadrilateral group an anti-aggression coalition whose efforts protect many countries around the world who depend on the ability for commercial vessels to sail freely and unimpeded through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

The single biggest reason for what we're witnessing in Hawaii this week is the increasingly aggressive behavior of the People's Republic of China, Bowman told VOA.

I think Japan, Australia and the Philippines understand that investments in deterrence are far less costly than dealing with a war that could have been prevented, and they understand that deterrence will be much stronger and more effective if they work with the United States and they work with each other, he said.

Austin was to meet with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles on Thursday following Australias commitment last month to increase defense spending by 20% over the next decade.

Austin also planned to meet with Japanese Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara. During an April state visit in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced deepening military cooperation, including creation of a trilateral air defense architecture with Australia and trilateral exercises with the United Kingdom.

Trilateral session

The U.S., Japan and Australia were to convene a trilateral meeting following the bilateral talks, where a senior defense official said they were expected to sign a new trilateral agreement on strategic research and development.

Austin then planned to host a quadrilateral meeting with Filipino Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro and their Japanese and Australian counterparts. It will be the second such meeting of the four countries' defense ministers.

A senior defense official, speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, said talks would focus on deterring actors from activities that could undermine peace and stability in the region, whether it's in East Asia, the East China Sea, South China Sea or the Pacific Islands.

Tensions have risen between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, with Chinas coast guard using water cannons last month to threaten Filipino fishing ships. China has also used collision and ramming tactics, undersea barriers and a military-grade laser to stop Philippine resupply and patrol missions.

Bowman said he expected Beijing to complain about the talks as an attempt to form a coalition like NATO in the Pacific.

I think as a general rule, the People's Republic of China wants to deal with everything in the region in a bilateral way that allows Beijing to take advantage of power asymmetries.  The bully on the playground ... doesn't want to deal with four or five kids at the same time, he said.

Last month, Austin spoke with Chinese Admiral Dong Jun in the first dialogue between the two countries defense chiefs in nearly 17 months.

The Pentagon said Austin and his Chinese counterpart discussed defense relations and global security issues ranging from Russias unprovoked war in Ukraine to recent provocations from North Korea. A Pentagon press release said Austin stressed the importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation as guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea.

Beijing has asserted its desire to control access to the South China Sea and bring Taiwan under its control, by force if necessary.

Biden has said U.S. troops will defend the democratically run island from attack.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 3. Electricite de France (EDF) and Masdar are considering setting up their offices in Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports.

According to the Cabinet of Ministers, this was stated at a meeting in Uzbekistan between the Vice President for European and Central Asian countries of the EDF, Marc Girard, the head of Masdar, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Akylbek Japarov.

The heads of the companies also noted that they are ready to support large energy projects in Kyrgyzstan.

During the meeting, the sides also discussed the trilateral memorandum of cooperation in the field of energy, signed in December 2023 in Dubai during the World Climate Summit.

"The Cabinet of Ministers welcomes the intention of EDF and Masdar to cooperate with Kyrgyzstan and will assist in investing in hydropower and renewable energy projects in the country," Japarov said.

To note, in December 2023, a trilateral memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ministry of Energy of Kyrgyzstan, Masdar, and EDF. As part of the signed document, the construction of a solar power plant in the Issyk-Kul region is planned. The President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Zhaparov, noted that the country would provide all necessary support to ensure the successful implementation of the memorandum's terms.
Four hundred days.

That's how long American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been held in a Russian prison.

Russia's Federal Security Service detained him while he was on assignment for U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal in the city of Yekaterinburg and accused him of espionage.

The newspaper and the U.S. government have denied the charges against the now 32-year-old reporter.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday at a U.S.-hosted event on the eve of World Press Freedom Day that reporters are too often wrongfully detained for "simply telling the truth."

"That was Evan's crime. Reporting the facts about Russia's illegal war in Ukraine," she said.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. Gershkovich was arrested a day after publishing a report on how the war had hurt Russia's economy.

Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will not rest until Gershkovich is reunited with his family. His parents and sister were present at the event.

Mariana Katzarova, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, told the gathering by video from Bulgaria that she is very concerned that Gershkovich has been held for over a year without a trial or evidence.

"The arrest and detention of Evan raises serious concerns about his personal safety, as well as the safety of all foreign journalists conducting their legitimate business in Russia," she said.

In October 2023, dual U.S.-Russian national Alsu Kurmasheva, 47, who works for VOA's sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also arrested in Russia. She remains jailed on charges of failing to self-register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading what Moscow views as false information about the Russian military. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

Kurmasheva was in Russia to visit her elderly and ailing mother.

Katzarova said Russia has one of the highest conviction rates in the world.

"Once charged, the likelihood of being found guilty in the Russian court is very high," she said, "raising concerns about the fairness and independence of the judiciary in Russia and about the rights of the accused to a fair trial."

David Rohde, an American journalist who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008 but escaped after seven months in captivity, told the gathering that the source of attacks on journalists has shifted in the past several years.

"There has been a dramatic change where the people detaining and in some places killing journalists has shifted from extremist groups and criminal groups to a large number of states," he said.

"It has been more than a year now, and every day is a day too long," Danielle Gershkovich said of her brother's detention.

"We need to do whatever it takes to bring him home now."
New government statistics indicate that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is coming down, following a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday.

About 680 women died last year in pregnancy-related deaths, according to provisional CDC data.

That's a drop from 2022, when 817 maternal deaths were reported.

In 2021, during the pandemic, the number spiked to 1,205 deaths.

Before the pandemic, in 2020, 861 maternal deaths were reported.

The CDC and the World Health Organization classify maternal mortality as a death during pregnancy or childbirth and up to 42 days after the pregnancy if it could be related to the pregnancy.

The provisional 2023 U.S. maternal mortality numbers, after further investigation, will likely change. In 2022, for example, the final figure was 11% higher than the provisional number.

However, Donna Hoyert, a CDC maternal mortality researcher, told The Associated Press that the 2023 maternal death numbers are still expected to be lower than the 2022 figures.

While the overall maternal mortality numbers in the U.S. are returning to prepandemic figures, racial disparities persist, as they did before the pandemic.

Verda Hicks, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told Agence France-Press that the lower numbers are positive but also sobering.

"We are reminded, again, that we are nowhere near resolving the issue of maternal mortality, particularly when trying to close the gap on health care disparities," she said.

While there were 19 deaths in 2022 per 100,000 births for white women, there were 49.5 deaths per 100,000 births among Black mothers, Hicks said.

She said the spike during the pandemic was likely a result of difficulty obtaining health care during that period and "worsening racial health inequities."

"In the last five years, we've really not improved on lowering the maternal death rate in our country," Ashley Stoneburner, the March of Dimes' director of applied research and analytics, told AP. "There's still a lot of work to do."

Stoneburner's organization has recently initiated a campaign encouraging pregnant woman at risk of preeclampsia  a high blood pressure disorder that can harm the baby and the mother  to take a low dose of aspirin as a way of avoiding the condition.

While efforts are being made to reduce maternal deaths, like preventing blood loss, those efforts can be offset by other factors, like access to health care. A number of hospitals have closed in recent years, especially in rural areas.

Another factor is the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned a woman's right to an abortion. That move has left some medical practitioners reluctant to provide women with appropriate maternity care, which can include abortion, because the medical workers fear legal consequences.

"I think theres good news. Were making strides in certain areas," Dr. Laura Riley, a New York City-based obstetrician, told the AP. "But the bad news and scary news is ... there are these other political and social forces that make this (reducing maternal deaths) difficult."
The U.S. says it has been trying to engage North Korea by sending messages repeatedly despite Pyongyangs apparent lack of interest in dialogue and its escalation of threats in the region.

We have sent such messages in multiple ways  through third parties and directly, orally and in writing  and have included specific proposals on humanitarian cooperation and other topics for discussion, a State Department spokesperson said.

We have also emphasized our willingness to discuss practical steps both sides could take to address the security situation in the region, the spokesperson continued via email to VOAs Korean Service on April 26.

To date, however, the DPRK has shown no indication it is interested in engaging. Instead, we have seen a marked increase in the scope and scale of DPRK provocations, which have only served to raise regional tensions and increase the risk of accidental or unintentional escalation, the spokesperson added.

North Koreas official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has been conducting multiple missile and rocket tests, including what it said was its first nuclear counterattack drills using super-large artillery rockets carrying mock nuclear warheads on April 22.

Pyongyang has also ramped up its cooperation with Russia, sending arms to support Moscow's fight against Ukraine. Russia has been shipping refined petroleum to North Korea above the limit of 500,000 barrels annually set by the U.N. Security Council, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday.

The North Korean mission to the U.N. did not respond to a VOA inquiry on its reaction to the U.S. description of its efforts made to resume talks.

Dialogue between the two has been deadlocked since October 2019 when working-level talks failed to reconcile differences over denuclearization and sanctions relief that became apparent a few months earlier at a summit in Hanoi.

Washington has maintained that it is open to renewed dialogue on Pyongyangs nuclear program without preconditions.

Former U.S. officials suggested that the Biden administration provided the unusually detailed account of its efforts to engage Pyongyang in response to criticisms saying it has not done enough.

The Biden team is quite sensitive to the attacks coming from 'liberals,' especially critics who claim the administration has not attached sufficient priority to North Korea and has not done enough to pursue diplomacy with Pyongyang, said Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.

Revere added that some of these critics are arguing that Washington needs to change its approach, offer concessions and engage in arms control and threat reduction talks with North Korea. He said this explains not only the administrations detailed description of its efforts at talks but its willingness to discuss interim steps toward denuclearization.

Two senior U.S. officials said in March that Washington is willing to consider such steps and discuss sanctions and confidence-building measures.

Robert Rapson, who served as charge daffaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said the Biden administration may be trying to address Chinas call for talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Its possible Beijing may have laid out a quid pro quo for any support with North Korea by calling on the U.S. to up its efforts to engage with Pyongyang  hence the statement from the State Department, said Rapson.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Beijing after talks with Chinese officials that he encouraged Beijing to press Pyongyang to end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue.

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, said, The Biden administration wants to make it clear, for the record and as we approach the November presidential election, that the administration was proactive in its policy toward North Korea and they did everything possible to have Pyongyang return to negotiations.
A U.S. Senate hearing this week on Chinese money-laundering organizations touched on a little-known but expanding problem: gift card fraud schemes.

Chinese organized crime rings have turned to gift card fraud schemes that have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from American consumers, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to launch a task force to address the problem of card draining, ProPublica reported in April.

Heres how card draining works: Criminals take gift cards from stores, open them at a separate location, and either record the card numbers and PINs or replace them with an entirely new bar code. The criminals then repair the packaging and take the gift cards back to the store. When customers buy the cards and add money to them, the criminals can access the cards online and steal the funds.

When an unwitting customer loads funds onto the altered gift card, the CMLO [Chinese money-laundering organization] converts those funds to hard goods, often iPhones, through retail purchases made by CMLO mules throughout the United States, Ricardo Mayoral, assistant director of countering transnational organized crime at the Department of Homeland Security, said Tuesday at the Senate hearing.

Those iPhones, together with devices procured with criminal proceeds purchased from TCOs [transnational criminal organizations], are then exported abroad for resale to complete the underground banking cycle, Mayoral added.

In New Hampshire, police arrested three people from December to March for allegedly using stolen gift card funds to buy millions of dollars' worth of electronics, including iPhones.

Over the past 18 months, authorities across the United States have arrested about 100 people for card draining, Adam Parks, a Homeland Security official who is leading the new task force, told ProPublica. Of those, 80 to 90 are Chinese nationals or Chinese Americans, the official said.

Multiple Chinese criminal groups are believed to be involved in card draining and are likely using the stolen money to finance other illegal activities, according to Parks. The crime groups use low-level runners in the United States to perpetrate the scheme.

In one case, a man named Ming Xue visited 14 Walmart stores in Ohio in just one day before he was arrested, court documents show. Police said they found 2,260 Visa, Apple and Mastercard gift cards in his car. He has pleaded not guilty.

In another case, police said they found $60,000 worth of altered gift cards in the possession of a man named Donghui Liao, who was arrested at a Target in Florida while restocking the stolen cards.

Americans spend a lot of money on gift cards, which helps explain why theyre being targeted in the first place. An industry estimate expects Americans to spend more than $200 billion on gift cards in 2024.

Data indicate that card draining has been on the rise in recent years.

In 2022-23, nearly 60% of retailers said they experienced an increase in gift card scams, according to a report by the National Retail Federation.
Marking this years World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International said Thursday it is concerned about eastern and southern African authorities imposition of severe restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom.

The organization said there was increased intentional disruption of internet connectivity and the enactment of tough cyber security laws aimed at silencing the media and controlling the spread of information.

Sarah Kimani, the media manager of Amnesty International in east and southern Africa, outlined other ways governments are hampering the media.

Some of the issues we documented include the fact that across the east and southern Africa region, authorities used national security laws, including counterterrorism and cybersecurity legislation, to undermine the right to freedom of expression, punish journalists and suppress media freedom, she said.

For example, in Madagascar, the Cybercriminality Code and the Communication Code have forced journalists to self-censor due to fear of reprisals, Kimani said. The laws are broad, and vaguely defined provisions within the laws  such as attacks on state security, defamation, dissemination of fake news and incitement to hatred  have been used to intimidate, harass and target journalists.

Kimani said Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe are other countries where Amnesty recorded serious violations over the past year.

In Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwas government says it is making a better environment for journalists, having awarded 14 licenses for private radio and television stations in the last few years.

Zimbabwe Information Minister Jenfan Muswere told VOA, "The second republic has made significant progress in ensuring a safe, free and competitive operating environment. This has been done through enactment of media-friendly laws and the repealing of laws that affected media operations. This has also led to the opening up of airwaves for both radio and television, thus ensuring media diversity.

Muswere said more regulations are yet to come to, in his words, professionalize and allow the independence and co-regulation of the media sector and ensure growth and development.

Tabani Moyo, the director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, acknowledged Musweres comments but said Zimbabwe and several other countries in the region still present a difficult environment for journalists in which to operate.

All these are the mix of challenges within these countries, including restrictive laws, laws that are curbing civic space, others coming with cyber security laws, he said. But what this means is that the region is ... a mixed bag, in terms of going backwards  two steps forward, five backwards.

This situation, he said, calls for a consolidated approach towards media development at a regional level.

Moyo said it would be helpful if regional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community and the African Union promoted model progressive laws on the issue of media freedom on the continent.
To mark World Press Freedom Day, which the U.N. celebrates every year on May 3 to defend media freedom, VOA's Persian Service has engaged in a comprehensive look at some of the events of the past year in which Iran was accused of violating freedom of expression.

Amid the unfolding events concerning Tehrans crackdown on journalists, Irans judiciary has issued summonses to multiple reporters, among them Marzieh Mahmoudi, Asal Dadashloo and Mohammad Parsi.

Mahmoudi received her summons after making social media posts in response to a BBC report this week about the 2022 killing of Nika Shakarami, a young protester, by Iranian government forces.

Mahmoudi said this about the BBCs story: "The report on Nika Shakarami's murder underscores the fact that they [Islamic Republic forces] executed individuals by plainclothes agents. The report presents two crucial details: One suggests that one of these individuals infiltrated the crowd as a protester, while the other indicates that the assailant used his socks to gag Nika."

The journalist revealed shortly afterward that she faced "a fresh case in the Culture and Media Court," yet she said, "Neither the charges nor the specifics were outlined."

Parsi similarly recounted how he had "penned down the plight of Nika Shakarami" that evening only to find himself "summoned to court the following morning." Ironically, he noted that its been six months since the Debsh tea embezzlement case  a huge corruption scandal involving billions of dollars of government subsidized foreign currency  and yet "neither arrests nor summonses have been issued" in that case.

According to an Iranian news outlet, the Tehran Prosecutor's Office brought charges against Milad Alavi, a journalist with the Shargh newspaper, for releasing a video depicting public reactions to the death sentence handed to Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi.

Editorial staff held hostage

Hedieh Kimiaei, a social journalist residing in Turkey, shared her insights on the mounting government crackdown on media in Iran in an interview with VOA Persian. She noted that over the past six months, certain newspapers, known for their in-depth coverage of societal issues, have experienced a notable decline in their social reporting.

Kimiaei said, "The Islamic Republic has sought to monopolize the news ... particularly in the instance of Armita Geravand's death at the hands of the morality police at a Tehran metro station last autumn. Journalists visiting the hospital were denied the opportunity to report" on Geravands story, she said.

Following Geravands death, journalist Maryam Lotfi, from the Shargh newspaper, was apprehended by Iranian authorities while she was at Fajr Air Force Hospital gathering information for a news report about the incident.

Kimiaei said the Islamic Republic similarly held the journalists of Fardaye Eghtesad newspaper hostage for three days in broad daylight, "journalists whose sole job is publishing news and reports."

She said many Iranian journalists have been summoned and detained even for republishing news and said that even journalists who wrote within the tolerance boundaries of the Islamic Republic have been summoned.

"In the past year," Kimiaei explained, "the Islamic Republic has significantly hindered freedom of expression and journalistic activities in Iran by implementing a series of unjust laws."

Surging pressure on journalists

The Defending Free Flow of Information (DeFFI) organization, a nonprofit advocating for freedom of expression, revealed that the Islamic Republic has initiated legal and security proceedings against 91 journalists, media activists and media outlets just in the first three months of 2024.

The group, founded by a coalition of journalists, human rights researchers and legal experts, documented in its latest report government efforts to discredit journalists and independent media outlets in a targeted manner.

According to the report, at the beginning of 2024, 24 journalists and media executives  seven women and 17 men  have received sentences that include 14 years and seven months of imprisonment, fines amounting to $1,616, two years of exile, four years of journalism practice prohibition, four years of social media activity prohibition and two years of travel bans.

The report also says that during the first three months of this year, the Islamic Republic infringed upon the legal rights of journalists facing judicial persecution in at least 95 instances.

In February, the number of judicial prosecutions of journalists and media executives surged by 40% compared with the previous month, according to the report.

Coercion, unjust trials

During the hacking of Irans judiciary's websites in February, leaked documents revealed that judicial authorities had handed down imprisonment sentences to several journalists associated with VOA's Persian Service in April 2022, citing charges of propaganda against the system.

In reaction to these rulings, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State underscored the unsurprising nature of such actions from the Iranian government, which has garnered global notoriety for its crackdown on the media. Speaking to VOA's Persian Service, they stated, The intimidation of journalists overseas by the Iranian regime and the domestic suppression of media are widely recognized worldwide.

According to an Amnesty International report released in April, Iranian authorities, with the goal of quelling protests, have significantly curtailed basic freedoms by employing illegitimate coercive methods and unjust trials of activists, journalists and critics.

In response to the report, particularly the threats against journalists, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State said in April, "The Islamic Republic continues to be one of the largest sponsors of terrorism and has consistently shown since 1978 a disregard for freedom, continuing to suppress civil society, intimidate the media and violate human rights."

Independent media in Iran lack the freedom to operate, while independent journalists are routinely targeted with security and legal actions on any pretext.

International organizations like Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists have consistently denounced Irans government for its infringement on press freedom in recent decades. Iran is frequently highlighted as one of the largest jailers of journalists.
This years World Press Freedom Day theme is journalism in the face of the environmental crisis, and a South African media outlet called Oxpeckers focuses on exactly that. For VOA, Kate Bartlett spoke to some of its journalists about their drive and challenges
The police crackdown on pro-Palestinian genocide protesters on campuses [1] in a dozen major U.S. academic institutions, including the prestigious Ivy League, is disturbing.

In 1968, the emblematic private (sic) Columbia University (New York) was the epicenter of demonstrations against the Vietnam War, which resulted in the police arrest of over 700 students and professors.

Today, 56 years later, the same iconic university, with a total of 30,000 students, which subsumes the collective psyche of the future (as made visible by the present) of the United States, is protesting against Israeli genocide in Gaza, and has to its credit 100 students and professors arrested by barbaric police repression [2].

The astonishing university protests have spread not only to Texas and Southern California, but also to the emblematic Faculte des Sciences Politiques in Paris [3].

The famous Lexington column of the globalist neoliberal monarchys magazine The Economist reminds us that, as in 1968, Democrat Joe Biden risks being the candidate of chaos and war, while today pro-Palestinian students are rising up on American campuses [4].

Even the Financial Times [5] and Bloomberg [6], controlled by Israeli theologians, cannot hide the votive flame of protest by Columbia University students and professors against Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Committing a blatant act of interference in what remains of American sovereignty (sic) - strangely swept under the carpet by both parties in Congress - Prime Minister Netanyahu extra-territorially admonished pro-Palestinian American students against genocide and branded them anti-Semitic (sic): "Whats happening on American campuses is horrible. Anti-Semitic (sic) hordes (re-sic) have taken over major universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish professors.

As usual, Khazar Prime Minister Netanyahu [7], who is of non-Semitic Polish descent, describes the protesters at American universities as anti-Semitic hordes (mega sic!) who are "attacking the Jewish faculty" (sic). What could this underground Jewish faculty possibly be?

In his thread of delirious messages on X, Netanyahu comments: "This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It must be stopped [8]," and he glorifies police repression at various universities.

Today, the U.S. is moving between McCarthyite totalitarianism and its new Civil War, as Alex Garlands new film Civil War [9] shows my interview seen by over 2.5 million people on Radio La Raza Los Angeles, which has the largest Mexican and Latino audience in the U.S. [10].

Israel has not found a convincing discourse between the emblematic October 7 (the staggering irruption of the Sunni Palestinian guerrilla group Hamas) and April 14 - when "Israel exacerbates its financial deterrence in the face of Irans new strategic deterrence [11]" - in unison with its genocide in Gaza and its apartheid policy against the original inhabitants of Palestine who are true Semites, who rise up against the Khazar invaders who are "fake Semites".

The omnipotent black propaganda based on the triad of anti-Semitism/terrorism/hate via the "Hasbara technique [12]" finds itself semiotically overtaken by the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Netanyahu would do well to educate himself by reading the eminent Israeli historian Shlomo Sands in his two classic books (from 2008 and 2014) The Invention of the Jewish People [13], Shlomo Sand, Verso (2010).]] and How the Land of Israel was Invented [14] "which dismantle the entire false ideology/theology stemming from Hasbara Zionism".
At the beginning of the State of Israel, Hungarian Jew Rezso Kasztner (aka "Rudolf Ysrael Kastner") was appointed spokesman for the Minister of Trade and Industry. However, it turned out that during World War II he had negotiated with the Nazis for the flight of Hungarian Jews. According to some, he was a hero, according to others a Nazis collaborator. A Hungarian journalist accused him of saving only his family, friends, and wealthy personalities who could pay their ransom. It is established that he was talking with a special emissary of Heinrich Himmler and that he met Adolf Eichmann, probably in 1944. He raised at least 8.6 million Swiss francs for them. David Ben-Gurion was informed of these negotiations, probably as early as 1942. Two trials shook Israeli society in the post-war period. Eventually, Kastner was assassinated in 1957.

Historian Nadav Kaplan has just published a book "  " (Why was Kastner murdered?) published by Steimatzky. In it, he does not examine Kastners past, but the conditions of his murder and the improbable immunity enjoyed by his murderers. According to him, the elimination was carried out by "revisionist Zionists" but ordered by the Shin Bet with the approval of David Ben-Gurion. The purpose of this state affair was to hide from the Israeli population the importance of the Zionist leaders negotiations with the Nazis.

In May 1942, David Ben-Gurion presided over the Congress of Zionist Organizations at the Baltimore Hotel in New York City. He placed them under the protection, not of the United Kingdom, but of the United States. The Baltimore resolutions have set Israels policy from the outset. If Nadav Kaplans theory is correct, Israel has been run by a gang of criminals since 1948, unbeknownst to its population.
Photo: Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Throughout its nearly 50-year history, Saturday Night Live has had no shortage of ridiculous characters wearing equally ridiculous costumes. From beloved sketches that feature the Land Shark to infamous bombs like Robert Downey Jr.s Suitcase Boy, the SNL cast members have never been too afraid to look silly on TV. Its just really charming when a show that airs hours past the kids bedtime suddenly starts feeling like Sesame Street with cast members dressing up like cartoonish aliens or whatever David S. Pumpkins is supposed to be. In a show thats typically focused on parodying our fellow humans, theres something extra refreshing when it goes full weird and surreal, letting its actors play talking geese or Thanksgiving-parade floats.

The Weekend Update desk has strangely avoided this style of humor, opting instead for standard impressions of human celebrities or archetypes  at least until recently. It did feature a few nonhuman characters in eccentric costumes throughout its first 45 seasons (youll see plenty of them below), but it really wasnt until Bowen Yang joined the cast in 2019 that Update started regularly embracing this style of comedy. Yang loves nothing more than to dress up like a weird little disgruntled gremlin, and the results have been so successful that the rest of the cast is getting in on it. Here we rank 12 of the most memorable nonhuman Weekend Update guest characters so far, with special attention paid to how high-effort the costume design seems and how much fun the actor appears to be having with it:

12.

First appearing in response to the Catholic Churchs child-abuse scandals making headlines in 2010, the Devil quickly became the shows go-to guy for emphasizing how dark a real-life issue is. Sudeikiss Devil is proudly evil, sure, but hes fun evil, not real-life evil. He likes to put annoying pop-up ads on websites, not take advantage of societys most vulnerable citizens. Thats why hes horrified to learn the details of the 2011 abuse scandal at Penn State, or that QAnon theorists in 2021 are involving him in their conspiracies. Hes the perfect vehicle for the writers to get their shots in on the worst people currently in the news. This persons so bad, the segment argues, that not even the devil would want to hang out with them.

Sudeikiss Devil is ranked at the bottom of this list solely due to how low-effort the costume feels. Just a regular suit dyed red and two measly horns? Yang on an off-day would put this get-up to shame.

11.

Although Gumby was a beloved recurring character throughout Murphys time as a cast member in the 80s, it wasnt until 2019 that he made it to the Weekend Update desk. Here hes his same abrasive, overconfident self, yelling at Colin Jost and Michael Che the whole time for not inviting him back. In the segments best moment, Murphy accidentally breaks into laughter. When the audience laughs with him, Murphy snaps right back into character and yells at them with a stern cut it out arm gesture.

Gumbys costume looks somewhat old and worn out here, but that only adds to his appeal. This feels like the same Gumby outfit Murphy was wearing all those years earlier, like its been kept away in a closet somewhere waiting for this very moment. For an episode that was all about appealing to the older SNL fans, re-using what looks like the same exact outfit from the 80s was the perfect choice.

10.

The SNL writers have seemed oddly obsessed with the untimely demise of poor Flaco the Owl, as theyd already joked about him in the Update segment earlier in the month and let James Austin Johnson dress up as Flacos grieving cousin in that same episodes infamous Hooters sketch.

Shermans portrayal still shines here, however, as the grieving widow quickly reveals that her late husband had multiple STDs and a voracious sexual appetite. Flaco banged anything with a pair of wings, she laments to Jost. I once caught him dipping tip in a frozen turkey. The sketch has a lot of the typical Sherman humor, including constant below-the-belt digs at Jost and a ton of sexual innuendo, but even if that style of comedys not to your taste, you cant deny Sherman looked good doing it. That owl costume, from its realistic feathers to the subtle mourning veil, looked like it mustve taken days to make and a long time just to put on correctly.

9.

One mans hero is another mans villain, which is why it should be no surprise to learn that the heroic Captain Sully (who pulled off an emergency plane landing in the Hudson River in 2009) is enemy No. 1 to the geese community. Showing up the week after the incident, and again a year later to honor the goose victims, Larry describes the event as the Day the Crazy Loud Big Thing Came At Us Out of Nowhere and urges Seth Meyers to take his pain seriously, even as Larrys absurd goose squawking makes that impossible to do.

At first glance, Sambergs costume doesnt seem that high effort here  for his beak, they just paint his nose yellow  but Samberg deserves credit for how he subtly added signs of aging to Larry in his second appearance. Samberg also proved his love for playing birds in Cameron the Blackbird, a 2011 Update segment where he plays a gay bird in love with a gay fish (Taran Killam). These segments were never huge hits, but theyre still pleasant enough to warrant a rewatch.

8.

Introduced in 2019, this is easily one of the most controversial recurring Update guests. Baby Yoda, once the cute standout character of The Mandalorian, is here transformed into a Gen Z slang-spewing monstrosity, with a grating voice and delivery meant to mock the worst of TikTok influencers. If thats what Baby Yoda looked like on the show, the Mandalorian would have let him die, reads the top comment on his biggest sketch, and its hard to argue otherwise.

Still, Baby Yoda deserves props for the sheer amount of effort that went into the costume. Kyle Mooney is nearly unrecognizable in the role, and theres a specificity to the characters quirks and intonation that proves that laziness, at the very least, is not the problem here. Mooney was famous for having his best sketches cut for time, so this character feels like a testament to just how much work he had to go through to get his moment in the spotlight. This might not be Mooneys best work on the show, but at least it repeatedly made it to air.

7.

By the time this segment aired in 2022, it was already at least the third time Yang played a bug on SNL. Is it healthy that Yang likes to perform flamboyant, antagonistic insects this often? Probably not, but with results this funny its hard to complain. Responding to the constant PSAs in northeastern America that spotted lanternflies are an invasive species and you should kill them on sight, Yangs Spotted Lanternfly introduced himself as a parody of a loud, defiant, trashy reality-talk-show guest.

Even the audience gets into it, booing Bowens character while he soaks it all in. Its a delightfully campy Update character, one of what must be dozens from Bowen at this point, and it also works as a genuinely effective PSA. The attention to detail on Bowens fabulous bug suit (which he flaunts to a booing audience) means that millions of viewers now know exactly what a spotted lanternfly looks like, and theyre more motivated than ever to squash it dead.

6.

Shortly before Norm MacDonald was fired from his Update anchor gig for making one too many O.J. Simpson jokes, he was visited by his future replacement, Colin Quinn, in a lion suit. The joke here is that Lenny, despite being a zoo lion, is basically just a repentant former criminal trying to better himself. Its all about my father, I was just acting out his rage, he tells MacDonald. I know that now. It turns out that lions arent so scary; theyre just going through their own complicated emotional journey.

This is the earliest nonhuman Update guest to make the list, and the funniest part about it is just how bemused MacDonald is throughout the whole thing. The whole schtick is beneath him, he sure seems to think, but hes delighted to see it through anyway.

5.

Another entry from this year, Nwodim plays the famous stingray in a North Carolina aquarium who got pregnant under mysterious circumstances. To this day, people are still trying to figure out what happened there, but luckily the Stingray came out on Update to set the record straight. Yes, she really is pregnant, and the father is Michael Che.

Dressed in an adorable stingray costume, Nwodim doesnt just throw in a ton of raunchy bestiality jokes, but she also makes history as one of the first guests to properly make Che squirm. Usually its poor Jost being thrown through the wringer, forced to suffer through joke swaps or roasts from Sherman, but here its Che whos finally blushing with embarrassment. This dynamic would be dialed up to 11 with Caitlin Clarks later appearance, in which she humbles Che once and for all for his constant lazy WNBA jokes, but Charlotte deserves credit for doing it first.

4.

One of the bitterest ironies of the modern world is that we almost put an end to adolescent smoking, but then those pesky vape pens swooped in and rendered years of effective TV PSAs useless. So in came young cast member Longfellow with his surprisingly detailed cigarette costume, complete with smoke somehow rising from the top, to defend the OG cancer causer. Smoking makes you skinny and popular, he tells the impressionable kids at home, all while declaring vape smokers to be dorks who lack confidence. Is this the most socially responsible segment in Update history? Probably not, but Longfellow deserves props for his charming, chaotic delivery, and for the sheer attention to detail on that ridiculous outfit.

3.

Photo: NBC

Although the amount of misinformation being spouted throughout the 2008 election paled in comparison to what we regularly see today, it was still a big enough problem to grab esteemed cast member Will Fortes attention. Naturally, he dressed up as a giant silver telephone, telling Seth Meyers in a robotic voice all about how Obama is a gay terrorist. The tragic part is how Robocall knows this job is beneath him, but he just really likes the attention that comes with lying to elderly voters. This is easily one of Fortes funniest Update characters, and one of the most high-effort costumes of any Update guest ever. Future cast member Aristotle Athari would pull off a similar trick 13 years later, but Fortes far more adorable telephone robot wins out between the two. Its a shame the segment still hasnt been posted on the official SNL YouTube channel; if you want to watch it today, youll need a Peacock subscription.

2.

When that 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit New York in April, we knew SNL would do some sort of sketch about it, but we didnt know theyd do it via a parody of two WWE wrestling stars trash talking each other before a match. (Fittingly, this aired the same night as Wrestlemania XL.) Marcellos earthquake brags about how he gave New York a bunch of teeny-tiny punches like a scary massage, but Kenan Thompsons eclipse comes out to set him straight. Come Monday, all of America will be covered in eternal darkness! he taunts. But much like the earthquake, his big talk is undermined by how the eclipse would only last a couple minutes, and only a small section of the country would get to fully see it.

Marcellos costume is the most effective. There is no intuitive way to design a costume for an earthquake, so giving Marcello a hat with a trembling Manhattan on top feels like a stroke of genius. Kenans costume is a lot more straightforward  SNL already pulled the same basic trick with Timothee Chalamet and the moon  but it still got the job done. This is one of the most energetic Update segments in recent history, and in the years that come, it should prove to be a quaint little time capsule of what life was like during this one very busy week in April 2024.

1.

Everybody always talks about those poor souls who perished on the Titanic, but nobody talks about the poor iceberg who was just minding his own business before a giant boat crashed into him. (Half his ass was gone, guys!) This is the basis of one of Bowen Yangs greatest characters and the greatest nonhuman guest in Update history. Yangs iceberg is a total diva, an ice queen who just wants to relax, look good, and make music. But unfortunately all the media wants to talk about is how 30 or 40 people died or whatever. But what about the Icebergs new album, guys? Surely thats more important.

When watching this segment, one gets the impression that Yangs been workshopping this bit for years. He seems to have understood that a premise this stupid needs to be pulled off with perfection, and everything from his line delivery to the breathtaking ice hat rises to the challenge. This was a moment that changed Weekend Update history, that proved that an inanimate-object character could go just as viral as Stefon or Drunk Uncle. Yang proved that going full stupid could make for a work of art, and the rest of the cast has spent the past three years following in his footsteps. The Titanic may not have successfully led its passengers to a better life in America, but the Iceberg Who Sunk the Titanic did lead Update to a more adventurous array of weekly guest characters, and thats worth some celebration.
Photo: J. Merritt/Getty Images for GLAAD

Britney Spears and her ex Sam Asghari have reportedly reached a divorce settlement, reports Rolling Stone. TMZ shares that the couple allegedly have a prenup in place that essentially leaves Sam with nothing. Octavia Spencer, you can breathe a little easier. Now, it is up to a judge to sign off on their agreement for it to be finalized. Asghari filed for divorce in August of last year after 14 months of marriage, with Spears breaking the news on Instagram, writing, As everyone knows, Hesam and I are no longer together  6 years is a long time to be with someone so, Im a little shocked but  Im not here to explain why because its honestly nobodys business !!! But, I couldnt take the pain anymore honestly !!!

Elsewhere in Britney news, earlier today, Spears was photographed outside of West Hollywoods Chateau Marmont after paramedics responded to a call regarding a fight at the hotel with her boyfriend, Paul Richard Soliz. NBC News reported that Spears injured her foot and left with her own security and without her boyfriend. In response to the reports, Spears wrote on Instagram later that day, claiming that the news of the altercation was fake. I also twisted my ankle last night and paramedics showed up at my door illegally. They never came in my room but I felt completely harassed. Im moving to Boston !!! Peace
Mariska Hargitay at Varietys Power of Women event. Photo: Cindy Ord/Variety via Getty Images

Mariska Hargitay has a thing or two to say about Harvey Weinsteins overturned conviction at Varietys Power of Women ceremony. The Law and Order: SVU veteran believes a judge threw out the ruling for one reason. Too many womens voices, she said on May 2 while accepting an award for her work at the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization advocating for sexual-assault and abuse victims. Too many women were allowed to speak. The New York State Court of Appeals tossed Weinsteins 2020 rape and sexual-assault conviction on April 25, saying the only evidence against defendant was the complainants testimony, referring to three accusers unrelated to the case who were called to the stand to testify about Weinsteins misconduct.

The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify, Hargitay told an electrified crowd of women leaders and philanthropists during the luncheon held in the courtyard of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, on an unseasonably warm and glaringly bright afternoon. Risky to let women speak? Youre damn right it is. Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the Establishment. She connected Weinsteins overturned conviction to the backlash against the Me Too movement. The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, those voices are.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 3. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have signed the protocol of the XI meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation, Trend reports.

The protocol, signed by Kyrgyzstan's Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Akylbek Japarov and Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, underscores the continued efforts of both governments to enhance political dialogue, intensify trade and economic relations, and advance major joint projects across various sectors.

"The governments of both countries have pursued a course in the past year aimed at strengthening political dialogue, further intensifying trade and economic ties, implementing major joint projects in various areas, and developing cultural and humanitarian relations," Japarov said.

In turn, PM Aripov emphasized the comprehensive nature of the strategic partnership between the two states and affirmed a commitment to further developing and strengthening bilateral cooperation. He highlighted the implementation of major infrastructure projects, such as the Kambarata HPP-1 and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.

According to the State Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the trade between the two countries amounted to $92.285 million from January through February 2024, which is 17 percent more than $78.905 million in the corresponding months of 2023.
Sugar is coming. GET OUT NOW.

No sooner does Stallings get home from his latest sex trafficking business trip at the border than the anonymous warning text comes in on his phone. But the warning doesnt save him. Instead of taking the hint, Stallings and his crew set up a trap for John Sugar and get themselves killed. I mean, how are a vaguely mustache-twirly L.A. noir bad guy (played with gusto by modern character actor Eric Lange, but still underbaked) and his vaguely drawn cronies going to compete with the bullet-dodging agility of a movie-loving space alien super-being detective?

Thats right. In the sixth of eight relatively thin episodes, we reach the big reveal about John Sugar: Our guy is an alien (a blue one even, though by my estimation, a little more cyborg than, say, Navi). The actual reveal, where Sugar takes a big injection from his box of weird alien juice and his human form disintegrates in front of the mirror, doesnt come until the very end of the episode. By then, it feels like a limp, forgone conclusion. Theres a clear miscalculation here, bordering on terminal for the series, in thinking the surprise of Sugars extra-terrestrial identity would amount to more than a cycle of articles and Reddit theorizing. Staying under the internet attention beam for six weeks is never a worthwhile reward in and of itself.

But go back and watch the show from the beginning (especially in director Fernando Meirelles quietly hypnotic first two episodes), and youll find Colin Farrels performance even more impressive and certainly more moving. Like Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still  an empathetic blank slate from outer space. Only not quite. Hes got a dead sister in his past. A spiritual wound that opens his raw human heart to great compassion and swift, colorful violence in equal measure. Projected in the movies hes watched (and loved), the foundation of his image of the human race. And himself.

Any cinephile still watching this show will surely identify with this John Sugar. Especially those of us who came out to sunny L.A. from some far-off isolated community in search of the magic behind the movies we loved. We found a cruel city where the good, the bad, and the ugly all die young. Not everythings like a movie, as John Sugar thinks to himself, driving away from the scene of his righteous (but unnerving) killing spree. Sometimes, a thing is just a thing that happened. Uniquely in itself. Incomparable. The bitter pill swallowed by every sentient being with lungs that breathe the L.A. smog. Past, present, and future. And yet we cant help but think theres something yet to be mined from our shared Hollywood myths. The truth between the lies. Its all about the trail.

Back to the case at hand, such as it is. Stallings locked basement was a red herring. Nothing in there but caged fighting dogs. (There is one nice dog that Sugar sets free. Could have done the same for the others, there big guy, dont care how much that one with the blue eyes reminded you of all the innocent pups youre out here trying to protect). Charlie, last seen on guard outside Stallings place, is missing  breathing status unknown. Jonathan Siegel is awake, but barely. He is immediately confronted with his sobbing son Bernie at his side, breaking the news of Davids condition (still breathing, but essentially braindead). Meanwhile, Sugar meets up with Melanie at a nondescript motel room, side cut open, on the edge of consciousness. He manages to hand Melanie his phone with Henry Thorpes number on it  the only person he can trust to patch him up without sounding some type of alarm, whether to Earths authorities or his own presumably extra-terrestrial superiors.

Sugar wakes up hours later, still in pain. Serves me right for what I did, Sugar thinks, back at his white-hat justice baseline. Henry had already packed up and left ages ago, leaving Melanie with nothing in the way of answers, despite her pleas to tell him what was going on, why taking Sugar to a hospital would be dangerous, etc. He hobbles out of bed without waking up Melanie, asleep at his side, and sneaks off to Rubys house for a dramatic confrontation. It was her number in Stallings phone (another example of the show waiting till the cheapest possible ah-ha moment to reveal something to the audience). WHY?! Sugar asks again and again. Why would Ruby warn a man like that about him? Why are they protecting criminals like Stallings? What sort of observation mission are they running here on planet L.A.?

The answers (and their concealment) are clearly hurting Ruby, but she remains a locked box. They need you to stop looking is all Sugar can get out of her. Everything is for the mission. He takes the first opportunity to bounce, goes back to the motel, and sheds his earthly, hard-boiled persona. A naked moment of clarity when backed into the corner of some dank motel bathroom in Los Angeles.

Against all odds, the earnestness with which creator Mark Protosovech has led this cloyingly inoffensive genre-bending noir to its big reveal remains infectious, and theres still something truthful and heartfelt to be mined from the story of John Sugar now that its in full frame. But the construction of the reveal itself  taking what mightve been a killer premise and concealing it for a vague, two-thirds of a season-long guessing game of diminishing returns  feels at irreconcilable odds with the shows cinema-loving soul.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 3. President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Zhaparov, will embark on a state visit to Uzbekistan this year, Trend reports.

Akylbek Japarov, Chairman of the Kyrgyzstan Cabinet of Ministers, made this announcement during the Kyrgyz-Uzbek Intergovernmental Commission.

He mentioned that both sides are currently preparing a program of various events, including a Kyrgyz-Uzbek business forum and Kyrgyz Culture Days in Uzbekistan with the participation of the heads of both states, among others.

"This visit should become another breakthrough event in Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations and give an important impetus to further strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between our countries," Japarov said.

To note, the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan held its XI meeting in Tashkent in both narrow and expanded formats. Following the meeting, the protocol was signed.
Dining chat: A waiter gave our anniversary bubbly to the table next to us. What should we have done?
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 3. The opening of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek plant for the production of cars in the Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan will take place soon, Akylbek Japarov, the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, said during a meeting of the XI intergovernmental commission in Tashkent, Trend reports.

Japarov also highlighted that the two countries are actively progressing on several major joint investment, transportation, and energy projects. These include the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, the Kambarata HPP-1, the Chatkal HPP, and others.

To note, the construction of the new plant for passenger cars and commercial vehicles commenced in May 2023. Initially, the plant's production capacity will be 10,000 vehicles per year, creating over 1,000 permanent jobs.

The XI meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan took place in Tashkent in both narrow and expanded formats. Following the meeting, the protocol was signed.
The shifting sands of television news come at a crucial time. Consumption trends show older audiences are beginning to prefer online news websites and apps to television, while younger audiences are increasingly consuming news through social media. Sitting down to consume the headlines at 6pm has diminished in importance, says Peter Meakin, who has served as director of news and current affairs for each of Australias three commercial networks. But Meakin says, the evening bulletin still serves a purpose, particularly for local audiences. Most people would be aware of anything important before that time. There is still a demand for it, but the audiences have markedly declined over the last couple of decades. News bulletins have outlasted the majority of other free-to-air programming  barring live sport  as the last hyper-local product on screens with budgets shifting elsewhere. In June last year, the ABC attempted to nationalise its Sunday Night bulletin, replacing state and local services in a slimmed down broadcast output.

Six weeks later, managing director David Anderson reversed the decision after listening to audience feedback. Social media takeover While free-to-air television remains the primary choice for news consumption for now, both TV and online news will soon be overtaken by social media as the first choice for Australians, according to data from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Twenty per cent of Australians now cite social media as their first port of call for news, according to ACMAs How We Access News report published in February. The report finds that while free-to-air television is still selected by 26 per cent of Australians as the main source of news, the overall consumption of news on the medium is declining.

Nine in ten Australians watch free-to-air TV news each week, with that figure just 30 per cent in the 18-to-24 age group. Overall, 53 per cent of Australians watched free to air TV news in 2023, down from 59 per cent in 2022. Australians are also getting news from fewer sources  3.1 sources in any given week in 2023, down from 3.5 in 2022. Social media was the main source of news for 46 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds, and 38 per cent of Australians between the ages of 25 and 34. Those age groups more generally consumed news through social media at rates of 70 per cent and 64 per cent. Metro consumption of the nightly bulletins on the two leading commercial networks, Nine and Seven, declined by 12 per cent between 2019 and 2023, according to OzTAM data. The audience is getting older, too. Audiences in the key demographic of 25-to-54 year-olds dropped 24 per cent in the same period. Meakin says TV news audiences have been 55-plus for decades.

There have been attempts, here and overseas to make news style programs that appeal to younger audiences. Most of them, apart from The Project have been a failure, he says. You can chase them, and if someone can find a magic bullet, good luck to them and theyll be extremely wealthy. But at the end of the day, theres just not a lot of interest among the younger generation in watching news bulletins. Yet despite the declines, television and professional news outlets remain more trusted in a crowded environment. Trust in news remains at pre-pandemic levels in Australia, according to a 2023 study by the Reuters Institute. Both SBS and the ABC had a trust score of 66 per cent, with 9News (57pc) and 7News (56pc) ahead of all digital news websites. News Corp brands The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and Sky News Australia had the lowest trust scores of those surveyed. As a result, nightly bulletins retain significant reach despite television audiences declining more generally. On Sunday, the combined audience across evening news bulletins on Nine, Seven, Ten and ABC was 3.7 million.

Ad dollars dwindling For decades, television could command around half an advertising agencies media budget, a senior advertising executive says, but its now a secondary focus. We want to be in front of the news, MAFS, Farmer Wants a Wife and live sport, thats about it, the executive said, speaking anonymously to preserve their commercial relationships. In 2015, television netted 46 per cent of all advertising spend in Australia according to Standard Media Index data provided to this masthead. (These figures consider around 60 per cent of all advertising spend, comprising data from all the major agencies).

Fast-forward to 2024, television makes up just 31 per cent of a slightly larger market. Televisions lunch has been eaten by digital advertising (mostly Google and Meta), which captures 43 per cent of all advertising, up from 23 per cent in 2015. Its worse for newspapers. The sectors share has cratered, down from 8 per cent to just 2 per cent, with revenue now reliant on subscriptions amid a protracted battle with the Facebook-owner for commercial compensation ongoing. Preserving the brand Sevens swift decision to jettison McPherson and install De Ceglie shows the importance of preserving the brand. Televisions shrinking share of the ad market puts the company in a volatile position, deriving around 90 per cent of its income from advertising. Its not fatal, but its not helpful, says Meakin of the recent blunders by Sevens newsrooms, including the misidentification of the Bondi Junction killer, and revelations of the efforts Spotlight went to secure an interview with former Liberal staffer Lehrmann, who was found last month at a civil standard to have raped Brittany Higgins.

People reading about people being plied with sex workers and cocaine, it doesnt do your reputation much good. If youre asking people to trust what they what youre telling them. You wouldnt want to have that on your CV. Meanwhile, Nines search for Wicks replacement is taking some time. Its television boss Michael Healy isnt expected to consider external candidates for the role, this masthead was told by two network sources confidentially as the plans are still underway. Another consideration being mulled over is whether the exhaustive remit would be better split up, uncoupling news and current affairs under the remit of two executives. Names including Melbourne and Sydney news directors Hugh Nailon and Simon Hobbs have been mentioned, alongside Nine Perths Gareth Parker, 60 Minutes EP Kirsty Thompson and deputy Sydney news boss Fiona Dear. All of this is under consideration by Nines management after recruiting Morris, a former ABC and Al Jazeera executive to help lead a comprehensive review of its news division.

Like De Ceglie, the ABCs news boss is another millennial in Justin Stevens. Appointed in 2022 he leapfrogged more senior news figures for the role at just 37 years of age. Previously executive producer of 7.30, he now oversees a team of over 1200 journalists. Recognisable newsreaders have also helped networks build trust with audiences. Peter Overton has led Nines Sydney news since 2009, while Susannah Carr and Rick Ardon at 7News Perth will celebrate 40 years hosting the nightly bulletin next year, a world record. In 2024, Nines Peter Hitchener was replaced as the weeknight anchor in Melbourne after 25 years by Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort. In 2024, the show is up 12 per cent, while its competitor in Seven is down 14 per cent across the same period. Whether De Ceglie can halt or prolong the decline for television news, there is still significant revenue to be made, and audiences to be served. Despite the expertise he may lack, Meakin says, news pedigree comes first, rather than TV pedigree.
Despite all our bashing of Seven West Media (SWM), we do sympathise with the decent people still working at the outfit.

New Seven CEO Jeff Howard wants to bring his clean-skin touch to the company. Credit: John Shakespeare

Its fair to say that many staff werent thrilled about Mondays news that Chris Dore, who departed the editors chair at The Australian after allegedly making lewd comments to a woman, had been promoted to temporarily head the newspaper division in the shakeup that followed the paying for Bruce Lehrmanns sex workers and cocaine scandal.

On an unrelated note, staff received an email from human resources two days later urging anyone whod witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the workplace to Be Brave and Speak Up.

Its very important that everyone at SWM feels empowered to speak up if you witness inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, the email from the companys general manager (people and safety) Claire Taylor said.
The trailer for M. Night Shyamalans upcoming horror Trap begins well. A man has taken his teen daughter to a pop concert, only to discover theyre trapped inside the venue with a deranged serial killer. Its a simple premise, yet it promises a thrill.

But it keeps going. Before you know it, you find out the father is the serial killer.

And its not just Trap making the mistake of revealing too much. These days, watching a trailer can feel like one big spoiler. Theyre packed with as much material from the film as possible, often including the best jump scares, stunts, twists and gags.

Movie trailers seem to be major spoilers these days. Why do they give so much away? Credit: Compiled by Bethany Rae.

Granted, only showing the best parts of something is bound to generate hype, which is ultimately what trailers are made to do. But this can come at the expense of the audiences enjoyment of the film itself. Would you have enjoyed The Sixth Sense as much if the trailer had already explained that Bruce Willis character was a ghost? Even if you did, the chances of it going down in cinematic history would surely have been much slimmer.
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This story is part of the April 28 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories .

His and hers. These words once defined how we dressed and shopped, but, in 2024, the phrase feels old-hat. Across the industry, from luxury labels such as Balenciaga and Margiela to the high street, more brands are dissolving (or at least blurring) gender lines, and writing a fashion prescription that is more inclusive, with fewer rules.

Though it may be years before we see department stores merge the mens and womens departments, smaller brands are already showing how they can be more playful when it comes to notions of couple dressing, and what unisex clothing means to their customers.

Take Bassike, whose coordinating denim pieces are beloved by men and women alike, and which feature in this Sunday Life shoot with models  and real-life couple  Dominique Elissa and Tom Bull.

Tom: Commas tank, $455, jacket, $795 and trouser, $555. His own shoes. Dominique: Commas top, $695, jacket, $795 and trousers, $555. Camilla & Marc Rhys pump, $750. Credit: JEDD COONEY

Deb Sams, one half of the Sydney-based brand (which she started with Mary Lou Ryan in 2006), says universal  the pairs preferred term for unisex  has been part of Bassikes DNA since they launched denim in the late noughties.

Ive always been very influenced by menswear, my own personal style can be quite tomboyish, says Sams. I love the idea of wearing a guys jean  oversized, belting it in  with a heel. Mens T-shirts, sweaters  its very intrinsic to our brand.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of its first unisex style, the Classic Slim Universal jean, Bassike is this month relaunching its most successful genderless styles in a capsule that will include a denim jacket, anoraks and, of course, jeans.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 3. President of Tajikistan and President of Russia Vladimir Putin have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of labor migration, Trend reports.

The Tajik president's press service reports that the presidents agreed over the phone to direct the relevant authorities on both sides to step up their efforts in this area.

The heads of state also highlighted the close coordination between law enforcement agencies and special services in combating terrorism, extremism, and transnational organized crime, as well as the importance of further enhancing their cooperation.

Putin invited Rahmon to participate in the upcoming informal meeting of the CIS heads of state in Moscow, as well as in events commemorating Victory Day.

On April 29, the Tajik Foreign Ministry conveyed a note to Russian Ambassador Semyon Grigoriyev expressing serious concern regarding numerous instances of overtly negative treatment toward Tajik citizens in Russia, along with widespread violations of their rights and freedoms.

On April 30, at the request of the Russian side, Tajik FM Sirojiddin Muhriddin held a phone conversation with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and emphasized that such negative treatment of Tajik citizens and widespread violations of their rights and freedoms do not correspond to the principles of bilateral relations.
There is still no plan for a new Penguin Island discovery centre more than a year after a decision to stop an on-island build, and major tourism operators in the region say they are losing out on millions of dollars in revenue as a result.

While the island itself has received upgrades including seating, shade structures, an information hub, and interpretation pods, tourism operators who used to be able to guarantee a little penguin sighting said those upgrades have done nothing to help business.

Visitors to Penguin Island this summer will see a demolition site, but possibly no penguins. Credit: Cam Myles/ Rockingham Wild Encounters

More than two years ago, the state government made a $3.3 million election commitment to build a new discovery centre on the island, despite over a decade of consistent advice that this would be bad for the penguin population.

It then backflipped on this decision only months later and instead announced the centre should be built on the mainland.
Alcoas troubled bauxite mining in WAs jarrah forest will have extra government scrutiny costing $10.5 million over four years as the US miner seeks to repair its tarnished environmental credentials.

The funding for the Alcoa Assurance Plan in the upcoming state budget will allow the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to check that Alcoas mining near many of Perths water supply dams meets the conditions imposed on it.

Alcoa blasting bauxite to prepare for mining near Serpentine Dam. Credit: WA Forest Alliance

Environment minister Reece Whitby said he had high expectations of Alcoas environmental performance and the funding would ensure it was adequately monitored.

Let me be clear, protecting our states drinking water remains paramount, he said.
This is the column Ive been deciding not to write for nearly a decade.

I think I first made that decision in 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull declared that disrespecting women does not always result in violence against women. But all violence against women begins with disrespecting women. Here, Turnbull echoed what seemed to be the dominant explanation of domestic violence at the time. But I couldnt repress a simple thought when I heard Turnbulls comment: I just dont think thats correct.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson

Thats because my academic work was studying the roots of violence, where research overwhelmingly identifies factors like humiliation, shame and guilt as motivating drivers, not a lack of respect. When the literature mentions respect at all, it isnt about the perpetrator disrespecting the victim: its more about the perpetrator feeling someone had disrespected them. Thus could James Gilligan  a prison psychiatrist working with Americas most violent men for 35 years  conclude he was yet to see a serious act of violence that was not provoked by the experience of feeling shamed or humiliated, disrespected and ridiculed. Gilligans language is strikingly absolute: all violence is an attempt to replace shame with self-esteem, and direct: the most dangerous men on earth are those who are afraid they are wimps.

Still, I withheld my scepticism for a few reasons. For one, it felt momentous just to see a prime minister put this on the agenda. Also, the people emphasising disrespect almost certainly have expertise that I dont. And, it can be possible to work gender into violence analysis, roughly as follows: hierarchical gender norms, in which women are assumed inferior, lead men to feel humiliation, shame and disrespect when women dont behave like their supplicants. They also lead men to think violence is the best way to restore their self-esteem. By this logic, perhaps if we established a more gender-equal culture, the humiliation would dissipate and violence would reduce.
Instagram and Facebook feeds would be stripped of news if the federal government uses its laws to force Meta to pay for Australian journalism in a high-stakes threat that has prompted Labor to mull new laws to take on Mark Zuckerbergs social media giant.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones has revealed that Mark Zuckerbergs firm has told Australia it will stop media companies and individual users posting news links if the government enforced a world-first Morrison government scheme compelling tech giants to pay for articles.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, AP

Metas threat to pull news content from Australia should send a shudder down the spine of every small business in Australia that uses Meta as a platform to ply their trade, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said.

Meta has made it clear theyll play hardball. So will the government.
Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines have made a show of strength against Chinas growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, announcing a plan to increase joint military exercises and boost four-way defence co-operation.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and his American, Japanese and Philippine counterparts gathered in Hawaii on Friday for their second joint meeting, declaring they were committed to defending international law and national sovereignty in the region.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Defence Minister Richard Marles, Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Secretary for National Defence Gilberto Teodoro jnr vowed to boost defence co-operation.

The meeting came as tensions continued to flare in the South China Sea, with the Philippines accusing Chinas coast guard of harassment and damaging two of its boats in the waters near the strategically located Scarborough Shoal.

Australia, the US, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint military exercise in the South China Sea in early April, with naval vessels and aircraft conducting drills within the Philippines exclusive economic zone.
They often visited my dreams. The chasing kind, where only daylight rescued me from my unrelenting nemeses, faceless sub-humans in dark paramilitary uniforms chanting repetitive questions that I could never satisfactorily answer.

I didnt need hypnosis to unriddle who my bogeymen and bogeywomen were, because they always came visiting in the weeks before a trip to the US, a country which, ironically, has provided some of my most heart-quenching life moments, from strolling New York streets until my knees screamed to utterly embracing that Rocky Mountain high.

Have Americas border protection staff become nicer in this post-COVID era? Credit: AP

So how did US Customs and Border Protection officers in particular scare the giddy, pre-holiday buzz from this usually bright-eyed traveller? After all, Ive crossed over much harder borders than the US  yet Iranian, Syrian and Zimbabwean border guards have all snuggled softly into my memory, more or less.

Was it me? I dont think so. Granted, Ive never been a huge fan of suited authority, but I have enough street smarts to approach borders and other places with extreme power imbalance without a bad attitude; chips brushed from shoulders, paperwork completed and printed out. Perhaps suspiciously so.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 3. A delegation of the Japanese Parliament headed by Chairman of the Japan-Turkmenistan Interparliamentary Friendship Group, member of the House of Representatives of the Japanese Parliament Toshiaki Endo will arrive on May 12 on a three-day visit to Turkmenistan, Trend reports.

According to an official source, this was announced by Japanese Ambassador to Ashgabat Hiroshi Sasaki during a meeting with representatives of the national Parliament of Turkmenistan.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the main issues of cooperation within the framework of the parliamentary friendship group.

Ambassador Hiroshi Sasaki suggested that the Japanese legislators' visit will boost bilateral collaboration and communication through legislative bodies.

Furthermore, the parties also expressed their constant readiness to support intergovernmental cooperation through parliamentary diplomacy, strengthen the legal foundations of these relations, and exchange experience in lawmaking.

The parties proposed strengthening the two countries' inter-parliamentary friendship group, establishing youth ties, enhancing women's role in parliamentary ties, and achieving sustainable development in parliamentary cooperation.

To note, Speaker of the Parliament of Turkmenistan Dunyagozel Gulmanova had discussed the development of inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries with Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese Parliament Fukushiro Nukaga at the end of February this year.
 Flash

President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua addresses a conference focused on cooperation between China and Hungary under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework in Budapest, Hungary, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/He Canling)





Multiple achievements were made on Thursday at a conference focused on cooperation between China and Hungary under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework.



Under the guidance of China's State Council Information Office, the conference was co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and Hungary's ATV Media Group in Budapest.

Xinhua has always been committed to concentrating efforts and contributing to the joint building of the Belt and Road between the two countries, President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua said while addressing the event.

The conference aims to further implement the consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and promote pragmatic cooperation at various levels across the board so as to make new and greater contributions to the Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries with more innovative results, Fu said.

At the conference, the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP), which was initiated by Xinhua News Agency, inaugurated an Eastern European liaison office.

The China NGO Network for International Exchanges launched a non-governmental Belt and Road cooperation project with Hungary.

The official website of the BRI introduced a dedicated sector for industrial cooperation between China and Hungary.

A report on investment and cooperation between the two countries under the Belt and Road framework was also released.

About 200 people, including government officials, representatives from chambers of commerce and the business sector, as well as heads of major media outlets and think tanks from both countries joined the event.

Fu noted that Xinhua will continue to provide in-depth coverage of high-level interactions between the two countries and present major achievements of the two countries' high-quality Belt and Road cooperation in an all-round and multi-perspective manner.

Stressing efforts to strengthen exchanges with Hungarian think tanks, Fu also urged making full use of platforms and mechanisms including the World Media Summit and the BREIP to roll out even more tangible results.

Fu also stressed the importance of providing services for China-Hungary cooperation in various areas and better promoting the in-depth integration of the BRI cooperation and Hungary's "Opening to the East" policy.

Hungary and China have achieved fruitful results in Belt and Road cooperation, Hungarian Minister for National Economy Marton Nagy said at the conference, citing the Hungary-Serbia railway project as an example.

Hungary sees China's economic development as an important opportunity, Nagy said, stressing that investment from Chinese companies including Bank of China, CATL and BYD has been driving the development of related industries.

Nagy said Hungary is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in areas such as infrastructure and high-tech, and act as a link between China and Europe.

Liu Hongcai, deputy head of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, called for efforts from various sectors of the two countries to thoroughly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further promote people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.

More momentum for future-oriented cooperation should be fostered and cooperation platforms at all levels should make full use of their advantages to respond to global challenges, Liu said.

Liu voiced his hope that people from all walks of life in the two countries will make active contributions to promoting bilateral relations.

During the past years, economic ties and trade between the two countries have flourished, said Tamas Kovacs, CEO of ATV.

Based on the extensive cooperation between ATV and Chinese media outlets, the audience is able to have a better understanding of the fruitful achievements of the two countries' joint efforts, Kovacs said, adding that such cooperation will be carried on to help the two peoples to better understand each other's culture and values.

Participating guests also visited a photo exhibition on the pragmatic BRI cooperation between China and Hungary.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 2. Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries amounted to $4 billion from January through March 2024, Trend reports.

As per data from Uzbekistan's Statistics Agency, this figure has increased by percent year-on-year ($3.7 billion in JanuaryMarch 2023).

The volume of exports to EAEU countries amounted to $1.1 billion, and imports reached $2.8 billion during this period.

Foreign trade turnover with Russia amounted to $2.8 billion, Kazakhstan to $937.7 million, Kyrgyzstan to $158.2 million, Belarus to $141 million, and Armenia to $4.4 million.

The share in the total volume of foreign trade turnover amounted to 25.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover with EAEU countries reached $2.5 billion from January through February 2024.

The data from Uzbekistan's Statistics Agency shows that exports amounted to $746.7 million and imports to $1.7 billion.
Hotelier Hazel Allen, who ran Ballymaloe House as a hotel and restaurant for over 40 years, has died.

Daughter-in-law of famous Irish chef Myrtle Allen, Hazel was also a founding member of the Blue Book guide to Irish country houses.

Allen was at the forefront of major change in the Irish hotel industry and arrived in Ballymaloe in 1969, after gaining valuable hotel experience in Switzerland and Canada.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner in 2019 she said: It was November, and there were no jobs. But Ballymaloe was featured on a BBC show called The Holiday Programme and suddenly they were inundated with letters from people who wanted to stay. Ballymaloe was a farm and suddenly we had to get a hotel up and running.

She found herself running the country house hotel and restaurant and went on to marry Myrtles son Rory in 1974  the year Blue Book was founded.

A statement issued on Friday evening said: "Ballymaloe House and the extended Allen family are sad to announce the passing of Hazel Allen, nee Lalor, who died peacefully on 3rd May, in the care of Marymount Hospital, surrounded by loved ones, following a long illness."

Hazel Allen was born on October 16th, 1950, in Cullohill, Co Laois.

Funeral details have yet to be confirmed.
By David Young and Jonathan McCambridge, PA

The Taoiseach has said the homes of politicians should be out of bounds after an anti-immigration demonstration was staged outside his home.

Simon Harris said it was bedtime for his two young children when the protesters gathered outside his house in Co Wicklow on Thursday evening.

It was the latest in a series of similar recent incidents involving anti-immigration protests outside the homes of political figures in Ireland.

It is understood the Taoiseach was not at home at the time as he had been away attending a funeral.

The Fine Gael leader was asked about the incident on a visit to Belfast on Friday.

I dont want to say too much about this and I dont like describing those sorts of things as protest, he said.

Ive a very clear view in relation to this. Whether its me, whether its an opposition politician, whether its anybody, I always think peoples families and peoples homes should be out of bounds.

It was bedtime for my kids last night when this situation arose. I dont think its appropriate.

Mr Harris was in Belfast to meet Stormont First Minister Michelle ONeill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

Ms ONeill condemned those involved in the incident at the Taoiseachs home.

It is totally inappropriate, she said.

The Taoiseach has two young kids and I think your home should be your sanctity and I dont think there should be any tolerance for that type of attack on someones home.
Mayo man Dr Martin Walsh recently attended an honours investiture where he officially received an OBE, awarded by Britain's King Charles III in his first birthday honours list in July of last year.

Martin received the honour for services to science during COVID-19 at the event, which was hosted by the Prince of Wales.

The Westport native attended the event at Windsor Castle with his wife Dr Emanuela Floravanti, daughter Ciara, son Matteo, mother Carmel Quinn (previously the Lodge road, now Upper quay, Westport) sisters Caroline McHale (Ballyvary) and Pauline Morrin ( Westport) and extended family.

Martin is Life Sciences Deputy Director at Diamond Light Source (Diamond), which is the UKs national synchrotron facility located just outside Oxford.

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator which can be thought of as a very powerful microscope.

The synchrotron produces a very bright source of light across the range of the electromagnetic spectrum from infrared, to visible light and X-rays.

However, Diamond primarily exploits the intense X-rays generated (10 billion times brighter than the sun) to help scientists to understand the structure and makeup of many materials, including biological samples.

Martins research group together with other scientists at Diamond diverted all their expertise at the end of January 2020 to carry out research to understand the workings of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is the causative agent of COVID-19.

They used the intense source of X-rays at Diamond to aid in drug discovery by determining the structures of the viral proteins that can be thought of as the molecular machinery of the virus.

These proteins are essential for the virus to allow it to infect, replicate and cause disease.

The aim was to rapidly produce experimental data that could be used for drug and vaccine development.

This early work inspired a unique crowd-sourced open science initiative, the COVID Moonshot project, which brought together scientists from across the globe to work on developing novel antiviral treatments for COVID-19.

The initiative has led to a novel drug candidate for COVID-19 and data generated from the initiative helped in the development of Ensitrelvir which is an antiviral drug that has been approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in Japan and Singapore.

Martins research group along with colleagues at Diamond and across the globe continue to work together on both basic and applied research to aid the development of novel antivirals not only to target SARS-CoV-2 but also other pathogenic viruses so that the world is better prepared for potential future pandemics. (See the link below for a more detailed perspective) https://impact.universityofgalway.ie/articles/dr-martin-walsh-obe-understanding-viruses-at-the-molecular-level/ ).

Martins first full time job was in Westports Country fresh (thanks especially to Sean Langan and Michael Kelly) where he spent a year working before going to Galway to study science at UCG.

He was very fortunate to work the summer months in the late 80s mainly in  plastics at Allergan (Sean Casey /Liam Friel era) with a great bunch of people which essentially supported his time at University in Galway.

The award recognised the work of not just Martin's research group but the work done by everyone at Diamond where work continues with researchers from across the globe.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Uzbekistan provides an opportunity for both movable and immovable collateral, which opens the door for more businesses to obtain financing, World Bank's Senior Financial Sector Specialist Valeriya Goffe said, Trend reports.

She spoke at the III Tashkent International Investment Forum.

"One of the main things is collateral. As we all know, getting the right amount and the right kind of collateral is a challenge for many small businesses. As the businesses have explained to us, the banks still favor immovable collateral for obvious reasons. But of course, for small businesses, it is much more difficult," she said.

Valeriya Goffe noted that even though businesses would like to pledge things like accounts receivable, equipment, machinery, and other movable assets, which they may have in larger amounts, banks do demand immovable collateral.

Meanwhile, Tashkent is hosting the III Tashkent International Investment Forum from May 23.

Almost 2,500 people from 84 countries are expected to participate. Among them are government representatives, heads of major companies, as well as high-ranking guests from international organizations such as the UN, EBRD, OPEC, and SCO.

The forum program includes more than 40 events, including breakout sessions, round tables, presentations, and meetings of intergovernmental commissions. A launching ceremony for a number of projects in Uzbekistan is also envisaged.
From Fossils to Fuel: Mozambique's Maniamba Basins Energy Potential

Mozambique's Maniamba Basins Energy Potential.

In the ever-expanding search for energy resources, a new study has emerged from Mozambique's Maniamba Basin. A team led by Nelson Nhamutole, a PhD student at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his team of scientists from around the world, shared in the South African Journal of Geology that Mozambique's Maniamba Basin could be a big source of natural gas.

Spanning an impressive 8,000,000 km, the Maniamba Basin is a geological marvel. Its layers of Permian to Early Triassic rocks hold the secrets of the earth's ancient past, now thought to be ripe with organic material capable of producing natural gas. This revelation is a beacon for energy prospects in a world craving sustainable sources.

Nelson and his research team embarked on a meticulous journey, analysing samples from four outcrops within the basin. Employing cutting-edge techniques like Rock Eval Pyrolysis, they deciphered the organic richness of different types of rock, including shale, claystone, sandstone, and siltstone. Rock Eval Pyrolysis is a technique used extensively in the petroleum industry to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential of rocks, if they contain oil or gas, where these rocks could have been deposited, and whether they're mature enough to have generated oil or gas. The most challenging part was to get the right laboratory to perform the Rock Eval analysis, I had to travel all the way to the Rio Grande do Sul University in Brazil, says Nelson.

By using this technique, Nelson and his team found A "good to excellent" total organic carbon content in the rocks from the Maniamba Basin, a key indicator of the rock's potential to generate hydrocarbons. At the heart of this prized potential energy is kerogen, the organic matter in rocks that, under the right thermal conditions, can transform into natural gas and oil. The study identified a mixed presence of kerogen types, predominantly Type III and IV, suggesting the organic matter is mainly of terrestrial origin. This points to a landscape once lush with vegetation typical of Gondwana ecosystem now the source of potential gas reserves.

The path from organic-rich rock to be converted into hydrocarbon is a matter of maturation. Our capability to infer that the maturation stages were somehow influenced by igneous intrusions based on a small sample size is really exciting! Nelson exclaims. The research shows the basin's rocks as mature to overmature, primarily influenced by tectonic activities and proximity to igneous intrusions (formations that occur when magma from beneath the Earth's surface cools and solidifies before it reaches the surface). This maturation level integrated with the analysis of type of organic matter is indicative of the basin's capability to generate gas, rather than oil, a crucial insight for future exploration strategies. Drawing parallels across Karoo sites, the study links the Maniamba Basin's organic matter properties with those found in other Karoo sites stretching from Mozambique to Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. This not only highlights the basin's potential but also ties it to a broader geological narrative of Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent.

The discovery of the Maniamba Basin's potential is a significant stride in energy exploration, yet it's only the first step. The research underscores the need for further investigations to fully unravel the basin's secrets. Advanced studies, employing a suite of geochemical and geological analyses, are essential to map out the path from potential to production.

As Mozambique stands on the brink of a new era in energy exploration, the Maniamba Basin study shows the power of international collaboration in unlocking the earth's hidden treasures. For a world grappling with energy challenges, the basin can offers a glimpse of hope, a promise of a sustainable future fuelled by the very rocks beneath our feet. The rock evaluation data alone can't fully tell us about the potential sources of oil and gas, so we need to use other methods as well, says Nelson. In my future research, I plan to combine several techniques, including studying the types of organic material in the rocks, examining pollen and spores, looking at chemical fossils, and analysing the elements present to learn more about the potential of source rocks in the Maniamba Basin. Additionally, figuring out the age of the rock layers by looking at when certain microfossils appear and disappear will be especially important.
Wits remains an attractive employer

Wits University is a competitive employer in the higher education sector and beyond, says Senior Director of Human Resources.

The 1st of May marks International Workers' Day, where millions around the world celebrate the victories gained in the fight for fair employment practices and improved working conditions.



In South Africa, 1 May is officially recognised as a celebration of workers' rights, and a reminder of the critical role played by the country's workforce in the struggle against apartheid and inequality.

The University of the Witwatersrand has through the decades embraced and supported the rights of workers, balancing the tight rope of meeting the needs of academic staff as well as professional and administrative staff. In todays environment, organisations are constantly evaluated by their stakeholders and prospective employees for their attractiveness as an employer, the Top Employers Institute uses an evaluation process based on 20 factors, including people strategy, work environment, talent acquisition, learning, diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing to rank workplaces globally.

Wits Communications spoke to the Universitys Senior Director for Human Resources, Dr Kgomotso Kasonkola on how the University fares on these factors.

On talent acquisition Kasonkola says: The University uses a rigorous, phased approach to attract and appoint the best candidates that industry has to offer.

Once an employee joins the University, they tend to make Wits their home. The University enjoys a relatively low turnover rate with the average Wits employee spending more than 20 years at the University. When benchmarking the Universitys study support programme with other institutions in the country Wits is second to none said Kasonkola.

Wits staff enjoy generous leave conditions, taken either annual leave or time away to focus on their studies or family responsibilities. Not a lot of institutions offer study benefits to their staff as well as their dependents to the extent that the University does he adds. Staff and their dependents are not only supported to attain their qualifications, but the University also supports trade-related training and upskilling of employees in response to global trends and trade requirements.

Employee wellness key for employees

Studies show that a significant number of the workforce is unhealthy and unhappy due to the fast-paced work environments and other socioeconomic factors. In an effort to promote wellness, the University introduced a staff wellness programme in 2019.

Staff and their dependents have access to Life Health Solutions, a third-party provider offering a range of wellness services in English and all South African official languages, as well as South African Sign Language. Staff and their dependents have access to unlimited counselling services by onsite therapists, unlimited telephonic life management services including legal and financial advice, as well as trauma support. All these services are available to Wits employees free of charge.

Additionally, Life Health Solutions will provide occupational health assessments, facilitate a travel clinic service, and establish a staff clinic on campus on the bases of departments, users paying and on appointment, respectively. Employees also enjoy an annual staff wellness week, where staffs mental, emotional, and physical needs are catered for.

Corporate governance creates career stability.

Wits boasts a favourable and reputable brand as a leading institution that prides itself for its academic and research excellence. The Universitys strong culture and commitment to ethical governance practices as well as a supportive Council sets it a step amongst the rest as an employer of choice in the South African higher education.

To help safeguard the Universitys governance structures staff and students are encouraged to disclose any concerns and information about irregular conduct which are related to the business of the University (the Disclosure) via the Wits Integrity Hotline. This is an independent unit within the University which works to protect the University from improper, unethical, or illegal conduct. Call or WhatsApp the team on 072 874 2984 or wits.integrity@wits.ac.za.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. Uzbekistan wants to develop and open as many corridors and routes as possible so that its trade and future dont suffer, Uzbekistans Deputy Minister of Transport Jasurbek Choriev said during the III Tashkent International Investment Forum, Trend reports.

The deputy minister noted that Uzbekistans ambitious and large project is not only from China through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan but also through Afghanistan into Pakistan, and these projects give the country the opportunity to immediately reach the Indian Ocean.

"South Asia, the CIS countries, as well as Europe, are very keen on these projects despite the difficulties and some challenges that we face. And we are going to make it happen," he emphasized.

Jasurbek Choriev also added that Uzbekistan is also accepting proposals from other private and government entities to support the projects.

Meanwhile, the III Tashkent International Investment Forum is being held in Tashkent on May 23.

Almost 2,500 people from 84 countries are expected to participate. Among them are government representatives, heads of major companies, as well as high-ranking guests from international organizations such as the UN, EBRD, OPEC, and SCO.

The forum program includes more than 40 events, including breakout sessions, round tables, presentations, and meetings of intergovernmental commissions. A launching ceremony for a number of projects in Uzbekistan is also envisaged.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. To restore the Gaza Strip, which was seriously damaged during the armed conflict between Hamas and Israel, $30-40 billion is needed, the director of the regional office of the UN Development Program for Arab countries Abdullah al-Dardari said, Trend reports.

"Initial estimates from the UN Development Program indicate that reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will require more than $30 billion, and this amount could reach $40 billion," he said.

According to him, the scale of destruction is great and unprecedented.
Calls to protect vulnerable people at risk of fuel poverty

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 3rd, 2024

Wales must safeguard vulnerable people at risk of fuel poverty after a ban on energy companies forcibly fitting prepayment meters came to an end, a committee warned.

Jack Sargeant led a debate about a petitions committee inquiry into the prepayment meter scandal and the Welsh Governments response to the reports recommendations

The Labour backbencher, who represents Alyn and Deeside, welcomed Ofgems new mandatory code of conduct but suggested protections could have been much stronger.

The committee chair warned that seven energy suppliers have already been given the green light to restart involuntary installation of prepayment meters in Wales.

Mr Sargeant said: What is vital now is that the energy regulator Ofgem continues to monitor the code of practice and, more importantly, makes changes if things are not working.

Fundamentally wrong

Joel James welcomed UK Government scrapping prepayment meter premiums as a big step forward in promoting a fairer and more just system.

He said prepayment meters can be an effective way of helping households manage budgets but customers are traditionally charged a far higher tariff than direct debits.

The Tory MS, who represents South Wales Central, acknowledged it was fundamentally wrong for energy companies to involuntarily install meters for vulnerable customers.

Mr James called for efforts to eliminate the stigma of seeking support, warning it takes families facing financial difficulty an average of two years to come forward.

He also advocated a system to override prepayment meters in times of vulnerability to maintain the supply of electricity and gas to households with children or older people.

National scandal

Plaid Cymrus Peredur Owen Griffiths said people should not be forced into making a decision between heating and eating in 21st-century Wales.

He warned: Unfortunately, that is what is happening in many, perhaps even a majority, of the communities we represent in the Senedd. That is an injustice and a national scandal.

He told the chamber the committee was alarmed that a prohibition on prepayment meters only applies to those 75 or over and families with children under two.

Mr Owen Griffiths, who represents South Wales East, argued households should be receiving more support from the Welsh and UK Governments.

He called for action to alleviate high levels of energy-related debt.

Bullying

Rhianon Passmore, a Labour backbencher, criticised British Gas for routinely sending debt collectors to break into customers homes and force-fit prepayment meters.

The Islwyn MS said an investigation by The Times found British Gas agents were sent to force-fit a metre at the home of a young mother with a four-week-old baby.

Ms Passmore told the chamber: Her bills had risen sevenfold during the cost-of-living crisis  what a symbolic and bullying institutional act.

She said only 1,500 people have been awarded compensation despite more than 150,000 installations being assessed by energy companies.

Calling for people to be prioritised over profit, she said British Gas owner Centricas adjusted profits soared to 3bn  the highest in the Ftse 100 companys history.

Shameful

Sioned Williams, who represents South Wales West, said fuel poverty is completely unsustainable and shameful in a country among the wealthiest in the world.

She warned that fuel poverty has increased in Wales and remains at a critically high level, including 98% of low-income households.

The Plaid Cymru shadow social justice secretary said debt on energy bills has more than doubled over the past three years, according to Ofgem.

She said: The picture in Wales is bleaker, given the south and north are in the top three most expensive regions for energy, and given fixed charges are at their highest levels ever.

Ms Williams called for urgent action to ensure the Welsh Government meets its target of reducing the number of households in fuel poverty to 5% over the next decade.

Unacceptable

Jane Dodds, the Lib Dems leader in Wales, warned that force fitting prepayment meters without safeguards flagrantly violates consumer protections.

She said a third of Welsh prepayment meter users faced disconnection last year due to high costs, with 13% going more than a week without energy, according to Citizens Advice.

The Mid and West Wales MS said relying on suppliers self-governance is unacceptable, as is allowing debt collectors to conduct initial vulnerability assessments..

Calling on the Welsh Government to urgently accelerate action to tackle fuel poverty, she raised concerns about the Warm Homes programme being delayed by a year.

We have to do more and faster, she said during the debate on May 1.

Deeply frustrating

Lesley Griffiths said Jane Hutt, her predecessor as social justice secretary, raised concerns about the prepayment system with suppliers before the scandal broke in early 2023.

She welcomed Ofgem heeding Welsh ministers calls to make the initially voluntary code of practice on prepayment meters mandatory.

Ms Griffiths reiterated the Welsh Governments calls for a social tariff, which would provide a discount for the most vulnerable customers.

She criticised the UK Government for failing to deliver a 2022 commitment on consumer protection reforms, saying: This is deeply frustrating.

Ms Griffiths urged energy suppliers to only use accredited debt collection agents to strengthen the protection available to prepayment customers.

By Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 3. The Saudi authorities demanded the creation of a Palestinian state in order to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and normalization of relations with Israel, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says, Trend reports.

"Saudi Arabia has made clear that it has two demands for the normalization process with Israel: calm in the Gaza Strip and a path to a Palestinian state," he said.

He emphasized that resolving these issues is important for concluding a global agreement that the United States and Saudi Arabia are currently working on.
Welsh Ambulance Service urges public to protect resources over Bank Holiday

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 3rd, 2024

The Welsh Ambulance Service is urging members of public to help protect its resources over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Ahead of the three-day weekend, the Trust is reminding people to collect any prescription medication and stock up on first aid supplies to treat minor injuries and illnesses at home.

The Trust has also issued the below tips to members of the public:

At home

If youre visiting Wales on holiday, make sure you know the address of your rental home, hotel, campsite or caravan park  this will be the first thing a 999 call handler will ask you.

Ensure that your house name or number is displayed clearly so our ambulances can find you in good time.

Make sure you have a well-stocked first aid kit so youre poised to deal with any minor injuries at home  heres what your kit should contain.

If youre a visitor to Wales, remember to bring any prescription medicines.

Out and about

Download the free what3words app so 999 call handlers can find you quickly in an emergency.

When out on a bike or scooter, always wear a helmet and beware of busy roads and cross roads safely.

Make sure you know where your children are going to ensure they arent playing in any hazardous areas such as railway tracks or abandoned buildings.

When out with friends, stick together and dont leave friends to get home on their own.

If drinking alcohol, know your limits and drink plenty of water as the alcohol will make you even more dehydrated.

Sonia Thompson, Assistant Director of Operations (Emergency Medical Service), said: We traditionally see an increase in demand over a Bank Holiday weekend, and this weekend is expected to be no different.

More people are out and about socialising or travelling to visit family and friends, and its important they know how to access the most appropriate help should they become ill or get an injury.

The NHS 111 Wales website should be the first port of call for health advice and information if youre ill or injured and unsure what to do.

Make sure you collect any prescription medication in plenty of time, but if youve lost, forgotten or have run out of medication and the GP surgery is closed, then some pharmacies in Wales have an Emergency Medicines Supply service free-of-charge.

Pharmacies are also readily available with no appointment needed, offering advice and over-the-counter medicines for a range of minor illnesses.

Some Minor Injury Units (MIU) are also open over the Bank Holiday and can help treat fractures, dislocations, assaults, wounds and more.

You can use the NHS 111 Wales website to search for an open pharmacy and MIU near you, if your usual one is closed.

Its important that our emergency ambulances are protected for those that need us most and 999 is kept for the most serious and life-threatening emergencies only.
Wrexham man sentenced to 10 years for sexual abuse of child

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 3rd, 2024

A 71-year-old Wrexham man has been jailed for the sexual abuse of a child.

David Rowland, of no fixed abode, admitted sexually assaulting a child over a period of time between August 2022 and June last year.

North Wales Police say that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Mold Crown Court today.

Rowland was reported to police in June last year when a child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, disclosed to her mother she had been sexually assaulted by him on multiple occasions.

He was arrested and devices including his phone and laptop were seized.

Examinations of the devices found a number of internet searches and images indicative of a sexual interest in children and sexual offending.

Following todays sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Ben Franklin said: I commend the victim for her immense courage in confiding in her mother and taking the difficult step in reporting this matter to us.

Her bravery in speaking out in order to make Rowland stop the abuse is what lead to his arrest, and together, with her mothers support throughout the investigation, also led to his 10-year incarceration today.

We are committed to bringing perpetrators of sexual crimes to justice and I would encourage anyone who wishes to report an incident to come forward and speak to us.

We take each and every incident of violence against women and girls (VAWG) very seriously and incidents of this nature will continue to remain a high priority for the force.
Wrexham University named best in Wales for teaching, support, and career prospects

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 3rd, 2024

Wrexham University has been named the best university in Wales for its lecturers and teaching, the student support it provides as well as for career prospects at the Whatuni Student Choice Awards (WUSCAs).

The WUSCAs are the only Higher Education awards in the country where institutions are judged and reviewed solely by students.

At the annual awards, which took place at a ceremony in London this week presented by actor and comedian Lenny Henry, Wrexham University was placed:

1st in Wales and 2nd in the UK for Lecturers and Teaching

1st in Wales and 5th in the UK for Student Support

1st in Wales and 4th in the UK for Career Prospects

2nd in Wales and 5th in the UK for University Halls

Overall, the university was placed as 2nd in Wales in the University of the Year category  and 17th in the UK overall out of 101 institutions.

Professor Maria Hinfelaar, Vice-Chancellor of Wrexham University, said: We are thrilled to have been placed 1st in Wales for Lecturers and Teaching, Student Support and Career Prospects.

Our performance UK-wide is also fantastic  to be ranked 2nd in the UK for lecturers and teaching is true testament to the hard work and dedication of our academic colleagues. Were also delighted to have finished in the top 20 in the University of the Year category.

Im incredibly proud of these rankings and it feels even more gratifying that these awards were voted for by our students.

At Wrexham University, we work tirelessly to ensure our students are provided with the best possible opportunities to succeed in their learning  and its wonderful to know that our students evidently recognise this by voting for the University in the WUSCAs.

This year saw more than 39,000 student reviews being collected from over 100 universities in the UK.

The WUSCAs come ahead of the Universitys next open day event, which is taking place on Saturday, June 8. You can book your place for the June open day here.
The Fondation Haute Horlogeries first 'Roadshow' event took place last weekend in Paris, in collaboration with the we are_ club. Nearly 300 enthusiasts, journalists, influencers, and partner brand representatives were present to mark the launch of a pilot project of educational videos, designed to make the FHH Academy educational content accessible to the French public

The Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH) celebrated the first chapter of its 'Roadshow' event series on the occasion of its Academys tenth anniversary, on the weekend of April 26 and 27, 2024, in the heart of Paris.

The prestigious we are_ club, a key player in the Parisian cultural scene, opened its doors to an eclectic audience of nearly 300 people (watch enthusiasts and experts, journalists, and delegates from partner brands), for a celebration of knowledge and innovation.

The highlight of this event was the introduction of a new French pilot project of educational videos incorporating content from the "Watch Essentials" FHH Academy training program, well- known within the watchmaking industry. Now, this initiative will allow any watch enthusiast in France to acquire a certified FHH training at home, bringing the expertise and culture of watchmaking directly into the intimacy of their home.

Discovering the online courses  Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

Over two days, the foundation rolled out a range of activities, including intensive "Watch Essentials" training from the FHH Academy, one of the famous FHH Quiz Nights, as well as panels and conferences led by renowned experts. Artist Estelle Lagarde conducted an art workshop, adding a remarkable creative dimension to the event. Another notable element was the return of "Watch Icons," an augmented reality exhibition first revealed during Dubai Watch Week in 2023, showcasing iconic watches from all 44 partner brands of the Foundation for the first time, as well as corresponding historical and current pieces from the six French partner brands: Cartier, Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Trilobe.

FHH Vice-President, Aurelie Streit, emphasized the motivation behind these events: On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the FHH Academy, and on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Foundation, our wish is to make the FHH known to as many people as possible, from novices to watchmaking professionals. Since the early days of the FHH Academy, we have diversified our educational offering, ensuring accessibility to quality knowledge. Today, this offering has allowed us to train more than 35,000 people, among whom more than 10,000 are also certified. In the spirit of inclusivity that characterizes the FHH, the series of educational videos we have just introduced to the French market will soon be available in eleven languages and integrated into similar international events.

Watch enthusiasts and industry players are invited to follow the FHH via its website and social platforms for updates and upcoming announcements, providing all the necessary information to join these unique eventsperhaps soon in a city near you.

The Watch Icons digital experience  Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie

For those who wish to acquire, improve, and test their level of knowledge, the educational videos from the FHH Academy are now available exclusively in France through an FHH approved service provider (in French only), priced at EUR 1190 (may vary under certain special regimes). Further availability in more countries and languages by the end of 2024.

For upcoming updates and announcements about future FHH 'Roadshow' events, stay connected with the FHH.
As student protests across the United States against the Gaza genocide face a coordinated nationwide crackdown, university protests are also spreading across France. Students are protesting in Paris and now Lyon, Montpellier and Rennes, defying a police crackdown to break up university occupations and target opposition politicians with bogus terrorism charges over statements of solidarity with Gaza.

Students demonstrate outside La Sorbonne university, Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris [AP Photo/Christophe Ena]

Protests began last week when a group of around 60 students at Sciences-Po, the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, tried to occupy part of their campus in solidarity with Gaza. Fearing an explosion of university protests, police rapidly intervened on Thursday morning, just after the occupation began, to throw the students out of the building.

Student unions at the Sorbonne University held a protest on Pantheon Square against the crackdown at Sciences-Po, defying a ban by the Paris police prefecture, that gathered around 100 students last Thursday. They were immediately surrounded by a large police presence.

Emmy, a student union official, told the press: We are gathering to show that the students are against the genocide in Gaza, but also that we are demanding answers from our government. She also condemned the cancellation of meetings by Jean-Luc Melenchon on Gaza. She noted that a movement of repression on this topic is currently underway in the universities, either due to the cancellation of conferences or when pro-Palestinians who tried to occupy Sciences-Pos Paris campus were dislodged by police.

Two students at the demonstration, Romain and Manal, stressed that the genocide in Gaza was an event to which there has to be broad, active opposition: Our goal is to make the Palestinian people and their suffering visible. We cant let certain actions in the world go unnoticed. We have to say that we do not agree.

The French protests are taking place against a backdrop of mass protests internationally, including in the United States, Britain, Australia, and France against the genocide perpetrated in Gaza by the Israeli state with the support of the NATO imperialist powers.

The Netanyahu government is preparing an assault on Rafah, where more than half Gazas population, about 1.5 million people, have fled. Fearing an explosion of social anger against the mass murder such an attack would produce, governments are launching a systematic campaign of repression and slander, claiming protests against the Gaza genocide are driven by antisemitism.

US President Joe Biden has denounced protests as antisemitic, as police units or groups of fascist thugs working without police interference intervene on university campuses to assault students. Dozens or hundreds of students have been arrested at New York University, Cal Poly Humboldt, Yale, the University of Minnesota and other US universities.

In France, all attempts to hold meetings on the genocide in Gaza are systematically censored or disrupted by far-right thugs. At least 626 prosecutions on charges of apologetics for terrorism are underway in France. Rima Hassan, LFI (France Unbowed) candidate in the European elections, who has spoken at protests against the Gaza genocide in Marseille, LFI parliamentarian Mathilde Panot, and Anasse Kazib, from the Morenoite Revolution permanente (RP) group, were all summoned for police interviews on suspicion of apologetics for terrorism.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon saw his meetings in defence of Jean-Paul Delescaut, a General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union official sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence, banned by Lille University and then several other universities. Delescauts conviction was based on the release of a statement, three days after the October 7 uprising in Gaza, citing repeated UN rulings that Israels 16-year occupation and blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law.

Mohamed Makni, the Socialist Party deputy mayor of Echirolles, received a four-month suspended prison sentence for tweeting that the October 7 Palestinian uprising was an act of resistance against a fascist Israeli state. The courts found him guilty of apologetics for terrorism.

Such prosecutions are based on police state measures creating a pseudo-legal framework to ban opposition to genocide and war. Apologetics for terrorism has been defined by the courts to include any statement by which a reader is incited to have a favorable value judgement erasing moral outrage against terrorism. As French media denounce Hamas in Gaza or Irans government as terrorist, this amounts to a blank cheque to Macron to criminalize statements against genocide and NATOs targeting of Iran or other countries for military aggression.

This campaign of repression and slander is aimed at the working class as a whole. Macron and his NATO allies seek to silence any expression of mass opposition among workers and youth, in France and abroad, to the systematic killing of tens of thousands of defenseless civilians in hospitals, refugee camps and during food distributions to Gazas starving population.

As Macron has made clear by suggesting sending French troops to Ukraine to fight Russia, European governments are preparing a military escalation to directly involve the imperialist powers in a third world war that has in fact already begun. At the same time, however, they are terrified that the deep and explosive opposition among the youth and workers will erupt.

The spread of demonstrations against the Gaza genocide and NATO wars around the world today underscore that these issues are global issues, requiring a coordinated, international strategy.

The spectre of the May 1968 general strike on an international scale horrifies the ruling class around the world. May 1968 began with student protests against the capitalist regime of General Charles De Gaulle. The general strike broke out as the working class entered into struggle against police, who violently attacked students and young workers protesting in the Latin Quarter in Paris. De Gaulle, who decided he could not count on the army to crush the strike, relied on the Stalinist CGT union bureaucracy to block a revolution and save the capitalist regime.

The example of May 1968 shows the way forward against the escalating police crackdown on youth protests over Gaza, in France and internationally. To protect the movement from police repression, it is necessary to alert and mobilise the only revolutionary force that can end genocide, war and capitalism: the international working class. Students and youth must go to workplaces and alert workers to the genocide and the fascistic police state measures that are strangling opposition.

A coordinated international movement of strikes, demonstrations and meetings must be built against the genocide, including with workers at Google fired for opposing the genocide. Workers cannot wait for LFI or the CGT bureaucracy to initiate such a movement, which they will not do. Indeed, they descend politically from the organizations that, a half century ago, saved de Gaulles regime from socialist revolution.

This requires building an international, revolutionary Marxist leadership in the working class in struggle against genocide and imperialist war. The Parti de legalite socialiste (PES) encourages students and workers to participate in the International May Day Online Rally on this subject this year, organized by the International Committee of the Fourth International. The PES calls on its supporters and readers of the WSWS to register at wsws.org/mayday and widely promote the rally.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Reuters Thursday that British-supplied long-range missiles could be used by Ukraine to strike Russian territory. The announcement confirms a major escalation in the NATO-Russia proxy war.

Speaking in Kiev after discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Cameron told reporters in reference to military equipment supplied by the UK, In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view, it is their decision about how to use these weapons, theyre defending their country, they were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron walks through Saint Michael's Square on his visit to Ukraine, May 3, 2024 [Photo by British Embassy Kyiv/Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

We dont discuss any caveats that we put on those things.

But lets be absolutely clear, Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia.

Asked if this included using British weaponry to strike Russia, Cameron replied, Thats a decision for Ukraine and Ukraine has that right.

Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself, its getting the Russians out of its country, and it has the ability to strike back.

As the Washington Post later commented, The remarks signaled a sharp reversal in Britains position, which previously did not allow Russia to be targeted with British-supplied weapons.

Ukraines Western allies, the paper noted, have so far forbidden Ukrainian forces from using Western-supplied arms to target locations within Russia, for fear of escalation and possibly being drawn further into the conflict.

Missiles supplied by the UK to Ukraine include Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a range of over 250 kilometres, placing a huge number of targets in Russian territory within Ukraines reach. The weapons are known to have been used already to carry out a large strike on the port of Sevastopol in Crimea last Septemberthe peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Announcing the decision to send Storm Shadows last May, then Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted that they would only be used within Ukrainian sovereign territory, leaving open targets in Crimeawhose Russian control is contested by Ukraine and its alliesbut not in the Russian Federation.

This restriction has now been removed. The consequences are so inflammatory that officials in the British state and staff at Reuters apparently had second thoughts about whether to broadcast the statement. The news agency withdrew its article not long after publication, announcing, A Reuters story saying Britains Foreign Secretary David Cameron promises aid to Ukraine is withdrawn, pending review of certain details in the story. A revised version of the story will be published in due course.

The details were already widely reported by other organisations and the article was republished with no changes.

Camerons announcement is only the latest example in a list of previously forsworn levels of NATO involvement in the Ukraine war which have since been embraced, including sending long-range missiles and artillery in the first place, along with heavy tanks and F-16 fighter jets.

The declaration with the gravest implications was made by French President Emmanuel Macrons suggestion in February of engaging alliance troops directly in the war against Russia. He raised the subject again in a long interview with The Economist published Thursday, saying, Im not ruling anything out if Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question.

The significance of Macron and Camerons remarks for Russia was expressed by Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters that their statements potentially pose a danger to European security, to the entire European security architecture, adding, We see a dangerous tendency towards escalation in official statements. This is raising our concern.

More and more resources are being committed to NATOs de facto war with Russia. Camerons statement came as part of a visit touting the UKs commitment to a minimum of 3 billion in military aid for Ukraine every year. The foreign secretary told reporters, Ukraine is fiercely defending itself against Russias illegal invasion, making a war Putin thought would last days take years. But this war is the challenge of our generation and Ukraine cannot fight it alone.

We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win. Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraines energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

This is a pledge to indefinitely fund, with wealth clawed from the working class, the grinding slaughter in which Ukrainian workers are being used as cannon fodder to pressure an overstretched Russian regime into collapse and carry out a regime-change operation.

The 3 billion-a-year commitment was first announced last week by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak alongside a 500 million support package. The money, Downing Street explained, would be used to rapidly deliver urgently-needed ammunition, air defence, drones and engineering support. It was coupled with the UKs largest-ever delivery of military equipment, including:

 60 boats, including offshore raiding craft, rigid raiding craft and dive boats as well as maritime guns.

 More than 1,600 strike and air defence missiles, as well as additional Storm Shadow long-range precision-guided missiles.

 More than 400 vehicles, including 160 protected mobility Husky vehicles, 162 armoured vehicles and 78 all-terrain vehicles.

 Nearly 4 million rounds of small-arms ammunition.

In further escalating the war in Ukraine, London is again striving to maintain its place as second only to the United States in terms of support for war in Ukraine.

Sunak stressed pointedly last week, The United Kingdom will always play its part at the forefront of European security, with his defence secretary Grant Shapps noting, The UK was the first to provide NLAW [anti-tank] missiles, the first to give modern tanks and the first to send long-range missiles. Now, we are going even further.

But all the imperialist powers are committed to the proxy war with Russia and the ramping up of military spending and production it requires. Camerons announcement is the latest step in a common NATO offensive constantly escalating towards a direct clash between nuclear-armed powers.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden gave a speech from the Oval Office backing the violent suppression of protests against the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza by police forces throughout the country. Order must prevail, Biden said.

President Biden pledges, "order must prevail". (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Without citing a single example, Biden asserted that the mass nationwide peaceful protests by millions of people were violent and antisemitic.

Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. Its against the law, vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest, threatening people, intimidating people. Instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. Its against the law.

In fact, the violence that has taken place has been directed against the protesters.

Biden was speaking only hours after a huge force of police, including California state troopers dispatched by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, swooped down on the UCLA campus and arrested or dispersed the protesters who were camped there. On Tuesday night, a group of Zionist thugs, armed with clubs and firecrackers, assaulted the encampment when most of the protesters were asleep, while police stood by and gave them free rein.

New York City police carried out similar attacks, arresting nearly 300 students and supporters at Columbia University and City College of New York. There were also mass arrests at Dartmouth, the University of Wisconsin, Portland State University in Oregon and other colleges.

Bidens reference to the cancellation of classes and graduations is particularly rich, given that it is administrators who have cancelled classes and graduations as part of the effort to suppress and shut down protests.

While claiming this police crackdown is intended to make American Jews feel safe, it has led to the arrest of hundreds of Jewish people, including Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

This attack on democratic rights is being conducted through a bipartisan alliance between the Biden administration, Democratic mayors and Republican governors.

The assault on protesters is a dry run for martial law. The police forces, filled with fascists, see it as an opportunity to test out their weaponry.

While on the surface, Bidens speech might seem like a mere collection of absurd lies or non-sequiturs, it advocated a fundamentally dictatorial political outlook, in which the government has the power to declare any protest violent and brutally suppress it.

Dissent must never lead to disorder, or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education, Biden said.

Banning protests under the pretext of safeguarding public order and economic stability has been a hallmark of authoritarian regimes throughout modern history. For this reason, international human rights law has repeatedly emphasized that allowing disruption is crucial to the protection of freedom of speech and expression.

Bidens claim that the protests are antisemitic is based on the reactionary falsehood that equates criticism of Israel and opposition to the right-wing political ideology of Zionism with hostility to the Jewish people. This is under conditions where the resemblance between Israeli policies and Nazi policies has become even more harrowing since October 7, as the Zionist regime presses ahead with a final solution to the Palestinian problem that combines mass murder and mass expulsions.

In slandering peaceful protests as violent, Biden is seeking to protect the real perpetrators of violence: the blood-soaked Netanyahu regime that has killed at least 40,000 Palestinians.

While Biden declares that violence has no place on college campuses, his administration has enabled Israel to destroy every single university in Gaza and kill hundreds of Palestinian educatorssome, like literature Professor Refaat Alareer, murdered in targeted assassinations.

In a statement on X/Twitter, Joseph Kishore, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Equality Party, wrote:

Saint Biden, the prophet of peace, proclaimed this morning that its against the law when violence occurs. Aside from the fact that the violence is entirely on the side of the police and right-wing thugs suppressing campus protests, his incoherent 3-minute rant was directed at defending violence on a colossal scalea genocide that has killed more than 34,000 people. Such is the hypocrisy of imperialism.

But it was Bidens remarks at the conclusion of his statements that are perhaps most telling of all.

Asked, Have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region? Biden replied bluntly, No.

In other words, no matter what the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the population, the genocidal policies of the administration will continue.

In fact, the police operation itself is preparatory to the offensive in Rafah, which is imminentan offensive that will dwarf all the previous crimes.

The Biden administration has embraced the Israeli genocide in Gaza, despite occasional tut-tuts by diplomatic charlatans like Secretary of State Antony Blinken, because it has embarked on a program of global war, against Russia in Ukraine, in the Middle East against Iran, and in the Asia-Pacific against China. In the widespread popular outrage over the Gaza slaughter, it sees the embryo of a mass antiwar movement in the working class.

Biden is placing himself in the front ranks of the right-wing, anti-democratic frenzy against support for the Palestinian people and opposition to Israeli genocide. He employs different rhetoric than Donald Trump, who described the police crackdown at Columbia as a beautiful thing, but the logic of events is unmistakable. The American ruling elite must carry out a war at home to enforce its policy of world war and counter-revolution internationally.

The program of imperialism is based on fomenting racism and bigotry of all kinds, including antisemitism, to split and disorient the working class. The struggle against war and genocide requires, on the contrary, the unification of the international working class in a common struggle.

Fighting for this revolutionary unification is the central thrust of the May Day Rally being held tomorrow by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site. We urge all students, youth and working people looking for a political program that can unite the working class in a global struggle for socialism to attend this rally.
A ban on abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy took effect this week in Florida, marking yet another attack on reproductive rights since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right in 2022. With the prohibition in the state taking effect, abortion is now functionally illegal throughout the American South, encompassing more than 100 million people.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to anti-abortion zealots before signing a 15-week abortion ban into law Thursday, April 14, 2022, in Kissimmee, Florida [AP Photo/John Raoux, File]

As in Florida, the states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina ban abortions after six weeks, a time frame where many women may not know they are pregnant before the prohibition takes hold. The procedure is completely illegal in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia. There are also outright bans in North and South Dakota, Indiana and Idaho.

Floridas six-week ban was passed in March of 2023, as part of a larger package of right-wing legislation aimed at elevating Florida governor Ron DeSantis national profile in the lead-up to his failed attempt to unseat former president Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president in 2024. It superseded an earlier ban passed in 2022 that prohibited abortions after 15 weeks.

The reproductive rights group Planned Parenthood challenged the constitutionality of the 15-week ban after it was passed in 2022, claiming that it violates the state constitutions privacy protections. Last month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state, allowing the 15-week ban and the superseding six-week ban to become law.

In ruling in favor of the state, the court overturned the results of a 1980 referendum which encoded the privacy protections into the state constitution, supporting the state attorneys claim that voters at the time did not understand that the amendment applied to abortion rights. That ruling overturned another from the Florida Supreme Court in 1989 which found that the privacy protections do extend to abortion rights. It also invalidated another referendum from 2012, when voters rejected an amendment that would have exempted abortion from privacy protections.

The Florida ban will have repercussions throughout the region. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 the state had become a refuge for women throughout the south seeking abortions. In 2023 at least 9,300 women traveled to Florida to obtain an abortion, according to research conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice organization.

This figure is more than double the number who came to the state seeking the procedure in the year before the overturn of Roe and represents 11 percent of the total number of abortions performed in the state in 2024. Overall, there were around 84,000 abortions performed in Florida last year, representing 1 out of 12 nationally.

The restrictive new law was not passed due to popular demand. In Florida, as in much of the rest of the US, polling has shown time and again that most voters favor abortion rights. In fact, on the same day the state supreme courtfive of whose seven members were appointed by DeSantishanded down its ruling upholding the six-week abortion ban, they were also compelled to allow a referendum initiative to appear on the November ballot which would protect reproductive rights.

That initiative, spearheaded by the group Floridians Protecting Freedom, would place on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that would protect abortion rights before fetal viability, or approximately the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The group exceeded the 892,000-signature threshold in just eight months, collecting over 912,000 signatures from registered voters. Floridians Protecting Freedom has stated that over 150,000 signatures came from registered Republicans, an indication of the popular support the initiative has generated.

A poll conducted by the University of North Florida last year found that 62 percent of respondents would vote in favor of the amendment if given the chance, with just 29 percent stating they would oppose it. Among registered Republicans, 53 percent said they would vote in favor of the amendment.

In order for the proposed amendment to become law it would have to pass by a margin of 60 percent.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the Supreme Court, a pattern has emerged. Various state legislatures, typically controlled by a Republican majority empowered by heavily gerrymandered electoral maps, have competed with one another to pass the most restrictive anti-abortion laws possible. They have been aided in their efforts by the state-level courts which, substituting religious dogma for legal doctrine, have upheld reactionary legislation.

This was exemplified in a ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court in April which nullified the states previous law that allowed abortion through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The court ruled that the overturning of Roe v. Wade invalidated the state law governing abortions and restored an outright ban on the procedure first passed in 1864, before Arizona achieved statehood. The law would have allowed for the imprisonment for two to five years of doctors who perform abortions not deemed necessary to save a womans life. Though the law was overturned this week by the state legislature, similar efforts are underway in other states.

Perhaps most notably, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case which challenges the US Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, after an order by a Texas court which sought to ban the drug was overturned by the appeals court.

The anti-abortion zealots have relied on the courts and Republican-controlled state legislatures to enact their agenda because it lacks popular support. Since Roe was overturned and the question of abortion was returned to the states, voters have opposed restrictions and supported reproductive rights at every opportunity.

In Ohio, voters rejected an attempt by the far right to make it harder to enact a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access, then approved a constitutional amendment. In both Kansas and Kentucky, attempts to pass amendments that stated that women do not have the right to abortion were rejected. California, Michigan and Vermont have all passed amendments guaranteeing the right to an abortion.
Joshua Dean, a whistleblower at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, was reported dead after a brief illness on Wednesday. Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit, had given a deposition against Spirit, alleging serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line.

Boeing Spirit AeroSystems whistleblower Joshua Dean [Photo: Facebook/Carol Dean Parsons]

The 45-year-olds death came suddenlythe Seattle Times reported that he began having trouble breathing two weeks ago and was hospitalized and intubated. He reportedly developed pneumonia and a bacterial infection of MRSA. He was ultimately put on machines to circulate and oxygenate his blood in the face of heart and lung failure before he died.

Deans claims against Spirit first emerged after the midair blowout of a 737 MAX 9 jet, Alaska Flight 1282, in January, which injured dozens. An ongoing federal investigation has provided evidence that production issues for the MAX 9, in this case missing bolts on a door plug, are the immediate reason for the disaster.

Since then, Boeing planes have suffered numerous incidents, from panels falling off to sudden drops in altitude while in flight. Each individually is a major issue and taken together speak to the underlying drive for profits at the expense of quality and safety that dominates the company.

Dean worked for Spirit from 2019-2020, and then from May 2021 to April 2023. He was laid off in the interim as a result of pandemic-related job cuts, despite Spirit getting $75.5 million in bailout money from the federal government.

During his second tenure, Dean uncovered improperly drilled holes in the aft pressure bulkhead of the 737 MAX jetliners being produced by Spirit. He informed management of the issue, which did nothing to correct the problem.

Instead, Spirit focused on a different error involving flawed fittings between the vertical tail fin and the fuselage, which Dean missed, and used it as an excuse to fire him in April 2023.

When Dean was interviewed about his firing by NPR in February, he told the outlet that he felt he was fired to send a message to other potential whistleblowers. If you are too loud, we will silence you.

It was only in August that Spirit was forced to acknowledge the problem Dean first raised, noting that it was a flaw in the MAX aircraft going back as far as 2019.

It should be noted that around that time, in October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed, caused in part by flawed and undocumented software, which resulted in the deaths of a total of 346 passengers and crew for both planes. While subsequent reports on the crashes did not make much note of deficiencies in the body of the aircraft, the fact that they existed speaks to the generally unsafe production practices surrounding the 737 MAX project as a whole.

Deans death comes less than two months after the purported suicide of another Boeing whistleblower, John Mitch Barnett. Barnett, who had been fired from Boeing in 2017, was giving a deposition in a lawsuit for Boeings retaliation against him for warning about a different set of quality issues, these at Boeings 787 plant in Charleston, South Carolina.

On what was scheduled to be his third consecutive day of providing information about his case, Barnett was found in his rental car in his hotels parking lot with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Charleston County Coroners Office.

Both whistleblowers were represented by the same law firm in South Carolina. In the wake of Deans death, Brian Knowles, one of the firms lawyers, stated, Whistleblowers are needed. They bring to light wrongdoing and corruption in the interests of society. It takes a lot of courage to stand up.

The most significant aspect of both deaths, however, is the lack of any significant corporate media attention on either.

If two whistleblowers at the same major company or industry, using the same law firm to file lawsuits, died within two months of each other in Russia, Iran or China, the US media would have immediately asserted a conspiracy was afoot to silence dissent. Its also more than likely the Biden administration itself would get involved, possibly claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin, Irans Ayatollah Khamenei or Chinese president Xi Jinping were directly involved.

The silence is especially telling given the timing of both deaths and how suspect each has been. In the aftermath of Barnetts death, a family friend told an ABC affiliate that Barnett had warned her, If anything happens to me, its not suicide. Vicky Stokes, Barnetts mother, when asked if she blamed Boeing for her sons death, responded, I do.

Regarding Deans death, the symptoms and speed at which he died could very well indicate he was poisoned.

There should be no doubt elements within Boeing or Spirit are capable of such acts. Spirit is Boeings main supplier, a spin-off of the aerospace giant created two decades ago to cut costs. Since then, both have proven to be key components in the operation of American imperialism, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Boeing produces Apache helicopters and F-15 fighter jets, both of which have been used by the Israeli military as it has laid waste to the enclave and killed more than 34,568 Palestinians since last October.

Boeing and Spirit are also emblematic of the revolving door between US defense companies and the US military. Spirits current CEO is Patrick Shanahan, who worked for Boeing from 1986 to 2016, when he became a senior vice president. He left in 2017 to become Deputy Secretary of Defense for ex-President Donald Trump, and was elevated to Acting Secretary of Defense in 2019.

He then left the government for the private sector and served on the boards of directors for various companies before being appointed interim President and CEO of Spirit in October 2023. Shanahans net worth is currently estimated at $6.9 million.

Deans exposures, as well of those of Barnett and the numerous other whistleblowers who have come forward in recent months, must be taken as serious warnings. Boeings focus is above all on profits for its executives and shareholders, and to continue its support of the US governments wars abroad. The safety of the flying public is at best a tertiary concern.
Are you an autoworker? Fill out the form at the end of the article to join the fight for rank-and-file committees.

In the wake of continuing layoffs, workers at Stellantis Warren Stamping in the north Detroit suburbs are set to take a strike vote Monday over local health and safety issues. About 1,100 work at the factory that stamps parts for about a half dozen Stellantis plants that build various Jeep models and Dodge Ram heavy duty and light trucks.

Warren Stamping workers [Photo by Stellantis Media]

According to a statement by Local 869 President Romaine McKinney III posted on the uaw.org website, When it rains, the facility floods because the ceiling is leaking. We have to fight for every single pair of work gloves, while we handle metal and materials to build world class vehicles for Stellantis. The list goes on, and were putting an end to it. Our union grievance procedure gives us the power to stand up for safety on the job, and we intend to take action if necessary.

However, the UAW has not taken the elementary step of outlining a series of concrete demands. This points to the fact that the strike vote being held by the UAW apparatus is meant as a token gesture aimed at allowing workers to vent anger in a way that does not actually impact the company.

The issue of safety is urgent and real. According to the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Stellantis was fined $60,000 in June 2023 for six serious safety violations at the Warren Stamping plant including failure to ensure walking-working surfaces are maintained free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow, and ice.

In May 2023, a welder died at Warren Stamping while at work. While the official cause of death was cited as cardiac arrest, welding is a high-risk occupation with many potential hazards, including exposure to toxic gasses.

The announced strike vote takes place as anger is mounting among rank-and-file workers at all three Detroit-based automakers over layoffs, speedup and the deterioration of working conditions in the wake of the 2023 sellout labor deal reached by UAW President Shawn Fain and the rest of the UAW bureaucracy.

A Stellantis worker at the Warren Truck Assembly plant adjacent to Warren Stamping said workers faced similar issues at their plant: The workers at Warren Stamping have voted to strike because they company wont fix hazardous conditions, give workers Kevlar sleeves to protect them against sharp metal.

We have no lives outside the factories, even to raise our kids. Stellantis is cutting jobs, outsourcing mechanical work and supervisors are giving workers direct orders to do dangerous things. Three or four months ago, one worker was told to twist open a pressurized piece of equipment and she had hot fluid fly in her face.

She added,  The UAW agreed to unlimited overtime for any stupid excuse, like they are in launch mode [for a new model] when they arent.

The strike vote at Warren Stamping follows the death of a worker, Tywaun Long, at the Ford Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan in April. Long collapsed on the assembly line and died while waiting almost 30 minutes for emergency medical responders to arrive. In the week since, at least two other workers have suffered serious injuries at the plant. This toll no doubt reflects the impact of the recent layoffs at the complex and the resultant job overloading.

There were 34 supplemental workers terminated at Warren Stamping in January as part of the mass firing by Stellantis of more than 2,000 temporary workers across the company who were told they would be rolled over to full time positions under the new labor agreement. Since then thousands more full time and temporary workers have lost their jobs, including last week another 199 workers at Sterling Heights Assembly. That followed the firing of all supplemental workers who remained at the plant.

The strike vote comes as UAW President Fain has pledged full support for Bidens reelection and worked with Biden to sabotage the fight against layoffs. The Biden administration is integrating the UAW bureaucracy into its plans to impose wartime austerity, speed ups and labor discipline on workers as it expands its wars for global conquest.

The Warren Truck worker said she was horrified by the US-sponsored genocide of Palestinians and outraged at the police-state measures being used against campus anti-war protestors. It breaks my heart to see the police arresting students at the universities. At Columbia, they renamed the hall after a little Palestinian girl who was killed. The students are expressing their rights and the politicians and police are taking away their free speech.

She added, There is going to be a civil war in this country, and its going to be between the upper echelons and regular working class people.

A supplemental worker at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant told the World Socialist Web Site: We were the last group that got terminated. I never worked part time. Now they are throwing me out like a piece of garbage.

Mack Trucks worker Will Lehman with Warren Stamping workers in 2022. Lehman ran for UAW president to fight for the transfer of power from the UAW apparatus to the workers on the shop floor

Everything in the contract should have been honored. They were saying all supplementals would get profit sharing and they turned around and got rid of everyone.

Referring to Fain and UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, she said, I feel like they were selling out to save their jobs. Didnt anyone see this coming? They let them throw everyone out the door.

She added, They are killing us. Even the people that are working are suffering; they cant get approved for vacations. They are going to start firing a lot of people for attendance.

At the Toledo Assembly Complex workers have been forced to work a grueling seven-day, 10-hour work schedule. The UAWs supposedly historic 2023 contract removed all restrictions on the ability of Stellantis to force overtime in loosely defined emergencies.

The unsafe conditions workers face go far beyond leaky roofs and shortages of work gloves. At every level workers confront the disregard for safety in the interests of profits and production. Workers who complain about unsafe conditions face the possibility of discipline and harassment. When workers confront UAW officials over unsafe conditions and practices they encounter stony indifference or the pat phrase they can do that.

There is a long record of the UAW calling local strike votes and even occasionally calling Hollywood strikes at individual plants to show that the union is fighting and the leadership cares.

A case in point was the three-day strike in September 2022 called by the UAW at the Stellantis Kokomo, Indiana casting plant. The strike was called over local contract issues. While the plant produced parts critical for Stellantis operations, the UAW organized the strike to have zero impact on the companys operations. Workers were called out on a weekend when no production was scheduled and at a time when many Stellantis plants were on reduced schedules due to chip shortages. Furthermore, the UAW ordered workers at other area Stellantis plants not to support workers on the picket line.

In any event, the UAW apparatus called off the strike after three days based on a worthless set of vague promises from management that did not specifically commit the company to do or change anything. Fain, who was then running for UAW president and was a former local union official at Kokomo Casting, endorsed this charade.

The defense of safe and health working conditions cannot be entrusted to the pro-corporate UAW apparatus and its joint union-management safety committees which only cover up unsafe conditions, not expose or rectify them. It requires the independent initiative of shop floor workers through the building of rank-and-file committees. These committees must fight for rank-and-file oversight and control over safety and working conditions, including the pace of production and manning levels.

Fill out the form below to join the fight for rank-and-file committees.
On Thursday, Dr. Peter Daszak, one of the worlds leading experts on the origins of infectious diseases, testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Dr. Daszak was not called to speak on the emerging threat of the H5N1 avian flu, or on other new diseases that threaten to kill millions, or even on the enormous strides that have been made in determining the animal origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Dr. Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, in 2016. [Photo by EcoHealth Alliance]

Rather, he was subjected to a bipartisan inquisition, in which Democrats vied with Republicans to promote the conspiracy theory, concocted by the fascist January 6 coup plotter Steve Bannon, that Daszak and his fellow scientists created SARS-CoV-2.

For three hours, one politician after another either asserted or insinuated that this courageous scientist, who has devoted his life to saving the lives of others, was a witch, a traitor, a liar, or even all three.

Daszak, confident in the knowledge that he was speaking not only in the name of science, but the interests of all humanity, defied his inquisitors with courage and dignity, in the process making them look like the liars and fools they are.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a molecular virologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, condemned the hearing, declaring,

The chilling message from both GOP and Democrats in the US Congress to young Americans: Scientists are enemies of the people, you have options in life, dont throw your opportunities away by becoming a scientist, at least not in America. Honestly, Im beyond disgusted.

He added in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:

We now have zoonotic threats emerging at an accelerating cadence. This is the time when we need to be doubling down and expanding our global virus surveillance networks. By making up allegations, [the subcommittee is] ... undermining the work of EcoHealth and other organizations committed to understanding how viruses are jumping from animals into humans.

The truth was the casualty in this ignoble hearing, whose sole purpose was to incite anti-Chinese sentiments and redirect the social anger for the criminal handling of the pandemic, which has claimed close to 30 million lives globally, against China.

As Daszak noted in a statement that he issued to the journal Science upon concluding the three-plus hours of bipartisan grilling,

It appeared the Committee had decided to declare EcoHealth Alliance guilty until proven innocent. Its shocking and disappointing that they are now threatening to debar our organization, throw our staff out of work, and undermine 20 years of world leading research.

After four years of the COVID-19 pandemic, not one shred of evidence on a lab-leak origin has been produced by any principled scientist who has taken the question seriously. On the contrary, evidence in support of a natural origin has continued to accumulate on a weekly basis that include epidemiologic, forensic, and zoonotic information that SARS-like and SARS-CoV-2-like bat viruses are common in Southeast Asia, showing that the robust wildlife trade in the region contributed to the development of the COVID pandemic.

So, what political purpose did these discussions serve? What is behind defaming Daszak and calling for his organizations debarment and his criminal prosecution?

When one reviews Daszaks and his organizations accomplishments, they cover every conceivable pathogen known across the globe. EcoHealth has published nearly 1,500 articles in their journal, almost all original contributions. Besides bat viruses, they include mosquito-borne diseases, Lyme disease and other tickborne viruses, Brucella exposure in Bangladesh, as well as zoonotic disease in wild-animal trades and impacts associated with urbanization and climate change. Dr. Daszak has close to 56,000 citations and is recognized as the foremost scientist in pandemic potential pathogens and coronaviruses.

In his written testimony to the subcommittee, Daszak explained the important work EcoHealth Alliance has performed for the US and the world community in the last two decades:

EcoHealth Alliance scientists have worked in partnership with US Federal Agencies since the early 2000s, with significant funding support from dozens of leading government and philanthropic donors. With NIH funding, we mapped the global spread of highly pathogenic avian flu and showed its potential to enter the US via trading partners in Canada  information that the Government Accountability Office used to better target strategic surveillance. With support from the Department of Homeland Security we mapped the likely introduction of emerging viruses via air travel and trade, and the threat they represent to US public health and agriculture. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, we identified the origins of the highly lethal Nipah virus and discovered that bats are the wildlife reservoirs of MERS, SARS, and of a new viral disease that threatens global swine production. In all our federally funded projects, we have maintained open, transparent communication with agency staff, rapidly provided information critical to public health and agriculture, uploaded data, and genetic sequences into the NIH Genbank database, and published our analyses in scientific journals so that scientists everywhere can use this information.

Fundamentally, pandemic preparedness and prevention functions globally on an international footing. As events in Wuhan in late 2019 demonstrated, an infectious outbreak in one place will quickly lead to a global conflagration of disease.

The political backdrop to the inquisition of Daszak is one of escalating global war. Unlimited billions are being funneled to the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, and preparations for direct military conflict with Iran and China. In this context, Daszaks insistence that COVID has a natural origin, and that collaborative work is necessary with China and all countries, places him under tremendous scrutiny and derision.

The debarment and cutting off of funds for Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance would only make the world more vulnerable to emerging infectious pathogens, as highlighted by the rapidly evolving H5N1 avian flu that has widely spread among dairy cows and infected workers handling the animals.

Nearly a century after high school teacher John T. Scopes was criminally prosecuted for teaching evolution, the entire US political establishment has embraced anti-scientific bigotry and fascist conspiracy theories in the name of promoting nationalism and war.

The witch-hunt against science and scientists is an attack on the working class, which all class-conscious workers must condemn and oppose.
Eight years after 28-year-old Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni was kidnapped, tortured and killed after disappearing in Cairo on January 25, 2016, four Egyptian security officials have gone on trial in absentia in Rome on charges related to his killing.

Regeni had been carrying out research in Egypt for his doctoral thesis at Cambridge University about independent trade unions. He was found tortured to death nine days after disappearing on the anniversary of the 2011 revolution that toppled the dictator Hosni Mubarak, when security forces were out in force in central Cairo.

It was clear that the top echelons of President Abdel Fattahs al-Sisis brutal dictatorship were involved in a state abduction and murder. But the imperialist powers, including Britain where Regeni was studying, largely remained silent on his death. They view the junta as a bulwark against another uprising by the Egyptian working class that would trigger mass unrest across the resource-rich Middle East.

The European Union recently granted Egypt an $8.1 billion aid package alongside an additional $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to shore up the economy of the most important Arab country amid concerns over its security and in recognition for his complicity in the genocide of the Palestinians.

Regenis murder came as the regime prepared to legislate against independent unions, with the official state unionsmany of them connected to Washingtonfiling a lawsuit to criminalise unofficial unions, as part of a broader crackdown on workers rights. The government was also seeking to shut down NGOs receiving overseas funding. Unknown to Regeni, his contacts were secretly reporting back to the local security forces. Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco said, Because of this activity, the defendants were erroneously convinced that Regeni was an English spy, sent to give financing to unions close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Medical evidence presented at the court detailed the horrific torture he had been subjected to, including cuts and bruises from severe beatings and more than two dozen bone fractures to his ribs, fingers and toes, as well as legs, arms and shoulder blades. Regeni had multiple stab wounds on the soles of his feet, slices in his skin made from a sharp object such as a razor blade and several cigarette burns. His shoulder blades bore signs that he had been branded with a large, burning object. He had suffered a brain hemorrhage and a broken cervical vertebra after having his neck twisted or struck, which led to his death.

Regeni was tortured so badly that his mother Paola Deffendi could only recognise him from the tip of his nose, adding that all the evil in the world was inflicted upon her sons body.

The four defendants were named in original court documents as General Tariq Sabir, Colonels Athar Kamel and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif. While they all face charges of kidnapping, Sharif is also charged with inflicting the fatal injuries.

Prosecutors said in their opening statements when the trial began in February this year, before being adjourned for several weeks, that they had evidence that Major Magdi Sharif, from Egypts General Intelligence, had sent informants to follow Regeni and eventually had him arrested in a Cairo metro station. According to the charge sheet, the Egyptian government admitted to having put the student under surveillance and Sharif, and other unidentified Egyptian officials, then tortured Regeni over several days, causing him acute physical suffering.

This is the second attempt to try the four men in absentia. Italian judges threw out the first trial in October 2021 on the first day because prosecutors had not officially informed the four suspects of the proceedings. But last September, the constitutional court ruled that the trial could go ahead even without formal notification to the accused, as Egyptian authorities had refused to cooperate with the court. Tranquillino Sarno, the defence lawyer appointed to represent Kamel, one of the defendants, said, They are absolutely untraceable. As a result, he said, even if they were convicted, they would certainly not serve their sentences.

That the trial has gone ahead is only due to the perseverance of Regenis family and friends, who faced enormous opposition from the Egyptian authorities which presented six different explanations of his death, all equally ludicrous and implausible. The family organized a petition demanding an investigation into Giulios murder that was signed by nearly 5,000 academics internationally, and rallies in Italy including blockades held in front of the Egyptian embassy, putting the Italian authorities under pressure to investigate.

El-Sisis murderous regime has killed hundreds of political opponents, incarcerated 65,000 political detainees in Egypts jails, many without charge or trial, where they are subject to torture, and recently sentenced eight senior opposition leaders to death. Independent media is censored, and international journalists subject to arrest, with Al Jazeera journalists detained for years without charges. Above all, it has brutally suppressed all strikes and protests opposing its rule in the service of Egypts financial elite.

The Egyptian authorities blocked Italian prosecutors efforts to investigate Regenis murder at every turn. When Italy sent a team of investigators to Cairo in January 2016, they were forced to run their own investigation rather than work with their Egyptian counterparts. The first autopsy on Regenis body in Egypt was conducted without any Italian officials present. CCTV footage from the Cairo metro on the day Regeni disappeared, when eventually released, contained so many gaps as to be useless. In December 2020, Egypts prosecutor cleared all four suspects as well as a fifth of responsibility for Regenis murder and dropped the case.

Weeks after the first Italian trial was thrown out in 2021, an Italian parliamentary commission found that Egypts security agency was to blame for Regenis death and accused Egypts judiciary of acting in an obstructive and openly hostile manner by failing to disclose the whereabouts of the defendants.

When the trial finally began in February, Regenis parents and sister stood outside the courtroom with a yellow poster calling for Truth for Giulio Regeni. Regenis lawyer, Alessandra Ballerini, told reporters, We had been waiting for this moment for eight years, adding, We hope to be able to finally have a trial against those who have done all the harm in the world to Giulio.

Regenis murder was not the only case to roil Egypts relations with Italy, its most important European trading and investment partner. In February 2020, Patrick Zaki, an Egyptian student enrolled on a postgraduate degree at the University of Bologna, was detained on his return to Cairo for a family visit and interrogated under torture about his human rights activities. He was held in Tora Prison and sentenced to three years in jail for disseminating false news and inciting to protest in July 2023 before being given a presidential pardon by el-Sisi and released the following day.

El-Sisis pardon was aimed at securing new trade and investment deals with Italy. Immediately afterwards, fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni telephoned him to explore some bilateral issues, following this up with a visit to Cairo last March. The two countries have agreed a $350 million debt swap programme and an $89 million partnership investment for agriculture and small-scale projects, as well as signing off on a centre for artificial intelligence (AI) in Cairo, as a jumping off point for AI development and use across Africa.

Last September, Italian energy giant ENI, which operates the offshore Zohr gas field in Egyptian waters and is the largest energy producer in Egypt, announced plans to invest $7.7 billion in the Egyptian energy sector over the next four years. It follows a pledge by BP to invest $3.5 billion in Egypt over the next three years, along with its partners.
Last Sunday, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) sponsored a successful lecture, outlining the contemporary relevance of the protracted struggle of the Trotskyist movement against pseudo-left tendencies internationally. The lecture was given by Nick Beams, a longstanding leader of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and writer for the World Socialist Web Site.

The lecture followed a series of IYSSE campus meetings, which exposed the role of pseudo-left parties in seeking to misdirect opposition to the genocide in Gaza behind appeals to the governments responsible for the mass murder, including the Labor administration in Australia.

The IYSSE explained that this was a component of the broader role of the pseudo-left in seeking to prevent an independent movement of the working class, which has also been expressed in the support extended by these organisations to imperialist wars, such as the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

In his lecture, Beams delved into these questions more deeply, pointing to the roots of the pseudo-left in tendencies that broke from the Trotskyist movement and rejected the revolutionary role of the working class. The lecture can be viewed in full below.

The fight of Trotskyism against the pseudo-left

It was attended by students, young people, workers and retirees at an in-person meeting in Sydney. Youth from cities across Australia tuned in to a livestream, as did several international participants.

After the meeting, WSWS reporters spoke to some of those in attendance.

Mark, an IYSSE member in Brisbane, said Beams lecture did a great job of illuminating the link between the genocide in Gaza and the broader push for war by US imperialism in other regions of the world.

The role of the pseudo-left was discussed with their support for the supposed good side of imperialism, such as sending arms to the Zelensky regime in Ukraine for use against Russia. The lecture exposed the role of the pseudo-left as fundamentally opposed to the aims of the ICFI [International Committee of the Fourth International]. These are not different groups with the same aims as us, but fundamentally irreconcilable organisations.

Mark said the lecture had an apt title, The fight of Trotskyism against the pseudo-left. It pointed to the history of Trotskyism and the ICFI, and the more than a century of the struggle of Marxism against revisionism. Studying that history and learning exactly about what was at stake in each of the splits can really clarify what we are fighting for

The lecture raised the political questions of how the genocide can be ended and it cannot be separated from the growing trend to militarisation. That was highlighted by Joe Bidens bill, sending billions of dollars to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which shows that the ruling class views these wars as three fronts of the same war.

For the working class to fight this growing world war, it has to oppose it on all fronts, and not pick and choose, and Nicks lecture really emphasised that.

Mark added: One point Nick made is that the Gaza genocide is not just the result of bad, immoral decisions by individual leaders. That is the line of the pseudo-left, as if it were a matter of voting out one politician and installing another. The genocide in Gaza is a product of capitalism. It cannot be stopped by swapping leaders

Someone asked about joining the broader left. Nick responded by saying there is no broader left. Our aims are totally opposed. A river of blood exists between the ICFI and the Stalinists, as seen in the assassination of Leon Trotsky and the purges of the 1930s when Stalin eliminated the Marxists who had led the Russian Revolution. If push came to shove, they would do the same today.

Beams spoke about the increasing radicalisation of young people, but that it can go in various directions. He was asked about Aaron Bushnells self-immolation. There was no doubt that Bushnell was radicalised by what he saw, as a member of the US military, but the tragedy of what happened to him raises the need for a socialist perspective and the danger if the radicalisation is not channelled that way. What Bushnell did was a very radical action. He was outraged by what he saw. The task of the party is to channel that outrage in a socialist direction.

There was also a great discussion about racism and its relation to Marxism. In short, the speakers and other participants in the chat noted that our movement places class as the fundamental divider in society, and that racism is utilised as a tool to advance the interests of the capitalist class. The massacre of Aboriginal people was to clear the land for pastoral grazing. The laws of private property were incompatible with that. Racism was drummed up for that, as it was for the slave trade.

Modern racism is a product of capitalism and should be fought. We fight for a unified struggle of workers, indigenous and none-indigenous. It was not white people, but European capitalism that was brought into the continent of Australia. The answer is not to create divisions between indigenous and non-indigenous but to unify against capitalism.

Hasina, a student in Melbourne, said: Its been a while since I got interested in Marxism, and socialism, and I saw the meeting online and wanted to see what it was about. The way Marxism explains inequality and the capitalist system makes sense to me, and I got that the economic system is really unequal, and its getting worse and its the cause of many problems in the world.

Much of the historical analysis was new to me. For example, how Trotskyism got separated from the other socialist and communist movements was interesting. I mentioned that I thought there was less focus on race and gender, and the SEP explained that they are against identity politics. That makes sense to me, and I actually agree that most of this identity politics by the left has been worsening the conditions of the people.

As the speakers in the meeting mentioned, behind all those wars are big companies that produce everything from arms to food and clothing, thats one part of it, but the huge part of it is that imperialism has interests in the Middle East and the Orient, and the creation of Israel itself was a colonial intervention. It all goes back to imperialism and capitalism. It has its roots in capitalism and the world economic system now just enhances the conflicts.

Tom, originally from New Zealand and now employed in the health industry, said the IYSSE meeting on Sunday was excellent and gave me a lot more inspiration because it helped me understand the political crisis and what is happening globally.

Tom

The meeting clearly outlined the drive to war and how the Australian government is not just preparing for this but encouraging it. This is frightening because it puts us all in a very vulnerable position. The meeting also made very obvious what we, as part of the working class, need to do. This was explained very eloquently and so were the issues related to the pseudo-left.

Speakers pointed out that not all those claiming to be left are really left-wing at all, which is very important. Of course, theres a lot more that I need to read and understand, but these groups try to keep us tied to the Labor Party. They talk about equality, but Labor has done very little to ease the cost-of-living crisis and at the same time is backing Israels attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza. I remember that some time back, Albanese was giving speeches in parliament saying that he backed Palestine. Now that hes prime minister he and his government are fully supporting Israel.

I used to believe that that the [government-funded] ABC was reporting unbiased, fair and used a lot of educated words compared to the basic news services from the Seven, Ten and Nine networks. It provided a bit of analysis in its reports and explained why they were saying the things they did.

The mainstream media should explain the real reasons for political events, which is what the population needs, but after October 7, I realised that the ABC was just giving us one-sided reports and oriented towards supporting Israel. This made me break away from the ABC and start reading the WSWS.

Referring to the anti-Gaza genocide encampment protests at American universities, Tom said: Its amazing that students are making their voices heard, but whats really scary is the police response and the use of violence and brutality to try and silence them. When I first met the SEP about ten years ago, it explained that there were moves towards fascism and extreme-right politics. You now see this in the police attacks on the students.

I didnt see it at the time when I met the SEP but it was correct and Im a bit disappointed in myself for not realising this back then. I could have spent that time learning more about the partys analysis and fighting what we now have to do.
Rebuilding the approximately 80,000 housing units, destroyed throughout the Gaza Strip by the imperialist-backed Israeli regimes bloody assault, would take until 2040, according to an assessment by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released Wednesday. The best-case projection, which underscores how far Israel has gone in enforcing its deliberate ethnic cleansing of the enclave, is based on the highly improbable assumptions that the war ends now and the Zionist regime allows a five-fold increase of construction material imports into Gaza.

Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. [AP Photo/Fatima Shbair]

Assuming instead that construction material imports arrive at a similar pace as they did in the aftermath of previous Israeli bombardments, the Palestinians would need approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units. The estimate does not include performing any repairs to an additional 290,000 homes damaged in the incessant air bombardments and shelling that have officially claimed the lives of over 34,500 people and unofficially well over 40,000.

The agency projects that the cost of rebuilding Gaza would fall somewhere between $30 billion and $40 billion. The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented  this is a mission that the global community has not dealt with since World War II, added UN assistant secretary-general Abdallah al-Dardari. Another anonymous UN official quoted by Reuters referred to a moonscape of destruction.

The report, co-written with the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), found that Palestines human development index (HDI), a measure of well-being, will have regressed by more than two decades across Gaza and the West Bank if the war lasts nine months. The HDI for Gaza alone after nine months of war would regress by 44 years, returning Gazans to the HDI level for 1980. The poverty rate for Gaza and the West Bank will rise to over 60 percent, 2.25 times higher than the pre-war level. In absolute terms, this would mean an additional 1.86 million people across Gaza and the West Bank would be in poverty compared to pre-war levels.

ESCWA executive secretary Rola Dashti commented, This assessment projects that Gaza will be rendered fully dependent on external assistance on a scale not seen since 1948, as it will be left without a functional economy, or any means of production, self-sustainment, employment, or capacity for trade.

A separate UN report revealed that 85.8 percent of schools in Gaza have suffered some level of damage since October 2023, with 70 percent of all schools requiring major reconstruction.

What the statistics in these two reports reveal are the consequences of a deliberate policy of genocide pursued by the Zionist regime with the unstinting support of US imperialism and its European allies. Even if the onslaught ended today, which is all but out of the question as Israel makes advanced preparations for a savage assault on Rafah, many of the basic necessities required to support modern life would not be present in Gaza for decades to come.

This was the intended outcome of the far-right Netanyahu government from the start. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant summed up the Israeli regimes fascist ideology early on in the Gaza bombardment when he described Palestinians as human animals. Later in October 2023, a document leaked to the Hebrew-language publication Mekomit from Israels Ministry of Intelligence recommended preparing to evacuate the civilian population to Sinai. In November, Security Cabinet member and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter asserted that Israel was rolling out the Gaza Nakba, while the fascistic Finance Minister Bezalil Smotrich appealed for the emigration of the Gaza Arabs to the countries of the world.

As the World Socialist Web Site has analysed, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza is bound up with an expansionary greater Israel policy aimed at permanently annexing the territories in Gaza and the West Bank illegally occupied by Israel. The systematic cultivation of settlers following Israels capture of Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War created the social base out of which outright fascist forces have migrated into leading positions within the Israeli government and state.

The imperialist powers, with the US in the lead, endorse the Gaza genocide because they see it as a key component of a region-wide war targeting Iran. American imperialisms goal is to consolidate its dominance over the energy-rich Middle East, as part of its pursuit of world war against Russia and China to redivide the globe in its interests.

The Biden administration has intensified its backing for Israel as the planned barbaric offensive into Rafah approaches, adopting late last month an aid package worth $26 billion for Israel. Emboldened by the assurance of massive military support, Netanyahu reaffirmed Thursday his governments determination to assault Rafah, where over 1.5 million people are crammed together, stating, We will do whatever is necessary to win and overcome our enemies, including in Rafah.

After two hours of extensive consultations with Netanyahu Wednesday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken merely expressed pro forma concerns about the lack of a plan to ensure that civilians are not harmed by Israeli military operations in Rafah. A 30 April open letter addressed to President Biden and signed by numerous aid organisations pointed to the absurdity of the claim that it is possible to protect civilians while Israel bombards Rafah. [N]o such credible humanitarian plan is feasible in the current crisis, they wrote. An Israeli military operation into Rafah would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah are effectively trapped with no safe alternatives. Many of them are too young, elderly, sick, starving, injured, or disabled to move again. Those physically able to leave Rafah would be exposed to life-threatening health and security risks during their movement, while staying in the densely populated city during an attack by the Israeli military would directly endanger their lives.

Despite claims by Israel of significant increases in aid deliveries into Gaza and media reports asserting that the US is applying pressure on Israel to expand deliveries, the food crisis remains catastrophic. Gazas government Media Office reported Thursday that Israel allowed an average of 163 aid trucks into Gaza each day in April, a fraction of the 500 per day arriving prior to the bombardment. Israel declared that a record high of 406 trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday.

Late Thursday, reports emerged of yet another attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on an aid convoy. Soldiers in Gaza City opened fire on several trucks carrying food at the Kuwait roundabout, killing one driver and injuring others. The Kuwait roundabout was the scene of a horrific massacre by the IDF that claimed the lives of well over 100 people in March as thousands of starving Palestinians sought to access food.

Separately, aid dispatched from Jordan to Gaza came under attack from far-right settlers while passing through Israel. No deaths were reported, but several trucks were damaged.

Another demonstration of the Israeli regimes barbarism was the news of the death of Dr. Adnan al-Barash, a respected surgeon at al-Shifa hospital, while in Israeli custody. Al-Barash was detained at the notorious Ofer military prison. UN rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese said she was extremely alarmed by the news, adding in an X post, No Palestinian is safe under Israels occupation today.
 Flash

Officials and academics participating in a forum here have called for boost to China-Britain cooperation in education.

The forum on education cooperation was held at Ulster University on Wednesday.

Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom (UK) Zheng Zeguang noted at the forum that facts "have and will continue to show that China-UK educational collaboration is mutually beneficial and has broad prospects."

Edwin Poots, speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said that connections between the two sides have expanded substantially over the years.

The potential for sharing experiences and to learn from each other should be maximized, Poots said.

Colin Davidson, chancellor of Ulster University, said the university is proud of its extensive partnerships and links across China's higher education sector.

Professor Tom Maguire, head of the university's School of Arts and Humanities, told Xinhua that it is important to "encourage students to encounter people from different backgrounds and cultures, so that they expand their vision of what it is to be human."

Derek Harkness, an education expert, said the links between the two countries have been very important not only from a cultural and linguistic perspective, but also for the "friendship benefit."

This cooperation should be strengthened as "we proceed into the future", the expert added.
Plique-a-jour, champleve, vallonne and faconne Van Cleef & Arpels enamelling prowess was to the fore at Watches & Wonders 2024

When it comes to Watches & Wonders and its previous incarnation, the SIHH, the Van Cleef & Arpels stand has always stood out, rather like its timepieces that so consummately celebrate the brands tagline The Poetry of Time.

From the outside, it might seem like any other booth, but once youre enticed to enter, it becomes an immersive experience like a pleasure ground for grown-ups, taking in the enchanting and the ethereal.

At this years fair, against a bewitching backdrop of depictions of lush vegetation and sun-filled and moonlit skies, the company paid tribute to the many metiers dart  artistic crafts  that it is able to bring together through the timepieces in its Poetic Complications and Extraordinary Dials collections.

And while there was a nod to the artisans who make Murano aventurine glass and a tip of the hat to the lapidary craftsmen who work gemstones so finely, there was a distinct accent on the enamel art that Van Cleef & Arpels is able to carry out in its in-house enamel workshop. Plique-a-jour, champleve, vallonne and faconne enamelling techniques were all to the fore in the brands latest watchmaking creations.

Craftsmanship has lain at the heart of our every initiative for more than a century, says Nicolas Bos, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. It defines our jewellery and high jewellery creations, where we perfect traditional techniques while also incorporating innovations.

Nicolas Bos  Van Cleef & Arpels

He continues: We firmly believe in the uniqueness of our savoir-faire. That is why we chose to develop our own enamel workshop, which no doubt ranks among the worlds most accomplished. By improving on traditional techniques  such as guilloche and plique-a-jour enamel  we have succeeded in creating level surfaces akin to a painters canvas, while also instituting sculptural forms in spaces as small as a watch case.

Accordingly, here are three outstanding releases from Watches & Wonders 2024 that showcase Van Cleef & Arpels enamelling prowess.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante  Van Cleef & Arpels

Lady Arpels Brise dEte

The fantastic 38mm white gold Lady Arpels Brise dEte is meant to evoke the freshness of summer mornings. In addition to indicating the time, its white and yellow gold butterflies  in translucent plique-a-jour enamel  flutter around thanks to a spring-loaded mechanism activated using a caseband pusher.

Lady Arpels Brise dEte  Van Cleef & Arpels

The blue flowers  whose petals are in vallonne enamel in relief, and whose pistils comprise spessartite garnet  simultaneously come to life, waving in the wind.

The delightful scene unfolds on a matte mother-of-pearl background. It is completed by green leaves in champleve enamel  characterised by threadlike precious metal contours  blades of grass in tsavorite garnets and more plique-a-jour enamel, plus three-dimensional miniature painted stems.

Lady Arpels Brise d'Ete watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

The savoir-faire behind the Lady Arpels Brise dEte is most impressive: The enamel artist uses coloured enamels made of silica powder, fine pigments and oil, applying the colour to a petal or butterfly using binocular magnification and, of course, considerable dexterity.

The enameller creates a gradient of hues using a thin marten-hair brush, with each colour applied incrementally, from lighter to deeper shades. Each hue requires its own firing step and only experienced enamellers are able to judge the length of time and exact temperature needed for this.

Lady Arpels Brise d'Ete watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

Of this stunning watch, Bos says: I think the Lady Arpels Brise dEte really chimes with this idea of poetic complications as we call them, featuring a dimension similar to that of an automaton thanks to the mechanical motion disconnected from the reading of time. I hope that's the sense which emerges, with its blend of mystery and gentle movement.

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit

From the beauty of a summers day to the beauty of every day and night: At the Geneva showpiece, Van Cleef & Arpels also unveiled a fresh interpretation of its Lady Arpels Jour Nuit, first launched 16 years ago.

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit  Van Cleef & Arpels

The new 38mm Lady Arpels Jour Nuit in diamond-set white gold features a spectacular rotating 24-hour day-night indicator consisting of an openwork disc crafted in glittering Murano aventurine glass. The latter holds a diamond-set white gold moon and stars to depict the starry night sky, in addition to a yellow gold sun snow-set with yellow sapphires to represent the daytime.

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

The moon and sun emerge from and disappear behind a guilloched mother-of-pearl cover that fans out across the dial.

Meanwhile, the back sapphire crystal is decorated with an ethereal protective fairy using an innovative platinum enamel decal method, while the pointillism technique was deployed to create a distinctive colour gradient.

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

Also launched alongside this timepiece was the smaller 33mm Lady Jour Nuit with guilloched  rather than sapphire-set  sun.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante

The dial of Lady Arpels Jour Enchante  a numbered, 41mm limited-edition in diamond-set white gold  is simply out of this world. It features a plethora of high-relief, voluminous decors evoking the theme of enchanted nature.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante  Van Cleef & Arpels

A graceful fairy sculpted in white gold picks flowers and spreads her wings made in sparkling, see-through plique-a-jour enamel. Behind her is a field of blooming pink flowers  with yellow-sapphire pistils  made using a revolutionary faconne enamel technique.

Faconne enamel entails pouring the material onto a stainless-steel holder, then sculpting it by whittling it to make a three-dimensional form. After low-temperature firing to remove tensions in the material, the enamel is glazed at high temperature, when its surface turns smooth and luminous.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

The maison has also used a smart gem-setting technique for the leaves at the forefront of the mesmerising scene. White gold frames are filled with stained-glass-like plique-a-jour enamel which, rather incredibly, has been set with diamonds, without any metal holding the diamond.

To achieve this, the stone is positioned in an indentation carved in the enamel. The piece is then re-fired according to a precise temperature curve to seal the composition. This process generates a floating effect that highlights the radiance of the precious stones.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

And thats not all. In the background, against a turquoise sky, a sun gleams thanks to the sparkle of spessartite garnets, coloured sapphires and diamonds. The rays of the sun are fixed using a lifted setting that gives the illusion that they are suspended in the air.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchante watch know-how  Van Cleef & Arpels

In total, two years of development and 180 hours of work were required to assemble this dial that displays immense technical prowess and poetic grace in equal measure.

For more information, visit Van Cleef & Arpels' website.
Support is building internationally for the campaign demanding that socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk be immediately released from prison by the Zelensky government in Ukraine.

Hundreds of people from around the globe have signed the online petition launched by the World Socialist Web Site on April 30, Free Bogdan Syrotiuk, Ukrainian socialist and opponent of NATOs proxy war!

Bogdan Syrotiuk in his office.

People have signed the petition from many countries, including the United States, Australia, the UK, China, Germany, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, Hungary, France, Norway, Turkey and Taiwan.

In explaining the significance of the arrest of Syrotiuk and the campaign for his freedom, the petition at Change.org states:

On Thursday April 25, Bogdan Syrotiuka socialist opponent of the fascistic Zelensky regime and the NATO-instigated Ukraine-Russia warwas arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, in his hometown of Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine. Bogdan, who is 25 years old and in poor health, is being held in a prison in Nikolaev under atrocious conditions on fraudulent charges of serving the interests of Russia. In fact, Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the capitalist Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine. He fights for the unity of the working class in Ukraine, Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union.

The campaign for the freedom of Bogdan Syrotiuk is urgent. If he is found guilty by a kangaroo court of the charges against him, he is threatened with a prison term of 15 years to life, a sentence that in Ukraine is equivalent to the death penalty.

On Tuesday, David North, Chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, explained that the arrest of Bogdan Syrotiuk is the latest example of the brutal crackdown by the Zelensky regime on left-wing movements, whose opposition to the war is finding a growing response within the Ukrainian working class.

North explained the circumstances of the arrest:

SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] agents ransacked Bogdans apartment and the office that he has used to conduct political and educational activities. The World Socialist Web Site has been informed that the SBU is claiming that it found a Russian military coat, a backpack with the letter Za symbol associated with Russian military chauvinismand a gas mask in the office. Only dull-witted fascist police will expect people to believe that such items will be found in an office that prominently displays a photo of Leon Trotsky and offers a wide selection of Marxist-Trotskyist literature. If such items were found in Bogdans office, it is because they were planted there by the SBU, whose unscrupulous and Gestapo-like methods are common knowledge in Ukraine.

North also issued the statement, Demand the release of Bogdan Syrotiuk, socialist opponent of NATOs proxy war, from a Ukrainian prison, as a video on social media.

Syrotiuk has been singled out because he is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), a Trotskyist youth organization active in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union.

Along with the online petition signers, the WSWS has received written comments from those supporting the campaign.

Thomas from Munich, Germany:

Free Comrade Bogdan! His arrest is an attack on the entire working class. It shows again and very clearly the crimes of the imperialists and NATO countries that collaborate with the fascist regime in Ukraine. They are not concerned with freedom, human rights and democracy.

Debbie from Cupertino, California:

Its infuriating that the US is using my tax dollars to fund Israels genocide of Palestinians & arm the fascistic Zelensky government of Ukraine! These charges are completely bogus & should be dropped immediately!

Kim from South Korea:

We condemn the Zelenskyy regime and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for arresting this young man, who led the anti-war movement with the unity of youth and workers in Ukraine and Russia, on trumped-up charges!

Yotung from Guilin, China:

He is not guilty.

Geethananda from Colombo, Sri Lanka:

Attempts to portray Bogdan as a supporter of the Putin regime and its invasion of Ukraine are politically preposterous. Comrade Syrotiuk is a leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists (YGBL), a Trotskyist youth organization active in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union.

Vera from Hungary:

Free him immediately!! Warmongers should be questioned. World leaders should sit together and argue, not promote wars. Less spending on arms and wars. Spend on education, peace, health care, social issues. Bogdan wants this as well as all ordinary working people.

Francois from France:

It is dangerous to call yourself a supporter of peace! The capitalists need war because capitalism carries war as the cloud carries the storm, Jean Jaures, the first to be shot as an example.

Simon from UK:

The deplorable detention of Comrade Bogdan by President Zelenskys military camarilla is a crime against the international working class. We will not rest until he is freed. We will re-energise the motto of Big Bill Haywood amongst the worlds workers & youthAn injury to one is an injury to all! Hands off Bogdan Syrotiuk! Release Comrade Bogdan at once!

Stephen from Australia:

Bogdans jailing is part of the increasing repression of opposition to the brutal Ukrainian government as they try to send more Ukrainian workers to their deaths in the war against Russia. The war must be stopped and Bogdan released.

We urge all readers to take immediate action by signing the online petition and joining the campaign to make the case of Bogdan Syrotiuk known at workplaces, schools, neighborhoods throughout the working class in every country. Share the campaign with your friends on social media and use the hashtag: #FreeBogdan.
AUSTIN  The last weekend in April marked Western Texas College's triumphant return to the Texas Junior College Student Government Association (TJCSGA) State Convention, culminating in multiple elections to key positions by WTC delegates. After a 15-year hiatus, the college's delegation, consisting of five student delegates and two advisors, attended the convention with significant success.

Four WTC delegates secured nominations for Regional Executive Officer positions, with two winning elections to the Region 1 Executive Board.

"Our delegates and advisors demonstrated outstanding dedication and leadership, stated Victor Hinojosa, Assistant Professor of Government and Student Government Association (SGA) advisor.

Sylvia Martinez emerged victorious over another schools delegate, claiming the role of Regional Historian. Memphis Munoz clinched the position of Regional Secretary. Hinojosa unanimously secured the election as Region 1 Advisor of the TJCSGA.

The delegation's achievements continued with Jason Havens' election to the Region 1 delegate on the state Constitution and Bylaws Committee, where he ascended to the role of committee chair. Under his leadership, the committee approved amendments and drafted a new Constitution and Bylaws. The General Assembly adopted all changes on April 28, 2024, at the State Capitol building.

Their efforts not only represent our college but also set a precedent for active participation and success in regional and state student governance," added Hinojosa.

Moreover, Memphis Munoz contributed significantly as a member of the TJCSGA Awards Committee, assessing the criteria for various award categories submitted by community colleges.

Yessenia Ruiz made her mark on the TJCSGA Nominations Committee, collecting information on colleges interested in nominating delegates for executive positions.

While WTC was not eligible for TJCSGA Executive Officer positions this year due to membership tenure rules, the college anticipates eligibility for these positions at the 2025 TJCSGA State Convention in Galveston, Texas.

The dedication of the WTC delegates, who worked tirelessly for 16-20 hours each day, brought home immense pride to Western Texas College and the Snyder community, added Hinojosa.

Im extremely proud of these students and their can-do attitude.
De Bethunes new DB Kind of Grande Complication puts 22 years of innovation and creativity in perspective

When we think of De Bethune, the independent fine watchmaking brand based in Ste Croix, Switzerland, we think of its iconic designs such as the avant-garde DB 28 with its crown at 12 oclock and patented floating lugs, conceived for comfort and versatility. Or, perhaps its the DB 25 that comes to mind, the more classically styled collection that appeals to the more traditionally oriented watch lover. Three years ago, De Bethune debuted their DB Kind of Two, a reversible watch pivoting within its lugs along the 39 axis in order to highlight more indications and styles than might easily fit on a single-dial timepiece.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

This dual-dial system opened up the possibility of multi-complication watches for De Bethune, an idea which has now achieved its apotheosis in the DB Kind of Grande Complication, released a few weeks ago. The master watchmaker at the heart of all the creations of the brand, Denis Flageollet, is not just a mechanical genius  he is above all known for his holistic approach to horology, which also covers the aesthetic and practical aspects of having a watch on the wrist.

Such an approach is immediately evident in the prior models of the brand; whilst De Bethune obviously had the expertise all along to produce watches with multiple indications and functions, Flageollet judged it best to restrict the scope of expression within his creations until the DB Kind of Two was launched, introducing the system which would provide adequate space for a watch such as the Kind of Grande Complication.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

On one side of the DB Kind of Grande Complication, De Bethunes proprietary high-frequency fast-rotation tourbillon takes pride of place. This tourbillon beats at 5Hz (36,000vph) and rotates once every 30 seconds, bringing a double advantage in terms of ensuring the precision of the watch. Even with its high frequency, the patented balance and hairspring (featuring the De Bethune terminal curve) can be clearly seen at the centre of the tourbillon mechanism, a sharp reminder of the reputation for innovation that De Bethune has established since its earliest days.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

Just above the tourbillon is an indication of the hours, minutes and seconds, the last of which is particularly interesting. At De Bethune, mechanics comes hand in hand with functionality  this is not a brand that believes in incorporating complex mechanisms just for their own sake. The central seconds indication of the DB Kind of Grande Complication is a dead seconds indication (Flageollet understandably prefers the term jumping seconds to the more familiar term dead seconds), which offers a higher level of precision in timing indication, as the second hand moves crisply from one second to the next without the trailing action that characterises the seconds indication in most other mechanical watches.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

The left side of this dial also bears an indication of power reserve of 4 days  an impressive feat in a 5Hz watch. On the right side of the dial, just around the periphery of one of the mainspring barrels, a scale running from 1 to 29 represents the day of the moon phase, a rare feature in moon-phase watches. This augments the utility of the ultra-accurate 3D moon phase display on the other dial (visible when worn on the wrist with the crown positioned at 6 oclock. This rotating spherical moon is a technical hallmark of De Bethune, formed of two hemispheres (one of blued steel and one of polished palladium), and accumulating only one single day of error after 122 years. The spherical moon is positioned at the 3 oclock position, its blue hemisphere blending in perfectly with the heat-blued titanium dial. The dial is decorated to resemble a star-filled firmament, studded with gold pins to resemble the Milky Way as it traverses the night sky.

Also on this dial is a perpetual calendar indication, with a date counter at the 9 oclock position, the day of the week at 1 oclock and the month at 4 oclock. Of course, no perpetual calendar watch is complete without an indication of the leap year, which is visible just next to the spherical moon phase display.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

As mentioned earlier, each De Bethune watch comes with a myriad of little touches that refine the experience of having it on the wrist, and the DB Kind of Grande Complication is no different. Features such as the floating lugs make this watch incredibly easy to wear despite its 43.3mm case diameter and 13.85mm case height. The hands are manually shaped into their final form, especially the hands that have to pass over the spherical moon. These have to be bent in a particular way so that their tips come as close as possible to the dial (for precise reading) without colliding with the spherical moon as it projects beyond the surface of the dial.

DB Kind of Grande Complication  De Bethune

The De Bethune DB Kind of Grande Complication may be the ultimate summary of the last 22 years of mechanical innovation at this jewel of a brand  their Greatest Hits double-album, so to speak  but that doesnt mean the journey stops here. Having had the chance to speak personally with Denis Flageollet at the launch of this watch, I can assure you that there are plenty more amazing ideas and technical innovations waiting down the line for those who love De Bethune and their creations. And I dont mean maybe or even kind of. This is a promise.
After the all-Russian scandal surrounding the "naked party" in Moscow, the organizer of the bacchanal, Russian presenter Nastya Ivleyeva, went on air with tearful excuses and confessions of support for the genocide of Ukrainians. In order to at least somehow beg forgiveness from the "patriots" of the Russian Federation and the Kremlin, the Putinist brazenly lied about the "restoration" of occupied Mariupol against the background of the icon, told about a trip to the occupied part of Donbas and assistance to terrorists.

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These statements were made in an interview with a propagandist, where the host came to tell how the scandalous party turned out for her.

Ivleyeva, who recently turned 33, organized a "gift" for herself  a private trip to Donetsk region without cameras and media coverage. She said that she wanted to "form her own opinion" about the region and communicate with its residents.

The propagandist visited the temporarily captured and long-suffering Mariupol, where thousands of civilians died. However, this did not shock her, because on the site of the ruins, the Russian Federation has erected several facades and hastily built high-rise buildings for Russians who call the theft of other people's real estate a "profitable investment."

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"When you see a dilapidated city with your own eyes, it definitely does not leave you indifferent. Why half-ruined? Because it is being actively restored, and it is a unique sight to see a new life being born out of ruins," the Russian woman said, without mentioning who destroyed the flourishing Ukrainian city.

The artist, who called for peace on February 24, 2022, and deleted all her posts on social media after the trial, also admitted that she had been brazenly lying. While she was considered an "apolitical" and "anti-war" star, Ivleyeva made money from gullible viewers and sent money directly to the front to finance the fighting.

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In a new interview, she admitted that she had been doing this even before the scandalous party and would continue to do so.

Ivleyeva ended this tirade, for which the Russian woman will have to pay at least with her reputation in the world, by saying that "any normal person is against the war."

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Later this month, the Green Mountain State will roll out the red carpet for the United States newest international film festival: The Vermont Film & Folklore Festival, which will open in Manchester, Vermont on Thursday, May 23 with a full lineup of award-winning narrative features, documentaries, and shorts from around the world, including a spotlight on Vermont-made films.

Founded by a pair of indie film luminaries and recent Manchester transplants  MovieMaker Magazine founder Tim Rhys and Filmmaker Magazine co-founder Karol Martesko-Fenster  the festival will play home to screenings of more than 40 new and classic films, including rare 16mm screenings of some of Hollywoods most beloved movies, including 70th anniversary screenings of On the Waterfront and La Strada, a 75th anniversary screening of James Cagneys White Heat, and an 80th anniversary screening of Double Indemnity, and more.

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The festival will kick off at The Southern Vermont Arts Center with the opening night feature screening of festival circuit darling Tokyo Cowboy with director Marc Marriott in attendance, followed by an opening night party to include a performance from the Hartford, Connecticut-based band Gravity. In addition to the film screenings, the program will include afternoon happy hour cocktail parties for festival supporters and guests, and two seminars to be held at Burr and Burton Academy: Producing the Independent Feature and Why Folklore is Integral to Vermonts Character. The festival will run May 23-26.

On a personal note, if youre wondering about the kismet and coincidence of both Rhys and Martesko-Fenster moving to the same small Vermont town, imagine this writers shock when she walked into a brand-new bookstore during a recent visit to her own hometown, only to find Rhys behind the register (he owns the place, which is located next door to his wifes darling preschool, truly a Vermont dream).

When Karol and I discovered we had both moved from urban areas to the same small town, we talked about all the things we loved about Manchester, Vermont and the thing we both missed most of all accessible cinema on the big screen, said co-founder and festival director Rhys in an official statement. We know were not alone, as Bennington County is home to an extremely dynamic, artistic population. We hope that folks will come out and support these films and filmmakers by attending the screenings this Memorial Day weekend. Weve already gotten a nice response from the business community and were so excited to serve up what weve been cooking this past year.

Rhys and Martesko-Fensters venture is also notable because Manchester lacks its own movie theater. The two-screen joint this writer grew up watching films in is now a Sherwin-Williams paint store. For Manchester denizens, like my own family, the closest theater is over half an hour away in Bennington, with the nearest multiplex located more than an hour away in Saratoga Springs, New York (yes, a whole other state away; yes, Ive lived it).

According to the festival, its mission is to serve the people of southern Vermont by creating an annual event that underscores the importance of story to who we are as a society with a shared set of values, while simultaneously discovering and nurturing new talent and shining a spotlight on some of the most talented storytellers of our time. Honoring and reveling in storytelling is VFFFs primary role.

Film awards will be given in the following categories by a jury to be announced: Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, The Equinox Award (Jury Award for Best of Fest), and the Green Mountain Award (Audience Award for Best of Fest). Venues for the festivities include the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester Community Library, Burr & Burton Academy, and Rhys Wheelwrite Imaginarium Bookshop Arthouse, which will also be the location of the Filmmakers Lounge during the festival.

You can find out more about the festival, including its full schedule and how to purchase tickets and passes, on its official website. Check out the full lineup below, with all synopses provided by the festival.

FEATURE FILMS

TOKYO COWBOY

Directed by Marc Marriott

A Japanese businessman goes on an unwitting journey of self-discovery when he takes a company trip from Tokyo to a Montana cattle ranch.

ROWDY GIRL

Directed by Jason Goldman

Determined to make the planet a better place, former Texas cattle rancher Renee King-Sonnen transforms her husbands beef operation into a farm animal sanctuary, encouraging other farmers to transition from animal agriculture to plant-based food production.

FULL CIRCLE

Directed by Josh Berman

Faced with a traumatic injury that leaves you permanently disabled; how would you reinvent yourself? Trevor Kennisons life was forever altered by a broken back  for worse and for better, in equal measures.

ROBERT SHIELDS: MY LIFE AS A ROBOT

Directed by Mark Bonn

No words can describe him, literally. Robert Shields, one of the most unique performers of the century, performing for 2 Presidents a Queen while gaining the admiration of many of Hollywoods greats-all of it done without saying a word.

THE QUIETEST YEAR

Directed by Karen Atkins

Filmmaker Karen Atkins darkly quirky personal quest to curb noise pollution in her quaint Vermont village uncovers dire consequences for noise regulation, not only in her home state, but nationwide.

THE ARTIST AND THE ASTRONAUT

Directed by Bill Muench

A uniquely American couples captivating story during the pinnacle of American exploration and social change.

THE NINE LIVES OF BARBARA DANE

Directed by Maureen Gosling

Barbara Dane turns setbacks into opportunities, paving her own way with her art, participating in, and influencing international social justice and musical movements across nine decades.

DEMON MINERAL

Directed by Hadley Austin

A portrait of life in the radioactive desert on the Navajo Reservation, following a group of indigenous scientists, elders, and activists as they work to protect a vital living space on contaminated land.

CHAPERONE

Directed by Zoe Eisenberg

Alienated by friends and family for her lack of ambition, 29-year-old Misha finds a dangerous acceptance in a bright 18-year-old athlete who mistakes her for a fellow student.

THE ACCIDENT

Directed by Giuseppe Garau

After being fired, Marcella, a gentle-hearted mother going through separation, buys a tow truck, gets trapped deeper and deeper in a cynical and aggressive world until a terrible opportunity shines in front of her.

FALLEN DRIVE

Directed by Nick Cassidy and David Rice

On the night of their high school reunion, Charlie and her boyfriend Reese have come with plans to exact revenge on former classmate, Liam. The plan  to stage the same heinous crime he committed in high school, but this time collect the evidence to prove his guilt.

JUST GETTING BY

Directed by Bess OBrien

A documentary film that explores the day-to-day challenges and incredible resiliency that low-income Vermonters bear witness to every day. The film sheds light on an often-hidden Vermont population persevering against all odds to feed and house themselves and their families.

AFRICAN GIANTS

Directed by Omar S. Kamara

Over a weekend visit in Los Angeles, two first-generation Sierra Leonean American brothers navigate the changing dynamics of brotherhood after a surprise announcement.

THE YORKIE WEREWOLF

Directed by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas

A rebellious teen witch is turned into a tiny werewolf and thrown into the middle of a decades-old war between one small towns creatures of the night  and the local mafia.

UNDERDOG

Directed by Tommy Hyde

A hardscrabble Vermont dairy farmer risks losing the only home hes ever known to chase his dreams of dog mushing in Alaska. Meticulously captured over the course of a decade, UNDERDOG paints an intimate verite portrait of Doug Butler as he puts a curiously optimistic twist on the kinds of family farm tragedies that have marked American rural life.

COMMON GROUND

Directed by Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell

The solution of Regenerative farmers to bring soil health across the continent and beyond.

VERMONT-MADE FILMS

MOTHERS HOUSE

Directed by Garret Harkawik

In the 1950s Mary Tarinellis mother had a vision while visiting a historic site purported to be the final home of the Virgin Mary. Tarinelli recounts the story and explains the unique ways in which her mothers experience has shaped her life.

LIA: A BODYBUILDING STORY

Directed by Susan Weiss

The story of a female body builder, a woman with focus, determination, and the goal to participate in a pro tournament.

LOVE OF THE LAND

Directed by Travis Van Alstyne

A short, animated film based on the true and tragic story of Vermont farmer Romaine Tenney. His farm was in the construction path of Interstate 91 in the 1960s and the State of Vermont seized his land through eminent domain. 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of his passing.

STEVES CHAPEL

Directed by Gail Osherenko

The tale of one individuals quest to establish a sanctuary wherein people can contemplate and rejoice in a world that has shed much of its ceremonial and profound significance.

THE THAW

Directed by Sarah Wisner and Sean Temple

In 19th century Vermont, a young womans parents drink sleeping tea in order to survive the harsh winter, but an early thaw leads to horrifying results.

SHORTS PROGRAM 1

SUBTEXT

Directed by Erin Brown Thomas

Two people on a first date mask and ignore their insecurities until an event forces them to say what theyre really thinking.

RIZOO

Directed by Azadeh Navai

To Rizzo, 8whos recently moved back from Tehran from Californiathe world is a magical place. But when she must take a class portrait, her world suddenly becomes very complicated. Does she wear the traditional head-scarf, which all girls over the age of 9 must wearor not?

SCREWJOB

Directed by Sam Benjamin

On the night before she is set to be crowned World Champion, a talented but injury cursed pro wrestler finds out that plans have changed and that she will be forced to lose the match or will be fired from the company.

LEAF

Directed by Cash Cassidy

Young Portland, Maine-based band LEAF plays their biggest show yet at the Portland House of Music.

COMMON AS RED HAIR

Directed by Robbie Robertson

The aftermath of an emotional funeral causes a grieving father and mother to re-examine their early life decision to have gender normalization surgery performed on their intersex infant.

YOU CANT SHRINK LOVE

Directed by Veena Rao

An artist gives life to the memories of our most beloved companions.

SCAM

Directed by Julie Sharbutt

When a phone scammer makes one last late-night call, the woman on the other end gives her much more than she bargained for.

SHORTS PROGRAM 2

THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING

Directed by Sheila Nevins, Trish Adlesic and Nazenet Habtezghi

Reveals the voices of the impacted parties of books banned from school districts, inspiring hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.

MATTRESS EXPRESS

Directed by Noah Morse

After twins Ben and Rosie botch their only chance to pull their childhood home out of foreclosure, their night spirals out of control.

TREE CROWN

Directed by Predrag Todorovic

Without narrative sandstone and wretched landmark, people of Western Serbia seem to have never existed. The only portraits and biographies were given to them only after they had died.

VESPA

Directed by Olivia Ramos

Luiza visits her estranged mothers new home, inadvertently inheriting her role in a peculiar natural cycle.

DECIDING VOTE

Directed by Robert J. Lyons and Jeremy Workman

50 years ago, assemblyman George Michaels cast a single vote on New Yorks abortion bill that changed the course of American history but destroyed his political career in the process.

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Alec Baldwin doesnt like a showoff.

The 30 Rock actor, 66, revealed that he took a yoga class with Paul McCartney, 81, in Los Angeles years ago, and he called the musician an ahole because the musician was so good at yoga.

He would do a handstand or a headstand and he had the most lithe body youve ever seen, and back then he was in his late 60s, and he was so fit, Baldwin said on the Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson podcast on Wednesday.

Baldwin recalled how he mouthed off to McCartney after the Beatles legend did a headstand and then told Baldwin that he was leaving the class to take one of his daughters to lunch.

Alec Baldwin and Paul McCartney catch up while attending the Stella McCartney Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

I looked up at him after he does the headstand and I go, Youre an ahole,  Baldwin said.

And I never thought Id call one of The Beatles an ahole, but he was just always showing us up with his physical skills. He was a very fit guy.

Baldwin revealed that other male celebrities took the yoga class with them, including Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. However, McCartney outshined everyone when it came to his yoga skills.

Alec Baldwin emcees the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala at New York Hilton Midtown on Dec. 9, 2021. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Later in the podcast, Baldwin confirmed that he and his family  which includes his wife Hilaria Baldwin and their seven children  are moving from LA to Vermont.

Baldwin is still dealing with his criminal case in New Mexico, where hes facing a charge in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film Rust.

He was pointing a gun, supposedly filled with blanks, at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the revolver went off. Hutchins was hit by a bullet and succumbed to her injuries.

The comedian has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, with a trial scheduled for July.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who served as the weapons supervisor, was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison after she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Paul McCartney at the Stella McCartney Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show. Getty Images

In an April court filing, prosecutors in the Rust case claimed that Baldwin had no control of his own emotions on the set of the film, which caused safety compromises leading up to the shooting.

Prosecutor Kari Morrissey further alleged that Baldwin created a false narrative about what had occurred, including claiming that he didnt pull the trigger.

Baldwins lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the manslaughter charges against him in a motion filed in March. However, the judge declined to drop the charges and the trial is moving forward.
UTAH (KRQE)  A portion of rescued Chihuahuas seem to be adjusting to their new lives, an animal shelter in Utah said.

In April 2024, around 100 Chihuahuas were rescued from a hoarders home in Socorro. Officials said the home was filled with animal feces, and the yard was in bad shape. Some of the dogs had fleas and ticks.

New Mexico Grown participants encouraged to apply for Golden Chile Awards

Utah-based shelter, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, said they took in 17 of the dogs. They were given veterinary checks, vaccines, and any necessary medical help. Only one dog needed extensive help.

Dogtown Director Ali Waszmer said the dogs were stressed at first, but they were given time to relax. Now, through fostering, the animals are showing more personality.

Theyre allowing more interaction with people. They are starting to not just accept getting petted, but theyre asking for more, Waszmer said.

To learn more about Best Friends, click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
126 years ago, on May 3, 1898, a girl was born into the poor family of carpenter Moshe Mabovitch and his wife Blume Naidtich. As a child, she suffered from hunger and witnessed the horrifically brutal anti-Jewish persecution known as the pogroms, but today she is known as the only woman to become the Prime Minister of Israel. Meet Golda Meir.

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What was Golda's life like before she became Prime Minister? What was the path of a simple woman from Kyiv from a poor family? Today, on the birthday of the twentieth-century legend, OBOZ.UA will tell you about the fate of the politician, how she succeeded in her career, and what it cost her.

Living in America

One of Golda's first childhood memories was of her father trying to barricade the front door with wooden boards to protect the family from the impending anti-Jewish pogroms. Fortunately, their family was spared at the time.

The girl did not live in Kyiv for long. When Golda was 8 years old, her family fled to the United States after a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms. Golda's American life lasted 15 years. During this time, she managed to complete her high school education at the Fourth Street School and enter a teacher's college. Since she was eight years old, she wanted to become a teacher. Her dream came true when she began teaching Yiddish at a folk school. Golda also became an active member of Poale Zion, a Labor Zionist youth movement, which she described as "young, full of hope and zeal, ready for anything."

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Recalling the family's life in America as an adult, Golda said that the anger she felt at her father's limited ability to protect his family from violence grew into a deep instinctive belief that if one wanted to survive, one had to take effective action.

Marriage, moving and having children

In 1917, Golda married Morris Meyerson. And 4 years later they moved together to Palestine, which was then under the British mandate. There, the family ended up in the agricultural settlement of Merhavia, where Golda Meyerson took a leading role in kibbutz politics.

Later, the couple moved to Tel Aviv and then to Jerusalem, where they had two children, a son, Menahem, and a daughter, Sarah.

Since childhood, Meir has fought to achieve her goals and not be limited to traditional female roles. She fought with her parents to get an education. Later, when her husband insisted that they leave the kibbutz, she felt unfulfilled as a wife and mother trying to make ends meet in Jerusalem. So when a friend offered her a job at the Council of Women Workers in Tel Aviv, she took the chance, although Morris refused to move and visited her only on weekends. (The couple separated in the late 1930s but never officially divorced.)

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The creation of Israel

The United Nations announced its plan to partition Palestine on November 29, 1947, in an attempt to resolve the tensions between the region's Jewish and Arab inhabitants.

In the United States, Golda Meyerson raised $50 million in support of the Israeli cause, leading David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first prime minister, to call her a "Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible."

When Israel appeared on the world map, she traveled to Moscow as the new state's first ambassador to the Soviet Union, albeit reluctantly. She lamented, "Finally, we have a state. I want to be there. I don't want to go thousands of miles away."

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In 1956, Golda Meyerson changed her surname to Meir in Hebrew.

Development of her political career

Between 1956 and 1966, Meir served as Israel's foreign minister. It was then that the center of the Suez Canal crisis in 1956 began. Meir was also able to secure arms sales from the United States while in office.

Heart problems in 1955, an injury sustained in an explosion in 1957, and a diagnosis of lymphoma in 1965 contributed to Meir's resignation as foreign minister. However, her retirement did not last long. When Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died unexpectedly in 1969, Meir was asked to run for the post. She knew that although "a 70-year-old grandmother is hardly the ideal candidate for the post of head of a 20-year-old state," she eventually accepted the position.

As soon as Meir became head of the Israeli government, the press immediately created the image of a "Jewish mother" for her because she wore unfashionable dresses and heavy lace-up shoes.

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Golda took over as prime minister at a difficult time for the country, namely during the war. One of Meir's first orders as head of government was to immediately start receiving reports of every soldier's death even if it happened in the middle of the night.

"When President Nasser (Gamal Abdel, Egyptian president in 1956-1970) orders to be woken up in the middle of the night if an Egyptian soldier dies, peace will come," Meir commented on her decision at the time.

Life outside politics

What made Meir so attractive was the simplicity of her approach. She was exactly what she appeared to be: a steely, determined woman who expressed her thoughts in a simple language that everyone could understand. The fact that she liked to meet with advisors in her kitchen, like a loving grandmother, further demonstrated her humanity.

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Golda was also a wife and mother, and although she and her husband were separated for over a decade, she remained largely present in the lives of her daughter Sarah and son Menahem.

After his mother's death, her son Menahem wrote a book in which he said that Golda Meir was a kind and conscientious mother who was torn by guilt over the conflicting roles of her commitment to the Zionist cause and her responsibility to her children. Steely and tough in public and in her career, she would come home, clean the house, and prepare meals for her children.

"I was always in a hurry from one place to another: to work, to home, to a meeting, to take Menahem to a music lesson, to make a doctor's appointment with Sarah, to shop, to cook, to work, and back home again. To this day, I am not sure that I have not harmed or neglected the children," Meir admitted at the age of 77.

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The feeling of guilt towards her husband did not leave Meir. Until Morris's death in 1951, Golda continued to feel guilty because she could not be the wife he wanted. But she could not do otherwise."There is a type of woman who cannot allow her husband and children to narrow her worldview," Meir explained.

Golda Meir died on December 8, 1978, at the age of 80. She was a titan of modern Zionism, a national leader making history, and one of the most successful women of the twentieth century, still feeling guilty for failing as a wife and mother. She was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

On the 100th anniversary of her birth, a memorial plaque was unveiled on Baseina Street in Kyiv in 1998. Golda Meir's daughter Sarah Meyerson flew in from Israel to attend the ceremony.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!

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$4.5M Hanging Lake trail renovation could impact your plan to visit this summer

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR)  One of the most popular hiking destinations in Colorado needs a facelift, and it could impact your summer adventures.

Hanging Lake trail will undergo a $4.5 million renovation this summer, meaning trail closures are coming.

After this summer, Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway will close until 2026

From the base of the trail, along each of the 1,000 feet in elevation, Hanging Lake means a lot to White River National Forest District Ranger Leanne Veldhuis.

Not to sound cliche, it is a special place, she said.

Its a place Veldhuis is excited to keep special for visitors for decades to come, thanks to a multimillion-dollar restoration plan.

One of the most iconic landscapes in Colorado, said Marcus Selig, chief conservation officer for the National Forest Foundation.

This $4.5 million project is thanks to money from the National Forest Foundation, city of Glenwood Springs, Great Outdoors Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service.

I cannot think of a better team who all came together in a moment of need and then another moment of need, said Ingrid Wussow, the mayor of Glenwood Springs.

Nothing left of runaway semitruck after fire on I-70

Moments of need are not uncommon at Hanging Lake, which has dealt with multiple closures in recent years.

The Grizzly Creek fire in August 2020 closed the trail until May 2021, Veldhuis said.

Evidence of that fire is still present along the trail, where burnt trees are still visible.

Were building a really complex trail through a burned landscape, and were trying to make it last for 100 years, Selig said. That is not an easy task.

Hanging Lake Trail sign

The updates include a new boardwalk around Spouting Rock at the top of the hike, rock work and planting to prevent erosion and a new plaza at the base of the trail. But the biggest effort will be to replace all seven bridges along the 1.2-mile trail.

Trail closures are to be expected throughout the summer, depending on the week.

Especially on days were doing some of the bridge replacements, Veldhuis said. Were actually going to be flying those in with helicopter work.

Audit: Colorado owes taxpayers millions in TABOR refunds

Veldhuis said those closures will be worth it for visitors.

Hopefully after this, its good to go, she said, hoping theyll keep people coming back to this special place for years to come.

Theres something really intimate and beautiful about it, Veldhuis said.

Reservations are required to hike Hanging Lake trail. You can expect the renovation work to last through this fall.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Experts Say These Personality Traits In Adults Could Indicate ADHD

An estimated 4% of adults in the United States  or 8 million people  are formally diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, aka ADHD, in any given year.

There is a common belief that ADHD only impacts children, but continued research has proven otherwise, Sussan Nwogwugwu, a board-certified mental health nurse practitioner at the digital health company Done, told HuffPost. As such, a large percentage of adults have presented with undiagnosed ADHD in recent years.

However, ADHD remains significantly underdiagnosed in adults, especially among women. Common symptoms of ADHD in adults include disorganization, forgetfulness, trouble with emotional regulation, poor time management skills, restlessness and difficulty multitasking. When left untreated, symptoms associated with ADHD can be harmful to both a persons physical and mental well-being.

Experts spoke with HuffPost on a few habits that may covertly be because of ADHD.

You repeatedly lose things.

Nicoletaionescu / Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you find yourself searching for important items on a regular basis with no reasoning why it always happens, it could be a red flag something else is going on.

Someone with ADHD might have consistent difficulties remembering important details, like where their keys are, whereas folks who are more neurotypical may only forget where their keys are every so often, explained Krista Carvin, a registered social worker based in Ontario, Canada.

You neglect other activities or your needs when youre focused on a task.

Moyo Studio / Getty Images

According to Catherine del Toro, a provider partner for Grow Therapy, a common symptom of hyperactivity is being easily distracted on one extreme or hyper-focused on the other. Because of this, it can be a habit to be so fully involved in a task that we may neglect other, equally important things.

As a general example, del Toro noted that this could look like someone writing to the point that they may forget to eat, and they stay seated for hours.

You may also struggle with forgetfulness and leave tasks unfinished.

Martin Poole / Getty Images

While people with ADHD have a tendency to become fixated on one task, they may also routinely forget to finish tasks before moving onto the next one.

You may start washing the dishes, notice something is spilled on the floor, and start cleaning the floor. Then, while sweeping, notice there are finger marks on the glass door, and start cleaning that instead, del Toro said.

Hannah Rae, a graduate student and case manager for homeless services, told HuffPost that she habitually forgot about events and tasks long before being formally diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. I am forgetful about most things in my life. I have to write everything down, she said.

You have a tendency to avoid doing certain activities on some days, while actively seeking out constant activity on other days.

Daly And Newton / Getty Images

Regularly fluctuating between feeling overstimulated or understimulated by your environment can be a sign that you have ADHD.

For example, some days you might feel like its totally fine to go to the grocery store and that it doesnt cause any trouble for you at all, Carvin said. On other days, especially when youre overstimulated, you might notice the sights, smells or sounds in the grocery store are really bothering you, which may mean that following your shopping list or waiting in line feels like too much for you to handle.

According to Carvin, being understimulated may leave a person with ADHD feeling both listless and restless, yet unsure about what they need to do to feel better.

You have a habit of struggling to connect with partners in your relationship.

Capuski / Getty Images

A person with ADHD may notice certain habits  that are actually symptoms  impact their dating life or interpersonal relationships. For example, Carvin explained that people with ADHD may find it difficult to give their partner attention, or help out with tasks around the house  which can lead to conflict and hurt feelings.

ADHDers can be sensitive to rejection. If faced with tough feedback from their partners they may respond in a way that seems disproportionate to the situation at hand, she said.

You are being treated for a mood disorder, but still experience symptoms and habits associated with ADHD.

Boris Sv / Getty Images

An estimated 57% to 92% of adults with ADHD also have at least one co-occuring mental health disorder or other neurodivergent experience, with some studies indicating that number may be as high as 80%.

Undiagnosed adults may have tried psychotherapy or medications, but treatment that isnt targeted to ADHD may not have led to the gains needed to live a better life, Carvin said.

Hannah explained that though she was receiving treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, symptoms such as trouble focusing and forgetfulness persisted.

I knew not all of these symptoms could be related to this anxiety disorder, she said. I was already being treated for a neurological disorder, and by chance they screened for ADHD. I met the criteria.

Note: Experiencing these symptoms does not necessarily guarantee you have ADHD.

urbazon via Getty Images

Not everyone who is forgetful or who has trouble multitasking is living with ADHD. People who are neurotypical can develop habits such as forgetting things or hyper-focusing on tasks. However, experiencing emotional distress can be clinically significant and key to determining if you should seek out medical support.

With an influx in this kind of information on social media, its really valuable to listen to the perspectives of people with lived experience, while also balancing that with evidence-based information, Carvin explained.

Seek out health care and resources.

Nwogwugwu explained that evaluation is key when it comes to undiagnosed ADHD in adults, adding that it is never too late to receive treatment for ADHD when diagnosed.

Seeing a health care provider can aid someone in receiving a formal diagnosis and treatment, as well as accommodations at work or school. For Hannah, finding the right combination of medication and therapy has been key to managing ADHD.

However, its important to note that factors such as stigma, a lack of health insurance, costs of medical care and general misinformation can bar someone from receiving treatment for ADHD. If you cannot access health care, free resources such as support groups, workbooks and expert-led podcasts can be informative, validating and beneficial.

Ultimately, experts say its important to recognize and take action if you feel your habits are impacting your health or day-to-day life.

As Nwogwugwu noted, receiving a diagnosis of ADHD can be a relief and life-changing moment for adults as it explains struggles and problems that a person may have been dealing with all their life.This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Welcome to the weekly Port City Foodies newsletter brought to you by me, StarNews reporter Allison Ballard. It seems too soon, but  yes! -- its May. The North Carolina coast is now heading non-stop to what looks to be a busy summer season. Are you ready? For the best burgers? We have this fun reader poll to determine local favorites. And there are so, so many events at local restaurants, breweries and more. And thats just the start, read more about this weeks food and drink news below.

Do you have a favorite burger?

It can be a contentious question for local foodies. Everyone seems to have one (or two) favorites of this American classic. We decided to find out which one comes out on top for local readers. Heres a list of 20 of those restaurants most commonly mentioned in this debate. And thousands of votes have been cast already. Have you added yours?

Its also worth noting that Ive already received more emails about burgers than I do for other articles. Most mentioned their favorites that *werent* on the list. So, feel free to add yours, too.

More: Who has the best burgers in the Wilmington area? Vote for your favorite!

Whats new on the food scene?

The Burgaw Now Own Your Own contest  which offered chefs a chance to design and run their own restaurant in Pender County  drew culinary talent from all over. Including chefs from the Wilmington area, too. Many of them said the added attention has made new opportunities possible. While the original owner has since backed out of the project, two other finalists are opening two eateries in Burgaw. We have the details  as well as information about possibilities that other local chefs are working on. Read more here.

Plus, two downtown favorites  YoSake and The Husk  have new owners. (Don't worry! Nothing is changing, they said.) The renovated Roudabush building has three floors and word has it that with this change, something new is coming to the third. Well keep you posted as we know more.

More: Where are they (Burgaw) now? Post contest, heres a look at what these chefs are doing

Have you marked your calendar?

Hoo boy! Theres a lot happening this month. More even than I could include in this list. But its at least a place to start if youre hoping to celebrate the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo this weekend, and then Mothers Day and wine dinners and more later in May.

More: From bourbon to brunch to beach, Wilmington food and drink events to check out in May

Lets get social

Follow Port City Foodies on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/portcityfoodies and on Instagram at @port_city_foodies.

Want your friends to be in the know? Forward this newsletter to them. They can sign up here.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Port City Foodies newsletter
Over the last few weeks, Ive camped or visited with several fellow travelers who rave about the current conditions for traveling throughout northern California. Late-season snows, abundant rains and recent warm weather have made the state verdant, wrapped in bright green hues. Streams run strong, waterfalls tumble, and wildflowers pop out along many trails, all portending wonderful travel outings in the coming months.

From those friendly discussions, here are recommendations from my fellow traveling pals regarding the best destinations and times to visit some of these sparkling targets. With these suggestions, were trying to factor in the time of year, predicted temperatures, seasonal traveler impacts, and sightseeing appeal. Here are suggestions, month by month.

May: Target the mid-Sierra, where snows have receded, and crowds have not yet reached summer levels. Check out gems like Twain Harte and Pinecrest Lake up Highway 108, Murphys and Calaveras Big Trees State Park on Highway 4, or the Crystal Basin area in the El Dorado National Forest, off Highway 50.

Pinecrest Lake has long been a favorite, offering a 3-mile hike around the lake and a side trail up Boulder Creek Canyon, where youll find a brisk stream and select waterfalls just off the lake. Murphys is a favorite historic Gold Rush town, and just above Calaveras, Big Trees would likely be a national park in any other state, with huge sequoias towering over 250 feet.

Visitors pose on a huge downed redwood tree in Redwoods National Park.

To find the Crystal Basin area, take Highway 50 East, turn left on Ice House Road, pass Ice House Lake to Union Valley Reservoir, and find a variety of lovely campgrounds with fishing, hiking, and camping galore. If you are camping in the area, take your food in, for the Ice House Resort offers limited options for food or lodging in this wild country.

June: We recommend visiting Yosemite in early to mid-June, before the summer crowds get almost overwhelming. We also highly suggest visiting the Hetch Hetchy Valley and the Tuolumne Meadows portion of the park. Hetch Hetchy is the inspiring valley that John Muir fought so hard to preserve, losing that battle when OShaughnessy Dam was constructed in the late 1920s to impound a water supply for the city of San Francisco.

Hetch Hetchy remains a stunning valley despite the reservoir, and a hike up the trail on the north side of the lake offers amazing vistas and waterfalls like Tueeulala and Wapama Falls, almost the rival of Yosemite Falls. Best of all, Hetch Hetchy, about 20 miles off the main road, gets only about 5% of Yosemites visitors, so you will often have that lakeside hike to yourselves.

Wapama Falls thunders into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

July: Target Lassen National Park, featuring Lassen Peak, which blew its top in a volcanic eruption in 1915 and 1916, flattening trees for miles to the northeast and throwing huge boulders three miles. Visit the Bumpass Hell area, a hissing, steaming hydrothermal area featuring fumaroles and bubbling mud pots to almost rival Yellowstone. Reserve a campsite in scenic Manzanita Lake Campground on the parks northwest corner and consider the hike to the top of Lassen volcanic peak. Best, the park is only 200 miles from San Joaquin County.

August: Redwoods State and National Parks are a fantastic destination, just six hours north up the coast, remaining relatively calm and enticing even during the hottest month of the year. Just off Highway 101, state parks and the national park preserve the remnants of the once-two million acres of old-growth redwood; today, only 5 percent remain. Tour the Avenue of the Giants, an awe-inspiring 30-mile tour of the Coast Redwood forest, the tallest trees in the world. Stop at the Thomas Kuchel Visitor Center south of Orick for the history of the preserves and insight into the majestic flora and fauna of the area. Nearby are Ferndale, Scotia, and the Samoa Cookhouse (stop for lunch at this former cookhouse of the Hammond Lumber Mill).

Granddaughter Jessica and spouse Susan in front of the old Bodega School made famous in the movie The Birds."

September: For an early fall visit, save the closer California north coast, from Bodega Bay to Mendocino. From Stockton, the coast is easy to reach (about three hours) and offers some of the most stunning waterfront vistas in the United States!

This piece of California offers impressive vistas, spectacular food, great camping options, and wonderful places to stop for the night. Bodega (the town is different from Bodega Bay) is just off Hwy 116 and offers the old school where the 1963 Hitchcock classic 'The Birds' was filmed.

Six miles north is Bodega Bay, home to various fine restaurants and several nearby beautiful campgrounds. Stop at the Tides Restaurant for great food, and check out many state parks for tenting or trailering options. A favorite is Wright's Beach State Park, right on the ocean!

Just north, cross the languid Russian River and the cute town of Jenner, where the Russian spills into the Pacific. Stop at River's End Restaurant for great food and stunning views. Beyond Jenner, find Ft. Ross, the old Russian outpost from the early 1800s, then pass through a host of cute coastal towns like Sea Ranch (stop at the Sea Ranch Lodge for breakfast or lunch), Gualala, and Point Arena (check out the Point Arena lighthouse, for riveting coastal views). Further north, one passes through Manchester, Elk, and Albion to reach Mendocino. Mendocino is the quintessential California seaside town, with trendy shops and several restaurants. This is a definite trip worthy of two or three days.

Contact Tim, tviall@msn.com. Happy travels in Nor Cal!

Information

California road trips, visitcalifornia.com; Californias North Coast, northcoastca.com; Crystal Basin and El Dorado National Forest, fs.usda.gov/Eldorado; Lassen Volcanic National Park, NPS/gov/lavo; Pinecrest Lake area, and Yosemite, visittuolumne.com.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Best places to visit in Northern California in summer and early fall
The Better Bay Alliance held a public workshop recently with rsted and their Revolution Wind project, which is being built this year along with a cable installation in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. About 40 people attended the April 25 workshop at Innovate Newport.

Dave Lussier, president of The Better Bay Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing boating safety in Rhode Island waters, underscored the significance of proactive communication with the public regarding upcoming operations that could affect boating safety, including the installation of the wind farm and cabling in Narragansett Bay.

The Better Bay Alliance is not in any partnership with rsted and we are not an endorsing or supporting organization, but rather simply an interested party that wants the boating public to fully understand what their plans are so that boating safety in our waters remains a priority for all users of our waterways, Lussier said.

The Alliance has developed Live Chart  a tool that illustrates specific areas and schedules for the cable laying process, ensuring that stakeholders remain informed. Additionally, the organization disseminates news about various events and activities on the water. Live Chart is free and easily accessible on the BBA website: betterbayalliance.org.

Information about wind farm developer activities in and out of Narragansett Bay can do nothing but help mariner safety. The hope is that more information meetings like the one held by The Better Bay Alliance occur in other parts of the Bay as needed so boating safety remains a priority.

Boy Scouts learn art of fly-tying

The Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association partnered with the Narragansett Council of the Boy Scouts of America and offered 25 scouts the opportunity to earn Fly-Fishing Merit Badges.

Boy Scouts who earned their fly-fishing merit badges at Camp Yawgoog in Rockville.

The Scouts came from NY, MA, CT and RI to participate in this two-day comprehensive endeavor," Jeff Perry of the WPWA stated. "Ten volunteer instructors from Trout Unlimited, the United Fly Tyers of RI, the RI Saltwater Anglers Association, Fly Fishing International and the Rhody Fly Rodders helped these scouts accomplish 10 of the 11 requirements, [the fish however were not cooperative].

Many of the scouts had no fly-fishing experience. And before and during the outing, they were able to false cast and roll cast 30 feet, tie two flys, tie five knots, discuss environmental issues, safe practices and other requirements.

Wheres the bite?

Freshwater fishing. For a list of stocked trout ponds, visit Designated Trout Waters | Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management; in Massachusetts, visit mass.gov/freshwater-fishing. Fishing for largemouth bass continues to improve as we are in the prespawn period now with water warming.

Striped bass. Baitfish were jumping in the Cape Cod Canal this week. The herring run continues to produce and some small bass have been caught in Buzzards Bay outside of the Ditch. Famed Canal Rat 'Bull' MacKinnon did well in April, landing four stripers last week, including a 30-inch keeper on his white pencil, said "East End" Eddie Doherty. Ed Lombardo, fly fishing expert, instructor and guide, said: Fished the Narrow River [Narragansett] last week; was very slow landing four bass in three days. The water temperature on the upper river is 52 degrees; we generally look for 58 degrees this time of year. Not much bait around either. Elisa Cahill of Snug Harbor Marina reported: Striped bass fishing has improved with large fish now starting to be caught. And the worm hatch is upon us. One warm day last week and Ninigret Pond came alive and the bass fishing was on. Other ponds will start popping, too, as things warm up. Declan ODonnell of Breachway Bait & Tackle in Charlestown said: We had stripers up to 25 inches long taken at the Breachway this week. More than a few very small school bass were caught as well, mostly in the white wash at your feet. Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle in Providence said: Striped bass to 40 inches have been caught in the upper reaches of the Providence River with more larger fish being caught every day. White- and bone-colored swimming and surface lures are working for customers.

Tautog. Angler John Migliori, who fished Aquidneck Island for tautog from shore Sunday, said: I recognized the bite when it hit and I reacted just in time to set the hook, and knew right away that I had a good fish on landing a 21-inch , 6.52-pound tautog. ODonnell said: In the spring, tautog females migrate along the coast to spawn, typically depositing their eggs in mussel beds. This time of year, crabs, sandworms and clams make good tautog bait. Cahill said: It has been a mixed bag for anglers targeting tautog with the best results happening south of Block Island.

Squid fishing has been on and off. When they are in, they are in, and anglers are doing well from shore and from boats from the Newport Bridge area.

Dave Monti holds a master captains license and charter fishing license. He serves on a variety of boards and commissions and has a consulting business that focuses on clean oceans, habitat preservation, conservation, renewable energy and fisheries-related issues and clients. Forward fishing news and photos to dmontifish@verizon.net or visit noflukefishing.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Boating safety a priority amid offshore wind project in Narragansett Bay
Bremerton food bank launches new effort to connect neighbors and meet growing food needs

Walking through the rooms of Bremerton Foodline, Executive Director Cori Kauk describes her grand vision for the currently under-remodel food bank: A new, inviting floor space for shoppers, more accessible entry points, and redoing a shed out back.

By comparison, her latest project seems quite small. It needs only a reusable shopping bag and a few helpful neighbors.

But Kauk is optimistic it could pack a big punch in meeting the growing need for food in Kitsap County.

Bremerton Foodline's new executive director Cori Kauk stands amid renovations at the food bank's former pantry which will see become its new storefront in a file photo from last October.

This week, Bremerton Foodline launched a website for its Kitsap County Food Project, a community-focused effort hoping to provide more consistent donations.

The process works like this: A volunteer, known as a coordinator, signs up their neighborhood to participate in the food project. They go door-to-door recruiting their neighbors to serve as donors.

Donors are given a green reusable grocery bag. Each week when they go to the store, they buy an extra non-perishable food item and store it in their bag. Every other month, the neighborhood coordinator collects the now-filled green bags and replaces them with empty ones. The coordinator then delivers the bags to the food bank.

Its really pretty simple, Kauk says. Thats whats so amazing about it.

The food project launches as food banks struggle to meet the communitys needs. Demand has increased, particularly since the pandemic, as grocery prices rise. At the same time, supplies and donations have declined.

Alongside this shift, Bremerton Foodline expanded its services last year, going from serving shoppers once a month to once a week. The decision quadrupled the amount of food leaving the building, Kauk said.

We dont get enough product for the population were serving, she said. Our supplies are lean.

Kauk, who started a Food Project at the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank alongside Jim and Kris Berry during her decade as its executive director, said the effort could immediately alleviate some of the need in Bremerton and the community food banks it distributes to in Kitsap and North Mason County.

The project allows the food bank to ask for exactly what it needs, she said. Donors can provide significant amounts of popular foods, like peanut butter or rice. Those items are cheap and easy to donate, but arent always given to the food bank in shipments from state and federal providers.

Those donations free up Foodlines budget for other needs, including fresh produce or toiletries, Kauk said. They also cut down on donation of less-wanted items, which can clog the food banks limited storage space.

In nearby Pierce County, The Gig Harbor Food Project demonstrated the power of the neighborly approach. The project has brought in 15,700 pounds of food to the Gig Harbor Peninsula FISH Food Bank since it launched in March 2023.

Richard Hales and Aleece Townsed brought the project to Gig Harbor. The married couple are former residents of Ashland, Ore., where a Food Project launched in 2009 brings in some 30,000 pounds of food every two months.

Once people see what youre doing and understand the simplicity of it, they embrace it, Hales told the Gig Harbor Now news organization when the project launched. Youre not writing out a check, youre not getting yourself on a mailing list. Its just nice and simple and it works.

The nearly all-volunteer FISH Food Bank serves a monthly average of 862 Pierce County and South Kitsap families so far this year. Executive Director Pamela Leazer said FISH has seen a similar surge in shoppers since the pandemic.

The food project absolutely makes a difference, and weve come to rely on it to keep our shelves stocked, she said.

Information on the Kitsap County Food Project is available at Bremertonfoodline.org, under the Get Involved tab. An informational meeting will be held May 9 at noon.

Information on the Gig Harbor Food Project and Fish Food Bank are available at gigharborfoodproject.com and ghpfish.org.

Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the involvement of Jim and Kris Berry in the Issaquah Food Project.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: New Kitsap County Food Project aims to simplify community donations
Polk County is set to open an accessible park at Easter Lake in Des Moines. What it offers:

One of the most universally accessible parks in the country, on Easter Lake Park's north shore, is slated to open this weekend.

Easter Lake Park in southeast Des Moines draws more than a million visitors annually, making it Polk County Conservation's busiest park. And with more than 370,000 people with disabilities living in Iowa, Athene North Shore Recreation Area will give more community members with special needs an opportunity to make use of outdoor recreation space in the county.

The project, with an $8.6 million price tag, features everything from adaptive kayaks to a quiet wellness space, according to Jessica Lown, Polk County Conservation's community outreach supervisor. It was funded by city, county and state governments and corporate, individual and family donations.

A wheelchair accessible merry-go-round at North Shore Recreation Area at Easter Lake Park on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Des Moines.

Conservation staff, along with project donors, state leaders and community members, dedicated the site Thursday afternoon ahead of the park's public opening on Sunday. In attendance was Gov. Kim Reynolds, who said she was proud for the state to lead in developing what is likely the most accessible waterfront recreation area in the country.

"With opportunities to swim, and to kayak, to fish and so much more, this is a place  for all Iowans regardless of their physical abilities to connect with each other, spend time outdoors and make memories that will last a lifetime," Reynolds said in a speech at the celebration.

Here's what to know about the recreation area:

Who can use Athene North Shore Recreation Area?

The short answer: Anyone and everyone.

The recreation area was built to accommodate people of all ages and abilities, including people with limited mobility, sensory input conditions and low vision.

"I think a lot of people, especially people with disabilities, unfortunately often run into barriers in outdoor spaces, public spaces and  we tried our darndest to bring in a large team to think of everything," said Devon Boes, recreation area program and outreach coordinator. "So come here knowing that you're welcome and able to access everything you want to access, but we're also always open to feedback."

What can you do at the Athene North Shore Recreation Area?

Officials have divided up a robust list of activities and amenities at the recreation area by land and water.

The zero-entry ramp into the lake at North Shore Recreation Area at Easter Lake Park on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Des Moines.

On the shore, the recreation area features an inclusive playground for all ages and abilities. It includes a "We-Go-Round," a spinning attraction that allows for easy wheelchair roll-on; a "We-Saw," a take on a seesaw, with large, supportive seats; an elevated sand table and a wheelchair-accessible sandbox; Rhapsody Vibra Chimes; and a splash pad, according to the North Shore Recreation Area website.

The shore also includes:

A grassy area for lounging and wide walkways.

Directional signage with icons and Braille.

A wellness space for people who need a quiet spot away from weather, noise or crowds.

Equipment rentals to use on land and in the water.

A concession stand to purchase snacks and beverages.

Easter Lake Event Center.

Five single-user restrooms, including one with a child/adult universal changing station.

Water amenities include:

A zero-entry ramp on the beach's west side, which provides a firm surface to help people get in and out of the water if they use mobility devices or need more support on uneven surfaces.

Large beach mats to serve as accessible walkways over sand.

A watercraft launch equipped with a transfer bench system, rollers and guide rails to make boarding and launching safe and accessible.

An accessible fishing dock on the west side of the recreation area.

A 24-foot, eight-passenger pontoon boat that accommodates those in a wheelchair.

What equipment can you rent and how much does it cost?

According to the website, equipment available for rental includes:

Single kayaks (standard, adaptive): $25

Tandem kayaks (standard, adaptive): $40

Pedal-powered kayaks: $35

Trolling motor-powered kayaks: $45

Stand-up paddleboards: $30

Canoes: $35

Bikes/trikes (standard bikes available via B-Cycle station): $20

Pontoon boat (driver provided): $350

Fishing rods: $10

Beach/water wheelchairs: free

Floatation devices/life jackets: free

The recreation equipment will be available at the concession building at North Shore to rent in two-hour increments, according to the website. There will be staff on-site to help people in and out of adaptive equipment.

What about outdoor programming?

Boes, the program and outreach coordinator, said the recreation area will feature a mix of programming that will be put on by the county conservation team and in partnership with other local organizations.

One example is having the Veterans Affairs' recreational therapy service put on activities like a fishing outing on the pontoon. Boes said Des Moines Performing Arts is slated to put on some shows at the recreation area.

North Shore staff will also feature nature and wellness programming with an adaptive lens, such as kayaking for children with disabilities or a senior citizen fishing day. Upcoming events and programs will be featured on a calendar on the recreation area's website.

"You know, a lot of people call us a fly-over state. I think they would maybe not expect something like this to come out of a state like Iowa," Boes said. "I think we're in this incredible position and I'm so excited to be a part of it  Kind of having this physical space, those checklists that we talked about, all these incredible tools to kind of show the country and show the world this is totally possible. We're your gold standard. We're your example."

Where is the Athene North Shore Recreation Area?

Athene North Shore is at Easter Lake Park in southeast Des Moines. The address of the recreation area is 2816 Shoreline Road, Des Moines, IA 50320.

A slide at North Shore Recreation Area at Easter Lake Park on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Des Moines.

What are the recreation area's hours?

The playground, beach and water at North Shore are open from sunrise to sunset every day, according to the website.

The park's grand opening to the public is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 5. Park visitors will have the opportunity to test out the equipment for free and take part in scheduled programming, county conservation officials said.

Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Universally accessible park, waterfront set to open in Des Moines
Dearborn's oldest original building, dating to 1833, is fully retrofitted into a local historical museum after more than two years of volunteer and fundraising efforts.

The Commandant's Quarters is one of four remaining buildings from the area's historic Detroit Arsenal of Dearbornville, a compound of 11 buildings that supplied Northern forces during the Civil War.

Matthew Graff, assistant curator at the Commandant's Quarters, said the main renovations began in 2020, to convert all of the rooms into a rotating museum that tells the story of Dearborn, from Native American settlements to current mayor Abdullah Hammoud, the city's first Muslim mayor.

The beauty of the renovated museum is that it has something for everyone, Graff said.

"It's not just an old house that you come to see once and then there's no need to visit ever again," he said. "There's a lot of opportunity for repeat visits."

The full renovation project, made possible through a $10,000 matching grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2022, totaled nearly $40,000 and includes updated electrical wiring, fresh paint, new display cases, labels and restored windows.

The parlor room is the only room within the building that will remain a period-accurate reflection of the mid-1800s.

All of the rooms within the Commandant's Quarters got a fresh coat of paint, transforming the walls from dreary shades of browns and nudes to vibrant green and red tones.

"A lot of the time when people think of the past, and they think everything in the early 1800s is dirt, dark, gray and grimy," Graff said, "but no, they had colors and they painted everything vibrant(ly)  especially because, without electrical lighting, the rooms would have been very dark, so a way to brighten the room is bright colors."

Mannequins in various period-clothing are found in each of the museum's rooms, although the odds of seeing the same outfit twice is rare as Graff says the museum archive has at least 900 articles of clothing.

Matthew Graff, assistant curator at the Dearborn Historical Museum Commandant's Quarters, walks inside the museum in Dearborn on Friday, April 19, 2024.

Brian and Janet Spicer, of West Sussex, England, stumbled across the Commandant Quarter's open door while visiting the area for their son's graduation from Wayne State University on Wednesday.

"We're really excited to learn all about the history of the area from Henry Ford to everything else we don't know about," Janet Spicer said about the couple's plan to tour the area's museums.

Graff said the Spicers' experience is a prime example of the building's potential for growth. The Dearborn Historical Museum came under city control in 2012 after nearing bankruptcy and entered a transitional era with the help of dedicated volunteers.

One of the coolest finds of the remodel was a women's shoe found between the wooden slats of the attic roof.

Chief Museum Curator Jack Tate said a common tradition in 18th-century construction was to leave a shoe within the walls of the structure for good luck, and according to the fable, the shoe can never be removed, to ensure the future safety of the building.

A room displaying late 1900s history sits inside the Dearborn Historical Museum Commandant's Quarters at 21950 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn on Friday, April 19, 2024.

Aside from the Commandant's Quarters, visitors can tour two of the three other remaining properties of the Detroit Arsenal owned by the Historical Museum:

The McFadden-Ross House , at 915 South Brady St., was constructed in 1839 and used as the Detroit Arsenal Powder Magazine. The building was sold in 1882 and converted into a farmhouse. The house's last inhabitant donated the structure to the city in 1950 and opened as a museum in 1956.

The Gardner House was originally built in 1831 near the corner of Asbuy Park and Warren Avenue in Detroit and was moved to the Dearborn Historical Museum in 1996. The house was renovated by Henry Ford in 1929 to appear as it had during his childhood and was one of the first buildings in Greenfield Village.

The Commandant's Quarters, at 21950 Michigan Ave., is available for free tours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 2-6 p.m. The main museum office is located at 915 Brady St.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dearborn Commandant's Quarters restored, renovated to become museum
A dog, a cat and a rabbit are looking for a new home in Lane County

Cashew is 4-year-old Holland Lop rabbit available for adoption at Greenhill Humane Society.

Greenhill Humane Society

Cashew is described as an independent, yet friendly, rabbit who is looking for a new family.

She is a 4-year-old Holland Lop Rabbit with white, black and brown spotted fur that is very soft. Cashew is the shelter's longest-resident rabbit and is very deserving of a home.

Staff with Greenhill Humane Society describe Cashew as a playful bunny who enjoys toys and puzzle feeders. She is extremely smart and loves to stack her cups with treats in them. She also enjoys it when her people sit down and give her attention so she can check in for a quick hello and pet.

Cashew could go home with another rabbit sibling after a slow and proper introduction. She is spayed, microchipped and litterbox trained. She is also looking for an inside-only home.

Even if you don't know much about rabbits but think Cashew would be a great fit for your home, the staff at Greenhill Humane Society can provide plenty of resources to help get you started.

Greenhill Humane Society is open seven days a week, 11 a.m.  6 p.m. at 88530 Green Hill Road in Eugene. For more information call (541) 689.1503 or visit www.green-hill.org .

Oregon Coast Humane Society

Minne is a 6-year-old dog available for adoption at Oregon Coast Humane Society.

Minnie is 6-years-old and weighs 90 pounds. She was transferred to the Oregon Coast Humane Society from another Oregon shelter after her owner passed away.

She is delightful on a leash and just the right amount of cuddly. Minnie is looking for a family that will help her stay active to encourage her weight loss journey.

To meet Minnie, stop by the shelter at 2840 Rhododendron Drive in Florence, or apply online at oregoncoasthumanesociety.org. Shelter hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

Cat Rescue and Adoption Network

Blackietoes is a three-year-old tuxedo cat at Cat Rescue and Adoption Network

Blackietoes is a large, 3-year-old black and white tuxedo cat who is polydactyl. He is described as a friendly cat who loves people and attention.

He arrived at Cat Rescue and Adoption Network when his owner passed away and is looking for a second chance with a new family.

Blackietoes is a calm cat who adjusts well to new environments. He doesn't mind dogs but will likely do best as the only cat in your home.

He has been neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and is negative for FIV and FeLV.

To meet Blackietoes, please call 541-225-4955 option 1, or visit our website at CatRescues.org for more info.

Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County pet adoption: Dogs, cats, rabbits look for homes
Jeff Gill

The month of May means many things to different people: It includes Mothers Day, of course, and is in some Christian traditions devoted as a whole to Mary as the Mother of God. It also includes the anniversary and feast day of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13; I have a personal reason for celebrating St. Dunstans Day on the 19th.

Plus it ends with Memorial Day, of which youll hear more shortly.

Meanwhile, most of our local high schools and colleges are holding commencement programs during May; I believe Ohio State University at Newark slipped by me at the end of April, and my best to those graduates as well.

This means May gets packed full of graduate open houses and other family celebrations; often churches will include graduate recognition on a Sunday, honoring those who have completed 12th grade or their bachelor's degree, other certificates or graduate programs.

Faith Works: A brief primer on church polity, the intersection of theology, logistics

In American Christianity, education has been a main interest of local churches. Many colleges and universities have their roots in a single congregation or group of local churches launching an educational establishment on the frontier. From Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636 to Denison University in Granville in 1831, churches have started and supported higher education as a way to ensure a literate laity, able to read and study scripture on their own, as much as to educate clergy, which is part of the deeper roots of the university model back into Oxford and Cambridge in the English-speaking world.

The history of Sunday schools and Christian education is a separate but parallel track; what Id like to lift up is how most of us with church families around us are standing in a tradition that honors learning and study and certainly the successful completion of a course of study.

Thats why graduate recognition is such a common part of church life in May. It can be tricky for ministers and committee chairs: People want grandkids recognized whove not been to church in years; there are those who get missed with the best of efforts; and parents or other relatives have lots to keep track of approaching a graduation ceremony, so they forget to tell the church but are expecting someone to remember for them. (All of which is to say: Be kind; roll with it, yall!)

Faith Works: Not unlike caring for birds, Bible offers a way to care for fellow humankind

When everything comes together, it is an occasion to honor not just the proud and nervous graduates standing before the gathered church but the support of a community that buoyed them up through the wind and waves of educational progress. Were finally getting to a point where we arent going to keep saying you got through COVID to a high school audience or a college crowd, since a four-grade or four-year group has gone through their experience entirely after 2020.

We would be missing a theological opportunity to not say something, as well, about the place of grace, blessing and privilege, both earned and unearned, which allowed our graduates to reach the platforms they will soon cross. None of us, as many baccalaureate and commencement speakers will say in a variety of ways, makes this journey alone. We all in our education had teachers and mentors, examples near and far, and those who went before even generations before to lay the path down for our feet to follow.

There are good ghosts and joyful spirits and God walking with us; like the old tale, we look back to realize how often we were guided, aided, even carried. None of that takes away from the deserved feelings of accomplishment, for our graduates and for all those who love them. Well done, good and faithful students.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; hes attended many commencement ceremonies. Tell him about one youve been to, at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Faith Works: May offers celebrations in Mother's Day, graduation
The 1993 comedy film Mrs. Doubtfire directed by Chris Columbus became a hit at the time and even won an Oscar, and its actors became famous all over the world. It's been 31 years since the premiere, but the child actors continue to be friends and recently met in full force.

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According to The Sun, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, and Mara Wilson reunited on the set in San Francisco to take part in the podcast Sisterly Love.

The actors played the roles of Lydia, Chris, and Natalie and posed with their arms around each other. Now they are all well over 35, but the actors continue to keep in touch.

Mara posted a photo of them together on Instagram and captioned it: "So funny that the same week I was in San Francisco, I was able to reunite with my brother and sister Doubtfire!"

All three continue to build their acting careers, and have busy schedules and fan bases from other films, but, according to journalists, they continue to meet up from time to time.

ADVERTISIMENT

Mrs. Doubtfire tells the story of a father who cannot see his children, so he dresses up as their nanny. The comedy devotes a considerable amount of screen time to children, so talented young actors were sought to play their roles.

In 1994, the film won an Oscar for Best Makeup, a Golden Globe for Best Comedy, a BAFTA for the main character's transformation, and other awards.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and in Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Flight Deal: Cheap Flight Deals This May For Less Than $650 Round Trip

The busy summer travel season unofficially begins in May, so airfare and hotel prices are expected to increase. However, not all hope is lost for people hoping to save some money on travel in May. Some destinations have below-average monthly prices. The key is booking without hesitation before its too late.

According to Squaremouth, a leading travel insurance marketplace, more than 77% of travelers are heading abroad this summer, with an average trip costing families $9,000 compared to $7,000 for domestic trips.

While the majority of summer travelers take trips between June and August, May is a good month to find cheaper flights and summer travel deals before the expensive summer season begins.

Here are the best places to travel to this May for less than $650 round-trip.

San Jose, Costa Rica

San Jose, Costa Rica is the cheapest destination to travel to this May. Costa Ricas capital city is home to world-class museums, stunning architecture, hiking adventures on top of majestic volcanoes, and, of course, its famous food market, San Jose Central Market. Theres truly something for everyone.

Other top things to do in San Jose include visiting Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna Waterfall, taking a coffee tour in one of the top coffee-producing countries in the world, and taking a day on an ATV jungle adventure.

Round-trip flights to Costa Rica are priced below $200 on Skyscanner this May. Travelers leaving Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and New Orleans can snag this deal on Skyscanner.

The cheapest flights leave Houston. Use May 7 through May 14 as your travel dates for a round-trip flight for less than $150.

Honolulu, Hawaii

From the beautiful beaches to the optimal weather year-round, first-class restaurants, and vibrant nightlife, Honolulu has a lot to offer for people who are looking for a blend of tropical and cosmopolitan vibes.

This May, there are a ton of festivals and activities to explore in Honolulu. Stargazers can revel in the stargazing shows taking place on May 8 and May 22. The Rayjah Music Festival is a two-day festival taking place on May 10 and May 11.

According to Skyscanner, round-trip flights to Honolulu are nearly 15% off average prices for May.

Of course, travelers leaving the West Coast, including San Francisco, Oakland, and San Diego can find a round-trip ticket for less than $400 round-trip. Flights from Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, and Miami are less than $550 round-trip.

One of the cheapest flights leaves from Los Angeles. Use May 15 through May 23 as your travel dates for a round-trip flight for less than $275 on Skyscanner.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

With more than 20 million travelers each year, Amsterdam is one of the most popular destinations in Europe. Its a beautiful, multi-cultural city filled with the kind of beauty thats out of the pages of books. Its also easy to get around, whether on foot or a bike.

May is one of the last times you can visit Amsterdam and enjoy it before the summer travel gets in full swing until the end of August. Visiting Keukenhof in May is a must. Its a seasonal tulip and bulb park full of colorful flowers. Exploring the museums and galleries should also be a priority because Amsterdam is home to various world-famous museums, including the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.

Airlines usually hike up the prices for Amsterdam in May. However, according to Skyscanner, theres still time to save money on a flight, as prices are 10% cheaper than average monthly prices.

Flights from Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami, New Orleans, and Atlanta are running for $575 round-trip and below.

The cheapest option departs New York Stewart International Airport (SWF). Use May 26 through May 31 as your travel dates for a round-trip flight for less than $450 on PLAY Airlines.

Istanbul, Turkey

May is a great time to visit Istanbul, one of the most fascinating cities in Europe and Asia since Istanbul straddles both continents.

Istanbul is an exciting destination to explore, and theres no shortage of things to do. With any vacation, relaxation should be a priority. Istanbul is the perfect place for taking a much-needed break, and travelers can do this by simply visiting a Turkish Hammam or Turkish bath. Its an ancient therapeutic tradition that involves sweating out the bodys impurities before being exfoliated, washed, and massaged.

You also dont want to miss a stroll through the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest markets in the world. Here, you can find silk, jewelry, spices, home items, and more.

According to Skyscanner, flights from Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles cost less than $650 round-trip. This is 12% less than average prices for May.

People leaving New York City will find the cheapest option. Use May 19 through May 29 as your travel dates in Skyscanner for a round-trip ticket priced less than $620.

Madrid, Spain

As the cold temperatures become a thing of the past by May, now is the perfect time to visit the capital of Spain. The list of fun activities in May seems endless, allowing you to make the most of your visit. While the summer crowds are starting to come in, its not too crowded to the point you cant enjoy it just yet.

One popular attraction thats worth the visit is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Madrids Golden Triangle of Art is another option thats home to an impressive art collection from the Gothic period to the 20th century.

Prepare to eat your heart out in Madrid. From various tapas dishes to paella and callos a la madrilena, diving into Spains culinary culture should be at the top of your itinerary. Booking a bike and food tour is a great way to wander through Madrid. You can explore the hidden gems in the city with a local and indulge in local flavors. Madrid Tapas & Markets Bike Tour is a three-hour tour travelers can book for the evening.

This May, round-trip flights from New York City, Washington, D.C., and Miami are less than $500 round-trip.

Boston is the cheapest option. Use May 14 through May 22 as your travel dates for a round-trip flight for less than $450.
Travelers have a new option for flying out of Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport this summer as the airport welcomed a new airline, Breeze Airways. Eighty passengers departed Friday for Providence, Rhode Island, the airline's first destination from the airport.

Breeze Airways is based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and serves over 50 U.S. airports. GSP International is the third airport in the state to welcome the airline, with other locations in Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

With the addition of Breeze, GSP International has seven airlines, including Allegiant, American, Avelo, Delta, Southwest, and United.

Breeze Airways made its Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) based Inaugural Flight at the airport on May 3, 2024. This is the bag check for the airline.

Cory Christian, regional manager of airport operations for Breeze Airways, said with Greenville's growth, they can service the airport with nonstop flights.

"Greenville is growing expediently and it's a great opportunity to serve these underserviced airports," Christian said. "We can fly people nonstop at competitive fares and we are committed for the long haul."

The airline is scheduled for more flights throughout the early summer season, including a nonstop flight to Los Angeles. It will be GSP International's first flight to the West Coast, with the airport's furthest flights previously being to Las Vegas and Denver.

Breeze Airways planes also include first class, business, and economy seating, which can be rare among smaller airlines. One-way ticket prices vary but can range from $49 to $120. The planes can hold a capacity of 137 passengers.

Here is the schedule for future flights with Breeze Airways:

Providence, Rhode Island, Mondays and Fridays, starting May 3.

Tampa, Florida, Mondays and Fridays, starting May 10.

Hartford, Connecticut, Mondays and Fridays, starting May 24.

Los Angeles, California, Mondays and Fridays, starting May 24.

Orlando, Florida, Mondays and Fridays, starting May 24.

Breeze Airways made its Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) based Inaugural Flight at the airport on May 3, 2024. Douglas Heimann and his wife Milicent Kari, right, prepare to board the plane for their flight to Providence.

Milicent Kari and her husband, Douglas Heimann, have been married for over 50 years and manage to travel once a year. The couple came from Columbus, North Carolina, to fly on Breeze Airways to visit their daughter and grandchildren in Providence.

Kari said when looking for tickets, she saw Breeze Airways and said they just wanted to try it out.

"It's going to be a wonderful trip, an absolute breeze," Kari said. "I feel very excited to be on an airplane that's new! It sounds so lovely and just like fun."

Breeze Airways made its Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) based Inaugural Flight at the airport on May 3, 2024. Douglas Heimann and his wife Milicent Kari prepare for their flight to Providence. Milicent Kari, right, said when she heard of the airline, 'It gonna be a breeze to fly with Breeze Airways' as she talked about the flight experience.

"Hopefully the community responds well to us being here," Christian said. "We hope they enjoy our service and they love flying us, flying to places nonstop."

Joanna Johnson covers community news and education for the Herald-Journal. Reach her via email at jjohnson@shj.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: GSP International welcomes Breeze Airways with nonstop flights
Need a last-minute gift for Mother's Day? Shop in Des Moines for flowers, unique gifts

Mothers Day is on May 12, which means youre running out of time to get your mom a thoughtful gift.

Skip the morning rush to grab fresh flowers or a gift card at the market and have something ready to present. Heres just a sampling of businesses in Des Moines to shop at for the perfect Mothers Day gift.

Where can I get flowers in Des Moines for Mothers Day?

If your mom likes flowers, here are some local options to get unique arrangements.

Wildflower

Colorful dried flowers sit ready to buy at the Wild Flower on Ingersoll Ave in Des Moines on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.

Shop unique Mothers Day arrangements online with Wildflower, the Ingersoll floral and event planning company led by owner Maya Boettcher, or walk-in for an arrangement.

Where: 2718 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines

Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market

Check out the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market, which kicks off its season on May 4, to purchase a bouquet of flowers. Several vendors, including Dexter-based Floral Sunset Farm, advertise flowers. Pick some up during the May 11 market and you know they'll be fresh for Mothers Day considering you made the purchase just a day before.

Where: Court Avenue from Water Street to Fifth Avenue in Des Moines

Boesen the Florist

The long-standing Des Moines florist has several arrangements for Mothers Day at different price points to help shoppers find what fits their needs and their wallets. Order online and have it delivered to your loved one in central Iowa.

Where: 3422 Beaver Ave., Des Moines

Where can I find jewelry in Des Moines for Mothers Day?

If jewelry is more your mom's speed, these local options are a good place to scope out for a gift.

Leona Ruby

Check out Leona Ruby in the East Village if your mother's taste in jewelry leans more feminine, classic or trendy and find other accessories to add to your gift.

Where: 400 E. Locust St., Suite 7, Des Moines

KIN

For jewelry that matches your mom's outlook on life, visit mystical shop KIN to find jewelry that spans astrological signs to energy bracelets.

Where: 333 E. Grand Ave., Suite 106, Des Moines

A Okay Antiques

Help the vintage lover add a piece to their collection that cant be found elsewhere with the selection of jewelry, including stones, at A Okay Antiques in West Des Moines.

Where: 124 Fifth St., West Des Moines

Where to find unique gifts in the Des Moines metro for Mothers Day

A look inside Des Moines Mercantile, the general store in Highland Park.

Do they like cocktails or chic glassware? Visit cocktail bodega Bling Pig in Historic Valley Junction to find bar equipment and a selection of liquor to add to their collection.

Not sure what to gift? Visit Des Moines Mercantile in the Highland Park neighborhood, a cozy store with plenty of Iowa-made goods for the home, kitchen and more. Another option to help narrow your search is a visit to Nook & Nest at The District at Prairie Trail in Ankeny, which carries stationery, goods for your home, beauty products and more.

The numerous womens clothing boutiques at The District at Prairie Trail make the Ankeny retail and dining destination a convenient choice to give a gift for those who love fashion. That includes the upscale boutique Eve. to the locally-owned shop Grey Lotus Clothing & Lifestyle.

Paris Barraza is a trending and general assignment reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at pbarraza@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: The best Mother's Day gift ideas can be found in Des Moines shops
No Kid Hungry Florida, the Dairy Council of Florida, and The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services honored Malinda Harris, Leon High Schools dedicated cafeteria manager as a 2024 Florida School Lunch Hero award this morning.

No Kid Hungry Florida, the Dairy Council of Florida, and The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services honored Malinda Harris, Leon County High Schools dedicated cafeteria manager as a 2024 Florida School Lunch Hero award this morning.

For 23 years, Harris has ensured students and staff are nourished with healthy meals, warm smiles, and encouragement. Her dedication extends beyond her students, engaging with the school community, and forming personal connections with team members, students, and families.

When it comes to feeding kids it takes a community, said Sky Beard, director of No Kid Hungry Florida. Ms. Harris is an excellent example of the hardworking individuals who cook and serve school meals to Floridas kids ensuring they get the nutrition they need to learn and grow.

As one of five statewide recipients, Harris was recognized for her unwavering commitment to her students, their families, and the community. An example of Harriss dedication includes her partnership with guidance counselors and school social workers to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers ensuring each students nutritional needs are met.

School nutrition professionals are an indispensable part of ensuring kids in K-12 have access to healthy meals that include dairy, said Teresa Moran-Wiebe, VP of the Dairy Council of Florida. We are proud to partner with the Florida Department of Agriculture and No Kid Hungry to celebrate our School Lunch Heros not only this week but every day in Florida.

No Kid Hungry Florida, the Dairy Council of Florida, and The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services honored Malinda Harris, Leon High Schools dedicated cafeteria manager as a 2024 Florida School Lunch Hero award this morning.

Leon County High School Principal Michael Baron shared Ms. Harris can best be described as a true team player each and every day. She is always eager and willing to modify her meal preparation and service schedule based on the needs of the school.

The 2024 Florida School Lunch Hero Award is an annual campaign by No Kid Hungry, the Dairy Council of Florida, and The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recognizing the importance of school nutrition professionals that feed Floridas students. Each year, five recipients are selected from a wealth of amazing candidates across the state.

In addition to todays surprise event, Harris received $2,000 from No Kid Hungry Florida, prize packs from the Dairy Council of Florida, trophies, hero capes, and more from The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Malinda Harris Honored as 2024 Florida School Lunch Hero at Leon High
Since 2008, the nonprofit Prevent Child Abuse America has placed thousands of pinwheels in public areas nationwide every April.

Pinwheels symbolize the joyful childhood that every kid deserves. In New Jersey and throughout the country, child welfare advocates planted pinwheels in public areas this month to raise awareness for child abuse prevention. Those pinwheels danced in the wind while remaining firmly planted in the ground. Children in safe environments are like those pinwheels: able to weather winds and storms while remaining rooted in their communities and homes.

In Trenton and throughout the country, child welfare advocates participated in Pinwheels for Prevention events to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect. In New Jersey, the Department of Children and Families uses preventative programming to help families address issues before they reach a crisis point.

Yet, instances of abuse and neglect can threaten to destabilize the childhood experience, causing trauma and adversity that can follow children througout their lives.

In our work at the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, we recognize, and the research shows, that when parents are dealing with chronic stress  stemming from financial struggles, barriers to mental health care, or an inability to obtain basic necessities, among other challenges  there is a greater risk of their family becoming involved in a child welfare case.

Weve worked to transform New Jerseys child welfare system to support and strengthen families who are struggling to meet their basic needs rather than separating them. A family unable to provide clean clothes may need a supportive neighbor who can offer a ride to the local laundromat. A family struggling to put food on the table may need to be connected with a local food bank.

By using evidenced-based prevention strategies and practically addressing families needs, were happy to report that over the past decade, there has been a steady decline in the number of confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect in our state. In 2016, there were more than 8,000 substantiated and established cases of Child Abuse and Neglect in New Jersey. Last year, that number was only 2,641.

Weve done this by, among other things, offering programs to that support families and help prevent crises that can often contribute to a higher likelihood of child abuse. We connect parents and caregivers to necessary resources to address their childs needs.

Preventative measures

Research shows the importance of building up protective factors, which are a set of conditions within families and communities that, when present, help decrease the chances of child maltreatment. Experts list from five to 15 protective factors. Among them are access to mental and physical healthcare, parental resilience, and concrete support in times of need.

New Jersey has built a robust public behavioral health system through the Childrens System of Care to support youth with emotional and behavioral health challenges, substance use issues, or intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as their families. (Call 1-877-652-7624 to connect to CSOC.)

We know that getting youth the help they need, when and where they need it, further enables families to de-escalate crises that might otherwise lead to incidents of child abuse.

Thats why we also offer local support through our Family Success Centers. These centers act as a one-stop shop where any family can get individualized assistance with anything from housing to health care referrals.

There is at least one in every county.

An additional local-based program, the New Jersey Statewide Student Support Services (NJ4S) network, launched this school year. NJ4S mental wellness and prevention specialists partner with schools to provide evidence-based prevention programs to groups of students, and with a referral from a childs school, NJ4S licensed clinicians can lead group or individual brief counseling interventions. A wide range of NJ4S seminars are open to all k-12 students and their families throughout the state. All NJ4S seminars are free of charge.

Another option is for families  or the professionals who help them  to dial 2-1-1 or search nj211.org to get connected to services in their area.

Our collective duty

We encourage everyone to remember that we all have a role to play in preventing and addressing the maltreatment of children. Business leaders can build compassionate, family-friendly work policies; neighbors can lend a helping hand; and we can all be attentive around the children in our lives for signs of abuse and alert authorities, only when needed.

Every child deserves a pinwheel childhood  full of whimsy and lightheartedness and free of abuse or neglect. Join us in ensuring that is the case for every New Jersey child.

In New Jersey, any person having reasonable cause to believe that a child has been subjected to abuse or neglect should immediately report this information to the State Central Registry. If the child is in immediate danger, call 911 as well as 1-877 NJ ABUSE, or 1-877-652-2873). A concerned caller does not need proof to report an allegation of child abuse and can make the report anonymously.

Laura Jamet leads the NJ DCF Division of Child Protection and Permanency, responsible for investigating allegations of abuse or neglect in New Jersey. Sanford Starr leads the NJ DCF Division of Family and Community Partnerships, which oversees a network of services and programs designed to empower families and prevent child abuse and neglect before they occur.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ children are facing less maltreatment. Here's why
New Noblesville policy will let bar patrons explore downtown with drink in hand

Noblesville wants to add some pep to the step of downtown visitors and is betting a cool to-go cocktail is the perfect inducement.

The city will allow customers to carry alcoholic beverages out of restaurants and bars on Historic Noblesville Square and beyond. Officials said they expect the measure will increase sidewalk foot traffic and vitality, untethering patrons from their bar stools or cafe tables to explore other businesses and socialize outdoors.

We see this as another way to help drive business by loosening up the rules on the street, another tool in the toolbox Mayor Chris Jensen said.

The city has applied with the state to be a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, which permits businesses to sell drinks that can be carried out. Noblesville lobbied for the bill creating the DORA in the Indiana General Assembly beginning in 2021 until it passed in 2023.

The city council recently approved its DORA map and sent the plan to the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission for final approval, which could come within a couple of weeks.

A boundary map of where carrying alcoholic beverages outside will be permitted in Noblesville.

Restaurants and bars dont have to participate in selling to-go drinks and must register with the city if they do. Likewise, shop owners can choose to prohibit cocktail-toting customers from entering.

Businesses that are part of the program will post signs designating their inclusion. The carryout beverages will be in clear, standardized cups with a DORA imprint. Signs will indicate the boundaries of the DORA. People with the carry-out drinks cannot enter other bars with them, or go back in the one where they purchased it.

So far, 13 businesses have joined with a couple more indicating they probably would, said city spokesman Robert Herington.

Jensen said the district is a way to establish a clear and uniform policy.

It streamlines permitting, he said.

Isaiah Haymaker, co-owner, of Bica Cafe, on Conner St., said he is looking forward to the new policy because he expects it to increase business by freeing up tables.

It should keep things moving and people walking and gives us space to bring in more people, he said.

The European-style breakfast spot and bakery is open to 3 p.m. daily and is slammed on weekends, he said. Drinks to-go will dampen the impact of customers who linger for hours at a table with a single mimosa, Haymaker said.

There are a lot of places to sit on the square, so people can buy their food and a drink and find a place outdoors, he said.

At Alexander's on the Square, an ice cream shop that sells sandwiches, beer and wine, co-owner Cheryl Schulz said customers occasionally ask whether it is permissible to take their drinks outside, most recently visitors in town watching the solar eclipse.

It would be perfect for that or other events, like concerts on the square, said Schulz, operator of the shop for 30 years. It will give customers an alternative to being stuck inside and enhancing the environment.

Ive seen it in other cities like Cincinnati and it seems to work.

Ten other Indiana municipalities have already been approved for DORAs, including Fort Wayne, Jasper and Shelbyville.

Noblesville boundaries for the district extend from the square across the White River to Federal Hill Commons, roughly the same as the citys riverfront district boundaries.

The Riverfront designation gives cities an unlimited number of liquor licenses in the district, which must be within 1,500 feet of a flowing body of water. The city has awarded 16 still-active riverfront permits, which are in addition to standard permits based on population.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Email at john.tuohy@indystar.com and follow on X/Twitter and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Noblesville policy to let bar patrons walk downtown with drink in hand
I've heard every nurse has a ghost story, so I was immediately interested when I saw that, over on Quora, nurses had engaged in a number of fascinating conversations about their experiences with the supernatural.

You can see those conversations here, here, here, and here. Ugurhan / Getty Images

Honestly, I'm a bit of a skeptic, but after reading these, I'm not so sure what to think. Take a look:

1."I've been a nurse for over 22 years, and about eight of those years were in hospice. I've seen a lot of supernatural things going on  and not just in the last few hours when patients are supposed to be lacking oxygen, so they hallucinate, etc. I saw the lights of heaven shine down on a patient's bed; she gasped and smiled. I told her to go. She smiled at me and extended her hand, then the light went out. I've seen men down the halls that shouldn't be there. I've had a woman tell me my Mom, Pat, was standing in the corner. She didn't know me, much less my Mom and her name."

LeeAnn G., Quora

2."My fellow nurses and I have seen a 'spirit-like mist' rise from the body as the patient died. It scared the hell out of me the first time. After that, I just accepted that the patient had been released from their suffering. I've also had a patient suddenly tell me his friend was there and wanted him to come with him (I saw a mist-like blob at the foot of his bed). He didn't know his friend (who was horribly burned in the same accident) had died a few minutes before. We didn't tell him because we didn't want to make his last hours grief-stricken. I told him that if he wanted to go with his friend, it was OK. Minutes later, he did. Two other nurses, besides me, saw the mists rise and seem to pass through the window together. I didn't use names, but I'll never forget them."

Mena M., Quora

3."I had several ghostly encounters while I worked as a charge nurse in a nursing home. Once, as I made rounds, I noticed a resident lying in bed who'd been hospitalized for over a week. I welcomed her back and asked the CNA (certified nursing assistant) about her return. I was told she was still in the hospital. I said no, I just talked to her and brought the other nurse to the room to prove it. No one was in the bed, and it was perfectly made. Several hours later, the hospital called to inform us that our resident died. The time of death was around the same time that I saw her. I can only guess that she came back to say goodbye."

"Another time, I saw a woman walk from the bed to the bathroom, wearing a long gown. I immediately went into the room only to find the bathroom empty and both residents asleep in their beds."

Lynn G., Quora

Image Source / Getty Images

4."I worked in a nursery/postpartum unit, which was previously an intensive care unit. It was a small unit, so I was usually alone with the babies in the nursery. We had a baby swing for fussy babies. We kept it turned off. About once per eight-hour shift, the swing would gradually start swinging all by itself. We would leave it alone until it started swinging pretty hard and fast at which time we would get up to stop it. It was always swinging all by itself without being turned on."

Janice W.L., Quora

5."In a hospital where I worked there was a doctor who would walk through the hospital jingling his change. After he died, nurses still heard the change jingling in the halls."

Sherry B., Quora

6."I had a gentleman on a ventilator. About three in the morning, his wife called and said her husband had come to her in a dream and told her he needed a priest. And could we please find one, and that she would be coming as soon as possible. Once a patient is put on a ventilator, he cannot speak as the tube passes his larynx into his trachea. A priest arrived and gave him the last rites. The man sat up in bed and kissed the cross the priest held, lay back, and died."

"He had liver cancer, and when he died, he bled out through every orifice. Unfortunately, it was an ugly death because of all the bleeding. Fortunately, the wife did not arrive until we had finished cleaning the patient, and put him in a clean gown and sheets. The wife arrived and said she had been delayed because she had a flat tire and needed to ask her neighbor to bring her. I have no doubt that the patient found a way to delay his wife long enough so that we could make him presentable for his wife to see him. It was so eerie the way it happened. I shall never forget it."

Tippy C., Quora

Insta_photos / Getty Images

7."This story is a true experience. I am not a mystical person, but some things I just cannot explain. I worked with a nurse who we will call Mary. One of her patients, whom we will call Susie, died, and Mary helped her CNA do the death care. As they rolled the large lady over, Mary sighed and said, 'Oh, Susie, you are dead weight!' A couple of days later, Mary tells me, 'I think Susie heard me; I am having problems every time I enter the room.' I sort of laughed it off; after all, Susie was dead! How could she have heard? But Mary made me go into the room with her. She told me to go into the bathroom and wash my hands. I did, looking at Mary through the open door like she was ridiculous. 'Now,' she said, 'I will come wash MY hands.' She entered the bathroom and barely cleared the doorway before the door slammed shut. She turned the faucet on, and water sprayed everywhere."

"We did this on and off for days, and it never failed. I could go in and wash my hands, no problem, but not Mary. Each day, Mary would stand in the room and say, 'Susie, I didn't mean it in a bad way!' After a good week of apologies, Mary was forgiven and it all stopped."

Brenda R., Quora

8."Somebody walked past me while I was at the nurses' station about six months ago. It was nighttime, and I saw the distinct outline of a tall, thin man. In fact, I thought it was a particular resident. But when I looked up, I couldn't make out any other details and it sped past me faster than any living person I know. It so happens we hadn't had any recent deaths at the nursing home, but the following day, a developmentally disabled young woman passed away unexpectedly. Her father had died the previous year. Whatever I saw came from the direction of her room. I've always wondered if it was her dad coming back to take his little girl home."

Rebekah, Quora

9."A nurse friend worked in a nursing home, and one of her patients, a man in his 80s whom we'll call Sam, was rumored to have been involved with one of the more infamous crime families. He may have actually been a hitman and had spent many years in prison before being paroled as an elderly man. One night, while assisting a patient, she suddenly heard a man screaming. She and the patient both looked into the hallway outside the room and were horrified to see Sam being dragged down the hallway by two figures dressed all in black. She dropped what she was doing and dashed into the hallway, but no one was there. The exit door at the end of the hallway was still closed, locked to the outside, and the alarm was on but silent."

"Two other residents who routinely kept their room doors open at night had also seen the same black-clad figures dragging Sam down the hallway toward the locked door. Running back to Sam's room, she found that he had passed away quietly in his bed, and nothing in his room had been disturbed. She and the residents were convinced that on that night, they saw Sam's soul being dragged to hell."

David R., Quora

David Wall / Getty Images

10."I used to work in a nursing home, and there were several times I'd walk past bedrooms to see someone sitting in the armchair next to a resident's bed, only for them to be gone when I took a second glance. I remember one resident who would go to bed every night around 1 a.m., then wake up and enter the lounge at around 3 a.m. without fail. We'd always give him sandwiches that we'd set aside for him from tea time. Once he'd finished these sandwiches and a cup of tea, he'd be ready for bed again, where he'd stay until late morning. One night, I came into work to find out he'd passed earlier that morning. However, at 3 a.m., as I was sitting in the lounge filling in paperwork, the door to his bedroom (which was incredibly heavy due to a broken fire door hinge) opened and closed by itself. I wasn't the only one who saw it but was the only one willing to accept it."

Rebekah T., Quora

11."I have sat with many patients who were in the process of dying eminently. I sat with one older man who was unconscious and watched him breathe. As he drew his last breath, I swear I saw something lift up from the body and hover for a few seconds before dissipating. I swear. It was real, and I could only describe it as an energy field. You know when you are driving down a hot road on a hot day, sometimes you can see wavy lines like a mirage? Thats how it looked. It covered his head, arms, and trunk and hovered about six inches over the body. When I looked at his face, I could see and feel that he was no longer there."

Linda C., Quora

12."I was sitting by the side of my closest friend in ICU. She was on a ventilator and in grave condition. They allowed me to sit by her bed all night. The sound of the ventilator whooshed, and the bed slowly tilted from side to side. I was reading a book. I was NOT asleep. I looked up and saw ten to twelve people standing across the room. They were dressed in loose clothing. A man sat in a chair, and a child stood next to him. They were talking to one another but made no sound. They looked as if an old antique filter was over them, no color. I look down and up again. They were still there. I figured they were her family waiting for her to cross."

"A burst of cool, refreshing air then blew through me front to back, and in my mind, I heard my friend say, 'Lighten up. Lighten up.' It was shortly after that the people faded away. My friend survived that night. I have never seen or felt anything like that before. The episode probably lasted four or five minutes."

Linda C., Quora

Sudok1 / Getty Images

13."I have been present for maybe 150 deaths. During five of them, the patient fought it for hours, even days. They were scared and afraid to 'let go.' I leaned over, held their hand, and whispered in their ear something like, 'Everything is OK, your family is OK, there's nothing to be afraid of, just relax and let go.' Soon, the heart slowed to zero, respirations stopped, and then...there was high pressure in the room, my ears popped, the lights flickered, and the doors closed. That seemed a little supernatural to me. But strangely, after the first time not scary."

 Cathy R., Quora

14."If you are skeptical about ghosts, I urge you to work in a hospital. I used to think ghosts were nonsense, but no, they are 110% real. I learned that early on when I started working in hospitals, and over the years I've seen hundreds of ghosts. It's an incredible thing to witness. There was a woman who used to walk up and down one of the wards. She was elderly and wearing an old hospital gown. I would follow her sometimes, and she would eventually walk through a wall and vanish until the next day."

Working in the morgue, I saw a beautiful woman who apparently was a mortician years ago. She would suddenly appear, smile, and then walk through the morgue. I saw her during an actual autopsy once, which scared the life out of me. I heard her chuckle after I shrieked.

I also often saw a man walking hand in hand with what people believe to be his wife. They would walk by, nod, and then vanish.

Lastly, an encounter I remember best was when two girls were giggling in a corridor. I never saw them, but they could be heard giggling nearly every night. And then, as you got closer, you would hear their feet as they ran away, still giggling."

Sky Y., Quora
Why is everyone naked on this ship? What to know about Miamis nude cruise

Miami has a nude beach. Next year it will have a nude cruise.

A company has charted a Norwegian cruise ship out of PortMiami  and, yes, passengers can let it all hang out on deck.

Heres what to know about the Big Nude Boat 2025:

MORE: How the nude cruise came to be

Bare facts on the nude cruise

Cruise ship: NCLs Norwegian Pearl

Departure: Feb. 3, 2025, from PortMiami

Length of trip: 11 days. Ship returns Feb. 14.

Destinations: Stops on the Big Nude Boat 2025 include Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Castries, St. Lucia.

MORE: Does Florida have nude beaches? Heres where you can find clothing-optional sites

Who is organizing the nude cruise?

Travel company: The firm Bare Necessities Tour & Travel has hired Norwegian Cruise Line to host the nude cruise in 2025.

Reservations: To book, travelers must go through Bare Necessities at cruisebare.com. Tickets are now on sale.

What are the details of the nude cruise?

Purpose: Bare Necessities trips are for naturists, people who prefer not to wear clothes not swingers or kinky adventurers, according to the organizers.

Cost: Prices start at $2,000 for an inside stateroom and go up to $33,000 for a three-bedroom villa. A 2024 cruise out of Tampa on a Carnival ship had fares starting at around $1,200.

History: Barre Necessities first cruise was in 1991. It always charters with a cruise line. It has worked with Holland America, owned by Carnival Corp., and Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of the Royal Caribbean Group.

The rules of nude cruising

Here are the rules of decorum for the 2024 cruise. Organizers expect them to be similar for the 2025 Big Nude Boat with NCL.

 When the ship is docked alongside in port, all passengers must be dressed throughout the vessel, including balconies, until the ship leaves port and an announcement is made that nudity is again permissible..

 The ship provides a self-serve buffet on the Lido deck, which is a clothes-free area. Clothing is required for all meals taken in the dining rooms. Casual attire is fine in all of these venues. Bathrobes are not permitted in the dining room..

 Lingerie, fetish-wear, and excessive genital jewelry are not appropriate at any time..

 Please sit on a towel at all times while nude, in a G-string, thong, or any time you are bare-bottomed. A fresh beach towel will be provided in your stateroom each day for that purpose.

 Displaying yourself nude in front of other ships in port or while port authorities are on board the vessel for clearance is strictly prohibited..

 No photographs, videos or electronic images of any person may be taken without the express consent of that individual. NO PHOTO ZONES around the pools or in dance venues must be followed to avoid confiscation of photo capturing devices.

 Dangerous or rude behavior will not be tolerated at any time.

 Fondling or inappropriate touching of personal body parts or those of someone else, overt sexual activity or any solicitation for sexual acts is strictly prohibited..
Why Laurel View Village is adding 10 new townhomes to its Davidsville campus

DAVIDSVILLE  Ten new townhomes are being built at Laurel View Village over the next year, in what CEO Tim Mock calls the Continuing Care Retirement Communitys largest building project since 2010.

Mock, along with Board of Directors Chairman Barry Thomas, other board members and some of the townhomes future residents, turned over shovels of earth on April 18 to start construction on the five duplexes along Meadowlark Lane, next to the Cambridge Place apartments.

More about Laurel View Village: Progress 2024: How Laurel View Village helps residents stay active and involved in Somerset County

Tim Mock, CEO of Laurel View Village, offers remarks at the groundbreaking for the new townhome construction project.

This has been a long time coming, very long time coming, Thomas said. As we look back, we appreciate the efforts of a lot of people. It took a lot of effort to get us here, and were thankful, were grateful for all those whove finally made this day happen.

Ground work is underway to build 10 new townhomes at Laurel View Village.

Joining the Laurel View Village community

Laurel View Village currently serves over 300 residents living in its 60 townhomes, two apartment complexes (Cambridge Place and Vista) and its personal care and health care areas.

Summertime treats: Who's open: Where to get your first (or next) ice cream cone this season

Nine of the 10 new townhomes under construction have already been sold, bringing an additional 18 residents to Laurel View Village over the next year, said Angela Rizzo, senior director of independent living. The future residents are not only moving in from Somerset and Cambria counties, but also from Pittsburgh, the Carolinas and California, she added.

In a previous interview, Mock told the Daily American that some of the new townhomes would be finished later this year, and the remainder would be completed by June 2025. A strong interest in townhomes by prospective residents led to the decision to build the additional units, he said.

Joining in the fun: Why two Somerset girls will be able to ride their own bikes this summer

'Thank you for putting your faith in us'

Thank you all for being here to celebrate the next step for our community. Your support for Laurel View Village, faith in our entire team and myself, we would not be here without everyone doing their part to make this happen, Mock said at the groundbreaking.

To our future residents of these specific townhomes, thank you for putting your faith in us. Well work hard to build the townhome that youve envisioned, well strive to continue to provide the highest level of service and continue to innovate to meet the ever-changing demands of our industry, to ensure that we are sustainable for years to come.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Laurel View Village in Davidsville, PA adding 10 new townhomes to its campus
"Houses and cars around had windows blown out. Garage doors were pushed in," South River Mayor Peter Guindi described the scene

Robert Wasilewski New Jersey home explosion

One man was killed and another was injured in a house explosion in South River, New Jersey, according to multiple outlets.

The explosion leveled the home in the Continental Court area on Thursday, May 2, just after 7 p.m. local time without warning, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office told News 12 New Jersey, NBC New York and PIX11 News.

Kevin Gilbert, 62, was killed in the explosion while another man, who was not identified, was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital, per the outlets.

The Middlesex County Prosecutors Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.

Related: Fifth Body Recovered from Site of Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Robert Wasilewski Home explosion in South River, New Jersey

A photo of the aftermath of the explosion showed pieces of the house scattered across a lawn with smoke billowing out from the debris. Only pieces of the two-story homes roof and its windows could be made out in the rubble.

"It was a horrific scene," South River Mayor Peter Guindi told My Central Jersey. "Houses and cars around had windows blown out. Garage doors were pushed in. We didn't know if there was anybody in the house. All the houses were evacuated as soon as we got here."

He told PIX11 that crews were working to turn off a gas leak in the area, though no cause for the explosion has been confirmed.

Related: Climber Recalls Watching Friend Fall Down Mountain and Thinking, 'He's Going to Die'

Neighbors in the area told NBC New York that the home belonged to a retired police officer who lived there with his wife, They said she had not been injured in the home explosion. Neighbors told NBC New York that they initially believed there was an earthquake.

"It was just a really, really loud bang, super loud and shook the whole house," a neighbor said.

We were watching TV, and we heard a massive explosion and ran outside to see it was our neighbors house and their family, another neighbor told PIX11 News. The house was flattened, and my husband ran down and tried yelling to see if anyone responded.

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It was like a big sonic boom," the neighbor added. It was something I had never heard before. Everything shook. My sister was screaming, and everyone was just scared.

Officials told News 12 New Jersey and My Central Jersey that nearby neighbors had been evacuated from the area as a precaution. Police also advised motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area so that emergency crews would be able to access the scene.

The cause of the explosion is under investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office and South River Police.



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Read the original article on People.
The President of the St. Petersburg Biathlon Federation, Dmitry Vasiliev, threw a tantrum over the recommendations of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) to athletes on how to communicate with representatives of the Russian Federation and Belarus at the 2024 Games. The two-time Olympic champion was outraged by the clause on detecting violations of the conditions for the admission of athletes from the aggressor country.

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Vasilyev said this in an interview with the propaganda news agency RIA "Novosti". The accomplice of Vladimir Putin's dictatorial regime accused Ukrainians of intending to discredit Russian athletes and called the NOC's recommendations an abomination, forgetting that Russian representatives constantly violate rules and regulations in all areas.

"They are trying to find even the slightest opportunity to discredit our athletes, so they resort to such ridiculous proposals. This has nothing to do with sports. The West is introducing some kind of disgusting things into the norm. But for them, a lot of things are normal now: denunciation, betrayal, lies. It will take time for everything to calm down and for people to turn on their common sense. They will realize that following this path will not get you anywhere, it is a destructive path," Vasilyev said.

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Earlier, the president of the Russian Wrestling Federation (FSBI) Mikhail Mamiashvili complained about the squeamishness towards Russia in the recommendations of the NOC of Ukraine.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes
One person was injured when a vehicle crashed into a telephone pole Thursday night in North Baldwin, causing five utility poles to break and bringing down power lines.

It happened just after 8 p.m. on Brallier Court.

Baldwin Independent and Option Independent fire companies stayed on scene for hours while Duquesne Light crews secured power to the area.

One person was taken to a local hospital by ambulance. The severity of their injuries was not known.

According to Duquesne Lights website, about 12 customers were without power.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

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More than 100 individuals arrested at protests at two campuses in New York were not affiliated with the schools, according to the mayor and New York Police Department (NYPD) commissioner.

At Columbia University on Tuesday, city officials said 112 individuals were arrested, with around 29 percent unaffiliated with the school. At City College of New York (CCNY) the same day, 170 were arrested, around 60 percent of whom did not have a connection to the school.

The arrests were on charges including burglary, obstructing governmental administration, criminal mischief, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said in their statement that the protests have been co-opted by outside groups.

We saw a shift in tactics, and the safety of all students, school faculty, staff, and the public became a real concern. These once-peaceful protests are being exploited by professional outsiders, and our young people are the ones most at risk. The right to protest is critical to our democracy, and the NYPDs job is to protect that right. But we will never tolerate violence, property damage, or the disruption of emergency services, Caban said.

The statement also referenced the highly publicized arrests Tuesday when Columbia asked the NYPD to clear demonstrators from the encampment and Hamilton Hall.

The officials said those arrested have not been cooperating and were told not to talk to the NYPD, so the process of identifying who is with the schools and who is not is taking longer.

As the anti-Israel protests began to escalate, it became abundantly clear that individuals unaffiliated with these schools had entered these different campuses and, in some cases, were even training students in unlawful protest tactics, many which we witnessed escalating into violent conduct. What is now even clearer is the extent to which outsiders were actually present. Nearly half of those arrested at Columbia and City College were not affiliated with these schools, Adams said.

The protesters have denied the demonstrations are directed by anyone besides the students at the school.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
12-Year-Old Son of N.C. Officer Killed in Shooting Pens Touching Tribute: I Hope to Be Just Like Him'

"He was the best man I will ever know," said William Alden Elliot's son

bennett funeral service William "Alden" Elliott, one of the four law enforcement officers who were killed on duty on Monday, April 29.

A North Carolina officer who died in the line of duty earlier this week is being remembered by his 12-year-old son as both a hero and an incredible dad.

William Alden Elliot was one of four law enforcement officers killed in a shooting as they were serving an arrest warrant at a Charlotte home on Monday, April 29.

His son Theo penned an emotional poem honoring his late father in the officers obituary, describing him as the best daddy.

My daddy is a hero. He died getting the bad guys, thats what he was good at, Theo wrote. "He is a Marine. He is a Police Officer." He went on to share that his father was a kind and patient man who kept both him and his mother safe.

Related: Arizona Police Officer, 31, Dead After Car Crashes into His Patrol Vehicle: A Hero Amongst Heroes

Theo fondly recalled some of the fun times he had with his father, from playing video games to collecting Pokemon cards together. I have a Charizard that he helped me get graded, he wrote.

To mark Theos 12th birthday, Alden purchased two dirt bikes, one for his son and one for himself so they could ride together.

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I will learn how to ride it and we will ride together one day, Daddy, Theo vowed. He was the best man I will ever know. And I hope to be just like him.

Related: Texas Cop Who Won Back-to-Back Department Awards Dead After Off-Duty Crash: 'Heartbroken'

Family recognized the special bond between Alden and his son. Alden deeply loved his family and took great pride in watching Theos path to becoming a young man, they said in his obituary.

A memorial service with military honors for Alden will be held at 6 p.m. local time at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory on Thursday, May 9.

The family is requesting donations to an account set up for Theos benefit in lieu of flowers.

Related: Off-Duty Florida Police Officer Dies After Car Goes into Canal

Alden was a 14-year veteran of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, according to an organization press release shared Monday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said Alden and the three other officers were met with gunfire while approaching 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes Jr., who was later pronounced dead in the front yard of the home after officers returned fire.

Highway 16 was the site of a special procession for the fallen officers on Tuesday, according to FOX affiliate WJZY.

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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  Authorities seized 13 vehicles that were involved in sideshow takeovers at several neighborhoods across the county, the San Diego Police Department said Thursday in a release.

Last week, a group tried to take over the intersection of Ocean View Boulevard and Gloria Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood with an illegal sideshow but was unsuccessful after SDPD was alerted about the plans Saturday.

RELATED: San Diego Police prevent weekend intersection street takeover

Officers said the group tried to perform another one at the intersection of Cedar Street and Grove Street in South Park before it was also stopped by officers.

On Thursday, SDPD and California Highway Patrol said they have identified more than 23 vehicles and multiple people involved in the illegal events.

A total of 13 vehicles were seized through court orders on Tuesday and Thursday, and two people were arrested for felony vandalism, reckless driving and speeding, according to officers.

Vehicles impounded by authorities after illegal sideshow takeovers. (SDPD)

Vehicles impounded by authorities after illegal sideshow takeovers. (SDPD)

Vehicles impounded by authorities after illegal sideshow takeovers. (SDPD)

Vehicles impounded by authorities after illegal sideshow takeovers. (SDPD).

Vehicles impounded by authorities after illegal sideshow takeovers. (SDPD)

Authorities said the people arrested were involved in the following sideshow takeovers:

Feb. 24, 2023  Approximately 200 people attended a sideshow takeover at several intersections in San Diego County including Mira Mesa, La Jolla Village, Kearny Mesa, Spring Valley, Downtown San Diego, Barrio Logan and Otay Mesa.

March 10, 2024  Nearly 200 people hosted an unpermitted car meet in the Target parking lot located on Mira Mesa Blvd.

The event in February resulted in about $24,000 worth of damage to the roadways, officers said, while the takeover in March caused more than $15,000 in property damage. Investigators are searching for other involved vehicles. They said further criminal charges are pending for multiple people involved in these illegal activities.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
14 Stark County townships want large solar, wind farms prohibited. See which ones.

A look at a 2.6-megawatt solar farm on Rittman Road in Wadsworth.

CANTON  Fourteen of Stark County's 17 townships want large wind and solar farms banned from their communities.

Canton, Jackson, Lake, Lawrence, Lexington, Nimishillen, Osnaburg, Paris, Pike, Plain, Sugar Creek, Tuscarawas and Washington townships requested the county commissioners vote to prohibit large solar facilities and large wind farms of 50 megawatts or more, as well as economically significant wind farms between five and 50 megawatts.

Marlboro Township asked to commissioners to prohibit large solar facilities and large wind farms but did not request action on economically significant wind farms.

The remaining three townships, Bethlehem, Perry and Sandy, have not taken any action.

The county commissioners had asked township leaders to respond to a survey about the projects by Wednesday.

Commissioners will vote on prohibiting large wind and solar in designated areas

The next step toward prohibiting large wind and solar projects at the townships' request is to set a date for a public hearing, county Administrator Brant Luther said.

"It's an opportunity to come and weigh in," he said.

At the hearing, which can be a regular board meeting or special meeting, the commissioners will vote to designate restricted areas, essentially a "no-fly zone" for wind and solar projects in the townships.

At least 30 days prior to the date, the commissioners will need to advertise the hearing in a local newspaper, post a map of the restricted areas at every public library in the county and provide written notice of the meeting to school districts, municipal corporations and township trustees located in the restricted area.

A hearing date has not been set yet.

It is unclear whether the commissioners' action will have any impact on the proposed 150-megawatt solar farm in Washington Township, according to Luther. It is up to the Ohio Power Siting Board to make the final decision.

What will happen in townships that didn't take action?

Bethlehem, Perry and Sandy townships will respond on an as-come basis when it comes to future wind and solar projects, whereas the remaining townships proactively asked to prohibit certain projects.

As projects are proposed, township trustees will have the opportunity to indicate to the commissioners if they support or oppose them.

Bethlehem Township Trustee Ronald Lambert said they wanted to have the opportunity to decide on projects as they came through.

"We didn't want to put ourselves into a corner," he said. "We certainly reserve the right to reject them in the future but we want to make sure that we have the availability to look at each project on its own merits."

He added that a proposed solar farm in the township that is still under consideration would generate money for local schools.

Reach Grace at 330-580-8364 or gspringer@gannett.com. Follow her on X @GraceSpringer16.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County townships oppose large solar, wind farm projects
The Wisconsin Social Session on Abortion and Family Well Being has brought together 14 residents from a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints to create proposals for state lawmakers on abortion. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Editors note: This is the first in a series about a group of Wisconsin residents trying to come up with policies to address abortion and its root causes that could be applied nationwide.

MADISON, Wis.  Thomas Lang, 61, is white, deeply Catholic and opposes abortion.

Each one of us has a beginning, and that unique beginning  is conception, Lang said. And I would go back to the lack of personhood in slavery and how that personhood can be manipulated.  And Im saying, no, that child has rights.  And yet we are going to allow for the killing, murder, because of this, this and this.

Anti-abortion activists and legal scholars in the U.S. increasingly argue that denying the personhood of all unborn life is akin to slavery. Its a comment that doesnt sit well with the women of color in this room of people with different beliefs about abortion, including some with their own traumatic pregnancy experiences. The women repeatedly point out that white supremacy and racism are well rooted in every aspect of American life, including reproductive health care.

Ali Muldrow, who is Black, a mother of three girls, and runs an abortion fund in Wisconsin, told the group that the so-called father of gynecology, J. Marion Sims, invented tools like the speculum and surgical techniques after torturing enslaved women in horse stables. As someone who faced painful and medically complex pregnancies, Muldrow, 36, pointed out repeatedly that Black women are more likely to die in childbirth than white women, and more likely to experience criminalization because of their pregnancies. She said she was temporarily jailed while pregnant with one of her daughters after being beaten by an abusive boyfriend.

Ali Muldrow, who is a mother of three girls and runs an abortion fund in Wisconsin, told the group about how Black women are more likely to die in childbirth than white women and spoke of her own difficult pregnancies. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Muldrows first pregnancy was at 16, and she hired a lawyer to be able to have an abortion as a minor. She said she doesnt regret that abortion or the one she had at 18, or her subsequent decisions to parent despite the varying medical, social, and economic perils she sometimes faced. But shes firm that these were her decisions to make, and rejected Langs personhood argument.

Our personhood is invalidated every day, Muldrow said. My health matters, and its a factor throughout the entirety of a pregnancy. My body as a tool for breeding, like a cattle animal that can be bred and forced to have kids, is something Im really against, because Im against slavery.

In this room at a historic space in Wisconsins capital city, 14 people from around the state have been recruited to find common ground on abortion amid their deeply divergent stances. The Wisconsin Citizen Solutions on Abortion and Family Well Being is an experiment designed by Starts With Us, a nonprofit civic organization whose mission is to try to effect change through citizen solutions and show that people on opposite sides of controversial issues can come to a mutual understanding when they engage in guided mediation.

Founded in 2021, Starts With Us launched its first project last year on gun rights and safety in Tennessee, following a deadly school shooting in Nashville. KIND Snacks founder and Shark Tank entrepreneur Daniel Lubetzky has said that, as the son of a Holocaust survivor, he was motivated to co-found this nonprofit to address toxic polarization and extremist thinking. Other founding partners include renowned chef Jose Andres, civil rights activist Bernice King, and hip-hop artist will.i.am.

For its second session, held for three days in Madison in December 2023 and for a final day this month, Starts With Us invited 14 Wisconsinites to tackle what has become a galvanizing political issue ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights nearly two years ago.

To us, the opportunity to build and to actually create solutions is the brass ring, Starts With Us CEO Tom Fishman told States Newsroom. But at minimum to have transformative experiences for 14 people in a room and then tell that story is such that it gives people hope and confidence  that at minimum we dont have to  reduce each other as a caricature list of talking points on two sides of an issue thats sold to us by algorithms and cable news.

After months of processing the discussions from the sessions with health, legal and policy experts, Starts With Us on Wednesday unveiled what the group achieved consensus on. Wisconsin residents can now rank and comment on the proposals online. At the end of a monthlong public feedback period, the participants will see which proposals have majority support and evaluate next steps, including bringing some or all of the proposals to state lawmakers for consideration.

Why Wisconsin

The team chose Wisconsin because of its dynamic politics  a swing state with a Democratic governor, a GOP-controlled legislature, and a liberal-leaning state supreme court  and because its one of more than a dozen states that banned abortion in the wake of the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision. Abortion services resumed in Wisconsin last year, after a Dane County judge ruled that an 1849 feticide law does not apply to abortion, but litigation continues, as do further attempts to restrict abortion. Earlier this year the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a 14-week abortion ban that failed to advance in the Senate. As of now, abortion can be performed until 20 weeks post-fertilization.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision attempted to reconcile biological complexities and diverse moral worldviews regarding pregnancy, developing life, and reproductive autonomy. Dobbs changed that by letting states make their own abortion laws. And in many states that has meant conservative lawmakers pursuing hardline restrictions and even resurrecting laws from the 1800s, as in Arizona. These policy changes have broadly impacted maternal health care throughout the U.S.

A majority of voters post-Dobbs are showing they dont want strict abortion bans. Already in six blue, purple, and red states voters have preserved abortion rights directly on the ballot, and about a dozen more are trying to do the same in November. Spurred by the fall of Roe, some have gotten into politics, like Wisconsin participants Heather Martell, now a Chippewa Falls alderman, and Dr. Kristin Lyerly, who this month launched a bid for Congress as a Democrat in Wisconsins 8th Congressional District (she has since stepped away from Starts With Us because her campaign conflicts with its nonprofit status). Lyerly is among several OB-GYNS around the U.S. who have sued their states for criminalizing pregnancy termination, which they believe cannot be divorced from standard medical care.

Starts With Us head of programs Ashley Phillips said they recruited individuals based on their nuanced public views on abortion and their willingness to come to the table with opponents on this issue. She said hundreds of Wisconsinites were contacted but many never responded. The selected participants were each paid travel expenses and a $900 honorarium for four days of their time and effort.

The chosen 14 consist of 11 women and three men. Five (three women, two men) mostly oppose abortion; they are white, range in age from 25 to 76, and identify as Catholic or Protestant. The remaining nine include four Black women, one Hispanic woman, and range in age from mid-30s to mid-70s, and identify as Unitarian, Jewish, and atheist. Theres a lot of overlap in the whole group. Several have experienced domestic violence, sexual abuse, and poverty. Most are parents.

How abortion views are born

From day one there is resounding agreement around the table that the current health, economic, and legal systems do not work for many families in Wisconsin or the country at large. Roe and Dobbs flipped the overall legality of abortion, but neither federal court decision addressed the underlying economic and social factors that, according to reproductive-health researchers at the University of California San Francisco, lead many to choose abortion  nor did they address the limited reproductive, prenatal and maternal care access around the U.S.

But the larger debate in the room, and outside of it, is who gets to make decisions in a given pregnancy: the person who is pregnant or the state? And at what point should the developing life be protected from termination?

Though life-of-the-mother exceptions exist in most of the current abortion bans, stories about women being denied health care pervade around the country. Patients who have been able to travel and survive their experiences have sued. On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about whether doctors should be protected from prosecution under federal law if they provide abortion care to a patient in an emergency, even in a state with an abortion ban.

Also becoming more pervasive are stories about women denied abortions despite a fetuss fatal anomalies. The same weekend the group met in Madison, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a court order that would have allowed Texan Kate Cox to terminate a non-viable pregnancy, forcing Cox to travel out of state. Its a story that 37-year-old alderman and legal assistant Heather Martell is unfortunately familiar with.

As Martell explained to the other participants, in 2021, she went to her 19th week anatomy scan excited to see what would have been her second living child. But the ultrasound and subsequent detailed scans uncovered a rare disorder known as VACTERL association, which can affect multiple body systems and cause abnormalities in the vertebrae, anus, heart, trachea, esophagus, kidneys, and limbs. The disorder carries varying degrees of severity depending on how many systems are affected, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Martell said her babys case was incredibly rare in that it impacted nearly every part of his body. It was the worst possible prognosis: incompatible with life.

This child would have needed open heart surgery before he was a year old, but wouldnt have been able to have the surgery, because he would have been in late stages of kidney failure, having only one undersized kidney, Martell told States Newsroom in an email after the sessions had concluded.

After a second opinion, Martell and her husband, who is Catholic and was at that time against abortion, sought a termination to spare the suffering of the baby they would name Oliver, which she learned was imminent if he continued to develop. They had to leave the state, because Wisconsin restricts abortion after 20 weeks.

I Googled it, and I found studies that said the fetal nervous system develops fully by 24 to 26 weeks, she told the group during their first day introductory discussions. It gave me 14 days to get an abortion, or kill myself.

Martell traveled to a Minnesota clinic, where she faced anti-abortion protesters telling her she had other options and where the type of abortion procedure she wanted  an induced stillbirth  was unavailable. That meant she couldnt hold and bury Oliver, which remains a traumatic memory.

Her pregnancy and life experiences solidified Martells belief that reproductive health decisions should be left to patients and their families.

But its all about the child for Laura Brown, a 61-year-old chief financial officer for a nonprofit in West Allis, whos on the board of an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center.

A concern I have is that in almost every discussion I dont hear any mention of the child, said Brown on the second day of the session.

When I talk about abortion, I am talking about the child, Martell said. Im talking about my child.

Martells two previous pregnancies, when she was 19 and then 21, were marked first by a life-threatening miscarriage, and then by intimate partner abuse and extreme pressure to have an abortion, which she resisted. She told States Newsroom it was difficult to hear some of the statements from the abortion opponents at the sessions, including the implication that she didnt consider the life of the child in her abortion decision.

We would have had to pay millions of dollars out of pocket for Oliver to suffer and die. And in the meantime, our living child, Jack, would have become a glass child, Martell said. It isnt easy to watch someone die. Its even harder when it is your own child and sibling. I was not going to allow that to happen to my family. To be accused of not taking the child into consideration when I discuss abortion is a slap in the face, because I did.

Browns view on abortion is also shaped by trauma.

At 20, her affair with a married man culminated in an unplanned pregnancy that she said she felt pressured to end. The man didnt offer any support, she said, and though she didnt want to end the pregnancy, she didnt see other options. Brown alleges that a counselor at the Planned Parenthood sensed she was not sure about her decision and tricked her into believing she had an ectopic pregnancy that was not viable.

After the procedure began, Brown said she asked the doctor to stop and recalled him telling her, You should have thought of that before. The experience made her feel violated and eventually suicidal and informed her unbending view that abortion is not health care, she said.

Like Martell, Brown still mourns the baby that would never be born.

Brown said she turned to God and is now a regional coordinator for Silent No More Awareness Campaign, which shares stories of those who say they were harmed by abortion, and is affiliated with the national anti-abortion-rights group Priests for Life. She told States Newsroom that years ago, her daughter went into labor at 26 weeks and the medical care she received allowed her baby to be born very small but healthy. These life experiences have made it difficult for Brown to approve any reason for abortion, including if theres a health risk, fetal anomaly, or the pregnant person is a child or victim of sexual abuse.

Because abortion is traumatic, its also physically traumatic to force a young person to go through that. And then what happens is that the young person is a victim, and then they actually turn into a perpetrator, Brown told States Newsroom in an interview. Giving birth is less traumatic than having an abortion and later realizing what you did.

The majority of those who oppose abortion in this group believe in the concept of personhood for all unborn children, starting at the early stages of fertilization. It is the principle behind banning some forms of contraception that can prevent implantation, as well as in vitro fertilization, which since the Alabama Supreme Courts controversial ruling that frozen embryos are equivalent to human children, has proven to be very politically unpopular.

Martell told States Newsroom that hearing Browns story helped her understand how someone becomes an abortion-rights opponent.

For me it was very interesting to see someone who regretted it, and how easily my life view could have been shaped by that one choice, Martell said. Had I not experienced that [pregnancy] loss in 2006, in 2008, I might have succumbed to that kind of peer pressure [to have an abortion], and who knows, I could have ended up like Laura, living with that shame and that regret. And if Laura had had a situation where she had put her foot down and said  Im having this kid, maybe she would have been pro-choice now.

Brown said she agrees with separation of the embryo or fetus in life-threatening cases such as ectopic pregnancies, but she believes abortion is over-recommended and not always necessary to save maternal life. With our medical advancements, high risk pregnancies can definitely be mitigated and cared for.

But in this group, no one understands the medical nuance of pregnancy better than Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a white, 54-year-old OB-GYN and mother of four who has provided abortions throughout her career. When she herself needed a second-trimester abortion procedure after miscarrying years ago, she told the group she couldnt find a doctor in Madison qualified to perform what she described as a complex and politicized procedure. Lyerly now commutes to Minnesota for work; she stopped performing abortions in her home state in 2023 while Wisconsins abortion ban was briefly in effect.

When gestational limits or narrow health exceptions are proposed, Lyerly consistently pointed out that things happen progressively in pregnancy and that each case is different. Were philosophizing. Were not in the middle of it like my patients are, she said. When in the middle of it, you sometimes do things you wouldnt expect.

The only other doctor in the room is Jeff Davis, a white, semi-retired bovine veterinarian from southwest Wisconsin who has been involved with crisis pregnancy centers. He said his earliest defining moment on this issue happened on his familys farm in Illinois.

My whole pro-life view on life began when I was like 12 years old, and my hand was small enough to get inside the vagina of a ewe to pull out some twin baby lambs, Davis told States Newsroom. It was so exhilarating to be able to do that because if not, she might have had dead lambs.

Davis believes that terminating pregnancies at any stage is wrong because it ends life. His belief was solidified by the birth of his children, the viewing of his first grandchild on an ultrasound, and his Catholic faith.

No magic solutions

But when given the hypothetical, the majority of Americans take a middle position, explained Charles Franklin, a professor of law and public policy at Marquette University in Milwaukee, one of three subject-matter experts to address the group that weekend. The Marquette Law School Poll director has been polling Wisconsinites on abortion for years, and he said the overall numbers havent changed much.

Marquettes most recent poll, from June 2023, finds that 32% of those polled believe abortion should be legal in all cases, 34% in most, 25% illegal in most, and 6% illegal in all.

Let us know what you think...

A few in the group take that middle view, like Jacob VandenPlas, a white veteran and farmer who runs a rehabilitation farm for other veterans in Sturgeon Bay and has run for Congress (the same district as Lyerly, but as a Libertarian). The father of two said he thinks abortion should be allowed until approximately 15 weeks gestation and then qualified with exceptions for fetal and maternal health, rape and incest.

I dont believe the government has a place to dictate what someone can and cant do, VandenPlas said. It doesnt mean I have a disregard for life. Im not happy about abortions and want to solve the root cause.

Morality is so personal; I struggle with assigning it, said domestic violence advocate Monique Minkens. The 55-year-old Black mother and executive director of End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin told the group that she personally opposes abortion later in pregnancy, but that she doesnt believe in imposing limits. She noted that she has worked with people trying to avoid being tethered to an abuser for life.

Late-term abortion, thats hard, Minkens said. I cant see someone carrying a child, feeling it kicking, and then being given an abortion. And yet I know that there are times when someone says, your child is dead, youre going to have to push out this child, or your child is going to die as soon as theyre born, or whatever it is, and your life is in danger. Im not going to pull out my morality on them.

Abortion polling numbers vary widely, Franklin explained to the group, depending on where people live throughout the state, their politics, their race, their religion, and when presented with real-life circumstances, like Martells husband.

Theres no magic solutions here, Franklin said. Im not trying to present you with solutions. But what I am trying to do is say we need to understand what the broad public is thinking when they think about these things and get a little bit away from the common impression that we have two monolithic, adamantly opposed groups.  Were divided, though a majority in almost every measure say they favor legal abortion in at least some circumstances.

As predicted, the solutions this group ends up with months later are not magical, though they are, the participants will eventually agree, positive steps toward improving reproductive health access and family well being in Wisconsin. They include standardizing and ensuring accuracy in pregnancy options information, and expanding health insurance coverage. The group is almost but ultimately unable to come up with abortion-specific policy agreements.

But while these participants were still in the thick of debating and trying to see past their own trauma-laced biases and experiences, consensus on this issue seemed far away.

I think that well go round and round and round, and I dont know how we reach an understanding, Minkens said at the end of the second day; on the third they would be expected to agree to a list of proposals. Im just thinking about  the history of harm that has happened over the years; its always been the Catholic Church or its always been a Christian state that has done the harm, and that is where Im struggling. Your cold dead hands, my cold dead hands, I dont know where we go from here.

Wisconsin Citizen Solutions on Abortion and Family Well Being participants

Laura Brown  A 61-year-old white, Protestant nonprofit chief financial officer from West Allis, who opposes abortion rights.

Jeff Davis  A 76-year-old white, Catholic semi-retired bovine veterinarian and widower with three daughters and eight grandchildren from southwest Wisconsin, who opposes abortion rights.

Milly Gonzales  A Hispanic domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking professional in Door County, who supports abortion rights.

Bria Halama  A white, Catholic clinical mental health counselor in Milwaukee, who opposes abortion rights.

Kateri Klingele  A 25-year-old white, Catholic clinical mental health professional and mother in Madison, who opposes abortion rights.

Thomas Lang  A 61-year-old white, Catholic property manager from Janesville, who opposes abortion rights.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly  A 54-year-old white OB-GYN, mother of four, and abortion provider from Green Bay. (She has since stepped away from Starts With Us because her campaign conflicts with their nonprofit status.)

Heather Martell  A 37-year-old white mother, legal assistant, and Chippewa Falls alderman, who supports abortion rights.

Kai Gardner Mishlove  A Black grief doula and the director of Jewish Social Services of Madison, who supports abortion rights.

Patricia McFarland  A 75-year-old white abortion-rights activist, mother, grandmother, and retired college teacher.

Monique Minkens  A 55-year-old Black executive director of End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, who believes abortion should be available to everyone.

Ali Muldrow  A 36-year-old Black mother of three daughters and the executive director of the abortion fund WMF Wisconsin in Madison.

Jacob VandenPlas  A 39-year-old white veteran and farmer from Sturgeon Bay, who used to oppose abortion but now believes it should be available with limits later in pregnancy.

Ramona Williams  A Black mother and regional nonprofit coordinator who supports abortion rights.

Tomorrow: The group struggles to find common ground.

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The post Can 14 strangers from Wisconsin help America find common ground on abortion? appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
18-year-old arrested in stabbing death of woman found in west Las Vegas dumpster

LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  An 18-year-old faces an open murder charge in the stabbing death of a woman whose body was discovered in a west valley dumpster.

Lincoln Boe was taken into custody on Thursday, May 2 after police identified him as a suspect in the homicide case.

Lincoln Boe, 18, faces an open murder charge. (LVMPD)

The womans body was found on the morning of Monday, April 29 in the 9000 block of West Sahara Avenue in a dumpster enclosure, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Woman found stabbed to death in dumpster, Las Vegas police say

Police said the woman was stabbed multiple times. No additional details were released about the victim. Her identity, and cause of death, will be released by the Clark County Coroners Office.

Boe is due to make an initial appearance in court Friday afternoon.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
In 1978 Barbera McClure was last seen walking home, she never arrived

On November 11, 1978, Barbara McClure was last seen in Lake Forest Park, walking back to her home in Seattle. She never arrived.

The King County Sheriffs Office is reaching out to the public to help solve the cold case.

McClure had gone to the Fandango Disco with a co-worker. After an argument between the two, she decided to walk the five miles home.

She was last seen walking south in the 16500 block of Bothell Way Northeast.

At the time of her disappearance, McClure was 55 tall and approximately 120 lbs. She had blue eyes and dark brown hair.

She was last seen wearing rust colored corduroy pants; wide striped rust and green blouse; short black leather jacket; tan mid-calf boots with 2 heel and a brown cloth purse with shoulder strap.

If you have any information, please contact the King County Sheriffs Office at 206-263-2090 or email mcutips@kingcounty.gov. Case number: 78-182215.
(FOX40.COM)  Sacramento Regional Transit said it is hosting two in-person hiring events during May, and bus driver hires could be eligible for a $2,000 sign-on bonus.

On May 7, the transportation agency will host its first hiring event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the SacRT Administrative Building in midtown Sacramento at 1400 29th St., in the auditorium. On May 21, SacRT will host its second hiring event at the same location from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

SacRT conducting daytime testing of new low-floor trains

SacRT is hiring for several bus driver positions, including full-time and part-time positions, and will provide paid training and assistance with obtaining necessary permits and Commercial Driver Licenses, the agency said on its website.

SacRT said it will look to fill other open positions at the hiring events including bus operators, dispatchers (specifically for the Elk Grove Service), facilities supervisors, planners, civil engineers, and security operations center specialists.

All driver (operator) positions include $2,000 sign-on bonuses! SacRT adds. Dont have your Commercial Driver License (CDF), we will help you get it!

Transit system expanding Sacramento route including stop at May Lee State Office Complex

SacRT also listed the employment benefits offered to new hires, which include health insurance, paid holidays, free transit passes for employees and eligible dependents, and even education reimbursement.

Although it is hosting the two hiring events in May, SacRT reminds everyone that all positions can be applied to on their website, however, those who do apply through there will be required to create an official SacRT account.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40.
Many countries have ghost towns with a sad story behind them. Most often, they have been deserted as a result of war, disasters, or economic reasons.

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Our country also has such a location that the whole world knows about. Today we will tell you about one of the most unusual options for traveling in Ukraine.

What's going on there now?

Almost 40 years have passed since the disaster, and the interest still continues. Films and TV series are being made, books are being written, and computer games are being developed. And thrill-seekers even travel to Chornobyl to see the eerie scene with their own eyes.

The contaminated area near the infamous nuclear power plant is divided into three parts: special, 10-kilometer and 30-kilometer zones. Within these points are the industrial site of the nuclear facility, as well as settlements.

Contrary to some myths, the location is open to the public. However, after the temporary occupation of the territory by the Russian invaders, it became dangerous to walk around the town as most of the territory was mined.

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Which city is called a "ghost" one?

Today, more than 1000 people live in Chornobyl. These are the people who serve the institutions and enterprises of the Exclusion Zone and those who returned to their native land after the tragedy. Life is not in full swing here, but it's not exactly abandoned either. Shops are open, and there are even souvenir ones.

Two monuments attract attention. The first one has a list of villages affected by radiation. And the second one, near the fire station, has the names of the liquidators of the accident.

But Prypiat is a completely abandoned and dead city. This is where tourists are taken. It is not recommended to move around on your own as wild animals live here.

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What you can see

Sights, if you can call them that, are inconspicuous buildings that would not normally attract attention. As a rule, the route runs through the center of Prypiat, abandoned houses, shops, and former enterprises and critical infrastructure facilities.

The famous Red Forest is one of the "liquidators" of the accident. On that fateful day, it took on a huge dose of radioactive dust. Most of the trees died, and those that remained acquired a rusty hue. Hence the name. During the decontamination of the Exclusion Zone, the park was demolished and buried, but after a while nature began to revive.

The road that lies above the railroad tracks was called the Bridge of Death. On the day of the tragedy, locals came here to see the burning reactor. They did not know then that they were putting themselves in danger.

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The Ferris Wheel has become one of the symbols of Prypiat and the entire Exclusion Zone. Children have never been able to ride it. It was scheduled to open on May 1, 1986. But it was not to be. Interestingly, in September 2017, Polish tourists briefly launched the attraction to shoot a video.

The Palace of Culture Energetik used to host active evenings. It hosted hobby clubs, local and visiting artists, concerts and performances. In the fall of 2016, life came alive again for a moment. Ukrainian 'stalkers' illuminated the inscription of the establishment with yellow and white diode strips. This was their way of marking the 30th anniversary of the tragedy and the 10th anniversary of the release of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game.

The most unusual construction in the Exclusion Zone is the Duga radar station. It is also called the Russian Woodpecker. It is a huge metal structure. The length and height of one antenna is 460 and 150 meters, respectively, and the second is 230 and 110 meters. At the beginning of its existence, this secret facility was marked on maps as a pioneer camp. It was even rumored to be a "mind-reading device." In fact, the project was created to detect intercontinental ballistic missile launches. They planned to receive signals from Europe and North America. Now it is a favorite place for extreme sports.

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How to get there

You can go to Chornobyl from the age of 18, of course, if you have no medical contraindications. The most legal and safe way is to book an excursion, which is offered by travel agencies.

Specialists will help you get access to the Exclusion Zone, show you the most interesting places and tell you their history. The tour usually starts from Kyiv.

Is it possible to get there on your own? Yes, but it is difficult. First, you need to get an entry permit and pass radiometric control. Sneaking in is highly discouraged. The territory is guarded by law enforcement officers and border guards. Patrols regularly inspect the area to keep out looters looking for radioactive metal to sell.

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Please note that trespassing is punishable by law and is also dangerous to health. Especially now, when a large part of the territory is mined.

For those who like stories, especially dark ones, we recommend taking a closer look at this area. However, we urge you to take a responsible approach to such a trip, and ideally postpone the trip until peaceful times.

Only verified information is available in our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and in Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
2 Democrats apply for vacant House seat. Here's why neither will be on the ballot

Jodi Whitted

Two Democrats have applied to serve as an Ohio state representative for seven months.

Whoever House Democrats pick for the vacant 28th House District seat in northern Hamilton County will have a short tenure thanks to redistricting.

Social worker Jodi Whitted, of Madeira, and attorney Regina Collins, of Forest Park, submitted resumes for the seat formerly occupied by current Hamilton County Auditor Jessica Miranda, according to resumes obtained by The Enquirer through an open records request.

Regina Collins

Miranda resigned to take the auditor's job after the previous auditor, Brigid Kelly, died of esophageal cancer on March 26.

Neither Whitted or Collins will be on the ballot in November. The Hamilton County Democrats picked Symmes Township social worker Karen Brownlee to run for the House seat. Brownlee couldn't fill out the term because she doesn't live within the current district boundaries.

Republican lawmakers redrew the lines. Brownlee's Symmes Township home will be in the 28th House District next year with the new boundaries that will go into effect.

Brownlee will face Republican Jenn Giroux in the House 28th District election in November.

So Democrats need to find someone for a few months to represent the district, which includes Springdale, Sharonville and Blue Ash.

"That's the way it has to be because of gerrymandering," said Miranda. "And that's how we're moving forward. Gerrymandering is bad for all of us. This is why the process can't be seamless."

Who is making the picks?

The House Minority Caucus could make the choice as early as May 8 when the Ohio General Assembly reconvenes. Per the Ohio Constitution, the House Democratic Caucus can replace a vacancy left by a House Democrat. State law allows the county party to pick the replacement candidate on the ballot.

Two people stepped forward for the temporary job.

Who is Jodi Whitted?

Whitted is an assistant professor in the social work department at the University of Cincinnati. She's also worked on equity and inclusion issues in Madeira as a member of the city's inclusion committee. In that capacity, she served from 2020 to 2023 as the director of Madeira Pride, which organized the city's LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration.

"While the appointment to this role is time-limited, if given the opportunity, I will serve theconstituents in District 28 with passion and dedication," Whitted wrote in her cover letter sent to Ohio House Democrats

Who is Regina Collins?

Collins had served as a council member in Forest Park from 2015 to 2019. She has run unsuccessfully against Miranda in Democratic primaries.

"Public service is a divine trust," Collins wrote to House Democrats in her cover letter. "You really have to have a heart for it."

Whom has Miranda endorsed?

Miranda has endorsed Whitted for the remainder of her House term.

"Jodi is a fierce fighting suburban mom," Miranda said. Miranda has also backed Brownlee in the election.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Who applied for Jessica Miranda's House seat in Hamilton County?
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  Religious messages were posted on the doors and windows of a Jewish temple in Fresno on Thursday, leading to two men being detained, the Fresno Police Department said.

Officers say they responded to Temple Beth Israel on Herndon and Maroa avenues at 4:18 p.m. following a call about vandalism and a disturbance on site involving two men.

Officials with the Temple Beth Israel say messages with religious content were posted around the doors and windows of the temple.

Messages posted to the side of Temple Beth Israel.

Upon arrival, officers contacted two men in their 20s at the nearby St. Anthonys of Padua and were able to detain them. Messages with religious content were also posted in St. Anthony of Padua church.

The diocese released a statement saying the messages posted on St. Anthonys church do not reflect the values of the Catholic community in Fresno.

The rhetoric posted on St. Anthonys church without permission from the parish or the diocese does not reflect the values of the Catholic community of Fresno. We pray for all other religious communities affected by the situation. Diocese of St. Anthonys church in Fresno.

Police say it is still unknown if this incident is a hate crime. Vehicles not from California were also at the site: a motorcycle with an Oregon license plate and a van with a New York license plate.

This is an ongoing investigation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
After an attack at a Tucson museum this week, the Arizona Game and Fish Department submitted the bodies of two foxes for rabies testing.

An employee at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was attacked by a fox on Wednesday morning but did not sustain any injuries from the animal, according to Game and Fish.

The wildlife agency said it did a brief search before finding and euthanizing two foxes believed to be related to the attack.

Game and Fish was still awaiting test results, which usually takes several days to be returned, according to spokesperson Tom Cadden.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum closed its doors for the rest of Wednesday as a precaution, according to Game and Fish, but it was open again as of Friday morning.

According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, gray foxes, along with bats and skunks, are among the most commonly infected with rabies.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum confirmed the employee was unharmed in the attack, adding that it was not uncommon to see wildlife in the area.

The grounds were free of any other wild mammal activity, according to a spokesperson for the museum.

On April 4, a now-euthanized fox near the Hugh Norris Trail in Saguaro National Park attacked three people, all of whom had to be treated for rabies.

On March 28, a gray fox was captured and euthanized after the animal attacked a person in Tucson.

In December 2023, a suspected rabid gray fox also aggressively attacked two people near the Molino Base Campground in southern Arizona.

Since the start of 2024, there have been three confirmed rabies cases throughout Arizona.

According to the wildlife agency, gray foxes, along with bats and skunks, are among the most commonly infected with rabies.

Are cases of foxes with rabies increasing Arizona?

Anne Justice-Allen, wildlife veterinarian for Game and Fish, said that while rabies cases in Arizona for this year were generally not unusual, there has been a greater increase in rabies cases over the past two years.

"This year our late winter rains and the good monsoon that we had last year has caused the prey populations for the foxes and skunks to be relatively abundant and so now the vector populations have increased," Justice-Allen said.

In 2022, there were a total of 49 animals positive for rabies and 59 cases in 2023, according to data provided by Justice-Allen.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum worker attacked by potentially rabid fox
Thats suspicious two Cobb County cops resigned from the department following the resurfacing of a troubling body camera video showing their violent arrest of a Black man. The tea is that the two were supposed to be fired already.



Lets back up.

On August, 19, 2023, officers responded to a report of two pairs of people aiming guns at each other near the Six Flags Over Georgia parking lot. When the officers approached Montavious Smith, he was by himself and already lying chest-down on the concrete, per the body camera video. One officer got on Smiths back and began punching him repeatedly as the other officers surrounded and held onto his legs and arms.

Please dont kill me! Im underaged! Smith is heard yelling in the video as the officers commanded him to put his hands behind his backwhilehis bare chest was pressed into the concrete.

In the incident report, officers Nicholas Malagon and Noah Maack said they had to tackle him to the ground. However, an internal affairs investigation revealed their description of the event didnt relate to the content of the video, where Smith doesnt appear to resist the officers at all, per WSB-TV.

Thats where the officers got themselves in trouble.

Read more from WSB-TV:

Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer says he terminated Malagon for unreasonable use of force and other policy violations. Maack was fired for making false statements in his incident report, including saying that Smith was tackled. Maack also suggested to internal affairs that his report was based on what he saw and other sources of information. I mean, not really. I mean, I guess I could use a different word other than tackle, Maack can be heard saying in a recording of an interview with internal affairs. The chief also asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to determine if there were any criminal charges that should have been added.

However, a whole year later, it turns out the officers didnt get booted from their jobs just yet. The report says Wednesday, the officers formally resigned from their positions instead of facing termination. So much for facing the consequences of their actions.

As for Smith, he still faces a misdemeanor drug charge, obstruction of law enforcement and tampering with evidence, per the Cobb Solicitors Office.

For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Two people are hurt after a crash in the Nutbush neighborhood Thursday night.

Memphis Police responded to a crash on Macon Road near Berclair Road at 9:32 p.m. Thursday.

Airport area crash kills 1, injures 2 others

Police say a man went to Regional One Hospital in critical condition while a woman went to Baptist East in non-critical condition.

Memphis Police are asking drivers to avoid the intersection as they investigate the crash.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
2 Massachusetts firefighters who died in the line of duty to be honored at national ceremony

Two Massachusetts firefighters who died in the line of duty will be honored during a national ceremony in Maryland this weekend.

Boston Fire Lt. Edward Bergdoll, 60, died on Oct. 26, 2022 due to complications from leukemia, and retired Winchester Fire Lt. Peter Skerry, 72, died on Dec. 3, 2022 due to complications from metastatic lung cancer, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

The deaths of both Bergdoll and Skerry were deemed by the state to be line of duty deaths, the foundation said.

Both men will be honored during the 43rd National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend on Saturday and Sunday in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Boston Fire Lt. Edward Bergdoll, 60, shown left, died on Oct. 26, 2022 due to complications from leukemia, and retired Winchester Fire Lt. Peter Skerry, 72, died on Dec. 3, 2022 due to complications from metastatic lung cancer, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

This years national tribute will honor 89 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2023 and 137 firefighters who died in previous years.

National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend is a time for our nation to pause and reflect on the heroic efforts and selfless service of the fallen firefighters we are paying tribute to this year, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation CEO Victor Stagnaro said in a statement. We will always remember the bravery, commitment, and sacrifices of each of these 226 heroes  and their families.

Bergdoll, known as Eddie, was a 1980 graduate of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, according to biographical information on the foundations website. After graduation, he followed in the footsteps of his late father, Fire Captain and Army veteran Frank Buddy Bergdoll, who also died of occupational cancer.

In 1984, Edward Bergdoll joined the Boston Fire Department, alongside his brother David. Starting at Ladder 21, he later moved to Engine 33 and was promoted to fire lieutenant in 1999. His most extended tenure was with Engine 16 of Dorchester-Mattapan, before a final shift to Boston Fire Department headquarters, rounding off a 38-year career.

Eddie embodied the unwavering work ethic of his parents. His deep faith in Christ, indomitable responsibility, dedication to family, and drive to serve defined him, the foundation website states.

He also worked as an EMT with Fallon Ambulance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where he met his wife, Nancy.

Of all the roles he embraced, being a loving husband and doting father to four daughters was his most prized, the foundation website states. Eddies legacy lies in his love for service, the camaraderie of the fire department, the joy of fatherhood, and a zest for life.

Skerry, known as Pete, graduated from Winchester High School in 1968, attended Essex Agricultural for tree work, and later became a certified tree surgeon and arborist. He went on to work for the Winchester Cemetery Department for several years and owned and operated Skerry Landscaping on the side, according to biographical information on the foundations website.

Skerry was hired by the Winchester Fire Department in 1978 and graduated from the Massachusetts Fire Academy in 1979. He served as a Winchester firefighter and EMT until retiring as lieutenant in 2014.

Pete wore many hats in his life  husband, father, brother, uncle, cousin, lieutenant, cat daddy, band roadie, friend, and best friend. To say that he was dedicated to helping others would be an understatement, not only professionally, but also helping his friends, family, and even total strangers at times, the foundation website states.

It would not surprise most to hear about times when he would stop on the side of the road to help someone who was broken down or to strike up a long, friendly conversation with someone who was just asking for directions. That was the kind of guy Pete was. He never stopped helping people, both on and off the clock. His generosity knew no bounds; it was his love language, the foundation website states.

Detailed information about each of the 226 firefighters being memorialized can be found on the foundations 2024 Roll of Honor.

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
20-year-old charged with murder after Suburban Parkway homicide in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY)  A 20-year-old faces a first-degree murder charge after a homicide last month in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth police announced Friday that Tyree Soto was arrested and is being held without bond. He also faces related gun charges.

Police believe Soto shot and killed 33-year-old Wayne Morris in the 900 block of Suburban Parkway, near George Washington Highway, around 2 a.m. on April 15. Morris was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said in their update that theyre still searching for additional information in the case, and ask anyone who can assist to give them a call.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  If you have lived in southern Nevada for a while, you know flooding is a serious issue and now a $23 million project to combat the problem is underway.

The 71-acre Jim McGaughey Detention Basin will be built by Los Feliz Street and East Owens Avenue to help combat flooding on the east side of Las Vegas.

The east side of the valley is hit especially hard by floodwaters because the infrastructure is not in place right now to help.

The rainfall lands on the mountain it runs off and goes through the developed area and there are not a lot of facilities down there to take it through the developed area, Chief Engineer of the Regional Flood Control District Steven Parrish said.

Groundbreaking ceremony of the Jim McGaughey Detention Basin on May 2, 2024. (KLAS)

Last September, Labor Day weekend storms caused flooding in many areas across the valley floodwaters damaged homes, and cars and even turned streets into rivers. A homeowner on the east side near where this new detention basin will be built told 8 News Now his home sustained more than $60,000 in damage because of floodwaters.

This is one of the last big flood control projects left to build said Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom who led the groundbreaking of the 107th detention basin. It will be named after Jim McGaughey who helped create the Regional Flood Control District.

These homeowners here will benefit because once this is down, they will no longer be subjected to that where the floods come in and knock out their walls, Commissioner Segerblom said.

However, there is still plenty of work to be done and more projects in the works to address flooding in the valley. Parrish said one facility wont solve all the problems, but the new detention basin is one of several as they control flooding on the east side.

We have about 32 detention basins left to build in our plan and another 212 miles of channels and storm drains left to construct, Parrish said.

Construction on this new basin will begin this summer and is expected to take about a year to complete.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  The three men arrested following the disturbance at Temple Beth Israel and St. Anthony of Padua Church in Fresno were named by police on Friday, following the incidents at the religious sites on Thursday.

According to the Fresno Police Department, officers responded to Temple Beth Israel on Herndon and Maroa avenues in Fresno on Thursday at around 4:30 p.m. regarding a disturbance. When officers arrived, they say those responsible for the disturbance had left the scene in a van. The van was found parked at the nearby St. Anthony of Padua Church at Bullard and Maroa avenues. Three men were detained at that location.

2 detained after disturbance at Jewish temple in Fresno

The three men arrested were identified on Friday as 32-year-old Christopher Avila, 32-year-old Daniel Watson, and 31-year-old Colin Laurila. Officers say all three were from outside California and were traveling through the state. Arrest records show Christopher Avila and Daniel Watson are from the State of New York whereas Colin Laurila is from Portland, Oregon.

32-year-old Christopher Avila

32-year-old Daniel Watson

31-year-old Colin Laurila

Police say the men arrived at Temple Beth Israel and posted paper signs on the building. Employees at the temple confronted the men and the men quoted bible verses in response. Officers say when the employees spoke about taking the signs down, the men made threatening statements if they did so. The men then left Temple Beth Israel and the employees called the police. The men were arrested at the nearby St. Anthony of Padua Church.

Officers also determined that the incident at Temple Beth Israel was not the first and that the three men were at another nearby church with a similar confrontation. That church was not named by police.

Messages posted to the side of Temple Beth Israel.

A van with what appeared to be a New York license plate and a motorcycle with an Oregon license plate were both towed from the scene.

All three suspects were booked into Fresno County Jail, but Laurila and Watson have since been released. All were arrested on suspicion of posting signs on closed lands, trespassing, and conspiracy to commit a crime. Avila was also arrested on suspicion of felony criminal threats.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  Three people who work as public servants in Wichita have been surprised with the 2024 Excellence in Public Service Awards, which includes a $2,500 check.

In February, citizens were asked to nominate City of Wichita, Sedgwick County, or Wichita Public Schools employees who go above and beyond their duties through their work, problem-solving skills, ethical standards, and community involvement. A committee of public and private sector representatives chose the three winners.

The City, the County, and WPS presented the awards during surprise announcements last week and this week.

Sedgwick County winner

On Thursday, Sedgwick County gave its Excellence in Public Service Award to Michelle Stroot, the County Finance Division revenue manager, during what she thought was an annually scheduled conference.

I would say I was shocked and surprised but grateful that they thought of me for this nomination, she said after the presentation.

County leaders present Michelle Stroot with a check for $2,500. (Courtesy Sedgwick County)

The awards committee said Stroot has played a crucial role in managing the financial aspects of the County Department on Aging  part of her duties within a previous role with the County  while simultaneously performing her current role with exceptional leadership skills.

In the community, she is involved in Leadership Wichita, Junior League of Wichita, and The Lords Diner.

City of Wichita winner

The City of Wichita surprised its winner on April 22. Nashell Williams is a program coordinator for the Citys Housing and Community Services.

The City says Williams has transformed the Way to Work Youth Employment Program, offering vital support to young individuals facing immense challenges. Under her direction, the program has grown, introducing counselors who address the whole well-being of participants.

As the city manager presented her with the symbolic $2,500 check, Williams broke into tears. She said this year has been tough because of losing children that she had such a connection with.

I was challenged to try to figure out what was next and how do we make an impact, but I absolutely love what I do, she said. Theres never enough dollars in the world to be able to impact the kids.

She thanked everyone she works with for always being willing to help.

The City of Wichita presented Na'shell Williams with a $2,500 check on April 22, 2024. (Courtesy City of Wichita)

The awards committee also noted that Williams has established a groundbreaking partnership with Wichita State University, providing program participants with enhanced training and educational opportunities.

Wichita Public Schools winner

The winner for Wichita Public Schools is Terri Moses, the division director for WPS Safety and Environmental Services. USD 259 leaders presented her with her check on April 24.

Moses was already well-known in the community before she began working for the school system. She spent more than 30 years with the Wichita Police Department, achieving the rank of deputy chief before she retired in 2013.

Wichita Public Schools leaders present Terri Moses with a check for $2,500 on April 24, 2024. (Courtesy Wichita Public Schools)

WPS says she exemplifies bold yet humble leadership, unwavering commitment to ethical actions, and a profound belief in the value of people.

She is credited with leading the districts COVID response team, employing her paddle like a duck mentality to guide the states largest school district through the pandemic successfully.

Some of her accomplishments include:

Implementing the Hall Pass visitor management system,

Conducting regular safety reviews of school campuses,

Establishing active substitute clerical training,

Advocating for secure entries in every school building, and

Implementing school entry scanners to ensure trust in school environments.

Former Shocker coach donates to WSU baseball

Moses is also active in a number of community roles, serving on boards and being an advocate for public safety and well-being.

The three winners were selected from thousands of eligible public servants. They will receive their actual checks during a reception on Thursday afternoon, May 16, in the Lotus Hall at Botanica.

The DeVore Foundation is the prime sponsor for the awards. KSN is also a sponsor.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
Russia has concluded that the first "cotton" on the Kerch Bridge in the temporarily occupied Crimea in the fall of 2022 was an attempt to "launch it into the sky" using solid rocket fuel. It was this fuel that was allegedly hidden in spools of plastic film and detonated from another explosive (plastid) at a certain point along the route.

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It was an improvised explosive device with a capacity equivalent to 10 tons of TNT carried by the truck, Russian media reported, citing new expert data. As a reminder, the aggressor country calls the explosion on the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022, a "terrorist attack" organized by SBU Head Malyuk and intends to send the case to court this summer.

According to propaganda outlets, the investigation has recently been completed by officers of the Russian Investigative Committee, in particular from the Department for Investigation of Crimes against the Person and Public Security. They consider the explosive forensic examination to be the "most important document" in this "criminal case of 100 volumes".

"Experts, with the help of FSB operatives and the military, concluded that the organizer of the crime was the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk. According to the investigation, he had been leading the terrorist group tasked with destroying the Crimean Bridge since his appointment as first deputy of the special service in March 2022," the Russian Federation claims.

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Russian investigators believe that the participants made an improvised explosive device with a capacity of about 10 tons of TNT equivalent. As the main charge, they "used a mixed explosive" based on solid rocket fuel, which contained "potassium or sodium perchlorates, as well as fine metals."

All of this was wrapped in 0.1 mm of plastic film, and the shell of the device was also a dense layer of film. The Russian Investigative Committee claims that in early August 2022, this film on 22 pallets, weighing 22.7 tons traveled from Odesa through Ruse (Bulgaria), Poti (Georgia), and ended up in Yerevan (Armenia). At the latter point, the cargo was cleared through customs with some of the accompanying documents replaced.

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"On October 4, the film was transported by a DAF truck across the Georgian-Russian border at the Verkhny Lars checkpoint, and two days later it was delivered to a wholesale base in Armavir (Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation). The pallets were loaded into an International ProStar truck with a trailer driven by Russian citizen Mahir Yusubov (who was unaware of the terrorists' plans), who, according to the documents, was supposed to deliver them from Ulyanovsk-based PEK-34 LLC to the address of Extra LLC registered in Simferopol," the Russian case file says.

Those who drafted the documents suggested that such "complicated movements" were needed to weaken the attention of Russian security forces to the cargo.

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They also concluded that the "improvised explosive" was detonated by another "foreign-made" explosive based on hexogen. The detonator, hidden under the film, was triggered by a GPS signal "at the moment of passing a predefined point of the route."

The explosion on the Crimean Bridge occurred on the morning of October 8, 2022, on the 156 km section of the Russian highway Novorossiysk-Kerch. As you know, the bright "cotton" destroyed two spans of the road, their supports, as well as 17 tank cars of a freight train that was moving along the railway part of the bridge illegally built by the occupiers in Crimea at the time.

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The Russians accused citizens of Russia, Armenia, and Ukraine (the following names are mentioned in the case materials: Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Dmitry Tyazhkykh, Artem and Georgy Azatyan, Roman Solomko, Vladimir Zloma, and Artur Terchanyan). Moscow security forces believe that all of these people were responsible for delivering explosives disguised as film to the site of the attack. Several other people, including the head of the SBU, Malyuk, were arrested in absentia by Russian war criminals and even put on the international wanted list.

RosZNI added that the case will be sent to the Southern District Military Court after prosecutors and other "interested parties" have read a hundred volumes of the case, which Russia hopes will be in the middle of summer 2024.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, on July 26, 2023, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk confirmed that the Kerch Bridge explosion was an SBU operation that dealt the most painful reputational blow to the aggressor country. On the anniversary of that event, he disclosed the details of the attack, telling how they managed to smuggle 21 tons of explosives wrapped in packing film.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Thirty Sailors and Marines were injured Wednesday evening during a training exercise off of the Florida coast, according to the U.S. Navy.

Two landing craft, air cushions (LCAC) were off the coast of Jacksonville when an undisclosed incident occurred, according to the Navy.

Boaters caught dumping bags full of trash off boat in Florida

Five Sailors were taken to Savannah Memorial University Medical Center, according to a news release. Four of them have since been released from the hospital.

Other Sailors and Marines were treated for minor injuries on board USS Wasp and USS New York.

The Sailors and Marines are assigned to the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and 24th marine Expeditionary Unit, according to the Navy.

No other details were immediately available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
The U.S. Navy said 30 sailors and marines were injured in a training exercise off the coast of Jacksonville on Wednesday evening.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

According to a news release released by the U.S. Navy, sailors and marines were conducting a training exercise involving 2 landing craft and air cushions on the USS Wasp and USS New York when an incident occurred.

Five sailors were medically evacuated from the ships to Savannah Memorial University Medical Center for treatment, and all but one have since been released from the hospital. The other sailors and marines only suffered minor injuries and were treated on the ships.

Read: 9 arrested, guns and drugs seized on Jacksonvilles Westside after citizen tip, sheriff says

The training exercise involved sailors and marines assigned to the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The U.S. Navy said the recovery and investigation process is ongoing.

Action News Jax reached out to Naval Station Mayport and NAS Jax for statements on the matter, but we are still waiting to hear back.

Action News Jax will continue to follow the story and will update you as we learn more.

Read: INVESTIGATES: I was vulnerable Artificial intelligence work-from-home job scams targeting victims

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  Advocates with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom and the ACLU of Missouri dropped off more than 380,000 signatures to the Secretary of States Office in hopes of asking voters later this year to overturn Missouris abortion ban.

The campaign said it turned in more than 380,000 voter signatures  more than double the minimum 171,000 needed to qualify for the ballot. The Missouri Secretary of States Office now has to verify the signatures.

Once formalized, voters would see a ballot question on abortion in Missouri later this year.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is backing a proposal to allow lawmakers to regulate or ban abortion post-viability, except to protect the womans life and health. This effort, supported by ACLU of Missouri, local Planned Parenthood branches, and Abortion Action Missouri, aims to restore medical decision-making to individuals.

Our message is simple and clear, ACLU Missouri lawyer and campaign spokesperson Tori Schafer said in a statement. We want to make decisions about our bodies free from political interference.

Unsettled weather continues, with rounds of strong storms possible

A moderate, Republican-led Missouri campaign earlier this year abandoned an effort for an alternate amendment that would have allowed abortion up to 12 weeks and after that with only limited exceptions.

Like many Republican-controlled states, Missouri outlawed almost all abortions with no exceptions in the case of rape or incest immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Missouri law only allows abortions for medical emergencies.

There has been a movement to put abortion rights questions to voters following the 2022 decision. So far, voters in seven states  California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont  have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures.

Its not clear yet how many states will vote on measures to enshrine abortion access in November. In some, the question is whether amendment supporters can get enough valid signatures. In others, its up to the legislature. And theres legal wrangling in the process in some states.

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Politics

In Missouri, its now up to Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to check the validity of the abortion-rights campaigns signatures.

Signature-gathering efforts by the campaign were delayed in part because of a legal battle with Ashcroft last year over how to word the abortion question if it gets on the ballot.

Ashcroft had proposed asking voters whether they are in favor of allowing dangerous and unregulated abortions until live birth.

A state appeals court in October said the wording was politically partisan.

Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers in Missouri are feuding over another proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the bar for voters to enact future constitutional amendments.

The hope is that the changes would go before voters on the August primary ballot, so the higher threshold for constitutional amendments would be in place if the abortion-rights amendment is on the November ballot.

A faction of Senate Republicans staged a days-long filibuster this week in an attempt to more quickly force the constitutional amendment through the Legislature. But the House and Senate passed different versions of the proposal, and there are only two weeks left before lawmakers deadline to pass legislation.

NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to parts of the written report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
(KRON)  Four people were arrested on numerous charges after an auto burglary that led to a police chase.

San Francisco police officers responded to an auto burglary near Steiner and Grove Streets in Alamo Square at approximately 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday. The officers recalled that the suspects vehicle was associated with a robbery in the Richmond District on April 19.

The officers located the suspects vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. The driver failed to yield. The three additional passengers fled on foot before the driver evaded the officers at a high rate of speed near 22nd and Kansas Streets.

SJ officer in critical condition after shootout Thursday night

The pursuit ended at Steuart Street and Steuart Lane, where the driver was taken into custody. The driver was identified as 21-year-old San Leandro resident Omarionanthony Druex Holman.

San Francisco Police Department

San Francisco Police Department

Officers found a firearm, thousands of dollars worth of property including camera equipment and property belonging from an April auto burglary. All of the stolen items were returned to the owners.

Omarionanthony Druex Holmanwas booked for multiple charges, including burglary of a non-residence and or auto burglary, receiving stolen property, conspiracy to commit an injurious act, to take or drive someone elses vehicle without a persons consent, buying or receiving stolen motor vehicle or equipment and more.

The other three passengers were also arrested and booked into the county jail.

The first passenger was identified as 23-year-old San Francisco resident Michael Tesfiae Gebremeskel. He was arrested on a bevy of charges, including carrying a firearm in a public place or on any public streets while masked, carrying a concealed firearm within a vehicle, carrying a loaded gun with the intention of committing a felony, burglary charges and more.

The second passenger was identified as 21-year-old Hayward resident Andrew Manuel Maravillalopez. He was arrested for revocation hearings, burglary of a non-residence and or auto burglary, receiving stolen property, conspiracy to commit an injurious act, tracking or driving someone elses vehicle without a person consent, buying or receiving stolen motor vehicles or equipment, and more.

The third passenger was identified as 21-year-old Stockton resident Masiah Mengasha Arttirron West-Ayele. He was arrested for multiple charges including charges of burglary in the second degree, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy, theft of vehicle and more.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Four high school students will be representing El Paso, competing at the 2024 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles, California.

Mercedes Lopez and Sofia Pinon from Socorro High School, Victoria Mascorro from Valle Verde Early College High School, and Galilea Velasco from El Paso High School will all have the opportunity to show their talents on a global level, according to the news release by ISEF.

Ysleta ISD students win top awards at Texas Science and Engineering Fair

A press conference with the students and their mock presentations will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 3, at the EPCC Valle Verde Campus, Arts Science and Tech Building Room 243, at 919 Hunter Drive.

Each student will present their research to the judges from Sunday, May 12 through Friday, May 17.

By facilitating their participation in ISEF, we support their individual growth, allow them to receive well deserved recognition for their scientific achievements, and empower them to compete for prominent awards and potential scholarships, said Insights Science Discovery Board Member and Student Chaperone Edith Jaurrieta.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
It was another historic week in the first criminal trial against a former U.S. president. New York state prosecutors built their case, and the judge fined the defendant for violating a court order nine times. Here are five top takeaways from the second week of testimony in People v. Donald Trump:

1. Presumptive nominee held in criminal contempt

One of the biggest takeaways this week was something that happened without a witness on the stand. Judge Juan Merchan ruled Tuesday that the former president violated a gag order nine times. Merchan only imposed fines rather than jail, but the judge threatened the latter punishment for future violations. The judge also held yet another hearing Thursday on potential additional violations. No matter the outcome of this trial, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee serially skirting a court order in his case merits emphasis.

2. Prosecutors build their case

In his opening statement last week, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the jury that the case is about Trump trying to corrupt the 2016 presidential election and then covering it up by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again. Among the witnesses the state used to build on that theory this week were Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented alleged hush-money recipients Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, and former Trump aide Hope Hicks. Davidsons testimony gave an inside look at how the purported payoff scheme came together ahead of the election, while Hicks gave jurors an inside view from the Trump camp. (Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with the former Playboy model McDougal and adult film actress Daniels.)

3. The Access Hollywood tape is crucial

The infamous tape released a month ahead of the 2016 election continues to dominate throughout the trial. Both Davidson and Hicks testified to the impact of the recording that contained Trump bragging about being able to grab women by their genitals. It wasnt until Access Hollywood that interest sort of reached a crescendo, Davidson testified Tuesday, explaining how the deal went down to secure Daniels silence as Trump successfully sought the White House. Hicks said Friday that it was a damaging development for the campaign.

4. Not every witness is big, but they matter

Most people following the case are familiar with Hicks and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Davidson. But jurors also heard from lower-profile witnesses who are nonetheless important to proving the states case. For example, the jury has now heard from Gary Farro, the banker Cohen dealt with to carry out the alleged hush money payoff. Prosecutors also called more technical witnesses to the stand, such as a forensic analyst to bring out evidence from Michael Cohens phones.

5. Introducing Michael Cohen

Cohen himself still hasnt testified, but he certainly has come up  and not in a flattering way. The lawyer Davidson and the banker Farro both made clear how Cohen was difficult to deal with and even deceptive. At first glance, one might think prosecutors wouldnt like that unceremonious airing of a potentially important witness yet to come. But it may benefit them because when Cohen takes the stand, his unscrupulous character wont be a revelation to the jury. Indeed, Manhattan jurors may feel like they already know him by then.

Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Nearly 54 years ago, a pivotal year unfolded for Portland State University, as protesters against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings were stormed by police, leaving dozens injured.

In May 1970, protesters at Portland State joined nationwide protests sparked by two events: President Richard Nixon expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia, and the Ohio National Guards deadly shooting of 4 Kent State students at an antiwar rally at the school.

After the Kent State incident, hundreds of PSU students boycotted classes, and barricaded streets in the Park Blocks to create a liberated zone' where protesters camped, as reported by Portland State Magazine.

Protests continue after PSU library cleared, 12 arrest, 4 students

After a week of demonstrations around the university, protesters agreed to take down the camps on May 11 and started to disperse when Mayor Terry Schrunks Tactical Operations Platoon came in with batons to push them out faster, beating protesters who refused to give way, according to Portland State Magazine.

Protesters at Portland State University in May 1970 protesting the Vietnam War and Kent State killings (Courtesy Dana E. Olsen.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

On May 11, 1970, police clashed with protesters at Portland State University against the Vietnam War and Kent State killings. The clash led 27 protesters and four officers to be hospitalized, according to PSU. (Courtesy Portland State Magazine/Craig Hickman.)

Portland officials ignored a City-authorized permit and dispatched riot police to the Park Blocks to take down the strikers hospital tent. When, in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, more than a hundred students and faculty defied an order to disperse, they were violently attacked, leaving 31 injured, according to PSU, adding, 27 protesters and four officers were hospitalized.

The following day, strikers and their opponents, a group of four thousand strong, marched in protest to City Hall.

VIDEO: Protesters flee library as police make arrests at Portland State University

PSU students documented the protest in the award-winning documentary The Seventh Day, showcasing the protests around campus and the police clash.

Portland State University students documented a protest on campus  including the moment protesters were stormed by police  in the award-winning documentary The Seventh Day, showing demonstrations against the Vietnam War and Kent State Killings in 1970 (Courtesy Portland State University.)

The clash thrust PSU into the national spotlight and shaped the campus in ways still seen and felt 50 years later, Portland State Magazine said. It was the most visible event in what was a pivotal year in PSU history, thanks to students who raised their voices together at the right time and place. They helped transform the campus from a quiet commuter school into a hot spot for social change and academic opportunity.

Joining again in nationwide protests, Portland State University students began demonstrations, including encampments on campus, on April 25, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

On Thursday, KOIN 6 News video captured the moment protesters fled PSUs Millar library, occupied by another group of protesters since Monday  as Portland police arrived in riot gear, armed with 40mm less lethal launchers.

After shutting down campus on Thursday, PSU released a statement, noting, Portland State University is grateful for the assistance of the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police, Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Chief Bob Day for their partnership. What weve seen take place so far on the Park Blocks, while distressing to see, has been peaceful and calm overall, which is an immense relief. The safety and well being of our campus community is our top priority.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Dartmouth College history professor Annelise Orleck went viral Thursday following her arrest the previous night for taking part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus. Video from New Hampshire television station WMUR showed police in riot gear pulling the 65-year-old Orleck away from the protest before one officer appears to push her to the ground.

Are you kidding me? a stunned demonstrator can be heard yelling.

Orleck said she was zip-tied, placed in a van with other arrestees and held in lockup in Lebanon, New Hampshire, for two and a half hours. She was charged with criminal trespass, and the terms of her bail stated she was not allowed to return to the campus where shed been teaching for more than 30 years.

A former chair of the colleges Jewish studies program who specializes in U.S. political history and womens history, Orleck had been teaching about the civil rights movement that afternoon. In an interview with HuffPost, she explained how the ordeal unfolded.

Police officers arresting an elderly demonstrator @WMUR9pic.twitter.com/2hOFaiNcHq  Ross Ketschke WMUR (@RossWMUR) May 2, 2024

She initially came out to the College Green on Wednesday afternoon in support of graduate student workers who went on strike. The labor action, she said, eventually morphed into a broader protest against the college, calling for Dartmouth to divest from companies tied to Israel.

A very small number of students intended to set up an encampment, Orleck said. She and other supporters were asked to encircle them to create a barrier with police.

It was peaceful, Orleck said. It was a very minor, mild protest. There were multi-faith expressions of solidarity, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian. It was a really nice, peaceful event.

She and others broke for dinner around 7:30 p.m., but they soon got a message that more cops had shown up. Concerned, Orleck and her group  older women faculty, she described them  headed back.

The Green was transformed, Orleck said. There was an unbelievable presence of militarized police. Like nothing Id seen in more than 30 years of teaching here. And so the students on campus were upset by that, and so the numbers on the Green began to grow.

I fault the institution for bringing in riot police. [The protest] was completely, 100% peaceful.Annelise Orleck

She said that presence included campus security, local police from Hanover and Lebanon and state police. She credited the campus security officers for keeping order but said they eventually moved out.

Orleck said police officers in riot gear were swooping in and arresting those who were part of the encampment. She and her faculty friends tried to stand between the two sides, thinking the police wouldnt get physical with older women.

Well, that was wrong, Orleck said.

She started taking pictures with her phone and telling the police to leave the demonstrators alone. She says she was thrown to the ground. A video from Dartmouth student journalist David Adkins posted on X shows Orleck getting up and confronting police. Orleck says one took her phone and she was demanding it back.

The video from WMUR journalist Ross Ketschke shows a cop in riot gear yanking Orleck away from the protest and handing her off to a pair of cops in trooper-style hats. Orleck tumbles to the ground  she says she didnt fall but was pushed. Then they drag her onto her stomach.

They slammed me down ... They were dragging me. My hands still hurt ... They kneeled on my back, Orleck said.

Dartmouth history professor Annelise Orleck said the protests on campus were peaceful until police in riot gear started removing people. Courtesy Annelise Orleck

The van of arrestees she was placed in included a pair of student journalists whod been wearing their credentials, Orleck recalled. She said one student was crying. Orleck decided to lead them in singing civil rights songs. But since the day had begun with labor protests, they started with Solidarity Forever.

And then we went to This Little Light of Mine and We Shall Not Be Moved, Orleck said. It made the students and me feel a little better.

According to the Hanover Police Department, protesters had been ordered to disperse after Dartmouth made it clear no tents or encampments would be allowed. Many who refused were arrested. Hanover Police Chief Charlie Dennis confirmed that Orleck was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor. He said a total of 89 arrests were made. He declined to comment on Orlecks account.

Orleck said the Vermont Workers Center, a labor group, posted the $40 bail for her and others who were arrested. Orleck had no cash on her.

A Dartmouth spokesperson said the school was taking every reasonable step to ensure [Orleck] can continue teaching classes.

We are also clarifying the conditions imposed by the bail commissioner, noting that Dartmouth had no intention of seeking Prof. Orlecks exclusion from campus, and we will promptly request that any errors be corrected, the spokesperson said.

This generation is actually quite a remarkable generation. They're politically committed and savvy and moral.Annelise Orleck

Orleck said she received a call Thursday from Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock asking how she was doing. Orleck told her she had bruises from the arrest. She said they disagreed on the need for such a strong police presence.

I fault the institution for bringing in riot police, Orleck said. [The protest] was completely, 100% peaceful. I know the president doesnt agree with me because she said that to me yesterday, but I was there. And the only way to think of them as not peaceful is if you think that using the words Free Palestine means youre dangerous.

Orleck also said she was proud of how the students behaved.

This generation is actually quite a remarkable generation. Theyre politically committed and savvy and moral, she said. I really want to see, you know, the discussion of them and the treatment of them be kinder and more attentive. I think we just need to be doing our job, educating them and not, you know, attacking them violently. This is a moment where we need to go back to thinking that protest is a part of campus life.

Orleck said she has a class to teach on Friday. Even though Dartmouth has told her they never intended to ban her, an attorney told her she would be violating her bail terms by stepping foot on campus. She believes shell need either a new bail bond or to have the charges dropped.

For now, she plans to teach via Zoom.

Related...
Is 2024 a rerun of 1968? Protests helped Richard Nixon win on law and order | Opinion

I am old enough to remember 1968.

And how that year of protests did not end well for Democrats.

True, America in 1968 was more turbulent than in 2024. Assassinations roiled the world, including those of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Students marched against a Vietnam War that was killing 50 Americans every day, and for long-overdue civil rights, equality and justice.

On the other hand, the leading presidential candidate was not on criminal trial. Students then mostly were not fighting or threatening each other.

In 1968, it all boiled over at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

National Guardsmen were called out to keep order during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

This Democratic National Convention is in Chicago.

Ill save you looking it up: Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon campaigned to restore law and order, and won 32 states.

He easily defeated Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, although the popular vote was close.

I see these protests as much the same as in the 1960s, University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus wrote by email.

Protesters demand Democrats take a side, he wrote.

Meanwhile, Republicans drive a wedge in the Democratic Party by claiming lawlessness and warning against violent extremists.

Donald Trump, left, makes his entrance May 1, 2024, for a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Richard M. Nixon, right, was the 37th president.

Two local political scientists old enough to remember 1968  Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University and Jim Riddlesperger of TCU  both pointed to one obvious difference with 2024.

Campus protests have spread fast but those campuses will begin emptying out in about 10 days, Jillson wrote.

If the protests slow down, theyll be forgotten, Riddlesperger wrote.

Also, both President Joe Biden and challenger Donald Trump take Israels side. The split is less partisan, and mainly between moderate and progressive Democrats.

In the latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll of 1,286 voters taken April 12-22, only 14% of voters said the U.S. should focus on saving Palestinian civilians.

A plurality of Texans, 35%, said the U.S. should balance supporting Israel with preventing civilian casualties.

Rutgers students occupy tents and hold rallies outside Murray Hall in New Brunswick, New Jersey, April 30, 2024, as part of their protest in support of Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza.

TCU political scientist Manochehr Dorraj started at the school in 1990. He teaches Middle East politics.

The parallel to 1968 is on target with two major caveats, he wrote by email.

First, a quick ceasefire would mean the war fades as an issue. If there isnt a quick ceasefire, Dorraj wrote, young people and American Muslims might stay home thinking that this year they have no candidate worth voting for.

The other question, Dorraj wrote, is how damaged Trump might be.

But the 2020 election was about Trump.

In recent weeks, the 2024 election has become more about Biden.

The protests are manna from heaven for Republicans, wrote Mark P. Jones, the Rice University professor who has become a fair referee of Texas politics.

The unrest drowns out coverage of Trumps trial and abortion restrictions, he wrote.

It also reinforces Republicans message that Democrats are the party of chaos, crime and disorder, Jones wrote. And the protests fall flat with working-class Democrats who see chaos and antisemitism among privileged students at largely elite universities.

Like the other professors, Jones looked to the calendar.

The silver lining for Democrats is that the election is still six months away, he wrote.

But if the trouble continues, Republicans will have a slogan:

Make America 68 Again.
78-Year-Old Receptionist Was an Employee of the Year Before Getting Fired. Now Ex-Employer Is Paying Her $78K

In February 2022, Shirley Noble was fired from her receptionist job at a retirement community in Georgia

Covenant Woods, A Senior Living Community/Facebook Covenant Wood, a senior living community in Columbus Georgia

Shirley Noble, who was fired from her receptionist job at age 78 in 2022, will receive $78,000 from her former employer as part of an age and disability discrimination lawsuit settlement

The Georgia woman was fired in February 2022 after a brief hospitalization and replaced "replaced by substantially younger employees, according to court documents

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, BrightSpace Chief Financial Officer Brian Hendricks said the case was resolved "due to the cost of litigating it" but did not admit to any "wrongdoing or discriminatory conduct"

A Georgia woman is set to receive $78,000 after filing an age and disability discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she was illegally fired two years ago.

In February 2022, Shirley Noble was fired from her receptionist job at the Covenant Woods Retirement Community in Columbus, according to a lawsuit filed in a district court by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In the suit, the EEOC alleged that the company fired the "long-tenured receptionist, despite having recognized the 78-year-old employee as one of its employees of the year in January 2022," according to a press release from the EEOC's Atlanta District Office.

The termination came following a brief hospitalization. After she returned to work, "despite having never previously raised substantial performance concerns to the receptionist," she was allegedly told the company "had lost confidence in her ability to work." The next day, she was fired and "replaced by substantially younger employees."

The EEOC announced on Tuesday, April 30, that both Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living will pay $78,000 to settle the lawsuit with Noble.

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, BrightSpace Chief Financial Officer Brian Hendricks said that Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living resolved the case "due to the cost of litigating it," but that they "do not admit wrongdoing or discriminatory conduct as part of this resolution."

"Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living remain committed to compliance with all discrimination and labor and employment laws," Hendricks added.

Related: Superintendent Fired After Allegedly Threatening Students Who Didnt Clap Enough for Daughter at Ceremony

Noble, who had worked for the retirement community since 2007 and was even named an employee of the year for 2021, lost her job just a month after receiving the honor, despite receiving favorable reviews throughout her employment," according to the complaint.

On Feb. 10, 2022, Noble was hospitalized after experiencing a high-blood pressure-related incident at work, which she later claimed was due to dehydration, according to the complaint. She was released about two days later.



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

Days later, Noble visited Covenant Woods to let residents and colleagues know that she was feeling better and would be returning to work, as scheduled."

But when she arrived for work, a newly hired employee nearly 30 years her junior was performing receptionist duties at her desk, per the lawsuit.

Moments later, she was allegedly instructed to visit with the general and office managers, who then told her they had lost confidence in her abilities.

Related: Black Couple Settles Lawsuit After White Friend Pretending to Be Owner Got Home Appraised for $500K More

During the February meeting, the general manager offered Noble three options: work the receptionist role on Sundays only, transfer to another unspecified position in an unspecified department or accept a volunteer ambassador role without pay, per the complaint.

The next day, Noble and the managers met again. Attorneys alleged Noble then asked to have another 30 days at the receptionist position so that she could have a chance to address any concerns about her performance.

Instead, she was allegedly told the offer of working as a receptionist was no longer an option, per the documents. Noble went on to decline the other options provided to her. A termination letter was sent out the following day.

In a June 3 letter to Noble, managers said the Feb. 10 event created a safety concern that prompted them to make the difficult change," per the complaint.

Attorneys claimed two people who were decades younger than Noble were then tasked with filling the role completed by Noble alone.

Related: Mom Suing Over Death of 8-Year-Old Daughter Found Dead Inside Houston Hotel Pool Pipe

Employers have a responsibility to evaluate an employees performance without regard to age, if the employee is 40 and over, and without regard to an actual or perceived disability, Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOCs Atlanta District Office, in a news release announcing the settlement payment.

Keegan added, "The EEOC is pleased that through this early resolution, the former receptionist will be compensated, and that Covenant Woods has agreed to take steps to ensure that it meets its obligations under the ADEA and the ADA going forward.



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Read the original article on People.
Scientists have found the grave of a person who was buried in a cave 75,000 years ago. According to archaeologists, the woman died at the age of about 40.

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Her left arm was twisted under her head, and her head was lying on a stone, which probably served as a pillow, Cambridge Core writes. The woman was a Neanderthal, a type of ancient human that has not lived on Earth for almost fifty thousand years.

The ancient woman was named Shanidar Z. in honor of the cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where she was found in 2018.

Scientists studying the remains of an ancient human carefully assembled the skull from 200 bone fragments. This process took nine months.

The contours of the face and skull were used for reconstruction to understand what she might have looked like. The reconstruction is featured in the new documentary Secrets of the Neanderthals, produced by the BBC for Netflix.

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According to Dr. Emma Pomeroy, a paleoanthropologist and associate professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Neanderthal skulls differ from those of our species (Homo sapiens) in having pronounced brow arches and no chin.

Instead, the reconstruction of Shanidar Z.'s face shows that these differences might not have been so striking in life, Pomeroy says.

"There's some artistic freedom here, but it's based on a real skull and real data about what we know about these people," the scientist said.

"In fact, she has quite a large face and brow arches for her size," Pomeroy added.

The researcher believes that if she were dressed in modern clothes, this might not be noticed.

Neanderthals lived in Europe, the Middle East, and the mountains of Central Asia for about 300,000 years. This is about 30,000 years earlier than Homo sapiens.

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DNA analysis of modern humans has shown that during this time, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred with each other from time to time.

Lived a long life

The sex of the skeleton was not immediately discovered, as only the upper half of the body was preserved. The team that initially studied the remains relied on a new technique involving sequencing proteins inside tooth enamel.

Analysis of tooth and bone wear showed that she was about 40 years old at the time of her death.

"It's a reasonable estimate, but we can't be 100% sure that she wasn't older. But this person probably lived a relatively long life. For that society, she was probably honored because of her knowledge and life experience," Pomeroy says.

The cave where Shanidar Z. was buried is well-known among archaeologists. A Neanderthal grave discovered there in 1960 led researchers to believe that ancient tribes could bury their dead with flowers.

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This is the first challenge to the stereotype of the primitiveness of ancient people.

However, further research by Pomeroy's team cast doubt on the theory of burial with flowers. The pollen found among the graves could have gotten there through pollinating bees.

Over the years, however, scientists have found more and more evidence of Neanderthal intelligence, sophistication, and complexity, including art, strings, and tools.

Neanderthals repeatedly returned to Shanidar Cave to bury their dead. The remains of 10 Neanderthals were found at the site, half of which appear to have been buried on purpose and in succession.

Neanderthals may not have honored their dead with bouquets, but the inhabitants of Shanidar Cave must have been empathetic people. For example, one Neanderthal man buried there was deaf, and had a paralyzed arm and a head injury that probably made him partially blind, but he lived a long time. This indicates that he was probably well cared for.

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Shanidar Z. is the first Neanderthal to be found in a cave in 50 years. But this place can bring even more discoveries. While filming a documentary in 2022, Pomeroy discovered a left shoulder blade, several rib bones, and a right arm that belonged to another Neanderthal.

Skull reconstruction

Pomeroy described the reconstruction of Shanidar Z.'s skull, which was crushed relatively soon after his death, as a "3D puzzle." The fossilized bones were hardened with a glue-like substance, extracted in small blocks from the cave sediment, and wrapped in foil before the researchers sent them to the University of Cambridge for analysis.

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At the Cambridge lab, the researchers took micro-CT scans of each block and used the scans to guide the extraction of the bone fragments. Pomeroy's colleague, Dr. Lucia Lopez-Polin, an archaeological conservator at the Catalan Institute of Paleoecology and Human Social Evolution in Spain, collected more than 200 skull fragments by eye to restore them to their original shape.

The team scanned and 3D-printed the restored skull, which formed the basis of a reconstructed head created by Dutch paleo-artists Adri and Alphonse Kennis, twin brothers who built up layers of artificial muscle and skin to reveal Shanidar Z's face.

Pomeroy said the reconstruction helped "bridge the gap between anatomy and 75,000 years of time."

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!

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CALUMET CITY, Ill. (WGN)  An elderly man has been charged after allegedly stabbing a young mother more than 120 times in Calumet City, Illinois, nearly 60 years ago.

James Barbier, 79, was taken into custody by Calumet City police Monday in Creve Couer, Missouri, which is outside of St. Louis.

Hes accused of entering the home of Karen Snider, 18, late in the night on Nov. 12, 1966.

Officers had to process a brutal scene in the 400 block of Wilson Avenue after Snider sustained 125 stab wounds.

Rape kit backlog ends in North Carolina, AG says

The case became cold and was re-examined again by Calumet City police in December 2022. In the last 16 months, the department said they located and re-interviewed witnesses and analyzed evidence which identified Barbier as a suspect.

He is charged with first-degree murder. During his detention hearing, prosecutors did not seek pre-trial detention  citing his age and medical problems. Barbier will be released Thursday afternoon.

Snider was a new mother and her 2-month-old daughter Paula was nearby in a bassinet during the slaying.

Texts emerge in DCS lawsuit after Northwest Indiana mom gets 42 years for sons torture death

Had he had more time  or maybe been even more deranged than he actually is  again my opinion  maybe he could have eliminated me as well, Paula told WGN News.

Barbier was a suspect early on in the investigation and was a family friend. He was even a pallbearer at the funeral, and police noticed cuts on his hands during the service, according to WGN.

Now, prosecutors say DNA evidence links him to the murder after investigators reprocessed bloody clothing taken from the scene.

My family, on my fathers side, had always said this is the man,' Paula said.

Barbiers next court hearing is scheduled for May 21.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
A 79-year-old Missouri man was charged with first degree murder on Monday for allegedly stabbing a woman more than 120 times nearly six decades ago, authorities said.

Karen Snider, 18, was found dead the evening of November 12, 1966 by her husband after he returned from work to their home in Calumet City, about 23 miles outside of Chicago. She had 125 stab wounds all over her body, according to the Cook County States Attorneys Office in Illinois.

This week, more than 57 years later, James Barbier was arrested for the murder of Snider.

Barbier was initially arrested in 1966 but was not charged and the case went unresolved for years before being reopened in December 2022. A DNA sample identified Barbier as a suspect in the case and on Monday he was arrested in his Missouri home, according to the states attorneys office.

In addition to stab wounds, Snider was covered in bruises, authorities said.

Barbier, who lived in Gary, Indiana, at the time, worked with Sniders husband, the states attorneys office says, and was friends with the couple.

The state attorneys office said on the night of the murder, Barbier went back to his home where his wife observed cuts and blood on him.

He appeared nervous and he immediately took off his clothes and put them in the washing machine, prosecutors said.

At Sniders funeral, Barbier was observed to still have cuts on him.

Barbier was released on Thursday with maximum pretrial conditions, according to the state attorneys office.

Barbier was ordered to not leave Missouri or Illinois, surrender his passport and firearms, and is required to report in person and by phone twice a month, the states attorneys office told CNN in an email.

Although the charge is detention eligible, based on the age of the defendant, his physical infirmity, and recent caselaw on this pointed issue concerning the Pretrial Fairness Act and of posing a real and present threat, the State is not filing a petition to detain, the state attorneys office explained.

CNN has yet to determine if Barbier has retained legal counsel.

Calumet City is located near the Illinois-Indiana border, about 13 miles from Gary.

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LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  911 calls the 8 News Now Investigators obtained show the desperation from two store employees asking for police to intervene in two separate attacks involving a man accused of killing another man and then eating his face.

Colin Czech, 29, faces a murder charge for allegedly pushing Kenneth Brown to the ground on Sunday, April 28, leading to his death, documents said. Czech then allegedly ate part of Browns face, including an eye and ear.

Just before 5 a.m. Sunday, an employee at a convenience store called police about a man who reportedly tackled another man to the ground on Las Vegas Boulevard near Charleston Boulevard, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported Monday.

In a 911 call, the employee said the man, later identified as Czech, was standing outside the store all night and had jumped on a customer.

I guess he just rushed him, the caller said. Hes been outside all night. The customer declined medical attention. The dispatcher warned the employee not to have anyone interact with Czech.

I tried to have a conversation with him and he wont talk, the employee told the dispatcher, alleging he was on an illegal substance. Right now, hes on all fours like hes a dog about to rush the store, the employee said as Czech remained outside the business.

I need somebody to come get him now, the employee said as customers came into the store to avoid Czech.

It was unclear from documents available Thursday if Metro police responded to the first call since Czech later walked away from the store.

Colin Czech, 29, is accused of killing another man and eating the victims face at a bus stop on Las Vegas Boulevard near Charleston Boulevard around 5 a.m. on Sunday, April 28, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported. (LVMPD/KLAS)

About 45 minutes later, an employee from a second convenience store called police, saying a man was on top of another man at a bus stop eating the other mans face, police said in the report. It was unclear in the call audio if the caller used the word beating or eating and it appeared the dispatcher believed she heard the word beating.

Its bad, maam, the caller told the dispatcher, saying Brown was injured. Oh my God  I dont what the [expletive] hes doing to this man, thats some weird [expletive].

Officers responded, finding Czech kneeling next to the victim with biological matter in his hair, mouth and on his clothing, documents said. Czech reportedly told officers the victim had attacked him.

Paramedics transported Brown to the hospital where a doctor pronounced him deceased. Brown had a large cut to part of his head and he was missing an eye and ear, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained.

Colin Czech, 29, faces a murder charge for allegedly pushing Kenneth Brown to the ground on Sunday, April 28, leading to his death, documents said. Czech then allegedly ate part of Browns face, including an eye and ear. (KLAS)

While in police custody, Czech was going in and out of consciousness, documents said. He later told officers he is unhoused and was awake for five days straight because something was possessing him, according to the documents.

Czech also told detectives he used his teeth to hurt the victim, adding he used his teeth to eat [the mans] eyeballs and ears, documents said.

After Czechs initial court appearance Wednesday, his public defender said he believed his client was incompetent to stand trial. A competency hearing was scheduled for May 24.

The Clark County coroners office had no information about Brown as of Thursday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
We recommend Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag 2 in our Bluetooth tracker buying guide to Galaxy phone owners who want an AirTags-style device that can keep tabs on their keys, luggage and other sensitive items. If that describes you, here's a quick PSA: A four-pack of the little oblong devices is currently $30 off and down to $70 at Amazon. This discount has popped up periodically since Samsung released the tracker last October, but it nevertheless matches the four-pack's lowest price to date. If you'd rather not shop at Amazon, the same bundle is available at B&H for $2 extra.

If you don't need quite so many trackers, meanwhile, single SmartTag 2s are also on sale for $21 each. That's a dollar more than the device's all-time low but still $9 off its usual street price.

The key thing to note with the Galaxy SmartTag 2 is that it's a Samsung-only affair. You need a Samsung phone or tablet running Android 11 or later for it to fully work, and it uses the company's SmartThings Find crowd-finding network to locate items. The latter is Samsung's alternative to Apple's Find My network and Google's recently-launched Find My Device network. (Yes, the names of these things are way too similar.) It's not as large as either of those, so it'll generally be less precise at pinpointing an item that winds up outside of your tracker's Bluetooth range. Samsung hasn't confirmed any plans for the Galaxy SmartTag 2 to support Google's expanded network, either. If you're an Android user who isn't beholden to Galaxy phones, you should wait and see if it's worth buying upcoming trackers from Chipolo and Pebblebee (among others) that are designed to use the Find My Device network.

That said, because there are still a few hundred million Samsung devices that've opted into SmartThings Find out in the wild, we've found the Galaxy SmartTag 2's crowd-sourcing to be effective enough in testing. Its separation alerts  i.e., its ability to ping you when you've left a tagged item behind  worked about as reliably as any model we tested, and it does well to map out its location history over time. It's capable of tracking up to 120 meters (roughly 394 feet) directly over Bluetooth, which is on the longer side, plus it supports ultrawideband tech, which can help it more accurately direct you towards an item once you're close by.

The device itself is simple to set up, and its flat design has a built-in cutout, so it's easy to stash in a wallet or attach to a keychain. It's also IP67-rated, so it can survive a dip underwater. Samsung says the device can last up to 500 days with typical use, and you can replace the battery once it peters out. There are technically more capable options out there (with more to come), and all Bluetooth trackers carry some level of privacy issues. A device like this isn't ideal for warding off theft, either. But for forgetful Galaxy diehards who are looking to save some cash, this is a decent deal.

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When did it become fashionable to diminish the accomplishments of Vietnam War-era protesters by accusing them of inflated self-regard and delusions about what their activism accomplished?

In my view, the situation in the Mideast is more nuanced and complex than the United States involvement in Vietnam ever was. Israel's horrific response notwithstanding, I fear that many pro-Palestinian student activists are naively unwilling to confront the role that Hamas and its allies have played in the conflict.

But telling students that their agitation is pointless or merely performative because some folks have doubts about the effectiveness of the anti-Vietnam War movement is just wrong.

Those students didnt shorten that terrible war, wrote New York Times columnist Nick Kristof about the protesters of the late 1960s. Instead, they probably prolonged it.

The nostalgic champions of the campus protests of the 60s would have Americans believe they were a heroic success, stopping the Vietnam War, wrote Jonah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times. But what they actually helped achieve was Richard Nixons election and seven more years of war.

There is certainly some truth there.

Read more: Jailed students, a canceled commencement, angry parents: USCs Carol Folt takes on critics

Americans chose Republican Richard Nixon over Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, at a time when urban uprisings and all kinds of political turbulence had exhausted voters. The Democratic Party was in disarray after President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to run again, Robert Kennedy was assassinated and the peace candidate, Eugene McCarthy, failed in his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination at the party convention. Nixon, after all, famously courted that silent majority of presumably politically moderate Americans. But Nixon also promised to end the Vietnam War, which a solid majority of the American public had soured on after the Tet Offensive in early 1968.

But blaming antiwar protesters for Nixons decision to protract the war in his misguided search for peace with honor and with his clandestine bombing of Cambodia is unfair.

And using that conclusion to critique todays student protesters, who have upended college campuses with their pro-Palestinian protests and encampments, trivializes the precious American right to protest peacefully.

Read more: Police report no serious injuries. But scenes from inside UCLA camp, protesters tell a different story

After Nixon was elected, the antiwar movement gained a legitimacy that led to real change.

In response to a spate of civil disobedience, including organized draft card burnings, Nixon acknowledged that the deeply unpopular draft had to end. By 1972, a year before the Paris Peace Accords ended Americas role in the war, more U.S. men had filed for conscientious objector status than were actually drafted. By some estimates, 100,000 young men are believed to have left the country rather than fight in a morally indefensible conflict that had exacted a terrible cost in American and Vietnamese blood and treasure.

Veterans like John Kerry, a Navy Swift boat commander horrified by what hed seen and experienced in Vietnam, came home and campaigned against the war. How could anyone deny the effect Vietnam Veterans Against the War had on public sentiment?

In early 1971 in Detroit, the group convened the Winter Soldier investigations, a three-day event where Vietnam veterans testified about atrocities that they had both witnessed and inflicted. And later that year, Kerry became the first Vietnam vet to testify on Capitol Hill.

Read more: UCLA struggles to recover after 200 arrested, pro-Palestinian camp torn down

Each day, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the spring of 1971, someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesnt have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we cant say that we have made a mistake. How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

Here are some other ways antiwar protesters of that era helped change this country for the better:

Since the founding, the voting age in this country was 21. The idea that you could kill or die for your country but not have a voice in its politics finally became untenable during the Vietnam War. Barry Maguires 1965 hit song, Eve of Destruction  Youre old enough to kill, but not for votin  helped crystallize the issue, and the 26th Amendment was ratified on July 1, 1971.

Read more: Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks with Israel

Americans blind faith in their government was forever shaken by the release of the Pentagon Papers, purloined and made public by Daniel Ellsberg, the onetime military analyst turned antiwar activist, and the New York Times and the Washington Post. The leaked portion of the Defense Department report revealed to the public that the government had systematically lied about the war for years to the public and to Congress.

As someone whose family was active in the antiwar movement, and who was present as a child when Los Angeles police officers attacked antiwar protesters outside the Century Plaza Hotel in 1967, I recognize my own bias here.

Will the current protest movement have an effect on American foreign policy and President Bidens support for Israels devastating and disproportionate retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas?

Perhaps, like the Vietnam War protests of the last century, there will be short-term backlash followed by long-term positive change.

Claiming the protests are misguided, or doing more harm than good, is presumptuous in the extreme.

@robinkabcarian





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
TechCrunch

Starship is ready to fly again  and for the first time, SpaceX is going to try to bring the booster back to the launch site to catch it with a pair of oversized "chopsticks." SpaceX will launch the mammoth Starship on Sunday in a launch window that opens at 5 AM PST (7 AM local time) from the companys Starbase site in southeast Texas. This flight, which will be the fifth in the Starship development program, is coming a little sooner than expected: the Federal Aviation Administration had previously said that it did not anticipate issuing a modified launch license for this test before late November.
Eddie Charles Pugh was back in court Thursday but not for a trial.

Pugh's lawyer, C.J. Grisham, had filed a motion to quash the indictment or in layman's terms, a motion to dismiss the stalking case against Pugh.

Judge Jeff Propst of the 104th District Court ruled yesterday, however, that the indictment will stand.

Eddie Pugh addresses the Abilene City Council Oct. 26, 2023 where he criticized City Manager Robert Hannas performance.

'The rifle is a form of expressive speech'

Pugh took the stand yesterday morning to answer questions related to the motion to quash.

When on the stand, Pugh said the firearm he allegedly pointed in the direction of City Manager Robert Hanna's home, was just a prop for his peaceful protest.

When Taylor County Assistant District Attorney Erin Stamey began to cross-examine Pugh, she became impassioned as she questioned his reasoning for using a rifle as a prop, saying, "It's a firearm!"

She went on to emphatically say, "What kind of a protest is that?"

Pugh said, "I never threatened anyone."

Pugh said he was aware of the houses being occupied at the time of the protest. But he said he did not know Hanna was married at the time.

Pugh said there are no ordinances against protesting at officials' homes, and that he never actually picked up the firearm during the protest.

Pugh said he "had a legal right" to protest with a firearm.

At this point, the lawyers were able to give their closing remarks.

"The rifle is a form of expressive speech," Grisham said.

This caused a ripple of a shock throughout the courtroom.

Stamey then had her turn to describe the fear that Brooke Hanna felt the night of the protest. Stamey said Pugh "knows that this conduct is providing fear."

Propst then delivered his ruling, saying, "The motion is denied."

At this point, Grisham said, "I'm fully prepared to take this as high as I need to take it."

Propst said, "I don't want this case to linger."

But the judge also said he suspected this could be a case in which the parties would need a trial.

Propst will set a plea hearing in about 60 days to see if both parties can come to an agreement before heading to trial.

'Shut them up via lawfare'

Grisham filed the motion to quash March 27 at the Taylor County Courthouse. The bulk of the motion focused on his claim that Pugh's protests were only aimed at Hanna and not at Hanna's wife Brooke.

"The photo used by the Grand Jury clearly showing that Mr. Pughs protest was directed SOLELY at Mr. Hanna, not his wife," Grisham said in the motion.

"At no time did Mr. Pugh utter or write Mrs. Hannas name, neither in person during the protests nor on social media," the defense attorney said in the motion.

Grisham went on to allege that the entire case against Pugh was simply political, saying Hanna "treats this Court as a tool to go after political opponents and shut them up via lawfare."

Freedom of speech or intimidation tactic?

The motion alleged Pugh's activities fall under the category of the First Amendment with "the right to freedom of expression and the right to seek redress of grievances of government officials."

According to Texas state law, "Citizens shall have the right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together for their common good."

The motion goes on to say the indictment infringes upon Pugh's Second Amendment rights as well.

"Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State" according to the Texas constitution.

Dueling charges

Pugh is also facing an unrelated class B misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge, according to Zach Gore, chief misdemeanor assistant district attorney.

Pugh will be in misdemeanor court on June 17 for a jury trial related to that charge.

If convicted, Pugh faces 180 days in jail, along with a possible $2,000 fine, according to Gore.

Grisham's own brush with the law

According to Grisham's own website, he has "been falsely arrested four times, to include allegations of felony crimes."

He faced "another three arrests in defense of these rights and successfully fought to get all the charges dismissed," according to the website. After his third arrest, he "was tazered and suffered major head trauma."

According to the State Bar of Texas, Grisham has "no public disciplinary history" within the state of Texas.

Possible punishments in case of a conviction

If convicted of the stalking charge, Assistant District Attorney Erin Stamey said Pugh could face two to 10 years in prison, along with a possible $10,000 fine.

Stamey said that per state law, in the five years after his release, if he is convicted, he would be unable to own a firearm.

On the fifth anniversary of his release, if he is convicted, he would be able to own a firearm at his residence.

This exemption to federal law only applies in Texas, according to the Texas State Law Library.

The indictment Man accused of stalking Abilene city manager's wife was indicted

The arrest New details emerge about man charged with stalking Abilene city manager

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Alleged stalker files motion to dismiss indictment
Protesters hold hands at Indiana University's Dunn Meadow demonstration on April 27, 2024. The ACLU of Indiana sued Indiana University Friday, saying it violated First Amendment rights by banning certain protesters from campus. (Jacob Spudich /The Indiana Daily Student)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana (ACLU) sued Indiana University Friday, claiming the Bloomington university violated the First Amendment rights of three protest participants after implementing a one-year campus ban.

The three plaintiffs include: Jasper Wirtshafter, a Bloomington resident; Benjamin Robinson, a tenured IU-Bloomington German Studies professor; and Madeleine Meldrum, a current IU graduate student. Each was banned from campus for a year by the IU Police Department.

Shortly following the ACLUs announcement, a stay was granted to Meldrum. Robinson received a stay earlier this week but Wirtshafter did not.

Madeleine Meldrum, a current IU graduate student, is one of three plaintiffs being represented by the ACLU of Indiana. (Screenshot from Zoom)

Theres nothing more important to the ACLU than the ability of everyone to exercise their First Amendment rights, no matter the substance of the protest. The First Amendment exists for all citizens, all persons  (its) the bedrock of our democracy said Ken Falk, the state ACLUs legal director. This is, when you think about it, ultimately an extremely undemocratic action by IU.

Falk said the organization asked the court to find that the university couldnt ban the freedom of expression for plaintiffs and to prevent IU from enforcing the ban along with potential damages. The suit specifically focuses on Dunn Meadow, where students have been gathering, which Falk said had for 50 years been a forum of free speech.

Meldrum said that collective action and advocacy were important to her but that the appeals process for lifting the ban was a mess and difficult to navigate on her own.

Its been difficult the past week because I havent been on campus since last Thursday, Meldrum said. Ive been able to see my friends and colleagues continue to use their voices knowing that, for some arbitrary reason, Im not allowed to do that anymore.

Falk didnt rule out the possibility that others could be added to the suit but said it was the hope of the organization that IU would halt the practice. More than 56 protesters have been arrested at Indianas protests, a fraction of the 2,300 arrested nationwide.

The complaint further details a rule change about temporary structures on Dunn Meadow drafted and enacted in private the night before demonstrations were slated to begin. Several participants have received no trespass orders specific to Dunn Meadow while other orders include the entire campus.

First Amendment claims

For the last eight days, students, professors and others have demonstrated in Dunn Meadow, a university-designated public forum, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment in Israel. Tens of thousands have died  many of them civilians, children and aid workers  in Palestine throughout Israels military response following a Hamas terrorist attack in October.

I do feel a responsibility to humankind, quite frankly, to speak out against the genocide in Gaza, which is what we were there for, and band together with other people who also had similar beliefs and who also just couldnt sit idly by and watch atrocities occuring, Meldrum said. Its something that Im passionate about and I believe, also, that there is strength in standing together with a group and being excluded from that group, again, is quite violating.

After receiving a stay on her ban, Meldrum indicated that she would be returning to Dunn Meadow to continue protesting. She said the ACLU received the notice but that her calls and emails went unanswered.

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Protests have roiled campuses across the country, including IU and Purdue University  though the latter hasnt yet reported any arrests. Protests have largely been peaceful in Indiana though many are critical of the state police response, which included snipers and state troopers in riot gear in Bloomington.

I teach classes where I talk about the ordinances, public forums and the importance of universities, especially as  the laboratory of democracy, Robinson said. Weve seen, historically, how expression on campus has really changed the country.

Robinson said that in the appeals process, the police department referred him to the Office of Student Conduct  despite the fact that he had taught at IU for decades.

As someone who has been very involved with due process on campus, its completely opaque to me whats going to happen and obviously thats a source of anxiety for me, Robinson said.

In a call with the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Robinson acknowledged that recent legislative action to protect intellectual diversity could have its own ramifications on his academic standing. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill that would allow boards of trustees to dock faculty members for expressing personal views in the classroom, among other things, explicitly to protect conservative viewpoints on campus.

Dr. Benjamin Robinson, a professor of Germanic Studies at Indiana University and plaintiff in a lawsuit. (Screenshot from Zoom)

Robinson said he testified against the bill this winter  though it still passed and will be enacted this summer. Opponents said it would stifle the free speech for First Amendment rights of professors, especially through a new student complaint process that doesnt even require students to be in a professors class to submit a complaint.

In the same moment, youre told you cant determine the criteria which you feel is appropriate for expressing scholarship and viewpoints in the classroom but you can express yourself freely outside of the classroom and in public forums, Robinson said about the law.

Yet, at the same time, I receive a ban telling me that, indeed, I dont have access to the historic public forums of IU, he continued. I do feel my tenure is at risk  I feel my speech chilled before I even have the chance to exercise it.

For Meldrum, in her first year of a PhD program, she said she worried that having the ban hanging over (her) head could potentially interrupt her studies.

Its pretty significant that they would be willing to go to such lengths and sacrifice their own academic reputation and our ability to engage in our academic careers just to keep us from using our First Amendment rights, Meldrum said.

Criticism from conservatives

Prominent politicians and political hopefuls have denounced the protests and pushed for the restoration of order on campuses, including Gov. Eric Holcomb and gubernatorial contender Brad Chambers.

Chambers, in a press conference Friday, decried the ongoing chaos and antisemitism occuring on campuses.

And as an IU alumnus, it is disappointing to see this hateful rhetoric and harassment has made its way to Bloomington, Chambers said.

He repeated claims of student chants taunting police and more, though most reports have called the protests peaceful.

Let me be clear: I believe every Hoosier has the right to lawfully express their opinions. It is a fundamental right of being an American. But we cannot allow that right to be used as cover for trespass, intimidation or harassment of others, he continued, criticizing his competitors for be(ing) quiet.

We must stand for law and order and ensure our educational institutions remain a place of learning free from intimidation and harassment, a place where ideas  not hateful rhetoric  can be freely and peacefully exchanged.

This story has been updated to correct the timing of Robinsons stay.

The post ACLU sues IU over alleged First Amendment violations during campus protests appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle.
CHICAGO  As protests surge across America just months before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, activists representing LGBTQ+ and womens reproductive rights say Mayor Brandon Johnsons administration is violating their First Amendment rights and is unprepared for the onslaught of dissidents headed to the city this August.

The claims were made as Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging the city wrongfully denied permits for the group to protest by the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue, an area where many Democratic delegates will be staying during the Aug. 19-22 convention.

Joined by the ACLU of Illinois, activists with the LGBTQ+ and womens reproductive rights organization said that while they support the Democratic Party over Republicans its essential for protesters to be heard to ensure their perspectives are reflected by the party both during and after the convention.

In this important election year, its vital that Democrats listen to the priorities of their supporters who are desperate for the protection of their health and safety and the ability to decide the direction of their own lives, Anne Rumberger, an activist with the group, said after the lawsuit was filed.

With abortion access being one of the main issues Democrats hope will drive voters to the polls, Andy Thayer, another activist with the coalition, said the lawsuit is about preserving democracy.

For half a century the Democrats allowed the constitutional right to abortion and other rights to be eroded bit by bit until we lost them, he said. Thats why we have to be in the streets, using the media attention on the DNC to force the Democrats to live up to their verbal promises.

The lawsuit comes as several contentious issues continue to roil the nation and the Democratic Party, most notably the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas that has sparked protests on college campuses.

Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois, which filed Thursdays lawsuit, warned that the city of Chicago was not prepared for the protests headed here.

Despite suggestions by some Chicago officials that the city is prepared for the Democratic National Convention, we are here today because they are not, Yohnka said. Sadly, the city has not created a clear, transparent plan for welcoming those who want to come to demonstrate and express themselves on the issues of our day.

DNC organizers have sought to downplay the disunity in the Democratic coalition while at the same time promising that protesters First Amendment rights will be protected. Theyve expressed confidence in the ability of the U.S. Secret Service, the Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to maintain order.

Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws is one of several groups seeking the right to protest at the convention, in which more than 50,000 people are expected to descend upon the city, including 5,000 nominating delegates. Political conventions have typically been the site of mass protests, but Johnsons administration has blocked every protest permit requested near the conventions United Center headquarters.

A pro-Palestinian group last month was part of a similar lawsuit against the city, and group leaders promised that protesters would make life miserable for DNC organizers.

Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws applied for a permit on the first day applications opened on Jan. 2 and received an official rejection letter on Jan. 22. The group appealed the Johnson administrations decision at an administrative hearing, but was denied.

The groups planned protest was set for Aug. 18, the Sunday before the DNC kicks off, at the Jane M. Byrne Plaza, previously known as Water Tower Park. Many of the conventions delegates will stay at hotels downtown and be in the Michigan Avenue area.

Johnsons Department of Transportation offered the group an alternative route: a two-block march up a tree-lined stretch of Columbus Drive in the middle of Grant Park from Roosevelt Road to Jackson Drive. The site is nearly 4 miles from the United Center.

City officials declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. A spokesperson said that if a permit is denied, the applicant is given an alternative route that accounts for police resources, security and other additional factors.

Thayer said Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws will not let the mayor stop them from advocating for full reproductive justice. They plan to march, he said, permit or no permit.

Rebecca Glenberg, senior supervising attorney for the ACLU, said that under the First Amendment, Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws has the right to an alternate route that still allows (them) to reach (their) intended audience.

Rather than make room for speech, Chicago has denied our clients and others permits to march where delegates can see them. These permit denials are unconstitutional, Glenberg said Thursday.

Johnson has repeatedly promised to provide demonstrators with a fair platform, in keeping with his past participation in large demonstrations and support for their importance in progressive movements.

But the city has argued in court that Chicago does not have enough police to protect the parade, keep protesters in check and regulate traffic, records show. Chicago is set to receive $75 million from the federal government for convention security. Still, confusion remains around safety and logistics for the event.

Yohnka said the city is trying to avoid chaos like the riots that erupted outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968 under then-Mayor Richard J. Daley when anti-Vietnam War protesters and the Black liberation movement organized mass demonstrations.

One of the things thats really precarious right now in this country is we seem to be having a dialogue that somehow any kind of demonstration or protest is equated with danger, Yohnka said. There are demonstrations that take place every single day in this city that are not unsafe.

Kristi Keorkunian, a member of the group and co-founder of Stop Trans Genocide Chicago, stressed that the group is marching for comprehensive and inclusive health care policies.

What year is this? In the third-largest city in the United States, we have to fight for our right to get close enough to our politicians for them to actually hear us? she asked.

_____

(Chicago Tribune reporters Jake Sheridan, Rebecca Johnson and Alysa Guffey contributed.)

_____
Movimiento Cosecha and its supporters marched in Downtown Lansing on May 1 in support of driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. | Photo Courtesy of Movimiento Cosecha

Members of Movimiento Cosecha on Wednesday marched through the center of Downtown Lansing and into the Capitol in support of Drivers License for All legislation, which would restore the ability of undocumented immigrants to receive a drivers license in Michigan.

Movimiento Cosecha, which supports permanent protections for undocumented immigrants, also celebrated International Workers Day, placing a focus on undocumented workers in agriculture, dairy and poultry farming.

According to a statement, the group marched around the roundabout on Washington Square for about 45 minutes. Then they proceeded to the second floor of the Capitol and chanting, No drivers licenses, no vote, while the House of Representatives was in session, calling on them to pass the Drivers License for All Legislation.

Currently: Rally for access to drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants in Michigan outside the House floorhttps://t.co/5uRR6STRQq pic.twitter.com/FL2I0I2Os4  Anna Liz Nichols (@annaliznichols) May 1, 2024

In 1995, Democratic Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley issued an opinion that undocumented immigrants could not be denied drivers licenses. That decision was later reversed in 2007 by Republican Attorney General Michael Cox, with lawmakers going on to pass legislation barring undocumented immigrants from receiving drivers licenses and state IDs.

Members of Cosecha previously told the Advance that the lack of a license creates economic barriers, alongside fears that undocumented immigrants will be deported for driving without a license. 20,000 people who were deported in 2019 also convicted of a traffic-related offense, Bloomberg reported.

According to a statement, Cosecha was joined by pro-immigrant organizations like For Our Future Lansing, and LINC Up, while the International Workers of the World and United Farm Workers expressed solidarity with immigrant workers. Freedom Road and Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids also marched alongside Movimiento Cosecha.

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The post Advocates march in Lansing in support of drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants appeared first on Michigan Advance.
The Russian gas giant Gazprom has reported a net loss of 629 billion rubles ($6.8 billion) in 2023. This is not only the company's first loss since the post-default year of 1999 but also its worst result in history. Six months earlier, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said that Gazprom was feeling "confident."

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According to Agence.Novosti, the company's revenue last year amounted to 8.6 trillion rubles, down from 11.6 trillion a year earlier. Revenues from gas sales fell by half compared to 2022, from 6.5 to 3.1 trillion rubles.

The main reason for the loss is a decrease in export revenues from gas sales to Europe. Gas supplies to the European Union fell by 56%, from 66.6 billion cubic meters in 2022 to 29.3 billion cubic meters in 2023, according to independent energy expert Kirill Rodionov. This decline could not compensate for the increase in gas exports to China from 16 billion cubic meters to 22.5 billion, the expert emphasized.

Another reason for Gazprom's catastrophic results is an increase in the financial burden on the company due to an additional increase in the mineral extraction tax (MET), Marcel Salikhov, President of the Institute of Energy and Finance, said.

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"In October 2023, during the Russian Energy Week forum, Putin stated that he was not afraid of the situation around Gazprom. 'Although Gazprom is supplying less and its revenues are lower, that's okay. Gazprom is confident, calm, and coping,' he said," the publication reminds.

China cannot replace Europe. This year, Russia is expected to supply 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline. By 2027, Russia will supply another 10 billion cubic meters to China under a 2022 contract. In addition, Russia and China are negotiating the creation of another pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, which, if commissioned, could increase Russia's supplies to China to 98 billion cubic meters. But even this volume will be half as much as Russia supplied to Europe before the full-scale war.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
AI could be used to influence election, says experts

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  Top national intelligence leaders briefed senators Thursday on worldwide threats to America. Topics ranged from election interference to AI, and state and individual actors.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines says cyber-attacks are on the rise.

We have seen a massive increase in the number of ransomware attacks globally in the last year, which went up as much as 74%, Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence.

Members of the intelligence community gave lawmakers an update about the most serious, global threats facing the United States.

The terrorist threat level is of grave concern, Haines said.

Most of the specifics were kept behind closed doors.

As the war rages on in the Middle East, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton is concerned terrorists are coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Do you think there might have been an even greater surge in Islamic extremists trying to cross our open southern border? Cotton asked.

We havent seen Hamas directing essentially folks or others in the region to come into the United States to engage in attacks, Haines said.

Other concerns lawmakers had included adversaries using AI to try to influence our 2024 elections.

Russia, in particular, has you know engaged in the use of artificial intelligence generative AI in the context of their information operations, Haines said. 

Director Haines says Russia is far from the only ones.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Whats new in the health space? Here are some of the most interesting, under-the-radar stories from Yahoo News partners this week.

'You absolutely don't need consent from someone who's dead'

What does the future of grief and loss look like? An AI company called You, Only Virtual is creating chatbots modeled after deceased loved ones, with its founder, Justin Harrison, telling Good Morning America that he hopes people wont have to feel grief at all.

You, Only Virtual scans text messages, emails and phone calls shared between an individual and the deceased person to create a chatbot that composes original written or audio responses mimicking the deceased persons voice and modeling the relationship and rapport that the two shared in life.

The company, founded in 2020, hopes to offer a video-chat option later this year, and ultimately provide augmented-reality that allows for interaction with a three-dimensional projection, GMA reported.

Harrison, who used the technology to create a virtual mom after his mother died, rejected possible privacy concerns raised by the use of personal conversations to build a chatbot without the consent of the deceased.

"You absolutely don't need consent from someone who's dead," he said. "My mom could've hated the idea, but this is what I wanted and I'm alive."

WHO says cases of mosquito-borne disease could hit near-record highs, thanks to global warming

panom/Getty Images

The World Health Organization said Friday that cases of dengue fever could reach near record highs this year  thanks in part to global warming, which is enabling mosquitoes and the viruses they carry to multiply faster, Reuters reported.

WHO warned earlier this year that dengue is the world's fastest-spreading tropical disease, representing a "pandemic threat, with about half the worlds population now at risk.

Most cases are asymptomatic, but symptoms of dengue may include a fever accompanied by nausea, rash or achiness, which usually clear up in two to seven days. About one in 20 people sick with dengue will develop severe dengue, which can result in shock, internal bleeding and  in less than 1% of people  death.

Gene variant may be why some test positive for the virus with no COVID symptoms

Ladanifer/Getty Images

Scientists involved in a study published on Wednesday have identified a gene that could explain why some COVID-positive people never develop symptoms.

The study enrolled 29,947 volunteer bone-marrow donors  because high-quality genetic data was already available for this group, the Washington Post reported  and asked them to use smartphones to track their own coronavirus infections and any symptoms over the course of nine months, including whether they had taken a COVID test each week. Over the course of the study, among patients who had tested positive and reported no symptoms, 20% carried a variant of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene called HLA-B*15:01. Participants carrying two copies of the variant were more than eight times more likely to remain asymptomatic than those carrying other HLA variants.

Researchers hope that this discovery could lead to more innovations in vaccines and treatments.

As we've all learned, preventing COVID infection has proven to be more difficult than we thought it was going to be," said Jill Hollenbach, an immunologist at the University of California at San Francisco and co-author of the study. "If we could design a vaccine that maybe doesn't stop you from getting infected but can handle the infection so readily that you don't have any symptoms, I'd personally be very happy with that."

Long COVID 'brain fog' may age brain by a decade, study says

The Good Brigade/Getty Images

The brain fog associated with long COVID may be the cognitive equivalent of aging 10 years, PA Media reported.

Participants in a study by Kings College London were tested on memory, attention, reasoning, processing speed and motor control. Researchers found that those whose test scores were most affected by COVID were participants who had experienced COVID symptoms for 12 weeks or more; and in that group, the effect of the virus on test accuracy was comparable in size to the effect of a 10-year increase in age. When a second round of testing was conducted, an average of almost two years after the participants initial infection, there was no significant improvement in scores.

Our findings suggest that, for people who were living with long-term symptoms after having COVID-19, the effects of the coronavirus on mental processes such as the ability to recall words and shapes are still detectable at an average of almost two years since their initial infection, the lead study author, Dr. Nathan Cheetham, said.

However, the result that COVID had no effect on performance in our tests for people who felt fully recovered, even if theyd had symptoms for several months and could be considered as experiencing long COVID, was good news.
Aiming for rehab, House-passed bill would allow some tablet computers in Alaska prison cells

The Alaska House of Representatives votes Thursday, May 2, 2024, on House Bill 330. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

The Alaska House of Representatives votes Thursday, May 2, 2024, on House Bill 330. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Alaskans in state prisons would be allowed to use tablet PCs in their cells for education and legal purposes, according to a new bill passed by the Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday.

House Bill 330, sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, partially reverses a longtime ban on electronic devices for state prisoners, but only with the permission of prison officials.

Speaking Thursday on the House floor, Vance said she was initially opposed to the idea when she first heard it several years ago but came to realize that having access to a tablet was important for rehabilitation purposes.

Education is key to helping former inmates reenter society, Vance said, and there arent enough teachers in prison, so electronic education programs are needed.

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, speaks Thursday, May 2, 2024, on House Bill 330. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, speaks Thursday, May 2, 2024, on House Bill 330. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

For every dollar spent on correctional education, $5 are saved in three-year reincarceration costs, amounting to a remarkable 400% return on investment, Vance said. So House Bill 330 not only enhances public safety, but offers a prudent investment in societal well-being.

The bill doesnt pay for inmates tablets or computers but allows the Alaska Department of Corrections to write regulations around their use.

HB 330 also would ban telephones in prison cells; current state law does not address prisoners cellphones.

In partial compensation for that new restriction, the House voted without dissent to amend the bill to ban surcharges that are levied on telephone service in state prisons.

Currently, private companies provide phone service to inmates, often at high prices.

It now costs $3.75 per minute for someone to call an inmate or for an inmate to call someone, said Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage and the sponsor of the amendment. He believes the cost will fall to 7 cents per minute after the state prison system signs a new phone contract.

Lawmakers said its important for rehabilitation purposes that inmates stay in contact with their families, and that if a parent is incarcerated, their child must be allowed to contact them.

It is very clearly in the public interest to allow parents to talk to their children, said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage.

Another amendment forbids the state from charging prisoners for access to email or electronic visitation akin to a videoconference call.

House Bill 330 passed the House on a 33-7 vote and advances to the Senate for further consideration.

House aims to create psychedelic drugs task force

Anticipating that the federal Food and Drug Administration will authorize the limited use of psychedelic drugs for medical treatment later this year, the House voted 36-4 to create a 13-member legislative task force that will offer recommendations on the possible use of those drugs in Alaska.

Rep. Jennie Armstrong, D-Anchorage, speaks Thursday, May 2, 2024, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Rep. Jennie Armstrong, D-Anchorage, speaks Thursday, May 2, 2024, on the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

Rep. Jennie Armstrong, D-Anchorage and the bills sponsor, said she doesnt view the task force as a step toward legalization of psilocybin or similar drugs, but as a way to responsibly implement them in medical settings.

I think we can all agree that if it is coming, we should be prepared, she said.

House Bill 228 would require that the task force deliver recommendations to the Legislature no later than Jan. 31, 2025. The bill advances to the Senate for further work.

House seeks to permanently extend education tax credit

Also on Thursday, the House voted 35-4 to repeal the sunset date on the states education tax credit program. The program gives tax credits to companies that donate to certain educational institutions. In place since 1987, the program is set to expire at the end of this year.

The sunset date repeal was part of Senate Bill 140, the big multipart education bill vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and now advances to the Senate as House Bill 144, a separate piece of legislation.

On Wednesday, the House:

agreed to allow the states utility regulators to set rules for natural gas storage facilities, a project envisioned as a way to avert a pending energy crunch in Southcentral Alaska. House Bill 394 advances on a 29-11 vote to the state Senate, where it will meet a companion bill advancing separately there.

voted to allow employers to pay workers with cash-loaded debit cards instead of a direct deposit or cash, if the employee agrees. House Bill 203, sponsored by Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, passed by a 38-2 vote and advances to the Senate.

acted to ban cities and boroughs from prohibiting certain kinds of cars based on their power source. House Bill 375, carried by McCabe, was inspired by rules in some California locations that prohibit the sale of internal-combustion engines. No such rules have been proposed in Alaska, and McCabe said the bill would also prohibit municipalities from banning electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, or even nuclear-powered vehicles. HB 375 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday.

unanimously called on Congress and the federal government to fix the Windfall Elimination Provision that penalizes many Alaska teachers Social Security benefits. House Joint Resolution 18 is scheduled for a Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday.

voted 39-1 to approve a resolution asking federal officials to improve their handling of seafood trade. A previous version of Senate Joint Resolution 14 already passed the Senate, and the note will return to the Senate for approval of some amendments made by the House.

Correction: The sponsor of House Bill 203 has been corrected.

The post Aiming for rehab, House-passed bill would allow some tablet computers in Alaska prison cells appeared first on Alaska Beacon.
Air Canadas new route between Montreal and Austin launches at AUS

AUSTIN (KXAN)  People flying out of Austin and looking for a new international destination now have a new option.

Air Canadas new non-stop service between Austin and Montreal, Canada officially launched Friday. The new route was announced last October.

Previous coverage: Another new international route coming to Austin in 2024

The airline will operate flights between Austin and Montreal 4 days a week, according to a release from the Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). The flights connect AUS and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL).

Flights will leave Austin at 11:30 a.m. and arrive in Montreal at 4:28 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Returning flights leave Montreal at 6:15 p.m. and arrive at AUS at 9:32 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, according to the Air Canada website.

Air Canada launches new flight from Austin to Montreal at AUS, May 3, 2024 (KXAN Photo/Todd Bailey)

Air Canada launches new flight from Austin to Montreal at AUS, May 3, 2024 (KXAN Photo/Todd Bailey)

Air Canada launches new flight from Austin to Montreal at AUS, May 3, 2024 (KXAN Photo/Todd Bailey)

Air Canada launches new flight from Austin to Montreal at AUS, May 3, 2024 (KXAN Photo/Todd Bailey)

Air Canada launches new flight from Austin to Montreal at AUS, May 3, 2024 (KXAN Photo/Todd Bailey)

AUS and Air Canada hosted an event celebrating the inaugural flight Friday, featuring remarks from airport officials, City of Austin leaders and airport partners.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
The Air Force has updated its mental health rules to allow airmen to seek treatment for 60 days before they are required to obtain a return-to-duty waiver to resume flying, the service said in a release Wednesday.

The new policy eliminates the mandatory waiting, or stabilization, period that kept aviators grounded longer after seeking help and a potential diagnosis. The service hopes that setting a more definitive timeline for when airmen can return to the air will encourage them to seek help without fear that the time off will cause them to fall short on training certifications and substantially hurt their career prospects.

The changes are the culmination of work by Air Mobility Commands Warrior Mental Health working group, a panel of aircrew members, aviation psychologists, a pilot-physician, flight surgeons and a specialized doctor from NASA that considered potential updates to the services mental health policies.

Maj. Jane Marlow, a C-130J Super Hercules airlifter pilot who led the working group, said in the release that she had delayed care for mental health issues until she was in a non-flying assignment to avoid being grounded for an indefinite period.

The trauma care I went through was life-changing, Marlow said in the release. I knew that I was, without a doubt, a safer pilot, a better leader and a stronger wingman because of the care I received  yet I was still required to spend months in a non-flying status because of my diagnosis.

Flight surgeons  specialized doctors trained to treat the toll that the rigorous act of flying takes on the human body  can submit the waiver for airmen to return to the air at the end of the 60-day treatment period, the service said.

C-130J pilot Lt. Col. Sandra Salzman said in the release that serving as the working groups pilot-physician offered a unique opportunity to turn her experience into advocacy.

The teams recommendations were based on an evolving understanding of human responses to stress and development of resilience through early treatment, Salzman said.

Air Mobility Commands working group launched in January 2022, shortly after AMC boss Gen. Mike Minihan posted a picture of a mental health appointment on his calendar on social media.

Warrior heart. No stigma, Minihan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He told the Washington Post in 2023 that the appointment prompted the three most difficult days of his career as he processed challenging moments from throughout his military service.

What I discovered is that when you pack a body on ice in the back of C-130 and it smells horrific, and you cant wash it off you, thats something to deal with, he told the Post. When youre in the Pentagon on 9/11, thats something to deal with. When your squadron is supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2003 to 2006, and your squadron moves hundreds of angels [deceased U.S. troops]  theres something to talk about.

The four-star generals openness has sparked further conversations about the role of mental health care  and the challenges airmen face in receiving it  in the years that followed.

If you want to look at a pilot with PTSD, youre looking at one right now, Minihan said this spring at a yearly meeting of senior leaders, wing commanders, command chiefs and spouses across the mobility force.

This policy affects me and if it affects me, it affects someone in your unit  they have it, havent sought help for it and [are] suffering in silence, he said. It is incredibly powerful work by this team to lower the barriers to mental health care for our warrior airmen.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday signed into law legislation to ensure that President Joe Biden will appear on the states November ballot, a spokesperson confirmed.

The Republican-controlled state House cleared the legislation earlier in the day in a 93-0 vote. The state Senate, which is also controlled by the GOP, passed it last month.

Charles Lutvak, spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said in a statement to NBC News that Alabama "with full Republican support" is "already taking action to ensure that voters can exercise their right to vote for the candidate of their choice in November.

Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states," Lutvak said. "Election after election, states across the country have acted in line with the bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure the presidential nominees from both parties will be on the ballot. And this election is no different."

Republican secretaries of state in Alabama and Ohio had warned that Biden might not appear on the states general election ballots because the Democratic Partys convention in August is scheduled to occur after state ballot deadlines.

Under the legislation signed Thursday, Alabamas certification deadline would be delayed from 82 days before the general election to 74 days, a change that would accommodate the timing of Democrats nominating convention in Chicago.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said in a letter last month that state law requires the state and national Democratic parties to supply his office with a certificate of nomination for president and vice president by Aug. 15, four days before the Democratic convention is set to begin on Aug. 19.

In April, Frank LaRose told Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters in a letter that the oversight can be rectified in two ways: either by the Democratic Partys moving up its nominating convention or by getting the Legislature to create an exemption to this statutory requirement by May 9 in accordance with state law.

The Biden campaign last month pointed to state officials' ability to "grant provisional ballot access certification prior to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions," citing efforts in 2020 to allow provisional certifications in several states.

Democratic state Sen. Merika Coleman, who sponsored the bill, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

Alabama faced a similar issue in 2020, when state Republicans voted to ease the deadline to ensure President Donald Trump appeared on its ballot.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) reportedly signed a bill into law Thursday that would ensure President Biden will appear on the states November ballot.

The Associated Press reported that a spokeswoman said the bill had been signed. The Hill has reached out to Iveys office for comment.

The bills singing follows the unanimous approval last week from the Alabama State Senate, after a state elections official warned that Biden may miss the deadline to qualify.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) sent a letter to the state Democratic Party chair in April noting that the deadline for certifying candidates to be on the general election ballot is Aug. 15, four days before the Democratic National Convention where Biden is slated to become the partys nominee.

The state Senate passed a bill 31-0 Tuesday to push back the certification deadline to 74 days before the election. The Alabama Legislature previously moved back the deadline in 2020 as a one-time fix to accommodate for both the Democratic and Republican conventions that year.

Members of Alabamas House of Representatives also unanimously voted for the legislation Thursday, the AP reported.

The Biden campaign said in a statement that Biden will appear on the ballot in all 50 states this fall.

Election after election, states across the country have acted in line with the bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure the presidential nominees from both parties will be on the ballot, the Biden campaign said.

The bills sponsor, state Sen. Merika Coleman (D), said it was a great day in Alabama when the legislation was passed in a bipartisan manner. The Alabama House Democrats posted online thanking Coleman and House Democratic Leader Anthony Daniels for their efforts.

Biden also faces a similar issue in Ohio, where state elections officials said the state Legislature has until Thursday to approve an exemption to the states 90-day rule, which sets the ballot deadline at Aug. 7.

Updated at 11:48 a.m. ET

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur (left), the chair of the Alabama Senate's Finance and Taxation Education Committee, speaks with Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, during debate on the 2025 Education Trust Fund budget on the floor of the Alabama Senate on May 2, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

The Alabama Senate Thursday approved a $9.3 billion education budget for 2025 that includes pay raises for school employees and increases funding for most education programs.

The budget is $549.9 million (6.8%) higher than the 2024 Education Trust Fund. The Senate also approved a supplemental bill allocating $651 million to education programs and schools in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

The bills all passed unanimously and with very little debate. The Senate made relatively minor changes to the House version of the budget, which passed that chamber last month.

The increases include:

A 2% pay raise for education employees, effective Oct. 1. A $189.2 million increase (3.6%) to local boards of education, from $5.125 billion to $5.314 billion. The increases include a $23.9 million (36%) increase for school nurses, from $65.5 million to $89.5 million. A $172.4 million increase (32.2%) for the Alabama State Department of Education, from $534.7 million to $707.1 million, most of which reflects increased funding for individual programs. A $112.5 million increase (7.2%) for the states public colleges and universities, from $1.553 billion to $1.666 billion. A $35.6 million increase (6.4%) for the Alabama Community College system, from $551.3 million to $586.9 million.



The Department of Educations increases include a $48.6 million increase (51.5%) increase for the Alabama Reading Intitative, from $94.2 million to $142.8 million and a $30.6 million increase (41.8%) for the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, from $73.2 million to $103.9 million.

There was relatively little discussion of the budget itself, but Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee, spoke several times about potential changes to the states funding model, moving from allocating money based on daily head count to allocating money based on need.

Weve got to look at our students and their particular needs, and thats what we ought to do and thats what were going to do  and quite frankly, wheres our destination? Where are we going to go? And how are we going to get there?

A coalition of education and civil rights groups have launched a coalition advocating for changes to the states funding model.

Other senators brought up individual concerns. Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, praised the budget for funding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), particularly when it came to security.

What youre seeing is not just fencing security, but cybersecurity, he said. We need a lot of security around different campuses.

Orr said there was funding in the budget for security cameras, lighting and fences at different colleges.

The budget returns to the House of Representatives for concurrence with Senate changes or a conference committee. If approved and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, the budget will go into effect on Oct. 1.

The supplemental bill includes an additional $109 million for local school boards; $63 million for the Alabama State Department of Education, including $15 million for summer reading camps and $50 million to provide funding for the CHOOSE Act, a school voucher-like program which creates a tax-credit program to allow parents to claim up to $7,000 per school-age child to use for private school tuition, private tutoring or educational software and applications.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, said she was disappointed at seeing money going to private schools, noting that education retirees had not received additional money in the budget.

Thats what makes it so difficult for me to see how we can get hundreds of millions of dollars to people who can already to pay for private school for their children, she said. I truly believe that every child has a right to a high level of quality and excellence in education.

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The post Alabama Senate approves $9.3 billion education budget with employee pay raises appeared first on Alabama Reflector.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  An Albuquerque woman is behind bars after police say she starved her special needs son to death. Marcella Montelongo, 23, is in jail after Albuquerque police say she killed her 5-year-old son.

Man accused of running massive Albuquerque shoplifting ring is indicted

According to the criminal complaint, the Albuquerque Police Department was called to Montelongos home in July where her son was unconscious and not breathing. Paramedics were not able to save the boy.

According to Montelongo, her son had cerebral palsy, vision issues, and was non-verbal. An autopsy showed the boy died from starvation and dehydration due to medical neglect. The boy weighed only 13 pounds.

On Wednesday, a judge decided to keep Montelongo in jail until her trial.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT)  The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) says a Danville man was killed in a crash where his car hit a utility pole, overturned and caught fire on Thursday.

The deadly single-vehicle crash happened on Lawrence County 87 near Lawrence County 434, approximately six miles east of Moulton, around 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 2.

ALEA said that Jimmy D. Peebles, 67, of Danville was driving a 1965 Replica Roadster when it left the roadway, hit a utility pole, overturned and caught fire. Peebles was pronounced deceased at the scene.

No further information is available as Troopers with ALEAs Highway Patrol Division continue to investigate.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
 Flash

Turkiye has halted all exports and imports to and from Israel, media reported on Thursday.

Ankara stopped all trade with Israel as of Thursday over escalating tensions due to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Bloomberg reported, citing two unnamed Turkish officials familiar with the issue.

Yet, no official statement has been issued by Turkiye on it.

Also on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on social media platform X that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "is breaking agreements by blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports."

Katz accused Erdogan of "disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen and ignoring international trade agreements," adding that he has instructed his ministry to "immediately engage with all relevant parties in the government to create alternatives for trade with Turkiye, focusing on local production and imports from other countries."

The reported trade move of Ankara came after Turkiye had already imposed restrictions on an array of exports to Israel since last month, which Ankara said would remain in effect pending a ceasefire in Gaza.

The export restrictions were enacted after Israel blocked Turkish military planes from dropping aid into Gaza. Turkiye's embargo list included dozens of items, such as iron and steel products, aviation fuel, construction equipment, cement, and chemicals. In response, Israel announced it would boycott products manufactured in Turkiye.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, trade between the two countries amounted to 6.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, with Turkish exports accounting for 76 percent of the total.
About 3/4 of tourists return to the places where they spent their favorite vacation and even check into the same hotel. It turns out that visiting new countries on a regular basis is not as common as people think. Moreover, European countries are not so special among tourists.

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Insure and go analyzed more than 7,500 travelers' opinions on the Reddit forum and compiled the top most frequently mentioned countries. The list includes only two European countries, two Asian countries, and one American country.

1. Japan

The so-called cherry blossom capital is visited by a lot of tourists. According to Express, more than 25 million people traveled to Japan in 2023. This country has many interesting places, and travelers are mostly attracted by its unusual culture.

2. Italy

Rome, Naples, Milan, Venice are some of the most popular cities in Italy. This country is special for its food and sociable people. Moreover, there are many world-famous sights here, such as the Colosseum, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Fountain di Trevi.

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3. Spain

The Spanish sun and golden sandy beaches are a good reason for tourists to return to this country time and time again. Moreover, a siesta vacation is perhaps its greatest feature.

4. Mexico

The Mexicans are very colorful in their culture, and the golden tropical beaches are a great place for a "lazy" vacation.

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5. Thailand

This country has recently received an incredible number of tourists looking for their "Zen" by the warm sea.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about a small city near Amsterdam that looks like it was assembled from Lego. Zandam is called a cheap alternative to the capital of the Netherlands, but a special green historical center not only because of the color of the grass and trees.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Demonstrators in a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA face off against authorities who later breached and broke up the encampment on Thursday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Bill Maher on his HBO talk show this week said that pro-Palestinian student protests on college campuses are what happens when activism merges with narcissism.

The Atlantic columnist David Frum referred to protesters like the UCLA students who were violently attacked Wednesday by a mob of counterprotesters as banana-allergy revolutionaries.

During Tuesday nights tactical police response to Columbia University students' taking over a building on campus, author Judith Miller tweeted: Hey Columbia protesters! If youre so proud of what youre doing, why are you covering your faces?

Mocking student protesters has become a fun and easy pastime since they began marching and camping out in opposition to Israels ongoing military incursions in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel. All critics and jeering old folks need is a platform (cable TV, Instagram, a tattered soap box) to discredit the movement as the performative act of feckless snowflakes and spoiled children.

The protective gear of the gluten-free warriors is a form of dress-up. Their safety measures  encampment barricades and self-manned medical tents  are seen as ploys for attention. Theyre called cowards for covering their faces with masks and goggles.

Read more: UCLA struggles to recover after 200 arrested, pro-Palestinian camp torn down

But these actions werent just for show. UCLA's pro-Palestinian demonstrators did need to shield and defend themselves when a violent mob of pro-Israeli counterprotesters attacked their encampment.

Video shot by The Times, other media outlets and witnesses at the scene show counterdemonstrators in black attire and white masks ripping down barricades, beating people with batons and poles and screaming racial epithets. Campers were dragged, kicked and pummeled by the predominantly male mob Tuesday night and Wednesday morning while police and campus security stood by for three hours before responding.

Law enforcement eventually cleared the counterprotesters, who reportedly included non-student organizations. No arrests were made.

Read more: UCLA sought extra police but canceled requests in days before protest camp was attacked

But 24 hours later, more than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested when UCLA called in a massive police presence to clear the student encampment.

What weve just witnessed was the darkest day in my 32 years at UCLA, David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at UCLA who is working on initiatives to bridge differences on campus, told The Times. Why didnt the police, UCPD and LAPD, show up? Those in the encampment were defenseless in the face of a violent band of thugs. And no one, wherever they stand politically, is safer today.

The optics, at best, discourage free speech on campus and encourage violent reprisal from those who disagree with the message. Recent weeks have seen police summoned by universities such as USC, UCLA and Columbia to quash largely peaceful student rallies and clear encampments, while racial slurs, verbal threats and violent attacks perpetrated against antiwar protesters have not been treated with the same seriousness or urgency.

Fox News naturally took the "Good vs. Evil" theme a step further when describing the protest movement as a Trojan horse for nefarious, anti-American operations.

A lot of them seem to be the same type of protester we saw during the George Floyd protest, anchor Trace Gallagher said in response to the tactical response of the NYPD at Columbia this week. They have changed the chants. Its a new location and a lot of the same crowd that moves into these things.

His guest went on to say that the protesters are targeting the American system and using the Palestinian cause to piggyback their nonsensical, glazed-over beliefs in order to start mass anarchy.

Read more: California college campuses become lightning rods for pro-Palestinian protests

Delegitimization is a classic tactic in the debate over who has the higher moral ground. But it shouldn't matter: All peaceful protesters  on and off campus  need to be protected, regardless of where their participants stand on the war.

Watching footage of the violence at UCLA this week is chilling, and theres sure to be more dangerous clashes if the safety of protesting students is mocked as unnecessary, or colleges continue to treat them as the threat. Their right to safely exercise free speech has to be protected.

Cynical agitators like Maher will always leverage incendiary moments for ratings and clicks. But tucking one's opposition to the protest movement into a flippant screed against Gen Z isnt just obnoxious, its dangerous. It feeds a harmful narrative that their need for protection is make-believe, that they're a whining, pampered generation we should ignore, or worse, allow others to target while we watch from the sidelines.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
How Alleged Texts About 'Making Out' Led to Arrest of Minn. Teacher Accused of Sexually Assaulting 11-Year-Old

Madison Bergmann was charged with first-degree child sex assault

St. Croix County Madison Bergmann

An elementary school teacher in Wisconsin was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a student.

Madison Bergmann, 24, is charged with first-degree child sex assault, online court records indicate.

KARE 11, CBS News and KSTP report that Bergmann is accused of texting the 11-year-old alleged victim almost daily, citing charging documents. KARE reported that authorities alleged the texts contained messages about making out.

CBS reported that a search of Bergmanns backpack also allegedly revealed a folder with the boy's name on it containing handwritten notes they would allegedly write to each other during the school day.

It is not immediately clear if Bergmann has retained an attorney or entered a plea.

The Hudson School District sent out a reported statement to parents of students in the district.

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"Learning about a school staff member and alleged inappropriate conduct that breaches trust is deeply troubling for all of us," the school said in a message to parents, reported by KARE. "We understand the gravity of this situation and are committed to providing the necessary support for any child who may be impacted. We kindly request the school community to respect the privacy of Hudson students and their families and refrain from spreading rumors or speculation."

The outlets report that Bergmann has been placed on leave.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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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Washington wants to help Ukraine defend itself, but does not support strikes with U.S.-made weapons on Russian territory, U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink said at a meeting with journalists on May 3, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Ukraine has continued to press its Western allies for longer-range weapons, but partners have hesitated about delivering arms that could potentially be used to strike within Russian territory.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv will not use weapons supplied by foreign partners to hit targets outside of the countrys borders. Such restrictions do not apply to domestically produced arms, some of which are reportedly capable of striking deep into Russia.

When asked how Ukraine could win the war if there are restrictions from the U.S. on strikes inside Russia, Brink said that this position has remained unchanged since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

"The first part of helping Ukraine defend itself is supplying our weapons and those of our partners to support the efforts of your brave heroes on the front lines to return your territories," the ambassador said.

"Our position from the beginning has been that we do not enable or encourage the use of our weapons in Russia, outside Ukraine's territory."

Some of Ukraine's allies have sent weapons to Kyiv with no restrictions on strikes inside Russia, according to Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so.

A recent series of strikes against Russia's oil industry have prompted criticism from U.S. officials, who have made it clear that Washington does not support Ukraine's targeting of oil refineries, citing fears that it could threaten the global energy market.

Ukraine retorted that it considers Russian refineries to be legitimate military targets.

Read also: The US weapons making their way to Ukraine right now

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Amid Flood Chaos, a Lexus LC Navigates Houston's Waters

In Houston, Texas, a Lexus LC has been captured braving the floodwaters as the city contends with severe "life-threatening" conditions. The image, taken from a social media video, shows the luxury car maneuvering through two feet of water on feeder 59 N Bound at North Parka stark visual of the challenges currently facing the region.

The scene unfolds as Houston and broader southeastern Texas endure an onslaught of severe weather, with officials issuing urgent warnings and disaster declarations. Governor Greg Abbott has expanded the disaster declaration to include 59 counties, emphasizing the critical nature of the situation as more rain is expected to continue pummeling the area through Friday.

The severity of the flooding prompted Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo to issue a mandatory evacuation for residents near the banks of the East Fork of the San Jacinto River, north of Houston. With the river expected to rise significantly, those unable to evacuate could be trapped for days, highlighting the acute danger posed by the current weather conditions.

As the community grapples with the floods, more than 20,000 residents in the Houston area are without power, complicating rescue and recovery efforts. The state has responded with high-water rescues and continues to urge residents to heed local advisories and avoid unnecessary travel.

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Amid protests and police raids, US schools try to keep the peace at graduation

By Julia Harte

(Reuters) -Ahead of the University of Michigan's commencement on Saturday, the school has trained staff volunteers in how to mitigate disruptions: a change from the usual duties of guiding guests around campus and showing them to their seats.

Everyone facilitating the University of Illinois' commencement the following weekend will have undergone similar special training. At schools like the University of Southern California and Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California, leaders have canceled or moved key events off campus altogether.

What are typically joyful ceremonies in which robed students cross stages to accept diplomas will have a different feel this month at many universities where pro-Palestinian protests and police crackdowns have upended the final days of the school year.

In recent days, students across the U.S. have rallied or set up tents at dozens of universities to protest Israel's war on Gaza. Demonstrators have called on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and demanded schools divest from companies that support Israel's government.

Reuters asked 20 U.S. colleges and universities where major protests have ensued how the demonstrations had affected commencement plans. Of the 11 that responded, only three did not expect to alter their security protocols for the event.

Some university leaders have called in riot police wielding batons and flash-bang grenades to disperse and arrest hundreds of protesters, citing a paramount need for campus safety, even as civil rights groups have decried such tactics as unnecessarily violent violations of free speech.

The anti-war protests have been staged in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza, which it launched after a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel has killed over 34,000 people in retaliation, according to Gaza health authorities, and flattened the Palestinian territory.

At Columbia University - the epicenter of the student protest movement, where New York police cleared a two-week-old encampment by arresting dozens of peaceful protesters on Tuesday - President Nemat Minouche Shafik acknowledged in a Wednesday statement that many were concerned about the university's plans for its May 15 commencement.

"We look forward to sharing more information about preparations that are underway soon," her statement said.

Meanwhile, schools that have avoided more explosive confrontations with protesters by allowing encampments to remain on campus or agreeing to consider divestment demands are under less strain ahead of their graduation celebrations.

University of Minnesota Interim President Jeff Ettinger announced on Thursday that protesters had agreed to end their encampment in exchange for an opportunity to discuss divestment with the Board of Regents and a promise that the school will not pursue disciplinary action against them.

"The student coalition has agreed they will not organize disruptions at upcoming final exams and commencements, allowing those activities to continue as planned," Ettinger said in a campus-wide email.

DISRUPTION MITIGATION

For some schools, the additional security measures for graduation ceremonies have invited yet more controversy.

More than 300 University of Michigan faculty, staff and alumni signed a letter protesting the disruption-mitigation training for commencement volunteers from the school's Student Life department, saying staff should not be asked to quell "people trying to express free speech in a place where free speech is permitted."

The volunteers have been trained to identify and de-escalate "problematic behavior," including "prolonged yelling, stomping," "random yelling/shouts against someone or about current issues," and "holding signs (silently) that block the view of others," according to a copy of the training slides seen by Reuters.

The training instructed volunteers to issue two verbal warnings to hecklers, and then have public safety and security officers escort them from the event if they persist.

Anne Elias, a training manager for the university's library services, was not asked to complete the training but helped write and collect signatures for the letter protesting it.

"I have real concerns with asking any staff member to engage in any type of policing behavior ... even gently reminding people when they are allowed to speak and how they are allowed to speak," she said.

A spokesperson for the university said the school's aim was not to suppress free expression or peaceful protest, but rather to "limit significant disruptions, ensure safety and support a successful event worthy of the achievements of the universitys extraordinary graduates."

USC'S CONTROVERSIAL CANCELLATION

The University of the Southern California has gone further than any other U.S. university surveyed by Reuters, calling off its main-stage graduation ceremony last week after canceling the valedictorian speech by a Muslim student who said she was silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred.

Instead, graduates are invited to an evening "family graduate celebration" in the Los Angeles coliseum, featuring drone shows, fireworks, surprise performances, and the school's marching band, according to a statement USC released on Friday.

The school said in April that new safety measures this year, such as additional screening, would increase the processing time for guests "substantially." That made it impossible to host the ceremony that typically brings 65,000 students, families and friends to the USC campus, the school said.

"They weren't very clear at any point with what the exact security concerns were," student Jaden Ackerman said in an interview shortly after USC called off the ceremony.

William Kimber, another student, expressed sympathy for all the graduates, especially since many would have missed their high school ceremonies in 2020 due to the pandemic. He was also unconvinced by the school's rationale for canceling the ceremony.

"We've provided a lot of funds and stuff before to protect, like, (Barack) Obama," Kimber said, referring to the former U.S. president. "And now they can't provide the same protection for the students? It's kind of stupid."

(Reporting by Julia Harte and Omar Younis; editing by Paul Thomasch, Josie Kao and Jonathan Oatis)
A half-dozen Republicans voted with all the Democrats to send Amodei's bill back to committee. (Photo: Richard Bednarksi/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevadas lone congressional Republican suffered a blow this week after six members of his own party joined Democrats to block a bill he authored to address a court ruling adopting a stricter interpretation of the 150-year-old General Mining Law.

Mining developers looking to extract minerals in Nevada are grappling with the aftermath of a 2022 U.S. appellate court ruling that essentially restricted mining companies from dumping waste on federal lands.

While federal mining law allows companies to mine on federal land where economically valuable minerals are present, the federal court decision ruled that companies are not guaranteed the right to use adjacent federal land without valuable minerals for related purposes  such as waste rock disposal or running power lines.

The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024  introduced by Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei would respond to the ruling by removing a provision in an 1872 federal mining law that mining companies must show a mineral deposit is present before building roads and other support facilities at a potential site.

However, the legislation died on the House floor Wednesday after a 210-206 vote to send the bill back to the House Natural Resources committee. Amodeis office did not respond in time for publication.

Six hard-line Republicans  Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia and Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida  voted with all Democrats to block the bill.

During floor debate, Republicans argued the bill was needed to clarify a 2022 federal appeals court decision that blocked approvals for mining support facilities at an Arizona copper mine.

The decision limited the ability of the Forest Service to approve necessary mining support facilities and activity, which is necessary for mining operations, Minnesota Republican Pete Stauber said Wednesday. The decision put virtually every new domestic mining project in jeopardy.

In Nevada, the appellate court ruling has the potential to send mining projects  years in the making  back to square one.

In the case of a planned molybdenum mine by Nevada-based developer Eureka Moly LLC, a district court judge vacated the 2019 Bureau of Land Managements approval of the project after ruling the developer did not have the right to dump waste rock on federal land without valuable mineral deposits.

The new stricter interpretation of the 150-year-old General Mining Law, also affected what may potentially become the largest lithium mine in the United States, the Thacker Pass project south of the Nevada-Oregon border. Last year, a district judge cited the Arizona ruling when determining that federal land managers violated federal law when they approved the mine developers plan to bury 1,300 acres of public land under waste rock.

Prior to the court decision adopting a stricter interpretation of the 150-year-old General Mining Law, mining companies had been dumping mining waste on neighboring federal lands without issue for decades.

House Democrats argued Amodeis bill would only benefit the mining industry by making it easier for companies to develop sites without documented mineral deposits. On the House floor, Democrats said the bill would give too much power to  and provide too little accountability for  mining companies that already work in a favorable regulatory environment.

New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury said mining companies operate under an 1872 law that provides nearly unfettered access to lands that other extractive industries could only dream of.

Congress should be improving environmental protections to the 19th-century law, but the bill considered Wednesday would only weaken existing protections, she said.

This bill removes the one frail safeguard that we have, she said. Under this bill, any American  or frankly any American subsidiary of a foreign company, including those that are located in adversarial countries  can put four stakes in the ground and on open public lands pay less than $10 an acre per year to have exclusive rights to that land, forever. Forever. This bill would create a free-for-all on our public lands.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate have described the federal appeals court decision as a significant departure from long-held mining practices. Last year, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has proposed a similar bill  the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act  that would make it legal to use part of a mining claim for mining related purposes on land without valuable minerals, including waste rock disposal.

The post Amodeis mining bill fails to pass Republican-controlled House appeared first on Nevada Current.
Angela Barrett lost her father twice: First, during her childhood in Miami-Dade, when the ravages of schizophrenia robbed him of his mental acuity, and again, decades later, when state mental health administrators assigned him to the same bedroom as a man who once sliced his own mothers throat.

It was Northeast Florida State Hospitals job to protect Warren Barrett, who had been committed to the states care following several failed suicide attempts. But Barretts roommate, Mark Stone, who had a long, frightening history of violence, was able to accomplish what Barrett had repeatedly failed to do himself.

He killed him.

Barrett, who was 72, became another casualty of the Florida Legislatures long-standing decision to ration care at psychiatric facilities for patients like Stone. Chronically under-funded, Floridas system of care has left hundreds of state psychiatric patients in danger. And when violence followed, mental health administrators often cleaned up the mess, failed to report it quickly to law enforcement  and often looked the other way.

Records obtained by the Miami Herald show hospital administrators waited 17 hours before reporting the attack on Barrett to the Baker County Sheriffs Office  time spent scrubbing the grisly crime scene and allowing Stone to dump his blood-soaked clothing in a hamper. Though the hospital told deputies they did not know Barrett had been assaulted, Barretts medical records clearly say otherwise.

Angela Barrett remembers getting the call from a Jacksonville doctor to report her father was brain dead. To this day, she said, neither the Department of Children and Families, which oversees state mental hospitals, nor hospital administrators ever explained to her exactly what happened  or apologized for her loss.

I felt like I was in a horror movie. I was just in shock, Barrett said. I did not even know that [criminal defendants] were living at the facility.

People are sent there for treatment and to get better, not to be victimized by criminals.

A road sign welcomes visitors to Northeast Florida State Hospital, where the brutal killings of two psychiatric patients have exposed safety concerns at the facility and other state mental hospitals

A dangerous mix of patients

State mental hospitals accept residents from both civil and criminal courts. Under Floridas involuntary commitment law, called the Baker Act, a person can be ordered into a state hospital for six-month intervals. Ideally, patients are stabilized and then released back to their communities for continuing treatment. Some patients require life-long hospitalization.

The state also operates what are called forensic hospitals  which accept criminal defendants who are either found not competent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason of insanity. Forensic hospitals are secure facilities ringed by razor wire, with trained officers, handcuffs and pepper spray. Theyre designed to hold sometimes violent, repeat offenders.

Civil facilities generally lack such security, potentially leaving their residents in jeopardy, especially when an incident occurs and there is no staff capable of intervening.

After patients eyes ripped out, a scathing report on security at South Florida hospital

Under Florida law, DCF has 15 days following a judges order to accept custody of a forensic patient. But inadequate budgets and long wait lists have made that mostly impossible.

The solution, or at least one of them, has been to transfer dangerous criminal defendants into non-secure civil facilities to free up beds.

It is a cure that sometimes kills.

Stone, who was from Lake County in Central Florida, had been found not guilty by reason of insanity on an attempted murder charge in April 2002, and was originally dispatched to a forensic hospital. But because of the lack of beds, he was stepped down to Northeast Florida  a civil commitment facility that was not designed to house criminal defendants.

At the Baker County hospital, sometimes violent felons are blended in among elderly and frail patients like Barrett, who had previously lived in a unit for geriatric residents. A hospital administrator said in sworn testimony that the mixing of vulnerable and violent residents continues because it is cheaper than keeping them apart.

When someone like Barrett gets killed, it can also be cheaper for the state to try to mollify the bereaved with money than to fulfill its obligation to provide adequate beds in state forensic hospitals. As of this week, the wait list for forensic beds at state hospitals topped 400.

It makes me very angry, Angela Barrett told the Miami Herald. He was the only father I had. He was better than a lot of peoples fathers that I hear about, even though he was mentally ill.

Angela Barrett with her father Warren in an old family photo. Warren, who graduated from Coral Park High in 1967, first begun exhibiting signs of mental illness by age 19. After years of hospitalization, he was murdered at age 72 by a fellow patient at the Northeast Florida State Hospital. The killer had been placed there under a state policy that steps down patients with violent criminal histories into facilities not designed to house them.

State wont release violence data

As it has on several occasions, Northeast Florida mopped up the blood and tidied up the mess, a practice that has infuriated detectives at the Baker County Sheriffs Office.

In July 2023 sworn testimony, Northeast Floridas chief of security, Anthony Dees, said that the facility experiences 10 to 15 incidents each week where one patient assaults another, or staff. The Miami Herald asked DCF for the number of reports of attacks by residents at the states six psychiatric facilities; the agency never responded. DCF also has yet to fulfill a request under Floridas public records law for records of alleged abuse and neglect of hospital residents since 2019.

It was April 5, 2021, when Stone attacked Barrett at the Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny. The beating left Barrett with broken ribs, a seven-inch-long ragged gash on his head, profound brain damage and a loss of blood so severe that his heart couldnt pump oxygen.

It was a repeat of what had happened six months earlier to a man named Sean, who was brutally assaulted by another stepped down forensic patient. Sean had been hospitalized for what doctors believed was a traumatic brain injury that left him non-verbal, physically unstable and cognitively impaired. Markeith Loyd, Jr., the attacker, was the son of a convicted Orlando cop killer who had been found not guilty by reason of insanity on attempted carjacking charges.

Read More: Covering up a deadly attack in a state hospital

Sean, whose last name is being withheld at the request of his family, lingered four months before dying on Jan. 12, 2021. DCF insists COVID was the cause. His mother is equally adamant that he would have survived if not for the savage attack, combined with additional injuries sustained after the assault.

Last month, the state Bureau of Vital Statistics reissued Seans death certificate, upon the request of his mother. The cause of his death now is listed as pneumonia and complications of blunt trauma to his chest.

DCF refused to release records of an internal investigation into Warren Barretts death, citing patient confidentiality. Florida law allows for the release of such records when a vulnerable adult, such as an elder or disabled person, dies as the result of abuse or neglect. An agency lawyer, John Jackson, said DCFs investigation did not kick in such a requirement  meaning DCF concluded no one was responsible for Barretts death  other than Stone, presumably.

The agency reached the same conclusion after Sean died  though one investigation concluded two high-ranking hospital administrators were at fault for failing to move Sean out of danger. That investigation was withdrawn, and no one at the hospital was held to account.

Administrators declined to discuss Barretts killing, as well, but did issue a short statement: Our primary focus is ensuring that patients receive high-quality services at the state mental health treatment facilities, and we are deeply saddened by the death of Warren Barrett.

An aerial view of Northeast Florida State Hospital, in Macclenny.

The system failed him

The system failed him. They had no excuse, said Dustin Williams of Barretts death. An advanced practice registered nurse, Williams had overseen Seans care, though not Barretts, and had repeatedly warned administrators that his patient was unsafe. For his outspokenness, he was retaliated against. He received $800,000 after filing a whistleblower suit.

They would rather pay someone off than fix the problem and have accountability, he said. Theres absolutely zero accountability. The state is policing the state.

Seans mother, who is not being named to protect the familys privacy, said DCF lawyers promised her after the Sept. 22, 2020 attack that docile or vulnerable patients like her son would be protected from violent forensic patients at the hospital.

After Barrett was killed, she texted Roy Carr, DCFs then-head of adult protection: Im pretty sure you may know this already. I was assured by [Northeast Floridas lawyers] that there was a policy in place to separate violent patients after Sean was attackedObviously this was another fallacy being told to appease concerned family members and patients.

She added: Changes need to be made to protect the vulnerable residents of [Northeast Florida]. This, on top of what my son endured, is beyond reprehensible.

Carrs reply: Yes maam. Painfully aware.

Warren Barretts death could have been prevented, his daughter said, if DCF had kept its promise to Seans mother. Both cases are sickening.

A promising life derailed

Little remains of Warren Barretts once-promising youth: theres a black and white snapshot of him wearing a Hawaiian lei, and sporting a crew cut. And a color photo, probably a decade later, now with long, dark hair. Hes no longer the gap-tooth, big-eared kid of his childhood.

The other time-capsule relics include a news clipping announcing Barretts first place prize for Eastern Affairs in the Dade County Social Studies Senate Contest. A yellowed 1971 draft card. A birthday card for his mother, adorned with lavender, and yellow lilies. And his diploma from Coral Park High School, which his daughter keeps in a box in her closet.

Warren Barrett in his 1967 graduation photo from Coral Park Senior High School, a few years before struggles with mental illness derailed his life.

Barrett  nicknamed Bud because he liked picking flowers for his mom  was a military brat, Angela Barrett said. His father fought in World War II and was deployed to naval bases before settling in the Westchester and Cutler Ridge areas and commanding a Coast Guard station on Key Biscayne. He and his brother  who served in the Air Force before becoming a NASA engineer  were both good students, she said.

He loved to read, especially World War II, military and history books. And he worked at the public library, stocking books and assisting customers. Some nights, Barrett and other brainiacs would meet up and discuss the Vietnam War.

Barrett had intended to go to college, like his brother, but his plans were crushed when his psychiatric symptoms emerged.

After he graduated high school in 1967, Barrett met his ex-wife through a friend, and they became parents when both were still teenagers, his daughter said. Barrett was exhibiting signs of mental illness by age 19. Angela Barrett said she was still a toddler when her father was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her parents divorced.

His parents took care of him, Angela Barrett said. They rented an apartment for Barrett in Kendall, and saw to it that he got treatment. They tried to give him a normal life, she said. They visited him regularly. They shopped for him.

Everybody was trying to do the best they could at the time, because he was diagnosed so young, Angela Barrett said.

A familys struggles to help

But Angela Barretts grandmother, who had earned income as a professional bridge player, eventually became gravely ill, and it became difficult for her to supervise her son, who had threatened, or attempted, to take his life often. He also exhibited strange behavior, once being detained after trying to hand out Tootsie Rolls to children at a nearby middle school.

Angela Barretts grandmother died in June of 2001, and Barrett moved her father into her home in Casselberry, an Orlando suburb, two years later. But, she said, she was raising two sons, including a 7-year-old, and her fathers presence in the home was chaotic. They were young, she said, and wanted to have friends.

Though her children loved her dad, Angela Barrett said, she took the advice of local police and had her father committed to a psychiatric hospital under the Baker Act. That was in 2005. Barrett toggled back and forth between hospitalization and community care until 2014, when he was admitted to Northeast Florida, where he remained until his death.

After his hospitalization for mental illness, Warren Barrett did not like to have his photograph taken, his family says. This is a rare image of him in his later years before he was killed by another patient at Northeast Florida State Hospital.

Barretts court-appointed guardian referred to him as a hippie gentleman in medical records.

He enjoys rock n roll, 70s bands, [growing] his hair long and Pink Floyd, the guardian said.

Barretts illness was so severe that, both in young adulthood and later when he was committed to Northeast Florida, he underwent whats called electroconvulsive therapy  formerly called shock treatment  to stanch his depression, his daughter said.

His illness took a toll on him, mentally and physically, said Angela Barrett, who sent her father books to read. The state returned them to her following her fathers death.

Though Barrett was reportedly a danger to himself, his guardian told a psychologist at U.F. Health in Jacksonville he was unlikely to be aggressive.

A pool of blood

Mark Stone, listed in criminal records as 5-feet, 10-inches and 190 pounds, in contrast, had a well-documented history of aggression.

By September 1, 2001, the day Stone attacked his mother, hed already been arrested 17 times, including charges for grand theft, auto theft, marijuana possession, driving under the influence, battery on a law enforcement officer, domestic battery and battery on a person 65 or older.

A Lake County Sheriffs Office report said Stones mother, Sara Stone, had been found by deputies that day lying face down on the floor in her home with her throat cut. Before she was airlifted to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, she told a deputy that her son Mark did it.

About two hours after his mother was flown to the hospital, deputies found Stone in the woods near his mothers home, draped in blood, the police report says.

The assault had occurred six days after a judge released him from his previous arrest  on a charge of battering an elder.

It appears that September 2001 prosecution  Stone was charged with attempted 2nd degree murder, as his mother survived the attack  marked the first time he was determined not guilty by reason of insanity. Thats when Stone was taken into DCF custody.

In the 20 years that followed, Stone cycled in and out of jails, state hospitals and community mental health centers. He added three new charges: cocaine possession, possession of drug equipment and a county ordinance violation.

It is unclear when hospital administrators transferred Stone from a secure, locked-down forensic hospital to Northeast Florida; DCF calls such transfers step downs. Stone was assigned to one of four beds in a room shared by Barrett, who, his daughter said, had recently been moved from a wing for geriatric patients.

Mark Stone, 47, eventally pleaded no contest to second-degree murder charges in the death of Warren Barrett and was sentenced in February to serve 21 years in prison. He is now incarcerated at Columbia Correctional Annex in Lake City.

On April 5, 2021, at a little past 1:30 a.m., a camera in Northeast Florida living area 58E captured Stone, dressed in khaki pants and a green polo, standing against a hallway wall. What had happened before that is redacted in a police report. Moments later, hospital workers entered the room, and this is apparently when [Barrett] is found lying unresponsive on the floor, police reported.

The bedroom where the attack occurred held four twin-sized beds in each corner of the room, along with four small dressers. The walls were made of concrete block, broken up by windows inlaid with cage-like screening protecting the glass, a report said. The floor was tiled.

The beating Barrett endured was so severe that both police and medical records describe finding him in a pool of blood, with reddish-brown blood stains on the wall behind him.

The list of Barretts injuries, as documented by a team of doctors at U.F. Health Jacksonville, was long and alarming: The nerve fibers in his brain had been violently sheared. Blood was collecting within his skull and on the surface of his brain. He suffered a seven-inch ragged laceration on his head.

17 hours to report attack

It took hospital administrators 17 hours to report the assault to the Baker County Sheriffs Office. Hospital workers already had cleaned and mopped the crime scene. Stone had been allowed to change his blood-soaked clothing, which was later found in his hamper.

Detectives arrived at 5 p.m. As they walked through the crime scene, they found khakis and a polo matching what Stone wore in earlier video in a laundry basket next to his bed  stained with dried blood, a report said. Atop Stones bed was a yellow note pad, and in his dresser was a short note hed written from the pad: My own words. I could not just lay there and suffer bodily harm. I had to do what I could to prevent being struck. He then asked for a lawyer.

When detectives interviewed Stone in a hallway, his right hand was swollen and bandaged. Detectives asked him how he hurt it. A tooth, he replied.

On the walls and floor near the suspects bed I observed several reddish/brown stains that appeared to be dried blood, Sheriffs Captain David Mancini, Jr., wrote in his report. Hospital staff also gave detectives bags full of blood-stained towels and sheets that came from the room after the incident occurred and when it was cleaned.

When asked about the delay in reporting the assault, Mancinis report says, hospital administrators said they waited because the cause and severity of the victims injuries were unknown. In a complaint about the hospital to state health regulators, Barretts daughter said she had been told hospital administrators initially thought the 72-year-old had fallen out of his bed.

A road sign welcomes visitors to Northeast Florida State Hospital, where two mental patients were killed in the last few years by fellow patients with violent criminal backgrounds. The attackers were placed there because of a shortage of beds in the states forensic hospitals.

A dubious explanation from hospital

The explanations are dubious, given the severity of Barretts injuries and the amount of spilled blood.

Barretts medical records cast further doubt on DCFs explanations. UF Health, formerly Shands Hospital, records show that more than 15 hours before police were notified of the attack emergency medical workers who had airlifted Barrett told doctors Barrett was injured in an assault. Asked to describe the type of assault, doctors wrote: beaten and punched.

As well, a facial surgeon who treated Barrett wrote at 7:11 a.m. that day  10 hours before detectives arrived at Northeast Florida  that he was reportedly assaulted and found in a pool of blood, medical records say. Notes from a neurosurgery consult two hours before detectives arrived also noted multiple blows to the head, and added: He was beat by another patient.

Detectives and supervisors at the Baker County Sheriffs Office became so frustrated and angry with the hospitals lack of cooperation that Mancini, the author of the report on Barretts attack, wrote an email to hospital administrators in May of 2022 threatening to refer the [hospital] staff to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement the next time his detectives were called to an incident and the crime scene has been cleaned up.

It cannot be expected that any Sheriffs Deputy be asked to respond to [Northeast Florida State Hospital] and conduct a criminal investigation with the facts, evidence, witnesses, or even the victims in some cases [being] altered, damaged, destroyed, concealed, manipulated, vanished, or dead when [hospital] personnel find it appropriate to report the crime to BCSO, Mancini wrote.

Stone, 47, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder charges and was sentenced in February to serve 21 years in prison. He is incarcerated at Columbia Correctional Annex in Lake City.

Stone hand-wrote a rambling, mostly unpunctuated letter in February, asking his judge to grant him a trial or to release him to friends or family in Central Florida. He said he wanted to open a dog grooming biz, and owned a camper-trailer in which he could live.

Stone seemed to suggest he was not responsible for Barretts death, that someone else, whom he did not name, finished the job.

I did just begin the process of bringing the mans life to an end, Stone wrote. He added: Now, your honor, there is a whole new ball of wax whenever to polish off the existence of a human.

More than two years later, Angela Barrett, at her home near Orlando, remains shocked that the state allowed a patient with a violent criminal background to be housed with her 72-year-old father at Northeast Florida State Hospital. People are sent there for treatment and to get better, not to be victimized by criminals.

The labor union that represents nurses at Northeast Florida was less concerned about the cover-ups than the assaults that preceded them. A contingent of our members have contacted us regarding very serious security concerns they have for the patients and staff at Northeast Florida State Hospital.

A significant number of forensic patientshave been transferred to [the facility] and have been interspersed with the civil patients. Such an integration of patients does not make for a secure environment, John Berry, director of labor relations for the Florida Nurses Association, wrote in a April 26, 2022 letter.

A few months earlier, Berry wrote, two employees were assaulted by a violent patient, and were injured. If other staff and patients had not intervened, the female nurse could have died. Before that, another patient had assaulted several other patients, Berry wrote. Hospital workers asked for greater security, but those recommendations were ignored.

Nobody will deny that working in a psychiatric facility is not an easy undertaking, Berry wrote. He added: Nobody should be forced to work every day thinking that they may be injured, disabled or worse due to managements lack of concern for their well-being.
Yet another Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign worker is in trouble, but this time for a very serious reason: allegedly choking and punching a woman.

Trent Pool, a paid ballot-access consultant on the campaign, was charged Saturday with criminal obstruction of breathing and assault after getting into an argument with a 25-year-old woman at the Soho Grand Hotel in downtown Manhattan at 5 a.m. that day.

Pool wrapped his hand around her neck making it hard for her to breath[e] and then struck her in the face with a closed fist, causing pain, Mediaite reported Thursday, citing police. The woman turned down medical attention, and Pool was then arrested.

Pool and his firm Accelevate 2020, which specializes in ballot-access, petition, and general campaign consulting, were brought onto Kennedys campaign to help the long-shot independent candidate get onto state election ballots. But perhaps Pool should have been screened before being hired: He was also arrested for fourth-degree assault in Seattle in February.

Last month, Kennedys campaign director for New York, Rita Palma, was caught on video telling state Republicans that the real goal was to stop Joe Biden from winning. Palma was also found to have extensive ties to Donald Trump, and may have been present at the Capitol insurrection on January 6. She was later fired by the Kennedy campaign.

Kennedys personal record when it comes to women isnt good, either. He has been called a compulsive womanizer, and it was a major contributing factor in the collapse of his first marriage and suicide of his first wife. But that hasnt stopped him from apparently managing to endear himself to Trumpuntil this week.

Despite praising Kennedy extensively in recent months, Trump and his advisers are suddenly worried that Kennedy will take away crucial votes. Kennedy is also facing calls to drop out from his former allies in the environmental movement, who say that he has turned against science and embraced conspiracy theories.
Voices for Life, a South Bend-based anti-abortion group, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, to regain access to terminated pregnancy reports that are no longer being released by the Indiana Department of Health. (Getty Images)

A lawsuit filed this week by anti-abortion group Voices for Life seeks to regain access to Indiana abortion records that are no longer being released by the state health department.

The South Bend-based group is suing the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) after it stopped releasing individual Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs), while still compiling statewide public data quarterly. The change in procedure went into effect in December.

Before then, the reports  while redacted  were regularly released under Indianas Access to Public Records Act.

The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Superior Court, comes just weeks after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called out IDOH and Indianas Public Access Counselor for collusion and issued a non-binding advisory opinion saying terminated pregnancy reports are public records.

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After several denied requests for records last fall, Voices for Life again sought terminated pregnancy reports last month  on the basis that Rokitas opinion should compel IDOH to release records. The most recent requests were also denied by the state agency, however, prompting the legal complaint.

Accessing these reports has always been about evaluating provider compliance with Indiana abortion law, said Melanie Garcia Lyon, executive director of Voices for Life, during a Wednesday news conference. If this were truly a privacy concern, the health department could easily redact info on these reports. But this isnt about protecting womens privacy. This is about protecting dangerous abortion providers from public scrutiny and allowing them to continue to operate without consequences for legal action.

In the past, anti-abortion groups have used the reports to file medical licensing complaints against specific doctors for procedural issues, such as filing a TPR late.

IDOHs new policy under fire

The state health department changed its policy after Indianas new, near-total abortion ban went into effect, which meant providers performed fewer abortions. State health officials were worried that information on the report could indirectly identify the women getting the procedure and sought a ruling from Indianas Public Access Counselor.

Among the data collected on the terminated pregnancy reports, or TPRs for short, is the age, education and marital status of the woman, the date of the abortion, gestational age of the fetus, race and ethnicity of the woman, as well as the city and county where the abortion occurred.

Story continues below.

Complaint Under APRA-5-1

Public Access Counselor Luke Britt found that the report could be reverse engineered to identify patients  especially in smaller communities.

He agreed with IDOH that the required quarterly reports should suffice in terms of satisfying any disclosure and transparency considerations. Britt additionally said the records, created by doctors, fall under the provider-patient relationship as medical records.

Britts ruling isnt binding, though.

Voices for Life attorney Benjamin Horvath said withholding TPRs amounts to a transparency concern. He maintained those records are vital to making sure the states abortion law is followed.

We are not after patient information, Horvath said. It really is about the physician performing the abortion  where are they performing it? And then Voices for Life is able to carry out its mission, having access to it.

Lawsuit leans on Rokitas advisory opinion

Lyon said Voices for Life has requested and reviewed TPRs since 2022. An enforcement team has submitted complaints about 701 cases of apparent illegal activity gleaned from these reports, she noted.

For decades, other anti-abortion organizations have similarly requested and received TPRs from IDOH. The requesting organizations inspected the records for apparent violations of health and safety standards among abortion providers, according to the lawsuit.

Until October 2023, IDOH routinely supplied TPRs on request to Voices For Life, and redacted potential patient identifying information, the lawsuit noted. An Oct. 16 records request by Voices For Life  seeking August 2023 TPR records  was ultimately denied by IDOH in January, however.

Voices For Life had also requested TPRs filed in September, October and November, according to the lawsuit. Those requests were effectively denied in January, as well.

Email exhibits attached to the complaint show the state health department indicated the records were no longer releasable through public records request because they qualify as confidential medical records.

The lawsuit emphasizes a different conclusion made by Rokita in his 11-page opinion, which says the reports are not protected medical records. And he said lawmakers didnt change the law to shield them.

The legal challenge further said IDOHs refusal to comply with Voices For Lifes public records requests deprives private citizens of their role in petitioning the Attorney General to investigate cases that suggest a termination of pregnancy was unlawful.

It points to Rokitas opinion that aggregated data  still available in the quarterly reports IDOH issues  for October through December 2023 shows probable cause to believe that some abortions performed during this period may have been unlawful, but that the lack of individual TPR data prevents the attorney generals office from investigating them.

Because it frustrates needed investigation into potentially unlawful abortions, IDOHs refusal to disclose TPRs to plaintiffs places human lives at risk. It also frustrates Voices For Lifes mission to protect the lives of mothers and the unborn, the lawsuit said. These results of the Public Access Counselors Informal Opinion are the opposite of what the statute intends in mandating creation and filing of TPRs. The court must not allow this situation to continue.

The post Anti-abortion group sues Indiana health department for access to abortion records appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Staying in low gravity causes changes in the entire body: muscles atrophy, bones lose mass, and control over the entire body decreases. That's why astronauts who spend time outside the Earth's atmosphere need to exercise during their missions.

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Now, researchers from the University of Milan have developed a new form of exercise to keep the bodies of future Moon inhabitants in shape. This is running on the inside of the Wheel of Death, Space writes.

"Wheels of Death can be seen in circuses and theme parks. It's a big circle. You have to run on the inside of the wheel so fast that you don't fall victim to gravity and fall off it.

In the conditions of Earth's gravity, it is extremely difficult for human legs to accomplish this feat - in fact, it is impossible. But on the Moon, where the force of gravity is one-sixth that of the Earth, a person can run on the inside of the Wheel. In fact, this may be a way to simulate running on a flat surface in a much higher gravity.

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Milan researchers wanted to see if this was possible. They rented a 9.4-meter-wide Wheel of Death and had two people run on the inside of it, supported by bungee cords from above to simulate lunar gravity.

Both participants were able to climb up onto the wheel, run around the inside of it, and safely descend back to the ground after only five to eight attempts. When the researchers measured the runners' speed, stride length, and the force with which they pressed down on the ground, they determined that the conditions the runners were in were no different from those on Earth.

Given these results, the authors believe that several such laps on the Moon per day may be very appropriate to prevent degeneration of the body.

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Antisemitic postcard sent to Macon rabbi came from a North Carolina man, feds say.

A North Carolina man was arrested Thursday for allegedly mailing a postcard with antisemitic messages to a Macon rabbi, according to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Middle District of Georgia.

Ariel Collazo Ramos of High Point, North Carolina, was indicted last month by a grand jury on a charge of sending threatening communications to Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon. The Department of Justice says Bahar received the postcard Feb. 1. Ramos indictment was sealed until his arrest.

He will make his first court appearance in North Carolina, but his first court date hasnt been set yet.

The postcard he mailed to the rabbi referenced Zyklon B, a toxic gas made from hydrogen cyanide that was used during the Holocaust to kill close to 6 million Jewish people, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. On the back side of the postcard, Ramos allegedly drew a purported Jewish man in a rat costume with the words Jews are rats.

The indictment alleges Ramos ran a business from his home that sold products depicting white nationalist themes.

If Ramos is convicted of mailing threatening communications, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The FBI was still investigating this case Thursday.

Bahar reportedly spoke to Georgia lawmakers in support of the new state law that defines antisemitism and will help prosecutors identify hate crimes and discrimination nationwide, according to an article from ABC News.
Seventy percent of adults say they're worried about current events, particularly the economy (77%), the upcoming election (73%) and news of gun violence (69%). Photo by geralt/Pixabay

A looming presidential election, continued economic struggles and the threat of gun violence have a rising number of Americans more anxious this year compared to last, a new poll finds.

The survey, conducted in early April among 2,000 adults by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), found 43% of respondents saying they were more anxious this year than last.

That's a higher percentage than was found in polls conducted in 2023 (37%) or 2022 (32%) , the APA noted.

Seventy percent of adults say they're worried about current events, particularly the economy (77%), the upcoming election (73%) and news of gun violence (69%).

"Living in a world of constant news of global and local turmoil, some anxiety is natural and expected," APA president Dr. Petros Levounis said in a news release. "But what stands out here is that Americans are reporting more anxious feelings than in past years. This increase may be due to the unprecedented exposure that we have to everything that happens in the world around us, or to an increased awareness and reporting of anxiety."

Other issues weighing heavily on Americans' minds:

Keeping themselves or their families safe, 68%

Keeping their identity safe, 63%

Their health, 63%

Paying bills or expenses, 63%

The opioid epidemic, 50%

The impact of emerging technology on day-to-day life, 46%

Climate change, 55%

When asked what daily factors most impacted their mental health, folks were most prone to say stress (53%) or sleep (40%). Among young people (ages 18 to 34), "social connectedness" ranked higher in terms of impact on mental health compared to folks ages 50 or older, the poll found.

However, despite rising levels of angst, the APA notes that only about a quarter of adults say they talked with a mental health care professional in the past year.

Rates of consulting a psychiatrist or other mental health professional were twice as likely among people ages 18 to 34, however, compared to Americans aged 50 and older.

Worries around access to mental health care was often cited by those polled. Among respondents who had availed themselves of such services in 2024, "more than half [59%] are worried about losing access to mental healthcare, and 39% of insured adults are worried about losing their health insurance, as a result of the election this year," the APA noted.

More folks seem to recognize the importance of mental health: 83% of those polled said that untreated mental health issues negatively impacts families and 65% think it can damage the U.S. economy.

Seventy-one percent of the adults polled also thought that kids are more vulnerable to mental health woes now than they were 10 years ago.

In one piece of encouraging news, 55% of adults believe that stigma around mental health is ebbing compared to a decade ago.

"Over the past ten years, we've grown more comfortable talking about mental health, and that's absolutely key to helping us through the current crisis," said APA CEO and Medical Director Dr. Saul Levin.

More information

There's tips to managing your anxiety at the Mayo Clinic.

Copyright  2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
A man and woman use a cloth over their heads to protect them from the sun in Manila, Philippines on Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

April 26-May 2, 2024

Workers marched during a May Day rally in Jakarta, anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated in front of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan in Taipei, and people in Indias northeastern Assam state crossed the Brahmaputra River in a country boat to vote in the national election.

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images in the Asia-Pacific region made or published by The Associated Press in the past week.

The selection was curated by AP photo editor Subramoney Iyer in New Delhi.

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Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators after defying orders to leave at an encampment on the UCLA campus, in Los Angeles, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

April 26 - May 2, 2024

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread to multiple U.S. campuses.

In Haiti, a new prime minister was named and people are demanding that the nation's new leaders prioritize citizens' safety as gangs remain more powerful and better armed than Haitis police.

Former President Donald Trump went on the campaign trail during the second week of his hush money criminal trial.

The Rolling Stones made their first appearance at the 54-year-old New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to the delight of music fans. And Nicole Kidman received an AFI Life Achievement Award.

This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images from around the world made or published by The Associated Press in the past week.

The selection was curated by AP photo editor Anita Baca in Mexico City.

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AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

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Attorney for Kari Lake, Kurt Olsen argues her election challenge appeal case in front of Arizona's District Two Court of Appeals in Tucson on May 2, 2024. Screenshot courtesy of the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Appellate judges listening to arguments Thursday in Kari Lakes challenge to her 2022 election loss had to keep reminding her lawyer how appeals courts work.

Im sure youre aware were not a fact finding court  were a court that decides questions of law, primarily, Judge Peter Eckerstrom told Kurt Olsen, Lakes attorney, shortly after he began his arguments.

Lake, a Republican who is now running for a U.S. Senate seat, filed her initial election challenge in December 2022 after she lost the governors race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.

An ally of fellow election denier Donald Trump, Lake never conceded to Hobbs and has continually claimed the election was stolen, despite her claims failing to convince judges in December 2022 and May 2023 trials, as well as multiple appeals in between the two.

Olsen on Thursday focused on claims that Maricopa County didnt conduct required logic and accuracy testing for its tabulators and ballot-on-demand printers ahead of the 2022 election, leading to issues with those tabulators reading ballots on Election Day. Maricopa County has continually denied Lakes allegations that it failed to perform logic and accuracy tests required by law.

More than once during the proceedings, which lasted less than a hour, the judges had to remind Olsen, a Washington, D.C., employment attorney, that the function of the appeals court is to determine if the trial judge made mistakes in interpreting and applying the law, not in determining the facts of the case.

Olsen argued that he and Lakes other attorney in the case, Scottsdale divorce lawyer Bryan Blehm, did not have access to tabulator records in time to properly analyze them before the trial. He also claimed that Maricopa County Elections Director Scott Jarrett had lied on the stand during the December trial about logic and accuracy testing and the reason tabulators at some polling locations kept rejecting ballots on Nov. 8, 2022.

He also accused trial court Judge Peter Thompson of disregarding the testimony of Lakes cybersecurity expert, Clay Parikh, about the tabulators and printers.

But when one of the judges asked Olsen how he knew that Judge Thompson had disregarded the evidence, Olsen didnt have an answer.

He also continued to claim that tens of thousands of voters either got out of line or never went to the polls on Election Day 2022 because of the tabulator problems.

Tom Liddy, an attorney for Maricopa County, described that allegation as hogwash, an assessment seemingly in line with the trial judges take.

During the trial, Thompson dismissed Richard Baris, a Lake witness called to back up the claim. Baris made those claims based not on direct evidence, but on a poll that he had conducted.

No election in Arizona has ever been set aside, no result modified, because of a statistical estimate, Thompson wrote about Baris testimony in his Dec. 24, 2022. Election contests are decided by votes, not by polling responses, and the Court has found no authority suggesting that exit polling ought to be used in this manner.

Additionally, Olsen claimed on Thursday that at least 6,700 ballots were not counted on Election Day 2022, something that the county denies and has never been proven. But Judge Sean Brearcliffe pointed out that, even if it were true, it wouldnt have made a difference in the governors race.

Let me make one thing absolutely clear to every single person in the state of Arizona, Liddy told the court. Not a single ballot was rejected. Every single lawful ballot cast was tabulated.

But Olsen argued that the results of Lakes trials should be set aside based on new evidence that wasnt available during the trials, including the tabulator logs. However, he admitted that he had access to those before the May trial but didnt have time to analyze them.

When Judge Karl Eppich asked Olsen what remedy he was looking for, Olsen answered, The remedy is to set aside the election.

In summing up his argument, Olsen alleged that two-thirds of Maricopa Countys voting centers completely failed on Election Day 2022. Around 70% of vote centers experienced issues with their tabulators that day, but Lake never claimed that all of those centers shut down or that they didnt accept any ballots.

If you dont follow the law, people will not trust elections, Olsen told the court. Thats where its coming to in this country.

At the end of the hearing, Eckerstrom attempted one final time to push Olsen to make arguments that are appropriate for an appeals court.

We are a court of law and we dont decide facts in the first instance, and the thrust of what youve been arguing in your summation is facts and fact findings, Eckerstrom told Olsen. Could you identify what the trial court did wrong, as a matter of law? Whats your primary argument that the trial court did as a matter of law?

Olsen answered that the trial court judge improperly set the bar too high in requiring that Lake prove election fraud, instead of a lower bar of unintentional error or suspicion that the results couldnt be trusted. He added that the purportedly new evidence regarding the tabulators showed that county officials tried to downplay ballot printer and tabulator issues on Election Day.

Brearcliffe told the court that the judges would rule on the appeal in due course but did not provide any further clarification of when that might be.

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The post Appeals court hears Kari Lake election case, has to remind her lawyer how appeals work appeared first on Arizona Mirror.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A suspect is in custody after authorities say he robbed a bank in West Memphis, Arkansas, fled across the river in a stolen car, crashed and was caught near Riverside Drive in downtown Memphis on Friday.

Arkansas State Police say Freddie Najil, 35, was taken into custody just before noon Friday.

It started around 11:15 a.m., when West Memphis Police responded to a robbery at Evolve Bank and Trust at 310 Shoppingway Boulevard.

When officers arrived, Najil had fled the scene in a black Infiniti, armed with a handgun, city officials said.

Police tracked the vehicle driving eastbound on Interstate 55 toward Memphis, and state police spotted it crossing the bridge.

Officers from several agencies surrounded the vehicle, which crashed in Memphis.

Two charged with stealing $320k from business

Police say Najil jumped out and tried to get away on foot, but was captured at 11:50 after a foot pursuit on Riverside Drive by West Memphis Police and Arkansas State Police.







(above) Police are staged near Riverside Drive during the pursuit of a bank robbery suspect from Arkansas.

There was a heavy police presence set up on Riverside Drive, near where the RiverBeat Music Festival was getting started Friday.

Memphis Police said Najil was in a vehicle that had been reported stolen Thursday night from the Fresh Market on Union Avenue.

Lynn Bugg said her dog, a 15-year-old German Shepard/husky mix named Yoshi, was inside the car when it was stolen. She says she ran into the store for about 10 minutes and when she returned, her car and dog were gone.

While the car has been found, Yoshi is still missing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Four months after taking office, Argentine President Javier Milei achieved his first victory in Congress with a scaled-down version of his ambitious reform package. Now, the president seeks its approval in the Senate.

After a grueling session that took over 24 hours, the Chamber of Deputies approved Milei's reform package with 142 votes in favor, 106 against, and five abstentions on Tuesday.

"This is a first fundamental first step to remove Argentina from the swamp it has been in the last few decades," the president wrote on X (formerly Twitter) after the vote.

Milei introduced the reform packagecommonly referred to as the omnibus billin December with the aim of deregulating Argentina's crippling economy. But the bill was rejected by Congress in February and Milei was sent back to the drawing board.

With only a minority of support in Congress, the president had to negotiate and make concessions with the opposition to secure the bill's passage. Congress then voted on each individual article included in the package, reducing its scope from over 600 articles to just 232.

One key measure included in the package would grant Milei a year of "public emergency in administrative, economic, financial, and energy matters," giving the executive branch the authority to make sweeping changes to the country's legal structure. Those opposed "warn that it enables the modification or elimination of jurisdictions, functions and sweeping powers to control the number of employees at decentralised government bodies," though proponents of the article point out that previous heads of state were granted similar powers.

Milei will also be able to privatize almost a dozen state-owned companies, including the national airline Aerolineas Argentinas, the water utility firm Agua y Saneamientos, and companies managing train and postal services. Nucleoelectrica, the company that oversees Argentina's power plants, will undergo partial privatization. This is a stark reduction from Milei's original proposal to privatize 41 state-controlled firms.

The package also retains new labor laws, extending trial periods for new hires and reducing penalties for employing unregistered workers. It introduces a "severance fund" to replace the existing severance pay system and revises retirement benefits.

Additional measures include a new money laundering law, adjustments to maternity leave, and incentives for foreign investment through tax, customs, and foreign exchange benefits.

Now the package is set to move on to the Senate, where lawmakers will also review each article individually. Despite the momentum, Milei is expected to face an even bigger challenge, since his party, La Libertad Avanza, holds only seven of the 72 seats in the Senate.

In contrast, the opposition party Union por la Patria, controls a significant caucus of 33 senators, needing only four additional votes to secure a majority, reports the Buenos Aires Times.

"Argentines who live from their work, those who dedicate their efforts to study and progress, those who long for a promising future for their descendants and the generations to come, expect that the greatness seen today in the House of Deputies will soon be reproduced in the Senate of the Nation," the president's office said in a statement, hopeful that the bill will finally pass.

The post Argentina's Congress Passes Some of Milei's Deregulation Reforms. Will the Senate Support Them? appeared first on Reason.com.
Gov. Katie Hobbs signs a bill on May 2, 2024, to repeal a near-total abortion ban that was first added to Arizona law in 1864. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror

With a stroke of a pen on Thursday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs struck down a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban.

Just a day earlier, Democrats in the state Senate succeeded in peeling away enough Republican votes to repeal an abortion ban first passed in 1864, while Arizona was still a territory. The push to repeal it came after the state Supreme Court ruled it was once again enforceable, and Hobbs signature ended weeks of turmoil as the Republican-majority legislature grappled with the political fallout.

Today, we are doing what 23 governors and 55 legislatures refused to do and I am so proud to be the ones that got this job done, she said shortly before signing the bill, referring to the number of governors before her and previous legislatures.

The Democrat, who made a campaign promise to repeal the 1864 law and was a vocal supporter of the movement to do so this month, said the threat of the laws reimplementation had sparked concern across the state.

Ive heard from doctors who were unsure if they would wind up in a jail cell for simply doing their job, women who told me they didnt know if it was safe to start a family here in Arizona, she said.

The Civil War-era law carries with it a mandatory 2 to 5 year prison sentence for doctors who perform an abortion for any other reason than saving a womans life.

But while Hobbs approval removes that threat from state law, she noted that access to abortion is still not guaranteed. With the repeal of the 1864 law, a 2022 law banning abortions after 15 weeks takes precedence.

That law prohibits abortions beyond its gestational deadline unless a woman faces permanent injury or life-threatening medical complications. Doctors who violate its provisions are subject to a class 6 felony and revoked licenses. It includes no exceptions for rape or incest, and reproductive rights advocates have sounded the alarm over what they view as insufficient protections for women dealing with pregnancy complications; in other states with similarly restrictive laws, doctors have reported delaying care as long as possible to avoid criminalization, leading to worse health outcomes for their patients.

And while the repeal of the 1864 law is now finalized, it wont be effective until months after the state Supreme Court ruled it can be enforced on June 27. Thats because bills signed by the governor dont go into effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, and with the state budget still being negotiated, that likely wont happen for several more weeks yet, pushing the repeals effectiveness date into the fall at the earliest.

On Thursday, Hobbs told reporters her office and legislative leadership are still working on the budget, and said she expects a final plan to be reached soon but didnt expand beyond that.

In response to the conflicting timelines, Democrats and abortion advocacy groups have sought to use legal maneuvers to delay the reimplementation of the 1864 law until the repeal can go into effect. Earlier this week, one day before the repeal was successful, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a motion with the state Supreme Court requesting a 90-day reprieve while her office explored the possibility of appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And hours after the repeal bill passed the state Senate, Planned Parenthood Arizona, the states largest abortion provider, filed a motion asking the state Supreme Court to delay its ruling in light of the legislatures action. The Arizona Supreme Court has ordered parties in the case to file arguments on whether to approve a delay by next week.

Sen. Anna Hernandez, who helped force a vote on the repeal bill in the upper chamber, said that the only way to ensure abortion is protected in the long term is by codifying it as a constitutional right. Arizona voters are likely to see a proposal in November to do just that. The Arizona Abortion Access Act, which has already exceeded its signature requirement threshold to qualify for the ballot, would safeguard access until the point of fetal viability, generally regarded as 24 weeks, and includes exceptions for abortions performed beyond that point.

One thing is very clear: our rights are not protected unless they are enshrined in the Arizona State Constitution, the Phoenix Democrat said.

Hernandez pointed out that the vast majority of Republicans in the state legislature  42 of 47  supported keeping the 1864 law in place, and a plan has already emerged to foil the pro-abortion initiative with competing proposals. Republicans, she said, cant be trusted to safeguard reproductive rights.

Our ability to celebrate this moment goes hand in hand with the reality that repealing this ban today does not mean we are safe tomorrow, she said. Tomorrow, we could see the majority party bring forward a motion that would cut the 15 week ban down to 9 weeks or even 6 weeks. Arizonans cannot trust this body to follow the will of the majority of Arizona voters.

Democrats in Arizona are counting on the furor over abortion rights to mobilize voters in November  and award the party a legislative majority for the first time in decades.

The Republican leadership in Arizona has shown that they are unwavering in their desire to strip us of our rights, our voices and our votes, Hernandez said.

But while some Republicans made strategic decisions to support a repeal of the law in the hopes of tamping down the impact of the abortion issue in November, Democratic lawmakers on Thursday said they remain confident that Arizonans will turn out.

The 15-week abortion ban is just as disliked by voters as a near-total ban, according to Rep. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton, who sponsored the repeal bill.

An attack on freedom is simply that, an attack on freedom. Reproductive health care needs to be available to all patients at all times without the fear of criminalization, said the Tucson Democrat.

You cannot dictate and you cannot pinpoint when a complication of pregnancy is going to happen, added Hernandez. And thats why it is so important to get politicians out, get the government out and let that choice be between that person and their medical provider.

Athena Salman, the director of Arizona Campaigns for abortion advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, was overcome with emotion after the repeal was signed. Through tears, she explained that she was proud of the work done to strike down the law and hopeful for a future when abortion rights in Arizona would be guaranteed.

I cant stop thinking about my daughter, she said. And as we continue to go into the future and protect and enshrine the constitutional right to abortion and reproductive freedom, that future generations will not have to live under the restrictions and the interference that weve had to experience.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Arizona 1864 abortion law is officially repealed, but when it takes effect remains uncertain appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
One irony of politics is that you are often punished for fixing a problem. The most famous example of this is Winston Churchill, who, after winning World War II, was promptly thrown out of office in 1945. No good deed goes unpunished; once you have solved our problems, we have no more use for you.

Todays Republican Party seems to understand this concept (look no further than Donald Trump sabotaging border security in order to keep the issue alive), and Democrats in Arizona, at least, apparently, do not.

In case you missed it, the Arizona Senate voted on Wednesday to repeal the 1864 abortion ban that the Arizona Supreme Court reimposed last month. All 14 Democrats (with the help of two Republicans) voted for repeal, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs immediately signaled she would sign the bill.

Why Are Prominent Republicans Who Despise Trump Voting for Him Anyway?

Now, lets put aside the seriousness of this issue for a minute, and just consider a hardball political question: If abortion is a winning issue for Democrats and Joe Biden, wouldnt they be better off if voters had to live with this Civil War-era law, at least until November?

To put it cynically, wouldnt it have been politically smarter for Dems to take their time repealing this Republican-imposed abortion law, the same way Trumps Republicans prevented the border from being fixed before November?

If Dems wanted to keep their progressive base fired up, they could have done soand they could have been more devious than Republicans, who telegraphed that they were intentionally killing border security for political purposes. Indeed, Democrats could have furtively stymied repeal of the 1864 law, while simultaneously blaming Republicans for causingand prolongingthe problem.

House Republicans in Arizona blocked initial attempts to repeal the 1864 ban. As such, it would have been very easy for Democrats to drag this out and avoid solving the problem, a la Trump and the border crisis.

Of course, even before the 1864 ban was repealed, Democrats already seemed hellbent on making sure the abortion issue wouldnt be fully supercharged.

Right after the court ruling was handed down, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said that she wouldnt prosecute abortion cases under the ban. In so doing, Mayes undercut the notion that restrictive abortion laws and court decisions matter all that much. Never mind that enforcing the law is her actual job.

Regardless of how you feel about abortion or immigration, the contrast between the way these two parties reacted to developments that each respective sides base views as an emergency was telling.

Republicans prioritized Trumps 2024 election chances; they decided they would rather have the immigration issue than the policy victory. Conversely, Democrats made the opposite choice: They prioritized securing abortion rights today over keeping the issue alive for November.

The Left Needs to Handle Its Antisemitism ProblemNOW

Will this cost them? Abortion rights are very popular, according to CNNs Harry Enten, and Biden is much more trusted on abortion than Trump. If this election is about abortion, he tweeted on Thursday, Biden wins.

The problem? Enten continues: The election, at this point, is about the economy [and] immigration. Issues where Trump dominates. If Democrats want the election to be about abortion, they would be well served to make sure that it is top-of-mind for voters in November. And fixing Republican errors, in this regard, would seem to be tantamount to interrupting their opponents while they are in the process of committing political suicide.

To be sure, theres something to be said for doing the right thing for your constituents, and not playing games. In this regard, Arizona Democrats deserve credit for actually working to implement their values.

Im tempted to give Republicans who wanted to stick with the 1864 law similar credit for being true to their convictions. But even as a center-right columnist who opposes abortion in most cases, its hard to support a law that was enacted before Arizona was even a state.

Rather than defend what is (in the minds of most mainstream Americans) indefensible, Arizona Republicans should craft a compassionate law that seeks to save babies and allows for the kinds of broader exceptions that could achieve a modicum of mainstream consensus.

Case in point: One of the two Republicans who voted with Dems to overturn the law was Shawnna Bolick, an anti-abortion Trump supporter. She gave a speech that shared details about her previous miscarriages: Having a D&C my first trimester because the baby wasnt viable was very tough. She then asked, Would Arizonas pre-Roe law have allowed me to have this medical procedure, even though at the time my life was not in danger?

Republicans would do well to consider that there are lots of Shawnna Bolicks floating around in swing states.

Can Trump Really Kill His Rival? The Supreme Court Says, Hmm

The events in Arizona suggest that at least some Republicans have not given up on governing; and, in at least one state, there are politicians willing to resist the pull of partisan incentives. The question now is whether they will live to regret it.

But never fear, progressives; this issue is still politically potent. The repeal wont take effect for 90 days, which may give it some additional legs in Arizona. What is more, there will likely be abortion rights initiatives on the ballot in Arizona this fall.

And on top of all of that, the Arizona vote perfectly coincided with the enactment of Floridas six-week abortion ban.

If national Democrats are looking for examples to make the abortion issue relevant in November, Arizona wont be the only game in town.

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For the first time, the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has admitted in court that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). This is a rare consequence, the cause and effect of which has not yet been established.

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According to the Daily Mail, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company for several million pounds. Dozens of families claim that they or their loved ones were injured or killed by the pharmaceutical giant's "defective" vaccine. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs believe that in some cases, compensation could reach 20 million pounds (just over $25 million).

AstraZeneca, which denies the claims, admitted in a legal document filed in London's High Court in February that its vaccine "may in very rare cases cause TTS."

TTS is a disease in which a person develops blood clots and a low platelet count (the latter usually helps the blood clot).

Although thrombosis has been considered a potential side effect of coronavirus vaccination for two years, this is the first time AstraZeneca has acknowledged the risk of TTS associated with the drug in court.

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"We sympathize with all those who have lost loved ones or reported health problems. Patient safety is our highest priority... Based on a combination of clinical trials and real-world data, AstraZeneca-Oxford has consistently been shown to have an acceptable safety profile. Regulators around the world have consistently stated that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects," the company said in a statement.

Representatives of the pharmaceutical giant also added that "the causal relationship in each case will be the subject of examination."

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at a news conference next to former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, May 2, 2024. Sanders spoke before signing an executive order stating that Arkansas won't comply with new federal regulations intended to protect the rights of transgender students. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared Thursday that the state won't comply with a federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nations schools, joining other Republican-led states that are defying the new rules.

Sanders signed an executive order stating that Arkansas schools will continue to enforce restrictions on which bathrooms and pronouns transgender students can use, laws that could be invalidated by the new regulations on how to enforce Title IX.

My message to Joe Biden and the federal government is we will not comply, Sanders said at a news conference at the state Capitol.

The regulation finalized last month seeks to clarify Title IX, a landmark 1972 sex discrimination law originally passed to address womens rights and applied to schools and colleges receiving federal money. The regulations spell out that Title IX bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, too. Sanders called those changes a complete reinterpretation of the law.

Sanders' order follows similar moves by several other states, including Texas and Oklahoma, that have told schools to not comply with the new regulation. Lawsuits also have been filed in federal courts in Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Kentucky challenging the rule. The multiple challenges give the states a better chance that one of them will put the rule on hold nationally.

Sanders' order follows several moves by Arkansas to restrict the rights of transgender youth. The state has appealed a judge's order striking down Arkansas' first-in-the-nation ban on gender affirming care for minors. A group of transgender, nonbinary and intersex residents sued the state earlier this week over its decision to no longer allow "X" instead of male or female on state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards.

This act is a stark defiance of laws to protect against discrimination and a clear, aggressive attack on the well-being and freedoms of LGBTQ people in our state, Megan Bailey, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said in a statement.

Sanders' order calls on the state education department to give schools specific guidance, saying at no point should Arkansas law be ignored. In addition to laws on bathrooms and pronouns, the order cites Arkansas' law restricting what teams transgender athletes can play on. The Biden administrations new rules broadly protect against discrimination based on sex, but they dont offer guidance around transgender athletes.

Brandon Wolf, senior director of political communications and national press secretary of the LGBTQ advocay group Human Rights Campaign, warned that the state's refusal to comply could have damaging consequences including a significant loss in funding.

That appears to be a sacrifice that those whose only priorities are themselves and their own political profiles are willing to make, Wolf said in a statement.

Sanders said the state would pursue legal action for any loss of funding due to the new regulations.
Jasmine James, third from left, talks about her experiences with Medicaid during an event held on March 24, 2023 in front of DHS offices in Little Rock. A group called Make Medicaid Better gathered in front of the Department of Human services offices in downtown Little Rock to seek a response from the department about changes to Medicaid the group had suggested to DHS in an earlier meeting. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

About 20% of children insured in Arkansas Medicaid program lost access during the states unwinding period, according to a report released Thursday from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

Arkansas did move very aggressively, and I think you can see that reflected in their losses, said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown organization.

In six months, the Arkansas Department of Human Services disenrolled 184,500 people from Medicaid; more than half, 94,000, were children.

The report, which analyzed every states performance during the unwinding as of December 2023, ranked Arkansas with the sixth highest percentage decline in Medicaid coverage for kids. Arkansas rate more than doubled the nationwide average of 10%.

The end of a nationwide Public Health Emergency, which began due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, forced states to complete an unwinding process and disenroll people who were no longer considered eligible.

DHS spokesperson Gavin Lesnick said though the team has not yet reviewed Thursdays report, Arkansas followed the unwinding process as required.

We believe that maintaining access to uninterrupted health coverage for children is critical to their health and well-being, and Arkansas has made significant efforts to ensure that every eligible child and family in the state maintained coverage.

State officials had the authority to determine how fast the disenrollments occurred, and Arkansas was one of the first states to begin in April 2023. While Arkansas law required disenrollments to be completed by September 2023, other states chose to implement pauses and only recently finished their unwinding period.

[Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders] was very clear that they were going to move quickly on this, and the legislature had also engaged on that question, Alker said. I think one of the issues that really was problematic in the way the governors folks talked about this was that  children are much more likely than adults to remain eligible for Medicaid. If you see large numbers of children losing [coverage], thats a problem.

According to the report, Arkansas was one of eight states that had fewer children enrolled in Medicaid after the unwinding than it did pre-pandemic. Down by 6%, the report stated the decrease was likely due to red tape barriers.

Lasting effects

The speed at which Arkansas disenrolled people from its programs received criticism from advocates who said it caused issues, such as Medicaid recipients being removed because of paperwork and procedural errors.

If theres an influx of work, [that] means more mistakes get made, more calls get abandoned, more people give up in the process, said Tricia Brooks, a co-author on the report.

Advocacy groups, including Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, called on DHS to extend or pause disenrollments. But because DHS pushed ahead, todays work includes working in reverse to implement re-enrollments, said Camille Richoux, AACFs health policy director.

The ramifications of losing insurance for your kids are enormous, Richoux said. Without insurance, kids cant get the crucial standard preventative screening treatments. It leads to delays in care.

Under ARKids First, children in Arkansas can receive routine checkups, immunizations, eye exams and trips to the dentist. It can also cover mental or behavioral health care, X-rays and prescriptions.

Richoux said gaps in insurance coverage as a child can have a lasting impact into adulthood as it relates to life expectancy, future earnings and education attainment.

Going forward, Richoux said Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families recommends DHS take a more communicative approach to re-enrollments, which may include extending information to rural communities and to people whose first language isnt English.

The post 1 in 5 Arkansas children lost Medicaid during unwinding process, report finds appeared first on Arkansas Advocate.
Authorities are investigating an accident that killed a pedestrian who attempted to run across a highway, Arlington police said in a news release Friday.

About 3:25 a.m. Friday, officers responded to the southbound lanes of Texas 360 near the Interstate 30 exit ramp after the driver of a 2014 Nissan Pathfinder reported hitting a man who ran in front of the SUV.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene and officers did not find any identification on him, the release says.

The driver stopped immediately after hitting the man and cooperated with the investigation, police say. He is not facing any criminal charges.

It is unclear why the man tried to run across the highway, police said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office will release his name once he is positively identified and next of kin are notified.

Arlington police remind pedestrians to never enter highway lanes as vehicles are traveling at high speeds and need a longer distance to brake.

Pedestrians needing to get from one side of a highway to the other are urged to use designated crossings and sidewalks along overpasses and underpasses.

Today's top stories:

 Kids as young as 3 wounded in shooting at Fort Worth apartments

 Violent attack plan at North Texas middle school listed 32 students, teachers as targets

 Jury deliberating on death or life in prison for killer who shot woman, cop

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Sir Mark Rowley (pictured) said while all armed officers recognised their actions would be scrutinised, the current system was not 'fair, efficient and competent' - Zumapress/Avalon

Two police marksmen who shot and wounded a dangerous armed robber in 2018 have been cleared of gross misconduct after what Sir Mark Rowley condemned as a five-year ordeal.

The officers, known only as NX1 and MY55, were pursuing a gang in Wimbledon who were planning a raid at a branch of Sainsburys when they shot ringleader Brooklyn McFarlane, causing minor injuries.

The 27-year-old gangster was later jailed for 13 years for plotting the robbery and his fellow gang members received prison sentences totalling 141 years, with the judge praising the bravery of the firearms officers.

Two years after the robbery, however, both officers were charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but when the case came to trial in 2021, prosecutors offered no evidence and the officers walked free.

But despite being cleared of criminal wrongdoing the officers were subsequently charged with gross misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and faced being sacked.

However, more than five years after the incident took place, the pair have now been found to have no case to answer and have finally been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Speaking after the verdict, Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, criticised the length of their ordeal and said there had to be genuine reform in the way misconduct cases were handled.

Both officers fired shots after believing the suspect was armed and posing an immediate threat - UNPIXS

He said: I cant imagine how difficult it has been for these two officers to wait so long to finally be cleared of wrongdoing. This will have put untold strain on their professional and personal lives and those of their families.

Why is it the case that if an armed officer discharges their weapon during a terrorist incident the system can clear them within months, but officers taking on a ruthless gang of armed robbers face a five-year ordeal? That isnt right.

We ask our armed officers to confront the most dangerous criminals, taking huge personal risks to ensure the safety of the public.

Sir Mark said while all armed officers recognised their actions would be scrutinised, the current system was not fair, efficient and competent.

He went on: This case shows why further genuine reform is needed and we will continue to push for it in our discussions with the Government, the CPS, the IOPC and others.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Federation said: Being an operational firearms officer in London is one of the worlds toughest jobs. Officers, who volunteer for the role, know the responsibility and accountability that comes with it.

But our police officers must have confidence that they have the protection needed to do the difficult and dangerous job society expects of them.

Collectively, the gang would be sent to prison for a total of 141 years - UNPIXS

The spokesman also criticised the length of time it had taken to complete proceedings.

He added: Who from the hindsight brigade  taking years to pour over the split-second decisions our colleagues have to make to keep the public safe  is held to account for what they have unnecessarily and protractedly put our colleagues through?

McFarlane was part of a gang of robbers who stole 400,000 in a series of violent raids on cash vans and commercial premises.

Security guards came under attack from the gang who armed themselves with weapons and used stolen cars to travel to and from raids in London, Oxford, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire between May 2018 and November 2019.

In December 2018, McFarlane and his gang were ambushed by armed police as they were en route to carry out a cash-in-transit robbery.

The officers identified themselves as armed police and McFarlane and fellow gang member Abdi Omar tried to escape.

Believing McFarlane to be armed with a firearm and posing an immediate threat, both NX1 and MY55 fired one shot.

One struck McFarlane and the other struck a nearby building and he was arrested a short time later.

McFarlane was treated at hospital and discharged to custody the following day.

Growing anger over treatment

There has been growing anger within policing over the treatment of officers who use force in the line of duty and the length of time it is taking to resolve cases.

Last year, The Telegraph revealed how a Met firearms officer who shot dead an armed gangster almost nine years ago is to face a gross misconduct charge despite being cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

The marksman  known as W80  shot dead 28-year-old Jermaine Baker in a police operation in December 2015 as he was preparing to spring two prisoners from Wood Green Crown Court in north London.

W80 was not charged in connection with the death, but the IOPC has ordered him to face a gross misconduct hearing, which could result in him being sacked.

In November, the Met Commissioner described as appalling a decision to prosecute one of his armed officers who crashed while racing to the scene of the Streatham terrorist attack.

Speaking after a jury at Southwark Crown Court cleared Pc Paul Fisher of dangerous driving following a six-day trial, Sir Mark said no other country in the world would haul one of its most highly trained officers before the courts for bravely trying to preserve life.

It took almost four years for the case to come to court, but Mr Fisher was cleared by a jury after five hours of deliberations.

All police shootings are looked at by the IOPC, but in situations where terrorists are shot dead, the cases are usually cleared up very quickly with no further action.

Cases involving the shooting of criminals can drag on for years if the IOPC passes a file to prosecutors who decide whether to bring criminal charges.

If an officer is prosecuted, it can take many months for a trial to take place and even if they are cleared, misconduct cases can still follow.

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(Bloomberg) -- Canadian police charged three Indian nationals on Friday with first-degree murder in the death of a prominent Sikh activist and said officers are actively investigating links to Prime Minister Narendra Modis government.

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The murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, last year sparked a major diplomatic clash between India and Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Modis administration of orchestrating the killing, prompting India to dismiss the allegation as absurd and expel dozens of Canadian diplomats.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police revealed Friday that three Indian citizens living in Edmonton had been arrested. Karan Brar and Kamalpreet Singh, both 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, have each been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

There are separate and distinct investigations ongoing into these matters, said David Teboul, assistant commissioner for the RCMP. These efforts include investigating connections to the government of India.

Police provided no details about the alleged link and did not give a clear indication of how fully India has been cooperating.

Teboul said he has been collaborating with his Indian counterparts on this and other investigations, but he described that work as rather challenging and difficult for the last several years.

The suspects  all temporary residents of Canada who have been in the country for three to five years  were taken into custody in Edmonton. They are accused of driving from Edmonton to Surrey  about a 700-mile distance, or 12 hours on the road  to commit the killing before returning to the Alberta city.

We believe that there may be others involved and therefore there may be potential arrests or charges for others as well, said Supt. Mandeep Mooker of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

In September, Trudeau publicly described credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing, prompting a row between the two countries. The prime minister and other Canadian officials largely fell silent about the killing since then, saying they would wait for Canadas police and justice system to investigate the matter.

Read More: Aftermath of an Assassination: Inside the India-Canada Crisis

A few months after Trudeaus accusation, US court documents revealed American authorities had thwarted an alleged assassination attempt against a Sikh activist in New York, and were seeking to extradite the suspect from the Czech Republic.

Prosecutors in that case allege the hitman was recruited by an agent who was employed at all times relevant to this Indictment by the Indian government, resides in India, and directed the assassination plot from India.

Last week the Washington Post reported American officials believe the operation was approved by senior-level members of Indias intelligence agency, including its chief at the time.

Modi is in the middle of a reelection bid and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is campaigning on his popularity, the strength of Indias economy and a pro-Hindu agenda that has resonated with the countrys majority.

Nijjar, 45, was an outspoken voice in a movement to carve out a separate state in India for Sikhs called Khalistan, which the Indian government deems a terrorist threat.

Danish Singh, president of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, said in a statement that he welcomes the arrests but believes they raise disturbing questions about the nexus between the government of India and criminal gangs.

(Adds quotes, context.)

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On Tuesday, Phoenix recorded 19 straight days with temperatures in excess of 110F, breaking its previous record of 18 days, set in 1974.

More than 91 million Americans across the South and Southwest were subject to heat alerts from the National Weather Service on Tuesday, and 79 million of them were expected to experience dangerous heat  defined by the agency as a heat index of greater than 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

(The heat index combines heat and humidity. For example, if the temperature is 98F, the heat index will still be dangerous if the relative humidity is greater than 40%.)

Cities with dangerous heat indexes include Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and Houston and Austin, Texas, which have all been sweltering under a persistent heat dome for weeks.

On Tuesday, Phoenix recorded 19 straight days with temperatures in excess of 110F, breaking its previous record of 18 days, set in 1974. Due to climate change and El Nino, multiple days this month have been the worlds hottest on record.

These are the dangers of extreme heat and how to minimize them.

The health threat

Heat ripples engulf people crossing the street in downtown Phoenix. (Matt York/AP)

Such high temperatures, especially when combined with high humidity  which impedes the evaporation of sweat, the bodys cooling mechanism  can cause heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke, and increase the risk of conditions such as heart failure.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather hazard in the United States, killing an average of 700 people per year and causing more than 67,000 annual emergency room visits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is the worst summer in recent memory," Frank LoVecchio, an emergency medicine physician at a hospital in Phoenix, told NBC News, adding that his hospital is overcrowded because 20% of its current patients are there for heat-related illness.

Such numbers are likely an undercount, the CDC says, because heat-related deaths are often misclassified.

Who is most vulnerable

Homeless Phoenix resident Michael Soes sits in his tent after missing the bus to a cooling center on July 14. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Because heat strains the heart and respiratory system, people with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions are at elevated risk from heat, as are people whose bodies are less adept at regulating their temperature, such as babies, pregnant women and the elderly.

Lower-income urban areas, which have more pavement, fewer trees and less grass, can be up to 20 degrees hotter than nearby suburbs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lower-income people, who are more likely to lack home air conditioning, are more likely to suffer from heat-related illness.

People who work outdoors are more exposed to the heat, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration says that workers in extreme heat are more likely to have dangerous accidents, like falling off a roof or mishandling machinery. Texass Republican-led Legislature recently overturned workplace heat safety requirements in Dallas and Austin, leaving workers without legal guarantees of water breaks.

How to prevent health problems

People in one of the Phoenix area's many cooling centers. (Megan Mendoza/USA Today Network via Reuters)

The NWS and other weather and public health authorities recommend the following key strategies to beat the heat:

Drink plenty of water, whether you feel thirsty or not. Avoid alcohol, which increases dehydration.

Avoid strenuous activity. If you have to exercise or work outdoors, try to do it very early or late, when temperatures are lower.

Wear sunscreen to prevent sunburn, which contributes to dehydration and makes it harder for your body to cool off.

Stay in air-conditioned places. If your home does not have air conditioning, go to the shopping mall or public library, the CDC advises. If you cant access air conditioning, a cool shower or bath can help.

Know your risk

A resident fills a jug of water at a vending machine in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

You can check the heat index on Heat.gov, a website launched by the Biden administration last year as part of its efforts to combat the growing threat of extreme heat.

Dehydration is one of the major risks of extreme heat. If you dont drink enough liquid to cool your body through sweat, your body temperature may rise and cause heatstroke, a potentially deadly condition in which your body gets so hot it can damage your brain, heart and kidneys.

Keep an eye out for the symptoms of heat exhaustion, which comes on before and can turn into heatstroke if left untreated. Symptoms include headache, nausea, dizziness and weakness.

If youre sweating heavily and your body temperature feels hot, or if you develop symptoms of heatstroke such as vomiting, flushed skin, rapid breathing or heart racing, treat it immediately.

What to do if you have symptoms

For heat exhaustion, the Mayo Clinic advises you to lie down with your legs elevated above your heart, and drink water or sports drinks. If possible, take a cool shower, get into a body of water or apply towels soaked in cold water to your body.

If symptoms don't improve within an hour, or if you have heatstroke, take a cold bath or apply ice packs to quickly lower your body temperature and seek emergency medical treatment.
Most people have moved on, but the coronavirus is still around and stirring passions.

The recent spike in coronavirus cases has revived some of the ferocious debates that animated national  and local  politics throughout the first two and a half years of the pandemic.

Even though hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are happening at much lower rates than during the Delta and Omicron waves, the spike is significant enough for the coronavirus to be in the news again  which, inevitably, has meant a whole new round of ferocious debates about masks, vaccines and lockdowns.

Those debates suggest that bitter feelings remain across the political spectrum, even if the pandemic is technically over. On the left, many believe that restrictions like mask mandates were dropped too early. For the right, schools stayed closed for too long and other restrictions proved ineffective.

Although a few schools have temporarily closed for in-person instruction, and some institutions have asked people to wear masks again, there is little sense that elected or public health officials are going to bring any significant restrictions back.

That has hardly stopped politicians from brandishing some of their favorite pandemic-related arguments and attacks.

Read more on Yahoo News: New COVID variant 'Pirola' sparks case rise across U.S. and Canada, via the Independent

COVID is back at the White House

President Biden holds up a face mask while speaking in the White House on Sept. 6. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier this month, the White House announced that first lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19. President Biden, who had spent the weekend with her in Delaware, tested negative  and continued to do so.

Biden also flaunted the masking rules by which the White House said he would abide. At a midweek event at the White House, he made a point of carrying a mask without actually wearing it. They keep telling me, because this has to be 10 days or something, Ive got to keep wearing it. But dont tell them I didnt have it on when I walked in, the president joked.

From the start, his administration projected competence and expertise when it came to the pandemic. But the president himself is acutely aware that many Americans are over the pandemic. He also knows that his conservative opponents want to paint him as a supporter of the most onerous public health measures: Be prepared: Biden is setting the stage for another round of COVID-19 lockdowns, a misleading Washington Examiner headline recently said.

Last week also saw the publication of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future by Atlantic writer Franklin Foer. Foer describes Biden as taking the side of cautious teachers unions on school reopenings, which many believe should have happened much sooner.

Read more on Yahoo News: Inside the Biden White House: 5 takeaways from Franklin Foer's new book, 'The Last Politician'

Trump, DeSantis relitigate 2020

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a COVID-related event with then-President Donald Trump in Belleair, Fla., in July 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Gov. Ron DeSantis first gained notice during his hands-off approach to the coronavirus. He was skeptical of lockdowns and urged schools to reopen in the fall of 2020, at a time when many Democratic governors refused to take the same step. Later, he took edgier positions on masks and vaccines, which further endeared him to conservatives. His handling of the pandemic propelled him to a landslide in last years midterm election.

Trumps handling of the pandemic was less hands-off than erratic, best symbolized by his infamous advice to inject bleach (which people should not do for any reason). He first urged caution, then embraced controversial scientists who favored a let-it-rip approach. Some believe that his response to the pandemic cost him the 2020 election.

DeSantis has seized on the recent mini-wave to revive the pandemic-era stances that made him prominent in the first place. A recent fundraising message declared that WE WILL NOT COMPLY with new coronavirus restrictions, which have only been implemented in a few jurisdictions across the country. The faltering DeSantis campaign is also selling This is a mask-free house lawn signs.

The rollout of a new coronavirus booster this week has also given DeSantis the opportunity to remind voters of his opposition to vaccines.

Trump, for his part, has attacked DeSantis by misrepresenting his positions. Lockdown Ron should take a look in the mirror and ask himself why hes trying to gaslight voters, a Trump campaign spokesman told the New York Times.

Read more on Yahoo News: Why Ron DeSantis can't stop talking about COVID

Will voters be swayed?

DeSantis at a coronavirus vaccination site in Bradenton, Fla., in February 2021. (Chris O'Meara/AP)

Probably not.

The current wave will likely subside in the next several weeks.

The future will inevitably bring new waves, but if Omicron subvariants continue their current evolutionary path, they are for the most part unlikely to cause serious illness or death.

With each wave, there could be renewed political disagreements, especially as the presidential election nears. But it is not clear that those disagreements can sustain public attention for long: According to a recent poll conducted by Yahoo News and YouGov, only 7% of Americans are very worried about COVID-19.

Read more on Yahoo Finance: U.S. approval of fall boosters comes amid uptick in COVID-19 cases
Doraemon plushies Credit - Elena AquilaPacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and across Asia, communities are responding to an extreme and deadly heat wave, which has battered the region since last month and has left few options for residents and governments to cope, in creative and even superstitious ways.

One city in the Philippines has rolled out free mobile showers, while in Vietnam, municipal authorities reportedly looked into the possibility of enlisting the help of a man who claimed he could pray for precipitation. In Thailand, a village in the central province of Nakhon Sawan resorted earlier this week to a rain-calling ritual that involved parading a Japanese manga cat.

According to Thai media, some 200 residents of the provinces Phayuha Khiri district conducted a traditional hae nang maew, or female cat parade. The ceremony has agricultural roots dating back hundreds of years ago in which farmers would hold a procession with a nang maew (female cat), carried in either a basket or cage, across the village as planting season approaches. Because of cats aversion to water, traditionally the captive cat is splashed with water with the belief that its cries will augur rainfall.

While in the past, real cats have been used, amid increasing concerns about animal abuse, Hello Kitty dolls and other lifeless alternatives have been subbed in instead in recent years.

The Thai villagers this week used plushies of Doraemona cartoon blue, male, robotic cat of Japanese origin popularized by its eponymous manga and anime. Its not the first time Doraemon has played the central part in the rain-calling ritual. Doraemon, which first appeared in 1969, has become a beloved icon in the Southeast Asian country and has often been spotted over the years in Buddhist shrines and temples.

But Doraemons powers in this regard are likely limited, as Thailands dry weather conditions arent expected to let up until at least mid-May, as the rainy seasons start is delayed. Meanwhile, as climate change continues to push global temperatures upward, meteorological experts warn that the countrys sweltering summer heat that once would ease around June may now and in the future last through October.

Read More: How to Monitor and Stay Safe in Extreme Heat, Using the CDCs New HeatRisk Tool

Contact us at letters@time.com.
Assateague mare Wildfire has to be euthanized after valiant effort to save her

The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company has announced the death of mare Wildfire, who had to be euthanized after losing use of her back legs.

Here's the heroic effort that went into the effort to save Wildfire.

Firefighters alerted to possible mare down on Assateague

At about 7 a.m. Wednesday firefighters and herd caretakers were alerted to a possible mare down in the marsh on the South End of Assateague Island. The mare was Wildfire.

Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company firefighters and other volunteers try to save the mare Wildfire, who sadly had to be euthanized due to paralysis in her back legs.

Found down in the marsh and unable to stand on her own, she presented classical hypo-calcemia which has occurred in the past and is fairly treatable under normal circumstances, according to the fire department.

Luckily, a veterinarian and horse vet tech were on site for a boat cruise volunteered to help in any way possible. They proceeded to start procuring the calcium gluconate that is required and began moving resources and equipment over to Assateague.

The pony was located in the middle of the marsh in mud and muck, which did not help her condition. The vet volunteers helped firefighters make Wildfire as comfortable as possible in the mud and started administering the calcium. A salvage cover was used as a makeshift sled to tow the pony on top of the tarp to high ground.

Once on high ground and drying off, volunteers had to get more medicine because the effects seemed to be back again, and sometimes it requires more. Once all of the meds were given and all seemed a little better, an effort was made to get her standing, but to no avail.

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Volunteers build an archway to help Wildfire try to stand

Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company firefighters and other volunteers try to save the mare Wildfire, who sadly had to be euthanized due to paralysis in her back legs.

At about 2 p.m., materials were assembled to build an archway to hoist her in the air to get blood flow and help her stand. One arch didnt work, the back end couldnt get high enough. Even through this ordeal, Wildfire let her filly nurse while on the ground.

At this point, sundown was approaching and volunteers gave one last effort to raise her back end by creating one more arch to completely support her from front and back. Once that was finished, they began to hoist and successfully got her to the point where she could stand, but her back legs had not moved and she lacked the signs of some normal bodily functions. Volunteers attempted another calcium IV at 9:30 p.m. and although she improved physically her back end never showed signs of life.

Volunteers decided that in the interest of the foal and to give her a chance to destress and possibly heal, they would let her rest overnight and return in the morning to see if there was any improvement.

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A 'silver lining' after Wildfire has to be euthanized

They returned Thursday morning to find the same problem as the day before, front legs but no back end, so the department's veterinarian recommended euthanasia. Wildfire was transported to Chincoteague to the Leonard Farm, where she was humanely euthanized.

Once volunteers returned to Assateague, the next struggle was to see if they could get the foal to nurse one of our mares who already has a foal. They were able to convince Esther Jane (EJ) to allow Wildfires filly to nurse alongside her foal, which the department described on Facebook as the "silver lining of this whole incredibly difficult situation."

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Wildfire, an Assateague mare, euthanized after heroic rescue effort
Reality Check is a Sacramento Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas says hes committed to defending student safety on campuses. But hes got no plan to do so.

There is no place for violence in protests, said Rivas, D-Hollister, in a statement Thursday. We must protect our students from lawlessness while upholding their right to free speech. My colleagues in the Legislature and I are committed to defending student safety on campuses.

Rivas issued the statement on Thursday, as protests continued on California campuses, and police moved in at UCLA and some other schools.

But he offered no plan to address the demonstrations or react to the police responses taking place at public universities throughout the state.

As a next step, the Speaker and his Assembly colleagues expect a full accounting of what led to the unacceptable violence at UCLA this week, said Nick Miller, a Rivas spokesman, in a statement after the story published. There are serious questions, and Californians deserve answers. The Legislature plans to hold the UC accountable for protecting students.

Rivas made the commitment after Republican legislative leaders suggested students involved in violence during campus protests should lose their state financial aid, and university administrations allowing the actions should also face financial penalties.

Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, also had no reaction to those proposals.

In response to events at UCLA, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, Those who engage in illegal behavior must be held accountable for their actions  including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or expulsion.

Other Democrats have offered specific ideas for dealing with the unrest.

Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, D-West Hollywood, whose district includes UCLA, on Thursday issued a statement saying the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights should investigate the university for civil rights violations related to the protests.

I am alarmed and extraordinarily disappointed that the university allowed the situation to deteriorate with seemingly little regard for Jewish and Israeli-American students personal safety and their civil rights as enrolled students, Zbur said in a statement.

Zbur also said UCLA did not protect students in the protest encampment.

Students have created encampments and occupied campus buildings in an attempt to push university leaders to stop investing in companies and organizations that support Israel and its military, calling attention to the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Gaza during the conflict.

Encampments and demonstrations have occurred nearby at Sacramento State and Cal Poly Humboldt, where police arrested dozens of people after students barricaded themselves inside two administration buildings.

In Southern California, an encampment at UCLA on Tuesday and early Wednesday became a site of violence between pro-Palestine demonstrators at the camp and pro-Israel counter-protesters. Police on Thursday arrested hundreds of people and dismantled the encampment.
Among all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary and Slovakia are the least supportive of Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO. At the same time, the number of those who would like to see our country in Western institutions has decreased among Slovaks in recent years, while the number of Hungarians has increased.

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The largest number of supporters of Ukraine's membership in NATO and the EU is among citizens of Poland and the Baltic states  Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. This is stated in the results of the Globsec Trends 2024 study.

In Slovakia, in 2022, 40% of respondents supported Ukraine's accession to the EU and NATO, but now, two years later, only 30% say they support it, the lowest number among all Central and Eastern European countries.

Hungary is not far behind Slovakia: 36% of respondents support Ukraine's membership in the EU and NATO or at least one of these organizations. However, given that in 2022 the number was only 23%, Hungarians have made a remarkable leap in two years. However, the most popular position here is still the neutral status of our country: 57% of respondents want Ukraine to maintain it in the future.

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Ukraine's membership in NATO, the EU, or both organizations is most supported in Lithuania  66%. Support for such accession is slightly lower in Poland (64%), Latvia (61%), and Estonia (60%).

At the same time, in Poland, attitudes toward Ukraine's accession to the EU have changed over the past two years: while in 2022, 72% of Poles supported Ukraine's membership in the European Union or in the EU and NATO at the same time, in 2024, only 50% of them did.

"Given the concerns about agricultural imports, the Polish perspective on Ukraine's EU membership is shaped by fears of economic competition. The Poles are concerned that Ukrainian products could destabilize the Polish market," Pawel Terpilowski, a representative of the Polish fact-checking organization Demagog, explained these changes.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA reported on the results of a survey that showed the countries that are most and least afraid of the nuclear threat. The Kremlin's nuclear threats have the greatest impact on citizens of such countries as Italy, Portugal, and Romania. Ukraine, on the other hand, has one of the lowest levels of fear of the nuclear threat.

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Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
An asteroid that tore through the atmosphere over Germany in January was spinning faster than any other near-Earth object ever recorded, new research suggests.

The space rock, dubbed 2024 BX1, turned into a fireball and exploded over Berlin in the early hours of Jan. 21. Although small asteroids on collision courses with Earth are typically detected only when they crash into the atmosphere, scientists spotted this one roughly three hours before impact.

That's not the only way 2024 BX1 was unusual, according to a paper published to the preprint database arXiv on April 5. Researchers think the asteroid, which was traveling 31,000 mph (50,000 km/h), was rotating once every 2.6 seconds  the fastest spin ever seen for an asteroid.

Previously, the record for the fastest-spinning asteroid belonged to a flying rock called 2020 HS7 , which showed a rotation period of 2.99 seconds . That asteroid measured between 13 and 24 feet (4 to 8 meters) in diameter, which is slightly bigger than 2024 BX1 and may explain why the latter spun faster.

Asteroids spin for several reasons, such as being propelled back into space after a collision. Because they are more compact, smaller asteroids tend to spin faster than larger ones. "They have internal strength, so they can rotate faster," lead author Maxime Devogele , a physicist at the University of Central Florida who works with the European Space Agency, told New Scientist .

Related: Researchers just found more than 1,000 new solar system objects hiding in plain sight

Devogele and his colleagues studied the rotational speeds of three asteroids, including 2024 BX1, using images they took as the objects approached Earth. The other two asteroids, 2023 CX1 and 2024 EF, were described based on close calls with our planet recorded on Feb. 13, 2023, and March 4, 2024, respectively.

The researchers developed a new technique to visualize the asteroids' dizzying rotational speeds. The method involved adjusting the size of the aperture  the hole light passes through to enter a camera  to keep the starry background sharp and let the asteroid appear as a trail of light.

Grainy photograph of asteroid 2023 CX1 flying across a starry sky.

When photographing asteroids, scientists can usually tune the exposure time so that both the flying rock and the region of space behind it remain relatively crisp. But near-Earth objects like 2024 BX1 travel so fast that they require impossibly short exposure times to appear clear.

"Instead of tracking the asteroid motion, leading to stars appearing trailed on the images, we observed the asteroid using sidereal tracking and let the asteroid sweep through the field," the researchers wrote in the paper, which has not been peer-reviewed.

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Thanks to a long exposure time, the resulting images show the asteroid 2024 BX1 trailing against the starry sky. Changes in brightness along the path highlight where the object rotated and suggest it had an elongated shape, according to the paper. The researchers measured the distance between these bright spots and found that it corresponded to a rotation time of 2.588 seconds, amounting to around 33,000 rotations per day.

"The advantage of this technique is that it allows [us] to extract the brightness of the object over time in single images," the researchers wrote. "We show that this technique works and is highly effective in detecting fast rotating asteroids."

Knowing the rotational speeds of asteroids flying close to Earth could be useful in mitigating the risk such objects pose to humans and infrastructure, they added.
ATMORE, Ala. (WKRG)  The Atmore Police Department has provided an update on the investigation of a stabbing at a local Tractor Supply that injured two people.

According to a news release, the lead investigator and Escambia County district attorney reviewed the evidence, discussed video and statements made, and determined the man stabbed and found in the Tractor Supply will be charged with first-degree assault once he can walk.

Mobile Police investigating I-65 service road shooting

Atmore police officers responded to a reported stabbing on April 23 around 12:20 p.m. at the Tractor Supply on 161 Lindberg Ave.

STABBING LOCATION:

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Officers reportedly found a male bleeding out inside the Tractor Supply entry doors, and another male was seriously injured in the parking lot.

Theodore shooting under investigation

Officers and employees provided first aid to both of the males stabbed to slow the blood loss, according to reports.

The two injured were then taken by ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital and then flown to separate trauma centers.

Police saw two males in the parking lot with a lot of blood on their clothing but not injured. Officers detained them and questioned them before releasing them.

Investigators did not speak with the two people stabbed because of their medical conditions, News 5 has learned.

The male found injured in the store parking lot suffered a punctured lung, bruising across his eyes and cheeks and is paralyzed below the waist. Hes had several surgeries.

Mobile woman sentenced for 2020 murder: DAs Office

The man found injured inside the store has also had several surgeries, police said. He will be charged with first-degree assault once ambulatory.

The police department will not release his identity at this time.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, testifies on direct examination by his defense counsel during his misdemeanor criminal trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

A jury found a state lawmaker guilty of violating an obscure conflict-of-interest law after a 10-hour trial Friday.

At issue in the case was Rep. Jason Dockters involvement in the lease of a Bismarck building to the Attorney Generals Office and the North Dakota Department of Health and his subsequent votes on agency budgets.

The jury took about 90 minutes to deliberate after hearing several hours of testimony from state officials.

South Central Judicial District Judge Weiler deferred sentencing Dockter on the misdemeanor until a later date, noting it had been a long and emotional day for everyone and she wanted time to think.

The building deal originally came together during Attorney General Wayne Stenehjems tenure. The representative was friends with Stenehjem, and previously served as his campaign treasurer. Stenehjem died in office in 2022.

Dockter, a Bismarck Republican, later voted on budgets for the Attorney Generals Office and the North Dakota Department of Health in the 2021 and 2023 sessions, which spurred the criminal charge by prosecutor Ladd Erickson in December 2023. Erickson, the McLean County states attorney, brought the case as a special assistant AG to Burleigh County States Attorney Julie Lawyer.

Lloyd Suhr, defense attorney for Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, delivers closing arguments to jurors during Dockter's misdemeanor criminal trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Ladd Erickson, state's attorney for McLean County, delivers closing arguments to the jury for the prosecution during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, testifies during his misdemeanor criminal trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Rep. Jason Dockter, right, R-Bismarck, converses with his lawyer during his misdemeanor trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Rebecca Binstock, executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, testifies for the prosecution during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

John Bjornson, director of the North Dakota Legislative Council, testifies for the prosecution during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Dockter took the stand and defended his actions by pointing to House Rule 321, which holds that lawmakers must vote on legislation unless they have a conflict of interest that affects them directly, individually, uniquely and substantially.

Dockter said he did not feel his situation met that standard. Hes only ever attempted to recuse himself once during his 12-year tenure in the Legislature, he told jurors  and that was when his business partner in his payroll company testified on a bill. Dockter said his fellow lawmakers allowed him to vote on the legislation anyway.

The representative declined to comment after the trial. Erickson also declined to comment.

Rep. Emily OBrien  chair of the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee, a panel of lawmakers that conducted a significant review of the building deal  disputed the verdict.

I dont agree with the guilty charge whatsoever, she said after the trial.

While on the stand, the Grand Forks Republican said based on the committees inquiry into the matter, she does not feel Dockter is guilty of wrongdoing.

In his closing statement, Erickson told the jury that Dockter willfully cast the votes despite accumulating a significant stake in the property  and that his circumstance was not as ordinary as the representative claimed it was.

This is not some sort of tangential benefit, this is a specific benefit, Erickson said.

In both opening and closing remarks, Dockters lawyer, Lloyd Suhr, warned that a conviction could set a dangerous precedent and bring North Dakotas citizen legislature to a standstill if lawmakers become fearful of legal consequences for voting.

That led Weiler to scold Suhr after the jury left to deliberate.

If you ever threaten my jury again, you yourself will have an ethics issue, Weiler said.

While the courtroom was mostly empty after jury selection, some state officials stayed to watch for part or all of the trial  including House Majority Leader Mike Lefor. Dockters family was also present for the duration of the trial.

Suhr said that his client was being unfairly targeted for doing his job and that Dockters situation is not unique among his fellow lawmakers.

This case is about a legislator doing their job and being prosecuted for a crime, Suhr said during opening remarks. Suhr later told jurors that the issue was not criminal, and should be decided at the ballot box, not the jury box.

The story starts in 2019 during the legislative session. One day, Dockter bumped into Lonnie Grabowska, director of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, in a hallway of the Capitol.

Grabowska told Dockter that the BCI  which is under the AGs office  was short on office space and looking to move to a bigger location. Dockter referred him to the Bismarck building and eventually helped coordinate the lease. The Department of Health happened to already be renting space at the property.

Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, listens during his misdemeanor criminal trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Rep. Emily O'Brien, R-Grand Forks, testifies for the defense during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

South Central Judicial District Court Judge Bobbi Weiler observes proceedings from the bench during the misdemeanor criminal trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

North Dakota State Auditor Josh Gallion testifies during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024, in front of Judge Bobbi Weiler. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Bureau of Criminal Investigation Director Lonnie Grabowska testifies for the defense during the trial of Rep. Jason Dockter, R-Bismarck, at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Rep. Jason Dockter, right, R-Bismarck, sits next to defense attorney Lloyd Suhr during his misdemeanor trial at the Burleigh County Courthouse on May 3, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Grabowska and Dockter have known each other since middle school, Grabowska testified.

After the AGs Office signed the lease, a company Dockter has partial ownership of bought the property. A construction company Dockter has an interest in was also paid to renovate the property, according to Erickson.

Suhr, however, said Dockter was just helping Grabowska solve a problem, and that the business arrangement was fair and above-board.

After these business deals took place, Dockter voted on budgets for state agencies that included rent for the property.

During the 2021 legislative session, Dockter voted on both the Attorney Generals Office budget and the Department of Health budget.

Dockter voted on the Department of Health budget again in 2023, but was absent for votes on the Attorney Generals Office budget. Dockter testified he believed he did not vote on the budget that year because he had COVID-19 and was quarantining.

Legislative records for the House of Representatives, however, show that Dockter did vote on other bills on April 10 and April 27 in 2023  the two days the AG office budget came to the floor for a vote. The House journals show Dockter voted on bills directly before and after the House voted on the budget in question.

Rebecca Binstock, executive director of the North Dakota Ethics Commission, testified that she indicated to Suhr that Dockter should be careful about voting on the AGs Office budget. She said she was not aware at the time that Dockter had also leased part of the building to the Department of Health, however.

John Bjornson, director of Legislative Council, testified that in his more than 30 years working with the Legislature, hes never seen a lawmaker sit out a vote due to a conflict of interest. He said that if lawmakers were to recuse themselves from voting any time a bill they have a tangential interest in comes up, it would hamper the legislative process.

During the trial, Erickson also played an episode of Forum Communications columnist Rob Ports podcast in which Dockter was interviewed about the building deal.

Port asked Dockter how, regardless of the representatives intentions, he could defend the lease to a skeptical public.

People know that we are citizens, we have other lives besides the Legislature, Dockter told Port in the episode.

Judge Weiler instructed the jury to convict Dockter if they felt Erickson had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Dockter willfully took an official action likely to benefit him as a result of acquiring a financial interest in a property, transaction or enterprise, or as a result of a speculation or wager which he made or caused someone else to make related to an official action.

The case was referred to Erickson for prosecution by the North Dakota Ethics Commission.

The misdemeanor charge against Dockter is based on a statute that states if as a public servant he takes official action which is likely to benefit him as a result of an acquisition of a pecuniary interest in any property, transaction, or enterprise, or of a speculation or wager, which he made, or caused or aided another to make, in contemplation of such official action.

The maximum sentence for someone convicted of a Class A misdemeanor in North Dakota is up to one year in jail and up to a $3,000 fine, or both. Dockter has the opportunity to appeal.

This story was updated at 8 p.m. Friday.

The post Jury finds Rep. Dockter guilty of misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge appeared first on North Dakota Monitor.
The Austin City Council passed protections for gender-affirming care Thursday, only a few days after the state of Texas filed a lawsuit over Title IX changes granting protections for transgender people.

Trans people deserve the right to self determination, City Council member Jose Chito Vela, one of the sponsors of the resolution, said at a Thursday Austin City Council meeting.

Our state has forced them and their medical providers into hiding, and that is wrong, Vela continued. Austin should not be a party to that anymore than we legally have to be.

A draft of the resolution states that except to the extent required by law, it is the policy of the City that no City personnel, funds, or resources shall be used to investigate, criminally prosecute, or impose administrative penalties upon transgender and nonbinary people looking for health care or those who provide health care to transgender and nonbinary people.

The resolutions passage comes shortly after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued the Biden administration over a final set of changes to Title IX, unveiled last month, that add protections for transgender students to the federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination. The changes will take effect in early August.

Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology, Paxton said Monday in a news release.

Paxton also blasted the Austin resolution in a statement Thursday, saying it is riddled with problems.

If the City of Austin refuses to follow the law and protect children, my office will consider every possible response to ensure compliance, Paxton continued in the statement. Texas municipalities do not have the authority to pick and choose which state laws they will or will not abide by. The people of Texas have spoken, and Austin City Council must listen.

The Texas Supreme Court allowed a state law barring gender-affirming care for transgender youth to go into effect in August 2023, after a legal battle over the legislation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Austin man sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2022 death at Lady Bird Lake

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN)  An Austin man began his prison sentence in April after he pleaded guilty to the December 2022 murder of a man that happened at Lady Bird Lake, court records said.

Joel Gonzalez-Pavon was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of Josue Moreno, 45, according to court records. His sentence began April 4.

In addition to the 35-year sentence, Gonzalez-Pavon pleaded guilty to four cases of aggravated robbery and received 20 years for each one, according to the Travis County District Attorneys Office. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and received 20 years in prison. Last, he pleaded guilty to indecency with a child by exposure and received 10 years for that, according to the DAs office.

All of those sentences will run concurrently, the DAs office said.

KXAN has reached out to Gonzalez-Pavons attorney. We will update this article if a statement is received.

Affidavit: Man charged with murder in December death at Lady Bird Lake

On Dec. 19, 2022, Austin Police responded to a report of a crash in the 1100 block of West Riverside Drive. A caller told 911 dispatch they heard several gunshots, and then a vehicle crashed through a guardrail and went over the bridge into Lady Bird Lake.

According to officials, Moreno died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Gonzalez-Pavon received 434 days of jail credit, which he is entitled to, according to court records.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Annalena Baerbock German Foreign Minister, inspects the coastal patrol boat "Arafura" at the Osborne Naval Dockyard. Foreign Minister Baerbock's week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will focus on security policy and climate protection. Sina Schuldt/dpa

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to further expand defence cooperation with Australia, she said during the first day of her trip to the country.

However, she did not name any specific projects on Friday following a meeting with her counterpart Penny Wong in Adelaide, South Australia.

"Defence cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we want to deepen it further," Baerbock said.

After all, both countries are in a situation "where we have to assume similar threats," she added, referring to the threats from Russia for Europe and China for Australia.

Baerbock underlined the willingness to cooperate in the defence sector with a visit to the Osborne shipyard, where German company Lurssen is building six patrol boats for the Australian Navy, one of which the minister viewed.

Another German-Australian flagship project in the defence sector is the production of 123 Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles by German manufacturer Rheinmetall in Australia, which are to be delivered to the Bundeswehr between 2025 and 2030.

Next week, the German frigate Baden-Wurttemberg and a supply ship will set off on a training mission to the Pacific lasting several months.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong praised Germany's involvement in the Indo-Pacific region.

"We welcome the way in which Germany exercises its influence in the world and in our region," she said. Australia is striving for a stronger economic and strategic partnership with Germany, she added.

Following the meeting with Wong, Baerbock officially returned cultural artefacts to the Kaurna Aboriginal tribe.

The items in question are a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club, all of which were sent to Germany by two missionaries in the 19th century and were last on display in Leipzig's Grassi Museum of Ethnology.

"Each of these items holds countless stories. Stories of how the Kaurna people lived over 150 years ago," Baerbock said at the handover ceremony in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.

She said she wanted to honour the Kaurna's spiritual relationship with their country.

Baerbock had planned to hand over the cultural artefacts in person last August. However, she had to cancel her trip on the way there due to breakdowns of her government aircraft.

The Grassi Museum then brought the artefacts to Australia on its own. With the ceremony in Adelaide on Friday, the handover is now officially sealed.

The proportion of Australia's Indigenous population today is around 4%. The history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples goes back 60,000 years. Before British colonization at the end of the 18th century, there were around 700 tribes. Only 20 of their 300 languages at that time are still spoken today.

Australia is the first stop on Baerbock's week-long trip to the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world in terms of area, but is relatively sparsely populated with around 26 million inhabitants.

It is a member of the G20 group of leading economic powers and, despite the geographic distance, supports Ukraine with weapons in its defence against Russia.

Annalena Baerbock (2-L), German Foreign Minister, Penny Wong (L), Foreign Minister of Australia, and representatives of the Kaurna people take part in a ceremony to repatriate cultural objects sent to Germany by German missionaries in the 19th century. The Grassi Museum in Leipzig had already brought them back to Australia last year. Foreign Minister Baerbock's week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will focus on security policy and climate protection. Sina Schuldt/dpa

Annalena Baerbock German Foreign Minister, is given a demonstration of a cyber exercise by Matthew Salier, Managing Director of the Australian Center for Cyber Cooperation, and students. Foreign Minister Baerbock's week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will focus on security policy and climate protection. Sina Schuldt/dpa
Snakes almost on a plane.

According to an X post by the TSA, officers at Miami International airport found a bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's pants while at a checkpoint late last month.

The post included photos of the snakes that were found in what appears to be an Oakley sunglass bag.

Officers at @iflymia detected this bag of snakes hidden in a passengers pants at a checkpoint on Fri, April 26. @TSA called our @CBPSoutheast and Miami-Dade Police partners in to assist, and the snakes were turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. pic.twitter.com/CggJob8IT8  TSA_Gulf (@TSA_Gulf) April 30, 2024

Before the discovery could leave anyone rattled, TSA officers alerted Southeast U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as Miami-Dade police for assistance. The snakes were then handed off to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Currently, the relationship between the passenger and the snakes remains unclear.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Bamberg Co. man charged with murder in connection to human remains found in burned vehicle

BAMBERG COUNTY, S.C. (WJBF)  A Bamberg County man has been charged with murder by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which comes after a burned vehicle was found with what authorities say appeared to contain human remains.

According to SLED, 28-year-old Jarrett Haskell Davis has been charged with Murder, Possession of a Weapon During a Violent Crime, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Person Convicted of a Felony Offense, Arson  third degree, and Desecration of Human Remains

on Friday, May 3.

According to the Affidavit, Davis shot and killed the victim, who has now been identified as Megan Faith Bodiford. Afterwards, Davis allegedly set Bodifords vehicle on fire with her body inside.

ALSO ON WJBF: Plane crashes near Daniel Field in Augusta, pilot identified

SLED was requested by the Bamberg County Sheriffs Office to investigate following the

discovery of a burned car and human remains off of Turn Ray Road in Bamberg on Tuesday,

April 30.

The Bamberg County Sheriffs Office began searching for Bodiford, who was last seen on Thursday, April 25 in Denmark and was reported to be a missing, endangered person.

A friend of Bodiford told investigators that the mother of 3 told her she was afraid that Davis, her boyfriend, was going to hurt her.

The Coroners Office has not confirmed at this time the identity of the human remains that were found in the burned vehicle.

According to SLED, Davis has been booked at the Bamberg County Detention Center.

This is an active and ongoing investigation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has made it clear that his country is not opposed to Ukraine using British weapons to strike Russian territory. He has promised about $3.74 billion in annual military aid to Kyiv "for as long as it takes."

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This is what the official told Reuters when he recently visited the Ukrainian capital. It is emphasized that the announced aid package is currently the largest from London.

"We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment. Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here," Cameron said.

In this context, he emphasized that the Ukrainian Defense Forces have the right to use the weapons provided by London at their discretion. That is, Britain does not object to strikes against the aggressor's military targets not only in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine but also inside the Russian Federation itself.

"Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself," the British Foreign Secretary said.

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The media reminded that in 2010 and 2016, David Cameron led the UK as prime minister, and returned to the forefront of politics only a few months ago. In Kyiv, he met with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As previously reported, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze has recently hinted that Ukraine has every right to strike at Russian territory. She emphasized that some of Kyiv's Western partners are okay with the fact that the Defense Forces would do so with Western weapons.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Bamberg man charged in slaying of mother of three. She was found shot in a burned car

A South Carolina man has been charged in the death of Megan Bodiford, 25-year-old a mother of three who was found shot in a burned out car.

On Friday, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division charged Jarrett Haskell Davis, 28, with murder, arson, and desecration of human remains. He was also charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime andunlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to warrants released by SLED.

Bodifords body was discovered on Tuesday, April 30, off of of Turn Ray Road near the city of Denmark in Bamberg County. Davis is accused of shooting Bodiford and then setting fire to her car with her inside, according to SLED.

Accusations and anger surfaced online after Bodifords disappearance was reported as being connected to Davis. While he was not initially named as a suspect, media reports and social media posts described Bodiford and Davis as being in a relationship.

How could you? one person wrote on Davis Facebook page on Tuesday, after Bodifrods body was found.

The Bamberg County Sheriffs Office said Bodiford was last heard from on Thursday, April 25, when she told a friend she was worried her boyfriend was going to kill her, according to WIS-TV.

The friend told deputies that Bodiford reached out to her on April 25 around 9:48 p.m., saying if she didnt hear from her within 30 minutes to call law enforcement, according to media reports.

The friend did not contact law enforcement until the next day, according to reports. On April 27, the Bamberg County Sheriffs Office issued a missing person advisory for Bodiford.

Deputies were dispatched to a residence Ghents Branch Road for a welfare check, according to the media reports, which cited an incident report from the Bamberg County Sheriffs Office. Media reports did not say who owned the home, but WIS-TV reported that the Bamberg County deputies tracked a cell phone belonging to Boiffords to that address.

On April 27, Davis was arrested on an outstanding warrant for second degree domestic violence. His address in court records is listed as 1755 Ghents Branch Road, Denmark.

WIS-TV Bodifords 4-month-old baby was found unharmed at the Ghents Branch Road home.

Bodiford had three daughters, aged 7, 4, and 4 months, according to a GoFundMe account set up for her family.

Davis was booked at the Bamberg County Detention Center.

SLED described their investigation as active and ongoing and the case will be prosecuted by the 2nd Circuit Solicitors Office.
Ban on hormone therapy for minors could soon be SC law. Transgender advocates vow to keep fighting.

Sen. Richard Cash, R-Powdersville, stands to speak on May 23, 2023, as senators debated a six-week abortion ban. (File/Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

COLUMBIA  Legislation banning transition-related treatments for transgender youth in South Carolina could be one vote away from becoming law.

Senators approved the bill 28-8 on Thursday, returning it to the House with just three legislative days left in the session. One Democrat voted yes with the Republicans. If the House agrees with the Senates changes, the legislation will go to Gov. Henry McMasters desk.

Advocates for transgender youth are urging the House to vote no. But House Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the chamber, have called the bill their top priority of the session.

During hours of debate over two days in the Senate, Republicans argued the ban is necessary to protect children from making harmful decisions they cant undo later in life, while Democrats countered the government should not interfere in a familys medical decisions.

One part of the bill seemed to have unanimous support  a ban on gender-transitioning surgeries for anyone under 18.

Nobody is advocating that children get any kind of surgery, said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.

But, as opponents of the bill have repeatedly testified, thats not happening anyway in South Carolina. Republicans said a law would ensure that doesnt change.

I know there are no procedures being done in South Carolina. Im very thankful for that, said Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden. But we dont want them to ever come, so I think that part is just a preventive measure.

The bill would also ban puberty blockers and gender-transitioning hormone therapy for minors. Democrats argued that will throw families in unnecessary upheaval and increase suicide rates among youth already prone to self-harm. Puberty blockers only delay puberty. Once someone stops taking them, puberty will run its course, opponents said.

Exemptions to the ban include the use of puberty blockers for early-onset puberty, which is their approved use from the Food and Drug Administration, and treatment for someone diagnosed with genetically abnormal hormone production.

Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, tried unsuccessfully to distinguish between reversible and irreversible hormone treatments and ban only the latter.

But his Republican colleagues argued the lifelong effects of whats believed to be reversible are still unclear. They pointed to studies showing bone density loss, infertility and other side effects.

Gustafon got emotional in telling her colleagues about her cousin Mike, who transitioned as an adult after years of struggling with addiction and unacceptance, then died relatively young, possibly as a result of his hormonal medications.

I dont think they affect everyone the same way, but Im not going to risk it, she said. I do not think minors should be exposed to these drugs long-term. Once youre 18, I dont care, frankly. Youre an adult.

Sen. Richard Cash, who led the debate, called the United States the outlier on whats considered the standard of care for gender dysphoria.

Last month, England became the fifth European country to restrict hormone therapy for children, citing a lack of evidence of their benefits and concerns of long-term consequences, the New York Times reported. However, unlike the laws in two dozen GOP-led states, the European countries dont ban the treatments outright, the newspaper reported.

The few hundred families in South Carolina affected by the bill dont need the Legislature coming between their children and happiness, Democrats said.

The bill is an attack on our children. Its an attack on parents, and its an attack on our doctors, Hutto said. The standard of care is the standard of care, and that standard of care should not be criminalized.

What if that standard of care is wrong? asked Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield.

Doctors who violate the ban would risk losing their license. A complaint would have to be filed within three years of treatment.

Doctors could go to prison if they perform a gender-transitioning surgery on a minor  something all sides agree isnt happening here. The bill classifies such surgeries as inflicting great bodily injury to a child, a felony.

A key difference between the chambers is a requirement in the Senate version that school administrators notify a students parents when children ask to change their pronoun or say theyre a different gender.

When the floor debate started, the Senate version also required parents to be notified if a child asks to be called a different name. But that was removed after senators of both parties recalled nicknames children often prefer to be called that has nothing to do with gender dysphoria.

As a teacher, one fourth of my students had other names. Mullet was my favorite, said Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Great Falls, rattling off a list that included Bubba, Cooter, Drumstick, Princess and Tootsie.

Teachers have said, Please keep your culture wars out of our classroom. Quit dragging us into your fights,' he said. Youre dragging our teachers into a political war that doesnt need to happen in our classrooms.

Transgender advocates said the bill forces teachers to out students to potentially unsupportive families, which could endanger their lives.

This bill is an extreme political attack on the well-being of children and on the right of families to obtain evidence-based care for their children, said Jace Woodrum, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. Transgender people belong in South Carolina, and we will never stop fighting.

Two dozen states have passed similar bans, but some are blocked by court challenges.

Let us know what you think...

The post Ban on hormone therapy for minors could soon be SC law. Transgender advocates vow to keep fighting. appeared first on SC Daily Gazette.
By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. has been preparing since 2022 for the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin would stop selling it nuclear power fuel, and a pending ban on Russian imports will help boost domestic capacity to process uranium fuel, the outgoing top nuclear energy official told Reuters.

The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that bans the imports from Russia, the latest move by Washington to disrupt Putin's ability to pay for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. The ban, which is expected to be signed by President Joe Biden, starts 90 days after enactment, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.

The move has led to fears that Putin could retaliate by freezing exports to the U.S. boosting uranium prices. Russia supplied about 24% of the uranium used by reactors in the U.S. in 2022, and was its top foreign supplier.

But Kathryn Huff, the DOE's assistant secretary for nuclear, who steps down on Friday, told Reuters the U.S. is prepared for any scenario.

"The reality is this: over the last few years there has been a very real and present possibility that Russia could stop abruptly sending enriched uranium to the United States."

Countries including Canada, France and Japan will help the U.S. deal with an "allied alternative" to Russian uranium, Huff said.

And the imports ban would unlock $2.7 billion from previous legislation for building out the domestic uranium industry.

"A paired structure in which we invest in new conversion and enrichment capacity and then protect those investments with some import restrictions is what's required," to cut dependence on Russia, said Huff, who will return to university teaching and nuclear research.

Nuclear plants only refuel about every two years and contracts are worked out years in advance. Huff said the U.S. has "just about enough time" or about three or four years, to stand up new uranium conversion and enrichment capacity and replace Russian imports.

In the U.S., the Vogtle nuclear plant in the state of Georgia, opened this week after years of delay. But no new construction is on the books, leading to concern the U.S. will not be able to meet Biden's 2050 goal of decarbonizing the economy.

Huff expects the next plant to come on line will be Palisades, in Michigan. Holtec, the owner, is trying to reopen a nuclear plant for the first time in U.S. history. Palisades shut in 2022, 10 days early due to a problem with a control rod.

Opponents of reopening Palisades, which opened in 1971, say the reactor vessel is vulnerable to cracking, a situation called embrittlement.

Holtec, which got a $1.5 billion DOE loan in March, will have to refurbish the plant to get approval from U.S. regulators, Huff said. "I fully expect it will operate better than it was operating before once they complete those refurbishments."

Holtec spokesperson Patrick O'Brien said Palisades, which still needs reauthorization, will undergo thorough inspections before any restart.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Bank in Elk Grove robbed at gunpoint, police say. Authorities seek two suspects

Elk Grove police are looking for suspects allegedly involved in an armed bank robbery on Thursday.

In a news release, the Elk Grove Police Department asked for community members help in finding two people who robbed a U.S. Bank at 9230 Elk Grove Florin Road.

According to Elk Grove police, the suspects entered the bank around 10:20 a.m. As they approached the teller, one suspect pointed a gun and demanded money.

The teller feared for their safety and complied with the demands, Elk Grove police said.

The two suspects left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money, according to the Police Department news release, and were last seen on foot.

The news release said one suspect, who is 5-foot-5 with a thin build, was armed with the gun and wore a black zip-up sweatshirt with a blue face covering. The other suspect, the news release said, is 5-foot-10 with a thin build, wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black face covering. Both are believed to be in their late teens or early 20s.

The Elk Grove Police Department is asking for help from the community regarding the robbery and offering a reward of up to $1,000.

They are being asked to reach out to the Elk Grove Police Department Investigations Bureau at 916-478-8193 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357. Callers can remain anonymous.
Barnard student twice arrested at Columbia protests refuses to say whether Israel has right to exist

Barnard College student Marie Adele Grosso wouldn't say that Israel has a right to exist.

A Barnard College student who was among the hundreds arrested during NYPDs raid at Columbia University to rid the campus of student protesters refused to say whether or not she believes Israel has the right to exist.

Marie Adele Grosso, a 19-year-old studying sociology and human rights, has been arrested at Columbia twice in the past month for trespassing during the ongoing student protests demanding the school divest from Israel-associated companies, according to police sources.

In an interview with Leading Britains Conversation host Ben Kentish on Thursday, Grosso struggled several times to answer his direct question: Do you think Israel has a right to exist?

I believe Palestinians have a right to equal rights. I believe Palestinians have a right to return to their homelands. Since 75 years ago, Palestinians have been systematically forced out of their homes, she began to answer before Kentish repeated his question, video shows.

Im so sorry, I have a longer answer to this question, she responded after Kentish said it sounded like she was not answering his inquiry, saying she was taking a while to reply because its a more complicated question.

Barnard College student Marie Adele Grosso wouldnt say that Israel has a right to exist. LBC/X

Leading Britains Conversation host Ben Kentish pushed the student several times to answer. LBC/X

Theres a difference between believing that Jewish individuals should be in, or have a right to be in Palestine and believing that Israel as a country should be allowed to continue what theyre doing. And I believe the land is Palestine, Grosso said.

Kentish again pushed her, asking if she believed that the worlds only Jewish country should exist.

She argued that the existence of a Jewish state like Israel allows other countries to perpetuate antisemitism within their own borders.

I want to note that there are Jewish Palestinians. There are Jewish Palestinians, and separatist states usually give other nations an excuse to be biased against Jewish individuals, because they can say, You have this safe place, we can continue to be biased  and I do not believe that separatist states work.

Kentish pointed out that the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations identify as Christian countries while more identify as Muslim nations.

Barnard College is the historically women-only sister school to Columbia University. @barnardcollege / Instagram

Not affiliated with school: 13

Students at affiliated institutions: 6

Undergrad students: 14

Grad students: 9

Columbia employees: 2

So you believe Christian countries should exist and Muslim countries should exist but the worlds only Jewish country shouldnt exist? he asked.

No. Theres a difference between a country having a predominant population and a country labeling themselves as a Jewish country, she responded.

Grosso was first arrested on April 18 when the NYPD cleared out the encampment from Columbias campus and told Time Magazine that she had been suspended when she was allowed back to campus the following day for 15 minutes to retrieve some belongings.

She was barred from student housing and her meal plan was canceled, but she was determined to continue protesting, she told the outlet.

The only moral thing is to do whatever we can, she said.

The teenager was arrested again on Tuesday night when hundreds of police officers dramatically stormed the Morningside Heights campus and removed barricaded protesters from Hamilton Hall, leading to more than 100 arrests, police sources told The Post.

She was charged with trespassing.
Battle Lines: What its like to be attacked by Beijing in the South China Sea, and why is China stockpiling gold?

In this episode of Battle Lines, we join The Telegraphs Asia correspondent, Nicola Smith, for a special dispatch on board a Filipino ship patrolling the simmering conflict in the South China Sea. Then we speak to economics reporter Melissa Lawford about Chinas gold buying binge and why it means tensions in East Asia could be on the cusp of heating up even further.

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.

This year sees war in Europe and the Middle East, 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.
Who is being arrested at protests and how hard would it be to divest?

Protests have taken campuses by storm throughout the country.

Emory, UGA, Kennesaw State, and SCAD have all seen at least one day of protest against the war in Gaza.

So, who is being arrested? Students and faculty, or outside agitators? Channel 2sMichael Doudna looked into the arrest and the feasibility of one of the major demands by protestors.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Protests began in earnest at Emory University last Thursday.

According to Emory University, 28 people were arrested for trying to start an encampment. 20 of those protestors were students or faculty.

This past weekend, police also arrested Derek Zika, an out-of-state man who police said had pepper spray and knives on his person at the time.

This week, 16 protestors were arrested trying to start an encampment at the University of Georgia. Police say 9 were students.

Overall, out of the 45 arrested individuals, 29 (64%) were either students or faculty.

A common demand from protestors is for universities to Divulge and Divest from corporations supporting Israel.

What am I trying to achieve by this? And what exactly is the level of support that this investment is supposed to be giving the government in Israel? Emory professor emeritus Raymond Hill said.

Hill dealt with a similar issue 50 years ago while working at Princeton. Back then, protestors put pressure on colleges to divest from apartheid South Africa.

It was complex enough 50 years ago that Princeton and other institutions decided to form this one institution to study it. But I would say, its ten times more complex today, Hill said.

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Hill said back then, the focus was on a few corporations. However, in todays global economy, almost every major corporation deals internationally, including in Israel.

Almost everyone in the S&P 500 is going to have some business relationship, so you are saying let us sell all of my portfolio, Hill said.

This would likely hurt the endowments of universities.

Hill says the major purpose of those endowments is for capital projects to improve a university and to offer financial aid for students.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko becomes chairman of the All-Belarus Peoples Assembly, a newly established extra-governmental body.

Two hospitals in Kyiv were evacuated following threats from the head of the Belarusian KGB.

Lithuania demands Minsk retract claims it was preparing for drone attacks on Belarusian targets.

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The Belarusian service of German media outlet Deutsche Welle is declared an extremist organization and banned in Belarus.

The Belarusian Cyber Partisans group claims to have hacked KGB servers, accessing 40,000 denunciation reports and 8,600 agent profiles.

The Norwegian government pledges $900,000 to the political prisoners fund set up by Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

New Belarusian extra-governmental body holds first meeting, appoints Lukashenko its chairman

The new Belarusian extra-governmental body, the All-Belarus People's Assembly, convened on April 24-25 in Minsk, appointing long-time Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko as its chairman, approving the country's military doctrine, and causing an international scandal with drone attack allegations.

Lukashenko initiated the assembly at a contested referendum on Feb. 27, 2022. The body is not a member of any of the country's other branches of power, but claims supremacy over all of them. The new institution was initially designed as a refuge for Lukashenko should he leave the presidency, but now it is increasingly viewed as a "decor" for his regime  presenting the illusion of distribution of power, while Lukashenko remains in sole control as the country's dictator.

It was thus no surprise that the assembly duly elected Lukashenko as its chairperson, awarding him a post with the second-highest profile in the country, after the one he already has.

Read also: Opinion: Russias war may have opened Pandoras box for Belarus

Described as a powerful organization capable of considering the legitimacy of elections, impeaching the president, and declaring an emergency and state of war, the assembly is, in fact, a conference that Belarusian political analysts compared to the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee designed to imitate popular approval and participation.

Analysts believe that similarly to its Soviet predecessor, the body of 1,200 mid-level officials, which only convenes once a year for a couple of days and therefore can't govern the country on a constant basis, will essentially be mostly idle.

The main speaker of the congress, Lukashenko, reiterated the propaganda line that Belarus is being dragged into a war by its Western neighbors, and is being threatened by the exiled opposition.

The meeting culminated in a speech by the chief of the notorious Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, who sparked an international scandal by claiming Belarus had thwarted a drone attack from Lithuania. He also accused Ukraine of hiding Belarusian "terrorists" in civilian hospitals, giving their exact locations and promising attacks.

Two hospitals evacuated in Kyiv following Tertel's threats

The Kyiv City Administration evacuated two hospitals on Bohatyrska Street on April 26 after Belarusian security chief, Ivan Tertel, alleged they were harboring "terrorists," sparking fear of airstrikes.

The evacuation of two civilian hospitals, including one for children, was necessitated by the circulation of an unspecified video online "announcing an enemy attack on these medical institutions," city authorities said.

"The (enemy) is trying to use it as an excuse to strike the social infrastructure of the capital," the Kyiv City Administration said.

Speaking on April 25, Belarusian KGB chairman Ivan Tertel accused Ukraine of providing shelter in hospitals to "extreme radicals," referring to Belarusian volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russia.

Read also: Kyiv evacuates children hospital due to attack threat

Tertel said hospitals at 30 and 32 Bohatyrska Street were the hideouts of the alleged terrorists, and he threatened to take decisive action "according to the laws of wartime, resolutely and without hesitation."

Ukraine's SBU security service said the claims were a "psychological operation" orchestrated to bolster Russian interests.

"Any statements by representatives of the Belarusian authorities regarding mythical terrorists who are allegedly in Ukrainian hospitals should be seen as a manifestation of information and psychological special operations that play into the hands of Russia," reads an official statement by Ukraine's Security Service.

While not sending Belarusian troops to fight in Ukraine, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has provided the Russian army with weapons and logistics support, and has echoed Russia's propaganda narratives.

Lithuania demands Belarus retract allegations it prepared drone attacks

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry has demanded that Belarus retract allegations made by Tertel regarding the military drone attack from Lithuania allegedly thwarted by the Belarusian KGB.

On April 26, Belarus' charge d'affaires ad interim, Yaroslav Khmyl, received a diplomatic note expressing strong protest from Lithuania against what it said were unsubstantiated insinuations.

Lithuanian and Polish troops take part in the Lithuanian-Polish joint military exercise "Brave Griffin 24/II" on April 26, 2024 near Dirmiskiu village, Lithuania. (Petras Maluskas/AFP via Getty Images)

Speaking at the All-Belarus People's Assembly on April 25, Tertel claimed that Belarus had prevented an attempted drone attack from Lithuania. The security chief also accused paramilitary organizations of Belarusians abroad of preparing terrorist attacks in Belarusian regions adjacent to Lithuania, and claimed the security services had thwarted these alleged plans.

The Lithuanian authorities dismissed the claim as "disinformation" and "nonsense." Lithuania's Defense Ministry claimed the statement by the Belarusian security chief was "a classic case of disinformation that has nothing to do with reality."

Interior Ministry slaps 'extremist' label on Deutsche Welle journalists in Belarus

The journalists of DW Belarus, the Belarusian service of Germany's state-funded newscaster Deutsche Welle, have been declared an "extremist formation" and have been banned from operating within the country following a decision of the Belarusian Interior Ministry of April 29.

The decision declares DW Belarus' content across all platforms to be "extremist" and bans the use of its logo. Working for the outlet is now considered "participating in an extremist formation," which is punishable by seven years of imprisonment.

This decision severely restricts the media outlet's access to its audience, and threatens anyone sharing information or giving interviews to DW journalists with prosecution. Anyone subscribing to DW Belarus, or spreading, liking, and commenting on its content could face administrative arrest and fines.

The German Foreign Ministry described the move as attempted intimidation.

"The rulers in Minsk are trying with all their might to intimidate and silence journalists and the media," reads an official statement by DW Belarus on X, formerly known as Twitter.

DW General Director Peter Limbourg rejected the allegations and criticized the decision.

Following anti-government protests in 2020, the Lukashenko's regime weaponized anti-extremist legislation against the media and activists. Nearly 200 media outlets and 3,000 individuals have already been labeled as extremists, and the lists continue to grow.

Read also: Lithuanias FM: Russian GPS jamming of commercial flights too dangerous to ignore

Belarusian hackers claim to have infiltrated KGB computer network

Belarusian Cyber Partisans, a hacker group that emerged in the wake of 2020 anti-government protests in Belarus, announced on April 26 that it had broken into the Belarusian KGB's computer network.

According to the group, hackers infiltrated the system in the autumn of 2023 and retrieved all the available information. To substantiate the claim, Cyber Partisans published the Secret Service's website database, a list of administrators, and server logs.

Belarusian officials have not commented on the claim, but the website pages have been inaccessible for the past two months, with its pages only displaying an "under development" notice.

The hacker group's spokesperson, Yuliana Shemetovets, says the attack was a response to allegations by the agency's head, Ivan Tertel, that the Belarusian opposition was plotting an attack against the country's critical infrastructure, namely, the country's nuclear plant at Astravets.

"The KGB is carrying out the largest political repressions in the history of the country and must answer for it," Shemetovets said in comments to the Associated Press.

The group published the contents of 40,000 denunciation reports gathered via the website between 2014 and 2023, including ones made against current and former political prisoners.

Belarusian Cyber Partisans have also built a Telegram bot based on 8,600 personal profiles of KGB agents that allows users to identify KGB officers by uploading their photos.

Previously, hacktivists attacked the Lukashenko regime's primary propaganda source, the news agency BelTA. In 2022, Belarusian Cyber Partisans hacked Belarusian railway network computers three times, gaining control over its signal lights and control system and paralyzing the Russian military's transit by rail through the country.

Norway to contribute $900,000 to political prisoners' fund initiated by Tsikhanouskaya

The Norwegian government will contribute NOK 10 million (roughly $900,000) to a newly established humanitarian fund to support released political prisoners from Belarus and their families, Norway's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on April 30 during Tsikhanouskaya's visit to Oslo.

The fund, which is based in Norway and was initiated by Tsikhanouskaya, is tasked with providing medical, material, and psychological assistance, as well as rehabilitation for individuals who have suffered political repression under Lukashenko's regime.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Norway supported the fund's creation and highlighted the dire need for assistance to Belarusian political prisoners. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry is to formalize the establishment of the foundation, which Eide said would be open to donations from other governments and institutions.

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Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) was just a boy when civil rights leader Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his Mississippi home in 1963. But Everss legacy left a lasting impact on the 13-term congressman.

I was very young when he died in his driveway, killed by a fellow who somehow saw him as upsetting the Mississippi way of life, Thompson told The Hill.

But for him and what he stood for, its kind of been a guiding light for a lot of people my age who grew up around that time, he added. We more or less started that aspect of the Civil Rights Movement with his assassination, as the impetus for what we were doing.

Since his election in 1993, Thompson said he has worked to keep Everss legacy alive. Now, Thompson will watch as President Biden posthumously awards Evers with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor.

Everss medal, Thompson said, is a culmination of a lot of people who have supported the Medgar Evers legacy and absolutely committed to not letting it fall on deaf ears. This Presidential Medal of Freedom is the crowning jewel of keeping that legacy alive.

We always talk about Malcolm and Martin and Fannie Lou, what they all meant to the Civil Rights Movement in the South, but somehow some of the heroes dont quite get their just dues, Thompson told The Hill ahead of the ceremony.

Evers was born in Decatur, Miss., and served in the United States Army during World War II. After his military service, he attended the historically Black Alcorn State University.

His venture into civil rights began after he and a group of friends were turned away from voting at gunpoint. Soon after, Evers became president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in the town of Mound Bayou, Miss. He led a boycott there of gas stations that banned Black people from using restrooms. Under his leadership, annual conferences between 1952 and 1954 in Mound Bayou attracted tens of thousands.

But one of Everss most famous moments followed the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

In an effort to see if the law would be upheld, Evers partnered with the NAACP and applied to the all-white University of Mississippi Law School. He was rejected because of the color of his skin.

Everss activism led to federal intervention and eight years after his own application, the school admitted James Meredith. Meredith became the first African American student admitted to the University of Mississippi.

Evers would go on to recruit volunteers, lead demonstrations and organize voter registration drives for the Mississippi NAACP. He would eventually be appointed the first field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi.

His activism cost him his life on June 12, 1963, when he was assassinated in front of his home in Jackson, Miss.

This is a great country, but to get where we are today, unfortunately, some bad things happened, Thompson said. The assassination of Medgar Evers was just one of a litany of bad things. But for me  who never left the South, who never moved to work away from issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, never moved away from civil rights  it proves that with this recognition, it means that the United States of America is broadening its recognition and appreciation for all of its citizens.

Fridays medal was not the first time Everss legacy was acknowledged.

In 2003, Thompson advocated for the transfer and reburial of Everss remains to the Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. That same year, efforts began to create a postage stamp in honor of Evers. In 2009, the United States Postal Service released the Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer postal stamp as part of its Civil Rights Pioneers issue.

In 2015, Thompson introduced a bill to award Evers the Congressional Gold Medal. This medal was awarded in honor of his work on racial equality and his major role in the passage and enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Two years later, the home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers was designated as a national historic landmark.

In 2018, Thompson introduced the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument Act to establish their home as a national monument and allow the National Park Service to conduct home improvements as needed.

And just last fall, Thompson and the entire Mississippi congressional delegation urged Biden to posthumously honor Evers.

Medgar had to go to a segregated public school, he had to go to a segregated college. He basically did everything based on the fact that he was an African American, not just an American, and he was treated as a second class citizen, Thompson said. And he resisted that, even until the night that he was shot and killed in the driveway of his home. For that legacy and work to be recognized by the president of the United States  you cant get any stronger than that for validation purposes.

In addition to Evers, Opal Lee, who is often referred to as the grandmother of Juneteenth, will also be honored at Fridays White House event.

Democratic Reps. James E. Clyburn (S.C.) and Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) are also among the 19 honorees.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dark smoke rises after a fire broke out in a factory in Berlin-Lichterfelde. According to a fire department spokesperson this morning, a technical room on the second floor of a factory building was "fully engulfed in flames". Chemicals were stored in the metal technology company. Christoph Soeder/dpa

The Berlin fire brigade has warned the public of hazardous fumes following a fire at a metal technology company located in the south-west of the city.

A fire broke out in a factory on Friday. A technical room on the first floor of a factory building was "fully engulfed in flames," according to a fire brigade spokesman.

Chemicals were stored in the metal technology company. As a precautionary measure, the fire brigade had issued a hazard warning.

Residents were asked to keep windows and doors closed as the volume of smoke was increasing. The results of air pollution tests were not yet available.

According to the spokesman, there were no injuries. All people were able to evacuate the area.

The fire brigade was on site with almost 130 firefighters and used extinguishing foam. The building could not be entered at first.

The Berlin fire department members on duty after a fire broke out in a factory in Berlin-Lichterfelde. According to a fire department spokesperson this morning, a technical room on the second floor of a factory building was "fully engulfed in flames". Chemicals were stored in the metal technology company. Christoph Soeder/dpa

The Berlin fire department members on duty after a fire broke out in a factory in Berlin-Lichterfelde. According to a fire department spokesperson this morning, a technical room on the second floor of a factory building was "fully engulfed in flames". Chemicals were stored in the metal technology company. Christoph Soeder/dpa
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has launched a large-scale cyberattack on Russian Tatarstan. Internet service providers and mobile operators in this region of the Russian Federation were attacked.

ADVERTISIMENT

The main target of the attack was the communication networks in the so-called Alabuga economic zone, where a number of Russian defense industry enterprises are located, including Iranian kamikaze drones. This was reported to OBOZ.UA by intelligence sources.

A large-scale cyberattack on communication networks in the main economic zone of Alabuga began on May 3. The target was not chosen by chance: Alabuga is home to more than 30 industries, including important defense companies.

This main economic zone brings the aggressor state 59% of the total revenue and 34% of tax revenues from all the country's SEZs.

As a reminder, on April 2, Russian media complained that explosions had occurred in Russian Tatarstan. The propagandists claimed that enterprises in Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk were allegedly attacked by Ukrainian UAVs.

ADVERTISIMENT

On that day, the Yelaz-Naftoprodukt oil refinery and the Shakhed assembling plant in the Alabuga SEZ were hit.

Russians claimed that the oil refinery in Tatarstan was attacked by a Ukrainian UJ-22 Airborne drone. This UAV is a development of the Ukrainian company Ukrjet. However, according to the characteristics of this UAV, its maximum flight range is up to 800 km, and the distance from the Ukrainian border to Yelabuga is at least 1200 km.

Instead, Forbes journalists suggested that the attack was carried out by a modified Cessna aircraft that can carry 500 kg of payload.

Meanwhile, ISW concluded that Ukraine's strikes on the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan were a turning point and demonstrated our country's ability to reach enemy targets over long distances deep in Russia's rear. This is a necessary component of Ukraine's campaign to destroy the industries that support the Russian army.

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Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: Xavier Becerra, nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill February 24, 2021 in Washington, DC. If confirmed, Becerra would be the first Latino secretary of HHS. He was previously Attorney General of California. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

November start date

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

Qualified noncitizen definition

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule May 3, 2024 to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients, often referred to as Dreamers, who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch.
CAPTION: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Rhode Island Current.
Health and Human Services published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Robin Bravender / States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Source New Mexico.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

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The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Maine Morning Star.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on North Dakota Monitor.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Michael Reynolds-Pool | Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Michael Reynolds | Pool-Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small-business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on New Hampshire Bulletin.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Missouri Independent.
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine predicts that the aggressor country Russia will try to implement a plan to destabilize the situation in our country, which consists of three levels, in May. This plan includes a military part (the advantage of the occupiers on the battlefield), a disinformation campaign against Kyiv, and attempts to isolate the country in the international arena.

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This was stated by Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, in an interview with The Economist. According to him, May will be a key month for the enemy's plan, and the main part of this plan concerns the situation on the battlefield.

According to Skibitskyi, it will take weeks for the Ukrainian Defense Forces to receive military aid from the United States, which was approved by Congress after many months of waiting. Even this aid, according to the representative of the DIU, is unlikely to equalize Ukraine's potential with Russian stockpiles of shells or provide effective defense against Russian guided aerial bombs.

The second part of the Russian plan is a disinformation campaign. It will be aimed at undermining the mobilization in Ukraine and the political legitimacy of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose presidential term conditionally expires on May 20.

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The third part of the plan, according to the deputy head of the DIU, is Russia's campaign to isolate Ukraine internationally. "They will add fuel to the fire as much as they can," he said.

As reported, according to Skibitskyi, Russia may be preparing to attack two regions of Ukraine in late May or early June. In particular, we are talking about Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Kentucky Lantern.
Protesters supporting DACA outside the U.S. Supreme Court, Nov. 12, 2019 | Robin Bravender

The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra| Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Michigan Advance.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on West Virginia Watch.
DACA recipients and their supporters rally June 18, 2020, outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

DACA recipients and their supporters rally June 18, 2020, outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Kansas Reflector.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

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The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images.

WASHINGTON  The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said.

The new rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could provide an opportunity for those uninsured DACA recipients to enroll in health coverage through a Health Insurance Marketplace plan or a state-run Basic Health Program, also called BHP, in the few states where those plans are available.

By providing new opportunities for quality, affordable  health care, this rule will give DACA recipients the peace of mind and opportunity that every American deserves, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a Thursday call with reporters previewing the final rule.

Only two states, Minnesota and New York, operate Basic Health Programs. Oregon is set to become the third this year. The program, created in the Affordable Care Act, allows states to provide affordable health care coverage to low-income people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid. The programs are almost entirely federally funded.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, deserve access to health coverage.

Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners, Biden said. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients who were brought into the country without authorization when they were children. The Obama-era program protects them from removal.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said about one-third of DACA recipients are uninsured.

DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population and individuals without health insurance  are less likely to receive preventative or routine health screenings, Becerra said on the Thursday call.

November start date

The rule will go into effect Nov. 1, in order to align with the individual market Open Enrollment Period in most states and allow time for required operational updates, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. The move could affect as many as 100,000 DACA recipients, the White House said.

DACA recipients are no longer excluded from receiving coverage from a quality health plan, Becerra said.

DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan could also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income, according to the fact sheet.

The rule will update the definition of qualified noncitizen to receive Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program benefits to clarify the categories of noncitizens who qualify for coverage. The rule will not otherwise change eligibility for those programs for noncitizens.

A senior administration official also noted that most DACA recipients have health care coverage through their employment, but that this rule will catch any recipients who are uninsured. The administration official spoke to reporters on the condition they not be named.

DACA recipients are currently awaiting a court case that is likely to head to the Supreme Court to determine the legality of the program after the Trump administration tried to end it. If the Supreme Court deems the program unlawful, its unclear what happens to those in the program.

The post Biden administration to issue rule expanding DACA health care access appeared first on Minnesota Reformer.
From the Dispatch Politics on The Dispatch

Happy Friday! We would like to send our condolences to the family of New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne Jr., who died last week after suffering a heart attack. At his Thursday funeral, fellow members of Congress remembered him as a dedicated and well-dressed representative.

Up to Speed

Former President Donald Trump will attend the Libertarian Partys national convention later this month, he announced Wednesday. If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we have many Libertarian views, the election wont even be close, Trump said in a statement. We cannot have another four years of death, destruction, and incompetence. WE WILL WORK TOGETHER AND WIN! Third-party candidates have received significant attention this cycle. As Trump courts the Libertarian vote, both he and the Biden campaign have attacked independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Republicans and Democrats fear could draw votes away from their respective candidates.

Speaking of Biden, the White House hired campaign operative Greg Halea veteran of Democratic politics who has worked on multiple presidential racesas its director of presidential production, the Hill reported Wednesday. Hale worked on President Bill Clintons 1996 reelection campaign, as well as the unsuccessful presidential runs of Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. Hale is especially experienced in creating backdrops and optics for presidential events, and his hiring comes as the White House has ramped up Bidens travel schedule.

Bidens White House has also made a key hire on border security, bringing on Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy Blas Nunez-Neto, Axios reported Friday. Though it is unclear exactly when the move will take place, it represents a beefing up of White House staff on the issue of border security, as Republicans have slammed Biden on illegal immigration ahead of the 2024 election. Nunez-Neto played a central role in the January negotiation of the bipartisan Senate deal that tied aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to measures on border security, which House Republicans and Trump killed.

The Justice Department is preparing to announce an indictment of Rep. Henry Cuellar, NBC News first reported Friday morning. The home of the Texas Democrat was raided in January 2022 as part of an investigation into dealings between American businessmen and the central Asian country of Azerbaijan. While its unclear what the charges are, Cuellar issued a statement asserting his innocence and pledging to continue running for reelection to an 11th term in his district, which stretches from San Antonio to the southern border with Mexico.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a repeal of her states near-total abortion ban Thursday, making the 15-week limit approved by then-Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022 the law of the land. The Arizona Supreme Court sparked a firestorm earlier this month when it ruled that the now-repealed ban, passed in 1864, was the legitimate law on the books, leaving Republicans in the state scrambling to distance themselves from it. The repeal has also divided Republicans in the primary for the states deep-red 8th Congressional District, which includes state House Speaker Ben Toma, indicted fake elector state Sen. Anthony Kern, failed attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, and failed Senate candidate Blake Masters.

In congressional news, a Republican primary candidate in North Carolinas 13th District withdrew from the race Thursday after Trump endorsed her opponent. In light of President Trumps endorsement of Brad Knott for the congressional seat in District 13, it has become clear that a pathway to victory is no longer feasible, Kelly Daughtry said in a Thursday statement. Daughtry had finished first in the March primary election, but she did not reach the 30 percent threshold to clinch the nomination, setting up a May 14 runoff between her and second place finisher Knott.

Biden Attempts to Thread the Needle in Discussing Campus Unrest

President Joe Biden speaks about recent pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 2, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden delivered brief remarks Thursday at the White House to call for moral clarity about the ongoing protests of Israels war in Gaza to eliminate Hamas occurring at university campuses across the country.

This isnt a moment for politics. This is a moment for clarity, he said from a podium in the Roosevelt Room. Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is.

Biden listed several actions taken by student protesters at campuses such as Columbia University and UCLA that he identified as not peaceful: Destroying property  vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation  threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people. He also said there should be no place on campuses or in America for antisemitism or violence against Jewish students.

Despite Biden downplaying the politics of the moment, the short address comes as the progressive wing of the presidents coalition continues to demand the administration change its policy of supporting Israel. The unrest on campuses is the bleeding edge of left-wing discontent with the Democratic president, and his reelection could hinge on both young voters and Arab American voters who are opposed to American diplomatic and military support for Israel.

Yet Biden is also seeking to assure Americans in the center that he deserves a second term, and the association of the violent campus demonstrations with the political left poses a particular risk.

Hes between a rock and a hard place, Dane Strother, a Democratic political consultant, told Dispatch Politics. There is no perfect solution given how spread out the protests are.

The vast majority of the country remains broadly supportive of Israel. A recent Harvard/Harris poll found 80 percent of registered voters say they support Israel more than Hamas, and 56 percent said they supported the additional $26 billion in supplemental aid to Israel recently passed by Congress. Additionally, 80 percent said that students who call for violence against Jewish students should be suspended from their colleges and universities.

But a new YouGov poll that breaks down views by party shows why things are complicated for Biden.

Among all adults, 47 percent say they either strongly or somewhat oppose the pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, with just 28 percent saying they either strongly or somewhat support them. But those numbers are basically reversed among Democrats, with 46 percent saying they strongly or somewhat support the protests and just 31 percent saying they strongly or somewhat oppose them. Yet in his remarks on Thursday, Biden was likely trying to target the independents, 44 percent of whom say they oppose the protests, with just 24 percent saying they support them.

The Biden campaign did not reply to a request for comment.

Bidens speech attempted to differentiate the American tradition of free speech, free expression, and dissent with the violence being seen on campuses. He also put his own spin on a favorite phrase of his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, during times of unrest: law and order.

Peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues, Biden said. But neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society, and order must prevail.

Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic consultant and the founder of Democratic Majority for Israel, told Dispatch Politics the speech accomplished what Biden needed to do in this moment.

I think hes been very clear, very direct in defending the right to peacefully protest but in making clear that these demonstrations have crossed some very important lines, Mellman said. And hes made clear that hes not changing his policy in the Middle East.

Indeed, when asked Thursday by a reporter if the protests had forced him to reconsider his policy toward Israel, Biden answered with a curt no as he turned away from the cameras.

That answer will no doubt frustrate the sort of people setting up encampments on college lawns to urge their institutions to divest from Israel and for U.S. foreign policy to change. But Biden is likely recognizing the political reality that violent demonstrations turn off more Americans than convince them.

Politically, it puts him in the same place as most people, said T.J. Rooney, the former chairman of the Democratic party in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. Protest all day long but when you break st, you own it.

Bipartisan Resolve Beats Lobbyists, Teens, and Trump

Theres something remarkable about the enactment last week of a new federal law to force a Chinese-owned company to divest from the social media giant TikTok or face a ban on operating in the United States. For the first time in, well, a while, a bipartisan coalition in Congress came together to pass a significant piece of legislation to solve a problem that many in Washington had been discussing for years.

On the site today, John McCormack and David M. Drucker took a deep dive into just how incredible the path for the TikTok divestment bill was.

But what looked quick and easy was actually the culmination of a hard, yearslong process that required deft legislative maneuvering until the very end to overcome powerful forces from across the political spectrum allied to TikTok. The multibillion-dollar social media app had a well-funded and well-connected army of lobbyists. Democrats had reason to fear alienating the TikTok-addicted youth vote in a presidential election year, and influential voices on the right, including Tucker Carlson, Elon Muskand eventually Donald Trump himselfturned against legislation to end the Chinese control of TikTok. Congressional Democrats and Republicans tell The Dispatch the bill is now law of the land because of painstaking negotiations and legislative wrangling that saw top Democrats and Republicans, and the Biden administration, quietly working together. It took about a year to really negotiate. It required tremendous stakeholder input from around Congress, Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-sponsored the legislation with former Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican, told The Dispatch.

There were plenty of tactical errors by TikTok in its efforts to protect itself, including an ill-advised campaign to have its young users contact their representatives in Congress, which only seemed to harden support for the bill. Support for the legislation materialized in part because lobbyists for TikTok were caught flat-footed, all thanks to the group of bipartisan lawmakers keeping their negotiations on the bill under wraps.

But, as McCormack and Drucker write, where there was bipartisan agreement, there was also bipartisan opposition, from Democrats wary of alienating young voters to some token resistance from the GOPs figurehead:

Even as the TikTok preteens were harming their cause, a potentially more significant voice emerged that seemingly could have helped the social media giant. If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7. I dont want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People! But House and Senate Republicans who supported the TikTok measure and are on good terms with Trump tell The Dispatch the former president never lobbied their GOP colleagues to oppose the legislation. None of the direct, chit-chatty phone calls Trump is known for, no belligerent badgering on social media. Nothing. And that was significant, senior Republicans say, because it meant the presumptive GOP presidential nominees opposition was not an obstacle when cajoling rank-and-file Republicans to stick with the bill. I dont think Trump did anything at all, a knowledgeable GOP House aid said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. I never heard of him calling anyone.

Be sure to read the whole thing here.

Notable and Quotable

Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I dont fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!! Former President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post responding to reports that he has fallen asleep multiple times during his hush money trial, May 2, 2024

Read more at The Dispatch

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The coalition of Democratic groups that pressured No Labels out of the 2024 contest is now turning its sights on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Billboards funded by the Democratic National Committee have begun popping up outside Kennedys events. Trackers paid for by American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC, are following him with cameras. And another super PAC, founded exclusively to take on third-party threats, is message-testing ads on Kennedy in coordination with Future Forward, the flagship pro-Biden super PAC.

Its a widespread effort among Democratic donors and strategists to neutralize Kennedys third-party threat to President Joe Bidens reelection.

And Bidens allies are now considering going even further, with a coalition of major Democratic groups privately discussing running a negative ad campaign against Kennedy.

Talks are preliminary, and the size and scope of the campaign  and even if it will go forward  remain unclear. But should it get the green light, the effort would likely be spearheaded by Future Forward; Clear Choice, another super PAC founded to stop third-party candidates; and American Bridge, another Democratic super PAC, according to two people involved in the effort who are not authorized to talk about it publicly.

So far, Clear Choice PAC has dropped a nominal $30,000 on digital ads attacking Kennedy. The discussion is whether to go bigger.

There is a deep concern that Kennedy and other third-party candidates pose real threats to the Republic by helping Trump win, said Matt Bennett, president of Third Way, a center-left group thats involved in efforts to cut Kennedy down.



Bennett, along with several other outside groups, worked to pressure No Labels, another group eying a third-party run, out of the 2024 contest. Now, theyre turning their attention to Kennedy. One of our biggest concerns is ensuring that this subset of voters absolutely positively understands who this person is and who he is not, Bennett said.

He is not his father. His numbers reflect his dads popularity, Bennett said. He is a right-wing crank. People really do not understand that yet.

The offensive reflects a level of concern among Democrats about Kennedy siphoning votes from Biden  but also the opportunity they see in his potential to wound former President Donald Trump. Kennedy, whose storied surname has given him strong name recognition even among low-information voters, is a volatile force in the 2024 election. Public and private polling has found Kennedy, an environmentalist turned anti-vaccine activist, drawing support from both Biden and Trump.

Biden last month enlisted members of the extended Kennedy clan for help, appearing alongside more than a dozen Kennedys who endorsed him over the family member whose campaign theyve largely shunned.

The push to undercut Kennedy  as well as Green Party candidate Jill Stein and academic Cornel West, both of whom are also running third-party bids  comes from Democrats who say they are motivated by the 2000 and 2016 elections, when third-party candidates played a role in Al Gore and Hillary Clintons respective losses.

One reason these outside Democratic groups have not yet been more aggressive in attacking Kennedy is due, in part, to the uncertainty as to where he will appear on the ballot and the staying power of his appeal in polling. So far, Kennedy has qualified for the ballot in Michigan, California and Utah, according to his campaign. His campaign also said that hes collected enough signatures in seven other states, including Nevada, North Carolina, Nebraska and New Hampshire.

It needs to be done in a very targeted way, Bennett added. We have to convince soft Biden voters that these candidates are not safe places to park their vote, so to do that, were going to focus on a very narrow range of voters in swing states.

To date, the campaign against Kennedy has largely focused on research and legal challenges. The Democratic National Committee hired veteran staffers to coordinate their push back against Kennedy, particularly through media stories about Kennedy. Theyve also filed Federal Elections Commission complaints against Kennedys allies. The outside groups, like Clear Choice PAC and American Bridge, are diving into opposition research and messaging. MoveOn, a 10 million-member organization, reassigned staffers from No Labels-focused efforts toward Kennedy, as well as bringing on additional staff.

For its part, Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear said in a statement: "Of course Mr. Kennedy draws from both Presidents Biden and Trump, but what the two parties dont recognize is his strong draw from the ranks of independent and disaffected voters. Our path to victory lies in activating the millions of people who have been alienated from the political process."

Recent public polling tells a complicated story about Kennedys appeal. In some surveys, Kennedy draws more support from Biden, like in an NPR/Maris College poll released this week, when Bidens lead disappeared when third-party candidates were added to the survey.



Kennedy especially appeals to so-called double-haters, voters who dont like either Trump or Biden. This group cuts across all demographics, but it is particularly pronounced among young voters. A poll of voters under 30, commissioned by Snapchat, found that although Kennedys polling in the low double-digits right now, roughly half of registered voters are open to the prospect of voting for him, said John Della Volpe, the pollster who conducted the survey and specializes in Gen Z voters.

Thats a dangerous place to be, Della Volpe said. That being said, that group is also soft. Once young people know the degree to which Biden has delivered for them, then the appeal for Kennedy withers.

Based on internal research, several Democrats noted that some of the strongest messaging frames for the double-hater voters relies on reminding them that a vote for RFK is a vote for Donald Trump, said Pete Maysmith, senior vice president of campaigns at League of Conservation Voters, which signed on to a letter of other environmental groups urging Kennedy to drop out of the race.

For those voters who arent paying full attention yet, we must make clear that voting for Kennedy is throwing your vote away, Maysmith added. What we're seeing so far is that when voters hear even just a little about his extreme positions, they are a lot less interested."

Yet in other polls, Kennedy draws more support from Trump. An NBC poll released last month found Trump leading Biden by 2 points in a head-to-head matchup. But when third party candidates were added, Biden regained the lead by 2 points. Kennedy, in that poll, earned 13 percentage points.

That volatility could present an opening for Bidens allies, as they consider their third-party strategy.

I would prefer a Trump-Biden rematch with as few spoiler candidates as possible, but that being said, were going to play on the playing field we have and were going to turn every downside into an upside, and that really does exist for RFK, said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge. The numbers do move when they learn about [Kennedys] conspiracy stuff.

The scattershot polling results have coincided with a rash of attacks on Kennedy from Trump. Trump himself acknowledged that Kennedy hurts [us] both in a radio interview last month, while his campaign has blasted out press releases with headlines like, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Praised Obama as Good President and RFK Jr: Red state people are more likely to murder you.

But the possibility that Kennedy could hurt Trump more than Biden has also raised new concerns among Democrats about complacency, Bennett said.

The talk is, well, if it hurts Trump more, clearly hes freaking out about it, now everyone can breathe easier, and I dont think thats right, Bennett said. [Third party candidates] need to stay a top concern, and its important for people to understand that.
Biden will appear on the Alabama ballot, after all

President Joe Biden will appear on Alabama's ballot this November, after Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation to delay the state's certification deadline to accommodate his official nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen had told Democrats in April that he would be unable to certify the Democratic presidential ticket if the party did not submit a certification of nomination by Aug. 15, or 82 days before the general election, as required by state law. The DNC is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Aug. 19-22.

The Biden campaign had asked that Allen allow for provisional ballot access, but the first-term Republican had told CNN that there was no such thing under state law.

Legislation to delay the certification deadline from 82 days to 74 days breezed through the Republican-controlled Legislature, and Ivey signed it Thursday. The accommodation means Democrats have avoided what could have been a distracting legal battle over ballot access in a deep-red state.

Alabama lawmakers have made one-time adjustments for presidential tickets in the past, too. In 2020, they passed a bill to change the deadline that year so that then-President Donald Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence could be certified.

Ohio's secretary of state has issued a similar warning that Biden may miss the state's deadline to appear on the ballot. The Associated Press reports that there doesn't appear to be a state bill for an exemption to this year's deadline yet, but neither party has ruled it out.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Biden To Award Medal Of Freedom To Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Katie Ledecky And More

President Joe Biden will honor 19 Americans with the Medal of Freedom, including former Vice President Al Gore, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), champion swimmer Katie Ledecky, and award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh.

The medals will be presented by the president at the White House on Friday.

These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better, the White House said in a statement announcing the recipients. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.

The Medal of Freedom is the nations highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.

This years list of recipients includes former New York City mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, who ran for president in 2020 before endorsing Biden. It also includes former Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole, the wife of the late Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

Other recipients include: journalist and television host Phil Donahue, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence Jones, teacher and activist Opal Lee, veteran astronaut Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero and Judy Shepard, co-founder of the Matthew Shephard Foundation.

Biden will also hand out three posthumous medals to former New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, civil rights activist Medgar Evers and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe.

The president is a Medal of Freedom recipient himself. President Barack Obama honored him with the award in 2017 when he served as vice president.

Related...
The US administration has confirmed that negotiations with Ukraine on signing a bilateral security agreement are ongoing. However, the details are not disclosed.

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This was stated by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller during a briefing. He emphasized that the United States is working to ensure long-term support for Ukraine.

"We have made it clear that we are working to provide long-term support for Ukraine's security," the foreign policy representative said.

Miller emphasized that the United States is providing significant assistance to Ukraine to protect it from Russian aggression, "and we are working on a long-term security agreement."

The US State Department spokesman assured that President Joe Biden had expressed this clear stance during the previous NATO summit, and it remains unchanged.

"These discussions are ongoing, but I won't go into details," Miller said.

As a reminder, Ukraine and the United States held the third round of negotiations on a security agreement. The parties "noted significant progress in agreeing on the main provisions of the document and adjusted the algorithm for further actions."

ADVERTISIMENT

On behalf of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the delegation of Ukraine was led by the Head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak. According to him, the recent approval of the US aid package for Ukraine has significantly accelerated the negotiation process, and the leaders of both countries will be able to sign a bilateral security agreement in the near future.

As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that our country is approaching an important security agreement with the United States. According to him, in May-June, Ukraine will sign security treaties not only with the United States but also with Nordic countries such as Sweden and Norway.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
WASHINGTON (KXAN)  President Joe Biden is set to award a Texas woman known by many as the Grandmother of Juneteenth with the highest civilian honor in the country.

The White House announced Opal Lee from Marshall, Texas, is one of 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year. The 97-year-old activist who pushed for Juneteenth to become a federally-recognized holiday will receive this honor during a ceremony Friday.

Other honorees include Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Al Gore.

Lee previously joined Biden at the White House in 2021 when he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. This made June 19 a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery. It marks when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free, two months after the Confederacy surrendered. That was also about 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.

Opal Lee poses with portrait, after Texas Senate unveils it, honoring her leadership. (KXAN Photo/Jala Washington)

Texas lawmakers also recognized Lee for her advocacy efforts. Last year the Texas Senate unveiled an official portrait of her. Its only the second painting in the Senate to honor an African-American Texan, according to the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.

During a ceremony in February 2023, Lee took a look at that painting and joked, I didnt know I looked that good!

The University of North Texas, where Lee graduated with a Master of Education in 1963, also gave the former teacher an honorary doctorate last year during its spring commencement.

In 2016, she started walking 2.5 miles in cities all across the country, which symbolized the 2.5 years it took for word to get out to all slaves that they were free. Crowds began joining her during those walks.

In a news release Friday, the White House said the Presidential Medal of Freedom is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Photo by Baylor Spears, Wisconsin Examiner.)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but not the right to cause chaos.

We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent, Biden said from the White Houses Roosevelt Room. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country.

Biden said that the student-led protests have not made him reconsider policy in the Middle East and that he did not believe the National Guard should be authorized in response to protests across the country.

He criticized the protests that have led to classes being canceled.

Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to deny the rights of others so students can finish a semester or finish their college education, Biden said. Order must prevail.

Students have set up encampments to protest the Israel-Hamas war at about 30 college campuses across the country, including Tulane University in Louisiana and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some have turned violent.

Fights broke out Tuesday night at UCLA when counter-protesters attempted to dismantle an encampment set up by protesters on the universitys campus, according to NPR.

Violent protest is not protected, Biden said. Peaceful protest is.

Student protesters have called for a ceasefire and for their institutions to divest from businesses that are tied to Israel, including companies that make weapons that have been used in the war.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in nearly seven months of war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Universities have called in police to sweep the encampments, leading to about 1,300 arrests, according to The Guardian.

Calls from Congress

Lawmakers have also called on higher education institutions to quell the protests, and have raised concerns about antisemitism.

The House on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism.

Republicans and some Democratic advocates of the bill have argued that the protests are a form of antisemitism.

Critics of the bill say it could chill freedom of speech at educational institutions.

Nationwide protests began at Columbia University in New York on April 17 after the universitys president, Minouche Shafik, testified before the House Education and Workforce committee about antisemitism on college campuses.

Students pitched tents to establish a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. A day later Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the area. NYPD officers arrested 108 students  the largest mass arrest on Columbias campus since 1968, according to the independent student newspaper the Columbia Spectator.

After that sweep, students returned and stayed for two weeks until Tuesday, when hundreds of NYPD officers entered Columbias campus and cleared the encampments and Hamilton Hall, which students occupied, according to the Columbia Spectator.

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The post Biden backs peaceful protest, denounces campus chaos over Gaza appeared first on Ohio Capital Journal.
The University of New Mexico Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Monday April 29, 2024. (Photo by Shaun Griswold / Source NM)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but not the right to cause chaos.

We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent, Biden said from the White Houses Roosevelt Room. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country.

Biden said that the student-led protests have not made him reconsider policy in the Middle East and that he did not believe the National Guard should be authorized in response to protests across the country.

He criticized the protests that have led to classes being canceled.

Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to deny the rights of others so students can finish a semester or finish their college education, Biden said. Order must prevail.

Students have set up encampments to protest the Israel-Hamas war at about 30 college campuses across the country, including Tulane University in Louisiana and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some have turned violent.

Fights broke out Tuesday night at UCLA when counter-protesters attempted to dismantle an encampment set up by protesters on the universitys campus, according to NPR.

Violent protest is not protected, Biden said. Peaceful protest is.

Student protesters have called for a ceasefire and for their institutions to divest from businesses that are tied to Israel, including companies that make weapons that have been used in the war.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in nearly seven months of war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Universities have called in police to sweep the encampments, leading to about 1,300 arrests, according to The Guardian.

Calls from Congress

Lawmakers have also called on higher education institutions to quell the protests, and have raised concerns about antisemitism.

The House on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism.

Republicans and some Democratic advocates of the bill have argued that the protests are a form of antisemitism.

Critics of the bill say it could chill freedom of speech at educational institutions.

Nationwide protests began at Columbia University in New York on April 17 after the universitys president, Minouche Shafik, testified before the House Education and Workforce committee about antisemitism on college campuses.

Students pitched tents to establish a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. A day later Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the area. NYPD officers arrested 108 students  the largest mass arrest on Columbias campus since 1968, according to the independent student newspaper the Columbia Spectator.

After that sweep, students returned and stayed for two weeks until Tuesday, when hundreds of NYPD officers entered Columbias campus and cleared the encampments and Hamilton Hall, which students occupied, according to the Columbia Spectator.

The post Biden backs peaceful protest, denounces campus chaos over Gaza appeared first on Source New Mexico.
University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but not the right to cause chaos.

We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent, Biden said from the White Houses Roosevelt Room. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country.

Biden said that the student-led protests have not made him reconsider policy in the Middle East and that he did not believe the National Guard should be authorized in response to protests across the country.

He criticized the protests that have led to classes being canceled.

Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to deny the rights of others so students can finish a semester or finish their college education, Biden said. Order must prevail.

Students have set up encampments to protest the Israel-Hamas war at about 30 college campuses across the country, including Tulane University in Louisiana and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some have turned violent.

Fights broke out Tuesday night at UCLA when counter-protesters attempted to dismantle an encampment set up by protesters on the universitys campus, according to NPR.

Violent protest is not protected, Biden said. Peaceful protest is.

Student protesters have called for a ceasefire and for their institutions to divest from businesses that are tied to Israel, including companies that make weapons that have been used in the war.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in nearly seven months of war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Universities have called in police to sweep the encampments, leading to about 1,300 arrests, according to The Guardian.

Calls from Congress

Lawmakers have also called on higher education institutions to quell the protests, and have raised concerns about antisemitism.

The House on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism.

Republicans and some Democratic advocates of the bill have argued that the protests are a form of antisemitism.

Critics of the bill say it could chill freedom of speech at educational institutions.

Nationwide protests began at Columbia University in New York on April 17 after the universitys president, Minouche Shafik, testified before the House Education and Workforce committee about antisemitism on college campuses.

Students pitched tents to establish a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. A day later Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to sweep the area. NYPD officers arrested 108 students  the largest mass arrest on Columbias campus since 1968, according to the independent student newspaper the Columbia Spectator.

After that sweep, students returned and stayed for two weeks until Tuesday, when hundreds of NYPD officers entered Columbias campus and cleared the encampments and Hamilton Hall, which students occupied, according to the Columbia Spectator.

The post Biden backs peaceful protest, denounces campus chaos over Gaza appeared first on Virginia Mercury.
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US President Joe Biden referred to Japan and India as xenophobic during comments at a campaign event, grouping the two US allies with China and Russia, in remarks that underline the centrality of immigration in this years American presidential election.

Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants, Biden said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said his remarks were a broad commentintended to emphasize that the US is a nation of immigrants.

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Japan welcoming more immigrants but far fewer than other G7 nations

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Sources: The Spectator, Bloomberg, The Associated Press

Bidens remarks come just three weeks after Washington hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House for a state dinner. The swiftness of the change of tone is still surprising in its sheer, brazen rudeness, Philip Patrick, a Japan-based freelance journalist, wrote in The Spectator. The Japanese economy is in a downturn, but that slump isnt related to immigration, he argued, pointing to how Japan  long known for its resistance to immigration  has recently updated its immigration rules. Responding to its aging population and labor shortages Japan has been opening up to foreign workers. But even with new reforms its immigrant population is still only around 2%, the lowest among the Group of Seven advanced economies, noted Bloomberg.

Immigration could determine US election results

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Sources: Brookings Institution, The New York Times

Immigration is a key theme in this years US general election, with a Brookings Institution fellow writing that it could determine the next president. Biden has been trying to find a politically palatable balance on immigration as he seeks a second term wrote The New York Times White House correspondent Michael D. Shear. While responding to the historic rise in migration on the US-Mexico border, Biden is also taking pains to differentiate himself from former US President Donald Trumps assault on immigration by trying to assert the moral high ground on the countrys treatment of migrants, Shear said.

Indias ruling party also putting election center stage

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Sources: The Hindustan Times, BBC

Immigration is top of the agenda in other countries elections this year too. In rally after rally Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought up his partys no-nonsense approach to immigration, noted The Hindustan Times. This debate has cast an all-too-real shadow, it notes, in places where the minority Muslim population is facing a crackdown over citizenship. Modis ruling Hindu nationalist government recently approved a controversial law that will give citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan  but the legislation specifically excludes Muslim immigrants. The text is couched in the language of refuge and seemingly directed at foreigners, but its main purpose is the delegitimisation of Muslims citizenship, historian Mukul Kesavan told the BBC in March.

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President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Headquarters, near the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, on April 05, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. The bridge collapsed after being struck by the 984-foot cargo ship Dali at 1:30 am on March 26. President Biden traveled to Baltimore for an aerial tour of the salvage operation of the bridge and to meet with families of the six victims who were working to repair potholes on the bridge when it collapsed. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

LINCOLN  President Joe Biden officially declared a major disaster exists in Nebraska on Friday, one week after severe storms and tornadoes tore through the state.

Gov. Jim Pillen and Col. John Bolduc of the Nebraska State Patrol flew above the tornado damage Monday, April 29, 2024, including above Elkhorn. (Courtesy of the Nebraska State Patrol)

Bidens disaster declaration makes federal funding available to affected Nebraskans in Douglas and Washington Counties from the April 26, Arbor Day storms. This can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other recovery programs.

Andrew Meyer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency will oversee federal operations.

Affected residents and business owners can begin applying for assistance by:

Visiting www.DisasterAssistance.gov.

Calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

Using the FEMA app.

When applying, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said to have the following information available: address with ZIPzip code, condition of the damaged home, insurance information (if available), Society Security Nnumber of one household member, phone number, mailing address or email and bank account information for direct deposit of funds.

Gov. Jim Pillen, in a statement, expressed his appreciation for the expedited declaration, which came just one day after he formally requested the presidents order and federal funding, including $11.5 million for storm damage to public infrastructure.

This approval will allow Nebraskans affected by the Arbor Day tornadoes to get back on their feet as quickly as possible, Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement.

We know that the road to recovery will be a long one, but this declaration will help expedite processes and funding provided through FEMA, to help people take care of both immediate and long-term needs, he continued.

Funding will also be available to state, tribal and eligible local governments, as well as certain private nonprofit organizations, on a cost-sharing basis for debris removal and emergency protective measures. This includes hazard mitigation measures statewide.

FEMA can provide money for the following, which does not have to be repaid for:

Serious needs, such as food, water, medicine and baby formula.

Displacement, if residents cannot stay in their home because of damage.

Home repairs and rental assistance.

Other needs, such as replacing personal property.

By law, FEMA cannot pay for losses covered by insurance but if insurance will not cover all losses, NEMA said, Nebraskans are encouraged to apply.

Pillen has deployed dozens of Nebraska National Guard members to Douglas County to assist with recovery and security and on Friday ordered more Nebraska State Patrol troopers and Guard members to affected neighborhoods, this time also in Washington County.

FEMA staff will coordinate with state and local governments in the coming days to visit affected neighborhoods. They will assist residents directly and help in continued damage assessments, which could result in more assistance or more counties covered under the disaster declaration.

The post Biden declares major disaster, opens federal funding to Nebraska after tornado outbreak appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A winner of seven Olympic gold medals, a leader of the Mississippi civil rights struggle and a pioneer of television's tabloid talk show genre are part of this year's class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

U.S. President Joe Biden extended the highest U.S. civilian award to 19 people, including Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, the assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers and television host Phil Donahue.

"Don't let age get in your way," Biden, the oldest U.S. president at 81, said to Ledecky, 27, as he encouraged her to seek more medals during an awards ceremony at the White House on Friday. "Katie, age is just a number, kid."

The honoree list plays special homage to "firsts" in their field, including the "Everything Everywhere All at Once" actress Michelle Yeoh, who was the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Actress; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space; and Jim Thorpe, the versatile athlete who became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal in 1912.

Biden also celebrated some key political allies in the Democratic Party, from Representative Jim Clyburn, who rescued his 2020 presidential primary bid with an endorsement in South Carolina, to Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded his legislative agenda through Congress as House of Representatives speaker until last year.

Also included are several one-time presidential candidates, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Vice President Al Gore, one-time Secretary of State John Kerry and previous New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of unity and trust in our institutions," Biden said of Gore's concession to George W. Bush in the 2000 election, a jab at ex-President Donald Trump, who has never conceded his 2020 loss to Biden.

"That to me was amazing what you did, Al. I won't go into that." The remark drew some laughter.

"In my view, the last two guys should be standing here at this podium," Biden said of Gore and Kerry.

Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who strayed from the Republican Party he once called home, may become an important financial backer of the president's 2024 reelection campaign.

Biden also honored Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who founded the gang intervention program Homeboy Industries; Opal Lee, an activist who pushed for Juneteenth to be a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States; Senator Frank Lautenberg, a consumer safety advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; United Farm Workers president Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepard; and Clarence B. Jones, who helped draft Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Richard Chang)
The mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, has launched an unprecedented attack on the owners and managers of short-term rentals in the Spanish capital. On April 25, without prior notice according to affected parties, the mayor announced a freeze on licenses for these kinds of dwellings and stiffer penalties for whoever rents properties out without a license. Fines could range from 30,000 ($32,360) to 100,000 ($107,900).

Of the 14,686 short-term rentals registered by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in Madrid, around 8,000 lack a license. Does that mean they are illegal? No, according to Adolfo Meras, president of Madrid Aloja, one of the main groups affected by Almeidas measure, bringing together 300 managers with a portfolio of 4,500 dwellings for tourists. Meras says these operators simply benefited from a fast-track procedure that was approved by the Madrid regional government, and which allowed them to rent out properties simply by filling out a form known as a declaracion responsable (responsible statement).

What we intend is for the fines to effectively have a deterrent effect so that the amount of the sanctions in no case compensates the gains that can be derived from an illegal activity in the field of housing for tourist use, said the mayor during his public appearance.

Madrid could become New York, a city without housing for tourists, says Meras, who wonders where the 10.5 million travelers who visit the city of Madrid will spend the night. Then he answers himself: In hotels  the main beneficiaries of Almeidas decision, as in New York.

In the U.S. city, hyper-restrictive legislation was passed in September 2023 that implied a de facto ban, preventing the rental of entire short-term accommodation for more than 30 days and only allowing rooms for a shorter period, and only as long as the host is present in the home. The tourist apartments have disappeared and the hotel business, as Meras points out, has rebounded strongly. This much was confirmed at the end of November by Robin Rossmann, managing director of STR, Costars data analysis subsidiary, during an annual hotel investment day organized by Cushman & Wakefield in Spain. Since the ban went into effect, hotel prices in New Yorks major central boroughs have skyrocketed by 10% to 20%, he said.

Meras argues that tourist accommodation is not to blame for the lack of rental housing in Madrid; he also rejects accusations that it causes nuisance and problems for local residents, and argues that the growth of the resident population in Madrid has been dizzying and is mainly responsible for the difficulties in finding a place to live. Of the 2.17 million more inhabitants that Spain has since 2016, 589,155 (27%) have chosen Madrid. It is as if all the inhabitants of Malaga had come to live here in that time, he underscores. The latest housing census, from 2021, found that there are 1.32 million family homes in Madrid, of which 927,975 are owned and 317,766 rented. According to the calculations of the business organization, short-term rentals only account for 5% of the total. Is demand going to disappear by removing 5% of the problem? asks Meras.

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The Biden administrations pause on natural gas exports is putting the president in a tricky political spot in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states in November.

Pennsylvania has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the last decades natural gas boom in the U.S. The states production hit 7.5 trillion cubic feet in 2022, the second-highest in the nation behind Texas, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The advisory firm FTI Consulting estimated the industry supports some 123,000 jobs in the state in research for natural gas firm the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

The administration earlier this year halted new export permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) while it analyzes their impact on climate change, something that Republicans are sure to pounce on in a state where Biden is not only running neck and neck with former President Trump, but also where Democrats are looking to hold onto a critical Senate seat.

This is one of those issues the Democratic Party gets split on, it depends on what state youre in and what part of what state youre in, said Samuel Chen, a Republican political strategist based in Pennsylvania. I think its an albatross in the sense of, if he leans more into the climate side of the party hes going to lose people in these industries  [but] if he leans the other way, he runs the risk of isolating the environmental side.

Trump has long sought to associate Biden with support for bans on fracking, the process responsible for the states natural gas boom. Although Bidens official campaign platform never proposed a ban, the GOP nominee hammered him over the issue in the 2020 presidential debates, bringing up comments by Biden on the need to make sure its eliminated and that he opposed new fracking.

No new proposed ban has materialized while Biden has been president. However, the administrations pause on LNG export permits has drawn GOP criticism and caused some Democrats in the state, including Sen. Bob Casey, whos running for reelection, to distance themselves from the White House on the issue.

While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvanias natural gas industry, Casey and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement in February. If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision.

Casey has has consistently polled ahead of Biden in the state and currently leads his GOP opponent David McCormack by 7 points in an aggregate of polls from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ. Biden, meanwhile, is trailing Trump by roughly 1 point, 47 to 48 percent support, in the same aggregate.

Casey [has] an easier time walking this line because Pennsylvanians are his only constituency, Chen noted. For President Biden, youre running in 50 states and the District of Columbia. What works in Pennsylvania may not work in Georgia.

Mike Mikus, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist, called Caseys dissent from Biden on the issue smart politics.

When youre running statewide in Pennsylvania, it always plays well with voters whenever you show some independence regardless of the issue, he told The Hill.

In any case, Democrats are doubtful the issue will hurt Biden significantly.

Im actually very confident that the president is going to win in Pennsylvania, Fetterman told The Hill. [But] its going to be very close, and Trump is very popular in Pennsylvania. I do not think that natural gas is a defining topic there.

Bob Casey and I disagreed about the decision, Fetterman added, but were able to be very committed partners to carry Pennsylvania and deliver a win.

Mikus echoed Fettermans sentiments.

If Im President Biden or his campaign team, Im not terribly concerned  natural gas is important in Pennsylvania, but this issue  there have been political fights going back 15 years over this issue, Mikus said. I think people who feel strongly one way or another have already picked a side.

Younger and progressive voters, voters who rank the environment as a top priority and the combination of all three were a major part of the coalition that secured Bidens 2020 victory.

Many of the presidents early moves, such as a now-ended moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on public lands and the appointment of Deb Haaland as Interior secretary, won plaudits from those circles.

Over the course of his presidency, however, he has frustrated them with moves like approving a massive oil drilling project in Alaska, and many of those younger voters have also been disillusioned by his response to a nonenvironmental issue, the war in Gaza.

More recently, Biden has taken steps that have gotten better reviews from the environmentalist wing of the party, including the LNG pause and restricting oil extraction in a broad swathe of the Arctic. In remarks for Earth Day last week, he shared the stage with major progressive voices in the party, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

In the end, Mikus said, the political polarization that has occurred in national politics may end up blunting the impact of the natural gas decision in Pennsylvania.

I think its a direct result of the over-the-top attacks Republicans have used against Democrats for years on environmental issues, he said. If [voters] were strongly in support, they gravitated to the Republican Party and have stayed there.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Biden was silenced by criticism from families of troops killed in Kabul, book says. Sir, are you still there?

Joe Biden attends the dignified transfer of remains of fallen service members at Dover air force base in Delaware on 29 August 2021.

Joe Biden attends the dignified transfer of remains of fallen service members at Dover air force base in Delaware on 29 August 2021. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Joe Biden was stunned into silence when he was told families of US service members killed in Kabul in August 2021 said that when the bodies were returned and the president met grieving relatives, he spent too much time talking about the death of his own son, Beau.

Related: New Cold Wars review: China, Russia and Bidens daunting task

I paused for the president to respond, Jen Psaki, then White House press secretary, writes in a new book.

The silence that followed was a bit too long. I worried for a moment that our connection had been lost.

Sir, are you still there? I asked.

Psaki left the White House in 2022, joining MSNBC. Her book, Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House and the World, will be published in the US next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Biden ordered the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years of war, in April 2021. On 26 August, amid chaos in Kabul, 13 US service members and 170 Afghans were killed when a suicide bomber attacked an airport gate.

On 29 August, the bodies of the Americans arrived at Dover air force base in Delaware, Bidens home state. The president and the first lady, Jill Biden, attended.

Of all the presidents duties, Psaki writes, this is high on the list of most heartbreaking. For President Biden in particular, it stirred feelings of his own despair about the death of his son Joseph Biden III, aka Beau.

Beau Biden, a former attorney general of Delaware, went to Iraq with the national guard. He died of brain cancer in 2015, aged just 46.

Biden has questioned whether burn pits at US bases in Iraq might have caused his sons cancer, championing legislation to help affected veterans. In her book, Psaki cites World Health Organization research which says burn pit emissions contain substances known to be carcinogenic to humans.

Psaki also notes how Biden endured the deaths in 1972 of his first wife, Neilia Biden, and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in which Beau and his brother Hunter were critically injured. The president often refers to these unique and disparate, but nevertheless unbearable, experiences of grief and loss as a way to connect with others, Psaki writes.

But Bidens visit with the grieving families at Dover stirred up significant controversy, and political attacks.

Psaki describes and dismisses as misinformation the claim, boosted by rightwing media, that Biden looked at his watch as the transfer of the bodies went on. Citing media fact checks, the former press secretary says footage shows Biden did so only after the remains had left the airport tarmac.

Complaints that Biden spoke too much about his own son were tougher to deal with, Psaki writes, particularly when the New York Times pounced on the story.

As it was part of her job to warn Biden about unflattering and negative stories, Psaki called him, though this instance was tougher than usual because Beau was rarely, if ever, the focus of a negative story.

It was one thing to tell the president the media was planning to criticise his Covid response, Psaki writes, and quite another to say the media was planning to criticise the way he speaks about his son, who passed away tragically young.

Still, she writes, Jill Biden had previously told her: Weve been through a lot. And we ask that you always be honest with us. Always tell us whats coming.

Psaki called Biden and warned him about the Times story, which would say he referenced Beaus death repeatedly while meeting with families of the soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan last week and quote a number of family members making critical comments.

When the president finally answered her, Psaki says, he did so in a softer voice than usual.

I thought I was helping them. Hearing about how other people went through loss always helps me, Biden said.

Psaki says Biden paused again, then said: Thanks for telling me. Anything else?

The Times story duly appeared  as did others like it.

One bereaved father, Mark Schmitz, told the Times he showed the president a picture of his son, L/Cpl Jared Schmitz, who was 20, and said: Dont forget his name.

But Mr Schmitz was confused by what happened next, the Times wrote. The president turned the conversation to his oldest son, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015  for Mr Schmitz, another father consumed by his grief, it was too much to bear.

Related: IS commander wanted for deaths of US forces in Niger killed in operation

I respect anybody that lost somebody, Schmitz said, but it wasnt an appropriate time.

Psaki also describes how she herself dealt with the controversy.

In the White House briefing room, she told reporters: While [Bidens] son did not lose his life directly in combat as [those killed in Kabul did]  or directly at the hands of a terrorist, as these families did  he knows firsthand theres nothing you can say, nothing you can convey, to ease the pain and to ease what these families are going through.

Psaki also said Biden was deeply impacted by these family members who he met  talk[ing] about them frequently in meetings and [the] incredible service and sacrifice of their sons and daughters. That is not going to change their suffering, but I wanted to convey that still.
On Tuesday evening, dozens of NYPD officers stormed Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall, which pro-Palestinian demonstrators had occupied earlier that day. Some officers entered the building with their guns drawn; one officer accidentally fired his weapon, thinking he was turning on a flashlight. That same evening, pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked an encampment at UCLA, shooting fireworks and mace at the students while police did nothing; a day later the police entered the encampment, arresting over 100 people. On Wednesday, at New Hampshires Dartmouth University, police pushed over a 65-year-old Jewish studies professor and then charged her with resisting arrest.

These scenes have been repeated across the country. Over the last three weeks, encampments protesting Israels bombing and starvation campaign against civilians in Gaza have sprouted up at over 100 colleges and universities. These protests have been controversial but peacefulthere are teach-ins and movie screenings. And college administrators, panicked about angry donors and opportunistic politicians from both parties, have responded to the tents popping up on their quads by calling in armed policeoften under the bogus pretense that violent outside agitators have infiltrated the campswho arrest students and, in some instances, the faculty members trying to protect them. More than 2,000 protesters, many of them students, have been arrested since the demonstrations began less than three weeks ago.

On Thursday, in his first unscripted remarks about these events, President Biden delivered a forceful message in which he defended students right to protest and added, People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked. Hes absolutely right: Students have the right to peaceably assemble on their own campus without worry of being assaulted by police.

The only problem is that Biden, the self-appointed defender of American democracy, was actually condemning the students themselves. He said they dont have the right to cause chaos, when in fact the chaos on campuses across America is being overwhelmingly caused by the policeas well as the people who are directing and backing the police, a group that includes purportedly liberal school administrators, Democratic mayors and governors, and even Biden himself. It has been a shameful week for the establishment left, and one we may all look back on when the election results come in on November 5.

The Democratic Partys best electoral argument in 2024 is no different from four years ago. The Republican Party is in the grip of a two-bit authoritarian and aspiring strongman intent on using the state to crush opposition wherever he sees it. Openly disdainful of democracy and pluralism, Donald Trump has already tried to steal one election, expresses a desire to arrest or deport his political opponents, and do I need to keep going? Biden and the Democratic Party are the countrys most powerful bulwark against this growing extremism, which is hardly limited to Trump himself; practically the entire GOP is in his grip.

In June 2020, as demonstrations spread across the country in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, Biden gave the best speech of his campaign. We need to distinguish between legitimate peaceful protest and opportunistic violent destruction, he said. And we must be vigilant about the violence thats being done by the incumbent president to our democracy and to the pursuit of justice. He then attacked Trump for using riot police to clear a protest outside the White House so he could do his infamous photo op holding the Bible that hes never read.

It was a similar message to the one Biden delivered on Thursdayexcept that youd be hard pressed to find many instances of uninstigated violence by student protesters over these past few weeks. Meanwhile, there is ample, indisputable evidence of police violence against student protesters. At UCLA, police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, causing one student to require 11 staples to close a head wound. At Arizona State University, four Muslim students had their hijabs ripped off by officers. At New Yorks City College, police shattered one protesters ankle and broke the teeth of two others. Student journalists have been pepper-sprayed, beaten, and arrested at some protests. At many, reporters are locked out altogethera grotesque assault on the presss ability to inform the public and uphold democracy.

In his speech this week, Biden attempted to define what he meant by violence and chaosand it wasnt what I just described. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduationsnone of this is a peaceful protest, he said. Misdemeanors like vandalism or trespassinga reference to the occupation of Hamilton Hallsurely dont warrant hundreds of NYPD officers in riot gear. Moreover, classes were canceled at Columbia in large part because of the police presence on campus. If anyone caused a disruption to education at Columbia, it was its embattled president, Minouche Shafik, whose panicked response escalated the situation dramatically. And the only commencement that has been called off was at the University of Southern California, which did so after the controversy generated by its decision to block its pro-Palestinian valedictorian from speaking.



It is not difficult to understand why students are protesting. Tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed, at least as many are starving and lack access to health care, and most of the Strip has been destroyedincluding all of its universities. This has happened with the full diplomatic and financial support of the U.S. government, which provided many of the weapons responsible for this carnage. And yet, when thousands of students across the country peacefully organize protests against these atrocities, leading Democratsincluding Biden himselfhave responded by demonizing them, tarring them with unsubstantiated or exaggerated accusations of antisemitism and cheering on their arrests.

The protests are politically inconvenient for Biden, who is trailing in most polls and has struggled to hold together a Democratic Party that is deeply divided over Israel. But his callous responseremember, this is a politician who prides himself on empathyis only widening that rift. The police response has been wildly and unquestionably disproportionate. It is inherently undemocratic, not to mention disappointing coming from the head of party that a few short years ago was condemning the excessive use of police force against nonviolent, unarmed civilians. It cuts against everything Biden and his party theoretically stand for in the fight against Trump and the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. It is, in fact, Trumpian.
Biden's team plans to reduce attention to Ukraine during election campaign  Politico

US President Joe Biden is not going to focus on support for Ukraine in his election rhetoric.

Source: Politico with reference to its sources

Details: After Biden scored a huge foreign policy victory by signing a law that provided US$60 billion in aid to Ukraine, his team plans to reduce public attention to US involvement in the war in Ukraine.

They intend to appeal to an electorate preoccupied with economic problems.

Politico stressed that the cause of democracy would remain a central component of Biden's campaign, as a unifying thread for discussing everything from Ukraine and Donald Trump to abortions, gun safety and education.

The White House and campaign aides have said they do not foresee a continuous PR push to boost support for the war in Ukraine in the coming months.

A senior official from the Biden administration said that "now that the supplemental passed Congress, its naturally less of a salient issue."

Still, Democrats and committed transatlanticists who agree with Biden's view largely believe that the most important element of continued US support for Ukraine and NATO is that Biden will serve a second term. Therefore, it makes sense for them to focus on other issues that are of greater concern to American voters.

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ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  Its been a very active news cycle for the Big Country. In the span of a week, weve had three tornadoes, an hours-long standoff with Abilene police- resulting in a death, and a whole lot more. Keep reading for a full look at the trending local articles of the week.

LAST TIME  Big Country Beat: 12 arrests, Taylor Co. lightning fire & Abilene MPO concerns

This weeks top 5 in BCHs Big Country Beat

6. UPDATE: Tornado near Hawley damages homes, injures 2

Honorable mention: Our sixth most visited article this week was Thursday evenings tornado touching down in the Hawley-Hodges area. Its been a very news-heavy week.

5. NCMEC looking for 3 Abilene children missing this month

On Tuesday, we took a look at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where we discovered that three teenagers from Abilene were listed missing on that database. As of Friday evening, one of those teens remained.

15-year-old Tyler Shumaker has been missing since April 15.

4. Report: Abilene child shows up to school smelling like meth, mother arrested after he tests positive

An Abilene mother was arrested last Saturday, accused of Child Endangerment by way of exposing her child to meth. According to court documents, her childs school reported her son for smelling like the stimulant.

Vecy Carpenter was released the following day on a $10,000 bond.

3. Snyder DPS Trooper arrested in Nolan Co., charged with Bestiality

Texas Rangers arrested suspended Snyder DPS trooper, Christopher Prince, 37, after investigating a report made against him in February. Prince was booked into the Nolan County Jail on a Bestiality charge, and has since bonded out.

2. Severe weather in the Big Country: Potential for hail, damaging winds & tornadoes

A warning about last Saturdays tornado and Knox City was read a whole lot this week. In this warning, meteorologists predicted twisters, high winds, and hail.

1. Female suspect shot, killed by officers during overnight standoff in Abilene

An hours-long standoff between Abilene police and a suspect ended in the 44-year-old womans fatal shooting Monday night. She allegedly fired at officers after hours of negotiations. The officers returned fire, killing the suspect. Police and a witness told KTAB/KRBC the altercation began around 9:00 p.m. that night with a separate shooting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  A bill sitting on Gov. Ron DeSantis desk would end the states support of renewable and clean energy and keep Florida reliant on fossil fuels, critics say.

If signed, the law would reverse 16 years of state policy, finishing the work started by former Gov. Rick Scott and undoing Gov. Charlie Crists signature piece of environmental legislation.

Most troubling to environmentalists, it would eliminate any mention of climate change, even though mostly flat Florida is extremely vulnerable to global warming, as already seen with rising waters in the Keys, Miami Beach and Tampa Bay.

The bill (HB 1645) would ban offshore wind power while encouraging exploring emerging technologies in nuclear energy, a frightening prospect to those who remember nuclear plants at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Crystal River.

I think it really forces us to back away from the progress weve been trying to make, said state Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, an environmental scientist.

For example, she said, the state has invested more than $1.6 billion in Florida climate resiliency grants, encouraging local governments to be more prepared, but in the same breath saying they dont believe in climate change.

And it signals that state officials will no longer encourage using alternative and renewable energy sources, she said.

The measure would repeal a law Crist enacted in 2008 as a Republican that launched efforts to battle climate change and back renewable energy. It had the support of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California.

After coming into office in 2011, Scott, now a U.S. senator, gutted much of what Crist got enacted. This years bill repeals whats left of it. It passed the Legislature earlier this year with Republican support and Democratic opposition.

The bill was sent to DeSantis on Friday, and he has until May 15 to take action.

DeSantis will review the legislation in the coming days, spokeswoman Julia Friedland said in an email when asked if he had a position on the measure.

Cross said it was commendable that the administration has invested billions of dollars in Everglades recovery and to battle red tide, but she said those actions were in response to problems that have been around for decades.

They do a poor job coming up with strategies now and to plan for  pressing issues, she said.

Florida is not an energy producer. The state relies on oil, natural gas and gasoline coming in by rail, pipeline, ships and tankers.

Bill sponsor Rep. Bobby Payne, a former utility executive and Republican from Palatka, said the bill protects Floridas energy consumers and lowers prices.

Were protecting them with great reliability and were protecting them to make sure we dont have a lack of energy security in our state, Payne said.

The Crist-era law made it less flexible for the state to meet its energy needs, he said.

David Cullen, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club Florida, said during a committee hearing that the bill is designed to eliminate any competition to fossil fuels and to maintain Floridas dependence on fossil fuels for its energy.

Paynes bill goes beyond eliminating mentions of climate change and banning offshore wind turbines, which critics worry could ruin beach views for tourists.

It would end several programs promoting green or renewable energy, including the Florida Energy and Climate Protection Act, the Renewable Energy and Energy-Efficient Technologies Grants Program, the Florida Green Government Grants Act and the Energy Economic Zone.

It also would ban governments from booking meetings at hotels and buildings certified as green lodging. And it would eliminate a requirement that state agencies, public universities and local governments lease hybrid and electric vehicles.

Local governments would be prohibited from blocking the construction of resiliency centers, which are giant fuel reservoirs established for emergency use.

The bulk of the bill seems targeted toward DeSantis ongoing culture wars and battles with the global elite, Cross said.

Cross noted that DeSantis on Thursday signed another bill that preempts local governments from regulating charging stations, and the state Department of Environmental Protection has granted permission to explore for oil in the Apalachicola River basin in the Panhandle.

She said the state has no interest in energy alternatives.

Dont we know better than this? she asked. We are constantly fighting technology we dont like. Its the same story over and over.

_____
Sen. Michael Lee said traditional public school wasn't there for his youngest child. He wants all parents to have access to private school vouchers. (Photo: NCGA video stream)

A bill to spend an additional $463 million on the states controversial private school voucher program over the next two years gained momentum Thursday, winning support in the state Senate. The bill was approved by a vote of 28-15 and will now return to the House for concurrence in Senate changes.

Republican supporters of House Bill 823 contend the extra money is needed to clear a wait list of more than 54,000 people for the states Opportunity Scholarships. The income-based program helps parents with private school tuition; awards range from $3,000 to $7,000.

Funding ran out after scholarships were offered to 13,511 applicants in the lowest income tier and about 2,300 in the second income tier.

Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, said education dollars should follow students where ever they attend school.

Clearing these waitlists fulfills our commitment to families from across the state that want a stronger say in their childs education, said Lee, who chairs the Senate Appropriations and Education committees. From public schools to public charter schools, and private schools, North Carolina is at the forefront of school choice and education freedom.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a news release that parents have made it clear that they want educational freedom and school choice.

The incredible interest in Opportunity Scholarships means thousands of families are now in limbo, Berger said. We must clear the waitlist so families can prepare for the upcoming school year.

If approved HB 823 is approved, annual state spending on school vouchers would increase to $800 million by the 2031 fiscal year, which is $295 million more than projected.

Democratic senators said the increase in spending on private school vouchers is tantamount to welfare for the states wealthiest families whose children already attend private schools without state assistance.

Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, noted that 70% of vouchers funded in the bill would go to families of four earning more than $115,000 and 23% would go to families earning $260,000 or more a year.

Zero for the lowest-income families  theyve already been funded, they dont need this bill, Marcus said. This is welfare for the wealthy. This is not about helping middle-class or low-income families choose the school that they want their kid to go to.

Asking low- and moderate-income families to help millionaires pay private school tuition is like asking them to help rich families pay for a childs Porsche, she said.

Thats what this bill is doing and its wrong, Marcus said.

Doubling down on remarks she made Wednesday in a Senate committee, Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance, said the $3,000 voucher the wealthiest families are eligible to receive is a fraction of what those families pay in taxes.

A family with an income of $1 million a year now pays $45,000 in state taxes, Galey said.

If they get the full award of $3,360 scholarship if they have a family of four  then more than 90% of their taxes are still paid and they still support public education, Galey said.

The program was created a little more than a decade ago with the stated purpose of helping low-income families escape low performing schools and districts. Now, there are no income restrictions. The number of families seeking private school vouchers exploded after the Republican-led legislature expanded the school voucher program to make it accessible to the states wealthiest families.

Sen. Val Applewhite

Sen. Val Applewhite (Photo: NC General Assembly)

Sen. Val Applewhite, D-Cumberland, told her Senate colleagues that concerned educators are dialing 911 for public education.

Theyve been dialing 911 for public education to this General Assembly and they feel like the phone call is going to voicemail or youre just not picking it up, Applewhite said.

She said that in low-wealth, high-poverty counties such as hers, every dollar matters. Losing students to charter schools or private schools severely impacts public schools in low-wealth counties, she said. State funding is tied to enrollment, so when districts lose students, they also lose the allocation.

Its a $17 million impact to Cumberland County Schools, Applewhite said.

She noted that public officials are fond of thanking members of the military for their service. Cumberland County is home to Ft. Liberty, which is one of the largest military complexes in the world.

You know how you thank us for our service, help educate our children in Cumberland County and all of the other communities that host military installations, said Applewhite, an Air Force veteran. We can no longer continue to say thank you for your service and not fund or support the most important people in our lives, our children.

Republicans turned back two amendments during debate on Thursday  one of which would have required private schools to provide performance and attendance data for students who receive vouchers. The amendment would have also required private schools that take voucher money to follow state curriculum standards, accept students with disabilities, and provide free and reduced-priced meals.

If were going to give another $463 million to private schools, then we ought to have some accountability, said Sen. Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford, who put forth the amendment. Private schools that receive taxpayer funding need to provide the same level of student services.

Gov. Roy Cooper has called for a moratorium on school vouchers until the states public schools are fully funded. Under the voucher program, he contends, taxpayer money is spent on private schools that arent required to hire licensed teachers, provide meals, transportation or services for the disabled.

They [private schools] dont have to tell taxpayers what they teach, how their students perform, which students they will reject or whether students even show up at all, Cooper said in March during a State Board of Education meeting. That is a reckless, reckless waste of taxpayer money.

The post Bill to increase spending on private school vouchers scores key win in NC Senate appeared first on NC Newsline.
BILOXI, Miss. (WKRG)  A Biloxi city councilman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, according to a release from the United States Attorneys Office.

47-year-old Robert Leon Deming III founded the Candy Shop, LLC in 2019 to operate Candy Shop stores in Mississippi and North Carolina, the release said. The Candy Shop stores sold CBD and vape products.

Mobile teen drowns in Escatawpa River: George County Sheriffs Office

The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating the stores in 2020. Their investigation uncovered Schedule I controlled substances and controlled substance analogues in some of the vape products, according to the release.

The DEA also received complaints in 2022 that some of the vape products were making customers ill, according to the release. Agents received search warrants for the shops in Mississippi and North Carolina and for Demings home.

The warrants were executed on Jan. 26, 2023, where agents found over $1.8 million in cash at Demings home and more cash and drugs in his stores.

As the investigation continued, agents learned that Deming was aware that his vape additives did not contain CBD; rather, they contained synthetic cannabinoids, the release said. This was evidenced by group chats in which Demings employees complained about how the additives were too strong and could hurt their customers. Despite this fact, Deming misbranded the additives as containing CBD.

Mobile Police investigating I-65 service road shooting

Agents also found that Deming sent a co-conspirator $2,200 to purchase 1 kilogram of a controlled substance for use in the Candy Shop vapes, the release said.

Deming was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023.

Deming agreed to forfeit a yellow Monster Truck with oversized tires and a lift kit and over 1.9 million, the release said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
By the time it became law, enacting legislation to force the Chinese Communist Party-controlled owner of TikTok to divest its ownership stake or lose access to 170 million American users looked easy.

A 50-0 vote to pass the bill out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 7 was followed by a 352-65 vote on the House floor on March 13. A slightly modified version of the divestment legislation was attached to the package of bills providing aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan in April, and TikTok divestment again sailed through the House and then the Senate before being signed into law by President Joe Biden on April 24.

But what looked quick and easy was actually the culmination of a hard, yearslong process that required deft legislative maneuvering until the very end to overcome powerful forces from across the political spectrum allied to TikTok. The multibillion-dollar social media app had a well-funded and well-connected army of lobbyists. Democrats had reason to fear alienating the TikTok-addicted youth vote in a presidential election year, and influential voices on the right, including Tucker Carlson, Elon Muskand eventually Donald Trump himselfturned against legislation to end the Chinese control of TikTok.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans tell The Dispatch the bill is now law of the land because of painstaking negotiations and legislative wrangling that saw top Democrats and Republicans, and the Biden administration, quietly working together.

It took about a year to really negotiate. It required tremendous stakeholder input from around Congress, Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-sponsored the legislation with former Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican, told The Dispatch.

The key is there was months of work on that bill that didnt leak, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has been warning of the threat posed by TikTok for years, told The Dispatch.

History proves that TikTok divestment was far from inevitable in 2024. President Trump tried to do it by executive order in 2020 but was blocked by the courts. In the following years, a growing bipartisan consensus emerged that something needed to be done about an app used by 170 million Americans that was effectively controlled by Americas top foreign adversary. A bombshell 2022 BuzzFeed News report revealed that user data had been repeatedly accessed in China. The CCP officially owns 1 percent of TikToks Chinese parent-company ByteDancegiving the government the power to appoint a seat on the board of directorsand ByteDance as a Chinese company is subject to the CCPs counter-espionage laws. Many members of Congress feared TikTok could sow anti-American propaganda and collect data that could be used for blackmail, espionage, and foreign-influence operations. The main bipartisan bill to address TikTok in 2023, the RESTRICT Act, had 26 Senate co-sponsors, but it failed to advance amid criticism that it handed too much discretion to the secretary of commerce and other executive branch officials to determine whether tech products and services controlled by a foreign adversary of the United States posed an undue and unacceptable risk to national security.

The bill just died on the vine, and then the energy to do anything about TikTok died, Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow in Indo-Pacific studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, told The Dispatch. From TikToks perspective, they thought that they had weathered the eye of the storm, said FCC commissioner Carr.

But Gallagher and Krishnamoorthis House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which Gallagher chaired, continued to work quietly with House GOP leadership and the House Energy and Commerce Committee on drafting a bipartisan bill that could actually become law. Behind the scenes, House Republicans were negotiating with the White House and engaging with the Department of Justice on how to draft a bill that could withstand challenges in court.

According to several advocates of the legislation, the response to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel was a flashpoint that galvanized sentiment in Congress against TikTok. That set a fire under a lot of members in the House, not just Republicans, said Sobolik, who was part of an ad hoc group of supporters of the bill. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told The Dispatch in December that while he had previously been reluctant to embrace a TikTok ban, the widespread and disproportionate promotion of anti-Israel content on TikTok convinced him that it was probably time to say that we shouldnt have a Chinese-owned social media company force feeding divisive information to our kids. A recent study by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University Miller Center found that for every 100 Instagram posts supporting Israel, there were only 16 pro-Israel posts on TikTokand the ratios were even wider when the issue was Taiwan, Tiananmen Square, or Hong Kong protests. The fact that Osama bin Ladens letter to America went viral [on TikTok] is crazy. Thats not organic, said Krishnamoorthi. The Democratic congressman said his views on TikTok were bolstered by classified intelligence reports that he couldnt discuss.

Internally, Republicans continued to hash out their differences, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise serving as pointman for resolving concerns on all sides. The Louisiana Republican did so by: including several committees in the legislative process; tapping the House select committee on the CCP, where Democrats and Republicans have worked closely together, despite so much dysfunction in Congress, to draft the initial legislative text; seeking support from the Department of Justice; using the DOJ as an ambassador of sorts to make Democrats feel comfortable with the legislation.

Once we had the DOJ, they were making calls and helping get Democrats on board, a GOP House aide involved in the process said. We always thought wed get more than enough Republicans to support it, so we focused on ensuring we had strong bipartisan buy-in.

That broad bipartisan support had arrived by the time the Gallagher-Krishnamoorthi TikTok divestment bill was introduced on March 5. It was a very tightly coordinated effort between China Select, [the House Energy and Commerce Committee], and House leadership, a second House GOP aide involved in the process told The Dispatch. We were affectionately calling it the thunder run because of the very short timeI think it was eight days in totalbetween the introduction and when the bill passed on the House floor. That was a purposeful strategy that was designed to ensure that as we generated political momentum, we were able to continue capitalizing on that momentum.

By keeping the negotiations quiet, lawmakers had also caught TikTok flat-footed. By all accounts, the lobbying response from TikTokdirecting users to contact their federal representatives to oppose a TikTok banbackfired spectacularly. An army of angry callersincluding a small number who threatened self-harm or violence against members of Congresswere patched through to congressional staff. That just infuriated people because it illustrated the very need for the legislation, said Krishnamoorthi. Theyre using minor childrens location data to get them to call and lobby without their parents consent on a bill and spread misinformation in the process. According to one GOP House aide, some children as young as 6 or 7 contacted Congress.

How many votes did TikToks gambit cost them? A lot, Krishnamoorthi said, declining to provide a specific number while noting how unusual it is to have a unanimous committee vote on any piece of legislation.

Even as the TikTok preteens were harming their cause, a potentially more significant voice emerged that seemingly could have helped the social-media giant. If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7. I dont want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!

But House and Senate Republicans who supported the TikTok measure and are on good terms with Trump tell The Dispatch the former president never lobbied their GOP colleagues to oppose the legislation. None of the direct, chit-chatty phone calls Trump is known for, no belligerent badgering on social media. Nothing. And that was significant, senior Republicans say, because it meant the presumptive GOP presidential nominees opposition was not an obstacle when cajoling rank-and-file Republicans to stick with the bill.

I dont think Trump did anything at all, a knowledgeable GOP House aid said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. I never heard of him calling anyone.

If Trump really wanted to kill this TikTok bill, he would have treated it the same way he treated [border security] negotiations, said Sobolik.

As president, Trump supported forcing TikToks owner, ByteDance, to divest its ownership or face a ban on operating in the U.S. So his flip-flop in March sparked speculation as to why.

A leading theory is that wealthy Republican donor Jeff Yass promised during a recent meeting with Trump to contribute to his cash-starved presidential campaign if he changed his position on TikTok. But a Yass spokesman told The Dispatch thats not true. Yass, through his technology investment firm, Susquehanna International Group, is an investor in TikTok, and a March 24 story in the New York Times reported that the Trump campaign expected him to donate to the former presidents 2024 bid.

But the same story also reported Yass denying any plans to back Trump financially in this election. (Yass has never donated to Trump, his spokesman emphasized.)

Yass spokesman provided The Dispatch with a long list of Republicans he has contributed to, including 10 senators and 23 representatives who voted for the TikTok bannumbers that outpace Republicans he donated to who opposed the legislation.

Another theory is that Trump is simply trying to turn young voters against Biden. He didnt put his shoulder into it at all, a Republican senator told The Dispatch. What I infer from that is that he saw large majorities of Congress about to do something with Biden that might prove unpopular and he saw a triangulation opportunity.

Democrats, perhaps not surprisingly, were worried about political blowback from young voters in their base for whom TikTok is popular. Polling suggests being held responsible for a TikTok ban might be politically problematic for Biden.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told The Dispatch that Trump is primarily concerned Facebook will grow too powerful if TikTok goes away, but, asked if the politics of the youth vote could partly explain Trumps opposition, Graham replied with a laugh: Could be!

Another concern from some populists who turned against the legislation is that it could somehow justify going after Elon Musks X, formerly Twitter. Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance told The Dispatch that his basic view is TikToks bad. We should not allow a CCP spy app in our country, but he was still concerned that the legislation might be written too broadly. I think it is written broadly enough that, you know, is there an argument that Elon Musk is somehow indirectly under the control of the Chinese because he does a lot of business in China, therefore, you should be able to shut down X? Vance said. I think its a bogus argument, but you dont want to creategiven how aggressive the Biden administration has been with DOJyou dont want to give them massive new enforcement powers that could be used against conservative media.

Musk wasnt the only right-wing influencer who opposed the TikTok divestment bill. In 2019, Tucker Carlson was hosting segments warning that TikTok was a Chinese spy app, but when the RESTRICT Act was introduced in 2023 he warned the bill was about introducing flat out totalitarianism into our system. When the more narrowly tailored Gallagher-Krishnamoorthi bill passed the House in 2024, Carlson called the legislation the most far-reaching act of censorship in the history of the United States. This is an attack on the right of American citizens to receive their information from any source they choose. (After being fired from Fox News in 2023, his show now airs on X.)

Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA said in March: I would love to see [TikTok] just completely banned. I think that its a societal toxin. By April, Kirk was attacking Biden for signing the divestment bill into law.

There will be a portion of the party that simply watches what President Trump tells you to do without giving it much thought beyond that, Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney told The Dispatch.

Ultimately, only 15 House Republicans joined 50 House Democrats to vote against the legislation on March 13. Republican Matt Gaetz, for example, went from saying Biden needed to blow up TikTok in 2023 to calling the 2024 legislation overbroad. South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace had gone from saying in 2022 that banning TikTok on government phones was just a first step to saying in 2024 she was against divestment legislation from the very beginning before anyone else weighed in.

But even some of Trumps staunchest allies were not swayed by his about-face. I thought that [Trump] had the right position the first time, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who has supported a TikTok ban for years, told The Dispatch. I think forcing them to divest is a great idea. And if they wont do that, I think a ban is necessary. So my views on that havent changed. I encouraged [Trump] along those lines.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential Trump running mate who has been working to address the threat of TikTok since 2019, told The Dispatch more members of Congress were persuaded to support divestment when they came to the conclusion that this was a disinformation and influence loaded gun in the hands of the Chinese who would use it in a time of conflict to disrupt America. Though he ultimately voted against the package because it lacked border security measures.

Despite the big vote for the TikTok bill in the House, supporters of the legislation were still worried it could die in the Senate for a variety of reasons. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell is the chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that would take up the bill had it passed conventionally, and Cantwells former chief of staff Michael Meehan was lobbying for TikTok. Furthermore, the ranking Republican on the committee is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has enjoyed the strong backing of the Jeff Yass-funded Club for Growth for years. And to top it all off, there were concerns that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer might be reluctant to devote floor time to pass a bill that could alienate young voters in an election year.

But House GOP leadership eliminated those hurdles by attaching TikTok divestment to the package of bills aiding Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The Senate chose to pass all four pieces on a bipartisan 79-18 vote, and it was off to President Bidens desk.

What if any political fallout might there be? Democrats are skeptical it will have any impact in November because the bill was changed between initial passage in March and April to extend the divestment timeframe from six to up to 12 months. That would push the divest-or-ban deadline well past Election Day, even if likely court challenges fail to delay enforcement of the law. Nothing will happen before the election, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told The Dispatch. Were talking only about the requirement for selling Tik Tok, not a ban. I think therell be no political impact because TikTok will continue.

A more important question than how TikTok divestment plays at home is what its geopolitical ramifications will be. I think that the CCP made a bet that they could control TikTok and that the U.S. would not have the capacity or resolve to do anything about it, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told The Dispatch. But, he added, the law proves we can actually protect our national security even in a tough area where it involves technology used by 170 million Americans.

Charles Hilu contributed to this report.

Read more at The Dispatch

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (USACE Jacksonville) on Wednesday ceased the St. Johns County Shore Protection Project for St. Augustine Beach within Anastasia State Parks reach of St. Augustine Beach.

The decision was made after discovering a colony of small birds known as Least terns. The birds were found in a significant colony, according to a recent St. Johns County press release.

USACE Jacksonville consulted with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Anastasia State Park, St. Johns County, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and other state and federal agencies before halting operations.

The halt is designed to sidestep the potential for negatively affecting nesting shorebirds, nests and chicks.

Least terns, American oystercatchers and Wilsons plovers begin nesting in late April, with late nesting occurring in July. Chicks fledge (develop wings that are large enough to fly) off the site in early August.

The county press release noted that USACE Jacksonville is working with the contractor to reschedule a completion timeline. The work began in March. The revised schedule will be posted this month.

The St. Johns County Shore Protection Project will renourish eroded shoreline between the southern limits of Anastasia State Park to a point located 3.9 miles south of the St. Augustine Inlet.

According to USACE Jacksonville, the goal is to mitigate down-drift shoreline effects caused by the federal navigation channel at the St. Augustine Inlet. This should also provide storm damage reduction for upland development.

Pope Road beach access will serve as a staging area and will remain closed until the renourishment project resumes.

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: Bird colony causes delay of Shore Protection Project for St. Augustine Beach
In a five-page letter addressed to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the Gulf Clan  also known as the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC) (previously Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia)  has called on authorities to drop the arrest warrants against several of its commanders. In the missive  dated April 23 and made public on Thursday , the group argues that it is a political organization and deserves to be included in the negotiations for Petros total peace policy. It claims that it is not a paramilitary force, but rather opposed to all such groups. The government has not yet publicly responded to the letter. A few weeks ago, it called on the Gulf Clan to come to the negotiating table, but did not recognize it as a political group.

In the document, written in more legal than political language, the leaders of the Gulf Clan say that if the government wants a meeting, the group has to be certain that its leaders wont be arrested. The group asks that the respective arrest warrants, as well as the arrest warrants for extradition purposes, be suspended, arguing that these measures are an obstacle to the personal and legal tranquility of the Gulf Clans High Command, the highest political body of the organization. This body includes Jesus Avila Villadiego, aka Chiquito Malo, the main leader of the group and one of the most wanted criminals in the country.

The bulk of the letter concerns the groups argument on why it meets the state requirements to receive political status  a status the group needs if it is to negotiate terms beyond handing itself over to the justice system. The Gulf Clan argues that it is the product of the failure of the peace accords. While it accepts that some of its early members came from the demobilization of the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) under the government of Alvaro Uribe, it argues that it has had a Gaitanist identity since 2007. That group of men and women who emerged in an armed group and as a tribute to the greatest popular leader in Colombian history, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, decided to call themselves Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia [...], and understood that Gaitans struggle was indeed their own struggle, that is, the conquest of power for the people, states the illegal group.

The leaders of the Gulf Clan allege that paramilitary organizations are supported by the state, while their group has been constantly targeted by the military. In the letter, it argues that the Gulf Clan has been attacked with the most ferocious military and law enforcement operations in the history of the fight against illegal armed groups. To close its argument that it meets the requirements to be given political status, the group argues that it has internal statutes and a code of ethics, that its members are trained in International Humanitarian Law and that it has a structure typical of an army. In short, they appear to be a guerrilla.

Finally, the group refuses to be called drug traffickers, despite the fact that a large part of their income comes from illicit economies linked to cocaine trafficking. U.S. security sources estimate the Gaitanistas annual income at $4.4 billion. This sum is roughly equivalent to a months worth of Colombian exports, states the International Crisis Group in a report. The paramilitaries were from the beginning allied with drug trafficking networks as a way to generate revenue and extend their territorial reach, it states. Elizabeth Dickinson, the head of the NGO in Colombia, says that the Gulf Clan is the largest illegal armed group in Colombia, with 6,000 to 7,000 people in its ranks.

The letter from the Gulf Clan comes a month after President Petro criticized the group in Apartado (Antioquia), a flagship region for paramilitarism, where the Gaitanistas have a presence. In a public event, the president bluntly said the group can only expect a collective acceptance of justice, the path outlined in the total peace policy for groups without political status. Whats more, Petro conditioned negotiations on the group giving up several of its illegal businesses. To dare [to negotiate] is to dare to leave the illicit economy and illegality, and get into a difficult challenge, which is to transform this territory into a prosperous region, he said. [Jorge Eliecer] Gaitan was a revolutionary and not a narco, he added.

Francisco Daza, coordinator of the territorial peace and human rights line of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (PARES), points out that the letter comes amid the groups bloody disputes with the National Liberation Army (ELN, which has more visibility in the peace process) in the south of Bolivar. These confrontations have seriously affected the civilian population and forced a delegation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace to move from the area. It seems that it is seeking to mitigate the military actions of the public forces against it in that department. Even so, the president has not contemplated political recognition for this structure, says Daza.

The criminal organizations request also coincides with the recent lifting of arrest warrants against nine members of the Second Marquetalia, one of the two dissident groups of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), with which the Colombian government is seeking to initiate a new negotiation.

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A bloody spear was found at the scene of a double homicide and attempted suicide in Santa Ana, though it is not clear whether the spear was used in the attacks, police said Friday. (KTLA-TV)

A bloodied spear was found at the scene of a double homicide and attempted suicide in Santa Ana, though it was not clear whether the weapon was used in the attacks, police said Friday.

The chaotic and gruesome scene unfolded Thursday around 4:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of East Chestnut Avenue, according to police. A woman called police and informed them that she and her uncle had been stabbed, said Natalie Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Santa Ana Police Department.

A bloodied spear was found at the scene. (KTLA)

When police arrived, they found the woman and her uncle dead inside a storage facility along with an injured man who authorities say is the suspect in the killings. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said.

Neither the victims nor the suspect, all of whom police say were adults, has been identified.

Garcia said the injured man had been dating the woman who was found dead. She had been fatally shot in the upper torso, and her uncle died from stab wounds, police said.

Authorities are investigating the case as a double murder and attempted suicide, saying the man shot himself.

Police cars surround a crime scene in Santa Ana, where two people were found dead and a third was critically injured. (KTLA-TV)

Although a bloody spear was found near the crime scene, police could not confirm whether it was used in the killings, Garcia said.

"It was a very gruesome scene, therefore we don't know what was evidence of the crime and what was not," she said in an interview with The Times.

One witness told KTLA-TV that the uncle was a "medieval sword" expert.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
An investigation is underway after a gruesome scene in which two people were found dead in a storage facility, a third person was rushed to the hospital and a bloody medieval-style spear was discovered Thursday in Santa Ana, authorities confirmed to KTLA.

Officers with the Santa Ana Police Department responded to a disturbance call in the 1200 block of East Chestnut Avenue at around 4:30 p.m.

The privately owned storage facility where the brutal scene unfolded is typically used for personal and business storage, KTLA learned.

A man who was working on his computer said he saw police arrive just moments before he saw a woman who said she heard gunshots. As he approached unit E, he said he witnessed an officer throwing a spear out of the unit.

A spear with a bloody handle at the scene of a double homicide in Santa Ana on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

A spear with a bloody handle at the scene of a double homicide in Santa Ana on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

A spear with a bloody handle at the scene of a double homicide in Santa Ana on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Detectives and officers with the Santa Ana Police Department at the scene of a double homicide on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Detectives and officers with the Santa Ana Police Department at the scene of a double homicide on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Detectives and officers with the Santa Ana Police Department at the scene of a double homicide on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Detectives and officers with the Santa Ana Police Department at the scene of a double homicide on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Officers with the Santa Ana Police Department at the scene of a double homicide on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

The man, who did not want to be identified, said he saw an older man who was dead inside the facility and a younger woman who was not moving.

KTLAs Samantha Cortese later learned that the young woman was also dead.

Just a nice little dude. Hes been here a long time, just a sweetheart, the man said of the older male victim. He had a bad back and every time I saw him, he was just nice. Id talk with him for a couple of minutes, same with his niece. I think its his niece, I dont know.

He added that the older male victim had told once that he was an expert in medieval swords.

Another male, who didnt appear to be moving, was taken from the unit on a stretcher. Police said that person was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

It is unclear at this point if that individual is a suspect in the double murders or another victim.

According to the man who spoke on the condition of anonymity, he never noticed any tension or animosity between the three people involved in the grisly scene.

So far, details remain very limited and detectives have not said anything about a possible motive for the killings.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The United States is leading talks among the Group of Seven (G7) nations to develop a military aid package to Ukraine worth up to $50 billion, Bloomberg reported on May 3. The potential package would reportedly be funded by the profits generated by accrued interest on frozen Russian assets.

Western countries and Kyiv's other partners have immobilized around $300 billion of Russian assets in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with around $5 billion held in the U.S.

The frozen Russian assets, which are predominantly held within the European Union, will generate approximately 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in windfall profits annually, and would allow for repayment as Western allies provide additional aid funding towards the proposed package.

Ideally, this is something we would like the entire G7 to participate in, be part of, not just have the United States doing it alone, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg, adding that the plan is something that G7 allies are "discussing."

According to sources familiar with the matter, the U.S. is looking to come to an agreement on a plan for the June G7 meeting in Italy, although sources say that an agreement may take months to come to terms.

Washington has long been one of those allies pushing to funnel Russian funds directly to Kyiv. In turn, European countries have been more hesitant, fearing economic and legal pitfalls. The EU has instead been working on a unilateral plan to use the profits generated by the frozen assets to fund defense assistance for Ukraine.

According to Bloomberg, the plan that the United States is developing would - if agreed upon - replace the EU-only proposal.

Moscow said it could lower the level of diplomatic relations with the U.S. if Washington seizes Russian assets. Relations between the two countries have already deteriorated significantly since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Amid ammunition and air defense shortages, as well as an anticipated summer Russian offensive, Ukraine has urged Western allies additional aid funding and weaponry. Late last month, the U.S. approved a $61 billion aid package, although Ukraine still faces a weapons deficit as aid slowly starts to arrive over the coming weeks and months.

The U.S. Congress also recently approved the REPO Act that would allow President Joe Biden's administration to seize Russian assets held at American banks and funnel them to Ukraine.

Read also: Explaining Washingtons REPO Act that could kick-start the confiscation of frozen Russian assets

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Board of Regents pays out $100K to former USD staffer in sex discrimination lawsuit

The South Dakota Board of Regents has recently agreed to pay a former international student advisor at the University of South Dakota $100,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought, alleging sexual harassment, sex discrimination and retaliation.

Semehar Ghebrekidan worked in the International Office at USD in her role for less than a year -- July 9, 2018 to June 21, 2019 -- before she was placed on administrative leave and her contract wasnt renewed after she reported incidents of sexual harassment in the office and filed a Title IX complaint, according to her initial complaint.

The settlement agreement and release, obtained Frida by the Argus Leader and first reported by The Dakota Scout earlier this week, details Ghebrekidan received a check from the SDBOR for $10,307.10 for wages with $2,390.40 in taxes withheld for a net wage payment of $7,916.70, and a check from the SDBOR for $64,757.70 for non-wages.

Semehar Ghebrekidan as pictured in this July 8, 2016 file photo from Joe Ahlquist. People look on as Semehar Ghebrekidan, of Sioux Falls, speaks during a peaceful gathering in response to recent shootings across the county Friday, July 8, 2016, outside the Law Enforcement Center in downtown Sioux Falls.

Her counsel at the Boyce Law Firm received a check from the SDBOR for $24,935.20 for attorneys fees.

The release means that the plaintiff, Ghebrekidan, discharges USD and the SDBOR from what she sued them for, and that she wont sue or complain about USD or the SDBOR in the future for claims that occurred prior to the execution of the settlement agreement and release.

Accordingly, without any admission of liability, the parties have reached this agreement and compromise after considering the substantial expense and uncertainty of future litigation, trials, and appeals, and with the desire to resolve all pending or potential disputes and administrative matters in their entirety, statss the settlement agreement and release, dated Feb. 13.

Initial complaint of sex discrimination

Ghebrekidan names two people in the lawsuit: Susan Hackemer, then-director of the international office at USD and now the assistant vice president for career services and student success; and Patrick Morrison, then-associate director of the international office and now the director of the Gallagher International Center, which oversees study abroad, international admissions and international student services.

Neither Hackemer nor Morrison responded to emails by the Argus Leader asking for comment.

In her initial complaint, Ghebrekidan states Morrison was party to a conversation which degraded and stereotyped Semehar as a whore, according to court documents.

Ghebrekidan alleged in her suit that on or about Dec. 10, 2018, international office secretary Patty Lase told Ghebrekidan in a conversation with an international student about modesty that sometimes Ghebrekidan wears those super short skirts and tights, and I get the Me Too movement and all, but sometimes you are just asking for it.

Lase did not respond to messages from the Argus Leader.

Ghebrekidan said she interpreted the comments to mean she was asking to be sexually assaulted because of her outfit, according to court documents.

The next day, Ghebrekidan said she overheard Morrison and Lase talking about the way Ghebrekidan behaved and dressed in the office, with Lase stating that Ghebrekidan had been dressing like a whore, according to Ghebrekidans complaint. Lase also said Ghebrekidan hugging an international student was culturally insensitive, according to the complaint.

Rather than address Lases inappropriate and derogatory remarks, Morrison responded by saying that he would talk with (Ghebrekidan) regarding the way she dressed and behaved, according to Ghebrekidans complaint.

The following day, Ghebrekidan reported the conversation she overheard to Khara Iverson, then the Title IX coordinator at USD, who suggested Ghebrekidan discuss the situation individually with Morrison.

That next day, Ghebrekidan spoke with Morrison about the conversation, who told her that hugging was not culturally acceptable, and that the rest of the employees in the office were Midwestern and white and had a different view of what was culturally normal than Ghebrekidan, according to the complaint. Ghebrekidan grew up in a traditional Ethiopian household to parents who both immigrated to the U.S.

Ghebrekidan asked Morrison if he wanted her to disregard her culture as someone who is Ethiopian and a person of color, and Morrison responded that she needs to make adjustments, according to the complaint. Ghebrekidan asked if a student ever reported feeling uncomfortable or disrespected due to her hugs, and Morrison said no, the complaint states.

Two days later, Lase left Ghebrekidan a voicemail attempting to apologize for Ghebrekidan overhearing the conversation she had with Morrison, the complaint states.

Ghebrekidan requested to change office locations but was denied. In her complaint, she alleges USD, Morrison and Hackemer refused to take corrective action with Lase for these incidents.

Retaliation complaint

Ghebrekidan requested Jan. 11, 2019, that Morrison conduct her six-month evaluation, but Morrison delayed it until Feb. 24, 2019, according to Ghebrekidans complaint.

While in the office, Ghebrekidan continuously requested feedback from Morrison and was told she was doing the right things, Ghebrekidan states in her complaint, but despite Morrisons earlier reassurances, Ghebrekidan was informed in the evaluation that she wasnt passing two of four employment categories, and was placed on a 60-day improvement plan.

Several days later, Ghebrekidan requested her informal Title IX investigation be escalated to a formal investigation.

Ghebrekidan requested feedback from Morrison and Hackemer during the 60-day plan but received little to no response regarding her status or how to make progress after the initial evaluation, she states in her complaint.

By April 12, 2019, Ghebrekidans Title IX investigation was closed for lack of substantial evidence, her complaint states.

Ten days later, she met with Morrison, who told her shed improved on her 60-day plan and that hed speak with Carl Gutzman in USDs human resources department regarding next steps on her plan, according to Ghebrekidans complaint.

On May 14, 2019, Hackemer gave Ghebrekidan a memorandum notifying her she was being placed on administrative leave and her contract wouldn't be renewed because Hackemer said Ghebrekidan hadnt made progress on the 60-day plan, according to Ghebrekidans complaint.

Ghebrekidan alleges that the delay in conducting her evaluation, being placed on a 60-day plan and administrative leave, and not having her contract renewed, were all done in retaliation for her pursuit of a Title IX investigation.

She also stated in her complaint that as a result of the defendants unlawful conduct, Ghebrekidan suffered and continues to suffer loss of income and benefits, out-of-pocket expenses, emotional distress, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, harm to reputation, loss of earning capacity, and other harm to be compensated through damages in an amount to be proven at trial.

What happened next

In a joint answer filed Feb. 15, 2022, the SDBOR, Morrison and Hackemer stated they denied most of the allegations in Ghebrekidans complaint, but admit that the conversation between Lase and Morrison took place, and that Ghebrekidan spoke with Morrison about the conversation he had with Lase, for example.

The joint answer also disputes the reason Ghebrekidans Title IX complaint was closed, stating that it was determined that there was no reasonable basis for believing she had been subjected to retaliation or harassment, and that Ghebrekidan did not appeal this determination.

Ghebrekidans contract wasnt renewed due to inadequate performance, the joint answer states.

Any employment decisions made by defendants concerning (the) plaintiff were based upon legitimate, business-related decisions and not discriminatory or retaliatory reasons, the joint answer states.

On June 1, 2022, both parties moved that the Title IX claims alleged against Morrison and Hackemer be dismissed from the lawsuit, and that was granted by U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier on June 2, 2022.

Multiple motions and orders amending the scheduling orders were made between Sept. 12, 2022 and Dec. 13, 2023, as the parties scheduled a mediation for January 2024 and discovery was to be commenced in time to be completed by April 30.

The parties made a joint motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Feb. 22, and Schreier filed a judgment and an order dismissing the case on April 8.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SDBOR pays out $100K to former USD staffer in discrimination lawsuit
Boat Captain Sentenced to 4 Years Over Calif. Fire That Killed 34: 'Cowardice and Repeated Failures'

Jerry Boylan was found guilty of "seaman's manslaughter" for the November 2019 incident near Santa Cruz Island

AP Photo/Richard Vogel Captain Jerry Boylan

The captain of the Conception scuba boat was sentenced to four years on Thursday, May 2

The accident claimed the lives of 34 people when the boat caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island, Calif. in the early hours of Labor Day in 2019.

In a release, United States Attorney Martin Estrada said The defendants cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths."

The captain of a scuba dive boat that caught fire and sank off the Californian coast in 2019 and killed 34 people has been sentenced.

Jerry Boylan, of Santa Barbara, was sentenced by a federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 2, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Per NBC News Boylan was sentenced to four years in prison and three years supervised release for criminal negligence over the incident, which occurred when the scuba boat the Conception sank in the early hours of Labor Day in 2019.

A restitution hearing has been scheduled for July 11, per the release.

Santa Barbara County Fire Department via Getty The Conception burned and sank on Labour Day in 2019

The defendants cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths of 34 people, said United States Attorney Martin Estrada, per the U.S. Attorney's release. The victims families will be forever devastated by this needless tragedy. While todays sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.



The fate of the victims on the Conception might have been different were it not for the negligence of the defendant, added Mehtab Syed, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. I want to commend the collaborative effort by investigators and prosecutors that led to todays sentence and hope that it delivers a measure of justice to the victims families as they continue to heal from this tragedy.



The 70-year-old was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officers  an offense known as seamans manslaughter  in November 2023, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times A memorial plaque for the 34 victims of the dive boat fire

Per the release, the jury found Boylan committed a series of failures in his role as captain of the Conception, including abandoning his ship instead of rescuing passengers. The jury also agreed with prosecutors that Boylan failed to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities or use the boats public address system to warn passengers and crew members about the fire.

The 34 people who died  33 passengers and one crew member  were sleeping below deck of the Santa Barbara-based dive boat and were trapped and killed. Five crew members, including Boylan, survived after jumping overboard and seeking refuge on a nearby boat called the Grape Escape.

The boat burned and sank near Santa Cruz Island.

According to the Associated Press, during Boylans hearing, family members of the deceased asked U.S. District Judge George Wu to give Boylan the maximum 10-year sentence.

Hes not a victim. He is responsible for my daughter not being here, Yadira Alvarez, the mother of 16-year-old Berenice Felipe, said. Can you imagine my pain? Felipe was the youngest of those killed in the incident, according to the outlet.

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times A memorial to the victims of the Conception boat fire

The outlet also reported that Robert Kurtz  the father of Alexandra Kurtz, the sole crew member who died  brought a small container to the lectern and told Boylan and the court, This is all I have of my daughter.

Theres no justice, Kurtz added, per the Los Angeles Times. Hes not even being remanded. Hes still free.

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During the hearing, Boylans attorney read a statement on his behalf saying he has cried every day since the incident, according to NBC News.

I wish I could have brought everyone home safe, the statement read in part. I am so sorry.

Wu said he took Boylans age, health, the unlikelihood of recurrence and the need for deterrence and punishment into account when determining his sentence.

This is not a situation where the defendant intended to do something bad, Wu said.

Boylans appeal is ongoing, according to the outlet.



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Read the original article on People.
UPDATE: Fourth body found where three missing surfers located

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  The bodies of three missing surfers, including a man reportedly from San Diego, have been found, according to Mexican authorities.

A source in the Baja California Attorney Generals Office confirmed Friday morning that the bodies were located in an isolated area near La Bocana, about 130 miles south of San Diego.

The three surfers were reported missing through social media posts earlier this week, with Baja California authorities officially announcing their disappearance in a press release Thursday.

The surfers were a San Diego man named Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, FOX 5/KUSIs reporting partners at The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

UCSD cancels Sun God festival as Gaza Solidarity camp enters third day

The attorney generals office has not confirmed the mens identities.

The men were surfing an area near Santo Tomas, about 80 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Baja California Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez said they lost valuable time in the search for the men because their families did not immediately report them missing. The last time the mens families heard from them was Saturday, April 27, but they didnt notify police until a few days ago, when the men didnt show up at an Airbnb near K38  another popular Baja surfing spot much closer to the border.

Friends of slain wife take the stand in former TikTok stars trial

A woman and two men were taken into custody and considered persons of interest. The woman was found with a phone belonging to one of the Australian surfers, and also had a bag of drugs, the attorney general said Thursday.

The source in the attorney generals office said it is too early in the investigation for an official cause of death.

The white pickup truck belonging to the San Diego man was located Wednesday, and had been set on fire.

The attorney generals office, the FBI and U.S. and Australian consulate officials were all working in coordination with the case.

The FBI says they are in contact with the U.S. citizens family.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing is poised to send the first Starliner space capsule with a crew of humans into orbit next week, giving it a long-delayed chance to score a badly needed win as it struggles to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The CST-100 Starliner test mission, a years-delayed milestone after more than $1 billion in cost overruns, will ferry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in a final demonstration before the spacecraft can be approved to fly routine space trips under the space agency's commercial crew program.

NASA in recent years has backed a new generation of privately built spacecraft that can ferry its astronauts and other customers to the ISS and, under its more ambitious Artemis program, to the moon and eventually Mars. Starliner is the latest product of the agency's commercial-leaning model.

"The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone," NASA associate administrator Jim Free told reporters in a pre-launch news conference. "The lives of our crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, are at stake."

Williams, 58, is a former Naval test pilot with experience flying over 30 different aircraft, and has logged 322 days in space over two missions since her first flight in 2007. Wilmore, 61, a retired Navy captain, has logged 178 days in space since his first of two space missions in 2009.

Starliner, a gumdrop-shaped pod with room for up to seven astronauts, has come to symbolize Boeing's struggles to compete with new space rivals like SpaceX, whose Crew Dragon spacecraft flew its first human mission in 2020.

A 2019 attempt to send an uncrewed Starliner to the ISS for a week failed, returning to Earth several days early, because of dozens of software and engineering issues.

That mission reshaped Boeing's decades-old relationship with NASA and marked the first of many more high-profile issues the company would encounter with Starliner, which is on a fixed-price contract for development and scheduled to fly six NASA astronaut missions once certified as safe for flight.

The development woes have cost Boeing more than $1.5 billion in charges, and NASA roughly $325 million in boosts to Boeing's $4.2 billion fixed-price Starliner contract, according to securities filings and contracting data examined by Reuters.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's Crew Dragon has obtained several more flights from NASA as Boeing's Starliner remains in development. Boeing in 2022 made a second, successful attempt to launch Starliner to the ISS and back.

NASA officials have doubled their oversight of Starliner since the 2019 failure and argue that Boeing's experience building and maintaining modules on the ISS should be a confidence booster.

"Knowing firsthand the ins and outs of NASA, this launch would not be happening if there wasn't an enormous amount of confidence in the Starliner achieving its objectives," Jim Bridenstine, the previous NASA administrator, told Reuters.

The agency wants the redundancy of having two different U.S. rides to the ISS, an international science laboratory in Earth's orbit that is expected to retire around 2030 after continuously housing astronauts for three decades.

NASA is backing private development of new space stations that could replace the ISS after its retirement, potentially giving Starliner new destinations.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program sought to allow companies to sell spacecraft services to private customers, which SpaceX but not Boeing has done. The per-seat cost for SpaceX's Crew Dragon is estimated at $55 million, while Starliner's is $90 million, according to NASA's inspector general.

Boeing and NASA are targeting 10:34 p.m. ET on Monday (0234 GMT on Tuesday) for Starliner's launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; editing by Chris Sanders, Peter Henderson and Leslie Adler)
When I picture a nightmare working environment, I think about a surreal all-hands meeting where Auric Goldfinger tells his entire company that theyre going to irradiate Fort Knox with a weapon of mass destruction. Boeing South Carolina isnt the first place to come to mind. However, the account of John Barnett details a workplace where supervisors harassed employees into breaking the law to meet Boeings high expectations. Barnett was the whistleblower who was found dead last month.

The American Prospect detailed Barnetts time at Boeing, including being assigned to the 787 assembly plants Material Review Segregation Area. The dedicated space for malfunctioning parts also functioned as a purgatory for blacklisted quality managers. Barnetts time at the MRSA saw a massive portion of a Dreamliners fuselage just went missing without a trace. His calls to supervisors to look into the missing parts were literally laughed at in some circumstances and directly opposed in others:



But there were no signs anywhere of the missing 47-48 section, or hundreds of other parts that had gone missing from MRSA. You know, we really need to find all these  lost nonconforming parts, he remarked at his next big meeting, hoping that with 12 managers present it would be harder to blow him off. And if we cant find them, any that we cant find, we need to report it to the FAA. No one burst out laughing, but it wasnt because they were taking him seriously. Were not going to report anything to the FAA, a supervisor declared emphatically.

Boeing demanded that workers look the other way when non-conforming parts go missing, presumably to be putting on an aircraft, isnt an insignificant matter. Falsifying documentation about any aircraft is a federal felony punishable by up to 15 years in person. Barnet wasnt the only Boeing employee to voice their concerns, but management would fabricate reasons to terminate problem workers:

But he wasnt alone. Once, a human resources officer asked him to look over a weak performance improvement plan the company had used to terminate William Hobek, another quality manager who had refused to pencil whip the lost section 47-48. The HR officer confided that hed been feeling uneasy about the justifications corporate was using for the firing.

Be sure to read the entire piece at The American Prospect about John Barnett and the threats whistleblowers face when coming forward, especially in the aviation industry. Laws only allow a 90-day window for whistleblowers to file retaliation complaints against their employers. Those complaints are heard by a secret, slow-moving OSHA court that rules against whistleblowers in 97 percent of cases.

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 Flash

About 50 experts, scholars, government and industry representatives from China and Serbia attended the first China-Serbia cultural exchange forum held in Belgrade this week.

They discussed the development of China-Serbia cultural exchanges, civilization dialogue and new opportunities for people-to-people communications under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Addressing the opening ceremony, Tang Dasheng, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, said that cultural exchanges, an important part in China-Serbia ties, have played a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Tang also said he hopes the forum will act as an opportunity to further leverage the role of experts, scholars, think tanks and universities of the two countries to push bilateral cultural exchanges to a new level.

Danijel Nikolic, assistant secretary general of the government of the Republic of Serbia, said that cultural exchanges can help enhance understanding and promote cooperation.

The forum will further enhance the two countries' iron-clad friendship and lay the foundation for deeper cooperation in the future, he noted.

Both China and Serbia have a long history and splendid civilization, and there is great potential and broad prospect for cooperation in the field of cultural exchanges, said Ma Ligeng, vice president of Capital Normal University of China.

The forum will contribute to enhancing understanding and deepening friendship between the two peoples, Ma added.

Sharing Serbia's experience in participating in the BRI over the past decade, Bojan Lalic, director of the Institute for Belt and Road Studies in Belgrade, said that Serbia and China can strengthen cooperation in such fields as digital economy and green development.

Meanwhile, Li Jiashan, an expert on culture development at Beijing International Studies University, said the two countries' cultural industries have the desire, foundation and space for cooperation, and joint efforts should be made to boost in-depth development of bilateral cultural trade.

The BRI is the best framework to promote Serbia-China cultural exchanges, which can in turn push forward communications in other areas, Violeta Djerkovic from the Network of Cultural Stations of Novi Sad in Serbia also stressed.
He moved around the posh Spanish resort of Marbella in a red Fiat 500, and held his meetings at the Capuccino Cafe inside the Melia Don Pepe hotel, a five-star establishment at the foot of La Fontanilla beach, near the historic city center. He liked to entertain his collaborators there to show off his power. And he did so, furthermore, with a strong Colombian accent even though he was born in the northern Spanish region of Asturias. Arrogant, an expert in drug trafficking, with good contacts, he used just enough words to explain his intentions. He had everything under control when he embarked on the task of bringing 60 kilos of cocaine from Colombia to Madrid. Or so he thought. What he didnt know was that his phone was tapped, his car was marked, and that there were undercover agents at his meetings. Florentino Carlos F. G., aka Don Carlos, was arrested in early 2022 at his favorite cafe in Marbella. He was later released pending trial: the Marbella Special Anti-Drug Prosecutors Office is requesting 11 and a half years in prison for him for one count of crimes against public health and another one for illegal possession of weapons.

Don Carlos is now 78 years old, and he is an old acquaintance of Spanish law enforcement. His relationship with drug trafficking in Latin America began in the 1990s. During that period, he lived in Colombia for several years, making contacts with the Cali and Medellin cartels. Spains National Police says that he surrounded himself with the main drug traffickers and that he launched a gigantic network devoted to money laundering. Then he moved to Madrid, where he was eventually arrested. In 1998 the Madrid Provincial Court sentenced him to 24 years in prison  which he did not serve in full  for leading an organization that had also kidnapped two women linked to a rival organization. His alleged business ties with the now-defunct Basque terrorist group ETA were also investigated.

Don Carlos moved to Marbella, where he led a pleasant, quiet life. He was well known and respected. Sometimes he drove his car to Madrid to meet his Colombian cronies, and other times they traveled down to the Costa del Sol. He did not suspect that a handful of undercover agents had infiltrated his inner circle for almost two years. Such was his degree of self-confidence that at the end of January 2022 he revealed to them the operation he was carrying out. Investigation sources explain that he was planning to introduce two tons of cocaine from Colombia to Spain, but that the organizations that were going to provide him with the goods wanted to go slower. They were looking to test the route with a smaller shipment and, if it worked, keep up the shipments. They decided it would be 60 kilos at first.

The planned itinerary began at El Dorado airport (Bogota) and was meant to end in Madrid. The test was planned for February 5, 2022. That day, 24 packages were placed in two cardboard boxes perfectly packed and sealed and simulating a shipment of flowers, according to the prosecutions report. What the senders did not know was that the shipment was being monitored. In fact, an undercover agent of the Colombian police had received the merchandise at the Bogota airport itself, had analyzed it  with a positive result for cocaine and a total of 59.5 kilograms. From that point on, the cargo was guarded discreetly and followed at all times throughout the journey to Spain. A National Police officer flew on the same plane in case any incident arose.

The prosecution reports that the drug arrived at Madrids Barajas airport the next day, February 6. It was taken to the Canillas Police Complex by two officers and then continued south to Seville. Delivery was scheduled for February 8. Officers from the Organized Crime Response Group (Greco) were waiting there to intercept the exchange. When it happened, the police arrested two people: M. F. R. and D. A. H. Z. Inside their vehicle there were several cellphones and 2,140 ($2,300) in cash, as well as 48 packages of cocaine in a false bottom of the trunk.

Money, revolver and cartridges

That same day, investigators detained Don Carlos as he was having a glass of sparkling water at the Capuccino Cafe in Marbella. He had been supervising the operation in real time from that spot. Later, 173,000 ($186,000) in cash in 50-euro bills were found inside his home, as well as a 22-caliber Remington revolver and 50 cartridges. You are making a mistake, Mr. Inspector, he told one of the agents who arrested him.

The prosecution is now requesting 11 and a half years in prison for Don Carlos and 10 years for his two collaborators. There is still no date for the trial, where around 20 officers from the National Police as well as toxicology and ballistics experts are expected to provide testimony.
Bond revoked for man accused of sexually torturing teen in Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  Court documents show that Huntsville Police arrested a man Tuesday on a sexual torture warrant.

The warrant, filed in the District Court of Madison County, states that 53-year-old Jason B. McKnight sexually tortured a 15-year-old between July and December 2023.

Man wanted for Tuscaloosa capital murder arrested in Huntsville

A warrant was obtained for McKnights arrest on April 25. He was arrested 5 days later and booked into the Madison County Jail.

A circuit judge set a $60,000 bond for McKnight on Thursday morning, but the state filed a motion to revoke that bond only a few hours later.

He was told not to contact the victim or her mother, however, according to court documents, McKnight immediately contacted the victims mother.

Because he violated his bond conditions, a Madison County Circuit Judge found there was probable cause to revoke his bond.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
Columnist Jay Bookman writes that GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is uniquely suited to unite Democrats and Republicans, even in these divided times. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.)

We are a divided country these days, so much so that certain people have taken to mad mutterings about a national divorce, secession or even civil war. But fear not, fellow Americans, for a time of healing and reunion may be upon us.

If you have doubts, I get it, because what could inspire renewed unity in this overheated political environment? What could possibly bring together Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, at a time when we appear to agree on so little?

Well, history tells us that nothing brings people together faster than having a common enemy, and Americans of both parties now seem to have found one in Georgias own Marge in Charge, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Of course, Democrats have openly despised Greene since she entered public life a few years ago, in large part because shes as mean as a water moccasin and nutty as a south Georgia pecan orchard. But times being what they are, that disdain has become the foundation of her political career. Conservatives love what liberals hate, so the more anger that Greene could trigger from the left, the more adoration and power she got on the right. It has worked very, very well for her until now, but her limitations are about to come into play.

Thanks to her time in the spotlight, Greene now sees herself as a foreign policy expert, as the arbiter and enforcer of what Republicans are allowed to believe, and even as vice presidential material. She has also recently decided, pretty much all on her own, that House Speaker Mike Johnson, her fellow Republican, must be removed from that high office because he dared to allow votes on foreign-aid packages to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel that Greene personally opposed. (All three passed by large margins.)

Mike Johnsons speakership is over, she proclaimed last week, as if she held his fate in her hands, saying that he has betrayed America, he has betrayed Republican voters.

Instead, and for the first time in her short career, there has been significant blowback from her own party. Her insistence that all aid to Ukraine be ended has earned her the title of Moscow Marjorie from the Murdoch-owned New York Post. The far-right editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, also Murdoch-owned, called her Rep. Mayhem Taylor Greene for her ongoing string of tantrums.

She  not the Democrats  are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority, said Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, accusing her of being a terrible leader and dragging our brand down. Even Democrats are now saying that if necessary, they will join with Republicans in voting to spite Greene and keep Johnson as speaker, a step of bipartisan cooperation that would be extraordinary even in less heated times.

Greene is clearly a clown, but clowns can be popular. However, the traits that make a good clown arent transferable to other lines of work. A funny face and big feet dont qualify you to dictate American foreign policy on Ukraine. A lapel flower that shoots water doesnt make you vice presidential material, and a big red nose doesnt give you the power to unilaterally remove a House speaker.

The most famous clown in America, Ronald McDonald, has been the popular mascot for McDonalds for more than 60 years, but nobody, including Ronald, thinks Ronald should be CEO of McDonalds Corp. (The actual CEO of McDonalds went to Harvard Business School, not to clown college.)

But you see, thats where Ronald McDonald and Marjorie Greene part company. Ronald is self-aware enough to know hes a clown. Marjorie doesnt. She thinks she gets all this TV time and attention because of her wisdom and leadership qualities, when in fact she has just happened to come along at a time when her partys base cares more about performance art and political theater  which shes good at  than they do about actual governing.

But like Greene herself, that approach has severe limitations. The GOP has forfeited so much power to the clowns among them  including at the very top  that on its own it is incapable of performing the basic functions of self-government. Thanks to the leeway theyve given to Greene and others, the party that famously rejects compromise as betrayal now needs Democratic help just to keep its own speaker in place.

Its a kumbaya moment.

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The post Bookman: Marjorie Taylor Greene clown show just the thing to unite a divided America appeared first on Ohio Capital Journal.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. The speech marks Biden's first address to the new Republican-controlled House. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

We are a divided country these days, so much so that certain people have taken to mad mutterings about a national divorce, secession or even civil war. But fear not, fellow Americans, for a time of healing and reunion may be upon us.

If you have doubts, I get it, because what could inspire renewed unity in this overheated political environment? What could possibly bring together Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, at a time when we appear to agree on so little?

Well, history tells us that nothing brings people together faster than having a common enemy, and Americans of both parties now seem to have found one in Georgias own Marge in Charge, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Of course, Democrats have openly despised Greene since she entered public life a few years ago, in large part because shes as mean as a water moccasin and nutty as a south Georgia pecan orchard. But times being what they are, that disdain has become the foundation of her political career. Conservatives love what liberals hate, so the more anger that Greene could trigger from the left, the more adoration and power she got on the right. It has worked very, very well for her until now, but her limitations are about to come into play.

Democrats have openly despised Greene since she entered public life a few years ago, in large part because shes as mean as a water moccasin and nutty as a south Georgia pecan orchard.

 Jay Bookman

Thanks to her time in the spotlight, Greene now sees herself as a foreign policy expert, as the arbiter and enforcer of what Republicans are allowed to believe, and even as vice presidential material. She has also recently decided, pretty much all on her own, that House Speaker Mike Johnson, her fellow Republican, must be removed from that high office because he dared to allow votes on foreign-aid packages to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel that Greene personally opposed. (All three passed by large margins.)

Mike Johnsons speakership is over, she proclaimed last week, as if she held his fate in her hands, saying that he has betrayed America, he has betrayed Republican voters.

Instead, and for the first time in her short career, there has been significant blowback from her own party. Her insistence that all aid to Ukraine be ended has earned her the title of Moscow Marjorie from the Murdoch-owned New York Post. The far-right editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, also Murdoch-owned, called her Rep. Mayhem Taylor Greene for her ongoing string of tantrums.

She  not the Democrats  are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority, said Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, accusing her of being a terrible leader and dragging our brand down. Even Democrats are now saying that if necessary, they will join with Republicans in voting to spite Greene and keep Johnson as speaker, a step of bipartisan cooperation that would be extraordinary even in less heated times.

Greene is clearly a clown, but clowns can be popular. However, the traits that make a good clown arent transferable to other lines of work. A funny face and big feet dont qualify you to dictate American foreign policy on Ukraine. A lapel flower that shoots water doesnt make you vice presidential material, and a big red nose doesnt give you the power to unilaterally remove a House speaker.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks at a Macomb County Trump rally, Oct. 1, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins

The most famous clown in America, Ronald McDonald, has been the popular mascot for McDonalds for more than 60 years, but nobody, including Ronald, thinks Ronald should be CEO of McDonalds Corp. (The actual CEO of McDonalds went to Harvard Business School, not to clown college.)

But you see, thats where Ronald McDonald and Marjorie Greene part company. Ronald is self-aware enough to know hes a clown. Marjorie doesnt. She thinks she gets all this TV time and attention because of her wisdom and leadership qualities, when in fact she has just happened to come along at a time when her partys base cares more about performance art and political theater  which shes good at  than they do about actual governing.

But like Greene herself, that approach has severe limitations. The GOP has forfeited so much power to the clowns among them  including at the very top  that on its own it is incapable of performing the basic functions of self-government. Thanks to the leeway theyve given to Greene and others, the party that famously rejects compromise as betrayal now needs Democratic help just to keep its own speaker in place.

Its a kumbaya moment.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Bookman: Marjorie Taylor Greene clown show just the thing to unite a divided America appeared first on Michigan Advance.
A district attorneys office in the Boston area has decided not to file charges against a woman after four infant bodies were discovered in her apartment freezer.

On April 30, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden explained in a press release that police have been investigating an unusual case since Nov. 17, 2022, when they received a phone call from a man who said he and his wife unearthed the body of an infant in an apartment freezer. That man later dialed 911 again to explain that the couple then found multiple babies while cleaning out his sisters residence.

For the past year and a half, Haydens office has been working with the Boston Police Department Homicide Unit and Crime Laboratory and the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to find answers. But this week, he announced theyve faced obstacles and that the investigation will not result in charges. To explain his reasoning, he released a lengthy report on the case.

The report said that police arrived at a South Boston apartment in November 2022 and found the bodies of four infants  two boys and two girls  frozen solid.

All were found in shoe boxes wrapped in tin foil, the report said. Police also determined that the babies were full-term  between 37 and 40 weeks old.

Their investigation led them to 69-year-old Alexis Aldamir, who, according to records, purchased the apartment in October 1983. Aldamir no longer resides in the home and investigators determined she lives in a residential healthcare facility.

After tracking down Aldamir, the report said, her DNA was tested and confirmed she is the mother of the four infants.

Investigators eventually learned who the likely father of the babies was and that he had died in 2011. They secured an order in June 2023 to obtain his DNA, which after testing, revealed that he was indeed the father of all four babies found in Aldamirs apartment, the report said.

Authorities also discovered that Aldamir and the unnamed man had another baby girl in April 1982, but his name was not on the birth certificate. They gave her up for adoption.

Police spoke to Aldamir about the investigation. Throughout the interview, Aldamir appeared confused and demonstrated a lack of understanding about where she was and who she was speaking to. As a result, she was unable to provide investigators with any significant information, the report said.

Investigators then talked to Aldamirs lawyer and ultimately decided she would be unlikely to stand trial.

NBC Boston reports that a conservatorship was approved for Aldamir in 2022 after it was attested that she was unable to receive, synthesize and understand new information.

An autopsy of the four infants was conducted, but the medical examiner said there is not a scientific method that can pinpoint how long the babies were in the freezer. Additionally, the examiners findings did not reveal any signs of internal or external trauma or obvious injuries.

The medical examiners office also reported that it could not definitively determine whether the babies had been born alive, the report said. So, the examiner listed the cause of death as undetermined.

Based on the lack of evidence, no one will be charged with the childrens deaths.

This investigation, which is one of the most complex, unusual and perplexing that this office has ever encountered, is now complete. While we have some answers, there are many elements of this case that will likely never be answered, Hayden said in a statement.

The district attorney added that there were multiple unknowns that the police couldnt answer.

We will never know exactly where or when the four babies found in Alexis Aldamirs apartment were born. We will never know if the four babies were born alive, and we will never know exactly what happened to them. We will never know how Alexis Aldamir concealed her pregnancies, or why she chose to do so, he said.

It is not immediately clear if Aldamir has current legal representation. TODAY.com reached out to the Suffolk District Attorney's Office for more information on Aldamir's previous or current legal representation.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
FILE PHOTO: The debris of the municipal school of Bento Rodrigues district, which was covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, is pictured in Mariana

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Brazil and the state of Espirito Santo have rejected a proposal by miners Vale and BHP regarding reparations for the deadly 2015 Mariana tailings dam burst, the federal government said on Friday.

The statement did not include Minas Gerais state, where the disaster happened, and which said it wants to keep negotiating the current proposal.

Vale, BHP and their joint venture Samarco earlier this week presented authorities with an offer to pay a total of 127 billion reais ($25.03 billion) as reparations for the dam collapse, including 37 billion reais already disbursed.

In rejecting the offer, the office of Brazil's solicitor general said in a statement that it "does not represent an advance" from the firm's previous proposal in December and contains "inadmissible conditions."

The November 2015 dam collapse at the Samarco iron ore mine near the town of Mariana, Minas Gerais, caused a vast flow of mud and mining waste that buried a nearby village, killing 19 people, leaving hundreds homeless and polluting the Doce River, a major river that flows through Espirito Santo.

Despite increasing the amount that would be directed to the federal and state governments, the latest proposal implied "a drastic reduction" in obligations previously agreed by the companies, the government statement said.

Under the new proposal, the removal of mining tailings from the Doce River would be significantly smaller than previously agreed and "border a scenario of no removal at all," according to the federal government.

Despite the federal government and Espirito Santo's strong refusal, the government of Minas Gerais took a different position.

Secretary for planning and management Luisa Barreto told Reuters the state will file a court document requesting the talks over the current proposal to continue.

"Our understanding is that it is not a perfect proposal, it is not something we can sign, but it allows us to continue with the talks," she said.

Questioned about the matter, BHP reiterated it remains committed to reparation and compensation measures, and remains willing to collectively seek solutions that guarantee fair and comprehensive reparation for people.

Vale said it remains engaged in reaching a fair and full repair agreement.

Samarco said it remains open to dialogue and seeks to conclude the discussion on the agreement without shirking its responsibilities.

($1 = 5.0734 reais)

(Reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro and Peter Frontini in Sao Paulo; editing by Gabriel Araujo, Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)
By Ana Mano and Roberto Samora

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -The outlook for the soybean harvest in Rio Grande do Sul, which was on track to become the second largest producer in Brazil behind Mato Grosso state, is deteriorating swiftly after torrential rains flooded fields, with about a quarter of beans to be reaped.

The impact of the downpours, which left entire cities and farms underwater, could cause a drop in production of up to 15% in the state, Leandro da Silva, a manager at farm cooperative Cotrisal, said on Friday. He now sees output at between 19 million metric tons and 20 million metric tons.

Potential losses in Rio Grande do Sul bolstered soy futures in Chicago as they could reduce overall output in Brazil, the world's largest soybean producer and exporter.

"There will be quantitative and qualitative losses," Silva said by telephone from Sarandi, in the northwest of the state. "For me, what remains to be harvested will be 30% to 40% damaged (on average). In the most affected areas, you will have 70% to 80% of beans damaged."

Before the heavy rains, national crop agency Conab had Rio Grande do Sul soy output at 21.89 million tons and state crop agency Emater had it at 22.25 million.

"It's too early to talk about numbers but, yes, we are going to cut a part of Rio Grande do Sul's production estimate," said analyst Luiz Roque at Safras & Mercado.

"It will depend on what you can save from the affected crops, but there is the possibility of reducing the Brazilian harvest projection due to the problems in Rio Grande do Sul."

Emater did not change its production forecast in a weekly report released on Thursday, but noted rains were disrupting harvesting of soybeans in Rio Grande do Sul, which still has 24% of the soy area to be reaped.

Conab will revise national projections on May 14. Its April soy output forecast for Brazil production in the 2023/24 cycle is 146.5 million tons, 5.2% lower than in the previous season because a drought in top grower Mato Grosso state slashed output there.

Analysts estimate up to 40% of the center and south soy areas of the state remain to be harvested, and about 10% in the north, making it difficult to estimate yields and losses at the moment.

They said around 5 million tons of soybeans are likely "at risk" due to rains and flooding, but suggested that final losses could be lower at around 1 million to 2 million tons.

Broker Adelson Gasparin, based in Passo Fundo, initially projected potential damage to 2.8 million tons of soy, but that can change as yield loss will vary in the different affected regions.

The heavy rainfalls slated to continue through the weekend have killed at least 37 people, left dozens missing or dislodged and destroyed logistics and power infrastructure.

Some fields remain entirely underwater, according to farmers, who circulated videos showing damaged crops and submerged farm equipment.

"The market will soon discover that the Brazilian harvest is far from 155 million tons" estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to analyst Fernando Muraro at AgRural.

Muraro said everyone was bullish on Brazil because of Rio Grande do Sul, but cuts to national soy production are likely after recent climate events.

"Now, we will have to reduce the crop forecast again," Murado said. "Just by how much we still don't know."

(Reporting by Ana Mano and Roberto Samora; additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes; Editing by Frances Kerry, Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)
The Flatrock River nearing sunset below Upland's Columbus Pump House. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Heading into election week, I wanted to slow it down with a focus on what Indiana has to offer Hoosiers and tourists. Last year, I visited Madison and was taken by the quaint town. I also promised to do more things that Indiana has to offer. And that led me to Columbus, Indiana.

The large arch perfectly frames the bell tower of the First Christian Church in Columbus. The church was the first contemporary building in the city, designed by Eliel Saarinen. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

My sister-in-law Julie met me in between our two homes for a much-needed girls trip.

We started these trips after my brother, her husband, died in 2016. The first one was on the one-year anniversary of his passing and was meant to be a way to cope with that difficult time. Washington, D.C., was the first of the sojourns and weve been going strong ever since. Sometimes the trips are small and more local, such as French Lick or Chicago. And sometimes they are farther away, like Toronto and Philadelphia.

Julie had no idea what I was roping her into with this one, but we found a cute Airbnb and had a blast.

I crowdsourced some restaurant recommendations and we ended up at Uplands Pump House on Friday night. The place was hopping, and I cant recommend the whipped feta enough. It was a great atmosphere in a historic refurbished building.

There are also some lovely photos to be had if you venture down by the water the restaurant overlooks. But please be smarter than me and wear proper footwear.

Architecture history

The next day we headed to a tour of Columbus. I had been hearing for years about how the city of around 50,000 had become a surprising hub of architecture. And I was fascinated to find out how that happened.

The American Institute of Architects ranked it 6th in the nation for architectural innovation and design  right behind Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

In Greek mythology the winged Eos was the goddess of the dawn. This sculpture by Dessa Kirk was part of the 2006 Sculpture Invitational. The piece was so popular with the community that a fund drive raised the money to ensure she had a permanent home in Columbus. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

The visitors guide lists over 90 buildings and pieces of public art by internationally noted architects and artists. The two-hour tour introduced us to the likes of Eliel Saarinen, Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, I.M. Pei, Harry Weese, and Deborah Berke.

But mostly, I was fascinated by the public-private partnership created by the Cummins Foundation.

Cummins former Chairman and CEO J. Irwin Miller wanted to help the community by providing an alternative to the standard, but uninspired, school buildings being built across the U.S. in the late 1950s and early 1960s. So in 1957, the Cummins Foundation made its first grant to support architecture fees, for the Lillian C. Schmitt Elementary School, designed by Weese.

The Architecture Program became a formal part of the Cummins Foundation in 1960 with a grant for Northside Middle School. It began with schools, but later grew to encompass all facilities in the county owned and operated by public tax dollars.

Everywhere you turn there is an interesting structure in Columbus. Its a feast for the eyes. Now, not all of them were my aesthetic. The churches  First Christian Church and North Christian Church  were striking architecturally but not as warm as you would hope.

The love of architecture has also morphed to the city embracing art around the city as well, my favorite being the sculpture Eos. The Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans was also remarkable.

Ice cream and pizza

My one complaint about Columbus  uneven sidewalks  took me out, so we missed our second tour of the famed Miller House while I iced a knee.

The original wood of Zaharakos ice cream parlor highlights this Columbus institution. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

But we made it back out later for a little shopping and ice cream at Zaharakos. I have been there several times to cover political events, whether it be a meet and greet with Mike Pence or Ted Cruz and his daughters choosing their favorite flavors. But I hadnt learned about its history or enjoyed the amazing ice cream itself until now.

For dinner I followed another restaurant recommendation, and we had pizza and breadsticks from ZwanzigZ. So tasty.

Heres hoping you take the opportunity to learn more of what your own state has to offer with trips like this.

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The post A break from election overload: Exploring Columbus appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler recites the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meeting Tuesday evening, Feb. 6, 2024.

Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler plans to bring forward a resolution at Tuesday's school board meeting calling on the district to reject recent federal Title IX changes that added protections from discrimination against gender identity, according to her Facebook post.

Ziegler's resolution states that sex is "defined as biological male or biological female (only two sexes); is an immutable characteristic that cannot be changed, fluid, or altered" and that the district "supports Governor DeSantis, on behalf of the State of Florida, legal challenge of the United States Secretary of Education and the United States Department of Education's rule changes to Title IX."

"The US DOE's recent changes to Title IX would have a devastating impact on our students, families, staff, and overall school community - particularly, women & girls," Ziegler wrote on Facebook.

She has been a vocal advocate for legislation such as the Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics. Ziegler has also posted a picture of herself on social media in a shirt that read "Real Women Aren't Men," directed at transgender women.

Screenshot of a Tweet from Sarasota School Board Chairwoman Bridget Ziegler where she points to her shirt that reads "real women aren't men", which she posted to her Twitter account April 2.

Ziegler, the longest-tenured School Board member on the panel, also faces continued calls to step down after a sex scandal involving herself, her husband and former Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler, and a woman who claimed Ziegler had sexually assaulted her. After a Sarasota Police investigation, authorities declined to charge Christian Ziegler.

School buses

The board will also to vote on approving the purchase of 21 new school buses and increasing the cost of elementary school childcare, according to the posted board agenda.

The buses, six of which are lift buses and three electric, would cost the district about $4.1 million, according to the district. The three electric buses are part of a 12-bus order of electric vehicles the district approved in January with the help of environmental grant money. New buses, which seat 77 students, will phase out older buses in the district's bus fleet, according to the agenda.

The district has previously struggled to fill bus driver positions and keep school transportation system on time. It has taken initiatives to alleviate the shortage, such as increasing the base pay for a driver, offering $25 per hour last winter, adding a $2,500 signing bonus, and paying for a new hire's commercial driver's license.

Before- and after-school care prices

The board will also vote on raising the price of before- and after-care services for elementary school students, reflecting about a 10% increase. The change would net the district $350,000 in increased revenues, according to the agenda.

Proposed changes to Sarasota County Schools' before- and after-school care prices, according to the SchoolBoard agenda. The board convenes May 7 to vote on the change.

Compared to the current prices, the registration fee would increase by $10 to $35, and morning child care would increase by 50 cents per child per day to $4.50. Afternoon child care would increase $1 per child per day, and families on a reduced lunch plan would see only a 50-, 60- and 50-cent increase for the first, second and third child, respectively. The cost of child care for those on a free lunch plan would remain the same.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Bridget Ziegler urges School Board to reject new Title IX protections
Britain is crying out for change, and we must have the courage to seize the moment. The electorate has shown with its vote that it is tired of the endless cycle of decline and broken promises offered by the established parties. The Conservatives have failed, consumed by petulant in-fighting, while I have met no-one who feels any conviction that Labour will do anything but make our economy worse, raise immigration and spread division as they further restrict our basic freedoms. But there is hope in our predicament.

Yesterday saw Reform achieve its highest ever election result; 16.9% in the Blackpool by-election, a mere 117 votes behind the Conservatives. This was well above national polling and despite a concerted Tory effort to defend their position. The race to be the true party of opposition is now surely too close to call, and the momentum is with Reform. With across-the-board results of 14-15% were now the legitimate opposition to Labour in the North Midlands and Wales, and our vote share is growing in most parts of the country.

As an insurgent party this is a remarkable result in an incredibly short amount of time, achieved with a budget which frankly looks like pocket change compared to that of the Conservatives and Labour. Its a reflection of the frustration I hear again and again on the doorstep  neither of the established parties represent the majority of people in this country. They have become over the decades servants to entrenched interests, and together they have broken this country.

They have raised immigration on an historically unprecedented level, overseen stagnation in the wages of the average worker and strained our housing stock to breaking point. The disgrace that unfolds in the channel every day with the small boat crossings is a distraction from the millions of legal migrants coming in year after year. Meanwhile the NHS is at breaking point, underfunded and crumbling.

Its time to break this endless cycle of failure. Does anyone seriously think that another Labour government, led by a former member of the Whitehall establishment will take the dramatic steps needed to transform the fortunes of our nation. Labours post-war track record has been abysmal, and the partys long history of economic incompetence is now overlaid with a woke ideology descending into Orwellian speech restriction.

The woes of the Conservative party are beyond farce, factionalism, incompetence, cronyism; the list goes on. We all live with the impact of this every day. I would defy anyone to say they are going to do anything but implode into internecine strife the day after the General Election.

This must not be a cause for despair. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change this nation for the better. Reform offers the only opportunity for real change and a future where our children are richer and more secure than their grandparents. Even in our first-past-the-post electoral system change is possible  the Liberal Party which was so successful in the nineteenth century fell after the first world war. There is an opportunity now to replace the Conservative party as a party of government.

We are not naive, the battle will be long and hard, our opposition can be vicious and Machiavellian. But the fight is worth having, we must end this decline, we must reform. Vote Reform  break the cycle.

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.
GPS is no longer reliable around the Baltic Sea and northern Norway. Interference in the Global Positioning System (GPS), which has affected all NATO members bordering Russia for two years, has worsened in recent months. Alternative systems to GPS have had to be activated on tens of thousands of flights and the main Finnish airline has suspended one of its routes due to the problem, which is also disrupting maritime navigation. Several of the affected countries accuse Moscow of intentionally jamming signals with its electronic warfare systems.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, GPS interference has been recurring in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These types of disruptions are common in and around conflict zones. Even so, in the last half year, the airspace of the three Baltic countries  in addition to that of Finland, Sweden and Poland  has been much more affected than at the beginning of the war. Whats more, thousands of ships have been navigating the Baltic without GPS since December, when the Russian armys electronic warfare began in the Kaliningrad enclave. And in remote northeastern Norway, near Russias Northern Fleet base  which has eight of the 11 Russian submarines capable of launching long-range nuclear missiles  outages are almost daily.

Last week, two Finnair planes had to turn around and return to Helsinki after failing to reach Estonias Tartu airport. The airline suspended the route between the Finnish capital and the second most populous city in Estonia. Unlike the vast majority of European airports, planes can only land at Tartu with a GPS signal. Lauri Soini, chair of the Finnish Pilots Association, told Reuters that for the past six months, GPS jamming has been affecting an area extending from Poland across the Baltic states to the Swedish and Finnish coasts, also affecting lower altitudes and maritime traffic.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhna reacted to the decision to pause flights to Tartu with a post on the social network X, in which he accused Russia of jamming GPS navigation devices. Tsakhna said he had spoken with his Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish and Swedish counterparts and insisted that the matter to be discussed among all NATO allies and EU members. In an interview with the Financial Times, the minister said the interferences were part of Russias hostile activities and a hybrid attack.

Losing the GPS signal mid-flight does not, in principle, pose a serious risk. Commercial airliners have several older alternative systems. However, Dana Goward, director of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation and a member of an advisory council to U.S. President Joe Biden, tells EL PAIS by phone that interference inevitably reduces the safety and efficiency of aviation. Goward points out that in recent months the risk of an accident occurring has increased and that Russia has several types of electronic warfare systems that can disrupt GPS signals at different altitudes and distances.

In addition to interference, cases of spoofing  when a device broadcasts a false GPS system to trick the receiver into believing fake location or time variables  have also risen significantly.

Todd Walter, director of the GPS Laboratory at Stanford University, explains that trying to locate exactly where the interference is coming from is a complex process. Our estimates will never be completely precise, but everything indicates that the focus of the disruptions in the Baltic is located in Kaliningrad, the researcher tells EL PAIS in a video call.

Human lives may be lost

In northeastern Norway, thousands of miles from the war front, authorities are trying to adapt to life without GPS. GPS interference has been recorded on more than 95% of the days since January 2023. Occasionally, at sea level, citizens have lost the signal on their cell phone or have received erroneous information about their location. The Norwegian Communications Authority says that at more than 1,500 meters altitude the interference is intermittent, and that above 3,000 meters it is practically continuous. In addition to thousands of internal flights, ambulance helicopters  which provide an essential service in one of the least densely populated areas in Europe  are also affected.

Although the war in Ukraine has ruptured relations between Norway and Russia, regular meetings are still held to discuss border issues. In one of these meetings, Ellen Katrine Haetta, police chief in the Finnmark region, detailed the risks that interference poses to search and rescue operations. Its very serious. Human lives may be lost, Haetta told local media. The FSB [Russias Federal Security Service] told me that they will investigate the matter, she said.

In the Baltic, GPS maritime navigation is increasingly rare and, given the risks involved, insurers have raised the cost of premiums. Lieutenant Colonel Joakim Paasikivi, a member of the Swedish Defense University, told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the interference to maritime navigation was part of Russian influence activities, or so-called hybrid war against NATO countries.

In late April, the German Defense Ministry said, The persistent disruptions to the global navigation satellite system are very likely of Russian origin, and specifically pointed to Kaliningrad, the Russian territory wedged between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. In March, a plane carrying British Defense Minister Grant Shapps had to activate alternative global positioning systems while passing through an area near the Russian territory. On December 25 and 26, Poland recorded interference lasting more than 30 hours, which was spread across a large part of the country.

Electronic warfare systems

Russia has powerful electronic warfare systems. Several reports from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies detail the extensive spoofing campaigns that the Russian army has carried out from different bases it controls in Syria. The Washington-based analysis center also states that, when Russian President Vladimir Putin has traveled to occupied areas of Ukraine, such as the Crimean peninsula or the city of Mariupol, he has been flanked by mobile electronic warfare systems. During NATOs military exercises in northern Norway in 2018, which also involved soldiers from Sweden and Finland  although they were not yet NATO members  Oslo and Helsinki accused Moscow of disrupting the GPS signal in part of their territory.

Russian electronic warfare systems are used daily in Ukraine to inhibit enemy drone communications, and even to divert the trajectory of U.S. Himars missiles. The Russian military also repeatedly jams the GPS signal around Moscow and St. Petersburg, or in regions far from the border where refineries have been attacked by Ukrainian drones. Disturbances are also common around the Black Sea, where Ukrainian water drones have repeatedly hit Russian Navy ships.

At the end of January, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) held a meeting in the German city of Cologne to address the growing cases of interference and spoofing. In a joint statement, EASA and IATA noted that the problems with GPS pose significant challenges to aviation safety and, in the absence of viable technical solutions in the short term, called for improved pilot training to address the issue.

Martin Herem, commander of the Estonian Armed Forces, said in a recent interview with a local media that Russia is testing its powerful electronic warfare systems in anticipation of a future conflict with NATO. Goward and Walter believe this is a reasonable argument, and both have no doubt that at least part of the interference in the Baltics is intentional.

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A public school in Brooklyn was renamed in honor of a slain NYPD detective Thursday, a decade after he was shot and killed in the line of duty by a cop-hating maniac.

Dozens of grieving family members and NYPD officers celebrated as PS 331 in Dyker Heights was officially named the Detective Wenjian Liu School of Civics and Entrepreneurship.

The students in this beautiful school will learn the story of my husband, Lius widow, Sanny Liu, told The Post ahead of the unveiling ceremony.

PS 311 in Dyker Heights was renamed Detective Wenjian Liu School of Civics and Entrepreneurship Thursday. Gabriella Bass

And my daughter, she will always know that her father was a police officer. And they will have a greater respect for the community.

Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were killed in a brazen street execution Dec. 20, 2014  shot point-blank in the head by an emotionally troubled cop-hating lone gunman as the pair sat in their squad car in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Sanny and Wenjian Liu had only been married three months when he was killed, but she was able to give birth to their daughter Angelina thanks to artificial insemination two and half years after his senseless murder.

The girl, now 6, attends another school in the Dyker Heights neighborhood but will attend the elementary school named after her heroic father next year.

Wenjian Liu and partner Rafael Ramos were shot and killed by a cop-hating maniac in 2014. Getty Images

Sanny gave birth to their daughter Angelina thanks to artificial insemination two and half years after his senseless murder. Gabriella Bass

Theres nothing better than that! Sanny Liu said.

The school renaming also marked another milestone by becoming the first Big Apple public school to be named after an Asian American.

The dedication is fitting for the Dyker Heights community, which officials noted is nearly 60% Asian American. The schools principal, who is of Tawainese descent, speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Not only for my daughter, but its meant so much for the Chinese, Asian community, Sanny Liu noted.

The Wenjian Liu School of Civics and Entrepreneurship is the first Big Apple school named after an Asian American. Gabriella Bass

The ceremony was joyous despite the circumstances, with both Liu and Ramos widow emphasizing that the wounds are still fresh.

Both have seen their families grow since the vicious slayings.

Little Angelina  who Ramos widow Maritza said looks just like her father  has grown up learning about her fathers bravery despite never meeting him.

It doesnt feel like 10 years. It was like yesterday, time continues on and obviously, it has been 10 years, but to me, it still feels like yesterday, Maritza Ramos told The Post.
Brute slugs elderly man who refused to let him inside NYC apartment building: cops

The 79-year-old victim was in the lobby of his building near East 23rd Street and Third Avenue in Gramercy Park just after 6 p.m. Saturday when a stranger asked him to open a door and let him inside, cops said.

A brute slugged an elderly man who refused to let him inside the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building over the weekend, authorities said.

The 79-year-old victim was in the lobby of his building near East 23rd St. and Third Ave. in Gramercy Park just after 6 p.m. Saturday when a stranger asked him to open a door and let him inside, cops said.

The senior refused to do so  prompting a violent scuffle that ended with the menace punching the senior in the face, police said.

The attacker flew into a rage when the senior refused to open a door for him, cops said. NYPD

The slugger took off and had not been caught by Thursday. NYPD

The attacker then took off, heading west on East 23rd St.

The victim suffered minor injuries and was taken to NYU Langone Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

The assailant  seen in surveillance video released by the NYPD  was last seen wearing a fur hooded jacket, blue sweatpants and a dark colored hooded sweatshirt.

He was still on the loose Thursday.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  A Buffalo man pleaded guilty Wednesday to rape following an incident involving a victim unknown to him in March 2022, the Erie County District Attorneys Office announced Friday.

Tamaury Love, 25, was allegedly armed with a knife when he forcibly engaged in sexual intercourse with a victim in Buffalo. The defendant was linked to the crime through DNA evidence.

Love faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and remains held without bail.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Kayleigh Hunter-Gasperini joined the News 4 team in 2024 as a Digital Video Prducer. She is a graduate of Chatham University.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  A Buffalo man was arrested Monday and is facing charges in connection with a shooting in April on Reed Street, the Buffalo Police Department announced.

Police said Charles Hooks III allegedly shot a 26-year-old victim on the 300 block of Reed during the afternoon of April 17. The victim suffered a gunshot wound to their leg and was transported to ECMC for their injury.

Hooks was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Latest Local News

Adam Gorski is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team in 2022. You can find more of his work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage)  April showers bring May flowers, but the end of April also brings another thing  the City of San Angelos monthly health inspection report. Here are the eating establishments that scored above a 90 during Aprils inspections.

The scoring system

According to the City of San Angelo, all food establishments inspected by the City are inspected in accordance with the Texas Food Establishment Rules. The food establishment inspection report checks food establishments to see if theyve violated any of 27 different violations, with each scoring the business from three to five. Below is the demerit system used by the City:

0-10 demerits = excellent

11-20 demerits = good

21-30 demerits = acceptable

31 or more = poor

Its important to note that the City only checks for food safety items that are directly responsible for health problems rather than factors a person may traditionally associate with poor food safety, such as dirty floors and unclean walls.

Inspection scores are focused on food safety items that directly cause problems. Many items that people may see, such as dirty dining area floors and walls, may appear bad, but they do not actually affect the safety of the food; demerits are not given for these types of items, the City said.

Which businesses scored below 90 in March 2024 health inspections?

Its also important to note that food establishments are graded based on the processes that are carried out there. For example, convenience stores selling pre-packaged food may have noticeably different scores than those of fully-fledged restaurants.

Inspections also only showcase a snapshot in time, with any given food establishment possibly having more or fewer violations at the current moment than the score depicted in the inspection report or previous reports would indicate. The City Attorney disclaims that reviewing the entire inspection history is crucial in ascertaining a more accurate picture of an establishments food safety and sanitation programs.

Finally, food establishments in San Angelo do not receive health inspections simultaneously and, as such, may have not been recently inspected at the time of the reports publication. Businesses that have earned the same score across multiple inspection reports may reflect an inspection conducted in a previous report rather than one that could have been conducted in the current time.

With clarifications out of the way, here are all the retail food establishments that scored below a 90 in the April 2024 inspection report.

What scored below a 90?

7 Brew Coffee (1480 Knickerbocker Road)  86

Alejandros Kitchen & Tequila (4288 Sherwood Way)  86

Bonsai Steakhouse, Restaurant (1801 Knickerbocker Road)  86

Casa Jalisco (1219 W. Beauregard Ave.)  87

Chang Thai (1527 E. Harris Ave.)  89

Chicken Express (2831 N. Bryant Blvd.)  86

Cielo, Restaurant (4132 Sunset Drive)  89

Cork & Pig Tavern, Restaurant (2201 Knickerbocker Road)  79

Corner Stop #1 (2021 Ben Ficklin Road)  80

Corner Stop #2 (1302 N. Chadbourne St.)  89

Cotton Patch Cafe (4116 Sherwood Way)  88

Craving Crab (4509 Sherwood Way)  70

Diegos Burritos #1 (321 W. Avenue N)  84

Diegos Burritos #2 (301 N. Main St.)  89

Emmanual Episcopal Church ( 3 S. Randolph St.)  89

Golden Chick (2602 Sherwood Way)  83

Hidalgos North (1315 N. Chadbourne St.)  88

Jack & Jill Donuts (2901 Sherwood Way)  89

Joes Italian, Restaurant (1601 S. Bryant Blvd.)  84

Joes Taqueria, Mobile (1616 S. Chadbourne St.)  86

Julios Burritos #4 (314 N. Bryant Blvd.)  88

King Buffet, Restaurant (3508 Knickerbocker Road)  86 King Buffet, Grill  78

Kung Fu Noodle (3363 Knickerbocker Road)  83

La Historia (3020 N. Chadbourne St.)  89

La Quinta Inn (2307 W. Loop 306)  77

Los Magueyes #1 (711 N. Chadbourne St.)  81

Los Panchitos/Paseo, Restaurant (34 E. Ave. D)  85

Lotus Cafe (3524 Knickerbocker Road)  74

Masa, Restaurant (4545 Sherwood Way)  82

Mesquite Bean Cafe (36 E. Twohig Ave.)  86

Minnies Donuts & Kolaches (2219 W. Avenue N)  87

Miss Hatties, Restaurant (26 E. Concho Ave.)  87

Nakamura Sushi House, Restaurant (3222 Sherwood Way)  80

Orient 333 Restaurant & Saloon, Restaurant (333 Rio Concho Drive)  89

Peasant Village  (23 S. Park St.)  89

Pho Saigon (2001 W. Harris Ave.)  73

Rosas Cafe #4 (1602 Knickerbocker Road)  85

Roxies Diner (4609 S. Jackson St.)  72

Shogun Steakhouse, Sushi (4397 Sunset Drive)  83

Staybridge Suites (1355 Knickerbocker Road)  80

Tinseltown, Snack #1 (4425 Sherwood Way)  88

Twisted Root (333 S. Chadbourne St.)  81

Western Sky Steakhouse, Restaurant (2024 N. Chadbourne St.)  83

What Da Pho (3315 Sherwood Way)  78

Whataburger #342 (5855 Sherwood Way)  89

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
The plan for a cabin shelter project in San Luis Obispo was previewed for neighbors at a Wednesday community meeting, where residents appeared split on whether the proposal was a good fit for the area.

At the meeting, a panel of several city and county officials including Supervisor Jimmy Paulding and the projects service providers explained the project and its goals in detail and took questions from the audience.

The Welcome Home Village  a planned 80-unit village of non-congregate cabins that would provide early steps to housing for residents of homeless encampments on the Bob Jones Trail  is the product of a roughly $13.4 million state Encampment Resolution Fund grant, initially gaining the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approval in July 2023.

Originally proposed on the county Department of Social Services lot at the corner of South Higuera Street and Prado Road in March 2024, the project was delayed and eventually relocated due to an issue with city building codes that led to a new site at Johnson Avenue and Bishop Street being brought forward in late April.

We have a limited inventory of county and city land that will work with this project, Paulding said. While this was not the first site that we identified for this project, it was identified in the process, and we do think it will be beneficial to have all of the county services directly adjacent.

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Jimmy Paulding speaks at a community meeting about the Welcome Home Village Housing Project at Renovate Church Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Many residents asked questions related to project site security, parking and the projects location in a residential neighborhood.

New developer, site manager have background in cabin shelters

The community meeting was one of the first opportunities for residents to meet incoming site developer Dignity Moves and site manager Good Samaritan Shelter, both of which are based outside of San Luis Obispo County.

Good Samaritan homeless services director Kirsten Cahoon said her organization currently maintains around 500 supportive housing units in Santa Barbara County, and has had success moving people out of established encampments into some form of permanent housing through the use of Dignity Moves non-congregate cabin projects.

Cahoon said a 20-unit Good Samaritan-managed Dignity Moves cabin project located in a parking lot near AnsiqOyo Park in Isla Vista installed in late 2020 was able to relocate all the residents from an encampment that grew in the park during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of a sudden, we realized that this model was really the key to getting folks that had a really long-term homeless stay into shelters, Cahoon said. They never wanted to come into the congregate shelters, but the minute they were given an opportunity to have their own place and be able to lock their doors knowing that it was going to be safe, their whole mindset about sheltering changed.

Dignity Moves already has a project active in San Luis Obispo County through two partnerships with the 5Cities Homeless Coalition in Grover Beach  the existing 26-unit Cabins for Change program installed in late 2022 and a second 30-unit project opening May 2.

The organization currently operates seven communities in California, including three in Santa Barbara County, according to county homeless services division communications manager Suzie Freeman.

Freeman said the countys 2021 assessment of homeless needs indicated a shortage of around 300 more interim shelter beds to reach a capacity of 525, and said there are only 245 such beds in the county when counting for all Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo, El Camino Homeless Organization and 5CHC beds.

Both the state and county view encampment resolution as one of the most important goals of the interim housing process, with the state awarding 89 Encampment Resolution Fund grants across California  including the village in SLO County and another 11 in the three neighboring counties, Freeman said.

There are several other grants working to create similar pathways to safe and stable housing, both within our county and throughout the state, Freeman said. The big takeaway here is that no one is going to be crossing county lines to seek the Welcome Home Village specifically because therell be another solution closer to them.

The Welcome Home Village project  which could break ground as soon as this fall and open in 2025  calls for 80 cabins of homeless transitional shelter space to be built on the San Luis Obispo County Health Agency Campus at the intersection of Bishop Street and Johnson Avenue.

Residents voice concerns about safety, parking

Several residents who asked questions at the Q&A said that while the goals and approaches of the project were understandable, they took issue with the proposed location and asked why another spot away from residential neighborhoods wasnt considered.

Lori Bickel, a resident of a neighborhood bordering the project, said she felt very favorable about the project but said there were unanswered questions about impacts on parking. She said there wasnt as much clarity as shed have liked on how the city would ensure enough parking space with 90 potential additional vehicles in the area.

Questions I have havent been answered yet, but I feel like we need this project to happen, Bickel told The Tribune. I hope they can get answered satisfactorily so everybody can benefit.

Not all residents were as receptive to the idea of a project in their neighborhood and took issue with the proposed location on a lot bordered on three sides by residential neighborhoods.

I want to know what you anticipated the concerns that the people in this area would (be) when you chose this site, because it could have been your first choice, but you tried a lot of other options first, so youre going to have particular challenges with it here, a resident asked. I was wondering, in transparency, if you could tell us what you knew youd be facing from this community?

County deputy director of homeless services Linda Belch said the location was largely dictated by the limitations of the grant, which requires the project be near an encampment.

The county also needed to work within the financial constraints of the grant, Belch said. Another site was considered but was $3 million to $5 million more to build than the planned location.

The current location is also well connected to the San Luis Obispo County Health Campus and has nearby access to bus stops and a bike transit lane, making it a good fit for people who may not own vehicles, Belch said.

San Luis Obispo Police Chief Rick Scott fielded several questions about how the safety and security of nearby neighborhoods would be maintained.

Adding projects such as the Welcome Home Village are all about making sure that when people are removed from an encampment, they go into a transitional program rather than back into another encampment, Scott said.

Scott said he was initially leery of the project and reached out to his counterpart in the Santa Barbara Police Department, Chief Kelly Gordon, to get an honest assessment of the three Dignity Moves projects impact on nearby neighborhoods.

She was very kind in her response and said, Our calls have dropped significantly in that area, and it has addressed issues  our calls didnt do up because the project came here, Scott said. Thats really good to hear from a law enforcement perspective.

Whats next for the Welcome Home Village?

Residents will get another chance to express their feelings on the Welcome Home Village at two more meetings this month.

The Welcome Home Village is next headed to the San Luis Obispo Planning Commission, which will vote May 8 on the projects conformity with the citys General Plan, followed by a final vote of approval before the county Board of Supervisors on May 21.
The rule would also require companies to disclose upfront whether fees are refundable.

Oscar Wong / Getty Images

Hands down, one of the most contentious restaurant issues in 2024 is restaurant surcharges. From New York to Chicago, New Orleans to Los Angeles, owners have added fees to cover everything from tips for the kitchen to health care premiums, higher utility costs, and even pay for security.

Comments boards across social media have lit up with vocal protests over unexpectedly paying extra, what some people call junk fees. While some places disclose the surcharges up front on menus and table cards, many others dont.

Thats led to accusations that restaurants are hiding them and making meals more expensive than diners realize. Now, California is stepping in to stop them. Last October, the state legislature approved a measure that bans hidden fees for hotel stays, as well as tickets to concerts and sporting events.

Related: Restaurant Fees Are Spiraling Out of Control

The bill said that any business advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges violated the state prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices. It wasnt clear at the time whether dining establishments were included.

But this week, California attorney general Rob Bonta ruled that the ban also applies to restaurants. It will take effect July 1, giving them less than two months to figure out how to pivot.

Bonta, a former California assemblyman, pushed hard for the legislation. These deceptive fees prevent us from knowing how much we will be charged at the outset, he said last fall. They are bad for consumers and bad for competition. They cost Americans tens of billions of dollars each year. They hit families who are just trying to make ends meet the hardest.

Related: Before You Complain About That Restaurant Cancellation Fee, Read This

Along with lighting up Reddit and Facebook, anger over hidden fees has even reached the White House. Last fall, the Biden administration proposed guidelines that ban businesses from charging hidden and misleading fees and require them to show the full price up front.

The rule would also require companies to disclose upfront whether fees are refundable. The Federal Trade Commission just held its first hearing on the proposed ban, which it estimates could cost business owners up to $3.5 billion, or about $5,000 per establishment.

Related: Aldi Announces Major Discounts on 250 Popular Items This Summer, Saving Shoppers $100 Million

Banning junk fees is the second big California move affecting restaurants. In April, it raised minimum wages for fast food workers to $20 an hour, the highest in the country. The minimum wage for other California workers is $16 an hour, compared with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

All eyes may be on California right now, but is the state setting the tone for the rest of America?

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California Couple Cant Comprehend Why Their Pair of Miniature Ponies Were Shot to Death

They were my therapy after my injury, owner Fernando Ibarra, who was left paralyzed after being hit by a drunk driver, said

getty miniature ponies -- stock image

A Southern California couple is asking for the publics help after discovering that two of their miniature ponies were shot to death on their property.

Fernando Ibarra, 53, spoke to Los Angeles KTLA 5 about the incident in an article published on Thursday, May 2. He believes that sharing their story could lead to answers related to the crime.

They would literally just follow me all day, Ibarra said of his two miniature ponies, Brownie and Trigger. I had apples, I had carrots for them all the time.

getty Wild Shetland Ponys above the atlantic ocean, Cornwall, UK -- stock image

He and his wife live in Riverside County. Their familys ranch is located in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains in Reche Canyon. This is also where their beloved pets used to call home.

Ibarra told the outlet that he found Trigger lying in a pool of blood on Monday, April 29. Just one day later, Brownie suffered the same fate when he was discovered lying in a dry creek bed.

Related: Dolphin Found Shot Dead on La. Beach, Authorities Offer $20K Reward for Information Leading to Conviction

The owner said both of his animals had gunshot wounds.

We did look for casings by the gate because if whoever did this and if they do shoot him, they were shot by the gate, Ibarra said.

Getty Images Crime scene tape -- stock image

He told KTLA that he had Brownie and Trigger for around five years before the fatal crime.

Initially, the animals were for his grandson, but Ibarra was the one who formed an unbreakable bond with the pair.

They were my therapy after my injury, he said, explaining that a 2008 collision with a drunk driver left him paralyzed from the chest down.

Related: Kristi Noem Doubles Down on Killing Her Less than Worthless Hunting Puppy: I Decided What I Did

They were like two dogs. You show up to the property and that was the first thing  theyre at the gate waiting for you, Ibarra continued.

Trying to figure out why anyone would come to their home and kill two innocent animals caused him to become emotional.

Why? I cant understand it, Ibarra said tearfully during the interview. I cant comprehend it. My question is, Why do it? 

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.

Me and my wife have spoken about it and I think it was just a thrill, Ibarra added. A thrill coming out here and shooting an animal.

The case has been turned over to authorities and is now under investigation by the Riverside County Sheriffs Department.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the sheriffs department at 1-800-950-2444 or the Riverside County Department of Animal Services at 951-358-7387.



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Read the original article on People.
Read the full story on Modern Car Collector

California Driver Crashes $1.2 Million McLaren Senna

In a display of reckless driving that ended in an expensive disaster, a driver in Los Angeles lost control of a McLaren Senna, valued at approximately $1.2 million, while attempting to show off on a busy street. The incident, captured in a video and widely shared online, shows the high-performance vehicle crashing into a Lexus dealership.

The video, initially posted on Reddit, captures the McLaren speeding along Ventura Boulevard before the driver attempts a doughnut in front of a gathered crowd. The maneuver quickly goes awry as the driver screeches off, only to lose control and slam into a concrete pillar outside the dealership. The footage shows the severely damaged front-end of the McLaren.

While not officially confirmed, rumors suggest that the driver was Edmond Mondi Barseghian, a YouTuber known for his videos featuring exotic cars. Just days before the incident, Mondi had boasted about his new "one-of-one" Kiwi Edition McLaren Senna on his channel, describing the vehicle as "scary fast."

The McLaren Senna, named after legendary Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, is renowned for its lightweight carbon fiber body and powerful twin-turbo V8 engine, producing 800Nm of torque. Despite its racing pedigree and a power-to-weight ratio that surpasses many supercars, the Senna's capabilities proved too much to handle on public roads.

This crash not only resulted in significant property damage but also highlighted the dangers of such high-risk behavior in public areas. The incident could have easily resulted in serious injuries to bystanders, underscoring the irresponsibility of using public streets as personal racetracks. This event serves as a costly reminder of the responsibilities that come with owning and operating high-performance vehicles.

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Restaurant surcharges will soon be illegal in California as a new law, aimed at banning hidden fees, takes effect in July, according to the office of State Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Starting July 1, under SB478, California restaurants will no longer be able to charge service fees and must instead fold them into menu prices.

SB 478 applies to restaurants, just like it applies to businesses across California, a Department of Justice spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle. The law is about making sure consumers know what they are going to pay and requires that the posted price include the full amount that a consumer must pay for that good or service.

California bill could change how third-party airport security vendors operate at state airports

KTLA reached out to the state attorney general office but didnt hear back in time for publication.

The new law, authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, prohibits businesses from charging junk fees or burying added costs to artificially lower prices, a practice commonly seen across various industries.

The legislation was also sponsored by Bonta when it was first introduced.

Californians are fed up with being bombarded by junk fees that, more and more, are making it unaffordable to attend a concert, go to a sporting event, take a vacation, or stay at a hotel, Skinner said in a press release. Our legislation will bring transparency to the true cost of goods and services in our state so that Californians know upfront exactly how much theyre being asked to pay.

However, leaders in the food industry worry that the new law will significantly impact the restaurant industry in California, resulting in price hikes for consumers and pay cuts for employees.

The California Restaurant Association disagrees with Bontas interpretation of the law.

This legislation was promoted as a measure that would clarify, but not expand, the scope of current law, President Jot Condie told the publication. Unfortunately, the Attorney General appears to have broader ambitions for this law than the legislators that wrote and passed it.

Has McDonalds gotten too expensive?

The new law comes after Californias fast-food law took effect in April. Under the new law, the minimum wage for fast-food workers increased from $16 per hour to $20, a move that prompted fast-food companies to raise prices to keep up with labor costs.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Landy Parraga, an Ecuadorian beauty queen, was murdered on April 29 by two hitmen who entered a shopping center restaurant. In a matter of seconds, the gunmen approached the victim, who was standing by a table next to another person, shot her up to three times, and ran away. Parraga was a beauty queen who had participated in the Miss Ecuador pageant.

The model was very active on Instagram, where she had 172,000 followers. In addition, she owned a well-known home goods store and a sportswear brand. She lived in the city of Quevedo, southeast of Quito, the capital. Parragas name was mentioned in conversations obtained from the phone of the Ecuadorian drug trafficker Leandro Norero, aka El Patron (The Boss), who was allegedly murdered by an enemy gang in prison.

Years ago, Norero had simulated his own death from Covid-19. But authorities found him and put him behind bars. Later, his body was burned in the prison riot in which he died, according to the official version of events. However, there was never any reliable proof of this, as his DNA was not in any database. His reputation as an escape artist aroused suspicion. To avoid these cases, the government of Daniel Noboa began to illegally collect genetic evidence from prisoners: they were not informed what it was for, because it could be used to identify them after a massacre, but also to implicate them in other crimes of the past. When EL PAIS made this revelation, sampling stopped and has not been resumed.

Norenos conversations in which he cited Parraga were found as part of the Metastasis case, an investigation into a criminal network in charge of corrupting Ecuadorian state officials. Dozens of people have been prosecuted for giving money in exchange for favors to judges, police and prison officials. And not just to average employees, but the main heads of those structures. The case continues to be investigated in court.

Daniel Noboa became president five months ago. He found a country mired in corruption and violence that had eaten away at the country in just three years: until then, Ecuador had been considered one of the safest nations in South America. However, gangs have taken control of the drug trafficking business and, in alliance with Mexican cartels, the country is now the worlds leading cocaine exporter. The port of Guayaquil is at the center of these large-scale operations. Last year, the country recorded 40 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates in the region.

After a weekend of violence in February, Noboa decreed a state of emergency, with which he took the military to the streets and confronted organized crime in a warlike manner. According to data from the first months of this year, homicides were reduced by half, although murders of politicians, prison escapes and massacres have continued. A month ago, 80 people were murdered in just 24 hours. The suspension of civil liberties has been accompanied by abuses by the police and the military.

Parragas murder has had a huge impact in Ecuador, partly due to her popularity and partly because images of the murder were recorded by the restaurants security cameras. In the message from the drug trafficker that was intercepted, it is implied that he had a relationship with the model and that he feared his wife would find out about it.
California legalized weed, then businesses started suffering. How federal rescheduling would help

Reality Check is a Sacramento Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com.

The Biden administrations rescheduling of marijuana could have a big financial impact on California pot businesses.

While dropping weed from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug would not make it federally legal, it would allow certain tax deductions for legal businesses struggling with the burden of hefty California taxes.

Federal code 280E bars dispensaries selling Schedule I and Schedule II substances from seeking tax breaks for basic operating costs  payroll, utilities, rent, office supplies and more needs  that other businesses can.

If weed is Schedule III, putting it among less-heavily regulated controlled substances like ketamine and anabolic steroids, 280E no longer applies.

The change is desperately needed, said Dale Gieringer, the director of California NORML, which advocates for marijuana reform.

The legal industry here really needs a shot in the arm, Gieringer said in an interview, its been really tough times.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department, which oversees the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said that the attorney general had circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana.

The proposal must be reviewed by another federal office, the Office of Management and Budget, undergo a period of public comment and then review by an administrative judge before the agency overseeing drug regulation could publish the final rule.

The timing is unclear, but the federal process can be lengthy.

Californias excise sales taxes, which can exceed 15%, went into effect in 2018 after the state legalized recreational pot through a 2016 voter-approved ballot initiative, have ended many licensed businesses, said Cody Stross, CEO of marijuana company Northern Emeralds in Humboldt County.

Humboldt County is part of the Emerald Triangle, a lush Northern California region where cannabis cultivation is king. It looks a lot different now than it did a decade ago, Stross said in an interview.

When I got there, it seemed like it was flourishing economically, Stross said. A lot of cash with a lot of people making good money and good living. And that quickly changed.

As soon as regulation kicked in, it was a pretty stark contrast, he said, and people started going out of business.

Many legal California marijuana businesses havent renewed their cultivation licenses, havent paid taxes or closed their doors since the taxes went into effect, said Stross, who also serves on the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Its easier to sell on the illicit market, further squeezing legal dispensaries.

Some relief would come if weed is no longer a Schedule I drug, the most tightly regulated group of controlled substances that includes heroin, LSD and MDMA. Dispensers of Schedule I drugs cannot claim federal tax deductions.

How much do legal California cannabis companies pay in taxes?

In fiscal year 2023, legal cannabis dispensaries provided almost $1.1 billion in state tax revenue, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. This includes merchandise and other sales unrelated to pot itself, such as pipes, rolling paper and clothes.

Californias licensed retailers reported $4.4 billion in taxable weed sales in 2023.

California has a 15% excise tax on weed sales, which is paid by consumers and remitted by retailers.

On top of that, local governments can levy an excise tax on marijuana companies, per the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Some local governments tax a weed business on the square footage of their operations and others have gross receipts taxes on the cultivator, distributor and retailer.

Depending on the area, some weed dispensaries may be subjected to taxes up to 40%.

The state repealed a weight-based tax on pot in 2022.

In the face of incorporating high taxes into their sales price, illegal sellers dont have much incentive to be licensed. Most weed sold in California is from the illicit market.

Reclassifying marijuana as Schedule III could give legal cannabis companies an edge over illicit ones, Karen OKeefe, director of state policies at the Mairjuana Policy Project, told reporters Thursday.

That gives licensed California cannabis businesses hope.

Hang on, guys, the light is coming, Stross said. If this rescheduling happens, were going to be in a completely different world.

Why is marijuana en route to being rescheduled?

Most changes would be felt outside of California, which is one of 24 states where weed is legal for recreational use and one of 38 where it is legal for medical use, experts said.

Marijuana is and still would be federally illegal after a rescheduling. Schedule I drugs are those considered to have no accepted medical use and have high abuse potential. Schedule III drugs allow for some medical uses; illicit sellers would still be subject to federal criminal penalties.

The federal government rarely charges cannabis users and sellers whose actions are legal under state laws.

President Joe Biden kickstarted the process last year when he asked the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice to review marijuanas classification.

After reports and the Department of Justice confirmed the move toward rescheduling, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stressed in a press conference Wednesday the need to end the federal prohibition on cannabis and pushed again for long-fought-for legislation to ensure state-legal pot businesses have access to bank deposit accounts, insurance and other financial services.

What else would rescheduling marijuana do?

Luke Scarmazzo sits at home in Modesto in 2023. He was released from federal prison after almost 15 years for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in the city  something that is, and was, legal in California but remains a violation of federal law.

Schedule III drugs are easier to study, meaning that eventually research might be conducted more easily on marijuanas properties.

There would eventually be some criminal justice relief, said Luke Scarmazzo, the last known California person who was held in federal prison on cannabis charges. Scarmazzo was released last year after serving more than 14 years of his 22-year sentence.

People facing cannabis offenses could be able to use a medical necessity defense in federal court. Mandatory minimums, the standards that guide judges during sentencing, would be lower, he said.

While its good Biden has gotten behind cannabis reform, Scarmazzo said in an interview, more needs to be done: namely, release and expunge the records of people held in federal prisons on nonviolent weed charges.

We need to continue with cannabis reform and we need to continue in a way that is meaningful, he said. Schedule III does not release anyone from prison.

Scarmazzo and his business partner were arrested and sentenced to federal prison for operating a medical marijuana nonprofit in 2006, even though medical weed was legalized in California through a 1996 voter-approved ballot measure. He wrote a book in prison about his story that published this year and launched a social justice collective to help people incarcerated on cannabis charges with his business partner, Ricardo Montes.

Scarmazzo called the expected rescheduling of marijuana incremental progress.

Scarmazzo, Stross and Gieringer said reclassification is a hopeful sign that marijuana could eventually be federally legal. But it took a long time to move toward downgrading cannabis from Schedule I at all.

I think this was a tremendous realization that should have happened 50 years ago, Gieringer said. But thats why its a welcome development.

The Sacramento Bees Andrew Sheeler contributed to this story.






FILE - Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Russell Taylor, a California man who stormed the U.S. Capitol and later testified against one of his companions on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to six months of home detention. Prosecutors recommended a prison term of over four years for Taylor, but U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced him on Friday, May 3, 2024, to three years of probation. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  A California man who organized a group of fighters to storm the U.S. Capitol  and later testified against one of his companions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack  was sentenced on Friday to six months of home detention.

Russell Taylor had a knife on his chest and was carrying a hatchet in his backpack when he helped other rioters overrun a police line outside the Capitol.

Taylor, 42, of Ladera Ranch, California, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to obstruct the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory. He was a key witness for prosecutors in the trial of Alan Hostetter, a former police chief who also was convicted of a conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors recommended a prison term of four years and four months for Taylor, but U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth spared him from incarceration and sentenced him to three years of probation. He also ordered him to perform 100 hours of community service.

Lamberth, who has been one of the toughest punishers of the Jan. 6 riot defendants, said a probation sentence comes once in a lifetime in my courtroom and warned Taylor that he will be imprisoned if he violates his probation terms.

You can be the poster child now for how these cases should be done, the judge said.

Lamberth said he believes Taylor testified truthfully and expressed sincere remorse. He described Taylor's cooperation as essential" and said he earned a chance to avoid prison time.

There's hope at the end of the tunnel, the judge said.

Taylor fought back tears as he recalled spending time jailed in solitary confinement after his arrest.

I thought about why I was there and the mistake I made on January 6th, he said. I thought about being charged with a crime by a country that I do love.

Prosecutors cited Taylor's cooperation as grounds for leniency but argued that his role in the Jan. 6 attack merited a prison sentence.

Taylor understood that his decision would not only sever his relationship with former associates but expose him to potential harassment and threats as well, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Taylor and Hostetter served together on the board of the American Phoenix Project. Hostetter founded the group to protest government restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its focus later shifted to conspiracy theories about election fraud.

After then-President (Donald) Trump lost the 2020 election, Taylor and Hostetter discussed how to respond, and Taylor asked: 'How do we have a show of force? Motorcade? Rally? Riot?' prosecutors wrote.

Before the riot, Taylor organized a Telegram group that he called The California PatriotsDC Brigade for those that are traveling to DC for Jan 6th event that are comfortable with violence. Taylor told members they would use the Telegram channel "to organize a group of fighters.

Taylor flew to Washington while Hostetter drove across the country with weapons that Taylor would carry when he stormed the Capitol.

A day before Trump's Stop the Steal rally near the White House on Jan. 6, Taylor and Hostetter gave speeches with violent rhetoric at a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

I will see all tomorrow at the front lines. We are taking our country back! Hostetter told the crowd.

After attending the rally, Hostetter and Taylor marched to the Capitol and approached a police line on the Lower West Terrace. Taylor cheered on rioters who broke through the police line, shouting, Move forward, Americans!

Taylor then pushed against a police line on a stage set up for Biden's inauguration. An officer deployed pepper spray in Taylors face, briefly causing him to retreat.

Hostetter and Taylor didn't enter the Capitol but remained on the Upper West Terrace for hours before police cleared the area. Taylor later celebrated on Telegram, posting, I was pushing through traitors all day today. WE STORMED THE CAPITAL! Freedom was fully demonstrated today!

Taylor was charged with Hostetter and four other defendants  Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele  whom authorities have linked to the anti-government Three Percenters militia movement.

Lamberth sentenced Hostetter to over 11 years in prison after convicting him on all four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and entering a restricted area with a deadly or dangerous weapon. After a jury separately convicted the four other defendants, Lamberth sentenced them to terms of imprisonment ranging from 21 to 33 months.

Taylor said he thought he was answering the call of a president that I believed in.

I was wrong to follow and listen to many people like Alan, who had their own agendas, he told the judge.

Defense attorney Dyke Huish said Taylor already has performed 300 hours of community service and took citizenship classes "to remind him of the true value of being an American.

Taylor's cooperation with the government created an unusual conundrum, his lawyer said.

Those who still support the events of January 6th see him in hostile terms for his admissions and cooperation. He has been treated harshly by some people and had veiled personal threats. At the same time those on the other side of the issue shun him because he went to Washington D.C. in the first place, Huish wrote.

More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 850 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
California retail theft captured the Capitols attention. How major stores have lobbied for it

National big box chains and the trade groups that represent them have dramatically increased spending on lobbying this year  and it appears as though its paying off.

Since the beginning of the year, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, have both proposed multi-bill packages to address shoplifting and organized retail theft.

Rivas in October formed an Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft. The concerted attention lawmakers are devoting to the topic is relatively new. There were far fewer legislative efforts to take on the topic in years past.

Rachel Michelin, CEO of the California Retailers Association, last week said during a Sacramento Press Club panel this dynamic has changed in the Capitol in terms of having these conversations.

The Retailers Association paid significantly more for lobbying year-over-year, spending about $70,391 during the first quarter of 2023 and about $577,682 during the first quarter of 2024, according to Secretary of States Office lobbying disclosures.

Most of that money, $500,000, went to a lobbying coalition pushing for changes to the Private Attorney General Act, or PAGA, which allows employees to file lawsuits seeking civil penalties for state Labor Code violations.

The remaining $77,682 went directly to in-house lobbyists or outside firms.

The Retailers Association did not make anyone available to answer Sacramento Bee questions from about lobbying efforts.

Michelin in her Press Club comments attributed the legislative changes to Rivas committee. But her own organization  as well as Target, Home Depot and other store chains  have been lobbying lawmakers and the governor at least since the time the speaker created it.

Retailers support bills making it easier for prosecutors to go after repeat thieves and those who take items from stores to resell them online, among other pieces of legislation.

While chains and trade groups are lobbying lawmakers, some of the same retailers have donated millions of dollars to back a ballot measure rolling back portions of Proposition 47. The voter-approved initiative made certain lower-level crimes  including shoplifting property under $950  misdemeanors. Newsom, Rivas and McGuire have all said they are against changing Proposition 47.

Walmart had contributed $2.5 million to the initiative campaign, and Home Depot and Target had each contributed $1 million as of Friday, according to campaign finance filings from the Secretary of States Office.

Californians for Safer Communities last month announced it had collected more than 900,000 signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.

Retailer lobbying

Retail theft data does not paint a clear picture of whether the problem has increased significantly in recent years. Public Policy Institute of California data from 2022 indicated the rate of shoplifting incidents was 8% lower that year than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Retail Federations 2023 security survey showed businesses nationwide shrink rate  losses caused by external theft, employee stealing and systemic errors  was 1.6% in 2022. It was up from 1.4% in 2021, but it was still in line with shrink rates seen in 2020 and 2019.

Even so, Walmart, Target and Home Depot all increased their year-over-year lobbying spending from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, both of which started on Jan. 1 and ended on March 31.

All of the retailers specifically reported 2024 first quarter lobbying on retail theft, either as a general topic or in relation to specific bills on the issue, according to Secretary of States Office disclosure forms.

Collectively, the three retailers increased their lobbying spending by about 53% from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024.

Walmart spent about $82,518 during the first quarter of 2023 and $88,605 during the first quarter of 2024. Target spent $20,000 lobbying during the first quarter of 2023 and $32,000 during the first quarter of 2024.

Home Depot increased its lobbying budget the most, spending $33,000 during the first quarter of 2023 and about $87,000 during the first quarter of 2024.

A large chunk of the most recent Home Depot spending, $54,000, went to the California Retailers Association.

Evelyn Fornes, a Home Depot spokeswoman, said the retailer is pushing for enforcement of the Inform Consumers Act, a federal law that went into effect last year. It requires online platforms to verify and disclose information about their product sellers.

Fornes said Home Depot also wants to see Congress and state Legislatures do more around creating capacity for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cases through funding federal, state and local task forces and educating law enforcement and prosecutors on how to partner with retailers to prevent theft.

Is lobbying effective?

Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft chair Rick Chavez Zbur, D-West Hollywood, said lobbying efforts were not what prompted Rivas to create the committee. Zbur said he approached the speaker about organizing a more cohesive effort on retail theft after constituents asked him to address it.

The assemblyman then began reaching out to the Retailers Association, criminal justice reform groups and law enforcement organizations to learn more about the issue, he said.

After Rivas announced the committee, Zbur started hearing from more company lobbyists, he said, although the most substantial conversations occurred with the Retailers Association.

He said conversations with individual retailers lobbyists focused on issues they were seeing in stores, a lack of enforcement around theft crimes, difficulties with prosecution standards and Proposition 47 concerns.

Lobbyists knew Assembly members were putting together a package of bills on retail theft and wanted to provide input on the legislation they wanted included, Zbur said. One such measure was Assembly Bill 1779 from Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, which would allow local prosecutors to charge related organized retail theft incidents in one county Superior Court filing.

The measures in Rivas bill package continue to move through the Capitol. Michelin of the Retailers Association told the Press Club her group will see it to the finish line.

Its not real until its signed by the governor, she said.
Which California universities have joined nationwide protests for Gaza? See interactive map

Students across California universities have joined a nationwide movement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and institutional divestment from Israel.

At least 27 schools  public and private  have witnessed protests in recent weeks, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of local news reports. Some students joined in solidarity for Palestinians and in support of peers who have been arrested in demonstrations across the United States.

Universities have called in police and arrested students at four protests in California. A weeklong occupation at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata ended Tuesday in the arrest of 31 people, including students and at least one professor. Students had occupied campus buildings.

Students and community members gather outside Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to support pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have barricaded themselves inside the administrative building. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in the quad at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata after students and community members barricaded themselves inside of Siemens Hall to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

In Los Angeles, more than 200 people were arrested on Thursday, May 1, at the UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment, The Los Angeles Times reported. Police also made arrests at the University of Southern California and Pomona College.

Other campus demonstrations have been relatively quiet. Roughly 70 people staged a die-in at Cal Poly in San Luis Obisbo. Counter protesters and police were present, but the event dispersed after about 30 minutes.

The map below shows California campuses where protests  from peaceful demonstrations that dispersed without incident to occupied university buildings and hundreds of arrests  have taken place in recent weeks.

Click on the dots on the map for more information about each event:

What can protesters legally do on California campuses? Is civil disobedience OK?

Students and community members gather on the quad at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to support pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have barricaded themselves inside Siemens Hall. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

Tents cover the lawn in front of Siemens Hall, occupied by pro-Palestinian students and community members calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

Students and community members perform a traditional Palestinian dance called dabke in support of pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded inside Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

Cal Poly Humboldt student Laura Sanchez sits outside of Siemens Hall, which has been occupied by students and community members calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Arcata. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com
Interesting public service comparison: As an Army captain, Sam Brown got blown up serving in Afghanistan; As ambassador to Iceland, Jeff Gunter deserted his post. (Dr. Jeff Gunter for Senate campaign photo)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Jeff Gunters self-financed Senate campaign has thus far earned him little chance of winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in the general election.

But it has secured him a spot among the ranks of the most offensive office-seekers in Nevada political history.

Last month Gunter ran an attack ad on the Republican primary frontrunner, Sam Brown. The ad was ostensibly about a Federal Elections Commission complaint against Brown and the fact that Brown is backed by the Washington D.C insiders at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In an homage to Donald Trumps false promise to drain the swamp, the ad called Brown the newest creature to emerge from the swamp.

But the real point of the ad was to show graphically and disgustingly doctored images accentuating the scars on Browns face, the result of injuries inflicted on Brown by an improvised explosive device when Brown was serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Gunter ad then shows images of Mitch McConnell, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and other political figures, each of their faces similarly doctored to look like a gruesome creature from the swamp. The images are obviously intended to mimic  and remind the viewer  of Browns scars.

Showing grainy, unflattering, and manipulated images of ones opponent is standard fare in political advertising. But Gunters ad was uniquely disgusting.

Or as a commenter on Gunters YouTube channel put it, Pretty trashy to be mocking a wounded vets facial disfigurement like this.

Gunter, who was registered to vote as a Democrat as recently as 2021 in California, is a dermatologist, and owns a chain of clinics. As it states on his campaign website, he is Dr. Jeff Gunter.

Doctors are people too, possessing both merits and faults. For instance, Gunter is the kind of doctor who ridicules a burn victim for their scars in the hope that doing so will boost his own implausible political aspirations.

Gunter was also an ambassador to Iceland during Trumps administration. (Interesting public service comparison: As an Army captain, Brown got blown up serving in Afghanistan; As ambassador to Iceland, Gunter deserted his post.)

Judging from the caliber and character of both Gunters failed tenure as an ambassador and his Senate campaign, he wasnt named an ambassador because he demonstrated tact, a mature regard for mutual respect, a capacity to grasp complex issues, or other characteristics befitting a diplomat, including basic human decency.

Gunters key qualification must have been a not uncommon one for ambassadors: making a lot of very large campaign contributions. Because no one with anything approaching an ambassadorial temperament would run the sickening ad Gunter ran against Brown.

Ambassador Dr. Gunter may (or may not) be a reputable physician. But hes a quack politician, and his only hope is and always was an endorsement from Trump.

Trump is an impetuous clown, so anything could happen. But with less than six weeks before the June 11 primary, and with only about three weeks before mail and early voting starts, the chance of Gunter getting Trumps nod in the Senate primary seems imperceptibly small.

There are a lot of reasons not to want Brown to be a U.S. Senator, chief among them being that Nevada is one of the states that will decide not only whether Trump will be president, but whether there will be an obedient Trump-worshiping Republican-controlled Congress unquestioningly carrying out his every command, however pernicious and/or unconstitutional.

His recently revealed enthusiasm for bringing nuclear waste to Nevada, his opposition to a womans right to control her own body, his willingness to apologize for Trumps thuggery and embrace Trumps authoritarianism  Browns politics can be loathsome.

But he was also forced to confront an adversity that thankfully few of us can fathom, and whatever else anyone may think of him, his personal success in addressing that adversity is undeniably impressive and admirable. Nobody, whatever their political party, can or should try to use the visible result of Browns military injuries against him.

And thats what Jeff Gunter is: A nobody.

The post Calling Jeff Gunter a swamp creature would be an insult to swamp creatures appeared first on Nevada Current.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron arrived in the western city of Lviv on May 3 as part of his official visit to Ukraine.

The head of British diplomacy first arrived in Kyiv and held meetings with top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

During his visit to Lviv, Cameron met the regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi. The minister told the governor that London decided to add Lviv Oblast to the "yellow zone," indicating a lower danger level than in the red zone covering much of the country.

This change will allow U.K. citizens who have businesses in Lviv Oblast and potential investors to get travel insurance in Lviv Oblast.

Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Volyn oblasts are also being reclassified as yellow zones, in addition to previously classified Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivsti, and Ternopil oblasts.

The aforementioned regions are among those less often targeted by Russian strikes and further away from the front lines.

Read also: Ukraine may use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia, Cameron says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Protests calling for colleges and universities to divest funds from Israeli military and governmental operations in Gaza, or companies they claim benefit from it, have continued to spread on campuses across the country, including Yale University, New York University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and more.

Some universities have declined to divest, while others have said they will have conversations with student protesters about investment concerns as they try to quell growing protests.

Many universities have a long history of divesting  that is, removing one's funds from an asset, in essence reversing a previous investment  in companies that have connections to or otherwise support fraught political issues, such as genocide, apartheid and other practices.

But what might divestment actually look like for universities when it comes to Israel and its military?

MORE: As Columbia University protests on Israel-Hamas war come to a head, what to know

PHOTO: Posters hang near tents at the University of Southern California (USC) during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Los Angeles, on April 27, 2024. (Aude Guerrucci/Reuters)

University endowments and what divestment means

An endowment is a bucket of investments used by a university to generate income and fund expenses such as scholarships, academic activities and building construction. Typically, universities spend a modest percentage of the returns each year to supplement other revenue, while reserving the rest for long-term costs.

"You can think of an endowment as a savings account or retirement fund, but for a university," Brian Galle, a law professor at Georgetown University who studies nonprofit organizations, told ABC News.

Over the past 50 years, many top universities have undertaken aggressive investment strategies for their endowments, delivering massive returns and ballooning the size of such funds, Bruce Kimball, emeritus professor of philosophy and history of education at The Ohio State University, told ABC News.

Harvard University, for example, boasts an endowment of more than $50 billion, making it the largest university endowment in the U.S.

University endowments are typically invested in vehicles that run the gamut from private equity to mutual funds to real estate, Galle said.

However, a given university's specific investments are often unknown, since most schools are not required to disclose them, experts said. That confidentiality poses a challenge for protesters seeking to affect the investments, since they may find it difficult to determine where a university's endowment is invested and, by extension, which specific investments they may find objectionable and want a university to reconsider.

Calls for divestment for political reasons are also complicated by the nature of university endowments, experts told ABC News. Since endowments often seek a balance of assets concentrated in particular sectors, it can be difficult to remove a certain type of asset without requiring a wider adjustment.

Because of these realities, many groups are calling both for transparency regarding where the school's money is going, and divestment from companies or institutions that profit from what some protesters are calling "genocide" in Gaza. This could include Israeli weapons manufacturers and military defense contractors.

Meanwhile, others have made broader calls for divestment from companies more generally connected to Israel, such as tech firms that sell services to the Israeli government, as well as Israeli goods manufacturers. Academic or research-based ties to Israel have also drawn attention from some divestment campaigns.

Broadly, protesters insist that any investment that politically or financially supports Israel's war in Gaza is unacceptable.

Some universities, like Ohio State University, say they cannot meet the protesters demands because of local laws that restrict state agencies from working with or funding companies and groups that are boycotting or stand in opposition to Israel. Similar laws also exist in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, and other states.

PHOTO: People listen to a speaker at a pro-Palestinian encampment, at Columbia University, on April 28, 2024, in New York. (Andres Kudacki/AP)

"Pursuant to Ohio state law, state entities cannot divest interests in Israel," said Ohio State University in an online announcement. "Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits the university from divesting any interests in Israel and prohibits adopting or adhering to a policy that requires divestment from Israel or with persons or entities associated with it."

Supporters of these laws say they combat religious discrimination against Jewish people and national-origin discrimination against Israelis. Critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, allege that such laws are "designed to discriminate against disfavored political expression."

Past investment changes based on geopolitical, other causes

Universities over the years have changed their investments based on geopolitical and other considerations.

In 2022, many U.S. universities  among them the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado, Yale University, and Arizona's three public universities  cut ties with Russian assets and pulled millions from the country's investments in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a special meeting, the Arizona Board of Regents announced that it had instructed the presidents of Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona to withdraw from any investments in Russian assets and to exclude Russian assets from the board's retirement plan.

"The Arizona Board of Regents condemns in the strongest possible terms Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine and apparent targeting of civilian populations, with one million refugees already in its wake," said ABOR Chair Lyndel Manson.

The statement continued, "With today's action, the board repudiates Putin's aggression and ensures Arizona's public university enterprise divests of any Russian assets."

The University of Colorado also cut ties, noting that the millions of dollars in publicly traded Russian companies and mutual funds are "negligible."

"Like so many others, we have watched in horror as this invasion has brought senseless violence and aggression to the region," said CU President Todd Saliman in the statement. "We are looking for ways to show our support for the people of Ukraine and believe that cutting our investments is the right thing to do."

PHOTO: Thousands of people rally at an encampment for Palestine set up by George Washington University students in conjunction with other DC-area universities, in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2024. (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via Shutterstock)

MIT's then-President L. Rafael Reif called Russia's military actions "unacceptable" in his announcement that the institute's relationship with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow would end.

"This step is a rejection of the actions of the Russian government in Ukraine," said Reif. "We take it with deep regret because of our great respect for the Russian people and our profound appreciation for the contributions of the many extraordinary Russian colleagues we have worked with."

Similarly, more than 100 universities have divested from the fossil fuel industry, pulling back on endowments or research funding, according to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Database. Among these institutions are Boston University, Columbia University, New York University, Stanford University, Princeton University, and others.

"The Board of Regents recognizes the gravity and the urgency of the situation with respect to climate change," read a 2022 from the University of Washington Board of Regents chair David Zeeck. "With this resolution, the Board wishes to avoid greenwashing and to take meaningful action, putting the University of Washington in the front ranks of universities addressing climate change through research, teaching, operations and investments."

In the early to mid-2000s, dozens of schools  including Yale University, Harvard University, Stanford University and others  announced they would divest from companies operating in Sudan due to the ongoing prevalence of massacres, rape, looting and destruction at the hands of the Sudanese government in Darfur.

"The government of Sudan is an active participant in genocide against people in the Darfur region," read a report on investments from Yale's Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. "Oil revenues account for a majority of Sudanese government income, and therefore are instrumental in financing genocide."

The University of California Board of Regents voted to divest as well, with a letter to the Committee on Investments that stated: "If The Regents choose to maintain the status quo, the University will continue to profit from foreign companies who are helping to fund the government of Sudan's genocide campaigns in Western Darfur."

A long list of higher education institutions also divested from either some or most of their holdings that were connected to apartheid in South Africa as early as 1977, according to Hampshire College, which became the first U.S. school to divest amid student protests, and subsequently inspired at least 155 schools to follow suit by 1988.

"The Trustees have decided to sell all common shares they control," read a statement from the school's public relation office in 1977. "Since the college has no policy by which it can control the financial, moral, social and political considerations necessary in purchasing stock, the Trustees have directed the administration to provide guidelines after which it will again make investments."

MORE: College encampments protesting Israeli military operations in Gaza grow nationwide: What students are saying

What universities have agreed upon regarding Israel

Some universities  including Columbia University, the University of Rochester, and Tufts University  have said they will not divest from companies connected to Israel, while others are having conversations with students about their concerns.

Some universities say they are declining to divest because of the aforementioned complications with local laws, while others, like the University of Michigan, said that divesting could "increase investment risk and decrease our investment returns," potentially generating less income for the schools.

Columbia also has recently promised to be more responsive to student concerns and proposals about the university's investments, and to make information about those investments more accessible and up-to-date.

At least three schools, however, have agreed to open discussions regarding divestment in Israeli military operations, in order to quell intensifying protests.

Brown University recently said it had reached an agreement with pro-Palestinian student protesters to end their encampment, which began on April 24.

Five students have been invited to meet with five members of the Corporation of Brown University, according to the statement. The meeting is in response to the students' interest to be heard on the issue of divestment from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territory, which was a core demand of their protest action, the statement says.

The meeting responds to the students' interest to be heard on the issue of divestment from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territory, which was a core demand of their protest action, according to the statement.

Brown President Christina Paxson will ask the Advisory Committee on University Resource Management to provide a recommendation on divestment by Sept. 30, which the corporation will vote on in October. Further, students, faculty, staff and alumni will not face retaliation for being involved in the encampment, according to the agreement, and no registered student organizations will lose their recognition.

PHOTO: Students are camping out for a second week of ongoing protests on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, on April 25, 2024. (Melissa Bender/NurPhoto via Shutterstock)

Northwestern University announced it has reached a deal with pro-Palestinian protesters, ending an encampment of students and faculty but allowing peaceful demonstrations to continue through June 1.

The university said it would "answer questions from any internal stakeholder about holdings, held currently or within the last quarter, to the best of its knowledge and to the extent legally possible"  meeting a key condition from divestment protesters, as well as students around the country who are seeking more transparency over universities' investments.

Northwestern will also reestablish an Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility in the fall, which will include representatives from students, faculty and staff. The university additionally pledged more inclusivity, funding two Palestinian faculty members and the full cost of attendance for five Palestinian undergraduate students annually, as well as a commitment to raising funds to sustain the program beyond this commitment.

The University of Minnesota administration also successfully negotiated an agreement to end the student-led encampment on the Twin Cities campus.

The university addressed the six key items put forth by the activists, offering concessions and plans for further dialogue. Furthermore, the university promised to advocate for lenient legal remedies for those previously arrested in response to the protests, and pledged support for all students, announcing a forthcoming meeting with Jewish student leaders to ensure balanced support across communities.

The student coalition in turn has pledged not to organize disruptions during the upcoming final exams and commencement ceremonies. Representatives from the student coalition also will be given a platform to address the Board of Regents regarding their concerns at a scheduled meeting on May 10.

ABC News' Nadine El-Bawab and Jason Volack contributed to this report.

Campus protesters are demanding universities divest from Israel. Here's what that means. originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Republicans have been going back to college lately, but not to learn anything. If anything, their visits are leaving us all a little dumber.

In recent days, GOP lawmakers have used campus protests over Israel as a backdrop for their latest publicity stunts. House Speaker Mike Johnsons appearance at Columbia last month made that abundantly clear. Conservative activists have been encouraging one another to inflame campus protests in liberal-learning cities with hopes of heightening tension that could undermine President Joe Bidens re-election chances.

Republicans in Congress seem to be operating with a similar M.O., and Wednesday offered fresh evidence that GOPers are eager to be seen scolding college students to their faces.

A group of Republicans decided to take a waltz through George Washington Universitys campus for a gander at the demonstrations underway (and perhaps antagonize liberal activists along the way). And it didnt take long for these right-wingers to start issuing threats and trying to stir up conflict.

According to Mediaite:

This is America, and that shit needs to come down, Boebert said. Freelance reporter Andrew Leyden caught the incident on camera.

VIDEO: Cong @laurenboebert attempts to rip down Palestinian flag that was draped over George Washington statue on the GWU campus. pic.twitter.com/w7lAxcROKP  Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) May 1, 2024

The whole fiasco had big wrestling heel vibes, with GOP lawmakers shouting attacks at demonstrators, whod then shower them in boos. Boebert used a megaphone to bark the bigoted claim that demonstrators at the school are pro-terrorist.

Almost every single person in this so-called liberated zone would be eviscerated by the very terrorists you are standing here supporting, she claimed in a video captured by The Hill. Predictably, this evoked a reaction from activists in earshot.

Boebert and Donalds also threatened to use Congress power over Washington, D.C., due to its lack of statehood, to withhold funding from the city if its mayor and police dont crack down on campus protesters to Republicans liking. Last year, conservatives similarly meddled in D.C.s affairs when they overruled criminal justice reforms instituted following civil rights protests in 2020. And their threats this time came on the same day Rep. James Comer announced a hearing on the George Washington University protests, scheduled for next Wednesday.

Republicans think theyve found a sore spot in domestic politics they can use to their advantage. And theyre going to keep picking at it.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
What if the protests on American campuses extend to Europe? That scenario still seems far off. But in France and the United Kingdom, students have already begun to occupy campuses. And political and academic authorities fear contagion, although for now the movement, which also affects Italy, is limited.

French authorities, concerned about the impact on society of the Hamas attack on October 7 and the Israeli war in Gaza, have been displaying a mix of firmness and dialogue as they redouble their efforts to prevent the U.S. movement from taking hold in France. And the British government, which has maintained a belligerent attitude regarding the continuous pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent months in the streets of London, has contacted university officials to demand that they be firm and nip in the bud any sign of what they view as antisemitism.

Although the protests have not fully caught on in Europe, in France the issue has ignited a partisan brawl between a radical left that waves the Palestinian flag and a right that calls for cutting off public funds if the demonstrations are not stopped immediately.

Youths take part in the occupation of a building of the Sciences Po University in Paris on April 26, 2024. Benoit Tessier (REUTERS)

On Monday, during an attempted encampment at the Sorbonne that the police quickly cleared, Rima Hassan, a candidate for the European elections for the left-wing populist France Insoumise party (LFI), proclaimed on the social platform X: The Sorbonne students mobilized to denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Its time for the uprising, lets go support them! That same day, the president of the Paris region, the conservative Valerie Pecresse, announced that she was suspending funding for another hub of protest, Sciences Po. Pecresse accused a radicalized minority that calls for antisemitic hatred and is being exploited by LFI and its Islamo-leftist allies.

In the United Kingdom, groups of students have begun improvising encampments since Wednesday in universities such as Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle, Lancaster and Edinburgh. But the organization behind these protests is very weakly coordinated. As in France, the number of participants is not proportional to the magnitude of the American mobilizations and, so far, there have been no episodes of vandalism or confrontations with the police.

We have always been clear that people have the right to protest in a peaceful and law-abiding way, but without abusing or intimidating other people, explained a Downing Street spokesperson. The police have the capacity and powers to stop disorders and protests, and they will have our full support.

At the University of Manchester, more than 100 students gathered at the so-called Palestinian Resistance Camp, in Brunswick Park, to demand that the higher education center sever its ties with weapons companies such as BAE Systems and with Tel Aviv University.

French police confront protesters occupying a street in front of Sciences Po University in Paris in support of Palestinians, on April 26, 2024. Gonzalo Fuentes (REUTERS)

Collaboration with Israel

In Italian cities including Turin, Pisa, Bologna and Rome, student groups have been demanding for weeks that universities end their collaboration with Israel, and on some campuses there have been clashes with the police. As a result of the protests in the United States, students from universities such as La Sapienza in Rome have announced mobilizations and occupations on May 7. In Spain, according to the Efe news agency, a university encampment in solidarity with Palestine that began on Monday at the School of Philosophy of the University of Valencia will continue indefinitely as long as they have strength in order to achieve the end of the Palestinian genocide. In France, besides Paris, there have been protests in Rennes, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lyon and Grenoble, according to a count by Le Monde.

A common demand running through the protests is for universities to review or cancel their agreements with their Israeli counterparts. This was one of the topics on Thursday at a closed-door meeting between students and administrators of Sciences Po, a nursery for Frances political elites and an establishment of global influence. For two hours, some 320 people spoke about the war and its impact on the Parisian campus: the police occupation and eviction of a courtyard last week, the blocking of a street for one day, and finally the agreement to vacate the area.

It has been a tough debate, with quite clear positions, a lot of emotion, and now I hope that everyone will find some calm, said the centers interim administrator, Jean Basseres, at the end of the meeting. Appearing alongside Basseres was the head of the School of International Affairs, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, who declared: Dialogue is not always comfortable, but in democracies nothing is comfortable, and we have prioritized the path of opening a dialogue.

The protests could mark the campaign for the European elections in June: in France it is already happening. The radical left and the social democrats  the former openly pro-Palestinian and the latter seeking a balance  are fighting a battle that is projected on the campuses.

France is one of the Western countries with the largest Muslim and Jewish populations. And in intellectual and political debates there is a recurring fixation on the supposed Americanization of France: a reproduction there of the protests seen at Columbia and Los Angeles would be the definitive proof.

The French government wants to avoid it. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has promised: There will never be a right to blockade, nor any tolerance for the action of an agitating and dangerous minority that seeks to impose its rules on our students and our teachers.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia  Canadian police said Friday they have made three arrests in the slaying of a Sikh separatist leader last June in suburban Vancouver that became the center of a diplomatic spat with India.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said three suspects have been arrested and charged in the slaying of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver.

The police did not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive. This matter is very much under active investigation, Teboul said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India in September when he said there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in the slaying of Nijjar. India had accused Nijjar of links to terrorism but angrily denied involvement in the slaying.

Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a plumber and also a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. But he had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The three suspects are Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh. They were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said.

This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals, Mooker said.

A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas diaspora. While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.
Three men have been arrested and charged in Canada for allegedly murdering a prominent Sikh separatist, according to police, in a case Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously linked to the Indian government, drawing vehement protests from New Delhi.

The suspects were identified in court filings as Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, and Karan Brar. The men are accused of conspiring with others to commit the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, according to the filings. They are also charged on a second count for using a firearm on or about June 18, 2023 to commit first-degree murder.

All three suspects are Indian nationals and non-permanent residents of Canada, police said in a press briefing on Friday. Authorities are currently investigating if they have ties to the Indian government  the latest development in a long-running intrigue that has fueled diplomatic tension between Canada and India.

Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was gunned down by masked men last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of Indias Punjab state.

Last September, Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. The allegation outraged India, which has forcefully denied the claim, calling it absurd. The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries.

Authorities did not specify who allegedly conspired with the accused but said there are separate investigations ongoing on Nijjars death.

These efforts include investigating connections to the Government of India, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul told a Friday press conference.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India. - Sikhs For Justice

Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has long been outlawed in India, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many. But it garners a level of public sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where activists protected by free speech laws can more openly demand secession from India.

Weeks after Trudeaus announcement, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil. A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, of trying to kill Pannun, who is a wanted man in India and considered a terrorist by the government.

US prosecutors say Gupta was acting on orders from an unnamed Indian government official. Indias government has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kill Pannun.

Karan Brar was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. - Integrated Homicide Investigation Team

Just one day after Nijjar was killed in Canada, US prosecutors say Gupta allegedly told an undercover law enforcement official posing as a hitman that Nijjar had also been one of his targets.

We have so many targets, Gupta allegedly said.

Nijjars assassination has sent a chill through Sikh activists living abroad. Dr. Pritpal Singh, an American citizen who heads the American Sikh Caucus Committee, told CNN he was alerted with a duty to warn by the FBI of a threat to his life after the Canadians assassination.

He commended Canadian law enforcement for its dedication to upholding justice by rigorously pursuing those responsible for these crimes in a statement, adding that we, as a community, stand firm in demanding accountability and will continue to advocate for justice to ensure such reprehensible actions are addressed decisively.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNNs Jennifer Hauser contributed reporting from Atlanta.

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Canadian police arrested and charged three members of an alleged hit squad they believe was ordered by Indian authorities to kill the prominent Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on Friday.

Following many months of investigative work ... three suspects have been arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in the killing of Mr. Nijjar, said Assistant Commissioner David Teboul at a press briefing.

The three suspects were young Indian nationals living in Canada, he said. Teboul said the investigation is ongoing and includes investigating connections to the Government of India.

Nijjar was fatally shot by masked gunmen in a Vancouver suburb in June 2023 in an incident that sparked international controversy and led to a souring of diplomatic relations between Canada and India.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September said authorities were investigating Indian government agents links to the killing, allegations New Delhi dismissed as absurd.

It comes after US authorities last year foiled a planned assassination of a Sikh separatist on American soil that Western officials believe was linked to Indias spy agency, The Washington Post reported.

CBC News first reported on the arrests.

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Plot to kill on US soil shows Indias rising confidence as a global power

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Source: The Washington Post

The foiled assassination of a New York-based Sikh activist that Indias spy agency reportedly signed off on, and that members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis inner circle were allegedly aware of, according to a Washington Post investigation, reflects a profound shift in geopolitics. Despite the brazenness of the act, the US cannot risk alienating the emerging global power given that Washington needs a buffer against Chinas expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, the Post wrote. India risked attempting an assassination on US soil  and during Modis state visit to the White House  because they knew they could get away with it, a Western security official told the newspaper.

Indian government plays up threat of Sikh separatists abroad

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Source: Foreign Affairs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to be willing to jeopardize his relations with powerful allies like the US over Sikh separatism, despite the cause no longer being a legitimate security threat in India, Hartosh Singh Bal wrote in Foreign Affairs. The reason, he argued, is that Sikhs are standing in the way of Modis ideological project of creating a Hindu nation where religious minorities like Muslims and Christians are not equal citizens. Hindu nationalists who regard Sikhism as a branch of Hinduism expect support from Sikhs in this endeavor. But when Sikhs protest Modis policies, the Indian government cannot simply dismiss the demonstrators as foreign agents, as it does with Muslims, Bal wrote. It has to listen.

Modi turns to taunts that Trudeau shouldnt ignore

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Source: The Globe and Mail

Modi is capitalizing on allegations of extrajudicial acts to project a strongman image as he seeks reelection in Indias ongoing election. Today, even Indias enemies know: This is Modi, this is the New India, he said at a recent rally. This New India comes into your home to kill you. The remarks are intended at least in part to taunt [Canadian] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who accused Modis government of being involved in the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia, wrote Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders. Trudeau should ignore suggestions to tolerate New Delhis extrajudicial acts under the guise of protecting economic and trade ties with India, Saunders argued, because Modi is attacking Canadas fundamental values of freedom of speech, pluralism and physical security.

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After canceling its mainstage commencement ceremony amid pro-Palestinian protests, USC has announced plans for a "Trojan Family" graduation event next week at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The event will take place Thursday, May 9 at 8:30 p.m. USC announced on Thursday. The university promises a drone show, fireworks, surprise performances and the Trojan Marching Band. The university also promised a special gift for the class of 2024.

The celebration will share the L.A. Coliseum with several other groups around the same time, so the USC Trojan Family graduate event will be limited to a portion of the venue. Each graduate will receive up to six tickets for their guests, the university said, and will be limited to "graduates and their families and loved ones."

USC said it was unable to secure the entire venue, because it was already booked. The announcement for the event said that USC President Carol Folt "has created a major kick-off to three days and nights of commencement events to honor you and those whove helped you along the way."

The announcement does not mention how pro-Palestinian demonstrators had recently erected an encampment in Alumni Park. On April 24, police arrested 93 students and off-campus activists during the protest, one of several demonstrations at campuses across the country, including neighboring UCLA.

USC expects to confer over 18,000 degrees from May 8-11 for its commencement week with a slew of events to celebration the occasion. New security measures have also been put in place.

All vehicle and pedestrian access to the university campus will be limited to two entrances, USC's Department of Public Safety announced in a news release Thursday. The entrances are located at the northeast and northwest sides of the campus, referred to as the McCarthy and McClintock entrances.

The limited access will be in effect 24 hours a day. The entrance to Watt Way is closed, but that south side could be reopened barring traffic conditions, according to university officials.

A temporary, separate interior fence will greet guests to the campus who are approaching outside of a vehicle, with pedestrians being asked to enter the university at McCarthy Way at the quad; the north side of Watt Way at 34th Street; and McClintock Avenue at Childs Way.

All USC students and employees will need to show their campus IDs to enter the campus or access the interior fence, according to USC. Guests will need to pre-register with the university online and show their QR code generated from the USC visitor registration website and a government-issued ID. Each registration must be completed daily and can be registered by a USC student, faculty or staff member.

Read more: 13 days that rocked USC: How a derailed commencement brought 'complete disaster'

The new safety measures follows days of protests at the private university in South L.A. Tickets will be required to access the campus and for all commencement events taking place during commencement week.

Guests will be screened much in the same way that security checks bags at sporting events, according to the university.

But the university's main stage commencement ceremony, which draws 65,000-attendees to the campus, was canceled after the administration rescinded Asna Tabassum's graduation speaking spot as USC valedictorian.

Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major with a passion for social justice who minored in resistance to genocide, drew undisclosed threats to the university.

The university's decisions leading up to the cancellation has drawn criticism from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Voters in three parts of El Paso County will be going to the polls on Saturday, May 4.

Canutillo Independent School District is asking voters in the district to approve a $387 million bond.

The district says the bond is necessary to address the combination of growth and continued loss of enrollment because of a lack of schools in newer neighborhoods in the district.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday. Early voting ended on Tuesday, April 30.

You can click here for a list of Election Day voting centers. Voters in the Lower Valley Water District and San Elizario will also be going to the polls Saturday. If you live in the three impacted areas, you can vote at any county voting center.

Voters in Canutillo ISD will consider two different ballot questions: Proposition A which would issue $379 million of bonds for new construction, repairs and upgrades; and Proposition B which would issue $7.2 million to repay debt incurred during the pandemic to equip the districts students with laptops for remote learning.

Voters are deciding the fate of a school bond in Canutillo ISD on May 4. Photo by Jesus Baltazar/KTSM

The district says the average homeowner in Canutillo would see an increase in their property taxes of $3.17 a month if the bond passes. Qualifying senior citizens would not see their tax rate increase.

The bond would be used to rebuild and relocate Davenport Elementary and Alderete Middle School campuses from their current locations to the fast-growing Enchanted Hills subdivision, the district said.

The bond would also allow the district to re-build and relocate Canutillo Middle School from its current location to a fast-growing Upper Valley location.

Other projects would include: the construction of a brick-and-mortar Northwest Early College High School campus; upgrades to the heating and cooling systems at existing schools; district-wide roof replacements, safety and security improvements; and other repairs at aging campuses, according to the district.

Elsewhere, the Lower Valley Water District wants voters to approve a $35 million bond for various projects and improvements. The Lower Valley Water District provides water, wastewater and solid waste services in the southeastern part of the county,.

In San Elizario, three candidates are running for mayor  incumbent Isela Reyes, Miguel Chacon and Vincent Jemison.

Two alderperson seats are also being contested in San Elizario  Antonio Flores Jr. vs. Armando (Mando) Alarcon in Place No. 4; and Octavio Hernandez Jr. vs. Thomas Black in Place No. 5.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Read the full story on The Auto Wire

Car Thieves Use Tow Truck To Steal Alfa Romeo Spider

Surveillance footage at a Dania Beach, Florida liquor store shows thieves using a tow truck to steal a 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider. Now the owner of the Italian convertible, who also happens to own the liquor store, is offering a reward for its return.

Tow truck used to steal cars in St. Louis.

Anyone who helps find the stolen car stands to collect $1,000 cash. Plus, you get to help take a bite out of the stolen car black market. Wed do it for free.

According to local news station WSVN, Broward County deputies tracked down the two car thieves from that surveillance video and arrested them. This is why having cameras up around your property is a good idea.

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They might not always scare away thieves, but if they record in high definition, police can often get enough clues to find and arrest anyone who does steal your ride.

However, it seems the thieves arent talking, meaning police dont know where the Alfa Romeo ended up. Its possible the car was sold to a chop shop, and since those are often run by drug cartels the pieces of it could be anywhere.

But theres also the possibility the Spider is whole and somewhere else, maybe in another state. The owner wants to track it down and we hope he finds success.

This case also highlights the value in having a GPS tracker or two on your vehicle. One can even be an Apple AirTag, which are small and easy to hide just about anywhere. Had this owner put trackers on his Alfa Romeo, it could have led to its recovery or at least the busting of a chop shop, if thats where it ended up.

Remember, thieves want to steal your ride, even if its not very nice. Take steps to secure it and make a recovery if it is stolen.

Image via WSVN

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Micayla Yusko sits with her attorneys, Thursday, May 2, 2024, during sentencing in Circuit Judge Karen Foxman's courtroom at the S. James Foxman Justice Center for her part in the January 2022 murder of 89-year-old Margaret Hindsley in Ponce inlet.

A caregiver who prosecutors said combined with her husband to kill an elderly woman she was supposed to be caring for as the woman slept in her Ponce Inlet condo was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison.

Micayla Yusko, 24, was adjudicated guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of 89-year-old Margaret Hindsley on Jan. 5, 2022. Hindsley was shot twice in the head.

Yusko and her husband, Tyden Guinn, 27, were each indicted on charges of first-degree murder with a firearm and burglary with a battery, (occupied dwelling, firearm) in Hindsley's murder.

Yusko pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree murder with a firearm, as part of a plea deal filed April 25. Yusko also pleaded no contest to the burglary with a battery charge. Yusko faced between 40 and 60 years in prison, according to the terms of the plea agreement.

Circuit Judge Karen Foxman sentenced Yusko to the 60 years in prison after a day-long hearing at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

Foxman said Hindsley was particularly vulnerable. She is elderly and just had surgery and needed a walker. And Yusko, her caretaker, comes up with the plan and has the co-defendant carry out the plan, shooting Hindsley while she is sleeping.

Micayla Yusko walks back to the defense table with her attorney, Jeffrey Deen, after reading a statement, Thursday, May 2, 2024, during sentencing in Circuit Judge Karen Foxman's courtroom at the S. James Foxman Justice Center for her part in the January 2022 murder of 89-year-old Margaret Hindsley in Ponce inlet.

The case against Guinn, 27, remains open and his next hearing is set for May 15.

Richard Brendel, an investigator for the 7th Circuit State Attorneys Office, testified that Yusko told him in an interview after her arrest that she had using the drug "molly" before the murder. Brendel also testified that Yusko said it was her idea to kill Hindsley.

Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak asked him whether she gave a reason.

Brendel said Yusko made several religious references from the Book of Revelations and said that Hindsley was Satan and Satan needed to be destroyed.

Yusko also said that she thought COVID-19 was a plague and the vaccine was the mark of the beast so she would not take the vaccine, Brendel testified.

Yusko got a gun from the bedroom in their Port Orange apartment and handed it to her husband, who was a bit hesitant and asked if they should do it, Brendel recounted. She said that they needed to do it, Brendel said.

They then drove to Hindsleys condominium in Ponce Inlet.

Yusko said she couldnt shoot Hindsley, so she had her husband kill her while she waited in the kitchen, Brendel said.

Yusko told her husband that she wanted Hindsley to know who did this, so she instructed him to shoot her once, wait and shoot her again.

She said she heard one gunshot then about five seconds later a second gunshot, Brendel recalled from the interview.

Detectives found a narcotic known as "bath salts" in Yusko's and her husband's apartment in Port Orange. Detectives also recovered the gun used in the killing.

Investigators found a bullet casing near the elderly woman's walker.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza stated in a release: "Caregiver became murderer in this sad and disturbing case. Sometimes people we entrust with our life take it instead."

Yusko's defense attorney, Jeffrey D. Deen, argued that the crime was the result of mental illness, not drug use.

Yusko made a statement to the court expressing remorse. She said that Hindsley had treated her well and that she could talk to Hindsley about anything. She said that Hindsley had prayed with her.

"I am so sorry," Yusko said.

Elderly woman's family asks for maximum punishment

Yuskos daughter, Kathleen Pistole, who lives in Michigan, testified she had been looking forward to celebrating her mothers 90th birthday. She said Hindsley was a grandmother and great-grandmother who still had a lot of life to live.

She said that blue was her mothers favorite color and noted that many in the courtroom were wearing blue.

I miss her and I never got to tell her goodbye, Pistole said. I never got to tell my mother goodbye.

I had to watch as her ashes were dropped into the ocean and shes gone, Pistole said. I never got to say goodbye.

She said her mother was religious and had cared about the person who ultimately would kill her. She said that her mother was even worried when she had to have surgery that the agency would assign her a different caregiver.

She said Yusko has shown no remorse for the killing.

And she said she has been unable to find any reason for the murder.

Pistole said to Yusko who was sitting at the defense table: "The only reason that I have come up with is that youre just plain evil."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida caregiver gets 60 years prison for killing elderly woman
The family of slain University of Idaho student Kaylee Goncalves on Thursday expressed their frustration at the pace of the murder trial for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing their daughter and three other students.

This case is turning into a hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions, the Goncalves family said in a statement following the latest court hearing in the case. Can we all just agree that this case needs to move forward and the Judge needs to start setting hard deadlines in this case?

The Idaho judge overseeing Kohbergers quadruple murder trial ruled Thursday that an upcoming evidentiary hearing about certain evidence with witnesses will be closed to the public.

I want to see what all the issues are, the arguments from both sides, so I can make the more fair decision. So, Im going to close the hearing. At some point in the hearing, maybe we can open up part of it, but I need to dig in, and you need to dig in to exactly what is the problem with each one of these issues, Latah County District Court Judge John Judge said.

Kohbergers defense had asked for the hearing to be made public, while the prosecution asked that it be sealed, arguing the need to protect the privacy and the sensitive information and ultimately protect the state and defendants rights to a fair trial outweighs the right to a public hearing.

This hearing needs to be in the public eye, said defense attorney Anne C. Taylor. For the court to allow the prosecution to say we need to keep this all private for a fair trial really ignores the public nature of this case.

Taylor added the hearing  and those going forward  should be public so people can start to wonder if Bryan is innocent. Your honor, Bryan is innocent and he has an absolute sixth amendment right to have his hearings in public.

Kohberger, 29, faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the killings of Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just off the universitys main campus in Moscow. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.

The hearing is the latest turn in the high-profile case against Kohberger, who is accused of fatally stabbing the four college students early on November 13, 2022. A not guilty plea was entered last May on his behalf, and his attorneys have indicated he intends to present an alibi as part of his defense.

Due to a wide-ranging gag order, prosecutors, defense lawyers and attorneys for victims families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

In their statement, the Goncalves family said, Not every motion needs a hearing. Not every decision needs to take a month to decide.

Kaylee Goncalves - From Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram

Discovery, discovery, discovery! You have what we want no I dont, yes you do no I dont, lets have a new hearing.Hit repeat. This banter has been going on for 17 months. Then once you get a hearing, you have a hearing about the decision that was made at that hearing before the last hearing and there needs to be another hearing, the statement said.

I know our statement sounds as if we are incredibly frustrated and we are! the statement continued. We understand the Justice system and we want a fair trial for the Defendant, but turning the case into a delay game serves no ones interests other than the Defense. Once again thank you for all your kindness and prayers for our Family!

Kohbergers alibi defense was filed last month, after the judge had repeatedly extended the submission date.

According to his alibi defense, Kohberger was out driving west of Moscow the night of the slayings as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. The defense plans to offer a cell phone tower and radio frequency expert to partially corroborate this account, according to the document.

His public defenders have pointed several times to their clients purported penchant for taking long drives alone late at night. In an August filing, they wrote of the night of the killings, Mr. Kohberger is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time.

In response, the prosecution asked the court to deny Kohberger the opportunity to add to his alibi and stop anyone other than the defendant from testifying as to his whereabouts on the night of the killings.

The state argued the cell tower and radio frequency experts testimony doesnt rise to the level of an alibi.

CNNs Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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In a world such as ours, where some carry around camaras of up to 200 million pixels in their pockets, its a bit surprising that a recently launched outer space telescope doesnt even remotely approach that metric. Were talking about the news that NASA is collaborating with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in the development of a new X-ray image chip named Resolve for the XRISM satellite. The resolution it offers may come as a surprise.

The sensor features an astonishing 36 pixels  no, not megapixels  to carry out its work. Despite this low resolution, NASA affirms that the instrument has everything necessary to revolutionize the study of far-away X-rays. As such, it constitutes a great advancement in the study of outer space.

An important sensor for NASA, but also the rest of us

Resolve is the principal instrument aboard JAXAs XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) satellite, which was shot into space in September 2023. Since its launch, the two agencies have shared few updates on the mission, but recently, NASA revealed more details about its design and its equipments capabilities. The chip features an array of 6x6 pixels so large that theyre easy to spot. This is a quality-over-quantity situation, given that each pixel can take the universes temperature with a high level of precision.

The Resolve detector was invented and built at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. Its one of two instruments onboard the XRISM, the other being a more conventional X-ray CCD camara. Resolve is more than a camara. Its detector takes the temperature of each X-ray that strikes it, said Brian Williams, NASAs XRISM project scientist at Goddard.

That means that each pixel is a microcalorimeter spectrometer that works independently and is capable of measuring tiny variations in heat. Its so precise that scientists can use the X-ray spectrum to determine the composition of the object that emitted the energy and its motion in space. NASA says that a single pixel with a chip like this would be an important advance  and Resolve has 36. The spacecraft will use Resolve to study objects like supermassive black holes, supernova remnants and clouds of superheated gas within galaxy clusters.

Another great advance in the study of the universe

If NASA and JAXA have released few details about XRISM and Resolve, its important to keep in mind that the mission is programmed to take place over the course of two-and-a-half years. NASA believes that work with XRISM could lead to larger arrays of microcalorimeter pixels, possibly numbering in the hundreds or thousands.

NASA designed Resolve in order to observe X-rays with energy as low as 300 electronvolts (eV). However, a protective shutter aboard XRISM failed to retract, which has limited the instrument to measuring energies of 1,800 eV and above. Even so, the information it obtains is of vital importance for our understanding of the universe.

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CBP seizes more than 100 pounds of drugs at El Paso ports of entry

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working at El Paso area ports of entry made several large drug busts, totaling 124 pounds of fentanyl and cocaine in the past week, according to a release sent out by CBP.

On Wednesday, May 1, CBP officers working at the Ysleta port of entry seized 11.2 pounds of fentanyl. The drugs were concealed in a 2012 Ibiza being driven by a 26-year-old male Mexican citizen, according to CBP.

Photos courtesy of CBP

The seizure was made while CBP officers were conducting an enforcement operation in the lanes of traffic just south of the primary inspection booths, according to CBP.

CBP officers selected the vehicle for a secondary exam during which wrapped bundles were spotted in the center console area. A total of 15 drug-filled packages were removed from the compartment, according to CBP.

On Tuesday, April 30, CBP officers working at the Bridge of the Americas seized 42.5 pounds of cocaine. The drugs were concealed in a 2013 Hyundai Elantra being driven by a 48-year-old male U.S. citizen. The seizure was made when CBP officers spotted anomalies in the appearance of the vehicle and advised primary CBP officers, according to the news release.

A trained canine and x-ray were used during the incident to detect the hidden drugs, according to CBP.

CBP officers removed 18 cocaine-filled bundles from the rocker panels of the car.

CBP officers working in El Paso made two additional large cocaine seizures since Monday totaling 70.8 pounds.

Subjects arrested by CBP officers were turned over to federal authorities for prosecution.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
The Brandenburg Gate will be illuminated in the colors of the EU flag with the lettering "together" to mark the EU enlargement 20 years ago. Fabian Sommer/dpa

On Wednesday, ten countries celebrated 20 years in the European Union.

Poland had found its place "among friends, among allies, in Europe, at home: This is what generations of Poles have fought for," said Polish Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski in a ceremony at the Polish-German border, on the bridge over the Oder river that joins the cities of Subice and Frankfurt an der Oder.

May 1, 2004 was the largest single expansion in the history of the EU. Of the ten countries that joined that day, eight had emerged from behind the Iron Curtain in the wake of the upheavals of 1989: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

The Mediterranean island nations of Malta and Cyprus also joined the same day. Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007. Croatia followed in 2013. Britain - the only country so far to have left the EU - departed in 2020.

Sikorski was joined at the ceremony on the Oder by his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock. She said the whole of the EU had benefited from the 2004 expansion, not just the new members.

But European integration "does not fall from the sky", she said. With war raging in Ukraine, "the EU must be reformed to be stronger in security policy, to speak with one voice, and at the same time accept those countries that also want to become part of this union of freedom and security."

A joint statement on Wednesday by the presidents of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia read: "We have experienced tremendous economic growth, stability and security, while at the same time representing a remarkable success story of European integration and transformation."

The day before, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Czech President Petr Pavel marked the anniversary at a meeting in Prague. Both spoke in support of enlarging the EU still further.

"If we leave the Western Balkan states, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia at the door for too long, we will hand them over to players like Russia, who do not mean well by Europeans and Europe at all," warned Pavel. Steinmeier said: "The states of the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova belong to a free Europe and to our Union."

'A DATE WITH HISTORY'

European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday that the EU and candidates for EU membership must be ready for enlargement by 2030, calling it "a date with history."

But the prospect of enlargement stokes long-standing debates among current EU members about how the bloc should function. A particularly heated question is whether the EU should continue giving each country a veto on certain types of decisions, such as defence and budgets.

Another is whether countries that break EU rules should still be able to receive payments from its shared budget.

"The EU is above all a union of values, not an ATM," said Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, who wants to "solve the problem of sometimes abusive vetoes."

Baerbock said: "Our generation is now faced with the task of defending and strengthening the European project of peace and freedom, even if it costs an incredible amount of energy." She added that reforms are necessary for this to succeed, including fewer veto options.

WESTERN BALKANS STILL WAITING

At a meeting of Europe ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, the representatives of the ten current EU membership hopefuls were included for the first time - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey and Ukraine.

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said it was "a good rehearsal" of what it would be like to debate with 37 members.

Turkey became an EU candidate in 1999, but has probably never been further away from membership than it is today, thanks to the strongman regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Western Balkan nations are a different story. Brussels sees Montenegro as the closest to accession. But no enlargement is expected until the end of this decade at the earliest.

For Slovenia, joining the EU fulfilled one of the key foreign policy objectives that it set after achieving independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Polls suggest that popular support for the EU in Slovenia remains higher than the EU average, and there are no eurosceptic parties in the country's parliament.

EU HAS 'LEARNED A LOT' ABOUT RUSSIA FROM EASTERN MEMBERS

In an interview late April with several news agencies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that "thanks to the bitter experience that countries in Central and Eastern Europe had with the Soviet Union, the EU has learned a lot about the patterns of behaviour of the Kremlin and [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and has become more vigilant."

The EU is not perfect, "but the benefits of EU membership are enormous," she said. "Of course we are much stronger [at] 27 than we were with 15," von der Leyen said.

The content of this article is based on reporting by BTA, CTK, dpa, EFE, FENA, Lusa, MIA, PAP, Ritzau, STA, Tanjug, TASR as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project.

People hold a huge EU flag in front of the Freedom Monument on the 20th anniversary of Latvia's accession to the EU. Alexander Welscher/dpa

(L-R) The flag of the European Union, the national flags of Germany and Poland wave in the wind on the banks of the German-Polish border river Oder on the 20th anniversary of Poland's accession to the EU. Patrick Pleul/dpa

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, take part in a press conference to mark the 20th anniversary of Poland's accession to the EU. Patrick Pleul/dpa

The flag of the European Union and the national flag of Poland wave in the wind at sunrise in front of the city bridge over the border river Oder between Frankfurt (Oder) and Slubice in Poland. The foreign ministers of the two neighboring countries want to meet at noon to mark the 20th anniversary of Poland's accession to the EU. Patrick Pleul/dpa
By Mahamat Ramadane and Portia Crowe

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad will hold presidential elections on Monday, making it the first in a string of coup-hit states across Central and West Africa to use the ballot box to try to emerge from years of military rule.

Opposition groups have already cried foul. The candidate widely expected to win is Mahamat Idriss Deby - the man who seized power the day rebels shot and killed his long-ruling father, Idriss Deby, in April 2021.

But Chad's Western allies have largely stayed quiet and kept watch - hoping, analysts say, that at the very least, the vote will deliver a relatively stable state in a region hit by militant violence where Russia is also pushing for influence.

Among those Western countries is Chad's former colonial ruler France which still has war planes and 1,000 troops there, most recently helping Chad and its neighbours combat the Islamist fighters of Boko Haram.

Chad is now the last Sahel country with a substantial French military presence after other junta-led states including neighbouring Niger as well as Burkina Faso and Mali, told Paris and other Western powers to remove their troops and turned to Moscow for backing.

The priorities of regional and Western powers will be to push for stability and shore up their positions in the country, analysts say.

"Chad is just too strategic at the moment for the West to allow Russia to get an opening," Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said.

It is not just strategic in terms of security, but also on the hot-button issue of migration.

Chad has accepted a huge influx of refugees from Sudan, where civil war has created the world's largest displacement crisis. Laessing said some refugees have crossed to Niger, which last year repealed a law aimed at slowing migration to Europe.

"It's another reason for Western countries to keep the relationship with Chad despite the dismal human rights record," he added.

An election win would bolster Deby's credentials as an ally. "Western policy makers can say at least he was elected," Laessing said.

There are fears the turmoil could be testing old ties in the oil-producing country that lies next to the war-torn states of Sudan, Libya and Central African Republic and the economic powerhouse of Nigeria.

Mahamat Idriss Deby, who took on the title of interim president after his takeover, met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in October last year. He also met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in January.

In April, Chad's air force chief ordered the U.S. to halt activities at an air base near the capital N'Djamena, saying there was a problem with their paperwork.

Weeks later, the U.S. announced a temporary withdrawal of at least some of its troops and said it would continue with a review of security operations after the vote.

PROTESTS, RIVALS, VIOLENCE

Concerns about human rights have also mounted since the younger Deby's takeover.

He initially promised an 18-month transition after his father's death, but his government later adopted resolutions that postponed elections and allowed him to run for president.

The delay triggered protests that security forces violently quelled, killing around 50 civilians.

Opposition figure Yaya Dillo was shot and killed in N'Djamena on Feb. 28, the day the election date was announced. The opposition has called Dillo's death an assassination and forensic experts have said he was likely shot at point-blank range.

Chadian authorities said he was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces who had been sent to detain him for alleged involvement in clashes.

One of Deby's most prominent challengers on Monday will be Succes Masra - a political opponent who spent a year in exile from 2022-2023, then shocked Chadians by agreeing to become Deby's prime minister.

He will also be running against former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacke and seven other candidates, including Lydie Beassemda, the only woman going for the top job.

"Masra's decision ... was a bit surprising, because, during the demonstrations and the deaths, people were saying they wanted change and they saw Succes Masra as the face of change," Babacar Ndiaye, research director at think tank WATHI, said.

Some opposition parties and civil society groups have called for a boycott of the vote, saying Deby and his allies control the main institutions of power and could influence the process.

"This is an election to consecrate the reign of the current leader of the transition," Abderramane Goussoumian, head of the civil society network CSAPR, said.

But for Abakar Moussa Seid, a member of the opposition National Rally for Democracy in Chad party, a boycott would amount to a surrender.

"The only democratic way to end the perpetuation of the power of the Deby dynasty is through the ballot box," he said.

(Editing by Bate Felix and Andrew Heavens)
Did you know that Labour got a lower vote in Thursdays Blackpool South by-election than in the same constituency in the Conservative landslide general election of 2019? Yet it lost then and won now.

The reason, of course, was the turnout. In 2019, it was a little over 56 per cent. This week, it was 32.5 per cent. This does not lead me to argue that Labour did not do well on Thursday night in Blackpool, or in most of the country in the local elections. Even less does it lead me to claim that the Conservatives, despite Ben Houchens victory in Teesside, did all right. But it is of some interest that only 10,825 Blackpuddlians voted Labour and yet they were enough to make up 59 per cent of those voting.

Turnout is often low at by-elections, but the Blackpool South result contrasts with that in Wirral South in February 1997, the last by-election before Tony Blairs New Labour chucked out the Tories in May of that year. There, Labour gained the previously Tory seat in a turnout of 71.5 per cent, more than double the Blackpool South percentage.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that Labour, though well into the phase of winning seats, has not yet done the same for hearts and minds.

A fair summary might be that, after 14 years, voters feel the Conservative Party has delighted them long enough, but they have not yet decided exactly what to do about it. The options available to them now include Reform, and also  probably more attractive to most  doing nothing at all and staying at home.

It was a by-election which led me to break the habit of a journalistic lifetime. Three years ago this Monday, in Hartlepool, the Conservative candidate gained the safe Labour seat, taking over half the vote (on a turnout a third higher than in Blackpool South). I suggested then, only slightly tentatively, that this result might mean the death of Labour.

My point was that Sir Keir Starmer, the man brought in to rescue his party from the depths to which it had sunk under the extremist Jeremy Corbyn, was almost equally unattractive to voters. This second-referendum Remainer had little more to offer Red Wall voters than did Friend-of-Hamas Jeremy, I wrote. Sir Keir seemed to have got precisely nowhere.

I should have stuck by one of the only two sensible rules about British general elections, which is that it is extremely hard to break the two-party system. (Ill come to the other sensible rule in a minute.) So long as we have first-past-the-post elections, voters will naturally incline to a binary choice between the centre-Right and the centre-Left.

After a bit, the floaters will get fed up with whichever lot they have put in and turn them out, putting in the other. Each of the two main parties will quite often suffer internal convulsions, but in the end, enough of them will stay together to survive. The splittists will fail.

This has been the pattern throughout the history of our parliamentary democracy. The cast changed a century ago when one of the two main parties  the Liberals  fell and was replaced by Labour; but the binary system quickly re-established itself.

Almost as soon as I had made my post-Hartlepool mistake, Covid aftershocks and Boris Johnson himself began to undermine the success of Boris Johnson, creating an opportunity which Sir Keir, without panache but with doggedness, took.

Three years on, and people are talking instead about the death of the Conservative Party. I do not propose to repeat my mistake of 2021. Although I have never seen the Tories in a worse mess than they are today, and although we are almost certainly entering a Labour era, I think it highly unlikely that Britain will end up without a Conservative Party.

The Reform Party, you see, is not a phenomenon in its own right. It is what doctors call an epiphenomenon, a secondary symptom.

It may well attract some Labour votes that the Conservatives could never win, but the fundamental reason it exists is because the thing called the Conservative Party is in a bad way. The natural effect of our system is that, after a period of defeat, a mainstream party rethinks, revives and the cycle continues.

In the years since the political death of Margaret Thatcher, we have had the Referendum party, Ukip and the Brexit Party, later renamed Reform (forgive me if I have forgotten a few others along the way). Collectively, they have made some difference. Nevertheless, none has succeeded. The Tories have been in power for 21 of those nearly 34 years. If the Conservatives reflect on this cycle, they will see they can only make it worse by trying desperately to break it.

The year 69AD was known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba, the successor of Nero, was murdered by Otho in January. After defeat at the hands of Vitellius in April, Otho committed suicide. In December, Vitellius was killed by a mob. Vespasian took over.

I need not labour comparisons with the Empresses Theresa and Liz, the Emperor Boris and his trusted Treasurer Rishi, who somehow contrived his fall. I simply make the point that those Tory legions who think it would be fun to install yet another emperor must be crazed by bloodletting. Look at the atavistic yearning for Penny Mordaunt as leader among some party members. It is caused by little more than the thrill at seeing her carry that Coronation sword.

Unlike in the Roman Empire, we have general elections. And while our system has never insisted that every prime minister must first win a general election before holding office, none can enjoy the full confidence of his/her MPs and the electorate unless he has been victorious at the ballot box.

Part of the contempt the public now feel for the Tories derives from the sense that we have been impotent witnesses to a series of mini-coups detat in which one faction gains brief, almost worthless mastery over another. The reign of Liz Truss was the apotheosis of this.

What the plotters seem never to appreciate is that victory in these battles does not necessarily command wider consent. The Tories unhappy mixture of MPs votes and party members votes needed to choose the leader makes it possible for victory, even when won according to the rules, to lack the necessary buy-in from colleagues. For voters, it gives the maddening impression that the Tories think they own the freehold of government.

There may well be a widespread longing to get rid of Rishi Sunak, but it is ridiculous to suggest that he is the central obstacle to another Conservative victory. Besides, at this stage, the only people entitled to do the deed are the voters themselves. As I write, we do not know the results in London or the West Midlands, but it would seem that Lord Houchens victory has stilled the party clamour for Mr Sunaks head.

I promised to mention the other sensible rule about general British elections  as opposed to local, mayoral elections or by-elections, which tend to exaggerate. It is that their results are always deserved, including the ones that seem inconclusive.

On present showing, the Tories seem to deserve to lose, but Labour does not seem to deserve to win. Which seems to suggest that there is a good battle still to be had.

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A view of Hope Hostel, Kigali, Rwanda, where migrants to the UK are to be deported to - Getty/Cyrile Ndegeya

An asylum charity has launched the first blanket legal action against Rishi Sunaks Rwanda plan to deport migrants.

Asylum Aid  which was party to the legal challenge that blocked the first flight to Rwanda two years ago  has begun proceedings against the Home Office over what it claims is an unlawful policy to send migrants to Rwanda.

It claims the Home Offices instruction to its caseworkers to treat Rwanda as safe for asylum seekers conflicts with the Safety of Rwanda Act, which allows migrants to appeal their deportation on the grounds that the east African state could be unsafe.

In a pre-action letter sent to government lawyers, the charity said this inconsistency would lead to the Home Office failing to consider compelling evidence of the risk of harm for individual migrants if they were deported.

It will impede our ability to properly advise our clients on their cases, said the charity. We are also concerned that the Home Offices policy puts individuals who are unable to access effective legal representation at great risk.

If the Home Office does not amend its policy, we intend to proceed with a judicial review to ask the High Court to rule on whether the Home Office has correctly interpreted the Rwanda Act when publishing its policy.

The move comes two days after the union representing top civil servants also announced it would be seeking a judicial review of the Rwanda plan, which it claims could place its members in breach of international law.

Rishi Sunak is continuing to push the Rwanda plan to deport migrants - PA/Toby Melville

The FDA union said civil servants could be in violation of the civil service code  and open to possible prosecution  if they followed a ministers demands to ignore an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) banning a deportation. Such an injunction blocked the first flight to Rwanda in June 2022.

The Home Office is also likely to face legal action from individual migrants who have been detained after being earmarked for deportation to Rwanda.

At least 100 have so far been detained and put in contact with lawyers in order to seek bail before the flights due in nine to 11 weeks and potentially to challenge their removal to Rwanda.

Alison Pickup, executive director of Asylum Aid, said: There is a lack of information on when flights to Rwanda will take off and who will be on them, but the Government has made clear that it is determined to act quickly as we have already seen the Home Office carrying out forcible detentions.

The panic this causes is made worse by the limited capacity to provide high-quality legal representation in the legal aid and charity sector.

We have brought forward this legal action to ensure that the Home Office properly considers any individual cases against removal to Rwanda, including on the grounds that they would be returned from Rwanda to the place they fled.

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2 Chicago men charged in connection with deadly shooting on Far North Side

2 Chicago men charged in connection with deadly shooting on Far North Side

CHICAGO  Two Chicago men are facing felony charges in connection with a Far North Side shooting that left one person dead and another injured in early April.

Authorities say 30-year-old Deandre Loveless and 21-year-old Jamar Hill are each facing felony charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines

According to Chicago police, the charges stem from a deadly shooting that allegedly unfolded on April 9, in the 6900 block of North Glenwood Avenue, in the citys Rogers Park neighborhood.

Police say Loveless and Hill were allegedly involved in the shooting that left a 33-year-old man fatally wounded. Another victim, a 41-year-old man, was also hit by gunfire during the incident.

21-year-old Jamar Hill (left) and 30-year-old Deandre Loveless (right) have each been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, in connection with a deadly shooting that unfolded in Rogers Park.

Both suspects appeared in court on Friday for detention hearings.

LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland

According to a bond proffer, Loveless allegedly acted as the getaway driver during the shooting, while using a rented gray Ford Edge, and surveillance cameras captured the duos movements leading up to the deadly shooting.

After picking up Hill and making several stops, Loveless allegedly drove to a Dunkin Donuts beneath the Morse Red Line stop where the 33-year-old victim was a customer, court documents say.

Prosecutors allege that once in front of the restaurant, Loveless pulled the car into a position so Hill could spring an attack on the victim from the passenger seat.

Hill then allegedly exited the car and began chasing the victim before opening fire. Amid the gunfire, the 33-year-old man was fatally shot and the second victim, who was walking their dog nearby, was hit once, prosecutors say.

According to court documents, after the shooting, Hill ran back to Loveless who was waiting in waiting in the car, and the two fled the scene.

Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines

The bond proffer indicates that Loveless returned the vehicle two hours after the deadly shooting.

Authorities eventually caught up with Loveless and Hill on Wednesday morning and the two were taken into custody only hours apart.

Authorities eventually caught up with Loveless and Hill and the two were taken into custody only hours apart on Wednesday morning.

Police have not yet identified the victim killed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
CHICAGO  For nearly an hour Friday prosecutors laid out allegations against the man accused in the murder of Chicago Police Department Officer Luis Huesca.

Xavier L. Tate, 22, remains behind bars after Cook County judge Mary Cay Marubio ordered him held pending trial.

More than 100 law enforcement officers, including dozens of academy recruits, flooded the courthouse in support of their fallen brother and his family, who faced the man accused in his murder for the first time.

There will be justice for my brother, and I want that justice to be done and put our family at least at peace, said Emiliano Huesca, Jr.

Huesca, a six-year veteran of CPD, was shot multiple times and killed as he arrived home after finishing a work shift on the early morning hours of April 21st.

Prosecutors in court, and a detention proffer filed in Cook County, shared what allegedly led up to the shooting, what happened in the moments during it, and the hours and days to follow.

It was a combination, police said, of cooperation from community members, investigative work between local, state and federal agencies, and a trail of DNA, physical and electronic evidence that helped link Tate to the murder.

We dont just have video, he left pieces of himself behind at every turn, said Assistant States Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers, in court.

Shortly before Tates detention hearing, CPD leadership, Mayor Brandon Johnson, States Attorney Kim Foxx, and other investigators held a press conference at police headquarters to announce the official charges.

The one thing I want to emphasize is, we know exactly where Tate was, when officer Huesca was murdered and thats what were here today to announce, said Antoinette Ursitti, Chief of Detectives.

According to police and prosecutors, Tate traveled to Wisconsin, Iowa, and Rockford before he was arrested Wednesday night at an apartment complex in Glendale Heights. It was the use of Huescas handcuffs while taking the suspect into custody, that Superintendent Larry Snelling said, solemnly honored him.

Tate evaded police for more than a week as the Huesca family buried their beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend, said Snelling.

Police said, dozens of videos provided by residents and businesses in the Gage Park community, played a crucial part in tracking Tates movements.

After observing video of Tate in the area of the shooting, detectives traced his movements back to a business where he purchased a bottle of water using a relatives bank card, said Ursitti.

According to police, it was through that electronic benefits (EBT) card belonging to the suspects mother, that they were able to initially identify Tate. It is part of what they said helped start to establish a timeline, which eventually, revealed Tates movements back to as early as Friday afternoon.

Timeline of suspects alleged whereabouts

According to prosecutors, on Friday, April 19, approximately 36 hours before the murder, Tates cousin ordered him a rideshare from the 10800 block of South Hale Avenue to the cousins home in the 5500 block of South Morgan Street.

As Tate arrived, he was allegedly shown on surveillance video wearing what prosecutors described as a distinguishing outfit, including a black Guess jacket, a dark gray hoody underneath, black Nike shoes with white and blue details, and carrying a black backpack and light gray jacket.

Prosecutors said Tate stayed with his cousin, who left his own home to go to a party Saturday afternoon. When he returned, Tate was allegedly gone.

In the hours leading up to the murder, prosecutors allege Tate was captured on a multitude of surveillance videos, where he was observed walking in the 8th District, the one where Huesca was killed.

Around 9:55 p.m., prosecutors said Tate went into a convenience store in the 3000 block of West 63rd Street to buy gum, also using his mothers EBT card. In video from that store, he was allegedly wearing the same outfit he was in when he got to his cousins house.

The timeline investigators developed showed a person was caught on camera, wearing the same outfit, walking northbound in the 5800 block of South Sawyer Avenue around 30 minutes later. According to prosecutors, a resident was looking out her window and saw the male put a black bag down and begin changing his clothes.

Suspecting something was off, court documents showed the witness snapped a photo from behind of the man when he was done changing. Prosecutors claim Tate replaced his Nikes with distinguishing Burberry shoes, and put on a light gray pullover with yellow and green striping.

Less than two hours after, prosecutors alleged Tate was caught on multiple surveillance cameras walking around the area, and approaching a Walgreens in the 5400 block of South Kedzie Avenue. It was around 2:41 a.m. when Tate allegedly went back to the Walgreens and purchased a Nice brand bottled water using his mothers EBT card, before he left the store and walked a few blocks toward the victims house.

New details in the deadly shooting

It was less than 10 minutes later, when prosecutors said surveillance video showed Tate walking toward Huescas home. When the officer drove past him and made a turn onto 56th Street before pulling into his driveway, the suspect allegedly followed him and approached him on the drivers side.

[Tate] fired 10 shots at the victim striking him in the head, chest, arms, and thighs, read a detention proffer.

According to investigators, a neighbor heard the gunfire and looked out to see Huesca laying next to his vehicle. They reportedly saw a male suspect wearing a grey top and black pants standing at his feet.

The neighbor then observed [Tate] get into the drivers seat of the Toyota and flee the scene, Rodgers wrote in the proffer.

According to court documents, the neighbor tentatively identified a filler, not the suspect, in a photo array.

It was a ShotSpotter alert that brought officers to the location. When they arrived, prosecutors said Huescas service weapon, a Glock 9mm handgun, was not on him.

After the shooting, investigators said they collected shell cases, and preliminary ballistics analysis revealed all shots were fired from one gun and it was not Huescas. According to prosecutors, the shell casings were collected, swabbed and analyzed for DNA, which later generated a hit.

Prosecutors said, Tates DNA was in CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System used by the FBI, due to a juvenile adjudication in a gun case.

After the shooting

Police also recovered Huescas SUV a short distance from the scene, prosecutors said, allegedly ditched just minutes after the crime. Tate was caught on camera driving toward the secluded alley where it was found abandoned, along with possible evidence, including hand sanitizer and a canister of disinfectant wipes found in and by the vehicle.

Around 2:58 a.m., Tate was allegedly caught on camera exiting the alley and walking toward the 5600 block of Mozart. It was there prosecutors said he changed his clothing, and rummaged through his backpack, leaving behind the Nice brand water bottle he purchased with the EBT card, in the spot he was captured bending down.

Prosecutors said police recovered the water bottle from the spot it was left, as well as clothing matching the description of the one captured on video, from a garbage can.

Moments later, Tate is accused of stealing a bike from a yard in the 5600 block of S. California. He reportedly tossed the bicycle over the rear fence and into the alley.

When Tate allegedly dropped the bike over the fence, prosecutors said he left behind a key piece of evidence, his palm print, which also matched via latent analysis.

He used that bicycle, prosecutors said, to drive toward his cousins house. In the process of fleeing, investigators said he dropped his broken cell phone in an alley, later recovered by police, who executed a search warrant on it.

That warrant execution, investigators said, confirmed the historical locations of the suspect from Friday through Sunday morning, until about 20 minutes after the shooting, when it last pinged in the area it was found.

[Tate] is captured on a steady network of surveillance cameras until arriving at his cousins residence. Police later recovered the stolen bicycle in the gangway behind his cousins residence, ASA Rodgers explained.

While investigators had recovered Huescas SUV, his service weapon, was still missing. That was until April 26, when police paid a visit to his friend, Caschaus Tate, they revealed.

According to prosecutors, police went to Caschaus Tates home in the 10800 block of South Hale Avenue, the spot Tate took an Uber from to his cousins house on Friday. He also allegedly Ubered back to the home on South Hale hours after the shooting.

Investigators said they were hoping to talk to Caschaus to see if he had information on the suspects whereabouts, but he had other plans.

Caschaus Tate removed a gun from his bedroom, climbed out his bedroom window, walked into his neighbors yard, and threw the firearm into his own backyard, read the court document.

That gun belonged to Huesca, investigators said. It was revealed in court someone defaced the serial number on the gun in one spot, while it was still visible in another.

Caschaus was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was set to appear in court on May 3, but his case was continued, with the next hearing set for May 16.

In the detention hearing for Tate Friday, Asst. Public Defender Lilian McCartin, appointed to represent him, argued the evidence explained was not enough to hold her client. A judge decided otherwise.

Tate is charged Thursday with first-degree murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen firearm in Huescas murder. He is due back in court on May 22.

At the time of his alleged involvement in the murder, prosecutors confirmed Tate was on pretrial release in three misdemeanor cases, including two in Kane County, resisting arrest and obstructing justice, and a pending misdemeanor case related to an arrest in Olympia Fields.

He reportedly missed his status hearing in the Kane County cases on May 1, and failed to appear for his hearing in Cook County on April 24.

Authorities announced another arrest tied to the case Friday morning.

The DuPage County States Attorneys Office confirmed Malik Murphy is charged with one count of concealing or aiding a fugitive, which is a Class 4 Felony. His relationship to Tate has not yet been revealed.

On Thursday evening, Huescas family, released the following statement on behalf of the family:

As we confront a new chapter in the tragedy that began nearly two weeks ago with the murder of Officer Luis Huesca, we are profoundly grateful to the community for their overwhelming support and prayers during this incredibly difficult time. The warmth and solidarity shown by so many have provided essential comfort in the face of such a devastating loss. We extend our immense gratitude to the men and women of the Chicago Police Department for their unwavering support and dedication to our family, with special recognition to Superintendent Larry Snelling, Chief Antoinette Ursitti, and Chicago FOP President John Catanzara for their exceptional support during our darkest hours. We also commend the U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement agencies for their tireless efforts. Their relentless dedication fuels our hope for swift justice for Officer Huesca. As we place our trust in the justice system for a thorough and just resolution, the potential for lenient pre-trial release conditions that might allow a heinous murderer to walk free is deeply troubling. The vile nature of this crime and its devastating impact on our family and the community demand uncompromising pursuit of justice. While no measure of justice can bring Officer Huesca back or fully heal our hearts, we take solace in his enduring legacy of service and bravery. Thank you all for honoring the memory of Officer Luis Huesca.  The Family of Luis Huesca

Man charged in murder of Chicago police officer

Several City Council members, including Ald. Raymond Lopez and Ald. Silvana Tabares, also came to the hearing Friday to show their support, along with former CPD Officer, Carlos Yanez Jr., partner of CPD officer Ella French, killed in the line of duty in 2021.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial drone photo taken on May 2, 2024 shows rescuers and excavators working at the site of a highway section that collapsed on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou, south China's Guangdong Province. The death toll has climbed as search efforts continue in southern China after a highway section collapsed in a mountainous area, sending more a dozen cars down a steep slope. (Wang Ruiping/Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING (AP)  China has sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures after a highway collapse killed at least 48 people in the countrys mountainous south.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Friday said Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing had stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work.

The dispatch of Zhang, who is also a member of one of the ruling Communist Party's leading bodies, illustrates the concern over a possible public backlash over the disaster, the latest in a series of deadly infrastructure failures. References to the collapse, which left a huge gash in the side of a cliff over which the highway was built, largely disappeared from public media on Friday.

Zhang's presence follows calls by President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party's No. 2 official, Premier Li Qiang, to swiftly handle the tragedy. About 30 other victims were hospitalized. Three people were being identified by DNA samples, though it wasnt clear whether they had died as well.

One side of the four-lane highway in the city of Meizhou gave way about 2 a.m. on Wednesday after a month of heavy rains in Guangdong province.

Twenty-three vehicles plunged into a deep ravine, some bursting into flames and sending up thick clouds of smoke.

Lessons should be drawn from the collapse and more should be done to improve disaster prevention and response capabilities, ensuring the safety of peoples lives and property and the overall social stability, Xinhua quoted the vice premier as saying.

Zhang also called for closer monitoring of weather patterns during the annual summer flooding season that strikes large swathes of central and southern China, and for an improvement in early warning systems and response times.

No official word has been issued about any arrests or investigation into the collapse, which followed unusually intense weather, including hailstorms and an April 27 tornado that struck Guangdong's capital of Guangzhou, killing five and injuring 33. More heavy rain is forecast, with many flights headed south through the region canceled or delayed.

Over 56 centimeters (22 inches) of rain has fallen in the past four weeks in the county where the roadway collapsed, more than four times as much as last year. Some villages in Meizhou were flooded in early April, and the city has received additional rain in recent days.

The Ministry of Emergency Management also issued an urgent circular urging officials to draw lessons from the road collapse and take concrete measures to prevent similar accidents.

The highway section collapsed on the first day of a five-day May Day holiday, when many Chinese travel at home and abroad.
The latest book by Jonathan Haidt is turning out to be quite a success. He has hit on one of todays most pressing concerns. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, released in the United States on March 26, topped The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for four consecutive weeks. Demand has been so high that many points of sale have run out of stock. Haidt, who received his B. A. in philosophy from Yale University and holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, was recognized as one of the 65 World Thinkers of 2013 by Britains prestigious Prospect magazine and as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics by Ethisphere, a global organization dedicated to promoting ethical practices in corporate environments.

The interview takes place inside his office at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, where he has been a professor of ethical leadership for 11 years. It feels as welcoming as an invitation into his own home  Haidt is friendly and offers a cup of coffee that he has prepared himself. Of Jewish descent, Haidt describes himself as a secular liberal. Our conversation revolves around the theory he defends in his book, that in almost every developed country children and young people are suffering from an increase in poor mental health due to their exposure to social media. It is supported by data such as the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which indicates that anxiety levels in teenage boys have increased by 161% and in girls by 145% since 2010. For Haidt, responsibility for this mental health epidemic lies with both tech companies and governments.

Question. You already suspected the consequences that overexposure to social media would have on youth. What was the main revelation for you as you conducted your research?

Answer. I think the biggest revelation was when we discovered that its not just the U.S., that the same thing was happening at the same time in all of the English-speaking countries, and also in Nordic countries and parts of Europe. I also found it interesting to discover that depression and anxiety affect children and young people who come from secular families more than religious families and from liberal families more than conservative families. Kids who are deeply rooted in local communities and moral responsibilities and duties and religion and family, all these things offer some protection.

Q. One of the principles of psychology is that correlation is not the same as causation. Detractors say that there is no scientific evidence to justify that social media is causing mental problems.

A. A lot of research has been done and there is plenty of evidence. In my book I list dozens of correlational and longitudinal studies that reveal a fairly consistent relationship in which frequent social media users have a much higher risk of mental illness than others. For example, a 2018 study of 14-year-olds found that girls who spend five or more hours a day on social media are three times more likely to be depressed than girls who barely use it.

Q. Mark Zuckerberg continues to deny that evidence. You have met him personally, did any positive changes occur after those meetings?

A. As a result of our research we found that, at 11 years old, the age of maximum vulnerability, many children begin to use Instagram, a very dangerous platform. So I had dinner with Zuckerberg in 2019 and 2020 to discuss how to control the issue of underage users of social media. But I cant say Ive noticed any significant changes since then. Meta has shown consistently that when faced with evidence of harm, they will do nothing beyond cosmetic gestures that dont reduce their user base. If tech companies were to do the right thing, they would lose the most valuable customers on earth, preteen kids.

Q. Zuckerberg has children. Do you think he will be able to protect them from what he himself is allowing?

A. Most of the tech people dont give their kids the technology. The people who created this stuff know what it does, and therefore they dont give it to their kids, most of them. And many of them send their kids to Waldorf schools, which use no technology at all, no computers at all.

Q. You have directly pointed at META as being responsible for the suicide of some preteens. Are parents as responsible as technology companies?

A. If the same thing is happening all over the world at the same time, I dont believe its because parents suddenly got irresponsible at the same time. Social media is much more addictive than heroin or cigarettes because its socially addictive. Everyone has to be on it because everyone else is on it.

Q. Have we hit rock bottom or could it get worse?

A. If we do not start acting urgently, although the situation is already serious, it can undoubtedly worsen. Right now, its only 30% or 40% of kids who are anxious and depressed. It could go to 70%, it could go to 90%. We dont know what the limit is. Also, Gen Z is now 28, which means they are now having children, which means that for the first time, children are being born to people who never had a healthy childhood. So Im hopeful that grandparents will play a much larger role because grandparents have the cultural memory of human childhood.

Jonathan Haidt in his office at New York University on April 17. Pascal Perich

Q. According to your research, if a minor is exposed to social media, they suffer a very high risk of having mental health problems, but if their parents prohibit the use of social media they will be socially isolated, which can also lead to psychological problems. Is there a way out?

A. There is if we act collectively. I recommend that parents agree with two or three other families to act as a group. This is what happened in England, for example. Parents began joining a WhatsApp group that became popular when The Guardian published an article about what was beginning to be a movement. And that had an impact on the government to mobilize: in February it became official that they would prohibit the use of mobile phones in educational centers. People are fed up with social media and are looking for a way out. Those on the left and those on the right. Even the children themselves are seeking help to get out of the addiction that has them hooked, but they cannot do it alone. I think we will get there, its just a matter of time.

Q. In your book you dedicate an entire chapter to the case of girls and preteens. Why are they particularly harmed by social media?

A. To begin with, because they use it more. On the other hand, there are differences in how boys and girls interact socially: boys tend to participate in group activities, while girls are more oriented towards one-on-one, face-to-face talking. And what theyre most interested in talking about is other kids in their class and the relationships among them.

Q. The graphs included in your study reflect a change from 2010. What happened then?

A. At first social media were aimed at connecting people, but starting in 2009 they changed their premise and focused on performance. It was when Facebook introduced the like and Twitter introduced retweets. The front-facing camera was also introduced which welcomed selfies. Now content creation, beauty, cruelty are rewarded. And this has triggered depression and anxiety in almost all developed countries.

Q. In addition to triggering depression and anxiety, are there other consequences?

A. There are countries where the data related to the increase in mental illnesses in children associated with social media is not conclusive, but there are more damages associated with the telephone that affect children: lack of attention, addiction, decline in social skills...

Q. You point out that parents overprotect children from reality but not from the internet.

A. Exactly. Parents are afraid that their children will talk to dangerous strangers or expose themselves to inconvenient situations on the street, when in reality those undesirable people and situations are on the internet. And they allow them to navigate without restrictions.

Q. And speaking of the lack of restrictions... What do you think of the influencers who use their children on social media as a source of income?

A. Parents who are using their children and creating a permanent record that is likely to embarrass those kids for the rest of their lives, shows the depths of depravity that the lust for prestige brings out in people. Im not calling for laws to restrain adults. I dont think about the point where there should be regulation of adults using social media. But I think we need to realize that children are different from adults. They need protection. This is where our children live, in these companies. Yet these companies have no incentive to protect our children. In fact, they have a motivation to exploit them because the children are not the customers, theyre the product. This has to change. For this, we do need government help.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt at New York University, where he holds the Chair of Ethical Leadership. Pascal Perich

Q. A large part of the U.S. Senate supports the Kids Online Safety Act, KOSA, which aims to protect children by censoring potentially dangerous online content. Would that be a possible solution to the problem?

A. That might pass this year. And that would mandate a duty of care. Not only protecting them from certain content, but also preventing any child under 13 from having access to social media by implementing a user age verification system.

Q. What are the most immediate actions that parents can take?

A. My book is full of suggestions, but I consider there are four fundamental ones: do not allow children to use smartphones before high school, nor access social media before they are 16 years old. Let them study in schools where the use of phones is not allowed and let them play more independently, without constant supervision.

Q. Related to this last point, in 2017 you co-founded the NGO Let Grow to promote the independence of children.

A. Yes, this is a project in which we offer resources to help children be more independent, since we believe that they are currently educated in overprotection. An eight-year-old child can go to school alone, and an 11-year-old child is already capable of taking care of another minor. The ideal is for an entire school to join the project, for it to be a collective action; only then will parents lose their fear. Children choose an activity to do alone (go to the supermarket, do the laundry, prepare dinner...) and in the neighborhood where these children live it will begin to become normal for them to perform these tasks independently. Please note that in some states in North America, parents can be reported if a child is playing alone in their yard. But allowing children to act independently is not negligence. And showing children that they can do it makes them gain self-confidence, which makes them more confident and happy adults.

Q. Being Jewish, it would be interesting to know your opinion on the conflict in the Middle East. On October 8, you publicly showed support for Israel through a tweet. Do you still maintain this support?

A. I dont want to talk about the Middle East, but I am happy to talk about what is happening on university campuses. The fact that we saw pro-Hamas rallies the day after the attacks indicates a level of radicalization around identity. I certainly understand people who are pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, but to have protests supporting Hamas and to have so many antisemitic acts taking place within that first week... Something is happening on elite college campuses where for the first time were now seeing open antisemitism. Universities are hypocritical in saying nothing about that while punishing microaggressions for anything else. Thats my concern, hypocrisy.

Q. The elections are approaching, what worries you most about the future in the United States?

A. That our diminished trust in institutions and in others will make us become ungovernable. If something doesnt change soon, we will see more chaos, more contested elections, and more political violence, especially if the results of the upcoming presidential election are contested.
China publicizes for the first time what it claims is a 2016 agreement with Philippines

FILE - Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4, left, is hit by two Chinese coast guard water canons as they tried to enter the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea on March 5, 2024. For the first time, China has publicized what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  For the first time, China has publicized what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands.

The move threatens to further raise tensions in the disputed waterway, through which much of the world's trade passes and which China claims virtually in its entirety.

A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Manila said the temporary special arrangement agreed to during a visit to Beijing by former president Rodrigo Duterte allowed small scale fishing around the islands but restricted access by military, coast guard and other official planes and ships to the 12 nautical mile (22 kilometer) limit of territorial waters.

The Philippines respected the agreement over the past seven years but has since reneged on it to fulfill its own political agenda, forcing China to take action, the statement said.

This is the basic reason for the ceaseless disputes at sea between China and the Philippines over the past year and more, said the statement posted to the embassy's website Thursday, referring to the actions of the Philippines.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Duterte have denied forging any agreements that would have supposedly surrendered Philippine sovereignty or sovereign rights to China. Any such action, if proven, would be an impeachable offense under the countrys 1987 Constitution.

However, after his visit to Beijing, Duterte hinted at such an agreement without offering details, said Collin Koh, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies based in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and an expert on naval affairs in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly Southeast Asia.

He boasted then that he not only got Chinese investment and trade pledges, but also that he secured Philippine fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal, Koh said, referring to one of the maritime features in dispute.

Beijing's deliberate wording in the statement is noteworthy in showing that Beijing has no official document to prove its case and thus could only rely mainly on Dutertes verbal claim, Koh said.

Marcos, who took office in June 2022, told reporters last month that China has insisted that there was such a secret agreement but said he was not aware of any.

The Chinese are insisting that there is a secret agreement and, perhaps, there is, and, I said I didnt, I dont know anything about the secret agreement, said Marcos, who has drawn the Philippines closer to its treaty partner the U.S. Should there be such a secret agreement, I am now rescinding it.

Duterte, who nurtured cozy relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his six-year presidency while openly being hostile to the United States for its strong criticism of his deadly campaign against illegal drugs.

While he took an almost virulently anti-American stance during his 2016 visit to Washington's chief rival, he has said he also did not enter into any agreement with Beijing that would have compromised Philippine territory. He acknowledged, however, that he and Xi agreed to maintain the status quo in the disputed waters to avoid war.

Aside from the fact of having a handshake with President Xi Jinping, the only thing I remember was that status quo, thats the word. There would be no contact, no movement, no armed patrols there, as is where is, so there wont be any confrontation, Duterte said.

Asked if he agreed that the Philippines would not bring construction materials to strengthen a Philippine military ship outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal, Duterte said that was part of maintaining the status quo but added there was no written agreement.

Thats what I remember. If it were a gentlemans agreement, it would always have been an agreement to keep the peace in the South China Sea, Duterte said.

House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Marcoss cousin and political ally, has ordered an investigation into what some are calling a gentlemans agreement.

China has also claimed that Philippine officials have promised to tow away the navy ship that was deliberately grounded in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to serve as Manilas territorial outpost. Philippine officials under Marcos say they were not aware of any such agreement and would not remove the now dilapidated and rust-encrusted warship manned by a small contingent of Filipino sailors and marines.

China has long accused Manila of violating its commitments and acting illegally in the South China Sea, without being explicit.

Apart from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the sea that is rich in fishing stocks, gas and oil. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling by a U.N.-affiliated court in the Hauge that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.

Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila have flared since last year, with massive Chinese coast guard cutters firing high-pressure water cannons at Philippine patrol vessels, most recently off Scarborough Shoal late last month, damaging both. They have also accused each other of dangerous maneuvering, leading to minor scrapes.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged Chinas claims.

The U.S. has warned repeatedly that its obligated to defend the Philippines  its oldest treaty ally in Asia  if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.
As China's Xi Jinping visits Europe, Ukraine, trade and investment are likely to top the agenda

FILE- French President Emmanuel Macron, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after meeting the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, April 6, 2023. Xi will start his Europe tour in Paris on May 6-7, 2024, meeting with Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the U.S. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool, File)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinpings first trip to Europe in five years, as the Asian giant rebuilds its foreign relations after a prolonged absence during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xi will start the tour in Paris on Monday, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been stressing the idea of European strategic autonomy from the U.S. On a visit to Beijing last year, Macron courted controversy by saying France would not necessarily always align with the U.S. in foreign policy, an apparent reference to American support for the self-governing republic of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

After leaving France, Xi will visit Hungary and Serbia, both seen as China-friendly and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rebuffing Western criticism of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Xis European visits will be closely followed in Washington for signs of diminishing support for its key foreign policy goals.

The Chinese leader will arrive in France just as Paris is putting the finishing touches on its preparations for hosting the Summer Olympics, an event in which China invests huge amount of national prestige.

France sees Xi's visit, which officially marks 60 years of French-Chinese diplomatic relations, as an important diplomatic moment, and wants to focus on Chinas broader relations with the EU. Macron invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the talks Monday.

It comes a month before Macron, who positions himself as the diplomatic leader of Europe, hosts Biden for a similar state visit.

It is also a sign of the good vibes from Macrons visit to China in April last year," said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College London.

This is a highly strategic visit to Europe by Xi. And in his itinerary you can divine the runes of Chinese policy on Europe now, bolstering the traditional links as far as possible, and reinforcing new ones, Brown said.

Xi's is also visiting Budapest, where Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in power for 14 years, is facing political challenges from the opposition over his authoritarian style.

Hungary has straddled a middle ground between its membership in the EU and NATO and an unusual openness to diplomatic and trade relationships with eastern autocracies such as Russia and China.

Orban, a right-wing populist who has forged close ties with Russia, delayed Swedens entry into NATO for months. China has cited NATO expansion as provoking Russia to invade Ukraine.

Hungary is the first EU member to participate in Xi's signature Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to build billions of dollars of roads, ports, power plants and other infrastructure across Asia, Africa and beyond.

Orban was the only EU leader to attend a conference in Beijing on the BRI, which has been criticized for burying participating countries in debt and failing to deliver on promised investments, something that prompted Italy to drop out last year.

Despite that, Hungarys government has deepened its economic ties with China, with the proliferation of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery factories across the country gaining the most attention. Near Debrecen, Hungarys second-largest city, construction is underway of a nearly 550-acre, 7.3 billion euro ($7.9 billion) EV battery plant, Hungarys largest-ever foreign direct investment.

China has also invested heavily in infrastructure to link Hungary with its southern neighbor Serbia, Xi's next stop on his European tour.

In 2014, Hungary and Serbia concluded an agreement with Beijing to modernize the railway between their capitals of Budapest and Belgrade, part of a Belt and Road plan to link up with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece, to the south, an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

The more than $2 billion project is expected to be completed in 2026, after numerous delays.

In Serbia, Xi will hold talks with President Aleksandar Vucic, with whose government China has built strong relations.

The two countries have a long history of friendship, particularly since 1999, when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese nationals, during the air war to end Serbias brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

The U.S. apologized, saying faulty target selection was to blame, but the incident led to violent attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in China and fueled anti-American sentiment in both countries that endures to this day.

In 2022, shortly after the Russian assault on Ukraine, Serbia took semi-secret delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system flown in on six Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes. The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of Chinas growing global reach.

China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict but Xi and Putin declared their governments had a no limits friendship before Moscows attack on Ukraine. China has refused to call the Russian assault an invasion and has been accused of bolstering Russias capacity to produce weapons and its military advantage against Ukraine, which is awaiting tens of billions in Western military aid.

A U.S. military aid bill passed last week allots $61 billion for Ukraine, as well as $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, which China has condemned as a dangerous provocation.

Chinas foreign ministry said the U.S. position on Chinese defense trade with Russia was hypocritical when considered alongside the amount of military assistance Washington is providing to Kyiv.

China denies selling arms to Russia and the U.S. says it has found no direct evidence of such evidence of such. However, China does sell 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 U.S. assessment.

___

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.
Less than two months after criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for his ouster, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly now plans to invite the Israeli prime minister to address Congress.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson drafted an invitation to Netanyahu last month and told The Hill Thursday that it was to be extended on behalf of both houses of Congress. But, Johnson said, Schumer has done nothing since then.

I sent a letter draft, because its a bicameral invitation letter, its been sitting on Chuck Schumers desk. As far as I know he has not co-signed it yet, Johnson said.

But now, Schumers office says, the Senate majority leader has changed his mind.

He intends to join the invitation; the timing is being worked out, a spokesperson for Schumer said.

In March, Schumer gave a speech in Congress saying that Netanyahu had lost his way, arguing that the Israeli prime minister had allowed his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel and criticizing his alliance with the countrys far right.

Nobody expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the things that must be done to break the cycle of violence, preserve Israels credibility on the world stage, and work towards a two-state solution, Schumer said.

Just a week later, though, when Johnson announced he intended to invite Netanyahu to address Congress, Schumer appeared to hedge his bets.

Israel has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any one president or any one Prime Minister. I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way, Schumer said in a statement.

So, what caused Schumer to welcome Netanyahu? It may be that misguided framing and discourse regarding college protests against Israels war in Gaza, where Netanyahu and the Israeli military have been accused of war crimes, have changed his outlook. Some Democrats have made outrageous criticisms and claims about the student movement, even going as far to compare them to neo-Nazis. Meanwhile, many Republicans have engaged in grandstanding over the protests to boost their pro-Israel credibility, despite being mocked by the students.

Schumer also was attacked after his March speech by the pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC, which still wields considerable influence in Congress. Its quite telling that Schumers speech didnt mention Congresss long history of hindering peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians, perhaps demonstrating that nothing was really going to change. It looks like anything that would actually bring a cease-fire to Israels war in Gaza and make definite steps toward a Palestinian state, such as ending weapons sales to Israel, isnt coming from Congress anytime soon.
The city of Berkeley, California, is repealing its landmark ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings, according to the New York Times. The first-of-its-kind ordinance, passed in 2019, is being scrapped after a legal challenge from the California Restaurant Association.

What happened?

The groundbreaking law thrust Berkeley into the national spotlight and inspired over 140 other cities to phase out gas in new homes and buildings, as the Times detailed.

However, those efforts now face an uncertain future amid pushback from the gas industry, restaurants, and builders.

The court battle ended in a settlement last week, with the city halting enforcement of the ordinance and vowing to officially undo the rule.

"To comply with the Ninth Circuit's ruling, we have ceased enforcement of the gas ban," said Berkeley's city attorney, Farimah Brown, per the Times. However, "Berkeley will continue to be a leader on climate action."

Why is this policy reversal concerning?

Restrictions on gas hookups aim to tackle a key source of pollution: carbon burned in furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and other appliances.

Homes and buildings accounted for a whopping 13% of America's planet-warming pollution in 2022, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Letting gas connections expand means locking in decades of this pollution at a time when urgent action is needed to curb rising temperatures.

Research also shows burning gas indoors poses health risks like asthma, especially to vulnerable groups like children  12.7% of all childhood asthma cases in the U.S. are related to gas stove use, according to a study published in 2022 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

What's being done about this policy reversal?

Some cities say they'll move forward with electrification plans, believing their policies are written carefully to withstand legal scrutiny. Many cities and states, meanwhile, have passed laws prohibiting local gas bans entirely, as the Times reported.

Another path may be adopting stricter building efficiency codes that make gas harder to use while stopping short of explicit phaseouts. The White House has also proposed new appliance standards to improve efficiency and promote electric stoves over gas.

Despite setbacks, many advocates remain determined to transition buildings away from gas through alternative policy approaches. The good news is that modern electric appliances are increasingly better-performing and affordable.

What can you do to help?

When it comes time to replace that old gas furnace, stove, or water heater, consider upgrading to an efficient electric model. Induction cooktops are sleek, high-performance options professional chefs recommend.

Swapping out even one gas appliance shrinks your carbon impact. Plus, you position yourself to save money as more renewable energy comes online, making electricity cheaper and cleaner than gas in the long run. It's a win-win for your wallet and the planet.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
For as long as Amanda Nguyen can remember, she's been reaching for the stars. And as the first Vietnamese woman to go to space, she'll soon be among them.

"It has always been my dream to be an astronaut," Nguyen told ABC News' Juju Chang at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. "I have a connection with the stars, because it's what led my family to freedom."

Her mother's family were boat refugees from Vietnam who used the stars to help navigate their way to safer shores. Now, the daughter of those immigrants is set to make history as the first Southeast Asian woman to fly to space on an upcoming trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard vehicle, thanks to the nonprofit Space for Humanity that is sponsoring the journey.

PHOTO: Amanda Nguyen 1st Vietnamese woman in space speaks with Juju Chang on GMA, May 3, 2024. (ABC News)

"Being the first Vietnamese woman is to let every young Vietnamese girl know that we belong," the 32-year-old Southern California native said.

But it's a dream that was put on hold and almost didn't come true after she says she was sexually assaulted in 2013 while studying astrophysics at Harvard. The rape survivor was fueled by frustrations with how her own case was handled and started speaking out, dedicating her time and shifting her focus to fighting for justice.

"When I spoke up about my story, other survivors all across America had faced these issues too," Nguyen said. "How terrible is it to want to pursue justice, and yet, the rate of conviction is 1%. What does that tell survivors?"

In that moment, she said she felt she had to choose between her life's dream and justice.

"I couldn't live with myself if I chose not to pursue justice," she said.

PHOTO: Amanda Nguyen attends the 2024 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 25, 2024 in New York City. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic via Getty Images)

Nguyen has been a major driving force behind both Congress and the United Nations unanimously passing rights for sexual assault survivors, including the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights.

"I let out this scream that was, I felt like a curse was lifting," she recalled of the moment President Barack Obama signed into law what she had been fighting for.

Nguyen still had dreams to shoot for the stars and when Space for Humanity said they would get her a ticket on Blue Origin she said she was overwhelmed with "profound gratitude."

PHOTO: Amanda Nguyen 1st Vietnamese woman in space speaks with Juju Chang on GMA, May 3, 2024. (Courtesy Amanda Nguyen)

"I am the dreams of my ancestors -- and I am so grateful that that part of me, to the girl who existed before I was hurt, the child in me who loves the stars, my mom, who crossed the ocean. I get to say to them -- we'll get to fly to space," she said referring to a recent tribute she wrote on the very topic.

Civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen talks being the 1st Vietnamese woman to go to space originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
Civil rights leaders from around the nation gathered in Washington, D.C., Friday to protest book bans and rising attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), saying limitations on education were hurting teachers, students and democracy as a whole.

Protesters with the Freedom to Learn rally marched from the Library of Congress to the Supreme Court. In addition to concerns on book bans and DEI, the rally also highlighted Supreme Court rulings on ending affirmative action in higher education and overturning Roe v. Wade.

Kimberle Crenshaw, co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, said the Supreme Court has lost its way.

Its gotten into the business of erasure, Crenshaw said. Diversity, equity and inclusion is the new moral panic of the nation. Its the source, they say, of all that ails us. DEI is becoming the new N-word in American politics.

This institution has lost its way, says @sandylocks. Its gotten into the business of eraser. pic.twitter.com/l5UQcitNpi  cheyanne m daniels (your alien superstar) (@CheyannaMarie97) May 3, 2024

Since 2023, 85 bills in 28 states have been introduced to limit DEI policies, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Thirteen have become law, while 14 have final legislative approval.

Meanwhile, during the 2022-23 school year, 153 districts across 33 states banned books, according to a report by PEN America.

Many of the books are written by women, authors of color or LGBTQ authors and delve into topics including race, racism, sexuality and identity. Crenshaw, who has been credited with founding critical race theory, has had her work banned in schools around the country. Critical race theory is an academic framework evaluating U.S. history through the lens of racism that has become a political catch-all buzzword for any race-related teaching

Attacks on our knowledge and our literature have reached unprecedented levels, Crenshaw said Friday. It prevents us from learning about our past to create a better, more inclusive future. We know education is the key to democratic inclusion.

Weve got to fight for our right to learn. Weve got to fight against the Achilless heel of our democracy, which is its racism and the ignorance about it. Without the freedom to learn, we cannot save our democracy, she concluded.

Crenshaw has previously discussed with The Hills The Switch Up podcast the effect this has had on her.

A survey conducted earlier this year by Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of teachers surveyed said their state government has too much influence over what is taught in schools. More than 40 percent said the political debates taking place in legislatures has had a negative impact on their ability to do their job.

Republican governors in particular, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have pushed legislation to limit what topics can be taught in schools and how they should be taught. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins victory in a 2021 election centered on the idea of parents rights in schools.

Since 2021, at least 18 states have imposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics of race and gender, according to a report by Education Week.

On Friday, advocates like Wisdom Cole, national director for the NAACPs Youth and College Division, said the limitations are an attempt to whitewash history.

We stand on the steps where we argued in this very court to ensure that our children could sit in the seats at the very universities that they are now protesting, he said. Pay attention as the highest court in the land moves further away from the people so they can line their pockets with money from profiteers that dont want to see us rise above.

70 years ago we fought and we won, but we never back down, says @wordsofwiz27 for @NAACP @NAACPYC_ Pay attention as the highest court in the land moves further away from the people. Pay attention as books are being banned and the concept of diversity being banished. pic.twitter.com/2NXiCIVzjd  cheyanne m daniels (your alien superstar) (@CheyannaMarie97) May 3, 2024

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said these limitations are the rebirth of Jim Crow and a slap in the face to the decision of Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Some people have the gall and the nerve to seek to repeal, undercut and undermine those historic victories. We owe obligations to our ancestors, he said. And hell yes, we will be woke, because its better to be woke than to be asleep.

Many at Fridays rally wore shirts depicting a young Ruby Bridges being escorted out of school by security officials, an homage to one of the first Black students to attend an all-white school and the vitriol she faced to attain her education.

Gwendolynn Hines, a freshman at Morgan State University, said she attended Fridays rally in part to honor Bridges.

Ruby Bridges set the path for us, and were going to stay on that path to ensure that we can still follow through on our education and that generations to come can still get an education, too, said Hines, 19.

Those opposed to DEI policies argue they are divisive, force children to look at each others differences, and make certain students feel uncomfortable. Defenders of book bans have argued books that delve into slavery and racism are traumatizing and depict violence, while those on sexuality and identity are inappropriate and pornographic.

Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, said this rhetoric is a cover for white supremacy.

First they passed laws to prohibit Black people from reading. Now they are passing laws to prohibit people from reading about what they did, she said. We know about being uncomfortable as Black people. These anti-woke laws and policies are anti-us. They are anti-Black. They are anti-Latino. They are anti-Asian Pacific Islander. They are anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ and especially anti-trans. They are anti-majority. They are anti-democracy.

She then blasted the Supreme Court for its decision on affirmative action, telling those gathered that the decision will leave many Black students from obtaining higher education.

We must connect the dots to the bans on books, to anti-CRT to anti-LGBTQ to the attacks on reproductive freedom, Browne Dianis said. We must attach it to voter suppression. Because they want to silence us. They want to make sure that we are erased. But the majority is rising and they will lose.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A 44-year-old man was hurt in a Russian attack on the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Facebook

:     

Quote: "A 44-year-old man was injured as a result of an enemy strike on the Nikopol district. He sustained a shrapnel wound. Hospitalised with moderate severity."

Photo: Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration

Details: According to reports, Russia shot 11 times on Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during the day. Nikopol, Myriv, and Pokrovsk hromadas were targeted by the Russian forces [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories  ed.].

The attackers also caused damage to 13 private homes, 5 outbuildings, a medical institution, autos, and electrical lines.

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Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark suggested Wednesday that Ukraines war with Russia is a test of endurance, as neither country appears to be seeking compromise in the conflict thats lasted more than two years.

I dont think Ukraine is willing to compromise and give up its territory. I dont think the Ukrainian military is going to collapse even though things are pretty tough right now until that American assistance gets there, Clark said on NewsNations The Hill.

And I dont think Russia is willing to give up, so its an endurance contest, and its also a contest of national will and whether the United States and NATO will stand firm to support a beleaguered democracy, Clark added. He previously served as NATOs supreme allied commander.

His comments come as Ukraine anxiously awaits the arrival of new U.S. weapons and equipment approved last month. Kyivs forces have struggled in recent weeks against Russias continued missile and drone strikes, and Russian forces have recently taken several villages in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has remained steadfast in his mission to defeat Russia. Like many Western leaders, he has reiterated the argument that a Russian victory has wider implications for other European nations.

Clark suggested the Ukraine-Russia war cannot be looked at in terms of time.

Because what you got here is a critical situation that affects global security, he said. For Ukraine to collapse, wed be faced with a huge national security crisis in Europe, and it would empower the Chinese to go after Taiwan. So we cant measure it on the clock.

The Defense Department announced a $1 billion package for Ukraine last week, shortly after President Biden signed a national security supplemental into law that includes $61 billion to support the embattled nation.

The supplemental came after a more than yearlong stalemate among lawmakers that prevented further aid from being passed months after most U.S. assistance dried up late last year.

Clark predicted Russia will attempt a big play at taking over more land in Ukraine this summer as U.S. aid trickles into the war-torn nation.

Its going to be a hair-raising time in Ukraine and for the West and then  summer will probably end with a Ukrainian counteroffensive that regains much of the territory lost, he said. 2025 may be decisive.

Clark pushed back on the suggestion Russia would fall if President Vladimir Putin loses his position.

Look, Putin is the most experienced statesman in the world today. Hes a wily intelligence agent, and wed be very much better off if he goes into the sunset somewhere and retires, he said.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  In just 24 hours, its like night and day at the Portland State University campus in downtown Portland after a long day of protests and police activity and a swift cleanup process that followed. However, the library itself  a main focus of protester activity  remains closed for repairs until at least the fall of 2024.

According to Portland police, Thursdays activities saw 30 people arrested, 7 of whom are confirmed students.

From power-washing the benches to the walls, crews are hard at work cleaning up after protests on campus.

NE Portland house fire triggers ammunition to go off

However, the search by law enforcement is on for other protesters who fled from PSUs Millar Library following its initial occupation, after which police put up metal fencing. Those fences went down during a brief retreat from police when the library was occupied for a second time Thursday night.

However, police once again intervened that same night, and on Friday the metal fences were back up. The PSU campus also opened up again on Friday.

Portland police are asking the publics help in identifying protesters who were seen running away from the PSU library following a days-long occupation. May 2, 2024 (courtesy Portland Police Bureau).

Portland police are asking the publics help in identifying protesters who were seen running away from the PSU library following a days-long occupation. May 2, 2024 (courtesy Portland Police Bureau).

Once the scene had cleared, clean-up crews were spotted removing bins, fences and some debris that was left behind. However, some of the vandalism has proven to have longer-term consequences, especially when it comes to inside the library, which was subjected to broken glass, smashed computers and graffiti on walls and even books.

Semi-truck rollover crash closes Morrison Bridge

Dennis Cote is a grad student at Harvard University doing field research in Portland about gentrification. He told KOIN 6 News he relies on the library for the invaluable pieces of information contained exclusively within its walls.

Theres books here. These are tools that are not available online or at Harvards library. So those books only exist at that library, Cote said.

In a Friday press conference, Gov Tina Kotek said, The criminal activity that has occurred in downtown Portland over the last two days is unacceptable and in direct opposition to Oregon values.

Mayor Ted Wheeler did not comment on what led police to leave the library unprotected.

Im going to defer that to the police bureau, he said. That was a tactical decision.

Meanwhile, Portland police shared the following statement:

The plan all along was for us to leave the area once PSU erected the fence and boarded the windows/doors as they were tasked with doing When we saw they returned, we assembled a new team and addressed the issue, making arrests along the way.

Crews are putting up plywood to secure the perimeter of the library, though some graffiti can still be seen inside through the windows. The rest of the campus is getting back to normal, with students returning to classes.

In a letter released Friday from PSU President Ann Cudd, she explained why the Millar Library wouldnt re-open until next year, saying in part:

This morning I took a tour of the Branford Price Millar Library and it was difficult to see this important campus space unusable. The library team is working to get remote services up and running and we are also endeavoring to identify and equip alternative study spaces throughout the campus. Thank you to everyone on our facilities staff who has worked and will continue to work to bring our library back online. The building is not suitable for occupation, but we hope to reopen it in time for fall term.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Lawsuits |

By Haley Chouinard and Fred Nicolaus

The design firm caught up in Kim Kardashians Donald Judd knockoff scandal is firing back. Last week Clements Designcomposed of the mother-son team of Kathleen and Tommy Clementsfiled a motion asking the judge overseeing the case to dismiss it from court before a trial. The 28-page document accuses the Judd Foundation of suing for publicity and attempting to stifle competition in the market, prevent other designers from creating their own wooden tables and claim minimalism as its own.

Heres how we got here. Back in March, the Judd Foundation hit Kardashian and the Clements with a lawsuit, claiming that the AD100 firm had produced unauthorized copies of the artists La Mansana table and Chair 84 for the offices of Kardashians company, Skkn by Kimand that in a video about the offices design, the celebrity claimed the pieces were authentic. The lawsuit detailed a back-and-forth, starting in 2022, when the video was posted on YouTube.

The motion lays out the Clements side of the story. In it, the firm acknowledges producing the pieces for Kardashian, but claims that they were never intended to be passed off as the real thing: In describing the furniture to its client, Clements Design never described it as authentic. Donald Judd furniture, the document reads. On the contrary, Clements Design described the furniture as in the style of Donald Judd which means the furniture was not actually Donald Judd furniture but was only designed in the same minimalist style.

Much of the motion is dedicated to poking holes in the Judd Foundations legal claims. The original suit hinges on allegations of trademark and trade dress (the visual appearance of a product that signifies its origin to customers, like the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, for example) infringement, false advertising and unfair competition, all of which the firm seeks to refute. For example, the Judd Foundations attorneys used a copy of the Clements design proposal for the project, which included copyrighted photos of Judds La Mansana table and Chair 84. The Clements rebuttal argues that since the proposal was distributed privately on a single occasion, that there is no case for the claim of false advertising.

As for the trade dress claim, the motion suggests that the original suit is broadly describing the minimalist aesthetic, not Judds work specifically. Judd Foundation essentially seeks monopoly protection for what are generic minimalist design features, it states.

Clements Design did not return to a request for comment. The Judd Foundations attorney provided a statement to Business of Home, which restates the organizations original claims.

Clements Design admits that it sold knockoff Donald Judd furniture and marketed that furniture using the Donald Judd trademark and a copyrighted photograph belonging to Judd Foundation, but contends that since it allegedly only did these things once, it is above the law and should not be held liable, writes Megan K. Bannigan of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. The precedent Clements Design attempts to set would give all trademark infringers a get-out-of-jail-free card, so long as they infringe in only limited quantities. That is not the law. We are confident in our legal claims.

Though the motion sheds some light on the Clements thinking, the story behind Kardashians comments in the video (If you guys are furniture people, and Ive gotten really into furniture lately, these Donald Judd tables are amazing, she says, gesturing to the pieces in question) are somewhat murky. The celebritywho is also named in the Judd Foundations lawsuithas not filed a similar document in court. The judge overseeing the case, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, plans to revisit the motion in October.

Want to stay informed? Sign up for our newsletter, which recaps the weeks stories, and get in-depth industry news and analysis each quarter by subscribing to our print magazine. Join BOH Insider for discounts, workshops and access to special events such as the Future of Home conference.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2024 - 07:42 | All, World, Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Thursday to initiate negotiations on a reciprocal access agreement so the two countries can facilitate closer defense cooperation such as joint exercises and disaster relief operations.

Japan has RAAs with Australia and Britain, enabling their defense forces to smoothly access each other's territory for diverse purposes. Additionally, it has agreed with the Philippines to initiate talks for such an accord.

Kishida met with Macron as Tokyo has been stepping up efforts to strengthen security relations with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region to better deal with China's growing military assertiveness in nearby waters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France and meet with Macron later this month, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Japan and France have already signed separate deals to expand their security cooperation, including an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement which simplifies the process of sharing food, fuel and ammunition between their forces.

Kishida and Macron also agreed Thursday to strengthen bilateral cooperation in other security areas as well as economic sectors such as the creation of supply chains to secure rare earths and other minerals.

The leaders also discussed how to boost investment in startups and shared hope that bilateral exchanges will be further accelerated through the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics in Paris as well as the World Exposition in Japan's Osaka in 2025, according to the ministry.

France has strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific as it has overseas territories in the area, such as New Caledonia in the South Pacific, while Tokyo has been at odds with Beijing over the Japan-controlled, China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Cleopatra may be the most written-about woman in history, and is certainly the most famous female ruler of any kingdom, ancient or modern. Yet, despite the mythology that attaches to the Queen of the Nile, she was by no means unique, no trailblazer  or such, in short, is the thesis of Lloyd Llewellyn-Joness entertaining new book, The Cleopatras.

As Llewellyn-Jones explains in his introduction, Cleopatra  the Liz Taylor Cleopatra whom we think we know so well  was, in reality, the seventh (and final) Egyptian queen to bear the name. He sets out to demonstrate just how big a debt she owed, in terms of her self-image, her political strategy and the character of her rule, to her six predecessors. Cleopatras IVI (along with three further, unnumbered Cleopatras) have long been confined to the footnotes of history, but here they emerge as fascinating figures in their own right: some heroines, some harpies, each with an extraordinary story to tell.

The Cleopatras belonged to two, obsessively inter-married and alarmingly inbred dynasties that ruled much of Alexander the Greats erstwhile empire in the three centuries after his death (the third to first centuries BC). In Asia, there were the Seleucids; in Egypt, the Ptolemies. The first Cleopatra was a Seleucid princess who married into the Ptolemaic royal house, while her later namesakes were Ptolemaic princesses, some of whom married into the Seleucid dynasty. All 10 Cleopatras were either pawns or players in a merciless game of thrones that saw the two families tear themselves, and each other, apart in the pursuit of hegemonic power.

From the outset, Llewellyn-Jones warns the reader that the theme of royal incest informs and underpins this entire study. Indeed: the tortuous family relationships  sisters marrying their brothers, daughters their own fathers, with princesses often passed from one husband to another as individual fortunes waxed and waned  make for a confusing picture. Even with the help of family trees, often with multiple criss-crossing lines, its difficult to keep track of all the protagonists. This is compounded by the fact that Hellenistic royal names were chosen from an extremely limited short-list. (Over a period of some 300 years, every royal male in Egypt was named Ptolemy.)

Yet, despite a somewhat breathless succession of births, marriages and deaths, of rulers, battles and dates, what comes across, loud and clear, is that the Cleopatras and their relatives were [a] group of very flawed and damaged individuals trying to make sense of life in a truly bizarre world. That puts it mildly. Llewellyn-Jones has a tabloid journalists eye for the juicy anecdote and lurid story, and there are plenty of both in this history. To give just one example, Cleopatra III sent her own mother, Cleopatra II, a birthday present of an inlaid casket; when opened, it was found to contain the dismembered body of Cleopatra IIs beloved son (and Cleopatra IIIs own half-brother), Ptolemy Memphites. The internecine violence of the Ptolemies and Seleucids makes the Borgias look like the Waltons.

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, author of The Cleopatras - Bloomsbury

The caveat to these salacious stories, however entertaining, is that much of what we think we know about the Cleopatras is either supposition or downright fiction, based on the accounts of later, prejudiced, Roman authors. Even when this bias is acknowledged, a heavy reliance on Greek and Latin sources can lead scholars to conclude that the Cleopatras were exceptional: that, in Llewellyn-Joness words, they shattered the rules of what it meant to be a queen. This was certainly true of Greek civilisation, which was resolutely patriarchal, and of Roman culture, which was downright misogynistic; but it was not so in Egypt.

The key to the success of the Cleopatras lies as much in their geographic context as in their own personalities. It is no coincidence that, uniquely in the Hellenistic world, the idea of a female ruler exercising authority in her own right gained traction in the Nile Valley. Under the pharaohs, royal succession was not always patrilineal, and there are examples of powerful queens from every period of ancient Egyptian history. In the third millennium BC, a woman is known to have governed Egypt as regent for her infant son; in the second millennium, three successive generations of queens ruled while their husbands were away fighting endless wars. Women like Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh, or Nefertiti, Tutankhamuns predecessor on the throne, were every bit as consequential as their male counterparts. They paved the way for the Cleopatras.

Though they were of Greek-speaking, Macedonian heritage, the royal women of the Ptolemaic dynasty found themselves in an adopted land where active queenship was not only possible but proven. The Egyptian dimension is the missing link that helps us to understand the Cleopatras and their place in history. Pharaonic civilisation provided a wellspring of ideology, iconography and precedent from which an ambitious female ruler might draw  as the life, death and legend of the great Cleopatra VII show. The Ptolemaic dynasty owed its origins to a Greek general and its demise to a Roman one, but its most remarkable figures were women. And this could only have happened in Egypt.

Toby Wilkinsons The Last Dynasty: Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra is forthcoming from Bloomsbury. The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt is published by Wildfire at 25. To order your copy for 19.99 call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books

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CMPD Officer Joshua Eyers wife speaks at funeral: I will carry his love with me for the rest of my life.

CMPD Officer Joshua Eyers wife speaks at funeral: I will carry his love with me for the rest of my life.

CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  Hundreds of law enforcement officers from agencies across NC gathered in uptown Charlotte Friday to say their final farewells to CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer.

The funeral service for Eyer was a show of support and love for the profession and Eyers ultimate sacrifice. His law enforcement colleagues say he was one of the best.

With heavy hearts and sorrow, hundreds of loved ones and law enforcement celebrated the life of Officer Joshua Eyer.

Officer Josh Eyer, you are noble. Officer Eyer, you represent everything great about this badge I wear over my heart and on my sleeve. You may be physically gone from us, but your spirit carries on in our hearts, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said.

Queen City News

Queen City News

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Queen City News





The 31-year-old officer was known for his work ethic and dedication which he proved down to his last moment when he responded to a call for officers down on Galway Drive on Monday.

Josh, like so many others, heard the call on the radio and immediately ran into chaos and gunfire because thats who Josh was. Yes, Josh wore two uniforms. The words honor, duty, and commitment were woven into the very fabric of his being, CMPD Detective Thomas Mattox said.

Officer Eyer served 12 years in the North Carolina Army National Guard with two deployments in Afghanistan and Kuwait. Officer Eyer was recognized as Officer of the Month in April.

Made an incredible impact: Fallen CMPD Officer of the Month Joshua Eyer served with NC National Guard

Homicide suspect, hell get you, stole a sandwich from QT? Eyers getting you too. No one was safe. No matter what anyone thought, he went out and gave his best, no matter the circumstances. Trying things out and putting himself into positions everyone else was too scared to attempt, CMPD Officer Nicholas Ferreira said.

Eyer leaves behind his wife Ashley and their 3-year-old son, Andrew.

Being a father was undoubtedly his most cherished role. This has been amazing and such an honor for our family, but Josh wouldve been so uncomfortable with all this attention youre giving him, Ashley Eyer said. So if you really want to honor him, please help me maintain his legacy through Andrew. Help me teach him about who his daddy was.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE)  The co-owner of a New Mexico daycare has been arrested. Hes accused of sexually assaulting a child.

According to the Las Cruces Police Department, Juan Cardiel, 78, was arrested on May 1 for four, second-degree counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.

VIDEO: Man fatally stabs coworker at Golden Pride

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department was investigating Cardiel Childcare Services for allegations of sexual abuse, and the police got involved. Officials said the daycares license was suspended by the state.

Police interviewed a 4-year-old, and they said Cardiel had sexual contact with the victim at least four times. Cardiel was taken to the Dona Ana County Detention Center.

If there are other victims that want to come forward, theyre asked to call 575-526-0795.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
Eight businesses in Wichita, including several restaurants and a meat market, were out of compliance during food safety and lodging inspections conducted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture last week.

They were cited over a lingering cockroach infestation where an inspector saw bugs crawling near a meat slicer and cutting boards, food stored in plastic sacks instead of food-grade containers, businesses not using sanitizer to clean dishes, old olives and hummus, pans soiled with sticker residue, problems keeping food cold and more, according to inspection reports.

One business voluntarily closed its kitchen and meat preparation areas over its cockroach infestation. It later reopened but still had roaches in the building.

Information about the food establishments and a summary of their violations appear below. The list includes inspections conducted in Sedgwick County from April 21-27. It was compiled on May 1.

More than 70 establishments passed inspections during that same time. They also appear below. Some may have been non-compliant in previous weeks.

Business owners or managers can contact Eagle reporter Amy Renee Leiker at 316-268-6644 or aleiker@wichitaeagle.com to comment on inspection results that appear in this story.

More details about the inspection results are in The Eagles searchable database of non-compliant restaurant and hotel inspections at www.kansas.com/databases.

Out-of-compliance inspections

Davids Express, 2110 N. Maize Road in Wichita  Seven violations on April 24 during a routine inspection. Employee washed hands in a sink dedicated to dishwashing, bucket of salsa had three different date stickers on it and employees werent sure which was correct, rice and raw meat were stored in plastic grocery sacks instead of food-grade containers, cooked chicken didnt cool down quickly enough in the walk-in refrigerator and had to be thrown out, guacamole salsa and red hot sauce werent kept cold enough at the self-service salsa bar, ground sausage and cooked tripas werent labeled with preparation dates, stickers and sticker residue were soiling several pans on a clean dish rack. Next inspection: May 4.

Hangar One Steak House, 5925 W. Kellogg Drive in Wichita  Four violations on April 27 during a follow-up inspection. Old hummus, no paper towels at hand-washing sink, chickpeas and pasta salad werent cold enough on the buffet line, menu didnt disclose which items could be ordered raw or undercooked. Next inspection: June 27.

Jimmies Diner, 3111 N. Rock Road in Wichita  Three violations on April 22 during a routine inspection. Raw eggs werent kept cold enough, damaged atmospheric vacuum breaker on mop sink faucet, cook touched raw steak then handled ready-to-eat bread and cheese without washing hands. Next inspection: May 2.

New China Buffet, 4858 S. Broadway in Wichita  One violation on April 25 during a follow-up inspection. Restaurant didnt accurately label rice used in sushi rolls with the time it was removed from hot holding. Next inspection: May 5.

The Rusty Nail, 1155 S. Washington in Wichita  Five violations on April 24 during a routine inspection. Containers of macaroni and cheese werent labeled with preparation dates, old black olives, cheese and deli sandwich meat wasnt cold enough in refrigeration, no soap at kitchen hand-washing sink, container of precooked prime rib wasnt labeled with preparation date. Next inspection: May 4.

Tiendita Esperanza, 4261 E. Boston in Wichita  Two violations on April 26 during a routine inspection. No test strips for measuring concentration of sanitizer, business didnt have a system set up for washing and sanitizing equipment and utensils on site. Next inspection: May 6.

TPS Midwest Corp, 3108 E. 31st St. South in Wichita  Four violations on April 24 during a follow-up inspection and one violation on April 26 during a reopening inspection. During the April 24 inspection chili rellenos werent labeled with the time they were removed from hot holding, dead cockroaches throughout the building including in ceiling lights and on the floor by a sink and a cooler, there were living cockroaches of various ages through the building including in food preparation and food storage areas, buildup of cockroach feces on ice machine water filter unit. The business voluntarily closed its kitchen and meat area until the cockroach infestation was under control, according to the inspection report. During the April 26 inspection cockroaches were on a wall where a food rack was and roaches were also crawling on the floor by a three-compartment sink and in a space between a wall and a door frame. Next inspection: May 6.

Yaacoub Meat Market, 6100 E. 21st St., Suite 160 in Wichita  One violation on April 23 during a reopening inspection. Inspector saw at least 10 cockroaches including on a meat slicer, in kitchen hand-washing sink and by cutting boards used for preparing meat. Next inspection: May 3.

Hundreds of cockroaches. Chicken in dog cage. Gunk. Wichita KS restaurant inspections

Filth. Grease. Bug carcasses. Drinks stored on floor. Wichita KS restaurant inspections

How businesses fail inspections





Most violations are minor and are corrected during an inspection.

Businesses fall out of compliance when they have too many violations, issues that can cause foodborne illnesses or when a problem cant be fixed right away, such as bug and rodent infestations. Typically, establishments are re-inspected within 10 days.

Its rare for a facility to shut down over a failed inspection. But it can happen due to things like sewage backups, pest problems, and water or power outages. Usually, closures are temporary.

You can search food and lodging inspection results in any Kansas county at www.foodsafety.kda.ks.gov/FoodSafety/Web/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx.

How to file complaints

If you see problems at a food or lodging establishment, you can file a complaint.

To notify the state about unsavory or questionable conditions anywhere that serves or sells food to the public, email kda.fsl@ks.gov or call 785-564-6767. You can also file a report at www.foodsafetykansas.org.

To report an illness you think was caused by a restaurant, food or event, contact the Kansas Department of Health and Environment at 877-427-7317 or www.foodsafetykansas.org.

Complaints about conditions at hotels and motels can be submitted at https://agriculture.ks.gov/kda-services/complaint-form/food-safety-and-lodging-complaint.

For more information about foodborne illnesses, visit www.foodsafety.gov.

These businesses passed inspections last week

All American Daves , 1551 N. Rock Road in Wichita

All Saints Catholic Parish School Food Service , 3313 E. Grand in Wichita

Amelia Earhart Elementary School , 19201 W. 23rd St. South in Goddard

Arbys , 4815 S. Washington in Wichita

Bar On Demand/The Bars Open , 2622 E. Douglas in Wichita

Batter Em Up (mobile vendor/food truck), 325 E. Dakota Court in Kechi

Big Grannys (mobile vendor/food truck), 2610 S. Exchange Place in Wichita

Black Traditional Magnet Elementary School , 1045 N. High in Wichita

Bonefish Grill , 10250 E. 13th St. in Wichita

Bongo Fruit Smoothies #2 (mobile vendor/food truck), 2319 N. Rough Creek Road in Derby

Brazita Bites (mobile vendor/food truck), 615 S. Terrace Drive in Wichita

Breakfast With La Pasadita , 418 W. Grand in Haysville

Bubl Works (mobile vendor/food truck), 1049 W. 29th St. North in Wichita

Burrito-Bless (mobile vendor/food truck), 1140 N. Grove in Wichita

Caseys General Store , 400 N. Rock Road in Derby

Chaooo Beef Jerky (mobile vendor/food truck), 1714 W. 27th St. South in Wichita

Chester Lewis Academic Learning Center , 1847 N. Chautauqua in Wichita

China Cafe , 125 W. Anita in Haysville

China One , 6249 E. 21st St., Suite 106 in Wichita

Chipotle Mexican Grill , 2608 N. Greenwich Court in Wichita

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store , 619 S. Ridge Road in Wichita

Dollar Tree , 8227 E. Kellogg Drive in Wichita

Dominos Pizza , 10231 W. 21st St., Suite 101A in Wichita

Freddys Frozen Custard & Steakburgers , 420 S. Ridge Road, Suite 100 in Wichita

Fruteria Alcaya (mobile vendor/food truck), 3948 S. Broadway in Wichita

Fuzzys Taco Shop , 4521 E. 21st St. in Wichita

Gateway Alternative Program Center , 2330 W. 15th St. in Wichita

Golden Eagle Cafe at Bishop Carroll High School, 8108 W. Central in Wichita

H Food Mart & Tobacco , 1818 S. Broadway in Wichita

Haysville Senior Center , 160 E. Karla in Haysville

Holy Cross Lutheran Church & School , 600 N. Greenwich in Wichita

Holy Spirit Catholic School , 18218 W. U.S. Highway 54 in Goddard

Hotel at Old Town , 830 E. First St. in Wichita

Il Vicino Wood Oven Pizza , 2132 N. Rock Road in Wichita

Iron Nutrition , 206 N. Main, Suite 100 in Goddard

J. Raes Bakery , 2357 N. Maize Road, Suite 105 in Wichita

Kansas Candy & Tobacco, Inc. , 4430 W. 29th Circle South in Wichita

Kwik Shop , 7150 S. Meridian in Haysville

Little Early Childhood Education Center , 1613 N. Piatt in Wichita

Livingstons Cafe , 4733 E. Douglas in Wichita

Lucky Restaurant , 6710 W. Kellogg Drive in Wichita

Mariscos Cheli , 1851 N. Broadway, Suite D in Wichita

Marshall Middle School , 1510 N. Payne in Wichita

McDonalds , 122 N. Seneca in Wichita

McDonalds , 2418 S. Seneca in Wichita

Menards , 3660 N. Maize Road in Wichita

Mochinut , 343 S. Greenwich, Suite 107 in Wichita

Mosley Street Melodrama , 234 N. Mosley in Wichita

Mulvane Grade School , 411 S.E. Louis Blvd. in Mulvane

Olive Tree Catering , 1530 S. Webb in Wichita

Paleteria La Fuente , 1750 N. Broadway, Suite 300 in Wichita

Panera Bread , 1605 N. Rock Road in Wichita

Peerless , 919 E. Douglas in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Custom Cupboards, 3738 S. Norman in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Flight Safety Building 2, 1009 N. Greenwich in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Global Engineering & Technology, 4848 W. Irving in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Hatchett Hyundai East, 11200 E. Central in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Metal Pros, 3900 S. Norman in Wichita

Premier Food Service at OxyChem, 6200 S. Ridge Road in Wichita

Premier Food Service at Rand Graphics, 2820 S. Hoover in Wichita

Pho Cuong , 6605 E. 37th St. North, Suite 100 in Wichita

Pizza Hut , 1215 N. Rock Road in Mulvane

Pizza Hut , 550 N. West St. in Wichita

Riverside Cafe , 824 N. Baltimore in Derby

Smallcakes , 8338 E. 21st St., Suite 300 in Wichita

Southeast Carryout , 1520 S. Oliver in Wichita

Spangles , 3433 N. Rock Road in Wichita

St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School , 3660 N. Ridge Road in Wichita

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School , 853 N. Socora in Wichita

St. Patrick Catholic School , 2023 N. Arkansas in Wichita

Subway , 6200 N. Jacksonville in Park City

Subway , 7934 E. Harry in Wichita

Sunny Hibachi, Sushi & Indonesian Food , 240 N. Main, Suite 300 in Haysville

Taco Bell , 5808 E. Central in Wichita

Tacos Y Mas , 552 S. Oliver in Wichita

Venuworks Of Wichita Catering , 8151 N. Hartman Arena Drive in Park City

Wheatland Elementary School , 800 Meadow in Valley Center

Wineteer Elementary School, 8801 E. Ent Drive in Wichita

Note: Sometimes addresses listed  especially for mobile vendors and food trucks  are not where food is actually served to the public. Contact those establishments directly for specific service locations.

Flashback Friday: This restaurant was one of Wichitas top-rated starting in the 1950s

Georges French Bistro has been teasing Wichita with promises of big news. So what is it?
Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks at the International Workers' Day march in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Petro on Wednesday described Israels actions in Gaza as genocide and announced his government would end diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  Colombia has become the latest Latin American country to announce that it will break diplomatic relations with Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, but the repercussions for the South American nation could be broader than for other countries because of longstanding bilateral agreements over security matters.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday described Israels actions in Gaza as genocide, and announced his government would end diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday. But he didn't address how his decision could affect Colombias military, which uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and a free trade agreement between both countries that went into effect in 2020.

Also in the region, Bolivia and Belize have also severed diplomatic relations with Israel over the Israel-Hamas war.

Heres a look at Colombia's close Israel ties and fallout:

WHY IS SECURITY COOPERATION BETWEEN COLOMBIA AND ISRAEL IMPORTANT?

Colombia and Israel have signed dozens of agreements on wide-ranging issues, including education and trade, since they established diplomatic relations in 1957. But nothing links them closer than military contracts.

Colombias fighter jets are all Israeli-built. The more than 20 Kfir Israeli-made fighter jets were used by its air force in numerous attacks on remote guerrilla camps that debilitated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The attacks helped push the rebel group into peace talks that resulted in its disarmament in 2016.

But the fleet, purchased in the late 1980s, is aging and requires maintenance, which can only be carried out by an Israeli firm. Manufacturers in France, Sweden and the United States have approached Colombias government with replacement options, but the spending priorities of Petros administration are elsewhere.

Colombias military also uses Galil rifles, which were designed in Israel and for which Colombia acquired the rights to manufacture and sell. Israel also assists the South American country with its cybersecurity needs.

WILL PETROS ANNOUNCEMENT AFFECT COLOMBIAS MILITARY-RELATED CONTRACTS WITH ISRAEL?

It remains unclear.

Colombia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday in a statement that all communications related to this announcement will be made through established official channels and will not be public. The ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, while the Israeli Embassy in Bogota declined to address the issue.

However, a day before Petro announced his decision, Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told lawmakers that no new contracts will be signed with Israel, though existing ones will be fulfilled, including those for maintenance for the Kfir fighters and one for missile systems.

Velasquez said the government has established a transition committee that would seek to diversify suppliers to avoid depending on Israel. He added that one of the possibilities under consideration is the development of a rifle by the Colombian military industry to replace the Galil.

Security cooperation has been at the center of tensions between the two countries. Israel said in October that it would halt security exports to Colombia after Petro refused to condemn Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war and compared Israels actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany. In February, Petro announced the suspension of arms purchases from Israel.

For retired Gen. Guillermo Leon, former commander of the Colombian air force, the country's military capabilities will be affected if Petro's administration breaks its contract obligations or even if it complies with them but refuses to sign new ones.

At the end of the year, maintenance and spare parts run out, and from then on, the fleet would rapidly enter a condition where we would no longer have the means to sustain it," he told the AP. This year, three aircraft were withdrawn from service due to compliance with their useful life cycle.

WHAT IS THE TRADE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES?

A free trade agreement between Colombia and Israel went into effect in August 2020. Israel now buys 1% of Colombias total exports, which include coal, coffee and flowers.

According to Colombias Ministry of Commerce, exports to Israel last year totaled $499 million, which represents a drop of 53% from 2022.

Colombias imports from Israel include electrical equipment, plastics and fertilizers.

Neither government has explained whether the diplomatic feud will affect the trade agreement.

___

Follow APs coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Colombia's President Petro march in support of reforms proposed by his government, in Bogota

By Luis Jaime Acosta

(Reuters) -Ammunition and weapons missing from Colombia's army are far less than figures reported by President Gustavo Petro this week, a military report seen by Reuters showed, contradicting his assertions about the loss of Israeli-made anti-tank missiles.

Petro said on Tuesday more than 1.6 million bullets were missing from two military bases in the country's Cundinamarca and La Guajira provinces, as well as thousands of explosive munitions, two Spike missiles and 37 Nimrod missiles.

However, the report cited by Petro only lists 131,000 missing bullets and just under 6,000 explosive munitions. It does not mention any missing missiles.

The presidency and the defense ministry declined to comment.

Two senior military sources told Reuters the president read from the wrong column in the report, which is why he gave the incorrect figures.

General Helder Giraldo, commander of Colombia's military, said an investigation has been launched to determine the correct quantity of missing ammunition, but denied any missiles had been lost.

"It's not about covering up reality," Giraldo told journalists late on Thursday, adding that members of Colombia's military were allegedly implicated in selling arms to "organized armed groups in the country."

Personnel alleged to have been involved have been removed from their posts and face criminal charges, Giraldo added, though he declined to say how many soldiers are under investigation.

Colombia's military told Reuters the missing ammunition was "significantly" less than that reported by Petro, but added it will not tolerate corruption that strengthens illegal armed groups.

Members of Colombia's security forces have been convicted over the years on a variety of corruption and human rights abuse charges.

The country's six-decade internal conflict has killed more than 450,000 people.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime AcostaWriting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Richard Chang)
DENVER (KDVR)  The Centennial State has been deemed the worst state in the U.S. for auto thefts in recent years, but Colorado State Patrol said it is seeing significantly fewer auto thefts so far this year.

Colorado experienced a 98% increase in auto theft cases between 2018 and 2022. The rise in auto thefts led to new preventative measures and laws that increase penalties, as well as a rise in car insurance rates.

1st state-wide program helps victims of auto thefts in Colorado

After Colorado saw a record number in 2022, the amount of auto theft reports in Colorado decreased by 21% in 2023. However, it was still a relatively high rate nationally.

The Colorado State Patrol has been at the forefront of the battle against auto theft for some time, and while 2023 showed a substantial decrease, we are happy to report that 2024 is looking even better for our state, CSP said in a release Thursday.

For the first third of 2024, CSP is reporting a 30% decline in auto thefts compared to the same period in 2023.

During the first four months of 2022, 14,698 auto thefts were reported in Colorado, according to CSP. The number of auto thefts during that same period dropped to 11,643 in 2023, and it is down to 8,109 in 2024.

Looking back two years to 2022, this is a total auto theft reduction of 45%, CSP said.

List: Top 10 cars stolen in Colorado in 2023

Colorado State Patrol Chief Matthew Packard said the noticeable decline is a testament to citizens resiliency and a collaborative effort between many law enforcement agencies across the state.

Earlier this year, the Denver Police Department attributed the drop in auto thefts to its new GPS tracker to recover stolen cars called DenverTrack.

Colorado troopers still urge vehicle protection, despite decline in theft

Despite the decline in auto thefts, CSP and the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority said now is a great time for Coloradans to do more to protect their vehicles.

Now is no time to relax your vehicle securities. That would be exactly what auto thieves are hoping for to make their crime easier. Stay in this fight with us and CATPA to reduce auto theft and overall crime in your communities, Packard said.

Barriers installed at Denver International Airport to prevent auto thefts

Here are some vehicle theft prevention tips CSP has to offer:

Research your vehicles vulnerability to implement additional safety protocols

Lock your car and take your keys every time

Be aware of auto theft hot spots

Establish a Lock and Key routine and remove spare keys from vehicles

Park in a garage or secured lot

Use physical security hardening products like steering wheel locks and parking boots

Use theft deterrent and immobilizing systems like kill switches, alarm systems and security systems

Make sure security software is up to date (especially for Hyundai and Kia vehicles)

Those unsure of what protection measures to take can contact CATPA for assistance or find additional auto theft prevention tips on the website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
The Columbia University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) demanded a no confidence vote Thursday against school President Minouche Shafik in response to ongoing controversy over the campuss recent student protests.

A vote of no confidence in the President and her administration is the only way to begin rebuilding our shattered community and re-establishing the Universitys core values of free speech, the right to peaceful assembly, and shared governance, the group said in a statement days after Shafik used the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to clear the pro-Palestinian encampment and remove protesters from Hamilton Hal.

The chapter takes issue with the use of the NYPD to make arrests Tuesday, especially without the approval from faculty Senate.

This decision was made without consultation with the University Senate, in violation of established procedures, by recourse to so-called emergency powers. It also flew in the face of efforts by the AAUP and faculty trusted by the student protestors to de-escalate the situation on campus and to serve as observers in negotiations  efforts endorsed by the University Senate chair that continued into the afternoon before the assault, the statement reads.

The NYPD has arrested hundreds of people at Columbia since the pro-Palestinian demonstrations began more than two weeks ago, kicking off a nationwide movement on college campuses.

The faculty chapter points out that other schools such as Brown University have reached deals with activists to deescalate the protests peacefully.

A spokesperson for the university said the AAUP chapter is not representative of all faculty and that the university Senate is what truly represents the school.

President Shafik continues to regularly consult with members of the community, including faculty, administration, and trustees, as well as with state, city, and community leaders. She appreciates the efforts of those working alongside her on the long road ahead to heal our community, a spokesperson said.

But the professors accused Shafik of creating an environment that led to distrust due to bad decisions and judgement.

From the beginning of the current crisis, the Shafik administration has consistently failed to respect student and faculty rights to free speech, academic freedom, and shared governance. New rules of conduct and opaque and arbitrary disciplinary procedures have been created unilaterally with no regard for long-standing policies, procedures, and norms. The statutory role of the University Senate created in the aftermath of 1968, has been ignored and minimized, the group said.

Shafik has faced numerous calls to resign by both Democrats and Republicans for failure to get the protests under control quickly enough.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Student editors at the Columbia Law Review penned a letter begging the university to cancel final exams this semester as they grapple with the on-campus chaos that has consumed the school in recent weeks.

Columbia University is at the center of a wave of campus protests against Israels brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Repeated clashes with the NYPD reached a fever pitch Tuesday when officers broke into the schools Hamilton Hallvia a second floor windowto crack down on demonstrators who had holed themselves up in the building.

The law students cited this chaos as reason to have their final exams dropped, at least for this semester. In lieu of a full cancellation, they also asked for the the school to mandate pass/fail grades for this semesters exams.

In its letter to administrators, the student members of the Columbia Law Reviews Administrative Board of Editors acknowledged the last few weeks as a horrific time for our campus.

NYPD Officer Opened Fire During Columbia Raid, Local Prosecutor Confirms

The violence we witnessed last night has irrevocably shaken many of us on the Review, the letter said, referencing Tuesdays NYPD operation. We know this to be the same for many of our classmates.

The letter adds that videos from the crackdown allegedly showed officers, who donned riot gear and were armed with shields and zip-ties, mocking and brutalizing our students.

The events of last night left us, and many of our peers, unable to focus and highly emotional during this tumultuous time, the letter said, adding that its students were equally shaken by both the blatant antisemitism and islamophobia that have roiled the school.

The letter was sent Wednesday, but administrators have given no indication as to whether the students request will be fulfilled or not.

Columbia University leaders have offered few concessions to the student protesters in recent weeks, with administrators standing firm that it will not divest from Israel or the weapons manufacturers supplying it with the weapons used in Gaza.

That steadfast support for Israel has done little to appease either side of the demonstrations, however. Both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine studentsand even politicians, like House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)have called for President Minouche Shafik to resign.

Mike You Suck: Columbia Students Let Loose on Speaker Johnson

Wednesdays letter was co-signed by five other law journals at the school, which included the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Columbia Journal of European Law, Columbia Human Rights Law Review & a Jailhouse Lawyers Manual, and Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems.

Neither the Law Review or Columbia immediately responded to requests for comment from The Daily Beast. The universitys law school told The Daily Beast on Friday morning that its exams resumed Thursday and will be administered through the conclusion of the exam period.

Columbia has been under a hybrid class schedule since mid-April, a decision that stemmed from alleged threats against Jewish students after an on-campus encampment was erected to protest the universitys financial links to Israel.

Only one library was open to students as of Thursday, which was operating on limited hours. Final exams are slated to begin Friday and run through May 10ending just five days before the first commencement is scheduled for May 15.

While other universitiesincluding the University of Southern Californiahave announced theyre canceling commencement due to the ongoing protests, Columbia has given no indication it plans to do the same.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2024 - 20:24 | All, Japan, World

The defense ministers of Japan, the United States and Australia on Thursday signed a cooperation agreement on new technologies including autonomous systems, as they ramp up security ties amid China's military buildup in the Indo-Pacific region.

In a joint statement released after their meeting in Hawaii, the three also said their forces aim to conduct an "inaugural regional air and missile defense live-fire exercise in 2027" at a regular multinational military exercise.

The three-way talks between Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles came ahead of their quadrilateral meeting involving Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

In the statement, Kihara, Austin and Marles said they will "further discuss cooperative opportunities" in cutting-edge technology, also including areas of "collaborative combat aircraft" and "composite aerospace materials."

They said cooperation on new technologies will be pursued under their new trilateral Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Projects Arrangement.

The three also agreed to carry out trilateral F-35 fighter jet joint training in each of their countries over the next two years through 2026.

As for Russia's war in Ukraine, the defense chiefs strongly condemned the "increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia," including Pyongyang's export and Moscow's procurement of North Korean ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The three also condemned Russia's use of the missiles against Ukraine.

Related coverage:

Japan, U.S., Australia, Philippines agree on rules-based Indo-Pacific

U.S.-Japan missile development project to cost over $3 billion

North Korea's Kim oversees tactical drill simulating nuke counterattack
Columbia University is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education following allegations of discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their supporters.

Palestine Legal, an advocacy group centered on Palestinian Rights, filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of four students and the student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine with the DOEs Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Columbia University declined to comment on the pending investigation. Columbia University is one of eight schools that the DOE has opened an investigation into over alleged Title VI violations concerning shared ancestry discrimination since April 22, as protests nationwide escalated. This is at least the second investigation into shared ancestry discrimination since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Shared ancestry cases refer to discrimination complaints based on ancestry, ethnic characteristics, and citizenship or residency of a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity -- this could include Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of discrimination.

An investigation into a school does not imply that the OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint, according to the DOE's website.

The complaint from Palestine Legal hinges on the school calling for NYPD officers to enter the campus to help quell protests, a move that led to the arrest last week of over 100 students who were protesting Israels military actions in Gaza.

PHOTO: Officers with the New York Police Department arrest Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University, April 30, 2024, in New York. (Marco Postigo Storel/AP)

MORE: Student protesters denounce antisemitism amid criticism over pro-Palestinian encampments at college campuses

However, the complaint further details allegations of discrimination and harassment against Palestinian students, Arabs, Muslims, and students advocating for Palestinians  including a January attack on protesters with a "chemical-based weapon.

The New York Police Department told ABC News at the time of the attack that protesters smelled a foul odor and began to feel nauseated, accompanied by headaches, during a protest Friday. Students for Justice in Palestine said several students were hospitalized or sought medical care following the incident.

Victims reported symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, chest and abdominal pain and headaches.

Students also say they have been the target of death threats, harassment for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxxing, stereotyping and differential treatment by high-ranking administrators.

Student protesters opposed to Israel's war in Gaza have been camping out on the Columbia University campus since April 17 to call for the university to financially divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine, according to an online statement from the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

The encampment grew as University President Minouche Shafik attended a contentious congressional hearing about antisemitism on Columbia's campus.

PHOTO: New York Police Department officers arrest Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Tuesday night, April 30, 2024. (Seyma Bayram/AP)

One day after the hearing, Columbia asked students to leave their encampments. When students refused, Columbia University gave the NYPD the green light to clear the protesters and police in riot gear arrested more than 100 protesters for trespassing.

New York City officials, including NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, said that protesters who were arrested "were peaceful" and "had no resistance whatsoever."

In a statement following the protests, Shafik said that the encampment "violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students."

Student protesters denounced the arrests, as well as growing suspensions faced by students who have been suspended in connection with pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

"We have knowingly put ourselves in danger because we can no longer be complicit in Columbia funneling our tuition dollars and grant money into companies that profit from death," Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

Tensions have been high on college campuses nationwide since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. The Israeli military then began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

PHOTO: Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters demonstrate at Columbia University on April 18, 2024. (WABC)

MORE: Palestinians mourn loss of culture with the rising death toll amid ongoing Israel-Hamas war

In the Gaza Strip, at least 34,000 people have been killed and more than 77,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,700 people have been killed and 8,700 others injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since the first round of arrests, the encampment grew and pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a hall on campus, leading to further arrests.

"Students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech," said Shafik. "Many students have also felt uncomfortable and unwelcome because of the disruption and antisemitic comments made by some individuals, especially in the protests that have persistently mobilized outside our gates."

Columbia University has continued to face backlash from the several sides of debate surrounding the Israel-Gaza war, and is also facing litigation from a group of Jewish students who say that the university violated its safety protocols by allowing the encampment on school grounds.

Shafik has been under fire for Columbia's handling of antisemitism allegations on the college campus.

"Safety is paramount and we would do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of our campus," Shafik said at the congressional hearing on antisemitism on April 17. "We must uphold freedom of speech because it's essential to our academic mission, but we cannot and shouldn't tolerate abuse of this privilege to harass and discriminate."

Columbia under investigation amid allegations of anti-Palestinian discrimination originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Editors Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Maryam Alwan was one of the Columbia University student protesters arrested on April 30 after occupying a campus building. Alwan was arrested on April 18, when police cleared an on-campus tent encampment.

Protests have erupted at colleges and universities nationwide over the Israel-Hamas war.

Columbia University has seen student protesters camping out on the schools campus since April 17. Pro-Palestinian protesters are calling for the Ivy League school to financially pull out from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine, according to an online statement from the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

However, Columbia's investments are not public information and remain largely unknown.

Following Columbia University President Minouche Shafiks congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus, the encampment drew a larger group of protesters.

On April 18, one day after Shafiks testimony, more than 100 protesters at Columbia University were arrested and an on-campus tent encampment was removed after Shafik gave the New York Police Department the green light to clear the protesters, officials said.

In a statement following the protests, Shafik said that the encampment "violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students."

"Students and outside activists breaking Hamilton Hall doors, mistreating our Public Safety officers and maintenance staff, and damaging property are acts of destruction, not political speech," said Shafik. "Many students have also felt uncomfortable and unwelcome because of the disruption and antisemitic comments made by some individuals, especially in the protests that have persistently mobilized outside our gates."

Maryam Alwan, a student at Columbia University, was one of those students arrested on April 18 by New York City police wearing riot gear. After being held in police custody for approximately eight hours with other protestors, Alwan returned the same day to the Columbia University campus, despite being ordered not to do so.

The next evening, Columbia University sent an email suspending Alwan and other students who were arrested at what was dubbed the 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment.' Colleges across the country used similar strategies to subdue campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

Despite her suspension, Alwan remained on the Columbia University campus for the next eight days, sleeping each night at another protester encampment. She finally left on April 26, but returned on April 30, the day NYPD officers raided Hamilton Hall. Alwan and others were held some distance away in a separate building as officers forcibly removed students and some outsiders who had broken into and barricaded themselves in the academic building.

Alwan spoke with "Start Here" Thursday about what it's been like at Columbia University.

PHOTO: Student protesters camp on the campus of Columbia University, April 30, 2024, in New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

START HERE: Maryam, what has it been like on your campus the last few days?

MARYAM ALWAN: It's been extremely tense. It's been almost an all-out war between the majority of the student body and the administration. And that came to a boiling point on Tuesday night.

I was present as hundreds, I believe over 100 police officers, came onto campus in riot gear for the second time in two weeks and arrested over 100 students on the 56th anniversary of the same day that the administration arrested over 700 students protesting the Vietnam War and the gentrification of Harlem in 1968.

And I was one of the the over 100 students that was arrested and suspended for the encampment two weeks ago. But what I saw on Tuesday night was shockingly horrifying, much more brutal than what I experienced. And I'm honestly unsure how Columbia is going to recover from this.

START HERE: And can you tell me, you got arrested originally in that first group of protesters, then the school said, 'OK, we're done with the arrests for now.' Instead they say, 'we're gonna start suspending students that are there.' You were also one of those students, right? And then you went back to the school the night the police raided the occupied building?

MARYAM ALWAN: I went back as soon as I was arrested. I returned back to campus and I, in fact, I believe it was almost seven to 10, somewhere between seven and 10 days that I spent on campus without returning home after I was arrested, just staying as part of the community even though I was suspended, and then what happened was on Tuesday night.

We were trying to get to the periphery of campus to just watch what was going on from the outside.

START HERE: Even though you're like you're not supposed to be on campus at that point, if you're suspended, I assume?

MARYAM ALWAN: No I should not have been on campus at any point within the past two weeks.

START HERE: I see.

MARYAM ALWAN: So I was just filled with adrenaline and I decided to risk further disciplinary action in order to just document what was going on. And what ended up happening was they, the police, pushed back every single person, from the press to observers, student press, official press, legal observers, medics, they pushed us all back into the building across from the occupied building.

They barricaded us inside. It almost seemed like the administration and the police were collaborating to ensure that no one saw what was going to happen.

There was no one present in front of the hall when they began entering and students were recording from their dorms. So It just seems, it feels like we turned into an authoritarian state. I still can't really process what really occurred.

START HERE: Well, last night the university put out a statement saying these were not nonviolent protesters; there was severe damage inflicted on the building.

They also said out of 202 arrests from that raid, only 109 were studentswhich kind of spoke to this rationale from police and the university here that this is no longer just a student protest. There were primarily outside agitators going into those buildings.

I mean, a) is that true, from your perspective? and b) do you support that occupation of those buildings?

MARYAM ALWAN: A.) that is not true. I believe that this outside agitator narrative has been historically, you know, propagated over and over again, within student movements such as Black Lives Matter as well, in order to delegitimize the movement. But I believe, according to the reports that have come out, majority of the students in the building were students -- were our classmates, were our peers, taking you know, unprecedented and drastic actions to stand up for what is right.

I am not going to sit here and say that I you know -- I don't support, I don't support property damage or things of that nature. But the police caused way more property damage and endangerment of lives on Tuesday night.

START HERE: Because I do think that's kind of like the disconnect that a lot of Americans are seeing is they're like, OK, she had the, you had the encampment and the school was like, 'well, we'd like to have a commencement'; they try to push people out, people come back in.

Then students start  if it is students  start taking over buildings. And I got to imagine the college is like, 'Well, OK, this is an even further escalation, we, we should have, we should have been more aggressive from the beginning, not less aggressive,' because now the actual school buildings that we use, they're being damaged. I mean, what, what is the rationale then for escalating it like that from the students perspective?

MARYAM ALWAN: That makes sense. I would say, though, that from our perspective, the administration has refused to listen to us over and over again and has violated its own procedures and practices to crack down on us. I mean historically, through student movements, the more authorities crack down and refuse to listen, the more people rise up against them because they see that the excessive force and the loopholes that they are using are illegitimate in the first place.

START HERE: So what would you like to see happen? What is, is the only answer, the only answer is 'we won't leave unless there's divestment?' Because then I guess the question, the next question then is, well, what else do you expect to happen besides that, eventually, the police get involved?

MARYAM ALWAN: Um, divestment! I mean

START HERE: I mean, like, that's the ultimatum that you guys are putting out there, then.

MARYAM ALWAN: I could, I could ask the same question to the administration, I could ask them if you continue to bring the police and people continue to become horrified by your actions and realize the extent to which all of our oppression is interlinked.

All people of color, including, you know, my Jewish peers who are fighting alongside me, if we are all, you know, deemed worthy of being tossed around by the police that you call onto campus, then it's inevitable that there's going to be a push back to the point of even more chaos. So yeah, I would ask the administration the same question, frankly.

START HERE: New York City Mayor Eric Adams, he used the words professional and thorough in describing the behavior of officers, saying there are no hospitalizations reported as of yet. When we talk about the other big piece of pushback over these protests themselves it's other students, particularly Jewish students, not feeling safe on campus. I guess I'm wondering have you seen harassment of Jewish American students at this point? Is that a concern for the organizers of these protests?

MARYAM ALWAN: I do want to re-emphasize that a core component of the organizers are, in fact, Jewish themselves. SJP was suspended alongside Jewish Voices for Peace in the fall semester, and we've always had a very tightknit relationship.

But of course, that doesn't, you know, take away from the fact that antisemitism spreads on the fringes of social movements. And we have, we have seen instances, especially outside of the campus gates, but we've taken steps to mitigate this. We held an antisemitism teach-in at the encampment last week.

And I just, I think, what's more, most concerning is the weaponization of, you know, claiming that those who are, we're calling for Palestinian rights are inherently antisemitic, because then that detracts from the very real experiences of antisemitism that my friends are experiencing. I cannot think of a single social movement in history specifically a student-led social movement in history where that was met with police and state violence that did not end up being on the right side of history and commended by the schools themselves decades down the line.

Even Columbia's own website commemorates the protests of 1968. I think that history will not look kindly upon those who condone violence upon students who are protesting.

START HERE: Um, are you going back to Columbia next year? It's the end of the year, are you going back? Columbia costs money. Are you gonna pay money to Columbia next year?

MARYAM ALWAN: I will, if they don't expel me, I do want to finish my degree. I also think that as horrifying and as, as this experience has been, and as completely disillusioned as I am with the administration, I have never felt more proud to be a part of the student body and the faculty, the faculty and scholars whose books I learned from and whose tactics we learned from to support our movements for human rights and these things, literally collaborating with us on an individual basis now, I never would have dreamed of this growing up.

So I will be coming back and we will hopefully reforge a new Columbia that is dictated by the students and the faculty and academia, as opposed to these forces that are cracking down.

START HERE: Yeah. I hadn't thought of it like this until this moment, it's almost a question of whether you divest from the school yourself, or whether you come back to continue pushing these issues as a student. She still goes there for now, Maryam Alwan. Thank you so much for the time. Appreciate it.

MARYAM ALWAN: Thank you so much. It was great to speak with you.

Columbia University student shares account of police raids on campus originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Columbus police have arrested a Columbus man on murder charges for a Thursday afternoon shooting on Columbus South Side.

Najaa Ellman, 20, was pronounced dead by medics at 3:08 p.m. Thursday on the 700 block of Reinhard Avenue after Columbus police responded to a report of a shooting. According to a police report, witnesses to the shooting told police Ellman was with friends when he got into an argument with Lawuan Williams, 19, who was driving a 2020 gray Nissan Altima.

A close-up photo of police lights by night

Williams drew a handgun and shot Ellman, fatally wounding him, police said, and Williams fled in the Nissan as an unidentified party fired shots at him.

Officers recovered the Nissan at the intersection of East Livingston Avenue and Kenilworth Place soon after, according to the police report. Williams, who had been hiding in a nearby residence, surrendered to police and was charged with murder.

Anyone with information about who Ellman was with just before the shooting or information about who fired shots at William as he fled can contact Columbus police Detective Earl Westfall at 614-645-4221, EWestfall@ColumbusPolice.org or submit an anonymous tip to Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.

bagallion@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man arrested for murder after South Side shooting
James Lamb was a funeral home director, property owner, and realtor over five-plus decades. He was motivated by his love for helping others.

HOWELL  Livingston County lost a longtime businessman on April 28.

James Lamb was a funeral home director, property owner, and realtor over five-plus decades. He was motivated by his love for helping others.

He just felt like, if you follow your dream, you can achieve it, his daughter, Wendy Thompson, told The Daily. Anything he thought he wanted to try, he did it and he succeeded. Thats how he raised us  to know theres nothing we cant do.

Lamb was 83. He once owned the funeral home that's now Borek Jennings.

He loved his community and he really felt honored to be part of helping to develop and add to it, Thompson said.

Lamb was born Oct. 6, 1940, in Detroit to Burton and Luella Lamb, according to his obituary. He graduated from Clarenceville High School, attended Michigan Tech and the University of Michigan, then completed his mortuary science degree at Wayne State University.

He was drafted into the Army and served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After returning from service, he purchased the funeral home in Pinckney.

Lamb married Penny (Reynolds) Lamb in 1969. They ran the Lamb Funeral Home together while raising their two children, Wendy Thompson and Michael, in the house attached.

My mom and dad were inseparable, Thompson said. They did every business from the moment they married together. As soon as my brother and I got out of college, we did everything together with them. It was a true family business.

Lamb and his brother, Gary, purchased a second funeral home in Howell and ran both locations together, according to his obituary. He moved his family to Howell in 1979.

James and Gary opened two convenience stores and built the first automatic car wash in Livingston County, which is now Jax Kar Wash. In the early 1980s, they opened a fabric awning company called Detroit Awnings.

He did all these things simultaneously, while he was a funeral director," Thompson said. "He was pretty amazing."

In the early 1990s, James and his son, Michael, purchased property on Thompson Lake in Howell. They started two new companies, Lamb and Lamb Development and Brookfield Homes. They developed properties and built single family homes and condos through the late 2000s.

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James and Michael also built and operated Grand River Mini Storage on the west side of Howell. The family established Real Estate One Howell in 2002.

He enjoyed selling real estate, Thompson said. He loved dealing with people. He loved telling stories, talking to people. He loved the funeral business because he felt connected to the community. He felt like he was a comfort to people in their time of need. That was rewarding for him.

After Lamb retired from the funeral home, he kept his license and helped at a local funeral home whenever needed. He loved to travel and enjoyed lake living." He was also an avid car collector.

Lamb was preceded in death by Penny, his wife of 51 years, and Gary. He was a grandfather to three.

 Contact reporter Evan Sasiela at esasiela@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on Twitter @SalsaEvan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: 'He was a comfort': Family, friends remember Livingston County businessman James Lamb
Russia's goal in 2024 is to completely occupy Donetsk, Luhansk, and, if possible, Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Ukraine's Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk told The Times on May 2.

Russia is likely trying to take as much territory as possible before the impact of the recently passed U.S. aid bill for Ukraine can be felt on the battlefield.

Chasiv Yar, a town in Donetsk Oblast, remains one of Russia's key targets as it could facilitate further advances toward the nearby cities of Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk, the Ukrainian military said.

Russian forces want to capture Chasiv Yar by May 9, in time for the celebration of cult-like Victory Day in Russia. Pavliuk believes that it will not happen.

"We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9," the commander said.

"But the Russians have a 10-to-one ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority," Pavliuk added.

The commander hopes that fresh billions in U.S. military aid, which had been stalled for nearly seven months, will impact the Ukrainian battlefield.

"We will do everything we can to prevent a Russian breakthrough, and we hope that the American weaponry will help us. If it had arrived in time, we would not have lost the territories that we have lost in the last few months."

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Apart from completing the occupation of three oblasts, Russian forces are still focused on capturing the regional centers of Kharkiv and Sumy, located proximately to the Ukrainian-Russian state border, as well, according to Pavliuk, who cited Ukraine's military intelligence.

"But we do not know how serious those plans are, nor if they are capable of realizing them with the forces they have at their disposal," he said.

The commander also expects the number of Russian troops to increase this year as the Russian summer offensive is looming.

"We believe the Russians want to mobilize 100,000 more troops and that they will use these to reinforce their forces already in Ukraine in June and July," Pavliuk said.

"By the end of the year, we think that the Russians intend to mobilize nearly 300,000 more soldiers. But also they are losing nearly 25,000 to 30,000 per month in dead and wounded."

Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 28 that the Ukrainian forces had to retreat west from the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka, and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk Oblast as Russian troops continued to advance in the area.

Russian forces managed to break in and gain a foothold in a part of Ocheretyne, a front-line village nearly 10 kilometers from Berdychi and Semenivka.

Syrskyi said that Russia is involving up to four brigades (from 8,000 to 32,000 personnel) to conduct assault operations in the direction of the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove west of Avdiivka, which was captured in February.

Read also: Battle of Chasiv Yar begins: On the ground with Ukrainian forces defending city key to Russias plans

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
YAC programs across Northeast Michigan will compete on May 7 during the first YAC Day fundraising event.

CHEBOYGAN  The Straits Area Community Foundation is hosting the first-ever YAC Day on Tuesday, May 7.

YAC Day is a special event focused on fundraising and building awareness of the foundations Youth Advisory Council (YAC), which awards annual grant funding to youth projects in their communities. The Straits Area YAC has members from across Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City.

The event is in partnership with the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan (CFNEM), which is the lead foundation for the Straits Area Community Foundation (SACF).

Our YAC program has quite a reach across all of northeast Michigan. We have about 130 YAC members serving in 19 different schools across our nine-county service area, said CFNEM Affiliate Director Christine Hitch. The impact these youth are having on their communities is so positive, so inspiring and so needed. We are very excited to have a special day of fundraising that is geared 100 percent toward helping our YACs increase their impact.

YAC Day will be a primarily online, 24-hour giving event aimed at helping local YACs increase their grantmaking capabilities. Community members will be able to visit sacf.net and donate to support the Straits Area YAC. Half of each donation will be permanently endowed to increase future grantmaking. The other half will be used for grantmaking in the YAC's next round of grants, which will be awarded in early 2025.

Hitch added that CFNEM will match the first $4,000 donated to the Straits Area YAC.

This program is truly growing the next generation of givers in our communities by connecting them to their communities through philanthropy and through this grantmaking process, said Hitch. We have seen our former YAC members become donors, leaders in their communities and even trustees on our own governing boards.

The YAC that raises the most donations on May 7 will win Mac the Golden Yak. Mac was named by Youth Advisory Council members from across northeast Michigan.

To support the Straits Area YAC on YAC Day, visit sacf.net on Tuesday, May 7, between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. to donate online. Donations can also be mailed to the Community Foundation office at SACF, P.O. Box 495, Alpena, MI 49707.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Straits Area Community Foundation announces first YAC Day on May 7
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Clint Independent School District (Clint ISD) is inviting the community to their annual Viva La Fiesta event.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 4 at all Clint ISD middle and high schools, according to Clint ISD.

The following schools will be hosting the event on their campuses:

Clint Junior High School

East Montana Middle School

Horizon Middle School

Ricardo Estrada Middle School

Clint High School

Horizon High School

Mountain View High School

Clint ISD Early College Academy

Students and families will be able to tour campuses, meet administrators and teachers, and learn about the different programs, according to Clint ISD.

Families can take advantage of registering their children at the event as well. Food and drinks will be provided as well as fun activities.

Fifth and eighth-grade students attending can receive a free graduation year t-shirt.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Roadwork on Interstate 95 in southwest Connecticut is expected to last through the weekend as crews push for a Monday reopening after a fiery crash involving a gas tanker that damaged an overpass.

Engineers and contractors are removing concrete, beams and debris from the collision near I-95's Norwalk exit, and the interstate remains closed in both directions as of Friday, Connecticut DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said during a news conference. The overpass needs to be replaced, and the highway needs to be repaved, Eucalitto said, adding crews will work Saturday and Sunday in the hopes the busy interstate can reopen Monday.

"We have equipment on the way, large shears, that will be able to remove the actual beams from the bridge and once that's completed, we will then begin to remove debris and then we will be able to resurface the roadway, hopefully opening up in time for rush hour morning traffic Monday morning," Eucalitto said Friday.

The federal government is paying for repairs, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said during the news conference. He estimated the project could cost at least $10 million. He added commercial truck drivers will be on local streets, as there are alternate routes they cannot take. Commuters are encouraged to take alternate routes and count on heavier-than-usual traffic.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday the collision happened when a car sideswiped a tractor-trailer and the gas tanker around 5:30 a.m. Thursday. It's unclear how the fuel truck caught fire, but state Emergency Management Director William Turner said about 6,500 gallons of fuel burned in the fire.

The gas tanker involved in a collision is shown with portions of the overpass burnt from the fire on May 2, 2024 in Norwalk, Conn.

Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said Thursday no one was killed or seriously injured in the crash.

Blumenthal said his office is monitoring the economic impact of the closure on area businesses, including the possibility of those businesses receiving low-interest loans from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Small Business Administration.

Eucalitto echoed Blumenthal's concerns about the shutdown's economic impact.

"I encourage people to take the train into Norwalk to visit the restaurants and bars, if you can, and patronize the businesses who might be impacted," Eucalitto said.

Although the overpass is less than 10 years old, according to Eucalitto on Thursday night, it sustained "pretty severe" damage. The steel within the bridge was overheated and warped, Eucalitto added.

Lamont declared a state of emergency after the crash to help "expedite some of the resources needed for us to respond to this situation."

More than 100,000 drivers use Interstate 95 in the state per day as of September, according to Connecticut DOT's traffic data. The highway connects New York City to Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The tractor-trailer involved in the collision is shown in the photo charred from the fire on Interstate 95 on May 2, 2024, in Norwalk, Conn.

Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY.

Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@USATODAY.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @KrystalRNurse.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I-95 in Connecticut under construction through weekend for reopening
Computer science could become required to graduate in Louisiana

Rep. Jason Hughes is wearing a blue, stripped suit as he speaks into a microphone.

Rep. Jason Hughes authored the bill that would make computer science a requirement for high school graduation. (Allison Allsop)

Computer science classes might be required for Louisiana high school graduates starting in the 2027-28 school year.

House Bill 264, authored by Democrat Rep. Jason Hughes from New Orleans, passed without objection Wednesday out of the Senate Education Committee. The bill adds computer science requirements for every path to a high school diploma at Louisiana public schools.

Computer science would also be required to receive any award from Taylor Opportunity Program for Students. The TOPS Opportunity, Performance and Honors awards would require students to take one credit of computer science as part of their math or science curriculum or in place of a foreign language.

For TOPS Tech, students can take computer science as one of their math or science courses or as one of their electives.

The option for using computer science to complete graduation requirements would partially begin in the 2027-28 school year.

For those graduating in 2028 and pursuing TOPS Opportunity, Performance, and Honors awards, computer science can only be used in place of the foreign language requirement. The TOPS Tech pathway does not allow for students graduating in 2028 to use computer science to fulfill any of the existing requirements.

Two years ago, then-Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, gained approval for a bill that allowed students to count two credits of computer science instead of a foreign language for TOPS eligibility.

Hughes bill now heads to the Senate floor.

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The post Computer science could become required to graduate in Louisiana appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator.
ATHENS, WV (WVNS)  On Thursday evening, May 2nd, 2024, Concord University hosted its first ever white coat ceremony.

Friends and family lined up outside Wilkes Family Chapel to see the first set of white coat members. Its a big step for the nursing program, which first started in 2022.

Michele Holt is the Director of Nursing with Concord University. She said this event is big for both the university and the mountain state.

We have such a nursing shortage in West Virginia and really throughout the country. We really wanted to contribute, get nurses on the ground, have nurses here in West Virginia, and hopefully stay in West Virginia when theyre done, Holt said.

Beckley hosts National Day of Prayer event

The event started with live music and speeches by guest speakers. We were then introduced to the students receiving their white coats.

One of those students is Jenna-Kay Nash. She grew up not too far from Concord University and is excited to be a part of it with her peers.

Being so close to home has been convenient not only for me, but for my family so they can be here. Ive always wanted and being in the medical field was, for me, first I wanted to be a PA but then I didnt want to move away for school. When this opened up, I just thought it was the perfect chance for me to go back to school, Nash said

The ceremony concluded with all 5 students receiving their white coats. They were then joined by professors and family for some photos.

Transportation Troubles: West Virginias Water Transportation System Problems

Its was a bittersweet moment for professors, who themselves were fighting back tears.

They achnowledge this is just the beginning of the students careers and the nursing program at Concord University.

Theyve put in a lot of work. Theyve studied and proved themselves and theyve been in the clinical setting already. Princeton, West Virginia and Athens, West Virginia were excited to have these nurses. Some of them stay local and combat the nursing shortage we have in our own community but also go far beyond the walls of our own community, Amanda Nichols said, assistant professor for Concord University.

So even though these are students that are well beyond the pediatric age, I still think of them as myas my kids, said Danita Farley, assistant professor for Concord University.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
KYODO NEWS - May 4, 2024 - 07:33 | All, Japan, World

The defense ministers of Japan, the United States, Australia and the Philippines on Thursday expressed their "serious concern" over China's recent "dangerous and destabilizing conduct" against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.

In a joint readout issued after their talks in Hawaii, the four ministers urged China to adhere to a 2016 ruling by an international court that invalidated its claim of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, amid Beijing's growing assertiveness in regional waters.

In the latest flare-up, Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons against Philippine vessels in March and April near disputed shoals in the resource-rich South China Sea.

Chinese vessels have also repeatedly entered Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, a group of Tokyo-administered uninhabited islets in the East China Sea that Beijing claims and calls Diaoyu.

The defense ministers pledged to maintain the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region at a joint press conference, and shared an understanding about the importance of coordinated activities by the four nations, including joint naval drills in the regional waters.

The four agreed to continue their forces' joint exercises in the South China Sea, according to Japan's Defense Ministry.

"We've gathered here because we share a vision for peace, stability and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the news conference.

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara stressed that it is "an urgent issue" for the four countries to work together with other like-minded states to that end.

The talks in Honolulu came as Washington and the three U.S. allies have been stepping up bilateral and multilateral security collaboration in recent years in an apparent show of unity against China's intensifying military activities in regional waters.

In July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled out China's rights to resources in the South China Sea based on its expansive, self-proclaimed "nine-dash line."

Last month, the four nations conducted their first full-scale joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, dubbed "the Maritime Cooperative Activity," to demonstrate the "collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific."

Austin said Thursday that such training serves to "build bonds among our forces" and "underscore our shared commitment to international law in the South China Sea," adding that the countries are "looking to conduct more maritime exercises and activities."

In a thinly veiled reference to China, Kihara said the four ministers "stand united to strongly oppose any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo of the South China Sea by force or any activity to heighten the tension in the region."

Without naming China, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the global rules-based order is "under intense pressure" and the latest gathering sends "a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order."

Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro welcomed the strengthened quadrilateral ties aimed at not only protecting his nation's territorial integrity and sovereignty but also upholding "principles of international law which guide the global order in the proper way that nations should live amongst each other."

It is the second defense ministerial gathering for the four Pacific Rim countries. In June last year, their defense chiefs held their first-ever quadrilateral meeting in Singapore on the fringes of the annual Asia Security Conference, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

On Thursday, Kihara met bilaterally with Austin and Marles, respectively, and the three also held trilateral talks.

Related coverage:

U.S.-Japan missile development project to cost over $3 billion

Kishida, Macron agree to start negotiations on new security pact

65% feel Japan need not rush to debate Constitution revisions: poll
Congratulations to all the 28/22 News PAB winners!

Congratulations to all the 28/22 News PAB winners!

28/22 NEWS (WBRE/WYOU)  Several members of the 28/22 News team were present in Harrisburg to receive awards for their work in the industry.

The Annual Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasting Awards, held Friday, April 26, highlights outstanding achievements from various contributors in broadcast.

Keystone College must show why its doors shouldnt close

Accolades taken home by the 28/22 News team include:

Rebecca Stitzer, Creative Services Director, Adam Myers  Outstanding Television Station Marketing & Promos 2024  Home Field Advantage

Emily Allegrucci  2024 Outstanding Feature Story/Report  First Responder Saved by Fellow First Responders 

Paola Giangiacomo, Bryan Velez  2024 Outstanding Feature Story/Report  Helmet Safety

Jayne Ann Bugda, Mark Hiller, Tony Ingargiola, Bryan Velez  2024 Outstanding Television Documentary  Opioids: Help and Hope

Chris Bohinski  Judges Merit  Television  2024

Congratulations to our 28/22 News team and all the other winners!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PAhomepage.com.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Congresswoman Veronica Escobar will be holding the 2024 Congressional Art Competition Reception and Award Ceremony on Friday evening, May 3, according to a press release from Escobar.

The ceremony will be celebrating over 100 artists from 18 high schools in El Paso and the artwork of nine student winners.

Community leaders, education administrators, and families of the award recipients will be present at the ceremony, according to the press release.

This year represents the first-ever collaboration between the Congresswomans office and the El Paso Museum of Art which will display the submitted artwork until Aug. 4, the press release said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Construction of new tower at Athens airport could coincide with new passenger service

The FAA recently chose a tower design submitted by a New York-based architectural firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), as its template for towers at Athens-Ben Epps Airport.

If current timelines and aspirations hold, attracting commercial passenger air service to Athens-Ben Epps Airport could roughly coincide with the opening of a new control tower.

At a recent meeting, members of the Athens-Ben Epps Airport Authority learned that a new control tower to be constructed with federal dollars could open within a year and a half to two years. Thats roughly the timeframe within which the airport is hoping to have new commercial passenger service in place for the first time since 2014.

Despite their possible proximity in time, the two events  bringing commercial passenger air service to the airport, and having a new control tower  are not specifically related.

Airport officials learned months ago that the four-decade old Athens-Ben Epps tower would be replaced through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The local tower replacement is part of a $500 million Federal Aviation Administration project to replace aging control towers at 31 smaller airports across the United States. Elsewhere in Georgia, Middle Georgia Regional Airport is also slated to get a new control tower through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding.

At the recent Athens-Ben Epps Airport Authority meeting, Airport Director Mike Mathews told authority members that he will be meeting soon with FAA officials to discuss siting options for the new tower. In connection with those discussions, its likely that the new tower will be placed in a different location than the existing tower.

More: Athens airport wants to pursue American Airlines, others as new service provider

Currently located between the airports fire station and its flight center, moving the tower to a new location could make it easier for a new hangar or other facility to be installed at the airport, Mathews told the authority.

The new tower will be somewhat larger and taller than the existing facility, and will continue to operate under the towers current 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. daily schedule at current staffing levels, according to Mathews.

During the authority meeting, Mathews said he expects that the new tower could be in place within 18 months to two years. That timeline closely tracks the airports current strategic plan goal to have an airline recruited to provide commercial passenger service by the end of next year.

The new tower will be built as part of the FAAs Sustainable Tower Design Initiative in which recycled metals, materials free from components that can cause health risks, thermal efficiency and all-electric operating systems are featured.

Under the sustainability initiative, the FAA recently chose a tower design submitted by a New York-based architectural firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), as its template for towers at Athens-Ben Epps Airport and elsewhere in the nations air travel system. PAU specializes in infrastructure, institutional and public space architecture.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Construction of tower at Athens airport could coincide with new service
Convicted sex offender tried to buy a child, feds say. Hell spend 60 years in prison

A convicted sex offender attempted to buy a young girl so he could sexually abuse her just two months after he was released from prison, federal officials said.

The 36-year-old from Alvin will now spend the next 60 years in prison.

In August 2022, Keenan Edward Howe communicated with someone he believed to be a father with access to minor children, the U.S. Attorneys Office of Southern Texas said in a May 1 news release. The father was an undercover FBI agent, officials said.

Within online exchanges, Howe said he had abused children in the past and wanted to drug and violently sexually abuse the children, according to officials.

Howe eventually scheduled a meetup with the undercover agent posing as a father, officials said.

Howe was previously convicted of sexually abusing a minor and was released from prison two months before his encounter with the undercover agent, officials said.

He pleaded guilty to distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography in October 2022 and was sentenced May 1.

His attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment on May 3.

In handing down the prison terms, the court noted the egregious nature of Howes conduct, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in the news release.

Alvin is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Houston.

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Church did nothing to keep teens safe from pastors sexual abuse, Texas lawsuit says
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  An Arkansas Jan. 6 insurrectionist is a step closer to being released from federal prison.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons records show that 44-year-old Peter Stager of Conway has been transferred to a halfway house near Dallas, Texas. A spokesperson for the bureau said inmates are usually transferred to a reentry facility approximately 17 to 19 months before their expected release date.

Conway Jan 6 insurrectionist gets 52-month sentence

Prison records list Stager as having an Oct. 21, 2024 release date after being sentenced in July 2023. He was sentenced to a 52 month prison term after pleading guilty to assaulting an officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

At his 2023 sentencing, Stager, who had been in jail since his Jan. 14, 2021 arrest, received credit for the 30 months he had served. This meant he had 22 months left to serve at his July sentencing, which would result in a May 2025 release.

Convicted Arkansas Jan. 6 insurrectionist Richard Barnett scheduled for prison Aug. 1, petitions to remove ankle monitor

When asked about the seven-month gap between the October and May dates, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson explained that while they could not speak on the specifics of inmate confinement, they could confirm that inmate sentences are reduced based on good behavior for each year of confinement and the successful completion of programs designed to prevent recidivism such as drug abuse prevention, job training and mental well-being programs.

Little Rock man seventh Arkansan arrested in connection to Jan. 6 insurrection

Stager was also fined $2,100 at his sentencing and assigned to 36 months of probation after his release.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
Coroner: Alabama teenager dies after accident while cutting trees with family member

A Lee County teenager died Thursday after an accident while trimming trees in Phenix City, according to Russell County Coroner Arthur Sumbry Jr.

Sumbry identified the victim as Hunter Waller, 17.

Waller died from injuries sustained in an accident while he was cutting and trimming down trees with a family member, according to Sumbry.

Sumbry said an ambulance arrived at 4:49 p.m. to the scene in the 3400 block of 14th Street in Phenix City.

Waller was pronounced dead at 5:45 p.m., according to Sumbry.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to move forward with a migrant transition center plan after securing $19.6 million in federal funds.

Thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. They are then released into the community after being processed by U.S. Border Patrol.

While the county previously allocated $6 million for a temporary migrant center to provide services to help people reach their final destination, it closed earlier than expected due to lack of funding.

RELATED: Housing Commission, mayor in conflict over $23M cut to homeless services

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted to advance a plan for a long-term migrant transition center.

I am immensely proud of our successful advocacy efforts, which have led to the allocation of $19.6 million by the federal government to support asylum-seekers at our border, said chairwoman Nora Vargas. This funding is vital for providing dignified and humane assistance, including essential resources such as food, clothing, and crucial information to safely guide people to their intended destinations.

Supervisor Jim Desmond voted against the plan, saying it does not get to the core root of the problem.

All this money does is provide a facility for us to basically act as their travel agents and move then throughout the county, he said. I think this money would be better spent if that money went toward Border Patrol agents and allow them to get more border patrol agents for vetting.

County officials say thousands of migrants have been released on the street since the temporary centers closure

Last week, local organizations like Jewish Family Service urged the county to collaborate with them and learn about the most urgent needs.

RELATED: Conflict arises over $23 million cut to homeless services in San Diego

It is critically important for the county of San Diego in particular to come alongside organizations that have been closest to this work, both doing sheltering and supporting individuals that have been released to streets of San Diego over the last year, said Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services with Jewish Family Service.

Id rather see this money put toward safety and security, said Desmond. And not having nonprofits fighting over dollars that are one-time dollars, that are only going to last for about 12 months and after that then what? Then this problem is in San Diegos lap.

County officials plan to meet with local organizations in the near future to get input on how to collaborate on services.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
GREENE COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL)  A former Greene County Board of Education member who pleaded guilty to official misconduct made offensive remarks toward foreign exchange students, according to court documents.

Hugh Thomas Cobble resigned from the school board on April 12, citing health concerns as his reason for doing so in a resignation letter. News Channel 11 later learned the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was looking into allegations against Cobble.

On Wednesday, Cobble pleaded guilty to official misconduct in Greene County Criminal Court. He was placed on supervised probation for one year.

DA: Ex-Greene Co. school board member pleads guilty to official misconduct

Court documents obtained by News Channel 11 state Cobble used his position on the school board to obtain the favor of foreign exchange student and their housemates. He then made offensive remarks and engaged in offensive conduct toward those students and their housemates.

Official misconduct occurs when a public servant uses their position to benefit themselves or harm others. It is a Class E felony in Tennessee.

A court order filed on Wednesday also bars Cobble from having any contact with, harassing or threatening four individuals, whose identities were redacted.

Third Judicial District Attorney General Dan Armstrong told News Channel 11 Wednesday that after pleading guilty, Cobble is no longer permitted to hold a public office, vote or own a firearm.

The Greene County Commission will select a replacement to serve out the remainder of Cobbles term on the school board at its May 20 meeting.

Cobble won the Republican primary for his seat in March, but since his conviction makes him ineligible to have his name on the ballot in the August general election, the chair of the Tennessee Republican Partys State Executive Committee can file the name of partys new nominee with the county election commission.

The party has until noon on June 22 to file the name of the new nominee.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2024 - 11:36 | All, World, Japan

Nippon Steel Corp. said Friday it will postpone arrangements to complete its acquisition of United States Steel Corp. by three months through December, with the deal having become a hot-button topic in the leadup to November's presidential election.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, has said he would block the $14.1 billion buyout of the American company while President Joe Biden has also expressed support for unionized workers who oppose the Japanese steelmaker's takeover.

Nippon Steel said its latest decision came after considering the possible timing of U.S. regulatory approval while denying the political situation was the catalyst.

The planned acquisition will enable U.S. Steel to produce more advanced and environmentally sustainable steel for U.S. customers and "strengthen the resilience of American industry against threats from China", the two companies have said.

They have also said the U.S. firm's headquarters will stay in Pittsburgh, its name will be unchanged, and production and jobs will remain in the United States after the acquisition.

Shareholders of U.S. Steel have approved the deal.

The acquisition plan also needs to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which assesses whether certain deals pose a national security threat.

Related coverage:

Nippon Steel says buyout ensures U.S. Steel to remain American icon

Biden promises U.S. Steel will remain "totally American"

U.S. seeks tripling of tariff rate on steel imports from China
BENTON, Ark.  Crews in Benton fought an early morning fire that led to damage at three businesses on Military Road.

Officials with the Benton Fire Department said the crews responded to the blaze that started at Youngs Jewelers around 5:25 a.m. after getting reports of smoke and visible flames coming from the building.

Renovations for Saline Countys Old River Bridge ahead of schedule

Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the store, though two other businesses, Bodiddles Wine & Spirits and Bodiddles Barber and Salon, suffered water and smoke damage. All three businesses are expected to be closed Friday.





Owner Carl West said that the jewelry store received the most damage, while the barber shop and liquor store were affected by the smoke. He added that all three are a total loss but said hes happy his employees are ok.

I want to make sure theyre taken care of and paid, you know, West said. I dont want to lose anybody.

BFD officials said the preliminary investigation revealed an origin inside the building but noted that department and insurance investigators are continuing to review the case.

Bryant PD: Thieves use emptied fan boxes to steal $10,000 in other items from area Walmarts

The officials noted that severe weather was moving through the area at the time of the fire.

They said investigators were communicating with the National Weather Service and the Saline County Office of Emergency Management to see if lightning may have played a part in causing the fire, though at this time fire officials dont believe the storm to have been a factor in starting the blaze.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
A homemade explosive device equivalent to 10 tonnes of TNT was used to blow up the Crimean (Kerch Strait) Bridge in October 2022. It was based on solid rocket fuel concealed in reels of polyethylene film.

Source: Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, with reference to investigation materials

Details: A Russian investigation found that the film, on 22 pallets weighing 22.7 tonnes, was sent from the city of Odesa to the Bulgarian town of Ruse in early August 2022. From there, it went to the Georgian city of Poti and then to Yerevan. While the film was in the Yerevan terminal Transalyans, the cargo was cleared through customs, after which part of the accompanying documents was replaced.

The film was transported in a DAF truck across the Georgian-Russian border at the Verkhny Lars checkpoint on 4 October and it was delivered to a wholesale base in Armavir (Russia's Krasnodar Krai) two days later. There, the pallets were loaded into an International ProStar truck with a trailer, driven by Russian citizen Makhir Yusubov, who was unaware of any plans. The driver was supposed to deliver the film from an Ulyanovsk-based company to the registered address of Extra LLC in Simferopol. The case materials said such complex movements were necessary to divert attention from the cargo.

Russian experts believe that a foreign-made hexogen-based explosive substance was used to detonate the explosive mixture.

Meanwhile, the detonator, also hidden under the film, was triggered by a signal from a GPS navigator "at the moment it passed a predetermined point on the route". This was the 156th kilometre of the Novorossiysk-Kerch motorway.

As a result of the explosion, two spans of the bridge connecting the 235th and 236th supports collapsed, and 17 freight train tank wagons were damaged.

The Russian Investigative Committee believes that the Security Service of Ukraine was behind this explosion.

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Queens native Donald Trump served up some pizzas to New York City firefighters, then got served a fact-check in return after he botched the departments iconic acronym in social media posts on Thursday.

The former president, after leaving his hush money trial at a lower Manhattan courthouse, traveled to Midtown to drop off boxes of Xenos Pizza to New Yorks Bravest at the FDNYs Engine Co. 8, Ladder Co. 2, 8th Battalion firehouse.

A true honor to visit the NYFD this evening in Manhattan..., wrote Trump of the FDNY in a video shared to his Truth Social Platform.

The former president praised the Fire Department of New York for being so respectful that they dont even know, then again referred to the FDNY as the NYFD in a separate post that featured a video of him signing a book at the Midtown firehouse, located less than 15 minutes walking distance from Trump Tower.

The NYFD captions appeared to be deleted by early Friday morning.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 02: Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump carries boxes of pizza for the FDNY Engine 2, Battalion 8 firehouse on May 02, 2024 in New York City. Trump delivered pizza to a firehouse after a court appearance in his hush money trial, which started with a hearing where prosecutors argued that Judge Juan Merchan should find Trump in criminal contempt again for violating a gag order. Earlier this week, Trump was found in contempt for nine violations of his April 1 order prohibiting criticism of witnesses and jurors. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images

Its not the first time a member of the Trump family has used the NYFD acronym.

The former presidents son, Eric Trump, thanked the amazing men and women of the NYFD for extinguishing a deadly fire that broke out in a residential apartment at Trump Tower in 2018.

Critics jokingly described the former president, who once reportedly left a Miami restaurant after promising food for everyone, as a real NYC Man of the People after he neglected to use the right acronym.

The real NYC Man of the People doesnt know its FDNY despite spending his entire life in the city. pic.twitter.com/EOcPvpU1wZ  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 2, 2024

It IS FDNY! For a man born and raised in NYC, that is embarrassing!  Heather P  (@aeroladyny) May 2, 2024

At the same time NYC firefighters were putting out the flames of the WTC, Donald Trump was on TV bragging that his building was now the highest in Manhattan. He doesnt give a rip about them. I dont understand why all these people he insults love him so much. A bizarre cult. pic.twitter.com/RiQFkRar5H  Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) May 2, 2024

Wait until the FDNY gets the invoice for all of that pizza.....  Graphite Czech  (@CzechArtGirl) May 2, 2024

If Biden did this the media would run it for days. https://t.co/uXIthgYgqZ  Marlene Robertson (@marlene4719) May 2, 2024

Dont worry. Hell make up some reason why to him its always NYFD https://t.co/PZMyrgcFjh  Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) May 3, 2024

i can understand him not knowing anything but his entire team?? truly the best people   coinmon (@therealCoinmon) May 2, 2024

He was standing 20 feet in front of one of these. pic.twitter.com/zuVKfLzmZw  Adam Smithee (@txpoker1) May 2, 2024

Guy loves the firemen so much, he gets the agency acronym wrong. Amazing. https://t.co/TcQbQdLsix  Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) May 3, 2024

Related...
Kelly Flynn, president of A Womans Choice in Jacksonville, Fla., poses for a portrait in her office. Agnes Lopez for The 19th

Originally published by The 19th.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  Annas period was only three days late when she took a pregnancy test just over a week ago. When she saw the positive result, she knew she wanted an abortion.

A hospitality worker in north Florida, Anna earns barely $2,000 a month. She had only recently returned to work after the birth of her son. She was so sure they could not afford another child that shed begged her partner to get a vasectomy. He declined, so they relied on condoms.

After my last baby, I knew I didnt want to have any more kids, said Anna, whom The 19th is referring to by her middle name because of her concerns about abortion stigma. Theres no way  absolutely no way we can afford it. Were finally getting on our feet to get him into day care, for me to actually have a job and start my career again.

She texted a co-worker, who told her about A Womans Choice in Jacksonville. Anna would have to make two visits to the clinic, separated by 24 hours, thanks to a law that took effect in the spring of 2022. The first is a state-required consultation in which physicians must tell patients about options other than abortion, and the second is the actual procedure. She waited an hour on the phone to hear that the first available appointment wasnt until April 30.

Anna was originally scheduled to have her abortion Thursday, May 2, the next day the clinic was supposed to be open. Then during her ultrasound, the technician told her she was five weeks and six days pregnant  and that meant she was running out of time. As of May 1, Florida is enforcing a strict ban on abortions after six weeks.

If she waited until Thursday, it would be too late to get an abortion in Florida; the staff would have to send her to North Carolina. Anna started praying, whispering please to herself.

The staff told her theyd see what they could do  theyd talk to the doctor and see if he might be able to come in and care for her on Wednesday, typically his day off.

He agreed, and Anna came in for her second visit on May 1, just as the ban went into effect. She was exactly six weeks pregnant. She was the only patient to receive an abortion in a clinic that, the day before, had been standing room only.

Empty chairs are seen in the waiting room hours before the Florida ban went into effect at A Womans Choice, in Jacksonville, Fla., on April 30, 2024. Agnes Lopez for The 19th

It was a dramatic shift from the start of the week, when the state still allowed abortions up to the 15th week of pregnancy. On Monday, almost 60 people came to the clinic; about half for their abortions, and half for the preliminary consults. A third were from somewhere other than Florida, and the vast majority were past six weeks of pregnancy. Staff fretted about whether theyd have enough parking spaces for everyone, and patients filling out paperwork sat on the tiny waiting room floor. When told that day just how many patients hed be seeing  all of them  Dr. Herman Miller, the clinics primary OB-GYN, almost laughed: Thats ridiculous.

But by Wednesday morning, it was all over. Outside, half a dozen abortion opponents chanted prayers. Inside the clinic was quieter. When patients started to trickle in around 8:45 a.m., there was easily room for all of them: Anna, for her surgical abortion, and nine patients who showed up for state-mandated consults.

The contrast and cause were obvious. In a matter of days, the nation had lost one of the Souths last meaningful options for legal abortion.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Florida  the third largest state in the country  became one of the only realistic options for Southerners seeking abortions. In the next 18 months, Florida recorded the nations second-largest increase in abortions, even as the state enforced what was then a 15-week limit, substantially earlier in pregnancy than what was guaranteed under Roe. In 2023, about 84,000 abortions took place in Floridas 60-some clinics, according to state health department data.

At A Womans Choice, clinicians said they have treated close to 400 abortion patients per month since the end of Roe. Between a third and half came from somewhere else in the South: mostly Georgia, but also Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. Most patients arrived when they were somewhere between eight and 12 weeks pregnant.

With the six-week ban in effect, Kelly Flynn, the president of the clinic, estimates the number of patients they see  virtually all of them people seeking abortions  will fall by more than half. Her clinic is scheduling only a handful of abortions per day; staff think that maybe theyll see 20 to 30 patients in a single week, instead of a single day.

Staffer Mikenzie Buchanan organizes charts at A Womens Choice, on April 30, 2024. Agnes Lopez for The 19th

On Wednesday morning, all but one patient seeking a consultation came from Florida. Three of the nine who showed up were already past six weeks, one only by days. Clinic staff offered to help them make appointments in North Carolina, the closest option. One of the physicians on staff is licensed in both North Carolina and Florida, and could do North Carolinas first mandated visit from Jacksonville.

Of the three states whose strictest limit is a six-week cutoff  South Carolina and Georgia also outlaw abortion after that point  Florida is the only one to require patients make two separate in-person visits for an abortion. It makes a tight timeline even tighter: Patients need to discover their pregnancies early enough for both appointments and make sure they have time off from work two days in a row.

Even by Tuesday, the day before the law took effect, its effect was visible; the 24-hour rule meant that in preparing patients for Wednesday, clinicians could only see people who were at or earlier than 5 weeks and 6 days. With such a short timeline, the patients seeking their preliminary abortion consults hailed exclusively from Florida. It was the first time in months that had been the case, Miller said.

You ladies are lucky you got in here this week, he sighed that morning. Something happens tomorrow, youre going to be traveling.

Miller has been providing abortions since he became a physician in the 1970s. He is almost ready to retire  he hopes to make it one more year at the clinic. His arthritis means he can only do so many abortions in a day, especially surgical ones. Standing for too long is painful.

But he worries about what will happen when he leaves the clinic, and who will be left in Jacksonville to care for a dwindling number of patients. An alumnus of the Civil Rights Movement, Miller has started telling patients not only about the new six-week law, but also encouraging them to vote in November for a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Getting that passed is an uphill battle: Florida requires 60% of voters to approve ballot-initiated constitutional amendments, the highest threshold in the country. Since June 2022, abortion rights measures have consistently won at the ballot box, but only two  Californias and Vermonts  got support from more than 60% of state voters.

Miller, clad in a green scrubs shirt and blue jeans, handed out pills for patients so they could start their medication abortions. Make sure that you vote, he told them. If the six-week ban  if its not voted out in November, they also plan to go after IUDs or implants.

Most patients said they hadnt heard about the ballot measure. Anna, for one, said she would start telling everyone she could, posting about it on social media, encouraging them to vote in favor.

Women should be voting for these things. Its not about your views on whether youre against abortion or not, she said. Its just about, it is your body. You get to choose whatever you want. Nobodys telling men, You need to have a vasectomy after four kids.

Staff saw patients rushing to the clinic as soon as they learned they were pregnant: One woman who showed up Monday had tested positive the night before. The staff couldnt schedule her that day; instead, they said, shed have better luck phoning the clinics call center across the street, trying to get on the books for Tuesday, and hoping she would still be within the limit by Wednesday.

Those who already had appointments said they felt lucky to be there. One woman came Tuesday from Louisiana. She is almost 40 years old, with a teenager at home. Another, who had come from Alabama, was 14 weeks pregnant. When she got her abortion Tuesday, she only just made the deadline.

The clinic doesnt track patient demographics, but employees said that anecdotally, most of the people they see arent white. Its unsurprising: Research suggests that 60% of Black women now live in states with abortion bans. Black women and Latinas have historically been more likely to get abortions than white women, a trend reflective of the fact that they are more likely to have lower-paying jobs and face more barriers in getting contraception.

A Womans Choice has started directing patients to leave Florida for care. Now, the closest option for an abortion after six weeks is North Carolina, which allows it until the end of the first trimester  12 weeks. But that state requires patients to make two in-person visits to the clinic 72 hours apart, which can make the trip prohibitively expensive. After North Carolina is Virginia, where the procedure is legal until 27 weeks of pregnancy. Danville, home to the closest Virginia clinic, is about 500 miles away from Jacksonville.

Jacksonville is only about an hours drive from the state border. The journey out of state will be even more burdensome to people coming from further south in Florida. By Tuesday, Dr. Chelsea Daniels, an OB-GYN who practices primarily at a Planned Parenthood outside of Miami  850 miles south of Danville, or 12 hours driving  said she already had to tell scores of patients that they were too far along to qualify for an abortion.

She worries the journey north will be too cumbersome and expensive for most patients. Abortion funds in Florida, nonprofits that help patients cover the cost of leaving the state for a procedure, say they do not have enough money to help support every Floridian who will need out-of-state care.

We are going to have these difficult conversations with just about every single patient coming in for their first day physicians consult, Daniels said Wednesday morning. Were going to be having dozens of those conversations today, just like we did yesterday.

Pregnant Floridians could also have the option to order pills online through services like Aid Access, in which physicians practicing in other states mail abortion medication to patients in states that have outlawed the procedure. Its a process thats medically safe but legally tenuous  Anna, for one, said she wouldnt feel comfortable getting pills from a physician potentially hundreds of miles away.

An empty examination room is seen at A Womans Choice, on April 30, 2024. Agnes Lopez for The 19th

Even though she was able to secure her appointment, the process felt almost unbearably isolating. Her husband is the only person she has told about her decision. She is Latina, and most of her family isnt in the United States. She isnt sure many of her older relatives would have supported her in getting an abortion  maybe just her mom and her sister.

Holding back tears, she tried to imagine what she would have had to do if she hadnt been able to get in on Wednesday. Still, she said, she would have done whatever it took, even if that meant driving eight hours out of state and charging the trip over multiple credit cards, hoping someday shed be able to pay it back. Already, she had prepared for this trip to cost her what felt like a small fortune: $375, because she qualified for financial support from the clinic. It was close to a fifth of her monthly pay.

The night before her abortion, she lay awake in bed until 4 a.m. thinking through what might happen when she came into the clinic. But for all her anxiety, she was certain about her decision.

I cannot have a baby. I just know that, she said. I know what I want. What I want is  I just want this to be over.
CRRUA says it is now 70 percent compliant after deficiencies were IDd in late 2023

CRRUA says it is now 70 percent compliant after deficiencies were IDd in late 2023

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority, which provides water to Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, says it is making progress in addressing deficiencies identified by the State of New Mexico when it did a survey of the water system back in December.

The New Mexico Environment Department identified 58 deficiencies in the CRRUA water system. The utility says it is now 70 percent compliant as of Friday, May 3. That is up from 56 percent that last time the utility issued an update.

The Progress Checklist is updated regularly and is available for viewing at crrua.org and Facebook.com/crruainfo.

This week, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., called on the State of New Mexico to conduct more water testing for the CRRUA system in a letter sent to NM Environment Secretary James Kenney.

U.S. Rep Vasquez asks for more water testing in Southern NM

CRRUA has been dealing with water quality issues since last November and some residents have told KTSM that issues with water quality go back years.

Also this week, the utility prohibited outdoor water use in its service area through May 8. The utility announced the move to deal with low water levels resulting from high use levels and having two water wells off-line for repairs and maintenance.

CRRUA temporarily prohibits outdoor water use

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA) issued a public notice on Thursday, May 2 temporarily prohibiting outdoor water use in its service area that includes Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, the utility announced in a press release.

Photo courtesy of CRRUA

This temporary interruption of outdoor water service prohibits outdoor water use through Wednesday, May 8, according to CRRUA.

CRRUA said the public notice was issued due to extremely low water levels resulting from high water use and two water wells that are offline for repairs and maintenance.

This is not an emergency declaration, said CRRUA Interim Executive Director Juan Carlos Crosby. In issuing this public notice, CRRUA takes into consideration public safety. We need to ensure that fire officials in the city of Sunland Park and Dona Ana County have the water reserves they require for fire suppression.

Prohibited residential outdoor water use includes irrigation, car washing, hosing down patios, driveways, and sidewalks, and commercial construction involving the use of water hydrants.

The public notice also pertains to public parks and school grounds, according to CRRUA.

Crosby said its also a proactive way of working with residents to be conscientious about how they use water.

CRRUA will monitor water production and water use around the clock. As soon as water storage tanks reach acceptable capacities, we will immediately notify customers that the public notice is no longer in effect, said Crosby.

Meanwhile, CRRUA continues to ask customers to practice indoor water conservation.

Tips provided by CRRUA include:

Bathroom:

Shorten showers. Because water is scarce in our dry state, turn the water off while shampooing and soaping  then turn it back on to rinse.

Install a low-flow showerhead that can reduce water flow from approximately five gallons per minute down to 2.5 gallons or even less.

Install a water-efficient toilet that can save two to five gallons of water per flush.

Do not use the toilet to dispose of trash and flush the toilet less.

Install a low-flow faucet that uses 2.5 gallons or less per minute.

Kitchen:

By using a water-efficient clothes washer you can save approximately 15 gallons per load.

No matter what kind of clothes washer you have, youll save water if you wash only full loads.

Install a water-efficient dishwasher and save seven or more gallons for every load of dishes.

Use the automatic dishwasher only for full loads.

Install a low-flow faucet in your kitchen.

If you wash dishes by hand, dont leave the water running while rinsing. Remember, an older faucet uses up to five gallons of water per minute.

Use collected water for watering plants.

Be a water detective:

Find and fix leaks. A slow, steady faucet drip can waste 15 to 20 gallons per day; a faster drip can waste 100 gallons or more. Many faucet leaks can be repaired with an inexpensive washer.

Also check for toilet leaks, which can silently waste hundreds of gallons of water.

Outdoor leaks can be extremely wasteful, too. Repair broken sprinklers and leaky drip lines.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
(COLORADO SPRINGS)  The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) is on the lookout for 42-year-old Branden Lee Bishop, who is charged with first-degree murder.

On February 2, 2024, CSPD Officers responded to the 1200 block of North Circle Drive in response to a reported stabbing, to find 56-year-old Lawny Norvell suffering from a stab wound. They were told of a verbal altercation between two men (Norvell and another man). The second man left the scene and then returned and began to fight with Norvell, stabbed him, and then ran. Norvell was taken to the hospital.

Photo: Branden Lee Bishop. Courtesy: Colorado Springs Police Department

The suspect was identified as 42-year-old Branden Lee Bishop. Bishop was arrested on charges of First-Degree Assault and later released on bond. On April 26, 2024, Norvell died from his injuries. On April 29, 2024, the El Paso County District Attorneys Office amended charges against Bishop to Murder in the First Degree and issued a warrant for his arrest.

Currently, Bishops whereabouts are unknown, and CSPD is asking for public assistance in finding him. However, CSPD said, if you locate Bishop do not approach him. Instead, call 911.

Anyone with information about Branden Bishops whereabouts or who was a witness to this incident is asked to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at (719-) 444-4000. If you wish to remain anonymous, you may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (719)634-STOP (7867) or 1-800-222-8477.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado.
People hold their ground near a main gate at Columbia University in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, as New York City police officers move to clear the area after a building was taken over by protesters. | Craig Ruttle

Student protests at universities across the U.S. are ostensibly related to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 and Israels military response. But theres something else thats being blamed for the uprisings: cultural Marxism.

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox earlier this week, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz blamed cultural Marxism directly, without offering a definition. In a previous appearance on Fox, he explained that this system of belief divides the world into two groups  oppressors and victims  and that student protesters see Palestinians as the victims oppressed by Israel.

Cruz is likely talking up cultural Marxism because he published a book on that theme last year. But hes not the only person on the political right to link campus unrest to this ideology, or to warn of its dangers in recent years.

A 2022 report from the Heritage Foundation said that cultural Marxism poses a far more serious and existential threat to the United States than did Soviet communism. Jordan Peterson has spoken about it, as have other thought leaders on the right.

Those on the left, however, call this idea balderdash, the newest intellectual bugaboo on the radical right, as an article published in the magazine of the Southern Poverty Law Center put it.

Its actually not that new  Pat Buchanan was using the term in his presidential campaign in the year 2000. But cultural Marxism has risen to the fore again, in part because Columbia University  the epicenter of the student protests  has a history of affiliation with Marxist thought. And while some on the left have dismissed the concept of cultural Marxism as a far-right conspiracy theory, there are, in fact, advocates of Marxism teaching in American universities, and the number of young adults who prefer socialism and Marxism to capitalism is on the rise.

Heres a short primer on why the controversial German philosopher, born 206 years ago this week, is coming up in connection with campus protests in 2024.

When was the Frankfurt School at Columbia University?

Prior to World War II, a group of German scholars focused on neo-Marxist theory became collectively known as the Frankfurt School. According to an overview published by ThoughtCo., It was not a school, in the physical sense, but rather a school of thought associated with scholars at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany.

After Adolph Hitler came to power, the scholars moved their base camp to Columbia University, where it resided from 1934 to 1949, the New Republic explained in an article entitled Frankfurt on the Hudson. The scholarship most associated with this group of intellectuals is Critical Theory, which examines oppression and inequality in social structures, and the role of media and culture in shaping society; it is the ideological ancestor of Critical Race Theory, a recent front in the culture wars.

As described in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Frankfurt School scholars revised and updated Marxism by integrating it with the work of Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Friedrich Nietzsche while developing a model of radical critique that is immanently anchored in social reality. They used this model to analyze a wide range of phenomena  from authoritarianism as a political formation and as it manifests in both the nuclear family and deep-seated psychological dispositions, to the effects of capitalism on psychological, social, cultural, and political formations as well as on the production of knowledge itself.

The fact that many of these scholars were Jewish contributes to arguments that opposition to cultural Marxism is antisemitic, as an article by Bill Berkowitz in Intelligence Report, the magazine of the Southern Law Poverty Center, claims.

Berkowitz writes: Right-wing ideologues, racists and other extremists have jazzed up political correctness and repackaged it  in its most virulent form, as an anti-Semitic theory that identifies Jews in general and several Jewish intellectuals in particular as nefarious, communistic destroyers. These supposed originators of cultural Marxism are seen as conspiratorial plotters intent on making Americans feel guilty and thus subverting their Christian culture.

But in political discourse on the right, the term has largely been divorced from its complex history and instead is being used to more broadly condemn wokeness and any progressive cause, especially those that focus on economic or social inequality.

And of course, when it comes to the student protests, the people crying cultural Marxism are defenders, not critics, of Israel and the Jewish people.

What does cultural Marxism mean?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the term cultural Marxism dates to 1938, when it was then described in the British Union Quarterly as the preliminary bolshevisation of the mind, facilitated by the indiscriminate toleration-psychosis of liberalism, inherent in Social-Democracy, and leading to its final inevitable collapse.

It has since been used by the political right to describe a political agenda advocating radical social reform, said to be promoted within western cultural institutions by liberal or left-wing ideologues intent on eroding traditional social values and imposing a dogmatic form of progressivism on society, according to the Oxford Dictionary.

The antisemitism on college campuses is utterly disgusting.



It is a direct result of the sickness of Cultural Marxism that has seized control of colleges.



Every violent rioter should be expelled, arrested, andif they are not a citizendeported. pic.twitter.com/XtYVAIPyED  Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 2, 2024

In a 2018 article on the topic in The Hedgehog Review, Andrew Lynn noted that cultural Marxism is centered in the academy and is said to hold sway over the professoriate in humanities and social science departments. Their students are then sent forth into the world to proselytize Marxist cultural principles, which rose up to replace Marxist economic principles after their failure.

Marxism on campus

How many American professors are actually Marxists? Forbes reported that one estimate puts the number at 3%, although those who generally embrace Marxist or Democratic Socialist views are likely higher, and Marxist-leaning professors outnumber conservatives in some disciplines, like social science.

As Reasons Robby Soave wrote in Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump, published in 2019, Most people know that professors are more left-leaning than the average American: what they might not realize is that so many professors teach from an explicitly Marxist perspective or at the very least apply critical theory to the subject they teach.

As for the general public, the rise in young adults expressing support for Marxism is disquieting, according to the Acton Institute, which in 2020 reported on a five-fold increase in just one year, saying nearly one-third of the members of Gen Z  Americans between the ages of 16 and 23  deem Marxism worthy of support. The terms favorability has skyrocketed to 30% among Gen Z respondents, up from 6% in 2019.

The same survey found that 49% of Gen Z approved of socialism, compared to 40% the year prior.

More recently, in 2022, Pew Research Center found shrinking support for socialism among all Americans, but noted a sharp generational divide: While younger adults are more likely than older adults to say they have positive impressions of socialism, the opposite is true for capitalism. Just 40% of those ages 18 to 29 view capitalism positively; that is the lowest share in any age group and 33 percentage points lower than the share of those 65 and older.

There is also a pronounced generational divide when it comes to Americans feelings about Israel and Palestine. In multiple surveys, young adults are more likely to sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis. And notably, according to a report in The Washington Post, Fourteen percent of 18- to 29-year-olds thought it was very important for the United States to protect Israel compared with two-thirds of those 65 or older. The same article, written by Frances Vinall, noted that one explanation for young Americans support of Palestine is their tendency to see the conflict through a racial justice lens.

Vinall quoted Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Tufts University, who said many college students see the war as a people of color  that is, the Palestinians  rising up against a white oppressor.

In other words, Cruz wasnt wrong to note a thread of cultural Marxism leading to the uprisings, which have led to the arrests of more than 2,000 people across the United States.

Nor was his argument hurt when social media sleuths discovered that one protester and Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University was interested in theories of the imagination & poetry as interpreted through a Marxian lens.
Regarding the legal (and legalistic) issues related to the current raft of criminal cases lodged against former game-show host, occasional pornographic-film performer, and disgraced ex-president Donald J. Trump, I commend to you the expert opinions of Dispatch legal analyst Sarah Isgur and frequent Advisory Opinions podcast guest David French of the New York Times.

For my part, I have a narrow, but relevant, example to put forward: the felony case against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was indicted by a Travis County prosecutor entrusted with countering political corruption throughout the state of Texas. The prosecutor, a wildly corrupt and out-of-control drunk named Rosemary Lehmberg, indicted Perry for threatening to veto funding for a specific state expenditure: her office.

While she was a Travis County prosecutor, Lehmberg was arrested for drunk driving, which is not a great surprise for someone who was consuming about two liters of vodka a week for more than a year in addition to whatever other drinking she did. (I sympathize.) She was pulled over after driving erratically, found with an open bottle of vodka in the car, and came in at about three times the legal blood-alcohol content. That is not great, but the much worse part is that while in custody, she attempted to use her position to bully and threaten sheriffs officers and other personnel into giving her special treatment and letting her go. She threatened to have them arrested and jailed, among other things.

Perry rightly understood this to be an unbearable outrage against the public interest in clean and fair government, and soughtunsuccessfullyto have Lehmberg removed from office. He subsequently announced that as governor he would use his veto powers to block state funding for the office as long as Lehmberg was the incumbentif Travis County wanted to protect its corrupt prosecutor, Travis County could pay her.

Lehmberg retaliated by indicting Perry on felony corruption charges on the theory that, while the governor of Texas has entirely open-ended veto power, it was an act of political corruption for him to use that veto power to try to pressure her to leave office. That was pure nonsense, as the courts eventually decided, and everybody knew it was a vindictive, frivolous case: another outrageous abuse of power from a prosecutor inclined to the abuse of power. Perry was at the time campaigning in the Republican presidential primary while under felony indictmentDonald Trump is not the first to have done so.

As our legal writers have observed, there isnt anything in the statutes or in the Constitution that says you cannot indict a sitting president. There is a Justice Department memo that says the Justice Department wont do that, and there is the fact that the president, as head of the executive branch, would in effect be prosecuting himself if he were tried under federal law while in office. There isnt anything that says a local prosecutor cannot indict a president eitherthat this is not the usual practice is a matter of custom that had not been much challenged before the presidency of Donald Trump, who is a profoundly corrupt, indecent, and immoral man, albeit one who has not yet been convicted on any charge. It doesnt have to be that way, and it hasnt always been: President Ulysses Grant was arrested while he was president, and apparently thanked the arresting officerthis having happened in the 19th century, it is worth observing that the police officer who arrested the sitting president was blackand praised him for doing his duty. Grant was a reckless horseman, and the officer had, apparently, given him a prior warning.

I like the story about President Grant, but we dont live in Ulysses Grants worldwe live in Rosemary Lehmbergs world.

The question about legal immunity for presidents mainly has to do with official acts, i.e., with actions taken in the course of performing the duties of a president. Donald Trump believes that such immunity should cover all conduct for presidents, including ordinary crime. It is easy to understand why such a figure as Trump would prefer this, but almost nobody takes that argument seriously. There are some serious reasons to doubt that U.S. presidents areas opposed to should belegally entitled to any official immunity, including for plainly official acts while president. As Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out last week during oral arguments for the case involving these questions, there isnt anything in the Constitution that explicitly confers such immunity on presidents, while there is plain-text discussion of immunity for members of Congress.

The example of Rosemary Lehmberg is one little piece of evidence that obviously official acts within the core executive powers of a chief executive (which a governor is) can nonetheless be read as potential crimes if an enterprising prosecutor so desires. The cases may come to naught, but that doesnt make them necessarily any less politically useful to partisans or toxic for democratic procedure.

None of this is especially relevant to the Trump case at hand, which mostly involves private conduct that would be outside the scope of any plausible immunity claim. Like many of my lawyer colleagues, I was somewhat mystified by Jack Smiths inclusion of Trumps desire to fire one attorney general and replace him with another as part of the criminal case against himchoosing his own attorney general is something presidents get to do, provided there is no evident crime involved, such as taking a bribe to fire one Cabinet member and replace him with another. Firing a political appointee because he will not toe the political line is something that would be very hard to understand as a crime, even in the context of the broader Trump-led coup detat effort after the 2020 election, which wasin my view and, I am confident, in the view of any reasonable jury that should ever get to consider the case in fulla criminal conspiracy.

Consider, for example, the murder case against Barack Obama. There wasnt one. In my view, President Obama should have been impeached and removed from office after ordering the assassinations of two American citizensjihadist social-media propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage sonwho were killed not in the heat of battle but after being put on a hit list (Obamas lieutenants bragged to the New York Times about it) and targeted for extrajudicial killing. What Barack Obama did wasnt ordinary criminal murderit was much worse than that. A self-respecting Congress would have acted against him (Sen. Rand Paul, before he devolved into  whatever it is he has become  tried to do so) and drawn a bright line in policy regarding the assassination of American citizens.

But Congress failed to act. Would it have been better, from a civic or constitutional point of view, if some prosecutor had attempted to construe Obamas national security policy as a murder conspiracy? I do not think that it would. There are a lot of variations on the theme of Rosemary Lehmberg out there, and a lot of Republican answers to Rosemary Lehmberg out there, too.

There are plenty of plausible charges upon which to convict Donald Trump. And for every plausible felony charge against him, there are 14,697 non-criminal reasons he should never again be entrusted with any kind of political power and never should have been in the first place. The scars of the Trump presidency will be on our constitutional order for generations, and the issue of indicting, trying, and convicting former presidents for acts taken while in office will be part of that. Some kind of qualified immunity for plainly official acts, both during the term in office and after, seems to me a reasonable measurebut it also seems to me that this is a question for Congress, not a question for the Supreme Court. As Justice Thomas noted, there isnt any obvious textual source for any claim of immunity for presidents. An immunity statute written by Congress would do well to include a provision permitting the removal of such immunity (perhaps by a two-thirds vote or as part of an impeachment sentence) in the case of truly outrageous offenses done under the color of official acts.

Rick Perry was indicted on felony charges for threatening a veto. The case against Donald Trump isnt anything so obviously vindictive or trivial. But the history of our republic does not begin with Donald Trump andone hopesit will not end with him, either. This is something we need to get sorted out before there is an even more corrosive test case. The taste for tyranny is not limited to men as lazy and stupid as Donald Trumpand we simply have to prepare for the possibility of a more competent and capable demagogue.

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As Chinese President Xi Jinping is about to visit France as the first stop-over of his visit to three European nations, the second China-France Forum on Global Governance was held in Paris on Thursday local time with the participation of more than 100 Chinese and French experts to discuss the reform on global governance and joint building of multilateralism.

Former French prime minister Laurent Fabius in his keynote speech said the unilateralism and aggressive behavior of certain countries have posed serious threats to global security, economy and environment. As firm supporters of multilateralism, China and France must continue to be committed to the multilateralist framework, and in particular, work together to prevent nuclear proliferation.

China and France have similar visions in global governance and look forward to finding solutions, maintaining international order and improving global governance through multilateral cooperation, said Fabius.

Wu Hailong, president of the China Public Diplomacy Association, raised up the role of the UN, which is to effectively build global consensus, mobilize global resources, coordinate global actions, so as to solve global governance issues.

Wu emphasized China's contribution to global governance under multilateralism and called on China and France to always uphold the spirit of unity and cooperation, actively eliminate the interference of geopolitics and ideology, jointly practice multilateralism, and give full play to the responsibility and influence of major powers in global governance.

Four sub-forums themed "Multilateralism in Action: Building and Maintaining Peace," "Multilateralism in Change: Scientific and Technological Innovation and Development," "Multilateralism in Cooperation: Low-carbon Sustainable Development" and "Multilateralism in Dialogue: Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Diverse Civilizations" were held.

At the first sub-forum on Multilateralism in Action, Thierry Dana, a French diplomat, proposed that China and the EU should become politically powerful forces, promote the development of true multilateralism, advocate free trade, and jointly safeguard international market order.

Many participating experts raised the issue of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Feng Shaolei, director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University, said that Asia should play a key role in promoting regional economic cooperation and avoiding geopolitical conflicts. He called for a brief truce during the Paris Olympic Games to provide an opportunity to resolve regional conflicts and achieve lasting peace.

The first China-France Forum on Global Governance was held in Paris in 2019. This year's forum was held as China and France commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The forum was jointly sponsored by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies and China-Europe-America Global Initiative.
KYODO NEWS - May 3, 2024 - 09:53 | All, Feature

Little Tokyo, an area in downtown Los Angeles that has been home to many Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans over the past 140 years, was included in an annual list of the most endangered U.S. historic places released by a nonprofit Wednesday.

"Gentrification and displacement of legacy businesses due to rising rents endanger the historic character that makes Little Tokyo unique," the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation said, noting that restaurants and businesses have already been forced to close or relocate.

Little Tokyo, said to have emerged after Japanese immigrants started opening restaurants in the area in 1884, is the cultural home for the Japanese-American community in southern California.

According to the U.S. National Park Service, the population of Little Tokyo grew to more than 35,000 by the early 1940s. But the community diminished after many residents were incarcerated in U.S. government camps in other areas of the country following Japan's attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Linda Dishman, an advisor to the nonprofit, said, "Listing Little Tokyo as an endangered place is intended to support these community-driven plans and priorities," referring to local efforts to address increasing development and gentrification challenges.

"This designation helps to ensure that Little Tokyo's history, cultural heritage and legacy are recognized and its future is guided," said Kristen Hayashi, a curator at the Japanese American National Museum.

Other sites on the 2024 list of 11 endangered U.S. historic places include Minute Man National Historical Park, where the first battle of the American Revolution took place, and Eatonville, Florida, one of the first self-governing all-black municipalities in the United States.
King County power lines and equipment were sabotaged in two attacks, in a span of months, officials for a local power utility company said, which is now leaving customers to pay for the $100,000 damage.

TRANSMISSION LINE VANDALISM:

On April 6, a vandal cut fiber lines near transmission towers in Renton, which are used for communication within the transmission system, said Doug Johnson, senior spokesperson for Bonneville Power Administration.

This was the second attack on the companys equipment, which took place a few blocks away from the first incident, in a matter of months, he added.

The damaged equipment and poles were near SE 168th Street and 186th Avenue SE.

It is interesting they were so near one another and again four months apart, he said.

Last December, a power line pole was cut clean in half, Johnson shared photos of the damage.

This was a deliberate attack, Johnson said. Both acts deliberately done in what we believe was an effort to disrupt power.

Johnson told KIRO 7 News that he does not believe the suspect(s) was looking to steal any equipment, including copper wire.

These deliberate attacks on equipment take line workers and other personnel off tasks and ratepayers money, said Covington district manager Stefan Schildt. We are hoping anyone with information about who may have caused this damage will come forward and help bring that person or persons to justice.

A person deliberately damaged power lines in King County, officials say. The company that owns the equipment said this is an act of sabotage. Why customers could end up paying for all of the damage on @KIRO7Seattle at 5 p.m. pic.twitter.com/nhYSZSDhhJ  Louie Tran (@louie_tran) May 2, 2024

Families did not lose power in either incident, but many will feel the burden.

This hits the pocketbooks of anybody that pays PUDs, municipal electric utilities, or rural electric co-op in the Puget Sound Energy, he said. We had to take staff off tasks. That cost money. These incidents cost us about $100,000 to repair and we have to recover those funds from somewhere and unfortunately, its going to be from our rate payers.

Many customers will see their monthly bills increase in order to cover the total damage.

Anybody who is served by a public utility district, municipal electric utility or a rural electric co-op in the Puget Sound area is affected by the costs, Johnson shared.

Johnson said details on the increase have not been shared to customers yet.

No, all of these costs go in a process that we work with utilities like Tacoma Power, the Town of Steilacoom, Seattle City Light, just to name a few that are up there in the Puget Sound area. They know from operating their own systems that any time you experience vandalism or sabotage, those are costs that are going to present upward rate pressure for you. Wed like to avoid those, and I think the best way to do that is to bring these folks to justice who committed these acts, he said.

KIRO 7 News reached out to the King County Sheriffs Office to learn more about both incidents.

A spokesperson said they did not have details on a possible suspect or if both cases were connected.

Johnson told KIRO 7 News these are ongoing issues that are affecting many power utility companies across the United States.

We asked him what the company plans to do to deter vandals from damaging their equipment and poles to prevent future rate hikes.

He said additional security measures have been put in place after a major attack on a substation in Oregon in 2022, however, he could not disclose the details.

If you see something, say something. If you see someone near a substation or a power line that doesnt look like they should be there. Isnt wearing a hard hat or a vest or some sort of utility identifying clothing, you should probably report it to local law enforcement officials, he shared.

CUSTOMERS:

KIRO 7 News spoke with neighbors in the area about the vandalism and the BPAs plans to increase customers bills.

I dont like it all to pay more for the criminals. Thats really bad, said Anthony Inthapandith, a neighbor. Thats a lot of money.

Inthapandith said he understands the company can raise the price of his bill; however, he believes families should not be responsible for criminals poor decisions.

I feel bad about people who do that to the public. That belongs to everybody, he shared.

Everything is now so expensive now, food, gas everything is going up, he added. Thats really bad for me personally.

Alex Hager, another neighbor, said, Thats devastating. Thats a full pole they cut down with a chainsaw. Thats not some simple vandalism.

The vandalism did not just damage property, Hager said, its also hurting lives.

I dont have any more money coming out of my pocket. Man, Im on a fixed income pretty much. I work retail at Safeway. Rates going up on everything. It just puts you in a harder place, he shared.
Czech FM on Ukrainian draft-aged men abroad: We do not support those who avoid legal obligations

Czechia has been welcoming Ukrainian refugees since the all-out war started but will not support Ukrainian men who evade serving in the army as imposed by law, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on May 2.

With some exceptions, Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine during the war while martial law is in effect.

The Foreign Ministry announced on April 23 that Ukraine was temporarily suspending new applications for consular support for military-age men abroad due to the new law on mobilization.

The following day, the government also announced a ban on sending identification documents and passports of Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 abroad.

There are 94,643 men aged 18 to 65 in Czechia who have temporary protection due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the Czech Interior Ministry.

"I understand the problem of the return of Ukrainian draft-aged men," Lipavsky said in an interview with the Czech media outlet Novinky.

"The Czech Republic has been supporting Ukrainian refugees for a long time, and we welcome them on our territory. But not those who try to avoid the obligation imposed by law."

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Czechia cannot legally implement the mandatory return of Ukrainian draft-aged men under the protection status. In theory, Ukraine could send a summons and then an official request for extradition of a person who ignored it and violated Ukrainian law, Novinky said, citing an international law expert Vera Honuskova.

The issuing of passports can also be a way to bring back to Ukraine those who must be on the military register, according to Josef Urban, a spokesman for the Czech Foreign Police Service Directorate.

Every Ukrainian who lives in Czehia under protection status is obliged to identify themselves with a valid travel document, Urban added. If it does not happen, a person could face a fine of 5,000 Czech korunas ($215) and administrative proceedings for deportation.

Poland and Lithuania earlier indicated they are exploring ways to help Ukraine bring their fighting-aged men back home, but no clear steps have been presented.

Several countries, including Germany and Estonia, said they will allow Ukrainian refugees to get temporary residency permits and extend expired ones even without valid passports.

Read also: Polish FM: Returning draft-aged men to Ukraine is ethically ambiguous

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
A view of the United taxiway at Denver International Airport. (Photo courtesy of Denver International Airport)

A push for sustainable aviation fuel production was a major focus for lawmakers this week, as well as revisiting changes on the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.

Read about the crop production expectations and more in this weeks D.C. Dispatch:

Grain growing and GREET model update

The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) Model has new requirements for farmers to qualify for tax credits when producing grains sold for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

For the remainder of 2024, farmers must use specific methods of producing their corn or soybeans used for the fuel, including efficient tiling and cover crops to qualify for 40B tax credits.

Requirements for producers to qualify for the 45Z tax credit available in 2025 will be developed at a later date, according to the Department of the Treasury.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said the formula will be easy to violate and without certain grain in the formula, there will not be enough feedstock to make enough fuel to meet requirements.

This GREET Model update is a stupid approach, Grassley said in a video announcement. Widespread use of sustainable aviation fuel will help fight global warming, but rejecting grain feedstocks will impede efforts to produce that fuel on a commercial scale.

The GREET update comes during planting season and more than a month after the announcement had been planned to be made by President Joe Bidens administration.

The Biden administration is deciding to play politics with what crops can be used in the SAF market and unfairly penalizing domestic producers for their farming practices, Sen. Joni Ernst said in a news release. This decision will ultimately hinder Americas ability to compete in this new alternative fuel market and force our country to be more reliant on foreign feedstocks for expanded biofuel production.

Biden GREET Model update relies on political science > real science Does any1 in Washington deciding this rule understand that grain on the farm is co mingled at local elevator?? Come 2real world IOWA for elementary lesson on farming corn/soybeans Stop harming our grain farmers  Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) May 1, 2024

Midwestern members of Congress have held GREET discussions over the past year, most making efforts to advocate for the adoption of the model. A news release from Ernsts office said she works to ensure the GREET Model qualifies as an eligible methodology when calculating SAF credits. The update, the news release states, is an unfair penalization on certain domestic feedstocks.

While I am glad farmers can now be rewarded for their good conservation practices. I am disappointed the Administration chose a one-size-fits-all approach that will disadvantage many Iowa farmers, Rep. Ashley Hinson said in a news release. Rather than mandate a bundle of conservation techniques that will leave many Iowa farmers behind, conservation practices should qualify on individual merits.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a news release the updated model is an important stepping stone as it acknowledges the important role farmers can play in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and begins to reward them through that contribution in the production of new fuels.

Pushing for FAFSA form change

Grassley, Ernst and Republican Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska met with the Department of Education to pass along concerns about asset calculations in the updated FAFSA.

The senators argue that one of the questions on the form does not clearly define how assets, including family farms, should be calculated to determine aid eligibility.

Between this years FAFSA delays and the applications vague farm reporting requirements, Washington bureaucrats have sown confusion for American families facing a significant financial investment in their kids futures, Grassley said in a news release.

Ernst and Grassley made a request for an analysis to be conducted regarding the 2024-2025 aid process.

As I have long suspected, the Biden administration left our farm families in the dust while developing their new, flawed FAFSA form, Ernst said in a news release. Folks who have never stepped foot on a farm shouldnt be writing policies that impact thousands in our ag communities.

Ernst emphasized bipartisan legislation she introduced in April 2023 to address the needs of farm families and small business owners when completing the FAFSA.

Disaster declaration desired

The Iowa delegation wrote a letter to Biden asking for a major disaster declaration for the state. The call for Biden to grant Gov. Kim Reynolds request for activation of the Individual Assistance Program and the Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Program came after storms hit southwestern of Iowa.

The counties included in the request are Clarke, Crawford, Harrison, Mills, Polk, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby and Union.

If the request is granted, it would enable Iowans to apply for low-interest disaster loans and allow access to recovery services.

Granting lead pipe replacements

A $30 million investment to replace lead water lines in Iowa was granted by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The $30 million grant will be administered via the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

Every Iowan should have access to clean, safe drinking water, Grassley said in a news release. These federal dollars will help our communities and ensure water coming out of the faucet is lead-free. I supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill with the health and safety of Iowans in mind, and Im glad to see this investment continue to benefit our great state.

Grassley and former Rep. Cindy Axne supported the legislation. The other Iowans in Congress voted against the 2021 bill.

Feenstra bills in weather package

The National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act and the Weather Innovation for the Next Generation Act passed the House as part of the Weather Act Reauthorization Act.

The two bills were initiatives by Rep. Randy Feenstra. The National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act would update NWS Chat, a system that informs the public about dangerous weather conditions.

The powerful tornadoes that struck parts of Southwest Iowa last week were tragic, Feenstra said in a news release. As our community has come together to take care of our neighbors, it is vital that the National Weather Service has the capability to use every tool available to keep our families and communities safe from severe weather. When it comes to dangerous storms, every second matters and can be the difference between life and death.

The Weather Innovation for the Next Generation Act would require research to improve weather radars obstructed by physical structures, including wind turbines.

Feenstra reintroduced the bills in November after they were passed in the previous Congress.

TikTok trepidation

Hinson released a statement regarding a safety roundtable discussion in Cedar Rapids hosted by representatives of TikTok.

If TikTok truly cared about supporting American businesses and entrepreneurs, they would cut ties with Communist China-controlled ByteDance, Hinson said in a news release. As long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance, Communist China controls the content we see and the Chinese government can access Americans data, passwords, and keystrokes with the click of a button.

Ernst wrote a letter with Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican from Texas, calling on the Biden-Harris campaign to stop using TikTok to support their reelection efforts until TikTok has been sold by ByteDance.

You signed into law H.R. 815, legislation formalizing what we have known for a long timeTikTok is a national security threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, Ernst wrote in a letter to Biden. Yet your presidential campaign defiantly continues to use TikTok, ignoring the serious concerns your own administrations officials have raised.

Ernst and Hinson both voted in favor of banning TikTok if it is not sold by its parent company to an American-controlled company.

Low-income pre-kindergarten funding

Rep. Zach Nunn introduced a bill that would fund state-led pre-kindergarten programs for children who live in low-income communities.

The bipartisan bill would support state education agencies providing pre-kindergarten programs for households making $30,000 or less.

Every Iowan, regardless of zip code or income deserves access to affordable education opportunities, Nunn said in a news release. We have an obligation to ensure that public education is meeting the needs of every single child.

Nunn introduced the bill alongside Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Washington.

Perry police awarded

Nunn presented Perry police officers with the Iowa Medal of Merit at a ceremony in Perry on April 26.

In January, our community was rocked by the tragic attack at Perry High School. The Perry Police Department helped save lives with their courageous and rapid response, Nunn said in a news release. Its my privilege to honor these men and women in uniform for their willingness to run into danger to keep our community safe. We cant say thank you enough!

In January,the Perry community experienced a tragic shooting at Perry High School. I stopped by the Perry Police Department today to show our appreciation to those who responded to the shooting. We cant say thank you enough for your willingness to run into danger to keep us safe pic.twitter.com/Rzm36COzGu  Congressman Zach Nunn (@ZachNunn) April 26, 2024

The Iowa Medal of Merit is presented to community heroes honorably serving their community.

Sexual violence awareness

Grassley led a bipartisan resolution to highlight sexual assault prevention measures and to encourage support for survivors of sexual assault.

Far too many Americans have suffered physical and psychological trauma as a result of sexual assault, Grassley said in a news release. We must make certain these brave survivors know they are not alone in their struggle.

The bill was introduced in late April, sexual assault awareness and prevention month.

Gaza refugee rejection

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that the Biden administration is constantly evaluating policy proposals to further support Palestinians who are family members of American citizens and may want to come to the United States.

Ernst led Grassley and 33 other senators in a letter to Biden, saying allowing Gazan refugees to come to the U.S. is a national security risk and doubted the federal governments ability to vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States.

We are confused as to why the United States is willing to accept Gazan refugees when even nearby Arab countries supportive of the Palestinian cause refuse to take them in due to security reasons, the senators wrote.

Feenstra on foreign digital trade

Feenstra led a letter with nine other representatives criticizing digital trade policy decisions. The letter was sent to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and emphasized the harmful and economic and deficit impacts of the Biden administrations digital trade policy decisions.

Data-localization requirements were among the concerns of the letter-writers, saying certain practices could result in a taxable presence for U.S. companies participating in digital trade in foreign countries.

The letter is a follow-up to a November letter from a bipartisan group expressing opposition after the U.S. trade representatives office announced it would alter how it approaches digital trade rules. The decision was a reversal from the Trump administrations approach to digital trade.

Weve seen how foreign countries have targeted the American economy to collect additional tax revenue, Feenstra said in a news release. The next iteration of this trend could occur following the U.S. Trade Representatives reversal on digital trade policies that would allow foreign countries to require American businesses to either invest in those countries or lose access to those markets.

Proposed poultry definition change

Ernst led a letter, which Grassley signed, advocating for a change in the definition of poultry to better classify between commercially raised poultry and backyard flocks or wild birds in light of the effect of bird flu on trade.

The letter was sent to the Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Michael Watson.

The lawmakers advocate for a discrepancy between non-commercial backyard flocks and commercially raised birds, citing foreign trade bans from other countries on U.S. states because of diseases in localized, noncommercial flocks.

Americas agricultural competitiveness depends on having fair, up-to-date global animal health rules, which would provide our producers with a level playing field, the lawmakers wrote.

The letter has more than 50 lawmakers signed on.

Feenstra surgery

A social media post indicated Feenstra had a scheduled surgery Thursday to treat a blood clot.

Today, Congressman Feenstra had a scheduled, outpatient surgery that successfully treated a blood clot in his leg. At his doctors request, and to ensure he is best able to fulfill his official responsibilities, hell remain in Washington & limit his travel until fully recovered.  Rep. Randy Feenstra (@RepFeenstra) May 2, 2024

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PORTERVILLE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A 47-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after a DUI crash in 2021 that led to the death of two children and left others with multiple significant injuries, the District Attorneys Office of Tulare County announced.

The DA says at approximately 3:20 p.m. on June 19, 2021, Porterville Police Department officers responded to Main Street and Orange Avenue for a multi-vehicle collision. Elizabeth Nungaray, who possessed a prior DUI conviction from 2000, was speeding, swerving, and violating traffic signals when she crashed into the victims SUV.

Murder charges filed against woman accused of killing 2 sisters in Porterville DUI crash

Officials say the impacted vehicle was occupied by two women and four children aged 5 to 13 years old. One of the children, a 10-year-old, died at the scene, and an 8-year-old child was pronounced deceased at the hospital.

The surviving family members, the DA says, suffered severe injuries including permanent paralysis. The occupant of a third vehicle suffered minor injuries. Nungarays blood alcohol level was .15%.

On March 29, the DA says Nungaray pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree murder and one felony count of DUI causing injury. The charges are enhanced with the special allegations that she has prior felony convictions and that she personally inflicted great bodily injury.

Under California state sentencing laws, the DA states Nungaray has a minimum parole eligibility of 30 years not including CDCR credits. She was sentenced in the Tulare County Superior Court, South County Justice Center.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
Dan Bishop said the 2020 election was stolen. Now he wants to be NCs attorney general.

images of Dan Bishop and Jeff Jackson appear next to the N.C. Department of Justice Building

Republican Dan Bishop (top) and Democrat Jeff Jackson are running to become state attorney general -- an office that plays an important role in interpreting and enforcing voting rights laws. (Photos: Bishop and Jackson campaign websites and Clayton Henkel for NC Newsline)

After the 2020 election, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina became an outspoken proponent of the lie that Democrats had rigged the results. He accused the rival party of running a national campaign to tie up the courts and disrupt the elections administration, announcing that he would contest Electoral College votes in four states that were key to Joe Bidens victory.

The Democrats objectives were to weaken ballot security, undermine positive identification of voters, and provide opportunities for post-election ballot-box stuffing, Bishop said at the time. This has been a national, partisan attack on the Constitutional delegation of authority to regulate elections specifically to state legislatures.

Bishop has expressed skepticism about the outcome of elections in other states but not the ultimate results in North Carolina, which Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2020. But just before Election Day 2020, Bishop criticized North Carolinas governor, attorney general and national Democrat operatives for what he saw as partisan attacks on the integrity of the election.

Now, Bishop is running for state attorney general, an office that would give him immense power in safeguarding North Carolinas election integrity  and in determining its future on voting rights.

Prof. Irving Joyner

Prof. Irv Joyner (Photo: NCCU)

There will be continuing efforts to challenge the right of people to vote, the requirement that they use voter ID, the counting and security of the ballots when cast, and how that is to be handled at the state level, said Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central Universitys School of Law. Who is elected as the attorney general in 2024 will determine what positions the Attorney Generals Office and the state of North Carolina will take with respect to those challenges, and how those challenges will be handled in court.

That means an elected official who tried to overturn the results of an election four years prior could run an office originally intended to expand North Carolinians access to the ballot.

Were in a little bit of uncharted water here, said Christopher Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University. Were talking about electing somebody to an office that would enforce voting rights laws, who doesnt believe that the election was free and fair, when it clearly was.

A crucial role in protecting voting rights

A century and a half before Bishop voted against certifying the 2020 election, North Carolinians adopted a new state constitution as a condition of rejoining the union after the South had lost the Civil War. Among the provisions was a requirement that North Carolinas attorney general win election in a statewide race, an effort to make the states top lawyer more responsive to the needs of the electorate  one that had changed virtually overnight, when thousands of newly freed, formerly enslaved men gained the right to vote.

Robyn Sanders

Robyn Sanders (Photo: Brennan Center for Justice)

That 1868 Reconstruction Constitution also expanded the attorney generals role in protecting voting rights, allowing them to prosecute violations of elections laws, said Robyn Sanders, counsel with the Democracy Programs Voting Rights and Elections Team at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Those changes were made with the aim of protecting the voting rights of those who were newly enfranchised, so African Americans formerly enslaved, Sanders said. This was a significant step to ensure that the voting rights of all citizens, especially those who had recently gained the right to vote would be protected and upheld.

Poll taxes and literacy tests were used to suppress the voting rights of Black people for decades after the end of Reconstruction, but the attorney generals powers to protect voting rights are still intact today. North Carolinas attorney general can take action against attempts to suppress the vote and intimidate voters, Sanders said. They can investigate and prosecute voter fraud, file lawsuits to challenge restrictive voting laws that disproportionately impact certain groups, and play a role in monitoring elections to make sure they comply with voting rights laws.

The state AG really does play a crucial role in protecting voting rights, said Sanders.

By contrast, Sanders said an attorney general more hostile to voting rights could decline to enforce voting rights protections, or propose creating a task force to investigate supposed mass voter fraud.

Perhaps that particular AG would manipulate information to suggest voter fraud is this rampant problem when all the evidence done by scholars and academics and attorneys have disproven that over and over again, said Sanders.

The attorney general can also oppose legislative efforts to restrict access to the ballot box, as Attorney General Josh Stein has done.

I think thats particularly important, given the history of the country and the state, that the Attorney General sends that signal to all voters, but particularly those who are African American and from other marginalized communities who have historically and contemporarily continue to be disenfranchised, and to face barriers and hurdles to voting, Sanders said. I think that can help strengthen democracy and ensure that all citizens are heard.

Chris Cooper

Prof. Chris Cooper (Photo: wcu.edu)

Standard Republican versus standard Democrat

Bishops opponent is a fellow congressman, Democrat Jeff Jackson. To Cooper, the candidates couldnt be any more different.

Do you want a standard Republican or a standard Democrat? Cooper asked. Both candidates are very much a part of the party brand.

When it comes to election administration, Cooper said, there is a spectrum. On one end are security measures, things like voter ID  which research shows disproportionately impacts communities of color  and cracking down on voter fraud. On the other are methods of expanding access to the ballot, like extending early voting and broadening rules on voting absentee.

If you think of the conversation about elections as being this tension between security and access, you can imagine it being all the way towards the security side with Bishop and, of course, Jackson much more to the access side, said Cooper.

The first bill Jackson filed when he was in the General Assembly would have ended gerrymandering in North Carolina by creating an independent redistricting commission. It didnt pass.

Its not like he would want elections to be unsecure or something like that, but hes much more likely to advocate for issues about voter access or issues about what he would call fair representation,' Cooper said.

Bishop, meanwhile, is unlikely to challenge the General Assembly if the Republican supermajority passes more laws to restrict access to the voting booth.

I cannot imagine Dan Bishop trying to defend the length of early voting or trying to stop the legislatures authority in any way, Cooper said.

North Carolinas attorney general may not create voting laws, but they can devote their offices resources to supporting voting rights and opposing voter suppression tactics and unrepresentative gerrymandered maps, said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.

My fear is working hand in hand with a legislature that may also not be friendly to voting rights, that could be a real disaster for our state, said Phillips.

The post Dan Bishop said the 2020 election was stolen. Now he wants to be NCs attorney general. appeared first on NC Newsline.
Do you cooperate with independent Russian journalists to reach a Russian audience? We at the Kyiv Independent hear variations of this question at every event we attend, and the audience rarely likes our answer: No, we dont; we dont see the point.

A beautiful room in the old building of New Yorks Ukrainian Institute of America is full of friendly faces. People are wearing vyshyvankas, traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, and Ukrainian flag pins.

Its Feb. 24, 2024  the second anniversary of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine. My colleagues at the Kyiv Independents War Crimes Investigations Unit and I are on a speaking tour around the U.S. to answer questions about the war. And then, like clockwork, someone asks that question.

While the question may appear innocent and constructive at first glance, it showcases one of the most widespread and harmful delusions about Russia: that the solution to Russias war of aggression lies in Russia, in the hands of the Russian people.

This question has popped up during conferences, award ceremonies, round tables, working groups, and one-on-ones I have attended from the United States to South Korea. It turns every conversation about helping Ukraine into a conversation about supporting Russian civil society, finding the right words to turn Russians against Vladimir Putins regime, and the latest lies shared by the Kremlin.

Read also: Opinion: Russias war may have opened Pandoras box for Belarus

These conversations try to piece together the reasons for Russias aggression and inevitably embark on the endless quest to uncover the mysterious Russian soul. The truth is that this quest only benefits Putins regime and takes resources away from Ukraine.

Is Russia the solution to its own problem? For decades, the world has focused on what Russia wanted it to see, from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Russia was an authoritarian empire for a long time, and living in the center of an empire comes with certain privileges. Over 30 years ago, Russians, like all peoples from countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, had a window of opportunity to build a democracy. They didnt take it.

The Russian people have continued to enjoy the privileges of their empire without asking too many questions.

For decades, Russians watched as the shreds of their new democracy were taken away from them, and they did not fight back. The biggest civil uprising in Russia took place in 2012 at Moscows Bolotnaya Square when somewhere between 25,000 to 150,000 people gathered to protest the countrys parliamentary elections. Russia has a population of over 140 million  do the math. There was no violent crackdown on protesters, and it was largely safe for people to show up, but no protests of even that magnitude ever happened in Russia again.

Russian civil society didnt rise up against Russias invasion of Georgia in 2008, its initial invasion of eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, or its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The largest anti-war protest since the start of the full-scale invasion likely only had a couple thousand people gathered in Moscow on Feb. 24, 2022.

A common excuse is that Russians have been fed state propaganda and deprived of objective information for too long. While theres no doubt that the Kremlins propaganda machine is strong, the Russian people had, and still have, access to facts. While increased restrictions make it more difficult now, all it takes is the installation of a VPN.

While the Kremlin has cracked down on freedom of speech for quite some time now, many independent Russian journalists continued to work in Russia until 2022. Russian independent media operating in exile claim to reach millions living in Russia.

In brief, the Russian people have never existed in an informational vacuum. They have traveled the world, enjoyed the perks of liberal democracies, and connected with people around the world (including Ukrainians).

People wave the Russian and Soviet flags at a pro-Russian demonstration hosted by the Russian Embassy in Berlin, Germany, on May 9, 2022, to commemorate the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in World War II. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Believe it or not, Ukrainians werent quick to give up on Russians. In the first days of the full-scale invasion, a massive campaign circulated on social media calling on Ukrainians to talk to their friends and family in Russia  to inform them of what was really going on and to urge them to stand up for Ukraine.

But what can we do? an independent Russian journalist and a close friend of mine at the time said in response to a story I posted on Instagram. I read her message as I sat on the floor in the corridor of my apartment with my elderly parents and my dog, sheltering as Russian forces bombarded Kyiv.

They would just arrest us, my friend continued. I asked sarcastically whether she was writing to me from a jail cell. She wasnt. I responded that, in that case, she didn't try. A few weeks later, she posted a photo of herself having drinks with friends at a cosy outdoor cafe in Russia. She had simply moved on.

We, of all people, know what it means when they say that power belongs to the people. Ukrainians have determined their nations path through free and fair elections and, if necessary, revolutions. Many of us thought that the people of Russia would do the same. We dont have any hope for that anymore.

A poll by the independent Russian polling organization Levada Center from February 2023 found that 77% of Russians support the invasion of Ukraine. And yet, somehow, the world believes that the only way to end this war is to help the Russian people overthrow Putin. These believers argue that many Russians are against the war but are just afraid to speak up.

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnys widow, Yulia Navalnaya, made a comment recently that Ukrainians just dont want to look for these anti-war Russians and that Russians who oppose the war are afraid to speak up because not everyone is ready to be a hero.

Even if there are more anti-war Russians than the polls show, what does this change if theyre not ready to be a hero? How do more people who silently oppose Russias war help Ukraine win?

Read also: Opinion: Russias nuclear giant is falling through the sanctions cracks

As Ukraine fights a war to protect the future of the worlds liberal democratic values, it is often treated as collateral damage. Ukraine has only been given enough support to sustain the front line, not to win the war. Believing that Russians are the answer to winning this war doesnt help Ukraine.

The Wests fascination with Russia will have to end eventually, but every moment spent fixated on the concept of the good Russian buys the Kremlin time to rearm, regroup, kill more Ukrainians, and move further into Europe.

Lets be clear: If Ukraine falls, Russia will move further into Europe. I and other Ukrainians have repeated this countless times, only to be dismissed as melodramatic and traumatized. We have the most experience in dealing with an aggressor that the rest of the world is just starting to discover.

Russia is not the solution to Russia; Ukraine is. If Ukraine falls on your watch, there will no longer be a solution.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

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Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.

In November 2016, authorities discovered the dead body of Susann Sills in her San Clemente house. According to the investigators, Susanns husband, Eric Scott Sills, woke up from his sleep and found his wifes body at the end of the staircase. However, the injury marks on her body suggested that her death might have been a murder. The gruesome case will feature in this weeks episode of Dateline NBC. It will air on the network on Friday, May 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

According to Los Angeles Times, Eric Scott Sills told the dispatcher that his wife had no pulse after falling down the stairs. Another report by Los Angeles Times mentioned that the police investigated for over a year and suspected foul play in Susann Sills death. As the investigation continued, police apprehended Eric for Susanns slaying by April 2019. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Eric killed his wife by strangulating her after a heated argument.

Meanwhile, the defense said that Susann Sills took medicines for her migraine pains, which might have left her disoriented while walking down the stairs. Los Angeles Times mentioned how the defense tried to give an alternate explanation for the strangulation. The defense said that Sills body was found with a scarf around her neck. They told the court that one or both of the family dogs might have pulled the scarf, resulting in Sills death. However, the prosecution felt that it would have taken some time for her to die this way.

After listening to arguments, the jury delivered a guilty and sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.

Susann Sills murder case explored

During the trial, prosecutors presented substantial evidence in front of the jurors. Even though they failed to provide a motive, the prosecution team suggested certain key evidence that indicated the couples tumultuous marriage and Erics involvement in his wifes death. According to Los Angeles Times, prosecutors showed the couples text messages in which Susann Sills argued with her husband. One of Susanns messages read, I will never be free, ever. You are killing me, dont you see?  I just want out.

Prosecutors also asserted that Susann Sills posted her topless photo on the internet after losing a bet. They said, Is that the reason he killed her? I dont know. However, they implied that he might have been embarrassed by that. Eventually, the jury found Eric Scott Sills guilty of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder. The court sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.

Currently, Eric Scott Sills is serving his sentence at the Wasco State Prison in Wasco, California.

The post Dateline NBC: What Happened to Susann Sills? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.

Dateline NBC will re-examine the gruesome murder of Susann Sills that took place in November 2016. Titled If These Walls Could Talk, the episode will unravel startling details about the crime and how an innocent woman lost her life. It would also shed light on how authorities investigated the case and came to a conclusion that Susanns husband, Eric Scott Sills, might be responsible for her death. The episode will air on the network on Friday, May 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

In November 2016, police discovered the lifeless body of Susann Sills in her house in San Clemente, California. According to NBC San Diego, Susanns husband, Eric Scott Sills, dialed 911 after he saw his wifes body at the bottom of the stairs. During the initial interrogation, Eric told the investigators that his wife died after a supposed fall. Following this, police sent Susanns body for an autopsy and initiated an investigation.

Police said the extensive injuries on Susann Sills body, especially her neck, made them believe that the victim died because of a fall. Moreover, the East Bay Times reported that Eric avoided giving CPR to his wife despite the dispatchers urges. Almost a year after Susanns death, authorities determined that Susann Sills death was a homicide. NBC News reported that police investigated Susanns murder for another one-and-a-half-year and arrested Eric Scott Sills in April 2019.

Per the Associated Press, police charged Eric Scott Sills with murder and the case went to trial. The jury found Sills guilty of the murder of Susann Sills and sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison, according to FOX Los Angeles. Currently, Sills is serving his sentence at the Wasco State Prison in Wasco, California. He will be eligible for parole in January 2033.

What was the motive behind Susann Sills death?

During the trial, prosecutors presented strong evidence that proved Eric Scott Sills involvement in the crime. Citing the prosecutors, NBC News mentioned that the investigators found blood stains on the wall and curtains of Sills bedroom. Additionally, a clamp of hair found in the house also showed evidence of a struggle. On the other hand, the jury members also heard Sills 911 call from the night of the murder.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Eric Scott Sills told the dispatcher that his wife, Susann Sills, fell from stairs in the middle of the night. During the call, Sills said, Weve got a patient here whos fallen off the stairs and I dont have a pulse. I think she tripped because it was dark. Moreover, prosecutors claimed that the doctor strangled his wife after arguing with her. They also argued how Eric wasted time searching for his pulse oximeter rather than saving his wife.

Meanwhile, the defense team told the jurors about the autopsy report and noted that medicines like benzodiazepine Valium and tramadol were found in her system. Citing the defense team, the Los Angeles Times noted that medicines could have left her confused on the stairs. The defense said, We dont know how she fell.

Eric and Susann were going through a rough patch

Although prosecutors failed to come up with a strong motive for the slaying, the text messages showed that the couple was going through a rough patch in their marriage. One of the messages read, I will never be free, ever. You are killing me, dont you see?  I just want out.

Per Los Angeles Times, the prosecution team also noted that Susann Sills uploaded a topless picture on the internet after losing a bet. However, the prosecutors told the court that they didnt if that motivated Eric Scott Sills to allegedly kill her. The jury deliberated for a day and found Eric Scott Sills guilty of second-degree murder.

The post Dateline NBC: Where Is Susann Sills Killer Eric Scott Sills Now? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
BARCELONA, Spain, May 3 (Xinhua) -- With severe drought continuing to affect grape harvests in Spain, producers of the sparkling white wine Cava are struggling to survive, an expert told Xinhua on Friday.

In the past three years, the Spanish cava industry has accumulated a deficit of 80 million bottles, according to the Designated Origin (DO) Cava in Catalonia, where 95 percent of Cava in Spain (around 250 million bottles a year) is produced.

"One impact of the drought could be that growers who see they can't make a decent living from grapes will have to give up cultivating their vineyards, because they've already had three years of earning only enough to cover expenses without making any profit," said Eva Plazas, an oenologist at the Vilarnau cava winery and president of the Cava Women association.

In May last year, the Spanish government approved an unprecedented 2.2 billion euros (2.37 billion U.S. dollars) of drought aid.

Meanwhile, the Cava industry is responding to the conditions of the last few years by changing tack, said Plazas.

"The landscape could change as I think there'll be more new vineyards that are planted with grape varieties that are more resistant and at the same time the number of vines planted per hectare will be much less," she added.

According to the oenologist, recent rainfall has helped the situation, especially younger vines whose roots are closer to the surface. A few more days of rain could save the grape harvest that will begin in August, she said.

In the long term, Plazas believes that the solution to reduced cava production due to climate conditions is to promote superior products "which have a higher value and a higher price", especially abroad, where some 165 million bottles of Cava are exported every year.

The news that one of Spain's largest wine producers is set to furlough 80 percent of its workforce due to the impact of a three-year drought in the region of Catalonia is an example of how the Cava industry is taking drastic action to cope with the lack of rain.

"The furlough, caused by force majeure, is an exceptional measure that has been taken in the current context of a crisis that had been brought about by a lack of raw materials because of the harsh drought that has affected the sector since 2021," the company said.

This week, the Catalan regional government rejected an appeal by the Spanish-German Cava giant Freixenet to temporarily lay off 615 of its 778 employees. 
District of Columbia police defended its decision to let the pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University (GW) stand, despite calls from Republican lawmakers for it to be cleared.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and Mayor Muriel Bowser have been scrutinized for allowing the protest at GW to continue. The encampment has been up for more than two weeks.

MPD Chief Pamela Smith argued that as long as the encampment is peaceful, it will not have to be cleared, but that could change if a shift in behavior occurs on the private universitys campus, according to a report by NBC Washington.

I think here in the District of Columbia, we allow people the opportunity to have freedom of speech, and thats what were seeing right now. There has been no violence, no violent behavior, no confrontations, Smith said, according to an MPD spokesperson. If the behavior changes, then our procedures and our process might change.

The spokesperson also told The Hill, The approach Chief Smith mentioned here remains our current posture.

Smiths comments come as both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel rallies were held Thursday on GWs campus.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has called Bowser and Smith to testify before the committee next week over the ongoing protest. Comers request to grill officials follows the report from The Washington Post stating that D.C. police refused to clear the encampment despite the school calling for it.

The House Oversight Committee is deeply concerned over reports indicating the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department rejected George Washington Universitys request for help in removing the radical, antisemitic, and unlawful protestors occupying the campus and surrounding public lands, Comer said.

Comer along with conservative lawmakers visited the campus, where they sparred with protesters, with some even threatening to withhold federal funding from the institution.

Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Byron Donalds (Fla.) and Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) all encountered protesters at GW and called for city officials to assist the school.

That being said, the mayor has a responsibility to support George Washington. The encampment is now trespassing. That is what the university president and the administration has said: You are trespassing on GW. Theyve asked for support from the mayor. Mayor Bowser doesnt want to come and support them. She needs to do her job, Donalds said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
How DC polices response to protests in the early 2000s still impacts the force today

WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  As a pro-Palestine protest and encampment enters week two at George Washington Universitys campus, the impact of several mass demonstrations more than two decades ago can still be felt.

There were protests in Washington against the IMF and World Bank, against the austerity measures they imposed on people around the world and a lot of people came together in Washington for several days of peaceful protest, explained Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

George Washington University students hold pro-Israel rally on 8th day of pro-Palestinian protests

But, it didnt stay that way. The protests, which spanned April 15 through 17 of 2000, turned violent.

You have all these people coming together and the police came up and just violated civil rights with extreme brutality, said Verheyden-Hilliard.

Roughly 700 people were arrested during those three days. D.C. police used pepper spray on protesters and were seen wearing full riot gear.

Were doing the best we can here. The protesters come and surround us, then police chief Charles Ramsey said.

Verheyden-Hilliard said what happened was extreme repression.

We had incident where police charged protesters, sand beat them brutally with clubs breaking noses and teeth, Verheyden-Hilliard said.

The group went on to sue the District of Columbia.

Were doing this all for Gaza: George Washington University demonstrations continue

Verheyden-Hilliard and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund represented hundreds in a class action lawsuit arguing MPD falsely arrested people.

They engaged in what we call trap and detain where they circle people who are lawfully gathered and will not let them leave, they loaded them into the buses, explained Verheyden-Hilliard. They actually hogtied people in stress and duress positions for more than 24 hours.

After years of litigation the lawsuit was settled in 2010 to the tune of $13.7 million.

The lawsuit, plus other similar ones filed over the span of a few years, led to major reform in the District.

In 2004, council passed the First Amendment Rights and Standards Act. The legislation prohibits the use of a police line to encircle protestors unless MPD has probable cause to arrest and has decided to arrest; requires training for officers who handle first amendment gatherings; and requires police to have a policy to ensure officers properly identify themselves at protests, among other things.

The law was enacted in 2005 and is still in effect today.

That law set the stage and tone for I think what were seeing today with the GW protesters, said Verheyden-Hilliard.

She admits the law hasnt been followed perfectly as protesters were met with brutality in 2020 while demonstrating against racism in policing. But, Verheyden-Hilliard said it has helped protect the rights of protesters.

A spokesperson with MPD told DC News Now that the agencys approach for mass demonstrations today is still based on the 2005 law.

GOP Congressional leaders spar with Pro-Palestine encampment at George Washington University during 7th day

Despite criticism for D.C. police to sweep the encampment at GW, Verheyden-Hilliard said theres no basis for it.

These are peaceful protesters who are standing up for what they believe in, she said. There is no basis for D.C. police to sweep them from D.C. streets and sidewalks.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is currently assisting protesters at the encampment and encampments elsewhere, with legal help. For more information, click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
FILE - This file photo shows a portrait of Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army, taken on Aug. 9, 1940, shortly before he was fatally attacked, Aug. 20, 1940, at his home in Mexico City. Once seen as the most likely successor to Vladimir Lenin as the leader of the Soviet Union, Trotsky lost a power struggle with Josef Stalin and fled abroad. A Soviet agent attacked Trotsky in 1940 with an ice axe, mortally wounding him. (AP Photo/File)

From its earliest days, the Soviet Union's intelligence services  whether known as the Cheka or by the names of any of its successor agencies like the KGB  kept the government in power by pursuing its opponents no matter where they lived.

Intelligence experts say that policy is still followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a product of the KGB who does not disguise his scorn for perceived traitors, defectors and other political enemies abroad. The Kremlin has routinely denied involvement in such attacks.

The Cheka secret police, founded by Felix Dzherzhinsky, often used assassins to hunt down enemies of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Security expert Andrei Soldatov said the work of the Kremlin's intelligence services, then and now, has been defined by threats from dissidents abroad.

Perhaps the Cheka's most successful undertaking in the 1920s was Operation Trust, which focused on Russians living abroad who opposed the regime, he said.

The Trust was a front organization, purported to be anti-Bolshevik but in reality was meant to catch and kill Moscow's enemies. It sent representatives to the West to entrap Russian exiles under the pretext of helping the resistance movement.

That's how it caught Sidney Reilly, a Ukrainian-born agent who worked for Britain both inside Russia and abroad. Known as the Ace of Spies, and said to be the model for Ian Fleming's James Bond, Reilly was lured back to Moscow, where he was reportedly killed in 1925.

A look at other regime opponents who fled abroad, believing that exile would keep them safe:

LEON TROTSKY

Leon Trotsky, a key figure in the Bolshevik Revolution and once seen as a likely successor to Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union, lost a battle for power with Josef Stalin and fled the country. He lived in exile in Mexico, where he continued to criticize Stalin. He was befriended there by Ramon Mercader, who pretended to be sympathetic to Trotsky's ideas but in reality was a Soviet agent. In August 1940, the two were alone in Trotsky's study when Mercader struck him with an ice ax, mortally wounding him at age 60.

STEPAN BANDERA

Stepan Bandera was the leader of a Ukrainian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s that included a rebel militia which fought alongside invading Nazi forces in World War II. Banderas supporters see him as a freedom fighter for Ukraine against Soviet oppression while Kremlin supporters paint him as a Nazi collaborator who massacred Jews. While living in exile in Munich in 1959, Bandera, 50, was killed after being confronted by a Soviet agent with a gun that sprayed cyanide.

GEORGI MARKOV

Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov defected to the West in 1969 and was a harsh critic of his country's pro-Moscow Communist regime, broadcasting commentaries on the BBC and Radio Free Europe. In September 1978, Markov was waiting at a London bus stop near Waterloo Bridge when a man walked past him and jabbed him with a poison-tipped umbrella. Former KGB agent Oleg Kalugin suggested in 1992 that the attack had been planned by the Soviet Union and Bulgaria, which had asked Moscow for help in the assassination. The probe into Markov's death was closed in 2013 and no one was ever convicted.

ALEXANDER LITVINENKO

Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer and a lieutenant colonel in its successor agency, the FSB, defected to Britain, where he was a harsh critic of the Kremlin and Putin. On Nov. 1, 2006, Litvinenko met two men at London's Millennium Hotel and had tea with them. He later fell violently ill, and doctors determined he had ingested polonium-210, a radioactive isotope. He died three weeks later at age 43. On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his assassination, and Britain also alleged that the Russian state was involved. The Kremlin denied involvement.

SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer jailed for spying for Britain, was released in 2010 as part of a swap for Russian agents caught in the U.S., and settled in Salisbury, England. In March 2018, he and his daughter, Yulia, were found slumped on a bench in the city, with traces of the nerve agent Novichok discovered on the front door of their house. The Skripals spent weeks hospitalized in critical condition before recovering. A British woman died after being exposed to the nerve agent, which was found in a discarded perfume bottle. Britain accused Russia in the attack, which the Kremlin denied being behind, and Western nations expelled Russian spies in response. Two Russian men identified by authorities as the attackers denied any involvement, saying they were only tourists.

ZELIMKHAN KHANGOSHVILI

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen born in Georgia, fought Moscow's forces during a separatist war in the region of southern Russia. After the war, he continued to help Chechen insurgents, and the FSB viewed him as a terrorist. He fled to Germany after surviving two assassination attempts but was shot to death in broad daylight in 2019 in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten park by a bicyclist. Vadim Krasikov was convicted in the killing, which German authorities say was ordered by the Kremlin. Putin has indicated he wants Krasikov returned to Russia as part of a prisoner swap. Khangoshvili is one of several ethnic Chechen exiles killed apparently on Moscow's orders. Evidence reviewed by the court alleged that Krasikov had been employed by a Russian security agency, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called allegations of Russian involvement absolutely groundless.

MAKSIM KUZMINOV

In August 2023, pilot Maxim Kuzminov flew a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter to Ukraine, saying he wanted to defect. At a news conference, Kuzminov said he didn't support the war and that Ukraine had promised him money and protection. In October, a popular Russian TV commentator denounced the defection in a report that featured three masked men in camouflage identified as members of military intelligence who threatened Kuzminov, saying he would not live to go on trial. In February, police found what was later identified as Kuzminov's bullet-riddled body in La Cala, Spain. He had been shot a half-dozen times and run over by a vehicle. The head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said Kuzminov became a moral corpse as soon as he started planning his dirty and terrible crime. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Feb. 20 that he had no information on the death.
FILE - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. Austin and his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines gather in Hawaii for their second-ever meeting of defense ministers on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/John McDonnell, File)

HONOLULU (AP)  Defense chiefs from the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China's operations in the South China Sea.

The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a news conference after their discussion that the drills strengthened the ability of the nations to work together, build bonds among their forces and underscore their shared commitment to international law in the waterway.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.

Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order, Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.

Austin hosted the defense chiefs at the U.S. militarys regional headquarters, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at Camp H.M. Smith in the hills above Pearl Harbor. Earlier in the day, Austin had separate bilateral meetings with Australia and Japan followed by a trilateral meeting with Australia and Japan.

Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.

The U.S. has decades-old defense treaties with all three nations.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged Chinas claims to virtually the entire waterway. The U.S. says freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is in Americas national interest.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.

Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila in particular have flared since last year. Earlier this week, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels off off Scarborough Shoal, damaging both.

The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course.. The U.S. has warned repeatedly that its obligated to defend the Philippines  its oldest treaty ally in Asia  if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

President Joe Biden's administration has said it aims to build what it calls a latticework of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as the U.S. grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing says the strengthening of U.S. alliances in Asia is aimed at containing China and threatens regional stability.
DeKalb County tearing down house after Channel 2 investigation found man living in driveway

On Friday, DeKalb County completed a months-long process of getting court clearance to tear down a home on Highfield Drive near Stone Mountain.

Channel 2 Action News first reported on this property earlier this year.

Homeowners reached out to Channel 2s Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln about a man named Gacori Mosely who had been living in the driveway of this property for nearly a year.

Moselys deceased mother owned the property, but it was destroyed by a fire last year.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The countys Code Compliance Administration received a complaint from a neighbor about structural problems with the property.

The county sent several warnings to Moselys sister. County documents indicated an inspector observed pests, rats, mosquitoes, roaches, standing water, bacteria, human waste, broken appliances, trash, furniture, paint cans and buckets, auto and household chemicals, standing dirty water, a person sleeping in a vehicle and an unsound structure.

By October of 2023, the countys Nuisance Abatement Team delivered the case to the countys Law Department for review and to be placed on the court docket. The case went before a judge in the In-Rem Nuisance Abatement Court. Last month, a judge signed an order granting DeKalb County authority to demolish the property.

TRENDING STORIES:

DeKalb County Community Development told Channel 2 Action News theyve offered assistance to Mosely on several occasions but he has refused.

CEO Michael Thurmond credits Channel 2 Action News reporting for alerting them about the propertys severity.

The fact that this government needed to act, and act expeditiously is this young lady Ashli Lincoln. Thank you for being persistent and consistent, Thurmond said.

To date, the county has demolished 694 properties.

The county says theyve placed a lien on the property for $38,000, which is the total cost the county is paying to demolish this property.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:
Video: Richard Branson surprises Delta passengers with free Virgin cruises

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  It will soon be easier to get to Europe from Tampa.

After a nearly five-year absence, Delta Air Lines plans to restart its seasonal nonstop service from Tampa to Amsterdam, the Tampa International Airport announced Friday.

Were grateful to Delta for creating a prime European connection through this nonstop service to Amsterdam, which we know will be popular with both Tampa Bay area residents and European travelers looking to experience our sunshine, beaches and other attractions this winter, Airport CEO Joe Lopano said. Were looking forward to supporting the route and continuing a strong partnership with Delta, which always provides a world-class experience for our passengers.

Breeze Airways adds 2 more nonstop routes from Tampa

Beginning Oct. 26 and ending on March 29, 2025, a flight will take off daily between Tampa International and Amsterdams Schiphol Airport. The busy European hub is home to Dutch airline KLM. This means travelers will be able to continue their journey to more than 100 destinations in the KLM network in Europe and beyond.

By seamlessly linking Amsterdams vibrant international hub-Deltas most-served airport in Europe-with Tampa Bays renowned beaches, Delta is offering customers a gateway to explore the best of Europe and America, said Matteo Curcio, Deltas Senior Vice President for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India. With our premium amenities and extensive global network, travelers will have a lot to enjoy during the winter travel season.

The flight from Amsterdam will depart at 12:35 p.m. and land in Tampa at 4:55 p.m. The return flight will depart at 7:55 p.m. and land in Amsterdam at 10:45 a.m. the next day.

Source: Delta Air Lines

The flight will be operated on Deltas Airbus A330-300, which features 34 business class lie-flat seats, 21 premium economy seats with wider cushions and more legroom, and 2-4-2 seating in the Comfort+ and Economy sections.

Travelers can start booking flights on Deltas website Saturday, May 4. Ticket prices may vary depending on travel days and how many seats are available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
YANGON, May 3 (Xinhua) -- During the scorching month of April, over 50 fatalities were recorded due to heatstroke in Mandalay, central Myanmar, an official from the Mani Sala Rescue Organization told Xinhua on Friday.

Among the victims, about 30 had pre-existing chronic diseases, with the majority falling within the age range of 50 to 90, he said.

The incidence of heatstroke spiked dramatically amid the heatwave in April this year in Myanmar. In March, the number of hospitalized heat-related cases was only eight, but surged to over 50 by April, he added.

On April 28, Mandalay experienced the hottest April day in 77 years, with the temperature reaching 44.8 degrees Celsius, according to the country's Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

In the Southeast Asian country April and May are typically the hottest months as the temperature spikes before the start of the monsoon season. 
Its always worth taking note when a legislator casts an unexpected vote. So it caught my eye Wednesday morning as I was scanning the House roll-call vote on H.R. 6090, the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

It passed by a wide margin, 32091; 187 Republicans and 133 Democrats voted for it, and 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats against. I scrolled down to look at the nos, because votes like this onewhich right and left approach, let us say, from different moral universesalways offer an amusing coalition of the unwilling. GOP nos included hard-rightists like Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Democratic nos mostly all came from the Progressive Caucus, even the progressive wing of the Progressive CaucusAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, and more.

Then a surprising name caught my eye: Jerry Nadler of Manhattan. And another: Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, Illinois. These are both liberal Democrats, of course. But theyre also both Jewish, and they represent heavily Jewish districts. This was interesting.

Thursday, I spoke with Nadler about his vote. I should say that Ive known and respected Jerry for many years. We met (can it be?) in 1987, when I was a young reporter covering New York politics. Before I get to the matter at hand, a quick story from those days that made me realize that Nadler was willing to take unpopular positions.

There were neighborhood political clubs in those days in Manhattan (they still exist, but their heyday was long ago). In Greenwich Village, there were two clubs: an older and more established one that opposed Mayor Ed Koch, very unpopular by the late 1980s among progressives, and a newer, pro-Koch club. An issue arose at some county Democratic meeting I was covering, I dont even remember what it was exactly, but I do recall that Nadler, then a state assemblyman, rose to speak in defense of the pro-Koch clubs First Amendment rights. He was booed. I was no Koch fan then, but I thought it was kind of a gutsy thing to do.

Flash-forward. Why did a Jewish congressman from the most famous Jewish district in America (the Upper West Side) oppose an antisemitism resolution? Its violative of free speech, Nadler told me, and its totally unnecessary.

H.R. 6090 would require the Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights to use the definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association in 2016 when investigating complaints of bias at institutions that receive federal funds. That means college campuses (even private universities like Columbia receive federal grants and so on).

The IHRA definition, debated for years, has been adopted by around 20 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Germany, and more. Its definition is mostly nonproblematic, but to Nadler, one aspect of it threatened to squelch free speech on campuses. You could read it as saying that criticism of Israel is antisemitic, he said.

And this is where we get to the question of the Republicans motivation in introducing this bill. The IHRA definition is not without controversy, precisely because of some language about criticism of Israel that many consider blurry. Two other definitions of antisemitism have been promulgatedthe Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document. Choosing to rely solely on one of the three definitions struck some critics as concerning. Even the author of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, has become a sharp critic of using it with respect to speech on college campuses, and Nadler told me that Stern opposed this bill.

But: The IHRA definition did have a notable champion in the United States: Donald Trump. As president in 2019, he signed an executive order to protect Jewish students under the Civil Rights Act, using the IHRA definition. Sounds good and uncontroversial, but numerous critics, including progressive Jewish groups, worried about its potential chilling effect on campuses. Stern, writing in The Guardian, argued that his definition was created primarily so that European data collectors could know what to include and exclude. It was never intended to be a campus hate speech code, but thats what Donald Trumps executive order accomplished this week.

The Biden administration never rescinded that executive order. However, Biden did launch a different approach. In May 2023, he unveiled the first-ever national strategy to combat antisemitism. The 60-page plan outlined 100 steps that federal agencies committed to complete within a year and was based on input from 1,000 stakeholders.

Biden also proposed increasing the 2024 budget of the Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights by 25 percent. Republicans proposed cutting it by 25 percent. The ultimate compromise, says Nadler, is that it was flatlined. That battle is being repeated for 2025. House Republicans could shift their position on that, if they want to show that they wish to combat antisemitism in a real way. Theres also a House bill, sponsored by North Carolina Democrat Kathy Manning, that would codify the Biden administrations approach, and it has an impressive 15 Republican co-sponsors (and 24 Democrats).

Speaker Mike Johnson could put his weight behind that. But as we see on an hourly basis, he (while pretty extreme himself) is dealing with a whole different universe of crazy. Marjorie Taylor Greene explained her opposition to the bill by saying that under it, Christians could be convicted for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jewsan age-old and classic antisemitic fable.

Im not sure this bill is dangerous. A lot of solid liberals voted for it. I just think its worth noting that some Jewish members opposed it (there were three more, in addition to Nadler and Schakowsky: Sarah Jacobs of California, Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, and Rebecca Balint of Vermont), in part out of concern that criticism of the policies of Israel could be construed under law as antisemitic.

Antisemitism is certainly all too real, on college campuses and across the country, and obviously, there are times when criticism of Israel can and does include antisemitic tropes. But the laws of the United States should help clarify the difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israel, not obscure it.

This article first appeared in Fighting Words, a weekly TNR newsletter authored by editor Michael Tomasky. Sign up here.






The chair of the Democratic Party in deep-red Palm Beach County, Florida, announced she was resigning Wednesday after claiming she was the victim of vicious personal attacks from members of her own party.

Mindy Koch said she and her staff were inundated with nasty comments from a small minority of Democratic Executive Committee members, something she described as akin to MAGA tactics used by Donald Trump, himself a Palm Beach resident.

The resignation comes just weeks after Koch was reinstated to the post by the states Democratic Party. That alone wasnt enough to keep Koch on board, however, and she chose to instead go out with a bang in a letter to the statewide party chairand failed 2022 governor candidateNikki Fried.

I have no other choice but to resign as Chair of the Palm Beach Democratic Party effective today, she wrote. My hope is that in doing so I can expose this subversive, cancerous element with documented past ties to right-wing publications that are trying so hard to destroy the party from within.

Koch, a 70-year-old whose Facebook profile picture is her cheesing alongside Joe Biden, said the harassment from party-mates made it impossible to fulfill our mission to elect Democrats.

Creditors Want Giuliani to Sell His $3.5M Florida Condo

Koch claimed that her political rivals have aligned with right-wing publications to hold back Democrats in Florida, which has taken a sharp right turn under Gov. Ron DeSantis leadership after decades of being arguably the most-sought-after swing state.

The ongoing internal battles with those who want to bring the party down have certainly impacted the DEC financially, Koch wrote, but I leave knowing that the clean audit validates my leadership.

Koch won the chair post in 2022 by a single vote, and had been embroiled in internal controversy with her own party ever since. That included her being suspended by Fried in Marchalong with two other local Democratic leaders in Floridaas part of an overall strategy to get our local parties back on track.

Maria Cole, the Democratic committeewoman in Palm Beach who lost to Koch by that single vote, rebutted Kochs fiery claims from this week in an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She said there was no corrosive element within the party and insinuated that Koch wasnt telling the whole story.

Theres no nefarious group of people that is out to destroy her, she told the Sentinel. There is no Trumpian type of mentality among people. This is not about personality. This is not a personal attack.

While Kochs resignation is effective immediately, it doesnt appear to be ready to give up politics all together. She announced Thursday that she was running for election to the Palm Beach County School Board.

Trump Campaign Says Palm Beach Fundraiser Pulled in $50 Million

She told the Sentinel that she feels she can make a difference there and that she has a solution for Floridas incessant banning of books under DeSantis, saying shed like to start up a book club of parents that read texts in full before determining whether they should be removed from libraries or not.

A former teacher in Palm Beach and Broward counties, Koch holds a bachelors degree in special education, a masters degree in gifted student education, and a doctorate in leadership and curriculum, the Sentinel reported.

Ive always wanted to be on the School Board, she told the paper. Ive got all that experience in education, and Id love to share it.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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MILAN  Denmark will raise its defense spending by an additional $5.1 billion over the next four years in order to speed up investments in military capabilities, as the government has warned that Russia is readying for a long-term war.

With the war in Ukraine reaching its 800th day, and the battle showing little sign of resolution in the foreseeable future, European countries are doubling down on efforts to inject more funds into their military posture.

The Danish government announced this week that it would again increase the countrys defense expenditure from 2024-2028. Last year, the Scandinavian country had already committed to investing $21 billion in defense over the next decade.

Denmarks defense spending for 2023 was $8.1 billion, a 39% increase over the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The security situation in Europe has worsened since we decided on the Danish Defense Agreement last summer. Russia is preparing for a long-term war and could pose a potential threat to NATO allies within a few years, the Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

The additional funds will go to reinforcing the Armys 1st heavy brigade, which is Denmarks fore package assigned to the NATO Response Force, acquiring more land-based air defense systems and bolstering the Navys anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

The unit in question will have to be deployable on short notice, based on NATO standards, and it receive new tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

Denmark borders the Baltic and North seas along its 8,750 kilometers of shoreline, which could be vulnerable in the event of NATO-Russia tensions in the region.

Following Copenhagens submarine divestiture in 2004, lawmakers have been going back and forth about the possibility of acquiring and even leasing new undersea platforms.
It's still happening! I regret to inform that the college students are still somehow at it. But their protests are getting progressively further from the plot. Take, for example, this University of Chicago supplies list, which seems to think dental dams and plan B are needed in order to *checks notes* help the Gazans?

UChicago encampment requests Plan B, HIV tests and dental dams, per a post on the organizers' Instagram pic.twitter.com/EEbzLqraMX  Gabby Deutch (@GSDeutch) May 2, 2024

Or the very strange pro-North Korea takes at Princeton. Or take the odd nativist signs spotted at George Washington's campus, which read "students will leave when Israelis leave" (somehow I doubt it!) and "students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes)."

Or the seemingly right-wing effort to fund a massive kegger ($500,000 raised) for the flag-defending frat bros at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the wave of frat-bros-defending-the-flag coverage from across the country.

But it's not all dental dams and Zyn pouches (bless the Gen Zs). Student journalists have played an important role in the coverage, restoring some faith that the kids do in fact know what they're doing: "A student-run radio station broadcast live as police cleared a building taken by protesters on the Columbia University campus, while other student journalists were confined to dorms and threatened with arrests," reports The Associated Press. On Dartmouth's campus, several student journalists were arrested during the course of their coverage.

And on other campuses, some police departments have shown not a hungriness to enter, but rather restraint: "Penn asked the Philadelphia Police Department [PPD] to immediately help disband the College Green encampmentand the PPD declined to do so until Penn proves that the situation is more dangerous," reports Daily Penn's news editor, Ben Binday.

Meanwhile in actual Gaza: A ceasefire agreement is still elusive, as neither Gaza nor Israel have had sufficient demands satisfied. But news broke that another hostage held by Hamas was found dead, 49-year-old Dror Or, making him the 38th hostage killed.

Turkey has stopped trading with Israel in an attempt to exert pressure on Israel to stop its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Colombia is now severing diplomatic relations, too. A United Nations report was just released saying it would take 80 years to rebuild the homes destroyed over the course of Israel's offensive. With some 370,000 homes damaged and 79,000 destroyed, and a building pace of around 1,000 per year (based on previous rates of building in the area), the amount of time needed to get the area back to a reasonable condition is quite stunning.

Scenes from New York: Why have three-bedroom apartments all but disappeared in NYC?

QUICK HITS

"Thousands of immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could obtain federal health coverage later this year under a new Biden administration rule," reports The New York Times.

A second Boeing whistleblower was just found dead. He was formerly a "quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier who raised concerns about improperly drilled holes in the fuselage of 737 Max jets," per NPR.

Time for a finance-bro makeover? (PLEASE.)

Competition among obesity drugs!

"A study of a San Francisco nonprofit's $100 million effort to reduce chronic homelessness by half in five years shows the effort fell significantly short of its goal.  The Tipping Point effort guided 595 chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing. It also moved an additional 373 people, already living in supportive housing but ready for more independence, into market-rate housing through a voucher program," reports Philanthropy.

Read Nate Silver on "politics as self-interest" and "politics as personal identity" and how, actually, "politics as a battle of ideas" is a stunningly small category comparatively.

Precisely:

One quality I wouldn't personally want in a lawyer is *shaken and unable to focus after witnessing the state deploy force* https://t.co/wm14RzWteu  Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) May 2, 2024

The post Dental Dams for Palestine appeared first on Reason.com.
Dentist accused of killing wife tried to plant letters suggesting she was suicidal, police say

DENVER (AP)  A dentist accused of killing his wife by putting poison in her protein shakes asked a fellow jail inmate to plant letters to make it look like his wife was suicidal, police say.

James Craig asked the inmate to put the letters in Craigs garage and truck at his home, Aurora police detective Bobbi Olson testified Wednesday at a court hearing on the new allegation against Craig. The inmate believed the letters were written by Craig but meant to appear as if his wife, Angela Craig, had written them, said Olson, the lead detective in the case.

Second suspect arrested in killing of Wheat Ridge business owner

Angela Craig, a 43-year-old mother of six who was married to her husband for 23 years, died in March 2023 of poisoning from cyanide and tetrahydrozoline, the latter a substance found in over-the-counter eye drops, according to the coroner.

Craig is alleged to have bought poisons online just before his wife began to experience symptoms that doctors could not find a cause for. But his lawyers have argued there is no direct evidence that he put poison in his wifes shakes and have accused Olson of being biased against him.

According to Olson, Craig offered money to pay for the bond for the inmate to be released from jail or perform free dental work in exchange for planting the letters but the inmate decided not to take him up on the offer, the detective testified.

The inmate instead contacted law enforcement, she said.

The defense argued that the inmate was not a credible witness.

One of Craigs lawyers, Andrew Ho, pointed out that the inmate only contacted authorities after an initial hearing to review the evidence in the case last summer, which was widely covered by the media, and that the inmate could not accurately identify the color of Craigs truck.

Son, accused in death of mother found covered in maggots, speaks out from jail

However, a judge agreed prosecutors had presented enough evidence for Craig to also be tried on the new charge involving the inmate, filed last month, of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. The inmates name was redacted from the document.

Craig was already charged with first-degree murder and another count of solicitation to commit tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty to those two charges in November 2023.

Craig is scheduled to face trial on Aug. 8.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  A bank robbery suspect was arrested by the East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office after a chase Friday morning.

The sheriffs office said Jonathan Lanaute, 39, entered the United Community Bank on Bluebonnet Boulevard around 9 a.m. and demanded money. The teller gave him an undisclosed amount before he fled.

Detectives found his vehicle around 10 a.m. on Highland Road and followed it. After trying to initiate a traffic stop, he drove off and hit a vehicle while on I-10 near Perkins Road, the sheriffs office said.

BRPD officer placed on administrative leave, target of grand jury investigation

He reportedly ran off on foot and was caught around 10:20 a.m. EBRSO said detectives believe he is also involved in several shootings, robberies and a carjacking.

EBRSO charged him with first-degree robbery and aggravated flight from an officer after the bank robbery.

He is also charged with armed robbery in connection to a carjacking on Fountain Avenue that happened Thursday night, EBRSO said. Lanaute allegedly stole a food delivery mans vehicle. More charges are pending.

The Baton Rouge Police Department helped in the apprehension.

Latest News

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN)  Deputies are investigating a shooting that killed a man early Friday morning in southeast Travis County.

The Travis County Sheriffs Office shared the homicide happened at a business located in the 5600 block of South U.S. 183, which is close to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Deputies said they initially responded to a call there at about 12:25 a.m. for reports about a disturbance involving a gun, according to a news release.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Deputies said they found a man dead in the parking lot with several gunshot wounds.

The sheriffs office reported witnesses seeing the suspected gunman drive from the scene northbound on U.S. 183 in a white truck. Deputies have yet to make an arrest and added theyre pursuing leads.

The investigation to this point indicates this is an isolated incident and there is no perceived threat to the community, the sheriffs office said.

Deputies are not yet sharing the shooting victims name until theres positive identification by the Travis County medical examiner and notification of family.

Anyone with information about the deadly shooting is asked to call the Travis County Sheriffs Office tip line at 512-854-1444 or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney Douglas R. Lloyd released a statement Friday that Eaton County deputies had been justified in their deadly shooting of 33-year-old Garrett Freeman on Jan. 11.

Officer-involved shooting in Eaton County

To determine whether a person acted in lawful self-defense, their actions must be judged according to how the circumstances appeared to them at the time they acted, Lloyd said in the statement he released on May 3.

Lloyd wrote that Michigan State Police had completed and submitted its investigation of the incident to the Eaton County Prosecutors Office, which then reviewed the incident.

Press-Release-ECSO-OISDownload

Freemans family reached out to 6 News, as well, a few weeks after the shooting. They said Freeman had been suffering from mental health issues, and they maintained deputies had killed Freeman unlawfully.

According to the prosecutors statement, the following events led up to the deputies shooting and killing Freeman:

On Jan. 10, Eaton County Sheriffs Office issued an Officer Safety Caution email saying Freeman had recently indicated that he is ready for a shootout with the police, and that Freeman was known to have several firearms and to live on West Saint Joseph Highway in Mulliken.

The prosecutor said the email followed an investigation of a Jan. 10 conflict between Freeman and his ex-girlfriend, in which Freeman had hit her parked car with his truck and sent her text messages saying he intended to engage in a shootout.

On Jan. 11, the same woman called 911 to say Freeman was on his way to her home in Charlotte, and had threatened to start shooting before police could arrive. Charlotte Police Department officers responded to her home, where they helped her and her infant daughter leave the home for safety purposes.

Information transmitted county-wide by central dispatch included a description of Freemans truck. Soon after, ECSO Lt. Preston Dahlgren headed toward Freemans home to try to stop Freeman prior to his arrival in the more heavily populated area of Charlotte. Deputies Shelby Studley and Randi Lane also headed toward Freemans home.

When he arrived at Freemans home, Lt. Dahlgren found fresh tire tracks leading westbound from the driveway. About 10 minutes later, he saw Freemans truck turn east onto Mount Hope Highway from Dow Road. Deputies tried to initiate a traffic stop by putting on their emergency lights and sirens.

Freeman accelerated before turning north onto Gates Road. As he got closer to the intersection of Gates Road and St. Joe Highway, Dahlgren rammed the back of Freemans trailer, causing Freeman to veer off the road and hit the stop sign at the intersection. Freeman unsuccessfully tried to keep driving away, as the truck appeared to lose traction in the snow.

Dahlgren positioned his patrol car perpendicular to Freemans driver side door. Deputies Dahlgren, Studley and Lane got out of their vehicles and ordered Freeman to show his hands.

A review of video from dash-mounted cameras from both patrol vehicles, as well as body-worn cameras from all three deputies, clearly shows that after being given commands to show his hands, Freeman raised a handgun, pointed the handgun towards Lt. Dahlgrens position, then pointed the handgun towards Deputy Studley and Deputy Lanes position, and then aimed back at Lt. Dahlgren, before firing his handgun in the direction of Lt. Dahlgren.

Video showed a plume of smoke coming from the barrel of Freemans gun, followed by the shattering of his drivers side window. At that time, all three deputies returned fire and Freeman can be seen twisting and slumping onto his right side across the seat of his truck.

Eaton County Sheriff Department video still of deputy involved shooting. (Courtesy)

Prosecutor Lloyd wrote in the document that backup arrived on scene shortly after, giving medical aid to Freeman.

During a later forensic postmortem examination of Freemans body, Dr. Christopher Hauch identified four gunshot wounds to Freemans body. They were on the left side of his head, his left arm and left buttock.

Dr. Hauch did not identify one specific injury or gunshot wound as the cause of death; rather he determined that the totality of the injuries caused by the gunshots led to Freemans death, Lloyd said.

Lloyd concluded in the document:

In applying the law to the facts of this particular situation, it is clear that the deputies attempt to stop Freeman was lawful. Deputies were provided with information that Freeman was armed, that he was homicidal, and that he was currently heading to Charlotte to cause harm to another person. They were further aware that on the day prior, Freeman had rammed the same females vehicle with his truck and had again threatened to use a firearm to cause other harm. This information was sufficient to establish a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity by Freeman to justify the deputies attempts to stop Freeman and further investigate the allegations. Freemans decision to flee from that traffic stop, coupled with the nature of the complaints, further justified the use of force in attempting to stop his vehicle. Failing to stop for law enforcement, and fleeing from that attempt, is a felony pursuant to MCL 257.602a & MCL 750.479a. Law enforcement is permitted to use reasonable force to effectuate an arrest, and the decision by Lt. Dahlgren to use his patrol vehicle to end the police chase was reasonable. After Freemans truck was immobilized, Freeman quickly presented an immediate danger of great bodily harm or death to Lt. Dahlgren, Deputy Studley, and Deputy Lane. Freeman ignored the lawful commands of the deputies, instead producing a handgun and aiming it in the direction of the deputies. Freeman then shot his handgun through his vehicle window and in the direction of Lt. Dahlgren, increasing the threat presented and placing the deputies lives in danger. At that moment, any person in the deputies shoes would have been permitted to respond with deadly force in self-defense or defense of others. Such actions justify the use of deadly force in self-defense by anyone, and so justified the decision of Lt. Dahlgren, Deputy Studley, and Deputy Lane to discharge their service weapons during the incident. Therefore, the actions of all three deputies were legally justified under both the doctrine of self-defense and defense of others, and the unfortunate death of Garrett Freeman was not a criminal act. Eaton County Prosecutor Douglas R. Lloyd statement, May 3, 2024

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
DAMASCUS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Approximately 17 pro-government soldiers were killed on Friday in an assault by terrorist cells affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group in the desert region of the central Syrian province of Hama, pro-government Sham FM radio reported.

The attack occurred in the area of Rasem Al-Kom in the countryside of Hama, said the report, giving no further details.

The IS militants have used the Syrian desert region as a safe haven after the end of their geographical control over residential areas in Syria in 2019, frequently attacking and abducting civilians and military personnel, resulting in a continued loss of life and instability in the region. 
Deputies are on the lookout for man responsible for vandalizing local Egyptian restaurant

Orange County investigators are on the lookout for the person responsible for vandalizing a local restaurant.

It happened at The Dough Show in East Orange County, early Friday morning. Surveillance video captured the man throwing chairs through the restaurants windows -- and tossing over tables nearby.

This incident report shows, in all, the person damaged four windows, two chairs and a table. Its estimated at about 10,000 dollars in losses.

Read: School bus cameras: Safety feature or cash grab

Ihab Mahmoud said its not about the money, though.

The Mediterranean restaurant has only been around for about a year. The majority of their menu is Egyptian-style cuisine.

Mahmoud feels its possible this couldve been some sort of discriminatory act after all the Palestinian protests and hate happening worldwide, including at UCF.

He said he came to this conclusion especially considering it was the only business that was vandalized that night. So far, the sheriffs office said its not being investigated as a hate crime.

Read: How many license plate readers is Seminole County installing? No one will say

As deputies continue their search for whoevers responsible, Mahmoud hopes the community can help.

We like to live in peace and love, said Mahmoud. There is not enough space for whats going on around the world. We dont have to bring that into our communities. Thats why my concern that we have to find him to adjust him or to help him.

Mahmoud also thanked the community for their support. He posted the video of the damage online, garnering about 60,000 views and hundreds of messages of support.

Anyone who recognizes the man in the video is asked to call the Orange County Sheriffs Office or the Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477).

Read: Artemis II: NASA report expresses concerns for mission safety

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
A burglary suspect was killed after firing upon at deputies Thursday night in a McDonalds parking lot in Colfax, injuring a Placer County sheriffs deputy, before authorities fired back.

The gunfight started about 11 p.m. when deputies patrolling near the 500 block of North Auburn Street located a van matching the description of a vehicle sought since the burglary the day before, according to the Sheriffs Office.

The deputies contacted a white male adult in his 30s who was in the van, the Sheriffs Office said in a news release. The suspect immediately became uncooperative with deputies. The deputies attempted to use de-escalation techniques in the hopes of gaining compliance from the suspect.

Thats when the man fired on the deputies, the Sheriffs Office said, striking one of them at 12:18 a.m., according to dispatch recordings reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.

Deputies immediately returned fire after being fired upon, the Sheriffs Office said. During the exchange of gunfire, our deputy was struck and evacuated by the other deputies on the scene.

The deputy, who was not identified, was airlifted and hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck, deputies told dispatchers, but the Sheriffs Office said his condition has since stabilized.

Additional deputies, including the agencys Special Enforcement Team, responded to the McDonalds lot and tried to make contact with the suspect before they found the man dead inside the vehicle.

In an update Saturday, the Sheriffs Office identified the man as Stephen Todd Sharp, 37. According to deputies, Sharp was originally from Tennessee, but had been living out of his van in the Colfax area.

Detectives from the Sheriffs Office homicide bureau will internally investigate the shooting, in line with agency policy, and the deputies who fired the shots have been placed on administrative leave. The incident will also be reviewed by the Placer County District Attorneys Office, officials said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sent a letter Friday outlining his opposition to the Biden administrations move to incorporate Air National Guard service members into the Space Force.

The Defense Department submitted a legislative proposal to the Senate Armed Services Committee in late March that would require Congress to override existing law requiring governors to approve changes to National Guard units in order to shift hundreds of service members to the Space Force.

Earlier this week, 48 governors of states, territories and commonwealths wrote a letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to oppose the proposal.

Notably, DeSantis was not among the signatories of that letter, sent from the National Governors Association, but said in his own letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services committees on Friday that the proposal would flout more than a century of precedent and undermine federal law protections for state control of their National Guard forces.

The Florida governor said the current code is a good-sense statutory requirement that ensures National Guard members are working for domestic crisis response.

As a low-lying, storm-prone state, Florida is uniquely vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding that require significant, operationally ready logistics and disaster support, including from our National Guard units, he wrote.

DeSantis argued that Floridas National Guard should be larger than it currently is, but the federal government has under-resourced the state in comparison to other large states.

According to his letter, the state of Florida has established the Florida State Guard to supplement the states National Guard in times of need.

The Space Force has major operations in Florida at Patrick Space Force Base. DeSantis said the state is committed to the success and mission of the Space Force, but the country cannot effectively protect our nation from foreign enemies when we cannot guarantee the safety and security of our communities here at home.

This legislative proposal weakens that guarantee and sidesteps the authority of the Governor to ensure Floridians are prepared and protected to address whatever domestic emergencies may arise, especially as we approach another hurricane season, he wrote, urging the department to withdraw or reject the proposal.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wont be on the ballot this November, but he wont be on the sidelines, either.

DeSantis, who ended a presidential campaign earlier this year, is planning to raise money for a counter message to recreational marijuana and abortion-rights ballot amendments and then funnel that money through the Republican Party of Florida to campaign against the initiatives, according to sources.

Hes also planning to use his personal network to fund contentious races for federal candidates, including former President Donald Trump, and Republican U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee.

DeSantis, who shattered Florida fundraising records while easily winning reelection in 2022, will be in Miami Beach on May 13 to help the Tampa-area congresswoman raise money, according to a flier obtained by the Herald/Times. He also has a fundraiser for Trump tentatively scheduled for the second half of May, according to one advisor.

DeSantis campaign plans were described to the Herald/Times by four of the governors political advisors who said he emerged from his failed presidential campaign determined to remain engaged in politics in and outside of Florida.

Gov. DeSantis is arguably the second-most popular Republican in the entire country and an incredibly prodigious fundraiser, said Slater Bayliss, a Republican consultant who served on the DeSantis presidential campaigns national finance advisory board. Given the stakes of this election, I would expect you will see him helping Republicans out in key races up and down the ballot around the country.

RELATED CONTENT: DeSantis predicts Florida will buck trend of voters supporting access to abortions

HOW DESANTIS PLANS TO FIGHT THE BALLOT MEASURES

DeSantis has already been vocal about his opposition to ballot questions that in November will ask voters to enshrine access to abortion and cannabis use in the state constitution. But an important step in formally launching campaigns will take place Saturday morning, when the Republican Party of Florida will vote on its position on recreational marijuana during its quarterly meeting in Orlando.

The party, which already formally took a position against the abortion amendment, plans to vote to oppose the legalization of recreational use of cannabis for adults. Once that happens, it will be in position to initiate vote no campaigns on marijuana and abortion.

We support killing the [marijuana and abortion] amendments as a party because its not good policy for the state, Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power told the Herald/Times. When you look at it, it seems like these amendments are out of step with what Floridians want. In 2022, Democrats made abortion their most important issue, and we won by 20 points.

DeSantis then plans to use his network to raise money for the vote no campaigns on marijuana and abortion, using the party apparatus as the vehicle, according to one of several advisors granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Its going to be through the party, the advisor told the Herald/Times. The governor will use his financial position to raise money for a counter message for both of those amendments.

DeSantis is also expected to use his fundraising network to help candidates in contentious races up and down the ballot, including for Trump. But how successful hell be in leveraging his network for Trump remains an open question, according to the advisor.

My opinion is, Ron, when he ran for re-elect, he raised a lot of money. But when he ran for president, he wasnt able to replicate that, said the advisor. Itll be interesting to see if he will be effective in raising money for Trump. You have to work the phones and do events. It takes real effort.

Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior advisor, wouldnt say anything definitive about planned DeSantis fundraising efforts for Trump, only that DeSantis made a commitment to do whatever is needed to get President Trump elected, so we expect that includes fundraising efforts.

But a second DeSantis advisor said the governor is working on a fundraiser for Trump in the second half of May, adding, were already putting stuff together for that.

A third DeSantis advisor said his team had been pushing DeSantis to mend ties with Trump since he dropped out of the presidential race at the end of January. DeSantis and Trump patched things up on April 28 in a private meeting in Miami, the Washington Post first reported.

That took convincing, the third advisor said.

DESANTIS HELPING HIS FRIENDS

DeSantis is lending his fundraising prowess to other allies.

Lee, who worked in DeSantis administration and was the only Florida member of Congress who endorsed him in his run for president, might need the help, considering Trump called for a MAGA candidate to primary her.

Lee declined to go into details through her spokesperson, Sarah Bascom.

The Congresswoman is very appreciative of the help from the Governor, but as a policy, we dont discuss the details of our fundraising activities, Bascom told the Herald/Times.

DeSantis already campaigned last month for U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, during three different events in Palm Beach, Naples, and Odessa, a northwest suburb of Tampa, according to fliers obtained by the Herald/Times.

Roy said his fundraising swing through Florida with DeSantis was very successful, declining to say specifically how much was raised.

I raised a significant amount of money for my quarter, Roy said. My team worked in coordination with [DeSantis] in Florida. Hes got a loyal group of supporters in Florida and increasingly nationwide.

Roy spent about a month with DeSantis on the campaign trail, mostly in Iowa, but also briefly in New Hampshire and South Carolina. He said that DeSantis connected to voters on the ground but that he couldnt overcome the media attention focused on Trump.

The campaign didnt end up where we wanted, but we got out and engaged with the community, and when he did, we won people over, Roy said. Even the ones that didnt support him and supported Trump were still huge fans.
AUSTIN (KXAN)  Recent demands by college protestors ask college administrations to divest from death by ending contracts with companies supplying the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) war in Gaza.

Divestment is the opposite of investment; to divest means to sell off shares in a company. For example, the U.S. Congress passed a law that requires TikToks parent company to divest from the app.

The student group Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PSC), which organized recent protests at the University of Texas in Austin, asked the University of Texas (UT) system to sell off its stock in U.S. weapons manufacturers that sell arms to the IDF. KXAN asked PSC for additional information on how it would want the UT system to proceed with divestment.

As of May 3, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that the conflict has killed 34,622 Palestinians and at least 1,200 Israelis.

Where is the money invested?

The UT systems investments are handled by the nonprofit University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company (UTIMCO). In the UTIMCOs 2023 report of its Permanent University Fund, it lists hundreds of investments held by the university system.

Those include companies that have supplied arms to the IDF, according to Quaker organization the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC):

Worlds largest weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp, UT shares valued at $979,836

Worlds second largest weapons manufacturer RTX (formerly Raytheon), UT shares valued at $584,622

Worlds third largest weapons manufacturer Northrop Corp, UT shares valued at $1,388,595

Worlds fourth largest weapons manufacturer Boeing, UT shares valued at $8,452

Worlds fifth largest weapons manufacturer General Dynamics Corp, UT shares valued at $486,503

The PSC also shared an infographic produced by UT Austin student group Collaboration for Undoing Racism in Environmental Sciences (CURE) that called out the UTIMCOs $3,448,008 investments in the top five weapons manufacturers.

The UTIMCO also has investments in other companies listed by AFSC:

Armored bulldozer producer Caterpillar, $3,266,330

Firearm manufacturer Colt CZ; valued at $29,346

Worlds 25th largest weapons manufacturer Rolls-Royce Holdings; valued at $267,783

Jet fuel producer Valero Energy Corporation, valued at $1,114,421

In total, the UTIMCO has $8,125,888 in investments linked to the IDF and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Can divestment happen?

A 2017 Texas law prevents the states public agencies from investing in companies that boycott Israel. It is also illegal for agencies to invest in financial companies who boycott certain energy companies under a 2021 law, and the same applies for investing in companies that discriminate against firearms companies.

Those laws do not prevent a public agency from selling its stock in weapons manufacturers. In the unlikely event that one of those companies stopped selling its aircraft, armored vehicles and missiles to the IDF, Texas public agencies may be required by law to divest.

However, if this logic follows through to UTIMCO it would slam the breaks on divestment  if the UTIMCO were to selectively divest from stocks due to connections with the IDF, then the UT system could be required to end its contracts with UTIMCO, potentially dissolving the non-profit.

Ultimately, the policy-setting power for UTIMCO resides with the UT Board of Regents. That board is comprised of nine individuals appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and confirmed by the Texas Senate.

In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, Abbott voiced his support for Israel:

We stand ready to offer our complete support to the Israeli and Jewish communities, said Abbott in an Oct. 9, 2023 statement. I firmly denounce the act of war against Israeli citizens and Americans in Israel and support Israels right to defend itself from these barbaric attacksIn response to these cowardly attacks, we stand united with our Jewish neighbors and we repudiate terrorism and anti-Semitism.

How Texas is supporting Israel?

The State of Texas has its own investments, which include nearly $100 million in Israeli bonds. Abbott also introduced a rule requiring state agencies boycott goods from the Gaza Strip or any organization with ties to Hamas.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Destination fees, concert ticket service fees and other hidden fees must be shown upfront under new California law

(FOX40.COM)  Businesses operating in California will now be required to show all mandatory fees upfront as part of a new law going into effect later this year.

Senate Bill 478, which was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last October, makes it illegal for most businesses to advertise, display or offer a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by the government or applicable shipping charges.

California bill to ban large loads of homework in public schools considered

Official comments in the state analysis of the bill call out a number of the types of hidden fees the bill is taking aim at including service charges for live event tickets only revealed at the time of purchase; line item charges on monthly cell phone bills not advertised; non-negotiable destination fees added at check out.

Now we can put the consumer first and create a level playing field for those businesses that advertise the real price, up front, said California state Senator Bill Dodd, who introduced the bill along with Sen. Nancy Skinner, when the bill was signed.

Businesses exempt from this bill, such as vehicle rental businesses, already have laws regulating the advertising of prices.

The law goes into effect June 1.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Following a hostage situation that ended with a man being shot and killed by law enforcement Tuesday, officials are sharing more about what happened.

According to the Clackamas County District Attorney, on April 29, deputies from the Sheriffs Office were sent to a Happy Valley home for a domestic dispute. When they arrived, they say they learned 45-year-old Andrew Song was inside the home, holding his wife and two young children hostage with a large knife while threatening to kill them.

Deputies also said they learned that parts of the home were doused with gasoline, which could be smelled outside, and fire & rescue units were placed on standby.

Clean-up, search for suspects continue as PSU campus is calm Friday morning

Personnel from the Clackamas County Crisis Negotiation Team, the SWAT team, the Washington County Crisis Negotiation Unit and the Tactical Negotiation Team all worked to deescalate the situation however officers said that after several hours it became clear that Song was not willing to negotiate and he became more threatening and violent towards his wife and children.

During negotiations, Song was seen holding a large knife and attempting to light a lighter authorities said.

Due to the severity of the situation, including Songs actions and the threat to the victims, authorities said that units had to make entry into the home.

When units got inside, they said they found Song still armed and he was shot and killed.

The children and Songs wife were rescued without injury, officials said.

Inside the home, investigators said they found gasoline poured inside the house and also discovered an improvised incendiary device.

Two officers, Detective Jesse Unck with the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office and Officer Charles Wujcik with the Beaverton Police Department were involved in the shooting. Both have been put on standard leave while the case is under investigation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
The Central DeWitt Community School District Board of Education has narrowed its search for a new superintendent to three finalists.

The board recently met with staff at Grundmeyer Leader Services to review the candidate pool and announced three finalists in its search for a new superintendent to start July 1, 2024.

The position was posted and resulted in a total of 11 candidates, including one from outside the state of Iowa. The pool included six male candidates, four female candidates, and one candidate who chose no response. Among them, 10 applicants hold specialist/six-year degrees, while one holds a terminal degree (Ed.D. or Ph.D.).

Tim Felderman

The three finalists are Tim Felderman, Dr. Stephanie Mishler, and Derek Philips.

Felderman currently serves as high school principal in the West Delaware County school district, west of Dubuque, overseeing instructional leadership, staff evaluation, and student discipline for 490 students.

Throughout his tenure, he has developed federally recognized apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in collaboration with staff, according to a Friday release. Felderman holds an advanced studies certificate in superintendency from the University of Northern Iowa and a masters degree in educational leadership from Drake University. He was recently elected as the 2024-25 vice president of the School Administrators of Iowa and previously served as high school principal in the Howard-Winneshiek CSD.

Stephanie Mishler

Currently, Mishler serves as interim superintendent of the Fairfield, Iowa district, leading strategic initiatives aligned with student success, positive culture, and fiscal responsibility. Additionally, she spearheaded a successful public information campaign for an increased PPEL referendum, passing with 67% approval in March 2024.

Mishler holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership from Drake University and a masters degree in educational administration from Iowa State University. Prior to her interim role, Mishler served as curriculum director in Fairfield.

As superintendent of Pekin CSD (near Fairfield and Ottumwa), Philips manages a district of about 600 students and 110 staff members, offering mentorship to new building administrators. Additionally, he has collaborated with the school board and a local contractor on developing short- and long-term facilities plans, as well as increasing the districts Unspent Authorized Budget.

Derek Philips

Philips holds a Pre-K12 superintendent and AEA (Area Education Agency) administrator specialist certificate, along with a masters degree in education from the University of Northern Iowa. He previously served as principal of Columbus Elementary School in the Chariton CSD.

As a next step, the Central DeWitt board and stakeholder interview teams will conduct final interviews with each of the three finalists on Wednesday, May 8. The board then plans to discuss the candidates and reach a final decision soon after the formal interviews.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
DG Market may be coming to another metro-east town. Not everyone is excited

Since reporting that Belleville will get a DG Market on West Main Street later this year, Ive learned that Mascoutah may be getting one as well.

Mascoutah City Council approved the construction of a new 12,480-square-foot building at 845 N. Jefferson St. in February, which is across the street from an existing Dollar General store.

A DG Market is similar to a standard Dollar General store. The difference is that a DG Market also carries fresh produce, meat and dairy products.

I reached out to Dollar General for comments on this development. They said their commitment to building the market isnt yet set in stone.

At this time, we are currently in due diligence phase for a new Dollar General in Mascoutah, which means we are reviewing the opportunity to add a new store in St. Clair County, but we have not committed to doing so just yet, a company representative said in an email. Based on our current timeline, we anticipate having a final decision by fall 2024.

According to public transcripts of the February council meeting, it was asked what would happen to the existing Dollar General store.

David Elkan of Glenwood Equities said the Dollar General project is a relocation plan and expects the existing 9,100 square-foot store to close. Glenwood Equities is listed as the landowner, developer, store owner and property manager in the meeting record.

Bob Elkan, also of Glenwood Equities, said the market stores have larger staff due to store size and traffic. He didnt give an exact number of staff members but did say normal staff consists of one or two managers and two other employees per shift.

David Elkan said that the new store will be similar to the Freeburg market and that construction will start this fall.

DG Market location at 1210 N. State St. in Freeburg

Dg Market Mascoutah - Public Discussion by Jennifer Green on Scribd

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What do residents think?

I visited the Mascoutah, IL Residents Page Facebook group and asked residents to share their thoughts on getting a DG Market location in their neighborhood.

Some commenters see it as an opportunity for economic growth in the community and as another shopping option.

I think its a fantastic opportunity for our locals to have more places to go to work and shop in town. Geez folks, after all we have McDonalds, Spudz, Skootrs, Moto Mart, Caseys, Saxs there is competition between the internet providers with Whisper, Frontier and Spectrum.; look at the banks in town we have Regions as well as Scott Credit Union, First Federal just to name a few businesses that want our business. Competition is a good thing for all of us. Toms/Betty Anns will survive and thrive just fine.  Terry Gibbs

I like the idea. Mascoutah is growing and could use more places to shop. The DG Market has fresh food.  Mary Elizabeth Graham-Stiehl

Others expressed concerns about the addition of the market, stating problems with Dollar General stores in surrounding communities regarding staffing and inventory and how the market will affect existing small businesses and the community.

New Baden used to be an awful mess. [You] never knew if it was open or closed. Now it has a great manager (Kim). She goes above and beyond. DG corporate office needs to figure out how to staff the ones they have and hire enough people to stock shelves and get those carts full of merchandise out of the aisles.  Mary VonBokel

I definitely prefer local businesses. Local markets. Local restaurants. Local stores. While there is some savings associated with these chains - it doesnt offset the way they hurt small communities.  Kelley Ko

I dont see the need for another discount store. The town is not large enough to support it and it would just draw more business away from the locally owned stores. Better to have them than a corporate run one with no interest in supporting the community like Betty Anns does.  Rhonda Antoline Ross

Well, [I] see no need to have one put in town  Freeburg [which has a DG Market] is the town next to Mascoutah. People can  go there if they really want to go to one. I dont believe we need one. We can build something that we actually need in the town that would be better.  Amielynn Hicks

I also spoke with Betty Ann Market owner Craig Norrenberns to get his take on the matter.

Part of his concern is that companies like Dollar General dont contribute to communities or participate in community events the way locally-owned businesses do.

They dont join the Chamber of Commerce or support local events, he said, adding that people arent coming from other communities to shop at stores like Dollar General.

Dollar General Public Relations response included comments about joining the Mascoutah community.

For 85 years, Dollar General has been proud to serve as Americas general store, and we believe our mission and intense customer focus differentiate Dollar General from other seemingly similar retailers, wrote the spokesperson.

Similarly to Belleville, we believe the new Mascoutah store will offer numerous benefits to the community, including customers; new employees; local libraries, nonprofits and schools; and the municipality itself.

We appreciate the opportunity to highlight our stance as a strong business partner and good neighbor and are optimistic for the opportunity to serve both Mascoutah and Belleville.

DG Market Mascoutah - SITE PLANS by Jennifer Green on Scribd

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Did Moms Confusion When Confronted About 4 Dead Babies in Freezer Spare Her from Getting Charged?

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Alexis Aldamir, 69, "appeared confused" when questioned about the babies found dead in her South Boston apartment

Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images Boston police investigating the scene in November 2022.

Prosecutors decided not to criminally charge a Massachusetts mother whose four babies were found dead in a freezer inside her South Boston apartment in November 2022 for a variety of reasons  and her confusion when questioned about the discovery was a significant factor.

In late 2022, investigators visited the healthcare facility where Alexis Aldamir, 69, now lives and questioned her about the babies, who Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden says were found frozen solid in shoe boxes wrapped in tin foil, according to a press release from the D.A. shared on Tuesday, April 30.

Throughout the interview Aldamir appeared confused and demonstrated a lack of understanding about where she was and who she was speaking to, the release states. As a result, she was unable to provide investigators with any significant information.

To further assess Aldamirs cognitive ability, investigators reviewed publicly available probate court records and spoke with a lawyer for Aldamir, it continues. The information obtained suggests strongly that Aldamir would be unlikely to stand trial.

Aldamir's likely inability to stand trial was one reason prosecutors did not pursue criminal charges, according to the D.A.'s release.

According to a Suffolk probate and family court document reviewed by PEOPLE, Aldamir was appointed a temporary guardian as an incapacitated person in September 2022. The verified motion states that she was appointed a guardian following an incident in August 2022 when police were called to her home after she left the gas stove on and appeared to be confused.

Related: 4 Babies Were Found in Freezer in Home of Mom Who 'Concealed Pregnancies.' Why Weren't Charges Filed?

She has a likely neurodegenerative process of Alzheimer's Dementia, the motion states. Ms. Aldamir is disoriented, inattentive and agitated and is unable to respond appropriately to questioning.

She lacks capacity for medical decision-making, it adds. She is unable to care for herself and cannot safely return to her prior living situation in the community.

According to the motion, she was required to be discharged from the hospital where she was receiving medical treatment following the incident and into a skilled nursing care facility for long term care. She was additionally required to have a conservator along with a legal guardian, the motion states.

PEOPLE reached out to an attorney listed for Aldamir in court records but did not immediately hear back on Friday, May 3.

Aside from Aldamirs cognitive state, Hayden says investigators could not prove a crime had been committed since the likely father of the two male and two female babies died in 2011, and a medical examiner couldnt determine the cause of death for the babies, or even if they had been born alive, per the release.

Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

The autopsy found no signs of internal or external trauma and no evidence of obvious injuries, the release states. There were no signs of food, or milk, or formula inside the babies stomachs.

The medical examiner also reported that there was no scientific method to determine how long the babies  who were described as full term  had been frozen, according to the release.

The discovery was made by Aldamirs brother on Nov. 17, 2022, when he and his wife were cleaning out the South Boston apartment where his sister once lived, the release states. Officers responded to the scene after Aldamir's brother called 911.

Related: Remains of 4 Infants Discovered in Boston Apartment, Police Say

All four babies had their umbilical cords attached and the two females also had their placentas attached, according to the release.

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This investigation, which is one of the most complex, unusual and perplexing that this office has ever encountered, is now complete, Hayden said in the release. "While we have some answers, there are many elements of this case that will likely never be answered."

We will never know exactly where or when the four babies found in Alexis Aldamirs apartment were born, he added. We will never know if the four babies were born alive, and we will never know exactly what happened to them. We will never know how Alexis Aldamir concealed her pregnancies, or why she chose to do so.



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Read the original article on People.
BAGHDAD, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A Shiite militia in Iraq on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack on a vital site in Israel.

The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in an online statement that its fighters conducted a strike "with appropriate weapons on a vital target within the Dead Sea (area) on Friday morning," without providing additional details about the specific location targeted or any resulting casualties.

The strike came hours after the militia claimed responsibility for missile attacks with long-range al-Arqab upgraded cruise missiles on two vital sites in Tel Aviv and one in Be'er Sheva in southern Israel.

The statements stressed that the attacks were carried out "in solidarity with the people of Gaza" and the militia pledged to persist in targeting "the enemy's strongholds."

Since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and U.S. bases in the region. 
Marjorie Taylor Greene has a lot of big feelings about the Jews. Whenever the Georgia congresswoman opines on the topic, her thoughts are bound to produce some combination of hilarity and concern. Her latest musings on interfaith dialogue, in response to her vote against the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023, skew much more toward the latter. Greene appears to imagine this act as a threat to religious freedom, and grounds her position in an antisemitic trope that has led to violence against Jews for centuries.

H.R. 6090, the 2023 Awareness of Antisemitism Act, was introduced last October and passed the House by a 320-91 vote on May 1. In an X post shortly before the House vote, Greene stated her intention to vote against it, saying that the bill could convict Christians for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews. Shes not entirely making this up, since the bill adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism, which includes claims of Jews killing Jesus as part of its definition. (For what its worth, the ACLU has also spoken out against H.R. 6090, arguing that it threatens to censor political speech which is critical of Israel.)

Aside from Greenes slippage from belief to acts  Americans will remain free to believe whatever they want, but could face penalties for harassing or intimidating others with those beliefs  her statement also indicates some basic problems with biblical literacy, or at least an intent to disguise her particular belief as a universally accepted truth.

Part of the challenge is in the way the term Gospel is used. The word literally means truth or belief, but is also used more specifically to mean the Christian message. Furthermore, the four books of the Bible that recount Jesus life and crucifixion  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John  are referred to as the Four Gospels. So when Greene refers to the Gospel that says its unclear how shes using the word. (It might be yet another case of MAGAs love of deliberate ambiguity.) She might mean the Gospel as the truth  meaning, this is what a Bible-based Christian should believe. Or she might be referring to the [one] Gospel that says Jesus wascrucified by the Jews, as opposed to the others that take at least some steps to blame the religious leadership, not the people. While its always dangerous to chase MTG down her rabbit holes, I think its important to unpack what shes talking about here.

In the Gospel accounts  which often have disagreements, or just supply different details  the Roman authorities and the Jewish religious leaders are both implicated in Jesus crucifixion. Jewish religious leaders are upset with him for offering new interpretations of their religious laws, interpretations which often pose a direct threat to the power structures in place. In addition, the crowd has some degree of culpability, though some of the Gospels take pains to highlight that this crowd was stirred up by the religious leaders. The current conflict in Gaza is just one example of how important it is to separate the morality and culpability of the leaders from that of the people. Much of the Gospel text asks us to do this as well.

In most of the Gospel accounts, its abundantly clear that the leaders are to blame. The Gospels of Luke and Mark ascribe the plot to the chief priests and the scribes (Luke 22:2; Mark 14:1), not to the people as a whole. It is this council of religious leaders that brings Jesus before Pilate, the gentile governor of Judea (Luke 23:1; Mark 14:53  here Mark adds the elders). When Pilate offers to release him, a group Luke describes as the chief priests, the leaders, and the people (23:13) all demand that Pilate put Jesus to death. Hes crucified by Roman soldiers, not the Jews as Greene states in her post. Johns Gospel is more troubling, as it frequently refers to the crowd as the Jews. (Since were in Jerusalem, the majority of the people, including Jesus and his disciples, would have been Jewish, after all.) But in spite of this language that may trouble our sensibilities today, its clear that John also places the blame on the leadership, not on the people.

Things get stickier with the Gospel of Matthew, largely due to one deeply unfortunate line.

For most biblical scholars, Matthews in-depth knowledge of Scripture and Jewish law indicates that he was an observant Jew, writing to an audience that was primarily Jewish as well. So his rhetoric against the Jews who do not accept Christs divinity is more pointed than can be found in the other Gospels. Much of the account of Jesus arrest and trial follows that of the other Gospels; it is clear that the religious authorities are the primary drivers. But as Jesuss crucifixion grows near, Pilate is increasingly frightened by how restless the crowd is getting.

In this account, Pilate is more sympathetic to Jesus in this account. As he washes his hands, he says, See, I am innocent of this mans blood (Matthew 27:24). The crowd then answers, His blood be on us and on our children! (27:25). Its a horrifying line, one that the Guardian (in analyzing some of Sarah Palins ugly rhetoric) has called the most notorious verse in the Bible. There are good reasons to read this line in the context of Matthews Jewishness and see an author embroiled in a struggle about the direction of his own religious community, but the effects this verse has had are undeniable. For centuries, this was the verse that the Church used to justify persecution and murder of Jewish people.

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Mel Gibson stepped in the same controversy with his film The Passion of the Christ. While the screenplay was cobbled together from a variety of sources, the initial cut of the film included the crowd shouting this line from Matthew. Word that the scene had been included got out, and  after initially saying he would cut the scene  Gibson included the dialogue, but left it unsubtitled. I imagine the intent was to obscure the ugliness of the line while still remaining true to what he thought his Gospel source demanded, but I worry that it just makes the line serve as a dog whistle. Viewers who are prone to antisemitic interpretations understand perfectly well what line has been left without an English translation. (There are plenty of other problems with the films depictions of Judaism  a few examples are here.) Gibson had four Gospel sources to work with, and had to make choices about what to include and what to leave out. He chose to include this line, in spite of its terrible history of being used to justify antisemitic violence.

Greene makes a similar choice. While she might have you believe that her interpretation is the Gospel, its really just one way to read these accounts  and a particularly dangerous one. The Roman Catholic Church renounced the idea of Jewish responsibility for Jesus death in an official 1960 document, and most of mainline Christianity has been in agreement in the wake of the Holocaust. (Institutions can take a long time to get on the right side of history.) MTGs use of the Gospel would have us believe that the basic tenets of Christianity are under threat, when the bill simply acknowledges that antisemitic tropes can do harm. Her use of this one indicates that she is, in fact, already well aware of antisemitism  aware enough to be a highly accomplished practitioner. For Greene, this is just the latest outburst in a long line of outlandish statements that indicate she has no interest in a serious reading of the texts she claims to hold in such high esteem, or in building relationships with anyone outside the MAGA tent.
Four people were hospitalized after a distracted driver slammed into the wreckage of an earlier crash between a pickup truck and a cyclist, authorities announced Wednesday.

The first crash occurred at around 12:30 a.m. near the intersection of Main Street and I Avenue in Hesperia, according to a news release from the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department.

At the scene, deputies determined that the driver of a Chevrolet Avalanche traveling west on Main Street struck a cyclist who was crossing the street outside of the crosswalk.

The bicyclist sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a nearby trauma center by paramedics.

As deputies were investigating the crash and speaking with the driver of the Avalanche who remained at the scene, a distracted driver in a Toyota Camry slammed into the Chevrolet as the driver was retrieving items from the pickup truck.

Man, 33, convicted of gruesome cartel-related murders in Orange County

The driver of the Avalanche sustained minor injuries, as did the driver and passenger in the Camry.

All three individuals were taken to the hospital. No injuries to law enforcement personnel were reported.

Authorities did not say whether alcohol or drugs may have been a factor in either collision, nor did they say what charges the distracted driver may be facing.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may have witnessed the crash is encouraged to contact the Hesperia Police Department at 760-947-1500 or SBSDs dispatch at 760-956-5001. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call the WeTip Hotline at 800-782-7463 or leave tips online at WeTip.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  During the Commissioners Court meeting on April 29, the District Attorneys Office received unanimous approval to apply for the Office on Violence against Women grant funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the grant submittal form, the DAs Office is requesting to be funded $500,000 over a three-year period starting October 1. Funds from the grant would go towards reinstating a Domestic Violence Unit to prosecute cases of family and intimate partner violence.

The DAs Office would partner with the nonprofit organization Center Against Sexual and Family Violence (CASFV) to provide survivor and victim services.

CASFV will also provide trainings to individuals who handle domestic cases such as judges, attorneys, law enforcement and counselors to better understand the dynamics of domestic violence.

Were looking at trauma informed care interviewing versus interrogation, the dynamics of domestic violence, just kind of how to build a rapport and what that kind of looks like because we all have different roles, right? Its not that theyre not doing it well or dont have the ability to do it. Its just our outcomes are our goals are very different, said Sandra Nevarez Garcia, executive director of CASFV.

Data from the El Paso Police Department shows that the number of reported family violence incidents in El Paso between 2019-2023 increased 33 percent.

Garcia said the number of reports may not match up to the realistic total.

You know, statistics always say that about 10% of people report, right? But when you have those reports come in and youre talking to those survivors, theres been years and years of abuse unfortunately, said Garcia.

For people like Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, the revitalization of the Domestic Violence Unit comes as a relief after she and her son worked hard to raise awareness against dating violence after her granddaughter, Jennifer Ann Crecente, was murdered.

She was 18 years old. She hadnt even seen this guy for two years She obviously wasnt aware of any danger that she was in. It was premeditated murder, he had her set up, shot her in the back of the head, and her body was found two days later, said Dr. Richeson.

In honor of her granddaughter, Dr. Richeson and her son Drew Crecente founded Jennifer Anns Group to help people recognize the warning signs of intimate partner violence.

Garcia said a major component of the reinstating of the Domestic Violence Unit will be accountability.

You speed, you get a ticket, you physically assault someone, you should be arrested and charged and hopefully you go through the judicial system. Same thing with this situation is that if you do mistreat your partner and youre being abusive and youre threatening, you should be held accountable, said Garcia.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship or looking for support services, the Center Against Family Violence has a 24-hour Crisis Hopeline at (915) 593-7300 or 1-800-727-0511.

More resources can also be found on their website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Disturbing: Operation to find those sexually exploiting children in Utah leads to 15 arrests

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4)  15 people were arrested after the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed Operation Cyber Strike  finding those actively using the internet to sexually exploit children.

The operation took place between April 22-25.

READ NEXT: Students protest at University of Utah commencement ceremony

According to the Utah Attorney Generals Office, residential search warrants were served at the homes of offenders who downloaded, viewed, and distributed child sexual abuse material.

Additionally, task force agents conducted undercover chat investigations on various social media platforms to find offenders who were looking to meet with children for sexual activity.

The 15 arrested face felony-level charges including the sexual exploitation of a minor, dealing in harmful materials to a minor, enticing a minor, and human trafficking of a child.

Attorney General Sean Reyes said he thanks the agents, affiliates, and partners of the task force for their bravery and hard work in last weeks operation.

I am convinced we have the best ICAC agents, prosecutors and affiliates in America, he said. As disturbing as it is to have so many predators lurking in social media and gaming apps, it is equally comforting to know how effective our ICAC team is at combating those who actively seek to exploit children. This operation is another example of how local, state, and federal agencies work to keep Utahs children and families safe from online threats.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
The captain of a scuba dive boat lost in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison, far less than the 10-year term prosecutors and victims families had pushed for.

Jerry Nehl Boylan was the captain of the Conception when it caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day in 2019. In all, 33 passengers and one crew member died as a result, and the ensuing fallout prompted a number of changes to maritime regulations.

On Thursday, Noylan, 70, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu to four years in federal prison. He faced a maximum of 10 years.

Noylan was found guilty in November 2023 on one count of misconduct or neglect by a ships officeran offense colloquially known as seamans manslaughter.

The fatal fire aboard the 75-foot wood-and-fiberglass passenger vessel broke out in the early hours of the morning while it was anchored in Platts Harbor, approximately 22 miles southwest of Santa Cruz Island. The boat was carrying 33 passengers and six crew, including Boylan. The fire engulfed the boat while those on board were sleeping below deck. Just five crew members managed to escape and survive the blaze.

The defendants cowardice and repeated failures caused the horrific deaths of 34 people, said United States Attorney Martin Estrada in a statement to The Daily Beast. The victims families will be forever devastated by this needless tragedy. While todays sentence cannot fully heal their wounds, we hope that our efforts to hold this defendant criminally accountable brings some measure of healing to the families.

Estrada appeared disappointed by the sentence. Certainly, four years was not what we wanted. We wanted the 10 years. We thought the appropriate sentence was 10 years in this case, Estrada said, according to CBS.

According to the Associated Press, family members of the victims had pleaded with the judge to institute the maximum sentence. The father of Alexandra Kurtz, the sole deckhand, brought a container of ashes with him while addressing Boylan and the court. This is all I have of my daughter, Robert Kurtz said.

The fate of the victims on the Conception might have been different were it not for the negligence of the defendant, said Mehtab Syed, assistant director in charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. I want to commend the collaborative effort by investigators and prosecutors that led to todays sentence and hope that it delivers a measure of justice to the victims families as they continue to heal from this tragedy.

Prosecutors said Boylan committed a series of failures that led to the disaster, including fleeing the ship instead of attempting to rescue his passengers. Other notable failures, they said, included failing to provide firefighting instructions or directions to crew members after the fire started; failing to use firefighting equipment, including a fire ax and fire extinguisher that were next to him in the wheelhouse, to fight the fire or attempt to rescue trapped passengers; failing to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities whatsoever at the time of the fire, even though he was uninjured; failing to use the boats public address system to warn passengers and crew members about the fire; and becoming the first crew member to abandon ship even though 33 passengers and one crew member were still alive and trapped below deck in the vessels bunk room and in need of assistance to escape.

There are no winners when lives are lost at sea, but there is justice in bringing those accountable to answer for their crimes. Today is an example of that, said Coast Guard Investigative Service Director Jeremy Gauthier.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Some doctors are using AI chatbots to help deliver bad news to patients, report says

From synthetic embryos, to a more inclusive BMI policy, to the possible benefits of vaginal fluids  here are some of the best health stories this week from Yahoo News partners.

Some doctors are using AI chatbots to help deliver bad news to patients, report says

According the New York Times, some doctors are using AI chatbots like ChatGPT to communicate with patients  even helping doctors deliver bad medical news in a more empathetic way or write scripts to speak to patients more compassionately.

"I know physicians are using this," one expert at Stanford Health Care told the New York Times about chatbots. "Ive heard of residents using it to guide clinical decision making. I dont think its appropriate."

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Peter Lee said he had anticipated that many doctors would use the new technology to help eliminate some of the mundane tasks that can consume physicians time, such as writing appeals to insurance companies or summarizing patient visits. But Futurism, which reported on the New York Times story, said that Lee was skeptical about ChatGPT being used to deliver bad news.

"As a patient, Id personally feel a little weird about it," he told the New York Times.

Still, other experts claimed that ChatGPT could offer real benefits to doctors interactions with patients by helping them simplify medical jargon and break down more complex concepts when speaking with patients.

Doctors organization adopts new policy on BMI, acknowledging racist exclusion and historical harm

iStock / Getty Images Plus

The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a new policy advising doctors to focus less on body mass index (BMI)  a frequently used ratio of weight to height  to determine if a patient is at a healthy weight, acknowledging the problematic history with BMI and that it doesnt account for differences across racial and ethnic groups, gender and age groups, Reuters reported.

Under the newly adopted policy, the AMA recognizes issues with using BMI as a measurement due to its historical harm, its use for racist exclusion, and because BMI is based primarily on data collected from previous generations of non-Hispanic white populations, the AMA said in a statement on Wednesday.

Instead of making diagnoses and recommendations based solely on BMI, the AMA advised doctors to factor in other measures of risk, such as measurements of visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference and genetic/metabolic factors.

Researchers say that applying vaginal fluid to C-section babies could help restore healthy bacteria

iStock / Getty Images Plus

A study published on Thursday, June 15, in the journal Cell Host & Microbe found that exposing babies delivered via C-section to their mother's vaginal fluids shortly after birth may help restore some of the good bacteria acquired by babies delivered vaginally, aiding in better gut health and possible neurodevelopment benefits, AFP reported.

In the small study of 68 infants, researchers at the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, used a method called vaginal seeding  swabbing each babys mouth and body with either a gauze soaked in the baby's mothers vaginal fluid or a control substance. Six weeks later, after studying the babies fecal microbes, researchers found that babies exposed to their mothers vaginal fluid had more mature gut bacteria closer to that of vaginally delivered babies. Based on questions about developmental milestones, the parents of babies exposed to vaginal fluids also reported that their babies had slightly more advanced communication and motor skills at 3 months old and 6 months old than the control group.

However, experts stress that the sample size is too small to draw any firm conclusions about the purported benefits of vaginal seeding, and that parents should avoid attempting vaginal seeding outside of a clinical setting due to the risk of possibly passing on infections to the infant.

Scientists say theyve created worlds first human synthetic model embryos

Zernicka-Goetz lab / CalTech

Researchers from the United States and United Kingdom announced on Wednesday that they had created the worlds first synthetic human embryo-like structures from stem cells, without using human eggs or sperm, CNN reported.

The research hasnt been published yet but was presented at the International Society for Stem Cell Researchs annual meeting in Boston by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a professor of biology and biological engineering at CalTech and the University of Cambridge. Zernicka-Goetz emphasized that the embryo-like structures her team created are not human embryos. But these models, which mimic some of the features of a natural human embryo at the earliest stages of development before a heartbeat is present, could prove to be invaluable to understanding genetic diseases or the cause of miscarriages early in pregnancy.

Zernicka-Goetz told CNN that the goal of her research is to prevent the loss of human life, not create it. But it still raises legal and ethical questions for countries, including the U.S., that don't have laws governing the creation or treatment of synthetic embryos, CNN reported.
Doctors of color call on Congress to help address minority physician shortage

Roughly, 15 percent of doctors nationwide are Black or Latino.

Dr. Samual Cook is one of them.

The doctors I saw as a child never looked like me so I made it my lifes mission to be the change I sought in medicine, said Dr. Cook.

Dr. Cook is now a resident at the Morehouse School of Medicine. But he said the journey wasnt easy. In fact, it was almost over before it started.

I was told by my medical school admissions counselor that my above average GPA at one of our nations top ten universities was not strong enough to make medicine a reality, said Cook.

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Thursday on Capitol Hill, Dr. Cook joined other minority doctors to share their experiences with Congress. They also urged lawmakers to address the shortage of physicians who look like them.

The most recent federal data shows only eight percent of doctors are Black and seven percent are Latino. Doctors say the disparities dont end there; minorities are disproportionately affected by chronic diseases compared to white people.

These disparities are not solely attributable to socioeconomic factors but are deeply rooted in systematic racism and unequal treatment, bias and inadequate access to quality healthcare, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, President of the National Medical Association.

Its a set of disparities that doctors say affects more than just minorities.

Read: Enter for a chance to be part of Orlandos 2025 Historic Preservation Board calendar contest

When there are more sick people in our nation, such an imbalanced dynamic creates a bigger burden on our healthcare system, reduces workforce productivity, increases disability and raises medical costs that ultimately we all pay for whether through Medicare, Medicaid or high health insurance premiums, said Dr. Lawson.

Doctors say one of the biggest barriers for students is debt. Many medical students - regardless of race - face hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt but the financial burden is significantly greater for minorities.

Racially based and systematic wealth inequity is an undeniable truth in our nation, said Dr. Cook.

We must address financial constraints on many Black students. Medical school is a financial impossibility, said Dr. Lawson. We support programs such as the National Health Service Corps and ask for resources for the HBCU medical schools to address education and infrastructure.

Read: Allegiant Air to begin service from Orlando International Airport to these 3 cities

Another one is access. There are only four Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with a medical school nationwide and even fewer options for Latino students.

We need a bilingual and bicultural medical school anchored at a Hispanic serving institution partnered with local hospitals, said Dr. Michael Galvez, co-creator of the National Latino Physician Day.

Dr. Galvez believes community colleges should be included as potential pathways for medical students of color.

The commercialize of medical school and the reliance of standardized tests such as the MCAT overlooks the potential of a compassionate and capable physician candidate, said Dr. Galvez.

Doctors say they want Congress to increase funding for HBCUs nationwide and create more loan repayment programs for medical students.

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Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Wisconsin Examiner.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures.

 Dr. Brian Stone, Jasper Urology Associates

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Tennessee Lookout.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on North Dakota Monitor.
A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan at 5:27 p.m. (Beijing Time).

Approximately 37 minutes after liftoff, the Chang'e-6 spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered its planned Earth-moon transfer orbit, which had a perigee altitude of 200 kilometers and an apogee altitude of about 380,000 kilometers, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The launch of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft was a complete success, the CNSA announced.

"Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the moon is an unprecedented feat. Now we know very little about the moon's far side. If the Chang'e-6 mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the moon, which is of great significance," said Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration program.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft, like its predecessor Chang'e-5, comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.

After it reaches the moon, it will make a soft landing on the far side. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the moon and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit. The returner will then carry the samples back to Earth, landing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The entire flight is expected to last about 53 days, the CNSA said.

As the moon's revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, the same side always faces Earth. The other face, most of which cannot be seen from Earth, is called the far side or "dark side" of the moon. This term doesn't refer to visible darkness, but rather the mystery shrouding the moon's largely unexplored terrain.

Remote-sensing images show the moon's two sides are very different. The near side is relatively flat, while the far side is thickly dotted with impact craters of different sizes and has much fewer lunar mares than the near side. Scientists infer that the lunar crust on the far side is much thicker than that on the near side. But why that is so remains a mystery.

An impact crater known as the Apollo basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon, has been chosen as the primary target landing and sampling site for the Chang'e-6 mission, according to Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-6 mission.

The colossal SPA Basin was formed by a celestial collision over 4 billion years ago and has a diameter of 2,500 kilometers, equivalent to the distance from Beijing to Hainan, and a depth of about 13 kilometers. It is the oldest and largest impact crater on the moon and in the solar system, and it may provide the earliest information about the moon, scientists say.

"First-hand, direct samples from the moon's far side are essential to giving us a deeper understanding of the characteristics and differences of the two sides of the moon, and to revealing the secrets of the moon," said Zeng Xingguo, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking," Wang said.

In order to realize communication between Earth and the probe on the far side of the moon, China sent the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, whose name translates to "magpie bridge-2," into a highly elliptical lunar frozen orbit earlier this year.

Although the Chang'e-4 mission achieved the world's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, Chang'e-6 still faces significant risks as the rugged terrain of the moon's far side poses great challenges for its landing, space experts say.

The Chang'e-6 mission needs to see new technological breakthroughs in such areas as lunar retrograde orbit design and control, rapid intelligent sampling, and takeoff from the far side of the moon, Wang said.

"The amount of samples that Chang'e-6 can collect is uncertain and cannot be estimated accurately at present. Our goal is to collect 2 kilograms," said Deng Xiangjin, a space expert from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The Chang'e-6 mission is carrying four payloads developed through international cooperation. Scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency/Sweden are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, and a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter. 

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

People wait to watch the launch of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

This photo taken on May 3, 2024 shows the combination of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. The Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to be launched between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)
Close-up of a pregnant woman's belly in the hospital bed with an IV tube in hand

Getty Images

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Xavier, Ochsner team to open Souths first HBCU medical school

NEW ORLEANS  Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health are partnering to open the first medical school in the South based at a Historically Black University

The Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine is planned for BioDistrict New Orleans, located downtown in Benson Tower next to Caesars Superdome.

Dr. Leonardo Seoane, executive vice president and chief academic officer of OchsnerHealth, will serve as the medical schools founding dean.

Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine was born from a truly collaborative vision between Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health. It epitomizes our collective dedication to providing academic excellence in training the next generation of physicians, while fostering healthcare equity in New Orleans and throughout the United States, Seoane said in a statement. By addressing the critical shortage of physicians in standing up this HBCU medical school in the Gulf South, XOCOM will pursue diversity in medicine and ensure equitable representation in healthcare to better serve our communities for generations to come.

XOCOM will seek preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, a process that is expected to take about three years and will be followed by recruitment. The school intends to seat 50 students in its first class and continue to grow as it develops.

Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will become the nations fifth historically Black medical schools, joining Howard University in Washington, D.C., Morehouse College in Atlanta, Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennesse, and Charles R. Drew University in California.

 Louisiana Illuminator

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

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Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast).

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Missouri Independent.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Michigan Advance.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Kentucky Lantern.
Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 2, 2024, about the need for more support for HBCU schools of medicine. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON  Doctors on Thursday urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality throughout the country and to lower barriers that have hindered people of color from becoming medical professionals.

During a hearing in the U.S. Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a panel of five medical professionals detailed health disparities for communities of color, including higher rates of maternal mortality.

Research consistently demonstrates that patients from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds experience better outcomes when treated by health care providers who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds, said Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association and an OBGYN in Texas. In short, patients can have better health outcomes when their doctors look like them.

Yet, Black doctors remain vastly underrepresented, Lawson added.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member on the committee and a doctor, noted that African American physicians account for only 8% of all physicians despite comprising 13.6% of the population.

Cassidy said that reducing maternal mortality has been a top issue for him during his time in Congress and said its important to acknowledge that this issue disproportionately affects African Americans.

California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler testified that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality among high-income nations.

Within recent years, thousands of women have lost their lives due to pregnancy-related causes, Butler said. And over the past decade, while the birth rate in this country has declined by roughly 20%, maternal mortality rates have steadily risen.

She implored the committee to debate and approve the so-called Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, legislation introduced last year by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Senator Cory Booker, Illinois Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood and North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams. It currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate and 193 in the House.

This legislation is not just about the life and death of Black women  its enactment will improve birthing outcomes for all women, Butler said.

Data show 817 women died in 2022

HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, indicated the panel would take up the legislation in the months ahead.

Sanders also said Congress should also look at increasing funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC; increasing class size at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase Black representation in the health care workforce; and making medical schools tuition-free to reduce the mountains of student loan debt that can serve as an obstacle to more people of color becoming doctors.

Thursdays hearing coincided with the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions release of new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022  a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 19 for white women, 16.9 for Hispanic women and 13.2 for Asian women.

Funding for HBCU medical schools

Dr. Samuel Cook, a resident at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, said during the hearing that medical students of color sacrifice our physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing to be the change in the medical field we so desperately seek.

So now we ardently advocate for the reintroduction of legislation which would specifically fund and protect the growth of HBCU medical schools, he said.

Cook told the committee that the exorbitant cost of medical school is the greatest impediment in recruiting Black and brown doctors to our workforce. He currently holds nearly $400,000 in student loan debt.

Dr. Brian Stone, president of Jasper Urology Associates in Jasper, Alabama, told senators there are serious challenges that must be addressed in access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, education for Black and brown students.

Theres a wealth of data showing better health outcomes when Black patients have Black physicians. And this applies across different cultures, Stone said. This is because when you have cultural connectivity, you have better communication, you have shared experiences and you can overcome the mistrust that has developed over the decades.

Replacing retiring physicians

Stone said his home state of Alabama has a population of about 4.8 million people, of whom about 25.8% are Black. Yet we only have 7% of the physician workforce thats Black.

Stone told the committee that theres a huge need to replace retiring physicians. And he said that making several changes, like providing mentors early and reducing the financial burden, can help to bridge the gap thats forming.

Currently, we have about 71,000 physicians retiring per year for the past few years. We only graduated 21,000 medical students per year, Stone said. And if you follow the mathematics, you see where were going to end up. Were going to need some very creative ideas to get us out of this situation.

The post Doctors plead with Congress to help improve U.S. maternal mortality rates appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
Longstanding problems with drug shortages are prompting senators to seek more solutions for the military medical system, including the possibility of having the military manufacture some medications.

Senators are calling for a return of manufacturing medicines in the United States due to national security concerns over risks to the Defense Departments pharmaceutical supply chain, and possible risks to service members and their families.

But that includes the possibility of some military manufacturing, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., chair of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel, during a hearing on April 30.

Its a critical national defense issue. Its also critical to the health of our people, Warren said. One issue is that commercial manufacturers dont have the right incentives in place to produce many drugs in the U.S.

Additionally, she said, we dont even have the right information in place to require meaningful domestic manufacturing and meaningful insight into the supply chain to know we are safe in the drugs we are getting, and their ingredients.

Warren said she plans to introduce legislation that would direct the Defense Department to manufacture drugs, devices, vaccines and other products when DOD determines there are risks of shortage or quality concerns.

Most of the time DOD will continue to purchase drugs from the commercial drug market. But there are some instances where it makes sense for DOD to produce the medication itself, for example, when DOD is the only customer, Warren said. DOD spends more than $5 billion a year on pharmaceuticals, she said, which is about 2% of the entire U.S. commercial pharmaceutical market.

A number of drugs that are used in the military are not commonly needed in the commercial market, defense officials testified. Some of these are drugs that are needed to fight infectious diseases and are not commercially available because theres no market for them.

If the manufacturing challenges are too great for smaller  but needed  quantities of drugs, Warren said, the government may have to move to military manufacturing. Otherwise, were just not going to get them. Or well pay prices that are so outrageous that it would have been cheaper to have built [the manufacturing facilities] internally, she said.

One example of that is the adenovirus vaccine. While adenovirus typically causes mild cold or flu-like symptoms, she said, it is a major cause of serious respiratory illness among service members, particularly those who are in basic training. Thats why the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research developed the adenovirus vaccine and licensed it to private industry.

But in the 1998-1999 time frame, DOD exhausted its last supply of the vaccine after the sole manufacturer decided to stop making it. At that time, DOD estimated that the lack of vaccine would lead to about 10,000 preventable infections from adenovirus, over 4,200 medical visits by recruits, and over 850 hospitalizations within a year, said Bryce H.P. Mendez, a specialist in defense health care policy for the Congressional Research Service, testifying before the panel. To an extent, DOD did observe that, he said.

But thats not unique, Mendez told lawmakers, adding that the Defense Department has had challenges over many decades in getting certain medicines. Current challenges include the production of medicines to address anthrax, botulism, cholera, hemorrhagic fevers, and others, he said.

Lawmakers should consider legislation that establishes clear options for creating a government-owned facility to manufacture priority health products to meet the militarys needs, said Melissa Barber, an expert in pharmaceutical manufacturing who is a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale Law School and Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity and Transparency. Such a facility would ensure reliable access to quality drugs for service members, as well as generate significant cost savings. For example, she told lawmakers, the current contract for producing the adenovirus vaccine costs the government about $38 million a year. Thats a lot of money to pay for a single vaccine, she said.

Barber cited an Army report that estimated the startup costs for the government to manufacture the adenovirus vaccine would be about $100 million, with annual costs of about $10 million. DOD would break even in about three years by building and operating its own facility for producing that vaccine, she said.

Government-owned and operated facilities for manufacturing medicines is not a new concept, Barber said. The first example shes aware of, she said, is during the Civil war, when the U.S. Army set up facilities to manufacture some needed medicines.

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research does vaccine research and manufactures test batches, but its manufacturing is limited, and the military relies on commercial manufacturers for quantity.

Despite drug shortages, military has mostly been able to find alternative supplies

The larger problem of drug shortages

According to the Food and Drug Administration, almost half of the drugs on DODs operational medicines list are in shortage, and most of these are generics, Warren said. This list includes drugs necessary for warfighting, she said. Some of those in short supply include the blood thinner heparin, the common anesthesia drug midazolam and morphine for pain management.

And many drugs, and their key ingredients, come from foreign manufacturers, including China. The Defense Department has less visibility over its operations, and thus, the safety of the drugs.

Following a congressionally-mandated requirement, DoD analyzed 12,917 specific drugs, or about 10% of the total U.S. marketplace as part of efforts to evaluate the military pharmaceutical supply chain. The medicines are identified in the FDA Essential Medicine List. Only a quarter of the drugs analyzed have domestic manufacturers.

According to DODs November report, 27% of the drugs analyzed are at a very high risk because they are either dependent on Chinese manufacturers using Chinese ingredients, or were derived from unknown sources.

I dont know anybody in their right mind who trusts anything made in China, said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the ranking member of the panel.

During COVID, we learned the hard way that relying on non-allied countries for our medical supply chain poses a real danger. For that reason, it is imperative that we work to ensure DOD supply chains are independent from non-allied nations for necessary pharmaceutical treatments, Scott said. In future contingencies, these supply chains could easily cease to exist.

Defense officials are assessing the chain, and developing policies and procedures to enable the allocation of resources in the case of supply chain disruptions, said Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

When a DOD provider cant get a critical drug because of the shortage, that provider has to look at alternatives, Martinez-Lopez said. He used the example of amoxicillin, an antibiotic made overseas, used for basic infections. Lets say I dont have it. Now I have to [use] another antibiotic, at the same time Im trying to combat resistance to antibiotics, using an antibiotic thats not indicated for that condition. So there I lose twice. One, because Im not giving the right antibiotic to my patient, but on top of that, Im losing ground on my fight against antibiotic resistance.

In other cases, such as when an epinephrine injection is not available to treat a severe allergic reaction, he said, that can be life and death. We dont have hours to decide what the alternate is. So that might translate into a life, right on the spot. So this creates a conundrum for all health care professionals. I dont think its just us. Its across the nation, were facing this.

Questioned by Scott about buying from China, Matthew R. Beebe, director of acquisition for the Defense Logistics Agency agreed that the military shouldnt buy from them, but said the reality is that current regulations sometimes require it. We dont buy from China unless its the only source available, Beebe said. If the end product is available domestically or from a country thats an ally, thats where they buy it, he added.

But we dont always have visibility over the sourcing, the ingredients used to make the medicines which are called active pharmaceutical ingredients, and the ingredients used to make those APIs, Beebe said.

About 5% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients are coming from China, said Martinez-Lopez, but officials arent able to determine the source of about 20% of the remainder.

The percentage of those unknown sources is equally troubling, that I dont even know how to characterize the risk, Beebe said. He and the other officials said they support bringing more manufacturing back to the U.S.

Scott questioned the witnesses about why the military couldnt just immediately stop buying any pharmaceuticals that are sourced or produced in any way in China. Because of the volume of pharmaceuticals that would fall into that category, it would mean some medicines wouldnt be available, officials said.

Of the 60 vital medicines in the U.S. about 20% are solely sourced in China, said retired Army Col. Victor A. Suarez, founder of Blu Zone Bioscience & Supply Chain Solutions.

For many of these medicines, its not economically viable for companies to manufacture them here in the U.S., Suarez said. Over the last several decades, much of drug manufacturing has moved overseas. China has used its competitive advantages  such as cheap labor  to drive down prices, and that has forced some U.S. companies out of business.

And 40% of generic drugs sold in the U.S. have just one manufacturer, Warren said.

Scott asked the DOD witnesses to help craft a letter to a number of associations in the health care community, to invite them to a conference call for ideas on helping build a domestic market for pharmaceuticals. The letter would come from DOD and other government officials as well as from members of Congress, Scott said.
Harvey Weinstein in court on the left, Donald Trump on the right (Getty)

Two famous American men with notorious reputations appeared in downtown Manhattan courtrooms near each other this week, during the latest round in their long list of legal problems.

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein appeared at New York State Supreme Court for a hearing on Wednesday for the first time since a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault of two women.

Weinstein now faces a September retrial, after the appeals court ruled that the judge in the case made egregious errors by letting the prosecution call witnesses with testimony unconnected to the charges.

Just one block away, Donald Trumps hush money trial continued this week at Manhattan Criminal Court. The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The reimbursement to her was later logged as legal expenses. The prosecution argues that the payment in the lead-up to the 2016 election was tantamount to election interference, making the false records a felony.

The judge in charge of Trumps case, Judge Juan Merchan, has ruled that if the former president chooses to testify, prosecutors may ask him about uncharged bad acts, including recent judgements against him, such as being found liable for defamation and fraud.

Could the same legal reasoning that saw Weinsteins conviction appeal succeed help Trump overturn a possible guilty verdict in his New York trial?

Legal experts, including a criminal attorney represented Weinstein and a former San Francisco District Attorney, tell The Independent they think the cases have little to do with each other, and have different arguments over whether any ruling from Judge Merchan will withstand an appeal.

Apples and oranges

Trump handed out pizza to firefighters in New York on 2 May (Getty Images)

Duncan Levin, a criminal attorney who has represented Weinstein and was also a former top official in the Manhattan District Attorneys office before it brought the case against Trump, tells The Independent that its a case of apples and oranges.

The issue of bringing in prior uncharged acts is something that is examined in every single case where there are uncharged acts, he says.

Levin says some may expect that prosecutors could become more gun shy following the Weinstein appeals ruling. But he notes that in the Trump case, the opposite is true as the prosecution forges ahead.

There was an instance a few days ago where the prosecutor asked the judge to be allowed to cross-examine Trump on the violation of the gag order if he testifies, and that shows that the prosecutors are not afraid of aggressively cross-examining him on uncharged acts of wrongdoing, Levin says.

Trump was recently fined $9,000 for gag order violations during the case.

The attorney adds that he doesnt believe that the issue will impact the trial or the cross-examination in any way.

The Weinstein verdict was overturned because the Court of Appeals found that the prosecution had a narrow, contained case with a small number of alleged victims and that the prosecution was trying to get a conviction using evidence of many more alleged victims, violating his due process rights by broadening the trial and including many uncharged acts, Levin tells The Independent.

Prejudicial versus probative evidence

The prejudice from that outweighed the probative nature of the evidence, Levin says, noting that Judge Merchan will likely take the Weinstein ruling into account when making any final decisions on what Trump can be questioned about.

Prejudicial evidence is that which has a negative impact on the fairness of a case. Examples include misused proof or evidence that is confusing or wastes time. Meanwhile, probative evidence proves the facts of the case.

Chesa Boudin, the Executive Director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law and a former San Francisco District Attorney, says when speaking to The Independent that there are very specific evidentiary rules as related to evidence of sexual misconduct which apply to the Weinstein case but not to the Trump case.

According to the Court of Appeal, the misapplication of those rules was the basis for the reversal of his conviction, he says. I was surprised, frankly, to see the Court of Appeal rule in that way because there are such broad exceptions for prior sexual misconduct coming into evidence.

But he doesnt think the case relates to Trumps ongoing trial because while there are underlying salacious details, Trump isnt being charged with a sex crime, meaning that none of the exceptions to the normal rules of evidence applies to the hush money case.

This, however, wont stop Trump from appealing any possible conviction with claims of error related to evidence admitted against him. But it wont be the same issue as in the Weinstein case.

The legal precedent set by the Weinstein appeal should not have any direct bearing on Donald Trumps case, Boudin says.

Levin adds that the Weinstein opinion is a warning to prosecutors to be fair in the type of evidence that they use  to get a conviction.

But he says that at this time, theres nothing that would raise alarms with the judge.

The attorney and former prosecutor argues that the DAs office in the Trump case is seeking to bring in evidence that backs up the allegation that Trump was in a conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations.

Overzealous approach may be basis for reversal

Trump in court in New York on Friday 3 May (AP)

One thing the Manhattan DAs office have to prove is that Trump was concerned that past alleged affairs could become a problem for him right before the election to such a degree that he took steps to make the payment to silence the story, Levin says.

It is evidence in the case that gets to the ultimate question of whether Trump was taking action to interfere in the election by paying hush money, he adds, noting that the prosecution will likely be allowed to bring in evidence that supports the charges.

Mr Boudin says the prosecution is doing the right thing by going for an expansive approach in what evidence they can bring up if Trump chooses to take the stand knowing full well that theres always a risk that an overzealous approach  can later be the basis for a reversal.

In such a complicated case with so many documents and technical legal issues, the prosecution has to make sure to paint a full and detailed picture for the jury of what happened so the jury can reach a just conclusion, Boudin adds. And I think the trial judge knows full well that every one of his decisions will be scrutinized and appealed if conviction is the outcome.

Boudin tells The Independent that usually, a trial courts decision will not be reversed even if an appellate court disagrees with it unless an error is found to have impacted the outcome of the case. In Weinsteins case, errors made were found to have been harmful.

If Trump doesnt testify but is convicted, hell likely argue on appeal that the inclusion of such evidence had a chilling effect on his willingness to take the stand. But that argument would fall flat if he does take the stand, Levin notes.

If he doesnt testify, I am sure that one argument they will make is that he did not testify because of the courts adverse ruling against him and have a similar issue on appeal, Levin says.

Opening the door to all manner of evidence

Former film producer Harvey Weinstein at a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on 1 May (Getty Images)

The question at hand during the Trump hush money trial is if prior bad acts are allowed to be used in evidence.

Boudin notes that even if the judge has previously said that the Access Hollywood tape is inadmissible  if Trump claims on the stand to have never sexually assaulted a woman, that tape can suddenly be used.

If he is on the witness stand, its entirely possible that he will do what we call opening the door to all manner of evidence coming in, he adds.

Some evidence that might not be admissible for its direct probative value may become admissible if a witness makes it relevant by denying something for which they can then be impeached with that same evidence, Boudin says.

In a trial setting, impeachment is the process of showing that a witness isnt credible.

Considering the amount of public statements, audio, and video content that exists of Trump, there are endless ways for him to open the door to fresh evidence.

In Harvey Weinsteins case, they were trying to make the point that he is a serial rapist  but that was so prejudicial, Levin says.

In Trumps case, the prosecutors are seeking to cross-examine based on past court rulings and other allegations that get to the ultimate heart of what hes accused of.

Remember what this case is about, Levin adds. They falsified business records with the intent to commit another crime, the other crime being  violation of the campaign finance laws.

The reason he did it ... was so it would quiet down all these allegations, he says. Thats why they fit into the narrative here in a different kind of way than they did in the Harvey Weinstein case.
Since rebranding itself in 2020, Reform UK has become a formidable force on the political scene

Founded in 2021 as a relaunch of the Brexit Party, Reform UK stands almost neck and neck with the Conservatives in the wake of Nigel Farage shock announcement that he will stand as an MP and the partys leader.

They are on track to cost the Conservatives a significant proportion of voters from the political Right ahead of the looming general election, edging one point ahead of the Prime Ministers party for the first time in the latest figures from YouGov.

Already, the party has faced pivotal change throughout their campaign with co-founder Mr Farage returning to front-line politics to lead a political revolt aimed at toppling the Conservative Party after replacing Richard Tice, a former businessman and MEP who has led the party since 2021.

His pledge came as a surprise to most given Mr Farage had previously ruled out standing in the general election in his first campaign speech on May 23, promising to support Mr Tice from the sidelines instead.

Reform gained its first MP in March after Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Tory Party, defected following his suspension over a row about Sadiq Khan.

Mr Tice and Mr Farage announced the Brexit Party would become Reform on Nov 1 2020 in an article for The Telegraph published at the start of the second Covid lockdown.

They used the joint article to declare lockdowns dont work and instead advocated a policy of focused protection for the most vulnerable. They also called for sweeping reform of major institutions beyond the pandemic.

Reform stood candidates at the London Assembly, Scottish Parliament and Senedd elections in 2021. Though failing to pick up any seats, the party gathered just over 42,500 supporters across all three elections.

The same year it won two council seats in the local elections, both in Derby.

Reform UK polls

The partys backing in the polls remained largely static throughout 2021, averaging around three percentage points, although it had risen to an average of 6 per cent by the end of 2022 amid growing public frustration with the Conservative Party in the wake of the deposition of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

The partys fortunes improved vastly during 2023 and the early months of 2024, with average support for Reform almost doubling from 6 per cent in January 2023 to 10.1 per cent at the start of March.

The rise of Reform can be attributed to a combination of the partys policy offer and fortuitous circumstances.

Reform UK policies

On the economic front, it has promised sweeping cuts to levies including corporation tax and inheritance tax at a time when Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are overseeing the countrys highest tax burden since the Second World War, with a further peak projected later this decade.

Despite successive Conservative governments promising to cut immigration, net migration reached record levels in 2022 and former leader Mr Tice has cited this betrayal by the Tory government of its past manifesto pledges as a driving force behind his partys success.

Research from the More in Common think tank in February 2022 found that immigration was the main reason 2019 Tory voters were defecting to Reform, with around one in five of those who backed Boris Johnson and his party at the last election expected to support Mr Farage.

Reforms promises on border control include net zero immigration, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)  a demand made by many Tory backbenchers, and a popular idea among the partys grassroots  and declaring illegal immigration as a national security threat.

The party wants to introduce an immigration tax that would force employers to pay a higher National Insurance (NI) rate on foreign workers.

Reform have also pledged a 20 per cent National Insurance rate for every foreign worker in comparison to the current 13.8 per cent for domestic British workers.

Claiming that the green push is doing more damage to the British economy than anything else, the party would also abolish the Governments flagship net zero targets.

There was a further bounce in support for Reform following Mr Sunaks November reshuffle, in which Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary over her criticism of pro-Palestinian protests, which she dubbed hate marches.

The same reshuffle took Westminster by surprise with the return of Lord Cameron as the new Foreign Secretary, a move that angered many on the Tory Right as the former prime minister is widely perceived to be on the liberal wing of the party.

Mr Tice told GB News at the time: The truth is our server has almost exploded with fury at whats happened today with the return of David Cameron. Lets remember this is the gentleman who campaigned against Brexit, and almost everything he did on foreign policy was wrong.

As a result of its outflanking of the Conservatives on the Right in many policy areas and channelling the disillusionment of traditional Tories with its rhetoric, the party may well have an even greater impact at the next general election than in 2019, when it stood aside from seats held by Mr Johnsons Tory candidates.

Now commanding the support of around one in ten voters, the party could block Mr Sunak from winning in dozens of seats he may otherwise retain.

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A redevelopment project of Aiwo Harbor in Nauru has helped provide jobs, train professional personnel and promote local economic and social development. A Chinese engineer shares his story. #GLOBALink





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Does the Tonganoxie Split protect Kansas City from tornadoes? We asked the experts

As large hail and damaging winds swept through the Kansas City area Tuesday night, a Reddit user posted, Looks like we get to test the Tonganoxie Split.

In Kansas City weather lore, the small Leavenworth County town of Tonganoxie has an outsized role. Located about 35 miles west of Kansas City, with a population of 5,573, Tonganoxie gives its name to the legend of the Tonganoxie Split, which is mentioned in social media comment sections whenever theres severe weather.

As most urban legends go, the definition of the Tonganoxie Split is as cloudy as a rainy day.

The Tonganoxie Split is loosely described as a phenomenon where storms and tornadoes coming across Kansas split north and south or dissipate as they reach Tonganoxie, sparing the Kansas City area from the storms worst effects.

Is the Tonganoxie Split a real thing?

According to National Weather Service meteorologists Hallie Boza and Brent Pesel, its not.

Its not been seen scientifically to have any real impact, and there are storms that go over there all the time, Boza said.

While some people believe that cities are less likely to be hit by tornadoes, Pesel said this is because cities just take up less land than rural areas.

As to the idea that heat-island cities repel tornadoes, Pesel said, I do not know of any published research that correlates hotter cities with tornadoes.

And tall buildings dont protect urban areas. A National Weather Service information sheet said, Tornadoes are typically 5 to 10 miles tall. A tall building with a height of 500 to 1000 feet can not deflect or destroy a tornado.

History of the Tonganoxie Split

Kansas City residents have used the term Tonganoxie Split for decades.

A 1984 Kansas City Times article said that, Television weatherman Dan Henry is fond of announcing the Tonganoxie split during drought seasons when the rain hits Topeka and Kansas City but misses areas in between.

At a 1994 weather Q&A event, a group of meteorologists addressed the so-called weather myth that tornadoes avoid Tonganoxie. A radio meteorologist remarked, Until you get these questions out  you dont get rid of the myths, as detailed in a Kansas City Star article.

Urban tornado myths

Kansas City has neighbors with these superstitions too.

In Nebraska, residents tell stories of the mythical Omadome, which they say protects Omaha from severe weather. Unfortunately, this theory was recently proven wrong. On April 26, eastern Nebraska and western Iowa endured 19 confirmed tornadoes, with one death and hundreds of homes destroyed.

Do you have more questions about weather in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.




SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4)  Wound-covered and severely underweight, a dog is recovering in a Utah home after he was found near-death on the side of the road, suffering from gunshot wounds and coyote bites.

Amos, a 3-to 4-year-old Great Pyrenees, was found last week in central Utah near Delta, according to Jess Sharp with the nonprofit Great Pyrenees Rescue Resources Utah Montana.

The vet said he was basically done for if hed been out there for another 24 hours, she said. So thank goodness they came across him.

Utah shelter dog recovers from parvo outbreak, soon available to foster or adopt

The good Samaritans rushed Amos to the nearest animal hospital, where he received life-saving care. He had multiple gunshot wounds, large cuts on his head and neck, bite marks all over his body, and a broken K9 tooth.

He was extremely emaciated, Sharp said.

(credit: Jess Sharp/ Great Pyrenees Rescue Resources Utah Montana)

The Great Pyrenees rescue group saw a social post about Amos and offered to help. The group covered the dogs medical expenses and set him up with a foster family in Utah who is nursing him back to health.

After hes healthy, Amos will be put up for adoption, Sharp said. However, she noted that the rescue will make sure the adopters understand the needs of the livestock guardian breed.

Because they are livestock guardian dogs, people dont understand what their temperaments are like or what their needs are, so it can be hard to find the right people to take them, she said.

According to the rescue, the outdoor abandonment of dogs is becoming more common in Utah, with breeders dumping puppies they cant sell and owners discarding dogs they cant keep.

This is happening as shelters across the state are at capacity and struggling to keep up.

(credit: Jess Sharp/ Great Pyrenees Rescue Resources Utah Montana)

While Amos story remains a mystery, Sharp said that its common that when families get a Great Pyrenees puppy and dont realize what theyre getting into.

They get them as these little furry fluffy floofs, and then they turn into these 100-plus pound dogs, she said.

The rescue said that treating dogs like Amos is expensive, noting they are only able to do so through donations. The rescue added that pet owners can help the ongoing shelter crisis by spaying/neutering their animals, choosing pets they know they can take care of, and stopping the practice of backyard breeding.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
Who will Donald Trump choose as his running mate? What to know as potential VPs gather in Florida.

WASHINGTON  Former President Donald Trump will spend part of his weekend hosting the latest episode of "The Apprentice," but this time it's the vice presidential edition.

At least six contenders for the former president's running mate  Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum  will attend a Republican donor retreat Friday and Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, in what looks like a series of auditions.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for Republican leaders and supporters to come together," says the invitation to the event, which also will include panel discussions featuring campaign officials and Republican lawmakers that are closed to the media.

At least six contenders for the former president's running mate  Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and North Dakota Gov. Doug Bergum  will attend a Republican donor retreat Friday and Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, in what looks like a series of auditions.

But in Palm Beach, most eyes will be on the vice presidential candidates who have been trying out for months at campaign rallies, primary parties, meetings and television interviews to join Trump on the GOP ticket that in 2016 and 2020 included Mike Pence.

Trump, who liked to keep contestants guessing when he hosted "The Apprentice" reality show, has been throwing out mixed signals about his running mate in recent months.

"Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump," senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes told USA TODAY in a statement.

Here's what you need to know about Trump's potential VP picks:

Columbia, South Carolina | Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump greets supporters during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on Feb. 24, 2024 in Columbia, S.C. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), applauding to Trumps left, endorsed the former president for another four-year term on Jan. 19.

Sen. Tim Scott

If Trump seeks a historic pick, he could make Scott the Republicans' first Black vice presidential candidate.

Scott, who once competed against Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, ultimately hit the campaign trail for his former rival in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

On the other hand: Trump has suggested he doesn't want an heir apparent running mate who has designs on the 2028 presidential election, and Scott could fall into that category if he decides to launch another White House bid.

That's the reason prominent figures like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson keep popping up. Carson is not expected to launch another White House campaign  and he's not scheduled to attend the donor retreat this weekend.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, listens during a news conference on the U.S. Southern Border at the U.S. Capitol on February 06, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Sen. J.D. Vance

Vance, a first-term senator, has been particularly vocal about defending Trump against his indictments in four separate criminal cases, including the ongoing hush money trial in New York.

A frequent television news guest, Vance's stock rose this week after reporters obtained an invitation showing that he would headline a fundraiser for the former president in Cincinnati on May 15. Vance is also friends with a key figure in Trump's orbit: Donald Trump Jr.

Vance told Fox News and CNN this week that he has not talked with Trump about the running mate position.

"Of course, if he asked me, I'd have to think seriously about it because I think it's really important that he win," Vance told "Fox News Sunday."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) making her way to the House Chambers on Tuesday, Feb 13, 2024 prior to the House Republicans narrowly securing a historic vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, rallying GOP members after a first failed effort.

Rep. Elise Stefanik

Trump could also make history by picking a woman, and Stefanik has been on his potential list for months.

A member of House leadership, Stefanik endorsed Trump early, campaigned aggressively for him in New Hampshire and often speaks to conservative groups like the RNC donor conference this weekend in Palm Beach.

Stefanik has also been a vocal critic of Trump's criminal cases, to the point of filing a legal complaint against special counsel Jack Smith. He is the lead prosecutor in the cases alleging Trump mishandled classified information and tried to steal the 2020 election.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Sen. Marco Rubio

Rubio, a senator from the state where the GOP donor conference is being held, would also make history as the first Latino person on a national ticket.

A Trump-Rubio duo could raise a legal problem because they both live in Florida. Some attorneys believe running mates from the same state might be forced to forfeit that state's electoral votes. That's why running mate Dick Cheney moved residency from Texas back to Wyoming when former President George W. Bush tapped him in 2000.

The Florida problem might also affect the chances of another GOP lawmaker and potential running mate who plans to attend the donor retreat: U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

Michelle Kommer served as Commerce Commissioner and Labor Commissioner for the state of North Dakota. She is pictured here meeting with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and then Pres. Donald Trump at the White House during her term as commissioner.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum

There are always long-shot candidates  for example, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008  and Burgum is one of the speakers at the weekend soiree.

Trump could consider the fact that the North Dakota governor endorsed and spoke on his behalf at an event the day before the Iowa caucuses. Burgum has been more enthusiastic for Trump than other former 2024 candidates who are not being considered for running mate, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Another politician not on Trump's list: former Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence turned against Trump over the latter's demand in 2021 that his vice president try to throw out the electoral votes that elected Biden to the presidency, a step Pence insisted he never legally could have taken. Trump has also appeared indifferent after mobs threatened Pence's life as they invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

Noem will appear at this weekend's conference at a fraught time for her vice presidential prospects after a story in her new book revealed she shot the family dog because it kept attacking people and livestock.

The story prompted criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Donald Trump Jr., on his podcast "Triggered," called the revelation "not ideal."

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Noem, who described the dog as dangerous, said: "It's an unfortunate situation, but one that I hope people understand. ... They need to hear the truth and not what the media has been spinning."

Plenty of advice for Trump

As he assesses his options, Trump is getting plenty of advice from associates, lawmakers and donors about whom he should pick.

Some of the potential choices are not scheduled to be in Palm Beach this weekend, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (a former Trump press secretary), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

On his radio show, Donald Trump Jr. told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon that his father should "accelerate" the running mate decision, especially given the fact that Trump is tied up in court.

'Youve got a deep bench to do it," Bannon replied. "Youve got great people, J.D. Vance, Gov. Burgum of North Dakota. You know, youve got Dr. Carson, others.

Others said there's no telling when Trump will make his decision.

Newt Gingrich, whom Trump considered for running mate in 2016, said the former president will act when he's ready.

"Im relaxing and watching to see what (Trump) does; he will only do it out of intuition," Gingrich told USA TODAY. "I suspect that hes looking at (Marco) Rubio, hes looking at Scott, Tim Scott, and I think hes probably looking at a couple of women candidates, but I think hes going to think it through at his own pace. I think hes in no hurry.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who will Trump choose as his vice presidential pick? What to know.
Despite all the hysteria in the punditry about campus protests against the war in Gaza, by and large, the student activists have been peaceful. Even at Columbia University, where an ill-advised police crackdown caused an inevitably angry reaction from protesters that led to a building occupation, this has been true. As former Washington Post journalist Paul Waldman explained in his newsletter, "People who have actually reported from the protests (see here or here) have by and large found them to be well-behaved." The vast majority of scary, violent images stem not from the protesters themselves, Waldman argues, but from the police crackdowns. "At the universities where the administrators had the sense to just let the students have their say, there has been almost no violence."

As the cable news has breathlessly covered, there was violence this week at UCLA. But even then, it was not the leftist protesters to blame, but a gang of far-right counter-protesters who rushed in and started to attack students. As ABC 7 reported, violence only broke out "when counter-protesters tried to break down the encampment." Unfortunately, this was framed by much of the media as "clashes" between protesters and the right-wing assailants. Any good faith reading of the situation is clear: The far-right demonstrators stormed the encampment and started the violence. The student protesters were defending themselves.

Why a group of right-wingers decided to swarm on the UCLA students hasn't been thoroughly investigated yet, but here's one likely factor contributing to the choice: The Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, told them they were entitled to assault unarmed, non-violent protesters. And he did so with his favorite tool: dishonest whataboutism.

"I wonder if thats going to be the same kind of treatment they gave J6," Trump complained on Tuesday, falsely claiming the students were being violent and "a lot of people getting hurt very badly."

Trump also claimed that the 2017 white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, is "peanuts" compared to the current protests. As a reminder, one of the rioters  who explicitly said they were emboldened by Trump's election  murdered a woman and injured a number of others by running over them with his car.

Trump's rhetoric is hamfisted, making it not hard at all to parse what he's saying: If the left "gets" to be violent, why can't his people be violent, too? The whine is dishonest in every way, of course. First, the leftist protesters are largely non-violent. Second, the few who do act up end up arrested, despite Trump's insinuations to the contrary. But his tactics have never needed to be fact-based to accomplish their goal of permitting his followers to be their worst selves. They already want to believe that the left is violent, so they feel justified in actually being violent.

We saw how this works very clearly with the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. For months, Trump's base had wallowed in right-wing propaganda that falsely accused both Black Lives Matter protesters and the largely imaginary "antifa" of practically burning down American cities during protests. (In reality, the protests after George Floyd's murder were 93% peaceful, with what little violence there was largely driven by police overreaction.) When Trump summoned a mob to Washington D.C. to help him steal an election, they did so by acting out their fantasies of what the "left" supposedly does, by rioting. Afterward, when they were arrested for their actual violence, the insurrectionists kept citing the made-up violence of Black Lives Matter in their legal defense, as if what other people did in their dreams justified what they did in reality.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

Trump has not been especially coy about his longing for a repeat of January 6. He celebrates the Capitol riot at every rally. He begs his supporters to show up outside his criminal trial in Manhattan to intimidate the judge and jury. He hasn't had any takers on that front, because he hasn't been able to convince them his personal legal problems are connected to the culture war grievances that fuel MAGA. But resentment against progressive college kids, who are routinely demonized as sexy, spoiled brats in right-wing media? It didn't take much prompting to get violent right-wingers to attack. That is why the founder of the Proud Boys showed up at the New York protests. He knows that the insecurities about their own masculinity and virility can be used to motivate his followers into lashing out at the kids.

SPOTTED: Gavin McInnes, the found of the 'Proud Boys' and co-founder of VICE, spotted at the Columbia University Encampment Protest.



Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/L61WmltRpB  Oliya Scootercaster  (@ScooterCasterNY) April 24, 2024

Trump's celebratory attitude towards January 6, of course, is about encouraging his supporters to turn to violence to help him steal the 2024 election. During an interview with Time magazine, Trump said, "I think we're going to win and there won't be violence." When pressed about what happens he doesn't win, he replied, "And if we don't win, you know, it depends." Which is, of course, an unsubtle way to establish the binary choice: Let him have the White House, or violence.

Even though his supporters are ignoring Trump's pleas to descend on his criminal trial, they do seem far more interested in heeding the call for election violence. As with the attack on college kids, the reason is that election violence is about their grievances, not just Trump's. It taps into the ongoing MAGA outrage that they are a minority, even as they identify as the only "real" Americans. Politico reported Wednesday that 38% of local election officials surveyed "have experienced threats, harassment or abuse due to their jobs." Large numbers of officials are quitting rather than putting up with these threats, which stem mostly, if not exclusively, from Trump's lies about "stolen" elections.

While there's no logical link between the Gaza protests and Trump's anti-democracy conspiracy theories, the two share an emotional connective tissue in the MAGA imagination. For many Trump supporters, the protesters symbolize the young progressives that MAGA wants to eject from the body politic. Former George W. Bush advisor and current MAGA-tinged right-wing consultant Ari Fleischer straight up demanded that the government "Arrest, imprison, expel, and deport" college kids who peacefully protest. As Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times pointed out on Instagram, Fleischer is quite literally saying we should "strip them of their citizenship and kick them out of the country."

This is eliminationist rhetoric, and fascist to its core. It's telling conservatives not to learn to deal with the inevitability of change but to wallow in their belief that everything should stay exactly how they imagined it was when they were kids. And that if other people's differences make them uncomfortable, they are justified in reacting with maximum violence  arrest, imprison, expel, and deport  to simply erase people for having a different opinion. Coupled with lies about the protesters being "chaotic" or "violent," an entire rationale has emerged for Trump and his followers to use real violence to achieve these ends.

This is a big reason why it's not just childish, but short-sighted of pundits and centrist Democrats to be lashing out at the student protesters in the often-hysterical tones being used. Whether or not one agrees that encampment-style protests are good or bad, cherry-picking a few bad actors to demonize the entire protest movement is only helping Trump lay the groundwork for future right-wing violence. Have a few protesters committed vandalism or yelled unforgivably bigoted things? Absolutely, and it's foolish to deny it. But by conflating a few outliers with all the protesters, centrist liberals are validating Trump's efforts to characterize the protests as "violent"  which, in turn, is being used to justify actual right-wing violence. When faced with hurt feelings over protesters making you uncomfortable, it's always worth remembering that adage: Shutting up costs nothing. Especially when emoting at hyperbolic volumes is only helping Trump plan for the next January 6.
Dover hires ex-corrections official to help sort out mind-boggling mess at town hall

A former New York and New Jersey jail official is coming to Dover with orders to help correct "mind-boggling" issues regarding security, staffing oversight and other administrative problems that Mayor James Dodd says are are crippling the town's budget.

Following a closed-door executive session Tuesday, the town council approved Dodd's resolution to hire Ronald Edwards to a new position as director of professional standards, accountability and cybersecurity.

Edwards most recently served as a deputy commissioner of administration for New York City's Department of Corrections. Before that, he oversaw Hudson County's 2,100-bed jail in Kearney.

Dodd said he decided to create the position after uncovering so many "mind-boggling" organizational and financial failures facing by the town that "I don't have the capacity to address them."

Veteran corrections official Ronald Edwards has been hired as Dover's Professional Standards Director.

"I'm not afraid to say it," said Dodd, a Democrat who returned to the post in January after a four-year hiatus. "I don't have extensive experience in those areas. And we need someone who does."

Dover received a sobering report in February from an auditor who said its 2022 financial reports were in "by far the worst financial condition of any records I've ever seen." Dodd and the council voted to borrow $3 million earlier this year to help plug a deficit in a budget that reached $30.2 million last year.

Dover hire stirs debate: 'We are not a jail'

Following Tuesday's executive session, Council Member Karol Ruiz motioned to table a vote on the resolution to hire Edwards, saying the council was not given sufficient time to review his background.

"This council received a resume about 10:30 p.m. for Mr. Ron Edwards and there's a committee that had been meeting him exploring him," she said. "This council wasn't provided with any minutes from that interview. I don't know what questions were asked. Just about 30 minutes ago, we just learned about this candidate and this resume."

"Dover is a community," she said, adding that the county and state already provide oversight of whether local officials are complying with professional standards.

"This is a municipality," Ruiz said. "We are not a jail."

Council Member Sadra Wittner echoed the same concerns but no one seconded Ruiz's motion. Dodd's resolution passed 7-1-1, with Ruiz voting no and Wittner abstaining.

More: Jai-Alai, Dover's beloved family restaurant, won't reopen after devastating 5-alarm fire

Mayor defends his new hire: 'extensive' experience

The mayor defended Edwards "extensive" resume, reading off a list of qualifications including staff and research management, operational oversight, policy development, strategic planning and more.

"We didn't need to come here tonight," Dodd said. "Mr. Edwards could have been hired by the administration without coming in front of this governing body. I did this as a courtesy. You may not be happy with some of the decisions that I have to make up here as mayor. I make my decisions based on how I feel. My heart goes into this job."

Edward's career began at the Hudson County Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, where he served as a corrections officer and K-9 handler, according to a news release issued by the New York City Department of Corrections when it hired Edwards as a deputy commissioner.

Edwards was promoted to deputy director of corrections in Hudson in 2016 and to director of corrections in 2017. As director, he oversaw the daily operations of the 2,100-bed correctional and rehabilitation facility while managing 500 law enforcement officers, 150 support staff and 100 contracted employees, the New York release states.

He was hired in September 2022 as deputy for administration in the New York City agency, which employs more than 6,100 corrections officers on a budget of $1.4 billion.

Edwards holds a bachelor's degree in public administration and a master's degree in administration science from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Town Hall shakeup continues

Edwards was to begin work "effectively immediately," according to the Dover resolution. On Thursday afternoon, acting Administrator Tara Pettoni said the details of the contract letter were still being finalized. Edwards' salary has not yet been set, she said, adding the range for the full-time, at-will position is $50,000 to $125,000.

The Edwards hire continues the mayor's push to transform the town's administrative hierarchy. Dodd, who served three previous terms as mayor, won the job back in the 2023 election, defeating Carolyn Blackman, who had ousted him from office in the 2019 election.

Dover Mayor James Dodd said the new professional standards director would help sort out a "mind-boggling" array of financial and operational problems in town government.

Pettoni, who was hired as town clerk in January, continues to work as acting administrator after BettyLou DeCroce, a former state assemblywoman, was suspended from the position last month and placed on 30 days paid leave.

DeCroce awaits the council's public discussion and final decision on her employment status at a future council meeting. Personnel matters are typically discussed in private session, but DeCroce exercised her right to call for a public forum, her attorney said.

Police Chief Jonathan Delaney, who also has been criticized by the mayor, also opted for public discussion regarding a reprimand he received for speaking out at a public meeting.

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Dover hires ex-NYC corrections official in latest town hall shakeup
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have taken to the streets after police cleared the occupiers from Portland State Universitys library early Thursday  leaving behind broken glass and walls covered in spray paint.

But tensions started rising long before the mornings events. Late Wednesday night, a group of protesters left the South Park Blocks and marched through downtown Portland.

Protests continue after PSU library cleared, at least 12 arrests

Police reported people in the crowd smashed windows at the universitys campus safety office, and one PSU student told KOIN 6 News they saw people spraying graffiti on the building.

Another student journalist, Gabriel Elmosleh, recorded a video of people in black taking hammers to the windows at a nearby Starbucks.

KOIN 6 News reporter Lisa Balick found a smashed bank ATM in the area along with spray paint at the Nordstrom and Apple Store across the street. Police also reported a commercial-grade mortar  not detonated  that their bomb squad had to remove.

In a joint press conference Thursday afternoon, Mayor Ted Wheeler questioned the damage of local businesses in a protest over the ongoing Gaza-Israel conflict.

If you believe that by damaging a business, which frankly harms the front line employees who work in those businesses  we have reports that they were frightened, that they were traumatized, Wheeler said. If you believe that damaging these businesses or trashing a library on a university campus will impact events in the Middle East, you are delusional.

PHOTOS: Protesters take to Portland streets as PSU library occupation ends

But PSU isnt the only place that has seen unrest in the past 24 hours. More than a dozen Portland police training vehicles were damaged or destroyed at a training facility on Northeast Airport Way overnight.

When officers arrived, they said they found 15 vehicles inside the fenced training area burning. The fires were put out and no injuries were reported. However, police say this incident is being investigated as a separate arson.

Vandalism at Pioneer Courthouse Square (KOIN)

Vandalism at Pioneer Courthouse Square (KOIN)

Vandalism at PSU Campus Safety Office (KOIN)

Broken window at PSU Campus Safety Office (KOIN)

Broken windows at PSU Campus Safety Office (KOIN)

Broken window at PSU Campus Safety Office (KOIN)

15 Portland police cars were burned overnight and authorities said they believe it is arson (PPB)

15 Portland police cars were burned overnight and authorities said they believe it is arson (PPB)

15 Portland police cars were burned overnight and authorities said they believe it is arson (PPB)

Governor Tina Kotek released a statement condemning the acts of vandalism at Portland State University and at the Portland police training facility early Thursday morning.

I fully condemn the criminal actions taken Thursday morning that resulted in the burning of 15 Portland Police Bureau cars, endangering first responders and the surrounding community. I have absolutely no tolerance for discriminatory harassment, violence, or property damage. This includes the acts of vandalism seen this week at the Portland State University library and against nearby businesses. These actions are in direct opposition to Oregon values and threaten working people, families, businesses, and our community as a whole. The Oregon State Police have launched a response on the outer perimeter of Portland State University. The state is prepared to exercise the full extent of the law.

Timeline: How Portlands pro-Palestinian protests resulted in SWAT team arrests

District Attorney Mike Schmidt also condemned the criminal acts of those who have spray painted, broken windows and set fires in the area. He, along with Portland police, said they would review photo and video evidence in the pursuit of charging more people with crimes.

We value the right for our voices to be heard, District Attorney Mike Schmidt said. Ill always work to protect that right. But unfortunately, we have seen that some people have resorted to destructive behavior which is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
People protest against the war in the Gaza Strip on the grounds of Humboldt University Berlin. Paul Zinken/dpa

Students at Berlin's Humboldt University held a pro-Palestinian protest on Friday, as rallies against Israel's military actions in Gaza continued at university campuses across the United States and Britain.

About 90 people demonstrated in the inner courtyard of the campus in Berlin's city centre at midday in an unannounced sit-in, according to the police.

Other supporters were in front of the building, totalling around 150 people. Many of the predominantly young people wore a keffiyeh, a checkered scarf that has become a sign of Palestinian solidarity.

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty," was written on one sign.

Another read, "From the Spree to overseas the people will rise in solidarity," referring to Berlin's Spree river.

The chant "Viva Palestina" (long live Palestine) could also be heard.

The president of the university, Julia von Blumenthal, was on site and in dialogue with the protesters.

For more than two weeks, there have been protests at numerous universities in the United States against the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with the Palestinians living there.

According to media reports, 2,000 people have been detained in this context. The protests are mostly centred around the demand for universities and companies to cut financial ties with Israel.

Critics accuse the radical part of the protest movement in particular of anti-Semitism and trivializing the terrorist organization Hamas.

Students have also recently occupied university campuses across Britain in protest against the war in Gaza.

People protest against the war in the Gaza Strip on the grounds of Humboldt University Berlin. Paul Zinken/dpa

People protest against the war in the Gaza Strip on the grounds of Humboldt University Berlin. Paul Zinken/dpa
DPD investigating after man arrives at hospital with gunshot wound

DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT)  Decatur Police are investigating after a spokesperson said a man showed up to Decatur Morgan Hospital with an apparent gunshot wound.

Officers responded to Decatur Morgan Hospital on Friday after receiving a call that a male who arrived suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.

The man was taken to Huntsville Hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

Decatur City Schools officials said that Decatur High and Decatur Middle were in secure perimeter for a short time on Friday while police investigated an incident at Decatur Morgan Hospital.

However, a spokesperson for the department confirmed to News 19 that the shooting did not happen at the hospital.

Police are continuing to investigate, but believe this is an isolated incident. The spokesperson said more information will be released as it becomes available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  What was to be a quiet winter night with some drinks and food forever changed the lives of two men in January 2021. One of them lay critically injured outside a downtown bar, and the other faced criminal charges as a member of the El Paso Police Department.

On January 30, 2021, Eduardo Reyes, an Arizona truck driver, stopped at The Tap restaurant in Downtown El Paso after dropping his father off at the Paso Del Norte Bridge. He told KTSM he chose the Tap that evening because COVID restrictions were in effect, and it was the only spot open Downtown.

He sat down at the bar and began ordering drinks. He admits he was buzzed and grew frustrated with the bartender because of what he said was slow service. The man sitting a few seats away offered him a taco, and he moved to sit closer.

So then, when I did that, I just heard someone yell from across the bar Hey! You cant do that!, Reyes explained.

COVID restrictions were in effect, and the City of El Paso imposed strict social distancing guidelines for bars and restaurants hoping to reopen to the public.

She told me to move back to my seat. I will take that from nobody, you know, especially if Im a paying customer. Thats when we started arguing, Reyes said.

Thats when another man, Armando Diaz, interfered.

And this guy was like, Hey man, why dont you leave her alone?  I was arguing with him. Who the **** are you? Shut your mouth. Dont talk to me like that.'

The pair took the fight outside, and a bystander began recording them as they threw punches. Reyes claims Diaz threw the first punch.

Yeah, it was just a fight. I mean, theres nothing. It was not too serious, you know, theres two guys fighting, you know, Reyes told KTSM.

According to witness statements provided in EPPDs Internal Affairs investigative report, Reyes also attempted to assault Diazs girlfriend. Moments later, Reyes and Diaz went to their vehicles parked nearby, and Reyes grabbed his brass knuckles. Reports do not say if Diaz retrieved anything from his vehicle.

Brass knuckles retrieved at the scene belonging to Eduardo Reyes

Reyes justified grabbing his brass knuckles, saying, The thing was, it was over, but he kept messing with me, you know? But Im kind of scared because Im by myself. I dont want to get jumped; I dont want to get beat up.

A statement provided to EPPDs Internal Affairs team by Diazs girlfriend stated that she saw Reyes holding the brass knuckles in his right hand and coming towards her. Thats when Diaz stepped in. Reyes dropped the brass knuckles, and Diaz kicked them away.

According to the womans statement, afterward, the male with the large belly wanted to hug Diaz.

Thats when EPPD officer Anthony Greer and his partner arrived on their bikes.

Another bar patron told the investigative team that she saw both males stop fighting when the police officers arrived, and it did not look like the males were giving the officer any problems.

Thats when Officer Greer, without warning, fired one shot at Reyes, striking him in the chest.

So when I turn around, I see Greer and his little bike, and he drops it all and pulls out his gun. And then I was like, What though? So I put my hands like that. Im not doing anything wrong, walking away, said Reyes. Theyre just going to ask me about the fight or whatever. But then he pulls up, and he throws the bike, and he pulls a gun. Okay, well, hes going to find out that I dont have a gun. Right? And he just proceeded to shoot me.

Thats when Diaz, the man fighting Reyes outside the bar, revealed his identity.

Once I get shot, he reaches out, and thats his badge. So he had his badge the whole time, said Reyes.

Diaz was an off-duty El Paso Police Department Detective.

Reyes was left with life-altering injuries, spending 40 days in the hospital in police custody.

So I got shot right here. So they had to cut me open, and they had to have a colostomy bag. Now. So, I do number two in the bag. Ever since that day, my health went, its gone, Diaz said.

He was ultimately charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon because hed brought out his brass knuckles in the fight.

EPPD Officer Anthony Greer

I take accountability for my actions, but they didnt even give me that chance. They were trying to kill me, Diaz said.

Meanwhile, Officer Greer was under investigation, and less than two months later, police sent an updated press release, saying Greer was arrested and criminally charged after EPPDs Crimes Against Persons Unit and the Texas Rangers investigation determined his use of deadly force was unreasonable.

The arrest affidavit goes on to say, Witness accounts and video obtained through the investigation tends to corroborate the complainants (Reyes) account that he was not a threat to the defendant (Greer), or the public at the time of the shooting.

The affidavit states, Further investigation revealed the defendant called a police supervisor and stated, I f***d up, Im going to jail. Greer allegedly told another EPPD supervisor that Reyes faced toward him, and his gun went off. Greer declined to give a statement to Crimes Against Persons detectives before he was charged with Aggravated Assault and booked on a $50,000 bond.

Evidence photo provided in EPPDs Internal Affairs Review

So as long as he was accountable for his actions, I would do it fine without the money or him just going to jail, you know? said Reyes.

Only, thats not what happened.

El Paso, Police Public Affairs office released a statement saying Officer Greer was relieved of duty, but according to police, Relieved of Duty can mean temporarily suspending an officers active duties while an investigation or review takes place.

Despite being criminally charged by EPPD, in October 2022, the internal affairs shooting review board determined Greer did not violate any department policy, putting him back on patrol, where he remains as an on-duty officer to this day.

Reyes feels frustrated by the outcome, I feel my pain every day. I see myself. Im Im all cut up. I poop through a bag. So, you know, hes not going to learn nothing.

He sued Greer, Diaz, and the City of El Paso. According to federal court records, the case was resolved in April on undisclosed terms.

As for Greers criminal charges, Reyes was told the case was dismissed in court in April 2023.

KTSM reached out to District Attorney Bill Hicks only to find out that wasnt true  the case was never even reviewed.

The statute of limitations ran on the case before we had an opportunity to really review it and do anything with it. That is regrettable, said Hicks. It is unfortunate that it was not properly handled in the first three months of this administration.

As KTSM previously reported in 2022, elected District Attorney Yvonna Rosales failed to indict over 850 misdemeanor and felony cases, which reached the statute of limitations. Hicks, who was appointed by Governor Abbott in December 2022, did not have a chance to review the case involving Officer Greer until three months into his tenure at DA, but it was two months past the statute of limitations.

Im very sorry that this happened to him. It is unfair. It is unjust. One way or another, he should, whose case deserved to be to be reviewed appropriately. I dont know if a grand jury would have indicted or not. I dont know. But he deserved to have that opportunity to have his case properly reviewed, Hicks told KTSM.

Criminal charges against Reyes for his role in the bar fight were also dismissed in September 2022.

With a new police chief, EPPD says it is providing more training for its officers regarding the misuse of force.

Even with the statement from EPPD and the final explanation from the District Attorneys office, Reyes is still left with one thought, Im not the first person, and Im not going to be the last.

Reyes has a GoFundMe for his ongoing medical expenses caused by the gunshot wound he received.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
BALTIMORE  Early voting for Marylands presidential primary election begins Thursday, and elections officials are preparing to implement a new method of quashing misinformation about the deluge of mail-in ballot requests they received this year.

The weather is complying nicely for the week ahead for early voting, said Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis. Were prepared and moving forward with it.

There are 97 early voting centers across the state  eight of them are in Baltimore City. All early voting centers will be open for Marylanders on May 2-9 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 14 is the official date for the primary election.

One change Maryland voters will see this election cycle concerns provisional ballots.

In an effort to collect more data for education campaigns, to dispel misinformation about the mail-in voting process and catch any potential instances of voter fraud, the State Board of Elections expanded a question on Maryland provisional ballots to ask for more specific reasons people are voting that way.

Previously, the form only asked if people had already voted or if they requested a mail-in ballot. In an interview Tuesday, DeMarinis said the question was framed too general in prior elections.

Now, when voters who requested but never received a mail-in ballot fill out provisional ballots, they will be asked if they requested a mail-in ballot to be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, printed from the internet or via fax. It will ask a similar question to voters who received their requested mail-in ballot, but instead opted to vote in person.

Additionally, the new provisional ballots will record information regarding voters who didnt request a mail-in ballot, but their local board of elections recorded that someone else did and turned it in on their behalf. DeMarinis said that, in those instances, those ballots will be forwarded to the state prosecutors office for investigation.

At the top of the primary election ballot are choices for Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, which are presumed to be President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, respectively.

Across the state, Marylanders will select their top candidates to represent them in the U.S. Senate. Democratic voters will select their top choice among a pool of 10 candidates, with U.S. Rep. David Trone and Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks leading the pack.

A poll from The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 and the University of Baltimore conducted April 7-10 showed the multimillionaire Trone leading Alsobrooks by 19 percentage points among a sample of likely Democratic voters. Whoever prevails will likely face former Gov. Larry Hogan, who is the presumptive Republican nominee among the partys seven candidates still in the race.

Marylanders across the states eight congressional districts also will vote for their partys nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Most contested will be the races to replace U.S. Reps. John Sarbanes and Dutch Ruppersberger, both of whom announced they would not seek reelection in 2024, and Trone, who is giving up his incumbency in the 6th Congressional District for his Senate run.

Baltimore City voters will choose their candidates for mayor, city council president, and their council district representative.

There are a dozen Democratic candidates in the mayoral race, which is slated to be a toss-up between incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

The poll conducted for The Sun, FOX45 and the University of Baltimore early last month found Scott, who polled at 38%, with a slight lead over Dixon, who polled at 35%, in a rematch of the 2020 Democratic primary, when Scott prevailed over Dixon by just over 3,000 votes.

Democratic voters in the City Council president race will have their pick among incumbent Council President Nick Mosby, Councilman Zeke Cohen and former Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, with polled voters favoring Cohen by a large margin.

According to DeMarinis, the 2024 primary is likely to break Marylands current record for mail-in ballot requests. He anticipates that requests during the presidential election in November, which typically draws the most voters, will definitely far surpass the total requests for the primary.

Requests for mail-in ballots during the 2022 election reached over 642,000, which DeMarinis called the most requests weve ever had.

At this rate here, it looks like were going to exceed that request, and I think the primary election will probably have the most mail-in voting in Maryland history, he said.

As of Monday evening, the board of elections had sent out 578,395 mail-in ballots and received 178,811.

Voters can request mail-in ballots until May 10. Completed ballots sent back to local election boards must be postmarked by May 14 at the latest. Mail-in ballots also can be submitted via ballot drop boxes.

______
ULAN BATOR, May 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 5.6 million livestock carcasses have so far been destroyed across Mongolia, the country's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Friday.

This means that about 80 percent of the carcasses of all the livestock animals that perished last winter and this spring due to severe wintry conditions, commonly known as "dzud," have been destroyed, the NEMA said in a statement.

"Dzud" is a Mongolian term describing a severely cold winter when a large number of livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered in snow.

Almost all provinces of the Asian country experienced harsh weather conditions over the past winter, and over 80 percent of the country had been blanketed by snow, prompting the government to elevate its disaster preparedness to high alert.

The promotion of livestock husbandry is seen as the most viable way to diversify the landlocked country's mining-dependent economy.

As one of the last surviving nomadic countries in the world, the country had 64.7 million heads of livestock at the end of 2023, according to the National Statistics Office. 
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG)  Elected officials in Baldwin County hope a meeting in Washington D.C. would get the long-awaited I-10 bridge project one step closer to breaking ground.

The Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization returned from a trip to the nations capital, where they sought federal support for the I-10 bridge project. The organization is comprised of elected officials from across Baldwin County.

We are going to get you later: testimony reveals threat in Gulf Shores spring break shooting

The MPO met with the U.S. Department of Transportation along with Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt. State Representatives Jerry Carl and Barry Moore were also in attendance.

We like to say that it benefits the locals, the region and the whole country since were taking up 10 miles of the interstate that spans from coast to coast, Eastern Shore MPO and Fairhope councilman Jack Burrell said.

While the USDOT did not commit any additional funding to the project, Burrell said the project has their full support.

We are going to get you later: testimony reveals threat in Gulf Shores spring break shooting

We all felt pretty good when we left that meeting, not that they promised us anything but probably even better than we felt before we even got there, Burrell said. They said we didnt need to sell them on the need, and that they clearly saw the need. It was very encouraging for us.

Federal officials gave the MPO feedback on how to make applications to various grant programs more appealing. Burrell said the advice would make it easier for the MPO to find the funding they need.

The Alabama Department of Transportation estimated the project to cost anywhere between $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion.

Were working with the federal government now on their share of the pie, Baldwin County Commissioner and MPO member Matt McKenzie said.

Mobile Police investigating I-65 service road shooting

Burrell said the MPO has secured several grants, but theyre seeking an additional $500 million.

He said the Alabama Department of Transportation has contributed a minimum amount of $250 million.

We have to piece this together. There are multiple funding mechanisms, Burrell said. So, the more grant money we can get, the less we have to borrow.

Burrell said ALDOT is halfway through a 60-day review of costs associated with the project.

Only Expo of its kind on the Gulf Coast coming to Mobile Convention Center

I think ALDOT needs to take their time, they need to get it right and they need to save money, Burrell said. I dont want to rush them doing their job.

When its built, Burrell said the bridge would be a toll bridge that charges passenger vehicles no more than $2.50 per use with an ALGO pass. Without an ALGO pass, it could cost drivers a total of $5.50. A monthly ALGO pass, according to Burrell, would bring the cost down to about 80 cents for a passenger vehicle.

Burrell said the groundbreaking on the bridge was originally set for the end of 2023 but has since been pushed back to the end of 2024.

City of Mobile to remove, prune damaged oak trees along Springhill Avenue

McKenzie, a former state trooper, said the I-10 bridge would alleviate congestion and provide an additional evacuation route in the event of severe weather.

I have seen [traffic congestion] from I-65 and I-10 in Mobile County all the way to the Loxley exit when I was a state trooper, McKenzie said.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said he fully advocated for the project, but he couldnt make it to the meeting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan held Donald Trump in contempt for his violations of a gag order in his criminal hush money case. The penalty? A paltry $9,000. Nonetheless, the judge cautioned the former president that continued violations might result in incarceratory punishment, just as they might for any other defendant. We hope hes not bluffing.

The idea that slapping the cuffs on would somehow help Trump, electorally and with his efforts to delegitimize the process that is attempting to at long last hold him accountable, is bunk. Whatever happens, Trump will claim hes being politically persecuted, that this trial is an infringement not only on his rights but on the countrys own free elections, interfering as it is with one of the major-party candidates.

Setting aside the inanity of planting that flag in the ground while simultaneously under well-evidenced indictment for multiple efforts to reverse the 2020 election, lets think through the implications that flow from that idea.

If the existing mechanisms of accountability cannot constrain the former president, then we are saying, in effect, that he cannot be held accountable. We know exactly what Trump plans to do with this immunity; in a recent series of interviews with Time, Trump and his closest allies describe in detail schemes to finally vanquish American democracy, unconstrained by the institutional guardrails that barely held last time around.

The president and his ready sycophants would deploy the military in American cities, jail political opponents (without basis, something that cannot in any reasonable way be said about Trump), bend subsequent elections to his will, disengage from international allies, crack down on speech and generally follow the authoritarian playbook. None of that rests on wild speculation or projection  these are plain as day plans, as readily laid out by Trump himself.

When things get to that stage, the option of actually holding him accountable begins to disappear altogether. Let us repeat: consequences need to come now, because there might not be a later.

Trump certainly hopes to use the powers of the presidency to shield himself from accountability, perhaps forever. Yet simply taking the opposite stance, showing that hes not untouchable and that he can be brought to justice, might go a long way towards puncturing the Trump phenomenon, which has always been more artifice than anything.

Trump has, for all the bluster, never held majority support in the United States. Some subset of his hard-core fans will never abandon him, but for many, it is the sense that he can stick it to the authorities, that despite the setbacks hell sidestep and eventually subjugate the system, that holds appeal. If Trump can tell judges and prosecutors to go to hell and laugh at their rules, hes doing what I wish I could, the thinking goes.

If the veneer starts cracking  if his flimsy attempt at a civil bond surety fails and his buildings start to be seized, if his goading of Merchan results in real, significant consequences  then the magic will quickly dissipate. The man will be left standing with all he has ever had: his narcissism, his entitlement and his steadfast conviction that people will give him what he wants. This time hell be wrong.

___
Tuesday night, the world watched on live TV as the NYPD cleared out pro-Palestinian student protesters whod taken over Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall and the quad at City College, arresting hundreds of people.

The protesters at Columbia had made the campus situation even more untenable by breaking and entering into a locked building, committing a crime and then refusing to leave. Those who occupied Hamilton Hall expected or at least should have expected that arrest was a possibility.

Commit a crime, like burglary, and you may well be prosecuted, which we are pretty sure is not what mom and dad hoped for in sending you off to college.

But even before the break-in, the level of tension over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza had escalated with not a few Jews on campus, students and faculty alike, feeling afraid from the anti-Israel rhetoric and the anti-Zionism from some of the protesters, including among the protest leaders. No one on a college campus should have to be fearful. Its the administrations job to make sure of that.

And making it all worse was the rank antisemitism on display outside the campus gates by perhaps non-Columbia miscreants attracted to the commotion, including physically and verbally accosting Jews in the neighborhood.

The line between political anti-Zionism (including when expressed by Jews opposed to Israels actions) and hateful and dangerous antisemitism can be subtle, but the fear was still real.

Weve said it before and we say it again. We support free speech, even when we disagree with it. We oppose hate speech and it has no place if it threatens people or advocates violence.

But in seizing the building, the protesters strayed further into the realm of action, which necessarily has fewer protections, and they understood that civil disobedience of this sort and violence against property has always carried consequences.

Its also the case that Hamilton has been occupied at least five times in the past by student activists, and the police cleared the building in only two of them; in the other three, activists left voluntarily, usually after negotiations with the university. Even in the two instances that the police raided the building  most famously in 1968, during protests over the Vietnam War and Columbias role in Harlem  they did so about a week after the occupations began.

For all the faults of the protesters, Columbia President Minouche Shafik also stumbled badly throughout, allowing the situation to escalate.

She was erratic, negotiating at times and also imposing deadlines on the tent city encampment protesting ties with Israel. She called the cops once and then said that she wouldnt do it again, ruling it out. Did that goad the faction of the protesters to test if she would call 911 again by invading Hamilton Hall? The answer was yes, and she did call the cops again when Hamilton was taken over.

This time Shafik waited only about a day to send the cops in, just as she waited only about a day to have the police clear the first encampment weeks ago. In effect, Shafik boxed herself in, eliminating the possibility of meaningful negotiation by resorting to escalation off the bat. Then reversing course and taking using force to disband the encampment off the table.

Still, the protesters negotiation stance of agree to all our demands about investing in Israel and the rest in exchange to ending the encampment was unlikely to produce any agreement.

The students and the administrators are not equal players here; the former have, always and forever, been idealistic, politically inclined and impulsive, as youth is. The latter are supposed to be the professionals, the clear-headed ones who can balance multiple stakeholders and interests and resolve situations diplomatically. You know, being grown-ups.

Here, the students did what students often do, and cannot claim to have imagined no repercussions. They were warned repeatedly that arrests, suspensions and expulsions were on the table. It is no surprise that the university wasnt bluffing.

The administrators, though, put on a show of incompetence from the beginning, calling in the cops the first time made everything worse and they lost the chance to negotiate with students for a calm ending. Instead, we had a nighttime NYPD raid. We would know more about the tenor of the arrests if the cops hadnt taken pains to keep reporters from seeing the action unfold.

Realizing the mess theyve made, university officials at both CUNY and Columbia blame outside agitators, often a last-resort argument to discredit protesters. At a press conference yesterday morning, NYPD brass and the mayor put forth as key evidence the presence of a heavy bike lock the cops encountered at the door to Hamilton. As many were quick to point out, Columbias own public safety had previously promoted such locks and even offered a student discount.

This is a serious accusation to throw around, and the universities and cops had better actually substantiate it or lay off. In any case, the campus lockdown  which some students and faculty have called more disruptive than the encampment itself was, coming as it is during finals season  was supposed to keep outsiders out, meaning that either the authorities failed at that task or the claims cant be upheld.

Did this have to play out like this? Fellow Ivy League school Brown was among those that negotiated an end to the encampment after what it termed productive discussions. It did not do so through total capitulation, but will allow students to present a formal case for a divestment vote that will occur later on. Most likely things at Brown had not gotten so heated as they did in Morningside Heights.

So the 2024 standoff has ended for now, with the NYPD having been asked to remain on campus until May 17, two days after what will be Shafiks first graduation ceremony. We will see what happens between now and then.

___
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter Friday to college and university presidents condemning what he called abhorrent antisemitic incidents on campus, the latest response from the Biden administration to the ongoing nationwide protests.

Cardonas letter takes a sterner tone from the administration and comes the day after a brief address from President Biden where he was sharply critical of aspects of the demonstrations, including the isolated incidents of violence or vandalism.

As the 2023-24 school year comes to a close, I remain incredibly concerned by the reports of antisemitic hate directed at students on some campuses, Cardona said in the letter, first reported by CNN.

Cardona cited reports from Jewish students who said they had been physically assaulted or harassed in recent days, including antisemitic comments, verbal abuse and swastikas found on dorm room doors.

These and other such incidents are abhorrent, period, he wrote. They have no place on our college campuses.

Cardona said there has been a sharp rise in reports of antisemitism targeting Jewish students on some college campuses.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights has opened more than 100 investigations into complaints of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination under Title VI.

Cardona said the department is eager to provide further resources for higher education leaders.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments have erupted on college campuses in recent weeks, including at institutions whose leaders have faced sharp criticism from House Republicans over their handling of the situation.

Most protests have denounced antisemitism and have not explicitly endorsed Hamas, but a few incidents have become part of the larger controversy around the demonstrations.

Columbia University banned a student protest leader from campus who said Zionists dont deserve to live. A video of a protest organizer, Khymani James, showed him saying earlier this year that people should be grateful he doesnt go around murdering Zionists. He has since apologized for his remarks.

As the protests continue, calls for the Biden administration to do more to address on-campus antisemitism have risen. The House approved a bill this week that seeks to crack down on antisemitism by requiring the Education Department to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances working definition of antisemitism when enforcing antidiscrimination laws.

Since Oct. 7, the Anti-Defamation League has reported that theres been an unprecedented rise in antisemitism in the United States.

The demonstrations have impacted what remaining time in the academic year is left for many schools. Columbia moved the rest of the school year to a hybrid learning style to account for the safety of its campus community, and the University of Southern California canceled its primary commencement event.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  El Pasoans trying to protest their property tax appraisal online this week have had to deal with the appraisal districts portal being down.

A note on the El Paso Central Appraisal Districts (EPCAD) website reads:

We regret to inform you that the Electronic Portal is presently unavailable due to updates mandated by the 88th Texas Legislation on the Texas Property Tax Code.

Officials with the EPCAD said that they are working closely with their software vendors to get the portal up in the coming week or two, but that it is not a guarantee. They strongly advise people to submit their protest in time before their deadline to ensure your rights are protected.

The deadline for people to submit their protest is Wednesday, May 15, or 30 days after receiving their notice of appraisal value.

Officials with the EPCAD said theyre facing challenges this appraisal season as a result of changes made by the Texas Legislature to the Property Tax Code in 2023 with the passing of Senate Bill 2.

The Legislature just did not give us enough time for the changes to be made and thoroughly tested before this appraisal season started. But they did not change our deadlines. We have the same deadlines that we always have, so were having to make do with a lesser capability than weve had in previous years. And one of the things thats a victim of this right now is the online portal, said Deputy Chief Appraiser of EPCAD David Stone.

Among these changes were implementing the 20 percent circuit breaker provision, how appraisal districts communicate with taxpayers, and changes to the protest form and portal.

People can still submit a protest form by mail, e-mail, or in-person. Stone also explained that people can also file a direct electronic protest at the EPCADs website here.

I apologize to the public. We dont like being in this position and not having the full functionality that we had in the past. But were working as hard as we can to get it working so that the citizens can take advantage of it, said Stone.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
A tragic hit-and-run crash in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles claimed the life of a 73-year-old woman and sent another 83-year-old woman to the hospital Thursday, authorities confirmed to KTLA.

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department responded to calls of the fatal accident near the intersection of West Adams Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue at around 1:20 p.m.

Details are limited, but police say the hit-and-run suspect, who fled eastbound on West 25th Street, was backing out of a driveway on private property when they struck the victims, identified by family members as Estella Gomez and her cousin Maria Ortiz.

Family told KTLAs Mary Beth McDade that the women had just gotten off the Metro bus around 1 p.m. After exiting the bus at Adams Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue, the two women began walking home and were just a block away when they were run over by a suspect in a white van.

Estella Gomez, 73, seen in this undated family picture. (viewer photo)

Maria Ortiz, 83, seen in this undated family picture. (Viewer photo)

A person lighting candles at the scene of the fatal hit-and-run on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Family seen grieving at the site of the fatal hit-and-run on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

L.A. police on the scene of a fatal hit-and-run that left a woman in her 80s dead at the scene on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

L.A. police on the scene of a fatal hit-and-run that left a woman in her 80s dead at the scene on May 2, 2024. (KTLA)

Footage of the crash scene captured by Sky5 showed several police cruisers blocking access to Magnolia Avenue, which was cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape.

In the street just off the sidewalk where the crash occurred, a canopy covered the body of Estella who died at the scene.

Medical personnel with the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene and rushed Ortiz to a nearby trauma center, where she was listed in critical condition.

She was a wonderful lady. She didnt deserve to die like this, said Estellas son, Miguel Gomez, who was unable to hold back his tears. She helped everyone. She was wonderful.

Distracted Southern California driver slams into wreckage of earlier crash

Miguel said his mother was a strong woman from El Salvador who raised five children on her own while working as a cleaning lady at Macys.

She raised us without a dad because my dad passed away many years ago, he said.

The grieving family gathered Thursday night at the site of the crash to remember their beloved mother and are now asking for the public to help them find justice.

We just want to ask the public that if they have any information  my understanding was that it was a white van backing up that hit her  please contact the police immediately, said Angie Lopez, Estellas niece.

Anyone with any information about the incident is urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department.

While authorities have not released a description of the suspects vehicle, the family told KTLA that police are looking for a white van.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Gomezs family pay for funeral expenses.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Election Day guide: What's on the ballot, where to vote in Lubbock for mayor, Prop A

Voters wait in line at Calvary Baptist Church on Election Day, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Polls are open this Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday is Election Day.

Voters in Lubbock and beyond will choose mayors, city councilmembers, school board trustees and more to represent them in local government. Lubbockites will also choose whether to adopt an ordinance reducing enforcement of certain marijuana laws.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

What's on the ballot in Lubbock and Lubbock County?

The City of Lubbock will see a new mayor four new city councilmembers after the May 4 election, as current officeholders are either not seeking re-election or running for another seat. Two of those positions  mayor and City Council District 2  will see contested races, while voters in council districts 3, 4 and 6 will not have an option as the races are uncontested.

Lubbock will also re-elect the municipal judge, who faces no opponent.

More: Who's running for Lubbock mayor and city council? See what's on the ballot in May

For Lubbock mayor, voters across the city will choose one of six candidates: Stephen J. Sanders, Steve Massengale, Adam Hernandez, Kolton J. Bacon, Mark McBrayer and Antonio "Tony" Renteria. Mayor Tray Payne announced in December he would not seek a second two-year term.

Stephen J. Sanders: Sanders is running for mayor for a third consecutive time. In 2020, he challenged then-incumbent Dan Pope, earning about 44% of the vote. In 2022, he gathered only about 9% of the vote in a race that included Payne and three others.

Steve Massengale : Massengale is the current District 4 councilman and a Lubbock small business owner who was first elected to the council in 2016 when he unseated then-Mayor Pro Tem Jim Gerlt. He was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2020. Massengale previously served on the Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees.

Adam Hernandez : Hernandez lost to Tray Payne in a five-way mayoral race in May 2022. Hernandez was the second-highest vote-getter in that election, earning about 19% of the vote. Hernandez is known for his advocacy work across the Hub City, serving as communications chair for Lubbock Compact.

Kolton Bacon : Bacon is a seeming political newcomer who has not responded to the Avalanche-Journal's requests to interview him.

Mark McBrayer: McBrayer is a first-term city councilman who represents central Lubbock's District 3. He was first elected in 2022 in an uncontested race and has served about half of his four-year term. He is a local attorney and entrepreneur and said he plans to retire from law to focus on serving as mayor.

Antonio "Tony" Renteria: Renteria is the founder and CEO of Latinos United for Conservative Action. Renteria has formerly served on the Lubbock Planning and Zoning Commission and the Lubbock County Hospital District (UMC Health System) Board of Managers  a position that he resigned from in 2014.

More: What are Lubbock mayoral candidates policy positions?

People vote during Election Day at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Lubbock.

In council District 2, voters can choose between Michael Lestus Mitchell, Gordon Harris and Anna "Anah" Menjares to serve four years in the city council seat currently held by Shelia Patterson Harris.

Brayden Rose is running unopposed for the District 4 seat held by Massengale, who is running for mayor. Tim Collins faces no opponent in District 6 after Latrelle Joy announced she would retire from the council. David Glasheen was the only candidate to file in a special election for the District 3 seat to finish McBrayer's term after his mayoral run. Jorge E. Hernandez is the incumbent municipal judge and the only person to file in that race.

Lubbock voters will also decide whether to decriminalize possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana in the city by voting for or against Proposition A, known as the "Freedom Act Lubbock" ordinance.

More: Lubbockites will vote on 'Freedom Act' marijuana decriminalization ordinance

More: What you need to know about Lubbock's proposed marijuana ordinance on the May 2024 ballot

The City of Wolfforth is also electing a mayor and two city councilmembers.

Incumbent Mayor Charles Addington II is unopposed for re-election. Incumbent David E. Cooper and challenger Pete Wilkinson are both seeking Place 1 on the city council, while incumbent Gregory Stout is challenged by Wesley Houck for Place 2.

The Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees will have two contested races and two which are uncontested.

In District 1, incumbent Lala Chavez faces challenger Terri Morris. Mary Ann Lawson and LaCarl Richardson will face off for the District 2 seat currently occupied by Bill Stubblefield.

Nancy Sharp is running unopposed for the at-large seat which will be vacated by current Trustee Zach Brady, who is not seeking re-election. John Weddige is unopposed in the District 5 race; that seat is currently held by Kristopher Zepeda.

Lubbock-Cooper ISD has two positions with contested races and one uncontested race.

Amy Punchard and Aaron Baxter will face off for Place 1, currently held by Kevin Bryan. Gerri Daggett is challenging incumbent Colby Miller for Place 2. Daniel Castro does not face an opponent for re-election to Place 5.

Frenship Independent School District has one contested school board election, and two races which drew only one opponent. L. Witherspoon Sr. is challenging incumbent board member Jamey Phillips for Place 6. David R. Miller and Shawn Vinson do not face opponents for re-election to places 5 and 7, respectively.

For the first time ever, voters across Lubbock County will also have a chance to elect three directors at-large for the Lubbock Central Appraisal District. Micah O'Hair and John Bruegel are running for Place 1, Jim Baxa for Place 2 and Brant O'Hair, Tom Keisling and Rusty Smith for Place 3.

There are also municipal races in Abernathy, Idalou, Ransom Canyon and Slaton. School board seats are up for grabs in Abernathy, New Deal, Roosevelt, Shallowater and Slaton ISDs.

What's on the ballot in Plainview?

Plainviewans will be electing a mayor and three city councilmember in the upcoming municipal election.

Incumbent Mayor Charles Starnes will face challenger Lionel A. Garcia.

In District 5, five candidates are seeking to replace Susan Blackerby, who has hit her term limit. Daniel Rascon, Matt Blackerby, Jeremy Sepeda, Rusty Powers and William H. "Bill" Nelson all filed to run for the seat.

Evan Weiss is unopposed in his bid for re-election in District 6, and Eugene Allen is challenging incumbent Lorie Martinez Rodriguez in District 7.

Plainview Independent School District will have one contested school board race.

Cheryl Dickerson is challenging incumbent Veronica Salazar in District 6. Adam Soto is unopposed in District 1 and Sylvia De La Garza drew no challenger in District 7.

A list of polling locations is available at plainviewtx.org.

What's on the ballot in Levelland?

Voters in the City of Levelland will select a new mayor.

Current District C Councilmember Breann Buxkemper and Mary Engledow are both seeking to become Levelland's next mayor as Barbra Pinner is not seeking re-election. Two council seats are also on the ballot but each drew only one candidate.

Rob Martin and Joe Tubb will face off for South Plains College Board of Regents Position 6.

Levelland voters will cast their ballot at the Hockley County Tax Office, 624 Ave. H, Suite 103.

Where to vote in Lubbock County

Registered Lubbock County voters can cast their ballot at any of nearly 40 vote centers across the county. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m., and any voter in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.

Lubbock County vote centers are listed below:

Abernathy City Hall  811 Ave. D (Community Room), Abernathy

Bacon Heights Baptist Church  5110 54th St. (2 Commons Room), Lubbock

Broadview Baptist Church  1302 N. Frankford Ave. (Fellowship Hall), Lubbock

Broadway Church of Christ  1924 Broadway (Foyer) Lubbock

Casey Administration Building  501 Seventh St. (Room No. 104), Wolfforth

Catholic Diocese of Lubbock  4620 Fourth St. (Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan Hall), Lubbock

Cavazos Middle School  210 N. University Ave. (Gym), Lubbock

Celebration Christian Center  8001 Upland Ave. (Sanctuary), Lubbock

Church on the Rock  10503 Slide Road (Cafe Area), Lubbock

Copper Rawlings Senior Center  213 40th St. (Social Hall), Lubbock

Elks Lodge No. 1348  3409 Milwaukee Ave. (Lodge Hall), Lubbock

First Assembly of God Church  3801 98th St. (Classroom), Lubbock

Green Lawn Church of Christ  5701 19th St. (Entry Hall), Lubbock

Heritage Middle School  6110 73rd St. (Library), Lubbock

Hodges Community Center  4011 University Ave. (Social Hall), Lubbock

Idalou Community Center  202 W. Seventh St., Idalou

Lubbock-Cooper ISD Administrative Offices  13807 Indiana Ave., Lubbock

Lubbock-Cooper North Elementary School  3202 108th St. (Gym), Lubbock

Lubbock ISD Administration Office  1628 19th St. (Breezeway), Lubbock

Mae Simmons Community Center  2004 Oak Ave. (Activity Room), Lubbock

Maggie Trejo Supercenter  3200 Amherst St. (Rodgers Community Center Social Hall), Lubbock

Mattress Firm  6707 Slide Road (Breakroom), Lubbock

New Deal Community Clubhouse  309 S. Monroe Ave., New Deal

Parsons Elementary School  2811 58th St. (Gym), Lubbock

Patterson Library  1836 Parkway Drive (Community Room), Lubbock

Preston Smith Elementary School  8707 Dover Ave. (Cafeteria), Lubbock

Ransom Canyon City Hall  24 Lee Kitchens Drive (Council Chamber), Ransom Canyon

Roberts Elementary School  7901 Ave. P (Gym), Lubbock

Roosevelt ISD Arena  1301 County Road 3300 (West Concourse), Lubbock

Roscoe Wilson Elementary School  2807 25th St. (Gym), Lubbock

Shallowater Community Center  902 Ave. H, Shallowater

Slaton Community Clubhouse  750 W. Garza St. (Community Room), Slaton

South Plains Church of Christ  6802 Elkhart Ave. (Gym Area), Lubbock

Sunset Church of Christ  3625 34th St. (Powerhouse), Lubbock

Sutherlands HomeBase  3701 50th St. (Near Lighting Section), Lubbock

Terra Vista Middle School  1111 Upland Ave. (Library), Lubbock

Texas Tech University Student Union Building  15th Street and Akron Avenue, Lubbock

YWCA  6501 University Ave. (Front Room), Lubbock (American Sign Language interpreters are available at this location.)

What do I need to bring with me to the polls?

Voters will need a form of identification to cast a ballot. Acceptable forms of photo ID include a Texas driver license, Texas election ID certificate, Texas personal ID card, Texas handgun license, U.S. citizenship certificate with photo, U.S. military ID with photo or a U.S. passport.

If a voter does not have an ID and cannot reasonably obtain one, other options are available. Those are listed at votelubbock.org or by calling (806) 775-1339.

Lubbock County began using new voting machines with a paper ballot backup in recent years after Texas lawmakers in 2021 passed a law requiring counties to have a paper method for voting. Voting will still be done on electronic kiosks; however, a piece of paper will be printed off and needs to be fed into a scanner as part of the state-mandated effort supporters say will help prevent voter fraud.

See the photo gallery below for a step-by-step guide on how to cast a vote on the machines.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: See what's on the ballot, where to vote in Lubbock on Election Day
Emory faculty votes they have no confidence in university president

More than a week after protests and demonstrations began on Emory Universitys campus, some faculty held a vote of no confidence in President Greg Fenves.

For days, students and faculty have been calling for Fenves resignation over his handling of the protests.

The faculty of the Emory University College of Arts & Sciences passed the motion to state they have no confidence in Fenves ability as president by a vote of 358-119.

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They are also demanding that all charges be dropped and the university pay for all legal fees. Its unclear if this only applies to Emory students and faculty.

Channel 2 Action News is working to learn what impact this vote will have on the university.

This decision reflects the facultys support for the right to peaceful protests on campus, even amidst internal divisions regarding the protests themes, Emory University Professor of History Clifton Crais told Channel 2s Michael Doudna.

Emory University is one of nine higher education institutions across the country holding similar votes surrounding protests related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

REALTED STORIES:

Since last week, dozens of people have been arrested on Emorys campus in relation to the protests, including students and faculty members.

One demonstrator armed with knives, who was also a convicted felon from North Carolina, was arrested. When his car was searched, officers found an axe, a hatchet and more knives.

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Oxford College at Emory University passed a similar measure on April 30, according to university officials.

IN OTHER NEWS:
WASHINGTON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The anti-war protests at over 30 American universities and colleges were going on Thursday, with further discontent sparked by the police's heavy-handed enforcement.

According to the latest tally by The Associated Press, over 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide.

On Thursday, more than 200 people were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest camp on campus, after refusing to leave the area as requested, according to the police at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday), authorities declared the camp an unlawful assembly and ordered demonstrators to leave. The university said that any students remaining in the camp could face disciplinary actions, up to expulsion, while university staff could face termination. After a standoff of about nine hours, hundreds of riot police began making arrests.

Since the arrest of over a hundred students protesting at Columbia University on April 18, many American campuses have seen similar protests, as students demand universities divest from Israeli-related companies and call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Police intervention has sparked conflicts in some cases, leading to widespread dissatisfaction with the authorities' heavy-handed, sometimes violent, enforcement.

In some states such as Florida, police used tear gas to disperse campus gatherings.

Earlier this week, a law enforcement officer who participated in removing protesters from an administration building in Columbia University discharged his firearm within the premises, Doug Cohen, spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press on Thursday. No injuries were reported.

Steve Tamari, a history professor specializing in Middle Eastern studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, said that he was arrested during a protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Middle East Research and Information Project, an academic publication, said the organization is "horrified and angered to learn of the assault and arrests," noting that "police violence against peaceful protesters on college campuses has become an alarming trend in the last two weeks."

"We denounce police brutality and the militarization of campuses sanctioned by institutional leaders," the statement read.

In response to recent college protests across the nation, U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said in a brief speech that he supports peaceful protests, but vandalism, violence, hate speech and other chaos had nothing to do with peaceful protests. "Dissent must never lead to disorder," he said.

When asked whether the protests at American campuses have made him rethink his Middle East policy, Biden said no.

Despite that, the multi-day wave of campus anti-war protests is indeed a manifestation of young Americans' discontent with how the Biden administration is managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A recent CNN poll found that 71 percent of American adults surveyed were dissatisfied with the Biden administration's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among those under the age of 35, 81 percent were dissatisfied. 
CHICAGO  The University of Chicago sent an alert Friday afternoon asking people to avoid the Main Quad due to physical altercations.

SkyCam9 over the scene showed hundreds of people at the Main Quad with what appeared to be pro-Palestine protesters and pro-Israel protesters.

The encampment began on Monday by pro-Palestine protesters. Its one of several around the country at college campuses.

Day five of the student-run encampment at the university started off peacefully, but tensions escalated after a clash between pro-Palestine protesters and pro-Israel protesters.

Hundreds of students are camped out right now for Palestine it has been the most numbers was today, University of Chicago student Youssef Hasweh said.

Wearing riot gear and holding shields, campus police came to separate the groups.

UChicago, DePaul encampment continue as nationwide protests escalate

As demonstrators shouted dueling chants, the confrontation turned physical, as several people shoved each other and a brief altercation broke out.

It definitely was super tense and scary to see them and my peers andit was really scary for a second, Hasweh said.

Some counter-demonstrators said they came to the quad after an American flag was removed from a flagpole on Thursday, so a Palestinian flag could go up. That flag was taken down on Friday, and nothing as put in its place, which is why they say they came to take action.

They started agitating and thats when we pulled out in their favor, University of Chicago student Arthur Long said.

It did not appear that anyone was arrested following the incident, but hours later campus police took someone into custody.

University leadership called Fridays actions unacceptable.

In a message to the study body, the university President Paul Alivisatos accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of vandalizing historic buildings and creating a disruption to campus life.

For more than four days, those encamped on the Main Quadrangle have expressed their views freely. I imagine there isnt a person on campus who isnt aware of their message. Yesterday, the provost and I met with them to better understand those views and seek a pathway forward. As I wrote on Monday, out of principle we provide the greatest leeway possible for free expression, even expression of viewpoints that some find deeply offensive, even in rare cases at the expense of some policy violationsfor a time. But the encampment cannot continue. The encampment has created systematic disruption of campus. Protesters are monopolizing areas of the Main Quad at the expense of other members of our community. Clear violations of policies have only increased. Our students have issued a torrent of reports of disrupted classroom learning. Other disruptions include repeated destruction of an approved installation of Israeli flags, shouting down speakers they disagree with, vandalism and graffiti on historic buildings, incorporating walkways into the encampment, and co-opting the University flagpole to fly the Palestinian flag. What started as a modest encampment has grown each day. Fewer police are providing safety patrols in the neighborhoods because they are obliged to be present for the growing 24-hour unauthorized protest. Left to itself, there is no end in sight, and the disruptions will continue to mount. The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them, despite UChicago being an institution that allows for many ways to express views. On Monday, I stated that we would only intervene if what might have been an exercise of free expression blocks the learning or expression of others or substantially disrupts the functioning or safety of the University. Without an agreement to end the encampment, we have reached that point. University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos

After negotiations between student protest organizers and university leaders stalled on Thursday, the president was adamant about intervening to shut the encampment down, if an agreement isnt reached

They keep telling us we keep disrupting learning but some of the best learning Ive had my last four years have been in the last five days in the encampment, Hasweh said.

UChicago United for Palestine is demanding the following from the university, according to the organization.

Acknowledge genocide in Gaza.

Divest from the genocide in Gaza.

Disclose university investments in manufacturers of weapons.

At an unrelated press conference, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said his office will continue to assess all of the demonstrations happening across the city.

Were at a critical point in our nations history, and so protecting peoples First Amendment right, of course, is paramount, Johnson said.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said he will not get in the middle of people expressing their right to free speech if its conflict-free. Instead, Snelling said he is relying on university leaders for information, as the situation in Hyde Park continues.

The message from the universitys president did not provide details on how he plans to intervene, when the encampment will need to come down, or the consequences if it does not.

WGN-TV has reached out to university officials but has not yet heard back.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
A promising development in an ongoing fish kill in the Florida Keys took an unfortunate turn this week when a sick endangered smalltooth sawfish died after having been rescued from the island chains waters and taken to Sarasota for rehabilitation.

Scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory had to euthanize the shark-looking ray on Thursday because its health condition continued to deteriorate, it was announced Friday.

It was always our cautious hope to be able to utilize the best available science for the rehabilitation and release of the sawfish, Dr. Michael P. Crosby, president & CEO of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, said in a statement.

Although heartbreaking, this outcome was not surprising. Motes several decades of active rescue and rehabilitation efforts have taught us that these efforts arent always successful in fully rehabilitating compromised stranded animals.

The sawfish was rescued from the shallow waters off Cudjoe Key in the Lower Keys on April 5 after members of the public reported that it was swimming in circles, which is a behavior sick sawfish have been exhibiting in the Keys since the beginning of the year.

Since Jan. 29, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says 45 sawfish have been found dead in the Keys. That creates a serious situation for the species since the Keys are one of the few places you can still find them in the wild. Their habitat once ranged from Texas to North Carolina, but sawfish populations have greatly decreased, and they were placed on the Endangered Species List in 2003.

Alarmingly, the spinning behavior seen in smalltooth sawfish in the Keys has also been reported in several other species that scientists believe is linked to a fish kill first reported in November.

Biologists from Mote, academia, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, FWC and nonprofits like the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust have been working continuously to get to the bottom of what is causing the phenomenon, which is mostly confined to the Lower Keys from Big Pine Key to Key West.

The FWC has received more than 460 reports to its hotline dedicated to the Keys fish kill.

So far, red tide toxins have been ruled out based on water samples taken from the impacted area.

And necropsy data taken from dead fish samples so far have not turned up any communicable pathogens and the fish were negative for bacterial infections, according to the FWC.

Dissolved oxygen levels, salinity, acidity and temperature are also not suspected to be the causes of the fish kills or spinning, according to the FWC.

State scientists have also conducted water tests for a variety of chemicals, which were either not detected or were below normal limits, the FWC said on its site dedicated to the fish kill.

For the erratic, spinning behavior, scientists have speculated it may be related to a toxin called gambierdiscus, which causes a food-borne illness called ciguatera in people who eat infected fish. Its common in the Keys because it grows as a micro algae on the coral reef. Basically, smaller fish eat the algae, and the toxin gets passed up the food chain right up to people who eat larger predator fish.

In the meantime, the FWC will conduct a necropsy to try to determine what sickened the sawfish in Motes care.

Samples will be collected and sent to various labs for further analysis, Mote said in a statement. Necropsies do not always determine a cause of death, and it could take weeks to months to get a full picture of the animals condition.

To report a sick sawfish, call (844) 4-SAWFISH (844-472-9347) or email sawfish@myfwc.com.

Report abnormal fish behavior and fish kills to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissions Fish Kill Hotline at (800) 636-0511 or MyFWC.com/ReportFishKill.
(Removes duplicate words in paragraph 3)

By Juana Casas

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Journalists covering environmental issues have become increasingly targeted with violence as the world faces an unprecedented environmental emergency, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

A report by UNESCO, the United Nations' scientific and cultural organization, released the day before showed an increase in violence against environmental reporters around the world by both state and private actors.

"Press freedom is under siege, and environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession," Guterres said by video message at a World Press Freedom Day event in Santiago, Chile.

Guterres said dozens of journalists have died in recent years covering topics such as illegal mining, logging and poaching.

Of the 44 journalists who were murdered in 15 countries while reporting on environmental issues from 2009 to 2023, only five cases resulted in convictions, according to the UNESCO report.

Meanwhile, more than 70% of the 905 journalists the agency surveyed in 129 countries said they had been attacked, threatened or pressured, and that the violence against them had worsened.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that in Latin America, the situation was "particularly pressing," with two converging issues: "the protection of environmental defenders and the right to exercise freedom of expression."

Boric, citing other figures for the deaths of both environmental activists and journalists in Latin America, said the "chilling figures should call for action," while UNESCO head Audrey Azulay highlighted the case of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2022.

Both Guterres and Boric also condemned the deaths of journalists killed in Gaza as Israel's attacks on the Palestinian territory continue.

(Reporting by Juana Casas; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
This article was originally published in El Paso Matters.

The El Paso Independent School District is planning to close or consolidate schools  which the district calls sunsetting campuses  by the 2025-26 school year as it braces for continued declining enrollment.

EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra on Wednesday announced the district is evaluating programs, resources and facilities and will present recommendations to the Board of Trustees in late fall.

The district will hold a series of community meetings this month to introduce their restructuring plans and gather public input.

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In an interview with El Paso Matters, Sayavedra said the district still doesnt know how many or which of its 76 campuses could be affected but noted it does not plan to close any high schools at this point.

If we dont begin to have that conversation and make those difficult decisions, we will find ourselves in a crisis, Sayavedra told El Paso Matters. So before we get there, were giving ourselves a good runway to partner with the community so that our decisions are informed.

EPISD enrollment declines

The superintendent of El Pasos largest school district said the change is needed due to declining enrollment that she expects to continue falling in the coming years.

EPISDs enrollment has declined by 20% since the 2013-14 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. The district currently has fewer than 50,000 students for the first time since the 1960s.

Over the next 10 years, we stand to lose additional students. Because our birth rates and the birth rates nationally are showing that were graduating more students from school systems than there are children being born, Sayavedra said.

The number of children born to El Paso County residents declined by 21% between 2013 and 2023, according to state data provided to El Paso Matters. Nationally, the number of births declined by 9% in the same period.

Elementary schools are the first affected by declining birth rates. EPISD closed nine elementary schools between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years. The declines then ripple through to middle schools and high schools over the years.

Sayavedra said she expects the districts enrollment to settle between 36,000 and 42,000 students. That would take the districts enrollment back to where it was in the 1950s, according to newspaper reports from that period.

El Paso ISD budget, teacher pay

As enrollment declines, Sayavedra said the district will likely have to tighten its budget and possibly forego raises for its teachers and other employees in the coming school year.

I dont foresee that we can give a significant compensation increase, if any at all. But what I can share with you is that Im going to bring a balanced budget to the board, Sayavedra said. Were not at a point where were having to make significant staffing cuts because weve been very conservative and very fruitful and very strategic about our budget development process.

She said the district plans to maintain its fund balance at 75 days or higher and keeps its employees insurance premiums the same.

Trustees for El Pasos two other largest school districts, the Socorro and Ysleta Independent School Districts, have also said they may not be able to give employees raises in the 2024-25 school year.

During an April board meeting, SISD trustees discussed possibly reducing its employee health plan contributions as it deals with a $33 million deficit.

The future of EPISD high schools

Though Sayavedra said EPISD does not currently plan to close any high schools in the district, many have also seen declines in enrollment.

Since the 2013-14 school year, enrollment dropped by over 43% at Irvin High School, 27% at Austin High School, and 21% at Andress High School.

Among EPISDs 10 traditional high schools, El Paso and Franklin were the only ones to see their enrollment increase during that time, by 31% and under 9%, respectively.

2025 bond election plans

The district also plans to bring a bond election to voters in November 2025 to upgrade heating and cooling systems throughout the district, improve security and potentially pay for upgrades or the construction of new consolidated school campuses.

Sayavedra said changes would need to be made even without a bond.

If we were to sunset a campus, and families are going to transition to another campus, with a bond there may be opportunities for us to update that facility so that its a healthier learning environment for children. But if were not able to pass a bond, at the very least what we will be able to offer is program expansion for the receiving campus, Sayavedra said.

Whats next in school closure plan?

A series of public meetings will be held this month to gather input from the community. Over the summer, the district will develop preliminary criteria for school consolidations and closures.

The criteria will be shared with the community by early fall, and the district will conduct a preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs.

Recommendations will be presented in late fall to the EPISD school board, which will vote on which schools to close or consolidate.

Timeline:

May 2024: 10 feeder pattern community meetings

Summer 2024: EPISD reviews feedback; begins developing preliminary criteria for school consolidations, closures

Early fall 2024: Criteria shared with the community; begins preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs; more community meetings

Late fall 2024: EPISD presents recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

2025-26 school year: School consolidations, closures implemented

This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The El Paso Water is voicing concerns and objections to all three options proposed in a study by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to extend the Border Highway, the utility announced in a news release.

TxDOT study draws concerns over fate of wetlands

From operational impacts to the utilitys commitment of preserving Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, EPWater leaders cannot support TxDOTs proposed plans, read the news release.

Construction of a highway in the area would cause major impacts to the Jonathan Rogers Water

Treatment Plant and the Roberto Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant, said Gilbert Trejo, vice president of operations and technical services. Proposed options would require movement of very large diameter pipelines and potentially cause service disruptions, possibly forcing EPWater into non-compliance with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

EPWater says water and wastewater facilities, deemed critical infrastructure, are increasingly at risk for security threats.

Trejo said that a highway in close proximity would heighten the vulnerability and security and safety of EPWater plants and employees.

EPWaters main service center, which is located on Pan American Drive, houses dozens of fleet vehicles and additional construction and traffic could hinder field crews response times to water main breaks or other emergencies across the city, Trejo said.

Trejo adds that all three options pose serious environmental threats to the nearby Rio bosque Wetlands Park.

As the owner and trustee of the park, EPWater is committed to protecting the 372 acres of

wetlands that have become a sanctuary for biodiversity, providing a habitat for numerous native plants and wildlife species, Trejo said. It is also one of the few and unique public open spaces in the Lower Valley where families can enjoy trails, go bird watching, and learn what El Paso looked like prior to modern development.

EPWater said the utility has been working with the U.S. Army corps of Engineers for several years on a study of Rio Grande.

The Corps has committed to $12 million to park improvements, which could be lost if the highway is built in any of the three proposed locations, according to EPWater.

EPWater appreciates the open communication with TxDOT on the studys proposed plans, but the utility cannot support any option that would impact the daily operations that help provide critical water and wastewater services to the community, Trejo said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above desert pine trees in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Nevada, on August 13, 2015. Credit - Ethan MillerGetty Images

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower, which occurs each year as the Earth passes through remnants of Halleys comet, is expected to reach its peak this weekend. Watchers can expect to see hundreds of meteors fill the sky in the pre-dawn hours. With the moon at a waning crescent, the show is expected to be even more vibrant than usual.

Heres what to know about the Eta Aquarids meteor shower, and what to expect.

What is the Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower?

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower occurs annually, peaking in early May. This year, the Eta Aquarids became active on April 19, and are expected to continue until May 28, though the evening of May 4th, this Saturday, is expected to be the best time to view them. Eta Aquarid meteors are known for their speed, according to NASA. They leave behind glowing trains that can last anywhere from a few seconds to minutes. During the showers peak, roughly 30 Eta Aquarid meteors will be visible per hour in the Southern Hemisphere, and 10 per hour in the Northern Hemisphere.

What should I expect during a meteor shower?

When gazing at the sky on a clear night, its not uncommon to catch sight of a meteor or twothough theyre more commonly known as shooting stars'. Meteor showers, however, occur when there are many meteors passing through the sky at once, and often occur annually or at regular intervals when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet. Meteor showers dont require any special equipment to view.

Where can I see it?

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower will be visible in both the Northern and Southern hemispheresincluding the U.S. in the hours before dawnthough the Southern Hemisphere is expected to see more of a show. To view the shower, NASA recommends staking out a spot far away from city and street lightsand being prepared with a sleeping bag, blanket, or lawn chair.

Lie flat on your back with your feet facing east and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible, NASA recommends, noting that It will take roughly 30 minutes for the meteors to become visible as your eyes adjust to the dark. Be patient  the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.

Write to Simmone Shah at simmone.shah@time.com.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Leaders of a militia in Ethiopia's Amhara region accused the administration in neighbouring Tigray of "beating a war drum" over plans to return hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans to territories Amhara fighters captured during a civil war.

The future of the disputed territories in northern Ethiopia has remained a flashpoint between Tigray and Amhara since the end of a 2020-2022 civil war, in which Amhara militiamen fought alongside the federal government against Tigrayan rebels.

Hundreds of thousands were killed in the war. Some of the worst violence was in the two territories, which constitute the southern and western parts of Tigray under the federal constitution. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans fled, and Amhara fighters set up their own governing administration.

The vice president of Tigray's interim administration, General Tadesse Worede, said on Wednesday that Tigrayan officials had agreed with the federal government to finalise plans for the return of displaced people - by June 7 for one area and July 7 for the other.

Combatants in the area will be disarmed and new local governing administrations created, Tadesse said. The federal defence minister has previously pledged to dissolve "illegal administration" in these areas.

A federal government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about Tadesse's remarks.

Amhara nationalists say they have a historical right to the land, and leaders of an Amhara militia known as Fano described Tadesse's comments as provocation.

"They are beating a war drum. We won't tolerate anyone who would try to impose force and invade," Beyene Alamaw, a representative of Fano's branch in the Gondar area, told an online media briefing late on Thursday.

Leaders from three of Fano's four main branches were represented at the briefing.

Last month, in the most significant violence since the end of the war, clashes erupted between armed Amharas and Tigrayans in one of the disputed areas, forcing around 50,000 people to flee, according to the United Nations.

Despite being allies during the Tigray war, Fano militiamen have been battling the army since last July across Amhara.

The conflict has been fuelled in part by a sense of betrayal among many Amharas about the terms of the November 2022 peace deal between the federal government and Tigrayan leaders, which did not settle the status of the disputed areas.

The federal government has pledged to hold a referendum on whether the areas will belong to Tigray or Amhara, a position rejected by Fano.

(Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Aaron Ross and Hereward Holland; Editing by Michael Perry)
The Russian flag flies over the Russian embassy in Berlin. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The European Union and NATO on Friday issued statements condemning the Russian cyberattack on Germany and the Czech Republic, which says it was also targeted.

The EU statement, issued by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel on behalf of all 27 member states, said the bloc "is determined to make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russias malicious behaviour in cyberspace."

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyberattack on the centre-left Social Democrats, which form the governing coalition with junior partners the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

The EU statement said, "The malicious cyber campaign shows Russias continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond."

The NATO military alliance said: "We stand in solidarity with Germany following the malicious cyber campaign against a political party, in this case the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and with Czechia following the malicious cyber activities against its institutions."

"We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our democratic institutions, national security and free society."

Acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy Alexey Korliakov goes to the Federal Foreign Office after being summoned. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The EU and NATO condemned Russia's "malicious cyber campaign" against Germany and Czechia in public statements on May 3.

Earlier in the day, Germany blamed Russian-backed hackers for a cyberattack against members of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year and promised to respond.

Separately, Czechia accused the same Russian-linked group, known as APT28, of targeting unspecified Czech institutions.

The European Council's press service said that the hacking campaign "shows Russias continuous pattern of irresponsible behavior in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities, and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond."

"This type of behavior is contrary to the U.N. norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace, such as impairing the use and operation of critical infrastructure."

In a public statement, NATO expressed "concern that the same threat actor (APT28) targeted other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators, and other entities across the Alliance, including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden."

"We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our democratic institutions, national security, and free society," the statement continued.

Russia's military intelligence agency, also known as GRU, has already been linked to numerous cyberattacks in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that a GRU-backed group called SandWorm was responsible for a large-scale hacking attack against the Kyivstar telecommunications provider in December 2023.

Read also: UK accuses Russian FSB of multi-year campaign of cyber-attacks

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Prosecutors have described Marius Gustavson (pictured) as the 'arch-manipulator' of 'vulnerable' victims - Facebook

The ringleader of a body modification cult claimed the break-up of his marriage drove him to perform dozens of mutilations on men and himself, a court heard.

Marius Gustavson, a 46-year-old Norwegian national living in north London, said the trauma of his separation in 2016 awoke his previously dormant condition of body integrity dysphoria (BID), the Old Bailey heard on Friday.

BID is a mental health condition where you feel that a limb or healthy body part shouldnt be part of your body.

Gustavson is now wheelchair-bound after willingly having his leg frozen and then amputated. He has also had his penis and a nipple removed.

A court has previously heard that he received 18,000 in benefits since having his leg amputated.

Gustavson is facing jail with six co-defendants for castrating and sexually torturing men to provide footage for a sado-masochistic website known as Eunuch Maker.

The website is estimated to have raked in 300,000 from its 22,841 paying viewers across the globe between 2017 and 2021.

At least 50 mutilations

Prosecutors have described Gustavson as the arch-manipulator of vulnerable victims and was involved with at least 30 mutilations of willing men over the four-year-long stretch.

Rashvinderjeet Panesar, defending Gustavson, told the court on Thursday that the 11-year-long relationship had kept him stable but when it came to an end, it sent him into a spiral.

Mr Panesar said that Gustavson simply wished to put a smile on other peoples faces and that he had an addiction to body modifications.

He told the court, presided over by Judge Mark Lucraft KC: ... your Lordship is aware that in 2016 [Gustavsons] marriage broke up.

Before then there had been no body modifications.

That relationship began in 2005; that is a relationship that kept him stable. When it came to an end, it sent him into a spiral.

During all of that time from puberty to the end of his marriage, the psychiatrist has reported that the precursor and symptoms of BID had remained dormant within him.

Put a smile on other peoples faces

Mr Panesar added: He does say that he wished to put a smile on other peoples faces; he did want to help.

He was somebody who was stuck in a body that he wanted to self-harm and make changes to and understood there were more people out there who wished to do the same.

Given the nature of what was going on in these offences I ask your Lordship to bear this in mind, we are fully aware of transgender operations, males wanting to become females, females wanting to become males, this case surrounds people wanting to be known as nullos or as neutral gender, for which there is little research and little knowledge.

Nullo refers to a movement where men become nullos, by having their penis and testicles removed.

Gustavson had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm, five counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, possessing criminal property, namely money, and making and distributing two indecent videos of a child between January 2017 and January 2020.

The court also heard that Peter Wates, 67, a co-defendant of Gustavson, kept genitalia in a Clover butter box labelled Bolete mushrooms.

Wates, a former gem expert and member of the Royal Society of Chemists, kept a scrotum and two severed penises in the freezer of the home he shared with his father in Surrey.

Genitalia from two humans

He has pleaded guilty to being involved with nine mutilations following his arrest in February 2022.

The court heard that during a search of his home, officers uncovered a Clover butter container sealed with brown tape.

Written on the container was Peters, unknown Bolete mushrooms, safe needs identification. Do not defrost.

A video played to the court showed officers searching his home, remarking: They do not feel like Porcini mushrooms or any type of mushrooms.

Forensic pathologists who analysed the genitalia confirmed they came from two humans but could not confirm their identity.

Wates was described previously in court as the right-hand man to Gustavson.

Caroline Carberry KC, prosecuting, told the court: A number of messages passed between him and Gustavson show that Peter Wates was in the business of purchasing body parts from Mr Gustavson.

Other defendants

Wates has five previous convictions for ammunition offences. The ammunition was discovered during the search alongside the body parts on Feb 2 2022.

He was spared jail and fined at Central London magistrates court.

The other defendants are Romanian Ion Ciucur, 30, and German Stefan Scharf, 61.

Also facing jail are former surgical assistant David Carruthers, 61; his boyfriend Ashley Williams, 32; and Janus Atkin, 39, all from South Wales.

Wates admitted conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Ciucur admitted conspiracy to cause GBH with intent in relation to two modifications.

Scharf admits causing grievous bodily harm.

Carruthers and Atkin admit conspiracy to commit bodily harm.

Williams admitted to causing grievous bodily harm.

Co-defendant Janus Atkin, 38, was said to have fallen under the spell of Gustavson and had laid on the butchers slab himself before donning the butchers apron.

Atkin pleaded guilty to being involved with eight procedures between May 2018 and January 2020.

The court heard Atkin had removed his own testicles before taking part in any other mutilations.

Academically brilliant

Andrew Taylor, defending Atkin, claimed that the mutilations were carried out with care and a degree of professionalism.

He described Atkin as academically brilliant who was on course to achieve a first-class degree in veterinary science from Liverpool and Bristol University.

He told the court: It shows we are dealing with a man who is highly intelligent, academically gifted and if properly treated at a young age may go on to become a very valuable member of society.

He is a man of no previous convictions  he has worked from time to time.

Had he not met Marius Gustavson and quickly fallen under his spell, this court nor any other would ever have seen him

He was law abiding, he was studious and he had no interest whatsoever in committing criminal offences, it was his own surgical procedure that led him to the world of Marius Gustavson.

He may very well have been seduced by how Marius Gustavson was talking.

The hearing continues.

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Turkiye halted all trade activities with Israel as of Thursday due to the latter's "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Turkish Trade Ministry said. #XinhuaNews
At least 224 people rescued in Texas as rivers flood to Hurricane Harvey levels, with more rain forecasted

At least 224 people have been rescued from homes and vehicles in Harris County, Texas, an official said Saturday night, with more rain expected over the weekend in the wake of strong storms and downpours that damaged homes and triggered evacuations.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told CNN, adding 153 pets have also been rescued during a deluge that has left livestock stranded.

Its been really sad to see the impact of peoples livelihoods, homes, infrastructure as well as just the public infrastructure, Hidalgo told CNN Saturday.

Were really asking folks to give it a minute before they go back home.

Most of the weekend rain will fall over western and central Texas, but a chance of heavier rain returns for the greater Houston area on Sunday. The heaviest downpours in central Texas will occur upstream of the flooding in Houston  which is located in Harris, potentially exacerbating flooding in a region where 12 river gauges have reached major flood stage.

This weeks storms were just the latest in a series of brutal weather events that have pounded the state since early April. Dozens of tornadoes have hit from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, some areas of the state have been pounded with softball-sized hail and months of rain has fallen in East Texas in intense spurts, causing rivers to rise to levels not seen since the devastating floods of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

The Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for southwestern Texas  including San Angelo and Del Rio  until 10 p.m. local time. Severe thunderstorms capable of producing a few tornadoes, hail as large as grapefruit and damaging winds up to 70 mph are possible across the region this afternoon and evening, according to the center.

The risk for a strong tornado may maximize during the late afternoon to early evening timeframe, the center warned.

A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect from southeastern New Mexico into northwestern Texas until 10 p.m. local time. It includes Abilene and Midland in Texas, and Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The forecast comes as some communities north of Houston picked up nearly two months worth of rain Thursday. This rainfall plunged roadways underwater and forced rivers to overflow, leading to evacuations and water rescues.

The bridge over Lake Houston, along West Lake Houston Parkway from Kingwood to Atascocita, was closed due to high water on Saturday in Kingwood, Texas. - Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle/AP

Heres whats happened in South Texas Friday evening:

 San Jacinto County, 60 miles north of Houston: About 100-200 homes are affected by floodwaters and mandatory evacuations are in effect. The event is 85% worse than Hurricane Harvey, Emmitt Eldridge, the countys emergency management coordinator, told CNN. Eldridge said since they are downstream from Dallas along the Trinity River, we are expecting to see a lot more water because of additional rainfall. Anything they deal with, we deal with, he added. According to Eldridge, there have been at least 58 water rescues in the county so far. More rain is expected in the area next week.

 Walker County, about 70 miles northwest of Houston: Authorities are calling the floods historic there as well. This has been a historic flood for Walker County. We have flooded more from this event than we did during Hurricane Harvey, Sherri Pegoda, Walker Countys deputy emergency management coordinator, told CNN. According to Pegoda, two communities are underwater along the Trinity River and are only accessible via high-water vehicles. Almost all roads in Walker County were completely submerged Monday night and into Tuesday, Pegoda said. We still have approximately 43 roads that are flooded with several major washouts and a couple of bridges that have been compromised. At least 42 high-water rescues have been performed in the county since April 28, she added.

 Polk County, about 80 miles northeast of Houston: A mandatory evacuation order remains in place for low-lying unincorporated areas as severe weather is expected to impact the area Sunday, the Polk County Office of Emergency Management said in a Facebook post. Areas under evacuation orders are along the Trinity River and below the Lake Livingston Dam. Our area may receive up to 1 to 3 inches of rainfall with isolated amounts of up to 4 to 8 inches possible, the post said. The county is under a flood watch until 7 p.m. Sunday, the post said.

Roughly 700 homes have been flooded, according to emergency management officials, who warned additional rainfall could keep flood levels on the rise in the coming days. A total of 1,000 homes are in a mandatory evacuation zone in the county, Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy told CNN. A flood warning remained in effect Friday for the county. The judge said they were concerned and keeping an eye on what was happening north of the county with the flooding because it would impact the area. Due to continuous rainfall across East Texas and rising levels in creeks and rivers, flood levels may increase. Please remain aware of changing flood levels along the Trinity River and ALL low-lying levels. If you wish to evacuate, please do so now!, the emergency management office recently said in a Facebook post.

 Harris County, which also includes several northern Houston suburbs: Mandatory evacuations have been in place since Thursday for residents on the east side of the East Fork of the San Jacinto River. The river hit major flood stage on Thursday and is forecast to crest Saturday morning just a few feet shy of the record level during Harvey. We want you out of this area this is a life-threatening situation, Hidalgo said at a news conference. The level of water rise anticipated will impact elevated structures and may rise to reach rooftops or power lines, according to Hidalgo.

In the Harris County suburb of Crosby, a school bus driver spotted flooding over a road that had not yet been barricaded, stopped the bus and had the middle and high school students on board exit through the rear door, according to a statement from the school district. Another bus brought the students to school, where they were provided with breakfast and dry clothes, the statement added.

Flooding in Livingston, Texas. - Drone Bros

 Liberty County, about 45 miles northeast of Houston: The Coast Guard transported a 12-hour-old baby girl by helicopter from Cleveland, Texas, Friday. The girl was experiencing low oxygen levels at Texas Emergency Hospital, which does not have a neonatal intensive care unit, according to a news release from the Coast Guard. Due to flooding, she could not be transported by ambulance on the ground. The helicopter took the girl and her mother to Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston, where the baby was reported to be in stable condition, the release added.

Voluntary evacuations due to flooding were also in place for Montgomery County, just to the north of Harris County.

Disaster declarations are active for over a third of Texas counties after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded the storm-related declarations in response to the flooding, according to a news release. Additional counties could be added in the coming days, particularly with more storms in the forecast.

Parts of eastern Texas have received anywhere from three to seven times their typical rainfall over the last three to four weeks. The repeated bouts of heavy rainfall soaked soils, making many areas extremely prone to both flash and river flooding. Nearly a foot of rain fell in some spots from Thursday to Friday morning, delivering the final blow. Periods of rain will continue through Friday evening, and an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain are possible.

The worst flooding is confined to southeastern Texas where at least a dozen river gauges  including parts of the San Jacinto and Trinity rivers  are in major flood stage, the highest level, as of Friday morning. Several more sites are forecast to experience major flooding by the weekend and could meet or exceed record levels set during Harvey.

Hurricane Harvey created a widespread flooding disaster in Houston after dropping 30 to 40 inches of rain across the entire metro in just 48 hours. While this weeks ongoing flooding is notable, its much less widespread and occurring north of where Harveys worst rain fell.

Powerful storms rolled across the state

As torrential rain flooded eastern Texas, severe thunderstorms spun up tornadoes both north and south of the Abilene area in west Texas. There were eight reports of tornadoes Thursday, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

A large and extremely dangerous tornado impacted the towns of Hodges and Hawley  about 10 miles north of Abilene  Thursday evening.

Around 30 homes in Hawley were shredded by the tornados winds, with entire sections of some homes left completely exposed. Cars in the area also sustained damage from flying debris. There were numerous injuries, but no deaths as of Friday morning, Hawley Police Chief Brad Wilson told CNN.

At least one area school district is allowing students to study from home or take time to recover Friday, following Thursday evenings damaging tornado.

The Hawley community has been hit pretty hard and we have several families that have lost homes, the Hawley Independent School District said in a Facebook post.

A home damaged by storms Thursday in between Hawley and Hodges, Texas. - KTXS

Rainfall totals from flooding in Texas and Louisiana this week showed nearly two feet of rain in five days, according to the National Weather Service. Totals ranged from 23.56 inches in Groveton, Texas, to 18.42 inches in Livingston, Texas.

CNNs Allison Chinchar, Sara Tonks, Ray Sanchez, Andy Rose, Joe Sutton and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.

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DENVER (KDVR)  An Evergreen man who threatened to do a mass shooting at three Colorado locations was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in the Department of Corrections on charges related to making those threats.

Kyle William Staebell, 34, pleaded guilty to making threats on Jan. 16, 2023, to commit mass violence at the FBI office in Denver, a Homeland Security office and a Colorado-based performing arts group, according to a release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado.

Former Adams County sheriff pleads guilty in training records fraud scheme

Later that day, the FBI, Denver and Lakewood police departments and Jefferson County Sheriffs Office arrested Staebell for the threats.

Investigators learned that in the months preceding Staebells arrest, he had gone to each of the three locations in person, conducted online research and had a Molotov cocktail in his possession. Court documents stated that Staebell said he went to the performing art groups building and entered through an unlocked door because he wanted to conduct an orchestra with a Harry Potter wand that he claimed he had found.

Free speech is protected by the First Amendment, but when speech crosses the line into threats of violence, it becomes a crime, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in the release. Violence and threats of violence have no place in our society, and this sentence demonstrates our resolve to disrupt plots to commit mass violence and keep our communities safe.

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The FBI asks that the public report suspicious or threatening behavior to local law enforcement or by calling 1-800-225-5324. Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.

According to court documents, Staebell used the FBI tip line to threaten an attack on the FBI Denver Division Office, and provided his real name in the form.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Evergreen signs agreement with students to move toward divesting from companies profiting in Gaza

Officials at The Evergreen State College in Olympia and students with the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment reached an agreement in which the public college will work toward divesting from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and/or the occupation of Palestinian territories.

The Memorandum of Understanding was struck after the student-led group occupied the schools Red Square April 26.

The negotiations happened late Tuesday evening.

At the end everybody was really proud of how the negotiations went, Evergreen spokesperson Kelly Von Holtz told McClatchy Thursday.

As part of the agreement with school officials, the encampment was cleared Wednesday.

The signed Memorandum of Understanding between college leadership and the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment lays out four policy questions that student and faculty-led committees will continue to work to sort out.

The Investment Policy Disappearing Task Force will look at plans to address divesting from certain companies. Recommendations will be due in fall to be considered by college leadership.

The Grant Acceptance Policy Disappearing Task Force will decide on criteria for accepting or refusing grants based on the purposes of the grant which the task force will present to the board of trustees in the fall.

Criteria would include such considerations as whether grants facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities, the MOU reads.

A Civilian Oversight of the Police Department Disappearing Task Force will be propose a new structure for the Police Services Community Review Board, including updating the Police Services Standard Operating Procedures.

Additionally, an Alternative Models of Crisis Response Disappearing Task Force will propose an alternative non-law enforcement model for 24-hour crisis response by 2025.

As part of the MOU, Evergreen will be required to make a statement that defends the rights and free speech of students and must include a paragraph from the President stating:

Like many, I am horrified and grief-stricken by the violence and suffering being inflicted due to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I wish to see an end to the violence and restoration of international law, including respect for the March 25 United Nations resolution. Specifically, the resolution called for a lasting, sustainable ceasefire honored by all parties, immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, expanded humanitarian assistance, and the protection of civilians. Additionally, I mourn the destruction of universities and hospitals, the (killing) of journalists, and want to see the release of any prisoner being held without due process.

Further, Evergreen will no longer approve study abroad programs to Israel, which it has done in the past, Von Holtz said. Students also will not be allowed to travel to Gaza or the West Bank for study abroad programs, although Von Holtz was uncertain whether the college has previously approved study abroad programs there.

The MOU also outlined the colleges commitment to diversity and the prohibition of discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including Jews and Palestinians.

The encampment at Evergreen was just one of many happening on college campuses around the U.S. and across the globe in response to the situation in Gaza. Since Oct. 7, 2023, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli government after a Hamas-led attack on Israeli civilians killed over 1,100, according to national news reports.

On Wednesday, a second encampment occupied the lawns of the University of Washington campus in Seattle. The first encampment occupied the area Monday. Both groups are calling on UW to cut ties with Israel.

Police in some areas, including at Columbia University in New York City and the University of California at Los Angeles, have cracked down on protesters with force and arrests. More than 2,000 Pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested so far in the U.S.
Every officer should be trained to use a Taser  for all our sakes

Woods: 'With knife crime on the rise, anything that gives assailants pause should be part and parcel of front-line policing' - Daniel Allan/Photodisc

To taser or not to taser? That is the question in modern policing.

Like a great many members of the public, I should have thought the answer was easy. Just this week we saw dramatic doorbell footage showing the moment police tasered and arrested a 36-year-old man after a horrific stabbing attack in north-east London.

Schoolboy Daniel Anjorin, aged just 14, was killed, and four people  including two police officers, one of whom almost lost her hand  were left injured after the rampage in Hainault.

The suspect was finally stopped and brought to the ground after he was hit by three separate Taser discharges. It looked like a highly effective weapon  so why doesnt every copper carry one?

Since this shocking incident the Police Federation has renewed its call that every officer should have the option of carrying the non-lethal devices. Surveys also show that serving officers in England and Wales overwhelmingly (as many as 83 per cent in Greater Manchester) want to be routinely equipped with them  yet uptake varies considerably depending on the police force.

Northumbria has the highest proportion of Taser-trained front-line officers, Staffordshire the lowest. The Metropolitan Police is somewhere in the middle, with 7,500 front-line officers trained and equipped out of an estimated 34,000.

Its not been revealed whether the female police officer who underwent emergency surgery to save her hand was carrying one, but it seems unlikely. So why the reluctance to roll out such a highly effective way of containing a violent suspect? Tasers, which are bright yellow, fire two barbs that attach to the targets skin and deliver a sequence of short high-voltage pulses that result in the loss of voluntary muscle control, causing the subject to fall to the ground or freeze.

Initially the voltage peaks at 50,000 volts, but by the time it reaches the body it is substantially less. People who have been tasered have variously described it as excruciating, like having their brain vigorously shaken, or akin to the sensation of bees crawling through their skin.

I was surprised to learn the effect only lasts five seconds  not long, but long enough for a suspect to be handcuffed or otherwise contained.

According to the Police Federation, in 85 per cent of cases where a Taser is drawn, it is not fired  because its use as a deterrent is enough. Again, surely this underlines the need for more Tasers? Knife crime is on the rise; anything that gives assailants pause should be part and parcel of front-line policing.

Concerns over the potential use of Tasers on those with mental health problems should certainly be addressed. As with the discharge of a firearm, when a Taser is used, it is logged and subject to investigation. They are not fired lightly.

Our police forces dont routinely carry guns. They are expected to perform their duties in what can be  or rapidly become  the most dangerous and unpredictable of scenarios, unarmed.

Is that reasonable? I dont think it is. It is high time all officers were permitted to carry Tasers. For their safety. And for ours.

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EATONTON, Ga. (WJBF)  FBI Atlanta is releasing new information in a 10-year-old Georgia cold case.

Russell and Shirley Dermond of Lake Oconee, Georgia, were found murdered in May of 2014.

The decapitated body of 88-year-old Russell Dermond was found May 6, 2014, in the garage of his home on Lake Oconee. Authorities pulled the body of his wife, 87-year-old Shirley Dermond, from the lake on May 16th, 2014 after it was found by a fisherman.

The Putnam County Sheriffs Office is the lead agency. Since shortly after the discovery of the murders, FBI Atlanta has been assisting, along with other agencies.

In conjunction with Sheriff Howard Sills, FBI Atlanta Special Agent Andy Smith confirmed Thursday that additional DNA has been found in connection with the case.

This is a crime that has really had an affect on a wonderful community in Georgia, and it has had an affect on the sheriffs office there, the investigators, remarked Special Agent Smith. It was such a horrific crime. Its really a convergence of events that has caused this case to go unsolved especially with the amount of work that people have been putting into it. It is a bit different than some of the other cases. The evidence and the way these crimes were committed, in over 20 years in the FBI, Ive never seen a case like this.

The evidence has been sent to a private DNA lab for further testing.

Additional evidence is being sent to the FBI Lab at Quantico for testing as well.

Sheriff Sills and Special Agent Smith say this is the first time they have found DNA evidence that did not belong to either of the victims.

If there is enough DNA evidence, investigators can possibly put this into a national database to potentially identify a suspect.

The FBI Atlanta is also announcing a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the brutal crime.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF.
Former Trump White House press aide Sarah Matthews on Thursday talked about the possible effect the lack of in-person support from family members may be having on the former president during his hush money trial. She also predicted why Trumps wife, former first lady Melania Trump, wont be standing by his side during the proceedings.

Trump is someone whos all about branding and optics and he knows that its not necessarily the best look that he hasnt had his family by his side [and] that there arent crowds of protesters outside supporting him, Matthews told MSNBCs Chris Jansing.

Trump feeds off of that kind of energy and so for that not to be assembled outside the courthouse is probably disappointing to him, and putting him in a bad mood and so then hes lashing out at aides, she continued.

Eric Trump, the former presidents son, is the only family member to attend court so far. Campaign surrogates have started to join the defendant in the courtroom this week.

Matthews envisioned more relatives and supporters coming to Trumps side in the coming weeks.

Theyll continue to try to bring people to be around him so he feels a little bit less embarrassed about the situation, she predicted.

Melania Trump likely wont be among them, though, said Matthews. Donald Trump, after all, is accused of falsifying documents to cover up hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Look, she hasnt even campaigned with him yet, Matthews noted of the former first lady. So, I dont think when were talking about a case where he made a hush money payment to a porn star, or had an affair with her, and then paid her off because he had this affair just days after Melania gave birth to their son. I really wouldnt imagine that she wants to sit through a trial like this.

Watch the video here:

Related...
The former Republican governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin saw his access to the house where his estranged wife lives limited this week after she came forward with allegations that he follows her around inside the house asking questions about their divorce.

In an affidavit connected to an order looking for the exclusive use of the home east of Louisville that they co-own, Glenna Bevin referred to Mr Bevins actions as aggressive and unsettling and disruptive to the household, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Angela Johnson made the ruling following a motion from Ms Bevin asking for the exclusive use of the home, that she and Mr Bevin only speak via a parenting app, that Ms Bevin gets half of the funds from the sale of another property in Jefferson County, and that Mr Bevin be held in contempt for failing to answer discovery.

The judge granted all counts apart from holding Mr Bevin in contempt, saying it would be premature. She pointed to Mr Bevins hesitancy to share some documents because of the risk of having information about the prominent family made public.

Because of the parties well-known status, the Court agrees with the Respondents concerns and believes that a contempt motion is premature, Judge Johnson wrote.

Ms Bevin currently lives in the home in Anchorage east of Louisville with their two children, while Mr Bevin mostly lives in another home that they also co-own in Jefferson County. Judge Johnson ruled that the Anchorage home be listed for sale within 60 days.

Former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin at the unveiling of the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant on 14 March 2019 in Georgetown, Kentucky (Getty Images)

The judge gave Mr Bevin a week to get essential things from the home, such as clothes and work items, after which he will have to have the permission of Ms Bevin or a judge to enter the home.

Ms Bevin filed for divorce in May last year, calling the marriage irretrievably broken. The ruling stated that Mr Bevin hasnt slept in the home in Anchorage for more than two years.

Judge Johnson wrote in her order that Mr Bevin seems to be a caring father that is trying to maintain as much a sense of normalcy as possible while the divorce proceeds.

While [Mr Bevin] admitted that he did not want the divorce, [he] seems to be trying to keep the parties relationship and maintain a business as usual environment, she added. However, the truth of the matter is that the parties are getting a divorce. Normalcy and the business as usual environment are gone.

The 57-year-old Mr Bevin served as the Republican governor of Kentucky between 2015 and 2019 before losing his re-election bid to Democrat Andy Beshear, who won re-election last year.

Ms Bevin stated in her affidavit that Mr Bevin often refuses to leave until after she goes to bed and that he tries to talk to her about their divorce case, and when she attempts to end the conversation, he follows me from room to room and even into the bathroom or my bedroom, disrespecting my privacy; to me, his conduct is aggressive and unsettling.

Mr Bevins attorney said his client rejects the allegations in response to Ms Bevins motion. He vehemently denies that he follows her around the home and otherwise harasses her about the case.

The attorney wrote that Mr Bevin is at a loss as to why she wants to revoke his access to the home, according to Louisville Public Media.

Such an assertion is simply not true and is designed to embarrass and malign Matt, lawyer Jesse Mudd wrote.

After Judge Johnsons ruling on Tuesday, Mr Mudd moved to request that the case be sealed from the public.

As the Court is aware, the parties to this case are the former Governor and First Lady of Kentucky, and as such, this divorce action has already garnered media attention and public discourse and will likely continue to do so, Mr Mudd wrote. To that end, Matt seeks to protect the parties from the public dissemination of their finances, business interests and other personal information relating to their family.

The Independent has attempted to reach Mr Mudd for comment.
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)  A former postman has learned his fate following his conviction for conspiring to help deliver cocaine while he was working.

Carlos Medina, 57, of Lititz, was sentenced to 4 1/2 to 10 years in prison Friday morning by a Lancaster County judge. He was originally convicted on charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, criminal use of a communication facility, and criminal conspiracy.

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Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Rall called the crimes a great abuse of his job and position as an employee of the United States Postal Service.

The charges stem from an investigation launched after Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico intercepted two packages bound for Lancaster County that contained just over 1,000 grams of cocaine each in March of 2022.

The packages were bound for real addresses, but to fictitious names, and along the same postal delivery route.

Authorities from the Pennsylvania State Police, Homeland security, and the Postal Service set up a sting operation and caught Medina delivering the decoy package to a co-defendant, who has not yet been sentenced, and another individual.

Medina told police that he was approached by an unknown Hispanic male about delivering the packages along his route, knowing the contents were illegal, and accepting $1,000 per delivery.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
Attorneys for the former Grand Rapids police officer charged in the April 2022 fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya are asking the Michigan Supreme Court to consider whether Christopher Schurr, who faces a second-degree murder charge, should have to stand trial.

On Thursday, Schurr's defense attorneys filed an application for leave to the Supreme Court. Schurr's attorneys have argued he was acting within his right as a police officer during the shooting because Lyoya had attempted to flee a traffic stop on the southeastern side of Grand Rapids, and had attempted to grab Schurr's stun gun after the officer attempted to deploy it twice but missed.

Matthew Borgula, the attorney representing Christopher Schurr, speaks to reporters following a preliminary hearing Friday, Oct. 28, 2022, at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich. Schurr, a former Grand Rapids Police officer, is charged with second-degree murder for the April shooting of Patrick Lyoya.

Attorneys also state the court should clearly rule on the justification of use of force by police officers, arguing that previous court rulings and a lack of a definition in existing state law presents a challenge for officers currently.

By granting this application and articulating what the law is for police officers who are charged with a crime for using deadly force on the job, this Court can deliver the clarity, accountability and predictability that our lower courts, prosecutors, citizens, and police officers deserve," Schurr's attorneys, led by Matthew Borgula of Grand Rapids, wrote in a 63-page filing.

The court can decline to hear the case.

In January, a split Court of Appeals panel ruled that a district judge did not err in binding Schurr over for trial, echoing arguments from prosecutors that it should be up to a jury to decide whether Schurr used appropriate force in fatally shooting Lyoya, a Congolese refugee who was 26 at the time of his death. The panel also declined to reconsider the case in March.

Video released by the Grand Rapids Police Department showed Schurr pulling over a car driven by Lyoya in a residential neighborhood. Lyoya exited the vehicle and had attempted to flee the traffic stop, running away from Schurr. The two engaged in a physical struggle before Schurr ultimately shot Lyoya in the back of the head while Lyoya was facedown in the yard of a nearby home. Schurrs attorneys have argued that he was acting within his right as a police officer. During the physical struggle, Schurr had attempted twice to deploy his stun gun on Lyoya but missed both times. As the two struggled, Lyoya attempted to grab the stun gun. Just before the officer fired his gun, he yelled, Let go of the Taser!

In June 2022, Schurr was charged with second-degree murder by the Kent County Prosecutor's Office and was bound over for trial after a preliminary examination in October 2022. Schurr was fired from the department shortly after the charge was announced.

The shooting and the subsequent release of its footage sparked protests in Grand Rapids, as well as calls for increased accountability from the Grand Rapids Police Department. Since the shooting, the department has instituted new training standards emphasizing de-escalation methods and a departmental policy dedicated to the sanctity of life.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-officer charged in Lyoya shooting asks high court to hear appeal
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station Thursday as he failed bring with him photo identification, which is required under a relatively new law introduced by his government two years ago.

Polling station staff in Johnson's constituency of South Oxfordshire were forced to turn the former Conservative party chief away as Johnson attempted to cast his ballot in local elections, as first reported by the U.K.'s Sky News.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a resignation statement in front of 10 Downing Street in central London on July 7, 2022. / Credit: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Johnson later returned with the necessary ID to cast his vote, according to Sky.

Johnson has not publicly commented on the incident. The last post on his X account, published as voting began Thursday in a number of local and regional elections around the U.K., read: "The polls are now open. Vote Conservative today!"

Under The Election Act, legislation that passed into law in 2022 under Johnson's government, British voters are required to show an accepted form of photo ID at polling stations.

Critics of the law have said the legislation makes it more difficult for people to vote and will act as a form of voter suppression.

A spokesperson for Britain's Electoral Commission said after polls closed on Thursday night that "a number of new measures from the Elections Act were in force at these elections, including voter ID for the first time in Wales and parts of England. The electoral community has been working hard to prepare voters for these changes. Most voters who wanted to vote were able to do so."

"Our initial assessment of the elections is that they were well-run, and millions of voters were able to exercise their democratic rights," the spokesperson said.

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BISHKEK, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to 31 children were injured after a mini-truck crashed into a group of students during a festive event in southern Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, said the regional Internal Affairs Directorate.

The tragedy occurred in the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad region during a competition of young Manas epic narrators.

During the event, a mini-truck rushed down a hill and ran into a group of students. The driver, who brought ice cream for the children, got out of the vehicle before it rushed down, the government agency said.

According to the country's Health Ministry, 31 children aged 9-16 were injured as a result of the accident with four of them in serious condition. Another 13 children received outpatient treatment.

The truck driver is currently detained. All necessary examinations have been assigned. 
Ex-West Lafayette police officer ordered to appear at his initial hearing on May 17

LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Ex-West Lafayette police Officer Jake Forgey is ordered to appear at 8:30 a.m. May 17 in Tippecanoe Superior 4 for his initial hearing on charges of counterfeiting and official misconduct, according to an order signed Tuesday.

Forgey is accused of filling out a search warrant outside of a fraternity house on Nov. 16, then using that paper that was not signed by a judge to enter the house to look for people officers believed were smoking marijuana on the balcony, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Special Prosecutor Rodney Cummings filed charges against Forgey on Monday and requested an arrest warrant for Forgey, according to online court records.

Jake Forgey resigned from the West Lafayette Police Department on Feb. 20, 2024, after discrepancies were discovered between his reports and his body-worn video. Thirty-eight misdemeanor charges, 12 felony charges and one traffic citation were dismissed because of Forgey's involvement in those cases, according to documents provided by the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor's Office.

On Tuesday, Judge Matt Sandy signed an order for Forgey to appear for the May 17 initial hearing. There's nothing in the online court docket to indicate that Sandy signed the request for an arrest warrant.

Forgey's charges are Level 6 felonies, each carrying a possible prison sentence between six and 30 months, according to Indiana law.

At some point, Forgey will be required to report to the Tippecanoe County Jail to be fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken. Sandy has the authority to release Forgey on his own recognizance or require him to post a bond.

Forgey's behavior surfaced in February after police and prosecutors discovered that the now ex-police officer's written reports embellished what his body-worn video revealed.

Forgey was hired in June 2022 and resigned from the West Lafayette Police Department on Feb. 20, 2024.

Prosecutors have dismissed at least 51 cases against defendants because of Forgey's direct involved in the cases.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Ex-West Lafayette police officer ordered to appear at initial hearing
How exactly will the EUs new Entry-Exit System work? All your questions answered

How exactly will the EUs new Entry-Exit System work? All your questions answered

The EU's post-Brexit Entry-Exit System (EES) was originally supposed to launch in 2022, then was rescheduled for May 2023 before being pushed back even further to the end of last year.

Despite continuous setbacks, its finally set to launch this autumn. But a significant chunk of UK adults say they have no idea about how the EES will work.

Luckily for those puzzled about the new system, ABTA - The Travel Association - has laid bare exactly how the EES will look in practice.

Heres what to expect.

What exactly is the EU Entry/Exit system?

Put simply, the EES is a new electronic system which will replace the physical stamping of passports when you go through passport control on arrival.

All EU member states except Cyprus and Ireland, where passports will still be stamped manually, and all four non-EU Schengen countries - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland - will take part.

All entries and exits to and from the participating European countries will be recorded. In laymans terms, that means your movements will be registered every time you cross a border in or out of the EU or Schengen area.

When the system goes live, on arriving at a new country, youll need to provide your passport as always, alongside having a photo of your face taken and your fingerprints scanned electronically.

Heres who EES will apply to when it comes into force

People who are already citizens of the EU or the Schengen countries will not be affected and will be able to travel freely throughout the area.

Instead, the EES will apply to people coming from what the EU calls a third country - namely those who are not EU citizens or citizens of the Schengen area.

That includes most people travelling from the UK as well as from further afield.

The EES will apply to those travelling for a short stay - visits, holidays or business trips that have a total duration of up to 90 days within a 180 day period.

A police officers guard the motorway leading to the ferry port in Calais, northern France in this file image - Christophe Ena/AP/File

British passport holders who have EU residency will be exempt from EES.

In the vast majority of cases, the EES checks will take place in Europe when you arrive at your destination airport or port.

If youre travelling via the Port of Dover or via international train from the UK, then those checks will happen on departure instead, while youre going through passport control on the UK side.

Thats because there is a dual border - British and French - at both locations, which means you wont need to do these checks again when you arrive on the other side.

What is the ETIAS, set to come into force in 2025?

The EU is planning to go even further with its travel restrictions come 2025.

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) will be another new system for travellers within the bloc.

The new travel authorisation system will need to be applied for ahead of a persont travels to 30 European countries involved in the scheme. Ireland is exempt as it's part of the Common Travel Area.

The ETIAS is a similar concept to the USAs existing ESTA and the UKs ongoing ETA scheme.

It is due to be introduced in mid-2025 but there is no exact date as to when it will come into force.

That means you do not need to have an ETIAS for travel to Europe at the moment and, as the system is not live, the website itself is not live or taking applications, so you cannot yet get an official ETIAS. Any websites claiming to offer this service today are not official and should be avoided.

When ETIAS does become official, visa-exempt travellers from third countries will need to apply for it at a cost of 7. The processing time is expected to be between 30 minutes and 96 hours.

In simple terms, that means if you are travelling to the EU for a short stay and are not a citizen of an EU or Schengen country, then you will need an ETIAS.

Similarly to the terms of the EES, a short stay' refers to visits, holidays or business trips that have a duration of up to 90 days and are taken within a 180 day period.

If you are travelling on a visa, you wont need an ETIAS and if youre a British passport holder but have EU residency you also wont need one.

What will the rules around the ETIAS be when they go live?

ETIAS will cost 7 for most travellers, but will be free for those under the age of 18 and aged 70 and over.

Each application will last for three years and allow holders to travel on multiple trips during this period using the same one.

There are caveats that you should be aware of, though.

If your passport expires during the ETIAS validity period, you will need to apply for a new ETIAS.

It will also not be valid if it expires during your stay. In such cases, you would need to apply for a new ETIAS in advance of your travels, to cover the duration of your stay.
FILE PHOTO: Billionaire businessman Guo Wengui speaks during an interview in New York

FILE PHOTO: Billionaire businessman Guo Wengui speaks during an interview in New York

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - The chief of staff to exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring with him to carry out a massive scheme that defrauded thousands of investors out of more than $1 billion.

Yvette Wang, 45, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Her plea came just three weeks before she was set to face trial alongside Guo.

Wang has been held in custody since she and Guo were arrested in March 2023. Wang now faces up to 10 years in prison when she goes before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres for sentencing on Sept. 10, according to her plea agreement.

"Wang inflicted pain and loss on so many, and she will now be held to account for the harm she and others caused," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Wang's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Kwok, Guo is a critic of China's Communist Party and business associate of former U.S. President Donald Trump's onetime adviser Steve Bannon.

Guo has been jailed in Brooklyn since his March 2023 arrest and is set to face trial on May 22 on charges that he and his accomplices defrauded investors in a media company, cryptocurrency and other ventures.

An indictment alleges that Guo took advantage of his prolific online presence and hundreds of thousands of followers by promising outsized financial returns and other benefits to carry out a scheme that helped fund Guo's extravagant lifestyle.

During Friday's hearing, Wang pleaded guilty to conspiring with Guo and others to fraudulently induce victims to send money through entities including Guo's GTV Media Group, Himalaya Farm Alliance and Himalaya Exchange from 2018 to 2023.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Metro police pulled over a man for driving with an expired license plate, later realizing he was wanted for murder for allegedly punching a man, leading to his death.

On Friday, April 26, a Las Vegas Metro police officer stopped a car with an expired California license plate and no brake lights. Police then arrested the driver, later identified as Ricky Sanchez, on a warrant for open murder.

Sanchez allegedly punched Florencio Lomeli in December 2022, leading to Lomelis death, police said in documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained. Lomeli, an employee at an east valley autobody shop, died from complications of blunt force injuries to his head, the Clark County coroners office said, ruling his death a homicide.

On Dec. 22, 2022, Sanchez allegedly punched Lomeli, who then was knocked unconscious and hit his head on a vehicle lift, documents said. After the punch, Sanchez allegedly drove off.

Two days after the punch, Lomeli brought himself to a hospital with complaints of a headache, nausea, and a possible brain bleed, documents said. The hospital released him three days later.

On Dec. 29, 2022, Lomeli returned to the hospital and was discharged the same day. Two days later, someone discovered Lomeli unconscious and unresponsive inside his home. Doctors pronounced his brain dead several days later, documents said.

Detectives spoke with an employee at the autobody shop who said he heard the suspect, later identified as Sanchez, yell, Where is my money? before seeing Lomeli lying on the ground and bleeding, documents said. A person later identified Sanchez as an employee of a neighboring autobody shop and believed Lomeli owed that business owner  Sanchezs father  money.

According to Sanchezs father, his son gave Lomeli money for a motor but never provided the part, documents said.

In February 2023, Sanchez contacted a detective, saying he wanted to interview over the phone but not in person because he was afraid of the police, documents said.

[Sanchez] felt [Lomeli] viewed him as a child and as a joke, so [Sanchez] punched [Lomeli] one time, documents said.

At the time of the warrants filing, police listed a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Court records indicate the warrant was filed last October with Sanchez facing an open murder charge instead.

On Monday, April 29, Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Harmony Letizia released Sanchez with several stipulations, including GPS monitoring and random and scheduled check-ins. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 22.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
After FAA audit, state on the hook for $500K to Warwick for T.F. Green first responders

A Southwest Airlines flight is shown at Rhode Island T.F. Green Airport. (Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current)

Nobody complained for over three decades as the corporation that runs the states airport paid an annual six-figure sum to the city of Warwick to cover emergency services.

Then came a routine audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released last December calling on the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) to halt those yearly payments. Now the state is liable to ensure those payments continue, according to Rhode Island general law.

Thats what prompted House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi to descend into the State House basement on April 23 to introduce a resolution allocating $500,000 in state funding to the city of Warwick, which he represents, to compensate for providing municipal fire and emergency services to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport.

This is money the city of Warwick relies on, Shekarchi told the House Finance Committee at the hearing, his first appearance before that panel this year. We have a legal obligation as well as a moral obligation to fund this.

Shekarchis resolution is co-sponsored by all six of Warwicks State House representatives. The legislation was held for further study, as is standard practice when first heard in committee.

Fire Station 8 in Warwick, which is just across the street from T.F. Green International Airport. Since 1988, the corporation that runs the states airport has made annual payments for services this station provides. (Google Earth)

Service should be free, says FAA

In reviewing the T.F. Greens external payments, the FAA audit found airport officials did not have any documentation to support making annual payments to fund services by Warwick Fire Station 8, which is located just across the street from the airport on Post Road.

The FAA determined that, absent supporting documentation, the fire services were in line with mutual aid and the city should provide them free of charge, an agency spokesperson said Monday.

Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi does not buy the FAAs argument that city services should be free.

Its been done for decades  I dont know what changed all of a sudden, he said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

The FAA did not respond to the same question from Rhode Island Current.

Bradley International Airport, Connecticuts only airport with national and international traffic, makes over $4.6 million in annual payments to the four towns that surround it  that includes $3.3 million to the town of Windsor Locks where the airport lies.

Auditors also found that most emergency calls at T.F. Green were for medical emergencies inside the terminal, which the FAA said was not different from what first responders do for the surrounding community.

For serious airport fires, the FAA said such services are provided by emergency crews located on the airfield. Picozzi said while emergency services are not constant at T.F. Green, first responders often address calls at the nearby hotels along with managing traffic in the area.

And without the airport, they probably wouldnt be there, Picozzi said.I thought $500,000 was a very light compensation.

Airport spokesperson John Goodman said T.F. Green generated $5 million in tax revenue for the city of Warwick in fiscal year 2023. Goodman said this comes from parking surcharges, hotel tax, food and beverage taxes, and property taxes the airport pays for the parking garage.

RIAC must comply with these findings and regulations, Goodman said Thursday.

Whats going on with the planned cargo facility?

As state leaders seek to quickly settle the funding dilemma, Warwick and airport officials have still yet to sign a memorandum of understanding over a proposed $100 million new cargo terminal at T.F. Green.

At issue is a dispute over a sound wall and diverting trucks away from city streets  two sticking points that led Warwick officials to file a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration last summer. That lawsuit remains ongoing, Picozzi said Wednesday.

But thats something well drop once the MOU is signed, he said.

And it looks like that could soon happen, said Picozzi. He said the airport has since updated its plans to make sure delivery trucks are immediately directed to the airport connector and nearby highways instead of taking local roads.

This new plan has been submitted to the FAA for its consideration, Goodman said.

The post After FAA audit, state on the hook for $500K to Warwick for T.F. Green first responders appeared first on Rhode Island Current.
Fact Check: Trump Said He Would Not Defend Some NATO Allies If Russia Attacks. Here's the Context Omitted from Viral Posts

Claim:

Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he would not defend NATO allies if they were attacked by Russia.

Rating:

Rating: Mixture

What's True:

Trump claimed that he would not protect NATO allies against Russian aggression if they are not "paid up." (NATO member states do not "pay" into NATO; instead, NATO membership comes with a commitment by each country to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defense.)

What's False:

However, Trump did not say he would allow Russia to attack countries that are "paid up."

On May 2, 2024, several X accounts that supported U.S. President Joe Biden shared the claim that former President Donald Trump "said he would not defend NATO allies if Russia attacks," referring to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. These claims followed the GOP presidential candidate's May 1 campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan.

Posts like this were misleading, however, in that they presented Trump's statements  which were already rooted in a fundamental mischaracterization of NATO membership requirements  out of context.

While Trump has suggested on more than one occasion that, as president, he wouldn't intervene to stop Russian aggression against NATO allies who don't "pay up" (as he describes those countries' defense spending obligations as NATO members), he has not stated that he would refuse to stop Russian aggression against all NATO allies.

For example, during the Michigan rally, Trump said:

I said " I looked at the books, we are paying 90%, maybe even 100% of NATO, so we're defending you militarily and you are taking advantage of us on trade.  You have to pay."   I remember during a meeting one of the presidents of one of the European countries stood up and  said, "May I ask a question?  If we don't pay, we're not paid up and we're attacked by Russia, will you defend us?" I said, "You mean you are delinquent, you haven't paid?  No, I will not defend you."

Trump told essentially this same story at a Feb. 10, 2024, rally in South Carolina. In that telling of the story, he used even stronger language, implying he would actually "encourage" Russian aggression against "delinquent" NATO allies:

NATO was busted until I came along. I said, "Everybody's going to pay." They said, "Well, if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us?" I said, "Absolutely not." They couldn't believe the answer. And you never saw more money pour in to [NATO] Secretary General [Jens] Stoltenberg.   I came in, I made a speech, and I said, "You got to pay out." They asked me that question. One of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, "Well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?" I said, "You didn't pay. You're delinquent?" He said, "Yes, let's say that happened." [I said,] "No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills."

Trump has been critical of NATO since before he served as president, and he has often bragged of having strong-armed more funding for NATO. However, all of these claims and talking points seem to incorrectly suggest that NATO is an entity a country pays into and that America could, in a sense, evict a country for nonpayment.

In reality, membership in NATO requires, among other things, a member state to spend at least 2% of its own gross domestic product (GDP, an economic indicator) on its own self-defense apparatus. Trump has regularly argued as both a candidate and a president that some countries do not live up to this burden.

The 2% requirement was imposed in 2014 as a response to Russia's annexation of Crimea. According to NATO, two-thirds of member countries met that requirement in 2024:

In 2024, two thirds of Allies are expected to meet or exceed the target of investing at least 2% of GDP in defence, compared to only three Allies in 2014. Over the past decade, NATO Allies in Europe have steadily increased their collective investment in defence  from 1.47% of their combined GDP in 2014, to 2% in 2024, when they are investing a combined total of more than USD 380 billion in defence.

The central requirement of a NATO member state is being a party to a collective security agreement "which declares that if any single Ally is the victim of an armed attack, every other member of the Alliance will consider it as an attack against all members."

In response to Trump's February speech in South Carolina, Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general, released this statement to Politico:

Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.  I expect the U.S. to remain a strong and devoted ally of NATO, whoever wins the presidential election.

Because Trump has stated that he would let Russia attack NATO allies that were, in his mind, "delinquent," but because he did not make that threat to all NATO allies, the claim is rated a "Mixture."

Sources:

"Collective Defence." Shape.Nato.Int, https://shape.nato.int/page11283634/knowing-nato/episodes/collective-defence.aspx. Accessed 2 May 2024.

Dale, Daniel. "Fact Check: Debunking Five False Trump Claims about NATO | CNN Politics." CNN, 13 Feb. 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/13/politics/fact-check-trump-nato/index.html.

NATO. "Defence Expenditures and NATO's 2% Guideline." NATO, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm. Accessed 2 May 2024.

"Trump Says He Would 'Encourage' Russia to Attack NATO Allies Who Don't Pay up." POLITICO, 11 Feb. 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-says-he-would-encourage-russia-to-attack-nato-members-that-dont-pay-enough/.

User Clip: Trump on NATO | C-SPAN.Org. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5115989/user-clip-trump-nato. Accessed 2 May 2024.
Claim:

A real article on Columbia Universitys official website describes the universitys treatment of student protesters in 1968 as follows: "New York City Police stormed the campus and arrested more than 700 people. The fallout dogged Columbia for years." The article also says the university is a "far different place today."

Rating:

Rating: Correct Attribution

Context:

The 2018 article commemorating the 1968 protests was still on Columbia University's website as of April 30, 2024, when New York City police were called in to arrest 112 pro-Palestine demonstrators.

In April 2024, as Columbia University called on the New York Police Department (NYPD) to arrest protesting pro-Palestine students, an authentic piece of the university's history became an ironic talking point online.

Student protesters demanded the university divest from corporations profiting from Israel's war on Gaza, and on April 30, 2024, they occupied Hamilton Hall, a campus building. Later that day, the university authorized NYPD to enter the campus and make arrests. Police arrested dozens of people at the hall and from a protest camp outside the building.

The arrests took place exactly 56 years after police went into the same hall to clear out students protesting the Vietnam War and racism, a moment that Columbia University itself had commemorated on its website.

A number of posts on X shared screenshots of an article titled "A New Perspective on 1968," which recognized student protesters who took over university buildings to express discontent over racism, the Vietnam War and the university's proposed expansion into a nearby park.

Don't worry everybody!!! Columbia learned their lesson in the 1960s and would NEVER call in the NYPD to root out student protestors from University buildings pic.twitter.com/aeuIw7Qi6N  George (@nothatcurious) May 1, 2024

Columbias own website has a page about how the last time they called for a mass arrest of student protesters, they were in the wrong and f*cked up their reputation for decades https://t.co/VhFoI1hYGD pic.twitter.com/GXab6Q7ktC  Janel Comeau (@VeryBadLlama) April 24, 2024

One post noted the same website had displayed a warning sign in orange above the article detailing limited campus access that day due to the ongoing 2024 protests and arrests.

Columbia's web page discussing its regret for calling in police to arrest students in 1968 is displaying a warning about limited access due to NYPD on campus arresting students.



May Columbia never live this down. pic.twitter.com/Z5RAY32udH  Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) May 1, 2024

Many posts noted the irony of Columbia University recognizing past student protesters while arresting students during the 2024 protests.

Those posts were sharing a real article published in April 2018 that was still on Columbia's website, in which the university recognized the 1968 student protests 50 years earlier and described the university as a "far different place today." We thus rate this claim as "Correct Attribution."

The article says:

Columbia is a far different place today than it was in the spring of 1968 when protesters took over University buildings amid discontent about the Vietnam War, racism and the University's proposed expansion into Morningside Park. After a weeklong standoff, New York City Police stormed the campus and arrested more than 700 people. The fallout dogged Columbia for years. It took decades for the University to recover from those turbulent times. Columbia now has one of the most socio-economically diverse student bodies among its peer institutions. It has added a new campus designed to be open to the community and pursues fields of inquiry unheard of a half-century ago. Columbia is commemorating the 50th anniversary of those long-ago events with a deep dive of scholarship and exhibits chronicling what happened then and its effects today.

The article was also archived here on April 30, 2024, and that page displays the orange warning sign about limited campus access.

The article was also referenced in a speech by Rashid Khalidi, a history professor at Columbia University, when he spoke to demonstrators the day after the arrests, as seen in this video from Middle East Eye. He said 2024 student protesters were also "on the right side of history," and one day their actions would be "commemorated the same way."

The 2024 pro-Palestinian protesters had unfurled a banner with the words "Hind's Hall" over Hamilton Hall, after Hind Rajab, a young girl killed in Gaza while under fire from Israeli forces in February 2024, according to an Al Jazeera investigation. The protesters' occupation of the hall came just two weeks after Columbia's president authorized NYPD to make arrests at the nearby so-called "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" on campus.

To assess the accuracy of the "new perspective" commemorative post, we looked through archives of the student-run newspaper, Columbia Spectator, for coverage of the 1968 protests and subsequent arrests. An April 24, 1968, Columbia Spectator issue details protests at the university, also describing how students crowded into Hamilton Hall for an "all night vigil." On April 30, 1968, the newspaper reported the university called in 1,000 police officers to "end demonstrations," resulting in 700 arrests. Archival photographs from 1968 on a webpage belonging to the Columbia University Libraries show police chasing students and throwing them to the ground.

A 2018 Columbia Spectator report marking the 50th anniversary of the protests stated, "While no students have been arrested at a protest on campus since 1996, police presence at demonstrations has remained constant from year to year."

The 2024 arrests, according to the Columbia Spectator, were the largest mass arrests since 1968.

Sources:

"1968: Columbia in Crisis." Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions. https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/1968/bust. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"A New Perspective on 1968." Columbia News, April 2018, https://news.columbia.edu/content/new-perspective-1968. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"Arrests at Columbia University as New York City Police Clear Gaza Protest." Al Jazeera, May 1, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/1/new-york-city-police-enter-columbia-campus-as-gaza-protest-escalates. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"Columbia Daily Spectator 24 April 1968." Columbia Spectator. https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01.2.5&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------. Accessed 3 May 2024.

Hernandez, Jorge. "'Gym Crow': Looking Back on the 1968 Morningside Gym Protests." Columbia Daily Spectator, https://www.columbiaspectator.com/sports/2022/02/15/gym-crow-looking-back-on-the-1968-morningside-gym-protests/. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"Hind Rajab: Were Israeli Troops around Where the Six-Year-Old Was Killed?" Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/26/hind-rajab-were-israeli-troops-in-the-area-where-6-year-old-was-killed. Accessed 3 May 2024.

Hussain, Khadija. "1968 to Now: Fifty Years after Police Violence, University Has Little Oversight of NYPD Presence on Campus." Columbia Daily Spectator, April 25, 1968. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2018/04/25/1968-to-now-fifty-years-after-police-violence-university-has-little-oversight-of-nypd-presence-on-campus/. Accessed 3 May 2024.

McKee, Amira. "Dozens Occupy Hamilton Hall as Pro-Palestinian Protests Spread across Campus." Columbia Daily Spectator, April 30, 2024. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/30/dozens-occupy-hamilton-hall-as-pro-palestinian-protests-spread-across-campus/. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi Says Student Protesters Are 'on the Right Side of History.'" Middle East Eye, May 2, 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz2VcELqF7s. Accessed 3 May 2024.

"Read the Letter Columbia University's President Sent to the NYPD Asking for Assistance." NBC New York, 1 May 2024, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/read-the-letter-columbia-universitys-president-sent-to-the-nypd-asking-for-assistance/5370439/. Accessed 3 May 2024.
ISLAMABAD, May 3 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and eight others injured on Friday in a blast in Khuzdar district of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, police said.

According to police, the vehicle of a local journalist was targeted with an explosive device in the afternoon in Chamrook area of the district.

The explosion killed the journalist and two other people while eight others suffered injuries who were at the site, it added.

All the injured people were shifted to a local hospital where they underwent medical treatment, local media reported.

The released CCTV footage of the incident showed that a man riding a motorcycle attached a device to the car, which resulted in an explosion.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. 
Claim:

A photo that circulated in early May 2024 authentically showed Mike Lindell looking emaciated with dark circles around his eyes.

Rating:

Rating: Fake

On May 1, 2024, X account @GaryPetersonUSA shared an image purportedly showing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a supporter of former president Donald Trump and prominent denier of 2020 presidential election results, looking emaciated with dark shadows around his eyes:

The photo went viral, with some wondering if it was actually real. This image was a heavily doctored version of a photo that indeed showed Lindell. The X account for Devil's Advocate Radio, a left-leaning Wisconsin political show, shared the original, unedited image on May 1, 2024, several hours before the viral version surfaced.

That original image showed a healthier-looking Lindell with Devil's Advocate Radio host Mike Crute at a campaign rally for Trump in Waukesha, Wisconsin, earlier that day.

@GaryPetersonUSA is a "political satire character" run by an unnamed "Youtube comedian," according to the fact-checking outlet Lead Stories. Speaking to that outlet, the person behind the account confirmed they manipulated the photo and alluded to other less-obvious easter eggs in the creation:

You can rest easy  Mike Lindell has happily not started dressing like a late night horror host, although I don't know if I trust Heckyl & Jeckyl, Dr. Richard Kinball, and the Patriot cat in the background.  Gary is a political satire character. I'm a YouTube comedian, but a lot of that is movie based, so I created Gary to have a lot of fun with political humor.

Because the photo is doctored, Snopes classifies the image as "Fake."

Sources:

Dirr, Alison, and Scott Ash. "Former President Donald Trump's Rally in Waukesha Is Second Wisconsin Appearance in 2024." Journal Sentinel, https://www.jsonline.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/05/01/former-president-donald-trump-second-wisconsin-rally-in-waukesha-may-1-2024/73529612007/. Accessed 3 May 2024.

Fact Check: Photo Of Mike Lindell At The Waukesha Wisconsin Trump Rally Is NOT Real -- Digitally Edited | Lead Stories. 2 May 2024, https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2024/05/fact-check-photo-of-mike-lindell-at-the-waukesha-wisconsin-trump-rally-is-not-real-digitally-edited.html.

Fung, Katherine. "The Rise and Fall of Mike Lindell." Newsweek, 2 Oct. 2023, https://www.newsweek.com/rise-fall-mike-lindell-1830372.


Screen shows footages of spacecraft for Chang'e-5 Mission, during an event on Chinas lunar exploration program, at the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing

Screen shows footages of spacecraft for Chang'e-5 Mission, during an event on Chinas lunar exploration program, at the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing

By Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday launched a mission to collect samples from the moon's "hidden" side, a first in space exploration history, and marked a new phase in China's 20-year-old Chang'e lunar programme, named after the mythical moon goddess.

CHANG'E-1

LAUNCH: Oct. 24, 2007

LANDING SITE: Impact point north of Mare Fecunditatis ("Sea of Fertility") on the near side of the moon

MISSION: Under the first phase of China's lunar exploration programme, the uncrewed Chang'e-1 orbited the moon and took 3-D images of its landforms and geological structures in preparation for future landings. The spacecraft was intentionally crashed onto the moon on March 1, 2009, after the mission.

DURATION: The mission was planned for 12 months, but lasted for 16 months.

CHANG'E-2

LAUNCH: Oct. 1, 2010

LANDING SITE: None

MISSION: The uncrewed Chang'e 2 orbited the moon and tested a 100-kilometre-high lunar orbit to prepare for a soft landing of Chang'e-3. It later extended its mission with a fly-by of a near-earth asteroid "4179 Toutatis".

DURATION: The mission lasted eight months, ending on June 9, 2011. But Chang'e-2 continued on to 4179 Toutatis, capturing images of the asteroid in December 2012. It lost its connection with Earth in mid-2014, having travelled 100 million kilometres (62.1 million miles). It is expected to return to Earth's vicinity around 2027.

CHANG'E-3

LAUNCH: Dec. 2, 2013

LANDING SITE: Mare Imbrium ("Sea of Rains") on the moon's near side

MISSION: Marking the second phase of China's lunar programme, Chang'e-3 completed a soft landing on the moon, the first by any nation since 1976. The mission tested China's ability to safely and precisely land there. It also delivered China's first lunar rover, Yutu, ("Jade Rabbit") onto the lunar surface, on which it moved for 118.9 metres (390 ft). Yutu transmitted videos, and dug and analysed soil samples. It was also equipped with a basic autonomous navigation system to avoid collisions.

DURATION: Operations for Chang'e-3's lander, the module that descended to the lunar surface, was planned for one year. Yutu's designed lifespan was three months. The stationary lander is still operational today. Yutu operated for two years and seven months until July 31, 2016.

CHANG'E-4

LAUNCH: Dec. 8, 2018

LANDING SITE: Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's far side

MISSION: Chang'e-4 conducted the first-ever soft landing on the moon's far side carrying the Yutu-2 rover. Yutu-2 moved on the surface for more than 1,455 metres. The mission tested China's ability to safely and precisely land on the moon's far side, as well as its communications with ground operations on Earth.

DURATION: Both the lander and rover are still operational today, with communication with Earth facilitated by Queqiao-1 ("Bridge of Magpies"), a relay satellite in a halo orbit about 65,000 kilometres from the far side of the moon.

CHANG'E-5

LAUNCH: Nov. 24, 2020

LANDING SITE: Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") on the moon's near side

MISSION: Under the third phase of China's lunar programme, Chang'e-5 conducted China's first sample return mission from the moon's near side. It brought back 1,731 grams (61 oz) of lunar soil samples. Chang'e-5 also showed that a Chinese spacecraft can safely land and take off from the moon and return to earth.

DURATION: The mission lasted for 23 days. The samples were brought back to Earth on Dec. 17, 2020. Chang'e-5's orbiter is still operational.

CHANG'E-6

LAUNCH: May 3, 2024

LANDING SITE: Apollo crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's far side

MISSION: As phase four of the programme, Chang'e 6 will acquire samples from a side of the moon that perpetually faces away from Earth. Chang'e-6 will land in the South Pole-Aitken basin, an area with the largest-known impact craters in the solar system. Chang'e-6 will further test China's precise landing capability. Communication with Earth will be mainly via the second relay satellite, Queqiao-2, that orbits the moon.

DURATION: Expected to last 53 days.

CHANG'E-7

PLANNED LAUNCH: 2026

PLANNED LANDING SITE: Near the southeast ridge of Shackleton crater in the lunar South Pole on the moon's far side

MISSION: Chang'e-7 will explore for resources, including ice.

DURATION: Chang'e-7's orbiter, lander and rover will have a lifespan of eight years. A mini "flying" probe, capable of "jumping" into craters to search for water, will have a lifespan of six months.

CHANG'E-8

PLANNED LAUNCH: 2028

PLANNED LANDING SITE: The lunar south pole on the moon's far side

MISSION: Chang'e-8 will land on the lunar South Pole and verify in-situ resource development. It will also conduct a 3D-printing experiment using in-situ resources to build a structure, testing a form of technology for the construction of a lunar base. Chang'e-8 will include a lander, a rover and a robot.

DURATION: Unknown

UNNAMED CREWED MISSION

PLANNED LAUNCH: By 2030

LANDING SITE: Unknown

MISSION: China plans its first crewed lunar mission, landing two astronauts on the moon by 2030, on a spacecraft named Mengzhou ("Vessel of Dreams") and a lander called Lanyue ("Embracing the Moon").

DURATION: Unknown

(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canadian police on Friday charged three people linked to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the province of British Columbia in June 2023, a source directly familiar with the matter said.

The following is a timeline of key events leading up to the arrests in a killing that has frayed relations between Canada and India.

June 18, 2023: Nijjar, 45, is shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. He was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India.

Sept. 1, 2023: A Canadian trade official says Canada paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with India, an unexpected move that came about three months after both countries said they planned to seal an initial pact this year.

Sept. 10, 2023: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveys strong concerns about Sikh separatist protests in Canada to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of a G20 summit in New Delhi.

Sept. 18, 2023: Trudeau tells parliament that Canada was "actively pursuing credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar.

Sept. 19, 2023: India dismisses Trudeau's assertion as "absurd". Each country expels a diplomat in tit-for-tat moves, with Canada throwing out India's top intelligence officer in the country while India expelled his Canadian counterpart.

Sept. 22, 2023: India suspends issuing new visas for Canadians and asks Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in India. India resumes issuing visas two months later.

Oct. 29, 2023: Tens of thousands of Sikhs turn out in Surrey, British Columbia, at the same gurdwara where Nijjar was killed to vote in an unofficial referendum on the creation of an independent Sikh state.

Nov. 21, 2024: India's anti-terror agency files a case against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist, stating that he warned Air India passengers in video messages shared on social media that their lives were in danger.

Nov. 22, 2024: A senior Biden administration official says U.S. authorities thwarted a plot to kill Pannun in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the government in New Delhi was involved.

Feb. 5, 2024: India's High Commissioner says in an interview with Canada's Globe & Mail newspaper that India will not provide information to Canadian investigators over Nijjar's murder until Canada shares evidence.

April 30, 2024: The White House describes as a serious matter a Washington Post report that an officer in India's intelligence service was directly involved in both Nijjar's killing and the foiled plot to kill Pannun in the U.S.

India's foreign ministry said the report contained "unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations."

(Compiled by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Josie Kao)
Factbox-Who are the main candidates in Chad's election?

DAKAR (Reuters) - Chad will on Monday become the first of West and Central Africa's junta-ruled countries to hold a vote since a wave of coups swept over the region.

Opposition groups have raised objections and called for boycotts, saying the first-round presidential poll will be rigged. The interim government has said the ballot will return the country to constitutional rule.

Below are details of the three main candidates.

MAHAMAT IDRISS DEBY

Deby seized power in April 2021, taking the title of interim president after his father, long-standing ruler Idriss Deby, died while fighting rebels.

The younger Deby initially promised to hold an election within 18 months, but his government postponed the polls until 2024 and allowed him to run for president.

A career soldier, Deby was a lieutenant general and head of an elite army unit that served as a presidential guard before his takeover. He fought Boko Haram and other jidhadist groups in Niger and Mali.

He appointed himself a five-star general in December 2021.

The 40-year-old, who is backed by ruling party Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), is widely expected to win the vote.

His campaign programme includes promises to focus on security, strengthen the rule of law and boost electricity production.

SUCCES MASRA

The staunch opponent of Chad's junta surprised many of his supporters by coming back from exile last year and accepting the position of prime minister in the interim government.

He had fled the country after dozens were killed and hundreds injured when security forces cracked down on demonstrations in the capital N'Djamena in October 2022.

In October 2023, authorities agreed to allow him and others who fled to return, in a deal brokered by Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi.

Masra, now 40, promised to run a grassroots campaign and to meet Chadians to understand what issues were most important to them.

The only other serious opposition contender, Albert Pahimi Padacke, accused him of collaborating with Deby.

ALBERT PAHIMI PADACKE

Padacke, 57, served as prime minister from 2016 to 2018 and was seen as an ally of the former president Idriss Deby, the interim president's father.

Despite that, Padacke ran against the elder Deby several times. He came second in the 2021 presidential election with 10% of the vote. The election was boycotted by several opposition leaders who said it was rigged.

After Deby's death, the transitional military government named Padacke prime minister but he later resigned in order to pave the way for a new government.

His campaign programme says he wants to bolster security and reform the justice system.

(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian and Mahamat Ramadane; Editing by Portia Crowe and Andrew Heavens)
Despite conflicting evidence on whether puberty blockers for gender transitions are dangerous or if gender transition surgeries even occur in South Carolina, a bill prohibiting both is headed toward the governors desk.

A number of statistics and statements such as mutilation of children and transgenderism ideologies being pushed by doctors have been thrown around during the the Help not Harm bill (H. 4624) debate. But are these statements true?

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have cited evidence for and against gender transition procedures. Much of it conflicting with the other side, creating confusion. While some arguments have been rooted in differences of opinion, other reference facts that may misconstrue the truth.

From the first week of session to the second-to-last, representatives and senators have been working to pass a bill that would prohibit anyone under 18 from receiving gender transition surgery or using puberty blockers for transitioning.

The bill passed 27-8 Thursday in the Senate.

The latest version includes an amendment requiring public school administrators to let parents or legal guardians pronoun use and confirming their gender is inconsistent with sex.

Heres five points that both sides disagree on, including some misleading information.

Regret after transitioning

Republicans in the House and Senate made multiple statements regarding those who decide to transition later regretting the decision, or even detransitioning.

The argument stems from the concern that children and teens are too developmentally naive to understand the complexity of transitioning and what it will do to the body.

Im known as the Senator for the children, state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, said to state Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Richland during debate. Im troubled in a lot of ways here because Im torn. Im torn because I know that we know we dont need to have surgeries on children before theyre 18 years old, we know that. Children can make crazy decisions when theyre young.

While some listed concerns, others cited statistics. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, cited an April 2021 survey, of 237 individuals surveyed, 46 percent had undergone surgeries, two-thirds of the 237 people had undergone either a surgery or a hormone replacement therapy. And 50 percent said afterward that their concerns before the procedure were not alleviated, but exacerbated or made worse.

Chase Glenn, Alliance for Full Acceptance Executive Director, said multiple studies contradict the high regret rate quoted by legislators.

There are some trans adults who regret having gender confirmation surgery, but there are people who have regrets for all types of surgeries. If you look at regrets for knee replacement, its actually higher than regret rates for gender confirmation surgery, Glenn wrote over text.

According to the National Institute of Health, a 2021 study found an extremely low prevalence of regret in transgender patients after gender surgery. Out of 27 studies, pooling 7,928 transgender patients who underwent any type of gender surgery, the pooled prevalence of regret was 1%.

Regret for knee surgery in a 2020 study was 18%, according to the NIH.

65 gender transitioning clinics in South Carolina?

On the House floor Jan. 17, Rep. Josiah Magnuson. R-Spartanburg, said South Carolina has 65 gender transitioning clinics.

That is actually more than doubled since 2022 when there was only 31. This is big business, a lot fo places are opening new clinics, and many have opened in this past year, alone, Magnuson said.

Magnuson told The State he was referencing the Campaign for Southern Equality website. It cited 65 different medical facilities, some hospitals, some OBGYN offices, some general doctors and a plethora of others.

Magnuson said not all of these places are necessarily providing drugs or surgeries, Some of them offer counseling, he said, but all were pushing for and friendly towards transgender issues, he said.

This is a big business for certain medical professionals who have a different world view, Magnuson said.

However, that doesnt mean these are gender clinics, advocates say.

The list Rep. Magnuson provided you is a list trans-affirming providers in the state, Glenn said. This is simply a list of providers who are affirming of trans folks  not necessarily those who provide trans what is called gender affirming care in this legislation. As a trans man, I can tell you that I have had providers turn me away once they found out I was trans and there are others Ive had to educate about my individual needs as a trans person.

Glenn added that organizations like Campaign for Southern Equality and AFFA publish lists of providers that they know are safe and knowledgeable to provide for all types of care regarding the trans community, including gender affirming care.

Medical professionals pushing drug

Along with other legislators, Magnuson and Rep. Jordan Pace, R-Berkeley, both members of the House Freedom Caucus, said on the House floor that this is a business people profit from.

In addition, representatives stated that doctors will give the drugs to patients immediately after being asked. Patients go into a doctors office, want to transition, and doctors just hand them over.

This particular wing of the medical industry is incredibly profitable, Pace said on the House floor Jan. 17. If someone is making their living by sterilizing children and chopping off their body parts and the worst they get is a five-year suspension and a $5,000 fine, then they have been shown a great amount of mercy from the state, when it should have been much, much worse.

Pace then went on to say the procedures can be millions of dollars per patient.

Dr. Elizabeth Mack, a pediatrician in Charleston, said no one is walking in and getting medicine immediately, and this notion is considered medical malpractice.

Mack said the care as dictated by the guidelines involves mental health evaluation and care, and in many cases, this is the case for years before medication is prescribed. Some transgender individuals decide to not use hormones or get the surgery.

There is not profit in this, Mack wrote over text. This state has chased off several physicians who provided gender affirming care. Similarly this is not fun for any family or patient to walk this walk. The bullying these families experience such as what is happening at the state house is dangerous. These decisions must be left to families and physicians in the exam room.

How many transgender youth are in the state?

Few studies have shown how many transgender youth are in South Carolina. As of 2020, according to the Williams Institute out of UCLA, there is an estimated 2,150 trans youth, ages 13-17.

Lawmakers said there has been an increasing number of transgender individuals.

While many lawmakers didnt cite specific research, the New York Times reported in 2022 that the number of young people who identify as transgender had nearly doubled in recent years. According to a report by Williams Institute, it was estimated that 1.4 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were transgender, which was a rise from the 0.7 percent in 2017.

Experts told the New York Times that young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identities, whereas older adults may feel more constrained.

Is the process irreversible?

No studies have attempted to determine whether the effects of puberty blockers as currently prescribed for gender dysphoria are fully reversible, Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Puberty blockers are used to put puberty on pause. They are used in a variety of medical circumstances, including for children who have precocious puberty  puberty that starts before its supposed to. They are also used to treat cancer, endometriosis and other health issues.

The drugs are only given to transgender or gender non-nonconforming kids after they start puberty, never before, said Michael OBrien, a pediatrician in the Lowcountry.

Also, the drugs are reversible, OBrien said. The only major long-term side effect of these drug is having a short stature. You might not be as tall as you would otherwise, OBrien said. Its not super significant because puberty resumes either the moment you stop taking that drug, or once you start taking the hormones of the opposite sex.

Mack also confirmed the drugs are reversible. When someone stops taking them, puberty resumes where it left off, she said.

Suicide is not reversible and gender affirming care is lifesaving. I see this in my practice in the pediatric ICU, Mack wrote over text.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved puberty blockers in 1993, but hasnt approved them for gender transition uses.

Multiple Republicans , including Magnuson, said once the hormone treatment has been given, the body can no longer bear children. Its about protecting children, Magnuson added.

The body still changes. The body keeps on growing, moving, developing. I am not convinced these hormones dont effect the body somehow. I dont think they effect everyone the same way. But Im not going to risk it.  Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw said. I just dont think there is a medical consensus saying there are not going to be long term consequences to taking these specific hormonal drugs. I know there is no procedures going on in South Carolina. Our hospitals have told us. We have some smart doctors here.

Were transition surgeries happening for youth in SC?

Lawmakers and bill opponents brought up numerous times that gender transition surgeries were not happening in South Carolina.

In 2023, pediatricians testified to lawmakers that no doctors in South Carolina perform gender-transition surgeries on minors. And recent reporting by ProPublica found that due to political pressures surrounding transgender health care, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) stopped performing gender affirming care for minors.

But Republicans continued to emphasize they needed to protect children, and if it wasnt a problem currently, it was a preventative measure to ensure it never would be one.

I believe the question of surgical procedures may not be a point of immediate consideration today, said Sen. Daniel Verdin, R-Laurens, and head of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee. We respond to our constituencies. For this matter, if you put it out there in a polling question ... if you put it alongside taxes, if you put it alongside restructuring, if you put it alongside paying our school teachers and our law enforcement officers, its up there, its above them all.
A protester holds up a sign calling for the termination of Indiana University President Pamela Whitten during a protest outside of Bryan Hall on Monday, April 29.

Faculty from Indiana Universitys College of Arts and Sciences (COAS)  the universitys largest college by student enrollment  overwhelmingly called for the Board of Trustees to terminate the employment of President Pamela Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav during a college-wide vote on May 1.

More than 75% of the colleges faculty participated, with 911 of 1209 total eligible faculty voting.

Indiana University President Pamela Whitten, pictured introducing new head football coach Curt Cignetti in December 2023, is under fire for decisions her administration has made in recent months.

Of them, 86% voted for a resolution calling for trustees to terminate the employment of President Whitten and Provost Shrivastav based on the vote of no confidence and their handling of events in Dunn Meadow. Of the voting faculty, 92.1% also called for trustees to repeal the recently adopted policy regarding the use of structures in Dunn Meadow, and 93.4% called for trustees to repeal the no-trespass bans imposed on demonstrators who were arrested by Indiana State Police on April 25 and 27.

The COAS is IUs largest college, with 12,925 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the 2024 spring semester.

Andres Guzman, an associate professor in the COAS, said the overwhelming vote from the universitys largest body demonstrates wavering support for Whitten's administration on campus.

The college feels that this person cannot lead, Guzman said. Im not talking about, You dont lead well. You cannot lead if people dont share your objectives.

Arts and Sciences vote is latest in growing faculty condemnations

The COAS vote is the latest  and the largest  in a series of college-wide faculty condemnations against the Whitten administration and their handling of the pro-Palestinian encampment on Dunn Meadow, which to date has resulted in 56 arrests.

An Indiana State Police officer stands in front of demonstrators at Dunn Meadow on Thursday, April 25, 2024.

IU Media School faculty last week released a statement condemning the repressive crackdown on protests in Dunn Meadow and calling for the policy to be repealed. IUs Luddy School of Informatics faculty also passed a resolution calling for Whitten and Shrivastavs resignation. In that vote, 76 of 105 faculty members were in favor of the resolution, while 11 voted against and 18 abstained.

Faculty from IUs ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and School of Education also passed resolutions calling for the repeal of the Dunn Meadow policy change and the lifting of the campus no-trespass bans with more than 80% support for each vote.

To date, a faculty-only petition calling for the immediate resignation of Whitten and Shrivastav has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.

These all come after an overwhelming no-confidence vote by faculty against Whitten, Shrivastav, and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty on April 16, more than a week before the pro-Palestinian encampment began.

Its cut across political lines: Faculty say votes are not politically-motivated

Chancellors Professor Emeritus Robert Arnove, who served at IU for more than 50 years, said the COAS vote and growing faculty dissent is unlike anything hes seen at IU.

This is the most precarious moment for the [IUs] continued viability as a major Research 1 university, Arnove said. Theres been nothing like this.

Guzman said the growing number of votes against the administration and their actions show that those looking to remove Whitten are not just a minority of radical faculty.

IU Professor Abdulkader Sinno leads chants for Indiana University President Pamela Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav to resign during the protest outside of Bryan Hall on Monday, April 29.

Whats been really interesting is its cut across political lines, Guzman said. You cant have, in most cases, over 90% agreeing and urging the board of trustees to terminate the president and the provost if it was just a minority.

Constance Furey, a religious studies professor in the COAS, said calls for Whitten and Shrivastavs resignations are increasingly widespread as faculty share concerns over a loss of shared governance.

The faculty Ive talked to have never mentioned her political views, Furey said. Its very much a question of incompetence.

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @brianwritesnews.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana University faculty call for Whitten Shrivastav termination
The families of the two men who died in a construction site fire in Charlottes SouthPark neighborhood have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The estates of Demonte Sherrill and Reuben Holmes are suing Mill Creek Residential, SouthPark Charlotte Apartments, MCRT Carolinas Construction, also known as Modera South Park, Mill Creek Residential Services, MCRT South Florida, Kentucky Overhead Door, and Baker Insulation.

Sherrill and Holmes, who were working to install windows, died on May 18, 2023 in a five-alarm fire. The blaze started in a foam-spraying machine and spread to the under-construction apartment complex. Firefighters rescued 15 people.

In the months since, the North Carolina Department of Labor has reached a settlement with two of three companies that were fined for safety violations leading to the deadly fire.

READ MORE:

Now, on Thursday, the estates of the victims have filed a new lawsuit over the safety conditions at the worksite. Sherrills estate is represented by his mother and Holmes by his niece. They allege the defendants willful and wanton disregard and violations of the laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, standards and requirements regarding fire prevention and fire safety on construction sites led to the construction workers deaths.

The plaintiffs allege the companies safety violations prevented people from exiting the building and hampered responding firefighters.

The families allege the preventable fire was first discovered at 8:55 a.m. on May 18, but no one called 911 until 9:02 a.m. They say part of that delay is because Mill Creek didnt have a fire safety plan in place at the time. There were no alarms, working sprinklers, or emergency telephones to alert anyone else about the fire, they said.

No alarm system was utilized to alert workers of the situation. Two subcontractor employees (Demonte Sherrill and Reuben Holmes) working on the sixth floor of Building B were not able to evacuate, resulting in their fatal injuries, the lawsuit reads.

There was also no working water connection for responding firefighters, and the women allege that slowed down Charlotte Fires response, leading to the workers deaths.

Because they had no water supply, they had to evacuate the building shortly after getting close enough to Sherrill and Holmes to her them calling for help nearby, they said.

As established in the OSHA investigation, there was only one staircase in the building where the fire started. That means neither worker could evacuate and firefighters couldnt access them.

Despite the need for at least two means of egress at the project, a temporary set of stairs was not erected at another location to replace the stairway that had been removed, so that when the fire occurred, a seven-story building that was 355 feet long had only a single staircase at one side of the building, it reads.

The lawsuit also discussed the spray foam machine, which is where the fire originated. The plaintiffs allege the machine should not have been used in the parking deck as the building was cluttered with flammable construction materials and debris, including new flammable bathtubs, remnants of wood, and other flammable materials. They said the machine already presented a fire hazard because the exhaust was not being vented.

The lawsuit details the moments that immediately followed the discovery of the fire:

The foam spraying gun stopped working, so a worker goes back to the machines engine to fire out why it failed. He discovers its on fire, so he unsuccessfully tries to extinguish it.

Instead of calling 911, he calls his boss. Other Mill Creek employees also try to put out the fire but cant.

911 is called at least seven minutes after the fire was initially discovered.

Instead of utilizing an established alarm system audible throughout all work areas, the Mill Creek Defendants tried to alert workers in Building B of the need to evacuate by sending two employees to climb the only stairway (on the opposite side of the building from where the Fire started) and shout fire, fire on each floor on the way both up and down, the lawsuit reads.

The plaintiffs believe the machines engine failure was caused by Baker Insulation failing to properly service, operate and maintain the [machine], including its engine.

The plaintiffs are each asking the defendants for damages of $50,000, totaling $100,000 between them.

Channel 9 is reaching out to the companies being sued for a response.

(WATCH BELOW: Heroes in SouthPark fire officially recognized for heroism and selflessness)
You can watch the memorial service on the air or live-streamed here at QCnews.com

CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Joshua Eyer was announced as Aprils Officer of the Month just weeks before he was shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers across NC arrived in Charlotte Friday to honor Eyer.

Queen City News

Queen City News

Queen City News

Queen City News

Queen City News

Queen City News

Queen City News

Credit: CMPD

Queen City News

Queen City News

During Fridays heartbreaking memorial service, Eyers wife, Ashley, paid tribute to her husband.

The husband and father was part of a US Marshals Task Force team executing a warrant for the arrest of Terry Hughes Jr., 39, who was wanted out of Lincoln County.

Armed with an AR-15 rifle and a handgun, officers came under fire immediately and several were fatally wounded. Hughes later came out the front of the house, armed, and was fatally shot.

Fallen CMPD officer leaves behind wife and child; described as the kind of officer you want on your team

CMPD Chief Jennings remembers Officer Eyer as a hero who rushed into danger Monday trying to help his fellow law enforcement officers. Eyer passed away sometime Monday evening after fighting for his life in the hospital, authorities said.

April 2024 Officer of the Month

CMPD said on April 15 Eyer was awarded Officer of the Month for his outstanding proactive policing efforts patrolling the areas of Sugar Creek, North Tryon Street, and the I-85 corridor.

CMPD said Eyer worked to address quality of life concerns within these areas, helping the community and local business owners.

In the span of just three weeks before receiving this award, Eyer and fellow CMPD Officer Aubrey Guldager made 16 arrests with 14 of those linked to felony cases involving charges of:

Possession of a firearm by a felon

Attempted first-degree murder

Armed robbery

Common law robbery

Various drug-related felonies and property crimes

These arrests made an incredible impact on local crime and quality of life concerns, CMPD said.

This is just a small glimpse at Officer Eyers dedication to his work and his commitment to protecting and serving the City of Charlotte. He was a phenomenal officer and the epitome of what our officers and all law enforcement strive to be each and every day. We ask that you continue to keep Officer Eyers family in your thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of support for our CMPD officers and staff who continue to serve our community during this devastating time. CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE

Served with the National Guard for 12 years

Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Eyer served with the North Carolina National Guard from November 28, 2011, to November 27, 2023.

He earned an honorable discharge from the NCNG after 12 years of service, which included two deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Spartan Shield.

Made an incredible impact: Fallen CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer served with NC National Guard

Our thoughts and prayers are with our public safety partners during this tragic time, as well as the family and friends of those who lost a loved one, the NC National Guard said this week.

CMPD will honor the life and service of Officer Joshua Eyer on Friday, May 3, at 10 a.m. at First Baptist Church located at 301 S. Davidson Street in uptown Charlotte.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Family of Logan-Rogersville student killed in DWI crash gets $3.8 million settlement

Benjamin Sugg, left, and Gavaan Vehr.

The family of a Logan-Rogersville student killed in a 2023 vehicle crash agreed to a wrongful death settlement of $3.8 million, according to court records.

Gavaan Vehr, 17, was a passenger who died last year in a single-vehicle accident when his friend Benjamin Sugg, 18, drove more than 100 mph and lost control of his SUV after a night of underage drinking, crashing on a rural road near Rogersville.

The victim's parents, Amber Munnik and Chris Vehr, filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Sugg, who was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for causing Vehr's death.

More: 'Your choices took away my son': Teen sentenced in Logan-Rogersville student's death

Vehr's family will collect the settlement from the respective insurance policies of the three teens involved in the crash (Vehr, Sugg and surviving passenger Jacob Zimmerman), according to court records.

Court documents from Thursday's hearing note that Munnik will get $2,074,260.75; Vehr will get $674,940.18; and attorneys will get $1,050,299.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Family of Logan-Rogersville student killed in crash gets $3.8 million
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, inquires about the condition of the injured at the Meizhou People's Hospital in Meizhou, south China's Guangdong Province, May 2, 2024. Zhang has stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work after a section of an expressway collapsed early Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Following General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping's instructions and Premier Li Qiang's request, Zhang led officials in charge of relevant departments to the scene to guide the rescue and disaster relief work. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

GUANGZHOU, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work after a section of an expressway collapsed early Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks on Thursday when guiding the emergency response work of the disaster in the city of Meizhou, Guangdong Province.

Following General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping's instructions and Premier Li Qiang's request, Zhang led officials in charge of relevant departments to the scene to guide the rescue and disaster relief work.

Zhang learned about rescue operations on the site and then went to the Meizhou People's Hospital to inquire about the condition of the injured, requiring all-out rescue and treatment.

When chairing a meeting on the rescue and disaster relief work on Thursday evening, Zhang urged efforts to ensure timely rescue work and minimize disabilities caused by injuries.

Efforts should be made to repair the damaged roads and restore traffic order as soon as possible, said Zhang, adding that information should be released timely in response to public concern.

Lessons should be drawn from the collapse and more should be done to improve disaster prevention and response capabilities, ensuring the safety of people's lives and property and the overall social stability, the vice premier said.

Zhang also called for efforts to monitor the weather in the flood season closely and strengthen early warning and joint emergency responses, so as to minimize disaster losses. 

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, walks to the site of an expressway collapse on the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou, south China's Guangdong Province, May 2, 2024. Zhang has stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work after a section of an expressway collapsed early Wednesday in south China's Guangdong Province.

Following General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping's instructions and Premier Li Qiang's request, Zhang led officials in charge of relevant departments to the scene to guide the rescue and disaster relief work. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
Family speaks out after Las Vegas man killed in high-speed suspected DUI crash

LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Days after a Las Vegas man was killed in a suspected DUI crash, his family spoke with 8 News Now about the shock of his sudden death.

He didnt deserve to die like that, Denise Parish said of her husband.

Parish and her family are grieving and lost after the sudden death of Al Weiss.

When I found out he was gone, I couldnt believe it, Weiss granddaughter Bailee Barger said. I still cant.

Las Vegas driver speeding at nearly 100 mph in deadly wrong-way crash: witness

Family and friends gathered at Temple Sinai in Summerlin on Thursday after the 78-year-old was killed in a suspected DUI crash on Buffalo Drive near Charleston Boulevard Sunday night.

According to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, 23-year-old Juan De Leon was driving nearly 100 miles per hour when he lost control at a curve in the road along Buffalo Drive and swerved into oncoming traffic, running into Weiss car.

Weiss vehicle was pushed 24 feet away against a concrete barrier from the collision point, according to police documents.

Family and friends gathered at Temple Sinai in Summerlin on Thursday after Al Weiss (center), 78, was killed in a suspected DUI crash on Buffalo Drive near Charleston Boulevard Sunday night. (Denise Parish)

Reports stated the cars entire drivers compartment was damaged from the collision.

De Leons vehicle traveled more than 200 feet after the collision. It was missing its front left tire assembly, reports also stated.

There was nothing left of his car, Parish said. The windows were even blown out.

Authorities said De Leon was found to be under the influence, so he was arrested with his bail set at $25,000.

Parish and Barger told 8 News Now they believe that number is not nearly high enough based on the circumstances of the crash.

Al will never see her graduate high school, Parish said of Al, referring to her granddaughter. He wont see her get married, he wont see her having kids.

Though Parish and her family are still having a hard time coming to terms with such a horrible reality, those who loved Weiss most said they would do their best to feel the happiness he brought even after he was gone.

Days after Al Weiss (Right) of Las Vegas was killed in a suspected DUI crash, his family spoke with 8 News Now about the shock of his sudden death. (Denise Parish)

I dont want anyone else to suffer like we are, Barger concluded. This family is all broken and its not the same without him.

De Leon faces charges of DUI resulting in death and reckless driving resulting in death.

If he posts bail, he will be put on medium-level electronic monitoring along with alcohol and drug monitoring.

He is due back in court on May 16.

Weiss death marks the 57th traffic-related death in LVMPDs jurisdiction so far this year.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Family touring home for sale fear for their lives during racist attack, TN cops say

A family touring a home for sale in Tennessee was subjected to a racist attack when a man started hurling slurs and threatened to burn the house down, police said.

David Collins, 50, is now charged with civil rights intimidation and attempted aggravated burglary.

His attorney information was not available in Shelby County case records as of May 3.

On April 30, a Black and Asian family of three was looking at a home in Millington, which is part of the Memphis metropolitan area, according to an arrest affidavit from the Millington Police Department.

As they were viewing the house, a man started banging on the front door and trying to kick it in, the couples daughter told Millington police.

Collins, who is white, yelled racial slurs and stated that he was going to kill all of them and that they would not make it out of the house alive, police wrote in the affidavit.

The family said they were in extreme fear for their lives as he threatened to burn the house down and said he would get something from his home to take care of them, according to police.

The family members told police they were afraid to leave the home as Collins jumped over the fence and tried to kick in the back door as well, officials said.

Collins was booked in the Shelby County jail on May 2, records show.

Muslim college student attacked while walking to campus from mosque, Texas advocates say

Principals racist rant was actually fake AI recording by disgruntled employee, cops say

Rideshare driver punches passenger in face because he thought they were Jewish, feds say

Black woman humiliated at car dealership, profiled and falsely arrested, suit says
Father shot to death outside Los Angeles County home, killer remains at large

A suspect remains on the loose after a young father was murdered outside his Los Angeles County home.

The victim was identified as Fidel Padilla, 32, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

On Oct. 16, 2023, authorities responded to a home on the 1000 block of Kellwil Way in Duarte at around 1:40 a.m.

Arriving deputies found Padilla injured with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Family members said Padilla had walked outside to the driveway when he was suddenly shot.

The suspect fled the scene before deputies could arrive. A surveillance image of the suspects vehicle was released by LASD.

The victim, Fidel Padilla, 32, seen in photos from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

The suspects vehicle was captured on surveillance video on Oct. 16, 2023. (Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department)

Authorities investigate a fatal shooting in Duarte on Oct. 16, 2023. (KTLA)

Authorities investigate a fatal shooting in Duarte on Oct. 16, 2023. (KTLA)

As of May 2024, no suspect description is known. No weapon was found at the scene and the motive behind the shooting remains unclear.

Padilla leaves behind four young children as his family remains devastated.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call LASDs Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.

Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
A father and son face more than 60 charges for allegedly committing various car-related crimes, including title fraud and rolling back odometers.

Action 9s Jason Stoogenke obtained the search warrants.

MORE ACTION 9: Second driver says CMS bus hit his parked vehicle

The documents go into a lot of detail about two of the cases in particular, which started innocently enough on Facebook Marketplace.

According to the warrants, the alleged victims went car shopping on Facebook Marketplace.

One bought a 2016 Chevy Silverado near a gas station parking lot in Dallas. But the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles License & Theft Bureau agents say she ultimately became suspicious about the truck.

They got involved and -- using CARFAX and other tools -- determined someone had rolled back the odometer and changed the mileage on the title, knocking off 100,000 miles.

MORE ACTION 9: Car dealerships mailer rubbing some the wrong way

Officers say the name of the man who sold the car to one of the suspects was still on the title. Stoogenke spoke with him by phone.

He says he was surprised when DMV agents called him. I didnt return the call immediately because I thought it might be some kind of a scam call, he said.

The warrants say the other alleged victim bought a 2021 RAM 2500 in the actual parking lot of the License Plate Agency in Gastonia.

Investigators say the alleged victim eventually turned on SiriusXM radio which has technology that told him he was in a stolen vehicle.

Officers say they confirmed that and that someone had altered the VIN in multiple places on the truck and on the title trying to hide the fact.

DMV agents arrested Juan Jose Garcia Villatoro and his son, Brian Jose Garcia. The suspects are associated with a trucking company in Bessemer City.

Advice from Action 9 if youre buying a used car

- Make sure no ones lying about the model or mileage:

Always search the VIN online to make sure it matches the used car youre thinking of buying. You can search here.

Use AutoCheck or CARFAX, not just to review the repair history but to see the mileage (just like officers in this case say they did). And check recalls while youre at it.

VIDEO: Drivers believe gas tanks on certain Kia models expand suddenly








The Oregon State Hospital in Salem is overseen by the Oregon Health Authority. (Michael Romanos/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Oregon State Hospital has a security camera system with blind spots and has failed to prevent patient-on-patient assaults or stop patients from having sexual contact with each other, a federal report found.

Federal inspectors found that the state-run psychiatric hospital in Salem passes out condoms to patients  even though patients arent allowed to have sex with each other. That, too, is a problem, the federal agency found.

Officials with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services visited the hospital, which is overseen by the Oregon Health Authority, after a patient-on-patient assault in February. They issued a 102-page statement of deficiencies that looked at the hospitals protocols in areas like security, handling patient grievances and adequately monitoring patients.

The report, obtained by the Capital Chronicle with a public records request, offers a richly detailed glimpse at the hospitals inner workings, how staff respond to crises and the challenges of running a facility that has about 680 patients. It shows the failures and challenges of keeping people safe. For instance, the hospitals security director told officials the hospital has nearly 1,100 security cameras at its Salem campus  too many for the security staff to continually watch. Yet the hospital has no written guidance advising staff which ones to monitor, the report said.

State hospital officials said they are working on a plan to correct the problems and will submit them to the federal agency within 10 days.

There will always be things we can improve, and we will continue to do so, but what persists is our dedication to the humans we are privileged to care for, said Dr. Sara Walker, the interim superintendent and chief medical officer for the hospital.

Patient assault

The patient-on-patient assault that spurred the federal visit unfolded in a dayroom area of the hospital, but with no staff present  even though some were assigned to the area. One patient put their arm around the other patients neck and lifted them up in the air out of a chair and shook them, the report said.

The patient dropped to the ground and lay there unconscious. For 34 seconds, no one was aware of the attack. Another patient who entered the area called for help. An ambulance rushed the patient to Salem Hospitals emergency room for an X-ray and sutures.

A review of security camera footage confirmed that no staffers were present, and that the hospital had failed to adequately supervise staff to ensure they worked in their assigned locations. The report indicates that staffers were placed on administrative leave during an investigation of the incident.

Federal inspectors who reviewed the footage found that during eight minutes before and during the assault no staff were present.

Whats more, the report found, the security camera in the area had a blind spot in the rooms southwest corner where the patient had been tossed and laid so security staff couldnt see them.

Other problems found

In reviewing the incident and others at the hospital, federal inspectors found systemic problems to address.

They said the hospital needs to track patient-on-patient injuries and their follow-up health needs, including emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

Inspectors also found instances in which hospital staff failed to adequately monitor patient care areas on security cameras or in person and had a chaotic response to emergency incidents.

The hospital also failed to prevent patients from having sex with each other and handed condoms out, despite a policy of not allowing sex between patients.

A review of patient chart notes found this confused patients.

Why are you handing out condoms? one patient asked. Does this mean we should be getting busy?

When federal inspectors interviewed staff about them, they said the condoms were available to anyone for self care.

But when asked for a copy of the hospitals policies about condoms, the state hospital told inspectors they had no written policy or procedure for their distribution.

It was unclear why the hospital would engage in the practice of condom distribution to any patient who asked without a written policy and procedure that ensured the protection and safety of all patients, the federal report said.

Follow up

After the state hospital sends a plan of correction to the federal agency, officials will need to approve it.



Theyll also follow up with an unannounced site visit to check for compliance.

This is the third time in less than a year that CMS officials have cited the hospital for problems, including an escape last August.

Federal officials also followed after an unexpected death this spring in the hospitals admission area. They cited the hospital after finding that life-saving resuscitation equipment was scattered throughout different rooms of the admissions area. CMS has approved the hospitals plan for correction.

The state hospital also anticipates an unannounced visit for that plan too.

The post A federal report finds patient safety concerns and condom distribution at Oregon State Hospital appeared first on Oregon Capital Chronicle.
Feds plan to ask to seize former Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys Gulf Coast condo at her sentencing

BALTIMORE  Federal prosecutors filed notice Friday that they will ask to seize former Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys Florida vacation condo on the same day as her sentencing on perjury and mortgage fraud charges.

The government indicated early on in the case that it would seek forfeiture. Fridays filing formalizes prosecutors request and sets up the possibility of a legal fight over the condo at Mosbys May 23 sentencing.

The government intends to sell the condo, according to the motion, which Mosby bought in February 2021 for $476,000. If there are profits from the sale, Mosby would get back her $47,600 down payment, prosecutors wrote.

The condominium known as The Tree House sits along Floridas Gulf Coast in Longboat Key. It is one of two Florida vacation properties that Mosby bought during the coronavirus pandemic using money withdrawn from her city retirement account.

Mosby used that money, about $80,000, to put down payments on the two properties. Prosecutors said she lied about suffering a pandemic-related financial setback in order to make the early withdrawals under the CARES Act, federal legislation that offered emergency economic relief during the health crisis.

A federal jury agreed, convicting Mosby of two counts of perjury in November. At her second trial in January, the government alleged that Mosby lied repeatedly when she applied for mortgages on the two properties, which were worth almost $1 million combined.

Jurors convicted Mosby of one count of mortgage fraud at that trial, finding that Mosby submitted a false gift letter claiming that her then-husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, would send her $5,000 to close on the Longboat Key Condo. In fact, Mosby sent her husband the money herself before he wired it to an escrow agent.

Mosby faces up to 40 years in prison at her sentencing, though maximum sentences are rare. She has taken the unusual step of publicly asking for a presidential pardon ahead of her sentencing.

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby has scheduled a forfeiture hearing to take place on the same day as Mosbys sentencing in Greenbelt.

In cases involving forfeiture, its not unusual for the defense and prosecution to come to an agreement, said Steven Levin, a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in Mosbys case. Its possible that Mosby could agree to pay a judgment instead.

This way, to the extent she wants to, Mosby can conceivably hold on to the property, Levin said. And the government doesnt have to deal with the headache of seizing the property, maintaining it and preparing it for resale, all of which carry significant costs.

Mosby previously sold the other Florida vacation property, an eight-bedroom house in Kissimmee, near Disney World, for $696,000. She paid $545,000 for the home in September 2020.

Prosecutors would not have been able to seize that property anyway, Levin said, because Mosby was not convicted of the count of mortgage fraud related to that home.

The condo, however, is forfeitable in its entirety, prosecutors wrote, because Mosby could not have bought it without committing mortgage fraud. That includes any profits made from the sale of the condo.

It would undermine the very purpose of forfeiture to allow Ms. Mosby to profit from the Vacation Condos appreciation, prosecutors wrote in the motion.

Mosbys lawyer, Federal Public Defender James Wyda, declined to comment. The defense will have a chance to respond in court.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Baltimore also declined to comment.

-------
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into alleged anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab racism at Columbia University, according to a group that filed a complaint against the university.

The news comes after months of student complaints about increasing harassment and the schools failure to prevent a hateful environment towards Palestinian students from taking root on campus.

The Education Departments Office for Civil Rights notified Palestine Legal, the group representing Columbia students and Students for Justice in Palestine, of its investigation, which the group shared in a public statement on Thursday. If the investigation finds Columbia violated Title VI, it could lose federal funding or be referred to the Justice Department for further action, according to the department.

Palestine Legal staff attorney Radhika Sainath praised the opening of the probe, which came just days after police cleared a protest encampment and arrested more than 100 demonstrators.

NYPD Officer Opened Fire During Columbia Raid, Local Prosecutor Confirms

The law is clearif universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters, they will risk losing federal funding, Sainath said in a statement. Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of unequal treatment, racist attacks or being denied access to an education by their university.

The complaint cites several instances of alleged university neglect when it failed to prevent or punish verbal and physical abuse of Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students and their allies. Examples include the universitys alleged nonresponse to the doxing of pro-Palestinian students since October; its handling of an incident in which two pro-Israel students sprayed putrid skunk water at pro-Palestinian demonstrators in January, which landed some in the hospital; and its delayed investigation into an outspoken Israeli professor who had more than 50 harassment complaints filed against him.

The complaint also accuses the school of treating Palestinian students differently than others on the basis of their ethnic identity through its policies, statements, and other administrative actions.

Columbia is quick to condemn speech it deems hateful or offensive to non-Palestinians, but when Palestinian students are the targets of anti-Palestinian hate or violence, the university stalls or fails to condemn the actions. When it does make a statement, Columbia fails to note that Palestinian students were the victims, unlike when non-Palestinians are harmed, the complaint reads.

Police Fire Rubber Bullets at UCLAs Pro-Palestine Protesters

The complaint also accuses Columbia president Minouche Shafik of falsely claiming clear and present danger to invite the NYPD to arrest students from the encampment on the schools lawn on April 18. It characterizes this action as a significant break from decades-long practice and an egregious example of the universitys differential treatment of Palestinian students and their allies.

The university declined to comment on the investigation, though Shafik has often reiterated the schools commitment to keeping a safe and welcome environment for all students. Her leadership has also come under fire from pro-Israel advocates, who voiced concerns about antisemitism and the safety of Jewish students. Two other investigations into Columbias alleged discriminatory conduct are active, though its unclear whether these are over antisemitism or anti-Muslim racism. A spokesperson said the Education Department does not comment on active investigations.

Layla Saliba, one of the students represented by Palestine Legal in the complaint, said the investigation shows the severity of the allegations.

It should not be controversial to be against your relatives being bombed, Saliba told NBC News. Yet Columbia has created an environment where just expressing your view as a Palestinian, it feels so unwelcoming.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Federal agents investigating the illegal flow of weapons, drugs and contraband between the United States and Haiti are turning to South Floridas Haitian community for help in cracking down on the gang violence that is fueling instability in the volatile Caribbean country.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the criminal investigations arm of the Department of Homeland Security, met with prominent Haitian-American leaders from the Miami metro area at the agencys office on Friday.

What are we missing? How do we do more outreach? How do we get better connectivity with the Haitian community here? Anthony Salisbury, the Special Agent in Charge for HSI Miami, asked a roomful of invitees. Were not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We have to come together as a community.

The meeting, which Salisbury said was an entry into further dialogue with Haitians living in South Florida, comes at a time Haiti is embroiled in a crisis that threatens to topple its government and plunge the country deeper into a humanitarian crisis.

Since Feb. 29 armed gangs have attacked key institutions, freeing thousands of inmates out of two prisons and taken over police stations and neighborhoods across Port-au-Prince. Despite achieving one of their main demands, the ouster of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, armed groups have continued their attacks.

READ MORE: Haiti presidential council reverses decision on a prime minister, but crisis continues

During the most recent wave of violence, which has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes, the role of criminal networks in the U.S. that supply firearms and ammunition to gangs in Haiti has grabbed the spotlight among both members of the Haitian community and U.S. officials.

South Floridas ports have emerged as key transit point for the illegal flow of arms, with the U.S. being the main source of guns and ammunition going into Haiti, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

On Friday, Salisbury described the region as the chokepoint of illicit firearms smuggling to Haiti as he acknowledged the deep ties between the country and South Florida, home to the largest Haitian community in the United States.

If someone stubs their toe in Haiti, we feel it in Miami, he said.

During the discussion, Salisbury highlighted some of his agencys seizures, including cocaine, marijuana and firearms stuffed in the roofs of cars, cereal boxes and under boats. Agents also presented some of the challenges that monitoring goods along the Miami River presents, because ships often carry large volumes of individually packed cargo. HSI said it detected an increased flow of illegal arms and ammo to Haiti in August 2022, when it announced a crackdown on the black market arms trade in South Florida.

Rafael Quinquilla, Assistant Special Agent in Charge talks during a meeting that discusses Homeland Security Investigations efforts in combating weapons trafficking, human smuggling, child exploitation, and other illicit activities in Haiti, on Friday, May 3rd, at the Homeland Security Investigations office in Miami.

Salisbury told the audience that HSI agents were effective at identifying who was and wasnt involved in criminal activity and that the ultimate target was dismantling networks and prosecuting the masterminds. But some in the audience, like Rev. Luke Harrigan of Grace Haitian Baptist Church, raised concerns that it is the little guys who unknowingly end up with illicit contraband on their boats who are taking the fall for criminal networks leaders.

Still, having the communitys help, Salisbury emphasized, is key to helping agents increase seizures and stop the flow of arms. The appeal was welcomed by some of the invitees, like North Miami Police Chief Cherise Gause. The first Haitian-American woman to supervise the citys force, Gause said she hoped for more opportunities to share information. Meanwhile, Miami Dade College Executive Vice President and Provost Malou Harrison encouraged more opportunities for universities and students to learn about the agencys work.

Though the focus was mainly about the illegal flow of arms, Salisbury took advantage of the gathering to highlight other law enforcement work his agents are engaged in.

While HSI does not handle civil immigration matters, detention, or enforcement  a point the agency emphasizes because immigrant victims and witnesses can fear coming forward with tips because of their immigration status  it does investigate human trafficking and smuggling.

Among the cases highlighted: that of Daniel Pye, a former Christian missionary who ran an orphanage in the port city of Jacmel who was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for child sex tourism. The feds are also seeking cooperation on the developing case of Michael Karl Geilenfeld, the 71-year-old former operator of St. Josephs Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, who has been accused by former residents of the home of sexually abusing them. Last month, Geilenfeld pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court.

Other participants at Froidays forum included Vanessa Joseph, City of North Miami clerk and Catholic Legal Services supervising attorney; Mario Chouloute, Consul General of Haiti; Stanley Rigaud, Vice President of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, and Qunyatta Warren, the manager of the Little Haiti Cultural Complex.

Guerda Nicolas, co-founder and president of the Ayiti Community Trust, called for further collaboration between the federal agency and Haitian community members in South Florida.

The United States has to be a better ally to Haiti., he said. There is a direct line between what happens here and the pain suffered in Haiti..
Los Angeles unleashes a new weapon in its fight against mosquitoes: More mosquitoes

In Los Angeles, those who wage war on mosquitoes are adding a weapon to their arsenal: more mosquitoes.

The Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District on Thursday launched a pilot program to release tens of thousands of irradiated, lab-raised mosquitoes into the local environment. These mosquitoes are all male and have been sterilized by the radiation, so the hope is that they will find wild female mates and impregnate them with dead-end sperm, rendering the resulting eggs worthless.

The target is a particular species, Aedes aegypti. The insects, which began to populate Los Angeles County in 2014, have evolved to hone in on one thing  you.

Thousands of years ago, a strain of Aedes aegypti moved in close to people and started to specialize to live near houses and bite people, said Daniel Hahn, a professor in the University of Floridas Department of Entomology and Nematology. Theyre characterized as aggressive nuisance biters because theyll bite you all day long.

Aedes Aegypti thrive in backyards and make their homes in small containers like bottle caps and dog bowls. They can carry worrisome diseases like yellow fever, Chikungunya, Zika and dengue.

We know our residents are suffering, said Susanne Kluh, the general manager of the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, which serves 6 million people and has more than 90 full-time staffers.

The district on Thursday released about 20,000 sterile male mosquitoes, dyed to appear fluorescent under a black light, as part of its final pilot program test. Male Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes dont bite, so experts say the program poses near-zero risk to humans.

Next month, the district plans to release seven to 10 sterile mosquitoes for every wild male they believe is living in the target region, the Sunland-Tujunga area of L.A. That could be up to 60,000 mosquitoes per week.

The strategy is an example of the ways humans are deploying novel technology to fight the spread of invasive mosquitoes and the diseases they can carry, as climate change, global trade and urbanization propel the pests into new territory.

Theyve evolved specifically to exploit humans as their hosts, and so we are constantly in an arms race against them, Hahn said.

An expanded range for aggressive mosquitoes

The Aedes Aegypti mosquito is not native to the United States but has been in some regions for hundreds of years. They have even played central roles in American history: In 1793, they forced some federal officials to flee Philadelphia, when the city was the seat of the U.S. government, because of an outbreak of yellow fever.

In recent years, researchers have warned that higher temperatures due to climate change will broaden the species range. That appears to be what happened in Southern California.

The state recorded its first two cases of locally acquired dengue fever last year, which meant local mosquitoes were transmitting the virus.

Everybody always said, well, our weather isnt suitable, but you know, the mosquitoes adapt and our weather has changed, Kluh said. We get more moisture in the summer, and people create these ideal little moist mini climates in their backyards, with lush plants and everything.

The region has also seen urban and suburban sprawl, which has expanded habitat for Aedes Aegypti.

Fighting mosquitoes with mosquitoes

The weaponized mosquitoes were bred in a Kentucky laboratory but developed from eggs sourced from the L.A. area. Each week, the vector district plans to hatch mosquitoes in tiny insect dorms then give them a zap of radiation from a specialty machine. Once released, the irradiated mosquitoes will fly only about 150 meters, Kluh said.

Hahn, who is not involved in the L.A. project, said the blast of radiation chops up the chromosomes within the mosquitoes cells, preventing reproduction while still allowing the insects to fly and perform other biological functions at near-normal levels.

Kluh said the mosquitoes wont be radioactive and wont pose risk to the public.

The district has spent about $255,000 of its $24.8 million annual budget on the program, she added: Weve done this on the cheap.

Still, Kluh said it would be a challenge to scale the program across more of Los Angeles County. Instead, she envisions it as a targeted treatment for Aedes Aegypti hotspots and areas where cases of mosquito-carried diseases are reported.

Other regions are pursuing similar technology. In Florida, Lee County began a program to release sterile, irradiated mosquitoes in 2017. Several other California districts are also piloting the program or have purchased irradiators.

New approaches to pest control

The idea of irradiating pests to bring populations down is not new. The agricultural industry has been irradiating male fruit flies for about three decades, according to Hahn.

Mosquito programs were developed 40 years ago, he said, but ultimately got left behind because it wasnt cost effective.

Since then, however, mosquitoes have evolved to resist some common pesticides, creating a need for new solutions.

Some companies are pursuing other technologies to fight Aedes Aegypti, like genetically modifying male mosquitoes so they kill females, releasing male mosquitoes that carry a particular bacteria or seeding a dominant gene into the population to drive numbers down.

Hahn said some of these ideas carry a risk of unintended consequences but are worth researching nonetheless. Such technologies are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and some are being tested in small pilot programs.

But irradiation programs are not regulated, which makes them the weapon of choice in the U.S. today.

We wanted to start something now, Kluh said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
SANAA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean.

"We will attack all ships heading to Israel in the Mediterranean Sea as well as in any area within our reach," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement while elaborating on the group's fourth phase of military escalation in the region.

"The implementation of this decision begins now," he noted. 
A man reportedly suffering from a mental health crisis, who was allegedly armed with a gun, has been taken into custody after a domestic disturbance led to a home in the Los Angeles County neighborhood of Lynwood being fully engulfed in flames.

Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Century Station responded to reports of the family disturbance in the 4800 block of East Olanda Street at around 3:45 p.m., LASD confirmed to KTLA.

Authorities say responding deputies thought they heard gunfire at the scene, which LASD later confirmed in a post to social media.

LASDs Special Enforcement Bureau landing a chopper in a residential Lynwood neighborhood during a SWAT operation on May 2, 2024. (Citizen)

LASD and LACo Fire on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (Citizen)

LASD and LACo Fire on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (Citizen)

LASD on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (LASD)

LASD on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (Citizen)

LASD on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (LASD)

LASD on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (LASD)

LASD on the scene of a domestic disturbance that led to a home being engulfed in flames in Lynwood on May 2, 2024. (LASD)

Footage of the incident posted to the Citizen App showed heavy smoke billowing out of the house as deputies arrived on the scene and an LASD helicopter flew overhead. Crowds of people watched the response unfold as the sheriffs helicopter landed on the residential street.

Details are extremely limited at this time and the nature of the dispute is unknown, but authorities told KTLA that the suspect is believed to have started the fire.

Crews with the Los Angeles County Fire Department were staged outside the home at around 4:22 p.m. but did not attack the blaze until the suspect was taken into custody.

Elderly women struck in fatal hit-and-run in Southern California neighborhood

Once the suspect was taken into custody, firefighters quickly extinguished the fire at 5:03, fire officials said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Footage of the incident captured by Sky5 showed heavy damage to the home. No injuries to citizens or first responders were reported.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The son of a prominent Atlanta music producer and engineer is under arrest on charges of shooting and killing his father during a dispute.

The shooting happened just before noon inside an apartment at the Arium Lenox Apartments in Brookhaven on Thursday.

Police identified the victim as 48-year-old Clinton Dorsey, known in the Atlanta music scene as Clinton D-Billz Dorsey.

Hes worked with a number of emerging and established artists. Police say Dorsey and his son got into an argument that escalated to violence.

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They were having an argument over the family business of dog breeding. The argument turned physical. From that, the son went and retrieved a semi-automatic pistol and shot and killed Mr. Dorsey, Sgt. John Clifford with the Brookhaven Police Department said.

Dorsey has worked with artists such as BRS Kash, Lil Baby, Da Baby, City Girls, YFN Lucci, Fatt Sosa, VL Deck, Peewee Longway, Jose Guapo, Rich Da Khid, Khaotic, and more.

Police arrested Dorseys adult son, Edward Dorsey, 22. Hes charged with voluntary manslaughter.

IN OTHER NEWS:
NEW MEXICO (KRQE)  Stage II fire restrictions for Pecos Canyon State Park in San Miguel County will begin Friday, May 3 at 8 a.m., according to the New Mexico State Parks Division. Due to dry conditions and two recent fire starts within outdoor recreation areas within Pecos Canyon, we feel it is prudent to restrict open campfires at this time, said Toby Velasquez, State Parks Division Director, in a news release. Fire restrictions are a proactive way to reduce the risk of human-caused wildfire, protect natural and cultural resources, and enhance public and firefighter safety.

Story continues below

During State II fire restrictions, people are prohibited from creating a campfire or using fire for charcoal, coal, or wood stove.

However, the use of devices fueled solely by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels that can be turned on and off is allowed.

The fire restrictions will remain in place until conditions improve. For more information, visit the State Parks website and click on Park Alerts.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  Students at Perkins Elementary School headed to Fishermans Landing early Friday morning to head out to sea with local law enforcement.

The event is called Fish with a Cop. It started in 2019 and then paused during the pandemic. This is the second time the special occasion has been able to take place.

Zillow study: how much parents need to buy a home in San Diego

The initiative is meant to help inner city students develop friendly relationships with those in uniform, who serve and protect San Diego. Each of the students are paired up with a particular officer.

Harbor Police Chief, Magda Fernandez, commented on the event, stating:

We are so fortunate to be able to provide this opportunity for kids. We work, obviously, with our fishing community, we work with our fellow partners in law enforcement  we have probation (officers) here, we have school (officers) here, we have Habor Police officers here  and so its a great partnership to be able to take kids out fishing for their first time.

Around 30 students, all from the Barrio Logan school, participated in the event.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
7 students injured, driver charged after crash with school bus in Appomattox County

UPDATE: 2:27 P.M. APPOMATTOX COUNTY, Va. (WFXR)  Virginia State Police says a man has been charged after a crash involving a school bus sent seven students to the hospital on Friday morning.

VSP said 57-year-old Chester L. Hickman, Jr., of Pamplin, was driving a Chevy Trailblazer on May 3 when he allegedly crashed into the back of a bus. The crash occurred at the intersection of Peach Street and Richmond Highway.

According to the troopers, seven students and Hickman Jr. were taken to a medical facility with minor injuries.

Hickman was charged with Reckless Driving.

There are no further updates at this time.



APPOMATTOX COUNTY, Va. (WFXR)  Virginia State Police says five people were taken to the hospital after a school bus was involved in a crash in Appomattox County on Friday, May 3.

Details remain limited; however, state police said the crash occurred around 7:30 a.m. on US-460, at the intersection of Peach Street and Richmond Highway.

City cancels International Festival in Lynchburg due to safety concerns

Appomattox County School Officials told WFXR News that the bus was stopped on US-460 when it was rear-ended by a vehicle.

VSP confirmed the bus was carrying 40 students.

Were told four students and the driver of the other vehicle were also taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

The crash remains under investigation.

WFXR News will update this story as more details are released.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv.
New housing in Orlando. Credit: File, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Quality Journalism for Critical Times

With Floridas affordable housing situation still at crisis levels, local officials, state lawmakers, researchers and other groups are looking to come up with new ideas, from changing zoning to lowering minimum lot sizes for developers.

The brainstorming came during a day-long discussion held on the University of South Floridas St. Petersburg campus this week. It was hosted by the Florida Policy Project, a think tank founded by former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes.

Brandes himself has major issues with the Live Local Act  a law approved last year to boost housing opportunities in Florida. He said its a one-size fits all policy that treats the states largest and smallest counties the same way  largely focused on apartment developers, with not enough incentives for single-family home developers.

He believes that there needs to be more changes with zoning, specifically allowing for the construction of whats called accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and lowering the minimum lot sizes for developers.

And none of those really are contemplated in Live Local 1 or Live Local II, he said, a reference to the measure passed this year that attempts to alleviate some of the concerns of the original legislation.

The in-law units

ADUs are also better known as secondary units, back-yard cottages and in-law units, and they have been growing in number in California in the past eight years.

By the late 2010s there was a growing consensus that something had to happen, said M. Nolan Gray, the research director of California YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard), which advocates for affordable housing.

The status quo was totally untenable. ADUs were just so inoffensive. ADUs just check every boxI think part of what had happened, the forces of no had just been saying no to every possible reform for the longest time, but by the time we got to ADUs, there was this feeling of come on, this is really the minimum we could be doing, so were not going to yield to the politics of saying no to everything. Were going to take some action.

But Edward J. Pinto, a senior fellow and the director of the American Enterprise Institutes Housing Center, said that the push for ADUs in California had actually started in the 1980s. It was a game of whack-a-mole between the Legislature and the localities. And then finally the damn broke in 2016-2017, but that was 30 years after it started.

Lesley Deutch, a principal for John Burns Research and Consulting in South Florida, said that while she liked the idea of ADUs, she said it would allow for the construction of more vacation type rental properties than single family homes. And she said that another obstacle is the number of homeowner associations (HOAs) in Florida.

A lot of them wont allow extra construction, she said. Not only are you dealing with the state and the local municipality, but also youre also dealing with your local HOA, and to me thats a giant headache, and its a hard hurdle.

Live Local

Later in the day the discussion moved to how Live Local is playing in certain areas of the state.

A point of contention has been the so-called missing middle property tax exemption that encourages more affordable units in new or recently constructed developments. The law allows for a 75% property tax break if at least 70 units are affordable to people earning up to 80 percent of the median income for the region (AMI), up to 120 percent  a much higher level of income than traditional affordable housing projects.

Pasco County has been one of the most vocal governments in Florida in publicly criticizing elements that part of the law.

Meanwhile, a provision in the 2024 legislation updating the Live Local law does allow certain taxing authorities to opt-out of giving a 75% property tax break for apartments priced for families making 80% to 120% of the median income for the region. The Pasco County Commissioners expect to discuss the option of opting out of that provision later this month.

Adrian Moore from the Reason Foundation (left), Manatee County Commissioner George Lindsay and Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano at the Florida Policy Projects 2024 Florida Housing Summit at USF-St Petersburg campus on May 1, 2024 (photo credit: Mitch Perry)

Pasco Commissioner Jack Mariano said during this weeks discussion that the opt-out clause will free up the county. But as far as this whole thing is? I wish they could go and just relook at the whole thing, he said.

Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse noted that the 120% of the Area Medium Income (AMI) provision in the law took away some of the bang of the Live Local Act, saying that there was no need to incentivize people at that relatively high level of income. According to the May 2023 Manatee County income guidelines, 120% of the AMI in Manatee was $76,800 for an individual, and $109,680 for a family of four.

Honestly, the missing middle is great, but fortunately, the AMIs have gone up faster than my rents have gone up, and in part due to supply, and in part due to the economy, and thats what you should want, Kruse said. Its gone up to the point where the 120% is no longer a true missing middle. The 60-80% is more of a missing middle now. People at 120% can just go out and get an apartment.

Expediting building permits

Another bill (SB 812) designed to boost housing construction is sponsored by GOP State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a home builder and developer. He represents Citrus, Hernando, Sumter counties and part of Pasco County. The measure allows cities with a population of 10,000 or more and counties with a population of 75,000 or more to expedite the process for issuing building permits for residential subdivisions or planned communities.

One of the reasons why we have an affordable housing crisis in this state is that everyone wants to move here, he said. The other part is that were seeing local governments artificially constrain supply, and theyre doing that by overregulation.

Ingoglia shared a panel discussion with Jeremy Susac, the vice president of government affairs with the Lennar Corporation, one of the largest home construction companies in the nation. A former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Ingoglia said as a home builder and a legislator, he gets frustrated when he hears local governments discuss affordable housing.

To me they talk out of both sides of their mouth, he said. They say we need affordable housing, but guess what? Were going to put all these mandates on you. Were going to restrict what you can build. Were going to restrict supply, were going to take forever on your permits, and where do you think that all gets passed on to? It gets passed on to the end user.

Ingoglia added that the housing shortage in the state will only abate with the construction of more homes, which he says would be enhanced by getting local government out of the single-family residential permitting process once and forever.

The only way to keep housing prices stable for the long and short term is to make sure enough supply meets demand. If you are not doing that, you are part of the problem. This legislation will help that. It will allow more homes to go on the market.

The post FLs housing crisis: Officials brainstorm to find ways to increase housing stock and decrease costs appeared first on Florida Phoenix.
A worker operates at a fertilizer plant in Herat Province, west Afghanistan, May 2, 2024. The first private fertilizer plant in Afghanistan opened on Thursday in the country's west Herat province, plant manager Abdullah Norzai said Friday. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)

HERAT, Afghanistan, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The first private fertilizer plant in Afghanistan opened on Thursday in the country's west Herat province, plant manager Abdullah Norzai said Friday.

Built at a cost of 550,000 U.S. dollars by the private sector, the plant produces 20 to 25 tonnes of fertilizer every day, the manager said, adding that 30 people have been employed so far and the number of employees will rise in the future as production increases.

A state-owned fertilizer plant has been running in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province over the past several decades.

The Afghan caretaker government has been encouraging local and foreign investors to invest in the country as part of efforts to create jobs and alleviate poverty in the war-ravaged country. 

Workers operate at a fertilizer plant in Herat Province, west Afghanistan, May 2, 2024. The first private fertilizer plant in Afghanistan opened on Thursday in the country's west Herat province, plant manager Abdullah Norzai said Friday. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)

Workers operate at a fertilizer plant in Herat Province, west Afghanistan, May 2, 2024. The first private fertilizer plant in Afghanistan opened on Thursday in the country's west Herat province, plant manager Abdullah Norzai said Friday. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)
Florence schools to receive empathy curriculum after teens set opossum on fire in social media video

FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW)  TeachKind, PETAs humane education division, sent Florence 1 Schools Superintendent Richard OMalley an urgent letter about the need for humane education after two juveniles posted a video on social media setting an opossum on fire, kicking, and stomping the animal.

The two juveniles, aged 15 and 17, were arrested and charged with ill treatment of an animal.

TeachKind also sent a letter to Clarendon County School District Superintendent Shawn Johnson. Both districts kindness-to-animals educational materials, including Empathy Now, a guide to preventing violence by young people, and Challenging Assumptions, which helps students examine discrimination and other social justice issues, PETA said in a news release.

The group also sent high schools copies of Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, the release said.

When young people torture and kill an animal and gloat about it on social media, thats a clear sign that humane education is sorely needed, said PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. Compassion can be cultivated, and TeachKind stands ready to help South Carolina schools teach their students that every sentient being deserves empathy and respect.



* * *

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.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday banning and criminalizing the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat in the state.

The legislation joins similar efforts from three other states  Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee  that have also looked to stop the sale of lab-grown meat, which is believed to still be years away from commercial viability.

Florida is fighting back against the global elites plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals, DeSantis said. We will save our beef.

Lab-grown meat, also known as cultivated meat, has attracted considerable attention in recent years as startups have raised millions of dollars to improve the technology meant to create a climate-friendly alternative to traditional meat sources. Cultivated meat is usually grown in a metal vessel from a sample of animal cells. They multiply in a container called a bioreactor while being fed with water, amino acids, vitamins and lipids  a process that can be difficult to do at scales large enough to create enough food for commercial sale.

Still, some companies have made strides, with two California startups receiving approval from U.S. regulators last year to sell lab-grown chicken.

Those companies said Floridas bill stifles innovation in a space that is becoming competitive globally.

The United States has a tremendous lead in terms of alternative proteins right now. We have 43 cultivated meat companies in the world. But this kind of political rhetoric and these laws put that in jeopardy, said Tom Rossmeissl, the head of global marketing at Eat Just Inc., the company behind cultivated meat brand Good Meat.

Upside Foods, another cultivated meat startup, said the ban could put the resilience of Floridas supply chain at risk by hindering the states ability to address the projected doubling of global protein demand by 2050.

This type of discriminatory legislation jeopardizes the United States leadership in biotechnology and enables countries like China to gain unfair advantage, Upside Foods said in an email to NBC News.

The main competitor in the cultivated meat industry is China, which included the technology in its latest five-year agricultural plan as a way to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and stave off food scarcity.

Lori Berman, one of 10 Florida Democratic senators who voted against the bill, expressed similar concerns about China. She called the bill shortsighted, seeing cultivated meat as a solution to future food shortage problems.

The cattle industry lobbied against cultivated meat, so we are now banning an entire industry in our state, Berman said. Were just short-changing an entire industry.

A person holds a lab-grown meat package. (David Parry / PA Wire via AP)

Dean Black, a cattle rancher and one of the Republican Florida representatives who pushed for the bills passage, told NBC News that cultivated meat is a national security concern. He fears concentrating protein production in factories could lead to famine if those facilities are struck by a missile.

At the bills signing, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said the ban was meant to protect the integrity of American agriculture.

Advocates say the ban is pre-emptive because cultivated meat is still far from competing with regular meat. Good Meats product is still more expensive than even high-end organic meat products. It may take decades before production can be scaled up to reach price parity.

Paul Shapiro, author of the book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, likened Floridas bill to banning video streaming to try to protect Blockbuster video stores. Shapiro is the CEO of The Better Meat Co., which makes plant-based meat from fungi.

The legislation that was enacted in Florida is seeking to kill this industry while were still in the cradle, Shapiro said. Even under the most optimistic estimates, meat grown from animal cells is not going to be on the market in any meaningful way for another five to 10 years.

Good Meat spent three years working with federal regulators to ensure food safety, but the bans supporters still have health concerns. Black said more research is needed to assess whether lab-grown meat contains the same micronutrients as real meat.

Although the FDA has said that this type of product is safe, that doesnt mean its healthy, Black said. In Florida, we dont want our citizens used as guinea pigs.

Justin Tupper, president of the United States Cattlemens Association, called the bill a win for similar reasons. Although he said he doesnt fear competition, he is concerned about chemicals in the new product.

We dont want lab-grown meat weighing on the backs of our good reputation of the safest, best protein on the planet, Tupper said.

But Rossmeissl and Shapiro said theres little merit to health concerns, because cultivated meat has near identical nutritional value to real meat. Furthermore, conventional meat often has fecal and intestinal pathogens, and antibiotic residues, that need to be cooked out for safe consumption, Shapiro said.

With clean meat, you dont have to worry as much about intestinal pathogens when youre not growing intestines at all, Shapiro said.

Rossmeissl added that consumers should be free to choose whether they trust the product.

This isnt about safety. This is a culture war, Rossmeissl said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
In a nationwide first, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has outlawed the sale and distribution of lab-grown meat in his state, claiming a ban will prevent the global elite from forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects.

Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elites plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals, DeSantis said in a statement following the legislations signing Wednesday.

The law aims to protect the business of local cattle ranchers and farmers, which the states Commissioner of Agriculture, Wilton Simpson, said is under threat by alternative food options.

A piece of Good Meat's cultivated chicken is seen cooking on a grill in Alameda, California Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

Lab-grown meat is a disgraceful attempt to undermine our proud traditions and prosperity, and is in direct opposition to authentic agriculture, Simpson said.

Anyone found violating the law, which goes into effect on July 1, risks being fined or having their business license suspended. Similar bans are under consideration in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.

DeSantis, in explaining the need for a ban, cited an article published on the World Economic Forums website that endorsed insect farming for food and animal feed due to rising human population levels.

The article, written by the president and chief executive officer of an insect farming company, argues that insect farming could be an environmentally friendly solution to an impending global food crisis. It did not argue for forcing its consumption on anyone.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pictured last month, said that banning cultivated meat will prevent the global elite from forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects. Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Floridas ban received bipartisan support from Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who in a statement posted on social media said, though it pains him, he agrees with DeSantis.

As a member of [the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry] and as some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers, he wrote. Fettermans office did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

The U.S. Agriculture Department last June approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed such products safe to eat.

Lab-grown meat, also called cultivated meat, is still hard to find and more expensive than meat that comes from slaughterhouses. The products are produced in steel tanks using cells from a living animal. Theyre not the same as plant-based proteins, like the Impossible Burger, which are often packaged to resemble meat that comes from an animal.

Meat-manufacturing companies have meanwhile hit back at Floridas ban.

GOOD Meat, which touts itself as the first company in the world to sell cultivated meat, called DeSantis law disappointing and a setback for everyone.

In a state that purportedly prides itself on being a land of freedom and individual liberty, its government is now telling consumers what meat they can or cannot purchase, the California-based company said in a statement.

UPSIDE Foods, another California-based meat producer, slammed DeSantis ban as overreaching food policing.

This decision ignores food safety experts, takes away consumer food choice, and hinders American innovation in a sector America has historically led, the company said in a statement. Despite the ban, well be over here continuing to fight for a better food future.

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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  A Florida caregiver allegedly abused a 91-year-old man in his care, according to the Flagler County Sheriffs Office.

Brandon Valentine, 41, of Palm Coast, was seen on video lunging at and struggling with the man, according to the sheriffs office.

Deputies said they were called to the home on April 14 after receiving a report that Valentine had hit the man. However, conflicting reports were given and the man was found with no obvious injuries.

Valentine told deputies he would provide them with a video that would clear him of any wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, deputies were again called to the home after more allegations of abuse were given to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

In a video showing the April 14 incident, Valentine is clearly seen lunging at the victim and a brief struggle ensues, according to the sheriffs office.

Fortunately, hes not very smart and provided the video evidence that helped our investigators confirm the allegations of abuse, Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement.

Valentine was charged with abuse of an elderly or disabled adult without great harm and battery on a person over the age of 65. He is being held on a $10,000 bond.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
A Florida man was arrested and charged with two felonies last month for allegedly pulling a gun on some kids who were fishing in his neighborhood. The accused is also the president of the neighborhoods Homeowners Association, according to FOX-35 News. An arrest affidavit filed in Brevard County names Kyle Tate of Palm Bay as the individual who was arrested on April 14. According to that document, officers with the Palm Bay Police Department responded to a call from Stillwater Lakes Subdivision after three young anglers reported that Tate had approached them with a firearm, telling them to get off his property. They also accused Tate of taking their fishing rods, tackle boxes, and cast nets and throwing them into the nearby woods. In addition to the fishing equipment that officers say Tate willfully and maliciously damaged, the victims claimed that he also took one of their cell phones and never gave it back. Officers estimated the total value of the damaged fishing equipment at $2,200, which combined with the value of the phone added up to approximately $3,700. This was well over the $750 benchmark for felony grand theft, and officers charged Tate accordingly. He faces an additional felony charge of criminal mischief for allegedly pulling a gun on the juvenile anglers. Tate was taken into custody and booked in the Brevard County Jail. Court records show that he was later released after posting bond. Tates attorneys have entered a plea of not guilty, and he is currently awaiting trial. Read Next: Watch: Armed Alabama Man Charged After Cussing Out Bass Tournament Anglers The three juvenile victims were aged 7, 10, and 15, according to FOX-35, and the mother of the 7- and 15-year-old told reporters that her kids have fished the lake before without any issues. The local police department also confirmed in the affidavit that the lake where the incident took place belongs to the subdivision and not Tate. A gun shouldve never been pulled on them, the mother of the 10-year-old told the Orlando-based news outlet on Thursday. It was startling. Hes still super shaken up, knowing that on a daily basis we have to drive by this subdivision where this man lives.

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Florida man nearly hits Escambia County deputies with vehicle, gets arrested (DASH CAM)

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG)  A Northwest Florida man was arrested late Thursday night after trying to run from deputies and almost hitting them with his vehicle, according to the Escambia County Sheriffs Office.

A mugshot of Alexander Deloach (Escambia County Sheriffs Office).

WANTED: 2 armed and dangerous murder suspects in Escambia County, Florida

28-year-old Alexander George Deloach, who has a Molino address, was found on the 8400 block of Old Spanish Trail, according to officials.

Deloach allegedly tried to run from deputies and almost hit them with a vehicle.

Deputies performed a PIT maneuver to stop him at the intersection of Harbor Square and Breakwater Circle, according to officials. A Precision Immobilization Technique involves law enforcement forcing a vehicle to turn sideways, causing it spin and stop.

Deputies arrested Deloach and charged him with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, fleeing and eluding, possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana less than 20 grams.

Officials said Deloach had active warrants for homicide, revoked bond, and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Florida priest accused of sex abuse expected to return to Iowa

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Father Leo P. Riley, a priest working with the Diocese of Venice is facing capital sexual battery charges.

The charges stem from alleged incidents in Iowa, where he previously worked in the 1980s.

According to the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Riley was ordained a priest in 1982 in Iowa. In 2002, he requested to transfer to Florida to be closer to his parents. He moved to Venice in 2005.

Riley was a priest at Saint Charles Borromeo in Port Charlotte in the early 2000s. He is currently assigned to San Antonio Catholic Church, which is also in Port Charlotte.

I buried these memories very deep: Florida priest accused of sex abuse, alleged victim comes forward

Archbishop Thomas Zinkula of the Archdiocese of Dubuque in a statement said the first allegation of abuse committed by Father Riley was made in December 2014. The claim dated back to 1985.

In 2014, Riley was in Florida and the Archdiocese reported it to the Dubuque County Attorneys Office.

It is the understanding of the Archdiocese that the Dubuque County Attorneys Office chose not to conduct an investigation into the allegation because the applicable statute of limitations at that time had expired. The Archdiocese also notified the Diocese of Venice, Florida and Father Riley was placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation, Zinkula wrote.



The diocese conducted its own investigation and said, the best information available at the time did not support a reasonable belief that the allegation was true.

Father Riley continued to serve as a priest in Venice and later in Port Charlotte. A man who is now 32 years old alleged he too was a victim of Rileys.

As a child, I attended Saint Charles School in Port Charlotte, where Father Leo Riley repeatedly abused me for years, said the man, who did not want to share his name. I never told anybody back then he said that if I told anyone he would do it, my sister what he was doing to me.

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The man said he reported what happened to him to the State Attorney of Charlotte County in 2020, the same year attorney Damian Mallard filed a lawsuit on his clients behalf against Father Riley, the Diocese of Venice and St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church alleging sexual abuse he claims was perpetrated by Riley in Florida in the early 2000s.



How many people have to claim to be abused by a priest before its enough to place him on a administrative leave and remove him from any possible access to children? said Mallard. We call on Father Riley, the Church and the Diocese of Venice to acknowledge and admit that crimes of this man and act with all deliberate speed to make this right and help these men heal from the nightmare for decades.

At the time the civil lawsuit was received, the factual allegations therein were inaccurate and contradictory, said Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice. The plaintiff has since changed his allegations and the litigation is still pending.

In May 2023, the Archdiocese of Dubuque said it received two new and separate allegations against Father Riley stemming from 1985 and 1986. Those allegations were reported to the Dubuque Police Department.



Our criminal investigations division started looking into an allegation of sexual abuse committed by Father Leo Riley that occurred within our jurisdiction in Dubuque Iowa back in the 80s, said Lt. Luke Bock.

Who is Leo Govoni? Nonprofit founder accused of taking $100M from vulnerable peoples trusts

Lt. Bock said the yearlong investigation led to detectives establishing probable cause. Riley was arrested last week at his Port Charlotte home.

The statute of limitations for this would have expired, however with him moving to Florida that tolled the statute of limitations which allowed this investigation to continue, said Bock.

My heart aches for each victim of sexual abuse and for their family. I am truly sorry when a member of the clergy hurts a child in such a terrible way, instead of providing them with the proper love and guidance that each child inherently deserves, Zinkulas statement said.

Riley has since bonded out of jail. He has a home in Port Charlotte but has been ordered to return to Dubuque. The Charlotte County Sheriffs Office is investigating the allegations of abuse within its jurisdiction. It is asking those who believe they may be victims to call 941-639-2101.

If the accusations are true, then we have had a sexual predator living among us in Charlotte County that was trusted by far too many people simply because of his position, said Sheriff Bill Prummell. It is likely that there are more victims, and I encourage them to come forward so that we can make sure this type of heinous thing does not happen to anyone else here. It doesnt matter when it happened; but what does matter is that the truth needs to be shared and justice needs to be served. We stand with you.

Bishop Dewane said Riley has denied the allegations.

As your Bishop, I would like to assure you that the Diocese of Venice takes these matters seriously and remains committed to doing its utmost to protect children and vulnerable adults, said Bishop Dewane. Anyone who believes that he or she has been the victim of sexual misconduct by someone serving in ministry for the Diocese of Venice, or for that matter by anyone, should contact law enforcement officials at 1-800-962-2873. The Diocese of Venice provides a Victim Assistance Coordinator, who can be reached at 941-416-6114.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
OCALA, Fla. (WFLA)  A 15-month-old boy who was found dead at his home in March overdosed on multiple drugs, including fentanyl, the Marion County Sheriffs Office said in a news conference

The autopsy performed on 15-month-old Daltin Miller revealed that fentanyl, methamphetamine and the animal tranquilizer xylazine were in his system at the time of his death, according to NBC affiliate WESH.

This was all in the victims blood and liver indicating the child had eaten these drugs, Sheriff Billy Wood said.

Police found fentanyl near the childs body when they were called to the Ocala home on March 1. The parents, who called to report the unresponsive child, were identified as Kelli Starling and Daniel Miller.

Daniel Miller and Kelli Starling (MCSO)

A person representing the family told WESH that relatives lost custody of Daltin to his father.

He was granted custody for getting clean off drugs less than a month before the childs death. Daltins mother was not allowed in the home due to her drug use but resided there anyway.

A neighbor told WESH their home was known in the community as a drug house. They reported hearing loud music, screaming, fights, and doors slamming at the home.

Some neighbors claimed the Florida Department of Children and Families never came out to the home to investigate the toddlers living conditions.

It breaks your heart. You cant really put into words the loss of a child you were fighting so hard to keep, and it wasnt a malicious fight. It was like, Hey, please look at what you are about to put this child through, Gladys Vazquez, a family friend, told WESH.

The parents were arrested on Wednesday, according to WESH, and deputies said Daltins father had fentanyl in his pocket at the time he was taken into custody.

They each were charged with homicide and aggravated child manslaughter. They remained at the Marion County jail on Friday with no bond.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
People cry in front of the Vladislav Ribnikar school during a memorial ceremony to mark the first anniversary of a shooting that killed 10 people in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Hundreds of people laid flowers and lit candles on Friday to commemorate the victims of Serbia's first-ever school shooting a year ago that left nine children and a school guard dead and six people wounded.

A somber, silent queue formed on a rainy day outside the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School in central Belgrade where a 13-year-old boy is accused of opening fire at his schoolmates with his father's guns last year.

The shooting stunned Serbia. The Balkan nation was no stranger to violent crime, but mass shootings are rare, and none had taken place at a school before.

Just a day later, a shooting rampage outside the capital further shocked the country. A 20-year-old man was accused of killing nine and wounding 12 others, mostly young people.

Friday's vigil formally started at 8:41 a.m., the time of the school shooting last year. Serbian television stations interrupted their broadcasts, showing the text We remember on a black screen.

The all-day event near the school also included art installations, a panel discussion and short films about the victims. The street where the school is located is closed to traffic.

The event was titled Awakening, a call for introspection in a nation that is yet to come to terms with its role in multiple wars in the 1990s and the culture of violence that has prevailed ever since.

Ninela Radicevic, a mother of a victim, told The Associated Press ahead of the anniversary that society and the government had rushed to forget the tragedy. Radicevic, who lost her 11-year-old daughter Ana Bozovic in the shooting, said she hoped Serbia can prevent such a horrific crime from happening again.

"We have missed many chances to react better... (but) I think it is never too late to pause ... and to try not to make the same mistakes in the future," said psychology professor Aleksandar Baucal, who is part of a team behind the commemoration.

The slain childrens parents have fought to have the school closed and turned into a memorial center. They've organized protests, remembrance events and testified about their ordeal to promote awareness among the public.

Serbias populist government launched a gun crackdown after the shooting, collecting about 80,000 weapons and rounds of ammunition. State-backed support teams offered counseling and police officers were deployed outside schools for security.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Instagram after paying respects Friday that the unthinkable tragedy has left a permanent scar on the soul of our entire nation.

Suspects in both of the shootings were apprehended. The alleged school shooter's parents went on trial in January, charged with teaching their underage son to shoot and with not securing the weapons at the family home. The trial is continuing. The boy has been held in an institution since the attack.

The trial of the other suspect and his father is to start later this month in the central town of Smederevo.

Shock and anger because of the shootings triggered months of street protests demanding the resignations of top officials and a ban on media that spew hate speech and intolerance.
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke speaks at a news conference after a Merced family was kidnapped at gunpoint from their trucking business in October 2022. The four family members, including an 8-month-old girl, were later found dead. (Andrew Kuhn / Associated Press)

In Merced County, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada foothills west across vast acres of orchards and farmland, Sheriff Vern Warnke increasingly finds himself the only law enforcement officer available to answer a call for help.

Most recently, the department received a call from a woman regarding a domestic dispute, saying her husband had a gun. With no deputies in close range, Warnke reported to the scene, wearing his signature cowboy hat and his badge hung around his neck. He found a man pacing with a loaded gun tucked into his waistband and managed to deescalate the situation.

We had nobody to send, and I, as the sheriff, I'm still a cop, I still love what I do, said Warnke. But we're at that point when the sheriff and administration are having to take calls.

Warnke has worked for the Merced sheriff's office for 45 years and has been sheriff for the last decade. So it's with heavy heart, he said, that he's watched deputy vacancies climb to the point where he believes residents are at risk. In February, Warnke posted a video that amounted to a plea for help, warning residents that the staffing shortage was now so severe calls for service could go unheeded.

I'm fighting for the sheriff's offices life right now, Warnke says in the video. That means I'm fighting for your public safety. So folks, it's bad."

The office typically has 100 deputies who handle patrol duties, but 20 of those spots are vacant. Of the 108 spots designated for custodial deputies, who work at correctional facilities, 23 are vacant. The investigative unit, budgeted as an 18-person team, is down to eight. And dispatch has four vacancies in a staff of 13.

Warnke said the vacancies have mounted in recent months and his pleas to the county Board of Supervisors to increase his budget and give him control over how funds are allocated have gone unheeded.

At this point, just four deputies patrol the countys nearly 2,000 square miles during daytime shifts. A lieutenant and two sergeants are covering dispatch shifts. If someone calls in sick, colleagues are asked to work beyond their 12-hour shifts. One dispatcher clocked more than 700 hours of overtime over the course of a year.

Our correctional bureaus are understaffed and overworked. Our patrol deputies are understaffed and overworked. Our communication center with the dispatchers  it could be to the point when you dial 911, we have nobody who can answer it, Warnke said in the video. And that's not a joke. It's not a threat. It's a fact.

The struggle to fill law enforcement ranks is a challenge in many California communities, urban and rural. The number of patrol officers per 100,000 residents is at its lowest point since at least 1991, according to a January report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The steepest declines occurred during the 200709 Great Recession, the PPIC researchers found, and levels have not recovered.

Last year, with about one-third of its 88 sworn officer positions vacant, the city of Alameda started offering police recruits a $75,000 enlistment bonus on top of regular pay that starts at $110,000 a year. San Francisco and some East Bay cities followed suit, raising officer pay and implementing signing and retention bonuses.

The Los Angeles City Council in August approved a four-year package of raises for officers that boosted starting pay to $86,000, and offered bigger retention bonuses. But city officials said in April they are still struggling to keep up with vacancies, and would need to hire about 60 new officers a month to overcome the attrition rate.

Smaller municipalities that cant compete with such extravagant offers have tried other methods of retention, including free gym memberships and dry-cleaning services. But rural counties, with smaller budgets to work with, are often at the losing end of the recruitment battle. In 2022, the Tehama County Sheriffs Office suspended daytime patrol amid a staffing shortage.

Merced County, known as the gateway to Yosemite, has a larger budget than many rural counties because it encompasses both farmland and cities such as Merced, population 90,000. The county's annual budget for public safety has grown in recent years and makes about $93.4 million available for the sheriff's office, according to county officials.

But Warnke said it hasnt been enough to retain deputies, who are leaving for other counties despite Merced's $10,000 signing bonuses. Top deputies in some neighboring counties make at least $102,000, while Merced pays its top deputies $90,000.

The sheriff acknowledged that the competition for salaries and bonuses creates a vicious cycle." The department went through similar shortages during his first term, and deputies received a 20% raise in 2017. But here he is facing the same problem.

The issue is that the county doesnt seem to want to put any planning into the future. Theyll put a Band-Aid on something and think its gonna hold for a long time. And it doesnt, Warnke said.

County spokesman Mike North said the county offered the Merced County Deputy Sheriff's Assn. an 8% raise, which the union declined. If a raise is eventually approved, North said, funding would come from cutting into other agencies.

We are aiming to close the compensation gap between the sheriffs office and others in the Central Valley, and our staff has already returned to the bargaining table with the remaining public safety labor groups," he said in a statement.

Warnkes video and the concerns he has expressed at public hearings have prompted outcry from residents, who are worried about safety. In 2022, Merced County had the highest reported homicide rate among counties in the state with more than 100,000 residents, according to the California Department of Justice .

In March, the sheriff's office launched an online reporting system to take in nonviolent crime reports, saying it simply did not have enough deputies to respond to calls. Custody order violations, vehicle thefts and vandalism are among the crimes that can be reported online. Violent crimes can still be reported by phone. Other law enforcement agencies have also turned to online systems to free up resources.

Merced County residents Becky and Jason Tucker say they can feel the shortage.

The couple filed a report with the sheriff's office last summer alleging that a man had committed forgery and damaged property on their farm. They said they were told the office had just one investigator who handled agriculture-related crimes. That investigator, said Becky Tucker, was needed for homicide investigations, leaving their case open for months as the suspect roamed free. He was ultimately arrested for alleged crimes in Kern County, where he is awaiting a court appearance.

We are concerned that if something happens on our property, we will not have access to a deputy as far as response time," she said.

The couple have since spent $6,000 on a security system.

North said 74 cents of every general fund dollar in Merced County goes toward public safety and that the board, given various regulatory requirements, has discretion over only about 11% of the $1.16 billion budget. He said the countys goal is to maintain a sustainable budget that doesnt result in massive layoffs should we encounter an economic recession.

And the sheriff's office is not the only county department managing high vacancy rates. Marta Echevarria, a family services representative in the human services agency, said her department has 40 vacancies and the workers who remain are doing 12-hour shifts. In December, she went before county supervisors to voice her fears of becoming homeless because the costs of both her rent and health insurance were skyrocketing.

I hear [the sheriff] and it makes me so sad, she said, but at the same time it makes me so angry, because Im thinking, 'What about the rest of us?'

Read more: LAPDs recruiting woes laid bare: Only 30 officers per class, analysis shows

A report issued last year by the Bureau of Justice said that for a variety of reasons  including a tightening labor market and heightened national tensions over the role of policing  law enforcement agencies across the country face an historic crisis in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates.

Rather than get caught up in a competition for wages and bonuses  a competition rural counties won't win  the report recommends offering incentives that appeal to a growing hunger among younger workers for a better work-life balance. The suggestions include more paid time off, increased family leave, flexible schedules and tuition reimbursements.

Warnke acknowledged that other counties, such as Fresno, offer take-home cars for deputies, while Madera offers lifetime medical benefits to those who stay more than five years and retire with the agency.

These are some things that our county needs to grab a hold of, he said. They can't do it for the entire county, but they can sure do it for the sheriff's office, the critical agency within the county.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkiye's exports slightly increased by 0.13 percent annually in April, amounting to 19.3 billion U.S. dollars, a cabinet minister said on Friday, citing preliminary data.

"It is a limited increase, but this is mainly because factories are closed for the first half of April during the one-week Ramadan holiday," Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said at a press conference.

Imports rose by 4.24 percent year-on-year to 29.17 billion dollars in April, he said, adding, "We managed to keep it below the limit of 30 billion dollars."

In the January-April period, the country's overseas shipments totaled 82.9 billion dollars, up by 2.7 percent from the prior year, Bolat said.

Turkiye's trade balance posted a deficit of 9.9 billion dollars in April, with an annual hike of 13.3 percent, he added.

Turkiye's foreign trade deficit declined by 12.4 percent in March from a year ago to 7.3 billion dollars, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Tuesday.

In the January-March period, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 41.5 percent from 34.79 billion dollars to 20.34 billion dollars, the statistics showed. 
Fontbonne student allegedly made threats to shoot up school, officials say

Authorities are investigating alleged violent threats a student made against Fontbonne Academy on Monday.

According to police, paperwork was filed on Thursday charging a juvenile female student with threats to commit a crime.

Officials allege the suspect made multiple verbal threats to shoot up the school. There will be a two-party hearing in the Juvenile Division of Quincy District Court where the clerk magistrate will determine whether sufficient evidence exists.

Members of the Milton Detective Bureau assisted by a School Resource Office interviewed several students, faculty, and a person of interest in connection to the alleged crime.

Fontbonne Academy confirms the student in question has been suspended pending law enforcements investigation.

While we are troubled by the situation, we are thankful that members of our school community reported these allegations immediately, which allowed us to respond with an abundance of caution to ensure student and staff safety, a spokesperson for the school said. Fontbonne is committed to providing students with a safe learning environment in order to support their academic, social, and emotional well-being.

Founded in 1954, Fontbonne Academy is a private Roman Catholic prep school for high school girls.

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Their food makes people feel that they are at home. World Central Kitchen serves meals in Gaza again

Dozens of Palestinian children eagerly lined up for a meal in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, as aid workers unloaded huge saucepans of stew and rice from parked trucks under the bright sun.

CNN footage from the distribution site in front of a sprawling displacement shelter showed staffers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) serving the children on Wednesday. More kids peered from high balconies where clothes draped over washing lines.

Palestinian mother Um Hassan told CNN her toddler was grateful to receive the plate of hot rice; their family had been surviving on canned food for weeks.

Um Hassan (second from right) is pictured eating food provided by World Central Kitchen on May 1, in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. The mother told CNN her toddler (center) is "happy to eat rice." - CNN

The World Central Kitchen, a US-based non-profit that focuses on fighting hunger around the world, resumed work in Gaza this week, after a hiatus following a series of Israeli military strikes that killed seven staffers in April and drew the worlds condemnation. Israeli forces have previously taken responsibility for the deaths, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering rare public acknowledgment and a promise to investigate the tragic incident.

World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres wrote on Wednesday that returning to Gaza after losing his staff was not easy, but that the organization could not stand by as people in Gaza suffered.

The decision to restart feeding in Gaza is both the hardest and the simplest one we could make, Andres wrote on X. Hard, because only a month has passed since seven of our WCK colleagues were killed in an IDF attack. These humanitarian heroes risked everything to feed people they did not know and would never meet. And yet simple, because the need is so great. We cannot stand by while so many people are so desperate for the essentials of life.

Human rights agencies have long warned of a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza under Israels militarys seven-month assault, launched in response to the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza as of May 1, according to the local ministry of health.

Over the course of the war, more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, according to the UN, with many sheltering in crammed tent camps that cannot offer enough access to sanitation or food.

The entire population of more than 2.2 million people is now at risk of famine, and at least 30 children have already died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza, according to the health ministry.

Zaki Sobeh (right), a young Palestinian boy, pictured at a shelter in Deir al-Balah, on Wednesday, told CNN he had not received a hot meal in over a month. - CNN

A local WCK staffer, Ashraf Al Sultan, told CNN on Wednesday that people in the Deir al-Balah shelter were clearly struggling.

Since yesterday after we resumed working, we could see peoples desperation. People have no food, and weve all been displaced, he said.

[The World Central Kitchens] food makes people feel that they are at home. It is decent food, it is clean. They also treat people well.

I havent received a hot meal for a month because the kitchen team was struck. We only had canned food, Zaki Sobeh, a young boy at the displacement site, told CNN after receiving his plate of food on Wednesday.

I say thank you and may God protect them.

A desperate need for more aid

Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that Israels strict limitations on passage into Gaza is diminishing critical supplies and drastically hindering relief efforts within the Palestinian territory.

In March, the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned Israels sustained restrictions on aid into Gaza may amount to the war crime of starvation.

Israel says there is no limit on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime on aid trucks has meant that only a tiny fraction of the amount of food and other supplies that used to enter Gaza daily before the war is getting in now.

Shortly after the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers in April, Israeli officials agreed to open the Erez border crossing into northern Gaza to allow aid deliveries. Food shortages have been the worst there after Israel concentrated its military offensive there in the early days of the war.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the opening of Erez as essential to increase the volume of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But efforts to increase aid have also run into repeated trouble. At least 48 aid trucks were blocked on Wednesday after Israeli settlers attacked a aid convoy en route to Gaza via the southern Kerem Shalom crossing, according to Jordanian authorities.

The US State Department also said Thursday that a delivery of aid that passed through Erez crossing earlier in the week had been temporarily intercepted by Hamas, which controls the isolated enclave, before being retrieved by the United Nations.

CNNs Jennifer Hansler, Tim Lister, Eugenia Yosef, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.

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The Valparaiso chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police is asking Valparaiso City Council President Robert Cotton to step aside from that leadership role because of a comment he made on his Facebook page in the aftermath of a fatal police-involved shooting on April 25.

Cotton, D-2nd, said the comment was a reflection of the image he had of the shooting from an eye-witness account and he in no way meant to impugn the police.

Id like to express my regret that the comment was not written well enough to avoid gross misinterpretation of an indelible image conjured in my mind directly from an eyewitness statement reported in a local newspaper, Cotton said Friday. In no way did I intend for this to be taken as criticism of our professional and highly skilled police, and my record of support is well documented.

The Facebook comment, which Cotton confirmed he made and has since been removed from his personal page, was in the days after the shooting death of Caden Mura, 20, of Valparaiso, who police have said displayed a handgun at a Valparaiso park before shooting at police.

Three Valparaiso Police officers and two from the Porter County Sheriffs Office are on paid administrative leave while the Indiana State Polices Lowell post investigates the shooting.

Cottons comment was in a thread about the shooting, as others discussed why officers didnt wound Mura to stop him and someone said that wounding a suspect doesnt stop the threat they pose.

 yes, I get that, but cant shake the image in my mind of recklessly inaccurate gunshots being fired by a panicked boy/young man while he is running away from gunshots being fired from the guns of a team of skilled marksmen, that were targeting him, Cotton said in his comment.

In a letter posted to the FOPs Facebook page Thursday and also sent to Cotton, members said they were expressing our deepest concern and disappointment regarding Cottons statement.

Your remarks were not only inflammatory but also grossly inaccurate, further exacerbating an already sensitive situation, said the letter, signed by FOP President Benjamin Teufel, Vice President Joseph Cowser, Treasurer James Bilder and Secretary Michelle Kodicek.

Teufel said he wrote the letter with the board and the membership approved it before it was sent out Thursday.

The letter requests that Cotton retract the statement and issue a public apology to the community and those impacted by the shooting, including FOP members.

You also chose to further a false narrative which not only painted our members in a bad light, but the City of Valparaiso in general, the letter states. As such, we ask that you step down as president of the Valparaiso City Council. We hope that you will take this opportunity to build bridges rather than erect barriers that divide us further.

Teufel said a screenshot of Cottons comment was shared with the FOPs members, which include Valparaiso officers and one from Valparaiso University.

Officers out there doing their jobs need the support not only of the FOP but of the elected officials of the city, Teufel said, adding that in general, the FOP and its members have received nothing but the backing and support of the community, for the majority.

Mayor Jon Costas declined to comment on the FOPs request because has been out of town and not had the chance to discuss the matter with Cotton or the FOP, but he plans on meeting with them individually to talk things over.

Police Chief Andrew McIntyre said in a statement to the Post-Tribune that he supported his officers.

I remain grateful of the quick and heroic efforts of the first responders to the events that transpired on April 25, 2024, as their actions prevented additional threat of harm in our community, McIntyre said. I am proud of the officers as their actions were courageous and am thankful for the outpouring of support from our community.

Cotton said he has repeatedly supported the citys police officers and firefighters in his actions on the city council, and fought for them to get their share of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Anybody who knows me knows that directly, he said.

As the controversy took shape on social media Thursday, Muras mother, Laurie Carmichael, shared a family statement to the community in a public Facebook post.

She said the family is deeply saddened by the devastating actions carried out by her son, which caused a life-threatening crisis in the community, creating fear and sending police officers into perilous action.

As his mother amid mourning the heavy loss of my son, who was loved dearly, I cannot ignore the mass chaos that was directly a result of the actions of my child, she wrote. I cannot express deeply enough my sincere, heartbreaking empathy and sorrow for the anguish and trauma suffered by our law enforcement departments and first responders, and the community as a whole in their experience of it all. I pray full healing on each and every one of you.

Cotton was elected to a third term on the city council in November and is the first Black person to be elected to the council. He was selected as its president in January when Democrats overtook Republicans with a 5-2 split after last years general election.

An online petition created Thursday calls for Cotton to resign from the city council, which Cotton called politics, what they couldnt do at the ballot box.

Teufel declined to comment on the petition.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com
(Bloomberg) -- China made some attempts to interfere in the last two Canadian elections but did not affect the overall result or undermine the integrity of the elections, a public inquiry concluded.

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It is generally impossible to draw a straight line between a particular incident and the outcome of an election, Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue, a Quebec judge, said in an initial report published Friday.

However, I can conclude with confidence that the Liberal Party would have been in government with or without foreign interference in 2019 and 2021.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the inquiry last year after a series of media reports cited classified intelligence memos that Chinese meddling may have helped certain Liberal Party candidates get elected.

Trudeau had initially resisted calling an inquiry due to the challenges of debating national security evidence in public, but eventually relented under pressure from opposition parties.

There were several weeks of public hearings over the first few months of 2024, including testimony from top government officials, party campaign workers, representatives of diaspora communities and Trudeau himself.

Trudeau told the inquiry that Canada had a robust process in place to detect and deter foreign interference. He also said he doubted China would have preferred his re-election, given the severe diplomatic tensions between the two countries following Canadas arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and Chinas subsequent detention of two Canadian citizens.

In her report, Hogue said that while multiple countries may have attempted to meddle, China stands out as a main perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada, according to Canadian security officials.

Those officials assess that China does not support any particular party, but rather supports politics and positions that it views as favorable to the government in Beijing, Hogue said.

Read More: Chinas Ambassador to Canada Cong Leaves Post Amid Tensions

Much of the report focuses on a handful of local races that were alleged to have been subject to Chinese meddling.

That includes a nomination race in Toronto where China may have orchestrated students being bussed in to cast votes for a preferred Liberal candidate, and an election race in a Vancouver suburb where misinformation was circulated about a Conservative candidate in Chinese-language media and social media.

I cannot exclude the possibility that the outcome in some individual ridings could have been affected by foreign interference, Hogue said. However, in my view, the number of ridings at issue is relatively small, and the ultimate effects of foreign interference remain uncertain.

She also said the foreign meddling, once it became public, likely undermined the Canadians trust in the election system. This is perhaps the greatest harm Canada has suffered as a result of foreign interference, she said.

Hogue said diaspora communities are particularly affected by foreign interference, sometimes with the effect of disenfranchising them from the political process.

The inquiry now enters a second phase that will examine how to inform the public about the danger of foreign interference without unnecessarily eroding public confidence in a system that remains fundamentally sound. A final report is due Dec. 31.

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APPLETON  A former Appleton Police Department narcotics investigator was convicted of a felony and fined for forging signatures on paperwork related to a drug investigation.

Jeremy Haney, 37, pleaded no contest Tuesday to misconduct in public office for falsifying information in a report, a Class I felony. A no contest plea means Haney accepted a guilty verdict without admitting or denying any guilt.

In 2022, while working as part of the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group, also known as LWAM, Haney forged signatures on paperwork authorizing a tracking device be placed on a vehicle. Haney told investigators he forged the signatures after losing the original paperwork, according to a criminal complaint.

LWAM is a multi-jurisdictional drug unit made up of investigators from police departments and sheriffs' offices in Outagamie, Winnebago and Calumet counties.

Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Raymond Huber fined Haney $640, along with other fees totaling $1,158.

A Wisconsin statute says law enforcement officers may be decertified  meaning they can no longer work in law enforcement in the state  if they are convicted of a felony.

What happened?

As part of a "large-scale, multi-defendant drug conspiracy case" in May 2022, LWAM investigators installed a GPS tracking device on a vehicle operated by a suspect they believed was working with others to distribute large amounts fentanyl, according to a criminal complaint.

To install a GPS device, police officers must secure a court order that describes both the vehicle getting tracked and the duration the tracking device will be on the vehicle.

The complaint says "no actionable evidence" was collected from the GPS device. However, after investigators intercepted a postal delivery from Arizona containing fentanyl pills, the suspect, Randy Mack, 35, was arrested in December 2022 and charged in federal court with possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a detectable amount of fentanyl.

Mack pleaded guilty to the charge in January. His sentencing is scheduled for 11 a.m. July 8

In May 2023, an Outagamie County assistant district attorney was reviewing documents related to the case because they were prosecuting one of Mack's alleged co-conspirators, when they came across a court order application signed with their name in someone else's signature.

The assistant district attorney told investigators they did sign off on an application in this case, but noticed some inconsistencies with this paperwork from the one they signed, including a different number of days the tracking device would be on the vehicle and a different date. While the assistant district attorney signed an application requesting a 45-day GPS monitor on May 24, 2022, the paperwork listed the GPS duration as 90 days and was dated May 23, 2022, according to the complaint.

The assistant district attorney said Haney initially requested a court order allowing GPS monitoring for 90 days, but the assistant district attorney knew "some judges find 90 days to be excessive," and instead, after consulting with a judge, the following day changed the court order to a 45-day duration, and updated the date on the paperwork. The assistant district attorney said they then explained the change to Haney and met him, where they both signed the paperwork, along with a notary public.

On the forged paperwork, the assistant district attorney noticed the judge's signature was also forged, which was later confirmed by the judge. Both the assistant district attorney's and the judge's portions of the court order lacked a notary signature.

Despite the 90-day duration listed on the forged paperwork, documents showed the GPS was removed from the vehicle 44 days after the the court order was signed.

In an interview with an investigator, Haney initially claimed he did not know what happened, but eventually stated he lost the paperwork approving the 45-day GPS installment and reprinted the initial paperwork he sent to the assistant district attorney, then forged the signatures.

Haney told the investigator, "I didn't think about it. I'm like, it doesn't matter, it was signed," the complaint says.

Did Haney leave his position?

Haney resigned in July after getting placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, according to the Appleton Police Department. He had been with the Appleton Police Department for 15 years, including 2 years assigned to LWAM, the complaint says.

What charges were dismissed?

Haney was also charged with uttering a forgery as genuine, a Class H felony, and a misdemeanor charge for resisting or obstructing an officer  both of which were dismissed in a plea deal.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Ex-Appleton narcotics investigator convicted of falsifying signatures
MADISON, Wis.  A former Milwaukee election official convicted of misconduct in office and fraud for obtaining fake military absentee ballots was sentenced Thursday to one year of probation and fined $3,000.

Kimberly Zapata, 47, also was ordered to complete 120 hours of community service.

Prosecutors charged Zapata in November 2022 with one felony count of misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of election fraud. A jury in March found her guilty on all four counts.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kori Ashley rejected an argument by Zapatas attorneys that she was acting as a whistleblower, telling her before handing down the sentence that she had ways to make her point other than breaking the law.

Speaking just before the sentence was handed down, Zapata said she regretted her actions that she said stemmed from a complete emotional breakdown, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. She said she has autism spectrum disorder, which makes it difficult for her to regulate emotions, sensory input and thought processes.

When someone uses my name, I want them to think of good qualities and the good things I have done, Zapata said. I dont wish to be forever attached to what I did in that 8-minute window of my life.

The felony charge carried a maximum sentence of 3 1/2 years in prison. Each misdemeanor count carried a maximum six-month sentence.

Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal said Zapatas actions were an attack on our electoral system, which only works if the public can trust those administering it.

Accusations of election fraud have literally led to violence and a violent insurrection in Washington, D.C., Westphal said. Thats kind of the behavior were looking at here on the spectrum. Thats where we end up when we have people that are violating their duties, and that are putting forth this false information.

In a sentencing memorandum, Zapatas defense attorney Daniel Adams recommended a $500 fine and said any time behind bars would be a gross injustice and completely unnecessary.

She has zero prior criminal record and has been convicted of non-violent offenses, he wrote to Ashley. Her intention was not to steal votes but to expose a legitimate flaw in the elections system.

Zapata served as deputy director at the Milwaukee Election Commission in October 2022 when she used her work-issued laptop to obtain three military absentee ballots using fake names and Social Security numbers, according to a criminal complaint. She sent the ballots to Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, an election conspiracy theorist, two weeks before the states gubernatorial and legislative elections.

After officials learned of her actions, she was fired from her job with the city.

Active military personnel do not have to register to vote or provide photo identification to obtain absentee ballots in Wisconsin. Zapata told investigators that she was stressed over death threats commission staff had been receiving from election conspiracy theorists and she wanted to shift their attention to real flaws in the system.

Milwaukee, home to the largest number of Democrats in Wisconsin, has been a target for complaints from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, who made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud to attack Bidens 2020 victory.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN)  A former music producer from Franklin was convicted of sex crimes against a minor Wednesday, Franklin Police said.

Samuel Sammy Sylvester, 55, was found guilty of seven counts of statutory rape and two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure by a Williamson County jury.

CRIME TRACKER | Read the latest crime news from Middle Tennessee

The conviction was for offenses committed against a 16-year-old female musician he was working with between 2009 and 2010, according to the Franklin Police Department.

In December 2019, Sylvester was arrested by FPD after being indicted by a grand jury. Sylvester had previously been convicted of crimes against children in Minnesota and Tennessee. An additional case is still pending, according to FPD.

Franklin Police believe there may be other victims because Sylvester worked with many children in his career. Anyone with information is urged to contact FPD Detective Andrea Clark at 615-550-6829.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  The former campus of Medaille University in Buffalo was sold to a nonprofit developer of charter school facilities based in Maryland, the broker of the sale, CBRE, announced.

The nonprofit, Charter School Development Corporation, is partnering with Buffalo Academy of Science Charter Schools as part of the purchase. This will allow some of BuffScis programs to move to the 14-acre campus just off the Scajaquada Expressway.

The campus was purchased for just under $9.9 million, a BuffSci spokesperson confirmed to News 4 WIVB.

At CSDC, we are dedicated to eliminating barriers to access choice and equity in under-resourced communities nationwide, said Mark Zeizel, a senior vice president with CDSC in a release. We wholeheartedly support the vision of Buffalo Academy of Science Charter Schools and are honored to be a partner in this game-changing campus that will positively impact the community.

Being able to move BuffSci programs to the former Medaille campus is a tremendous opportunity to further our mission of providing academic experiences that prepare our students for college and careers of the highest potential, said Dr. Joseph Polat, executive director of Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School, said in a release. There are few better settings to inspire future generations than a university campus like this.

Medaille officially closed on Aug. 31 of last year. A deal was originally in place for Trocaire College to purchase the school, but that was terminated last May due to complexities of the acquisition.

Its bittersweet to see the campus officially change hands, but it is gratifying to know that CSDC and BuffSci will maintain the campus as a place of high academic standards for future generations, said Michael J. Moley, chair of the Board of Trustees for the former Medaille University, in a release.

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Adam Gorski is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team in 2022. You can find more of his work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
WENCHANG, Hainan, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to be launched between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday, with the preferred launch window targeted at 5:27 p.m., the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

The Chang'e-6 mission is tasked with collecting and then returning samples from the moon's mysterious far side to Earth -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

The Long March-5 Y8 rocket, which will carry the Chang'e-6 probe, has begun the process of taking on liquid oxygen cryogenic propellant at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan, the CNSA added. This propellant will serve as fuel for the carrier rocket.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft comprises of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.

The mission will carry four payloads developed through international cooperation. Scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, while a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter.

About 50 guests from 12 countries and international organizations have been invited by the CNSA to attend a workshop focusing on the international payloads carried by Chang'e-6 and witness the launch in Hainan.

An impact crater known as the Apollo basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon, has been chosen as the primary target landing and sampling site for the Chang'e-6 mission.

After the spacecraft reaches the moon, it will make a soft landing. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, while a drill will be used to bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the moon and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit. The returner will then carry the samples back to Earth, landing in Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The entire mission is expected to last about 53 days, the CNSA said. 
SOUTH RIVER, New Jersey (PIX11)  A former police officer was killed and his son was injured in an explosion at a South River home on Thursday, according to authorities.

Neighbors told PIX11 News they came running out of their homes as soon as they heard the explosion on Continental Court just after 7 p.m. Kevin Gilbert, a 62-year-old retired Newark police officer, was found dead in the debris, officials said.

A neighbor said the boom was so loud, the sound shook their garage and rattled picture frames on the wall. The explosion is believed to have happened at a moments notice, according to officials.

Cop rescues small black and white kitten in Brooklyn: video

Gilberts son is still hospitalized as of Friday morning.

Officials told PIX11 News they believe it was a natural gas explosion, but the state fire marshal is also investigating to make the final call.

Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Former UK PM Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting ID

Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station while trying to vote in the United Kingdoms local elections after forgetting to bring photo ID  a requirement he introduced while prime minister.

Polling station staff were forced to turn the former prime minister away as he tried to cast his ballot in South Oxfordshire on Thursday, PA media reported.

Johnson returned later with the necessary ID and was able to vote.

New rules requiring photo ID to vote were introduced by Johnsons Conservative government in the Elections Act 2022.

The law was widely criticized when it was introduced. The UKs Electoral Commission warned in 2023 that the law could exclude hundreds of thousands of people from voting and particularly impact the unemployed or members of ethnic minorities.

A report by a cross-party group of members of Parliament warned in March that millions of voters face being disenfranchised at the next general election due to the countrys electoral registration system.

It said the voter ID requirement left individuals without the right ID being prevented from voting and only a number of forms of ID being permitted.

Among those turned away from polling stations Thursday was army veteran Adam Diver, who said he was gutted when he was unable to vote his veterans ID card was not accepted.

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer apologized to Diver.

The legislation on acceptable forms of ID came out before the veterans ID cards started coming out in January this year. I will do all I can to change it before the next one, Mercer said.

Local elections were held across the country for more than 100 councils and several mayors Thursday.

With around a third of the results declared, the loss of more than 100 seats on local councils and one parliamentary seat in a by-election suggest that national polls in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his party trail by a distance are correct.

The results also mean that if a general election were held tomorrow, the opposition Labour Party would almost certainly win power.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  A lieutenant colonel at Fort Campbell has been indicted on federal criminal charges related to importing firearms illegally, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in the Middle District of Tennessee announced Lt. Col. Frank Ross Talbert, 40, with the U.S. Army Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD), assigned to Fort Campbell, faces federal charges after an investigation by law enforcement uncovered evidence that he unlawfully imported firearms parts from Russia, China, and other countries.

Talbert also unlawfully dealt in firearms without a federal firearms license and committed multiple firearms violations related to the possession of machine guns, according to U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis.

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Talbert was arrested Thursday, May 2, on the 21-count indictment charging him with eight counts of importing defense articles without a license, eight counts of smuggling firearms parts into the country, one count of firearms trafficking, two counts of possession of unregistered machine guns, one count of transporting a machine gun without a license and one count of dealing in firearms without a license.

If convicted, Talbert faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000.

The case was investigated by the Bowling Green office of the ATF, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security, FBI, and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
The house is as ordinary as possible.

In each of the three bedrooms, including the master, there are two beds. Handmade quilts, neatly tucked, bear the embroidered name of the little boy who sleeps under it each night. Hell get to take it with him when he leaves. A Lab-mix puppy named Dahlia pounces on bugs in the backyard. Well-loved bicycles of various sizes are stacked neatly in a rack, while helmets are strewn wherever they fell on the lawn.

On one wall in the dining room, the boys chores are labeled neatly with their initials. A list of dietary restrictions is stuck to the fridge.

On another wall are six laminated pages, one for each of the boys. Its a list of emergency contacts, times and dosages of their medications, their current grade and school, mental health struggles, triggers and possible interventions, and precise details of their next parental visit.

Opinion

As ordinary as it looks from the outside, this suburban home near Downtown Davis is one of Californias short-term residential therapeutic programs (STRTPs) operated by the non-profit public benefit agency Progress Ranch. Homes like this are the states latest answer to providing for foster children whose severe behavioral issues require specialized and intensive care, supervision, services and treatment.

The adults here are trying to provide an ordinary home environment, but the children who live here have experienced incredible trauma. They often act out the only way they know how  with rage and violence. Sometimes, their abuse can only be stopped by an adult physically or medically restraining them.

Loving these children is simply not enough.

Its a difficult subject because its also a situation ripe for exploitation: Even a well-meaning restraint could swiftly or unintentionally veer into physical abuse, which makes regulating these homes a challenge for California legislators. Three women in the legislature, a Republican and two Democrats, including one from Sacramento, are trying to address the situation with a new bill this year. But they face hard questions.

How can California regulate the practice of restraint to keep these children and caregivers safe? How can we ensure there is no further trauma inflicted on these vulnerable children and not exacerbate the stigma of being a foster child, much less one with serious mental health needs?

The bill proposes to bring more transparency to all uses of restraint at STRTPs, but I dont know if thats the right approach.

I do know this, though: Everyone involved wants to protect these children from further abuse, and thats the right place to start.

Workers suffer daily abuse

STRTPs were established in California in 2015, and children in these homes are often wards of the state. At Progress Ranch, they are boys ranging in age from six to 15, but the team in Davis is careful to keep the pendulum of ages to one side or the other  never allowing teens to live with small children.

The ultimate goal, said Executive Director Alyssum Maguire, is to help these children learn healthy coping mechanisms for the multitude of traumas they have experienced  often the reason for them ending up in the foster care system in the first place. Then, they can be placed with foster families, and perhaps someday adopted.

Maguire said they try to recreate a family environment so that when the boys are ready to be placed in a home, its not an unfamiliar situation, which can be re-traumatizing to them. Were really trying to break the pipeline to prison and homelessness, she said.

So, the house is as ordinary as possible.

An employee prepares a sandwich in April at Progress Ranch, a Davis short-term residential therapeutic facility for boys ages 6-13 who need full-time care. Artwork that the children have made in the past hangs on a shelf.

California used to send foster children with serious behavioral issues to rehabilitation programs in other states. Three years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature approved $8 million to bring those children home and into the STRTP system, which is already overburdened and underfunded.

Foster children in California are disproportionately children of color, and accustomed to living in poverty or dangerous situations. That tends to be why violence is the only language they have for dealing with their anger, frustration or sadness.

According to a report from the Legislative Analysts Office in 2023, the proportions of Black and Native American youth in foster care are around four times larger than the proportions of Black and Native American youth in California overall. Researchers estimate that, nationally, approximately 85% of families in the child welfare system live with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Theyre fully capable of going into a family and becoming a really wonderful adult and to continue being a really wonderful child, Maguire said. I dont think that its fair to look at them through the lens of their worst, most vulnerable moment. Just because a child needs residential treatment for their mental health issues doesnt mean that theyre this super dangerous, bad kid all the time.

Theyre a child, and they need a lot of support right now.

Ian Longue, an employee of Progress Ranch for nearly 20 years, told me the story of a little boy who dearly loved one of the staff members, but just couldnt connect with his social worker. One day, the staff worker came to work dressed for court, and the child snubbed her for weeks afterward. Careful conversations with the boy revealed that he negatively associated skirts and perfume with his mother, who had been a sex worker. Once the social worker stopped wearing perfume, the little boy could open up and receive the help he needed to be placed in a home.

Ian Longue, an employee with non-profit public benefit agency Progress Ranch for more than 20 years who did not want to be identifiable in a photograph, stands in April inside the game room at a Davis short-term residential therapeutic facility for boys ages 6-13 who need full-time care. Longue said staff at such foster care facilities are physically abused by children on a near-regular basis.

While that situation ended positively, everyday interactions between staff and traumatized children can often be both physically and emotionally challenging.

Longue also recounted stories of being physically abused by children on a near-regular basis, with holes punched in walls and curtains, picture frames and even Hot Wheels used as makeshift weapons. There was one particularly creative boy who climbed up on the roof of the home and urinated on Longues head.

Our staff get a lot of physical assault, Maguire said. This is intense, minute-by-minute work we do here to get them to a family. Sometimes we are saving their life.

Bill requires public transparency

This years Senate Bill 1043 is co-authored by Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, Sen. Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward. Groves office said the bill was conceived when the senator sought information about the use of restraints from the Department of Child Support Services, which collects this data. She was informed there was no public database for her to see.

SB 1043 would require the parent or guardian of the child to be informed about any use of restraint or seclusion, which is something Progress Ranch already does, Maguire said.

But first: Leave your presumptions at the door.

Bicycles are parked in the backyard last month of a Davis short-term residential therapeutic facility for boys ages 6-13 who need full-time care.

A restraint is, typically, any restriction of movement for an out-of-control child, either by holding them back to prevent them from hurting themselves or someone else, or by administering prescribed medications for the same purpose. What it is not is a choke hold, a straight jacket or handcuffs (though sometimes arm and leg restraints could be used for a particularly violent and large child).

If were being honest with ourselves, I think most parents and caregivers would admit to employing a similar tactic for a physically-reactive child: Sometimes, you just have to stop the kid from lashing out with your own hands. Thats not abuse, nor is it about discipline; its a safety measure.

When such instances occur  and Maguire said its generally rare, but it depends on the child  a restraint can also simply be picking up and removing the child from the room or having an adult hold or block a childs arms or legs from contact with others, including other children. Sometimes it looks like safe containment techniques, including separation into another room until the child can calm down.

California law is attempting to better define appropriate restraint methods and when they can be used. The practice cant (and shouldnt) be banned altogether, but neither can we allow for any abuse of the system.

And therein lies the conundrum: There is absolutely room for abuse within the system, and it would be foolhardy to say it never happens. But is a public database listing the worst moments of these childrens lives the right way to present this data? Especially when its already legally mandated to report all such incidents to state agencies?

It is something that I worry about, Ashby told me. Theres a balance to be found between what were asking of these organizations and how difficult the (childrens) needs are ... and how we overlay that with communication and information to the public.

The proposed database wouldnt name the children, Ashby said, but it would name the home where the restraint happened. It would be very difficult to (identify) who was restrained, but it would tell people who are dealing with the most difficult kids, she said.

There is also the concern of adding yet another layer of regulation on top of an already highly-regulated system. Progress Ranch recently had to shut down one of its locations because it was too costly and difficult to manage the multitude of laws that vary from county to county. The closure resulted in the elimination of six beds for boys from a system thats already struggling. A point-in-time study done in early 2024 found there were 1,436 kids in STRTPs throughout the state, and there are many, many more still waiting for placement.

We dont want to make it so difficult to do this work that no one does it, because we will have a population of people we cant serve, Ashby said.

Its complicated

Its not that SB 1043 could become a bad law. Its that children this proposed law seeks to protect face specific challenges based on specific living conditions.

So when you get someone like Paris Hilton, a celebrity socialite and a genuine survivor of the Troubled Teen Industry, attaching her name and celebrity to legislation, the nuances can get lost in the limelight.

When Hilton came to the California Capitol last month to testify on behalf of SB 1043, she shared her horror stories of time spent in group homes more than 20 years ago.

This would have been so helpful to myself and so many others to have known what was happening behind closed doors, Hilton said in an interview with the Associated Press. Because I was cut off from the outside world, I couldnt tell my family anything, and thats what they do.

Hiltons testimony painted all STRTPs that use restraints as something evil. Suddenly, Progress Ranch had news cameras outside their door asking why they tied up the little boys inside. But Hiltons celebrity advocacy, however well-intended, is blinding the truth and subtleties of the issue.

A bicycle helmet lies in a sandbox in April at Progress Ranch, a Davis short-term residential therapeutic facility for boys ages 6-13 who need full-time care.

More regulation isnt always the answer, and putting these foster childrens worst moments into a database that will live on the internet forever could eventually be considered an invasion of their privacy, even if its just the homes that are named in the list.

After talking to Ashby, I see the sincerity of intent behind the bill. But after visiting Progress Ranch, I see how theyre trying to help these children, often minute by minute. I cant help but wonder if it will be helpful to put more regulations on workers already struggling to provide a stable home for these children. We need more of these homes, not less.

Editors note: A previous version of this column misspelled the last name of Progress Ranchs Executive Director, Alyssum Maguire.
Fourth air-raid warning of the day issued in Ukraine due to MiG-31K take-off

An air-raid warning was issued in Ukraine at 21:45 for the fourth time on 3 May day due to the take-off of a Russian MiG-31K fighter jet.

Source: the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram

Quote: "Attention! Missile threat warning is issued all throughout Ukraine! A MiG-31K took off from the Savasleika airbase (Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast)."

At 22:06 the Air Force reported about a missile launched from the south headed toward the settlement of Kamianske.

The all-clear was given at 22:36.

Background:

On 3 May at 15:07 air-raid warning was issued throughout Ukraine due to the take-off of Russian aircraft, specifically MiG-31K fighter jets. The warning was in effect for 26 minutes.

At 18:35 the second air-raid warning of the day was announced due to MiG-31K, in effect for 32 minutes.

At 20:36 the third air-raid warning was announced in all oblasts of Ukraine.

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Russia's government on Friday blasted France's President Emmanuel Macron for again suggesting his country would consider sending troops to Ukraine to help defend against Russia's ongoing invasion, if Kyiv were to request that level of help.

In an interview with The Economist magazine published Thursday, Macron said his country would have to consider the request if it were to arise and if Russian forces manage to break through Ukraine's front-line defenses along the long front line in the east of the country.

''I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,'' he told the Economist, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "If the Russians penetrate the front lines, if there is a Ukrainian request  which is not the case today  we should legitimately ask ourselves the question" about sending forces, Macron told the magazine.

France's President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops during a tribute ceremony to late French politician and admiral Philippe de Gaulle, the son of Charles de Gaulle, at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, March 20, 2024. / Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP/Getty

Russia calls French and U.K. rhetoric "very dangerous"

"The statement is very important and very dangerous," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday in Moscow, accusing Macron of repeatedly raising the prospect of "direct involvement on the ground in the conflict around Ukraine."

"This is a very dangerous trend," Peskov said.

Since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin's government has claimed it was in self-defense against the U.S.-led NATO alliance to push its area of control right to Russia's western border. The backlash to the invasion among northern European nations has, however, brought NATO territory closer to Russia than it ever was before.

Stop Putin now or war will come your way, Ukraine's leader warns U.S.

Macron drew criticism from Russia and his own NATO allies when he first floated the possibility of a French deployment to Ukraine earlier this year. The Biden administration, while always adamant that every inch of NATO territory will be defended, has ruled out any U.S. combat deployment to Ukraine.

"If Russia wins in Ukraine we will no longer have security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia would stop there?'' Macron said in the latest interview.

Peskov also called remarks by Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron - who met this week with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenksyy  that justified Kyiv striking targets inside Russia "dangerous" and "escalatory" rhetoric by the West.



Visiting Kyiv, Cameron said Ukraine "absolutely has the right to strike back at Russia" and that London did not tell Ukraine how its forces should use weapons supplied by Britain. Ukraine has carried out a number of strikes, mostly targeting energy infrastructure, inside Russia in recent months.

Peskov said the latest remarks by Macron and Cameron "potentially pose a danger to European security, to the entire European security architecture," noting what he called "a dangerous tendency toward escalation in official statements. This is raising our concern."

What's happening on the front lines of the Ukraine war?

The situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine is worsening, but local defenders are so far holding firm against a concerted push by Russia's bigger and better-equipped forces, a senior Ukrainian military official said Thursday.



Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukrainian strategic command in the east of the country, said Russia has amassed troops in the Donetsk region in an effort to punch through the Ukrainian defensive line.



"The enemy is actively attacking along the entire front line, and in several directions they have achieved certain tactical advances," he said on national television. "The situation is changing dynamically."

A map illustration based on information from the Institute of War shows ground within Ukraine that Russia occupied before the February 24, 2022 full-scale invasion, territory it seized during the current occupation of eastern parts of the country, and ground reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in a late 2023 counteroffensive - some of which had fallen back under Russian control amid Ukrainian troop and weapons shortages by the spring of 2024. / Credit: CBS/Institute of War

Russia has pushed Ukraine onto the back foot on the battlefield as Kyiv grapples with shortages of troops and ammunition. Ukrainian forces are now racing to build more defensive fortifications at places along the roughly 600-mile front line. That line stretches from the northern to southern borders of Ukraine, with much of the country's eastern Donbas industrial heartland now held by Russia.

Ukraine's difficulties have been deepening for months as the military waits for vital new military aid from the United States. The support was held up by politics in Washington for six months, but a massive aid package was finally cleared by lawmakers and signed by President Biden late last month. It's unclear when the much-needed U.S. hardware granted by that aid package will start reaching Ukraine's front-line troops, however.



Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Avdiivka, a city in the Donetsk region, in February under a withering Russian barrage that had sapped their fighting strength and morale. Since then, the Kremlin's forces have used their military might to take village after village in the area, bludgeoning them into submission, as they look to capture the parts of Donetsk they don't already occupy.

Speaking Friday, Russia's Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said his forces were breaking into "enemy strongholds along the entire line of combat contact."

"Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to cling to individual lines, but under our onslaught, they are forced to abandon their positions and retreat," Shoigu asserted, claiming that his troops had seized an additional 211 square miles of territory since the beginning of the year alone.

Cities in Russia's crosshairs, including recent target Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, are pulverized by Moscow's missiles, drones and glide bombs. CBS News' Charlie D'Agata was in Chasiv Yar in late February as explosions rang out non-stop, and he found a city ravaged by artillery fire  and exhausted Ukrainian troops desperate for help from their international partners.

The Donetsk and Luhansk provinces together make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia that Putin identified as a focus from the war's outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014.

Missile and drone strikes continue  on both sides

Long-range strikes have been a constant and devastating feature of Europe's biggest conflict since World War II. Kyiv officials have pleaded for more air defense systems from Ukraine's Western partners, but they've been slow in coming.



President Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia had launched more than 300 missiles of various types, almost 300 Shahed drones, and more than 3,200 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine in April alone.



Odesa, a key export hub for millions of tons of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, has been repeatedly targeted by Russia.

Ukraine has deployed increasingly sophisticated long-range drones to hit back, meanwhile, aiming at targets on Russian soil, especially energy infrastructure that sustains the Russian economy and war effort.

A video screengrab shows a large fire burning at what was reportedly a state-owned oil storage depot in Yartsevo, Smolensk Oblast, Russia, after a Ukrainian drone attack, April 24, 2024. / Credit: Reuters

The governors of three Russian regions reported that energy facilities were damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. Oryol region Gov. Andrei Klychkov said energy infrastructure was hit in two communities. The Smolensk and Kursk governors reported one facility damaged in each region.



The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Bryansk, Krasnodar, Rostov and Belgorod regions. Most were intercepted in Bryansk, where five were brought down, it said.

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Leaders of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy expressed concerns Thursday about recent developments at the historic Price Tower and its current ownership.

Leaders of the Conservancy, which facilitates the preservation and stewardship of works designed by Frank Lloyd Wright by holding an easement in perpetuity over properties like the Price Tower, told the EE they are monitoring the situation closely.

The Conservancy's easement stipulates things like maintaining insurance on the building, paying bills on time to prevent liens and preserving the building's original architectural integrity.

Bartlesville's Price Tower designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

"We are concerned," John Waters, preservation program manager for the Conservancy, said, "Yes, this is a significant Wright building. It was a potential nominee for World Heritage, and it seems to be really struggling right now."

Price Tower, completed in 1956 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is one of Wright's most unique designs and his only realized skyscraper. In March 2023, after years of financial woes and struggles to maintain Price Tower, new owners promised to breathe new life into the Tower with an infusion of $10M investment.

The new life has failed to materialize as promised.

Waters said the Conservancy has been concerned about the Tower's struggles over the last few years but hoped Cynthia Blanchard could turn things around.

"It's a hard model, and it needs to find the right person, and we had hoped that this would be the right person," Waters said. "From what we had been hearing ourselves and what we're hearing now makes us question that."

Waters confirmed the Conservancy conveyed to Blanchard what the easement meant and how it worked before she gained control of the Tower.

Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Conservancy, calls the Price Tower "a very special building." She fondly recalls getting stuck in one of its tiny elevators the last time she was there.

"If there could be a stakeholder group in Bartlesville that could really come together and say this Tower is important to us," Gordon said. "Bringing key stakeholders rather than just a few to really say, 'How do we secure this for the future?' "

Gordon explained that the Conservancy provides valuable resources and connections to other Wright sites, but ultimately, the community will lead the effort.

"We always believe that all preservation is local," she said.

Gordon and Waters said the easement gives the Conservancy legal options to rectify issues, but they weren't considering pursuing that option.

"When you go to court, nobody wins; that's something we want to avoid," Water said. "Our goal would be to work to find a new steward for the building before we did anything else."

"The international Frank Lloyd Wright and design communities are watching what's happening in Bartlesville right now," Waters said.

Waters said the Conservancy plans to inspect the Tower in the next few months to better understand what's happening.

Blanchard, owner of Copper Tree Inc. and the Price Tower, did not respond to requests to comment on the story.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy leaders concerned by Price Tower woes
Fresnos dogs are being taken to Oregon to help with overpopulation

Fresnos dogs are being taken to Oregon to help with overpopulation

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  Dogs from Fresno are being transported across state lines to assist shelters that are dealing with overcrowding, helping reduce the strain on local facilities and ensuring shelter dogs get a new home.

Fresno Furry Friends is the non-profit responsible for taking dogs from California to Oregon. Founder Mona Ahmed says on Friday, and every other Friday, she loads dogs into a van and takes them out of the state.

WATCH: Puppy chases car after being abandoned in Fresno

Ahmed said she goes into kill shelters, takes photos of dogs who are in danger of being put down, and relays the photos to rescue shelters in Oregon. From there, Ahmed says the rescues will inquire about the dogs, she will pick up the dogs the shelters ask for, and then prep them for travel.

The preparation includes getting the dogs tested, finding the fosters to get them out of the shelters, getting the dogs health certificates, and preparing the van to take them to Oregon.

Its a long process, but Ahmed says its necessary to ensure the dogs do not die in the shelters.

Were really tired, going to bed at like 12, 1, and getting up at 4:30, she said, and were all volunteers  I dont go on vacations and I tell my husband if I go  theyll die.

Ahmed says the main cause for so many dogs needing homes, and shelters being overrun, is backyard breeders in Fresno.

The rescues are packed, fosters are packed, shelters are packed, so where are they coming from? Strays and backyard breeders.

Fresno Countys animal shelter has 130 puppies, will stop taking strays

Ahmed says backyard breeders are keeping dog populations up for profit  and says it is unacceptable that they are not penalized more harshly.

I was told it is $50 for a breeding license, she said. It should be $5,000, so not everyone becomes a backyard breeder.

Ahmed warns that, unless backyard breeders are stopped, she and others like her will continue to bear the brunt of the dog overpopulation in Fresno.

So many people do the same thing that I do, she said, but its tiring and it is becoming worse, and worse, and worse.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
Florida A&M University celebrates its graduating class with the Fall commencement ceremony at the Lawson Center on Friday December 15, 2023. The Commencement address was delivered by FAMU Journalism graduate and President of ABC News, Kimberly Godwin Manning.

Florida State and Florida A&M universities have made it clear to students that disruptions will not be tolerated during Friday and Saturdays graduation ceremonies  especially with the pro-Palestinian protests that have sprung up on college campuses.

FSU President Richard McCullough sent out a letter Thursday afternoon to students, faculty, staff and guests about graduation protocol following State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues memorandum against canceling the celebratory ceremonies due to "unruly demonstrators."

While we respect individuals' rights to free speech, a commencement ceremony is not the appropriate venue for protests or demonstrations that could disrupt the accomplishments we have gathered to honor, McCullough said in the letter.

President Richard McCullough delivers the annual State of the University address at the College of Medicines Durell Peaden Auditorium on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023.

FAMU President Larry Robinson did the same to fall in line with the guidance from Rodrigues as his Thursday letter to the university community said it is imperative that we uphold the dignity and solemnity of our commencement ceremonies.

These events mark a significant milestone in our students' lives and should be commemorated accordingly, he added.

FAMU President Larry Robinson.

While FSUs graduations will take place at the Tucker Civic Center, FAMUs ceremonies will be held at the Al Lawson Center on its campus.

Robinsons protocol letter did not make a direct reference to protests as the recent national spread of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments did not sweep across the HBCU (historically Black college or university) campus.

But the same cannot be said for FSU.

Five protesters  including FSU senior Elijah Ruby, who will no longer be graduating  were arrested at the university Tuesday while setting up tents for an intended encampment. As a result, they have been banned from campus for a year.

Across Florida this week, at least 27 protesters have been arrested on campuses including the University of Florida the University of South Florida.

As FSU and FAMU make efforts to ensure that this springs two-day graduation ceremonies are held in a comfortable, safe and respectful environment, McCullough and Robinson both said in their letters that disruptive behavior  such as outbursts, heckling, excessive noise or behavior indicative of intoxication  will not be tolerated.

Anyone who violates the policy will be escorted from the graduation ceremony venues.

Here are the other guidelines McCullough and Robinson both ask for participants to observe:

Certain items that present a safety hazard or disruption are prohibited inside the venues, including weapons, alcohol, drugs, noisemakers, flags/signs, backpacks, laser pointers, laptops, recording equipment, pets (non-service), skateboards, fireworks and beach balls/airborne objects.

Discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, religion or national origin will not be allowed.

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Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU, FAMU presidents' letters address graduation amid campus protests
ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish forces have "neutralized" 32 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a cross-border operation in northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Friday.

The forces targeted the PKK members in the Haftanin, Gara, and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, along the "Operation Claw-Lock" zone, the ministry said on social media platform X.

It stressed that the country's counter-terrorism operation will continue until "every single terrorist is eliminated from the region."

Turkish authorities often use the term "neutralize" in their statements to imply the alleged "terrorists" have either surrendered, been killed, or been captured.

The Turkish government launched "Operation Claw-Lock" in April 2022 to fight the PKK in northern Iraq near the Turkish border.

A total of 376 PKK members have been killed in northern Iraq so far this year, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

Turkish forces often carry out cross-border operations in northern Iraq against the PKK militants, especially in the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
(Bloomberg) -- The Federal Trade Commissions allegations that shale trailblazer Scott Sheffield tried to collude with OPEC to prop up crude prices is unnerving US oil executives pursuing more than $100 billion in deals.

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While Thursdays green light from the FTC for Exxon Mobil Corp.s $60 billion takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. provided some relief to an industry undergoing unprecedented consolidation, a key condition of the approval is triggering shockwaves.

Sheffield, Pioneers founder and a high-profile figure in the shale industry, has been barred from joining Exxons board, according to the agreement reached between the companies and the FTC. That represents a step-change for the US antitrust agency, which in the past usually sought asset sales before assenting to deals, legal observers say.

Its definitely avant garde antitrust, said Jeffrey Oliver, a partner at law firm Baker Botts LLP and former FTC official. Its way for them to appear tough on a deal that they couldnt find a route to try and block on any other grounds.

Exxon closed its acquisition of Pioneer Friday.

Chevron Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Diamondback Energy Inc. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. are among the companies with pending transactions currently under FTC review.

The notion of the FTC scrutinizing individual executives has some companies with pending deals reviewing their regulatory-review strategies, as they are uncertain what the agency could throw at them next, according to people familiar with current deals.

The FTC hasnt sought to block an oil or gas deal outright in recent memory, preferring to reach settlements. Last year, the agency required a Quantum Energy Partners founder to give up a board seat on shale-gas driller EQT Corp. before it could proceed with an acquisition.

The FTC cited voluminous evidence that Sheffield, 71, sought to co-ordinate production levels across the US shale sector and align the industry with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, with whom he communicated extensively in private messages and dinners. The agency also cited public comments in which Sheffield advocated production discipline among American peers.

Predatory Practices

In an 850-word rebuttal of the FTC allegations, Pioneer defended its co-founder, citing his role in driving US crude-production growth. His efforts to encourage discipline among drillers was aimed at improving investor returns and steeling the shale sector against OPECs predatory practices, the company said.

Until today, the FTC has taken non-adversarial stances against oil industry mergers, Jim Lucier, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners, wrote in a note to clients. Now that stance is different. We will be on the lookout for other consent decrees, based on dubious legal theories, to be applied to oil industry mergers.

The FTCs decision comes agains a backdrop of hostility from Democratic lawmakers that accused oil executives of deception and doublespeak over climate change in an investigation in the House of Representatives this week. Liberal advocacy group Climate Power seized on the FTC move as evidence that Big Oil is price gouging consumers so that Americans pay more at the pump even after years of record profits.

13.1 Million Barrels

A positive note for the industry from the FTC ruling was its decision to define the oil market globally rather than a narrow, localized one that could have competition concerns. And on the whole, the agency hasnt been seeking to outright block oil and gas transactions.

The good news is, theyre not hamstringing these deals, not forcing divestments of assets, not doing anything that makes either party want to walk from a deal, said Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners. Ultimately, the deals are moving ahead pretty much as the two parties envisioned when they struck the deals.

US oil production is currently about 13.1 million barrels a day, close to record levels and 40% higher than OPEC leader Saudi Arabia. US crude output more than doubled in the past 15 years, a result of the shale-oil revolution that Sheffield helped champion.

This is the government trying to save some face  its irrelevant to the whole issue of antitrust, said Leo Mariani, managing director at Roth MKM. Through Sheffields 50 years in the industry, hes never really had issues where people thought he was engaging in anti-competitive behaviors, Mariani said.

So its silly, he added. This whole thing is just politics ultimately. In an election year it helps to be tough on Big Oil.

--With assistance from Leah Nylen.

(Updates with news of deal closing in the fifth paragraph.)

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A Fulton County commissioner is under investigation accused of misusing campaign funds.

It started with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. Now, the attorney general is investigating.

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Channel 2s Tyisha Fernandes was outside of the Fulton County government building on Thursday during Channel 2 Action News at 5 p.m. where she spoke with the commissioner.

Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Ramen said she isnt surprised that she is under investigation for something she was accused of doing five years ago.

She cant talk much about the open investigation but she did say the accusations are not true.

What I can say is, this is dirty politics at its worst, said Abdur-Ramen.

She said she had been through this before when she was sued right after she was elected to the Fulton County Commission four years ago.

She won that case.

The same hands that were behind that are the hands behind this, said Abdur-Ramen

This current investigation started when someone told the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission that Abdur-Ramen was misusing campaign funds. Then, in February 2023, someone from that commission sent a letter to the attorney generals office asking for further investigation.

Channel 2 Action News confirmed that the AGs office is now looking into this case.

There are four pages of incidents where Abdur-Ramen is accused of misspending money. One line says, she failed to disclose expenditure to Anthony in the amount of $350.:

In total, she is accused of misspending about $20,000.

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There are several allegations that she took cash out of an ATM from that same campaign account. Most of the accusations are from 2019.

I think my constituents are educated enough to see this for what it is but I have full respect for our Attorney General and at the end of the day Ill comply, itll be over with and there will be nothing to see here, said Abdur-Ramen.

Fernandes spoke with Commissioner Arrington about this and said, Unfortunate to hear that the ethics board referred her case to the Attorney General for Prosecution. The use of campaign funds to pay a title max loan, a chiropractor, a personal mortgage and a personal power bill is unacceptable. If we cant trust her to use her campaign funds ethically how can voters trust her to use their tax dollars ethically? Over 60 additional violations of misuse of campaign funds shows a pattern of mismanagement and a lack of fiscal responsibility that should be disqualifying.

Abdur-Ramen said she will be vindicated and that this is all a strategy to make her lose her commission seat in the upcoming election.

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was free to hire special prosecutors to pursue the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and pay them whatever she thought was necessary, two high-ranking county officials testified Friday.

Thats solely the prerogative of the district attorney, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts told members of a state Senate committee formed to investigate allegations of misconduct and misuse of public funds lodged against Willis in her handling of the Trump prosecution. We dont get into that sort of detail.

The Senate Special Committee on Investigations was formed in January after one of Trumps co-defendants filed a motion accusing Willis of being involved in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to pursue the investigation. Willis and Wade acknowledged the relationship but argued it did not constitute grounds for her to be dismissed from handling the case.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled last month that Willis could remain but only if Wade resigned. He did so a few hours later and was replaced as head of the investigation by Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.

At Fridays hearing, Fulton County Chief Financial Officer Sharon Whitmore testified that the county commission reviews and votes on the district attorneys annual general fund budget request. Willis received $36.6 million from the general fund for the current fiscal year, she said.

An additional bucket of funds has come the federal government in the form of pandemic relief, Whitmore said.

Willis did not seek prior approval from the commission before using those funds to hire Wade and two other special prosecutors to take on the election interference case.

The board of commissioners has no oversight over the district attorney, Whitmore said.

After hearing that testimony, Sen. Bill Cowsert, the committees chairman, cited a state law that requires district attorneys seeking to hire independent contractors to receive prior approval from their county commission.

This sounds to me like the Wild West, very little control for Fulton County, said Cowsert, R-Athens.

But Fulton County Attorney Soo Joo said the state law applies only to assistant district attorneys, and its unclear either in case law or court rulings whether it should also pertain to special prosecutors.

Cowsert said one of the Senate committees purposes is to determine whether theres a need to pass new laws or amend existing laws to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system. He said requiring district attorneys to submit for prior approval requests to hire special prosecutors is an issue lawmakers may address.
Funeral services are being held Friday morning as family, friends, and law enforcement officials gather to say goodbye to fallen Billerica Police Sergeant Ian Taylor.

A police escort transported Sgt. Taylor from the Cataudella Funeral Home in Methuen to St. Patrick Parish in Lawrence for a funeral Mass that started 11 a.m. A private burial will follow.

Due to a request for privacy by Taylors family, the Mass will not be streamed live.

WATCH LIVE: Police escorting fallen Billerica Police Sergeant Ian Taylor to funeral Mass. WATCH LIVE: Police escorting fallen Billerica Sergeant Ian Taylor to funeral Mass in Lawrence. Posted by Boston 25 News on Friday, May 3, 2024

Hundreds of law enforcement officials are lining up outside St. Patrick Parish in Lawrence waiting to lay fallen Billerica Police Sergeant Ian Taylor to rest, the Mass is expected to start at 11 a.m. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/QoFyHmaWgr  Joanna Bouras (@JoannaBouras) May 3, 2024

Uniformed officers from across Massachusetts and the country flocked to Lawrence for Taylors funeral. A group of motorcyclists

Aerial video showed a sea of law enforcement filing into the funeral home on Thursday for Taylors wake. Black and blue bunting as placed on Taylors cruiser has hundreds paid their respects.

Taylor, 49, was struck by an excavator while helping to move a large tractor-trailer at a roadside construction site at the intersection of Boston Road and Pollard Road on April 26, authorities said.

Taylor was rushed to Lahey Hospital in Burlington, where he was pronounced dead.

Billerica Police Chief Roy Frost said that Taylor was a 21-year law enforcement veteran and had been with the department since 2011.

Sgt. Ian Taylor

Sergeant Taylors life made an impact while he was here, Frost said after Taylors passing. His life had meaning. Hes helped so many people. Hes saved so many people. His life had an impact, it had meaning and Im proud to have had him working for me here in Billerica.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed earlier this week that it has launched an investigation into N. Granese & Sons, Inc., the general contractor linked to the construction accident.

Facts and circumstances surrounding the deadly incident remain under investigation by Massachusetts State Police troopers assigned to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryans Office and Billerica police.

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Throngs of people are seen boating, dancing, and drinking during Boca Bash in Lake Boca in Boca Raton on Sunday, April 28, 2024.

BOCA RATON  Two juveniles have turned themselves in to face charges in an investigation into the dumping of two barrels of trash from a boat into the ocean during Sunday's, April 28, Boca Bash event, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Friday.

The FWC statement did not identify the juveniles or disclose their ages. It was not immediately clear what charges the juveniles would face.

FWC officers launched an investigation Monday, April 29, after receiving complaints in response to a video posted on social media that showed several juveniles on a boat traveling out of the Boca Inlet. The boat was heading away from the Boca Bash, an unsanctioned gathering of boaters, Jet-Skiers and kayakers that takes place on the final Sunday of each April on Lake Boca and attracts thousands of people.

The trash-dumping incident, captured by a drone, showed eight to 10 people in a three-engine fishing vessel named Halcyon leaving the Boca Raton Inlet in heaving waves. Two young men were then seen dumping two large buckets of garbage over the side of the boat, leaving a trail of multicolored cans, cups and bottles in their wake.

News outlets nationwide broadcast the video. The outrage that followed turned the incident into "a worldwide story," FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said. He told the FWC board, at a Wednesday meeting in Daytona Beach, that the world "is watching us."

Boca Bash trash dumping incident drew national attention

The Boca Bash Facebook page addressed the incident in an April 30 post, saying the boating community would work together to identify the boat and its occupants so they could be reported to FWC investigators.

FWC said its investigators were able to confirm the identities of the two teens and worked with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office to determine what charges they will face. Under Florida's litter law, someone dumping litter that weighs 15 pounds or less can be fined $150, but it is not a criminal offense. If the litter exceeds 15 pounds but is under 500 pounds, it is a first-degree misdemeanor.

In a statement announcing the pending charges, Barreto described it as a "teaching moment for all those involved."

The illegal dumping of trash in our marine environment is a serious crime, and we worked closely with the Palm Beach County State Attorneys Office to determine appropriate charges. Callous disregard for Floridas environment will not be tolerated," he said.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca Bash arrest: Two teens surrender in trash dumping off Boca Lake
GA lieutenant arrested after touching, kissing inmate in stairwell at state prison

A Georgia Department of Corrections lieutenant has been arrested after officials say he touched and kissed a female inmate while working at the Lee Arrendale State Prison.

Russell Clark was arrested on May 1 and charged with sexual assault on a person in custody and violation of oath by a public officer.

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According to arrest warrants, Clark improperly touched and kissed the female inmate in the stairwell of the main dormitories.

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Clark was booked in at the Habersham County Jail and released on a $11,200 bond, according to jail records.

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Gail Miller receives a honorary doctoral degree during the commencement ceremony at Utah State University on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal

Gail Miller related a recent back surgery to the importance of flexibility and moderation while moving through life during Utah State Universitys graduation ceremony Thursday.

"Be willing to bend, but be reasonable when you bend," Miller, the owner of the Larry H. Miller Company, told the 4,510 students receiving degrees at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on the Logan campus.

According to the university, 7,471 degrees will be conferred to 6,897 students in the system statewide. The youngest graduate in the class of 2024 is 17 years old, according to Provost Laurens H. Smith, and the oldest is 73.

Miller gave students advice based on her decades of business experience and philanthropy, saying one of the guiding principles of the Larry H. Miller Company has been "be a student, be a teacher, be a leader."

"It's a cycle, a repeating process that's interchangeable," Miller said. "Lead with love, and success will follow." According to Miller, successful leaders "love those they work with. They serve and they elevate."

Miller, whose foundation donated $2.5 million to the Huntsman School of Business, received an honorary doctorate degree during the ceremony, along with Bruce Carlson, a retired general in the U.S. Air Force now on Lockheed Martin's board of directors. Carlson is chairman of the USU Space Dynamics Laboratory board of directors, and "he generously supports nearly every area of campus," according to the program.

Darren Parry, former chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, grew emotional when he received an honorary doctorate in education, and a standing ovation, for his decades teaching Native American history and sustainability across the state.

The event was extra special for new USU President Betsy Cantwell, who celebrated her first graduating class since her appointment in August 2023. To the students, she said, "I hope your life is one of a learner, of an informed and engaged citizen."

I feel an incredible sense of hope for the future, for the state, for the nation, for the world, Cantwell said. Thank you for giving me that hope.

Elementary school students congratulate graduates as they walk across the Utah State University campus to attend the commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal

Hope Ward, left, and Tyson Packer celebrate during the commencement ceremony at Utah State University on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal

President Elizabeth R. Cantwell speaks during the commencement ceremony at Utah State University on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal

President Elizabeth R. Cantwell, left, applauds after Gail Miller gave the commencement address to graduates at Utah State University on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal

Graduates get their picture taken before the start of the commencement ceremony at Utah State University on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Eli Lucero, Herald Journal
JONES COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  A tornado touched down in Jones County overnight, destroying multiple homes.

Most of the damage was sustained by the Hodges and Hawley communities off of CR 605 and CR 458.

HOW TO HELP: Hawley tornado victims in need of supplies

At least 6 homes have been heavily damaged, but there is debris scattered all across the area, and multiple homes have their roofs blown off or have been leveled completely.

At least one family  a father, mother and two children  were injured when the tornado touched down and had to be rushed to the hospital by a storm chaser.

Oh my gosh. Theres people: Storm chaser rescues family live on YouTube during Hawley tornado

There are also now multiple donation sites in Hawley were anyone wanting to help can bring supplies.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com.
Gas stoves, found in more than 40 million U.S. homes, are likely giving some children asthma, new research suggests.

A study published Friday suggests that around 50,000 current cases of pediatric asthma in the U.S. are linked to long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane stoves.

Nitrogen dioxide forms when natural gas is burned at high temperatures. It is known to irritate airways and worsen existing respiratory problems. Previous studies have also linked long-term exposure to new cases of asthma and chronic lung disease.

The new study, which researchers at Stanford University published in the journal Science Advances, suggests that the average yearly exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane stoves in U.S. homes may be close to the World Health Organizations limit.

To reach those conclusions, the researchers measured nitrogen dioxide inside more than 100 U.S. kitchens while stoves were on and monitored how nitrogen dioxide spread to other rooms after the stoves were turned off. They accounted for various scenarios like windows being open or shut, burners on low versus high, and range hoods being on or off.

The team combined that data with information from a U.S. Energy Information Administration survey about how often people use their stoves and what indoor ventilation typically looks like. That yielded an overall estimate of annual exposure to nitrogen dioxide, which the researchers then used to calculate the approximate number of new asthma cases that would be expected as a result, based on past studies.

If you dont smoke in your home, then your gas stove is one of the largest sources of air pollution in your home, said Yannai Kashtan, the studys lead author and a doctoral candidate at Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability.

A 2022 study similarly found that 13% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. were attributable to gas stoves.

On average, the new study found, gas or propane stoves account for a yearly exposure to nitrogen dioxide of around 4 parts per billion. The WHOs annual limit is about 5.3 parts per billion for indoor and outdoor air combined.

The study also noted that exposures tend to be higher in smaller homes, those where people cook often and homes without a hood to vent air from the kitchen to the outdoors.

Homes under 800 square feet have four times the amount of long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide compared to homes larger than 3,000 square feet, the research showed. Exposure in those small homes exceeded the WHOs safe limit.

We often focus on outdoor air quality, but the indoor sources  stoves being one of them  could be just as important, if not more so, because of the amount of time people spend indoors, said Susan Anenberg, chair of the environmental and occupational health department at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, who was not involved in the research.

The study also revealed racial disparities in nitrogen dioxide exposure from gas stoves. American Indian and Alaska Native households had 60% more long-term exposure relative to the national average, while Black and Hispanic households had 20% more exposure. Poorer families also faced an increased risk.

We found that poor people breathe dirtier air outdoors and  if they own a gas stove  indoors, too, said Rob Jackson, a co-author of the study and a professor of Earth science at Stanford. People in public housing and in poorer neighborhoods who often rent cant switch their appliances because they dont own them or they cant afford to do so.

The American Gas Association, a trade group representing energy companies that deliver natural gas, questioned some of the past research on which the new study relied.

It pointed to one paper which found that although cooking with gas slightly increased the risk of asthma in children, the result was not statistically significant. Because of that, among other reasons, AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert called the new studys conclusions misleading and unsupported.

(The same paper, however, found that cooking with gas instead of electricity significantly increased the risk of pneumonia and chronic lung disease.)

Dr. Laura Paulin, a pulmonologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, said she often asks patients with lung disease about their cooking habits.

Some people will say it themselves: Every time I cook or every time my spouse cooks, I feel worse or have to leave the room, she said.

Even leaving the kitchen may not be sufficient, Paulin added: Were still seeing that the NO2 [nitrogen dioxide] concentrations are high everywhere  not just in the kitchen.

To reduce exposure, opening windows or installing a range hood that vents outdoors may help, Jackson said, though it wont eliminate the problem. His team also found that many people dont use hoods due to the noise, and many hoods simply recirculate polluted air inside the home.

If possible, Jackson said, families with gas stoves could consider using a portable induction cooktop.

Every time youre boiling water for rice or noodles and you dont have to turn your gas stove on, thats a win for health, he said.

Another option, Jackson added, would be laws that prohibit new buildings from installing gas stoves.

New York state passed such a policy last year: Electric heating and cooking will be required in some new buildings there by 2026 or 2029, depending on their height. Berkeley, California, also passed an ordinance in 2019 that prohibited natural gas hookups in new homes, but the city repealed the ban in March in response to a lawsuit by the California Restaurant Association.

Theres such a viable alternative here that works the same way in terms of the use of the stove: electric stoves. It is not the case that we have to be stuck with these gas stoves, Anenberg said.

However, at least two dozen states have passed laws prohibiting local governments from restricting gas use in buildings, according to an analysis from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

House Republicans have also introduced several bills that would limit regulations on gas stoves. Two of those bills passed in the House last year but stalled in the Senate. A vote on a third, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, is expected next week.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
JAKARTA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The latest landslides and flooding triggered by prolonged heavy rains have killed seven people in Indonesia's eastern province of South Sulawesi, according to the province's disaster mitigation agency on Friday.

Flash floods and landslides have occurred in six regions in the province since Thursday evening. Parts of the provincial highway were reportedly inundated, causing huge traffic jams.

The head of South Sulawesi disaster mitigation agency Amson Pandolo told local media that those killed were identified as villagers of Latimojong in the region of Luwu.

The number of houses and public facilities damaged in the disasters remained unknown, and rescuers have focused their efforts on evacuating and helping the affected people, he added. 
Gas Tanker Crash Leads to Fiery Explosion on I-95 in Connecticut  Here's What Happens Next

This could have been so much worse, said Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling

Norwalk, CT Police Department/Facebook An overpass on I-95 in Connecticut was severely damaged following an accident involving a gas tanker on May 2, 2024

The crash involving a gas tanker damaged a section of I-95 in Connecticut on May 2

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency following the crash

Officials are asking drivers to stay off the road through the weekend with a demolition of the overpass starting on May 3

A part of Interstate 95 in Connecticut will remain shut down at least through this weekend following a gas tanker crash that caused a fire to erupt and damaged an overpass on Thursday, May 2.

The fiery crash involved a tractor-trailer, the fuel truck and another vehicle, according to NBC affiliate WVIT. There were no injuries from the crash and the fire.



This could have been so much worse. Were very grateful that nobody was seriously injured, said Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, according to the CT Examiner.

The Hartford Courant reported that about 4,000 gallons of fuel spilled and burned, while the rest was taken off the truck, per a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesperson.

Norwalk, CT Police Department/Facebook A damaged overpass on I-95 in Connecticut will be demolished following an accident on May 2, 2024, that sparked a fire

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency following the incident, saying: "The immediate repair and reconstruction of the damaged highway/bridge is vital to the security, wellbeing and health of the residents of Connecticut, as well as the residents of the states along the Eastern Seaboard.

In a press statement about the declaration, Lamont said that the damage from the accident caused major damage to the overpass and cautioned that it is not safe for drivers to use the road.

Structural engineers have determined that this overpass needs to be demolished and the road needs to be repaved. We are advising commuters to expect that this area of I-95 in Norwalk will remain closed at least through the weekend, said Lamont.

Norwalk, CT Police Department/Facebook An overpass on I-95 in Connecticut was severely damaged following an accident involving a gas tanker on May 2, 2024

Related: Baltimore Bridge Collapses After Being Struck by Cargo Ship in 'Mass Casualty' Event

Inevitably, the accident has caused traffic headaches. In a post on X after the crash, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) echoed the governors message about the closure, writing: We expect I-95 in Norwalk to remain closed through the weekend as crews demolish the damaged bridge. We hope to have the highway reopened by Monday morning.

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.

The CT DOT also warned drivers in another X post that traffic was closed at I-95 northbound at exit 14 and southbound at exit 15. "Please avoid the area," the department added. "Commercial vehicles should use I-84 as an alternate route."

Related: 2 Dead After Vehicle Explosion on Niagara Falls Bridge from U.S. to Canada: Reports

Lamont added that extra rail service will be provided for those who want to commute into New York and get up into Hartford," reported ABC affiliate WABC. My recommendation is if you can't stay home, take the train stay away from the cars," the governor added.

Rilling suggested that people should stay off the road, WABC reported, saying: "We've scheduled some different staggering work times for people so that they can come in later, maybe go home earlier so we can reduce some of the traffic. But we're also asking a lot of our staff to work from home.

In a post shared by the Stamford Police Department on Facebook, the CT DOT announced that demolition over the overpass was scheduled to begin on Friday, May 3.

Related: Truck Driver Dead After Tanker Rolled Off Bridge and 'Burst into Flames' on Highway

During this phase, I-95 will be closed, and the demolition is expected to last approximately four days, with the anticipation of reopening I-95 on Monday, May 6, 2024, according to the statement. This will unavoidably lead to severe disruptions on local roads in Stamford, resulting in increased traffic congestion. We strongly advise individuals who do not have essential travel needs to refrain from using the roads."

"For those who must travel," the statement continued, "we recommend allowing extra time and exercising patience. Additionally, we encourage commuters traveling to and from Stamford to utilize Metro North train services or explore alternative routes.



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Read the original article on People.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee enters the House chambers and greets Lt. Gov. Randy McNally for Lee's sixth State of the State address. (Photo: John Partipilo)

This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here.

Tenants generally dont stand much of a chance in eviction court in Shelby County.

Theyre rarely represented by a lawyer, and most of the General Sessions Civil judges overseeing cases dont take the time to explain whats going on.

One of the few rights tenants have is to delay their case for 15 days  either by requesting a continuance or by disagreeing with the charge that they owe money  if its their first time in court for that specific eviction.

t just shortens the whole timeline in which a person can lose their home. Things (can now) happen very, very quickly.

 Brian Rees, The Works

During this delay, tenants can come up with the money they owe, work out a deal with their landlord, hire a lawyer or find a new apartment. Its an important enough right that explaining it to tenants was one of the key ways Shelby County said it hoped to deploy a recent $250,000 grant.

The Tennessee General Assembly just cut this buffer down to seven days. The new law will take effect July 1.

It just shortens the whole timeline in which a person can lose their home, said Brian Rees, a staff attorney at The Works Inc. nonprofit who has represented hundreds of tenants in eviction proceedings in recent years. Things (can now) happen very, very quickly.

During the assemblys recently completed legislative session, it also shut down another attempt by the City of Memphis and Democrat Rep. Dwayne Thompson of Cordova to create a registry of all the citys rental housing. However, Thompson was able to pass a backup bill meant to help tenants reach their landlords with maintenance requests  though enforcement of it may prove.

Less protection for thousands in Shelby County

In a sparsely populated room at the Hickory Hill Community Center in mid-April, Judge Deborah Henderson was quite candid with the renters gathered to learn about the eviction process.

House Bill 2267, which cut tenants right to a continuance in half, hadnt yet been signed by Gov. Bill Lee. If the governor signed it, Henderson said, it would have devastating consequences for renters.

To Henderson, who judges thousands of eviction cases per year, the only explanation for such action was landlord lobbying. The Tennessee Association of Realtors is the sixth largest spender on Tennessee politics, according to the Tennessee Lookouts database, having spent $6.5 million on lobbying, campaign donations and other political expenditures since 2009.

Landlords have always had a very strong lobbying group, she said.

MLK50: Justice Through Journalism could not reach the bills primary sponsor in the House, Rep. Clark Boyd, a Lebanon Republican, through his official email address or the House Republican Caucus press secretary. Sen. Art Swann, a Maryville Republican who sponsored the legislation in the Senate, provided MLK50 with a statement but did not respond to follow-up questions.

In the statement, Swann said the bill will help landlords free up apartments more quickly for the thousands of Tennesseeans seeking a home. He also said it would help the apartment industry develop new apartments, but he didnt make clear how it would.

The Tennessee Association of Realtors has been Swanns top funder since the start of 2009, according to the Tennessee Lookout, giving him $18,750. It has also given Boyd $11,500 since 2009, making it his No. 6 funder.

The bill sailed through the House and the Senate, generating little discussion in committee or before the full bodies. In the House, it passed on the consent agenda, meaning no legislator objected to it. In the Senate, it passed by a vote of 27-3.

The vote will impact thousands of renters in Shelby County each year. In 2023, about 31,000 evictions were filed here. Most of these renters did not receive the two-week continuance, either because they didnt show up at court, had already worked something out with their landlord, didnt know to ask for it or chose not to take advantage of it. But, in a sample of 1,090 recent eviction cases, MLK50 found that 145 (about 13%) appeared on the courts schedule for a second time two weeks after they were initially scheduled  meaning these renters were likely granted the two-week extension they were entitled to.

While the difference of a week may not seem like much, Rees said it can really matter for these renters since the pathways to avoiding eviction can take time to figure out.

Often, landlords will either stop pursuing an eviction judgment or not enforce one theyve received if the tenant catches up on rent. Starting July 1, renters will have less time to do so  whether through personal loans, family loans, work, rental assistance programs or other means  which in turn could increase the likelihood they lose their homes.

Additionally, programs designed to help low-income renters, such as legal aid or rental assistance, often take days or weeks to approve requests. And if renters arent able to get help, the apartment complexes they turn to for shelter may not be quick to process their applications.

Its disheartening to see them make a change that will affect families who are struggling, Rees said.

What happened to the rental registry?

For years, City of Memphis leaders and local housing advocates have sought a rental registry  a tool designed to help cities keep track of out-of-town landlords who are violating local ordinances.

In 2021, the City Council was poised to create one before the General Assembly preempted it, despite one already existing in Nashville.

This session, Thompson thought he had a shot at amending state law to let Memphis join its peer in Middle Tennessee  until he realized the Tennessee Association of Realtors was dead set against him, no matter what compromises he offered them.

(TAR) has the connection with a lot of legislators, especially on the commerce committee, where this was going to be, Thompson said. (And) they were just ironclad.

TAR representatives did not return a pair of phone calls from MLK50.

The bill failed to pass the House Commerce Committees Business and Utilities Subcommittee, which is chaired by Boyd. During the subcommittee hearing, Shelby County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon and City of Memphis Division of Public Works director Robert Knecht endorsed it and two landlord representatives spoke against it.

Thompson told the subcommittee that registration had worked well for Nashville but failed to convince them. Rep. Pat Marsh, a Shelbyville Republican said he opposed the bill because he doubted bad landlords would comply with it, making it ineffective.

How are you going to find the (bad actors)? It looks to me like the good people will do it but the bad people arent going to change, Marsh said during the subcommittee hearing.

Given TARs opposition and the legislature itself having recently moved much farther to the right, in his experience, Thompson said a Shelby County rental registry is probably not in the cards, for several years anyway. Though hes not running for reelection, hes hopeful whoever succeeds him will be able to find other ways to help cities deal with slumlords.

Thompson was able to pass one bill this year he thinks will help tenants.

Assuming the bill is signed by Lee, it will require landlords to provide tenants with a phone number or online portal they can use to make maintenance requests. While most landlords do this already, Thompson said hes heard from tenants who tell him they have no way of contacting their landlord or property manager about maintenance issues.

The bill doesnt address the problem of landlords who wont answer their phones or otherwise respond to maintenance requests. And, to get the bill passed, Thompson had to remove the fine he proposed for landlords who failed to follow the law.

Still, Rees sees the legislations passage as a win. Because even if landlords arent responsive, it will provide tenants with proof theyre requesting maintenance through the proper channels  proof lawyers like Rees could theoretically use in their defense.

I really am happy to see that pass, Rees said. I think its important that tenants do have good quality contact information for their property manager or owner.

The post General Assembly makes Tennessees eviction laws tougher on tenants appeared first on Tennessee Lookout.
Conservative lawyer George Conway in an interview late Thursday dismissed former President Trumps claims about not sleeping in court after reporters noticed Trump closing his eyes during the hush money case in New York.

Conway, a frequent Trump critic, claimed the former president has struggled to get up in the morning for some time, even while serving as commander in chief.

That is just so perfect Donald Trump, Conway said on MSNBCs Inside with Jen Psaki.

His reputation really has been in the past that hes Sleepy Donald. Ive talked to people  journalists  who interviewed him, wrote books about him back in the day, and he never showed up in the office at Trump Tower before 11 a.m. or rarely ever, apparently, Conway said.

And we know what he did at the White House, he added. He was not there in the morning. He wasnt an early riser to read his important briefing books. This is rough on him: Hes got to get up early every morning. And he is not free to fly around the country like we are people on cellphone commercials.

Conways remarks came just hours after Trump denied sleeping in court, writing in a Truth Social post that he was only closing his eyes to listen intensely.

Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I dont fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!! Trump wrote.

Trump has been seen closing his eyes during his hush money trial, in which he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an effort to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.

Democrats and political strategists have mocked Trump for appearing to fall asleep during the proceedings.

During the first day of the trial, his lead attorney, Todd Blanche, passed notes to his client for a few minutes before Trump jolted awake to see them, according to The New York Times.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
George Galloway, who formed the Workers Party of Britain - ZUMAPRESS.com/Avalon

A member of George Galloways Workers Party of Britain was struck by a car in a suspected hit-and-run on polling day, the party claimed.

The activist needed medical attention following the incident, which happened in Angela Rayners constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, a spokesman said.

The party said the activist was in a stable condition after receiving treatment for injuries sustained, particularly to her head.

George Galloway celebrates with his candidate Shahbaz Sarwar who took a council seat in Manchester - William Lailey/SWNS

Greater Manchester Police said two people were arrested following a road traffic collision between a car and a pedestrian at 4.30pm on Thursday.

In a statement, the force said a 43-year-old woman was taken to hospital with superficial injuries, adding: Inquiries have established that a car collided with the victim and failed to stop.

The full circumstances of the incident are yet to be determined, but officers in Tameside are progressing inquiries at pace, with two arrests made.

One man aged 18 was arrested on suspicion of attempted section 18 assault, and a 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit section 18 [assault].

A spokesman for the Workers Party of Britain said it was fully cooperating with the police.

The Left-wing party, founded in 2019, delivered its first MP in March, when Mr Galloway won the Rochdale by-election on a pro-Palestinian ticket.

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 Georgia man was sentenced to 57 months in prison Thursday for assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Jack Wade Whitton, 33, of Locust Grove pleaded guilty in federal court in September 2022 to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

According to court documents, Whitton pulled a metal crutch from a crowd approaching a police line, raised it overhead, and thrust it repeatedly at police, striking law enforcement officers. Although an officer gained control of the crutch, Whitton continued fighting, grabbing at officers with his hands and kicking an officer lying on the ground.

Whitton then grabbed an officers baton and dragged the officer head-first and face-down into a crowd of rioters, where the officer was beaten.

Later that day, Whitton threw an object at a line of officers, then reached over a balustrade to throw a punch at them.

In the days following the riot, Whitton posted about his conduct at the Capitol on social media, expressing pride in his participation in the assaults.

Almost 1,400 people have been charged in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. On Thursday, a judge sentenced a Georgia man to more than four years in prison for assaulting Capitol police that day. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI

He was arrested in Locust Grove in April 2021. The case was investigated by the FBIs Atlanta and Washington field offices and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia assisted by the U.S. Attorneys office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Following the prison sentence, Whitton will have to serve 36 months of supervised release. He also has been ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
The prime minister of the country of Georgia on Friday accused the United States of supporting what he criticized as revolution attempts, following the Biden administrations support for anti-government protests that are rocking Tbilisi.

Irakli Kobakhidze, head of the majority Georgian Dream Party, lashed out at the U.S. in a post on social platform X, amid pressure from the Biden administration and European leaders against the governments pursuit of legislation criticized as mirroring Russias foreign agents law.

Critics of the draft law say it will be used to silence dissent and criminalize opposition, forcing nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents with the internal security services.

Kobakhidze, following a conversation with the No. 3 official in the State Department, counselor Derek Chollet, said that the law is necessary to root out groups the government accuses of funding violence and supporting revolutionary processes.

Kobakhidze focused his criticisms against the former U.S. ambassador to Georgia, whom he painted as supporting two revolution attempts of 2020-2023  and those carried out through NGOs financed from external sources. Had these attempts been successful, the second front line would have been opened in Georgia.

Kobakhidze repeated a common argument by Georgian Dream Party that seeks to paint U.S. support for Georgian civil society organizations as fueling opposition movements in the country. The reference to a second front line is an argument by the party against closer ties with the European Union and NATO, warning that Georgia will be drawn into a war with Russia amid its offensive war against Ukraine.

But an overwhelming majority of the Georgian population supports joining the European Union and is critical of the governments policies.

A poll by the International Republican Institute published in April 2023 found 50 percent had a very negative, or somewhat negative view of the governments relations with Russia; and 44 percent viewed the government as more pro-Russian than pro-Western. A poll published by the National Democratic Institute in December 2023 found 79 percent of Georgias population supported joining the EU.

And protesters have massed in Tbilisi for more than a month against the foreign agents law. Protesters succeeded in 2023 in getting Georgian Dream Party to withdraw consideration of the law, but the party reintroduced the legislation in early April.

The government is expected to bring the draft law for a third and final reading May 17. While Georgias President Salome Zourabichvili has vowed to veto the law, that can be overridden with a majority vote in the Parliament.

The government pursuit of the draft law and a violent crackdown by security forces on protesters is raising increasing alarm in Europe and the U.S.

Chollet, in a post on X, said he reinforced to Kobakhidze our concern for Georgias current trajectory  the Governments hostile rhetoric and support of antidemocratic legislation places Georgias Euro-Atlantic future at risk. The United States urges the Georgian government to recommit Georgia to the Euro-Atlantic future the overwhelming majority of Georgians desire.

Republican and Democratic senators have warned that sanctions could be imposed on Georgian government officials and U.S. assistance to the country could be restricted if the foreign agents law is put into effect.

The Biden administration has held back on threatening a U.S. policy shift but has said it is keeping a close eye on developments.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Hensoldt, a German defense manufacturer, will provide Ukraine with six more TRML-4D radars by the end of 2024, the company said on May 3.

Kyiv received the first TRML-4D radars in 2022, with the most recent system included in the last tranche of German military aid to Ukraine, announced on April 30.

The new radars are part of an order package worth over 100 million euros ($107 million), according to the statement.

"Our radars are urgently needed by Ukrainian air defense, and we are proud to be able to deliver all the systems this year," CEO of Hensoldt Oliver Dorre said.

"The feedback from our customers confirms how important the rapid availability of the radars is for the protection of their citizens."

TRML-4D radars are able to detect and track 1,500 targets within a radius of up to 250 kilometers. They can also differentiate various types of air targets, focusing on high-speed and low-flying cruise missiles, as well as aircraft and helicopters.

Ukraine has asked for more air defense capabilities in the wake of an increase in Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure since March.

Berlin announced in mid-April its plans to deliver another Patriot system to Ukraine. The new pledge will bring the total number of Patriots supplied to Ukraine by Germany to three.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine needs 25 Patriots to protect the country from Russian attacks.

Read also: Skynex: The German drone destroyer reinforcing Ukraines air defense

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the indigenous Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)

BRUSSELS (AP)  Germany on Friday accused Russian military agents of hacking the top echelons of Chancellor Olaf Scholzs party and other sensitive government and industrial targets, and was joined by NATO and fellow European countries in warning that Russias cyberespionage would have consequences.

Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian military cyber operators were behind the hacking of emails of the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. Officials said they did so by exploiting Microsoft Outlook.

Officials described a hacking campaign that persisted for months.

The German Interior Ministry said in a statement that the hacking campaign began at least as early as March 2022  a month after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine  with emails at Social Democrat party headquarters accessed beginning that December. It said German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to the war were also a focus.

The statement said international efforts led by the FBI shut down in late January a botnet of compromised network devices used by the Russian hackers  known as APT28 or Fancy Bear  in the cyberespionage scheme.

Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace, Baerbock said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide. She attributed the hack to a unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence unit.

This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences, she said, without specifying what they might be.

A separate German statement said the hacking occurred over a relatively long period and also targeted various unidentified German government authorities, foundations and associations. It said the Social Democrats' executive committee was targeted.

The Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry said Czechia's institutions have also been targeted by the same group. Both German and Czech officials said the GRU hackers leveraged a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook.

In a statement by the EUs top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the blocs nations said they strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign" by Fancy Bear "against Germany and Czechia.

The EU noted that it had previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the group for targeting the German parliament in 2015. It said it will not tolerate the continuation of such attacks, particularly with EU elections upcoming in June.

NATO accused Fancy Bear of targeting other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance," including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyberthreats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses, said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.

Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.

The defense cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats, said Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.

Discussions between Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centered on the conflict in Gaza. I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution, Wong said.

___

Associated Press Technology writer Frank Bajak in Boston, Karel Janicek in Prague, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Samuel Petrequin in Brussels and Foster Klug contributed to this report.
A defendant sits handcuffed in his seat before the start of his trial in a courtroom at the Higher Regional Court. Two defendants are alleged to have violated European Union trade restrictions in connection with deliveries of electronic components for military equipment to Russia. Bernd Weibrod/dpa

The trial of two German-Russian dual nationals accused of illegally delivering electronic components to Russia for use in the construction of military drones started on Friday in the south-western German city of Stuttgart.

In the opening hearing in Stuttgart's Higher Regional Court, a federal prosecutor said the Orlan 10 drones the pair allegedly indirectly helped to build were of "utmost importance" to the Russian war effort in Ukraine.

The prosecution accused the main defendant, a 59-year-old man from the western state of Saarland, of 54 violations of European Union sanctions on Russia.

The businessman, a managing director of two companies who has been in custody since March last year, allegedly deceived his US suppliers by assuring them the components, including transmitters, microchips and insulators worth a total of 875,000 ($942,350), would remain in Germany.

He then delivered the parts to front companies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, from which they were sent to Russian military suppliers.

According to the indictment, the man repackaged the deliveries to mask the fact that they were covered by Russian sanctions and thus required export authorization. He did not declare the goods to Germany's Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control.

The man's partner, a 53-year-old woman from the south-western state of Baden-Wurttemberg, is accused of assisting him in 14 cases. She allegedly told US suppliers that the components were destined for her own company and submitted false documentation.

According to earlier information from the federal prosecutor's office, the businesswoman was also initially arrested, but was released last year.

The man did not comment on the allegations on the first day of the trial. However, in a character statement he provided, he said he opposed the war and did not support either side.

"I am against war and do not want to take part in this madness," he stated. "I want countries to live in mutual peace," he added.

His defence lawyer said the defendant would respond to the accusations in writing at a later hearing. His partner intends to do the same.

The trial is not the first in Germany of people accused of circumventing sanctions on Russia.

Another trial is currently under way in Stuttgart against a man who is alleged to have supplied machine tools to Russian weapons manufacturers. A district court in Cologne also recently handed down a suspended sentence to a car dealer who sold luxury vehicles to Russia despite the sanctions.

A defendant enters the courtroom at the Higher Regional Court with handcuffs and a file folder before the start of his trial. The two defendants are alleged to have violated European Union trade restrictions in connection with deliveries of electronic components for military equipment to Russia. Bernd Weibrod/dpa
COLOMBO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Maldives government on Thursday launched a multi-agency operation to collect biometrics of migrant workers.

The Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology said the operation aims to "gain 100 percent biometrically confirmed accountability of migrant workers in the Maldives."

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday, the Minister of Homeland Security Ali Ihusan said this initiative will address the long-prevailing issue of illegal migrants.

Ihusan said they also want to identify why and how illegal migrants arrive in numbers in the Maldives and come up with a permanent fix to the issue.

The initiative will be completed within three years, he said. 
Germany on May 3 blamed Russian-backed hackers for a cyberattack against members of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year and promised a response, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported.

Relations between Berlin and Moscow have deteriorated sharply after Germany threw its support behind Ukraine, which faces the ongoing Russian invasion.

SPD, the strongest party in Germany's governing coalition, announced in June 2023 that email accounts of its members had been targeted by hackers earlier that year.

Speaking at a press conference in Australia, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the investigation into the incident has concluded and pointed to Russia as the culprit.

"Today we can say unambiguously... we can attribute this cyber attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia," Baerbock said.

"In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany," the minister said, adding: "This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences."

Russia's military intelligence agency, also known as GRU, has already been linked to numerous cyberattacks in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that a GRU-backed group called SandWorm was responsible for a large-scale hacking attack against the Kyivstar telecommunications provider in December 2023.

Speaking alongside Baerbock at the press conference in Adelaide, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong voiced full support for Germany: "Australia stands in solidarity with Germany in calling out states that act contrary to the norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace."

Read also: Ukraines military intelligence launches cyberattack against United Russia party

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Acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy Alexey Korliakov goes to the Federal Foreign Office after being summoned. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.

He has been summoned for noon, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Friday.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyberattack on the centre-left SPD, which is in coalition with the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

"Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace," Baerbock said in Adelaide during a visit to Australia, adding there would be consequences.

In June 2023 the SPD said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyberattack earlier that year.

According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," an SPD statement said.

"Federal Foreign Office" can be read at the entrance to the ministry. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The Russian flag flies over the Russian embassy in Berlin. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
"Federal Foreign Office" can be read at the entrance to the ministry. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.

Charge d'affaires Alexei Korlyakov had been summoned for around midday, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Friday.

"[It is a clear diplomatic signal] to make it clear to Moscow that we do not accept this behaviour, that we clearly condemn it and that we reserve the right to impose consequences," the spokesman added.

In June 2023, the SPD said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyberattack earlier that year.

According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," an SPD statement said.

The names of those potentially affected were not disclosed. It also initially remained unclear how many email accounts were targeted and how much data was siphoned off.

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kuhnert stated that there were "well-founded indications that the attack was carried out by attackers from Russia."

According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the German government's investigation into the incident - known in diplomatic jargon as "attribution proceedings" - is now complete.

"We can now clearly attribute this attack from last year to the APT28 group, which is controlled by the Russian secret service GRU," said the minister. "This is completely unacceptable and will not remain without consequences."

Neither Baerbock nor a government spokesman said on Friday what these consequences might be. The German government once again called on Russia to refrain from such actions.

Russia's irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace is contrary to international norms and deserves special attention in a year with elections in many countries, Berlin said. Cyberattacks against political parties, state institutions and critical infrastructure companies are a threat to democracy, national security and a free society, it said.

The European Union has previously imposed sanctions against individuals or organizations in similar cases. Travel bans or the freezing of assets are conceivable.

The bloc "is determined to make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia's malicious behaviour in cyberspace," read an EU statement, issued by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel on behalf of all 27 member states, on Friday.

"The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia's continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond."

The NATO military alliance said: "We stand in solidarity with Germany following the malicious cyber campaign against a political party, in this case the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and with Czechia following the malicious cyber activities against its institutions."

According to the German domestic intelligence service, the APT28 group has been active worldwide since at least 2004, primarily in the field of cyber espionage. According to the Interior Ministry, it has also conducted disinformation and propaganda campaigns in the past and is "one of the most active and dangerous cyber actors worldwide."

APT stands for Advanced Persistent Threat. This is how security authorities refer to groups controlled by authoritarian states that are tasked with systematically carrying out cyberattacks. Around 40 of these have been identified so far.

Germany's domestic intelligence service clearly attributes APT28 to the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

The group was held responsible for a major cyberattack on the lower house of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, in 2015 and later in the US for an attack on the Democratic Party before the 2016 presidential election.

Washington on Friday said "we join Germany in attributing specific malign activity carried out by APT28 that targeted a German political party."

"We call on Russia to stop this malicious activity and abide by its international commitments and obligations," the US State Department said in a statement.

The EU announced that it had already imposed sanctions in 2020 against individuals and organizations responsible for the APT28 attacks on the Bundestag.

According to previous findings, the attack on the SPD was part of a campaign by APT28 targeting several European countries. According to the EU, state institutions, agencies and organizations in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden were also attacked by the same "threat actor".

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Friday that she is determined to counter Russian cyberattacks in Germany.

"Under no circumstances will we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the Russian regime. We will continue to provide massive support to Ukraine, which is defending itself against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's murderous war," the SPD politician said.

The security authorities had ramped up all protective measures against hybrid threats and were well networked internationally, she said. "This year, with the European elections and other elections, we must arm ourselves particularly well against hacker attacks, manipulation and disinformation," said Faeser.

Acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy Alexey Korliakov goes to the Federal Foreign Office after being summoned. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The Russian flag flies over the Russian embassy in Berlin. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy Alexey Korliakov goes to the Federal Foreign Office after being summoned. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.

He had been summoned for around midday, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Friday.

"[It is a clear diplomatic signal] to make it clear to Moscow that we do not accept this behaviour, that we clearly condemn it and that we reserve the right to impose consequences," the spokesman added.

The charge d'affaires is Alexei Korlyakov.

The European Union and NATO on Friday issued statements condemning the attack on Germany and the Czech Republic, which says it was also targeted.

The EU statement, issued by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel on behalf of all 27 member states, said the bloc "is determined to make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russias malicious behaviour in cyberspace."

The EU statement said, "The malicious cyber campaign shows Russias continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond."

The NATO military alliance said: "We stand in solidarity with Germany following the malicious cyber campaign against a political party, in this case the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and with Czechia following the malicious cyber activities against its institutions."

"We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our democratic institutions, national security and free society."

Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Buchner said that the German government strongly condemned the repeated and unacceptable cyberattacks by Russian state-controlled actors.

Germany is once again calling on Russia to refrain from such actions, he said. "Germany is determined to work with its European and international partners to counter such cyberattacks," he said.

The actions of the cybergroup APT28 could be specifically attributed to the Russian military intelligence service GRU on the basis of reliable information from the German intelligence services, Buchner said.

The campaign was also directed against government agencies and companies in the fields of logistics, defence, aerospace, IT services, foundations and associations, he added.

"It was directed against targets in Germany and other European countries as well as targets in Ukraine," he said. APT28 was also responsible for the cyberattack on the Bundestag in 2015.

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyberattack on the centre-left SPD, whichs form the governing coalition with junior partners the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

In June 2023, the SPD said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyberattack earlier that year.

According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," an SPD statement said.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Friday that she is determined to counter Russian cyberattacks in Germany.

"Under no circumstances will we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the Russian regime. We will continue to provide massive support to Ukraine, which is defending itself against Putin's murderous war," the SPD politician said.

Faeser said that the attacks were not only aimed at individual parties or specific politicians, but also at shaking confidence in democracy. Germany is now acting together with other EU states, NATO and international partners, she said.

The security authorities had ramped up all protective measures against hybrid threats and were well networked internationally, she said. "This year, with the European elections and other elections, we must arm ourselves particularly well against hacker attacks, manipulation and disinformation," said Faeser.

"Federal Foreign Office" can be read at the entrance to the ministry. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The Russian flag flies over the Russian embassy in Berlin. Germany has summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. Kay Nietfeld/dpa
By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Russia will face consequences for a cyber attack allegedly orchestrated by a group with ties to its military intelligence, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday.

Germany has been among the Western nations providing Ukraine military support in its war with Russia, with President Vladimir Putin saying in December that ties between the two countries stay largely frozen.

From December 2022 onwards, Germany's ruling Social Democrats and companies in the logistics, defence, aerospace and IT sectors were targeted by Russian hackers, according to the interior ministry.

"We can now clearly attribute the attack to the Russian group APT28, which is controlled by the Russian military intelligence service GRU," Baerbock told a press conference in Adelaide.

"In other words, Russian state hackers have attacked Germany in cyberspace," added Baerbock, who is visiting Australia to meet counterpart Penny Wong. "This is completely unacceptable and will not remain without consequences."

In March, Germany's cybersecurity agency and researchers working for Google owner Alphabet said a similar group, called APT29, had been caught targeting several German political parties, aiming to burrow into their networks and steal data.

(This story has been corrected to remove reference to websites being knocked offline and to add details of hacking campaign in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Annalena Baerbock (5-R), German Foreign Minister, and representatives of the Kaurna people take part in a ceremony to repatriate cultural artefacts sent to Germany by German missionaries in the 19th century. The Grassi Museum in Leipzig had already brought them back to Australia last year. Foreign Minister Baerbock's week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji will focus on security policy and climate protection. Sina Schuldt/dpa

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has officially returned cultural artefacts to the Kaurna Aboriginal tribe during her visit to Australia.

The items in question are a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club, all of which were sent to Germany by two missionaries in the 19th century and were last on display in Leipzig's Grassi Museum of Ethnology.

"Each of these items holds countless stories. Stories of how the Kaurna people lived over 150 years ago," Baerbock said at the handover ceremony in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.

She said she wanted to honour the Kaurna's spiritual relationship with their country.

Baerbock had planned to hand over the cultural artefacts in person last August. However, she had to cancel her trip on the way there due to breakdowns of her government aircraft.

The Grassi Museum then brought the artefacts to Australia on its own. With the ceremony in Adelaide on Friday, the handover is now officially sealed.

The proportion of Australia's Indigenous population today is around 4%. The history of the Aborigines goes back 60,000 years. Before British colonization at the end of the 18th century, there were around 700 tribes. Only 20 of their 300 languages at that time are still spoken today.

Australia is the first stop on Baerbock's week-long trip to the Indo-Pacific region. The minister first met her Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Adelaide on Friday.

Her programme also included visits to the Australian Centre for Cyber Cooperation and the Osborne shipyard, where the Bremen-based company Lurssen builds patrol boats for the Australian Navy.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world in terms of area, but is relatively sparsely populated with around 26 million inhabitants.

It is a member of the G20 group of leading economic powers and, despite the distance, supports Ukraine with weapons in its defence against Russia.
FILE - WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) speaks during a press conference about their report on the Benghazi consulate attack, on Capitol Hill, on December 31, 2012 in Washington, DC. Lieberman died on March 27, 2024

I was saddened to learn of the death of former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman on March 27.

There were two areas of his life that stood out to me, and were very significant in my eyes.

First, Lieberman was of my Jewish faith. I was very proud that he, a Jew, was a very distinguished senator. In his political life, he never hid his Jewishness. He was, in the midst of his busy Senate life, a visibly observant Jew. On Saturdays, he walked to synagogue in the traditional mode, not riding in a car on the Sabbath, and observed other Sabbath practices.

He once joked to his constituents, "I will be a busy senator; I work for you diligently; you can count on me 'twenty-four six'" (less Saturday). Of course, on rare occurrences, if he needed to be on the Senate floor on Saturday for a vote, he would walk there.

Rabbi Ronald Gerson

In 2000, he was picked by Al Gore to run for vice president on the Democratic ticket, the first Jew to achieve this honor.

There were some Americans who could not accept this. I recall seeing a letter in a newspaper in rural Georgia in which the writer asked: "How can we have a Jew in the high office of vice President?" I felt compelled to reply. I mentioned , "Many Jews (including my dad of blessed memory) fought for this country in World War II; they certainly are eligible to run for any political office."

But, there was also something else about Lieberman which strikes me.

Against the backdrop of today, at a time when the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are often characterized by bitter partisanship, mean-spirited attacks on each other, and public heckling as in the recent State of the Union addresses, Lieberman was a model of dignity, uprightness, and morality.

In 1998, he was one of the few in his Democratic Party who had the courage and moral integrity to speak out against President Bill Clinton, fellow Democrat, on the wrongness of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He later said: "It was a very hard thing for me to do because I liked him ... but I really felt what he (Clinton) did was awful."

Also, in 2000, running for vice president, following the razor-thin election, ultimately decided by the Supreme Court giving the victory to George Bush, Lieberman accepted the results with dignity and grace, wishing Bush the very best.

As an American and a Jew, I salute the life of Lieberman. May this true statesman rest in peace.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Gerson: Sen. Joseph Lieberman was a proud Jew and great statesman
A law enforcement agent poses with homemade ghost guns in 2017 in Glendale. Authorities in California have been cracking down on such weapons, including in a new lawsuit filed by San Diego County against the company Defense Distributed. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

When San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer first saw the Coast Runner milling machine being marketed as some state-of-the-art product for creative people in California, she was livid.

Despite its chill name and the retro colors splashed on its side, Lawson-Remer said the Coast Runner was clearly just a rebranded Ghost Gunner  a desktop machine the state outlawed in 2022 for its ability to turn simple slabs of metal into homemade components for untraceable ghost guns, including AR-15s, AK-47s and semiautomatic pistols.

"The idea that you could take the same exact product that is designed to kill people, put a different packaging on it, and suddenly it's not lethal and not illegal? That is just offensive," Lawson-Remer said.

On Thursday, San Diego County sued the manufacturer of both devices, Texas-based Defense Distributed, asking a state court to declare the Coast Runner illegal under California law and to order the company to stop selling and marketing it in the state.

"The 'Coast Runner' is in fact the Ghost Gunner with a new coat of paint," the lawsuit argues. "It has the same internal designs, the same features, and is being marketed for the same purpose: the illegal production of untraceable ghost guns."

Defense Distributed  which was co-founded by the controversial and outspoken gun rights activist Cody Wilson, an early player in the world of 3-D-printed firearms  dismissed the lawsuit as unfounded in a statement to The Times.

"Defense Distributed observes California law to the very letter," the company said. "Even when its obviously illegal and doomed to fail Constitutional review."

The county's lawsuit, which it filed with the support of the gun control advocacy organization Giffords Law Center, is the latest salvo in a pitched battle between California authorities, who have identified ghost guns as a major threat to public safety, and Defense Distributed, which has said its milling technology is "as easy as 3-D printing" and brings "milling to the masses."

Defense Distributed previously argued in its own lawsuit that California's law blocking gun-making milling machines is unconstitutional, but a judge rejected that argument and the company withdrew its claim.

Computer numerical control, or CNC, milling machines  which usually cost a few thousand dollars  are devices that guide drills to produce intricate and precise mechanical parts from slabs of metal. Such machines have turned otherwise complex manufacturing into a household hobby. While the tools can be used to make parts for cars or bicycles and a range of other items, they have also made it easier to create high-quality frames and receivers for ghost guns. Such firearms lack serial numbers, which are attached to commercially produced weapons and can help authorities investigate crimes.

It is unclear how many homemade or ghost guns exist in the state, or the country, but experts believe the number is huge. A 2023 report by the state's Office of Gun Violence Prevention found the number of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement in connection to a crime in California jumped from 26 in 2015 to more than 12,000 in 2022.

State legislatures and courts across the country have been wrestling with how and whether such firearms can be regulated. A Biden administration rule changing the federal definition of a firearm to include unfinished parts such as frames and receivers  like those made by milling machines  is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2022, Defense Distributed sued California over a law that made it illegal for anyone without a federal license to manufacture guns to "sell, offer to sell, or transfer a CNC milling machine that has the sole or primary function of manufacturing firearms" to anyone in the state. The law also requires people in California to have a federal license to purchase or possess such a machine or to use one to make gun parts.

The company acknowledged in previous court filings that its Ghost Gunner machine was used to produce unserialized parts for ghost guns. But it argued it also was the "modern-day manifestation" of age-old firearm milling techniques that had "never before been regulated in American history," and that enforcement of California's law should be blocked as unconstitutional under the "history and tradition" test that the Supreme Court set for assessing modern gun laws in a landmark 2022 decision.

Near the end of 2022, after a federal judge broadly rejected that argument on the grounds that the 2nd Amendment did not extend to the manufacturing of firearms without a license, the company agreed to drop its lawsuit.

San Diego County argues in its claim that the company set about building the Coast Runner as an end run around the same state law it failed to overturn in court  ostensibly on the grounds that the machine is not primarily for the production of guns.

Online advertising for the Ghost Gunner is heavily focused on firearms  on the machine's ability to make them cheaply, quickly and at home with parts that have no identifiable markings. In one video, men make guns as women dance to electronic dance music.

Ads for the Coast Runner are far more circumspect. A video talks about its design features and its ability to make "perfect metal parts," but largely avoids specifics.

The county argues the Coast Runner is still primarily geared toward the production of firearm parts, and that Defense Distributed has been on "an aggressive marketing campaign for the device"  including with its own booth at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas, an industry event where the Coast Runner was flagged as one of the "hottest new products" on the gun market.

The county accuses Defense Distributed of bad-faith business practices aimed at obscuring the fact that the Ghost Gunner and the Coast Runner are nearly identical, which it said the company has acknowledged elsewhere. It pointed to language originally on the official Ghost Gunner website and later on multiple other sales websites  including one operated by Defense Distributed  informing people purchasing the Ghost Gunner in California that they would be receiving the Coast Runner instead.

Billy Clark, a senior litigation attorney with Giffords, called Defense Distributed "major bad actors in the gun industry," and said the company's products are arming "people who would otherwise be prohibited from having guns."

He said the company "has adopted a too-cute-by-half marketing and sales approach that invokes a retro 'cool' vibe, when what they are doing is selling a product that is specifically designed to make guns in the home."

Lawson-Remer, the county supervisor, said "companies that profit off of death and destruction are going to continue making money unless we stand up and fight back."

That's what the lawsuit is about, she said.

"These kinds of tactics, these aggressive marketing tactics around ghost gun manufacturing, [are] what we are seeing more and more of  and what we really need to be on guard against," she said.

Times criminal justice editor Keegan Hamilton contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
GOAA leadership speaks at UCF commencement ceremony

College of Business graduates received high-flying words of wisdom at Fridays commencement ceremony at the University of Central Florida.

Kevin Thibault, the chief executive officer of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, spoke to graduates about being open to opportunities in their future careers.

The ceremony, which took place at the Addition Financial Arena, was one of six that will be held this week.

Thibault said the things learned at UCF will spark a moment of gratitude at one time in the students lives.

Read: Space U: NASAs Bill Nelson will speak at UCF graduation ceremony

Of course, its a cliche but true, the world is changing and evolving rapidly, he said. The more you know, even arcane facts that lead you to think more deeply about topics youd never seriously considered, the better equipped you will be to adjust.

Thibault manages the operations at Orlando International Airport and Orlando Executive Airport as the head of GOAA.

UCF awarded about 9,800 degrees in the spring semester, including nearly 3,000 in STEM fields.

Read: 2024 NFL Draft: See the UCF Knights who are charging on

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution to declare 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer. #XinhuaNews
SULPHUR, Okla. (KFOR)  The Sulphur Public School district is eyeing a return to classes next week following Saturdays EF3 tornado.

Superintendent Matt Holder toured News 4 employees around the districts damaged bus barn and fleet of buses Thursday.

Our fleet is pretty much gone, said Holder We experienced a lot of severe damage to it.

Sulphur school damage {KFOR}.

Sulphur school damage {KFOR}.

Sulphur school damage {KFOR}.

Sulphur school damage {KFOR}.

Holder said he believes some of the vehicles will be salvageable, but that help from the Oklahoma City metro has been a big help for the districts immediate transportation needs.

I would like to say a special thank you to Oklahoma City Public Schools, said Holder. They brought down buses today for us.

Holder said OKCPS provided six buses, a special needs bus and a mini-bus.

It means a lot, said Holder. Were all Oklahomans and we all care about each other.

OKCPS bus in Sulphur {KFOR}.

In addition to transportation, Holder said the district is working through additional challenges like water damage to the high school and other district buildings.

It seems like every day theres a new curveball that gets thrown at us, said Holder.

Holder said while the challenges have been stressful the district has also tried to do its best when it comes to making sure students and staff impacted by the Sulphur tornado are supported.

[We] touch base with them and see what they really need, said Holder. Not just send them to move to somewhere and not know really what is needed and what we can do for them as a school district.

Holder said a tentative plan is in place to return to school early next week, but its too soon to say for sure what day that will be. He said staff will be out testing bus routes Friday and that an update should be coming to the district over the weekend in terms of the next steps.

Sulphur public schools sign {KFOR}.

News 4 said the State of Oklahoma has also been generous in asking what resources it can offer to alleviate any potential challenges.

Our fifth through eighth grade still have state testing going on and so theyre working with us on what that might look like as well, said Holder.

Holder said whats kept him and staff strong throughout the last several stressful days is thinking about how resilient this has made the district and community.

I truly believe were going to be stronger over this, said Holder. Sometimes hard things make you better.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Youre gonna die tonight! Ga. business owner to serve 5 years in prison for role in Jan. 6

A Georgia business owner who bragged that he fed a police officer to a mob of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.

Jack Wade Whitton, 34, of Locust Grove, struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him  head first and face down  into the crowd on the Capitols Lower West Terrace.

Whitton later boasted in a text message that he fed him to the people.

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Whitton was arrested just a few months after the riot in April 2021 and charged with civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and acts of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.

He also walked up to a line of officers and kicked them and hit a riot shield. He returned to them a few moments later and shouted, Youre gonna die tonight.

Whitton, who pleaded guilty to an assault charge last year, told the judge that he has never been a political person.

Ive never been a troublemaker. Ive always been a hard worker and a law-abiding citizen, he said.

The judge in the case, however, disagreed, describing the videos of Whitton attacking police as gruesome.

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You really were out of control, the judge told him.

Videos show that contemporaneous attacks on police by Whitton and a co-defendant, Justin Jersey, ignited the rageful onslaught of violence that followed on the Lower West Terrace, prosecutors said.

The claims made by Whitton, however, did not go over well with the judge as evidence of his actions showed otherwise.

The evening after the Jan. 6 attack, Whitton texted somebody images of his bloodied hands.

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This is from a bad cop, Whitton wrote. Yea I fed him to the people. (I dont know) his status. And dont care (to be honest).

More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 850 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

IN OTHER NEWS:
'They Are Good Boys': Inside the Shocking Case of an Iowa Dad Allegedly Killed by His 2 Sons

Dennis Jones, 55, was found dead in a rural Iowa ditch after being fatally shot in another area, say authorities

Iowa Department of Public Safety Alec Jones and Nathan Jones

Two Iowa men are accused of fatally shooting their father and leaving his body in a ditch, say authorities.

Alec Jones, 26, and Nathan Jones, 21, both of Fort Dodge, are charged with killing their father, Dennis Jones, 55, the Fort Dodge Police Department said in a release.

On April 26 at about 12:18 p.m., a mail carrier in Webster County called 911 to report that he had located a body in a ditch in a rural area, the Fort Dodge Police Department said in a release. The man appeared to be dead of a gunshot wound, police said.

As the investigation unfolded, it was determined that Mr. Jones had not been shot where he was located, police said in the release.

As a part of the investigation, a search warrant was obtained and executed at 1440 2nd Ave S., in Fort Dodge.

As a result of the investigation, police arrested Dennis Jones sons, Alec Jones and Nathan Jones.

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.

Alec Jones is charged with first-degree murder. Nathan Jones is charged with aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

It is unclear whether they have entered pleas or have retained an attorney who can speak on their behalf.

Dennis Jones wife, Shannon Jones, who is the mother of the two suspects, said she was home on the night of Thursday, April 25 with her husband and her sons.

She told KCCI, I cant tell you anything. I don't know nothing about, I don't know.

However, she did tell the outlet, "They are good boys. This wasn't premeditated. Denny and I had an altercation earlier Thursday evening, and I went to bed."

The investigation is ongoing.

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Read the original article on People.
After pro-Palestinian demonstrators were met with racist jeers from counter-protestors at University of Mississippi on Thursday, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) reposted a video of a student making monkey noises towards a Black woman, captioning it Ole Miss taking care of business.

Roughly 25 student demonstrators took to the campus quad this week to protest the ongoing killings in Gaza, carrying Palestinian flags and signs reading "Stop the Genocide." Amid free Palestine calls, hundreds of counter protestors showed up, throwing food and bottles and flipping off the pro-Palestinian gathering, with some reportedly waving Trump flags. Counter-demonstrators recited the national anthem and chanted lock her up, hit the showers, and a variety of racist remarks.

In the video reposted by the Georgia representative on X, formerly Twitter, a group of students in American flag apparel viciously boo and jeer at a Black demonstrator, including the student making monkey noises. As police attempted to keep the two groups separated, counter-protestors appeared to push further towards the pro-Palestinian group. Eventually, according to local news station WTVA, the pro-Palestinian protestors had to be escorted off campus by law enforcement.

Amongst others, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves showed support for the counter-protestors, posting on X that the counter-protests warms [his] heart.

Collins, who voted no on the House bill to expand the definition of antisemitism, has previously amplified posts by avowed neo-Nazis, including one in March of this year which targeted a Jewish reporter.
North Carolina lawmakers could require public schools to post lesson plans online, along with the name of the teacher who used the material in class.

The Academic Transparency Bill filed on Thursday in the state House would require public schools to post all lesson plans online no later than 10 days after the lesson was given. The legislation also would require schools to post information on materials they use to train teachers and information on outside speakers who talk to students.

House Bill 1032 comes amid a hyper-charged environment where conservatives have accused some teachers of trying to indoctrinate students with their political beliefs.

A trusting partnership between parents, caregivers, and teachers is vital to student success, Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said in a statement Friday. Educators welcome genuine efforts to foster more collaboration, but student curriculum is already public.

While teachers are already stretched thin, this bill will take precious time away from student instruction.

Telephone calls and email messages from The News & Observer were not immediately returned Friday by the bills four Republican primary sponsors: Reps. Jake Johnson of Polk County, David Willis of Union County, Hugh Blackwell of Burke County and Allen Chesser of Nash County.

Charges of public school indoctrination

In 2021, the state House Republicans passed an earlier version of the bill that would have required public schools to post all lesson plans used within the past year. The bill died after the House didnt support changes that were made by the Senate.

Allegations about teacher indoctrination have increased since then.

In 2021, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson released the Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education Report, the N&O previously reported. Robinson has reiterated his allegations about teacher indoctrination in his campaign this year to become governor.

Michele Morrow, the Republican candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, has also accused public schools of indoctrinating students, the N&O previously reported.

Schools would post teacher names with lessons

The bill has several changes from the 2021 version, such as now requiring lesson plans to be posted within 10 days of their use as opposed to only posting the lessons used in the past year.

Another change would now require the names of teachers to be posted along with their lesson plans. But the bill says teachers can request to have their personal title and last initial listed instead of their full name..

The posted lesson plans would include:

 The names of all instructional and supplemental materials, used with an electronic link to the instructional materials website..

 Any other materials used in a course, organized by title, and the author, organization or website associated with each material and activity. This would include materials created by the teacher.

 A brief descriptor of the course materials and a link to the materials, if publicly available on the internet, or information on how to request or a copy of the materials.

The legislation says its not requiring digital reproduction or posting of copies of the course materials themselves.

The bill would require the state Department of Public Instruction to set up templates for how the lesson plans could be posted. DPI would get $10,000 to enforce and oversee the law.

Whos talking to students?

The bill goes beyond what teachers are saying in their classes.

It would require schools to post online information on each grade- or school-wide presentation, assembly, lecture or other activity or event that happens during school hours outside of a teachers classroom. This information would include a list of each presenter by name and organization and any course material used or presented.

Lawmakers also want the public to know how teachers are trained. The bill would require schools to post online a list of teacher and staff training materials used at each school during the current school year.

Teachers say it will create extra work

The legislation is already drawing a backlash from teachers who complain it will add more burdens onto an already difficult job.

If they want teachers to do this extra work, they can pay the teachers for the extra time, Janine Kube, a Randolph County high school science teacher, posted Thursday on X, formerly called Twitter.

Justin Parmenter, a Charlotte-Meckenburg language arts teacher, pointed to a recent state report showing how 1 in 9 teachers left the profession.

Say fellas, you know how we only got 10,000 NC public school teachers to quit last year? Ya think if we pretend theyre all socialist indoctrinators and give them a bunch of extra busy work they dont have time for we can get the rest to quit? Parmenter posted Friday on X.

Some teachers complained how the law doesnt apply to private schools at a time when GOP state lawmakers are sharply increasing funding for private school vouchers.

The Republican representatives want public school teachers to post lessons online so that all of the unqualified unlicensed private school teachers can steal our lessons, Kevin Coulter, a Wake County high school career and technical education teacher, posted Thursday on X. Why arent state funded private school teachers required to post lessons online?
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Friday slammed the United Auto Workers (UAW) unions call for the release of students and university employees arrested as part of pro-Palestine protests at campuses across the country.

Theyre demanding the release of their criminal members who broke the law & threatened the safety of students, Cassidy said in a post on the social platform X. This is promoting an extremist rot that is taking over our colleges.

UAW President Shawn Fain criticized the mass arrest of college protesters earlier this week, emphasizing the unions support for a long-term cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The UAW will never support the mass arrest or intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice, Fain said Wednesday. Our union has been calling for a ceasefire for six months.

This war is wrong, and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong, he continued. We call on the powers that be to release the students and employees who have been arrested, and if you cant take the outcry, stop supporting this war.

Following the lead of Columbia University, demonstrators at other campuses have formed encampments in recent weeks to protest Israels war campaign in Gaza and urge their universities to divest from Israeli companies or defense companies supplying weapons to Israel.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at campus protests across the country since April 18, according to The Associated Press.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  All social media companies operating in Tennessee will soon be required to get parental permission for those under 18 years old to use their platforms.

Friday afternoon, Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill, passed by the Tennessee General Assembly this term. The bill requires social media companies like Meta, X, Snapchat and more to verify the age of an individual who attempts to become an account holder, at the time the individual attempts to become an account holder and prohibit minors from signing up for the social media account unless they have the express written permission of the minors parent.

The governor posted to his X account (formerly Twitter) that he was, Proud to sign the Protecting Children from Social Media Act into law.

Read the latest from the TN State Capitol Newsroom

Parents know best & we must empower them with tools to protect their kids online, he added.

The evidence is clear: social media has harmful effects on children, teens and young adults, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said in an April 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.

The measure passed both chambers of the general assembly with bipartisan support.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

The bill does not specify how social media companies are to verify the ages of their users; only that they do.

With Lees signature, the bill will take effect in January, giving social media companies seven months to figure out how to comply with the law.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
The first night in my own apartment after years of living in foster care, I finally felt like I could breathe. It wasnt anything fancy, but I had my own room and my own things. For a lot of people, this wouldnt be a big deal  just the normal evolution of life. But I grew up around gangs and dealt with personal and familial addiction issues. I wasnt sure I was going to make it this far, much less be on the promising path Im on, now working and going to school.

I have Rancho San Antonio to thank for helping me get to where I am today. Rancho is a non-profit organization that provides services to foster youth in the Los Angeles area. It was pure luck that brought me there.

I grew up in poverty in East Los Angeles. My mother struggled with addiction. And, as a teen, I also got involved in drugs and gangs. In high school, I ended up on probation. While I desperately wanted to get better, it was incredibly hard when I kept returning to the same environment and facing the same circumstances.

Opinion

Several stints in juvenile detention and rehab programs failed to help me. It became clear that I needed a different kind of support. Social workers began trying to get me a spot in a facility that treats higher-needs youth, but those spaces were hard to come by.

I ended up in San Jose for a while, at a short-term residential therapeutic program. But the placement wasnt a good fit for me. Fortunately, I was able to get a spot at Rancho, located in Chatsworth, down in Southern California.

Finally, I found a place where I was able to start dealing with the trauma I experienced while growing up. I had access to the resources and the correct mindset I needed to change my life. And the support didnt end when I turned 18: Im currently living in an apartment I got through their transitional-aged youth program.

Now, I see it as my responsibility to help those coming after me.

The system is already stretched so thin, which is why its incredibly upsetting to see several programs for foster youth targeted for elimination in Gov. Gavin Newsoms budget proposal.

These programs cost very little compared to the benefits they deliver to youth who are at extreme risk of falling through the cracks. The Family Urgent Response System is a hotline for youth and foster families to call for support to help keep things together when tensions are high  which is common among people who are dealing with trauma.

Supervised Independent Living Placements work to provide stability to foster youth by helping ensure they have a safe place to live. We know that foster youth are disproportionately more likely to end up homeless compared to the general population. With California trying to reduce homelessness, it doesnt make sense to cut programs working to prevent youth from falling into it.

Beyond just protecting these programs, California needs to invest in every young person who needs the support of a resource family or organization that provides a higher level of care. As the state considers overhauling how it funds foster care, we have an opportunity to make sure we get it right. That means making sure youth have stable placements, quality programs that help them deal with trauma and a good transition into adulthood. In other words, the kind of support I had.

Our foster care system is supposed to serve as a safety net for kids. I couldnt remain in my own home because thats where my problems were stemming from. I needed more stability, structure and support. I was lucky enough to end up at a place where they work to raise additional funding to cover the difference between what it costs to provide good, solid programming for youth and what the foster care system covers.

But my fate shouldnt have been left up to luck, and neither should the fate of anyone else. Fully-funded and resourced foster care providers should be the norm, not the exception. Non-profit agencies should be able to focus on supporting youth 100% rather than struggling to keep their doors open because of the costs of paying staff, maintaining facilities and providing resources. Resource families should have all the support they need to care for youth who have likely experienced significant trauma.

I dont know what would have happened to me if I hadnt found Rancho San Antonio. Even now, my family still lives in the same neighborhood and must deal with the negative influences and lifestyle that comes with it. But Im on my way to a great life because of the help I received.

Twenty-year-old Manny Perez currently attends Pierce College and works as a chef in an Italian restaurant.
Gov. Spencer Cox speaks to commemorate Utah Flag Day and to celebrate Utah's new state flag, the beehive flag, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 9, 2024. | Marielle Scott, Deseret News

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox fired off a quick commentary on the chaotic scene playing out across American college campuses on Thursday.

Grabbing a snapshot from Francis Fukuyamas landmark work of post-Cold War political philosophy  The End of History and the Last Man  Cox implied it was boredom, not oppression, that caused young people to fight against the institutions of liberal democracy.

For over two weeks, student protests calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas have rocked college campuses and dominated headlines. Entire buildings have been occupied, dozens of fights have broken out and thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been arrested.

The observation from Cox, a prolific social media poster, quickly resonated with thousands, including activist investor Bill Ackman, family policy scholar Timothy Carney and Atlantic writer Derek Thompson. The post was viewed 1.5 million times by Friday morning.

Cant stop thinking about this Francis Fukuyama paragraph from The End of History. pic.twitter.com/wmvVKS10lg  Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) May 2, 2024

Cant stop thinking about this Francis Fukuyama paragraph from The End of History, was all Cox wrote to caption a paragraph from the books final chapter.

Coxs highlighted passage predicted that even once the world had filled up with democratic countries that respected civil liberties, people living in peaceful and prosperous places would invent tyrannical forces to oppose, including struggling against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy.

Experience suggests that if men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause, the quote reads. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle.

Ackman, a Harvard graduate and successful hedge fund manager, has placed the blame for antisemitism and violence on college campuses at the feet of progressive ideologies, including diversity, equity and inclusion programs, that teach a worldview that divides Americans into groups of oppressors and the oppressed.

He shared Coxs post on Thursday, saying, This is brilliant.

Carney, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a Deseret News contributor, said one way to engage oneself in a just cause, even if you live in a country as peaceful and prosperous as the United States, is to invest in your family and neighborhood.

You know what gives you struggle daily without having to look for it? he asked. Raising young kids. Or volunteering in your community.

Thompson, who has written about the need for an abundance agenda and the importance of church attendance, got even more philosophical than Cox, quoting the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. In his Notes from Underground, the 19th-century author writes that humans need obstacles to overcome or else they will feel powerless.

Former Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent also commented in response to Coxs post, pointing to a conversation he had with Fukuyama in 2022. In the interview, the political scientist agreed that a sense of boredom with their own success, and a lot of pent-up idealism, were at least partially responsible for the huge outpouring of support for Ukraine across Western democracies. That same combination of comfort and a desire for idealistic struggle was also behind the resurgence of right-wing populism, Fukuyama said.

I do think people like the idea of struggling for a just cause, he said at the time, and they really havent had anything other than consumerism and mindless middle-class pursuits in the last 30 years.

Utah attorney James Bramble pushed back on the consensus from Cox, Ackman and others.

Definitely interesting, he commented. But in reality there is oppression, poverty, civilizations being decimated. Plenty of real issues. Its easy in our comfortable suburbs with 2 cars and food to choose from in the fridge to forget that most people in the world do not have it so easy.
A woman protests in front of the convention center of Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, March 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

Right-wing politicians, from Abe to Kishida, have sought to transform Japan into a "normal country" capable of possessing military power. However, due to the challenges involved in completely revising the constitution, they have adopted a gradual approach by bypassing the parliament and transferring the responsibility of revising or formulating security-related laws and regulations to the government.

TOKYO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Friday commemorates Constitution Memorial Day in Japan, a day dedicated to honoring the pacifist constitution enacted in 1947, symbolizing Japan's commitment to a post-war era of peace. The country, however, now finds itself increasingly at odds with the principles of its war-renouncing constitution.

Japan is now actively seeking to circumvent its constitutional restraints, steadily bolstering its defense budget and expanding its offensive military capabilities, thus veering further away from its once cherished commitment to peace.





"DEMISE OF ARTICLE 9"

The cornerstone of Japan's pacifist constitution is Article 9, which renounces the nation's right to engage in war or to resort to military force to resolve international conflicts. For decades, this article has been a fundamental constraint on Japan's military endeavors.

Masahiro Sakata, former director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau and a staunch advocate for the preservation of the pacifist constitution, noted that Japan's military is essentially structured as a self-defense force and not offensive in nature, citing Article 9, which stipulates that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."

According to Sakata, the principle of "self-defense" rests upon two pillars. The notion of "self" restricts Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to domestic operations and prohibits overseas military ventures, while the concept of "defense" mandates the force's exclusive focus on defensive capabilities, devoid of offensive weaponry or aggressive intentions.

A man protests in front of the convention center of Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, March 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

After World War II, however, Japan's right-wing forces harbored aspirations of reclaiming the nation's status as a formidable political and military power. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has persistently endeavored to circumvent the limitations imposed by Article 9, incrementally eroding its constraints.

Sakata highlighted the Shinzo Abe government's 2015 decision to lift the ban on exercising collective self-defense as a pivotal moment. This decision effectively nullified the constitutional restrictions on the SDF and permitted engagements beyond Japan's borders, thereby undermining the essence of Article 9.

At the end of 2022, the Fumio Kishida government, despite widespread opposition, forcefully updated three security and defense-related documents, including the National Security Strategy.

These initiatives aim to acquire "enemy base strike capabilities," dismantle the shackles of the peace constitution, and challenge the nation's "exclusively defense-oriented" principles, heralding a profound transformation in Japan's post-war security stance.

Sakata grimly acknowledged that the pursuit of "enemy base strike capabilities" blatantly contradicts the constitutional mandate restricting the possession of offensive weaponry by the SDF, which means the demise of the second pillar supporting Article 9. "The Article 9 is dead," he said.





LIFTING ARMS EXPORT BAN

In a significant policy shift for pacifist Japan, in December last year and March this year, the Kishida government twice revised the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology and their implementation guidelines, allowing for the export of finished weapons such as fighter jets. The revisions threw open the door for direct exports of lethal weapons from Japan to other countries.

"This is a blatant violation of the pacifist constitution and will only automatically draw Japan into war and conflict," said Atsushi Koketsu, emeritus professor at Yamaguchi University of Japan.

People protest in front of the convention center of Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, March 15, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

Sayo Saruta, director of the Japanese think tank New Diplomacy Initiative, said lifting the ban on lethal weapon exports will significantly boost Japan's defense industry. Japan, engaged in an arms race, would be unable to stop its international arms sales.

Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reporter Atsushi Kawada said that in the two and a half years since he began covering the Japanese Ministry of Defense news, he has lost count of how many times he has written about "major shifts" in Japan's security policy.

Japan, once rooted in "pacifism" and an "exclusively defense-oriented policy," has completely transformed itself into a "war-capable country" after many "major shifts," Kawada said. Lifting the export ban on fighter jets runs counter to "pacifism" and will indeed "sow the seeds of calamity" for the country's future, he said.





DANGEROUS SLIPPERY SLOPE

Right-wing politicians, from Abe to Kishida, have sought to transform Japan into a "normal country" capable of possessing military power. However, due to the challenges involved in completely revising the constitution, they have adopted a gradual approach by bypassing the parliament and transferring the responsibility of revising or formulating security-related laws and regulations to the government.

The constitution is the benchmark that should be referred to when formulating other laws, and security-related laws enacted in the absence of the constitution lack legitimacy, Miho Aoi, professor of law at Gakushuin University in Japan, said in a recent interview with Japanese media.

In 2013, the Abe administration established the National Security Council and began letting the government take the lead in formulating security policies. Now, it is increasingly worrying that the government is imposing its own decisions on national security policy without involving the parliament in discussion, Aoi said.

People participate in a gathering in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 19, 2018, to protest against the controversial security laws that were enacted by the parliament three years ago. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)

To expand its military power, the Kishida government has sought military alliances and strengthened cooperation with the United States, the Philippines, NATO and others, leading to camp confrontation.

Analysts said this "new militarism" in Japan makes the Japanese people uneasy and threatens regional peace. Koketsu noted that the series of moves suggests Japan is on a dangerous path.

The security-related laws betray Article 9 of the constitution and are once again pushing Japan down the slippery slope of becoming a "military power" and a "war state," Tokyo Shimbun reported.
Jordan Vocational High School hosted Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday as he was in Columbus signing a series of bills promoting workforce development and economic opportunity.

Kemp was joined by First Lady Marty Kemp, members of the General Assembly and local leaders in the schools mechatronics lab.

Using the public school as a backdrop to sign legislation prioritizing workforce development, scholarships and economic opportunity was a callback to earlier in the Republican governors administration.

It is an honor to do some bill signing at the first College and Career Academy grant recipient of my administration, Kemp said. Were also proud to be still investing in this program.

Jordan Vocational High School students greet Georgia Governor Brian Kemp Thursday afternoon. Kemp signed a series of bills promoting workforce development and economic opportunity while at the school. Kemp was joined by First Lady Marty Kemp, members of the General Assembly and local leaders in the schools mechatronics lab. 05/02/2024

Jordan was founded in 1906 as an experiment becoming the first school in the nation to combine vocational and academic courses in a public school system, according to the schools website.

I think when you look at the history of Jordan, its roots, how important that is in terms of career in technical education and how its evolved over time  it only makes sense that he would want to come to Jordan to sign workforce legislation here in person, said David Lewis, Muscogee County School District superintendent.

Legislation promoting Georgias workforce

Kemp signed eight bills while he was in Columbus.

HB 982 directs the State Workforce Development Board to create a designated states high demand career list to eliminate confusion among stakeholders, educators and agencies.

HB 970 changes the funding structure for the REACH scholarship so for every $10k scholarship, $9k will come from the state and $1k from the school. The bill also adds victims of human trafficking as a qualified group for the scholarship.

SB 440 simplifies the accelerated career pathway and allows participating students to receive dual enrollment funding for more than 30 credit hours.

SB 497 increases the number of allowed apprenticeships under the High Demand Apprenticeship Program and directs the Technical College System of Georgia to create a pilot Public Service Apprenticeship Program.

SB 384 creates the State of Georgia as a Model Employer Programs to assist state agencies with recruitment, hiring and retention of qualified individuals with disabilities.

SB 354 removes the licensure requirement to provide the services of blow-dry styling, washing hair or applying makeup.

SB 373 requires the Board of Marriage and Family Therapists to issue an expedited license by endorsement to any individual moving from another state that has a current valid license to practice in that state and is in good standing.

SB 195 makes Georgia the third state to join the Social Work Licensing Compact. This will facilitate interstate practice of social work services once seven states have joined.

Although the bills Kemp signed did not make major changes to legislation, they are still important to Georgia residents, state Rep. Debbie Buckner (D-District 137) told the Ledger-Enquirer.

These are what I call infrastructure bills, Buckner said. Many times we will pass a big, comprehensive major change to a whole program, then we find out there needs to be some changes to make it run more smoothly.

Jordan Vocational High School hosted Governor Brian Kemp on Thursday as he was in Columbus signing a series of bills promoting workforce development and economic opportunity. These ceremonial pens were given to those participating in the ceremony. 05/02/2024

The best example of this is HB 970, she said, which helps victims of human trafficking qualify for the REACH scholarship.

These individuals may have been forced to commit crimes in the past, she said. So, not only do victims have to recover physically and emotionally, but they may also have to contend with a criminal record or under-education.

I think this REACH gives them an opportunity to build momentum to say Ive got an opportunity. If I can just stick with this, Buckner said. (Theyd) have something past high school to really build a future.

Nine different pieces of legislation have now been passed raising awareness on human trafficking, Kemp said, and stiffening penalties on the perpetrators. No one fights harder for these victims than the First Lady Marty Kemp, the GRACE Commission and members of the General Assembly, he said.

(I would) just let them know were fighting for them, Kemp said.

Jordan Vocational High School hosted Governor Brian Kemp on Thursday as he was in Columbus signing a series of bills promoting workforce development and economic opportunity. Kemp was joined by First Lady Marty Kemp, members of the General Assembly and local leaders in the schools mechatronics lab.
Russian troops attacked Kropyvnytskyi district in Kirovohrad Oblast on May 3, injuring a man, Governor Andrii Raikovych said.

Infrastructure facilities and houses reportedly came under Russian missile strike. A man born in 1952 was hospitalized with severe injury, Raikovych said.

Emergency services are working at the attack sites. No further details were disclosed.

Kropyvnytskyi, with a population of around 220,000, is the administrative center of Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine.

Read also: Updated: Russian attack on Kharkiv kills woman, injures man

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
This week Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ignored Donald Trumps endorsement of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as House speaker and announced plans to try to force him out. One can only assume she is making that attempt for attention, because it seems doomed to fail on the House floor. Democrats have already pledged to support Johnson, and he has backing from much of the Republican caucus.

You may recall, Greene and the rest of the Freedom Caucus were the reason it took 15 rounds for former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) to get enough votes to win the speakership. The caucus is also why he got fired last October , after less than a year. He resigned from the House at the end of last year.

And now Greene  who infamously blamed secret Jewish space lasers for wildfires and compared mask mandates to the Holocaust  is making another play for the spotlight. This time it happened to be the same week that the House passed its Antisemitism Awareness Act , an unnecessary bill that at best appears to be doing something. At a moment when pro-Palestinian and humanitarian aid demonstrations are spreading across college campuses, the law would target dangerous speech against Jews  but the nation already has relevant laws against hate crimes and certain types of speech.

Read more: Granderson: Here's one way to bring college costs back in line with reality

The juxtaposition of Greenes stunt seems rich, doesnt it? Does the ruling party in the House condemn anti-Jewish hate speech or amplify it? Do Republicans stand for order or chaos?

The legislation passed 320-91. There were 70 Democrats who voted against it. Greene was among the 21 Republicans who opposed it. Much of the concern from the nays was on defining antisemitism. Some critics feared the measure would infringe on freedom of speech.

Read more: Granderson: Republicans aren't protecting elections. They don't want democracy

What does Greene hope to achieve with her nay vote? Or with her campaign to oust Johnson? Its anyones guess. Two years ago, she spoke at a white nationalist conference , and still she was reelected. Maybe she is exactly what her constituents want. She is very much not what Republican leaders in the House want right now.

For those House Republicans who dont hang out with white nationalists or say antisemitic things, but who have coddled Greene and the Freedom Caucus, the brewing storm looks a lot like karma. You cant embrace a platform based on anti-intellectualism and half-truths and then get mad when someone does something stupid.

Trumpeting her intention to force Johnson out of the speakership because he worked with Democrats to pass Ukraine aid, Greene said she cant wait to see my Republican conference show their cards and show who we are. Giving us her best Joan of Arc, she added: Are they willing to actually fight? Or are they going to just keep going along to get along?

The challenge Greene represents is not about differences in policy. This is about whats required in a democracy. We are a flawed nation working toward a more perfect union. But we are never going to get there by continuing to allow the most immature among us to get their way. And forcing the House to look for a third House speaker in one term would be incredibly immature.

And heres the thing: The rot within the Republican Party does damage far beyond Congress. Members of the Freedom Caucus have behaved like spiteful toddlers since 2015 by obstructing government and as a result have normalized tantrums. Now, as the nation is debating what to do about humanitarian aid in Gaza and the protests on our college campuses, the serious conversations that we need to have are constantly being hijacked by political theater  including the Houses antisemitism bill and the recent parade of hearings to grill college officials.

Domestic politics should not distract us from why so many are protesting. Last month the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution asking for Israel to be investigated and held accountable for possible war crimes. Many of the weapons being used in its war against Hamas are American. Everyone in the U.S. should be concerned about Israels war and the safety of people in both Gaza and Israel.

Many students Ive spoken with are focused on the hostages and civilian casualties. Meanwhile some leaders in Washington are fixated on political theater or trying to micromanage campuses or on toppling the latest speaker of the House. There is chaos on both fronts and regrettably immaturity as well.

@LZGranderson

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Rand Wilson, a Boston-based representative of CHIPS Communities United, talks Monday about what Licking County residents can learn from other communities where computer-chip manufacturers are operating or building factories.

They came together with shared concerns for the environment, the health and safety of residents and for transparency in the business practices of Intel and its suppliers in western Licking County.

More than 50 people attended a meeting Monday near Alexandria to hear about a coalition called CHIPS Communities United and learn how people living near existing and planned computer-chip factories subsidized with federal and state funds are dealing with the manufacturers and concerns about how they operate.

"The track record of the industry isnt great," said Rand Wilson, a Boston-based representative of the coalition, in discussing violations of environmental regulations and the challenges communities have faced in obtaining details from chip manufacturers about the chemicals they use to make chips.

"Intels line is, 'Dont worry; be happy,'" Wilson said. "It behooves you to trust but also verify.  A principal concern is what gets released into the air and released into the water and the concern about using so many billions of gallons of water."

The meeting at the Church of Christ at Alexandria was organized by the grassroots group Clean Air and Water for Alexandria, St. Albans Township and Granville.

Intel is building a $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing facility on 1,000 acres of former farmland just south of Johnstown in the New Albany International Business Park. The company, based in Santa Clara, California, initially said it would begin production in Ohio in 2025 but now estimates it will begin in 2027.

CHIPS Communities United is a coalition of unions and environmental groups that Wilson said focus on protecting workers rights to join unions, if they choose to do so, and the health and safety of those workers and local residents from toxic chemicals. Many of these chemicals are not disclosed by chip manufacturers because Intel deems them confidential and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency allows Intel to shield those details as "trade secrets."

Carol and Ken Apacki, of Granville, who helped organize the meeting, said their research shows that air emissions from computer-chip factories elsewhere in the U.S. have made some nearby residents ill. And Carol Apacki said that when Intel would not say what was in the emissions, residents near a factory in New Mexico "passed the hat" to collect donations to buy monitoring equipment to learn for themselves what was in the emissions.

About 50 people attend a Monday meeting organized by the grassroots Clean Air and Water for Alexandria, St. Albans Township and Granville organization.

Hours before the community meeting, Emily Smith, Ohio Community Relations Director for Intel, sent out the latest in a series of email newsletters describing some of Intels environmental initiatives.

"We know transparency is important, and throughout Earth month, weve issued multiple newsletters with details about Intels environmental stewardship programs and sustainability efforts," she wrote.

"In the first issue of our Earth Month newsletter series, we cover how we are protecting air quality and reducing our air and greenhouse gas emissions," Smith wrote. "In our second issue, we shared Intels global water strategy to reduce, reuse and restore water, and photos of the super load and the route from Adams to Licking County. In the third issue, we shared Intels approach to energy conservation and renewable electricity. We also revealed the name of the first Buckeye tree planted on the Intel Ohio One Campus!"

When discussing priorities for community action going forward, Wilson and several in the audience suggested pressing county, state and federal elected officials  especially about 20 members of Congress who represent communities where computer-chip factories are receiving federal CHIPS and Science Act funds  to require manufacturers to meet with and work with local residents about their concerns.

He said the members of Congress should push Intel to develop a "community benefits agreement" that would hold Intel accountable to the community. Several people at the meeting also suggested that elected officials should require some CHIPS Act funds to be used to monitor Intels compliance with environmental regulations.

Granville Mayor Melissa Hartfield said that, to date, all levels of government above the local level have failed to ensure the safety of Licking County residents.

"Weve been failed by all of the safety nets there to catch our fall," she said, noting the billions of dollars in taxpayer funds subsidizing the Intel project. "Were paying to poison ourselves, is in essence what were doing. Weve been patronized. The more we show up, and the more we raise Cain, the more they want us to go away."

The majority of people attending the meeting were from the Alexandria and Granville areas, based on a show of hands, and a few were from Columbus.

Bill Lyons, of the Columbus Community Bill of Rights organization, raised concerns about water consumption and the treatment of wastewater from the Intel campus. The city of Columbus has committed to supplying water to New Albany for the first phase of Intels operation.

"New Albany has shared with Columbus details of its direct discussions with Intel involving numerous infrastructure and economic development details, including water supply," the Columbus Public Utilities Department said in a statement to The Reporting Project in March.

"Intel projects its maximum Phase 1 water needs, combined with expected nearby businesses, at six million gallons per day (MGD)," the utilities department said in the statement. Public relations specialist George Zonders said the statement was approved by officials at Intel and in the cities of Columbus and New Albany.

The Columbus statement also noted that, "Along with the water service agreement, New Albany is also one of more than two dozen suburban communities that has a sanitary sewer agreement with Columbus. Intel will be located within New Albany, and in accordance with our sanitary sewer agreement, Intel will be a part of our pretreatment program with the need for pretreatment evaluated through that program."

Wilson said at Mondays community meeting that Intel officials "say they are going to clean the water and put it back into the environment," and added that without knowing which chemicals the company will use, it is difficult to know how best to monitor the treated wastewater to know how clean it is.

In Smiths latest Intel newsletter, she wrote that "water for the Intel Ohio One site will come from the City of New Albany, which purchases water from the City of Columbus, which comes from Hoover Reservoir in the Upper Scioto Watershed along Big Walnut Creek."

"After the water is used in the manufacturing process," the newsletter says, "it will be treated and reused at the campus in multiple ways, before being treated again to applicable water quality standards (Ohio EPA and City of Columbus) and discharged into the sanitary sewer system where it is further treated at the City of Columbus wastewater treatment plant. There will be no direct wastewater discharges from Intels manufacturing operations to any water bodies. In accordance with our stormwater discharge permit, only stormwater is allowed to drain from the site into streams or surface waters."

Intel says that stormwater is diverted into retention basins released gradually to prevent flooding and erosion. "These basins will be enhanced with wetland vegetation, which filter stormwater, and provide a natural habitat for plants and animals," the Intel newsletter says. "These types of engineered wetland detention systems are the most effective stormwater quality management practices."

Several community meeting attendees suggested that now is the time to take baseline measurements of water and air quality so that its possible to detect any changes after Intel begins making chips.

Kristy Hawthorne, program administrator for the Licking County Soil and Water Conservation District, said during the meeting that her organization is using grants to measure water quality and flow in Moots Run and Raccoon Creek, both of which have headwaters in western Licking County. Denison University Environmental Studies faculty and students also have been doing water-quality analyses of streams in western Licking County for the past two years, which provides a baseline from before Intel construction began.

Hawthorne said current grants allow for testing water for a handful of contaminants related to farming and asphalt manufacturing, and she is seeking additional funding that would allow testing for "forever chemicals" and others that could be used in computer-chip manufacturing.

When someone asked whether anyone from Intel was in the room for Mondays meeting, no one responded. Ken Apacki said an Intel representative was among those to whom he sent email invitations.

Margaret Toland, a resident of St. Albans Township, said she would like to have seen someone from Intel attend so that "we could have a dialogue rather than a monologue" to address community concerns  especially about potential pollution and its health effects.

"I can live without computer chips, but I cant live without my health," she said.

Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison Universitys Journalism program, which is funded by the Mellon Foundation and donations from readers.

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Grassroots group learning from other cities with Intel factories
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) took a shot at Fox News after a columnist for the outlet called her an idiot who is trying to wreck the GOP.

Fox News called me an idiot. That was literally their headline. They called me an idiot, Greene said during an appearance on Steve Bannons podcast this week. But what Ive done is expose what was already happening in the dark.

Greene was referring to an op-ed published on FoxNews.com last month by contributor Liz Peek, who argued Greene is bad for the party, accusing her of bombastic self-serving showmanship.

The internal squabbles of the party need to stop. If Marjorie Taylor Greene and others want to oppose aid to Ukraine or the FISA bill, they can vote against it. Thats how democracy works, wrote Peek, whos also a weekly contributor to The Hill. My message for MTG? Borrowing from Hillary Clinton: Get over yourself. The mission today is to elect Donald Trump.

Greene has said she will push to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over a number of issues, including the outline of his plan to consider foreign aid.

The beautiful thing about it is Democrats have to come clean; they were controlling Mike Johnson anyway, Greene told Bannon about her effort to oust Johnson.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Fox News

Fox News host Greg Gutfled on Thursday made the sweeping claim that amid the pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, there havent been any instances of Islamophobia.

On The Five, Gutfeld took issue with President Joe Bidens remarks earlier in the day in which he condemned both antisemitism and Islamophobia.

In a speech from the White House, Biden said that there should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students, adding: There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether its antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.

Hearing that, Gutfeld decided to claim Biden was perpetuating a hoax, and did Donald Trumps bidding by defending his comments after the deadly and violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

"Now we have a real fine people' hoax! Gutfeld insisted, refusing to admit that Trump said that there were very fine people participating in the Unite the Right rally and in the counter-protest. Joe Biden came out and said, you know, we have to condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia. There is no Islamophobia present! There isnt that there!"

The Department of Education lists dozens of active shared ancestry investigations, although they do not specify the nature of the complaint.

However, The Guardian reports that the federal government is looking into alleged discrimination against Emory University students with Palestinian, Muslim or Arab rootsone of at least six similar claims, including ones at Columbia, where student activity has created national interest.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, which procures and distributes food to combat hunger in the community, is helping families expedite their delayed SNAP application cases.

Whistleblowers in Texas have sounded the alarm on SNAP application delays since August, but some applicants are still waiting months to receive their food stamps.

More than 136,000 low-income people in El Paso County are eligible for food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to March data.

Recipients receive a set amount of monthly benefits on a card they can use to buy groceries at any store that accepts SNAP. In general, people have to renew their benefits twice a year by providing documentation that determines if they are still eligible.

Federal law requires states to process SNAP applications, including renewals, and issue benefits to those eligible within 30 days.

In March, Texas processed 61% of all applications and 59% of all renewals in a timely manner  a declining rate since September 2023, when Congressional leaders, including U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resolve the delays.

More: El Paso man to be sentenced for role in Jan 6. Capitol riot in Washington DC

El Paso food bank assists families with SNAP delays

The El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank has employees who help people expedite their delayed SNAP applications. A staff member will sit with the applicant and call 211, the statewide phone number for social services.

April Rosales, social services site manager at the food bank, said in the fall the nonprofit received 10 or more people a week asking about their months-long SNAP delays. That number has now dwindled down to about two to three people a week.

The escalation process has been smoother, Rosales said.

Previously after calling 211, an operator would tell them to either fill out a new application or continue waiting. Now an operator will check if the application has the most up-to-date documents and expedite the case. Oftentimes an applicant has to submit a new pay stub because their application has sat in the queue long enough that the previously submitted pay stub is now outdated, Rosales said.

Applicants typically get approved within a week after the escalation and receive benefits retroactive to the date the application was submitted. The retroactive benefits is why she tries to avoid re-filing an application, Rosales said.

SNAP, Medicaid delays are ongoing

Anonymous employees at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the state agency that administers the federal SNAP program, warned state lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott that delays were exceeding six months at the end of the year.

Jennifer Ruffcorn, a spokesperson for Texas HHSC, said in an email that lead time is higher than normal because of an increase in SNAP applications and the renewal process for six million Medicaid clients over the course of 12 months.

The number of SNAP applications and renewals in Texas have risen by tens of thousands since September, with the agency processing more than 200,000 applications and renewals in March, according to state data.

Texas HHSC is also tasked with the process of removing ineligible people from Medicaid after the expiration of a federal pandemic rule that allowed people to remain enrolled in Medicaid during the public health emergency. Before the rule ended on March 31, 2023, states could not remove people from the health insurance program.

The effort to redetermine peoples eligibility led to nearly 1.7 million Texans losing their health insurance by the end of 2023, mostly because of procedural reasons, The Texas Tribune reported. It also created a backlog in SNAP applications.

More: El Paso man to be sentenced for role in Jan 6. Capitol riot in Washington DC

Texas tries to address SNAP applications backlog

Ruffcorn said Texas HHSC has used federal funding to invest in recruitment and retention of workers who determine benefits eligibility. More than 97% of eligibility worker positions have been filled, she wrote in an email.

Last year, Texas HHSC submitted a Corrective Action Plan to the USDA outlining problems and fixes over the last few years. The agency did not provide the plan to El Paso Matters, nor specify which solutions it had already implemented.

The Austin American-Statesman and KXAN Austin reported in December 2023 that the plan included moving 250 staff members from other projects into processing SNAP and other benefits applications. The agency would also send 600 new staff to Medicaid training to quicken the process for combined SNAP and Medicaid applications.

Disclosure: El Paso Matters CEO Robert Moore is the board chair for El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank. The newsrooms policy on editorial independence can be found here.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas struggles to process increase in SNAP applications
Hamas confirms its delegation to visit Cairo on Saturday, official says

People stand next to a house damaged in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah

By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray

CAIRO (Reuters) - A delegation from Palestinian militant group Hamas will visit Cairo on Saturday, a Hamas official told Reuters, amid expectations that they will deliver a written response to an Israeli proposal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

The Hamas official, who declined to be identified, spoke on Friday after CIA Director William Burns arrived in the Egyptian capital for meetings about the conflict in Gaza, according to an Egyptian security source and three sources at Cairo airport.

Egypt made a renewed push to revive negotiations late last month. Cairo is alarmed by the prospect of an Israeli ground operation against Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than one million people have taken shelter near the border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Separately, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is also taking part in the fight against Israel in Gaza, reiterated on Friday the demands of the Palestinian resistance factions which include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of all displaced persons to their homes.

"There is a complete and continuous coordination between all resistance factions, and there is consensus on the resistances demands", the group added in the statement.

Citing a senior Egyptian source, Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera news TV also reported that Cairo will receive the Hamas delegation on Saturday to discuss developments in the Gaza truce talks.

Mediators say they have been waiting for Hamas to deliver its response to the latest version of a proposal for a truce and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in return for the freedom of many Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in the cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the conflict, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli army says over 600 of its soldiers have been killed in combat since.

At least, 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 77,000 others have been wounded by Israeli fire in Gaza Strip since Oct 7, according to Gaza's health ministry.

(Reporting by Nidal al Mughrabi, Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is embarking on a $4.5 million restoration initiative that will close one of Colorados most popular and iconic hiking trails for most of the summer. Hanging Lake is an internationally revered hiking destination. Its a historic natural landmark, an important boon to the local economy, and a geologic phenomenon.

But following exploding visitation through the 2010s, the Grizzly Creek wildfire in 2020, and the subsequent floods in 2021 and 2023, Hanging Lake Trail is in disrepair.

Burned tree limbs, snapped trunks, and other debris litter the canyon. The seven bridges along the hike are all dilapidated. A shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Core in 1938 is on the verge of toppling over. And sections of the trail need rehabilitation.

USFS aims to remedy all of that and take the restoration even further. This trail was originally built almost 100 years ago before sustainable standards and practices for trail building were established. USFS is taking this opportunity not only to restore the path to Hanging Lake but also to improve upon it and build a new trail that will last for another century.

hanging lake trail restoration project

We want to facilitate a visitor experience and make sure that as many people are able to enjoy this trail, as possible. And we also want to protect the resources that are there along with it, Emily Kasyon, White River National Forest program coordinator for the National Forest Foundation (NFF) told GearJunkie. And I think this trail design really gets at that.

The restoration projects groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 2 at the trailhead. All the partners for the project were present  the National Forest Foundation (NFF), the City of Glenwood Springs, Get Outside Colorado (GOCO), Colorado Lottery, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and USFS.

The restoration efforts will begin as early as May 3. As a result, the trail will remain closed for most of the summer, although there will be weekends when it is open for hikers.

Hanging Lake Trail Restoration 2024: $4.5 Million, 100-Year Plan

hanging lake trail restoration project

Hanging Lake is one of Glenwood Springs biggest tourist attractions. In 2018, when the NFS started instituting a daily visitor cap of 615 people, the trail saw 186,000 visitors a year. According to the NFF, annually it brings in $4.6 million to the city.

At 1.2 miles long and with just 1,000 feet of elevation gain, its a very approachable hike. Its also extremely accessible, as its just off the interstate. And its rewarding. The turquoise travertine lake at the top is a spectacular sight.

When the Grizzly Creek wildfire ripped through Glenwood Canyon in August 2020, many people feared the worst for Hanging Lake. However, the cool and humid air of the creek canyon protected it from being destroyed by the fire. The trail was closed until May 2021. It opened for all of 2 months before June rains caused massive flooding and debris flows from the fire that badly damaged the trail and all seven bridges.

hanging lake trail restoration project

A temporary trail was established and opened in June 2022. However, due to flooding, it was again closed intermittently through 2023.

We knew that trail was a temporary fix, but we wanted to get people back up to Hanging Lake, said Leanne Veldhuis, a district ranger with NFS at the restoration projects ground-breaking ceremony. So here we are today. And the work were kicking off is a $4.5 million reconstruction project to make a trail that will last the next hundred years.

Hanging Lake Trail: What Will Be Restored

The $4.5 million was raised through several partners and donor organizations. Great Outdoors Colorado gave $2,282,000, White River National Forest raised $1,668,999, Colorado Parks and Wildlife contributed $250,000, the City of Glenwood Springs contributed $232,163, and NFF contributed $70,000.

NFF, which is overseeing the project, contracted NorTerra Services out of Idaho to handle the construction and renovation. Unlike many trail restoration efforts on USFS land, the Hanging Lake Trail project will not be handled by volunteers.

While the trail will remain on the same track, it is getting massive upgrades that will greatly change the visitor experience.

The trailhead will have a built-out plaza with seating and shading. All seven bridges will be torn out and replaced with new structures that will be helicoptered in. The Civilian Conservation Core historic shelter will be stabilized in collaboration with the State Historic Preservation Office. A rest area with seating and stonework will also be built around that shelter.

NFF said it wants to make the Spouting Rock waterfall above the Hanging Lake more of an attraction unto itself. As part of the restoration, a boardwalk will be built around this feature to mitigate erosion by keeping people on a defined path.

The plans also include rock work, flood debris removal, and native seeding and planting to prevent further erosion along Dead Horse Creek.

When Will You Be Able to Hike Hanging Lake?

NFF said it wants to ensure that people can still access Hanging Lake during restoration. After all, the tourism it generates is part of what this project is meant to preserve. As such, the trail will remain open on weekends through certain parts of the summer.

We are working with our contractor on, say, weekly check-ins and the whole deal, figuring out when well be able to keep the trail open despite the work going on, Veldhuis said at the ground-breaking.

USFS and NFF will consult with NorTerra Services, the City of Glenwood Springs, and H20 Ventures to gauge when the trail could be opened. It will just depend on what work is happening and where the project is at.

Our plan right now is to have the trail open on weekends at the beginning part of the summer. And then we will have to close the trail once the bridges go out, said Kasyon. But we want to try to keep it open for people on the weekends until that point.

Reservations will still be required to hike the trail through the summer. Those will be available weekly from Visit Glenwoods Hanging Lake webpage. Available hiking dates and times are released every Tuesday beginning at 8 a.m.

The post Hanging Lake Trail Damaged by Fire, Floods, Visitation, Closes for 100-Year Restoration appeared first on GearJunkie.
HANOI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- As many as 487 people were admitted to hospital in Vietnam's southern province of Dong Nai over the past few days after having eaten the bread sold by a local eatery, Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.

Among the cases, 19 have recovered and returned home. Two cases remain in a critical condition while others are recovering with less severe symptoms of suspected food poisoning.

Vietnam's food safety department under the health ministry on Friday ordered investigation into the case.

The Vietnamese bread eatery called Bang located on Tran Quang Dieu Street in Long Khanh town sold 1,100 loaves of bread on April 30.

The next day, many of its customers developed food poisoning symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, or abdominal pain, VnExpress reported.

The eatery's operation has been suspended for investigation. 
CHESHIRE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD)  The Allegan County Health Department has confirmed a blue-green algal bloom on Duck Lake.

Samples had been sent last week to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services to confirm the presence of blue-green algae.

Advisory signs have been posted around the lake and it is recommended that residents avoid any water-related activities.

Algal blooms typically occur in the summer when warm temperatures and sunshine combine with nutrients in the water to feed the algae. Blooms can last for several days and sometimes even months. The water will look scummy or like spilled paint or pea soup.

Suspected algal bloom spotted on Duck Lake

If a person has contact or swallows water containing cyanotoxins, they may experience a variety of symptoms, including stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, weakness, headaches, dizziness and difficulty breathing.

Pets can also react to toxins and typically show symptoms before humans. If your pet has had contact with contaminated water and shows similar symptoms along with excessive drooling or staggered walking, residents are encouraged to contact a local veterinarian.

If you or a pet have been exposed to a harmful algal bloom, the health department recommends you shower or bathe immediately. You should also reach out to your local medical provider or poison control.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
HARTVILLE  Thirteen ducklings fell through a storm sewer grate Wednesday afternoon, and village firefighters came to their rescue.

Assistant Fire Chief Jim Monath said a passerby heard the ducklings making sounds of distress around 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. They had fallen about a few feet below the grate. She called 911.

The fire department deployed a unit to the scene near the Sheetz gas station at Market Avenue N and state Route 619/West Maple Street. The firefighters removed the sewer grate, and firefighter/EMT Lydia Ruff went into the sewer. She handed each of the 13 ducklings up to her fellow firefighter/paramedics Madison Broz and Breanne Bryant.

Related: Everything's just ducky after Plain Township firefighters rescue ducklings. See photos

Hartville firefighters rescued 13 ducklings from a sewer on Wednesday.

Firefighter/paramedic Camdon Boarman and fire Capt. Warren Wilkinson were also on hand to help, along with a Hartville police officer.

Related: Late-night rescue mission: North Canton police rescue trapped ducklings

Monath said it's not the first time the Hartville Fire Department has been summoned to rescue ducklings that fell into the storm sewer.

This has happened more than once around here. Ive been on a couple myself but not this one, he said.

The firefighters released the ducklings who were apparently not injured near their mother by a small pond.

They followed mom in a straight line and they went swimming. They all seemed to be in good shape, said Monath.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hartville firefighters rescue trapped ducklings
I hate that fact that we did it: Key takeaways from Trumps day in court

Donald Trump was back in court again on Thursday during his third week of the hush money trial in Manhattan, where jurors heard bombshell recordings between Mr Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

The former presidents legal team attempted to defend Mr Trump over his gag order violations on Thursday. Earlier this week, Judge Juan Merchan fined him $9,000 for repeated violations of the order, which bars him from talking about foreseeable witnesses or staff of the judge or DAs office. Ironically, after court adjourned for the day, Mr Trump falsely claimed to reporters that he was not allowed to testify because of the gag order.

The court also saw a different side of Michael Cohen, who has previously been described in the Manhattan courthouse as excitable and pants on fire.

One witness said he thought Cohen was going to kill himself after Cohen found out that Mr Trump, Cohens long-term client, wasnt considering him for top roles in his White House administration.

Here are some takeaways from another day at the hush money trial:

Trumps defence tries to make him the victim

Mr Trumps legal team painted him as a victim, trying to turn the tables days after Judge Juan Merchan fined the former president $9,000 for violating a gag order.

Defence attorney Todd Blanche accused Cohen of inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything hes saying. He showed a series of Cohens posts to the judge, including calling Mr Trump Von Sh**zInPantz.

Mr Blanche also groaned about comments that Joe Biden made at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Donald has had a few tough days lately, you might call it stormy weather, the president said.

Judge Merchan dismissed the argument, saying that there is nothing in the gag order that says he cant respond to Mr Biden.

Judge seemed unimpressed with Trumps comments about jurors

After hearing Mr Blanches defence of Mr Trumps comments, the judge then urged him to switch to defending his clients remarks about the jury.

Mr Trump has previously complained about the fairness of the trial, seeing as it is being held in the blue state of New York  which also happens to be his home state.

Still, the former president previously said that the jury was picked so fast  95 per cent Democrats.

Trump speaks to the media at Manhattan criminal court (via REUTERS)

Mr Blanche started spewing arguments, claiming the hush money case is political persecution, prompting Judge Merchan to interject.

Did he violate the gag order? Thats what I want to know, he said. He spoke about the jury, right? And he said the jury was 95 per cent Democrats and the jury had been rushed through, and the implication that this was not a fair jury?

Michael Cohen scrambled to reign in Stormy Daniels as she went on TV

Jurors were shown a series of texts dated 31 January 2018 that Cohen sent in rapid succession while he was watching Ms Daniels on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.

He appeared unhappy with how Ms Daniels was presenting her encounter with Mr Trump on television.

Cohen texted, She just denied the letter. He was referring to a statement drafted the day before in which the adult film star denied the affair with Mr Trump had ever happened.

The Trump lawyer then typed, while watching the show, Claiming its not her signature.

He then texted, You said she did it in front of you.

Mr Davidson texted, She did. Impossible - she posted it on her own Twitter page.

Cohen then said, They showed her signature and she claimed it was not hers on Kimmel.

Mr Davidson then replied, Wtf.

Cohen then mentioned Stormys then-publicist Gina Rodriguez. He wrote, Please tell Gina to ensure she responds the same as your statement tomorrow when she does the view. This is not a comedy show!

Mr Davidson replied, Gina is ticked off at stormy because Stormy made her look like a liar. He continued, Gina says she is going to have a LONG talk with Stormy on the plane to New York tomorrow. She assured me that this will get handled.

Cohen thought he would be Trumps attorney general or chief of staff

Former Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson testified that he thought Cohen was distraught by mid-December 2016.

I thought he was going to kill himself, Mr Davidson said.

Before that, the lawyer recalled Cohen saying, Jesus Christ, can you believe Im not going to Washington?

Cohen arrives at a New York courthouse in March. The jury heard recordings of the former Trump attorney on Thursday (REUTERS)

Ive saved that guys ass so many times you dont even know, Cohen said about his then-boss Mr Trump, Mr Davidson recalled. That guys not even paying the $130,000 back.

Cohen thought he could be tapped to serve as Mr Trumps White House chief of staff or attorney general.

Cohen has 39,000 contacts on his phone

Today, the world learned just how connected Trumps former personal attorney is.

Cohen has 39,750 contacts on his phone, according to an exhibit shown in court while forensic analyst Doug Daus testified.

Is that unusual? asks attorney Christopher Conroy. That is unusual, Mr Daus replied.

Damning audio captures Trump and Cohen discussing hush money catch and kill plot

Prosecutors presented a muffled recording between Cohen and Mr Trump discussing paying off former Playboy model Karen McDougal

Cohen was heard saying, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David [Pecker], you know, so that, Im going to do that right away ... And Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.

Mr Trump then responded, So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?

The audio was indiscernible, but then Cohen can be heard saying, ...funding. Yes. Uh, and its all the stuff.

Mr Trump said, Yeah, I was thinking about that.

Trump watches Davidson is questioned during Trump's criminal trial (REUTERS)

Cohen then said, Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what hes 

Mr Trump then added, Maybe he gets hit by a truck.

Some moments later, Cohen said, Well, Ill have to pay something.

Trump replied, Pay with cash, to which, Cohen, said, No, no, no.

Mr Trump then recommended: Check.

Mr Trump told Cohen: I hate that fact that we did it

Manhattan prosecutors also played another tape  this time it was a call between Ms Daniels former lawyer Keith Davidson and Cohen.

Cohen said, What would you do if you were me?  Would you write a book?  Would you break away from the entire Trump, you know, well call it, doctrine? Would you go completely rogue?  Any thoughts? Because its not just me thats being affected.

The former Trump lawyer continued, Its my entire family.  Nobodys thinking about Michael. Know what Im saying?  Im saying to myself, What about me? What about me?

Then, in a shocking moment, Cohen said, I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, I hate that fact that we did it.

In the tape, Cohen then said, And my comment to him was, But every person you spoke to said it was the right thing to do.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass clarified who Cohen was referring to; Mr Davidson said he believed Cohen was referring to Donald Trump.

Mr Davison also clarified that the right move meant the settlement with Daniels.
Haunted by their colleagues deaths: The journalists risking their lives to report on Gaza

Whoever stays until the end, will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us.

Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila scrawled these farewell words in blue ink on a whiteboard in Al-Awda Hospital, in Jabalya, on October 20, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

When Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, many local journalists did stay  risking their lives to tell the stories of their people. After more than 200 days of fighting, Israeli bombardment has turned neighborhoods into rubble. Families have been torn apart by deaths and forced displacement; the threat of starvation looms. At the same time, 129 of the more than 250 hostages seized from Israel by Hamas remain captive in the territory, of whom at least 34 are thought to be dead.

Trapped in the strip alongside their fellow Gaza residents, Palestinian reporters have become the eyes and ears of those suffering under the shadow of war. And with foreign media largely unable to enter, it is their photos, footage and reporting, often gathered at great personal risk, that have shown the world what is happening.

At least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed since October  92 of whom were Palestinian  according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This makes it the deadliest period for journalists since 1992, when the CPJ started collecting data. Gazan journalists told CNN they are haunted by their colleagues deaths, as they balance the emotional labor of covering the war with trying to protect their families.

Displaced reporters working in makeshift tents risk exposure to Israeli strikes. Some say they were forced to flee their homes without equipment or protective gear, instead relying on mobile phones to show the world what is happening. Others must travel to higher ground when uploading footage, in an effort to bypass power outages and communications disruptions as Israeli shelling persists.

Images of Al-Jazeeras Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh shaking with grief after 12 family members were killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza last October became symbolic of the plight of journalists there.

We are covering the war on Gaza because this is our journalistic duty. It is entrusted upon us, said 31-year-old Mariam Abu Dagga, a photojournalist for the Independent Arabic displaced in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. We challenged the Israeli occupation. We challenged the difficult circumstances and the reality of this war, a genocidal war.

Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh (center) hugs his daughter during the funeral of his son, Hamza Al-Dahdouh, a reporter who was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza, on January 7. - AFP/Getty Images

Human rights agencies have repeatedly called for the protection of journalists in the enclave. In February, UN experts warned that targeted attacks and killings of journalists are war crimes.

Releasing its annual Press Freedom Index on Friday for World Press Freedom Day, Reporters Without Borders warned the past year marked a clear lack of political will on the part of the international community to enforce the principles of the protection of journalists. The war in Gaza saw a record number of violations against journalists and media since October, according to the report. Palestine - the term the organization uses for the Palestinian territories, and which is ranked 157th out of 180 countries and territories surveyed - is the deadliest region for journalists.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not answer CNNs questions regarding the allegations made by several journalists over threats to the safety of reporters working in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF told CNN it could not comment on allegations of targeted attacks without geographic coordinates and the specific time, but provided CNN with a statement it has often used during the war in Gaza. CNN provided names, locations and dates for the strikes in question.

In response to Hamas barbaric attacks, the IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities, the IDF said in a statement. In stark contrast to Hamas intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm including journalists. The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists.

Given the ongoing exchanges of fire, remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks. The IDF will continue to counter threats while persisting to mitigate harm to civilians, the statement added.

Israel launched a military assault on Gaza on October 7 after the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, killed at least 1,200 people in Israel and abducted more than 250 others.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have since killed more than 34,600 Palestinians and injured more than 77,800 people as of May 1, according to the Ministry of Health there. Of those killed, about seven in 10 are women and children, the ministry said. CNN cannot independently confirm the figures due to the lack of international media access.

Whenever a journalist is targeted, we ask ourselves who among us will get their turn of being targeted tomorrow, said Abu Dagga. We dont have cover and we dont have security.

The war is the only thing that separated me from my son

Since October, Abu Dagga has spent every day in Gaza wondering if it will be her last. Still, she does not leave, despite making the gut-wrenching decision to send her 12-year-old boy to live with his father in the United Arab Emirates. The war is the only thing that separated me from my son, she told CNN.

Abu Dagga says she sent him away for his safety after documenting the deaths of children killed by Israels bombardment. As of April 30, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 14,100 children, the Ministry of Heath said.

Palestinian media workers provide a critical window into the horrors of Israels offensive in Gaza. The few foreign journalists who have been allowed to enter the enclave have primarily embedded with the IDF and may have had to submit their footage to the military for security review, although maintaining editorial control. Both Israel and Egypt, which control Gazas borders, have so far refused to give international journalists unfettered access to the strip, saying that they cannot guarantee their safety.

Abu Dagga says her parents in northern Gaza worry for her survival when she goes out to work, after hearing about the many colleagues she has lost during the war.

Others have evacuated, grappling with the heartbreak of leaving relatives behind, while still working to tell Gazas story.

After nearly seven months of war, Abu Dagga told CNN that she, too, wants to leave. There is no place for us to live, she said. We have been subjected to repeated shelling and we are still being targeted.

Little time to grieve

Like Abu Dagga, local photojournalist Mohammad Ahmed treads the line between life and death.

Shrapnel pierced his leg following an Israeli attack on a building in Jabalya, in northern Gaza, on December 17, Ahmed recalls. Clouds of dust filled the air, as people screamed frantically.

The photojournalist for Turkish state broadcaster TRT told CNN he had been traveling through the neighborhood, after being displaced from the local refugee camp. His protective press vest absorbed a hit to his stomach, he says. But doctors could not remove the shrapnel lodged in his upper right thigh.

I started to shout that I had been injured. Nobody was able to hear me, said Ahmed. I saw people lying on the street parts of dead bodies were scattered around.

The father-of-three says he is tormented by repeatedly documenting scenes of war, whether it be children calling for help from under the rubble, or injured Palestinians flooding into a hospital following an Israeli strike. Sometimes, he says, he must stop filming and let his emotions out.

I am also a human, Ahmed said. I would stop filming and try to find an empty place to cry These scenes affect us immensely because those are our people, and they are human, and they are like our children.

He has not yet met his two-month-old son, Adnan. His wife, then pregnant, and two daughters fled first to Rafah and then to Egypt in November. His parents and siblings have been displaced across the strip, he says. But there is little time to grieve for whats been lost.

Given the nature of my job, I knew I wouldnt be available beside my family during the war I was sure this war was going to be bigger than us all, he said.

Saying goodbye

For others, the risk of losing their family meant they felt no choice but to leave Gaza.

Ibrahim Dahman and his young family were displaced multiple times as bombardment intensified around their home in Sheikh Radwan, northern Wadi Gaza. The CNN producer drove desperately further south along with his pregnant wife, Rasha, and two children  Zeid, now 11, and Khalil, 7  under the distant echo of Israels aerial campaign.

This was a huge burden on me, Dahman, 36, told CNN last month.

The Dahman family visit the Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt, on December 29. - Ibrahim Dahman/CNN

In November, he and his family evacuated to Cairo, in neighboring Egypt. When we hear the sounds of civilian aircraft in Cairo, we panic, he said. I was forced to leave to protect my children and my wife. We left the rest of my family in Gaza, who are still suffering every day.

As Dahman continues to document the war for CNN, more than 40 relatives from his mothers and fathers families have been killed by Israeli strikes. His apartment in Sheikh Radwan has been reduced to debris  erasing precious memories, including photographs of his grandparents and gifts from friends.

What motivates me to cover the war in Gaza is that I was born in Gaza. I am a son of Gaza. I lived there, studied there, and worked in Gaza for years, he told CNN.

Immense loss

Surviving journalists told CNN they are determined to honor the legacy of their colleagues who have been killed. The editor-in-chief of Al-Khamsa news website, Saeed Al-Taweel, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 10, in the west of Gaza City, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. A colleague who had sheltered with Al-Taweel on the night he was killed, Alaa Abu Mohsen, said Al-Taweel had gone to film the Hajja tower in Gaza when it was hit by a strike.

I walked to find Saeed, and he was lying on the ground at the crossroads that connects to Phoenix and Hajja After that, I transferred his body to his family in Rafah, Mohsen said.

People standing on a rooftop watch fire and smoke rise from an Israeli strike above a building in Gaza City, on October 7. - Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

Al-Taweel was famed among Palestinians in Gaza for his morning show, Akhabr Arrei, meaning news on an empty stomach, according to Saba Al-Jaafrawi, 32, a close friend and journalist. She described him as a kind and generous person who took the initiative to do Gods deeds and help people in need.

We used to go to work early in the morning and hear people talking about his morning news show You would hear people say, Saeed wrote and Saeed said, Al-Jaafrawi told CNN. Losing Saeed was an immense loss both on the journalistic level and on the societal level.

The fate of at least two other Palestinian journalists remains unknown, according to the CPJ.

Thirty-one-year-old Nidal al-Wahidi, a photojournalist, has not been heard from since he was detained by Israeli forces alongside fellow photojournalist Haitham Abdelwahed, 25, while reporting on the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel, according to a report by Amnesty International in December and testimony from his cousin provided to CNN. Israeli authorities have refused to disclose their location or the legal grounds for their arrest, Amnesty said, adding that it was not known whether they were dead or alive.

Al-Wahidi had travelled to the Erez/Beit Hanoun checkpoint to film the attacks, Amnesty International said. Major international news organizations, like Getty Images, purchased his photos.

CNN asked the IDF to disclose the whereabouts of Al-Wahidi and Abdelwahed, the reasons for their arrest and their current condition. The IDF did not provide a response.

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinian journalists Mohammed Soboh and Saeed Al-Taweel, killed when an Israeli missile hit a building while they were reporting, in Gaza City, on October 10. - Arafat Barbakh/Reuters

Al-Wahidis cousin, Fadi Wael Abdel Karim Al-Wahidi, who is also a journalist still working in Gaza, said the family had identified Nidal based on photos released by the IDF of people detained on October 7.

So, we went back to the Red Cross and told them: This is a picture of Nidal, and his family recognized him, Fadi told CNN. He said the Red Cross told them the IDF had not provided information about people detained on October 7.

CNN reached out to the IDF about the allegations made by Fadi.

Fadi, 24, described Nidal as a family figure who was very kind. He had worked alongside his cousin, he said, recalling that Nidal was dedicated to his job and knew the time for laughter was for laughter, and the time for work was for work.

Speaking to CNN, Fadi had one message for his cousin. I swear to God, we missed him. We missed him so much. Not only me, but my entire family hopes that Nidal will return because we are very fond of him. We hope that God will bring him back to us safely.

Whether they report from within the enclave, or elsewhere, Palestinian journalists told CNN they could not turn away from the horrors unfolding in Gaza.

Instead, they do as Nujaila, the doctor at Al-Awda hospital, asked at the beginning of the war  telling the stories of besieged Palestinians inside the territory so they are not forgotten.

CNNs Zeena Saifi contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Hawkins Testerman attends first Teachers of the Year State Dinner hosted by First Lady Jill Biden

Hawkins Testerman attends first Teachers of the Year State Dinner hosted by First Lady Jill Biden

WASHINGTON (WJHL)  First Lady Jill Biden and Rogersville City Schools Missy Testerman sat at the same dinner table Thursday.

The First Lady hosted the first Teachers of the Year State Dinner at the White House. The dinner honored Missy Testerman, the current National Teacher of the Year, and other teachers committed to education.

As an educator herself, Biden was delighted to host this special evening.

Tonight, we celebrate you, because teaching isnt just a job. Its a calling, and all of you were called to this profession for a reason, Biden said.

Missy Testerman, the 2024 National Teacher of the Year toasts with first lady Jill Biden during a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 2, 2024, to honor the 2024 National Teacher of the Year and other teachers from across the United States. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Testerman, who is currently mentioned on the official White House website for her achievements, spoke at the event.

Hearing the experiences of my students and their families reminds me daily what a privilege it is to be an American and what a privilege it is to attend a public school in this country, Testerman said.

Testerman later called teachers the ultimate facilitators of justice, fairness, equity, and democracy.

We hold the future of the country in our hands, just as every generation of teachers before us has done, Testerman said. It is a charge that we take seriously and we will deliver, just as legions of teachers before us have.

President Joe Biden also made an appearance at the event.

President Joe Biden speaks as Missy Testerman, the 2024 National Teacher of the Year, and First Lady Jill Biden listen during a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 2, 2024, to honor the 2024 National Teacher of the Year and other teachers from across the United States. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Testerman was named 2024 National Teacher of the Year in April. She is the director of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Program and a teacher in Hawkins County, and she is currently in her 32nd year.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
Hawthorne school board OKs $54.1M spending plan. Here's what trustees had to cut

HAWTHORNE  The school board had to cut an alternative education program and three full-time positions under a $54.1 million spending plan approved for next year.

Schools Superintendent Richard Spirito said the budget includes funding for all extracurricular activities and clubs, but that officials were forced to absorb a $884,720 reduction in state aid by eliminating the HOPE program at Hawthorne High School.

In addition, he said, a custodian and two teachers were let go.

The necessary cuts amounted to $980,000. Contracts with some outside vendors and some opportunities for professional development were also axed.

The 18.5% reduction in state aid, which was the largest decrease in Passaic County, really posed a challenge for us, Spirito said in a presentation Tuesday night.

BOUND FOR PARIS: Hawthorne native set to wrestle in Summer Olympics, fulfilling a childhood dream

The spending plan will be supported by a tax levy of $43.6 million. As a result, the average property owner, with a home assessed at $381,477, will see an increase of $89 to his or her tax bill.

The budget will cover the curriculum development of three new classes at the high school: Accounting, Directing & Producing and Music Technology.

It will also pay for replacing laptops for teachers at the three elementary schools, plus devices for sixth graders and high school freshmen.

The K-12 district also plans to upgrade its cloud-based Wi-Fi system by installing a total of 150 access points at the high school and Lincoln Middle School.

The HOPE program, which was instituted before the 2021 school year, provided counseling, transition planning and treatment for students and their families.

Schools Superintendent Richard Spirito discusses the K-12 district budget for next year.

Public districts in New Jersey can operate alternative education programs for youth at risk of school failure if they meet certain criteria, such as a maximum student-to-teacher ratio of 12-to-one.

HOPE stands for Hawthorne Opportunity Provides Empowerment. Trustees budgeted $128,557 for the program this year.

Spirito said it was coordinated by a guidance counselor with a teaching certificate and that she stepped down. He said the program also had a part-time behavior analyst and two paraprofessionals, all of whom were reassigned.

A state bill  A-4161  could allow the district to reinstate the program for next year, Spirito said.

The pending legislation, which appropriates $71.4 million, would provide one-time relief in the form of grants to eligible districts by giving up to two-thirds of the amounts they lost in state aid.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hawthorne NJ schools OK budget, cut jobs due to loss of aid
HAZMAT responds to elementary school in Fresno after fire extinguisher goes off

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A fire extinguisher went off at an elementary school in Fresno, which prompted a HAZMAT response after students became ill Thursday afternoon, according to the Fresno Fire Department.

Firefighters say on Thursday around 2 p.m. a fire extinguisher went off in a classroom at Lane Elementary School in Fresno which released a chemical powder, and some students fell ill.

According to fire officials, fire extinguishers contain a dry chemical powder that is used to extinguish fires, and any time powder is inhaled it can cause some issues for those who are susceptible. There were about 10 students who were looked at.

The Fresno Fire Department says students are in stable condition and parents will determine whether or not they want their child to go to the hospital.

Fire officials say it is unknown why the fire extinguisher went off. The school district will be investigating the incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
A missing child case came to a tragic close this week as investigators in Philadelphia announced on Wednesday that theyve identified Damari Carter, 4, as the corpse found inside a duffel bag in March, WPVI-TV reports.





#BREAKING UPDATE: Police identified a child that was found in a duffel bag in West Philly in March as Damari Carter, a 4-year-old boy who went missing more than a week before his mother and her boyfriend were charged with his murder. https://t.co/wVA2FW97ZB  NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) May 1, 2024

In December, family members reported Damari missing, leading to a police investigation that resulted in authorities filing murder charges in January against his mother, Dominique Bailey, and her boyfriend, Kevin Spencer. The couple now faces additional charges.



Back in December, Bailey, 28, reportedly told family members that a car struck and killed Damari, but the police couldnt corroborate her claim. Under interrogation, Bailey confessed that she was involved in her sons death.



Her affidavit said she witnessed Spencer, 30, brutally beat Damari to the point that the childs head was swollen and he had black eyes.



Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom said a neighbor living below Baileys West Philadelphia apartment heard Damari screaming when Spencer allegedly brutalized him on Dec. 7, PEOPLE reported.



The next day, surveillance video showed Spencer dragging Damaris body out of the apartment building in a trash bag, according to the police. But Bailey refused to tell police where they could find her sons body.



City workers discovered Damaris unidentified body in a duffel bag on March 18.



DNA samples confirmed on April 3 that the decomposed corpse was Damari, according to CBS News Philadelphia, which investigators revealed to the public on Wednesday.



Authorities have now charged the couple with murder, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse of a corpse, false reporting, tampering and criminal use of a communication facility. They are scheduled for a preliminary court hearing on June 18.



The way they found him is appalling. I wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy, for someone to find him like that. And I applaud that worker who found him, Aiyana Parrish, Damaris cousin, told WPVI-TV when asked to comment on how the childs remains were found.



Im glad they have found him because now he can get the proper rest he needs. (He was) a smiling, happy little boy. He never had a picture where he wasnt really smiling. He was always happy, she added.



Damari loved superheroes, including Batman, Thor and Captain America. But his favorite was the Black Panther, whom he dressed up as on Halloween.



His family plans to give him a proper burial after authorities release his remains.







For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 544,000 people with disabilities, including 152,000 people in urban areas and 392,000 in rural areas, became employed in China in 2023, according to the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

In 2023, more than 9.06 million people with certified disabilities in China were engaged in different forms of employment, including employment with support from the government, self-employment, part-time employment, and public welfare jobs provided by the government.

Nearly half of these individuals were employed in the farming, breeding and processing sectors of the agricultural industry, according to the federation.

Authorities and organizations across China provided practical skills training to 259,000 people with disabilities living in difficulties in rural areas in 2023, the federation said.

In 2023, 11,393 people with visual impairments across China received training to become non-medical masseurs, and 9,970 individuals received training to become medical masseurs, according to the federation. 
Rain eases in Southeast Texas but flooding will take time to recede

Emergency personnel respond to flooding on FM 1988 on May 2, 2024, in Livingston. Credit: Drone Bros LLC

The rainfall began to ease in the hardest hit areas of Southeast Texas late Sunday, but water that has swelled in rivers, creeks and lakes will not begin to fully recede until later this week, meteorologists said.

We have not had a lot of significant rainfall [today], we've had an average of less than two inches of rain across much of [Harris County] and even less than that in a lot of areas, said Jeff Lindner, a senior meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District. Lindner said the county expects to control the flooding by Tuesday.

We expect this to kind of wind down in the next couple of hours, Lindner said. A lot of where the rain is falling down now hasn't had a lot of rain this week, so they can easily handle what's happening.

Water levels peaked Saturday and remained high late Sunday afternoon. The west fork of the San Jacinto River north of Harris County is still in a major flood stage, with levels at roughly 55 feet, which is 6 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The level was projected to fall in the coming days. County officials also told The Texas Tribune they also would monitor for excess discharges of water flowing downstream from Southeast Texas, including Lake Livingston in Polk County. The Trinity River, which feeds into Lake Livingston, was in a major flood stage on Sunday, with levels remaining 10 feet above normal levels at 5:45 p.m.

A flood watch advisory remained in effect for cities north of Interstate 10, including Houston, Liberty, Conroe, Columbus, Brenham, College Station, Huntsville, Onalaska, and Crockett. Meteorologists predicted the storm will taper overnight. Many areas, from Lufkin in Southeast Texas to College Station and The Woodlands are under moderate chance of excessive rainfall, the weather service said.

[How Texans can prepare for extreme weather]

Emergency responders in Harris County have rescued 233 people and 164 pets, according to the Office of Emergency Managements last count on late afternoon Sunday.

Small child dies in North Texas flooding

May 5, 2024 at 7:19 p.m.

A young chid died early Sunday morning in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, as flood waters rushed over a county road.

The child and two adults exited their vehicle and fled on foot during the flooding just before 2 a.m. They were swept away by the water, leading to a rescue attempt, according to a Facebook post by Johnson County Emergency Management. The two adults were rescued. The child was found dead several hours later.

The child was listed by authorities as 5-years-old, though a GoFundMe page set up by their family listed his age as 4.

The death is the only one reported so far in flooding across the state. Hundreds of people have had to be rescued from their homes or cars.  Matthew Watkins

East Texans try to reach their homes, save pets

May 5, 2024 at 8:46 a.m.

COLDSPRING  Willie Rawls woke up to water at the steps of his home Thursday in the river bottoms of Coldspring  one of the first towns hit by the several hundred thousand gallons of water released from the Lake Livingston Dam.

The dam was releasing water in an effort to maintain its levels as merciless rain storms drenched East Texas this week.

Rawls, 73 and in hospice care, was evacuated by the San Jacinto Sheriffs Office, who arrived in an airboat and lifted him to safety.

He arrived at Browders Marina & Campgrounds, a high point on a hill to the west of the Camilla Twin Harbors neighborhood  otherwise known as the river bottoms. The campgrounds served as a refuge for residents fleeing the rushing water. He was eventually moved by a friend to a different shelter in hopes he'd have better access to medical care.

Rawls is among hundreds of Texans across a large region stretching from rural East Texas to the Houston suburbs grappling with a new reality this weekend. Their homes, businesses and other property have been swamped. Despite a break in the storms Saturday, more rain and storms are headed their way.

For those staying at the marina, checking on their homes was top of mind. A police barricade deterred many early Saturday. But by midafternoon cars streamed in and out of the neighborhood as residents sought information about their homes.

Evacuees became excited as a truck pulled in towing an airboat. East Texas Hoof and Paw, a nonprofit animal rescue, called on the drivers for help rescuing pets from the area. The airboat spent hours in the water retrieving more than a dozen dogs left by their owners in a hurry to flee the oncoming flood.

A school bus driven by teens and young adults backed into the water along Richard Street to visit the neighborhood.

Continue reading here.

Rain across Texas may make flooding in southeast corner worse

May 4, 2024 at 7:08 p.m.

Texas will be blanketed by storms Saturday evening and Sunday, which could have a cascading effect for the southeast corner of the state that is already under water.

More rain is expected on Sunday in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and if it's a lot, it could be problematic for those downstream.

Thunderstorms will increase across the region tonight and are expected to move across North and Central Texas. The average rainfall could be between 1 to 3 inches, with the highest increase threat of sudden, violent floods in the Hill Country near Waco and Killeen. The National Weather Service expects rainfall in parts of Central Texas to amount up to 5 inches.

The heaviest downpours in central Texas will occur upstream of the Houston area. Extensive river flooding will continue and any additional rainfall will aggravate already flooded areas in Harris County. Currently, close to a dozen river gauges have reached major flood stage in southeast Texas.

In the Houston/Galveston area the main focus is on late this evening into Sunday as more rounds of showers and thunderstorms are expected. An additional 1 to 3 inches and in some areas up to 4 to 8 inches are possible through Sunday. Also a few storms may bring strong to severe hail and strong gusts of wind. The weather service advises residents in the region to not drive across flooded roads.

The Associated Press reporteds more than 400 people in the Houston area have been rescued from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water.

Much of north and southeast Texas are still in a flood watch.

Alejandra Martinez

Harris County has rescued hundreds of people and pets as flood waters continue to rise

May 4, 2024 at 3:50 p.m.

Flooding in Kingwood. Credit: City of Houston

High waters have flooded Kingwood, a suburb about 30 miles northeast of downtown Houston. Residents have been told to evacuate if possible as water in creeks in streams start to rise.

The West Fork of the San Jacinto River, which is near the area, has reached its peak at 59 feet (as of 3 p.m.), about 13 feet above flood stage. The river feeds into Lake Houston, a reservoir directly below Kingwood. While the rivers height of the water is expected to taper off later today, Harris County officials say tonights heavy rain is expected to bring the threat of more flooding.

The Associated Press reports seeing game wardens in Kingwood riding airboats through waist-high waters rescuing people and pets who did not evacuate in time.

During a press conference Saturday Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said county officials had rescued 176 people and 122 pets as of 1 p.m. Hidalgo said rescues had slowed last night, but things could change as the day goes on.

She was taking an aerial tour with the countys flood control team to assess the extent of the flood damage.

We want to see the magnitude of the impacts so we can plan for recovery. And also just to see how our infrastructure fared in the area, Hidalgo said during the press conference.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire went on a separate aerial tour earlier Saturday and shared photos showing sprawls of land under water, extensive flooding on top of roads and water that reached home rooftops.

More heavy rain is expected tonight, according to the National Weather Service.

"Houston residents benefit when all levels of government work together," Whitmire said in a press release. "Together, we will get through these challenges. Lets go to work."

The mayors office is offering free transportation services for evacuation. Residents can contact 311 for evacuation transit. In an email he urged residents to plan before they are inundated by high water.

 Alejandra Martinez

Here's how full the rivers in Southeast Texas are

May 4, 2024 at 11:06 a.m.

While theres lull in the heavy rain this morning, isolated to scattered thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and evening, which may contribute to the ongoing flooding in east Texas.

Rivers in Southeast Texas are already full.

The Trinity Rivers gauge north of the city of Shepard peaked at 49 feet on Friday. Its gone down to 48 feet, as of this morning  still 12 feet above flood stage. More storms could continue to drenched the areas of Polk, Montgomery, Liberty and Harris counties as the water travels down waterways. The Trinity Rivers water feeds into Lake Livingston.

The West Fork of the San Jacinto River contributes to Lake Conroe, which then feeds into Lake Houston, as does other runoff. All eventually empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The West Fork of the San Jacinto River is expected to peak at 61 feet, 16 feet above flood stage, on early Sunday morning. The San Jacinto River Authority, an agency that manages Lake Conroe, assured residents on Facebook that operators will strive to gradually reduce water releases from the lake while also protecting the dams infrastructure. But added, operations could change if another storm enters the watershed.

The next round of heavy rainfall is expected late tonight into Sunday. Scattered storms are expected to develop early afternoon mainly along I-20 impacting the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Thunderstorms will increase in coverage tonight moving toward west of I-35. Very heavy rainfall may result in some flash flooding overnight across parts of North and Central Texas with a threat for severe weather mainly in the cities of Waco and Killeen. The National Weather Service expects an additional 1 to 3 inches with isolated higher amounts up to 5 inches possible in the Houston/Galveston area.

If bodies of water swell again it will add to the already filled creeks, rivers and reservoirs. Excessive runoff has also resulted in flooding of low-lying homes and flood prone locations. Southeast Texas and part of North Texas are under a flood watch through 1 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Moderate to major river flooding continues today into next week.

 Alejandra Martinez

They lost everything  including their children's shoes

May 4, 2024 at 8:20 a.m.

LIVINGSTON  Clinton Jones looked across the emergency shelter Friday. His children were going stir crazy. His wife, Samantha, and mother-in-law, Lee Farrell, were making the best of the cots and blankets they received from the Red Cross.

The 27-year-olds family was one of thousands who fled their Southeast Texas homes as heavy rains saturated land in multiple counties and filled lakes and streams. An unknown total of homes, businesses and other property has been damaged this week by unrelenting storms stretching across Polk, Montgomery, Harris and other counties.

Thunderstorms will wrack the region throughout Saturday, and showers are likely on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions along the Trinity River, which runs through Polk County, have become too dangerous for first responders to access, according to Polk County Emergency Management. Flooding has begun to encroach on subdivisions surrounding the lake to the East and West, evacuation crews began making their final calls for people seeking assistance.

Jones family home sat to the south of Lake Livingston, in the river bottoms of Coldspring, the San Jacinto County seat. It was overtaken by water shortly after the family left and Jones found safe harbor for their animals, his neighbors told him.

We lost everything, Jones said. We lost everything we owned: beds, dressers, clothes, the kids toys.

Continue reading this article here.

Why are reservoirs releasing water in flooded communities?

May 4, 2024 at 8:22 a.m.

HOUSTON  Southeast Texas is used to heavy spring rains  but the widespread flooding that the region faced this week stands out because of just how much the rivers have risen.

Back-to-back storms drenched the area that includes Polk, Montgomery, Liberty and Harris counties, causing flash-flooding from heavy rain. That rain also filled creeks, rivers and reservoirs, creating a compounding, dangerous problem of too much water with nowhere to go but back out of the riverbanks.

Operators for three major reservoirs on rivers in the area have been on high alert as they deal with the slugs of water flowing into the man-made lakes. Part of their job is to calculate how much water to release downstream to protect the dams from failure, which would cause an even worse catastrophe than the swollen rivers.

Continue reading this article here.

Southeast Texas officials shore up plans ahead of long weekend of flooding

May 3, 2024 at 6:14 p.m.

Local officials were shoring up plans to continue emergency rescue operations, evacuations and sheltering Friday night as meteorologists expect days of continued flooding in multiple Southeast Texas counties.

Rainfall will ease in southeast Texas, including Polk, Trinity, San Jacinto, Walker, and Grimes counties, but water will likely spill out of the areas lakes and rivers, causing flooding that will continue into mid-next week, meteorologists said.

Polk County Judge Sydney Sweeney said the county will monitor the water levels it receives from the Trinity Water Authority, which feeds into Lake Livingston.

It will be weeks before we know how much impact the rains had, Sweeney said. And it will be years before we recover. But right now, its a waiting game.

In central Texas, the National Weather Service has extended its flash flood watch warning, anticipating another round of heavy storms. Though its unclear where the heaviest rainfall will occur, forecasters expect up to three additional inches of rain starting Saturday night and into Sunday.

Southeastern Montgomery and northeastern Harris counties are under an aerial flood warning reserved for areas at risk of additional gradual flooding. Meteorologists also said Liberty County is under the same warning.Harris County officials are beginning to prepare for recovery from the rains as they brace for more of it over the weekend, said Brian Murray, the county's emergency management coordinator.

"Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've had to do this," he said.

Shelters continue to be opened across the region. Harris County residents can check their address at the county's website.

 Carlos Nogueras Ramos

More than 200 rescues efforts in Montgomery County

May 3, 2024 at 3:01 p.m.

Montgomery County has dispatched more than 200 water rescues in the last 24 hours, county officials said.

Neighborhoods in one of the fastest-growing counties in the state were flooded after heavy rain and excess water from Lake Conroe enveloped neighborhoods.

Officials on Friday were bracing for other portions of the county to be submerged next.

"The West Fork San Jacinto River has not crested yet and is still expected to rise," a spokesperson said. "So folks in those low-lying areas need to heed that warning and understand that potential significant flood event is still imminent for them and get the high ground.

Montgomery County, which includes Conroe, sits between Polk and Harris counties. The three are among the hardest hit this week.

 Carlos Nogueras Ramos

Harris County leader warns: "It's going to get worse."

May 3, 2024 at 12:11 p.m.

Harris County residents should prepare for an imminent threat to life and property, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a news Friday.

Hidalgo said she has directed the office of emergency management's response to its highest form of readiness, centralizing the county's response.

"The weather is unpredictable, but [the rain] has fallen and it's on the way," Hidalgo said. "The threat is coming and it's going to get worse."

Hidalgo, the county's top elected official, has asked the county's residents to follow the guidance issued Thursday. Harris County is the third largest county in the U.S. and includes Houston.

The national weather service said more rain was on the way. Harris County could see up to an inch of more rainfall, which will accumulate on the floods already on the ground.

 Carlos Nogueras Ramos

Residents along San Jacinto River East Fork being being rescued from their roofs

May 3, 2024 at 2:58 p.m.

Some residents along the San Jacinto River East Fork were being rescued from their roofs, Harris County Judge Lina Hildago posted on social media Friday afternoon.

In the latest update, Hildago also warned residents in that portion of the county that it was too late to evacuate and that they should be prepared to stay in place for at least two days.

On the San Jacinto River East Fork, its too late to evacuate preemptively & folks are being assisted off their rooftops. If you are on the West Fork or south of Lake Houston you still have an opportunity to leave. Otherwise, prepare to stay in place for 2-3 days.  Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) May 3, 2024

AP: School bus carrying children northeast of Houston required a rescue

May 3, 2024 at 1:12 p.m.

Officials said 26 people and 30 pets have been rescued from flood waters in the Houston area.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said a school bus carrying children northeast of Houston required a rescue after driving near high waters but that everyone on board was safe.

The Crosby school district said in a statement that the driver of a school bus carrying 27 students stopped his vehicle just before driving into high water. The students exited through a rear door and were taken to their campuses on another bus.

I am proud of the quick action of our bus driver, Crosby school district Superintendent Paula Patterson said in a statement.

 Associated Press

Here's how much rain has fallen in Southeast Texas counties in the last 72 hours

May 3, 2024 at 11:08 a.m.

Forecasters expected to see more rainfall on Friday after at least a week of off-and-on rain. This afternoon, a storm is expected to reach Polk County, bringing additional rainfall that meteorologists expected would arrive tonight. The storm will move further west into Walker County, the national weather service said.

"Normally that rain wouldn't cause floods," a meteorologist told The Texas Tribune. "But because of the conditions in the last few days, plus the rivers, the rain will likely worsen the floods."

In the last 72 hours, there have been up to 14 inches of rain in Polk County, with the surrounding areas receiving 8-10 inches, the National Weather Service said. Montgomery County has been awash with up to 12 inches of rain. In Harris County, that number ranges from 4-7 inches of rain.

 Carlos Nogueras Ramos

That whole area is covered up in water": Polk County continues under deluge

May 3, 2024 at 11:19 a.m.

East Texas officials upheld mandatory evacuation orders for Polk County residents Friday morning, bracing for floods largely provoked by overflow from the multiple rivers in the region.

Meteorologists expect a lull in rainfall overnight but said flooding remains a concern because of the abundance of water flowing out of the rivers and creeks, worsening the flood conditions.

County officials said their focus was to monitor areas surrounding the Trinity River Basin, which they said are prone to exacerbated flooding because of their proximity to the continuing heavy discharges of water. In particular, officials are monitoring excess water flowing out of the Lake Livingston River Dam, which is adjacent to the city of Livingston.

That whole area is covered up in water, said Polk County Judge Sydney Sweeney. And so some of that water is moving very, very quickly because of the amount of water that's coming out of the dam. You have pine trees that are underwater.

Meteorologists said they expect rainfall to slow by nightfall Friday in East Texas. Most showers are expected to buffet harshly in counties north of Houston, including Montgomery and Harris Counties. Montgomery is the most populous county in the state.

Flash flood warning for Montgomery County and an early warning for Galveston Bay

May 3, 2024 at 11:25 a.m.

Montgomery County should expect more downpours that could bring up to an inch of more rain, the National Weather Service said Friday. A meteorologist with the weather service also said the agency is monitoring areas surrounding Gavelston Bay, south of Houston.

Were also dealing with ongoing river flooding in that area as well, and so the runoff from all this rain were getting is going to impact that, the national weather service said.

The area received about 5-8 inches of rain within 24 hours. Some areas received up to 12 inches of rain, the Associated Press reported Friday morning.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday issued a disaster declaration for Harris County, which includes Houston, for communities close to the East Fork of the San Jacinto River to Lake Houston. Hidalgo in the declaration said residents should evacuate as soon as possible if they are in a place to do so.

Residents should either plan to stay where they are for the next two days or leave as soon as possible if they are not prepared to do that, Hidalgo said in the disaster declaration. Thats in addition to the mandatory evacuations issued for residents near Houston.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said State Highway 30, north of Montgomery County, was closed due to severe weather conditions on Thursday.
HOGANSVILLE, Ga. (WRBL)  The Hogansville Police said on Friday that the police department has made a significant development in the fight against child exploitation.

On Friday morning, Hogansville Police investigators along with the Georgia State Patrol Swat team found and arrested 64-year-old Stephen Hall from Hogansville on charges associated with possession of child pornography.

Halls arrest resulted from a Hogansville Police investigation after substantial evidence was uncovered pointing to Hall obtaining illicit material involving children.

Authorities arrested Hall at his home during a search of his house. Hogansville Police says Halls case is still under investigation but assures the public the police department will continue to prioritize the safety of the local community and work tirelessly to combat all forms of exploitation.

With the success of arresting an individual accused of owning child pornography, the police department urges locals to help law enforcement with protecting vulnerable children.

Child pornography is a heinous crime that inflicts lasting harm on its victims and undermines the safety and well-being of our communities. The Hogansville Police Department is committed to aggressively pursuing individuals who engage in such reprehensible behavior, and we will use all available resources to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. We urge anyone with information related to this case or other instances of child exploitation to come forward and assist law enforcement in our efforts to protect vulnerable individuals and hold offenders accountable. Hogansville Police Chief Jeff Sheppard

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office has hired a team of former federal prosecutors to take over the high-profile murder case against state trooper Ryan Londregan, signing a formal contract Thursday that includes an initial $1 million billing cap for their services.

Four attorneys from Steptoe LLP, a Washington D.C.-based international law firm, will be deputized as special assistant county attorneys and assume ongoing litigation against Londregan, who fatally shot motorist Ricky Cobb II last summer during a traffic stop. The move comes amid a legal team shake-up; the assistant county attorney who was leading the case recently walked away from prosecuting the trooper.

The 28-page contract, released to the media Friday afternoon, outlines basic terms of the arrangement, including pay rates for attorneys (blended at $850 per hour), paralegals ($250 per hour) and a tentative end date of Dec. 31, 2025.

The legal team will report directly to County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Deputy County Attorney Sarah Davis, who maintain control over the prosecution.

"Our goal in this case, as in every case, is to achieve a just process and outcome, public transparency, and accountability for the harm that has been caused," Moriarty said in a statement. "It is clear this case will be extremely resource intensive and will involve extensive litigation prior to trial. These former federal prosecutors with impeccable credentials will be singularly focused on this case while the rest of our team continues the critical work of prosecuting the high volume of other serious cases that are central to safety in our community."

On Tuesday, the Hennepin County Board voted 5 to 1 to authorize Moriarty's request for outside counsel, after she appeared before the body to ask for its assistance. She told commissioners that her office was down 10 attorneys and lacked enough experienced litigators to handle the Londregan prosecution along with the typical load of other criminal cases.

At the time, ongoing cost was a concern for Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde, who said it would be hard for the board to stop funding the case if consulting fees get out of hand.

"What is the burn rate?" Lunde asked Moriarty, who did not provide a direct answer. "I think it will be very difficult for us to pull back. Once we are in, we are in."

Kevin Anderson was the only commissioner to vote against Moriarty's request, saying he didn't feel it aligned with a previous, long-standing county policy about hiring outside counsel. That policy, in place since the early 1990s, says the county attorney needs to detail the special expertise outside attorneys bring to a case. The policy does not require the county attorney to put the contract out for bid.

The framework approved by the board stipulates that Moriarty inform county leaders when she hires outside lawyers for criminal cases and give updates on costs at least twice a year. All accrued legal fees must come out of the County Attorney Office's existing $78 million in 2024.

The newly-approved contract requires that Steptoe notify Hennepin County once the fees  including airfare, lodging, meals and billable work hours  exceed $750,000. Either party can terminate the agreement upon three days' notice "with or without just cause."

Moriarty has faced ongoing questions and criticism about the merits of the case and whether there is enough evidence for the murder, manslaughter and assault charges she brought against Londregan.

Brian Peters, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, wrote to commissioners last week, urging them to probe why no one in Moriarty's office wanted the case. He said Moriarty is biased against police and that someone independent of her office "of unquestioned ethics" should take over the case to decide if it will proceed.

Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who has also expressed concern about Moriarty's handling of the case, told reporters Wednesday that he does not see the hiring of outside legal counsel as a "positive development," calling the decision somewhat "unorthodox."

"It seems to me, a well-funded and robust office like the Hennepin County D.A. should be able to handle this case," he said, promising to continue monitoring the situation. As of Tuesday, his office had not ruled out reassigning it.

In an internal memo sent to staff Friday, Moriarty sought to justify her decision, noting that it was the best option given staffing constraints.

"While I have no doubt we could assemble a team that could handle this case, it would require pulling multiple people away from current caseloads, something I do not believe we can afford to do," she wrote, according to an email obtained by the Star Tribune.

She went on to assure personnel that the decision to retain outside counsel would not impede ongoing efforts to hire for vacant positions, result in any layoffs or influence the next labor contract.

Last month, Steptoe conducted an independent review of the case and concluded that the prosecution was justified based on the evidence, Moriarty told staffers.

The four attorneys now tasked with the Londregan case are Michael R. Bromwich, Steven Levin, Karima Maloney and Ryan Poscablo.

Bromwich works with police departments around country on use-of-force issues and recently led an investigation of the largest corruption scandal in the history of the Baltimore police. Levin successfully prosecuted a former Baltimore police commissioner on public corruption charges and represented police officers in misconduct and murder cases.

Maloney previously served as deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's criminal section. She will serve as the team lead in Minneapolis. Poscablo spent six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York prosecuting violent and organized crime.

The new legal team will appear in court May 15 to go over scheduling, followed by a hearing June 10 to continue arguments over probable cause.

Star Tribune staff writers Rochelle Olson, Kim Hyatt and Christopher Magan contributed to this story.
Hidden camera filming through hole in trash can found in hospital bathroom, OH cops say

A hospital employee is accused of using a hidden cellphone to secretly record his co-workers in the restroom, Ohio law enforcement told news outlets.

The Hamilton County Sheriffs Office said Alexander Claspill, 28, of Fort Thomas, Kentucky, is accused of recording 19 people inside the employee bathroom at The Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, WLWT reported.

On March 28, a cellphone, later found to belong to Claspill, was discovered inside a trash can recording through a small hole, according to WKRC, citing court documents.

The majority of the victims appeared to be women, with some recorded partially nude, WXIX reported, citing court documents.

Court records show Claspill was charged with 19 counts of voyeurism on May 1, and his bond totaled $190,000.

McClatchy News reached out to Mercy Health  which operates health care organizations in Ohio and Kentucky, including The Jewish Hospital  for comment on May 3 but did not immediately hear back.

Claspill is no longer employed by Mercy Health, a spokesperson told WLWT.

Urgent care worker posing as nurse assaults over a dozen women, Pennsylvania cops say

Parents find camera disguised as phone charger in girls room, cops say. Man charged

High school basketball coach recorded his sex acts with teen players in Ohio, feds say
Updated, May 6

With just a few hours remaining until the midnight deposit deadline, West Virginia high school senior Sam Dodson thought he knew which university hed commit to for the fall but second thoughts were bubbling up. Accepted to a number of prestigious institutions, he had narrowed his final choice down to two: Columbia University and Dartmouth College.

There were multiple considerations at play: academic opportunities; social life; Manhattans Upper West Side vs. bucolic Hanover, New Hampshire. And over the past few weeks a new one had emerged: the quickly spreading pro-Palestinian campus protests and subsequent arrests for which Columbia was ground zero.

Dodson was one of these students, watching closely as protesters occupying Columbias Hamilton Hall were cleared from the building Tuesday by the New York Police Department..

All of that made me wait until kind of the last minute to officially decide, the track runner told The 74.

The class of 2024 has had a high school experience bookended by jarring national news, their freshman year coinciding with school shutdowns and COVID-era virtual learning and their senior year ending amid a volatile movement protesting Israels assault in Gaza that has swept up dozens of colleges and brought over 2,000 arrests, according to a CBS News tally. As seniors weigh options for their future universities, some are looking to the actions of college student activists and the responses of their respective administrations before making final decisions.

I do think that all of the turmoil and things that are going on definitely had me reconsidering. It had me having second thoughts about different things and had me, I guess, take second looks at different schools, Dodson said. But ultimately I guess I tried to look past anything with that and understand that this is a choice Im making for the next four years and what I think would be the best experience for me  academically, personally, in terms of just student life. All of those things.

Dodsons experiences are reflective of other students as well. Safa Al-Omari, a senior at NYCs The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology told Chalkbeat she is still deciding between City College and Hunter College. The Yemeni student said she wants to do more research about City Colleges response to the protests before she commits.

Being Middle Eastern, I have a lot of feelings about whats going on, Al-Omari said. I would not want to go to a college that is arresting students based on them speaking for people who are suffering.

For Sam Dodsons mom, Sarah, there were also conflicting emotions. Its very hard to put the yes when you have a lot of  chaos, she said. While she said her son was drawn to the diversity of perspectives on Columbias campus, the more heated elements of the past few weeks have given him pause. At the same time, she emphasized the importance of being in a higher education space where free speech is strongly respected and encouraged.

You never want your kid to go to a school that is on the national news because of police involvement, right? It just doesnt sit really well, she said. However, I guess I am under the assumption that theres going to be resolution  Im guessing because this is a college platform that they are going to hopefully have more engaging, open conversations so that there can be some sort of  I dont know  persistence of everyday campus life that is not so inflamed.

Related

What the End of College for All Means for the Future of Americas High Schools

For now, all academic activities on Columbias Morningside Heights campus  including finals  have been moved fully remote for the remainder of the semester. On May 6, the school announced its decision to cancel the university-wide commencement scheduled for May 15 and instead focus on school-level graduation ceremonies. The NYPD had been asked to maintain a police presence until two days after the main commencement; it was not immediately clear how the cancellation might impact that.

Sam Dodson with his parents, Sarah and Jeff, at the National Honor Society ceremony. (Sam Dodson)

Sam Dodson, who began his freshman year of high school in hybrid learning, said it would be frustrating if his first year of college classes also goes remote because of campus unrest. On the other hand, theres something interesting about being in the center of the news or the center of exactly whats happening.

Students reconsider and recommit

It was about two week after pro-Palestinian students and activists on Columbias campus first erected the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that a group occupied Hamilton Hall, a building with a long history of student takeovers. Hours later, the cops moved in, arresting, they said, 112 people, including 32 who were not affiliated with the university.

By this point, the movement had spread across the country, including to Dodsons other contender, Dartmouth, where nearly 100 protesters were arrested this week. About a week and half before that escalation, Columbia hosted its accepted students weekend and Dodson was there.

He took some time, he said, to wander around campus and speak with protesting students near the encampment. They were like, Hey, new Columbia students. Come talk to us! You know, I guess, they were very like welcoming. They were very much wanting to talk with the admitted students, which I thought was a nice thing.

While he was disappointed that many of the accepted student weekend activities had been canceled or modified, he was grateful he got to experience the events on campus firsthand and form his own views.

Around the same time, another high school senior Lila Ellis, who uses they/ them pronouns, was also closely observing the activities on Columbias campus. A Jewish student from Massachusetts, they had committed months before to List College, the dual-degree joint program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Lila Ellis is a rising freshman at List College, the dual-degree joint program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. (Andy Ellis)

Ellis said that because of their religion, theyre concerned there are certain places on campus they wont be welcomed. I think that to just stay away from all secular extracurriculars entirely, is a disservice to myself and to the community as a whole, they said. And Im just thinking about, like, how am I going to balance that while also, you know, recognizing that some spaces dont want me in them?

Ellis pointed to the example of a protester outside the gates of campus shouting, Go back to Poland, at Jewish students. Recently, a January video of one of the student protest leaders, Khymani James, began circulating in which he said, be grateful that Im not just going out and murdering Zionists. He has since been barred from campus and released a statement of apology.

Notably, as reported by The New York Times, protests within the encampment were on the whole peaceful and included Jewish students, though others on campus agreed with Ellis that anti-Zionist rhetoric made them feel unwelcomed.

Related

Huge Influx of Civil Rights Complaints to U.S. Ed Dept Since Israel-Hamas War

While Ellis is sticking with their decision to attend Columbia, they did briefly toy with the idea of a gap year or of moving core curriculum requirements around to stay away from the main campus for a while.

I really do want to be in this program, they said, And its just a matter of thinking about How do we make that work with whats happening at Columbia? rather than Can it work? Because I think it can work.

As Ellis prepares to enroll for classes  especially literature overview courses on Columbias campus  theyre considering a number of factors including whether or not the professors taught from the encampment.

Hopefully, they said, its not an issue in the fall, but just thinking about who were the professors who were willing to do that? And is that an environment that I want to be in for learning and for having an open discussion?

Their father, Andy Ellis, added his own apprehension. All parents, he said, are nervous to send their first child off to college. But the protests on campus, he said, add an extra dimension, especially for a Jewish student.

Ellis, a graduate of MIT, has spent significant time in higher education. He said he was on a Harvard visiting committee and in an academic center there for the last decade but resigned from both positions in October, when it became clear that people were ripping off their mask around anti-semitism.

He said that if he were a current student on Columbias campus, he would be on the front lines of the counter-protests, displaying footage from Hamass Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.

I think I would be that person, the consultant said, But I know that Lila is not that person. But I also know that Lila is not going to just duck [their]head and stay completely quiet, but I think find a balanced view. Listening to what Lila said about, you know, find the humanity is an amazing, generous take. Im really proud that I think weve created somebody who has a better moral compass than I do because Im a lot more angry.

Back in West Virginia and with time to spare before Wednesdays midnight deadline, Dodson had finalized his decision: He committed to be a member of the class of 2028 at Columbia where he plans to study political science and government.

I think itll just be interesting, he said, to go from  to take my perspective from this kind of small town area where like, I mean, Ive met people from other places. I try to read, I try to keep myself exposed to those things, but itd be cool to actually meet people from all sorts of perspectives and all sorts of backgrounds.
Historic park in Old Sacramento gets a new name

(FOX40.COM)  A small park with a lot of history in Old Sacramento has a new name in honor of a woman business owner who owned the land when the capital city was a small railroad town.

Mary Gregory Park is the new name for the park on the corner of J St. and Firehouse Alley.

Shops, eateries and museums: A guide to the Old Sacramento Waterfront

The Center for Sacramento History, which maintains historical records for the city, requested the change and said that it is an important step toward recognizing the contributions of Gregory and other Gold Rush-era women whose role in the development of Sacramento has been largely overlooked.

Today, the park contains a stairway, an arch, several columns and other items from the citys past.

The name change will require new signage to be installed at a later date. The park was formerly known as Pioneer Park.

Why doesnt the Delta King Hotel move from its place on the Sacramento River?

A staff report presented to the city council said the English-born Mary Gregory moved to California with her French husband, Julius Gregory, ultimately ending up in Sacramento in the mid-1800s.

They eventually ran two stores in the town and, after Juliuss death, Mary continued with the business.

She also purchased another building and built a three-story building on several lots she owned that was used for shipping products across California and the country.

Mary Gregory died on May 29, 1898, and is buried in the Old City Cemetery, the staff report said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40.
VIENTIANE, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Many hectares of forests in Laos have been damaged in raging wildfires triggered by hot and dry weather, with most wildfires being the result of slash-and-burn cultivation.

According to a Lao Economic Daily report on Friday, a forest fire was reported in northern Laos' Luang Prabang province on April 28. Villagers were clearing their land to sow new crops near a forest boundary without taking adequate precautions and the fire spread over 20 hectares, damaging protected forests.

The provincial authorities called on the residents to be cautious, especially when clearing their fields and burning agricultural refuse, as forest fires are common during hot weather.

Another wildfire was reported from the Forest Protection Area in northern Laos' Bokeo province on May 1. Local volunteers teamed up to extinguish the forest fire, according to the report.

The resulting smog has covered a wide area of Laos, with PM 2.5 levels reaching harmful levels in some places.

The Lao government has instructed the relevant ministries and local authorities to deal with the problem.

Lao officials have also been advised to circulate information about forest fires so that the public is better informed about the causes and effects of air pollution and are encouraged to stop the tradition of burning to clear vegetation from farmland.

Various departments have been ordered to monitor the situation and submit reports on air pollution to keep the public informed. 
Huy Fong Foods, maker of the sriracha sauce that comes in rooster-adorned, green-capped bottles, says it has halted production until after Labor Day, sparking fears of another shortage.

The California company blamed the popular condiment's production problems on the red jalapeno chile peppers that deliver the hot sauce's tangy sweet heat. They aren't red enough, according to Huy Fong Foods.

After reevaluating our supply of chili, we have determined that it is too green to proceed with production as it is affecting the color of the product, it told wholesale buyers in a letter this week obtained by USA TODAY. Huy Fong Foods does not sell directly to consumers.

We regret to inform you that we have decided to halt production until after Labor Day, when our next chili season starts, the letter said.

It could be a bland summer. Earlier shortages of red jalapenos made it nearly impossible to find Huy Fong Food's Sriracha sauce. The company's chili garlic sauce and Sambal Oelek are also affected.

Unfortunately, all orders that have been scheduled beginning on May 6, 2024, will be canceled and the status changed to pending, Huy Fong Foods said.

When asked about the production issues, Huy Fong Foods told USA TODAY via email: "At this time, we have no comment."

Will there be a Huy Fong Foods Sriracha shortage?

Fellow Sriracha makers are flush with red jalapenos and have not reported any chile pepper production issues, according to Stephanie Walker, professor and extension vegetable specialist at New Mexico State University.

She speculates Huy Fong Foods, which has been sourcing its chile peppers in Mexico, has not yet established solid relationships with dependable jalapeno growers.

Ive been hearing third hand that they have tried to enlist new growers so they would have a reliable stream of jalapenos and it sounds like they haven't been entirely successful yet, said Walker, who is co-director of her universitys Chile Pepper Institute.

Bottles of Huy Fong Foods' Sriracha hot chili sauce are shown on December 12, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.

Root of Sriracha problem: Fallout with supplier

California-based Underwood Ranches was Huy Fongs sole supplier of jalapenos for decades until the partnership fell apart in 2017 over a financial dispute.

Two years later, a jury determined that Huy Fong breached its contract with Underwood Ranches and committed fraud, awarding Underwood $23.3 million. Now Underwood Ranches produces a rival brand of Sriracha sauce.

Chile peppers, which are usually picked by hand, are a labor-intensive crop. Huy Fong Foods goes through about 50,000 tons of chile peppers a year to make its hot sauces.

Growing chile peppers or jalapenos is a tricky crop. You definitely need to have experience and know how to get the crop to harvest, Walker said.

Red jalapenos key to flavorful Sriracha

Huy Fong told retail customers that the color of its Sriracha sauce had been affected by jalapenos harvested too soon, but not the quality and flavor.

However, using red jalapenos picked when they are still green would alter the taste, according to Walker. When they ripen, red jalapenos tend to be sweeter and have a more complex flavor. When she worked in the industry, Walker's processing plant rejected any red jalapeno that was more than 5% green.

Red and green jalapenos come from the same plant. The green fruit are just the immature fruit and, as they physiologically mature, they turn red, Walker said. One of the reasons we had that strict 5% limit is that the green fruit can dilute the color but it also affects the flavor.

Huy Fong fans: Prepare for runs on Sriracha

The Huy Fong Sriracha empire dates back to the end of the Vietnam War when David Tran relocated to Los Angeles and decided to go into the Sriracha business. By 1980, he was delivering orders in a blue Chevy van. The Sriracha produced by his company in Irwindale, California, has been a staple of hot sauce enthusiasts ever since.

But the agonizingly long shortages that have plagued Huy Fong in recent years have frustrated fans who begged for bottles on social media, pilfered them from restaurants or paid blistering prices to spice up steaming bowls of pho and ramen or trays of sushi rolls.

As bottles reappeared on grocery shelves and restaurant tables and households stocked up again, the bellyaching eased. But some Sriracha fans say they still feel scarred and old hoarding habits die hard.

How many bottles of hot sauce in the kitchen cabinet are too many? Asking for a friend, one Huy Fong fan recently posted on X.

Responded another: My boyfriend is Vietnamese. I just counted 16 in the pantry, two in the fridge, and one on the lazy Susan. He's still not over the Huy Fong Sriracha shortage.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sriracha shortage fears: Why a pepper supply issue halted production
When Tibor Rubin received the Medal of Honor in 2005, he largely had his sergeant to thank. Said sergeant constantly sent him on missions intended to get him killed. By then, however, Rubin had a history of defying the Reaper.

Born in Paszto, Hungary, on June 18, 1929, Tibor Rubin was 13 when the Nazis sent him to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He survived 14 months before the U.S. Third Army liberated the camp. His family was less fortunate  his stepmother and sister died in Auschwitz and his father perished in Buchenwald.

In 1948 Rubin emigrated to the United States, working first as a shoemaker and then a butcher in New York City. He also strove to fulfill a promise that if the Lord helped me go to America, Id join the Army.

He failed the language test in 1949 but enlisted after a second try. In July 1950 Private First Class Ted Rubin was shipped to Korea as a member of Company I, 8th Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.

Holocaust survivor, Medal of Honor recipients story comes to life in graphic novel

There he discovered the persistence of American anti-Semitism, particularly from his sergeant, Arthur Peyton, who made a policy of volunteering him for the most hazardous missions. During one, Rubin defended a hill against waves of attacking North Koreans for 24 hours.

I didnt have too much time to get scared, he explained afterward, so I went crazy. For that and other outstanding actions two of Rubins commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but both officers were subsequently killed and Peyton lost the paperwork.

That October the United Nations forces were advancing into North Korea when the Chinese intervened, reversing fortunes in Korea for the second time since the war began. Manning a lone machine gun, Rubin covered his regiments retreat until the ammunition ran out. He was shot in the chest, arm and leg, and was captured.

It wasnt until April 20, 1953, that Rubin was released in a prisoner of war exchange. Although sick and weak, he claimed that Chinese treatment, harsh though it was, was a cakewalk compared to Mauthausen, from which hed developed survival techniques that came into play again, such as stealing food and medicine from his captors or using maggots to treat gangrenous wounds, all of which he did for fellow POWs as mitzvahs (good deeds).

Learning that he was not yet an American citizen, the Chinese repeatedly offered to repatriate him to Hungary if he wished. Given the oppressive Communist regime there, Rubin declined.

After his honorable discharge with two Purple Hearts, Rubin attained citizenship and settled in Long Beach, California, mainly working at a liquor store with his brother Emery. After meeting him at later reunions, however, veterans of I Company and men who knew him in captivity began a campaign to get Rubin the recognition they thought hed long deserved.

Finally, in 2005, President George W. Bush presented him with the Medal of Honor, with a citation that described all hed been witnessed to have done:

Corporal Tibor Rubin distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism during the period from July 23, 1950, to April 20, 1953, while serving as a rifleman with I Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in the Republic of Korea. While his unit was retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, Corporal Rubin was assigned to stay behind to keep open the Taegu-Pusan Road link used by his withdrawing unit.

During the ensuing battle, overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops assaulted a hill defended solely by Corporal Rubin. He inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during this 24-hour personal battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully.

Following the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, the 8th Cavalry Regiment proceeded northward and advanced into North Korea. During the advance he helped capture several hundred North Korean soldiers. On October 30, 1950, Chinese forces attacked his unit at Unsan, North Korea, during a massive nighttime assault. That night and throughout the next day, he manned a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the units line after three gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat southward.

As the battle raged, Corporal Rubin was severely wounded and captured by the Chinese. Choosing to remain in the prison camp despite offers from the Chinese to return him to his native Hungary, Corporal Rubin disregarded his own personal safety and immediately began sneaking out of the camp at night in search of food for his comrades. Breaking into enemy storehouses and gardens, he risked certain torture or death if caught. Corporal Rubin provided not only food to the starving soldiers, but also desperately needed medical care and moral support for the sick and wounded of the POW camp. His brave, selfless efforts were directly attributed to saving the lives of as many as forty of his fellow prisoners.

Rubins nephew, Robert Huntly, who was inspired by him to join the Army, described him as having a Hungarian accent and a Jackie Mason sense of humor.

Tibor Ted Rubin, the only survivor of the Nazi genocide to earn the Medal of Honor, died in Garden Grove, California, on December 5, 2015.
For close to three weeks, the circumstances surrounding the fatal ambush of a Homestead woman by a masked gunman at an intersection in a Central Florida neighborhood of manicured lawns and pool homes has remained shrouded in mystery.

The series of events  and its twisting threads  have evolved almost as if penned in a crime novel, captivating sleuths and true crime connoisseurs around the world. It all began with cellphone footage taken on April 11 by a motorist who witnessed the attack while stopped at a red light at East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road in Seminole County.

READ MORE: Uncovering a drug nexus? look at the probe into Homestead womans deadly carjacking

A man, covered from head to toe in black, was caught on video pointing a semiautomatic rifle at the drivers side door of 31-year-old Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas white Dodge Durango. The hijacker then opened the rear drivers side door and hopped into the SUV.

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The Durango made a U-turn as soon as the light turned green. Hours later, Guerrero De Aguasvivas would be found shot to death inside her torched Durango at a Osceola County construction site.

Many questions emerged; few answers followed.

Why was Guerrero De Aguasvivas in Central Florida? Was the ambush targeted or random? Was the Homestead woman involved in something sinister?

From the start of the investigation, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma turned to the media, divulging details on leads and offering thorough updates in frequent news conferences. One of the first major breaks: a green 2002 Acura, the only such make and model in that color in Florida.

A deluge of news ensued, unspooling a multi-threaded, coordinated attack on a seemingly unsuspecting Homestead woman.

An Orange County Sheriffs Office deputy was arrested, agents discovered bricks of cocaine stuffed in a lamp shipped from Puerto Rico to Central Florida and three men considered to be persons of interest were detained, all on drug-related charges. The sprawling investigation into Guerrero De Aguasvivas death now spans several counties and includes federal agents and detectives from multiple sheriffs offices.

The probe, though nowhere near final, has uncovered a winding trail of drugs, money and murder linked to Florida and Puerto Rico  and a cast of characters previously known to law enforcement in different capacities.

Clearly, theres a drugs and money nexus here, Lemma said.

An enigmatic victim

In life, Guerrero De Aguasvivas flashed a smile when surrounded by loved ones, celebrating birthdays and enjoying days out on the beach, according to video montages posted on her social media accounts.

A photo of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas posted on December 2023.

Yet she remains an elusive character in her own story. Not much is known about Guerrero De Aguasvivas  or how shes tied to the alleged criminal underworld. According to Lemma, the Homestead woman left her native Dominican Republic five years ago. She was married to Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, who runs Miguelito Barber Shop in Florida City.

Miami Herald reporters went to the barber shop, but a man sitting outside said Aguasvivas wasnt there. The business, according to state records, is registered under the name of Aguasvivas mother.

For at least some time, Aguasvivas wife, the woman in the Durango, worked at the Dominican Beauty Room Salon and Spa in Florida City. She became a licensed nail tech in 2022. A sign on the outside of the salon, in a small strip mall on West Palm Drive, stated: No News Reporter At Job Site. Please Respect Our Privacy.

A photo taken from across the street shows Dominican Beauty Room Salon and Spa, where Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas worked before she was murdered on April 11, 2024 in the Orlando area.

As reporters stood reading the sign, a woman opened the door and demanded they leave. The salon is owned by the family of Guerrero De Aguasvivas sister-in-law.

Reporters also went to an apartment on Southwest 142nd Avenue linked to Guerrero De Aguasvivas, but no one answered the door. The balcony was still adorned with strings of Christmas lights, and there was a Christmas-themed mat outside the front door. At least two cameras were installed in front of the unit.

A neighbor said he hasnt seen anyone come and go from the third-story apartment in months.

The secrecy surrounding Guerrero De Aguasvivas is compounded by the silence of loved ones. Friends and family have posted tributes for her on their social media pages, though none have responded to the Miami Heralds requests for comments.

The Homestead womans online activity offers a rare but limited glimpse into facets of her life. Guerrero De Aguasvivas, according to her Facebook, possibly has two children, including a 5-year-old daughter. She has not publicly posted photos of her and Aguasvivas  aside from a few on an X account that hasnt been active for a decade  despite the couples relationship dating back to at least 2013.

A photo from the wedding of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, left, and Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, right.

In several posts, she detailed how much she appreciated being a mother.

I have done something good in this life to deserve having a daughter like you, she said in Spanish on Facebook. ...I love you with all my heart, my soul, with the smallest cell that can exist inside of me. Only you have awakened in me feelings and emotions that I didnt know existed.

The end? Far from it

As detectives have pieced together the final moments of Guerrero De Aguasvivas life, the aftermath of the brutal slaying has been marked by odd twists and conflicting narratives.

One of the first peculiar revelations: She never called 911, despite having a phone on her in the car. According to Sheriff Lemma, Guerrero De Aguasvivas instead opted to call her husband when she noticed that a car was tailing her.

Dont stop, dont stop, anywhere, he advised her.

Aguasvivas also later told investigators that his wife was traveling to Central Florida to visit relatives. Family in the area, however, said they werent expecting a visit. From the jump, Lemma told reporters he was skeptical of Aguasvivas cooperation.

A photo of Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, the husband of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas.

But answers about why Guerrero De Aguasvivas was in Central Florida followed. Her brother, Luis Fernando Abreu, said he learned she was in the area to deliver money and other stuff for a friend, after doing his own digging, Lemma said.

Through an iCloud account, Abreu contacted Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez, who appears to be one of the last people Guerrero De Aguasvivas spoke to as she was driving on I-4 around downtown Orlando.

Abreu called the number through FaceTime, screenshotted the mans image and sent it to Seminole County detectives. Investigators ran that photo through a police database, and it almost 100% matched a mugshot taken of 27-year-old Crespo Hernandez during a 2019 arrest in Orange County, Orlandos home county.

Lemmas latest theory about the reason for Guerrero De Aguasvivas drive from Homestead is that she was meeting with Crespo Hernandez, who has since been arrested on state drug trafficking charges. The GPS route she was taking indicates that she was headed to his home, less than three miles from where she was carjacked.

Though not directly associated with Guerrero De Aguasvivas carjacking, Crespo Hernandezs live-in girlfriend Monicsabel Romero Soto, 28, is facing federal cocaine charges after allegedly picking up a package with three bricks of cocaine tucked inside a lamp.

READ MORE: Whos linked to the case of a Homestead woman fatally carjacked in a coordinated ambush?

The green Acura connected to Guerrero De Aguasvivas fatal kidnapping is connected to the shooting death of tow truck driver Juan Luis Cintron Garcia, 39, just a day before in Orange County. At both murder scenes, dozens of spent 10-mm bullets were found.

The green Acura, police say, was towed by Cintron Garcia from an Orange County apartment complex on March 11.

The green Acura sedan from which the Seminole County Sheriffs Office say the carjacker emerged.

Police traced the rare car back to its owner, 28-year-old Jordanish Torres-Garcia, whos accused of being the masked carjacker. Kevin Omar Ocasio-Justiniano, 28, is suspected of being behind the wheel of the Acura during the ambush.

The complex web of murder, drugs and money is why federal agencies, including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, are taking over the probe.

The arrest of these four individuals does not mark the end of this investigation, Roger Handberg, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, told reporters during a recent briefing. Far from it.

Lengthy history with the feds

The question of who was behind the carjacking is one of the few that no longer lingers. Investigators say the masked man was Torres-Garcia  and that he outright confessed, according to a complaint.

But Torres-Garcia spun a bizarre yarn when talking to FBI agents. He claimed that half an hour before the kidnapping, he met with someone near the area of Lake Drive in Seminole County who gave him an AR-15 rifle and $1,500 to deliver Guerrero De Aguasvivas to another individual, the complaint says.

READ MORE: Man admits he was paid to kidnap Homestead woman in Central Florida, FBI says

That person wasnt named in the document, though its unclear if Torres-Garcia provided a name.

Jordanish Torres-Garcia

The carjacking investigation isnt his first run-in with federal agents.

In 2015, Puerto Rican drug unit detectives found Torres-Garcia in a San Juan apartment with two pistols, a rifle, dozens of rounds of ammunition and apparel with police branding. He pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge in 2016 and was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of probation.

At the time of the kidnapping, Torres-Garcia was still on probation. He was accused of violating his probation twice: once in 2019 for not reporting to a halfway house after his release from federal prison in Central Florida, and again, in 2022, after he was arrested by Orlando police for alleged stalking.

Torres-Garcias ex and the mother of his child told police he spammed her with calls and fired a gun into her backyard when she didnt respond, according to court records. The state case was dismissed, though his federal probation was extended until 2025.

A transcript from Torres-Garcias 2016 sentencing sheds more light into his past. The then-21-year-old was a troubled youth, shuffling in and out of juvenile institutions since the age of 16. His defense attorney argued that some of his criminal history  which included a burglary charge and an assault conviction for hitting another inmate  was a product of his immaturity.

A copy of Jordanish Torres-Garcias criminal record in Puerto Rico.

Most of his life hes been under incarceration, the attorney said, according to the transcript. He has had no opportunity to be in a community and to develop as a mature adult.

When weighing Torres-Garcias possible sentence, the judge considered how he obtained a GED, underwent mental health treatment and took a few nursing classes at John Dewey University in Puerto Rico. He asked prosecutors if they had any evidence of Torres-Garcias involvement in carjackings, robberies, murders or drug offenses before requesting that he address the court.

Torres-Garcia, seemingly expressing remorse, said he ignorantly had guns on him out of anger because I had lost a relative.

Im repentant of the things that I have done and I have learned many things in the time that I have been detained and I dont want to get into any more trouble, he said, according to the transcript.

A gang affiliation?

While law-enforcement authorities have alluded to the carjacking being associated with a drug trafficking network, there have been no established connections to gangs or organized crime groups  until agents narrowed in on Ocasio-Justiniano.

Ocasio-Justiniano, who also goes by Kevo, is a known drug dealer and member of the 6s gang in Orlando, according to a complaint filed in federal court. It remains unclear how the accused getaway driver came to the attention of agents during the carjacking probe.

READ MORE: Two facing federal charges in connection to Homestead womans carjacking, murder, cops say

He was picked up in Puerto Rico, where hes being held on an unrelated federal automatic weapons possession and drug trafficking warrant.

According to the complaint, detectives witnessed Ocasio-Justiniano driving off in a teal Acura MDX from a Central Florida home that was being staked out as a target in a 2022 DEA investigation. Some time later, he met with a street-level drug dealer, who showed agents dozens of bags of cocaine and fentanyl as well as hot shot hits, a mix of cocaine and fentanyl, given to him by Ocasio-Justiniano.

Ocasio-Justiniano was also surveilled at a notorious stash house in the Orlando area. Investigators detained him, the filing says, and found bags of cocaine and fentanyl identical to the drugs sold by the 6s. A .40 caliber Glock with an auto sear, which makes the firearm a fully automatic machine gun, was spotted, tucked away inside a car.

Kevin Omar Ocasio-Justiniano

When asked about the drugs, Ocasio-Justiniano said he hangs around people who use them, the document states. He initially denied knowing about the gun, though he later admitted to using it.

Ocasio-Justiniano has been on polices radar in the past, too, court records show.

He was arrested in August 2022 on a slew of charges that include burglary, assault and false imprisonment, after his ex accused him of breaking into her home, slapping her and pointing a gun at several people. The couple had broken up, and Ocasio-Justiniano had moved out.

The ex-girlfriend said he told her that she better move because he will always be around and he will make her life a living hell. The case was dismissed after one of the victims signed a sworn statement declining prosecution.

In March that same year, Ocasio-Justiniano was charged with battery, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer after allegedly beating two men in the head with a bottle in the VIP section of an Orlando club. Police say Ocasio-Justiniano became irate after the men, regulars at the club, unknowingly crossed over to his section.

Ocasio-Justiniano entered a no contest plea in January 2023, records show. He was found guilty and was ordered to complete three years of probation.

His only drug-related charge was in 2020, after police pulled him over in a 2004 black Acura and discovered that he had four oxycodone pills and marijuana on him. Ocasio-Justiniano entered a plea and was released with time served after spending 59 days in jail.

Cocaine bricks, 2 Glocks and $13K in cash

As the case evolved, it quickly became apparent that theres more to the story  and that it stems beyond Central Florida. Many of the people associated with Guerrero De Aguasvivas fate have links to Puerto Rico.

However, Crespo Hernandez is the only person of interest with established ties to South Florida.

Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez

Crespo Hernandez, according to a complaint, was the target of a 2020 Homeland Security probe in the Miami area that led to agents seizing more than $300,000. Hes also a known member of a drug trafficking organization and a person of interest in a series of home invasions and homicide investigations.

READ MORE: Arrests made in investigation into Homestead womans deadly carjacking

The name of the trafficking organization wasnt included in the document. There are no public court records related to the 2020 federal inquiry, and its unclear why Crespo Hernandez wasnt charged.

When detectives searched his Seminole County home in March, they located fentanyl, more than $13,000 in cash, two Glock firearms, multiple cellphones and expensive jewelry, the filing states. A Toyota in the driveway had a trap space within the car, a ploy used by traffickers to hide drugs.

At left, a firearm and money were found in a pouch in the Casselberry, Florida, home of Monicsabel Romero Soto and Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez, federal agents say. At right, a trap space was found inside the Toyota found in the homes driveway, agents say. Investigators believe the couple may be connected to the deadly carjacking of 31-year-old Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, a Homestead woman.

Crespo Hernandez is being held without bond on state fentanyl trafficking and marijuana with intent to sell charges. Hes currently not facing charges in connection to Guerrero De Aguasvivas carjacking.

His live-in girlfriend, Romero Soto, was arrested by federal agents in April after they say she took delivery of three bricks of cocaine  worth $60,000  that were found in a lamp in a package sent from Puerto Rico to a St. Cloud home in Osceola County. She, holding her 3-month old daughter on her hip, had picked up the lamp and was stopped by federal agents.

READ MORE: Bricks of cocaine found in lamp offer clue into a Homestead womans deadly carjacking

A Homeland Security agent testified in court that there was a thriving drug enterprise at the couples home  and that packages had been delivered to the St. Cloud address under names associated with Romero Soto since 2021.

Monicsabel Romero Soto

A judge ordered Romero Soto, who moved to Central Florida from Puerto Rico in 2018, released from detention last week because she wasnt a flight risk  despite evidence of a substantial, long-running criminal enterprise, the judge noted at her hearing.

Attorney Susan Malove argued that Romero Soto is very concerned about her children, ages 3 months and 10, and will comply with court orders to regain custody of them. The children are under the supervision of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Deputy is first domino to fall

In a strange twist, one of the first clues in the puzzling deadly carjacking was the arrest of Orange County Deputy Francisco Estrella Chicon, whos accused of illegally accessing the personal and professional profile information of the lead Seminole County detective on the case.

Using a bogus name, Estrella Chicon called the lead investigator and said he was a detective in Orange County  and a cousin of Guerrero De Aguasvivas, according to an arrest report. He said he was calling because he was concerned about his cousin and asked how the case was progressing.

READ MORE: Orlando-area deputys arrest links him to husband of carjacked, murdered Homestead woman: cops

The Seminole County detective told Estrella Chicon she couldnt discuss the case with him, but also asked if he knew why Guerrero De Aguasvivas was in the area, the report says. He responded that he didnt know as he wasnt in regular contact with her.

About five minutes after getting off the phone, Estrella Chicon sent a recording of that conversation on WhatsApp to the Homestead womans husband, according to court documents. Estrella Chicons wife is Aguasvivas childhood friend.

Orange County Deputy Francisco Estrella Chicon

Estrella Chicon was hired in September 2022. He has been relieved of all law enforcement duties without pay while the criminal case is under way.

These are very serious criminal allegations. It is completely unacceptable for any law enforcement officer to misuse the power and authority of their job, Sheriff John Mina said. At the Orange County Sheriffs Office, we hold our deputies to the highest ethical standards, and we will not tolerate anyone breaking the law within our ranks.

Sitting beside his attorney in a suit and tie, Estrella Chicon told reporters that he answered a call from Abreu  Guerrero De Aguasvivas brother  and felt compelled to help him.

Somehow theyve implicated myself with all these heinous crimes, Estrella Chicon said. ...I just want to get my life back.
The 2016 release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Donald Trump made lewd comments about women to TV host Billy Bush, bothered Trump and his campaign a lot more than they told the public, his former aide Hope Hicks testified in court Friday during Trumps hush-money trial.

Hicks served as press secretary for the campaign during that time. She testified that Trump learned about the tape when thenWashington Post reporter David Farenthold emailed the campaign with a partial transcript, asking for comment. The prosecutor asked Hicks what her first reaction was, to which Hicks replied that she was very concerned.

She forwarded the email with FW: URGENT WashPost query as the subject line to campaign leaders Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Bannon. The text of the email read:

FLAGGING. 1) [...] Need to hear the tape to be sure. 2) [...] Deny, deny, deny.

Hicks testified that she thought the tapes release would be a massive story leading the news cycle for at least several days. After watching Trumps video response to the tape, which was posted to Twitter (now called X) on October 8, 2016, Hicks agreed with a prosecutors statement that Trumps words downplaying the tape were very different from the actions the campaign took. She noted that stories about the tape even pushed a Category 4 hurricane out of the news.

Prosecutors hope Hickss testimony can help them make the case that Donald Trumps campaign went into a crisis mode after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, giving them reason to try to cover up other allegations of Trumps extramarital affairs. However, some of those allegations were deemed inadmissible in the trial by Judge Juan Merchan.

Earlier in her testimony, Hicks noted that Trump had a close, hands-on role in the campaigns words and statements.

He knew what he wanted to say and how we wanted to say it. We were always following his lead, Hicks said.

Trump is accused of trying to cover up an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election by paying her off through his attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, and is facing 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Daniels and Cohen have yet to testify, so the most damaging information to Trumps case may be yet to come.
Longtime Trump communications director Hope Hicks broke down sobbing on the witness stand on Friday.

It came minutes after Hicks delivered a particularly damning round of testimony against Trump, and just as Trump defense attorney Emil Bove opened cross-examination.

Hicks had finished testifying about an apparent lie that Trump told her during his presidency.

In 2018, the Wall Street Journal had published an article revealing that Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to remain silent about her tryst with Trump; Michael Cohen followed up by telling the New York Times that he made the payment out of the kindness of his heart, and kept it secret in a bid to protect Trump.

Hicks told prosecutor Matthew Colangelo that she spoke with Trump about the issue, and that he reiterated the version of the story that Cohen told: he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anyone about it, Trump said, per Hicks.

Colangelo followed up, asking Hicks first how long she had known Cohen at that point, and whether it was consistent with her understanding of his character.

I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person, she replied after saying shed known him for 3.5 years. The kind of person who seeks credit.

Colangelo followed up with two more questions: whether Trump said anything else about the payment, and if he expressed any thoughts about the timing of news reports on the issue.

On the first, Hicks testified, Trump said he thought it was a generous thing to do and that he was appreciate of the loyalty.

But it was Hicks testimony on the second question which both drove home the damage to Trump, and which concluded direct examination.

She said that Trump wanted to know her opinion about the story, and what its value would have been had the payment not been made. Trump, she said, said he believed that it was better to deal with it in 2018  years after the 2016 election.

That testimony, from a longtime member of Trumps inner circle, buttressed prosecutors case that Trump intended to subvert campaign finance laws by falsifying business records to cover up reimbursements to Cohen. Hicks laid out in a few minutes that she did not find the idea that Cohen did it on his own to be credible, and that Trump believed it benefitted his campaign to have kept the story out of the news.

It came after hours in which Hicks gave very controlled testimony, trying hard at moments to make positive remarks about her time with Trump. At one point, she said that Trump was worried about how Melania would react to the revelation about the affair with Karen McDougal; at another, she described the reactions to the Access Hollywood tape in the forced, neutral language of corporate crisis communications. It was a damaging development, she said, eliciting sharp language from GOP leaders.

Some of them called on Trump to resign over the tape; others, like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), exhibited less specific disapproval. Of Trumps reaction to the criticism, Hicks subtly put the blame on his fellow Republicans while suggesting that the situation was typical: I think he was frustrated, but it was not unusual to have any of those individuals speaking out and saying negative things about Mr. Trump, especially in response to controversy. That was pretty typical.

Hicks maintained that restraint throughout her testimony. But after Colangelo ended his questioning and Emil Bove, a Trump defense attorney, began his, things changed.

Bove began to ask Hicks for basic biographical details, including her time working for the Trump organization. She turned her head to one side and began to sob, picking up a tissue to dab the tears away from her face.

Judge Merchan excused her for several minutes. Bove completed his cross examination later on Friday.
Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. It was a historic week in the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president, with Donald Trump being held in criminal contempt. Judge Juan Merchan hasnt jailed him yet over his repeated gag order violations  and prosecutors havent asked him to yet  but the threat of incarceration looms as we enter the third week of testimony.

This second week made progress on the states election-interference theory. Two of the biggest witnesses this week were former Trump aide Hope Hicks and Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented alleged hush money recipients Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. Both Davidson and Hicks testified to, among other things, the impact of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, which is taking on its own starring role in the prosecution even if the recording itself doesnt come into evidence.

A damaging development is how Hicks described the tape that was released just ahead of the 2016 election. The recording showed Trump a decade earlier bragging about being able to grab women by their genitals. It wasnt until Access Hollywood that interest sort of reached a crescendo, Davidson testified, explaining how the deal went down to secure Daniels silence as Trump successfully sought the White House. Expect to keep hearing about the tape as the case goes on.

Trump also broke new ground this week by earning the criminal contempt finding from Merchan. The judge said in a ruling Tuesday that Trump violated the gag order nine times. Merchan imposed the maximum fines available of $9,000 total and warned the defendant that jail may be next. The judge held yet another hearing over more possible violations Thursday, but prosecutors still didnt press for jail yet, they said, to avoid disrupting the proceeding.

One wonders how much longer they  and ultimately, Merchan  can delay the seeming inevitable incarceration of a defendant who prosecutors allege keeps violating the court order.

The Supreme Court is done with oral arguments after last weeks immunity hearing in Trumps case. But the justices issued orders in pending appeals, blocking former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarros bid to get out of jail, turning away Elon Musks appeal against the SEC, and declining a free speech challenge to a Texas law requiring age verification for pornography sites, which makes adults submit personal information.

The justices are set to issue opinions this coming week, on Thursday. Will we see the Trump immunity decision then? That would surprise me, partly because they have much else to decide as well.

Have any questions or comments for me? Id love to hear from you! Please email deadlinelegal@nbcuni.com for a chance to be featured in a future newsletter.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Donald Trumps former communications director Hope Hicks provided testimony on Friday that could be helpful both to prosecutors and the former presidents defense, revealing the fallout inside the Trump campaign in the wake of the damaging Access Hollywood tape on which Trump bragged about sexual assault.

Related: Hope Hicks tells hush-money jury of Trumps control over 2016 campaign

Here are the key takeaways from day 11 of People of New York v Donald J Trump:

Hicks suggests Trump was behind money to Daniels

Hicks bolstered a key part of the prosecutors case that Trump was the source of the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels, when she cast doubt on the description relayed to her by Trump himself, that his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen had simply paid Daniels out of selflessness.

Prosecutors asked on direct examination what Hicks thought of that account. That would be out of character for Michael, Hicks acknowledged. I didnt know him to be an especially selfless person. He was the kind of person to seek credit.

Hicks casting serious doubt on Trumps suggestion that Cohen paid the money was an important moment: she essentially discredited the Trump teams contention that the entire hush-money scheme was orchestrated by Cohen and Trump was removed from the operation.

In doing so, Hicks also provided a second win for prosecutors, as she revealed that Trump had some direct knowledge about the hush-money scheme.

Trumps lawyer Emil Bove twice objected when the Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Matthew Colangelo pried into whether it would have been out of character for Cohen to have paid the hush money without telling Trump, but the judge overruled both objections.

Hicks helps Trumps Melania defense

Hicks handed a gift to Trump when she testified on direct examination that the reaction of his wife Melania was his biggest concern on the morning that the Wall Street Journal article detailing the hush-money payments came out three days before the 2016 election.

He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, Hicks said.

The Trump team suggested in opening statements that the main reason why the catch-and-kill scheme to buy Daniels story happened was because Trump found it embarrassing for him and for Melania  an alternative explanation to prosecutors case that it was to influence the election.

Prosecutors subsequently tried to have Hicks add that Trump was also concerned about those stories derailing his 2016 campaign, but Hicks only offered that Trump was always asking how certain news would play with voters.

Hicks helps Trump distance Cohen

Under cross-examination by the Trump lawyer Bove, Hicks also affirmed that Cohen had juvenile tendencies and that he often inserted himself into the Trump 2016 campaign unsolicited even though he had no formal role with the campaign, which had its own lawyers.

Bove asked Hicks in a series of quickfire questions: If Cohen took unauthorized actions? If Cohen went rogue? Or if Cohen sometimes did things that were unhelpful? He liked to call himself fixer, or Mr Fix-It. And it was only because he first broke it.

In granting that Cohen sometimes acted unilaterally, Hicks opened the door for Trumps team to lean into their contention that Trump was removed from the catch-and-kill schemes and it was Cohen freelancing his way through the operation.
Hope Hicks Says Trump Campaign Was In Crisis After Access Hollywood Tape

Former Donald Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks began testifying Friday in the business fraud trial thats ensnared her former boss, whom she described as very involved in the operations media strategy.

Recalling her long history with the Trump clan, Hicks said the Trump campaign was in crisis after the Washington Post in 2016 published a transcript of Trump bragging about his ability to sexually assault women.

An audio version of what became known as the Access Hollywood tape leaked soon after.

In it, Trump can be heard telling former Access Hollywood correspondent Billy Bush, When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab em by the pussy. You can do anything.

The development knocked coverage of a Category 4 hurricane from the news, Hicks recalled.

I had a good sense this was going to be a massive story and dominate the news cycle, she said in court Friday. I think there was consensus amongst us all that the tape was damaging and this was a crisis.

Prosecutors displayed an urgent email Hicks forwarded to senior members of the campaign regarding the tape and how they should respond.

FLAGGING, the email says, then offers two thoughts:

Need to hear the tape to be sure

Deny, deny, deny.

Hicks said Trumps response was initially pretty muted compared to the rest of the campaign staff, and that he regarded the tape as fairly standard subject matter for two guys chatting with each other.

That set the tenor for the campaigns initial, more dismissive, public statement, which cast the tape as no more than locker room banter and a private conversation that took place many years ago.

When that failed to quell the outrage, Hicks said, Trump agreed to release a more direct apology. In her recollection, Trump seemed more concerned with the political fallout than anything else.

Hicks relationship with Trump soured after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which she previously said made Trump staffers all look like domestic terrorists.

Trump faces 34 criminal counts for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made in 2016 to silence allegations of an extramarital affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutors will likely use the Access Hollywood tape to bolster their depiction of Trump as the type of person who could conceivably have had extramarital affairs. While jurors will not hear audio of the tape itself, it can be described and quoted from for the jury.

Related...
Hope Hicks Weeps In Testimony At Donald Trumps Hush Money Trial; Top Aide Details Payoff To Porn Star & How She Learned Of It  Update

2nd UPDATE 1:56 PM: Not for the first time, Donald Trump made someone cry today.

Hope Hicks wept on the stand today in the hush money trial of her former boss moments after a prosecutor had finished questioning her about her dealings with Trump and Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen. Finished talking to Assistant D.A. Matthew Coloangela on the stand in Manhattan, the former White House Communications Director had just begun taking questions from a defense lawyer when she turned her head away from the courtroom gallery and, crying audibly, reached for a tissue to dab away tears.

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Ms. Hicks, do you need a break? Judge Juan Merchan asked of the much anticipated witness. Yes, she replied in a shaky voice.

The court recessed for about 10 minutes, and Ms. Hicks returned to the stand. Sorry about that, she said.

Earlier, Hicks discussed the Trump campaigns decision to deny a Wall Street Journal story about American Medias hush money deal with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The story was published four days before the 2016 election and it also mentioned porn actor Stormy Daniels.

Hicks, the Trump campaigns press secretary, testified that her instructions to tell the Journal that Trump denied any sexual involvement with either woman came directly from Trump himself. I know very clearly that he stated the denials, she said.

When Cohen later texted her I have a statement from Storm denying everything, Hicks testified, I didnt know what he was talking about and I didnt want to know.

In February, after the election, The New York Times reported that Cohen admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels for her silence  the payment that triggered the Manhattan District Attorneys investigation of Trump and led to his indictment on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a reimbursement of Cohen.

Hicks testified that Trump told her, based on his own conversation about the Times article with Cohen, He did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo asked Hicks if that sounded like the Michael Cohen she knew  a question that drew an objection from the defense, which Judge Merchan overruled.

Id say that would be out of character for Michael, Hicks replied. I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person.

In a gentle cross-examination by Trump lawyer Emil Bove after her brief break to compose herself, Hicks described Cohen as a nuisance  someone continually inserting himself into a presidential campaign in which he had no official role.

He liked to call himself a fixer or Mr. Fix-it, and it was only because he first broke it, she said with a laugh.

But she did ask Cohen for his help after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced of Trump making crude remarks about women: Hicks called him to look into another rumor that there may be another tape that would be problematic for the campaign, she testified.

There was no such tape, regardless, but he sort of chased that down for me, Hicks said.

Hicks said Trumps concern about rumors of infidelity were for his family. I dont think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening in the campaign, she testified. He wanted them to proud of him.

After jurors were excused, Judge Merchan heard lawyers on whether to exclude his contempt findings against Trump from being brought up if Trump decides to testify  an indication that Trump could take the stand in his own defense.

Merchan quickly ruled for the defense, agreeing with Trump attorney Todd Blanche that letting jurors hear about Merchans contempt ruling would be prejudicial and very very difficult for a jury to look past.

Merchan still has yet to decide whether to find Trump in contempt again for more public statements aimed at witnesses and jurors that prosecutors say violate the judges gag order. On his way out of court, Trump was asked to comment on Hicks testimony and demurred, citing the gag order, per a pool report. He did allow that he was very interested in what took place today in court.

The trial resumes on Monday.

1st UPDATE, 11:30 AM: Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told a Manhattan jury today that Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign wanted Rupert Murdochs help in delaying an explosive Wall Street Journal story about the candidates alleged affair with the 1998 Playmate of the year

Having been out of the public eye since Trump left office in 2021, Hicks was testifying today in the former presidents 11-day old hush money trial, with her former boss sitting just a few feet away.

One topic that took up a lot of time in Hicks testimony was her repeated shocks of learning that the Celebrity Apprentice host had made crude remarks directed towards woman on the infamous Access Hollywood tape, followed by scandalous claims about Trump connected to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and a porn actor, Stormy Daniels, all in the final weeks of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

I had a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and dominate the news cycle for the next several days at least, Hicks, who was Trumps presidential campaign spokesperson in 2016, said on the stand, describing her reaction to a Washington Post reporter emailing her on October 7, 2016 for comment about the Access Hollywood tape.

She was sitting in her 14th floor office at Trump Tower in Manhattan when the email arrived. Trump was in a conference room on the 25th floor preparing for his second presidential debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. When she brought the news to the campaign officials upstairs, I think there was a consensus amongst us all that the tape was damaging and this was a crisis, Hicks testified.

When they brought the matter to Trump, she said his reaction was that it was almost like two guys talking privately. It was locker room talk, It wasnt anything to get upset over.

The campaign issued a written statement in which Trump called it locker room banter and added, Bill Clinton has said for worse to me on the golf course. They followed up with a longer video statement, posted to Twitter, in which Trump said, I was wrong. And I apologize.that

Hicks proved correct about the story dominating the news cycle. Questioned by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo, she recalled on the stand that the tape was one of the first questions he faced that weekend at Sundays presidential debate with ex-Secretary of State Clinton.

The next reporter inquiry came on November 4, four days before the election, from a Wall Street Journal reporter asking for comment on a hush-money contract between McDougal and American Media, owner of the National Enquirer tabloid. Hicks said the email arrived as Trumps campaign plane was about to land in Ohio for a barnstorming hangar rally at the airport. It was the first time shed heard of McDougal, and she said that in a follow-up call the reporter also mentioned Stormy Daniels.

Hicks said she forwarded the reporters email to Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and top political advisor, and then called him, knowing that he had a good relationship with Murdoch, the owner of the Journal. I was hoping he could buy a little extra time to deal with this, Hicks said, implying that he might intervene to delay publication. Kushner replied that he wasnt going top be able to reach Rupert and we should work on responding and deal with it, Hicks said.

Hicks said her next calls were to Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen, and after that, American Media CEO David Pecker. Hicks said she didnt really remember the conversation with Cohen, but theres a reason I called David next, she said, explaining that Cohen sort of feigned  he didnt know what I was talking about.

Pecker told her that the payment to McDougal was for magazine covers and fitness columns and it was all very legitimate, and thats what the contract was for.

In a later contact with Cohen to run a statement by him, Cohen recommended that Trump say, These accusations are completely untrue.

That was the gist of Trumps replies, in statements and on Twitter, and at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., to claims of sexual infidelity with McDougal and Daniels. Jurors saw a C-SPAN clip of Trump at the Greensboro rally telling the audience, These are all horrible lies, all fabrications.

Hicks testified that she believed she also discussed Daniels with Cohen, who unbeknownst to Hicks had already paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. He wanted to know the context of the reporters information, and he wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship, Hicks testified.

The Journal published its first story  focused on McDougal, but mentioning Daniels  that day. Asked by prosecutor Colangelo how she interpreted the article, Hicks said, I felt that the point of the story was that the National Enquirer paid a woman for her story and never published it. It wasnt necessarily about accusations of certain behavior.

In about 90 minutes of testimony before a court lunch break, Hicks struck a friendly tone towards Trump as he watched her on the stand. Hes a very good multitasker and a very hard worker, She said of the boss she worked for on Trump company matters and then on the campaign before becoming White House communications director. She said of the Trump Organization, Its a very big and successful company but it was run like a small family business in several ways.

She said that Trump is better than anybody at communications and branding, and that as a presidential candidate, he was very involved in matters of press and messaging.

I would say that Mr. Trump was responsible for the campaigns messaging, Hicks said. He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. We were all just following his lead.

Hicks will resume testifying after lunch.

PREVIOUSLY, 9:01 AM: Im really nervous, Hope Hicks told a packed Manhattan courtroom as the former White House Communications Director began her much anticipated testimony in Donald Trumps hush money trial.

Once one of the former Celebrity Apprentice hosts closest confidantes, Hicks testimony has been highly anticipated in this case of the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels to keep the story of the porn stars alleged affair with Trump out of the news in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. For lack of a better expression, Hicks is assumed to know where are all the bodies are buried in Trumpland.

This morning Hicks, who appeared in late 2022 via video deposition before House Select Committee hearing to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, confirmed she has not spoken to her former boss since the summer, fall of 2022. As the ex-White House and campaign aide began answering questions from Assistant District Attorney Matthew Coloangela, it was noticeably to those in the courtroom how Hicks mainly avoided eye contact with Trump, who is seated nearby.

However, Trump being Trump, the former POTUS looked right at Hicks when she complimented his skills in messaging in the early days of what many saw as a long shot or even joke campaign in 2015/2016. We were all just following his lead, Hicks said.

After a less than dramatic past few days in Trumps trial, cable news lit up Friday as news of Hicks appearance in the cameraless courtroom became known. CNN and MSNBC were full-on with hosts and pundits in studio and texts from reporters in the courtroom literally being read out on-air. Even Fox News, which has been giving the past and present GOP candidates legal proceedings less than wall-to-wall coverage the past 11 days, went live and strong on Hicks presence.

In the Anderson Cooper-attended courtroom, after some quick background information and details on the initially ramshackle 2016 campaign, Hicks is now being asked about Trumps bodyguard Keith Schiller and Trumps executive assistant, Rhona Graff., currently jailed Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and former fixer Michael Cohen.

Earlier in the day, lawyers in Trumps latest New York found themselves cooling their heels and waiting to find out if the 2024 Republican presidential nominee will be hit with another contempt finding and more penalties by Judge Juan Merchan.

This morning, however, Judge Merchan began by assuring Trump that a gag order against him wouldnt apply if he decides to take the stand. I want to stress, Mr. Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify, the judge said, calling it a constitutional right that cannot be denied.

Trump, in the hallway outside the courtroom on Thursday, said, Im not allowed to testify. Im under a gag order, I guess. I cant testify. He reversed himself this morning on his way into the courtroom. When a reporter asked, Does the gag order stop you from testifying? Trump responded, No.

Seated between his lawyers this morning Trump faced Merchan as the judge clarified to him that the gag order only applies to extrajudicial statements  that is, statements made outside of court.

As the trial nears the end of week three, Merchan has already fined Trump $9,000 and compelled him to pull down several online posts. The judges gag order on Trump prohibits public statements about likely witnesses, jurors and other trial participants. In a trial subplot that is happening out of view of jurors, prosecutors on Thursday argued for new sanctions based on another batch of Trump statements persistent and escalating rhetoric designed to intimidate witnesses, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Chris Conroy said.

Meanwhile, a data analyst for the Manhattan District Attorneys office returned to the stand this morning to be cross-examined by Trump lawyer Emil Bove.

The analyst, Douglas Daus, testified on Thursday that he extracted audio from a cell phone owned by lawyer Michael Cohen of a conversation with Cohens boss, Trump, about a hush-money payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Prosecutors played that call for jurors on Thursday and used the cellphone data to lay out Cohens extensive contacts in the Trump universe. The contacts included a White House spokesperson, Hope Hicks, and a Trump Organization accountant, Allen Weisselberg, who is in jail on Rikers Island after pleading guilty to perjury in a civil case against Trump for inflating his net worth.

Bove today continued questioning Daus about who else had Cohens phones before the DAs office received them, and what data might have been altered or deleted by then. Bove also sought to float doubts about the veracity of the audio in which Cohen and Trump discuss paying McDougal, noting the audio cuts out.

And in many ways were just going to have to take Michael Cohens word for it? Bove asked. Daus said yes.

Daus, on redirect, told prosecutor Conroy that he saw no evidence of tampering in the data extracted from Cohens phones. But he said yes when Bove. followed up by asking him, Did you see gaps in the handling of this data that created risks for such tampering?

It was a line of questioning that suggested Cohen, when his turn to testify comes, will face aggressive and skeptical questioning by Trump lawyers.

Jurors on Thursday watched Bove grill Beverly Hills lawyer Keith Davidson  who represented McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels  for his earlier dealings on behalf of clients with celebrity gossip to sell. Davidson worked with Cohen and a tabloid editor, Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer, to arrange payments in 2016 to McDougal and Daniels so that neither would air claims of extramarital sex with the GOPs White House nominee.

Jurors also heard Cohen and Davidson, in calls secretly recorded by Cohen, talking about the payment to Daniels. Prosecutors and defense lawyers both played audio to bolster their dueling claims: that Trump directed Cohen to make the Daniels payment; or that Cohen acted on his own to gain leverage over his boss.

Davidsons clients included people with dirt to sell about actors Charlie Sheen and Lindsey Lohan and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. But as jurors saw, none of those earlier dealings came with the political or historical stakes of the claims being made by McDougal and Daniels.

What have we done? David texted Howard as Election Night results showed Trump winning.

Oh my god, Howard texted back in an exchange shown in screenshots.

By then, Davidson had brokered a $130,000 hush money payment for Daniels from Cohen, with Howard helping the negotiations stay on track. Howards boss, American Media CEO David Pecker, wasnt purchasing the Daniels story in order to bury it as he had done with McDougals for $150,000. But Pecker, who testified last week, was a friend of Trumps with an interest in keeping him scandal-free in his march to the White House.

Davidson told a prosecutor on Thursday that his text to Howard was gallows humor and an acknowledgement that our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Davidson finished his two days of testimony with a grueling cross-examination. Ex-prosecutor Bove all but called Davidson an extortionist, positioning Trump as one of Davidsons marks instead of a political candidate breaking business and election laws to conceal a sexual scandal and cover up an illegal reimbursement to Cohen.

It was the kind of aggressive pushback that Trump himself might have applauded, based on his reported unhappiness with lead defense lawyer Todd Blanche. At the contempt hearing on Thursday morning that jurors did not see, Trump looked incredulously at Blanche when the lawyer said I agree with Judge Merchan that nobody forced your client to talk to reporters in the hallway about Cohen.

Nobodys forcing him, Blanche said. But hes running for president: He has to be able to speak.

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Hope Hicks, Donald Trumps 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-presidents New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchans courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffers panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. This was a crisis for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

Hicks also placed Trump squarely at the center of his campaign media strategy, telling jurors we were all just following his lead. The testimony marks a turning point for prosecutors, as she is the first Trump staffer with intimate knowledge of Trumps campaign to testify about his alleged misconduct.

Prosecutors allege that he tried to use payoffs to bury stories that could harm his candidacy. While her name has come up at various points during the trial, Hickss placement of Trump in the middle of this alleged media strategy is a stunning development.

Who overall was responsible for branding strategy? prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked.

I would say that Mr Trump was responsible, Hicks said. He deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on in terms of the agenda that he put forth.

Hicks  who reportedly had a close relationship with Trump until her anger about the January 6 insurrection surfaced  was clearly uncomfortable. When Hicks walked to the witness stand on Friday in the ex-presidents New York criminal hush-money trial, he traced her with his eyes as she passed him. Hicks, a willowy figure who crossed into the well with small steps, had a quavering voice as she introduced herself to jurors.

My name is Hope Charlotte Hicks, and my last name is spelled H-I-C-K-S, she said. Unsure the mic was picking up her voice, she said: Im really nervous.

Hicks, who was repeatedly interviewed by Robert Mueller due to her longtime proximity to Trump, also served in the White House as his communications director.

When Hicks was questioned about the Access Hollywood tape that leaked in early October 2016  in which Trump notoriously boasted that when a man is famous, he can grab [women] by the pussy  jurors were shown a transcript of the tape.

Asked what her first reaction was to receiving an email from a Washington Post reporter about the tape, Hicks said she was very concerned about the contents of the email, and the lack of time to respond.

She says she forwarded the email with the subject line: URGENT WashPost query to others in the campaign. It was a damaging development, Hicks said. [The] consensus among us that this was damaging  this was a crisis.

Former tabloid honcho David Pecker  whom prosecutors said colluded with Trump and Michael Cohen to bury stories that could hurt his campaign  said Hicks was present at the trios summer 2015 Trump Tower meeting.

Pecker also testified that Hicks was present on a call in which Trump railed angrily about one of his alleged paramours doing TV interviews. Manhattan prosecutors contend that Cohen bought Danielss silence about a claimed sexual liaison with Trump for $130,000.

They say that he coordinated the National Enquirer parent company AMIs payoff to Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who also alleged a sexual relationship with Trump. They allege that Cohen did so to prevent damaging information from thwarting Trumps presidential bid.

Trump faces counts for allegedly falsifying business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as legal expenses on his companys documents. Prosecutors contended that Trump, Cohen and Pecker hatched their catch-and-kill scheme during that summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower.

Hicks was also asked on Friday about a media inquiry from the Wall Street Journal, which was running a story in early November 2016 about AMIs purchase of Daniels and McDougals stories  and failure to run them. Hicks said that she thought she had spoken with Trump after getting this inquiry.

He wanted to know the context and he wanted to make sure there was a denial of any kind of relationship, Hicks said, expressing confusion as to why he wanted to do that. I felt the point of the story was that National Enquirer paid a woman for her story and never published it.

Jurors were also shown text messages between Hicks and Cohen in which she repeatedly told him to pray! that the 4 November 2016 Wall Street Journal article on AMIs purchase of Danielss and McDougals stories would not gain traction.

At this point of her testimony, Hicks seemed to appreciate the absurdity of this situation. When she read aloud Cohens text about the article, calling it poorly written and I dont see it getting much play, Hicks chuckled. A little irony there, she remarked, and again laughed softly. I said I agree with that.

Even though the Journal story did not tank Trumps campaign, or get all that much attention at the time, Hicks said that he was still worried  including about Melania Trump catching word of the coverage. He wanted me to make sure that the newspapers were [not] delivered to their residence that morning, Hicks told jurors.

Whatever humor might have emerged from recalling her exchange with Cohen dissipated shortly thereafter. Right when Trump attorney Emil Bove started his cross-examination of Hicks, as he gently asked about the commencement of her career with Trump, she choked up.

Merchan asked Hicks whether she needed to take a break.

Uhm, yes, please, she said.

As Hicks walked out of Merchans courtroom, a piece of balled up tissue could be seen in her hand.
KABUL, May 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 1.5 million Afghan refugees have returned from neighbors Pakistan and Iran to their homeland Afghanistan over the past year of 1402 in the Persian calendar (March 21, 2023 to March 19, 2024), local media reported on Friday.

The media outlet quoting Khalil Rahman Haqqani, the acting minister of refugee affairs, added that around 1 million refugees have returned home from Iran and 600,000 others from Pakistan.

The Afghan caretaker government has been urging Afghan migrants living abroad to return home and contribute to rebuilding their war-ravaged country. 
Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks took the stand in Manhattan court Friday to testify in the criminal trial of her ex-boss, Donald Trump.

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last year, revolves around allegations that a 2016 hush-money payment made at Trumps direction to adult film actress Stormy Daniels violated campaign finance laws.

Hicks, who left the White House alongside the former president in 2021, was a central figure in Trumps 2016 campaign and subsequent administration  and her name has already been invoked in the trial.

Former tabloid executive David Pecker testified last week that Hicks was aware of and, at times, present for negotiations around a 2015 deal brokered between himself, Trump, and Trumps former attorney Michael Cohen in which Pecker would act as the eyes and ears of the campaign and kill potentially damaging stories about the then-candidate.

On the stand, Hicks recalled that the former president had heaped praise on Pecker after the National Enquirer published a piece accusing former brain surgeon and Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson of leaving a sponge in the brain of a patient. Pecker had previously testified that part of the deal hed struck with the Trump campaign included boosting damaging stories against his 2016 rivals.

Hicks told the court that Trump had described some of the hit pieces published by the Enquirer as Pulitzer-worthy, and were great investigative pieces. Pecker previously testified that the Carson medical malpractice stories were given to him by Michael Cohen, or in the case of the story linking Ted Cruzs father to Lee Harvey Oswald, were fabricated completely.

The former aide repeatedly asserted that she reported directly to the former president, and prosecutors heavily questioned Hicks about the infamous Access Hollywood tape  which they contend was the central scandal that moved the Trump campaign to attempt to squash Daniels allegations of an affair with the former president.

I was concerned. Very concerned, Hicks said of the moment she first received a transcript, via email, of the tape. I was concerned about the contents of the email, I was concerned about the lack of time to respond, I was concerned that we had a transcript but not a tape. There was a lot at play.

Hicks testified she forwarded the email to key Trump players, including Kellyanne Conway, Jason Miller, and Steve Bannon. In the email, she wrote: Need to hear the tape to be sure. Deny, deny, deny. Immediately after sending the email, Hicks ran up to the 26th floor of Trump Tower where Trump was gathered with the three people above as well as Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller, and spoke with them about the transcript.

The sight of the six of us gathered out there meant that something was afoot. So Mr. Trump asked us to come into the conference room at some point and share with him what we were discussing, Hicks testified on Friday. He said that didnt sound like something he would say.

Mr. Trump said this wasnt good, she continued. It was two guys talking privately, locker room talk. I think he felt like it was pretty standard stuff, for two guys fattening up each other.

With a debate less than two days away, Hicks and the Trump campaign team said the Access Hollywood tape had taken over the media cycle. It was intense. It dominated coverage for all 36 hours leading up to the debate. In the hours that ensued, Republican leaders like Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and Mitch McConnell among others made particularly sharply worded statements directed at Trump.

In the aftermath of the debacle, Hicks said that she spoke to Cohen about identifying other potentially damaging stories. In 2016, when the campaign learned that The Wall Street Journal intended to publish a story on an alleged affair between Trump and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Hicks testified that she reached out to the former presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch and I was hoping to see if we could buy a little extra time to deal with this, she said. Kushner immediately informed her he couldnt get in touch with Murdoch and that we would need to punt on this.

During this time, Trump was giving a campaign speech in an airport hangar in Ohio. While she waited for Trump to get offstage, Hicks says she called Cohen about the article and said, Michael feigned that he didnt know what I was talking about and I should connect with David [Pecker] to get more information.

Matters only worsened when Trump finally regrouped with Hicks, learned of the impending article, and requested she call Pecker back again and demand he tell her what he would tell the Journal. Mr. Trump didnt want to use the statements, Hicks said of several prepared statements she and Cohen authored. He wanted to have a conversation of what David [Pecker] had told me previously.

That this was a legitimate contract and thats what he wanted to tell the Journal, she testified. It was just a denial of the accusations and the statements, that they were totally untrue and that we didnt know about this deal.

He wanted to know the context and he wanted to make sure there was a denial of any kind of relationship, Hicks said of Trump. He felt the point of the story was that the National Enquirer paid a woman for her story and never published it. It wasnt necessarily about accusations of certain behavior.

The denial was from Mr. Trump for both women, and thats very clear, Hicks continued.

Three days before the election and after the publication of The Wall Street Journal article, Cohen texted Hicks and said I have a statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars statement. I wouldnt use it now or even discuss it with him as no one is talking about this or cares!

Hicks says Trump wasnt so much worried about the articles substance, but rather, the effect it could have on his family. He was concerned about the story, he was concerned it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers werent going to be delivered to their residence that morning, she testified.

The story picked up little attention in the days that followed, and ultimately, proved to be but a little blip on Trumps election the following week. However, news of the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels once again graced newspaper pages in February 2017 when The New York Times published a story of AMIs refusal to make the hush money payment  and included a statement made by Cohen saying he did it with the kindness of his own heart he never told anybody, Hicks testified.

When asked if this statement rang true for Cohen, whom Hicks had known for well over three years at the point, Hicks said, It would certainly be out of character for Michael. I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person. Hes the kind of person who seeks credit.

I used to say he liked to call himself Mr. Fix It and it was only because he first broke it that he was then able to fix it, Hicks joked.

Trump, in turn, thought it was a general thing to do, and he was appreciative of the loyalty of Michael, Hicks testified. Mr. Trump thought it was better to be dealing with it now and said it would be bad if it had come out during the election, she said, adding Trump at one point told her it was better Cohen made the payment and the story went live than if he didnt, and it would have been an entirely different story.

Hicks broke into tears after Trump lawyer Emil Bove began cross-examination once prosecutor Matthew Colangelo finished his line of questioning. Court resumed late Friday afternoon with Hicks describing the relationship Cohen had with the Trump campaign and behind the scenes working to lessen the blow of the Karen McDougal and Daniels stories.

Hicks testimony paints a picture of a campaign that was scrambling to mitigate the potential damage already done by the Access Hollywood tape  and prevent any repeat scandals in the weeks before the 2016 election. That panic, prosecutors argue, would ultimately lead to the hush money payment to Daniels, and the crime at the center of their case.

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Hope Hicks was known as Donald Trumps gatekeeper, a calming force for the former president who has been by his side for years as a loyal confidante.

She is now playing a key role as a witness in his trial. On Friday, Hicks took the stand as a witness for the prosecution in the New York criminal trial, where she testified against her former boss.

Earlier in the trial, former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid David Pecker testified about a conference call set up by Trump with Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who at the time was serving in the Trump administration and is now the governor of Arkansas. The call centered around Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and an agreement with her to prevent her from speaking about the alleged affair with Trump.

They thought that it was a good idea, Pecker testified of Hicks and Huckabee Sanders.

On the witness stand Friday, Hicks testified that she crafted several possible responses to a Wall Street Journal story about McDougals hush money and shared them with Trumps former fixer Michael Cohen. When she started her testimony, her voice wavered and she said she was nervous.

She also told the jury about how the notorious Access Hollywood tape was a damaging development during the 2016 election cycle.

Hicks became  along with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski  one of the two main staffers during the earliest days of his 2016 campaign. Trump at the time was regarded as a sideshow by the media, before becoming the dominant leader in the primary and, later, the Republican Party nominee. While there were multiple shakeups throughout Trumps successful bid, Hicks always survived  an indication of her closeness with Trump.

Hicks joined Trumps White House as a top adviser. She was frequently in the Oval Office with the president, and maintained a close relationship with Trumps daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom were also senior figures in the White House. While other aides were locked in infighting and turmoil, Hicks largely managed to stay above the fray.

While Trump cycled through a number of top advisers, who rose and fell in his favor, Hicks was a near constant. Her title was senior communications adviser, but that belied her importance. Her real job, those who worked with her say, was to manage Trump. Her office was right outside the Oval Office, a reflection of her importance to the former president.

"Hope was one of the presidents most loyal and dedicated advisers, said Raj Shah, a former Trump White House official. What separated her from others was that she was among few very savvy operatives who'd been with him from the beginning. The president instinctively trusted her judgment."

While many of those in the Trump White House were motivated to drive a policy or personal agenda, those who worked with Hicks say she had one interest: Trump himself.

But that closeness also led to her getting wrapped up in his legal issues. Hicks, for example, appeared before the grand jury last year before Trump was indicted.

She also drew attention in 2018, when it emerged she reportedly had a romantic relationship with a fellow White House adviser, Rob Porter.

That year, she left the White House for the West Coast, and moved to Los Angeles to work for the Fox Corporation. Friends said she did not like being so far away from her family, and once again returned to Washington in March of 2020 as a counselor to the president. Her vision for the job was to travel with him and provide strategic advice  but it was the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and her attention was pulled toward helping manage communications for the incoming public health crisis.

Hicks left the White House on Jan. 12, 2021, six days after the deadly Capitol siege and eight days before Trump left office. Hicks said at the time that her departure was planned before the riot.

Hicks, it later emerged, had been highly critical of Trumps conduct around the Capitol riot. The House committee investigating the attack later released text messages Hicks sent to Ivanka Trump chief of staff Julie Radford in which she wrote that in one day [Trump] ended every future opportunity that doesnt include speaking engagements at the local proud boys chapter.

More recently, Hicks has done strategic communications consulting for controversial fast-fashion retailer Shein, which has attracted recent attention in Washington for its ties to China. During the 2022 midterm election, Hicks served as an adviser to unsuccessful Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, who is married to former Trump White House official Dina Powell.

Hope is extremely smart, politically savvy and strategic, said Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House official. She has an incredible ability to read people and read the room at any split second and when youre dealing with global catastrophes or domestic political fights she has a very strong skill set and ability to offer strong advice and do so unselfishly with Donald Trumps interest at heart.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has come under fire as the target of a Louisiana sex-trafficking probe, according to an 11-page search warrant made public Tuesday. But a recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court might stand in the way of any victims seeking to hold the church accountable.

The document requested that the archdiocese hand over ANY and ALL documents that pertain in any way to the sexual abuse of a minor by clergy members employed or otherwise associated with the Archdiocese of New Orleans, specifying that those records violate the states child sex-trafficking laws.

The warrant also demands any and all communications between Gregory Aymond, the archbishop of New Orleans, and ANY department within the Vatican pertaining to child sexual abuse.

Aymand reportedly led a cover-up of the sprawling child sex-trafficking scheme that targeted children for several decades, going so far as to ignore pleas by his advisers to punish and publicly reveal the identities of priests and deacons in at least six separate cases that the church had determined were credible accusations of sexual misconduct with minors, according to a bombshell 48-page memorandum leaked in 2023 to The Guardian.

The warrant, which was filed last week, included disturbing details of the pedophilic schemeincluding that, in some instances, gifts were given to abuse victims by the accused [molesters] with instructions to pass on or give the gift to certain priests at the next school or church, noting that the gift was a form of signaling to another priest that the person was a target for sexual abuse. Abuse was also a common occurrence at the New Orleans Seminary, where children were encouraged to skinny dip in front of other members of the Archdiocese before being assaulted, according to the warrant.

But a judgment by the Bayou States highest court has effectively stripped sexual assault survivors of an avenue of justice against the church. The judges ruled 34 in March that its the due process rights of priests and their enablers to not be held accountable in instances of sexual assault.

The case, Bienvenu v. Diocese of Lafayette, was brought by Douglas Bienvenu and several other plaintiffs who claimed they were sexually molested by a Roman Catholic priest during the 1970s, when they were between the ages of 8 and 14.

In its majority opinion, issued on March 22, the court argued that while the facts of the case were largely undisputed, the priestand the religious institution he was a part ofwas actually protected under the U.S. Constitutions due process clause. Therefore, a sexual assault look-back window established by the Louisiana legislature in 2021 was actually, according to the court, unconstitutional.
Graduates enter the arena before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Eboo Patel openly admits that the first time he hosted a potluck, he had no lofty ideals in mind.

I was just very lonely and too poor to put on a dinner party. Also, I only cooked one dish, masala potatoes. I mean, how many nights can you eat masala potatoes alone? he said.

So he invited six friends and they had an amazing time. As they left, they told Patel they were coming back in a week and they were bringing friends.

It was a good reminder. A potluck is not a dinner party. Its more rock n roll jam session or jazz improvisation than classical orchestral performance, said Patel, founder of Interfaith America and the University of Utahs keynote commencement speaker Thursday evening.

A potluck is street-level self-governance. And like everything else about self-governance, potlucks dont rise from the ground or fall from the sky. Someone steps up to host them. Everything always starts with a leader. Today I am inviting you to be that person, Patel told the class of 2024.

Patel asked the graduating class to consider the significance of their diplomas and this moment.

It means that you know that the world is far more complicated than the day you entered. It means that you have spent the last several years growing your knowledge base and cultivating your skill set and you are therefore far more capable than you once thought. It means that at a time when our diverse democracy seems hopelessly divided, you can be counted on to build the bridges of cooperation, he said.

There are many ways to lead in a diverse democracy, Patel said.

I hope you will engage in all of them. Vote, canvas, make speeches, start an organization, join a club, run for office, protest peacefully, but not right now, a passing reference to three pro-Palestinian protests on the universitys campus this week, one that had to be broken up by police.

Another way to lead is to potluck, he said.

Host potlucks to save diverse democracy. ... A potluck is the ultimate democratic forum. No mayor, governor or general can command people to potluck. President Taylor (Randall), you are a great guy. You cannot command people to potluck. It is an event of the people, by the people, for the people, said Patel, who is a Rhodes Scholar, author of five books, a University of Utah Impact Scholar and a Deseret News contributing writer.

Extra police were on hand for commencement, but a small protest outside the arena and a short-lived disturbance inside the Huntsman Center had a negligible impact on the festivities.

A small group of students got up and left while President Taylor Randall addressed the audience. Some people shouted, Palestine.

Randall responded, We certainly hear you and you have a right to express your viewpoints. You do not, however, have the right to disrupt the celebration. His comment was met with warm applause and loud cheers.

He continued, Well give you a moment. But if you continue to protest, wed ask you to leave or you will be removed.

The demonstrations at the University of Utah were among dozens across the country with students and community members demanding that their universities divest from companies linked to Israels military campaign in Gaza, which started when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7. Thousand of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.

At least 21 people have been arrested in connection with Mondays protest at the University of Utah after demonstrators refused to comply with police commands to disperse and take down their encampment. Most of the people arrested were not affiliated with the university, a spokesperson said.

Clearly in this moment of our university, we see that universities are microcosms of the world around us. Theyre special places. They really are, the places where each of us are able to bring our passions and try to figure out if we can work some logic through our anger, Randall said.

Its a place where we can sit down and try and dialogue. But it certainly requires every one of us to participate in creating a platform so that we can actually have those dialogues. I got to tell you that I never thought it would be a potluck but Im going to host one this weekend, he said.

Randall also remarked on the resilience of the class of 2024, whose lives have been impacted by a historic pandemic at two important gentle junctures: the end of high school, so for many of you, this may be your first graduation and the beginning of college.

Despite those challenges, they remained optimistic about their future, he said.

I know this because Ive seen it with my own eyes and watched your resilience as you have succeeded and you are here, Randall said.

This makes me incredibly optimistic, optimistic for our collective future because I know that you will work to use your spirit of resilience to make this world a better place for all of us.

Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, is the commencement speaker at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates cheer as their group is introduced during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate watches during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

University President Taylor Randall applauds as he exits after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate wears a decorated cap at commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate wears a decorated cap at commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, is the commencement speaker at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America, is the commencement speaker at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Protesters cheer during graduation ceremonies on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Protesters cheer during graduation ceremonies on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates who walked out as University of Utah President Taylor Randall spoke join protesters on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A protester chants during graduation ceremonies on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Protesters cheer during graduation ceremonies on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate who made a gesture toward University of Utah President Taylor Randall as he spoke during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City walks out of the Huntsman Center on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates who walked out as University of Utah President Taylor Randall spoke join protesters on the front lawn of the Huntsman Center during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

University President Taylor Randall speaks during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

University President Taylor Randall speaks during commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates enter the arena before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate wears a decorated cap at commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates wave at friends and family before commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates exit after commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates pose for photos before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates walk to gather with the rest of their class before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduate Maryan Shire hurries to join the rest of her class before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Kin On Anthony Lau and his brother Kin Pong James Lau pose with their mother, May Wu, as their father, Joel Lau, and brother Henry Lau take photos of them after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates pose for photos before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates wave at friends and family before commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Graduates take selfies before commencement at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Eron Powell, who graduated with a bachelors of science in biology and was the student speaker, exits after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

The marching band plays after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

University President Taylor Randall applauds as he exits after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate gestures to someone in the audience as they file out after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

University President Taylor Randall high-fives all the graduates as they file out after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A graduate holds up his U as he files out after commencement at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Jack OLeary, Associated Students of the University Of Utah student body president, saluted his fellow graduates.

Class of 2024, were here! For many of us who did not get a regular high school graduation, today we can say, We did it. We made it. I am so proud of each and every one of you, thankful to have embarked on this journey with you and excited to see how you will go and change the world, OLeary said.

This was the universitys 155th general commencement. In total, 8,652 graduates were awarded 9,266 degrees  some graduates earned more than one degree. The youngest graduate earned an undergraduate degree at age 16. The oldest person who received a graduate degree was 69 years old.

Humanitarian Pamela J. Atkinson, philanthropist Catherine Roper Meldrum and renowned computer science researcher Steven G. Parker were awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the university. Parker was unable to attend, so his brother, Michael Parker, accepted it on his behalf.

Two professors were honored with the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the most prestigious honor the university bestows on its faculty, which comes with a $50,000 cash award. This year, two professors were awarded the prize: Cynthia Berg, distinguished professor of psychology, and Jay Barney, presidential professor of strategic management and Pierre Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship.
The first real sign of trouble for Rep. Henry Cuellar came in January 2022, when the FBI showed up at his house as part of a court-authorized ongoing investigation. Local reporting added at the time that agents were seen taking cases and other items from the congressmans home, and the FBI was also present at a downtown building owned by Cuellar that reportedly houses his campaign office as well as other private businesses.

It seemed like only a matter of time before the public would learn about a possible indictment against the Texas Democrat. Two years later, thats precisely what happened. NBC News reported:

The newly unsealed indictment suggests the incumbent lawmaker, if convicted, is facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.

Even before the federal charges were formally unveiled to the public, the congressman issued a statement professing his innocence. Cuellar also said he intends to run for re-election  and expects to win.

Nevertheless, the ripple effects are significant. For one thing, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffriess office announced the Cueller, in light of the new charges, will now have to step down as the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committees appropriations panel.

For another, there are electoral considerations to keep in mind: Unless the congressman quits, which now appears unlikely, Cuellar will be the Democratic nominee in his district. He won re-election in 2022 by 14 points, but if local voters have a problem with the criminal charges, this race could become highly competitive in a hurry  and in a cycle in which every seat matters, this is going to give Democratic leaders heartburn.

But as the political world digests the latest instance of a sitting member of Congress getting indicted, its also worth pausing to reflect on the bigger picture.

As things currently stand, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, is:

prosecuting President Joe Bidens son;

prosecuting an incumbent Democratic senator, New Jerseys Bob Menendez, during his re-election bid;

prosecuting an incumbent Democratic congressman, Texas Cuellar, during his re-election bid;

investigating an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Missouris Cori Bush, during her re-election bid.

For good measure, its probably worth mentioning that the Justice Department also appears to be investigating Eric Adams, the high-profile Democratic mayor of New York City.

And yet, despite these developments, one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have weaponized federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability. The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies.

As weve discussed, Republicans dont just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, baseless idea is the foundation for the partys Trump defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.

In 2024, assertions about a two-tiered justice system are foundational to GOP politics. Theyre also routinely discredited by real-world events.

Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, theyve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it.

In advance of the 2018 elections, Donald Trump complained bitterly about federal law enforcement charging two of his congressional allies, and the then-president whined about the Justice Department undermining the Republican Partys electoral plans.

Six years later, federal law enforcement is prosecuting two Democratic members of Congress, potentially undermine their partys electoral plans, and Biden is taking a responsible, hands-off approach.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
The leaders of a bipartisan panel focused on China have sent a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether TikTok has violated child protection laws in its efforts to stop the United States from banning the app.

The letter, obtained by The Hill and first reported by NBC News, is addressed to FTC Chair Lina Khan and asks the organization to examine if the app violated the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), or Section 5 of the FTC Act, when it sent pop-up notifications to users that requested personal information and asked them to contact Congress.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the committees ranking member, said TikToks messaging was sent to young children in the classroom and other minors under the age of 13.

The solicitation of children using deceptive and inflammatory information resulted in at least one instance of threatened self-harm, with a Congressional office reporting a call from a child threatening suicide, the letter said.

The letter follows the passage of the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Congress worked to pass the controversial legislation because the apps owner, ByteDance, is based in Beijing. President Biden signed the bill, meaning ByteDance will have up to a year to sell the app to prevent it being banned in U.S. app stores.

While the bill was being discussed, TikTok sent the pop-up message to its U.S. users urging them to call Congress and oppose the bill and to stop a TikTok shutdown.

Speak up nowbefore your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression, the message said. This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience.

In the letter, the lawmakers said they are concerned that an app controlled by the Chinese Communist Party appears to have the unfettered ability to manipulate the American public, including Americas children.

According to the FTCs website, COPPA does not require operators of general audience sites to investigate the ages of visitors to their sites or services. TikTok said it only sent the notification to users who were over the age of 18, and users had multiple options to dismiss the notification.

Section 5 of the FTC Act declares unfair or deceptive acts unlawful. According to a letter on the FTCs policy statement on deception, TikToks notification would be deemed unlawful if it is likely to affect the consumers conduct or decision with regard to the product or service. TikTok said it has not violated Section 5, as users were receiving the notification because they were already users of the app to begin with.

It is disheartening that Members of Congress are expressing concern simply because they heard from their own constituents imploring them not to pass a bill trampling on their First Amendment rights, a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.

The FTC confirmed it had received the letter but said it had no further comment at the moment.

Krishnamoorthi declined to comment further. The Hill has reached out to Moolenaar.

Updated May 3 at 10:46 a.m. EDT

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A bill expanding the definition of antisemitism was passed on Wednesday by a bipartisan vote in the House  but despite the legislation on its face claiming to help federal officials better protect Jewish students on school campuses, critics say it is misleading and will only serve to crack down on the free speech rights of students currently protesting Israels ongoing military offensive in Gaza and the U.S. governments continued support.

The House voted 320-91 in support of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, establishing a broader definition of antisemitism to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws. The bill would codify the intergovernmental International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism into the legal framework established by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin.

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities, the IHRAs working definition of antisemitism, as adopted in 2016, reads.

Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity, the IHRA adds. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

Seventy Democrats and 21 Republicans voted against the House bill, which now goes to the Senate. If passed and then signed into law by President Joe Biden, the bill would expand what counts as illegal ethnic discrimination to include anything covered by the IHRAs definition of antisemitism.

A sponsor of the bill, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), said in a statement Wednesday that the bill gives teeth to federal anti-discrimination laws to go after those who attack their Jewish peers.

Politics should never get in the way of the safety of the students, he said.

Kenneth Stern, the professor who drafted the IHRAs working definition of antisemitism, warned Congress in 2017 that if government bodies enshrine this definition into law, outside groups will try and suppress  rather than answer  political speech they dont like. The academy, Jewish students and faculty teaching about Jewish issues, will all suffer.

Police face off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of their encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) early on May 2, 2024. Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration and Congress have faced increased scrutiny from within the U.S. for their continued support of Israels siege in Gaza, which began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people on Oct. 7 in Israel and took roughly 250 hostage. The Israeli offensive has since killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced at least 80% of the regions residents, has destroyed important infrastructure like schools, hospitals and religious institutions and has brought on a famine.

If the bill is enacted, the Department of Education could use its expanded definition of antisemitism to stifle the ongoing antiwar protests at college campuses across the U.S., according to the bills opponents.

In recent weeks, students from multiple faiths, races and ethnicities have begun camping out on school grounds, calling for the U.S. to stop funding Israels military campaign in Gaza and for their universities to divest from companies financially tied to Israel.

Witness descriptions and footage from the campus protests portray the demonstrations to be generally peaceful  though the arrival of counterprotesters and police, who have been recorded assaulting and arresting students and professors, has caused them to turn violent. Law enforcement agencies, often called in by university administrators, have so far arrested about 2,000 protesters, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Instead of focusing on protecting the free speech rights of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Jewish students who face harassment and attacks during recent student-led protests on campus, House lawmakers attempted to adopt in law the anti-free speech IHRA definition, said Robert McCaw, director of government affairs for Muslim civil rights group CAIR.

Misleading definitions like these are being weaponized right now to suppress and silence Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian and allied communities student-led protests against the Israeli governments war crimes in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protestors stand on stairs near an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles campus on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Eric Thayer via Getty Images

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union called on House lawmakers to vote against the bill, saying federal law already bans antisemitic discrimination and harassment. Dozens of universities in the U.S. already face civil rights investigations by the DOE over allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The bill instead would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism, the ACLU said in a letter sent Friday to the House.

Others who oppose the bill  including some Democrats, free speech advocates and pro-Palestinian groups  have also pointed out the dangers of equating criticism of the Israeli government with hatred of a religion or culture.

Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. By encompassing purely political speech about Israel into Title VIs ambit, the bill sweeps too broadly.

IfNotNow, a Jewish American organization that opposes the Israeli occupation, called the bill fearmongering by political and communal leaders and right-wing organization AIPAC, referring to the massive pro-Israel lobbying group.

As American Jews, we see this McCarthyite crackdown on speech under the guise of Jewish safety as extremely dangerous, IfNotNow national spokesperson Eva Borgwardt said after the bills passage. We know that Jewish safety cannot come at the expense of Palestinian freedom. Jewish safety and Palestinian safety are inextricably intertwined.

This bill would criminalize criticism on college campuses in the name of protecting American Jews, but its impact would be the opposite.

Related...
Houthi rebels are going to keep lobbing missiles at ships in the Red Sea 'for some time,' US intel chief says

Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have gone on for months.

The US intelligence chief said the threat is likely to remain active for a while.

This is partly because the Houthis continue to make weaponry and receive help from Iran, she said.

For months, the Houthis have relentlessly fired missiles and drones at merchant and Western naval vessels in key Middle Eastern waterways.

While American and partner forces have managed to degrade the Iran-backed rebels' capabilities to an extent, through strikes directly in Yemen, the US intelligence chief testified this week that these attacks aren't going to slow down anytime soon.

"Our assessment is essentially that it is going to remain active for some time," Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Thursday in response to questions from US lawmakers about how long the Houthi threat will continue.

Speaking to the Senate Committee on Armed Services during a hearing on global threats, Haines said her assessment is, in part, because Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi sees domestic political advantage for some of his actions, and he is interested in advancing his reputation across the Middle East through the attacks.

A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the US and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen on April. 26, 2024. AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman

The Houthis are also indigenously producing lots of drones and other weaponry inside Yemen while continuing to receive assistance from Iran, Haines added. Tehran has backed the militant group for several years.

"Neither of those things are likely to change in the near future," she said. "Now, that doesn't mean that the strikes that the Department of Defense and the coalition with our allies, have taken haven't had impact. They have, but it's been insufficient to really stop the Houthis from going down this road."

The US and UK militaries have carried out several rounds of joint strikes targeting Houthi facilities across Yemen. On a far more frequent basis, however, American forces have carried out unilateral, preemptive strikes targeting drones or missiles before the rebels can fire them at nearby ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Most recently, on Thursday, US Central Command said it engaged and destroyed three Houthi drones in Yemen after determining that the weapons "presented an imminent threat" to American and coalition forces, as well as commercial ships in the region.

The Houthis have previously asserted that their ongoing attacks are directly tied to Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip, but US officials have often pushed back on these claims, citing the wide range of nationalities that the rebels have attacked. One incident in March led to several fatalities among a multinational crew.

A commercial ship in the Red Sea in March. French military photo via X

When asked by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine during Thursday's hearing whether a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would significantly reduce the pace of Houthi attacks, Haines said it's "honestly unknown at this stage."

"They have indicated at different times that they would comply with a ceasefire, so I think there's a fair possibility," Haines replied. "One of the things that's been challenging is that their rationale for their attacks has shifted over time a bit, and it's gotten more complicated."

Beyond going after ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the Houthis, as part of Iran's broader proxy network that spans the region, have also launched missiles at Israel. The rebels, for instance, participated in Tehran's massive and unprecedented attack on the country last month.

The Houthis' attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea, which has disrupted international shipping, and on Israel create "a real risk of broader escalation," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded in its annual threat assessment report earlier this year.

Read the original article on Business Insider
US protestors scuffle at the University of California over the Israel-Hamas War - David Swanson/Reuters

Pro-Palestinian protesters who have taken over US campuses this week have been invited by the Houthis to study in Yemens Sanaa University

Sanaa University, which is run by the Iran-backed Houthis, issued a statement on Friday applauding the humanitarian position of students in the US who have occupied university campuses.

The statement included an email address for any students who wished to enquire about transferring.

We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from US universities for supporting Palestinians, an official at Sanaa University said.

We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can, the official added.

Follow the latest updates below

03:10 PM BST

Todays live coverage has ended

Todays live coverage has ended. Here is a roundup of the days main events:

Britain has imposed new sanctions on extremist Israeli individuals and groups accused of inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The International Criminal Courts prosecutors office called for an end to what it says are attempts to intimidate its staff, amid fears from some that the court is preparing arrests warrants for senior Israeli figures.

The Houthi rebels invited pro-Palestine US students to study in Yemen.

An Israeli military operation in Rafah could be a slaughter, the UN warned.

Hamas would consider a proposed peace deal with Israel if changes are made to the original stipulations.

03:01 PM BST

Watch: Israeli air strike on Hezbollah position

Israeli fighter jets struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Markaba a short while ago, the military says.



Troops also shelled areas near Aalma ash-Shab with artillery to "remove threats," the IDF says.



Overnight, another two buildings used by Hezbollah in pic.twitter.com/UJJkvBpdHH  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 3, 2024

02:48 PM BST

Houthis will attack any Israel-bound ship

Yemens Houthi rebels will target any ships heading to Israel that are within range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday.

We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach, he said.

The Iran-aligned group has launched repeated drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November, in what it says is a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

02:16 PM BST

Rocket salvo fired from Lebanon strikes Israeli mountain, IDF says

At least 10 rockets fired from Lebanon struck the Mount Meron area of Israel on Friday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.

No injuries or damage were reported, the IDF added.

Mount Meron is the site of an Israeli air force base and is located around 5 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. It has been targeted several times since Hezbollah began attacks on Israel in response to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

A barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon at Mount Meron. Sirens sounded in the nearby community of Tziv'on. pic.twitter.com/9VQbmk0KS7  Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 3, 2024

01:32 PM BST

Britain sanctions Israeli extremists

Britain has imposed new sanctions on extremist Israeli individuals and groups accused of inflicting violence on Palestinians in the West Bank.

The new sanctions package, which will include financial and travel restrictions, was announced following an increase in settler violence over the last year, the Foreign Office said.

Hilltop Youth, one of the groups sanctioned, is a hard-Right movement accused of setting up illegal settler outposts across the West Bank. In December, the Israeli military halted the operations of a unit known to recruit from the group.

Lehava, another sanctioned ultra-nationalist group, campaigns against relationships between Jews and non-Jews and is opposed to Christian presence in Israel. Israeli media has reported that Lehavas leader, Benzi Gopstein, is a close ally of Itamar Ben Gvir, Israels national security minister.

Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, warned that the UK will not hesitate to take further action if needed and that Israeli authorities must clamp down on those responsible.

01:05 PM BST

Americans trust Trump more than Biden on Israel, poll suggests

Americans trust Donald Trump more than Joe Biden when it comes to handling the Israel-Hamas War, a poll commissioned by ABC News has suggested.

The poll found that 37 per cent of Americans trust the former US president more than the incumbent on the issue, while 28 per cent trust Biden more. However, 33 per cent of Americans do not trust either Mr Biden or Mr Trump to handle American policy towards the conflict.

Furthermore, fewer than half of Americans say that the Israel-Hamas War will be an important issue to them in the November US presidential election.

12:33 PM BST

ICC prosecutor warns against attempts to intimidate court, amid fears of arrest warrants for Israeli officials

The International Criminal Courts prosecutors office has called for an end to what it says are attempts to intimidate its staff.

In a statement posted on social media, the prosecutors office said all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately.

The statement, which named no specific cases, comes after reports that American officials had attempted to dissuade the court from ordering arrest warrants against senior Israeli figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

11:26 AM BST

Watch: French riot police storm pro-Palestine sit in

French police have intervened after students at the Sciences Po university in central Paris organised a pro-Palestine sit in.

In a video posted on social media, the force, who appear to be riot-equipped, are seen entering the main building of the university in large numbers.

A student inside the university confirmed that the police were closing in on the protestors. It was not immediately clear if the police were attempting to evacuate the site.

BREAKING:



French riot police storm the famous Sciences Po University in Paris in order to end the "Liberated Zone" set up there by anti-Israel students.



 pic.twitter.com/dWCvoHn5Ge  Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) May 3, 2024

11:11 AM BST

Israeli Rafah operation could be a slaughter, UN says

An Israeli military operation in Rafah could endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and risk disrupting the supply of humanitarian aid to the enclave, the UN has warned.

It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah, Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office, said in a press briefing.

Aid operations out of Rafah include medical clinics and food distribution points, including centres for malnourished children, Mr Laerke added.

More than a million Palestinians have taken refuge in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel has reportedly approved plans for an offensive in the area, despite US warning that it would not support the move.

10:41 AM BST

Suspended US students can continue studies in Yemen, Houthis say

Yemens Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have offered US students suspended for anti-Israel protests places at a university in the civil-war ravaged country.

We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from US universities for supporting Palestinians, an official at Sanaa University, which is run by the Houthis, said.

We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can, the official added.

The offer has been mocked on Yemeni social media, with one user posting a photograph of two Westerners chewing Yemens widely-used narcotic leaf khat.

10:19 AM BST

Turkey says trade with Israel halted until permanent Gaza ceasefire secured

Turkey will not resume trade with Israel, worth around 5.5 billion, until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is secured, Omer Bolat, the Turkish trade minister, has warned.

Israels uncompromising attitude and the worsening situation in Gaza informed the decision, Mr Bolat said in a speech in Istanbul on Friday.

Israel Katz, Israels foreign minister, said the move was how a dictator behaves, while Hamas praised the decision as brave and supportive of Palestinian rights.

Turkish exporters with firm orders from Israel are considering using third countries to send goods to the country, export industry sources have said.

09:55 AM BST

Pictured: People in Jerusalem walk near posters demanding the release of Israeli hostages

People in Jerusalem walk near posters calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, May 3 - Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

09:41 AM BST

Israeli kibbutz confirms death of Gaza hostage

An Israeli kibbutz has confirmed the death of a hostage held in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

Dror Or, 49, was killed during the Hamas rampage before his body was taken to the enclave, the Beeri kibbutz, where Mr Or lived, said in a statement.

Mr Or was killed along with his wife Yonat during the initial attack, while two of their children, Noam and Alma, aged 17 and 13, were abducted and then freed in November as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

During the October 7 attacks, the family were forced out of their safe room and captured after Hamas terrorists set fire to the house, the Times of Israel reported.

09:20 AM BST

How Barclays became a lightning rod for Gaza activists

When Barclays executives descend on Glasgow next week for the banks annual shareholder meeting, expect to see tight security. The lender is on high alert for possible protests by pro-Palestinian campaigners who have in recent months taken aim at the bank over its perceived support for Israels conflict in Gaza.

Read the full report by Michael Bow, here.

09:08 AM BST

Israeli vote on banning Al Jazeera postponed until Sunday

Israels security cabinet postponed a vote planned for Thursday on closing the Qatari news channel, Al Jazeera, in Israel, until it meets on Sunday, according to Israeli media reports.

The postponement is an attempt by Israel to encourage Qatar to pressure Hamas to agree to a hostage release deal, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported.

The Knesset, Israels parliament, approved a bill allowing foreign networks considered a threat to national security to be banned on April 1.

Israeli officials have complained about Al Jazeeras coverage, which they say is heavily influenced by Hamas and has endangered Israeli troops fighting in the Gaza Strip.

08:48 AM BST

Iran releases crew of seized container ship, foreign minister says

Iran has released the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel, but remains in control of the vessel itself, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister, said.

The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Irans territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention, Mr Amir-Abdollahian said, according to an Iranian foreign ministry post on social media.

Iranian commandos seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the strait of Hormuz on 13 April, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.

08:35 AM BST

No indication Hamas planning attack on American troops in Gaza, US defence secretary says

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has said that he did not see any indication that Hamas is planning an attack on US troops in Gaza, but added that security measures were being put in place.

I dont discuss intelligence information at the podium. But I dont see any indications currently that there is an active intent to do that, Mr Austin said during a press briefing.

Having said that ... this is a combat zone and a number of things can happen, and a number of things will happen, he added.

A maritime pier constructed by the US military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, the White House said on Thursday.

08:31 AM BST

Hamas will consider peace deal if changes are made

A senior Hamas official has said that the terror group will examine a proposed peace deal with Israel if changes are made to the original stipulations.

Osama Hamden, a Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, told Lebanese television: We have already said explicitly  our position regarding the proposal is negative. It does not give us what we want. But if changes are made in accordance with our comments, we will examine them.

If Israel launches an attack in Rafah  we will stop the negotiations. We will not conduct it under fire, he added.

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Armed rebels of the Iran-backed Houthi militia take part in a demonstration. Yemen's Houthi rebels have threatened to target ships bound for Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea, as the group on Friday announced further escalation in what they say is retaliation for Israeli attacks in Gaza. Osamah Yahya/dpa

Yemen's Houthi rebels have threatened to target ships bound for Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea, as the group on Friday announced further escalation in what they say is retaliation for Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The Houthis would target all ships "heading to the ports of occupied Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea in any area within our reach," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.

The Iran-backed militia, which has controlled parts of Yemen since 2014, has been targeting ships bound for Israeli ports or those owned by Israeli companies in the Red and Arabian seas and Indian Ocean for months.

In their statement, the Houthis said they plan to expand their attacks in case Israel begins "an aggressive military operation against Rafah," referring to the city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million Palestinians are currently sheltering from fighting elsewhere in the coastal area.

The Houthis also vowed to target all vessels owned by companies that provide supplies to Israel, regardless of their destination.

On Thursday, the militia's chief Abdel-Malik al-Houthi said the group has targeted 107 vessels using 606 ballistic and winged missiles and drones since they began their campaign.

The Houthis have also attacked US and British ships off Yemen after the two countries began launching strikes on areas under the group's control.

Washington, London and other Western countries have launched operations to protect ships in the region. The European Union has also deployed a military operation to secure merchant shipping in the Red Sea, one of the most important shipping routes for world trade, as it connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal in Egypt.

Major shipping companies have been avoiding the route and sail the much longer journey around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead.
KIEV, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron to discuss military aid to Ukraine, the presidential press service said on Friday.

At the meeting, which took place in Kiev on Thursday, Zelensky thanked the British government for recently approving the largest-ever military aid package for Ukraine, worth 500 million pounds (630 million U.S. dollars).

"The provision of this package, along with the crucial decision of the United States to provide assistance, is of great importance to us at this key moment," Zelensky stressed.

He briefed Cameron on the situation on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and urged the British side to promptly deliver the weapons as part of the aid package.

Zelensky specifically outlined the types of weapons Ukraine requires, including armored vehicles, ammunition and various missiles.

According to the British parliament, Britain has pledged 12.5 billion pounds (15.8 billion dollars) in support to Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022, of which 7.6 billion pounds (9.6 billion dollars) was for military assistance. This includes 3 billion pounds (3.8 billion dollars) for military assistance in 2024/25. 
Andrew Eyer floated into the packed church, nestled in his mothers arms.

There was silence, then sniffles.

The hush that fell over uptown Charlottes First Baptist Church  a grand structure that holds its own among the citys towers  wavered as the 2-year-old came into view.

He trailed a casket draped in an American flag. Behind him, officers from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and neighboring cities followed inside the church for Joshua Eyers funeral service Friday morning.

FROM MONDAY: Four law enforcement officers killed, 4 wounded serving warrant in east Charlotte home

Andrews hat, featuring an American flag with a blue line through it, matched the flag displayed next to his dads casket.

Eyer, 31, died Monday night after a U.S. Marshals task force and other responding officers came under fire while trying to serve a warrant to a fugitive in east Charlotte. Three other officers died that day, and five others were injured.

He showed up to help, as he so often did, one last time, friends of the family told The Charlotte Observer. While Mondays news was shocking, Eyers actions were not.

Hed blow out a knee trying to chase someone down for an open container violation, said CMPD Detective Thomas Mattox. He was the guy who got punched in the face for a stolen PB&J sandwich.

Smiles formed under teary eyes.

It was the principle of it all, Mattox said. Eyer was always running full speed ahead. Monday was no different.

Josh heard the call on the radio, he recalled, and ran toward the chaos.

Ashley Eyer places her hand on husband Joshua Eyers casket after making remarks to mourners at First Baptist Church on Friday, May 3, 2024. Joshua Eyer was a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, one of four law enforcement officers killed April 29, 2024 during a standoff in east Charlotte. JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

The true hero

As speakers took turns addressing the more than 2,000 people packed into the church, Andrews front-row murmurs could be heard even from the furthest pew.

I know Andrew is too young to understand, said Officer Nicholas Ferreira, who started working at CMPD alongside Eyer six years ago. But best believe well let him know the true hero his father was.

Twenty-one bouquets of flowers behind Ferreira and rows of uniformed officers in front were a harrowing reminder of what it means to be an officer.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Tommy Weeks and N.C. Department of Adult Correction Officers Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott also died Monday when the suspect, Terry Clark Hughes, Jr., fired at least 100 rounds from an AR-15 rifle and a 40-caliber handgun.

The funeral procession for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer in Charlotte on Friday. Khadejeh Nikouyeh/Knikouyeh@charlotteobserver.com

Asking why

CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings reflected on a question he hears often.

Officers know the dangers theyre getting into when they put that uniform on, he said. They know they may not come home.

So, why? Why do they do it?

Jennings has never known how to answer that question, he said. And he still doesnt. He just knows hes proud  every roll call, every conversation, every meeting  hes proud of his officers.

A week before Eyer died from his gunshot wounds in a Charlotte hospital, he was named CMPDs North Tryon Division Officer of the Month for proactive policing that addressed quality of life concerns in Sugar Creek, North Tryon Street and the Interstate 85 corridor.

Eyer was the epitome of a phenomenal officer, CMPD said in a statement before the funeral.

He was also a humble hero who would cringe at all these accolades, said CMPD Chaplain Lonnie Clouse.

His family nodded.

Ashley Eyer, the wife of fallen Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Joshua Eyer, speaks during her husbands funeral. At right, Joshua Eyers best friend Charlie Sardelli offers support. JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

Family above all else

But pride always beamed from within whenever Eyer spoke about his family, said Charlie Sardelli. The two met at JROTC in high school  and hated each other. A story akin to the plot of a bad buddy-cop movie soon started, though, Sardelli said. Eyer became his best friend.

They had known each other for 7,389,400 minutes. That translated into 15 years of arguments over which superhero would win in a fight (Eyer had Batman, Sardelli had Superman) and abundant references to Star Wars.

But now, Sardelli would be waking up the next day  Saturday, May 4  without his yearly text from Eyer. Hear him loud and clear when he says, May the Fourth be with you,  Sardelli told the crowd.

The quiet inside the church had been disturbed only by the rustling of suit cloth as attendees moved to grab handkerchiefs and others abruptly inhaled. After Ferreiras and Sardellis speeches, the pews emptied as everyone stood to applause.

The sound would be topped only after Ashleys quivering speech.

Ive been told being up here would be a bad idea, she said. But Im going to try.

Ashley, who met Eyer at Pfeiffer University, glossed over the hardworking, often stoic personality many saw in Eyer. She focused instead on at-home Eyer.

It was not uncommon for me to roll over in the middle of the night and see his fingers typing away as he sent his best for his friends in battles or his fellow officers, she said. Or maybe he was just sending inappropriate Instagram reels.

The two had a rare love, she said. He was her best friend, and he always would be remembered as that.

But his real legacy is back there, she said, referring to Andrew, who was playing in a room behind the stage. Being a father was, undoubtedly, his most cherished role.

The pews emptied again as everyone stood to watch a slideshow of Eyers well-documented life, shown through selfies in the car, candids of naps on cots from his time in the Army and photos of Halloween costumes with Andrew dressed as a pumpkin.

At the end of the two-hour service, his family shuffled out.

Back in his mothers arms, Andrew waved goodbye one last time to his dad, smiling at his dads photo.

Two-year-old Andrew Eyer, waves to his father Joshua Eyer during his funeral at First Baptist Church in uptown. JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Hundreds of CUNY staff union members call out sick in illegal strike to support anti-Israel protesters

At least 300 members of the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York (PSC-CUNY) union called out sick as part of an "illegal" strike to support anti-Israel protesters who were arrested on campus.

At least 300 members of the union repping faculty and staff at the City University of New York called out sick as part of an illegal strike to support anti-Israel protesters who were arrested on campus this week.

James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress for the publicly-funded university, who oversees its more than 30,000 members, disavowed the unauthorized sick-out, saying it was considered an illegal work stoppage or strike under New York state law, per an email to colleagues.

This coordinated sick-out is not sanctioned by the Professional Staff Congress, Davis wrote to union members. The PSC does not condone this action and discourages PSC members from participating.

His missive, obtained by The Post, came as CUNY on Strike, a campaign run by PSC-CUNY members, said 250 votes were case in favor of striking to condemn the NYPDs raid at City Colleges Manhattan campus on Tuesday night, which led to the arrest of nearly 200 protesters.

The arrest of nearly 200 people at CUNYs City College Tuesday night triggered 300 members of the faculty union to hold a strike. William Miller

About 250 union members also voted to support the demands being sought by the anti-Israel protest. William Miller

Davis warned members that their participation in the Wednesday action could be met with fines, jail time, or even termination, and that such a strike could hurt the unions future bargaining power.

Despite the warning, CUNY on Strike touted that at least 300 members took part in the sick-out, calling it historic as the unions first strike in its 52-year existence.

Along with agreeing to the strike, the members also voted to endorse the demands that were being sought by CUNYs Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

PSC-CUNY members are demanding amnesty for the protesters arrested at City College. X/@cunyonstrike

Like at college campuses nationwide, the protesters are demanding that their school divest any and all funds to Israel, boycott academic exchanges with the Jewish state and voice its support for Palestine.

The students also want the city demilitarize all campuses and restore CUNYs tuition-free status.

The staff members who went on strike are additionally demanding amnesty for the protesters who were arrested and charged with crimes.

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a former longtime CUNY board trustee, said the union should be more alarmed by just how many members took part in it.

Tuesday night saw police clash with the demonstrators as they worked to clear out the CUNY encampment. Getty Images

Three hundred is a significant number, Wiesenfeld told The Post Thursday. Id call it a wildcat strike.

Wiesenfeld added that the blame ultimately falls on the union heads for failing to keep members in line, while at the same time trying to distance PSC-Union from their actions.

Jackson Schwartz, an economics professor at John Jay College, was one of the CUNY staff members who took part in the strike, according to an email sent to his students obtained by The Post.

The protesters are demanding that the school voice its support for Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas war. Getty Images

In solidarity with our fellow students and faculty [who were arrested], the rank-and-file of the Professional Staff Congress for CUNY (our faculty union) has called for an academic strike, Schwartz wrote.

We will be participating in this strike and cancelling class to support the organizers, he added, later inviting his students to take part in the campus protest.

Neither Schwartz nor CUNY responded to The Posts requests for comment Thursday.
Hundreds of Ohio State University students, faculty and community members protested the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on May 1, 2024. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal.)

Ohio colleges and universities have been the site of recent protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin College, Ohio University, Miami University and Denison University have all had campus protests the past couple of weeks as the semester winds downs.

Kent State University has a protest planned for Saturday  which also happens to be the 54th anniversary of when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students on campus who were protesting the Vietnam War.

Protesters are calling for universities to divest their finances from companies and institutions with connections to Israel, transparency over their financial investments and an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.

However, Ohio law stands in the way of some of their demands. Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits state agencies like universities from contracting with companies that are boycotting or disinvesting from Israel.

Former Ohio lawmaker Kirk Schuring introduced the bill in 2016 and then-Gov. John Kasich signed it into law later that year. The law was then amended in 2022.

Protests at colleges and universities have ramped up across the nation after more than a hundred protesters at Columbia University were arrested after setting up an encampment on April 18. The University of Southern California canceled its commencement ceremony over safety concerns due to recent protests.

More than 34,000 people have been killed and more than 77,000 have been injured in Gaza since the Israeli invasion after a Hamas-led attack in October that killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel, according to Al Jazeera. Women and children make up nearly three-fourths of those who have been killed in Gaza, according to an update by Gazas Government Media Office.

President Joe Biden said he respects the rights of people to express their opinions during the campus protests, but said it must be done without violence or destruction.

Violent protest is not protected, he said in a speech Thursday morning. Peaceful protest is. Its against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. Its against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation. None of this is a peaceful protest.  To dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder, or to denying the rights of others so students can finish a semester and their college education.

Ohio State University

Hundreds of Ohio State students and faculty as well as community members peacefully protested Wednesday night on the South Oval.

A chorus of chants rang out throughout the protest:

From the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free.

From the river, to the sea, Palestine will live forever.

Ohio wants divestment now.

Divestment is our demand. No more bloodshed on our hands.

Disclose. Divest. We will not stop, we will not rest.

There were no encampments erected on the South Oval. Ohio State University Police were present as well as Ohio State Highway Patrol cars. An electronic sign near the South Oval read no overnight events permitted  to include encampments.

Protesters voluntarily dispersed after a few hours and no arrests were made  a stark contrast to last week when 41 people were arrested at various campus protests. Nineteen of those arrested were Ohio State students, one was an Ohio State staff member and the rest were not affiliated with the university.

Tent camping is not permitted on the lawn of the Oval without prior approval, according to Ohio States space rules.

Encampments are not allowed on campus regardless of the reason for them, Ohio State University President Ted Carter wrote in a campus-wide letter after last weeks protests. They create the need for around-the-clock safety and security resources, which takes these resources away from the rest of our community.

As a public university, demonstrations, protests and disagreement regularly occur on our campus  so much so that we have trained staff and public safety professionals on-site for student demonstrations for safety and to support everyones right to engage in these activities, Carter went on to write in his letter. Sadly, in recent days, I have watched significant safety issues be created by encampments on other campuses across our nation. These situations have caused in-person learning and commencement ceremonies to be canceled. Ohio States campus will not be overtaken in this manner.

Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, said he supports Carters actions.

Theres always a challenge whenever you have protests and whatnot, Stephens said when asked about last weeks arrests at Ohio State. But, again, I think its important for the safety of everyone at a campus that the rules be followed.

Case Western Reserve University

There have been no arrests so far at any protests at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, but about 20 protesters were detained and released from police custody Monday morning, a university spokesperson said.

The private university originally put a 8 p.m. curfew in place, but has allowed students to camp on the universitys Kelvin Smith Library Oval Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, a university spokesperson said.

Oberlin College

More than 100 students at Oberlin College in Lorain County protested Monday night and no arrests were made.

Oberlin supports the right of our students to gather and demonstrate peacefully, the university said in a statement. Oberlin expects all who participate to conduct themselves in ways that are respectful of others, that do not disrupt the day-to-day activities of the school and that uphold our shared values: respect for each other and our community.

Miami University

Miami University Students for Justice in Palestine organized a walkout on April 19 to support the protesters who were arrested at Columbia University and a march is planned for Thursday night.



Denison University

No arrests were made when about 100 students and faculty members protested Tuesday at Denison University in Granville.

Ohio University

About 100-125 people attended a protest at Ohio University Wednesday night where people chanted up and down the escalators at Baker Center. No one was arrested.

Ohio State University protest photo gallery

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A man hunting for shed antlers in grizzly country went against several bear safety best practices  and came face to face with a charging mother bear, officials said.

The hunter and his two dogs surprised the bear on Thursday, April 25, while walking along a ridge on private land northwest of Wolf Creek, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said in a May 3 news release. Wolf Creek is an unincorporated community about a 35-mile drive north from Helena.

The ridge was covered with low trees and brush that might have obscured both his and the grizzlys sight, plus he walked with the wind at his back, officials said.

He noticed a fresh grizzly track in a patch of snow  and kept going, officials said.

Minutes later, he stumbled upon the bear standing near the top of the ridge about 20 yards away from him, officials said. The bear dropped to all four legs and charged, according to the release.

The man did not have bear spray, officials said. He pulled out a gun and fired five shots while the bear was between 30 and 10 feet away from him. One shot initially grazed the bear but another hit and killed her, according to the release.

He was not hurt, officials said.

The adult female bear had been in good physical condition, estimated to weigh around 300 pounds at about 12 years old, officials said.

And shed had a single cub that was nearby during the encounter, officials said.

Bear management specialists with the department later captured the cub and took it to FWPs wildlife rehabilitation center in Helena, officials said. The department is hoping to place the cub at an accredited zoo.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife service is investigating the incident, officials said.

Montana is bear country, officials said in previous news releases. Grizzly bear populations continue to become denser and more widespread in Montana, increasing the likelihood that residents and recreationists will encounter them in more places each year.

To avoid negative bear encounters, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks experts advise people outdoors in bear country to:

Carry bear spray, and have it out and ready to use at the first sight of a bear.

Travel in groups, and make a lot of noise to alert bears to your presence.

Stay far away from animal carcasses that attract bears.

Mind food storage orders from local land management agencies.

Never approach any bear you encounter, and leave the area when its safe.

Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other smelly items that attract bears in a secure building where bears cant access them. Keep garbage locked away until the day its collected, or use certified bear-resistant garbage containers.

Dont feed wildlife  ever. Its illegal to feed bears in Montana. Bears that become conditioned to human food lose their instinctual foraging behavior and become a threat to peoples safety.

People who hunt and fish in areas with grizzlies should take extra precautions, such as:

Be extra cautious around creeks and areas with limited visibility, such as dense forests and areas with thick vegetation. Be mindful of bear signs.

Hunt or fish with a group of people and make localized noise to avoid sneaking up on bears.

Keep in mind that elk calls and cover scents  which cut down on the smell of humans  can attract bears.

Bring the right equipment and the proper amount of people youll need to be able to field dress successfully hunted game and remove the meat from the area as quickly as possible.

Hang any meat you have to leave behind at least 10 feet off the ground and 150 yards from the gut pile. Make sure its viewable from at least 200 yards away.

When you come back for the remaining meat, examine it for any signs of disturbance using binoculars. If it has been touched or if a bear is in the area, leave and call Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

Grizzly bears are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, officials said.

Hunters kill bear after surprising her and cub, officials say. One of them is shot too

Hunter encounters bear near its den  and opens fire when grizzly charges in Montana

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Former President Donald Trump, seen through a camera viewfinder, speaks to members of the media at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Jeenah Moon

Before witnesses returned to the stand in former President Donald Trumps hush money trial on Thursday, New York Judge Juan Merchan heard the prosecutions continuing concerns that Trump has repeatedly violated his gag order.

Trump was fined $9,000 earlier this week by Merchan for speaking out of line with the gag order that limits him from speaking about those involved in the case, including witnesses and jurors. The prosecution encouraged the judge to continue to fine Trump $1,000 for each violation but attorneys are not pressing for jail time.

One of Trumps attorneys, Susan Necheles, asked for clarity on the gag order and approached the judge with certain articles Trump wished to publish on his social media accounts but needed approval due to some commentary regarding witnesses and other details about the case.

Prosecutor Christopher Conroy said they would have to review them but found it odd they were asking for pre-approval, according to The New York Times. However, Merchan said he would not approve them and emphasized that Trump should not post the articles if he isnt sure whether they violate the gag order or not. Im not going to give advance rulings, he said. There is no ambiguity, I believe, in the order.

Attorney Keith Davidson takes the stand again

At the heart of the hush money trial accusing Trump of 34 felony charges is a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels through his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Both are future witnesses in the criminal case.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the case, alleges that Trump falsified business records to conceal these payments.

In 2016, attorney Keith Davidson handled the business payments for Daniels as well as former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who wanted to be paid for her story of an alleged 10-month affair she had with Trump.

On Thursday, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass began questioning Davidson regarding the settlement agreement made between Daniels and Trump. Davidson explained that he finalized the deal with Cohen just days before Trump was elected president in 2016.

He said the deal included a $1 million penalty for any breach, a provision he said was unenforceable, per CBS News. Trump never signed the paperwork, which used pseudonyms for him and Daniels.

Following the election, Davidson mentioned that he and Dylan Howard, editor of the National Enquirer, had a conversation about their influence on the elections outcome. Steinglass showed the text exchange to the courtroom.

There was an understanding  that our activities in some way may have assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Davidson told the court, per CBS News.

He also mentioned that Cohen would call him frequently after the election, expressing strong negative feelings toward Trump for not giving him a job in the White House during his presidency.

According to The Associated Press, Cohen received a prison sentence in December 2018, having admitted to multiple offenses, including campaign finance violations and deceiving Congress. He served approximately 13 months in prison and an additional year and a half under house arrest, which was reduced due to good behavior.

Davidsons cross-examination

Trumps attorney, Emil Bove, attempted to frame the payments made as extortion when cross-examining Davidson on Thursday, mentioning his history of negotiating cash-for-information deals with other celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Hulk Hogan.

You were pretty well-versed in getting right up to the line without committing extortion, right? Bove asked Davidson, according to Reuters. Davidson denied ever committing extortion.

CNNs Phil Mattingly said the profiles of the prosecutions witnesses could benefit the defense. None of this is going to look great. All of this is very unseemly, dealing with people that, perhaps, you might not necessarily want to be going to church with on a weekly basis.

But that also means the defense has real opportunities, he added.

Near the end of the testimony, jurors listened to a secret recording of Trump and Cohen talking about the transaction made to silence the alleged affair Trump had with McDougal.

The existence of the recording, made by Mr. Cohen about two months before the election, was previously known, according to The New York Times. But it demonstrated for the jury how Mr. Cohen reported his dealings to Mr. Trump for an agreement that prosecutors have said was part of a conspiracy to help him get elected.
Women in Idaho deserve the best possible medical care and their lives should always be protected. Full stop.

My office recently defended our Defense of Life Act before the U.S. Supreme Court against the Biden administrations attempt to finagle federal law to override Idahos law that explicitly protects both the lives of women and their unborn children. Not only does our law ensure women receive life-saving care, but the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) also requires that hospitals provide life-saving care to women in emergency rooms. As we told the Supreme Court, Idahos law harmonizes seamlessly with federal law in working to preserve every womans life.

But the Biden administration  aided by the mainstream media  continues to peddle fear, spreading blatant misinformation about the impact of Idahos law. The claim, originating in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted by St. Lukes Health System in support of the Biden administration, is that Idahos law is forcing hospitals to transport women with life-threatening conditions to other states to receive abortions. But Idahos law requires no such thing. Under Idahos law, doctors are expected to use their best medical judgment to preserve every womans life.

Ignoring the facts, however, the media has quickly grabbed onto this narrative, causing confusion and angst for women who deserve better. I want to set the record straight because the people of Idaho  and the entire country  deserve the truth, not half-baked narratives that advance the lawless agenda of the Biden administration over the lives and well-being of women.

So let me be very clear. Under Idaho law, women facing life-threatening conditions should be treated and provided whatever care or procedures they need to save their lives. Thats what the law requires, and the Idaho Supreme Court has been very clear about this. My office has been equally clear in all our filings in court: if a doctor believes in good faith that the termination of a womans pregnancy is necessary to save her life  regardless of how imminent that risk is  Idaho law allows it. St. Lukes and other hospitals shouldnt airlift a woman out of our state to perform an abortion necessary to save her life because such procedures are already permitted.

Women may need to be airlifted to larger hospitals because maternity wards in smaller, rural communities dont have access to the fullest necessary care, and in some cases, the closest hospital that meets their needs might be out of state. Indeed, maternity wards are increasingly closing all over the country, including in states like Oregon which allows abortion up until birth. But being emergency airlifted because hospitals lack the facilities necessary to provide women facing pregnancy complications the care needed is very far from the claim that Idahos law is creating a need to transport them out of state.

The contention that doctors are paralyzed by uncertainties also concerns me. No woman facing life-threatening conditions should ever need to be airlifted to another state for an abortion. And if hospitals are doing so, they are grossly misinterpreting our law. Idahos law contemplates life-threatening conditions, including sepsis, and expects doctors to do everything in their power to protect women, even if that means the tragic loss of her unborn child. Our law is about saving lives and is clear that an abortion in these situations is allowable. Nothing in Idaho law requires a hospital to delay life-saving care, and hospitals would only be harming womens health by doing so.

As your attorney general, I will continue my outreach to doctors and hospitals across Idaho to ensure that they know what the law requires and are prepared to do all they can to save womens lives. If you are a doctor or hospital administrator uncertain about the laws parameters or need guidance to ensure every womans life is protected, please contact me. I have had very productive conversations with members of the medical community and will continue to talk to anyone who has questions. And if you work at a hospital that believes Idahos law requires it to transport women facing life-threatening conditions to another state to have an abortion, let us know so we can clear up any confusion.

The Biden administration shouldnt use women as pawns. Under the guise of caring about life, the administration is fearmongering and spreading inaccuracies about the contours of a law that seeks to protect womens lives. That will not stand. In Idaho, we value womens health and well being. My promise remains: I will do everything in my power as attorney general to ensure every womans life is safeguarded.

Raul Labrador is a Republican who is the Idaho attorney general.
During a recent court appearance, the attorney representing Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four students at the University of Idaho in November 2022, said that prosecutors were withholding information from the defense team.

As Kohberger's lead attorney Anne Taylor argued that two upcoming hearings, set for May 14 and 16, should be made public, she said that Latah County prosecutors have not provided a full video that allegedly shows Kohberger's vehicle by the residence where the four students were killed. Taylor said that the defense has only "received parts of" the video, which is described in the probable cause affidavit that was used to arrest Kohberger, and said that the video did not have sound.

"This is the video that they say places this car near the residence. We're received little tiny pieces of that and we think Bryan's right to a fair trial means the public needs to know that they've withheld the audio from a great portion of that and that it starts a long time before the little clip that we received," Taylor said, also accusing prosecutors of keeping the defense "in a vacuum to try to control the narrative."

Bryan Kohberger arrives for a hearing in Latah County District Court on September 13, 2023. / Credit: Ted S. Warren / Getty Images

Taylor also argued that Kohberger's case should continue to be made public. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ashley Jennings said in a rebuttal that while the trial would be public, not all hearings should be conducted in an open forum because of the information being discussed. Three previous hearings have been public.

"I would note for the record, we had one (public) hearing regarding motions to compel ... We discussed one request and it had to do with training records. That's not what we're contemplating discussing at this hearing on the 14th," Jennings said.

According to CBS affiliate KREM, the upcoming hearings will "primarily address the potential relocation of Kohberger's trial away from Latah County." Kohberger's lawyers have previously said that "inflammatory" publicity would make it impossible for him to have a fair trial.

Overseeing judge John Judge ruled that the upcoming hearings will be closed.

The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the students who was killed, said in a statement that they were frustrated by how long it has taken the case to progress through the judicial system.

"This banter has been going on for 17 months. Then once you get a hearing, you have a hearing about the decision that was made at that hearing before the last hearing and there needs to be another hearing," the family said in a statement. "This case is turning into a hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions."

A trial date for Kohberger, who waived his right to a speedy trial in August 2024, has not yet been determined.

He has been in custody in Latah County Jail since May 2023.

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Illinois state employees fabricated hair salons, paid others to inaccurately fill out forms and drastically inflated income numbers for their side businesses in an effort to fraudulently receive pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program loans, according to recently released reports from the Office of Executive Inspector General.

One Department of Human Services employee said on a PPP application that his car-washing business made $110,000 in a year but later acknowledged the venture had no customers or income, according to one report. Asked why he listed that amount, the report says he told investigators: I just randomly put it in to see what I could get; I wanted to try my business again and wanted to go mobile with it.

Another DHS employee who claimed to have six-figure income from a beauty salon business later told investigators she had only ever made $20 to $40 per month doing hair for friends and family and did not consider it a business.

The woman told investigators she did what everyone else was doing at the time in order to get money, the IG reports said. She said that she did not use loan proceeds for any kind of business expenses because she does not have any business expenses.

Those cases are two of the 275 instances in which the inspector general found PPP wrongdoing, the alleged thefts totaling more than $7 million in public funds, according to the IGs April newsletter. Department of Human Services employees accounted for 175 of those cases. The Department of Corrections was the next highest, with 31 cases.

While the state IG provided updates on PPP investigations last year, the specifics of the alleged fraud werent made public until the states Executive Ethics Commission in recent weeks published about a dozen reports  all except one regarding Department of Human Services workers  detailing how they say state employees fraudulently received loans of $20,000 or more.

All employees in these cases were later fired, according to records posted by the ethics commission.

The inspector generals office refers cases with alleged loss greater than $5,000 to the Illinois attorney generals office for possible further action, said Neil Olson, general counsel at the OEIG. The AG can launch its own criminal investigation or pass the cases to a states attorney or federal prosecutors, he said.

The attorney generals office is reviewing all of the referrals it receives and several investigations have been opened, spokesperson Jamey Dunn-Thomason said in an email.

Attorney General (Kwame) Raoul is committed to holding accountable individuals who viewed the COVID pandemic as an opportunity for personal enrichment, Dunn-Thomason said, while declining to comment further on pending investigations.

While state agencies have consistently followed the inspector generals recommendations to fire workers accused of PPP fraud, the process for terminating state employees can be lengthy, Olson said.

Since the federal pandemic-era program took effect, many government employees have been linked to PPP fraud. Cook Countys independent watchdog last year found more than a dozen county employees fraudulently obtained federal pandemic loans, intended to keep small businesses afloat. And dozens of employees of Cook County Clerk Iris Martinez resigned or were fired amid a PPP fraud probe last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The program was often misused, as were other pandemic-era efforts to quickly disperse financial relief. A report from the U.S. Small Business Administrations inspector general last year said some $64 billion in PPP loans may have been improperly doled out nationwide.

A Department of Human Services spokesperson in a statement emphasized that employees have been terminated over the inspector generals findings.

While the vast majority of IDHS roughly 14,000 state employees are hard-working people of strong character who work tirelessly to help the most vulnerable, it is deeply concerning any time an employee takes advantage of public programs, spokesperson Daisy Contreras said in an email.

Several of the 13 state employees on whom investigative reports have been made public said they paid an outside individual to fill out the PPP application forms on their behalf. All claimed they had close to $100,000 in small business income to appear eligible for loans of about $20,000, according to the inspector generals investigative reports.

In each case, the OEIG determined that there was reasonable cause to believe the employee had violated state and agency rules by obtaining PPP loans based on falsified information, according to the office.

Many said they used the money for everyday expenses such as food and gas, the reports said. Other employees told the watchdog they spent the money on expenses related to a business, but admitted their businesses earned only a fraction of the money they claimed on their PPP application forms.

An employee of the states Department of Healthcare and Family Services who received a $20,000 loan for a beauty salon later told investigators that business was fictitious, according to an OEIG report. Another employee who received a loan of about the same size told OEIG she had thought about starting a hair-braiding business, but never did.

Yet another state employee, who said she paid a friend to fill out an application on her behalf, received a $20,000 loan for a livestock merchant wholesaler business and later said she didnt know where the information on the application came from, a report said. This employee also received a second, smaller PPP loan for a part-time babysitting business, which she told investigators was real.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker last year signed a law to extend the statute of limitations for theft and fraud prosecutions related to COVID-19 relief.

FBI Special Agent David Nanz, who is in charge of the bureaus Springfield office, said last June that the scope of fraud involving pandemic stimulus money is likely massive.

This is the largest theft of money in the history of the world, Nanz said. There is nothing that comes close when you look at all of the programs under the CARES Act, he added, referring to the federal legislation that included the PPP program.

Several state employees also violated rules on disclosing secondary employment, the OEIG found.

Regardless of the ease of procuring these PPP funds, this was not free money for the taking, the OEIG said. These loans, as with any other, required truthful information as a basis for approval.
UPDATE: According to state police, she is now in custody.

Pennsylvania State Police are looking for an Indiana County woman who is wanted on child abuse charges.

Paige Walker, 25, is wanted for felony counts of aggravated assault of a child less than six 6 of age and endangering the welfare of children, misdemeanor counts of simple assault and summary counts of harassment.

State police said charges were filed after an investigation into incidents of alleged child abuse that were reported on Feb. 26. The abuse was determined to have happened at an apartment on Main Street in Ernest Borough between Feb. 1 and when the incidents were reported.

Walker is described as a white woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5 feet, 3 inches tall and 145 pounds.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Walker is asked to contact 911 or Troop A, Indiana at 724-357-1960.

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A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon.

The Chang'e-6 mission is tasked with collecting and returning samples from the moon's mysterious far side, the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

"Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the moon is an unprecedented feat. Now we know very little about the moon's far side. If the Chang'e-6 mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the moon, which is of great significance," said Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration program.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft, like its predecessor Chang'e-5, comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.

After it reaches the moon, it will make a soft landing on the far side. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the moon and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit. The returner will then carry the samples back to Earth, landing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The entire flight is expected to last about 53 days, the China National Space Administration said.

As the moon's revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, the same side always faces Earth. The other face, most of which cannot be seen from Earth, is called the far side or "dark side" of the moon. This term doesn't refer to visible darkness, but rather the mystery shrouding the moon's largely unexplored terrain.

Remote-sensing images show the moon's two sides are very different. The near side is relatively flat, while the far side is thickly dotted with impact craters of different sizes and has much fewer lunar mares than the near side. Scientists infer that the lunar crust on the far side is much thicker than that on the near side. But why that is so remains a mystery.

An impact crater known as the Apollo basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon, has been chosen as the primary target landing and sampling site for the Chang'e-6 mission, according to Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-6 mission.

The colossal SPA Basin was formed by a celestial collision over 4 billion years ago and has a diameter of 2,500 kilometers, equivalent to the distance from Beijing to Hainan, and a depth of about 13 kilometers. It is the oldest and largest impact crater on the moon and in the solar system, and it may provide the earliest information about the moon, scientists say.

"First-hand, direct samples from the moon's far side are essential to giving us a deeper understanding of the characteristics and differences of the two sides of the moon, and to revealing the secrets of the moon," said Zeng Xingguo, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking," Wang said.

In order to realize communication between Earth and the probe on the far side of the moon, China sent the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, whose name translates to "magpie bridge-2," into a highly elliptical lunar frozen orbit earlier this year.

Although the Chang'e-4 mission achieved the world's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, Chang'e-6 still faces significant risks as the rugged terrain of the moon's far side poses great challenges for its landing, space experts say.

The Chang'e-6 mission needs to see new technological breakthroughs in such areas as lunar retrograde orbit design and control, rapid intelligent sampling, and takeoff from the far side of the moon, Wang said.

"The amount of samples that Chang'e-6 can collect is uncertain and cannot be estimated accurately at present. Our goal is to collect 2 kilograms," said Deng Xiangjin, a space expert from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The Chang'e-6 mission is carrying four payloads developed through international cooperation. Scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency/Sweden are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, and a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter. 

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

People wait to watch the launch of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan on Friday afternoon. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

This photo taken on May 3, 2024 shows the combination of the Chang'e-6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. The Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to be launched between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. (Beijing Time) on Friday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. (Photo by Huang Guochang/Xinhua)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration. (Photo by Huang Guochang/Xinhua)
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS  On Thursday, new images and new information about police removing protesters from an academic building theyd seized at Columbia University brought one question to the fore: how much influence do demonstrators from outside of college communities have on protests on campuses?

The question is being analyzed by law enforcement, students, and college administrators alike, even as protests continue at colleges and universities all over the New York City area.

At least 2,000 people arrested in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses, AP tally shows

New bodycam video from officers entering Hamilton Hall on the Columbia campus Tuesday night was released by the NYPD on Thursday. Protesters had broken into and taken over the academic building on Monday, and the university had requested that police come onto the private colleges campus to remove the demonstrators.

On Tuesday night, NYPD officers made arrests at both Columbia and at City College, 20 blocks away. They arrested more than 300 protesters, and on Thursday, police leaders had a numerical analysis of the arrests that had been made.

More than half of the people arrested at City College were not from that school, said NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell in an interview with PIX11 News. About 30 percent were not from Columbia, he continued. What are they doing there, and what level of agitator are they? he asked.

Pro-Palestinian protesters take down encampment at Rutgers University

Chell and other police leaders have specifically mentioned Lisa Fithian, an activist whos known to travel to protests nationwide and advise demonstrators. Shes been seen in a variety of videos outside of Hamilton Hall confronting some Columbia students who tried to stop the building from being taken over. One of those students is Charles Beck.

Id like to think that the Columbia student body doesnt have the innate tendency to do something like what happened, Beck said in an interview with PIX11 News on Thursday. It actually makes a lot of sense to me that there were outside people.

Throughout the day on Thursday, there were a few small protests outside of Columbias gates, as well as just outside of City College, or CCNY, which has been fenced off and shut down by the NYPD, at the colleges request. CCNY is part of the larger City University of New York, or CUNY system. There was a protest in front of CUNYs welcome center, on East 42nd Street, on Thursday morning.

Fordham Universitys Lincoln Center campus has also removed protesters from its buildings this week. All of those institutions have said that they have been, and still are, open to negotiating with students.

Answering readers questions about the protest movement on US college campuses

Columbia said in a statement to PIX11 News that it offered protesters who want it to divest from Israel an expedited review by the universitys divestment committee; greater access to Columbias financial information; the convening of a faculty committee on academic freedom and financial barriers; and an offer to make investments in health and education in Gaza.

For its part, Fordham University re-emphasized statements made on Wednesday by its president, Tania Tetlow.

She said, We met with student leaders as recently as yesterday, readily agreeing to allow them to present their case about divestment and transparency to trustees and our chief investment officer. We remain committed to that process.

It comes down to this, Tetlow continued. Fordham students have a right to feel safe and to finish their exams. Period. We remain committed to permitting peaceful protests that still allow the rest of our student body to continue their studies.

PIX11 requested a comment from CCNY and CUNY and has not yet received a detailed response.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  The man accused of assaulting a nurse while in custody at the county jail appeared before a judge Friday morning.

Cordarius Fisher stood before a judge to hear his rights and his new charge of simple assault. The charge is a Class A misdemeanor, which comes with a sentence of 11 months, 29 days, the judge said.

Inmate charged after attack on nurse

Fisher wore a red jumpsuit in court, the sign of a high-profile inmate according to several sources with the Shelby County Sheriffs Office.

The nurse told WREG she was passing out medication to inmates at 201 Poplar when Fisher allegedly made sexual gestures and threats towards her before attacking.

I said could you please move? Could you please move? I put my hand up and thats when he got his fist and hit me in the face, she said.

Fisher was originally in jail for two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, and theft.

A look at Fishers record shows he is no stranger to the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center.

We first reported on Fisher two months ago when police say he tried to break into a womans car with a chainsaw, after breaking into her home a month prior.

Hes been found guilty numerous times of assault, primarily against women.

MPD: Man tries to break into womans car with chainsaw

In 2022, he was found guilty of assaulting a woman who was holding her child in her arms.

In another case, he was sentenced for throwing a chair at a woman after a verbal altercation.

In the alleged assault against the nurse, court documents say Fisher was standing in the hallway waiting to be relocated to another housing unit when the nurse encountered him. The report says the reported assault was captured on video.

The victim tells us Fisher was not restrained.

Thats negligence on the security part, because he was supposed to be in handcuffs, she said.

We asked the sheriffs office why Fisher was being relocated without handcuffs and where the officer who was relocating him was.

A spokesman says they are looking into it.

Fisher is now being held on a $37,500 bond for all current charges. He is due back in court on Tuesday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
When Tricia Todd didnt pick up her 2-year-old daughter Faith from her babysitter on April 27, 2016, her family knew something was wrong.

After completing dozens of interviews, combing through hours of surveillance footage and chasing several dead ends, investigators were finally able to determine why Faith had not been picked up by her mother that day: the 30-year-old nurse had been killed. But even as detectives uncovered the surprising truth of what happened to Tricia Todd, they were left with more questions.

PHOTO: Tricia Todd was a 30-year-old mom, Air Force veteran and nurse. Todds family reported her missing to Florida police on April 27, 2016. (Rebecca Hasselbach)

What did we do wrong? Who did we just make a deal with? Martin County Sheriffs Office Lieutenant Yesenia Carde recalled in an interview with 20/20 Co-Anchor Deborah Roberts.

Investigators spoke in a new 20/20 episode, airing Friday, May 3, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu, about how they were able to sift through an array of leads to finally secure a shocking confession from Tricia Todds murderer  and arranged a plea deal to locate her missing body.

PHOTO: Martin County Sheriffs Office Lieutenant Yesenia Carde spoke with 20/20 Co-Anchor Deborah Roberts near the house where Tricia Todd was last seen alive. (ABC News)

I just made a deal with the devil, and there's nothing I can do about it, the State Attorney for Florida's 19th Judicial Circuit, Tom Bakkedahl, told 20/20.

One month before that deal with her killer, Tricia Todd was living in Hobe Sound, Florida  a quiet town of around 1,300 residents on the east coast of the state, about 40 minutes north of Palm Beach.

The tight-knit Hobe Sound community didnt have violent crimes like we were dealing with in this case, according to Martin County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy John Budensiek. He described a missing persons case like Todds as unheard of and her disappearance one that set the community on edge.

Additionally, Todd was one of Hobe Sounds own. Growing up there with her seven brothers, Todd was well-known in her hometown.

[Tricia] would keep up with the boys, whatever they're doing, she's doing, Todds mother Rebecca Hasselbach told Roberts. They're jumping on the trampoline. She's jumping on the trampoline. When she got bigger, they had motorcycles. She had a motorcycle. That was her.

PHOTO: Rebecca Hasselbach, Tricia Todds mother, recalled with 20/20 Co-Anchor Deborah Roberts about her excitement of having a baby girl and her daughters dream of becoming a nurse. (ABC News)

Todd attended Hobe Sound Christian Academy, where she met Steven Williams  a boy from West Palm Beach. Todds friend Marnie Ellis described Williams as super funny" with a big personality. Todd and Williams began to date, both enrolled in the Air Force, and later married in a small, private ceremony in North Carolina.

From a young age, Todd knew she wanted to be a nurse, according to her mother. After completing her time with the Air Force, she attended nursing school, began work as a hospice nurse, and made several medical mission trips to Haiti, her brother Jonathan Todd told 20/20.

Then Todd received exciting news  she was pregnant with a baby girl. She named her Faith.

I could not believe how happy she was, Ellis said. That was the most important thing to her, along with becoming a nurse, was being a mom.

PHOTO: Tricia Todd and Steven Williams married in a small ceremony in North Carolina, and later gave birth to their baby girl Faith. The couple divorced after being married for more than a decade. (Rebecca Hasselbach)

After Faiths birth, Todds friends said they began to see her marriage to Williams unravel, with Ellis one friend telling 20/20 that Todd was bothered by repeated infidelity. In 2015, the two separated and Todd moved herself and her daughter back to Hobe Sound. After ten years of marriage, a divorce was officially finalized a year later.

Todd began to build a new life in Hobe Sound. She moved in with one of her brothers in his home about 2 miles from the beach, a location her family said she took advantage of to make late night beach walks to think and pray. Williams, still living in North Carolina, paid child support and visited his daughter.

It was during one of these visits in April 2016 that Todd went missing.

MORE: Video 30-year-old mom vanishes from Florida, concerning family and community

Faith was staying with her father overnight at a property he had rented near Todds residence. Williams texted Todd, telling her Faith was having trouble sleeping and asked her to come over to help. In early conversations with investigators, Williams explained that Todd tended to Faith and then left the rental house around 2 a.m.

The next morning, Todd did not arrive to pick up her daughter. Williams said that after trying to reach her all morning, he left his daughter with her babysitter before heading back to North Carolina. By that evening, Todd still had not surfaced. Worried family members alerted police to her disappearance.

Police searched Todds home and car and found her car moved from its usual parking spot with her keys and purse inside. Inside her home, groceries had been left on her kitchen counter. Her wallet and phone were missing, but there were no further clues about her location.

Interviews with Todd's friends and family revealed an initial lead -- Todd may have had a new romantic interest who she was convinced...she was supposed to be with, Ellis told ABC News.

His name was Brent Vernon, a local performer and ventriloquist. Ellis said Todd was infatuated with Vernon, even buying a new dress for an upcoming performance in the hopes of sparking a romance.Detectives were hopeful that Todd might still show up at that performance, a week after she was reported missing, and police set up surveillance of the venue. But she never appeared.

Brent Vernon was ultimately cleared by investigators of having any involvement in Tricia Todds disappearance.

Meanwhile, Williams, who investigators at the time noted was pleasant and cooperative," may have identified a new lead: his ex-wife's late-night walks on the beach. He told cops that shed venture out on her own, without her phone or any way to protect herself, like pepper spray.

Jonathan Todd told ABC News that there were some early theories that his sister might have experienced an injury or been kidnapped while she was on such a walk.

Time became of the essence, Jonathan Todd recalled about the investigation. They're doing ground searches, they're searching neighborhoods, they're searching areas where she might've walked.

Police spoke with someone who they suspected may know more: a local pastor whom Todd had previously encountered and prayed with during her beach walks. In fact, investigators learned he was on the beach the night Todd went missing.

He was cleared, however, thanks to a unique alibi that cops confirmed through surveillance footage: he had been watching a nesting sea turtle lay eggs.

When no other strong leads emerged, investigators returned to Williams for a second time, hoping to uncover more information. A polygraph Williams took was inconclusive and an interview with his girlfriend yielded little new insight.

Detectives continued canvassing the neighborhood near Todds house and eventually found something interesting captured on surveillance footage: the grainy image of a figure walking down the street the night Todd went missing.

Equipped with this footage, and expedited by the fact that Williams now wanted to move his daughter from Hobe Sound to North Carolina, detectives from the Martin County Sheriffs Office, including Lieutenant Carde, flew to North Carolina to confront Williams in person.

Finally, Williams claimed that he and Todd did have an argument at the rental home that resulted in him pushing Todd. He said she fell, hitting her head, and he panicked when he realized he would be blamed. At that point, he told investigators that he drove his unresponsive ex-wife to the side of a road and left her there with a granola bar and water.

Despite this admission, Carde said there still wasnt enough evidence for investigators to formally charge Williams with murder. Knowing there was more to uncover, Carde and the other investigators convinced Williams to return with them to Florida to help them locate Todds body. Multiple attempts at driving Williams to different locations were unsuccessful as he repeatedly said he couldnt remember where he left Todd.

At the end of the day, I just wanted to give Tricia back to her family, Carde said. We just wanted him to show us where she was.

Without proof that Todd was dead, police charged Williams with child neglect, for leaving Faith home alone the night in question, and brought him in for another interrogation, where he finally admitted that he killed Todd, alleging it had been an accident. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder.

MORE: Video 30-year-old mom vanishes from Florida, concerning family and community

But investigators still didnt know the location of Todds body. Williams was offered a plea deal that would reduce the sentence from a potential death penalty case to 35 years in prison in return for locating his ex-wifes remains.

PHOTO: A still image from police video captures Steven Williams showing detectives the location where he dumped his ex-wife Tricia Todds remains. (Martin County Sheriffs Office )

When he said we were going to need a hazmat team, our heart just sunk, Carde said to 20/20. Williams took investigators to Hungryland Preserve, where he buried Todds remains in a plastic tote box of acid.

It was clearly premeditated, Carde reflected. The discovery left prosecutors and investigators regretting their plea agreement with Williams.

Williams is serving the 35-year sentence civil authorities agreed to in the deal.

The Air Force declined to federally prosecute him for crimes committed off base while on active duty.

In a statement to "20/20," the Air Force said, "While the Air Force has jurisdiction over any DAF member for crimes committed while on Active Duty, if crimes occur off-base, then civil authorities can claim jurisdiction over the crime. Civil authorities claim jurisdiction in this case as it occurred off of the installation."

PHOTO: Tricia Todd is seen in this undated family photo. (Rebecca Hasselbach )

Faith, now 10, was adopted by and is living with Todds brother Jonathan and his family.

We love telling Faith about who her mom was, Jonathan Todd said. [Tricia] was just authenticso willing to give of herself for othersand we teach Faith about that.

ABC News' Laura Dimon, Blue Browning, Stacey Newman, and Glenn Ruppel contributed to this report.

Inside the 'Hungryland Homicide': Why police investigated a pastor, a ventriloquist and ex-husband to find Florida mom's killer originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
More than 200 UCLA students, faculty and staff were arrested early Thursday morning after police destroyed the campus Palestinian solidarity encampment, wielding batons and less-lethal munitions to break up the crowd and disassemble the barriers to the tent community that was erected one week ago.

The encampment, which stretched across the lawn by Royce Hall, was established last Thursday by hundreds of students calling for the University of California, Los Angeles, to divest from all companies with ties to Israel and disclose the finances of the schools foundation.

UCLAs encampment is just one of dozens of similar campus protests across the country since Israels military assault on Gaza, which was launched in response to Hamas Oct. 7 attack that left about 1,200 people dead and about 240 taken hostage. Since then, Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials.

Since April 18, when students at Columbia University in New York City began protesting Israels offensive in Gaza, more than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 college campuses nationwide.

By Thursday evening, hours before the UCLA encampment was destroyed, it hosted a vibrant community of students, faculty members and volunteers, and was equipped with donations of extra clothing, blankets, food, personal protective equipment, first-aid supplies, hygiene products, a space to pray and legal observers.

We have a program here. We have workshops, teach-ins, self-defense classes, said Ismael, a 22-year-old UCLA student who requested to be identified only by his first name. Ismael came to the encampment on Sunday straight from the airport after a camping trip, he said. Asked why he chose to participate in the protests, he said, Im against genocide.

Honestly, it was the most beautiful thing thats happened on campus throughout my eight years at UCLA, Can Aciksoz, a professor in UCLAs anthropology department, said. It was multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-faith  it was very beautiful to witness that the students could build these bridges.

The Playbook Of Authoritarianism

After initially tolerating the protests, university officials declared the encampment illegal on Tuesday, warning of consequences if protesters did not disband.

UCLA supports peaceful protest, but not activism that harms our ability to carry out our academic mission and makes people in our community feel bullied, threatened and afraid, university Chancellor Gene Block said. These incidents have put many on our campus, especially our Jewish students, in a state of anxiety and fear.

A large group of counter-protesters  some of whom held Israeli flags  descended on the campus late Tuesday night, attempting to tear down the barricades that surrounded the lawn.

Students, faculty and university staff told HuffPost that counter-protesters threw sticks, metal rods, traffic cones, chairs and electric scooters at the encampment, and sprayed chemical irritants that left lingering rashes. Some protesters said they were pulled into the crowd of counter-protesters and beaten.

Protesters reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers stood by and watched the violence unfold for hours without intervening.

Why arent you helping? Ismael recalled asking police officers. Despite everything, we maintained our stance on peaceful protest, he said, still wearing his bracelet from the emergency room, where he sought treatment for what he believes was pepper spray and tear gas.

Aidan Doyle, a 21-year-old junior at UCLA, said he was repeatedly pulled into the crowd of counter-protesters, who whipped him with sticks, threw a battery at his eye and sprayed him with chemical irritants. At one point, he said, he found himself looking at the nozzle of what he believed was a pepper spray gun. It was the most painful experience of my life, Doyle said of the attack, his shirt still bloodied and his hands still covered in red rashes.

UCLA junior Aidan Doyle, 21, described being attacked by counter-protesters as "the most painful experience" of his life. Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

Several protesters said the counter-protesters appeared too old to be college students and that they shouted racist, homophobic slurs and threats of rape. One protesters mother, who was at the encampment Wednesday, said counter-protesters called her son shahid, an Arabic word for martyr, and threatened to physically hurt him.

The students were great at de-escalating and did not respond in kind, Aciksoz said on Wednesday. It speaks volumes about their composure and commitment to nonviolence, even in the face of absolute violence.

What is happening at UCLA right now is a strategy that I recognize from Turkey, Aciksoz tweeted at the time of the counter-protesters attack. The police outsourcing violence to fascist mobs.

I compared it to Turkey because this was something that I experienced, personally, many times during my years of student activism, Aciksoz said in an interview on Thursday. You have groups of ultra-nationalists or classical fascists attacking students while the police is present and doing nothing. And then the police come and sweeps up and arrest the students who are attacked, rather than arresting the attackers themselves.

This is the playbook of authoritarianism everywhere, from Egypt to Israel to Turkey to India.

The LAPD reportedly intervened after nearly three hours. The police department made no arrests and used no force, it said on X, formerly known as Twitter. UC President Michael Drake reported that 15 people were injured, although protesters say the actual number was higher.

On Wednesday, 398 UCLA faculty members, as well as 680 faculty and staff members from other University of California campuses, issued a letter to Block demanding that there be no police or disciplinary action against students participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The California Federation of Teachers and some faculty at UCLA have called for Block to immediately resign for his failure of leadership. Block is set to retire in July and is one of three university leaders summoned to testify before Congress this month about antisemitism on college campuses.

Before the counter-protesters violently clashed with people in the encampment on Tuesday, the group had installed a large video screen facing the encampment that played loud footage from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks all day and night.

The jumbo screen was part of a pricey counter-protest from an organization called The Bear Jews of Truth. According to two separate GoFundMe pages, the organization raised more than $133,000 in donations to erect the video display at UCLA and bring similar screens to other universities across the country. One of the pages says the group plans to bring a large screen to George Washington University in the District of Columbia in May.

An archived version of one of the fundraising pages shows plans to bring something very big for the ucla encampment.

We are working to bring a huge screen and big loud speakers right next to them and just play nonstop clips and interviews from Oct. 7, the page said.

The pro-Israel counter-protest has been supported by celebrities including comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica Seinfeld, a cookbook author, as well as billionaire hedge-fund investor Bill Ackman, according to the Daily Beast.

Students within the encampment told HuffPost the video screen was a form of torture and reported a number of other tactics leveraged by the counter-protesters on Tuesday night, including launching fireworks, creating louds noises that sounded like gunshots and incessant cellphone alarms.

An encampment of people protesting Israel's attacks on Gaza is set up on the UCLA campus by Royce Hall. Lil Kalish/HuffPost

Were Just Kids

The UCLA administration canceled classes on Wednesday, and protesters spent the morning cleaning up the encampment and repairing the barriers around the site. A volunteer medic provided treatment for protesters injured the previous night. Participants also passed out goggles, helmets, ear plugs and gloves as rumors circulated that police intervention was imminent.

Nurse practitioner Kristine Bustos, 38, volunteered as a medic, providing care to injured students. Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

By Wednesday evening, a heavy police presence surrounded the perimeter of the encampment. Protesters barricaded the doors to Royce Hall, from which they anticipated police officers might enter. A group of faculty members lined up in front of the doors to form a human barrier to protect the students.

Encampment participants were organized into red, yellow and green categories, based on their willingness to risk arrest. Organizers made sure that participants who could not risk arrest were positioned close to exits and that those who planned to stay until removed had protective equipment.

Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the doors to Royce Hall on Wednesday night in anticipation of police intervention. Graffiti was painted on the building. Jessica Schulberg/HuffPost

The standoff lasted for hours, with periodic dispersal orders blaring over a loudspeaker. Some protesters, many of whom had barely slept the previous night, suspected that police were waiting until the middle of the night to enter the encampment, hoping people would get tired and leave.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, police launched a multi-front operation into the encampment, using flash-bang devices and so-called less-lethal bullets against students who were armed with makeshift shields and umbrellas. Although protesters pushed back initial incursions from officers, the camp was fully cleared by morning.

UCLA students erect barricades and fly the flag of Palestine on the campus. Lil Kalish/HuffPost

The police attacked not only the encampment but students all over the campus, Aciksoz said. There were groups of students, maybe 1,000 students or so, surrounding the encampments in different directions, and everywhere that I went, I saw students being chased by stun grenades and batons.

By Thursday morning, hundreds of students and faculty had been arrested and were being released from detention at the Inmate Reception Center and the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The released protesters were greeted by public defense attorneys and family members, and by jail support volunteers who passed out bagels and coffee.

Los Angeles Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement that his office was providing on-the-ground support to arrestees but that it was not yet clear what charges, if any, would be presented.

LAPD and the California Highway Patrol referred questions to the UCLA Campus Police, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Block, the UCLA chancellor, released a statement to the UCLA community Thursday afternoon about the decision to direct campus police and outside law enforcement to help clear the encampment after the administration failed to reach an agreement with encampment leaders.

In the end, the encampment on Royce Quad was both unlawful and a breach of policy. It led to unsafe conditions on our campus and it damaged our ability to carry out our mission, Block wrote. It needed to come to an end.

Later Thursday, in an alumni town hall, Block acknowledged the protesters demands but did not signal any willingness to meet them. He also said that UCLAs commencement ceremonies will go forward, though he expects some disruptions.

Outside the Inmate Detention Center on Thursday morning, students walked outside red-eyed from lack of sleep and tear gas that still stung their eyes. One 21-year-old psychology major who was released Thursday said that the last two days on campus were like a war zone and that she witnessed police removing peoples hijabs and masks, and forcing students to walk by the video screen put up by pro-Israel counter-protesters on their way to arrest.

They did this on purpose, she said. They told us, Lets do a media walk. It was a kind of a threat meant for public humiliation.

She was one of a few hundred students, faculty and staff remaining at the encampment at 5:50 Thursday morning, eager to keep the police out of the encampment. She recalled how officers kettled her classmates, pushing through their makeshift barriers with batons and shields.

Were just kids, she said. We didnt have much to go off of.

Later Thursday, the encampment had been cleared by the university, and dozens of tent-shaped patches of grass marked what had been the makeshift solidarity encampment.

Some protesters talked about rebuilding the community, and others expressed caution.

I think itll come back, said a senior bioengineering major who was arrested Thursday morning. He received a concussion after being struck on the head twice Tuesday and pepper-sprayed in the eye.

We just want our demands to be met. We want the university to step up and acknowledge that and be open about how theyre spending their money.

Related...
Sen. Bob Menendez leaves the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in Manhattan after pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (Aristide Economopoulos for New Jersey Monitor)

Sen. Bob Menendezs legal team asked a federal judge this week to sanction prosecutors in his corruption case for publicly disclosing a psychiatric condition defense attorneys say drove the senator to hoard cash in his home.

In a court filing, prosecutors included a letter from Menendezs attorneys that revealed they planned to call a New York psychiatrist to testify that the senators intergenerational trauma created an undisclosed mental health disorder that caused him to store his riches at home. Such behavior is a common coping mechanism for trauma victims who have experienced scarcity, the attorneys said.

Specifically, the psychiatrist would reveal that the senator suffered two significant traumatic events  his father was a compulsive gambler who died by suicide after Menendez quit paying off his gambling debts and the Cuban government confiscated most of his parents money, leaving them with just a small amount of cash they kept at home, the letter said.

Menendezs parents emigrated to New York City, where he was born, in the early 1950s, and he grew up in Union. His father died in the late 1970s.

The senator never received treatment for his resulting mental health struggles, the letter noted.

Such information should have been redacted because they were deeply private and sensitive details about Senator Menendezs personal history and mental health diagnoses, and they revealed defense strategy, which likely tainted the jury pool, attorneys Adam Fee and Avi Weitzman wrote Thursday to Judge Sidney H. Stein.

There is thus no excuse or justification for the governments conduct, Fee wrote. This Court can, and should, order a remedy to attempt to mitigate the damage caused by the governments conduct.

He asked Stein to order prosecutors, who are trying to block the psychiatrists testimony, to explain the disclosure to determine if it was intentional, and consider sanctions.

In other court filings this week, prosecutors asked Stein to bar testimony by the Qatari investors who businessman Fred Daibes allegedly bribed Menendez to influence, saying whether they invested is irrelevant to if the bribe occurred. And defense attorneys indicated they plan to call an accountant to testify that the senator lived within his means.

Previous filings showed Menendez will likely blame his wife Nadine for his legal troubles.

The trial for Menendez and two of his four co-defendants  Daibes and businessman Wael Hana  is set to start May 13 at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan federal courthouse in Manhattan. Health issues prompted Stein to postpone Nadine Menendezs trial to July, and Jose Uribe, another co-defendant, pleaded guilty in March.

The post Intergenerational trauma drove Sen. Menendez to stash cash at home, attorneys say appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) warned Iowa on Friday that the state will face a lawsuit if it implements an immigration law that forbids people from being in the state if they were previously denied entry into the United States.

The DOJ informed Iowas top state officials, Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Attorney General Brenna Bird, that it intends to sue the Hawkeye State by May 7 if it enforces SF 2340, a bill that makes it a crime for a person to be in Iowa if they were previously removed from the U.S. or have outstanding deportation orders.

Reynolds said the law will be enforced since it is her duty to protect Iowa residents.

The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden Administration refuses to enforce the laws already on the books, Reynolds said in a Friday post on social platform X. I have a duty to protect the citizens of Iowa. Unlike the federal government, we will respect the rule of law and enforce it.

The DOJ letter  first reported by the Des Moines Register  argued Iowas law violates the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act.

SF 2340 is preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution, Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, said in a letter that was obtained by The Hill.

Boynton said in the letter the law effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme, which intrudes into a field that is occupied by the federal government and is preempted.

Bird, like Reynolds, signaled that the state will push ahead with the law despite the DOJs request.

Not only has Biden refused to enforce federal immigration laws & secure our border, he is now threatening to block states like IA from enforcing our own laws, Bird said Friday on X.

Our message to Biden is this: IA will not back down & stand by as our states safety hangs in the balance. If Biden refuses to stop the border invasion & keep our communities safe, IA will do the job for him.

The DOJs threat of a lawsuit is not a hollow one.

The department sued Texas earlier this year after it passed a law allowing state law enforcement to effectively carry out immigration duties and deport those perceived to be migrants to Mexico, regardless of their country of origin. The law has been put on hold while litigation continues.

The DOJ also sued Texas after it placed large buoys in the Rio Grande to block migrants crossing the river, and the department also challenged Texass placement of concertina wire alongside the border, arguing it interfered with U.S. immigration agents carrying out their jobs.

Those lawsuits, though still working their way through the court system, have been largely successful for the DOJ, with courts siding with the department that immigration enforcement is a power reserved to the federal government.

Nationally, Republicans have gone after President Biden, accusing him of not enforcing federal law on the southern border.

House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in protest of Bidens abortion policies in February. The House GOP also derailed a bipartisan deal brokered in the Senate earlier this year that would have imposed new restrictions along the border.

Iowas law, which Reynolds signed April 10, will go into effect July 1.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Reuters) - Iran has released the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel, but remains in control of the vessel itself, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route.

The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Iran's territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention, Amirabdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry post on X late Thursday night.

He said the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and they could return to their countries along with the ships captain.

Irans foreign ministry had earlier said the Aries was seized for "violating maritime laws" and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemens Iran-allied Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's war on Gaza, have affected global shipping.

(dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
A hard-line Iranian militia is hiring women to enforce the countrys strict hijab rules, using them to spy on other women and bundle offenders into vans to be taken for interrogation.

Dressed in black from head to toe, thousands of female hijab enforcers have swarmed the streets of Iranian cities over the past three weeks, patrolling supermarkets, metro stations, cafes, restaurants and universities amid a sweeping crackdown.

Women deemed in violation of the requirement to wear a headscarf, or found to be wearing fitted trousers, are confronted and sent to the feared morality police. Patrol locations are decided and assigned to the enforcers by the Iranian authorities.

The emergence of female enforcers comes after Irans hardline theocratic rulers tightened their grip on power in a series of elections for parliament and a key clerical body in March.

The women are a symbol of the sway the hardliners still hold over swathes of the population, as they battle to clamp down on dissent in the wake of protests that swept the country in 2022 after the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf.

We are the most important part of implementing chastity in Iran and I am proud of it, said Zahra, one of the women enforcers, who is in her late 30s.

Brothers are not allowed to touch girls with indecent appearance, who disrespect the religion and law in this country, so we are there to warn them and if they resist, take them away to the morality police stations, she told The Telegraph in a telephone interview from northeastern Mashhad. We should intimidate them so they stop going out as if its Paris or London.

Shes my daughter, its none of your business

Zahra was recruited in late March by the Basij of Sisters, a hardline militia group closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and instructed to be ready for a major operation against women.

Irans hard-line theocratic rulers have long sought to control how women dress. But many Iranian women have been openly defying the hijab rules after Ms Aminis death.

However, rather than listening to calls for change, Iranian authorities have doubled down on the rules, hiring these new enforcers and instructing 32 government agencies to implement the rules.

We are told to do the job with respect and not harm the women but sometimes we have to. Many of them will start confronting us, said Zahra.

In one video that surfaced online, a mother tries to prevent the arrest of her daughter, saying: She is my daughter, and its none of your business!

The enforcer replied with a threat: The police are coming. Just wait; youll see if its my business or not.

The system has been too soft on them for too long

As a part-time employee, Zahra receives an above-average 6 million rials (114) for a six-hour long shift. Thats more than 50 per cent higher than the minimum wage in Iran, and the economic incentive has attracted some women to join the hijab crackdown.

I work at a school as a teacher, too, but the Basij pays better and I do some afternoon shifts with them, said Zeinab, a hijab enforcer in northwestern Tabriz. I hide the job from my relatives because no one will like me if they know what I do.

Other women say theyre glad to do their part in helping their brothers in the IRGC and Irans feared morality police, and say women who flout hijab rules deserve to be rounded up.

I am aware of the mistreatment they face in detention, and its justified given their actions. The system has been too soft towards them for too long, but now its time for a change, Zahra said of the women who appear in public without a headscarf.

Brothers are at the Basij, Sepah [IRGC], police and everyone in the revolutionary system are trying to keep the revolution alive. We, the women, should also do our part to divert this danger from the Islamic Republic.

When asked how a mere headscarf could pose a threat to Iranian authorities, she ended the call abruptly and refused to answer again.

Commanders are concerned about a potential new uprising

A new law is also awaiting approval in the Iranian parliament that would impose harsher penalties on those who violate hijab regulations, including fines, travel restrictions and imprisonment.

These past weeks have been the first time that I and other revolutionary women have been deployed, said Zeinab.

The locations she is sent to patrol depends on where the majority of violations have been reported. On Wednesday, her employer, the Basij, told her to keep it calm following recent news reports about Nika Shakarami, 16, who was sexually assaulted and beaten to death by a radical branch of the IRGC during the 2022 protests.

Iranian prosecutors have also now filed criminal charges targeting activists and journalists following a BBC report about Shakarami, though those named in the case have not been made public.

Because of that, the commanders are now concerned about a potential new uprising, said Zeinab.

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(Bloomberg) -- Irish prime minister Simon Harris is making his first official visit to Belfast in Northern Ireland Friday, amid a dispute that erupted this week between the UK and Ireland over migration.

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He met with first ministers of Northern Ireland, Michelle ONeill, and Emma Little-Pengelly at Stormont Castle. The main item on the agenda was developments since Northern Irelands power-sharing executive which was restored in February after a two-year suspension.

While the focus of the meeting was north-south relations, there is a lot of attention on the issue of immigration in light of claims by Irelands justice minister that 80% of international protection applicants had come from Northern Ireland.

We have a Common Travel Area between the two islands, said Harris after the meeting. Im determined to work constructively to make sure that the Common Travel Area is protected.

Irelands relationship with the UK has become strained since the new premiers administration appeared to blame UK prime minister Rishi Sunaks flagship Rwanda plan for an up tick in the number of migrants crossing into the Republic from Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. The numbers on how many are actually crossing the border arent yet clear but it has lead to a row over sending asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland from Northern Ireland back to the UK.

In relation to the issue of Ireland and Rwanda, thats more satire than news, said Harris. Ireland has its own policy in relation to migration. We have every right to have our own policy. And indeed, we will seek to advance migration policy through our membership of the European Union.

However, the issue is an important political touchstone for the leaders on both sides of the Irish sea: Harris wants to appear tough on immigration, a major election issue, while Sunak appears to be using the spat as evidence his Rwanda plan, a key pledge to British voters that vows to deport some migrants to the third country, is working.

As a result of the argument, Ireland has made emergency plans to declare the UK a safe place to return asylum seekers. Rishi Sunak ruled out any deal to accept returned asylum-seekers, unless France accepted theirs.

Its an example of how fraught the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and European Union can be, even though Sunak regards solving the questions around how Northern Ireland would operate after the vote, and repairing relations with the EU as his big achievements.

(Updated headline and first paragraphs to reflect visit had taken place and added comments to fourth and sixth paragraphs.)

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SAO PAULO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The worst storms killed 29 people and left 60 others missing after four consecutive days of intense rainfall, floods and mudslides hit Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Governor Eduardo Leite said on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, we know that these numbers will rise," said Leite, describing the storms as the worst natural disaster in the history of the state, a top agricultural and livestock producer.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday visited Santa Maria, one of the state's worst-hit cities, and met with Leite. Lula offered federal funding and aid to address the emergency in the state bordering Uruguay and Argentina.

"There will be no shortage of help from the federal government to take care of health, there will be no shortage of money to take care of transportation and food, everything that is within reach. Whether through ministers, civil society or our military, we will dedicate round-the-clock effort so that we can satisfy the basic needs of the people who are stranded by the rains," said the president.

With more rains forecasted to come, the governor called on residents to head for higher ground and stay away from flood-prone areas identified by the civil defense agency.

Some 4,400 residents have been evacuated but thousands more are waiting to be rescued from their flooded homes, he said.

According to a civil defense bulletin, 154 cities have been affected by the natural disaster. 
The Israeli military has informed aid groups and the Biden administration of a plan to begin removing Gazans from Rafah ahead of an invasion, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the situation.

The Israel Defense Forces recently told the U.S. government and aid groups operating on the ground that they had developed a plan to move people out of Rafah, the main humanitarian hub in the enclave, to al-Mawasi, a small strip of land on the southern Gaza coast. The IDF sent a map of the area to aid workers this week, a copy of which POLITICO obtained.

The Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel to avoid an invasion of Rafah unless it has a plan to protect civilians sheltering there.

The IDF told aid groups the Rafah invasion will move ahead soon but did not give a specific date, the two people familiar said.

The U.S. official cautioned that this is not the final plan from the IDF, rather some of their latest thinking." A second U.S. official said the Biden administration is not aware of any imminent invasion and that it is still waiting on more details from Israel on exactly how it would move people out of Rafah.

All the people were granted anonymity to detail sensitive internal planning.



This week, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. still had not seen an indication that Israel had a plan to ensure the safety of Rafahs population.

A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the Defense Department had been briefed on the plan.

After this story was published, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that the U.S. had not received a "comprehensive" plan about how it would evacuate Gazans from Rafah. Pushed for details, Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about exactly what the Biden administration understood about Israel's planning, but acknowledged the White House has had several conversations with Israel in recent days, some of which touched on the subject of Rafah.

The planning comes as CIA Director Williams Burns is in Cairo to meet with officials from Egypt, Qatar and Israel to try to finalize a hostage deal. Israel has ramped up its promises to invade Rafah amid those conversations. Israel has said it wants to invade Rafah in order to eliminate Hamas from southern Gaza.

The expulsion of Gazans from Rafah is expected to cause significant disruption to the distribution of humanitarian aid. And it is not clear that all the nearly 1.5 million people will be able to fit into the area designated by the Israelis. The IDF has begun ordering tents for al-Mawasi, but it has not provided the details of how it plans to safely move Gazans to the area or how it will organize them once they arrive, a third person familiar said.

The humanitarian operation in Rafah is robust, having been built up over the last seven months. Almost all of the aid groups operating in Gaza have safe houses in Rafah and have easy and direct access to their distribution sites. Ahead of a Rafah invasion, aid groups have begun trying to set up alternative guest houses and offices in other parts of southern Gaza.

Israel has told Hamas that it has a week to agree to a hostage deal, or else it will begin its military operation in Rafah, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday morning.

Soldiers are on call waiting, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Israels special envoy for foreign affairs, told POLITICO, adding that the plans have been approved. She didnt specify a timeline for the beginning of the invasion.

If we're going to go in, maybe that's the only thing that will get Hamas to sign a temporary cease-fire and return some of our hostages, she said. We will go into Rafah  we have to at some point because the five last battalions of Hamas terrorists are there.
Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat takes part in a bilateral meeting at the German Ministry of Economy. Michael Kappeler/dpa

The Israeli government has filed a complaint against Turkey with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) after Ankara temporarily suspended trade with Israel due to the Gaza war.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat on Friday called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an "anti-Semitic dictator" who is violating international maritime law and disrupting global supply chains with the trade boycott.

On Thursday, the Turkish government announced it was suspending all trade with Israel until the Israeli government allows unhindered access to Gaza for humanitarian aid.

Barkat wrote that Israel expects the OECD to take action against Turkey for Erdogan's "delusional decision, which harms the entire European economy."

Erdogan, in turn, defended Turkey's actions on Friday, saying it was "no longer possible to be patient" in light of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. The Turkish president has repeatedly accused Israel of committing "genocide" against the Palestinians.

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned Erdogan's decision saying it was detrimental to the interests of Turkish people and businesses.

"This is how a dictator behaves," Katz wrote on X.

Erdogan highlighted a trade volume of $9.5 billion that Turkey is now foregoing. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, trade between Israel and Turkey was worth $6.8 billion in 2023.

Israel was the 12th most important trading partner for Turkey last year.

Meanwhile, observers say that Ankara's decision also reflects domestic political tensions in Turkey.

Opposition parties have been criticizing Erdogan's Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its continued trade relations with Israel.

In the local elections at the end of March, the AKP was no longer the strongest party in the country for the first time in its history.

The Paris-based OECD brings together 38 countries that are committed to democracy and a market economy.

Alongside Germany, the US and 17 other countries, Turkey is one of the founding members of the organization, which was established in 1961.

Israel has been a member of the OECD since 2010.
The last time Mona Awda Talla saw her daughter Shahed alive, she was leaving the house to go buy her some cake, wearing pink pants. The 10-year-old stopped to play foosball with her friends beside the cake shop in Gazas Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Moments later, she was dead.

Grief-stricken and sobbing, Awda Talla said she still cant believe that her only daughter will never come home. A video showing the aftermath of the strike that killed Shahed captured her sprawled on the ground next to her friends, her pink pants impossible to miss.

There is no Shahed now. Every time she came in, she said, Mom. I would say, My soul, my soul, Awda Talla told CNN. My soul is gone.

In the two weeks since the attack, the Israeli militarys statements have shifted, but it has not taken responsibility for the strike that ultimately killed Shahed and 10 other children.

An analysis of the site of the attack, documented by a freelance journalist working for CNN in Gaza, paints a very different picture of Israeli military responsibility. Three munitions experts who reviewed videos and photos showing damage caused by the strike and shrapnel left in its aftermath, independently drew the same conclusion: that the carnage was likely caused by a precision-guided munition deployed by the Israeli military.

Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army officer and weapons expert, who has experience investigating munitions used by Israel in Gaza said that, based on available imagery of the aftermath, he believed the strike was absolutely caused by a precision-guided missile fired by an Israeli drone.

Its certainly a light missile fired by UAV  by a drone, Cobb-Smith. Theres a certain aspect of this particular missile, which is very evident  its clearly a small munition, and has devastating consequences, he added.

The missile landed just a few meters away from Shahed and her friends at the foosball table. At that range, their deaths were inevitable.

An undated photo of Shahed Awda Talla. - Obtained by CNN

CNN documented fragments of the munition collected at the scene by Shaheds uncle, including what appeared to be a part of a circuit board. The strike left a small crater in the road, and imagery from the scene showed surrounding buildings pockmarked with tiny holes, which weapons experts said was indicative of fragmentation caused by a sophisticated missile.

Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British military officer and an expert in drone warfare, told CNN that the circuit board uncovered at the scene was crucial to distinguishing the munition. Artillery shells have very few electronic components, and a circuit board suggests a sophisticated, precision-guided weapon was deployed.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, a munitions specialist and director of the research company Armament Research Services (ARES), said that the remnants strongly suggest a guided munition, most likely a guided missile or loitering munition, but added that he was unable to identify conclusively the specific type of weapon from the fragments.

Cobb-Smith said he believed there was no question that an Israeli munition was used in the attack, saying Palestinian militants do not have anything with this amount of sophistication in their arsenal.

The Israeli military surveil the Gaza Strip on a near constant basis and weapons experts CNN spoke to say this type of munition would not be fired without first assessing the area, raising questions about how the decision was made to carry out the strike.

There have been growing questions over the Israeli militarys chain of command, especially in light of an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call into the militarys use of artificial intelligence to help assess and approve bombing targets.

Israeli militarys shifting response

CNN has pressed the Israeli military for details about the strike, which took place on April 16 at about 3:40 p.m., according to video evidence.

Two days after the strike, in response to CNN providing the time and coordinates for the attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck a terror target in Al-Maghazi but declined to provide any additional details. An IDF spokesman said they were unaware of the number of casualties, but that the incident was under review and the military was working to locate the strike in its records.

Two weeks later  and three days after CNN shared its analysis of the strike in which the children were killed  the Israeli military said it did not have any record of it.

The strike in question was carried out at a different time than described in the query, and was approved based on an accurate intelligence indication, the Israeli military statement said, referring to CNNs request for response. The collateral damage as described in the query is not known to the IDF.

But Palestinian journalists reporting in Al-Maghazi said there was no other airstrikes on that day. Metadata from videos filmed on two different iPhones in the immediate aftermath were timestamped at 3:40 p.m., the time CNN provided the IDF.

The Israeli military declined to provide any additional evidence to back up its claims. It also declined to answer questions regarding the nature of the target or whether any militants were killed.

The continuing impact on children

One week after the strike, children had already returned to play at the foosball table where Shahed and other children were killed.

But they said they were still afraid.

When the strike hit, I was on my way to play foosball, Mahmoud Beha Abdel Lattif said. Every time before I go to sleep, I think of what happened here. I dont sleep well, Im always afraid to sleep.

Sama, one of Shaheds friends, was with her the day she was killed  spared only by her thirst.

I went home to drink water and the strike hit, Sama said, wearing a beaded necklace Shahed made her. I miss her a lot.

Others were not so lucky.

For nearly 16 days, 8-year-old Ahmed Abu Jayyab fought for his life in a hospital bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital with a fractured skull and bleeding in his brain.

He died Thursday morning, becoming the eleventh child killed by that strike.

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The Al Jazeera satellite channel's Jerusalem bureau is pictured in 2017. Israel's Security Cabinet on Thursday is expected to vote to temporarily shut down the Jerusalem bureau after the Knesset in April passed a law allowing the government to shut down a foreign news site if it's proven to be a national security threat. File Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA

May 2 (UPI) -- The Israeli Security Cabinet is set to vote Thursday to close Al Jazeera's office in the country.

The Knesset last month approved a law that would give the Israeli government temporary power to shut down foreign broadcasts in Israel if they are deemed by security services to be a national security threat.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi headed passage of the "Preventing Foreign Broadcasters From Harming National Security" law after Israel Defense Forces warned Al Jazeera broadcasts were revealing the locations of military forces and endangering soldiers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the day of the bill's passage that he would act on the law "immediately," while accusing Al Jazeera of "aiding Hamas terrorists" in the deadly Oct. 7 attack.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel days later appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the law was unconstitutional on free-speech grounds. The government on April 26 requested a two-week delay in a ruling, which the court granted on May 1.

ACRI in response requested the court give an interim order barring the government from proceeding to implement the law, arguing the government acted in "bad faith."

For the government to act against Al Jazeera, all of Israel's security agencies must first provide their opinion with "factual foundations" that prove the news agency presents "real harm" to national security.

The decision would then go before the president or vice president of a regional court within 24 hours. Judges then have three days to rule on changing the decision or limiting its enforcement period.

Any decision to shutter the news agency would only apply for 45 days, with a chance to re-approve it after the 45 days end. The measure will expire on July 31.

The Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera has a team of Israel correspondents covering the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza strip. It is one of the few news agencies to broadcast live within Gaza during the conflict.

The Knesset previously passed emergency measures that would have enabled it to temporarily shut down Al Jazeera from Oct. 21 to Jan. 20, but it did not act on them. ACRI argued refusing to do so then undercut the government's argument that Al Jazeera presented a serious threat.

Israeli officials have long complained of Al Jazeera's coverage of the Gaza war, which they argue skews in favor of Hamas, but they have so far stopped short of taking action against the news site because of Qatar's funding of construction projects in the Gaza strip, which all sides see as favorable.
The Italian government plans to approve a ninth package of military aid for Ukraine before the G7 Summit on 13 June, including an SAMP/T air defence system.

Source: European Pravda, citing Italian newspaper La Repubblica

Details: The Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni has decided to approve the ninth inter-ministerial decree on military assistance to Ukraine, which will include an SAMP/T air defence system.

Italy has five such systems, and Rome intends to provide Ukraine with one it had loaned to Slovakia. Some of these systems will also protect the venue of the G7 summit.

The new aid package will also include artillery. According to La Repubblicas sources, Matteo Salvini's Lega political party is opposed to the package, but it is expected to garner enough votes for support in parliament.

In early March, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that Italy would be withdrawing the SAMP/T air defence system from Slovakia. He said that his country's strategic facilities, including nuclear power plants, would remain vulnerable without protection. He added that the previous government had "gifted" Ukraine with an operational Russian S-300 air defence system.

The Italian SAMP/T air defence system replaced a US-made Patriot system in Slovakia last year. Slovakia provided Ukraine with an S-300 after Russia's large-scale invasion in 2022.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba previously stated that Ukraine had identified 100 air defence systems in allied countries and requested at least seven of them to be provided for the protection of Ukrainian cities.

So far, only Germany has announced the urgent transfer of one of its Patriot systems.

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Jackson City Council President to pay court costs and fine after pleading guilty to DUI

Court records show Jackson City Council President Aaron Banks pleaded guilty Thursday to a DUI charge he received back in January.

The Ward 6 Councilman will have to pay $250 in court costs and an assessment of $551.50, according to court documents obtained by the Clarion Ledger.

Banks did not respond to a request for comment.

He is also required to install an ignition interlock device on all his vehicles, per the judge's order. The ignition interlock device is a type of Breathalyzer where one must blow into a mouthpiece to show there is no level of alcohol in their system before the car will start.

Banks must also obtain an interlock-restricted license and use the interlock devices for 120 days. He will have to show proof that there was no interlock violations during those 120 days.

Banks' case was non-adjudicated, meaning he pleaded guilty to the charge but was not convicted.

Jackson City Council President Aaron Banks has pleaded guilty to a DUI charge he received back in January, according to a report by WLBT.

On Jan. 12, Banks was stopped on Interstate 55 near Elton Road for failing to keep between proper lanes. He was pulled over by a Mississippi State Trooper. The trooper recorded his blood alcohol level at 0.16.

Originally, Banks entered a plea of not guilty in February, which he confirmed with the Clarion Ledger but did not provide any additional comment.

Banks was also charged with DUI in 2011. Similarly, he was charged and forced to pay a fine.

Councilwoman Lee DUI: Reports: Ward 2 Jackson Councilwoman Angelique Lee was charged with DUI last year

Banks is not the only member of the Jackson City Council to receive a DUI in the past year. Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee was arrested on June 16, 2023 after being pulled over by an officer with the Madison Police Department who followed her after smelling marijuana.

She was charged with one count of DUI-Other, and possession of paraphernalia. She waived her right to a trial and pleaded guilty in August.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS Councilman Aaron Banks pleads guilty to DUI
Angie Nixon, a Democratic state representative from Jacksonville, speaks with reporters after the House overwhelmingly rejected her resolution advocating for de-escalation and a cease-fire in Israel and Gaza. (Credit: Jackie Llanos)

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For months, Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon has advocated for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. She has been labeled an antisemite for doing so, too. But on Tuesday she made an appearance at the pro-Palestine protest at the University of North Florida.

I am so in awe of Generation Z because yall are going to lead us to freedom, she told the protesters, according to a video posted to social media by Jacksonville Students for a Democratic Society, a group behind the demonstrations on that campus.

Nixon decided to join the students because she wanted to show them someone was on their side, she told Florida Phoenix in a phone interview.

I wanted them to know that there are some elected officials that support them and also wanted them to know that they are on the right side of history, Nixon said. Theres nothing wrong with wanting to advocate against the killing of innocent people, and I wanted to encourage them and uplift them. You know, let them know that theyre doing the right thing. Even though they may not feel that way, and even though those in leadership who they should look toward may not say that.

For weeks, demonstrations have erupted on college campuses across the nation, with protesters building encampments in solidarity with Gaza. In Florida, police have arrested protesters at Florida State University, University of Florida, University of South Florida, and now UNF, according to Spinnaker, a student-run newspaper.

Student protesters also face criticism from top leaders in the state, including Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor has called for the protesters to be expelled.

The state of Florida is not New York, and so when you go out and try to commandeer property, when you try to set up encampments, you are not going to be allowed to do that in this state, DeSantis said at the news conference in Hardee, in Central Florida, earlier this week. And people have found that out at University of South Florida, Florida, Florida State. So just understand that thats the way its going to go. We do not allow the inmates to run the asylum in the state of Florida, and if you cant abide by the rules that we have in place for conduct, then we will show you the door, and you will be expelled. It is that simple.

According to student reporters with Spinnaker, police arrested pro-Palestine protesters at UNF Thursday night after they did not obey a newly announced 10 p.m. curfew.

In November, Nixon faced intense backlash from state legislators, even those in her party, after calling for a resolution demanding a cease-fire in the conflict that erupted after Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Theres absolutely nothing wrong with voicing criticism against the way in which Israel is handling what happened due to Hamas, she said on the phone interview Friday. Yes, we want to ensure that all of the hostages are released and that the folks of Hamas are brought to justice, those who had anything to do with you know what took place. But also, we cant just go around harming people who didnt have anything to do with it.

She continued: Ill continue to advocate for innocent people, and I dont share if folks harass me, or try to troll me, or call me in terrorist. I can sleep good at night.

The post Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon stood with pro-Palestine protesters at UNF appeared first on Florida Phoenix.
Jamming with the cicadas in New Jersey: a once in 17 years event

FILE PHOTO: David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, plays the clarinet along with the sounds of cicadas

By Vanessa Johnston and Kevin Fogarty

PRINCETON, New Jersey (Reuters) - For some in the U.S., the emergence of billions of red-eyed cicadas this spring after a 17-year slumber has been met with annoyance - particularly over their loud buzzing calls.

But for David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, it has presented a unique opportunity for collaboration.

"We're combining human musical ideas with nature's musical ideas," he explained as he gathered fellow musicians at a nature preserve in Princeton, New Jersey.

As cicadas swarmed all around, Rothenberg - with his clarinet - and others on percussion and saxophone held an improvisational jam using the insects' trill as their guide.

While it may seem like white noise to the uninitiated, Rothenberg said he could pluck out several distinct sounds produced by three species of cicada.

The author of "Bug Music" said his fascination with nature sounds began as a child growing up in Connecticut. His interest is not limited to cicadas, he has also written jazz compositions accompanied by the calls of birds and humpback whales.

"Some people, of course, think I'm crazy, like it's just this gimmick," said Rothenberg. "[But] it's serious stuff that nature has inspired humanity and all artforms more than anything else for centuries."

In the past, Rothenberg often played solo with the cicadas, but more recently he has tried to get others involved.

"The more you pay attention to nature is the only way we're going to save it without destroying it," he said.

Guitarist Tim Blunk joked that the newly-hatched insects were the most cooperative musicians he has ever played with.

"They're never late. They always stay for the whole gig, and you don't have to pay them. It's like the ideal musical partner," he laughed.

The cicadas, known as Brood X or Brood 10, began emerging from the earth last month in Washington, D.C. and 15 states, from Georgia to New York, and west to Indiana and Illinois.

After they mate, a new crop of cicadas will start the 17-year process all over again: burrowing into the ground and not emerging again until 2038.

In the meantime, Rothenberg is savoring his rare chance to jam with them.

"There's a lot of musicians who think that through improvisation you can reach places that you cannot reach any other way," he said. "You can make something very special; it may never happen the same way again."

(Reporting by Vanessa Johnston and Kevin Fogarty; Editing by Karishma Singh)
MADRID, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A record 16.1 million foreign tourists visited Spain in the first three months of 2024, marking a 17.7 percent increase over the same period in 2023, according to data published on Friday by the Spanish Statistical Office (INE).

In March, six million tourists visited Spain, a 21 percent increase from last year; however, reports also indicate that this can be partly attributed to the early Easter holidays.

In 2023, more than 85 million tourists visited Spain, spending 108,662 billion euros (117.104 billion U.S. dollars), making up 12.8 percent of the country's GDP.

INE reported an increase in the number of people visiting Spain as well as holiday spending.

Internationally, tourists spent 21,948 million euros between January and March, 27.2 percent more than in the same period in 2023. March spending was 8,652 million euros, 29.7 percent higher than a year ago.

"Spain has once again broken its records," said the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu. He further noted that the results indicate that Spain is successfully transitioning from traditional beach tourism to a more sustainable model, with an increased focus on culture, shopping, and gastronomy for visitors. "We will continue working to diversify and de-seasonalize," added Hereu.

The United Kingdom, Germany, and France continue to be the main source markets for visitors to Spain. However, a significant increase in Chinese tourists returning to Spain reflects the changing tourism model.

According to the INE, 160,371 Chinese people visited the country in the first quarter of 2024, almost half the total in 2023. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollar) 
The White House on Friday praised the actions of a group of University of North Carolina students who held up the American flag at a protest on campus over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked during a briefing whether President Biden would consider making a donation to the fraternity members who went viral for protecting the flag. Jean-Pierre skirted the question of a donation or a phone call to thank them, but she praised the groups actions.

All Americans have the right to peacefully protest. It is not right to forcefully take down the American flag, to replace it with another flag. It is not right. And so I just wanted to make that clear as well, Jean-Pierre said.

Protecting the American flag is admirable, she added.

Pi Kappa Phi members were seen in a viral image holding up an American flag while activists threw items at them. The moment took place when pro-Palestinian supporters replaced the American flag with a Palestinian flag on campus Tuesday, causing skirmishes to break out with counterprotesters.

The image resonated with many people online, causing John Noonan to start a GoFundMe for the fraternity members titled, Pi Kappa Phi Men Defended Their Flag. Throw em a Rager.

The original goal was $15,000, but the organizer has since raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the group. One of the highest donors is billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who donated $10,000 to the cause. Ackman previously supported Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) in his primary challenge against Biden.

President Biden on Thursday addressed the nation about ongoing protests on college campuses nationwide over the war in Gaza, saying that while there is a right to peacefully demonstrate, violence, vandalism and causing the cancelation of classes and graduation is not acceptable.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Rabbi Levi Cunin, with Chabad on Campus, speaks during a pro-Israel rally at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Some Jewish students have taken part in strident pro-Palestinian protests dominating U.S. colleges in recent weeks, but few have led rallies in support of Israel or against perceived displays of antisemitism.

That may be starting to change.

Like many Americans, Jewish students views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are wide-ranging and often nuanced. It wasnt for a lack of concern about the war in Gaza or the backlash it has aroused on their campuses that some shied away from demonstrating.

They have had fervent debates with each other over whether and how to respond as pro-Palestinian encampments spread from one university to the next.

Some joined the encampments, celebrating Passover among the tents with fellow protesters. Many felt unnerved by what they considered to be anti-Israel rhetoric and said they feared rallying.

Now, groups in solidarity with Jewish students plan dozens of rallies in the coming days. Protesters hoisted Israeli flags at Indiana University Bloomington and near George Washington University on Thursday, and more flew outside MIT on Friday.

Their goals include standing in solidarity with Jewish students and showing theres room for empathy for both Palestinians and Israelis affected by the war.

At George Washington University in Washington, D.C., about 150 people  including many Jewish students  gathered Thursday in a grassy courtyard. The goal, said organizer Gabrielle Guigui, was to show Jewish pride and Jewish unity ... and to get Jewish students together, because a lot of them are scared.

Senior Brina Cartagenova clutched a necklace with her Hebrew name on it, the same necklace she'd previously taken off over fear of retaliation on campus.

I was scared to put this back on for, like, at least three weeks, and then I finally did the other day, she said. This type of event definitely helps me feel more comfortable.

The pro-Palestinian encampments around the country have been largely peaceful, though there have been some clashes. Administrators and campus police at UCLA faced intense criticism Wednesday for failing to act quickly to stop an attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus by counter demonstrators who threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray and tore down barriers.

Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators fought back, and skirmishes continued for hours before outside law enforcement agencies were called to intervene.

The campus tensions are complicated by the deep history and emotions wrapped up in the Israel-Hamas war. It began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage  the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.

Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has waged a brutal campaign against the militant group that rules Gaza in a conflict that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians along the way, according to the Health Ministry there.

Protests in support of Israel or the Palestinians have bubbled up across the U.S. ever since Oct. 7. But the major wave of pro-Palestinian rallies on campuses kicked off two weeks ago, after more than 100 protesters were arrested at Columbia University in New York. They have demanded that colleges stop doing business with Israel and with companies tied to it.

Jewish Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are closely divided on whether Israels post-Oct. 7 military campaign has been acceptable, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in February.

But instances of hatred among the antiwar protests have rattled many Jewish students, regardless of how they feel about Israel's government or its treatment of Palestinians.

Some examples from campus protests that stung: A poster depicting the Star of David crossed out in red. Death to Israel scrawled in spray paint. Chants of We are Hamas.

Not everyone is actively endorsing these antisemitic posters and chants and signs and graffiti, but it feels like a large majority is at least OK with it  OK enough to to ignore it and to let Jewish students continue feeling unwelcome, said Lily Cohen, 21, a Jewish student at Northwestern University.

"It felt very daunting to counterprotest," she said.

Inside the Northwestern encampment was another Jewish student, junior Paz Baum.

Baum, who held a Passover seder among the tents with the other pro-Palestinian protesters, said her religious values compelled her to protest over the war in Gaza.

I see a direct parallel between the experiences of my Jewish ancestors and the experience of the tens of thousands of Palestinians being slaughtered, said Baum, whose great-grandparents fled pogroms in eastern Europe.

Baum insisted that hateful posters were taken down as they were spotted, and said the only antisemitism she had witnessed was from several Jewish protesters, mostly older adults, who confronted the encampment on Sunday.

As Baum held a sign reading Jews for a cease-fire, she said they lobbed antisemitic slurs at her. Other pro-Palestinian protesters have said accusations of antisemitism are bandied about merely to discredit their movement.

The encampment at Northwestern reached an agreement with the university on Monday and cleared out.

At Columbia, some pro-Palestinian protesters have condemned hateful rhetoric coming from their ranks, including remarks from a student who said Zionists dont deserve to live in a recently surfaced video. That student, who acted as a spokesperson for the encampment and has since walked back his statements, has been banned from campus. But the incident, along with others, struck a nerve.

It is completely OK to protest the war in Gaza or be horrified by various actions of the Israeli government, said Jacob Schmeltz, a student at Columbia, but Jewish students at Columbia right now do not feel physically or emotionally safe to be on campus.

Schmeltz, who is one of the leaders of the national Jewish on Campus Student Union, said the group has strategized on how to respond as protests multiplied.

They used social media to highlight what they saw as antisemitism on campus, but a protest wasn't really on the table.

How is it possible to organize a counter protest when many of us are at home or just trying to stay in their dorm rooms because theyre afraid of what will happen if they go onto campus? said Schmeltz.

Organizations including Hillel and the Israeli-American Council have planned more rallies in the coming days to show Jewish and pro-Israel students and faculty "that they are not alone, said Elan Carr, CEO of the organization.

Adam Lehman, president of Hillel International, said the rallies will affirm that Jewish students are resilient, deserve respect and can show empathy to the plight of Palestinians while also simultaneously showing empathy for Israelis.

At the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, pro-Israel Jewish students have for weeks tossed around different ideas. A few argued to ignore the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, to show that you can do that, but youre not affecting us, said Jewish student Eliana Halivni. A few waved Israeli flags.

Some scrawled the Star of David in chalk, said Halivni, so that they know that were here, even if they cant physically see us.

___

This article has been updated to correct the name of the Israeli-American Council.

___

Associated Press reporters Darren Sands in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Bloomington, Indiana, and Kavish Harjai in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.
A plea agreement approved by a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma will see Jimcy McGirt released from prison as soon as this month.

The Oklahoma man at the center of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case is expected be released from federal prison this month.

Jimcy McGirt, whose case affirmed the Muscogee Nation reservation still existed, has spent more than 26 years in prison for sexually abusing a child. The Supreme Courts decision to overturn his conviction in 2020 set off years of debate over the growing recognition of tribal reservations in Oklahoma.

McGirt, 75, plans to live in rural Hughes County after he is freed, according to court filings. He must serve five years of probation, register as a sex offender and have no contact with his victim, who is now an adult.

A federal judge in Muskogee imposed the sentencing terms Thursday, sticking to the plea deal McGirt and his lawyers had worked out with prosecutors in December. The agreement also called for him to spend 30 years in prison for the crime of aggravated sexual abuse in Indian Country but gave him credit for the nearly three decades he had already served.

Jimcy McGirt

Federal prison officials have not said exactly when they plan to release McGirt or if they already have done so. A Bureau of Prisons website said Friday afternoon that McGirt was not in the agencys custody. He was being held at the Muskogee County jail in Muskogee but was transferred out of that facility on Thursday, according to jail records read over the phone to The Oklahoman.

Richard OCarroll, one of McGirts attorneys, said he did not know where his client was being held but expected him to be released within days. OCarroll said one of McGirts brothers has pledged to help him after his release.

I suspect hell live out his years, and hell be free, which is startling if you consider it, OCarroll said, referring to the dozens of petitions for post conviction relief that McGirt filed after he was first convicted in 1997.

He never stopped trying to get out, OCarroll said.

McGirt decision transformed the criminal justice system in parts of Oklahoma

One of McGirts petitions  to the U.S. Supreme Court  transformed the criminal justice system in eastern Oklahoma. In a 5-4 decision, justices overturned McGirts conviction, ruling Oklahoma had no jurisdiction to prosecute him because he was a tribal citizen, and his alleged crimes had occurred on a tribal reservation.

The ruling has led to the recognition of nine tribal reservations in the eastern part of the state and upended the states ability to prosecute Native Americans accused of committing crimes in those areas. Federal and tribal courts now have jurisdiction over those cases.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has sharply criticized the Supreme Court ruling, said at his weekly news conference Friday that he was shocked to learn about McGirts pending release.

He said McGirt should still be in state prison, where he was originally sentenced to serve 1,000 years before the Supreme Court ruling.

If McGirt gets out, Jimcy McGirt, we should all be saying shame on us, Stitt said.

OCarroll said he believed the governors remarks were based on anger and resentment over the impact of McGirts case.

The governor doesnt know what hes talking about, he said.

McGirts release will mark the end of years of uncertainty after the Supreme Court threw out his state court conviction in July 2020. He was quickly convicted again in federal court and sentenced to three life terms in prison.

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his convictions in June 2023, ruling that a judge had made an error when he was instructing the jury.

Prosecutors initially vowed to retry McGirt but ultimately worked out the plea deal before the case went to trial. In a court filing, prosecutors said some evidence had disappeared and two witnesses had died. They also said a plea deal would allow the victim to finally have closure in a case that had greatly affected her life.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Jimcy McGirt at center of Supreme Court ruling to be released
Joe Biden Is Days From A Key Statement On Israel And Gaza. Heres What The Ally Who Sought It Expects.

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in his Capitol Hill office in Washington, D.C. on May 2, 2024. Michael A. McCoy for HuffPost

WASHINGTON  With the Biden administration days away from issuing its opinion on whether Israel is violating international and U.S. law in Gaza, the lawmaker who pushed for a State Department probe of that question doubts hell get an honest answer.

Starting in December, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) rallied 19 senators to support legislation demanding assurances that all countries receiving American weaponry  including Israel  are complying with international and U.S. statutes barring violence against civilians and efforts to block humanitarian aid. In response, President Joe Biden in February issued a new policy known as NSM-20, which required federal agencies to send a report to Congress on Israels conduct during its Gaza operation by May 8.

The report poses a test for the White House: Will it acknowledge the alarming actions taken by its ally, strengthening calls for the U.S. to reassess its support for Israel, or will the administration risk embarrassment and outrage by misrepresenting Israeli behavior?

The administration appears to be split. The U.S. Agency for International Development and several State Department bureaus believe the administration cannot credibly say Israel is respecting either international law or the U.S. laws that require recipients of American military support to allow the free flow of U.S. humanitarian aid, according to Reuters and Devex  raising the prospect that Biden would have to withdraw military assistance. But the State Department team leading the report side-stepped the question of whether violations are occurring and instead emphasized the risks of cutting off support for Israel, per Reuters.

Meanwhile, other top State Department officials, like U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, are internally endorsing Israels promises to abide by the law, despite broad skepticism of those claims from outside analysts, as HuffPost revealed in March.

Van Hollen said hes alarmed by the disclosures about the administrations handling of the report.

The credibility of the U.S. government depends on it being honest and based in fact and law, the Biden ally told HuffPost in a Thursday interview.

So far, Van Hollen said, the reporting on the internal dynamics at the State Department clearly indicated that those who were most expert in applying the facts and the law were ignored and overlooked by those pushing a particular policy agenda.

Together, the recent developments represent a big warning sign, like a big flare, with respect to the upcoming report, Van Hollen said.

The senator spoke approvingly of an alternative assessment of Israels actions that is already public: an independent analysis performed by an ad-hoc group of outside experts that investigated scores of examples of Israeli military actions in Gaza  incidents which, the authors said, violated international law and U.S. directives in a clear pattern.

Van Hollen called that assessment a very important yardstick against which to compare what the Biden administration comes out with. He told HuffPost he asked five of its authors to brief senators on Wednesday in a previously unreported private meeting.

We had a total of 13 members  thats more members than you get for a regular hearing in the United States Senate. So I think it was an expression of the depth of concern, the senator said.

The assessments authors in attendance included former State Department official Josh Paul, who quit over Bidens policy in a development first reported by HuffPost, and prominent Palestinian American attorney Noura Erakat.

The lawmakers openness to the assessments conclusions, even if they prove to run counter to the State Departments, is extremely notable because of the pathway that Paul and his colleagues endorse. They say Israels military is showing systematic disregard for the international and U.S. norms, note grave concerns that the Biden administration is violating the law via prolonged backing for Israels offensive and urge appropriate steps to prevent further violations  which could range from limiting the procurement of weapons for specific Israeli units to a broad reset in U.S.-Israel cooperation.

In February, HuffPost broke the news that U.S. officials at a number of government agencies, including the State Department, the Pentagon and the National Security Council, were investigating possible Israeli war crimes like strikes on overwhelmingly civilian targets  despite public claims from Biden administration spokespeople that there was no basis for questioning Israels actions.

And on Friday, 88 Democratic members of the House of Representatives wrote to Biden saying that they believe Israels restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza violate U.S. law, a view shared by Van Hollen and several other senators.

Israel has been pummeling Gaza with near-total U.S. support for nearly seven months, in an offensive thats killed close to 35,000 people per local authorities and initiated a famine there, in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Van Hollen told HuffPost observers should also look to another outside deep-dive into Israeli conduct as a point of comparison to the eventual report from the Biden administration: an April 29 brief that Amnesty International prepared in response to NSM-20. That brief focused on American-provided weapons, saying Israel has used them in serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and  inconsistent with U.S. law and policy.

The Biden administration and the United States loses credibility when we point to reports by Amnesty or Human Rights Watch where [they] serv[e] our political interests, and sometimes ignores them when they dont, Van Hollen said. In order to be credible, you need to be consistent.

The U.S. government regularly cites those watchdogs, among others, in its own annual human rights reports and in condemning geopolitical foes like Russia and Iran.

The senator is not seeking to prejudge the administrations report, he told HuffPost. He said he has been clear to very senior members of Bidens national security team about what he sees as the intent of the process: to lay out the facts and the law.

What policies are derived from that, we can debate.  We can have an ongoing discussion and we may have differences.

Asked about Van Hollens comments, a State Department spokesperson told HuffPost: We do not want to get ahead of any official announcements or decisions.

Action On Capitol Hill

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls from Biden and others to temper his offensive against Hamas, instead saying the campaign must expand to Rafah, the final refuge for more than a million Palestinians displaced by the U.S.-backed campaign and the hub of aid efforts for Gaza.

Democratic lawmakers worried about the humanitarian and strategic toll of the policy have steadily become more assertive in discussing steps to rein in Israel, which is reliant on American support for its operations.

Van Hollen (D-MD) during a Senate hearing on May 2, 2024. Michael A. McCoy for HuffPost

Some congressional staff have been tasked with preparing menus of options that legislators could use to pressure Netanyahu if he does go ahead with an invasion of Rafah, a senior Democratic aide told HuffPost this week.

One high-profile prospect the aide identified: forcing an up-or-down vote in the Senate on the next major proposed sale of weapons to the Israelis. The Biden administration has sought to dodge congressional scrutiny by funneling arms shipments to Israel through packages that are below the threshold for advance congressional notification, by relying on transfer authorizations that date back years and by citing emergency powers to bypass normal oversight procedures.

Though Congress last month passed a national security funding bill which authorized $15 billion in additional military aid for Israel, lawmakers and the Biden administration have significant flexibility in deciding how the country can use that money, such as what kinds of American equipment it can buy, said John Ramming Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at the nonprofit Center for Civilians in Conflict. His organization and 24 other humanitarian and human rights groups issued a statement after the passage of the April funding for Israel, arguing: Congress has the responsibility to ensure that the use of appropriated funds, including for the purchase of weapons, is consistent with U.S. law and policy.

Van Hollen told HuffPost lawmakers are engaged in an ongoing effort independent of the May 8 report to refuse to send more offensive weapons to Israel until Netanyahu changes his policies to address American concerns. The senator noted that those efforts would not affect Israeli defense materials like the Iron Dome missile defense system and that the legislators involved agree on Israels right to self-defense.

Weve had months and months of President Biden making very reasonable demands, only to be mostly ignored by Netanyahu, the senator said.

I will say the administration has told us repeatedly that they have found NSM-20 to be a useful tool in moving the Israeli government in the right direction, he continued, indicating that public pushback to U.S. support of the war in Gaza has not been for naught. Yet Netanyahu has yet to budge on major policies, like denying electricity to Gaza, and has not loosened the sharp limits on what aid Israel allows into the Strip. Clearly, incremental steps are not enough when you have people literally starving to death in Gaza, Van Hollen said.

Activists hope next weeks delivery of the Biden administration report will strengthen interest on Capitol Hill in measures to ease pain in Gaza and prevent further alleged war crimes. They are widely promoting the outside assessments related to NSM-20 and other substantial collections of data  like a tracker of incidents since October run by the American Friends Service Committee  that could have legal implications for U.S. backing for Israel.

If the Biden administration disregards extensive evidence of the Israeli militarys violations of their assurances, it will be up to Congress to step in and make clear that unconditional arms transfers to the Netanyahu government must end, said Chappell.

Annie Shiel, CIVICs advocacy director and a former State Department official, called accountability and a shift in the U.S. approach desperately overdue  and unlikely to come unilaterally from Biden.

The Biden administration has abjectly failed to enforce U.S. law and policy, which would have required the U.S. to end its support for catastrophic harm in Gaza many months ago, Shiel told HuffPost. So while we sincerely hope that the May 8 report will mark a turning point in U.S. policy towards Israel, the administrations actions to date have given us little reason to trust that this is a good-faith process.

Related...
JOPLIN, Mo.  A Joplin doctor is suing his former employer, Freeman Health System.

Ear nose and throat doctor, Nathan Box, has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit. In it, he claims he was fired after reporting unlawful and negligent conduct to his supervisors. He also cites systemic failures at the hospital in the civil action.

Carl Junction tornado pictures, aftermath

The lawsuit alleges the chief medical officers wife, Dr. Hallie Baker, was hired and given preferential treatment. Dr. Box alleges Freeman fired him, then gave the majority of his patients to Dr. Baker.

We reached out to the health system for a statement and have not yet received a response.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com.
After proclaiming last year that he would absolutely testify in his own defense if any of his criminal cases go to trial, former President Donald Trump appears to be singing a new tune.

Trump claimed Thursday he would be unable to testify in the trial concerning a hush money scheme and falsified business records, and blamed the gag order hes currently under for keeping him off the stand.

Im not allowed to testify. Im under a gag order, he told reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. Im not allowed to testify because this judge whos totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.

Judge Juan Merchan corrected Trumps apparent misunderstanding before the jury filed in Friday morning.

The gag order does not prohibit you from taking the stand, Merchan told Trump. As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale called out Trumps lie immediately.

This claim that the gag order means he cant testify, its just conjured out of thin air, he told Jake Tapper on Thursday.

Trump has gone from saying that he will testify, to he maybe will testify, to if its necessary, to now, Whoa, whoa, I cant testify, its out of my hands. But its in his hands. He can testify and hes just making stuff up.

Under the terms of the order, Trump cannot talk about the jurors in the case, witnesses that may be called, or any of the court staff. But hes free to discuss anything else related to the case, including Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg  whom hes attacked repeatedly.

Should Trump actually take the stand, as he unequivocally pledged to do, it would likely be against the advice of his attorneys. Criminal defendants are generally advised not to testify in their own defense.

Related...
The judge handling former President Trumps hush money case clarified Friday that Trump is allowed to testify during the trial, correcting the former presidents assertion a day earlier that a gag order prevented him from doing so.

Judge Juan Merchan at the start of Fridays proceedings in the case said it had come to his attention that there may be a misunderstanding about the gag order and Trumps ability to testify, calling it important to clear up.

I want to stress Mr. Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial, Merchan said before the jury was brought into the room. Just as you have the absolute right not to testify.

Merchan noted that the gag order does not prevent him from testifying and only applies to statements he makes outside of court.

The judges comments came after Trump, speaking to press after Thursdays proceedings had adjourned, was asked about the testimony of Keith Davidson.

Well Im not allowed to testify. Im under a gag order. I guess, he said as he looked at his attorney, Todd Blanche, who nodded.

Im not allowed to testify because this judge, whos totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order, Trump added. Nobodys ever had that before, and we dont like it, and its not fair.

The former president is barred from making public statements about jurors and witnesses concerning their involvement in the case. Trump also cannot attack court staff, line prosecutors or their families as well as the families of the judge and district attorney with the intent to materially interfere with the case. Merchan earlier this week fined Trump $9,000 for repeated violations of the gag order.

Trump has in the past repeatedly said he is open to testifying at his own trial, including as recently as April 12 after a meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Yeah I would testify, absolutely, Trump said at Mar-a-Lago. Its a scam. Its a scam, thats not a trial.

Zach Schonfeld contributed

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A Jackson County judge denied a request to lower the bond for one of the men accused of murder in the Chiefs Super Bowl rally shooting at a hearing Thursday, according to court documents.

Associate Judge R. Travis Willingham denied any changes in the bond for 23-year-old Lyndell Mays of Raytown, finding that there was clear and convincing evidence that the current bond conditions were the least restrictive to ensure Mays appearance in court and the public safety, according to court documents.

Mays is one of three men charged with second-degree felony murder and unlawful use of a weapon, as well as two counts of armed criminal action, in the mass shooting on Feb. 14 outside Union Station. Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a 43-year-old Johnson County mother of two and a beloved party DJ, was killed.

Mays is being held in the Jackson County jail on a $1 million cash-only bond.

As one of Mays relatives left the courtroom after the hearing, she began yelling. Willingham directed a deputy to place her in handcuffs and had her wait until he finished with other cases.

After she apologized, the judge let her go with a warning against future outbursts. She was not charged or held in contempt, said Scott Lauck, public information officer for the Jackson County Circuit Court.

Meanwhile, at a separate hearing Thursday, Judge J. Dale Youngs set a March 10, 2025, jury trial for 20-year-old Terry J. Young of Kansas City, one of the other men charged with murder in the shooting. Young remains in Jackson County jail on a $1 million cash-only bond.

The third man charged with murder in the shooting, 18-year-old Dominic Miller of Kansas City, remains in the hospital.

Both Miller and Young face identical charges of second-degree felony murder and unlawful use of a weapon, as well as two counts of armed criminal action.

Prosecutors alleged that Mays drew and fired first. Gunfire from Millers firearm struck and killed Lopez-Galvan, according to court documents. Young can be seen in surveillance video drawing a gun, and he appears to shoot several times, a detective wrote in court documents.

Under Missouri law, a person who did not pull the trigger can still be charged when someone is killed during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Three teens also charged in mass shooting

Earlier this week, testimony began in a certification hearing for a 16-year-old boy who has been charged in connection with the rally shooting. The proceedings, which will resume later in May, could end in the boy being prosecuted as an adult.

The teen, referred to throughout Tuesdays proceedings by his initials, A.M., has been charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of resisting arrest.

Another teen, a 15-year-old, also was charged on March 20 with unlawful use of a weapon for shooting at a person and armed criminal action. That youth is due back in court for a detention hearing on May 15 and also may be tried as an adult. A certification hearing for that matter has not yet been set.

A third teen was also detained on gun-related charges that do not rise to the level to be tried as an adult.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The Bernalillo County District Attorneys Office will be able to prosecute a deputy charged with aggravated assault. Michael Borrecco was off-duty when investigators say he pulled a gun on two people at a Circle K on Osuna earlier this year.

Suspect wounded in Albuquerque police shooting faces 15 charges over auto theft

His attorney filed a motion to disqualify the DAs office from the case citing a conflict of interest over Bernalillo County Sheriffs Offices history of working with prosecutors and the victim in his own case having his own drug charge dismissed. However, the assigned prosecutor said he had no knowledge of that case.

Judge Joseph Montano sided with the state and denied the defenses motion.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
by Ivona Ladjevac

"Ironclad friendship" vividly summarizes Serbia-China relations characterized by mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

The two countries have achieved fruitful results through mutually beneficial cooperation in infrastructure, economy and trade, culture, scientific research and other fields.

The Belt and Road cooperation has provided Serbia important opportunities to strengthen connectivity and promote economic development with neighboring countries. Key infrastructure projects such as the Belgrade-Budapest Railway and the E763 highway have enhanced Serbia's status as a regional transportation hub.

Regarding capacity cooperation, projects like the Kostolac Power Plant have contributed to Serbia's energy security and sustainable development. HBIS Serbia and Hisense Group's plant in Valjevo have not only created jobs and promoted balanced development in various regions but also introduced advanced technology and drove the overall upgrade of the local industrial chain, which is significant to Serbia's economic transformation.

During the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October 2023, Serbia and China signed a free trade agreement to promote investment flows and provide new impetus for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

At the end of 2023, the central banks of Serbia and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on establishing yuan clearing arrangements in Serbia. This arrangement is conducive to Serbian and Chinese enterprises and financial institutions using yuan for cross-border transactions and further promotes bilateral trade and investment facilitation.

The two sides are jointly developing the Serbia-China Industrial Park, which is expected to bolster Serbia's manufacturing and technology.

Serbia and China have similar outlooks on green development and are working together to create a cleaner future. Wind power, photovoltaic and other projects invested and built by Chinese companies have brought clean energy to Serbia, helping Serbia toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

The "Clean Serbia" project, in which Chinese companies participate, involves building municipal sewage pipe networks and sewage treatment plants in many parts of Serbia. This will provide a cleaner and healthier living environment for millions of residents.

Serbia and China also actively promote exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, deepening mutual understanding and appreciation. The two countries have signed several MoUs in the fields of education, cultural relics protection, and scientific and technological innovation, among others.

Rich and colorful cultural performances have built a bridge for people-to-people exchanges. The Confucius Institute and the Chinese Cultural Center in Belgrade have become critical windows for the Serbian people to understand Chinese culture. The visa-free policy and the opening of direct flights have facilitated personnel exchanges between the two countries, and Serbia has become an increasingly popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists.

The mutually beneficial cooperation between Serbia and China has yielded tangible results, which is significant for both countries in coping with global challenges and achieving common prosperity.

President Xi Jinping is about to pay his second state visit to Serbia, further facilitating mutually beneficial cooperation. The future is promising for Serbia-China relations.

Editor's note: Ivona Ladjevac is the deputy director of the Serbian Institute of International Politics and Economics.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.
A county judge closed an unusual defamation lawsuit against state Rep. Carolina Amesty last month, issuing a judgment in the Republican lawmakers favor.

The suit was filed in Leon County by a former legislative aide, Nicolas Frevola, in September. Frevola, who worked for another lawmaker, claimed Amesty falsely accused him of trying to run her over with a car in 2022 as she and Frevolas mother vied for the Republican partys nomination to represent an Orlando-area district.

Frevola expanded on his initial complaint in March, accusing Amesty of claiming his mother, Janet Frevola, defrauded Social Security.

But Circuit Judge Lee Marsh signed an order on Tuesday, declaring the matter over and siding with Amesty.

Amesty and her attorney, Paul Thanasides, did not respond to an email seeking comment about the matter. Amesty and Thanasides have previously denied the allegations outlined in the suit.

Frevolas attorney, Cindy Myers, however, said Thursday that she plans to ask for a rehearing and said she will appeal the decision, if necessary.

Rep. Amesty might think this is over and she has prevailed, but we are not done, Myers said.

Frevola, 26, is no longer working for the Florida House. But during the 2022 campaign, he was an aide to former state Rep. Scott Plakon, and the suit alleged that Plakon called to tell him that Amesty had demanded that Plakon fire Frevola for engaging in inappropriate actions toward her and her campaign staff. Plakon said in March that Amesty did not urge him to fire Frevola.

Nicolas Frevola also has lawsuits outstanding against another lawmaker, Republican Rep. Fabian Basabe of Miami Beach, and Tracy Caruso, who writes for a right-wing website and is the wife of Republican State Rep. Mike Caruso of Delray Beach.

Frevola, who also served as an aide for Basabe, and Jacob Cutbirth, a former intern in Basabes office, sued Basabe last July, accusing him of sexual harassment, unwanted touching, making lewd comments, showing them a photo of a naked man on his phone and slapping Frevola.

Basabe has denied the accusations leveled against him by Frevola. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Basabe said that a House investigation into the alleged slapping incident had been concluded rightly in my favor.

But the investigation by an outside law firm was inconclusive, according to the Miami New Times, because of conflicting accounts and a lack of corroborating witnesses.

Frevola and Cutbirth sued Caruso and Jolt Media in February for defamation over an article the website published in November that said Basabe had won his case.

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com
Opal Lee, the 97-year-old grandmother of Juneteenth, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Friday, officials said.

President Joe Biden named Lee as one of 19 recipients of the award, which is the nations highest civilian honor, according to a White House news release.

These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better, the release said. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.

Lee, who moved to Fort Worth when she was 10, symbolically walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of Juneteenth. She attended the signing ceremony at the White House in 2021 when Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Lee was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. On March 21, work began on building a new home for Lee on the exact spot in the Historic Southside neighborhood where a racist white mob trashed her familys home more than 80 years ago.

Growing up in a home that was burned down by a racist mob, she understood that history must never be erased, a speaker said as Lee was being awarded Friday.

Lee said when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize that she believes her mission to serve is not done yet.

You got to help people if you can, she said. And I can. I still can.

Juneteenth is a day of profound weight and power to remember the original sin of slavery and the extraordinary capacity to merge the most painful moments with a better vision of ourselves, said Biden at Fridays ceremony. Ms. Opal Lee made it her mission to make history, not erase it. And were a better nation because of you, Opal.

The nation thanks Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, a White House speaker said.

Today's top stories:

 Kids as young as 3 wounded in shooting at Fort Worth apartments

 Violent attack plan at North Texas middle school listed 32 students, teachers as targets

 Jury deliberating on death or life in prison for killer who shot woman, cop

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Advocate Trinity Hospital must pay $23 million to the family of a 7-year-old girl who was born with brain damage at the hospital, a Cook County jury decided Monday.

The jury reached its verdict after a two-and-half week trial in Cook County Circuit Court, according to attorneys for the family. The jury awarded the family of NaJai Johnson, who has brain damage and cerebral palsy, more than $23 million due to disfigurement, pain and suffering, emotional distress, lost earnings and medical care expected to be needed in the future.

Advocate Trinity said in a statement to the Tribune: Our hearts go out to this family. We believe that our clinicians provided excellent care.

Advocate said it was unable to comment further due to patient privacy and pending litigation.

Johnsons parents, Alexis Willis and Jernois Johnson Jr., filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that their daughter was not delivered quickly or safely enough at the hospital, leading to injuries. Willis went to the Chicago hospitals emergency department on Jan. 9, 2017, at about 3 p.m., when she was 32 weeks pregnant, saying that her baby was not moving as frequently, and that shed had a headache, according to the lawsuit.

Preliminary lab results suggested preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication often characterized by persistently high blood pressure, the lawsuit alleged.

Over the next two hours, a fetal heart rate monitor indicated problems with the babys heart rate, and Willis had several high blood pressure readings, according to the lawsuit. NaJai Johnsons parents, however, alleged in the lawsuit that a nurse and two doctors failed to properly assess Willis and the babys status during labor and delivery; failed to recognize and treat Willis preeclampsia quickly enough; and failed to appropriately and quickly respond to the fetal heart rate monitor results, among other allegations.

At 5:13 p.m., the babys heart rate dropped, and one of the doctors then decided delivery was necessary, according to the lawsuit.

NaJai Johnson was delivered by Caesarean section at 5:38 p.m.

The family alleged in their lawsuit that their daughters injuries were caused by negligence.

The $23 million awarded will help pay for the medical care NaJai Johnson will need throughout her life, said Mary Koch, an attorney for the family, with the firm Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch, and Norman.

It is significant for her family and I think its also significant because I think any time these cases occur and information is brought to light about negligence, I would hope, in some way, it helps to improve medical care across the board, Koch said.
NEW YORK  Jurors at Donald Trumps Manhattan trial on Thursday heard audio of him discussing plans to pay hush money to a Playboy model with his former fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen  tying him to the deal his legal team has vigorously sought to distance him from.

I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, Cohen was heard saying on a recording he secretly made in September 2016, in seeming reference to David Pecker, the former head of tabloid publisher American Media.

On the recording, Cohen tells Trump, Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up, in terms of funding, referring to the Trump Organizations longtime, twice-convicted finance chief.

What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? Trump said.

Later on the tape, which CNN reported on in 2018, Cohen is heard saying, Well have to pay, and Trump says, Pay with cash, prompting his fixer to respond, No, no, no, before Trump says check and the recording ends.

The potentially damning evidence came in during testimony from Doug Daus, a staffer at the Manhattan district attorneys high-tech analysis unit who authenticated digital evidence. Members of the jury appeared riveted as Trump and Cohens voices echoed off the courtroom walls. Trump looked peeved.

The tape was played shortly after the jury heard extensive testimony from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who repped McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 as the two women mulled coming forward with unflattering information about Trump in the leadup to the election.

AMI, the National Enquirers parent company, handled the $150,000 payment to McDougal in a deal finalized in August 2016, the jury heard from the womens former lawyer and last week from Pecker. The model has long claimed she had a nearly yearlong affair with Trump starting in 2006, not long after he wed Melania.

Trump is charged in the case with 34 counts of falsification of New York business records, accusing him of covering up payment to Cohen in 2017 to disguise that it was reimbursement for paying Daniels $130,000 in late October 2016. Hes pleaded not guilty and could spend up to four years in prison if convicted.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office alleges the payments to Cohen during Trumps first year in the White House rounded off an illicit scheme to defraud the American electorate devised at an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Trump, Cohen and Pecker, who told jurors last week he agreed to be the budding Trump campaigns eyes and ears.

Testimony on Thursday also suggested Trump was similarly aware of the Daniels payoff, which Davidson said was hastily arranged on the eve of the election between him and Cohen after the Enquirer backed out of a deal with her at the last minute.

I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, You know, I hate the fact that we did it. And my comment to him was, But every person that youve spoken to told you it was the right move, Cohen said in another undated recording played during Davidsons testimony, relaying his communications with Trump about the adult film star to Davidson.

Descriptions by Davidson of chaotic eleventh-hour negotiations with Cohen to buy Daniels silence on the eve of the election stood in contrast to Team Trumps position that efforts to silence women were executed to protect his reputation and his family rather than win him the election.

In one text exchange dated the night of the 2016 election between the lawyer and Dylan Howard, the former top editor of the National Enquirer, Davidson expressed shock at his potential role in Trumps stunning victory against Hilary Clinton.

What have we done? the lawyer wrote in the text displayed in court Thursday.

Oh my god, Howard replied.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass asked Davidson what he meant.

There was sort of surprise among the broadcasters and others that Donald Trump was leading in the polls, Davidson said, calling it gallows humor and saying there was an understanding our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Davidson said Cohen  who was convicted of federal charges related to the hush money scheme in 2018  became increasingly frantic after the election when his boss still hadnt paid him back for the Daniels payoff.

Recalling a phone call he received from Cohen in December 2016, Davidson said Trumps then-personal lawyer sounded depressed and despondent, later saying he sounded suicidal.

On a red-hot cross-examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove sought to portray Davidson as a shady lawyer by bringing up other hush money arrangements he was involved in, including with Hulk Hogan, Lindsay Lohan, and Charlie Sheen.

Bove asked Davidson if he was pretty well versed in coming right up to the line without committing extortion.

I had familiarized myself with the law, Davidson said.

The lawyer admitted to Bove that he had never met Trump, spoken to him or been in a room with him until the trial. Toward the end of his testimony, Bove zeroed in on the Daniels agreement Davidson said was for attorneys eyes only, in which Trump and Daniels were referred to under pseudonyms, questioning why it didnt bear Trumps signature.

Before jurors took their seats for the day, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan heard arguments from prosecutors and the former presidents attorneys concerning four more instances of Trump publicly commenting on witnesses and jurors in the case.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy said Trump should be fined another $4,000 for public remarks he made about the jury and witnesses like Pecker and Cohen.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said his client had not willfully violated the order and was defending himself against criticism as a presidential candidate. He said Cohens constant taunts, like recently calling Trump Von ShzInPantz, were essentially daring him to respond.

On Tuesday, the judge imposed $9,000 in sanctions for other comments Trump made about trial participants. Merchan did not immediately rule on the latest alleged violations but sounded unconvinced by Blanches arguments.

Other people are allowed to do whatever they want to us, Trump said after the trial wrapped for the day. And Im not allowed, as a presidential candidate.

_____
Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife allegedly took nearly $600,000 in bribes, indictment says

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife have been charged with accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities, according to an indictment in federal court in Texas.

The alleged scheme took place from late 2014 through at least November 2021, the indictment says.

The congressman and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, made their initial court appearance on Friday in Houston and were released on a $100,000 bond. They are facing several charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official, violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal and money laundering.

In a statement on Friday, Cuellar said: I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.

Cuellar said in his statement that actions he took in Congress were in the interest of the American people and vowed to continue his bid for reelection in November. The congressman also defended his wife, saying that, The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard working is both wrong and offensive.

The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people, Cuellar said.

Prosecutors say that Henry and Imelda Cuellar crafted two yearslong schemes to get bribes from foreign entities  an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City.

In exchange for bribe payments from the Azerbaijan oil company, Cuellar agreed to perform official acts in his capacity as a Member of Congress, to commit acts in violation of his official duties, and to act as an agent of the Government of Azerbaijan and the bank, the indictment says.

Among those promises, prosecutors allege Cuellar agreed to influence US policy through a series of legislative measures relating to Azerbaijans conflict with neighboring Armenia, by giving a pro-Azerbaijani speech on the House floor, inserting language favored by Azerbaijan into legislation and committee reports, and advocating for series of legislative measures relating to Azerbaijans conflict with neighboring Armenia.

The Texas Democrat also allegedly promised to influence financial regulations in a way that would benefit the Mexican bank and its affiliates, including by working to pressure the Executive Branch on anti-money laundering enforcement practices that threatened their business interest and supporting revisions to the criminal money-laundering statutes.

The couple received the bribe payments through shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, prosecutors say. They allegedly used the proceeds from the bribery schemes to pay taxes, pay down debt and spend tens of thousands of dollars at restaurants and retail stores. One purchase was for a $12,000 custom gown, according to the indictment.

Cuellars home and campaign office in Laredo, Texas, were raided by the FBI in 2022. The charges against Cuellar are not yet publicly available.

A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement shortly after Cuellars charges were reported, saying that the congressman is entitled to the presumption of innocence. But, spokesperson Christie Stephenson said, Cuellar will temporarily step down from his top spot on a House Appropriations Subcommittee while the investigation is ongoing.

Henry Cuellar has admirably devoted his career to public service and is a valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus. Like any American, Congressman Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process, Stephenson said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee swiftly called on Cuellar to resign.

If his colleagues truly believe in putting people over politics, they will call on him to resign. If not  they are hypocrites whose statements about public service arent worth the paper theyre written on, Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the NRCC, said in a statement.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that a spokesperson for Hakeem Jeffries released a statement following news of Cuellars charges. This story and headline have also been updated with additional developments.

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WADESBORO, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A juvenile was charged with breaking into a Wadesboro business to steal BB guns and accessories Wednesday morning.

According to the Wadesboro Police Department, officers were called to the Tractor Supply business on East Caldwell Street for an alarm activation. When they arrived, they found the front doors had been damaged and opened.

Student with handgun at Union County high school arrested: Sheriff

Tractor Supply managers reportedly identified several BB guns, BBs and CO2 cartridges as the items stolen.

Investigators were eventually able to identify the juvenile offender. Investigators believe the suspect acted alone and do not expect to charge anyone else.

Investigators were able to recover the stolen property and return it to Tractor Supply.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
DENVER (KDVR)  A juvenile in Eagle County is facing charges of false reporting after they allegedly called law enforcement about a threatening group of teens at a bus stop.

On Friday, the Eagle County Sheriffs Office said they responded to the report from the juvenile on April 29. The juvenile said they were approached and threatened by a group of teens in Edwards.

Just days prior, a teen died following an incident in Gypsum. On April 24, the teen was killed after an altercation took place at a park between several other teenagers.

Teen killed in Eagle County altercation, suspect in custody

Because of the recent death, the sheriffs office said the allegation from April 29 caused immense concern among the community, the school district, and law enforcement, across the entire valley. Most seriously, it created additional fear and anxiety among the young people who live and attend school in this valley, and who are still dealing with the loss of a fellow student.

The sheriffs office investigated the juveniles claim and worked with local businesses, parents and community members to determine exactly what happened.

However, the Eagle County Sheriffs Office said the juveniles allegation was untrue and that there was no evidence to support their claim about the threat at the bus stop.

This false allegation caused undue fear and panic among our community, caused costly changes within the schools, and required law enforcement officials to dedicate extensive time to the investigation, said the Eagle County Sheriffs Office.

Son, accused in death of mother found covered in maggots, speaks out from jail

The juvenile is facing criminal charges for the false report. Due to their age, their identity will not be released.

Anyone with information on either case is asked to contact the Eagle County Sheriffs Office at 970-328-8500.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A Kansas City man has been sentenced in federal court for leading a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, which resulted in an overdose death.

Dmitry Cattell, 24, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge, Beth Phillips, on Thursday to 21 years in federal prison without parole.

Suspected Walmart shoplifter dies after swallowing something while in police custody

Court documents say Cattell distributed at least 6,225 doses of fentanyl between Sept. 12, 2019, and April 5, 2022, and also admitted to distributing at least 1.1 kilograms of cocaine.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office, evidence was presented during Thursdays sentencing hearing about fentanyl, which caused the death of a person on May 18, 2020. The victim of the fatal overdose was not named.

According to court documents, law enforcement officers responded to Cattells home four times for drug overdoses.

After Cattell sold a pill to his sister, which caused her overdose, officers executed a search warrant at his residence on Nov. 10, 2020, according to documents.

Sister of Chiefs rally shooting suspect detained after outburst in court

Officers found drug paraphernalia and a handgun, which was under the pillow on Cattells bed.

Cattell admitted selling fentanyl to a woman, his girlfriend and his sister, who all overdosed. He distributed all of the drugs at his home.

Cattell is one of the 11 defendants convicted in this case and the second defendant to be sentenced. Dominic Holland, 25, was sentenced on Nov. 21, 2023, to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
The Biden administration recently issued new energy regulations for homes built using federal money. Proponents claim the new rules, which update the standards for items such as insulation, heating and cooling systems, windows and the like, will reduce energy usage and therefore reduce costs. But Kansas Citys experience with the new energy codes suggests the consequences might be dire..

Increasing housing regulations increases housing costs  no one disagrees with this. The Department of Housing and Urban Development claims the new regulations will add an average of $7,200 to each single-family home. However, NAHB, the National Association of Home Builders, recently issued a statement claiming the new rules will add $31,000 to the cost of a home, requiring 90 years for a homebuyer to see any net savings.

How can we weigh these competing claims?

The new federal regulations require builders to meet the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code. The IECC updates its codes about every three years. Prior to the administrations action, federal agencies had been using the 2015 IECC standards. Incidentally, in 2024 the IECC issued its latest guidelines, in which it claims to have relaxed some of its standards.

Kansas City already has been down this path. In 2022, the City Council adopted the 2021 IECC standards, so that as of Sept 29, 2023, All plan and permit submissions will be required to be in full compliance with the 2021 IECC.

The higher costs put buying a new home out of reach for many more people. According to a March 2024 study released by NAHB, each $1,000 added to the cost of a new home prices out 747 Kansas City households. Even with HUDs modest cost impact, thats more than 5,300 of our potential neighbors unable to buy a new home.

Builders understand the market: If they think they cant earn a return, they wont build. That is exactly what happened. For at least three months after the new standards were in place, Kansas City issued zero permits under the new code. Yet in neighboring municipalities, new housing construction continued as usual.

In an interview on Fox4, Will Ruder of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City said the citys adoption of the 2021 IECC resulted in a historic reduction in new housing starts in Kansas City, Missouri. Before the new standards, Kansas City proper accounted for a quarter of new housing construction in the metropolitan area, he said. Since the new standards took effect, Kansas City made up less than 4%.

Why did Kansas City kill its housing construction market? The U.S. Department of Energy offered cities hundreds of millions of dollars to adopt the new standards without any amendments. Because Missouri and Kansas are two of only six states that do not have statewide building codes, the standards are set at the municipal level.

Taking the bait, the council introduced legislation in April 2022 to adopt the 2021 IECC standards. The measure was passed in October 2022, taking effect a year later. New housing permits stopped. Adding insult to injury, Kansas City never received any of those promised federal funds.

The good news is the City Council may have learned a lesson. A new ordinance will allow builders to receive permits without having to meet the prohibitively expensive standards of the 2021 IECC. Instead, the proposed approach allows builders to move forward with construction if they demonstrate they not only meet the 2018 residential code for the structure but also show upgrades in their energy efficiency  bringing them up to the standards in Overland Park and Prairie Village. This satisfies the desire to reduce energy consumption without making costs prohibitive.

Policymakers should heed economist Thomas Sowells admonition: There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs. If your solution is more housing regulation, be prepared for increased housing costs or no housing construction at all. Neither option makes Kansas City an affordable place to live.

Patrick Tuohey is co-founder of Better Cities Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on municipal policy solutions, and a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to Missouri state policy work.
This story has been updated:

NORTON, Kan. (KSNW)  A Norton Correctional Facility corrections supervisor has been arrested on a warrant from Nebraska.

The supervisor was taken into custody Wednesday. He is in the Norton County Jail awaiting extradition on 3 counts of sex trafficking a minor, 8 counts of enticement by electronic communication device, and 3 counts of sexual assault; use of electronic communication device.

Solar company must pay $220K in fines and refunds in Kansas, DA says

Grand Island Nebraska Police Captain Dean Elliott tells KSN News that the investigation began in April. The department operates an undercover social media account where an officer posses as a 13-year-old girl. Elliott says the corrections officer began contacting the account, messaging with the fake account.

The messages were sexual in nature, with him allegedly sending nude photos of himself and asking for photos and videos from the officer posing as a teen. The suspect allegedly made plans to travel to Grand Island to meet the teen.

The exchange took place over the course of about 2 and a half weeks according to Captain Elliott. During time, Grand Island police gathered evidence, including the suspects identity, and other information.

Elliott says they obtained an arrest warrant, and a search warrant for the suspects home, and then traveled to Norton. Working with local law enforcement, the officer was taken into custody and evidence from inside his home was collected.

Captain Elliott tells KSN News that depending on if the suspect fights extradition or not, he could be brought to Nebraska to face charges next week. The Kansas Department of Corrections tells KSN News that he is currently on administrative leave and indicated his employment will likely be terminated.

It is KSN News policy not to identify suspects until they have been formally charged with a felony.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
CANBERRA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced about 323 million U.S. dollars in funding for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Penny Wong, the minister for Foreign Affairs, and Pat Conroy, the minister for International Development and the Pacific, on Friday committed 492 million Australian dollars (about 323 million U.S. dollars) to the ADB's 2025-28 pledging round for the Asian Development Fund.

It marks an increase from the 423 million Australian dollars (about 278 million U.S. dollars) committed by the Australian government for the previous 2021-24 replenishment.

Wong and Conroy said in a joint statement that Australia's funding would help with the construction of climate resilient hospitals and education facilities.

"Australia's contributions to the Asian Development Fund will assist countries in our region to meet their most pressing needs," Wong said.

They said Australia has worked with representatives from the Cook Islands and Kiribati to ensure that Pacific nations will receive over 500 million Australian dollars (about 329 million U.S. dollars) more from the fund than they did from the previous replenishment. 
TOPEKA (KSNT)  Top state political figures and other guests gathered in the Kansas State Capitol building Monday to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

Lawmakers commented on the historic case while both the House and Senate passed resolutions in memory of the moment schools in the U.S. were desegregated. The 70th anniversary of the landmark case arrives on May 17, 2024.

President Biden approves disaster aid for Kansas after winter storm

For more Capitol Bureau 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.

Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Wilson authored the high court's opinion in a dog ownership case by deciding a Wyandotte County District Court judge didn't follow procedure while handling the case and the Kansas Court of Appeals, which found the judge's actions flawed, didn't properly remand the case back to district court for further proceedings. (Pool photo by Evert Nelson/Topeka Capital-Journal)

TOPEKA  The Kansas Supreme Court waded into a four-year-old dispute about ownership of a purebred Cane Corso show dog with a decision Friday that identified procedural blunders by a Wyandotte County District Court judge and a subsequent mistake by the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Justice Evelyn Wilson authored the decision affirming the Court of Appeals ruling that District Court Judge William Mahoney erred in 2020 by improperly deciding merits of the ownership case without proper notice to both parties who came together to argue about a preliminary injunction.

The Supreme Court concluded the Court of Appeals took a step toward correcting the problem in 2023, but faltered by not remanding the conflict back to district court. The justices said the district court judge bit off more than he could chew and must take up the case again to consider the rift through the lens of proper procedure, Wilsons opinion said.

It is legal error and thus an abuse of discretion for a district court to expand the scope of a hearing beyond the extent specified by adequate, clear and unambiguous notice given to all parties before the hearing begins, the opinion said. When the improper expansion of the scope of a hearing results in prejudice to an affected party, the error is reversible.

The conflict has pitted Betsy Shauck, breeder of Oscar the show dog, against Dave Jennings and Emily McLeod, who raised the dog since he was a puppy. Shauck claimed ownership, but Jennings and McLeod petitioned the district court for an order granting them title to Oscar. Shauck submitted a counterclaim alleging breach of contract and sought a preliminary injunction against Jennings and McLeod.

In March 2020, incursion of the global COVID-19 pandemic interrupted proceedings on the preliminary injunction. In October and November 2020, during a three-day trial by Zoom, 11 witnesses were called to testify.

Mahoney, the district court judge, released a ruling that went beyond the injunction to include decisions of fact on merits of all issues pending in the lawsuit, including Oscars ownership, contract disputes and damages. He awarded the dog to Shauck, a decision that blindsided Jennings and McLeod.

The court clarified no further evidence or hearings would occur, Wilsons opinion said. The case was over.

Jennings and McLeod surrendered the dog to Shauck, but also claimed the district court violated their due process rights by deciding the entirety of the case after a hearing that was supposed to be about a preliminary injunction.

The Court of Appeals agreed with Jennings and McLeod. However, instead of sending the case back to the district court, the Court of Appeals analyzed ownership interests in Oscar and concluded the dog was the joint property of Shauck and Jennings.

Wilsons opinion says the Supreme Court concurred with the Court of Appeals regarding the district courts prejudice against Jennings and McLeod, but concluded the Court of Appeals went a too far by trying to settle the ownership squabble. Such a fact-finding mission was the duty of the district court, the opinion said.

In a nutshell, Wilson said, without informing the parties, the district courts decision retroactively changed practically everything: The elements to be proved, the burden of proof on each element, and the party obligated to carry the burden on each element.

The high court said Jennings and McLeod were denied due process due to the lack of clear notice that they, not Shauck, had to prove each element of the lawsuit and not merely defend against Shaucks request for the preliminary injunction.

The post Kansas Supreme Court trains eye on lower-court procedural miscues in case of Oscar the dog appeared first on Kansas Reflector.
Karen Read jurors tour Canton crime scene where John OKeefes body was found. Heres what they saw

Jurors in the Karen Read murder trial briefly stepped outside Dedhams Norfolk Superior Court on Friday morning and traveled to Canton for a tour of the crime scene where the body of Boston Police Officer John OKeefe was found on a stormy winter night.

Watch Ted Daniel's recap of Friday's Karen Read testimony on Boston 25 News at 5 p.m.

All 12 jurors in the case took a 20-minute bus ride south to Canton for a court-conducted view of 34 Fairview Road. They were asked to take detailed notes on everything they were shown.

Prosecutors say Read dropped OKeefe off at a house party at that address just after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. As Read made a three-point turn, she allegedly struck OKeefe and drove away, leaving him to die as a blizzard raged.

Massachusetts State Police troopers blocked off the neighborhood while jurors got an up-close look at the luxury Lexus SUV Read was said to be driving when the alleged incident unfolded.

A murderous romance or a frame job? Key things to know so far about the Karen Read trial

Video and photos of the LX 570 in question showed some small rusted imperfections on the rear of the vehicle and a missing rear right turn signal assembly.

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally had asked the jurors to take note of the vehicles center console, which appeared to have been stripped of various accessories.

The state is using Reads cracked right taillight as evidence she ran down OKeefe in reverse with her SUV after a night of drinking.

Lally tells jury there will be a vehicle at the view and he wants them to take note of the center console in the vehicle.  Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) May 3, 2024

Reads lawyers plan to argue during the trial that someone other than Read was responsible for OKeefes death but have only floated a theory that he was beaten inside 34 Fairview Road and left for dead outside.

The defense has criticized investigators for failing to search the house where the party was held to see if a fight had occurred and argued his injuries were consistent with being beaten up.

Brian Albert, a retired Boston Police Officer, was living at the home at the time of OKeefes death. OKeefe was found on Alberts front lawn hours after Albert hosted a gathering that OKeefe was invited to.

Albert went to great lengths to dispose of critical evidence by making sure, Chloe, his family dog of seven years, simply disappeared, the defense has alleged. Albert later sold the family home.

Karen Read murder trial: A guide to the key players you need to know

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The Karen Read murder trial shifted outside the courtroom on Friday as jurors traveled to Canton to view the scene where Boston Police Officer John OKeefe was found unresponsive in the snow in January 2022.

A murderous romance or a frame job? Key things to know so far about the Karen Read trial

Before jurors made the 20-minute drive south to 34 Fairview Road, Canton Firefighter/Paramedic Katie McLaughlin returned to the witness stand for cross-examination.

WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony in Karen Read trial resumes after jurors view crime scene WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony in Karen Read trial resumes after jurors view Canton crime scene. Posted by Boston 25 News on Friday, May 3, 2024

During a compelling cross-examination, Reads attorney Alan Jackson grilled McLaughlin about her apparent friendship with Caitlin Albert, who was alleged to be at a party inside the home of retired Boston Police Officer Brian Albert, on the night OKeefes body was found outside.

Jackson asked McLaughlin about a photo of her with her arm around Caitlin Albert. McLaughlin said she didnt recollect where or when the picture was taken or remember the last time she communicated with her.

Jackson describes a photo where he says shows FF McLaughlin in a photo with her arm around Caitlin. McLaughlin. She says she doesn't recollect where or when the picture was taken. She doesn't remember the last time she communicated with her  Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) May 3, 2024

When jurors returned from the view shortly before 1 p.m. the prosecution called Canton Fire Lt. Greg Woodbury to the stand.

Woodbury testified that OKeefe was covered in snow and not breathing when he arrived at 34 Fairview Road. He said OKeefe had prominent bruising to his right eye and injuries to his arm.

The court-conducted view comes after three days of testimony from first responders who were called to the scene of OKeefes death on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read has been charged with second-degree murder and other charges in OKeefes death.

Prosecutors say Read dropped OKeefe off at a house party just after midnight and as she made a three-point turn, she allegedly struck OKeefe before driving away. The defense alleges state and local law enforcement officials have framed her and allowed the real killer to go free.

On Thursday, those first responders testified that they tried to resuscitate OKeefe. Dashcam video from a Canton police cruiser was also played, showing blizzard conditions at the scene.

They were also questioned about what Read did or did not say as they prepared to transport OKeefe to the hospital.

Two more Canton first responders said that they heard Read making incriminating statements. But one was questioned if he had ever shared Reads admission before.

She just repeated the phrase over and over again. I hit him, I hit him, Canton Fire Lt. Anthony Flematti recalled. Firefighter Katie McLaughlin also said Read repeated, I hit him.

But when defense attorney Alan Jackson asked, Have you ever said that in any context either to the police or to the grand jury before today? Flematti said, I dont recall.

McLaughlin said another woman on scene told Read she was hysterical and needed to calm down. McLaughlin also said she did not follow up because she had to drive the ambulance and it was said in front of a police officer.

Karen Read, 41, of Mansfield, Mass., is charged with manslaughter in the Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, death of Boston police Officer John OKeefe. O'Keefe, 46, was off duty at the time of his death.

FILE - Karen Read sits in court during jury selection for her murder trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (David McGlynn//New York Post via AP, Pool,File)

Karen Read, left, leaves Norfolk Superior Court with her attorney Alan Jackson, right, after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read, right, is flanked by Massachusetts State Police while leaving Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FILE - Karen Read, of Mansfield, Mass., center, departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read, facing a murder charge in the death of an off-duty Boston police officer, was ordered held on $100,000 bail.

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe

Karen Read is arraigned in Stoughton District court accused of manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston Police officer John O'Keefe

But one Canton firefighter said he heard something else.

Attorney David Yannetti questioned Lt. Francis Walsh, asking, It was very easy for you to discern that her words were hes dead, hes [expletive] dead. Correct? Correct, said Walsh.

After court, Yannetti commented on the testimony heard Thursday.

I think they were all over the map, werent they? Everybody had a different version of what was said and I think much of it was unreliable, he said.

Part 1 - Day 4 of testimony in the Karen Murder trial (Friday, May 3, 2024):

WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony continues on Day 4 of Karen Read murder trial. WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony continues on Day 4 of Karen Read murder trial before jurors travel to scene of John O'Keefe's death. Posted by Boston 25 News on Friday, May 3, 2024

Day 3 of testimony in the Karen Murder trial (Thursday, May 2, 2024):

Tuesday, April 30, 2024: Canton police officer, firefighters testify on 2nd day of Karen Read murder trial:

WATCH LIVE: Day 2 of testimony in the Karen Read murder trial starting soon. WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony continues on day 2 of the Karen Read murder trial Posted by Boston 25 News on Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Monday, April 29, 2024: Opening statements, testimony begins in Karen Read murder trial:

WATCH LIVE: Opening statements underway in Karen Read murder trial. WATCH LIVE: First witness is called in Karen Read murder trial after jurors hear opening statements. boston25.com/3UCmwRX Posted by Boston 25 News on Monday, April 29, 2024

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Demonstrators gather at the federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. (Eric Gay/AP)

On Monday, Kate Cox, a pregnant Texas woman locked in a legal battle over her states abortion ban, will leave the state to receive potentially lifesaving abortion treatment. New data shows Cox, who is 21 weeks pregnant and whose fetus was recently diagnosed with a genetic disorder, is part of what pro-abortion-rights advocates are calling a dehumanizing surge of people crossing state lines seeking reproductive care after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, was overturned in June 2022.

"Kate desperately wanted to be able to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family, Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights that represents Cox, said in a tweet. While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence.

According to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute  a pro-abortion-rights research group  a little over 92,000 people in the U.S. traveled to other states in the first half of 2023 to receive abortion care, more than double the 40,600 who did the same during a similar period in 2020. The December report, which provides monthly estimates of abortions performed by a formal U.S. health care system, attributes the uptick in travel to post-Roe abortion laws.

It is outrageous and dehumanizing that Kate Cox is being forced to flee her home state to access the abortion care she needs and deserves, Kimya Forouzan, principal policy associate for state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement to Yahoo News. No one should ever be forced to seek permission from a judge or forced to take on the emotional, financial and logistical barriers of traveling out of state to access an abortion.

Kate Cox will travel out of Texas for abortion care. (Kate Cox/AP)

On Nov. 28, the 31-year-old mother of two had prenatal testing that confirmed a diagnosis of trisomy 18, a genetic condition that puts her fetus at risk of death.

After the diagnosis, Coxs doctors informed her that getting an abortion was the safest option to protect her health and future fertility, according to the lawsuit, but warned her that no doctor in the state would be likely to provide the procedure due to Texass laws. Texas criminalizes performing an abortion after six weeks of gestation unless the person has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.

Cox filed a lawsuit on Dec. 5 that sought a temporary restraining order on the states ban on abortion.

Last Thursday, District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted her request for an order, allowing Cox to have an abortion under the medical exemption rule. But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a petition, urged the Texas Supreme Court to block the order. In Paxtons filing, he said Cox did not meet the criteria for a medical exception. Paxton also sent a letter to three hospitals where Dr. Damla Karsan, the gynecologist who said she would perform Coxs abortion if authorized under the temporary order, could admit patients. The attorney general threatened to prosecute any providers involved in performing an abortion to a patient.

Local governments in Texas like Lubbock County, near New Mexico where abortion has not been outlawed, have also attempted to prohibit traveling for abortion care. But legal experts doubt that the ordinances will be enforced. The Guttmacher Institute study says that New Mexico, which also borders Oklahoma, another state where abortion is generally banned, experienced the largest increase of patients traveling for abortion care.

Kate Coxs story exposes the undeniable cruelty of Texas abortion ban  and all abortion bans  for what it is, Forouzan said. This devastating story shows that we cannot rely on exceptions to abortion bans to guarantee care for anyone. The only way to ensure access to those experiencing severe pregnancy complications and everyone else is to end all restrictions on abortion.

Coxs lawyer said in a Texas Supreme Court filing that Cox intends to continue her lawsuit.
These KC area high schools are among the best in Kansas and Missouri, new rankings say

As the school year nears the end, parents around the Kansas City metro are starting to look at what high schools to enroll their kids in.

A recent report could help make that choice easier.

Data analysis and news site U.S. News and World Report released its 2024 ranking of the best high schools in the country and in each state.

More than 17,000 schools were ranked on six factors based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college, according to U.S. News. The total scores are rated on a scale of 100.

What are the top public high schools in Kansas and Missouri? Heres what U.S. News says.

Top high schools in Kansas

Of U.S. News top 10 high schools in Kansas, the top eight are all in the Kansas City area.

Sumner Academy of Arts and Science was also ranked the 115th best high school in the United States.

The high school received its ranking based on, among other factors, how it gets students ready for college and its graduation rate. About 98% of students at Sumner have taken at least one International Baccalaureate exam, with 80% passing one, according to U.S. News. The school also has a 96% graduation rate.

Top high schools in Missouri

Two high schools in the Kansas City area landed on U.S. News top 10 statewide rankings for Missouri: Lincoln College Preparatory Academy and Park Hill High School, both in Kansas City.

Lincoln was rated the fourth best high school in Missouri with an overall score of 97.41/100, while Park Hill was the 10th best in the state with an overall score of 93.49/100.
An 18-year-old Kansas City man hospitalized since the fatal mass shooting at the Chiefs Super Bowl was booked into the Jackson County jail, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs office said Friday afternoon.

Dominic Miller was in the custody of the Jackson County Sheriffs Office, Capt. Ronda Montgomery said. Only hours earlier, she had said he was not being held at the countys detention center.

Prosecutors charged Miller days after the mass shooting on Feb. 14 outside Union Station, which injured at least 25 people, roughly half of them children. Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a 43-year-old Johnson County mother of two and a beloved party DJ, was killed.

Miller is one of three men facing identical charges of second-degree felony murder and unlawful use of a weapon, as well as two counts of armed criminal action.

The two other men charged with murder in the shooting are 23-year-old Lyndell Mays of Raytown and 20-year-old Terry J. Young of Kansas City.

A dispute between two groups of people that quickly erupted into gunfire led to the shooting.

Gunfire from Millers firearm struck and killed Lopez-Galvan, according to court documents. Prosecutors alleged that Mays drew and fired first. Young can be seen in surveillance video drawing a gun, and he appears to shoot several times, a detective wrote in court documents.

Under Missouri law, a person who did not pull the trigger can still be charged when someone is killed during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Three teens have also been charged in the shooting. Earlier this week testimony began in a certification hearing for a 16-year-old boy who has been charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of resisting arrest.

The proceedings, which will resume later in May, could end in the boy being prosecuted as an adult.

Another teen, a 15-year-old, also was charged on March 20 with unlawful use of a weapon for shooting at a person and armed criminal action. That youth is due back in court for a detention hearing on May 15 and also may be tried as an adult. A certification hearing for that matter has not yet been set.

A third teen was also detained on gun-related charges that do not rise to the level to be tried as an adult.
KANSAS CITY, Kan.  The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department is investigating a shooting that left one man dead Friday morning.

Officers responded to the shooting call just after 10:30 a.m. near Cleveland Avenue and Alden Street.

Suspected Walmart shoplifter dies after swallowing something while in police custody

When officers arrived on scene they found a man with apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on scene. He has been identified as 45-year-old Kenton Williams, of KCK.

Detectives detained one person but no formal charges have been filed at this time.

The incident remains under investigation. This is the ninth homicide of the year for KCK.

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Anyone with information that can help detectives is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-8477.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
A Kennewick massage parlor has lost its business license because it did not have a state-licensed massage therapist on site.

The city revoked the business license for Jingchen Sun, operating as Best Happy China Foot & Boday Massage, 101 N. Union St., Ste. 205, following an investigation led by the Kennewick Police Department.

The investigation revealed the business was in violation of Kennewick city codes that say, It is unlawful for a person to practice massage therapy or represent himself or herself as a massage therapist without being licensed as a massage therapist by the (Washington Health) Department.

The revocation was finalized after a Feb. 21 hearing that included the investigative report and testimony by Sun.

Sun initially appealed, leading to a scheduled hearing for May 13. The hearing was canceled this week after the appeal was withdrawn.

Last June, the Kennewick City Council approved a new ordinance to help police investigate and shut down illicit massage businesses. The new regulations limited hours, that lights remain on at all times and that the businesses display a full list of services offered and costs.

All massage therapists or refloxologists must be at least 18 and licensed by the state, with their licenses or certification displayed near the entrance to the business.

It was not immediately clear what drew the business to the citys attention.

The Tri-City Herald requested a copy of the Kennewick police investigative report under the Washington Public Records Act. It has yet to be released.

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A Central Kentucky man called in bomb threats to a hospital and two Lexington businesses where he worked as a security guard, a federal grand jury has charged.

The grand jury indicted Gabriel Frith, 19, of Nicholasville Thursday on three charges of making false reports of bomb threats.

The first incident happened in July 2023 in Scott County, where Frith allegedly falsely told police he had received a text message saying a bomb would explode at the Georgetown Community Hospital, according to the indictment and a state court case.

Mark Blankenship, a detective with the Georgetown police, said in a criminal complaint that Frith worked for a company that provided security services for the hospital.

Frith told police he got two texts on the phone provided to him by the security company. One read hello and the second said Bomb is there boy. 1 hrr BOOM, according to Blankenships sworn statement.

The messages were sent from a texting application. The investigation showed that the email associated with the account belonged to Frith, according to the state complaint.

The second case in which Frith allegedly told police he had received a bomb threat was in November 2023, involving a retail store in Fayette County.

In the third case, in January 2024, Frith told workers at a hotel in Lexington he had received a text saying a bomb would explode at the hotel, according to the indictment.

The federal indictment did not identify the businesses, but records in a state case identified them as a Walmart store on New Circle Road and the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown.

Frith worked as a security guard at both places at the time of the false threats, according to the federal indictment.

The federal charges against Frith are punishable by up to five years in prison each.
TOKYO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Friday commemorates Constitution Memorial Day in Japan, a day dedicated to honoring the pacifist constitution enacted in 1947, symbolizing Japan's commitment to a post-war era of peace. The country, however, now finds itself increasingly at odds with the principles of its war-renouncing constitution.

Japan is now actively seeking to circumvent its constitutional restraints, steadily bolstering its defense budget and expanding its offensive military capabilities, thus veering further away from its once cherished commitment to peace.

"DEMISE OF ARTICLE 9"

The cornerstone of Japan's pacifist constitution is Article 9, which renounces the nation's right to engage in war or to resort to military force to resolve international conflicts. For decades, this article has been a fundamental constraint on Japan's military endeavors.

Masahiro Sakata, former director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau and a staunch advocate for the preservation of the pacifist constitution, noted that Japan's military is essentially structured as a self-defense force and not offensive in nature, citing Article 9, which stipulates that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."

According to Sakata, the principle of "self-defense" rests upon two pillars. The notion of "self" restricts Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to domestic operations and prohibits overseas military ventures, while the concept of "defense" mandates the force's exclusive focus on defensive capabilities, devoid of offensive weaponry or aggressive intentions.

After World War II, however, Japan's right-wing forces harbored aspirations of reclaiming the nation's status as a formidable political and military power. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has persistently endeavored to circumvent the limitations imposed by Article 9, incrementally eroding its constraints.

Sakata highlighted the Shinzo Abe government's 2015 decision to lift the ban on exercising collective self-defense as a pivotal moment. This decision effectively nullified the constitutional restrictions on the SDF and permitted engagements beyond Japan's borders, thereby undermining the essence of Article 9.

At the end of 2022, the Fumio Kishida government, despite widespread opposition, forcefully updated three security and defense-related documents, including the National Security Strategy.

These initiatives aim to acquire "enemy base strike capabilities," dismantle the shackles of the peace constitution, and challenge the nation's "exclusively defense-oriented" principles, heralding a profound transformation in Japan's post-war security stance.

Sakata grimly acknowledged that the pursuit of "enemy base strike capabilities" blatantly contradicts the constitutional mandate restricting the possession of offensive weaponry by the SDF, which means the demise of the second pillar supporting Article 9. "The Article 9 is dead," he said.

LIFTING ARMS EXPORT BAN

In a significant policy shift for pacifist Japan, in December last year and March this year, the Kishida government twice revised the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology and their implementation guidelines, allowing for the export of finished weapons such as fighter jets. The revisions threw open the door for direct exports of lethal weapons from Japan to other countries.

"This is a blatant violation of the pacifist constitution and will only automatically draw Japan into war and conflict," said Atsushi Koketsu, emeritus professor at Yamaguchi University of Japan.

Sayo Saruta, director of the Japanese think tank New Diplomacy Initiative, said lifting the ban on lethal weapon exports will significantly boost Japan's defense industry. Japan, engaged in an arms race, would be unable to stop its international arms sales.

Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reporter Atsushi Kawada said that in the two and a half years since he began covering the Japanese Ministry of Defense news, he has lost count of how many times he has written about "major shifts" in Japan's security policy.

Japan, once rooted in "pacifism" and an "exclusively defense-oriented policy," has completely transformed itself into a "war-capable country" after many "major shifts," Kawada said. Lifting the export ban on fighter jets runs counter to "pacifism" and will indeed "sow the seeds of calamity" for the country's future, he said.

DANGEROUS SLIPPERY SLOPE

Right-wing politicians, from Abe to Kishida, have sought to transform Japan into a "normal country" capable of possessing military power. However, due to the challenges involved in completely revising the constitution, they have adopted a gradual approach by bypassing the parliament and transferring the responsibility of revising or formulating security-related laws and regulations to the government.

The constitution is the benchmark that should be referred to when formulating other laws, and security-related laws enacted in the absence of the constitution lack legitimacy, Miho Aoi, professor of law at Gakushuin University in Japan, said in a recent interview with Japanese media.

In 2013, the Abe administration established the National Security Council and began letting the government take the lead in formulating security policies. Now, it is increasingly worrying that the government is imposing its own decisions on national security policy without involving the parliament in discussion, Aoi said.

To expand its military power, the Kishida government has sought military alliances and strengthened cooperation with the United States, the Philippines, NATO and others, leading to camp confrontation.

Analysts said this "new militarism" in Japan makes the Japanese people uneasy and threatens regional peace. Koketsu noted that the series of moves suggests Japan is on a dangerous path.

The security-related laws betray Article 9 of the constitution and are once again pushing Japan down the slippery slope of becoming a "military power" and a "war state," Tokyo Shimbun reported. 
Sen. Anthony Kern (right) appears on the Stew Peters Show on May 1, 2024. Kern used the Arizona Senate's broadcast facilities to speak to Peters (left), a far-right media figure who has embraced antisemitic rhetoric and praised the Nazis. Screenshot via Boxcast.tv

A Glendale Republican lawmaker who was present for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and is facing criminal charges for being a fake elector used legislative video equipment to appear on a far-right talk show this week with a host who has declared Adolf Hitler a hero.

On May 1, Sen. Anthony Kern appeared on the Stew Peters show to discuss a Drag Story Hour that was hosted the day before in a basement meeting room in the Arizona House of Representatives. Kern joined the show live on video from the state Senate, which has a video broadcast studio.

The April 30 drag event in the House was hosted by Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, the nations first nonbinary Chicane legislator. When Republicans, who have spent the last several years crusading against drag and the LGBTQ community, learned about the event, it sparked an outcry.

Kern was the first to post about the event, and he specifically called out his GOP primary opponent for Arizonas Eighth Congressional District, House Speaker Ben Toma, for allowing the event to take place.

On Peters show, Kern said he thought taxpayers would be outraged at the event for legislators and their staff.

I said, Hey, Arizona, this is where your tax dollars are going, Kern told Peters, appearing from the broadcast filming room on the Senates first floor used by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to film videos.

Peters, a conspiracy theorist, has been increasingly showcasing antisemitism on his social media profiles and on his show. In promotional material, Peters has praised the mass book burning conducted by the Nazis in the lead up to World War II.

They did exactly what reasonable people would do if given the opportunity, Peters said of the Nazi book burnings. The video featured a montage of antisemitic propaganda created by Nazi Germany.

Peters praised Kern and made the false claim that the drag event in the House included children, calling the drag king that spoke to the small group Tuesday a mentally ill satanic pedophile. The event did not include children and Kern did not push back on any of Peters claims.

In the left image, Sen. Brian Fernandez, D-Yuma, filmed a social media video in the Senates broadcast facility in April 2024. On the right, Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, uses the same broadcast facility to appear on a far-right talk show that has openly endorsed antisemitic rhetoric. Screenshots: X/Boxcast.tv

Peters attacked Toma, implying that the lawmaker could be a pedohile or a groomer, a term used frequently by anti-LGBTQ extremists to attack the LGBTQ community. The attention from conservative activists towards drag story hours has led to physical attacks on members of that community as well as other threats of violence.

Is Ben Toma a pedophile? Is he a groomer? Peters said on his show before Kern came on to speak. Hes either incompetent or he is with the pedophiles. It is only one or the other.

Neither Kern nor a Senate spokeswoman responded to multiple requests for comment. The Capitol broadcast team, who is in charge of the equipment, referred the Arizona Mirrors inquiry to the Senate spokeswoman, Kim Quintero.

I dont know what to say other than Kern is irrelevant and will continue to be irrelevant in this race, Toma told the Mirror. He is not important enough for me to reply.

Toma added that any decision on looking into if Kern inappropriately used Senate resources would be up to Senate President Warren Petersen. Toma also defended his position against the use of the Capitol basement for a drag story hour this week.

I became aware of it fairly late, and it was already ongoing by the time I became aware of it, Toma said, adding that he went in person to confirm the event was taking place Tuesday. It wasnt approved for that use. The use was supposed to be a stakeholder meeting.

Democratic lawmakers have contended that they told Tomas office that they intended to host the Drag Story Hour event when they reserved the room.

During the interview, Kern said that churches and Christians need to rise up as a remedy to fix the countrys problems.

It is time for battle. This is our 1776 momentWe have to rise up and get our country back, Kern said, adding that he believed God appointed Donald Trump to be president.

Kern, who was recently indicted by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes for his role in Donald Trumps fake elector scheme, sparked controversy last month when he invited members of his church to pray and speak in tongues on the Senate floor ahead of key votes on abortion.

The move garnered national media attention, and Kern complained about it to Peters.

So I led a prayer group down at the Capitol. Somebody filmed it. Somebody tweeted it out, Kern said, adding that the media went beserk.

While at the same time they can allow pedophiles, they can allow perverts, they can allow men dressed up as women, and just a perv show in the basement of our (House of) Representatives, and nothing from the media, Kern said.

Kern, who was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, said that God was raising up people like himself, Peters and Trump. He encouraged Peters viewers to get involved and for churches to rise up. Peters responded that his viewers need to organize militias.

Im talking about organizing with your neighbors in a militia format, Peters said as Kern nodded in agreement. Then advising, not asking permission, but advising your sheriff and advising your DA of exactly what you are willing to do to protect your life, your liberty and your property.

Peters has called for violence at the U.S.-Mexico border, used racist terminology and has spoken at a white nationalist conference.

I believe it has been inappropriate and irresponsible to vilify the LGBTQ+ community for extremist, cheap political points, Austin said in a statement to the Mirror. We are tired of fighting the battle to simply exist.

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Key takeaways from the second week of testimony in Trumps hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump was back in court this week for three days of testimony in his hush money trial in which he stands accused of election interference by paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about an alleged affair.

Mr Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records, which becomes a felony when its done in furtherance of another crime  that being the election interference, according to the prosecution.

While Michael Cohen isnt on the witness stand yet, hes still the star of the show. The man who arranged the payment to Ms Daniels and negotiated a tentative deal for former Playboy model Karen McDougal is on the lips of nearly every witness, we see his texts and emails to multiple witnesses, and we even hear his voice on secretly recorded audio collected from his phones. He will soon be a central witness.

Here are the key takeaways from the second week of testimony in Mr Trumps hush money trial:

Day five

Day five of testimony in the Trump trial began on Tuesday morning, with Mr Trump being hit with a $9,000 gag order fine and being granted his request to attend his son Barrons graduation all before a witness even took the stand.

Jurors then heard from multiple witnesses with a brief stint from Michael Cohens banker Gary Farro and attorney Keith Davidson, who previously represented Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal  the two women who allegedly had affairs with Mr Trump.

Trump can attend Barrons graduation

The first order of business was an announcement by Judge Juan Merchan that, given how jury selection was completed in a week and the trial is moving forward at a good pace, Mr Trump will be allowed to attend his son Barrons graduation from high school on 17 May.

Gag order ruling and threat of jail

Any good feeling was soon dispelled when Judge Merchan issued his ruling on Mr Trumps violation of the gag order imposed on him to protect witnesses, jurors, court staff, and their families.

Last week, prosecutors cited 10 violations made by Mr Trump, with the judge agreeing with nine of the occurrences.

As a result, the judge fined the former president $1,000 for each incident and ordered him to remove the offending Truth Social posts and campaign messages by the lunch break at trial. The posts were taken down with minutes to spare.

In his written ruling, Judge Merchan recognised that for Mr Trump the $9,000 was a small punishment given his wealth and warned that Mr Trump could face an incarceratory punishment if he continues his wilful violations of the courts order, if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the end of the day of his criminal trial on 2 May (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A blockbuster Trump story

The days key witness was Mr Davidson, who previously represented both Ms McDougal and Ms Daniels during negotiations for payments to keep their respective stories about alleged affairs with Mr Trump quiet during the 2016 election.

Mr Davidson first represented Ms McDougal and, in a series of text messages with then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard shown to the court, brokered a deal with publisher David Pecker to buy the rights to her story for $150,000 and a series of magazine columns.

I have a blockbuster trump [sic] story, Mr Davidson wrote to Mr Howard on 7 June 2016, according to messages shown in court.

It was sort of an entree or a teaser to Dylan to let him know perhaps I had an opportunity for him, Mr Davidson testified on Tuesday. Regarding the interaction between Karen McDougal and Donald Trump.

Mr Howard promised to talk 1st thing.

I will get you more than ANYONE for it, Mr Howard wrote, according to messages shown in court. You know why

I dont know if I had a clear understanding at that time but I knew Dylans boss David Pecker and Mr Trump were longtime friends, Mr Davidson told the court about what he thought that meant.

A contract was signed in August 2016 for the rights to Ms McDougals story.

How the Access Hollywood tape fuelled Trumps campaign to bury Stormy Daniels allegations

While Mr Trumps campaign was spiralling after a leaked tape caught him bragging about sexually assaulting women, an attorney and tabloid editor brokering deals to keep damaging stories about him out of the press thought his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election were over, his hush money trial heard on Tuesday.

Mr Davidson testified that interest in his clients story reached a crescendo after the 2005 Access Hollywood tape leaked just weeks before Election Day in 2016.

That deal is at the heart of the hush money case against the former president, who is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged effort to cover up his reimbursements to Cohen as legal expenses.

Mr Davidson spent the morning testifying about a separate scheme involving Ms McDougal, whose story of an alleged affair with Mr Trump was buried by the publisher of the National Enquirer for $150,000.

Then the Access Hollywood tape happened.

Manhattan prosecutors have built their case on the story of a candidate desperate to keep his election chances afloat while his campaign was in damage control mode after the tapes release.

Mr Davidson discussed the tape with Mr Howard, who fed potentially damaging allegations about Mr Trump to Mr Pecker as part of a secret catch and kill scheme to purchase the rights to those stories without any intention of publishing them.

Day six

Bombshell audio captures Trump and Cohen discussing hush money catch and kill plot

For the first time in Mr Trumps hush money trial, jurors heard the former presidents own voice discussing a deal with his former attorney to buy the silence of Ms McDougal.

A portion of the recording  secretly recorded by Cohen while Mr Trump was in the middle of his 2016 campaign for the presidency  was played inside a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, giving the jury a brief but crucial look into how his fixer kept his boss up to date with a scheme that is now central to the criminal case against him.

I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that  Im going to do that right away, Cohen can be heard saying on the recording.

And Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up, Cohen says, referencing the now-convicted former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization.

So, what do we got to pay for this? Mr Trump can be heard saying. 150?

That David appears to be Mr Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher.

In his trial testimony, Mr Pecker admitted to an agreement with Cohen and Mr Trump in August 2015 to buy the rights to politically compromising stories about Mr Trumps affairs.

Two months before Election Day, under Cohens direction, Mr Pecker arranged the payment of $150,000 to Ms McDougal.

Mr Pecker was never reimbursed, he told the court.

In his testimony last week, he explained that he entered the contract to buy the rights to her allegations to boost Mr Trumps chances of winning the 2016 election.

On the recording, Cohen can be heard saying: Well have to pay him something.

Mr Trump suggests paying in cash.

Cohen objects, repeatedly saying no, and then, I got it.

Mr Trump then says check.

In court, Mr Trump hunched over and squinted at the small screen in front of him on the defence table, whispering to his defence attorney Todd Blanche as he read a transcript of the recording.

Trump fawns over his own beautiful blue eyes as he denies falling asleep at trial

Mr Trump hit back at reports that he has dozed off during his high-profile criminal trial in New York, claiming that at times he simply closes his beautiful blue eyes.

The former president insisted that, while his eyes may be closed on occasion, he is listening intensely and taking it ALL in! in a self-complimentary social media post on Truth Social on Wednesday.

It comes following several reports from journalists inside the courtroom, including a reporter from The Independent, present throughout proceedings, that Mr Trump fell asleep during the first day of his historic trial in Manhattan.

The alleged slumber was also captured in a court sketch of the weary former president, which showed him with his eyes closed and his head tilted to the side.

Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I dont fall asleep during the Crooked DAs Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!! Mr Trump wrote on 2 May.

His furious denial echoes that of his campaign, who previously blasted the claims in a statement to The Independent as 100% Fake News coming from journalists who werent even in the courtroom.

Stormy Daniels lawyer thought Michael Cohen was going to kill himself when Trump didnt give him White House role

Keith Davidson thought Mr Trumps then-attorney was going to kill himself after learning he had been left out of a job in the White House after the 2016 presidential election.

In his second day of testimony on Thursday, Mr Davidson told jurors that Cohen was distraught by mid-December 2016.

I thought he was going to kill himself, Mr Davidson said.

Earlier, Mr Davidson told the court that Cohen had voiced disbelief that Mr Trump was not offering him a role in his administration after he allegedly helped him win the election by suppressing negative stories about his alleged affairs with women.

Jesus Christ, can you believe Im not going to Washington? Mr Davidson recalled Cohen saying.

Ive saved that guys ass so many times you dont even know. That guys not even paying the $130,000 back.

Mr Davidson testified that Cohen had believed he would be in the running to serve as Mr Trumps White House chief of staff or US attorney general.

Trump blames Cohen for breaking gag order as judge fires back at jury comments

The judge presiding over the trial fired back at his attorneys attempts to dodge punishment for his comments about the jury  remarks that appear likely to violate a gag order that blocks him from public attacks on witnesses and jurors.

In a contempt hearing on Thursday morning, the former presidents legal team tried to blame at least some of Mr Trumps potential violations on Cohen, arguing his former attorney and the potential star witness in the case has made multiple and repeated attacks on his credibility and campaign.

Pulling up several social media posts from Cohen, Mr Trumps attorney argued that he is inviting and almost daring Trump to respond to everything hes saying.

Throughout the hearing, New York Justice Juan Merchan appeared unconvinced by the defences arguments and grew increasingly frustrated with Mr Trumps attorney Todd Blanche.

At one point, when Mr Blanche claimed that the trial was political persecution and a political trial in a jurisdiction that is politically biased against the former president, Judge Merchan cut him off.

Did he violate the gag order? Thats what I want to know, he said. He spoke about the jury, right? And he said the jury was 95 per cent Democrats and the jury had been rushed through, and the implication that this was not a fair jury?

Stormy Daniels disgraced ex-attorney Michael Avenatti fires back at Trump trial testimony from prison cell

Ms Daniels disgraced former attorney Michael Avenatti fired back at testimony from Mr Davidson in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, the Trump legal team brought up an April 2018 conversation between Mr Davidson and Cohen regarding a CNN interview in which he said that he didnt give any indication that the money was coming from Mr Trump.

On a recording of the conversation, Mr Davidson says he was asked whether Cohen needed authority from Donald Trump to make that payment and I said no, it was never discussed.

Mr Davidson said it was about completing a deal between two consenting adults, or that my client wanted and that his entity wanted [it]. Thats it.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass noted that at the time of that April 2018 conversation with Cohen, Ms Daniels was being represented by Avenatti  who was suing both of them.

Mr Davidson said on Thursday that Avenatti was trying to drive a wedge between him and Ms Daniels.

Keith Davidson is lying, Avenatti wrote on X on Thursday. After I confronted her [with] her own text [messages], Daniels admitted to me in early 2019 that she [and] Davidson had extorted Trump in [October] 2016  it was a shakedown. This was one of the many reasons I fired her as a client in [February] 2019.

Avenatti has said he has been in contact with Mr Trumps legal team and is willing to testify. Hes currently serving a prison sentence for attempting to extort Nike and for embezzling settlement funds from several other clients.

Mr Trump told Cohen: I hate that fact that we did it

Manhattan prosecutors played a tape of a call between Mr Davidson and Cohen on Thursday.

Cohen said, What would you do if you were me?  Would you write a book?  Would you break away from the entire Trump, you know, well call it, doctrine? Would you go completely rogue?  Any thoughts? Because its not just me thats being affected.

The former Trump lawyer continued, Its my entire family.  Nobodys thinking about Michael. Know what Im saying?  Im saying to myself, What about me? What about me?

Then, in a shocking moment, Cohen said, I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, I hate that fact that we did it.

In the tape, Cohen then said, And my comment to him was, But every person you spoke to said it was the right thing to do.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass clarified who Cohen was referring to; Mr Davidson said he believed Cohen was referring to Mr Trump.

Mr Davison also clarified that the right move meant the settlement with Daniels.

Day seven

Hope Hicks cries recalling what Trump said about Michael Cohens payment to Stormy Daniels

A former aide and press secretary to Mr Trump, Hope Hicks, testified on Friday.

Ms Hicks was a crucial part of the 2016 Trump campaign and allegedly part of at least 10 telephone conversations with Mr Trump and Cohen regarding the hush money payments and alleged reimbursements.

Her testimony covered the impact on the campaign of the Access Hollywood tape and news of the McDougal affair.

She said Mr Trump told her that Cohen made the Daniels transaction because Michael felt like it was his job to protect him and that he did it in the kindness of his own heart and he didnt tell anyone about it.

She was asked if the idea that Cohen wouldve made a $130,00 payment out of the kindness of his own heart was consistent with what she knew about him.

Id say that would be out of character for Michael, she responded. I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or a selfless person. The kind of person who seeks credit.

Hicks reacts to Access Hollywood tape

Ms Hicks says she found out about the Access Hollywood tape on the afternoon of 7 October 2016 after she received an email from The Washington Post asking for comment while she was in her office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower.

I was concerned. Very concerned. Um yeah. I was concerned about the contents of the email, concerned about the lack of time to respond, concerned that we had a transcript and not a tape. There was a lot at play, she said.

She went to a conference room where Trump and others were doing debate prep and motioned for other aides to come over.

The sight of the five or six of us gathered out there was a sign that something was afoot. Trump called us in at some point and told us to share what was happening, she added.

I shared the email with Mr Trump sort of verbally and we were at the time  trying to get a copy of the audio of the tape, to assess the situation further, and we werent sure how to respond yet.

Trump said, That didnt sound like something he would say.

He saw the tape within a matter of minutes after it was live.

Ms Hicks said she was Just a little stunned, by the tape.

Just yeah, its hard to describe. It was definitely concerning. And I had a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and sort of dominate the news cycle for the next several days, at least, she added.

Obviously it wasnt helpful ...There were a lot of layers to it, for where we were trying to go with the campaign and this was kind of pulling us backwards. And it was going to be difficult to overcome, she said.

How was the discussion with Trump about how the campaign would respond?

I dont really have a strong recollection of that conversation, but Trump said it was two guys, discussing privately, locker room talk.

I think he felt like it was pretty standard stuff for two guys, you know, chatting with each other.

They acknowledged that it was not good, she said.
The 13th Rapid Reaction Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine has arrived to strengthen Ukrainian forces near the village of Ocheretyne, where the Russian army managed to gain a foothold recently.

Source: statement by Khartiia Brigade on Facebook; sources of Ukrainska Pravda in Khartiia Brigade

Quote: "A combined unit of the 13th Rapid Reaction Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine and the 467th Separate Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is performing a combat mission in Donetsk Oblast. Over the past few weeks, aerial reconnaissance, jointly with artillery, killed Russian infantry on pickup trucks and lorries and struck a Russian tank. In total, the unit inflicted the losses of about 200 members of the Russian personnel."

Details: Reportedly, Khartiia is not the first unit redeployed to the Avdiivka front in an attempt to stabilise the situation. After capturing Ocheretyne, the Russians did not stop and continued "crawling" to the east and north. DeepState reports that they have managed to advance 2-3 km.

Background:

Russian forces advanced towards the village of Ocheretyne (Donetsk Oblast) on Tuesday, 16 April.

On 27 April, the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group of Forces confirmed that the Russians managed to break through and gain a foothold in a part of this settlement.

On 2 May, Russian forces managed to break through and gain a foothold in the village of Ocheretyne, Pokrovsk district, but the area that the Russians hold is under the fire control of Ukrainian soldiers, and the fighting continues.

Oleksandr Yushchenko, Chief Sergeant of the 13th Rapid Reaction Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU), was killed in a combat mission near the village of Dolynske (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast).

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Kidnapping now rife in Nigeria, say Chibok girls taken a decade ago

Women demand the return of the girls kidnapped from Chibok, Nigeria. Afolabi Sotunde/Europa Press/dpa

One springtime night a decade ago, bearded men wearing flip-flops kidnapped 276 girls from their boarding school dormitories in Chibok, north-eastern Nigeria.

They forced the teenagers onto lorries and drove them deep into a vast forest in the savannah.

"My captors did a lot of things to me and the other girls," says Glory Mainta, who was abducted that day. "We were beaten, shouted at  theres nothing that they didnt do to us. While they didnt force us to marry them, what they did to us was worse. We were just managing till God saved us."

It was a full two years before one of her fellow students came out of captivity and wandered through the forest. She was malnourished, and was accompanied by an infant and an Islamist terrorist she was forced to marry.

She was one of the lucky ones.

At least 82 of the Chibok girls are still missing.

A decade on, such mass abductions have become commonplace. "It is not only schools. No one is safe in Nigeria today," activist Fatimah Abba Kaka told dpa. She is part of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, which is fighting for the return of the Chibok girls.

There was outrage online at the mass abduction of the "Chibok Girls" by Islamist terrorist militia Boko Haram back in 2014. Celebrities from former US first lady Michelle Obama to Pope Francis and Kim Kardashian all shared the hashtag "#BringBackOurGirls" in their tweets, calling for their rescue.

Washington sent in military support but attempts to bring the girls back failed.

Eventually, 103 girls were ransomed in 2017 and 2018, for some $3 million and the exchange of five Boko Haram leaders, according to reports.

Some of the teens escaped, while others were killed.

That tragic and dramatic incident in 2014 has become a recurring national emergency.

On average, there has been a mass abduction of more than five people almost every day this year, with a total of 1,867 people abducted, says security consultancy SBM.

More than 15,000 people have been victims of mass kidnappings in the past five years, most in the last two years alone.

In March for example, dozens of schoolchildren were abducted again, as were more than 200 women and children from a refugee camp.

Unlike in the past, it is no longer mainly the Islamist terrorists of Boko Haram who are responsible for the kidnappings, but criminal gangs.

Boko Haram, whose name translates as "Western education is sin," defends its crimes by arguing it is fighting for a caliphate in which girls in particular should be forbidden to study.

But the latest findings suggest the kidnapping of the Chibok girls was more of a coincidence during a robbery.

However the outcry worldwide brought the previously almost unknown group into the limelight. Boko Haram saw what a powerful PR tool they had, and seized thousands more girls and young women.

Some were married off to fighters or sold as slaves. Most were ransomed for money.

Now, most of the kidnappings take place in the north-west. Gangs of warlords seize farmers for forced labour or to demand ransom money from members of their families.

Bandits are also behind recent mass abductions of schoolchildren.

The abduction of Chibok girls has absolutely inspired the generation of bandits we have now," Yahuza Getso Ahmad, a security consultant in Abuja, told Semafor Africa.

Nigeria is poor, with more than one in three people living in extreme poverty on less than $2 a day, the World Bank says.

Meanwhile prices are soaring and people are plagued by shortages and crop failure, driving many into crime out of desperation.

Kidnapping people is comparatively low-risk and brings in a lot of money.

While the authorities have responded by banning ransom payments since 2022, in practice, families continue to sell off everything they have to buy back the freedom of their children. SBM, the security consultant, estimates that millions of dollars flow into the blackmailers' coffers every year.

Even if the issue of girls' education is no longer the main motive for the kidnappings, the crimes have severely impacted an entire generation.

More than half of all girls in Nigeria do not attend school. Worried parents marry girls off as early as possible to protect them from worse. Thousands of schools are closed or destroyed, according to UN Children's Fund UNICEF data from 2022.

After Chibok, the Nigerian government launched an initiative to make schools safer, partly helped by tens of millions in aid money and investments from around the world.

But it is unclear where the money is now.

"The safe school initiative that was supposed to protect schools is just on paper, nothing is being done to implement it. So there is a failure in government," says Bring Back Our Girls activist Fatimah Abba Kaka.

"They should analyse the findings of the investigation into how the abduction could take place and where the failure lay. And the government should take care of freeing the remaining girls."

Many of the women kidnapped from Chibok who were later released have returned to school or are studying. But they cannot forget what they went through to get there.

"Whenever I hear that more children have been kidnapped, I feel terrible, helpless," she says. "We are still not safe... It brings back memories of what happened to me. I can never forget being snatched from my parents, my family for so long. I pray this is not the case for those that are kidnapped."

Now 28, she is at university, studying natural and environmental sciences.

Although Nigeria is the continent's largest economy with one of the largest armies, the country is riven by corruption, soldiers are poorly paid and poorly equipped, and the police force barely exists.

The authorities are stretched by multiple crises nationwide.

One of the country's political scientists is not optimistic.

"People are so engrossed with survival that they are not bothered about government failures and those in government are happy that no one is holding them accountable," Chukwudi Victor Odoeme told dpa.

Fatima Ali was kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist militia Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria. When she refused to renounce her culture, she was forced to carry out a suicide attack, but managed to escape. Kristin Palitza/dpa
King Charles III's Funeral Plans Reportedly Updated, as He's 'Very Unwell.' Here's What We Found

On May 1, 2024, a Facebook account shared an article from its own "nostalgia enthusiasts" website claiming King Charles III's funeral plans had been updated because his battle with cancer was not going well.

The headline read: "King Charles' Funeral Plans Updated As His Cancer Prognosis Looking Grim."

Similar posts appeared on X, including on the accounts of a range of news outlets, such as the New York Post, Page Six and Insider Paper.

Together, the posts had amassed more than 5.7 million interactions, at the time of this writing.

King Charles funeral plans reportedly being updated regularly after cancer diagnosis: He is really very unwell https://t.co/ySkxhL5iRV pic.twitter.com/7JpEBcmeNF  New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2024

But the story originated from the U.S. news website The Daily Beast, according to the New York Post, and cited anonymous sources. On April 25, 2024, The Daily Beast published an exclusive article claiming the British monarch's funeral plans were being regularly updated because he is "very unwell."

The article's headline read: "King Charles' Funeral Plans Dusted Off, as His Health Remains a Mystery."

The story said:

"Officials are reviewing copies of a several-hundred-page document entitled 'Operation Menai Bridge'the codeword for King Charles' death."

Friends of the king reportedly told The Daily Beast his health is "not good," but the story also said officials would not respond to formal requests for comment. The website allegedly learned Charles' funeral plans were being regularly updated, and a document reviewing what went well following Queen Elizabeth II's death was being shared around the British government.

The story added the king was "really very unwell" and "more than they are letting on":

One old friend of the family, for example, told The Daily Beast, "Of course he is determined to beat it [cancer] and they are throwing everything at it. Everyone is staying optimistic, but he is really very unwell. More than they are letting on."

The Daily Beast also posted the article numerous times on its X account, amassing more than 144,000 views.

Snopes could not substantiate the claims made in the article due to the website's use of anonymous sources, so we contacted The Daily Beast for further information, along with Buckingham Palace and the British Cabinet Office, and will update this article if we receive a response.

The British monarch's health was the focus of another unproven rumor in March 2024, when a celebrity gossip magazine claimed Charles had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given just two years to live. The magazine's article was also based on quotes from anonymous sources.

At the time of this writing, Buckingham Palace had only issued two statements regarding the King's health since its original news release on Feb. 5, 2024. Neither mentioned his cancer diagnosis worsening or "looking grim," while the latest statement said Charles "will shortly return to public-facing duties after a period of treatment and recuperation."

On May 3, 2024, the monarch appeared at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in Windsor, Berkshire.

Sources:

'A statement from Buckingham Palace'. Royal.UK, 5 Feb. 2024, https://www.royal.uk/a-statement-from-buckingham-palace-5Feb24.

'A thank you message from His Majesty The King'. Royal.UK, 10 Feb. 2024, https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2024-02-10/a-thank-you-message-from-his-majesty-the-king.

Hardinges, Nick. 'King Charles III Was Diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, Given 2 Years To Live?' Snopes, 1 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/king-charles-pancreatic-cancer/.

'King Charles Hugged by Zara Tindall at Royal Windsor Horse Show'. BBC News, 3 May 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9rn4qeryro.

Sykes, Tom. 'King Charles' Funeral Plans Dusted Off, as His Health Remains a Mystery'. The Daily Beast, 25 Apr. 2024. www.thedailybeast.com, https://www.thedailybeast.com/king-charles-funeral-plans-dusted-off-as-his-health-remains-a-mystery.

'The King returns to public-facing duties'. Royal.UK, 26 Apr. 2024, https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2024-04-26/the-king-returns-to-public-facing-duties.

The Royal Family Channel. Cheerful King Blown-Away at Royal Windsor Horse Show. 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGJvpPKC6A.
Read on for a rundown of what's next for around 1,000 groups with royal ties

WPA Pool/Getty Queen Camilla and King Charles (then the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince of Wales) on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth in June 2022.

Buckingham Palace has announced the review of nearly 1,000 patronages and presidencies following the death of Queen Elizabeth and the accession of King Charles

Queen Elizabeth was the patron of over 400 groups when she died in September 2022

In addition to King Charles and Queen Camilla, other royal family members will also take on new royal roles

The fate of some of Queen Elizabeths many charitable causes has been revealed following her death in September 2022.

On May 3, Buckingham Palace shared a major update about the royal patronage review of the organizations that Queen Elizabeth formally supported. Its understood that the Queen was a patron of 492 groups at the time of her death and 376 will be retained by King Charles, Queen Camilla or other members of the royal family.

"Following His Majesty The Kings Accession in September 2022, a major review of more than 1,000 Royal Patronages and charity Presidencies has been undertaken. To mark the first anniversary of Their Majesties Coronation, the conclusions will be shared with relevant organizations in the coming week," the palace said in a statement, referring to the upcoming anniversary of the crowning ceremony on May 6.

In addition to retaining many of the patronages that they held before the change of reign, King Charles and Queen Camilla "are pleased to continue the patronage of a great variety of charities and organizations previously supported by Queen Elizabeth II."

"Other members of the royal family will also take on the patronage of a number of organizations previously supported by the late Queen, to add to their existing portfolios," they added.

Geoff Pugh - WPA Pool/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth at the Chelsea Flower Show on May 20, 2019 in London.

Related: King Charles Hugs Zara Tindall at Horse Show Closely Tied to Queen Elizabeth amid Cancer Treatment

The extensive review of over 1,000 patronages included organizations that King Charles, 75, and Queen Camilla, 76, were connected to as patrons or presidents when they were the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Its understood that a few of the late Prince Philips patronages were involved in the process as well.

Looking ahead, 367 of the 441 groups affiliated with King Charles before his accession will be retained by the King or other members of the royal family. Ninety-one of the 100 groups linked to Queen Camilla when she was the Duchess of Cornwall will follow the same protocol.

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Easter Mattins Service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on March 31, 2024.

Related: King Charles and Queen Camilla Presented with Official Record of Their Coronation as First Anniversary Nears

King Charles will continue supporting the Royal British Legion, the largest Armed Forces charity of the U.K., by notably stepping into the role of patron, which his late mother held from her accession in 1952 until her death. The monarch will also become patron of two Commonwealth-related organizations, Royal Commonwealth Society and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

The King will retain previous patronages highlighting causes dedicated to conservation, culture and community support, while his wife takes on several new groups from her later mother-in-law. In the shift, Queen Camila will take on the patronage of the Royal Literary Fund, Royal Academy of Dance (stepping up from her vice-patron post) and the Royal Voluntary Service, taking on the new post after serving as president.

The Queen will also become the President of the Sandringham branch of the Womens Institute, calling for a look into the different definitions of patron and president. Patrons are formal supporters whose link acknowledges the organizations achievements and helps increase public awareness of their work, while presidents may take on more direct engagement.

Its standard for the monarch to be patron rather than president, and members of the royal family are not involved with the governance or daily operations of the organizations they support.

Neil Mockford/Getty (From left) Princess Anne, Prince George, Prince Louis, Kate Middleton, Princess Charlotte, Prince William, King Charles and Queen Camilla at Trooping the Colour in June 2023.

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

The royal patronage review began following the death of Queen Elizabeth and accession of King Charles in September 2022 but isnt finished quite yet. Its understood that another round of review will take place for the patronages held through the 14 Commonwealth Realms where King Charles is similarly head of state.

While the full list of rearranged patronages remains isnt yet accessible, the announcement of one of the Kings new affiliations coincided with an emotional engagement this week.

SUZANNE PLUNKETT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images King Charles (right) speaks to Lesley Woodbridge at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London on April 30, 2024.

On April 30, the King resumed public-facing royal duties for the first time since Buckingham Palace announced he was receiving cancer treatment, where it was revealed that he is the new patron of Cancer Research U.K., taking over a post previously held by Queen Elizabeth.

During the stop, King Charles spoke with several patients and shared that he was going for treatment later that day.

"I think he was really thrilled to be out," Queen Camilla was quoted as saying the following day about her husbands enthusiastic return to public work, according to the Daily Mail.

"I've been trying to hold him back," she added.

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LONDON (Reuters) - King Charles and other senior British royals are to relinquish patronages of almost 200 charities and organisations after a review of their association with more than 1,000 groups, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.

The review was launched following the death of Queen Elizabeth to examine all the charities and bodies to which she, Charles and his wife Queen Camilla were connected, either as a president or patron.

Elizabeth was patron of 492 organisations, while Charles was affiliated to 441 and Camilla 100. Following the assessment, just over 830 have been retained by the king and queen, or passed to other members of the royal family.

Organisations are able to apply to have a royal patron who in return can provide publicity for their work and help their achievements to be widely recognised.

Among those that will retain their royal connection include the Royal British Legion, the largest armed forces charity, the Dogs Trust, the Jockey Club and the Wildlife Trusts, a grassroots nature organisation.

"His majesty has consistently demonstrated foresight, courage and leadership as he has helped communities, charities and businesses grapple with the challenges and opportunities inherent in living more sustainably and in harmony with nature," said Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts.

"It is therefore a great honour that His Majesty has agreed to continue with his patronage."

Conclusions of the review will be shared among the relevant organisations this week, which marks the first anniversary of Charles and Camilla's coronation, the palace said.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by William Maclean)
YANGON, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar police have seized 234,000 stimulant tablets in eastern Myanmar's Shan State, according to a statement from the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) on Friday.

Acting on a tip-off, anti-narcotics police searched a vehicle in the state's Nawnghkio Township on Thursday and found the drugs along with two mobile phones, arresting two suspects.

The estimated street value of the seized drugs amounts to 117 million kyats (about 55,800 U.S. dollars). 
Credit - Getty ImagesiStockphoto

Bird flu, or avian influenza, can be deadly in birds but normally doesnt infect people. While some strains have caused serious disease and even death in humans, most cause relatively mild symptoms.

In the U.S., two people have been known to be infected with avian influenza: one person in 2022, and another earlier this year. In a report published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicineamid growing concern over infections jumping from birds to cowshealth officials from the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Texas Department of State Health Services provide details on the latest human case.

According to the report, a dairy farm worker in Texas developed redness and some drainage from his right eye in late March. Because the Texas Animal Health Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had reported at the end of March that bird flu viruses were detected in two Texas and two Kansas dairy farms, veterinarians in the area were alert for symptoms of infection in sick cows and in people. A vet referred the dairy worker for testing at a Texas Department of State Health Services field office, according to a spokesperson for the department. He did not develop any fever or difficulty breathingwhich are among the potential symptoms of infectionand his vision remained normal. Dr. Scott Milton, a regional health director for the department, took swabs from the workers eyes and back of his throat, and these were analyzed at the Texas Tech Bioterrorism Response Laboratory in Lubbock, where preliminary results were positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)A and A(H5).

Read More: Is It Safe to Eat Eggs and Chicken During the Bird Flu Outbreak?

Health officials advised the man to isolate at home and prescribed the antiviral drug oseltamivir for five days to him as well as to members of his household to protect them from infection. So far, there have not been reports of sustained spread of avian influenza from person to person, but the antiviral medications were prescribed in an abundance of caution. The redness in his eyes resolved after several days, and the worker never developed any respiratory problems.

Additional analysis of the workers samples by researchers at the CDC labs in Atlanta confirmed the specific type of avian influenza involved, HPAI 2.3.4.4b A(H5N1), which has recently been detected in bird and cattle populations. Such bird flu strains generally circulate among avian species, but there have been cases of human infections reported in 23 countries over the past 20 years, according to the new report. Overall, the virus has a 50% mortality ratebut that could reflect a skewed population of people with more susceptible immune systems who are vulnerable to infection, since many cases lead to mild or no symptoms, or symptoms that aren't reported.

The strain in the dairy worker was closely related to those found in dairy cattle and birds in Texas during that time, according to the NEJM report. But the genetic analysis was a mixed bag of reassuring and concerning news. The strain that infected the dairy worker does have a change that helps it adapt to infecting mammals, including people. But it does not contain changes that would make it resistant to current antiviral treatments. The virus is also close enough to versions that researchers have used to create candidate vaccines that could be made available if the virus begins to spread from person to person, which has not happened yet.

Read More: Experts Can't Agree If We're Still in a Pandemic

Health officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continue to test milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, and beef to monitor for the virus. While about 20% of milk sold in stores contains fragments of the avian influenza virus, those viruses are not active, according to the latest FDA tests. The agency says that the pasteurization process is designed to kill viruses like HPAI, and therefore advises against consuming any unpasteurized dairy products, such as raw milk.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
What to know in Manatee: Money for preserves, homes in Lakewood Ranch, food truck reform

Faced with the steep price of purchasing land such as Rattlesnake Key, Manatee County commissioners are mulling a new ballot initiative to raise more funds for environmental land purchases.

Manatee County commissioners discussed the proposal during a public land use meeting on Thursday, where they also approved plans for more homes in Lakewood Ranch, inked a new food truck ordinance, and accommodated a new car wash on University Parkway.

Manatee County to consider a new environmental lands ballot measure

Rattlesnake Key is up for sale to private enterprise after the State of Florida pulled back on plans to purchase the lush Manatee County island to build a state park.

Manatee County commissioners are exploring a potential ballot initiative to bring more funds into efforts to purchase environmentally valuable land for conservation purposes.

Manatee County residents approved a new tax in 2020 to fund property purchases aimed at protecting environmentally valuable lands from development. The measure limited the board's bonding ability at $50 million, Commissioner George Kruse said.

More: An island in Manatee County once planned to be a state park now for sale for $75 million

Commissioners have agreed to purchase two tracts of land so far, the Crooked River Ranch and land adjacent to the Emmerson Point preserve.

They are also faced with questions after the state of Florida pulled back on plans to purchase Rattlesnake Key. The state had allocated $23 million toward the purchase of the island, with a $2.3 million match by Manatee County, but has since scrapped those plans. Legislators are instead appropriating $8 million towards the effort in this year's state budget, leaving Manatee County scrapping to fill the gap in funding for the purchase.

"We are seeing a lot of great opportunities, but they are large opportunities," Kruse said.

More conservation: Crooked River Ranch on Manatee River in Parrish receives conservation protection

Also: Manatee County to spend $16 million to protect 98 acres of waterfront from development

"These are Crooked River, these are Emerson Point, and now we are dealing with a situation with Rattlesnake Key," he said. "We are stuck because we can't even bond enough if we decided to go outside of the state, based on other commitments, and we've already bonded $35 million out of our theoretical $50 million. We're capped."

The board voted to ask staff to research and prepare a resolution to put a referendum on the ballot to raise the cap on bonding above the current $50 million cap. It would be brought to the board for consideration at a future meeting, with enough time to add a measure to the ballot during the upcoming local elections. Commissioner Jason Bearden was absent during Thursday's meeting.

More multifamily and single-family homes slated for Lakewood Ranch

Commissioners voted 5 to 0 in favor of a request by SMR Northeast LLC to rezone 84.5 acres of land from agriculture to planned development residential to accommodate 759 residential units on the northeast side of Lakewood Ranch. Those plans include 600 multifamily units, 62 single-family attached homes, and 97 single-family detached homes.

More Lakewood Ranch: Lakewood Ranch will expand in 2024 and beyond. Here's what to expect.

The property is located at the southeast corner of the Uihlein Road and SR64 intersection. There will be five access points, including one on Uihlein Road, three on Academic Avenue, and one on Lighterwood Trail. The property includes 21.25 acres of open space.

Manatee County moves to facilitate food trucks and food truck parks

County commissioners voted 5 to 0 in favor of a land development code change that facilitates food trucks and food truck parks.

The county did not previously recognize food trucks on the land development code, but the new ordinance establishes such locations where food is allowed, striping and setback requirements, utility requirements, and overnight parking limits.

New car wash slated for University Parkway

County commissioners approved preliminary site plans for a new University Carwash facility on less than an acre of land in south Manatee County off of University Parkway, at 8490 Shade Avenue. Owned by BW University Shade, LLC, the site will feature a 3,825-square-foot car wash equipped with a continuous belt, vacuums, and a drying area.

Zoning change for 5-acre property in Parrish approved

Commissioners approved a change in zoning from general agriculture to agricultural suburban for 5 acres of land at 3012 Phillips Road in Parrish. The new zoning allows for short-term agricultural and related uses while providing for areas that transition to suburban character.

Change in zoning for residential lot refunded

Commissioners approved a change in zoning for a small piece of land owned by Tibisay Josefina Perez De Osuna from Residential Single-Family 4.5 to Residential Single-Family 6. The property is located north of the 26th Avenue East and 15th Street East intersection.

The new zoning accommodates up to six residential homes on the property. The property owner requested to bring a nonconforming lot into compliance. Commissioners voted in favor of refunding costs associated with the zoning change application to the owner after expressing frustration with the need for a zoning change for the property.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: What to know in Manatee: Officials mull environmental lands referendum
Moscow has accused David Camerons of a direct escalation after the foreign secretary said Ukraine can use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin considers British foreign minister David Camerons statement about Kyivs right to use British weapons to attack Russian targets dangerous, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said. This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security.

Lord Cameron earlier promised 3 billion of annual military aid to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, adding that Britain had no objection to its weapons being used inside Russia. Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself, he said.

His comments put Britain on a more hawkish footing towards Russia - at least publicly - than the United States, which stipulates that any weapons it supplies to Ukraine should only be used within Ukraines internationally-recognised borders rather than against targets inside Russia itself.

Follow the latest updates below.

05:30 PM BST

Thats all for today

Thank you for tuning in to todays live blog. Well be back tomorrow to bring you all the latest from the war in Ukraine.

Key moments from today:

A top Kremlin official and ally of Vladimir Putin has called president Volodymyr Zelensky a bastard, halfwit and a c--t over plans for a peace conference in Switzerland.

The Latvian army has begun digging an anti-tank trench as part of its first line of defence near the Russian border, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Russia has warned it would launch a devastating revenge strike if Ukraine strikes the Kerch Bridge, which links southern Russia to the Black Sea peninsula.

Russian agents have targeted military sites in Vestland, the home of northern Europes largest naval base, Norways intelligence service has warned.

Prague has been targeted by dozens of cyberattacks launched by a group with links to Russias GRU military intelligence service, government officials said.

The fall of Chasiv Yar is only a matter of time, a Ukrainian intelligence official has warned, with Russia likely to capture the elevated stronghold within the next couple of weeks.

Germany has accused Russias GRU intelligence unit of carrying out a major cyberattack on Olaf Scholzs ruling SPD party last year which exposed email addresses and other personal data.

Russias aim is to seize Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by the end of the year, Kyivs ground forces chief has warned.

Moscow has accused Lord Cameron of making dangerous remarks that imperil European security over his support for Ukraine to use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

05:22 PM BST

Kremlin attacks bastard halfwit c--t Zelensky over peace talks

A top Kremlin official and ally of Vladimir Putin has called president Volodymyr Zelensky a bastard, halfwit and a c--t over plans for a peace conference in Switzerland.

Dmitry Medvedevs expletive-laden rant comes after Mr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that Russia is not invited to a proposed June peace summit in Switzerland as there is no assurance that Moscow will bargain in good faith. Mr Medvedev is Russias former president, put in power as a puppet for Mr Putin.



Mr Medvedevs comments echoed Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, who said on Thursday that the June gathering would not be a serious conference with serious expectations of some kind of results without Russias presence.



Despite Kyivs reservations, the countrys deputy intelligence chief has warned that Ukraine will at some point have to enter into direct talks with Russia to bring the war to an end.



Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraines HUR military intelligence service, told the Economist that such wars can only end with treaties, adding that both sides are currently jockeying for the most favourable position ahead of potential talks.

04:59 PM BST

Pictured: Aftermath of Russian shelling

A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict - Alexander Ermochenko/REUTERS

04:52 PM BST

Latvia digs trenches on Russian border

The Latvian army has begun digging an anti-tank trench as part of its first line of defence near the Russian border, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Located about a kilometre from the border, the trench forms part of a chain of defensive fortifications, including obstacles and ammunition depots, that Riga is constructing along its frontier with Russia and Belarus, LSM said.

We are digging up the road and making an anti-tank ditch here so that vehicles cannot move along this road. Including tanks, said Lieutenant Colonel Kaspars Lazdins, engineering inspector of Latvias National Armed Forces. This ditch has specified parameters, and it has the appropriate depth to fulfill its task.

Latvias anti-mobility plan makes use of natural obstacles such as forests and rivers, according to Mr Lazdins, and preserves the option for minefields to be laid if war breaks out.

It comes after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania agreed in late January to build a Baltic defense line in the coming years to strengthen the eastern border with Belarus and Russia.

04:23 PM BST

Putin spends big on defence over paranoid fear of West

Vladimir Putins paranoid fear of the West seeking to limit Russias power has led him to boost military spending to record levels, a US intelligence chief has said.

The Kremlin has increased defence spending to nearly 7 per cent of Russias GDP, almost double the historical average. Based on US national intelligence calculations, Moscows defence budget now accounts for roughly 25 per cent of all federal spending.

Putin continues to believe that Russia is under threat and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better-equipped military will convey that opinion to Western and domestic audiences, said Avril Haines, the director of US national intelligence.

Ms Haines said that Putin perceives Natos expansion and Western assistance for Ukraine as the US and Europe trying to limit Russias power, adding that Moscow is likely to continue its increasingly aggressive tactics against Ukraine, with the war unlikely to end any time soon.

04:00 PM BST

Russia promises devastating revenge if Ukraine attacks Crimean Bridge

Russia has warned it would launch a devastating revenge strike if Ukraine strikes the Kerch Bridge, which links southern Russia to the Black Sea peninsula.

Moscow said it believed that Ukraine, which has recently received long-range ATACM guided missile systems from the United States, was plotting to attack the bridge ahead of or on May 9, the day when Russia marks victory in WWII.

The Crimean Bridge is once again in the crosshairs, Maria Zakharova, Russias foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a news briefing, listing statements from Ukrainian officials that suggested the bridge is in Kyivs sights. Preparations for an attack on it, which is hard to believe, are now being carried out openly, with ostentatious bravado and with the absolute direct and shameless support of the collective West.

I would like to warn Washington and Brussels that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to fail, but will also be met with a devastating revenge strike, she said.

A Ukrainian intelligence official told the Guardian last month that Kyiv was preparing for a special operation to destroy the bridge in the first half of 2024.

03:37 PM BST

Pictured: Russia strikes Kharkiv

A firefighter at work in Kharkiv after a guided bomb explosion - SERGEY BOBOK/AFP

03:11 PM BST

Ukraine loses 200 square miles of territory in 2024

Russia has captured 211 square miles of Ukrainian territory so far this year, Sergei Shoigu, Moscows defence minister, has claimed.

Speaking to senior military commanders, Mr Shoigu said Ukrainian forces were retreating all along the front line and Russian troops were breaking what he called a network of Ukrainian strongholds.

The Ukrainian army units are trying to cling on to individual lines, but under our onslaught they are forced to abandon their positions and retreat, he said.

Over the past two weeks, the Russian Armed Forces have liberated the settlements of Novobakhmutivka, Semenivka and Berdychi in the Donetsk Peoples Republic, the Russian name for one of four annexed Ukrainian regions.

It comes as Ukraines ground commander said Russia is intent on seizing three Ukrainian territories, in Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, by the end of the year, a land mass of nearly 370 square miles.

02:50 PM BST

Russian spies target northern Europes largest naval base

Russian agents have targeted military sites in Vestland, the home of northern Europes largest naval base, Norways intelligence service has warned.

We see that part of Russias purpose may be to prepare acts of sabotage. They operate throughout the district and move around, said Torgils Lutro, the Vestland head of Norways PST intelligence service.

Russian intelligence agents work against various targets, such as critical and vulnerable infrastructure and military installations. They also have a clear goal of uncovering Norwegian emergency preparedness routines.

The region is home to a naval base at Haakonsvern as well as energy infrastructure such as the power plants and oil and gas facilities.

The intelligence service told NRK, Norways state-owned media outlet, that it had exposed Russian agents, but did not say how many.

02:28 PM BST

Russian hackers launch dozens of attacks against Czech Republic

Prague has been targeted by dozens of cyberattacks launched by a group with links to Russias GRU military intelligence service, government officials said.

The Czech foreign ministry blamed the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, for the attacks, citing the mode of operation and the focus of these attacks.

Some Czech institutions have... been the target of cyberattacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023, said a ministry statement.

It comes after Berlin officials said that the same notorious hacking group had carried out a cyberattack on members of the ruling Social Democratic Party in 2023.

Vit Rakusan, the Czech interior minister, said his countrys infrastructure had recently experienced higher dozens of such attacks.

The attacks were orchestrated by the Russian Federation and its military intelligence service GRU, Mr Rakusan told reporters at a news conference with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.

01:55 PM BST

Pictured: Russia gears up for Victory Day celebrations

Russians hold a giant replica of the victory banner as they attend an event commemorating victory in WWII near the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow - EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

Russian soldiers march during an event commemorating victory in WWII near the Museum of the Great Patriotic War - YURI KOCHETKOV/EPA-EFE

01:14 PM BST

Fall of key hill city Chasiv Yar a matter of time Kyiv admits

The fall of Chasiv Yar is only a matter of time, a Ukrainian intelligence official has warned, with Russia likely to capture the elevated stronghold within the next couple of weeks.

Asked when Moscow might seize the city, Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraines defence intelligence, said: Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies.

Mr Skibitsky told the Economist that the Russian army is under orders to take something in time for Victory Day celebrations on May 9, or, failing that, before Vladimir Putins visit to Beijing a week later.



A Ukrainian military commander who spoke to the Telegraph last week warned that the loss of Chasiv Yar would pave the way for Russia to capture the rest of the Donetsk region.

01:09 PM BST

Five dead in Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russian attacks against Ukraine killed five people and injured 17 over the past day, regional authorities reported.

In Donetsk, two people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, Vadym Filashkin, the governor, reported, as Russia carried out strikes across eight Ukrainian regions.

Strikes on town and villages in the region killed two more and injured four others, the head of the regional military administration said.

In Kharkiv, one man was killed and 10 people injured, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor. Meanwhile in Kherson, Russia struck 14 settlements over the past day, injuring one person, the regional governor reported.

12:40 PM BST

Russia hacks emails of Germanys ruling party

Germany has accused Russias GRU intelligence unit of carrying out a major cyberattack on Olaf Scholzs ruling SPD party last year which exposed email addresses and other personal data.

Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, told reporters in Australia that the GRU-controlled hacking organisation APT28 was behind the intolerable attack, vowing that there would be consequences.

Today we can say unambiguously... we can attribute this cyber attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia, Ms Baerbock said, describing it as a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany. This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences, she added.

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock speaks during a ceremony - MICHAEL ERREY/REUTERS

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, is a notorious hacking group which has previously targeted Pussy Riot, Nato and US defence firms. Ms Baerbock did not provide further details of the attack, but German media last year reported that an SPD executive had been targeted in a cyber-attack in January, resulting in possible data exposure. The EUs computer security response unit CERT-EU said there were concrete signs the attack came from Russia.

It is the latest embarrassing incident of Germany falling victim to Moscow hacking, after Russian media in March published an audio recording of a meeting between senior German military officials,

12:17 PM BST

Kyiv launches cyberattack on Russia

Ukraine has launched a large-scale cyberattack in Russias Tatarstan region, a military intelligence source said.

The attack blocked internet providers and mobile operators in Kazan, Russias fifth largest city, the agency source told the Kyiv Independent, with Ukrainian media reporting that Alabuga, the site of an alleged Shahed-type drone factory, was the main target.

The press service for Tattelecom, one of the largest telecommunications operators in Russia, said that it was the biggest cyberattack Ukraine has mounted on its networks to date.

It comes after Ukraine last month launched strikes on drone factories in the Tartasan cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk. located about 800 miles inside Russia, according to Ukraines military intelligence.

11:51 AM BST

Russia aims to capture three key Ukrainian regions by end of 2024, says Kyiv

Russias aim is to seize Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by the end of the year, Kyivs ground forces chief has warned.

Russias main goal remains to destroy Ukraine as a nation, said Oleksandr Pavliuk, who in February took over from Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraines military chief, as ground forces commander.

But as we havent given them that opportunity since 2022, we believe the goals the Russians set for themselves this year are the complete occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and, if they are successful there, the Zaporizhzhia region.

First on Russias list of targets is the Donetsk hilltop stronghold of Chasiv Yar, which reports suggest it intends to capture in time for Russian Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9, the commander told the Times. But the Russians have a 10-to-one ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority.

Mr Pavliuk echoed previous warnings from Kyiv that Russia is maximising its gains ahead of the arrival of US weapons, after Congress last month passed a $61 billion aid package following months of delays.

We will do everything we can to prevent a Russian breakthrough, and we hope that the American weaponry will help us, said Mr Pavliuk. If it had arrived in time, we would not have lost the territories that we have lost in the last few months.

11:27 AM BST

Ukrainian agent plotting terror attacks killed, claims Moscow

Moscows FSB security service said it had killed a man recruited by Ukraine to blow up military buildings and energy sites in key Russian cities, state media reported.

The FSB said it has neutralised a man who had planned to commit a series of terrorist acts in Russia, an FSB statement said.

These, it said, included attacks against defence ministry facilities in the Moscow region and against members of a volunteer battalion and a volunteer centre in Saint Petersburg.

Footage of the alleged incident puyblished by RIA Novosti shows an apparent firefight between FSB agents and the suspect in the Leningrad region.

The man is seen running into a concrete bunker in a field before armed FSB agents surround it and open fire. The video then shows a photo of his dead body inside the bunker, with a pistol lying by his hand.

The FSB said he was a Russian citizen, born in 1976, who had been recruited by Ukraines GUR military intelligence unit.

It said he had previously managed to flee when the FSB tried to detain him in the Moscow region, abandoning a car containing grenades, a pistol, a hunting rifle and equipment for making home-made bombs.

The man was planning to attack a fuel depot in the Leningrad region, the FSB alleged.

11:03 AM BST

Kremlin accuses Lord Cameron of direct escalation

Moscow has accused Lord Cameron of making dangerous remarks that imperil European security over his support for Ukraine to use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The Kremlin considers British foreign minister David Camerons statement about Kyivs right to use British weapons to attack Russian targets dangerous, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said.

This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security.

Moscow also rebuked Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who, in an interview with the Economist, refused to rule out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.

This is a very important and very dangerous statement, Mr Peskov told a briefing. France, through its head of state, keeps talking about the possibility of its direct, on-the-ground involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

10:54 AM BST

Pictured: Lord Cameron sits down with president Zelensky

Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, meeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv - PA

10:40 AM BST

Lord Cameron: Ukraine has right to defend itself with British weapons

Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to strike inside of Russia, Lord Cameron has said, writes Albert Tait.

The Foreign Secretary, who has visited Kyiv and met with president Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was Ukraines right to decide whether to do so.

He said: Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure its defending itself.

Lord Camerons visit on Thursday follows the Governments announcement that it will commit to at least 3 billion a year in military support to Ukraine.

Read the full report here.

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.
Kremlin concerned over Macron and Cameron's statements on Western troops in Ukraine and attacks on Russia

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's press secretary, has stated that the Kremlin was concerned about the latest statements by the French president and the UK Foreign Secretary regarding the possible presence of Western troops in Ukraine and UK weapons strikes on Russian Federation territory, calling them "dangerous" and "escalating tension."

Source: Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti

Quote: "Another extremely risky statement. We observe similar rhetorical escalation on the side of official representatives, at the level of heads of state in France, and at a more expert level in the United Kingdom.

Details: The Kremlin spokesman stated that it was causing a "direct escalation of tensions" in the Ukraine conflict. He warned that this might "pose a danger to European security, the entire architecture of European security."

"Here is a concerning trend of growing tensions in the official's statement that we kept track of. This makes us concerned," said Peskov.

Background:

France's President Emmanuel Macron stated that he did not change his opinion on the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. He considers such an approach correct and said that if the Russians break through the line of contact and Ukraine requests help, it is worth considering.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Reuters that Ukraine has the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets in Russia.

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The centennial of Michigans influential Kresge Foundation is celebrated in the Detroit Historical Museums newest exhibition, Kresge at 100: A Century of Impact, a Future of Opportunity, opening Saturday, May 4.

The exhibition is spread across two separate galleries of the museums lower level, including Wrigley Hall, a wing built in the 1960s with support from the Kresge Foundation. The main exhibit highlights two separate (yet intertwined) timelines: Kresges five-and-dime store and lunch counter, so successful that it eventually grew into retail behemoth K-Mart; and programs launched and supported by the Kresge Foundation, created from the retail companys great financial success.

Though the foundation initially spread its attention and grant funding around the country, supporting a number of issues and causes, in the latter half of the 20th century, its focus began tightening more and more around the city of Detroit.

Jennifer Kulczycki, the Kresge Foundation's director of external affairs and communications, talks about some of the foundation's history for the Kresge at 100 exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum in Detroit on Thu., May 2, 2024.

In 1990, Zeev Chafets wrote this book called Devils Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit,' said Kresge Foundation spokesperson Jennifer Kulczycki. He wrote this book, and had an excerpt in the New York Times Magazine, and it painted a grim picture of the city. Its a difficult read. But it painted this dire image  like, no hope. You hear these apocalypse narratives  it really was that. It was devastating. And one of our board members came into a board meeting and said, This is happening right under our noses  we have to do something about it. And so the foundation, throughout the 90s, began to really focus on Detroit."

The foundation called its new focus on local investment "The Detroit Initiative."

Thats how Campus Martius, the riverfront, Eastern Market, lots and lots of what we now know as jewels of the city  they were in various states of city ownership or disrepair or at the risk of being torn down  started getting investments from Kresge and other partners in the community," Kulczycki said. "That book really lit a fire.

In 2006, current foundation President and CEO Rip Rapson came to Detroit to take the reins and transition the organization into the modern era.

Kresge store merchandise sits in a display for the Kresge at 100 exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum in Detroit on Thu., May 2, 2024.

Wed been doing things kind of the same way for 80 years, Kulczycki said. The board chair said it was time to take $4 billion out for a ride. Lets do something new. So, with full respect for the past, they let Rip lead lots and lots of years of work to really try to focus on moving from capital challenge grants into something more specific. And thats when a lot of things started to happen. Its the late 2000s, post-Super Bowl, and people are starting to say, Maybe there is something here in Detroit.

Rapson said the Kresge Foundations reputation for identifying worthwhile sources and causes in the philanthropy field had grown to the point where other philanthropic organizations began turning to them for guidance.

I got a call very early on from the Gates Foundation, saying, Well, were interested in investing in a medical center, Rapson told the Free Press. I said, Thats interesting. Would you like to see our due diligence? Or, what would you like? They said, No, we just want to know whether you approve. Pardon me  a $40 billion foundation wants to figure out whether we approve? They said, Yeah, I mean, you have this reputation.

Still, Rapson felt the urge to move the organization away from capital work and into more deeply community-driving initiatives.

How do you position cities for the future? Its a really complicated proposition, he said. The ambition was to create a philanthropic organization that was able to both cite what many cities have in common  issues of poverty, opportunity, basic building blocks of health and vitality  and yet continually adapt to what we know will be the sort of cascades of struggle and complexity. COVID, bankruptcies, racial reconciliation  all of these things, you dont put into a strategic plan.

The Kresge Foundation president and CEO Rip Rapson talks about the history of the foundation as part of the Kresge at 100 exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum in Detroit on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

So, in many ways, I think the objective was to try to help create this kind of machinery that could be both constant in its focus on cities, but also adaptable in terms of the kinds of changes that cities are always facing.

Asked about the foundations greatest accomplishments, Rapsons answer was quick:

Our help, he said, in getting Detroit back on its feet, and on a trajectory of health and vitality over the long term. And not just in the bankruptcy, but before the bankruptcy, when we were helping the community to develop a land use plan, a future city plan, a more vibrant arts ecology, when we were creating a light rail project, when we were moving to revitalize the corridor. The role we played in the Grand Bargain, and then after the bankruptcy, helping Mayor Duggan sort of put Detroit back on a pathway to health, collect its assets and move forward in a positive way.

And I think weve played a significant role in that, from the riverfront to Campus Martius to our neighborhood policies, everything in between.

Rapsons personal proudest accomplishment, however, is somewhat different.

I think, in many ways, the proudest accomplishment is to create an institution of enduring value, and of enduring purpose, focused on how we can help both cities and people of marginalized opportunity move into a better place to become more healthy, help open the gateways of opportunity to low-income and low-wealth people. For me, the creation of an organization that can continually adapt, continually turn around and pivot toward the most important and difficult issues a city faces is really, in my mind, the proudest thing that we have achieved over the last 20 years.

A scene for the Kresge at 100 exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum in Detroit on Thu., May 2, 2024.

Were very proud of our roots in Detroit; we take enormous pride in having helped get the city back into positive territory. But we also know thats not the end of the story. Not only will Detroit see new challenges in the future where we hope we can be of service, but so will other cities across the country. Thats a really complicated proposition, and thats why I think having a centennial moment is such an important waystation  for us to think really hard about that. Are we building the kind of responsiveness and adaptivity that we need in order to be effective in the future?

Kresge at 100: A Century of Impact, a Future of Opportunity opens to the public with free admission to the Detroit Historical Museum on Saturday, May 4. The exhibit will be open until Jan. 31, 2025. The Kresge Foundation is also sponsoring free admission on the second Sunday of every month during the run of the exhibition, beginning June 9 and running through Jan. 12, 2025.

Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 100 years of Kresge explored in Detroit Historical Museum exhibit
After creating a stir by revealing that she killed her pet dog, Kristi Noem has now been caught in a lie claiming to meet world leaders, in new details released from her upcoming book.

In No Going Back: The Truth on Whats Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, the South Dakota governor claims she met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during her tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, which lasted from 2013 to 2015, while she served in Congress. She also says she canceled a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron last year.

But, The Dakota Scout reported Thursday, neither of these supposed instances have records or outside sources to back them. Macrons office told the Scout that there was never a meeting scheduled with Noem, and there are no congressional travel documents that indicate Noem met Kim. In fact, a meeting with the North Korean dictator was news to congressional staffers.

Its bullshit, said a House Armed Services Committee staff member who worked there during the period in which Noem says she met Kim. According to the Scout, that staff member was one of a dozen who had no knowledge of such a meeting or said Noem never mentioned it. Her book uses that meeting to inflate her leadership skills.

Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, she wrote, I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Im sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (Id been a childrens pastor, after all). Dealing with foreign leaders takes resolve, preparation and determination. My experiences on those many foreign trips made me a better member of Congress and a stronger governor. It allowed me to hone my deal-making skills, which play a crucial role in leadership.

Noems claim to have canceled a meeting with Macron coincided with a trip she made to France, according to her book.

While in Paris, I was slated to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, Noem wrote. However, the day before we were to meet he made what I considered a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press. So, I decided to cancel. There is no place for pro-Hamas rhetoric.

While the Scout confirmed with the French presidents office that a direct invitation was not made to Noem, she could have been scheduled to speak at a political event where Macron was also scheduled. On November 10, Noem spoke at an event on the same day that Macron called for a cease-fire in Israels bombardment of Gaza.

Noems book is scheduled to be released on May 7. The revelation last month that she killed her pet puppy after it killed livestock led to widespread criticism, even from within the Republican Party. Noem has only doubled down, drawing even more ire.

The move is said to have hurt her chances of becoming Donald Trumps running mate, which no doubt stings, given how unpopular Noem already is at home. Several Native tribes in her state have banned her from their land for racist comments.
Kristi Noem has repeatedly affirmed that yes, she actually did murder her 14-month-old dog  but that doesnt mean the South Dakota governors upcoming memoir, No Going Back, isnt full of easily disprovable lies.

According to The Dakota Scout, which obtained a copy of the book, Noem claims that as a member of Congress, she met with elusive North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders, Noem wrote. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Im sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (Id been a childrens pastor, after all).

She added that such meetings with foreign leaders take resolve, preparation and determination.

Noem served as a representative for South Dakota between 2011 and 2019, her tenure on the House Armed Services Committee lasted two years,between 2013-2015. While Noem did take a trip to China with the committee in 2014, according to a North Korean expert interviewed by The Dakota Scout  Kim did not leave North Korea until 2018, almost a decade after assuming leadership of the nation.

The governors office all but conceded that no such meeting happened in a statement to Politico on Friday. Weve been made aware that the publisher will be addressing conflated world leaders names in the book before it is released, Noem spokesperson Ian Fury told the publication.

Its difficult to believe that Noem confused Kim Jong Un with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but an imagined meeting with one of the worlds most notorious dictators isnt the only international anecdote she may have fabricated.

While in Paris, I was slated to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, Noem also writes. However, the day before we were to meet he made what I considered a very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press. So, I decided to cancel. There is no place for pro-Hamas rhetoric.

According to conversations between The Dakota Scout and Macrons office, Noem at no point had a direct invitation to a meeting with the French president and there was no scheduled event involving the two on his calendar. Marcons office conceded to the Scout that Noem could have planned to attend an event where Macron was also present.

In another anecdote reviewed by Politico, Noem accused former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley of threatening her in a phone call shortly after Noems election as governor.

Noem recounts Haley  who previously served as governor of South Carolina  offering to mentor her during the phone call, and telling her that shed heard many good things about you. But when I do hear bad things, I will make sure that you know.

Im pretty sure I was just threatened by Nikki Haley. It was clear that she wanted me to know that there was only room for one Republican woman in the spotlight. It was weird, Noem wrote. Unsurprisingly, I never received any calls or mentoring from her, but the message was clear. Im the alpha female here, and you should know your place. I actually felt a little sad for her, she added.

A spokesperson for Haley denied that the former ambassador ever threatened Noem. Nikki has long called and written notes supporting other women when they go through challenging times, Haley spokesperson Chaney Denton told Politico. She called Governor Noem in 2020 to encourage her when she was criticized for keeping her state open during Covid. How she would twist that into a threat is just plain weird.

Despite the myriad issues plaguing Noems upcoming book  from puppy killing to invented anecdotes  the governor seems committed to seeing this misguided endeavor through to its expected publication later this month. Noem is scheduled (for real this time) to appear on CBS this Sunday to promote the book.

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Sen. Roger Marshall on Thursday claimed a congressional push to combat antisemitism violates Christian scripture.

A bill that overwhelmingly passed the House by a 320-91 vote Wednesday evening would require the Department of Educations division of civil rights to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism when investigating discrimination claims on campuses that receive federal funding.

That definition cites claims of Jews killing Jesus as an example of classic antisemitism, which sparked opposition from some conservative Republicans.

Religious leaders back home are very concerned about some of the language in that bill, that it pushes against what the scripture said, Marshall said. Obviously as a born again Christian I believe that the Holy Bible is the word of God. I think that were not supposed to alter the word. So Im just guessing the House overlooked something.

Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said Thursday that he opposes antisemitism, but if the bill comes up for a vote in the Senate he would offer an amendment that would strike the language.

The notion that Jewish people were responsible for Jesus crucifixion has been a source of tension between Jews and Christians for centuries, but has been rejected by historians. The Catholic Church disavowed the belief in 1965 and Pope Benedict XVI declared in 2011 that there was no scriptural evidence to back the claim.

But some Christians maintain the belief.

Antisemitism is wrong, but this legislation is written without regard for the Constitution, common sense, or even the common understanding of the meaning of words, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican, wrote on social media. The Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism under the terms of this bill!

The bill was written in response to protests on college campuses across the country, including the University of Kansas. Students have set up encampments in protest of Israels response to the Hamas attack on October 7. Several student groups have called on their colleges to divest from any endowment investments related to Israel.

President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the protests in a speech, saying he supported the students right to peacefully protest, but opposed violence, vandalism and trespassing that disrupt other students ability to learn  a day after protesters at Columbia University barricaded themselves inside a campus building.

In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isnt a moment for politics. Its a moment for clarity, Biden said. So, let me be clear. Peaceful protest in America  violent protest is not protected; peaceful protest is. Its against the law when violence occurs.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who has called on Biden to send the National Guard to break up the protests, a decision typically made by state officials, criticized Biden for not denouncing the protesters more forcefully.

These people are pro-terrorists, Hawley said. They want to kill Jews. And they are a moral embarrassment to the universities and this country. You should just say it.

Several Democrats in the House voted against the bill under the belief that it curbed constitutionally protected speech by limiting criticism of Israel. Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who is Jewish, said he has spent most of his life fighting antisemitism, but urged his colleagues to oppose the bill.

This bill threatens to chill constitutionally protected speech, Nadler said. Speech that is critical of Israelalonedoes not constitute unlawful discrimination.

It is unclear whether Sen. Chuck Schumer will bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate.

How they voted

Heres how Kansas House members voted on the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023, which would require the Department of Educations civil rights division to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism when investigating discrimination cases on college campuses.

Rep. Sharice Davids (D)  Yes

Rep. Ron Estes (R)  Yes

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R)  Yes

Rep. Tracey Mann (R)  Yes
Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.



If it were possible to calculate the percentage of St. Cloud residents who have personally met their mayor, and compare it to the percentage of residents of other medium-sized Minnesota cities who have met theirs, it's likely that St. Cloud would come out on top. The same would be true if you could measure the percentage of residents who have been to the mayor's house for dinner. Or who have the mayor's cellphone number.

The people of St. Cloud have enjoyed exceptionally easy access to their top elected official for nearly 20 years, which says less about them than it does about Dave Kleis, their mayor. By his own count, Kleis has held 987 town hall meetings since becoming mayor in 2005, and he figures to break 1,000 sometime this summer. Then in January, he plans to swear in his replacement.

After a string of successful re-election campaigns, Kleis announced last month that he does not plan to seek another term. It's a safe bet that the next mayor will find his example tough to follow.

Kleis, the longest-serving mayor in St. Cloud's history, told an editorial writer this week that the key to his governing style is the making and nurturing of relationships. That's an approach he learned when he served as a Republican in the state Senate, from 1995 to 2005. "I had really good friendships with folks on both sides of the aisle," he said. "It was all about policy, but you built relationships."

"Relationships were part of the key to success, so when I became mayor, it was even more important in an executive role to build relationships," he said. "You really can't govern unless you know people.  That's why I do all the town-hall meetings. That's why I do the dinners with strangers."

"Dinners with strangers" is just what it sounds like. People who don't already know the mayor can sign up to attend a monthly dinner at his home. He makes chili. If the weather is good, he and his guests eat on the deck. "We have great conversations," Kleis said.

For an example of how such relationships can prove useful, he pointed to the aftermath of stabbings at the Crossroads Center mall in 2016, when a young Somali-American wounded at least 10 people before being killed by an off-duty police officer. "Anywhere in the country, you could take that same situation and it would have created a riot," Kleis said.

"I had the cellphone numbers of all the individuals I needed to talk to. They had my number. I spent hours on the phone that night, talking to folks from the East African community, the NAACP, our community policing folks," he recalled. "That was because of the relationships, that we didn't have a riot and a breakdown.  You build trust with relationships."

There is a downside, though, to being perpetually available to his constituents: It's been decades since Kleis has had a real break. He has traveled, he says, but because of technology he has never been able to disconnect fully from his job.

"In mid-January, as soon as my official duties are done and the new mayor is settled in and comfortable in that position  and I'll do everything I can to help with a great transition, whoever that may be  I'll be taking a very long vacation," he said, laughing. "Without a cellphone, or at least without a cellphone that's connected to email."

Although he will be leaving the mayor's office, he is not retiring. Kleis, 60, still runs a driver's education business. He has in mind a book that he'd like to write. And though he said he has "no thought" of running for elective office again, he wants to remain involved in serving the public in some way.

"I believe service is lifelong," he said. Good for him.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba marked the positive dynamics in the development of Ukrainian-Polish relations after a call with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski on May 2, according to the statement on Ukraine's Foreign Ministry's website.

In late April, the Polish protestors stopped the blockade along the entire Polish-Ukrainian border. The blockade started in February in protest of Ukrainian agricultural imports and the EU's Green Deal.

The protests led to the deterioration of the relations between Kyiv and Warsaw due to the resulting economic pressure on Ukraine amid the full-scale war with Russia. Some of the protestors spilled grain on several occasions and displayed anti-Ukrainian posters, sparking outrage in Ukraine.

"During our conversation, Radoslaw Sikorski and I noted the positive dynamics in Ukrainian-Polish bilateral relations," Kuleba said.

Kuleba and Sikorski also discussed the bolstering of Ukraine's air defense, as well as Kyiv's 10-point peace formula, according to the Ukrainian minister.

Previously, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that one of the main priorities of Poland's EU presidency next year will be the accession efforts of Ukraine, Moldova, and Western Balkan countries.

The Polish government has also backed the draft amendments to the law on Ukrainian refugees, extending their protection status until September 2025, in addition to several changes.

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.
Palestinian students take part in outdoor activities at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months.

"It's too hard for our students to continue education due to the war. They also cannot meet their classmates, which would have affected their psychological states negatively," said Badreia.

Currently living in a refugee camp with more than 2,000 children, Badreia often saw teenagers playing in the streets without having any positive activities that would develop their characters.

What's worse, they were sometimes involved in quarrels or even violence, partly due to the psychological pressure caused by the long-time exposure to the war, he added.

As the sign of an end to the war is yet to loom, children "will absolutely suffer from the consequences" of the prolonged crisis, the teacher said.

This was why he decided, together with about 20 other displaced teachers in the refugee camp, to establish a school themselves with tents being its classrooms.

Maths, Arabic, Science, and the Holy Quran are among the curriculums delivered. After launching a fundraising campaign and with the help of the Palestinian Ministry of Education, they returned the students to school.

"Despite the lack of equipment, I am so happy to return to classrooms," Neama Abu Hajjaj, a Palestinian student in the seventh grade at the school, told Xinhua.

"It is amazing to have new teachers, but I do not know if my former teacher is still alive or not," Abu Hajjaj said, expressing her hope to return to her house, neighborhood, school, and normal life as soon as possible. Until then, she said, "I will enjoy my current educational life."

The same happiness is experienced by Shahd al-Amasi, another student from the Gaza Strip. "I am so glad to return to school and write in my notebooks once again. I missed my lessons, friends, and teachers."

Both Abu Hajjaj and al-Amasi were among the 300 female students who went to the school three days a week, while the rest 300 male students went to the school for the other three days, according to Badreiah.

"Despite that for now they will not get any certifications, the students will be learning until there's a solution to the education problem in Gaza," he said.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

The ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza have resulted in extensive casualties and damages, with the Palestinian death toll rising to over 34,000, according to the Gaza health authorities, which noted that out of the total deaths, there were 3,700 students and 200 teachers.

Meanwhile, the Gaza education authorities said at least 352 local schools were damaged by the Israeli attacks, while the rest of them were turned into shelters for the displaced people. 

Palestinian students attend a class at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian students attend a class at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian students are seen in a classroom at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian students are seen in a classroom at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian students attend a class at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian students are seen in a classroom at a tent school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
On May 5, Orthodox Easter in Ukraine, security measures will be intensified in Kyiv.

Local authorities are urging residents to follow the service online rather than attending church due to security concerns, according to a statement from the city's military administration.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration (KMVA), emphasized the potential for increased missile provocations by the Russian military on such occasions.

Do not forget that the country is at war, he said via Telegram. Even on such bright days of celebration, we can expect evil deeds from the aggressor - the threat of rocket attacks has not been lifted.

The Easter curfew from midnight to 05:00 will remain in place, with over 23,000 law enforcement officers tasked with maintaining order and monitoring the situation.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Ukraine celebrates Orthodox Easter under Russian bombardment

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Labour on Course for Power: Five Takeaways From UK Elections

(Bloomberg) -- The governing Conservatives suffered heavy defeats in a set of local elections on Thursday, adding to the sense that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will struggle to turn things around before a general election that he must hold within nine months.

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Keir Starmers opposition Labour Party made some eye-catching gains, taking control of councils in Thurrock, Hartlepool and Rushmoor, winning the mayoralty of York and North Yorkshire  which includes Sunaks constituency  and emerging victorious in the Blackpool South parliamentary constituency on a huge swing from the Tories.

The Conservatives had lost 473 council seats by Saturday afternoon, almost half of the ones they were defending, while there were gains for Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and independent candidates. Here are five key takeaways from what weve seen:

1. Heavy Tories losses suggest polls are right

This set of elections results were bad for the Tories by any measure, suggesting opinion polls showing Labour far ahead are broadly accurate and translating into real votes.

Its one of the Conservatives worst performances in 40 years of following local elections, John Curtice, the polling guru and politics professor, told Bloomberg Radio.

One Tory official privately conceded that if the results are repeated at the general election, they imply a defeat not far from the scale of Tony Blairs landslide Labour victory in 1997, which gave him a majority of 179 seats.

However one glimmer for Sunak came in the BBCs projected national vote share putting Labour on 34% in a general election, and the Tories on 25%. While thats still a 9-point deficit, its significantly lower than the 26-point lag in the latest YouGov poll. While Sky produced a similar projection, pollsters warned against extrapolating national results from local elections.

2 Even so, Sunak is safe as Tory leader for now

Right-wing Conservative rebels had seen these elections as their last chance of mounting a coup to replace Sunak before the general election. They have now given up on that, people involved in the discussions told Bloomberg.

The plotters had sought to strike if the Tories performed worse than already-low expectations. However, with Ben Houchen holding onto his Tees Valley mayoralty, and Labour failing to take a target council in Harlow in Essex, Tories would be unlikely to support a move to replace Sunak, one rebel said. Instead, Sunaks internal critics would likely leave him to own a general election defeat, they suggested.

3. Labour is rebuilding its red wall on path to power

There were plenty of signals that Labour is winning back the voters it needs to form a government.

It won the by-election in Blackpool on a 26% swing, reclaiming a bellwether seat in the so-called red wall of traditionally Labour areas which fell to the Tories in 2019. Thats the third-largest Tory-to-Labour shift since the World War II, putting Starmer firmly on course for Downing Street if replicated in a national vote.

The party also won the mayoral race in York and North Yorkshire, Sunaks back yard, and took control of councils in areas that will be key general election battlegrounds. They included Milton Keynes, which turned red for the first time this century, Rushmoor  which it won for the first time ever, as well as Redditch and Thurrock.

Another win, in Hartlepool, was hugely symbolic for Starmer, who nearly resigned after Labour lost a by-election there in 2021.

4. Reform is a spoiler not a challenger

The rise in the polls over recent months of Reform UK has rattled the nerves of Tory MPs who see the right-wing party founded by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as a threat.

The Blackpool South result in particular suggested their concerns are well placed: reform UK came just 117 votes shy of beating the Tories into second place. However, it served only to eat into the Tory vote, and the governing party would have lost even with all of Reforms votes. In council votes, Reform made little impact even in areas where it stood a full slate of candidates.

Reform are not doing well, on any measure, said politics professor Rob Ford, suggesting the party had proved to be a paper tiger. Reforms performance may spark calls from within the party for Farage to return to front-line politics as its leader, something he has been coy about as he prioritizes his TV career and cheer-leading Donald Trumps US presidential run.

5. Starmers Gaza stance is costing Labour votes

Fridays results werent a clean sweep for Labour, in part because voters in some areas with large Muslim populations appeared to withhold support over the opposition partys stance on the war in Gaza.

Starmer has faced criticism for taking months to call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and for appearing to back Israels right to cut off power and water from Gaza in an interview in October. He has since backed away from those remarks.

Support for Labour had fallen by eight percentage points since last year in wards where more than 10% of residents identify as Muslim, according to Curtice. Ford said the Green Party had been a big beneficiary in areas where Labours vote had suffered.

We are being sent a message about Gaza and must listen, understand, and act, former Tony Blair adviser and Labour strategist John McTernan said.

Still, Sadiq Khans strong performance in the London Mayoral election, in which the Labour incumbent increased his vote share over his previous victory in 2021, may put to rest concerns that Labour is suffering from its position on the Middle East.

--With assistance from Isabella Ward.

(Updates with results as of Saturday afternoon)

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(Bloomberg) -- Labours strong performance in local elections across England and Wales was dented as voters in some areas with large Muslim populations appeared to withhold support over the opposition partys stance on the war in Gaza.

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Keir Starmers party notably lost control of the council in the Manchester suburb of Oldham  a traditionally Labour area where two of the partys councilors quit last month to become independents, citing its Gaza policy. That undercut an otherwise impressive string of early results for Starmer, whose party won a vacant parliamentary seat in Blackpool South and took control of councils in Thurrock, Hartlepool and Rushmoor.

The result will bolster arguments from some in Labour that Starmer should adopt a more critical stance toward Israels military action against Hamas to rebuild unity before a general election expected later this year. Starmer has so far hewed closely to Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks policy on Gaza, calling for a ceasefire while stopping short of urging Israel to withdraw unilaterally.

The result was the latest illustration of the challenge facing Western political leaders as they attempt to maintain support for Israel, which launched its operations after Hamas led an attack on the country on Oct. 7 that killed around 1,200 Israelis. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, according to authorities to Hamas, which the UK considers a terrorist organization.

In France, a socialist candidate for EU elections in June had to be evacuated from a Labour Day rally in St-Etienne after protesters threw paint at him over what they believed was his too accommodating stance toward Israel. In the US, a wave of university protests have highlighted the risk that dissatisfaction with President Joseph Bidens Gaza policy could suppress Democratic turnout in places such as the key swing state of Michigan.

British political scientist John Curtice told the BBC early Friday that support for Labour had fallen by eight percentage points since last year in wards where more than 10% of residents identify as Muslim. In March, left-wing disrupter George Galloway won a seat in the UK parliament in a special election in Rochdale, another area with many Muslim voters, after campaigning on calling for an end to the conflict.

Starmer has sought to distance himself from the anti-Semitism accusations that dogged Labour under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, as he attempts to show the Labour Party has moved closer to the political center. Still, more than half of 2019 Labour voters thought that Starmer had handled his response to war in Gaza somewhat badly, according to a YouGov poll of 496 voters in early March.

The Labour leader, who would be on course to be Britains next prime minister if he can replicate the partys performance this week in the upcoming general election, acknowledged on Friday that the Gaza issue was a concern. There are some places where thats a very strong factor and I understand that, respect that, he told Sky News, adding that such sentiment would not shut out the fact that this is a really good set of results for the Labour Party.

Labours chances of winning the West Midlands mayoral election could also be impacted by voters critical of its position on the Middle East, Conservative peer and pollster Robert Hayward told Bloomberg last week. The result of that election is expected on Saturday.

--With assistance from Samy Adghirni.

(Updates with French, US incidents in fifth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) -- Labour won back a bellwether parliamentary seat from Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks Conservatives in northwest England, as early local election results suggested the UKs main opposition party is gathering pace in its efforts to return to power.

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Labours Chris Webb won 58.9% of ballots cast, in an election for the red wall seat in Blackpool triggered after the Tory MP resigned in scandal. The result exposed deeper problems for the Tories as they barely held onto second place, securing just 117 more votes than the populist Reform UK party founded by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.

It represented a 26% swing from the Conservatives to Labour, the third-largest Tory-to-Labour shift since World War II. It follows similarly large moves in by-elections over the past year which, if replicated nationally at a general election due within 9 months, would make Labour leader Keir Starmer the next prime minister.

This was indeed seismic and a stark reminder of just how bad public opinion is for the Conservative party is right now and how low their support is right across the country, Patrick English, director of political analytics at YouGov, told Bloomberg radio. It would suggest that the Conservatives are struggling, and it would suggest that Reform are a threat to the Conservatives and are eating into their vote and are causing them problems.

Blackpool South is the first major setback in a predicted slew of defeats for Sunaks Tories, as results from local council elections across England  plus key mayoralties such as London, Tees Valley and West Midlands  are announced Friday and over the weekend.

Early results suggested the Tories were on course for one of the worst  if not the worst  Conservative performances in local government for the last 40 years, political scientist John Curtice told the BBC on Friday morning. If later results follow the initial trend, the Tories would lose half the seats theyre trying to defend, Curtice said.

As of about 10 a.m. in London, Labour had made some eye-catching gains including taking control of councils in Thurrock, Hartlepool and Rushmoor. The Tories had lost 122 council seats  about half of the ones they were defending  with Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and independent candidates all making gains.

Initial results look good for Labour, and there are no huge surprises so far, said Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit. The narrative developing so far is one of large Conservative losses.

Not everything went Labours way. The party lost overall control of the council in Oldham as independents gained seats amid local dissatisfaction over the partys stance on the conflict in Gaza. Curtice said that on average, the partys support is down by eight points since last year in wards where more than 10% of people identify as Muslim.

For Sunak, who has spent 18 months as prime minister fending off internal party criticism and rumors of plots to oust him, the results are seen as the final flash-point for his premiership ahead of the general election, which he has said he expects to call in the second half of the year.

Opponents on the right of the Tory party have warned that a particularly bad showing could trigger one final effort to change leader. However, Tory lawmaker and Sunak critic Andrea Jenkyns suggested on Friday morning that a move to oust him was unlikely, telling the BBC: We have to work with what we have got.

Still, Starmers party increasingly appears to be converting a poll lead thats fluctuated around 20 points for months into actual votes. Even before Blackpool South, the Tory administration had accrued more by-election defeats in a single term than any government since the 1960s  the majority to Labour.

Growing support for Reform is also a concern for Sunak, because it means his party is losing votes on the right. That makes it even harder for the Tories to retain the so-called Red Wall seats  the largely pro-Brexit constituencies in Britains industrial heartlands that historically voted Labour but flipped Tory in 2019  because their right-wing support is divided.

This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunaks Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change, Starmer said in a statement.

Much of the focus now will be on the mayoral races, especially in the West Midlands and Tees Valley in northern England where Tories Andy Street and Ben Houchen are fighting to keep their roles. Both are seen as figureheads for recent Conservative inroads into Labour-facing areas.

Read More: How Sunaks Future May Hinge on the Fate of Two Tory Mayors

Houchen won 73% of the vote in 2021 and is expected to hold onto his mayoralty, a result which Sunak would look to point to as an example that the Tories can still win elections against Labour. Street is seen as more vulnerable after Sunak canceled a high-speed railway link from Birmingham to Manchester last year.

In the local council elections, the Tories are defending just over 900 seats from the last vote in 2021, when the party  then led by Boris Johnson  was boosted by the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. Tory peer Robert Hayward  a local elections expert  predicts his party may lose on the upside of 400 of those.

On Thursday, YouGov polling gave the Tories their worst voting intention rating yet under the current prime minister, on 18%  lower even than the nadir under Liz Truss, Sunaks predecessor whose economic policies crashed the markets during a disastrous 7-week tenure.

--With assistance from Rebecca Choong Wilkins.

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LAGO VISTA, Texas (KXAN)  All eyes are on the mayor and city manager of Lago Vista after both were part of the agenda items at Thursdays city council meeting.

One of the agenda items was regarding a formal complaint against Mayor Kevin Sullivan and the other a complaint about City Manager Tracie Hlavinka from an employee.

In the city managers complaint, the council will have a third party investigate the employee complaint and the city managers response.

Not a lot of details were shared during the council meeting. However, the agenda item specifically talked about deliberation regarding evaluation, duties or discipline of a public office.

Lago Vista ISD hires a third-party investigator after vetting protocols were not followed

For the mayor, the council did vote to hold a hearing on Monday, May 13 at 7 p.m., to discuss and decide if Mayor Sullivan should be dismissed.

There were five council members that voted to move forward with the hearing with one voting against.

The basis for that is whether the complaint alleges an action as grounds for dismissal, said Lago Vista City Council Member Paul Prince during the meeting. I believe the complaint does allege an action for grounds of dismissal.

KXAN did reach out to the city communications director for comment from both the city manager and mayor, but did not hear back. We will update this if a statement is received.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
When Sheryl Brown read a recent article in The Columbus Dispatch about a new landlord booting hundreds of immigrant tenants near Ohio State University, she thought: Thats just like whats happening on my street!

Brown, a project manager, has lived with her family for 18 years in a townhouse on Griggsview Court  a quiet, middle-class cul-de-sac a stones throw from the Scioto River and Griggs Reservoir Park, on Columbus Northwest Side. In late January, a new owner took over her building and eight others on the street, a total of 36 units, and almost immediately began issuing notices to tenants to vacate.

The owner, Peak Property Group, is the same landlord that is kicking out the families near OSU.

Brown said she would have been willing to pay Peaks new rental rate  $1,850, a nearly 50% increase  but she was not given the option. Instead, she was told to move out to make way for renovations and then reapply, but with no guarantee of getting her home back, she said.

The forced move comes in the middle of the school year for her daughter, who is in 6th grade.

It was affordable for me to live here, to have my daughter in a better school district, she said.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Kathy Bird looks over moving boxes inside the townhome she rents on Griggsview Court in the Walden Woods neighborhood near Hilliard. Residents say that Peak Property Group purchased the complex and is forcing them to move out so that the units can be updated and rented for higher prices.

Brown and other residents told The Dispatch that around a dozen families have had to move so far, while others have been given dates in the coming months. Some received 60-day notices as stipulated in their contracts, while others received just a month  the legal minimum for people on month-to-month agreements.

Tenants also complained about hefty fees for damages they dispute, and said Peak was not communicative during the transition.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Resident Kathy Bird holds up a cell phone photo from a neighbor who received a surprising bill for repairs after they moved out of a rental on Griggsview Court near Hilliard.

I was just floored by how they treated everyone, said Amy Wildermuth, another former resident who recently moved out. They treat you like you're not even human when you ask questions, and they won't answer you. You know you're nothing to them.

Peak is a subsidiary of Coastal Ridge Real Estate, a Columbus-based firm that promotes social goals and says it believes in strengthening our bonds and building meaningful relationships with the communities we serve on its website.

An attorney for Peak and Coastal Ridge declined to comment on the issues raised by tenants on Griggsview Court.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Sheryl Brown pets her dog Stella while holding a water bill that was much higher than what she is used to. Peak Property Group purchased the units on Griggsview Court and changed the way billing is done for residents, many of of whom have seen substantial increases.

Residents loved the community

The townhomes along Griggsview Court, which were owned by a family-run business until earlier this year, have wide lawns and mature honey locust trees out front.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Sheryl Brown planted this bleeding heart bush outside her rented townhome on Griggsview Court in the Walden Woods neighborhood near Hilliard. Brown is trying to find a new place to live but worries about the effect of changing schools on her daughter who is in the sixth grade.

Living here, if I needed something, I could go knock on anyones door and say, Hey, Im Kathy from down the street, can you help me? Can I borrow that cup of sugar, or whatever it is? said Kathy Bird, who has to move out by the end of June.

Her former neighbor Beth Russell said her experience with Peak has taught her that displacement can happen to any renter  not just people on the margins of society.

People are thinking, That's not going to happen to me. But it's not like that. On Griggsview Court we had police officers, we had nurses, we had people who've worked for law firms,  for medical equipment companies and school districts, she said.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Homemade mosaic stones are displayed outside Sheryl Browns rented townhome on Griggsview Court near Hilliard. Brown has lived in the complex for many years, creating memories with her family.

Peak property purchased townhomes in January, documents show

Documents from the Franklin County Recorders and Auditors offices indicate that the 36 Griggsview Court townhouses are owned by LTJ Management, a company that shares an address with Coastal Ridge at 80 E Rich St. in Downtown Columbus. Coastal Ridge President Ben Texler signed a mortgage for the properties for $5.2 million on Jan. 23.

Russell said that, before the deal went through, a team came to inspect the townhomes, including her unit. She talked with one of the men, whom she later recognized as Coastal Ridge co-CEO Andrew Lallathin based on his headshot online. She asked the man if he was the potential buyer, because she wanted to know about the plans for her home, but she recalled the man said he was just with the inspection company.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Piles of discarded items including cleaning tools and materials are seen along rented townhomes on Griggsview Court near Hilliard. Residents claim that Peak Property Group, who recently purchased the rentals, are forcing them to leave to update the units and rent them for higher prices.

Russells neighbor Brown said she also saw Lallathin on the street during the inspections.

Coastal Ridge did not respond to the suggestion that Lallathin misrepresented himself during the inspection.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; A pile of moving boxes sits in the entryway of Sheryl Browns townhome on Griggsview Court in the Walden Woods neighborhood near Hilliard. Brown has lived in the complex for many years, creating memories with her family.

Residents would like to see changes to law

Former resident Todd Lawson said Peak gave him one months notice to leave by the end of February. He said he struggled to find a new place to live in Hilliard School District where his son goes to school.

Lawson paid Peak for damages to his townhouse, including $125 for a dirty fridge and stove, according to an invoice he provided. He said the charges were unfair, given that the apartment was filthy when he moved in and Peak has been replacing the old stoves and fridges, anyway.

Bird said she thinks her and her neighbors complaints are reasonable.

I think we're just wanting to be respected and treated appropriately, and given the time to get out and take care of our families, kids that are in school, and things like that, she said.

It makes me wonder, who am I going to vote for next time around? Because weve heard a lot of blah, blah, blah, about affordable rent and affordable housing, she added.

Some experts say more legal protections for tenants are needed.

In this incredibly tight housing market, tenants need more than 30-days notice to be able to find new housing, said Zachary Eckles, a senior policy advocate at the Ohio Poverty Law Center.

Many states, including Ohio, require landlords to provide 30-day notices for tenants on month-to-month leases, which have become more common since COVID-19. But some cities, such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York, Atlanta and elsewhere, require 60 or more days, according to the national nonprofit Legal Services Corporation.

Shannon Isom, president and CEO of the Community Shelter Board, said she supports requiring a 60- or 90-day notice period.

But even further, Community Shelter Board, along with other housing advocates, are keenly aware that other policies are needed that prioritize housing security, stabilize our communities, and ensure equitable solutions for all parties, she said.

For now, former Griggsview Court resident Russell said her son, a 4th grader in Hilliard City Schools, has been struggling to accept that he will have to attend a different school next year.

The hardest thing about it is that there's been no compassion from (Peak), she said. I understand that it's a business and businesses are allowed to do what they want with their properties. But these are families you're impacting here. And it would be nice if they just acknowledged that what they're doing is completely turning our worlds upside down.

May 1, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Residents of Griggsview Court say that Peak Property Group has not been responding to maintentance requests or fixing damage since the company purchased the rental units earlier this year.

Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

pgill@dispatch.com

@pitaarji

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Peak Property, Coastal Ridge kicking families from Columbus homes
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has charged an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department detective with a hit-and-run stemming from an incident on the 5 Freeway one year ago.

Detective Stephanie Carrillo was in her unmarked police vehicle on May 3, 2023, when she allegedly rear-ended a civilians vehicle causing damage, Gascons office said in a news release.

While Carrillo and the victim were pulled over following the crash, Carrillo allegedly returned to her vehicle and fled the scene, the District Attorneys office added.

Carrillo, 47, then went to the California Highway Patrol San Juan Capistrano station in Orange County where she filed a report that she had been involved in a hit-and-run incident, prosecutors added.

Prosecutors did not say why they waited exactly one year to file charges, but in California, the statute of limitations on misdemeanors is one year. Carrillos hit-and-run charge is a misdemeanor, and if convicted, she faces up to six months in county jail.

Irresponsible and unlawful behavior by law enforcement as allegedly exhibited by Officer Carrillo not only violates public trust but goes against the oath taken by law enforcement to keep the public safe, Gascon said in the release. Police officers have a fundamental duty to act with honesty and integrity. Our office will not tolerate conduct that jeopardizes public safety and fails to conform to the minimum standard of law-abidance expected of officers of the law.

Carrillo did not appear in a search of jail records, but Gascons office said she is set to be arraigned on May 22 at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, the LAPD said it is cooperating with the District Attorneys office as criminal proceedings are carried out against the 24-year veteran of the department.

The Los Angeles Police Departments Internal Affairs Division initiated an administrative investigation into this allegation, and Carrillo was relieved of her police powers pending the resolution of the administrative investigation, the statement said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
by Xinhua writer Zeng Yan

GENEVA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- When the name Orient Express could still conjure up the famed adventures depicted by writer Agatha Christie during a leisurely eight-hour journey between Hungary and Serbia, modern society, accustomed to a fast-paced life, also yearns for swifter, more efficient travel options.

Trips in the Balkans may soon become less exhausting with the completion of the Hungary-Serbia railway, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Once brought into full operation, this railway will reduce the journey between their capitals to just three hours. Furthermore, it will enhance freight transport, promote trade, and invigorate the two economies.

The railway is among a range of Belt and Road projects that have delivered tangible benefits to Europe and beyond, and such achievements are not possible without visionary leaders who are keen to harvest shared benefits from win-win cooperation.

Serbia, Hungary, and France are three destinations of Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visits on May 5-10. Each of these European countries shares a profound friendship with China and has witnessed fruitful cooperation in recent years.

In addition to tangible outcomes from Belt and Road cooperation between China and Serbia, Hungary has been China's primary investment destination in Central and Eastern Europe for consecutive years. Furthermore, China-France relations have long been at the forefront of China's relations with major Western countries and the two serve as crucial stabilizing forces in the increasingly volatile China-Europe relations, bringing more stability and certainty to a turbulent world and further energizing global development.

The comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU has seen fruitful results over the past some 20 years. As two major forces advancing multipolarity, two major markets in support of globalization, and two major civilizations championing diversity, China and the EU have achieved remarkable cooperation in various fields, which has greatly benefited the peoples of both sides and has made positive contributions to world peace, stability, and prosperity.

Stable China-EU relations are in the world's interests. The China-Europe freight train service, connecting 219 cities in 25 European countries, established a secure and efficient lifeline for global industrial and supply chains, and is playing a unique role in the Red Sea shipping crisis; China's visa-free policy for multiple European countries further facilitates personnel and trade exchanges; and key cooperation projects under the BRI, such as the Belgrade-Budapest railway, the Port of Piraeus in Greece, and the Peljesac Bridge in Croatia, continue to benefit the people along the routes.

Moreover, Chinese and European enterprises continue to be upbeat about each other's markets, as statistics showed that the stock of two-way investment has exceeded 250 billion U.S. dollars.

Booming trade is complementary and mutually beneficial in essence. European high-end home appliances have improved the living standards of Chinese citizens, and Chinese-made electric vehicles have accelerated Europe's green and digital transition. China's pursuit of economic growth based on innovation in advanced sectors will unleash even more potential for China-EU cooperation.

Evidence abounds that China and Europe are partners, not rivals; they offer opportunities to each other, not threats; their common interests far outweigh their divergence.

Both are the decisive forces shaping the future global landscape: they are opposed to the world sliding into a new Cold War featuring bloc confrontation; they are staunch champions of multilateralism instead. As the world is mired in a glaring governance deficit, China-EU cooperation is essential for addressing global challenges posed by climate change, nuclear proliferation, and artificial intelligence, among others.

Sound China-EU ties not only benefit both peoples but exemplify cooperation among countries around the world. The two sides have greater responsibilities to maintain the openness of the world economy in the future. Although the Orient Express is past its prime, China Express promises endless opportunities. Europe and the wider world are welcome to board. 
Police swarm the Dayton Mall for a fight over jewelry; 1 officer hurt while responding

Law enforcement throughout Montgomery County raced to get to the Dayton Mall Friday afternoon after a county-wide call for backup, or a Signal 99, was issued.

>>RELATED: PHOTOS: Officer hurt while responding to county-wide backup call

Around 12:30 p.m., Miami Township police were called to the Dayton Mall at 2700 Miamisburg Centerville Rd, on reports of a fight, Miami Township Communications Manager Jill Drury confirmed.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, when officers arrived found mall security in an exchange with a man and a juvenile female over a jewelry store dispute.

It was just commotion, a man who witnessed the dispute said. Then they just arresting people for -- because they was getting loud.

The call for backup was dropped when the incident became disorderly.

After receiving permission from a supervisor, one Vandalia officer responded to the Signal 99 and started heading towards the mall.

The officer got into a three-vehicle crash at Webster Street and Wyse Road.

>>RELATED: Thinking outside the box; Church expected to open inside Dayton Mall next year

I mean, he might have been looking for him and just didnt see him, a person who witnessed the crash said. I heard the lights. I heard the sirens.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Dayton Post troopers on scene told News Center 7 that a driver who had the green light t-boned the cruiser. The impact sent the cruiser into a third car.

I just so happened to look in the rearview mirror and saw him coming up. Just saw the impact. Yeah. Its -- theres a strong impact, a witness said.

The officer and the passenger from the car that t-boned the cruiser were hospitalized, but they are both expected to be okay.

Troopers said they are investigating to confirm who may have been at fault.

... Take all the witness statements, well get the video from the patrol car, and then well be able to make a final assessment, OSHP Lieutenant Dallas Root said.

The backup call was canceled shortly after it was issued.

Both the man and juvenile were arrested for obstruction of justice. The man also faces a felony vandalism charge for kicking an officers cruiser door, Drury said.

Miami Township police said no one was hurt in the incident at the mall.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.

A Vandalia police officer was involved in a crash Friday afternoon.
Citing public safety, blight and improving quality of life for residents, Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story presented two modifications of existing ordinances regarding solicitation and proposed a new ordinance regarding shopping cart containment and retrieval.

Story presented during a City Council work session on Monday. The work session included pushback from some councilors, but had enough support to move forward to a future meeting.

There was also 20 minutes of public comment, mostly in support of the changes from local business owners but some opposition was voiced, including from an ACLU advocate and a speaker from New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.

It's unclear when and if Council would be expected to vote for approval for one of, or all three, ordinances. Mayor Eric Enriquez said the ordinances could be presented as soon as May, but could also be later this summer as the state legislature could be addressing similar issues in an upcoming special session in July.

"We don't want to go and then have to come back and change things," Enriquez said. "We can't be anything less than the state so we want to make sure to do what is right.

"It could be sooner if we understand that we are on the same page with the special session. There are other municipalities, even in the state of New Mexico, that have already done some changes in their panhandling ordinances."

What the shopping cart containment and retrieval ordinance involves

Story repeatedly stated that members of the unhoused population would not be arrested for possessing a shopping cart. Their property would not be discarded. The goal, he said, is to help businesses, while having services in place to address mental illness or drug addiction, as well as a diversion court established to prevent repeat offenders and incarceration.

"Nobody is going to be arrested for possession of a shopping cart or a violation of solicitation ordinances," Story said. "The differences between a physical arrest and a criminal citation on paper may not be much, but in real life, going to jail or getting a piece of paper is a very different thing.

"We don't have the services we need when it comes to mental health in the southern part of New Mexico  we also don't have the resources we need for substance use. But there are a lot of resources here. They are not at capacity. Why? Because at this point, there is very little ways to compel people to get that treatment."

According to Story, an April 23 project involving LCPD community outreach, codes, parks and recreation and others gathered 162 shopping carts in two hours with a total value of $32,000. Walmart was responsible for 132 carts. The project mirrored the results of a similar project in 2020.

The ordinance sets up several requirements for businesses that use shopping carts. Businesses would be required to affix a sign/placard to carts and submit a shopping cart plan approved by community development that is to be renewed every two years. Businesses can also apply for an exemption if they already take certain measures against the theft of carts from their premises. Businesses would have three business days to retrieve shopping carts if notified by the city.

Enforcement of the ordinance could include a requirement that a business abides by a different plan, or violations for individuals could result in a petty misdemeanor, between $100 and $500 fines depending on number of violations within the same year. Included in the ordinance is that at the discretion of a sentencing judge, any person convicted under the article may perform community service, which could consist of entering treatment for mental illness, substance abuse or both.

Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story presented two proposed modified ordinances for solicitation and a new shopping cart ordinance in council chambers at City Hall on Monday, April 29, 2024.

What the modified ordinances propose

There were revisions to two existing ordinances discussed involving solicitating and loitering.

According to Story, the changes were minor in nature and made to remove potentially unconstitutional language or to narrow the interest to public safety. Story said the changes should allow both ordinances to be enforceable.

In 2018, the city revised some of its panhandling ordinances in response to objections from the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court indirectly affirmed free speech protections for panhandlers when it ruled a sign ordinance in an Arizona town violated the First Amendment because it restricted the content of speech on signs. In 2018, the City suspended enforcement of its ordinances until they could be revised to comply with free speech protections. City Council voted to revise two ordinances related to panhandling.

According to a proposed ordinance regarding soliciting, "It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit money or other things of value, or to solicit the sale of goods or services in the manner described in subparagraphs (1) through (3) of this section.

Solicitation is prohibited "in an aggressive manner in a public area or private property within city limits." Additionally, "On private property if the owner, tenant, or lawful occupant has asked the person not to solicit on the property, or has posted a sign clearly indicating that solicitations are prohibited on the property." Finally, "From any occupant of a motor vehicle that is in traffic on a public street, if the solicitation would cause any person to walk upon a portion of the roadway not clearly designated and/or marked for pedestrian foot traffic."

The term, "aggressive" in existing code defines soliciting that includes physically touching another person without consent; following a person being solicited in a manner where the person to fear physical harm; continuing to solicit within five feet of a person who has made a negative response; blocking the safe passage of a person being solicited; intentionally using obscene or abusive language or gestures; and approaching a person in a manner the person fears imminent harm or is intended to intimidate the person being solicited.

The "standing or loitering on or near street or highway ordinance" would make it unlawful for any person to stand or loiter on a street or highway when such activity, "(1) Causes the person performing the activity to enter onto the traveled portion of a street or highway. (2) The person performing the activity is located such that vehicles cannot move into a legal parking area safely."

It would also be unlawful, " to stand or loiter on any highway included in the interstate system including any entrance to or exit from the highway." The traveled portion of the street or highway shall mean that portion of the road normally used by moving motor vehicle traffic, according to the ordinance.

Story said there were 23 total pedestrian crashes in 2020 and there were 45 pedestrian crashes in 2023.

Council will move forward with items, but concerns voiced

Enriquez, District 1 Councilor Cassie McClure, District 2 Councilor Bill Mattiace and District 3 Councilor Becky Graham all voiced support to move the ordinances to a future meeting for a potential vote.

District 6 Councilor Yvonne Flores did not suggest moving them forward.

"I find it a bit harsh," Flores said during the work session. "You (Chief Story) did touch on mental competency. It's not to say there is a problem. I recognize there is a problem. I don't know if this is the solution."

Mayor Pro Temp Johana Bencomo said if the ordinances move forward, she would propose a needs assessment for individuals when interacting with law enforcement, that the City's LIGHT team is used when responding to individuals when possible and for the city to support adding at least two staff members to the community outreach team at Community of Hope.

Bencomo did express doubts that the ordinances would have the desired effect, and could add to the problems the unhoused already face.

"If we continue with something like this, I deeply believe we may be making things worse," Bencomo said. "But as we move forward, I also want to make sure there is as much harm reduction as possible. I want to come to the table and be a good team player."

Graham ultimately voiced support for the ordinances, placing her trust in Story and his department.

"I trust that our officers will, in good faith, work to find the critical balance necessary to improve safety and security for all residents while also increasing the chance that those facing challenges like addiction and mental health issues will plug into available resources," said Graham while reading from a prepared statement.

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces Police Chief proposes new shopping cart ordinance during City Council work session
Friday starts nice with increasing clouds and mild temperatures. Many start the day in the 60s and quickly rise into the 80s by the afternoon. Clouds will increase with showers arriving late afternoon and early evening. A warm front lifts into the region first followed by a cold front Friday night.

Friday night plans will be interrupted by steady rains, heavy downpours, and a rumble of thunder or two. A bit breezy at times as we remain mild in the 60s for lows. Severe weather risks are not likely but with any thunderstorm, some caution should be used if out and about.

Saturday morning, scattered showers remain from Fridays system with some breaks between for the early afternoon. Itll be short lived as another warm front arrives rather quickly with widespread showers and isolated rumble of thunder. Were still warm with temps into the upper 70s. Saturday evening, heavy rain can be expected well into the night. High water concerns start to rise especially for areas that see multiple rounds of rain during the day. Runoff issues, standing water on roads, and smaller creeks becoming overwhelmed are the biggest risks.

Sunday showers continue into the morning hours in scattered fashion. With a warm front towards our north, were tapping into southern humidity and an area of low pressure towards our west keeps the atmosphere unstable. Heavier rain and rumbles of thunder are expected in the mid afternoon as temps rise into the upper 70s. Heavy rain and thunderstorms will be slow moving leading to localized high water concerns. Training storms and stalled downpours can overwhelm storm drains and lead to runoff issues for larger streams. Rain continues well into the night.

Monday were still pumping in humidity from the south and with sunshine peeking through mostly cloudy skies to start, a few showers are possible for the late morning and afternoon. A few rumbles of thunder and downpours will give evening commuters a challenge. With our ground saturated already, it wont take much for ponding and runoff to impact road conditions. A keen eye on creeks and streams will also be a good idea. Highs for the day still above average in the mid and upper 70s.

Tuesday a few showers remain here or there early on with our system just towards the north but it wont take long for it to slide back south into the afternoon. The short break will end when heavy rain and thunderstorms return for the afternoon and evening hours. Highs still manage the upper 70s. Showers continue into the overnight for Wednesday.

Wednesday scattered showers last most of the morning with some breaks between. By the afternoon, the heat and humidity work in tandem for pop-up thunderstorms and heavy bursts of rain. Again, high water concerns will be on the table so some caution for those along creeks and smaller rivers. Thunderstorms will fade into the night but rain showers will continue well into Thursday.

In your extended forecast, the soggy pattern holds as our jet stream continues to funnel moisture our way. While there will be breaks here or there, the umbrellas are certainly going to get a work out well into next week. With spring storm season here, being prepared can go a long way. Flooding, severe weather, and interruptions to daily life can happen quickly in our two states. Stick with us for the latest developments in your forecast.

Spring Fire Bans are still in effect for West Virginia through May 31st. As the temperatures push summer levels, remember to use caution while barbequing or outdoor fire pits. No burning in West Virginia from 7am to 5pm every day. For Virginia, spring fire bans ended April 30th but the danger doesnt. During periods of dry weather, use common sense to keep you and your community safe from brush fires.



FRIDAY

Increasing clouds, Showers/T-storm PM. Highs in the upper 70s.

SATURDAY

Sct. showers most of the day. Highs in the low 70s.

SUNDAY

Off & on showers, some dry time. Highs in the mid to upper 70s.

MONDAY

Sct. showers/T-storms. Highs in the low 70s.

TUESDAY

AM showers, PM dry time, Nighttime showers again. Highs in the upper 60s.

WEDNESDAY

Sct. Shower, cool. Highs in the low 60s.

THURSDAY

Off & on showers, more dry time than not. Highs in the 60s.

FRIDAY

Dry start, PM T-storms. Highs in the 70s.

SATURDAY

Showers, PM rumbles. Highs in the 70s.

SUNDAY

Sun & Clouds, drier. Highs in the 60s.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
Palestinians stand in the ruins of the Chahine family home, after an overnight Israeli strike that killed at least two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

The United Nations humanitarian aid agency says hundreds of thousands of people would be at imminent risk of death if Israel carries out a military assault in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The border city is a critical entry point for humanitarian aid and is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in densely packed tent camps.

An Israeli airstrike in Rafah overnight Friday killed seven people  mostly children. The Biden administration, which provides Israel crucial military and diplomatic support, says it opposes a Rafah invasion unless Israel provides a credible plan for protecting civilians there.

Northern Gaza is experiencing full-blown famine, according to the head of the U.N. World Food Program, Cindy McCain. The comments from the head of the agency that distributes food assistance go farther than others, as the U.N. and others have said the Palestinian territory is on the brink of famine.

The Israel-Hamas war has driven around 80% of Gazas population of 2.3 million from their homes and caused vast destruction in several towns and cities. The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials.

The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, abducting about 250 people and killing around 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Currently:

 Hamas is sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks in the latest sign of progress.

 Whats on the table for Israel and Hamas in the latest cease-fire talks?

 Striking deals to end campus protests, some colleges invite discussion of their investments.

 Jewish students grapple with how to respond to pro-Palestinian campus protests.

 The unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza hasnt been seen since World War II, the U.N. says.

Follow APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here's the latest:

NORTHERN GAZA IS IN A FULL-BLOWN FAMINE, SAYS THE HEAD OF U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM

SEDONA, Ariz.  The head of the U.N. World Food Program, Cindy McCain, says northern Gaza is experiencing full-blown famine.

Speaking to NBC News on Friday at the McCain Institutes Sedona Forum in Arizona, McCain pressed for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and access for humanitarian aid because there is famine  full-blown famine  in the north, and its moving its way south.

There hasnt yet been an official declaration of famine. The U.N. and others have said the Palestinian territory is on the brink of famine, and the comments from the head of the agency that distributes food assistance go farther than others.

The nearly seven-month-old Israel-Hamas war has thrown Gaza into humanitarian crisis, and relief workers struggle to bring in desperately needed aid because of the fighting and Israeli restrictions on land crossings.

Facing pressure to ease the catastrophe, the U.S. has pressed its ally Israel to open more land routes. One reopened this week for the first time since the start of the war. The U.S. is also building a pier system off Gaza to bring in aid by sea.

McCains comments come as U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power pointed Friday to the food crises in Gaza and other parts of the world in announcing a $200 million investment aimed at increasing production of emergency nutritional paste for starving children under 5.

U.N. REPORTS INCREMENTAL PROCESS RESTORING WATER TO GAZA

UNITED NATIONS  U.N. humanitarian officials report incremental progress in restoring water to Gaza, with the territory producing just 20% of the water supply it did before the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.

The Palestinian Water Authority announced earlier this week that the Al Muntar water line from Israel has resumed pumping, and U.N. humanitarian officials reported this would benefit four neighborhoods in Gaza City, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday. The water line, which had been shut down for 200 days, was the third Israeli water line to restart operations and can potentially serve some 300,000 people in Gaza City, he said.

With much of northern Gaza's population displaced, it's not clear how many people are still living in those neighborhoods, or how badly the water infrastructure has been damaged.

Before Oct. 7, Gaza normally got its water supplies from a combination of sources, including pipelines from Israel, desalination plants on the Mediterranean Sea, and wells.

Those supplies were slashed when Israel cut off water, along with the fuel and electricity that power water and sewage plants, in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

OCHA reports that 83% of groundwater wells are not operating, two out of three main water desalination plants are partially functioning, and 57% of water, sanitation and health facilities in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, Haq said. As of April 30, just 20% of Gazas pre-Oct. 7 water production is being produced, he said.

The U.N. earlier reported a breakdown in sanitation services in Gaza and the U.N. humanitarian office estimates there are now 270,000 tons of accumulated solid waste in the territory.

U.N. SAYS ISRAELI CIVILIANS VANDALIZED SOME HUMANITARIAN AID AS CONVOY TRAVELED THROUGH WEST BANK

UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations reports that a U.N. convoy carrying humanitarian aid from Jordan to Gaza had a limited amount of goods vandalized by Israeli civilians when it went through the West Bank. It was also rerouted by armed men when it entered Gaza to the wrong U.N. facility.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Friday there was a miscommunication with the convoy Wednesday and the trucks were ultimately directed to the U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Beit Hanoun.

Referring to Hamas, he said the U.N. has clarified the misunderstanding with the de facto authorities in Gaza to ensure that this doesnt happen again. They reiterated their commitment to respect the delivery of humanitarian aid, he said.

All of the goods have been subsequently accounted for and are being distributed by the U.N., Haq said.

The U.N. humanitarian office reported that the convoy started in Jordan and entered Gaza via back-to-back transfer at Erez crossing, following inspection by Israeli authorities only at Allenby Bridge, he said.

The bridge links Jordan to the West Bank, and Haq said Going through the West Bank, Israeli civilians offloaded and vandalized a limited amount of goods from the convoy, which included food parcels, sugar, rice, supplementary food for those malnourished and milk powder.

The U.N. doesnt think the incident should impact further aid deliveries from Jordan, Haq said.

BIDEN TO HOST JORDAN'S KING ABDULLAH II FOR TALKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden will host Jordans King Abdullah II for talks at the White House next week in the midst of the latest push for a cease-fire deal to end the Israel-Hamas war can soon be reached, according to the White House.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the private talks would happen at some point next week but did provide further details.

The meeting comes as Israel and Hamas were negotiating a potential cease-fire in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages. A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of stalemated talks.

Biden last hosted Abdullah, a close ally, for White House talks in February.

ISRAEL TO SEEK TO REDUCE ECONOMIC TIES BETWEEN TURKEY AND THE PALESTINIANS IN RETALIATION FOR TURKEY'S TRADE BAN ON ISRAEL

JERUSALEM  Israel said Friday it will seek to reduce economic ties between Turkey and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in retaliation for Turkeys trade ban with Israel over its military actions in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to harm Israel with the ban but will primarily harm the Palestinian economy.

The Foreign Ministry said it would take action to minimize all economic ties between Turkey and the Palestinian Authority and Gaza.

It did not elaborate on how it would do so. Israel controls all entry points into the occupied West Bank, both through its own territory and from neighboring Jordan. It imposes inspections on good entering the West Bank but has imposed a wholesale block on imports, though it did stop all Palestinian exports to Israel for weeks in 2020 during a trade dispute with the Palestinian Authority.

Multiple times in the past, it has withheld customs duties on imports that it collects on behalf of the authority, which controls enclaves around the West Bank. Since the war with Hamas began in October, it has blocked entry to almost all commercial goods to Gaza, except for a trickle of supplies along with international aid entering the territory.

After Israel, Turkey is the largest importer to the Palestinian Authority, accounting for about 18% of its imports.

The ministry said it would also seek sanctions against Turkey at international economic forums for violating trade agreements.

The Israeli economy is strong, and the Turkish economy will be much more affected than the Israeli economy due to the trade balance between the countries. Its a mistake Erdogan will regret, Katz said.

Turkey imposed the ban on Thursday, suspending all imports and exports to Israel. Erdogan said his country could no longer stand by and watch the violence in Gaza.

A 23-YEAR-OLD ISRAELI WAS KILLED DURING THE OCT. 7 ATTACK, AFTER ORIGINALLY THROUGHT ABDUCTED BY HAMAS

JERUSALEM  The Israeli military and a support group for the families of Israeli hostages confirmed Friday that Elyakim Libman, a 23-year-old Israeli who had been believed abducted by Hamas, was killed during the militants Oct. 7 attack. His body was found in Israel.

The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said Libman was working as a security guard at a music festival that was attacked by the militants after they stormed out of Gaza. It said he helped evacuate the wounded during the mayhem before being killed.

The military said it, the police and forensic officials had identified the body after it was found in Israeli territory.

At least 260 people were killed at the Nova music festival, taking place in an open space near Gaza when Hamas militants rampaged through communities in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack, and militants took around 250 hostage. Because of the chaos of the day, a few believed taken captive were later determined to be among the dead.

Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others in Gaza, after many were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israels bombardment and offensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians.

CIA CHIEF ARRIVES IN EGYPT AS HAMAS CONSIDERS CEASE-FIRE DEAL WITH ISRAEL

CAIRO  Two Egyptian security officials say CIA director William Burns has arrived in Egypt amid a push to seal a cease-fire accord between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war.

Burns visit comes as Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release put forward by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who hope to avert an Israeli offensive against Rafah, Gazas southernmost town.

Hamas said it will send a delegation to Cairo on Saturday for further discussions on the offer, though it has not specified when.

The two Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press, did not give details on Burns visit. U.S. officials would not comment on the report.

The latest proposal reportedly calls for a three-stage cease-fire, starting with a six-week halt in fighting during which Hamas would release a number of hostages it holds, including women and elderly, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Talks would then take place on a permanent calm, during which Israel would withdraw troops from Gaza and Hamas would release all the remaining hostages.

An Egyptian official has said Hamas is seeking firmer language in the text to ensure a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to its offensive and bombardment  as well as the return of Palestinians displaced from the north of the territory.

Hamas said in its statement that it has responded in a positive spirit to the proposal and we are going to Cairo in the same spirit to reach an agreement.

It said the group is demanding a complete cessation of aggression and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of the displaced, relief for our people, the start of reconstruction, and the completion of a serious (hostage for prisoner) exchange deal.

Hamas is believed to still hold around 100 Israelis in Gaza, as well as the bodies of around 30 others who died in captivity. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the groups Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

2 PALESTINIANS FROM GAZA DIED IN ISRAELI CUSTODY, INCLUDING A SURGEON FROM SHIFA HOSPITAL, GROUP SAYS

BEIRUT  The Palestinian Prisoners Club said two Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli custody, including a prominent surgeon seized by troops during a raid on a hospital.

The cause of their deaths was not immediately known. Israeli and Palestinian rights groups have reported harsh conditions in Israeli prisons for the hundreds of Palestinians detained from Gaza, including beatings and medical neglect.

The Israeli prison authority and army officials had no comment.

The surgeon, Dr. Adnan al-Borsh, 50, was head of the orthopedic department in Gaza Citys Shifa hospital. After an Israeli siege in November crippled Shifa, he worked in nearby al-Awda Hospital, which Israeli troops later stormed, detaining him and others inside in December.

Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said they were informed by the Palestinian Administrative Affairs office, which coordinates with the Israeli military, that al-Borsh died in Ofer Prison in the West Bank on April 19. He said the body was still being held by Israeli authorities.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said she could not speak specifically about the case but that it was devastating to hear that a doctor was killed.

We know humanitarian aid is dire and the innocent people of Gaza, the Palestinian citizens obviously need that care. They need that assistance," she said. President Biden has said very clearly that when it comes to people  who are citizens in Gaza providing that all important care, humanitarian aid, they need to be protected.

The body of the second prisoner, 33-year-old Ismail Abdul-Bari Rajab Khodr, was handed over with dozens of released prisoners who were returned to Gaza this week, the Club said. The circumstances of his detention were not immediately known.

Three Palestinian human rights groups  Addameer, Al Mezan, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights  said in a joint statement that Khodrs body was examined at Rafahs Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. They quoted the hospitals director, Dr. Marwan Al-Hems, saying he died of torture and that marks of torture were found on his wrists as well as swelling in his shoulders, knees and chest. The three groups said others among the prisoners released this week showed signs of abuse.

The Club said both Khodr and al-Borsh had been tortured, without providing evidence. It said their deaths brought to 18 the number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli prisons since the launch of Israels offensive in Gaza following Hamas Oct. 7 attack.

More than 490 medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Israel has raided multiple hospitals during its campaign in Gaza, claiming Hamas activity inside, often arresting large numbers of staff and displaced people sheltering in the facilities.

TURKISH PRESIDENT EXPLAINS DECISION TO IMPOSE TRADE BAN ON ISRAEL

ISTANBUL  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country imposed a trade ban on Israel because it could no longer stand by and watch the violence in Gaza.

Turkey on Thursday announced that it had suspended all imports and exports to Israel over its military actions in Gaza. It said Friday that the ban would stay in place until a permanent cease-fire is achieved and the Israeli government allows all humanitarian aid to reach Gaza without hindrance.

Up to now, Israel has killed 40,000 to 45,000 Palestinians without mercy. As Muslims, we could not stand by and watch, Erdogan told reporters following traditional Friday prayers in Istanbul.

Erdogan said: We had a trade volume that had reached 9.5 billion dollars between us. But we closed the door (to trade) as though this trade volume did not exist.

The Turkish leader had faced intense pressure to stop trade ties with Israel and lost some votes in local elections in March to a small Islamist party that had been critical of Turkeys continued commercial relations with Israel.

Erdogan again held the United States and other Western nations responsible for deaths in the Israel-Hamas war.

The whole West and especially America, are working for Israel by mobilizing all resources and unfortunately the poor people of Palestine were sentenced to death through Israels bombings, he said.

GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY ADDS 26 PEOPLE TO THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR DEATH TOLL

BEIRUT  The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday the bodies of 26 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 51 wounded, it said in its daily report.

That brings the overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war to at least 34,622 the ministry said, and 77,867 wounded.

The Health Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies, but says that women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed 13,000 militants, without providing evidence to back up the claim.

U.N. AID OFFICE WARNS THAT AN ISRAELI ASSAULT ON RAFAH WOULD RISK KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS

GENEVA  The United Nations humanitarian aid agency says hundreds of thousands of people would be at imminent risk of death if Israel carries out a military assault in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Rafah has become a crucial humanitarian hub for distribution of aid into Gaza.

Rafah is pivotal for food, water, health, sanitation, hygiene and other critical support to the people there, including hundreds of thousands of Gazans who fled fighting elsewhere. But most importantly, Laerke told reporters at a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva, the hundreds of thousands of people there would be at imminent risk of death if there is an assault.

World Health Organization officials said they have been preparing contingency plans for a possible assault in Rafah. They noted, meanwhile, that more food has been reaching beleaguered Palestinians in recent weeks, but the threat of famine remains.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for occupied Palestinian areas, said by videoconference that the threat of famine had absolutely not declined. Dr. Ahmed Dahir, the head of WHOs office in Gaza, said the food situation was fragile, and the risk of famine has not passed.

ATTEMPTS AT INTIMIDATION AND IMPEDING MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT SAYS

THE HAGUE, Netherlands  The International Criminal Courts prosecution office issued a statement Friday insisting that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately.

The statement did not mention any of its active investigations or elaborate on the nature of attempts to influence its work. The office declined to elaborate further on the statement.

However, it came amid speculation that the court could soon issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials. There has been fierce pushback against the global court, including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Tuesday that it would be an outrage of historic proportions if the court issues arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

The ICC is investigating alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to the previous war in Gaza in 2014. It has not commented on the status of the probe or whether warrants for any suspects are imminent.

In the statement posted Friday on the social media platform X, the office of the prosecutor said its independence and impartiality are undermined when individuals threaten to retaliate against the Court or against Court personnel should the Office, in fulfilment of its mandate, make decisions about investigations or cases falling within its jurisdiction.

Netanyahu has said that Israel will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense.

TURKEY WILL IMPOSE ITS TRADE BAN ON ISRAEL UNTIL THERE IS A PERMANENT CEASE-FIRE AND UNHINDERED AID INTO GAZA

ISTANBUL  Turkeys trade minister says a trade ban imposed on Israel will remain in place until a permanent cease-fire is achieved and the Israeli government allows all humanitarian aid to enter Gaza without hindrance.

Turkey, a vocal critic of Israels military actions in Gaza, announced Thursday that it had suspended all imports and exports to Israel over its ongoing offensive. The move came weeks after the country had announced trade restrictions on a number of items, including aluminum, steel, construction products and chemical fertilizers.

Trade Minister Omer Bolat said Friday that the new measure was in response to the deterioration and aggravation of the situation in Rafah  a reference to Gazas southernmost town.

The trade (block) related to Israel will be implemented until a permanent cease-fire is achieved and aid to Gaza is freed in an uninterrupted manner, he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling party suffered a major setback in local elections in March, was under intense pressure to stop halt trade relations with Israel.

ISRAELI STRIKE ON RAFAH KILLS 7, INCLUDING CHILDREN

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed seven people, including children, hospital officials said Friday.

The overnight strike on the Chahine family home killed two adults and five kids whose ages ranged between 7 and 16, according to a list of the names released by Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

The strike came a day after the militant Palestinian group Hamas said it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks  a new sign of progress in attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the militant group to end the war in Gaza.

Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war seven months ago and has threatened to send in ground troops, saying Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the coastal enclave. Over 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border. The United States and others have urged Israel not to invade, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to launch an incursion into Rafah.

DEATH CONFIRMED OF ISRAELI MAN WHOSE BODY WAS TAKEN INTO GAZA ON OCT. 7

TEL AVIV  A support group for the families of Israeli hostages taken into Gaza confirmed Friday the death of Dror Or, 49, the 38th hostage known to have died. Or was killed in the Oct. 7 attack and his body taken into Gaza, the Hostages Families Forum said.

Or and two of his children were abducted from Kibbutz Beeri when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7 and his wife, Yonat, was killed. His children, 17-year-old Noam and 13-year-old Alma, were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Israel says Hamas is holding about 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Or's body has not been returned, the Forum said, demanding that the Israeli government exhaust every effort to bring back his remains as well as all the hostages still in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas appear to be seriously negotiating an end to the war in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages. A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of talks languishing in a stalemate. Hamas said Thursday that it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks, in a new sign of progress.

Some families worry that Israels war aims of eliminating Hamas and launching an incursion into Gazas southern city of Rafah will derail negotiations. Dozens of people demonstrated Thursday night outside Israels military headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release the hostages.

During a meeting with Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said We are making great efforts. We have already brought back half (the hostages), when people did not believe that we would get anyone back."

He made no specific reference to Or, but said, "I can tell you that we are determined to return everyone  the ones who are alive as well as the ones who are dead. We brought back 124 (people) as of today, but there are more. We do not forget anyone.

US DEFENSE SECRETARY SAYS CONDITIONS ARE NOT FAVORABLE FOR AN ISRAELI OPERATION IN RAFAH

HONOLULU  United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, while at a news conference Thursday in Hawaii, was asked by a reporter what consequences Israel would face from the U.S. if Israel conducted an offensive operation in Rafah without appropriately taking into account civilians in the area.

Austin said it would be up to President Joe Biden and he wouldnt speculate on that, but that currently, "conditions are not favorable to any kind of operation."

What weve highlighted for the Israelis is that its really important to make sure that the civilians that are in that battle space move out of that battle space before any activity is conducted. And that if and when they return to any kind of operation that it be conducted in a more much more precise fashion, Austin said.

He noted there were about 275,000 people living in and around Rafah before the conflict started but there are now about 1.4 million.

Thats a lot of people in a very small space. Theres a good chance that without taking the right measures that well see a lot more civilian casualties going forward. So before anything happens, we certainly want to see them address that threat to the civilians, Austin said.

Right now, the conditions are not favorable to any kind of operation. And weve been clear about that. It is necessary to take care of the civilian population thats in that area before anything else happens, he said.
The Latest | Court in Trump's hush money trial adjourns for the day following Hope Hicks' testimony

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP)  Hope Hicks took the stand Friday in Donald Trump's hush money case, recounting in her testimony how she followed Trump from the real estate world to politics and how his 2016 presidential campaign was turned upside down following a leak of a video recording in which he boasted about grabbing women without their permission.

Hicks, a former Trump adviser, was the latest witness to be called in a frenzied second week of testimony that included testimony from lawyer Keith Davidson, who represented porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in their respective hush money negotiations; forensic analyst Douglas Daus, who analyzed the contents of phones belonging to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen; and Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal with the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Prosecutors have said that Trump and others conducted a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by purchasing and burying salacious stories that might hurt his campaign.

Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush money payments  including $130,000 given to Daniels by Cohen  recording them instead as legal expenses.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.

Currently:

 Donald Trump moves much of his White House campaign to New York

 Judge in Trumps hush money case clarifies gag order doesnt prevent ex-president from testifying

 Key players: Whos who at Donald Trumps hush money criminal trial

 The hush money case is just one of Trumps legal cases. See the others here

 Trial begins for financial executive in insider trading case tied to taking Trump media firm public

Here's the latest:

TRUMP SCORES VICTORY JUST BEFORE COURT ENDS FOR THE WEEK

Before adjourning court for the week, Judge Juan M. Merchan denied a request by prosecutors that they be allowed to ask Donald Trump, should he choose to testify, about being held in contempt of court for gag order violations in the criminal trial.

Merchan said allowing questioning on a matter involving the very same trial would be so prejudicial it would be very, very difficult for the jury to look past that.

Court proceedings will resume on Monday.

HICKS WRAPS TESTIMONY FOR THE DAY, COURT ADJOURNS

Hope Hicks left the witness stand Friday afternoon after Trump lawyer Emil Bove spent about 20 minutes questioning her. Bove treated the former White House communications director gingerly, calmly inquiring after she became emotional at the start of his cross-examination.

Bove used his brief questioning to underscore the defenses contention that Michael Cohen was acting as a lone wolf, without the blessing of Donald Trump or his campaign, when he paid $130,000 to buy Stormy Daniels silence about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

Bove elicited testimony from Hicks that Cohen sometimes went rogue in his service to Trump, that he wasnt officially part of his campaign  though he sometimes tried to insert himself into campaign matters  and that he was known as a fixer only because he was fixing things hed already broken.

Hicks noted that Cohen wasnt in any of the Trump Tower meetings with Trump and campaign staff following the release of the Access Hollywood tape and may have been out of the country at the time.

Court adjourned for the day following Hicks' testimony.

DEFENSE TO APPEAL JUDGE'S RULING ON GAG ORDER VIOLATIONS

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche indicated on Friday in comments in court that the former president is appealing the judges finding this week that he violated his gag order.

Blanche noted that the defense took particular issue with penalties for what are known as reposts  instances where Donald Trump shared someone elses post with his followers.

Were appealing but we accept the order of the court, Blanche said.

HICKS DESCRIBES TRUMP'S EMOTIONS IN WAKE OF ACCESS HOLLYWOOD LEAK

Trump lawyer Emil Bove returned to the day of the Access Hollywood tape release in his cross-examination of Hope Hicks, asking her to characterize how Donald Trump was feeling at that moment. She obliged, giving one of her longer answers of the day Friday.

President Trump really values Mrs. Trumps opinion and she doesnt weigh in all the time but when she does its really meaningful to him, she said. He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was really concerned about what the perception of this would be and yeah I know that was weighing on him.

I dont think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything happening in the campaign, she continued.

As she spoke, Trump appeared to nod slightly, his gaze fixed on the witness box.

HICKS RECALLS CONVERSATION WITH TRUMP ABOUT THE DANIELS PAYMENT

Before Donald Trumps lawyers began cross-examination of Hope Hicks, prosecutors asked her to describe what Trump said about a conversation he had with Michael Cohen in February 2018. That was right after Cohen told The New York Times that he  Cohen  had paid the $130,000 to Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket.

Hicks said Trump told her that Cohen said he felt like it was his job to protect him and thats what he was doing, and he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.

Under questioning by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, Hicks conceded that such an act would be out of character for Cohen.

I didnt know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person, she said.

But even as Trump claimed he never knew about the payments, Hicks said, her old boss came to believe the decision to bury the story was prudent.

BRIEF RECESS CALLED AFTER HICKS BREAKS DOWN ON WITNESS STAND

Judge Juan M. Merchan called a sudden recess in Donald Trump's hush money trial Friday afternoon after Hope Hicks began crying on the witness stand.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove had just begun cross-examination of her, asking her a question reflecting on her time at the Trump Organization, when she broke down.

Bove said, Your honor, can we take a break?

Merchan then asked Hicks if she needed time. The witness had turned away from the microphone and appeared to be breaking down in tears.

Yes, she said gently.

Merchan then sent the jury out of the room. Hicks left a moment later, still emotional as she slipped out a side door.

TRUMP WAS CONCERNED ABOUT WIFE MELANIA SEEING ARTICLE ON MCDOUGAL

Hope Hicks testified Friday that she spoke with Donald Trump on Nov. 5, 2016, the day after the Wall Street Journal article on Karen McDougal's hush money deal was published.

She said that he was concerned about the story. He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers werent delivered to their residence that morning.

Asked if Trump was also worried about the storys impact on his campaign, Hicks testified that everything they spoke about during the time was viewed through the lens of the campaign, with Trump often asking her, How is it playing? as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters.

Hicks testified that she was almost certain that Trump used the phrase to express concern about how the Journal story would affect his election chances and the final days of his campaign.

JURORS SEE TEXTS BETWEEN HICKS AND COHEN AFTER MCDOUGAL DEAL WAS REVEALED

Hope Hicks was asked Friday about text messages she exchanged with Michael Cohen immediately after the publication of The Wall Street Journals story about the National Enquirers parent company buying the rights to Karen McDougals story.

One message, displayed for jurors, showed Hicks requesting Cohen share a phone number for David Pecker, the president of parent company American Media Inc. Mr. Trump wanted to speak with him, she testified.

In another message, Cohen informs Hicks he has a statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars. Hicks testified she didnt know what Cohen was referring to and I didnt want to know.

Both Cohen and Hicks were initially pleased by what Hicks described as a muted reaction to the Journal story.

It wasnt being picked up in the same way that something like the Access Hollywood tape was, she said. It wasnt wall-to-wall coverage.

HICKS SAYS TRUMP DIRECTED HER TO DENY CLAIMS BY DANIELS AND MCDOUGAL TO WSJ

Hope Hicks resumed testifying after a lunch break, with a prosecutor focusing his questions on the Trump campaigns response to a Wall Street Journal story published days before Election Day in 2016 that exposed the National Enquirers $150,000 catch-and-kill deal with Karen McDougal.

Hicks testified that Donald Trump requested that she convey to the Journal reporter who reached out for comment that he denied McDougal's claims of an affair and porn actor Stormy Daniels' claims of a sexual encounter, which were also mentioned in the article.

As is standard practice, The Wall Street Journal contacted Hicks before publication of the article and included Hicks statement in the story.

She read a portion of her denial, as printed in the Journal, on the witness stand: Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said of the agreement with Ms. McDougal: We have no knowledge of any of this.

Hicks recalled that Trump and Michael Cohen spoke by phone after the story was published, but that nothing stood out from the call. She remembered Trump being on the call while in a car traveling from an airport to a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

I dont remember anything that was said, Hicks testified.

TABLOID PUBLISHER TOLD HER THE MCDOUGAL DEAL WAS FOR MAGAZINE COVERS, HICKS SAYS

Before Friday's lunch break in Donald Trump's criminal trial, Hope Hicks testified that after striking out with Jared Kushner in her bid to have the Wall Street Journal's story about American Media Inc. buying the rights to Karen McDougals story, she called Michael Cohen and then David Pecker.

Hicks testified that she didnt really remember what Cohen said to her, but there was a reason I called David next.

I think Michael sort of feigned like he didnt know what I was talking about and that we should connect with David to get more information, Hicks testified.

Asked about her conversation with Pecker, Hicks said she asked what was going on, why was I receiving this email?  referring to the request for comment shed received from the Journal reporter.

He explained that Karen McDougal was paid for magazine covers and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate and thats what the contract was for, Hicks testified.

HICKS TURNED TO KUSHNER TO TRY TO DELAY PUBLICATION OF MCDOUGAL'S STORY

Hope Hicks testified Friday that she asked Jared Kushner to try to delay publication of a story involving Donald Trump and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Hicks said that four days before the November 2016 election, she received a request for comment from a Wall Street Journal reporter for a forthcoming story about American Media Inc. buying the rights to McDougals story that she had an affair with Trump years earlier.

Immediately, Hicks testified, she reached out to Kushner  in hopes he could use his connections to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Journals parent company, News Corp., to help delay the story.

He had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch and I was hoping to see if we could buy a little extra time to deal with this, she said of Kushner.

Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, told her that he likely wouldnt be able to reach Murdoch in time, Hicks testified.

HICKS FIRST HEARD STORMY DANIELS' NAME IN 2015, EX-ADVISER SAYS

Hope Hicks testified Friday that she first heard Stormy Daniels' name uttered on Donald Trump's plane about a year before Michael Cohen struck a deal with the porn actor to silence her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

In November 2015, Hicks said, she heard Trump and some of his security detail telling a story about a celebrity golf tournament and some of the participants in the tournament and her name came up.

The way the story went, Daniels was there with one of the other participants that Mr. Trump played with that day, Hicks testified.

In the final weeks of Trumps 2016 campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006.

Trump denies having sex with Daniels.

HICKS ASKED COHEN TO HELP DIG INTO RUMOR OF ANOTHER TAPE

In the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tapes release, Hicks testified Friday that she asked Michael Cohen, then a lawyer for Donald Trump, to chase down a rumor about another potentially damaging tape.

Hicks said she wanted to be proactive in seeking out the supposed tape because I did not want anyone to be blindsided.

She asked Cohen to call a friend of his in the media  whom she did not identify  and ask about the existence of the tape and, if there was a tape, when the campaign could expect it to be published.

There was no such tape regardless, but he sort of chased that down for me, Hicks said.

ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE KNOCKED AN ACTUAL STORM FROM THE HEADLINES, HICKS SAYS

Former Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified on Friday that the political firestorm that ensued after the release of the Access Hollywood tape was so strong, it knocked an actual storm out of the headlines.

It was intense. It dominated coverage, I would say, for the 36 hours leading up to the debate, she said, referring to an important debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton that Donald Trump had been preparing for when the news broke.

Hicks said that at the time she received an email from a Washington Post reporter around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2016, informing her of the looming publication of a story revealing the tape, the news was dominated by a Category 4 hurricane that was charging toward the east coast.

I dont think anybody remembers where that hurricane hit, Hicks said.

Hurricane Matthew, which had hit Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 storm earlier in the week, made landfall in the U.S. in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Oct. 8, the day after the tape was made public.

Hicks also testified that Trump's initial opinion on the tape's leak was that he felt this wasnt good, but it was also like two guys talking privately, locker room talk.

It wasnt anything to get so upset over, she said of Trumps feelings. Certainly he didnt want to upset anybody. He felt like this was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other.

HOW REPUBLICANS REACTED TO THE ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money case read through a series of statements on Friday put out by prominent Republicans  including U.S. Sens. John McCain and Mitt Romney  in response to the Access Hollywood tape, asking Hicks whether she recalled the various condemnations.

She appeared increasingly irritated by the line of questioning as it went on.

Asked about remarks from then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan calling the tape sickening, Hicks replied tersely: I dont remember that but it sounds like something he would say.

HICKS DESCRIBES HER RESPONSE TO ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE

Jurors in Donald Trump's hush money case saw on Friday a transcript in court of the infamous Access Hollywood tape, as prosecutors asked Hicks to describe her reaction to learning about the tapes existence from a reporter seeking comment.

I was concerned, very concerned, Hicks said, speaking slowly. Yeah. I was concerned about the contents of the email. I was concerned about the lack of time to respond. I was concerned that we had a transcript but not the tape. There was a lot at play.

Hicks said she forwarded the request to other campaign leadership, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, with the recommendation to deny, deny, deny.

The transcript of the conversation, which was attached in an email from a Washington Post reporter, was not read aloud in court but was shown on monitors visible to jurors. Hicks was asked to read portions of the transcript to herself before responding.

Trump sat stone-faced as the transcript appeared on screen, whispering at points to his lawyers.

HICKS RECALLS TRUMP'S INTERACTIONS WITH TABLOID PUBLISHER

Hope Hicks testified Friday that she doesnt remember if she was involved in the August 2015 meeting where David Pecker, then publisher of the National Enquirer, said he told Donald Trump and Michael Cohen hed be the eyes and ears of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

I dont have a recollection of that, but its certainly possible, Hicks said.

Pecker testified last week that Hicks was present for some of the meeting, and Hicks said Friday that shed frequently pop in and out of Trumps office while he was meeting with other people.

Hicks recalled some of Trumps other interactions with Pecker, including phone calls in which the then-candidate praised the publisher for articles critical of his political rivals.

She testified that she had a vivid recollection of hearing Trump on the phone with Pecker congratulating him on a National Enquirer article about medical malpractice allegations against Dr. Ben Carson. Another time, Trump called Pecker to compliment a negative article about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

JURY GIVEN TRUMP RESPONSES TO ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE

Before Hope Hicks took the stand on Friday, the court saw and heard some of Donald Trumps responses to the release of the Access Hollywood tape in October 2016.

They included a video he posted to Twitter, now known as the social platform X, in which he apologized and called the video a distraction from important issues we face today, and a tweet in which he called his comments in the 2005 video locker room remarks.

Jurors also heard about a March 2023 Truth Social post in which Trump said he did nothing wrong and included a derogatory nickname for Stormy Daniels. In the post, he referred to Michael Cohen, his ex-lawyer, as a convicted liar and felon jailbird and stated: Never had an affair with her. Just another false acquisition by a sleazebag.

In another social media post, he maintained Nothing ever happened with these women and No one has more respect for women than me.

HICKS DETAILS FOLLOWING TRUMP FROM REAL ESTATE TO POLITICS

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo used the start of Hope Hicks testimony Friday to give jurors a window into Donald Trumps real estate company, the Trump Organization, including its personnel and even the physical layout of its offices.

Colangelo also quizzed her on other Trump Organization figures, including Trumps longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, his former executive assistant Rhona Graff, ex-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and ex-lawyer turned key trial figure Michael Cohen. He also asked her to describe what she meant by the 26th floor, the section of Trump Tower where Trump and other executives had their offices.

Hicks also described the sudden transition from working for the Trump Organization to working for Trumps presidential campaign.

Mr. Trump one day said were going to Iowa and I didnt really know why, Hicks recalled.

When Trump later said she would be his press secretary, Hicks said her first thought was that he might be joking.

I had no experience and worked at the company, not the campaign, so I didnt take it very seriously, she said. Eventually I started spending so much time on the campaign that I became a member of the campaign and I was the press secretary.

HICKS CALLS TRUMP A VERY HARD WORKER

After taking the stand in Donald Trump's hush money trial Friday morning, Hope Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms, complimenting him multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony.

She described him as a very good multi-tasker, a very hard worker.

Asked by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo who she reported to while working as communications director for the Trump Organization, Hicks said, Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump. Its a big successful company but its really run like a small family business in some ways.

Hicks, who currently has her own communications consulting firm, is testifying under a subpoena and, unlike other former Trump employees, is paying her lawyers herself.

FORMER TRUMP ADVISER HOPE HICKS TAKES THE STAND

Hope Hicks, who served as Donald Trumps 2016 campaign press secretary and went on to hold various roles in his White House, took the witness stand in his New York hush money case on Friday.

Her testimony on the trials 11th day was the latest in a frenzied second week of witness testimony and followed that of forensic analyst Douglas Daus and paralegal Georgia Longstreet.

TRUMP PAYS GAG ORDER FINE

Donald Trump has paid his $9,000 fine for violating the gag order in his hush money criminal trial.

The former president paid the penalty Thursday, ahead of a Friday deadline. Trumps legal team supplied the court clerks office with two cashiers checks  one for $2,000 and one for $7,000.

Judge Juan M. Merchan ordered Trump to pay the fine after holding him in contempt of court and finding that posts he made online about his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, porn actor Stormy Daniels and the composition of the jury had violated the gag order.

Merchan is currently weighing a prosecution request to hold Trump in contempt again and fine him $1,000 for each of four more alleged violations from last week. Merchan has warned Trump that he could be jailed if he keeps breaching the gag order.

PARALEGAL SAYS SHE USED NATIONAL ARCHIVES TO VERY TRUMP'S SOCIAL ACCOUNTS

A government agency at the heart of Donald Trumps separate classified documents criminal case got a name drop at his New York hush money trial on Friday.

Georiga Longstreet testified that she used the National Archives and Records Administrations archive of the official presidential account on Twitter, now known as the social platform X, to help verify the authenticity of Trumps account.

Longstreet noted that Trumps official government account, @POTUS45, frequently reposted posts from Trumps @realdonaldtrump account.

There was no visible reaction from Trump to the mention of the National Archives, whose pursuit of records he took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his 2020 election loss led to charges alleging that he illegally hoarded classified documents.

PARALEGAL FROM MANHATTAN DA'S OFFICE CALLED TO THE STAND

Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal with the Manhattan district attorney's office, was called as the next witness in Donald Trump's hush money case on Friday.

She has been assigned to the Trump case for the past year and a half and her role has been to review publicly available records relevant to the case, including Trumps social media accounts on the social platform X  formerly known as Twitter  Facebook, LinkedIn and Truth Social.

DEFENSE RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT KEY RECORDING PLAYED IN COURT

Picking up where he left off on Thursday, Trump attorney Emil Bove plied Douglas Daus, the forensic analyst, with a set of deeply technical questions Friday meant to suggest that Michael Cohen may have doctored a 2016 recording played in court the previous day.

As evidence, Bove noted that the audio cuts off suddenly, as well as gaps in the handling of the phone that Daus agreed were not ideal.

Prosecutors say the abrupt ending of the recording was the result of Cohen receiving another call. Under questioning from Bove, Daus said there was no record of an incoming call in the phones metadata  but said it would be difficult to say for sure without looking at call log data from Cohens phone carrier.

In many ways, were just going to have to take Michael Cohens word for it, arent we? Bove said.

Yes, Daus replied.

With that, Bove concluded his cross-examination.

TRUMP'S ATTORNEY INVOKES WEINSTEIN DECISION TO KEEP OUT EVIDENCE

Before testimony resumed in Donald Trump's hush money trial, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled to prevent prosecutors from showing the jury a photograph of Trump with Billy Bush and soap opera actor Arianne Zucker at the time of the infamous Access Hollywood recording.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche had asked for the image to be excluded from the trial, pointing to a recent court decision overturning Harvey Weinsteins rape conviction. In that case, the appeals court ordered a retrial because the judge had allowed testimony at trial unrelated to the allegations.

Merchan said the appeals court decision doesnt really factor into this case, noting that the ruling had not laid out any new law, but nevertheless agreed to block prosecutors from introducing the photograph.

Prosecutors had said the image would help establish the timeline of the revelations about the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump could be heard bragging about grabbing women without permission.

Merchan has previously ruled the 2005 tape cannot be played in court for jurors, but said prosecutors can still question witnesses about the recording.

JUDGE CLARIFIES THAT GAG ORDER WON'T STOP TRUMP FROM TESTIFYING

Judge Juan M. Merchan started the trial day also by clarifying that Donald Trumps gag order doesnt prohibit him from testifying on his own behalf, apparently responding to comments the former president made after court the day before.

The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way, Merchan said, adding that the order does not in any way limit what Trump says on the witness stand.

Merchan directed his comments to Trump and his lawyers, saying it had come to his attention that there may have been a misunderstanding regarding the order.

TRUMP SPEAKS ABOUT GAG ORDER, TESTIFYING

Speaking to reporters before heading into court on Friday, Donald Trump clarified comments he made the day before about his gag order, saying it does not stop him from testifying in the case but it does keep him from talking about people and responding when they say things about me.

After court adjourned on Thursday, Trump had responded to questions about what hed thought of the days testimony.

Im not allowed to testify. Im under a gag order, he said, causing some confusion. The gag order bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.

He also commented on the latest job numbers showing that U.S. employers scaled back hiring in April and said theyre horrible.

TRUMP ARRIVES AT COURTHOUSE

Donald Trump has arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan for the 11th day of his hush money trial.

___

The introduction has been updated to correct the spelling of the last name of forensic analyst Douglas Daus, from Daul.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  The FEND Off Fentanyl Act, passed by the House and the Senate, is designed to help combat the ongoing opioid crisis by targeting the fentanyl supply chain.

The new law was part of the bipartisan national security package.

Law enforcement says Fentanyl is one of the deadliest drugs on the market.

Gary Wolske, president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, says the manufacturing and use of the drug is growing.

People are dying at a rapid rate, Wolske said. It itself is being laced in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana.

And contact with a dose smaller than the size of a penny can kill.

To help combat the ongoing fentanyl crisis, Wolske is praising lawmakers for passing the Fend Off Fentanyl Act.

Weve taken a huge step, I believe, in protecting not only the citizens of the community, but also law enforcement officers as well, Wolske said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) co-sponsored the bill.

Its a public health crisis and we need all hands on deck, Scott said.

The new law will crack down on criminal organizations from chemical suppliers in China to the Mexican cartels.

President Biden, today, can do a better job of bringing both Mexico and China to the table to solve the problem that is devastating, Scott said.

Brown says this new law targets manufacturers financial assets.

We attack where this starts being made by going after their profits, Brown said.

Government data shows 80,000 Americans died last year of an opioid overdose and many of them were fentanyl related.

Specifically, the legislation will:

Declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency.

Require the President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking.

Enable the President to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to further law enforcement efforts.

Enhance the ability to enforce sanctions violations thereby making it more likely that people who defy U.S. law will be caught and prosecuted.

Require the administration to report to Congress on actions the U.S. government is taking to reduce the international trafficking of fentanyl and related opioids.

Allow the Treasury Department to utilize special measures to combat fentanyl-related money laundering.

Require the Treasury Department to prioritize fentanyl-related suspicious transactions and include descriptions of drug cartels financing actions in Suspicious Activity Reports.

Scott says there are things President Biden could do now to enhance the law.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
Rep. Bruce Cozart (L) and Sen. Terry Rice (R) listen to Arkansas Board of Election Commissioner Director Chris Madison discuss a new voter registration rule during a legislative committee meeting on May 2, 2024. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)

An Arkansas legislative committee on Thursday reviewed and approved an emergency rule that permits electronic signatures on voter registration applications only when theyre completed at certain state agencies.

The Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners last week gave initial approval to the rule, which requires paper registration applications to include a wet signature, meaning an applicant signs with a pen.

Board Director Chris Madison told the Arkansas Legislative Councils Executive Subcommittee on Thursday that the rule was designed to create consistency because electronic signatures were being accepted by some county clerks and rejected by others.

According to the rule, electronic signatures are permitted at agencies that are identified in Amendment 51 of the Arkansas Constitution that are specifically authorized to use computer processes as part of its interaction with customers and program recipients.

Authorized agencies include the Office of Driver Services of the Revenue Division of the Department of Finance and Administration, State Revenue Offices, public assistance agencies and disability agencies.

Little Rock Democrat Rep. Joy Springer questioned if the new rule would be a deterrent to voting. Madison responded it would not because the rule adopts what we have been doing for the last 20 years for voter registration applications.

It has required a wet signature, it doesnt affect the ability to register through DMV, which is quite frankly the largest area that we get registrations from, Madison said. This rule doesnt prevent a voter applicant from contacting a county clerk and completing their application with the county clerk. This doesnt prohibit an applicant from filling it out, printing it and signing it and sending it in. This is just so that voter applicants in each county are treated the same.

Former state legislator Joyce Elliott disagreed and told the Advocate after the meeting that the end result of the new rule will be suppressing peoples votes. Elliott is the founder of Get Loud Arkansas, a nonprofit focused on increasing voter turnout through initiatives like voter registration. Arkansas has the lowest voter registration and turnout rates in national elections, according to a 2023 National Conference on Citizenship report.

The new rule directly impacts the work of Get Loud Arkansas, which has used an online portal to help register around 500 voters in 63 counties since the start of the year. Elliott said Thursdays meeting still failed to offer clarity as to the validity of these voters applications, which she said had already been approved by county clerks.

They just created more chaos today than we had in the first place, she said.

Elliott said her organization will seek further clarity from officials and help Arkansans re-register if their voter applications are deemed invalid. Get Loud Arkansas is also considering taking legal action.

We are not going to back down from this, Elliott said. We will fight right through it because theyre wrong and the people of Arkansas deserve better and were going to get better.

The emergency rule will go into effect Saturday and be in effect for 120 days. The Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners will next work on a permanent rule that will require a 30-day comment period and a public hearing.

The post Lawmakers approve voter registration signature rule appeared first on Arkansas Advocate.
Christian Dedmon, a former Rankin County sheriff's deputy and one of six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who pleaded guilty to a long list of state and federal charges, enters a courtroom on April 10 in Brandon, Mississippi, to hear victims' statements prior to being sentenced in the 2023 torture of two Black men. The judge gave the ex-officers yearslong sentences that were shorter than the federal sentences they'd already received. Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

A Black man in Mississippi filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging a former officer in the high-profile and highly scrutinized Mississippi Goon Squad in Rankin County and several other law enforcement officers set a police dog on him while he was handcuffed on the ground in 2021, resulting in several injuries.

Bobbie Adams, 41, alleged in the suit that Tony Shack, a Rankin County sheriffs officer, unleashed his dog VooDoo on Adams after a police chase. The suit says that Christian Dedmon, an investigator with the department, falsified a report about the incident.

The Rankin County Sheriffs Office did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment on the lawsuit.

Dedmon is one of six Goon Squad officers sentenced last month by a federal judge for torturing two other Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. Dedmon received a 40-year prison sentence.

On May 1, 2021, Adams attempted to flee deputies on foot after being caught selling methamphetamine to an informant, but he surrendered after seeing six officers on the scene in a wooded area. Officers pointed a gun at Adams while handcuffing him in a subdued position on the ground, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says that while Adams was handcuffed with several officers surrounding him, Shack ordered VooDoo to attack and bite him.

As Defendant Shack held VooDoos leash, the dog began to attack the handcuffed and compliant Plaintiff, biting and chewing upon the Plaintiffs legs and feet repeatedly, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that it took eight minutes from when Adams was handcuffed for deputies to radio in that he needed medical attention and 13 minutes for dispatchers to say that a police dog had been released.

Dedmons subsequent police report said that Adams kicked at the dog and that caused him to bite him several times, including on his foot, which the lawsuit said is false. Another deputy reportedly told medical personnel that Adams hurt his foot running from the officers.

The suit does not name the other officers, besides Shack and Dedmon, who were at the scene.

Adams and his attorney requested all information from the investigative file of the incident, but the sheriffs office denied the request, the suit claims.

No body camera footage has been released of the incident. Adams attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Trent Walker, an attorney who represented Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, told HuffPost the lawsuit will be the first of many against Rankin County deputies and that he believes Sheriff Bryan Bailey is to blame.

The allegations in this lawsuit just go to further prove the longstanding customs, patterns and practices of the Rankin County Sheriffs Department, particularly under the tenure of Sheriff Bryan Bailey, Walker told HuffPost.

These allegations show that violence has been endemic to the culture of the department for decades. It is long past time that these all-too-frequent incidents cease to be treated with a wink and a nod by those in power in Rankin County.

Several of the white officers who belonged to the self-proclaimed Goon Squad were connected with recent incidents of abuse and using excessive force against residents of Rankin County.

Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey speaks at an employer engagement forum on Nov. 4, 2021, in Jackson, Mississippi. The sheriff is facing calls to resign after five of his former deputies were recently sentenced for their actions as part of an abusive "goon squad." Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

In 2022, Dedmon also beat and shocked a man and then fired a gun toward his head in order to coerce him into a confession. Other officers, Hunter Elward and Daniel Opdyke, failed to intervene in the incident, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Attorneys and residents claim Sheriff Bailey is responsible for the corrupt squad of officers existing under his command. Bailey has publicly denied having any knowledge of the behavior of the officers who were sentenced.

Rankin County residents have protested, demanding that Bailey immediately resign or be removed from office.

Bailey was reelected as sheriff last year in an unopposed election.

Related...
* China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

* After it reaches the moon, it will make a soft landing on the far side. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

* The Chang'e-6 mission is carrying four payloads developed through international cooperation, providing more opportunities for the world's scientists and merging human expertise in space exploration.

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday launched the Chang'e-6 spacecraft to collect and return samples from the moon's mysterious far side -- the first endeavor of its kind in the history of human lunar exploration.

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasted off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the coast of China's southern island province of Hainan at 5:27 p.m. (Beijing Time).

Approximately 37 minutes after liftoff, the Chang'e-6 spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered its planned Earth-moon transfer orbit, which had a perigee altitude of 200 kilometers and an apogee altitude of about 380,000 kilometers, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The launch of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft was a complete success, the CNSA announced.

A Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

"Collecting and returning samples from the far side of the moon is an unprecedented feat. Now we know very little about the moon's far side. If the Chang'e-6 mission can achieve its goal, it will provide scientists with the first direct evidence to understand the environment and material composition of the far side of the moon, which is of great significance," said Wu Weiren, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration program.

"However, the mission is very difficult and risky. We are looking forward to its success," Wu said.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft, like its predecessor Chang'e-5, comprises an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner.

After it reaches the moon, it will make a soft landing on the far side. Within 48 hours after landing, a robotic arm will be extended to scoop rocks and soil from the lunar surface, and a drill will bore into the ground. Scientific detection work will be carried out simultaneously.

After the samples are sealed in a container, the ascender will take off from the moon and dock with the orbiter in lunar orbit. The returner will then carry the samples back to Earth, landing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The entire flight is expected to last about 53 days, the CNSA said.

MOON'S TWO FACES

As the moon's revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, the same side always faces Earth. The other face, most of which cannot be seen from Earth, is called the far side or "dark side" of the moon. This term doesn't refer to visible darkness, but rather the mystery shrouding the moon's largely unexplored terrain.

Remote-sensing images show the moon's two sides are very different. The near side is relatively flat, while the far side is thickly dotted with impact craters of different sizes and has much fewer lunar mares than the near side. Scientists infer that the lunar crust on the far side is much thicker than that on the near side. But why that is so remains a mystery.

This far infrared photo taken by Tiandu-2 satellite camera on April 8, 2024 shows the Moon (L) and the Earth. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

An impact crater known as the Apollo basin, located within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon, has been chosen as the primary target landing and sampling site for the Chang'e-6 mission, according to Wang Qiong, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-6 mission.

The colossal SPA Basin was formed by a celestial collision over 4 billion years ago and has a diameter of 2,500 kilometers, equivalent to the distance from Beijing to Hainan, and a depth of about 13 kilometers. It is the oldest and largest impact crater on the moon and in the solar system, and it may provide the earliest information about the moon, scientists say.

The huge impact of the celestial collision that formed the SPA Basin may have ejected materials from the depths of the moon. If those materials can be collected and returned to Earth for study, they would provide new insights into both the early impact history of the solar system and the geological evolution of the moon, said Zeng Xingguo, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"First-hand, direct samples from the moon's far side are essential to giving us a deeper understanding of the characteristics and differences of the two sides of the moon, and to revealing the secrets of the moon," Zeng said.

More than 300 kilograms of lunar samples have been retrieved over the course of 10 missions carried out by the United States, the Soviet Union and China, and all were collected from the moon's near side, said Yang Wei, a researcher at the CAS Institute of Geology and Geophysics.

"Our understanding of the formation and evolution of the moon comes almost entirely from the study of lunar samples, and this study is also necessary for future deep space exploration," Yang added.

NEW CHALLENGES

"The whole mission is fraught with numerous challenges, with each step interconnected and nerve-wracking," Wang said.

In order to realize communication between Earth and the probe on the far side of the moon, China sent the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, whose name translates to "magpie bridge-2," into a highly elliptical lunar frozen orbit earlier this year.

This photo taken by satellite bracket camera of Long March-8 carrier rocket on March 20, 2024 shows the Queqiao-2 relay satellite (C) successfully separating from the carrier rocket with its solar wing and antenna successfully unfolded. (China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua)

Although the Chang'e-4 mission achieved the world's first soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, Chang'e-6 still faces significant risks as the rugged terrain of the moon's far side poses great challenges for its landing, space experts say.

The Chang'e-6 mission needs to see new technological breakthroughs in such areas as lunar retrograde orbit design and control, rapid intelligent sampling, and takeoff from the far side of the moon, Wang said.

The design of the Chang'e-6 probe is similar to that of the Chang'e-5 probe, which collected samples from the northern hemisphere of the near side of the moon, said Huang Hao, a space expert from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

But Chang'e-6 will land in the southern hemisphere of the moon's far side, so the mission will use a lunar retrograde orbit to adapt to its sampling task, Huang added.

As the Queqiao-2 relay satellite orbits the moon, the Chang'e-6 probe will be unable to communicate with controllers on Earth for some time during its operations on the moon's far side, said Deng Xiangjin, another expert from CASC.

"We conducted a comprehensive analysis of data from hundreds of ground experiments, and used artificial intelligence to improve the design of the spacecraft to enhance its autonomous control abilities and improve its sampling efficiency," Deng said.

"The amount of samples that Chang'e-6 can collect is uncertain and cannot be estimated accurately at present. Our goal is to collect 2 kilograms," Deng added.

BEYOND BORDERS

The Chang'e-6 mission is carrying four payloads developed through international cooperation, providing more opportunities for the world's scientists and merging human expertise in space exploration.

Scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency (ESA)/Sweden are aboard the Chang'e-6 lander, and a small satellite from Pakistan is aboard the orbiter.

After the Chang'e-6 spacecraft enters lunar orbit, the small satellite will be released to carry out in-orbit imaging tasks. A laser retro-reflector developed by Italian scientists will be used for positioning and distance measurement in future lunar missions, Wang said.

A lunar surface negative ion analyzer developed by the ESA/Sweden will be used to detect negative ions and study the interaction between plasma and the lunar surface. And a scientific instrument developed by French scientists will detect radon isotopes and study the transmission and diffusion mechanisms of volatile compounds in the lunar environment, Wang said.

A guest from France speaks at a workshop focusing on the international payloads carried by Chang'e-6 in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

China adheres to the principles of extensive consultation, joint efforts and shared benefits in its international cooperation on lunar exploration, and is willing to engage in multiple levels and types of cooperation with countries and international organizations around the world, on the basis of equality and mutual benefits, said Ge Ping, deputy director of the CNSA's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.

China has opened applications to borrow and study the lunar samples obtained by the Chang'e-5 mission to the international community, and welcomes scientists from around the world to participate in its future lunar and planetary exploration projects, Ge added.

Qamarul Islam, a professor at the Institute of Space Technology of Pakistan, expressed great appreciation for the collaboration experience with China. He said the relatively small countries who are not able to go into space on their own should be given the opportunity to do some space research.

"We are very proud to be part of this historic mission," said Pierre-Yves Meslin, Detection of Outgassing RadoN Principal Investigator from France, adding that he is looking forward to further space cooperation between the two countries.

"The very nature of space exploration encourages us to think of our planet as one, and encourages us to think of humanity together. It is absolutely key for us to continue our young journey out into the cosmos by working together," said Neil Melville-Kenney, Negative Ions on the Lunar Surface Technical Officer of ESA.

(Video reporters: Li Hengyi, Song Chen, Xu Penghang, Zhao Yuhe, Li Duojiang, Guo Liangchuan, Wang Junfeng, Xia Tian; Video editors: Hong Liang, Zhao Xiaoqing, Hong Ling) 
Lawyers for man charged with Madeline Sotos death asks to review evidence from prosecution

Lawyers for the man accused of killing a local teenager are now asking prosecutors for all the evidence in the case.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Stephan Sterns for first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto.

The teen was reported missing in late February.

Read: Stephan Sterns charged with 1st-degree murder in Madeline Sotos death

Her body was later found in a wooded area of Saint Cloud.

A local attorney says this request for the state evidence is not unusual.

Watch: I miss her so much: Madeline Sotos biological father speaks out about death, disappearance

Were talking about upwards of 50 to 100 witnesses, potentially people at the crime scene sometimes just people who were standing around, but the defense is entitled to know everyones names, said attorney Eden Self.

Attorneys for Sterns have asked prosecutors to turn over that information in the next two weeks.

Read: Madeline Soto timeline: Only Channel 9 speaks with Maddie Sotos father

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
A prominent surgeon in Gaza has died in an Israeli prison after being held for more than four months, according to Palestinian prisoners groups, which decried his death as part of a systematic targeting of health care workers.

Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was declared dead by Israeli prison authorities at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank on April 19, according to a joint statement Thursday from the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Commission of Detainees Affairs.

Al-Bursh was arrested along with 10 other medical workers in December during the Israeli military ground invasion of the Jabalya refugee camp, CNN previously reported. He was taken away while treating patients in Al-Awda Hospital, according to the statement.

His body has not yet been released by Israeli authorities.

The prisoner associations blamed Israel for his death, saying it was part of a systematic targeting process against physicians and the health care system in Gaza, according to the statement.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Palestinian doctor loved life

The death of the 50-year-old was heartbreaking news for everyone, for his family, the medical staff at Al-Shifa Hospital, and for Dr. Adnans patients, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Marwan Abu Saada, told CNN.

This is the last thing we expected, and its difficult for the human soul to bear this news, he said. Dr. Adnan loved life, was cheerful, and was loved by everyone.

Al-Burshs nephew Mohammad Al-Bursh told CNN in a phone interview that he found out about the death of his uncle at around 1 p.m. on Thursday from the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

I didnt know how to tell his wife and my father. News like this is hard to keep in We are shocked, more than anyone can imagine. We are in pain, he said.

The youngest of nine siblings, Dr. Al-Bursh wasnt just a doctor, he was also a sports adviser for the Palestinian national soccer team, his nephew said.

He told CNN his uncle worked nonstop during the height of the war in Gaza, only taking an hour in the morning to jog and play sports by the beach.

Palestinian surgeon Al-Bursh (left) is pictured treating a wounded Palestinian child at a hospital in Gaza. - Ministry of Health in Gaza

From October 10, 2023, he spent every moment he had at Al-Shifa hospital. He didnt even see his wife until probably two weeks later, Mohammed said.

During the first Israeli incursion into Al-Shifa hospital, Mohammad told CNN Israeli soldiers told the medical staff, including Dr. Al-Bursh that they could either leave the hospital and go south, or face arrest.

He followed orders and went south temporarily, eventually returning to the north of Gaza when he felt the roads were safe, Mohammad said. Dr. Al-Bursh ended up moving from one hospital in Gaza to another, each always falling victim to Israeli incursions.

According to Mohammad, Dr. Al-Bursh had the option to flee and take refuge in shelters in Jabalya but was determined to keep working. Until he was detained by Israeli soldiers on December 14 last year.

Mohammad said he tried to get information about his uncles arrest from authorities and lawyers but was kept in the dark.

Al-Bursh is pictured with his two children. Colleagues told CNN the doctor "loved life." - Mohammad Al-Bursh

Allegations of physical and psychological abuse

Just like Mohammad, Abu Saada said he had earlier asked Israeli authorities about Al-Burshs detention but didnt receive any news. Abu Saada was told that one of Al-Burshs fellow prisoners  who had since been released  said the surgeon had been tortured and was killed.

CNN cannot independently verify the claim that Al-Bursh was tortured in detention. However, testimony from dozens of Palestinians who have been released by Israel in past months has alleged the widespread use of physical and psychological abuse of those detained by Israel during the war in Gaza.

The IDF has previously said it treats all detainees in accordance with international law.

An unpublished report compiled by the United Nations which CNN has obtained describes beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and threats of sexual violence against both men and women detained by the Israeli military.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel released dozens of Gaza detainees via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel.

The release included the return of the body of Ismail Khadr, a Palestinian man from Gaza, who had also recently died in Israeli custody, the prisoner associations said in the joint statement. The total number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody since October 7 rose to 18, the statement said.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks when militants killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. Israels military response has since sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has inflamed opinion globally.

The seven-month bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 34,600 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Half of the 2.2 million people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation and man-made famine is imminent, according to a scale used by United Nations agencies. Concerns are also heightened over an anticipated Israeli military operation in southern Gazas Rafah, prompting renewed calls for a ceasefire.

There has been fierce criticism of Israels actions in and around hospitals in Gaza, as medical groups and NGOs warn the health system in the territory is on the brink of collapse.

Israel has defended its incursions at medical facilities in Gaza, alleging that Hamas fighters used hospitals to run military activities through a network of underground tunnels. Hamas and medical staff at various hospitals across Gaza deny the allegations, and Israel has been under significant international pressure to prove its claims.

Dr. Al-Bursh is survived by his five children, the youngest aged three, who hadnt seen their father in nearly five months.

I walked into the mourning house yesterday and saw two of his kids jumping around expecting to see their father. They didnt know that he was martyred, his nephew told CNN, struggling to hold back tears.

The last post Dr. Al-Bursh posted on X was a cartoon image of him wearing his scrubs in the midst of Gazas destruction, with a note in Arabic that read, We will die standing and we will not kneel All that remains in the valley are its stones, and we are its stones.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
At least 1 dead, 1 injured after house explosion in New Jersey

SOUTH RIVER, N.J. -- A house explosion in New Jersey left at least one person dead and another injured Thursday evening.

It happened just after 7 p.m. at a home on Continental Court in South River, Middlesex County.

Officials said when emergency responders arrived on the scene, they found two victims suffering from serious injuries.

The Middlesex County prosecutor's office said 62-year-old Kevin Gilbert succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Another victim was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for treatment.

CBS New York was initially told two people had been killed.

The cause of the explosion is unknown at this time.

Chopper 2 over scene of deadly house explosion in New Jersey

Video from over the scene showed the house had been leveled with debris blown in all directions. Pieces of the house could also be seen in the backyards of neighboring homes. It's not clear if any of those neighboring homes were damaged.

South River Mayor Peter Guindi told CBS New York all gas lines in the neighborhood were shut down and neighbors were evacuated.

A digging crew was brought in to get debris from the explosion out of the way to access the gas lines. PSE&G New Jersey said it was on the scene investigating and working with local authorities.

There were several road closures in the area surrounding the home.

Neighbors thought New Jersey house explosion was another earthquake

The blast was so powerful that neighbors could feel it from blocks away. They said it shook items inside their homes and rattled windows. Some thought it was another earthquake.

"It was a horrific sight, to see a house completely flat. All the houses around, the neighbors with blown out windows, cars, garage doors were pushed in," Guindi said.

"This was so powerful that it just, the house really shook. I really thought it was gonna be another earthquake," one neighbor said.

"All of a sudden, boom. I mean, boom, boom. Like, the whole house, we thought something fell on the house. We really did," another neighbor said.

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At least a dozen people are dead in northern Haiti, where heavy rains have triggered deadly landslides and washed out thousands of homes.

Most of the deaths occurred in Cap-Haitien, where heavy downpours on Thursday destroyed a home in the southern part of the city, Barriere Bouteille. The house then took out two other homes below it.

Initial assessments show 2,225 houses flooded and 15 houses damaged, Haitis Civil Protection office said in its latest situation report.

The agency said heavy and moderate rains over the last four weeks have affected several regions of the country but the second largest city, Cap-Haitien, has been hard it. Since gangs began launching coordinated attacks against key government infrastructure on Feb. 29 in the capital in hopes of bringing down the government, Cap-Haitien has increasingly become a place of refuge for those trying to escape the violence or leave the country through its Hugo Chavez International Airport. The migration, however, is creating pressure on an already crowded city.

A survey of the disaster shows that homes have been damaged or flooded and peoples livelihoods in rural communities have been severely affected. There have been significant losses in livestock, many of them washed away by the flooded Haut-Cap river in the north, the agency said. Farms have also been devastated in Cerca la Source in Central Haiti, and other damages have been reported elsewhere around the country.

READ MORE: Biden administration resumes deportation flights to Haiti amid ongoing violence

The Office of Civil Protection said regional departments of the GrandAnse, Nippes, South, Southeast, West and Center have been the most affected by the rains. Last week two women and a child were among those killed when heavy rains hit the northwest between April 26 and 28, causing flooding and landslides.

The latest disaster, at the start of Haitis rainy season, couldnt have come at a worse time. More than two months into an armed insurgency by warring gangs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti continues to remain cut off from much of the world and faces a humanitarian catastrophe amid the ongoing political turmoil and gang violence.

The international airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed to commercial air traffic since March 4, when major U.S. carriers canceled all flights in and out of Toussaint Louverture International Airport, and cargo boats stopped calling on the main seaport the day after.

The stoppage of operations, along with repeated attacks by gangs trying to take over the airport and seaport, have led to shortages of medicines, food, fuel and humanitarian aid. There are reportedly thousands of containers stuck inside the port, trapped by the violence. At the same time, over 100,000 people have fled the capital for other parts of the country that, although not experiencing heavy gunfire as in Port-au-Prince, are beginning to feel its consequences as hospitals run out of supplies and store shelves go bare.

The armed attacks, the United Nations said, are fueling the increased displacement of Haitians in the capital  now more than 90,000 and a resurgence of cholera. The World Health Organization reports that there have been 82,875 suspected cases since the waterborne disease saw a resurgence in October 20222.

Despite the dire humanitarian situation, which also includes nearly more than half of the population struggling to feed itself and over 1 million facing famine, the U.N. has struggled to raise $674 million for the response. During its most recent report to the U.N. Security Council on the crisis in Haiti, U.N. officials said barely 8% of the money requested had been raised.

Now the rains have added to the toll.

The Office of Civil Protection says there has been damage to infrastructure in the north, including the Marcellus bridge in the center of Cap-Haitien. Though the heavy rains are a problem, clogged sewers and trash piles have also played a role in flooding homes and streets.

In the Artibonite region, between Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince, several houses also flooded on Wednesday in Saint Michel-de-lAttalaye. The waters reached up to 15 inches in some places, the agency said.

In the southeast in Marigot, flooding damaged homes in the area of Peredo, located in Savanne du Bois. The municipal committee of Cerca la Source also documented at least 10 flooded houses while seven houses were damaged.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin on Thursday said the weirdest moment in Donald Trumps ongoing hush money trial was the former presidents legal teams brutal cross-examination of a computer forensics analyst who was ostensibly only in court to authenticate data.

Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, is accused of falsifying business documents in a bid to cover up payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election that intended to silence her over their alleged affair.

In a thread on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, Rubin acknowledged that many Trump trial watchers are still knee deep in the world of [former Daniels lawyer] Keith Davidson, where lurid details about people like Hulk Hogan, Charlie Sheen & Lindsay Lohan are bought and sold like candy.

She noted, But the weirdest moment for me was the cross of a guy who does cell phone data extraction for the Manhattan District Attorneys office.

NEW: I know many Trump trial watchers are still knee deep in the world of Keith Davidson, where lurid details about people like Hulk Hogan, Charlie Sheen & Lindsay Lohan are bought and sold like candy. But the weirdest moment for me was the cross of a guy who does cell phone data  Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) May 3, 2024

The Iraq war veteran who took the stand was just there to authenticate data taken off two cell phones provided to the DA by [former Trump attorney] Michael Cohen and came across as knowledgeable, earnest, and honest, said Rubin.

But he was still grilled by Trumps defense team, which is looking to sow seeds of mistrust because they need only one juror to find the former president not guilty, she added.

Trumps team suggested Cohens devices or data could have been manipulated and/or deleted by the FBI, she wrote. Cohen was Trumps fixer for years before being sentenced to prison over his role in the hush money scheme. He is now a vocal critic of Trump.

And heres where Trumps lawyer ended for the day: implying that a prior acquisition and extraction could impact the data the DAs office looked at in 2023 when it was provided to them, Rubin said.

The trial continues Friday.

Read Rubins full thread on X here.

Related...
UPDATE, 4:59 p.m.: The 3rd Judicial District Court has ruled that Layne Bangerter, the chosen running mate as lieutenant governor for Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman, is ineligible for candidacy.

Judge Bates ruled that the state constitutions language mandates that in order to be eligible to run for lieutenant governor, one must be a resident of Utah for the five years preceding the election.

No further information is available at this time.

ORIGINAL POST: WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC4)  The 3rd Judicial District Court will hold a hearing at 1 p.m. today as Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman fights to keep his chosen running mate for lieutenant governor on the ballot.

ABC4.com will bring updates on that hearing through this post.

Governor hopeful Phil Lyman sues Utah over running mates eligibility

Lyman chose Layne Bangerter for his running mate shortly before winning the Republican Partys nomination for governor last weekend. However, Bangerter allegedly does not meet the residency requirements to qualify for the race. Bangerter moved from Idaho to Utah in 2021. State laws note that a candidate for the race must have lived in Utah for five consecutive years prior to the election, meaning Bangerter would have needed to have moved here in 2019.

Lyman and Bangerter hope the matter moves quickly through the courts, as they want to be able to settle things before mail-in ballots are sent to voters in advance of the June 25 primary election. They claimed that ambiguous language in the state constitution would allow Bangerter to run.

Bangerters denial came at the recommendation of former Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell. Bell was selected in March to be an independent advisor for the governors race to help avoid election interference as current Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson was campaigning for re-election along with Gov. Spencer Cox.

While it appears that Mr. Bangerter has been a resident of Utah at various times of his life, media has reported, and Mr. Bangerter has acknowledged, that he moved to Utah from Idaho in 2021, and that he has not been a resident of Utah for five years next preceding the [2024] election, said Bell earlier this week.

Top takeaways from Utahs 2024 Republican State Convention, including Gov. Spencer Cox losing the nomination

Lyman and Bangerter sued the lieutenant governors office earlier this week. In todays hearing, the two will ask Judge Matthew Bates for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, according to court documents. The pair are suing current Lt. Gov. Diedre Henderson and Utah Director of Elections Ryan Cowley, specifically.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
Sen. Jeff Longbine, R-Emporia, supported deletion from a House-Senate compromise bill the forced exit by the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System from investments in China and other countries viewed as adversaries of the United States. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Emporia Republican Sen. Jeff Longbine, left, said Senate Bill 172 designed to strip real property in Kansas from citizens of foreign adversary countries was unconstitutional and a violation of the oath taken by every Kansas legislator to uphold the state and federal constitutions. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA  Republican Sen. Jeff Longbine says a bill passed by the Legislature stripping Kansas property from companies and individuals tied to China, Iran, North Korea and other adversarial nations was so profoundly unconstitutional that $10 million should be set aside in the budget to defend against lawsuits.

The bill would prohibit people or entities from countries of concern from acquiring nonresidential property within a 100-mile radius of Kansas military installations or comparable facilities in adjacent states. Anyone holding substantial property within the security zones must register with the attorney general and divest of the property unless granted an exemption by federal officials.

Attorney General Kris Kobach would be responsible for investigating reports of illegal ownership and for seeking court orders to force divestiture of property held by national security risks. A separate provision would allow those forced to sell property to file claims against the state for compensation if fire-sale transactions generated prices below fair-market value.

There is nothing constitutional about this bill, Longbine said. You cannot take legally owned land away from somebody. In fact, this is so unconstitutional that were going to bribe the affected party by paying them back their losses.

Sen. Ethan Corson, a Johnson County Democrat and an attorney, said the state-sanctioned dragnet would trigger a landslide of lawsuits. Flipping a switch to redefine legal ownership of property to illegal possession of property would justifiably raise due process claims and inspire breach of contract suits, he said.

In the Senate, the vote for Senate Bill 172 was 24-14. The tally in the House was 86-39. A veto by Gov. Laura Kelly would be a possibility. She rejected a related bill blocking government agencies in Kansas from acquiring drones made from parts manufactured in the same countries of concern.

Im here to spy on you

Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stilwell Republican who led House negotiations on the bill, said it was among the important pieces of legislation considered by the 2024 Legislature. He said he was part of closed-door briefings hosted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that outlined consequential threats posed by foreign nationals.

The exposure and the risk are very real, Tarwater said. This could be the most important bill that we look at this year, and probably in the last five years and maybe the next several. This is very serious to me.

He said the Legislature should follow the lead of Congress, which delivered bipartisan support for legislation challenging ownership of the video-sharing app TikTok. A bill signed by President Joe Biden offered TikToks Beijing-based parent company ByteDance one year to sell the company or deal with a U.S. ban.

Shawnee Republican Mike Thompson, the Republican who negotiated on behalf of the Senate, said covert operatives from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela had set their sights on harming the United States. Targets included value-rich military installations and other national security infrastructure. Beyond Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth and McConnell Air Force Base, Thompson said the state had to protect Kansas National Guard or U.S. Army Reserve facilities as well as infrastructure that included the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan.

Advocates of the bill expressed alarm with construction of a $94.7 million plant in Johnson County by Cnano Technology USA. The American company, owned by a company in China, would operate a 330,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, with nearly 100 employees, to produce liquid conductive paste used in power tools, cell phones and vehicle batteries.

Understand that China is a communist country, Thompson said. There may be some people here in the United States from China that do not have any nefarious intent. Its very difficult to identify the ones that are. Theyre not going to hold up a sign and say, Hey, by the way, Im here to spy on you.'

Thompson speculated securing a U.S. Department of Commerce exemption from the state law could be as easy as filling out an online form, but an attorney with expertise in work of the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States said a review by CFIUS was a lengthy and expensive process.

Do we just ignore the threats? Thompson said. With more and more of the open borders, weve got tens of thousands of military-age Chinese men crossing the southern border. Do we ignore that?

Heart of the bill

The bill, known as the Kansas Land and Military Installation Protection Act, would exempt anyone with a CFIUS clearance or a national security agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense. It wouldnt apply to citizens or companies associated with a country of concern unless ownership exceeded 10% of the value of a business or land in Kansas.

If divesture was mandated, the owner must register with the attorney general within 30 days of the divestures effective date. The foreign principal would have 360 days to sell the property.

The attorney general would be responsible for establishing by Jan. 1, 2025, procedures for reporting divesture actions in Kansas. In addition to annual reports by the attorney general, Kansas State University would compile a summary of foreign holdings of real property in the state.

Property protected by the 100-mile shield  an earlier version of the bill set the distance at 150 miles  would be defined as land, buildings or other structures owned or controlled by military departments as well as any other federal or state agency that is critical to the safety and security of Kansas or the United States.

The list of foreign adversary countries would be set by the U.S. government and include organizations on the federal terrorist list. However, Taiwan would be specifically excluded from any such a list. The bill wouldnt apply to U.S. citizens or the countrys lawful permanent residents.

Originally, opponents of the bill included Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Association, Syngenta, Advance Power Alliance, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association.

Legislative debate

Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said he was curious proponents of the bill included American Global Strategies and State Armor Action. He theorized they served companies poised to jump on business opportunities created by state bans on foreign property ownership.

This, to me, is another example of why our legislative process is broke, said Holland, who objected to the damaging influence of special interests. It waives a banner saying, If you are a foreign-owned entity and are thinking about doing business in Kansas  watch out.'

Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth, said the Legislature should work with federal agencies to reshape the bill into something that effectively assisted with identification of bad actors.

Despite representing a Senate district with a strong military presence, Pittman said he hadnt heard from any Department of Defense officials seeking intervention of the Kansas attorney general in the spy-catching business.

Hutchinson Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat, said the bill was built on the idea Americans should acknowledge spies were in their midst and the way to deal with reality was to strip them of real property. He recalled a dangerous era when it was common for the U.S. government to interrogate people about whether they were or ever had been a member of the Communist Party.

A lot of bad things in our history have begun with fear, Probst said. We dont have a great track record of behaving responsibly when were afraid.

Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican who served in the U.S. Army and owns the Baan Thai Restaurant chain, said the nations response to foreign adversaries did lead to mistakes in the past. He included among missteps the incarceration during World War II of people with Japanese heritage.

We do sometimes overreact and there are some dark spots in our history, Proctor said. I do not believe this bill falls into that category. He said anyone who didnt think China was interested in acquiring property near military installations to engage in spy activities was just burying your head in the sand.

House Majority Leader Chris Croft, a retired U.S. Army colonel and Overland Park Republican, said national security wasnt the exclusive responsibility of the federal government and the issue shouldnt be viewed through a partisan lens.

In my mind, this is about an issue of survival, he said.

The post Legislature adopts potentially unconstitutional ban on foreign adversary property ownership appeared first on Kansas Reflector.
Some people say they see parallels between the pro-Palestine protests by college students today and the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s, including protests at Kent State that led to the May 4, 1970, shootings.

As Kent State University prepares to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the May 4 shootings, some people cant help but feel a sense of deja vu.

Roseann "Chic" Canfora, who was an eyewitness to the events of May 4, said she sees many parallels between what happened in 1970 and what is happening today at Columbia University and other college campuses.

"I am sure other survivors were watching and holding their breath as they are watching things unfold on campuses now, especially in Columbia," said Canfora, whose brother Alan was one of the students wounded on May 4. "I see the dedication on standing up for the injustices they see.

A marker next to Taylor Hall at Kent State University shows were Alan Canfora was wounded by an Ohio National Guardsman on May 4, 1970.

Protests across college campuses broke out starting May 1, 1970, after the United States invaded Cambodia. In the days that followed, the Kent State ROTC building near the Commons was burned to the ground and windows were broken at several downtown Kent businesses.

On May 4, 1970, the tensions tragically culminated with members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of demonstrators on the Kent State campus, killing four and wounding nine.

Today, students nationwide have been demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war and demanding universities end their investments in Israel. Protesters and police have clashed at pro-Palestinian encampments at Columbia University and UCLA, drawing national attention. Pro-Israel demonstrations also have occurred.

The causes prompting the demonstrations more than five decades apart are different, but the student passion is familiar to Canfora.

I find it heartwarming to see them taking a stand on these issues, she said. College students have served as the conscience for the nation.

Kent State President Todd Diacon noted that similar protests over the Vietnam War also erupted at Columbia University in 1968.

"They even occupied the same building they are occupying now," Diacon said.

Kent States Students for Justice in Palestine is encouraging its supporters to participate in Saturdays May 4 commemoration to recognize the connection between May 4, 1970, and Palestine today.

Show solidarity with Palestine by displaying signs and symbols, the group posted on its Instagram account. Lets pay respect to the May 4th victims and their families while continuing the movement against US militarism and imperialism.

'The same rhetoric'

Ann Winter of the Kent State University Graduate Student Senate said she fears history may be repeating itself.

"We have seen before the aftermath and consequences of calling for law enforcement to act against peaceful protesters on college campuses," Winter said in a media release this week. "As the anniversary of the Kent State shootings draws near, we wish to bring the horrors of May 4th, 1970, to the forefront of the conversation.

We, the Kent State University Graduate Student Senate, urge all college and university administrations across the United States to remember Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. These are the names of the young lives lost on May 4th, 1970. These young lives, these students, are like yours."

Winter said the Graduate Student Senate condemns the way that several leaders at colleges and universities in the nation are calling for militarized police to their campuses.

"We are deeply concerned by the images and videos circulating of police brandishing firearms against students, faculty, and staff," Winter said.. "Its troubling to witness police using stun guns and batons on students pinned to the ground and faculty thrown onto cement sidewalks as they advocate for and protect students against police brutality."

Canfora said she felt the calls for the National Guard to come to college campuses had sinister echoes of what happened 54 years ago.

"When I heard Speaker Mike Johnson's rhetoric calling for the national guard to intervene, it was a chilling callback to the rhetoric to President Nixon, Agnew and Gov. Rhodes," Canfora said. "It's irresponsible to call for this against righteous dissent and peaceful protest. These means are not to attack peaceful demonstrations. We are so close to seeing the same rhetoric, the same results, pinning American soldiers with students."

Including peace studies in the college curriculum

The Victory Bell on the Kent State University campus.

Diacon stressed the importance of talking civilly, even if people disagree with each other.

One of the first things that Kent State University officially did after the May 4 tragedy was to create what is now known as the School for Peace & Conflict Studies. It was originally named the Center for Peaceful Change when it was established in 1971.

"This is an academic unit at Kent State that explores ways for people who are enemies and bring them together in productive dialogue," Diacon said. "It was an important role created for that time and has remained important since then."

The pagoda at the top of Blanket Hill next to Taylor Hall, which houses the May 4 Visitors Center, on Kent State's campus.

It makes sense, Diacon said, that people would turn to Kent State and take lessons from the university's past.

"We remember when conversation breaks down and violence erupts," Diacon said. "I think Kent State is an example of combining freedom of speech with a commitment to enhancing civic dialogue. They don't always go together; these things can be contentious. We know what happens when these passions turn to violence. It's the importance of learning when to agree, when to disagree, and keeping in mind the humanity of one's opponents."

Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Parallels seen with Kent State May 4 shootings, pro-Palestine protests
Letters to the Editor: Did USC make the right call and prevent violence on its campus?

Protesters are detained by LAPD officers who were trying to clear the USC campus on April 24. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles)

To the editor: USC President Carol Folt, so far, appears to have taken exactly the right steps. ("13 days that rocked USC: How a derailed commencement brought 'complete disaster,'" April 27)

She called for people to "share points of view, listen, search for common ground." But it is clear that some people are not willing to do that and will continue to demand that she side with them completely.

Meanwhile, while USC will not have a grand, campus-wide graduation, every matriculating student, with some guests, will have the opportunity to attend a smaller-scale graduation.

A "complete disaster"? No. A total disaster would have been if fighting broke out and people were hurt or even killed.

At the cost of some bad publicity, USC's prudent actions have avoided possible calamity.

Norman H. Green, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: As I read multiple stories about USC valedictorian Asna Tabassums commencement speech being canceled, I kept hoping to learn more about this young woman.

But the articles said the same thing: Her grade point average was 3.98 or above, she was chosen from among more than100 students, her major was biomedical engineering and her minor was resistance to genocide  and, oh yes, she is "pro-Palestinian."

After serving for 28 years on the USC's Commencement Steering Committee, I know that the students chosen as valedictorians are not only scholars but also contributors to the community in multiple ways. It took a little digging, but thanks to USC Annenberg Media, I now know that Tabassum follows in that tradition.

She was an early leader of Blueprints for Panagaea's USC chapter, which reallocates medical supplies to areas in need. She is also a student ambassador for the Viterbi School of Engineering and is a volunteer with the USC Mobile Clinic, which serves shelters on L.A.'s Skid Row.

I attended USC's commencement every year I worked there. Hearing multiple speeches from valedictorians, I often thought of how proud their parents must be. I am so sad that Tabassum's family won't be able to share their pride along with the rest of the class of 2024 because their daughter has been silenced and USC's main ceremony has been canceled.

Sue Vogl, Manhattan Beach

..

To the editor: USC may often be tamer than some schools when it comes to student activism. That was not the case in May 1970, however, in my third year (out of 30) of teaching at USC. For me, the present days brought back memories of that long-past month.

Then, when news of the May 4 shootings at Kent State University in Ohio hit the Trojan campus, ordinary business was over. There were passionate all-night student meetings, and during the day activists walked the halls and opened classroom doors, shouting, "On strike! Shut it down!"

President Norman Topping convened a huge meeting of students and faculty. He accepted the strike and announced a policy whereby students who wanted to spend the remainder of the semester opposing the Vietnam War could do so and take the grade they had to date. Others who wanted to continue classes could do that instead.

I can't help wondering what it would have been like if a similar policy had been adopted now  if, instead of calling in police, students on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been allowed to take their current grade and work for their cause, while others could finish the semester normally, leading up to a grand commencement representing everyone.

Robert Ellwood, Claremont

The writer is a professor emeritus of religion at USC.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Letters to the Editor: Kristi Noem killing her dog wasn't a 'tough' decision. It was lazy and selfish

To the editor: So South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is proud of the fact that she shot her dog. ("The women of Trump's GOP try to answer the question: Who's the most macho?" Opinion, May 1)

What's really frightening here is if shes proud of this incident, what sort of behavior is she not proud of? Calling her a sociopath is really not fair to sociopaths. My money says there's more to this story.

This is a cruel, vicious person who should not be let near dogs or voters.

Peter Scofield, Corona del Mar

..

To the editor: Noem said her slaughter of the playful dog she could not bother to train, or even give away, proves she can make the tough decisions.

No, it proves she can make the selfish, lazy, expedient decisions without regard to the interests of others.

Would she just drop a bomb rather than take the time to negotiate with another country?

Gwen Freeman, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: The governor of South Dakota personally executed her 14-month-old dog because the animal was "untrainable" along with a harmless farm animal because it was: "nasty and mean." She called these killings "tough decisions."

Yes, I understand, there are demonstrably worse things happening in the world today, but I wish I had never opened the paper that morning.

Doug Stokes, Duarte

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Protesters confront police officers near Columbia University in New York, the United States, on April 30, 2024. Dozens of protesters who occupied a building of Columbia University in protest of Israeli operation in Gaza were arrested on Tuesday night as New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were called in to clear the building, local media reported. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

A recent CNN poll found that 71 percent of American adults surveyed were dissatisfied with the Biden administration's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among those under the age of 35, 81 percent were dissatisfied.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The anti-war protests at over 30 American universities and colleges were going on Thursday, with further discontent sparked by the police's heavy-handed enforcement.

According to the latest tally by The Associated Press, over 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide.

On Thursday, more than 200 people were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest camp on campus, after refusing to leave the area as requested, according to the police at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday), authorities declared the camp an unlawful assembly and ordered demonstrators to leave. The university said that any students remaining in the camp could face disciplinary actions, up to expulsion, while university staff could face termination. After a standoff of about nine hours, hundreds of riot police began making arrests.

Photo taken with a mobile phone on May 2, 2024 shows police officers arresting pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in Los Angeles, California, the United States. (Photo by Yang Pingjun/Xinhua)

Since the arrest of over a hundred students protesting at Columbia University on April 18, many American campuses have seen similar protests, as students demand universities divest from Israeli-related companies and call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Police intervention has sparked conflicts in some cases, leading to widespread dissatisfaction with the authorities' heavy-handed, sometimes violent, enforcement.

In some states such as Florida, police used tear gas to disperse campus gatherings.

Earlier this week, a law enforcement officer who participated in removing protesters from an administration building in Columbia University discharged his firearm within the premises, Doug Cohen, spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press on Thursday. No injuries were reported.

Steve Tamari, a history professor specializing in Middle Eastern studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, said that he was arrested during a protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand.

People gather at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the United States, April 29, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Middle East Research and Information Project, an academic publication, said the organization is "horrified and angered to learn of the assault and arrests," noting that "police violence against peaceful protesters on college campuses has become an alarming trend in the last two weeks."

"We denounce police brutality and the militarization of campuses sanctioned by institutional leaders," the statement read.

In response to recent college protests across the nation, U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said in a brief speech that he supports peaceful protests, but vandalism, violence, hate speech and other chaos had nothing to do with peaceful protests. "Dissent must never lead to disorder," he said.

When asked whether the protests at American campuses have made him rethink his Middle East policy, Biden said no.

Despite that, the multi-day wave of campus anti-war protests is indeed a manifestation of young Americans' discontent with how the Biden administration is managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A recent CNN poll found that 71 percent of American adults surveyed were dissatisfied with the Biden administration's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among those under the age of 35, 81 percent were dissatisfied. 
On Wednesday, the Libertarian Party made an eyebrow-raising announcement about its upcoming convention: the headline speaker will be Donald Trump. For the little-noticed third party, which has mostly been overshadowed this year by more prominent independent candidates, it was certainly an attention-grabber.

It is unusual, to say the least, for the presumptive Republican nominee to speak at an event which is also slated to nominate a candidate to run against him. Its also bizarre given that Trump is, by any measure, the exact opposite of an ideological libertarian. But beneath the incongruity, there is a certain logic on both sides of this odd exchange.

Trump, for his part, obviously seeks to undercut a perceived spoiler threat. In 2020, the Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen exceeded Bidens margin of victory over Trump in several swing states. Trump has also previously complained that his loss of the national popular vote in 2016 can be pinned on Gov. Gary Johnsons Libertarian bid, which set a record for the party by taking 3.2 percent of the popular vote.

Libertarian Party Embraces Remorseless QAnon Shamans Run for Office

Republicans have long seen the Libertarian Party as costing them winnable elections, pulling away more GOP-leaning voters with its small government message.

For its part, the Libertarian Party aint what it used to be.

Through most of its history, the L.P.s free-market fundamentalism was paired with similarly radical social liberalism, advocating an open borders immigration policy, drug legalization, and LGBT rights.

But in recent years, the party was subject to a hostile takeover. Out went the traditional live-and-let-live tolerance, to be replaced with culture warriors drawn from the fever swamps of the alt-right and its allies. So its not entirely surprising that the new management has turned the partys convention into a literal Trump rally.

The L.P.s internal turmoil, in and of itself, can be rather tedious and of little interest to outsiders. But the Trump campaign might end up wishing theyd taken a closer look before accepting this particular invitation. In rushing to accept the implicit endorsement, theyve put their candidate on what might be the most overtly bigoted stage of his career.

Hate on Parade

In 2017, when then-President Trump was offering his infamous take on the very fine people at the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, others were playing out a similar reaction in miniature. The Libertarian Partys leadership including its national chair at the time, attorney Nicholas Sarwarkhad emphatically denounced the chants of blood and soil and Jews will not replace us.

Within days, an organization called the Mises Caucus was founded with the purpose of expelling such woke sentiments from the party. In a sick bit of irony, they took their name from free-market economist Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian-born Jew who fled the Nazis.

Did Putin Astroturf the Libertarian Ron Paul Revolution?

The caucus began taking over state parties, packing members into sparsely attended conventions. As they did so, they quickly started attracting negative attention for saying (mostly via party Twitter accounts) things that sounded less like liberty and more like the tiki torch brigade. Examples included equating COVID vaccines to the Holocaust with yellow Star of David patches, denouncing Pride Month as degeneracy, and telling a Black politician to pick cotton and go back to Africa.

Things came to a head in 2021, when a vote to expel the New Hampshire party over such antics failed on the partys national committee. In response, most Mises Caucus opponents walked out. Joe Bishop-Henchman, a nationally respected tax policy expert whod been elected chair of the national committee in 2020, resigned in protest, writing that he would not chair a party that has knowingly and now affirmatively chosen to stay affiliated with the toxic garbage being spewed by Mises Caucus-controlled states.

A year later, the caucus took control of the national party at its 2022 convention. Their first order of business was to delete a nearly 50-year-old platform plank condemning bigotry as irrational and repugnant.

The new chair, Angela McArdle, defined the new mission as fighting wokeism. In practice, this meant saying outlandishly racist things and then playing the victim when anybody objected.

Angela McArdle at the Rage Against the War Machine rally in 2023. Teddy Rosevelt Simp698/Wikimedia Commons

Background Check

The remade Libertarian Party embraced a wide range of bigotries, with a particular zeal for overt antisemitism. It also suffered a collapse in membership, revenue, and vote totals as longtime Libertarians fled.

McArdle, in an interview on Tim Pools podcast, eagerly promoted the German New Medicine conspiracy theory, which holds that Jewish doctors deliberately give white people cancer. She defended the Mises Caucus headlining a virulent Holocaust denier at its events by pivoting to praise him as a truth-seeker willing to ask why Jews control Hollywood.

The national party tweeted a version of the notorious Happy Merchant anti-semitic caricature to allege a link between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and disgraced con artist Sam Bankman-Fried, who have nothing in common other than both being Jewish. The party has long opposed foreign aid in general, but talk of Israel in particular soon leaned into the dual loyalty trope with statements such as Israel First is America Last.

This is the organization whose stage the 45th and would-be 47th President of the United States has eagerly agreed to share.

In his statement accepting the invitation, Trump praised the party as some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers and urged them to help him defeat President Biden.

Libertarian Republicans Love Local Control, Unless Its About COVID Safety

It would be fair to say, for all his controversies and own problematic statements over the years, Trump has never spoken to such an openly bigoted organization before. This is less like the very fine people comment and more like if hed showed up himself to speak at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. It is particularly notable at a time when Trump and his fellow Republicans have been eager to denounce alleged antisemitism on the left in context of the war in Gaza.

It might be unsurprising that a party transformed into (for all intents and purposes) a hate group would accept Trumps seal of approval. But its less clear if Trump, or his campaign staffers, knew what he was signing up for. The embrace of such an organization by a normal presidential candidate would be a major scandal.

It remains to be seen if, for Trump, it even gets noticed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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It's likely only a matter of time until Russia captures a key town in Ukraine, intel chief says

It's likely only a matter of time until Russia captures a key town in Ukraine, intel chief says

Ukraine is likely to lose the key eastern town of Chasiv Yar to Russia, a top intelligence official said.

Chasiv Yar's loss could open the gates to further exhaustive, long-lasting battles.

Russia is pushing for a big win ahead of its Victory Day military celebration.

Ukraine likely faces the approaching loss of a key eastern town to Russia, one of the country's top intelligence officials said.

"Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies," Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of military intelligence, told The Economist.

Much of the town in question, Chasiv Yar, is little more than rubble after more than a year of bombardment.

But its natural hilltop position has helped it serve as a staging ground for Ukrainian skirmishes on the Russian advance, helping block Russia's path to the last free cities of the Donetsk region.

Devastation in Chasiv Yar as of April 29, 2024. Ukraine Patrol Police via AP Photo

Chasiv Yar sits just to the west of Bakhmut, the doomed city that was pounded to nothing over almost a year of brutal siege until it finally fell in May 2023.

Bakhmut was considered of minimal strategic value.

By contrast, Chasiv Yar's high ground and proximity to important cities means huge potential gains for Russia.

The town, formerly of about 13,000 people, is the "key" that will "open the gate for exhaustive and long-lasting battles," military analyst Serhiy Hrabsky recently told The New York Times.

Its capture would put in reach of Russian forces the headquarters of Ukraine's eastern command, Kramatorsk, and the key supply hub of Kostiantynivka  both of which contain large civilian populations, the outlet reported.

As of last week, Russia had around 20,000-25,000 soldiers clustered around the assault on Chasiv Yar, the paper reported.

Russia needs a win in time for a national holiday

A year after the fall of Bakhmut, capturing all of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions is still likely Russian President Vladimir Putin's most immediate goal, Skibitsky told The Economist.

BAKHMUT, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 27: An aerial view of the city of Bakhmut totally destroyed from heavy battles on September 27, 2023 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Destroyed towns in eastern Ukraine once again the focus of recovery efforts by Ukrainian forces. Libkos/Getty Images

And the line is buckling.

While Chasiv Yar holds, Russia has carved a salient about 25 miles to the southwest in the village of Ocheretyne.

Russia is throwing "everything" at trying to widen the breach there, Skibitsky said.

That's in addition to the loss of Avdiivka in February, a few miles further south of Chasiv Yar, which has allowed Russian forces to creep further west.

Pressure is likely to build to boiling point in the coming days, Skibitsky said.

Putin is probably seeking a victory he can trumpet on May 9, Russia's all-important Victory Day military celebration.

For last year's event, Ukrainian forces strained every nerve to hold onto Bakhmut through that date, while Russia redoubled its "human wave" and artillery attacks, soldiers there told Business Insider.

Soldiers in Chasiv Yar may well face the same onslaught in the coming days. If they hold on, another key date is Putin's planned visit to Beijing a week later, The Economist reported.

"Our problem is very simple: we have no weapons," Skibitsky said.

The Pentagon said some of its aid could arrive in Ukraine "within days" of the recent aid bill. But, The Economist reported, in reality much of it could take weeks to reach the front line.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The investigation into the deadly carjacking of a Homestead woman who was ambushed at a red light in Central Florida has been a whirlwind  uncovering an underground network of drug trafficking that extends across Florida and Puerto Rico.

READ MORE: Drugs, money and murder: A look at the probe into Homestead womans deadly carjacking

On April 11, Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas had driven from Homestead and was stopped at an intersection near Winter Springs, a suburban community in Seminole County, when she was carjacked by a masked man pointing a semiautomatic rifle at her. Later that night, Guerrero De Aguasvivass body was found in her burned-out Dodge Durango at a construction site in Osceola County, just south of Orlando.

READ MORE: Homestead womans carjacking death unveils tangled web of drugs and murder beyond Florida

So far, five have been arrested in connection to the probe. Heres a look at the key people associated with the case.

Guerrero De Aguasvivas

Not much is known about Guerrero De Aguasvivas. According to Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma, the Homestead woman left her native Dominican Republic five years ago. She was married to Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, who runs Miguelito Barber Shop in Florida City.

A photo of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas posted on December 2023.

For at least some time, Guerrero De Aguasvivas, who became a licensed nail tech in 2022, worked at the Dominican Beauty Room Salon and Spa in Florida City.

The Homestead womans online activity offers a rare but limited glimpse into facets of her life. According to her Facebook, she possibly has two children, including a 5-year-old daughter.

Torres-Garcia

Jordanish Torres-Garcia, 28, landed on investigators radar because he owns the green 2002 Acura connected to Guerrero De Aguasvivas fatal kidnapping  and to the murder of a tow truck driver in Orange County the day before. He admitted to FBI agents that he was the masked carjacker caught on video, according to a federal complaint.

Jordanish Torres-Garcia

While questioned, Torres-Garcia told agents that before the carjacking, he met with someone who gave him an AR-15 rifle and $1,500 to deliver Guerrero De Aguasvivas to another individual.

Torres-Garcia has a history with the feds. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge and was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of probation. At the time of the kidnapping, Torres-Garcia was still on probation due to several violations.

Ocasio-Justiniano

Kevin Omar Ocasio-Justiniano, 28, is suspected of being behind the wheel of the Acura during the ambush, according to Lemma. Its unclear how the accused getaway driver came to the attention of agents during the carjacking probe.

Kevin Omar Ocasio-Justiniano

Ocasio-Justiniano, who also goes by Kevo, is a known drug dealer and member of the 6s gang in Orlando, according to a federal complaint. He was picked up in Puerto Rico, where hes being held on an unrelated federal automatic weapons possession and drug trafficking warrant.

Since 2020, Ocasio-Justiniano has been on polices radar in drug, burglary and assault cases, court records indicate. At the time of the fatal carjacking, he was on probation in Florida after a 2023 battery conviction.

Crespo Hernandez

Crespo Hernandez, who investigators say was one of the last people Guerrero De Aguasvivas spoke to as she was driving on I-4 around downtown Orlando, is being held without bond on state fentanyl trafficking and marijuana with intent to sell charges.

Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez

Hes currently not facing charges in connection to Guerrero De Aguasvivas carjacking.

Crespo Hernandez, according to a complaint, was the target of a 2020 Homeland Security probe in the Miami area that led to agents seizing more than $300,000. Hes also a known member of a drug trafficking organization and a person of interest in a series of home invasions and homicide investigations.

Romero Soto

Crespo Hernandezs live-in girlfriend Monicsabel Romero Soto, 28, is facing federal cocaine charges after agents say she took delivery of three bricks of cocaine  worth $60,000  that were found in a lamp in a package sent from Puerto Rico to a St. Cloud home in Osceola County.

Monicsabel Romero Soto

An agent testified that packages had been delivered to the address under names associated with Romero Soto since 2021.

Romero Soto, who moved to Central Florida from Puerto Rico in 2018, was released from detention after a judge ruled that she wasnt a flight risk  despite evidence of a substantial, long-running criminal enterprise.

The deputy

Francisco Estrella Chicon, an Orange County deputy, is accused of illegally accessing the personal and professional profile information belonging to the lead Seminole County detective on the case and sharing that information with Guerrero De Aguasvivas husband.

Orange County Deputy Francisco Estrella Chicon

Estrella Chicons wife is a childhood friend of Aguasvivas. The deputy was hired in September 2022 and has been relieved of duty without pay while the criminal case is under way.

Somehow theyve implicated myself with all these heinous crimes, Estrella Chicon told reporters. ...I just want to get my life back.

Aguasvivas

Aguasvivas, the Homestead womans husband, isnt currently facing any charges. But from the start of the probe, Sheriff Lemma told reporters he was skeptical of Aguasvivas cooperation.

A photo of Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, the husband of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas.

Aguasvivas told investigators that his wife was traveling to Central Florida to visit relatives. Further investigation determined that wasnt the case. According to Lemma, Guerrero De Aguasvivas called her husband before the carjacking and informed him that a car was tailing her.

Dont stop, dont stop, anywhere, Aguasvivas told his wife, who was shot to death that same day.
A memorial service for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Eyer begins at 10 a.m. Friday and is taking place at First Baptist Church, 301 S. Davidson St.

The processional begins at 9:30 a.m. at CMPD headquarters on East Trade Street, a third of a mile to First Baptist Church.

The processional march will include CMPD employees and other law enforcement personnel. Follow along below for live updates en route to the church.

Following the service, a graveside service is scheduled to take place at Sharon Memorial Park, 5716 Monroe Rd. in Charlotte.

Final resting at Sharon Memorial Park

Just before 1 p.m., the last of the procession has entered the cemetery as dozens of residents held U.S. flags, and placards thanking Officer Joshua Eyer and all officers for protecting the community 24/7, 365.

The last of the procession has entered the cemetery as dozens of residents held U.S. flags, and placards thanking Officer Joshua Eyer and all officers for protecting the community 24/7, 365. pic.twitter.com/8rnLDwZc32  Joe Marusak (@MarusakJoe) May 3, 2024

While many did not attend the morning service, they showed there support, including East Charlotte resident Bert Webb. At about 11:30 a.m., he held a U.S. flag whiling looking out onto Monroe Road awaiting the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer near Sharon Memorial Park.

Eyer will be interred during a public ceremony.

We appreciate what the officers do 24/7 for us, Webb said.

East Charlotte resident Bert Webb holds an U.S. flag as he looks out onto Monore Road awaiting the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer near Sharon Memorial Park. Eyer will be interred during a public ceremony . "We appreciate what the officers do 24/7 for us," Webb said. pic.twitter.com/AX8BjmVmWb  Joe Marusak (@MarusakJoe) May 3, 2024

Charlotte native Lara Kochaniec teared up watching on her phone as Ashley Eyer spoke at her husband, Joshua Eyers funeral.

Kochaniec and son Easton, 8, awaited the procession near Sharon Memorial Park. Officers run into danger to protect people they dont even know, she said.

By the end of the day, I was just broken, Kochaniec said. She has several lifetime friends in law enforcement and family who are firefighters.

Charlotte native Lara Kochaniec teared up watching on her phone as Ashley Eyer spoke at her husband, Joshua Eyer's funeral. Kochaniec and son Easton, 8, awaited the procession near Sharon Memorial Park. "Officers run into danger to protect people they don't even know," she said pic.twitter.com/MbDaPkcSZY  Joe Marusak (@MarusakJoe) May 3, 2024

Joshua Eyer service

 11:55 a.m.  As attendees began filing out, Gov. Roy Cooper and Charlotte Mayor Vy Lyles watch somberly, shaking some hands of law enforcement

 11:35 a.m . A rendition of Amazing Grace, by several pipers is now playing, following final words and prayers.  11:23 a.m.  The final speaker, Ashley Eyer, his wife is now addressing attendees.

Through intermittently choked up words and teary eyesWe built a life.. He will always be my very best friend. We did everything we could to not take it for granted.

When circumstances could have torn us apart we leaned harder together. He was so, so, good to me. I have never and will never question how much he loved me. And will carry his love for the rest of my life.

If you knew Joshua, you knew he would be there for you no matter what. Ultimately what I would want that to be his legacy (that he was a hero)  you see his real legacy as you have pointed out (gesturing to Andrew).

Andrew and I will be his legacy. Because undoubtedly being a father  if you really want to honor him please help me maintain his legacy to Andrew.

Joshua thank you for giving me a beautiful life and a beautiful son, we wont let you down ... I love you so much sunshine. Ill see you soon.

 11 a.m.  CMPD officer Nicholas Ferreira is now speaking about his friend Joshua, eulogizing him and then addressing Eyers son, Andrew, and why people get into this line of work. Ferreira is the first of a few speakers eulogizing Eyers.  10:50 a.m.  CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings is now speaking with attendees, grappling with what to say and sharing he spent time with Eyers family, Ashley and how she help me heal. And speaking how April 29 was a very tragic day that they lost four heroes.  10:48 a.m.  The Graves into Garden, band from the Elevation Church Worship Team begins to play a song.  Rev. Justin Wallace is speaking words of comfort to hundreds in attendance.  10:40 a.m.  CMPD Major Brad Kinloch now thanking law enforcement from several jurisdictions around Mecklenburg County who answered the calls from Charlotte as CMPD was on scene on Galway Drive.  10:27 a.m.  The Joshua Eyer service is underway, and a live stream may be viewed here . First Baptist Church appears to be at full capacity for Eyers services. Hundreds packed into the sanctuary as hundreds more watch online. Rev. Bob Wilton delivers opening prayer, following the National Anthem.





Processional to First Baptist Church

At about, 10:06 a.m., the processional begins to enter First Baptist Church, where services for Officer Eyer will begin.

Pipers lead the processional of officer Joshua Eyer outside CMPD headquarters to First Baptist Church on Friday, May3, 2024. Officer Eyer was killed while serving a warrant in east Charlotte on Monday, April 29, 2024

The processional begins, led by officers on motorcycles, as CMPD officers and other walk.

CMPD motorcycles lead the processional for CMPD officer Joshua Eyer, Friday, May 3, 2024.

At about 9:35 a.m., pipers prepare to march outside CMPD headquarters.

Pipers ready to begin at Joshua Eyer processional, May 3, 2024 outside CMPD headquarters.

CMPD officers and other employees march on East Trade Street in front of CMPD headquarters at the start of the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer, which began at 9:30 a.m.

Law officers line up for the processional of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Eyer on Friday to First Baptist Church on Friday, May3, 2024. Officer Eyer was killed while serving a warrant in east Charlotte on Monday, April 29, 2024

Law officers line up for the processional of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Eyer on Friday to First Baptist Church on Friday, May3, 2024. Officer Eyer was killed while serving a warrant in east Charlotte on Monday, April 29, 2024

At about 8:45 a.m., we meet up Trish Gotchev, who holds a Heroes are Never Forgotten poster outside First Baptist Church before the processional. Seated is Kathy Doty Queen and service dog George. They came from Fort Mill. Were here to support the officer and his family, Queen said. She has been camping out since 7 a.m.

Queens son  and Gotchevs younger brother  Mike Doty was a York County sheriffs detective who was killed in the line of duty six years ago. The women said police and others in the community supported them after their loss and they wanted to show similar support today.

Trish Gotchev holds a Heroes are Never Forgotten poster outside First Baptist Church before the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer. Seated is Kathy Doty Queen and service dog George. They came from Fort Mill.

Retired Sgt. Dennis Ryan, a volunteer with the Wilmington Police Department Pipe Band, along with other band members are now arriving at about 8 a.m., outside CMPD headquarters.

Retired Sgt. Dennis Ryan, a volunteer with the Wilmington Police Department Pipe Band.

At about 7:40 a.m., police have blocked parts of East Trade Street near CMPD headquarters and a caisson unit now has arrived.

A caisson unit has arrived outside CMPD headquarters for the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer.

Cassion Unit horses ready for duty in CMPD Officer Joshua Eyers processional on Friday, May 3, 2024

As the Queen City begins to awaken, at around 7:30 a.m., a Charlotte Fire Department Tanker 22 leaves a parking lot across from CMPD headquarters to stage near First Baptist Church for the processional.

Tanker 22 leaves a parking lot across from CMPD headquarters to stage near First Baptist Church for the Officer Joshua Eyer processional.

It was shortly before 7 a.m. when police cars began slowly pulling into a public lot on East Trade Street across from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters.

Inside the lot are two fire trucks and others pulling in with unmarked vehicles. Its not accessible to the public right now. In the distance is a woman with a bagpipe.

Her name is Melanye Brennan and she is a piper. She, along with the first police and firefighters, are arriving to a staging area across from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department headquarters for the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer, killed in the line of duty on Monday.

The first police and firefighters, and piper Melanye Brennan have arrived in a parking lot across from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department headquarters for the processional for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer.

UPDATE: Please see the following updates for outside agencies attending Officer Eyers memorial service tomorrow.



VEHICLE PROCESSION



Immediately following the service, a vehicle procession will escort Officer Eyer to Sharon Memorial Park (5400 Monroe Rd, Charlotte, NC 28212) pic.twitter.com/pdOJWP35ES  CMPD News (@CMPD) May 2, 2024

What happened in east Charlotte

Eyer, 31, was one of four law enforcement officers killed Monday, April 29, after being shot during a U.S. Marshal task force serving a warrant on a felon for possession of a firearm at an east Charlotte home, The Charlotte Observer reported.

The three other officers killed were Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott with the NC Department of Adult Correction, and US Marshal deputy Thomas Weeks.

From a home on Galway Drive, suspect Terry Clark Hughes Jr. fired at least 100 rounds from a high-powered rifle at officers and a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, killing Deputy Marshal Thomas Tommy Weeks and Department of Adult Correction Officers Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott.

Surrounded by his family, Eyer, died at a hospital.

Officers killed Hughes, 39, in the front yard and took two others who were in the house, including a 17-year-old girl, into custody. Charlotte police have said they are not looking for suspects, though. Police said they found an AR-15 rifle and 40-caliber handgun.

Four other officers also were wounded in the assault, and are expected to make full recoveries, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said Tuesday during a news conference.

An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a 40-caliber handgun were found at the scene, Jennings said.

On Monday, Joshua Eyer showed up to help for the final time. His friends say thats Josh.

More about Eyer

Eyer worked six years in CMPDs North Tryon Division and was a member of the 178th recruit class. Just last week, he was named officer of the month in April.

On Monday, April 15, North Tryon Division Officer Joshua Eyer was awarded Officer of the Month for his outstanding proactive policing efforts patrolling the areas of Sugar Creek, North Tryon Street & the I-85 corridor.

Before joining CMPD, he was a military police officer in the Army and served a tour in Afghanistan, his Facebook page shows.

He and wife, Ashley Eyer, had a 3-year-old son.

Hes going to be sorely missed in this law enforcement community, Jennings said Tuesday. He was the kind of officer you want when you need help.
Prosecutors called the former White House communications director as their next witness.

Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director once considered to be a confidante to Donald Trump, was called to testify on Friday in Trump's historic hush money trial.

Her testimony was notable in that it bolstered the prosecution's case that Trump's team went to great lengths to bury negative stories during the 2016 election.

When a defense attorney started to ask Hicks about her time working at the Trump Organization, she started to cry, prompting a brief break in the courtroom.

Earlier on Friday, two other witnesses  Doug Daus, a digital forensic specialist with the Manhattan district attorney's office who analyzed former Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen's cellphone, and Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal with the D.A.'s office assigned to monitor Trump's social media accounts  both testified.

Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who is among the witnesses expected to testify in the trial.

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER 28 updates What happened today Hicks, as seen in a courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) The most gripping testimony on Friday came from former Trump aide Hope Hicks. She recounted her experience as Trump's communications director during the 2016 presidential campaign, including her efforts to minimize the damage caused by negative stories about Trump. Hicks testified about an email she sent to campaign staffers regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump boasted about being able to sexually assault women. Deny, deny, deny," Hicks wrote in regards to questions of the tape's veracity. She also recounted telling the Wall Street Journal that it was "absolutely, unequivocally" untrue that Trump had sex with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. She made that statement at Trump's direction, she told the jury. But Hicks also portrayed former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, as a "rogue" employee. He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix-it, and it was only because he first broke it. As Trump's lawyers began their cross-examination of Hicks, she began crying, leading Judge Juan Merchan to dismiss the jury and call for a short break. Read more from Yahoo News.

What Trump said as he left the courthouse Donald Trump talks to reporters after court sessions ended for the week. (Doug Mills/Pool via AFP via Getty Images) Speaking to reporters after leaving the courtroom at his hush money trial on Friday, Trump said he was not allowed to comment on any of the day's proceedings. "As you know, I am under a gag order," he said before launching into a brief monologue railing against the ongoing criminal cases against him. "It's a terrible, terrible thing happening in our country," he added. "And hopefully Nov. 5  the most important day in the history of our country, in my opinion, that's called Election Day  hopefully it's going to change., because these people are destroying our country."

Hicks's testimony concludes and court is adjourned Trump watches as a video of his statement responding to the "Access Hollywood" tape is played for the jury on Friday in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) The defense concluded its cross-examination of Hope Hicks, and the prosecution had no further questions. After briefly consulting with attorneys from both sides, Judge Merchan informed the jury that court was adjourned until Monday.

Hicks testifies that Cohen tried to 'insert himself' into Trump's campaign Under cross-examination, Hicks testified that Michael Cohen tried to "insert himself" into Trump's 2016 campaign. Hicks, who served as the campaign's spokeswoman, said that Cohen "wasnt supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity" and wasn't looped in on day-to-day strategy. Instead, he would often go "rogue," she said. "He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It," she added, according to CNN. "And it was only because he first broke it that he was able to then fix it."

Cross-examination continues after Hicks returns to the stand The New York Times described Hicks as "still looking fairly upset" as she returned from the break. Bove picked up his cross-examination, beginning with questions about Hicks's relationships with the Trump family and her first job at the Trump Organization.

Hicks starts to cry as cross-examination begins When Trump attorney Emil Bove began to ask Hicks about her time at the Trump Organization, she started to cry. Bove asked for a break and Judge Merchan agreed and stepped out. Hicks and the prosecutors also exited.

Hicks says Trump told her to deny Stormy Daniels allegations Hope Hicks testifies. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) Back on the stand, Hope Hicks was asked if Trump told her what to say in the statement she gave to the Wall Street Journal in November 2016 for a story about Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. In the article, Hicks is quoted "unequivocally" denying that Trump had a relationship with Daniels. Hicks confirmed on the stand that Trump told her to say that.

Listen to the audio recording of Trump and Michael Cohen discussing the hush money payment to McDougal On Thursday, the jury heard a 2016 audio recording made secretly by Trump's former lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen of Trump discussing the hush money deals they made with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who was about to go public with a story of her alleged affair with Trump. On the tape, Cohen can be heard telling Trump, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, in reference to then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who paid McDougal $150,000 as part of an arrangement to bury negative stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign. The court released the audio of the recording on Thursday evening.

Court is back in session After a 75-minute lunch break, the trial has resumed, with Hope Hicks returning to the witness stand.

Lunch break Court is in recess for lunch and will resume at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET.

Hicks recalls when she 1st heard about Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels Hope Hicks testified that she first heard of Karen McDougal on Nov. 4, 2016, when Michael Rothfeld at the Wall Street Journal reached out. She said she forwarded Rothfeld's email to Jared Kushner because of his relationship with Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal. Hicks said she had heard of Stormy Daniels once before Rothfeld's email. She said that in 2015 she overheard security on Trump's plane telling a story about a celebrity golf tournament and that Daniels's name was mentioned.

Why the jurors won't see the 'Access Hollywood' tape Before the trial, Judge Juan Merchan denied a request by the prosecution to enter the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape into evidence, saying it would be prejudicial to do so. Merchan did, however, allow for discussion of the tape, which is why prosecutors are now asking Hope Hicks about it.

Hicks revisits the 'Access Hollywood' tape Hope Hicks, now being questioned about the "Access Hollywood" tape, recalls the email she received from then-Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold on Oct. 7, 2016. "I was concerned. I was concerned about the contents of the email," she said. "I was concerned about the lack of time to respond. I was concerned we had a transcript without a tape. There was a lot at play." Hicks added that she forwarded the email, which was shown to the jury, to campaign leadership, including Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. The New York Times reported that in her email forward she says, "Need to hear the tape to be sure" and "Deny, deny, deny."  Big picture: The Washington Post article made the "Access Hollywood" story public. It was damaging to Trump's campaign and influenced Trump's decision to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000.

Trump called National Enquirer hit pieces on Ted Cruz, Ben Carson 'Pulitzer-worthy' Hope Hicks detailed Trump's praises of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer. Pecker was the first witness called by the prosecution. The National Enquirer had run stories on Trump's GOP competitors Dr. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. Hicks claimed that Trump had called Pecker to congratulate him on the "great reporting" and said, "This is Pulitzer-worthy," the New York Times reported.

Hicks praises Trump as a 'very hard worker' Trump and Hope Hicks at the White House in 2018. (Mandel Nban/AFP via Getty Images) During her testimony for the prosecution, Hope Hicks spoke highly of Trump, describing her former boss as a very good multitasker and a very hard worker who had his hands in just about everything, particularly at the Trump Organization, before he became president. Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump, she testified, per the Associated Press. Its a big successful company, but its really run like a small family business in some ways. Hicks also said that as his campaign secretary, she would absolutely check with him before issuing statements to the press.

Trump pays $9,000 fine for violating gag order Earlier this week, the former president was ordered to pay $9,000 by Judge Merchan for violating a gag order that prevents him from attacking witnesses and court staff. The Associated Press reported that Trump paid the fine on Thursday, a day before Friday's deadline. According to the news service, Trumps legal team "supplied the court clerks office with two cashiers checks, one in the amount of $2,000 and one for $7,000." Merchan has yet to rule on four additional alleged violations of the gag order. He heard arguments from both sides Thursday.

Trump is alert while Hicks testifies Reporters in the courtroom keep mentioning how alert Trump is and how his eyes are glued" to Hicks as she testifies. CNN noted that Hicks seems to be avoiding making eye contact with him. Following observations from reporters that Trump appears to be falling asleep during the trial, the former president posted on Truth Social yesterday that he doesn't fall asleep in court but rather, "I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!"

Hope Hicks takes the stand: 'I'm really nervous' Moments after being called to the witness stand, Hope Hicks admitted that she was "really nervous." Hicks is testifying under a subpoena and is paying for her attorney. According to reporters at the courthouse, Hicks said she has not spoken to Trump since 2022 and confirmed they currently have no professional relationship.

Prosecution calls Hope Hicks as its next witness Hicks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Prosecutors have called Hope Hicks, Trump's longtime former aide and ex-communications director, as its next witness. Hicks served as Trumps 2016 campaign press secretary and according prosecutors spoke with Trump by phone about his efforts to shield the public from stories of his alleged extramarital in the weeks leading up to the election. She held various titles in the Trump White House, including communications director, before stepping down in 2018.

Trump's response to the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape played for the jury After a brief recess, the trial resumed with the prosecution playing for the jury a tweeted video of Trump's response to the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which he bragged about grabbing women's genitalia. "Anyone who knows me knows these words dont reflect who I am," Trump said in the video. "I was wrong, and I apologize." Just before the break, the defense agreed to a "stipulation" to allow a Washington Post article about the tape to be introduced without the need to call a witness.

Court is on a brief break Judge Juan Merchan has called for a short recess. When court resumes, Georgia Longstreet, the DA's office paralegal assigned to monitor Trump's social media accounts, will be back on the witness stand.

Paralegal testifies she's spent last year and a half monitoring Trump's social posts Georgia Longstreet, the paralegal, has spent the last year and a half compiling public information on Trump. She said she checks 25 to 30 Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Truth Social accounts every day and has reviewed an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 posts. Longstreet explained how she's saved certain posts  an estimated 1,500  using the app Snagit, a screen capturing and recording software. She also used the Wayback Machine, a digital archive that allows users to see updated or since-deleted web pages. Prosecutors are expected to introduce some of Trump's social media posts, so Longstreet's testimony is set up to explain social media basics.

Prosecution calls its next witness The prosecution has called its next witness: Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the Manhattan district attorneys office. She is being questioned by prosecutor Rebecca Mangold.

Defense concludes its cross-examination of Daus Defense attorney Emil Bove spent much of his cross-examination of Doug Daus  the digital forensic specialist with the Manhattan district attorney's office who analyzed Michael Cohen's cellphone  focused on what sounded like dry details about phone backups, syncs and factory settings. Prosecutors are now back with another round of questions for him.

Testimony resumes Daus in Manhattan criminal court on Thursday. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) Doug Daus, who processes digital evidence at the Manhattan district attorney's office, is back on the witness stand. He is being cross-examined by Emil Bove, one of Trump's defense lawyers.

Court is back in session The trial resumed Friday with Judge Juan Merchan clarifying that the gag order he imposed on Trump before the trial began does not prevent him from testifying in his own defense, should he choose to do so. Speaking to reporters outside court Thursday, the former president falsely claimed that he could not testify because of the gag order. The does not prohibit you from taking the stand or limit what he can say, Merchan told Trump.

What Trump said when he arrived at court Trump speaks to the press as he arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday. (Charly Triballeau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Speaking to reporters after arriving at the courthouse, Trump did what he has done nearly every day of the trial so far: rail against the judge, prosecutors and the criminal case against him while complaining that having to be in court is preventing him from campaigning. Trump also accused Judge Juan Merchan of allowing in the "salacious" details of his efforts to cover up his alleged extramarital affairs, part of what he said was an effort to "hurt Trump." "He wants to make it as salacious as possible," Trump said.

What to expect in court today Testimony in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Doug Daus, who processes digital evidence at the Manhattan DA's office, is expected back on the witness stand for more cross-examination by the defense.

Hope Hicks, Trump's former communications director, could be called as a witness by the prosecution as soon as today, the Washington Post reports.

Hicks is "expected to be pressed on her knowledge of a deal between the National Enquirer and Trump allies to bury unflattering stories about him during the 2016 campaign," the Post notes.

Court proceedings are expected to conclude at 3:45 p.m. ET.


POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK)  The Livingston Fire Department responded to an apartment complex fire on Friday, affecting eight to 10 apartment units.

PHOTOS: Boat rescues used in Trinity County mandatory evacuations

According to the fire department, they received a call at 6 a.m. of a structure fire at the Pine Hills apartments on 1025 W Church Drive. The fire department said no one was injured and residents were taken to a safe location. The fire was reportedly extinguished at around 9:45 a.m.

Courtesy of the South Polk County Volunteer Fire Department

The Livingston Fire Department was assisted by the Onalaska FD, Scenic Loop FD and Alabama-Coushatta FD.

Over the past week, Polk County was issued a disaster declaration and a mandatory evacuation order after determining the county was facing a significant threat to life and property. The county has been dealing with severe weather including flooding.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  A San Diego County pharmacy chain was asked to pay $350,000 after an investigation revealed it mishandled controlled substances, according to a release Thursday from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California.

The release said that Palm Care Pharmacy, a San Diego County chain with a storefront in El Cajon, faced allegations that it diverted controlled substances, failed to keep accounting records and sold pseudoephedrine chemical products without the proper training and certification.

13 vehicles impounded after sideshow takeovers: SDPD, CHP

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigated suspected illegal activity at Talimi International, Inc. which was doing business under the name, Palm Care Pharmacy.

Based on an audit of inventory conducted by the DEA, authorities found that the pharmacys location in El Cajon committed multiple violations of the Controlled Substances Act and the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act between 2018 and 2022.

Proposed Vista behavioral health campus moves ahead after unanimous vote

Furthermore, the release said as a result of its failure to track inventory, the pharmacy had pills that were unaccounted for such as opioids like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and tramadol, as well as Xanax and muscle relaxants like Soma.

Palm Care Pharmacy paid $350,000 to resolve the claims and entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA, which requires the chain to take additional measures to properly handle controlled substances, the district attorneys office said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) A federal effort to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug could impact the way local law enforcement and state prosecutors handle marijuana related cases.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have plans to move marijuana from a schedule I drug to a schedule III drug.

Marijuana has been classified as a schedule I drug since the Controlled Substances Act was signed in 1970. Drugs in this category are believed to be highly dangerous, addictive, and not for medicinal use.

The DEAs plans to reclassify the drug means the federal government would recognize its medicinal use and acknowledge that it has less potential to be abused.

15h Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said the potential re-classification would not impact penalties for possession in South Carolina and thats because, under state law, penalties for marijuana related drug offenses are already less harsh than other schedule I drugs.

Cocaine, simple possession would be punished at up to two years for first offense, heroin is the same, all of those are punished in years. Whereas marijuana, presently speaking, is punished up to 30 days for possession and for distribution, its zero to five years, Richardson said.

Even if implemented, marijuana will remain a controlled substance federally and its legal status varies from state to state.

The states have moved faster at legalizing marijuana, than the feds have. So theres sort of a tug, or a perception that were just going to close our eyes at the federal level and let you do whatever you want to do, its a state issue, said Richardson.

Richardson said legalizing marijuana has always been a hot political topic but there is a lot of misinformation surrounding the number of people who have been jailed for possession of the drug.

There could be people in prison for trafficking marijuana, or distribution of marijuana, but theres none for possession, not one in the whole state of South Carolina, Richardson adds that shows you that out of a state of 5 million to have zero people in there. It is not what theyre telling you that the prisons are full of people with marijuana charges.

In South Carolina, a bill to legalize medicinal marijuana now rests in Governor Henry McMasters hands.

The Compassionate Care Act has passed in both the state house and senate. McMaster has to decide to sign or veto it by May 9, the last day of the 2023-2024 legislative session.

Richardson said unless a provision in the proposed bill to legalize medical marijuana in the state, those with former convictions will remain on a persons record.

Imagine if 501 had always been 55 miles an hour from Conway to Aynor and suddenly next year, they changed it to 65 miles an hour, Richardson said. Well, me getting a ticket back when it was 55 doesnt change the fact that I broke the law at when it was the law.

The re-classification plan still needs to be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, then go through a period of public comment and review from an administration judge.

* * *

Savannah Denton joined News 13 in July 2023 as a reporter and producer. Savannah is from Atlanta, Georgia, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Follow Savannah on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.
City officials declared a public health emergency Thursday after a tuberculosis outbreak left one person dead and nine others hospitalized.

Health officials said the outbreak stemmed from a group of people who stayed together at a Long Beach hotel room.

As of April 29, 14 cases of tuberculosis (TB) are associated with this outbreak  nine of them required hospitalization and one case was fatal.

Investigators said around 170 people have likely been exposed to the illness. Health officials are in contact with any guests or individuals who were at the hotel during the time the infected people were present.

Tuberculosis is a serious illness that mainly affects the lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bacteria is spread through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

Tuberculosis spreads easily where people gather in crowds or where people live in crowded conditions, Long Beach health officials said. People with HIV/AIDS and other people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of catching tuberculosis than people with typical immune systems.

Symptoms of TB disease depend on where in the body the TB bacteria are growing, the CDC explains. TB bacteria usually grow in the lungs (pulmonary TB). TB disease in the lungs may cause symptoms such as:

A bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer

Pain in the chest

Coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs)

Other symptoms of TB disease include:

Weakness or fatigue

Weight loss

No appetite

Chills

Fever

Sweating at night

Most cases of tuberculosis can be treated with antibiotics. However, those taking medication may need to do so for around six to nine months.

The CDC also notes that not everyone infected with the TB bacteria will become sick. As a result, two TB-related conditions exist  latent TB infection and TB disease.

People who have been infected but are not yet sick have whats called latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), health officials explained. People with LTBI can take medication so that they do not later get sick with active TB disease.

The citys emergency declaration will streamline the Departments ability to quickly secure resources and take additional action to contain the outbreak, Long Beach officials explained. The population of concern requires outreach and engagement, necessitating significant staff time to perform multiple interactions. The Department has exhausted their resources to manage this response without an emergency declaration.

The declaration allows the city to implement preventive measures including:

Mobilizing City resources

Accelerating emergency planning

Streamlining staffing

Coordinating with other agencies

Expediting the ability of the City to purchase necessary supplies to identify and treat TB

Allowing for possible future reimbursement by the State and federal governments

Raising awareness throughout Long Beach about TB

The risk of TB for people who live, work, study or visit in Long Beach remains very low, city officials noted. The Health Department will continue to screen individuals associated with this outbreak and expects the number of cases and contacts to increase.

The hotels name was not released to protect patient privacy and comply with HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] regulations, officials said.

More information on tuberculosis can be found on the California Department of Public Healths website or through the CDCs website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Experts have slammed some Western countries' accusations of "overcapacity" in China's new energy sector, saying protectionist practices would have far-reaching negative effects.

Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said the motive behind the accusation is to curb the competitiveness of China's new energy industry and support their own industry through political intervention.

Cui said the intervention, usually with anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, would disrupt the global industrial chain, hurt consumer interests and delay emission reduction plans. It is not ruled out that there will be some further measures, such as imposing high tariffs on new energy products manufactured in overseas plants funded by Chinese firms.

The "overcapacity" accusation is widely seen as a typical double standard, as some Western countries continue to call for further opening of the Chinese market while introducing protectionist measures that discriminate against Chinese companies.

In 2018, China removed shareholding limits for foreign investors in the new energy vehicle sector. Over the years, China's new energy vehicle sector has developed rapidly, with fierce competition between foreign, private, and state-owned automakers.

The boom is supported by the country's huge market and complete industrial chain. Many foreign automakers have invested heavily in the country to take advantage of market opportunities and have improved their competitiveness through competition and exchanges.

Some foreign automakers, especially German ones, have established a close relationship with China's domestic industrial chain after expanding in the Chinese market for a long time. Imposing tariffs on new energy vehicles from China could disrupt existing partnerships and ultimately harm the interests of multiple parties, the expert said.

"German economy is highly exports dependent and oriented. So we believe in open markets, and I think that our markets have to be open," said Maximilian Butek, executive director and board member of the German Chamber of Commerce in China-East China. "We are willing to take up the competition and we have to remain competitive."

China's auto industry has been strengthening industrial chain and supply chain cooperation with other countries and optimizing the international division of labor to achieve common development, Cui stated.

China is a popular destination for foreign investment. Many countries also welcome investment from Chinese new energy companies, as their factories could bring jobs, economic growth, and the development of upstream and downstream companies.

China is a crucial contributor to the world's green and low-carbon transition.

To meet its dual carbon commitments and help fight the climate crisis, China has been vigorously developing its new energy sector. It has been the world's largest market for new energy vehicles for years.

It is also a major supplier of wind and solar power equipment and power batteries. It has driven down the cost of renewable energy and helped other countries obtain clean, reliable, and more affordable energy.

Through fierce competition globally, Chinese photovoltaic companies have offered high-quality and cost-competitive products through innovation, which gives millions of people access to clean energy, said Cynthia Tian, partner of technology consulting of global accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young in Greater China.

There is a lot of room for continued sales and exports of things like electric vehicles and sustainability-related products from China to the world, said Jose Vinals, chairman of Standard Chartered Group, adding that the world would benefit because these products would lead to a faster net-zero transition.

Cui said protectionist practices can undermine humanity's efforts to tackle climate change and may lead to accelerated climate warming, threatening the common interests of humanity.

For some Western countries, the right solution would be to strengthen cooperation and technological exchanges with China's new energy industry and develop together amid competition and exchanges, Cui added. 
Long Beach officials declared a public health emergency after a tuberculosis outbreak in the city. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Long Beach officials declared a public health emergency Thursday afternoon after one person died and nine others were hospitalized due to a tuberculosis outbreak in the city.

The citys chief health officer, Dr. Anissa Davis, said the outbreak was localized to a single-room occupancy hotel, which health officials declined to identify.

As of Monday, a total of 14 cases had been identified. The health departments tuberculosis control staff, however, has identified an additional 170 people who have likely been exposed.

Those individuals are in the process or will be screened in one of several ways, including chest X-rays, blood and skin tests and symptom review, according to health officials.

Davis said people staying at the hotel at the time or who could have otherwise been exposed have been or will be contacted.

Public health officials were unable to confirm the date of the first recorded case.

The outbreak comes at time when tuberculosis infections have been rising statewide.

The number of cases in 2023 rose by 15% in California compared with the previous year, the state Department of Public Health said in March. Thats the highest year-over-year increase since 1989, when it was tied to people co-infected with HIV.

Read more: Tuberculosis cases rising in California, and state officials are sounding the alarm

In total, there were 2,113 cases statewide last year, about the same amount reported in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

To protect patient privacy, officials declined to disclose the Long Beach business or location of the outbreak.

Davis said the facility is private and not operated by the city of Long Beach.

Long Beach health officials confirmed the hotel in question was not in quarantine and was still open. It's unclear whether residents who were staying at the facility were moved out.

The health department is authorized to provided temporary housing, food and transportation to those exposed, according to Davis.

Tuberculosis treatment is also covered by the health department.

Jennifer Rice Epstein, Long Beach Public Affairs Officer, said the first positive test was confirmed at a local hospital.

Read more: Tuberculosis cases worldwide rise for the first time in years

Davis said the outbreak is currently isolated and the risk to the general public is low.

The low-income population at risk in this outbreak has significant barriers to care, including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance use and serious medical co-morbidities, Davis said.

Rice Epstein said that any resident who believes they may be infected should seek medical care.

The disease is a serious illness that is spread through the air, like COVID-19, according to Long Beach health officials. Unlike COVID-19, however, tuberculosis usually requires prolonged exposure.

Its usually people living together in close quarters that spread TB, Rice Epstein said. Its spread more easily in poorly ventilated rooms.

The emergency declaration will be formally voted on by the City Council on Tuesday. If approved, it allows the health department to mobilize city resources, streamline staffing and coordinate with outside agencies, according to officials.

Neighboring Los Angeles County has no cases related to the outbreak in Long Beach, according to public health officials.

However, a department spokesperson said the agency intends to "support Long Beach" with staffing from its disease control bureau and other departments.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Terrace Hill is the Iowa governor's mansion. (Photo by Perry Beeman/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that a lawsuit over the ownership of donated artifacts inside the official residence of the governor should be allowed to proceed.

The ruling centers on a dispute between the private, nonprofit Terrace Hill Society Foundation and the states Terrace Hill Commission, both of which are dedicated to restoring, preserving and furnishing Terrace Hill, the official residence of Iowas governor. The building, located at 2300 Grand Ave. in Des Moines, is a National Historic Landmark built in 1869.

For years, the foundation worked closely with the commission, a state entity that manages the governors residence, by placing items from its collection of artifacts on display at Terrace Hill.

In recent years a dispute arose over ownership and control of the collection, which, the foundation claimed, resulted in the commission, in effect, seizing control of the collection. In 2022, the Terrace Hill Society Foundation sued the commission, alleging that for nearly 50 years, the foundation and its predecessors had received hundreds of items of donated property, including historical artifacts and monetary donations, for the restoration and improvement of Terrace Hill.

The foundation argued that it had placed many of the donated items into the custody and control of the commission, while relying on an agreement the two had to work harmoniously and cooperatively in a joint effort to improve the mansion. According to the foundation, the agreement provided that donations from the foundation to the commission were made with the understanding that the foundation would retain ownership of the items.

The commission, represented by the attorney generals office, attempted have the district court dismiss the lawsuit, arguing it was barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The district court denied that motion, but the state appealed, sending the matter to the Iowa Supreme Court.

The court on Friday ruled in favor of the foundation, affirming the district court judges decision that the foundation has property rights under state law and the Iowa Constitution, and it is entitled to have this court rule on the merits of its ownership claims.

The ruling means litigation over the issue of ownership can resume at the district court level.

The Terrace Hill Commission is a nine-person board, created by statute and appointed by the governor, that provides for the preservation, maintenance, renovation, landscaping and administration of Terrace Hill.

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The post Long-running legal battle over Terrace Hill artifacts rolls on appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch.
The longtime superintendent of Washington Township Schools in Indianapolis announced her upcoming retirement Friday.

Nikki Woodson, who has been superintendent of the school district since 2011, announced she will retire on June 30, 2025, according to the districts website.

She first started with Washington Township Schools in 2009.

During this time, the district has transformed by overcoming complexities and challenges, embracing increased diversity of our students, raising achievement resulting in a double-digit increase in graduation rate, successfully passing two major referendum campaigns and the deployment of their plans, as well as guiding the school community through a global pandemic, Woodson said in a statement posted on the districts website.

More news: Caitlin Clark ready for WNBA debut tonight: 'This is the pros. This is my job.'

Woodson plans to lead the 2024-25 school year with a continued focus on the improvement efforts outlined in the District Strategic Plan, according to the districts website.

The timing of Woodsons announcement will allow the Washington Township Schools Board of Education time to complete a comprehensive superintendent search and implement a transition process.

WTS and the entire Washington Township community congratulate Dr. Woodson on her retirement and thank her for giving well over a decade of professional service to our students, staff, and community, School Board President Deirdre George Davis stated on the districts website. The Board understands that this is a critical position that will shape the future vision of WTS. Equally important to the selection process will be a transition between Dr. Woodson and her successor.

The board will post the position soon and conduct a comprehensive search process with a final selection of the next superintendent announcement this fall.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Superintendent of Washington Township Schools Nikki Woodson to retire
NEW YORK  Prosecutors called Donald Trumps loyal longtime aide Hope Hicks to the stand at his Manhattan hush money trial Friday, where she is expected to face questions on what she knew about Trumps alleged efforts to silence women who alleged theyd had extramarital trysts with him when he first ran for the White House.

In 2019, Hicks told the House Judiciary Committee that she was directed to make a public statement denying hed once had a relationship with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She denied knowing about hush money.

The former Trump aide, who served as White House communications director and Trumps campaign spokeswoman, was once considered among the former presidents closest confidants.

Hicks, who is being forced to testify under a subpoena, said she spoke with Trump every day that she worked for him but hadnt seen or spoken to him since the fall or December 2022.

He kept his eyes trained on her as she walked to the witness box and took her seat.

Earlier, the judge presiding over the case told Trump Friday that he is in no way limited by what he can say about witnesses at his Manhattan hush money trial if he chooses to take the stand in his own defense  correcting a claim Trump made outside court.

On his way out of court Thursday, Trump claimed Merchans gag order  the subject of ongoing debate  prevented him from taking the stand.

Well, Im not allowed to testify. Im under a gag order, I guess. I cant testify, Trump said.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan started Fridays proceedings by saying he needed to clear up any misunderstandings about the gag order preventing Trump from publicly remarking on witnesses and jurors.

I want to stress, Mr. Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial, if thats what you decide to do, the judge said, noting his order applies to statements that are made outside of court, it does not apply to statements made from the witness stand.

The gag order prevents Trump from making public statements  or directing others to  about jurors, witnesses involved in the case, or relatives of court employees, prosecutors, the judge, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

On Tuesday, Trump was held in contempt and hit with $9,000 in sanctions for breaching the order nine times in comments disseminated about the jurors claiming they were biased against him and key witnesses Michael Cohen and David Pecker. Prosecutors want him to face further punishment for four more alleged violations.

Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies alleging he repeatedly and fraudulently falsified business records to disguise reimbursement to Cohen for paying Daniels $130,000 in the leadup to the 2016 election to stay silent about her claims of an extramarital one-night-stand with Hilary Clintons Republican contender.

Doug Daus, a forensic analyst at the Manhattan district attorneys office, is expected to continue on the stand Friday.

On Thursday, Daus authenticated digital evidence in the case, including a September 2016 discussion between Trump and Cohen that was secretly taped by Trumps then-fixer depicting the two men talking about the deal with McDougal, which the defense has adamantly sought to distance Trump from.

On the tape, Cohen tells his boss, Ive spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up, about the Trump Organizations longtime, twice-convicted finance chief.

So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? Trump says during the back-and-forth, at one point ordering someone to get him a Coke.

Trump is accused off falsifying business records to disguise reimbursement to Cohen for paying Daniels $130,000 in the leadup to the 2016 election to stay silent.

Prosecutors allege Cohens compensation capped a scheme devised at a meeting between Trump, Cohen, and David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc, or AMI, in August 2015 at Trump Tower, where Trump had announced his candidacy a couple of months before.

Pecker, who testified last week as the first witness under an immunity deal with prosecutors, said he agreed to be the campaigns eyes and ears by looking out for stories brewing that could hurt Trumps chances with voters to notify Cohen of publish puff pieces about Trump in AMI-run publications like the National Enquirer and orchestrate hit jobs against his opponents like Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio.

This week, jurors heard extensive testimony from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in hush money negotiations in 2016. The Los Angeles-based attorney said AMIs $150,000 payoff to McDougal, finalized in August 2016, came after he tipped off Dylan Howard, the former top editor at the National Enquirer, who got the green light from Pecker to buy and bury the former Playboy models story.

The supermarket tabloid also reached a deal with Daniels as she mulled coming forward weeks later amid the release of the Access Hollywood tape, but backed out due to Peckers fears an association with a porn star could hurt AMIs reputation, the publisher said when he testified.

Davidson told the jury he was forced to deal directly with Trumps fixer, who would wire him the money through a shell company after taking out a home equity loan. Cohen was convicted of federal campaign finance charges in 2018 and sentenced to three years.

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A look into the 'Russian Swamp Family' that once lived in NCMC's natural area

PETOSKEY  Along one of the winding paths in the North Central Michigan College natural area is a plot of land that was once home to the pioneering Siebert family.

On April 26, two North Central students gave a presentation about the family and their history.

Phoenix Backus and Anna Ruhling worked with NCMC professor Kerri Finlayson to research the Siebert family.

While fallen tree branches, uneven terrain and a few visible pits are all that remains from the familys homestead, signage providing information about the Siebert family is at the site. However, Backus said some information is inaccurate and needs to be updated.

The Siebert family tree.

Signage related to the Siebert family is placed around the area off the trail on the North Central Michigan College property.

The research project first kicked off after NCMC President David Roland Finley approached Finlayson to see if she had any students who would be interested in working to update signage in the area.

After their time at NCMC, both Backus and Ruhling are planning to head to Grand Valley State University to study anthropology, so Finlayson tapped both students to work on the project.

The Siebert family fled the Prussian military

A Mennonite family, the Sieberts had a strict belief in pacifism. They fled Prussia in the 1870s to escape conscription in the military. They first traveled to Kansas, where family patriarch Abraham Siebert was sworn in as a citizen in Barton County, Kansas in February of 1875, according to documents compiled by the research team.

By 1878, the family moved north and east, landing in Petoskey to work in lumber.

About two years after their move, Petoskey had a diphtheria outbreak that lasted from 1880-1882, Backus said. Abraham and Eva Sieberts son, Tobias, became infected with diphtheria when he was 12 and never made a full recovery. He was left mentally handicapped for the rest of his life and was never able to leave the home, but was still able to contribute to physical labor.

All that remains of the former Siebert home is some rocky foundation and uneven terrain.

The Sieberts were outcasts in Petoskey

Known as the Russian Swamp Family in Petoskey, the Sieberts were outcasts in the area. Though they were actually German, the family spoke Russian and German, but were not expected to have spoken English very well, Backus said during the presentation.

This contributed to their isolation. In 1884 an officer showed up to the family's home and said any children under the age of 17 were required to start attending school, so three Siebert children  John, Helena and Mary  were expected to enroll.

A sign in the NCMC Natural Area features a photo of some of the Sieberts and information regarding them fleeing Prussia.

Helena, 10, and Mary, 8, started first grade together in 1884.

Jacob, aged 19, did not have to attend, and neither did Tobias, 16, due to his mental disability. Martha, 2 at the time, did not start school until a few years later, and Harold, who died at 6 months old, and Nicodemus, who was born the year the law passed, also did not attend school.

Backus said Mennonite families in this era sent their daughters to school for an education, while the sons stayed home to help with physical labor, making it difficult to find records of any of the boys attending school. Martha ended up being the only child in the family to continue her education, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree.

Throughout the area, signs are placed including information about the Siebert family. The family once had a homestead in what is now the North Central Michigan College Natural Area.

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What happened to Jacob and Nicodemus Siebert?

Jacob Siebert, the eldest child, was sent to the Traverse City State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, by his father in 1889. He was released between then and 1900.

Abraham sent him to the hospital because he was indignant and insane, though it's unknown what actually happened to lead to the institutionalization.

However, in 1908, reports said Nicodemus and Jacob both died after drowning in the Great Lakes while helping with shipping lumber on open water. Backus said this cant be true, because Jacob was put back into the state psychiatric hospital in 1900 before his death in 1908.

His body was never claimed, which led Backus and Ruhling to believe Jacob may have been disowned or shunned from the family. Due to HIPAA, though it was not a law at the time, access to Jacobs medical records were denied.

The researchers also spoke to Abraham and Eva's great-granddaughter, Gloria, and she was denied access to the medical information as well despite being a relative.

Jacob was not the only Siebert who was placed in a mental hospital. Helena was also sent to one in Kansas. However, she was sent there at age 66, so theories of why she may have been sent include the possibility that she developed Alzheimer's. Backus and Ruhling also theorized that because she was an unmarried spinster, Helena may have been a lesbian, which was considered a mental illness at the time, though they think an Alzheimer's diagnosis is more likely.

Knowing Jacob did not die by drowning calls into question the claim that Nicodemus did. His disappearance is the greatest mystery for the family, with descendants to this day saying they wish they knew what happened.

Two other family members disappeared, too. John and his wife, Lena, vanished in 1906 after going to South Dakota for a late honeymoon. Two years prior, the couple had a stillborn child.

John Siebert and his wife, Lena, photographed before their 1906 disappearance.

(From left) Phoenix Backus, Kerri Finlayson and Anna Ruhling pose for a photo following a research presentation on April 26.

Leaving their mark on NCMC

The two students are now working to update and correct signs. Much of their information came from a book called Memories of the Sieberts, which was written by Bertha Vogt Ratzlaff, Abraham and Eva's granddaughter. They said the book does include some inaccuracies.

Finlayson said getting the chance to work with students outside of the classroom has given them a rare opportunity to gain some access to a more in-depth, nuanced level of research.

It's rare at a community college level to actually have opportunities to get students involved in research, she said. "It's not that it's unheard of, but it's a fairly rare thing.

For Backus, it was an important chance to get some validation, allowing them to know this is something theyd like to study in the future.

It really solidified that this is what I want to do, Backus said.

Ruhling added that the project confirmed the same thing for her, and let her know she likes the idea of working with artifacts and digging on historical sites.

I had a blast doing this. I mean, we haven't even gotten our associate's yet  and we're working on an archeological-related project, Ruhling said.

 Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: A look into the Siebert family's history at NCMC
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over new rules banning private firearm sales.

Louisiana, along with Texas, Mississippi and Utah, are suing after the Biden administration announced a new rule that reduces the number of firearms sold without background checks on Thursday, April 11. The suit was filed Wednesday, May 1, in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in April that the new rule says anyone who sells guns mostly for profit will have to have a federal license and conduct background checks on buyers. This applies to gun shows, online sales and stores.

These new rules clearly violate the Second Amendment. The Biden administration continues to recklessly attack our constitutional rights. Louisiana will challenge them every step of the way, said Murrill.

Louisiana bill advances to ban permitless concealed carrying at parades

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expands background checks, was signed into law in 2022 by Biden. An executive order was signed by Biden in 2023 to accelerate implementation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Ive spent hours with families whove lost loved ones to gun violence, Biden said in a statement. They all have the same message: Do something. Today, my Administration is taking action to make sure fewer guns are sold without background checks. This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons.

According to the White House, the Department of Justices final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, making it clear when a person needs to become a licensed dealer and run background checks.

Associated Press reporting contributed to this report.

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Louisiana man faces new child porn charges after victims found in other states, countries

LIVINGSTON PARISH, La. (BRPROUD)  A Louisiana man who was previously arrested faces additional charges of possession of child pornography after investigators say more victims were identified in other states and countries.

The Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office said Damien Anthony Gilpin, 22, of Denham Springs, faces three more charges of possession of child pornography after victims were identified in West Virginia, Nebraska, Australia and Canada.

Denham Springs man arrested again, faces over 90 counts of animal sex abuse

Thanks for the continued assistance and support of our Law Enforcement Partners  Louisiana ICAC Task force, West Virginia State Police, Nebraska State Police & HSI Homeland Security Investigations in working tirelessly to assist the LPSO in identifying victims and keeping our children safe, said LPSO in a Facebook post.

Gilpin was arrested in December 2023 after deputies got a tip. He was charged with three counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles.

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FILE - M23 rebels stand with their weapons in Kibumba, in the eastern of Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec. 23, 2022. M23, a rebel group with alleged links to Rwanda, has seized Rubaya, a mining town in eastern Congo known for producing a key mineral used in smartphones, the group said Thursday, May 2, 2024, in a statement. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  A rebel group with alleged links to Rwanda this week seized Rubaya, a mining town in eastern Congo known for producing a key mineral used in smartphones, the group said Thursday in a statement.

In a statement shared with The Associated Press, a spokesperson for the M23 rebel group said the town was liberated.

The Congolese army declined to comment on the situation.

The decadeslong conflict in eastern Congo has produced one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with over 100 armed groups fighting for control of the mineral-rich area near the border with Rwanda. Many groups are accused of carrying out mass killings, rapes and other human rights violations. The violence has displaced about 7 million people, many beyond the reach of aid.

The town of Rubaya holds deposits of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a key component in the production of smartphones. It is among the minerals that was named earlier this month in a letter from Congos government questioning Apple about the tech companys knowledge of blood minerals being smuggled in its supply chain.

The fall of Rubaya is in a way the embodiment of this systemic plundering, Ernest Singoma, a civil society activist in Goma, told the AP on Thursday.

Theres been an upsurge in fighting in recent months between M23 rebels and Congo army forces, and it comes as the United Nations plans to withdraw peacekeepers from the region by the end of the year.

John Banyene, a civil society activist, told the AP that the rebels were advancing towards the town of Goma, which is eastern Congos largest city and the capital of North Kivu province.

All the supply routes to the city are blocked, said Banyene.We are just getting by.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi alleges Rwanda is destabilizing Congo by backing the M23 rebels. U.N. experts, along with the U.S. State Department, have also accused Rwanda of backing the rebels. Rwanda denies the claims.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron called on neighboring Rwanda to halt its support for the M23 rebel group during a joint press conference with Tshisekedi in Paris.

Onesphore Sematumba, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the capture of Rubaya was a significant development in the conflict.

Rubaya has mining deposits and without doubt this will allow M23 to exploit them, he told the AP.

The March 23 Movement, or M23, is a rebel military group mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis that broke away from the Congolese army just over a decade ago. They staged a large offensive in 2012 and took over the provincial capital of Goma near the border with Rwanda, the same city they are threatening again.

____

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Macon mom says students hit her kid, took shoes, cut hair on bus. She wants investigation.

Reality Check is a Telegraph series digging deeper into key issues and focusing on accountability. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@macon.com.

A Macon parent is urging an investigation into a Bibb County School District bus incident that left her son, who has special needs, distraught.

Heaven Smith said that when her 7-year-old was being dropped off at home on April 29, she heard loud cries from his school bus, which transports special needs children.

Upon boarding the bus, she said she immediately noticed that another student was hitting her son, his shoes had been taken and there was no bus monitor on duty.

For the past two or three months, my son has come home crying while getting off the bus, and its because these kids are putting their hands on him, Smith said.

Smith also learned her sons hair had been cut sometime between school hours and on the ride home. Although the school district could not confirm if the incident happened on the bus, Smith shared photos of her sons hair on social media.

Prior to publication, the school district did not immediately provide any data regarding the frequency of bullying and fighting on Bibb County buses.

However, state data indicates incidents of harm are persistent: The Georgia Governors Office of Student Achievement K12 Student Discipline Dashboard shows that 69% of the districts total 10,109 discipline incidents in 2023 were reported as causing harm to a person.

Harm to a person incidents are coded as several offenses, including bullying, fighting and causing serious bodily injury.

During the 2022-2023 school year, over 360 discipline actions involved a Bibb County student being suspended from a school bus, according to Georgia Department of Education data. Only 49 of the incident types were labeled as fighting.

Smith reached out to Superintendent Dan Sims and the BCSD route supervisor for special needs transportation, calling for action on three major safety concerns she has: Lack of bus supervision, prevalent physical altercations on the bus and unauthorized student drop-offs.

Smith said she spoke with her sons elementary school principal on Thursday and scheduled a meeting with transporation officials, but hadnt received any updates from other district officials on the incident.

The scary thing is that Bibb County is not addressing these things and theyre putting our children at risk, she said. Its not just any children, but children who are already having enough struggles in life.

The district has not responded to questions regarding the incident and told The Telegraph it is unable to disclose specific student incidents under the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act.

The safety of students and staff is a top priority for the Bibb County School District, spokesperson Stephanie Hartley said in an email. The District encourages parents to reach out directly to school administrators with concerns regarding students.

The BCSD policy on bullying says Any report will be appropriately investigated by the administration based on the nature of the complaint in a timely manner to determine whether bullying has occurred, whether there are other procedures related to illegal harassment or discrimination that should be implemented and what other steps should be taken.

Smith said she wants the school districts transportation department to take the students safety more seriously because there have been several reports of children engaging in physical altercations on the bus.

These are our babies that we trust in their hands twice a day, she said. At the end of the day, its their responsibility, and I expect them to live up to their standards and keep our children safe. As of right now, theyre failing tremendously.

Sims did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has a bleak warning: Europe faces a panoply of risks that could spell its doom, he said in an interview with The Economist, part of a wider effort to set out his vision for a refashioned European Union ahead of Junes European Parliament elections.

The challenges he sees are many. Europe needs to stand up to Russia and accept that the US might not always have its back, Macron said. He predicts that Europe is about to fall behind in critical tech sectors and could be overtaken by an ever-stronger China. And on the home front, hes worried that the regions leaders are ready to resign themselves to defeat at the hands of domestic nationalists.

Europe is mortal, Macron told the newspaper. It can die.

Macrons plan is for Europe to become less militarily dependent on the US, and he wont rule out sending troops to Ukraine. He wants European industry to catch up to the US and China and would double research spending, deregulate industry, free up capital markets and sharpen Europeans appetite for risk, The Economist explained.

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Macron might not have the popularity to convince the public

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Sources: Politico, The Economist , The Guardian

Macron is not popular at home; at the end of last year, 68% of France disapproved of his leadership. That could make it even more difficult to get the public to heed his warnings, which some view as transparent electioneering. Like other gloomy visionaries, he faces the risk that his message is ignored, The Economist wrote.

His unpopularity could also pave the way for Marine Le Pens hard-right National Rally party to rise to power, a fellow at the European Policy Centre warned, one of the fears the French president identified. According to Bloomberg: A far-right presidency would be the ultimate failure for Macron.

Warnings come as US creeps toward isolationism

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Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Social Europe, NPR

Macrons warning over Russia speaks to larger European concerns about the US Republican Partys isolationist streak, particularly as the once-hawkish party balks at sending more money to Ukraine. A proposed cash infusion for the embattled country met with months of GOP pushback before the Senate finally passed the funding package last week, ramping up anxieties about how Europe could protect Ukraine if the US backed away completely.

Spurred by those fears, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic signed a letter in February that called for a major scale-up of European military aid to Ukraine. Europe is stepping up to defend Ukraine, but it also knows that it needs to step up to defend itself more broadly, a political analyst at the European University Institute told NPR.

Strained Franco-German ties a threat to Macrons vision for Europe

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Macrons vision to reinvent Europe as a geopolitical and military power will depend largely on relationships  particularly that of Paris with Berlin. But his weakness has often been the building of alliances, above all at a time when the Franco-German tie is so strained, The Economist wrote. That frayed bond represents a break in trust" between two countries fighting for different visions of the EUs future, Reuters said.

As Macron himself seemed to point out, its a bad time for infighting in Europe. A strong working relationship between Macron and [German Chancellor Olaf Scholz] is crucial to not just the future of Ukraine but also greater Europe, The Telegraph wrote.

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SANAA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean. 
Todays installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* On May 2, 2022, a draft Supreme Court ruling was leaked, alerting the public to the fact that Republican-appointed justices were poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. On May 2, 2024, President Joe Bidens re-election campaign unveiled a new ad highlighting Donald Trumps opposition to reproductive rights.

NEW AD: Donald Trump took away womens freedom.



Now he wants to allow women to be monitored and prosecuted if they get an abortion. Every woman in every state is at risk. pic.twitter.com/rcPdNLK3rP  Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 2, 2024

* It took a little legislative effort, but Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation into law this week that will ensure that President Joe Biden appears on Alabamas 2024 ballot. A similar issue in Ohio has not yet been resolved.

* As if Gov. Kristi Noems shoot-the-family-dog story werent quite enough, the South Dakota Republican also claims in her new book that she had a tense conversation with North Koreas Kim Jong Un during her time in Congress. It now appears this never actually happened.

* Trump narrowly carried North Carolina four years ago, but a Washington Post report noted that Team Biden is clearly taking the state seriously in 2024: The Biden campaign has spent tens of millions of dollars on television ads in North Carolina. His team expects to have 40 staffers in the state by the end of month and will soon have 11 offices in key counties, according to a campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans. In 2020, the campaign did not begin hiring senior staffers until June, the official said.

* Speaking of North Carolina, in the states 13th congressional district, Trump this week endorsed Brad Knott in the GOP primary. This led his intraparty rival, Kelly Daughtry, to suspend her candidacy, though her name will still appear on the May 14 ballot.

* A Wall Street Journal report on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s independent presidential campaign quoted a former staffer who left in part because she saw a political operation rife with grifters and opportunists. The article added, Several staffers fear the electromagnetic radiation from microwave ovens, complicating a volunteer potluck.

* And while Trump has made no secret of his desperate desire to debate Biden, the former president yesterday said he does not want to see Kennedy on the stage. The Republican conspiracy theorist said he doesnt consider the independent conspiracy theorist to be a serious candidate.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Madeleine McCanns Parents Say Her Absence Still Aches on 17th Anniversary of Her Disappearance

Madeleine McCann, then 3, went missing from her family's vacation home in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007

Joe Giddens - WPA Pool/Getty; Fotonoticias/WireImage Madeleine McCann (Left); her parents Kate and Gerry McCann

It's been 17 years since Madeleine McCann's disappearance, and things haven't gotten any easier for her parents Kate and Gerry.

On Friday, May 3, Kate and Gerry shared a statement on the Find Madeleine website to mark the 17th anniversary since the then 3-year-old vanished from her bed at her family's vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

"Its 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us. Its hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief," Kate and Gerry wrote.

"Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the living in limbo is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches," they added.

"Your support continues to encourage us and bolsters our strength to keep going. We know the love and hope for Madeleine and the will to find her, even after so many years, remains, and we are truly thankful for that," Madeleine's parents continued. "Thank you again for remembering Madeleine and all missing children."

Joe Giddens - WPA Pool/Getty Kate (Left) and Gerry McCann

Related: German Authorities Believe Madeleine McCann Is Dead, But Family Hasn't 'Given Up Hope' She's Alive

Kate and Gerry, from Leicestershire in the U.K., have provided multiple updates through the years on the Finding Madeleine website. Their missing daughter would now be 20. Her 21st birthday is on May 12.

The search continues, and it was announced earlier this week by the U.K.'s Home Office that up to a further approximate $241,000 had been granted to look into Madeleine's disappearance, per the BBC.

It's thought the Metropolitan Police have spent over $16.5 million on the case so far, the outlet added.

HANDOUT/METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Getty Madeleine McCann

Related: Prosecutor Thinks Madeleine McCann Was Killed Shortly After Abduction

Madeleine was just days shy of celebrating her 4th birthday in Portugal when she went missing. She had been left with her 2-year-old twin siblings in the unlocked rental while Kate and Gerry dined with friends at a restaurant 130 feet away.

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.

The parents took turns checking on their children, but later that night, Kate noticed an open window and Madeleine had vanished from her bed.

German authorities identified Christian Bruckner, now 47, as a suspect in the case in 2020. Bruckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, the BBC reported.



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Read the original article on People.
Several mainstream Jewish groups pulled out of a meeting on Friday with high-level Biden administration officials about campus antisemitism after learning that the Department of Education had also included a number of left-wing groups not usually included in White House convenings, including one organization that is closely aligned with the far-left Jewish activist group IfNotNow.



The meeting with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden was requested by Jewish advocacy groups that had previously met with Cardona in October, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that set off a wave of antisemitism in the U.S. Fridays meeting was scheduled in light of rising antisemitism at anti-Israel protests at U.S. college campuses. The meeting took place a day after President Joe Biden condemned violent protests and antisemitism.



The groups who had requested the meeting found out at the last minute that the meeting was not going to proceed as planned and its now being rescheduled, said one source familiar with the meeting. Another participant told Jewish Insider that they decided to sit out the discussion after the Education Department sent a list of participating organizations 20 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin.



Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Orthodox Union and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law either did not participate in or dropped off the call, another source familiar with the meeting told JI.



These groups, along with the National Council of Jewish Women and the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly, wrote to Cardona last Friday to ask him to meet with them within a week. Their email to Cardona asked him to join the Jewish advocates to discuss concrete actions the Department can take to support the restoration of order, compliance with civil rights laws and the protection of Jewish students, according to a copy of the letter obtained by JI. The letter said that actions previously proposed by the Jewish organizations in meetings with senior Education Department staff were not taken and now we confront the current crisis.



Representatives of the groups that pulled out were frustrated to see the inclusion of some progressive organizations that oppose the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including Truah, the Nexus Leadership Project and Bend the Arc. They were also surprised and puzzled to see a group called the Diaspora Alliance, which many had never heard of.



The Diaspora Alliance group is closely associated with IfNotNow, which since Oct. 7 has aligned itself with Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Israel advocacy groups. Three of the Diaspora Alliances staff members including the groups international director, Carinne Luck, along with Simone Zimmerman and Emma Saltzberg  co-founded IfNotNow a decade ago. Diaspora Alliance opposes the use of the IHRA definition, which has been endorsed by the Education Department, calling it bad for Jews and Palestinians, and for human and civil rights.



IfNotNows New York City chapter released a statement this week in support of student activists at Columbia University and other campuses in New York, calling the activists brave students [who] have spoken up in solidarity with Palestinians as they face a genocide in which our country and their universities are complicit. IfNotNow has been calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war since days after the Oct. 7 attack and advocating for the U.S. to stop sending military assistance to Israel. The group has been referring to Israels war against Hamas as a genocide since mid-October.



The meeting was organized by the Department of Education, which did not notify the White House of the attendees, according to a Biden administration official, who said the White House does not meet with the Diaspora Alliance. In the meeting, Tanden conveyed that fighting antisemitism is a top priority for the White House, the official shared.



An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.



I think its a good thing that Secretary Cardona wants to meet with a broad swath of the Jewish community to get the fullest possible picture of whats happening, said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of Truah, a progressive rabbinic human rights organization. If there are centrist groups that refuse to be in a Zoom with an organization that represents more than 2,300 rabbis, including campus rabbis and rabbis who are in touch with college students from their communities regularly, they might want to reconsider that.



The groups that pulled out of the morning Zoom call scheduled a separate meeting with the Education Department on Friday afternoon, according to a source with knowledge of the groups plans.



Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, described the meeting as constructive, and said that the administration has repeatedly made clear its commitment to countering antisemitism on campus and keeping Jewish students safe, including on the meeting, but highlighted that the Education Department needs additional resources.



Department officials shared that Office of Civil Rights staffers are currently each handling 50 open cases, given the volume of complaints filed in recent months, one participant shared.



Another source said that officials discussed previous and upcoming steps to address campus antisemitism, including an upcoming guidance to be issued next week around free speech on campuses. They said that the officials clearly understand the issue and are very concerned about antisemitism and student safety and the difference between the right to protest.



On Friday morning, Cardona sent a letter to college and university presidents condemning abhorrent instances of antisemitism on college campuses and directing them to resources to better combat it.



As the 2023-24 school year comes to a close, I remain incredibly concerned by the reports of antisemitic hate directed at students on some campuses, Cardona said in the letter, which was published by CNN. He described a sharp rise in reports of antisemitism targeting Jewish students on some college campuses.



Other organizations who attended the Friday meeting include Agudath Israel, the American Jewish Committee, J Street U, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, UJA-Federation of New York and the Rabbinical Assembly.





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Man accused of acting irrationally near 3 Georgetown County Schools, deputies say

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW)  Georgetown County Sheriffs Office deputies reportedly detained a man acting irrationally who wandered near Andrews High School, Rosemary Middle School, and Andrews Elementary School Friday afternoon.

Walker Dewayne Bone, 30, of Lamb Road, Georgetown, was charged with trespass after notice

All three schools were declared safe and returned to normal conditions after being placed on secure status.

Secure status means the doors were locked and outside activities curtailed, according to the Georgetown County Sheiffs Office. Normal classroom activity was not interrupted.

The School Resource Officers were alerted that a man was seen acting irrationally on campus before walking toward County Line Road and Williamsburg County, the department said.

Deputies detained him at about 1:45 p.m. and placed him on trespass notice for all three schools.

Georgetown County Sheriffs Office personnel will remain on campus until all schools are dismissed, the department 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.
A man accused of founding a criminal gang in Middle Georgia has been convicted of possessing a weapon as a convicted felon, opening him up to more than a decade of prison time, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Middle Georgia.

Fedreal prosecutors say Alphonzo Clyde pleaded guilty to the charge last month. Clyde allegedly founded the Mafia criminal street gang, which is tied to violence and trafficking in Middle Georgia and West Virginia, according to prosecutors and statements made in court.

U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said the organization causes grave harm to our community.

Federal, state and local law enforcement is focused on dismantling all violent criminal enterprises and holding their associates accountable in our collaborative effort to keep people safe, Leary said.

Clydes most recent conviction stems from an arrest in October, when officers detained him for a probation violation in a separate case.

He was detained by the Bibb County and Jones County sheriffs offices, according to federal prosecutors. At that time, officers spotted a digital scale with a white, powdery substance on the front passenger seat of his SUV. They also smelled marijuana.

They also found a 9 mm handgun in his glove box, which brought his federal charge of having a gun as a felon, prosecutors said.

He is expected to face up to 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He could also be ordered to pay up to a $250,000 fine and will not be offered parole. Hell be sentenced July 3.
Man Accused of Striking Woman with Car So Hard in Alleged Road Rage Killing That 'Clothes Flew Off' on Impact

The attorney for Ryan Sweatt, 36, tells PEOPLE his client was trying to get away from men who were trying to attack him when he struck Destini Decoff

Gofundme Destini Decoff

The Massachusetts man who is accused of striking a woman with his car in an alleged road rage attack is now charged with murder.

The charge stems from an incident on April 4, when Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford, who was driving a Honda Civic on Route 85 in Hopkinton near Cornells Pub at about 6 p.m., became engaged in an apparent road rage incident with another vehicle, according to an earlier press release from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Hopkinton Chief of Police Joseph Bennett.

Sweatt told police he was driving home when a car pulled in front of him and slammed on the brakes, court documents allege, WBZ-TV reports.

At some point, some of the occupants of the other vehicle, including the victim, exited the car, authorities said in the release.

Destini Decoff, 26, and four men allegedly surrounded Sweatts car and threatened him, police said, WBZ-TV reports.

Sweatt drove off, but then made a U-turn at a high rate of speed and struck the victim in the roadway," authorities claim in the release.

Decoff was knocked several feet in the air, the prosecutor said in court on April 5, WBZ reports.

Brett Martin told WBZ-TV he ran out of Cornells Pub when he heard a commotion outside and saw Decoff just after she was struck.

"I saw her mid-air kind of coming down towards the street...her jacket must've been 20 feet away from her. However she got hit, those clothes flew off."

Sweatt was stopped shortly after by an officer who allegedly saw him race away from the scene, police said.

Sweatt allegedly got out of the car yelling, "They're trying to kill me, police said.

Related: Woman Struck in Alleged Road Rage Incident Dies From Injuries

Sweatt pointed up the road where four people were standing near a woman on the ground, police said, WBZ-TV reports.

Decoff was rushed to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.

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On April 5, Sweatt was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, operating to endanger and a marked lanes violation in connection with the incident, the release said.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Decoff died on April 6.

On April 29, Sweat was charged with murder. When Sweatt came to court on April 30, a fight broke out in the hallway of the courthouse between the families of Decoff and the suspect, WCVB reports.

Sweatt pleaded not guilty and was held without bail after he was arraigned, the Milford Daily News reports.

His attorney, Derenge Demissie, tells PEOPLE the incident was an accident and not an act of road rage.

"This was an accident that resulted when Ryan tried to get away from the group of people who came out of their car to attack him," Demissie says in a statement.



"Video evidence showed a number of people rushing to his car. He was able to maneuver away. He did not see the person who was struck. Apparently she did not get back in the car when the others took off," the statement added, further starting that Sweatt "stopped his car after the impacted and cooperated with the police."



"Ryan is a peaceful person who has always maintained a clean record with a long history of gainful employment. He was going home from work when the accident happened," the statement added.

Decoff's family and friends are devastated by her death. A GoFundMe was started to help defray funeral costs.



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Read the original article on People.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea speaks during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on May 3, 2024. Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

SANAA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean.

"We will attack all ships heading to or having links with Israel in the Mediterranean Sea as well as in any area within our reach," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement while elaborating on the group's fourth phase of military escalation in the region.

"The implementation of this decision begins now," he noted.

Moreover, the spokesman warned that if Israel intends to launch an aggressive military operation against Rafah in southern Gaza, the Houthis will target all ships and companies that deal with Israeli ports and prevent "all ships of these companies" from passing through the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, "regardless of their destinations."

"We will not hesitate to persist in military escalation until Israel stops its war and lifts the blockade on the Gaza Strip," Sarea added.

Yemen's protracted civil war erupted in 2014 when the Houthi group seized control over much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

Since last November, the Houthis began to launch anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones targeting what they said were Israeli-linked ships transiting the Red Sea to show solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under relentless Israeli attacks for nearly seven months.

In January, the United States and Britain launched a military operation by carrying out airstrikes on Houthi military sites to deter the group. However, the Houthis, in retaliation, have subsequently expanded their attacks to include U.S. and British ships.

On Thursday, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said in a televised speech that the U.S.-British coalition's strikes have not undermined his group's military capabilities and warned of further escalation. 

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea speaks during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on May 3, 2024. Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea speaks during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on May 3, 2024. Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea speaks during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on May 3, 2024. Yemen's Houthi group announced on Friday the expansion of its ballistic missile attacks to include all Israeli-linked commercial vessels transiting the Mediterranean. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
Man accused of trafficking women out of Baton Rouge apartment, deputies say

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  A man is accused of trafficking two women out of an apartment in Baton Rouge.

Allbert Javier Herrera Machado, 23, was charged with two counts of human trafficking.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office initiated an investigation after a Spanish-speaking woman called around 5:10 p.m. on Friday, April 26.

She said that she was being held in an apartment in the 16000 block of South Harrells Ferry Road and being forced to have sexual intercourse with unknown males for money, according to EBRSO.

Deputies found Machado and two women when they arrived at the apartment.

They got a search warrant and found numerous used condoms, various amounts of cash, sexual toys, multiple cellphones with messages on the home screen of possible clients asking to meet and several ledger books in the apartment, EBRSO said.

Woman injured in Baton Rouge shooting, police say

They said that those books appeared to show what the two women earned per day. The women said they were being prostituted to pay off a debt, according to the affidavit.

Machado said he arrived in Louisiana after being offered a job by an unknown friend, according to EBRSO. He was accused of organizing sexual encounters between the women and clients.

Machado would get the money from the women after the sexual encounters, EBRSO said. He said he would have the woman deposit the money at a local store to his unknown partner, according to EBRSO.

Machado said he needed a job and was only trying to save money, according to EBRSO.

He was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and remains there on a $200,000 bond.

Latest News

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  A man has been acquitted of misdemeanor charges stemming from his arrest at the Kern County Fair in 2022, court records show.

Leonard Whittenberg was found not guilty Wednesday of drunk and disorderly conduct and obstructing or resisting a peace officer.

Police believed Whittenberg was too intoxicated to care for himself when they approached him at the fair on the night of Sept. 21, 2022, according to the Kern County Public Defenders Office. The situation escalated after Whittenberg complained about the officers while telling them to leave him alone, said Deputy Public Defender Elvia Zepeda.

Trial in Kason Guyton case facing another delay

The attorney said Whittenbergs remarks fell under protected free speech, and evidence presented at trial showed he was capable of caring for himself and only had two alcoholic drinks.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  A Topeka man has been arrested in connection to an attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer.

On Friday, Terrell D. Hayes-Osby, 34, of Topeka, was arrested for:

attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer

aggravated burglary

aggravated assault

criminal possession of a weapon

unlawfully tampering with electronic monitoring equipment

The arrest is in connection to an officer-involved shooting on April 20 near 16th and Tyler Street where the suspect allegedly shot at police. The additional charges came after a Topeka Police Department (TPD) investigation into a theft at gunpoint that happened at a gas station at 2740 SE California Ave, according to the KBI.

TPD spokeswoman Rosie Nichols says officers received tips about the suspect and were sent to an area in central Topeka. Upon arrival, officers found the suspect who ran away.

At 3:30 p.m., TPD in the 500 block of SW 16th Street were allegedly fired at by the suspect, prompting officers to return fire in self-defense. The suspect was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening wounds. No TPD officers or other people were injured in this incident.

Protestors gather at Washburn University over Israel-Palestine conflict

The suspect was booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.

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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
A man brought a spear to a 7-Eleven in Florida. Then the clerk stabbed him, police say

A 7-Eleven store clerk has been arrested in the stabbing of a man behind the store after an argument involving a spear and a pocketknife, Bradenton police said.

Police arrested 34-year-old Danny Waiters on Wednesday and charged him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon following a series of arguments at the Bradenton convenience store.

Detectives say Waiters told them he stabbed the man, who is in his 60s and frequently carries a spear, after the man approached him behind the 7-Eleven and they argued. During Tuesdays argument, police say the man displayed the spear but did not threaten Waiters with it.

At one point, the store manager told the man to leave the property, when Waiters intervened and began arguing with the man again, according to police.

When the man with the spear turned his back on employees, police say Waiters stabbed him once with a pocketknife.

Detectives said Waiters told them he believed the man was going to grab the spear.

The stabbing victim underwent surgery and is recovering, police say.

Police said Waiters turned himself in Wednesday morning.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A man was taken into custody after he was accused of threatening to kill a family in Millington.

David Collins, 50, has been charged with aggravated burglary and civil rights intimidation.

According to court documents, Millington Police responded to a call at a home on Baker Street Tuesday evening and met three victims on the scene.

Testimony wraps up in trial of security guard accused of murder over music

The victims, who police say are a couple and their daughter, told investigators that they were looking at a house that was for sale. Court documents say that while the victims were inside the house, Collins began beating and kicking the front door and trying to get inside.

Court records allege that Collins began yelling racial slurs at the victims and told them they would not get out of the house alive. Collins is accused of threatening to burn the house down with the victims inside.

Police say one of the victims is Black and the other two are Asian. The victims reportedly told investigators that they were in extreme fear for their lives and were too afraid to leave the house.

Court documents say that Collins told the victims that he was going to get something to take care of the victims. He then allegedly began kicking the back glass door to get in.

Collins is currently being held at the Shelby County Jail. No bond has been set at this time.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
As a man was being detained during a shoplifting investigation Thursday night, he tried to swallow an unknown object and later died, according to police.

Around 6:30 p.m., Kansas City police officers were working off-duty security at a Walmart in the 8500 block of North Boardwalk Avenue. The officers took a man into custody for an investigation into shoplifting.

The man was taken to a security office by the officers. While he was seated, police said they saw the man attempt to swallow an unknown object.

Capt. Jacob Becchina, a spokesman with KCPD, said officers attempted to get the man to spit the object out, but the man refused.

The (man) began to exhibit difficulty breathing and then lost consciousness, Becchina said.

Officers immediately began to render aid to the man and called for paramedics. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The man was later identified by police as 45-year-old Christopher Christian.

Becchina said as of Friday afternoon police are still trying to figure out what the object was that Christian attempted to swallow.

The incident has been classified as a death investigation. No other information was provided.
The man accused of shooting a Kendall neighbor to death over a dog defecating in his sons lawn in 2015 faces life in prison after being found guilty on Friday of second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Omar G. Rodriguez, 75, who had a history of menacing neighbors for decades, was convicted for the killing of 52-year-old Jose Rey.

Rodriguez was originally charged with first-degree murder, but a six-person jury found him guilty of a lesser charge because the jury did not accept the states version of the facts, according to Rodriguezs attorney.

A sentencing hearing hasnt been scheduled but Rodriguezs attorney, Bruce Howard Lehr, said he plans to appeal.

After the verdict was announced in courtroom 7-4 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami, Rodriguez extended his hands and a correctional officer put him in handcuffs. Holding a cane, he was then escorted to a backroom where he took off the beige suit he wore in the courtroom and exchanged it for an orange jumpsuit.

Reys family and friends hugged between tears and smiles.

Outside of the courtroom, Reys widow, Lissette Rey, said she sometimes feels like her late husband, a father of three, was a martyr.

He took the bullet that could have been aimed at anybody else, she said.

Lehr said a lesson must be learned: Neighbors have to get along.

The Kendall shooting

Jose Reys killing was the culmination, authorities say, of Rodriguezs years-long pattern of harassing residents in several Miami-Dade neighborhoods.

On June 20, 2015, police say Rodriguez finally went too far, shooting Rey three times in the torso outside the home of Rodriguezs son in the Village of Kendale, a community less than a mile from his own home where neighbors also had long complained about his tirades and threats.

Witnesses told police that Rodriguez, then 66, followed in his car as Rey and his wife, Lissette, walked their dog around 9 p.m. near the corner of Southwest 97th Street and 103rd Avenue. He parked his car on a swale, flashed his lights and revved the vehicles engine, a witness told police. He then confronted Rey about the dog defecating on his sons lawn.

READ MORE: Judge rejects self-defense claim by Kendall man who killed neighbor in dog poop dispute

Rey took the dog home. By the time he came back, witnesses told police, Rodriguez had taken his shirt off and was challenging Rey to fight. Police say he shot Rey three times on the sidewalk as Rey raised his arms and walked backward. When Reys wife tried to comfort her husband, witnesses told police Rodriguez threatened her, too.

Rey died several days later at Kendall Regional Medical Center.

After his arrest, Rodriguezs attorney said his client was standing his ground from a potential threat, a knife that they alleged Rey was holding.

Witnesses said Rey was unarmed and had his hands in the air. And Rey himself, before dying at the hospital, told his wife that Rodriguez planted the knife found on the scene.

In March 2021, a Miami-Dade judge ruled that he did not believe Rodriguez acted in self-defense.

Not his first run-in with neighbors

The countless people who feared and had run-ins with Rodriguez knew it was only time until things escalated.

For decades, residents in three separate Miami-Dade neighborhoods told the Miami Herald in 2015 that they had clashed with Rodriguez, some feeling held hostage by his volatility. They said he threatened them, showed a weapons case and filed strings of bogus lawsuits against them.

From 2008 to 2015, neighbors had filed more than 140 complaints with police about Rodriguez. Prosecutors determined that his antics fell just short of criminal, and he often responded by filing complaints against cops and prosecutors.

READ MORE: Mans reign of terror came to predictable climax, Kendall neighbors say

Rodriguez has spent nearly nine years behind bars and he remained at Miami-Dades Metrowest Detention Center as of Friday afternoon.

Outside the courtroom Friday, Lissette Rey said Rodriguez should never be released from prison. When asked how would she describe her late husband, she said he was a wonderful human being and the life of the party.

Theres another angel in heaven, she said.

Miami Herald staff writer Chuck Rabin contributed to this report.
Man dies from injuries after April shooting in North County

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  A man who was shot last month in Vista has died, authorities said.

Frank Martinez, 21, was identified as the victim, Lt. Michael Krugh with the San Diego County Sheriffs Department said in a news release Thursday.

The shooting occurred on Saturday, April 13 around 8:30 p.m. in the 300 block of South Santa Fe Avenue, according to authorities.

Martinez was shot while walking in the aforementioned area and taken to a hospital, per law enforcement. On Monday, he died from his injuries.

Cost of rent in San Diego went up in April

No arrests have been made at this time as authorities investigate.

Another unrelated shooting occurred less than an hour later in Vista at Mimosa Avenue and Smilax Road near State Route 78, where a teen was shot in the chest, the sheriffs department said. The victim was last reported in stable condition at the hospital.

Anyone with information on either shooting is encouraged to call the San Diego County Sheriffs Department at 858-565-5200.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
DOVER  A Dayton man suffering a mental health crisis died in a shootout early Friday with troopers from the Ohio Highway Patrol and a deputy from the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office at the Interstate 77 southbound ramp at the Schneiders Crossing exit in Dover.

.

The man has been identified by Sheriff Orvis Campbell as Kendall Floyd Woodard, 34, of Dayton.

At around 2:19 a.m., the sheriff's office was requested to assist state troopers with a man in his vehicle at the southbound off ramp at the Schneiders Crossing exit, Campbell said. The patrol had stopped to check on a disabled vehicle when troopers encountered Woodward, who demonstrated concerning behaviors.

The patrol had requested an ambulance, and then a CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) trained deputy to assist with Woodward. Troopers and the deputy attempted to help the man over the next several hours by attempting to talk him into getting some medical help, the sheriff said.

"The units on scene made exhaustive efforts to include retrieving him food and drink, offering crisis services and assuring him repeatedly that they only wanted to get him help," Campbell said. "EMS from the Dover Fire Department also assisted with these efforts to convince the subject to get help."

Weapon pointed at law enforcement

Near the end of the incident, Woodward brandished a handgun and pointed the weapon at law enforcement which resulted in the shooting. The weapon was still in Woodards hand when it was recovered. Woodard was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff said. The shots were fired at 5:23 a.m.

"My preliminary review of the incident reveals that the deputy, troopers and EMS had worked towards and hoped for a peaceful medical transport," Campbell said. "Law enforcement was not even aware that the suspect possessed a weapon until it was brandished, and the shooting occurred. The troopers and the deputy attempted to render first aid after the shooting without success. Neither the troopers nor the deputy was injured during the event.

"I believe that the investigation will reveal that all of the law enforcement on scene acted honorably and as trained and that this community will be proud of their extensive efforts during this long incident even though it ended tragically."

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is doing the investigation for both agencies.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Man killed in shootout with police at Schneiders Crossing exit
This photo taken on April 29, 2024 shows some exhibits during an exhibition of Chinese porcelain at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkiye. Topkapi Palace Museum in Turkiye's Istanbul, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, is now displaying additional pieces from its extensive collection of Chinese porcelain following a monumental restoration process. (Photo by Safar Rajabov/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Topkapi Palace Museum in Turkiye's Istanbul, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, is now displaying additional pieces from its extensive collection of Chinese porcelain following a monumental restoration process.

The three-year restoration prioritized three of the palace's eight kitchens, especially those originally designated for the sultans and their mothers, as well as for receptions of foreign ambassadors.

Each showcase set up in these kitchens displays exquisite banquet tables adorned with rare pieces of porcelain transported from China between the 13th and 19th centuries.

In total, Topkapi Palace houses approximately 12,000 Chinese porcelain pieces, including those exclusively crafted for the sultans.

Ilhan Kocaman, head of the Topkapi Palace Department of the Directorate of National Palaces, revealed that initially, the museum displayed only 120 Chinese porcelain pieces due to space constraints. However, thanks to the renovation, this number has risen to 400.

"The significance of Chinese porcelain in Ottoman cuisine cannot be underestimated," Kocaman told Xinhua while introducing the newly designed kitchen halls.

He emphasized the sultans' deep appreciation for the design and magnificence of their tables, often adorned with stunning pieces of Chinese porcelain art.

"Among these splendid pieces are those with inscriptions of Islamic prayers and praises, which delicately grace the surface of Chinese porcelains," Kocaman added.

The collection of Chinese porcelains at Topkapi Palace Museum draws significant attention from Turks and foreign tourists. Gezsen Istanbul, an online tourism platform, remarked, "It is a truly mesmerizing experience to wander through such a collection of jeweled pieces."

The Directorate of National Palaces said in a post on social media platform X that the Topkapi Palace has one of the largest Chinese porcelain collections in the world outside China.

Its collection of celadon ware comprises 1,354 pieces from the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

The officials had long sought a solution to the challenge of exhibiting more Chinese porcelains. "Finally, the good news arrived," Kocaman said, referring to the forthcoming opening of a giant porcelain museum in Istanbul at the end of this year.

"This eagerly awaited museum will showcase around 3,000 pieces from the extensive collection of Chinese porcelain housed within Topkapi Palace," he noted. 

Ilhan Kocaman, head of the Topkapi Palace Department of the Directorate of National Palaces, is pictured in front of some exhibits during an exhibition of Chinese porcelain at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkiye, April 29, 2024. Topkapi Palace Museum in Turkiye's Istanbul, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, is now displaying additional pieces from its extensive collection of Chinese porcelain following a monumental restoration process. (Photo by Safar Rajabov/Xinhua)

A visitor views some exhibits during an exhibition of Chinese porcelain at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkiye, April 29, 2024. Topkapi Palace Museum in Turkiye's Istanbul, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, is now displaying additional pieces from its extensive collection of Chinese porcelain following a monumental restoration process. (Photo by Safar Rajabov/Xinhua)

This photo taken on April 29, 2024 shows some exhibits during an exhibition of Chinese porcelain at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkiye. Topkapi Palace Museum in Turkiye's Istanbul, once the residence of the Ottoman sultans, is now displaying additional pieces from its extensive collection of Chinese porcelain following a monumental restoration process. (Photo by Safar Rajabov/Xinhua)
A man drove his car toward a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters at Portland State University (PSU) in Oregon and sprayed a chemical agent like pepper spray before running away, police said Thursday night.

Police had clashed with protesters, arresting at least 30 people during a sweep of the universitys library after it had been occupied for several days.

Tensions came to a head Thursday when protesters refused to leave the campus area and overtook the campus building for the second time. Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers detailed their operation on social platform X throughout the day.

According to a PPB post, university police located the driver of a car who stopped near the crowd and sprayed some kind of pepper spray earlier this afternoon.

The adult male was transported to a local hospital on a police mental health hold, PPB said.

The Hill has reached out to Portland State University and PPB for more information about the man who was driving the car.

It appeared that the car was then vandalized, its windows broken and items scattered nearby, a report by KATU2 said.

Why are college students protesting?

Officers began their operation to clear the campus library around 6 a.m. Thursday. PPB said officers were doing a slow, methodical clear of the building and experienced barricades at several points, mostly piled up furniture, and slippery floors intended to cause police to slip and fall.

Police also shared photos online of the inside of the building graffitied and tools that appeared to be improvised weapons, ball bearings, paint balloons, spray bottles of ink, and DIY armor. None of it was used on police, they said.

Later Thursday, police confirmed that trespassers pulled down a fence around the library and reentered the building. More arrests were made, including people who refused to leave the outdoor area next to the library.

The PSU protests mirror those happening on college campuses across the country, as students and community members call on their institutions to divest from Israeli companies or companies that supply weapons to Israel in its war against Hamas.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made nationwide since the college encampments began. At Columbia University, hundreds of police dressed in riot gear moved onto the campus after protesters occupied one of the campus buildings.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A man is accused of fatally injuring a 3-month-old infant and strangling the childs mother, Texas deputies said.

The baby was taken to a hospital April 14 with severe injuries and died seven days later, according to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office.

Melvin Jesus Aquino Enriquez, 26, was arrested and charged with assault, family-violence strangulation and injury to a child, authorities said in a May 2 news release.

Enriquez lived with the infant and the childs mother in a Porter home, deputies said.

Its unclear what caused the childs death, which authorities called untimely and devastating.

Officials say they may pursue additional charges after they get the babys autopsy results.

Enriquezs bond was set at $750,000 and he was being held at the Montgomery County Jail as of May 3, deputies said.

Porter is about a 25-mile drive northeast of Houston.

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Man fatally shot in Kansas City, Kansas neighborhood, according to police

A man was fatally shot in Kansas City, Kansas, on Friday morning, according to a police spokesperson.

Around 10:30 a.m., officers were called to the 2400 block of Alden St, near Klamm Park in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

Upon arrival, officers found one man dead with multiple gunshot wounds, said officer Nancy Chartrand of the Kansas City Kansas Police department.

KCK police took one suspect into custody. The KCKPD Major Case Unit is still investigating the shooting, Chartrand said.

Police did not yet release the name of either the victim or the suspect.

The shooting is the ninth homicide in Kansas City, Kansas, this year, according to police data. By this time last year, there were seven homicides reported in the city.
Defendant Thomas Kinworthy Jr. sits in the courtroom during his first-degree murder trial on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in the 22nd Circuit Court in St. Louis. Kinworthy was found guilty of first-degree murder and other counts in the death of St. Louis officer Tamarris Bohannon, 29, who was shot and killed, and officer Arlando Bailey who was injured during a home invasion in August 2020. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool)

ST. LOUIS (AP)  A man charged with killing a St. Louis police officer in 2020 was found guilty of murder Thursday.

After a nearly two-week trial, a St. Louis jury convicted Thomas Kinworthy, 46, of first-degree murder and eight other charges in the death of 29-year-old Officer Tamarris Bohannon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Bohannon had responded to a call on Aug. 29, 2020, after an armed man ordered a family out of their home and barricaded himself inside, police said. Officers were searching for another reported shooting victim when Bohannon was shot in the head and a second officer was shot in the leg, according to police.

Bohannon died the next day. He had been with the department for 3 1/2 years and was survived by his wife and three children.

Kinworthy did not dispute at trial that he had barricaded himself inside a St. Louis home and shot two officers, killing one of them, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The jury took about three hours to convict Kinworthy of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, burglary, resisting arrest and three counts of armed criminal action, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Conviction on a first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory term of life in prison.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Kinworthy has a criminal record dating to the 1990s, when he spent nine months in prison for a drug crime in St. Louis County.

Court records show that Kinworthy was convicted in a 1998 road rage incident in Brevard County, Florida. After the car Kinworthy was in rammed a Ford Mustang, Kinworthy shot the Mustang driver, causing him to lose three fingers. Kinworthy was convicted in 2001 and served six years in prison.
Man involved in 2020 homicide in Norwich extradited. What we know

A man involved in a murder who fled the police for more than three years is in custody.

At approximately 1:45 p.m. on June 10, 2020, members of the Norwich Police Department's Patrol and Detective divisions responded to 52 Laurel Hill Ave. in Norwich for a reported homicide. Upon arrival, officers located 66-year-old Edward Mcintyre, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, deceased.

The Norwich Police Departments investigation led to the Sept. 15, 2020 arrest of 26-year-old Norwich resident Kendon Cole as well as the issuance of the felony arrest warrant for then 31-year-old Norwich resident Brandon Foster.

According to police, Foster fled the Norwich area and evaded capture until Jan. 18, 2024, when authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina, took him into custody. He remained jailed in North Carolina while extradition proceedings took place.

A Norwich police car parked at the department's headquarters at 70 Thames St.

On Wednesday, Foster was extradited back to Connecticut and transported to Norwich Police headquarters, where he was processed and charged with murder, felony murder, criminal possession of a firearm and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

Foster was held on a $2 million court-set bond and assigned an arraignment date of May 9 at Norwich Superior Court.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Man charged in 2020 murder in Norwich CT, found in North Carolina
Man killed in Northern California shooting. Arrest made after nearly 100-mph chase, deputies say

A shooting in Marysville on Thursday left a man dead as the suspect fled law enforcement, leading Yuba County sheriffs deputies on a chase that reached speeds of nearly 100 mph before his arrest, Northern California authorities said.

Deputies were told about 3:15 p.m. of a shooting in front of a home near Remington Way and Silvergate Court during which a neighbor heard cries for help, the Yuba County Sheriffs Office said in a news release.

Deputies found a man suffering from a gunshot wound in the residential neighborhood, the release said. His identity has not been released pending notification of family.

Witnesses described the suspect and his vehicle to deputies, who found him after canvassing the area. The suspect, Sunny Bavra, fled the area and a pursuit began, the news release said.

Deputies arrested the 45-year-old man after a 10-minute pursuit in which Bavra allegedly reached 95 mph. The suspect crashed his car and began to flee on foot before he was apprehended, the news release said.

Investigators did not know whether Bavra knew the victim. He was arrested on suspicion of homicide, evading police and several weapons charges, deputies said.

The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Yuba County Sheriffs Office at 530-749-7777.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  A man has been sentenced for his part in a 2022 officer-involved shooting in north Wichita.

According to the Office of the District Attorney, 40-year-old Travis Davis of Wichita was sentenced to three years in prison and two years post-release.

Wichita car dealer ordered to pay $418,000, DA says

On April 17, Davis pled guilty to aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer (36 months), criminal discharge of a firearm (12 months), aggravated assault (12 months), and criminal threat (6 months).

The judge sentencing Davis followed the plea agreement and ordered his sentences to run consecutively.

The judge also recommended that Davis receive mental health counseling while in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  A man was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole until 2075 for the shooting death of 49-year-old Aaron Shepherd.

On May 27, 2021, Jeremy Volle, 34, of Topeka, was booked on charges stemming from the shooting death of Shepherd, according to the Shawnee County District Attorneys Office.

Volle and another man were arrested in connection to the homicide case.

Topeka police arrest 2 in May shooting murder case

Shawnee County DA spokeswoman Katie Garceran said the Topeka Police Department (TPD) was called around 4:45 a.m. on May 27, 2021, to the 1100 block of SW 17th Street in response to a shooting. At the scene, officers found Shepherd in the road next to his car suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital where he was later declared dead.

Volle was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole until 51 years have been served.

Volle was found guilty of three counts after a 5-day jury trial:

Murder in the First Degree  Felony Murder

Murder in the Second Degree  Reckless

Criminal Possession of a Firearm

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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Tell my daughter I love her: Man lay in parking lot after being shot in Newport News, witness says

NEWPORT NEWS  A man was seriously injured in a shooting Wednesday night.

Police responded to the 500 block of Calla Court  off Chinkapin Trail in the citys Denbigh section  following a report of a shooting at 9:32 p.m. Officers found a man in a parking lot with at least one gunshot wound.

He was taken to a hospital with injuries considered life-threatening.

Michele Canty, a resident of the apartment complex, said she was sitting on her couch when she heard three or four shots close by, followed by the sound of a car peeling away.

Canty, 49  a former Daily Press crime reporter  said her first instinct was to run outside and see whats going on.

A man was on the ground in the parking lot about 20 steps from Cantys front door. She called 911 while she and about five other neighbors went over to the man to try to help him.

Neighbors initially believed the man  who Canty estimated was between 25 and 35 years old  was shot in the arm. But they realized hed been shot at least twice, once on the left side of his face and once in the left abdomen.

He was talking, but we couldnt understand him, Canty said, adding the man was struggling to breathe as neighbors tried to keep him conscious. At one point, a neighbor leaned in close while the man said something, and Canty asked what he said.

Tell my daughter I love her, the man said, Canty said the neighbor told her.

Police officers arrived relatively quickly, Canty said, and put the man onto his back.

I saw him stop breathing, but then he took a deep breath and came back, she said.

Who shot you? officers asked the man. Whats your name?

It wasnt clear if the man responded. The ambulance came about five or 10 minutes after the shooting, Canty said, and medics were with him in the ambulance for about 10 minutes before taking him to the hospital.

Canty said she didnt know the man and didnt recognize him from the neighborhood.

Calla Court is a cul de sac in the Woodscape Apartments, off Jefferson Avenue a few miles south of Fort Eustis. Canty said crime is uncommon in the apartment complex, and weve never had a shooting in her 10 years there.

Residents there tend to get up early, she said, and were likely settling in for the night at the time of the shooting.

This is a blue-collar, working-class neighborhood, Canty said, saying the complex is filled with teachers, police officers, VDOT employees, retired couples and families with young children who often play outside. We manage our business. We take care of our neighbors.

Cantys 13-year-old daughter was in her bedroom at the time of the shooting, and was shocked to learn in the morning that a man had been shot just outside.

When Canty was taking the girl to school in the morning, apartment maintenance workers were outside cleaning blood from the pavement while elementary school kids were across the street playing tag as they waited for the bus.

The police investigation is ongoing.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
JUBA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday that the ongoing conflict in Sudan has put pressure on the fragile health system in South Sudan due to an influx of returnees and refugees fleeing fighting in Sudan.

Patrick Youssef, ICRC regional director for Africa, said poor health conditions are expected to worsen due to the high number of people arriving in South Sudan as conflict escalates in neighboring Sudan.

"My fear is that the influx has created an additional strain on already existing difficulties in terms of health services. If you look at health facilities, they are mostly run by international organizations or local organizations, and if funding stops, they have no way of sustaining such operations," Youssef told journalists in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

He said South Sudan is still recovering from years of conflict, but it is now facing the consequences of the conflict in Sudan, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee to South Sudan.

"All this comes at a time when ongoing conflicts around the world have put additional strain on humanitarian resources while the needs have not diminished," Youssef added.

During his five-day visit to Malakal town in Upper Nile State, Akobo and Diel areas in Jonglei State, he met with affected communities, government officials, key humanitarian actors and relevant organizations.

The ICRC official also met with First Vice President Riek Machar, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Albino Akol Atak, and diplomatic representatives to discuss the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country and the limited resources available to respond to it.

"The humanitarian situation in South Sudan is dire due to conflict and intercommunal violence, compounded by a lack of infrastructure, widespread food insecurity, destruction of farmland, displacement, harsh weather conditions, and limited access to basic services," Youssef said.

He noted that the country's strained resources are being stretched further by the combined effects of economic instability and the influx of more than 650,000 people fleeing the conflict in Sudan.

Youssef called on the transitional unity government to avail funding to address the worsening humanitarian situation, saying that humanitarian organizations are unable to do it alone.

The South Sudan government recently imposed taxes on fuel and other aid deliveries, forcing the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and other UN agencies to reduce humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.

Youssef said the ICRC needs the support of the government to carry out its mission effectively.

"However, the recent introduction of new fees, levies, and taxes by the government of South Sudan will significantly increase the cost of humanitarian operations and further limit the resources available to help the affected population," he said. 
Man vanishes trying to swim across creek, California cops say. Then rescuers find body

A man was found dead after vanishing in a creek while he was trying to swim to the other side, California deputies say.

A passerby called 911 after seeing the man swimming in Alameda Creek in Fremont on Tuesday, April 30, the Alameda County Sheriffs Office said in a May 1 Facebook post.

The caller said they saw the man, later identified as Franklin Mabuyo, 26, struggling in the water before going under water and never resurfacing at about 5 p.m., deputies said.

Rescuers from multiple agencies, including the Alameda County Fire Department and Fremont Fire Department, arrived at the creek to search for Mabuyo, according to deputies.

County water officials also lowered the creek water level about six feet to aid in the search, deputies said.

After hours of searching during a challenging and heartbreaking recovery mission, deputies said the countys dive team found Mabuyos body at about 10:30 p.m.

The Hayward mans body showed no signs of trauma or foul play, according to deputies.

Fremont is about a 40-mile drive southeast from San Francisco.

Man dies after diving into shallow water from 40-foot embankment, Texas police say

Dad dies after being pulled from Gulf of Mexico with his son, Florida officials say

Teen rowers capsize in frigid waters during practice, Connecticut rescuers say
Man wanted in fatal stabbing arrested after calling 911 for help with bike, cops say

A mans call for help for a flat bike tire ended with his arrest in a womans stabbing death, Louisiana deputies told news outlets.

Christopher Jerome Wilson, 25, was arrested May 1, nearly a week after Carol Allen was found stabbed to death inside her car, WGNO reported, citing the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriffs Office.

She was taken to a hospital and later died, according to the station.

McClatchy News reached out to the sheriffs office for more information May 3 and was awaiting a response.

Investigators said Wilson and Allen, 31, met up for a date in Hammond on April 27, Nola.com reported. While they were together, Wilson attacked the mom of four and tried to steal her car, authorities told Nola.com.

There was a struggle, and she was stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife, Tangipahoa Chief Jimmy Travis told WWL-TV. He said Allen was able to call 911 after she was attacked.

Wilson had fled by the time authorities arrived, according to Nola.com

On May 1, he called deputies seeking roadside assistance because one of his bike tires was low on air, WWL-TV reported, citing Travis. Authorities ran Wilsons information and saw he was wanted on a warrant on an unrelated charge of domestic battery, according to the station.

Wilson was charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in Allens killing, WGNO reported.

He remained in custody at the Tangipahoa Parish Jail as of May 3, online records show, and no attorney information was available.

Tangipahoa Parish is about a 70-mile drive northwest of downtown New Orleans.

Grandmas tragic killing went unsolved for 40 years  until now, Washington cops say

13-year-old boy killed in barrage of gunfire at 2 a.m., Texas cops say. Three charged

20-year-old found strangled to death, WA cops say. Former city council member arrested
HUNTSVILLE, Ala (WHNT)  The Huntsville Police Department (HPD) says it has arrested a man wanted on capital murder charges in Tuscaloosa.

HPD arrested 25-year-old Ladarious Jaquan Bullock on Thursday. A department spokesperson said Bullock is wanted out of Tuscaloosa for capital murder charges.

Man arrested following hours-long standoff, charged with 3 counts of capital murder

According to the Tuscaloosa County Sheriffs Office (TCSO), the charges stem from an incident during the early morning hours on Thursday.

The sheriffs office said at around 3 a.m. on May 2, Tuscaloosa Police responded to a traffic crash near 15th Street and Interstate 359. Authorities said a woman was found dead in the vehicle, but it was determined that she had been shot, and TCSOs Violent Crimes Unit was called in to investigate.

Bullock was identified as a suspect after investigators processed the scene, looked at video surveillance of the area and interviewed several witnesses.

TCSO identified the victim as 28-year-old Brunesha Renee McIntosh. Authorities said the murder was the result of a domestic altercation/argument.

HPD said they were contacted early Thursday morning by Tuscaloosa Police and told Bullock may be heading to the Huntsville area. Officers were able to locate Bullock and take him into custody, a department spokesperson said.

Bullock is currently being held in the Madison County Jail, and TCSO said the investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
CHICAGO  A man is wanted after a woman was sexually assaulted early Wednesday morning in Streeterville.

Two 20-year-old women were talking westbound on Chicago, near Fairbanks, at around 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday.

A man, described as Black, clean shaven with a shaved head, approximately 58 to 511 with a thin build, approached the women while walking eastbound. He was wearing a gray long coat and tan pants.

CPD said the man sexually abused one of the 20-year-old women. The other was able to pull her away from the man and the pair escaped.

Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
Mandate that KC spend 25% of budget on police tossed by court. What happens now?

Reality Check is a Star series holding those with power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at RealityCheck@kcstar.com.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas fought against a state law requiring the police departments budget increase from 20% to 25% of the citys general revenue. And he won.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in his favor this week, sending the ballot question back to the electorate in November.

But the decision does not appear to have an impact on this years budget because it has already been finalized, the mayors office said.

The Kansas City Police Department was allocated $317,258,928 for the next fiscal year, an 11.5% increase over the previous years budget of $284 million. Much of the $33 million of additional police spending will go toward officer hiring and retention.

The $317 million was 25.03% of the general revenue, according to the mayors office. The city used a formula which subtracted some revenue sources including interest on special and general obligation debts. Per state statute, KCPD pension costs are also subtracted.

The purpose of the lawsuit appeared to be more about local control than dollar amounts for Lucas.

Kansas City is the only city in Missouri that does not directly control its police force. The department is overseen by a five-member board of police commissioners. Four are appointed by the governor while Lucas fills the remaining spot.

The Missouri Supreme Court sided with what is fair and just: the people of Kansas Citys voices should not be ignored in conversations about our own safety, Lucas said in a statement posted on social media.

This is an important decision standing up for the rights of cities and their people.

Why did court toss results?

In 2022, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a measure called Amendment 4, which mandated Kansas City increase the amount of general revenue it spends on the police department from 20% to 25%.

A fiscal note summary that voters saw on the ballot said that local governmental entities estimate no additional costs or savings related to this proposal.

Lucas filed a lawsuit arguing that the ballot measure would cost the city more than $38.7 million and force the city to cut spending on other services.

On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the fiscal note summary was misleading and threw out the election results.

The decision was a victory for Lucas as well as Kansas Citians who want more say over the police department.

At the same time, Lucas touted the coming years police budget, saying it exceeded KCPDs personnel funding request, with starting salaries for officers raised to $65,000.

Mayor Lucas today issued the following statement on the Missouri Supreme Court ruling in Lucas v. Ashcroft, a victory for Kansas City taxpayers. pic.twitter.com/WSYJ6RL5qF  Mayor Quinton Lucas (@MayorLucasKC) April 30, 2024

Ongoing criticism of police spending

Community groups and activists have long called for reducing spending on police, especially after controversial shootings by Kansas City police and the 2020 protests for racial justice.

Gwen Grant, president and CEO of Urban League of Greater Kansas City, welcomed the courts decision.

This is a second chance for the electorate to get it right, she said.

Grant went on to say that Kansas City is one of the most violent cities in the country. Taxpayer money is better spent on addressing the root causes of violence and violence prevention efforts, she said, instead of adding more officers or purchasing police equipment.

In 2021, Grant filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of state control over the police department. That case is ongoing in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Dylan Pyles, an organizer with Decarcerate KC, said regardless of state control, funding the police department is a City Council issue.

We actually have the city keep dumping money into the police and expecting different results, but the police dont offer real solutions, Pyles said.

Avery Jones, another organizer with Decarcerate KC, said solutions lie with meeting the communitys needs, including housing and health care.

Pyles added that even with amended ballot language, Amendment 4 is deceptive and manipulative.

The Stars Kacen Bayless contributed to this story.
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  Last year, Abilene was represented in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and this year, Mann Middle School student Sariah Titus is making another appearance.

Ortiz Elementary student makes history after winning Big Country Spelling Bee

Titus competed at the competition in 5th grade when she was a student at Ortiz Elementary School. Now a 6th grader, Titus said she originally did not want to compete again, but her goals for this time are a little different.

I didnt want to do it,  Titus said. Then, I found out how good of an opportunity this is. Im trying to do better than I did last year and make it to the finals, and Im trying to learn how to keep myself calm on stage. I also want to think of the other people who are spelling as well, to think of them not as competitors but as friends.

To prepare herself for the competition against 244 other spellers, she must study multiple words quickly.

The Nationals is way more complex, Titus told KTAB/KRBC. You have a whole unabridged dictionary, which unabridged means complete, and you would have to say a lot of words in like three months.

When Titus first arrived at Mann Middle School in 2023, Principal Chad Drake said he was aware of the intelligence that had arrived at the campus.

As soon as she won, I texted her former principal, Miss Greenwood at Ortiz, and she was obviously catching me up on her journey last year, Drake said. We were so excited to get her over from Ortiz because shes just outstanding when it comes to spelling specifically; thats one of her strengths.

AUDIO QUIZ: Try to spell the words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals

Titus spends most of her time studying for the national contest, getting ahead on her schoolwork, and going through the class dictionaries. Her English teacher, Kellsea Chapin, said Titus also uses her knowledge in the classroom.

Whenever somebody says, How do you spell this, Miss Chapin? Sariah starts spelling it right away, right along with me sometimes, Chapin explained. It is amazing that she is as intelligent as she is and has this natural ability, but she is also incredibly kind. And that is something that is very unique, especially in a middle school setting.

Titus will compete in the preliminary round on May 28 in Washington, D.C., and she is the first person in her family to compete in the national spelling bee.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com.
Many states are eager to extend Medicaid to people soon to be released from prison

Community health worker Ron Sanders, right, helps a patient at San Franciscos Southeast Family Health Center, part of the Transitions Clinic Network that assists former inmates navigate health care after release. A new policy allows states to provide Medicaid health care coverage to inmates for specific services 30-90 days before their release. (Courtesy of Transitions Clinic Network)

A new policy that allows states to provide Medicaid health care coverage to incarcerated people at least a month prior to their release has drawn bipartisan interest and a slew of state applications.

Federal policy has long prohibited Medicaid spending on people who are incarcerated in jails or prisons, except for hospitalization. As a result, when people are released, they typically dont have health insurance and many struggle to find health care providers and get needed treatment. In a population that is disproportionately likely to have chronic conditions such as heart disease and substance use disorders, that can be deadly.

Some states terminate residents Medicaid coverage when theyre incarcerated, while others just suspend it. Either approach can cause delays in seeking health care for people recently released from incarceration, with sometimes disastrous outcomes: A seminal 2007 study found that former prisoners in Washington state were 12 times more likely to die from all causes within two weeks of release, compared with the general population. The leading causes were drug overdoses, cardiovascular disease, homicide and suicide.

Because a disproportionate number of Black, Native and Hispanic people are incarcerated, lowering their death risk after release might reduce racial health disparities in the overall population.

In 2022, about 448,400 people were released from prison, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Under federal guidance released a year ago, states can connect prisoners with case managers 30-90 days before they are released to develop plans based on their health needs. The case manager can help the person make post-release appointments with primary care doctors, mental health counselors, substance use programs, and housing and food assistance.

States that want to extend Medicaid coverage to people in prison or jail must request a federal waiver to do so. At a minimum, participating states must provide case management, medication-assisted treatment for people with substance use disorders and a months supply of medication upon release, though states are free to do more.

Imagine if we had three months to prepare. Having a plan of action and even having appointments already scheduled for their needs  its going to be game changing.

 Alfonso Apu, director of behavioral health services at Community Medical Centers Inc., in California

The Health and Reentry Project, a policy analysis organization focused on health care for former prisoners, called the new policy groundbreaking.

What these waivers enable states to do is build a bridge to access to health care  a bridge that starts before someones released and continues after their release, said Vikki Wachino, executive director of the Health and Reentry Project and a former deputy director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Its about starting the process before they leave prisons and jails, so that they can have stronger connections to health care providers and treatment providers after they leave prison and jail.

As of last month, federal officials had approved waiver applications from four states  California, Massachusetts, Montana and Washington. Nearly 20 other states, including Rhode Island, are waiting for approval, according to health research organization KFF.

Jack Rollins, director of federal policy at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, said states that want to participate are focusing on different incarcerated populations and medical conditions. Some would start with jails, others with state prisons or youth detention facilities. Some states would provide coverage to all inmates, others just to those with a substance use disorder.

Washington, for example, will cover people incarcerated in jails, prisons and youth correctional facilities beginning three months before they are released, an estimated 4,000 people each year. It will connect them to community health workers, bring in doctors and counselors for consultations, and provide lab services and X-rays.

Montana will limit its program to people in state prisons who have a substance use disorder or mental illness and will provide services beginning a month before release. It did not give an estimate of how many people would receive help each year.

California, where an estimated 200,000 people will be covered each year, also included community health workers in its plan. Dr. Shira Shavit, executive director of the Transitions Clinic Network, a California-based national network of clinics focused on formerly incarcerated people, said ex-prisoners are especially well suited for that role.

Shavit said her group consults them on where to locate new clinics and on strategies to reach recently released inmates, because the workers are adept at knowing where people are when they come out into the community and finding them there.

Research suggests that connecting recently released people with others who know what its like to be incarcerated makes it less likely that they will end up in the emergency room.

They know how to connect with people, and people trust them, and will follow them to come to clinic and feel comfortable coming, Shavit said.

Alfonso Apu, director of behavioral health services at Community Medical Centers Inc., a California network of neighborhood health centers that serves patients in San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties, said its easy to lose people once they are released.

The complexity of these patients is so intense that they are going to need three, four, five hours of encounters with primary care every month, at least, Apu said.

Imagine if we had three months to prepare, he said. Having a plan of action and even having appointments already scheduled for their needs  its going to be game changing.

Dr. Evan Ashkin is a physician who founded the Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program at the University of North Carolina, a network of community health centers that works with local health departments, clinics and community health workers to connect former inmates with health care. He agreed that employing community health workers who share the experience of previous incarceration is essential.

Im hoping well be able to expand this workforce, Ashkin said. In our state, North Carolina, theres not a lot of folks focusing on access to health care for people post-release.

North Carolina is awaiting word on its application.

Ashkin added that racial equity issues are really important.

We have to have our eyes wide open on the type of services we provide, that they are set up to bring in the communities most impacted, he said.

Editors note: This story has been updated to more accurately describe the Health and Reentry Project.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Many states are eager to extend Medicaid to people soon to be released from prison appeared first on Rhode Island Current.
Many states are eager to extend Medicaid to people soon to be released from prison

Community health worker Ron Sanders, right, helps a patient at San Franciscos Southeast Family Health Center, part of the Transitions Clinic Network that assists former inmates navigate health care after release. A new policy allows states to provide Medicaid health care coverage to inmates for specific services 30-90 days before their release. (Courtesy of Transitions Clinic Network)

A new policy that allows states to provide Medicaid health care coverage to incarcerated people at least a month prior to their release has drawn bipartisan interest and a slew of state applications.

Federal policy has long prohibited Medicaid spending on people who are incarcerated in jails or prisons, except for hospitalization. As a result, when people are released, they typically dont have health insurance and many struggle to find health care providers and get needed treatment. In a population that is disproportionately likely to have chronic conditions such as heart disease and substance use disorders, that can be deadly.

Some states terminate residents Medicaid coverage when theyre incarcerated, while others just suspend it. Either approach can cause delays in seeking health care for people recently released from incarceration, with sometimes disastrous outcomes: A seminal 2007 study found that former prisoners in Washington state were 12 times more likely to die from all causes within two weeks of release, compared with the general population. The leading causes were drug overdoses, cardiovascular disease, homicide and suicide.

Because a disproportionate number of Black, Native and Hispanic people are incarcerated, lowering their death risk after release might reduce racial health disparities in the overall population.

In 2022, about 448,400 people were released from prison, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Under federal guidance released a year ago, states can connect prisoners with case managers 30-90 days before they are released to develop plans based on their health needs. The case manager can help the person make post-release appointments with primary care doctors, mental health counselors, substance use programs, and housing and food assistance.

States that want to extend Medicaid coverage to people in prison or jail must request a federal waiver to do so. At a minimum, participating states must provide case management, medication-assisted treatment for people with substance use disorders and a months supply of medication upon release, though states are free to do more.

Imagine if we had three months to prepare. Having a plan of action and even having appointments already scheduled for their needs  its going to be game changing.

 Alfonso Apu, director of behavioral health services at Community Medical Centers Inc., in California

The Health and Reentry Project, a policy analysis organization focused on health care for former prisoners, called the new policy groundbreaking.

What these waivers enable states to do is build a bridge to access to health care  a bridge that starts before someones released and continues after their release, said Vikki Wachino, executive director of the Health and Reentry Project and a former deputy director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Its about starting the process before they leave prisons and jails, so that they can have stronger connections to health care providers and treatment providers after they leave prison and jail.

As of last month, federal officials had approved waiver applications from four states  California, Massachusetts, Montana and Washington. Nearly 20 other states are waiting for approval, according to health research organization KFF.

Jack Rollins, director of federal policy at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, said states that want to participate are focusing on different incarcerated populations and medical conditions. Some would start with jails, others with state prisons or youth detention facilities. Some states would provide coverage to all inmates, others just to those with a substance use disorder.

Washington, for example, will cover people incarcerated in jails, prisons and youth correctional facilities beginning three months before they are released, an estimated 4,000 people each year. It will connect them to community health workers, bring in doctors and counselors for consultations, and provide lab services and X-rays.

Montana will limit its program to people in state prisons who have a substance use disorder or mental illness and will provide services beginning a month before release. It did not give an estimate of how many people would receive help each year.

California, where an estimated 200,000 people will be covered each year, also included community health workers in its plan. Dr. Shira Shavit, executive director of the Transitions Clinic Network, a California-based national network of clinics focused on formerly incarcerated people, said ex-prisoners are especially well suited for that role.

Shavit said her group consults them on where to locate new clinics and on strategies to reach recently released inmates, because the workers are adept at knowing where people are when they come out into the community and finding them there.

Community health worker Ron Sanders, standing, talks with a patient outside Southeast Family Health Center in San Francisco. Courtesy of Transitions Clinic Network

Research suggests that connecting recently released people with others who know what its like to be incarcerated makes it less likely that they will end up in the emergency room.

They know how to connect with people, and people trust them, and will follow them to come to clinic and feel comfortable coming, Shavit said.

Alfonso Apu, director of behavioral health services at Community Medical Centers Inc., a California network of neighborhood health centers that serves patients in San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties, said its easy to lose people once they are released.

The complexity of these patients is so intense that they are going to need three, four, five hours of encounters with primary care every month, at least, Apu said.

Imagine if we had three months to prepare, he said. Having a plan of action and even having appointments already scheduled for their needs  its going to be game changing.

Dr. Evan Ashkin is a physician who founded the Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program at the University of North Carolina, a network of community health centers that works with local health departments, clinics and community health workers to connect former inmates with health care. He agreed that employing community health workers who share the experience of previous incarceration is essential.

Im hoping well be able to expand this workforce, Ashkin said. In our state, North Carolina, theres not a lot of folks focusing on access to health care for people post-release.

North Carolina is awaiting word on its application.

Ashkin added that racial equity issues are really important.

We have to have our eyes wide open on the type of services we provide, that they are set up to bring in the communities most impacted, he said.

Editors note: This story has been updated to more accurately describe the Health and Reentry Project.

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Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and Twitter.

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

We are a divided country these days, so much so that certain people have taken to mad mutterings about a national divorce, secession or even civil war. But fear not, fellow Americans, for a time of healing and reunion may be upon us.

If you have doubts, I get it, because what could inspire renewed unity in this overheated political environment? What could possibly bring together Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, at a time when we appear to agree on so little?

Well, history tells us that nothing brings people together faster than having a common enemy, and Americans of both parties now seem to have found one in Georgias own Marge in Charge, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Of course, Democrats have openly despised Greene since she entered public life a few years ago, in large part because shes as mean as a water moccasin and nutty as a south Georgia pecan orchard. But times being what they are, that disdain has become the foundation of her political career. Conservatives love what liberals hate, so the more anger that Greene could trigger from the left, the more adoration and power she got on the right. It has worked very, very well for her until now, but her limitations are about to come into play.

Thanks to her time in the spotlight, Greene now sees herself as a foreign policy expert, as the arbiter and enforcer of what Republicans are allowed to believe, and even as vice presidential material. She has also recently decided, pretty much all on her own, that House Speaker Mike Johnson, her fellow Republican, must be removed from that high office because he dared to allow votes on foreign-aid packages to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel that Greene personally opposed. (All three passed by large margins.)

Mike Johnsons speakership is over, she proclaimed last week, as if she held his fate in her hands, saying that he has betrayed America, he has betrayed Republican voters.

Instead, and for the first time in her short career, there has been significant blowback from her own party. Her insistence that all aid to Ukraine be ended has earned her the title of Moscow Marjorie from the Murdoch-owned New York Post. The far-right editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, also Murdoch-owned, called her Rep. Mayhem Taylor Greene for her ongoing string of tantrums.

She  not the Democrats  are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority, said Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, accusing her of being a terrible leader and dragging our brand down. Even Democrats are now saying that if necessary, they will join with Republicans in voting to spite Greene and keep Johnson as speaker, a step of bipartisan cooperation that would be extraordinary even in less heated times.

Greene is clearly a clown, but clowns can be popular. However, the traits that make a good clown arent transferable to other lines of work. A funny face and big feet dont qualify you to dictate American foreign policy on Ukraine. A lapel flower that shoots water doesnt make you vice presidential material, and a big red nose doesnt give you the power to unilaterally remove a House speaker.

The most famous clown in America, Ronald McDonald, has been the popular mascot for McDonalds for more than 60 years, but nobody, including Ronald, thinks Ronald should be CEO of McDonalds Corp. (The actual CEO of McDonalds went to Harvard Business School, not to clown college.)

But you see, thats where Ronald McDonald and Marjorie Greene part company. Ronald is self-aware enough to know hes a clown. Marjorie doesnt. She thinks she gets all this TV time and attention because of her wisdom and leadership qualities, when in fact she has just happened to come along at a time when her partys base cares more about performance art and political theater  which shes good at  than they do about actual governing.

But like Greene herself, that approach has severe limitations. The GOP has forfeited so much power to the clowns among them  including at the very top  that on its own it is incapable of performing the basic functions of self-government. Thanks to the leeway theyve given to Greene and others, the party that famously rejects compromise as betrayal now needs Democratic help just to keep its own speaker in place.

Its a kumbaya moment.

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JERUSALEM, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday several measures to be taken against Turkiye following the latter's decision to halt all trade activities with Israel due to "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said in a statement that in a discussion carried out by senior officials from the foreign and economy ministries, as well as the Israel Tax Authority, it was decided to work towards reducing any economic connection between Turkiye and the West Bank and Gaza.

Additionally, it was decided to take action in international economic forums to explore sanctions against Turkiye for violating trade agreements, to create an alternative list for the Israeli economy across various sectors and products, and to support affected Israeli export sectors.

It noted that Turkiye is the Palestinian Authority's largest importing country.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, Israeli exports of goods to Turkiye amounted to 1.57 billion U.S. dollars, while Israeli imports from Turkiye reached 4.61 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, Israel filed a complaint to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against Turkiye for its decision to suspend trade, said a statement from Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat.

Both Turkiye and Israel are OECD member countries. 
MAROA, Ill. (WCIA)  A Central Illinois firefighter will be among those who are honored this weekend for their service and their sacrifice in the line of duty.

May 4-5 is National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend. Hosted by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), the 43rd edition of the Memorial Weekend will take place in Emmitsburg, Md. and will honor 226 firefighters from across the country. 89 of them died in the line of duty in 2023 and 117 died in previous years.

This year, Chief Larry Peasley of Maroa will be honored in tribute of his passing on Jan. 4, 2023.

Peasley was a beloved chief who served in the Maroa Fire Department for more than 40 years and who continued serving until his death at the age of 76. Peasley experienced a heart attack on Dec. 7, 2022 while he and his firefighters were responding to a mutual aid call in Clinton. He was changing into his gear when he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

A wave of emotions, City of Maroa pays final respects to fallen fire chief

In tribute, Peasleys name, along with the others, will be inscribed on a bronze plaque that will be become a permanent part of the NFFFs national memorial.

National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend is a time for our nation to pause and reflect on the heroic efforts and selfless service of the fallen firefighters we are paying tribute to this year, said NFFF CEO Victor Stagnaro. We will always remember the bravery, commitment, and sacrifices of each of these 226 heroes  and their families.

Six other firefighters from Illinois will also be honored this weekend  five from Chicago and one from Freeport.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
MATTOON, Ill. (WCIA)  Two schools in Mattoon were placed on a brief soft lockdown Friday afternoon after police were called to an apartment complex next to the school.

Officials with the Mattoon Community Unit School District 2 said Williams Elementary School administration was contacted by Mattoon Police around 2 p.m., advising they were called to Sunrise Apartments  located next to the school  for a weapons complaint. Out of an abundance of caution, school district officials said Williams Elementary, in addition to nearby Mattoon Middle School, were placed on a soft lockdown. Classrooms were locked and no one was allowed to enter or exit the buildings.

Danville Police investigating Friday morning shooting

Mattoon Police responded to Sunrise Apartments immediately and determined that the report was unfounded. The soft lockdowns were lifted just under 15 minutes.

School district officials added that they are grateful for the quick response and communication with Mattoon Police.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
Signs asking people to respect locals and that "Lahaina is not for sale" are seen on the side of the Lahaina Bypass on Maui in December 2023. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

Even before the devastating wildfire last summer, Danielle Crothers and her husband were struggling to find a home  big enough, yet still affordable  on Maui's west side for their recently blended family.

Then the deadly fire decimated more than 2,000 homes in Lahaina, including the apartment where her new husband, Rigoberto Naranjo, lived with his 15-year-old son. She would have taken them in, Crothers said, but she just didn't have room in her small apartment, where she lives with her 9-year-old daughter.

The newlyweds tried to remain hopeful that a space for their family of four would soon open up, especially given the influx of disaster relief and aid organizations for fire survivors. But now, almost nine months later, her husband and stepson are still living in a hotel room and their family remains separated  even as tourists have returned to the island, many staying in short-term rentals in neighborhoods where Crothers would love to live.

The family's plight, like that of thousands of others in Maui, is one reason Hawaiian counties may soon crack down on services from the likes of Airbnb and VRBO.

Its sad because every single fire survivor could be housed if short-term rentals were converted to long-term ... and not even all of them" would need to be converted, Crothers said. "There is enough housing, it's just they're not for the residents. It really enrages me."

State legislators evidently share that ire, overwhelmingly passing a bill Wednesday to give counties the ability to phase out short-term rentals. Gov. Josh Green is expected to sign the bill into law Friday.

Read more: Airbnb rentals could be harder to come by in Hawaii. Here's why and when that might happen

Crothers, who is now five months pregnant, said she's hopeful the new law will enable families like hers to plan for a future on Maui  and across the Hawaiian Islands, which face a worsening housing crisis: the highest housing costs in the nation and one of the worst rates of homelessness.

I would just be grateful to be able to live in a home with [Naranjo] and bring the baby into the world in a comfortable [place]," she said.

As of this week, about 1,750 people displaced by the fire remain in hotels while awaiting longer-term housing, according to the American Red Cross, despite the premium the Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered short-term rental owners  almost twice the fair-market rate  to lease their units to fire victims.

Across Maui, more than 12,000 housing units legally operate as short-term rentals, and officials estimate an additional 10,000 do so illegally, according to the governor. In Lahaina  where Crothers and her husband would like to stay to eliminate longer commutes for themselves or new schools for their children  one in three homes are used as a vacation rental, according to a 2018 report.

Given the new authority from the state, Maui leaders announced a plan Thursday that would phase out permits for about 7,000 of those short-term rentals that were grandfathered in as legal vacation rentals decades ago. Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. would like to see these apartments re-zoned for long-term residential use, potentially beginning next summer.

The proposal still needs to go before Maui's planning commission and county council, but Bissen said the goal is to "create urgently needed housing for displaced wildfire survivors and increase inventory for local residents countywide."

Every day our people are leaving, and this is a consequence we cannot accept as a community," Bissen said a news conference Thursday.

State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, one of the co-authors on the Senate bill, called its passage "a big deal," necessary for local leaders to regulate the short-term rental industry that has ballooned in recent years.

Read more: This is where some Airbnb hosts have been spying on you, and why it will stop

"It was time for a modernization of the code and it was time for the Legislature to speak on this topic, said Keohokalole, a Democrat from Oahu. "What is housing and what is commercial tourist activity? The lines have blurred significantly since the 1950s."

"This bill is an attempt to reset the policy to make it clear that neighborhoods for working people should remain that way and should not be converted into virtual hotel rooms," he said.

The bill, SB 2919, allows for new regulation of transient accommodations," giving counties the authority to change residential zoning  which Maui leaders have jumped on. Although the law will go into effect upon governor's signature, state officials have said it will probably take years before any phase-out approved by a county would go into effect. Maui leaders would like to see their phase-out of some short-term rentals to begin next summer in West Maui and by 2026 for the rest of the island.

Several legislators said the state bill's fortunes were boosted by grassroots support, particularly from advocacy group Lahaina Strong, which rallied for months behind the legislation in the wake of the wildfires.

"This isn't just a win for affordable housing, it's a victory for the spirit of our community," Lahaina Strong organizers posted in a video after the bill received enough 'yes' votes. "With SB 2919's passage, we're not just envisioning a brighter future, we're taking it back  neighborhood by neighborhood."

Organizers with Lahaina Strong have spent the last five months camping out one of the island's most premier beaches, serving as a daily reminder to locals and tourists that the island remains in a housing crisis. Many advocates called in to testify in support of the bill were from the "Fishing for Housing" protest, which organizers said they plan to finally pack up after this legislative win.

Though the effort to change zoning laws gained broad support, it faced fierce opposition from real estate agents, short-term rental owners and Airbnb. Many testified about the revenue local and state governments would lose if such rentals are limited.

A spokesperson for Airbnb declined Thursday to comment on the bill's passage. The company and its lobbyists had previously cited its ongoing work with Hawaiian counties to help limit illegal renting and said that certain changes would probably probably bring legal challenges.

Bissen said Thursday that his team expects such pushback as they try to implement the new state law. The mayor also acknowledged that changing short-term rentals into long-term residences would move them into a lower property tax bracket, which could reduce county revenue by $30 million if his proposal is implemented as is.

There are impacts if we do this and there are impacts if we dont do this," Bissen said. "Our priority is housing our local residents."

De Andre Makakoa, an organizer with Lahaina Strong who camped out for months to demonstrate the need for more housing, called this week's legislative wins just the beginning for his community as it continues to recover from last summer's wildfire.

Its not just our community fighting for this, its a huge movement thats happening," said Makakoa, 29. Housing is extremely important for us now, but theres so much more: infrastructure, water and then everything that has to do with the rebuild."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
What is the May 7th election about?

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  In November, Lansing voters approved the creation of a Charter Revision Commission. 51.6% voted in favor, 48.8% voted in opposition.

The Commission could substantially rewrite the Lansing City Charter, or the citys constitution, substantially restructuring the citys government  from the way local road work is repaired to how local police are funded to who can serve in government voting on where tax dollars are expended.

The Commission has already received a $500,000 budget appropriation by the Lansing City Council. All of that money is coming out of the citys general fund and will pay for Commission operations including legal services and per diems for the 9 citizens elected Tuesday to rewrite the Charter.

Voting booths are seen at a polling station at Langley High School in McLean, Va., on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, 2022. (Greg Nash/The Hill)

This will be the first time a Charter Revision Commission has been approved since the current city charter was approved by voters on Aug. 8, 1978. The current charter has been amended since then, but a full revision has not been approved by voters. Under the charter, voters are asked every 12 years if a Charter Revision Commission is needed.

Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope says the city charter is essentially the citys constitution.

Think of it like a federal or state constitution, Swope told 6 News in November. Thats the citys version of our highest document. So, it lays out who the elected officers are, the term of office for elected officers and numerous other things about how city government operates.

City of Lansing Charter (PDF)Download

The 9 people elected to the Charter Revision Commission will have the job to review the entire document. The Commission could propose changes in the form and structure of the city government from whether to remain a strong mayor form of government or transition to a weak mayor city manager form of government. It could expand or shrink the number of seats on council. There are currently 8 seats on city council  4 at-large representing the entire city and 4 wards created to represent geographic areas of the city.

The Commissioners can bring up to three different draft charters for approval to voters at three different elections. They will have to have a new charter in place by November 2026, Swope says.

Swope tells 6 News he expects about 15% of registered voters in the city to cast a ballot for the special election Tuesday.

Here is the complete list of candidates for the Lansing City Charter Revision Commission from the Lansing City Clerk.

final listDownload

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA)  Ownership of the Village Mall in Danville is set to be auctioned off later this month, which is leaving the mayor of Danville concerned of further negative consequences.

The 35+ acre mall has been split up into three sections for auction. Two of the three properties will be sold with a starting bid of $1.

Danville mayor Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said the city already uses a large portion of their budget to remove and renovate blighted structures, and properties mismanaged by their owners sets back the citys economic viability.

He discourages anyone who cannot rightfully develop the property from bidding, despite the low price.

Danvilles Village Mall set to be auctioned off, leaving locals concerned

This structure is very important to our community, and it is imperative that it ends up in the right hands, Williams Jr. said. We will be taking this very seriously because Danville has made too much forward progress to allow a cornerstone in our community to deteriorate.

Village officials will also enforce building codes and standards on the property, and warn mismanagement can lead to fines, legal expenses, and legal consequences.

The auction is set to start on May 13. More information on the properties can be found on the online commercial real estate auction website LoopNet.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
The Italian government is readying its new defense aid package for Ukraine that will include, among others, a SAMP/T air defense system, the Italian news outlet La Repubblica reported on May 2.

Ukraine has asked international partners to deliver more air defense in the wake of an increase in Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure since March.

Previously, France and Italy jointly supplied Ukraine with a SAMP/T system back in 2023.

The new advanced air defense system Italy allegedly plans to deliver was deployed in Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, known for his Ukraine-skeptic stances, said in March that Rome decided to pull back the system from his country.

The decision by the Italian government to provide another SAMP/T is reportedly linked to the worsening battlefield situation in eastern Ukraine, as Russia seeks to break through Ukrainian defense lines.

The new defense aid package will also allegedly include artillery and Stinger anti-air missiles, La Repubblica writes. It remains unclear whether Italy will agree to supply any of the available 100-200 Storm Shadow long-range missiles, according to the outlet.

The La Foglio outlet writes, citing NATO sources, that the decree on the new aid package may be published within the next few days or the next week. However, La Repubblica wrote that the package should be presented by the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy, which will begin on June 13.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims as the Italian government has not made a public announcement.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), which tracks international aid for Ukraine, Italy has provided Ukraine with 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in defense assistance as of late February.

Read also: One night with Ukrainian drone hunters near Russia

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Latvian army has started to dig an anti-tank ditch as part of its first defensive line near the border with Russia, Latvian public broadcaster LSM reported on May 2.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked concerns that the Baltic states, which are among Moscow's biggest critics and Kyiv's staunchest allies since day one of the all-out war, could become the next target of Russia's aggression.

These fears are reinforced by Russian President Vladimir Putin's repeated threats to NATO countries.

A chain of strongholds will be set up along Latvia's border with Russia and Belarus, including defensive fortifications, various obstacles, and ammunition depots, according to LSM.

The first defensive line is being built near the Terekhovo border crossing in Ludza municipality at a distance of around a kilometer from the border with Russia.

"We are digging up the road and making an anti-tank ditch here so that vehicles cannot move along this road. Including tanks," said Lieutenant Colonel Kaspars Lazdins, engineering inspector of Latvia's National Armed Forces.

"This ditch has specified parameters, and it has the appropriate depth to fulfill its task."

Latvia's anti-mobility plan includes both artificial and natural obstacles such as forests and rivers, according to Lazdins. Barriers are built without explosives and minefields may be laid in case of hostilities, he added.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania agreed in late January to build a Baltic defense line in the coming years to strengthen the eastern border with Belarus and Russia.

The U.S. Congress passed a bill allocating $228 million in military aid to Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia earlier this year.

Read also: US military battalion to remain in Lithuania indefinitely

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
View a previous report on the investigation into the doctors magnetism claim in the video player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A doctor who falsely claimed in a legislative hearing that COVID-19 vaccines connected to 5G cell towers has had her medical license reinstated.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland-area osteopathic physician and outspoken anti-vaccine advocate, was indefinitely suspended from practicing medicine last August after the state medical board found she repeatedly failed to cooperate with the boards investigation into her. On April 10, the medical board voted to reinstate her license on a probationary basis, according to state licensing records.

On Thursday evening, Tenpenny took to social media to announce her license was reinstated, posting on X that she was thrilled to share the news.

Changes that are coming soon to Downtown Columbus

Thank you all for your unwavering love and support but most importantly for your prayers during these challenging times, Tenpenny wrote.

Tenpenny made national headlines in 2021 when she testified in support of a ban on vaccine mandates before an Ohio House committee without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines magnetized people and connected them to 5G towers.

Im sure youve seen the pictures all over the internet of people who have had these shots and now theyre magnetized, she testified. They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick, because now we think that theres a metal piece to that.

It is not clear what originally prompted the investigation into Tenpenny, but last August the board said she evaded multiple requests for an interview, ignored letters detailing the accusations against her, and never submitted required responses. Months after the investigation was initially launched, according to a letter sent to Tenpenny in September 2022, she replied through her attorney that she did not believe the Board had a lawful basis for the investigation.

Tenpenny also ignored an investigative subpoena for a deposition, reiterating that she did not believe the investigation was lawful. She declined to attend an investigative conference after for the same reason.

Tenpenny, who was first licensed in 1984, unsuccessfully appealed her suspension. To be reinstated, she had to submit a statement from the boards enforcement division that she complied with all subpoenas and other investigatory requests from the board, according to the boards suspension order.

The medical board found that Tenpenny satisfied its requirements, a spokesperson for the medical board said.

Tenpenny operates a health restoration center in Cleveland that offers external counter pulsation, commonly used to treat chest pain but which Tenpenny claims can treat erectile dysfunction, kidney failure, high blood pressure and Alzheimers. She also runs a multidisciplinary health center in Middleburg Heights that advertises itself as known for getting people well and symptom-free without pharmaceutical drugs, according to its website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
Haley Omeasoo, a citizen of the Hopi Tribe and a Blackfeet descendant and the founder and executive director of Ohkomi Forensics. (photo/Antonio Ibarra Olivares)

Haley Omeasoo, the founder and executive director of Ohkomi Forensics, was 20 years old when she saw a missing persons flier for her former high school classmate, Ashley Loring Heavyrunner.

Seeing the face of someone she knew on a missing persons flier wasnt a new experience for Omeasoo, a citizen of the Hopi Tribe and a Blackfeet descendant.

It's kind of a normal thing, you see a post on Facebook about so and so being missing or an attempt to locate, and a lot of the time, they do end up showing up, Omeasoo told Native News Online.

But Heavyrunner didnt show up. Omeasoo, who was studying for her bachelors degree in pre-med at the University of Montana, watched from a distance as Heavyrunners case took on the hallmarks of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) crisis: limited and apathetic law enforcement efforts, and a family begging for answers while leading their own investigation. Authorities waited two months to launch an official investigation into HeavyRunners disappearance, and a key piece of evidence was misplaced before it was tested for DNA.

Ashley was over the age of 18, and I feel like her case wasn't taken very seriously because she was an adult, Omeasoo said. They look at her case and think, Shes probably out doing whatever, shell come home. And its been more than six years now.

Heavyrunners case galvanized Omeasoo in a way nothing had before.

Its why I decided to go into forensics, she said.

Omeasoo, a doctoral student in the Forensic and Molecular Anthropology Program at the University of Montana, founded Ohkomi Forensics earlier this year. The Missoula, Mont.-based nonprofit brings to MMIP cases what is often lacking: field and excavation work, forensics anthropology and DNA testing.

The MMIP crisis is prevalent across the country, with Indigenous peoples being murdered at a rate ten times the national average. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death for Native women. While the Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates there are 4,200 unsolved MMIP cases, the actual number is likely higher, Native advocates say. According to the Urban Indian Health Institute, Montana ranks among the top states for the highest number of MMIP cases per capita.

Omeasoo, who grew up on the 1.5 million-acre Blackfeet Reservation on the eastern border of Glacier National Park, says it wasnt until she moved to Missoula for college that she realized the gravity of the crisis.

"Growing up on the reservation, issues like this kind of seem normal. When I moved off of the reservation, I realized it is not normal, Omeassoo said.

Advocates and lawmakers have identified multiple drivers of the MMIP crisis: egregiously underfunded tribal law enforcement; jurisdictional confusion between tribal, local, state police and the BIA; exclusion of Indigenous people in data; and underwhelming media coverage.

With Ohkomi Forensics, Omeasoo has become part of the legion of Native people erecting their own resources to fill these yawning gaps that leave many cases unsolved. MMIP groups span Indian Country, leading searches, posting information on missing people on social media platforms, acting as intermediaries between families and law enforcement, and raising awareness.

Nonprofits, such as the Sovereign Bodies Institute, gather data on MMIP where there is none to paint a clearer picture of the crisis. Some, like Lissa Yellow Bird Chase of Sahnish Scouts, Bernadine Beyale of Four Corners K-9 Search and Rescue, and now Omeasoo, use their distinct skills to aid in the recovery of missing or murdered people and the gathering of evidence.

Forensic anthropology, Omeasoos area of expertise, involves the identification of deceased individuals whose remains are decomposed, burned, mutilated or unrecognizable. Forensic anthropology has proven to be key in solving cold cases, some more than a century old. Along with identifying remains, forensic anthropologists can identify how and when an individual died.

With tribal law enforcement agencies being chronically underfunded, services like Ohkomi could prove essential in recovering MMIP and advancing justice.

Charlene Sleeper (Cheyenne & Arapahoe, Chippewa-Cree), who runs a Billings, Mont. based MMIP group, says she was thrilled when Omeasoo started Ohkomi. She points out that forensics are not only key in identifying remains and determining what happened, but in bringing justice that is not often seen in Indian Country.

"Forensics are key to gathering reliable evidence to support prosecution in these cases," Sleeper said. I celebrate that she is doing this, that her organization exists.

Ohkomi Forensics is the nations only forensics lab dedicated to MMIP. It currently utilizes lab facilities at the University of Montana, where Omeasoo assembles a team of volunteers with various areas of expertise  dental forensics, medical examination, digital forensics  to assist in field searches and casework.

While Omeasoo is focusing her efforts on MMIP cases on the Blackfeet Reservation  such as one involving Arden Pepion, a 3-year-old who went missing in 2021  she hopes to forge agreements with other Montana tribes to utilize her services.

The dream is to get my own lab built that would be specifically for MMIP cases in Montana and surrounding states, and possibly into Canada, she said.

During her nine years in the field, Omeasoo has worked with the remains of individuals she doesnt know. Working on the reservation  her home  is different.

It's harder to go back on the reservation, even if I don't know the family, she said. But that's what we say in my culture, we are all relatives, we are all related and connected somehow."

In the Blackfeet language, Ohkomi means to use one's voice.

The idea of what we do is to restore the voice of those that can no longer speak for themselves, Omeasoo said. And so that's kind of what I hope my company will do is to kind of tell their story, you know, and use our voices for them.

About the Author: "Elyse Wild is senior editor for Native News Online and Tribal Business News. "

Contact: ewild@indiancountrymedia.com
MOMBASA, Kenya, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Four African transport ministers agreed on Friday to expedite the completion of the remaining sections of the high-speed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Naivasha, Kenya, to regional countries.

The ministers of transport from Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Rwanda, who met in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, also agreed to develop a roadmap to fast-track the SGR's implementation.

The ministers resolved to jointly mobilize resources for extending the SGR from Kenya's Naivasha to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and the DRC.

"They committed to deploring the possibility of Rwanda joining the existing working framework between Uganda and the contractor Yapi Merkezi on the update of the feasibility study of the Mirama Hills-Kigali section to ensure harmonization of specifications," the ministers said.

In addition, the meeting further sought to harmonize the planning and development of inland water transport infrastructure in order to provide seamless multimodal transport services and speed up the review of the Tripartite Agreement on water transport on Lake Victoria.

Kenya aims to establish special economic zones along the corridor that will turn areas with stop stations into hubs of economic activity, in addition to ensuring smooth cross-border movement of people and goods, by utilizing private sector partnerships in the extension of the SGR line.

During the meeting, Kenya committed to beginning the Naivasha-Kisumu-Malaba line's construction by December, and Uganda promised to complete its contract by May 31.

The regional ministers who met under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIPs) resolved to establish a framework that facilitates cross-border maintenance of the SGR assets and facilities.

They also committed to harmonizing the planning and development of inland water transport infrastructure, including the development of navigation charts, to provide seamless multimodal transport services within the NCIP. 
Mehdi Hasan on Leaving MSNBC: A Lot of People Seem to Have Come With Me

Ive lost track of all time, hours, days, says Mehdi Hasan, explaining it has been a manic six weeks.

The former MSNBC host launched his own media company, Zeteo, on April 15, and things are hectic  in a good way. After Hasan raised $4 million in seed money, Zeteo generated more than 20,000 paid subscribers in its first two weeks. While a standard subscription costs $8 per month, or $72 per year, many subscribers have paid a whole lot more.

Im not going to tell you how many founding members we have, who paid $500, Hasan says, but he adds: We offered a signed copy of my book, a personalized signed copy, to founding members  that was our offer at the beginning  thinking thered be like, I dont know, 50-100. Weve had so many founding members, we had to take that offer off because I simply cant sign so many books.

I left MSNBC and a lot of people seem to have come with me, he adds.

More importantly, when he spoke with Rolling Stone last week, Hasan noted his website was already making its presence felt. After Zeteo published a column from a Jewish Ph. D. student at Columbia University defending its pro-Palestine protest encampment, a CNN anchor read a portion of the commentary to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and asked him to respond to it.

We got the House speaker responding to an op-ed live on CNN primetime, says Hasan.

For Hasan, this is effectively proof of concept: The reason I wanted to set up Zeteo and not just go be a freelance journalist and actually build something, he says, is because on the progressive end of that media spectrum  there isnt enough variety. There arent enough credible organizations. There arent enough organizations that actually have an impact.

The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC was canceled in November, less than two months after Hamas Oct. 7 attack and the start of Israels brutal war in Gaza. News of the shows end prompted significant outcry. Hasan, one the most prominent Muslim journalists in American media, had been a vocal critic of the Israeli war, and he was known as one of the furthest-left voices at MSNBC. He left the network after his last show in January, and recently told New York Magazine, I signed an exit agreement with mutually agreed terms to leave.

Now, he gets to pick exactly what to cover, without outside pressure. Indeed, Hasan says he wants Zeteos coverage focused almost exclusively right now on genocide in the Middle East.

In the nearly seven months since Israel launched its war in Gaza, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, millions have been displaced, and half the population is at imminent risk of famine. Hasan says the media, broadly-speaking, has covered the war and pro-Palestine protests horrifically badly.

I think history will judge those of us who had platforms in this moment in time, and used those platforms to either ignore the plight of the Palestinians, dehumanize Palestinian children, who are literally starving to death, and instead  [used] our media platforms, our Twitter accounts, and primetime shows to create a moral panic about Jewish, Arab American, and white atheist protesters on college campuses, says Hasan.

To launch his business, Hasan turned to an increasingly popular path for journalists going independent  relying on reader funding, building an email list, and hosting the company on the subscription platform Substack.

For me, the business model is less about how do you make lots of money, and more about what is sustainable? What actually helps you do progressive journalism? says Hasan. He adds that he didnt want to be at the whims of advertisers or tech bosses like Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, who owns X. It means I dont have to worry about shadow-banning or the corporate advertisers not liking my coverage on whatever it is  probably Gaza.

Hasan notes his MSNBC clips often went viral, including among people who dont normally pay attention to progressive journalists. And hes proud of managing to platform people who wouldnt typically be invited on the cable news channel.

Noam Chomsky once emailed me saying Mehdi, youre the only person in 25 years who invited me on at MSNBC, he says, referring to the renowned professor and left-wing media critic. Ill take that to my grave. If I achieved nothing else in journalism, I got Noam Chomsky on MSNBC  not once but twice.

The second story Hasan wants Zeteo focused on is the fascist threat at home posed by a potential second term in office for former President Donald Trump.

Hasan points out that Trump has suggested at his rallies that reporters should be imprisoned, raped, and tortured, so that they give up confidential information about their sources.

No politician in the West has ever said that  Trump said it, says Hasan. This is the guy who weve normalized, who we treat as you know, just fatalistically as our next president  The complacency of the American people and American political media elites is something that will forever baffle me. And Ill be baffled about it while Im sitting in a detention camp in 2027.

He questions whether, if Trump wins, the United States will continue to hold elections. In that vein, he worries that President Joe Bidens ongoing support for Israels war in Gaza will cost him the election and ultimately sacrifice the future of American democracy.

He adds, though: Its April right now. As were speaking, people are being killed in Gaza. Right now, the only thing that matters is pressuring Biden and the Democrats to do the right thing.

Surveying the media landscape today, Hasan says, So much is missing that Zeteo cannot plug that massive, gaping hole in our media coverage  whether its college campuses, whether its Trump vs. Biden, whether its issues like poverty and inequality, whether its the Middle East and Gaza  there are a lot of holes, theres a lot missing. Were trying to do our best.

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Melania Trump's Marriage To Donald Trump Labeled 'Unconventional': 'She Knows Who She Married'

Melania Trump's former aide, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, has released texts showing the former first lady's alleged reaction to affair allegations against her husband Donald Trump.

Trump is currently on trial for falsifying company records to cover up an alleged $130k payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Melania Trump's Ex-Aide Claims She Is 'Complicit' In Her 'Unconventional' Marriage To Donald Trump

MEGA

The former senior advisor to the First Lady took to her X account Thursday to share a screenshot of a purported text conversation showing how Melania reacted to reports of Trump's sexual misconduct allegations.

Wolkoff claimed in her post that Melania "knows who she married" and that she is "complicit," noting that the allegations about her husband didn't seem to bother the Slovenian-born former model at the time.

I was worried sick about Melania hours before Donalds 2nd presidential debate and texted her, Are you ok?(as you can see below). Melanias responseHi love. I canceled interview tomorrow (with @andersoncooper ) & wanted to know If I had time for lunch. She wanted to talk. pic.twitter.com/waHlLTYRTu  Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) May 2, 2024

"I was worried sick about Melania hours before Donald's 2nd presidential debate and texted her, 'Are you ok?'" Wolkoff wrote in the caption, referencing the first text on the screenshot.

"Melania's response 'Hi, love. I canceled [the] interview tomorrow (with @andersoncooper) & wanted to know 'If I had time for lunch.' She wanted to talk," Wolkoff continued.

She added, "It's an unconventional marriage & she's complicit. Remember that Melania does not care what anyone thinks about her or Donald. She knows who she married, and so does he."

The text, dated Oct. 10, 2016, showed them making several plans to get together after Trump's allegations came up. She also tagged the Manhattan DA alongside the post.

Donald Trump's Courthouse Birthday Wish To Melania Trump Was Criticized

MEGA

Trump recently publicly wished Melania a happy birthday just before one of the court sessions for his hush money trial.

Since then, the former president has been mocked online for making such a move. An ex-aide, Stephanie Grisham, who worked with the former first lady, also slammed Trump's move and claimed that Melania probably "rolled her eyes" at the gesture.

According to the former aide, it was just a "performance for voters," adding that the billionaire mogul thought it would be a great move to appeal to suburban women and other voters who are not aligned with the major political parties within the country.

During a chat with CNN's Erin Burnett, Grisham emphasized her point by noting that Trump and his wife weren't "really birthday people," an observation she seemed to notice when she worked with Melania.

She added, "It had nothing to do with herjust typical, selfish Donald Trump."

Stormy Daniels' Attorney Claims Donald Trump Had 'Sex' With His Client

MEGA

Wolkoff's tweet comes after Daniels' attorney, Keith Davidson, made some interesting revelations during his testimony in court yesterday.

According to the New York Post, Davidson said that it was his "understanding" that his client and the billionaire politician had hooked up at some point, even though she denied it in a 2018 letter he drafted.

He, however, claimed that the $130,000 payment Trump allegedly paid to buy Daniels' silence about an affair they had in the wake of the election "wasn't a payoff."

Trump sat still as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Davidson if he understood at the time shot his client had "in fact had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump at some point?"

"That was my understanding," Davidson said. He then explained that the $130k payment Daniels received to silence her about the alleged affair "wasn't a payoff, and it wasn't hush money."

He said he'd prefer to call the money a "consideration."

Donald Trump Is Complaining About His Lawyers

MEGA

According to a New York Times report, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has reportedly been angry with his attorneys, complaining privately that they've not been following his instructions.

Trump's bane with his lead counsel is the legal strategy they've adopted in his hush money trial, as the publication claims he wants them to be more aggressive.

"Donald J. Trump's Manhattan criminal trial had barely begun when he started to turn his anger toward his lead lawyer, Todd Blanche," the NYT report stated.

"Although Mr. Blanche has been Mr. Trump's favorite lawyer for some time, behind closed doors and in phone calls, the former president has complained repeatedly about him in recent weeks, according to four people familiar with the situation," it continued.

The report further noted that Trump "has griped that Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and veteran litigator, has not been following his instructions closely and has been insufficiently aggressive."

The Former President Was Fined For Violating His Gag Order

MEGA

Trump was recently fined $9k for violating Judge Juan Merchan's gag order, which prevented him from making derogatory remarks about jurors and witnesses in the case.

Merchan ruled that Trump violated the gag order in seven Truth Social posts and two statements on his campaign site days before the trial commenced.

"This court's expanded order is lawful and unambiguous," Merchan's order read. "Defendant violated the order by making social media posts about known witnesses pertaining to their participation in this criminal proceeding and by making public statements about jurors in this criminal proceeding."
Two men charged with raping a woman they met on a dating app two years ago and posting video of the encounter on a popular pornographic website received plea deals Friday that were questioned by the judge and outraged the victim - whose attorney asked the court to quash the agreement.

Bendjy Charles, 24 and Michelson Romelus, 27, were facing sexual battery counts and charges of illegally distributing obscene material that could have landed them in prison for up to 93 years. Instead, the two received one year of probation and have been barred from posting material on social media sites. They also are required to complete 100 hours of community service.

Before signing off on the agreement, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch questioned Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Lisa Wyrsch about the favorable plea agreements, then issued a stern warning to Charles and Romelus, who posted their encounter with the then-19-year-old woman on OnlyFans.

For the next year youre on probation, said the judge. That means you belong to me.

Under questioning from Hirsch, Wyrsch said she discussed the case with her supervisors, who determined the charges couldnt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecutor also told the judge that the state had difficulties dealing with the victim during a pre-trial meeting.

Wyrsch called their discussion with the woman, not productive.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing, the womans attorney Joshua Novak disputed Wyrschs account. He said the prosecutor had been abusive toward his client during pre-trial interviews, causing her to cry and leave a virtual meeting. A trial was to begin May 6. But Novak said he received a call Monday morning saying an agreement had been reached.

We offered to prep her for trial, he said. We were told there was a plea.

Before Novak addressed reporters outside the courtroom, Charles attorney Salvino Jauregui claimed the evidence was clear and that the sex between his client, Romelus and the woman was consensual. He said he had no recollection of the woman saying no and trying to fight off the men at any point during the video - facts strongly refuted by Novak.

My client says no and she pushes them off, Novak said.

The Miami Herald had no way of confirming any of the claims. The disputed video has been removed from the OnlyFans site.

Victim thought she was going to a party

Fridays testy hearing was the latest salvo in a two-year battle between Charles and Romelus and the woman, who has not been named. The men were originally arrested in July 2022, almost three months after their encounter with the woman. She subsequently filed a civil lawsuit in October in Broward County against the men and Fenix Internet LLC, the parent of OnlyFans.

In the civil lawsuit, where she is listed as Jane Doe, shes asking for more than $30,000 and claiming the men and the website profited from sex trafficking. She also claims the men not only battered her, but intentionally inflicted emotional distress. And shes demanding a jury trial. The case had been put on hold until the criminal matter was resolved.

According to police and witnesses, Charles and Romelus met the woman on April 29, 2022 on the dating app BLK, described as a site for single Black men and women to meet. They all agreed to meet at the womans home at 2 a.m., before going to where the men lived for a social gathering.

Once there, the woman told police, the two men raped her vaginally and anally, then forced her to perform oral sex. When she pushed them off in the living room, she claimed they continued to force her to have sex in a bedroom. She also told police she never gave them permission to film her. And she said the men uploaded the video to their OnlyFans page and sold it for profit. Five days later she contacted police.

Theyre devils and predators and Im the prey

During the hearing and before Hirsch accepted the plea deal, Novak read a lengthy letter he said his client wrote for the court. It was so long that Hirsch angrily interrupted him at one point, before allowing Novak to continue.

In the letter, the woman calls the men devils and predators who took advantage of her. She said she has since lost social skills and trust in people. She also said a day after the encounter a friend stopped her from jumping out of a moving vehicle on Floridas Turnpike.

I must have been the cutest clown on the camera to them, the woman wrote. I never said yes. I never consented. Eye contact is not yes. When I said get the f... off me, I meant it.
Judge Juan Merchan told Donald Trump on Friday morning that he is, in fact, allowed to testify in court while under a gag order, addressing a false claim that Trump made the day before.

Im not allowed to testify, Im under a gag order  I guess, right? I cant even testify, the former president told reporters outside the courtroom at his hush money trial Thursday as he turned to his lawyer, Todd Blanche, who appeared to nod and shake his head at the same time.

Trump added: Im not allowed to testify because this judge, whos totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.

Trump told reporters outside the courtroom he is not allowed to testify in his New York hush money trial because of his gag order.



Hes wrong, he can testify. pic.twitter.com/luqbk4W4C5  Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) May 2, 2024

At the start of Fridays court session, Merchan explained to Trump that the gag order does not prohibit you from taking the stand and that the order only applies to extrajudicial statements.

This wasnt the first time that Trump has shown a lack of knowledge about the criminal trial process. Last month, he suggested that arbitrary limits had been placed on his lawyers during the jury selection process, when those limits are based on the law.

Earlier this week, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for repeatedly violating the gag order and warned that jail is a possibility for further violations, though Manhattan prosecutors said Thursday that they are not seeking jail time just yet. (My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin has questioned the purpose of a gag order if low-level fines are all that prosecutors are willing to seek at the moment.)

Trump has made conflicting statements about whether he will take the stand, which would require him to answer questions under oath before the jury. Its unclear whether the notoriously verbose defendant will be willing to take that risk.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Madelyn Gambles journey to graduation at Indiana University has been bookended by forces beyond her control.

Gamble spent freshman year taking online university courses amid the Covid-19 surge. She didnt meet anyone in her graduating class until sophomore year. And now protests in response to the Israel-Hamas war have detracted from the completion of her senior year.

The information systems major hasnt been on campus since last week, when, she said, the situation started to get out of hand.

We started college in a time of a lot of instability, where no one really knew what was going on, said Gamble, a native of Washington state. We started in instability and were ending in instability.

From New York to Los Angeles, traditional university graduation ceremonies  many beginning this weekend  will take place on the heels of escalating confrontations over the war in Gaza, with police entering campuses to make mass arrests and rip apart encampments.

A time of sun-drenched pomp and circumstance, esteemed speakers, academic robes and decorated mortarboards arrives amid anxiety and exasperation for graduates, faculty and university officials grappling with safety concerns over potential disruptions.

An important personal milestone for many young adults will be reached against a backdrop of police barricades and heightened law enforcement presence, metal detectors and other security measures. Trained staffers will be on hand to manage disruptions.

US colleges have been using law enforcement  along with academic suspensions and expulsions  t o quell student demonstrations since Hamas October attack on Israel left more than 1,200 dead and dozens taken hostage. Israels devastating response in Gaza  with more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to its health ministry  has further fueled deeply held views of students and faculty on all sides.

In Gambles case, she and her family dont plan to attend Fridays main commencement ceremony after Indiana University Police and Indiana State Police last week arrested more than 30 protesters at an encampment on the Bloomington campus.

They decided that they didnt want to go, Gamble said. Just play it safe.

Gambles family instead will attend a more intimate ceremony hosted by her individual college.

Madelyn Gamble is graduating from Indiana University. - Madelyn Gamble

Staffers ready to respond to disruptions

In a message to graduates and their families, Indiana University this week said it has implemented additional security measures and will have designated areas for protests outside the ceremonies.

The university will award nearly 19,000 degrees in ceremonies from Friday through next Thursday.

Inside the venue staffers will respond to disruptions, beginning with warnings and requests to respect the importance of the celebrations for our graduates and their families, the university said.

All guests will enter through metal detectors. All bags will be subject to inspection.

Guests are permitted to bring clear bags that are approximately the size of a one-gallon freezer bag or small clutch approximately the size of a hand, the university said. Prohibited items include backpacks, banners, placards, flags, noise makers, weapons, packages and outside food and beverage.

Capt. Ron Galaviz, an Indiana State Police spokesman, said the agency has been in constant communication with the university and its police department.

We continue to monitor the situation on campus and are ready to render assistance should IUPD request that of us, Galaviz said in a statement.

Conflicts in California

More than 2,000 people have been arrested on college and university campuses since April 18, according to a CNN review of university and law enforcement statements. Protesters have been arrested on more than 40 campuses in at least 25 states.

Commencement ceremonies this weekend come after police in Los Angeles moved into a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA early Thursday, tearing down tents and arresting more than 130 protesters. Fire extinguishers and water bottles were hurled at officers who, according to police, responded with flash bangs shot into the air to disperse the unruly crowds.

UCLAs commencement ceremonies remain scheduled for June 13 through June 16, according to the universitys website.

At UCLAs in-state rival, the University of Southern California, graduates wont have the opportunity to attend the schools main commencement ceremony. USC canceled it last week, citing new safety measures in place.

We understand that this is disappointing, the university said on its website.

The university had earlier canceled the commencement speech of its Muslim valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, over what it called security concerns. USC then canceled appearances by prominent speakers and honorees at the May 10 graduation ceremony.

USCs commencement events were scheduled from May 8 to May 11. Its main stage ceremony traditionally brought all 65,000 students and their families together. The university said it will instead host new activities and celebrations to ensure graduation events are meaningful, memorable and uniquely USC.

Just looking for a positive moment

Across the country, at Columbia University in New York, hundreds of police officers on Tuesday night moved onto campus, clearing pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had occupied and barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall. More than 200 protesters were arrested.

Columbia said the NYPD will stay on campus through at least May 17, past the universitys May 15 commencement ceremony.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik said earlier this week the university did not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration.

Please recall that many in this graduating class did not get a celebration when graduating from high school because of the pandemic, and many of them are the first in their families to earn a University degree, Shafik said.

We owe it to all of our graduates and their loved ones to honor their achievement. We want to reassure our community who are trying to make plans that we will indeed hold a Commencement.

At the University of Michigan, where protesters have set up a pro-Palestinian encampment, spring graduation will take place Saturday at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The ceremony for those receiving graduate degrees will be held Friday.

Commencement ceremonies have been the site of free expression and peaceful protest for decades and will likely continue to be, the University of Michigan said in a statement.

University of Michigan senior Meera Herle, who was student body president this school year, said she was just looking for a positive moment at this weekends ceremonies. She recalled her pandemic-era high school commencement in Buffalo, New York, which was broken down into small groups and took place on a field. There were no hugs, no handshakes.

In a way, Herle said, the pandemic helped her college classmates to graduate in the midst of another unexpected event.

Our class has sort of dealt with a lot of  unforeseen circumstances throughout our young adult lives, she said. I think that this is also something that we are equipped to deal with.

Herle said she is excited her family is attending her graduation and hopes the experience is not tarnished.

Im going to have to sit down with my family before our big Michigan Stadium graduation and maybe have a quick conversation with them just to sort of prep them, Maybe this is something youll see,  she said. You know, getting them sort of in the mindset of, Its a college campus. This is whats going on everywhere. Let it play out. Everything will be OK. 

Focus on security, and the graduates

There will be a designated area for protests outside ceremony venues, the University of Michigan said on its website, noting all commencement events will include security screenings, prohibit banners and flags, and be monitored by volunteers who will immediately respond to disruptions, beginning with warnings.

Deans and directors will generally be patient with lawful disruptions, said the university, where police in March arrested 40 people for trespassing after protesters forced entry to a locked building. If protests significantly impede the program, leadership will take steps to de-escalate and address the interruption.

Colleen Mastony, the universitys assistant vice president for public affairs, added: This might include asking someone to relocate a sign or to otherwise stop ongoing disruptive behavior. All of our events will be led by professional staff, including members of our division of public safety and security.

The Michigan State Police will assist the University of Michigan Police Department, according to State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez. Melissa Overton, a deputy chief for the university police, declined comment.

Given events around the nation and world, our commencement ceremonies, too, will likely be the site of various student expressions, including possible demonstrations, University of Michigan Provost Laurie K. McCauley and Martino Harmon, vice president for student life, said in an email to graduates and their families.

On Sunday, Ohio State University  where more than 30 protesters were arrested last week  will hold its graduation at Ohio Stadium.

Ohio State is not considering canceling commencement at this time and will adjust staffing and public safety plans if needed, said Benjamin Johnson, a university spokesperson. The university does not share details of its safety and security plans, but standard plans have always included a disruption protocol.

All people entering the stadium will be subject to security screening and inspection. Metal detectors will be in place. Bags as well as banners and signs will be prohibited.

Similar measures will be employed by Northeastern University, which will hold commencement exercises attended by about 50,000 people Sunday at Fenway Park in Boston.

About 100 people were detained last Saturday as authorities cleared an unauthorized encampment on the Boston campus, according to a university spokesperson. The university said large bags will be prohibited at the commencement, along with signs, banners and flags. Metal detectors will be in place at Fenway.

The safety and security of our community is always our highest priority, Renata Nyul, Northeasterns vice president for communications, said in a statement.

While we realize that issues in the world prompt passionate viewpoints, the focus this weekend should be on our graduates and their remarkable achievements. We look forward to celebrating our graduating students with their families.

The type of bags allowed at commencement was in incorrect in a previous headline on this story. Clear bags are permitted.

Correction: An earlier headline on this story incorrectly described what kind of bags will be banned. Northeastern University will ban large bags.

CNNs Chris Isidore, Rachel Ramirez, Dakin Andone, Samantha Delouya, Rebekah Riess and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Thursday they were searching at sea and on land for two Australians and one American reported missing in Baja California, one of the country's most violent states.

Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and American Jack Carter Rhoad were reported missing on April 29, according to Baja California's prosecutors' office, and were last seen on April 27.

The three were on vacation surfing in the municipality of Ensenada, about an hour and a half south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Since the disappearance was reported, the operation has been ongoing, and so far, a cell phone apparently belonging to one of the missing persons and a vehicle have been recovered," Jorge Argoud, operational deputy director of security in Ensenada, told Reuters.

State prosecutor Socorro Ibarra said three people are being investigated in regards to the case, though it remained unclear whether they were involved in the disappearance of the men.

Tents were found in the area the missing men were last seen, said Ibarra, adding that they were formally reported missing days after their actual disappearance.

"We have already contacted authorities in the United States and also in Australia because it is important in these cases to know the full context about the missing persons," Ibarra told journalists during a news conference.

People alleging to be related to the Australian brothers posted about their disappearance on social media last week. Relatives of the missing persons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Anthony Esposito. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
In this image made from video, Mexico's police officers stand guard at the Ensenada station in Ensenada, Mexico, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found tents and questioned a few people in the case of two Australians and an American who went missing over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California. (AP Photo)

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican authorities said Friday that three bodies were recovered in an area of Baja California near where two Australians and an American went missing last weekend during an apparent camping and surfing trip.

The state prosecutors office did not say whether the bodies were those of the three foreigners, but said the bodies were discovered during the search for the missing men. It also announced that three people who were being questioned in the case of the missing men had been arrested and charged.

Three bodies were found south of the city of Ensenada, and they were recovered in coordination with other authorities during a specialized operation because they were found in a zone of difficult access, the office said in a statement.

This was done as part of the search for two Australians and one American reported missing, the office said.

The site where the bodies were discovered near the township of Santo Tomas was near the remote seaside area where the missing men's tents and truck were found Thursday on a remote stretch of coast.

The men  identified by family members as brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad  went missing Saturday. They did not show up at their planned accommodations over the weekend.

The U.S. State Department said: We are aware of those reports (of bodies) and are closely monitoring the situation. At this time we have no further comment.

Baja California prosecutors had said Thursday that they were questioning three people in the case. On Friday, the office said the three had been arrested and charged with a crime equivalent to kidnapping. It was unclear if they might face more charges.

Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, the chief state prosecutor, said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was linked to the three people being questioned about the missing foreigners

A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation, Andrade Ramirez said Thursday. There is a lot of important information that we cant make public.

While drug cartels are active in the area, she said, all lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.

On Wednesday, the missing Australians mother, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for help in finding her sons. Robinson said Callum and Jake had not been heard from since April 27. They had booked accommodations in the nearby city of Rosarito.

Robinson said one of her sons, Callum, was diabetic. She also mentioned that the American who was with them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm that. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports a U.S. citizen missing in Baja, but gave no further details.

Andrade Ramirez said her office was in contact with Australian and U.S. officials. But she suggested he time that had passed might make it harder to find the missing trio.

Unfortunately, it wasnt until the last few days that they were reported missing. So, that meant that important hours or time was lost, she said.

In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California  also known as the Sea of Cortez  from the Baja peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed in 2021, is putting more than $28 million in federal funding towards bringing clean drinking water to New Mexicans, New Mexicos congressional officials say.

Every New Mexican deserves the right to a clean and reliable supply of safe drinking water, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in a press release. Because of the investments we passed in the Infrastructure Law, our state will be able to finally replace lead pipes, using American-made materials installed by American workers. This funding will keep working families in our state safe and healthy, while creating a solid foundation for our communities to grow.

Texas-based oil company to pay New Mexico $24.5 million over pollution allegations

New Mexicos share of the funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will go towards replacing lead pipes in the state, Heinrichs office says. At least 49% of the funding will be used as grant money or forgivable loans to disadvantaged communities. The rest of the funding will be used for low-interest loans.

Ultimately, the New Mexico Environment Department and New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority will organize selection and fund distribution for projects.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
WINDHOEK, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Tragedy struck the Namibian capital of Windhoek when an aircraft crashed in the residential area of Pioneers Park on Friday night, killing three people.

Elifas Kuwinga, chief inspector of the Namibian Police Force, said in a report that the aircraft, carrying two pilots and a mechanic for a maintenance test flight, crashed into the residential premises, and all three occupants were killed on impact.

"A comprehensive report will be issued once the investigation is complete. Currently, all relevant stakeholders are present at the scene," Kuwinga said.

The aircraft involved belonged to Westair Aviation, a private operator offering scheduled passenger services. 
New Mexico House Republicans from southeast New Mexico called for stronger security measures at the U.S.-Mexico Border, chiding Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Democratic Party for purported inaction thus far leading to increased crime throughout the state, following an April 30 visit by the GOP to the crossing at Santa Teresa near Las Cruces.

The governor recently called a special legislative session for July 18, intending to address public safety issues and potential legislation with lawmakers. During the regular 2024 session earlier this year, both parties proposed bills they said were intended to mitigate threats to public safety as Republicans sought to increase penalties for crimes like drug trafficking and Democrats pushed stronger firearm regulations.

The Democrat-controlled legislature passed two gun bills that added a seven-day waiting period for gun sales and banned guns from poling places, with exemptions added to both for concealed carry permit holders after debating the measures. Republican legislation was largely rejected by the Legislature, but the lawmaking body did pass a resolution declaring Oct. 14 Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Week.

More: New Mexico GOP threatens 'extremely painful' special session if guns bills are introduced

State Rep. Larry Scott (R-62) of Hobbs said the State must do more to address the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl or methamphetamine by criminals crossing first into New Mexico from Mexico.

Thats because of a strong law enforcement presence along the national border in neighboring states like Texas and Arizona which Scott said funneled criminal activity to the crossings in New Mexico.

I think the problem is not that people are coming over. The problem is we dont know who is coming over, Scott said. We have insufficient documentation. They could be terrorists or drug traffickers or human traffickers. We just dont know their intentions.

Scott said Republicans arrived at several low-cost opportunities to improve security at the international border that would be proposed during the special session. These included capital outlay funds for a series of cameras along the boundary Scott said could tie into an existing system installed by Arizona. He said that would cost less than $3 million. Scott also suggested a resolution calling on New Mexico State Police to work with the U.S. Border Patrol to enforce immigration laws.

Lujan Grisham has the authority during a special session to decide which legislation will be taken up by lawmakers, and Scott said the border should be the main topic in July. He also said the state should reassess catch and release, referencing the alleged practice of arresting and then releasing people who are undocumented in the U.S.

State Rep. Larry Scott (R-62) introduced legislation in the 2023 New Mexico Legislature to provide a long-term fix for lost tax revenue in Carlsbad and Hobbs.

It will be a dereliction of her duty if she doesnt take up the border security issues during a public safety special session, Scott said of Lujan Grisham. If you look at the data, everything we have done has not hit that curve of gun violence. Its not happening at gun shows, its happening with criminals who get their guns from wherever.

Lujan Grisham spokesman Michael Coleman said the governor was concerned with border safety, and advocated for heavier federal action, meaning more border patrol agents and technology like drones being deployed to New Mexico. Coleman pointed to the New Mexico National Guard's Counterdrug Support Program which deploys 32 soldiers and eight airmen to the border to assist law enforcement. He also called on Congress to pass legislation recently rejected by the U.S. House of Representatives Coleman said would have added 1,500 new Customs and Border Patrol personnel and 4,300 new asylum officers to assist with asylum seekers crossing the U.S-Mexico border.

"Instead of engaging in political theater at the border in an election year, Gov. Lujan Grisham urges New Mexico Republicans to call their counterparts in the U.S. House and implore them to pass the bipartisan border security legislation pending in Congress," Coleman said in an emailed statement. "The governor stands ready to work with the Biden administration and Congress to bolster border security in accordance with federal law."

More: Eddy County sheriff, New Mexico District 55 candidates talk opioids, gun rights in forum

Border security 'an issue for all New Mexicans,' Republicans say

State Rep. Jim Townsend (R-54) of Artesia also joined the GOPs trip to Santa Teresa and said the trip displayed that immigration was not just an issue for Republicans.

New Mexico Rep. Jim Townsend (R-54)

Its an issue for all New Mexicans, Townsend said. I think youd be amazed at the loss of life and whats been going on. Most of the job of the Border Patrol is trying to save the lives of the immigrants. Its heartbreaking.

Townsend said the lawmakers were joined by a number of county sheriffs from around New Mexico. He said the State should do more during the session to support local law enforcement and other agencies along the U.S.-Mexico Border to mitigate crime.

If its about public safety, I think if youre calling a special session, you ought to be addressing the No. 1 issue which is border security, Townsend said. I think there are things the Legislature can do that will help long-term with crime.

Ahead of the trip on April 29 New Mexico Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R-55) of Carlsbad also worried an influx of migrants through the U.S. southern border was straining local school districts. She said New Mexico should deploy the U.S. National Guard to assist in border enforcement, while increasing local law enforcement funding.

Cathrynn Brown.

Brown said she hoped Republicans and Democrats could work together during the session to enact legislation targeting crime at the border.

This is a huge issue, and we cannot go on without addressing it, Brown said. Its time to get serious. We (Republicans and Democrats) have some fundamental differences on what is possible, but it just cant keep going like this. They (Democrats) control everything, but its time to work together to do whats good for New Mexico.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: New Mexico GOP visits Mexico border crossing at Santa Teresa
Miami firefighters rescue man stranded in tree for two days over flood waters

MIAMI, Okla.  A homeless man who hung onto a tree for two days was rescued by the Miami Fire Department late Thursday night.

Miami Police Chief Thomas Anderson confirmed Miami firefighters used a thermal drone to find him. After locating the man, firefighters deployed a flat-bottom boat to an area east of the river and south of Steve Owens Boulevard.

Anderson did not have the mans name or hometown but preliminary information indicates the man appeared to be living on the riverbank with five dogs.

The man was fished out of the tree and taken to Integris Health Miami Hospital for medical attention, he said.

We started getting calls from passing motorists who heard someone screaming from the river, Anderson said of the mans cries for help.

Miami Fire Chief Chris Chenoweth and the rest of the firefighters showed incredible bravery in the water rescue, Anderson said.

Anderson said the firefighters, police and other rescue and law enforcement from tribal and county agencies were on the scene for about two hours.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com.
MIAMI, Okla.  Embattled Miami Public Schools Superintendent Nick Highsmith resigned Thursday night.

Some Miami residents calling for superintendents resignation amidst controversy

Nick Highsmith, April Board Meeting

The Miami School Board met in executive session for about 30 minutes and when they returned to the public meeting, the board unanimously accepted Highsmiths resignation.

Highsmith did not attend the school districts special meeting and no reason was given for his resignation.

His resignation takes effect on June 30, but Highsmith will be on administrative leave for the duration of his contract.

Chuck McKibben, Board President, said no interim superintendent had been selected and the board was in the process of making a decision on who would fill the position.

There was no discussion during the meeting on whether Highsmiths contract was bought out, or if it had been bought out, the amount of the buyout.

During the April school board meeting, Highsmith publicly took issue with his request for a raise becoming public knowledge.

According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website, Highsmiths total compensation package for the current school year is $162,844. The average superintendent compensation package for Ottawa County superintendents is $117, 837.

His resignation letter is posted below.

Highsmith, a Miami native, joined the school district in 2014. He was promoted to Miami High School principal in 2018, and Superintendent in 2021.

Highsmith came under fire the past several months from the community for the resignation of Andrea Berry, the former Wilson Early Childhood Center principal and for how he handled the SUVs that were surplused by the school, and later purchased by his family members.

Highsmith, who also purchased one surplus SUV, said at the April board meeting, the SUVs were sold at an online auction site and in compliance with district policy.

No one from the school board would comment after the meeting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com.
Michael Fanone Says This Is What Shocks Him About Trump's 'Evil Manifesto'

Donald Trump is declaring his plans for a second presidential term, and former D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone says the world should listen.

Fanone, who was violently attacked by Trump supporters while defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, spoke to HuffPost on Friday about a damning Trump interview published by Time magazine this week.

I believe everything that Donald Trump tells me about his intentions, Fanone said in a phone interview. And I think every American should  everyone in the world should  believe Donald Trump in the things that he says because theres a method to the madness.

Speaking to Time at length, Trump outlined what could happen if he wins back the White House in November  and if he doesnt. He spoke of his plans to deport millions of migrants. He said that he would permit red states with abortion bans to monitor womens pregnancies. He suggested that he was open to firing federal prosecutors who dont follow his orders on who to prosecute, and that he would absolutely consider pardoning every single one of the people sentenced for their roles in the Capitol riot.

Trump also predicted that there would be no political violence after the November election, but only if he wins. If we dont win, you know, it depends, he said.

I wasnt surprised, but its still shocking to see an American presidential candidate spell out his  I dont know what to call it, Fanone said about reading the Time interview.

Evil manifesto, he said, after taking a moment to think. And do it in a somewhat respectable news magazine, for everyone to behold.

He asked, Where is the urgency with our American institutions and those that occupy them to prevent this from happening?

Michael Fanone said that he is trying to sound the alarm bells and preserve American democracy. via Associated Press

Fanone experienced a heart attack and traumatic brain injury after Trump supporters beat and electroshocked him in 2021. Multiple men who assaulted him have been sentenced to years in prison.

He sees Trumps repeated pledges to pardon Jan. 6 rioters as a dog whistle and a call to action to his supporters, signaling that they will not face consequences if they commit violence on Trumps behalf.

If he doesnt win, then hell use any and every means at his disposal to either destroy the system and democracy, or try to put himself back in the seat of power, Fanone said.

Trumps refusal to rule out violence around the next election and his pledge to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters are basically more messages to his supporters to stand by, the former police officer said.

He drew on his decadeslong law enforcement career to highlight other concerns about Trump, who is currently on criminal trial and faces three other felony indictments, with two tied to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Criminals learn every time theyre exposed to law enforcements efforts to apprehend, prosecute, punish, Fanone said. They evolve.

He said: Donald Trump saw what his failures were, or at least what the failures of those around him were in attempting to subvert democracy on Jan. 6. And hell make sure that people ... who are not going to be corrupted no longer exist in our government.

Those concerns align with ones voiced by a number of individuals formerly in Trumps orbit. Many have warned that, in a hypothetical second presidency, he would surround himself only with sycophants and yes men who will not dissuade him from following his worst impulses.

Trump himself has suggested that he will be even harsher in firing people he clashes with if he returns to the Oval Office. As Time magazine put it, Donald Trump thinks hes identified a crucial mistake of his first term: He was too nice.

Related...
Mr Gove was forced to reconsider his decision to block M&S's plans after a successful legal challenge - Paul Grover

Michael Gove should stand his ground and block Marks & Spencers flagship Marble Arch redevelopment for a second time, campaigners have said, despite the High Court forcing the Housing Secretary to reconsider.

Henrietta Billings, director of SAVE Britains Heritage, said the Housing Secretary would be firmly justified in once again refusing M&Ss request to demolish its flagship Oxford Street building.

Mr Gove rejected the plans last year and SAVE Britains Heritage said he would be justified in coming to the same conclusion to block the project a second time. The Housing Secretary has been forced to reconsider his decision after a successful legal challenge by M&S.

Ms Billings said: M&Ss destructive plans were conceived more than six years ago and theyre looking increasingly outdated.

So much has changed since then, from our understanding of the sustainability impacts of demolition and re-building from scratch  to the widespread public interest in this case and growing awareness about the need for change.

In a letter to Mr Gove seen by The Telegraph, SAVE Britains Heritage said events since the initial decision supported a continued block on the scheme.

They pointed to proposals currently under consultation at Westminster Council that would block the bulldozing of properties that could instead be improved by renovations.

M&S plans to demolish its flagship Oxford Street building - Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Rival retailers near M&Ss Marble Arch store have been able to revive ageing sites, which the campaigners said cast doubt over the department stores claim it is unable to retrofit tis Marble Arch building.

Ms Billings said there appeared to be no shortage of appetite to reuse such buildings.

The comments came in response to a call for evidence from Mr Gove after reopening his investigation into the proposed redevelopment. M&S is also understood to have submitted new evidence to the Secretary of State in support of its project.

Sacha Berendji, M&S operations director, said there was nothing new in SAVEs submission and said the retailer had provided a legal commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of the development. M&S has also provided new analysis on heritage and on the importance of the scheme.

Mr Berendji added: We hope on the basis of this new evidence that the Secretary of State approves the scheme and demonstrates that this government supports sustainable investment in Britains high streets and town centres.

The fresh review follows a High Court ruling in March that found Mr Goves initial decision to block the project was unlawful.

Mr Gove had argued that the project would fail to support the transition to a low-carbon future, and would overall fail to encourage the reuse of existing resources, including the conversion of existing buildings.

However, the High Court judge agreed with M&S that Mr Gove had misinterpreted and wrongly applied planning policy by blocking the scheme.

Mrs Justice Lieven said the Housing Secretary had failed to grapple with the implications of refusal, with the independent inspector having raised the possibility that if there is no significant change to the store it might be occupied by multiple traders, including American candy and luggage type stores.

M&S was successful on five of the six challenges it brought.

The project has sparked months of bitter arguments between the Government and M&S, with Stuart Machin, the retailers chief executive, last year claiming the decision was anti-business. Writing in The Telegraph, he said it would have a chilling effect on investment across the country.

M&S and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities did not immediately respond to requests 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.
MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin authorities on Thursday promised a thorough investigation of the fatal police shooting of a student who they say was armed outside a middle school, as families in the community gathered to comfort one another.

Authorities did not release additional details Thursday on the inquiry being led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and have not released the name of the student.

Wisconsin man charged after shooting victim in the head following physical altercation

When faced with a deadly threat, they responded with deadly force, Mount Horeb Police Chief Doug Vierck wrote in a Facebook post asking for patience with the ongoing investigation. No officers, students, or staff were injured other than the armed individual.

Authorities have not said whether the student fired a weapon, pointed one at police, or what type of weapon he had.

The middle school, along with a nearby high school and elementary school, locked down for hours Wednesday and did not release students until well into the afternoon. The district reported after 8 p.m. that all students had been reunited with family.

Attorney General Josh Kaul on Wednesday night largely declined to answer questions about what happened once police arrived at Mount Horeb Middle School, saying he could not compromise the investigation.

Mount Horeb Area School District did not hold classes on Thursday. On its Facebook page, the district said a space at the high school hosted a community gathering for families.

Wisconsin man escapes with minor injuries after scary rollover crash on State Highway 56

Our community has experienced a collective crisis, and together, we will provide support and work toward recovery, said a statement attributed to Superintendent Steve Salerno.

Law enforcement in Mount Horeb and Dane County on Thursday referred all questions to the Department of Justice. The small village is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the state capital of Madison.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
NEW YORK (PIX11)Migrant children acting as street or subway vendors are becoming a common sight in New York City.

Selling fruits, candy, beverages, and other snacks.

New Yorkers can get money for a new air conditioner

PIX11 News met a mother and her 7-year-old daughter selling water at the steps of the entrance to the Columbus Circle. They migrated from Ecuador three months ago.

Mom told us in Spanish they live in a migrant shelter, and this is the only way they can make some money to send back home.

PIX11 News also witnessed NYPD Officers instructing a mom and her 6-year-old daughter to move away from the steps of Bryant Park, where they were selling water and soda.

They told me I have to move, said the also Ecuadorian mother in Spanish.

Whether accompanied or alone, children of all ages are doing this type of labor. Even more heartbreaking to see mothers that are carrying their babies on their backs.

I saw that in Mexico. I saw that in Colombia. So sometimes people bring their culture, and how practices are done, into the city, stated Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference at the beginning of April, when he appointed multiple agencies to tackle this problem.

We have worked on comp cards, flyers, and then we went to translate them into Spanish. We are distributing them in the subway, above ground, so this week, we are really starting with that mass distribution. And in all the shelters where new arrival families are and our brothers and sisters in school and early childhood centers, answered Anne Williams-Isom, NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, when asked if any progress has been made in the last four weeks.

MTA faces backlash from business owners over congestion pricing

First, you are not supposed to be panhandling in the subway, so let me say that clearly. Whether or not it is safe or a risk to your child, I think we would have to make a determination about that, but I dont think thats what we think is unsafe. What we think is unsafe sometimes is children by themselves or families or moms in traffic, she added.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said that over 190,000 migrants have come to NYC since the spring of 2022. Of these, 19,000 are children in the Department of Education system. Then there are those who are younger than school-age children.

PIX11 News met a mother with her 2-year-old son who was selling fruits in Jackson Heights, Queens. We asked her where and who she was getting the merchandise from. She responded by saying, A friend referred me to a man, but I cannot tell you who that man is.

Are people being exploited? And is there somebody out there who is giving them, whether it is water, candy, or fruits to these folks in order to do it. I know that the NYPD been looking to that. We are concerned about trafficking, Said Williams-Isom.

Human trafficking is a major concern to Council Member Francisco Moya. Jackson Heights is part of his district.

We have a real epidemic here in this area. Truly, I believe is the epicenter of where human trafficking is been happening, stated Moya.

He added that child street vendors have been seen outside of businesses, such as bars, next to women who are offering erotic massages.

What we are seeing on Roosevelt Avenue is the decay of our wellbeing, society. The open-air prostitution that we never encountered here in the city of NY.

Moya believes that the migrant crisis has exacerbated this situation.

Mayor Eric Adams continues to share this message: We want to make sure that people understand that children should be in school.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Editor's note: This is a developing story.

Ukraine's military intelligence carried out a large-scale cyberattack in Russia's Tatarstan on May 3, a source in the agency confirmed to the Kyiv Independent.

The attack reportedly targeted internet providers and mobile operators in the Russian republic.

The Ukrainian media outlet NV, citing sources, reported that the Alabuga special economic zone was the main target.

NV wrote that it was a denial of service (DDoS) attack, which effectively blocked internet access in Tatarstan's capital of Kazan, Russia's fifth largest city.

The press service for Tattelecom, one of the largest telecommunications operators in the republic, said that it was the most powerful cyberattack on its networks in the history of the company.

Alabuga, which reportedly hosts a factory that produces Shahed-type drones, has previously been the target of Ukrainian attacks.

Ukrainian forces struck drone factories in the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk in April, located about 1,300 kilometers (around 800 miles) away from the Russia-Ukraine border, Ukraine's military intelligence agency reported.

The strikes, which were some of Ukraine's longest-distance attacks into Russian territory, were reportedly carried out with domestically-produced weapons.

Read also: Ukraines military intelligence launches cyberattack against United Russia party

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The fall of the embattled Donetsk Oblast town of Chasiv Yar in a way similar to Avdiivka is probably a matter of time, a military intelligence deputy head, Major General Vadym Skibitsky, said in an interview with The Economist published on May 2.

"Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies," the general added.

Russian forces shifted their focus toward Chasiv Yar, an elevated town that potentially opens the way to further advances into the oblast, after capturing Avdiivka in February.

Ukraine is also facing a difficult situation near the village of Ocheretyne, a village some 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of Avdiivka, where Moscow's troops have reportedly managed to create a salient.

Skibitsky believes that as its first goal, Russia will seek to capture the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Looking further ahead, the Kremlin is likely preparing for an offensive around northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, with the main push likely to begin at the end of May or early June, Skibitsky suggested. Other Ukrainian officials have also mentioned this timeline.

Russia's group of forces around the Kharkiv Oblast border is currently 35,000-strong but set to expand to 50,000-70,000 troops, according to the general.

While this is not enough to capture a major city, it could be sufficient for smaller tasks, he clarified: "A quick operation to come in and come out: maybe. But an operation to take Kharkiv, or even Sumy city, is of a different order."

May will be a key month, as Russia is preparing a three-step plan to destabilize Ukraine, the general said.

The first part relates to military pressure. Even though the U.S. finally approved a $61 billion aid bill for Ukraine, it will likely take weeks before it can make an impact on the battlefield, giving Russia some time to press forward.

The second phase is a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the Ukrainian leadership and the mobilization push. Many observers have criticized Kyiv's delayed draft efforts, which resulted in manpower shortages, but the country finally passed an updated mobilization bill in April.

Skibitsky acknowledged that the manpower situation has somewhat improved since December 2023 but said that the emergency is far from over.

As the third step, Russia will seek to isolate Ukraine internationally, the officer said.

The faith in the U.S. has been shaken by the almost seven-month delay in passing the aid bill, and a possible victory of Donald Trump in the upcoming November presidential election makes future prospects even more uncertain.

According to Skibitsky, the main unknown factor is Europe and the issue of whether it will be able to ramp up its defense production to help Ukraine and stave off further Russian aggression.

Looking at the possible end of the ongoing war, the intelligence officer believes that battlefield victories alone would not be sufficient. Even if Ukraine manages to push Russian forces from its borders, wars like this eventually have to end in treaties, he said.

Both sides are now contesting for "the most favorable position," but any real talks can begin only in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, the general estimated. Skibitsky thinks that by then, Russia will also face significant challenges, as its arms production will reach a plateau by early 2026 due to a shortage of materials and engineers.

Read also: Battle of Chasiv Yar begins under a drone-infested sky

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Palestinian students are seen in a classroom at a new tent school established in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by Rizek AbdeljawadXinhua)

GAZA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Now being displaced to the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah, Nihad Badreia, a Palestinian teacher, established a "tent school" for about 600 school-age children living in a refugee camp, as the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict has deprived students of their studies for nearly seven months.

"It's too hard for our students to continue education due to the conflict. They also cannot meet their classmates, which would have affected their psychological states negatively," said Badreia.

Palestinian students take part in outdoor activities at a new tent school, which was established in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by Rizek AbdeljawadXinhua)

Currently living in a refugee camp with more than 2,000 children, Badreia often saw teenagers playing in the streets without having any positive activities that would develop their characters.

What's worse, they were sometimes involved in quarrels or even violence, partly due to the psychological pressure caused by the long-time exposure to the war, he added.

As the sign of an end to the deadly conflict is yet to loom, children "will absolutely suffer from the consequences" of the prolonged crisis, the teacher said.

People walk past the rubble of a destroyed building in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on May 1, 2024. The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 34,568, the Hamas-run health authorities said in a press statement on Wednesday. (Photo by Khaled Omar/Xinhua)

This was why he decided, together with about 20 other displaced teachers in the refugee camp, to establish a school themselves with tents being its classrooms.

Maths, Arabic, Science, and the Holy Quran are among the curriculums delivered. After launching a fundraising campaign and with the help of the Palestinian Ministry of Education, they returned the students to school.

"Despite the lack of equipment, I am so happy to return to classrooms," Neama Abu Hajjaj, a Palestinian student in the seventh grade at the school, told Xinhua.

"It is amazing to have new teachers, but I do not know if my former teacher is still alive or not," Abu Hajjaj said, expressing her hope to return to her house, neighborhood, school, and normal life as soon as possible. Until then, she said, "I will enjoy my current educational life."

The same happiness is experienced by Shahd al-Amasi, another student from the Gaza Strip. "I am so glad to return to school and write in my notebooks once again. I missed my lessons, friends, and teachers."

Palestinian students are seen in a classroom at a new tent school which was established in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by Rizek AbdeljawadXinhua)

Both Abu Hajjaj and al-Amasi were among the 300 female students who went to the school three days a week, while the rest 300 male students went to the school for the other three days, according to Badreiah.

"Despite that for now they will not get any certifications, the students will be learning until there's a solution to the education problem in Gaza," he said.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

The ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza have resulted in extensive casualties and damages, with the Palestinian death toll rising to over 34,000, according to the Gaza health authorities, which noted that out of the total deaths, there were 3,700 students and 200 teachers.

Meanwhile, the Gaza education authorities said at least 352 local schools were damaged by the Israeli attacks, while the rest of them were turned into shelters for the displaced people. 
Military medical boards to no longer indicate "partially fit", starting 4 May

Starting from 4 May, individual assessment of fitness for military service has been almost completely abolished in Ukraine, where the military medical boards could choose the formulation "partially fit".

Source: Radio Liberty, citing the amendments to Ukraines Defence Ministry order No. 402, which regulates the work of military medical commissions

Details: This order comes into effect on 4 May.

Radio Liberty writes that the main innovation of the document is that almost entirely (except for four cases), the individual assessment of fitness, where the medical commission could choose between the formulations "fit", "unfit" and "partially fit", has been abolished.

In many cases, the formulation "partially fit" for service under conditions of martial law has been replaced with: "Fit for service in support units, military training centres, military educational institutions, medical units, logistics units, communication units, operational support, and security units."

It is noted that individuals with such a record in their military ID can be conscripted if there is a need for replenishment in these specific units.

Now men aged 18-60 who had the status of "partially fit" must undergo a medical examination again. They have until 4 February 2025, to do so. For these individuals, the commission will indicate only two statuses: fit or unfit.

Background:

On 21 March, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) adopted draft law No.10313 On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Ensuring the Rights of Military and Police Officers to Social Protection.

On 22 March, Deputy Defence Minister Nataliia Kalmykova said that servicemen who were declared partially fit for service would have to undergo another medical examination, as the Verkhovna Rada had cancelled this concept.

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URBANA, Ill. (WCIA)  A teenager who was reported missing from Urbana last week has been found in New York City after he was arrested by the NYPD.

Officials with the Urbana Police Department said Tiago Zumarraga-Mosquera, 14, was arrested on April 29 following an incident in Queens. He is being held on criminal charges stemming from that incident.

Im hoping that we find out who done it: Three Kings of Peace buildings vandalized in Danville

Zumarraga-Mosquera left his home on April 24 to run an errand and never returned. Officials said it is unknown how, in the next five days, he got to New York. They did not say what led to his arrest there, as the Urbana Police Department does not comment on other agencies investigations.

Officials said that if anyone in the Champaign-Urbana area has information about this case, they should contact the Urbana Police Department at 217-384-2320 or Champaign County Crime Stoppers at 217-373-8477.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks at a press conference in the Missouri House Lounge, flanked by House Speaker Dean Plocher, left, and state Rep. Justin Sparks (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).

Republican state senators facing a federal defamation lawsuit over social media posts incorrectly identifying a Kansas man as the shooter at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade will be represented by the Missouri attorney generals office.

Jeremiah Morgan, a deputy attorney general, is listed in court documents as the attorney for state Sen. Rick Brattin, who along with two other members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus  Sens. Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer  were sued last month over posts on social media misidentifying Denton Loudermill of Olathe, Kansas, as an undocumented immigrant and the shooter at the Chiefs parade.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Andrew Bailey confirmed all three senators are being represented by the state.

The attorney generals role in the lawsuits was first reported Thursday evening by Missouri Scout.

The defamation lawsuits should be dismissed, the attorney generals office contends in a motion filed Thursday, because the senators were acting in their official capacity when they made their posts on social media. Therefore, they are protected by legislative immunity. The posts falsely claiming Loudermill was an undocumented immigrant were directed at the president, the attorney generals office argues, and referred to border security.

State legislators should not be inhibited by judicial interference or distorted by the fear of personal liability when they publicly speak on issues of national importance, the motion to dismiss states.

In an affidavit, Brattin attests that he made the social media posts while I was engaged in my regular duties as a Missouri State Senator.

Loudermill was detained briefly when violence broke out during the parade because he was too slow to leave the area.

The first social media account to accuse Loudermill of being the shooter and in the country illegally was on an account on X, formally known as Twitter, with the name Deep Truth Intel. That post, with a seated photo of Loudermill in handcuffs, incorrectly identified him with a name associated with misinformation posted after other shootings, including an October mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 dead.

Soon after that initial social media post, the Missouri Freedom Caucus, Hoskins, Brattin and Schroer posted their own versions.

These are 3 people arrested at the paradeat least one of those arrested is an illegal immigrant. CLOSE OUR BORDERS! the Missouri Freedom Caucus posted on X.

The post has since been deleted. The Missouri Freedom Caucus also sought to retract its mistake, linking to a KMBC post about Loudermills effort to clear his name.

Denton is an Olathe native, a father of three & a proud @Chiefs fan, the post states. Hes not a mass shooter. Images of him being detained for being intoxicated & not moving away from the crime scene at the Chiefs rally have spread online. He just wants to clear his name.

Hoskins version on X shared a screenshot of the Deep Truth Intel post and blamed President Joe Biden and political leaders of Kansas City for making the shooting possible.

Fact  President Bidens open border policies & cities who promote themselves as Sanctuary Cities like #Kansas City invite illegal violent immigrants into the U.S., Hoskins posted.

That post has been deleted, but in a Feb. 14 post without a photo, Hoskins wrote that information Ive seen states at least one of the alleged shooters is an illegal immigrant and all 3 arrested are repeat violent offenders.

Hoskins hedged it with IF THIS IS ACCURATE and repetition of conservative rhetoric to stop immigration and restrain cities that help immigrants, blaming crime on catch and release policies of liberal cities.

Brattins first post linking Loudermill to the shooting, since deleted, demanded #POTUS CLOSE THE BORDER and incorporated the deleted Deep Truth Intel post.

Schroer was the least certain post about the immigration and arrest status of Loudermill among the three now being sued.

Schroers post included a link to one from Burchett stating, over Loudermills photo, that One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.

Can we get any confirmation or denial of this from local officials or law enforcement? Schroer wrote on X. Ive been sent videos or stills showing at least 6 different people arrested from yesterday but officially told only 3 still in custody. The people deserve answers.

The post Missouri AG will defend senators sued for defamation over posts about Chiefs parade shooting appeared first on Missouri Independent.
The state of Missouri will defend three state senators who each face federal lawsuits for sharing social media posts falsely accusing a man of being a shooter in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting.

Republican Attorney General Andrew Baileys office is representing Republican Sens. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg, and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County, a spokesperson for Baileys office confirmed.

All three senators, members of the hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus, were sued last month for posts claiming that Denton Loudermill, an Olathe native, was an undocumented immigrant and a shooter in the February shooting that killed one person and injured more than 20.

Missouri lawmakers of both parties have sharply criticized Baileys decision to use state resources to defend the three senators. Several have pushed back on an argument from Baileys office that the posts were made in the senators official capacity.

Baileys office contends in a motion filed Thursday that the lawsuit against Brattin should be dismissed because he was acting in his official capacity when he made the social media post. The post was directed at the president and referred to border security concerns and Brattin should be protected by legislative immunity, the motion said.

State legislators should not be inhibited by judicial interference or distorted by the fear of personal liability when they publicly speak on issues of national importance, Jeremiah Morgan, a deputy attorney general wrote in the motion, which quoted prior case law.

Baileys office has not yet filed similar motions in the cases involving Hoskins and Schroer.

I wholeheartedly disagree with his representation, said Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican running for lieutenant governor. It sounds to me like these claims online were made as individuals, not in their official capacity.

Hough, who chairs the Senates budget-writing committee, specifically raised questions about the cost to taxpayers.

They just dont want to pay for their own attorneys, he said. So they have Andrew Bailey representing them because it doesnt cost them anything, but it costs the taxpayers in Missouri an untold amount.

The lawsuits against the Missouri senators came after an onslaught of false social media posts were shared with photos of Loudermill after the shooting. Loudermill also filed a similar lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, last month.

The Missouri lawmakers posts caused Loudermill to receive death threats, incur damages totaling more than $75,000, anxiety, and loss of sleep, according to the lawsuits, which accuse the senators of false light invasion of privacy. The lawsuits ask a judge to issue damages to punish or deter the senators and others from similar conduct in the future.

Rep. Adam Schwadron, a St. Charles Republican running for secretary of state against Hoskins, said in a statement that he was disappointed by Baileys decision, saying that Missouri should not serve as counsel for matters not specifically related to official state duties.

If I or another representative were to get a speeding ticket on our way to session in Jefferson City, could we then go to the attorney general and demand representation? Schwadron said in a statement. It is a slippery slope.

Brattin, in an affidavit attached to the motion filed Thursday, argues that he published his social media post while I was engaged in my regular duties as a Missouri State Senator.

Madeline Sieren, a spokesperson for Baileys office, in an email pointed to the states legal defense fund, which lawmakers direct money to to defend state employees and elected officials from legal claims connected to their official duties.

Senate Democrats from the Kansas City area also criticized Baileys decision to represent the three Republican senators.

I find it utterly ridiculous that the people who espouse how much they hate taxpayer-funded handouts are the first ones in line with their hands out, said Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat.

For Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Kansas City Democrat, Baileys move sets a bizarre, expensive, and potentially dangerous precedent.

It is nonsensical that Missouris Attorney General would waste taxpayer dollars defending state senators who used their personal or campaign accounts to allegedly defame a private citizen, Arthur said in a statement.

Brattin, during a February news conference in Jefferson City, refused to comment when asked by The Star whether he had apologized to Loudermill. He also signaled that he did not think his false post was worth an apology.

Theres nothing that I even see  even worth that, he said. So weve done nothing. And, you know, I have no comment.

He also refused to comment on whether he was worried about a potential lawsuit regarding his false post.
A Robust Cannabis employee showcases the company's Black Hole Sun strain at their warehouse in Cuba, Missouri (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).

A judge in St. Louis ruled Thursday that local municipalities can stack sales taxes on marijuana dispensaries, the first court ruling on a much-debated issue playing out around the state.

The lawsuit was filed by Robust Missouri 3 LLC. The company saw its Florissant dispensarys tax rate on cannabis products rise to 14.988% after both the city and St. Louis County approved 3% sales taxes on adult-use marijuana in April 2023.

The constitutional amendment that legalized recreational cannabis sales included a 6% statewide excise tax  but it also authorized any local government to charge a sales tax of up to 3%.

At the heart of Robusts lawsuit is whether the law intended for local governments to be able to impose a maximum of 3% sales combined, or if they can each impose a 3% sales tax.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Brian May ruled that both governments taxes are valid.

In his Thursday order, May stated there is no court precedent on this issue, so he interpreted the intent of the law as a whole and not in isolated parts.

While the law allows for recreational marijuana to be legal, he stated it also intended for local governments to be able to protect public health.

If [Robusts] interpretation were accepted, then a municipality or city would essentially be given carte blanche to ignore any county ordinance or regulation, including those related to public health and safety wholly unrelated to the taxing issue, May wrote in the ruling.

May pointed to the provision that allows the city to approve placing a dispensary within less than 1,000 feet of any then-existing school.

and the county, and other cities in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, would have no say in that decision, May wrote. This absurd outcome would directly contradict the stated purpose of the [amendment].

The ruling is a win for the Missouri Association of Counties, said Steve Hobbs, the associations executive director. The association has strongly advocated that counties have the ability to do this, he said.

The bulk of the counties around the state had gone to the voters and asked them to implement this tax, Hobbs told The Independent on Friday. And I think every one of them approved of it. I think [the ruling] removes some uncertainty from those counties.

On the other side, leaders of the marijuana industry have called the effort to collect both taxes an unconstitutional money grab that violates the terms of the amendment.

We know from other states that when legal marijuana is taxed unnecessarily high, it only helps the illicit market, said Andrew Mullins, executive director Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, in a statement to The Independent Friday, which deprives Missouri veterans and substance abuse programs of needed revenue.

Robust Missouri has submitted an appeal on the circuit courts decision. Another similar case is pending in Buchanan County.

St. Joseph dispensary Vertical Enterprises sued Buchanan County Collector Peggy Campbell, arguing that it, too, would be irreparably harmed if both taxes were imposed.

A hearing is scheduled in that case for May 16 in the Circuit Court of Buchanan County.

The post Missouri judge rules local governments can stack sales tax on marijuana appeared first on Missouri Independent.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A fire damaged a mobile home and displaced two occupants on Thursday, May 2 in Las Cruces, according to the Las Cruces Fire Department (LCFD).

LCFD said that about 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Las Cruces firefighters were dispatched to the 2800 block of west Picacho Ave. to the report of a mobile home fire.

Crews learned that one of the occupants awoke to find smoke coming from the homes bathroom. The occupant quickly discovered the fire appeared to originate underneath the mobile home, according to LCFD.

LCFD said both occupants and the family dog were able to safely evacuate the mobile home.

The American Red Cross was asked to assist with temporary housing for the displaced occupants.

LCFD said the cause of the fire and damage estimates have yet to be determined.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Modesto residents concerns about city health captured in report. City could consider them

Despite plans for improvements to parks and sidewalks, some residents of Modesto still feel left in the lurch.

In community meetings, they have voiced concerns about health issues, groundwater contamination and a lack of community facilities in disadvantaged areas.

These sentiments have been captured in a report full of recommendations that could be part of the citys new General Plan. The report was produced by the Stanislaus Sustainable Communities Coalition (SSCC) and developed with funding from the Climate Plan and the California Department of Public Health.

Downtown Modesto, the south and west parts of the city, and certain neighborhoods like the airport district and near Johansen High School are identified as disadvantaged communities by the California Environmental Protection Agency. These areas exhibit the poorest air quality, contaminated water sources, substandard housing conditions, elevated poverty rates and heightened exposure to pesticides.

As a result, residents in these neighborhoods experience the highest rates of asthma, heart disease and other indicators of pollution-related health burdens or vulnerability, according to the report.

Were in a very disadvantaged area. We dont have sidewalks. Everything in west Modesto is very deteriorated and nobodys doing anything, reads one quote from a resident from the Modesto Watch Parties held in west and south Modesto in 2022.

SSCC was founded in 2011 as a coalition comprising stakeholders dedicated to addressing social and environmental justice concerns through advocacy and educational efforts. The coalition is made up of a core group of four main organizations: Catholic Charities Diocese of Stockton, California Health Collaborative, Tuolumne River Trust and Valley Improvement Projects.

SSCC previously has contributed to the Regional Transportation Plan, advocated for Modestos Measure L and worked on the Ceres General Plan.

The goals and policies presented in the report have been pulled from general plans already implemented in various California communities. They adhere to the State of California Senate Bill SB 1000: Planning for Healthy Communities criteria and address the needs and concerns voiced by Modesto residents.

Katie Moose, director of program services at California Health Collaborative, emphasized that the essence of SB 1000 lies in prioritizing disadvantaged communities rather than implementing citywide actions. Its about getting the city to be very specific about those communities, she said.

The city must balance various interests, Moose added, and the General Plan offers guidance on prioritizing the needs of underserved communities.

SB 1000 requires local jurisdictions to address environmental justice in their General Plans. The environmental justice areas that must be addressed, according to the reports recommendations, include:

Promoting civic engagement

Prioritizing improvements and programs that address local needs

Reducing pollution exposure

Promoting public facilities

Promoting healthy food access

Promoting safe and sanitary homes

Promoting physical activities.

Some examples listed to address these recommendations include improving the city website, implementing housing rehabilitation programs and designating streets where trucks are prohibited.

The citys General Plan outlines the trajectory for the next decade, detailing aspects such as housing locations, zoning regulations, traffic management and industrial development. It serves as a blueprint for the communitys long-term vision, with an objective of enhancing health and environmental justice.

The city last updated its General Plan in 1995, according to the city website.

The city is entering the Land Use Alternatives phase, where staff asks the public to identify areas where land use changes may be needed to support the communitys vision. The updated General Plan is expected to be completed in the fall of 2026, according to the city website timeline.

Hopefully theyll include most, if not all, of the recommendations that we have in there, Moose said.

The SSCCs report identifies a number of important issues and recommendations that are proven strategies in other California communities and may help to better support our underserved communities while at the same time promoting citywide goals, Mayor Sue Zwahlen said.

Over the course of the next several months, we will be meeting with community members and other stakeholders to receive valuable feedback, such as that outlined in SSCCs report, to help guide the development of Modesto 2050 General Plan, she said.

In California, the areas that have suffered most from a combination of economic, health and environmental burdens are considered disadvantaged.

Its always the disadvantaged communities that usually have no seat at the table, said Ector Olivares, program manager at the Environmental Justice Program.

From May to August 2022, the SSCC created and carried out a plan to connect with the community. Their goal was to educate residents about SB 1000-related matters. Moose said that they used brief educational videos and discussion prompts to help people think about their neighborhoods.

The goal was to elicit their thoughts, sentiments and recommendations regarding topics to be addressed in the forthcoming Modesto 2050 General Plan Update.

Edgar Garibay, project manager at Valley Improvement Projects, said theyve received positive feedback from the mayor but want a commitment. He believes the city should also incentivize community members to provide their input.

Ideally, the city will acknowledge the feedback received, commit to implementing suggested changes throughout their term and ensure that the first or final draft of the plan reflects these recommendations, he said.
Camilla Fayed pleads not guilty to robbing brother of phone

Mohamed Fayeds daughter has pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbing her brother of his phone.

Camilla Fayed, 39, denied ordering her bodyguards to steal her brother Omars 1,900 iPhone in the gym of the familys Grade I listed estate, near Oxted in Surrey.

Ms Fayed, of Park Lane, central London, spoke to confirm her identity and to plead not guilty to robbery at Guildford Crown Court on Friday morning.

Her husband, Mohamad Esreb, 43, is also accused of a single count of robbery in relation to the alleged incident, along with the couples close protection officers Matthew Littlewood, 34, and Andrew Bott, 52.

Mohamad Esreb, the husband of Ms Fayed, outside the court on Friday. - Yui Mok/PA

Mr Esreb, of Park Lane, central London, and Mr Bott, of Coppice Wood, County Durham, also pleaded not guilty during the same hearing.

Mr Littlewood, of Colburn, North Yorkshire, will be arraigned at a later date.

Ms Fayed appeared in the dock dressed in a three-quarter length black coat and black trousers, with her hair up in a bun. Mr Esreb sat alongside her, wearing a white shirt and navy blue suit.

Andrew Bott, one of Mrs Fayed's protection officers, arriving at the court - Steve Reigate

During a previous hearing at Guildford Crown Court, a trial date was set for Feb 3 next year. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

All four defendants were charged in February with a single count of robbery following a long police investigation.

The incident was said to have taken place at Barrow Green Court on May 18, 2020.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  A mother is in jail after her 3-year-old child suffered a meth overdose in the familys apartment late Thursday night, according to Vancouver police.

Authorities received a report that a grandmother had given two doses of Narcan to the child to get the child breathing again around 8 p.m.

Police release identities of those arrested during Portland State University protests

When officers arrived, the mother was with the child in a bedroom and was refusing to let the medical responders in, officials said. In order to provide immediate treatment for the child, police forced their way into the room and were able to get the child into the hands of the medical responders.

While searching the mom, Summer Justice Ward, police found a plastic bag filled with a white substance that tested positive for meth.

Semi-truck rollover crash closes Morrison Bridge

Ward, 27, faces charges of for endangerment with a controlled substance, second-degree criminal mistreatment, resisting arrest, obstruction of law enforcement, and possession of a controlled substance.

The 3-year-old child and Wards other child, 2, were both taken into protective custody.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
ISTANBUL, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkiye's decision to suspend trade with Israel had one singular purpose, which is to compel the Israeli government into a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

He made the remarks during a meeting with the board of directors of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association in Istanbul, according to the presidency's website.

The president also noted that the government will coordinate and consult with the business community to manage the consequences of halting trade with Israel.

Turkiye on Thursday halted all trade activities with Israel due to the latter's "non-stop violence" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Turkish Trade Ministry.

Erdogan also remarked that this decision would set a precedent for other countries unsettled by the current situation. 
Mom's memory loss and tingling were dismissed by 14 doctors. It was neurologic Lyme disease

More than a decade ago, Kirsten Stein began looking around for her toddler son and felt panicked when she couldnt locate him.

I couldnt find him, and my daughter had to remind me that I already dropped him off at school, the 54-year-old from Marin County, California, tells TODAY.com. I had huge gaps in my long-term and short-term memory.

While realizing he was safe was a relief, Stein had become increasingly worried about her health. She'd been experiencing brain fog, dizzy spells, sleep troubles, facial palsy and numbness and tingling in my arms, legs, hands and feet, she recalls.

She visited 15 doctors to try to understand why, but doctors dismissed her symptoms as everything from the stress to bad allergies. After three years, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease.

It was terrifying to constantly be told theres nothing wrong with you, Stein says. I am 14 years into this journey, and I would say my life is vastly different.  It is better than the worst days of the illness and treatment, but I miss my old life.

Bad case of the flu

Over Labor Day weekend in 2010, Stein experienced "a bad case of the flu," as she describes it. Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches can all be early signs of Lyme disease, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Soon after, unusual symptoms began occurring. She noticed her facial muscles weren't working properly, and she felt like her brain was "on fire" and had dizzy spells, she says.

Stein also struggled to come up with certain words, to recall what happened last week or remember events that occurred in her past.

At the time, Stein enjoyed trail running, mountain biking and CrossFit, but soon felt too exhausted to engage in these activities.

I was dead lifting 220 pounds at CrossFit, and within three months I could barely hold a pencil, she explains. I was extremely fragile.  I knew something was wrong. I knew my life had changed overnight.

Stein felt extremely worried, and visited 14 doctors. But they dismissed her. All my tests were coming back fine, so there was nothing wrong with me, she recalls them telling her.

Doctors chalked her symptoms up to the stress of motherhood or allergies, which didnt feel right to Stein.

She thought she might have Lyme disease at one point, but doctors dismissed that, as well. They seemed skeptical that she could've been exposed to ticks carrying Lyme disease in California. In addition, Stein never found a tick or had a bullseye rash, what many consider to be the telltale symptom of a Lyme infection.

I wasnt checking for ticks, she says, adding that she, too, was unaware that ticks can carry Lyme disease in her home state.

Kirsten Stein on her couch (Courtesy Kirsten Stein)

Then Stein stumbled upon a diagnosis during a doctors appointment for her daughter.

He looked at me and he said, You dont look so good. And I said, Well, I dont feel so good, Stein recalls. He said, OK, well Im going to diagnose your daughter, and Im going to help diagnose you. And I thought, Well, youre doctor No. 15, so good luck.

Three months later, her blood test done by a local lab revealed she had Lyme disease, and subsequent testing by the CDC, the gold standard, confirmed it.

Neurological Lyme disease

Lyme disease is caused by blacklegged, aka deer, ticks carrying the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, according to the CDC.

After being bitten by a tick carrying Lyme disease, people may experience flu-like symptoms, including fever, muscle and joint aches and swollen lymph nodes. While some develop a bullseye rash, also known as erythema migrans, it only occurs in 70-80% of people with Lyme, the agency notes.

Early symptoms, say in the first couple of months, are consistent with  a summer flu, Wendy Adams, research grant director and advisory board member of Bay Area Lyme Foundation, tells TODAY.com. If you ask clinicians in the Northeast (where Lyme disease is common), theyll go, I know sometimes summer flu is a tick-borne disease. So, they will immediately (investigate) that.

Kirsten Stein biking. (Courtesy Kirsten Stein)

For those with Lyme that isnt immediately treated, symptoms can occur throughout the body. Infection that remains untreated and spreads to other parts of the body, including the heart or the brain, is called disseminated Lyme disease. About 60% of cases of untreated Lyme disease can develop into disseminated Lyme, the CDC says.

Because the bacteria that cause Lyme disease can travel to the brain, its not a surprise that this infection would cause neurological symptoms," Adams explains.

According to the CDC, symptoms of neurologic Lyme disease include:

Numbness

Facial droop

Pain

Visual disturbances

Fever

Stiff neck

Severe headache

Reports captured in patient registries highlight that these changes feel intensely troubling.

Neurological symptoms are some of the most prevalent and some of the most devastating, Adams says. People have memory issues  like, I cant find my way home. I dont know people that Ive known for years. I cant remember things for my children.

While neurological symptoms are serious, theres less awareness surrounding this manifestation of Lyme disease. Adams says thats in part because current tests are less likely to detect neurologic Lyme.

This can mean delayed diagnosis, and patients often feel overwhelmed and sad that they cannot find a reason for their symptoms.

They go from doctor to doctor. Oftentimes theyre dismissed as being malingerers, or theyre diagnosed with depression and given an antidepressant, Adams says. This infection can manifest in several different ways. It can manifest as meningitis  but it can also manifest as a mental illness.

People can develop depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms and even suicidal ideation, she notes.

This puts them down a road of treating the mental disorder without evaluating or looking to see if theres an infection thats causing the neurological symptoms, Adams says.

Treatment for disseminated Lyme disease includes 21 to 28 days of antibiotics, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Neurologic Lyme patients often receive IV antibiotics, but research on the most effective treatments for neurologic Lyme disease is lacking.

The Bay Area Lyme Foundation funds research into Lyme disease to contribute to a better understanding of the condition. Researchers at Tulane National Primate Research Center, led by Geetha Parthasarathy, Ph.D., have been examining nonhuman models to better understand neurological Lyme disease, as well as treatment for it.

That delay in diagnosis is one of the key issues for people who go on to have persistent disease, Adams says. The bacteria has a longer time to set up infection. It also makes it harder to eradicate.

She also hopes people focus on preventing tick bites when outside by:

Treating shoes and socks with tick repellant

Wearing long sleeves

Tucking pants into socks

When coming inside, placing clothing in the dryer for 10 minutes to kill ticks

Showering immediately after being outside

Performing tick checks on oneself and pets

'A little bit quieter'

After being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Stein visited a doctor familiar with Lyme disease, who prescribed antibiotics to treat her. While she feels better, her life looks different.

My kids dont know me as a healthy mom, and thats challenging, Stein says. My youngest was 3 years old when I got sick, so he doesnt really know me any other way.

selfie of Kirsten Stein. (Courtesy Kirsten Stein)

While Stein retired from work, she volunteers with the Bay Area Lyme Foundation and with the local high school mountain bike team. She bought an e-mountain bike and rides when she can.

That brings me a lot of joy, she says. I try to spend time with friends and family, my dog and do a little bit of traveling. So thats nice. But its a little bit quieter.

Stein experiences bad days and might need to rest for a few days. Over the years, she's felt alone at times because few people understand what Lyme disease is.

It was isolating because it was hard to explain what Lyme disease meant physically, mentally and emotionally, she says. Its a disease that you cant see physically, so its hard for a lot of people to understand.

Stein hopes her story increases awareness of Lyme disease.

This disease, in particular, needs funding for diagnosis and treatment so it can be easier for doctors and patients to understand it, to get diagnosed and to get the treatment that they need, she says.

CORRECTION (May 3, 2024, 9:53 a.m.): A previous version of this story misstated that Parthasarathy's research is in mouse models. It is in nonhuman primate models.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
A Montana shed-antler hunter shot and killed an aggressive grizzly bear last week shortly after spotting the animals tracks.

According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the incident occurred April 25 on private land near Wolf Creek, as the man searched for shed antlers with two dogs.

After seeing a fresh grizzly bear track in a snow patch, he continued along his path and a few minutes later he first saw the bear standing near the top of the ridge about 20 yards away, FPW explained in a news release.

The bear dropped to all four legs and charged the man, who drew his handgun and fired five shots from distances about 30 feet to 10 feet, grazing the bear with a one shot and hitting and killing it with another shot.

The man was not carrying bear spray.

The 12-year-old, 300-pound bear was a momma with a new cub. The cub was captured and will likely spend its life in a zoo.

Story originally appeared on For The Win
U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, presses EPA Administrator Michael Regan on new rules for coal-fired plants in a hearing on April 30, 2024. (Screenshot via U.S. House of Representatives live stream)

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, presses EPA Administrator Michael Regan on new rules for coal-fired plants in a hearing on April 30, 2024. (Screenshot via U.S. House of Representatives live stream)

Rep. Ryan Zinke did his best imitation of Trump when grilling Michael S. Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, complete with phony statistics, dire threats, blame-casting and an apparent inability to understand the most basic facts about Colstrips ancient, highly polluting and outmoded coal-fired generators. The real tragedy is he was joined by Montanas entire Congressional delegation and Gov. Greg Gianforte in defending the continued operation of the most polluting power plant in the nation.

As reported by the Daily Montanan, although Zinke assailed the EPA administrator, the facts are the facts, the numbers dont lie, and Colstrips on-going pollution is not only driving disastrous climate change impacts, but emitting highly toxic pollutants with exceedingly harmful effects for humans, especially children.

Apparently Zinke has been spending too much time in Santa Barbara, California, where his wife has declared residency. For Montanans who actually live here, however, the lack of snow in our mountains is of considerable concern and portends a long, hot, dry and smokey summer.

He apparently cant seem to make the connection between the 10 million tons of carbon pollution Colstrip belched out in 2021  and continues to spew  and our shorter, warmer, dryer winters, earlier hotter and dryer summers. This undeniable connection is now accepted universally across the globe  except, it would appear, for Montanas climate denying Congressional delegation of Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale.

Then theres the toxic emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and mercury. As noted by the World Health Organization: Exposure to mercury  even small amounts  may cause serious health problems, and is a threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life. Mercury may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes. Mercury is considered by WHO as one of the top ten chemicals or groups of chemicals of major public health concern.

Yet, although 93% of the nations coal-fired generation plants have installed available technology to curtail these emissions, Colstrip has not. The fact is, as the EPA notes, that Colstrip has the only two coal-fired units in the country that do not use modern technology  electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters  to control its particulate matter emissions is a blight on Montanas reputation. Its not, as our coal-loving politicians seem to think, something we should ever want to sustain.

As for the threat that if we dont burn coal were going to freeze to death in the dark, those Montanans who have been around for awhile will recall that was the exact same falsehood spread 50 years ago by Colstrips promoters who traded the Copper Collar for the Coal Collar, lauding our future as the boiler room for the nation.

But the truth today is that renewable/solar energy is now the cheapest energy in Montanas grid. Its possible that because Zinkes home is in Whitefish, with the Flatheads notoriously cloudy weather, he may not be aware of the fact that most of Montana is drenched in sunshine and wind year round. Were he and the rest of our Congressional delegation to pull their heads out of the coal hole, theyd realize this is where the future is going. That includes their favorite whipping boy, China, which installed more solar energy last year than any nation on the planet  more in one year than the US has installed in its entire history. They also ignore that solar, wind and hydro are the top three producers of Chinas energy.

Of course these are the facts our Congressional delegation and governor refuse to acknowledge. The future of Montana and the planet must be driven by facts, not tap-dancing politicians swinging in the winds of expediency. And the ugly truth about Colstrip is that its future exists only as Montanas next extremely expensive and complex Superfund site that will likely require treatment in perpetuity.

The post Montanas Congressional delegation and governor dead wrong on Colstrip appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Organizers of a campaign to overturn Missouris near-total abortion ban on Friday submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures from people across the state, a major step to getting abortion rights on the ballot.

The coalition of abortion rights groups, called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said it dropped off more than 380,000 signatures at the Secretary of States Office  well above the roughly 171,000 required. If election officials verify the group has enough, it would be placed on the ballot, likely in November.

Friday marked a day of celebration for Missouri abortion rights supporters, who have for the past handful of months campaigned in every county across the state. The coalition has raised nearly $5 million since launching the campaign.

Today is a monumental day for Missouri and for my patients, said Iman Alsaden, the chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Great Plains who is advising the campaign.

The proposed constitutional amendment would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution but also give lawmakers some leeway to regulate the procedure after fetal viability.

It defines fetal viability as the point in a pregnancy when a health care professional decides, based on the facts of the situation, there is a significant likelihood of the fetuss sustained survival outside of the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

The campaign comes after Missouri became the first state in the nation to enact a ban on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. The ban has faced intense criticism and fear among women and medical providers.

It does not include exceptions for rape and incest.

While Missouri has grown staunchly Republican over the past decade, abortion rights remain popular among voters. Polling released in March by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov found that a plurality of 44% of those surveyed supported the amendment while 37% disagreed.

The remaining 19% said they were not sure, a percentage of voters that abortion rights supporters will have to tap into.

Fridays signature drop off could kick off attempts by anti-abortion Republican officials to delay the petition from reaching the ballot. A series of legal battles with statewide officials, including Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, kept versions of the petitions tied up in court for months.

Ashcroft, who is running for governor, had previously crafted incendiary language for the ballot question intended to make the proposal politically toxic. That language was struck down in court in September.

The ACLU of Missouri, which successfully fought against the language in court, celebrated Fridays signature drop off.

Today, we turned in boxes filled with hopes and dreams of bodily autonomy, said Tori Schafer, an attorney with the ACLU of Missouri. Our message is simple and clear: we want to make decisions about our bodies free from political interference.

An anti-abortion group called Missouri Stands with Women has also engaged in efforts to block the measure from the ballot and has called on people to withdraw their names from the petition.

Records obtained by The Star show that roughly more than 100 people have submitted withdrawal forms to Ashcrofts office, a number that is not likely to impact the signature verification.

Republican lawmakers are also attempting to pass legislation this year that would make it harder for Missourians to amend the state constitution, partly by reducing the voting power of urban areas. Some Republicans have framed the legislation as a way to stop the abortion rights campaign.

Despite every effort to deny Missourians their fundamental rights, this campaign has been our opportunity to put power back into the hands of the people  and in less than three months, Missourians have shown their power, said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, which is part of the coalition.

After the campaign carried boxes of signatures at Ashcrofts office building, Rep. Deb Lavender, a Manchester Democrat, walked into the parking lot with a smile.

She pointed to efforts from Republicans to block the measure from the ballot.

To succeed when statewide elected officials threw every barrier in front of us that they could, Lavender said, what a wonderful day to celebrate.
The clashes between police officers and pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses have seized national attention, putting a spotlight on modern-day campus activism, law enforcement tactics and the contentious debate over Israels war in Gaza. In the last three weeks, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the U.S., according to a tally compiled by NBC News.

The arrests of protesters at Columbia University and UCLA have drawn particular scrutiny in recent days, but political demonstrations and heated confrontations have also roiled dozens of other campuses across the U.S., from state schools in the South and the Midwest to Ivy League institutions in the Northeast.

The sheer number of arrests helps illustrate how quickly pro-Palestinian encampments and the police responses turned into chaotic flashpoints, dividing campuses and their surrounding communities. Meanwhile, Jewish and Muslim students alike have raised concerns about a sharp uptick in antisemitism and Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

Georgia State Patrol officers detain a demonstrator on the campus of Emory University (Mike Stewart / AP)

At least 2,100 people were arrested nationwide from April 17 to Thursday evening, according to the tally. There were at least 100 arrests apiece at eight campuses, including Emerson College and Northeastern University in Boston, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Texas at Austin.

NBC News compiled tallies of the arrests based on statements from the universities or local law enforcement agencies.

In the last month, law enforcement officers made arrests on campuses including Arizona State University in Phoenix, where 72 people were arrested; California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in Arcata, where 32 were arrested; and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where 17 people were arrested.

The wave of arrests has provoked intense conversations about how university administrators, police departments, big-city mayors and community leaders should enforce laws without infringing on speech.

The leaders of many universities have defended their decisions to call in law enforcement, including when protesters who were suspected of trespassing or disorderly conduct  and, in Columbias case, overtaking a building on campus  did not follow orders to disperse. In some instances the intensity of the police response has drawn harsh criticism from protesters, activists and their allies.

Arwyn Heilrayne, 19, a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin who was arrested April 24 during a pro-Palestinian campus protest, described how hell broke loose after officers told the crowd to disperse and purportedly arrested a protest organizer.

I was standing very much off to the side, just recording, and a couple officers came and just took me to the ground and arrested me, Heilrayne said. In the frantic aftermath of the arrest, she struggled to make sense of what was happening around her.

I was definitely upset. I was also very confused, honestly, because Id been doing everything that I was asked to do, she said. I wasnt being confrontational with them or anything. But I was definitely scared. (She was charged with trespassing, but the charge has since been dropped, she said.)

New Hampshire State Police lined up. (James M. Patterson / Valley News via AP)

Alivia, 21, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke on the condition that NBC News withhold her last name because she was concerned for her safety. She described the moment she was arrested on campus Wednesday as similarly tumultuous. They started grabbing people. They grabbed me and dragged me on the concrete and threw me facedown on the concrete, she said, adding that police beat her head and her side to get her arms behind her back.

Police departments in Austin and Madison did not immediately respond to requests for comment on both students claims.

In some cases, the people arrested at campuses across the U.S. were current or former students; in other cases, they were not affiliated with the campuses in question.

New York police and Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that roughly 29% of the 112 people arrested at Columbia on Tuesday were unaffiliated parties. They added that 60% of the 170 people arrested at City College of New York that day were unaffiliated, too.

Gingger Shankar, a Los Angeles resident who is not a UCLA student but joined the campus protests, heard police helicopters begin circling above UCLAs encampment around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Four hours later, she said, chaos erupted as police shot tear gas and rubber bullets indiscriminately into the encampment.

They were so crazy, Shankar said. They just kept shooting.

At around 5:30 a.m., she joined dozens of protesters who had locked arms to prevent police from entering the encampment. She said she heard an officer say: Whose arm are we going to dislocate? Shankar was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly. She has a court date in July.

In some instances, faculty members were caught up in the arrests. Noelle McAfee, the chair of the philosophy department at Emory University in Atlanta, confirmed in an interview that she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct last Thursday after she observed (but did not participate in) the pro-Palestinian protest on campus.

Police arrest protesters at a pro-Palestine demonstration. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images)

McAfee, who is also the president-elect of the Emory University Senate, left her office and went to the protest because she was growing increasingly concerned that university leaders would call in outside law enforcement agencies to break up the encampment. She said she saw an officer whaling on a protester. She told the officer to stop, he told her to back away, and she said no.

Thats when she was handcuffed by an officer wearing a balaclava and taken away. The arrest was recorded in a video that later circulated widely on social media platforms. McAfee said she was booked at the county jail but released quickly. She called an Uber and returned to her office on campus for a meeting.

It was traumatic, and for four or five nights I didnt sleep for more than an hour. The incident of being taken to jail, frankly, does not fluster me at all. What has been so awful is that my own university administration did this to our students, McAfee said, referring to Emorys decision to call in local police.

In a statement, Emorys vice president for public safety said that the school originally believed that the people who built the encampment were not members of the community but that school officials later learned that was not fully accurate and a mischaracterization.

I take Thursdays events very seriously and we are launching a thorough review of them so that we can develop recommendations to improve how we keep our community safe, said the vice president, Cheryl Elliott. This review will include how Emory engages external law enforcement agencies.

Police arrest protesters with their face covered. (Etienne Laurent / AFP - Getty Images)

In remarks at the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden said the nationwide protests put to the test two fundamental American principles. The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.

Bidens attempts to quell the unrest may go only so far. Heilrayne, the Texas college student who was arrested last week, said she intends to keep rallying for Palestinian human rights.

Its a little bit intense going back to campus and walking past all the law enforcement that is still on campus. But it is 100% worth it. Yes, she said. As long as the Palestinian students at UT are asking me to show up, I will continue to show up.

Daniel Arkin and Daniella Silva reported from New York, Alicia Victoria Lozano from Los Angeles and Maura Barrett from Madison, Wisconsin.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The Shelby County Criminal Justice Center, located at 201 Poplar, is seen in Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.

Additional locks on the cell doors at the Shelby County Jail, commonly called 201 Poplar, have been broken by inmates and old age, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office confirmed to The Commercial Appeal Friday morning.

The additional locks that were broken were first mentioned by SCSO Chief Administrative Officer Alicia Lindsey during a Shelby County Board of Commissioners committee meeting Wednesday, a week after The CA reported that electric locks on the third floor were broken after a power surge.

When Lindsey mentioned inmates had broken locks, and that emergency funds were needed for new locks, The CA reached out to SCSO to clarify if this was a separate incident.

"There were additional doors on other floors that were vandalized by residents, as well as doors that have mechanically failed due to time and age," John Morris, a public information officer with SCSO, said in an email statement Friday. "However, with the emergency expenditure of funds approved by the county commission, parts have been ordered to fix all doors."

The electric locks that were broken in April posed safety concerns  which were primarily attributed to understaffing at the jail  a source, who works in the legal system and The CA is not naming due to fears of reprisal, said at the time.

More: Shelby County Juvenile Court closed until asbestos, mold, lead remediation completed

'An arms race': Memphis officials want stricter sentencing for Glock switches

During the County Commission meeting, Lindsey said that about 100 door locks had been broken by inmates.

The locks broken by a power surge and the jail's old age are the latest in a string of maintenance issues at the jail. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner has called for a new jail facility to be built, citing the age of 201 Poplar, which was built about 40 years ago.

In late February, the jail put in a request for a new boiler system  a $2.2 million emergency purchase  after spending months with a smaller, rented boiler due to the jail's original system failing.

A $250,000 feasibility study into the prospects of building a new jail was passed by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in early April. A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly that would have allowed Shelby County voters to approve a sales tax increase to failed in a mid-March subcommittee vote, the Daily Memphian reported. Those increased tax revenues would have been used to fund a new jail.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby Co. Jail officials: Additional cell locks broken by inmates
Former Trump campaign press secretary and White House communications director Hope Hicks testified on Friday in the New York criminal trial of the former president  and her testimony outlining Trump's hands-on leadership could help prosecutors make their case that Trump falsified business records to hide embarrassing information ahead of the 2016 election.

Hicks discussed her key role in meetings and made clear that she "reported to Mr. Trump," who, she said, closely managed his communications strategy. Multiple news outlets, including The New York Times, reported that Hicks said she was "very concerned" about the "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by their genitals. The audio clip was published in October  a month before the election.

I was concerned," Hicks said Friday. "Very concerned. Yeah. I was concerned about the contents of the email, I was concerned about the lack of time to respond, I was concerned that we had a transcript but not a tape. There was a lot at play."

Trump's defense, meanwhile, used their cross examination to ask Hicks questions about Cohen's informal role with the campaign and Trump's concern about his wife Melania's reaction to the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix-it, and it was only because he first broke it," Hicks said, according to The Times. Hicks also said of Cohen: "He would try to insert himself at certain moments."

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, with prosecutors saying he was part of a scheme to kill damaging stories about extramarital affairs ahead of his 2016 campaign. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged that Trump went to "great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws."

Trump denies those charges, as well as the affairs. Each count is punishable by up to four years behind bars.

New York prosecutors have cited text messages, witness testimony, phone calls and other records to allege that Trump schemed to pay off adult film star and director Stormy Daniels, model Karen McDougal as well as a doorman who falsely claimed Trump had an affair with a housekeeper. The scheme allegedly involved a $130,000 payment to Daniels described as "legal expenses" in Trump Organization records. Bragg said the scheme "mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements" for that payment.

According to The Times, prosecutors asked Hicks if Cohen would have paid Daniels without alerting Trump. Hicks said that would have been out of character for Cohen.

Prosecutors on Friday asked Hicks about an email she wrote saying "Deny, deny, deny" concerning the Washington Post's email seeking comment about the Access Hollywood tape. She described that reaction as a "reflex." She also said the campaign was concerned about a Wall Street Journal article about McDougal.

One of the defining characteristics of Hope Hicks, both in the campaign and in her time in the White House, was that Mr. Trump wanted to have her in the room as often as possible, Hofstra University constitutional law professor James Sample said. Hope Hicks is a witness who will heighten the connection between what the jury has already heard and the prosecutors need to establish that part of the reason for these deals was to influence the election.

Prosecutors have highlighted the "Access Hollywood" tape as the impetus for quashing Daniels' story over their concerns about his election prospects. According to The Times, Hicks called the media aftermath of the tape's release as "intense" and that it "dominated coverage."

Hicks said she spoke to both Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, about Daniels' claims. Hicks also said she asked Cohen to "chase down a rumor" about another tape that could hurt Trump's campaign.

The question is, how much does she know? Sarah Krissoff, a New York white collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Salon. About this catch-and-kill scheme, to the extent that she may have had a broader understanding of that  overarching conspiracy than [Daniels former lawyer Keith Davidson].

Hicks could offer prosecutors a crucial nexus between the deals described by witnesses who have testified in the case so far  and the campaigns desire for that deal to protect Trumps chance of winning the 2016 election and mitigate the campaigns fear that the Access Hollywood tape would decimate support from female voters. The Washington Post reported that their reporters contacted Hicks in October 2016 about its impending story breaking news about the tape.

Obviously she has something useful to say, Krissoff said. Otherwise, the prosecutors wouldnt call her.

Krissoff said while Hicks is unlikely to add bombshell news, she likely shell help back up prosecutors case.

Even if it's just little tidbits, sometimes it's a really small point of corroboration, Krissoff said, adding: Everyone sort of has just a little, little piece of the story and the DAs office is going to argue that all of these puzzle pieces add up to a crime.

Krissoff said Hicks offers a contrast to witnesses who have testified so far, including Daniels former lawyer.

She probably has less baggage as a witness than some of the other folks, Krissoff said.

According to The Times, Hicks testified Friday that Cohen told her he received a denial from Daniels about a Wall Street Journal detailing the alleged extramarital affairs. She also said she was told internally that Trump did not have an affair with McDougal.

Cohen, for his part, has said he lied to benefit Trump amid the 2016 election.

All of the key witnesses so far are people that are been involved in a scheme in one way or the other, Krissoff said. Theyre on one side or the other trying to get the money or paying money, other than a few sort of ministerial witnesses. She was more of a third party witness to the facts, not engaged in the underlying activity, but observing it because of her position with Trump. So I think that's going to make her more credible.

Trump, for his part, argues hes the victim of a political witch hunt and has called it a bookkeeping case. His defense has suggested he was the target of a shakedown  a Newsweek reporter tweeted that Trump lawyer Emil Bove on Thursday asked Davidson about the definition of extortion.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche has argued Trump was trying to protect his family, his reputation and his brand. In testimony last week, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker said Trumps family wasnt mentioned in conversations with Cohen and Trump about the catch-and-kill scheme.

Hicks, in contrast, said Trump was concerned about Melania's reaction to the "Access Hollywood" clip. "President Trump really values Mrs. Trumps opinion, and she doesn't weigh in all the time, but when she does, its really meaningful to him. He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was just concerned of what her perception of this would be," she said.

Its really crucial to the state of mind at this point, David Schultz, professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University, said.

The question is: what was the purpose? Schultz said. What was the intention behind it? And she can clarify that. If she can say: Oh, yeah, we did this because we knew that this information coming out, or we thought this information coming out would have an impact in terms of affecting the election, and that we arranged to do all this to hide embarrassing information that could affect the election, that's pretty significant. And that it's just a long way to making the prosecutor's argument.

Prosecutors have yet to discuss at length the particulars of the business records they accuse Trump of falsifying  a move Sample calls a strategic choice.

To show that they were intended to influence the election is necessary to turn these crimes into felonies, Sample said.

Sample said prosecutors are focusing on detailing the deals first, before going into Trump records that described payments to reimburse Cohen for hush money as legal fees.

Bragg initially cited three potential aggravating factors: tax implications, federal election law and New York state election law.

As they've gone to trial, it has become clear that the one on which they are primarily relying is New York State election law and it is a relatively untested area, Sample said. It's untested for a pretty good reason, which is that most of the time when a falsification of business records matter is tried, it's just statistically not likely to be falsification in order to influence an election.

Sample said some critics think the nexus between the scheme and influencing the election is a bit tenuous.

But Sample said of the prosecutors case: It's certainly plausible, and it certainly fits the facts on the ground.

Critics have questioned the merits of the case, the age of the events in question, its importance relative to Trump's other pending cases and whether prosecutors are overreaching on a federal election issue. In an opinion essay for The New York Times, Boston University law professor Jed Shugerman called the case an "embarrassment, in terms of prosecutorial ethics and apparent selectivity."

Shugerman said Trump could have "falsely recorded these internal records" to hide the hush money payments in order to deceive the F.E.C. and state investigators probing his campaign.

But Shugerman said it's unclear whether Manhattan prosecutors are pursuing that "novel" argument.

Shugerman said he couldn't find a case of a state prosecutor "relying on the Federal Election Campaign Act either as a direct crime or a predicate crime." Trump's lawyers are arguing an underlying crime must fall under the laws of New York  and Shugerman said prosecutors couldn't cite a judicial interpretation supporting their approach.

Overall, Shugerman said the prosecutors' election interference is too broad and may not survive a state appeal. He pointed out that President Biden's Justice Department itself has not appointed a special counsel to look into the issue.

But Bennett Gershman, former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University, said at the end of the day, the alleged election interference is highly troubling.

"This is a case where a man violated the law, and whether he should be punished for violating the law," Gershman said.

Still, Krissoff said she sees hurdles for prosecutors: This is not an easy case for them to prove.

One of their key witnesses here, Michael Cohen, and actually, Stormy Daniels as well, have a ton of baggage about truthfulness here, she said. So there is lots of fodder for their cross examination.

They have been sort of laying this foundation at the beginning of these relatively more reliable witnesses who are outlining this scheme, Krissoff said. But some of those witnesses really don't connect up directly to Trump as much as the DAs office would like.

For example, Davidson, the Los Angeles-based former lawyer for Daniels, testified Tuesday that there was as unspoken understanding that there was a close affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump, and that AMI would not run this story or any story related to Karen and Donald Trump as it would tend to hurt Trump.

Having some sort of belief or understanding is not the same as it actually being true, Krissoff said.

She sort of ties everything more closely to Trump, Krissoff said. And corroborates the bits of story that have emerged so far that show Trump communications, trying to corroborate these meetings or calls Pecker talked about.

The best-case scenario for Trump? Krissoff said Trumps team would have to hope that Hicks recollection is vastly inconsistent with other witnesses.

Then, the defense can stand up and say: Listen, you have to convict beyond a reasonable doubt, Krissoff said. You're hearing the stories from witnesses that are not remotely aligned. Who do you believe? Do you believe him, do you believe her? Everybody here is telling us their version of the story and this is certainly not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

The D.A.s office would likely argue that any inconsistencies are expected for recollections of years-old meetings.

Pecker testified last week that Hicks was in and out of an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting. Prosecutors say Pecker, Cohen and Trump conspired to break campaign finance laws by scheming to catch-and-kill salacious stories about Trump.

Pecker said he recalled a phone conversation in which he told Trump he was planning to extend McDougals contract for six months. He thought that was also a bad idea, Pecker said of Trump.

I wanted to extend her contract so she would not go out and give any further interviews or talk to the press or say negative comments about American Media or about Trump, Pecker said.

Pecker said he received a second call back from Trump, Hicks and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I explained to the two of them, that  why I was going to extend her agreement, Pecker said. And both of them said that they thought it was a good idea.

During that second call, Pecker said Trump responded: Its your business. You do whatever you plan on doing.

Schultz said prosecutors may hope Hicks will shed light on whether it was a deliberate decision on the part of Trump to make us basically work with Pecker to do catch-and-kill for the purposes of suppressing information that could affect the election  and not for the purposes of just covering up embarrassing material to protect Trump's family.

In cross-examination, Trump lawyer Bove asked whether Pecker had told federal investigators in August 2018 that Hicks was at the 2015 Trump Tower meeting. At one point, he handed Pecker documents, saying, Im going to hand you a copy of this report, as well.

The judge said Pecker could answer Boves question: at no point during this meeting did you tell the government that Hope Hicks was present in August of 2015 at Trump Tower; correct?

Pecker said: I dont remember.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass raised an objection, saying that the report did not state whether investigators ever specifically asked whether Hicks attended the meeting.

The judge said: Well, then how can he answer the question? The question is: were you asked?

Bove said the report was not memorializing then questions.

The judge said that makes it a bit disingenuous to hand the witness a document to refresh his recollection.

The next day at trial, Steinglass asked the judge if he would address about what we consider to be improper impeachment by omission by Mr. Bove?

Bove said he apologized to Pecker for any confusion about that.

That was my fault, Bove told Pecker. There was some confusion in the question about what had been said and whether Hope Hicks came up I want to apologize and move on to another meeting from that. If I ask a bad question today, I think Mr. Steinglass will tell me.

Bove later asked Pecker about the Trump Tower meeting: And you did not suggest to the jury that you have a recollection of [Hicks] speaking during the meeting; correct?

Pecker said: Thats absolutely correct.
Morganton man charged with shooting at deputies during chase through Burke County

Morganton man charged with shooting at deputies during chase through Burke County

MORGANTON, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A Morganton man took officers on a chase and later fired a gun at them before being arrested on a litany of charges, according to police.

The Burke County Sheriffs Office reported that deputies responded early Friday morning to shots being fired into a vehicle in the 1900 block of Wall Street, where they found a victim with minor injuries. As additional deputies arrived to the scene, they located a vehicle matching the description of the one driven by the suspect, which had pulled into a driveway on Eastbrook Circle.

Memorial service dates announced for all fallen officers killed in Charlotte

According to the sheriffs office, a deputy approached the vehicle and saw the suspect, 40-year-old Thomas Carlson III, reportedly reach between the drivers seat and console. The suspect then fled the scene at a high rate of speed.

During the pursuit, deputies say Carlson held a firearm out the window, discharging multiple rounds toward their vehicles.

When the driver reached Rutherford College Road several miles away, spike strips were deployed successfully by Drexel Police officers. The car chase ended on Devinney Street, where the subject then fled on foot to a nearby residence. No deputy injuries were reported.

The sheriffs office said in a search of the abandoned vehicle, deputies allegedly recovered documents with the Carlsons personal information. A search warrant was issued for a home on Amherst Road where the offender Carlson barricaded himself inside of it.

Charlotte man sentenced for using fraudulent passport cards

After two hours of negotiating with Carlson, the Burke County Sheriffs Office SWAT team and Morganton Department of Public Safety SWAT team made contact with Carlson and he was reportedly taken into custody without incident.

Carlson was charged with the following felonies, as well as several traffic violations:

Assault on Law Enforcement Officer with a Firearm

Flee to Elude Arrest

Attempt Discharge Weapon into Occupied Vehicle

Possession of Firearm by Felon

Carlson is being held on no bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday, May 6.

Also involved in the investigation were Valdese Police Department, Drexel Police Department, State Highway Patrol, Department of Adult Correction K-9 Unit, Burke County Emergency Management and Burke County EMS.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Most of US aid will be delivered to Ukraine in several months  NYT

Sources among US and European officials have informed the NYT that the US has supplied Ukraine with small batches from the first 1 billion military aid package announced after the funding was unblocked in Congress. However, the main batch from the large aid package will arrive in Ukraine in several months.

Source: European Pravda with reference to The New York Times

Details: NYT states that Ukraine received a batch of anti-tank missiles, ammunition and 155-mm artillery rounds from the US as early as 28 April. The second batch of American aid arrived on Monday, 29 April.

Next day, a new batch of Patriot interceptor missiles from Spain arrived in Poland on Tuesday. A senior Spanish official stated that "they will be at the Ukrainian front soon".

A part of new armament for Ukraine was delivered even before the announcements. A UK source told NYT that parts of the UK package announced on 23 April by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak started arriving several weeks ago.

Nonetheless, the bigger part of the weapons from large aid packages announced by the US, the UK and Germany will be delivered to Ukraine in a few months.

The first reason is logistics: combat vehicles, speedboats, modern guns, launchers and air defence systems are often transported by sea and by train with enhanced security due to their size.

Read also: The Uncertain States of America. What challenges to backing Ukraine are not addressed by aid bill adopted by Congress?

An American official told NYT that most of the large weapons and even a part of ammunition will be sent from the US and will most likely be delivered by the middle of summer, if not later.

Moreover, the American side is yet to determine where it can get the equipment, promised for Ukraine, in a way so as not to endanger the combat ability of NATO units using it.

Background:

On 24 April US President Joe Biden signed legislation enacted by Congress that offers about US$61 billion in new military and economic aid to Ukraine, as well as help to other US allies.

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GOMA, DRC, May 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed and several others injured in a bomb explosion on Friday morning at a camp for displaced people near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local sources.

Multiple bombs were dropped at the Mugunga camp for the internal displaced persons, located roughly 10 kilometers west of Goma city, witnesses told Xinhua.

Hospital sources confirmed that at least 17 people, including children, were injured and taken to Bethesda CBCA Ndosho hospital in the city, where a surgery team of the International Committee of the Red Cross is deployed.

While the provincial government of North Kivu has not officially announced the casualties, it has accused the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels of being behind the attack.

The region has seen escalating conflict between the Congolese army and the movement, with the M23 rebels gaining control of territories in the province of North Kivu over the past weeks. 
A federal lawsuit was filed Friday in connection with an Olathe police shooting that took the life of a 27-year-old man, alleging police escalated a confrontation with the man as he was in a mental health crisis.

Brandon Lynch, 27, was killed on Dec. 31, 2022.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe ruled the homicide justified last May.

The lawsuit, filed in the District of Kansas on behalf of Lynchs mother, Maria Varnas, alleges Officer Conner Thompson used excessive force when he shot Lynch. Thompson has been with the Olathe Police Department since July 2019, according to records from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training.

In a news release, attorneys representing Lynchs family said the city of Olathe and its police department had hindered the familys attempts to learn more about the incident by refusing to release information in the 16 months since the shooting, including full unredacted body camera footage, an unredacted police report, an officer-involved shooting investigation and a police report from a separate incident involving Thompson and Lynch six months prior to the shooting.

The use of deadly force in a situation where non-lethal options were viable is not only unacceptable, but also a clear violation of Brandon Lynchs rights, attorneys with the Kansas City firm Cannezzaro Marvel said in their statement. Just because a person with mental illness does not immediately obey police orders does not grant officers the right to employ deadly force. This unfortunate event highlights the urgent need for reform in how law enforcement handles interactions with mentally ill individuals. It is our hope that this lawsuit will bring about meaningful change and prevent future tragedies.

Brandon Lynch, 27, with his dog, River, was shot and killed in his home by Olathe police in December 2022. Lynch suffered paranoid schizophrenia, his family said.

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Officers were called to an Olathe home by Lynchs sister, who said he had attacked her and she was bleeding in her mouth. According to the lawsuit, Lynch became agitated and paranoid about getting the plague.

His sister told the 911 operator that Lynch had a history of schizophrenia and was in crisis, which was communicated by dispatch, the lawsuit said. The responding officers, including Thompson, had interacted with Lynch previously and were aware of his mental health problems, the lawsuit said.

Body camera footage shows an officer speaking with Lynch through an open bedroom door. Lynch is agitated and the officer sees him holding a stun gun and a knife.

The encounter moves into the familys living room and other officers join in telling Lynch to drop the weapons. Lynch continues to argue about why he would be arrested and is warned that if he advances without dropping the weapons, he will be shot. An officer attempts to use a Taser to subdue Lynch twice, unsuccessfully.

At one point, Lynch tells the officers to shoot him. Then, as he takes two steps forward, Lynch told them a final time, Get out of my house.

Three rounds are fired before the video cuts off.

The lawsuit alleges that Olathe officers are not properly trained on how to de-escalate a crisis situation and alleges that the officers escalated the situation by pointing guns, shouting commands, and threatening Brandon. It goes on to claim that Lynchs actions never posed a threat to defendant Thompson or the safety of any police officers.

After the shooting, Lynchs family was critical of police, saying he needed mental health treatment and that police were aware he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
PINE BLUFF, Ark.  Jefferson County authorities are looking for a capital murder suspect a district judge previously released from custody.

Donovan Cuthbertson is accused of shooting two people and killing Rachel Crouch last September. He was released from jail in January because the Jefferson County Prosecutors filed criminal charges days after a deadline that fell during Thanksgiving holiday.

Arrest made in Pine Bluff Sunday afternoon deadly shooting

While released, Cuthbertson was charged with other felony crimes which prompted the judge to reverse his decision.

Cuthbertson would have been put in custody had he shown up for his court date on April 4, but he skipped it, so the judge put out a warrant for his arrest.

Both the prosecution and Rachel Crouchs mother said they are frustrated with how things happened.

I feel like they dont really care cause it didnt happen to them, Elberta Crouch said.

Some judges agree with us that you cure it (the deadline) by filing the felony information, so it is just that our judge doesnt see it the way we see it, so weve been doing our best to make sure that doesnt happen again, Jefferson County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jill Reed said.

Pine Bluff capital murder suspect released from jail because charges filed four days late

The Pine Bluff Police Department posted Cuthbertsons picture on social media on May 1 asking for the publics help finding him.

Donovan Daniel Cuthbertson courtesy of Pine Bluff Police Department

A police spokesman explained it took a month to advertise the capital murder suspects warrant because it is the countys responsibility to execute warrant searches, and there was no request to share it until PBPD detectives who worked on the initial case asked the public information officer to share it.

Pine Bluff mother trying to fulfill daughters last wish after deadly Sunday shooting

KARK 4 News called the judges office and Cuthbertsons defense attorney for comment, but as of this report have not heard back.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
Mount Horeb student shot, killed by police for bringing rifle to school has been identified

Editor's note: On Saturday, May 4, the state Department of Justice said in a release that the Mount Horeb student was fatally shot by police after pointing a pellet rifle at officers. You can find that story here.

The Mount Horeb student shot and killed by police Wednesday after bringing a rifle to his middle school has been identified as Damian Haglund.

More than six sources, who requested not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, confirmed Haglund's identity to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Haglund, 14, was an eighth grader at Mount Horeb Middle School.

No one else was injured in the incident. The armed student was shot and killed by Mount Horeb police officers and never made it inside the school, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said at a news conference in Mount Horeb that evening.

Parents hug on the road between the high school and the Intermediate Center in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, on Wednesday after students were released from school following an active-shooter incident. The shooter, Damian Haglund, was shot and killed by police.

Kaul said Mount Horeb police officers involved in the incident have been placed on leave, which is typical practice after law enforcement uses deadly force.

Kaul didn't say how many officers were involved in the shooting.

Kaul also did not provide information about whether the student fired shots at officers, or whether the student indicated he would bring a gun to school. Kaul also declined to discuss any prior interactions the student had with law enforcement.

"The physical security of the school" appears to have played a role in preventing the student from entering the school, Kaul said.

An emergency alert was sent to residents phones late Wednesday morning that warned people of an active shooter at the middle school.

Law enforcement officers ride away from the school in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

They are armed with a rifle and should be considered dangerous, the alert said. For your safety stay inside, lock all doors, and avoid the area until further notice.

The incident shocked the small community of 7,700 people, Mount Horeb, which is in Dane County roughly 20 minutes from Madison. The Mount Horeb Area School District includes five schools clustered together.

Im literally shaking to death and can hardly breathe, Alyssa Kopczynskie told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday. "I dont think Ill ever be the same after this.

Her daughter, a student at Mount Horeb Middle School, was "crying hysterically" when she reached her via cellphone inside the school.

The district canceled school for a second day in a row Friday. The high school prom, scheduled for Saturday, has been rescheduled for May 18.

More: 'I dont think Ill ever be the same after this': What happened when a student brought a gun to Mount Horeb

Mary Spicuzza can be reached at mary.spicuzza@jrn.com and Jessica Van Egeren can be reached at jvanegeren@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mount Horeb student shot by police was 14-year-old Damian Haglund
MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11)  The MTA is moving forward with plans to begin charging a $15 toll to travel below 60th street in Manhattan  effective June 30th.

Local residents and business owners are raising concerns over congestion pricing and point to the potential negative impacts it could have on their neighborhoods.

MTA to vote on discounted train fares ahead of congestion pricing rollout

A robust coalition, which includes supporters from Little Italy, Upper Manhattan, Queens, and State Island hopes a class action lawsuit can put enough pressure on the MTA to produce a new environmental impact statement.

This is such bad news for us, said District Leader Justin Yu. We have been here almost 200 years but this congestion pricing is going to kill us. Were dying here. MTA, have you heard us?

The Chinatown Coalition cited recent data showing the densely packed neighborhood already suffers from an 11 percent business vacancy rate.

Little Italy-based attorney Edward Cuccia added, Im Italian. I live here. I work here. I cry everyday when I see the deterioration of these neighborhoods. If congestion pricing comes into effect, who is going to come to Little Italy?

John McCarthy, the MTAs Chief of Police and External Affairs told PIX11 News, We are responding to their pro-traffic lawsuit in Court, where a 4,000 page environmental assessment will make the case that congestion relief delivers less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air, and more investment in the mass transit most people use.

MTAs free bus service program to end this year

Meanwhile, former City Council Member Kathryn Freed says that is not enough. If they are forced to do an environment impact statement, they have to mitigate the damage they are doing.

The MTA is arguing that an estimated $2 billion in new revenue is essential to maintaining and expanding a sprawling mass transit system used annually by several million riders.

Susan Lee, president of New Yorkers Against Congestion, says someone needs to call timeout on the plan  before its too late. If this is going to be the first in the country, we need to get it right and this is not right. We cannot keep going back to the drawing board once its implemented.

Toll reader infrastructure is already up along 60th Street in Manhattan.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
The heads of the Chicago Police Department and Cook County States Attorneys Office were joined by Mayor Brandon Johnson in announcing murder charges against the man who allegedly shot and killed off-duty CPD officer Luis Huesca last month in Gage Park.

Today, we honor (Huesca) as we hold accountable the offender who is responsible for his murder, CPD superintendent Larry Snelling said during a Friday morning press conference at police headquarters.

Xavier Tate, 22, faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen firearm in connection with the April 21 fatal shooting of Huesca, 30, near 56th Street and Kedzie Avenue. Tate was scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday.

Tate was taken into custody Wednesday in west suburban Glendale Heights, police said. A Chicago Police Department source said the arresting officers used Huescas handcuffs to arrest Tate. Authorities previously announced a combined $100,000 reward for public information leading to Tates arrest and conviction.

Cook County court records show Tate was arrested last March in south suburban Olympia Fields and charged with criminal trespass to a residence. That case remains pending.

Court records from Kane County, meanwhile, show Tate was arrested in February and charged with obstructing a police officer. He was also arrested in 2023 and charged with obstruction, and both those cases remain active, records show. In the last five years, Tate has been cited 10 times for alleged traffic violations in Kane County.

Huesca, a six-year veteran of CPD, was shot multiple times in the 3100 block of West 56th Street while off-duty but in uniform early on April 21. His gun and vehicle were also taken at the scene of the shooting but were later recovered.

Officers last week arrested a relative of Tates who allegedly had come to possess Huescas gun. That man, arrested in Morgan Park, now faces a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, court records show.

On what wouldve been Huescas 31st birthday last week, the Police Department announced that the officer died in the line of duty, entitling his family to survivors death benefits. At his funeral Monday, Huesca was remembered as an exceptional person with courage, bravery, humility and pride in your work.
The heads of the Chicago Police Department and Cook County states attorneys office were joined by Mayor Brandon Johnson in announcing murder charges against the man who allegedly shot and killed off-duty police Officer Luis Huesca last month in Gage Park.

Today, we honor (Huesca) as we hold accountable the offender who is responsible for his murder, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said during a Friday morning news conference at police headquarters.

Xavier Tate, 22, faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen firearm in connection with the April 21 fatal shooting of Huesca, 30, near 56th Street and Kedzie Avenue. Tate made his first court appearance Friday.

Tate was taken into custody Wednesday in west suburban Glendale Heights, police said. A CPD source said the arresting officers used Huescas handcuffs to arrest Tate. Authorities previously announced a combined $100,000 reward for public information leading to Tates arrest and conviction.

Cook County court records show Tate was arrested in March in south suburban Olympia Fields and charged with criminal trespass to a residence. That case remains pending.

Court records from Kane County, meanwhile, show Tate was arrested in February and charged with obstructing a police officer. He was also arrested in 2023 and charged with obstruction, and both those cases remain active, records show. In the last five years, Tate has been cited 10 times for alleged traffic violations in Kane County.

Huesca, a six-year veteran of CPD, was shot multiple times in the 3100 block of West 56th Street while off-duty but in uniform early on April 21. His gun and vehicle were also taken at the scene of the shooting but were later recovered.

Officers last week arrested a relative of Tates who allegedly had come to possess Huescas gun. That man, arrested in Morgan Park, now faces a charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, court records show.

On what wouldve been Huescas 31st birthday last week, the Police Department announced that the officer died in the line of duty, entitling his family to survivors death benefits. At his funeral Monday, Huesca was remembered as an exceptional person with courage, bravery, humility and pride in your work.
A screen shows photos of murder suspect Tony Garcia at a February press event when was charged in a pair of 1981 cold-case murders. Garcia, 69, remains comatose after allegedly being assaulted by another inmate at the county's Todd Road Jail last month.

A double murder defendant found unconscious a little over three weeks ago after apparently being assaulted by another inmate remains in a comatose state with a $75 million claim pending over his condition.

Tony Garcia, 69, never regained consciousness after the April 11 incident at the Todd Road Jail outside Santa Paula, and as of Thursday he was in critical but stable condition, Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Dean Worthy said.

Garcia has allegedly been assaulted repeatedly at the jail since he was booked on Feb. 7 of last year on suspicion of the cold-case murders of two young women in 1981, according to court records. The incidents all appear to have stemmed from conflicts with other inmates.

Garcia, who was jailed without bail, has pleaded not guilty.

The first incident appears relatively minor. But he was hospitalized twice after incidents at the jail last year, according to medical records filed in support of an unsuccessful effort to get him released from jail in March. Then in April, he was rendered unconscious after another alleged attack.

Attorney files claims against Ventura County

Defense attorney Brandon Sua says jail officials are responsible for his client's injuries because they failed to segregate him adequately from other inmates. Due to the nature of the criminal allegations against him, Garcia represents a "unique" security risk, Sua said in legal claims filed against the Ventura County government.

Sua has filed two claims on Garcia's behalf against the local government for more than $75 million, normally a preliminary step before filing a lawsuit. The initial and far smaller claim for roughly $204,000 was filed in March after three incidents in 2023. It is specifically tied to an incident in mid-November when Garcia was hospitalized for major injuries. County risk management officials returned that claim without action, saying Garcia missed the deadline.

But in a second claim filed in late April, Sua asks for $75 million over the fourth and most recent incident tied to Garcia's comatose state. The demand is still under review by county officials.

Garcia assaulted repeatedly at jail, court papers allege

Garcia was segregated from other inmates at the jail as of March, according to a prosecution document. But on the morning of April 11, deputies reportedly found him unconscious and non-responsive in the day room area of his housing unit. They rendered medical aid before he was transported to Ventura County Medical Center, according to a statement issued by the Sheriff's Office.

He had been talking with his wife in a visitation area of the jail and was on the way back to his cell when he was attacked, Sua said. Garcia was shackled at his hands and feet and guarded by at least one correctional officer when he was assaulted by at least one other inmate, according to the claim over the latest incident.

He sustained a traumatic brain injury and multiple injuries to the face and skull, the claim says.

He was hospitalized at VCMC until April 30, when he was transferred to an advanced long-term care facility, Worthy said. Sua initially reported that his client was on life support but Worthy said Thursday that Garcia was breathing on his own.

Garcia accused in cold-case murders

Garcia is accused of killing 20-year-old Camarillo resident Rachel Zendejas and 21-year-old Oxnard resident Lisa Gondek. His trial in Ventura County Superior Court had not yet started at the time he was discovered unconscious, but the pre-trial process was underway.

Two months ago, his legal counsel asked the courts to release him from jail with an electronic monitor or to allow him to post bail due to the threat to his safety. If denied bail, Garcia will "likely meet his demise long before this case ever makes it to a trial," attorney Catherine Guzman said in a legal motion.

Prosecutor Richard Simon, though, argued there was a substantial likelihood that Garcia would try to kill another young woman or flee if bail were granted. Simon said he understood that Garcia was not in danger because of safeguards taken at the jail to segregate him from other inmates.

Superior Court Judge Nancy Ayers denied Garcia's request for release from jail.

Worthy declined to comment on the safeguards the jail had taken, citing pending litigation.

Garcia is now being monitored electronically at the long-term care facility where he's staying, Worthy said.

The four incidents appear to be of different but escalating natures. In the first one, Garcia allegedly fell after being pushed against the door to his cell by an unidentified inmate, but was apparently not seriously injured. In the second, he was cut in the neck and face by an inmate who has subsequently been charged with attempted murder. He sustained numerous fractures and an intracranial hemorrhage in the third incident, but prosecutors decided not to press charges against the other inmate.

It's not clear exactly why that decision was made, but court papers suggest that the other inmate claimed self-defense during a fight with Garcia.

No one has been arrested in connection with the latest assault on Garcia and the matter is still under investigation, Worthy said.

Kathleen Wilson covers courts and local government issues for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0271.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Comatose murder defendant Tony Garcia moved to long-term care
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A man who investigators say shot the bullet that killed a woman at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade and rally is now in jail.

Sources tell FOX4 that murder suspect Dominic Miller, 18, was booked after spending months in the hospital following the shooting.

BREAKING: 18-year-old Dominic Miller  who is charged with 2nd degree murder in the #Paradeshooting has been released from the hospital & booked into jail nearly 3 months later.



Prosecutors allege that it is his bullet that took the life of Lisa Lopez Galvan.

Stay with @fox4kc pic.twitter.com/ZVAGCbahWE  Malik Jackson (@malikjackson3) May 3, 2024

Miller, Lyndell Mays and Terry Young all face second-degree murder in the mass shooting where Lisa Lopez-Galvan died and nearly two-dozen others were hurt, more than half were children.

Suspected Walmart shoplifter dies after swallowing something while in police custody

Earlier this week, a 16-year-old was in Family Court as a judge considers whether to try him as an adult. Another minor is also implicated in the shooting that sent thousands scrambling following a shooting that began when one group of people became upset at someone staring at them, sparking an argument followed by the shooting.

Mays was in court on Thursday where a bond reduction was denied. He faces second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Young faces the same charges and had his jury trial scheduled for March 10, 2025 earlier this week.

Miller also faces the same charges as both adult suspects and will be held on a $1 million cash bond. Online records dont yet show when hes due in court.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
A murderous romance or a frame job? Key things to know so far about the Karen Read trial

A murderous romance or a frame job? Key things to know so far about the Karen Read trial

DEDHAM (AP)  A highly anticipated trial began in Dedham, Massachusetts, this week involving a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank.

John OKeefe died in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Boston, on Jan. 29, 2022.

The case has garnered national attention because the defense alleges state and local law enforcement officials have framed her and allowed the real killer to go free.

Here are the facts and legal arguments in the case:

THE CHARGES: A TUMULTUOUS RELATIONSHIP TURNS DEADLY

Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, faces several charges including second-degree murder in the death of John OKeefe, 46. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.

After a night out drinking at several bars, prosecutors say Read dropped OKeefe off at a house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, Read allegedly struck OKeefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.

Part of what prosecutors are trying to do is show Reads actions were intentional. To do that, Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally started offering up evidence showing the couple had a stormy relationship that had begun to sour in the month before OKeefe died. The prosections first witness, OKeefes brother Paul, testified they would regularly argue including over what Read fed his two adopted children and that he witnessed a 2021 fight the couple had in Cape Cod over how OKeefe treated her.

Paul OKeefes wife, Erin, testified that Read told her the couple fought in Aruba after she caught OKeefe kissing another woman.

THE DEFENSE: POLICE ARE FRAMING THE SUSPECT

In their opening statement, the defense team laid out plans to portray the investigation into OKeefes death as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police and other law enforcement agents at the house party.

They argued investigators focused on Read because she was a convenient outsider and that prevented them from considering other suspects. They plan to argue someone other than Read was responsible for OKeefes death but have only floated a theory that he was beaten inside the house and left for dead outside.

They also criticized investigators for failing to search the house where the party was held to see if a fight had occurred and argued his injuries were consistent with being beaten up.

THE SCENE: DISTRAUGHT READ, SCREAMING IN A SNOWSTORM

Prosecutors appeared early on to be relying on Reads own words to get a conviction. Most of the first week has been dominated by first responders, who detailed a harrowing scene that morning in January 2022.

They came upon OKeefe lying face up and Read, distraught and screaming near the body, appearing to have blood on her mouth from giving CPR.

The most incriminating testimony this week came from several first responders who recalled Read telling them loudly and repeatedly that she hit him, though she never said with her SUV.

Another witness, a police officer among the first on the scene, testified Read said this was her fault and that she was responsible, although she didnt say how she was responsible.

THE EVIDENCE: ARE THERE INCONSISTENCIES?

The defense has worked to undermine the credibility of the first responders testifying for the prosecution. They pointed out mistakes on a police dispatch log, including the wrong address where OKeefes body was found.

They also got one witness, who testified to hearing Read say OKeefes death was her fault, to acknowledge he never wrote that in a police report. They also questioned another witness memory and suggested another may have been too focused on saving OKeefes life to be able to hear Read say she hit OKeefe.

The defense also showed a video from the scene to suggest that one first responder, who claimed he heard Read tell him she hit OKeefe, was not shown talking to her.

They also tried to plant doubts in the jurys mind about the overall investigation, getting several witnesses to say they never heard Read say she hit OKeefe nor did they see dozens of pieces of her broken taillight at the scene, evidence which prosecutors say shows she backed into him.

Karen Read, 41, of Mansfield, Mass., is charged with manslaughter in the Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, death of Boston police Officer John OKeefe. O'Keefe, 46, was off duty at the time of his death.

FILE - Karen Read sits in court during jury selection for her murder trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (David McGlynn//New York Post via AP, Pool,File)

Karen Read, left, leaves Norfolk Superior Court with her attorney Alan Jackson, right, after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read, right, is flanked by Massachusetts State Police while leaving Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

FILE - Karen Read, of Mansfield, Mass., center, departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Read's trial is scheduled to begin Monday, April 29. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the opening day of her trial, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read, facing a murder charge in the death of an off-duty Boston police officer, was ordered held on $100,000 bail.

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

High bail for girlfriend charged with manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston police officer

Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe

Karen Read is arraigned in Stoughton District court accused of manslaughter in death of off-duty Boston Police officer John O'Keefe

THE VICTIM: HOW DID HE DIE AND WHEN

The trials first few days also detailed the futile efforts of first responders to save OKeefe. They found him face up when they arrived just before dawn on Jan. 29.

One witness testified OKeefe wasnt breathing nor did he have a pulse. Another said his body temperature was only 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6 Celsius), which he described as extreme hyperthermia.

OKeefes condition never changed, despite first responders lifesaving efforts on the way to a local hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital and an autopsy later found he died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.

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At least five journalists were killed in Mexico last year, dozens have been arbitrarily arrested in Cuba and Venezuela, and others forced to flee Nicaragua due to harassment. These are just the tip of the iceberg of the challenges faced by many media workers in Latin America, where experts say the status of press freedom is increasingly worrisome.

Murder and threats in Mexico

In a report published in March, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) defined Mexico as the most dangerous country for the press in the Western Hemisphere.

In an interview with CNNE, Francisco Cobos, a Mexican-American journalist for Univision, recounted his attempted kidnapping by armed men in Tamaulipas on April 26. They forced him to stop his car, pointed a gun at him and tried to force him into an alley. Miraculously he managed to flee. There is no longer a place where you are safe, said Cobos.

Since he resides in McAllen, Texas, Cobos filed a complaint there and not in Mexico. Upon learning of the incident, the Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to offer him protection.

According to the CPJ report, Mexico has the highest number of missing journalists in the world with at least 15 professionals in 2023.

According to the rights group Article 19, in 2023 a total of 561 aggressions against the press have been registered in the country and the murders of five journalists. According to the same organization, at least 43 journalists have been killed during the administration of Lopez Obrador, 47 during the administration of former President Enrique Pena Nieto and 48 during the administration of former President Felipe Calderon.

An emblematic case was that of journalist Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, killed in January 2022 in the border city of Tijuana. In 2019, Maldonado Lopez, who worked for several media outlets, including Televisa and Septimo Dia, told Lopez Obrador directly in a public press conference that she feared for her life and asked him for protection. After her death, the president referred to the case, describing her death as regrettable and promising to investigate.

In February 2022, three people were arrested in connection with that homicide.

On April 26, a new murder was added to Mexicos grim statistics: Roberto Figueroa, who worked in the online portal Aca en el Show, from Morelos. The Prosecutors Office confirmed in a press conference that they believed the crime was linked to his journalistic work.

Xochitl Zamora, a friend of murdered journalist Lourdes Maldonado, collects her friend's pets from the crime scene and Maldonados home, as a security guard looks on, in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. - Marco Ugarte/AP

Lopez Obrador has promised security to journalists, but his relationship with the press has had several tense moments, including lashing out against CNN en Espanols Andres Oppenheimer for his interview with Argentinas President Javier Milei, who criticized Lopez Obrador ignorant.

Last week, the Mexican president criticized the US State Departments report on human rights in the world, which refers to concerns over press freedom in Mexico, saying that US authorities should be respectful.

Cuba: Repression and exile for the press

In Cuba, they have killed journalism, they kidnapped the profession, journalist Abraham Jimenez told CNN. Jimenez left the island in 2021 after a period of threats, arbitrary interrogations and house arrests.

The harassment was fueled by his reporting on Cubas street protests of 2021. As he recounted, Jimenez was portrayed in state media as a CIA agent, causing his friends to stay away out of fear and causing his family members to lost their jobs. They didnt need to shoot me, they had killed me civically, he said.

This is how he recalls his exodus to Spain, where he now resides: They told me: We are tired of you, we are going to give you your passport, but if you dont leave the country, you are going to jail. I didnt think twice, and I left.

According to Article 19s report Cuba: resistance in the face of censorship, from January to December 2023, 274 aggressions were registered against activists and independent journalists for reporting on social discontent among the Cuban population. Among the most common reprisals by the government are arrests and suppression of Internet service.

People take part in a demonstration against the government of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana, on July 11, 2021. - Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

Jimenez says that arbitrary arrests are only one of the infinite variants applied by the authorities to intimidate reporters. He said that other common forms of harassment include the interception of private communications, surveillance, interrogation of close circles, unofficial summonses and threats of arrest.

According to Jimenez, author of the books La isla oculta (2022) and Aterrizar en el mundo (2024), the Cuban government changed its actions towards the dissident press starting in 2015, with the arrival of the Internet on the island. Before, if you raised your voice, you could not leave the country, they called it migratory regulation. That was my case, I didnt have a passport. With the empowerment of the people and with the protests, the strategy to kick out journalists changed. Those who were not kicked out are in jail. There are very few left doing independent journalism.

Cuba has rejected criticism, including from the US government. In a publication in social network X, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said US officials are not concerned about the human rights of Cubans and that the United States has its own human rights violations.

Nicaragua: Ortega-Murillo regime targets journalism

Harassment of the press in Nicaragua has been widely reported on numerous occasions. One of the most recent cases was that of the newspaper La Prensa, one of Nicaraguas leading newspapers. On August 13, 2021, officers of the National Police occupied the building where it operated, after a raid in which its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Hollman Chamorro, was arrested and charged with the crime of money laundering. On March 24, 2022, Hollman Chamorro was found guilty and on April 1 he was sentenced to 9 years in prison. Other members of the Chamorro family were also arrested and charged with various crimes.

In 2022, the government expropriated the building where La Prensa had its newsroom and printing press; today the publication is only published online. The government also forced the closure of the television channel 100% Noticias, owned by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who went into exile in Costa Rica, from where he continues to publish digital newspaper El Confidencial. Nicaragua no longer has a print newspaper.

12 August 2021, Nicaragua, Managua: "The dictatorship holds our paper, but cannot hide the truth", is written on the last printed version of the newspaper critical of the government, "La Prensa". - picture alliance via Getty Images

According to the US State Departments human rights report on NIcaragua, the government has outlawed more than 300 civil society organizations in 2023, bringing the number of closures to more than 3,500; stripped more than 300 people of their citizenship and is holding more than 100 political prisoners in appalling conditions.

Between April and June 2023, about 23 journalists left Nicaragua due to harassment, threats of imprisonment and assaults mostly by police agents, according to a report by the Regional Network Voces del Sur and the foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy.

Nicaraguan Vice President and government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo publicly stated that she was unaware of the State Department report but lashed out at Washington. We respond to their list of slanders, defamations and infamies by attributing them to themselves provocateurs, aggressors, invaders and directors of choirs and orchestras made up of their local servitude. We denounce them once again as the most barbarous and savage violators of all human rights.

Gerall Chavez used to work at the countrys Vos TV channel. In 2018, he decided to leave Nicaragua following the arrest of two colleagues and after receiving information that he was going to be arrested. Since then, he has been living as in Costa Rica, where he and his family continues to receive intimidating messages.

Chavez told CNN thatthe few independent media that remain in Nicaragua have largely stopped reporting to avoid reprisals. Today, he added, there is an information blackout.

Venezuela: Fear and self-censorship

Doing journalism in Venezuela implies a daily effort to overcome the censorship mechanisms that have been consolidated in the country, Edgar Lopez, a Venezuelan journalist, told CNN en Espanol.

In Venezuela, secrecy is state policy. State agencies do not provide information on matters of public interest, and, in addition, they expect the media and journalists to limit themselves to disseminating official narratives without any questioning, he said.

The government leadership perceives the independent press as an internal enemy. This has resulted in the consolidation of aggression patterns that range from stigmatizing discourse to physical aggressions, which tend to increase in electoral contexts such as the current one, said Lopez.

Juan Pablo Lares, right, holds a cardboard frame in front of his associate Maximiliano Bruzual who reads their newscast "El Bus TV Capitolio" to commuters on a bus in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, July 31, 2021. - Ariana Cubillos/AP

According to the State Department human rights report, national and international groups condemned (President Nicolas) Maduros efforts throughout the year to restrict freedom of the press and create a climate of fear and self-censorship.

The report notes that the National College of Journalists estimated that close to 4,000 journalists emigrated from the country due to threats in the last 20 years.

In January 2024, the State Department also reported that 33 Venezuelans are facing arrest warrants or have been detained by Venezuelan authorities for political reasons, among them several journalists.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil responded in X that the United States was displaying its cynicism once again, preparing a report on human rights that it insists on filling with lies and falsehoods against Venezuela. Without any morals, the most hostile and deadly empire of humanity dares to talk about rights that they constantly violate and belittle.

Ecuador: Kidnappings live on television

On January 9, 2024, a group of hooded men stormed a live news program on TC Television in Guayaquil. For several hours, the criminals held journalists and channel staff hostage in a high-tension situation that was partially televised. Hours later, after the hostages were released, several people were arrested.

The security context that the country is experiencing is regrettable and at the same time generates repercussions against communication workers, who have become a key part to unveil the acts of corruption that are known today, Jeannine Cruz, president of the Communication Council of Ecuador, told CNN. One of the repercussions that this problem has caused is exiles, she added.

A chilling effect

With political polarization across Latin America, countries across the region can shift radically from left to right depending on the president in power. But across the spectrum, many of the regions current leaders seem to show a hostility toward journalism  particularly on social media.

Both the far-right Milei in Argentina and leftist Colombian leader Gustavo Petro have used their social networks to attack journalists and independent media, for example. And the government of El Salvadors popular President Nayib Bukele has been criticized by local journalists for penalizing publication of information about the countrys gangs. All part of a dangerous erosion of one of the regions fundamental pillars of democracy  the same democracy that brought these leaders, at least temporarily, to the most powerful seats in their countries.

Gonzalo Zegarra, Rey Rodriguez, Manuela Castro, Ana Maria Canizares, Ivonne Valdes, Jose Alvarez, Elvin Sandoval and Ivan Perez Sarmenti from CNN en Espanol contributed to this report.

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HARARE, May 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 7 million Zimbabweans require food aid following an El Nino-induced drought this year, a senior government official has said.

"After our assessment, about six million (Zimbabweans) in communal areas and 1.7 million in urban areas need food aid. So as the government, we need to intervene and ensure that all these people are food secure," Obert Jiri, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald newspaper on Friday.

Jiri said in an interview with the newspaper that the government wants the private sector to step up imports to augment local supplies.

This week, a cabinet minister revealed that Zimbabwe needs to import about 1.1 million tonnes of grain to cater to the food-insecure people until March next year.

In April, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a state of disaster, saying the country requires over two billion U.S. dollars to respond to the drought. 
MUSC hospital in fast-growing Indian Land will open later than initially expected

Itll likely be late 2027 before Indian Land gets its new hospital.

The Medical University of South Carolina will open a medical office building, followed by a hospital on 84 acres of panhandle property on Charlotte Highway, south of Marvin Road. The medical building should open to patients in the second half of 2026. A year later, the hospital would open.

Those plans are all progressing, Scott Broome, CEO with the hospital systems Catawba Division, told The Herald recently. Were in the design permitting phase on the medical office building and have begun design on the hospital.

Last year at the opening of smaller medical facilities in Indian Land, hospital group officials talked about the medical office opening this year and the hospital next year. The updated time frame comes as permitting and construction work progress.

The new hospital would serve an Indian Land population that largely leaves the area now for advanced medical care, Broome said.

Broomes division includes the 211-bed Lancaster Medical Center and the 82-bed Chester Medical Center. It also will include Indian Land Medical Center, which will have beds for surgery, intensive care, postpartum and delivery, cardiac services, radiology and more.

Weve not finalized the exact bed count yet, Broome said.

The new hospital will have a full-service emergency room with about 20 beds. Its likely to have four operating rooms plus full imaging and lab services.

Kind of everything you would expect an acute hospital to have, Broome said.

Before the hospital arrives, though, itll need more medical support.

Growing Indian Land medical providers

This month, Lancaster County planners will look at a rezoning request that would allow for an ambulatory, surgical or medical office building on about 13 acres at 142 McMinn Dr., near Bridgemill. It also would allow commercial buildings. No medical care provider is named in initial information made public by the county.

A separate decision involves a requested approval for 91 new homes on 112 acres off Vance Baker Road, by David Weekly Homes.

Both types of requests  new homes and new medical facilities  have become common in Indian Land.

Indian Land has just reached the size that it needs the basic infrastructure like other municipalities would have, Broome said. We think a hospital is a key part of that.

Last year MUSC opened a facility at Bridgemill that has orthopedics, sports medicine, neurosurgery, spine care, endocrinology and specialty care. Separate Indian Land sites offer primary care and physical therapy.

Indian Lands newest clinic is a sign the area is closer to having a nearby hospital

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control lists thousands of facilities with medical licenses statewide, from tattoo places or hearing specialists to abortion clinics, birthing centers, hospice care and hospitals. Lancaster County has more than three dozen medical facilities, many of them in Indian Land.

Last years openings at Bridgemill aimed to grow support services that eventually will feed into the hospital.

Plus, it attempts to get Indian Land residents used to looking for care close to home. The new medical office building coming on the hospital site continues both those goals.

The 60,000-square-foot building will be three stories of primary care, internal medicine, cancer services, family practice, orthopedics, general surgery, neurology and spine care, Broome said.

A sign visible from U.S. 521 lets drivers know the Medical University of South Carolina will build a medical center on the site.

Medical care close to home

Five years ago, the medical university system board of trustees voted to file for a certificate of need to move 100 beds from its Lancaster hospital to a new one in Indian Land.

The certificate of need program is undergoing changes, but historically its been a requirement to add most any major medical facility in the state. Hospital system officials at the time described plans to relocate beds as moving beds and quality care to where the patients are.

Now, plans are different.

Almost all of it will be new, Broome said of bed count and services slated for Indian Land. As Lancaster County has kind of grown and developed, Indian Land has grown very rapidly.

His Lancaster hospital serves that city and areas close to it. Indian Land, although in the same county, is almost a separate entity.

What we find is that Indian Land people are largely, just due to proximity and things like that, theyre largely going into North Carolina for services, Broome said.

About 90% of Indian Land resident admissions are in North Carolina, he said.

Thats an inconvenience for patients, Broome said. Insurance doesnt always cross state lines well.

County emergency service routes shouldnt change and Lancaster shouldnt lose care options with the addition of an Indian Land hospital, since its largely two groups of patients. Adding a hospital isnt just about competition and keeping people from going to Charlotte for care, Broome said.

For services where time matters like stroke, cardiac care, trauma  having a hospital close where those minutes matter is a big deal for that community, Broome said.

How set is timeline for new hospital?

Hospital officials didnt give an estimate for when the hospital would open when they filed for state approval five years ago.

In 2020 a company applied with the county to rezone the U.S. 521, or Charlotte Highway, properties where the hospital will go to allow it there. Documents filed then didnt give an opening date.

There have been estimates since then. Last summer when the Bridgemill medical facilities opened, hospital group officials talked about a timeline for the medical office and hospital openings about a year ahead of the current plans.

Confidence in the new timeline comes from progress made since that time, and in knowing the hospital group has the go-ahead from the state to proceed. Plans already are working through the county planning phase for the medical office building.

It took Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill more than a decade to open its Fort Mill hospital after submitting for approvals, due to legal challenges in the certificate of need process.

That Fort Mill hospital, also spurred by rapid growth in the community right beside Indian Land, finally opened two years ago.

Ongoing changes to the state approval process would largely make it easier for new medical facilities to be built, but the hospital system behind Indian Land Medical Center already has its approval. State regulation shouldnt pose any risk in when the hospital opens, Broome said.

We have everything we need from the state to proceed fully with the hospital, he said.
MONROE TWP.  An expansion in state grants for all-inclusive playgrounds means the township can move ahead this year with its own project, Finns Friends Park, behind the Pfeiffer Community Center.

Monroe is getting $750,000 from the state Green Acres Program and adding $250,000 of its own money. The Department of Environmental Protection announced the grant in late April.

Finns Friends Park was a project suggested by Finns Friends, a local nonprofit formed to raise awareness about autism. The Finn in the title is the young son of the founder, Tony Iovino.

More: All-inclusive playground closes for upgrade in Cherry Hill

More: Vineland gets design drawings for 'all-inclusive' park. Here's what it would include

The park will be built on a field behind Pfeiffer Community Center at 301 Blue Bell Road in Williamstown.

Currently, there are no inclusive playgrounds in Gloucester County. Such parks are meant for use by adults with disabilities, as well as children. Monroe wants the park completed by late 2025.

Finn's Friends Park will be built here behind the Pfeiffer Community Center building at 301 South Blue Bell Road in Monroe Township, Gloucester County. The park design opens to use by children with disabilities, per the Jake's Law Playground model. PHOTO: May 2, 2024.

"We are appreciative of the Green Acres award and very pleased that our application was so favorably received, Mayor Gregory Wolfe on Thursday said. This money will allow us to develop an all-inclusive playground that will be completely accessible for residents and visitors of all ages and abilities, thus providing the public with the opportunity to engage in active recreation.

The mayor said the township decided to seek a state grant after an approach from Iovino last June. Triad Associates put together the application. The grant approval came just ahead of the nonprofits annual autism awareness event at the community center on April 27.

A diagram for the future Finn's Friends Park at the Pfeiffer Community Center at 301 Blue Bell Road in Monroe Twp., Gloucester County. The playground is intended to be user-friendly for people with disabilities. PHOTO: May 2, 2024.

Wolfe said Finns Friends has committed to raise money for maintenance and additional work.

In New Jersey, the idea of making all-inclusive playgrounds more available crystallized in passage in 2018 of Jakes Law. One of its provisions gives approval priority to applications made to Green Acres for money to construct such playgrounds.

The title of the law is a reference to Jakes Place, a playground that opened in 2011 in Cherry Hill Township. Jake was Jake Cummings-Nasto, who died at age 2 from a heart condition. Jakes Place since then has become a template for all-inclusive playground projects.

Washington Township also received $750,000 in April for its own proposed Jakes Place-model playground. Its project would go into Washington Lake Park on Hurfville-Crosskeys Road.

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Monroe gets $750G for disabled-friendly playground, looks to late 2025
The dangers of impaired driving and the importance of making sound choices, especially during prom season, were made vividly real to students at Narragansett Regional High School on Thursday.

The schools annual Gansett Arrives Alive Program, or GAAP, featured a presentation from Alyssas Place, and demonstrations from local police and fire departments that included a staged motor vehicle accident and simulated impaired driving and field sobriety tests.

The program was mandatory for all students attending next weeks prom, and was attended by seniors, juniors and sophomores.

Principal Colby Young said the annual program is an opportunity for local first responders and law enforcement officials to share their knowledge with students in an effective simulated environment.

These (first responders) are members of our community that the kids know and respect, so its different voices than your teachers and administration, he said. And theres a mix of really cool stuff along with some serious talks.

Local responders discuss the importance of safe driving practices at the annual "Gansett Arrives Alive Program" at Narragansett Regional High School on Thursday, May 2.

Program provides students with driver safety advice

Ann Lyons, the GAAP Day coordinator, said the program, which began last year, is an expansion of the schools previous prom season safety events. She said the event is designed to educate older students about what to expect while behind the wheel of a car.

This program is for our juniors and seniors, and a lot of them are going away to college, so a lot of the stuff that theyre going to learn here today, they will carry with them, she said. We just want to make sure theyre aware of some of the situations that maybe they werent aware of. Its a chance for them to get the experience without having the experience.

Demonstrations on vehicle extrication, field sobriety tests

The demonstrations included a simulation of how first responders extricate victims from vehicles involved in crashes. Firefighter Andrew Francis of the Templeton Fire Department said the exercise is aimed at illustrating a scary scenario for students.

This is geared toward teenage drivers, so its not a shock-and-awe tactic, but its designed to show what happens if you do get into an accident, Francis said. But we also talk about how to prevent these things from happening, and to show students what our role as the fire department is as well.

Sean Kelly, a junior at Narragansett Regional High School, attempts to navigate a go-cart while wearing vision-impairment goggles at the school's annual "Gansett Arrives Alive Program" on Thursday, May 2.

Also taking part in the program were the Massachusetts State Police, Templeton Police Department, and the Phillipston fire and police departments.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Narragansett High students get lesson on drunk driving from police
NASA's moon program still has some work to do before it can put human boots back on the lunar surface.

The agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on Wednesday (May 1) titled "NASA's Readiness for the Artemis 2 Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit," which aims to determine how ready NASA is to launch its Artemis 2 moon mission, currently scheduled for late 2025.

The inspector general writes that the Artemis 1 test flight of the Orion spacecraft "revealed anomalies with the Orion heat shield, separation bolts, and power distribution that pose significant risks to the safety of the crew."

Resolution of these anomalies is among the most significant factors impacting NASA's readiness for Artemis 2, the report adds.

Related: NASA still investigating Orion heat shield issues from Artemis 1 moon mission

The report says NASA found over 100 areas on Orion's heat shield  where thermal material protects the spacecraft from the heat of reentry  had worn away "differently than expected" during the spacecraft's reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

A video released by the agency in December 2023, in fact, clearly showed charred heat-shield material flying off of the spacecraft as it reentered the atmosphere at the end of the Artemis 1 mission. Some of that material is also seen briefly clinging to Orion's windows as the capsule made its way from space to the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California.

images of a charred cone-shaped spacecraft

In a Jan. 9, 2024 teleconference announcing delays to the Artemis program timeline, Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Moon to Mars program, directly addressed that particular heat shield issue.

"We did see the the off-nominal recession of some char that came off the heat shield, which we were not expecting," Kshatriya said during the briefing. "Now, this heat shield is an ablative material  it is supposed to char  but it's not what we were expecting, with some pieces of that char to be liberated from the vehicle."

NASA is already making modifications to the heat shield to help mitigate the charring issue. In addition, the agency is altering how it bolts the spacecraft's crew capsule to its service module, hoping to mitigate unwanted melting around the bolts.

images of a charred cone-shaped spacecraft

The OIG report also cited anomalies in Orion's electrical system that affected how power is distributed throughout the spacecraft.

Read more: Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft starts testing ahead of moon mission with astronauts in 2025 (video)

a white-and-silver cone-shaped spacecraft is held aloft by a crane inside a room full of machinery and scientists

NASA believes radiation caused these anomalies; as such, the agency is developing "operational workarounds," although the OIG report adds that, without a permanent change in the spacecraft's electrical hardware, there is an "increased risk that further power distribution anomalies could lead to a loss of redundancy, inadequate power, and potential loss of vehicle propulsion and pressurization."

Additional issues cited in the report include a 4.5-hour communication loss that occurred during an outage of one of NASA's Deep Space Network facilities, as well as unexpected damage to the Artemis 1 mobile launcher imparted during launch. The latter will cost NASA over 5 times more than expected, adding up to a total of $26 million.

images of a charred cone-shaped spacecraft

RELATED STORIES:

 Orion spacecraft gets its heat shield for Artemis 2 moon mission (photo)

 NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft aced moon mission despite heat shield issue

 'We are ready:' New NASA documentary looks ahead to Artemis 2 moon mission (video)

NASA still has well over a year to determine how to address the issues cited in the OIG's report. However, as the report explains, even though progress is being made, "verification and validation testing for some of these upgrades and modifications is taking longer than expected." Per the OIG's recommendation, the agency should carefully monitor Artemis 2 hardware as it gets developed and tested in order to avoid putting the mission's crew at risk.

Artemis 2 is currently scheduled for September 2025, having been delayed from its original launch date of November 2024. The delay was made in order to provide more time to ensure all hardware is safe for the crew ahead of the planned mission around the moon and back.

That new timeline means NASA astronauts likely won't return to lunar surface until September 2026 with Artemis 3. However, delays in developing and testing SpaceX's Human Landing System, which will ferry astronauts to and from the lunar surface, could delay that date even further.
COMMENTARY | I came to Florida in the dawn of the Rick Scott era, when that rogue health care executive from Texas sought to turn this land of flowers and water into something more akin to a private equity firm. Florida's natural grace wasn't a blessing but a series of assets to be mined, exploited and sold, its once-enviable regulatory frameworks like water management districts in need of systematic dismantling. "Compliance" replaced enforcement. "Global warming" was banned. A defanged and compromised Public Service Commission allowed private utility companies to reach the peak of their powers, and they eventually grew arrogant enough to believe they could meddle in the democratic process and harass journalists.

Scott's influence made Florida a cold-blooded hedge fund, but the Ron DeSantis era has done something even more insidious: Now, Florida's chief export, its primary contribution to the rest of the nation, is cruelty. It is a mean place that makes people meaner, and it shows others how to be mean, too. It was the sole contribution of DeSantis' calamitous presidential run: His social-media obsessed, incompetent and bullying team of suck-ups had become so notorious they even left DeSantis feeling as if he'd made a strategic error.

Many of us in this transplant-dependent state of new beginnings did not know a time when affable populists like Bob Graham were in power. To hear tell of those days  that a quirky, intellectual Democrat could gallivant across the state relating to the working-class and wealthy all the same, charming all like he was their hometown mayor  is to feel the weight of a deep, inaccessible past.

We children of darkness know nothing like it, and every time we lose someone from those halcyon days, a Graham or a Buffett, that past feels even more distant, its permanence even more certain, Florida forever transformed.

Florida was always peculiar, the butt of late-night comedy, the goofy step-brother, but it was also interesting and culturally rich. Its problems today are decidedly unfunny: the destruction of public schools; rising waters; lack of health care; collapsed insurance markets; public corruption. Miami, always modern Florida's beating heart, was once fascinating. Now, oligarchs and tech creeps have wrecked the real estate market, ecological disasters abound, and corrupt politicians have decimated its local government. The place is too hot. It's gradually becoming one with the ocean. And it's mean.

Meanwhile, DeSantis and his cruel minions obsess over internet-brained nonsense, like banning lab-grown meat, which you really can't buy anyway. This is our state government today.

Graham was not from North Florida, but he left a legacy people here remember reverentially. Genuine, authentic, practical, transparent, ethical, former Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, a Republican, told my colleague Mark Woods, of words he'd use to describe Graham. He was the standard bearer for what a statesman could and should be.

Do any single one of those words describe DeSantis on his best day? Scott? The hapless Marco Rubio? Decades after their time, will Florida residents recall their good-naturedness and their charm with a kind of saintly awe?

This is, of course, rhetorical: DeSantis doesn't even seem to desire that kind of legacy. He is not about expansion but elimination. Divisiveness is the point. And he indeed has divided us, and in the process made us all crueler, more suspicious and spiteful of our neighbors. This is our contribution to the country.

Leadership matters. The loss of a leader like Bob Graham is also a loss within ourselves, and the failings of a man like DeSantis only deepen that chasm in our hearts.

Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Nate Monroe: The death of Bob Graham left a hole in Florida's heart
The national GOP hasnt endorsed in Kansas 3rd District. But its politicians have

Kansas Republicans have not yet chosen which candidate they want to run against Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids this November. The primary is in August and two candidates are actively campaigning for the nomination.

But Congressional Republicans appear to have made their choice.

Prasanth Reddy, a former physician, has received donations from more than 50 members of the House Republican Conference and has been endorsed by two of the Houses four highest-ranking members  Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Elise Stefanik of New York.

Those are just the formal endorsements. Hes also pulled in support from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. In all, Reddys raised more than $172,000 from sitting lawmakers, nearly 20% of the total hes raised since launching his campaign in July.

I think the sort of truest test of who people really want to win is: are they spending money in favor of them? said Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel for the Brennan Centers Elections and Government Program.

The National Republican Congressional Committee typically does not endorse in open primaries and  aside from Hudsons donations and praise for Reddy on KCMO  has not weighed in on the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District.

But the decision from national Republicans to coalesce around Reddy has helped give him a large financial advantage over Karen Crnkovich, a small business owner who has only raised $120,481 over the course of her campaign, including $17,322 of her own money.

While Reddy made trips to Washington last year to meet with the House Speaker and other Republican leaders, Crnkovich told The Star she was never offered a chance to win their endorsement.

They decided that they wanted to anoint him probably before I even got in the race, Crnkovich said. And then they didnt look back. So its not me losing their endorsement, its me not even having the chance to get them.

Its not unheard of for the national party leadership to quietly offer support for the candidates they believe will have the best chance of winning a seat, particularly in competitive races.

Davids won reelection by 12 percentage points in 2022, building on her 10 percentage point victory in 2020, when the district lines included all of Wyandotte County and were more favorable to Democrats.

Still, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has listed Davids as a frontliner, meaning shes on a list of important seats should Democrats hope to win a majority in the House. The NRCC has listed Davids as one of its 37 top targets in the 2024 election.

Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Radford University, said by offering financial support and endorsements, the party is sending cues about which candidate they like best in the race.

Its really hard for voters to differentiate between candidates at the primary level, Rackaway said. So what theyre looking for are cues that replicate those party signals that we get in the general election.

It also gives Reddy a significant financial advantage over Crnkovich as the candidates  both of whom have never run for office before  try to build their name recognition in the district.

Along with the money from lawmakers, Reddy has picked up more than $112,000 from Grow The Majority, Johnsons leadership PAC. Hes also loaned his campaign $57,500 throughout the campaign and had $561,718 in his campaign account at the end of March.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eager to define Reddy ahead of the general election, has used the national support to call him too conservative for a district that started shifting toward the Democratic Party with Donald Trumps election in 2016 and where abortion appeared to be a defining issue in 2022.

The DCCC has tried to highlight Reddys support from candidates who support a federal ban and those who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, like Johnson.

Kansas voters only need to take one look at whos funding Reddys campaign to see that hell stand with anti-abortion extremists and election deniers over working families, said Mallory Payne a spokeswoman for the DCCC.

Davids, who as an incumbent has the full backing of the DCCC, has pulled in more than $101,000 from Democratic lawmakers in the three fundraising quarters since Reddy announced his campaign.

While thats around $70,000 less than Reddy has raised from Republican lawmakers, she also has gotten support from special interest groups, like aviation manufacturers, Amazon, LGBTQ advocacy groups, Nike, and transportation workers.

Asked about his support from Republican members, Reddy said Members of Congress see every day that Sharice Davids isnt who she says she is.

Her record in Congress is ineffective and extreme, Reddy said in a statement. Thats why theyve joined our movement to flip this seat. It will take a united front to win, grow the House majority, and secure the American Dream.

But before hes able to take on Davids, Reddy has to win the primary.

I do think that there is something of a tension there with a big powerful national organization, putting a thumb on the scale in a primary, Vandewalker said. But at the end of the day, theres still a primary, and voters can vote how they want. Sometimes big spending and national endorsements backfire, where voters say, you cant tell us what to do.
A NATO country says it could join Ukraine's war with Russia if 2 conditions are met

A NATO country says it could join Ukraine's war with Russia if 2 conditions are met

French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Ukraine war with The Economist.

He said France could send troops if requested by Ukraine in response to a Russian breakthrough.

His remarks about French soldiers defending Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that he'd consider sending French troops to Ukraine and spelled out the conditions in which that could take place.

Speaking to The Economist, Macron described the urgent threat that Russian President Vladimir Putin posed to Europe in the wake of the 2022 Ukraine invasion.

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron said when asked about his earlier comments that NATO troops could be deployed to help defend Ukraine.

"We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor," he continued.

He said he'd consider sending French troops to Ukraine "if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today."

He added that if Russia defeated Ukraine, it would then probably seek to attack another European country.

In recent months, political and military leaders have been issuing increasingly stark warnings about the possible consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Macron's remarks about sending French troops to defend Ukraine are among the most hawkish by a Western leader.

Ukraine has struggled to prevent Russia from breaking through its defensive lines amid a US aid block. And though the $61 billion aid bill was recently passed, Ukraine is still fighting to hold back intensifying Russian attacks.

While NATO countries have sent money and weapons to help Ukraine, they've avoided a direct confrontation amid fears it could escalate the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.

Under Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, members are pledged to defend each other if attacked.

In response to Macron's earlier remarks, the Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said deploying NATO troops to Ukraine would lead to war between Russia and the alliance.

"We would need to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability," Peskov said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Analysts recently discussed with Business Insider the likelihood of Russia attacking NATO, with the Russian-military expert Ruth Deyermond saying Putin's regime was too weak militarily to risk a direct confrontation with NATO.

In the interview with The Economist, Macron said he was determined to prevent a Russian victory.

"We mustn't rule anything out," he said, "because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine."

Read the original article on Business Insider
NATO says Russia is carrying out 'malign activities' like sabotage on its member states and will address them

NATO says Russia is carrying out 'malign activities' like sabotage on its member states and will address them

NATO is accusing Russia of "malign activities" in its member states, including Germany and the UK.

The alliance said this includes sabotage, acts of violence, and disinformation campaigns.

The North Atlantic Council said it "will act individually and collectively to address these actions."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Thursday singled out Russia in a statement condemning "recent malign activities" in its member states.

"This includes sabotage, acts of violence, cyber and electronic interference, disinformation campaigns, and other hybrid operations," the North Atlantic Council statement said.

The council said it made its statement amid investigations and charges against people accused of hostile state activity in Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the UK.

The treaty organization said these individuals' actions were part of an "intensifying campaign of activities" carried out by Russia.

"We will act individually and collectively to address these actions, and will continue to coordinate closely," the statement added.

It further condemned Russia for its accused behavior and called on Moscow to uphold international obligations.

"Russia's actions will not deter Allies from continuing to support Ukraine," the statement read.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022  which the Kremlin has billed as a response to NATO aggression  has widened the rift between Moscow and its Western rivals.

The US-led alliance has provided Ukraine with some $168 billion in aid, now bolstered by a new tranche of $61 billion from the US. About $125 billion of this total includes advanced weaponry and ammunition, with NATO states saying Ukraine's defeat would be devastating for Europe's overall security.

The divide has also long been clear in NATO's rhetoric toward Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has for months said that he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine should Russia make significant advances on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Russia says the alliance has effectively waged war against Moscow by sending aid to Kyiv.

Amid the heightened tensions, NATO members have increasingly highlighted what they say are Russian clandestine activities in their own governments and institutions.

The European Parliament in March said it was investigating lawmakers accused of being on the payroll of a Russian propaganda network busted in Czechia.

In late April, two British men in their early 20s were charged by UK authorities and accused of helping Russian intelligence services in a suspected arson attack in London.

Meanwhile, Germany has arrested six people accused of spying for Russia and China.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Chinese, French experts seek multilateral future at global governance forum

Xinhua) 09:22, May 03, 2024

Chinese and French experts attend the second China-France forum on global governance in Paris, France, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

Chinese and French experts expressed their common belief that true multilateralism is essential in improving global governance and pushing forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

PARIS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 Chinese and French experts gathered in Paris on Thursday to explore ways to build a multilateral future by deepening global governance reforms.

At the second China-France forum on global governance, former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said France and China "share certain close -- even identical -- visions on global governance."

Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius speaks at the second China-France forum on global governance in Paris, France, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

He said that multilateralism appears as "the most effective way to address most issues in our multipolar world," in such areas as security, economy, environment, and many others.

Fabius called on the two countries to work together to tackle global challenges, adding that by practicing true multilateralism, France and China will benefit the entire world.

The forum, held in the year that marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese-French diplomatic relations, is aimed at upholding the "China-France spirit," pooling more consensus and wisdom, and building a more solid and dynamic bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group (CICG), said in his opening speech.

Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group (CICG), speaks at the second China-France forum on global governance in Paris, France, on May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

He said the forum called for true multilateralism and pushing forward global governance in a fairer and more equitable direction.

Experts from both sides held in-depth discussions on four modules including building and maintaining peace, science and technological innovation and development, low-carbon and sustainable development, and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

They expressed their common belief that true multilateralism is essential in improving global governance and pushing forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

The forum was sponsored by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies and China-Europe-America Global Initiative, under the guidance of the State Council Information Office of China and the CICG.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
DAR ES SALAAM, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's weather authorities have issued an alert for a hurricane caused by the presence of low pressure in the Indian Ocean, east of the coast of Mtwara Region.

The Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) said in a statement that the severe tropical storm "Hidaya," which was currently approximately 401 kilometers east of Mtwara Region's Indian Ocean coast with a maximum wind speed of 130 kilometers per hour, has continued to strengthen into a tropical cyclone moving westward close to Tanzania.

The presence of Tropical Cyclone Hidaya near the coast of Tanzania is expected to dominate and affect the weather patterns, causing periods of heavy rains and strong winds in some areas of Mtwara, Lindi, Coast, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, and Morogoro regions, and on Zanzibar's islands of Unguja and Pemba, said the statement.

The TMA said the current weather patterns show that the low pressure is expected to strengthen and reach the status of a full hurricane by Friday. "While the low pressure continues to strengthen, it is also expected to move toward some coastal areas of our country from the night of Friday."

It also said the low pressure is expected to continue to exist in the coastal areas of the country and weaken after May 6. 
A procession Friday afternoon recognized the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

PREVIOUS: Department of Adult Correction workers killed in Charlotte shootout

It happened just hours after police agencies from across the state gathered alongside friends and family of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Officer Joshua Eyer to honor his life.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

A procession was held Friday, May 3, 2024, to recognize the life and work of North Carolina Division of Adult Correction Investigator Sam Poloche.

Poloche and Eyer were two of four officers killed on Monday after a suspect opened fire on a U.S. Marshals task force that was trying to serve an arrest warrant.

>> A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the families of the officers who were shot. Donate here.

The FBI Charlotte said Poloche was a task force officer and an investigator on the FBIs white collar crime and public corruption squads for four years.

Poloche was born in Valencia, Venezuela. Telemundo Charlotte learned that his family emigrated to the United States months after his birth. They settled down in Florida, where he lived most of his life.

The procession for Poloche went from the medical examiners office to Forest Lawn West Funeral Services.

With flashing blue lights and a public show of support, dozens of first responders came together to honor Poloche, who spent 14 years with North Carolinas Department of Adult Correction.

Department of Transportation workers and firefighters saluted as the procession made its way along Freedom Drive. Family members and friends gathered outside the funeral home as his body was brought in.

Poloche is survived by his wife, Cielo, and two sons, ages 18 and 21. One is graduating from high school and the other from college in the next few weeks.

His funeral arrangements are still pending.

Our partners at the Charlotte Observer spoke with Poloches family. They described him as a reserved man who showed extraordinary kindness. Read more here.

(WATCH BELOW: The families of fallen officers will not pay another mortgage payment again)
NC has long been hostile to unions, but labor may be on the rise | Opinion

When negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Daimler Truck involving thousands of workers in North Carolina came down to a midnight strike deadline last Friday, the company agreed to the unions demands.

The results are a boon for workers at the Mercedes-Benz owned company that manufactures trucks, school buses and parts at plants that include locations in Gastonia, High Point and Mount Holly. The deal will give workers at least a 25% pay increase over four years, including a 10% raise immediately.

But what is more remarkable than the workers gains is how and where they came about  a union negotiation covering workers in North Carolina, the nations second-least unionized state.

Could it be that the land of Norma Rae is becoming hospitable for organized labor?

Surely there are signs of a rising movement in the South. Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., overwhelmingly approved joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) in April. It was the first southern auto plant to vote to unionize since the 1940s. Next up is a vote by thousands of workers at a Mercedes-Benz auto plant in Alabama.

Working people are standing up and saying, No more, MaryBe McMillan, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, said in a Reuters report on a workers rally. No more moving companies South to bust unions and pay workers pennies. It is a new day here in the South.

There is something stirring in North Carolina. Cornell Universitys labor action tracker shows dozens of actions in North Carolina since 2021. The News & Observer reports that union campaigns have begun at Transcontinental Matthews near Charlotte and at 10 Roads Express in Greensboro. Even public workers  Wake County schools employees  staged a walk-in last week to demand pay raises.

Unions are on the rise in North Carolina, a right-to-work state that limits the power of unions and bans public employees from collective bargaining. But labor experts say theres a long way to go before unions exert widespread pressure to increase wages and improve work conditions.

John Quinterno, a consultant and Duke visiting professor who studies workforce patterns in North Carolina, said more union activity counters North Carolinas history as a source of low-wage labor.

I think that model is under some pressure, he said. Weve seen an increase in union sympathy and activity since the pandemic.

But, he said, workers seeking to unionize still face restrictions and strong headwinds from public policy and companies.

Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell Universitys School of Industrial & Labor Relations, said a tight labor market and a positive view of unions among younger people is leading more Southern workers to unionize, but the movement is still faint.

I dont think were in the early stages of a revolution, he said. I wouldnt overplay how much of a change is actually occurring.

The willingness of foreign-owned auto and truck manufacturers to accept unions may reflect their concern about upsetting their unions back home, Katz said. When it comes to U.S. companies in the South, he said, I think the resistance will be much more.

Still, there is a significant change occurring in the publics view of unions.

The most important thing in the last 10 years is a more favorable outlook toward unions. They have a very high favorability among younger people, he said. Yet it remains to be seen how much difference that makes.

It surely made a difference for more than 7,000 Diamler workers. That result will be noticed beyond the auto industry.

After a long history of policies that favored business owners in North Carolina, theres a rising possibility that more workers in a tight labor market will exert their leverage to demand better working conditions.

At the table  instead of standing on it  a new generation of Norma Raes may yet be heard.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com.
Nearly 12 weeks later, wheelchair lift at Sheboygan apartment building could be working again soon

FILE - The exterior of Washington Elementary School as seen, in 2019, in Sheboygan, Wis.

SHEBOYGAN  After 12 weeks, residents who use the wheelchair lift at Washington School Apartments could soon see it working again.

A Wisconsin Department of Safety & Professional Services inspector could complete an inspection and issue a lift operating permit May 6, according to property management company Gorman & Company.

That is the earliest date a state inspector could come to the property, the company said, after the lift installer notified the department it was ready immediately for inspection. That was in the ninth week of the lift not working.

Gorman & Company previously told the Sheboygan Press the lift needed a city inspection, but it needs a state inspection because it has a state permit.

Related: Delay in wheelchair lift installation at a Sheboygan apartment building has kept one resident practically stuck inside for 8 weeks

The lift could be working as soon as the operating permit is issued and approved, the company said.

The new wheelchair lift was installed mid-April but couldn't be used because it still needed an inspection and wiring, Gorman & Company said. The old one was removed Feb. 12 because it needed parts that were obsolete. Lift shaft modifications and electrical structural works contributed to delays in installing the new lift, the company said.

Historic building gets new life: Press Apartments, former newspaper headquarters, are now open in downtown Sheboygan

The lift is positioned at the building's only ADA-accessible entrance. Residents or visitors must go up five steps once inside the entrance to reach the first-floor main hallway. Individuals unable to go up the stairs independently would not be able to get to the first floor at this time because the lift hasn't been working.

At least one wheelchair-bound resident has been practically stuck in the building, without a safe and reliable way to leave the building. A family member of the resident said the situation has been an ordeal.

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Have a story tip? Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @alexx_garner.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Wheelchair lift at Washington School Apartments in Sheboygan may work soon
Nearly $1M extra in Georgia budget will help bring state gang prosecutors to Macon

The Georgia Attorney Generals Office will be able to expand its Gang Prosecution Unit to Macon under the newly-passed state budget, a move Bibb County authorities welcome as they warn of rising gang issues.

The 2025 state budget, which was passed by the state General Assembly March 28, included $822,411 for the gang unit to hire more regional prosecutors and investigators in Macon, Columbus and Savannah, said Attorney General Chris Carr.

Carr said that while the unit is currently witnessing broad gang activity in Columbus, Macon and southeast Georgia, the main goal for the expansion is to ensure that all Georgia residents are protected. He said the extensions decision did not stem from an increase of gang activity in the listed areas.

Its important to know that gang issues are not limited to these areas, Carr said. There are gangs all over the state  The issue here is to bring resources to the areas and to stop violent crimes.

But gang activity has been a prevalent issue in Macon-Bibb County since the mid-late 1990s, said Sgt. Ron Byrd, gang unit investigator for the Bibb County Sheriffs Office.

It seems like as of lately, weve had a huge uptick in juvenile crimes, which also includes juvenile gang members and things like that, Byrd said. Since my time being here at the sheriffs office, I cant think of another time when we had so many crimes involving juveniles.

Byrd said hybrid street gangs in Macon are steadily growing everyday by youth, with most of them existing in Bibb Countys impoverished communities. Hybrid gangs are often smaller or spin-offs of traditional, major street gangs like the Crips or Bloods, but they do not have a code of conduct of formal rules like the traditional gangs, he added.

Because the hybrid gangs are constantly forming, We like to say we have hundreds of street gangs and thousands of members (in Bibb County), Byrd added.

The prosecution unit is currently composed of prosecutors and investigators based in Atlanta, Albany and Augusta. Carr said the expansion will give the gang task force the ability to truly become a statewide unit with regional offices that will help us provide better coverage for the state.

Byrd said the state units expansion would benefit the five-man gang investigation unit the sheriffs office currently has.

I like to say you can never have too many sets of eyes, and you can never have too much help, he said.

Although Gov. Brian Kemp has not signed the state budget yet, Carr believes we dont think wed have any problems with the expansion because its a priority of (the governor) as well.

Kemp included the funding for the expansion in the budget he proposed to the General Assembly, which the legislature kept intact when the final budget was passed in March, said Kara Richardson, communications director of the attorney general.

Kemp made a supportive post of the budget on social media in March, highlighting its intentions to expand Georgias Gang Prosecution Unit and Task Force.

...Im thankful to see the FY 2025 Budget receive final passage, the Twitter post read. The investments made in this budget will help us keep Georgia the best state to live, work and raise a family.

The attorney generals office will have six new positions for the areas filled by July 1, said Carr, who created Georgias first statewide prosecution unit in 2022.

Since then, the unit has secured 39 convictions and indicted 135 people across the state, Richardson said.
Nearly 600,000 Florida children lost their government-provided health insurance last year after the federal government ended the national, COVID-related health emergency, more than any other state except Texas, according to a newly released report by the Georgetown Center for Children and Families.

The report, a national study of how states shed children from Medicaid after the federal government lifted a hold that blocked them from dropping these patients during the pandemic, found that Florida lost 589,671 children in state-run government health insurance programs from April to December. Total enrollment for children in April 2023 was 3,093,191. By December, it had dropped to 2,503,520.

How many of those children found health insurance elsewhere is unknown, according to the authors of the report, which questioned Floridas efforts to prevent children from going uninsured unnecessarily.

We dont know how many of these children are now uninsured or have had a gap in coverage but there are many, many reasons to worry, said Joan Alker, the reports lead author and executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, on a press call Thursday.

On Friday, Floridas Department of Children and Families pushed back hard against the findings, saying that the state has diligently reviewed eligibility, processing nearly 5 million cases and getting responses from 9 out of every 10 patients. Mallory McManus, deputy chief of staff to the states Department of Children and Families, also said that new enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans and in KidCare, the umbrella term for the states health programs for kids, swelled over the last year.

Any notion that Florida has failed in this process is false, McManus said. States that have been found to be in non-compliance have been required by [the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] to pause their processes until issues are remediated. Florida has never been one of those states.

Though the state disputes the reports conclusion, the study found a massive shedding of patients nationally from government health programs.

Overall, there were 4.16 million fewer children enrolled around the country in the government-subsidized health insurance programs Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, over that period of time, the report states. Together, Florida and Texas accounted for 38% of that decline, the report states.

What happened? During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government barred states from dropping people who were already enrolled in Medicaid. Since the mandate ended last April, Florida and states around the country have been reassessing whether patients on Medicaid were still eligible. (Because Florida is one of just 10 states that has declined to expand Medicaid to its working poor, it covers mostly pregnant women and children.)

But this reassessment, known as the Medicaid unwinding, has been generally fraught with problems, according to the non-profit health policy group KFF, which estimates that, across the country, 70% of the Medicaid patients who have lost coverage since the unwind began were dropped due to procedural or red-tape reasons.

Alker said that federal researchers estimated that three-quarters of the children who will or have lost Medicaid during the unwind are eligible for health insurance through the program but are losing coverage for procedural or red-tape reasons. These reasons could include not getting their renewal paperwork in on time.

This means that the renewal process has broken down in some way, Alker said.

A matter of effort

Since the federal government allowed states to begin reassessing eligibility last year and require recipients to renew their coverage, it created a set of optional tools states could use to make the process smoother. Those tools included ways to increase automatic renewal of coverage, update contact information of their enrollees, and give insurance companies that run Medicaid greater latitude in helping their patients through the process. A separate report released by the Urban Institute on Thursday showed a particularly striking association between how many of the tools states implemented and how many children they retained in their government health insurance programs after the unwinding began.

Florida is the only state in the country that has declined to implement any of these tools, according to the federal program Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

On December 18, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter to DeSantis stating that Florida is among the nine states with the largest number or highest percentage of children who have lost Medicaid or CHIP coverage since full eligibility renewals for these programs restarted this spring.

Becerra laid out several strategies DeSantis administration could adopt to ensure Florida children were not dropped from coverage due to red tape or other avoidable reasons. Those strategies included implementing some optional tools discussed above, as well as removing barriers to enrolling children in CHIP and expanding Medicaid coverage to the working poor.

But McManus, the DCF deputy chief of staff, disputed that Florida allowed kids to slip through the cracks.

For those who were procedurally disenrolled, meaning they were unresponsive, the Department of Children and Families went above and beyond contacting them up to 13 times via phone, mail, email, and text before processing the disenrollment, McManus wrote. Florida has one of the lowest procedural disenrollment rates in the nation and is well below the national average.

McManus said 93% of families with children with medically complex conditions were successfully contacted, and said the state created a dedicated Medicaid line for recipients that has an average wait time of less than 5 minutes.

We havent just complied with all federal requirements; we have exceeded them, McManus said. It is hard to fathom what additional measures the State could even take beyond the exhaustive measures that are already in place to support these individuals through the process.

The Florida Health Justice Project is suing the secretaries for the Florida Department of Children and Families and Agency for Health Care Administration in federal court over the states redetermination process, claiming it violates patients due process. There is a bench trial scheduled for May 13 in Jacksonville.

WHERE DID THE DROPPED PATIENTS GO FOR HEALTH COVERAGE?

McManus told the Miami Herald that, since the federal government lifted the federal health emergency, 182,000 children have been enrolled in Florida KidCare, an increase of 66%, as of last month. She also said the number of children enrolled in plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace increased by 50%.

Alker, however, said that enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, where low-income families can buy coverage using government subsidies, only offset the decline in the Medicaid and CHIP enrollment for children nationally by just 14%.

She said enrollment in a separate CHIP program for families with slightly higher incomes only offset the decline for children by 10% nationally. In Florida, that number was slightly higher, with 12% of children who lost coverage under Medicaid and CHIP enrolling in the separate CHIP program, according to separate data as of March, said Alker.

So, these are the reasons to worry that children in states with high numbers or rates of Medicaid decline are going uninsured for at least some period of time, Alker said. These states should make efforts to reach out to families with trusted community-based partners and resources to re-enroll eligible children and consider systems reforms to make the process go more smoothly.

Alker laid blame for children potentially going uninsured after the unwinding began primarily on state governors because their administrations run these government health insurance programs. But McManus said an objective reading of the states efforts would come to the opposite conclusion.

The fact is Florida has been fighting to provide more children access to coverage under CHIP, McManus wrote. In June of 2023 Governor Ron DeSantis signed bipartisan legislation that expanded the Florida KidCare programs income eligibility requirements from 200% to 300% of the federal poverty level giving Florida the ability to serve an additional 68,000 uninsured children. Yet, to date, the Biden Administration is yet to approve Floridas CHIP expansion.
Negotiating position to be handed over to Russia after June peace summit

Serhii Nykyforov, a spokesperson for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said that the participants of the Peace Summit to be held on 15-16 June in Switzerland will work out a joint negotiating position of Ukraine, which will be submitted to Russia.

Source: Deutsche Welle (DW); Serhii Nykyforov in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda

Details: Asked by DW to comment on an interview given by Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Defene Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), Nykyforov said that Ukraine and Switzerland are organising a Peace Summit where countries that respect international law and the UN Charter should develop a joint negotiating position and submit it to Russia.

Nykyforov told Ukrainska Pravda that there may be several agreed positions "on individual points of the peace formula".

Quote from Nykyforov: "These are, for example, radiation safety, [prisoner of war] exchange, freedom of navigation, and food safety. These elaborations will then be conveyed to Russia. Thus, the summit in Switzerland will be the first step towards a just peace."

Background:

Vadym Skibitskyi, the deputy DIU chief, said in an interview with The Economist on 2 May that he sees no way for Ukraine to win the war on the battlefield alone. He believes that such wars can only end with treaties.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on 2 May that heads of state and governments from every continent have been invited to the Peace Summit in Switzerland on 15-16 June.

On 4 October, Zelenskyy approved a decision of the National Security and Defence Council which stated that it is impossible to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Ukraine needed to strengthen its defence capabilities.

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SOUTH RIVER, N.J. (PIX11)  A fatal explosion late Thursday evening left a wake of debris at what was once a tidy suburban lot.

South River resident Richard Livingston stood on what used to be a stately single-family home at the end of a cul-de-sac on Continental Court. That looks like a bombing, said Livingston. It just looks unbelievable.

PATH tap-and-go available at all New Jersey stations

The homes owner, identified by Newark officials as 62-year-old retired Newark Police Detective Kevin Gilbert, was killed in the blast.

Cathy, a neighbor just a few doors down the block, described her initial reaction when the explosion occurred. At first we thought it was another earthquake. We thought something actually hit the house. We all came outside and the neighbors were outside. It was instantaneous. I know the family. Its just horrible, what happened.

A Newark city spokesperson shared the following statement with PIX11 News, the entire Newark Department of Public Safetyoffers prayers of peace and comfort to the loved ones of retired Newark Police Officer Kevin Gilbert. May he forever Rest in Peace.

Investigators with the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office confirmed a second male relative was also inside the house at the time. Hes recovering from serious burns and other injuries at an area hospital.

Impact of marijuana rescheduling on legal cannabis sales in New Jersey

Several neighboring homes were temporarily vacated while investigators, engineers, and utility crews assessed their structural integrity and to determine whether a natural gas leak played any role in the explosion.

Its possible, yes, said South River Mayor Peter Guindi.

He says the now-destroyed homes basement is the current area of focus. We know that the source came from behind the house  the back of the house in a far corner, I believe, downstairs in the basement  would be considered your boiler, your furnace.

Mayor Guindi says as far as he knows, no utility work was being done in the area. With the adjacent homes not being deemed safe, neighbors have gathered suitcases and left. It is unclear what happens next for all three neighboring homes.

For the time being, the exact cause of the explosion remains under investigation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Hope Hicks, Donald Trumps first political PR guru and presumed holder of all his dirty secrets, started crying on the stand as the former presidents legal team questioned her at his New York criminal trial on Friday.

Hicks instantly broke down when Trump defense lawyer Emile Bove began his cross-examination, asking her about how she was initially hired to work with the Trump Organization. After a brief break was called to allow her to compose herself, Hicks returned to the stand, taking deep breaths and refusing to look in Trumps direction.

From the moment she walked into the courtroom at 11:30 a.m., the atmosphere immediately changed. The 35-year-old publicistwho normally carries herself confidently and owns the roomslowly made her way into the courtroom through a side door thats disguised as a wall panel and uneasily made her way past the red-velvet rope that separates the battle area from the public pews. She kept her head down, with her feathered blonde hair drooping over her eyes as she gripped a black purse in her left hand.

Trump Trial Shifts Focus to the Dirty World of Hush Money

Once she sat down, Hicks barely squeaked out an introduction.

Hi, my name is Hope Charlotte Hicks, and my last name is spelled H-I-C-K-S, she said, apologizing for being nervous.

But after a few minutes, she began to sit up straighter and speak more firmly as she began detailing the way she entered Trumps orbit. She recalled landing a job at the Trump Organization as its communications director and how it slowly morphed into a PR role on his 2016 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors hope to use Hicks as a witness who can add crucial details about Trumps involvement in directing hush-money payments to former playmate Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump is currently on trial facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over the way he paid his consigliere Michael Cohen after the since-disgraced lawyer closed these deals.

Few knew what to expect from her testimony. Hicks remained close to the Trump family even after she left her role in 2018 after serving as his longest tenured political aide. She became the Fox Corporations top flack then returned to the White House at the tail end of his administration.

However, shes already been burned by staying so close to Trumpevident by her private remarks after witnessing how Trumps violent rhetoric and rejection of legitimate 2020 election results brought about the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

As the House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot eventually uncovered, Hicks texted Ivanka Trumps then-chief of staff, We all look like domestic terrorists now. She later added, And all of us that didnt have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed.

During her testimony midday Friday, prosecutors just barely started to explore her involvement in the pivotal events that led the Manhattan District Attorneys Office to indict Trump on charges that could send him to a state prison for up to four years.

That includes the release of the Access Hollywood tape that put Trumps 2016 campaign on a death spiral, incentivizing him to silence Stormy Daniels from delivering a coup de grace. But as they worked their way through the details, Hicks looked increasingly uncomfortableand kept her eyes locked on the unassuming prosecutor in a dark gray suit, Matthew Colangelo.

Hicks remembered first hearing about Trumps infamous grab em by the pussy hot mic comment in an email from The Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold, which forced her to race up to Trump Towers 25th floor. There, she found Trump doing presidential debate prep with campaign advisers Kellyanne Conway, Jason Miller, and Stephen Miller, far-right instigator Steve Bannon, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

We werent sure how to respond yet. We were trying to gather information and absorb the shock of it, she said. He said that didnt sound like something he would say.

But she became a bit uneasy when she started addressing Trumps reactions.

Was Mr. Trump upset? Colangeo asked.

Um, yes. Yeah, he was, she said with a sigh.

What was your first reaction when you heard the tape? he continues.

Um she said with a smile. A little stunned.

Just yeah, she shook her head and turned to the jury. Yeah, its hard to describe.

Hicks turned back to the prosecutor.

It was concerning I had a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and dominate the news cycle for the next several days at least.

After a pause, she shifted her gaze toward the right, which would have her face her former bossexcept she kept her eyes in the empty space above his head and tightened her lips.

It was a damaging development, she added. It just didnt feel like the kind of story thatat least it wasnt helpful. There were a lot of layers to it that complicated where we were trying to go. This was kind of pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.

I think there was consensus amongst us all that the tape was damaging and this was a crisis, she said, taking a deep breath.

Prosecutors want to be careful as they establish exactly what went on in the Trump campaign during those fateful moments and try to connect the dots between the fallout from that tape and Trumps alleged decision to approve a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Hicks, an experienced publicist who stuck by Trump through dozens of scandals during his time in office, surely knows the stakes. And she proceeded carefully as she described how the campaign didnt start wondering until the next day how to contain the potential repercussions with female voters.

Houses later maybe the next day. Not in that moment, but certainly eventually that was something that was raised, she testified.

Colangeo asked her whether there was internal chatter about how the campaign could respond.

I know Mr. Trump felt like this wasnt good. But it was also just like, two guys talking privately locker room talkwasnt anything to get so upset over. Certainly didnt want to offend anybody, but he felt like this was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other.

Prosecutors then showed jurors Trumps official response at the time, a statement that read, This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf coursenot even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.

After another half hour or so of questions, Justice Juan Merchan paused the trial for a lunch break.

On her way out, Hicks kept her eyes down and quickly made her way out the side exit, guided by a law enforcement officer.

But the dynamic changed completely when Hicks returned from lunchcried on the standthen returned to answer more questions from Trumps lawyer.

Bove kept his cross-examination friendly, and the strategy appeared to work: reigning in a former close ally to the family. Bove allowed Hicks to wax nostalgic about her role on the Trump 2016 campaign, inviting her to speak warmly about her relationship with the real estate tycoons family. But then he turned her attention to Cohen.

As the day was coming to a close, Bove made sure jurors could see him drive a wedge between Cohen and the Trump presidential campaign, making Cohen out to be a self-interested, attention-hungry opportunist who screwed up everything he touched.

He would try to insert himself at certain moments. But he wasnt supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity. There were some things he did in a voluntary capacity because of his interest, she recalled. I think he put together.. a diversity coalition at some point. But he wasnt looped in on the day to day of the campaign strategy staff plans.

But Bove pressed on, asking if Cohen was more of a campaign surrogate.

He was speaking as an employee of the Trump Organization who had experience working with Mr. Trump, she clarified.

Bove then went in for the kill.

There were times he did things that were frustrating to the campaign right? he asked.

Hicks tone flipped like a light switch.

Yes, she said, sharply.

Bove suggested that Cohen at times went rogue.

Yes. There were things he did that were not helpful, she said. I used to say that he liked to call himself a fixer or Mr. Fix It, and it was only because he first broke it.

The courtroom erupted in laughter, and even Hicks chuckled mid-sentence. From about that point onward, Hickswho until that moment had consistently referred to her former boss as Mr. Trumppicked up on Boves manner of speech and began to refer to him as President Trump. She spoke proudly of her time in his employ.

Bove wrapped up his cross-examination by asking whether she, working in the nations capital, had anything to do with the Trump Organizations business records at a building 200 miles away up in New York City. Hicks assured she did not. It was a defense play to make Hicks seem irrelevant to the nuts and bolts of this case, which rest on the falsification of business documents.

When it was their turn to ask her follow-up questions, prosecutors passed on the opportunity.

On her way out, Hicks appeared to steal a quick glance at Trump out of the corner of her eye. She exited from a side door with her head bowed low.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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RABAT, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan authorities seized more than five tons of cannabis resin in two separate operations in the northern city of Al-Hoceima, state news agency MAP reported on Friday.

Local police and authority apprehended 41 bundles of cannabis resin hidden in a rocky area at the beach, according to a statement from Morocco's General Directorate of National Security cited by MAP.

In another operation, the Moroccan Navy intercepted the remaining drugs from two fishing boats, bringing the total haul to over five tons.

An investigation is underway to identify any accomplices behind the trafficking attempt, the MAP report added.

The seizure is part of Morocco's ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking, particularly cannabis resin, which is primarily produced in Morocco for distribution in Europe and the Middle East. 
Naomi Schumichen was on the phone with her sister on April 22, taking a walk around the Cal Poly Humboldt campus for fresh, coastal air. She heard shouting from Siemens Hall, and noticed an unusual number of police officers starting to swarm the building.

She watched as a growing number of protesters began chanting for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and demanding the university disclose any financial dealings with the Israeli military. She crossed the quad to the student activity center and walked up to the second-floor balcony to get a better view of the chaotic scene below.

I just wanted to be there, Schumichen said, in case something happened, or somebody got hurt.

She said she left the scene before the violent clash that day between police and protesters that resulted in a student-led occupation of the universitys administrative building. For over a week, dozens of students barricaded themselves in Siemens Hall while hundreds of their classmates took watch around the building, stayed overnight in tents, participated in a faculty-led teach-in, learned traditional Palestinian dances, and lit candles and burnt sage for victims of the Israel-Hamas War.

Cal Poly Humboldt student Laura Sanchez sits on April 23 outside of Siemens Hall, where pro-Palestinian protesters had barricaded themselves inside.

This escalating scene at Cal Poly Humboldt unfolded as students across the nation began occupying campus spaces in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. And while other, larger universities have drawn more national attention, this small, quiet college in Northern California has seen one of the most intense university protests, leading to more than 30 arrests, millions of dollars in damage and a shutdown of the campus.

Schumichen, a third-year transfer student from El Dorado Hills, said she returned to the quad later that first night to see what had developed. She returned sporadically throughout the week, and was especially excited about the teach-in, which took place in the quad last Wednesday.

Cal Poly Humboldt student Naomi Schumichen points to her dorm. She was suspended by the university after the demonstrations on campus.

Beyond drawing some chalk art on the ground, Schumichen said she did nothing besides what she might have done on any other day on the progressive and close-knit campus: seek out her friends, gather where professors were speaking and participate in some of the impromptu campus activities that students love about the small, 8,000-person college.

Our professors were there, Schumichen said. So it felt safe to be there.

A suspension, and countless questions

But on April 26, four days after the initial demonstration, she received an email from Molly Kresl, associate dean of students, informing her that she had been placed on an interim suspension for either the duration of the occupation of Siemens Hall and Nelson Hall or May 12th, 2024, whichever is shorter.

Kresl alleged that Schumichen was guilty of unauthorized entry and misuse of a university building and interfering with university officials and public safety officers. Schumichen denied those allegations and said she never entered Siemens Hall.

She is alleged to have disrupted the universitys ability to facilitate classes, obstructed the free flow of pedestrian traffic by blocking entries to campus buildings, as well as violating the universitys fire code and participating in an activity that infringes on the rights of other students, staff and faculty.

I am confident, Schumichen said, that this was a scare tactic to keep people away from the protest.

Chalk writing covers the sidewalk as students and community members gather outside Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on April 23 to support pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have barricaded themselves inside an administrative building the day before.

We do not have any more information at this time, a university communications specialist wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee when asked about the number of students suspended, how it would enforce suspensions or what the student appeals process is.

Schumichen has compared her email with those received by several other students. All received the email at the same time on April 26 and were given an identical case number.

My mental health has been a wreck this past week with constantly being on edge, said Schumichen.

She lives in campus housing and wasnt even sure if she was allowed to be in her dorm, because her interim suspension indicated she could not use any campus facilities.

She responded to Kresls email that day, she said, and did not hear back until May 1. She was sent a Google document asking if she was in Siemens Hall or the quad between April 22 and April 30 and, if so, what time she was there, what she was doing, and where exactly she was.

It seems like they want people to incriminate themselves, Schumichen said.

She received another message May 2 confirming that she was allowed to stay in her dorm during her suspension.

The true cost of student protests

On April 29, a week after students clashed with police as they took over Siemens Hall, the police returned in full force, in larger numbers than before, with help from across the state.

The Sacramento County Sheriffs Office  one of the largest law enforcement agencies in Northern California, with 1,250 sworn deputies  confirmed that 30 of its deputies were sent to Arcata as part of the states mutual-aid program. Police from San Francisco and California Highway Patrol also aided Humboldt County law enforcement in clearing out the protesters.

Around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, police arrested 31 people, who now face charges of unlawful assembly, vandalism, conspiracy, assault of police officers, among other charges.

In addition to the student arrests, students not in Siemens Hall, but who had visited the demonstrations in the quad such as Schumichen, were also placed on interim suspension, though the university did not confirm the number of students who received notifications about those suspensions.

Cal Poly Humboldt was the first university in the California State University system to initiate an occupation of campus space in support of Palestine, and is now one of more than 100 across the country to do so.

Campuses across California have seen varying levels of protest and violence. At Sacramento State, students have set up an encampment near the library that President Luke Wood has allowed until May 8 and, if the demonstration remains peaceful, it possibly can be extended again.

A pro-Palestinian activist inserts small Palestinian flags Wednesday into fence openings outside of the tented area the demonstrators took over three days ago at Sacramento State to protest the war in Gaza. Protesters are asking the university to divest in Israel.

At the same time, students at the University of California, Los Angeles clashed with counter protesters and police. Police arrested more than 200 on the UCLA campus, ultimately clearing the encampment Thursday morning as President Joe Biden condemned lawbreaking  while saying he supported students First Amendment rights to protest.

The protests put to the test two fundamental American principles, he said at the White House. First is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble, make their voices heard. Second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.

Cal Poly Humboldt administration said the financial costs of the Siemens Hall occupation hover in the millions, and have disrupted thousands of students final weeks of the spring semester and commencement ceremonies.

The Universitys goal has always been to bring a peaceful end to the occupation, and we continue to talk to anyone willing to have productive and respectful dialogue, the campus said in a statement April 28.

While its too early to assess the cost of illegal activities, we estimate it to be in the millions. That includes damage done by theft, vandalism and graffiti, and the supplies and personnel needed to repair that, in addition to the loss of revenue from disruption to University operations.

But the true cost has been the disruption of the education of our students who came here to learn and get a college degree.

Free Gaza writes a protester on the wall of Cal Poly Humboldts Van Duzer Theatre on April 23, the day after demonstrators barricaded themselves inside an administrative building.

Chaos and confusion for students and faculty

Schumichen, and many other students, feel abandoned by the universitys administration, which they said criminalized students for being on campus during an important event. They said the university protected cops and buildings more than it protected its students.

Faculty members have voiced concerns about student mental health and their own confusion about campus procedures.

The word I would use is traumatic, Aaron Donaldson, a professor in the communications department and site rep for the California Faculty Association, said about the last two weeks at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Donaldson had been an Arcata resident whos lectured at Cal Poly Humboldt since 2015. For him, the universitys response to the Siemens Hall occupation was traumatic for two reasons: first, because seeing students harmed and threatened with police violence is disturbing and, second, because of the logistical impracticalities of an abrupt transition to online learning.

Ive got 100 outlines to grade, Donaldson said. But theyre all locked in an office.

Faculty were included in the administrations hard closure, and on Monday, Donaldson and other faculty members received an email alert from the administration informing them that entering campus at all may lead to corrective or disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

When they pivot online, if they dont give us facilities at school, they are squatting in our house, Donaldson said. The CSU cannot squat in my house, not in this economy, not ever. Thats a huge ask. Thats what those classrooms are for; thats what my office is for.

Donaldson is also on a teaching contract, meaning the university could simply refuse to bring him back next year because of his participation in the teach-in, where he spoke to students and community members about nonviolence.

Aaron Donaldson, a professor in the communications at Cal Poly Humboldt, speaks during a teach-in at The Depot dining area on campus on April 24.

So far, thankfully, there has been no retribution. But its early, and that can come in lots of ways, he said. Im a lecturer on a contract year. They could not hire me back. There could be cuts. There are all sorts of things that were worried about.

Legal implications are cause for worry, too. Rouhollah Aghasaleh, a School of Education professor, was arrested with dozens of students Monday and is now on a hunger strike.

In defiance of our wrongful arrest, I have chosen to reject any bond and embark on a hunger strike, Aghasaleh said. I refuse to accept the label of criminal for standing up for an ethical reason.

Aghasaleh plans to continue the hunger strike until all of my students and me are released and justice is served.

I have been overwhelmed

For students like Schumichen, whose interim suspension will last until May 12, and professors like Donaldson, the cost of being treated like a criminal is tough to put a dollar sign on.

The California Faculty Association has called on university President Tom Jackson Jr. to step down instead of criminalizing our students, Donaldson said.

It has become very clear to me just how separated he is from the majority of this school, Schumichen said.

It will take months for the university, the faculty, and the students at Humboldt  and campuses across the state and country  to recover from campus occupations. But for the students and faculty involved, even if just on the periphery, it was worth it.

I have been overwhelmed at the community support that has come about because of this, said Schumichen.

From faculty to students to non-campus-associated members of the public, it has been amazing to see. There were marches from the Arcata plaza to outside the library circle on Sunday and Monday, staying off campus to abide by the hard closure order of campus.  It was heartwarming to see the swarms of support.

McClatchyDCs Gillian Brassil contributed to this story.
A worker leaves U.S. Steel Edgar Thomson Steel Works, March 10, 2018 in Braddock, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Nippon Steel said in a statement Friday it is postponing by three months the closing of its planned $14 billion acquisition of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, after each company received requests from the Department of Justice for additional information.

Nippon Steel will continue to fully cooperate with the examination of the relevant authorities, the companys statement reads.



The deal, announced in December, drew sharp criticism from Pennsylvania lawmakers, including Democratic Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-17th District), who asked the Department of Justice to block the sale. The three lawmakers criticized Japan-based Nippon Steel for having facilities in China, which they described as a foreign adversary of the U.S.

Casey, Fetterman and Deluzio along with U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-12th District) sent a letter to Nippon Steel demanding answers about their commitment to the residents of Pennsylvania. The White House in December called for serious scrutiny of the deal, which is under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has also criticized the acquisition, and pledged to block it if he wins another term.



President Joe Biden said in March it was vital that the 122-year-old company remain in American hands, a stance he reiterated last month during a visit to the U.S. Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh. The union has opposed the acquisition.

U.S. Steel shareholders, however, voted to approve the deal last month.

The post Nippon Steel postpones U.S. Steel acquisition by three months appeared first on Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (KRQE)  The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) recently held an open house regarding the nearly-built Date Street Roundabouts in Truth or Consequences. The meeting was held on Tuesday, April 30 at the Hot Springs High School cafeteria.

NMDOT to remove murals along I-25 underpass

In addition to NMDOT staff providing simple education on how to successfully drive through a roundabout, student-only learning sessions were held earlier in the day. Information shared at the meeting is available online.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
Do no harm: A nursing home patient had a bowel movement in his clothes. The nurse aide's response got her license revoked.

"Do No Harm" informs readers of medical professionals in their area who've been investigated and disciplined by a state medical board in Virginia.

All the details in our Health Safety stories come from publicly available Final Orders, Consent Orders, Orders of Suspension and other documents from the Virginia Department of Health Professionals. For more information, see the Editors note below the story.

WAYNESBORO  A resident of the Waynesboro Manor assisted living community was uncomfortable. He'd had a bowel movement in his clothes and needed a member of staff to clean him.

The date is uncertain, but its before Oct. 5, 2022.

That day, his nurse aid was Nancy Robin Hall Rice. Rice worked with residents and distributed medications at Waynesboro Manor.

Rice wasn't soothing to him. Rice was upset. Coworkers reported her shouting and using profanity at the resident because of the incident, calling him nasty.

Rice cleaned up using the residents clothing. She told the resident she was going to leave the now-soiled clothes in a trash bag in the room so he would smell them all night. She removed all the residents underwear, forcing him to wear incontinence briefs.

After learning of the incident, Waynesboro Manor Administrator Tammy Bare fired Rice on Oct. 5. Bare told The News Leader she found the incident appalling, and explained what she expects staff to do when residents have similar issues.

You smile, and you make the person feel like they still have some dignity, Bare said. You clean it up and you tell them it's okay. I say it happens all the time.

Rice moved on to another facility, but Bare didnt. She called Rices new employer and reported her to the Virginia Board of Nursing.

Of course, it was hearsay at the time, Bare told The News Leader. It was kind of our word against hers because, of course, she denied everything.

An investigator arrived. Rice denied the allegations during the investigation, and again in an informal conference with the board. The staff was interviewed, with two of her coworkers describing the incident.

The resident was able to confirm some of what was said to us, Bare said. He was cognitive enough to say yes."

Since then, the resident has passed away.

The resident's ability to answer questions, and have his answers backed up by Rice's coworkers as witnesses, is significant. Not all patients in assisted living facilities can speak up for themselves. Some struggle with dementia or other neurological issues, Bare explained.

Though anonymous, the order quotes a Waynesboro Manor administrator as telling the board, I strong feel she should not be allowed to work with elderly anymore as she lacks compassion and patience." Bare confirmed this was her.

The Virginia Board of Nursing found against Rice on Jan. 23. Neither Rice nor her legal counsel was present. The board revoked her license to practice as a nurse aid and entered a finding of abuse against her. The finding prohibits Rice from working as a certified nurse aid in any long-term care facility that receives Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement.

Rices license to practice as a medication aide was not revoked. She was reprimanded and required to complete at least three contact hours on professionalism, ethics, and patient rights. According to the Virginia Department of Health Professions license lookup, Rices license is active.

Bare was concerned Rice could still work as a medication aide.

I don't care if I'm in here working in the office, it doesn't matter, we take that person to the restroom Bare said. Were all qualified, that work here, to do resident care. That's a little concerning because that means somebody could hire her as a med tech and have her in a facility.

Rice did not response to a request for comment from The News Leader.

*

To file a formal complaint against a health professional, click here. For links to the public information informing this story, see below.

Want to know if your doctors, other medical professionals or local pharmacies have been investigated? Check out the license lookup.

EDITORS NOTE: When citizens are a danger to the public safety, law enforcement arrests them and charges them with crimes; they have the opportunity to face a jury of their peers; if convicted, they serve time and/or probation that can often ensnare them in the system for years.

When a medical professional is an alleged danger to the public safety, the Virginia Department of Health Professionals handles all facets of the inquiry, including the investigation and penalties. And sometimes, even when a medical professional is found liable of doing harm to patients, they may face a reprimand, pay a fine and continue to practice, without missing a day of work and with little chance for the public to see what theyve done.

The Health Safety stories in this series tell the facts of cases where medical professionals endanger our public health safety. They also bring you into the world of the medical boards consent orders and public final orders, so you can see exactly how the VDHPs self-policing system works.

More in this series: Do no harm: Staunton pharmacy still on probation after board investigation in 2023

About the 'Do No Harm' series: Local doctors and medical professionals get in trouble. Here's how to find out who and how.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Do no harm: Local nurse's aid mistreats nursing home patient, is fired, yet still retains part of license
No more donations needed after Westmoreland tornado; how you can help in other ways

No more donations needed after Westmoreland tornado; how you can help in other ways

POTTAWATOMIE CO. (KSNT)  After a large tornado damaged much of Westmoreland, the community is stepping up big time.

Things are slowly getting better, but officials say theres still a long road ahead. There has been an outpouring of community support in the days after the tornado swept through the town. Donations of food, water and clothing have since been pouring into Westmoreland.

Watch: Drone footage shows extent of tornado damage in Westmoreland

However, while the community appreciates the physical donations, the City of Westmoreland says they are at capacity. They say they are still accepting monetary donations only. Now that the donations are organized, crews are starting to dish out these resources.

This is going to be a super long process of getting cleaned up, getting people the supplies they need, City Council President Waide Purvis said. We started a delivery service right now of essentials that we can get out to these people that were devastated.

To help with the limited space in the Westmoreland Community Center due to the influx of donations, UNITS Moving and Portable Storage, based out of Maple Hill is donating some extra space.

We would love to help anyone that has more of their own personal items that they dont want wet, Jake Brunton with UNITS said. Right now, its still raining even after the tornado, so if they dont want anything wet, either their personal items and as of right now, food and water.

Gas shut off after natural gas line hit in residential Topeka neighborhood

On Thursday, Pottawatomie County announced on social media that they dont need anymore volunteers on Thursday or Friday, as heavy equipment crews will take the reigns as they move lots of heavy debris.

For more local 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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is facing more controversy over her new memoir, with her spokesman saying a claim she makes about meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and an account of an interaction with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are "errors" that "will be corrected" in future editions.

Noem's book, "No Going Back," has drawn backlash for how she describes shooting and killing her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, in an incident she said happened 20 years ago.

Now, Noem -- widely rumored to be seeking to be a potential vice-presidential pick for former President Donald Trump -- is addressing new questions over an account of a meeting she said she had with the North Korean leader while she served in Congress.

MORE: 'She killed her chances': Kristi Noem's odds dim of being Trump's VP pick, sources say

PHOTO: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. (Alex Brandon/AP, FILE)

"As a congresswoman and governor, I've met with Chinese president Xi Jingping, the king and princes of Saudi Arabia, North Korean president Kim Jong Un, the king of Jordan, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and many more," Noem writes in her book.

ABC News has obtained a copy.

"Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee, I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders -- some who wanted our help, and some who didn't. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I'm sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I'd been a children's pastor, after all)," Noem continued.

MORE: Kristi Noem defends controversial decision to shoot dog: 'Understand why some people are upset'

PHOTO: In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises a live-fire drill in North Korea, on March 18, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Now, her team is trying to clean up that misleading story, suggesting, "Kim Jong Un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn't have been," Noem's spokesman Ian Fury said in a statement to ABC News. The statement doesn't underscore why the South Dakota governor elaborated on the purported meeting with Kim.

She also describes an interaction with Haley over the phone in the summer of 2021 during which the former U.N. ambassadors allegedly said she would be Noem's mentor and would tell Noem anything bad she heard about her -- which Noem says she took as a threat.

Fury acknowledged that the timeline of the Haley conversation is muddled. Noem's spokesperson suggests, "they spoke in 2020" -- instead of 2021 as the book suggests -- and that Haley "met with her in 2021."

Haley spokesperson Chaney Denton confirmed to ABC News that Haley's calendar shows the two spoke on the phone in 2020, not 2021.

"Nikki has long called and written notes supporting other women when they go through challenging times. She called Governor Noem in 2020 to encourage her when she was criticized for keeping her state open during COVID," Denton said. "How she would twist that into a threat is just plain weird."

PHOTO: In this Feb. 20, 2024, file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, speaks at a campaign event at Clemson University at Greenville, in Greenville, S.C. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images, FILE)

There will be corrections to these "two small errors" to all future editions before next week's release date, Fury said.

"The book has not been released yet, and all future editions will be corrected," Fury said.

ABC News' Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

Noem backpedals on anecdote in book about meeting with Kim Jong Un originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will appear Saturday morning at a Palm Beach donor retreat for former President Donald Trumps campaign, according to a source familiar with the speaker lineup.

It will be the first time Noem has shown her face in Trumps orbit since the news broke that she admitted in her memoir to shooting and killing a puppya scandal that seems to have tanked the governors chances to be tapped as Trumps vice presidential pick.

Kristi Noem Echoes Trump Line in Reply to Dog-Killer Drama

Ever since the excerpt from the book ran in The Guardian a week ago, Trumpworld operatives have been aghast at the chilling anecdote, and puzzled about why Noem has made the situation worse by doubling down on the puppy killing.

Noem, once considered a legitimate contender for Trumps No. 2 spot on the 2024 ticket, is appearing in Florida alongside several other top candidates at the donor confab, which was first reported by Politico.

They include a GOP Senate triumvirate of Ohios J.D. Vance, South Carolinas Tim Scott, and Floridas Marco Rubio, along with Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Byron Donalds (R-FL).

Trump himself is scheduled to be in attendance for the meetings and speeches, according to Politico.

As Trump closed in on the GOP nomination in February, Vance and Stefanik were considered to be in the top tier of VP contenders. The informal list has grown since then, with Rubio proving to be a surprising late entrant.

A representative for Noem did not immediately return a request for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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NOLAN COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Trooper stationed in Snyder was arrested and charged with Bestiality.

Courtesy of the Nolan County Sheriffs Office

The Texas Department of Public Safety suspended Trooper Christopher Prince, 37, on April 30 after the Texas Rangers arrested him. According to DPS, the charges resulted from a Ranger investigation after a complaint was filed in February 2024.

Prince has worked with DPS since 2017 and is currently serving the Snyder area. Per standard procedure, he will remain suspended with pay while the internal investigation by DPS Office of Inspector General is completed.

Prince was booked in the Nolan County Jail and has been released on bond.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com.
None go forward without the others. US mega-deal would tie together the futures of Saudi Arabia, Israel and Gaza

Editors Note: A version of this story appears in CNNs Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the regions biggest stories. Sign up here.

Saudi Arabia and the United States are finalizing the details of a landmark deal to strengthen bilateral trade and defense  but an agreement will not be reached if the kingdom and Israel do not establish diplomatic relations, US officials said.

A defense treaty would solidify the seven-decade security alliance between Saudi Arabia and the US, and tie them ever closer to each other as US adversaries like Iran, Russia and China seek to expand their influence in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought relations with Saudi Arabia, home of Islams holiest sites, as the move could domino across the wider Muslim world.

The US is currently negotiating one mega-deal involving three components, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday.

The first component includes a package of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia, another component has the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and a third component for a pathway to a Palestinian state.

All of them are linked together. None go forward without the others, Miller said.

For normalization to be realized between Saudi Arabia and Israel, there has to be a pathway for a Palestinian state and calm in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a panel at an economic conference in Riyadh this week.

The work that Saudi Arabia and the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think is potentially very close to completion, but then in order to move forward with normalization two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state, he said.

On the sidelines of the forum, Blinken met Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) to discuss the deal, the State Department said. Experts describe the Saudi-US pact as a comprehensive set of understandings that would include security, economic and technological guarantees to the kingdom, as well as support for its civilian nuclear program.

The normalization deal is expected to be modeled on the Abraham Accords, a set of treaties that saw four Arab states recognize Israel in 2020 that sidestepped the longstanding Arab demand for an independent Palestinian state as a prerequisite to recognition of Israel. MBS had said earlier that a pact with Israel would be the biggest historical deal since the Cold War.

In 2021, Netanyahu described the Accords as enabling Israel to replace the old and dangerous doctrine of territories in exchange for peace and brought peace in exchange for peace, without giving up a single inch and sought to expand what he called the circle of peace.

Since then, the Biden administration has made Israel-Saudi normalization central to its Middle East policy. The US and Saudi Arabia had continued discussions on the pact in 2023, and Blinken was expected to fly to Riyadh on October 10 last year to discuss the details, just three days before Hamas attacked Israel, postponing the effort.

The subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza, which has left the enclave in ruins and killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, may have changed the parameters of the deal for Saudi Arabia, analysts say. Now Israels acceptance of a component calling for an irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state would be key to the crucial normalization component of the wider deal.

We have the broad outlines on what needs to happen on the Palestinian frontcredible, irreversible [pathway to a Palestinian state], Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a World Economic Forum panel without referencing normalization with Israel.

Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the prospect of an independent Palestinian state, arguing that it would hurt Israels security, and is adamant on pressing ahead with the Gaza war until Hamas is eliminated.

Those obstacles might see the kingdom attempt to close the bilateral deal without the normalization component of the agreement, analysts say. But such an approach would face major hurdles. An agreement establishing a firm US military commitment to Saudi Arabias security, without the normalization component, is unlikely to pass through the US Congress, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said.

If there is a mutual defense agreement negotiated in the form of a treaty, it needs 67 votes in the Senate to become binding. Without normalizing the Israeli-Saudi relationship and ensuring the security needs of Israel regarding the Palestinian file, there would be very few votes for a mutual defense agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia, Graham said on X in response to reports of Saudi Arabia opting for a plan B to the agreement.

Experts say that Biden could be able to bypass Congress to reach the agreement by modeling it around another security agreement it signed with Bahrain last year.

There is another pathway, modeled around the Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement the Biden administration signed with Bahrain in September of 2023, according to Firas Maksad, Senior Fellow and Director for Strategic Outreach at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. The text of that pact explicitly states that other parties may be invited to join, he said.

However, there has been no indication that the Biden administration would opt to bypass Congress for the bilateral agreement with Saudi Arabia to pass.

A victory for Saudi Arabia

For Saudi Arabia, a bilateral agreement with the US would be a major victory, marking an end to the era when Biden sought to undermine MBS by pledging to turn his country into a pariah after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi intelligence officials in Turkey.

The deal would also consolidate Americas dominance in the Middle East for generations and would blunt the growing challenge posed by both China and Russia, Maksad said.

MBS is eager to bolster the kingdoms defenses and diversify the Saudi economy away from hydrocarbons, as he pursues an ambitious economic policy dubbed Vision 2030. The kingdom has a nascent civilian nuclear program that the Crown Prince is keen to develop with US support.

Saudi Arabia would like to make a deal with the United States and this is probably the best time during the Biden administration to help some of the stickier issues get through Congress, according to Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy, referring to enrichment of nuclear materials.

Another sticking point in any US support for such a program is American opposition to local enrichment of uranium, a key component for nuclear power that could also be used to develop nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia is rich in uranium deposits and has insisted on being able to enrich it domestically, which would be a first for an Arab state. Neighboring United Arab Emirates, for example, imports enriched uranium to power its nuclear plants.

On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Edward J. Markey, co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, called on the Biden administration to ensure that Riyadh commits to forego enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear material, citing MBS as saying previously that Saudi Arabia would develop a nuclear weapon if Iran does too.

The path towards Middle East peace should not include the prospect of a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia, which would undermine the interests of the US, allies, and partners across the region, he said in his letter.

The Saudi-US pact would make it incumbent on both countries to work together to deter and confront any external aggression, but doesnt formalize it as a treaty alliance, according to Maksad.

It is often described as Article 4.5, stopping just short of a treaty alliance that requires Senate approval but providing for a written commitment of mutual defense, Maksad said, referring to the NATO treatys Article 5, which obliges all member states to come to the defense of any state facing attack.

There will still be room for a multilateral security agreement that eventually includes Israel, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the U.S. and others, when political circumstances allowthe choice will be Israels, when its ready to put something on the table that moves the ball forward towards a two-state solution with the Palestinians, Maksad said.

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NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY)  A landing craft from the Norfolk-based USS Wasp was involved in an incident that left 30 sailors and Marines hurt on Wednesday night.

The U.S. Navy says the incident involved two air cushion landing craft (LCAC) crews, one from the Wasp and one from the USS New York, off the coast of Jacksonville.

Five sailors were evacuated and taken to Savannah Memorial University Medical Center, where one remains for further treatment. Other crew members were treated aboard the Wasp and New York.

The Navy didnt share many details in a release, but said the ships, part of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), were conducting a training exercise at the time.

The Navy says the investigation and recovery process related to the incident are ongoing.

The USS Wasp, an 843-foot-long multipurpose amphibious assault ship, is behind only the USNS Comfort when it comes to medical capabilities at ships based at Naval Station Norfolk, Cmdr. John Roman told WAVYs Brett Hall in WAVYs Navy Ship Salute.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
ISLAMABAD, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The law enforcement agencies in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have gunned down 91 terrorists in separate operations since the beginning of this year, an official report revealed on Friday.

Over 1,000 operations have been launched since the beginning of this year across the province to arrest and eliminate the terrorists, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the province said in the report.

Dera Ismail Khan and North Waziristan tribal districts remained the most volatile where 19 and 14 terrorists were killed respectively in separate operations and raids, the report said.

This year, the province witnessed 179 terrorist incidents with January being the most violent month with 60 attacks, 48 terrorist attacks were witnessed in April, followed by 33 in March and 38 in February this year, the CTD added.

The report also revealed that 16 of the killed terrorists were most wanted by police for several crimes.

The report added that two suicide jackets, 36 hand grenades, and 247 kgs of explosives were also recovered from the custody of the terrorists.

During the period, 10 attacks were reported on polio eradication teams and police escorting them this year, highlighting the challenging security situation in the province. 
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY)  The city of Norfolk is one of the 10 communities being awarded a grant to assist in tourism programs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

The grants are intended to support outdoor recreation. Each locality listed was awarded up to $20,000 through the Virginia Tourism Corporations DRIVE Outdoor grant program. The funds can be used for projects such as purchasing new outdoor recreation equipment, increasing accessibility to outdoor recreation, events, studies, etc.

Here are the communities receiving funding:

Norfolk

Alleghany Highlands

Danville City

Northern Neck

Richmond Region Tourism

Smyth County

Town of Cape Charles

Town of Culpeper

Town of Damascus

Town of Kilmarnock

Growing our outdoor economy spurs job creation and provides endless opportunities for outdoor-focused partnerships, Youngkin said. The projects created from this program will help further position Virginia as the top state on the East Coast for outdoor recreation and a natural fit for outdoor businesses.

Check with WAVY.com for more updates.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
Cruisers for the North Dakota Highway Patrol sit parked in the Capitol parking lot on April 26, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

The North Dakota Highway Patrol retirement system is underfunded by $46.3 million and requires additional funding from the Legislature, according to an analysis presented to lawmakers.

The Legislatures Employee Benefits Program Committee recently received recommendations about how to address funding concerns with the Highway Patrol pension plan, which is about 68% funded.

Bonnie Wurst, senior consultant for Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company Holdings, a Detroit-based actuarial and benefits consulting company, provided scenarios to lawmakers to get the pension plan to 100%.

A one-time cash infusion of $35 million to nearly $40 million would get the plan fully funded in 20 or 30 years, Wurst said.

Other options include increasing the amount lawmakers approve for each two-year budget cycle by $5 million each biennium for 30 years or nearly $7 million each biennium for 20 years, Wurst said.

Without additional funding, Wurst said, the Highway Patrol retirement system will be funded at a 60% rate in 2046 and continue decreasing to a 54% funded rate in 2053.

If there are no changes and the contributions are not increased  the plans funded ratio is expected to decline and it is not expected to achieve a 100% funded ratio at any point in the future, she said. Its really going down and weve seen that play out over the last five to 10 years.

The legislative committee took no immediate action.

Rebecca Fricke participates in a meeting of the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System board on Feb. 13, 2024, in Bismarck. Fricke was named executive director of the organization. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

I think there is definitely interest within the legislative body to look at opportunities to help fund the unfunded liability within the Highway Patrol, but, of course, that would take legislation, Rebecca Fricke, executive director of the North Dakota Public Employee Retirement System, told the North Dakota Monitor.

The Highway Patrol retirement plan, which is managed by NDPERS, is separate from the main public employee pension plan that lawmakers voted last year to close to future hires. State employees covered in that plan will participate in a defined contribution, or 401(k)-style retirement plan, starting January 2025.

The Highway Patrol plan was not part of that legislation and, as far as I know, thats not something thats being looked at, Fricke said.

Capt. Derek Arndt, commander of the Highway Patrols Administrative Services Division, said the retirement benefit program is an important part of recruiting and retaining troopers.

It is critical to us for our future and our sustainability, Arndt said.

Col. Brandon Solberg, superintendent of the North Dakota Highway Patrol. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Col. Brandon Solberg, superintendent of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, told lawmakers that because law enforcement is a dangerous job, the disability and death benefits in their defined benefit plan, or pension plan, are important in a competitive workforce environment.

A defined contribution plan doesnt have that disability benefit, it doesnt have that same death benefit that would carry over to a spouse, he said.

Solberg also said members of the Highway Patrol retirement system do not pay into Social Security and lawmakers should take that into account when they are making changes to the contribution limits for employees and employers.

The Highway Patrol retirement program had 144 active participants as of last July, Wurst said. The plan also had 143 retirees and 59 former members at that time.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders have said additional investments will be needed for the main state employee retirement plan. The plan had an unfunded liability of about $1.9 billion, according to figures presented last legislative session. Critics say the liability was caused by the Legislature not taking action sooner.

Lawmakers in 2023 approved a one-time injection of $135 million into the main state pension plan and designated $65 million in oil tax revenue for the pension plan every two years.

The post North Dakota Highway Patrol retirement fund short $46.3 million appeared first on North Dakota Monitor.
North Korea is plotting terrorist attacks targeting South Korean officials and citizens abroad, Seouls spy agency has warned.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it had recently detected numerous signs that North Korea is preparing for terrorist attacks against our embassy staff or citizens in various countries, [such as] China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

North Korea has dispatched agents to these countries to expand surveillance of the South Korean embassies and is also engaging in specific activities such as searching for South Korean citizens as potential terrorist targets, the spy agency said.

The NIS said the increased threat appeared to be linked to a wave of defections by elite North Koreans who were trapped overseas during the pandemic and are now avoiding returning home after Pyongyang eased strict border controls, having become sceptical of the regime.

Pyongyang treats defections as a serious crime and is believed to hand harsh punishments to transgressors, their families, and even people tangentially linked to the incident.

North Korean embassy officials may be submitting false reports blaming external factors for voluntary defections by their colleagues, in a bid to evade punishment, the NIS said.

As a result, the North may be plotting retaliation against South Korean embassy staff on such pretences, the NIS added.

South Koreas foreign ministry said on Thursday it had raised its anti-terrorism alert status for five of its diplomatic missions  embassies in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam as well as its consulates in the Russian port city of Vladivostok and the Chinese city of Shenyang.

Seoul and Pyongyang have embassies or consulates in all five locations.

Defections hit record high since 2017

According to Seouls unification ministry, 196 North Korean defectors arrived in the South last year, with around 10 of them being from Pyongyangs elite class, such as diplomats and possibly their children.

This marked the highest number of defections by North Korean elites to the South since 2017, according to Seoul.

The end of the pandemic has enabled North Korean agents, previously confined within their country, to travel abroad for missions, while South Koreans are also travelling abroad without any restrictions, Lee Man-jong, the president of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies, told AFP.

Pyongyang appears to be targeting South Korean assets and nationals located in foreign countries with which they have established strong diplomatic ties.

Experts say the extended overseas stay during the pandemic has led North Korean expatriates to increasingly doubt their countrys isolated regime.

While living abroad, these North Koreans were able to send their children to normal schools, avoiding propaganda education and the constant need to be obedient to the regime, said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.

Pyongyang is suspected of being behind the 1996 killing of a South Korean consul in Vladivostok, who was attacked and killed by an unidentified assailant.

The consul, also an intelligence agent, had been monitoring Pyongyangs illicit activities, including drug trafficking and the production of counterfeit banknotes, according to South Korean reports.

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The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has discovered that Russian intelligence agents are working in Western Norway, which could mean that Russia may be preparing sabotage operations at critical infrastructure.

Source: Torgils Lutro, the head of the PST in Western Norway, in an interview with NRK

Details: This district has the largest naval base in Northern Europe, Haakonsvern, as well as important oil and gas facilities such as Mongstad, Kollsnes and Sture, along with power plants and other facilities related to electricity supply.

"We see that some of Russia's intentions may be to prepare acts of sabotage. They are operating throughout the area and moving around," Lutro said.

In particular, Lutro said that several Russian agents had been exposed. He did not specify their number.

Lutro believes that, in addition to personal gain, Russia wants to damage Norway's reputation among its allies.

"It is clear that one of Russia's goals is to make us look bad. They will try to show that we are not controlling the situation, or that we cannot help our allies with exports in potential future situations," he said.

The PST stated that Russian intelligence activities on Norwegian territory had intensified since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"Russian intelligence agents are working against a variety of targets, such as critical and vulnerable infrastructure and military installations. They also have a clear goal of exposing Norwegian contingency plans," Lutro said.

Amid the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Norwegian authorities have expelled more than 15 employees of the Russian Embassy in Norway on suspicion of intelligence activities. As a result, Russia has had to reconsider the use of its intelligence tools.

"It is not easy for us to find out who these agents are. They blend in with the crowd, which is also their job. They don't necessarily have Russian citizenship, but they can be motivated to act on behalf of Russia, by money or threats for example," Lutro explained.

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(Reuters) - Shares in Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk dropped as much as 5.3% on Friday, set for their biggest one-day fall since August 2022, after rival Amgen said it was encouraged by interim trial data on its experimental obesity drug.

Novo Nordisk were last down 4.4% by 1022 GMT, having hit their lowest in two months earlier in the day.

Amgen on Thursday said it was very encouraged after completing an interim analysis of its mid-stage study of experimental weight-loss drug MariTide, which, if approved, would compete Novo's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.

"Novo's share price today is certainly factoring in some negative reaction to Amgen's positive commentary on MariTide development yesterday," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst David Evans said, but added that "a continued negative reaction to results and pricing concerns yesterday is likely also a smaller part of the move today".

Amgen did not provide any specifics on the actual data of its trial, but competition is heating up in a market estimated to be worth as much as $100 billion by the end of the decade, in which Novo Nordisk has the lead for now.

(Reporting by Elviira Luoma; Editing by Amanda Cooper)
The numbers that show Britain is one of the worlds most welcoming countries to migrants

What do Russia, China, India and Japan all have in common? A problem with immigrants, according to Joe Biden.

The US President said on Wednesday that xenophobia was to blame for those countries lack of economic growth, an extraordinary swipe which caused dismay among allies in New Delhi and Tokyo.

Speaking to a predominantly Asian-American audience at a campaign fundraising event, Biden said the US economy was on a healthier footing precisely because of the countrys openness to new arrivals. One of the reasons why our economys growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants, he said.

Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India because theyre xenophobic. They dont want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong.

Surprising as it was, data seems to support Mr Bidens claim  at least when it comes to economic projections and public sentiment towards immigration.

In fact, the figures seem to go one step further, and suggest something of a gap between large swaths of the West  including the UK  and other parts of the world when it comes to embracing migrants.

We dive into the numbers below.

A benefit or a burden?

Countries with the highest number of immigrants are typically more likely to see them as an asset, as opposed to a burden, according to a 2018 study by the US-based Pew Research Center.

Surveying a selection of 18 countries that host half the worlds total population of migrants, those with the highest numbers (more than seven million immigrants) overwhelmingly supported the notion that their presence made the nation stronger. These included the US, Germany, the UK, France and Canada.



By contrast, a majority of respondents in several countries with relatively smaller migrant populations  Hungary, South Africa and Israel  saw them as a burden.

But Russia, which played host to more than 11.6 million foreign-born nationals at the time of the survey, bucked the general trend and appeared to share the dim view of migrants more typical of countries with less exposure.

More than 60 per cent of respondents in the country said immigrants were a burden, while just 18 per cent said they thought arrivals from abroad made the country stronger.

Attitudes to migrant workers

The UK is among the most welcoming countries for migrants, figures suggest, particularly when immigration is tied to work. Nearly 60 per cent of Brits believe anyone who wants to come to the UK to work should be allowed to do so, provided there are jobs available, and one in 10 say that migrants should be welcomed regardless, according to a 2022 study by the Policy Institute at Kings College London. No other nation among the 17 studied by KCL researchers recorded such an open outlook.

In Japan  one of the nations singled out by Mr Biden for its stance on migrants  just 40 per cent agreed people should be allowed to live in the country in order to fill a job vacancy. In Russia, only 21 per cent were of the same opinion.

China was not among the countries surveyed. Those registering the lowest levels of support for people coming for work, provided jobs were available, were Indonesia at 12 per cent, and the Philippines at 15 per cent.

Views on integration

Pew Research Centers research reveals countries are hugely split on whether they feel immigrants attempt to adapt to their way of life or not. In Japan, famed for its strict, unspoken set of etiquette rules, some 75 per cent thought that incomers adopted their customs  the highest of any country.

The next highest was Mexico, where more than half of respondents thought migrants mirrored their ways. By comparison, Russians and Hungarians were the least likely to believe immigrants integrate, with just 17 and 10 per cent respectively saying they did so.

Meanwhile, on either side of the Atlantic, 54 per cent of Americans said they believed immigrants tried to blend in, while 43 per cent of Brits were of the same opinion.

Migrant populations by country

When it comes to the country which hosts the highest total number of migrants, there is one clear winner. Figures from 2020, the latest year for which globally comparative data is available, show the US housed 50.63 million foreign-born nationals at the time.

China, another of the countries namechecked by Biden, played host to just over one million by contrast. Japan housed 2.77 million migrants, while India was home to 4.88 million, according to the data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Some 11.6 million foreign-born nationals were registered as living in Russia. The UK, for its part, had a migrant population of 9.36 million people.

On the other side of the world, Australia hosted 7.69 million migrants, while the country with the lowest total number was communist Cuba, with a migrant population of just 3,024.

India tops the emigration charts

When it comes to the other side of the coin, India tops the tables as the country with the largest number of nationals living elsewhere in the world.

Some 17.9 million Indians were based in another nation as of 2020, according to Pews research. Mexican nationals were the second most likely to have emigrated, with 11.2 million living elsewhere, while 10.8 million Russians were registered as emigres.

They were closely followed by Chinese nationals, 10.5 million of whom were resident outside of China. About 8.5 million Syrians were also living in another country, a figure fuelled by mass displacement caused by the countrys devastating civil war.

So, has immigration been good for Britain?

While Pews data from 2018 indicated that a majority of Britons polled at the time thought migrants benefited the country, the picture does appear to have shifted somewhat in more recent years.

A poll carried out by YouGov in April revealed that 38 per cent of people thought immigration was in fact bad for the UK, up from 29 per cent in 2019. Meanwhile, just 19 per cent of Brits believed immigration to be a mostly good thing, down from 29 per cent of the population five years ago.

The only two groups to remain steady were those who held the view that immigration was a mixed picture, with both good and bad aspects, and those who said they didnt know  the former hovering at just above 30 per cent of those polled and the latter just below 10 per cent.

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Numerous officers down: How April 29 went from a normal day to tragedy in Charlotte

For almost four hours Monday, an east Charlotte neighborhood was locked down as a shootout between a suspect and law enforcement brought death and destruction.

The shooting killed four law enforcement officers  Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks, Jr., Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Joshua Eyer and Adult Correction Officers Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott. Responding officers killed the suspect, Terry Clark Hughes, Jr. An additional five police officers were injured but are expected to recover.

Many questions remain unanswered about what happened over the course of the hours-long incident, but The Charlotte Observer has used livestreams, emergency scanner traffic, news releases, social media posts, other online records and interviews with neighbors to piece together a timeline of how things unfolded. Police are still reviewing body camera footage that hasnt been released to the public and putting together their own precise timeline, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said this week.

The records shed light on the deadly shootout and ensuing standoff, as well as the ripple effects across Charlotte on one of the worst days in history for the citys public safety forces.

The first shots

Jay Chhoeun, who lives next to the home on Galway Drive in the Shannon Park neighborhood where the shooting occurred, was among the first to know something was happening.

Chhoeun arrived home at about 1:30 p.m. Monday when he saw the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force pulling up to his neighbors house, he told the Observer the next day. Members of the task force told Chhoeun to go inside his home and take cover, he said. And he heard them announce they were there to serve a warrant as they approached 5525 Galway Drive.

Saing Chhoeun looks at the home located at 5525 Galway Drive where three members of the U.S. Marshals task force and CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer were killed on Monday, April 29, 2024 when they were serving a warrant in east Charlotte. Four other officers were wounded during the shooting. Chhoeun stood behind the refrigerator/freezer at left as officers attempted to stop the shooter inside the home. Chhoeun was video taping the situation.

By 1:33 p.m., his father, Saing Chhoeun, was live on Facebook showing two law enforcement officers shooting from behind a car in the familys backyard. Sirens wail and gunshots pop in rapid succession in the background of the five-minute livestream as the two officers try to shield themselves behind the car and return fire.

CMPD later said the task force was there to arrest Hughes on a warrant for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of felony flee to elude out of Lincoln County. Investigators say Hughes began to fire on law enforcement from inside the house and the task force quickly radioed for back-up. Jennings said having a CMPD sergeant on the task force made that possible.

At 1:38 p.m., Charlotte Fire dispatch put out the first call for a Medic routine medical response at 5525 Galway Drive. Almost immediately, the dispatcher radios again to say the call has been upgraded to a gunshot.

At 1:39 p.m., a CMPD helicopter takes off en route to east Charlotte, according to data from FlightAware, a website that tracks aircraft. At the same time, another voice comes over Charlotte Fires dispatch frequency to say theyre at CMPD headquarters and advising two officers are down on Galway Drive and a suspect is barricaded.

At 1:49 p.m., CMPD announced a severe alert on social media. It warned of an active investigation in the 5000 block of Galway Drive and told residents in the area to shelter inside their homes until further notice.

Numerous officers down

Video taken at approximately 2 p.m. and shared with the Observer by a neighbor shows fire trucks, ambulances and a fleet of CMPD officers arriving on scene. Gunshots echo across the neighborhood as uniformed officers with guns drawn run down the street.

At 2:16 p.m., CMPD posted an update saying numerous law enforcement officers have been shot and announced that many roads are closed for faster ambulance transport. By 2:23 p.m., the department said its SWAT team was on site.

Saing Chhoeun went live again on Facebook from 2:21 to 2:24 p.m., showing an armored vehicle outside. Unlike his previous livestream, no gunshots or sirens can be heard in the background.

Multiple law enforcement officers were shot in the 5000 block of Galway Drive in Charlotte, NC on Monday, April 29, 2024.

The first mention of the Marshals Task Force comes when CMPD says at 2:44 p.m. the team was conducting an investigation in the area of the 5000 block of Galway Dr. when they were engaged by active gunfire from a subject.

A neighbor reached by an Observer reporter Monday afternoon reported seeing a negotiation tent pop up at about 3 p.m. and an officer dragged to an ambulance by other officers.

Standoff stretches on for hours

The number of law enforcement officers responding to Galway Drive was so large that it began to affect other calls for service.

A dispatcher at about 2:15 p.m. asked someone responding to an unrelated car crash if CMPD is on scene, and the person said they doubt police could get there anytime soon. The dispatcher said theyd try to get the Mecklenburg County Sheriffs Office or State Highway Patrol to help, but those agencies were unavailable, too.

There are no available units anywhere, the dispatcher says.

During the 3 p.m. hour, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said three schools in the area locked down and delayed dismissal due to the shooting. The Charlotte-Area Transit System alerted riders to bus and Gold Line streetcar delays.

Back on Galway Drive, another neighbor told the Observer by phone at about 4 p.m. they saw more than 150 officers on scene and snipers on roofs. At 4:19 p.m., Saing Chhoeun went live again on Facebook, showing an armored vehicle approaching the house where the suspect was and pulling back after appearing to break out a window.

Photos taken of the home the next day show extensive damage. Police have not said whether this happened before or after Hughes was killed, though they say he died on the homes front lawn.

A woman claiming to be the sister of the owner of the home at 5525 Galway Drive stands in a front room on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The home is the site where three members of the U.S. Marshals task force and a CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer were killed on Monday, April 29, 2024 when they were serving a warrant to the suspect. Four other officers were wounded during the shooting.

An all clear, and a confirmation of tragic news

At 4:56 p.m., CMPD posted a long-awaited announcement: The residence on Galway Drive is now clear, and the area is safe. Residents no longer need to shelter in place.

The post says at least one shooting suspect was located deceased at the residence after clearing the scene.

By 5:50 p.m., officials gathered at a nearby Family Dollar parking lot to make their first statements on the situation.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings, center, leaves the scene where multiple law enforcement officers were shot in the 5000 block of Galway Drive in Charlotte, NC on Monday, April 29, 2024.

The event began with sobering news: confirmation that three law enforcement officers were killed, all from the task force. Those three are later identified as Weeks, Poloche and Elliot.

Jennings told media at the event four CMPD officers were injured, one of whom is in critical condition. CMPD and Statesville Police would later in the week announce two more injuries.

The death toll grew later Monday night as CMPD announced the critically injured officer, Eyer, died from his injuries.

Charlotte Observer reporters Jeff A. Chamer, Ryan Oehrli and Julia Coin contributed to the reporting of this story.

NC Reality Check reflects the Charlotte Observers commitment to holding those in power to account, shining a light on public issues that affect our local readers and illuminating the stories that sets the Charlotte region apart. Email realitycheck@charlotteobserver.com
NEW YORK  More than three dozen local elected officials are calling on Mayor Eric Adams to discipline New York Police Department Chief John Chell over illegal and dangerous social media attacks that the police honcho has leveled against lawmakers, journalists and others in recent months.

In a Friday letter to Adams exclusively obtained by The New York Daily News, the group of 39 Democratic politicians, led by City Comptroller Brad Lander, wrote that Chells online screeds violate a provision in city conflict of interest law that prohibits police officials from using government resources, including social media accounts, for political purposes.

The group  which comprises Queens-Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Westchester County-Bronx Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, 17 Council members and 17 state lawmakers  pointed in particular to a since-deleted post Chell thumbed out Wednesday that claimed Queens Councilwoman Tiffany Caban hates our city and urged his followers to start getting involved if they dislike her policies.

Chief Chells bombastic and bullying rhetoric is not only a violation of democratic principles, and the NYC Conflict of Interest Law, it is also dangerous, the elected officials wrote to Adams. He is jeopardizing the safety of Councilmember Caban and her staff. This is unacceptable behavior from a public safety leader of our city.

The group told Adams that Caban isnt the only target of Chells activity.

Chells attack on Councilmember Caban is part of a pattern of bullying, including attacks on reporters Harry Siegel, Errol Louis and Graham Rayman, the letter continues, referring to how Chell has in recent weeks used his official department X account to name-call and lambaste reporters and columnists at The Daily News and NY1. While Chell, as an individual, of course has the right to free speech, using his official NYPD account to bully reporters and elected officials reveals contempt for basic democratic principles.

(Siegel writes a column in the Daily News; Rayman is a Daily News reporter, and Louis is an NY1 anchor.)

The politicians capped off their letter to the mayor: We expect him to be disciplined and instructions delivered to NYPD officials that such behavior will not be tolerated.

Later Friday, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams added her voice to the calls for punitive action against Chell  and announced she had formally requested that the Department of Investigation launch a probe into the unethical and unprofessional social media use by the patrol chief and other NYPD brass.

This recent behavior undermines public confidence in the department at a time when public safety requires stronger trust, and sends a bad message to the rank-and-file officers of our city simply wanting to perform their basic duties, the speaker said.

A Department of Investigation spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak would not address the assessment that Chell has flouted the law or say whether the mayor will consider reprimanding him. Mamelak did say many of the letters signatories have recently been particularly vocal on social media about the importance of free speech.

We encourage these elected leaders to practice what they preach, and join us in truly supporting free speech, even when its not politically convenient for them, Mamelak said.

The NYPD didnt return a request for comment.

The elected officials letter didnt specify what type of reprimand they want Chell to face, but Caban offered a suggestion in a text to The News:

He should be fired today.

The group behind Fridays letter is primarily made up of left-wing politicians like Caban, but also includes more moderate-minded Democrats, including Brooklyn state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Brooklyn Assemblyman Robert Carroll.

We are all united in the basic democratic principle that law enforcement officials work for democratically elected officials, and must not engage in threatening, bullying, or menacing behavior of this sort, they wrote.

Although addressed to the mayor, the letter was also sent to NYPD Commissioner Ed Caban, Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix and the city Conflicts of Interest Board, which enforces local ethics laws.

Councilwoman Caban, a democratic socialist, has been on the receiving end of Chells online rants before. In March, he wrote from his official account that her policies are hurting everyday NYers in our city, and urged his followers: If you want change, vote the change you seek.

His latest Caban missive about her hating our city was deleted Thursday morning, as first reported by The News.

The NYPD media office later said an aide to Chell took down the post by mistake, and Chell reposted the same message late Thursday night, but started it off with: Like I said it was an accident.Im back!!!!

The push for reprimanding Chell comes as he and other top NYPD officials, including Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry and Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Tarik Sheppard, are engaged in a concerted PR effort to boost their public image and push back against people who have voiced criticism of the Police Department and the mayor.

When Chell and other police officials have faced criticism for their social media activity before, the mayor has defended them.

That includes this past Tuesday, when he was asked if he thought it was appropriate for Chell to call on Columbia and City College to expel entitled and hateful students engaged in protesting against Israels military campaign in Gaza.

Chief Chell is a professional, the mayor replied.
(Bloomberg) -- A lawsuit accusing New York City of entrenching racial segregation in the countrys largest public school system will move ahead, with top schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science in the spotlight.

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The issue is back in play after a panel of state appellate judges on Thursday rejected much of a lower courts decision dismissing the lawsuit.

In the suit, a group that advocates for racial integration in New York schools claims that city and state policies disproportionately benefit White and Asian-American students by creating a racialized admissions pipeline to gifted-and-talented programs, as theyre called. Students compete for access to such programs through a process that involves multiple tests and interviews and begins as early as kindergarten.

The group argues that state and city policy denies Black and Latino students their right to a sound basic education.

Equality Flashpoint

The gifted-and-talented program has been a flashpoint in the citys reckoning with equality. Acceptance to the program can alter a students educational trajectory. The end of the pipeline is admission to one of eight city specialized high schools, like the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant High School. They are among the most elite public schools in the country and routinely send scores of students to Ivy League colleges.

Entry to the high schools is determined by a single exam and doesnt depend on participation in the gifted-and-talented program. The programs students have an advantage, however, through superior academic preparation, according to the complaint.

Read More: NYC Cements Admission Screens in Selective High Schools

The lawsuit claims the city and state intentionally adopted and for decades have intentionally retained  with no pedagogical basis  testing-based sorting that they know excludes students of color from equal educational opportunities, the appeals court noted in its decision.

The 2018-2019 gifted kindergarten program included White and Asian-American children at more than double their share in the overall kindergarten population, while for Hispanic and Black kids it was one-third and one-quarter of their overall shares, according to a report from the citys Independent Budget Office.

The defendants had contended that judicial remedies would require the court to act as an education czar, and the lower court had largely agreed. In its decision on Thursday, the state Supreme Courts Appellate Division said that didnt add up.

Nonsensical Result

The state and citys efforts to blame each other do not support dismissal, the appeals court said. Taken together, the court held, those efforts lead to the nonsensical result that no government entity is responsible for a sound basic education.

The plaintiffs include IntegrateNYC Inc., a youth-led racial justice organization, as well as two parent groups and current and former public school students. They are asking for the elimination of the screens for gifted and talented programs, as well as those used in middle and high school admissions.

Theyre also requesting new programs to improve recruitment and retention of school staff and a system that would require the defendants to monitor conditions that deprive students of a sound education.

Asked about the decision at a press conference, New York City Department of Education First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg said he couldnt comment on its impact. But he pointed to city efforts to create new seats in schools like the Northwell School of Health Sciences, which is slated to open next year.

Kids Not Doomed

Chancellor David Banks was more emphatic.

What I do reject is this notion that somehow or another we just have a handful of schools that are really top-tier schools, and if your child doesnt get into any of those schools, theyre doomed, he said at the press conference. We have dozens and dozens of just phenomenal schools.

New York State Education Department spokesperson JP OHare said the ruling was far from the end of the matter.

While this decision allows some claims to proceed against the state, the court acknowledged that the lawsuit, in its words, is not a model of clarity or concision, OHare said.

OHare said the Education Department is confident that the claims will be dismissed and that it remains committed to ensuring that all students in New York State have access to a high-quality education.

The case is IntegrateNYC Inc. v. New York, 2022-02719, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division.

(Updates with details on test for specialized high schools in second section.)

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TOKYO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Japan's investigators have determined that a collision during a nighttime drill caused the fatal crash of two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) patrol helicopters in April.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said Thursday that a preliminary examination of the flight data recorders determined a collision caused the crash.

The two SH-60K reconnaissance helicopters' flight data showed a "rapid and huge impact" simultaneously at the same location, an evidence of the collision, he said, adding that what exactly led to the collision is still being investigated.

The two helicopters carrying a total of eight crew members lost contact late on April 20 during nighttime training over the sea near Izu Islands, about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo.

Among the eight crew members on board, one was pronounced dead after being rescued, while the search for the remaining seven, as well as the aircraft fuselages, has been continuing since then.

Kihara noted there was no indication of any malfunction in the aircraft's mechanics.

This type of helicopter has had a number of accidents during nighttime training flights, including a fatal crash in 2017 and a collision off the southern island of Amami Oshima in 2021 when no injuries were reported, local media reported. 
NYPD arrests dozens of protesters in sweep of pro-Gaza encampments at NYU, The New School

NEW YORK  Police cleared out pro-Gaza encampments at New York University and The New School early Friday morning, arresting dozens of protesters urging the schools to divest from Israel over the war in Gaza, police and university officials said.

A rep for NYU said the request for the NYPDs assistance came after protesters refused to leave Greene St. Walkway, despite violations of school rules and an agreement with the city about the walkway. NYU also cited growing safety concerns about the protesters and counter-protesters being drawn to the site.

This was not about the content of the protesters speech, but rather, about the nature of this protest, including the threat it posed to our community, NYU spokesman John Beckman said.

The sweeps at NYU and the New School follow NYPD actions earlier this week at Columbia University and CCNY.

Police arrived in riot gear with batons at about 6 a.m. and the process took about 20 minutes. Beckman said it involved minimal disruption and minimal confrontation. Most of the protesters  about 30  chose to leave when notified of imminent action, but about a dozen remained, he said.

Last week, administrators at NYU said they will proceed with disciplinary action against the protesters at the walkway.

Fridays request of the NYPD marked the second sweep at NYU, when dozens were arrested on Apr. 22.

Another police raid was underway Friday morning at The New School, where the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said dozens of protesters were arrested.

The actions and continuing escalation of these individuals are a substantial disruption of the educational environment and regular operations of the university, read a letter from university officials requesting the NYPDs assistance.

The New School announced all academic buildings will be closed Friday.

We are on site and our officers will be assisting with the unparalleled professionalism, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry wrote of both sweeps on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested Tuesday night between demonstrations at and around Columbia University and City College. Police later swept an encampment at Fordham Universitys Lincoln Center campus.
NEW YORK  A faculty group at Columbia University on Thursday called for a vote of no confidence in Minouche Shafik, the newly minted university president whose tenure has been marred by campus protests and criticism of her use of the New York Police Department.

The campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a professional faculty organization, said the shared decision of the administration  including the Board of Trustees and other officials  to call police to clear pro-Gaza student protests was made without consulting the university Senate and violated procedures.

The choice of Columbias administrators to ignore university statutes and customary practices honored over the past six decades, to have our students violently arrested, and to impose a militarized lockdown of our campus, has irrevocably undermined our trust in them, the statement read.

The police raid Tuesday night resulted in the arrest of 109 protesters in and around campus, including dozens of protesters inside the occupied Hamilton Hall. Many students and faculty are barred from campus, which is only open to students living in a handful of dorms and essential services staff.

Much of the Columbia community was encouraged to leave campus early if they could rearrange their plans, as final exams and review sessions were moved online. Shafik has asked that NYPD stay on campus until a couple of days after graduation on May 15.

Shafik and other Columbia officials, backed by Mayor Eric Adams and the Police Department, have defended the decision to bring in cops in riot gear as lamentable but necessary.

Over the last few months, we have been patient in tolerating unauthorized demonstrations, including the encampment, Shafik said in a statement Wednesday, adding she decided to ask police to intervene because my first responsibility is safety.

It is going to take time to heal, but I know we can do that together, she continued.

University officials cautioned the AAUP does not represent all faculty at Columbia.

President Shafik continues to regularly consult with members of the community, including faculty, administration, and trustees, as well as with state, city and community leaders, said a Columbia spokesman. She appreciates the efforts of those working alongside her on the long road ahead to heal our community.

The faculty group first announced it lost confidence in the administration on April 19, after the first sweep of the encampment when cops arrested 113 protesters.

But after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republican leaders called for Shafiks resignation, the university Senate  made up of faculty, students and administrators  ultimately passed a softer resolution to investigate the administrations decision-making.

On Thursday, the AAUPs renewed demands also included that Columbia reopen campus to faculty, staff and students, and ask the NYPD to leave.

But they emphasized the erosion of trust did not happen all of a sudden and, instead, was a culmination of shocking failures of decision-making and judgment since the Israel-Hamas war began following the terror attacks of Oct. 7.

These offenses culminated in the horrific police attack on our students that is now shamefully on view for the whole world to see, AAUP wrote in a statement. A vote of no confidence in the president and her administration is the only way to begin rebuilding our shattered community.

It was not immediately clear if a vote will be held. To make it to the floor of the university Senate, a resolution would have to be brought by its executive committee.

The rebuke came a day after faculty and staff Wednesday held a rally against the universitys decision to call the NYPD, while other professors along the perimeter of campus condemned the new restrictions that barred them from classrooms.

Im back holding classes on Zoom today, during COVID times, Nina Berman, a professor at Columbia Journalism School, said Wednesday. Is this the campus our president wants? Is this the campus New York City wants? To have universities where people cant say anything, where people are excluded from their own universities?

But other people at Columbia backed Shafiks decision to sweep the demonstration.

Columbia student Eric S., 21, said he was not worried about campus protests until videos emerged of the student occupation of Hamilton Hall, where Adams and NYPD have said outside agitators escalated students antiwar protest.

Once it was clear that there were a lot of outside people not affiliated with Columbia coming into the campus, I thought it was pretty necessary, said Eric, a senior, who hoped police will quell the unrest through graduation.

New data Thursday showed that more than 45% of the pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at Columbia and nearby City College this week were unaffiliated with the schools, though it was unclear how many of the demonstrators were so-called outside agitators involved in driving the recent tumult on the campuses.

NYPD sources told The New York Daily News that 134 of the 282 people arrested were not affiliated with the schools. Arrest data show that about a third of those arrested were 30 or older, though it was not clear from those statistics how many of them were or werent affiliated with Columbia and City College.

(Josephine Stratman contributed to this report.)
An NYPD officer accidentally fired his gun while storming Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall Tuesday night during the operation to oust anti-Israel protesters who illegally took over the building, according to police sources.

The cop did not appear to aim the weapon at anyone, and no one was injured, said Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office.

Wild bodycam footage showed the melee that ensued after the NYPD raided Columbia and arrested hundreds of anti-Israel protesters. New York City Police Department

Sources told The Post it was likely an accidental discharge.

The DAs Police Accountability Unit is investigating the shooting, Cohen noted: It is our policy to review such incidents.

The cop fired the weapon as more than 100 Emergency Service Unit officers swarmed the Ivy League building April 30 to clear out the roughly 50 protesters who broke inside the night before.

The NYPD blocked journalists from getting too close to the break-up, instead relegating them to a nearby area where they witnessed the suspects be walked out in zip-tie handcuffs and placed into department buses.

In bodycam footage of the raid released by the NYPD Tuesday, several officers can be seen drawing their firearms after breaking down a barricaded door and sweeping one of the rooms.

Not affiliated with school: 13

Students at affiliated institutions: 6

Undergrad students: 14

Grad students: 9

Columbia employees: 2

They were also seen deploying flashbang stun grenades after cutting through one of several sets of barricades, consisting of a mountain of chairs and tables linked by a chained metal fence.

There was minimal physical contact shown in the videos  other than when an officer shoved a ski mask-clad rioter with what appeared to be a makeshift shield duct-taped to his arm.

Put it down, youre gonna get hurt, the cop said, as he pushed the protester to the floor.

A total of 109 people were arrested during Tuesday nights operation, which also included the final clearing of the encampment on the campus lawn  which started a nationwide trend at other elite universities since its mid-April erection.

Those inside Hamilton Hall were charged with burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief.
NEW YORK  An officer fired off his gun inside Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall during the NYPD raid Tuesday, police sources said.

A spokesperson with the Manhattan District Attorneys office Thursday confirmed the offices Police Accountability Unit had opened a probe into the shooting.

The officers with the NYPDs Emergency Service Unit had just entered Hamilton Hall and were on the first floor of the building when a cop moved his firearm from one hand to the other, police sources said.

At some point during the exchange, a shot was fired off.

Protesters were in a different part of the building when the shot rang out, the sources added.

On Wednesday morning, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard called the raid a calm, precise operation.

As the NYPD cleared out pro-Palestinian protesters whod taken over Hamilton Hall and the quad at City College, they arrested a total of 282 people, according to a police spokesperson.

Of those, 192 were released with summonses and 16 were given desk appearance tickets.

Another 74 people were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, said a spokesman from the Manhattan DAs office.

_____
An officer entering Columbia Universitys Hamilton Hall Tuesday evening to break up a pro-Palestinian demonstration fired his gun inside the hall, in an incident that is now under review by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs office a spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening in response to an inquiry from THE CITY.

The gun fired did not appear to be aimed at anyone and no one was injured, said Doug Cohen, a spokesperson for Braggs office, who said the offices Police Accountability Unit is reviewing the shooting, which it does as a matter of policy.

Cohen said no students and only police officers were in the immediate vicinity when the shooting occurred.

Rumors of the shooting had quickly spread among students, but had not been confirmed until Thursday. A video posted to X by student Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine Tuesday night showed a police officer texting, thought we fucking shot someone.

The gun discharge is the latest revelation about the highly-militarized NYPD action to break up a Pro-Palestinian student demonstration at the campus that been going on since April 17.

In multiple television and radio appearances, as well as a press conference Wednesday morning, Mayor Eric Adams praised the NYPDs precision policing and made no mention of the shooting.

During the raid, police blocked press access to that raid almost entirely, though they released a highly-edited, flashy video of dozens of officers storming the campus, breaking through barricaded doors and locks of the occupied hall, where demonstrators had barricaded themselves into early Tuesday morning.

In one clip, officers entered one Hamilton Hall room with weapons drawn.

The video also shows officers using flash-bangs, or stun grenades.

Its pretty unusual to use flashbangs for something like this absent some intel about a serious threat to officers, said a veteran law-enforcement official.

Ive never seen them used for search warrants involving guns, let alone some barricaded college kids.

A spokesperson for the NYPD didnt immediately return a request for comment. Ben Chang, a spokesperson for Columbia University, declined to comment, deferring to the NYPD.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates from THE CITY.

THE CITY is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker.
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, Manhattan (PIX11)  An NYPD officers gun was accidentally fired while protesters were being removed from a Columbia University building on Tuesday night, according to authorities.

Columbias administration asked the NYPD to handle protesters inside Hamilton Hall. No one was injured after the shot was fired, police said.

Mayor Adams claims outside agitators are co-opting college protests

Around 300 people were arrested in protests at Columbia University and City College on Tuesday, according to the NYPD. The mayor and NYPD have claimed outside agitators influenced protests at the colleges and said 29% of the protesters arrested at Columbia were not students.

At City College, 60% of the individuals arrested were not affiliated with the school, officials claimed.

Pro-Palestinian protesters take down encampment at Rutgers University

Colleges are negotiating with students, who are asking the schools to divest from companies that support Israel. Columbia has offered to share more information on its finances and review it with the divestment committee.

Instead, Columbia is looking into making investments in health and education in Gaza.

The NYPD worked Friday morning to clear out encampments at NYU and The New School at the request of the colleges, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry.

Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
An officer for the New York Police Department discharged their gun at Columbia University while working to clear out pro-Palestine protesters on Tuesday evening, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office confirmed to The Daily Beast.

The gunfire, first reported by The City, took place at the universitys Hamilton Hallthe building that was taken over by protesters this week as they continue to clash with university officials and cops.

Despite there being hundreds of protesters holed up in the building at the time of the gun being fired, prosecutors told The City that only other NYPD officers were in the immediate vicinity of the scene and nobody was injured.

In a statement to The City, the NYPD said the Emergency Service Unit officer in question was conducting an extensive and methodical search of an area of the first floor when he was attempting to access a barricaded area. Using a flashlight to illuminate the area, a firearm attached to the flashlight was accidentally discharged by the officer.

The round struck a frame in the wall a few feet away. The round did not strike any persons and did not cause any injuries.

The incident caused rumors to swell at Columbia, as protesters feared their clashes with officers may had reached a potentially fatal breaking point. However, police sources told the New York Post that the gunfire was likely an accidental discharge and not in response to any protest activity.

The NYPD later confirmed in its statement, adding that after an immediate investigation, the incident was deemed an accidental discharge.

Trump Calls Into Fox, Praises NYPDs Columbia Crackdown

The district attorneys office confirmed that it is probing Tuesdays incident, but has not released a statement.

The scene at Columbia was incredibly chaotic on Tuesday, with videos showing officers climbing into Hamilton Hall by breaching its second floor using a military-style vehicle parked on a closed street outside. The building was raided room-by-room by cops who carried zip ties and riot shields.

The City reported that some officers entered the building with weapons drawn, and that videos spread online showing officers throwing flash-bangs into rooms where protesters had barricaded themselves.

Police arrested than 100 protesters in the crackdown, which pushed the tally of arrested protesters above 2,000 at campuses nationwide by Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to questions sent by The Daily Beast, and the officer involved in the incident has not been named.

Columbia, which has refused to divest from Israel despite protesters demands, has not commented on the incident.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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SYDNEY, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The Australian state government of New South Wales (NSW) announced that an emergency package to prevent domestic violence would be unveiled within days after a special cabinet meeting held on Friday.

According to the NSW government, an emergency package is currently in its finalizing process, which will feature statewide crisis responses and frontline services, primary prevention, and early intervention.

The state government will also look into reforms to the justice system to better protect victims.

"Today we had an emergency special cabinet meeting to hear from, to draw from the expertise and the lived experience of several people, including experience from Victoria and their royal commission, about what the New South Wales government can and should be doing immediately and into the future to end the scourge of domestic family and sexual violence," said NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car.

At a press conference following the cabinet meeting, Car confirmed that the state government would deliver the package within days.

"Then we will also be talking about the medium and the long-term actions that we need to invest in and drive as a government, in terms of driving the cultural change to stop women from dying, and to stop women from being victims of domestic violence, family violence and violence in their intimate relationships," Car noted.

A recent report from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed that in the 12 months to December 2023, there were 36,072 domestic violence recorded by police across the state, up 3.6 percent annually on average over five years. 
The New York Police Department scheduled a news conference Friday after confirming that an officer accidentally fired a gunshot during the clearing of protesters from Columbia University's Hamilton Hall on Tuesday. The shot lodged in a wall. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

May 3 (UPI) -- The New York Police Department will hold a press conference Friday about a shot accidentally fired from an officer's gun during the clearing of protesters from Columbia University's Hamilton Hall Tuesday.

The bullet hit the frame of a wall, but no one was hurt. The officer was not identified.

The shot was first reported by the local news outlet The City, and confirmed by Doug Cohen, a spokesperson from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.

Columbia University spokesperson Ben Chang declined to comment on the shot from the police gun, deferring to the NYPD.

The police have scheduled a news conference for 11:30 a.m. EDT.

New York Police Department officers move onto the Columbia University campus in large numbers on Tuesday before removing and arresting Pro-Palestine protesters who occupied the Hamilton Hall. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

The prosecutor's Police Accountability Unit was reviewing the shot discharged from the NYPD officer's gun. "It is our policy to review such incidents," Cohen said.

Police said the officer was moving through a barricaded area using a gun with a flashlight and said he fired the gun accidentally, authorities said.

The bullet wound up in the frame of a wall a few feet away, according to an NYPD statement. A body cam was on when the gun fired.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, students were not in the immediate vicinity of the gunfire.

More than 100 officers were involved in the Tuesday clearing of Hamilton Hall after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the building.

Police were asked by the university to clear the building when dissent on campus became unlawful occupation with vandalism after protesters broke into the building.
MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11)  At least 13 people were arrested as the NYPD cleared out a protest encampment on the NYU campus Friday morning, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry.

In the event the protesters do not vacate the site voluntarily, we request the NYPD take enforcement action accordingly up to and including arrest, NYU administrators wrote to the NYPD. The protesters began camping out on campus on April 26, according to NYU.

The New School also called in the NYPD on Friday morning to clear out encampments inside the university center building and residence hall, Daughtry wrote on X. At least 43 students were taken into custody at The New School campus, according to the NYPD.

Adams pressed about presence of outside agitators at college protests in NYC

The clear-out comes after it was revealed an NYPD officer accidentally fired their gun while dispersing protesters in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.

Around 300 people were arrested at Columbia and City College on Tuesday night, according to the NYPD.

Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Oblivious suspect drops pile of wallets and IDs at feet of deputies, Florida cops say

A man suspected of prowling made matters a lot more complicated when he began rifling through multiple wallets, IDs and a pile of other peoples mail while being question, Florida investigators say.

Then came a baggie of cocaine, a number of pills and a gun, the Polk County Sheriffs Office said in a news release.

The odd encounter happened around 5:20 a.m. Wednesday, May 1, in Winter Haven, about a 50-mile drive east of Tampa.

A resident of Eagle Loop Road reported a suspicious person and deputies arrived to find a 22-year-old man standing in someones backyard.

The man ... said that the only reason he was at the location was to throw away trash from his two backpacks, and then he proceeded to do just that, the sheriffs office reports.

The deputy noticed (him) was throwing away multiple envelopes with multiple addresses on them, and multiple IDs belonging to multiple people, and then multiple wallets fell out of his backpack.

Cocaine, oxycodone hydrochloride and alprazolam pills were also found, officials said.

(He) created suspicions. Multiple suspicions. And that caused the investigation to grow. Eventually, it was determined that (he) had recently committed some burglaries in the area, the sheriffs office said.

The suspect, who lives about 15 miles away in Davenport, was arrested and charged with seven counts of armed burglary, two counts of grand theft, four counts of petit theft, unlawful possession of personal ID, loitering and prowling, and possession of burglary tools, cocaine, alprazolam, oxycodone, and drug paraphernalia, the sheriffs office said.

Wanted man jumps in pickup, throws cash at passengers to shut them up, Florida cops say

Dad grabs pistol and joins deputys gunfight with suspect in yard, Florida cops say

Amazon delivery man picked up womans $4,000 dog and drove off, Florida cops say
Can Ohios public universities divest from Israel? State law says no

Photo by WEWS.

Pro-Palestine demonstrators in Ohio have been urging colleges to divest from Israel, but state law actually prevents any public university from boycotting the country.

More than 40 protestors have been arrested at The Ohio State Universitys campus while opposing the Israel-Hamas war, according to the university.

When police are called in to deal violently with students  it is never acceptable to do that to peaceful protesters, Rachael Collyer with the Ohio Student Association said.

Advocates like Collyer are demanding that OSU cut ties with Israel  in a move often referred to as BDS, which means Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.

Along with the state troopers, Statehouse leaders are now getting involved.

Hopefully everyone would be safe and also be able to express their First Amendment rights, but we also have to do that within the rules, House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said.

The speaker said that the students need to listen to not only the OSU president but also to the Ohio Revised Code.

Pursuant to Ohio state law, state entities cannot divest interests in Israel. Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits the university from divesting any interests in Israel and prohibits adopting or adhering to a policy that requires divestment from Israel or with persons or entities associated with it, OSU spokesperson Ben Johnson told me.

Hes right, Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Entin explained.

State law forbids state educational institutions from boycotting Israel, Entin said.

Back in 2016, Ohio banned state agencies from boycotting Israel or from entering into contracts with companies that have anti-Israel policies.

Then in 2022, the law was edited to include universities  but this only applies to public ones.

Case Western Reserve University is on its third day of encampment.

We are a private institution, the rules dont apply the same for them as they do here, said CWRU student Jas Kamhawi Oglesby. We will stay here in solidarity.

Case Western students say that they are glad they could still make change but are asking for legislators to repeal the law.

No, Senate President Matt Huffmans spokesperson, John Fortney, said, declining to provide any more comment.

There are the same feelings in the other chamber.

Speaker Stephens strongly values our partnership with Israel. We are committed to keeping investments open between the State of Ohio, businesses that do business with Israel, and Israeli companies themselves. This strong relationship should not change, Stephens spokesperson Pat Melton said.

Melton also reminded of Stephens statement from October 7, how the war started when Hamas attacked Israeli citizens at a music festival.

I strongly condemn the heinous terrorist attacks carried out today by Iranian-backed Hamas against the people of Israel. My heart goes out to the victims of these cowardly actions and their families across the world. The United States stands with Israel as they rightfully defend their homeland. May we all offer prayers during these times, the speaker said.

The Statehouse has been publicly supporting Israel consistently since the attack, with both chambers passing resolutions condemning Hamas in October.

State Treasurer Robert Sprague continues to buy Israel Bonds, with both a $30 million purchase in February and a $15 million in March.

Israel Bonds have been  and continue to be  a strong investment for the State of Ohio as a result of their competitive rates and perfect record of interest and principal payments. Since 1993, every Ohio Treasurer has turned to these securities as a way to bring strength and balance to the states investment portfolio. These positive benefits have remained unchanged, and Israel Bonds remain strong investments for our state, spokesperson Laura Martine said.

I asked specifically for Spragues thoughts on the calls for divestment.

Our thought is there are no merits for divestment, as these bonds remain a strong investment for the State of Ohio, she responded.

When he purchased the bond in February, Sprague addressed his desire to help the Middle-Eastern allies.

Israels need for support remains as they continue their fight against terrorism, Sprague said. Not only do Israel Bonds help provide much-needed liquidity to Israel, but their solid repayment history and competitive rates also provide a sound investment for Ohio and a great fit on our bond ladder.

There is one way that public schools could try to cut ties with the country, but Entin said it is virtually impossible and would face legal challenges.

They have to certify that theyre not engaged in a prohibited boycott of Israel, he said.

State law has a provision stating that a boycott would not be considered a decision based on business or economic reasons.

Gov. Mike DeWines team pointed out that university boards of trustees are required to act in the best financial interest of their university, so they would need to prove that ending contracts would benefit the university fiscally.

Taxpayer-supported institutions should run as leanly as possible so that taxpayers get the best value for their dollars, spokesperson Dan Tierney said. These calls for divestment are specifically divorced from those duties in the efforts to make political statements.

Attorney General Dave Yosts team is also adding that the law basically requires schools to keep their financial support for Israel.

OSU holds investments through contracts with various indexes, spokesperson Bethany McCorkle said. OSU is prohibited from using such indexes if they divest from Israeli assets.

But Collyer said that even if OSU cant financially remove itself, the administration could be doing more.

They could be allowing students to express their First Amendment rights on campus, she said, adding that the troopers and campus police have been violent.

Tierney explained that DeWine called the troopers in because OSU asked for it.

From everything weve seen, all the agencies involved have acted appropriately  enforcing the laws, being professional and working to allow people to exercise their First Amendment, he said. And accomplishing the goals of just keeping everybody safe and ensuring access to the university.

Collyer added that she would be open to supporting litigation against the state law, saying it goes against free speech.

Entin argued that argument probably wouldnt hold up in court.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

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The post Can Ohios public universities divest from Israel? State law says no appeared first on Ohio Capital Journal.
Former President Donald Trump will spend part of his weekend hosting the latest episode of "The Apprentice," but this time it's the vice presidential edition.

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, is one of the contestants.

Vance, a first-term senator, has been particularly vocal about defending Trump against his indictments in four separate criminal cases, including the ongoing hush money trial in New York.

A frequent television news guest, Vance's stock rose this week after reporters obtained an invitation showing that he would headline a fundraiser for the former president in Cincinnati on May 15. Vance is also friends with a key figure in Trump's orbit: Donald Trump Jr.

Vance told Fox News and CNN this week that he has not talked with Trump about the running mate position.

"Of course, if he asked me, I'd have to think seriously about it because I think it's really important that he win," Vance told "Fox News Sunday."

At least six contenders for the former president's running mate including Vance, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum  will attend a Republican donor retreat Friday and Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, in what looks like a series of auditions.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for Republican leaders and supporters to come together," says the invitation to the event, which also will include panel discussions featuring campaign officials and Republican lawmakers that are closed to the media.

But in Palm Beach, most eyes will be on the vice presidential candidates who have been trying out for months at campaign rallies, primary parties, meetings and television interviews to join Trump on the GOP ticket that in 2016 and 2020 included Mike Pence.

Trump, who liked to keep contestants guessing when he hosted "The Apprentice" reality show, has been throwing out mixed signals about his running mate in recent months.

"Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump," senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes told USA TODAY in a statement.

Here's what you need to know about Trump's potential VP picks:

Donald Trump brought his returning bid for the White House to Greenville, S.C. The former President was in town for a Ingraham Angle Town Hall at the Greenville Convention Center on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott takes the stage.

Sen. Tim Scott

If Trump seeks a historic pick, he could make Scott the Republican Party's first Black vice presidential candidate.

Scott, who once competed against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, ultimately hit the campaign trail for his former rival in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

On the other hand: Trump has suggested he doesn't want an heir apparent running mate who has designs on the 2028 presidential election, and Scott could fall into that category if he decides to launch another White House bid.

That's the reason prominent figures like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson keep popping up. Carson is not expected to launch another White House campaign  and he's not scheduled to attend the donor retreat this weekend.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) making her way to the House Chambers on Tuesday, Feb 13, 2024 prior to the House Republicans narrowly securing a historic vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, rallying GOP members after a first failed effort.

Rep. Elise Stefanik

Trump could also make history by picking a woman, and Stefanik has been on his potential list for months.

A member of House leadership, Stefanik endorsed Trump early, campaigned aggressively for him in New Hampshire and often speaks to conservative groups like the RNC donor conference this weekend in Palm Beach.

Stefanik has also been a vocal critic of Trump's criminal cases, to the point of filing a legal complaint against special counsel Jack Smith. He is the lead prosecutor in the cases alleging Trump mishandled classified information and tried to steal the 2020 election.

Sen. Marco Rubio

Rubio, a senator from the state where the conference is being held, would also make history as the first Latino person on a national ticket.

A Trump-Rubio duo could raise a legal problem because they both live in Florida. Some attorneys believe running mates from the same state might be forced to forfeit that state's electoral votes. That's why running mate Dick Cheney moved residency from Texas back to Wyoming when former President George W. Bush tapped him in 2000.

The Florida problem might also affect the chances of another GOP lawmaker and potential running mate who plans to attend the donor retreat: U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

Doug Burgum dropped out of the presidential race Dec. 4.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum

There are always long-shot candidates  for example, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008  and Burgum is one of the speakers at the weekend soiree.

Trump could consider the fact that the North Dakota governor endorsed and spoke on his behalf at an event the day before the Iowa caucuses. Burgum has been more enthusiastic for Trump than other former 2024 candidates who are not being considered for running mate, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Another politician not on Trump's list: former Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence turned against Trump over the latter's demand in 2021 that his vice president try to throw out the electoral votes that elected Biden to the presidency, a step Pence insisted he never legally could have taken. Trump has also appeared indifferent after mobs threatened Pence's life as they invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

Noem will appear at this weekend's conference at a fraught time for her vice presidential prospects after a story in her new book revealed she shot the family dog because it kept attacking people and livestock.

The story prompted criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Donald Trump Jr., on his podcast "Triggered," called the revelation "not ideal."

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Noem, who described the dog as dangerous, said: "It's an unfortunate situation, but one that I hope people understand. ... They need to hear the truth and not what the media has been spinning."

Plenty of advice for Trump

As he assesses his options, Trump is getting plenty of advice from associates, lawmakers and donors about whom he should pick.

Some of the potential choices are not scheduled to be in Palm Beach this weekend, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (a former Trump press secretary), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

On his radio show, Donald Trump Jr. told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon that his father should "accelerate" the running mate decision, especially given the fact that Trump is tied up in court,

'Youve got a deep bench to do it," Bannon replied. "Youve got great people, J.D. Vance, Gov. Burgum of North Dakota. You know, youve got Dr. Carson, others.

Others said there's no telling when Trump will make his decision.

Newt Gingrich, whom Trump considered for running mate in 2016, said the former president will act when he's ready.

"Im relaxing and watching to see what (Trump) does; he will only do it out of intuition," Gingrich told USA TODAY. "I suspect that hes looking at (Marco) Rubio, hes looking at Scott, Tim Scott, and I think hes probably looking at a couple of women candidates, but I think hes going to think it through at his own pace. I think hes in no hurry.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance meeting with Donald Trump as VP rumors grow
A local justice group is taking several northeast Oklahoma City residents and metro area police officers to the nation's capital on a trip aimed at enhancing dialogue and establishing relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Leaders with the OK Justice Circle said there is room for two more law officers now that Edmond Police Chief J.D. Younger has committed to sending a representative from his department and former Midwest City Police Chief Sid Porter has also agreed to join the group.

The Rev. Jon Middendorf, an OK Justice Circle member and senior minister of First Church of the Nazarene, said the weeklong trip planned for July will be free to participants. It is designed to bring Black residents from northeast Oklahoma City together with representatives from police departments for dialogue and an extended opportunity to learn more about each other and engage in empathic listening.

Jon Middendorf

He said he was optimistic about the potential for connection and movement toward peace.

"The whole point of the trip is to give folks opportunities to hear one another, to see one another in a better light and then to see if friendship might work more to achieve peace than protest, and even policy work," Middendorf said. "Obviously, we still have to do the policy work and sometimes we need to do the protests. But, I don't know that we have invested in the power of connection yet the way that we could or should. I think that there might be some potential there."

Middendorf said the trip will include a visit to the White House and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a Smithsonian Institute museum located on the National Mall. The group also will visit the National Law Enforcement Museum. The pastor said U.S. Sen. James Lankford helped the OK Justice Circle with certain aspects of the trip.

Younger, with the Edmond Police Department, said he didn't hesitant to accept the invitation for one of his officers to be part of the coming trip. He said he has been attending OK Justice Circle's Breaking Bread events. He said he felt the Washington trip was a natural evolution of those community forums.

Wayland Cubit

"I think the Edmond community as a whole has the philosophy of community policing, quite simply police and community working in partnership," Younger said. "So, I think one of the foundational elements of that is for police to stay engaged and aware and constantly learning and seeking to understand different perspectives that may exist in our community."

Middendorf will be part of the OK Justice Circle trip along with Wayland Cubit, another OK Justice Circle member. Cubit, a retired Oklahoma City police lieutenant, currently serves as director of security for Oklahoma City Public Schools and is running for Oklahoma County sheriff.

"The OK Justice Circle just wants to establish relationships from unlikely places to talk about justice and unity and what that looks like for each group," he said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Justice Circle plans trip to DC for OKC police, residents
OKC looking for input on city budget, community needs in new feedback site

Oklahoma City staff members are hoping a new website tool will aid residents in giving feedback for the upcoming city budget slated to be adopted in June.

Vision, unveiled three months ago, is the name of the responsive website run by the city's communications team. Staff see it as a centralized hub for more interactive and deeper engagement from members of the public on budget issues and critical needs over the next month and beyond.

If someone sends me an email and says, Hey, you should add a park,  thats a great point, and we will look at that," said Christian York, the city's budget director. "The question is, what are you willing to give up, or what are you willing to prioritize over that? So, there needs to be a dialogue.

Residents can submit ideas, no matter how big or small, and hold conversations about those ideas with communications staff and each other at https://vision.okc.gov/.

In the "Budget Feedback" section, the page functions as a web forum where visitors can leave comments and replies in community threads. Elsewhere on the site, people can add an idea card or use the webpage map to drop a pin on a location they think deserves more attention. Staff will share the data with other city departments to better prioritize projects and fulfill community needs.

We really want to strive for meaningful engagement, and so many times, whether thats MAPS or any other department, we want to take that and really incorporate ideas and listen to people," said Zach Nash, communications and engagement manager for Oklahoma City. "But people are just kind of overwhelmed, and theres possibilities for engagement fatigue. And so, with a site like this, not only can we capture data, we can capture information for specific topics. But what were really looking to do is kind of overlap and share information that might be beneficial for different departments and different projects.

More: Despite potential cuts, the OKC budget proposal could be highest ever: Here's what we know

In the past, the city used the mobile app OKC Connect, which is typically how residents report code violations to the city's Action Center, as an additional way of gathering feedback on community needs for major funding packages, like the Better Streets Safer City initiative.

"It wasnt made for that, but it was the only tool we had at the time," Nash said.

This time, city staff members are hopeful the new Vision website will help expand access for input from residents on the proposed $2 billion city budget proposal.

OKC budget comment period open until May 20

The formal 20-day comment period for the city budget proposal opened Tuesday, the same day the citys police and fire departments presented their proposals for the budget.

Weve typically extended that, and Im open to doing that this year as well, but I think our process will change so maybe that wont be necessary, York said.

The three-week period for public comment is currently scheduled to close on May 20, ahead of an Oklahoma City Council meeting on May 28, where city staff also will present a summary of comments to the council. June 4 will be the final public hearing on the budget as city council formally adopts the plan for the next fiscal year.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice said the 20-day comment period is too short of a window to gather feedback from residents. York and Nash acknowledged that the three-week window does present challenges, and hope the new website's engagement features can help drive future feedback year-round.

Beyond the budget this month, Nash also said the Vision platform will play a key role in how the city collects feedback soon for the next general bond issue, which will continue to fund and address critical infrastructure needs.

'Willing to listen': Action Center works across the spectrum of Oklahoma City complaints

Where to share budget comments

Residents can leave feedback through several pathways:

https://vision.okc.gov/

Email budgetcomments@okc.gov

Text 405-252-1053.

Comments also can be mailed to the city clerks office at 200 N Walker Ave., 2nd floor, Oklahoma City, OK 73102.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Vision website allows residents to give feedback on issues
The United Methodist Church removed anti-LGBTQ+ language from the denomination's Social Principles guide on Thursday and affirmed same-sex marriage with historic votes applauded by Oklahomans who have been waiting for such change for decades.

"Such a harsh divisive part of our history is actually over," said the Rev. Trina Bose-North, senior pastor of Crown Heights United Methodist Church, 1021 NW 37.

Bose-North said she felt she could fully celebrate the full LGBTQ+ inclusion with Thursday's vote by the denomination's General Conference delegates. The delegates meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, did away with wording stating that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching that had been part of the United Methodist Church's Social Principles. Delegates of the denomination's legislative body also voted to revise the principles to remove language that solely affirms marriage between a man and a woman. Instead, the lawmaking assembly inserted wording that affirms both heterosexual unions and same-sex unions:

"Within the church, we affirm marriage as a sacred lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith [adult man and woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age] into union with one another," the revised statement said.

"It's good news but this comes after decades of our Church rejecting LGBTQ+ people in devastating ways," Bose-North said. "So many wanting to be married in their home churches denied. So many called people turned away from the church they loved. So many put their jobs and hearts on the line to advocate for these changes."

United Methodist Church also lifted ban on LGBTQ+ clergy

Thursday's changes came on the heels of other historic votes delegates took the day before. Wednesday, delegates lifted a ban on LGBTQ+ clergy ordination that had been in effect since 1984. The group also removed penalties for ministers officiating at same-sex unions and churches choosing to host same-sex weddings. The anti-LGBTQ+ wording removed on Thursday regarding same-sex marriage had been in place since 1972.

The denomination's Social Principles represent the United Methodist Church's public stands on issues of the day and are not church law, according to United Methodist News, the official outlet of the United Methodist Church.

The news outlet said General Conference delegates that met in 1972 voted to add the following words to the Social Principles: We do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider it incompatible with Christian teaching. The new statement came after the phrase persons of homosexual orientation are persons of sacred worth.

The 1972 General Conference delegates also adopted the statement: We do not recommend marriage between two persons of the same sex.

Laron Chapman and Craig Jackson, from left, are seen in photo in Oklahoma City in 2021.

For some gay couples like Craig Jackson and Laron Chapman, of Oklahoma City, the news about their former denomination was "bittersweet." The couple married in 2022 at what was then Mosaic United Methodist Church, painfully aware that the retired minister who officiated and, perhaps, their church, might pay negative consequences. Their church, currently known as Mosaic Community Church, 3131 NW 50, disaffiliated from the denomination in 2023.

"I'm kind of shocked, but it's good news," Jackson said on Thursday.

More: United Methodists strike down 52-year-old statement on homosexuality and Christianity

"It's bittersweet in a way because Mosaic did disaffiliate  we just couldn't get any certainity about what was going to happen (at General Conference)."

The Rev. Scott Spencer, Mosaic's senior minister, said he was excited for the United Methodist Church though he is no longer a member of the denomination.

"Today, the church has said what many of us have know, and what queer people have always known, and that is that they have never been incompatible to God," Spencer said.

"My prayer is that people's hearts would be open even in areas where exclusionary policies will remain in place or where civil laws do not protect the rights of LGBTQ+ persons in the United Methodist Church. I celebrate how God is continuing to speak to the church and what God is doing in the church and the world."

Meanwhile, several General Conference delegates representing the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference, shared their views.

"Today's wording gives us the ability to continue to be a worldwide church, which is a strength," said the Rev. Derrek Belase, the Oklahoma conference's director of connection ministries.

"I do believe that we have enacted (John) Welsey's first rule of 'Do no harm' throughout this conference. We can be a church which allows for inclusion of all God's people and still allows our local churches and individual pastors to follow their conscience. "

Belase said there was one aspect of note that he wanted to convey. He said he discussed it in a video posted on the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference's Facebook page.

"The key takeaway for me is that this is a stance of neutrality as I stated on our Facebook video," he said.

Another delegate, the Rev. Adam Shahan, senior pastor of Wesley United Methodist, 1501 NW 24, also weighed in on the matter.

Belase said there was one aspect of note that he wanted to convey. He said he discussed it in a video posted on the Oklahoma United Methodist Communication's Facebook page.

"The key takeaway for me is that this is a stance of neutrality as I stated on our Facebook video," he said.

Another delegate, the Rev. Adam Shahan, senior pastor of Wesley United Methodist, 1501 NW 24, also weighed in on the matter.

"The work accomplished today is a significant step forward in repentance for the harm done to the queer community by the United Methodist Church, the Book of Discipline, and the Social Principles," he said. "The changes today actually return us to the language in our general church rules prior to 1972."

"With disaffiliations behind us and codified prejudices removed, those consenting adults who feel called to the Christian marriage covenant may pursue it in the United Methodist Church. Those who feel called by God to ordained ministry may pursue discernment and the credentialing process regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity."

The Rev. D.A. Bennett

Contrasting stance

The Rev. D.A. Bennett, senior pastor of St. Andrew's Community Church, weighed in on Thursday's decisions by the United Methodist's legislative body. Bennett's church at 2727 SW 119 in south Oklahoma City disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church in 2022 and joined the Global Methodist Church, a Methodist denomination that launched in 2022. He said he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Global Methodist Church, but noted that his new denomination offers a clear contrast to his former denomination.

"These quotes are from the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church, and thus, constitute our standards," he said.

"In the Global Methodist Church we profess that 'we believe that human sexuality is a gift of God that is to be affirmed as it is exercised with the legal and spiritual covenant of a loving and monogamous marriage between one man and one woman.' We also are 'committed to be a safe place of refuge, hospitality and healing for any who may have experienced brokenness in their sexual lives.'"

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: United Methodist Church LGBTQ vote applauded by Oklahoma clergy
A pro-Palestine demonstration at the University of Mississippi was overtaken by counter-protesters Thursday, culminating with a viral clip of white students mimicking monkey noises and gestures in the direction of a Black woman.

That gross clip was captured moments before police shut down the demonstration entirely and escorted the outnumbered pro-Palestine protesters from the scene.

In the video, an unnamed white man in a light blue shirt is seen contorting his face to mimic that of a monkey while he motioned his arms back and forthracist tropes historically used to dehumanize Black Americans in the south. Another man, in a blue and yellow shirt, can be seen and heard making similar monkey-like noises.

Ole Miss taking care of business. pic.twitter.com/JiL9hs2pHz  Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 3, 2024

The racist mocking of the woman was praised by conservatives online, including Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who posted the clip with the caption, Ole Miss taking care of business.

Other clips preceding the outright racist outburst by a pair of Ole Miss students showed the same group of counter-protesters chanting, Lizzo, Lizzo, and, Fuck you, bitch, at the woman.

Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, "Lizzo! Lizzo!" and shout, "F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch" at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine.



Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews? pic.twitter.com/gUNYgUR7YL  Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) May 3, 2024

The woman at the center of the encounter has not been identified. Clips showed her lightly antagonizing the counter-protesters, flicking them off and walking toward them while filming.

The mens actions were condemned by progressives, including many who called out Collins for glorifying the disgusting gestures.

This is a video showing anti-Blackness, wrote the progressive lobbyist Nina Turner, responding to Collins on X. This is a sitting Congressman applauding it.

While initial counter-protesters on college campuses appeared to be staunchly pro-Israel last month, donning Israeli flags and calling for the return of hostages, pro-Palestine protests in the south have now been contested by conservative students whove sang The Star-Spangled Banner in unison and chanted, We want Trump.

Scenes from Ole Miss today: I think its fair to say this did not go the way pro-Palestinian protesters hoped. #FratBros pic.twitter.com/s4BLuGNTSR  Russ Latino (@RussLatino) May 2, 2024

There was a similar clash between protesters and counter-protesters on the campus of the University of North Carolina earlier this week. Thats when a group of fraternity members combined to take down a Palestine flag thatd been raised on campus and replaced it with the U.S. flag. A GoFundMe campaign to help the brothers host a massive party has since netted more than $500,000.

In a tongue-in-cheek fundraising mission, a GoFundMe author offered this take on whats happening across the country.

Bill Ackman Helps Bankroll Rager for UNC Frat Bros Who Defended U.S. Flag

Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak University Administrators, the fundraiser begins. But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the anti-semitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes. Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde laughing at their shrieks and wails and shielding the Stars & Stripes from Soviet missiles.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Theyre not going to make it, after all. Four years after re-opening in a new location in the midst of the pandemic, Perricones Marketplace & Cafe is shutting its doors.

The last day of service, May 16, will close a long chapter in Miami history.

The original Perricones, which opened on Oct. 16, 1996, was one of most popular restaurants in Brickell, long before the area morphed into so called Wall Street South, and one of the hottest neighborhoods on the planet.

Everyone thought I was crazy, recalled owner Steven J. Perricone, who bought the lot in 1997 for $775,000. Friends warned me that I would lose my shirt on this venture. Somehow, in my heart, I knew that a sense of community was growing in Brickell.

Steven Perricone of Perricones in Miami.

His instincts were spot on. With its charmingly rustic decor and Italian comfort food faves, Perricones was the It destination for countless date nights, after-work gatherings and milestone events.

The original Perricones exterior in Brickell

In February 2019, a year after Perricone sold the 11,000-square-foot lot for $16.18 million to citizenM hotels, the local gem closed. But the native New Yorker wasnt ready to give up the ship.

The forward thinker ended up purchasing a 5,400-square-foot building for a new space in the Roads, at 1700 SW Third Ave., about a half-mile away.

In July 2020, in the height of the pandemic, Perricones Marketplace and Cafe had a rebirth in a new, modern space.

Like the original, it included a large cafe and marketplace, full of cheeses, baked goods and gourmet delicacies, with a full bar and outdoor seating. Perricone managed to save the old wood beams and floors that he got from a Vermont barn built in the 1700s.

But after a few years there, the father of two, reaching a milestone himself  he turns 70 in September  finally decided to wrap things up.

It was a very, very tough decision, but it was time, said Perricone. I thought about retiring during COVID. It did so much to so many people, not just me, but it had been on my mind.

The Coral Gables resident, who still helps run the award-winning Sullivan Street Bakery in Little Haiti, says regulars have already been notified about the closing.

They tell me, It sucks for us, but were happy for you.

Short-term plans include spending more time with his family and basically doing whatever he wants, and when.

I can pick up and travel and do things spontaneously, he said. I was building and maintaining a business, so Ive said no quite a bit over the years. Now Ive got time.

Perricone can bow out pleased with his incredible legacy as a pioneer: He took a shot on a town way before everyone and their mother had moved there.

When I came to Brickell, it was very seasonal, with visitors from out of town, he recalled. What has happened now? Well, it just keeps growing. Its crazy, but amazing.
HANOI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang ordered Friday the use of Vietnam Electronic Identification (VNeID) as the only app for handling administrative procedures from July 1, 2024.

VNeID, a mobile phone app developed by the National Population Data Center of the Ministry of Public Security, aims at replacing traditional documents and providing utilities serving digital citizens, digital government and digital society.

It will save time and costs for citizens and state agencies, the prime minister said.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, public service portals in Vietnam have reported over 29.3 million electronic ID accounts.

Vietnam has saved about 469 billion Vietnamese dong (18.5 million U.S. dollars) thanks to online public services.

Over 53.1 million electronic ID accounts have been activated in Vietnam so far, said the ministry. 
University of Utah graduates who walked out of their commencement ceremony join a pro-Palestinian protest outside of the Jon M. Huntsman Center on May 2, 2024 (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)

One protester was arrested before a planned rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday outside of the University of Utahs Jon M. Huntsman Center.

While family and friends of the U.s class of 2024 walked into the event center with flowers and gifts to celebrate graduates during the schools commencement ceremony, another group planted itself on the lawn in front of the arena holding signs that read, free Palestine.

It was the third instance of demonstrations in Utah this week amid a wave of protests nationwide. About 30 college campuses across the country have seen massive protests, with students setting up large encampments to protest the Israel-Hamas war. Some have turned violent.

While Monday nights protest at the University of Utah resulted in 20 arrests after protesters were ordered to break down encampments, Thursday nights demonstration was largely peaceful.

Only a couple of dozen people were gathering outside of Jon Huntsman Center for commencement when one of the protesters got arrested @UTNewsDispatch pic.twitter.com/Coy1YARsJ2  Alixel Cabrera (@AlixelCabrera) May 2, 2024

While about two dozen people gathered, and before any chants started, University of Utah Police arrested one of the organizers. A school spokesperson said the protester was not affiliated with the university and was suspected of illegal behavior from Monday nights protest, similar to another organizer who was arrested Tuesday ahead of a planned rally and faced three charges from Monday night for alleged trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.

I didnt do anything, the organizer said while being escorted by about seven officers on Thursday.

A few minutes after that arrest, the schools commencement ceremony started inside of the arena, where more than 8,600 students were set to graduate and where some planned on walking out during the University of Utah President Taylor Randalls opening speech.

As soon as Randall started speaking, some people in the crowd shouted free Palestine, which was followed by a sea of boos.

U of U president got booed for a second during commencement while some students yelled Palestine. Randall asked those who were protesting to leave. If not they would be removed. About four graduates walked out. pic.twitter.com/iGZOyDJNqu  Alixel Cabrera (@AlixelCabrera) May 3, 2024

These have been years of hard academic work from your peers, Randall said. He warned those who continue to protest will have to leave or you will be removed, which prompted many graduates to clap in celebration.

About a dozen graduates walked out and joined organizers from the student club Mecha de U de U, a socialist organization that advocates for the rights of people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, and members of the Utah Party for Socialism and Liberation outside.

Amanda Azar, a 23 year-old who was graduating in international studies and human rights, was one. Wearing her black graduation stole with the red U. logo on the sleeves, she said she doesnt want to wear U. attire anymore, as she didnt feel proud of the schools administration and how it handled the Monday night protest in which 19 people were arrested for camping on the school grounds.

On Monday, what was a peaceful protest asking the university to cut ties with companies that support Israel in its war on Gaza, took a violent turn when hundreds of officers dismantled the encampment and tackled some demonstrators to arrest them.

I just want to make it clear to Taylor Randall that we do not support any of that, and we do not stand with him or support him if he is unwilling to support us, Azar said.

Randall issued a statement on Tuesday saying that while students and faculty members were welcome to express their views legally and peacefully, they didnt have the right to violate the law or school policy, such as setting up structures or camp overnight on school property.

Azar, who is Palestinian, was accompanied by her family in the protest outside. She didnt feel bad about missing the ceremony, she said, but she was disappointed with the actions that led her to skip her graduation.

There are people missing out on their lives and missing out on their families. I dont want to hear any supporters of genocide speak. I dont want to hear what they have to say, she said.

For her, it was important that her little brother, standing next to her, could see her taking a stand. She could tell her family was proud of her for it, she said. But, at the same time, she was disheartened to hear most of her peers boo her protest in the arena.

The people who have students attending this university should be aware that this is a university that will not hesitate to put your children in harms way if your children disagree with them, Azar said. I think that the university calling the police in riot gear to come and brutalize their students is abhorrent and inexcusable.

Romney joins efforts to penalize convicted protesters

The University of Utah demonstrations are part of a movement spread in many American campuses that has been condemned by many Republican elected officials.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, joined 18 other Republicans running No Bailouts for Campus Criminals Act, a bill that would make any person convicted of any offense under any federal or state law in connection with a protest at a college or university ineligible for federal student loan relief.

Romney, who has opposed President Joe Bidens initiatives to forgive student loans, said those policies were already unfair and irresponsible.

No one should especially support a taxpayer bailout for students who engage in the criminal behavior were seeing on college campuses across the nation right now, Romney said in a news release. Our legislation ensures that students convicted of a crime while protesting at our institutions of higher education are ineligible for federal student debt relief.

The post One more pro-Palestinian protester arrested on University of Utah commencement day appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
Im Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

Around 5,000 people work at RDU1, Amazons sprawling four-floor fulfillment center in the Wake County town of Garner. A few clock in harboring covert intentions.

Ahead of May Day this week, I checked in with the Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or C.A.U.S.E., which launched in early 2022 to unionize the facilitys workforce. Amazon is the nations second-largest private employer and no fan of unions. North Carolina is the nations second-least unionized state and lacks a robust organizing track record.

Any union campaign at RDU1 was always going to be a process. So, when people approach C.A.U.S.E. about how to contribute, group organizers have suggested some take jobs there. This is a common, if controversial, organizing tactic known as salting, in which pro-labor advocates get hired at workplaces they wish to unionize. These workers, known as salts, complete shifts alongside colleagues while accessing spaces regular organizers cant.

Weve supported some people who are inside now that are salts, said Adam Stromme of C.A.U.S.E.

At some workplaces, salts are paid organizers who get recruited and trained by large unions to cultivate support. But at RDU1, Stromme insists his independent organizing group doesnt have the desire or budget to coordinate a formal salting campaign.

The initiative comes from outside to C.A.U.S.E., not from C.A.U.S.E. to other people, Stromme said.

The 100-year-old strategy can be a sensitive topic. Organizers worry management will portray it as a sign of an inorganic campaign. And employers tend to despise salts. Sean Redmond of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce deemed salting a potentially destructive tactic, in a 2022 post. This March, a Republican U.S. representative proposed a bill that would make employers more aware of salts.

Thats one of the issues employers have raised, that its a conflict of interest, said Eric Fink a labor law professor at Elon University. But as Fink pointed out, salting is a federally protected labor activity; in 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice, even when job applicants are also paid by a union.

You take the job, you have to do the work, Stromme said. It makes no difference whats in their head. Youre still scanning packages at the same rate as any other worker.

Still, Stromme said its best to hide the existence of salts from employers whenever possible. Advocates label Amazon a union buster, and the company faced 240 open or settled unfair labor practice charges at the end of last year, according to the National Labor Relations Board, including accusations of illegal behavior around union elections. Just this week, an NLRB judge found Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had violated federal labor law when he said workers would be better off without a union.

In February, Amazon argued the NLRB is unconstitutional.

Open Source

No union election appears imminent at RDU1. Before calling for a vote, organizers must obtain union authorization cards from at least 30% of employees. In practice, the necessary percentage tends to surpass 50% before unions will ask the National Labor Relations Board for an election.

Stromme said C.A.U.S.E. isnt ready to collect cards. For now, the group is power mapping the 2 million-square-foot complex to see where support is growing and stagnating. The organization believes having a federally recognized union can deliver its demands for $30-an-hour wage for entry-level employees, 180 hours of personal time off, paid sick leave, and a one-hour lunch break (compared to the current 30 minutes.)

If salts pitch in to achieve these goals, C.A.U.S.E. wont mind.

In a statement to the N&O, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards said, Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union. They always have. We favor opportunities for each person to be respected and valued as an individual, and to have their unique voice heard by working directly with our team. The fact is, Amazon already offers what many unions are requesting: industry-leading pay, health benefits on day one, and opportunities for career growth.

Disclose and divest was easier in the 80s

Divestment demands on college campuses today may echo the South Africa divestment movement of the 1980s, but pulling endowment money from any particular country is much, much harder now. There are external endowment managers and a more complex endowment investing approach called the Yale Model. Plus, colleges dont even know where all their endowment money is precisely going  and they arent always entitled to find out under the current setup.

This week, I spoke to three people with UNC-Chapel Hill ties (a former chancellor, a finance professor, and a current board of trustees member) to learn more about whether divesting from Israel is feasible. Spoiler: The answer is not very.

Investing in general was much simpler 40 years ago. In 1986, UNC-Chapel Hill was able to identify that 7.5% of its $100 million endowment was held in traditional stocks and bonds from companies with ties to apartheid South Africa. In modern times, however, there are commingled investment vehicles and private venture-backed buyouts. Disentangling how much of a multibillion-dollar endowment is linked to a developed nation like Israel is all but impossible.

Furthermore, North Carolina actually outlaws state agencies from investing in, or making contracts with, companies that are boycotting Israel. The law was passed in 2017. Ben and Jerrys was added to the list last year. Its difficult to imagine UNC, while not a company per se, being next.

A person walks by signs outside of the Campus Y building hours after UNC-Chapel Hill police detained members of a pro-Palestinian Gaza solidarity encampment early Tuesday morning.

Clearing my cache

A proposed state bill would ban cryptocurrency mines in three Western North Carolina counties. These noisy sites have sparked plenty of ire in a handful of rural communities statewide in places like Murphy , Asheboro and Greenville .

Ricoh , a Japanese printing company, opened a new office at North Carolina State Universitys Centennial Campus that will focus on 3-D printing technologies.

The cybersecurity startup (and one-time unicorn) JupiterOne will have a new CEO. Founder and outgoing CEO Erkang Zheng will step aside from leading the Morrisville company but will remain as board chair. Paul Forte, the companys current chief operating officer, will take over as CEO.

This decision comes with a deep commitment to continue focusing on what I love most  product innovation and engaging closely with our customers and partners, Zheng said in a statement.

More details on Microsofts shrinking office footprint in the Triangle. The company exited a lease for around 39,000 square feet in Morrisville, a source familiar with the deal said, and wants to sublease another 20,000 square feet. The tech giant still has close to 190,000 square feet of office space at the Perimeter Park complex.

North Carolina continues to love lithium-ion battery jobs. On Thursday, the state approved an incentive package for another lithium-ion battery parts company to build its first U.S. facility in Lincoln County, north of Charlotte. For more recent lithium-ion projects in North Carolina, see here, here, here and here.

But will wavering electric vehicle demand affect this lithium love affair? Slowing EV trends certainly seem to be making Wolfspeed investors nervous. The Durham chipmaker saw its already slumping stock fall 8% Thursday following an earnings release. And a prominent activist investor lurks.

Back to incentives: North Carolina awarded a jobs grant worth up to $4.1 million in future payroll tax benefits for the New York window maker Crystal Window and Door Systems to build a 500-worker factory in Johnston County.





Microsoft is shrinking its footprint at Perimeter Park in Morrisville, where it moved its North Carolina team in late 2016.

National Tech Happenings

Hoping to reverse mounting disaffection with dating apps, Bumble will now let men initiate conversations.

Peloton announces more layoffs and its CEO exits (or runs away?).

The European Union will investigate Meta, Facebooks parent, over election misinformation.

Thanks for reading!
Few things are as hated as overdraft fees. Those sneaky little fees that banks charge you for accidentally blowing past your checking account balance are the kind of pervasive irritant that brings together large swaths of voters who otherwise don't agree on much.

So it's no surprise that President Joe Biden has targeted them and other hidden fees as he campaigns for re-election.

Earlier this year, his administration proposed a rule that would cut overdraft fees from as high as $35 to between $3 and $14 in most cases. That may not sound like much of a change, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates the change would save customers $3.5 billion annually.

Overdraft fees dont just hurt people who have checking accounts. They are also one reason many Americans don't put their money in banks at all. The administrations proposed limit on bank fees is a good start to remedying this problem. But if Biden wants to do more to help those who can least afford unexpected bank fees, he could look at expanding an often-overlooked program that is already directly providing millions of people with access to banking with low fees.

First, it's important to understand how significant bank fees are.

For many lower-income families, unexpected fees are not just an annoyance but potentially a reason they might not be able to afford gas or groceries that week. According to the CFPB, the share of lower-income households that have had to pay overdraft or non-sufficient funds fees in a given year was dramatically higher than among middle- and upper-class families.

As a result, many low-income households choose to skip banks and rely on check-cashing services, money orders and payday lenders. Those come with fees, too, but unlike overdraft fees, they aren't deducted without your awareness, said Prasad Krishnamurthy, a Berkeley law professor who has studied the economics of lower-income Americans. That makes it easier to plan for monthly bills like rent and electricity.

"When you go into the check-cashing service, it's like McDonald's," he said. "There's a big board that shows you everything they charge. There's no hidden fees. If you like the price, you buy."

A study by the Federal Reserve found that in 2021, 5% of U.S. adults had no bank account at all and another 13% were underbanked  meaning they had bank accounts but still regularly relied on check-cashing and money order services. In addition, 40% of Black people and 30% of Hispanics were unbanked or underbanked.

New limits on overdraft fees are one way to get more people into the banking system. But if Biden wants to go further, there's a program administered by the Treasury Department that's ripe for expansion.

Called Direct Express, the program provides a MasterCard-branded debit card to nearly 4 million people who receive federal payments such as Social Security, disability and veterans' benefits and a handful of smaller retirement programs. The cards have no monthly account fees and minimal or no fees for most routine banking tasks, such as withdrawing money from ATMs or getting cash back at the store. Started in 2011 as the federal government sought to move away from mailing checks and toward direct deposit, the program now handles $3 billion in federal benefits every month.

Direct Express does have some limitations. Cardholders can't put their own money onto the cards  making them more like prepaid gift cards from your grandma than true checking accounts  and they apply to only a handful of federal benefits. There have also been complaints about the private vendor that handles the cards, Comerica Bank, especially over how it responded to identity theft and fraud cases.

Nevertheless, Direct Express has received high marks from cardholders in a customer satisfaction survey, and there have been periodic calls to expand the program. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Treasury Department used Direct Express to make stimulus payments and send advance child tax credits to existing cardholders. Some have called for the government to expand the program to include direct payments for lower-income families or install ATMs at U.S. Postal Service branches where cardholders could add money to the cards.

At an even broader level, the program could be opened up to people who aren't receiving benefit payments, making it something like a "public option" for basic banking services that lower-income families aren't getting right now.

Expanding the program wouldn't necessarily hurt banks, which already largely ignore this group of potential customers. If that becomes a concern, limits could be put on how much money can be kept in the accounts. But the existence of a low-fee public alternative to a traditional checking account would certainly pressure banks to cut their costs, as well  and that would benefit everyone.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Opinion: Ive seen too many young journalists pay the ultimate price. Its them Ill be thinking of today

Editors Note: Jon Williams is executive director of the Rory Peck Trust, an international NGO that supports freelance journalists and their families in crisis. He is the former foreign editor of BBC News and ABC News. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more CNN Opinion.

In a shaded wood outside Bayeux in Northern France, a series of white memorial stones record the names of more than 2,000 journalists who paid the ultimate price while reporting on assignment since 1944. Among them are fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, daughters and sons as well as friends who never came home.

Jon Williams - Rory Peck Trust

Bayeux was the first town in France to be liberated at the end of World War II. It is a short distance inland from Omaha Beach, a long, sandy strip that stretches as far as the eye can see, made famous on June 6, 1944 when units of the US 29th and 1st Cavalry landed there as part of Operation Overlord, D-Day  the Allied invasion of Europe, that spelled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

From Normandy, British, American and Canadian forces pushed on to Paris and beyond. Within a year, they had secured the German surrender.

Bayeux was liberated a day later and became home to the first newspaper, in free France, La Renaissance or The Rebirth in English. It is still published to this day, a connection between the past and present of which Bayeux is proud.

In 1994, to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the people of Bayeux created a unique memorial. Every year, they remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives to secure their freedom in 1944, by honoring the journalists killed while covering the conflicts of today.

The journalists names are read aloud and added to the white stone memorials that line the wood.

The memorial commemorates journalists including Simon Cumbers, gunned down in Saudi Arabia 20 years ago next month. Simon was on assignment for the BBC covering the aftermath of an Al Qaeda gun attack on foreign oil workers when he was shot dead in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He had everything to look forward to.

A freelancer and talented video-journalist, Simon moved from his native Ireland to pursue a career in London, and had just married the love of his life, a BBC producer named Louise.

His work had taken him to every continent, from South Americas Amazonian rain forests to the African deserts and the Arctic Circle. He had covered civil unrest in Indonesia; earthquakes in Turkey and India; and the 2004 train bombings in Madrid.

Irish freelance cameraman Simon Cumbers in Kabul, Afghanistan, in June, 2003. Cumbers was killed in a shooting in the Saudi capital Riyadh in 2004. - Johnny Green/PA Images/Getty Images

On a warm evening that very summer, it fell to me to break the devastating news to Louise that her husband had been shot dead. The following day, we boarded a flight to Riyadh to recover Simons body and bring him home on his final journey. He was just 36 years old.

Two decades on, his name lives on through that Normandy memorial. When a journalist is killed, it is not just their voice that is silenced: Press freedom is your freedom. The right to express and to communicate what you think about something is the foundation of our fundamental human rights. Without freedom of expression, there is no freedom.

Its why Americas founding fathers enshrined press freedom into the First Amendment, with Thomas Jefferson proclaiming that our liberty depends on the freedom of the press. Jefferson believed a free press made political representatives accountable to We the People and allowed the public discussion necessary for democratic self-government.

While technology has transformed the way we consume the news, more than two centuries later, journalists remain truthtellers and witnesses to history. Without them, to quote the masthead of The Washington Post, democracy dies in darkness.

Over 30 years ago, the United Nations recognized May 3 as World Press Freedom Day: a global reminder of the importance of press freedom and an opportunity to assess its health around the world. World Press Freedom Day aims to defend media from attacks on their independence and provides a moment of reflection for those killed in pursuit of the truth.

But these are dangerous days for the media industry. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that at least 100 journalists and media workers have been killed since we last marked World Press Freedom Day. The majority were in Gaza, but journalists have been killed in every corner of the world, from Ukraine and Honduras to Sudan and the Philippines.

A near record number of media personnel also languish in jail. CPJs annual prison census found 320 journalists were behind bars as of December 1, 2023, the second highest total on the organizations record. Whats more, its not just journalists on the frontline of this fight. Reporters Without Borders found that only 30% of the world enjoys a satisfactory level of press freedom, while nearly three quarters of the worlds 8 billion people live in an environment where press freedom is, at best, problematic.

All too often, the killers of journalists get away with murder. In almost 80% of cases, the families of slain journalists never see justice. For the corrupt and those abusing power, the ultimate form of censorship is silencing reporters, such as British freelance journalist, Dom Phillips (one of 40 names last year added to Bayeuxs white stones).

In 2022, Phillips was investigating allegations of illegal mining, fishing and logging in Brazil. Reporting in the midst of the current environmental crisis is the theme of this years World Press Freedom Day  and alongside covering wars and conflicts, environmental reporting is among the most dangerous beats for journalists. It takes them to remote areas, often beyond the control of police and security agencies, and frequently leads them to challenge powerful, criminal interests.

Phillips had travelled to the remote northwest of Brazil, home to one of the countrys largest indigenous communities. While there, he and his guide disappeared. Their bodies were found 10 days later. Both men had been shot dead.

Veteran foreign correspondent Dom Phillips talks to two indigenous men in Aldeia Maloca Papiu, in the state of Roraima, Brazil in 2019. Phillips went missing while researching a book in the Brazilian Amazon's Javari Valley and later found dead with respected indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. - Joao Laet/AFP/Getty Images

The police say the man responsible was the boss of an illegal fishing operation in the Amazon, one of five men charged in connection with their killing. But a group of friends and colleagues were determined the mastermind of his murder would not silence Phillips. The writers from Brazil, Britain and the United States completed Phillips reporting. Next year, posthumously, they will publish the book he did not live to see.

Often, its freelancers like Phillips and Simon who risk it all to bring us the news. Or local journalists reporting their own lived experience. In places like Gaza, international reporters are prevented from accessing the territory by both Israel and Egypt. Increasingly, freelancers dont only provide some of the story; without them, there is no story at all.

It is their local insights and contacts that form the basis of the story you will see or read. They may work for several different news organizations and are hired for a particular assignment. But sometimes that can mean they dont have the same safety and legal protection as the staff of a news organization who fly in to cover breaking news.

Too often, they pay a heavy price for that journalism. Many have neither the training nor the equipment to ensure their own safety. And when things go wrong, theres no large media organization to pick them up and put them back together.

Thats where the Rory Peck Trust steps in. For 30 years, the UK-based non-profit has supported freelance journalists around the world, helping more than 3,000 freelancers tell their stories. It provides safety and first aid training to freelancers similar to the courses large news organizations provide for their own staff.

The training equips them to assess the risks they might face in a conflict zone, whether to their personal safety from gunfire or missiles, or to their health from the lack of clean water.

And when things go wrong, the Rory Peck Trust offers both financial and mental health support to help those with nowhere else to turn, building both capacity and resilience  and ensuring that freelance journalists can return to the frontlines of the fight for press freedom.

Tragically, on this World Press Freedom Day, our work is needed more than ever.

This autumn, a record number of names will be added to Bayeuxs white memorial stones, after the deadliest period for journalism since records began more than 40 years ago.

On this World Press Freedom Day, the fallen who gave their lives for the truth should serve as a reminder as to why press freedom is really your freedom.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Pro-Palestinian protests have sprung up at over 150 colleges across the country to object to the U.S.s backing of Israels brutal military operation in Gaza. The protests, many of which have involved outdoor Gaza solidarity encampments and civil disobedience, have faced severe repression. At over 80 of them, police have surveilled crowds, arrested thousands of protesters, dismantled the encampments, and put an end to protester occupations of buildings. These crackdowns, often initiated by the universities themselves, have sometimes involved police clad in riot gear, using tasers, stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas. Police have on some occasions beaten and pinned down peacefully protesting students and faculty. President Joe Biden on Thursday acknowledged protesters' right to free speech, but primarily aligned himself with police crackdowns when he characterized trespassing as non-peaceful protest and declared that order must prevail.

Despite the suppression efforts, its unlikely the movements energy is flagging: many protests are still ongoing and have even spread globally. And the over-the-top suppression efforts may have deepened some activists commitment to the cause. Biden should be more worried than ever before about pro-Palestinian protesters capacity to disrupt his events, dampen enthusiasm for his candidacy among young voters and progressives, and make him look like a weak leader while Republicans hammer home an extremist law-and-order message over protests.

This recent wave of pro-Palestinian encampments, occupations and protests has already achieved a number of wins. At places such as Brown University, Northwestern University and the University of Minnesota, students took down or limited their encampments and protests after winning concessions from administrations on issues like taking steps toward divestment from Israel or scholarships for Palestinian students. While their policy wins have been modest, they illustrate how in a very brief period of time students were able to use pressure to extract policy wins from their universities.

Demonstrators arrested on UCLA campus in the early hours of Thursday morning. (Ryan Sun / AP)

The protests that weve seen aggressively quashed have also been successful, but in a different way. Protesters who provoked crackdowns generated an extraordinary amount of attention for their cause by putting their bodies, and in some cases their careers, on the line in order to object to Israels U.S.-backed brutalization of Gazans. Israels operation in Gaza in response to Hamas Oct. 7 terror attacks has been going on for some seven months, and reports of mass civilian death in Gaza have become routinized. The encampments and campus protests which elicited fierce pushback helped ensure that America did not become numb to the rising body count, and made it clear to Democrats that activists are not backing down from trying to make this a top tier issue as Election Day approaches.

These kinds of protests do not necessarily have to garner widespread public support to be effective. Using encampments and occupations to lobby for a political cause is part of a long tradition of student protest  Columbia University protesters specifically cited the precedent and tactics of anti-South African apartheid and anti-Vietnam War activists at their own university as they set up their encampment. The friction that the protests have produced with universities has in turn invited national debate, and encouraged a wave of solidarity that has spread across the country and the world. Historically, these kinds of protests are often not widely popular in the short term, and indeed a recent YouGov poll indicates that a plurality of Americans view them negatively. But the poll also shows that more Democrats and young people support them than not. And thats critical, because one of the key points of leverage the movement has is threatening to discourage progressive Democrats and young people from voting for the president unless he makes major policy changes.

To be clear, the conversations sparked by the protests werent always good ones. The protests themselves were not without problems  there have been some reports of antisemitic language or advocacy for attacking Israeli civilians at the protests, which are reprehensible, should not be tolerated and do nothing but damage the cause of Palestinian freedom. But the bulk of protesters have been motivated by horror over the treatment of people in Gaza, not by bigotry. Another issue is that a lot of national media focused on the drama surrounding the protests to the point that they obscured the core issue that animated them in the first place: whats happening in Gaza. (My colleague Chris Hayes laid out how the media lost perspective in an excellent segment on his show.)

Police deployed a heavy presence on US university campuses on May 1 after forcibly clearing away some weeks-long protests against Israel's war with Hamas. Dozens of police cars patrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles campus in response to violent clashes overnight when counter-protesters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian students. (Etienne Laurent / AFP via Getty Images)

But even with these issues, the protests have been a net good for creating spaces for solidarity and applying pressure to liberal institutions and the Democrats over complicity in Israel's misconduct. The student protesters have shown resolve, creativity and ambition. And political organizing often begets more sophisticated political organizing  the networks, knowledge and grit that activists develop in one set of protests can often help lay the foundation for additional, more well-organized rounds of them.

Theres good reason to think the action will continue. As Gaza burns, activists eyes are on Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention will be held this year, and many on the left are anticipating a potential repeat of Chicagos chaotic 1968 convention, where anti-Vietnam War protesters clashed with police in major street fights. Barring a permanent cease-fire, it seems more likely than ever that some version of this scene might unfold again. Such a confrontation could be a significant political liability for Biden; the president could look both callous and ineffectual at the same time. At a critical political moment he would represent the face behind brutal police crackdowns, appear to be a poor and cruel policymaker unable to do what's right in the Middle East, and look unable to manage his own party.

When asked after his news conference Thursday if the protests would change his attitude toward policy in the Israel-Hamas war, Biden emphatically responded, No. Expect the protesters to double down just as firmly as they say no to a heinous war.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Two candidates for Oregons third congressional district Susheela Jayapal and Eddy Morales  held a press conference on Thursday calling for transparency in dark money spending, alleging one group spent $1.6 million in support of another candidate.

During the press conference, Jayapal and Morales criticized spending in support of fellow candidate Rep. Maxine Dexter by 314 Action, a Washington D.C.-based political action committee that supports Democrats with a background in science.

Maxine Dexter claims to be for transparency in politics, but she and 314 Action are engaged in a dishonest and cynical ploy to obscure the donors propping up her campaign until just one day before the primary, Jayapal and Morales said in a joint statement.

PSU student devastated by protest damage inside library

At a time when MAGA Republican mega-donors are interfering in Democratic primaries across the country, particularly against qualified candidates of color, voters deserve to know who is trying to buy this seat for a centrist candidate who doesnt even live in the district. Some of these are the very same donors pushing anti-choice and election-denier politicians across the country, the candidates added.

Jayapal and Morales also encouraged Dexter to call on her dark money backers to disclose their donors and to stop spending on her behalf until they do so.

The candidates highlighted a Federal Election Commission filing showing a group supporting 314 Action has spent $1.6 million to date on behalf of Dexter.

Gresham High School staff blasts student safety, call for principals ouster

314 Action will not have to report their April donors until May 20th, the day before this primary, significantly hamstringing Oregon voters education, the candidates said.

In response to the press conference, Rep. Dexter released the following statement:

I believe in listening and dialogues; not demands. That is how I speak with my patients and its how, in our divided state legislature, Ive successfully secured the strongest abortion rights in the country, saved lives by passing a broad opioid harm reduction package, strengthened our gun laws, and banned forever chemicals that hurt our kids.

My opponents know where I stand on outside spending as they pointed out today that I am the only candidate in this race who has championed and successfully passed landmark campaign finance reform here in Oregon.

At a time when science is under attack and Congress is full of climate deniers Im proud to have the support of 314, scientists, and grassroots supporters of science in public service. In Congress, I will continue to listen and work with others to get results for Oregon.

I took an oath as a physician to do no harm and have been steadfast in putting the best interests of my patients first. Ive taken that same approach in my work as a legislator. I always put my community first. I work for them, no one else.

Any insinuation that doctors and scientists looking for facts and reason in public policy are cutting deals is ridiculous and its insulting to my integrity. Im genuinely disappointed that my opponents have decided to take this turn. Oregonians deserve better.

Who is the wealthiest person in Oregon? Forbes releases new list

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, 314 Action emphasized their support for Dexter, stating, We are an organization founded by scientists and our movement is fueled by over 6 million grassroots supporters who are energized by our mission to elect Democratic scientists to public office at every level, from Congress to school boards. At a time when science is under attack, we need more scientists like Maxine in the room making critical decisions about our reproductive rights, healthcare access and climate protections.

We proudly endorsed Dr. Maxine Dexter when she ran for the state house and were once again proud to support her in Oregons 3rd District race. Shes a doctor, state representative, and an experienced progressive who gets results. She led the fight to expand abortion rights, address homelessness, and pass tough new gun laws. Were proud to stand with her and look forward to electing another doctor to Congress, the PAC added.

In a Friday post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dexter said she was disappointed to see a dark money group enter the race to disparage one of her opponents. She did not name the group.

In the post, Dexter stated:

When I entered this race, I met with both of my opponents and told them I would run a positive campaign and that remains true.

A dark money group has recently attacked my opponent and I want to be clear, I dont think a negative discourse has any place in this race. I do not condone or support these negative ads in any way and remain committed to a positive conversation.

This newly founded dark money group is a prime example of how broken our campaign finance system is. In Congress, Im committed to passing campaign finance reform  just as I did here in Oregon  so we can end dark money flooding into our elections.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Outside spending in three of Indianas congressional races ranks in the nations top ten

Three of Indiana's congressional races top the nation in terms of outside spending: the Senate, 3rd and 8th Districts. (Getty Images)

Outside groups have targeted the state of Indiana with so much money that three federal primary races have landed in the top ten most expensive contests nationwide.

Republicans seeking to win open seats in the U.S. Senate and Congressional Districts 3 and 8 have racked up millions in outside spending. Other open but highly competitive seats  in the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts  havent attracted the same interest.

Total outside spending in the top ten most expensive congressional races:

Ohio Senate: $26.6M

California Senate: $21.2M

Montana Senate: $9.8M

West Virginia Senate: $7.6M

California District 47: $6.3M

Indiana District 8: $5M

Utah Senate: $3.9M

Indiana District 3: $3.8M

Indiana Senate: $3.6M

Wisconsin Senate: $3.4M

The rankings come from an Open Secrets compilation of outside spending for primary expenditures, an ever-evolving list updated with new reports from the Federal Election Commission. As of May 1, Indianas 8th District  once called the Bloody Eighth  ranked sixth in the nation for spending, followed by the 3rd District in eighth and the U.S. Senate race in ninth. The analysis excludes spending in the Presidential primary, which far outpaces spending in down-ballot races.

Steve Shine, the Allen County Republican Party chair, said the spending in the 3rd Congressional District didnt surprise him even as the numbers climbed before the May 7th primary, fueled largely by spending from political action committees (PACs) and their powerful brethren, super-PACs.

I dont know if Im surprised because in any heated election, you kind of expect outside forces to come in and do negative advertising against the people they dont support, Shine said. Its interesting to note that in the 3rd Congressional District that the candidate spending is much less than the PAC spending  and thats very telling when you have an outside force come in spending more than the candidates.

Total outside spending is as follows: $5,069,670 in the 8th District, $3,760,618 in the 3rd District and $3,632,278 in the U.S. Senate race.

Those numbers cant be combined to reflect total spending because it could double-count certain expenditures, Open Secrets noted. Open Secrets is a nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics.

That spending includes zero dollars for or against Democratic candidates.

An uncompetitive race

Perhaps most interestingly, the U.S. Senate race hasnt had a contested primary since February after egg farmer John Rust lost his candidacy cases before the Indiana Supreme Court and Indiana Election Division.

There were rumors that former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels would step into the race in 2022 but those were quickly quashed after an attack ad by Club for Growth. Thats left only U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, in the race to succeed U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who is stepping down to run for governor.

U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana speaks at an event Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (Leslie Bonilla Muniz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Its surprising because its, frankly, not competitive, said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis. Banks has no competition now and even when Rust was on the ballot for a temporary moment, Im not sure that he was highly competitive and an opponent for Banks.

Despite Rusts long-shot campaign throughout 2023, outside groups poured their money into the race and all of the $3.6 million spent was in support of Banks.

Just over $3 million came from the Defend American Jobs super-PAC, a type of political action committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on their preferred candidates. According to a report from CNBC, the group is one of three funded by cryptocurrency leaders to help candidates in support of crypto, spending a combined $78 million.

Notably, at least half of the $3 million appears to have been spent after Rust left the race when Banks became the only candidate to qualify for the Republican primary ballot.

Two other super-PACs have waded into the U.S. Senate race: the American Leadership PAC and Club for Growth Action. The Club for Growth PAC has also spent funds in support of Banks.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, a professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis. (Photo from the University of Indianapolis)

On the national stage, the U.S. Senate has the narrowest of Democratic advantages, with a 51-49 split. Flipping a seat for one party or another would have national ramifications but Indiana is a reliably Republican vote  further adding to the confusion about funding that could be spent elsewhere.

It is really shocking to hear that theres so much money being spent on that, Merrifield Wilson said. This is not an election cycle where donors have a lot of money thats burning in their pockets and they just dont know where they could possibly spend it  there are a lot of competitive races (nationally). So many things on the ballot for voters but also ways in which donors can make a difference.

It is highly surprising to see the U.S. Senate race for Indiana ranking in the top ten.

The most-expensive race in the country is Ohios Senate seat held by Democrat Sherrod Brown, which Republicans hope to flip for their party. Over $26 million has flooded into that race, with $16 million spent against Republicans and $9 million spent in support of Republican candidates.

Reaction in the 3rd, 8th Districts

Brenda Goff, the GOP chair for the 8th Congressional District, said the outside spending figure was eye-catching, but that you cant watch TV for a minute without seeing something about one of the candidates, usually negative.

Goff is also the district director for the seats current occupant: Dr. Larry Bucshon.

This is the first time for a long time that weve had an open primary like this, she said.

A total of nine Republican candidates are running for the position along with five Democrats. The two frontrunners appear to be John Hostettler, who held the seat from 1997-2007, and state Sen. Mark Messmer. All of the $5 million spent in that district has been focused on those two candidates.

After several close campaigns and upheavals through the late 60s and early 80s, the seat earned the moniker Bloody Eighth. Finally, in 1984, Democratic Frank McCloskey won the seat by just four votes and held it until 1994  when he lost it to Hostettler.

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Im bringing that up because I think this ones going to be very close, Goff said, who was involved in the 1984 race. I dont think this primarys going to be as close as a four-vote difference  but I think its going to be fairly close.

Shine, over in the 3rd District, said that despite the influx of funds and high-drama races, turnout so far has been low in Allen County, which is the most populous county in the district.

Theres numerous races that are very interesting. We have the governors race, we have the 3rd District Congressional race and we have at least two very hotly contested county races, Shine said. All that being said, my check with the election board yesterday was that voter turnout is almost at a historical low  (Thursdays) meeting of the election board was canceled because there was not enough to talk about given the low turnout.

Banks pursuit of the Senate seat has left his current position in the 3rd Congressional District empty, drawing the attention of eight Republicans and two Democrats. And while the race has a few wealthy individuals pouring their own funds into their campaigns, outside spending has focused on four Republican candidates: former Allen County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Davis, nonprofit executive Tim Smith, former U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman and State Sen. Andy Zay.

PAC crossover

Several of the PACs and super-PACs have spent their funds in multiple Indiana races, including the fiscally conservative Club for Growth that supported Banks. The group has consistently been a top funder for Republican candidates and the groups president David McIntosh is a former Indiana U.S. House member.

In the 3rd District, outside spending for the organization includes roughly $510,000 against Davis and Smith in a nearly even split. A recent Club for Growth ad against Davis could potentially be the first test of a state law targeting the use of altered media in election ads.

The House Freedom Action PAC and House Freedom Fund PAC are both affiliated with the far-right House Freedom Caucus. The latter has funded some of the most conservative members of Congress, including Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs. In Indiana, it has spent $109,000 in support of Stutzman.

The House Freedom Action PAC has spent $200,000 for Stutzman.

Davis has support from the WFW Action Fund, a hybrid PAC and super-PAC, which has spent $703,000 in support of her candidacy and another $392,000 against Stutzman. The fund has also spent money on former presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Also in the 3rd, the Honest Hoosiers PAC is a single-candidate super-PAC supporting Zay and has spent $102,000.

The Banks-blessed American Leadership PAC was formed back when Banks sought a leadership role in the House of Representatives, according to a report from Axios. In addition to the nearly $279,000 it spent in support of Banks, it has paid another $233,000 to support Hostettler in the 8th Congressional District and another $78,000 has been put to use against one of Hostettlers opponent Messmer.

Hostletter has encountered pushback from the Republican Jewish Coalition and the United Democracy Project, a super-PAC with ties to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The former has spent $955,000 for Messmer while the latter has spent $1.2 million against Hostettler. Another four super-PACs round off the total $5 million in spending: America Leads Action, Americas First Freedoms, Building a Strong American and Protect Freedom.

American Leads Action has spent $1.5 million against Hostettler and $106,000 in support of Messmer. Both Americas First Freedoms and Building a Strong America spent money in support of Messmer  $420,000 and $49,000, respectively. Building a Strong America has also waded into three other congressional races in Indiana, spending $33,500 in the 6th District for former lawmaker Jefferson Shreve, $20,940 in the 5th District for incumbent U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz and $11,912 in the 3rd District for Zay.

In terms of outside spending, only Protect Freedom PAC spent in favor of Hostettler in the 8th with $482,000. The PAC also spent $383,000 in favor of Stutzman in the 3rd Congressional District.

The post Outside spending in three of Indianas congressional races ranks in the nations top ten appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Over 100 arrested in Southern California drug bust operation

Over 100 people were arrested during a massive drug bust operation in Southern California.

The undercover bust targeted the Magnolia Avenue corridor, between Van Buren Boulevard and Pierce Street in Riverside, according to the Riverside Police Department.

The multi-day effort, called Operation Street Sweeper, stemmed from increased criminal activity and complaints from community members and businesses, police said.

Over a three-week period, 46 people were seen buying a variety of illegal narcotics including methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, PCP and Psilocybin mushrooms.

In a three-day operation, 44 drug dealers were identified and 33 of them were arrested for narcotics sales violations.

With help from nearby agencies, 71 additional suspects were also arrested for multiple charges including:

32 misdemeanor arrests were made for trespassing, public intoxication, possession of drug paraphernalia, and illegal possession of controlled substances

21 outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrants for shoplifting, petty theft, trespassing, possession of drug paraphernalia, illegal possession of controlled substances, and being under the influence of a controlled substance

15 arrests for violation of parole, probation, and post-release community supervision

3 outstanding felony arrest warrants

3 probation searches were conducted at local motel rooms

2 search warrants were served at local residences

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

Police arrested 104 people during an undercover multi-day drug bust operation in Riverside County. (Riverside Police Department)

A total of 104 people were arrested during the large-scale bust. Most of the people arrested claimed to be homeless or living in various motels along Magnolia Avenue, officers said.

During a probation search of a motel room, police discovered a woman who was wanted for a 2022 felony drunk-driving crash that critically injured two women and a 4-year-old boy.

Inside her motel room was also a man with an outstanding warrant for burglary. Police discovered the man possessed several thousand dollars worth of stolen merchandise as well.

Since the arrests, medical aid and police calls for incidents along the Magnolia Avenue corridor immediately and significantly decreased as a result, authorities said.

Couple devastated after ponies found shot to death at Southern California ranch

This wasnt a one-and-done operation, and our enforcement efforts will continue until our community members, businesses, and visitors feel a constant sense of safety in Riverside, said Larry V. Gonzalez, Riverside Police Chief.

The Riverside Police Department will continue its directed enforcement and efforts to investigate those engaged in the trafficking and sale of illicit drugs within our neighborhoods, amongst other crimes affecting the safety of community members, the police department said.

The public can submit tips about illegal drug activity by calling Riverside police at 951-354-2007.

Information can also be submitted through the Atlas 1 mobile app by using the Send a Message feature. App downloads for Apple devices can be found here. Android device downloads can be found here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Over 120 rodent droppings found at Sacramento grocery store. See latest health inspections

Sacramento County health inspectors closed two local restaurants after discovering cockroaches and rat droppings.

In addition, a liquor store, a brewery and other food-serving facilities received yellow placards for health violations ranging from mold and improperly stored food to roaches, rodent droppings and flies.

A yellow placard signals two or more major violations, according to the Sacramento County Food Inspection Guide. These are typically corrected or mitigated during the inspection.

A red placard signals imminent danger to public health and safety and suspends the health permit until violations are corrected. This could include, but is not limited to, major vermin contamination.

In contrast, a green placard means a restaurant passed the inspection.

The county conducts roughly 14,000 inspections a year, and 97% of all restaurants pass their inspections, spokesman Ken Casparis previously told The Sacramento Bee. About 1% of inspections result in a closure.

Health inspectors shut down Fresh off Da Boat Chef Ts on April 18 due to a broken sink. The restaurant reopened the next day.

Here are the Sacramento County food facility inspections for April 25 through Wednesday, as of noon Thursday:

If an inspection listed below needs clarification, business owners can email Sacramento Bee reporter Jacqueline Pinedo at jpinedo@sacbee.com. The Bee will publish weekly updates on health inspections across Sacramento County.

Sacramento County inspectors close local restaurants

Pho Saigon, 5304 Stockton Blvd. in Sacramento, had 11 violations on April 25.

Inspectors observed German cockroaches in all life stages throughout the restaurant, according to the April 25 report.

Inspectors saw 10 to 15 roaches in the back preparation area, as well as six roaches in front of the prep area behind equipment and eight roaches near a refrigerator.

Flies were also observed within food prep area, the report said.

Foods including raw beef, cooked chicken and sliced tomatoes were outside of proper holding temperatures during the inspection.

There was old food debris on a meat slicer blade and blade guard, according to the inspection report.

The restaurant was reinspected on April 27 and received a green placard.

The Sacramento Bee reached out to the restaurants owners for comment, but had not received a response as of Friday morning.

Bambi Vegan Tacos, 1725 I St. in Sacramento, had eight violations on April 25.

Inspectors on April 25 observed a total of 45 rat droppings in locations including in the liquor room, under the syrup rack and next to a stand-up cooler.

More droppings were on top of to-go containers and on the floor under the containers.

There were personal water cups on the food prep area and spider webs on the soda gun holster, according to the report.

Cooked beets were outside of the proper holding temperature during the inspection.

The restaurant was reinspected on April 26 and received a green placard.

The Bee reached out to restaurant owner Chad Novick, but he declined to comment.

Local brewery, grocery store cited for health violations

The following Sacramento County restaurants had violations the week of April 25 through May 1, resulting in a conditional pass.

Only the dates of violations are listed. Most restaurants fully pass reinspection within 72 hours. The reports are linked. For updates on individual restaurants, you can search the EMD website here.

Los Jarritos Restaurant, 2509 Broadway in Sacramento, had nine violations on Wednesday.

The restaurants hand soap dispenser was not working during Wednesdays inspection, and the restaurant ran its dishwasher without chlorine three times.

An employees water bottle was on a prep table and two prep coolers did not have visible thermometers.

A pot of beef was outside of its proper holding temperature, during the inspection.

The restaurant had not been reinspected as of Thursday afternoon.

Discount Grocery, 3840 Madison Ave. in North Highlands, had eight violations on Wednesday.

The sink at the gas station market was out of paper towels during Wednesdays inspection.

Potato wedges, chicken samosas and chicken sandwiches were outside of proper holding temperatures.

Raw chicken was stored above liquor bottles inside of a walk-in cooler, the report said, and a soiled reused cardboard box was used to store food items beneath a prep table.

The market had not been reinspected as of Thursday afternoon.

T&Y Market, 2835 Norwood Ave. in Sacramento, had 17 violations on Tuesday.

Inspectors found a total of 123 rodent droppings in various areas of the Asian grocery store on Tuesday.

Areas where rodent droppings were found included the produce section, the bulk soda storage area and the floor of the warehouse storage room near the restroom.

Inspectors also saw droppings on the floor by unused cooking equipment and in the corner of the warehouse between the produce section and unused cooking equipment.

In addition, inspectors spotted 16 flies throughout the market.

The meat department sink, produce department and a restroom were all missing paper towels during Tuesdays inspection.

No dishes were washed at the time of inspection, according to the inspection report.

Raw shrimp, beef, pork and breakfast sausage were outside of proper holding temperatures.

The market had not been reinspected as of Thursday afternoon.

Kabul Fish and Chips (Oh Bento), 6745 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Carmichael, had 14 violations on Tuesday.

Inspectors found spoiled dough sheets and lettuce found inside a walk-in cooler on Tuesday. The rotten food was removed during the inspection.

Five Turkestan cockroaches were on the floor near a sink, Tuesdays report said.

In addition, the restaurant lacked paper towels at its sink, and raw cod was outside its proper holding temperature.

The restaurant had not been reinspected as of Thursday afternoon.

Osprey 1 Liquor and Food, 2538 Cottage Way in Sacramento, had 10 violations on April 26.

Inspectors found organic mold-like buildup inside an ice machine and several moldy cardboard and plywood liners inside a walk-in cooler, according to the April 26 report.

There was a heavy soda spill on the floor and equipment of a storage room, the report said, and no toilet paper or paper towels were seen during the inspection.

The liquor store was reinspected on April 27 and received a green placard.

Urban Roots Brewing, 1322 V St. in Sacramento, had five violations on April 25.

Pulled pork was seen outside of proper holding temperatures during the April 25 inspection, and trays of turkey, chicken, pork, sausage and brisket were being improperly cooled.

An employees food was over ready-to-eat foods inside of a walk-in cooler, the report said.

The brewery was reinspected on April 26 and received a green placard.

Plank Craft Kitchen and Bar, 608 Sutter St. in Folsom, had three violations on April 25.

Paper towels were not available at the sink inside the restaurants bar area during the April 25 inspection.

Chicken, onion patties, rice and scallops were at improper holding temperatures, according to the report.

The bar was reinspected on April 26 and received a green placard.

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@sacbee.com.
The Florida State University community is in shock and is calling for action through a petition with almost 20,000 signatures following a deadly hit-and-run crash near campus Monday evening.

Twenty-year-old FSU sophomore and Tennessee native Elizabeth "Ellie" Sims  known for her infectious smile and positive presence  died after being hit in the crosswalk near the intersection of Lorene and Pensacola streets. The driver, 18-year-old Willis Trueblood Jr., was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death  a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years' imprisonment.

We will love and remember you forever, FSU's Beta Eta Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority said on its social media pages. Sims was a member of the sorority.

You were truly the epitome of an Alpha Chi Omega: involved with FSU Honors College, FSU CHAW (Center for Health Advocacy and Wellness), an avid runner, an entrepreneurship student and a fashionista.

More: FSU student killed in crosswalk after hit-and-run; TPD arrests 18-year-old

The tragic crash during finals week and days before graduation ceremonies is the first recorded pedestrian death this year, according to the Florida Traffic Safety Dashboard.

As the incident stirs the campus community, students and parents are calling for heightened pedestrian safety now more than ever.

A Change.org petition was created by an anonymous individual Monday pushing for a traffic light to be added to the Pensacola Street crosswalk for pedestrian safety in the busy area near FSUs campus.

The petition had gotten over 16,000 signatures in less than 24 hours as of late Tuesday evening, with the numbers growing by the minute.

FSU freshman Daria Tiubin is one of the individuals who signed the petition in support of the traffic light recommendation.

Everything around FSU is walking distance and so many students get around on foot, so its important that people are educated about driving in such a heavy pedestrian area, 19-year-old Tiubin told the Tallahassee Democrat Tuesday. So many people go to College Town, for example, and the only way to get there is usually by crossing Pensacola Street.

A description on the petition website states that too many accidents have happened due to people driving too fast on the crowded street, and that adding stoplights will help save lives.

In February 2020, an FSU student was struck and seriously injured in a crossing near St. Augustine and Gay streets. A week prior, 19-year-old psychology student Natalie Nickchen died after being struck by a driver on a West Tennessee Street crosswalk.

The student's death four years ago sparked a similar online petition  which garnered nearly 18,000 signatures  to improve pedestrian safety on West Tennessee Street by having a pedestrian bridge or an additional tunnel built at Tennessee Street and Stadium Drive.

Related news: Online petition for better pedestrian safety on Tennessee Street draws over 10K signatures

Former FSU President John Thrasher said at the time that the university was in talks with state and local officials about improving pedestrian safety on Tennessee Street. In addition, a bill (SB 1000) to add and improve crosswalks throughout the state was OK'd by a Senate panel in 2020 but died in appropriations, according to the bill's history on the Florida Senate's website.

The middle of campus is kind of like a safe haven in terms of pedestrian safety, but when you go right off campus, people drive recklessly, FSU student and French major Carson Long said Tuesday.

FSU student, French major Carson Long.

Long says he often sees people ignoring the blinking lights on the yellow pedestrian crossing signs near campus when students try to cross the street. Similar to the way that there are designated school zones near local elementary, middle and high schools for younger pedestrian safety, he believes the same policies should be put in place around college campuses.

The truth is that the whole surrounding area is made up of the campus community, and the same kind of safety students feel in the Landis Green area should be felt in the surrounding community, too, Long said.

FSU President Richard McCullough encouraged the university community in a Tuesday statement to use counseling services that are available to them on campus if they need support while navigating the recent tragedy.

We are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking loss of one of our students, Elizabeth 'Ellie' Sims, who was killed Monday when she was struck by a vehicle near campus, McCullough said in the prepared statement. Our thoughts and condolences are with her family and friends during this difficult time.

FSU President Richard McCullough.

Several flowers, tea light candles and stuffed plushies were placed at the base of a crosswalk sign near the scene of the accident throughout the day Tuesday.

One of the plushies says Love is Ellie. We love you so much.

The FSU sorority partnered with Simss family to establish the Ellie Sims Memorial Fund in honor of her life. Individuals can make donations through the Alpha Chi Omega website at https://give.alphachiomega.org/Ellie.

A Gofundme was also set up for the family at https://www.gofundme.com/f/ellie-sims.

Flowers and tea light candles are placed at the base of a crosswalk sign at the intersection of Pensacola Street and Lorene Street after a Florida State University student was struck and killed by a vehicle on Monday night, April 29, 2024.

"She is beloved and survived by her parents, brother, sister, and both her Franklin and FSU community," the page states. "Please consider donating to help offset these unexpected travel and funeral expenses."

More details on the arrest

Court records state that Trueblood told Tallahassee Police Department investigators the sun was glaring and he had his visor down when he hit Sims and began "panicking."

"I didnt know what to do, so I just left, Trueblood Jr. said, according to court records. I hit somebody and I just messed up.

Trueblood entered a conditional plea of not guilty, according to court records.

As Facebook commenters pushed for more charges in the online arrest announcement, TPD responded that the charges filed were in consultation with the State Attorney's office and "in accordance with Florida law."

"An update will be provided if additional charges are brought forward," the agency wrote, noting the investigation remains "open and active."

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU community mourns, calls for pedestrian safety after student killed
MOSCOW, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Western countries are waging a war against Russia in Ukraine with the use of foreign weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Friday.

The statement comes following British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's recent visit to Kiev, where the official said that Ukraine had the right to use British weapons to strike targets within Russian territory.

Zakharova said that the Western politician had publicly admitted that "the West is waging an open war against Russia at the hands of Ukrainians."

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Friday that Cameron's words are "another very dangerous statement."

"These (statements) are examples of a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which can potentially pose a threat to European security," he said, adding that Moscow is deeply concerned about such escalating rhetoric coming from official representatives. 
Over 64K Denver households have lead pipes. New federal funds will replace them.

DENVER (KDVR)  On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $32.8 million investment to help Colorado identify and replace lead service lines that provide drinking water to thousands of households.

The investment is part of a $15 billion package through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The total program funding to date is expected to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes nationwide, according to the EPA, which projects 9 million lead service lines exist across the country.

Nothing left of runaway semitruck after fire on I-70

Several Colorado leaders applauded the funding.

Neighborhoods throughout Denver have been impacted by lead pipes and unsafe drinking water, said Congresswoman Diana DeGette in a release. I voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to send funding to communities like those in Colorados First District to replace lead pipes and improve the health of my constituents.

Lead can cause a range of serious health impacts, including irreversible brain development harm in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The agency also says there is no safe level of lead in blood.

Every Coloradan deserves access to safe drinking water, said Sen. John Hickenlooper. These Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments will help replace lead pipes and deliver cleaner water to communities across Colorado!

A study published in 2022 in the National Library of Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal, found that over 170 Americans alive at the time were exposed to high lead levels in early childhood. Additionally, lead exposure disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families.

No parent in America should have to worry about the water their kids drink, said Sen. Michael Bennet. This investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is an important step forward to help communities across Colorado replace harmful lead pipes without placing additional financial burdens on homeowners and small businesses. Communities in every corner of the country should have access to clean drinking water.

The funding is for lead service line identification and replacement. The funding will help states fund projects to remove lead pipes and reduce exposure to lead from drinking water.

How does Denvers water supply shape up?

Denver Water estimates that in its service area there are 64,000-84,000 properties that may have lead service lines.

According to Denver Water, service lines bring water into a home or building from the main delivery pipe in the street.

The department said that in general, homes built before 1951 are more likely to have lead service lines. Homes built before 1987 may have lead solder connecting copper pipes in their plumbing. Faucets and fixtures made before 2014 do not meet todays lead-free requirements.

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Denver Waters water does not contain lead, but will gather lead from pipes as it flows. Heated water has a higher probability of loosening lead and contaminating water.

Denver Water customers can request a free lead test kit at denverwater.org/leadtest. The department said it serves a quarter of the states population and has a lead reduction program. It also has a lead service line inventory site, where individual locations can be looked up and a brief description of the propertys service lines is included.

According to Denver Water, since 1992, as part of the EPAs Lead and Copper Rule, the department has monitored water quality in homes with service lines or plumbing containing lead. Only in 2012 did test results say additional action was needed to protect public health.

How much lead is in the rest of Colorados water?

A 2022 measure passed by the Colorado legislature required that all drinking water locations be tested in licensed childcare facilities and public schools serving children in fifth grade or younger. The testing showed that 7% of all tested fixtures (3,700) were above the accepted lead levels in drinking water. As of Sept. 15, 2023, only 100 of the 900 total facilities impacted had completed remedial actions.

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CDPHE reported that 96% of public elementary schools and 77% of all licensed childcare programs are compliant. However, only 29% of family childcare homes comply with the required sampling and 16% of family childcare homes were compliant by opting out of sampling.

A full list of the testing results is available through CDPHEs Water Quality Control Division.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Almost half of protesters arrested on New York campuses have no connection with university

Almost half of the pro-Palestine protesters arrested in campus raids by New York police had no connection with a university, according to the citys mayor.

Demonstrators were cleared out of encampments at Columbia University, and City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday, sparking violent lashes with officers in riot gear.

Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, revealed that 282 people were arrested  112 at Columbia and 170 at CCNY  for offences ranging from burglary and assault on a police officer to trespassing and resisting arrest.

Some 60 per cent of those arrested at CCNY and 29 per cent at Columbia had no affiliation to either institution.

NYPD officers made arrests of protesters around Hamilton Hall on the Columbia campus in New York City - TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Officials from Northeastern University in Boston also reported that more than half of the 98 people arrested at its pro-Palestine demonstration last weekend were outsiders.

Police identified only 29 Northeastern students and six members of staff from those in custody. The rest were not connected to the university.

As the anti-Israel protests began to escalate, it became abundantly clear that individuals unaffiliated with these schools had entered these different campuses and, in some cases, were even training students in unlawful protest tactics, many which we witnessed escalating into violent conduct, said Mr Adams.

What is now even clearer is the extent to which outsiders were actually present. Free speech and peaceful protest remain the fabric of our society, but that is not what we have been witnessing on these campuses.

There is nothing peaceful about barricading buildings, destroying property, dismantling security cameras, or calling for the destruction of an entire people.

Mr Adams warning about tactical training for students came as a video emerged from the UCLA encampment that appeared to show protesters being taught combat techniques.

The aerial drone footage, shot prior to the Los Angeles polices raid to clear the tented area on Wednesday, depicts balaclava-wearing instructors appearing to teach a self-defence class to a circle of protesters.

UCLA students were this week involved in violent clashes first with counter-protesters and then with police, resulting in up to 200 arrests when officers dismantled their encampment on Thursday.

However, pro-Palestine students in California have told The Telegraph they will not be deterred by the crackdown and have pledged to continue with their campaign.

Police arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus at Columbia University where protests have continued for almost two weeks - John Angelillo/Shutterstock

Dozens of students at the University of California (UC), Irvine, remained in a tented encampment in the physical science quad on Friday which they have renamed Solidarity Plaza.

Were definitely going to keep going, Sarah Khalil, 21, a fourth-year psychological sciences student, and a member of the group Students for Justice in Palestine told The Telegraph. Of course what happened at UCLA was horrible and were really disappointed at the UCLA administration.

She added: Were here because this is bigger than us. Were not going to allow fear to stop us from being here, because this is in solidarity with Gaza.

Several UCLA students questioned why police had not chosen to act more decisively the previous night when the counter-protesters attacked the encampment.

Right now I am trying to process what happened, said a 24-year-old graduate student, who asked not to be identified. Essentially I am disheartened by what has taken place. I supported the encampment.

A 30-year-old student, who asked to be identified by the initials JS, said she felt let down by the school management.

Students have decorated the UC Irvine encampment with banners reading End all US aid to Israel, Divest genocide and Resistance against occupation is a human right.

Supporters of the demonstrators were bringing meals and bottles of water while a handful of campus police officers on foot kept watch from a distance.

One student, 20, who asked to use the initials ZV, said the protesters had posted a message on social media saying they had enough food but suggested people could make friendship bracelets, which was what she and two friends were doing.

I have to be here and show support, she said. In 40 years, people will look back and say where were you?

A spokesman for the students said they were calling upon the university to divest from a range of companies which, they claimed, were linked to the Israeli military operation in Gaza.

She said students were in negotiation with the university authorities.

UC Irvine did not immediately respond to enquiries.

In a statement earlier this week, Howard Gillman, the chancellor, said: We have reached out to the students in the existing illegal encampment and have made it clear to them that if they believe they need an encampment space on campus to peacefully express their views, then we will work with them to find a space that is appropriate and non-disruptive.

We support the right of our community to protest, [but] we will stand against non-affiliates taking over university spaces where their activities threaten our core mission.

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An effort in the Mississippi Legislature to accept billions of dollars in federal money to expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor  a policy which medical experts, clergy and business leaders advocated  died Thursday night.

House Medicaid Chair Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, told reporters that she delivered a proposal to Senate negotiators on Thursday morning that would have allowed voters to have the final say on a statewide referendum in November whether the state should expand Medicaid.

Its disappointing, McGee said. We worked really hard on it, and we fought to the bitter end.

The bills death marked an end to months of intense debate at the Capitol and scores of rallies urging legislators to adopt expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act.

The Mississippi House Democratic Caucus released a statement Friday morning, which said in part: We will leave Jackson without a plan to solve our states increasingly dangerous healthcare crisis. Again. We will kick the can down the road. Again. And lawmakers will have caved to political pressure from a governor who has yet to provide his own plan to provide a long-term solution to the healthcare crisis. Again.

For a brief moment on Wednesday, it appeared both chambers at the Capitol might adopt a compromise, but expansion under that proposal contained stipulations the federal government is not likely to approve and could have held expansion here in limbo for years.

House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday night agreed on a compromise that would have expanded Medicaid coverage to individuals who make roughly $20,000 but only if the federal government signed off on a work proposal for recipients  something the federal government was almost certain to reject.

But the deal fell apart after rumors circulated in the Capitol that the Senate did not have enough votes to support the plan and after a large portion of Democrats in the House objected to the work requirement.

House Speaker Jason White, R-West, said he would have had the votes Wednesday in the House to pass the compromise, even with the loss of a significant number of Democratic votes.

But the speaker opted to send the proposal back to negotiations after being told by Senate leaders that the Senate only had 28 votes  not enough to pass it by a needed three-fifths majority.

White said his negotiators offered the referendum option as a compromise that he hoped more Senate Republicans could support. He said he knew it was a long shot that the Senate would accept the proposal, but he thought it was worth a try.

I am not casting blame, White said when asked about what he said was the lack of votes in the Senate.  But I had to act on that information.

White said he was disappointed that Medicaid expansion did not pass this session, but he said he is glad it was debated and discussed during the session.

It was a good first step, he said. Whether we will look at it next year or the next, I dont know. We will have to reassess.

White, in his first year as speaker, was the first Republican legislative leader to bring up legislation to enact Medicaid expansion. That original proposal passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House.

When asked about whether the Senate had the votes to pass the compromise on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said, The Senate was working to secure the votes, but that effort stalled when House Democrats indicated they did not support the bill.

Democratic leaders in a statement said they have been crystal clear about what they were willing to accept in a Medicaid expansion compromise, but whether House Republicans wanted to listen to is beyond our control.

Unfortunately, neither House nor Senate leadership chose to act on the language we proposed, the statement read. Instead, we will leave Jackson without a plan to solve our states increasingly dangerous healthcare crisis.

If the expansion legislation dies as expected, lawmakers will have to wait until next year during the 2025 session to reconsider the policy that 40 other states have adopted.

Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Sr., the Mid-South Diocese of the Fellowship of International Church who has been advocating for expansion for months at the Capitol, told Mississippi Today he was still hoping the two chambers could reach a dramatic last minute compromise.

But we will continue to advocate for Medicaid expansion, Cruddup said. If something dramatic doesnt happen, we will be looking for other routes to make this happen.

Lawmakers on Thursday said they expect to end the 2024 legislative session early Saturday.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  An investigation is underway after an overnight fire broke out at a home in a northeast Charlotte neighborhood, the Charlotte Fire Department said Friday.

Fire personnel responded to calls regarding the incident around 2 a.m. at a home near 400 Dawn Circle in northeast Charlotte. Fire was showing upon arrival and crews were able to get it under control within 15 minutes. One person was treated on scene by Medic.

The cause of the fire and the estimated cost of damages have not yet been released.

This is a Developing Story . Check back for updates

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Heather Pressdee pleaded guilty to administering lethal and potentially lethal doses of insulin to 22 patients

CBS Pittsburgh/Youtube Former nurse Heather Pressdee pleads guilty to giving patients lethal doses of insulin.

A former Pennsylvania nurse has been sentenced to life after pleading guilty to killing and attempting to kill multiple patients with lethal doses of insulin.

On Thursday, May 2, Heather Pressdee, 41, of Natrona Heights, was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, and 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder, Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a press release.

Pressdee, who has been incarcerated since her arrest in May 2023, pleaded guilty to "administering lethal and potentially lethal doses of insulin to 22 patients at facilities in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, and Westmoreland counties, beginning in 2020," per Henry's release.

According to the Associated Press, the victims' ages range from 43 to 104.

Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Former nurse Heather Pressdee pleads guilty to giving patients lethal doses of insulin.

Related: Nurse Allegedly Killed 2 Women with Fatal Insulin Doses, Sent Flowers and Card to Victims Family: Suit

A Butler County Judge handed Pressdee life sentences for three counts of first-degree murder, as well as sentencing the former nurse to 380 to 760 years of consecutive incarceration for the 19 counts of criminal attempt to commit murder.

The defendant used her position of trust as a means to poison patients who depended on her for care, Attorney General Henry said in a statement shared via the release.

This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm," the message added.

"I offer my sincere sympathy to all who have suffered at this defendants hands," Henry added, sharing a photo of the victims on X (formerly known as Twitter).

This plea and life sentence will not bring back the lives lost, but it will ensure Heather Pressdee never has another opportunity to inflict further harm. I offer my sincere sympathy to all who have suffered at this defendants hands. pic.twitter.com/1DUWVSZmmO  Michelle Henry (@PAAttorneyGen) May 2, 2024

"I commend my agents and investigators, and assisting agencies, who meticulously worked this investigation to uncover the defendants terrible acts, Henry concluded.

One speaker said of Pressdee in court, She is not sick. She is not insane. She is evil personified... I looked into the face of Satan myself the morning she killed my father, per the AP.

Multiple family members of the victims spoke out during the hearing. Nick Cymbol was one of the patients Pressdee pleaded guilty to killing at Sunnyview Nursing Home in Butler, KDKA reported.

Cymbol's sister, Melinda Brown, called the former nurse "pure evil," adding: "There's no justice for this. We'll get justice when she meets her maker," per the outlet.

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.

Pressdee also worked as a registered nurse at Quality Life Services in Chicora from May 23, 2022 until Nov. 28, 2022. In May 2023, PEOPLE reported she'd been accused of killing two patients  a 55-year-old man who died on Dec. 4, 2022 and an 83-year-old man who died on Dec. 25, 2022  as well as hospitalizing a third 73-year-old alleged victim while working at the facility.

PEOPLE previously reported that since 2018, Pressdee had worked brief stints as a nurse at about 11 facilities, per a complaint. Authorities claimed they identified a pattern of Pressdee being disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated.

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Read the original article on People.
Three women who say they were molested by a Wichita Falls preacher when they were children took the stand Thursday in 78th District Court.

They testified against Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, 78, longtime pastor of Rephidim Church. He is on trial on six counts of indecency with a child in connection with three former members of his church.

Before a packed courtroom, one victim testified she was 5 years old when she went into Killingsworths office, and he sat her on his lap.

Ron Killingsworth in 78th District Court

She said she asked him how babies happen, and he touched her sexually.

The woman testified Killingsworth favored her because of her high intelligence. But after she asked him a question he couldnt answer, he shut her out. She said she never told her mother about the incidents because she was too embarrassed.

She and her parents eventually left the church.

Another woman testified Killingsworth took her into his office and tried to kiss her in what she described as an open mouth kiss.

She testified Killingsworth touched her sexually and showed her pornographic images.

The woman told the jury she had acted out sexually when she was a child and once told some other children she had a crush on Killingsworth.

She told the jury that memories of what Killingsworth did still bring on panic attacks. She didnt talk about the incidents because she was scared.

The woman left the church in 2015.

I wanted to live a normal life, she said.

A third victim who is now in her 30s testified that when she was about 6 years old, she started going to the church with her mother. She said she was not a well-behaved child. When she was about 11, Killingsworth took her into his office and yelled at her, grabbed by the shoulder and touched her sexually.

The woman testified that Killingsworth told her she was a liar, and nobody would believe her if she told what happened.

She said when she told her mother about the incident, her mother hit her in the face so hard it left a scar.

All the witnesses said sexual topics were discussed in the presence of children at the church. They described fortifications at the church that included guns.

Others on the stand Thursday included the mother of one of the alleged victims, the stepfather of another and the aunt of yet another. All had attended or been members of Rephidim Church.

They testified Killingsworth had proclaimed rapture  the end of days  would occur at the Y2K millennium and they built cabins for themselves in the country.

When it didnt happen, they told the jury that he kept setting future dates for rapture that also proved false.

One tearful woman recalled leaving messages for her son because the congregation was taught the adults would ascend during rapture, but their children would be left behind.

Another testified she was shunned by the congregation when she missed services to be with her dying parents.

Defense attorneys Ron Poole and Chuck Smith quizzed the witnesses about inconsistent memories they had of interviews done with Texas Rangers.

Jake Weaver, a special investigator with the Texas Department of Public Safety and former Ranger, was last on the stand Thursday.

He told the jury he conducted interviews with the victims and other witnesses. He said from what he heard, the church seemed like a cult.

He testified he got a call from Allen Killingsworth, the defendants son and a detective with the Wichita Falls Police Department, asking about the investigation. Weaver said he did not provide information.

He is scheduled to resume testimony Friday.

Bill Vasser and Davye Jo Estes of the Tarrant County District Attorney's office were appointed to prosecute the case because of the possible conflict of Allen Killingsworth's employment.

Ronnie Killingsworth has pleaded not guilty. Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless convicted in a court of law.

If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison on each of the charges. He is free from jail on $150,000 bail.

More: Prosecutor: Preacher accused of child sex crimes is a "charismatic cult leader"

More: Indicted Wichita Falls pastor no stranger to controversies

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: In court: Victims provide details of indecency allegations against pastor
(WHTM)  Multiple counties in Pennsylvania, including Mifflin County, are at a high risk for wildfires today, according to a forecast from the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources.

Several other Midstate Counties including Dauphin, Perry, Juniata and Fulton are forecasted at a moderate risk.

The department is asking residents in high-risk areas not to start any outdoor fires today. Residents in moderate-risk areas should be cautious.

Under moderate conditions, the department recommends avoiding windy conditions and only starting fires during early morning or late night hours.

Map courtesy Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

The department defines moderate and high risk as the following:

Moderate: Cautious conditions. Wildfires may be expected. Wildfires will ignite and spread but are usually not difficult to contain. Outdoor burning should be restricted to early morning and late evening while avoiding windy conditions.

High: Dangerous conditions. Wildfires ignite easily. Fires spread rapidly and are difficult to control under windy conditions. Outdoor burning is strongly discouraged.

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To keep up with the wildfire danger forecast and to learn how to help prevent and reduce the risk of wildfires, visit the DCNRs website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
Pastor sexually abused foster daughters, California cops say. Now more victims feared

A pastor was arrested after being accused of sexually abusing his two foster daughters, California deputies say.

Jose Manuel Lozano, 54, was booked into jail Thursday, April 25, on a continuous sexual abuse of a minor charge, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department said in a May 1 news release.

After investigations, deputies said they believe the Hesperia man, a pastor at a local church, sexually abused his foster daughters, ages 10 and 16.

Lozano led services at Zion Assembly Church of God Hesperia, a branch of Zion Assembly Church of God International, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Zion Assembly Church of God International did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment on May 3.

A representative told the Los Angeles Times that the organization condemns Lozanos ungodliness and that he was removed from office March 15, when the allegations came to light.

Lozano is being held on $5 million bail, according to deputies.

Deputies said they believe Lozano may have additional victims.

Anyone with information is asked to contact deputies at 760-947-1500.

Hesperia is about an 80-mile drive northeast from Los Angeles.

Pastor accused of raping child over 600 times, getting her pregnant, Texas officials say

High-ranking Catholic church official in France says he abused a 14-year-old girl

Pastor used scripture to pressure women into having sex with him, Delaware cops say
A voter leaves a polling station in London, Britain, May 2, 2024. Britain's ruling Conservative Party has suffered one of its worst ever election days as massive numbers of voters switched their allegiance in town hall elections across England. (Xinhua)

LONDON, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Britain's ruling Conservative Party has suffered one of its worst ever election days as massive numbers of voters switched their allegiance in town hall elections across England.

By Friday evening, results had been declared in 100 of the 107 councils in England that held elections on Thursday, and the Conservatives have so far lost 433 seats in council chambers, while the main opposition Labour Party have gained 169 seats.

The Conservatives also lost seats at the expense of minority parties, with the Liberal Democrats gaining 94 seats, while the Green Party gaining 66 seats.

One example of the changing political fortunes was at Adur Council in West Sussex where Labour won eight seats to take control of the council chamber from the Conservatives for the first time since the council was created 50 years ago. It was one of eight councils where the Conservatives have so far lost control.

As well as local councillors, millions of people were also voting for regional mayors and police commissioners.

Although the Conservatives clung on, albeit with reduced votes, in the key Tees Valley mayoral election, Labour won the race to become the mayor of the new York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, an area that includes Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's parliamentary constituency of Richmond.

A Labour Party spokesperson described it as a truly historic result.

As the general election is only months away, elections expert Professor Stuart Wilks-Heeg from the University of Liverpool, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, said, "It's quite possible that, like in the 1997 general election, which Labour won by a landslide, there'll be a very strong mood of just get the Conservatives out."

The bad news for the Conservatives was made worse by the loss of one of their seats in the House of Commons. In a by-election in the British seaside resort of Blackpool, the Labour Party won the seat from the Conservatives. The 26-percent swing in the voting in Blackpool would point to a landslide for Labour if it was reflected in a general election.

Wilks-Heeg, however, pointed out that the Conservative Party's losses haven't all translated into gains for the Labour.

"Admittedly, it does seem to be the worst-case scenario for the Conservatives. Labour's success relative to the Conservatives is good. It's solid, they've done well, but it's not a stellar performance from Labour," he said.

"Labour has got a few local difficulties. And we've also got other parties picking up in a few places, such as the Greens. We've also got independent candidates doing quite well, where Labour really should be winning," he said. "But overall, it's pretty much what we expected." 

Voters arrive at a polling station in London, Britain, May 2, 2024. Britain's ruling Conservative Party has suffered one of its worst ever election days as massive numbers of voters switched their allegiance in town hall elections across England. (Xinhua)

A voter walks toward a polling station in London, Britain, May 2, 2024. Britain's ruling Conservative Party has suffered one of its worst ever election days as massive numbers of voters switched their allegiance in town hall elections across England. (Xinhua)
A 39-year-old Paterson man who authorities say was carrying two loaded guns allegedly sent his estranged wife videos of himself on Tuesday threatening a mass shooting at a New York City airport.

I am going to wait for the plane to leave, and that is when I am going to start shooting the airport up, Darnell King allegedly said in one video. This is a day in history that you and everybody will always remember.

In a subsequent video, King allegedly was standing outside his vehicle at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where his estranged wifes overseas flight had landed.

I dont know what makes you think that I was lying. I am here, King allegedly said.

The Queens District Attorneys Office announced that authorities arrested King on April 30 and charged him with various crimes, including gun possession, terroristic threats, and having a firearm in a sensitive location.

... John F. Kennedy International in Queens ...

As part of that announcement, the Queens district attorney released statements that allegedly were made by King in the videos.

There is no telling just how many lives were saved with the apprehension of this defendant who drove to JFK Airport with two loaded handguns and threatened a mass casualty event, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

Authorities said Kings estranged wife was inside Terminal 5 at JFK at 8:27 a.m. when she received the first text and video from her husband. He said he was driving to meet her, and a gun was visible on the passenger seat, authorities said.

The victim got another video and text from King  the one showing him at the airport  at 9:29 a.m., the district attorney's office said.

King was arrested at 11:50 a.m. at the Resorts World casino in South Ozone Park, which is near JFK, authorities said.

The district attorney's account did not say what happened in the time between Kings last video to his estranged wife and his arrest at the casino.

The New York Police Department and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police teamed up on the arrest.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ man allegedly threatened mass shooting at JFK
When Patient 2 was admitted to South Florida State Hospital for mental health treatment in 2023, doctors noted he suffered from two disorders, schizophrenia and psychosis.

Five months later, after a savage attack in which his hospital roommate, known as Patient 1, tore his eyes out of their sockets, Patient 2s record included a new, more worrisome diagnosis: He was suicidal.

He is permanently blind, and has expressed wishes to die and for someone to kill him because he cannot see, a biting report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration said of Patient 2. The report documented the agencys decision to declare South Florida State Hospitals residents in immediate jeopardy, the most serious finding health regulators can make.

The immediate jeopardy citation meant the hospitals mistakes placed the health and safety of [patients] in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death. The designation was lifted on Nov. 2 after health administrators accepted the hospitals plan to correct its mistakes.

Patient 2, as he is identified in the AHCA report, became yet another victim of the violence and mayhem at Floridas six psychiatric hospitals that is annually documented by police and health regulators. Though many residents, like the man who attacked Patient 2, have long histories of violence, others have grown old and frail under state supervision, and are incapable of defending themselves from such aggression. Its repeatedly proven to be a dangerous mix.

Another killing, another cover-up. Patients remain at risk at Florida mental hospitals

The Miami Herald is not identifying the 49-year-old man regulators identified as Patient 2 in order to protect his privacy.

The incident last September at South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines reflects a deadly pattern that repeats year after year: inadequate spending, poor decision-making and woeful supervision of dangerous residents committed to the states care for their own safety  and the safety of others.

Cleaning up the crime scene

The attack on Patient 2 hewed to the pattern in another way, as well. Employees waited an hour before summoning police, a report said, and by the time officers arrived, workers already had begun to sanitize the crime scene.

At a psychiatric hospital in Macclenny, about 35 miles west of Jacksonville, two men involuntarily committed to the facility died after being assaulted by other residents who had faced felony charges for violence. The attacks occurred after hospital employees had warned the state to stop mixing violent criminal defendants with sometimes frail psychiatric patients.

Read More: Covering up a deadly attack inside a state-run mental hospital

And in both cases, administrators at Northeast Florida State Hospital delayed calling law enforcement authorities  in one case for about 17 hours  while cleaning up the crime scenes.

DCF oversees three state psychiatric hospitals: Northeast Florida in Macclenny with 630 beds; Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee with 490 beds and North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Gainesville with 190 beds. Northeast Florida is not considered a secure facility for forensic patients; it lacks handcuffs, armed guards, barbed wire and pepper spray.

The agency also contracts with a private provider, Wellpath Recovery Solutions, to operate three others  South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines, with 350 beds; South Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center in Florida City, with 249 beds; and Treasure Coast Treatment Facility in Indiantown, with 224 beds  where psychiatrists seek to restore defendants to competence, largely through medication and training in the criminal justice system.

Step down policy admits criminal patients

South Florida State Hospital is among the civil commitment facilities where DCF steps down criminal defendants  they are called forensic patients  in order to make room at the forensic hospitals, which are so chronically underfunded and poorly staffed that about 400 people are awaiting a bed.

In addition to the civilly committed patients who have a history of aggression, the criminal defendants place significant stress on the hospitals that accept them. The AHCA report said South Florida State Hospital staff would be given new training in response to an increase in the number of forensic patients and patients with a high risk for aggression to increase staff awareness and vigilance.

Records show Patient 2 was involuntarily committed to South Florida State Hospital on April 20, 2023, after his psychiatrist diagnosed him as suffering from symptoms of schizophrenia and psychosis.

Records show Reinaldo Uranga Bermeosolo had exhibited violent and aggressive behavior, as well as continued extreme psychosis for several years, as well as delusions and paranoia. He is accused of attacking another patient at South Florida State Hospital in Pembroke Pines, ripping out the mans eyes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Reinaldo Uranga Bermeosolo, who is identified as Patient 1 in AHCAs report, was admitted to the hospital on Aug. 4, 2023, with diagnoses of schizophrenia and intermittent explosive disorder. His psychiatric record included violent and aggressive behavior, as well as continued extreme psychosis for several years, as well as delusions and paranoia, the AHCA report said.

He has a history of being unpredictable and becoming extremely violent at times, losing his temper for no reason; and he has attacked multiple people, including family members multiple times and an employee at [another psychiatric facility] just prior to the admission, the AHCA report said of Uranga Bermeosolo.

The following month, on Sept. 10, a mental health worker heard noises coming from Uranga Bermeosolos room and found him beating on his roommate, the AHCA report said. The roommate was identified as Resident 9.

The patient is dangerous, the AHCA report quotes from hospital records. He was pleasant, the report added, but can snap at any moment.

Hospital administrators moved Uranga Bermeosolos roommate. Uranga Bermeosolos record also reflected that, on Sept. 13, hospital staff initiated assault precautions for him, and restricted his ability to roam the hospital campus freely.

But less than a week later, on Sept. 21, Uranga Bermeosolos father asked administrators to restore Uranga Bermeosolos grounds privileges so he can visit, the AHCA report said  a request that Uranga Bermeosolos psychiatrist granted.

Patient #1 seemed to be doing well and not a threat to others, was calm and pleasant and getting along with his peers, Uranga Bermeosolos psychiatrist told AHCA investigators.

There was no reason for concern that he would do anything to anyone or himself, Uranga Bermeosolos psychiatrist later explained.

The very next day, Uranga Bermeosolo attacked Patient 2.

Management lapses

A management lapse that day contributed to the tragedy: Both Uranga Bermeosolo and Patient 2 were supposed to be out of their living unit at a program that day, but both men stayed behind. Staff on the unit were not told that it was their job to supervise the two men, who would have been outside the unit for three hours while attending the day program, AHCA wrote.

When asked by AHCA investigators to explain the hospitals system for supervising patients, a risk manager explained at length that administrators had installed an elaborate color-coded dashboard that tracks residents at a distance. The risk manager, however, provided no plans to ensure staff maintains a presence in all areas where there are patients so as to supervise their activities, other than to conduct proximity scans at intervals of up to an hour.

Camera footage from the hallway of C-wing, where both men lived, shows that from 2:40 p.m. until 3:43 p.m. on Sept. 22, staff came onto the C-wing for a total of three minutes and 47 seconds, the AHCA report said. Uranga Bermeosolo, who less than two weeks earlier had beaten his roommate, was not supervised  or even observed  the rest of that time.

Uranga Bermeosolo attacked Patient #2while their door was open, repeatedly punched him, traumatically removed and detached both of Patient #2s eyes with his bare hands, and restrained Patient #2 on the floor for several minutes before the first staff arrived at 3:54 p.m., the AHCA report said.

Said a report from the Pembroke Pines Police Department: This incident lasted approximately seven minutes before hospital staff was notified at 3:54.

The report added: There was an approximate time delay in notifying [police] of one hour. During that hour, the police report said, hospital administrators already had begun to clean up the crime scene.

When police arrived, Uranga Bermeosolo was sitting on a chairacting nonchalant.

Eyes recovered but could not be saved

Nurses at South Florida State Hospital gave rescue workers Patient 2s eyes, preserved in ice, to take to the hospital, police reported. But it was not possible to restore the mans sight.

In a short interview with police, Uranga Bermeosolo said that an argument began over a towel that was on the door they shared. Reinaldo punched [Patient 2] in the face, police reported, and then pinned him on the floor.

Uranga Bermeosolo was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm or disability. He has pleaded not guilty, and the case remains pending. On Nov. 27, Broward Circuit Judge Ari Porth adjudicated Uranga Bermeosolo incompetent to stand trial. He was committed, once again, to DCF custody for treatment.

A hospital risk manager told AHCA that no staff members heard or saw anything while Patient 2 was being brutalized.

Since the order for live camera observation in their room had been discontinued by the physician the day before to accommodate [Uranga Bermeosolos] familys request to increase privileges for visitation, no one was observing the room at the time of the assault to request help.

During an interview with AHCA, a security officer initially said he was not sure the event was preventable, the AHCA report said.

He later acknowledged that leaving residents unobserved for an hour could have contributed to it and that when they know theres no one around, its an opportunity.
Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, speaks during a session of the U.S. House on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (U.S. Congress Screenshot)

Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, speaks during a session of the U.S. House on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (U.S. Congress Screenshot)

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to reverse the federal governments decision to cancel oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and restrict oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, in an unexpected move, declined to vote for or against the reversal.

The House bill isnt expected to pass the Senate or the White House, but the vote offered an opportunity for lawmakers to state their position on Arctic drilling ahead of this falls elections.

When the Biden administration canceled ANWR leases in 2023, the decision incensed Alaskas elected officials and the states development bank, which held several of those leases.

The bank, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, is suing over the issue and has been joined by the state and the government of the North Slope Borough.

Peltola and the rest of Alaskas congressional delegation said at the time that they were disappointed by the cancellation, and afterward, Peltola joined House Republicans in drafting a legislative response, which turned into Wednesdays bill.

When the Department of the Interior announced that it would restrict drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, that topic was added to the bill, too.

Peltola was the only Democratic lawmaker among the bills 16 cosponsors, but when she spoke on Wednesday on the House floor, she said she would only vote present, not for or against the bill.

The problem, she said, was that the bill included a provision that would erase the designation of the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, a section of ocean where Alaska Native tribes have been granted greater authority on management decisions.

In 2016, when President Barack Obama created the area, he was criticized by Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, as well as then-Rep. Don Young.

Unfortunately, the way this bill was written pits energy development against fisheries, and for that reason I will be voting present today.

 U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska

Peltola has repeatedly said she supports pro-fish policies, and erasing the area appeared to contradict that position.

By nullifying this area, we are breaking our promise to tribes and directly harming fishing communities. Alaskans face many challenges and threats to our unique ways of life, she said. Were on the brink of being forced to import natural gas from a foreign country and our fishermen are in the midst of an economic free fall coupled with depleted fish stocks. Unfortunately, the way this bill was written pits energy development against fisheries, and for that reason I will be voting present today.

Peltola unsuccessfully attempted to amend the bill on the floor to remove the provision and said she has introduced a clean version of the bill that doesnt include it.

Still, House Republicans said they were puzzled by Peltolas actions and questioned why she didnt raise the issue earlier, when it might have been addressed in committee.

A Peltola aide said the item was buried in an executive order nullifying ANWR leases within the bill, and that her amendment to remove it was only possible at specific junctures after she learned about it.

Before the final vote, Peltolas office sent a message to fellow lawmakers, saying that the Bering Sea provision was a significant unintended consequence, and she urged them to vote against the bill.

Peltola is one of only a handful of House Democrats representing districts that voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has made unseating her a priority.

In a statement after her vote on the drilling bill, NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a prepared statement, Bidens liberal war on Alaska is Peltolas biggest political liability and Alaskans wont forget today.

The post Peltola declines to vote for Arctic drilling bill she previously supported, citing fish policy appeared first on Alaska Beacon.
A Penn State student was accused Thursday of sexually assaulting and strangling a woman inside his downtown State College apartment.

Moncef Guen, 24, of Maryland, was accused of everything from forceful kissing and groping to having sexual intercourse with her in December 2022.

The charging document filed by State College police also detailed allegations of slapping and biting. The two met on an unspecified social media app and the woman went to his apartment for dinner, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

She told Guen to stop and that she did not want to continue, police wrote. At one point, a detective wrote, the woman told Guen he was hurting her.

Significant bruising was found on her neck and breast during a sexual assault forensic examination at Mount Nittany Medical Center, police wrote. A message left with defense lawyer Steve Trialonas was not immediately returned.

Guen was charged with a felony count of sexual assault and strangulation, as well as a misdemeanor count of indecent and simple assault.

He was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Steven Lachman, who released him on $100,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 15.
Was Pennbrook Middle School warned of threat before Stanley cup attack in cafeteria?

The motive behind an unprovoked lunchtime attack on a North Penn seventh-grader who was beaten with a steel Stanley brand mug is still unknown more than two weeks after the cafeteria incident that has sparked new school safety measures.

As of Friday, neither district officials or Upper Gwynedd police have released a motive for the April 17 attack at Pennbrook Middle School that left a student with serious head injuries.

Superintendent Todd Bauer updated the community on what security and safety efforts the district has made since the attack, and future plans to prevent another incident at a Safe Schools Committee meeting April 30. The police investigation into the assault also remains ongoing.

Pennbrook Middle School in Upper Gwynedd is located in the North Penn School District

But district officials have not addressed reports from parents and students that school faculty were warned beforehand an attack was imminent or that the accused student had a hit list containing other students names.

In an email Friday North Penn spokeswoman Christine Liberaski said the district discussed the details that could be released at the April 30 meeting.

Upper Gwynedd Police Chief David Duffy did not immediately respond to an email Friday asking about those reports.

Multiple parents and students who attended a school board meeting the day after the assault said that they alerted Pennbrook staff about concerns involving the accused student. Several parents said their childrens names appear on a hit list the accused student had.

One parent said she called the school on Tuesday and Wednesday before the assault to alert them that her daughter had been threatened by the student, according to media reports.

Another parent said her daughter and others went to school counselors twice the morning of the attack and reported rumors of an impending attack at lunchtime.

The district has not acknowledged it was warned ahead of the attack or the existence of a hit list.

At the Tuesday committee meeting Bauer said neither the school or district receive threat tips through its Safe-To-Say anonymous reporting system.Bauer has also called reports false that the accused student had been expelled from another district for violent behavior or transferred to Pennbrook from a different North Penn school.

North Penn School District has not yet released a motive for the April 17 cafeteria attack that left a seventh-grade with staples in her head.

Discipline proceedings involving the accused student had not occurred as of April 30, and the information about the outcome would not be released, Bauer said, citing state and federal student privacy laws. Those laws limit personal information that can be released about students.

The student accused in the attack has been charged as a juvenile with aggravated and simple assault and reckless endangering.

The Montgomery County District Attorneys Office said it would not release information about the suspect or case because the matter is proceeding in juvenile court.

Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at Jciavaglia@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Pennbrook Middle School Stanley cup attack: Was a threat reported?
All five relevant state regulatory boards in Pennsylvania have approved a policy opposing conversion therapy for minors and warning the professionals they license that they may be disciplined for violating it.

The state Board of Nursing Thursday joined the boards of Medicine, Psychology, Osteopathic Medicine, and Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors, which all voted recently to adopt new statements of policy saying minors should not be subjected to the discredited and harmful practice. Conversion therapy seeks to turn LGBTQ+ people straight and/or cisgender.

This decisive action makes clear that there is no place for the harmful, dangerous practice of conversion therapy here in our Commonwealth, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a press release. We value real freedom here in Pennsylvania  and no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you pray to, or who you love, you should be able to express who you are and be free from harassment and discrimination. My Administration will continue working to make sure that everyone is protected, feels welcome, and can thrive in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The new policies notify licensees that all five boards consider the use of conversion therapy to be unprofessional, harmful conduct and that any licensee engaging in it may be subject to administrative discipline.

Since hateful rhetoric and pseudoscience still dominate the clinical experiences of many LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians, knowing that our state oversight boards saw fit to pass these protections is a small weight off of our shoulders, Ashleigh Strange, executive director of the Governors Advisory Commission on LGBTQ+ Affairs, said in the release. This is a solid step toward letting folks know that identifying as LGBTQ+ is not a disease or a crime in Pennsylvania. You have a safe place here.

The Trevor Project, which assists LGBTQ+ young people in crisis, including those considering suicide, told state boards this year that conversion therapy remains an issue in Pennsylvania despite an August 2022 executive order from then-Gov. Tom Wolf aimed at discouraging the practice. Legislators have attempted to pass bills outlawing use of conversion therapy on minors, but those bills have all stalled.

Troy Stevenson, director of state advocacy campaigns at the Trevor Project, issued a statement praising Pennsylvanias action. The Trevor Projects research found that young people who reported undergoing conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide in the past year, he said. Knowing that an estimated 44 percent of LGBTQ+ youth, including 54 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth, in Pennsylvania seriously considered suicide in the past year, these actions are especially critical for ensuring the health and safety of young people across the state. We are grateful to the Shapiro administration, the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, the National Association of Social Workers Pennsylvania Chapter, the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, PFLAG, National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Human Rights Campaign, and mental health professionals and advocates across the commonwealth, for their work over the last several years to protect the mental health and well-being of young people across the commonwealth.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have banned the use of conversion therapy on minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Five other states and Puerto Rico have taken actions that amount to a partial ban. Numerous cities and counties have enacted bans as well.

The American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and many other professional groups have repudiated the practice due to lack of scientific evidence supporting it and the risk of harm it poses to minors.
People can't be detained just for trying to avoid police, California Supreme Court says

Police officers cannot detain someone on the street just because that person tries to avoid contact with them, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The decision has immediate implications for police officers working all across the state, restricting the grounds under which they can stop and hold people for questioning. It could also affect other litigation in which arrests are being challenged, particularly when people of color allege they were detained simply for trying to avoid police.

Someone acting nervous or attempting to conceal themselves can still be "relevant context" for officers, but those actions alone do not constitute "reasonable suspicion of criminal activity," Justice Carol Corrigan wrote in the unanimous high court decision.

Officers "may consider what they see in plain view" and also can "approach people in public, engage them in consensual conversation, and take note of their appearance and behavior," Corrigan wrote, but absent probable cause "the person is constitutionally protected and empowered to go on his or her way."

Read more: Judge in major gun cases reprimanded after 13-year-old girl handcuffed in court

The decision  in a case brought by a Los Angeles man arrested on suspicion of having drugs and a gun after police said he tried to hide from them  was immediately blasted by the union that represents rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers, which called the high court "out-of-touch." The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.

Richard Fitzer, an attorney for plaintiff Marlon Flores, praised public defenders who worked the case initially and called the ruling "a vindication of the rights of minorities." The outcome was possible, he said, because of the Racial Justice Act, a 2020 California law that prohibits discrimination in the state's criminal justice system based on a defendant's race, ethnicity or national origin.

Justice Kelli Evans, the high court's newest member, wrote in a concurring opinion joined by four other justices that said "many individuals  including, particularly, people of color  commonly hold a perception that engaging in any manner with police, including in seemingly casual or innocuous ways, entails a degree of risk to one's safety."

Evans listed the names of 35 people killed in interactions with police in recent years, including Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Stephon Clark, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

"Due to this searing history and the present day experiences of far too many people in the United States, for generations, legions of parents in minority communities have given their children 'the talk'  detailing survival techniques for how to navigate interactions with police 'all out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them,'" Evans wrote. "Given this context, it is apparent why attempting to avoid police officers reflects, for many people, simply a desire to avoid risking injury or death."

Read more: Do dying people have a 'right to try' magic mushrooms? 9th Circuit weighs case

The case began when Flores was arrested by LAPD officers in 2019. According to court records, he was standing on the street in what police described as a "known" drug area and "gang hangout" when he noticed the officers driving up, walked around a Nissan parked illegally and "ducked" behind it. The incident was captured on police body cameras.

The officers stopped, got out of their car and walked over to Flores, who was bent over and appeared to be moving his hands around his shoes. They told him to stand and put his hands behind his head, and handcuffed him within seconds.

According to the ruling, Officer Daniel Guy later testified that Flores "acted 'suspicious(ly)' by 'attempting to conceal himself from the police' and then 'pretend(ing) to tie his shoe.'"

As the officers patted down Flores, the lights on the Nissan blinked  which they assumed was because their frisk had pushed a key fob in Flores' possession. An officer said that when he shined his light in the car he saw "what looked like a drug pipe." The officers entered the vehicle and allegedly found a folded dollar bill containing methamphetamine and a revolver in a backpack.

Read more: California leaders asked for a Supreme Court homelessness decision. Will it backfire?

In court, Flores attempted to suppress that evidence as improperly obtained, but his motion was denied by a lower court judge who, as Corrigan wrote, "reasoned that Flores's acts of 'ducking,' 'remaining hunched over,' and 'toying with his feet,' even after the officers approached and told him to stand, was 'odd behavior' and 'suspicious.'" The lower court said Flores had done "more than enough" to warrant his detention.

Flores was ordered to serve probation after pleading no contest to a single gun charge. He continued to fight the outcome, and the state Supreme Court took on his appeal.

Thursday's decision sends the case back to the trial court so that Flores can withdraw his plea and the court can grant his motion to suppress the evidence against him. How his case might proceed from there is unclear.

In a statement to The Times, the Los Angeles Police Protective League defended its officers' actions in the case, which it said took a gun in the hands of a criminal off L.A.'s streets.

"For most residents living in high crime neighborhoods that's called good police work," the union said. "Yet, in their infinite wisdom, California's out-of-touch Supreme Court overturned two lower court rulings that found the officers acted lawfully and sided with the drug and gun possessing owner of the illegally parked car to further cement California's criminal justice system as the joke it is."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Time is running out to prevent starvation in Darfur, in western Sudan, a UN agency has warned, as escalating violence devastates the African nation.

People have been forced to consume grass and peanut shells, the regional director for Eastern Africa of the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. If assistance doesnt reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan, Michael Dunford added.

Sudan has been gripped by civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It quickly descended into a brutal conflict characterized by reports of sexual and genocidal violence and civilian casualties, triggering an exodus of refugees.

On Thursday, two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drivers were killed by gunmen in South Darfur, in an attack that left three other staff members injured, according to the humanitarian organization.

The ICRC team was attacked en route to assess the crisis among communities affected by armed violence in the region, the organization said.

The border between Sudan and Chad is shown on April 25. More than 8.7 million people have been displaced by the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary RSF, according to the UN. - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Newly arrived refugees from Sudan cook food over fires outside their makeshift shelters, on April 24, 2024 near Adre, Chad. - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The latest surge in violence comes as the RSF encircles North Darfurs capital, El Fasher.

In the city and its surrounding localities, there have been increasing arbitrary killings, systematic burning of entire villages and escalating air bombardments, the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Toby Hayward, said on Thursday.

Hayward added that El Fasher is the only city in Darfur that has not been captured by the RSF and hosts thousands of people who have been displaced by the war. At least 500,000 of those sheltering in the city have been displaced from violence elsewhere in Sudan, according to the UNs childrens agency (UNICEF).

More than 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in El Fasher in recent weeks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

At least 43 people have been killed in and around the city since the escalation of fighting a little over two weeks ago, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Thursday.

Recent attacks on more than a dozen villages in western El Fasher have resulted in horrific reports of violence, including sexual violence, children injured and killed, homes set on fire, and destruction of critical civilian supplies and infrastructure, Russell detailed.

Meanwhile, deliveries of food assistance in Darfur have been intermittent due to fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles and at least 1.7 million people within the region are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme.

The latest escalation of violence around El Fasher has halted aid convoys coming from Chads Tine border crossing  a recently opened humanitarian corridor that passes through North Darfurs capital, the WFP added. Restrictions imposed by authorities in the coastal town of Port Sudan have hindered aid deliveries, the WFP said, preventing the transportation of relief via Adre, a town in neighboring Chad.

More than 8.7 million people, including 4.6 million children, have been displaced by the war in Sudan and 24.8 million need assistance, according to OCHA.

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A recent agreement signed between India and Nepal regarding public sector audit is being seen as a big boost to the relationship between the two countries. Girish C Murmu, India's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), showed excitement about the collaboration during his visit to Nepal, emphasizing its potential to deepen cooperation and promote mutual development.

According to reports from the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, CAG Murmu had productive discussions during his visit, including meetings with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepal's Finance Minister Barshaman Pun, and Nepal's Auditor General Toyama Raya. These discussions centered on the ongoing cooperation between the Supreme Audit Institutions of India and Nepal, highlighting the importance of the new agreement in the realm of public sector audit.

In a statement, the Indian Embassy quoted CAG Murmu as saying, "The close partnership between the Supreme Audit Institutions of India and Nepal adds yet another dimension to our multi-faceted relationship."

The agreement signed during CAG Murmu's visit aims to boost efforts in building capacity and enhancing methodologies related to public sector audits.

The signing of the agreement is viewed as a positive step towards strengthening bilateral ties and promoting a spirit of cooperation and mutual growth between India and Nepal.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu also emphasized the significance of this agreement in fostering closer ties and advancing common goals of good governance and accountability.

India-Maldives Ties: Maldives Foreign Minister's Visit Precedes President Muizzu's Potential Pro-China Trip

200 Members of Sindhi Community from Pakistan to Visit Ram Lalla Temple in Ayodhya Today
"I want to be your somebody," Pinky Cole Hayes, owner of the Atlanta-based Slutty Vegan restaurant chain, said to Savannah State University's (SSU) graduating class Friday morning.

SSUs Marketing Manager Francisco Duque confirmed that 355 students had applied for graduation and approximately 330 students and their families were present at T. A. Wright Stadium, 3219 College St., to hear Hayes speak. Being the graduates' somebody turned out to be more than sharing inspirational words. She also had a surprise for the graduates who braved the early May heat in full cap and gown.

"I called on my somebodies," she said. "Operation Hope (founded by CEO John Hope Bryant) and the One Million Black Businesses campaign (1MBB) to provide every single one of you a combined $8.9 million dollars worth of entrepreneurial resources." 1MBB endeavors to "start, grow, and scale 1 million Black businesses by 2030 to provide a successful path to wealth creation for the Black community."

Pinky Cole Hayes encouraged SSU students to be the change

Hayes used the story of Lt. Dan from the movie Forrest Gump as a metaphor for her speech's theme of "Thriving in the Midst of Change." She explained to the crowd of students (many of whom were likely born well after the movie came out) that Lt. Dan's life goal was to be a soldier. He hadn't counted on any other career. Then he lost his legs during a battle in the Vietnam jungles and eventually partnered with Gump to become a first mate on a shrimping boat, which ultimately grew into a lucrative shrimping company. She compared the story to her own life experience, in which she lost her restaurant in a grease fire and her car was repossessed before she went on to become a successful restaurateur.

Students began to realize the gravity of Hayes's gift as she shared that the resources equaled approximately $25,000 per SSU student. They began to clap and cheer as they rose to their feet.

According to a press release from Hayes's public relations team, the 1MBB resources include:

Entrepreneurial educational resources

Mentoring From 1MBB, including one-on-one financial counseling

An eight-week small business training course with business plan development and credit and money management courses

3-months free with shopify to build their e-commerce platform for young entrepreneurs ready to start their businesses

She ended her speech by telling the students that they "don't need to learn how to thrive in the midst of change. You already got a Ph.D., and when you leave this graduation today, you're going to learn how to drive change. You will change policy. You will change the face of leadership. You will change communities."

Graduates point to the stands during the Savannah State University Commencement ceremony on Friday, May 3, 2024 at TA Wright Stadium.

Students grateful for SSU, look ahead to future

Graduating senior Alexander Jermaine Richardson Jr. presented the Spring 2024 reflections to his peers from the commencement stage. He thanked the faculty and mentors as well as parents in the crowd. He also said, "We are our ancestors' wildest dreams, but as we start this new chapter of our lives, we must not forget the profound influence that Savannah State University has had on us. We must continue to dream like Martin Luther King Jr.; lead like Cheryl Davenport Dozier; fight like Malcolm X; think like Prince A. Jackson Jr.; write like Maya Angelou; speak like President Barack Obama; educate like James A. Colston; believe like Richard R. Wright, Sr.; challenge like Cynthia Robinson Alexander; and inspire like Kimberly Ballard-Washington."

Denerick Nyquan Simpson who has obtained two undergraduate degrees and two masters degrees from SSU, including his most recent Masters of Public Administration, lifted the crowd with a speech in verse. He called for his peers to "represent our institution well with the Tiger values that Savannah State taught and remember to always give back."

Ahead of the ceremony, twins Jalen and Jasen Magee, from from Stockbridge, Georgia, talked about their experience. Both majored in computer science technology with a concentration in cybersecurity and, like most other graduates, began their college experience online due the COVID-19 pandemic. Jasen is vice president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and was named Mr. Senior and Mr. NAACP. He plans to attend Augusta University for a master's degree in computer science. Jalen shared that he had actually been offered a job that morning at a company in South Carolina. Jasen expressed surprise as he had not yet heard the news.

The brothers emphasized the importance of joining college organizations and embracing the college life at SSU. They also had a message for young Black college students still in school, "Get your degree...we want more Black doctors, surgeons and lawyers, and we still want to be out there in the world."

Cameron Christian Straughter, a dual-enrolled student from Savannah Early College High School, received a diploma for his Associate of Arts degree and graduated cum laude on Friday. He said the workload was very manageable even as he fought a bout of senioritis. He was inspired by his brother who did the dual enrollment program program two years ago. Now Straughter has the chance to set the example for his younger sister, who is currently in middle school. He focused on multimedia in his studies and will be starting at SCAD in the fall, hoping to further his knowledge and skills in the digital media industry.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Pinky Cole Hayes speaks at Savannah State commencement
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A student-centered high-rise apartment building proposed for the site of a decades-old dive bar just south of Ohio State University is closer to coming to fruition.

The University Impact District Review Board approved zoning variances last week for a 13-story, 183-unit apartment building on the corner of North High Street and West Ninth Avenue. Still in its early design stages  and awaiting city council approval  the project would require the demolition of Bier Stube and several other buildings occupied by local businesses.

The Bier Stube at 1479 N. High St. (NBC4 Photo/Sarah Szilagy)

Portofinos Pizza at 1497 N. High St. The restaurant would be demolished under a proposal for a high-rise apartment complex. (NBC4 Photo/Sarah Szilagy)

14-0 Express, a longtime corner market on North High Street. The store would be demolished under a proposal for a high-rise apartment complex. (NBC4 Photo/Sarah Szilagy)

Illinois-based developer Harbor Bay Ventures presented a slightly smaller proposal than its last plan for the site, shrinking the tower to 13 stories from 15, and eliminating the few dozen on-site parking spaces it originally allotted. The developer is still eyeing a nearby, mostly vacant parking garage for use by future tenants.

Preliminary renderings show a row of connected three-bedroom townhomes on West Ninth Avenue and studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units in the rest of the tower, with a rideshare lobby and bike storage on the ground level. On the second floor, Harbor Bay and local architecture firm DLR Group envision a gym, listening room, study rooms and an outside courtyard fitted with a Block O hot tub.

Rendering of a row of townhome-style residences as part of a high-rise apartment building proposed for North High Street and West Ninth Avenue. (Courtesy Photo/Harbor Bay Ventures and DLR Group)

Rendering of a high-rise apartment building proposed for North High Street and West Ninth Avenue. (Courtesy Photo/Harbor Bay Ventures and DLR Group)

Rendering of a high-rise apartment building proposed for North High Street and West Ninth Avenue. (Courtesy Photo/Harbor Bay Ventures and DLR Group)

There is no planned commercial space on the first floor, which Steve Willobee with Harbor Bay Ventures said was a decision that came after extensive community conversations. As designed, Harbor Bay Ventures says fitting as many units into the tower as possible will ensure the preservation of a slate of affordable rental properties next to the site.

The way we got to the building we got today, it wasnt just Harbor Bay and DLR sitting in a room with our architects to ourselves, saying This is the most optimal massing, this is the building that we want, Willobee told the review board. It really has been a building thats been designed by us and the [University Area Commission] neighborhood to get to where we got.

The proposal would be the latest of Harbor Bays developments made of mass timber, which is a heartier alternative to light-frame wood but weighs less than steel or concrete. Harbor Bay claims mass timber is more sustainable and environmentally than traditional building materials.

And its typically quicker to build with; large segments of mass timber are constructed off-site and fitted together. Mass timber can make for a cleaner and quieter construction zone, noted Columbus resident William Wells, who spoke in favor of the development.

While some University Area Commission members gave pause to the lack of parking before the commission ultimately approved the variances in April, Wells said deprioritizing parking for such housing makes sense, given the citys planned move away from parking requirements in its zoning code update.

This is certainly the way that the city is going, to reduce the parking requirements, and it certainly makes sense for a student housing project, Wells said.

Still, he recommended that the developer be required to have at least one handicapped parking spot available before the plan receives final approval.

Harbor Bay will need to return to the University Impact District Review Board to get approval for its project design. And no ground can be broken  or dive bar demolished  until final approval by city council.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
Plan to steal from man in church parking lot turned deadly. Now Derby man will go to prison

A Sedgwick County judge has sentenced an 18-year-old Derby man to 27 1/2 years in prison in the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old Wichita man last year, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorneys Office.

Philip Lee Walls, whose name is also spelled Phillip in police and court records, pleaded guilty on March 11 to second-degree intentional murder, attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping in the December 2023 death of Daniel McPherson. Walls and another man, 20-year-old James Giovanni Lee Sawyer, were arrested in Oklahoma, after going to a hospital there so Walls could be treated for a gunshot wound. At about 2 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2023, authorities in Oklahoma notified Sedgwick County emergency dispatch, who in turn contacted the Wichita Police Department.

Police found McPherson dead from a gunshot wound to his head near a church at 1755 E. MacArthur, near Hydraulic, after receiving information that his body would be there.

Sawyer, who is charged with first-degree felony murder and two counts of attempted aggravated robbery, has pleaded not guilty to his charges, court records show. His trial is set for Aug. 26.

A factual basis for Walls plea that was attached to his plea agreement gives this account of the killing:

Walls and Sawyer decided to rob McPherson of drugs or other property on Dec. 5, 2023, and swapped texts and spoke in person about their plans, which included bringing a gun and making McPherson sit in their vehicle with a belt around his neck while they stole from him.

Philip Lee Walls has been sentenced for the December 2023 fatal shooting of Daniel McPherson. His first name is also spelled Phillip in police and court records.

They talked about using the gun as a last resort because they did not want to have a body to deal with, the factual basis says.

That night, they invited McPherson into the car and drove to an empty parking lot next to the church. When Sawyer looped the belt around McPhersons neck and head to try to rob him, McPherson pulled a gun and shot Walls, who was in the drivers seat. Sawyer then allegedly pulled a .38-caliber revolver and fired at McPherson several times. At least one bullet struck McPhersons head.

Walls and Sawyer then dumped McPhersons body and drove away, met up with a girlfriend and eventually headed to the Oklahoma hospital because they did not want to attract law enforcement attention by getting treatment for Walls injuries in the Wichita area, according to the factual basis.

On Friday, Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering told Walls he would serve consecutive 165-month prison sentences for each of the murder and kidnapping counts. The 34-month term he ordered for the attempted robbery will be served concurrent to the others, Dillon said.

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Check your pantries.

Planters/Allrecipes

According to a May 2, 2024 press release, Hormel Foods Sales, LLC is voluntarily recalling two varieties of Planters nuts after they were discovered to be potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recall, initiated in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), affects two Planters productsHoney Roasted Peanuts and Deluxe Lightly Salted Mixed Nutsdistributed in five states.

Planters/Allrecipes

How to Identify the Recalled Planters Nuts

Two varieties of Planters nuts are subject to recall:

4-ounce packages of Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts with a "Best If Used By" date of April 11, 2025 (displayed on the package as 04 11 25) and a package UPC of 2900002097.

8.75-ounce cans of Planters Deluxe Lightly Salted Mixed Nuts with a "Best If Used By" date of April 5, 2026 (displayed on the bottom of the can as 05APR26) and a package UPC of 2900001621.

The press release includes photos of the specific packaging and instructions for finding the UPC codes. At this time, no other sizes, varieties, or packaging configurations of Planters products are subject to recall.

The recalled products were shipped to Publix distribution warehouses in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, as well as Dollar Tree distribution warehouses in South Carolina and Georgia.

What to Do if You Have Recalled Planters Nuts

Exposure to Listeria monocytogenes can result in a listeriosis infection, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, pregnant people, adults over 65, and those with weakened immune systems.

At the time of this writing, there have been no reports of illness related to this recall, but if you have the recalled product, do not consume it. Hormel Foods Sales, LLC (Planters' parent company) urges consumers to discard the product or return it to the store where it was purchased for an exchange.

If you have questions about this recall, contact Hormel Foods Customer Relations via email, chat at https://www.planters.com/, or at 1-800-523-4635, Monday-Friday, 8-11 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. Central Time.



Read the original article on All Recipes.
An attendee looks at a series of banners for National Crime Victims Rights Week Candlelight Vigil on the National Mall on April 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The Justice Departments Office for Victims of Crime held the event to pay tribute to victims and survivors of crime and individuals who provide service and support. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  States and local organizations that aid victims of sexual assault and other crimes are raising the alarm about a multi-year plunge in funds, a major problem they say Congress must fix soon or programs will be forced to set up wait lists or turn victims away altogether.

Affected are rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, child advocacy centers and more that serve millions of Americans and cant necessarily rely on scarce state or local dollars to keep the doors open if federal money runs short.

The problem has to do with a cap on withdrawals from the federal crime victims fund, put in place by Congress years ago in an earlier attempt at a solution.

Under the cap, how much money is available every year is determined by a complex three-year average of court fees, fines and penalties that have accumulated  a number that has plummeted by billions during the past six years. The fund does not receive any taxpayer dollars.

National Childrens Alliance CEO Teresa Huizar said in an interview with States Newsroom that child advocacy centers, which help connect children who have survived sexual or domestic abuse to essential services, have no fat left to trim in their budgets.

What childrens advocacy centers are really looking at now are a set of extremely hard choices, Huizar said. Which kids to serve, which kids to turn away? CACs that have never had to triage cases previously, now will have to. CACs that have never had a waitlist for mental health services will now have long, lengthy waitlists to get kids in for therapy.

I mean, imagine being a kid whos been sexually abused and being told youre going to have to wait six months to see a counselor, Huizar added. Its terrible.

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, chairwoman of the spending panel that sets the cap every year based on the dwindling revenue, and Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, the subcommittees ranking member, both indicated during brief interviews with States Newsroom that a fix is in the works, but declined to provide details.

There is an effort to address that and were in the process of doing that, but in the meantime theres not as much money there, Shaheen said.

Fund goes up and down by billions every year

Congress established the crime victims fund in 1984 when it approved the Victims of Crime Act. Its funding comes from fines, forfeited bonds and other financial penalties in certain federal cases.

The money flowing into the fund fluctuates each year, making it difficult for the organizations that apply for and receive grant funding to plan their budgets. Congress hoped to alleviate those boom-and-bust cycles by placing the annual cap on how much money can be drawn from the crime victims fund.

But that cap has sharply decreased recently, causing frustration for organizations that rely on it and leading to repeated calls for Congress to find a long-term solution.

The cap stayed below $1 billion annually until fiscal year 2015, when it spiked to $2.3 billion before reaching a high of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2018.

The annual ceiling then dropped by more than $1 billion, starting the downward trend, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service and data from the Department of Justice.

The cap was set at $2 billion in fiscal year 2021 before rising to $2.6 billion in fiscal 2022 and then dropping to $1.9 billion in fiscal 2023.

Congress set the cap on withdrawals at $1.2 billion for fiscal 2024 when it approved the latest round of appropriations in March, and states and localities have reacted with concern at the prospect of such a dramatic cut. In Iowa, for example, where the state receives $5 million a year, the potential loss of funding posed a major question as legislators wrote their budget for judicial services.

Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, said on the House floor before the end of session that lawmakers may have to step in with funding next year if the federal shortfall isn't fixed.

Its our intention that if the federal government doesnt come through, that we will provide emergency funding as quickly as possible when we convene next January, Lohse said. So I hate to say its a wait and see what happens, but that, at this point, is where were at. And were very hopeful the federal government will come through and replace the funding that they had promised.

A better fix sought

Congress approved legislation in 2021 to increase the types of revenue from federal court cases moving into the crime victims fund, but advocates say a longer-term answer is needed.

Huizar said the National Childrens Alliance and prosecutors, as well as organizations that combat domestic and sexual violence, have been urging Congress to fix the funding stream or supplement it to provide stability and consistency.

Now is the time for Congress to turn urgent attention to this issue if they do not want the safety net for kids and families and serious crime victims to just fall apart, Huizar said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers  Reps. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., Jim Costa, D-Calif., Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas and Ann Wagner, R-Mo.  have introduced legislation that would move unobligated funds collected from entities that defraud the federal government under the False Claims Act to the crime victims fund. The act is a main tool the federal government uses to fight fraud.

That bill is not a long-term solution, but a temporary infusion of resources, according to a summary released by lawmakers.

As for the Senate appropriators, Moran said he and others on the spending subcommittee are waiting for the Judiciary Committees examination of the issue, so that we can take the authorizers suggestions and take them into account when we appropriate.

Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, wrote in a statement the sustainability of the CVF is extremely important, as evidenced by Senator Durbins work on the VOCA Fix that passed in 2021, and we continue to work with our colleagues and survivor advocates and service providers to examine further ways to strengthen the CVF.

Shaheens office did not provide details about what changes may be in the works, following multiple requests from States Newsroom.

Should taxpayer dollars be tapped?

National District Attorneys Association President Charles Smith said his organization supports the House bill, but noted one problem with the short-term fix is that the crime victims fund would be last in line to get the additional revenue.

I believe that the government gets their money first, the whistleblower second and then were in kind of third place there, Smith said.

One struggle over the fluctuating revenue and available funding, Smith said, is debate about whether taxpayer dollars should be used to offset low balances.

We need to set a number that everybodys happy with, so to speak, and fund it through these available sources, Smith said. But if theres a deficit, there needs to be some mechanism in place for it to come out of the general fund.

The crime victims fund is essential for witness coordinators and victims assistance coordinators in prosecutors offices as well as other services for people who survive crimes.

Theyre critical for the well-being of the victim and a lot of times they are critical for the witness even showing up and testifying, said Smith, who also is the states attorney for Frederick County, Maryland.

The organizations that support crime victims, like child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, are crucial to prosecutors, Smith said.

Not only are we directly impacted by a loss of staffing and loss of resources, but a lot of the partner agencies that we rely on collaborating with are going to be hurt as well, Smith said of the reduction to the funding cap.

Real alarm in states

Karrie Delaney, director of federal affairs for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said the slowdown of court cases during the COVID-19 pandemic and the last administration not prosecuting as many corporate cases has impacted the fund more than usual.

RAINN is the countrys largest anti-sexual-violence organization. It operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) alongside local organizations and runs the Defense Departments Safe Helpline. It also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice, according to its website.

I think whats important from RAINNs perspective is the actual impact that those fluctuations have on the survivors that we support and organizations and service providers across the country, Delaney said.

When the federal cap decreases, she said, organizations that support crime victims often turn to state and local governments to make up the gap. And a lot of the times there arent enough funds to do that.

What weve seen across the states is real alarm that the cuts coming down are not just impacting the ability of these organizations to offer certain services, but to really keep their doors open, Delaney said.

Child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, Delaney added, are the real boots on the ground organizations that are helping people in times of very active crisis that are at risk of seeing their programs drastically cut to the point where service is placed in jeopardy.

If you are a victim of crime, there are toll free, text and online hotlines available. A list from the Office for Victims of Crime is here. You can also find help in your state here.

The post Plummeting balance in federal crime victims fund sparks alarm among states, advocates appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch.
An attendee looks at a series of banners for National Crime Victims Rights Week Candlelight Vigil on the National Mall on April 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The Justice Departments Office for Victims of Crime held the event to pay tribute to victims and survivors of crime and individuals who provide service and support. (Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  States and local organizations that aid victims of sexual assault and other crimes are raising the alarm about a multi-year plunge in funds, a major problem they say Congress must fix soon or programs will be forced to set up wait lists or turn victims away altogether.

Affected are rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, child advocacy centers and more that serve millions of Americans and cant necessarily rely on scarce state or local dollars to keep the doors open if federal money runs short.

The problem has to do with a cap on withdrawals from the federal crime victims fund, put in place by Congress years ago in an earlier attempt at a solution.

Under the cap, how much money is available every year is determined by a complex three-year average of court fees, fines, and penalties that have accumulated  a number that has plummeted by billions during the past six years. The fund does not receive any taxpayer dollars.

National Childrens Alliance CEO Teresa Huizar said in an interview with States Newsroom that child advocacy centers, which help connect children who have survived sexual or domestic abuse to essential services, have no fat left to trim in their budgets.

What childrens advocacy centers are really looking at now are a set of extremely hard choices, Huizar said. Which kids to serve, which kids to turn away? CACs that have never had to triage cases previously, now will have to. CACs that have never had a waitlist for mental health services will now have long, lengthy waitlists to get kids in for therapy.

I mean, imagine being a kid whos been sexually abused and being told youre going to have to wait six months to see a counselor, Huizar added. Its terrible.

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, chairwoman of the spending panel that sets the cap every year based on the dwindling revenue, and Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, the subcommittees ranking member, both indicated during brief interviews with States Newsroom that a fix is in the works, but declined to provide details.

There is an effort to address that and were in the process of doing that, but in the meantime theres not as much money there, Shaheen said.

Fund goes up and down by billions every year

Congress established the crime victims fund in 1984 when it approved the Victims of Crime Act. Its funding comes from fines, forfeited bonds, and other financial penalties in certain federal cases.

The money flowing into the fund fluctuates each year, making it difficult for the organizations that apply for and receive grant funding to plan their budgets. Congress hoped to alleviate those boom-and-bust cycles by placing the annual cap on how much money can be drawn from the crime victims fund.

But that cap has sharply decreased recently, causing frustration for organizations that rely on it and leading to repeated calls for Congress to find a long-term solution.

The cap stayed below $1 billion annually until fiscal year 2015 when it spiked to $2.3 billion before reaching a high of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2018.

The annual ceiling then dropped by more than $1 billion, starting the downward trend, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service and data from the Department of Justice.

The cap was set at $2 billion in fiscal year 2021 before rising to $2.6 billion in fiscal 2022 and then dropping to $1.9 billion in fiscal 2023.

Congress set the cap on withdrawals at $1.2 billion for fiscal 2024 when it approved the latest round of appropriations in March, and states and localities have reacted with concern at the prospect of such a dramatic cut. In Iowa, for example, where the state receives $5 million a year, the potential loss of funding posed a major question as legislators wrote their budget for judicial services.

A better fix sought

Congress approved legislation in 2021 to increase the types of revenue from federal court cases moving into the crime victims fund, but advocates say a longer-term answer is needed.

Huizar said the National Childrens Alliance and prosecutors as well as organizations that combat domestic and sexual violence have been urging Congress to fix the funding stream or supplement it to provide stability and consistency.

Now is the time for Congress to turn urgent attention to this issue if they do not want the safety net for kids and families and serious crime victims to just fall apart, Huizar said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers  Reps. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., Jim Costa, D-Calif., Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, and Ann Wagner, R-Mo.  have introduced legislation that would move unobligated funds collected from entities that defraud the federal government under the False Claims Act to the crime victims fund. The act is a main tool the federal government uses to fight fraud.

That bill is not a long-term solution, but a temporary infusion of resources, according to a summary released by lawmakers.

As for the Senate appropriators, Moran said he and others on the spending subcommittee are waiting for the Judiciary Committees examination of the issue, so that we can take the authorizers suggestions and take them into account when we appropriate.

Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, wrote in a statement the sustainability of the CVF is extremely important, as evidenced by Senator Durbins work on the VOCA Fix that passed in 2021, and we continue to work with our colleagues and survivor advocates and service providers to examine further ways to strengthen the CVF.

Shaheens office did not provide details about what changes may be in the works, following multiple requests from States Newsroom.

Should taxpayer dollars be tapped?

National District Attorneys Association President Charles Smith said his organization supports the House bill, but noted one problem with the short-term fix is that the crime victims fund would be last in line to get the additional revenue.

I believe that the government gets their money first, the whistleblower second, and then were in kind of third place there, Smith said.

One struggle over the fluctuating revenue and available funding, Smith said, is debate about whether taxpayer dollars should be used to offset low balances.

We need to set a number that everybodys happy with, so to speak, and fund it through these available sources, Smith said. But if theres a deficit, there needs to be some mechanism in place for it to come out of the general fund.

The crime victims fund is essential for witness coordinators and victims assistance coordinators in prosecutors offices as well as other services for people who survive crimes.

Theyre critical for the well-being of the victim and a lot of times they are critical for the witness even showing up and testifying, said Smith, who also is the states attorney for Frederick County, Maryland.

The organizations that support crime victims, like child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers, are crucial to prosecutors, Smith said.

Not only are we directly impacted by a loss of staffing and loss of resources, but a lot of the partner agencies that we rely on collaborating with are going to be hurt as well, Smith said of the reduction to the funding cap.

Real alarm in states

Karrie Delaney, director of federal affairs for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said the slowdown of court cases during the COVID-19 pandemic and the last administration not prosecuting as many corporate cases has impacted the fund more than usual.

RAINN is the countrys largest anti-sexual-violence organization. It operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) alongside local organizations and runs the Defense Departments Safe Helpline. It also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice, according to its website.

I think whats important from RAINNs perspective is the actual impact that those fluctuations have on the survivors that we support and organizations and service providers across the country, Delaney said.

When the federal cap decreases, she said, organizations that support crime victims often turn to state and local governments to make up the gap. And a lot of the times there arent enough funds to do that.

What weve seen across the states is real alarm that the cuts coming down are not just impacting the ability of these organizations to offer certain services, but to really keep their doors open, Delaney said.

Child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers, Delaney added, are the real boots on the ground organizations that are helping people in times of very active crisis that are at risk of seeing their programs drastically cut to the point where service is placed in jeopardy.

If you are a victim of crime, there are toll free, text and online hotlines available. A list from the Office for Victims of Crime is here. You can also find help in your state here.

The post Plummeting balance in federal crime victims fund sparks alarm among states, advocates appeared first on New Hampshire Bulletin.
An attendee looks at a series of banners for National Crime Victims Rights Week Candlelight Vigil on the National Mall in April 2024, in Washington, D.C. The Justice Departments Office for Victims of Crime held the event to pay tribute to victims and survivors of crime and individuals who provide service and support. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (This image cannot be republished unless you have a Getty subscription.)

WASHINGTON  States and local organizations that aid victims of sexual assault and other crimes are raising the alarm about a multi-year plunge in funds, a major problem they say Congress must fix soon or programs will be forced to set up wait lists or turn victims away altogether.

Affected are rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, child advocacy centers and more that serve millions of Americans and cant necessarily rely on scarce state or local dollars to keep the doors open if federal money runs short.

The problem has to do with a cap on withdrawals from the federal crime victims fund, put in place by Congress years ago in an earlier attempt at a solution.

Under the cap, how much money is available every year is determined by a complex three-year average of court fees, fines and penalties that have accumulated  a number that has plummeted by billions during the past six years. The fund does not receive any taxpayer dollars.

National Childrens Alliance CEO Teresa Huizar said in an interview with States Newsroom that child advocacy centers, which help connect children who have survived sexual or domestic abuse to essential services, have no fat left to trim in their budgets.

What childrens advocacy centers are really looking at now are a set of extremely hard choices, Huizar said. Which kids to serve, which kids to turn away? CACs that have never had to triage cases previously, now will have to. CACs that have never had a waitlist for mental health services will now have long, lengthy waitlists to get kids in for therapy.

I mean, imagine being a kid whos been sexually abused and being told youre going to have to wait six months to see a counselor, Huizar added. Its terrible.

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, chairwoman of the spending panel that sets the cap every year based on the dwindling revenue, and Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, the subcommittees ranking member, both indicated during brief interviews with States Newsroom that a fix is in the works, but declined to provide details.

There is an effort to address that and were in the process of doing that, but in the meantime theres not as much money there, Shaheen said.

Fund goes up and down by billions every year

Congress established the crime victims fund in 1984 when it approved the Victims of Crime Act. Its funding comes from fines, forfeited bonds and other financial penalties in certain federal cases.

The money flowing into the fund fluctuates each year, making it difficult for the organizations that apply for and receive grant funding to plan their budgets. Congress hoped to alleviate those boom-and-bust cycles by placing the annual cap on how much money can be drawn from the crime victims fund.

But that cap has sharply decreased recently, causing frustration for organizations that rely on it and leading to repeated calls for Congress to find a long-term solution.

The cap stayed below $1 billion annually until fiscal year 2015 when it spiked to $2.3 billion before reaching a high of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2018.

The annual ceiling then dropped by more than $1 billion, starting the downward trend, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service and data from the Department of Justice.

The cap was set at $2 billion in fiscal year 2021 before rising to $2.6 billion in fiscal 2022 and then dropping to $1.9 billion in fiscal 2023.

Congress set the cap on withdrawals at $1.2 billion for fiscal 2024 when it approved the latest round of appropriations in March, and states and localities have reacted with concern at the prospect of such a dramatic cut. In Iowa, for example, where the state receives $5 million a year, the potential loss of funding posed a major question as legislators wrote their budget for judicial services.

A better fix sought

Congress approved legislation in 2021 to increase the types of revenue from federal court cases moving into the crime victims fund, but advocates say a longer-term answer is needed.

Huizar said the National Childrens Alliance and prosecutors as well as organizations that combat domestic and sexual violence have been urging Congress to fix the funding stream or supplement it to provide stability and consistency.

Now is the time for Congress to turn urgent attention to this issue if they do not want the safety net for kids and families and serious crime victims to just fall apart, Huizar said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers  Reps. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., Jim Costa, D-Calif., Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas and Ann Wagner, R-Mo.  have introduced legislation that would move unobligated funds collected from entities that defraud the federal government under the False Claims Act to the crime victims fund. The act is a main tool the federal government uses to fight fraud.

If you are a victim of crime, there are toll free, text and online hotlines available. A list from the Office for Victims of Crime is here. You can also find help in your state here.

That bill is not a long-term solution, but a temporary infusion of resources, according to a summary released by lawmakers.

As for the Senate appropriators, Moran said he and others on the spending subcommittee are waiting for the Judiciary Committees examination of the issue, so that we can take the authorizers suggestions and take them into account when we appropriate.

Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, wrote in a statement the sustainability of the CVF is extremely important, as evidenced by Senator Durbins work on the VOCA Fix that passed in 2021, and we continue to work with our colleagues and survivor advocates and service providers to examine further ways to strengthen the CVF.

Shaheens office did not provide details about what changes may be in the works, following multiple requests from States Newsroom.

Should taxpayer dollars be tapped?

National District Attorneys Association President Charles Smith said his organization supports the House bill, but noted one problem with the short-term fix is that the crime victims fund would be last in line to get the additional revenue.

I believe that the government gets their money first, the whistleblower second and then were in kind of third place there, Smith said.

One struggle over the fluctuating revenue and available funding, Smith said, is debate about whether taxpayer dollars should be used to offset low balances.

We need to set a number that everybodys happy with, so to speak, and fund it through these available sources, Smith said. But if theres a deficit, there needs to be some mechanism in place for it to come out of the general fund.

The crime victims fund is essential for witness coordinators and victims assistance coordinators in prosecutors offices as well as other services for people who survive crimes.

Theyre critical for the well-being of the victim and a lot of times they are critical for the witness even showing up and testifying, said Smith, who also is the states attorney for Frederick County, Maryland.

The organizations that support crime victims, like child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, are crucial to prosecutors, Smith said.

Not only are we directly impacted by a loss of staffing and loss of resources, but a lot of the partner agencies that we rely on collaborating with are going to be hurt as well, Smith said of the reduction to the funding cap.

Real alarm in states

Karrie Delaney, director of federal affairs for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said the slowdown of court cases during the COVID-19 pandemic and the last administration not prosecuting as many corporate cases has impacted the fund more than usual.

RAINN is the countrys largest anti-sexual-violence organization. It operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE) alongside local organizations and runs the Defense Departments Safe Helpline. It also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice, according to its website.

I think whats important from RAINNs perspective is the actual impact that those fluctuations have on the survivors that we support and organizations and service providers across the country, Delaney said.

When the federal cap decreases, she said, organizations that support crime victims often turn to state and local governments to make up the gap. And a lot of the times there arent enough funds to do that.

What weve seen across the states is real alarm that the cuts coming down are not just impacting the ability of these organizations to offer certain services, but to really keep their doors open, Delaney said.

Child advocacy centers, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers, Delaney added, are the real boots on the ground organizations that are helping people in times of very active crisis that are at risk of seeing their programs drastically cut to the point where service is placed in jeopardy.

The post Plummeting balance in federal crime victims fund sparks alarm among states, advocates appeared first on Oklahoma Voice.
People wave Palestinian flags during an action by students from several universities in support of the Palestinian people. Police broke up a sit-in by pro-Palestinian students at the prestigious Sciences Po University in Paris. Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/dpa

Police have broken up a pro-Palestinian student protest at the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris, with 91 people escorted from the building, police said on Friday.

The operation was calm and without incident, it said. A group of students have been demonstrating for days against their university's stance on the Gaza war.

The protesters are calling for a commission of inquiry into Sciences Po's partnerships with several Israeli universities, which they accuse of playing a direct or indirect role in violating the rights of people in the Gaza Strip.

The students accuse Israel of violating international law and committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip amid its ongoing military offensive in the sealed-off Palestinian coastal area triggered by the October 7 attacks.

Students at other Sciences Po campuses in France as well as at other French universities have also staged protests in solidarity with the Palestinians recently, as pro-Palestinian student protests across campuses in the US seem to be spreading overseas.

On Thursday, the Sciences Po management attempted to put an end to the demonstrations by hosting an internal debate.

Afterwards, management said that it wanted to think about how the university should fundamentally position itself on political issues and conflicts and develop corresponding guidelines.

Following the latest protests on Friday, the office of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that strict measures would be taken, according to media reports.

The ongoing Gaza war was triggered by the October 7 attacks on Israel led by Palestinian extremist organization Hamas. Militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted about 250 more to Gaza.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive. In view of the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel has come under international criticism.

More than 34,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far.
People wave Palestinian flags during an action by students from several universities in support of the Palestinian people. Police broke up a sit-in by pro-Palestinian students at the prestigious Sciences Po University in Paris. Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/dpa

Police have broken up a pro-Palestinian student protest at the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris, with 91 people escorted from the building, police said on Friday.

The operation was calm and without incident, the police statement said.

A group of Sciences Po students have been demonstrating for days in the French capital against their university's stance on the Gaza war. Several university buildings remained closed on Friday due to the protests.

The protesters are calling for a commission of inquiry into Sciences Po's partnerships with several Israeli universities, which they accuse of playing a direct or indirect role in violating the rights of people in the Gaza Strip.

The students accuse Israel of violating international law and committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip amid its ongoing military offensive in the sealed-off Palestinian coastal area in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Students at other Sciences Po campuses in France as well as at other French universities have also staged protests in solidarity with Gaza recently, as pro-Palestinian demonstrations across US campuses begin to spread overseas.

On Thursday, the Sciences Po management attempted to put an end to the demonstrations by hosting an internal debate.

Afterwards, management said that it wanted to think about how the university should fundamentally position itself on political issues and conflicts and develop corresponding guidelines.

University authorities said they had kept their promises to the students, but condemned the students for failing to honour the agreement.

Following the latest protests on Friday, the office of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that strict measures would be taken, according to media reports.

The ongoing Gaza war was triggered by the October 7 attacks on Israel led by Palestinian extremist organization Hamas. Militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted about 250 more to Gaza.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive. In view of the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel has come under international criticism.

More than 34,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far.
Police in Portland, Oregon, are arresting more suspected car thieves and reducing the number of vehicles stolen, thanks to a partnership with cancer researchers.

Officer Michael Terrett said he came up with the idea of a more strategic approach to battling car thefts after the city saw a steep rise in stolen cars in 2019.

Terrett said they once found a stolen vehicle among every 31 pulled over. While Terrett calls that "a level of success," he said he knew they could do more. "I connected with my lieutenant and said, 'I believe there's an opportunity to get better here, if we take a more data-driven, data mining, evidence-based practice approach,'" Terrett told ABC News.

MORE: Car thefts up 10% nationally, murders down 6% in 2022: FBI

Dr. Jeffrey Tyner, a professor at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, told ABC News Terrett approached him at a social gathering about helping improve the city's stolen vehicle problem.

Tyner said they realized his experience in data science could be useful.

"He told me about his concept that he wanted to bring a data-driven approach to identifying stolen vehicles," Tyner said. "I actually thought it was a natural fit because we use data. They were interested in using data - obviously for very different purposes. But data is data."

PHOTO: Police in Portland, Oregon, are arresting more suspected car thieves and reducing the number of vehicles stolen, thanks to a partnership with cancer researchers. (Portland Police Bureau)

Terrett said the Portland Police Bureau does a good job of recovering stolen vehicles after they've been abandoned. But the goal now is to find them before that point.

So, the two brought their teams together for the first time in 2022.

Using data gathered by various officers, Terrett developed a list of stolen vehicle characteristics, ranging from a missing license plate or altered trip permit, to self-tinted windows.

PHOTO: Portland Police Bureau catch a suspected car thief on the 14th hole of a Portland golf course. (Portland Police Bureau)

Tyner's team helps the bureau analyze the data. That information is used to develop probabilities that certain cars are stolen, resulting in more targeted traffic stops. Using the new strategy resulted in a much higher number of arrests. One out of every four vehicles pulled over turned out to be stolen, instead of the previous one in 31, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Terrett said stolen vehicles are frequently used to commit other crimes, so pulling over stolen vehicles often leads to reducing other crimes.

MORE: NYC to distribute Apple AirTags to fight rising car thefts

"If we can apprehend that vehicle with that person in the car, we are likely - as our statistics have shown - going to take a gun off the street," Terrett said. "There is likely a person in that vehicle with an active arrest warrant that we can take into custody. And who knows what we have just stopped from occurring in the community."

Since Terrett and Tyner's teams started working together, officers reported finding an illegal gun in every 26 cars, compared to the previous one in 144. And, fewer vehicles are getting taken. Over the last 15 months, the number of vehicles reported stolen is down by 50%, police said.

PHOTO: Portland Police officers take part in roll call before a SVO. (Portland Police Bureau)

Previous attempts to address the stolen vehicle problem were met with accusations of racial profiling. Terrett, however, said he knew, "If we analyzed, at a data level, elements that we're seeing on stolen vehicles, we could see patterns. And we can use the data to cut through bias and to understand exactly what a stolen car looks like, whereby we can increase our probability of success."

He wanted to find someone local who could help analyze information gathered on traffic stops and increase law enforcement efficiency. He said the list of characteristics, which he calls "enrichment factors," is constantly changing,

"There was a time period when, if we heard a car with a catalytic converter cut off, which is loud, that was our number one enrichment factor at the time, that the vehicle was stolen," he said.

PHOTO: A stolen car is recovered in Portland. (Portland Police Bureau)

However, he said new laws significantly reduced the number of catalytic converter thefts, so the data had to evolve. Tyner wasn't surprised.

"Here, we have collected data on patients with Leukemia over the course of years, and we've had to change the way we approach the data. We've had to change the way we think about and analyze the data based on the evolving trends in cancer therapeutics," Tyner said

Tyner's team now meets quarterly with the Portland Police Bureau to assess and adjust their data. He sees a promising future for the project.

"I think the results that the PPB team has been able to deliver have been phenomenal, in terms of their ability to use the data, train their officers and to be much more precise and efficient with how they can identify stolen vehicles," he said. "But also the trends of reduced stolen vehicles that are being seen here in Portland, which is a major contrast to what's being seen nationwide."

Portland Police recently received a three-year $800,000 Smart Policing grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to formalize the partnership with OHSU and continue their work analyzing the data. Police agencies from as far away as Wisconsin are now asking Portland to share its tactics.

Police, cancer researchers team up to track stolen vehicles originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Next week, Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer is expected to visit India, with both nations currently coordinating to finalize the dates, possibly early next week. This visit marks the first high-level engagement between the two countries since President Mohamed Muizzu, perceived as pro-China, assumed office last year, succeeding the India-friendly Ibrahim Solih.

Relations between India and the Maldives have faced challenges under Muizzu's leadership, with efforts to limit defense and security cooperation with India. Zameer's upcoming visit aims to lay the groundwork for Muizzu's potential trip to India later this year, where discussions on bilateral ties, particularly regarding sovereignty and loan repayment, are anticipated.

Expressing gratitude for India's decision to increase essential exports to the Maldives for the fiscal years 2024 and 2025, Zameer emphasized the importance of longstanding friendship and bilateral trade expansion. His visit coincides with India's Lok Sabha elections and is likely to be the last high-profile foreign dignitary hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his current term.

The timing of Zameer's visit is crucial as it aligns with the May 10 deadline for India to withdraw troops from the Maldives and replace them with civilians. Despite the strategic significance of the Maldives in Indian Ocean commerce routes and China's growing influence since Muizzu's presidency, India has reluctantly agreed to comply with the troop withdrawal demand.

Muizzu's previous state visit to China in January, ahead of any visit to India, underscores the shifting dynamics in the Maldives' foreign policy. During this visit, agreements were reached, including defense aid arrangements, highlighting the deepening ties between the Maldives and China.

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As protests continue erupting at U.S. college campuses over the war in Gaza, law enforcement from coast to coast is being tasked with carrying out a complex choreography: How to protect the constitutional right to free speech, while navigating volatile and potentially unsafe social unrest.

Dynamic scenes of massive encampments, vocal demonstrations and building occupation have now been playing out on private and public college properties  where police assistance has to be requested, not forcibly and unilaterally imposed. As they respond, authorities must carefully weigh what response might unduly escalate already tenuous circumstances  and what's critically needed to prevent dangerous discord, experts say.

Protests broke out last month at colleges and universities across the country in connection with the war in Gaza, with many pro-Palestinian protesters calling for their colleges to divest of funds from Israeli military operations or companies benefitting from the war. Over 2,000 protesters have been arrested -- many for minor offenses like trespassing -- at the campuses of Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, University of California, Los Angeles, and others, according to the Associated Press.

"It's a complex social situation that requires conversation, coordination, accommodating free speech while accommodating the needs of the greater public good and wellbeing," said Chris Burbank, former Salt Lake City police chief and adviser for the Center on Policing Equity. "Use of force is the last possible thing that we should resort to. We have to look at every other option before we get to that point and not rush in to close it down, use force, arrest people."

PHOTO: NYPD officers in riot gear enter Columbia University's encampment as they evict a building that had been barricaded by pro-Palestinian student protesters in New York, April 30, 2024. (Emily Byrski/AFP via Getty Images)

But when that last resort is all that remains, police must have the resources to do it, "and do it properly," Burbank added.

"You can't go willy nilly, you want to act as a unit, you need decisive action  not a preemptive strike," said Robert Boyce, an ABC News contributor and retired chief of detectives in the New York Police Department.

That can mean officers in a militarized style response, and sporting riot gear  which itself can translate to intimidating optics.

On the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, police and protesters clashed Monday afternoon after authorities issued a dispersal order.

Protesters could be heard chanting, "There is no riot here, why are you in riot gear?" Soon after, police moved in to clear the area.

In New York, as police worked to clear protesters who had occupied Columbia's Hamilton Hall, an officer accidentally discharged his gun, as he transitioned it to his non-dominant hand to unlock an office door, Assistant Chief Carlos Valdez, the commanding officer of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit, said Friday. There were no injuries and the bullet was contained within the vacant office, Valdez said, adding the shot "was purely unintentional."

Valdez defended the decision to use a SWAT team at Columbia University  citing the necessity of being prepared for unpredictable situations when dealing with barricaded individuals. ESU's standard operating procedures include the use of firearms equipped with illuminating flashlights to enhance decision-making in low-light conditions, Valdez saying these protocols are in place to ensure that our officers are prepared for any scenario that might arise during an operation."

Burbank noted officers must take caution not to make the situation worse with the response meant to mitigate it  that police presence should be to protect, not exacerbate.

"In some cases, yes - you do have people taking over buildings and things like that, it can be very problematic, but one of the questions that I always have and will always pose, is, what did you do before it got to that point?" Burbank said.

The primary objective is to prevent conditions from escalating into destructive or violent activity, experts say. But sometimes authorities can't fully control these events and they will escalate.

MORE: What to know about 'outside agitators' cops say are co-opting Columbia protests

"Law enforcement will try to ensure that those situations are handled in a surgical way, that they don't spread," said John Cohen, the former intelligence chief at the Department of Homeland Security, now an ABC News contributor.

The delicate balance must be weighed even as local authorities juggle jurisdictions  a "key component, and a complicating factor" to already precarious conditions, Cohen said.

"Even in an urban college campus, they have to call you in - you don't patrol in there - so you still have that arm's length distance. It's a place of free thought," Boyce said. "Obviously if there's an active shooter, or a terrorist act, or a bomb - if there's an emergency we'll go in. Otherwise they have to ask us to come in asking to take these people off their premises."

Some of the escalating tensions on campus came to a boiling point this week. In New York, a group of protesters broke into Columbia University's Hamilton Hall early Tuesday and barricaded themselves in the building. New York City police officers moved in on Tuesday night, after the university said they were left with "no choice" but to allow the NYPD's help "to restore safety and order to our community." Over 100 protesters were arrested by Wednesday, over 30 of whom were not students, according to preliminary estimates. There were no reported injuries.

On Tuesday, Columbia officials asked the NYPD to come on campus and clear Hamilton Hall of the demonstrators, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday. Adams added that university officials acknowledged that "outside agitators were on their grounds training and really co-opting this movement."

PHOTO: NYPD officers in riot gear break into a building at Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment, in New York, April 30, 2024. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

In Los Angeles, an all-out brawl broke out among clashing protesters at UCLA early Wednesday which led to 15 injuries and one hospitalization. A police response was delayed because the university and its own police department didn't immediately authorize a request to local and state police for assistance, but instead tried to deal with the protest internally, sources told ABC News. The Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol were called to respond to the protests hours after the violence began.

The subsequent police response at UCLA culminated in over 200 arrests, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department confirmed Thursday.

MORE: 'Violent protest is not protected,' Biden says of college campus unrest

UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block on Thursday defended the university's response to the violence, but said they would review their security protocols.

"When physical violence broke out that night, leadership immediately directed our UCPD police chief to call for the support of outside law enforcement, medical teams and the fire department to help us quell the violence. We are carefully examining our security processes that night and I am grateful to President Drake for also calling for an investigation," Block said in a statement.

PHOTO: Police face-off with pro-Palestinian students after destroying part of the encampment barricade on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, May 2, 2024. (Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images)

At least two other schools including the University of Minnesota and Rutgers University reached agreements with demonstrators, ending the protests peacefully and avoiding a police response.

"College and university administrations have had a tough challenge in front of them: they have students who want to express themselves, as part of the educational experience they want people feeling safe raising their voices on issues they feel strongly. On the other hand, they also have to maintain a safe environment for students who don't share the views of those demonstrating and they can't allow the operations of the campus to be shut down," Cohen said.

Mulling these sometimes-competing values can't take too long though  at the risk of hampering an effective police response.

"In dealing with these types of demonstrations, time is not your friend," Cohen said. "The longer you wait to establish lines of communication with law enforcement, the longer a university waits to develop a contingency plan that governs when you would take action to stop the demonstration, the longer you wait to pull in the resources that can handle a rapidly evolving emergency situation, the higher the likelihood a situation is not going to be handled well."

ABC News' Alex Stone, Jason Volack and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Police carry out complex choreography in responding to campus protests: 'You need decisive action' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A car that atrempted to drive through a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters on the Portland State University campus is seen parked and damaged on a campus walkway on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Portland, Ore. After the driver fled on foot the protesters damaged the car. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Police said Thursday they detained the driver of a white Toyota Camry who briefly accelerated toward a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Portland State University in Oregon and then ran off spraying what appeared to be pepper spray toward protesters who confronted him.

The man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold, the Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon. They did not release his name.

People screamed as the vehicle accelerated toward the crowd, but the driver braked before it reached anyone. Demonstrators quickly approached the car and began striking it, and the driver exited and sprinted off while aiming the spray toward those trying to catch him. Police said they found him later and took him into custody.

Demonstrators badly damaged the car, smashing in windows and spray painting graffiti on it.

The incident came hours after Portland police cleared out a library on campus that protesters had occupied since Monday. Officers said they made 22 arrests Thursday.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide. More than 2,000 people have been arrested over the last two weeks at universities across the U.S., according to an Associated Press tally.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Tampa police are investigating a deadly shooting in the area of Nebraska Ave. on Friday.

The Tampa Police Department (TPD) said officers responded to two 911 calls around 10:30 a.m. to find two adults, one male and one female, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.

Tampa Police Department Jonee Lewis on the shooting investigation near Nebraska Ave.

Upon arrival, officers found community members attempting life-saving efforts on the victims, according to TPD.

Officers jumped in and tried to administer CPR, but both victims were pronounced dead on the scene.

Detectives said this didnt appear to be a random incident and that the suspect(s) and the victims were seemingly known to each other.

Nebraska Ave. is closed from Plymouth Ave. to 26th Ave. while TPD investigates.

This is a developing story. Stay up to date on the latest from News Channel 8 on-air and on the go with the free WFLA News Channel 8 mobile app.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
Police report no serious injuries. But scenes from inside UCLA camp, protesters tell a different story

A protester is escorted by medics after being shot with a so-called less lethal round during a showdown with police Thursday. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

It was a request that police had made repeatedly: Stop throwing things at officers. But as pro-Palestinian demonstrators made their last stand Thursday morning in defense of the encampment theyd occupied at UCLA for the better part of a week, some protesters did not comply.

After another piece of wood or a plastic water bottle was flung toward law enforcement, demonstrators would yell for the others to stop hurling projectiles. Still, they kept flying.

The police, who were decked out in full riot gear, eventually had enough. One officer raised the barrel of his gun in the direction of a front-line demonstrator and shot him square in the chest with a "less-lethal" round that made a deep thud as it connected.

Police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters after an order to disperse was given at UCLA early Thursday morning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The protester fell to the ground, where he remained in a ball for about a minute while others called for a medic. A couple of people with red crosses emblazoned on their protective gear made their way through the mass of bodies and picked up the demonstrator. They quickly hauled him off to the medical tent at the center of the encampment, where a few other protesters were being treated for injuries.

In a Thursday statement, the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment decried law enforcements actions: They tore students from our human chain and shot rubber bullets at close range.  Many were rushed to the ER after the bullets connected with heads and hands. The UCLA branch of Students for Justice in Palestine posted on X on Thursday morning that there were "at least five people shot in the head with rubber bullets."

Read more: With remains of UCLA camp tossed in dumpster, Gaza activists assess the future

Amr Shabaik, legal and policy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations' greater Los Angeles area office, said the organization is reviewing "multiple incident reports" of people who were hurt Thursday at UCLA.

Shabaik provided a statement from "volunteer medics on the ground" who said they "treated numerous individuals for both minor and serious injuries inflicted by law enforcement."

"These ranged from scrapes and bruises to more severe cases  including burns from flashbang fragments, acute respiratory failure from smoke, as well as lacerations and head traumas with suspicion for concussion or intracranial hemorrhage (brain bleed) from rubber bullets. One head trauma was confirmed to have indeed resulted in subarachnoid hemorrhage," the medics' statement said, adding that "their conditions [were] worsened by an intentional delay of emergency medical services."

Los Angeles Police Capt. Kelly Muniz said LAPD officers did not fire rubber bullets or other less-lethal rounds during the clearing of the encampment. A media representative for the California Highway Patrol  whose officers were seen firing less-lethal rounds Thursday  said the department did not have information about injuries.

Although law enforcement describes weapons such as the ones the CHP's officers fired as less lethal, the agency's manual classifies them as likely to result in significant injury.

Authorities breach and break up a the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA on Thursday in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Ed Obayashi, a Northern California use-of-force expert, said such projectile weapons are known for their lack of accuracy over distance. It is not unexpected," he said, "that someone could be seriously injured by a less-lethal weapon."

Times reporters and photojournalists witnessed several instances of protesters being injured during the Thursday morning clearing of the UCLA encampment, yet LAPD interim Chief Dominic Choi, less than 12 hours later, expressed relief.

I am thankful there were no serious injuries to officers or protesters, Choi wrote on X .

Asked how Choi was able to make that determination so quickly, and whether the LAPD had any more information about injuries  serious or not  the department directed all inquiries to UCLA. A voicemail left for a spokesperson for the UCLA Police Department on Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned.

Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the department had personnel at UCLA on Thursday morning available to help anyone who required medical attention. He echoed Chois statement.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupy an encampment at UCLA as authorities breach and break up the encampment on Thursday in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

We did not encounter any serious injuries, he said in a phone interview. There was no loss of life and no life-threatening illnesses or life-threatening injuries.

Humphrey said the LAFD encountered a total of five patients with minor injuries, two of whom were transported to a hospital for treatment. He said he did not have any information about who the five injured people were, including whether they were protesters, law enforcement officers or bystanders.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department  which also had uniformed personnel at UCLA on Thursday  said in a statement that "there were no reported significant injuries to our personnel, or the individuals that were booked.

But the scenes inside the encampment and its medical tent tell a different story  one in which not everyone escaped unscathed.

Read more: Who were the masked men behind the UCLA camp attack? Online sleuths vow to find out

The tent was a hive of activity for much of the morning as people tripped over debris, were hit with projectiles and were crushed amid the mayhem.

Just after 3:30 a.m. Thursday, calls came from the front line: Medic! Medic! Two men wearing blue plastic ponchos with crosses made of red tape were rushing a woman whose head was wrapped in a kaffiyeh to the medical tent. The woman appeared to be in a daze, and she slumped down into a chair under the bright lights strung up in the makeshift clinic. One man had a deep gash on his leg that was pouring blood until medics patched him up. Its unclear how badly either person was hurt or if they were taken to a hospital.

Demonstrators occupy a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA as authorities stand nearby on Thursday in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

One man shot with a less-lethal round on Thursday needed surgery on his finger, which was so badly hurt that doctors considered amputation, according to a person who was with him on the front line.

Another man posted pictures of himself on social media at 8:45 a.m. Thursday with a bloody head bandage and blood-stained T-shirt and kaffiyeh.

He wrote that he had been shot with a less-lethal round and that he was leaving the hospital now with 11 staples and 4 stitches, adding that despite all this im so proud of everyone that was there tonight. His accounts on X and Instagram appeared to have been deleted as of Thursday evening.

Times staff writer Melissa Gomez contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
SMYTH COUNTY, Va. (WJHL)  A Georgia woman was arrested after allegedly fleeing from a traffic stop on Interstate 81 in Smyth County on Thursday evening.

According to a release from the Smyth County Sheriffs Office (SCSO), a vehicle took off from a traffic stop on Interstate 81 after being stopped for speeding.

A pursuit ensued starting south on I-81 and into the Town of Marion. The vehicle continued to flee through Marion and then back onto I-81 South, the release stated.

Two attempts to use spike strips to deflate the car tires were reportedly unsuccessful.

Kingsport PD: 1 dead after motorcycle crash on Fort Henry Drive

The suspects vehicle eventually crashed into two vehicles at the Smyth/Washington County line on the interstate. Multiple individuals inside the suspects vehicle allegedly fled on foot after the crash.

SCSO K-9 Copper and his handler tracked down the driver, later identified by police as Ciera Emani Chambers, of Atlanta, Georgia, near where the crash occurred.

The sheriffs office reported two other occupants of the Chambers vehicle were taken to a nearby hospital for minor injuries.

Throughout the evening multiple law enforcement agencies searched the area for additional passengers that may have fled from the vehicle without locating any other suspects, the SCSO said in the release.

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Crime Watch

Chambers was charged with the following:

Speeding (83 in a 70 mph zone)

Eluding law enforcement

Reckless driving

Obstruction of Justice

Two counts of leaving the scene of an accident

As of Friday, Chambers is being held without bond at the Abingdon Regional Jail.

In addition to the SCSO, the Marion Police Department, Chilhowie Police Department, Virginia State Police, Washington County Sheriffs Office, several Fire/EMS agencies, the Department of Emergency Management and VDOT assisted in the incident.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
Politico: Biden to shift public focus from Ukraine to economy during election campaign

U.S. President Joe Biden will focus on support of Ukraine less in his public display during the election campaign, Politico reported on May 2, citing undisclosed official sources close to the White House.

The U.S. will hold a presidential election in November, pinning incumbent Biden against the Republican candidate and former president, Donald Trump.

After Biden signed the $61 billion foreign aid bill, achieving a major foreign policy win, the president's team plans to make the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's fight against Russia less of a public focus and to address economic issues more, Politico wrote.

The democracy's cause will likely remain as a central component of Biden's campaign  tying together a range of topics from Ukraine to abortion, gun safety, education, and Trump  but White House and campaign aides do not expect a major public push to bolster support for Kyiv in the coming months, the outlet reported.

"Now that the supplemental passed Congress, it is naturally less of a salient issue," Politico wrote, citing one senior administration official.

Democrats and committed transatlanticists who back Biden believe that securing a second presidential term is the most crucial element to continue assisting Ukraine in its defense against Russia. Therefore, shifting the strategy to highlighting issues of more significant immediate concern for American voters could be more rewarding as of now.

Biden will still have a chance to address security matters during the campaign. According to Politico, the U.S. president is expected to come to France in June to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, likely drawing parallels to the current events in his speech.

Another big stage for Biden's potential statements on the war could be the NATO summit in Washington a month later, which will mark the organization's 75th anniversary.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that Ukraine hopes to continue working with Washington regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Read also: Microsoft says Russian disinformation campaign targeting US election has begun

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Poll: Five women with Louisiana ties are some of the most iconic in US history

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  A new poll showing the 200 most beloved heroines in the United States names five women with ties to Louisianas history.

A poll by Somewang had 3,000 respondents and focused on women who broke barriers and fought for equality.

According to the poll, the top three heroines in the U.S. are Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman and Abagail Adams.

Five women with Louisiana ties were named in the Top 200. These women include Mahalia Jackson, Clementine Hunter, Kate Chopin, Marie Laveau and Lillian Hellman.

Heres what to know about these five women who made an impact in Louisiana and womens history.

National WWII Museum in New Orleans features new Liberation Pavilion

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) ranked at No. 13.

New Orleans native Mahlia Jackson became an international star and was named the Queen of Gospel. Jackson was active in the civil rights movement, even singing at the March on Washington before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech, according to Britannica.

Clementine Hunter (1886-1988) ranked at No. 29.

Clementine Hunter is known for her paintings showing life on a plantation near Natchitoches. She didnt start painting until the 1940s and her work didnt get public attention until the 1970s, according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) ranked at No. 94.

Kate Chopin is described by the Kate Chopin International Society as an American writer known for her stories about sensitive and daring women. Shes most well known for her novel The Awakening, which was widely condemned, according to the website.

Marie Laveau (1801-1881) ranked at No. 97.

Marie Laveau was a Voodoo Queen in New Orleans who dominated the culture in her lifetime, according to Britannica. The online biography said, People sought her advice for marital affairs, domestic disputes, judicial issues, childbearing, finances, health, and good luck.

Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) ranked at No. 147.

Lillian Hellman was a playwright from New Orleans who began writing plays in the 1930s. Her most well-known works are The Childrens Hour and The Little Foxes, described as dramas exposing various forms of evil.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
Pope Francis (C) attends tha weekly General Audience in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Pope Francis is nostalgic for the old days when he could still travel by train, he has revealed in an interview.

"I have always loved travelling by public transport. It's a way to be among people, to feel their warmth and their worries," the 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church told the monthly newspaper Freccia of the Italian state railway.

As a schoolchild, he travelled every day by train from Flores to Floresta, two districts of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. "Today, that's one of the things I miss most," Francis said.

The Argentinian-born priest, who is in poor health, rarely leaves the Vatican these days. He now often sits in a wheelchair.

Francis often travels around St Peter's Square in an open popemobile. He usually travels to appointments in Rome by car.

For longer journeys, he relies on a special aircraft operated by the Italian airline ITA Airways or - as he did last weekend during a visit to Venice - on a helicopter.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  City leaders have approved a contract with the independent monitor expected to oversee the Portland Police Bureau.

During a City Council meeting on Thursday afternoon, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and all commissioners voted to authorize the contract with Mark P. Smith & Associates  led by the current inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Details emerge in Happy Valley hostage situation that ended with man shot, killed

Officials agreed to hire an independent monitor for PPB in a late 2012 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The departments previous investigation into the city found that some police officers continually engaged in excessive force, a violation of the Constitutions Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

More than a decade ago, the federal agency reported that Portland polices use of excessive force was set against the backdrop of a larger mental health system that has gaps in services.

In one particular case in 2010, unarmed 25-year-old Aaron Campbell was experiencing a mental health crisis when an officer fatally shot him in the back with an AR-15.

MPS & Associates  which the city and DOJ selected out of three finalists  will now be responsible for holding PPB accountable to its settlement agreement.

Semi-truck rollover crash closes Morrison Bridge

Along with Smith, the team includes the current independent police auditor for a San Francisco transit district, the assistant inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Commission and a former director for the Portland Office of Youth Violence Prevention.

Theyre extremely well suited to serve with objectivity, expertise, and thoroughness, Wheeler said at Thursdays meeting. I have every faith that the team will call balls and strikes as they see them, that they will recognize good work, and they will provide technical support when improvement is necessary and that theyll ensure the community has a voice in this throughout.

The company will develop a monitoring plan and conduct compliance reviews of the police agency every six months. Staff will evaluate data on use of force, mental health responses, officer training and more.

Police release identities of those arrested during Portland State University protests

According to MPS & Associates application for the role, the proposed budget for one year of independent monitoring is $837,500.

While Portland officials have approved a contract, the federal court must officially appoint the oversight team at a hearing on Wednesday, May 15.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
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Asbury Shorts USA, New York City's longest running short film exhibition and travel show returns to The Madison Theatre in Rockville Centre for a 10th year! An evenig of globally honored comedy, dramatic, documentary and animated short films from the past & present. The theater is located on the campus of Molloy Universtiy. A fun night out for ages 16 and above....fast-pacded and eclectic. Asbury Shorts USA is in its 43rd year of publicly screenig award winning short films at venues from Berlin to Los Angeles and many stops in between. Join us! Thank you!
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war could happen before the end of the war, within the framework of the Peace Summit.

Source: Zelenskyy speaking to border guards in Khmelnytskyi

Quote: "Ideally, we would like to swap all for all. All reasonable countries support this route. We are conducting exchanges, but they are slower than we would like. Some people say that an all-for-all swap will be possible 'only after the war is over'. Because this is one of the conditions for ending a war. I believe that we have an opportunity to try to make this happen earlier. There is a convenient platform at the Peace Summit on 15-16 June."

Details: Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has three priority issues for the Summit: energy and nuclear security; free navigation with no blockades of the seas; and the issue of all-for-all POW exchanges and bringing back the Ukrainian children who have been forcibly deported to Russia.

Background: Zelenskyys spokesperson Serhii Nykyforov said the participants of the Peace Summit to be held in Switzerland on 15-16 June will work out a joint negotiating position of Ukraine, which will be submitted to Russia.

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Public records from legislators can be a treasure trove of information, explaining how decisions were made and how taxpayer money was allocated. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)

In the waning days of the 2023 legislative session, legislative leaders tucked a provision in the $30 billion budget bill giving North Carolina lawmakers the discretion to decide whether work documents could be shared publicly, destroyed or even sold.

For those who may not remember, heres the power they granted themselves from page 531:

Excerpt from budget bill

Excerpt from budget bill

The change did not sit well with Senator Graig Meyer (D-Orange) who on Thursday attempted to get his colleagues to address the matter when they were voting on a technical corrections bill to the budget.

Sen. Graig Meyer

Sen. Graig Meyer (Photo: NCGA)

Meyer asked Senator Ralph Hise, the Senate Deputy President Pro Tem, why SB 508 (2023 Budget Tech/Other Corrections) that addressed numerous other technical corrections over 60 pages failed to fix the repeal of the states public records law for legislators.

Why is there no technical correction on the public records provision? asked Meyer.

Because that would not be a technical correction. That would be a clear policy change of the policy enacted by the general assembly, said Hise unmoved.

Meyer told the chamber shielding themselves from the public records law only fosters a lack of transparency and trust in the institution.

Ill remind this body but more importantly Ill remind the public of the state of North Carolina that the General Assembly has exempted itself from all public record standards.leaving public records compliance to be a voluntary matter to the individual members and giving members the ability to both destroy and sell our records paid for by the state, by the public through their taxpayer funds for the work that we do, said Meyer.

We have a chance in this correction to the budget to fix that and have not, and I ask this body to continue to consider that as a matter of urgent public responsibility to fulfill our duties to the people who sent us here.

Meyer is not alone in his criticism of the provision.

Sen. Ralph Hise

Sen. Ralph Hise (Photo: NCGA)

State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a Republican, urged lawmakers last October to change course.

By allowing individual lawmakers to determine what records are public and what material can be destroyed without ever seeing the sunshine of public view creates a system that does not have standards or accountability, said Folwell.

The former director of the Open Government Coalition, Brooks Fuller, said shielding legislative documents from public view does not itself cause corruption but it creates a perfect environment for it to incubate.

And for now, that perfect environment still exists.

Meyers appeal fell on deaf ears Thursday with no effort to address loophole legislative leaders carved out. Five minutes after Meyer brought it up the Senate adjourned for the week.

The post Powerful Senate Republican dismisses effort to close NCs public records loophole appeared first on NC Newsline.
RACINE, Wis. (WFRV)  President Joe Biden will be making stops in Wisconsin and Illinois on May 8, White House officials announced on Friday.

On May 8, the President will travel to Racine, Wisconsin, to deliver remarks on his Investing in America agenda. Afterward, officials say he will host a campaign event.

West De Pere Middle School educator named one of Wisconsins Teachers of the Year

President Biden will then head to Chicago, Illinois, for a campaign reception.

Officials noted that additional details will be available shortly.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
President Joe Biden paid a visit to the victims' families in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shared thoughts on the "heroic actions" the officers took on Monday, April 29.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was serving a warrant for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon when the suspect opened fire. Police returned gunfire, and killed the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes, Jr.

Unfortunately, four officers also lost their lives in the shooting.

President Joe Biden Releases Statement On Charlotte Tragedy

MEGA

One day after the horrific shooting that occurred in Charlotte, North Carolina, President Joe Biden released a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"Yesterday, four brave law enforcement officers  including a Deputy U.S. Marshal  were killed in Charlotte, North Carolina in the line of duty," President Biden began. "They are heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, rushing into harms way to protect us."

"We mourn for them and their loved ones. And we pray for the recoveries of the courageous officers who were wounded," he added. "To the families of those we lost: Jill and I, and all Americans, are here for you. We will always be here for you."

President Joe Biden Pays A Visit To Charlotte, North Carolina

.@POTUS arrived at @cltairport earlier today to honor the fallen officers in Monday's east Charlotte ambush. ? More: https://t.co/4i7BDNru8u pic.twitter.com/npLgz1eIzr  WBTV News (@WBTV_News) May 2, 2024

On Thursday, May 2, shortly after the President addressed the nation regarding the ongoing college campus protests, he flew to Charlotte to visit the families of the four fallen officers and three of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's injured officers from the tragic event on Monday.

Those killed were identified as Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer; and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks.

Biden shared thoughts on "the heroic actions [the] officers took on Monday and every day," according to CMPD. "Their service and sacrifice can never be repaid."

The police department thanked the President for stopping by and sharing a moment with [their] local heroes. "We continue to be overwhelmed by the support from our community and from across the country," CMPD added.

U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force Attempted To Serve A Warrant

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On Monday, April 29, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was attempting to serve a warrant at the home in Charlotte. However, they were met with gunfire from an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

As officers approached, they received additional gunfire from inside the residence," Chief Jennings said in a press conference, per The Blast's previous report.

Unfortunately, this individual decided to greet them with gunfire," Jennings later told CNN. "And it just turned into a tragic event for the officers who were originally out on the scene and the officers who responded to try and assist."

40-caliber handgun and ammunition were also found at the scene.

Who Was The Suspect?

And story dies... U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force went to a home in an attempt to serve a warrant in Charlotte, NC. The deceased suspect has been identified as Terry Clark Hughes, Jr, 39. Three of the deceased officers have been named; they are North Carolina Department pic.twitter.com/eZZicrvrkL  ??Salty Texan (@texan_maga) April 30, 2024

The deceased suspect in the Charlotte shooting, Terry Clark Hughes, Jr., had a track record with the police. In 2010, he was convicted of breaking and entering and spent approximately six months in prison, according to North Carolina state records obtained by WCNC. He was released in May 2011.

In June 2012, Hughes was arrested again after a high-speed chase. According to the news outlet, deputies said "Hughes led them on a chase at speeds over 100 mph after turning around to avoid a checkpoint. At the time, he was wanted on several warrants in numerous counties for failing to appear in court."

Hughes was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and speeding to elude arrest and spent nearly a year in prison.

In May 2021, Hughes was arrested a third time on multiple drug charges and with fleeing or eluding arrest with a motor vehicle. He was released from prison a few hours later.

How To Donate To Victims' Families

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After the tragic incident, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released information on how the community can support the families affected by the shooting, including how to send personal gifts, cards, or item donations.

For information on how to donate to the victims' families, visit our website here.
Vehicles are parked along a proposed expansion area of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the Angeles National Forest on April 16, 2024 near La Canada Flintridge, California. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Chairman Octavio Escobedo III of the Tejon Indian Tribe stepped foot inside the White House for the first time Thursday to watch President Joe Biden sign a proclamation the tribe had sought for many years.

To have a seat at the table and to be in the Oval Office is truly special, Escobedo told ICT. It was just a great honor to represent my people and the tribes that have worked and suffered to get here.

The proclamation was one of two signed Thursday, May 2, by Biden, expanding the San Gabriel Mountain National Monument by more than 100,000 acres and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in northern California by about 13,500 acres.

This story first published at ICTnews.org. It is republished here with permission.

The proclamations will mean additional protections of ancestral lands for the Tejon Indian Tribe, and other tribes in the region.

The tribe participated in government-to-government consultations leading up the proclamation, which requires Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ensure that Indigenous knowledge and maximum community input is woven into the land management plan for the expanded areas.

The San Gabriel Mountains are the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations, including the Tejon Indian Tribe. The national monument is located between Los Angeles and San Bernandino.

The San Gabriel Mountains were the southern edge of our aboriginal territory, the Kitanemuk people, Escobedo said. We acknowledge Mount Baldy as a sacred place. The region in general is definitely very special to us.

Escobedo credited the governments work consulting with tribes for the proclamations.

You hear about acknowledgement of sovereign nations, and consultation, government-to-government, and this is exactly an end product of that consultation with tribes and tribal input on this proclamation, Escobedo said.

So [this is a] very proud moment for not just our tribe, but all tribes who are able to participate in government-to-government consultation.

The proclamations are part of Bidens America the Beautiful Initiative that seeks to protect 30 percent of the countrys landbase by 2030. The Biden administration has already preserved 41 million acres of land and water, more than any other president in history.

The latest proclamations permanently protect the national monuments unless repealed by Congress.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1924 against the Tejon Indian Tribes land claim, making the California nation, which predates this country, landless for nearly a century. That changed in 2022, when 320 acres was put into trust for the nation.

We had nothing, Escobedo said. We were landless.

This history is why Escobedo describes the tribes inclusion in the process as historic.

In 2014, Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, was at the signing of the original proclamation that designated the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument through the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the authority to protect public lands with historic, cultural or scientific significance by designating them as national monuments.

Obama was onsite in California to sign the proclamation.

We were right there with President (Barack) Obama doing it, and here 10 years later, were expanding it, too, Valbuena said. Its great.  The land is so important to protect.

Nearly every president has used the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments.

In 2018, now-vice president Kamala Harris, at the time a U.S. senator, introduced a bill that would protect the San Gabriel Mountains and rivers. Through the recent proclamation, all the lands in her bill will be protected.

As a U.S. Senator from California, I fought to defend and grow our public lands protections, including by introducing legislation to expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, Vice President Kamala Harris said in a press release Thursday.

Thanks to President Bidens leadership and the dedicated organizing of advocates throughout my home state, we are making that a reality by protecting an additional 120,000 acres of lands that are culturally, ecologically, and historically important to California and our nation, she said. These expansions will increase access to nature, boost our outdoor economy, and honor areas of significance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples as we continue to safeguard our public lands for all Americans and for generations to come.

Looking ahead

Ahead of last years White House Tribal Nations Summit, several California Indigenous nations had been advocating for the protection of the San Gabriel Mountains, proposed Chuckwalla National Monument, and Sattitla and Medicine Lake Highlands.

The expansion of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is the only one to come full circle.

This isnt the end, Escobedo said. This might be the end of this one phase of the battle, but theres still many more to go, and hopefully tribes will continue to fight for their rights as sovereign Indian nations.

The post President signs proclamations protecting nearly 120,000 acres appeared first on Source New Mexico.
Presidential Office: Joint negotiating position to be submitted to Russia after Switzerland peace summit

Participants of the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland will formulate a common negotiating position on the end of the war and submit it to Russia, presidential spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said on May 3, according to Deutsche Welle.

Ukraine's peace summit will be held on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock resort above Lake Lucerne, and 160 national delegations will be invited to the talks.

Russia, the aggressor in the ongoing war, will not be invited "at this stage" of the talks, the Swiss government said.

"Ukraine and Switzerland are organizing a peace summit where countries that respect international law and the U.N. Charter should develop a common negotiating position and submit it to Russia," Nykyforov said.

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His statement came after Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence, said in an interview with the Economist that he sees no way for Ukraine to win a war on the battlefield alone and that "such wars can only end with treaties."

Several positions on certain points of Ukraine's peace formula may be agreed at the upcoming summit, including radiation safety, prisoners exchange, freedom of navigation and food safety, Nykyforov told Ukrainska Pravda.

"This will be the first step towards a just peace," he said.

The founding principles of the peace summit were developed in a series of international meetings and centered around Ukraine's 10-point peace formula.

The formula envisages withdrawing all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, release of all prisoners of war and deportees, preventing ecocide in Ukraine, and punishing those responsible for war crimes.

Read also: Opinion: 6 obstacles to peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Prince William County police: Student brought BB gun on bus to school he wasnt enrolled in

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (DC News Now)  Police are investigating a situation where a student who brought a BB gun, got onto a school bus that was headed towards a high school he was not enrolled at.

Officers from the Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) responded to Forest Park High School on Forest Park Drive, on May 1 just after 8:15 a.m. to investigate reports of a brandishing that had happened on a school bus.

School bus fire in Fairfax County; driver makes it out

The investigation revealed that a 15-year-old boy got onto a school bus that was headed towards the high school. He was reportedly lifting his shirt to show that he had a weapon in the waistband of his pants, according to PWCPD.

When the bus arrived at the school, the boy and a group of students got off and headed towards a wooded area that was not on school grounds.

Some other students, who were on the bus and saw the boy flashing the weapon, told school employees who then reported it to police.

Officers eventually found the boy. PWCPD said he goes to a different school within the county.

USAO: Former Arlington attorney, coach sentenced for sexually exploiting children for years

The weapon was determined to be a BB gun and it never entered the high school building, according to PWCPD.

The case was still being investigated.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A pro-Palestine protest was held at the University of Mississippi on Thursday.

The protest was held in the Quad on campus, where hundreds of students gathered to either support or oppose the demonstration.

Photos and videos from teachers and students on campus show a large group holding signs reading Open your eyes Free Palestine, and Stop the Genocide. Videos also captured the protestors yelling phrases like Palestine is our demand, no peace on stolen land.

Photos Courtesy of University of Mississippi Journalism students

Photos Courtesy of University of Mississippi Journalism students

Photos Courtesy of University of Mississippi Journalism students

Photos Courtesy of University of Mississippi Journalism students

Meanwhile, counter-protestors surrounded the initial 50-60 students leading the pro-Palestine demonstration. Students showed up with American flags and their own signs. Some students were even heard on video shouting terrotists and USA at the protestors.

Oxford Police set up barricades between the two groups as the event continued.

Jacob Batte, University of Mississippi Director of Media Relations released a statement on the event Thursday evening.

As a public institution, the University of Mississippi is committed to supporting the rights of our students, faculty and employees to express their views in a respectful manner and to assemble peacefully as enshrined in the First Amendment. While todays demonstration was passionate and several protesters and counter-protesters received warnings from law enforcement over their actions, there were no arrests, no injuries reported, and the demonstration ended peacefully.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said that he was aware of the scheduled protest, and law enforcement was prepared prior the event.

Mississippi law enforcement is also aware. And they are prepared. Campus police, City, County, and State assets are being deployed and coordinated. We will offer a unified response with one mission: Peaceful protests are allowed and protected  no matter how outrageous those protesters views may seem to some of us. But unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It will be dealt with accordingly. Law and order will be maintained!

 Download the WREG App today and stay up to date with breaking news and weather.

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 See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid-South.

The university has not yet released a statement regarding the protest, but the Clarion Ledger reported that pro-Palestine protestors had to be evacuated off campus. They say the university could not confirm if the protestors were students.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Mandalay Resources implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 62% ownership

Insiders have been buying lately

If you want to know who really controls Mandalay Resources Corporation (TSE:MND), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 32% to be precise, is institutions. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Mandalay Resources.

See our latest analysis for Mandalay Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mandalay Resources?

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.

Mandalay Resources already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Mandalay Resources' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

It looks like hedge funds own 19% of Mandalay Resources shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. The company's largest shareholder is Plinian Capital LLP, with ownership of 25%. The second and third largest shareholders are Ruffer LLP and GMT Capital Corp., with an equal amount of shares to their name at 19%.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Mandalay Resources

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Mandalay Resources Corporation. As individuals, the insiders collectively own CA$4.6m worth of the CA$212m company. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 22% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Mandalay Resources. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 25% stake in Mandalay Resources. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Some investors might be encouraged by this, since private equity are sometimes able to encourage strategies that help the market see the value in the company. Alternatively, those holders might be exiting the investment after taking it public.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Mandalay Resources is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.
Pro-Palestine protesters took down and cleared their encampment at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., on Thursday after agreeing to a deal with the schools administration.

University president Jonathan Holloway had issued an ultimatum giving the protesters until 4 p.m. to dismantle the encampment and disperse, or face trespassing charges and removal by the police. Earlier in the day, the school had postponed final exams for about a thousand students.

The student organizers meanwhile had given the school a list of demands, including divesting from Israeli business interests, cutting ties with Tel Aviv University and giving at least 10 displaced Gaza students full scholarships to complete their degrees at the school.

Rutgers said divesting and its partnership with Tel Aviv University are things not in the Presidents control, but would be reviewed.

However, most of the demands were met, according to the protesters.

Those include the requested scholarships; creating an Arab Cultural Center on each campus; establishing a partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank; releasing a statement acknowledging the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and calling for a cease-fire; hiring more administrators with cultural competency and knowledge regarding Palestinian, Arab and Muslim issues; hiring professors in Middle East and Palestine studies and establishing a full department for those subjects; displaying flags of displaced peoples in all areas of campus where international flags are displayed; and providing full amnesty for all students, student groups, faculty and staff who participated in the protests, including those who have already been penalized.

Rutgers New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said the resolution was achieved through constructive dialogue between the protesting students and our leadership teams.

This agreement opens the door for ongoing dialogue and better addresses the needs of our Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian student body, which numbers over 7,000, she said.

The Rutgers protest was one of dozens at college campuses across the U.S., sparked by mass arrests at Columbia University. While student groups at some schools have reached similar agreements with administrators, several have faced arrest and school discipline.

_____
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (PIX11)  Members of the Rutgers University encampment peacefully broke down their tents Thursday afternoon, after receiving an ultimatum from President Jonathan Holloway.

At 2 p.m., Holloway emailed the university community, writing that protestors had until 4 p.m. to clear the encampment or face trespassing and removal by the police.

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges financial ties with Israel

The ultimatum follows a Thursday morning rally that coincided with the start of final exams and prompted the university to postpone finals for more than 1,000 students.

Protest organizers told PIX11 News Thursday morning that their goal was to remain peaceful and avoid the violence seen at other institutions.

Our goal is not to be what Columbia is, whats happening in New York right now, whats happening at UCLA, said one of the organizers, who did not want to identify herself.

The organizers said they were in talks with Rutgers administration, and described the conversation as cordial and respectful.

At least 2,000 people arrested in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses, AP tally shows

Protestors said they would not leave the encampment until the university meets ten demands, including divesting from all Israeli business interests, cutting ties with Tel Aviv University, and giving at least 10 displaced Gaza students full scholarships to Rutgers.

If there are no schools in Gaza, if there are no universities in Gaza, then we cannot continue business as usual, said the organizer.

The exact agreement between protestors and school administrations remains unclear.

Rutgers said that exams previously scheduled for Thursday morning are being rescheduled or relocated.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Students protest outside Science Po university in Paris, France, on May 3, 2024. Credit - Natalia CamposGetty Images

Chants of disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest are reverberating across the globe as student-led protests in support of Palestine have popped up outside the U.S. and in countries like Australia, Mexico, and the U.K. as the Israel-Hamas war enters into its seventh month.

More than 2,000 people taking part in more than 100 demonstrations have been arrested over the course of the past few weeks. Videos and images of police clearing encampments at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Columbia University have undoubtedly emboldened youth in other nations, sparking global unrest in college campuses worldwide. Columbia first, USYD [University of Sydney] next, all universities must divest, reads a post from a Students for Palestines - Sydney Uni Facebook page.

Demands from students vary, but many are making similar calls for their institutions to disclose their investment portfolio and divest funds from companies that have business ties with Israel. Some organizers are even calling for their colleges to cut off any relationships with Israeli academic institutions.

These are some of the countries where students have also set up their own protests:

Australia

Hundreds have gathered across at least six Australian universities, including the University of Melbourne and Curtin University. At the University of Sydney, police watched the protestors from the entrance of the school as pro-Palestinian demonstrators were met by counter protestors in support of Israel. Some academics have voiced their discomfort with chants of Intifada and from the river to the sea, according to Reuters.

University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott has permitted the protests to continue because there has not been violence like what was seen in the U.S., he told local media on Thursday.

Other demonstrators, such as those at the University of Queensland, have been camping since April 29. Students want the school to close the Boeing Research and Technology Australia Centre, and stop working with American aerospace company Northrop Grummanwhich designs and develops some military aircraftsamong other companies.

Canada

At McGill University in Quebec, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were gifted a temporary win after a judge ruled against a request for an injunction that would have forced protestors to leave the premises on Wednesday. The following day, pro-Palestinian protestors were met with pro-Israeli demonstrators, though police have called the protests peaceful. Having first set up their encampment on April 27, the pro-Palestinian supporters have taken over an area about 4,000 sq. meters large thus far, according to the CBC.

Reports indicate that the protests are not limited to McGill students, with alums and students from Concordia University and the Universite de Montreal having also come to participate.

Pro-Palestinian protestors have also set up encampments at the University of Toronto, renaming Kings College Circle as the Peoples Circle for Palestine. In addition to divestment, students are asking their school to cut ties with any Israeli academic institutions that operate in occupied Palestinian territories, or sustain the apartheid policies, occupation and illegal settlement of these territories.

Read More: Why Are Police in Riot Gear?: Inside Columbia and City Colleges Darkest Night

School officials warned protestors to leave campus by 10 p.m. Thursday, but later announced that they would not remove anyone from campus so long as the protest remained peaceful, per the CBC. Still, administrators warned that there would be a greater police presence in the area.

"We are aware that the Toronto Police Service is monitoring the protest. Please encourage others to remain peaceful ... Hate speech, threats, and other discriminatory language or behavior do not constitute peaceful protest, said University of Toronto Vice-Provost Sandy Welsh in a university statement. Students remain adamant they will not leave until their demands are met. University of Toronto President Meric S. Gertler told members of the schools Occupy for Palestine group that the university would not adhere to their requests.

France

An ongoing stand-off between students, police and university administrators has sparked tension in Paris at the well-renowned Sciences Po. On April 24, the provisional administrator of the university called on the police to remove some 60 students that were participating in a sit-in, according to Le Monde. It was the first time the university sent in police to break up a protest, per The Nation.

Student organizers for Palestine have remained persistentasking their school to look into its ties with Israeli universities, better protest Palestinian students, and send a statement to condemn the Israeli militarys actions. Dozens of students opted to reoccupy school buildings on Thursday, which prompted Sciences Po to close on Friday. At least six students were also participating in a hunger strike. (Sciences Po offers a dual degree program with Columbia University, which recently called on police to remove student occupiers and limited press access to the protest.)

Syndicat Alternative Paris 1, the student union at Sorbonne University, is making similar requests. Protestors were similarly cleared by police on April 29, Reuters reports.

Lebanon

Some 200 people gathered at the American University of Beirut to protest in support of Palestine. Protestors had been given permission to do so for two hours on campus grounds.

Looking at the Palestinians in Gaza and students in Gaza that lost their universities, their lives and their families, a degree would not matter to us as much as a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea, Rayyan Kilani told Reuters. "Of course we were inspired by the protests in the U.S. and Columbia University.

Other demonstrations at Lebanese American University, which operates in Beirut and Byblos, also took place. At least one student there said that they were not inspired by students in the U.S., and that it was the other way around. American students were inspired by us, Batoul told the Washington Post. Chants of death to America were also briefly heard at the rally.

Mexico

At the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexicos largest university, organizers have set up encampments to call for [un] alto al genocidio imperialista en Gaza, or an end to the imperialist genocide in Gaza, El Pais reports.

Students are asking both their university and the country of Mexico to end all diplomatic relations with Israel. Other Latin-American countries, including, most recently Colombia, have already ended their relations with the Middle Eastern country.

At least 40 tents have been set up since Thursday, according to El Pais, where Jewish and Arabic students are taking part in the encampment.

U.K.

Student-led demonstrations have also taken place in Manchester, Newcastle, and across the U.K. The BBC reports that although the number of protestors is smaller than what has been seen in the U.S., student activism is growing. A spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that police would have Sunaks full support to take down encampments if the protests become similar to what happened in the U.S.

Goldsmiths, University of London reached a deal with organizers after students occupied the schools library on Wednesday. University officials agreed to allow students to present evidence of Goldsmiths' complicity with Israel to the universitys finance committee, create undergraduate scholarships for Palestinians, write a statement to the UK government calling for a ceasefire, and more. The student group organizing for Palestine announced their victory on Friday via X.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
ST. PETERS  Marine Sergeant Colin Arslanbas from OFallon, Missouri, who tragically died during a training exercise, returned home for the last time Friday afternoon.

Crowds gathered to pay respects to Arslanbas, a 2019 graduate of Fort Zumwalt West High School who joined the Marines in 2020.

Sergeant Arslanbas, who was just 22 years old, lost his life in a parachute accident on April 18 during a late-night exercise near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, as reported by Marine Corps Times. He had been promoted to sergeant on April 1.

His body arrived at St. Louis Lambert International Airport just before 1 p.m. Friday. A procession followed his return to the airport along I-70 to the funeral home. Arslanbas will be brought to the Baue Funeral Home in St. Charles

Little Joe the Saint Louis Zoo gorilla, dies from a heart attack

Family members and military members gathered on the airport grounds as Arslanbas was transferred from an aircraft to a vehicle. Many military members were uniformed and holding American flags.

Everything thats happening out here is inspiring; you know, all these people getting togetherthats exactly how you pay respects to a hero, Jacob McGhee, Army specialist, said.

Just west of the airport, on an overpass over I-70, community members gathered and brought American flags in memory of Arslanbas. Two firetruck also extended their ladders to raise a large American flag up high over the interstate.

Authorities anticipated a large turnout similar to that for fallen Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, who was killed during a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

























Schmitzs father, Mark, has been vocal in supporting the Arslanbas family and has encouraged the community to show their support. The Arslanbas family, deeply saddened by the loss, stated that Colin lived life to the fullest. They are planning a private funeral and burial for him.

Its a different experience to definitely be on this side but I can tell everyone that you being here definitely means something, and it definitely is going to be noticed by the family, Schmitz said. It makes this a little bit easier to embrace, for sure, just to know the community cares.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
Kuspuks of varying colors displayed at a tribal consultation meeting in Anchorage on Sept. 21, 2022, represent Indigenous victims of violence. From left, the colors are red for missing and murdered indigenous women, orange for victims of boarind schools, the baby kuspuk for children who will never be born, purple for victims of domestic violence, turquoise for victims of sexual assault, multicolor for LGBTQ victims and black for men who are victims. The kuspuks were arrayed at the Justice Department's annual tribal consultation conference required under the Violence Against Woman Act. Since 1993, Alaska's overall rate of violent crime has been higher than the national average, and the rate of reported rape has been three to four times the national average since 2013, statistics show. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Kuspuks of varying colors displayed at a tribal consultation meeting in Anchorage on Sept. 21, 2022, represent Indigenous victims of violence. From left, the colors are red for missing and murdered indigenous women, orange for victims of boarind schools, the baby kuspuk for children who will never be born, purple for victims of domestic violence, turquoise for victims of sexual assault, multicolor for LGBTQ victims and black for men who are victims. The kuspuks were arrayed at the Justice Department's annual tribal consultation conference required under the Violence Against Woman Act. Since 1993, Alaska's overall rate of violent crime has been higher than the national average, and the rate of reported rape has been three to four times the national average since 2013, statistics show. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

In recognition of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day, May 5, I want to address our efforts at the Alaska Department of Law to prosecute and bring to justice defendants who inflict crimes on Alaska Native people.

All crimes are reprehensible, but the rates at which Alaska Native people are murdered, raped, and suffer from violent crime are all higher than national averages. Our job at the Criminal Division is to prosecute perpetrators of all crimes, but this outlier statistic has demanded our attention and received it. We are responding.

In the last three years, at least 38% of violent crimes prosecuted by the state involved victims or survivors who are Alaska Native people, despite the fact that Alaska Native people make up roughly 16% of our states total population. This 38%, however, is less than the true number of cases that proceed to prosecution because of how the data is captured. The victim or survivors race is not always identified. Its something well work on with partners, to improve the collection of data.

Press releases over the last three years highlight more than 20 sentencings, which are just a fraction of the ongoing prosecution work that can take years to bring to closure in the courts. These include the cracked cold case after 29 years in the murder of University of Alaska Fairbanks student Sophie Sergie. In 2022, Maine resident and former UAF student Steven Downs was sentenced to 75 years for raping and murdering Sophie in the dorm.

The prosecution work also includes the case involving Jim Adams of Noatak who was sentenced to 80 years for second-degree murder in the beating death of his wife Rhoda Adams. And the work includes the February trial and conviction of Brian Smith, originally from South Africa, who was found guilty of 14 counts, including two counts of murder in the first degree for the deaths of Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk. Smith faces a minimum sentence of 99 years in July.

Recent protests in Anchorage have asked for the prosecution of a person of interest in that case for providing a press article to Smith. While the persons actions were unethical and reprehensible, there is no evidence that Smith was aided in any way by this text message exchange. Under Alaska law, there is no general duty for citizens to report a crime or to aid law enforcement or the criminal justice system. To be found guilty of hindering prosecution under any provision of Alaska Statutes 11.56.770, the person must render assistance to the guilty party. At this point, we do not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that any assistance was rendered to Brian Smith.

Our mission at the Criminal Division is taken to heart by our dedicated employees: to seek justice, promote public safety and public respect for government through prompt, effective, and compassionate prosecution of cases. The Criminal Division will prosecute cases in a manner that advocates for the interests of the public  especially victims  respects the law enforcement agencies, responsibly stewards public resources, and holds offenders accountable while at the same time protecting the constitutional and legal rights of the accused.

Are there some cases where prosecution doesnt go as far as some want it to go? Yes. Are there ever racial undertones or malice involved in those legal decisions? Absolutely not. Although we have a heightened awareness of Alaska Native victims and survivors, prosecuting a defendant is not about who is the victim. Its about the facts of the case. Its about enough of those facts tipping the scale for a jury on whether the defendant is guilty. We seek justice for all Alaskans and we note Alaska Natives have a higher rate of victimization. We will continue to dedicate more resources and attention to these types of crimes.

The post Prosecuting crimes against Alaska Native people is at core of Department of Law work appeared first on Alaska Beacon.
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors said on Friday they wanted to charge Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche for alleged benefit fraud at her former publishing company during the COVID pandemic.

A Milan judge will now have to decide if there is sufficient evidence to indict Santanche, a prominent member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's ruling Brothers of Italy party.

Santanche has always denied wrongdoing. She made no immediate comment after prosecutors issued a statement saying that they had formally requested trial both for her and an unspecified number of other suspects.

The case revolves around allegations her Visibilia company, which she sold off before entering government in 2022, received layoff funds during the COVID crisis for 13 staff members who were not informed of the payments and instead continued to work.

Going by the nickname "the pythoness", Santanche is known for her brash, outspoken style and is one of the more visible members of the Meloni government.

She is also under investigation for alleged falsification of financial statements in another probe tied to Visibilia -- a media publisher and advertising agency where she served as chair and CEO until November 2021.

She remained a major shareholder until 2022.

Opposition parties have called for her resignation and last month easily won a motion-of-no-confidence brought against her in parliament.

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi; Writing by Crispian Balmer, William Maclean)
What can protesters legally do on California campuses? Is civil disobedience OK?

While the First Amendment protects your right to protest, there are limitations when it comes to exercising this right on California university campuses.

The amendment reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

Pro-Palestinian activists set up tents on Monday, April 29, 2024 at Sacramento State to protest the war in Gaza. Students are asking the university to divest from investments in Israel. Jose Luis Villegas/jvillegas@sacbee.com

Chessie Thacher, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said your right to protest isnt typically limited on university grounds.

It depends, she said in a phone interview with The Sacramento Bee on Thursday afternoon. Californias universities are typically viewed as public or limited public forums where the public can be invited.

Across California, students at an estimated 27 colleges  both public and private  have staged pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and institutional divestment in Israel.

When protesting on campus property, heres what you need to know about protest rights and effective strategies, according to California experts:

What are your rights while protesting?

According to the ACLU of Northern California, the First Amendment protects the right to organize a protest, express your opinion and photograph events while on public property.

What are my rights on university grounds?

Leonard Law, or Education Code 94367, says all private and public educational postsecondary institutions, not controlled by a religious organization, are prohibited from enforcing rules or disciplining students for protected speech under the First Amendment.

Pro-Palestinian activists wave flags following a festive dance Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Sacramento State as they protested the war in Gaza. The protesters are asking the university to divest from investments in Israel. Jose Luis Villegas/jvillegas@sacbee.com

The First Amendment and the California Constitution protects your right to expressive speech, Thacher said. That means that you have the right to say what you want to say, but with exceptions.

On university property, campus officials can legally regulate reasonable time, place and manner of gatherings. This includes implementing rules to prevent crime and maintain the safety of people or property. It also includes restrictions to avoid disruption of university functions, according to the CSU Handbook of Free Speech Issues.

For example, (universities) can say protesters cannot use a megaphone at 2 a.m. on campus property, Thacher said.

All CSUs have ... protocols on practicing free speech activities on campuses, the California State University Office of the Chancellor wrote in an email statement.

While the CSU operates as a system, consisting of 23 universities, each campus has its own set of circumstances and local jurisdictions, the office said.

As such, campuses will make real-time decisions (through) a local lens and appropriate to the situation, the CSU office wrote.

California universities, whether public or private, cannot prevent students from protesting entirely.

They have to give students some space to express themselves, Thacher said. Students should know that the First Amendment applies, but it is not an absolute. There are restrictions.

Decisions regarding protest restrictions at universities are determined by campus officials.

These rules tend to target disruptive conduct, such as committing acts of violence or occupying campus buildings.

Pro-Palestinian activists lock arms on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, outside their tent encampment at Sacramento State as a counter-protester antagonized the group. The protesters are asking the university to divest from investments in Israel. Jose Luis Villegas/jvillegas@sacbee.com

When can police interfere with protests?

When protesters fail to comply with university policies or legal restrictions, such as evoking violence, law enforcement can intervene, the ACLU website says.

In the event that students are disrupting the regular operations of a university or protesting on a non-public forum, such as an administrative building, Thacher said university officials can rely on law enforcement.

Though occupying a non-public forum can be considered civil disobedience, she said it goes beyond expressive activity and youre in a different realm from whats protected under the First Amendment.

Civil disobedience is a public, nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law, usually aimed at bringing about a change of the law or government policy, as defined by the United States Department of Justice.

However, civil disobedience is not protected speech under the Constitution, according to the University of California, Los Angeles Police Department.

An act of civil disobedience includes occupying a campus building without permission, Thacher said. Civil disobedience also includes sitting on a public road to block traffic. It can be a successful tool in non-violent action, experts say.

A counter-protester antagonizes pro-Palestinian activists on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, outside their tent encampment at Sacramento State. The protesters are asking the university to divest from investments in Israel. Jose Luis Villegas/jvillegas@sacbee.com

How can I successfully protest?

Margaret Russell, a professor at the Santa Clara University of Law who specializes in civil human rights, said peaceful and non-violent approaches to protesting can prove successful.

Peaceful protests with clearly stated messages and disciplined expression are often the most effective, Russell wrote in an email to The Bee on Thursday afternoon. They convey their points of view without threat harassment, or enmity.

Some examples of successful protests that have proved to be effective in pushing change include chanting, marching, carrying signs, singing, silence, linking arms or holding hands with allies, Russell said.

Students and community members perform a traditional Palestinian dance called dabke in support of pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded inside Siemens Hall at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Paul Kitagaki Jr./pkitagaki@sacbee.com

It is counterproductive to engage in any acts of violence, harassment, ridicule or hate, she said.

To enact change, Russell said peaceful protest and civil disobedience are two valuable tools for protesters.

So are ways of working through the system such as running for office, serving on committees, engaging in respectful dialogue, and trying to talk across differences, she wrote.

When individuals begin to engage in non-peaceful protesting acts, Thacher said the law does not protect them.

Thats not a productive way to move forward, she said.

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@sacbee.com.
TProtestors rally at the pro-Palestinian encampment at Brown University as they await answers from their delegation who are meeting with school leaders on campus in Providence, R.I. on April 29, 2024. Credit - Joseph Prezioso AFP/Getty Images

As a former student activist, its been a surreal experience following the pro-Palestinian protests occurring at universities across the country. Almost 20 years ago, I helped lead national efforts across the country to divest universities, cities, and states from foreign companies aiding and abetting the genocide in Darfur, Sudanthe last effort that inspired massive divestiture action from institutions of higher education across the country. Despite our successful divestment efforts, the situation in Darfur is once again at a dire point, with a humanitarian disaster looming. This time, very few are sounding the alarm.

Looking back on our efforts to divest American entities from companies in Sudan, two critical lessons emerge: First, a targeted approach to divestment is crucial to any potential campaign victory. Secondly, divestment on its own, while potentially important, is ultimately an insufficient tool in materially changing the situation on the ground, especially without long-term, sustained activism and engagement.

In 2005, the genocide in Darfur captured the attention of thousands of college students across the country. Protesting a regime that massacred up to 400,000 of its own people through use of militia groups in the western region of Sudan, students organized massive protests in Washington, DC and their own campuses, pushed for congressional action, and engaged in acts of civil disobedience. Students also helped to lead a nationwide divestment movement, lobbying universities and states to pull their investments out of companies directly or indirectly aiding the government to carry out the atrocities. Ultimately, 35 states, including California and Texas, divested from Sudan, and over 50 universities participated in the effort.

I helped to lead national efforts as the Student Director for STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and worked on successful campaigns to convince my alma-mater Brown University, the City of Providence, and the State of Rhode Island to divest their assets from Sudan. We engaged in a purposefully targeted approach, using research to determine lists of specific companies that were engaged in business activities that could be demonstrated to support and facilitate the Sudanese governments internationally recognized genocidal actions and human rights violations. This list included Chinese and Russian oil and gas companies, as it could be proven that oil revenues helped pad the coffers of the murderous regime.

The divestiture efforts were also explicitly targeted at universities direct investments, which comprise only about 5% of most endowments. Indeed, in a case like Brown, the university was not directly invested in any of the companies targeted, but rather, put them on a do-not-invest list as a result of our efforts. The rest of the university endowment is invested in commingled or mutual funds (this reality did lead to students pushing fund managers like Fidelity Investments and Berkshire Hathaway to divest from Sudan). Recognizing that the primary responsibility of the investment office is to secure a high rate of return for fiduciaries, and not to make political statements, this targeted approach also enables investment managers to easily replace any divested assets with similar companies.

Its difficult to speak to every universitys current demands for divestment concerning Israel, but focusing on Brown Universitys campaign may be instructive. First, Browns response has stood out because the University Administration agreed to present divestment from Israel as an option to Browns Corporation, which is the equivalent of the Board of Directors. Given the vast number of universities that divested from Sudan, and in the 1990s from South Africa, most institutions have a process in place to explore the financial action. Irrespective of their opinions on the merits of divestment in this case, its disappointing that, at a base level, most administrators are refusing to even explore these processes.

Read More: What to Know About the Global Boycott Movement Against Israel

Secondly, Browns campaign has been specific about its demands for divestiture. The students are not asking for divestment from every company linked to Israel (which is the unrealistic ask of Columbia University students) or even Israeli companies (which University of Michigan students want).

Brown Divest has stated its goal is divestment from companies which profit from human rights abuses in Palestine. In that vein, the group has outlined criteria to identify such companies, including those that provide products or services that contribute to the maintenance of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and those that provide products or services that contribute to violent acts. From this criteria, the students identified 10 specific companies that would be targeted for divestment.

This is not to argue that Brown should, or will, divest from these companies. But the process of identifying criteria, focusing on a university's direct investments, and presenting recommendations to the Corporation for a vote are all responsible actions by the students and administrators alike. This targeted campaign is the only approach towards divestment that has any potential for success.

Even if targeted divestment efforts are successful, the most important question, which remains currently unanswerable, is whether these campaigns would actually make a difference on the ground.

Despite our successful divestment campaigns 20 years ago, Darfur is collapsing yet again. Sudans military is engaged in a fight for power with the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, causing the biggest humanitarian crisis in decades. There are concrete actions that the United States can take, including pushing for negotiations, engaging in targeted sanctions, and leading anti-money laundering measures. This time around, however, there is essentially no domestic political will for taking action. Student activism has died out for the cause.

Its counterproductive to engage in conflict comparisons between Gaza and Sudan. Student activists today would argue that U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the Israeli governments actions, whereas the situation in Sudan is less directly tied to our actions. Both situations, however, are tragic, and tens of thousands innocent human lives are being lost.

If student activists today want to make a difference in the situation in Gaza, there are lessons to be learned from our work in Sudan. First, if they want to be successful in divestiture efforts, the work needs to be targeted. And secondly, students must recognize that the work to push for a peaceful Middle East will take a generation.

I look at the protests today with a deep belief in the power of collective action and recognizing students rights to organize in the face of injustice. I also note that this issue is much more contentious than the genocide in Darfur, which was universally condemned by Americans. What is clear, though, is that both the protestors and university administrators need to change their tactics. Its imperative that todays student activists do not look back in 15 years with a situation in Gaza that mirrors, or is worse, than todays morass.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  Protestors are gathering around a fountain at Washburn University to protest the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

Pro-Palestine protestors gathered with signs at 17th Street and Washburn Avenue saying Palestine will never walk alone, Israel is a terrorist state and permanent ceasefire now.

Washburn University issued the following statement:

Washburn University is committed to the academic and personal growth of our students in a premier campus learning environment that includes the right to free expression and peaceful protest. Opportunities for open, respectful dialogue play an important role in the college experience and beyond, and we support the right to free expression. The exercise of the right to free speech and free assembly is not permitted to interfere with or disrupt normal University operations or educational activities. Participants are expected to follow established Washburn University policies, specifically written for these activities, to best ensure safety for all who are involved. Lori Hutchinson, Executive Director of Strategic Communications & Marketing, Washburn University

In recent weeks, multiple protests have been ongoing across the U.S. in major cities like Washington D.C. and New York City. Police have been called on to break up the protests, such as the one at Columbia University, while students and other Pro-Palestinian activists are calling on officials to respect their right to to protest.

Pro-Palestinian protestors became active around the world in the days following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas which included a rocket barrage, attacks on civilians and the taking of hostages, according to a report from The Associated Press. Israels retaliation strikes against Gaza and the terrorist organization Hamas have resulted in the deaths of 34,000 Palestinians.

For more Kansas 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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Hundreds of Pueblo County Sheriffs Office deputies have formed a labor union, but dont yet have a contract with their employer.

Union leaders with the International Brotherhood of Police Officers say that Sheriff David Lucero, the elected Democrat at the helm of the office, isnt coming to the table to bargain in good faith. They filed an unfair labor practice complaint about Lucero with the state, which is still pending.

A law passed in 2022 expanded the rights of county employees to collectively bargain. Lucero has said that the law could interfere with his authority as the county sheriff and that he is awaiting legal advice.

County commissioners dont have jurisdiction over the sheriffs office in the same way that Pueblos mayor oversees the city police department, since the countys law enforcement office is largely run by a separate elected official. But commissioners will need to give final approval to any agreement reached between the new union and the sheriff.

Heres what Pueblo's county commissioners think about the ongoing stalemate.

Pueblo County Commissioner Zach Swearingen, center, introduces fellow Commissioners Daneya Esgar left, and Eppie Griego to start a town hall meeting regarding the future of nuclear energy in Pueblo on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Daneya Esgar was a co-sponsor of the new law

Commissioner Daneya Esgar isnt the first county commissioner in Colorado to serve in county government after working at the state legislature, but most commissioners dont have the experience of crafting state laws.

Esgar was a prime sponsor of the 2022 bill that enabled county employees to unionize during her last full session at the legislature.

Lucero has said hes awaiting legal advice on how this bill affects county sheriffs before committing to bargaining. However, Esgar and other bill sponsors held years of meetings with stakeholders that influenced legislators and the text of the legislation, she said.

I dont believe this law affects sheriffs rights, Esgar said in an interview with the Chieftain.

Nonpartisan attorneys help draft bill language for lawmakers and ensure that proposed statutes dont conflict with the laws on the books, she said.

Pueblo County Commissioner Daneya Esgar at a BOCC meeting on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

I have full faith in the work that they did, Esgar said.

Esgar is the only Democrat on the BOCC. The local Democratic Party recently sent a letter urging Lucero to bargain with the union, but Esgar said she is not on the partys executive committee at the moment and was not involved with sending the letter.

She said that she hopes the ongoing standoff can be resolved soon since the vast majority of deputies support unionizing.

We talk about law enforcement retention, we talk about supporting law enforcement, Esgar said. This is a great way to be able to stand by our law enforcement officers and say, You voted to do this. We stand by you and we want to help you make your work environment be as safe and transparent as possible.

Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law in Pueblo.

Eppie Griego is staying out of their squabbles

Commissioner Epimenio Eppie Griego has been a longtime union member, he said in an interview with the Chieftain. Even though Griego is now a full-time county commissioner, he said he still pays dues to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

A representative from IBEW Local 12 was one of the 34 signatories on a letter sent by the Southern Colorado Labor Council to Lucero in April urging him to come to the bargaining table.

Griego said that he is pro-union 100% and supports what the sheriff's deputies are doing  but emphasized that its not his role as a county commissioner to interfere with another elected officials office.

He said that the sheriff and the new union need to work together collaboratively.

Pueblo County Commissioner Eppie Griego at a BOCC meeting on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

If this is going to work out, you have to collaborate and communicate, not just go after each other. You know what I'm saying? Griego said.

He said that he declined a request from the unionizing deputies for a meeting with him because its not in his purview as a county commissioner.

Griego also declined to comment on Luceros logic about the new law potentially interfering with his duties.

I'm staying out of their squabbles that arent mine, Griego said. If another elected official stepped in and told me what to do with my employees  with our union  then I'd say something, but other than that, I shouldn't get involved.

Zach Swearingen says he understands both sides

Commissioner Zach Swearingen told the Chieftain that he understands both sides of the dispute.

Our sheriff's deputies are some of the bravest and best people out there and they're obviously an integral part of our community  we need to take care of them, Swearingen said.

He said that he supports unionizing as long as it's keeping within state statutes and regulations and not affecting the sheriff from doing his job, a similar sentiment to what Lucero has said publicly.

Pueblo County Commissioner Zach Swearingen speaks at a town hall meeting regarding the future of nuclear energy in Pueblo on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

Since county commissioners have limited oversight over other departments, Swearingen said that their role in the current situation is to facilitate conversations.

The sheriff knows how to run his department and office much better than I do  and the sheriff's deputies know what they need and they're the ones out there doing the work every day; the dangerous, much-needed work, Swearingen said.

He said in a follow-up text message that he appreciates how the law gives county employees an option to organize and does not force unionization, but said that a change this impactful to local government should have been decided by voters in Colorado.

Swearingen did not respond to additional requests for comment inquiring how he would have voted if the measure had gone to a popular vote.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics at the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftian.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo sheriff deputies are unionizing. Here's what commissioners think
Putin has "paranoid fear" of West limiting Russian power, US intelligence says

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is "paranoid" about the West's supposed intention to limit Russia's power in the world, leading him to spend historically record amounts on the militarisation of the country.

Source: Voice of America, citing Avril Haines, Director of the US National Intelligence Agency, at a hearing in the US Congress on 2 May

Quote: "Putin continues to judge that Russia is under threat and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better-equipped military will drive that point home to Western and domestic audiences.

Putins strategic goals also remain unchanged. He continues to see NATO enlargement and Western support to Ukraine as reinforcing his long-held belief that the United States and Europe seek to restrict Russia."

Details: The official believes that there is "a certain paranoia associated with this".

At the same time, she believes that NATO's actions are actually aimed at reassuring Russia of the opposite, but Putin's decisions have accelerated events he was trying to avoid, including the expansion of the alliance when Finland and Sweden, which had remained neutral for decades, joined NATO.

Haines explained that the Kremlin leader has increased defence spending to almost 7% of Russia's GDP, which is almost twice the historical average. The Russian defence budget currently accounts for about 25% of all federal spending.

Background: Avril Haines has also predicted that Russia would resort to more aggressive tactics in the war against Ukraine.

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Russian leader Vladimir Putin met with Alexei Dyumin, the governor of Russias Tula Oblast, who is affiliated with the Wagner Group PMC, on 2 May. This indicates that Putin may be seeking to reduce the power of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, balancing him with his rivals and punishing him for his inability to achieve the Kremlin's military goals.

Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details: Dyumin briefed Putin on Tula Oblasts contribution to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Oblast.

Dyumin focused on three topics: support and housing for those Russian soldiers who were fighting in Ukraine, improving Russia's defence industrial base, and improving the medical system in Tula Oblast.

Dyumin's report appeared to be an attempt to regain Putin's favour after he lost it during Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's mutiny in late June 2023.

Dyumin repeatedly sided with Prigozhin in 2022 and 2023, hoping to replace Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu himself.

Putin likely deliberately made his meeting with Dyumin public after the high-profile arrest of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov on 24 April and before the presidential inauguration on 7 May to punish Shoigus Defence Ministry for failing to achieve the military goals set out by the Kremlin earlier.

The meeting between Putin and Dyumin sparked considerable debate in the Russian media, with numerous bloggers and political commentators pointing out that the meeting took place between Ivanov's arrest and the expected government reshuffle after the inauguration.

Russian insider sources speculated that the Kremlin might appoint Dyumin to a new role related to the Russian defence industrial base.

Russian insider sources also interpreted Shoigu's statement on 1 May that Russia needed to increase the quantity and quality of weapons and military equipment to "maintain the required pace of the offensive" during a meeting at the Joint Headquarters of the "Special Military Operation" [as the Russians call the war against Ukraine  ed.] on the night of 30 April-1 May as a direct attack on certain Russian political figures.

A Russian insider source also claimed on 1 May that Shoigu had harshly criticised Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov, defence company Rostec and Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, in response to Ivanov's arrest.

It was reported that Shoigu had a particularly close relationship with Ivanov and that Ivanov's arrest, coupled with Dyumin's sudden return to the political forefront, could indicate that the Kremlin was unhappy with Shoigu's performance. One Russian source, however, assessed that Shoigu's departure was unlikely to happen in 2024.

The meeting between Putin and Dyumin also suggested that Putin was likely the person responsible for the decision to arrest Ivanov.

ISW noted that Putin regularly rotated officials and military commanders who enjoyed his favour, hoping to encourage different factions to achieve his goals.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 2 May:

Ukrainian intelligence officials identified three Russian efforts to destabilise Ukraine and achieve victory, and both Ukrainian and US intelligence officials issued assessments about the battlefield situation that are consistent with prior ISW forecasts that Russian forces may take Chasiv Yar but are very unlikely to seize major Ukrainian cities.

Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, assessed that Russian forces will likely begin an offensive effort towards Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts at the end of May or start of June 2024 but that Russian forces will not be able to take Kharkiv or Sumy cities.

Skibitskyi noted that the Kremlin views information operations as a second line of effort to defeat Ukraine and that current Russian information operations heavily focus on undermining Ukrainian mobilisation efforts and the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Skibitskyi stressed that Russias third line of effort to achieve victory in Ukraine is an ongoing campaign to diplomatically isolate Ukraine.

The US Department of State (DoS) announced on 1 May that it has determined that Russian forces are violating the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to which Russia is a signatory.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin met with Tula Oblast Governor and known Wagner Group-affiliate Alexei Dyumin on 2 May, further indicating that Putin may be seeking to reduce Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's power by balancing him with rivals.

Putin likely deliberately publicised his meeting with Dyumin following the high-profile arrest of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov on 24 April and before the presidential inauguration on 7 May, possibly to punish the Shoigu-led MoD for failing to accomplish the Kremlins military goals.

The Putin-Dyumin meeting suggests that Putin is likely the responsible decision-maker behind Ivanovs arrest.

Recent Russian government crackdowns against Central Asian migrants living in and entering Russia following the 22 March Crocus City Hall attack appear to be straining Kyrgyz-Russian relations in addition to Tajik-Russian relations.

The Georgian parliament passed Georgias Russian-style "foreign agents" law in its second reading on 1 May amid continued protests against the law in Tbilisi.

Russian forces recently made confirmed advances west of Avdiivka.

The Russian military may have recruited numerous prisoners with convictions for serious crimes in autumn 2023.

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A crisp spring wind whipped over the River Test, skimming the water that flowed on its path to the Solent. From my open-air viewpoint metres above water, the sunless sky is punctured by one thing only: the hulking red and black funnel that has crowned Cunard ships for almost two centuries.

On Tuesday evening, Southampton welcomed Queen Anne, the latest monarch to join Cunards fleet. There was much fanfare in the south-coast city, with crowds watching her sail in through the arcs of a water salute, Cunards first female captain, Inger Klein Thorhauge, at the helm. The following day, I was among the first to step onto her decks as she docked at her home port, where the lines vessels have been based since 1919. In a swell of container ships and the concrete jungle of the port, Queen Anne beamed as a diamond in the rough.

Even the most reluctant of cruisers should appreciate Cunard Line; its a brand that transcends the industry and peppers history books. Since its first transatlantic crossing in 1840, its ships have been considered the height of luxury at sea  its designs drawing comparisons to The Ritz hotel at the end of the 19th century. Names, from Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to Judy Garland and David Bowie, have sailed under those famed funnels. Cunards Carpathia steamed to the stricken Titanic to rescue survivors in 1912.

Queen Anne makes her grand entrance into Southampton (Christopher Ison)

Jumping forward to October 2019, I was at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia, southern Italy, to watch the steel-cutting ceremony  the cruise equivalent of a ground-breaking celebration  for an unnamed ship that would become Queen Anne. Built at a reported cost of 500m, its the companys first new vessel in 14 years (sailing two years later than planned).

Read more on Europe travel:

And while the 3,000-capacity Queen Anne (plus space for 1,200 crew members) is the 249th ship to sail under Cunards flag, what makes this such a milestone is her joining the coveted ranks of Cunards queens, which themselves hold a special place in cruise culture, as well as British consciousness.

She expands the current trio  Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria  into a quartet, and is an echo of its regal predecessors. Two are now decommissioned and sit as floating hotels (Queen Elizabeth 2 in Dubai, Queen Mary in California); the original Queen Elizabeth retired to Florida before sailing to Hong Kong, a blaze destroying it in the harbour in 1972.

The challenge for Cunard with Queen Anne has been to successfully juggle that heritage with modernity  something that has been done with aplomb across the 13 decks. While the exterior does little to push boundaries, inside is a sensitive homage to the traditions given contemporary zeal. The concept began in the lines archives at the University of Liverpool, rooting this new addition firmly in the past. Old brochures, fabrics and posters gave inspiration but designers  including Londons David Collins Studio  were determined not to end up with a pastiche.

The Grand Lobby  fit for a queen (Christopher Ison)

Art Deco nods are found across public spaces, such as the curvaceous central ballroom, and the sheen of metals is paired with a palette of more muted  and more modern  colours. Gaudy carpet patterns, always a concern on cruise ships, cannot be found; my favourite were the blue designs that seem influenced by the water surrounding the hull or the air that would have blown the sails of bygone ships. While anti-cruise snobbery often sees noses turned up at ship accommodation, aboard Queen Anne, the calming tones sit against wooden furnishing and the Art Deco style seeps in; if this was on land it would be a hotel at the higher end of the scale.

Some of the best touches are clear attempts to bring the ship into the 21st century. Take the gallery, where work by Banksy was revealed on Wednesday  yours for a cool 125,000  to sit alongside pieces from Thierry Guetta, better known as the LA-based Mr Brainwash. Theres simply no room for mass-produced dross in the reimagined, elegant spaces, as Cunard president Katie McAlister puts it. While elements such as the white-glove afternoon tea service remain, theyre bolstered by a Himalayan sea salt sauna or DJ booth around the pool.

Even the most reluctant of cruisers should appreciate Cunard Line; its a brand that transcends the industry and peppers history books

A huge coup is the work from chef Michel Roux Jr, who ran the two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche in London before it closed in January. He has revamped the offering inside this Golden Lion, Cunards pub-at-sea concept that can be found on all the queens, adding what he called little details that make a huge difference. He labelled the haddock scotch eggs (I think best served with a pint of Cunard Gold lager) as bang on. Rubbed his belly talking about getting the fish and chips just right.

For me, the most exciting thing is that the chef has brought with him a slightly tweaked version of the laden, three-cheese stovetop toasties from The Wigmore (another pub setup, at the bottom of The Langham hotel in central London, that Michel was tasked with elevating from the ordinary). The other girls in the fleet need not be jealous; Michels approach is being rolled out across the fleet. If you want a sublime dining experience on the water, there are two Le Gavroche at Sea residencies (with Michel on board and behind the pass) on Queen Anne this year, plus two more on Queen Mary 2.

Mines a pint: The Golden Lion pub-at-sea (Christopher Ison)

As for today, the debutant is getting ready to leave Southampton this evening, sailing to La Coruna in Spain and Lisbon in Portugal (with days at sea bookending each port) before returning home to England. Then its off to the Canary Islands before the 14-night British islands itinerary  including a stop for a naming ceremony in Liverpool, the spiritual home of Cunard. From then, the Med and the fjords beckon; however, cruise fans tell me theyve got their eyes set on Queen Annes maiden world voyage in 2025, stretching over 111 days.

Waking up yesterday after a night moored in Southampton, I stepped out onto the balcony to more of the same rain. What warmed me  even more than the previous long night of champagne and martinis  was the thought of voyages yet to come.

Im too young to know the golden age of cruising, but Cunard has taken a step forward into its renaissance. Long live Queen Anne  and happy holidays at sea for all who sail on her.

Read more: The best Caribbean cruises for a holiday on the water in 2024/2025
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -An Israeli incursion in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk and be a huge blow to the aid operations of the entire enclave, the U.N. humanitarian office said on Friday, as the World Health Organization announced contingency plans for an incursion.

Israel has repeatedly warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where around a million displaced people are crowded together, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters' deadly cross-border attack on Oct. 7.

"It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA), at a Geneva press briefing.

Israel has said it will work to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Rafah. The United States has long said it cannot support an assault on Rafah by its ally Israel unless there is a comprehensive plan to protect civilians.

Israel has given Washington some preliminary information, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, but "we haven't seen a full plan, nothing that would give us the confidence we're looking for."

A second U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli proposal outlining the provision of shelter, food and evacuation routes "needs more work."

Aid operations in Rafah include medical clinics, warehouses stocked with humanitarian supplies, food distribution points and 50 centres for acutely malnourished children, Laerke said.

OCHA would do everything possible to ensure aid operations continued, even in the event of an incursion, and was studying how to do that, he added.

A World Health Organization official said at the same briefing that a contingency plan for Rafah had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

Already, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly seven months of conflict, according to Gaza's health ministry.

"I want to really say that this contingency plan is a band-aid," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory via video link. "It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation."

Other preparations include pre-positioning medical supplies at hospitals further north in case Rafah's three hospitals become non-functional, as has happened multiple times in the seven-month conflict due to Israeli raids and bombings.

WHO data shows that just a third of the strip's 36 pre-war hospital are partially operational. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says its operations against them have been justified by the presence of fighters. Hamas and medical staff deny the allegations.

Peeperkorn added that he was "extremely concerned" that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is currently being used to import medical supplies.

"We are pushing and lobbying that, whatever happens, that it remains open," he added, saying WHO had raised this issue with Israeli authorities.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Editing by Rachel More, Alex Richardson and Cynthia Osterman)
ST. LOUIS  In St. Louis Ranken Technical College recently welcomed Kimberly Dowdell, President of the American Institute of Architects, for a special event.

Dowdell, who is the first African American woman to hold this position, spoke to students at the college about her unique journey as the 100th President of the AIA, focusing on her role as the first Black woman and Millennial in this leadership position. Her talk centered on her experiences as a minority architect and her mission to promote diversity within the field.

After her presentation with Tony Raya, a Ranken alum and technical principal at the renowned architecture firm HOK, Dowdell engaged in a conversation with the audience members and students who attended and took photos with them. Following the presentation, Ranken students showcase designs by junior and senior architecture students at Ranken.

Photo by Liz Dowell

Photo by Liz Dowell

Photo by Liz Dowell

These designs focused on the future of infrastructure in St. Louis, featuring innovative concepts for the St. Louis Gateway South District and community parks that integrated with surrounding neighborhoods.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE:BHC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2024

Bausch Health Companies Inc. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.59 EPS, expectations were $0.75. Bausch Health Companies Inc. isnt one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Greetings. Welcome to the Bausch Health first quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Garen Sarafian, Investor Relations at Bausch. You may begin.

Garen Sarafian: Good morning, and welcome to Bausch Healths first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Participating in todays call are Thomas Appio, Chief Executive Officer of Bausch Health, and John Barresi, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, Id like to remind you that our presentation today contains forward-looking information. We ask you to take a moment to read the forward-looking statements disclaimer at the beginning of the Slides that accompany this presentation, as it contains important information. Our actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Please refer to our SEC filings and filings with the Canadian securities administrators for a list of some of the risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations.

We use non-GAAP financial measures to help investors understand our ongoing business performance. Non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies, and should be considered along with, but not as an alternative to, measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. You will find reconciliations to our non-GAAP measures in the appendix of the Slides that accompany this presentation, which are available on Bausch Healths Investor Relations website. Finally, the financial guidance in this presentation is effective as of today only. We do not undertake any obligation to update guidance. Our discussion today, Thursday, May 2, will focus on Bausch Health, excluding Bausch + Lomb. However, well briefly comment on Bausch + Lombs results announced yesterday.

We will refer to year-over-year comparisons with the same period last year, unless otherwise noted. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Thomas Appio. Tom?

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Thomas Appio: Thank you, and welcome to those of you joining the call this morning. We started 2024 on strong footing, building on the momentum we have established last year, while maintaining our focus on operational excellence and our patient-centered mentality. We delivered another quarter of growth, making our fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. For the first quarter of 2024, revenues for Bausch Health, excluding B+L, were $1.05 billion, up $41 million or 4% on a reported basis, and 5% on an organic basis. All segments delivered revenue growth on both a reported and organic basis when compared to the first quarter of 2023, led by Solta with 23% organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA for Bausch Health excluding B+L was $504 million, an increase of approximately 9% compared to the prior year.

We also continued to make progress on our key R&D initiatives during the quarter, in line with our established timing goals. First, for Amiselimod, in April we met with the FDA for an end of Phase 2 meeting and a Phase 3 planning meeting for mild to severe ulcerative colitis, UC. In addition, we were also pleased for Amiselimod to have been accepted for a podium presentation at Digestive Week on May 19th. Second, we completed enrollment for our second global Phase 3 trial for RED-C in late April, which is slightly ahead of our goal of completion by the end of the first half of 2024. And third, we are pursuing approval CABTREO for Canada and anticipate this could occur in the second half of the year. Overall, we continue to feel good about the progress we have made on our R&D pipeline, and are progressing according to the timelines we shared in February.

Turning to our litigation with Norwich. On April 11th, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirmed the US District Court of Delaware's August 10th, 2022 judgment, and also the May 17th, 2023 decision that had denied Norwich Pharmaceuticals motion for modification of the court's final order. We are pleased that the Federal Circuit maintained the judgment preventing the approval of Norwich's ANDA for Xifaxan until October 2029. On April 5th, 2024, we filed a patent lawsuit against Amneal Pharmaceuticals following the receipt of a notice of Paragraph IV certification stating that Amneal had submitted an ANDA to the FDA seeking approval to market a generic version of Xifaxan. This action formally initiates the litigation process under the Hatch-Waxman Act, and triggers a 30-month stay of any potential FDA approval for Amneals ANDA.

As a leader in gastroenterology health, we continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property and are committed to advocating for the safety of patients who have benefited from continued access to Xifaxan. We look forward to continuing to serve our patients, as every patient deserves better health outcomes and the chance to make the most of life. On the Granite Trust matter, we continue to expect the settlement with the IRS to be finalized in the coming months. As we have previously indicated, the anticipated outcome of the settlement does not have material impact on the company's results or cash flows. We continue to focus on our balance sheet and liquidity, and ended the first quarter with approximately $1.5 billion of liquidity. In Q1, we repaid over $300 million of debt, including the $250 million of bonds with 2025 and 2026 maturities, as noted on our year-end call.

Turning now to the potential full separation of Bausch+Lomb. The full separation of Bausch+Lomb continues to be a strategic priority. We continue to evaluate strategies regarding the potential full separation, with the objective of ensuring that any transaction result in two appropriately-capitalized companies. The outcome at the court of appeals in the Norwich matter represents a significant milestone toward the full separation of B+L. Any decision regarding if and when a separation occurs, or its structure, will be based on, and subject to, an assessment of all relevant factors and circumstances. Any potential separation will also be subject to shareholder and other applicable approvals. Turning now to an overview of our segment performance for the quarter, starting on Slide 8.

Salix revenue grew slightly year-over-year, with reported growth of 1% and organic growth of 2%, driven by Xifaxan and Relistor, offset by net pricing pressure for Trulance and certain non-promoted products. During the quarter, we continued to see an increase in demand for our key products, Xifaxan, Relistor, Trulance, with TRx growth of 3%, 3%, and 9%, respectively. Overall, Xifaxan revenues grew 8% over the first quarter of last year, reinforcing our strategy of continuing to make investments primarily in AI-enabled sales tools, DTC advertising, which we expect will drive further growth in this important franchise this year. Turning to international, we saw solid year-over-year revenue growth during the first quarter, with reported growth of 7% and organic growth of 2%.

Organic growth was led by Canada, where we saw strong performance from Contrave in the quarter. We have begun investing in DTC marketing for this product to build on this momentum. We were also pleased to receive our first public health plan listing for UCERIS aerosol foam in Canada. Across the segment, we are also focused on driving long-term growth through investments in our promoted products and ongoing business development efforts. In Solta Medical, revenues increased by 21% on a reported and 23% on organic basis, led by Asia Pacific. Importantly, we are pleased to see the US return to growth, posting 14% year-over-year growth in revenue. We remain highly focused on maintaining momentum in Asia, with Thermage FLX now approved as a medical device in China, and on driving growth in the US and EMEA markets, where we believe there is meaningful opportunity.

In diversified, we delivered a solid quarter, with 3% reported and 6% organic growth over the prior year. This was led by dermatology business. As we discussed on our year-end call, CABTREO, launched in the US in late January, and early script volume has been encouraging. We expect the new product to be a more significant contributor to the dermatology business over the remainder of the year. Neurology revenues grew slightly, as we continue to capitalize on opportunities in the market created by competitor supply constraints. While we did see volume declines in Wellbutrin and Aplenzin as expected, improved net pricing led to higher sales of these products, reinforcing our strategy in managing script profitability. This growth was offset by continued pressures on our generics business and a slight decline in our dentistry business, where we expect our investments will lead to consistent growth through the remainder of 2024.

Overall, we continue to focus on managing this mature portfolio of products for profitability and cash generation in a challenging competitive and pricing environment, while looking for opportunities to make targeted investments where appropriate. Turning to the latest developments in our R&D pipeline on Slide 9, starting with our GI pipeline. As you will recall, in December, we announced positive top-line results from our Phase 2 study evaluating Amiselimod, an S1P antagonist for the treatment of UC. We held a Phase 3 planning meeting with the FDA in April, and expect to meet with the international authorities, including in EMEA and Japan later this year. In the meantime, we are pleased that Amiselimod has been selected for a podium presentation on May 19th at Digestive Disease Weeks annual conference, one of the largest and most prestigious events for gastroenterology professionals.

We continue to move forward with planning for a Phase 2 program for Crohn's disease, and expect to initiate that by the end of the year. Turning to our RED-C program with rifaximin for reduction of early decompensation in cirrhosis, our global program focused on assessing the efficacy of our Rifaximin SSD formulation versus placebo to delay the occurrence of hepatic and encephalopathy-related hospitalizations. Both global Phase 3 trials for this program are underway. Enrollment for the first trial, as previously mentioned, completed in December 2023, and the enrollment for the second trial completed in April of 2024, which was ahead of our goal for the first half of 2024. Together, these studies are expected to include over 1,000 patients across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Turning now to our aesthetics pipeline. We are pleased to have Thermage FLX and the TR-4 return pad available to customers in China as of the second quarter, following the approval by the National Medical Products Administration in January 2024. We plan to file an FDA submission for our next-generation Fraxel in Q2, a fractionated laser device for skin resurfacing, and anticipate approval could be received in the second half of this year. Finally, our program for Clear + Brilliant Touch, a fraction of the laser device for skin rejuvenation, continues to advance. We have received approvals in Australia and New Zealand this year, representing our first approvals outside of the United States, and remain on track for regulatory submissions in 2024 in Europe, Canada, and other Asia Pacific markets.

A series of pharmaceutical and medical products in a warehouse, displaying the range of products available.

We feel good about the progress we are making on these key R&D initiatives, and we remain focused on our pipeline of new market authorization and next-generation products as we continue to grow this global durable portfolio of aesthetics products. As a leadership team, we are committed to driving growth by leveraging our existing assets, making targeted investments, and executing with commercial excellence, while continuing to progress our pipeline, all with a patient-centered mentality. With that, I will turn the call over to John Barresi, who will provide further details on the first quarter performance. John?

John Barresi: Thanks, Tom. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We closed the first quarter with consolidated revenues for Bausch Health of $2.15 billion, up 11% on a reported basis, and 8% on an organic basis over the same quarter last year. First quarter revenues for Bausch Health, excluding B+L, were $1.05 billion, up 4% on a reported basis, and 5% on an organic basis over the same quarter last year, with strong growth in Solta and low to mid-single digit reported in organic growth in our other segments. Turning to segment revenue performance, starting on Slide 12 with Salix. First quarter Salix revenues increased $3 million on a reported basis to $499 million, driven by TRx growth in our key products, including Xifaxan 550, Relistor, and Trulance.

Revenues grew $12 million on an organic basis, reflecting the impact of divestitures and discontinuations of certain non-promoted products. Xifaxan continued to represent over 80% of Salix segment revenues this quarter, and saw strong growth in underlying demand. Xifaxan revenues in Q1 increased 8% compared to the prior year period. Retail prescriptions grew 3% in Q1 versus the prior year. We saw another quarter of solid growth in TRx for IBSD, and the long-term care channel for HE. Extended units grew 4%, which included double-digit growth in non-retail units attributable to outpatient clinics. Relistor delivered 10% growth over the prior year period, with solid TRx growth of 3%, and a benefit from favorable net pricing relative to Q1 of the prior year.

Trulance revenues declined 7% year-over-year as solid TRx growth of 9% compared to Q1 of last year, was offset by net pricing pressure. We also continued to experience net pricing pressure in our non-promoted portfolio in this segment. International revenues were $265 million during the quarter, an increase of 7% on a reported basis, and 2% on an organic basis compared to the prior year period. Organic growth was led by Canada. While LATAM and EMEA were flat on an organic basis, LATAM was impacted by the timing of government purchases, with private channel sales showing growth, while in EMEA, growth in key promoted products was offset by the effects of competition on certain of our non-promoted products. Solta Medical revenues were $88 million during the first quarter, an increase of 21% on a reported basis, and 23% on an organic basis over the prior year period.

Soltas growth was led by China and South Korea, and to a lesser degree the remainder of Asia Pacific. Importantly, the US returned to growth this quarter, with a 14% increase in revenues over the prior year, and we are continuing to invest in our sales force and related tools to drive sustainable growth in this key market. Diversified revenues were $202 million during the first quarter, an increase of 3% on a reported basis, and 6% on an organic basis compared to the prior year period. In dermatology, revenue grew by 16% on a reported basis and 25% on an organic basis in the quarter over the prior year period, as we continued to focus on returning this business to consistent growth. Growth in the quarter benefited from favorable net pricing comparisons quarter-over-quarter, which we expect will moderate for the remainder of the year, while volumes for our non-promoted products continue to be pressured.

As Tom noted, we are pleased with the early response in the market to CABTREO since its late January launch, and expect it to become a more meaningful driver of growth in our dermatology business as the year progresses. Neurology revenues grew slightly, posting a 1% increase year-over-year, as we continued to benefit from competitor supply disruptions, although not at the same levels that we saw in Q4 of 2023. Wellbutrin and Aplenzin revenues grew despite lower volumes as we continued to execute our strategies to improve overall profitability in this business. While dentistry revenues declined modestly in the quarter compared to Q1 of last year, we continued to invest in this durable business for the long term, and expect the investments we are making in the sales and related tools to return this business to growth through the remainder of 2024.

As shown on Slide 16, Bausch+Lomb revenues were $1.1 billion during the first quarter, 18% on a reported basis, and 11% on an organic basis compared to the prior year, with growth across all Bausch+Lomb segments, key product franchises, and geographies. Turning to the first quarter P&L on Slides 18 and 19. First quarter consolidated adjusted gross margin was 71.2%, 110 basis points higher compared with the prior year. For Bausch Health, excluding B+L, adjusted gross margin for the first quarter was 79.5%, approximately 20 basis points higher than last year's first quarter. At B+L, adjusted gross margin was 63.2% for Q1 of 2024, compared to 60.0% for Q1 of 2023, driven primarily by product mix, including the impact of Xiidra. Consolidated adjusted operating expenses for the first quarter were $916 million, an increase of $82 million.

For Bausch Health, excluding B+L, adjusted operating expenses decreased by approximately $16 million compared to the first quarter of 2023. Higher A&P, driven by investments in the dermatology and dentistry businesses and R&D, were offset by lower G&A expenses as we continue to focus on cost management. We expect A&P increases to moderate over the course of the year as we begin to annualize our investments in selling and marketing for Salix. B+L reported an increase in $98 million in adjusted operating expenses due primarily to increase selling in A&P, driven by the addition of Xiidra and product launches, including Miebo. Consolidated adjusted R&D expense for the quarter was $150 million, an increase of 5% compared to the prior year, and represented 7% of product sales compared with 7.4% for the prior year period.

For Bausch Health, excluding B+L, R&D expenses of $69 million increased by approximately $2 million for the first quarter as compared to the same quarter last year. This increase is in line with our expectations as we continue to invest in our GI anesthetics pipeline. First quarter consolidated adjusted EBITDA attributable to Bausch Health was $665 million, an increase of $77 million, or 13%. Adjusted EBITDA for Bausch Health, excluding B+L, was $504 million for the quarter, a 9% increase from $462 million in the first quarter of 2023. Turning to cash flow. On a consolidated basis, Bausch Health generated $211 million of operating cash flow and $181 million of adjusted operating cash flow in the first quarter. For Bausch Health, excluding B+L, adjusted operating cash flow was $133 million for the first quarter compared to adjusted operating cash flow of $94 million for the first quarter of 2023, with the changes primarily reflecting improved business performance.

As we've discussed in prior quarters, as a result of the accounting treatment for the senior notes issued as part of our 2022 debt exchange, a portion of our cash interest payments are classified as financing cash flows. Adjusted cash flow includes payments of the full contractual interest, as well as adjustments for the payment of separation costs, business transformation costs, and litigation, and other matters, net of insurance proceeds. Now, let's turn to our balance sheet on Slide 19. We continue to prioritize liquidity management and the de-levering of our balance sheet. In the first quarter, we reduced our debt for Bausch Health, excluding B+L, by $307 million, while debt net of cash decreased by $110 million. We continue to evaluate alternatives to reduce our overall leverage, while also focusing on our maturity profile.

As we discussed on the year-end earnings call, in January 2024, we retired $250 million in principal value of 2025 and 2026 maturities through open market repurchases, capturing approximately $12 million of discount in the process. We also repaid $56 million of additional debt, consisting of mandatory term loan amortization and repaying a portion of our AR facility. At the end of the first quarter, Bausch Health, excluding B+L, had $325 million outstanding under our AR facility, and had no outstanding borrowings and approximately $950 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. As shown on Slides 20 and 21, total debt for Bausch Health, excluding Bausch+Lomb at the end of the quarter was $16.1 billion, which consisted of approximately $14.8 billion of restricted debt issued by Bausch Health, excluding B+L, and approximately $1.3 billion of unrestricted debt, which includes the $1 billion of senior secured notes issued by the unrestricted subsidiary created in the third quarter of 2022, and the $325 million drawn under our AR facility.

Excluding B+L debt, approximately 85% of our debt, and approximately 70% of the company's debt on a consolidated basis is fixed. We ended the quarter with approximately $1.5 billion of liquidity, which includes approximately $431 million of cash and $950 million of availability under our revolving credit facility. We are focused on strengthening our balance sheet, including evaluating and utilizing as appropriate various tools and strategies based on the provisions of our existing debt agreements, along with our existing liquidity to manage both our maturity profile and our overall leverage. Turning to guidance, we are maintaining our guidance for the full year 2024. For Bausch Health, excluding B+L, we continue to expect revenue of $4.7 billion to $4.85 billion, with organic growth of 2% to 5%, along with adjusted EBITDA of $2.36 billion to $2.46 billion, and adjusted operating cash flow in a range of approximately $775 billion to $825 million.

I'll now hand the call back to Tom.

Thomas Appio: Thank you, John. We continue to build on our strong global portfolio of businesses, and remain highly focused on delivering against the objectives we laid out last quarter, including, driving a result-oriented culture of accountability, delivering on our revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted operating cash flow commitments, executing with operational excellence and cost-focused mindset across the enterprise, intensifying our focus and operating rigor behind R&D and business development, and continuing to evaluate strategic alternatives. Achieving the full separation of B+L remains a priority. These priorities help support our ambition of being a globally integrated healthcare company, trusted and valued by patients, healthcare providers, employees, and investors, as we relentlessly drive to deliver better health outcomes.

I would also, once again, like to extend my thanks to the entire Bausch Health team for their hard work. They have worked tirelessly and are all in to position our business for the long-term. Every patient deserves better health and the chance to make the most of life. This drives us on with urgency and efficiency to deliver the products patients need most to enrich their lives. On behalf of the entire Bausch Health team, I thank you for your interest in and support of our company. With that, we will now take questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.

See also

40 Perfumes Celebrities Actually Wear (but aren't paid to) and

20 Countries That Produce the Most Gold in the World.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
Its been a tough spring.

There is a natural beauty that emerges every spring as the Earth awakens from its winter slumber. But spring is also a time for bad guys to get back out on the street. This year, in Worcester, that means guns, knives and murder.

In just over two months, from the middle of February until the end of April, Worcester experienced eight violent crimes  seven separate shootings and a stabbing  that left six people dead and another five injured. So far, 11 different people have been arrested. In the most shocking of these crimes, a mother and her 11-year-old daughter were ambushed and assassinated in a quiet neighborhood in the middle of the day.

Look at it in context. In just a few months this year, Worcester has already equaled the number of fatal shootings and stabbings that occurred in all of 2023.

Like I said, its been a tough spring.

The recent shootings may well be part of a disturbing trend in the city. Comparing 2022 to 2023, while murders went down, police crime statistics show an increase in reported gunshots, nonfatal shootings and nonfatal shooting victims. Last year the city had an average of more than two reported gunshots a day (736).

The citys response

OK, lets get the protests of city officials out of the way. Yes, Mr. Mayor, its true that Worcesters murder rate and crime stats are less than what they experience in Fall River, Holyoke or Brockton. Sure, but thats probably what they say in Juarez, Mexico.

And yes, Mr. City Manager, Worcester is certainly safer than Chicago and St. Louis. But that doesnt mean that Worcester is safe. It just means that Worcester isnt as bad as other places.

In the past, when Worcester has experienced a spat of deadly crimes, officials often fell back on the were not Fall River, Holyoke or Brockton defense. And then of course, there is the meaningless thoughts and prayers that they send to the families of the victims. But city officials did little else allowing the number of police officers to shrink well below the number authorized to be on the streets of the city because, well, were not Fall River, Holyoke or Brockton.

But this time, things seem to be different. Well aware of the increasing level of gun violence in the city, Interim Police Chief Paul Saucier had already begun planning to establish a special unit focused on gun crimes.

According to a statement that accompanied the announcement of the new unit, the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit will prioritize going after the most dangerous individualsincluding repeat gun offenders. Saucier said that he estimates that most of the gun-related crimes involve only a small number of criminals  less than 10 trigger pullers. To illustrate his point, Saucier said that last year the city seized three guns that were involved in 21 shootings.

According to the chief, the units job is to find and seize illegal guns and then build cases against the criminals who use them. Saucier expects the unit to collect evidence, coordinate with the state police and ATF, and conduct thorough investigations that lead to successful prosecution by the District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney. Unlike patrol officers, the people assigned to this unit wont be pulled away to handle other calls theyll stay focused on the guns and the criminals attached to them.

Just a few days after it was established, on April 15, CGIU detectives recovered their first illegal firearm. Responding to a ShotSpotter activation on Channing Street, detectives performed a traffic stop pulling over a vehicle with a tinted license plate  which is illegal. With the license plate number now visible, detectives recognized the plate number as one they were looking for from another ShotSpotter activation on March 19. They uncovered a Glock 42 capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. A 19-year-old was arrested on a series of gun-related charges.

I like the focus of the new unit and Saucier deserves considerable credit for anticipating the problem and then moving quickly. But Worcester needs to do more. Currently, the city has far too many vacancies (63) on the police department rolls. Without cops on the beat, the city and its residents remain vulnerable. City officials need to graduate the current recruit class and authorize a new class immediately. Upcoming retirements from the force will only make matters worse. Failure to fill the vacant positions is malfeasance.

And while its a small thing, police should start stopping cars with tinted license plates. Theres only one reason to make it difficult to identify a license plate and it needs to stop.

Crime in Worcester is not out of control. And its certainly true that a number of cities are in much worse shape. But an increasing level of violent crime in Worcester should get everyones attention. Saucier has taken a step in the right direction. But the city needs to do more.

Worcester officials like to brag about all of the new investment and development going on in the city. And theres certainly a great deal to crow about. But all the beautiful big buildings in the world wont cover over the fear that residents and visitors feel if they are afraid to walk around the streets of their neighborhood, sit on their front steps or visit a local restaurant or bar.

Worcester shouldnt wait until it actually becomes as bad as Fall River, Holyoke or Brockton to act.

Email Raymond V. Mariano at rmariano.telegram@gmail.com. He served four terms as mayor of Worcester and previously served on the City Council and School Committee. He grew up in Great Brook Valley and holds degrees from Worcester State College and Clark University. He was most recently executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority. His column appears weekly in the Sunday Telegram. His endorsements do not necessarily reflect the position of the Telegram & Gazette.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Ray Mariano on recent murders in Worcester and need for more police
MANHATTAN (KSNT)  Police in Manhattan say a man is facing a slew of charges after being arrested for allegedly distributing drugs that resulted in the death of another person.

The charges are linked to the death of an 18-year-old woman that happened in May 2023. Other charges come from cases involving drugs that resulted in an aggravated battery incident in Aggieville in 2022.

The Riley County Police Department (RCPD) says a 21-year-old Manhattan man was arrested in the 100 block of North First Street on May 2 on the following charges:

Distribution of controlled substance; causing death

Three counts of aggravated battery; Knowingly cause great bodily harm or disfigurement

Use communication facility; In the commission of a felony drug violation

Three counts of distribute opiate/opium/narcotic/stimulant/heroin; Dosage < 10 units

Two counts of distribution of controlled substance; Cause great bodily harm

Two counts of aggravated endangering a child; Reckless situation to child <18

Man sentenced to life in prison for 2021 shooting death

The RCPD has been cracking down on highly lethal drugs. RCPD Director of Police Brian Peete told KSNT News the department is trying to fight the spread of fentanyl in the community.

In April the RCPD arrested five people for distributing controlled substances. According to police records, three of those drug deals resulted in deaths

When anyone sees something within the community that can potentially cost someone their life, say something about it, Peete said last week. You may think that its not your business, but its incumbent upon all of us to keep our community safe.

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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Sunflowers blow in the high winds during a storm over the Boise area viewed from Bogus Basin Road in August 2023.

A west-to-east storm system will bring high winds and nearly an inch of rain to the Treasure Valley this weekend, before a second system arrives early next week that likely will push that rainfall total over the one-inch mark.

The National Weather Service in Boise has forecast a sunny Friday with a high of 67 degrees, but enjoy it while it lasts. Heres what to know about Kentucky Derby weekend and the start of next week.

A windy start to the weekend

Winds will start moving into the Treasure Valley on Friday night before the first storm system, and will pick up steam Saturday.

Sustained winds in the Treasure Valley are going to be around 20-25 miles per hour, potentially greater, Jackson Macfarlane, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Boise, told the Idaho Statesman. The wind gusts, though, in the Treasure Valley on Saturday will be 35-40 miles per hour.

Wind gusts of 40 mph can break twigs and small branches, and make it somewhat difficult to walk.

The Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the upper Treasure Valley (Ada County) and Magic Valley from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, warning of gusty winds that could blow around unsecured objects and potentially cause minor power outages.

Downpour in Boise

The first hints of rain will start moving into the Boise area at around 6 p.m. on Saturday, Macfarlane said.

The storm system is moving pretty much in a straight line from west to east, meaning areas in the line of fire  such as Boise  could be under a deluge for much of the weekend. Macfarlane said approximately 0.8 inches of rain will fall from the first system, but the Weather Service puts Boises chances of seeing at least an inch at 32%.

 Another storm system is expected this weekend that has the potential to bring heavy rain to the area. Precipitation will begin ahead of a cold front Saturday morning across SE Oregon then Saturday evening across SW Idaho. #orwx #idwx pic.twitter.com/50ImRot1ix  NWS Boise (@NWSBoise) May 2, 2024

The extended band of moisture flows from the Gulf of Alaska, following the path along the Canadian coast before being pulled inland in Oregon and through to Idaho. The moisture will then encounter a low-pressure system south of Boise.

With that low being just to the south of Boise, were looking at the potential for some moisture to be wrapped up and over the area, Macfarlane said. Wraparound moisture could keep rain going for most of the weekend.

The Weather Service expects rain to last through Sunday night before breaking by Monday morning. But that break wont last for long.

A second round of rain for next week

Just when the sun returns on Monday morning, a weaker storm system will move in behind the initial one, providing another 24 hours or so of rain chances.

Macfarlane expects that storm to drop about 0.2 inches in Boise, likely pushing the City of Trees total to over an inch. The last time Boise received at least an inch of rain was a month ago, on April 5, when heavy storms dropped more precipitation than expected over the city.

The Treasure Valley finally will be freed from its cloudy cover on Wednesday. The Weather Service forecasts sunny skies and a high temperature of 59 degrees on Wednesday, before temperatures rise to 68 degrees by Thursday.
Protests on college campuses against Israels military campaign in Gaza and against American support for that campaign are proliferating. Some of these protests have gone beyond peaceful dissent and have included the occupation of university buildings. At UCLA, the protesters have been attacked violently by an outside group of supporters of Israel while police took their time before intervening. Things could deteriorate further.



But in my view, all of this trouble really started in Congress. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has a broad mandate, mostly focused on economic issues. Its official website says that it is focused on promoting access to high-quality education for students and safe, productive workplaces for working Americans. Yet somehow, the committees chair, Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, a far-right Republican, aided and abetted by committee colleague Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, thought it appropriate for the body to hold a hearing on April 17 in which they both questioned the president of Columbia University, Nemat Shafik, on whether she was doing enough to suppress expressions of antisemitism and criticism of Israels military campaign in Gaza on the Columbia campus.

Shafik, apparently eager not to follow in the footsteps of the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT at an earlier hearing of the same committee, made a number of statements at the hearing that exacerbated tensions on the Columbia campus and helped lead to some actions that punished students at Columbia for the peaceful expression of their views on the Gaza conflict.

This, in turn, inspired students at universities across the country to demonstrate solidarity with the Columbia students by holding what started out as peaceful protests on their own campuses against Israels campaign in Gaza. Some of these universities followed the path of president Shafik by calling in the police and suspending the student protesters. The House committees hearings became the precipitating factor in creating a crisis in American higher education.

I have personal reasons to be sensitive to antisemitism. I am a Jew, born in Berlin during the Nazi era, who survived because I was admitted to England as an infant two weeks before the start of World War II. In that period, when it mattered, other countries, including the United States, were turning away almost all Jewish refugees. In the case of the United States, the antisemitism of some high-level officials in the State Department was an important factor. In England, on the other hand, a small number of determined members of Parliament were able to overcome domestic resistance and secured the admission of more than 50,000 Jews fleeing Nazism in Germany and Austria in the year following Kristallnacht, the November 1938 pogrom against the Jews, when it became evident what lay ahead.

There has apparently been an upsurge in expressions of antisemitism on college campuses in the last several months. I think most of what is being labeled as antisemitism is criticism of Israel for its conduct in Gaza, and criticism of the U.S. for supplying Israel with heavy weapons and for blocking United Nations resolutions demanding a cease-fire. Some of those opposing Israels actions in Gaza go further and use slogans such as From the river to the sea, which seem to question Israels very existence.

So far as I can tell, however, instances in which criticism of Israel veers into the racial antisemitism that became a scourge in Europe and the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century and eventually led to the Holocaust are relatively rare. Some such instances have involved outsiders coming onto college campuses to express antisemitic views. Also, as best I can tell, Jewslike meare well represented among the critics of Israels actions in Gaza.

If there is a divide in the United States on the war in Gaza, it is not along racial, ethnic, or religious lines. It is a generational divide. Many young people, especially college students, who have grown up learning about such grave violations of rights as the annihilation of many Indigenous peoples, slavery, Jim Crow, and the Holocaust, feel a responsibility to speak up as they see tens of thousands of Gazans who were not involved in the crimes of Hamas being slaughtered.

Of course, there are limits on the rights of students to engage in protests on college campuses. They have no right to occupy buildings and disrupt classes or other important university activities. Even peaceful outdoor protests should not block access to buildings and should not be extended to interfere with events such as graduation ceremonies. Protesters may not engage in harassment of others on a campus or in physically intimidating behavior; and violence or the incitement of violence in circumstances in which it is likely to take place should be prohibited.

Yet the regulation of protests should not extend to the points of view expressed, however mistaken or even abhorrent they may be. Outsiders may be excluded, but students, faculty members, and others affiliated with a university should be free to gather peacefully on a college campus to denounce the actions of Hamas, or Israel, or the United States, or of the administration of the university.

The first time Columbia called in the police on April 18 and suspended students, it was not warranted. Reading the accounts of what happened immediately thereafter at other universities where the police were called in, it was probably not warranted at most of the universities that followed suit. Shafik seems to have tried to appease demagogic members of Congress. If so, it did not work. The members of Congress apparently had decided that they wanted to build on their success in securing the resignations of the presidents of two other Ivy League universities. They even enlisted House Speaker Mike Johnson to travel to New York to add his voice to their efforts.

Johnson used his brief visit to Columbia University to make a truly terrible proposal. He said he would call President Biden to demand that he send in the National Guard. Perhaps he was simply ignorant of what happened at Kent State University in May 1970 when the governor of Ohio called out the National Guard to deal with a student demonstration opposing the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. The guardsmen opened fire on the student demonstrators, killing four students and wounding another nine, including one who became a quadriplegic. Fortunately, New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded sensibly by advising Johnson to stay in Washington and refrain from exacerbating the conflict at Columbia.

It is difficult to predict how this crisis on university campuses will evolve. What should be recognized is that the crisis is a product of efforts by a few members of Congress to advance their own political agendas, and of the failure of the leaders of some major universities to stand up to them appropriately. The members of Congress responsible should be reviled by their colleagues; and college faculties should demand that the leaders of their institutions should uphold the principles of freedom of speech that are intrinsic to a great university.
The cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore  which collapsed in March after a container ship smashed into one of its support pillars  will be between $1.7bn and $1.9bn.

Maryland transportation officials say they estimate that the reconstruction will finish in the fall of 2028.

The bridge collapsed on 26 March when the container ship Dali crashed into one of the bridge's support legs. Eight construction workers were on the bridge at the time of the collapse and were tossed into the water. Two of the men were rescued while the remaining six died.

Chubb, the company that insured the bridge, will pay $350m to the state for the bridge repairs, which will account for only a fraction of the total cost to rebuild, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In addition to the insurance money, federal funds will also go toward the project.

Governor Wes Moore has met with members of the House Appropriations Committee to hammer out the details of federal funding that will go toward rebuilding the bridge. Shortly after the collapse, Joe Biden said federal cash would be made available to assist the state's project.

"We're gonna move Heaven and Earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible," Mr Biden said at the time.

On 11 April, Maryland Congressional leaders introduced the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, which would have the federal government cover 100 per cent of the cost of the bridge replacement project.

Work continues at the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. State officials revealed that the cost to replace the bridge will be between $1.7bn and $1.9bn (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The bill was introduced by Maryland Democratic Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, along with state Representative Kweisi Mfume and other members of the state congress, CBS News reports.

"The federal government is an essential partner in this gargantuan task of reopening the Port of Baltimore shipping channel and replacing the bridge with one built for modern-day commerce and travel needs," Mr Cardin said in a statement.

Mr Biden said that he believed the federal government should cover the full cost of the replacement following the bridge collapse, and said at the time he expected to have Congress's support on the issue.

Since then, the federal government released $60m in emergency relief funding.

"This is a national issue. I believe we have strong bipartisan support for the traditional 100% reimbursements," Mr Cardin said. "In regards to replenishing funds, we've been able to do that on a bipartisan basis because every community in the nation is impacted by these funds that are in the Department of Transportation to deal with emergency situations."

Congressman Andy Harris, a Republican from Maryland, said during a news conference in early April that the bridge collapse is a national issue, not a partisan issue.

"This wasn't a Republican tragedy, it wasn't a Democrat tragedy and the solution won't be a partisan solution  it'll be a bipartisan solution," he said.

A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

While state and federal legislators work to bring the bridge rebuilding project into reality, search crews are still trying to locate a final worker who died on the night of the collapse.

The body of a fifth construction worker who died in the disastrous collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has been found five weeks after the tragic incident. The fifth member of the lost crew was located on Wednesday, 1 May by Unified Command salvage teams.

The victim has been identified as Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, state officials announced in a news release.

One worker, Jose Mynor Lopez, remains unaccounted for.

We remain dedicated to the ongoing recovery operations while knowing behind each person lost in this tragedy lies a loving family, Colonel Roland L Butler, Jr, superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police said in a statement.

A memorial site to honor the construction workers who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sits on the side of the road near the blockade to Fort Armistead Park, in Baltimore (The Baltimore Banner)

Along with our local, state and federal partners, we ask that everyone extend their deepest sympathies and support to the families during this difficult time.

The state police underwater recovery team and the crime scene unit also assisted at the scene.

Divers were able to quickly recover the bodies of 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera a day after the bridge collapse after an initial search for the missing workers recovered a submerged truck.

The body of 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval was found on 5 April by divers as the search continued, and salvage teams found a deceased fourth unnamed worker trapped inside a vehicle over a week later while they were clearing debris from the channel.

While the search for the final worker continues, the Port of Baltimore said it is hoping to reopen its main channel by the end of May. The reopening will help to restore marine traffic and alleviate economic pressures caused by the collapse. Crews also plan to refloat and remove the Dali, which has been stationary near the incident site ever since the collapse.
For the past decade or so, battles over campus safety have been fought on the grounds of language and expression: words said in class, readings assigned, art displayed, or speakers invited whom some group of students claimed made them unsafe, even in the absence of physical threats or recognizable danger. Over the past two weeks, as police have raided college campuses and arrested students, faculty, and other protesters from Columbia to UCLA to UT-Austin to Indiana University, and as counterprotesters at UCLA launched violent attacks on students, these real dangers to the safety of students have put the battles over language in a harsh light. Students are being tear-gassed and fired upon with rubber bullets. Professors have been tackled and arrested. The scenes of dozens of armed cops in riot gear marching toward university buildings or rows of tents housing kaffiyeh-clad undergrads have been apocalypticespecially after some of those same cops did not immediately interfere when a right-wing mob seemed to have attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment, as well as student journalists, at UCLA, resulting in a series of injuries.

Well before the cops got involved, some of the progressive and far-left students protesting the war in Gaza found that the language of safety was being used against them, as their ideological opponents have (sometimes justifiably, sometimes not) claimed that the demonstrations are harmful and even dangerous. And these groups gave as good as they got, alleging to be the actual ones in peril, thanks to Islamophobia, accusations of antisemitism, and opposition to the protests, which have drawn counterprotesters and sparked attempts to reveal protesters identities either online or, as at Columbia, on the streets, via the use of doxxing trucks.

Right now, national attention is understandably on the actual violence at hand. But that violence, and all of the argument that preceded it, should be the beginning of a serious reconsideration. Well before Israels war in Gaza and the U.S. campus protests of it, This is harmful and it makes me unsafe was a familiar claim on college campuses. In the shadow of actual violence, the merely ideologically offensive pales, and the suggestion that even challenging ideas are inherently unsafe seems laughable. We should keep it that way.

Most of the pro-Palestinian protests have been peaceful. Some have broken the law and vandalized property, but the gatherings have generally, until very recently, failed to result in bodily injury. But since the police have been brought in, protesters have been arrested with varying degrees of force, with some thrown to the ground, tackled, tear-gassed, fired upon with rubber bullets, or otherwise manhandled by law enforcement called in by the universities. And although the protests have not routinely been violent, many have felt as if they were walking right up to the edge. Jewish students in particular have faced serious threats of violence or heard their classmates argue they should be killed; some of the groups organizing the protests have cheered on murderous terrorist groups or recast even those who slaughtered innocent civilians as resistance fighters. All of these incidents are shocking and appallingand they stand in sharp contrast to the appeals for intellectual and emotional safety that have increasingly characterized life on college campuses, even in postcollege progressive spaces.

For decades, college administrators and professors have emphasized student safety, promising that students wont just be physically safe on their campuses but will feel safe. The particulars of what that might entail are necessarily fuzzy, but essentially the message is that students will feel affirmed and that colleges have an obligation to avoid deeply offending student sensibilities, particularly along the lines of identity and religious belief.

Accusations of wrongdoing often fly to the linguistic: acts or words that people find offensive, distasteful, or bigoted are recast as dehumanizing or violent. Emphasis shifts away from intent, free expression, or even a reasonable interpretation of events onto harm, a kind of emotional trump card demanding not just attention but remediation, and to safety, which is ostensibly under threat when students are hurt. Last year, students at Macalester College who were offended by the partial nudity in a feminist art exhibition created by an Iranian woman in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, for example, characterized the work as dehumanizing, more than a bit of a stretch. The argument that these images, created by a Muslim Iranian feminist, are harmful to Muslim women who wear the hijab nevertheless won out: The college put up blackout curtains and warnings to prevent any non-consensual viewing of the art and apologized for any harm to members of our Muslim community. In 2014 students offended by a University of St. Thomas hump day event featuring a camel asserted that the program [was] dividing people and would make for an uncomfortable and possibly unsafe environment. Last year, an Ohio Northern University professor who made his own overwrought and frankly silly claims in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed titled DEI Brings Kafka to My Law School, was suspended over vague complaints and concerns and was told to leave campus to ensure his safety, [and] the safety of others.

In 2018 students offended by a scheduled speaking event by a conservative antifeminist scholar penned a letter saying that inviting her to campus was an act of aggression and violence. Last year, at Hamline University, students offended by a painting shown in an art history class, after the professors warning that it depicted the Prophet Muhammad and invitation for students to voice any concerns, complained. The university president responded by not renewing the adjunct professors contract and apologizing for the harm caused students, saying, When we harm, we should listen rather than debate the merits of or extent of that harm; she also emphasized the necessity of Muslim students feeling safe in the classroom, suggesting that the display of a painting may compromise that ideal.

And although the safety arguments do often come from progressives, conservatives are far from above making themand unlike progressives, who appeal largely to institutions, many conservatives have gone straight to the legislatures and the courts. Unlike the relatively powerless students who complain to administrators, some of the most powerful conservatives in the country have used claims of danger, harm, and safety to try to ban ideas they dont like. Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, for instance, deemed critical race theory dangerous for our kids in a press release boasting of her efforts to curtail discussions of race in the classroom. Other conservatives have tried to ban teaching critical race theoryan idea they seem not to understand and define in absurdly broad termsin nearly every state in the nation. Former President Donald Trump even took on the issue, putting out an executive order restricting the ways federal employees and contractors could discuss race, even suggesting that talking about racism, racial inequality, and racial privilege could directly threaten the cohesion and effectiveness of the U.S. military. The argument that an idea backed up by hundreds of years of history and embraced by thousands of scholars could, if mentioned to soldiers, bring the countrys armed forces to its knees is histrionic beyond parody, the kind of thing that, had it been said on a college campus by a liberal, would engender at least a few days worth of right-wing mockery and free speech objections. (Joe Biden has since overturned that executive order.)

Similar objections of harm and dangerousness have been made to ban the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, an effort led by pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups to get various institutions to cut financial ties with Israel and Israeli companies. BDS is controversial, to say the least, but one doesnt have to agree with its aims or embrace the radical views of its leaders to see boycotting and fund pulling as a long-standing, legitimate, and nonviolent protest tactic. Many conservatives, though, havent just objected to BDStheyve tried to ban it. Sen. Tim Scott has said that it is hateful, disgusting and fuels anti-Semitism, while Sen. Marco Rubio called it economic warfare; boycotting Israel is now essentially banned in many U.S. states. Campus objections to BDS have also centered on the movements being harmful, with some students asserting that divestment campaigns make them feel unsafe. (Others have argued that BDS, and especially its outgrowth, a push for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, is itself an attempt to shut down the exchange of ideas.)

The list of examples goes on, and this argument is by now a tired one, with anyone paying attention probably entrenched on either side of it: Either students are acting like fragile and entitled snowflakes with a dangerous disregard for free speech and academic freedom, or the kids are doing just fine and this is a moral-panic figment of the reactionary imagination. (The powerful conservatives acting like fragile snowflakes are rarely folded into this analysis.) The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. But its difficult to deny that a few troubling concepts have taken hold: that words and ideas are themselves violent, even when those words are not, in fact, threatening or promoting violence; that colleges have an obligation to avoid emotional or psychic harm to their students; and that any accusation of harm is a grave one that must be taken seriously and may very well trump concerns like academic independence or free expression.

Students, for the record, did not invent these ideas. Grown-ups did, and they have spent years reinforcing themincluding the college administrators who are now calling the cops to physically lay hands on their own students.

These claims of feeling unsafe have proliferated on college campuses since Hamas launched a murderous attack against Israeli civilians, and especially after far too many leftist groups and individuals on campus and off responded by justifying terroristic acts and even cheering them on. Once Israel launched its brutal war of reprisal and pro-Palestinian students responded with protests, the safety-related claims escalated. Some Jewish students said they felt unsafe because of the pro-Palestinian protests, at which many students advocated for the destruction of Israel and some students as well as outsiders veered into the nakedly antisemitic, but which have largely been nonviolent. In response, many of the pro-Palestinian protesters and their defenders have accused Jewish students of weaponizing antisemitism, even positing that doing so violates their safety. States and politicians have attempted to shut down pro-Palestinian student groups because of their viewsan unconstitutional and outrageous moveand one that students also said made them feel unsafe. (Some universities have suspended these groups for repeatedly breaking the rules, as well as for what they characterized as threats, intimidation, and safety issues.)

Jewish students have reported legitimate safety concerns, including being harassed, threatened, intimidated, and assaulted on campus and near it. Stories proliferate of students who have been spat on, cursed at, called various slurs, or had their kippahs knocked off, among threats of serious violence, including rape and murder, from fellow students. And some of the protests do seem to be infringing on students right to an education and equal access to university resources, even if they are not physically threatening. Students have been blocked from accessing community spaces unless they sign on to the protesters ideological requirements. A number of schoolsColumbia most prominent among themhave canceled classes or switched to hybrid in-person and online learning, a strategy that was justified during a global pandemic but is now difficult to see as anything but impeding the full educational rights of students who deserve the gold standard of learning in class and in person. Some professors have reportedly held classes and office hours in or next to the encampments, a wildly inappropriate move that is vastly unfair to students who either oppose the protests or simply want to learn without being pulled into a complex geopolitical debate. Some students are suing.

But many students, Jewish and non-, have also said that their safety is compromised by ideas they find ugly, bigoted, or unacceptable. The line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism can be blurry, but there is little question that some claims of danger and un-safety have been greatly overstated. Still, as George Packer wrote in the Atlantic of the students making safety claims, Who could blame them? They were doing what their leaders and teachers had instructed them was the right, the only, way to respond to a hurt. And hes correct: Conflating even deep upset or offense with a threat to ones safety is a strategy that has worked for many other groups of students to get their ideological way because the institutions they attend have for too long pushed a kind of catastrophizing narrative about the harm, violence, and hazards of ugly or even just bad or controversial ideas. Some students may be using these safety concerns cynically, to gain the upper hand in what are now full-blown and multidimensional campus feuds. But many students seem to actually believe that being deeply hurt, even feeling betrayed or socially unwelcome, is a safety threat.

Because these protests have divided the left, and because concerns about antisemitism are legitimate even if not every accusation of it is, this has been more challenging terrain for progressives to navigate. Some who previously cast concerns about campus safety as reactionary hand-wringing are now either noting the potential perils or simply disputing the current safety complaints without situating them in the broader trajectory of campus and progressive discourse and ideology. (Safety claims that are more about emotional hurt than physical danger, after all, are not limited to college studentstheyve cropped up in progressive spaces online, in workplaces, and in advocacy organizations.) Many conservatives who have long mocked or derided students for their sensitivity and claims of harm are now cynically using these same strategies for very different ends: to undermine student expression, to more aggressively crack down on protesters whose views they simply dont like, to weaken public trust in higher education, and to stick it to the liberal elites they resent (or believe their base resents and wants to see publicly humiliated). And, arguably even worse, many of the same campus leaders who emphasized, encouraged, or at least had long caved to overstated safety claims have actually compromised many students physical safety by calling the police, even in situations where the protests were not violent or threatening.

It seems incredibly unfair, after decades of overreach and overprotection, to tell the Jewish students who feel hurt, alienated, or unwelcome by these protests, Too bad. And it is unfair; it is currently imposing a larger burden on a minority group of students than has been imposed on many other marginalized groups in the past. But its also unjust to perpetuate a strategy that has long undermined free expression and academic freedom, and that has done many students, who are no doubt much more intellectually and emotionally robust than they get credit for, a profound disservice. And the actual violence that has now played out at some protests makes clear that there is indeed a difference between emotional harms and physical ones.

Universities have a legal and moral obligation to protect student safety, to prevent and penalize many forms of discrimination, and to ensure that all students can fully access the education to which they are entitled. Right now, too many schools are failing on these very basic measures. But these institutions also have a moral and educational obligation to make classrooms and campuses intellectually challenging and at times intellectually and emotionally unsafe places, and not bow to vague claims of harmor even deep, sincere, and sympathetic statements of hurt, betrayal, offense, or angercouched in the language of safety.
In our Reality Check stories, Herald-Leader journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? hlcityregion@herald-leader.com.

A committee has met three times in the past month to consider changes in attendance boundaries for Lexingtons new middle school, district officials confirmed Wednesday, but no public notice was given before the events.

No notice to the community of the three April meetings about redistricting was given because we just began looking at scenarios, said district spokesperson Dia Davidson-Smith.

The Herald-Leader asked Wednesday whether meetings had begun. No information was on the district website. District officials had posted recaps of two of the three meetings and other details on its website by Thursday morning.

Rezoning school attendance boundaries, sometimes called redistricting, has previously been a highly passionate issue in Fayette County for families who have concerns about their reassignment.

As new schools are built, the Fayette County Board of Educations School Zoning Committee considers changes in attendance boundaries to even out the student population, the district website said. The group is made up of parents, community partners, district administrators and school leaders.

Davidson-Smith had initially said that names of the committee members would be released Thursday. By Friday afternoon, the names had not been released. The committee chair was out of town, she said.

The Middle School Rezoning Committee was formed because Mary E. Britton Middle School is set to be completed in April 2025 on Polo Club Boulevard. The committee is considering changes in school zoning assignments for students. The school is slated to open in fall 2025.

No rezoning is taking place at the elementary nor high school level, Davidson-Smith said. This group is not making any decisions, just gathering info to present to the board. No board members are involved in this process.

In explaining further why public notice for the April meetings was not given, Davidson-Smith on Wednesday said, We were going to start notifying families after (a meeting in May) where to find information regarding rezoning materials.

We just began looking at scenarios, and that is why we have not notified anyone yet, but the intention was to notify the community once those conversations began, she said.

We are starting with small groups for the rezoning meetings so we can gather information to present to the board and public, she said.

Davis Demographics, a firm that helps school districts with their planning needs, is helping the rezoning team devise scenarios to recommend for boundary realignment.

Many facets will be discussed this spring, but nothing will be final until the school board votes on the recommended plan this August, the district website said.

The meetings

The committee met on April 9 and 23 and had a virtual meeting April 30. The next meeting is at 5:30 p.m. May 14 at Central Office.

Much work has already been done, according to the district website:

From November to April, internal meetings were held to review data, future residential growth, district programs, magnet placement, and grant possibilities.

On April 9 and 23, the rezoning committee met and discussed rezoning scenarios.

On April 30, the committee reviewed other middle school boundaries needing adjustments and presentations of draft scenarios and rationales.

On May 14, there will be the finalization of Mary E. Britton recommendation and middle school adjustments and final review of scenarios and school residential data, the district website said.

A community forum with a Q&A session and discussion of feedback will be held at a later date. Once recommendations are identified, and before the board is presented with options, a community forum will be held to share information and allow for attendees to give feedback, Davidson-Smith said.

In August, there will be a proposal presentation to the school board.

The committee work

The charge of the committee is to recommend revised attendance zones for middle schools that will accommodate assigning students to Mary E. Britton Middle School in 2025-2026, said Davidson-Smith.

The charge is to be as least disruptive to the current attendance zones as possible, Davidson-Smith said. This involves considering study areas of current and projected population data that will lead to an informed and logical recommendation.

The committee will make a recommendation to the board of education. The committee is not a decision making group. The decision is the boards to make, Davidson-Smith said.

In the first phase of the committee meetings, the goal was to develop the attendance boundary for Mary Britton.

In the second phase, the committee was set to review additional middle school attendance zones to determine if there needs to be adjustments, Davidson-Smith said.

Britton Middle can have 1,200 students. The goals of the committee include devising an enrollment boundary for the new Polo Club Middle School with 800 students and address areas of current overcrowding.

Not taking portable classrooms into account, Edythe J. Hayes Middle, which is near the new middle school, is 145% above capacity. Leestown Middle is 114% over capacity. Lexington Traditional Magnet Middle is only at 41% of the total capacity.

In the areas potentially changing are 730 sixth through eighth grade students.

The committee is addressing future enrollment growth or decline.

District officials want to create new middle school boundaries that have the least disruption.

School district staff will communicate directly with families affected by possible zoning changes, the district website said.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  An Albuquerque man who is a registered sex offender was arrested by the New Mexico Department of Justices Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division for child pornography.

Mario Troy Colangelo, 53, was arrested for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material of children under the age of 13.

VIDEO: Man fatally stabs coworker at Golden Pride

During the investigation, it was discovered that Colangelo, a registered sex offender with a long criminal history, including five previous arrests for possession of and/or distributing child sexual abuse material, legally changed his name from Troy Shelby to Mario Colangelo after he moved to New Mexico from West Virginia.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are two of the retail sector's most resilient stocks. Both companies weathered fierce competition from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and expanded as other brick-and-mortar retailers crumbled. Over the past five years, Costco's stock soared 199% as Walmart's stock advanced 78%. The S&P 500 rose only 73% in comparison.

But should you buy either of these popular retail stocks right now? Let's take a fresh look at their businesses to find out.

Image source: Getty Images.

The differences between Costco and Walmart

Costco is a warehouse club retailer that mainly sells bulk and discount products to its paid members. It can afford to sell its products at such low margins because it generates most of its profit through its higher-margin membership fees. To keep growing, Costco needs to keep gaining new members, maintain high renewal rates, occasionally raise its fees, and continuously open new warehouses. More than 80% of Costco's warehouses are located in the U.S. and Canada.

Walmart is more diversified. It operates its namesake superstores in the U.S., Mexico, China, and other overseas markets; competes against Costco in the warehouse club market with its Sam's Club stores; and operates smaller brick-and-mortar banners and e-commerce websites across 19 countries. However, the company still generated more than 80% of its total revenue from its Walmart and Sam's Club's stores across the U.S. in fiscal 2024, which ended this January.

Costco continues to flourish in a challenging market

Costco is still gaining and locking in members. In the second quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended this February, its total number of cardholders grew 7.3% year over year to 132 million. Its worldwide renewal rate stayed flat year over year at 90.5%, but its renewal rate in the U.S. and Canada grew 30 basis points to 92.9%.

It's also opening new stores. It ended the second quarter with 875 warehouses, which marked an increase of 27 warehouses from a year earlier. It plans to open 30 new locations, including two relocations, throughout all of fiscal 2024.

In fiscal 2023, Costco's gross margin was compressed by its higher mix of lower-margin food sales and the slowing growth of its e-commerce business. But in the first half of fiscal 2024, its gross margin expanded again as its e-commerce growth accelerated. It's also widely expected to raise its membership fees in the near future.

Analysts expect Costco's revenue and earnings to grow 5% and 14%, respectively, in fiscal 2024, which ends this September. For fiscal 2025, they expect its revenue and earnings to increase 7% and 8%, respectively. Costco pays a paltry forward dividend yield of 0.6%, and its stock certainly isn't cheap at 46 times forward earnings, but its evergreen business model might justify its higher valuation.

Story continues

Walmart has a bright outlook for the future

Walmart ended fiscal 2024 with about 10,500 brick-and-mortar stores, roughly unchanged from the previous year. However, its total number of customers served across those stores rose 6% year over year to 255 million. Its revenue and adjusted EPS both increased by about 6% in fiscal 2024.

Just over a year ago, Walmart set a long-term goal of generating 4% sales growth and more than 4% operating income growth over the following three to five years. It planned to achieve that stable growth by expanding its Walmart+ subscriptions, automating more than half of the processing volumes at its fulfillment centers by the end of fiscal 2026, building or converting 150 new locations by fiscal 2029, and remodeling hundreds of its existing stores.

Walmart kept pace with Amazon by matching its prices, expanding its own e-commerce platform, using its own brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill online orders, and rolling out more delivery and in-store pickup options. It's also trying to increase the stickiness of its Walmart+ subscriptions with more discounts, free delivery options, and streaming videos from Paramount. It's even in the process of buying smart-TV maker Vizio to counter Amazon's Fire TV devices.

Analysts expect Walmart's revenue and adjusted EPS to grow 4% and 6%, respectively, in fiscal 2025. But its stock isn't a screaming bargain at 26 times forward earnings, and its forward yield of 1.4% won't attract any serious income investors.

The better buy: Costco

Costco and Walmart are both reliable long-term investments. However, I believe Costco will continue to outperform Walmart for three simple reasons: Its business model is simpler, it's growing faster, and it leads the warehouse-club market. Its stock is pricier, but it should continue to attract more growth-oriented investors than Walmart.

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Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife were indicted Friday on allegations they accepted $600,000 in foreign bribes from businesses in Mexico City and Azerbaijan.

The payments were allegedly paid to the Texas couple via sham consulting contracts into shell companies owned by the Cuellars, the DOJ announced in a press release.

In return for the payouts, the feds alleged Cuellar used his position to influence foreign policy to favor Azerbaijan and to pressure top U.S. officials to push through legislation that benefitted the Mexican bank.

The couple was hit with a slew of charges, including bribery, fraud, and money launderingcounts that could see them sentenced to as many as 20 years behind bars if convicted.

Ahead of the indictment announcement, Cuellars office attempted to get in front of the news by issuing a statement insisting he was innocent of any wrongdoinga declaration that came mere minutes after NBC News reported an indictment was imminent.

Years Before FBI Raid, Dem Rep. Henry Cuellar Made Sketchy Azerbaijan Connections

Cuellar, whos represented South Texas in Congress for two decades, wrote in his statement that everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people and that what he did was consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

The indictment isnt totally out of left field. Federal agents raided Cuellars house and office in 2022 as part of a probe into his relationships with Azerbaijani businessmen, but Cuellar tamped down the controversy by claiming he wasnt the subject of the investigation but that hed agreed to cooperate with authorities.

Cuellar previously served as a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

A source told NBC News that Cuellars staff were phoning other member offices Friday seeking advice on how to handle the situation.

In Cuellars statement, he hinted that his upcoming indictment would also involve his wife, Imelda Cuellar.

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations, he said.

He later dedicated an entire paragraph to defending his wifes character.

On top of being an amazing wife and mother, shes an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees, he said. She spent her career working with banking, tax, and consulting. The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard working is both wrong and offensive.

The scandal hasnt shaken Cuellars confidence in winning re-election in November, however, as he closed his statement by saying: Let me be clear, Im running for reelection and will win this November.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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NEW YORK  Rep. Jerry Nadler Friday derided Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu as the worst leader of the Jewish people since an infamous Biblical turncoat.

The liberal Manhattan Democrat said Netanyahu has done more damage to his own people than anyone since a Jewish monarch of the Hasmonean dynasty who invited Roman invaders into the Holy Land to help him defeat an internal rebellion in the first century BC.

He only got one competitor for the worst Jewish leader in history: that would be (a king who) invited in the Romans, Nadler told Politico in a new podcast.

Nadlers unflattering comparison was to John Hyrcanus II, a weak Jewish leader who ruled over a portion of the modern-day West Bank near Jerusalem several decades before the time of Jesus.

Hyrcanus II asked his Roman allies to help him defeat a rival Jewish faction but the tactic backfired spectacularly and led to the invaders effectively subjugating the Jews.

Nadlers pointed remarks came as Sen. Chuck Schumer confirmed that he has no objections to Netanyahu delivering a speech to a joint session of Congress.

Schumer, who has also clashed with Netanyahu, says he will eventually join House Speaker Mike Johnson in issuing a formal invitation to the right-wing Israeli premier, but it remains uncertain when such a speech might take place.

The timing is being worked out, Angelo Roefaro, Schumers spokesman, said Friday.

A source close to Schumer insisted there has been no recent change in the status of a possible Netanyahu speech, pointing to a statement in which the Senate leader said he would always welcome the opportunity for the prime minister of Israel to speak to Congress.

Netanyahu has spoken to joint sessions of Congress twice already. He would become only the second world leader ever to address three joint sessions of Congress, after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

But Netanyahu is a much more controversial figure today as Israel continues its war in Gaza.

Americans are sharply divided over the war in Gaza and President Bidens strong support for Israel, with protests erupting at Columbia University and many other campuses in recent weeks.

The conflict has also frayed the relationship between Netanyahu and liberal Democrats like Schumer and Nadler, who had long protected Israeli leaders against criticism from its strongest ally.

Schumer, who is the most-senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history, recently gave a speech on the Senate floor in which he denounced Netanyahu and called for new elections in Israel.

Netanyahu hit back at Schumer, saying foreigners like the New Yorker should stay out of internal Israeli politics.
Rep. Justin Jones, D- Nashville, looks on to activists as he leave the House chamber at the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, April 25, 2024.

Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, will remain on the ballot for House District 52 after the Davidson County Election Commission dismissed a qualifying challenge from his Republican opponent, Laura Nelson.

The lawmaker's 25 qualifying signatures, the bare minimum, placed him in a precarious position with no room for error as Nelson targeted three signatures Thursday night.

Still, Jones survived the challenge on a 3-1 vote, with one commissioner abstaining.

"The truth is powerful, and it prevails," Jones said during the commission meeting on Nelson's challenge, which lasted nearly three hours. Jones previously characterized the challenge as "frivolous" and "political harassment."

Nelson called the challenge "simply procedural," though she later accused the commission of violating her due process after it declined to throw out Jones' evidence package.

Rep. Justin Jones, D- Nashville, raises his hand and waits to be called on during a discussing SB 2103 during session at Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, April 25, 2024.

Nelson last month challenged nearly half of Jones' qualifying signatures, submitting to the commission a string of alleged inconsistencies, including mismatched handwriting styles, an uncrossed t, a misspelled name and the name of a city street, which was changed last year.

On Thursday, she dropped most of her challenges to target three names. Nelson did not provide any expert witness testimony beyond pointing out perceived inconsistencies in handwriting and signature styles.

Jones provided sign affidavits from the original 10 signatures Nelson challenged, and some of them testified at the hearing about the legitimacy of their signatures. Jones criticized Nelson's case, saying at one point he was "not going to play amateur CSI" to rebut Nelson's handwriting analysis.

The hearing grew unusually contentious amid frequent cross-talk between the camps, as supporters of each candidate at times shouted out. At one point, election commission chair Jim DeLanis banged his gavel to quiet the crowd as witnesses were sworn in.

Ive never done that before, DeLanis said.

Jones also clashed Thursday with Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins, a one-time Republican representative in the General Assembly. Goins is not a voting member of the commission but has the ability under Tennessee law to sit in on the commission.

Among the seated commissioners, Goins raised the most queries about Jones qualifying petition, honing in on a single voter whose legal name is "Jennifer." On Jones' qualifying ballot, she printed her name as "Jenifer." Goins suggested he was skeptical that a person would misspell their own name.

DeLanis pressed Jones on why his campaign didn't ask her to explain the discrepancy in her affidavit. In an 11th hour move, a Jones staff member managed to get the voter on the phone. The commission allowed her to be sworn in as a witness, and she explained she sometimes goes by the nickname, "Jen," and had printed her name in a hurry.

Nelson, who unsuccessfully challenged Jones in last year's special election, initially tried to argue the lawmaker missed an evidence deadline, claiming her campaign did not have time to review and submit supplemental evidence.

The commission, however, disagreed with Nelsons characterization. Commissioner Tricia Herzfeld laid out the evidentiary timeline, stating that because Nelson was challenging Jones certified ballot, the burden was on the Nelson campaign to provide evidence of her challenge by the initial evidence deadline. Jones provided his evidence package to the commission by a later, supplementary evidence deadline.

Commissioners voted to accept Jones evidence, agreeing that Jones affidavit evidence was submitted appropriately given his evidence was in response to Nelsons challenge.

We were discriminated against, Nelson said of the commission allowing Jones affidavits into evidence.

The commission meeting later turned into a marathon hearing over a challenge raised by Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, against the qualifying signatures for his Republican opponent, Nashville Metro Council member Jennifer Frensley Webb.

The meeting dragged past midnight, though Webb ultimately prevailed to remain on the ballot in the House District 50 race.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Rep. Justin Jones can remain on ballot, commission rules
Rep. Gabe Vasquez speaks at the ribbon-cutting at Arcosa Wind Towers in Rio Communities, New Mexico on Friday, April 26, 2024. Vasquez has sent letters to state environment and the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority in recent months, requesting more information on operations and accountability for the troubled water utility. (Photo by Anna Padilla for Source NM)

State agencies arent the only ones taking a harder look at operations and oversight of a troubled Southern New Mexico water utility.

In recent months, scrutiny has intensified from the state auditor and attorney generals office, after top environment officials called for a look into how the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority spent millions in public money.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) sent a letter to top officials at the New Mexico Environment Department to take additional actions to ensure the safety of residents in Dona Ana County that receive water from the water utility.

Vasquez asked for regular reports on all violations of federal drinking water regulations, and asked the state agency to hold community meetings in Southern New Mexico county, in the April 24 letter.

He further said the environment department should perform random, unannounced water quality testing for the next calendar year, and that state and federal funds remain available to the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA).

The state agencys response listed the results of a random test in April showing the utility was below the federal limit of arsenic in drinking water. The agency also served the utility with a $251,580 penalty, which the utility is appealing, and asked for additional information on the utilitys operations and finances in a March 27 letter.

Currently, New Mexico Environment Department officials are testing the water quarterly, and said the utility performs additional water tests every two weeks.

Additionally, the agency is planning on hosting community meetings, but none are scheduled at this time, wrote deputy secretary Sydney Lienemann in a response to Source New Mexico.

Arsenic levels in compliance

The latest three tests from the New Mexico Environment Department show the utility is now in compliance, with arsenic levels in the utilitys water measuring below the federal limit of 10 parts per billion.

In December, state officials found the utility has 58 significant deficiencies from systemic management failures following an investigation into high alkaline water sent to residents triggered a Do Not Drink order for several days.

Utility officials said they have addressed more than half of the deficiencies in recent months.

The regional water supply in Southern Dona Ana has long struggled with arsenic. The mineral naturally occurs at higher levels in the groundwater, which in exposure over time, contributes to certain kinds of cancers, is linked to higher rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart conditions, and skin irritation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

CRRUA responds to Vasquez letter sent in February

In February, Vasquez sent a letter to the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority asking what the utility was doing to address the concerning pattern of reported failures by the utilitys arsenic treatment plant as far back as 2016.

He asked the utility to detail corrective actions to address the failures and ensure clean, safe drinking water moving forward. He further asked how the utility planned to reach out to residents within 24 hours of an issue, and what infrastructure upgrades the utility has made.

The utilitys response took just over two months.

On Wednesday, May 1, the utility sent a response letter addressed from Susana Chaparro, who is both a Dona Ana County Commissioner and the chair of the utilitys governing board.

Chaparro wrote that since January, we have made much progress in a short time.

Then follows a bulleted list, noting that CRRUA hired a certified operator, that all four arsenic treatment facilities are now operational, that water is below the federal limit, and that the utility is upgrading facilities.

This includes using $5 million from the state legislature for rehabilitating a wastewater treatment plant.

We welcome any financial assistance you can provide Congressman Vasquez, as we have had to use reserve funds to pay for some of our infrastructure improvements, the letter stated.

Chaparro then listed more than $1.5 million for nine projects the board approved. Some of those projects include $440,000 for new media filters in arsenic treatment plants, and more than $123,000 for a new system to monitor the water system. Another $238,000 was approved for electrical and sludge pump replacements at the Sunland Park Wastewater Treatment Facility.

The utility further said it was now providing updates in Spanish and English on its website and Facebook, a change after the water quality issue in November. The utility is also buying a direct messaging system to contact customers.

The post Rep. Vasquez inquires about troubled water utility in Southern New Mexico appeared first on Source New Mexico.
(SOUTHERN COLORADO)  An organization built right here in Colorado is looking to expand its vast network of volunteers. The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network, (CoCoRaHS, pronounced KO-ko-rozz), has a network of daily weather reporters that spans the entire United States. Every morning, observers check their rain gauge and report any precipitation that may have fallen over the last 24 hours.

The organization dates all the way back to June of 1998 and started with the climate center up at CSU in Fort Collins. The original organizers felt the need to create a network of weather observers after several lives were lost during some devastating flooding.

The idea behind CoCoRaHS is to create a dense network of data that could potentially help save lives and be used for research purposes. Anyone and everyone can be an observer and the more people that participate  the better. The organization has over 26,000 active observers.

All you need to become an observer is a passion for weather and an official rain gauge. The first step is visiting the CoCoRaHS website where you will be asked a few questions about who you are and where you plan on setting up your rain gauge.

Courtesy: FOX21 Stormteam Meteorologist, Ryan Matoush, Picture is of a rain gauge

The second step is to make sure you have an official rain gauge you can use to measure any precipitation in your very own backyard. CoCoRaHS also provides a link to get a gauge during the signup process. The gauges are roughly $40.

The organization also provides free training through its website. They have several different pieces of training material if you have questions such as where to set up your rain gauge or how to accurately read it. The website will also be used to make your daily report and leave any comments you might have.

CoCoRaHS also wants to remind everyone that it is just as important to report no rain if none has occurred at your residence during the last 24 hours!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado.
A Republican representative on Friday appeared to applaud racist taunting against a pro-Palestine protest at the University of Mississippi.

A group of students organized a protest against Israels war in Gaza at Ole Miss, as the university is commonly called, on Thursday. The group was calling for the school to divest from companies aligned with Israel, and the university had approved the protest. Protesters, though, were metand reportedly outnumberedby counterprotesters who jeered and laughed at them, even making racist monkey noises and gestures at a Black female protester.

A counter-protester jumps up and down and hoots like a monkey toward a protester who was live-streaming on her phone at @OleMiss today.



Chants of lock her up as the Dean of Students (@marsh_brent) and multiple law enforcement agencies regain order. pic.twitter.com/fCU3hTioVL  Stacey J. Spiehler (@StaceyJSpiehler) May 3, 2024

Another video from a different angle shows the counterprotesters yelling Lizzo! Lizzo! as well as expletives and weight-based slurs at the woman.

Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, "Lizzo! Lizzo!" and shout, "F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch" at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine.



Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews? pic.twitter.com/gUNYgUR7YL  Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) May 3, 2024

But to Representative Mike Collins, a Republican from Georgia, this was all positive.

Ole Miss taking care of business, the congressman tweeted, sharing video taken from Richard Hanania, who has been criticized for espousing racist views.

Screenshot of a tweet

Collins wasnt the first Republican to seemingly praise the counterprotesters, though. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves tweeted video the day before, saying the audio warms my heart.

Screenshot of a tweet

While this protest ended peacefully as student protesters were evacuated away from danger, other demonstrations across the country, such as at UCLA and Columbia University, were met with violence from counterprotesters and law enforcement. In those cases, politicians also missed the point of the demonstrations, directing their criticism against those protesting a war entering its seventh month that has killed at least 34,622 people, including more than 14,500 children.
The Gaza solidarity encampments have actually made progress at several universities across the nation, pushing school administrators to meet with student protest leaders to consider divestment away from companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestine. But Representative Nancy Mace doesnt see any of thatinstead, she insisted that the protesters were just a bunch of terrorist-loving kids who hate our country so much.

They should take their terrorist flags, they should go to Gaza in their crop tops and nose rings and see how long they would last, because Hamas would chop off their heads, throw them off the roof of a building, before they ever had the chance to tell them their pronouns, Mace told Fox News Thursday afternoon.

I want to know where the adults are on campus, putting a stop to this kind of violence, the South Carolina lawmaker continued. They are preventing Jewish students from going to class. They are trashing these college campuses. This is not what America stands for. We stand for freedom and liberty of all people, but this is what Biden, this is what the left and Democrats  created this mess, and they need to own it.

Rep. Nancy Mace condemns pro-Palestinian protesters:



They should go to Gaza in their crop tops and nose rings and see how long they would last, because Hamas would chop off their heads, throw them off the roof ... before they ever had the chance to tell them their pronouns. pic.twitter.com/PlwWsp9KgB  The Recount (@therecount) May 2, 2024

But the violent police response that Mace seems to be endorsing to break up the protests has already happened at a slew of other institutions, and it didnt exactly paint the United States as an international bastion of freedom or free speech. Instead, the actions taken by police at Columbia University on Tuesday shocked human rights and press freedom advocates around the globe after authorities ripped apart a peaceful protest, fired a gun inside an administrative building occupied by protesters, and threatened to arrest the dean of one of the countrys top journalism schools for shielding the medias First Amendment right to cover the event.



Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, police allowed pro-Israel counterprotesters to violently attack an otherwise peaceful encampment set up by UCLA students in support of Gaza.

The international criminal court at The Hague is currently weighing whether to charge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with war crimes, as more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 injured in the conflictthe majority of whom were women and children, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry.
A group of House Republicans is introducing an amendment to require U.S. foreign assistance to display the American flag, which would revive a Trump-era policy that was revoked by President Biden.

The amendment is being led by GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: Reps. Brian Mast (Fla.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.) and Jim Baird (Ind.).

The draft text is an amendment to the USAID Branding Modernization Act, a law that passed in 2019 to more fully encourage the use of American flags as logos on foreign assistance, though it gave discretion to the USAID director on which logo to use.

The amendment seeks to insert in the text the requirement that the USAID director use the American flag to appropriately identify  overseas programs administered by USAID.

The amendment leaves in text that allows the USAID director discretion if certain images representing the United States would be a safety or security concern for implementing partners and beneficiaries.

USAIDs current logo is the agencys name in block letters with the tagline, From the American people, underneath. A smaller logo on the right of the agencys name includes clasping hands and American flag bunting.

The GOP amendment echoes efforts by former President Trump to standardize logos on U.S. foreign assistance, reportedly favoring an American flag as the single logo. Trump issued an executive order in December 2020 that gave him the power to select a logo for use across agencies providing U.S. assistance. The executive order was revoked by Biden in May 2021.

President Trump understood better than anyone how important the American Flag is as a symbol of freedom around the globe, Mast wrote to The Hill in a statement.

Its one of our best tools for building good will abroad. President Trumps efforts to put America First serve as an inspiration for a strong majority of Republicans in Congress, including myself.

Mast said the timing of the introduction of the amendment is related to the recently passed foreign aid package that spurred months of controversy in the House. While the House passed four individual bills, a vote on aid for Ukraine divided Republicans, with the majority of the House GOP opposing assistance for Kyiv.

The recently passed foreign aid package has put the issue front and center and were looking at avenues to advance this legislation in the coming weeks and months, Mast said.

The amendment would only require the use of the American flag on aid distributed by USAID, which is primarily civilian assistance and economic development.

USAID has long been required to have branding noting that its assistance is from the American people, under provisions in the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act.

And Pew research polling has found positive attitudes about the U.S. have increased when foreign countries recognize that America is providing assistance.

The American flag is a symbol of freedom for millions of people around the world, Rep. Salazar said in a statement to The Hill. We should display the stars and stripes proudly at every possible opportunity.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  A new Mexican restaurant is set to open up this summer downtown in the Capital City.

KSNT 27 News spoke with Seth Wagoner, CEO/CFO of AIM Strategies, LLC, about the expected opening of the three-story building housing Ta Co.s downtown location. He says the restaurant doesnt have a hard opening date set yet but he expects it to open by July this year.

People want to go to good, local places, Wagoner said. I mean, you can go to chains and where and I think its those unique, local places that carve out those experiences. Thats what we want to provide.

The building will have three areas people can reach with an elevator with the restaurant housed on the first floor, a private event space on the second and a rooftop bar on the third. Customers can expect an expanded menu from the one offered at Ta Co.s current location at West Ridge Mall along with new alcoholic options.





New restaurant at Billard Airport terminal revealed in Topeka

Topekas City Council approved demolition of the previous building at 735 S. Kansas Avenue so Ta Co. could be built in its place two years ago. Demolition of the old structure was completed in December 2022.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

AIM Strategies, LLC is owned by Cody Foster, one of the founders of Advisors Excel. The group manages other properties in the downtown area such as The Pennant, the Cyrus Hotel and Iron Rail Brewing. You can learn more about AIM by clicking here.

For more local 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.

Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include new information.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged 3 billion pounds ($3.74 billion) in annual military assistance to Ukraine, adding that it would continue "as long as it takes." He assured that London had no qualms about the possibility of the provided weaponry being utilized within Russian territory.

The visit follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks announcement that the U.K. will spend 2.5% of GDP on defense, and commit to at least 3 billion pounds a year on military support to Ukraine.

"We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment," he said in an interview with Reuters on a visit to Kyiv.

"Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here," Cameron said outside St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Kyiv.

Cameron added that Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so: "Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself."

The U.K. has consistently voiced strong support for Ukraine, alongside the U.S. and Germany. The country has pledged 12.5 billion pounds ($15.6 billion) in support to Ukraine since February 2022, of which 7.6 billion pounds ($9.5 billion) is for military assistance.

"We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win," Cameron said. "Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraines energy infrastructure, the U.K. is standing with Ukraine."

The Foreign Office also announced that the U.K. and Ukraine had begun negotiations on the creation of a "100-Year Partnership" between the two countries.

Without providing specific details, the proposed partnership would "build enduring links between our two countries across the spectrum of trade, security and defense cooperation, science and tech, education, culture, and much more."

"The U.K.'s commitment to developing this Partnership is a clear signal of its intent to build close and enduring cooperation with Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people, for decades to come," the announcement concluded.

The Kyiv Independent has reached out to the Foreign Office for more concrete information about the proposed partnership.

Read also: Battle of Chasiv Yar begins under a drone-infested sky

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Boeing could begin laying off more than 100 employees at its facility in Birmingham, Ala., state officials warned Friday. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

May 3 (UPI) -- Boeing could begin laying off more than 100 employees at its facility in Birmingham, Ala., state officials warned Friday.

Potential layoffs of 128 employees could begin June 28, the Birmingham Business Journal reported, citing a report issued by the Alabama Department of Commerce.

The department's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification list details plant closures, layoffs and other labor impacts in the state.

Speculation about the layoffs was first reported by the publication Tuesday.

"We have notified some team members in Huntsville of a potential layoff, as programs are affected by decisions external to Boeing. We will continue to be transparent with team members and explore alternative placement opportunities within Boeing for impacted employees," a Boeing spokesperson for the aviation giant told The Journal in a statement.

Potential layoffs of 128 employees could begin June 28, at the Boeing plant in Birmingham, the Birmingham Business Journal reported, citing a report issued by the Alabama Department of Commerce. Photo courtesy of City of Birmingham

The aviation giant has approximately 3,000 employees in Alabama, many at the facility in Birmingham.

The company did not provide a reason for the possible layoffs but has seen its finances take a hit since the January incident involving an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9. It ultimately paid the airline $160 million as compensation after a door plug blew out during a flight, causing the plane's pilot to make an emergency landing.

Last month, Boeing announced deliveries of its passenger jets dropped during the first quarter of this year to their lowest number since midway through 2021, in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aerospace giant delivered 83 passenger jets during the first three months of 2024, a drop from 157 during the previous quarter and 130 planes in the first quarter of last year.

Last week, Huntsville-based WHNT-TV reported delays caused by NASA of the space agency's Space Launch System program could affect staffing at the Boeing plant in that city.

Boeing is a major partner in the SLS project, a super heavy-lift rocket meant to power NASA's Artemis missions to eventually return astronauts to the lunar surface.
RFK Jr. could be a spoiler in November. But will it help Biden or Trump?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign was once viewed as a quixotic quest by a scion of a storied political family  an environmental warrior who sullied his familys name most recently by aligning himself with a political party founded by a segregationist to get on the November ballot in California.

But a combination of voter apathy about President Biden and former President Trump, the two main parties' presumptive nominees, and the Kennedy campaign's successful targeting of ballot qualification rules across the nation has prompted growing alarm among Democrats and Republicans alike.

When you have nail-bitingly close elections, nearly any candidate can be a spoiler, said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. Now, the interesting thing, unlike a Jill Stein [a perennial Green Party candidate], its not 100% clear which major party candidate he hurts most. That uncertainty is going to lead to a lot of churning on what the parties do  to keep him off the ballot.

Kennedy, the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has no real chance of being elected to the White House in November. However, the Californian could be a spoiler in the race, tilting the vote. Two names are frequently raised: H. Ross Perot in the 1992 race and Ralph Nader in 2000, though there is debate about how much their candidacies resulted in Bill Clinton and George W. Bush winning their respective elections.

Kennedy has qualified to appear on the ballots of three states, most recently California, and his campaign claims to have collected enough signatures to appear on the ballots of seven others, including Nevada.

In California, the American Independent Party submitted paperwork to have Kennedy appear on the ballot as its standard-bearer, the candidate announced this week.

Read more: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has qualified for California's presidential ballot

George Wallace, a segregationist Alabama governor who opposed federal civil rights laws, helped found the party and ran on its ticket in the 1968 presidential campaign. Kennedys father, a staunch supporter of such rights, was assassinated in Los Angeles during that campaign.

Leaders of the party, which currently exists only in California, say it has disavowed its segregationist roots and is focused on conservatism and the Constitution. In a video Kennedy released Tuesday, he called Wallace a bigot who was antithetical to everything my father believed in.

Mainstream Democrats are incredulous about Kennedys association with the party. When Wallace stood in a schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama, trying to block two Black students from registering, President Kennedy called in the Alabama National Guard at a time when his brother, Robert, was the nations attorney general.

Paul Mitchell, a veteran Democratic strategist, said he previously believed Kennedy had a shot at winning California based purely on his last name. That is no longer the case, based on how he has run his campaign and whom he has chosen to associate with, Mitchell said.

If he was a Kennedy and acting like a Kennedy and professional, I wouldnt put [a California victory] out of the bounds, said Mitchell, who noted that Kennedy associated with the fringe party after gathering a paltry number of signatures for a political party he was trying to form. Now hes a loony anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist and running a campaign like a loon. Its so embarrassing.

Biden supporters have been concerned about Kennedy for some time. The Democratic National Committee earlier this year established a team to oppose third-party candidates, chiefly Kennedy. Their first act was filing a Federal Election Commission complaint arguing that Kennedys campaign coordinated inappropriately with a Super PAC to qualify Kennedy for some states ballots.

We know this is going to be a close election and were not going to take anything for granted, said Matt Corridoni, a DNC spokesman working on the anti-third party effort, noting that the biggest donor to a pro-Kennedy PAC is a Trump mega-donor and that a New York-based campaign official pitched his candidacy by arguing that Kennedy would help Trump defeat Biden.

In April, several members of the Kennedy family endorsed Biden, including Kerry Kennedy, sister of the presidential candidate.

We want to make crystal clear our feelings that the best way forward for America is to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for four more years, she said at a campaign event in Philadelphia.

On Wednesday, Kennedy challenged Biden to agree that whichever of them did worse in a head-to-head poll in the fall would drop out of the race to prevent Trump being elected to a second term.

But Republicans including Trump have recently signaled growing concern about Kennedy eating into the former presidents support.

RFK Jr. is a Democrat Plant, a Radical Left Liberal who's been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected," Trump posted on Truth Social on April 26, arguing that the candidate opposes gun rights and the military and supports raising taxes, open borders and radical environmental policy. "A Vote for Junior would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.

Trump posted that before a Monmouth University poll released Monday found that after voters were told about Kennedys skepticism of vaccines, their views changed  prior polling showed that Kennedy pulled support evenly from Biden and Trump.

Read more: RFK Jr. speaks candidly about his gravelly voice: If I could sound better, I would

In the new poll, the percentage of Republicans who said they would support Kennedy nearly doubled to almost one out of five after being told about his views about vaccines, while Democrats support dropped sharply to roughly 10%.

Kennedy has also been receiving attention on conservative media, such as Wednesday evening on Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News Channel, where he argued that his campaigns polling shows him winning in a head-to-head matchup against either Biden or Trump.

But if I'm in the race, in a three-way race, I lose because people are voting out of fear, because they think the other guy  a vote for me is going to put somebody they hate in office, he said. But if I go head to head with either of them, I win.

Trumps advisors are piqued by Kennedy receiving attention from such outlets.

For the life of me, I cant understand why anyone on a conservative platform would feature the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who believes the NRA is a terrorist organization, whose positions on the environment are more radical than [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], and who believes in a 70% tax bracket, said Chris LaCivita, a lead strategist for Trumps campaign and the Republican National Committees chief of staff.

From our standpoint, only one person is more liberal than Joe Biden and that's Robert F. Kennedy Jr., LaCivita said, adding that Kennedy "is a blank canvas and we are going to fill it with paint."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Welcome to Trail Mix, your 2024 election sanity guide. See something interesting on the trail? Email me at jake.lahut@thedailybeast.com. To get Trail Mix in your inbox, subscribe here for free.

This week, an exclusive look at the connections between Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the MAGA-verse.

RFKS TRUMP PROBLEM

Last Saturday, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. appeared at an event that felt entirely on-brand for the anti-vaccine champion: a so-called medical freedom conference near Buffalo, New York.

But the group that hosted Kennedy isnt just skeptical of vaccines. Its also skeptical of the fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

RFK Jr.s Running Mate Parrots Right-Wing Talking Points About Abortion

That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Its yet another instance of Kennedywho is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decadesserving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trumps.

Kennedy was ostensibly there as an invited guest to help raise money for the group, which claimed that he was not engaging in a presidential campaign event and was merely helping to educate attendees on First Amendment rights.

Previously, the CCNYS posted calls to Help The Trump Team! on its Facebook page and its founders have links to two far-right groups whose members participated in the Jan. 6 riot and some key events leading up to it.

The Marching Patriots and Rolling Patriotsone protesting on foot, the other in automobile motorcadesgot their start during the pandemic protesting lockdowns, and some of their members traveled to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Those groups got involved with the CCNYS founders at the same COVID protests where a local militia sometimes provided security.

Beyond that, CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmens founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions.

In a phone interview with The Daily Beast, Nancie Orticelli said that she and her husband are not members of the Watchmen, but they have friends who belonged to the group, which she said is now defunct.

They didnt go against anybody, they were a defensive group, she said, recounting how if any of her groups members felt unsafe during anti-lockdown protests during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Watchmen would be on scene to provide security.

She also denied ever having been a member of the Marching or Rolling Patriots, but the Investigative Post, a local investigative outlet, reported she was as of May 2022.

As for her relationship with Kennedy, Orticelli insisted she had never met him in person, despite attending a 2019 demonstration with him at the New York State Capitol in Albany.

I didnt meet him, never spoke to him, never had any conversation with him before or since. You just deal with the campaign team, she told The Daily Beast, adding she remains a Trump supporter and encourages people to vote for the former president.

Trump Tears Into RFK Jr.s Family and Begs MAGA Not to Waste Votes on Kennedy

Kennedy, she said, was simply at the conference to narrowly address issues she agrees with him on, from the debunked conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism to censorship of anti-vaccine speech on social media platforms.

However, she also said Trump could be more supportive of her cause.

In fact, Orticelli said later in the interview after distancing herself from Kennedy, I wish that Trump and Bobby Kennedy would work together.

The Kennedy campaign did not return a request for comment.

Kennedys appearance at the otherwise obscure conference once again highlights how his anti-establishment and conspiratorial politics mean he often shares space with those in the ultra-MAGA wing of the GOPand less so the progressive wing of his former party.

Though President Joe Biden and Trump both increasingly regard Kennedy as a potential spoiler who could siphon off votes from around the political spectrum, his continued embrace of the anti-vaccine movement and free speech absolutism seem poised to endear him to Trump voters who are highly animated around those concerns.

From Trump donors filling the coffers of the main Kennedy-aligned PAC to the campaign hiring a GOP operative who called Jan. 6 Democratic misdirectionor the Georgia activist who organized Trumps Atlanta Chick-fil-A visit showing up on the Kennedy teams payrollthere are many indications of how Kennedys insurgent bid has substantial overlap with parts of the MAGAverse.

The CCNYS is one of five extremist groups in the Western New York region identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, espousing a hard-right and anti-government ideology based around the belief that an illegitimate cabal of leftists is trying to impose a new world order.

Based on Facebook posts reviewed by The Daily Beast, this Trump-loving group was eager to land Kennedy for their event.

Shawn Lembke, the CCNYS vice president, credited Nancie Orticelli as being the driving force behind [Kennedys] decision to come to the area for the conference.

Turns Out RFK Jr. IS a Spoiler CandidateFor Trump, Not Biden

Orticelli denied having such influence, telling The Daily Beast, Shawn has been a friend of mine for a long time, and he just thinks very highly of me, and sometimes he likes to give credit where its not really due.

Lembke did not return a request for comment.

Orticelli, who said she and her husband continue to urge their friends to vote for Trump in the fallincluding in a March 26 Facebook post on the CCNYS page calling for people to help the Trump team!would not say whether Biden won the 2020 election.

Its above my pay grade, she said.

Orticelli also tweeted in December 2022 that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents came to her home to ask me about J6.

We werent there! she said in the same tweet. We were at work. I feel like the fbi couldve easily found that out w/out wasting man power while a LITERAL known white supremacist was getting ready to massacre innocent people in Buffalo a year later.

Orticelli has been highly defensive of CCNYS in the aftermath of the Tops grocery store mass shooting in 2022.

Don't keep looking at me and thinking that I'm the racist, Nancie Orticelli told NPR for a series on local extremism following the shooting. Lets go after the real racists. And let's go after government agencies, like the FBI, who knew about this 18-year-old kid, and the schools knew about him. Let's start holding those people accountable for their own red flag laws that they ignored. And let's hold those people accountable, not Nancie from West Seneca.

In her interview with The Daily Beast, Orticelli said she fully cooperated with the agents and questioned whether the insurrection was all that bad.

People wanna say that about January 6, that they were all there to stop the process and X, Y, and Z, she said, referring to the peaceful transfer of power, before expressing skepticism over defendants who have since said in sworn testimony that they stormed the building to fight for Trump.

Thats a cop-out, she said. Its a plea deal that they all took.

TRUMPS RFK PROBLEM

There was a time not long ago when an earnest wish for Trump and Bobby to work together was not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Since Kennedy launched his campaign last year, there had been rumors of a Trump-Kennedy ticket, with the ex-Democrat even going so far as to say he was approached by Trump emissaries to be his running mate. (Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita called Kennedy a leftie loonie in response.)

That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry.

They can only blame themselves, a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.

Emails Reveal Top Trump Accountant Had Secret Campaign Role

Unlike the Democrats, who started hitting Kennedy with a variety of ads over two months ago, there are no plans for paid attacks against Kennedy from the GOP side any time soon, according to Republicans close to the Trump campaign and outside organizations who spoke to The Daily Beast.

Instead, Trumpworld is taking a much more ad hoc approach, with groups like the MAGA Inc. PAC now hitting Kennedy on a daily basis on its X account. The goal is to remind undecided voters and conservatives intrigued by Kennedys anti-vaccine views about the candidates other more traditionally Democratic and left-wing positions.

Ideally, two Republicans familiar with discussions in Trumpworld said, they wont have to deal with the prospect of Kennedy qualifying for any debates with Trump and Biden.

Were not letting up, a Trump operative told The Daily Beast, describing the Trump campaign and broader GOPs response to Kennedy as lagging behind Democrats.

Its more sort of snapping fingerslike, wake up, hes not a conservative and hes spent decades as a liberal in good standing, the operative said, also requesting anonymity to speak candidly on Kennedy.

Kennedys anti-vaccine appeal is the biggest concern around Trumpworld, both Republicans said. There has also been some quiet alarm over more recent battleground state polling showing Biden leading in some surveys where Kennedy and other third-party candidates were included.

A late-April NBC News poll found Kennedy cut into Trumps support more than Bidens, though the presidents 2-point national lead in a poll that also included Green Party candidate Jill Stein and left-wing independent Cornel West was within the 3.1-point margin of error.

Polling earlier in the cycle was showing it was just kind of hurting Biden, the Trump-aligned strategist said. Everybody thought thats what the polling showed. Now, there was that NBC poll, and theres been a couple other polls, and Im guessing the Trump world's frantic freakout about RFK over the last few weeks is due to the fact that their internals are showing that hes peeling away some Trump supporters in key states.

The Trump campaign did not return a request for comment, and the 2024 regime has kept a lid on any leaks about internal numbers.

RFK Jr. Campaign Officials Pro-Trump Tweets Surface: Report

However, the fact that they cant afford to spend against Kennedy is a sign of a broader problem, the strategist argued.

Youre getting outspent 4-to-1 as it is right now, the strategist said. You need all the money. You have to be able to target those persuadable voters and say, OK, how do we identify what are their top issues? What message do they need to hear over and over again between now and the election so we can move them from the undecided bucket or the soft-Trump bucket to the hardcore Trump bucket, where theyre actually voting for him?

For now, the Trump campaign hasnt settled on a main message to knock Kennedy down a peg in the swing states where he could pose a threat.

The biggest threat he poses, in my opinion, is to the DeSantis voter type who is still pissed off at Trump over the way he fileted DeSantis, the strategist said. Theyre probably voters who dont like COVID vaccines and dont like shutdowns. Therefore, they like RFK because they see hes better on the issue than Trump.

STORM IN THE SUNSHINE STATE

The six-week abortion ban signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took effect on Wednesday, and Democrats are ready to kick their voter outreach and pro-abortion rights messaging into high gear.

Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, running against Republican Sen. Rick Scott, is putting the ban at the center of her campaign. The former congresswoman is on a Florida Freedom Tour focused on reproductive rights, and she released a Spanish-language ad on abortion Monday morning.

On the day that Floridas abortion ban went into effect and women had less rights in Florida than we have had in over 50 years, Rick Scott pledged to support any anti-abortion bill that came before him, the candidate told The Daily Beast in a text message.

Scott, whose campaign did not return a request for comment, has said he would have signed the bill into law if he were governor, but hes also said his preference for an abortion ban is after 15 weeks of pregnancy. (The new Florida law allows for exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking, but only until 15 weeks.)

Mucarsel-Powell also hit her opponent by framing the new law as part of a creep toward authoritarianism, flipping the way Scott has tried to cast himself as a defender of freedom in appealing to voters who fled socialism in Cuba and Venezuela before arriving in Florida.

A first-generation immigrant from Ecuador, Mucarsel-Powell was the first South American-born member elected to Congress.

CAMPAIGN LIT

Noem doubt about it. Gov. Kristi Noems jaw-dropping recounting of the time she killed her own dog tanked any chances she had at being Trumps VP, Jake Lahut and Reese Gorman report.

2024chan campaign. A paid staffer for Montana GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy had social media accounts filled with racist and far-right fringe content, Riley Rogerson scoops.

Stormy lawyerin. Trump Organization accountant Allen Weisselberg may have had a different role than previously known in the hush money drama, Roger Sollenberger scoops.

Housebroken. Even the toughest GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill were aghast over the Noem dog-killing story, Riley reports.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

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This article was originally published in Rhode Island Current.

They can serve as pages in the General Assembly. They can drive a car. They can give blood. They can consent to medical care, or sex. They can work 48 hours in a week and pay taxes on these earnings. They can put that money in a savings account theyve opened.

These are some things 17-year-olds can do in Rhode Island, and a few apply to 16-year-olds as well. A recent pair of bills brought to the State House would give older teenagers one more privilege: the ability to vote in elections for their local school committees.

Students go to the meetings, they can talk at the meetings, they can give all the ideas that they want, said Henry Siravo, 17, a senior at Smithfield High School. But at the end of the day, how often do they get listened to? We get brushed off as kids.

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A pair of bills sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers  H8046 by Rep. Leonela Felix of Pawtucket and S2895 by Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence  would make it harder to brush off kids.

The identical bills do not mandate any statewide changes. They would create the statutory outline to allow 16- and 17 year-olds to vote in school committee elections, but the key phrase in the bills language is that municipalities may provide this privilege  it wouldnt be required. Additional stipulations are that the 16- or 17 year-old would have to be a resident of the municipality for at least 30 days, and register at least 30 days before the school election itself.

We always talk about people not being engaged in elections as adults, Felix said in a phone interview. What better way to get them engaged than starting early?

Siravo started early: He originally became involved with Young Democrats of Rhode Island, who have also pushed for the current legislation, after he rallied against the Smithfield School Committee in 2023, who were considering a disclosure policy that could potentially out transgender and LGBTQ students to their parents.

I organized over 100 students, but mostly parents, teachers and just community members to come out against that, because as powerful as the testimonies of the students were, they didnt vote. They didnt get to hold them accountable at the ballot box, Siravo said.

We really dont have financial power to donate to candidates, Siravo continued. The bare minimum that were asking for is a voice, so that we can say, If you slash our department funding, if you make school really hell to go to  were gonna vote you out. Right now, we dont have that voice. We dont have that say.

The legislation mirrors efforts in other states to see youths represented in electoral processes. Maryland state law leaves it up to municipalities to lower the voting age for local elections  and the city of Takoma Park enacted their youth voting legislation over a decade ago in 2013 when they approved 16-year-olds participation in local elections.

Earlier this year in Newark, New Jersey, municipal officials OKd 16-year-olds votes in school committee elections  although Chalkbeat reported in February that the law wouldnt be in effect until 2025 because of voter registration issues. KQED reported that Berkeley and Oakland passed measures allowing 16-year-olds to vote but that the law hasnt been satisfactorily enacted yet either.

Meanwhile, campaigns similar to Rhode Islands are underway in Michigan, Hawaii, Illinois and Massachusetts as well as a number of California cities, according to advocacy organization Vote16USA. A successful passage of youth voting laws in New York that will take effect by July 1, 2024, has led the New York City Bar to offer guidance on the rollout.

Data from the CIA World Factbook shows that 18 is the standard voting age for many countries, although suffrage begins earlier in some places than others. Nicaragua, Cuba and Austria provide universal suffrage starting at age 16. Estonia and Germany allow 16-year-olds to vote in some local and state elections. If youre 16 and employed, you can vote in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Argentina and Brazil up the ante by requiring citizens ages 18 to 70 to vote in elections or face fines and penalties  but 16- and 17 year-olds can voluntarily vote, too.

At the March 26 hearing of Felixs bill in the House Committee on State Government and Elections, two Republicans and one Democrat were unconvinced. Rep. Brian Newberry, a Smithfield Republican, worried about students having say over municipal bodies who make budgetary decisions.

Rep. Patricia Morgan argued against 16-year-olds mental readiness to vote. At the age of 16, they really are not adults, said Morgan, a West Warwick Republican. And they dont have that capacity. As much as whatever, you know, research you got, its just not true.

Rep. Arthur Corvese, a North Providence Democrat, was more specific in his criticism: I dont buy that the same individuals who would support allowing teenage and young adult murderers to either get out of jail or have a reduced sentence because of their inability to understand what they did  but you want 16-year-olds to vote in elections? Im sorry.

Felix told Corvese that cognitive processes involved in crime and voting are hardly the same. Comparing impulse decisions like crime is entirely different from the decision making they would use at the ballot box, she suggested.

The research has shown that youth, when it comes to non-impulsive behavior, theyre just as rational as adults, Felix said. Its astonishing to me to hear folks talk about that.

The Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore supports the legislation, offering a few reasons why youth voting is worth considering.

Ultimately, we believe that our youth should be directly engaged in their communities and in the democratic systems and structures that govern them so that they become lifelong citizens and active participants in our democracy, Amore wrote in a testimony submitted in support of Felixs bill.

Potential issues with the bill involved ballot preparation and implementation, but Amore noted his office would be happy to help tweak the law and make it more logistically viable.

Both Felixs bill and Macks have been held for further study since their respective hearings in House and Senate committees.

Larry Berman and Greg Pare, spokespeople for the House and Senate respectively, offered a statement via email.

These bills were heard in their respective Senate and House committees earlier this session, they wrote. The Senate President and Speaker will be reviewing the testimony and communicating with the chairpersons as part of the normal committee review process.

This is the second year Rhode Islands General Assembly has seen this legislation, said Mary-Murphy Walsh, the president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island. But the idea is still young.

I think next year might be easier considering all the other priorities that the legislature has, Felix said.

Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW ORLEANS  As the youth group sat in its warm-up circle, Kennedy Turner, half-jokingly, scoffed at his peers. Why didnt yall react to my prom photos in the group chat?

Quickly, Cionne Chase, 19, jumped in to explain that she did, in fact, react to the photos and most definitely did not deserve to be chastised like everyone else. While the conversation fizzled and shifted to other pressing matters like their weekend plans, at its core, it represented something that Turner and hundreds of Black children have come to expect from Grow Dat Youth Farm over the last 13 years: support and consistency.

By most accounts, it is the only youth farm primarily serving people of color in Louisiana, the nations second-Blackest state. In the years following a Hurricane Katrina-induced mass exodus of people and resources from New Orleans, it has served as a safe haven for Black youth.

Yet, a plan to run a road straight through the 7-acre farm is at the center of a $200 million proposal to revitalize New Orleans largest park, where Grow Dat is located.

In a city that has lost one-third of its Black population since 2000 due to the effects of gentrification, the potential displacement of Grow Dat underscores a growing national trend in Black communities.

While gentrification leads to an influx of resources in communities, studies show that it does not trickle down into opportunities for the school-age children originally calling these neighborhoods home. In the aftermath, it can also lead to children from low-income households being shortchanged in the workforce.

As national youth unemployment reaches its lowest levels in two decades, youth subminimum-wage laws have flourished, allowing employers to pay youth less than adults in the same jobs. In Louisiana, lawmakers have even attempted to repeal a law that required youth workers to receive mandatory lunch breaks.

Chase, who has already worked two other jobs before being employed by Grow Dat, says this is the first time shes been treated like a human by an employer: They actually show that they care about you, and they actually pull you to the side to make sure that youre OK, that youre not just overworking yourself.

Over the past 13 years, youth at Grow Dat Farm have grown approximately 450,000 pounds of produce for sale and donation across Louisiana. (Adam Mahoney/Capital B)

The potential displacement of the farm is an example of how local leaders can stunt the ambitions of Black youth when envisioning what they want their neighborhoods to look like and who their neighborhoods can truly serve, explained Jonshell Johnson-Whitten, a farmer and education coordinator at Grow Dat.

According to an analysis by the nonprofit education group Afterschool Alliance, the number of Black children participating in after-school and extracurricular programs has declined by nearly 40% nationwide since 2014. A lot of it has to do with a lack of programs like Grow Dat. Afterschool Alliance found that more than half of Black children who are not enrolled in an after-school program would be in one if one were available.

Our goal is to have young people leaving this space feeling powerful, feeling like leaders, feeling like they can see an issue and solve it, she said. We are trying to build alternatives so folks living in New Orleans can thrive, and its harmful for the young people to see that the leaders of today dont value them.

Fighting for their second home

When entering the green cocoon that is Grow Dat, the outside world sick with violence disappears, Chase said. Louisiana has the countrys worst gun death rate for children, and according to a 2021 study, it has the nations most at-risk youth for economic insecurity, poor educational outcomes, and food access.

Grow Dat has shown Chase that we can make this world, this planet, into something so much more.

If this space didnt exist, I wouldnt have learned to move through with this much hope, compassion, and empathy, said Chase, a self-described Katrina baby. She was born the same year the storm ripped through her hometown. After her experiences at Grow Dat, she hopes to become a professional chef and to own a sustainable creole and country food restaurant.

In the weeks since the redevelopment proposal reached the public, hundreds of supporters of the youth farm have mobilized and flooded planning meetings, causing the City Park Conservancy, the organization in charge of the parks redevelopment, to extend its planning process. Still, the conservancy has said it does not plan to re-offer the farm a new lease once its current one expires in 2027, despite its role in improving food access and youth employment for the citys Black youth.

According to reporting by local New Orleans outlet Verite News, Grow Dat owes $250,000 in back rent. Grow Dat says it has never received formal communication about overdue rent.

Turner, who will be attending Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge this upcoming fall, likens the situation to the disruption of life that Louisianans are far too familiar with: hurricane destruction. This is my second home, he said, and it saddens him to think that he could return from college and it wont be there anymore. Its like you evacuate from your house, and then you come back to see that it isnt there anymore.

Kennedy Turner found about Grow Dat after volunteering during Hurricane Ida recovery efforts in 2021. He sees similarities between the ways natural disasters have disrupted his hometown and the farms situation. (Adam Mahoney/Capital B)

Since its creation, more than 600 teens have participated and been employed by the farm, which has grown approximately 450,000 pounds of produce for sale and donation across the city.

In addition, the program has filled an educational gap in the city, where 20% of Black adults dont have a high school diploma compared to 3% of white adults. Regular programming revolves around the history of the land, which is the site of a former slaveholding plantation. (City Park remained segregated until 1958.)

Lessons also often focus on climate change and environmental justice. The programming offers young people the tools to work with the land and water instead of against it in the state most impacted by climate threats, explained Johnson-Whitten, a native of New Orleans infamously often flooded Lower Ninth Ward.

She does not lose sight of the irony of running a flood-prone road through a green space: If the climate crisis is here, and everyone says it is here, why are we working against it? Johnson-Whitten also pointed out that a major highway, Interstate 610, runs along the farm already.

In a statement, Cara Lambright, the CEO of City Park Conservancy, said that while the group is not committing to saving Grow Dat during the redevelopment process, they will spend more time working on ideas to prevent flooding by improving stormwater storage. The new paved road is part of a larger plan to establish easy vehicle, pedestrian, and biking access throughout the 1,300-acre park.

Jonshell Johnson-Whitten, who has worked at Grow Dat for five years, says the farm and the relationships she has built there have transformed the ways she treats other people and the planet. (Adam Mahoney/Capital B)

The situation speaks to the value of not only Black youth, but also larger conversations around gentrification, who gets access to nature, and the nations goals around constructing the next centurys infrastructure with climate threats in mind. The improvements made to the park are undergirded by attempts to make it more tourist-friendly. (Of the nations largest cities, New Orleans is the fifth-most gentrified, according to a study published in 2020.)

It is showing young people who is really cared about, and it looks like it is not them, said Johnson-Whitten.

Another shot

Kameron Benoit-Gordon, 20, is candid about how the coronavirus pandemic disrupted his life and how online schooling and a lack of community ultimately led him to drop out of high school. But a job fair in 2022 gave him another shot.

Since coming across Grow Dat at the fair, hes worked his way through two programs at the farm, hoping to go through a third this summer after he graduates from high school. He returned to school at the same time he started working for Grow Dat. He attributes Grow Dat experiences, like a trip to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, as helping to shape his future goals of entering the medical field to improve equitable health practices in the South.

Kameron Benoit-Gordon, 20, says Grow Dat Farm gave him a second chance after the COVID-19 pandemic led to him dropping out of high school. (Adam Mahoney/Capital B)

A child of New Orleans, only ever spending time somewhere else as an infant after Katrina pushed his family to Baton Rouge, Benoit-Gordon is also a child of Creole and Southern food. Which means, as he puts it, a lot of fried chicken and fries. But by being involved in cultivating produce, his eyes have been opened to new cuisines. He says the first time a soup that wasnt gumbo ever touched his lips was here at the farm, as was the first time he ever tasted leafy greens like chard and kale.

One out of three Black children in the U.S. dont have reliable access to fresh food.

Johnson-Whitten said these kinds of experiences are what make the land special, but they also explain why those in power may not see them as important as the youth.

People like me who have experienced food apartheid, and who, still today, experiences food insecurity, understand how much it means to see food on the land and see it be fresh and local and nutritious and accessible  and free, she said, but If you can access food whenever and however you want with an endless amount of money, then it doesnt really matter.

The post A New Road Threatens to Displace a Safe Haven for New Orleans Black Youth appeared first on Capital B News.
A Tesla is parked at an electric charging station outside of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, joined a bipartisan and bicameral group of colleagues to block President Joe Bidens electric vehicle mandates.

The response by Romney and some other lawmakers comes on the heels of new emission regulations finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would require up to two-thirds of new cars and nearly 40% of trucks sold in the U.S. to be electrical vehicles in eight years.

The Biden administration continues to roll out climate regulations that may be politically attractive, but wont put a dent in lowering global emissions, Romney said. These rules will not only make it burdensome for Utahns in rural parts of my state, but they will also increase the United States reliance on China for batteries. The administration would be wise to direct its focus on the development of new technologies which could be adopted globally.

Romney is not the only Utah politician critical of the rule. Earlier this year, Gov. Spencer Cox was joined by other GOP governors who wanted the rule delayed.

In April, the EPA announced the Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles, which seeks to reduce emissions from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles starting with model year 2027 through model year 2032. In this rule, the EPA proposed multipollutant emissions standards for light-duty passenger cars and light trucks and medium-duty vehicles.

The EPA estimated that due to the rule, EVs will make up two-thirds of new vehicles by 2032, which constitutes 67% of overall vehicle production.

Romney and his colleagues assert that in 2022, electric vehicles accounted for just 5.8% of new cars sold in the United States in a statement released Thursday.

But Climate Power asserts the critics talking points are about as clear as the exhaust that comes out of a combustion engines tailpipe and stink just as much.

The new pollution standards wont force a single existing car off the road, mandate the sale of a single EV, or prevent anyone from buying or selling new gas-powered cars. What they will do is save the average driver $6,000 in fuel and maintenance costs per vehicle while providing $13 billion in annual public health benefits as improved air quality spares Americans from thousands of preventable hospitalizations and deaths, the organization said in a news release issued Thursday.

A car is plugged into an electric charging station outside of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 2, 2024. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News

Critics are not convinced of EV benefits

President Bidens EV mandate is delusional, said Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb. This rule will make it harder for low income families to buy a car or rural families to get to their jobs. I promised Nebraskans Id use every tool I have to fight this.

Ricketts added that the bipartisan legislation will keep costs down, defend consumer choice and protect the United States against becoming more dependent on communist-controlled China.

And a GOP representative from Alaska is definitely not a fan.

These regulations are not only disastrous for our economy, but Alaskans know well that EV technology just doesnt work in rural states  especially those with extreme cold temperatures and communities separated by thousands of miles where reliable transportation is a matter of life and death, said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. Make no mistake, this thinly-disguised attempt to get rid of the internal-combustion engine without congressional authority will only hurt hard working families across the country, worsen the supply chain crisis, and deepen our reliance on Chinese Communist Party-controlled critical minerals.

Cullen Hendrix at the Peterson Institute for International Economics told National Public Radio that China not only dominates much of the raw supplies, its also the unquestioned world leader when it comes to processing the minerals.

He had these numbers for 2022.

China refined, you know, 95% of manganese, roughly 70% of cobalt and graphite, two-thirds of lithium, and over 60% of nickel. These are all the key materials for lithium-ion batteries that currently dominate the market, he told the media outlet.

Climate Power shot back that to qualify for federal tax incentives, Biden invoked prohibitions on Chinese-made components and requires EVs to be assembled in North America to take advantage of that credit.

And then there is weather

Scientific American reported earlier this year that electric vehicle batteries simply cannot hold up to extreme weather, especially freezing temperatures.

The article had this to say: A bitter cold snap in Chicago forced electric vehicle (EV) drivers to wait in line for hours at charging stations, in January. Some drivers found themselves stranded when their battery died during that wait.

The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most EVs have challenges in the cold, so scientists and carmakers around the world are busy scrambling for solutions.

Extreme cold introduces safety risks for charging batteries, said Paul Gasper, a staff scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratorys Electrochemical Energy Storage group, as quoted in the magazine.

The Idaho National Laboratory, a couple of hours north of Salt Lake and west of Idaho Falls, has also been doing research in this area, plunging EV batteries into the depths of cold  or heat  to make them more efficient.

The promise of research

The lab is part of a multipronged effort called the ChargeX Consortium, which ropes in research from other national laboratories and industry stakeholders to improve public charging reliability and usability by June 2025.

Tanvir Tanim, a senior staff scientist at INL, said electric vehicles are equipped with battery management systems that cool or heat themselves according to temperature. The technology is rapidly evolving, but it also hinges on consumers making informed choices when they purchase a vehicle. Electric vehicle batteries operate most efficiently at a temperature range between 68 and 86 degrees Farenheit, he added.

The Idaho laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy facility that includes a sophisticated electric vehicle battery laboratory, where employees carry out research. Researchers bake EV batteries, freeze them or subject them to other elements to determine how varying conditions affect the length of a charge. Extreme heat or extreme cold affects the life of the batterys charge, but proper planning can prevent being stranded, Tanim said.

The extreme temperatures create an aging effect on the batteries so they dont hold their charge as long. But Tanim pointed out that Nordic countries such as Sweden and Norway have adapted quite well to electric vehicles and have high adoption rates.

Research is ongoing to make more energy-dense batteries, he added, which boosts an electric vehicles range of miles it can travel before needing a charge.

So I can also foresee a future where you will have 400- to 500-mile range vehicles, he said. When you start from your garage, lets say you have 500 miles, right? In the grand scheme of things, lets just say in the process you lost maybe 25 miles, because the vehicle is not operating at that optimum temperate range. It is not going to matter.

Despite the challenges, in the move toward a carbon-free economy, Utah stands out as one of the leaders when it comes to electric vehicle purchases.

Statistics show Utah is among the top 10 states for electric vehicle purchases in the United States and outpaces the national average.

In 2023, Utahs market share of electric vehicle registrations sat just above 8%.
The truth is that the vast majority of those that have been elected to serve the people of Nevada, have opposed this project. Many of them are in Mr. Brown's own party, former Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid said Thursday. (Photo: Dana Gentry/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Former Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid says Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Sam Brown needs a history lesson. Im happy to provide it here and now.

Reid emerged from his absence from public life Thursday to campaign for Sen. Jacky Rosen and speak up for keeping nuclear waste out of Southern Nevada, a cause his father, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, embraced from the 1980s until his retirement in 2017. Reid died in 2021 at the age of 82.

Im here as a son, Rory Reid said. Im here to defend my fathers legacy. As you know my father dedicated much of his political career to fighting against Yucca Mountain.

Reid added that some people credit his father with stopping what seemed the inevitable selection of Yucca Mountain as the nations nuclear waste burial site.

I would agree with that, he said. And he was very proud of what he did. I heard him talk about how a small state like Nevada, when powerful people throughout the country were trying to solve their problems on our backs, we were able to come together as a community and stop it.

Reid said it was deeply, deeply troubling for me to hear that someone is trying to drag that legacy that my father proudly built through the mud for their own political game, referencing audio that surfaced this week of Brown.

Joining Reid against the backdrop of Interstate-15 and the Las Vegas Strip, Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) said all the nuclear waste would be transported right through here, should Yucca Mountain become the nations nuclear waste burial ground. Any trucks transporting nuclear waste will be going down this highway right past the heart of our community. The trains would go right behind where were gathered today along this rail line.

While campaigning for U.S. Senate in 2022, Brown, now the Republican frontrunner for the U.S. Senate nomination in 2024, told a campaign gathering that he supported bringing nuclear waste from the nations nuclear power plants to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The Los Angeles Times Tuesday published audio of previously unreported remarks Brown made during a 2022 campaign event in Henderson, where Brown said that not allowing nuclear waste in Nevada represented an incredible loss of revenue for our state.

Yucca Mountain was officially designated as the nations nuclear waste dumping ground during the administration of George W. Bush, in 2002. But the project was the subject of legal and regulatory proceedings for the next several years, until the administration of Barack Obama ordered the Department of Energy to discontinue its licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and eliminated federal funding for the project.

While president, Donald Trump attempted to restart funding for Yucca, but was thwarted by Congress. Trump reversed positions during the 2022 campaign cycle in an effort to help Adam Laxalt, the Republican who defeated Brown in the 2022 Senate primary but lost to Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in the general election. The Biden administration has never included funding for the Yucca Mountain project.

I am not strictly committed to opening Yucca Mountain at this time. However, I will consider all thoroughly vetted future proposals, with the safety of Nevadans being my top priority, while ensuring the proposals are substantially economically beneficial, Brown said in a statement Thursday to the Current.

Sams first priority will always be the safety and security of Nevadans, our water, and our environment. If a proposal isnt explicitly proven to be demonstrably safe, he will not support it, Kristy Wilkinson, Browns communications director, said in a statement. Senator Rosen is continuing the Harry Reid machines dirty political tactic of fear-mongering for votes  just in time for her struggling reelection bid. As a U.S. senator, Sam will consider and vet every safe opportunity that brings jobs and economic investment to our state so that we can help working Nevada families earn a good living again and undo the economic destruction that Joe Biden and Jacky Rosen have brought to Nevada.

Browns 2022 remarks come on the heels of a U.S. House Energy and Commerce hearing earlier this month in which chair Cathy McMorris Rogers and other Republicans called for restarting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain project.

Days later, during a Senate Energy Committee hearing, Cortez Masto got reassurances from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that there is no funding in President Joe Bidens budget for restarting the relicensing process, and no intention to ever include any.

Rosen issued a statement blasting Brown for his remarks obtained by the Times.

Ive been fighting against Washington politicians trying to force nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain since Sam Brown was still living in Texas, and his extreme support for this dangerous and unpopular project underscores how little he understands the needs of our state, she said.

Rosen was first elected to the U.S. House in 2016. Brown moved to Nevada in 2018.

In the recording obtained by the Times, asked his opinion about the Yucca Mountain project, Brown said one of the things Im afraid of is a lack of understanding and the fear mongering that Harry Reid and others have spread, and that we could miss an incredible opportunity for revenue for our state in the future.

Reid said his father was not perpetuating fear, but rather trying to do what was best for the people in Nevada. He noted that opposition to burying high-level nuclear waste in Nevada transcends party lines.

The truth is that the vast majority of those that have been elected to serve the people of Nevada, have opposed this project. Many of them are in Mr. Browns own party, Reid said, naming U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, former Gov. Brian Sandoval, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, and Laxalt. This issue isnt Republicans versus Democrats. Its Sam Brown versus Nevada.

Note: This reporter worked as Sen. Harry Reids Nevada press secretary in the late 1980s.

The post Rory Reid defends famous fathers Yucca Mountain legacy appeared first on Nevada Current.
The Russians attacked Kharkiv with guided bombs on 3 May. A tram carrying passengers has been damaged, and a residential area in the Kholodnohirskyi district has been struck. People may be trapped under the rubble of one of the houses. Reportedly, one woman has been killed.

Source: Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov; Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Syniehubov: "Strikes on the Kholodnohirskyi district in Kharkiv were observed. Early reports indicate the use of guided bombs. A private household caught on fire."

Details: He said one person is known to have been injured and experienced an acute stress reaction. A private household has also been damaged. An examination of the site continues.

Terekhov clarified that a tram carrying passengers has been damaged as well.

Later, he added that several houses were destroyed, and people are trapped under the rubble. "A search and rescue operation is ongoing," he said.

Terekhov reported that early reports say one elderly woman has been killed and a man has been injured.

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Russia has been forced to withdraw about 40 aircraft of various types from the area of the Kushchevskaya airfield after a recent Ukrainian strike  and to redeploy them to numerous airfields further from the original missile launch areas.

Source: UK Ministry of Defences review on 3 May

Details: UK Defence Intelligence said that the impact of this redeployment is unlikely to be immediately obvious or dramatic. However, Ukraine has already demonstrated the ability to strike much further into Russia than these dispersal areas.

The fact that Russia has taken these measures means that the duration of sorties will have to be extended to maintain the same level of consistency on the battlefield as it has had to date.

This, in turn, will require the use of more petrol, increase costs, and burden crews.

Background:

On 30 April, the UK Ministry of Defence admitted that Ukraine's attack on the Kushchevskaya airfield in Russia's Kuban would force Russia to disperse its fighter jets and redeploy air defence assets.

UK Defence Intelligence also estimated Russian losses in the full-scale war against Ukraine at 450,000 dead and wounded.

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The cyber attack on Olaf Scholz's SPD party took place last summer - AFP/Axel Heimken

A Russian intelligence-backed hacker group known as Fancy Bear exposed email addresses and other personal data in a cyber attack on Olaf Scholzs SPD party last summer.

Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, disclosed the attack on the SPDs personal data systems at a press conference while visiting Australia.

Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace, she said. Today we can say unambiguously... we can attribute this cyber attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia.

In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyber attack on Germany, she added. This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.

The attacks also targeted companies in the logistics, defence, aerospace and IT sectors, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, said: These attacks are not just aimed at individual parties or specific politicians, but at shaking confidence in our democracy.

A spokesman from Germanys foreign ministry said Germany and its partners would not tolerate the attacks and will use the entire spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russias aggressive behaviour in cyberspace.

Berlin has summoned a top envoy from the Russian embassy over the hack, which is feared to have exposed personal data of SPD party officials.

Linked to previous attacks

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident... as unsubstantiated and groundless.

It was not immediately clear what form the consequences for Russia would take.

APT28  also known as Fancy Bear  is a hacking organisation backed by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence organisation, which has been linked to previous cyber attacks on Nato, the US arms industry and Pussy Riot, the anti-Putin group.

Nato said the campaign had also targeted government bodies, critical infrastructure operators and other entities in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

A UK government spokesman said: The United Kingdom stands with the European Union, Germany, Czechia and other allies in strongly condemning malicious cyber activity by Russian intelligence services.

Recent activity by Russian GRU cyber group APT28, including the targeting of the German SPD executive, is the latest in a known pattern of behaviour by the Russian intelligence services to undermine democratic processes across the globe.

In December 2023, the UK exposed a series of attempts by the Russian intelligence services to target high-profile UK individuals and entities through cyber operations.

Germany is already grappling with a string of espionage attacks involving Russia, such as the arrest in April of two German-Russian citizens suspected of planning a bomb attack on US military sites in Bavaria.

In a separate case, an intelligence officer for BND, the German foreign intelligence service, is currently on trial for allegedly passing state secrets to Russia. He has insisted he was actually working as a double agent.

The AfD, a far-Right party whose members have expressed sympathy for Russia, is also under increased scrutiny after an assistant to one of its MEPs was arrested on charges of spying for China.

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Russian attacks against Ukraine killed five people and injured 17 over the past day, regional authorities said early on May 3.

Russia targeted a total of eight Ukrainian oblasts  Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Donetsk. Casualties were reported in the latter three regions.

Russian troops have attacked nearly 15 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast, killing one man and injuring 10 people, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

A 66-year-old man was killed as his house was hit in the village of Novoosynove in the Kupiansk district. In the village of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, which is located nearly eight kilometers from Novoosynove, a 66-year-old man was injured.

Eight children and a 75-year-old man were also injured due to the attack on the town of Derhachi.

In Donetsk Oblast, two people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, and two were injured in the strike against the village of Memryk in the Pokrovsk district, the governor Vadym Filashkin reported.

On the morning of May 3, Russia attacked the town of Kurakhove with high-explosive fragmentation munition, killing two people and injuring the other two, Roman Padun, the head of Kurakhove Military Administration, wrote on Facebook. The center of the city was targeted, he added.

One person was also confirmed injured in the village of Krasnohorivka, and another one was injured in the Velyka Novosilka village.

In Kherson Oblast, Russia has struck 14 settlements over the past day, including the regional center of Kherson. One person was injured in recent attacks, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

Russia has fired 349 times at Zaporizhzhia Oblast, targeting eight settlements, the local military administration said. No casualties were reported.

Russian forces also attacked nine border areas and settlements of Sumy Oblast, firing 40 times and causing at least 215 explosions. No casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure were reported, according to the local military administration.

Read also: Battle of Chasiv Yar begins: On the ground with Ukrainian forces defending city key to Russias plans

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Russian attacks against the towns of Kurakhove and Chasiv Yar and the village of Netailove in Donetsk Oblast on May 3 killed three people and injured five, the regional prosecutor's office said.

In the morning, Russia attacked Kurakhove, a town over 30 kilometers west of occupied Donetsk, with a Uragan rocket launcher. Two people were killed, and a 33-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man were injured, the prosecutors said.

In the embattled town of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone killed a 55-year-old resident on the street and injured two people aged 46 and 53, according to the statement.

An artillery strike against Netailove, which lies around 20 kilometers northwest of Donetsk, reportedly injured a 71-year-old man.

Partially occupied Donetsk Oblast suffers intense Russian attacks on a daily basis, often more than 2,000 strikes per day.

Read also: Governor: Russias war destroys over 100,000 residential buildings in Donetsk Oblast

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Boss Orders Employee 'Be Prepared To Cancel Or Reschedule Your Wedding' After Layoffs, Despite Her Giving A Year's Notice

A conversation unfolded on Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) when a user shared their employer's request to cancel or reschedule a wedding to align with company operational demands. The user explains notice was given to the employer a year prior.

The post was titled, "Be Prepared to Cancel or Reschedule Your Wedding to Meet Operational Needs." The Reddit user said, "So yesterday I got told that when my wedding is already fully booked...but because they're getting rid of a bunch of people, got told to cancel my wedding so that I can show up to work instead."

The post rapidly attracted attention and sympathy from the online community, with many expressing disbelief and outrage at the employer's expectations. A prevalent comment highlighted the absurdity: "What human being actually expects someone will reschedule their wedding?" Another user labeled such expectations as behavior typical of "sociopaths."

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The thread also offered a glimpse into the advice and solidarity from fellow Redditors. Suggestions ranged from the practical to the assertive. One user said, "Invite everyone at your job to the wedding so they take time off too," while another advised consulting an attorney to draft a letter threatening to charge the employer with all cancellation fees. The sentiment was clear: "They pull this kind of BS because they expect people to fold. Yea nope."

This user's determination resonated, summarizing a growing sentiment in workplace boundaries: "They can decide which option is more cost-effective for them.... Paying cancellation fees vs. giving me my time off to get married. Welcome to the age of zero effs to give."

In the United States, there is no federal law that mandates employers to provide paid time off for personal events like weddings. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) offers job-protected, unpaid leave for qualifying reasons, but it doesn't cover events such as weddings.

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Several states have enacted their own laws providing various forms of paid leave, which employees might be able to use for personal events, depending on the specifics of the law and the nature of the event. For example, Illinois recently passed the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, effective Jan.1, 2024, which allows employees to accrue up to 40 hours of leave that can be used for any reason, giving some flexibility for personal events like weddings.

Story continues

Each state's laws differ in eligibility, accrual rates and permissible uses of paid leave, creating a complex landscape for employers and employees to navigate. For instance, New York and California have specific regulations offering paid sick leave, which accrues over time and may be used as the employee sees fit, within certain guidelines.

The incident has sparked a conversation about financial independence and having more control over your time. Building a strong financial safety net, perhaps through investing in real estate or side hustles, can give employees more leverage to negotiate work demands and prioritize personal milestones like weddings. This could empower them to say no to unreasonable requests without jeopardizing their financial security.

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This article Boss Orders Employee 'Be Prepared To Cancel Or Reschedule Your Wedding' After Layoffs, Despite Her Giving A Year's Notice originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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Russian militants hold lectures on war for Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories. Photo: Alebloshka/Depositphotos

Collaborators are engaging "Russian military volunteers" in raising Ukrainian children to be "patriots of Russia" in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Source: Ukraine's National Resistance Center (NRC)

Details: A lecture on the topic of war has recently been held for students at Novosofiivka school in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast. Such events have become systematic in educational institutions in the occupied territories, the NRC says.

In addition, the main subjects in schools are the Russian language and history.

"Children are forced to study the feats of their grandfathers who fought [in World War II] and the great Russian "language" for whole days," the NRC noted.

Meanwhile, maths, physics and chemistry lessons in high school are sometimes not taught at all due to staff shortages as most teachers are reluctant to cooperate with the occupation authorities.

The NRC stressed that Ukrainian legislation provides for punishment for cooperation with Russia's Armed Forces. The centre urges people to report Russian soldiers and collaborators to an anonymous chatbot.

Background:

Earlier, we reported that the Russians are retraining Ukrainian language teachers in the occupied city of Luhansk to teach Russian.

The Russians also introduced dictionaries to schools in the temporarily occupied Luhansk Oblast, which contain "basic terms related to the state policy of protecting traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, culture and historical memory".

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A handout photo of the book about film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, published in Russia

A handout photo of the book about film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, published in Russia

By Lucy Papachristou

LONDON (Reuters) - Roberto Carnero, an Italian literature professor at the University of Bologna, was shocked when he received a call from his Italian publisher in March about the Russian translation of his new book.

The Russian publisher, AST, would agree to publish his critical essay on the openly gay Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini only with severe cuts.

When the book hit the shelves in Russia, Carnero saw how extensive they were. Photographs circulating on Russian Telegram channels showed significant sections were redacted with thick black lines, totalling some 70 out of 400 pages, he said.

"I am very concerned about this," he said in a phone interview from Milan. "This is something that happens in dictatorships."

The striking images of Carnero's book have thrown a spotlight on issues of government censorship in Russia at a time when the Kremlin says it is fighting an existential war with the West to defend its "traditional values".

In the course of President Vladimir Putin's rule, Russia has engaged in a widespread crackdown on LGBT rights, portraying them as a Western invention that threatens traditional Russian values based on family, nation and Orthodox Christian faith.

Russia has designated what it calls the "LGBT movement" as extremist and those supporting it as terrorists, paving the way for serious criminal cases against LGBT people and their advocates.

Private Russian companies such as music channels and online film distributors are routinely fined for hosting LGBT content.

In Carnero's case, the Russian publisher was up front about the censorship.

"Please note that the text of the book has been shortened due to Federal Law 478", AST wrote in the book's online listing, referring to anti-gay propaganda legislation.

The obscured passages in "Pasolini: Dying for One's Own Ideas" - about a fifth of the total text - deal with the director's "sentimental and sexual life", but are not explicitly sexual, Carnero said.

"I don't know if I made the right decision", he said of his decision to agree to the cuts. "But I had to choose between two things I didn't like."

PERFORMANCE ART?

In a statement last week, AST said blackening the text was "a more honest choice" than excising the sections entirely.

"Thus, Roberto Carnero's work has become interactive: the reader decides for himself whether to use any sources of information to find out what is hidden from him," AST wrote on its Telegram channel.

"The book becomes an artefact of an era, an attribute of a performance, an artistic statement," it added.

When contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for AST declined to comment further on its motivations for publishing a book with such severe redactions.

The spokeswoman said the book had sold out its initial print run of 1,500 copies and a second run had been ordered.

One of Russia's largest publishing houses, AST has also released books by authors who have condemned the war in Ukraine or who have been branded "foreign agents" by Russia.

Last week, Russian independent media reported that AST had pulled six books from its website, including American author James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" and "Legacy" by Russia's Vladimir Sorokin, to comply with anti-gay propaganda laws.

Dan Healey, a professor emeritus of modern Russian history at St Antony's College, Oxford, said Russia's anti-gay legislation and wartime censorship laws imposed following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have made public protest all but impossible in the country.

"It's obvious that anyone who engages in (pro-LGBTQ) activism in Russia now is laying themselves open to a custodial sentence, and not one of a few months, but years," Healey said.

Paradoxically, publishing a censored text may be one of the few ways to safely express dissent, he added.

The censorship ordeal had more than a whiff of irony, Carnero said, given his subject's outspoken activism.

Pasolini, an avowed Marxist who denounced corruption in Italian politics, was murdered in Rome in 1975 in murky circumstances.

"He was a very courageous person, someone who spoke out clearly," Carnero said of Pasolini.

"It's a paradox. Now, someone who was ready to die for his own ideas is the object of censorship in Russia."

(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Gareth Jones)
Russian media reports that Eduard Ulman, captain of the special forces of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Russia (GRU), accused of shooting civilians in Chechnya, has been killed in Ukraine. He has been hiding from justice for 17 years.

Source: Russian media outlets Vazhnie Istorii; Meduza, a Latvian-based Russian media outlet

Details: Reportedly, in January 2002, in Shatoysky District in Chechnya, a group of special forces soldiers executed six civilians, including a pregnant woman, and burned their bodies. Eduard Ulman was the commander of the group.

Meduza reports that a reconnaissance group of the 641st Unit of the GRU special forces, led by Ulman, shot at the UAZ vehicle, the driver of which refused to obey their command and stop.

Quote: "As a result, one of the Chechen men inside the car, the principal of one of the local schools, was killed and two more men were injured. It turned out these were civilians, not militants. The goal of the operation of Russian troops was to detain a militant Hattab who was hiding in one of the villages with a unit of 15 persons."

The Russian troops were acquitted twice by the jury since they were allegedly acting in combat conditions and following an order. The Supreme Court cancelled the acquittal twice on the request of the families of the killed civilians.

In June 2007, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov Oblast sentenced Ulman to 14 years in a strict regime penal colony for killing civilians.

However, Ulman did not hear his sentence since he had disappeared along with other defendants in April of the same year.

As a result, only Alexei Perelevsky, who ordered the shooting at civilians, received a real prison sentence.

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Russia has sent troops into an air base in Niger that is hosting American soldiers, reports say, after the countrys ruling junta ordered all U.S. forces to leave the West African nation.

The situation at Air Base 101 in Niamey, the capital city, comes as relations between Washington, D.C. and Moscow are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Its not clear how many American troops are on the base, but an unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press that only a small number of U.S. forces remained.

Polygamous U.S. Navy Vet With Top-Secret Clearance Caught Running Guns to Niger

The official also said the Russian troops had arrived last month after Niger told the U.S. to withdraw its almost 1,000 troops from the country. Before the junta seized power in a coup in July 2023, Niger had been an important partner in U.S. counterterror operations in the Sahel region of Africa where groups affiliated with ISIS and al Qaeda operate.

A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters that the Russian forces are not mingling with the American troops at the base, but were instead using a separate hangar. The official described the situation as being not great but manageable in the short-term. Sources similarly told CNN that the Russians and Americans are not operating in the same part of the base, but one said it is not that big of an area.

Speaking at a press conference in Hawaii, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin downplayed any potential risk to U.S. soldiers.

The Russians are in a separate compound and dont have access to U.S. forces or access to our equipment, Austin said. Im always focused on the safety and protection of our troops... But right now, I dont see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection.

The Pentagon has said that its troops will leave Niger, but as yet there is no timeline about when the withdrawal will be complete.

Niger has turned toward Russia since the incumbent military regime took overa power-grab that was officially recognized as a coup by the Biden administration in October. The designation triggered U.S. legislation restricting the amount of military training and assistance it can provide to the country.

State television last month reported that Russian military instructors and troops had arrived in Niger with equipment including an air defense system as part of efforts to strengthen security ties with the Kremlin.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Russian military personnel have been staying at an air base in Niger that also hosts U.S. troops and equipment, a U.S. official confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.

Roughly 1,000 American service members are expected to withdraw from Niger following deteriorating relations with the African nation after a military coup there last year. The military junta that now controls Nigers government has demanded U.S. forces leave and turned to Russia for weapons and security.

The Russian troops for a couple of weeks have been at Airbase 101, next to Diori Hamani International Airport in the capital city of Niamey, the official told The Hill.

We have been monitoring the situation, the official said, adding that the Russian forces do not have access to U.S. service members, spaces, or equipment, and that they are using a separate hangar at Airbase 101, which is owned by the Nigeriens.

They also noted that the U.S. had consolidated most of its forces from Airbase 101 to Airbase 201 in Agadez soon after the coup. They did not say how many American troops remain at 101 or what equipment is still there.

Russias military presence puts U.S. and Kremlin troops in close quarters at a time of major acrimony between the two countries over Moscows war in Ukraine.

Reuters first reported on the presence of Russian troops at the base.

Washington last month announced that American forces would withdraw from Niger after the military junta revoked a military cooperation agreement with the United States in March. That accord had given U.S. troops a major foothold to fight extremist groups in the region, including an Islamic State offshoot, Boko Haram and others.

A forced withdrawal from Niger is a major setback for U.S. military as it looks to quell militant groups across the Sahel, a volatile region in northern Africa that stretches from Senegal and Mauritania in the west to Sudan and Eritrea on the Red Sea.

About 100 U.S. troops have also left Chad in recent days, according to Reuters.

Niger, following the path as its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, has sought inroads with Russia, including its private military company Wagner Group. The organization has ties to Moscow and has a history of exploiting the resources of African nations.

A delegation last week was sent to Niger to arrange an orderly withdrawal and included U.S. Ambassador to Niger Kathleen FitzGibbon and Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman, the director of strategy, engagement and programs at U.S. Africa Command.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk, Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has stated in an interview with The Times that, according to Ukrainian special services, Russia has a plan to conquer the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy.

Source: Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, with reference to The Times

Quote: "Our special services say that the Russians really do have a plan to capture Kharkiv or Sumy, but we do not know how serious these plans are and whether they are able to implement them with the forces that they have at their disposal."

Details: Pavliuk also said the Russian forces intend to seize not only Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, but also Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

He reiterated that the Ukrainian Defence Forces will do everything possible to prevent the Russians from carrying out their intentions. The general stated that Ukraine requires weaponry, particularly artillery, as Russian troops have a ten-to-one superiority in artillery.

"We will do everything possible to prevent a Russian breakthrough, and we hope that American weapons will help us. Had they come on time, we would not have lost the territories that we lost over the past few months," he said.

Previously: Before that, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in an interview with the Economist suggested that Russia was preparing for an offensive in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts in Ukraine's north-east. Skibitskyi said that the timing of this operation depends on the strength of Ukraine's defences in Donbas. But he suggests that the main Russian offensive will begin "in late May or early June".

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Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has employed about 2,000 rounds of ammunition laced with hazardous chemicals; in April of this year, 444 of such cases were reported.

Source: Command of the Armed Forces Support Forces of Ukraine; General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Quote: "Over the past month, mobile groups of forces and means of support and other units of the Defence Forces recorded 444 cases of enemy use of ammunition containing dangerous chemicals, which is 71 cases more than in the month before."

Details: Overall, from February 2023 to April 2024, the Ukrainian Defence Forces recorded 1,891 occurrences of the Russian use of munitions containing harmful substances.

The primary mode of delivery is unmanned aerial vehicles, mostly with K-51 discharges.

The Russians continue to employ ammunition carrying harmful chemicals in violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Accumulation, and Use of Chemical Weapons and Their Destruction, as well as laws and customs of war, the General Staff said.

Background: The US State Department, in justifying the latest US sanctions against Russia, indicated that Russian troops have used the banned chemical substance chloropicrin against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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Russia's pulling its aircraft away from the front lines as Ukraine hits air bases with deep strikes, Western intel says

Russia's pulling its aircraft away from the front lines as Ukraine hits air bases with deep strikes, Western intel says

Ukrainian forces used drones to attack an airfield deep inside Russia last month.

Since then, Russia has removed its aircraft from the area and dispersed them elsewhere.

Western intelligence says this will lead to more strain on Moscow's aircrews.

Russia has pulled dozens of aircraft away from the front lines in response to a massive Ukrainian drone attack on a military base deep behind enemy lines, according to new Western intelligence.

Ukrainian forces on April 27 fired dozens of attack drones at the Kushchyovskaya airfield, and at two oil refineries in southwest Russia, likely attempting to disrupt Moscow's highly destructive glide-bomb operations. The strikes marked Kyiv's latest long-range attacks targeting Moscow's military and energy facilities.

Britain's defense ministry said the attack on Kushchyovskaya has "likely contributed to approximately 40 aircraft of different types being removed from the area and dispersed to multiple airfields further from the front line" over the past week.

"The impact of this is unlikely to be immediately obvious or dramatic. However, Ukraine has already demonstrated the ability to strike much further into Russia than these dispersal locations," the UK wrote in a Friday intelligence update. It did not specify where these new locations were, though.

Sukhoi Su-34 bombers drop bombs during the Aviadarts competition, as part of the International Army Games 2018, at the Dubrovichi range outside Ryazan, Russia. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

"Forcing such dispersal measures means that length of sorties will have to increase to maintain the same permanency over the battle space," the intelligence update continued. "This will in turn require more fuel, increasing cost, while also placing more strain on the aircrews."

Such results would be a win for Ukraine as it looks to alleviate the strain on its front line forces and its air-defense network, which has been under growing stress in recent months as it lacked critical interceptor munitions.

The late-April attack was not the first time Ukrainian deep strikes have forced Russia to relocate its vulnerable assets. Kyiv's fleet of exploding naval drones has wreaked havoc on Moscow's Black Sea Fleet, compelling it to disperse warships from its headquarters in the occupied Crimean peninsula to a port city along Russia's southwestern coast.

The Kushchyovskaya airfield is home to Russia's Su-34 and Su-35 fighter jets. It was not immediately clear if any aircraft were struck in the attack last weekend, but Britain's defense ministry, citing open-source video footage, said that a number of glide-bomb kits had been destroyed in a storage facility.

Russian Su-35s, Su-34s, and Su-30s fly in formation over central Moscow during the Victory Day military parade on May 9, 2021. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images

Glide bombs have flight control surfaces that allow them to soar toward a target rather than free fall and are a kind of standoff weapon, meaning Russian aircraft can release them at a distance beyond the range of Ukraine's air-defense systems.

These munitions are difficult to intercept because they have short flight times, small radar signatures, and non-ballistic trajectories. Destroying Moscow's warplanes before they can release the weapon or hitting them on the ground are really the only ways to defeat the threat.

Glide bombs have long been a headache for Ukraine, but Russia has increasingly relied on them this year to strike Kyiv's ground forces on the front lines and in positions in the rear to devastating effect. Experts have warned that these munitions could play a significant role in supporting Moscow's ground operations in the coming months.

Even before the Kushchyovskaya strike, Ukraine has tried going after Russia's airbases in an apparent bid to stomp out the glide-bomb threat. In April, for instance, Kyiv launched a large number of drones at the Morozovsk airbase, although the extent of the damage was ultimately unclear.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day Gaza solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to some of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Rutgers University students peacefully dismantled their pro-Palestine encampment on the New Brunswick campus Thursday evening after university administrators agreed to some of their demands.

Dozens of tents first erected Monday came down shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday  the deadline Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway set earlier in the day for students to end their encampment on Voorhees Malls lawn near Scott Hall or face possible arrest.

Rutgers New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway said the resolution was achieved through constructive dialogue between protesting students and administrators. The agreement opens the door for ongoing dialogue and better addresses the needs of the 7,000 Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students who attend Rutgers.

Protestors made a list of 10 demands for the university, listing their two top priorities as getting Rutgers to divest its financial holdings from companies with ties to Israel or benefitting from the war, and to sever its partnership with Tel Aviv University.

Organizers said administrators granted all their demands except those two, which Conway said fall outside of our administrative scope. The divestment request is under review, she added.

The university also did not explicitly call for a ceasefire, as students demanded.

Conway agreed in a three-page response to the protestors that the university would grant some of their demands, including welcoming 10 displaced Palestinian students to finish their education at Rutgers, developing a plan by the fall to create an Arab Cultural Center with a designated physical space and staff, and reviewing Rutgers relationship with Birzeit University, a public university in the West Bank.

University officials also will convene a working group to identify gaps in faculty and conduct a study on the creation of a Department of Middle East Studies.

Our commitment to our students is paramount. I am grateful for our facultys role in guiding and supporting the students toward this peaceful resolution. At Rutgers-New Brunswick, we are dedicated to fostering a community prioritizing safe and peaceful resolution through open dialogue, she said in a message to the university.

A mixed reaction

Cheers erupted on the tent-strewn campus lawn after students learned many of their demands had been granted, and some quickly began tearing down tents and tables and gathering protest signs. A few dozen students, though, angrily continued to chant slogans like There is only one solution! Intifada revolution! and refused to leave for an hour.

Campus police sent an alert just before 6 p.m. ordering everyone to clear the Voorhees Mall area due to police activity. By 7 p.m., the encampment was fully cleared.

Students declined to talk with the New Jersey Monitor, citing concerns about university discipline and attacks or doxxing by Israel supporters.

Dozens of faculty joined the encampment and helped form a human chain between the pro-Palestinian students and a smaller group of Israel supporters who waved Israeli and American flags. Police stood guard all around the green.

Todd Wolfson is a media studies professor president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents 5,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers, counselors, and librarians.

He said the universitys unions support the students calls for the ceasefire although not necessarily all their demands. Still, he said, faculty were prepared to put our bodies on the line and get arrested to protect students right to protest.

We think our students must have the right to speak, and across this country, we have seen awful repression of students, Wolfson said. We will stand with the students to force the administration to stand by the commitments they made to the students.

He pushed back on reports that there was antisemitic behavior and outside agitators at the encampment. Holloway earlier Thursday said some protestors are individuals not from our community.

Antisemitisms been weaponized  weaponized!  to stop people from fighting to stop an unjust war, said Wolfson, adding that hes Jewish.

Ronald Chavez Hassan, a teacher, lecturer and mental health specialist at Rutgers University Behavioral Health, has dropped by the encampment throughout its four days.

I like the fact that you have such a diverse group of people, regardless of religion or race, ethnicity, coming together to stand up for whats right, for freedom and human rights and the protection of the innocents. Doing this is a microcosm of we should be doing all around the world, whether Ukraine, or Rohingya, or the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province. We have to take a stand, Hassan said. Rutgers is the flagship university of New Jersey, and we should be representing and trying to encourage people to look at the truth.

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day Gaza solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day Gaza solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day Gaza solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Rutgers University professors Todd Wolfson, president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, and Howie Swerdloff, secretary of the adjunct union of Rutgers-AAUP, celebrate the end of students' Gaza solidarity encampment. The students agreed to end their action after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

A Rutgers University police officer stands guard over the Gaza solidarity encampment students erected on the New Brunswick campus. Students dismantled the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Hundreds of Rutgers University students held a four-day Gaza solidarity encampment on the New Brunswick campus, dismantling the camp Thursday, May 2, 2024, after they said university administrators conceded to eight of their 10 demands. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

In his message to the university earlier Thursday, Holloway said the encampments early morning protests forced Rutgers to make the unprecedented decision to postpone morning exams on the College Avenue Campus.

We value free speech and the right to protest, but it should not come at the cost of our students education and safety. We strive to balance these rights and maintain a safe and secure environment for our students to learn and succeed, he said in the email.

The postponements affected 28 final exams scheduled for Thursday morning, impacting 1,000 students, Rutgers officials said.

The governors office declined to comment.

The New Brunswick encampment was at least the third in New Jersey, after students at Princeton University established a camp there last week. An encampment at Rutgers Newark campus remains ongoing.

Students across the country have set up such solidarity encampments and taken over campus buildings to push universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Some have turned tense, with more than 2,000 protestors arrested around the country.

The post Rutgers students  reluctantly  end Gaza solidarity encampment appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.
Ryan Nichols, Capitol rioter who confessed on video in the third person, gets five years

WASHINGTON  A Donald Trump fanatic who assaulted officers with pepper spray and called for additional violence after the Capitol attack as he confessed in the third person was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and fined $200,000 on Thursday.

Ryan Nichols pleaded guilty in November to one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and one felony count of assaulting officers performing their duties. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has spoken out about the GOP's "preposterous" false claims about the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, sentenced Nichols to 63 months Thursday, saying that while Nichols' apology at his sentencing hearing "appears to be sincere," Nichols made "very rigorous comments" on tape about his desire for future violence.

The $200,000 fine is among the highest set yet in a Jan. 6 case. It was imposed because Nichols did not cooperate with a financial evaluation, and so there is no evidence that he could not pay, Lamberth said. A crowdfunding account launched on behalf of Nichols and his family has raised more than $235,000 since 2021. Nichols' attorney indicated he planned to appeal the fine.

In a video recorded before he took part in the Capitol attack, Nichols said the mob would lynch elected officials who voted to certify Joe Bidens presidential victory.

This is the second f---ing revolution! Nichols said as he marched over to the Capitol. Ryan Nichols said it, if you voted for f---ing treason were going to drag your f---ing a-- through the streets.

After he was seen on video spraying a giant canister of a chemical weapon at officers inside the lower west terrace tunnel, Nichols took to Facebook to brag about his conduct and call for additional violence.

"So if you want to know where Ryan Nichols stands, Ryan Nichols stands for violence," Nichols said in a video cited by prosecutors.

Ryan Nichols. (U.S. District Court)

Alluding to Nichols' work in hurricane recovery, which once got him featured on daytime television, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Brasher said Nichols was "a one-man hurricane" on Jan. 6, going on tirades and unleashing violence at the Capitol. While the storm walls of democracy may have ultimately stood that day, Brasher argued, Jan. 6 is a festering wound, and the next presidential election is coming up. Brasher, arguing for a sentence of 83 months, that the court needed to send a strong message that political violence is unacceptable. He noted that Nichols said repeatedly that he was ready to die for his cause.

"I will f---ing die for this," Nichols said on video after the attack. "But before I do that, I plan on making other people die first, for their country, if it gets down to that."

Joseph McBride, a Trump supporter who served as Nichols' lawyer, called Nichols "a good man who did a bad thing." McBride called what came out of Nichols' mouth on Jan. 6 "madness" and compared Nichols to a "tropical storm" rather than a hurricane.

McBride, a former Tucker Carlson guest who has repeatedly fed into conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 riot, also claimed that he now believes that some of the rhetoric about "hostages" and "political prisoners" on the right has gone too far, although he said the rhetoric the government had used about Jan. 6 defendants was also inappropriate.

"All of it's wrong. None of it should be happening," McBride said, saying he has recently "toned it down."

Neither Nichols nor McBride  who said he wants "Trump to win in 2024 & to live another 100 years"  spoke about what role they believed Trump played in Nichols' radicalization. But Nichols is one of many Jan. 6 defendants who later indicated that they felt duped by Trumps lies. Nichols, in his 2021 FBI interview, "stated he no longer trusted the president or other prominent legal leaders because he felt they had led him in the wrong direction," mentioning statements made by President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, General Michael Flynn, and Lin Wood that helped him form his opinion.

Nichols, a military veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, told Judge Lamberth on Thursday that he apologized for inflicting pain and trauma on the law enforcement officers at the Capitol. A tearful Nichols said that he wanted to help other people who were incarcerated and that he had learned from his mistakes, calling his words disgusting and saying he was deeply ashamed of his rhetoric.

"I went absolutely crazy," Nichols said, adding that he felt his "debt to society has been paid in full."

"I do not stand for violence," said Nichols, who repeatedly said the opposite three years ago.

More than 1,387 defendants have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack, with prosecutors approaching 1,000 convictions. Hundreds of low-level rioters have received sentences of probation, but over 520 defendants have gotten prison sentences from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison. Only about 15 defendants remain in pretrial custody, while the rest of the incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants have been convicted of crimes.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The Sacramento County district attorneys office Friday made its case to a judge that its homeless lawsuit against the city should not be scaled down.

A ruling is expected early next week.

The lawsuit, filed in September in Sacramento Superior Court by District Attorney Thien Ho, had alleged the city was creating a public nuisance by allowing homeless camps to exist on public property. The city argued that due to separation of powers between the government and the DA, that piece should be removed.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jill Talley in a temporary ruling Thursday sided with the city on that. During a hearing Friday, she elaborated on her thought process, referencing the separation of powers clause in the U.S. Constitution. That clause says legislative branches, such as cities, are separate from judicial branches, such as DAs offices.

Lets say the court orders (the city to) clear the camps if the court orders that, the court is violating separation of powers, is it not? Talley said during a court hearing Friday morning ahead of issuing her ruling.

Talley temporarily ruled that the piece of the lawsuit that claims the city is violating the state Fish and Game Code by allowing the homeless to pollute creeks can remain in the suit, meaning the case will proceed on that ground only.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jill Talley speaks Friday during a hearing on the Sacramento District Attorneys lawsuit against the city of Sacramento regarding homeless camps.

Ho did not include the allegations about the Fish and Game Code violations in his original lawsuit in September, but added it in an amended complaint in December. The creeks that are on city property, such as Morrison Creek, flow to the Sacramento and American rivers, the lawsuit points out.

The county, which is in charge of large sections of the American River Parkway, where thousands of unhoused people camp on the riverbanks, is not named as a defendant in the complaint.

The city lawyers did not dispute Talleys temporary ruling.

What the DA is asking the city to do is to enforce some unknown laws, said Katherine Underwood, senior deputy city attorney,to Talley during the hearing. They havent cited a single ordinance or law and want you to tell us how to do it. Thats  a duty you do not have.

The DAs office during a hearing Friday argued that Talley should amend the ruling to allow the public nuisance pieces to move forward as the case is still in its early stages.

Yes wed have to fashion something in terms of injunction but thats at a later stage. Were at a pleading stage, said Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Rochelle Beardsley during the hearing. How could I possibly say what an injunction should entail without the benefit of discovery?

City officials have disputed the claims, saying under its interpretation of the 2018 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Martin v. Boise ruling, the city cant legally move people off public property unless theres a shelter bed to offer them. The citys roughly 1,300 shelter beds are all typically full, with a wait list topping 2,400. The city has cleared people off certain public properties when they have fully blocked sidewalks or fire station entrances, or are near schools  places where its ordinances prohibit camping.

City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood has accused Ho of suing the city because he plans to run for attorney general, possibly against Steinberg  an allegation Ho has denied.

Meanwhile the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of June over whether fining or arresting unhoused people who lack other shelter and camp in public areas violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishments.
Sacramento has one of the least affordable housing markets in US, report says. Heres why

Sacramento is one of the least affordable cities in the nation for families looking to buy homes, according to a recent report by Creditnews Research.

The financing news company ranked 50 cities in the United States by the percentage of neighborhoods where home prices are out of reach for the typical married-couple household.

Los Angeles was No. 1 on the list of the top 20 cities with the least affordable housing markets for families, followed by St. Louis in second place and Boston in third place.

In each of those cities, 100% of neighborhoods are out of reach for married-couple households earning a median annual income, CreditNews Research found.

A total of six California cities, including Sacramento, landed on the list of places where homes in some neighborhoods are too expensive for married-couple households.

The most affordable U.S. cities for home buyers are all outside of California, the report said.

They include Cleveland, Hartford, Connecticut, and Memphis, Tennessee.

Where does Sacramento rank on list of unaffordable US cities?

Sacramento was No. 16 on the list of U.S. cities with the highest percentage of neighborhoods where homes are too pricey for families making a median married-couple income.

The median married-couple household income in Sacramento is $123,012, according to CreditNews Research.

The capital city has a total of 107 neighborhoods.

Of those, nearly 43% are out of reach for families earning a median married household income.

According to Creditnews Research, the percentage of Sacramento neighborhoods considered unaffordable for average families grew by 43% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What other California cities made the list?

Heres where metropolitan areas in California ranked in terms of the percentage of neighborhoods where housing is out of reach for typical households, according to Creditnews Research.

No. 1: Los Angeles, 100% of neighborhoods considered unaffordable

No. 4: San Jose, 100% of neighborhoods





No. 5: San Diego, 95.5% of neighborhoods

No. 6: San Francisco, 89.1% of neighborhoods

No. 11: Riverside-San Bernardino, 52.3% of neighborhoods

No. 16: Sacramento, 43% of neighborhoods

How were cities ranked?

To come up with its rankings, Creditnews Research looked at the median income of married-couple households in each city from 2022 and adjusted it for real wage growth in 2023.

It then looked at the average value of a home for 5,800 neighborhoods in the nations 50 largest cities and compared the cost to the median income for families in those cities.

If mortgage prices in a neighborhood exceeded the average married-couple households gross income by 25%, it was considered unaffordable.

Creditnews Research sourced information from the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Census Bureau and Zillow for its report.

What do you want to know about life in Sacramento? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@sacbee.com.
Reality Check is a Sacramento Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Hos attempt to prosecute the city of Sacramento for its management of the homeless crisis is on life support after a tentative ruling by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill Talley on Thursday.

Talley threw out the meat of the case, that homelessness is a nuisance and the city is responsible for it, and the underlying premise that Ho and the courts can tell a city how to do this difficult job.

I think it is a clear victory for the city and a loss for Thien Ho, said Erwin Chemerinsky, law school dean at the University of California, Berkeley, who has reviewed the case and predicted its demise.

Ho will get his day in court Friday, as Talley is scheduled to hear from both the city and the district attorneys office on her proposed ruling. But unless Ho comes up with some new legal theories that have actual merit, his lawsuit is heading to the early death that it deserves.

Hos lawsuit smelled from the beginning like pure politics. When launching this crusade in September, Ho singled out the city as somehow responsible for homelessness and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg in particular. He promised a trial of the century, with literally hundreds of residents and business owners testifying how the city has allowed homelessness to perpetuate in their neighborhoods.

Opinion

But a trial would require an actual case to legally prosecute and a remedy for a judge to impose. Ho has proven to be a political master of tapping into the publics anger. As a litigant, he just got schooled by the office of the Sacramento City Attorney.

The meat of Hos case is that the city has become the nuisance as opposed to the condition of homelessness. Sacramentos City Council has passed an ordinance banning encampments on sidewalks for example, and has tried to achieve compliance through voluntary approaches rather than issuing citations. There is no legal requirement for Sacramento to ticket the homeless. Hos case, wrote Talley, does not identify a mandatory duty to act.

Hos lawsuit has proven fatally vague on a solution. He has sought injunctive/equitable relief and has been unable to articulate in any pleading what that means. Hos lawsuit provides no examples of how the City can address the issues alleged other than through legislation or enforcing existing laws, wrote Talley in her tentative ruling. These are remedies this Court cannot provide.

Talley did give Ho the green light to use a section of Californias Fish and Game code for homeless activities that may impact a waterway. The citys exposure is limited here. The American River Parkway, for example, is managed day-to-day by Sacramento County. And some science is pretty clear. Dogs and birds are far more responsible for fecal bacteria in the river than humans. To proceed with a case on this alone would be silly.

Talley was ruling on a motion by the city known as a demurrer that sought to invalidate the lawsuit for a lack of legal grounding. The city essentially wanted the entire case thrown out, with Ho precluded from amending his case. The city got most of what it wanted, but not everything.

Once Talley issues her final ruling, Ho will have 30 days to amend the case. So its not over. This charade could continue for some time.

Hos reputation as a district attorney is now squarely on the line. He has used a lot of staff resources in seeking to prosecute Sacramento. The city is on the verge of a huge victory.

His attempt to diminish Steinberg in particular has backfired. The whole notion that a governments management of homelessness can be tried in court was nuts to begin with.

While Sacramentans are understandably fed up with a society that leaves its most desperate members on the streets, many also understand that playing politics with homelessness is not helpful. Two business-backed candidates who ran for mayor and who supported Hos lawsuit, for example, are not in the runoff for the November job. There is speculation that Ho may be contemplating higher office such as Attorney General. Ho made this lawsuit against Sacramento his signature move as district attorney. Voters should never forget this.

Hos stump speech on this litigation frequently refers to compassion. There has been nothing compassionate about prosecuting Sacramento for homeless management. His lawsuit hasnt resulted in a single homeless person securing a home, drug treatment or anything of human value. His lawsuit has been a nuisance. Its time for Ho to focus his energies on his actual job.
A second black book of contact names and numbers belonging to the well-connected late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is going up for auction in two weeks time. On May 15, the black book will be offered for private sale by sealed bids by Alexander Historical Auctions. A forensic document examiners report on its authenticity will be provided alongside it.

Asked how much he thought it may fetch, Bill Panagopulos, Alexanders owner, told The Daily Beast, There are no comparables for the sale of this kind of relic. But, based on my experience, if Im pressed to offer a price I would think it would be $100,000 to $200,000, and up.

Sealed bids will be accepted for a month. If theres not an acceptable top bid, Panagopulos said, the Epstein book will be offered in an Alexander Historical auction on July 12. There will be an estimate, but no baseline bid.

In 2015, Gawker leaked the contents of the more infamous and first-known black bookwhose boldface names and contact details included Donald Trump, Mick Jagger, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, and members of the Kennedy family.

The older book, the one now going up for auction, has 220 new names not listed in the first book, a 2021 Business Insider article reported. Insider named a number of people listed in the book not previously associated with Epstein, like Suzanne Ircha (now Suzanne Johnson), Melania Trumps best friend who co-owns the New York Jets with husband Woody Johnson; Carl Icahn, special adviser to Donald Trump during his presidency; Cristina Greeven, wife of Chris Cuomo; Jill Harth, who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault; Marty Peretz, former mentor to Al Gore; and billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis.

Epstein Had a Creepy Panopticon Room to Monitor All His Guests

Insider said none of their reporting had shown any connection between people listed in the address book and Epsteins crimes.

Catsimatidis told Insider he met Epstein through a friend in real estate whod once shared an office with the notorious money managerand that Epstein once sent him a three-foot bottle of champagne after the businessman offered Epstein a ride to Florida on his plane. A representative for Icahn declined to comment. Chris Cuomo returned Insiders request for comment from Greeven, declining to comment for the record or to make Greeven available. Johnson declined to comment.

I knew all the predators, but I didnt know what they were like at the time, Harth told Insider.

The Daily Beast reached out to around 20 people whose names are contained in the black book to ask how they felt about it going up for auction, and any privacy concerns they may have.

In a text message, Catsimatidis told The Daily Beast he was not concerned about a potential collector having his number and summed up his ties to Epstein thusly: Only met him once.

Asked for his reaction to the book going up for sale, Peretz told The Daily Beast, I have no reaction.

Ann Nitze, a private art dealer specializing in 19th- and 20th-century sculptures and paintings, met Epstein through the Santa Fe Institute, co-founded by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. (The Institute received $275,000 from Epstein over the years.)

Nitze wasnt surprised to be listed in the nearly 30-year-old black book. She told The Daily Beast that Epstein asked for help with building his art collection for a new apartment but never bought anything. I may have had lunch with him once or twice, Nitze said, I wasnt a serious friend... But he was very jolly and smart and I wouldnt have predicted that he did what he did.

What Epstein didand got away with for decades before his jailhouse suicidewas groom and sexually abuse girls and young women at his mansions in New York, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and beyond. In 2005, around the time Epstein and staff used his other black book in his Palm Beach home, Florida cops were investigating him for trafficking minors. He ultimately got a slap on the wrist from the Miami U.S. Attorneys Office, serving just 13 months in jail (mostly on work release) after pleading guilty to a state charge of soliciting a child for prostitution.

The feds charged Epstein in New York for child sex-trafficking in July 2019. He died in a Manhattan lockup one month later by suicide, according to authorities, though some people in his circle believe he did not kill himself. Asked whether she believed Epsteins book would have value to collectors, Nitze answered, No, because he doesnt have any value, but added that she didnt want to be mean to the people that are doing it.

2024 presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his late ex-wife Mary are also named in the book. Kennedys campaign didnt return messages, but the independent candidate has said he flew on Epsteins plane, including for a fossil hunting trip; he stressed this was before anyone knew of the creepy financiers crimes.

Jeffrey Epstein's second 'black book' is going up for auction. Alice Benjamin

Panagopulos told The Daily Beast he was not concerned about the potential loss of privacy of those listed.

No, he said firmly. We are not going to publish any of the addresses or phone numbers. But what somebody does with the contents of the book if they buy it is their own business, And at their own risk.

They can probably publish it. Its not copyright, Panagopulos said. But if somebody wants this thing to disappear, then they have a chance to buy it privately. I dont care if they burn it, if they send it into space, if they freeze it in liquid nitrogen and break it into a thousand pieces with a hammer. I dont care what they do with it!

Insider commissioned Dennis Ryan, a forensic document examiner, to ensure that the black book wasnt a cunning fake; he told Insider that the Gestetner imprint on the books VeloBind brand of binding strips was from 1995-2000, and would be difficult to fabricate.

Insider noted that the area codes listed for Donald Trumps Palm Beach abode were listed as 407 in the older, early mid-90s black book, and 561 in the later, better-known bookin line with how the area code had changed in the two different eras the black books had been dated to.

The address book for sale is in a very similar format to its newer counterpart, which was snatched by Epsteins late butler Alfredo Rodriguez in 2005 before he left Epsteins employ. He later tried to sell it to victims lawyer Brad Edwards for $50,000, calling it the Holy Grail of all things Epstein and leading the FBI to arrest him for obstruction.

The books origin story paints a cinematic picture. According to Edwards memoir Relentless Pursuit, Rodriguez had obtained a roster of underage girls whod visited Epsteins home but failed to produce it to authorities.

Rodriguez claimed that Epsteins accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell kept typed lists on her computer and that hed printed them out before she fired himlists that also contained all of the famous people in Epstein and Maxwells orbit. Its the golden ticket. Everything you will ever need, the butler said.

Rodriguez, Edwards writes, kept his copy of the little black book for his own protection. First, when I was fired, I thought they would kill me. This was my insurance policy, Rodriguez allegedly told Edwards. If I ever disappeared, my wife would know it was Ghislaine and Jeffrey.

The butler was hesitant to hand over what he viewed as his property.

I own it, Rodriguez allegedly said to Edwards. It has value. It would be like me having a Mercedes-Benz. Just because you asked for it by subpoena, you think that I should hand it over to you.

Nothing will be redacted

How the earlier black book came to be up for auction in 2024 is almost as surprising as the existence of the book itself. Billy Leroy is a go-to guy in New York for handsome, unusual and sometimes historic collectibles. For many years he ran Billys Antiques and Props out of a green tent on Houston and the Bowery, relocating to a storefront on Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, in 2020, and he shares his savvy in Billy Buys Brooklyn, a show that streams on the Discovery channel.

So, when he learned from the Insider documentary about the existence of a second black book of contact names and numbers belonging to Epstein he went on high alert.

The book, which lists the addresses and phone numbers of Epsteins social and business network, first surfaced in the outside world in the 1990s when it was spotted on the ground and picked up by Denise Ondayko, then a young woman walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. Within it she saw newsworthy names so she hung on to it as a curiosity.

Years later though she took a closer look, sourced the black book to Epstein and in 2020 she put it up on eBay. Leroy learned from the documentary that it had been bought by a man named Chris Helali for $450.

Helali sent copies of the earlier black book to reporters, including one from The Daily Beast, to help unravel the Epstein mystery. In his 2021 email to one Daily Beast reporter, he wrote: I hope this continues to shed light not only on Epstein but on his criminal network and the National Security state.

Jeffrey Epstein's second 'black book' is going up for auction. Alice Benjamin

As he prepares for its auction, Leroy said he was not troubled by the earlier address books unsavory origins. I love crime collectibles, he says. Al Capones signature got $30,000. And Charles Mansons arrest record fetched $8,500.

Leroy located Helali with easehe had run for the U.S. Senate to represent Vermontand reached out to him on his farm. Helali told him that he had tried to put the black book up at auction at both Sothebys and Christies. The response from Sothebys read in part: We do not believe this is something suitable for auction. I suggest you would have the best results contacting a major newspaper, and there was also a turn-down from Christies.

I convinced him to put it at auction with Alexander Historical Auctions, Leroy said, noting that he had often dealt with the Maryland-based auction house and that they specialized in such material. Napoleons hunting rifle sold there for $120,000but Adolf Hitlers reversible gold watch, which had been estimated to go for between $2 and $4 million, under-performed, fetching just $1,100,000.

Leroy duly met up with Helali at a diner in upstate New York and picked up the black book. When I held it in my hands I really felt the evil energy, he told The Daily Beast. It sounds crazy but its got some heavy mojo. The book is 4 by 5 inches, is in good condition and its a 92-pager. The names within are printed, except for the last page upon which the two entries are written in what Panagopulos, Alexanders owner, describes as a child-like hand, assumed to be that of Epstein.

The pages as seen onscreen by Insider will now face the world with a significant add. The telephone numbers and addresses of the names had been redacted, meaning blacked out, in the documentary. Obviously when we auction this nothing will be redacted, Leroy said.

Some folk, of course, may not be looking forward to this. Panagopulos notes that Alexanders will not be displaying images with the names and addresses, but whoever buys the book gets it.

He added that Alexanders reserves the right to disclose the selling price, but will absolutely not disclose the identity of the buyer.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Brightline West will continue field investigation work within the Interstate 15 right-of-way in the High Desert, company officials said.

Field investigation work includes geotechnical borings and samplings, utility potholing and land surveying. Work will take place primarily during daytime hours, with some work at night to minimize disruption to traffic.

In some instances, short-term closures of freeway shoulders will be required. All work will be done in compliance with applicable environmental regulations and in coordination with Caltrans.

Brightline West will continue field investigation work within the Interstate 15 right-of-way in the High Desert of Southern California.

Motorists should proceed with extra caution through work zones and adhere to posted detour signs, speed limits and other signage.

Updated project areas include

I-15 Kelbaker Road to Basin Road: Operations from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday, May 3. Daytime borings are scheduled in the drainage ditches near the northbound and southbound exterior shoulders of I-15.

I-15 Hodge Road to Mojave River: Operations from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday, May 3. Daytime borings are scheduled in the center median and shoulders.

I-15 Oak Hill Road to Eighth Street: Operations from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday, May 3. Daytime borings are scheduled on the I-15 in the center median and shoulders at I-15/SR-215 Interchange, Duncan Canyon and Beech Avenue.

Oak Hill Road to Arrow Route: Operations from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. through Friday, May 3. Night closures are also planned in the median and shoulders on I-15 from Oak Hill through the Cajon Pass, in Devore to Arrow Route.

Dates and times are subject to change. These operations are weather-dependent, Brightline officials stated.

Field work continues after Brightline West officials broke ground on April 22 in Las Vegas on the nation's first high-speed rail system that will connect Las Vegas to Southern California.

Brightline Wests 218-mile high-speed rail system will be constructed in the middle of Interstate-15, with a flagship passenger station in Las Vegas and stops in Apple Valley, Hesperia and its final destination, Rancho Cucamonga.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Brightline West continues field work on I-15 in the High Desert
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the protests on college campuses over Israels war against Hamas could be President Bidens Vietnam War, making the comparison to the anti-war protests in the 1960s while also offering support for the presidents statement this week.

I am thinking back and other people are making this reference that this may be Bidens Vietnam, Sanders told CNNs Christiane Amanpour, who asked the senator what could happen to Biden and his reelection campaign.

[Former President] Lyndon Johnson in many respects was a very, very good president. Domestically he brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in 68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam, and I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated, not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base, in terms of his views on Israel and this war, Sanders said.

Biden on Thursday, in his first public remarks since the anti-war demonstrations on college campuses broke out, was sharply critical of many aspects to the protests. And, he said the protests have not caused him to rethink his policy in the Middle East.

Sanders suggested Biden change course.

I would hope very much that from certainly a policy point of view, from a moral point of view, the president stops giving a blank check to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, and I would hope that they understand that from a political point of view, this has not been helpful. Quite the contrary, the senator told CNN.

But, Sanders was supportive of Bidens overall statement Thursday, during which the president condemned vandalism and trespassing but defended the right to peacefully demonstrate.

Hes exactly right is that we dont want protests that are violent, and we absolutely will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, or any form of bigotry, Sanders said.

He sought though to explain the reason why students are protesting and warned against equating all the protests with antisemitism. He said that as a young man, he was involved in civil rights demonstrations and he was arrested for taking over the administration office at the University of Chicago.

I think its important to understand why these young people are out there, and theyre out there for the right reasons, to protest U.S. continued military aid and money to a right wing extremist Netanyahu government, which is in a destructive war against the Palestinian people, the senator said.

He added the he believes the war policies of the Netanyahu government are a disaster and are in violation of international law and absolutely in violation of American law.

But I think  the idea that people who are critical of what Netanyahu is doing are antisemitic, that is nonsense  and that is a very, very dangerous line to cross in terms of freedom of expression in this country, Sanders said.

The senator has been repeatedly critical of Netanyahu throughout the war, most recently accusing him of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. He has also opposed more U.S. funding to Israel and called for the Biden administration to end support.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A refrigerator with frozen sandwiches was found in the bathroom of a local coffee stand. A complaint of rats was made at a downtown Modesto restaurant, which was verified by the health department during the latest round of inspections in mid April.

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 56 restaurant inspection reports sent to The Modesto Bee on Friday, six were not updated on the site as of Friday morning.

If an inspection listed below needs clarification, business owners can email Modesto Bee reporter Dominique Williams at dwilliams@modbee.com.

A rat problem and major violations at restaurants

Violations were found during routine inspections of the following Stanislaus County food facilities during the week of April 14-21. 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.

A complaint was made to the health department that a large rodent was present in the dining area of Churchkey, at 910 12th Street in Modesto, and the complaint was verified. Inspectors did not observe the rat, but did find numerous traps as well as rodent feces. The front-of-house manager told inspectors they are aware of the problem and have two pest control companies servicing the facility. An elimination plan is to be made and provided to the department by May 6, and a reinspection will be made for progress on May 13.

Modesto Cafe, 3121 Yosemite Blvd. Suite C-4 in Modesto, had six violations on April 15  one of them major. Inspectors observed food grime accumulation in a floor area below refrigeration equipment. Hood filters had grease accumulation and the interior surfaces of the two preparation refrigerators had food stain buildup.

The chlorine reading in the dishwasher was 25 ppms lower than whats required by California code. A valid food handler certification and a food safety certification were lacking.

Five of the six violations were noted as corrected during a reinspection on April 15, and two more violations were observed.

Westley Supermarket, 8629 Highway 33 in Westley, had four violations on April 17. The paper towel dispenser was missing in the mens bathroom. There was a hole in the ceiling in the store room and unlabeled product in plastic containers. Inspectors observed improper methods of warewashing.

Johns Incredible Pizza Co., 2225 Plaza Parkway in Modesto, had four violations on April 17  two of them major. The cold holding units with salad bar items were noted at 43 degrees and the cold holding unit with pasta condiments was turned off (must be 41 degrees or lower). There was damaged flooring below the hand sink in the employee restroom exposing a not easily cleanable surface. There was insufficient lighting in the pizza prep area.

El Asadero Taco Shop, 150 W. Monte Vista Ave. in Turlock, had six violations on April 18  one of them major. Inspectors observed the tomato-based salsas in a refrigerator between 45 and 48 degrees (must be 41 degrees or lower). The ice machine has a broken lid that fell off when opened. The walk-in refrigerator fan covers were soiled with dust and debris. A stack of food containers was stored directly on the floor and a refrigerator lacked a self-standing thermometer.

El Michoacano Meat, 1114 Herndon Road in Modesto, had three violations during an inspection on April 19 that resulted from a complaint. The complaint made to the department said the facility was dirty and had a foul odor. The complaint was verified. Broken glass and a puddle of liquid were found between two freezers. The food safety manager certificate was not available and the sanitizer concentration was noted at less than whats required by code.

Other food facilities with three or more, or major, violations at the time of their inspections include:

Food and drinks stored in bathrooms and other violations

Bottoms Up Espresso, 4120 Dale Road Suite E-1 in Modesto, had two violations on April 16. A refrigerator with frozen sandwiches was located in the bathroom. Refrigerated milk was noted at 47 degrees (must be 41 degrees or lower). All violations were noted as corrected during a reinspection on April 30.

Rocket, 4120 Dale Road in Modesto, had one violation on April 16. Drink bottles and cans were stored in the bathroom.

According to Stanislaus County, other food facilities that had one to two violations, none of them major, are:

No violations for some Stanislaus County restaurants

These food facilities had no violations, according to the county:
(KRON)  A Santa Rosa man died alone inside a Sonoma County jail cell ahead of his upcoming murder trial.

Skyler Rasmussen, 28, was the only inmate in the cell when deputies found him unresponsive on Wednesday, the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office said. Deputies performed CPR and utilized Narcan, an opioid-reversing drug treatment, before Rasmussen was officially pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel.

Rasmussen had been behind bars since late 2022 and he was charged with murdering William Woodard, the Press Democrat reported. The deadly stabbing happened on Dec. 13, 2022 at The Palms Inn in Santa Rosa. Rasmussen had left a court-mandated drug rehab treatment program in San Francisco just days before the killing, according to the Press Democrat.

His murder trial was initially scheduled to begin on April 12, 2024, however, the trials date was pushed back to January 2025, court records show.

Officials did not release Rasmussens suspected cause of death on Thursday.

Rob Dillion, a Sonoma County Sheriffs Office spokesperson, wrote, Sheriffs Office Violent Crime detectives and Crime Scene Investigation detectives were called to investigate further. Pursuant to the  in-custody death protocol, the Marin County Coroners Office is conducting an independent death investigation.

The spokesperson added, During this challenging time, the Sheriffs Office would like to send our deepest condolences to Rasmussens family and friends.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  A Sarasota vet was arrested after police said she wrote prescriptions for animals and then picked them up from a pharmacy for her own use, according to the Sarasota Police Department.

A man was taking his dog to see Melissa Page, who owns Coastal Veterinary Internal Medicine on Fruitville Road. Page wrote the dog a prescription in January for hydromorphone, which is an opioid.

The dogs owner took the prescription to Walgreens to have it filled. Police said the prescription was filled and the dog owner took the prescription home for his dog.

The dog owner later decided to join the business as an investment to help Page run the practice, when he eventually noticed erratic behavior from her. He also observed a prescription bottle at the clinic under his dogs name that he never picked up, according to police.

He questioned Page about the prescription, and she stopped talking to him, according to police.

The dog owner then went to Walgreens and learned that Page allegedly changed his account information with Walgreens to make the point of contact her personal cellphone number.

Page allegedly would write prescriptions for the animals and then take them to Walgreens, returning later to pick them up for her own use, according to police.

The Walgreens pharmacy manager notified the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about Page possibly writing fraudulent prescriptions. Police said all of Pages patients are animals, so the pharmacy manager became suspicious because of the type of medication she was dropping off to be filled.

Pages personal cell phone number was listed on the accounts of four patients, according to police.

Page was charged with two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, whose 2020 endorsement is credited with helping Joe Biden win the presidency, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor.

Clyburn, a Santee Democrat, was one of 19 people who received the award at a White House ceremony Friday afternoon.

Through three decades in the House, Rep. Clyburn has transformed the lives of millions of Americans and created a freer country, the White House said in a news release.

Clyburn, a former teacher who was elected to Congress in 1992, has served as assistant Democratic leader and majority whip to help move key pieces of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his career he has served as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He also served as an advisor to former Gov. John West and then served as South Carolina Human Affairs commissioner until 1992.

I am immensely grateful to President Biden for this incredible honor and take seriously the responsibility it carries, Clyburn said in statement. While it serves as a recognition of ones accomplishments, it is also an astute reminder of the challenges that lie ahead. It speaks to the duty each and every one of us has to further the founding fathers dream of a more perfect union. I accept this award with deep humility and the promise to uphold this vision.

In 2020, Biden had lost the first three nominating Democratic nominating contests heading into South Carolinas Democratic presidential primary. After Biden said during a debate he would nominate a Black woman for the U.S. Supreme Court, Clyburn endorsed the Biden campaign. Biden went on to win the South Carolina primary slingshotting him to the Democratic nomination and then the White House.

Among the others receiving the award Friday are former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist Clarence Jones, former Secretary of State John Kerry and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Medgar Evers, who fought against segregation and was murdered at the age of 37, will receive the award posthumously.

These 19 Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations and businesses that shaped America for the better, the White House said in a news release. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work and service.
Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, holds up a special printed edition dedicated to remembering The Holocaust during session in Columbia, S.C. on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA  South Carolina universities have not seen anything akin to the wave of protests over the Israel-Hamas war sweeping college campuses across the country.

There are no students pitching massive tent encampments on campus lawns, refusing to leave. No vandalizing or taking over of academic buildings. And no reports of insults, harassment or threats of violence aimed at Jewish students.

Still, as students finish final exams and campuses empty for the summer, lawmakers point to a bill codifying a definition of antisemitism into state law. The House gave final approval last week.

The states only Jewish legislator believes the bill heading to Gov. Henry McMasters desk could be used by South Carolinas public universities in deciding how to respond should troubling instances or conduct violations arise with staff or students in the future.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, would use the same definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the U.S. State Department.

Student-led, pro-Palestinian protests have spread nationwide in response to Israels military offensive in Gaza. War erupted between Israel and Palestine after Hamas militants launched an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 civilians and taking some 250 hostages. Israel has since killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Bernstein said she was disturbed by chants of go back to Poland reported at Columbia University in New York. (Polands Jewish community was largely wiped out by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust.) And at Northwestern University in Illinois, where Jewish students are suing the school over its handling of protests, a student was called a dirty Jew and protest signs depicted a Star of David crossed through and the schools president, who is Jewish, as a bloodthirsty devil.

Bernstein, who is 54, said she has never seen this amount of hate directed at Jews in her lifetime.

For the Columbia lawmaker, its personal. With two daughters of her own, one of whom is a student at Tulane University in Louisiana  where theres been extensive protests  shes afraid for their safety and that of other young Jewish students.

She said she worries about continuous harassment of those students by protesters as they walk to class.

Theyre being ostracized, Bernstein said. Jews are being attacked just because theyre Jewish.

While supporters of Israel have called out the university protests as antisemitic, protest organizers say the antisemitic remarks of some do not reflect the views of the whole, which condemns the humanitarian crisis the conflict has led to in Gaza. Critics say those allegations are being used to silence the student movement.

Protests in SC

Out of South Carolinas largest college campuses, only one  the University of South Carolina  has reported minor protest activity.

After the Oct. 7 attack, a revived USC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine distributed posters and leaflets on campus. And supporters of Palestine stood silently with protest signs at a vigil for Columbias Jewish community, held at the Anne Frank Center on campus. Blocks away at the Statehouse, protesters at a free Palestine rally organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation chanted and held signs, while a small group of pro-Israel counter-protesters gathered across the street.

Bernstein, who attended the vigil, said the pro-Palestine protesters were maybe a tad bit disruptive, but not violent.

Most recently, a late-afternoon demonstration was held between the universitys main library and student center on the last day of classes, which coincided with the first day of Jewish Passover. Unlike elsewhere in the country, the students left at dusk, The Post and Courier reported.

Then, at the universitys midnight breakfast event signaling the start of exams, about a dozen protesters carrying Palestinian flags and chanting stood for about 30 minutes at the entrance of the dining area of the schools student center as students and staff passed through to the event, according to a police report from university police. They stayed after staff asked them to leave. The police report did not mention any threats or physical acts of violence.

When the group did move, police followed them outside and the students ran away in different directions. Police saw two of the students walking on Sumter Street and arrested them for breach of peace, a misdemeanor.

Police crackdown

Across the country, by comparison, police have reported more than 1,000 arrests.

Tent encampments of protesters have spread across the country, mirroring one that formed at Columbia University in New York nearly two weeks ago. As the movement has drug on, universities are cracking down, calling in police.

At Columbia, police cleared the tent encampment on the schools grounds and an academic building overtaken by protesters at the Ivy League school about 20 hours earlier. The protest movement at the school also made national headlines last week after one of the organizers posted a video online encouraging violence on Jews.

Zionists dont deserve to live, the student, Khymani James, said in video taken in January. I feel very comfortable  very comfortable  calling for those people to die.

Opposing groups of protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, broke out in fistfights, with students from both groups kicking and beating each other with sticks. And at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, police in riot gear shut down an encampment, arresting about 20 people for trespassing.

Meanwhile, antisemitism and Islamophobia in the United States has surged to record levels since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, according to the Anti-Defamation League and Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In its most recent report, the Anti-Defamation League said there were 85 incidents  78 cases of harassment and seven acts of vandalism  of antisemitism in South Carolina in 2023, nearly double the number reported the year before and more than five times the number reported in 2021.

Former state Sen. Joel Lourie, who is Jewish and now sits on the board of the regional Anti-Defamation League, said he suspects antisemitic sentiments have percolated under the surface for some time.

But what were seeing now is much more pronounced, he said. Things have escalated beyond my wildest imagination.

Lourie said its one thing to exercise free speech. Its another when demonstrations block students from going to class or studying in the library. Recent reports of students being targeted, threatened or beaten crossed an extremely dangerous line.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim bias incidents last year  the highest number in the 28 years the organization has tracked cases. The report does not say whether any of those complaints originated in South Carolina.

Applying the definition

Bernstein acknowledged that if her bill becomes state law, applications of whats antisemitic would be limited to policies and regulations at state agencies, which include public universities.

But in light of what were seeing on college campuses across the country, it could be used to help universities navigate any incidents if it starts to happen here in South Carolina, she said.

The bill defines antisemitism as a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The organization also provides modern examples of antisemitism:

Calling for or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or extreme religious view

Making dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews

Holocaust denial

But critics have said some of the definitions examples are overly broad, veering into complicated world politics:

Claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor

Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations

Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel

The definition does specify that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country is not antisemitic.

Lawmakers in more than a half-dozen states pushed laws adopting the definition. Georgias governor signed it into law in January. South Dakota did the same in March. Virginia passed it last year, and Iowa passed it in 2022.

South Carolina considered the definition multiple times in the past but this time were prompted to act.

Locally, Charleston, Greenville and Myrtle Beach have all passed resolutions with this definition.

And the U.S. House voted Wednesday to add the same definition to law that bars discrimination and harassment based on race, color or national origin at institutions that receive federal funding. This could give U.S. education regulators the ability to withhold funding from schools that allow protests to linger. The measure now heads to the Senate.

But even the definitions author told the Associated Press he didnt think the language should be put into law.

Congressional action

The ACLU, in an open letter, asked Congress to reject the effort, saying federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and the move could instead chill free speech by equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.

Bernstein said its important not to infringe on free speech in making such laws.

You can disagree with Israels policies, she said.

But while racial slurs are often more overt, Bernstein said antisemitism can be harder to determine, making a set definition important.

Hateful speech is not illegal under the First Amendment but comments that are deemed true threats are not protected as free speech. A true threat is a statement that frightens or intimidates people into believing they will be seriously harmed, according to the Free Speech Center in Tennessee.

Where things become problematic, Bernstein said, is when people lay blame to Jews as a whole, whether theyre from Israel or Jewish-American, and threaten violence against them.

South Carolinas ACLU chapter also chimed in Wednesday, reminding university leaders of the states own, at times troublesome, history with campus protests. Demonstrations have included Civil Rights marches, calls for desegregation and opposition to the Vietnam War.

Students have raised their voices throughout our shared history, and administrators, government officials, and law enforcement have not always responded in ways that protected their safety and their constitutionally guaranteed rights, the group wrote.

The group urged restraint regarding the use of law enforcement, saying theyre far more likely to escalate things and pointing to past tragedies such as the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre.

In that incident 56 years ago, an attempt by students at two historically Black colleges, South Carolina State University and Claflin University, to desegregate a whites-only bowling alley turned violent after police showed up and beat protesters. Then-Gov. Robert McNair sent in the state police and National Guard, who shot into a crowd of 200 students, killing three and wounding at least 27.

The post SC legislators approve antisemitism bill amid national wave of Israel-Hamas war protests appeared first on SC Daily Gazette.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt faces a tough re-election challenge from within his own office.

Senior prosecutor Nathan Vasquez wants Schmidts job, and Vasquez is on the attack blaming Schmidt for Portlands problems.

There are obviously big differences between the two men-  including what it is the Multnomah County District Attorney should do.

Over time, KOIN 6 News spoke with both men and put together this story based on those interviews.

The basics

The Multnomah County District Attorneys Office has 260 employees and a $50 million budget.

Mike Schmidt was elected DA in May 2020, earning 76% of the vote. A Lewis & Clark Law School graduate, he is the former executive director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. Schmidt took office during a volatile time in Portland as the pandemic raged as well as the streets during the George Floyd protests

Nathan Vasquez, who has been a prosecutor for 23 years, is also a Lewis & Clark alum. He is a senior deputy in the DAs office and has run the DAs neighborhood unit.

Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, February 5, 2024 (KOIN)

Nathan Vasquez, a deputy district attorney in Multnomah County, announced his candidacy for Multnomah County District Attorney in a video. Courtesy Photo: Nathan Vasquez. May 2023.

This is not a trial position, Schmidt said. Ive run a state agency, managed budgets, HR and grown these things. Thats the kind of experience that matters in this job, and thats why Im running again.

Our community has become unrecognizable and unsafe, and its compelled me to take on this role because what we need is a professional prosecutor and not a politician running that office, Vasquez said. His very first effort as a DA was to come forward and tell the community all the things he wasnt going to prosecute.

Schmidt refutes that.

Ive consistently increased the budget for the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office, and every year Ive been district attorney, prosecution rates have increased, he said. Now they are at 7- and 8-year highs.

Thats true. But whats also true is that Multnomah County is also issuing charges in fewer cases than before the pandemic  from nearly 13,000 in 2018 to just over 8000 in 2023.

Measure 110

Although Schmidt was an early supporter of Measure 110, both he and Vasquez applaud the changes the Oregon legislature made to recriminalize street drugs.

Multnomah County district attorney candidates face off in debate

But they differ in their view of the role the DAs office plays when the changes take effect September 1.

Vasquez said the changes mean more people going to jail if theyre dealing drugs to our children. Absolutely. If they are out there causing problems in a way with the disorder that weve seen in the past few years. Im not afraid for people who are committing violent crimes that they should go to jail. When we are talking about individuals that are suffering from substance abuse disorder, thats about connecting people to treatment.

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt during a debate, 2024 (KOIN)

Multnomah County Senior Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez during a debate, 2024 (KOIN)

Schmidt said there was no doubt people will go to jail because of the changes to Measure 110.

But, my goal, and I think the goal of the legislation is to get people connected to treatment as much as possible and at every opportunity give them the option to engage in treatment as much as possible so that we dont have to use jail, he said. Jail is the last resort.

And Schmidt pointed out he lobbied the Oregon legislature to changes Measure 110 once he realized it wasnt working. He helped secure $25 million for a detox drop-off center that Multnomah County is now moving forward with.

We just need to make sure the drop off center is something that they are going to use, he said.

What the DA does

Vasquez emphasizes his experience as Multnomah Countys lead prosecutor. Hes handled high profile felony cases, including murders, rapes and robberies. Thats a major difference between the candidates.

If you look just purely at his record, hes never tried a serious case. Hes never handled a homicide. Hes never done really even a complex or even not complex, really, assault case, Vasquez told KOIN 6 News.

Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, August 15, 2023 (KOIN)

Schmidt, who said hes handled dozens of trials over my career, said thats not the primary job of the District Attorney.

He said hes significantly boosted the number of prosecutors in his office to nearly 100, partnered with law enforcement on the auto theft and retail theft task forces that have sent repeat offenders to prison, created a new homicide unit and is focusing on the root causes of Portlands record gun violence.

The NRA historically has blocked our ability to study gun violence for decades, Schmidt said. But Ive partnered with OHSU to study gun violence locally like the public health issue and emergency that it is.

Morale

Schmidt sees the giant billboards, sponsored by People For Portland, blaming him for the condition of the city. Within his own office, several female employees have accused Schmidt of creating a hostile work environment.

Multnomah County Senior Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez on Eye on Northwest Politics, 2024 (KOIN)

Look, Im not going to sugarcoat it for you, Vasquez said. Mike Schmidt has destroyed the morale in the DAs office, absolutely destroyed it. Weve lost 50% of the attorneys in our office, 50% have walked out the door. Thats a ton of experience. Those arent retirements. Those are people leaving because morales so bad.

Schmidt said there are other forces in play.

The reason morale is so tough is probably the same reason its been tough in all your industries. Over the pandemic, it has been hard, he said. When I started with 72 prosecutors, caseloads were at an all-time high. We werent resolving the cases. Thats hard on prosecutors.

Meanwhile, the Oregon State Bar Association dismissed a complaint from a Lewis & Clark professor against Vasquez for a statement in this years Voters Pamphlet.

The statement said a violent criminal was released from prison and once free, he murdered four women.

That suspect  who was not named  has not been charged with the murders. However, the OSB found no evidence of professional misconduct from Vasquez.

And the winner is .

Although this is a non-partisan race, Schmidt identifies himself as a Democrat in the Voters Pamphlet. Hes endorsed by several Democratic organizations, the Portland Association of Teachers and social justice organizations including Basic Rights and the Latino Network.

Vasquez has the endorsement of several first responders and litigators, including firefighters unions in Portland and Gresham, the Portland Police Association and the Multnomah County Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

Mike Schmidt and Nathan Vasquez are the only two candidates in this race. Whoever wins the May 21 primary will be the next Multnomah County District Attorney.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
The parental rights debate rose dramatically during COVID over one question: To mask or not to mask?

Recently, bills have passed in Idaho, Florida, and Oklahoma regarding parental rights in a host of school issues, including the ban of certain classroom materials and library books.

Challenges have centered on critical race theory (CRT), state and national histories, gender studies, and graphic scenes in novels.

These controversies also have reached our community, where parents rights groups such as Moms for Liberty have made their presence felt.

Candidates campaigned for school boards promising to eliminate CRT from curriculum.

Last month the Kennewick School Board called an emergency hearing before passing a resolution to oppose two bills requiring Washington state schools to include lessons on contributions of LGBTQ+ and other marginalized groups. The bill was eventually signed into law.

On Thursday, May 9, the Columbia Basin Badger Club will offer an interactive online forum exploring questions of parental rights.

Pat Turner, 1978 Kennewick Woman of the Year, has died at age 89. She was a co-founder of the Columbia Basin Badger Club, which conducts forums on local, state and international issues.

First, what is meant by parental rights? Usually, this phrase refers to the perception that some parents feel left out of decisions on curriculum and library books.

Some insist what is taught in schools undermines what is taught at home.

In fact, since the 1920s, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the general right of parents to determine the education of their children. Yet the court also struck down a Nebraska law that banned the teaching of French and German.

The question then becomes not, Do parents have rights? but rather, To what extent?

We live in a pluralistic society. K-12 education is a public endeavor. What interest does the state and broader community have in a students education?

Why have standards and compulsory education if not to develop certain abilities in all students? What latitude should local school boards have within that context? How do we balance public and parental interests?

More practically: Which parents or groups get to determine curriculum? Who decides which books to shelve in a library? What would the decision criteria be?

Is one scene or paragraph enough to justify elimination of a book, or should the novel or textbook be considered in its entirety? Can reasonable options be offered to accommodate students and parents, or would this create an unworkable burden on schools?

How do we navigate such cultural and political divides? Can we live in a pluralistic society where we listen to and respect one another?

The Badger Clubs forum will feature a panel of four speakers with different perspectives on these issues: Rick Jansons, a Richland School Board member; Micah Valentine, a Kennewick School Board member; Annette Rose of Moms for Liberty; and Carrie Hallquist of Stop Moms for Liberty.

This program will use a new interactive format allowing the panelists to be questioned both by the audience and each other. Join us for what should be an enlightening discussion.

You can register for this event at www.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, while club members can join for free.

Dan Clark is a retired English teacher and Badger Club board member.
Less than 24 hours after The New Schools Students for Justice in Palestine called for an emergency vote by the schools board of trustees to divest from companies with ties to Israel, 43 protesters had been taken into custody Friday morning at its downtown campus.

While pro-Palestinian protesters continue to speak out at dozens of college campuses and universities, the number of arrests have been increasing in recent days. An estimated 2,200 people have been arrested, according to the Associated Press. Earlier in the week, 282 people were arrested at Columbia University and at the City College of New York.

More from WWD

A spokeswoman for the New York City Police Department confirmed that 43 people have been detained and charges have yet to be made. In addition, 13 protesters have been taken into police custody and charges are pending.

NYPD updated those figures Saturday stating that 59 people had been taken into custody at The New School and NYU, and 12 were released with summonses.

Asked for comment about the situation, a spokesperson for The New School referenced a statement from interim president Donna Shalala that was issued to the schools community that said, we have been very tolerant of the students right to free speech as long as they did not interfere with our educational mission. She also said that she deeply regretted having to call in the NYPD to clear the protesters at 2 West 13th Street.

NYPD first issued a warning to The New Schools protesters to allow anyone who wanted to leave to do so, according to Shalala. It is a sad day for all of us who are part of this university community and who believe in free speech, which we have pledged to protect and will continue to protect, she said.

However, TNS SJP claimed in a statement that while students at the university center had been given a verbal warning before any arrests were made, at the second encampment at Parsons School of Design, students were allegedly told to leave the building or risk arrest. The group claimed they had not been given the opportunity to leave.

The groups statement alleged that the protesters had not been blocking building access or emergency doors.

As reported by WWD, the TNS SJP organization claimed that the university is invested in 65 funds that have positions in 13 companies including Google, General Electric, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions and the Raytheon Co. among others. That tally was said to be based on an April 26 meeting with The New Schools vice president of business operations Mark Diaz. The other companies that The New School is allegedly tied to are Axa, Caterpillar Inc., Cemex, the Chevron Co., Elbit Systems Ltd. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

Shalala said that protesters had been blocking the entrance to Kerrey Hall, which houses 600 students, since Thursday in order to force the university to agree to divest from companies in our endowment linked to Israel. After many hours of negotiation and pleading to allow their fellow students to enter their residence hall, the protesters would not budge.

Shalala said, We have been very patient, including allowing an encampment in the University Center (UC) so long as students, faculty, and staff had access to their classrooms, offices, library, and cafeteria.

The New York Police Departments deputy commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X (formerly Twitter) Friday morning that The New School requested NYPDs assistance to disperse the illegal encampment inside the university center building and residence hall. As per their request, we are on site and our officers will be assisting with unparalleled professionalism.

Daughtry also posted video of dozens of police officers outside of The New Schools Fifth Avenue building Friday morning.

Daughtry also posted an image of a document on The New School s letterhead that referenced how students and individuals from outside of the university community were trespassing in the schools lobby and the Kerrey Hall residence hall and were intentionally impeding entrance. The document, which was addressed to Daughtry, also noted that they were in violation of university rules and policies and that they must disperse. Although the senders signature was cropped out of the post, they referred to the imminent danger that the situation was causing and called upon the NYPD for help.

In her memo, Shalala said that an agreement had been reached per a vote with the [protesting] students to move their demonstration to the UC Event Cafe space in exchange for a meeting with the executive vice president for business and operations [Mark Diaz] followed by representatives of the board of trustees investment committee to make their case for divestment. Within 24 hours, the students violated that agreement, once again setting up tents in the lobby, Shalala claimed.

She also suggested that the university had tried to reach a resolution another time and was close to an agreement. But instead, the protesters escalated the situation, forcibly entering and setting up a second encampment in the Parsons 2 West 13th Street lobby. Shalala claimed that a third offer of a meeting with representatives from the schools investment committee was declined by the students even though we provided a confirmed date this month for the Investment Committee to consider a vote on disinvestment.

The protesters statement claimed that by ordering these arrests, The New School has grossly failed to live up to its legacy as an institution of social justice and anti-militarism. The Gaza Solidarity Encampments at The New School were founded on the demand for divestment, in a protest aligned with over 120 campus encampments nationwide, calling for Palestinian freedom, an end to genocide.

After the encampment was cleared, TNS SJP claimed that all academic buildings were closed, with some being trapped inside, while other faculty, staff and students are locked out.

All academic buildings at The New School were to remain closed Friday and academic classes were to be conducted online, The New School spokesperson said. The academic buildings reopened Saturday, as planned.

Daughtrys detailed post magnifies the point that police enforcement was called in only after The New School requested assistance  as has been the case with numerous others schools and universities, but is a point that is not always widely covered by the media.

In a memo that was circulated Friday, leaders of ACT-UAW Local 7902, the union for New York Universitys adjuncts and The New Schools part-time faculty, student workers and health service employees, challenged Shalalas statement, claiming that the encampments at Parsons and the University Center were not only peaceful, but were in keeping with the New Schools educational and community values.

The ACT-UAW Local 7902 also called for amnesty to be granted to the arrested students, and that the suspended students be reinstated. . The union also asked that The New School commit to financial transparency, divest from the assault in Gaza, and stipulate to a union election for the New Student Worker Union

While protests and in some instances, encampments, have consisted of large groups at major schools like UCLA, USC, Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, Northeastern University and MIT, smaller groups have rallied at schools with smaller student bodies such as The New School and the Fashion Institute of Technology. As of Thursday night, a small outdoor encampment of student protesters remained at FIT, according to a school spokeswoman.

Editors Note: This article was updated May 4 at 4:05 p.m.

Best of WWD
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  Former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to hear his appeal in his criminal case involving the death of Patrick Lyoya.

Court documents show the former officers representatives filed the motion on Thursday.

A district court judge first ruled in October of 2022 that Schurrs actions as a member of the Grand Rapids Police Department were not justified and that a criminal trial could move forward.

On April 4, 2022, Schurr shot and killed Lyoya during a traffic stop. Video shows Lyoya run away from Schurr before the two struggle over the officers Taser. Schurr, who was on top of Lyoya trying to hold him down, eventually shot him in the back of the head.

Inside woodtv.com: The Patrick Lyoya case

After weeks of review, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker charged Schurr with one count of second-degree murder. Schurr was fired from the GRPD following the charge.

The Michigan Court of Appeals heard arguments last September that his actions were justified. A panel ruled in January that it affirmed the district court ruling and rejected Schurrs appeal of that decision in March.

Schurrs lawyers argued that the court misstated or misconstrued the moments leading up to the shooting.

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Several organizations, including the Michigan Fraternal Order of Police, the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association and the Michigan Association of Police Organizations have thrown their support behind Schurr.

The former officer also faces a civil lawsuit from Lyoyas family.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
A 45-year-old former aircraft quality auditor has become the second Boeing-related whistleblower to die in the past three months, after allegedly suffering from a sudden bacterial infection.

Joshua Josh Dean, of Wichita, Kan., worked for Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and was one of the first people to accuse Spirit of ignoring serious manufacturing issues with their 737 Max airplanes, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.

His death on Tuesday came just two weeks after he began feeling sick and decided to stay home from work to recover. But Deans condition only worsened and eventually proved fatal, despite him being a health nut, according to his family.

He tested positive for influenza B, he tested positive for MRSA. He had pneumonia, his lungs were completely filled up. And from there, he just went downhill, his mother, Virginia Green, told NPR.

The doctor said hed never seen anything like it before in his life. His lungs were just totally  gummed up, and like a mesh over them, she added, noting it was her sons first time ever in a hospital because he never was sick.

During his time working for Spirit, Dean flagged what he felt were serious issues with the manufacturing of the 737 Max jets, the same model of aircraft that suffered a door panel blowout during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Dean would go on to give a deposition related to his findings in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit, and submitted a complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration that accused Spirit of serious and gross misconduct related to their 737 production line.

After being fired from Spirit AeroSystems in 2023, Dean also filed a wrongful termination complaint with the Department of Labor, claiming he was ousted in retaliation for the concerns he raised over aircraft safety.

Following his death, Spirit released a statement Wednesday, writing, Our thoughts are with Josh Deans family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones.

Dean is now the second Boeing whistleblower to die since the companys January incident. In March, 62-year-old John Barnett was found dead in South Carolina from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the local coroner.

Barnett had been in the midst of giving depositions against Boeing, claiming the company retaliated against him for complaints about quality lapses. His death is still being investigated, nearly two months later.

_____
DENVER (KDVR)  A second suspect in the shooting death of a Wheat Ridge business owner has been arrested and charged with murder, according to police.

Prosecutors charged Michael McCormack with second-degree murder, among other counts, the Wheat Ridge Police Department said in a release on Thursday. McCormack is accused of being an accomplice in the November killing of Peter Arguello.

Nothing left of runaway semitruck after fire on I-70

Arguello was shot and killed on Nov. 29 during a robbery at his jewelry and antiques store, Peter Damian Fine Jewelry and Antiques.

Police say they later matched DNA from handcuffs found at the West 38th Avenue crime scene with another suspect, Charles Shay. Shay faces counts of first- and second-degree murder in the killing and was taken into custody in late December, accused of burglarizing Arguellos business nearly a month after the homicide.

Peter Arguello in a shop with a pinball machine, stacks of records and other items

In early March, police issued an arrest warrant for McCormack and had been working to find him, according to the release. Police located him in the Black Hawk area and took him into custody on Wednesday evening.

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The First Judicial District Attorneys Office filed charges against McCormack of second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, aggravated robbery and second-degree motor vehicle theft, along with sentence enhancers for violent crime, police said.

Court records show McCormack appeared in court for advisement on Thursday and has a preliminary hearing scheduled on May 30.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Secretly recorded phone calls and carefully worded denials: What you missed on Day 10 of Trump's hush money trial

Taking the stand on Thursday, an attorney for porn actor Stormy Daniels fielded questions on a litany of celebrity gossip stories as attorneys for Donald Trump tried to paint him as an extortionist who helped leverage sex tapes into multimillion-dollar payouts.

Keith Davidson, the lawyer who represented two women  Daniels and Karen McDougal  who said they had affairs with Trump and were paid to stay quiet, gave jurors crucial insight into how the payment came about. Trump has denied the claims by McDougal, a former Playboy playmate, and Daniels.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg watched from the courtroom as a forensics specialist from his office, Doug Daus, explained in painstaking detail how data is extracted and preserved from electronic devices. Daus explained data about data  and served as an expert to enter into evidence text messages and conversations between people like former Trump White House aide Hope Hicks; Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organizations former chief financial officer; former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, and even Trump.

After reports about Trump closing his eyes daily during court proceedings, appearing at times to fall asleep, he pushed back. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!! he said in a Truth Social post this afternoon.

Trump fundraises off gag order as attorney fights it in court

As his lawyer Todd Blanche argued that Trump hasnt further violated the gag order, Trumps presidential campaign sought to raise money off it. Trump said he had been FULLY GAGGED and stuck in court all day in a message to his supporters that urged them to send him cash. The page included a survey asking whether you support President Trump more or less after every single witch hunt, raid, indictment, and arrest.

Blanche argued Trump should be able to respond to months of attacks by Cohen, who is expected to testify later in the trial. Trumps lawyer also invoked President Joe Biden, saying Trump cant respond after the sitting president made an oblique reference to the trial by mentioning stormy weather during recent remarks.

Nobodys forcing him, but hes running for president. He has to be able to go speak, Blanche said. Trump shook his head.

Prosecutors argued Trump is creating an air of menace with statements they said are corrosive to the case. Days earlier, Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump $9,000 over what prosecutors said were willful violations of the courts order and warned he could face prison time.

Blanche bemoaned the media attention on the case.

Every time we whisper to our client it is livestreamed all over social media, Blanche said, alluding to the banks of reporters who sit in the court pews behind Trump and his team watching their every move.

Carefully worded denials

Davidson, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented clients in settlement agreements against A-list celebrities, explained to jurors how denials he had issued in Daniels name were, in his opinion, truthful  as prosecutors tried to press him to admit the obfuscated the truth.

A denial that Daniels and Trump had a romantic relationship was technically true, he said, under a very, very, very fine reading of it.

How is that technically correct? prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

Youd have to hone in on the definition of romantic, Sexual, and affair, said Davidson. I dont think anyone had ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr. Trump was romantic.

He testified to other narrowly worded denials, and repeatedly resisted any characterization of the payoff to Daniels, instead saying it was a settlement.

Sleazy deals and tabloid secrets

Trump watched closely as his attorney Emil Bove rattled through Davidsons involvement in several high-profile scandals.

He pointed to an article Dylan Howard  a former National Enquirer editor who played a key role in the alleged scheme to buy McDougals story  co-wrote about a Hulk Hogan sex tape on which he made racist comments. Bove asked about an alleged extortion scheme around the tape.

Bove asked about Davidsons involvement in a story about actor Lindsay Lohans treatment at a rehab facility (Davidson said he did not recall), his dealings with a sex tape broker in connection with the Tila Tequila tape (Davidson again could not recall), or his involvement in a widely publicized $2 million settlement from Charlie Sheen that the actor called tortious. Davidson denied any extraction of money from Sheen, instead maintaining that there were valid settlements executed.

He also asked Davidson whether he had used the words leverage and settlers remorse in conversation with Cohen, in a phone call Cohen had recorded. Asked if he recalled saying of Trump, If he loses this election, we all lose all fucking leverage. This case is worth zero, Davidson conceded that he had. On cross-examination, the prosecution solicited more context, depicting the conversation as having occurred long after the election was over and to be about an attorney Daniels had later retained.

It was a line of cross-examination that intended to sow doubt about the nature of the Daniels deal, and Davidsons motivations.

Trump leaned into his chair, his arm slung over the side, as Bove elicited again from Davidson that he had never been in the same room as the former president until today.

Listening to the tapes

Daus, the forensics expert, attested to the accuracy of audio recordings of phone calls that were removed from Cohens phone. Cohen taped his conversation with Davidson and the defense aired the conversations in court.

Its not just me thats being affected. Its my entire family, Cohen told Davidson. Nobodys thinking about Michael.

Another recording heard Cohen and Trump speaking about the McDougal deal, as Cohen explained his intent to set up a company that would purchase the rights to the story.

Pay with cash, Trump tells Cohen in a recording played for the jury.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
See how Paine College just honored its first graduate who helped change the world

Standing by the new John Wesley Gilbert marker on Paine College's campus are Corey Rogers (from left), executive director of Augusta's Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History; Dr. John W. I. Lee, author of the 2021 book "The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert" and associate professor of ancient history at University of California Santa Barbara; and Paine President Dr. Cheryl Evans Jones, on May 2, 2024.

Jordan Johnson's grandmother lived in the Gilbert Manor public housing development, but as a youth he didn't know who the neighborhood was named for.

More people know now. A state historical marker honoring John Wesley Gilbert, the first Black archaeologist, was unveiled Thursday for Paine College students, faculty and local government and academic dignitaries.

Gilbert, Paine's trailblazing first graduate, embraced his lifelong passion for learning from his Richmond County home to the ancient ruins of Greece and back again.

John Wesley Gilbert

"I think today speaks to the legacy that Mr. Gilbert left as far as being the first of many," said Johnson, now Augusta's District 1 commissioner and a former Paine student. "I hope this marker will not only serve as a way for us to honor his legacy, but also as a way to encourage the next generations to leave their marks on their communities, whether that's through public service, business or any other venture."

The Georgia Historical Society erected the double-sided marker on Druid Park Avenue in front of Paine's Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel, named for Gilbert and missionary Walter Russell Lambuth, who in 1911 began mission trips to the Belgian Congo and founded a church and school that still operates there today.

Making history: Get to know six Paine College students who changed the world

Born to slaves in Hephzibah in 1863, Gilbert and his mother, Sarah, moved to Augusta to be nursed in the arms of poverty, in his words. Excelling academically at Paine in 1884 and 1885, he transferred in 1886 to Brown University in Rhode Island, where he was among the school's first 10 Black students.

Gilbert earned a Brown scholarship to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. His work in helping excavate the ancient city of Eretria made him the first Black archaeologist and among the first Americans to perform archaeology work in Greece.

Paine College President Dr. Cheryl Evans Jones addresses guests Thursday, May 2, in dedicating a state historical marker honoring John Wesley Gilbert, the first acknowledged Black archaeologist. Paine's Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel, sharing his name, stands in the background.

Dr. John W. I. Lee is author of the 2021 book "The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert" and associate professor of ancient history at University of California Santa Barbara. Lee also attended the American School, and learning about Gilbert while there piqued his interest.

"I walked in professor Gilbert's footsteps. I sat in the same library where he was. I saw the same sites. So it was that connection," said Lee, who attended Thursday's ceremony in Augusta. "Otherwise I might never have heard of him. I'm a guy from Hawaii, he's a guy from Georgia, and Greece brought us together."

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Paine honors Augusta roots, legacy of first Black archaeologist
Read the full story on Backfire News

Semi-Truck Driver Was Watching Netflix Before Fatal Crash

On August 25, 2023 a semi-truck crashed into two other vehicles while traveling on I-35 in Rice County, Minnesota. Two people died, but even more shocking is the accusation that the truck driver was watching Netflix on his phone before the crash.

Paul McCartney drives a C5 Corvette.

Weve all seen those videos posted to social media of people supposedly watching movies while their Tesla drives them through rush hour traffic. While that seems utterly dumb, trying to pilot a semi-truck while youre binging Netflix seems even dumber.

How could anyone think not watching the road ahead, even on boring, straight stretches of an interstate, is even remotely a good idea?

A semi-truck driver with a commercial drivers license should definitely know better. After all, when youre controlling 60 tons of weight barreling down the road at 75 mph, you could easily kill someone if you zone out for even a second.

According to KSTP, 55-year-old Billie Joe Grimes has been charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation.

But Grimes contends he wasnt actually watching anything on his phone but instead that the device was downloading something for him to watch later. He claims the cruise control was also set, which weve never heard as a defense for hitting another vehicle.

Because he was watching Netflix on his phone instead of the road ahead, authorities say Grimes didnt see the lanes were merging for a construction zone. A Toyota Camry which was moving slower was rear-ended by Grimes Volvo semi pulling an enclosed van trailer, sending it careening into a ditch.

Then the semi-truck rear-ended a trailer being pulled by a Chevy truck, flipping it onto its side on some train tracks. Both of the people who were in the Camry died while the driver of the Chevy only sustained minor injuries.

Nobody should be watching Netflix or any videos while theyre behind the wheel of a vehicle, semi-truck or Geo Metro. That should be common sense and is the law everywhere, as far as we know.

Image via KSTP
Semmes Police say suspect in Sunday shooting should be considered armed and dangerous

SEMMES, Ala. (WKRG)  The Semmes Police Department is looking for a man in connection with a shooting Sunday who they say should be considered armed and dangerous.

21-year-old Antony Josue Mena Moron has an active felony warrant for first-degree assault and a misdemeanor for reckless endangerment, according to Semmes Police Chief Todd Freind.

Mobile woman sentenced for 2020 murder: DAs Office

On Sunday, April 28, a shooting at Green Oak Trailer Park left a 5-year-old boy with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the left side of his head and eye area. The boy is now blind in his left eye.

27-year-old Jesus Manuel Venegas Rodriguez was arrested Tuesday, April 30, in connection to the shooting.

Anyone with information on the incident should contact SPD.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) joined a pro-Israel rally on the campus of George Washington University on Thursday.

Jewish students deserve to have a place where they can learn and go about their daily life without fearing for their safety, and they deserve university leadership that fights for their right to do so, Scott said in a statement. As I told the students I met with last night, my daughter attended GW and what I am seeing on that campus today is something I never could have imagined.

Recent USF protests leave some worried graduation ceremonies could be disrupted

Scott said he is saddened because he feels universities are appeasing pro-Hamas terrorist sympathizers.

This isnt free speech, Scott said. These pro-Hamas protesters are breaking our laws, calling for the death of Jewish people and threatening our students. These criminals must be prosecuted and expelled.

Scott has called on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to explain her decision not to provide police support on campus.

President Joe Biden on Thursday rejected calls from student protesters to change his approach to the war in Gaza while insisting that order must prevail as college campuses across the country face a wave of violence, outrage and fear.

Dissent is essential for democracy, Biden said at the White House. But dissent must never lead to disorder.

Biden said that he did not want the National Guard to be deployed to campuses. Some Republicans have called for sending in troops, an idea with a fraught history. Four students were shot and killed at Kent State University by members of the Ohio National Guard during protests over the Vietnam War in 1970.

Tensions on college campuses have been building for days as demonstrators refuse to remove encampments and administrators turn to police to clear them by force, leading to clashes that have seized widespread attention.

Biden said he rejected efforts to use the situation to score political points, calling the situation a moment for clarity.

Theres the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos, Biden said shortly before leaving the White House for a trip to North Carolina. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
ROCKFORD, Ill. - The 911 call came just before 8 a.m., and Ladder 5s four-man crew scrambled to the truck just as their overnight shift was about to end. It was the kind of call that veteran firefighter Chad Callison said he dreaded.

It was not a heart attack, or a car crash or a building fire.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

It was a lift assist at Heritage Woods, a local assisted-living facility.

Lift-assist 911 calls from assisted living and other senior homes have spiked by 30 percent nationwide in recent years to nearly 42,000 calls a year, an analysis of fire department emergency call data by The Washington Post has found. Thats nearly three times faster than the increase in overall 911 call volume during the same 2019-2022 period, the data shows.

The growth has infuriated first responders who say these kinds of calls - which involve someone who has fallen and is not injured but cant get up - unfairly burden taxpayers and occupy firefighters with nonemergencies that should be handled by staff at facilities that charge residents as much as $7,000 a month.

Illinois is a hot spot for the controversy: Lift assists here accounted for 1 in 20 of all 911 fire calls, the highest proportion of any state, the data shows. In Rockford, a city of 150,000 residents about an hour outside Chicago, five assisted-living facilities - including Heritage Woods - called for noninjury lift assists 233 times last year, triple the number of calls in 2021.

When firefighters arrived at Heritage Woods that morning, caretakers at the facility directed them to an elderly resident lying on the floor. She was perfectly fine, she said, she just couldnt get back on her feet by herself. The facilitys staff wouldnt lift her. So two firefighters helped her up and made sure she was okay, Callison recalled and fire records show. Ten minutes after arriving on the scene, Ladder 5 was back in service.

It doesnt make sense, Callison said. Why are they calling us?

The answer, according to industry critics and fire officials, is that companies want to avoid the risk and expense associated with picking someone up off the floor. Like many cities, Rockford provides lift assists free.

Some senior-care homes say they dont have the ability to lift fallen residents. Many have adopted no lift policies to avoid the risk of back injuries for staff and other potential liabilities. But firefighters and other experts say there are tools to make lifting easier and safer, ranging from $70 cloth straps with handles to $1,500 hydraulic lifts.

Heritage Woods, which accounted for the highest number of lift-assist calls to 911 in Rockford last year, is owned by Gardant Management Solutions, the 10th largest assisted-living provider in the nation.

Co-president Julie Simpkins declined to answer specific questions, but said in a statement that the company works to create a collaborative approach to the over utilization of nonemergent lift assist calls through cross training, resource availability discussions and collaboration.

A nurse who worked at an assisted-living facility in Greensboro, N.C., who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak with the media, said her company required caretakers to call 911 even if a resident had just slid harmlessly out of a chair.

If youre on the floor, period, youd have to call, said the nurse, who left her position last year. She said residents were often embarrassed by the lift-assist calls. Some begged her not to dial 911. She said she had no choice.

Fire officials point out they bring no special skill to such situations - its just a matter of whos doing the work.

The dispute over lift assists comes as improvements in fire safety and the nations aging population have changed the nature of a firefighters job. Today, fire and EMS agencies are more likely to deal with an older adult fall victim than a fire victim.

Lift assists are now the seventh most common type of 911 call, with an average of 1,800 lift-assist calls every day nationwide, according to an analysis of the National Fire Incident Reporting System, which collects emergency calls from more than 23,000 fire departments. The data does not include calls to about 13,700 EMS agencies, although there is significant overlap in calls between the two databases.

The calls come often from elderly people living both at home and at facilities. While both situations strain resources, fire officials said senior-care homes should be equipped to handle these calls.

You go in there, and they have staff all over the place, said Kevin Joles, an EMS division chief in Lawrence, Kan. Its part of our job thats being taken advantage of, and weve mostly stayed quiet about it.

A growing number of cities and towns - from Rocklin, Calif., to Naples, Fla., to Lincoln, Neb. - have started pushing back with special fees of $100 to $800 for senior lift-assist calls. Most of the fees are targeted at what fire officials call the frequent fliers - assisted-living and senior-care facilities.

In Anchorage, the fire department introduced a lift-assist fee to prevent assisted-living facilities from understaffing, or having inadequate resources, for people under their care, Josef Rutz, fire department administrator, said in an email. The first lift is free, but a facilitys second lift assist within 12 months costs $250.

Kansas City, Mo., added a lift-assist fee to discourage repeat offenders, said Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins. The amount is flexible and set to be reasonably calculated to defray the costs, according to city code. The department also contacts facilities to tell them they need to hire some orderlies, he said.

In Mequon, Wis., the fee is billed directly to the facility to emphasize that its the companys responsibility, said Deputy Fire Chief Kurt Zellmann.

We tell them they cant pass that onto the patient, he said. But they cant prohibit it.

Industry groups have largely opposed being singled out.

Why should assistance to a resident in a care facility - which is their home! - be held to a different standard? Matt Hartman, president of the Illinois Health Care Association and Illinois Center for Assisted Living, said in a statement to The Post.

In a letter opposing one towns proposed lift-assist fee, the American Seniors Housing Association, which represents all levels of senior-care communities, called it a fee-for-service charge for emergency service calls to residential care facilities for seniors. The association dismissed the unidentified towns proposal as illogical and illegal.

The associations letter also noted that the fee ultimately will be paid for by the residents - indicating it will pass on the cost. When contacted by The Post, the senior housing association and other industry groups declined to discuss whether residents are being charged the lift-assist fees.

After Portland, Ore., imposed fees for what it said were unnecessary 911 calls, the Oregon Health Care Association pushed through a state bill in 2021 that makes it harder for local governments to follow suit. The association is politically powerful; Oregon is seen as the birthplace of assisted living.

Assisted-living facilities, which serve more than 1 million residents nationwide, are not as tightly regulated by the federal government as nursing homes, which serve about 1.2 million people, according to industry estimates. The growth in assisted living has led to new problems: A Post investigation last year revealed that more than 2,000 people had wandered away from assisted-living and dementia-care units or had been left unattended outside these facilities since 2018, resulting in more than 100 deaths - often due to heat or cold exposure.

Assisted-living facilities appear to make far more 911 calls for lift assists than nursing homes, which have higher staffing requirements, according to Ron Nunziato, senior policy director at the Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents nursing homes. Nunziato said he rarely called 911 for a lift assist at a nursing home during the three decades that he ran a company that included both nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

We had enough staff and equipment to get someone off the floor, out of the tub, whatever the case may be, Nunziato said, adding: We dont believe that skilled nursing facilities are causing the concern.

The Post found most facilities described as nursing homes in the fire department call data for lift-assist calls were, in fact, assisted-living or independent-living homes.

The routine failure to help residents off the floor is a stark example of how senior-care homes limit services in surprising ways.

In late December, Erica Fishbeins parents both ended up on the floor of their apartment at Ingleside at Rock Creek in Washington, a luxurious community that offers everything from independent-living apartments to assisted living and locked memory-care units.

Fishbein said her father, 82, had bent down to pick something up at their independent-living apartment. Then her mother, 80, tried to help him and ended up on the floor, too.

Neither was hurt, Fishbein said, so her father called the front desk for help. But a security officer at the facility told them he needed to call 911 because he wasnt allowed to lift residents, Fishbein said.

I was shocked they had to call the fire department, said Fishbein, who lives in California. There is memory care and assisted living in the same facility. Why didnt they call a nurse from one of the other properties to assist?

Ingleside officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In Washington, the number of lift-assist calls has become a challenging issue, said Stephen Gerber, a D.C. Fire sergeant paramedic. The fire department does not charge lift-assist fees.

Rockford would like to, but lacks the authority, because of a quirk of state law. Fire Chief Michele Pankow said its frustrating that the department is being used as a stopgap for this group of facilities.

They call, and we just keep coming, agreed Mayor Tom McNamara.

City fire officials said they have talked with facility administrators about ways to handle these situations themselves.

For three or four months, the numbers go down. Things go great, said Jonathon Larson, Rockfords EMS coordinator. But then the [staff] turnover rate goes up. And the numbers go back up.

Rockford might get its lift-assist fees if a proposed Illinois law passes the states legislature. The bills main sponsor, state Rep. Mike Kelly (D), is a Chicago firefighter who has also seen a jump in lift assists.

Were not trying to get out of doing the calls, he said. Were just trying to make sure were available for real emergencies.

But the fee might provide only a temporary cure. Peoria, a city two hours south of Rockford, has had a $400 lift-assist fee on its books since 2020. The fee was a deterrent for a little while, Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said in an interview. But then the calls from assisted-living facilities started ticking back up.

Sollberger said he suspects that some level of cost analysis was going on within these assisted-living places.

Even with the fee, he said, its still cheaper to dial 911.

- - -

Steven Rich contributed to this report.

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Fresno State students, faculty and a few community activists held a sensible protest to demonstrate their pro-Palestinian support and solidarity.

Yeah, I know. Those two words  sensible and protest  are incongruous. They certainly cant be used to describe the turmoil and upheaval that took place recently on university campuses across the country.

But unlike student protests at UCLA, Columbia and elsewhere, Fresno States on Wednesday was organized as a sit-in rather than an occupation. No one brought tents or erected barricades. Rather, they gathered around the Speakers Platform near the library to exercise their right to free speech and peaceful assembly for a few hours before disbanding.

There was no police presence. Neither campus police, nor the Fresno PD made themselves visible. The few counter-protesters in attendance opted not to insert themselves. Even the person who showed up with a video camera wearing a Donald Trump mask.

Opinion

Protest organizers, a group calling itself Students for the Liberation of Palestine at Fresno State, released a statement on social media criticizing the university for fail(ing) to stand with its students against injustice and ongoing genocide in Gaza.

But when President Saul Jimenez-Sandoval made a brief appearance to mingle with student protesters, he was warmly received.

Im not here for the media, Jimenez-Sandoval said when he spotted me standing nearby. Im here for my students.

Fresno States sensible protest stood in marked contrast not only to the other pro-Palestinian demonstrations, but also to the universitys tumultuous history. The campus was a hotbed of activism during the 1960s and 1970s as students marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

Back then, anti-war students hung President Richard Nixon in effigy and erupted in anger after several Black and Latino professors were fired. On May 22, 1970, protesters busted windows as they ran through campus before setting up a blockade on Shaw Avenue. Dozens were arrested. One was later convicted for fire-bombing the $1 million computer laboratory.

Its not just baby boomer history, either. As recently as 2010, students camped out at the library to protest its limited hours due to budget cuts and showed up at then-President John Weltys doorstep for a Saturday morning study hall.

Dont ruin this for everyone please

Why was Fresno States pro-Palestinian protest so peaceful and somewhat staid when compared to whats going on around the country?

One reason, probably the largest, is intention. Organizers (led by a young woman named Haneen born and raised in the Occupied Territories) advertised Wednesdays gathering as a peaceful sit-in with no megaphones or speakers permitted.

Dont ruin this for everyone please, the Instagram post said. Remain peaceful.

Students and other supporters gather in the Free Speech area at Fresno State while holding Palestinian flags and signs during a peaceful pro-Palestinian sit-in organized by Students for Palestinian Liberation on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

Fresno State students of Palestinian heritage are also fairly small in number. (Though it should be stated that demonstrators represented many ethnicities, and not just Arabs.)

Another reason, endorsed by English lit professor John Beynon and others, is that many Fresno State undergrads come from modest means and hold down multiple jobs to afford the $3,600-per-semester tuition and the rising cost of living.

Not to overly generalize their counterparts at UCLA and Columbia as rich kids from deep-pocketed families, but protesting is a privilege.

I think there is something to be said for what you might call the luxury of being able to demonstrate, Beynon said. Its a feeling of, I know that if I go to jail my parents are going to bail me out or I know I can afford an expensive lawyer.

Im not trying to downplay anyones activism, but its a different situation when you know you have to show up to a job or watch your sisters kids.

A chapter in somebodys history

Just because Fresno State students didnt occupy campus or get themselves arrested doesnt mean they are any less devoted to their cause.

In fact, Id argue the message is clearer and more convincing when not clouded by headline-grabbing clashes that, lets be honest, are somewhat performative.

The hard, cold truth is that protests rarely result in actual policy shifts. Even this week, after all thats happened, University of California and Cal State University officials both rejected calls to cut ties with Israel or divest investments in that country.

Does that mean all this is pointless? Absolutely not.

Change doesnt happen in an instant; nor is it always readily apparent. And even protests that fail to achieve their desired outcome can still result in personal growth.

This is going to be a chapter in somebodys history, said Beynon, who protested against the U.S. bombing of Libya in the 1980s and the first Gulf War.

I do think its very easy to dismiss a political movement or uprising that doesnt result in what seemed to be the intent. But Im still hopeful change is occurring, even in ways we cant see.

Good sense prevailed at Fresno States first pro-Palestinian protest. Students, faculty and administrators showed it can be done.
Craigsville Town Council on May 1.

CRAIGSVILLE  Craigsvilles Town Council is still waiting for news.

The Craigsville Town Council met Thursday night, voting to delay the first reading of an incomplete budget.

The reason for the delay is the same as for many other changes happening in Craigsville  the Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) announced closure of Augusta Correctional Center in December, with a town hall soon following.

When asked what is going to happen to the prison complex itself by a member of the community, Craigsville Mayor Richard Fox did not have much of an update.

Theyre going to try to sell the building and the property in its entirety, said Fox. As far as that part goes any further, I dont have any idea what theyre going to do. They told us on Friday that a movie firm wanted to come in there and make movies over there in the prison, but thats a short-term thing.

He also speculated what might happen if no buyer is found, Im hoping that somebody will come in there and buy it, make something out of it. It would certainly be a waste to see that torn down. Eventually, Im sure, if nothing happens with it, that will be what will happen to it. I wish I had something better to tell you, but I dont.

DOC is expected to operate the sewer plant until December. On the first of the new year, the town will have the reins again.

There are several things that need to be addressed at the sewer plant, and fixed, said Fox. They are doing that as we speak. When they plan to turn it back over to the town, theyre going to turn the key with everything properly working as it should be.

The sewer treatment plant was owned by the Department of Corrections but was built with loans that passed through Craigsville. The town owes $1.6 million for the sewer plant and about $830,000 on the water treatment plant.

Republican State Senator Mark Obenshain previously told The News Leader the best option for the town was to include a line item in the budget completely paying off the infrastructure debt. Both the House of Delegates and Senate passed H.B. 30, a budget bill, in March, including an $3.8 million allocation to pay off the loans.

The bill was then thrown out over unrelated disagreements between the Legislature and Governor Glenn Youngkin. Legislators and the governor are expected to meet again in mid-May to start the budget process from scratch.

Because the state budget, and the allocation, are effectively paused, Craigsville is waiting to find out how to handle its own finances, and the potential ramifications of not being able to pay its bills.

Story continues

Fox explained this to the council and public before calling for a motion.

With that said, I need to ask the council for a motion and second to give me a thirty-day extension on the budget, Fox said. Reason being, we cant do that budget until we know what Richmond is going to do and we know exactly where were going to stand in the budget. Hopefully well know something by [May] 20, where we can actually do the budget the way it needs to be done.

The Craigsville Town Council unanimously agreed to the extension. The budget will be presented in the June meeting and voted on in July.

Hopefully, we can get this all taken care of, Fox said.

Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? Its welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Craigsville budget on hold until the Legislature settles its own
Sharon Lubinski, whose four decades in law enforcement saw her become the first woman to serve as U.S. Marshal in Minnesota and first openly gay person to do so, has died at 71.

Lubinski died April 19, according to her obituary and a subsequent announcement from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who recommended in 2010 that President Barack Obama select her to lead the agency responsible for protecting Minnesota's federal judges and courthouses. A cause of death was not given, though her obituary noted that family members were by her side when she passed.

The Green Bay, Wis., native became among the nation's highest-level female law enforcement officials before retiring in 2016 and left a legacy still being felt by those who have since filled her shoes.

"Minnesota is a safer place because of Sharon," said Klobuchar this week, adding: "She is an inspiration whose story and actions have encouraged more people from all backgrounds to serve."

Lubinski first worked as a deputy for the Dane County Sheriff's Office in south-central Wisconsin before joining the Minneapolis Police Department in 1987. There, she held jobs such as precinct commander, deputy chief of patrol and assistant police chief  and was once a finalist for the Minneapolis police chief job. As U.S. Marshal, Klobuchar said, Lubinski was "instrumental" in the manhunt to capture the man who shot and killed Mendota Heights Police Officer Scott Patrick during a traffic stop in 2014.

In 1993, Lubinski came out as a lesbian both to her leaders and colleagues at MPD and in subsequent media interviews. She told the Star Tribune at the time that her decision was partly informed by recent murders of gay men in Minneapolis and seeing how police and the gay community struggled to work together.

"If I'm going to be a real person and if I'm ever going to make real change as a cop, I have to do it as a lesbian cop," she told the newspaper. "I can no longer justify keeping this to myself."

Then-Police Chief John Laux told the Star Tribune that, as Lubinski opened up about her life, he watched her nerves and unease recede: "It became clearer to me just how torturous it is for someone to lead a double life," said Laux, who later chaired the selection committee that eventually helped Klobuchar recommend Lubinski for U.S. Marshal.

"Everywhere she went she was well regarded by the troops," said Greg Hestness, who worked with Lubinski at the MPD. "When you're in a position where you are setting the tone and challenging stereotypes, to still be respected by the troops is a sign of a lot of leadership."

The role of U.S. Marshal can in some districts be approached as a "semiretirement job" or "honorific cap" to a long law enforcement career, said Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz. But Schiltz said that was never the case with Lubinski.

"She was the type of person if you would express a concern to her you only had to express it once," said Schiltz, who added that Lubinski set herself apart by meeting individually with each federal judge as she began the job. "You knew she would take it seriously, you knew she would follow up on it and you knew she would get back to you."

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, chief judge during Lubinski's tenure as marshal, described her as "the most effective law enforcement partner with whom I have ever worked."

"She was the definition of outstanding leadership: encouraging, courageous, selfless, and a remarkable decision maker, greatly respected by judges and deputy marshals alike," Tunheim said. "Not only was she the best female law enforcement leader in America, she was simply one of the best law enforcement leaders in America, period."

Eddie Frizell, the current U.S. Marshal, worked for Lubinski while she was a sergeant at the Minneapolis Police Department. He described her as a "guiding light" in his first days on the job. The two met on Frizell's first 911 response call on a dark, rainy night in north Minneapolis "during a very complicated and violent domestic scene."

"She just looked at me and said, essentially, 'follow me,'" Frizell said. "And that was very reassuring."

Lubinski is survived by her spouse of 38 years, Fran; her brother, Travis, and her sister, Toni. Services will be held May 19 in Edina.

Friends and colleagues remember her Green Bay Packer fandom being the source of good-natured ribbing in the office, and how Lubinski clung to passions such as opera, running, astronomy and birding. Indeed, in lieu of flowers  "and to conserve the birds she loved"  her obituary asked that tributes be made in the form of donations to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  On Thursday, various law enforcement agencies in Topeka honored those lost.

The Capitol hosted a candlelight vigil Thursday in memory of law enforcement officers.

This was part of National Police Week and National Peace Officers Memorial Day. The Shawnee County Sheriffs Office gathered to honor late deputy Gregory Stubbs.

Stubbs, 34, died of a heart attack on June 29, 1998 during a drug raid, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. While on assignment, Stubbs told his fellow law enforcement officers that he was feeling unwell. He was later found in his patrol car after suffering a heart attack.

Photo courtesy of the Shawnee County Sheriffs Office.

Photo courtesy of the Shawnee County Sheriffs Office.

Photo courtesy of the Shawnee County Sheriffs Office.

A passer-by saw Stubbs slumped over his steering wheel and called for help. Stubbs was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. On August 30th, 1999, the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Advisory Committee voted to place Deputy Stubbs on the Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial.

Local law enforcement officers, family honor the fallen with candlelight vigil

Stubbs participated in various drug raids around Topeka. In 1997, he was photographed with Deputies Wally Long and John Schrock standing with 105 pounds of meth they had seized.

Stubbs was born in Kansas City, Missouri on December 19th, 1963 to Janet and Dr. David Stubbs. Stubbs had two brothers, David and Bruce. The boys enjoyed playing Big Valley an American western drama television series. Stubbs and the love of his life, Teresa, had four daughters: Krystal, Kyla, Kerri, and Kourtney.

Greg was so very proud of his family, the Sheriffs Office wrote on Facebook.

For more local 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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Sheriff charges three men after ongoing drug investigation in Henry County

HENRY COUNTY, Va. (WFXR)  The Henry County Sheriffs Office arrested three men on drug-related charges after serving a search warrant in Martinsville on Tuesday, April 30.

According to the sheriff, deputies, and personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) executed search warrants at multiple homes on Valentine Court, Preston-Scales Drive, and Ziglar Road. The warrants were related to a months-long investigation into illegal possession, manufacturing, and distribution of narcotics.

During the search, law enforcement allegedly seized:

1.5 pounds of suspect fentanyl

Approximately a quarter pound suspected cocaine

A quantity of methamphetamine and marijuana

Six illegally possessed firearms

Three vehicles

Undisclosed amount of U.S. Currency

Digital scales

Packaging materials

California man sentenced to 18 years for trafficking thousands of fentanyl pills into Virginia

The sheriffs office says three men have been arrested and charged with the following:

Donte Cheron Freeman (aka Leonard Cheron Freeman): Possession of a Schedule I or II drug with intent to distribute

Pindarius Verdonte Simmons: Possession of a Schedule I or II drug with intent to distribute Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon Possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I/II substances

Johnny Alphonso Harley Possession of a Schedule I or II drug with intent to distribute Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon Possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I/II substances



All three men are currently being held at the Henry County Adult Detention Center without bond.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv.
Sheriff T.K. Waters and Chief Randi Glossman will be joined by other members of the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office at the Sheriffs Neighborhood Crime Prevention Walk on Sat., May 4 at 10:30 a.m.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The walk will happen in the Southside, Mandarin, and Nocatee area of Jacksonville.

This is an opportunity for the members of the community to talk with the sheriff and his staff about crime in their area, JSO said in a statement.

The walk will take place around Cypress Trails at Nocatee community, encompassing a walk along Cypress Trails Drive, and Apen Leaf Drive.

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Update 10 a.m.: The Shawnee County Sheriffs Office says no one was injured in connection to the incident. One person was detained, questioned and released. The sheriffs office is still seeking public assistance.

TOPEKA (KSNT)  The Shawnee County Sheriffs Office is asking the public for help finding the suspects of a Montara area shooting.

At 6:50 p.m., May 2, 2024, deputies responded to the 6700 block of Southwest Greencastle Drive for reports of a shooting. Four subjects were reported to be carrying firearms in the area.

The sheriffs office is asking area residents to check surveillance cameras for anything that could help law enforcement identify the subjects. If you have any information you can call 785-251-2200 or email detectiveleads@snco.us.

Topeka police arrest man for allegedly taking law enforcement vehicle

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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protesting Israel's war in Gaza rallied at one of Australia's top universities on Friday demanding it divest from companies with ties to Israel, in a movement inspired by the student occupations sweeping U.S. campuses.

Pro-Palestinian activists set up an encampment last week outside the sandstone main hall at University of Sydney, one of Australia's largest tertiary institutions.

Similar camps have sprung up at universities in Melbourne, Canberra and other Australian cities.

Unlike in the U.S., where police have forcibly removed scores of defiant pro-Palestinian protesters at several colleges, protest sites in Australia have been peaceful with scant police presence.

On Friday, protesters rallied to demand University of Sydney divest from companies with ties to Israel, echoing calls from students in the U.S., Canada and France.

Standing in the chanting crowd of more than 300 with his two-year old son on his shoulders, Matt, 39, said he came to show it was not just students angry at Israel's actions in Gaza.

"Once you understand what is going on you have a responsibility to try and get involved and raise awareness and show solidarity," he told Reuters, declining to give his last name.

Several hundred metres away from the Sydney university protest and separated by lines of security guards, hundreds gathered under Australian and Israeli flags to hear speakers say the pro-Palestinian protests made Jewish students and staff feel unsafe on campus.

"There's no space for anybody else, walking through campus chanting 'Intifada' and 'from the river to the sea' it does something, it's scary," said Sarah, an academic who declined to give her name for fear of repercussions.

University of Sydney vice chancellor Mark Scott told local media on Thursday the pro-Palestinian encampment could stay on campus in part because there was not the violence seen in the U.S.

While several police cars were parked at the entrance to the university, no police were present at either protest.

Long a stalwart ally of Israel, Australia has become increasingly critical of its conduct in Gaza, where an Australian aid worker was killed in an Israeli attack last month.

Pro-Palestinian protesters said the government had not done enough to push for peace and led the crowd in chants against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Saturday continues our threat for scattered showers and thunderstorms as our cold front slows down and takes its sweet time crossing through the area and an area of low pressure moves along that front. The abundant clouds and showers that are expected as a result wont result in much in the way of thunderstorm activity, but rain, which could be steady at times, is expected. Well see high temperatures in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees in what will be a soggy and humid day. Temperatures overnight once again wont drop much  only to around 60 degrees, with humid air in place.

Sunday continues our chances for scattered showers and thunderstorms, though the coverage of those storms will not be quite as widespread as on Saturday with our front scooting off to our east. However, downpours will once again be slow-moving, so the threat for very localized heavy rainfall will continue. With a few peaks of sun expected in between showers and storms, high temperatures will rebound into the mid 70s.

Monday continues the risk for at least a few showers with a secondary cold front approaching and then stalling. As a result, with clouds and occasional showers around, we will see high temperatures in the low to mid 70s.

Tuesday will provide more chances for scattered showers and thunderstorms, with Mondays front lifting back up to the north as a warm front. Coverage of thunderstorms Tuesday should be less than on Monday, but will still be scattered with high temperatures in the low to mid 70s.

Wednesday will keep the risk for a few storms with a warm and humid air mass in place as our next cold front approaches. Well see high temperatures near 80 degrees. A strong cold front will approach late in the day, which will be the focus for severe weather farther west of us. Well watch closely if any of these storms can keep their strength as they approach us, but at this point, our severe weather threat looks relatively low overall.

How Cold is Too Cold? Spring Planting Guide

Thursday continues our unsettled pattern with the risk for more scattered showers and thunderstorms with yet another area of low pressure nearby across the Great Lakes. High temperatures will be in the mid 70s.

Friday keeps our chances for rain around, but there is light finally at the end of the tunnel! A cold front will scoot through and there is drier air behind it, which looks to make for decent weekend conditions! High temperatures will be in the mid 70s.

Looking ahead, our unsettled weather pattern does continue, but its not looking as wet as the previous days, with isolated showers and storms expected Saturday and Sunday before we dry out on Monday. High temperatures on Saturday will be near 70 with 60s expected Sunday into Monday.

Severe Weather Awareness Week: Flash flood Safety

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.

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!

TONIGHT

Showers mainly before midnight. Lows around 60.

SATURDAY

Scattered showers and storms likely. Highs near 70.

SUNDAY

Scattered showers and storms. Highs in the mid 70s.

MONDAY

Shower chances continue. Highs in the low to mid 70s.

TUESDAY

Scattered storms. Highs in the mid 70s.

WEDNESDAY

More scattered storms. Highs near 80.

THURSDAY

Few scattered storms again. Highs in the mid 70s.

FRIDAY

Scattered showers. Highs in the mid 70s.

SATURDAY

Isolated shower. Plenty of dry time. Highs in the 70s.

MOTHERS DAY

Isolated showers. Highs in the 60s.

MONDAY

Plenty of sun. Highs in the 60s.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
ST. LOUIS  With another anticipated protest Friday evening, several figures have weighed in on the turmoil amongst anti-war demonstrations across St. Louis recently.

Two protests have taken place within the past week at Washington University on Saturday and Saint Louis University on Wednesday.

The protest at WashU led to the arrests of 100 people, with only about a quarter of them being part of the school community. Among those that were arrested was St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green.

No further information has been released as to whether there were any charges against those who were detained.

What happened last weekend on our campus was not good for anyoneWe would have much preferred that those who were arrested Saturday left voluntarily when authorities told them multiple times to disperse. Unfortunately, they made a different choice, which is regrettable for us all, a statement from a group of WashU leaders stated. This has been a tumultuous time for our WashU community. And unfortunately, we know its not over. Tensions remain very high within and outside of our campushere in St. Louis and beyondas we all continue to grapple with serious, high-stakes world issues. There are no easy solutions.

SLUs campus held a group of community members protesting Wednesday, eventually walking to N. Grand Boulevard and closing off the street. There was an understanding between the university, protestors, and police that law enforcement wouldnt intervene as long as it stayed peaceful. No arrests were made that night.

This was not the first protest on the issue of the Israel-Hamas war to occur in the City of St. Louis and will likely not be the last. It remains the top priority of Mayor Jones and the City of St. Louis to ensure that all members of the community are safe, a release from Mayor Tishaura Jones administration said. We are hopeful that both the protesters and university administration can emulate the precedent set by Wednesday nights protest.

Father wanted for child kidnapping in Belleville

Fridays scheduled protest is expected to begin in Forest Park. According to Mayor Jones office, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will be on hand as protestors are within city limits. Once they reach campus, jurisdiction will be turned over to the Washington University Police Department.

WashU has a long, proud history of encouraging and supporting free expression. It is a defining characteristic of who we are as an academic institution. Our commitment is firm; however, it does have its limits. It always has. We do not allow anyone  particularly individuals who are not directly affiliated with WashU  to violate our policies, create chaos, instill fear in our community, and prevent us from engaging in our regular educational activities and campus life. We stand firm in our resolve to take action when individuals inside or outside of our community do any of those things, the statement from WashU said.

Their letter continues to list their policies regarding protesting on campus, which reads:

Washington University

This situation is testing us all. Were learning a lot about ourselves and our community. We have faith that we will pull together  like we always do  and find our way forward. We are strong and resilient. Our hope is that we will come out of this with a greater appreciation for all we have and all we mean to each other, WashUs statement said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
A 65-year-old history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has been released from the hospital with multiple broken ribs and a broken hand he says he suffered when police responded to a pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University in St. Louis last Saturday.

At the protest, hundreds of community members and local activists demanded the university stop investing in Boeing, an arms supplier to Israel, and called for an end to the siege on Gaza.

In response, the university sent police to disband an encampment that was set up in violation of the private universitys policy, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 individuals who had refused to leave after multiple requests to do so, the university said in a statement.

We are firmly committed to free expression and allow ample opportunity for voices to be heard on our campus, the statement reads. However, we expect everyone to respect our policies and we will take swift action to enforce them to their fullest extent.

It was during the police response that SIUE Professor Steve Tamari was body slammed and crushed by the weight of several St. Louis County police officers and then dragged across campus, according to a statement from Tamari posted by his wife, Sandra Tamari, Thursday on X (formerly Twitter).

Tamari previously posted a video of her husbands arrest. It showed him wearing a yellow jacket, taking video with his phone as the event unfolded. He appeared to walk into the back of a police officer, then move away as another officer charged and grabbed him. Others quickly converged and wrestled him to the ground.

Onlookers can be heard yelling stop, and dont hurt him.

The latest war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a surprise raid on southern Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israels response in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, with about two-thirds of them being children and women, according to local health officials. Additionally, the war has driven around 80% of Gazas population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine, the Associated Press reports.

The Wash U protest took place amid pro-Palestinian college campus protests taking place across the country in recent weeks that have resulted in more than 2,300 arrests, according to the AP.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at Washington University in St. Louis.

Over the last seven months, Ive been in agony watching my people in Palestine be slaughtered with U.S. bombs and funding, Steve Tamari wrote in the statement posted by his wife. I joined the student-led protest on Saturday to stop this genocide and support and protect the students.

As a result of the confrontation with police, Tamari was hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand, he wrote in his statement.

One doctor told me I am lucky to be alive; my lungs could have been punctured and I could have died on the ground as they abused me, he said.

My ordeal, however, is a small price to pay for Israels ongoing genocide in Gaza, aided and abetted by the U.S. government, the military, the political elite of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and, most outrageously, institutions of higher education like Washington University which give lip service to the principles of freedom of speech while they trample anything that might rattle the military industrial complex to which they are so beholden.

According to SIUEs faculty website, Tamaris areas of research include the modern Middle East, Ottoman Syria, Arab history, early modern history, theories of modern world history, and ethnic and national identities in pre-modern times. His Academia page includes uploads of dozens of articles hes written on those subjects.
(Getty Images)

LINCOLN  A 71-year-old former president of a small, rural Nebraska bank has pleaded guilty to bank fraud allegations and is to be sentenced in August.

Jack Poulsen of Ericson faces a maximum penalty of 30 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $1 million, announced Nebraska U.S. Attorney Susan Lehr.

Ericson State Bank was founded in 1959 and had its only location there. It was an insured member of the FDIC from 1960 until its closing in February 2020, according to a media release from Lehrs office. Poulsen served as president from 2010 through September 2019. He also sat on the board of directors.

As president, Poulsen was responsible for overseeing the banks affairs and day-to-day operations and informing other board members of the institutions financial condition. He had lending authority but was required to seek approval from the bank loan committee for loans exceeding $250,000.

In addition, Poulsen was not to be the officer on loans for which he would have a personal conflict of interest, including those made to parties or entities related to him.

But beginning in 2012, according to the federal probe, the bank began a lending relationship with an individual related to Poulsen. The individual and his business entity received numerous loans and opened several accounts with the bank, the news release said, adding that Poulsen was not supposed to be associated as a loan officer for those.

Nevertheless, beginning at least in June of 2015, Poulsen began interfering with these insider-related loans and accounts for the purpose of hiding their unsoundness from the Board of Directors, federal officials said in a media release Thursday.

The alleged actions included advancing bank funds for more than the approved loan amounts and manipulating computer data to conceal past-due status of loans. The actions continued, federal officials said, until Poulsen was removed from his bank positions in September 2019.

In one instance in 2019, Poulsen reportedly entered a new maturity date for one of the insider-related loans. Due to this manipulation, the loan was not presented as past due to the Board of Directors despite the loan being mature for 181 days and drawn to a balance of approximately $1.6 million over the approved loan amount, the media release said.

The case was investigated by the Federal Housing Financing Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve Board and FBI.

Investigators said that Ericson State Bank ultimately failed and was placed into receivership with the FDIC. The bank had been a state-chartered financial institution regulated and examined by the Nebraska Department of Finance.

The investigators determined that a loss of more than $800,000 was attributable to the insider-related loans which they said were subject to the scheme.

The post Small-town Nebraska former bank executive pleads guilty to bank fraud allegations appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
Entravision Communications Corporation (NYSE:EVC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2024

Entravision Communications Corporation misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.54615 EPS, expectations were $-0.09. Entravision Communications Corporation isnt one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Entravision First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Roy Nir, Vice President, Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. You may begin.

Roy Nir: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Entravision's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Michael Christenson, Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Young, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I must inform you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please refer to Entravision's SEC filing for a list of risks and uncertainties that could impact actual results. This call will also include non-GAAP financial measures. The company has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most comparable GAAP measures in today's press release. The press release is available on the company's Investor Relations page and was filed with the SEC on Form 8K. I will now turn the call over to Michael Christenson.

A television broadcaster preparing a new Spanish-language program for its viewers.

Michael Christenson: Thank you, Roy, and thank you to all of you for joining us on this call today. The first quarter of 2024 was transformative for Entravision. As you all know, Meta informed us that they were terminating their authorized sales partner program. The effective date is July 1. For this quarter, we are working with Meta to wind down the business. We are working to provide a smooth transition for advertisers, for Meta, and for Entravision. In round numbers for 2023, Meta was half of our revenue and half of our cash flow. Terminating the Meta business will have a significant impact on our strategy and operations, and you'll hear more about this transformation as we progress through 2024. Fortunately, we have a strong balance sheet with substantial cash and modest debt, and our remaining businesses are profitable and generate significant cash flow.

So we have the financial capacity to absorb this event and move on. Now we are focused on our future, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead of us. We are certainly more excited about the opportunities ahead of us than the market price of our stock would indicate. We believe broadcasters provide a valuable service to their audiences in America. We have served our audience for three decades. One in five of the Latinos in America are in our broadcast markets. We believe our audience will be critical to determining the outcome of our 2024 elections. So this year, we have invested in expanding our news production capabilities and the amount of news we provide to our audience. We now provide morning, midday, early evening, and late news in all of our markets, and we provide weekend early evening and late news in San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver, El Paso, and McAllen, Texas.

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We have also invested in a sales organization that can engage directly with political decision makers to educate them about our audience and how Entravision can help them reach our audience. As far as our advertising, services, and technology businesses are concerned, what we present as our digital segment for financial reporting purposes, it will be dramatically smaller after we wind down meta. The core of this business is our Smadex programmatic advertising platform, our DSP. As we said last year, Smadex continues to work hard building AI capabilities into its platform and building a scalable, customer-focused sales organization. They are making progress and have now returned to industry growth rates, and they have done it profitably. So we have put meta behind us.

See also

30 Most Dangerous Cities in the US and

20 Countries with the Highest Suicide Rates in the World.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
SMITHVILLE, Mo.  A Smithville, Missouri woman charged in a 2021 child endangerment case, leading to a childs death, has been sentenced.

Karen Vice, 55, was sentenced to two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Murder suspect booked into jail months after Chiefs rally shooting

According to court records, judgement for restitution in the sum of $10,000 shall be paid to the Clay County Prosecutors Office to the child victims biological parents for grief or psychological counseling along with $75 admin fee assessed.

Vice was charged in January of 2022 with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, causing the childs death.

The Clay County prosecutors indictment, obtained by FOX4 in 2022, did not say how old the child was or how they died. It does say Vice failed to maintain a safe sleeping environment for the child on Feb. 12, 2021.

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The court also sentenced Vice to the Shock Incarceration Program.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Students dig into sand at the Indiana Society of Land Surveyors table at the GEAR UP I.G.N.I.T.E. Career Expo at St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds on May 2, 2024.

SOUTH BEND  Land surveyors aren't always the life of the party.

But Michelle Slack, a land surveyor and the Chapter President of the St. Joseph County Valley Chapter of the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors, set up an interactive exhibit that proved magnetic to many young teens.

Can I touch this? one student asked as he approached the land surveyors table.

Dig all you want, Michelle replied and soon attracted a crowd.

I want to play with the sand! another student exclaimed as he and three other students gathered around the sandbox and picked up plastic shovels to smooth or shape the sand, altering the projection from above.

The budding surveyors were among the eighth and ninth grade students from the South Bend Community School Corporations middle and high schools who attended an interactive job fair Thursday to explore future career paths.

The students came in alternating groups by bus to the St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds for the inaugural GEAR UP I.G.N.I.T.E. Career Expo to explore multiple rooms filled with 16 unique industry sectors and talk with around 75 vendors.

Local and regional departments were represented in various fields including culinary arts, dentistry, social work, construction, brick laying, plumbing, adult education and South Bends police and fire departments.

School officials specifically chose to include students in this age group to help give them an informed understanding of their career pathways.

The eighth grade rising to ninth and ninth grade rising to 10th students are making significant real world decisions about what theyre going to take in high school, schedule wise, said Chad Addie, assistant superintendent of the South Bend Community School Corporation.

You need a why behind your education, he said. If you dont have a reason, or a why, school really gets boring.

Students tap bells, learning Music Therapy at ADEC's table, at the GEAR UP I.G.N.I.T.E. Career Expo at St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds on May 2, 2024.

For kids early in the process  middle school and early high school  the event provides them with the opportunity to have an informed understanding of career pathways, Addie said, but also allows them to talk with real professionals.

Were elevating their vision of what they can do, he said.

These students can plan early to take part in the school's Career and Technical and Education program where students can earn high school and college credits as well as work a paying job.

This is an aligned programming between community partners, students and higher education, Addie said.

Thursday's turnout ranged from students gravitating to tables that caught their interest  Chartwells was passing out free smoothies and ADEC was teaching about Music Therapy with bells  to students seeking out tables regarding careers they had their mind set on from a young age.

Riley High School students, Brenda Alvarez and Emily Salas, shared about their interest in Dental Careers at the GEAR UP I.G.N.I.T.E. Career Expo at St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds on May 2, 2024.

Adams High School student Cherish Fowler said the tables she found most interesting were Chartwells display and the nursing demonstration put on by Washington High Schools Medical Magnet Program.

I want to go into the nursing medical field myself, Fowler said, saying shes always known that.

Adjacent to Washingtons Medical Magnet table was Dental Careers, where Riley High School students Brenda Alvarez and Emily Salas shared their interest in dentistry both developed after they got braces.

Alvarez said she had a friend who was a dental assistant who told her it was a good career. She said she likes the field more now that shes learned more. Her aunt previously suggested she pursue nursing, but Alvarez said she liked dentistry more.

Theres so many other opinions, but at the end of the day, this is what I want to do, she said.

Salas spoke about the hands-on experience she's received  learning how to do mouth impressions and x-rays  through the program.

Ms. Fisher teaches us stuff that the colleges also teach, said Alvarez, who hopes to attend IUSBs Dental Hygiene program. Well go into college having an understanding.

Alvarez and Salas are currently studying in class for the Indiana State Radiology Exam coming up in two weeks. If they pass, theyll be able to work as dental assistants.

South Bend Fire Department's Career and Technical and Education students assisted at the GEAR UP I.G.N.I.T.E. Career Expo at St. Joseph County 4-H Fairgrounds on May 2, 2024.

Meanwhile, Slack said the success she had engaging students in the thought of her career is much needed.

Surveying is hardly known at all, she said. We are losing people in the profession.

The average age of land surveyors is 58, she said, saying that not enough young people are joining the profession.

Yet, these professionals are needed for people who are buying a home, building a home or simply building a fence on their property, land surveyor Terry Lang described.

For him, its important to have land surveying as an option for kids to learn about at a young age.

Kids are technology-driven, he said, saying that surveying is a field already aligned with a kids interest in technology.

Surveying is on the cutting edge of electronics, he said. Were using lidar, were using drones, were using this type of imagery to do a lot of design work for engineering, architecture and surveying. Its on the cutting edge of technology.

Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Interactive career expo gets students excited about their future
At one high school in south Phoenix, Mexican American student group members are trying to register classmates who will be newly eligible to vote in November, when Arizona's large population of young Latinos could influence race outcomes.

Though the students leading the effort believe that voting is worthwhile, they said convincing some classmates has been a challenge.

Students in Cesar Chavez High School's M.E.Ch.A organization  short for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan  began a nonpartisan effort to register eligible classmates a week ago. They received training from the Arizona Center for Empowerment, and within three school days, they'd registered nearly 70 classmates. Much of the work took place during lunchtimes.

About 73% of the students at Cesar Chavez are Hispanic, according to Arizona Department of Education data, and there are about 500 students who will be newly eligible to vote in the November elections, according to Ann Acosta, a community liaison for the school.

They're part of a population that has the potential to be influential in the 2024 elections. About 163,000 Latino youth in Arizona are expected to turn 18 before the November election, according to Maria Teresa Kumar, the CEO of Voto Latino.

Latino youth make up about 40% of people in the western U.S., including Arizona, who will be newly eligible to vote in a presidential election in November, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

Roughly a quarter of eligible voters in Arizona are Latino, according to the Pew Research Center. Across the country, Latino eligible voters tend to be younger than eligible voters overall  31% of eligible Latino voters are between 18 and 29, compared to 20% of all U.S. adults in that age group, according to Pew.

Ismael Luna, 18, said he was surprised that many of his classmates were already registered to vote. But there was also a "huge number" of eligible classmates who weren't, he said. "I feel like if it wasn't for ACE being here and us tabling, they wouldn't have registered, this year at least," said the Cesar Chavez High School M.E.Ch.A co-president.

The Phoenix Union High School District typically hosts events to help register newly eligible students on National Voter Registration Day in September, according to Acosta, who has helped organize that effort at Cesar Chavez for the past five years. But "nothing to this scale," she said. It's the first time M.E.Ch.A is leading the efforts on campus.

Students in Cesar Chavez High School's M.E.Ch.A organization are registering classmates to vote. From left: Cesar Chavez student Brianna Lomas, Arizona Center for Empowerment organizer Ozzie Garcia and Cesar Chavez student Jocelyn Montiel at Cesar Chavez on May 1, 2024.

Brianna Lomas, 18, M.E.Ch.A co-president, and Jocelyn Montiel, 16, the group's treasurer, both said that abortion has been a common issue that their classmates said they care about. But this hasn't necessarily translated to their classmates wanting to vote, the student group leaders said.

Montiel, who will still be too young to vote in November, said she believes voting is an important way to express opinions. She said a visit to the state Capitol especially influenced her.

"I saw everything that was going on, how stuff was being voted for, and I was like, 'Yeah, some things have to change. ... When I am able to vote, maybe I should vote,'" Montiel said.

But many of Montiel's peers don't seem to see voting as a way to get their voices heard, she said. She's heard classmates express views on specific issues or laws, and "they have the option to vote, but they choose not to," she said.

Montiel also said some students just don't want to put in the effort required to register and vote.

"Nobody wants to be filling out a form," she said. "I get that." Some of her classmates have said that registering and then voting in November "seems like a lot of work."

But she said informing some of her classmates they can vote from home by mail has made it more appealing. "They were like, 'Oh, at home, in my PJs? Oh, OK,'" Montiel said.

Luna said that talking to classmates about registering to vote has encouraged them to consider what issues they should care about. "They actually start wondering, since they're registering to vote, 'Oh, what am I voting for?'" he said. "It actually opens the topic.  'What issues are there?' Otherwise, I feel like they wouldn't have asked."

Students in Cesar Chavez High School's M.E.Ch.A organization are registering classmates to vote.

Teacher Vanessa Sanchez, one of M.E.Ch.A's staff sponsors, said that some students seem disinclined to register.

"A lot of things we were running into was just, 'I don't want to vote. ... I don't want to even register. It's not on my priority list right now," she said. "When we try to get to the bottom of it, I think, as adults, we see a lot of our students disheartened by what's going on."

Even so, Luna said many of his friends have said they plan to vote in November, but the conversation is always about the presidential election.

"I don't think anyone really talks about the local level. ... At least not that I've heard of," Luna said.

Though the population of Latino youth who are eligible to vote is fast-growing, young Latinos have also historically had low turnout rates compared to other groups. During the 2022 midterm elections, the voter turnout rate of Latinos between 18 to 29 in the western U.S. was 15%, compared to 35% of white youth, 17% of Black youth and 22% of Asian youth, according to CIRCLE at Tufts. Across the country, the youngest voters, those who are 18 and 19, had lower voter turnout than those aged 20-29.

Sanchez, the M.E.Ch.A sponsor, said she wants to ensure students in south Phoenix have access to resources that allow them to be civically engaged. "Too often, things like this don't come to our campuses," she said. "We want to ensure that just because we're in a specific ZIP code or community doesn't mean that your voice can't be shared."

Montiel said she thinks there's "a lot that we can do for our community to grow stronger in the future."

"Being ... of Hispanic heritage, I feel like it's important to vote because there's changes that can be made ... for us to help better the community," she said.

Reach the reporter at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix students work to register peers to vote, but face challenges
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The executive director of South Valley Academy charter school is accused of threatening a student with a box cutter, according to court documents.

A warrant for Richard Perea, 58, of Albuquerque, on the charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, and an open count of child abuse was filed in court on Wednesday. The incident between Perea and a 17-year-old student allegedly happened on April 18.

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Perea reportedly wrapped his arm around the students neck and pressed the box cutter to the students neck while sliding it from one side to the other, according to the students statement contained in the criminal complaint for Perea.

Two school security officers were in Pereas office at the time of the incident and told investigators that they witnessed Pereas actions. One of the security officers reported that Perea told the student to stand up Im gonna show you what a Chicano man does, before Perea held the blade up to the students neck, according to the court document. Before that, the student claimed Perea aimed the box cutter at his neck and said, boom jugular vein.

The school security officers were tasked by Perea to bring the student into his office on suspicion that he was vaping in the schools bathroom. School officials searched the student and found the box cutter in his possession.

The student reportedly told school officials that he had the box cutter to use during the schools service learning program at a local ranch. The student said his duties require a box cutter to open packages. He also allegedly acknowledged that he should not have had the box cutter with him at school, according to court documents.

The alleged incident between Perea and the student was reported to the schools assistant educational director, who then told the students mother. Court documents did not specify if the student was physically injured.

Atrisco Heritage High School employees placed on leave after prom controversy

At a special meeting Wednesday night, all five members of the South Valley Academy Governing Council voted to reinstate Perea as executive director. The council president made the following remark after the vote:

Seeing how all board members voted in affirmative for this action, it shows governing council is behind Mr. Perea and does support him through this matter and this process.

One thing we have learned as governing council is that we do need to look at our policies and protocols in order to increase transparency going forward in any situations, like this that arise, to be able to include the community. Right now we do not have those protocols in place. Governing Council President Anna Trillo

The council also said that it did hire a third-person investigator who was not associated with the school to do an investigation of this matter and to make sure that there were no allegations of sexual misconduct.

KRQE News 13 reached out to the council members for comment on Thursday. Governing Council Vice President Sergio Schwartz sent the following statement:

Student safety is and has been among our highest of priorities. We have recently been made aware of possible criminal proceedings involving the Executive Director, and the South Valley Academy is cooperating with the Bernalillo County Sherriffs Office. The Executive Director is on administrative leave, and School is moving forward to complete the school year for its students and staff. If parents or guardians of students have any School-related questions or concerns and questions specific to their childs educational experience at SVA, we encourage them to reach out to the Schools administration. Governing Council Vice President Sergio Schwartz

When KRQE News 13 asked Schwartz to clarify on Pereas employment status, given the councils recent vote, he referred KRQE back to his statement.

Many community members and faculty expressed their thoughts on the situation before the council voted Wednesday night. What has occurred, I am not in agreement with my student coming back to the school, said the mother of the victim at the special meeting.

For the sake of protecting the safety of our students and staff, said individual who has potentially imposed a danger to a student, should not be allowed to return to our school, said Joshuah Cordova, a South Valley Academy teacher.

Others showed support for Perea.

The type of management skill that he uses, I see it comprehensively affecting our school in a positive way, said Felipe Ruibal, a teacher at South Valley Academy.

The New Mexico Public Education Department said that it has opened an investigation into the matter.

South Valley Academy is chartered through Albuquerque Public Schools. KRQE News 13 also reached out to APS for comment and was told, APS is not involved in the day-to-day operations of charter schools and cannot comment on anything happening at South Valley Academy.

According to Pereas bio on the schools website, he served as principal at Santa Rosa High School, vice principal of Moriarty High School, had a Mid/High Principalship at Jemez Mountain Schools, and served as superintendent of Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  Two graduating seniors from Southern University Lab School helped transform a neglected bus stop into a work of art.

Students Lola Saunders and Dashayla Snerling, along with muralist Kristafer Bradley, revamped a bus shelter in North Baton Rouge.

ExxonMobil and The Walls Project challenged SULS ninth through twelfth graders to take part in a design competition to beautify the bus stop. Students did this under their art teacher, Ms. Deja June.

After deliberating, two standout designs were selected as finalists. Bradley, then, combined these designs to show the essence of Louisianas rich culture and heritage, ExxonMobil said.

The mural depicts a jazz band, a crawfish and magnolia flowers set against a Louisiana swamp landscape. ExxonMobil said Bradley spent several days painting the artwork at the bus stop. New benches were added to match the design.

White Castle High School teacher gets $50K grant to help improve STEM education

I really appreciate the opportunity to put more artwork in the community and open up the creative minds of the youth, said Bradley. I am a firm believer that the world can be a better place with a little bit of color and imagination.

The bus stop is on Scenic Highway outside the historic Baton Rouge ExxonMobil Refinery.

The bus stop is great to see every day as I arrive at work, said ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Complex Mechanical Manager Jeff Blohm. I am amazed at the artistic talent that Lola, Dashayla, and Kristafer have, and what they created together for this public work of art is a benefit to all the ExxonMobil employees, residents and visitors in the area.

ExxonMobil and The Walls Project unveiled the design on Thursday, May 2. The student artists were there with their families and teachers. They saw the unveiling and signed their names by their art, ExxonMobil said.

Latest News

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
To squat or unsquat. Times up for banned SC vehicles. Will owners choose to risk fines?

The red Silverado 4x4 that Noah Flowers drives was already squatted when he bought it, but that fact didnt stop him from getting a warning ticket in early April.

The 18-year-old Conway man was pulled over by Horry County Police early last month and issued a warning ticket for his truck.

Flowers truck, typically known as a Carolina squat truck, has been banned in South Carolina. And while police have only been writing warning tickets now, come May 10, drivers of the trucks will face heftier fines and quite possibly revocation of their drivers license.

But it doesnt appear that there has been a rush for squat truck owners to have their vehicles unsquatted.

Flowers said he may unsquat his truck some, but he doesnt intend to modify it too much. As of May 1, his truck was still the same.

The Carolina squat is a trendy alteration usually found on a pickup or SUV that lifts the front of the vehicle and lowers the rear.

It kind of sucks, Flowers said of his ticket. Not everyone drives (like) dumb*****.

Tonya Gatquard with T&R Truck and Auto Repair in Myrtle Beach said the shop has received a few phone calls, but no one has come in to have their truck modified to make it legal.

Im surprised, Gatquard said. Theyre so dangerous.

Usually those who squat their trucks do it themselves, according to Tammy Cassidy of C&G Auto and Truck in Myrtle Beach.

Those people who have those trucks are thinking they are going to be under the radar, Cassidy said. (We) wont see any until they are passing out tickets.

Beginning May 10, drivers can receive tickets for violations under the new law. First offense is a $100 fine; second offense is $200 and a third offense is a $300 fine and a license suspension by the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles for 12 months from the date of the conviction.

The tickets are for unlawfully elevating or lowering a motor vehicle by more than 6 inches by a modification or change in physical structure, with the exception of pickup trucks. However, the height of the front fender of a pickup truck cannot be raised or lowered 4 or more inches greater than the height of the rear fender.

South Carolina joined Virginia and North Carolina in banning the popular squat trucks.

Although the law went into effect July 1, the General Assembly included language that the law wouldnt actually take effect until 180 days after approval by the governor. Following that 180 days, which was in November, only warning tickets will be issued to violators of the law.

It is unclear how many warning tickets have been written since November. Myrtle Beach Police said their tickets do not track if a vehicle is a squatted truck and were unable to provide the number of tickets. Horry County Police also do not maintain a record of the number of times tickets were written, as the record of the ticket goes directly into the state operated system, Aaron Spelbring, Freedom of Information Act manager for Horry County, said by email.

However, according to the Public Index, it appears four tickets on charges of operating elevated or lowered vehicle were recorded as going through Central Traffic Court or Myrtle Beach Municipal Court.

Ocean Boulevard in the Myrtle Beach area could look different this summer, as Myrtle Beach has long been a haven for squat trucks, which can be seen traveling down the citys busy main drag.

Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock played a key role in outlawing the trucks, testifying multiple times during state committee hearings. One incident used to encourage the ban was the death of a pedestrian, who was struck and killed by a Carolina squat truck in the city during the summer of 2021.

If people do choose to get their vehicles unsquatted, Scott Fedan, owner of Scotts Garage in Loris, said they will most likely do it in their own yards.

But the more likely option, he said, is Theyll just get the ticket.
St. Clair County Coroner releases name of person who died in Swansea crash

A 27-year-old woman from Smithton died in a three-vehicle crash Thursday in Swansea, the St. Clair County coroner said Friday.

Karlie Langley, of East Street in Smithton, was pronounced deceased on the scene in the 2400 block of North Illinois Street, which is also known as Illinois 159, Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said.

Swansea police were dispatched to the scene at 4:39 p.m. Thursday after receiving a call reporting a three-vehicle crash with entrapment, the department said in a news release Friday.

Three others were injured in the crash, including a man who was airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital.

The other two victims were taken to local hospitals by private vehicle.

The names and conditions of these three victims were not released.

A crash reconstruction team from Illinois State Police was called to investigate the crash and no other details about the crash have been released.

A GoFundMe account has been established on behalf of Langleys family.
A divided St. Paul City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday against rezoning a corner of Marshall Avenue for a seven-unit townhome project, effectively overruling city staff recommendations and the preference of City Council President Mitra Jalali, who represents the neighborhood. The St. Paul Planning Commission also recommended denial.

Mortho, LLC had proposed removing a single-family home at 1984 Marshall Ave. and installing seven townhomes. To accomplish that, developer Stephen Moriarty proposed rezoning the corner from RM1 zoning to RM2, both of which are different levels of multi-family residential zoning. The latter allows construction up to five stories, though Moriarty had proposed building a three-level project with roomier townhome units than would be allowed under existing zoning, based on greater allowable floor-area ratios.

Jalali, after spending the last two weeks reviewing city planning staff reports and community feedback, urged the council to adopt the RM2 zoning.

It allows for more of the same type of housing, so were not changing the use, said Jalali, noting the site sits near a public transit corridor and had been zoned RM2 prior to 2018. Were actually just changing the amount of building that can be built. I find this reasonable.  Hes not actually planning on adding (two) stories. What he wants is the additional floor-area ratio.

Council Member Rebecca Noecker noted the lesser-intensity zoning had been adopted following the West Marshall Avenue Rezoning Study, which rezoned different corners of Marshall Avenue at different intensities.

Its this recent community process that says this should not be RM2, it should be RM1, Noecker said. There is a value and a status in plans that are community-created and then adopted by this body.  The community has said we specifically dont want this parcel to be RM2.

Council Member Anika Bowie inquired if the same degree of construction could be accomplished through a zoning variance, but city staff noted that variances are generally granted based on a hardship outside of the developers control, such as an abnormally small lot. Planning staff noted the lot in question is normal size.

Jalali and Council Member Saura Jost voted to support the rezoning, but were overruled by Bowie, Cheniqua Johnson and Noecker. Council Members Nelsie Yang, who is on maternity leave, and Council Member HwaJeong Kim were absent.

Related Articles
The landmark facade of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Muskego is a familiar site along Janesville Road. The congregation is planning to tear down the 1905 church building, which is no longer in primary use on the large campus.

MUSKEGO - Nearly two years after its congregation first voted on the possibility, and despite continued opposition, St. Paul's Lutheran Church has taken another step toward a now-planned autumn demolition of its historic 1905 building.

Church leaders announced in April that the 119-year-old church, the oldest remaining building on the campus and the place where all St. Paul's worship services were held until 1978, will be formally decommissioned in a July 21 event. It represents a chance for the congregation and the community in general to honor the building's place in Muskego and Tess Corners history, they said.

People will also have a chance to tour the old church one last time before a process begins to remove items and furnishings ahead of demolition, which officials now say will take place sometime in September or October.

"This will be a sad day at St. Pauls. All of us here love this building and the spiritual history that it represents," St. Pauls member Chuck Thompson said in a news release announcing the decommissioning service. "It is also a day to celebrate the many lives God touched by the gospel in this building during its 73 years of regular use."

St. Paul's members twice voted to demolish the 1905 church

The sequence of events leading to this moment dates back 46 years, with a finality emerging in the last two.

In the late 1970s, church leaders elected to build a new worship center on St. Paul's growing campus  a decision based on the physical space limitations of the 1905 church, S66 W14325 Janesville Road, whose facade sits close to Janesville Road just east of Tess Corners Drive and is surrounded by the historic church cemetery. The new church to the east became part of the complex, which includes a school, a child care center and a counseling care center.

The old church had still been used for limited purposes by the congregation until recently. But in the spring of 2022, church leaders brought the proposal of demolishing the old church to a congregational vote, arguing that the costs of maintaining the 1905 church outweighed the practical value of keeping it intact.

In a May 2022 letter, they cited a lack of parking, handicapped accessibility, adequate bathrooms and air conditioning as costly needs that would have to be addressed if the building was going to be used again.

In April, church leaders also noted that major costs of tuckpointing, roof replacement, and steeple repair would be needed to preserve the building's exterior.

According to various sources, the first vote was 38-14 in favor of demolition. Because the congregation consists of an estimated 2,700 members, some felt that vote count was too shallow to definitively reflect the congregation's feelings on the plan, and began a campaign to save the church from demolition.

Based upon the request of five congregational members, a second vote was held in August 2023. While the turnout was greater and the margin of support smaller, the congregation still voted 84-77 to reaffirm the demolition.

Demolition opponents still push for alternatives for 1905 church

The opposition to church leaders' demolition plans didn't go away with the second vote, though it's unclear how much fervor remains now as the church heads toward decommissioning in the weeks ahead and demolition in the coming months.

John Archibald, a former member of the church who now resides in Arkansas, said a group of congregation members and others are continuing in their efforts to create a foundation or nonprofit entity to take over maintenance of the 119-year-old building, using grants and a new stream of revenue. From his perspective, the group, for which he is working as a preservation consultant, is intensely focused on the cause.

"The Friends of the 1905 St. Paul's Lutheran Church is far from loosely organized," Archibald said in an email. "It stands ready to form a non-profit organization. Its members want to commit to manage the 1905 church without demands on the budget of St. Paul's of Tess Corners."

Individuals have also shown support through Facebook posts on the topic, with some seeking legal advice and assistance from the Wisconsin Historical Society. One legal avenue that the group has researched, in part through Archibald's help, is whether the land deeded to the congregation more than a century ago must revert to previous ownership, the Tess family heirs, if the church is torn down.

"It appears that the seller of the land, Jacob Tess, made clear the land could only be used for 'church and cemetery purposes,'" Archibald said. "That's not unusual in historical preservation. Deeds all across America have that phrase. What is unusual is that he wrote a reversion clause and how he wrote it."

He questions whether the Friends group should even be regarded as the "opposition," given what he views as a broad base of support among the congregation.

"The Friends also have made clear to me that if there is opposition, it is against keeping the 1905 church," Archibald said. "The longtime church members want to save it. The opposition consists of those who want to demolish it. Its a worthwhile distinction."

Special service will include Muskego and preservation information

St. Paul's Church, affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and Muskego share a common point in history. The church erected its first building in 1838 in Tess Corners, on the same site as the 1905 church and during the same year Muskego became a town.

Thompson, who is coordinating the decommissioning service, noted that residents in and around Muskego can get involved. "We hope many of our neighbors in the community can join us for the decommissioning service on July 21," he added. "Help us celebrate our spiritual past and ask Gods blessings on our ministry in the future."

Church leaders noted that the decommissioning service itself, to be held at 9:30 a.m. in the 1978 church's sanctuary, will address the old building's history.

Among other facets, the service will show a video titled "We Preach Christ Crucified" that church leaders say will include exterior and interior images of the building, along with memories St. Pauls members have of the 1905 church building. The decommissioning ceremony itself is based on a letter by the late Rev. Robert J. Zink, the last pastor to serve in the building.

A memorial booklet is also in the works.

Congregation members will get the first opportunity to remove items and mementos from the church, but the community will also be given a chance to retain some elements, including furnishings.

But if it's preservation church leaders want, the Friends of the 1905 St. Paul's Lutheran Church can help in a meaningful way, Archibald noted.

Among the ideas that have been considered is making the old church a Lutheran museum. A Change.org petition that already has reached its goal of 1,000 signatures is now seeking an additional 500, reinforcing an atmosphere of community support favoring the church building's preservation, Archibald said.

"I think we all can agree that if this church falls, it won't be because of the building," Archibald said. "The noted Milwaukee architect Charles Lesser designed it to withstand Wisconsin summers and winters. The building is straight, dry, clean and well maintained. It has succeeded and admirably so. To quote Terry Laib, the famous Wisconsin preservation contractor based in Oshkosh, once we stop seeing the buildings of our past we begin to forget our past."

Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Muskego to be decommissioned in July
MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN)  Marquette letter carriers are helping Stamp Out Hunger this year on Saturday, May 11. For 30 years, Stamp Out Hunger has been the nations largest single-day food drive. Over 1.82 billion pounds of food have been collected for the drive throughout the years.

If you want to help Marquette County letter carriers Stamp Out Hunger this year, leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods next to your mailbox before regular mail delivery on May 11. Some food you can donate include canned soups, canned vegetables, pasta, rice, or cereal. Make sure all food items are in non-breakable containers, such as boxes and cans. Letter carriers will collect donations across the county and deliver them to Marquette food pantries such as the Womens Center, St. Vincent de Paul, Room at the Inn, Janzen House, and the Salvation Army.

Food security continues to be a vital concern in Marquette County, said Andrew Rickauer, the Executive Director for United Way of Marquette County. The timing is important, with food banks, pantries and shelters running low on donations from the winter holidays and with summer approaching, when most school meal programs are suspended.

If you want to know more about the food drive, you can fine United Way of Marquette Countys webpage here, and the National Association of Letter Carriers community service webpage here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJMN - UPMatters.com.
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Perak Corporation Berhad is RM0.38 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Perak Corporation Berhad's RM0.45 share price indicates it is trading at similar levels as its fair value estimate

Perak Corporation Berhad's peers seem to be trading at a higher premium to fair value based onthe industry average of -81%

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Perak Corporation Berhad (KLSE:PRKCORP) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for Perak Corporation Berhad

Step By Step Through The Calculation

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (MYR, Millions) RM10.2m RM7.26m RM5.89m RM5.17m RM4.79m RM4.59m RM4.50m RM4.49m RM4.53m RM4.61m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -42.33% Est @ -28.57% Est @ -18.93% Est @ -12.19% Est @ -7.47% Est @ -4.16% Est @ -1.85% Est @ -0.23% Est @ 0.91% Est @ 1.70% Present Value (MYR, Millions) Discounted @ 16% RM8.7 RM5.4 RM3.7 RM2.8 RM2.3 RM1.9 RM1.6 RM1.3 RM1.2 RM1.0

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = RM30m

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 16%.

Story continues

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = RM4.6m (1 + 3.6%)  (16% 3.6%) = RM38m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= RM38m ( 1 + 16%)10= RM8.3m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is RM38m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of RM0.4, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

The Assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Perak Corporation Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 16%, which is based on a levered beta of 2.000. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Looking Ahead:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Instead the best use for a DCF model is to test certain assumptions and theories to see if they would lead to the company being undervalued or overvalued. If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Perak Corporation Berhad, we've put together three essential items you should further research:

Risks: We feel that you should assess the 3 warning signs for Perak Corporation Berhad (2 are significant!) we've flagged before making an investment in the company. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! Other Top Analyst Picks: Interested to see what the analysts are thinking? Take a look at our interactive list of analysts' top stock picks to find out what they feel might have an attractive future outlook!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
A state budget agreement could still be an uphill battle despite the special summit next week

The Oklahoma Capitol will be the scene Monday of an unusual summit conference called by Gov. Kevin Stitt to forge an agreement on a new state budget.

Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall says his chamber "is ready to wrap things up" on a budget agreement with the state Senate, but his counterpart across the Capitol believes the negotiation process is likely to last considerably longer than McCall hopes.

The two legislative leaders spoke to reporters Thursday, a day after Gov. Kevin Stitt proposed an unusual budget summit conference in an effort to forge an agreement between the two chambers. Both McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat embraced Stitts idea of the meeting on Monday, but the comments of the two men just minutes apart seemed to show theyre miles apart.

McCall suggested an agreement could be reached as soon as Monday. Told that, Treat said, No. Thats not going to happen. Were not going to have a forced deadline on it.

The governor sent an email late Wednesday afternoon to McCall and Treat suggesting Mondays meeting. "As session is coming to a close, its important that we get together to finalize a budget. Both of your transparency efforts have been very encouraging this session," the governor wrote.

Stitt also said he would "invite the media in an effort to continue your transparency efforts."

Two hours later, shortly after 6 p.m., Treat replied to the governor  copying every member of the Legislature on his response.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, middle, is flanked by House Speaker Charles McCall, left, and Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat at the signing ceremony for the grocery tax cut bill in February. Agreement is so far lacking on a cut in the state income tax.

"Governor, thank you for the invite. I look forward to the opportunity. The budget will not be complete this week, so I and the Senate team will be there at 2," he wrote. "Please know that you are welcome to use the Senate Assembly Room to better accommodate members of the legislature, public and the media to be able to observe and so it can be live-streamed, closed captioned and archived. My staff will be more than happy to assist in getting the word out to the media and the public."

Treat's email noted he had informed the Senate chair and vice chair of appropriations, the floor leader, and every member of the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike, about the Monday conference, "because I hope this is a productive and insightful meeting."

Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said Thursday that Stitt didnt accept his offer of holding the meeting in the Senate Assembly Room, instead opting to hold the meeting in his own large conference room, which seats fewer people.

Were going to go in earnestly at 2 p.m. on Monday, Treat said. Ill take as many people as hell allow me to take from the Senate, in order to allow us to have the most robust dialogue.

Deadline approaching on a multitude of budget issues

With less than 30 days remaining until the end of the second session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature, members are beginning to feel the crunch of the budget-writing process. House and Senate budget negotiators continue to wrangle over how to spend the roughly $13 billion available. Key issues include whether or not to cut the personal income tax, how to rewrite state funding policy and following through on efforts to make the entire budget process more transparent.

What seemed to be a smoothly moving process earlier this session hit several snags this week, including the abrupt removal of Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, this week as the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and chief budget negotiator. Treat named Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, as the new committee chair.

Treat praised Thompsons work but said, You have to make decisions that put us in the best position for transparency and I felt like there was a clear need to change after last week. The first 11 weeks of session were pretty flawless as far as transparency  Last week, week 12, we went dark and a lot of decisions were arrived at without honoring the process. I blame that on the House of Representatives for forcing that to happen. But its unacceptable. We are absolutely wed to the process of transparency.

McCall said Thompson and Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, who is the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had met last week concerning budget issues.

The change from Thompson to Hall seemed to indicate a reset of budget negotiations for the Senate. Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, the chair of that bodys education budget subcommittee, said during a meeting Thursday, There were numbers that were agreed to and those numbers will not be honored.

Two other issues commanding the attention of legislators include the violent weekend storms that will call for significant state disaster assistance and the distraction of a controversial Republican bill to arrest and remove immigrants recaching Oklahoma without proper documentation. The immigration bill sailed through both the House and Senate with big majorities and was signed by Stitt to a chorus of objections from Democrats, Hispanic leaders and churches.

Time, it seems, is running out for state lawmakers.

What are priorities for Monday's summit meeting?

Coloring Monday's summit meeting will be a terse and difficult relationship between the governor and Treat  a political fight that goes back several years and which came to an apex this year over Treat's refusal to hear legislation that would cut the personal income tax. Treat has said he favors keeping more money in the state's reserve accounts  and that was before the recent tornado damage.

"I know both chambers are working diligently to come to agreement on budget numbers, and will once again reiterate my priority to pass an income tax cut for all four million Oklahomans," Stitt wrote in his email to Treat and McCall. "I hope that continues to be a topic of conversation in your negotiations."

McCall, R-Atoka, reiterated on Thursday his desire for an income tax cut, saying it was more important to him than perhaps raising salaries of government employees.

I think the tax cut feeds into a lot of different things, he said. It certainly feeds into an agreement on state employee pay raises. I think it also feeds into a judiciary pay raise this year. As Ive said before, I think the balanced approach  I think we have the money to do everything, but the people of the state of Oklahoma, in my opinion, have to get a tax cut before we  allow an increase of wages in government.

McCall hinted at impatience with the Senates budget process, saying, I dont know whos in charge of the Senate, and later adding, in many ways, it feels like were in the first few weeks of session when it comes to budget negotiations.

But we are in the final hours of the session. We are in the final straightaway. Were running up against the time clock. We need to start moving forward.

The 2024 legislative session adjourns at 5 p.m. May 31.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma House, Senate budget debate continues as Monday summit nears
Back in January, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committeethe Democratic Party committee focused on winning state legislaturesdeclared that 2024 is the most important election cycle in state legislative campaign history. The why behind that statement has been playing out for years: Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Republican state legislators have taken it upon themselves to introduce and pass laws that not only restrict access to abortion care, but also threaten access to IVF and create an environment of fear for patients and doctors alike. That contrast between red and blue states has also been magnified in the way legislatures are debating LGBTQ+ rights, book bans, school curriculum, gun safety, and more.

Now, in a cycle where voters are wearily looking at the presidential race and having deja vu, Heather Williams, president of the DLCC, offers state-level elections as a kind of antidote: a means of directly affecting your community and building political power from the ground up. Were going to see some benefit, of course, from the top of the ticket thats going to affect our races, but were also going to see our candidates and our efforts support up-ticket, because were holding space for people at a time when things feel really hard, Williams tells ELLE.com. Below, more from her on why, for Democrats, 2024 just might be The Year of the States.



Understandably, a lot of people are focused on Biden vs. Trump this election cycle, but the DLCC is also arguing that its shaping up to be The Year of the States. Why is that?

There are a few pillars to this. As a starting point, the fall of Dobbs put so much more attention on the states. Since then, Democrats have won elections, which is obviously very meaningful to us, but there has also been more of a spotlight on the kinds of nefarious things Republicans are doing in state Houses. Seeing and really taking Republicans at their word for the kinds of things theyre willing to do and then being able to pinpoint it to actions in the states, I think theres more accountability.

The next pillar is our political map; the greatest opportunities for us to align nicely with the path of the presidency. Our priorities are making sure were holding the majorities in trifectas that we won in 2022. Then challenging the vulnerable Republican majorities in Arizona and New Hampshire, and building power through the different rungs in [other statehouses]. And then really trying to create opportunities through the decade in places like Georgia.

Our races are still won [by having] real conversations with voters. Our candidates and elected officials still live in their communities. So there is something very tangible about our campaign work, and about making Democrats three-dimensional and providing a visual counter to the chaos in Congress. Were going to see some benefit, of course, from the top of the ticket. Thats going to affect our races, but were also going to see our candidates and our efforts support up-ticket, because were holding space for people at a time when things feel really hard. If youre frustrated by a bunch of men in Washington, the three [state] House chambers that Democrats won in 22 and 23, they all elected Black speakers. Were really finding candidates who are part of the fabric of these communities.

The DLCC has noted that the GOP has been very good at this kind of state-level work, whereas Democrats have not been playing the long game. But you all are trying to transform that.

This is a quick history lesson to get us where we are today: Republicans invested a bunch of money in state legislatures in 2010, and they completely changed the dynamic. Even if their care for the state landscape was solely about entrenching their federal power, they cared, they invested, and they moved their federal-focused donors and operatives into caring about the states, because they saw the connection to their whole ecosystem of power. I think Democrats have been playing some catch-up on that. Every four years, we focus so intensely on the presidential [election], and thats such a big deal, and we start to lose focus on the infrastructure needed to build all the way down to the states.

That is changing, but we still have a deep desire for federal solutions for these really gnarly issues. Without question, I would love national protections for the LGBTQ+ community, but while we work towards that, these rights are either being created, preserved, protected, or taken away in real time in the states. And were trying to tell that story that its got to be an and. It cant be an or. I think were better positioned than ever before; I think the importance of the states, and the way in which our agenda as Democrats and the presidents agenda is being moved in the states, is clearer.

Have there been state-level wins from the past few years that you find really exciting, but people might have missed?



I am so emotionally obsessed with Speaker Don Scott in Virginia. Hes a convicted felon, and he is now the speaker of the House in Virginia. Hes super humble about it, but its such an incredible story of decisions and change and evolution, and why representation in government matters so much. When you look at the bills that they introduced and the way hes trying to lead and govern, you see justice as an underlying [principle].

In a different direction, what theyve been able to do in Minnesota with their trifecta, its quiet and pragmatic. Theyve been able to address issues that have a deep impact on peoples lives, like free lunch for kids, trying to address the incredible burden and cost of child care. Their economic package doesnt scream economy, but theyre the kind of policies that affect your family units financial future and the kind of resources you have or dont.

I feel like every time I speak with people about the upcoming elections, the sentiment is: Im already tired. What is your response to that overwhelming feeling?

Were really trying to tell the story of how much participation still really matters at this ballot level and creating almost a contrast to that apathy. Weve had dozens of special elections across all the states, and those Democratic candidates have overperformed by an average of six points. What that is telling usand what gives us hope in this environmentis that people are voting, right? Theyve got all kinds of feelings, as they should, as we all do, about the length of campaign season, about the rhetoric, about the drama, about the issues, about the fears, all the things. But when faced with that decision, Democrats are still voting. Now, were a long way away from Election Day. But we feel a deep responsibility in making sure that, in a rhetoric-filled environment, where theres going to be enormous amounts of money, billions of dollars spent at the top of the ticket on paid communication, that our candidates are still humbled by the conversations [that come from knocking on] doors and showing up for people.

Were going to win some of those races, were going to lose some of those races, but giving people a voice and a place to put their feelings is really important. The issues people care about are also decided in the states, and the impact that one can have by paying attention and voting and participating at this ballot level is enormous.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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High-voltage transmission lines provide electricity to data centers in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia, in July 2023. (Photo by Ted Shaffrey/AP) (This image cannot be republished unless you have an AP subscription.)

State Sen. Norm Needleman championed the 2021 legislation designed to lure major data centers to Connecticut.

The Democratic lawmaker hoped to better compete with nearby states, bring in a growing industry, and provide paychecks for workers tasked with building the sprawling server farms.

But this legislative session, hes wondering if those tax breaks are appropriate for all data centers, especially those with the potential to disrupt the states clean energy supply.

Particularly concerning to him are plans for a mega data center on the site of the states only nuclear power plant. The developer is proposing an arrangement that would give it priority access to electricity generated at the plant, which would mean less carbon-free power for other users.

That affects our climate goals, he said. Its additional demand of renewable energy that we would have to replace.

Needleman, co-chair of the Senate Energy and Technology Committee, is now reconsidering details of the state incentive program as he works on legislation to study the impact of data centers on the states electric grid. Mistakes now, he said, could lead to a real crisis.

Compared with other employers that states compete for, such as automotive plants, data centers hire relatively few workers. Still, states have offered massive subsidies to lure data centers  both for their enormous up-front capital investment and the cachet of bringing in big tech names such as Apple and Facebook. But as the cost of these subsidy programs balloons and data centers proliferate coast to coast, lawmakers in several states are rethinking their posture as they consider how to cope with the growing electricity demand.

From the outside, data centers can resemble ordinary warehouses. But inside, the windowless structures can house acres of computer servers used to power everything from social media to banking. The centers suck up massive amounts of energy to keep data moving and water to keep servers from overheating.

Data centers are the backbone of the increasingly digital world, and they consume a growing share of the nations electricity, with no signs of slowing down. The global consultancy McKinsey & Company predicts these operations will double their U.S. electric demands from 17 gigawatts in 2022 to 35 gigawatts by 2030  enough electricity to power more than 26 million average homes.

Some states, including Maryland and Mississippi, continue to pursue incentives to land new data centers. But in other states, the growth of the industry is raising alarms over the reliability and affordability of local electric grids, and fears that utilities will meet the demand by leaning more heavily on fossil fuel generation rather than renewables.

In South Carolina, lawmakers have started to question whether these massive power users should continue to receive tax breaks and preferential electric rates.

In Virginia, home to the worlds largest concentration of data centers, a legislative study is underway to learn more about how those operations are affecting electric reliability and affordability.

And Georgia lawmakers just passed legislation that would halt the states tax incentives for new data centers for two years. Georgia is home to more than 50 data centers, including those supporting AT&T, Google and UPS, according to the state commerce department.

Georgia Republican state Sen. John Albers, a sponsor of the Senate bill, said the significant growth of data centers in his state has helped communities and schools by boosting property tax revenues. But, considering factors such as water and electric use, he said the return on the states investment is not there and that initial findings do not support credits from the state level.

Nationwide, data center subsidies were costing state and local governments about $2 million per job created, according to a 2016 study by Good Jobs First, a nonprofit watchdog group that tracks economic development incentives. That figure has certainly ballooned in recent years, said Kasia Tarczynska, the organizations senior research analyst, who authored the report.

The Georgia bill now sits on the desk of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, whose office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Data Center Coalition, a trade group representing tech giants including Amazon, Google and Meta, is urging a veto.

Josh Levi, president of the organization, said data center companies are investing billions in new Georgia data centers, making metro Atlanta one of the nations biggest industry hubs.

Levi noted that lawmakers in 2022 extended the states tax credit program through 2031.

The abrupt suspension of an incentive that not only has been on the books, but that was extended two years ago, I think signals tremendous uncertainty, not just for the data center industry, but more broadly, he said.

Levi said the data center industry has been at the forefront of pushing clean energy. As of last year, data center providers and customers accounted for two-thirds of American wind and solar contracts, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

Fundamentally, data is now the lifeblood of our modern economy, he said. Everything that we do in our personal and professional lives really points back to data generation, processing and storage.

Electricity hogs

In fast-growing South Carolina, lawmakers have pointed to data centers as a major factor in rising electricity demand.

As part of a broader energy bill, the legislature considered a measure that would prevent data centers from receiving discounted power rates.

Republican state Rep. Jay West said inducements such as reduced power rates are appropriate for major, transformational endeavors. He pointed to the BMW factory in Spartanburg, which employs 11,000 people, draws in major suppliers and pumps millions into the state economy.

While data centers boost local property taxes receipts, they dont do much for the state, he said, and shouldnt receive preferential rates. And they are being built faster than new energy generation can be added.

I do not speak for my caucus or the [legislative] body in saying this, he said, but I dont think South Carolina can handle more data centers.

The House provision on data center utility rates was quickly struck in a Senate committee, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported.

Lynn Teague, vice president of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, said that change was made with no public discussion.

Teague, who lobbies the legislature, said South Carolinians, including more than 700,000 people living in poverty, shouldnt have to pick up the tab for tax or utility breaks for major data center firms.

We have companies like Google with over $300 billion in revenues a year wanting these folks to subsidize their profit margin at the same time that theyre putting intense pressure on not just our energy, but our water, she said.

Lawmakers saw data centers as a possible successor to South Carolinas declining textile industry when they approved the data center incentives in 2012, The State reported at the time. One Republican bill sponsor, then-state Rep. Phyllis Henderson, also cited North Carolinas success with data center incentives, saying South Carolina was just losing projects right and left to them.

But on the Senate floor earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican, described data centers as electricity hogs that arent really providing a whole lot of jobs.

Rippling effects

Virginia has been a hub for data centers for decades, touting its proximity to the nations capital, inexpensive energy, a robust fiber network and low risk of natural disasters. Now, Virginia lawmakers are increasingly scrutinizing the industry.

Thats in part because data centers have moved into traditionally residential areas, said Republican state Del. Ian Lovejoy, who represents a Northern Virginia district.

He sponsored two pieces of legislation this year affecting data center land use issues. One would have prevented data centers from building too close to parks, schools or neighborhoods; another would have altered land use disclosure rules for developers.

Theres no way to power the data center inventory thats being proposed and is likely to be built without substantial increases to the power infrastructure and power generation, he said. And thats going to have rippling effects far away from where the data centers are being sited.

Aaron Ruby, spokesperson for Dominion Energy in Virginia, the states predominant electric provider, said data centers, like other classes of customers, pay for the costs of their electric generation and transmission.

He said the company forecasts consumers monthly bills to grow by less than 3% annually over the next 15 years. That increase, he said, is due to the companys significant investment in renewable energy projects. While Dominion is all in on renewables, Ruby said it doesnt foresee being able to meet increasing demand with only renewables.

Thats just not physically possible, he said.

Dominion has pointed to data center growth as a key driver of its increasing electricity demand. In one state filing, the company said Virginias data centers had a peak load of almost 2.8 gigawatts in 2022.That was 1.5 times the capacity of the companys North Anna nuclear plant, which powers about 450,000 homes.

It is heart-stopping  just the scale at which these things are growing and the power theyre sucking up, said Kendl Kobbervig, the advocacy and communications director at Clean Virginia, a well-funded advocacy group pushing for renewable energy, campaign finance reform and greater oversight of utilities.

She said the state must address how data centers could undercut its clean energy goals and how the industry is affecting the utility bills of everyday households and small businesses.

Over the past two years, Clean Virginia has tracked more than 40 proposed bills related to data centers.

Most of those efforts stalled this session as some lawmakers elected to wait on the results of a study announced in December by the states Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

The lack of action frustrated many lawmakers and residents.

I dont know exactly what the study is going to say that we dont already know, said Democratic state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, who sponsored a bill that would have required data centers to meet certain energy efficiency and clean energy standards to be eligible for the states lucrative sales tax exemptions.

I think we already know that data centers take up a lot of power and present a lot of challenges to our grid.

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The post States rethink data centers as electricity hogs strain the grid appeared first on Oklahoma Voice.
Stay in the house from Up  just make sure youre not afraid of heights. Seriously

Drift away (but not really) in this house that decorates the New Mexico sky.

Even though it premiered in 2009, the Disney animated comedy-drama Up still rests firm in everyones memory thanks to its phenomenal visuals and emotional storyline. And Airbnb knows this and is offering fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity  stay in Carl and Ellies charming abode for a night.

Yes, the one that flies.

The re-creation is located in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and has more than 8,000 colorful balloons attached, an Airbnb news release says.

I dont always like visitors, but I guess its pretty nice to have them now that its just me and Dug, host Carl Fredricksen says in the listing.

So, come stay in my cozy home I made with my dear Ellie. My greatest adventures have happened here, and I learned that the best ones are always with someone you love, so bring your pals to kickstart your very own Adventure Book and watch as my house drifts off before you depart.

Whats helping out the balloons? A massive crane that lifts the house into the sky, enabling it to float.

And just like the movie, Carl still has his signature crankiness that shines in the listing.

Take a look around. But dont touch anything, I just straightened up! Pretty nice, eh? the listing says. This place used to be a dump but we fixed it up, my wonderful Ellie and me. Decorated it with stuff from all the trips we planned to take. Im a bit old for adventure nowadays, but I know its still out there, especially if you stay herebut just for one night, dont get too comfy.

The house comes with two beds (one double bed in the bedroom and a queen bed in the living room) and costs nothing a night.

The opportunity is arising on the movies 15th anniversary, and requests to book the house close at 11:59 p.m. on May 13. Fans can request to book, and Airbnb will randomly choose winners.

Abiquiu is about a 50-mile drive northwest of Santa Fe.

Gingerbread House in Texas brings fairytale dreams to life. See the estate for sale

Studio apartment comes with something extra  a holding cell. See the UK home for sale
Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, speaks during a bill signing on Feb. 27 at the state Capitol. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY  A University of Oklahoma program that has trained hundreds of female leaders will shutter because of a gubernatorial executive order that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The National Education for Womens Leadership program, which started more than 20 years ago, will end because of Gov. Kevin Stitts executive order, Michael Crespin, the director and curator at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma, wrote in a letter to supporters on Thursday.

Crespin said the program, which helps undergraduate women to participate in public service and politics, has graduated more than 650 women. It selects about 30 students each year to participate.

Many graduates have run for and been elected to serve in local, county, state, federal and tribal governments, he said.

He said the program has been a tremendous success and changed Oklahoma for the better.

In December, Stitt issued an executive order aimed at stopping diversity, equity and inclusion programs that use state funds, property or resources.

The executive order prevents DEI programs that have led state entities to grant preferential treatment to, or discriminate against, a person based on his or her race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.

Agencies must be compliant no later than May 31.

Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, on Friday said the elimination of the program is a terrible loss.

Some of the most transformational policy in our state has been authored by women legislators, including the Oklahomas Promise scholarship program, legislation providing better access to breast cancer screening, legislation creating the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, and more, Floyd said. Women bring perspectives and ideas to the table that would otherwise not be heard, something we need more of, not less, in government.

She said she is concerned the executive order will have more negative impacts.

Stitt dismissed as political criticism that his order led to the end of a womens leadership program.

Stitt said Floyd was trying to confuse voters.

That is just a politician talking out of both sides of her mouth, and Oklahomans are too smart for that, Stitt said.

He said he supports more women working in politics.

He said the University of Oklahoma didnt cancel any programs, unless they were DEI programs based on race.

All I said is dont make it based on race, Stitt said. And I think that lines up with Oklahoma values.

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The post Stitt executive order ends decades-old Oklahoma womens leadership program at OU appeared first on Oklahoma Voice.
Storm Chaser Rescues Texas Family After Tornado Destroys Home  and It Was All Caught on Livestream

Freddy McKinney was chasing a tornado in Hodges on May 2 when he came across the Lambert family, whose home was obliterated by the storm

Bradye McQueen/GoFundMe The Lambert family poses at the hospital after storm chaser Freddy McKinney stopped to help them on May 2, 2024

A storm chaser is being praised for his heroics after stopping to help a family in need after a tornado destroyed their Texas home.

Freddy McKinney was chasing a tornado in Hodges on Thursday, May 2, when he watched the large twister obliterate a home on County Road 458 right before his eyes.

Footage of the incident, which was streamed live on McKinneys YouTube page, showed McKinney racing toward the damage after the tornado was a safe distance away.

As he came to a stop in the middle of the road, McKinney saw people running up the street, including a woman who was carrying a child in her arms.

Related: At Least 5 People, Including a Baby, Dead After Tornadoes Hit Oklahoma and Iowa

Get in! he yelled as the family approached his vehicle.

Please god help! Hurry! the woman wailed as McKinney instructed the family to enter his vehicle. A father and son followed shortly behind.



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.

McKinney asked where the nearest hospital was as they piled into the car and then jumped on the phone while the father helped load the familys dog into the car.



In the clip, the mom said the children had sustained head injuries in the twister and that another family member had a broken hand.

McKinney later confirmed in a post on X that he had indeed taken the family to a local hospital. Thank god they survived that tornado, the storm chaser wrote on X.

The family has since been identified on GoFundMe as parents Wes and Kasey Lambert and kids Lane and Allie.



Related: Zach Bryan and His Band Help with Clean Up After Tornadoes Tear Through Midwest: 'Standing with You'

Family member Bradye Lynn McQueen thanked McKinney for his heroics, writing on social media, We are all so grateful you were out there."

McQueen went on to share that all four members of the family were very banged up but have already been discharged from the hospital.

Meanwhile, donations are pouring into the GoFundMe campaign started for the Lambert family. Within three hours of it going up on Friday, more than $23,000 has been raised.

They will need funds to help in the transition and rebuilding their lives and covering ER bills, wrote McQueen, who organized the online fundraiser.

Neither McQueen nor McKinney immediately responded to PEOPLEs request for comment.



For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.
Temperatures today will be mildly warm as highs reach into the low to mid 70s with partly cloudy skies.

Though we spend most of the day dry, that is expected to change tonight as a round of thunderstorms fires up. Northwest Kansas sees storms first, beginning near or just after sunset.

This storm complex will dive south through the night, arriving in Wichita in the pre-dawn hours Saturday.

A Slight Risk covers western Kansas for tonight mainly for the threat of hail and wind. If any isolated storms pop up ahead of the line, these may carry the outside chance of a tornado or two, but that risk is very low. Storms will lose some punch as they move east.

Lows tonight will be cool from the upper 30s to the mid 50s.

A cold front accompanies the storms overnight, and that will bring temperatures down a few degrees for Saturday with highs mainly in the 60s.

Rain exits the area around midday with a mostly dry afternoon. Tomorrow night more scattered storms may develop and bring another nocturnal round of rain especially in southern Kansas.

Looking ahead toward Monday, a much stronger storm system is on its way and will arrive with gusto, bringing strong winds and the threat of severe storms into the afternoon and evening.

An Enhanced Risk covers the eastern half of the state.

Storms develop Monday afternoon and quickly race to the northeast. All hazards will be possible, with damaging wind gusts, destructively large hail, and tornadoes possible.

Several calmer days follow into the rest of the week, with temperatures staying near or slightly above average and few chances of storms.

KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Maney:

Wichita:

Today: Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 74 Wind: NE/SE 8-18

Tonight: Partly to mostly cloudy, breezy. 70% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 56 Wind: SE/N 10-20

Tomorrow: Mostly to partly cloudy, breezy. 50% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 69 Wind: N/NE 10-20

Tomorrow night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 56 Wind: NE 5-15

Wichita Weekly

Sun: Hi: 73 Lo: 57 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.

Mon: Hi: 80 Lo: 58 Mostly to partly cloudy, windy. 50% chance of showers and storms.

Tue: Hi: 82 Lo: 56 Partly cloudy, breezy.

Wed: Hi: 80 Lo: 53 Partly cloudy, windy. 10% chance of showers and storms.

Thu: Hi: 75 Lo: 52 Partly cloudy, breezy.

Fri: Hi: 74 Lo: 50 Partly cloudy.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
Donald Trump's New York hush money Trial continued today, with new developments coming out from witnesses who took the stand.

Former adult film star Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Keith Davidson, claimed in court that Trump's alleged $130k payment to his client wasn't hush money as he has been accused of. However, Davidson also shared that it was his "understanding" that Trump and Daniels did have sex.

Donald Trump's $130k Payment 'Wasn't A Payoff,' Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Claims

MEGA

Day 10 of Trump's New York hush money trial began with some shocking claims as Stormy Daniels' lawyer took to the stand.

According to the New York Post, Daniels' attorney, Keith Davidson, testified it was his "understanding" that Trump and Daniels had had sex when she denied it in a 2018 letter but that the $130,000 he -allegedly paid to buy her silence about the affair "wasn't payoff."

Trump sat still as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Davidson if he understood at the time shot his client had "in fact had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump at some point?"

"That was my understanding," Davidson replied. He then proceeded to clarify that the $130k payment Daniels received to silence her about the alleged affair "wasn't payoff, and it wasn't hush money."

Davidson said he'd prefer to describe the remuneration as a "consideration."

Donald Trump's Lawyer Presses Keith Davidson Over Client's Effort To Secure Pay

MEGA

Following Davidson's testimony, Trump's lawyer Emil Bove began grilling him over his past attempts to help his clients secure money from other celebrities, including actor Charlie Sheen, per the Washington Post.

In a move to discredit Daniels's lawyer's ethics, Bove questioned him about his career choices, especially securing NDA for his clients with information namable individuals want to be hidden.

He cited a case where Davidson worked for a drug-addict client to get a $2 million settlement from Sheen, who was known to be battling substance abuse at the time.

MEGA

Bove asked if Daniel's attorney "extracted" the money from the actor, to which Davidson replied, "There's no extraction. We asserted that there was tortuous activity committed and valid settlements that were executed."

Other celebrities Bove mentioned with Davidson include former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, former Filipino professional boxer Manny Pacquiao, and TV personality Tila Tequila, but Davidson said he couldn't remember many of those instances.

"I've had over 1,500 clients in my career," Davidson said. "You're asking me about events that happened many years ago."

Donald Trump Fined $9k For Violating Gag Order

MEGA

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan recently fined the former president $9,000 for repeatedly breaching the gag order in the case.

The order was placed on him to forestall him from attacking witnesses and jurors on the case, but that hasn't successfully stopped Trump from weighing in on the case via his Truth Social media platform.

Merchan eventually ruled that Trump violated the gag order in seven Truth Social posts and two statements on his campaign site days before the trial commenced.

"This court's expanded order is lawful and unambiguous," Merchan's order read. "Defendant violated the order by making social media posts about known witnesses pertaining to their participation in this criminal proceeding and by making public statements about jurors in this criminal proceeding."

The Former President Called Judge Merchan A 'Corrupt And Highly Conflicted Judge'

MEGA

The presumptive GOP nominee threw caution to the wind Thursday morning as he took to his Truth social platform to slam Judge Merchan as a "corrupt and highly conflicted" judge, telling his followers not to allow the "radical left" judge "interfere" with the 2024 election.

He shared the post around 7 a.m. on Thursday after he was found in contempt of the court for violating the gag order Merchan had placed.

Trump wrote, "WE CANNOT LET THIS RADICAL LEFT, CORRUPT AND HIGHLY CONFLICTED NEW YORK DEMOCRAT JUDGE INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024  THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY."

He continued, "THE USA IS TRULY A NATION IN DECLINE! REMOVE THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL GAG ORDER."

"THIS IS A RADICAL LEFT REVOLUTION TAKING PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY," he added. "WHERE IS CROOKED JOE BIDEN? WHERE IS GOVERNOR NEWSCUM? THE DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY IS FROM THE LEFT, NOT FROM THE RIGHT!!!"

Donald Trump Claims He Does Not Sleep In Court

MEGA

The billionaire mogul recently took to his social media platform to blast reports that he fell asleep in court.

Several journalists present in the court during Trump's trial have given detailed accounts of the former president's alleged sleeping; however, the 77-year-old claims he is only "closing his beautiful blue eyes" and taking in the information.

Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don't fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.'s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!
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The EU is advancing its probe into Chinese electric vehicles as the bloc aims to curb Chinas overcapacity of green tech ahead of Xi Jinpings visit to Europe next week, EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis told Politico.

Dombrovskis hinted that Brussels could impose tariffs on Chinese EVs before the summer break as European firms struggle to compete with Chinese goods. Those actions seem more likely after the European Commission warned Chinese EV makers BYD, SAIC, and Geely that they had provided insufficient data in the anti-subsidy investigation, Reuters reported.

European lawmakers are still hoping they can convince Xi to scale back his protectionist economic model to allow for more equitable competition in green tech. But China-friendly countries, notably Hungary  which plays a significant role in Europes own EV production  are making it more challenging for Brussels to counter Chinese competition. Tariffs may also do little to slow Chinese imports, some analysts believe.

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Source: Reuters

Instead of waiting for the EU to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs, France last year excluded Chinese-made EVs from its cash bonus scheme where new buyers can get subsidies of up to $7,500 for certain EV models. Within four months, the scheme already had a sizable impact: Teslas Model 3, the Dacia Spring, and the SAIC MG4 EVs - all assembled in China  had a market share of 22% in the months before the schemes implementation. That share dropped to just 4% in April, according to a Reuters analysis, which France touted as a sign that such measures can help boost sales of European-made cars.

EU cant alienate China-friendly Hungary

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Sources: Royal United Services Institute, Central European Institute of Asian Studies, European Council on Foreign Relations

Hungary is embracing Chinese investments  Beijing became its biggest investor in 2023  and has become a hub for Chinese EV parts production. Despite its growing economic ties with China, the EU cannot risk alienating Budapest given its crucial role in the supply chain of European automakers, as companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW open new factories there, China analyst Sari Arho Havren of the Royal United Services Institute, a security think tank, told Semafor. But its clear that China has an advantage in Hungarian investment, and Europe will struggle to catch up to the financial demands of cash-strapped Hungary, according to China analyst Sebestyen Hompot of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies. Thats sounding alarms in Brussels, where lawmakers learned the hard way not to rely on adversaries like Russia for energy.

Story continues

Tariffs will likely not stop Chinese EV makers from selling in Europe

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Source: Rhodium Group

Chinese EV makers are making huge profits selling in Europe as the EV price war in China has lowered prices significantly. BYDs Seal U model makes the company a profit of about $15,000 in the EU for every sale, compared to just $1,400 when sold in China, according to a Rhodium Group analysis. The EU is considering a 30% duty on EV imports, but that number would still leave BYD with a 15% EU premium compared to its China profits, per Rhodiums calculations. Only a 40% to 50% tariff could make a dent on BYDs profits, but that figure is unrealistic because of World Trade Organization rules that the EU must abide by.

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A view of the Colorado House of Representatives on April 19, 2023. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)

The Colorado House after tense floor debate Thursday gave preliminary approval to a new version of a bill that would add protections for law enforcement whistleblowers.

The original House Bill 24-1460 would have required that law enforcement agencies investigate allegations of misconduct made against their officers and prohibited retaliation against an officer who files a complaint.

An amendment from the bill sponsors  which completely strikes old language and creates new language for the bill  would create a working group to continue conversations with interested parties to determine what else needs to be done regarding law enforcement retaliation and whistleblower protections.

It also would require that the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training Board revoke or suspend certification for an officer if a judge determines they covered up an instance of misconduct or retaliated against someone who reported alleged misconduct. If retaliation is proved, an officer whose name was wrongfully flagged in the POST database could use the retaliation as a defense to get it removed. The POST database allows the public to see police certifications, terminations and resignations, investigations and credibility disclosures among other disciplinary actions against individual officers.

The bill also clarifies that body camera footage showing officer misconduct must be released to the public unedited and at no cost. Much of the language in the bill around whistleblower protections mirrors language already in Colorado law related to health care whistleblowers.

Sponsors took up the bill at the request of law enforcement officers around the state who say they experienced retaliation. In particular, legislators repeatedly mentioned McKinzie Rees, a former Edgewater police officer who ended up with anuntruthfulness label on the POST database because the accusations she made against a superior officer werent taken seriously, Rees said. The officer who she alleged assaulted her pleaded guilty to counts of unlawful sexual contact and official misconduct in January.

Under the latest version of the bill, Rees would be able to get her name cleared on the database, as she hasnt so far been able to despite her alleged assailants guilty plea.

Definition of retaliation

Bill sponsor state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat, said she and co-sponsor state Rep. Jennifer Bacon, also a Denver Democrat, have stripped this bill to the bones after continued opposition from law enforcement leadership.

Everything else that was initially in the bill has been stripped out, Herod said on the House floor. Not because we want to, but because we realized that we need to have other discussions about that.

Herod said law enforcement opposed the potential of criminal charges for officers who fail to report alleged misconduct, as well as the ability for someone to file a lawsuit against a department should it not investigate. Bill sponsors removed those provisions in hopes of additional discussion with the newly proposed working group.

What we have now is a working group and a clear definition of retaliation, alongside the ability to be taken out of the database if you can prove that you were retaliated against, Herod told Newsline.

Many representatives showed concern with the last-minute process of the bill  as was the case during the bills Judiciary Committee hearing  but bill sponsors said they have continuously tried to engage with interested parties who are opposed to the bill. Herod said many bill opponents have said the sponsors have not been willing to engage, while she said their experience has been the opposite.

Weve been told we are the ones that have refused to engage, and that is just gaslighting at its finest, and just really shines a light on what is happening to these people every single day, Herod said in reference to the whistleblowers.

Herod said officers who have been retaliated against also asked law enforcement groups for input on the bill and they were also also denied any conversation on the bill as is. She expressed frustration that law enforcement representatives had time to review and give support for a Republican-introduced amendment to the bill, but wouldnt review the bill sponsors updated version. The Republican amendment failed on the House floor.

Bacon said the new bill language is a direct result of feedback she and Herod heard on the bill. She said while she believes engaging with interested parties is an important part of the legislative process, legislators should not have to delay legislation or ask interested parties for permission if a bill isnt getting universal support.

Show me in statute where it says I must talk to somebody before I pass a bill. Its my job to make laws, not the lobbys, Bacon said. So I do not need permission, and I do not need a fixed timeline. My job is to be responsive to community who said to me and said to many of you, I cannot move forward.

She added that while people are welcome to disagree with the bills approach, refusing to communicate with bill sponsors wont help change anything. The written inclusion of a working group in the legislation, Bacon said, will guarantee that all interested parties will have meaningful conversations.

Opposition remains

State Rep. Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican, said all entities involved in law enforcement need to be proactively involved in bills affecting their officers.

This bill would be great coming back next year in a bipartisan manner with somebody from a law enforcement background being a part of this bill to make it something that it can be without harming the people that were trying to protect, Armagost said.

Rep. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said while concerns about the process are valid, the content of policies the Legislature approves is more important.

I think this amendment is about the least that we could possibly do in response to the concerns that have been brought forward to the sponsors, Weissman said. All we are saying here is that if you have retaliated against another peace officer, maybe you shouldnt have that privilege and certification.

While debating the bill on the House floor, Herod read an email sent to the law enforcement lobby that she was accidentally included on: I really believe that if we hold fast we can kill this thing no matter how they frame it. Dont flinch. She didnt identify who sent the email.

Herod said current law enforcement officers who testified in favor of the bill at its Judiciary Committee hearing have been retaliated against by their departments in the week since then.

The Colorado Springs Police Department sent out an email to all of their police officers saying that they were going to work with their attorneys to discredit the stories of the whistleblowers, Herod said. Additionally, some of the folks who were working in different departments and different agencies have said that they have been told directly that they will continue to experience this type of toxic work environment when this bill does not pass.

Newsline requested information on the email from Colorado Springs police but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. A reporter sent a public records request to obtain a copy of the email Herod mentioned.

A group of law enforcement and local government organizations opposed to the bill proposed a different working group they agreed to participate in so long as the current bill did not advance on the House floor in any way. Those organizations include the Colorado District Attorneys Council, the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, County Sheriffs of Colorado, Colorado Counties, Inc. and the Colorado Municipal League.

A spokesperson for those involved in the proposal said their position did not change after the sponsors amendment, as the new bill language is inadequately vetted, irresponsible, and full of unworkable language and unintended consequences, Colorado FOP labor attorney Sean McCauley said in a separate letter to legislators.

If it passes in this form, employees are going to rely on this language and mistakenly believe that it provides legal protections that it does not, McCauley said. These officers will go unprotected because of serious gaps in the current proposed legislation. This is too important to get wrong.

The bill will go through a final vote in the House in the coming days. Herod said shes grateful to the whistleblowers who helped craft the bill for coming forward, and they have consistently been at the Capitol talking to legislators asking for their support.

Weve been told time and time again that the one thing a good cop hates is bad cops, Herod said. This bill will support those good cops, and were not understanding why we continue to face the stone wall of opposition.

The legislative session ends May 8.

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The post Stripped down law enforcement whistleblower protections bill passes preliminary Colorado House vote appeared first on Colorado Newsline.
Student accused of making threat on social media against high school in Louisiana

NAPOLEONVILLE, La. (BRPROUD)  An Assumption High School student was charged by verified complaint with menacing after an investigation by the Assumption Parish Sheriffs Office.

A 15-year-old girl was accused of making a threat of violence on social media on Thursday, May 2.

APSO said the threat targeted the high school and the incident happened around 10 a.m.

After the post was discovered, sheriffs deputies and detectives converged onto school property and in conjunction with school personnel, immediately took steps to secure the facility to ensure the safety of students and faculty, according to APSO.

During the investigation, detectives found that the teenager was the source of the threat, APSO said.

Four arrested on drug and gun charges in Assumption Parish

Law enforcement and school personnel both looked into the incident. They concluded that there was was never a credible threat to students or school personnel, APSO said.

Assumption High School resumed normal operation after the investigation.

The 15-year-old student was released to the custody of a guardian pending a judicial proceeding, APSO said.

Latest News

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said a student who was inside a high school in Northwest was hurt Friday morning after a bullet fired from outside of the building hit her.

Just before 10 a.m., officers went to the school, located at 101 N St. NW, after they received reports of gunfire. Investigators said it appeared that a bullet fired outdoors went into the building and grazed the 17-year-old girl whom it hit.

DC police release footage of officer shooting, killing 2 dogs in Petworth

At 10:22 a.m. MPD said in a post on X that there was no active threat to students, faculty or staff at Dunbar High School, which did go on lockdown for a time.

MPD later explained that a vehicle was heading the wrong way on Kirby Street NW. At some point, there was an exchange of gunfire between people.

The girl who was hurt as a result of the exchange was at the hospital being treated. Her family was with her, and police said she should be alright, physically.

Detectives planned to canvas the neighborhood throughout the afternoon.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
Its been three weeks since students started taking over university campuses and we can now officially call it  theyve blown it.

Instead of being defined as young people driven by a principled stand against Palestinian suffering in Gaza, theyre now broadly defined as a bunch of entitled, whiny, immature kids who want their 21st century creature comforts but also every single political demand immediately. And also: the meal plan.

Instead of being seen as champions for free speech theyre now defined as creepy groupthinkers who robotically chant slogans and follow directives by some shadowy, far-left leaders who wear masks and spew terms from Maoist playbooks like imperialist forces and something something settler-colonialists.

Funny how a few images going viral can define a movement.

This video of a Columbia doctoral student asking for basic humanitarian aid while standing outside the university administration building she and others had broken into, barricaded and commandeered will be a historic moment in stamping this movement as a bunch of babies.

Student activist: Theyre obligated to pay for students who pay for a meal plan Do you want students to die of dehydration of starvation? Its crazy to say because were on an Ivy League campus but this is, like, basic humanitarian aid were asking for.

Reporter: It seems like youre sort of saying, We want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food.

The video has nearly 50 million views on Twitter-X.

Reporter grills Columbia student after she demands the university help feed protestors occupying Hamilton Hall:



"It seems like you're saying, 'we want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food'." pic.twitter.com/vNczSAM4T1  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 30, 2024

Then theres this fantastic Threads post about UCLA activists banning bananas from their encampment because one person had a severe allergy to bananas. Participants when checking in have to confirm they dont have any banana products on them.

Another movement-defining image is going around Twitter of a University of Chicago list of supply needs at the encampment, including vital safe-sex aids among other  HIV tests, dental dams, Plan B, Diva cup [for menstruation]. Also Chapstik. Implied but not stated: Mom! Please bring it quickly!

University of Chicago pro-Palestine protestors list demands

On Thursday night a mob of students eliciting a primal scream gathered beneath the window of Columbia University President Minouche Shafiks home. A literal temper tantrum as political theater.

Pro-Hamas gathered outside of President Shafiks home this evening. What looks like hundreds of terrorist supporters chanted and screamed at her and her family.



While we do think President Shafik needs to be replaced along with the rest of the administration and Board of pic.twitter.com/6OyZwDnTSH  Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus (@CampusJewHate) May 3, 2024

Heres the creepy video where activists at the encampment started chanting in call and response from some leader:

This might actually be the most disturbing thing I've seen since October 7th.



Hundreds of @Columbia

drones reminiscent of the Nazi youth, chant and surround a group of Jewish students.



WHERE THE HELL IS THE ADMINISTRATION?!?!?!pic.twitter.com/RRsmbmBZmq  Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) April 22, 2024

Heres the viral video of a Columbia student leader Khymani James filming himself defending his belief that Zionists deserve to be killed. After this video was leaked James was banned from campus, but not before leading the chants in front of Butler Library for a week or two.

Zionists dont deserve to live.



Meet Khymani James, a leader of Columbia Universitys anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment.



He said this during a live-stream which included a meeting with the school over threatening social media posts.



My latest:pic.twitter.com/E0Bv4Etltr  Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 25, 2024

If the goals of pro-Palestine protestors range broadly in demanding divestment from Israel, the extremism is nonetheless fully exposed. Instead of drawing attention to and winning hearts and mind over a principled stand against the suffering of Palestinian people in Gaza, things have pivoted to a very different perspective.

I can palpably hear the shift in the tone of coverage on CNN and The New York Times. On CNN the anchors like Laura Coates and reporters on the scene of police arrests of students are asking how many of the protestors are students, and who are the organizers. The protests come off as a weird combination of rich, privileged Western kids and radical political organizers on behalf of a left thats disconnected from reality.

Coates interviewed a Columbia professor who expressed support for the decision to call in police to arrest and remove students, noting that the university needed to restore order so classes could go on. As an alum, I can tell you that is very unexpected.

And its a marked change from the previous days where the dominant narrative was around students calling for a cease fire, to free Palestine. The discussion veered between that topic and the question of whether the encampments had veered into antisemitism, and whether Jewish students on campus were feeling threatened by the rhetoric.

Now Im seeing widespread pickup of a study that delves into the origins of Students for Justice in Palestine, which is organizing much of these protests nationwide, and $3 million funding that can be traced back to Hamas.

It goes to show that these movements turn on a dime.

What the internet giveth the internet taketh away. The same viral images that quickly coalesced a critical mass of hurt and angry students to take up the mantle of Gaza has flipped the script and just as quickly turned mainstream media  and I believe mainstream opinion  against them.

A quick word on bonafides. I was once a student at Columbia University. In my senior year of 1985, students took over the same Hamilton Hall, demanding that the university divest its holdings in South Africa. Students held the building for three weeks at exactly this time of year, just ahead of graduation. I covered the protest as a student journalist at the time, and also lived in the building next door, a dormitory.

The takeover was not violent, and the tone of the protest was much different. Student protestors were vociferous in their demands for the university to divest, and people were angry on behalf of Black South Africans, who were among the protestors. But there was no hate speech. There was no violent rhetoric, at all. And, dare I say, no demands for the meal plan. Eventually the students dispersed and we all made a stand at commencement.

Thats why I say the students have blown it for the Palestinian cause they champion. Blown it for free speech. Blown it for creating a movement of inclusion and justice.

Theyve lost me and other people at the center.

The post How the Student Pro-Palestine Movement Blew It: Humanitarian Aid and Banana Allergies appeared first on TheWrap.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  Students at San Diego State University, UC San Diego and University of San Diego participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations this week, joining similar actions happening at other college campuses across the U.S. calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel.

Earlier in the week, pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University were suspended after they refused to leave a similar encampment. On Monday, the students were told by campus authorities to leave the camp by 2 p.m. and sign a document pledging they were going to obey university rules or they would be suspended.

RELATED: Gaza Solidarity encampment at UC San Diego enters second day

However, the university began suspending students around 5:30 p.m. and they were deemed ineligible to complete the semester, according to Ben Chang, Columbias vice president of communications.

Following that event, people in San Diego may be left wondering about the repercussions of students being involved in protests and walkouts on college campuses.

On Tuesday, over a hundred students at San Diego State walked out of class, demanding that the university cut financial ties with Israel and support Palestinian members of the community.

In a statement sent to FOX 5/KUSI Tuesday night, SDSU Administration responded to the protest, saying, As a public university, and as aligned with our institutional values, San Diego State University must allow for constitutionally protected free speech and an individuals right to acts of peaceful protest.

SDSU states on its website that while it supports free speech and freedom of expression, the university maintains a Freedom of Expression Policy. This allows the university to create reasonable regulations, as well as enact time, place and manner restrictions on free speech activities, according to SDSU.

To read SDSUs Freedom of Expression policy and the time, place and manner restrictions, click here.

RELATED: San Diego State University students walk out of class in pro-Palestine protest

Students actions at SDSU were followed by a walkout at USD and an encampment at UCSD on Wednesday. In an Instagram post, organizers with the Students for Justice in Palestine group at UCSD said administration threatened an imminent police response to dismantle the encampment.

UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said in a statement that the encampment was in violation of campus policy, adding that taking part in such activities can result in interim suspension, suspension, dismissal or legal action.

In the statement, Khosla also said that while the university fully supports the right to peacefully protest and express views on campus, it also wants to protect the physical safety of students, faculty and staff. Violence has already erupted at some college campuses across the country, including at UCLA earlier this week when pro-Israel counter-protesters attacked the student-led encampment there.

RELATED: Pro-Palestine demonstrations ramp up on San Diego college campuses

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, schools are allowed to discipline students for participating in a walkout or protest, but the exact punishment will vary by the state, school district and institution.

The list below includes links to freedom of expression and personal conduct standards at other San Diego-area colleges:

UCSD said although the right to protest is protected under the First Amendment, protesters are not allowed to incite illegal activity or violence, block or prevent the access or movement of others, disobey police officers orders or stay in an area where other people are engaging in illegal activities or violence.

Student organizers at UCSDs protest say they have yet to hear from university officials about their demands, but they have communicated with campus security.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) paid a visit to a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University on Wednesday, accessorized with her signature red lipstick and a blue bullhorn.

Seemingly intending to protest the protest that has been holding steady on campus for about a week now, she was met with some creative jeers that left her visibly rattled.

In a clip that has been circulating on social media, students can be heard calling out "Beetlejuice" at Boebert, in reference to her handsy, vape-plumed wild night at the theater in Colorado last year. And, to put a soundtrack to the heckling, others joined voices in a spirited rendition of John Williams and London Symphony Orchestra's "The Imperial March"  Darth Vader's Theme, as she made her way through campus, backed by other House Republicans, including Reps. Byron Donalds (FL), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), and James Comer (KY).

Members of Congress visited #GWU today and Lauren Boebert was met with BeetleJuice heckling pic.twitter.com/a0Gcz3dNQ5  Anarchy princess (@SatireAP) May 1, 2024

At one point during her visit, Boebert struggled to tear down a Palestinian flag draped over a statue of George Washington while grumbling, This is America, and that s**t needs to come down."

Its time that Mayor [Muriel] Bowser gets aggressive in keeping safety here on this campus and the surrounding perimeter, she said in a quote from The Daily Beast, going on to call the protestors very disrespectful for disrupting other students.

fascist POS @laurenboebert just tried to pull down a palestinian flag at GWU pic.twitter.com/VPiYOKP1Lj  pranay somayajula  (@p_somayajula) May 1, 2024
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  UNC Charlotte will be taking part in a study finding the hottest spots in Charlotte during the Summer, the first formal effort of its kind for the city.

The group will essentially be creating a heat map of Charlotte.

Cities around the country and a few cities around the world have been doing this mapping campaign, and now Charlotte gets to join the group, said Dr. Katherine Idziorek with UNC Charlotte, who is helping lead the local effort.

Click here to see our latest Pinpoint Weather forecast! 

The plan for the study calls for an all-day look on one day in July, where temperature readings will be taken across various spots in Charlotte.

The city is one of 14 taking part in similar studies, with a focus on how much development, concrete and pavement have had an effect on temperature.

The results are likely to show that those areas in development or in highly paved, urban areas, are warmer than those neighborhoods that have a good deal of natural tree cover and vegetation. The study is set to quantify those findings.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is over the entire project, noted that variations in some cities have been as much as 20 degrees between the cooler and hotter areas.

Joe Wiswell, a UNC Charlotte graduate student on the project, said the data will allow cities like Charlotte to plan for instances where the weather gets extremely hot, or to give more context to any citys environmental or greenspace plans.

NTSB releases final report of helicopter crash that killed pilot and Charlotte news meteorologist

Well be sharing this data with them so that they can pursue their own objectives, whether that be to plant trees around Charlotte or to make sure they have the right kind of cooling centers, Wiswell said.

The group over the study is looking for volunteers to take part. Training will be provided. On the day of the study, volunteers and participants will work in shifts that should last around an hour.

Anyone interested in participating can click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
SAN DIEGO (Border Report)  Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Irvine found that when border restrictions were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, HIV transmissions in Tijuana and San Diego went up.

The study concluded that people who were crossing the border were moving COVID-19 and HIV back and forth between the two countries.

This shows that efforts to build a higher wall or policies to stop immigration will not mitigate HIV spread, said Dr. Tetyana Vasylyeva, assistant professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine.

According to the study, researchers applied a molecular clock to look at cases as a way to determine where and when HIV was spread.

They found all the new clusters had sequences from participants on both sides of the border, indicating that cross-border transmission was happening right when the border was closed.

Despite the border closure, one cluster that reportedly grew started with two people from San Diego that used drugs in Tijuana.

They found that during the 18-month period of their study, nine people contracted HIV, mostly during the pandemic.

Nine sounds like a small number, but its actually quite a lot of people because in the U.S., HIV incidence is relatively low, said Dr. Britt Skaathun, adjunct assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine. We were surprised to see this change in HIV status in such a short amount of time and wanted to look more closely at these clusters.

$2M in cocaine seized in Operation Lone Star traffic stop in South Texas

The investigation centered around 618 participants from October 2020 to October 2021, focusing on three different groups: people who live in San Diego who cross the border to use drugs in Tijuana; people who live in San Diego and use drugs in San Diego; and people who live in Tijuana and use drugs in Tijuana.

They looked at how the viruses were related genetically, a field of study called phylogenetics.

After constructing viral-phylogenetic trees, the scientists identified transmission clusters.

If two or three people have viruses that are very similar to each other, we can assume that the transmission event happened more recently because there is not enough evolution between these different viruses from these different people, Vasylyeva explained.

According to Skaathun, the current study shows that closing the border during the pandemic functioned as a structural risk factor.

The Frontera (border) is one integrated community that is not defined by place of residence. Efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. also need to be integrated by extending to Tijuana.

Dr. Gudelia Rangel, one of the co-authors of the study, said the findings confirm that HIV has no passport.

She believes that establishing programs to eliminate HIV transmission at the border, such as harm reduction and substance use treatment services, is a more effective way of preventing viral spread than attempting to close a porous border.

This study was published a few days ago just as a researcher in Mexico declared her country is going through a health emergency due to an increased number of HIV cases, especially among young people.

This is worrisome because young people are more active sexually than most adults, said Rocio Paniagua, professor at Mexicos Autonomous National University. Young people are minimizing the importance of preventive measures.

Paniagua reported that Mexico has almost 18,000 active HIV cases, the largest number ever recorded in Mexico.

She is calling on the Mexican government to invest more resources in prevention campaigns and medical treatment for those with HIV.

I consider this a health emergency in Mexico, were having a spike in HIV cases, Paniagua said

Other researchers are sounding the same alarm in Mexico.

The lack of awareness campaigns is a big factor, no one is talking about the dangers of carrying the virus and the impacts it could have, said Ricardo Baruch, a medical investigator in Mexico. There is not enough money in the federal budget to invest in this area, and there arent enough medications available to attack the virus.

US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana in a historic shift, AP sources say

Baruch blamed Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for reducing access to HIV testing while hes been in office.

During his administration, weve seen the number of available test kits decrease, especially when it comes to testing pregnant women, which should be mandatory, but its not, he said. This has contributed to the spike in HIV cases among minors and other young people.

Paniagua added that just like there is an anti-vaccination movement, many dont believe HIV is real and a threat.

There are many who question illnesses and say they are invented by doctors or laboratories who just want to make more money, and that everything is a state of mind and certain illnesses dont really exist, she said.

Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border

Emmanuel Reyes, president of Mexicos Health Commission, disagrees theres a lack of government resources being spent in the fight against HIV.

This year, weve invested almost 552 million pesos ($33 million) in HIV prevention efforts, an increase of almost 13 percent from previous years, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Photo by Ellen OBrien | Cronkite News

They cant say they werent warned.

When Republican lawmakers pushed a bill that would rewrite state law to include only two sexes and specifically rejected gender identity, Gov. Katie Hobbs told them she would veto the bill if it passed, just like she vetoed a similar measure last year.

They passed it. She vetoed it, just one of 52 bills vetoed by the governor so far this year.

Bills addressing immigration, abortion, and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI programs, are among the many that have passed with almost no chance of becoming law, part of the regular political theater aimed less at legislating and more at getting media attention and appealing to constituents.

Steve R. Johnson, a law professor at Florida State University, said thats because the negatives of wasting peoples time are often outweighed by the benefits such theater brings to lawmakers.

The introducing legislator often makes it known they are not serious about this. You introduce it, you make the constituent happy, said Johnson, author of an Iowa Law Review article on The Dangers of Symbolic Legislation. So, Johnson said, legislators say to themselves, All that happens is I have wasted peoples time, but I have wasted peoples time to get favor with these constituents.

This is unspoken, you do me a favor, Ill do you a favor, he said of the tradeoff between lawmakers and advocates.

But the threat of a veto, or a long shot to passage, is no reason not to pursue an issue that a lawmaker or his constituents believe in, said Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler. Even if a bill is destined to fail, he said, using that as a reason not to file as an excuse is just a lazy work ethic.

There is no way to know unless youve tried, Mesnard said. There are a lot of new ideas and all you can do is try, and for my constituents, I can point to this and say, Ive tried.

And in this years Legislature, there seemed to be a lot of that long-shot trying.

Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, listens on Feb. 21 as Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, blasts SB 1231  an immigration bill all but guaranteed to draw a veto. It passed; it was vetoed. Photo by Sam Ballesteros | Cronkite News

GOP lawmakers pushed bills to address the invasion at the border that included proposals to make illegal border crossing a state crime and to require that local governments use E-Verify to confirm the citizenship status of anyone seeking public benefits  despite Hobbs statement that the bills are only meant to score cheap political points and would draw vetoes.

Another bill, sponsored by Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, would prohibit public funding to promote, advocate or plan for, or become a member of an association or organization that promotes advocates or plans for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, plane travel, global temperature, car usage, or the dairy and meat industry; or the promotion of Marxist ideology or limits on the amount of clothing people can own.

Kern called it a good bill, a good pro-freedom bill. It disallows government entities from using taxpayer money to promote Marxist ideology. But Sandy Bahr, the director of the Sierra Clubs Grand Canyon Chapter, said it would open local officials like Tucson Mayor Regina Romero to legal action for that citys climate action plan.

We are concerned by the messages the Legislature is trying to send, Bahr said. This is a culture-war manifesto.

Its not just Republicans. A total of 23 Democrats in the House and 14 in the Senate this year signed on to right to contraception bills, which Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, derided as a proposal that addresses a controversy that does not exist  nobody has any kind of plan to deny any kind of contraceptives.

The bills did not get a hearing or a vote in either chamber, despite Democratic attempts to force a floor vote  putting Republicans on record. That allowed Democrats to frame GOP lawmakers as opposed to contraceptive access.

James Strickland, an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State Universitys School of Politics and Global Studies, said the use of such symbolic legislation is normal behavior, often used as means to get re-elected.

Legislators typically seek to get re-elected, and symbolic laws often help them to receive earned press coverage and take a public stance, Strickland said in an emailed statement.

Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, who has been in the Legislature since 2012, said he thinks lawmakers have taken a step back from years past.

I dont feel like we have been working on policy like we used to, said Mendez, who accused Republicans of proposing bills that are not in good faith.

They are in search of a problem, they are not putting together real legislation. They arent really coming at this with measured, researched proposals, he said.

Johnson said this political theater does not diminish legislative outputs in the short term, but he warned that lawmakers should be aware of the potential long-term damage to their reputation in the eyes of voters.

Most of us wish that it didnt happen, but I think it is hard to say these activities have a directly correlated impact on legislative outputs, Johnson said. Folks on both sides of the political aisle do not view their political legislators with tremendous amounts of approval  Political theater is an entirely fair characterization.

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Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2024

Eversource Energy isn't one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning and thank you for attending the Eversource Energy Q1 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Alyssa and I'll be your moderator. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to pass the call hand over to our host Matthew Fallon, Eversource Energys Director for Investor Relations. Matt please go ahead.

Matthew Fallon: Good morning and thank you for joining us. I am Matthew Fallon, Eversource Energy's Director for Investor Relations. During this call, we'll be referencing slides that we posted yesterday on our website. As you can see on Slide 1, some of the statements made during this investor call may be forward looking. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainty which may cause the actual results to differ materially from forecasts and projections. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Additional information about the various factors that may cause actual results to differ and our explanation of non-GAAP measures and how they reconcile to GAAP results is contained within our news release, the slides we posted last night and in our most recent 10-K.

Speaking today will be Joseph Nolan, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and John Moreira, our Executive Vice President and CFO and Treasurer. Also joining us today is Jay Buth, our Vice President and Controller. Now, I will turn the call over to Joe.

Joseph Nolan: Thank you, Matt, and thank you all for joining us on the call this morning. Let me begin with an update on the sale of our offshore wind business. I am pleased to report that we are on track to close the sale of the three projects over the coming months. We are progressing well on the approvals necessary to close these transactions as shown on Slide 3. We have filed all regulatory approvals with the New York Public Service Commission and FERC for the sale of South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind to global infrastructure partners. And we recently executed the purchase and sale agreement for Sunrise Wind with rsted. For Sunrise Wind, we have also filed applications for regulatory approvals the New York Public Service Commission and FERC.

We anticipate these approvals will take about 90 days. On the construction front, I can't tell you how excited and proud I was of my Eversource colleagues as I stood alongside New York Governor, Hochul, to flip the switch to energize South Fork Wind in March. We will certainly capitalize on lessons learned from South Fork, a first of its kind project here in the United States. The same construction processes will be used for the Revolution Wind Project, where onshore and offshore construction is underway. Now that our offshore wind risk is largely behind us, we are very excited about the future of Eversource, delivering safe and reliable electric, natural gas and water service to our 4.4 million customers. Turning to slide 4, Eversource is moving forward as a pure play regulated pipes and wires utility business, doing what we do best, delivering clean energy safely and reliably to our customers every day.

When we are doing what we do best, our customers are the direct beneficiaries. A good example of this came in early April, when a late winter storm caused significant damage across the Northeast. Through our investments in technology, including smart switches and other reliability innovations, we were able to restore 85,000 customers in New Hampshire within five minutes, greatly reducing the impact of the storm to many customers in that area. This amazing response received numerous accolades from customers and personal acknowledgment from Governor Sununu. We take tremendous pride in our emergency response organization, in our ability to standup our emergency response teams for timely restoration. Eversource teams from all three states responded to the storm damage in New Hampshire, minimizing customer outage time.

Our resiliency investments help to minimize customer outage impacts. Our preparation enables us to hit the ground running in front of potential severe weather events and our emergency response plan supports scalable and efficient restoration for those customers who are impacted. And we work tirelessly to communicate that timely recovery of storm cost is critical to support these efforts. Turning to the clean energy future, as you can see on Slide 5, the states we serve have very aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals. Both the transportation sector and residential and commercial heating sectors are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Although the region has acted by reducing carbon emissions from power generation, we have a long way to go on heating and transportation to achieve the state's targets by 2050.

To meet these targets, we project that average household electric demand will double in the summer and more than triple in the winter. That's why it's critical that we all work collaboratively and get started today on making achievement of these targets a reality. Moving to Slide 6, achievement of Massachusetts decarbonization goals are being addressed, in part through the Electric Sector Modernization Plans, or ESMP. This is the most comprehensive clean energy plan in the nation, with planning processes and requirements that will provide the pathway for the state to achieve its clean energy objectives. The Eversource ESMP is a product of our system planning process, incorporating the state's assumptions for projected demand growth from electric vehicles and electric heating.

To develop our ESMP, we have analyzed expected electric growth down to the circuit level to identify grid investments needed over the next five years and beyond. These infrastructure investments will convert our distribution grid into the platform for the clean energy transition, will increase electrification capacity by 180%, and will allow for the adoption of 2.5 million electric vehicles, 1 million heat pumps and 5.8 gigawatts of solar generation, thereby making Massachusetts a leader in delivering clean energy to its homes and businesses. In New Hampshire, we are focused on a number of regulatory initiatives and are evaluating ways to advance clean energy initiatives such as large-scale utility owned solar development. For example, New Hampshire state legislators are working on a bill that would institute structural reforms to New Hampshire's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Committee, or the SEC.

Reducing the size of the SEC from 9 members to 5 and eliminating unnecessary process to improve efficiency and to lead to more consistent outcomes. In turn, this will lead to an accelerated siting and permitting process for these clean energy initiatives. Turning to Connecticut. State policy leaders have a vision of solar expansion, electric vehicle adoption and future renewable purchase power agreements as part of its clean energy transition. We are a strong supporter of these efforts to enable the clean energy future for our customers, and we certainly are looking to partner with the state collaboratively and productively to achieve this important vision for our customers. While we continue to work diligently to support state policy leaders on thoughtful and reasonable policies aimed at increased adoption of clean energy technologies and the reduction of carbon emissions.

We have serious concerns with the lack of alignment between state policy and regulatory decisions implementing that policy. As it stands, regulatory policies in Connecticut discourage investment and utility innovation as well as our participation in a wide range of clean energy initiatives that rely on our balance sheet and our capital resources. Upfront program funding by the utilities does not work where cost recovery is continually deferred and delayed into the future on uncertain terms. Without recognition that our funding sources rely on a secure and predictable cost recovery path, we cannot move forward to put additional capital resources on the table. We are encouraged by PURA's decision last month to provide timely reimbursement of deferred public policy costs through the Company's electric annual rate adjustment mechanism.

Decisions that adhere to law and legislative policy are critical to assure a constructive regulatory environment in Connecticut and to make the vision of a clean energy future a reality for our customers. Looking forward to the future, we remain committed to our extensive outreach plan across Connecticut, furthering our efforts to engage collaboratively and productively with Connecticut's leadership. Lastly, I want to thank my Eversource colleagues for their unwavering commitment and dedication to our customers. I have the utmost confidence in our team to deliver safe and reliable energy service to our customers with daily progress toward a clean energy future. I will now turn the call over to John Moreira to walk through our financial results.

A view of a power grid with electricity transmission lines in various directions.

John Moreira: Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. This morning, I will discuss our first quarter financial results, give you a regulatory update and cover drivers for our cash flow enhancement. I'll start with the first quarter results on Slide 7. Our GAAP and recurring earnings for the quarter were $1.49 per share compared with GAAP and recurring earnings of $1.41 per share last year. Breaking down the first quarter earnings results of the $1.49 per share into segments, our electric transmission earned $0.50 per share compared with earnings of $0.45 per share in 2023. Improved results were driven by our continued investments in our transmission system to address capacity growth for customers and connect clean energy resources to the region.

Our electric distribution earnings were $0.48 per share compared with earnings of $0.47 per share in 2023. Higher revenues primarily due to a base distribution rate increase at NSTAR Electric were partially offset by higher operating expense, higher interest expense and increased property taxes and depreciation. Our natural gas natural gas distribution business earned $0.54 per share compared with $0.49 per share in 2023. Natural Gas Distribution earnings increased due to higher revenues from capital cost recovery mechanisms, a base rate increase at NSTAR Gas and lower operating expenses. Our water distribution segment contributed a penny per share compared with flat earnings in 20023. Eversource parent and other company earnings were a loss of $0.04 per share compared to breakeven results in 2023.

The lower results were due primarily to higher interest expense and the absence of a net benefit in the first quarter of last year from the liquidation of a renewable energy fund. Overall, our first quarter earnings were in line with our expectations and we are reiterating our 2024 EPS guidance of $4.50 to $4.67 per share, as well as our longer term 5% to 7% EPS growth rate. Turning to regulatory items on Slide 8, starting with Massachusetts. We filed our electric sector modernization plan with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utility in January and we expect to have a decision on our plan in the August timeframe. Our ESMP calls for an incremental $600 million of capital investments for interconnection of solar resources through 2028.

As a reminder, this $600 million is incremental to our $23.1 billion capital investment forecast we announced back in February. In New Hampshire, we are very busy on the regulatory front. In March, we submitted our documentation for a prudency review of $232 million of storm costs related to storm events from August 2022 through March of 2023. We anticipate that review will be completed later this year. In addition, we anticipate filing a rate review in New Hampshire this summer with temporary rate relief going into effect 90 days after the filing. Closing out the regulatory update is Connecticut, where we received the final decision on our annual rate adjustment mechanism two weeks ago for new rates to become effective July 1st this year. The major drivers of the $873 million increase are recoveries of purchase power contracts and protected hardship uncollectible accounts, both of which are costs required by law.

These under collected costs in Connecticut, which were approximately $400 million in 2023 contributed significantly to a reduction in our 2023 FFO to debt ratio. This rate impact will be significantly offset by lower energy supply costs that will also go into effect July 1st this year. We appreciate PURA's decision to provide timely reimbursement to the company of these state policy costs as required by law, reducing the pressure on our balance sheet to finance these costs for a longer time period. Timely recovery of these costs reduces the total amount that customers will pay through avoidance of carrying charges on these balances. In March, we resubmitted our request for prudency review of approximately $635 million of Connecticut storm costs relating to weather events that occurred from 2018 through 2021.

The vast majority of these costs represent payments to outside line and treat crews to assist in the restoration resulting from 24 significant storm events during that period. We are currently in the discovery phase of the proceeding. As a reminder, recovery of these costs will coincide with new distribution rates following our next general distribution rate proceeding. In early April, following the Superior Court decision on our Aquarion rate case, we filed for a review of that decision by the Appellate court along with a request to transfer the appeal directly to the Connecticut Supreme Court. We are requesting that the Connecticut Supreme Court hear this case due to the critical legal issues raised by the Aquarion rate decision. Without proper resolution of these issues, there will be a negative impact on utility investment and customers long term.

As Joe mentioned, we are committed to our extensive and ongoing outreach efforts that have been pivotal to educating key leaders and communities on the necessity for stable regulatory policies. We are also demonstrating our commitment to support the state's policy leaders who seek to move the state forward with thoughtful and reasonable policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions and achieving increased adoption of clean energy resources. A successful path to a clean energy future will require a substantial ramp up in planned proactive distribution infrastructure investment rather than piecemeal approach as well as sound public policies and adherence to legal principles to enable that investment. However, the existing gap between the state's vision of a transition to a clean energy future and the regulatory framework discouraging investment is an obstacle for Connecticut's progress on climate change, the clean energy transition and even core service goals.

As a result, we have taken a hard look at our capital deployment priorities and are implementing necessary cuts to our Connecticut investment levels in 2024 and over the next five years. In 2024, we are reducing our capital expenditures by nearly $100 million and we have notified PURA of our unwillingness to put capital at risk in relation to advanced meter infrastructure and electric vehicle programs. In total, we are expecting to reduce capital investment in Connecticut by $500 million over the next five years until we see Connecticut's regulatory decisions come back into alignment with law and state policy, our decisions on the deployment of our valuable capital resources have to be based on our current experience with regulatory outcomes for utility investment.

With that, I do want to emphasize that we are confirming our five-year capital expenditure forecast of $23.1 billion across all business units. Substantial consistently emerging infrastructure needs across our system provide ample opportunity for capital deployment in lieu of using those valuable resources in Connecticut. I will now cover a number of drivers that are expected to enhance our FFO to debt ratio from 2023 to 2025. As you can see on Slide 9, the under collection of 2023 deferred state policy costs, which will now be recovered as a result of the 2024 annual rate adjustment decision in Connecticut as well as other under recoveries of regulatory deferrals across all states of approximately $200 million contributed to the lower FFO to debt that we experienced in 2023.

We expect other enhancements in 2024 and 2025 that include the sale of South Fork and Revolution Wind assets to GIP. Upon closing of the sale to GIP, we anticipate receiving approximately $1.1 billion of cash proceeds from this transaction. In addition to the GIP sale proceeds, we anticipate utilizing our tax equity investment in South Fork Wind, which we expect will bring around $500 million of cash over the next 24 months. Lastly, collection of storm costs in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, planned rate increases at our utilities, the sale of our Sunrise Wind Project to rsted, equity issuances and cash flows from a potential sale of our water business will drive the enhancement of 2023 FFO to debt to 14 to 15 targeted by 2025. Moving on to our equity issuances, in the first quarter of 2024, we raised approximately $75 million through our existing ATM program and we issued 550,000 treasury shares.

We continue to anticipate our equity needs to be up to $1.3 billion over the next several years. Also, as we announced in February, we are undertaking a review of our water distribution business. Proceeds from a successful sale are assumed in our long-term financing plan, reducing the level of equity that would otherwise be needed. We continue to prepare materials needed to launch the first phase of this process. Closing out on Slide 10, as I mentioned earlier, our $23.1 billion 5-year capital forecast and our forecasted financing plan drive our 5% to 7% EPS growth rate through 2028 based off of our 2023 recurring EPS of $4.34 per share. I'll now turn the call back to Matt for Q&A.

Matthew Fallon: Thank you, John. Alyssa, we are now ready for questions.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. The first question will be coming from the line of Shahriar Pourreza with Guggenheim. Your line is now open.

See also

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10 Best Multibagger Stocks to Buy Now.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
Summer is coming and the torment will begin: Greece readies itself for another record fire season

Summer is coming and the torment will begin: Greece readies itself for another record fire season

Greeces fire season officially starts in May, but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius in late March - considerably higher than previous spikes recorded over the past decade.

Its actually already summer for us, said Fire Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Kolovos during a recent training exercise. The truth is that the fire season has started prematurely and has been extended over the last five years.

His 10-member elite fire crew from the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit bristles with tools needed to hold back fires: chainsaws, specialised rakes, weather gauges, computer tablets and earth-scorching drip torches to burn wildfire barriers into the hillside.

This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialised units to some 1,300, and adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames.

Firefighters in training for the special unit, gather after a practice at the Civil Protection Academy in Villia village, Greece, 19 April 2024. - AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Specialised tools overtake water as the main weapon against fire

Crew members include forestry experts and firefighters with varied skills, many developed in training with colleagues in France, Spain and the United States.

We can position ourselves in optimal locations that may be difficult to reach by foot and carry out fire suppression using various specialised methods, Firefighter Dimitris 'Jim' Priftis said while assisting trainees in a region near the capital ravaged by wildfires in summer 2023.

Using water is no longer our main weapon against fires, its our tools, he said. We are taking a more scientific approach toward fires, measuring the humidity, the wind - its a more planned method.

Mostly funded by the European Union, Greece has launched a 2.1 billion programme to overhaul its disaster response capability, ordering new water-dropping aircraft, drones, fire trucks, training facilities, and an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect early signs of smoke and flooding.

But the new equipment wont start arriving until 2025. Greek authorities are doubling down on training and new firefighting methods, with another tough season expected this year.

Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, take part in a drill near Villia village 60 kilometres northwest of Athens, Greece, 19 April 2024. - AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Greece faces a worsening annual wildfire challenge

Fires burned an estimated 1,750 square kilometres last year, including a blaze in northern Greece that was the worst fire ever recorded in the European Union.

Windy and mountainous with hard-to-reach islands, Greece faces a daunting annual challenge in defending multiple urban settlements that overlap with wooded areas at wildfire risk.

Its also getting hotter: last winter was the warmest since modern records began in 1960, according to the National Observatory of Athens, which analysed European Union satellite data. The six warmest Greek winters on record have occurred in the past decade.

Thats against the backdrop of new data revealing that Europe is the worlds fastest-warming continent, its temperatures rising at roughly twice the global average.

Standing in the main disaster response command centre in Athens, Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection, says authorities expect annual conditions to worsen further.

It will be a very difficult fire season, a very difficult summer, says Kikilias. We had a dry winter and fall temperatures lasting until December. So were facing the climate crisis head on.

A helicopter drops water during a drill, as firefighters in training for the special unit, practice near Villia village 60 kilometres northwest of Athens, 19 April 2024. - AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

How is Greece preparing for this year's fire season?

Throughout the month of April, firefighters stepped up exercises and training, using new facilities like the Fire Dragon, a 1.2 million trailer used to simulate the inside of a burning building. Fire crews with heavy protective gear and oxygen tanks use it to practice close-quarter techniques and rescues.

Close by, Fire Service regulars and trainees crawl through a mesh maze in darkness to practice working in confined spaces. Participants in full kit first workout on treadmill climbers and other gym machines, then crawl through the maze as strobe lights, smoke and loud noises are added to disorient them.

The firefighting maze helps firefighters in a dark environment, in an unfamiliar setting, in the presence of fire, to enter the area, investigate, possibly carry out a rescue and find a way out, said Fire Lt. Col. Vrasidas Grafakos, a training centre commander.

Its to train them effectively to be ready for building fires, for front-line activity.

Retiree Chrysoula Renieri was among those who lost their homes in the 2023 fires that tore through forests on the island of Rhodes, in northeastern Greece, and areas west of Athens.

Retiree Chrysoula Renieri, 73, stands outside her house which was burned in July 2023 during a wildfire, in Loutraki, Greece, 25 April 2024. - AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Renieri visited her gutted house last week. As she walked through the blackened rooms, she described how her family felt helpless as the approaching fire cut off power and the water supply before the flames took over the house. No one helped us and everything burned. Its all gone.

She said she hopes the Fire Services new equipment and methods might make a difference to others.

I wish that would happen, so many homes could be saved, she said. We hope, because summer is coming again and the torment will begin.
The View co-host Sunny Hostin said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wouldnt help former President Trump with gaining Black voters in the 2024 election if he ends up being picked as the vice presidential candidate.

Scott, who endorsed Trump early this year, is one of the candidates the former president is considering to pick as his VP among other governors, House and Senate lawmakers.

In Hostins view, Scott will not help Trump in gaining more support among Black voters.

If anyone thinks that Tim Scott is going to bring over a bunch of Black men, they really need to just get with it, because Tim Scott is the only African American senator in the Republican Party for a reason, Hostin said Friday as the panel discussed which lawmakers would help the most in attracting new voters.

Former Trump administration aide Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is also a co-host of the show, chimed in, stating Democrats have only a few more Black lawmakers in the upper chamber than Republicans.

Hostin pointed out that Democrats recently had Black lawmakers in all of the highest public-elected offices in the country.

But we have people like [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries, we have people like [New Jersey Sen.] Cory Booker, we have people like Sen. Kamala Harris, whos now the vice president of the United States, we have former President Obama, Hostin said.

Scott ran in the GOP primary against Trump. He dropped his White House bid in November and formally announced his backing of the former president in January. Since then, he has joined Trump on a number of campaign stops, presenting why the 45th president should be elected back to the Oval Office in November.

Outside of Scott, other candidates Trump in consideration are fellow Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), along with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
What the Supreme Court is doing right in considering Trumps immunity case

There was a lot of press attention paid to the Trump immunity hearing at the Supreme Court building on April 25, 2024.

There was a lot of press attention paid to the Trump immunity hearing at the Supreme Court building on April 25, 2024. (Mandel NGAN / AFP/Getty Images)

Following the nearly three-hour oral argument about presidential immunity in the Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, many commentators were aghast. The general theme, among legal and political experts alike, was a hand-over-the-mouth, how-dare-they assessment of the mostly conservative justices questioning of the attorneys who appeared before them in the case known as Trump v. United States.

Rather than a laser-focused, deep dive into the details of Trumps attempt to subvert the 2020 election, virtually all of the nine justices instead raised larger questions, peppered with hypotheticals  hello again, Seal Team Six!  about the reach of executive power, the intent of the nations founders and the best way to promote a stable democracy.

Justice Brett Kavanaughs Im not focused on the here and now of this case and Justice Neil Gorsuchs We are writing a rule for the ages drew particular fire.

The headline and subheadline on the New York Times analysis by Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak complained that the court had taken Trumps immunity arguments in unexpected direction with very little about the Presidents conduct. And the story itself fumed that the justices had responded to Trumps claim that he should not face charges as a weighty and difficult question.

Slates Amicus podcast decried the court for failing to focus on the narrow question the case presented, instead going off the rails and bouncing all over the map with various legal arguments. A guest on NPRs 1A program lamented that the court had injected new questions into the oral argument to slow-walk the case and prevent Trump from facing trial before the election.

But heres what the pundits seem to have forgotten: What happened that day in the court should have surprised no one, especially those constitutional scholars like me familiar with Supreme Court procedure.

Donald Trumps attorneys told the Supreme Court that the actions of a president should be immune from criminal prosecution.

Donald Trumps attorneys told the Supreme Court that the actions of a president should be immune from criminal prosecution. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)

Five words change everything

Trumps case stemmed from his prosecution by Special Counsel Jack Smith for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump claimed he, as president, was immune from prosecution, and he took his case to the Supreme Court.

When parties appeal their case to the court, they must tell the justices what specific legal question or questions they want the justices to answer. As a colleague and I have explored in a recent academic journal article, the court generally accepts what is called the Questions Presented as given, agreeing to hear a case without making any adjustments to its legal framing.

Sometimes, however, the court will alter the legal question in some way. Why it does this is an issue that scholars like myself are just beginning to explore. And because it is that question  not the one the litigant initially asked  that frames the legal analysis, the justices can exert real control over both the case itself and the development of the law.

Trump v. United States is a classic example. When attorneys for the former president filed their request with the court, the question presented by them was Whether the doctrine of absolute presidential immunity includes immunity from criminal prosecution for a Presidents official acts.

When it granted the petition in late February 2024, the court changed this language to Whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.

Five of those additional words  if so to what extent  changed everything. They sent a clear-as-day signal that the court would move well beyond the simple yes-or-no of whether Trump could be prosecuted.

The full Supreme Court, with nine justices, heard oral arguments in the immunity case.

The full Supreme Court, with nine justices, heard oral arguments in the immunity case. (Supreme Court of the United States)

The court doing its job

With their reformulation of the question, the justices would instead be determining how, when and for what acts any president could ever be held criminally responsible.

That is a much larger inquiry, one that necessarily involves formulating a legal test to draw a line between what is constitutionally permissible and what is not. That the justices spent oral argument trying do exactly that is not a problem, much less an outrage: Its just the court, the highest appellate court in the land, doing its job.

The scope of the argument, the expansiveness of the coming opinions and the time suck for the justices to write them and the possible vanishing of Trumps prosecution are not at all shocking. The court signaled it would address the broader question months ago when it took the case; the time to fault the court for making the case about more than just Donald Trump was then, not now.

But perhaps commentators response to the oral argument can be a good lesson. Americans are told to take Trump at his word, expecting his second term to contain all the extremes he gleefully says it will.

When the Supreme Court indicates what legal question it will answer, the smart response is to do the same thing  pay attention and believe. This may not make the ultimate outcome any less distasteful to many, but at least it wont be quite as disturbing.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Claire Wofford holds the rank of associate professor and is also the director of the pre-law advising program at the College of Charleston. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

The post What the Supreme Court is doing right in considering Trumps immunity case appeared first on Kansas Reflector.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  A man charged with murder in connection to a deadly stabbing pleaded not guilty Thursday and is being held without bail.

Jeremy Roberts, 37, is due back in court later this month. Hes accused of stabbing Terrance DeVaul Clark Jr., 55, on Tuesday in the area of Butte and Tulare streets.

Scrivners wifes statement redacted from restraining order petition

Clark was taken to Kern Medical. He was later pronounced dead.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.
Suspect on the run after North Memphis shooting

MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Memphis Police are searching for the suspect who shot a man in North Memphis Thursday night.

Police responded to a shooting on Jones Street near Robeson Avenue at 9:06 p.m.

Memphis Police say officers found the victim on the scene. He was taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition.

Berclair crash leaves pedestrian seriously hurt

Police say the suspect was wearing all-black clothing but have not released any other details about the suspect at this time.

If you have any information regarding this incident, call Memphis CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The suspect wounded in a police shooting is now facing charges for auto theft. The Albuquerque Police Department says they exchanged gunfire with 35-year-old Nicholas Roach near Sandia Casino late Tuesday night.

Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office investigating suspicious death

Court documents filed on Thursday show hes facing 15 charges in Sandoval County over a Hummer H3, a camper trailer, tools, and other items reported stolen last month.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
A suspected Islamic State group attack on pro-government force in east Syria kills at least 13

This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP)  Suspected members of the Islamic State group attacked three posts for Syrian government forces and pro-government gunmen early Friday killing at least 13, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported.

The attack wounded others who were taken to hospitals in the central province of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said 15 were killed in the attacks on three posts near the central town of Sukhna and blamed IS.

The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled.

Athr Press and Sham FM, both pro-government media outlets, said 13 soldiers and pro-government gunmen were killed in the attacks and that IS gunmen were behind it. They gave no further details.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but the area was once a stronghold of the extremist group that was officially defeated in Syria in March 2019.

However, IS sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks against both Syrian government forces and against members of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.

In 2014, IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq, where they attracted thousands of supporters from around the world to join them.

An attack by IS on pro-government Palestinian fighters near Sukhna killed 22 last month.
Halting construction on a controversial multi-million dollar project has cost Richland School District 1 more than $800,000 so far, the district said Thursday.

The Vince Ford Early Learning Center, a $31 million building planned for Rawlinson Road in Lower Richland, had been under construction since late last year. But the work was paused after Richland County officials issued a stop work order, citing violations of state and local codes, no approved permits or plans, and no record of required inspections.

Construction remains on hold while the district is under investigation by the South Carolina Inspector General.

Since the work was halted, the district has spent $813,000 for security, inspections by a company called KCI, and stabilization to ensure that soil from the construction site does not get washed onto other properties, according to the district.

At a January school board meeting, Richland 1 Chief Operations Officer Bob Grant estimated that while the project was stalled, it would cost the district about $2,300 each day. That cost has grown since Jan. 19, Richland 1 spokesperson Karen York told The State.

School board Chair Aaron Bishop and Vice Chair Angela Clyburn could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

Original plans for the center, named in memory of longtime Columbia leader and former Richland 1 school board member Vince Ford, called for it to serve children as young as 6 weeks old. Lower Richland, board members have said, is in dire need of child care services.

But in December 2023, the state Education Department declined to issue a permit for the building, saying it could not be considered a school because it would serve infants. A month later, the district paused construction. Superintendent Craig Witherspoon had said the district did so of its own volition. However, according to The States reporting, Richland County officials had already issued a stop work order.

After the state Education Department raised questions about the ages of the centers students, the school board voted to change the age range to kindergarten through second grade. Witherspoon then asked for another permit from the state Education Department.

His request was denied, according to a Feb. 8 letter from John Tyler, the state education departments deputy superintendent, pending the Inspector Generals findings.

Richland 1 will have to wait.

It has been just over three months since the investigation began. Inspector General Brian Lamkin previously told The State the process could take about four months.

Richland 1 officials maintain that the district acted properly in the planning and execution of the impending learning center.

We welcome the Inspector Generals review and are fully cooperating with the investigation, York said in February.
Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.

Suzanne Morphews husband, Barry Morphew, was once a suspect in the missing Colorado mothers disappearance or murder. According to CNN, Investigators initially suspected Barry killed Suzanne, who went missing on Mothers Day 2020. They arrested and charged the husband with murder before her body was discovered. Prosecutors later dropped the charges after failing to find Suzannes remains. However, the charges that prosecutors dismissed without prejudice means they can charge him again.

The outlet reported that investigators found Suzannes remains in September 2023. A subsequent autopsy revealed she had a drug cocktail in her system when she died. The coroner ruled her death homicide by unspecified means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication. Reportedly, these chemicals are present in animal tranquilizers.

People Magazine stated that prosecutors could re-file murder charges against Suzanne Morphews husband, Barry Morphew, after recent findings. Previously, investigators had found a tranquilizer dart cap in their family home. Prosecutors had alleged that Barry, a hunter, murdered the mother of two using a tranquilizer gun, per NBC News.

CBS 48 Hours revisited the case in its episode The Suzanne Morphew Case: Nothing Is What It Seems. The episode delved into the investigation into Suzannes mysterious disappearance and the case against her husband, Barry Morphew.

When was Suzzane Morphews Husband Barry Morphew first arrested?

According to People Magazine, authorities first arrested Suzzane Morphews Husband Barry Morphew in 2021. Prosecutors then filed several charges against him, including murder, tampering with physical evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. Barry pleaded not guilty, denying any involvement in Suzannes disappearance. The mother of two went on a bike ride in 2020 and never returned home.

CBS News stated that investigators found evidence that led to Barrys arrest. They reportedly discovered a tranquilizer dart cap during a search of the house. They claimed the accused was a hunter who often shot deer using tranquilizer darts to cut off their antlers without killing them. Prosecutors alleged he murdered Suzanne using a tranquilizer gun after learning about her alleged affair. Another key piece of evidence they found was a text message he sent her before the disappearance. The message said, Im done, per NBC News.

However, in April 2022, prosecutors dropped all charges against Suzanne Morphews husband. They moved to dismiss Barry Morphews case without prejudice about a week before his murder trial. Prosecutors claimed that they had hoped to find Suzannes body by then but had failed. However, their decision to dismiss the charges without prejudice allows them to re-file charges against Barry in the future.

Then, investigators found Suzannes body in September 2023 while they were looking into a separate missing case. A recent autopsy revealed more details about the case. The coroner ruled that her death was a homicide by unspecified means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication. The drugs in question are present in animal tranquilizers.

Following Suzanne Morphews autopsy revelations, her husband Barry Morphew released a statement via his attorneys, per CBS. In the statement, he maintained his innocence in the murder while his attorneys urged investigators to look into veterinarians. His attorneys believe Suzannes killer possibly got these drugs, a very common animal tranquilizer, using a prescription, per People Magazine. They claimed Barry couldnt possibly have used his tranquilizer gun to murder his wife as the weapon wasnt working when she disappeared.

Authorities are yet to make an arrest in Suzanne Morphews homicide after the latest autopsy revelations.

The post Is Suzanne Morphews Husband Barry Morphew a Suspect in Her Murder? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Teachers of the Year honored by Biden at White House dinner: You're the reason 'we have hope about the future'

Teachers of the Year honored by Biden at White House dinner: You're the reason 'we have hope about the future'

It was a toast to teaching at the White House Thursday night as more than 50 of the nation's top educators gathered for the first-ever Teachers of the Year State Dinner.

"How can we be the most powerful country in the world without having the best education system in the world?" President Joe Biden -- who made a surprise appearance -- said, drawing applause during the dinner event honoring America's Teacher of the Year. In prior years, the teacher would be awarded a golden apple at a less formal White House ceremony.

Biden spoke to a packed room filled with dozens of educators and their families. Union leaders, lawmakers and cabinet secretaries also attended.

"You all are the reason why we -- we have hope about the future," Biden said during his brief remarks.

President Joe Biden speaks alongside Jill Biden during a 'Teachers of the Year' State Dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2024. (Photo by DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images) (Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images)

MORE: Biden announces more student loan relief plans in battleground Wisconsin

National Teacher of the Year for 2024, Missy Testerman, was honored by the president, first lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Under the National Teacher of the Year program, run by the Council of Chief State School Officers, one teacher is chosen to be the National Teacher of the Year annually from the State Teachers of the Year pool, according to the council's website.

"Teachers are the ultimate facilitators of justice, fairness, equity and democracy," Testerman said in her speech.

"No profession in American history is as pivotal as ours," she continued. "We make democracy possible both by educating the generation in front of us, but we also make all professions -- every single one of them -- possible."

Testerman, a veteran English as a Second Language teacher serving students from all over the world, stood with pride and joy for public education.

"Hearing the experiences of my students and their families reminds me daily what a privilege it is to be an American and what a privilege it is to attend a public school in this country," Testerman said.

MORE: Meet Rebecka Peterson, the 2023 Teacher of the Year

The Tennessee teacher is part of the 2024 State Teachers of the Year, comprised of 55 educators from Alaska to the American Samoa. After paying tribute to her fellow teachers in the room, Testerman highlighted her greatest joy: her family.

"While most people in Rogersville, Tennessee, know me as Mrs. Testerman from RCS, my greatest title will always be being Davids wife and Andrew and Carolines mom," she said.

Before introducing Testerman, career educator and first lady Jill Biden choked up when describing President Bidens record.

"I always knew that -- now I get emotional -- that Joe would be the best education president," the first lady said.

The education secretary echoed her remarks.

"As a lifelong teacher, I'm proud -- I'm proud and humbled to work for a president and an administration that puts the voices of teachers front and center in education where it belongs," Cardona said.

And when toasting Testermans accomplishments, the first lady quoted the Tennessee teacher's students.

"As her students say, she makes everyone feel important, 'She helps us feel more welcome'; 'She makes sure I was taken care of'; 'She makes me smile all the time'; 'She's the best,'" the first lady said.

Teachers of the Year honored by Biden at White House dinner: You're the reason 'we have hope about the future' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Former FirstEnergy CEO Charles "Chuck" Jones arrives in Summit County Court with his attorney Carole Rendon. Jones and another former executive Michael Dowling say FirstEnergy was not a crime victim.

Akron-based FirstEnergy and its allies bankrolled one of Ohio's largest corruption scandals. But state prosecutors now say the company should be labeled a victim of its former leaders' actions.

Two former executives accused of bribing a top utility regulator aren't buying it.

"FirstEnergy does not qualify as a victim under this constitutional standard for the fundamental reason that FirstEnergy is an admitted (and accused) co-conspirator and participant in the alleged crime," wrote attorneys for former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and former Senior Vice President of External Affairs Michael Dowling.

FirstEnergy, its subsidiaries and its allies paid more than $60 million to help former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder win control of the Ohio House of Representatives, pass a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants and defend that law against a ballot initiative to block it.

Jones and Dowling are accused of bribing former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo with a $4.3 million payment to work on FirstEnergy's behalf within Gov. Mike DeWine's administration. Both men have pleaded not guilty. Randazzo, who was also charged, died last month.

State prosecutors, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office, accused Jones and Dowling of stealing from FirstEnergy when they executed that $4.3 million contract with Randazzo. Using that premise, FirstEnergy was a victim of theft.

But FirstEnergy has already admitted it made that payment  and intended it to be a bribe, the ex-executives' attorneys wrote.

Attorneys for the former executives argue that if FirstEnergy is designated a "victim," the company would unfairly benefit from rules meant to protect crime victims called Marsy's Law. That designation could prevent Jones and Dowling from getting records or interviews from FirstEnergy or its employees.

"The state should not be permitted to gain unfair tactical advantages in a criminal prosecution by improperly designating FirstEnergy as a victim, especially when that designation contradicts FirstEnergys own admissions and the position the State has taken consistently and stridently in this case and elsewhere," wrote attorneys Carole S. Rendon, who is representing Jones, and John F. McCaffrey, who is representing Dowling.

Another investigation into FirstEnergy?

Meanwhile, state prosecutors are investigating FirstEnergy, the former executives' attorneys wrote. FirstEnergy could be charged criminally or could enter into a deferred prosecution agreement, which would allow the company to avoid prosecution in exchange for admitting wrongdoing and paying a penalty. State prosecutors also offered immunity to several former executives, according to the filing.

Story continues

A FirstEnergy spokeswoman said state investigators informed FirstEnergy that the former executives' attorneys were wrong in their assertion that FirstEnergy is a target of an investigation or could be charged criminally. Yost's office said they would respond in court.

FirstEnergy entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in 2021, admitted it bribed Randazzo and Householder and paid a $230 million fine.

More: FirstEnergy CEO says company may have to put 'money on the table' to move past scandal

Current FirstEnergy CEO Brian X. Tierney alluded to the possible resolution of the state criminal investigation in a recent earnings call, saying the company may have to put a little bit of money on the table."

FirstEnergy is not a victim, former executives say by jbalmert on Scribd

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Akron Beacon Journal reporter Patrick Williams contributed to this article.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ex-FirstEnergy executives say the company is not a victim
A new ad unveiled by President Bidens re-election campaign on Friday shows how it plans to incorporate men in the fight against restrictive anti-abortion laws and other policies that undermine womens rights.

Republicans have made inroads with some Latino voters by falsely implying  if not outright alleging  that liberals want government crackdowns on civil rights that resemble those of oppressive South American regimes throughout history. This new ad pushes back forcefully against that line of attack by framing Trump's misogyny as an attack on women's freedom.

And as I argued in a post back in March, the campaign needs to craft culturally specific messaging to target men  and specifically the hypermasculine id that drives some men into conservative politics. This ad is a prime example.

Reuters got the exclusive on the ad, titled Tough, which is reportedly part of the campaigns attempt to mobilize Latino men voters. Running in English and Spanish in battleground states starting this month, the ad features a Latino veteran and carpenter named Cesar Carreon  and it gets straight to the point.

Im a Marine. I know what tough is. And a guy like Donald Trump  that attacks women and brags about it  thats not tough, Carreon says. Im with Joe Biden because hell give my daughters their freedom back.

Donald Trump thinks taking away women's freedoms and bragging about it makes him look tough.



He's wrong. pic.twitter.com/kuNZ8ByYo2  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 3, 2024

Its pretty direct, no? You get an appeal to authority in having an archetypal tough guy  a former Marine  attacking Trump, a former draft-dodger, for his performative toughness and braggadocio. Trump, after all, has mocked and tried to silence at least one of his sexual assault victims, and hes repeatedly bragged about his central role in shaping the Supreme Court that overturned the federal right to abortion.

The "Tough" ad is smart politics. Team Biden would be wise to create similar culturally conscious ads targeting men of other races and ethnicities, too.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Teen pizza delivery driver shot at 7 times after parking in wrong driveway, police say

A teenage pizza delivery driver who parked in the wrong driveway of a Middle Tennessee home is recovering from a scare after police said a homeowner shot at him multiple times.

The shooting took place Monday night on a residential street in Ashland City, about 20 miles northwest of Nashville.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY, Ashland City Police Department officers responded to a home for a report of a teenage Domino's pizza driver who had been shot at at least seven times.

Arriving officers located the shooting suspect who told them he and his wife saw a truck parked in their driveway on the Ring camera and thought someone was breaking into his truck, police wrote in the complaint.

Upstate NY driveway killing: Man who killed Kaylin Gillis after wrong turn in driveway sentenced to 25 years to life

Seven shell casings recovered from scene

The suspect said he got his 9mm handgun, went outside, and began shooting at the truck to "try to disable" it.

Police said they recovered seven shell casings from the scene.

The victim told police he was delivering a pizza and thought he parked in the correct driveway and after he dropped the order off, "he saw a man running at him and shooting at him" court papers continued.

Three bullets struck the victim's truck, police reported, and the shooting was captured on Ring camera footage police said they reviewed.

Nothing close to what I thought would happen on a delivery, Ill say that, the victim, an 18-year-old high school student, told WTVF-TV. "I was literally about to get killed right there, so its attempted murder in my opinion.

A Domino's pizza chain

The victim said most of the houses on the street are "only a few feet from each other" and told the outlet he accidentally parked just next door to the correct home where someone ordered the food.

USA TODAY has reached out to Domino's.

Kidnapped pet gator: 'Dad' of Wally, the missing emotional support alligator, makes tearful plea for his return

Ryan Babcock charged with aggravated assault

Police said they arrested 32-year-old Ryan Babcock in the shooting and prosecutors charged him with felony aggravated assault in the case.

An attorney of record was not yet listed in court records for Babcock.

Cheatham County General Sessions court records show Babcock was booked into jail on Monday and released the following day on $50,000 bond.

He is set to appear in court for his first appearance on June 12.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teen pizza delivery driver shot at after parking in wrong driveway
Teenage girl grazed by bullet in Washington, DC, after being caught in shooting crossfire near high school

A 17-year-old girl was grazed with a bullet after being caught in the crossfire of gunfire near a high school in Washington, DC, police have said.

Officers from the DC Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident around 9.54am local time on Friday, following reports of a shooting victim inside Dunbar High School.

Police said that a teenage female was found with a minor graze injury and had been transported to hospital. Her family is with her. Assistant chief Leslie Parsons said the teenager was totally fine.

It is understood that the incident occurred after a vehicle travelled the wrong way down nearby streets, at which point a series of gunshots were fired. The motive remains unknown.

The girl was struck after bullets smashed through the glass window of the building, police said. It was believed she was inside a classroom at the time of the incident.

Chief Smith and Assistant Chief Parsons give an update on the shooting near Dunbar High School this morning. pic.twitter.com/NxoQNEqHMX  DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) May 3, 2024

Dunbar High School was briefly placed on lockdown but is expected to reopen shortly. Students will be dismissed on the opposite side of the building to where the shooting occurred.

Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said: Even though they have been on lockdown, I want everyone to know they are secure and they are safe.

A neighbour who was present in the area told Fox News that the gunfire had sounded similar to automatic fire and there had been about 20 or 30 shots.

I was sitting there with the window open, watching our kids  it was pretty obvious, we knew immediately, we heard the sirens going off. It was just routine gunfire.

Were used to this, well, were not used to this.

Assistant chief Parsons told reporters that the investigations were still in the preliminary stages, and that little information was currently available.
Entrance sign and logo to the campus of the University of Mississippi. Credit - Getty Images

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the University of Mississippi turned sour Thursday as at least 200 counter protesters taunted their fellow students with renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner and other tunes, eventually leading to the evacuation of students on the campus.

A group of roughly 50 to 60 pro-Palestinian protesters convened on the schools Quad to demand the schools divestment from Israel and protest the nations actions in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that resulted in the death of 1,139 Israelis and 240 taken hostage. Some 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza since, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Within an hour of the protest beginning, protesters were met by the medley of 200 counter protesters who descended upon them and began throwing objects and shouting at them, the Clarion-Ledger reports.

Video of the confrontation posted to Twitter shows the large group of counter protesters singing the National Anthem, drowning out chants made by the pro-Palestine and anti-war protesters. Additional online footage shows a group, believed to be frat members, waving an American flag and Trump flag while chanting We want Trump, as anti-war protesters can be heard shouting Free, free Palestine.

As tensions escalated between the two groups, police rushed onto the scene and dispersed the crowd in front of the universitys School of Applied Sciences. Pro-Palestine protesters were then led inside the building by police, according to local reports.

Ole Miss has not released an official statement about the protests, but Jacob Battle, director of media relations for the university, confirmed that the protesters were evacuated on buses and would not elaborate on whether they were students, per the Clarion-Ledger. The initial protest was organized by a group called UMiss for Palestine. (The university has said that it does not have direct investment with Israel, Mississippi Today reports.

Protests at Ole Miss are the latest of dozens sweeping universities across the country as students voice their discontent with the countrys involvement in the Israel-Hamas war.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves took to Facebook on Thursday to share his awareness of the universitys demonstrations, adding that local law enforcement was also aware of the protest.

Campus police, City, County, and State assets are being deployed and coordinated, Reeves said in the Thursday morning post. We will offer a unified response with one mission: Peaceful protests are allowed and protected - no matter how outrageous those protesters' views may seem to some of us. But unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It will be dealt with accordingly. Law and order will be maintained!

The Republican governor later posted a video of the counter protesters on the campus, saying that the footage warms my heart.

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Contact us at letters@time.com.
Texans get their first crack at electing the people overseeing the states complicated property appraisal process

Texans in more populous counties are electing appraisal district board members for the first time. Appraisal districts determine property values, a figure that helps determine tax bills. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

Texas homeowners have long had a springtime ritual: checking the latest appraised value of their property with dread, assuming that the new value alone will drive up their tax bill.

Now, voters will have more direct say in who runs the obscure agencies that oversee the property appraisal process that plays a major role in individual property taxes and the revenues local governments collect to fund operations and public services.

For the first time Saturday, voters in some of the states largest counties will elect some of the board members for local appraisal districts, whose employees ultimately determine how much property is worth for tax purposes. Until now, those boards have been made up of the county tax assessor-collector, who is also elected, and members appointed by local taxing districts like cities, counties and school districts. The new state law requires appraisal district boards to have nine members. The tax assessor-collector will hold one seat, appointed members will hold five and those elected by voters will hold three. Elected members will serve four-year terms.

Appraisal district boards dont determine property values, but they select the people who do. The boards appoint chief appraisers, who oversee the appraisal process. Board members cant tell chief appraisers to tweak property values. Boards also appoint members to appraisal review boards that decide whether to lower appraised values when property owners contest their value. And the board sets the districts budget and approves contracts.

The new law requires only counties with more than 75,000 residents to hold the elections, a designation that applies to 50 of the states 254 counties. In 30 of those counties, appraisal board candidates either didnt draw challengers or the elections were canceled because no one filed for the positions. In instances where no one filed for an elected spot, the remaining board members can appoint people to those seats.

The new elections are part of a broader effort to rein in the states relatively high property taxes that fund everything from police officers and librarians to public school textbooks and teacher salaries in a state that doesnt collect income taxes. When voters approved $12.7 billion in new property tax cuts last year, they also approved the new elections for many appraisal district boards.

Texas lawmakers crafted the measure amid pressure from property owners complaining of skyrocketing appraisals during the states hot housing market and strong economic growth. Those appraised values are only one part of the equation determining a homeowners property tax bill. Local governments like cities, counties and school districts set tax rates that determine how much will be collected from property owners.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the system works, said Brent South, chief appraiser at the Hunt County Appraisal District. I think a lot of property owners don't understand that there's a difference between the appraisal district and the taxing units.

A recent Texas Tribune analysis of more than 50 homeowners tax bills found that they paid less in 2023 than in 2018. Thats largely because the state increased the homestead exemption  or the amount of assessed property value that isnt taxed  for school district taxes. But measures intended to drive down tax rates local governments set have also played a role in keeping tax bills from rising too quickly, even as property values grew.

The new elections are seen as a way to give taxpayers a better seat at the table, even though they already elect the members of city councils, county commissioners courts and school boards that set tax rates.

Yes, the tax rate is going down, and that's a good thing, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored the measure. You also have to have a fair valuation.

Still, some critics worry that elected board members will insert havoc and political jockeying into the property appraisal process. Before the Texas Legislature created appraisal districts in the late 1970s, the task of assessing property owners values fell to individual taxing entities like cities, counties and school districts  which often came up with different values for the same property. Appraisal districts came about as a way to smooth out that process and create one set of values.

The state also created appraisal districts in order to remove political pressure from the appraisal process, South said.

Having elected board members might interject political pressure right back into it, said South, who chairs the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts legislative committee.

Voter turnout in Texas local elections tends to be anemic. Political experts expect the appraisal district races also to be low-turnout affairs: Candidates are running for an obscure board, and its the first time theyre doing so.

It just all adds up to this very lackluster interest into what could make a difference, particularly in these large metropolitan counties that have seen their property values just skyrocket over the last decade, said Renee Cross, senior executive director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston.

Though the seats are nonpartisan, candidates have campaigned with partisan identifiers, drawn endorsements from prominent officials and deployed campaign rhetoric that hues along traditional partisan lines.

Conservative-leaning candidates in particular have campaigned as taxpayer advocates seeking to rein in what they see as excesses among appraisal districts.

Tarrant Appraisal District has been hostile to the very taxpayers they were commissioned to serve, Eric Morris, a Haltom City Council member running for a seat on Tarrant Appraisal Districts board, wrote on his campaign website. Its time to end that and balance the scales between the government and the people footing the bill!

Liberal-leaning and progressive candidates have positioned themselves as bulwarks against would-be tax-cut warriors who they fear would unduly interfere with the appraisal process and starve school districts and municipalities of much-needed tax revenue.

Kendall Scudder, a Texas Democratic Party finance chair seeking a seat on the Dallas Central Appraisal Districts board, notes on his campaign website that the assessment entity is vitally important to ensuring local governments function and that its his priority to ensure fair, equitable, and uniform appraisals, to ensure that citizens protesting their appraisals feel that they are treated fairly.

Two of the newly elected board members must sign off on the appointees to appraisal review boards, which could let elected members stack review boards with people who promise to cut property owners values, said Dick Lavine, a tax policy expert at the left-leaning think tank Every Texan. Lavine is running for the Travis Central Appraisal District board.

South, the Hunt County chief appraiser, also worries elected members could exercise their veto power and bring the appointment process to a halt, he said.

A likely outcome of either scenario: the chief appraiser would be forced to accept lower values, at a potential cost to localities and school districts.

Making it more direct like this is just an invitation for political meddling, said Lavine, who previously chaired the Travis appraisal board.

Others are skeptical of such a scenario. Matt Mackowiak, a longtime GOP operative running for a separate seat on the Travis Central Appraisal District board, noted that such a move would interfere with localities ability to provide services like police and fire protection. Mackowiak has previously campaigned to boost Austins police budget. If elected to the appraisal district board, Mackowiak said he would want to tackle how to improve the districts customer service and make the appeals process more legible to property owners.

I live here, said Mackowiak, who chairs the Travis County Republican Party. I don't want to decimate the revenue in this county.

Theres plenty of acknowledgement, too, that electing members to the appraisal district board is somewhat of an experiment  and members who havent served on an appraisal district board will do some amount of learning on the job. If newcomers unduly create disruption in the appraisal process, state lawmakers can make tweaks, said Bettencourt, the laws author.

This is designed for adults to work, be good board members and listen to taxpayers, Bettencourt said. If individual people are running to do something else, they're running for the wrong job.

Yuriko Schumacher and Jess Huff contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Every Texan and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Weve got big things in store for you at The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 57 in downtown Austin. Join us for three days of big, bold conversations about politics, public policy and the days news.
Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife have been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy and bribery, after allegedly taking nearly $600,000 from a Azerbaijani controlled company and a Mexican bank (AP)

Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife have been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of conspiracy and bribery, after allegedly taking nearly $600,000 from a Azerbaijani-controlled company and a Mexican bank.

The charges were announced on Friday by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), shortly after Mr Cuellar protested his innocence.

It is alleged that from 2014 to 2021, Mr Cuellar and his wife Imelda accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, the congressman agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the US, according to an indictment.

The money was also allegedly laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Ms Cuellar.

Among other things, Mr Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the US House.

The announcement comes after the congressman released a statement earlier on Friday in which he claimed that everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, is now facing charges of conspiracy and bribery, brought by the US Department of Justice (Getty Images)

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations, Mr Cuellar said. Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.

Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington DC prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.

He added that the actions he took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

A conservative Democrat, Mr Cuellar has long been a target of progressives given his opposition to abortion rights. In 2020 and 2022, Jessica Cisneros staged a primary challenger against him, sending him to a runoff, in which he prevailed both times.

House Democratic leadership has consistently backed him and belive that he is the only Democrat who can win in the heavily conservative and Latino Rio Grande Valley. In his most recent primary in March, he ran unopposed.

Mr Cuellar has also sharply criticised other Democrats for their policies on immigration and started a coterie of Democrats who support stronger measures called Democrats for Border Security Task Force.

He was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

Mr Cuellars family also has a prominent presence in the district. His brother is the sheriff of Webb County while his sister served as a judge for Rio Bravo and Webb County. His concentration of power has earned him the nickname the King Laredo, where he lives.

In 2022, the FBI raided Mr Cuellars congressional office in Laredo and his home. His attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of that investigation.

That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington DC, and Texas, a person with direct knowledge of the probe previously told The Associated Press.

Federal disclosures show that the nine-term congressman traveled to Azerbaijan in 2013. Two years later, Mr Cuellars office announced an agreement between a Texas university and an organization called the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan for the purposes of collaborating on oil and gas research and education.

In 2022, the FBI raided Mr Cuellars congressional office in Laredo and his home, though his attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of the investigation (Getty Images)

Despite the controversy surrounding the raids in 2022, Mr Cuellar went on to beat back a left-wing Democratic challenger  Jessica Cisneros  for the second time.

A year after the raid on his home the congressman told the Texas Tribune: There has been no wrongdoing on my part... My focus remains the same from my very first day in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.

Mr Cuellar has previously been undaunted by the controversy and has previously vowed to seek reelection to Congress in November, which would be his 11th term.

Following the announcement of charges, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the congressman was entitled to his day in court.

Henry Cuellar has admirably devoted his career to public service and is a valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus. Like any American, Congressman Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process, a statement from Mr Jeffries read.

Pursuant to House Democratic Caucus Rule 24, Congressman Cuellar will take leave as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee while this matter is ongoing.

In contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) wrote in a brief post on X: Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first. Will House Democrats call for him to RESIGN?
Texas man takes legal action against ex-partner who travelled to Colorado for abortion

The woman reportedly travelled to Colorado from Texas for an abortion earlier this year (Getty Images)

A Texas woman who travelled out of the state to get an abortion is being threatened with legal action by her ex-boyfriend, who also wants to target those who helped her.

The unnamed woman reportedly sought the abortion, legally, in Colorado in late February and when her ex-partner Collin Davis found out about her plans, he retained anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell.

The lawyer threatened a full investigation, The Washington Post reported, should the woman proceed with the abortion  which she did.

People need to understand that it is not a crime to leave Texas or any other state in the country for an abortion, Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the Post.

However, that hasnt stopped Mr Davis and his attorney from pursuing legal action against the woman and those they claim were involved in the killing of his unborn child, a letter seen by the outlet said.

Mr Davis argument appears to be that those who helped his ex-girlfriend are the ones who broke Texas strict abortion laws, which do allow citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an illegal abortion, even if the woman herself cannot be sued.

Anti-abortion rights supporters take part in a "Rally for Life" march and celebration outside the Texas State Capitol on January 27, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (AFP via Getty Images)

Crossing state lines to get an abortion is still legal nationwide, however, so there remains a challenge for Mr Davis and his attorney Mr Mitchell. District attorneys told the Post that many abortion laws are difficult to enforce.

The Independent has approached the lawyer, who was instrumental in ensuring Texas current abortion ban, for further comment but he is yet to respond.

He told the Post that fathers of aborted foetuses can sue for wrongful death in states with abortion bans, even if the abortion occurs out-of-state.

Mr Mitchell has had experience in a similar case, where a man is suing three women over an abortion which took place in the weeks after Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.

In that case, the womans friends are accused of helping her get hold of abortion medication, with text messages between the women used as evidence.

Protestors demonstrate at the March for Reproductive Rights organized by Women's March L.A. on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California (Getty Images)

The Center for Reproductive Rights claims these cases show growing attempts by anti-abortionists to restrict womens rights even further.

Across the country, we are seeing attempts to trap people in states where abortion is criminalised, Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center, said.

The anti-abortion movement wants to deny abortion access nationwide, and this is a terrifying step in that direction.

Abortion remains a big issue heading for the 2024 election, with multiple states seeing fights over near-total bans.

A federal judge recently ruled that some of North Carolinas policies on abortion pulls were illegal, while in Arizona a Civil War-era ban will be overturned but it could be months before restrictions are removed.

Around half of US states have heavily restrictive abortion laws, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris vowing to fight these rules heading into Novembers election.
The Department of Justice has charged Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar with participating in a scheme to commit bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, are accused of accepting approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City.

According to the Justice Department, Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan, and influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank. The scheme began in 2014 and continued through at least November 2021.

Cuellar and his wife have each been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official; two counts of bribery of a federal official; two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering; and five counts of money laundering. The couple could each face a maximum of more than 200 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas, Cuellar said in a statement on Friday. Before I took any action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.

Let me be clear, Im running for re-election and will win this November, he added.

The Texas representative is the latest in a spate of congressional lawmakers facing criminal indictments. In September, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion. Prosecutors alleged that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, had agreed to and did accept hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendezs power and influence as a Senator to seek to protect and enrich three businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes. The charges included allegations that Menendez had abused his post to unlawfully aid the government of Egypt, and showed that investigators had found envelopes of cash and even solid bars of gold stashed throughout the senators home.

In October and March, prosecutors leveled additional charges against Menendez, accusing him of having illegally provided sensitive information to the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Despite the maelstrom of legal issues surrounding his position in the Senate, Menendez has been steadfast in his refusal to resign and is expected to stand trial later this month.

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was indicted and arrested last May on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and lying to Congress. In October the former congressman  already disgraced as a serial liar  was slapped with 23 additional counts related to an alleged credit card fraud scheme.

Santos was ultimately expelled from Congress in December after a damning report by the House Ethics Committee found substantial evidence that Santos had committed a slew of alleged crimes, and had used campaign funds at Hermes, OnlyFans, and Sephora, as well as for meals, parking, Botox, a luxury vacation in the Hamptons, honeymoon expenses, spa treatments, and to pay off his credit card bills.

Democrats in Congress are already reacting to the news of Cuellars indictment. On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) issued a statement affirming that Cuellar has admirably devoted his career to public service and is a valued Member of the House Democratic Caucus. Like any American, Congressman Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process.

Jefferies added that Cuellar would be taking a leave from his position as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee until the case is resolved.

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Thank you students: Palestinians express gratitude for Columbia University protesters with touching signs in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians are hanging touching signs thanking student protesters across the US advocating against Israels continued attacks on Gaza.

Photographs from Deir al Balah, a town in southern Gaza, show Palestinians crafting signs expressing gratitude to students at several universities in the US for staging protests and encampments. Their signs, which have been hanging in Gaza for over a week, come as tensions boil over between universities and protesters on their campuses.

A sign in Gaza that reads, Thanks for your solidarity! Emory University pictured on 1 May. Dozens of protesters at Emory University in Georgia have established an encampment on campus (EPA)

Pro-Palestinian protests at schools like Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia  where dozens are staging an encampment  are designed to pressure university authorities to divest from Israeli investments or cut ties with businesses that have connections to Israel.

Officers arrested at least 28 protesters on Emorys campus on 25 April, local outlet WSBTV reports. Protesters have continued to stage an encampment every day since.

The protests come amid Israels ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to officials in the territory. The attacks come in response to 7 October, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 as hostages.

The Associated Press also circulated footage this week of Palestinians thanking the student protesters.

It is so wonderful, Abu Yusuf al-Habeel, a Palestinian who is displaced and currently residing in the Shati refugee camp, told the outlet of the protests.

Displaced people in Gaza held a demonstration on Wednesday to express their gratitude to U.S. college students for carrying out pro-Palestinian protests.



It is so wonderful, remarked Abu Yusuf al-Habeel, who is displaced from Shati refugee camp. pic.twitter.com/RUYxiMjXWk  The Associated Press (@AP) May 1, 2024

The wave of student protests started at Columbia University on 17 April, when students staged an encampment on the New York City campus. Their pro-Palestinian encampment was a response to school president Minouche Shafiks testimony to Congress about alleged antisemitism at the Ivy League school.

A sign in Gaza that reads, Thank you, students in solidarity wtih Gaza your message has reached. Thank you students for Coulumbia pictured on 28 April. More than 100 Gaza protesters were arrested at Columbia this week after they occupied a campus building (AFP via Getty Images)

Since then, more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested at schools across the US.

This week, the New York Police Department arrested more than 100 people on Columbias campus after protesters occupied Hamilton Hall. After barricading themselves inside the building Monday, the protesters renamed it Hinds Hall, in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza by Israeli tanks.

This weeks chaos came after New York officers made more than 100 arrests on Columbias campus on 18 April. In both instances, university administrators requested police come to campus.

After protesters were arrested in New York, tensions also boiled over at the University of California, Los Angeles campus.

Early Thursday, police officers in riot gear dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the University of California, Los Angeles and arrested more than 130 demonstrators. The night before, the protests became violent after pro-Israel demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment.

A man sits in Rafah in a tent with the message thank you students for Columbia painted on the side on 27 April. The New York Police Department has arrested hundreds of protesters at Columbia since their protests began on 17 April (AFP via Getty Images)

However, some schools are striking deals with demonstrators to discuss their demands.

Protesters at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities are taking down their four-day encampment on Thursday after Interim University President Jeff Ettinger said university administrators are willing to speak with students about their demands, which include divestment from investments with Israeli ties.
(Bloomberg) -- The US Department of Justice reiterated its argument that Google has broken antitrust laws through exclusive, multi-billion-dollar deals to maintain a dominant position in the market for online search and related advertising.

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In closing arguments for a landmark competition case, the government presented evidence that Google has paid Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and others billions over decades for prime placement on smartphones and web browsers. This default position has allowed Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., to build up the most-used search engine in the world, and fueled more than $300 billion in annual revenue largely generated by search ads, the government alleged, urging a judge to find the behavior illegal.

Google uses its hold on the industry and keeps rivals out, even Apple, Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer said on Thursday in a federal court in Washington. Those competitors arent able to scale the way Google does and dont have the incentives to invest in the search-engine market, he added. The fact that they may be happy cashing Googles checks, doesnt tell us anything about Googles conduct.

The two-day closing arguments come six months after testimony ended last November. The case is the first antitrust trial pitting the federal government against a US technology company in more than two decades. US District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the case, is expected to issue a decision later this year on whether Google broke the law. If the Justice Department wins, it may demand the separation of Alphabets search business from other products, like Android and Chrome, which would mark the biggest forced breakup of a US company since AT&T was dismantled in 1984.

Throughout the 10-week trial last fall, Google argued that it has cornered more than 90% of the global market for search because it has the best product and that people choose to use it over rivals such as Microsoft Corp.s Bing.

Google winning contracts because it has a better product is not a harm to the competitive process, said John Schmidtlein, Googles lead litigator.

President Joe Bidens administration has taken on the Big Tech industry and made promoting competition in commerce central to its economic policy. Apple, Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. also face federal and state lawsuits for monopolistic behavior. As the first one to come to trial, after more than a decade in the making, Googles case is likely to set a precedent for the rest of the industry.

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Read more: DOJs Google Monopoly Case Explained With Six Key Documents

Apple first agreed to use Google in the Safari browser in 2002 for free. But the companies later decided to share revenue made from search advertising. By May 2021, that translated to Google paying Apple more than $1 billion a month for its default status, documents revealed at trial showed. That quickly ballooned and became a significant contributor to Apples bottom line. In 2020, Googles payments to Apple constituted 17.5% of the iPhone makers operating income, for example, and by 2022, Google was paying Apple $20 billion for its default status, antitrust enforcers said.

Being the default search engine gives Google access to more users generating more queries than its rivals, allowing it to improve its algorithms and results and making it even harder for competitors to attract users, Justice Department lawyers said.

If you dont have access to distribution, you dont have access to scale, Dintzer said on Thursday. This is the source of Googles magic.

Google has argued that the payments help support the Android ecosystem, which competes against Apples iPhone. And rivals like Microsoft have long paid for their products to be pre-installed and set as the default on computers.

Microsoft, which faced its own infamous antitrust trial against the US government more than 20 years ago, has repeatedly tried to entice Apple away from its relationship with Google. The company offered to share 90% of its advertising revenue with Apple to make Bing the default in Safari, court documents showed. But Apple didnt bite, determining there was no price the Windows maker could offer that would get them to change, according to testimony from company executives during the trial.

On Thursday, Mehta asked whether it would be even possible for a new competitor to ever dislodge Google from the Apple contract. The rival would need billions of dollars to create a new search engine and billions more to ensure that Apple wouldnt lose the money it gets from Google, he said.

I cant conceive of a world in which a new competitor could do that if Microsoft couldnt do it, Mehta said.

Schmidtlein said the contracts emerged from a fair competition. The antitrust laws are not designed to ensure competitive markets. They are designed to ensure a competitive process, he said.

The specter of artificial intelligence, which has the potential to change Googles core search business, also loomed in the background of closing arguments in court.

Googles lawyer sought to portray the governments case as backward-looking, since search is undergoing a major transformation with the massive investment going into AI.

Google has been integrating generative AI technology, which can create new text, images or even video based on user prompts, into its products and services, from Gmail to Google Docs. But it has been more deliberate about introducing the technology directly into its flagship search engine, which it risks being cannibalized by AI chatbots, such as OpenAIs ChatGPT, that can answer general questions in a more conversational tone, rather than providing a list of links to other websites. Google claims that the rapid growth of AI has put it on the defensive in search from rivals like Microsoft, which has invested roughly $13 billion in OpenAI and is infusing its Bing search engine with ChatGPT functionality.

But Mehta dismissed such challenges as irrelevant to the case at hand. No ones saying that a purely AI-driven search engine couldnt succeed tomorrow, Mehta said. What Im focused on is today.

If government lawyers succeed in proving that Googles agreements violate antitrust laws, the case will move to a second stage aimed at imposing remedies to alleviate any harm caused by the companys conduct. The judge could rule to break up the company or require Google to share the data its searches generate with rivals to help them improve their search engines. Or, he could absolve the company completely. Closing arguments will continue on Friday.

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This is part two in an ongoing series. Read part one: Abortion. Read part three: War in Gaza.

No issue in U.S. politics is more contentious right now than the situation at Americas southern border.

Earlier this month, President Biden signed an executive order allowing him to temporarily seal the border when crossings surge  then followed up Tuesday with sweeping new protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of American citizens.

The first order was the single most restrictive border policy instituted by  any modern Democrat, according to the New York Times. The second was "one of the most expansive presidential actions to protect immigrants in more than a decade."

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Biden's big, diametrical immigration orders underscore the complexities and challenges America is now confronting at the border. After Biden took office in 2021 and reversed some of former President Donald Trumps hard-line restrictions, illegal crossings have surged to a record high of more than 2 million per year, on average.

Democrats and other defenders of Bidens record say the causes are complicated and predate his presidency: foreign violence, economic hardship and cartels that profit from crossings.

Republicans and other Biden critics argue that the president has effectively encouraged migrants to try their luck by using immigration parole at a historic scale and ordering a pause on most U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and deportations.

But how could the differences between Biden and Trump reshape U.S. border policy going forward?

Novembers election will be the first since 1892 to feature two presidents  one former, one current  competing as the major-party nominees. As a result, this years candidates already have extensive White House records to compare and contrast.

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Heres what Biden and Trump have done so far about the border  and what they plan to do next.

Where theyre coming from

Trump: More than anything else, Trump built his political following on a hard-line approach to immigration.

Starting in 2011, Trump boosted his profile on the right by positioning himself as the leading proponent of the false conspiracy theory that then-President Barack Obama  whose father was from Kenya  wasnt born in Hawaii as stated on his birth certificate. In 2016, Trump finally admitted that so-called birthers (those who believe Obama isnt a native-born citizen) were wrong and that Obama was born in the United States.

The previous year, Trump infamously launched his first presidential campaign by claiming that most Mexican immigrants are people [who] have lots of problems  Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. (In truth, immigrants commit significantly less crime than native-born Americans.)

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Trump spent much of 2016 vowing to build a physical wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico  possibly fortified with spikes, electricity and an alligator moat  and make Mexico pay for it.

According to the New York Times, the idea [of a border wall] was initially suggested by a Trump campaign aide  as a memory aid to prompt the candidate to remember to talk about immigration in his speeches. But it soon became a rallying cry at his events.

You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, Trump told the Times editorial board, I just say, We will build the wall! And they go nuts.

Mexican immigrants werent the only ones in Trumps crosshairs. In late 2015, after domestic terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook (a U.S. citizen born in Chicago) and his wife, Tashfeen Malik (a native of Pakistan whod lived in the U.S. for years), killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., Trump called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Around the same time, Trump said he would create a deportation force that would expel millions of unauthorized immigrants. We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally, he claimed during one primary debate. They will go out.

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Biden: Biden entered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary under pressure from the left on immigration.

As Obamas vice president, Biden could claim partial credit for 2012s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shielded from deportation about 700,000 immigrants (known as Dreamers) who were brought to the country as children.

Yet Obama and Biden also failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform during their first year in office, as promised, then wound up deporting 3 million immigrants  including an estimated 1.7 million who had no criminal record  by the end of their first term.

[Obamas] title of deporter in chief was earned, Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said at the time.

As a result, Biden sought to mend ties to Latino voters by calling Obamas deportation approach a big mistake and pledging to reverse Trumps border policies  while making DACA permanent and providing a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

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We're going to immediately end Trump's assault on the dignity of immigrant communities, Biden said in his acceptance speech at 2020s virtual Democratic National Convention. We're going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers.

What theyve done as president

Trump: During his four years in office, Trump issued more than 400 executive actions on immigration.

The changes started almost immediately. On Jan. 27, 2017, Trump signed an order seeking to block travelers from seven majority Muslim countries for 90 days while suspending refugee resettlement and prohibiting Syrian refugees indefinitely. Challenged in court, the administration issued revised travel bans as time went on, removing or adding certain countries.

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Trump quickly zeroed in on his signature border wall as well. But Congress refused to meet his funding demands, sparking a lengthy government shutdown. Ultimately, Trump managed to build just 458 miles of barrier along the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border  nearly all of them in areas where older barriers already stood.

Mexico did not pay for any of Trumps border wall.

Frustrated with the continued crush of illegal border crossings, Trump green-lit a plan in 2018 to separate migrant children from their parents or caregivers at the border and then criminally prosecute the adults. Trump eventually ended his family separation policy  but only after images of crying, traumatized kids detained in crowded facilities sparked a national outcry.

Despite Trumps vow to expel millions of immigrants, deportations by ICE officers  who were given broad latitude to go after anyone without legal status  averaged just 80,000 per year during his presidency (significantly lower than the annual rate under Obama).

Why? Trump supporters and critics largely agree that the former presidents strict policies  including narrowing who is eligible for asylum; making it more difficult to qualify for permanent residency or citizenship; rolling back DACA; and forcing Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed  deterred some migrants from even trying to cross the border.

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But while Trumps supporters described this as deterrence through strength, Trumps critics called it deterrence through cruelty.

In March 2020, Trump implemented the emergency health authority known as Title 42, which allowed border officials to rapidly turn away asylum seekers on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19  without giving them a chance to appeal for U.S. protection.

Biden: Biden vowed to reverse Trumps immigration policies on day one of his administration  and its a promise he largely kept.

In early 2021, the new president halted construction of the border wall; ended his predecessors travel bans; created a task force to reunify migrant families separated under Trump; reinstated DACA; ended Title 42 expulsions for unaccompanied minors; and ordered a pause on most ICE arrests and deportations, issuing new guidelines directing officers to prioritize national security threats, serious criminals and recent border crossers.

At the same time, Biden warned that without more funding and stronger guardrails, such as additional asylum judges, the U.S. could end up with 2 million people on our border and a crisis on our hands that complicates what were trying to do.

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Migrants and asylum seekers absolutely should not believe those in the region peddling the idea that the border will suddenly be fully open to process everyone on day one, said Susan Rice, Bidens domestic policy adviser. It will not.

Yet the message didnt get through, and a variety of factors  foreign turmoil, a waning pandemic  triggered new surges at the border, overwhelming an underresourced asylum system and flooding big cities with more new arrivals than they could handle.

Initially, Biden kept Title 42 in place (until May 2023), expelling five times more border crossers than Trump did (in large part because more migrants were trying to cross the border illegally).

Yet the presidents broader approach  expanding opportunities for migrants to arrive legally while applying tougher penalties to those who break the law, as the Washington Post recently put it  hasnt stemmed the tide, and Congressional Republicans have repeatedly refused his requests for more border funding.

As a result, national surveys show that voters are unhappy about the border situation and prefer Republicans to handle it. A February Gallup survey found that nearly 20% of those who disapproved of Bidens job performance cited illegal immigration/open borders as the biggest reason  more than any other issue.

What they want to do next

Trump: More of the same  with the emphasis on more.

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Among the ramped-up policies Trump is reportedly planning, according to the New York Times:

round[ing] up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain[ing] them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled

reviving his Muslim travel ban and his COVID-era Title 42 restrictions on the basis that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis

and scour[ing] the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport[ing] people by the millions per year by redirecting military funds and deploying federal agents, local police officers and National Guard soldiers to help ICE.

In an April interview with Time magazine, Trump confirmed that he is plotting a massive deportation of people using local law enforcement and the National Guard  and if they werent able to, he added, then Id use [other parts of] the military.

He also refused to rule out detention camps, saying its possible that well do it to an extent.

We will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history, Trump promised in February, adding elsewhere that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country and coming to the U.S. from mental institutions.

His inspiration, he has said, is the Eisenhower model  a reference to President Dwight D. Eisenhowers 1954 campaign, known by the ethnic slur Operation Wetback, to round up and expel Mexican immigrants in what amounted to a nationwide show me your papers rule.

Trump has also said he would suspend refugee resettlement, revive his Remain in Mexico policy and end DACA. He has even left the door open to resuming zero tolerance family separations.

Biden: Most Democrats spent 2023 avoiding border politics while privately fretting about how the issue might affect the 2024 election. But the president finally bowed to GOP pressure last fall, agreeing to bipartisan border talks; the hope was that a deal might take the issue off the table for his reelection campaign, according to the New York Times.

In January, Senate negotiators actually struck a $20 billion bipartisan deal  a deal that gave the GOP much of what it had asked for, including provisions that would restrict claims for parole, raise the bar for asylum, speed the expulsion of migrants and automatically shutter the border if attempted illegal crossings reach a certain average daily threshold.

But Trump balked  and following his lead, Republicans on Capitol Hill effectively doomed the legislation.

We can fight about the border  or we can fix it, Biden said during his State of the Union address. I'm ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.

In lieu of legislation, Biden issued an executive order earlier this month that unilaterally allows border officials to block migrants from claiming asylum and rapidly turn them away once crossings exceed a certain threshold. The goal is to reduce the number of border crossings  but such a move also risks legal challenges and left-wing backlash.

Reflecting that political balancing act, Biden circled back Tuesday with a second order shielding about 500,000 undocumented spouses with at least 10 years of U.S. residency from deportation while providing them with work authorization and a pathway to citizenship. To qualify, the spouses cannot have a criminal record. The order also protects about 50,000 undocumented children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

"Were encouraged to see the Biden administration protect a vulnerable group of people who have come to call the U.S. their home," Global Refuge, a non-profit supporting refugees and migrants, said in a statement. But "todays executive action, while welcomed, doesnt erase the asylum proclamation issued earlier this month."

Part two in an ongoing series. Read part one: Abortion.
Three charged after bodies found in search for American and Australian tourists who disappeared in Mexico

Investigators have charged three people in connection with the disappearance of two Australian and one American tourists in Mexico.

The three Mexican citizens were charged with a crime equivalent to kidnapping on Friday after being questioned and arrested by local authorities, the Associated Press reported. It not immediately clear whether the three could face additional charges.

The news comes after investigators said they had recovered three bodies who they believe to be the missing tourists, according to reports Friday afternoon.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend Carter Rhoad, from the United States, were reported missing after failing to show up to their accommodation in Baja California on Saturday 27 April.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson disappeared in Baja California, Mexico and their American friend Carter Rhoad have been missing since 27 April, 2024 (Supplied)

The grim discovery was made at La Bocana, a popular fishing and camping destination near Ensenada, CBS8reported.

The Baja California attorney general is yet to formally announce the news.

Carter Rhoad had travelled with Jake and Callum Robinson to Baja California, Mexico (Supplied)

On Thursday, authorities said that three Mexican citizens, reported to be a woman and two men, had been arrested. The woman was carrying a mobile phone with a photo on it matching the description of one of the men, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The brothers family said that Jake had gone to visit his brother, who has been living in the US, and the trio had headed south of the border to Ensenada  an area popular with tourists but also known for cartel violence.

They had not been heard from since last Saturday. Their car was later found burnt out, and three tents abandoned.

The charges come after Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, said on Thursday that evidence found with the tents was linked to the three people being questioned about the missing foreigners. She added, There is a lot of important information that we cant make public.

The top prosecutor told reporters that authorities had not been notified straight away, so very important time was lost in the search for the three men.

Callum and Jake Robinson were reported missing after travelling from California to Mexico on 27 April (9News/Instagram)

The parents of the Australian brothers, Martin and Debra Robinson, told 9News in a statement that Callum has been living in the US to follow his dream of being a professional lacrosse player.

He is widely known in the US as the Big Koala, they told the outlet. We think of him as our big soft friendly giant.

The parents were reportedly heading to the area to be close to the search efforts.

Callum and Jake are beautiful human beings. We love them so much and this breaks our heart, the couple said.

Both US and Australian authorities told The Independent that they were ready to assist in the investigation in whatever way necessary.
Three friends drove from California to Mexico for a surfing trip. Then they disappeared

Last month, two brothers and one of their friends crossed from the United States into Mexico to explore Baja California's famous surf breaks. Pictures posted online by one of the brothers, Callum Robinson, 33, show the men gazing out at the ocean with coffee, enjoying street tacos and relaxing with beers on a roof deck.

After camping on a remote stretch of beach south of Ensenada, the friends were supposed to check into an Airbnb in Rosarito Beach last weekend. But they never arrived. The last time their relatives heard from the men was April 27.

Their disappearance in one of Mexico's most violent states has triggered a massive search involving local authorities, the FBI and the Mexican marines.

"We are looking for them on land and at sea," Baja California Atty. Gen. Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez said Thursday. "We are making every effort."

Read more: Bodies found in Baja California during search for missing tourists, Mexican officials say

Several troubling clues suggested the men may have been the victims of violence.

Authorities said they had located the burned-out remains of the white Chevrolet pickup the men were traveling in and had recovered a cellphone that belonged to one of them. Officials have questioned three people in connection to the case, Andrade said, although she did not say whether they are considered suspects.

On Friday, several news outlets cited unnamed officials who said three bodies had been recovered near where the surfers went missing. A spokesman for the Baja California attorney general's office said he could not confirm the discovery of the bodies.

Read more: Meth and murder: A new kind of drug war has made Tijuana one of the deadliest cities on Earth

Robinson, a lacrosse player, and his brother, Jake, a 30-year-old doctor, are Australian nationals. Their friend, Carter Rhoad, 30, is from Atlanta and founded an online apparel company in San Diego, according to his Facebook profile.

The group was last seen near Santo Tomas, about 70 miles south of Rosarito, authorities said.

Debra Robinson, Jake and Callum's mother, appealed for help on social media after days passed without word from her sons, noting that Callum is diabetic. "This is a very dire situation," she said.

Read more: Peso Pluma's Tijuana concert has been canceled after death threats

Baja California's rugged coastline and epic waves have long attracted surfers from north of the border. But visiting remote areas makes them vulnerable to crime, said Serge Dedina, a longtime surfer in the area and executive director of Wildcoast, an environmental organization that works in Baja.

He said he frequently cautions surfers who visit the area to stay in groups, avoid driving at night and sleep near fish camps. "Do not go out in isolated places if you can avoid it," he tells them.

In recent years, the state has been convulsed in violence, much of it connected to the drug trade. Last year, authorities recorded 2,116 homicides in the state of Baja California  one of the highest rates in Mexico.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his last year in office, ran on a pledge to reduce violence in Mexico. But while homicides nationally have dipped slightly during his six-year term, they continue to hover near record highs.

Cecilia Sanchez Vidal in The Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Three questioned over disappearance of American and two Australian brothers camping on the coast in Mexico

Australians Jake and Callum Robinson went missing while on a trip in Baja California, Mexico, last weekend (Supplied)

Three people are being questioned over the disappearance of an American man and two brothers from Australia, who never made it to their Airbnb in Mexico nearly a week ago.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip in the Baja California peninsula, but their loved ones say they havent been heard from since 27 April.

The brothers family said that Jake had gone to visit his brother, who has been living in the United States, and the trio had headed south of the border to Ensenada  an area popular with tourists but also known for cartel violence.

Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, told reporters on Thursday that authorities had not been notified straight away, so very important time was lost in the search for the three men.

Carter Rhoad disappeared alongside friends Jake and Callum Robinson while they were on a trip to Baja California, Mexico, at the end of April (Supplied)

A white ute pick-up, similar to the one the group was using, was found burnt out on a farm earlier this week, with abandoned tents also discovered south of Ensenada, the AG said.

The three Mexican citizens, reported to be a woman and two men, were arrested. The woman was carrying a mobile phone with a photo on it matching the description of one of the men, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mexican security forces frisk men at a checkpoint in Ensenada on 2 May 2024. Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found tents and questioned a few people in the case of two Australians and an American who went missing over the weekend in the Pacific coast state of Baja California (AP)

The parents of the Australian brothers, Martin and Debra Robinson, told 9News in a statement that Callun has been living in the US to follow his dream of being a professional lacrosse player.

"He is widely known in the US as the Big Koala," they told the outlet. "We think of him as our big soft friendly giant."

The couple are following the route Jake took two weeks ago to visit his brother, heading to the US/Mexico border region to be as close to the investigation as they can be.

"Callum and Jake are beautiful human beings. We love them so much and this breaks our heart, the couple said.

Ms Robinson later posted that Callum has diabetes, adding a medical concern to the case.

At Thursdays briefing, Ms Ramirez told reporters that her office was working closely with US and Australian authorities.

"A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation," Andrade Ramirez said.

"There is a lot of important information that we cant make public."

The US Department of State advises travellers to reconsider heading to Baja California due to crime and kidnapping.

Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, Baja California attorney general, said three Mexican nationals were being questioned over the disappearances (FGE Baja California)

In March, Mexicos President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that keeping citizens safe in the region was getting complicated, with a rise in homicides, murders and robberies.

Cartel activity has been difficult for authorities to control, with a recent killing spree of corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment in nearby Tijuana highlighting the problem.

Baja Californias governor Marina del Pilar Avila Olmeda said Thursday that investigators would not give up on finding the missing men, however.

"We will not rest until we find the whereabouts of Jack Carter, Jake and Callum Robinson, a task in which we will not spare time, resources, or strength, she said in a statement.

We will take the necessary measures to resolve this case because we will not allow Baja California to see its peace disturbed, nor disturb the tranquillity of those who visit us.

A spokesperson for the US Department of State told The Independent that officials are aware of the case.

The US Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas, the spokesperson said.

We stand ready to provide all appropriate assistance.

The Independent has also approached the Australian Embassy for further comment.
If you or a loved one is experiencing a crisis or suicidal thoughts, there is help available. Call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Following the suicides of three students in the Keller school district in the span of four days, mental health experts say parents need to talk to their kids about how theyre feeling about the deaths.

Experts warn that clusters of suicides can grow, leading more students to try to take their own lives, and stressed the importance of parents and teachers talking to kids to help them make sense of what happened.

Losing a classmate to suicide is a pretty upsetting experience for kids, said Anna Mueller, a professor of sociology at Indiana University Bloomington.

Three Keller ISD students die by suicide in one week

Last week, Sean Duhon, principal at Keller Timber Creek High School, sent parents a pair of emails, the first notifying them that a student died over the previous weekend, and the second notifying them that a second student died Tuesday evening. Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office reports identify the victims as 18-year-old and 16-year-old boys. In the emails, Duhon offered ways parents could support their kids, including talking with them about their feelings and assuring them that they and their friends are safe and well cared for.

A third boy, an 11-year-old, also died by suicide Wednesday evening at a home in far north Fort Worth, according to medical examiners reports. Keller school officials wouldnt confirm the 11-year-old was enrolled in the district, but school leaders have acknowledged a third student died by suicide in the same week.

Bryce Nieman, a spokesperson for Keller ISD, said the district has flight teams of counselors who offer extra support on campus anytime a student dies. Those counselors were on hand at Timber Creek following the deaths there, he said.

Suicide clusters can affect teens disproportionately

Cases in which several suicides occur in short succession in the same community are called suicide clusters. Although suicide clusters can happen at any age, theyre most common among teenagers, said Mueller, the Indiana University professor, who studies suicide clusters among young people. Mueller is the author of the book Life Under Pressure: The Social Roots of Youth Suicide and What to Do About Them.

Young people tend to be more susceptible to peer pressure than adults, Mueller said. As people reach adulthood, they tend to have a more firmly established sense of self than they did when they were younger, she said. That stronger self-concept can serve as a source of resilience for adults when they go through difficult times, she said. But high schoolers are still trying to figure out their lives and identities, which can leave them more vulnerable to their social environments, she said.

Adults lives also tend to play out across a larger number of arenas, Mueller said. They have their work lives and home lives, as well as hobbies, interests and groups of friends outside of work. If anything goes wrong in any of those spheres, the rest of their lives are most likely still intact. By contrast, students lives are generally dominated by school, she said. Even outside the regular school day, many high schoolers are involved in extracurricular activities that can keep them in the building for hours after classes end. So social pressures at school can seem more acute and bad days can feel more devastating, she said.

The way students lives revolve around school can contribute not only to youth suicide, Mueller said, but also to suicide clusters. Losing a classmate to suicide is an upsetting experience for students, she said, especially for those who were close friends of the victim. Sudden deaths like suicides are difficult for people of any age to process, but especially for kids, she said.

The way parents and other adults react to a suicide can also influence how friends respond, Mueller said. Many parents and teachers instinctively shut down conversations about suicide out of fear that talking about it will drive other students to consider suicide, she said. But thats a dangerous misperception, she said.

In research for her book, Mueller and another researcher looked at a small, affluent suburb where an unusual number of teenagers died by suicide over the past decade. During that research, she learned that adults unwillingness to talk about suicide heightened the risk of other students dying by suicide for two reasons: It damaged the trust between kids and the adults in their lives, and it drove kids conversations about what they were going through underground.

They just started talking about suicide deliberately out of the earshot or the sight of adults, she said. And so then they were telling themselves these wild stories about suicide that were completely incorrect, and in the process, they were terrifying themselves.

Many of those students talked about suicide not as a decision the victim makes, but as something thats out of their control, Mueller said. Its understandable that kids would have a hard time understanding suicide if they havent had any direct experience with it, she said. Thats why its important that adults talk to them about how to understand and manage their feelings when theyre having a hard time and how to get help when theyre feeling overwhelmed. Those conversations can help kids feel like they have control over their own well-being, which can be crucial in helping them cope with something traumatic like a suicide loss, she said.

Parents should talk to kids after suicide losses, expert says

Parents should talk openly and honestly with their children about what happened, said Julie Kaplow, a clinical psychologist and the executive vice president for trauma and grief programs at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Avoiding the topic wont help, she said, because kids will probably learn about the loss through other avenues. But dont go into too much detail, Kaplow advised. Instead, let your child guide the conversation.

Really let the child guide the discussion, that way theyre empowered to ask what they need to know in that moment, Kaplow recommended.

Teachers, school counselors and parents should pay close attention to childrens behavior in the wake of a suicide death, Kaplow said. Children who are close to the person who died, children with previous mental health issues, and those who have experienced previous trauma or loss are all at higher risk, Kaplow said.

Adults should be on the lookout for any changes in behavior in children and teens, such as isolating themselves, engaging in more risky behaviors, or any mention of hopelessness about the future or wanting to harm themselves, Kaplow said.

School counselors stretched thin

With an enrollment topping 3,000 students, Timber Creek High School is the largest school in the Keller school district and one of the largest in Tarrant County. The school has 10 counselors on staff, district officials said. But according to the schools website, only one of them is an intervention counselor. Eight of the other nine focus on college readiness, and the ninth is the schools lead counselor. Nieman, the Keller spokesperson, said all counselors in the district are trained to offer mental health services, regardless of their job title.

Of course, as with all aspects of public education today, we would welcome additional funding from the state to provide for additional counseling positions and counseling-related services, Nieman said.

Elizabeth Rogers, president-elect of the Texas School Counselors Association, said students across the state are still feeling the mental health effects of the pandemic. At the same time, tight budgets are preventing districts from hiring more counselors to help students work through those issues, she said.

Given those budget restrictions, Rogers said leaders of schools like Timber Creek ought to consider designating other staffers to handle some parts of the job that dont require mental health training. Texas guidelines for school counselors outline what their responsibilities should be, Including offering mental health support and guidance services like help with college applications and financial aid paperwork. But Rogers said counselors often get assigned other duties, as well, including coordinating tests, managing transcripts and setting up student schedules. By shifting those tasks to someone else, principals could free up more time for their counselors to work on mental health support and suicide prevention, she said.

If Timber Creek only has one counselor doing mental health intervention for a campus of 3,000 students, Rogers said, thats worrisome. The pandemic laid bare the need for every teacher and staff member to be prepared to support students who are struggling, she said, meaning someone needs to prepare them. Schools also need to have referral processes in place to get students who are in crisis the help they need quickly, she said. In a large school, thats likely too big a job for one person, she said.

Parents call on school officials to do more

During a Keller school board meeting April 25, board president Charles Randklev offered condolences and prayers to families affected by the tragic events of the week, and thanked district counselors for acting quickly to offer support to students who needed it.

But several parents called on the district to do more to prevent student suicide and stop bullying at school. Barbara Brewer, the mother of a Timber Creek graduate, pleaded with board members to provide mental health support to students who are in crisis. School leaders also need to encourage parents to talk to their kids about mental health, she said. When parents have those conversations, they need to listen to what their kids have to say without immediately leaping to a solution, she said.

We are in the middle of a crisis now, she said. Now, its too late. Its going to keep spreading.

Katrina Jenkins, the mother of a Timber Creek senior, said her son has been bullied and harassed at school several times, and that school leaders have done little to fix the problem. School leaders had her sons bully sign a stay-away agreement, a document that orders the aggressor to stop certain behaviors, including verbally or physically tormenting another student or threatening them online. But Jenkins said her sons bully has ignored the agreement and continued bothering her son.

Jenkins called on district leaders to take more concrete steps to solve the problem. She pointed to the three students who died by suicide as evidence that the district hasnt done enough.

Theres going to be more, she said. Are you going to start planning their funerals instead of graduations?

Star-Telegram staff writer Elizabeth Campbell contributed to this report.
A trio of traveling surfers has gone missing in Mexico. Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson  who hail from Perth  and an American friend, Jack Carter Rhoad, were last seen at K-38, a popular northern Baja surf spot. But then, concerns were raised when they failed to show up at a previously-booked accommodation over the weekend.

In a missing persons poster distributed by the Robinson family, it read:

They did not check into the Airbnb near K38 and Callum did not return to work in San Diego as scheduled.

They were driving a white Chevrolet Colorado utility with Californian number plates  around Ensenada region.

Callum is a type 1 diabetic and the family have not been able to make contact since Saturday. This is out of character behavior, please help.

On Thursday, local authorities found tents and three suspects potentially related to the case. In a statement, Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, the states chief prosecutor, said:

A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation. There is a lot of important information that we can't make public.

We do not know what condition they are in. All lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them.

Back in 2015, two Australian surfers  Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas  were tragically killed while traveling in mainland Mexico. They were the victims of highway bandits, in that case, and three suspects were eventually arrested.

This is a developing story. SURFER will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.

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Three bodies are reported to have been found near a spot where three tourists went missing while on a surfing vacation in one of Mexicos most violent states.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and an American friend named unofficially as Jack Carter Rhoad failed to show up for an Airbnb booked in the Pacific resort of Rosarito, in the northwestern state of Baja California last Saturday.

On Friday, Reuters reported that two sources close to the investigation had revealed the grim discovery, although the authorities have yet to confirm that publicly. Police had previously discovered what they believe are the trios tents, car and a cellphone on a nearby beach.

They are also questioning three unidentified Mexican citizens, although it is unclear whether they are suspects or witnesses.

Theres a lot of information we cant make public. We dont know what condition theyre in, said Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, the chief prosecutor of Baja California.

The vehicle Jake and Callum Robinson were travelling in when they disappeared

Concerns about the three first emerged on Wednesday when Jake and Callums mother Debra posted on a Facebook community page for foreigners visiting Baja California asking for help to locate her sons.

She said Callum, 33, a member of Australias national lacrosse team who lives just over the border in San Diego, is a diabetic who needs daily medication. Jake, 30, a doctor, was visiting his brother.

Family and friends are circulating a missing persons poster containing details of the three tourists

The US embassy in Mexico City has confirmed that a US citizen has also been reported missing in Baja California but has yet to confirm whether it is Mr Carter Rhoad.

Baja California has long been a hub of drug cartel activity. The states largest city, Tijuana, which is separated from San Diego by a wall, is notoriously violent. It also hosts raucous nightlife and offers cheap plastic surgery for Americans who often take a daytrip across the border.

The drug gangs usually avoid targeting tourists, something that is not part of their lucrative core operations and would trigger repercussions from Washington. But Baja California is awash with guns bought north of the border and foreigners there can often fall prey to common crime.

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SAN DIEGO (Border Report)  A union representing taxi drivers in Tijuana says more and more cabbies are becoming victims of crime following a rash of assaults and robberies in recent weeks.

Drivers made their concerns known during a May 1 demonstration in downtown Tijuana.

They say their jobs have become so dangerous that some drivers fear for their lives.

Daniel Cruz, one of the cab drivers who took part in the demonstration, said two of his friends were robbed and beaten just in the previous week.

US citizen in taxi arrested after fentanyl pills found in trunk

In the downtown area, it can be any time of the day or night, said Cruz. They get in asking for a ride, next thing you know youre staring at a cannon (gun) and theres no place to run.

He said other areas of the city including Colonia Libertad, just east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, have also become dangerous.

Tijuana has the most active murder investigations in all of Mexico, professor says

All were asking for is more security, Cruz said. There doesnt seem to be as much police protection as before. Weve had drivers who were hurt and the government had done nothing.

Cruz added that drivers have to give up their money peacefully to avoid a beat down by robbers.

Baltazar Gomez Ruiz, head of a taxi drivers union in Tijuana, said the entire city has become more menacing for drivers.

We have between 20 and 30 assaults on a daily basis, but many drivers choose not to file police reports or complaints because they know it will be a waste of time, he said. At night, downtown turns into a zone full of zombies and you dont know what these people will do.

The city says it has provided drivers with panic buttons for their cabs hoping they activate them whenever in danger.

Its cabbies versus regular drivers at California port of entry

But drivers like Cruz say they doubt anyone will respond in time to protect them and make arrests.

Another issue for drivers is the condition of many roadways in the city.

Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border

They say most streets are lined with potholes that rarely get fixed.

Our cars take a beating, driving these roads damages our taxis and it means more maintenance and repairs for us, said Cruz. Thats more money out of our pockets.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than $20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.

Google, on the other hand, maintains that its ubiquity flows from its excellence, and its ability to deliver results customers are looking for.

It would be an unprecedented decision to punish a company for winning on the merits, Googles lawyer, John Schmidtlein, said late Friday afternoon in summation of the company's closing arguments.

Justice Department lawyer Ken Dintzer told the judge that today must be the day for him to step in and stop Google's monopolistic behavior, which he likened to the tactics used by Microsoft two decades ago that prompted a similar antitrust battle.

The U.S. government, a coalition of states and Google all made their closing arguments Friday in the 10-week lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now decide whether Google broke the law in maintaining a monopoly status as a search engine.

Much of the case, the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades, has revolved around how much Google derives its strength from contracts it has in place with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and computers.

At trial, evidence showed that Google spends more than $20 billion a year on such contracts. Justice Department lawyers have said the huge sum is indicative of how important it is for Google to make itself the default search engine and block competitors from getting a foothold.

Google responds that customers could easily click away to other search engines if they wanted, but that consumers invariably prefer Google. Companies like Apple testified at trial that they partner with Google because they consider its search engine to be superior.

Google also argues that the government defines the search engine market too narrowly. While it does hold a dominant position over other general search engines like Bing and Yahoo, Google says it faces much more intense competition when consumers make targeted searches. For instance, the tech giant says shoppers may be more likely to search for products on Amazon than Google, vacation planners may run their searches on AirBnB, and hungry diners may be more likely to search for a restaurant on Yelp.

And Google has said that social media companies like Facebook and TikTok also present fierce competition.

During Friday's arguments, Mehta questioned whether some of those other companies are really in the same market. He said social media companies can generate ad revenue by trying to present ads that seem to match a consumer's interest. But he said Google can place ads in front of consumers in direct response to queries they submit.

Story continues

It's only Google where we can see that directly declared intent, Mehta said.

Schmidtlein responded that social media companies have lots and lots of information about your interests that I would say is just as powerful.

The company has also argued that its market strength is tenuous as the internet continually remakes itself. Earlier in the trial, it noted that many experts once considered it irrefutable that Yahoo would always be dominant in search. Today, it said that younger tech consumers sometimes think of Google as Grandpa Google.

Government lawyers also argued the tech company should be sanctioned for the systemic destruction of documents that they argue was done to purposefully hide evidence of monopolistic intent and practices.

Trial evidence showed that Google lawyers recommended employees ensure that their work chats were not saved because of their potential legal implications.

The government asked Mehta to impose a sanction that allows the judge to infer that all the deleted chats were unfavorable to Google regarding their anticompetitive intent.

Mehta said he was unsure whether he would grant the government's request but he was sharply critical of their document-retention practices and speculated that there ought to be some kind of sanction.

Google's document retention policy leaves a lot to be desired," he said. "It's shocking to me, or surprising to me, that a company would leave it to its employees to decide when to preserve documents.

Google lawyer Colette Connor defended the company's practice of generally failing to preserve internal company chats. Given the typical use of chats, it was reasonable, she said.

While Google's search services are free to consumers, the company generates revenue from searches by selling ads that accompany a user's search results.

Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said during Friday's arguments that Google was able to increase its ad revenue through growth in the number of queries submitted until about 2015 when query growth slowed and they needed to make more money on each search.

The government argues that Google's search engine monopoly allows it to charge artificially higher prices to advertisers, which eventually carry over to consumers.

Price increases should be bounded by competition, Dahlquist said. It should be the market deciding what the price increases are.

Dahlquist said internal Google documents show that the company, unencumbered by any real competition, began tweaking its ad algorithms to sometimes provide worse search ad results to users if it would increase revenue.

Google's lawyer, Schmidtlein, said the record shows that its search ads have become more effective and more helpful to consumers over time, increasing from a 10% click rate to 30%.

Mehta has not yet said when he will rule, though there is an expectation that it may take several months.

If he finds that Google violated the law, he would then schedule a remedies phase of the trial to determine what should be done to bolster competition in the search-engine market. The government has not yet said what kind of remedy it would seek.
TIME identifies 100 most influential people in health industry, 2 of them are Ukrainians  photo

Ukrainian doctor and volunteer of Ukrainian origin entered the Time 100 Health rating. Photo: TIME

Time magazine released a list of the world's 100 most influential individuals in the health industry. It includes a Ukrainian doctor and an American volunteer of Ukrainian descent.

They landed up in the Innovators category, the publication's website says.

Dima Gazda is a dermatologist and co-founder of Esper Bionics, a firm that makes bionic prostheses.

Esper Bionics maintains offices in the United States, Germany, and Ukraine. The business develops robotic arms that enable people who have lost limbs to execute even the most delicate tasks, such as raising a single grape.

When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Esper Bionics began offering free bionic hands to wounded military and civilian Ukrainians. Currently, 70 people have received them, with another 250 on the waiting list.

"Its not smart for business, but there are way more important things than business," says Dima Gazda.

Dima Gazda

photo: Time

Dora Chomiak, an American volunteer of Ukrainian descent, is the CEO of the Razom Charitable Foundation. She has spent the past ten years working to improve Ukrainians' health and well-being.

With the onset of Russias full-scale war, Razoms fund grew significantly. It employs 75 workers throughout the United States and Ukraine. Razom has already provided US$100 million in help.

This money was used to purchase drugs for Ukrainian hospitals and mental health centres, as well as to help front-line doctors. The charity recently delivered six mobile medical units to medics on the battlefield. They can help them stabilise critically injured soldiers.

Razom works with American surgeons who travel to Ukraine for complicated surgeries and teach Ukrainian medical students.

"Were not a Band-Aid, but rather a group fighting for sustainable change," notes Dora Chomiak.

Dora Chomiak

photo: Time

The Time 100 Health ranking included Hadiza Shehu Galadanchi, a Nigerian professor of obstetrics and gynaecology who focuses on maternal mortality during childbirth.

The list also includes Vivek Murthy, a doctor from the USA, who investigates loneliness.

Joel Habener, Dan Drucker, Svetlana Mojsov and Jens Juul Holst, the scientists that pioneered the development of weight-loss medications, are also on the list.

The Time 100 Health ranking features Michael J. Fox, an actor whose charity organisation developed the first test to diagnose Parkinson's disease and is working on a cure for it.

Bashar Murad, the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which helps injured persons in the Gaza Strip, is also among the figures mentioned in the ranking.

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Timothy Mellon, an ultra-wealthy political donor bankrolling Donald Trump's Super PAC, is also giving millions for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the third-party candidate who has been blamed as a potential spoiler in the 2024 presidential race.

It's an unusual arrangement that Democrats have highlighted as they seek to paint RFK Jr. as someone far more closely aligned with the Republican ex-president's Make America Great Again movement than with causes on the left.

Many Democrats say that Kennedy, the son of a former Democratic senator and nephew to a former Democratic president, could help elect Trump if some voters cast ballots for him as an alternative to President Joe Biden. Trump has also suggested Kennedy helps him.

Kennedy's platform includes defunding the war in Ukraine, a position popular on the far-right, and reinvesting that money into public child care, something more popular on the left. He advocates to "seal the border," a key talking point on the right, but frames the situation as a humanitarian crisis.

Left: Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Lincoln Dinner on Friday, July 28, 2023, at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Right: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies on censorship before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on July 20, 2023.

Mellon is heir to the family fortune of banking and industrial magnate Andrew Mellon. He has donated to many anti-immigration measures and was a major contributor to a Texas-led fund to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico.

Since 2023, the donor has given $20 million to the super PAC that supports Kennedy and $15 million to the super PAC that supports Trump. He backed Trump in 2020.

But Mellon doesnt appear to have switched his allegiance. Instead, over nine months, he gave $5 million in donations that alternate between American Values 2024, which supports Kennedy, and Make America Great Again Inc., which backs Trump.

For example, Mellon donated to American Values on April 10, 2023, followed by MAGA Inc. on July 10, records from the Federal Election Commission show. He donated again to American Values on July 20, and then to MAGA Inc. on Aug. 16. The donations continued through January.

Stefanie Spear, press secretary for the Kennedy campaign, said the campaign does not communicate with American Values or keep track of its donors. However, Mr. Kennedy is pleased that donors from diverse positions on the political spectrum are supporting his candidacy," Spear said.

Prior to his run for president, Kennedy was prominent in advocacy against vaccinations, including the coronavirus vaccine. That position lines up more with Republicans, who are significantly less likely to get the vaccine, according to the Brookings Institution.

His platform includes a proposal to put federal funding into studying the health effects of "pharmaceutical products," policies to expand homeownership and invest in Black businesses. He also describes his ties to prominent Democrats like his uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Hispanic labor activist Cesar Chavez.

Trump's campaign declined to comment. Efforts to reach Mellon through a nonprofit organization were unsuccessful.

Is it unusual? Yes. Is it shocking? No. Not at all, said Daniel Weiner, the director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice, an advocacy group on democracy law based at New York University.

'Idealogical overlap between Trump and Kennedy'

Kennedy trails far behind both Biden and Trump. Members of the Kennedy family rejected his campaign and formally endorsed Biden in April. But polls from FiveThirtyEight show Kennedy with the support of around 10% of eligible voters.

While Democrats say he could siphon votes from Biden, survey results give mixed indications on the degree to which he might also take some votes away from Trump. A poll in March showed Biden beating Trump in a head-to-head race, but losing to Trump when Kennedy was on the ballot. An April poll showed Trump beating Biden in a three-man race with Kennedy.

Weiner said donors backing third-party candidates is an old pattern. He said if those backing Trump perceive Kennedy's candidacy as taking more votes from Biden than from Trump, then they are likely to believe boosting Kennedy's campaign might give them more bang for their buck than giving more money to Trump.

Of course, there is also some ideological overlap between Trump and Kennedy, so its possible that is the reason, though typically in those cases major donors just pick the person they prefer, Weiner said.

Matt Corridoni, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee spokesperson called Kennedy a spoiler in the race and said it was "not a coincidence" that he and Trump share a donor.

A billboard sponsored by the Democratic National Committee highlights billionaire Timothy Mellon's support for super PACs for both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former President Donald Trump.

Mellon, who lives in Wyoming, is known for maintaining his privacy and is rarely photographed. He is an amateur pilot who has invested in and led transport-related companies including Pan American World Airways. Forbes estimates that the Mellon family is worth some $14.1 billion.

Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs, criticized Black people who used social service programs, and compared the use of these programs to government slavery, according to the Washington Post. USA TODAY did not independently review the book.

A book by the same title, "panam.captain," is due to be published by Skyhorse Publishing, another American Values donor, in July. The design shows a quote from Kennedy on the cover: Tim Mellon is a maverick entrepreneur who embodies the most admirable qualities of what FDR called American industrial genius.

Brendan Glavin, deputy research director for the money in politics organization OpenSecrets, said its one thing for a donor to back one candidate during a primary election and switch to supporting another during the general, but that a donor simultaneously backing two is unusual.

He said that Kennedy's national name recognition and his ability to pull votes away from both major presidential campaigns could make him a uniquely appealing spoiler for donors to back. The question in the end will be, 'Will he continue this?' Glavin said. That will be something to watch as we get into the summer. Is he feeling like this strategy is working?

Glavin added that the hyper-competitive era we are in, where elections are decided by small margins, combined with a post-Citizens United world has led to an increase in big money trying to influence politics.

He said that some say there should be stricter enforcement of existing rules around super PACs, and others argue that new rules should be put in place about how they operate.

Theres nothing really  looking forward  there to stop this from progressing, Glavin said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Timothy Mellon, wealthy donor giving to both Trump and RFK Jr.
Toddler dies from overdose 3 weeks after return to parental custody, Florida cops say

Nearly three weeks after a 15-month-old child was returned to parental custody, he overdosed on a lethal combination of illicit drugs, Florida authorities said.

An investigation has led to manslaughter charges against his parents, 37-year-old Kelli Starling and 48-year-old Daniel Miller, the Marion County Sheriffs Office announced May 2.

Neither of their attorneys information was available in Marion County court records as of May 3.

Daltin Lee Miller came into this world with drugs already in his system and was removed from his parents custody for over a year, Lt. Paul Bloom with the Marion County Sheriffs Office said in a news conference.

On Feb. 9, Daltin was returned to his fathers custody on the condition that his mother leave the residence due to her use of drugs, but she came back home a few weeks later, deputies said.

Then Daltin started getting sick, his parents said. They told investigators their son had been congested and wasnt sleeping well, according to deputies.

Then on March 1, he stopped breathing, and they called 911, according to the Bloom. Daltin was pronounced dead at the home in Ocala.

As forensics officials checked out the home, they found drugs in easy reach of a curious toddler, Bloom said.

The childs aunt and uncle told WCJB they raised the boy since birth and protested his return to parental custody.

I begged and pleaded and screamed from the rooftops that it was not safe for him and nobody listened, Heather Thomas told the outlet in March.

She said it didnt seem real.

The decision to reunify a child with their parent involves many entities, including the judiciary, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told McClatchy News.

It occurs after the parent has engaged in services and demonstrated evidence of behavior change, the spokesperson said. Our Department is deeply saddened by the untimely death of this child and will continue working with law enforcement as needed.

Further information is confidential under Florida law, the department said.

The medical examiner concluded the child died from acute toxicity due to the combined effects of fentanyl, methamphetamine and xylazine (a tranquilizer used in the veterinarian field for large livestock and commonly added to fentanyl to enhance the effects), deputies said after reviewing the report April 22.

The drugs were found in his blood and liver, indicating he consumed them, the medical examiner said.

A warrant was issued for the parents arrest, and they were taken into custody at their home on May 1 and each charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.

These detectives spoke up for somebodys voice that was hushed by illicit drugs, Bloom said. Poor Daltin cant speak up, but these detectives did a fine job of doing that for him.

The parents are being held without bond in Marion County jail.

Ocala is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Orlando.

If you or a loved one shows signs of substance use disorder, you can seek help by calling the national hotline at 1-800-662-4357 or find treatment using SAMHSA's online locator.

Parents housemates charged in fentanyl overdose death of 1-year-old, CA officials say

2-year-old boy overdoses on unimaginable combination of drugs, Pennsylvania cops say

4-year-old dies of suspected heroin overdose, Missouri police say. Mom is charged
Top lawyer at Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation quits over emailed slur about immigrant

The general counsel for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation abruptly resigned this week.

The top lawyer at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has resigned abruptly over an email that used a derogatory term to describe an immigrant lacking permanent legal status.

The email was written by Jana Wallace in 2022 while she was a judge. Why it came to light this year is unclear.

In the email, she refers to an immigrant lacking permanent legal status as a "wet back."

Wallace, 61, became general counsel at the OSBI after stepping down in November from the judiciary. She had been an associate district judge for 14 years in Pushmataha County, which is in far southeast Oklahoma.

"My dad told me when you make a mistake, you face it, own it and then move on," she told The Oklahoman Friday in a text message. "That is exactly what I've done."

She said she dearly loves the OSBI and resigned so the email would not reflect negatively on it. She also said "someone had a vendetta against me or just wanted to embarrass me and/or the OSBI."

The OSBI has special agents who investigate many of the state's most sensational crimes. Wallace resigned from there Thursday.

The email  obtained Friday by The Oklahoman  referred to a father from Mexico by the derogatory term. She sent the email to a lawyer at the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety because of a divorce case.

More: Mexican slur has long history in politics

The OSBI declined to comment Friday about her resignation, saying it is a personnel matter.

Wallace

The same derogatory language has surfaced in recent media accounts about former President Donald Trump's pledge to deport millions of noncitizens if reelected. His plan is being compared to an Eisenhower-era military-style effort called "Operation Wetback."

The email shows Wallace asked on April 21, 2022, if a Mexican driver's license is valid "if the individual is here illegally."

"No green card, no visitor visa etc. (wet back basically)," it states. "The reason I am asking is for a divorce.

'A hateful policy.' Oklahoma immigration law criticized as groups plan legal action

"He has had a child with an American and he wants to be able to drive with the child. My policy is no valid DL no driving with the child. ... I have always operated under the theory of, 'if you are illegal everything about you is illegal'!"

The Department of Public Safety attorney responded that "his status as a resident (whether legally residing or illegally residing) invalidates his Mexican license."

In a second text message Friday, Wallace said she honestly didn't remember writing the email.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New OSBI general counsel resigns over slur about immigrant in email
Top US Treasury official to travel to Singapore, Malaysia to discuss sanctions

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department's top sanctions official will travel to Singapore and Malaysia next week, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Washington seeks to combat funding for Iran and its proxy groups as well as evasion of its sanctions on Russia.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there has been an uptick in money moving to Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, through the Malaysian financial system.

During the visit, first reported by Reuters, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, is expected to discuss U.S. concerns and the sanctions risk such activity poses, the source said. Treasury's general counsel, Neil MacBride, will also be on the trip.

The visit comes as Treasury has increased its focus on terrorist financing through Southeast Asia, including through fundraising efforts and illicit Iranian oil sales, the source said.

The Treasury Department in December imposed sanctions on four Malaysia-based companies it accused of being fronts supporting Iran's production of drones.

Washington has recently imposed further sanctions targeting Iran, including over Iranian drones used by Russian in the war in Ukraine, as the U.S. has sought to ratchet up pressure on Tehran after its attack on Israel.

While in Singapore, Nelson will discuss the enforcement of a G7-led price cap on Russian oil as well as cutting off the transshipment of critical dual-use goods, those which have both civilian and military purposes, said the source.

The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on thousands of targets since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine. The war has seen tens of thousands killed and cities destroyed.

Washington has since sought to crack down on evasion of the Western measures, including the shipment of dual-use goods through third countries to Russia.

Singapore is a major shipping hub. Insurance and other maritime service providers operating in Singapore have warned of evasion of the price cap on Russian oil, complaining that it is difficult to confirm that paperwork promising oil is bought at or below the $60 cap is accurate.

The G7 price cap on Russian crude oil, imposed in December 2022, aims to reduce Russia's revenues available for its war in Ukraine by allowing Western-supplied insurance and other services only on cargoes priced below $60 a barrel.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Don Durfee and Leslie Adler)
(Bloomberg) -- Rishi Sunak looks likely to lead the Conservative Party into the UK general election due this year after internal critics called off a planned effort to depose him after the local elections.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Support among Tory lawmakers for a move to replace Sunak has not materialized after early results showed the party performing in line with low expectations, people involved in discussions about a coup told Bloomberg, asking to remain unnamed because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Rebels on the right of the party had threatened to launch a bid to replace the prime minister following Thursdays votes for local authorities. But the Conservatives popular mayor in the Tees Valley held his seat, and the Labour opposition was denied victory in a crucial London suburb of Harlow in Essex.

Local elections marked a key flash-point for Sunaks leadership and the last chance to make a change at the head of the party before the general election, which is expected in the autumn. The plotters had thought that if the Conservatives performed worse than expected, they could convince Members of Parliament to join them in writing no confidence letters in Sunak. Some 52 signatures are needed to trigger a party vote on his leadership.

However, Ben Houchen kept control of Tees Valley in northeast England, albeit on a reduced majority, and the Tory rebels admitted their plot to oust the premier was over. Andrea Jenkyns, one of those whod called for a change of leader, said her colleagues were unlikely to move against the prime minister, telling the BBC, We have to work with what we have got.

Sunak still will have to own results that still suggest the Conservatives are headed for a significant defeat at the general election, one of the rebels said. The plot against Sunak started to fizzle over the past few days. Penny Mordaunt, a Cabinet minister who had been touted by rebels as the most likely replacement, indicated last weekend that she would not support a challenge against Sunak.

The prime minister acknowledged a disappointing result in the elections and said hes focused completely on the job at hand, arguing the Labour opposition hasnt done enough to ensure victory later in the year.

Another leadership change would have been the fifth in the last eight years, something many Tory members of Parliament thought would only negative views of the governing party in the eyes of voters.

To be sure, Fridays initial results suggested the opposition Labour Party is gathering strength in its efforts to return to power. It won back a bellwether parliamentary seat from the Tories in northwest England and swathes of council seats.

The Tories are on course for one of the worst  if not the worst  Conservative performances in local government for the last 40 years, political scientist John Curtice said on Friday morning.

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When I heard the news last month that 8-term Congressman Bill Posey was retiring, I couldn't help but to think back to something he did for me early on during his tenure in Washington.

It was something that I will probably always remember. The date was Jan. 16, 2010. I had just finished reporting for five days from earthquake-ravaged Haiti. I was travelling with my good friend, Joe Hurston, a Christian missionary and a few other people including television reporter Marci Gonzalez, now Marci Rand.

We landed in Haiti only 20 hours after the earthquake and I'll always remember Hurston telling me to look for planes as we approached the airport in Port-au-Prince because there was no air traffic control. There was chaos everywhere. An armed gang tried to extract a toll from us while driving but Hurston would have none of that.

Congressman Bill Posey during a 2023 appearance in Brevard County.

The trip was full of all the heartache, anguish, devastation you can imagine. Dead bodies littered the streets of Port-au-Prince as the morgue could accommodate no more death. But there were also individual signs that convinced me the human spirit is capable of overcoming so much.

Anyway, during that trip, we were given a small child, two-year-old Mishna Prezille, who needed surgeries on her feet. She had already travelled back and forth to the U.S. several times for previous operations. Dr. Stephen Badolato in Melbourne had power of attorney and she was going to be in his care for her medical procedures.

The orphanage she was staying at in Bon Repos, Haiti, had been significantly damaged and they would no longer be able to meet her medical needs.

So, we landed our small Cessna aircraft at the airport in West Palm Beach to go through customs and immediately there seemed to be a problem. We were told to get back on the plane and wait while agents figured out what was wrong. After a while, agents came and told us that we were being held for trafficking the child.

Impossible, I thought, as Hurston and his co-pilot made sure the girl's passport was up to date and her one-year visa to enter the U.S. was good for another eight months. But, it turns out that the letters C.W.O.P., scrawled across the visa in pencil meant bad news for us.

The letters stood for cancel without prejudice. Her visa was no longer valid.

I remembered taking my laptop and placing it on the wing of the airplane in order to write a story that had been promised for the next day's newspaper. Hours and hours passed. We all began to worry. It didn't help that the Immigration agents treated us like hardened criminals. It was a legitimately scary situation and we weren't sure what to do.

From left to right, Two-year-old Mishna Prezille, ABC reporter Marci Rand, FLORIDA TODAY Engagement Editor John A. Torres, missionary Joe Hurston and missionary Marlin Moudy get ready to leave Port-au-Prince on Jan. 16, 2010. They were later detained ib West Palm Beach on suspicion of trafficking.

As my phone was on its last few bars of battery life, I called my wife and asked her to reach out to Congressman Posey. I didn't have much hope she would be able to reach him on a Saturday night. But, within seconds my phone rang. It was Posey. He wanted to know what was going on and then assured me he was working on securing our release.

Meanwhile, he had given my wife the phone number to the Immigration officer in charge and told her to get people to call. She did, posting the situation and phone number on Facebook. My friends inundated the Immigration office at the airport with phone calls.

It was close to midnight when Posey's maneuvering and the phone calls seemed to pay off and we were released. They had held us for five hours.

Two-year-old Mishna Prezille waiting to fly from Haiti to the U.S. in 2010 for surgery to her feet.

Politicians work for us. Our taxes pay their salaries but we rarely have personal interactions with them. In a world when we can so often feel overlooked or ignored, Posey was there for me. I'll always be grateful.

I've thanked Posey over the years for what he did but I'm not sure he ever really understood how comforting it was to hear his voice that night and the promise he made to get us released. Mishna was sent to Boys Town Children's Facility in Miami and had to wait months before Badolato and his lawyers were able to get her released so she could have her surgery.

In a postscript to the story, I reached out to Hurston this week and he told me Mishna was eventually adopted by a family in New York and the last he heard, the teenager was doing well. As for Posey? Well, I wish him a happy retirement and again offer my gratitude.

Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @johnalbertorres.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard columnist recalls night Congressman Posey saved him from jail
Google recently laid off at least 200 workers as part of a continued downsizing as the tech giant seeks to expand services in India, Mexico and other emerging markets. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI

May 1 (UPI) -- Google laid off 200 of its "Core" unit workers while reorganizing and moving several jobs to Mexico and India, CNBC and Seeking Alpha reported Wednesday.

Google's Core unit creates the technology enabling Google's primary technology services, including its popular search engine. The unit also protects users' online safety.

The reorganization includes eliminating 50 engineering jobs at Google's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility and replacing them with workers in Mexico and India.

The workforce reduction continues Google's recent downsizing begun at the start of the year.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai in January said the tech company would reduce its workforce throughout the year.

The tech giant earlier released hundreds of employees who worked on Google's engineering, hardware and voice assistant groups.

Google also released hundreds of workers in its advertising sales, finance and real estate units.

Officials with Google's parent corporation Alphabet in January 2023 said the company would get rid of 12,000 jobs.

Google officials said the tech company will maintain its global footprint by expanding its workforce in high-growth areas around the globe where regional markets are growing.

Google CFO Ruth Porat in April announced the company would restructure its finance unit and relocated jobs to Bangalore, India, and Mexico City.

Google officials in March announced they were building teams in targeted markets, such as Brazil and India, where the labor costs less than in the United States.

Google also fired dozens of workers who conducted sit-in protests against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza at two Google locations in April.
These tortillas have the aroma and flavor of Mexican tortillas. Heres where to get them

Inside Look is a Fresno Bee series where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses, local landmarks and news stories.

The sound of the machinery and the hot steam wafting from the puffed-up, freshly made corn tortillas at Tortilleria Ortuno in southeast Fresno brings back memories of local tortillerias in neighborhoods across many cities and villages in Mexico.

The tortilla has the aroma and flavor of an authentic Mexican tortilla, boasts Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz, 61, the owner of the business.

Ortuno Ortiz  originally from Huetamo, Michoacan, Mexico  boasts that he not only sells quality corn tortillas but that the product evokes the memories and nostalgia of many mexicanos living in the Valley, transporting them back briefly to their homeland.

I have been doing this for 25 years in Mexico. Here, weve been at it for three years, said Ortuno Ortiz, who returned to live in the United States almost eight years ago.

The tortilla has the aroma and flavor of a Mexican tortilla," said Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz, aged 61, owner of the business Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Upon his return to the Valley, Ortuno Ortiz toiled in the fields and even opened a Mexican restaurant in the community of Salida in Stanislaus County, which he later had to close.

Ortuno Ortiz explained that he started making tortillas because that was what he did in his native country. He still operates his tortilla business in his home state, managed by his brother-in-law.

The concept of the mobile tortilleria

The concept of a mobile tortilleria was deemed much more practical, Ortuno Ortiz explained, because it is quicker to obtain permits compared to opening a brick-and-mortar store. Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Ave. on Sept. 10, 2023.

This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ortuno Ortiz and his family, having launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto three years ago.

Ortuno Ortiz mentioned that in Modesto, they rent a parking lot at 425 W. Hatch Road, where they already have a loyal clientele. They recently celebrated their third anniversary on Feb. 14.

Benjamin Serrato is an employee of Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Margarita Valencia arrived at the mobile tortilleria in Fresno to purchase five pounds of freshly made tortillas for her family.

Valencia, originally from the Mexican state of Michoacan, uses corn tortillas heavily in her cooking.

The flavor reminds me of Mexico and doesnt contain as many preservatives, Valencia explained as the reason for her preference.

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Valencia noted that before the Fresno site opened, she used to make the 90-minute jaunt to Modesto to visit relatives and would seize the opportunity to buy tortillas there.

Apart from offering a quality product to customers, Ortuno Ortiz revealed that the mobile operation created a lot of buzz when he launched the business.

A different tortilla

Ortuno Ortiz proudly shared that the tortilla machine, imported from Mexico, can produce 3,000 tortillas per hour. For repairs, he travels to Tijuana for parts to fix the machinery.

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Ortuno Ortiz emphasized that he had been working with this machine for 28 years and wouldnt trade it for any other.

Although the profit margin is modest, considering labor and raw materials, Ortuno Ortiz stated, We have chosen to minimize profits to provide a superior product.

A pound of tortillas (approximately 16 tortillas per pound) costs $2 and is wrapped in paper to retain the steam and warmth. Ortuno Ortiz doesnt cool the tortillas for sale.

Supermarkets like Save Mart sell a pound (16 ounces) of Mission brand, extra-thin, yellow corn tortillas for $3.79.

Asked what sets his tortillas apart from those in supermarkets, Ortuno Ortiz explained that his tortillas are not mass-produced.

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/ mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Everything is bad, said Ortuno Ortiz of the tortillas sold in supermarkets, adding that they have preservatives that allow them to last six months.

Ortuno Ortiz said his tortilla is a tortilla that is well-formed, that puffs up, and has a good flavor. It also doesnt come with many preservatives. We mix four flours to find the flavor.

The tortilla lasts in the refrigerator for about eight or ten days. Nothing happens to the tortilla, said Ortuno Ortiz. And when you heat it up, the tortilla is soft. Thats guaranteed.

The flour comes with a required preservative, but they dont add more, he said, adding that it wasnt easy to find a way to make the tortilla come out good.

The freshly made tortillas from Tortilleria Ortuno in Fresno. It opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location is the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as they had opened two mobile tortillerias in Modesto three years ago. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

I came from 25 years of experience and I thought I knew everything, said Ortuno Ortiz. Starting the process here is very different, although it is the same machine, the cooking is different because it is regulated to work here.

Ortuno Ortiz said that if they had told him that he was going to do this, he would not have believed it.

Because there are people who wait up to an hour-and-a-half in line, he said. On Saturday and Sunday, in Modesto, I have both machines working and I have a line all day.

Planning for the future

In Fresno, Ortuno Ortiz said that there are future plans to build a tortilleria in the location where the mobile unit is parked, since his daughter bought the property.

Thats the plan. We already have the entire project, it has already been sent to the city, but the process takes a long time, said Ortuno Ortiz. Were talking about maybe a year-and-a-half.

In Fresno, Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz said that there are future plans to establish a tortilleria in the location where the mobile tortilleria is currently stationed, as his daughter has purchased the property. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Ortuno Ortiz said he is very grateful, especially to the people for the support they have received with the mobile tortilla shops.

Although they have different service hours, Ortuno Ortiz said that in Fresno, on Saturdays and Sundays, they open at 5 a.m., and on weekdays, they open between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m.

If there is a large order of tortillas, they open earlier.

There are days when they havent closed until 7 p.m. because of the long line of customers, but if there are no people waiting, they close between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

Ortuno Ortiz has other future projects including that his daughter and son-in-law will open a mobile tortilla factory in Madera, Visalia or Dinuba, and start a mobile flour tortilla factory.

We have the concept, we have all the desire to do it; its just been getting complicated due to the high price of the machine, as there is no Mexican machine certified for export to the United States, he said. Nevertheless, the flour tortilla that we plan to make, we will do it in the same way, even without preservatives.

Ortuno Ortiz said that on May 12, they will host a free event to celebrate Mothers Day, with taquiza, music, and gifts for mothers at the Fresno location.

The tortilla has the aroma and flavor of a Mexican tortilla," said Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz, aged 61, owner of the business Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/ mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Maribel Reyes is an employee of Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Benjamin Serrato and Maribel Reyes are employees of Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/ mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones / mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

The freshly made tortillas from Tortilleria Ortuno in Fresno. It opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location is the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as they had opened two mobile tortillerias in Modesto three years ago. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Maribel Reyes is an employee of Tortilleria Ortuno, which opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones /mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/ mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com

Tortilleria Ortuno opened its doors at 4542 Belmont Avenue in Fresno on September 10, 2023. This Fresno location marks the second branch for Ramiro Ortuno Ortiz and his family, as three years ago they launched two mobile tortillerias in Modesto. Maria G. Ortiz-Briones/ mortizbriones@vidaenelvalle.com
There was a time when most British elections had overnight counts. However dramatic the nights events, come the morning we more or less knew how things had played out.



No longer. Many of the results from yesterdays council elections are counting today, whilst the big mayoral contests in London, the West Midlands, and elsewhere arent counting until Saturday.



All this is cheaper and more convenient for the town hall officials overseeing such things. But it not only robs us of the drama of election night (remember in 2010 when we almost got the general election in dribs and drabs?), it can have a serious effect on the coverage, and final public perception of, the race itself.



This morning, it is quite clear that the Conservative Party has had a terrible night. Barring the odd bright spot such as Harlow, where the Tories retained overall control despite a determined Labour campaign, in the contests so far declared it has been haemorrhaging councillors.



More worryingly still, not only did Labour recapture Blackpool South with a thumping swing, but Reform UK almost came within 100 votes of snatching second place  and that despite a plausible argument that such contests dont favour Reform the way they do other parties such as the Liberal Democrats, due to its thin activist base.



By Sunday, however, things could feel quite different. Ben Houchen will probably have held on in the Tees Valley (we will know later this afternoon); the (suitably hedged) predictions of the pollsters Ive spoken to are that Andy Street will also narrowly secure a third term in the West Midlands.



That might well be the difference for MPs weighing up whether to try and oust Rishi Sunak. And both elections are of course important in their own terms: vindications of the incumbents record over the past eight years and proof that, in the right circumstances, effective politicians can buck an ailing national brand.



However, it would be a mistake for the Conservative Party to allow that narrative trick to mislead it about the seriousness of these results, for two reasons.



First, it seems very likely that it is the council elections that will more strongly indicate how the general election is going to go: both are fought largely on party brands, with far less scope for the sort of individualised campaigning Houchen and Street have relied on.



Second, councillors are the Tory infantry. It is they, and the family and friends they persuade to help out, who form the core of the Conservative ground operation. Heavy losses will mean fewer people prepared to give up their dark, cold November evenings to campaign for the Government.



That would well prove devastating in an election where the Tories will need all the help they can get.

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President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, to former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The former North Carolina senator spent her political career shattering glass ceilings and fighting for womens equality.

During her expansive career, Dole, 87, became the first woman to hold two Cabinet positions under two presidents, as the labor and transportation secretaries. She was the first woman to hold the latter position.

She was also the first female senator from North Carolina and the first woman to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

And if that wasnt enough, she was the second woman to lead the Red Cross, since its founder Clara Barton. Dole did not take a salary her first year.

Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole, right, gets a hug from Mildred Council, a.k.a. Mama Dip, Monday, Oct. 22, 2001, during an early-morning visit to Mama Dips restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom

The president gives the Medal of Freedom to individuals who made meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors, according to the White House.

She is one of 19 people receiving the award Friday. The list also includes former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State John Kerry, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Carolina Sen. James Clyburn, all Democrats.

President Biden often says there is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together, a news release from the White House said. These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better. They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.

Dole is receiving the medal 27 years after it was awarded to her late husband, Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and the Republican presidential nominee in 1996. Theyre one of just a few couples to both receive the medal, along with Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Former Sen. Bob Dole, a World War II veteran, left, with his wife, Elizabeth attend an Interior Department ceremony to dedicate a plaque honoring him at the World War II Memorial.

Clinton gave Bob Dole the medal in 1997, a year after the two campaigned against each other for the White House. In that ceremony, Clinton called Bob Dole one the nations most distinguished World War II veterans and celebrated his career in public service.

I have found honor in the profession of politics, Bob Dole said, accepting the medal in 1997. I have found vitality in the American experiment. Our challenge is not to question American ideals or to replace them, but to act worthy of them.

Doles political career

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, known to many as Liddy, was born in Salisbury, a city between Charlotte and Greensboro, to Mary Ella and John Van Hanford. She attended Duke University, where she earned her political science degree, and then Harvard, where she earned her law degree.

Elizabeth Liddy Hanford, later to become Elizabeth Dole, 1958

Dole served under five presidential administrations: those of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

It was during the Nixon administration, in 1972, that she met her husband. He died in December 2021.

In 1975, she changed her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

As her husbands political career flourished she would take breaks from her own to help with his vice presidential and presidential campaigns.

But her career aspirations drew attention in 1999, when after eight years, she left the Red Cross. Many believed this signaled her own desire to launch a presidential campaign, and she did. Her campaign proved popular in polling, but her fundraising numbers werent strong enough and she withdrew from the race before any primaries took place.

Running for Senate

Then in 2001, she decided to focus on succeeding Jesse Helms, who represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, after he announced his retirement. Her decision was controversial since she had spent her adult life in Washington, but with support from the states Republicans she switched her address back to Salisbury and won handily in 2002.

In the Senate she served on the armed services committee, the committee on banking, housing and urban affairs, the select committee on aging and the committee on small business and entrepreneurship.

She remained in Congress until former Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, defeated her during the 2008 election.

After leaving the Senate, Dole began a foundation under her own name to help caregivers of wounded military members. The foundation remains active today.

The White House said in a news release that Dole leads by example for the support her foundation gives to military caregivers and their families.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.
Training incident injures 30 sailors and Marines off North Florida, US Navy says

Thirty sailors and Marines were injured in a training incident off North Florida, including five who required hospitalization, according to the U.S. Navy.

It happened late Wednesday, May 1, in the Atlantic Ocean off Jacksonville, the U.S. 2nd Fleet reported in a news release.

The mishap involved two landing craft: one from the assault ship USS Wasp and the other from the transport dock vessel USS New York, officials said.

Sailors and Marines assigned to the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) were conducting a training exercise when the incident occurred, officials said.

Thirty sailors and Marines were injured. Five sailors were medically evacuated for further care at Savannah Memorial University Medical Center. ... One sailor remains under medical care and is being assessed for further treatment.

Minor injuries were treated by medical personnel aboard the Wasp and New York, officials said.

The U.S. Naval Institute reports 18 sailors and 30 Marines were aboard the two landing craft.

Investigators stopped short of providing details of the incident.

The landing craft involved in the incident are known as air cushion vehicles, which travel at speeds near 50 mph while transporting people and cargo from ship to shore.

A recovery and investigation are ongoing, officials said.

Marine dies training near Camp Lejeune in NC just days after his promotion, corps says

Alligator found hiding in landing gear of plane at Florida Air Force Base, photos show

Lightning cuts through sailboat, leaving crew sinking in remote Atlantic, officials say
Incarcerated learners take part in a Mt. Tamalpais College educational program at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., in July 2023. Currently, California stands as the sole state with a fully approved Pell-eligible prison education program, at Pelican Bay State Prison through California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. (Eric Risberg / The Associated Press)

When the U.S. Department of Education announced last summer that federal Pell Grants would become available to incarcerated college students, lawmakers and state corrections agencies scrambled to adjust statutes and step up potential partnerships with universities.

But nearly a year later, colleges and agencies are recognizing the steep administrative challenge to winning approval from the U.S. Department of Education. So far, just one new program eligible for the federal financial aid grant  in California  has gotten off the ground.

Were going to see an impact  its coming. Its been a bit slow to arrive because of this quality focus within the regulations, said Ruth Delaney, who leads a program at the Vera Institute of Justice to help scale up college programs in correctional institutions. Whats great is that theres a lot of energy in colleges and corrections to start new prison education programs.

Pell Grants were officially restored for incarcerated students in July 2023, following a nearly 30-year federal ban that prohibited most incarcerated students from receiving the aid. The ban was one of the provisions in the sweeping 1994 federal crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton.

More than 750,000 incarcerated students could potentially become eligible for Pell Grants. But to qualify, they must be below the family income limits and be at a prison that offers a college program approved by the federal Department of Education.

To date, only one program has been fully approved, at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California. Students there will be eligible to receive Pell Grants starting next fall to study for a degree in communications from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Still, officials from state corrections agencies in Maryland, Michigan and Wisconsin told Stateline that since Pell dollars became available, more colleges and universities have become interested in establishing prison education programs. Since last summer, 44 state corrections agencies and the federal Bureau of Prisons have developed applications or other systems to approve prison education programs, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

There are people in prison who have been waiting 30 years for this opportunity to come back, and they are just so eager to enroll, Delaney said in an interview. Anything we can do to move quickly to get high-quality programs in place  thats what wed like to see.

State action

The Pell Grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, is provided to low-income students across the country to help cover college expenses. Most students apply online using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Incarcerated students are usually required to submit paper applications because internet access is restricted. The current maximum grant is $7,395 for a full academic year.

College saved my life. It was a place where I could be free. I could read, I could learn, and I could grow. It was very transformative for me to realize that my life wasnt over.

 Alexa Garza, an analyst for The Education Trust who was formerly incarcerated

While states pay to house incarcerated people in their prison systems, many dont pay for higher education; prison college programs often rely on alternative funding, such as donations and state grants. Some are a part of a federal pilot program called the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative, which has included about 40,000 incarcerated learners. Otherwise, students have to pay out of their own pockets or use scholarships and donations from nonprofits and colleges.

No matter how its paid for, the goal of providing college-level instruction in prisons is to make it easier for incarcerated people to reenter society once they are released and to connect them to meaningful, good-paying jobs.

College saved my life. It was a place where I could be free. I could read, I could learn, and I could grow. It was very transformative for me, and I realized that my life wasnt over, said Alexa Garza, who obtained two associate degrees and a bachelors degree while incarcerated in Texas. Garza now works as a Texas policy analyst and higher education justice initiatives analyst for The Education Trust, an education access advocacy group.

Prison education advocates say its important for schools to expand the college experience in prison beyond just offering classes. That means fostering meaningful relationships between professors and students.

I didnt have family in the courtroom. I had professors in the courtroom, said William Freeman, who served time in Maryland and now leads the Justice Policy Fellowship at The Education Trust. Now, Im a first-gen everything  college graduate, homeowner. I dont think my parents ever made the kind of money Im making now.

Many state lawmakers have worked, with varying outcomes, to boost prison college programs in anticipation that Pell Grants could help more incarcerated students earn degrees.

In Washington state, for example, a law set to take effect in June will allow more incarcerated learners to seek both federal and state financial aid grants to cover the costs of postsecondary education programs.

Marylands legislature has sent Democratic Gov. Wes Moore a bill that would require that the state corrections department help incarcerated students in accessing Pell Grants and set goals for participation. Moores office said the legislation is under consideration.

A Florida bill that would have allowed students to be eligible for in-state tuition even if they had been incarcerated in the state in the past year made it out of House and Senate committees but was tabled before the legislature adjourned.

And in Montana, lawmakers grilled state corrections officials after a legislative audit found that prison education and workforce programs are limited, featuring long waitlists and inequitable access between private and public facilities.

New programs and partnerships

Corrections agencies and colleges in several states have recently announced new partnerships, with some soon to become Pell-eligible.

Marylands corrections department recently announced a memorandum of understanding with the University System of Maryland to provide incarcerated students with the opportunity to obtain bachelors degrees or credit-based certificates from any of the 12 system universities. The university system will also be able to accept Pell Grants.

Danielle Cox, the state corrections departments education director, said she aims to have a college or university program at every state facility by 2027.

In Utah, female incarcerated students at the Utah State Correctional Facility can apply to a new bachelors program at the University of Utah through the schools Prison Education Project. At least 11 of 15 prospective students already have received their admissions decisions, according to Erin Castro, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Utah and co-founder of the Prison Education Project.

This is the first time that the flagship public institution is admitting a currently incarcerated cohort, Castro said.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Southeast Community College are expanding their partnership to offer more higher education opportunities to students in five state facilities. The college enrolled 229 students this spring semester, and also is working on gaining the federal approval to offer Pell Grants as an official prison education program.

The college now offers an associate of arts degree in academic transfer, and in the fall will offer an associate of applied science in business and more career and technical education programs.

Bureaucratic barriers

But navigating the new application process from the U.S. Department of Education has required significantly more administrative labor, some advocates say.

At least one university so far has decided to pull the plug on its prison education program. Georgia State University cited the feds new rules for Pell Grants and a $24 million budget cut as reasons to close its program this summer, according to Open Campus, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on higher ed. The program has been in operation since 2016.

The shape and tenor of this new system is causing significant damage to the framework of college-in-prison, Jessica Neptune, the director of national engagement for the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College in New York, wrote in an email to Stateline.

Much of the recent policy work related to Pell, especially, is moving in a direction that makes it harder and harder for colleges to just be colleges and not criminal justice interventions, she said.

The Department of Education did not directly respond to advocates concerns about the new application requirements, but said it held a negotiated rulemaking process that enlisted significant stakeholder input to put forward the best regulations possible.

Some prison education advocates also argue that the new bureaucratic process isolates the mission of educating incarcerated students from that of other students and encourages the othering of current or formerly incarcerated individuals.

Whenever we are creating separate systems for individuals  particularly when theyre incarcerated  that reinforce processes, isolation and marginalization, it is not going to go well, said Dyjuan Tatro, a senior government affairs officer with the Bard Prison Initiative and a Bard College alum.

Incarcerated students should have the same access to Pell Grants, full stop, as any other students in this country, Tatro said.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Transformative: More college programs are slowly coming into prisons appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
Editor's note: Starliner launch was scrubbed Monday, May 6, with a new attempt scheduled for no earlier than 6:16 p.m. Friday, May 17, 2024. Here is FLORIDA TODAY's story about the next launch attempt.

Original story posted Friday, May 3:

Looking for things to do on the Treasure Coast? See (and hear) the U.S. Navy Blue Angels roar at the 2024 Vero Beach Air Show this weekend, then stick around to see NASA's Starliner rocket launch lift off.

The Blue Angels have been performing at the Vero Beach Air Show since 2014  except for 2016 and 2020  drawing thousands to the weekend-long event (the air show runs every two years). They're joined this year by the U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II Demo team and a lineup of civilian acrobatic performers.

Those on the Treasure Coast may have heard the Blue Angels "practicing" for the air show. As the uber-talented pilots perform, NASA's preparing for its much anticipated Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test launch from the Space Coast.

Boeing's maiden crewed flight, which means astronauts on board, is scheduled next week. Boeing is preparing to launch its Starliner capsule on its first crewed mission from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. And the Treasure Coast may get a peek at the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifting off into the sky.

Flying this commercial crew mission are Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, both Navy test pilots. They have each flown in space twice (more info about them below).

Can you see a rocket launch liftoff from Cape Canaveral all the way in Sebastian, Vero Beach, or even up to Fort Pierce? Weather permitting and depending on cloud cover, yes.

Here's what to know about the Blue Angels, Vero Beach Air Show and places to watch NASA's Boeing Starliner rocket launch from Indian River County to Martin County.

When is the 2024 Vero Beach Air Show?

When: 6 to 8:30 p.m. EST Friday, May 3, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 4 and 5

Where: Vero Beach Regional Airport, 3400 Cherokee Drive, Vero Beach

Cost: Tickets are $25 for general admission for Friday, $50 general admission for Saturday and Sunday, $20 for veterans and military Saturday and Sunday, and free for children ages 12 and younger. Parking is free.

Online: Website, Facebook

What is 'The Blue Angels' movie?

"The Blue Angels" documentary, made for IMAX, takes the audience into the cockpit for a firsthand view of the Blue Angels flying. The film will be in IMAX theaters May 17-23 and then will begin streaming May 23 on Prime Video.

What is Boeing's Starliner?

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore pose for the Starliner CFT crew portrait.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will transport NASA astronauts. The company calls it the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner, or simply Starliner." Set to launch no earlier than May 17, 2024, it will make history as the first spacecraft to ferry humans from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral. The launch pad has been the site for historic missions beginning with the Titan rockets in 1965 and including the New Horizons deep space probe, the Voyager spacecraft, and even the Curiosity Mars rover.

Starliner will be launched with the help of a United Launch Alliance (a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin) Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V rocket has launched from the site since 2002, but this will be the first time it carries astronauts to space.

What launches from where? Years after space shuttle retirement, Florida chases nearly 70 launches a year

Who are the NASA astronauts flying into space for Starliner launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida?

The two NASA astronauts flying this commercial crew mission are Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams. Both are Navy test pilots. They have each flown in space twice and both bring a wide variety of experiences to the flight.

Williams was originally a helicopter test pilot before switching to flying jets. She's preparing to fly to space for the third time, as the crew test flight pilot.

This will be Wilmore's third spaceflight as well. Before becoming a NASA astronaut, Wilmore was a U.S. Navy captain, fighter pilot, and test pilot, accumulating more than 8,000 hours of flight time. Wilmore flew the FA-18 Hornet and T-45 Goshawk, playing a role in missions during Operation Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Southern Watch.

Is there a rocket launch in Florida today? Rocket launch calendar for Florida

Here's what we know about the rocket launch missions, mentioned in FLORIDA TODAY's rocket launch calendar for the month of May, which is updated frequently. (Check that link often for rocket launch times and dates because they are routinely subject to change for a variety of reasons.)

No earlier than Friday, May 17: NASAs Boeing Starliner crewed flight test

Mission: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will fly aboard a Boeing Starliner spacecraft and a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station.

Launch: No earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT Friday, May 17, 2024. Previously, it was 10:34 p.m. EDT Monday, May 6, 2024.

Location: Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Live coverage: at floridatoday.com/space

How to watch NASA Starliner rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, online

Tune in to floridatoday.com/space for USA TODAY Network's Space Team live coverage and updates on the Boeing Starliner rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, no earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT Friday, May 17, 2024. You can download the free app for iPhone or Android or type floridatoday.com/space into your browser.

In Florida, we can best see this historic moment in person if you're anywhere on the Space Coast (Brevard County) or certain spots in the First Coast or Fun Coast (Volusia County) or the Treasure Coast (Indian River County, St. Lucie County and Martin County). Pro tip: If you do watch it in person, get to your viewing destination early and prepare to stay later after the launch because of heavy traffic.

Where can I see a Florida rocket launch in Indian River County, St. Lucie County and Martin County?

The best views to watch a rocket launch from neighboring Brevard County, aka the Space Coast, is here along the beach. Visibility in Indian River County, St. Lucie County and Martin County, part of the Treasure Coast, will depend on weather conditions.

People should make sure not to block traffic, rights of way on bridges and follow posted rules at beaches. Look due north. Here are some recommended spots, from closest to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center to farthest:

 Pretty much anywhere in Brevard, you'll get a view of the rocket launch. That includes Melbourne Beach, which borders Indian River County, or from Grant-Valkaria along the Indian River Lagoon.

 Sebastian Inlet Park, 9700 S. State Road A1A, Melbourne Beach (there is a cost to enter)

 Wabasso Beach Park, 1808 Wabasso Beach Road, Wabasso

 Ambersands Beach Park, 12566 N. SR A1A, Vero Beach (free parking)

 South Beach Park, 1700 Ocean Drive, Vero Beach (free parking)

 Merrill Barber Bridge in Vero Beach

 Alma Lee Loy Bridge in Vero Beach

 Fort Pierce Inlet, 905 Shorewinds Drive

 Blind Creek Beachside North and South, South Ocean Drive or SR A1A on Hutchinson Island in Fort Pierce

 Blue Heron Beach, 2101 Blue Heron Blvd., Fort Pierce

 Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, 3600 S. Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce

 Dollman Park Beachside, 9200 South Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach

 Herman's Bay Beach, 7880 South Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach

 John Brooks Park Beachside, 3300 S Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce

 Middle Cove Beach, 4600 South Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce

 Normandy Beach in Jensen Beach

 Pepper Park Beachside, 3302 N. SR A1A, Fort Pierce

 Walton Rocks Beach, which has a dog park, 6700 South Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach

 Waveland Beach, 10350 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach

 House of Refuge and beach, 301 S.E. MacArthur Blvd., Stuart

 State Road A1A causeway in Stuart

Staff writer Laurie K. Blandford contributed to this report.

Gianna Montesano is TCPalms trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1429, or follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @gonthescene.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 2024 Vero Beach Air Show, how to watch NASA launch from Treasure Coast
WEST PALM BEACH  The families of men and women killed by Colombian terrorists are finally facing off against the corporate giant accused of financing their loved ones' murder: Chiquita Brands International.

The trial against Chiquita follows more than a decade of litigation over illegal payments the banana giant made to Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, a militant group known to kidnap civilians in the middle of the night and leave their mutilated corpses for their families to find.

Attorneys for Chiquita say the company had no choice but pay the terrorists nearly $2 million in the late 1990s and early 2000s to protect its Colombian employees from further violence.

Chiquita suit: Colombian guerrillas victims fight to sue banana giant in U.S. court

In a federal courtroom in West Palm Beach on Tuesday, lawyers for the victims families said the opposite is true; that Chiquita willingly partnered with the AUC in order to protect its profits  not its people  and to quell employee unrest by any means necessary.

This months trial comes almost two decades after Chiquita executives pleaded guilty in a New York courtroom to financing the AUC. The company made a deal with federal prosecutors that cemented its conviction but spared it additional criminal charges, allowing executives to move on in exchange for a $25 million fine.

Attorney Jack Scarola, seen here in November 2017.

No executive spent a day in jail for their crime, West Palm Beach attorney Jack Scarola said Tuesday. No surviving victim saw a penny of the payout. Seventeen years later, he said, its up to jurors to decide whether and how the victims of the Chiquita-funded terror will be compensated.

Chiquita paid terrorist group 'knowing the price was blood,' plaintiffs say

Scarola wove a yearslong geopolitical history lesson into a 90-minute opening statement Tuesday. Each time it neared the cusp of becoming a lecture, a vehement reference to "savage slaughter," mass execution, mutilation and torture yanked it back.

He, and Chiquita's attorneys after him, told jurors that the same climate and latitude that are best for banana growth are optimal for cocaine production, too. Militant groups vying for control over the drug market threw what Scarola called the banana zone into a bloody civil war.

When civilians fled, Chiquita saw opportunity. Scarola said it purchased abandoned land at bargain prices and hired thousands of Colombians to farm it, their profits ballooning even as the war worsened.

Lawsuit: South Florida polo icon accused of raping teenage girl, preying on others

From the conflict, two diametrically opposed terrorist groups formed: the FARC, a radical left-wing band that Scarola said threatened Chiquita with its pro-labor guerrilla warfare; and the AUC, the far-right group created in response to FARCs threat.

While opposite in almost every other respect, Scarola said both groups were willing to resort to horrendous violence to spread fear and gain control.

Rather than retreat from the violence, the attorney said, Chiquita invested in it. Company executives met with AUC leader Carlos Castano in 1997. Soon after, the first of more than 100 documented, disguised payments from Chiquita to the AUC began. Scarola said theres evidence of even more undocumented payments, too.

Chiquita employees didn't pull the trigger on the automatic weapons that killed AUC victims, Scarola said, but he urged jurors to consider the company as liable as the masked men who did.

A relative of a person disappeared by the Colombian AUC paramilitary guerrillas, wearing a blindfold, demonstrates against the government during a protest on July 8, 2008, in Bogota. The protesters request a better treatment from the government and to be given information about where the bodies of their beloved ones are.

Chiquita attorney: Banana company was a victim, too

Cincinnati attorney Michael Cioffi told a different story. He said that during that 1997 meeting with AUC leadership, Castano sent a "clear but unspoken message" that Chiquita's failure to pay up would result in harm to the company's people and property.

"Chiquita was extorted over and over," Cioffi said Tuesday. He called the company, which is headquartered in Ohio but has corporate offices in Fort Lauderdale, as much a victim of the AUC as the plaintiffs who are suing it. "Right from the get go, there was no question that Chiquita was extorted."

Cioffi said Scarola's portrayal of the FARC's and AUC's ideological differences were "pure myth," dismissing the notion that the AUC's group of narco-terrorists had Chiquita's best interests in mind. Where Scarola argued that Chiquita could have retreated from Colombia without sacrificing its profitability, Cioffi said "cutting and running was not an option."

He told jurors that Chiquita was a force for good in an otherwise chaotic environment. He touted its "gold-standard work environment" and top-notch produce, promising jurors that over the course of the trial, they'll hear from employees who agree that Chiquita acted with their safety in mind.

The trial, which resumed Wednesday, is expected to last at least one month. More than 7,500 people who lost loved ones during the AUCs gruesome campaign have filed suit against Chiquita. The suits from around the country were consolidated and are being considered by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra in West Palm Beach.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trial against Chiquita, accused of aiding terrorists, begins in South Florida
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KNWA/KFTA)  The federal jury trial for the couple accused of kidnapping and killing a pregnant woman has been delayed again, according to court documents.

Amber Waterman and her husband, Jamie Watermans federal trial is now scheduled for October 21, 2024.

The couple was indicted for crimes that allegedly led to the death of Ashley Bush, a Benton County woman, and her unborn child in Pineville, Mo.

Her body and that of her unborn child were found outside of the Watermans house. At the time, Bush was 31 weeks pregnant.

Federal trial delayed for couple accused of kidnapping, killing pregnant woman

Amber Waterman is charged with causing the death of an unborn child and kidnapping resulting in death, and Jamie is charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to kidnapping resulting in death.

An indictment says Jamie assisted Amber after she kidnapped Bush, knowing she had committed a crime. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

The trial in Springfield was originally set for December 4, 2023, but was pushed back to June 3, 2024, and is now set for Oct 21, 2024.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
NAIROBI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people, including refugees, have been displaced from their homes due to heavy rains in Central and East Africa, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern for the thousands of refugees and other displaced individuals who have been forced to flee as their homes were washed away by the ongoing El Nino-triggered heavy rains and severe flooding in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.

"Without help to prepare for, withstand and recover from climate-related shocks, they face an increased risk of further displacement," the UNHCR said in a statement.

The Climate Prediction and Application Center of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said recently that Kenya is among countries in the Horn of Africa that is experiencing abnormally heavy rains this season. The others are Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

"Temperatures in the countries are also warmer than average, with episodes of elevated levels of heat stress in northern South Sudan and southern Somalia," the center said in a recent update.

According to the UNHCR, nearly 20,000 people in Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya, which host more than 380,000 refugees, have been displaced due to the rising water levels. Many of them are among those who arrived in the past couple of years after fleeing severe drought in neighboring Somalia.

Some 4,000 people are currently sheltering in six schools with facilities that have been extensively damaged, the UNHCR said. "The others are staying with friends or relatives in other parts of the camp. Several latrines have collapsed, putting refugees at risk of deadly water-borne diseases," it said.

The refugee agency said that around 32,000 refugees, nearly half of the refugee population in Burundi, are living in areas affected by the floods, with 500 of them requiring urgent assistance.

"In the capital, Bujumbura, refugee families along with many Burundians, including elderly people, have had to relocate multiple times as water levels continue to rise," it said.

The agency said access to food and other necessities is increasingly difficult as prices have risen due to high fees to use canoes to transport goods.

According to the UNHCR, other countries in the region where the displaced are among the hardest hit include Somalia, where over 46,000 internally displaced persons in five locations in the south of the country have been forced to relocate due to flash floods. In Tanzania, more than 200,000 refugees, primarily from the DRC and Burundi and hosted in the Nyarugusu and Nduta camps, have been affected.

"The UNHCR is working closely with local authorities and partners, rushing crucial aid and providing protection services to refugees and affected communities living nearby," it said.

The UN agency said that these floods expose gaps in preparedness and early action, noting that the funding available to address the impacts of climate change is not reaching those forcibly displaced or the communities hosting them. 
Graft Polymer (UK) (LON:GPL) Full Year 2023 Results

Key Financial Results

Revenue: UK587.0k (up 8.3% from FY 2022).

Net loss: UK3.12m (loss widened by 15% from FY 2022).

UK0.03 loss per share (further deteriorated from UK0.026 loss in FY 2022).

All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period

Graft Polymer (UK) shares are up 14% from a week ago.

Risk Analysis

What about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 6 warning signs for Graft Polymer (UK) (of which 5 are a bit concerning!) you should know about.

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.
Trial set for OPI candidate Allen, while she defends actions as bold stand for parental rights

(Screenshot of profile posted on Sharyl Allen's campaign website.)

A Republican candidate for state school superintendent faces a jury trial for obstructing a peace officer, but she continues to lead her district, and she defends the actions that led to her arrest as a bold stand for parental rights.

Sharyl Allen remains on staff as superintendent-principal for Harrison Public Schools in Madison County and plans to serve through June 30 when her contract ends, she said Friday in a phone interview.

Allen is running in the Republican primary for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction against Townsend Superintendent Susie Hedalen. Hedalen has outraised her in cash and outgunned her with endorsements including Gov. Greg Gianfortes.

Allen pled not guilty this week to a charge of obstructing a peace officer. In a news release, she cited board policy to defend her actions.

A jury trial is on the calendar for Sept. 4 in Madison County Justice Court, according to a scheduling order.

A complaint said she unlawfully prevented investigators, including one from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigations, from interviewing students who are potential crime victims on April 22; additional information about the allegations was not available earlier this week.

Allen, however, defended her actions as protecting parents and staying in line with board policy in a news release shared by the Boulder Monitor.

Allens arrest came as a result of her unwavering insistence that parents be notified before minor children are interrogated, the news release said.

In the news release, Allen quoted board policy: The students parent or guardian should be present, if practicable, during any interrogation on school premises.

A school board agenda for a special meeting this Monday said trustees would consider Allens contract. The board chair has not responded to messages via Harrison Public Schools, but Allen said the board did not take action on it.

A meeting agenda Friday stating potential action related to the complaint is listed as canceled, although it was not specific about the complaint up for discussion.

Earlier this year, Allen said she told the board she still planned to resign after the school year, as she initially intended. She said caring for a family member is part of her motivation.

In the phone call Friday, she addressed her continued campaign for statewide office as well as her unexpected departures from other jobs, including in public clashes with parents calling for her termination.

Allen said she would have the capacity to take on a statewide position that oversees all public schools despite stepping aside at Harrison because she served as deputy superintendent for the Office of Public Instruction and understands the job.

She said the position offers flexibility, she knows how to balance the workload, and the family member shes caring for is supportive of her run for public office.

Its a whole different type of leadership than at a school level, Allen said.

In the news release, Allen said she has more than 40 years in education.

She left her job at the Office of Public Instruction last June after she determined she would run for superintendent, she said, but she declined Friday to discuss how her decision to leave came about.

That was a conversation with the state superintendent, which is confidential, and Im going to leave it confidential, Allen said.

She also cited confidentiality in declining to explain the reasons she prematurely left other education positions in Montana and in Arizona.

Theres lots and lots of speculation, and I would just share that speculation does not equal truth, Allen said.

In 2013, the Grand Canyon School Board in Arizona unanimously voted to terminate her as superintendent without explanation, and in Montana, Allen resigned from Conrad Public Schools in 2019 following criticism from parents.

When theres conversations that take place in closed sessions, the executive sessions, those are confidential, Allen said. Im going to hold to the integrity of what I agreed to in those meetings.

She also said people can either dig up information from the past that says this is a bad person, and this person is inept, or people can look to the future, as she said she and most of the people who talk with her are doing.

Im keeping my eyes on the work that is in front of me, Allen said.

Allen news release

The post Trial set for OPI candidate Allen, while she defends actions as bold stand for parental rights appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Former President Trump on Friday claimed the judge handling his hush money case was trying to make the trial as salacious as possible, even as Trumps own attorneys sought to undermine a witness by bringing up celebrity scandals.

This Corrupt and HIGHLY Conflicted New York Judge, Juan Merchan, is doing everything in his power to make this trial as salacious as possible, even though these things have NOTHING to do with this FAKE case, Trump posted on Truth Social.

Upon arriving at the courthouse, Trump again took aim at Judge Juan Merchan in his remarks to reporters before proceedings began, calling him highly conflicted.

Hes trying to make it as salacious as possible by allowing testimony that has nothing to do with the case, Trump said. He wants to make it a salacious case to try and hurt Trump. But its having the opposite effect.

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case is inherently salacious, as it centers on a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign, intended to keep her from going public with her story of an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump has denied the affair, and his attorneys have noted hush-money payments are not illegal in themselves and that the former president did nothing wrong.

Trumps criticism Friday may have been referring to Merchan allowing prosecutors to raise the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also allegedly had an affair with Trump roughly a decade before he was elected president.

The trial took a detour Thursday into a graveyard of celebrity scandals, as Trumps attorney attempted to diminish the credibility of Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented two women who were paid hush money during Trumps 2016 campaign.

Trump attorney Emil Bove suggested that Davidson regularly looked to shop around salacious stories. He brought up how Davidson was previously investigated for extortion for his dealings with celebrities.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Trump Biographer Has Stark Warning For His Attorneys On What Happens Next

Donald Trump biographer Tim OBrien on Thursday warned the former presidents attorneys that the gig might not be as lucrative as they think.

MSNBCs Nicolle Wallace pointed out that many of Trumps past lawyers have ended up in trouble themselves.

You dont have many people who have come out better for it, she said.

I dont think there are any, OBrien said, delivering a warning: They might not even get paid.

If you dont perform well in front of Donald Trump, he wont pay his bills, he said. And this sort of trade off that, Ill get publicity or Ill get a good paycheck, and itll be worth whatever professional and personal embarrassments I suffer on the way to that road show, I think it often doesnt come together for people.

OBrien also said Trump attorney Todd Blanche was performative in court, to a disastrous effect.

Im assuming in his real life, which is a life apart from Donald Trump and being Donald Trumps attorney, hes a more calm, collected, sober-minded person, he said. But today he was buffoonish.

OBrien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, author of the 2005 book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, and former executive editor of HuffPost when it was called The Huffington Post.

See more of his conversation below:

Related...
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Former President Donald Trumps presidential campaign and national and state Republicans filed a lawsuit Friday against the Nevada Secretary of State and several county clerks, claiming the states mail-in ballot deadline is unconstitutional.

Nevada state law requires all mail-in ballots to be mailed and postmarked by Election Day. There is then a four-day period after Election Day when county clerks can accept the postmarked ballots and process them. The lawsuit targets that grace period, claiming the law extends Nevadas federal election past the Election Day established by Congress.

Nevada is one of several states with universal mail balloting. Voters can choose to vote in person or by mail early or in person on Election Day. Registered voters can also opt out of receiving a mail-in ballot if they wish.

Colorado, which is a universal mail-in ballot state, requires all ballots to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. In contrast, Utah, also a universal mail-in ballot state, requires ballots be postmarked one day before Election Day and received before the county canvass, several days later, according to vote.org. A total of 23 states require a ballot be received by Election Day.

FILE  In this Nov. 1, 2020, file photo, envelopes containing ballots are shown at a San Francisco Department of Elections at a voting center in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

The result of Nevadas violation of federal law is that timely, valid ballots are diluted by untimely, invalid ballots, which violates the rights of candidates, campaigns, and voters under federal law, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit claims clerks will count ballots that are not yet postmarked on Election Day, though that itself would violate Nevada law. There is no evidence in the lawsuit for the claim. The lawsuit also claims Democrats tend to mail their mail-in ballots later due to get-out-the-vote drives.

Counting mail ballots received after Election Day doesnt just dilute the valid ballots  it specifically and disproportionately harms Republican candidates and voters, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit asks a judge to declare preliminary or permanent injunctions limiting the ballot acceptance to Election Day for the November election. Election Day 2024 will happen on Nov. 5. All ballots must be received by Nov. 9.

Nevadas ballot receipt deadline clearly violates federal law and undermines election integrity in the state, Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley said in a statement. Ballots received days after Election Day should not be counted  the RNC and our partners are suing to secure an honest election, support Nevada voters, and oppose unlawful schemes.

Donald Trump and Republicans baseless lawsuit is yet another tactic to undermine democracy and disenfranchise thousands of Nevada voters by limiting when ballots can be accepted  even when postmarked by Election Day, Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Director Hilary Barrett said in a statement.

Nevada runs some of the most secure, transparent, and accessible elections in the country, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said. The key for that accessibility is allowing working Nevadans to vote using the method that works best for them, including voting by mail. Our office will not comment on ongoing litigation, but I hope the RNC is putting as much time and energy into educating voters on how to participate in elections as they put into suing the state of Nevada.

Measures the Nevada Legislature put in place in 2021, alongside the mail-in voting law, scrubbed voter rolls of non-eligible and deceased voters. Just over half of Nevadas ballots cast in the 2022 general were mail ballots, according to a thorough study released by the federal government.

Though claiming widespread evidence in the 2020 election, Republicans never provided any evidence of wrongdoing in Nevada. Then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, condemned the claims, saying the election was fair and secure.

One case of voter fraud involved a mans case the Republican Party first highlighted, claiming his ballot was stolen. Kirk Hartle later pleaded guilty to using his deceased wife ballot to vote twice.

FILE  Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha, File)

The Nevada GOP repeatedly denied requests from 8 News Now to review their evidence throughout the fall of 2020. At a news conference on Nov. 5, 2020, where surrogates from the Trump campaign announced a federal lawsuit, speakers told reporters to find the evidence for themselves. That lawsuit was later dropped. During the sole hearing in that case, a lawyer provided no evidence of fraud and did not verbally bring up any evidence to the federal judge.

No widespread voter fraud was ever discovered in Nevada. The state supreme court denied the Trump campaigns request to overturn the states election results and proclaim the then-president the winner. Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, a result the court certified that November. Several Republicans, including Cegavske and then-Attorney General William Barr, said there was no evidence of any widespread fraud.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Former President Donald Trump addressed supporters at a rally in Freeland, Michigan on May 1. (Photo by Kyle Davidson of the Michigan Advance.)

FREELAND, Michigan. After flying into Freeland, former President Donald Trump drew a large crowd of supporters as he continued criticism of President Joe Bidens economic policies while promising mass deportations on day one if elected in November.

In his speech, Trump celebrated the fall of Roe vs. Wade, arguing that Democrats will allow abortion in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and after birth, calling it an execution.

A report from Politifact on similar claims by the former president called them grossly inaccurate, noting that wilfully ending a newborns life is illegal in every state. It also noted that abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy make up 1% of abortions in the U.S. and are often tied to severe anomalies in the fetus or risks to the mothers health.

Ahead of Trumps appearance on Wednesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer criticized him for his role in overturning Roe vs. Wade during a roundtable discussion on the consequence of the Supreme Court Decision.

Trump also condemned Bidens economic agenda, while touting his own tax policy.

Republicans have blasted Bidens plan to raise taxes on businesses and wealthy Americans, and argued that Biden will allow Trump-era tax cuts to expire, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said he would negotiate with Congress on how to proceed when the policies do expire, according to a report from the New York Times.

While Yellen argued these tax increases wouldnt touch the middle class, Republicans argued that consumers and employees would bear the brunt of a higher corporate tax rate. In response Trump promised a tax cut for the middle class.

I will deliver a Trump middle-class tax cut the likes of which youve never seen. .On day one, we will throw out Bidenomics and we will reinstate a thing called MAGAnomics, Trump said, referencing his campaign slogan Make America Great Again which was originally used in Ronald Reagans 1980 campaign.

Trump also denounced the Biden administrations goal for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all new vehicles sold by 2030, which Trump called a mandate. He criticized Biden and UAW President Shawn Fain for the effort, saying a transition to electric vehicles would result in the loss of U.S. auto jobs to China.

It will be an economic bloodbath. Crooked Joe will rip out your auto jobs and send them immediately to China, Trump said.

The Biden campaign responded to these criticisms in a statement, pointing to a report from the Atlas Public Policy Institutes EV Hub, which found vehicle and battery manufacturers are expected to invest $860 billion globally by 2030, with $210 billion expected in the U.S.

Trump also attacked transgender Americans and blasted the many legal cases against him, calling them bullst and falsely claiming Al Capone had faced less indictments.

Trump has been charged in a number of cases including mishandling top secret documents, attempting to overturn the 2020 election, as well as anti-racketeering charges in Georgia.

Last week, Trump was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Michigan fake electors plot, one of sevens states where groups submitted false documents claiming Trump had won the election. Another 18 individuals were charged in Arizona as part of the plot, with the Arizona Mirror identifying Trump as one of the seven individuals whose names were redacted by the Arizona Attorney Generals Office.

Trump was also recently fined $9,000 for nine violations of a gag order tied to his hush-money case, in which he is accused of disguising payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign to conceal an alleged affair.

During his speech, he continued to spread disproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and said his campaign would be working with the Republican National Committee to ensure what happened in 2020 will never happen again.

Trump also continued to stoke fears about crime and the crisis at the southern border, referencing a number of break ins which Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said are tied to Chilean gangs, and promising to shift large portions of federal law enforcement into immigration enforcement. He also accused migrants of being traffickers, drug dealers and said other countries were emptying their prisons and mental health facilities into the United States.

On day one, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in America, Trump said.

Research from Stanford University has found that first-generation immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than individuals born in the U.S. An investigation from the Marshall Project also found no link between undocumented immigrants and increases in crime.

He said he would settle the war between Russia and Ukraine, questioning why Europe was not providing more aid to the Ukrainian military.

Since the beginning of the war the European Union has provided close to $107 billion in financial, military, humanitarian and refugee assistance, according to a statement from the EU Delegation to the United States.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S has provided more than $71 billion in aid to Ukraine. Biden also recently signed off on a $95 billion aid package, which includes about $61 billion for Ukraine.

This story was originally produced by the Michigan Advance 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 Trump celebrates the fall of Roe vs. Wade, promises mass deportations if hes elected appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw US support for Nato allies if member states do not increase their defence budgets - Yuki Iwamura/AP

Donald Trump is considering plans to push Nato members to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP if he wins a second term in the White House, The Telegraph understands.

The former president thinks member states should be asked to contribute more to the alliances collective defence in light of threats from Russia and China.

He also believes the accounting rules should be changed so that spending on military assistance for Ukraine is not counted towards the target  a policy that would push several countries below the current target of 2 per cent of GDP.

A source close to Mr Trump said he has been considering lobbying the alliance for an increase for some time, but was further convinced after meeting Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, last month.

His thinking is evolving towards 3 per cent, especially after speaking to Duda  and thats not including money for Ukraine, said the source.

Mr Trumps meetings with Mr Duda were reportedly also key in persuading the former US president to drop his opposition to a long-delayed $60 billion aid package for Kyiv.

Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw US support for Nato allies if member states do not increase their defence budgets.

Last year, just 11 of the alliances 32 members, including the UK, reached the current target. The others were the US, which is by far the largest overall contributor, alongside Poland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark.

Luxembourg, which had the smallest budget for defence compared to its GDP, spent just 1 per cent, while Belgium and Spain spent 1.2 per cent.

Mr Duda has previously argued that 3 per cent  a level reached only by Poland, the US and Greece  is required to defend against growing threats including Russia launching a direct confrontation with Nato.

On Tuesday, Timo Pesonen, a senior EU defence official, said a 3 per cent target was already under discussion among some member states behind closed doors.

When the Nato allies are increasing their budget to at least one per cent of GDP, some people speak about 3 per cent already, he said.

The UK spent 2.28 per cent of GDP on defence in 2023, and plans to increase its spending to 2.32 per cent in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, last week announced that Britains spending would increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade  an increase of 75 billion overall.

Labour has refused to match the pledge if it wins power in a general election later this year.

However, the current Nato rules allow Britain to include the 2.3 billion it has spent on aid for Ukraine in both 2022 and 2023 as part of its defence contributions, plus money for the intelligence services.

On Thursday UK government sources expressed cautious support for a reassessment of the Nato spending target, but suggested it should increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP, and that spending on Ukraine should still be included.

There is a discussion to be had about the 2 per cent target and whether it is at the right point, but the UK has been clear that 2.5 per cent is the target we want other nations to get to, said one insider.

Ukraine is critical to both the UK and allies defence. Thats why we include it in our defence spending.

On Wednesday, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, said that all Nato countries should try to reach the UKs new funding level of 2.5 per cent to meet the demands of a more dangerous world.

Some Nato leaders have expressed concerns about Mr Trumps potential return to the White House re-election bid, warning that he would endanger the alliance and sabotage Ukraines war effort by withdrawing US military support.

The presumed Republican nominee has said that he would end the war in one day and that he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to allies that do not spend enough on their own defence.

Trump will stop the killing

A source close to Mr Trump said he had developed a detailed plan for how to end the war peacefully, but that it would not be revealed before the election.

There is a plan, but hes not going to debate it with cable news networks because then you lose all leverage, the source said.

Instead, they said he would focus on a simple message that he would end the war in an attempt to win over US voters hoping for peace.

He wants to stop the killing, said the source. Thats the bumper sticker: Trump will stop the killing.

In an interview with Time Magazine published on Tuesday, Mr Trump said his message to Nato allies was: If youre not going to pay, then youre on your own.

Mr Trump said Europe has taken advantage of us, both on Nato and on Ukraine.

If Europe is not going to pay, why should we pay? he said. Because theyre much more greatly affected. We have an ocean in between us [and Russia]. They dont.

He added: Im going to try and help Ukraine but Europe has to get there also and do their job.

A spokesman for Joe Bidens campaign said Mr Trump was threatening to abandon our allies if they are attacked and allow Putin to do whatever he wants, making Americans less safe.

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.
Trump to host potential vice presidential candidates at Florida retreat. Who is going?

Former President Donald Trump will host a handful of vice presidential contenders at a retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend, according to multiple reports.

The annual retreat, organized by the Republican National Committee, is historically attended by well-heeled donors and high-profile GOP officials, according to CNBC.

This year, a number of the guests are reportedly on Trumps short list of potential running mates, per the outlet, citing a copy of the retreats agenda.

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Among the special guests are: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik are also expected to be in attendance, according to CNBC.

The two-day event  which could provide large sums towards Trumps political war chest  will allow the presumptive Republican candidate to observe his prospective running mates, according to Reuters.

However, not all of the special guests are on equal footing inside the Trump campaign, according to multiple reports.

Noem, who recently became mired in a media spectacle following a revelation that she shot her dog, is no longer viewed as a serious contender, according to Politico.

What does she bring? Scott Jennings, a one-time adviser to President George W. Bush, told the outlet. The possibility of weirdo drama. Thats it. She appeals to no constituency Trump doesnt already have.

Meanwhile, the other governor from the Dakotas, Doug Burgum, is quickly gaining favor inside the Trump campaign, according to Axios.

Two sources familiar with  Trumps thinking said he likes Burgums measured demeanor and his gubernatorial experience  and sees Burgum as reliable and low-drama, the outlet reported.

Still, the weekend retreat likely will not result in a definitive choice on a running mate, per NBC News.

Its going to be quiet for a while, a Trump advisor told the outlet.

When asked when he will unveil his vice presidential pick in January, Trump said, theres no rush, according to previous reporting from McClatchy News.

He also downplayed the importance of his selection, saying it wont have any impact at all.

Historically, vice presidential candidates are announced around the major party conventions. This year, the Republican National Convention will be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump is held in contempt of court  a punishment only one other president faced

How do Americans view Trumps presidency? It gets better with time apart, poll finds

Should oldest Supreme Court justices retire? Americans agree on at least one, poll finds
Then-President Donald Trump poses for members of the media with then-White House Communications Director Hope Hicks on her last day before he boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, March 29, 2018, in Washington. Hicks was the final witness to take the stand on Friday, May 3, 2024, in the former presidents criminal trial. | Andrew Harnik

Hope Hicks, former White House adviser and communications director for Donald Trump before and during his presidency, was the final witness to take the stand on Friday in the former presidents criminal trial.

The prosecution questioned Hicks about her role as press secretary for Trumps 2016 campaign, along with her actions taken following the release of the Access Hollywood tape. Hicks also shared her knowledge of the payment Trumps former attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

The payments made to Daniels are at the heart of the 34-count felony case against Trump brought on by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs. Braggs is accusing Trump of manipulating business records to hide the hush money payments leading up to his presidential election in 2016.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing, including his alleged relations with Daniels and other promiscuous actions that have been brought up in the case.

Describing her professional career working for Trump, Hicks said he was a very good multitasker and a very hard worker. Hes always doing many things at once, she said in her testimony, according to CBS News. In June of 2015, she added that she would speak to Trump nearly every day.

Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump. Its a very big and successful company, but its really run like a small family business in some ways, she said.

Regarding working as his press secretary and seeing Trumps strategy as a presidential candidate firsthand, she said, It was just me and Mr. Trump, whos better than anyone at communications and branding. ... Mr. Trump was responsible. He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and we were all following his lead. And so I think he deserves the credit in terms of the different messages the campaign put forth.

Hicks encounter with the Access Hollywood tapes

On Friday, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo also asked Hicks about her initial reaction to the Access Hollywood tape. In the recording  that was published by The Washington Post weeks before the election  Trump can be heard describing his ability to sexually assault women due to his stardom.

Hicks said she was concerned, very concerned, and somewhat stunned by the tape and after getting an email requesting comment on the tape from The Washington Post before it broke the news, Hicks sent an email to other senior aides with possible responses, including, Deny, deny, deny, per The New York Times.

She was also questioned about The Wall Street Journal article regarding former Playboy model Karen McDougals alleged 10-month affair with Trump.

When Colangelo asked Hicks about Trumps reaction to the story, she said that Trump was concerned about the repercussions his presidential campaign would face but was more concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, The New York Times added. He was worried about his wifes reaction and asked Hicks to make sure the newspapers werent delivered to their residence this morning.

The former lawyer for Daniels and McDougal, Keith Davidson, previously testified regarding the negotiations made between him, Cohen and the National Enquirer to silence the womens stories.

Additional testimonies

Hicks was the ninth witness to take to the stand in Trumps criminal case. Along with Hicks, two additional witnesses testified on Friday: Georgia Longstreet and Douglas Daus.

Longstreet, a paralegal at the Manhattan D.A.s office, which is prosecuting Trump, recounted her duties of tracking and documenting Trumps social media activities, including a video statement he made after releasing the Access Hollywood tape.

While Daus, a forensic analyst for the D.A.s office, discussed in his testimony a recording retrieved from Cohens phone that captured a discussion between Cohen and Trump concerning the financing of McDougals hush money agreement.
(Bloomberg) -- The second week of testimony in Donald Trumps hush-money criminal trial gave jurors first-hand accounts of negotiations for payments to two women and how the former presidents 2016 campaign reacted when news of their alleged affairs leaked out anyway.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Hope Hicks, who was press secretary for Trumps campaign and became a top White House aide, described how the campaign was disrupted by the surprise disclosures of the so-called Access Hollywood tape and news articles revealing Trumps alleged affairs with adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal before the 2016 election.

Here are five key takeaways from the trial this week in lower Manhattan:

A Crisis

Hicks, who was testifying under a subpoena from prosecutors, described on Friday how she was stunned by the October 2016 release of the Access Hollywood tape  a 2005 hot-mic recording of Trump saying he kisses women without asking and boasting that stars can grab womens genitals without consent.

This was a crisis, Hicks said of the tape, adding that it caused an immediate uproar for the campaign and criticism from Trumps fellow Republicans.

Prosecutors have focused in particular on the Access Hollywood tape as a key motivation for Trump to pay Daniels when she later threatened to go public with her claim about an affair with him on the eve of the election.

Hicks, who said she felt she had Trumps trust and respect while working for him, broke down in tears at the start of cross-examination, forcing a brief recess in the proceedings. Her testimony is likely to help the governments case against a man she appears to respect deeply.

Contempt Fine

Justice Juan Merchan on Tuesday found Trump in contempt of court and fined the former president $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that bars him from publicly discussing trial witnesses or jurors. The judge warned that future breaches could result in jail time.

Prosecutors sought the penalties after Trump repeatedly took to social media to attack his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen as well as Daniels, two of the governments top witnesses. The former presidents lawyers argued he should be able to respond to Cohen attacking him.

The judge also is weighing whether to hold Trump in contempt for three additional statements he made after the governments first contempt motion but before the first fine was issued.

Deal Maker

California lawyer Keith Davidson described the genesis of the hush payments to McDougal and Daniels. Davidson, who he represented both women before the 2016 election, explained how he got American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, to pay McDougal $150,000, and convinced Cohen to pay Daniels $130,000.

Davidson recounted his frantic talks with Cohen and AMIs then-CEO David Pecker, who testified last week. I have a blockbuster Trump story, Davidson said in a June 2016 text to an Enquirer editor.

Trumps lawyer sought to portray Davidson as a sleazy lawyer employing the same playbook hed used before to extract money from famous men seeking to avoid scandals. Much of Davidsons testimony was backed up by extensive evidence, including text messages and emails.

Secret Recording

Jurors heard a recording Cohen secretly made in which Trump discussed financing a $150,000 payment just a few months before the 2016 election.

The recording didnt name names, but the timing coincides with the McDougal payout arranged by Pecker, who had testified earlier about his efforts to help Trump win the election by buying and burying negative stories about the real estate mogul.

In the recording, Cohen can be heard saying he needs to set up a shell company to facilitate a payment, and mentions David  an apparent reference to Pecker.

I need to open up a company regarding the transfer of information related to that info for David, Cohen tells Trump in the recording. Its all the stuff, because you dont know...I am all over that, when it comes to the financing.

What financing? Trump asks.

No, no, no Ive got it, Cohen assured him.

Harvey Weinstein

The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein got a brief mention early in the week, after a New York state appeals court overturned his rape and sexual assault conviction because of evidence the panel concluded was prejudicial.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued the ruling means prosecutors shouldnt be permitted to use some evidence related to the Access Hollywood tape.

Judge Merchan pushed back on Blanches argument, saying he would permit some testimony about the Access Hollywood tape, but not the recording itself.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- The jury in Donald Trumps hush money criminal trial heard a secret recording in which the former president discussed a payment with his then-lawyer Michael Cohen months before the 2016 election.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The exchange, played in court on Thursday, was made by Cohen, a key prosecution witness. The recording didnt name names or specify the amount of the payment, but the timing coincides with a $150,000 deal with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump years earlier.

Trump, who is campaigning to return to the White House in the November election, is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush payment to another woman, adult-film star Stormy Daniels, days before the 2016 election. Both women may take the witness stand.

Cohen can be heard saying he needs to set up a shell company to facilitate a payment, and mentions David  an apparent reference to then American Media Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Pecker, who published the National Enquirer and ultimately made the hush payment to McDougal. Pecker also testified earlier in the trial about his efforts to help Trump win the election, including by buying and burying negative stories about Trump.

I need to open up a company regarding the transfer of information related to that info for David, Cohen tells Trump in the recording. Its all the stuff, because you dont know...I am all over that, when it comes to the financing.

What financing? Trump asks.

No, no, no Ive got it, Cohen assured him.

Its unclear if the jury will hear the entire recording, which also includes Trump referring to the full amount of the hush payment and suggesting Cohen pay in cash. Cohen ultimately turned on Trump and pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the payments.

Earlier Thursday, the jury heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who represented Daniels when she accepted $130,000 from Cohen to keep silent about an alleged affair with Trump. He testified about his concern that his role in arranging the hush payments may have helped the real estate mogul win the White House.

Davidson, who also represented McDougal, described a series of text messages in which he expressed his concern to Dylan Howard, the editor of the Enquirer, on election night 2016, after the salacious stories about Trump were suppressed.

What have we done? the lawyer said to Howard in a text message displayed on screens for the jury. Oh, my god, Howard responded.

Trump is on trial in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying dozens of business records to conceal the payment to Daniels.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argues the hush-money agreement with Daniels in 2016 became crucial after the release of the so-called Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump boasted about assaulting women. Trump went on to win the election against Hillary Clinton.

Hogan, Sheen and Lohan

On cross-examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove attempted to depict Davidson as a sleazy lawyer who had a history of extorting settlements from celebrities caught up in scandals.

Beyond Daniels and McDougal, Davidson represented clients in negotiations involving former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and actors Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, according to Bove.

Bove asked if Davidson had sought $1 million from Hogans representatives to buy a video tape, which showed him having sex with a friends wife. Davidson said he made a monetary demand.

The tape was later published by the website Gawker. Hogan sued Gawker for invasion of privacy and was awarded $140 million, bankrupting both the site and its founder, Nick Denton.

The exchange grew testy at times, after Davidson said several times he couldnt recall specific cases. Bove said his memory seemed a little fuzzy.

Contempt Hearing

Earlier Thursday, before the jury entered the courtroom, lawyers for the district attorney urged Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, to hold Trump in contempt of court for a second time. Prosecutors said that Trumps comments about Cohen and other witnesses have violated a gag order.

But Trump attorney Todd Blanche said the former presidents comments are fair game because he is just responding to Cohens insulting online comments. Several of Cohens recent posts mocking Trump  including one depicting him wearing an orange prison jumpsuit  were displayed on screens.

Merchan earlier this week fined Trump $9,000 and threatened to jail him over future violations of the gag order. Prosecutors said they were still seeking fines, rather than incarceration for the latest statements.

Trumps use of social media, news interviews and campaign speeches has created a challenge for judges overseeing his many legal cases as they weigh the impact of his public comments against his free-speech rights. Trumps remarks became an issue after individuals he attacked on social media were swamped with online threats by his supporters.

The judge ended the hearing without issuing a ruling on the contempt issue.

But in the afternoon session, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked the judge to allow Trump to post articles by legal experts criticizing the prosecution and the witnesses. The lawyer argued such preapproval was necessary because the gag order is vague, drawing the wrath of Merchan.

I am not going to give advance rulings. There is no ambiguity in the order, Merchan said. My advice to your client is steer clear.

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Trump: Im not sleeping during trial just resting my beautiful blue eyes

Donald Trump claims he has been wide awake throughout his criminal trial - AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Donald Trump has hit back at claims he has been falling asleep during his hush money trial, insisting he has simply been closing his beautiful blue eyes while listening.

There has been fevered speculation since the trial began last month as to whether the former president has been nodding off in the Manhattan courtroom.

Contrary to the fake news media, I dont fall asleep during the crooked DAs witch hunt, especially not today, he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.

I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intently, and take it all in.

On Thursday Mr Trump  who famously dubbed Joe Biden sleepy Joe  repeatedly sat slumped back in his chair with his eyes firmly shut, occasionally moving his headnomin or shifting in his seat.

It has been a common stance adopted by the Republican nominee throughout the New York hearing.

Mr Trump has appeared notably more engaged  muttering to his lawyers or turning to face the witness  when his lawyers have been cross-examining, or when footage or audio is being played.

On April 15, the first day of jury selection, the New York Times claimed that Mr Trump fell asleep during the first few hours of the trial.

He was reportedly seen closing his eyes with his head drooping down and his mouth hanging open before he jolted awake.

Mr Trump, who is required to attend the criminal trial, frequently taunts his political rival, Mr Biden, accusing him of snoozing.

On Wednesday he wrote on Truth Social: Wheres sleepy Joe? Hes sleeping, thats where!

Democrats have used Mr Trumps apparent drowsiness to attack the former president.

If Trump is too old and weak to stay awake at his own criminal trial, what do you think will happen in the Situation Room? Dan Pfeiffer, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, previously said.

Trump is defeated, hes obviously sleeping, hes tired, and low energy  hes sleepy Donald Trump, Democrat congressman Robert Garcia said.

He added: While at the same time we have Biden, actually leading the country, doing the right thing.

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Former President Donald Trump this week made his way to Wisconsin, a battleground state crucial to both his 2016 win and 2020 loss. The stakes, in other words, are high. So he made a few big promises to match.

One such promise: "We're going to give our police their power back," he told rallygoers in Waukesha, "and we are going to give them immunity from prosecution."

Between police and prosecutors, law enforcement officers are arguably already the most powerful people in government, so it's unclear what Trump means by giving them "their power back." His second promise, thoughimmunity from prosecutionis more concrete, and a reminder of the former president's views on government accountability.

There are, however, a few problems. Let's begin with the first: As president, Trump would be extremely constrained in immunizing anyone, including police officers, from prosecution, as most criminal proceedings are in state court where his power wouldn't apply. And while it's true that some officers are charged federally for alleged misconductwhere he could lobby the Department of Justice to refuse to charge any copthose prosecutions are often in addition to state charges. As I've previously written, charging anyone, no matter how unsympathetic a defendant, in both state and federal court for the same alleged misconduct strains constitutional credulity. To put a stop to that, even temporarily, would be just. The reality remains, though, that no president, including Trump, can countermand state prosecutorial decisions.

Take Derek Chauvin, for instance, who was convicted in a Minnesota court of murdering George Floyd. After that trial concluded, he pleaded guilty to federal charges, for which Trump could certainly pardon him during another term in the Oval Office. And that would make no material difference in the amount of time Chauvin spends in prison, as his state sentence (22.5 years) and his federal sentence (21 years) are running concurrently, not consecutively. The only noticeable effect would be a change of venue, as Chauvin is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson.

It is also true that police officers are rarely prosecuted to begin with, despite a handful of high-profile trials that have captured public attention. No one should be criminally charged because the political moment appears to demand it. Similarly, no one should be immunized simply because it plays well with a political constituency.

But despite the overall legal illiteracy of Trump's promise, it's worth considering what it says about his general outlook on accountable government, or lack thereof, and if those with the most power should be held to the lowest standard.

That his answer to the above question is more or less a "yes" should not come as a surprise. During his term in office, Trump made it clear he would fight any legislation that sought to hamstring qualified immunity, the legal doctrine legislated into existence by the Supreme Court that bars alleged victims of misconduct from bringing civil suits against state and local government employees if the way in which those employees violated the Constitution has not been explicitly ruled unconstitutional in a prior court decision. It is why, for example, two California men were not able to sue the officers who allegedly stole over $225,000 from them during the execution of a search warrant, as there was no previous court ruling that said stealing under such circumstances is unconstitutional. (Federal law enforcement officers, meanwhile, are essentially already protected by absolute immunity.)

The most common objection to curtailing or ending qualified immunity is grounded in the fear that police officers will be bankrupted by breathless lawsuits. Those who are nervous about such an outcome can take comfort in the fact that, prior to any jury trial, plaintiffs must also show in federal court that their allegations concern conduct that was unconstitutional. More importantly, cops are almost always protected from having to pay damages themselves; a study conducted by UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz found that governments paid the judgments 99.98 percent of the time. It's hard to know if Trump realizes this is the case, as he promised in December to "indemnify [police] against any and all liability." Whether or not that was a knowingly false promise or if he is genuinely unfamiliar with the law remains unclear.

But there's at least one thing that is clear: Trump would like law enforcement held to a lower standard than the little people. The former president has arguably never been a tried and true conservative, but he does need to court them. And it is difficult to make a conservative case for ensuring that those who enforce the law are also above it.

The post Trump Promises To Give Police 'Immunity From Prosecution' appeared first on Reason.com.
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.

MORE: Who are the key players in Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial?

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.





Latest Developments





May 3, 1:07 PM

Hicks says says Trump drafted Karen McDougal statement



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks said she spoke with National Enquirer published Pecker about the Karen McDougal story on Nov. 4, 2016.

"He explained that Karen McDougal was paid for magazine covers and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate. And that was what the contract was for," Hicks said.

Hicks said she spoke with Michael Cohen before calling Pecker.

Hicks said she drafted a statement to respond to the Wall Street Journal, which was about to break the story that National Enquirer parent AMI had paid off McDougal to buy her silence about a long-denied affair with Trump. She then shared the statement with Trump once he returned to his plane.

"When Mr. Trump came on the plane for the rally, I shared it with him as well," Hicks said.

Cohen also made edits and offered feedback to the draft statement, according to an exhibit entered into evidence.

According to Hicks, Trump opted to write his own statement instead.

"He wanted to draft his own statement," Hicks said.

Before he drafted the statement, Hicks and Trump called back Pecker, who repeated the information he told Hicks earlier.

"It included his explanation for this -- that this was a legitimate contract, and that's what they planned to tell the Journal," Hicks said.





May 3, 12:56 PM

Hicks recounts learning of Karen McDougal story

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that she first heard the name Stormy Daniels in 2015 when she overheard some of the security on Trump's plane discuss a golf tournament Trump attended.



"Her name came up. She was there was with one of the other participants that Mr. Trump had played with that day," Hicks said.



Hicks said she first learned of Karen McDougal when the Wall Street Journal reached out for comment regarding their AMI payment story on Nov. 4, 2016, as the newspaper was preparing to break the story that National Enquirer parent AMI had paid off Karen McDougal to buy her silence about a long-denied affair with Trump.



Jurors were then shown the email Hicks received on Nov. 4, 2016, from the Wall Street Journal.



Hicks said she received the email ahead of a campaign rally.



"I was sort of dealing with this by myself on the plane while the rally was taking place," Hicks said.



According to Hicks, she notified Trump about the story before the rally began.



"I was worried about not having enough time to respond while he was speaking," Hicks said.



Hicks said she forwarded the email to Jared Kushner in part because he had "a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch," the owner of the Wall Street Journal.



Hicks said she hoped Kushner could "buy a little extra time to deal with this."



"I think [Kushner] said he wasn't going to be able to reach Murdoch and that we should work on responding and deal with it," Hicks said.



Hicks said she called David Pecker's office as well as Cohen, due to his relationship with Pecker.





May 3, 12:46 PM

Hicks says she asked Michael Cohen about a 2nd rumored tape



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that she spoke with then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen on Oct. 8, 2016, to ask about a rumor she had heard of another potential tape that could be released, following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"I was calling to ask him to chase down a rumor I had heard with a contact he was familiar with in the media," Hicks said, describing that there "might be another tape that might be problematic for the campaign."

"I didn't want anyone to be blindsided. I wanted to have an understanding of what material was out there that we needed to prepare for," Hicks said.

Hicks said that no such tape existed but Cohen still chased down the rumor for her. She spoke vaguely about what the potential story was.

Hicks was then asked about Trump's campaign speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, which jurors watched earlier this week. Prosecutors again played the tape for the jury.

"These are all horrible lies, all fabrications," Trump told the crown in Greensboro regarding accusations of infidelity. "And we can't let them change the most important election in our lifetime."

"If 5% of the people think it's true and maybe 10% think, we don't win," Trump said at the rally.

Hicks also was asked about Trump's tweets after the "Access Hollywood" video was released.

"Nothing ever happened with any of these women. Totally made up nonsense to steal the election," Trump wrote in one tweet.





May 3, 12:37 PM

'It was intense,' Hicks says of coverage of 'Access Hollywood' tape



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified about the ensuing coverage of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"It was intense. Dominated coverage for the 36 hours leading up the debate," Hicks said.

Hicks recalled that a Category 4 hurricane was predicted to make landfall around the same time, but the Trump coverage completely dominated the news.

"I don't think anywhere remembers where or when that hurricane made landfall. It was all Trump all the time for ... 36 hours," Hicks said.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump attends his criminal trial at the New York State Supreme Court in New York,, May, 3, 2024. (Doug Mills/Pool via Reuters)

Hicks testified about how other Republican politicians -- like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell -- responded to the Access Hollywood tape.





"Things like disgraces, disgusting, something along those lines," Hicks said in describing Romney's statement.





In the courtroom, Trump has been sitting slightly back in his chair for the bulk of Hicks' testimony. His body is angled slightly toward the witness stand to watch the testimony.





He appeared to be taking some handwritten notes while his lawyers attended a sidebar conference with the judge.





May 3, 12:30 PM

Trump felt 'Access Hollywood' tape 'wasn't good,' Hicks says



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that when she informed Trump's brain trust of the discovery of the "Access Hollywood" tape, there was a consensus among the staff that "the tape was damaging. This was a crisis."

"This was kind of pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome," Hicks said.

Hicks said she was not immediately concerned about the impact of the tape on female voters, but the concern was "quickly raised."

"Mr. Trump felt this wasn't good," Hicks said, but he didn't think it was "something to get so upset over."

"He felt this was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other," Hicks said.

At this point in Hicks' testimony, jurors were shown the written statement that the Trump campaign issued on the afternoon that the "Access Hollywood" tape was released.

"This was locker room banter" the statement said in part.

Jurors then saw the same video statement from Trump that was played for them earlier this morning during the Georgia Longstreet direct examination.





May 3, 12:22 PM

Hicks recounts telling Trump about 'Access Hollywood' tape



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that when the Washington Post informed her of the existence of the "Access Hollywood" tape, she went up to the conference room on the 26th floor of Trump Tower where debate prep was taking place. She said Jason Miller, Jarrod Kushner, and Chris Christie was there.

"They were practicing for debate prep," Hicks said.

"The sight of the ... five or six or 6 of us gathered out there was a signal that something was afoot. Mr. Trump asked us to come into the conference room," Hicks said.

Hicks said she read the email aloud, though Trump finished reading it himself.

"We weren't sure how to respond yet," Hicks said. "Everyone was absorbing the shock of it."

"He said that didn't sound like something he would say," Hicks said of Trump's response to the video.

"I had a good sense this was going to be a massive story," Hicks said.





May 3, 12:10 PM

Hicks says she was 'very concerned' about 'Access Hollywood' tape

Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks said she first learned of the "Access Hollywood" tape when she was contacted by the Washington Post.



"It would have been in the afternoon of Oct. 7," in 2016, Hicks said. "I received an email from the Washington Post asking for comment."



"I was in my office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower," Hicks said.



Asked about the timing of the story, Hicks said the story was "a month -- maybe a little less than a month" from the election.



Jurors were then shown the email that Hicks received from a Washington Post to request a comment about the video.



"URGENT: WashPost query," the subject line reads.



The email detailed that the video contained Trump engaging in an inappropriate conversation about women and included a transcript of Trump's remarks.



"I was concerned. Very concerned," Hicks said about her reaction to the email.



"I was concerned about the contents of the email. I was concerned about the lack of time to respond. I was concerned that we had a transcript not a tape. There was a lot at play," Hicks said.





May 3, 12:05 PM

Hicks recounts meeting David Pecker



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks described the early days of the Trump campaign's press shop as being staffed by only her and "Mr. Trump, who's better than anybody at communications and branding."

She said he was "very involved" in crafting messaging for the campaign. "He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it and we were all just following his lead."

Hicks testified that Trump was responsible for the campaign's messaging.

"I would say that Mr. Trump was responsible," Hicks said. "He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and we were all just following his lead. I think that he deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on."

"Do you know someone named David Pecker," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked.

"Yes," Hicks said, noting that she first met Pecker at an earlier job.

"I reconnected with him at some point as he was a friend of Mr. Trump's," Hicks said. "I knew they were friends."

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 3, 2024, in New York City. (Jeenah Moon-Pool/Getty Images)

Hicks said she could not recall attending a meeting between Trump and Pecker at Trump Tower.





"I don't have a recollection of that but it is certainly possible," Hicks said.





Hicks recounted overhearing a phone call between Pecker and Trump where Trump congratulated Pecker for running "a great investigative piece" about Ben Carson's alleged medical malpractice





Hicks recalled another call with Pecker about the National Enquirer's work about Ted Cruz's father's. Jurors heard about this reporting during Pecker's testimony.





"Mr. Trump was just congratulating him on the great reporting," Hicks said. "This is Pulitzer-worthy," Hicks recalled Trump telling Pecker.





May 3, 11:59 AM

Hicks describes Trump's initial interest in presidency



Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that Michael Cohen "was an attorney" for the Trump Organization.

"I know he was involved in a couple of the license deals for some of the hotel projects and maybe some of the entertainment pieces as well, like the Ms. Universe pageant," she said.

Hicks said that Trump began exploring running for president by visiting Iowa in January 2015.

"Mr. Trump said we are going to Iowa, and I really didn't know why," Hicks testified.

"[Trump] eventually made the decision to formalize that with an exploratory committee at first and announced that he was going to run for president in June," Hicks said.

Hicks said that while Trump remarked about making her press secretary, but she didn't take it seriously at first.

"I didn't take it very seriously but eventually I just started spending so much time on the campaign," Hicks said.

Hicks added that Trump was "better than anybody" at communications and marketing.

"I reported to Mr. Trump," Hicks said about her eventual role as press secretary. She said they spoke everyday during the campaign.





May 3, 11:46 AM

'He's a very hard worker,' Hicks says of Trump



Hope Hicks testified that, as the director of communications for the Trump Organization, she initially met with Trump on a weekly basis.

"As we transitioned a few months later into the political work, I met with him more regularly," Hicks said, saying they began to meet daily.

"He's a very good multitasker and a very hard worker. He's always doing many things at once. He might be having a conversation with someone and it will remind him to follow up on something else," Hicks testified about Trump.

Hicks said she directly reported to Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump.

"It's a very big and successful company, but it is really run like a small family business in certain ways," Hicks said.

She testified about the role within the company of Rhona Graff, who testified last week.

"She was crucial to how everything ran on the 26th floor. She had a lot of institutional knowledge about different projects and Mr. Trump's business relationships, network, likes and dislikes in terms of scheduling," Hicks said.

Asked about Trump's relationship with Graff, she said "it was one of mutual respect."

Click here to read the rest of the blog.
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics teams latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In todays edition, we dive into Donald Trump's vice presidential selection process, which is off to a quiet start. Plus, chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell recaps her Middle East trip with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.

Inside Trumps quiet VP search

By Dasha Burns, Henry J. Gomez, Vaughn Hillyard and Jonathan Allen

Its been nearly two months since he sewed up the Republican nomination, but Donald Trump appears to be in no hurry to name a running mate  someone who could keep a steady presence on the campaign trail while he spends much of his time in a courtroom.

The process: Trumps team has yet to move past the early stages of vetting vice presidential prospects, seven sources familiar with the process said. Top contenders have not received detailed questionnaires or other requests for information to help finalize a shortlist, though there are signs that they are being evaluated for their fundraising prowess.

Do you have a news tip? Let us know

Outside of a May 15 event planned with Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump is not yet auditioning potential picks one by one like he did in 2016 in the weeks before he chose Mike Pence. Many of the VP hopefuls will join Trump this weekend in Palm Beach, Florida, for a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session.

Even so, its going to be quiet for a while, a Trump adviser said when asked about the search.

A source familiar with the vetting said that while the Trump team has yet to directly engage with prospects about the possibility of joining the ticket, the campaign has done initial deep dives on them.

The contenders: Those whom Trump or others wired into the process have acknowledged are under consideration include Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Vance; Govs. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Kristi Noem of South Dakota; Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York; and Ben Carson, the Trump administrations housing secretary. All but Carson are listed as special guests at this weekends retreat.

The timing: As ever, Trumps unpredictability is the wild card, both for the timing of an announcement and for what candidates could be added to or subtracted from the mix. Trump said in an interview with WITI-TV of Milwaukee that he would make his VP pick probably not too much before the Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 15-18.

Read more 

Trump trial, Day 11: Hope Hicks takes the stand

By Adam Reiss, Jillian Frankel, Dareh Gregorian and Lisa Rubin

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks took the stand in Trumps New York criminal trial, a tense reunion for the former president and a woman who was once one of his closest aides.

Im really nervous, Hicks said as she took the stand as the ninth witness to be called in the case, before leading the jury through a dramatic inside account of Trumps reaction to the infamous Access Hollywood tape that nearly derailed his first presidential bid.

She later broke down in tears at the start of her cross-examination by Trump attorney Emil Bove, when he asked about the Trump family having given her an opportunity to work at their company, leading to a short recess while she composed herself.

Hicks started work at the Trump Organization in 2014 before going to work on Trumps 2016 campaign and then his administration. Another witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, had said she was in and out of a key meeting he had with Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2015, where Pecker agreed to help them suppress stories that could hurt Trumps campaign.

Hicks said Friday she has not spoken to Trump in almost two years.

Read more from the Trump trial here 

Israel-Hamas war negotiations plagued by wishful thinking

By Andrea Mitchell

NBC News chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell files this dispatch after traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Middle East:

Returning to the U.S. from Secretary of State Antony Blinkens most recent Middle East shuttle to find Americas campuses erupting over the very conflict he was there to mediate is stunning.

Its mind-bending to see the regions age-old antagonisms being fought over by proxy, although at safe remove, by a new generation here in the U.S. There are parallels. As Blinken discovered during three endless days and nights, all the players are trapped in their own narratives.

The Arab leaders meeting in Riyadhs plush hotels envision a post-war Gaza, led by young Palestinian reformers financed and secured by wealthy Gulf states. Many Israelis  traumatized and divided in the aftermath of Oct. 7  imagine a post-Benjamin Netanyahu homeland, guaranteed peace by Saudi recognition and a mutual defense pact against Iran.

Conversations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel suggest a very different reality. There are political rivalries among the Arab leaders. Promises made to Blinken when he was visiting in January of deep-pocketed Gulf nations rebuilding Gaza are proving illusory. Now, the Arabs want the IMF and World Bank to pick up the tab.

At the same time, an Israeli cease-fire offer that Netanyahu hoped was too good for Hamas to refuse has still not been accepted by Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the massacre that Israeli intelligence had believed was just aspirational, too ambitious for Palestinian terrorists to pull off.

Caught in the middle is the U.S., with its diplomats increasingly frustrated by the Israeli prime ministers threats to attack Rafah at the very moment a cease-fire seems to be within their grasp.

All this as the U.S. is gripped by a generational divide over a distant war that Middle East leaders believe could become even bloodier if this moment is lost and the current talks fail.

Thats all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback  likes or dislikes  email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

And if youre a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A 62-year-old Tulare man was sentenced Wednesday to life in state prison for child molestation.

According to the Tulare County District Attorney, Rosario Valenzuela pleaded no contest to two counts of lewd act upon a child under the age of fourteen. Valenzuela admitted to the special allegation that he was a habitual sexual offender due to a similar conviction from 1998.

Valenzuela also admitted the special allegation that his crimes involved substantial sexual conduct. Each count is a felony and is considered a strike offense.

One of the crimes occurred between December 24, 2013, and December 23, 2014, against a female victim, who was thirteen years old at the time of the sexual assaults.

The DA says an additional crime occurred between December 1, 2014, and September 7, 2016, against a separate female victim who was between the ages of eleven and thirteen years old at the time of the sexual assaults.

Each of the sexual assault crimes occurred in the City of Tulare. Additionally, Valenzuela will be required to continue to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

Under current California sentencing laws, Valenzuela must serve 25 years before being considered for parole.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
Title icon

The Scene

The first time Donald Trump captured the Republican presidential nomination, Tulsi Gabbard and the Libertarian Party agreed: He had to lose.

Gabbard, then a second-term Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, campaigned for Bernie Sanders until Hillary Clinton beat him; after that, she was reluctantly With Her. Libertarians nominated a ticket of two ex-Republicans, one of them who spent the campaigns final week vouching for Hillary Clinton.

That wont happen again. The LP, run since 2022 by the right-leaning Mises Caucus, announced on Wednesday that Trump would address its national nominating convention in D.C, an act of solidarity with a candidate who the deep state hates. Gabbard released For Love of Country, a plea for Americans to join her and quit the Democrat Party, which, among other sins, libeled and mistreated the Republican nominee.

Voters saw through the lies about candidate Trump and elected him president in 2016, Gabbard writes, despite the Washington establishments efforts to destroy him in order to get the queen of warmongers, Hillary Clinton, into the White House.

The ruptures in Joe Bidens 2020 coalition  lagging Black support, protests over Israels war in Gaza  have given Trump the best start to a general election in any of his presidential campaigns. All year, hes benefited from voter nostalgia about the pre-COVID economy, and Republican anger at the lawfare waged against him in courts.

Gabbard and the Libertarians are highlighting another Trump advantage  the migration of disgruntled, anti-establishment voters who dont trust mainstream news outlets and dont fit comfortably on the ideological spectrum. And while its difficult to tell how many votes they actually command, theyve developed a thriving ecosystem to get their message out to like-minded individuals at the fringes of party politics  one that Trumps orbit is very attuned to.

If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we have many Libertarian views, the election wont even be close, Trump told Semafor in a statement on Wednesday. On Thursday, after Trump delivered pizzas to a New York City Fire Department, Gabbard told Fox News that the GOP nominee was with the people, battling weaponized federal agencies that Democrats were using to hurt him.

Title icon

Davids view

Outside of Fox News, where Gabbard has been a paid contributor, her memoir has been pretty well ignored by mainstream media. Her evolution from conservative to progressive to conservative again was covered closely and skeptically; by the end of 2022, when she quit the Democratic Party and spoke at a Nashville rally to ban gender-affirming care for minors, Democrats clocked her as an opportunist with changeable beliefs.

Still, Gabbard is the most prominent figure in a Bernie 2016 diaspora with plenty of social media influence. The campaign to beat Hillary Clinton brought together some people whose issues  shrinking Americas foreign military footprint, freeing Julian Assange, demolishing neoliberalism  werent going to flourish in the Democratic Party. And while Sanders has continued to urge votes disaffected by the Biden administration to stay inside the Democratic tent to hold off Trump, many of these figures are happier setting fire to it. Bidens withdrawal from Afghanistan and aggressive pro-labor and pro-industry policies havent changed that.

That includes Nick Brana, a 2016 Sanders delegate-hunter now working to get ballot access for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Jimmy Dore, a YouTuber with 1.3 million subscribers who went from spitting at Alex Jones to hosting him; and Jackson Hinkle, a pro-Russia and anti-Israel Gen Z influencer with 2.6 million followers on X. American support for Ukraine, which moved Gabbard to leave her old party for good, wasnt an issue in 2016. Its a unifying post-left issue now, making Bidens defeat not just desirable but necessary for human survival, they argue, echoing Trumps campaign trail boasts that he will stop World War III.

These ideas havent mattered much in state and congressional elections, where Democrats have done well since 2016. Gabbard campaigned for Republicans in some of those races, but her focus is national. Shes said shed be honored to serve as Trumps vice president, after respectfully declining an offer to run with Kennedy.

In For Love of Country, Gabbard doesnt explicitly endorse Trump. She explains why he has to win. Democrats are so terrified of our having the freedom to choose our next president  especially one who would have the courage to hold them accountable for their crimes  that they are willing to completely undermine our democracy. Like Kennedy, and like the Libertarian Party, she characterizes Trumps legal problems as maneuvers by Democrats to destroy their enemy.

Look at President Trump, whos facing over 300 years in prison because of Espionage Act charges, and the double standard thats there, Gabbard told PragerU in a promotional interview for the book. Look at President Biden and Hillary Clinton, all these other people who have done the very same things that he is being accused of.

A reader of her memoir, and a close listener to her media tour, might be perplexed about why Gabbard ever joined the Democrats. It seemed to be an inclusive party that understood and appreciated the importance of upholding religious liberty, free expression, and welcoming people of different religions, beliefs, and views, she writes, before recapping her fathers 2004 campaign for Congress as a Republican. She was outraged when Ed Case, the Democrat who easily beat Mike Gabbard, posed offensive questions about his religion, beliefs, and practices. She doesnt say what those questions were; her father was the leader of the states campaign against same-sex marriage, opposed by what Gabbard, at the time, called homosexual extremist supporters of Ed Case.

That early positioning didnt slow her rise to Congress, where D.C. Democrats were so impressed by her military service, youth, and charisma that they made her vice chair of the party. Gabbard used that prominence to oppose military strikes on Syria; in early 2016, she quit the DNC to endorse Sanders, campaigning with him in primary states and nominating him at the national convention. But in For Love of Country, Gabbard doesnt mention the 2016 Sanders campaign at all, and in her media tour, shes described her elevation by the party as a cynical move by elites who wanted to control her.

All of these things very much fit the mold and the talking point of identity politics, Gabbard told PragerU. Alright: Were gonna dangle all the trinkets in front of her and show her what this world could look like, if she wants to be a part of the team.

To Democrats, the debate about Gabbard  whether she was an interloper, or the future of the progressive rebirth that began in 2016  was settled in 2020. She sees it differently, arguing she ran a presidential campaign that, in her view, was undermined at key moments by lies and censors. Her campaigns Google Ads buy gets suspended during the first primary debate; not a mere coincidence, but a sign that the company interfered with our efforts to reach voters (Google and a federal judge disagreed). Gabbard encounters a South Carolina Democrat who wonders if shes in league with Putin, and almost had tears in her eyes when the candidate says that she loves America so much she enlisted to defend it.

By the time she leaves Congress, introducing a doomed message bill to protect womens sports, Gabbard has nothing good to say about her party. Shes not entirely on the anti-war left, telling Fox that the protests breaking out on university quads are essentially pro-Hamas. Shes joined the ragtag coalition of free-thinkers who wish that Democrats were a little less paranoid and evil; they could have gone that way in 2016, but because they didnt, they have to root for Trump.

Ive known many strong, tough people in my life, but I cant think of a single one who could not only withstand these pressures without crumbling, but actually choose to keep fighting against the entire Washington establishment swamp, Gabbard writes. Do you think Joe Biden could handle this? I know Joe Biden and used to consider him a friend. He would crumble under just 5 percent of the pressure, stress, and attacks that Trump has endured.

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The View From THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY

The LPs decision to host Trump got enough blowback that the partys national chair, Angela McArdle, recorded a video to explain and defend it. Not only would Trump bring attention to the party, and not only could Libertarians pressure him  it was selling Free Assange shirts with a Trump icon on them  but it needed to stand against efforts to disqualify him.

When a person is kicked off the ballot for inciting an insurrection or being radical, it can hurt us, very dramatically, McArdle explained. When we see someone else potentially get kicked off the ballot for not agreeing with election results, complaining about the federal government, so on and so forth  that looks awfully close to some of the views that we have about the legitimacy of the federal government. In an interview with podcaster and former Libertarian candidate Austin Petersen, McArdle added that Trump is a much better person and president than Joe Biden.

Gary Johnson, the LPs presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, told Semafor that he was fine with the Trump convention invite.

The surprise is that hes actually coming, he said. Theres some solidarity around what hes facing. Ive talked to all my accountant friends, and they have the same question: Where does $400 million in damages come from?

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Notable

In The New York Times, Compact magazine co-founder Matthew Schmitz argues that Trumps defiance in the face of investigations and indictments has given him the brand of an outlaw hero, a figure of defiance with deep roots in American culture who exposes the injustices and hypocrisies of a corrupt system.

Some Trump allies are worried the anti-establishment vote could become a threat to his own chances if it coalesces around RFK Jr. Trump has personally attacked him in recent weeks, calling his campaign a wasted protest vote, while others in his orbit work to highlight the longtime Democrats more liberal stances.

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Twinkie, suspected of being dognapped, is returned to her family, police say

Some good news for animal lovers was reported by the Daytona Beach Police on Friday. It turns out that news reports that Twinkie had been dognapped were greatly exaggerated.

The woman caught on video making off with the beloved family pet was actually a good Samaritan who took Twinkie to the vet and provided shelter until she could be returned to her owners.

Twinkie the dog wasn't kidnapped after all and is back home with her family.

The whole ordeal began Wednesday while Wilfred McCray and his family were on vacation in Arizona. McCray saw a woman on his Daytona Beach home's ring camera stealing the family dog from his property. Or so he thought.

Daytona Beach police said Twinkie, a Chihuahua-Greyhound mix, was taken from the Sand Trap Court home around 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

Police said Twinkie got out of the yard and a woman, wearing a reflective vest that said "Inspector" on it, was seen on camera running after the dog, ultimately nabbing it.

Police reported Friday that Twinkie had been returned and was very glad to be back home with her family.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Suspected Daytona Beach dognapping victim is returned to her family
Two arrested on drug charges following dispute in Ithaca

ITHACA, N.Y. (WETM)  Two people were arrested earlier this week on drug charges after police arrived at the scene of a reported dispute in Ithaca.

According to the Ithaca Police Department, officers arrived at the 100 block of Cayuga Park Lane around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, after hearing about the dispute that reportedly involved the display of a handgun.

Bath woman arrested on welfare fraud charges

Upon arrival, officers say that they saw Anthony T. Zeigler, 50, of Brooklyn, and Juan J. Breton, 49, of Ithaca, walking away from the scene, and after speaking with both, found that they had narcotics on them.

Officers say that Zeigler had about 54 grams of fentanyl and a small amount of cocaine that he tried to destroy before his arrest, while Breton had an undetermined amount of narcotics that were packaged to be sold and had ingested them before he was arrested to try to destroy evidence.

One arrested on felony charges following Sayre drug bust

The two were then arrested and charged with the following:

Anthony Zeigler

Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, a class B felony

Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, a class A misdemeanor

Tampering with physical evidence, a class E felony

Juan J. Breton

Tampering with physical evidence, a class E felony

As a result, Zeigler and Breton were arraigned in the Ithaca City Court and were placed in Tompkins County Jail without bail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com.
Hyatt Hotels has signed management agreements with Knowledge Economic City (KEC) to launch two new properties in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

The agreement includes the introduction of the Hyatt House Madinah KEC and Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC, together adding 576 keys to Hyatts presence in the country.

This move signifies Hyatt's commitment to growth in key markets, with Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC marking the debut of the Hyatt Centric lifestyle brand in Saudi Arabia.

The KEC development project offers a prime location, directly connected to the five main roads in Madinah.

Hyatt House Madinah KEC will feature 446 residentially styled rooms.

Meanwhile, Hyatt Centric Madinah KEC will offer 130 modern rooms and suites, featuring art and design elements that reflect the character of Madinah.

Upon opening, both properties will participate in the World of Hyatt loyalty programme, which offers members benefits such as room upgrades and free nights.

The Hyatt-branded hotels will be part of Al Aliyah, the first phase of the KEC city development, located within the Madinah Sanctuary and urban range.

Hyatt Europe, Middle East and Africa group president Javier Aguila said: We are delighted to collaborate with Knowledge Economic City on plans to bring the Hyatt Centric and Hyatt House brands to the exciting KEC development, enhancing the tourism landscape in Madinah.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a key market in Hyatts growth strategy in the Middle East and these upcoming properties in KEC reflect our dedication to expanding our brand footprint in new and desired destinations.

We are also excited to debut the Hyatt Centric brand in Saudi Arabia, as we continuously aim to offer more choice to our World of Hyatt members looking to discover the magic of Madinah from the heart of the city.

KEC's development spans around 6.8 million square metres and is well-connected, with convenient access to the Prophets Mosque, Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport, and the Al Haramain High-Speed Railway.

Last month, Hyatt Hotels announced an expansion of its World of Hyatt programme.

This widens World of Hyatts offerings beyond traditional hotels, covering unique experiences such as glamping adventures, wellness retreats, and stays in historic palazzos.

"Hyatt to expand in Saudi Arabia with two new hotels" was originally created and published by Hotel Management Network, a GlobalData owned brand.







The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Two arrested by Drug Task Force after drugs, guns found in Tontitown apartment

TONTITOWN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA)  Two people were arrested after guns and drugs were found in a Tontitown apartment by the 4th Judicial Drug Task Force, according to court documents.

Alexander Lumley, 23, and Zahara Neal, 21, were arrested on Tuesday on possession of a Schedule I or II controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance with intent to deliver, four counts of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, distribution of a controlled substance near a certain facility, possession of drug paraphernalia, distribution of a controlled substance near a certain facility and failure to keep records of drug transactions charges.

Farmington police arrest woman after seizing drugs, gun, money

Neal was also booked on possession of a Schedule IV or V controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of a controlled substance charges.

Alexander Lumley, 23 (Courtesy: Washington County Jail)

Zahara Neal, 21 (Courtesy: Washington County Jail)

According to a preliminary report, the drug task force obtained a search warrant for Lumleys apartment in Tontitown on April 29. It had been investigating Lumley for several months in connection with selling drugs out of the Tontitown area.

Detectives saw Lumley and Neal on April 30 leave the apartment in a Jeep Cherokee. Tontitown police conducted a traffic stop and searched the vehicle.

Authorities found a marijuana joint under the drivers seat, according to the report. Lumley and Neal were detained and questioned. Lumley requested an attorney when questioned.

Three arrested in connection to Fayetteville drug bust

Detectives searched the apartment and found more than 6 ounces of psilocybin mushrooms more than 9.6 pounds of marijuana in 15 bags, almost 5 ounces of moon rocks marijuana, five THC vape pens, a 16-ounce bottle of promethazine hydrochloride with codeine phosphate that was one-quarter full, two additional bags containing more than one-third of an ounce of marijuana each, more than 4 ounces of THC wax, a suspected drug ledger, drug packaging materials and $10 in cash in the kitchen, according to police.

Two handguns and $4,600 in cash were found in the master bedroom, the report said.

In another bedroom, a rifle, another handgun, 178 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, 58 rounds of 5.7 x 28 mm ammunition, 11 gun magazines including two extended 9 mm magazines and a 50-round drum magazine, marijuana wax and $1,424 in cash were found by detectives.

The detective in the report said all the firearms that were searched had loaded magazines in them.

Fayetteville man arrested in motel drug bust

Before the warrant was served, detectives who conducted surveillance noticed a school bus stopped to drop off children in front of the street where the apartment was located, about 100 yards away, according to the report.

The report said Lumleys apartment was within 1,000 feet of Springdale Har-Ber High School.

Lumley and Neal were released on Wednesday on $10,000 bond and have court dates set for May 31.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
Two people were arrested in conjunction with a death investigation.

On December 22, the Mercer County Sheriffs Office and Mercer County Coroners Office were called to investigate a death in rural Sherrard. William DeWitt, 41, of Milan, was arrested in Moline and charged with 1st Degree murder and drug-induced homicide. Susan McFalls, 52, of Colona, was arrested in Henry County and charged with 1st Degree murder (accountability) and drug-induced homicide (accountability). Both are in custody pending their initial court appearance in Mercer County Court.

Susan McFalls (L) and William DeWitt (Mercer County Sheriffs Office)

The Mercer County Sheriffs Office received assistance in this investigation and arrest by Illinois State Police Zone 2 Investigations, Mercer County Coroners Office, Aledo Police, Moline Police, Rock Island County Sheriffs Office, Galesburg Police, Quad City MEG and Colona Police.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
After two days of pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Kansas, the campus in Lawrence on Friday took on the feel of a sober, mundane summer day. The rhetoric of Kansas politicians who denounced the demonstrators was red hot. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

After two days of pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Kansas, the campus in Lawrence on Friday took on the feel of a sober, mundane summer day. The rhetoric of Kansas politicians who denounced the demonstrators was red hot. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

LAWRENCE  The drum beat of pro-Palestinian sentiment heard for two days on flower-dappled lawns and in academic buildings at the University of Kansas didnt resume Friday as students apparently turned their attention to immediate challenges of final examinations.

There was no colorful protest banner displayed next to Fraser Hall where demonstrators took up station Wednesday to dramatize objections to the human and infrastructure toll of Israels overwhelming military assault on Gaza. The Israeli siege was a response to Hamas lethal incursion into border towns in October. On-campus supporters of Israel, who wrapped themselves in the nations Star of David flag, also took a day off.

Absent were the unequivocal messages demanding action to Free Palestine, Let Gaza Live, End the Occupation and Stop the Genocide. The quest to erect a tent village comparable to centers of protest at campuses elsewhere was thwarted by KU policy forbidding overnight camping. Strong Hall, a campus landmark on Jayhawk Boulevard, no longer served as a magnet for protesters. It reverted to its role as a place of quiet, plodding administrative activity.

It was calm enough that Cole Bruening, a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Philosophy, brought this dog, Shep, to Wescoe Hall in an attempt to teach the energetic canine to embrace the art of sitting still. He was, of course, aware of student demonstrations about Israel-Gaza fighting, but he chose not to participate.

I dont think much about that, he said. I know its a sensitive subject.

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine at KU had issued a set of demands, which apparently didnt warrant a public response from KU administrators.

The protesters, representing students, faculty and staff as well as other Lawrence residents, called for KU to disclose and divest of financial interests in the Israeli government. They issued a plea for KU to stop accepting grants from the U.S. Department of Defense. On Friday, KU announced it ranked fifth nationally among top research universities in the annual survey of military friendly schools.

The last request of demonstrators, who may return to action Monday, was that KU respect their First Amendment rights of free speech and to grant amnesty for conduct that might land them in trouble.

Cole Bruening, a graduate teaching assistant in the University of Kansas philosophy department, was on campus Friday with is dog, Shep. They had the plaza at Wescoe Hall to themselves because pro-Palestinian protesters took Friday off after two days of activism. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Twisted thinking

Republican U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, of the 1st District stretching from Colorado to Lawrence, said protests on American campuses were being led by ill-informed mobs who believe that Hamas, a terrorist organization, is good for the people of Gaza.

It could not be further from the truth, he said. We are watching the rot of of antisemitism stain our American colleges and universities.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican and former University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor, said KU shouldnt side with antisemitic terrorists supportive of the Palestinian cause of independence. In a letter distributed by Kobach, he said the Kansas Board of Regents and KU Chancellor Doug Girod should enforce rules and regulations to prevent disruption of the universitys educational mission.

Kobach used fiery rhetoric while asserting Kansas law prohibited KU from meeting demands of pro-Hamas protesters. For example, he said, state law forbid the university from making procurement or investment decisions that amounted to a boycott of the government of Israel.

As is often the case with uninformed, petulant loudmouths, Kobach said in a rebuke of picketers, they have not done their research. And their views are reprehensible.

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican and graduate of KUs medical school, said university protests were a glimpse of what would occur if we let the woke mob win the presidential campaign between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in November.

Joe Biden wants to give refugee status to thousands of Palestinians in Gaza  the same people who shout death to America, Marshall said. Why are the university presidents and this president turning their heads away from the violent crimes that are going on? Why is this president wanting to bring in tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of refugees from Gaza?

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod denouncing demonstrators who engaged in two days of campus protests by offering support for the murderous terrorists of Hamas and against the people of Israel. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Stand with Jewish students

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who earned undergraduate and law degrees at KU, urged U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to use their influence to restore order on campuses effectively shut down by antisemitic groups.

School administrators failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment violates federal law and is grounds for those schools losing access to federal funds, Moran said. Espousing support for terrorists such as Hamas violates federal immigration law and is grounds for deportation.

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, the Kansas Republican serving the 4th District around Wichita, echoed that sentiment. He said the volume of federal tax dollars funneled to universities and colleges in the United States meant campus administrators had a duty to provide a safe and secure environment for college students to learn from.

Rep. Jake LaTurner, the 2nd District Republican who announced he wouldnt seek reelection in November, said violent antisemitic protests in the United States served interests of Hamas terrorists who brutally raped, kidnapped and murdered thousands of innocent Israelis on October 7.

I stand with Jewish students across the country and fully support our great ally Israels right to protect and defend their freedom, LaTurner said.

The post Two days of pro-Palestinian protests at KU, then resumption of regular schedule appeared first on Kansas Reflector.
A Chatham County grand jury indicted two former Savannah Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) employees on May 1 on separate child abuse charges.

On May 1, Seward Hamilton was indicted for cruelty to children in the first degree. On Dec. 7, 2023, according to the indictment, Hamilton did maliciously cause a child under the age of 18 years old cruel and excessive physical pain by grabbing him and throwing him over his head, causing him to fall to the floor and injure his eye.

The alleged incident between Hamilton and the student occurred at Building Bridges Middle School, Sheila Blanco, SCCPSS public information manager, confirmed via email.

Upon gaining knowledge of the allegations in December 2023, an investigation was immediately initiated and the individual was reassigned to another position in the District where there would be no interaction with students, said Blanco.

SCCPSS will take the appropriate next steps concerning Dr. Hamilton based on the outcome of the investigation and continues to cooperate fully with the arresting agency, added Blanco. This remains a preliminary investigation subject to change. No further comment can be made on the allegations as it involves a personnel matter.

More: Former Savannah school administrator alleges in lawsuit district retaliated for whistleblowing

More: Savannah High School shooting hoax: After-action report recommends improved communication

More: Savannah's Isle of Hope K-8 school received a 911 threat this morning

Groves High special education teacher charged with child molestation

On May 1, the grand jury also indicted Elliot Brown, a special education paraprofessional at Groves High School, for criminal attempt to commit a felony and child molestation.

According to the indictment, between Aug. 3, 2023 and Jan. 31, Brown did knowingly and intentionally attempt to commit the crime of improper sexual contact and made comments about a female student's body "and what he wanted to do with [her] for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse." Prosecutors also charged Brown with child molestation for allegedly touching the female student between her thighs.

In an email, Blanco said that Brown had worked for the district since Nov. 12, 2013. The charges were first reported to the district on Jan. 31 of this year.

Administrators took immediate action and Mr. Brown was reassigned to a location where he had no interaction with students while an investigation was conducted. Mr. Brown submitted his resignation eight days later, Blanco said.

The district takes any accusation of inappropriate conduct by an employee very seriously. The matter was reported to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and the administrative portion of the investigation was concluded, added Blanco, who said that any further inquiries should be directed to the Chatham County District Attorneys Office.

Drew Favakeh is a public safety and courts reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Two former Savannah-Chatham school employees indicted for child abuse
AIKEN, S.C. (WJBF)  Two North Augusta men have been arrested in connection to the April shooting that happened in the Hitchcock Animal Hospital parking lot.

According to the Aiken Department of Public Safety, Rashod Boyd, 19, and Jaylon Sims, 18, have been arrested and charged with Possession of a Weapon During the Commission of a Violent Crime, Assault and Battery High and Aggravated Nature, Breach of the Peace, Aggravated in Nature, and Discharging a Weapon into a Dwelling.

Hitchcock Animal Hospital is located on Trail Ridge Road and Hitchcock Parkway.

ALSO ON WJBF: Bamberg Co. man charged with murder in connection to human remains found in burned vehicle

According to the arrest warrant, Sims and Boyd opened fire on three separate apartments at the Ashton Apartment Homes in Aiken causing exterior and interior property damage.

Authorities say around 3:26 P.M. on Tuesday, April 23rd, ADPS units responded to a report of a subject who suffered a gunshot wound in the parking lot.

Authorities say the victim was found to have what they say they believe to be non-life threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital for further treatment.

According to ADPS, this investigation was also assisted by the Aiken County Sherriffs Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, ATF Task Force and the North Augusta Department of Public Safety.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF.
(FOX40.COM)  A person is seriously injured from a two-vehicle crash near the South Natomas area on Thursday, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Another person was injured in the crash, but their injuries are considered minor, police said.

Police said the crash happened near the intersection of West El Camino and Northgate Boulevard around 3:30 p.m.

Crash involving semi-truck leads prompts closures on Interstate 5 near Elk Grove, CHP says

At 3:56 p.m., police posted on X that those roads were closed and drivers were urged to take alternate routes, but police said the roadway was reopened just before 6:30 p.m.

Police said the person with serious injuries was transported to the hospital, but they are in stable condition.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40.
The United States on Thursday sanctioned a sanctions-evasion network working with Lebanese national Hassan Moukalled, whom the Biden administration says is a financier of Hezbollah. File Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE

May 3 (UPI) -- The United States has blacklisted five people and two companies accused of aiding a U.S.-designated financier of Hezbollah with sanctions evasion, the Biden administration said as the Iran-backed militia continues to attack Israel, risking further destabilization of the region.

The Treasury and State Department announced the sanctions Thursday in an effort to further financially isolate Hassan Moukalled, who was blacklisted in January 2023 along with his money service business, CTEX Exchange, and two of his sons, Rayyan Moukalled, 30, and Rani Moukalled, 25.

The Biden administration said the 57-year-old Lebanese national plays a "key role" in enabling Hezbollah's exploitation of his native country.

Those sanctioned Thursday include Andriyah Samir Mushantaf, 58, and Bashir Ibrahim Mansur, 44, who founded CTEX along with Moukalled.

Moukalled's 33-year-old son, Firas Hasan Moukalled, was also hit as was the younger Moukalled's company, Teleport Company SAL. Firas Hasan Moukalled jointly owns Teleport with Mushantaf and Rayyan Hassan Moukalled.

Mazen Hassan al-Zein, a 49-year-old United Arab Emirates-based business consultant for Moukalled, was sanctioned as was his The Crystal Group.

Finally, Adnan Mahmoud Youssef, a 67-year-old CTEX Exchange employee, was sanctioned on accusations of attempting to court investors to set up companies in the UAE for Moukalled.

"Hezbollah continues to rely on seemingly legitimate business investments and key facilitators to generate revenue for the group's operations, including its destabilizing attacks across Israel's northern border," Under Secretary Brian Nelson for the Treasury's terrorism and financial department said in a statement.

"The United States remains focused on relentlessly pursuing Hizballah's key revenue sources and constraining its ability to further destabilize the region."

The sanctions were imposed as the war between Israel and Hamas, another Iran-backed militia, nears seven months.

Embolden by the war, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel across the border from Lebanon and Syria, raising fears that the conflict may spread and risk further destabilizing the region.

"The United States remains committed to deterring and disrupting terrorist financing and identifying its enablers," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"Today's action is another reminder that there are consequences for enablers of terrorist groups who facilitate sanctions evasion through businesses posing as legitimate investments."
When the Lee County Sheriffs Office Marine Unit and U.S. Coast Guard responded around 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, 2024, they found documents within the kayak belonging to Kenneth Humiston, 77, of Naples.

As officials call off the search for a missing Naples kayaker off Fort Myers Beach, a longtime friend and business partner says he remains hopeful missing kayaker Kenneth Humiston will turn up.

A bystander person reported Wednesday they found an unmanned, adrift kayak approximately 2 miles southwest of Big Carlos Pass, on Fort Myers Beach. The Lee County Sheriffs Office Marine Unit and U.S. Coast Guard immediately launched an investigation, finding documents within the kayak belonging to Humiston, 77, of Naples.

"At Humiston & Moore Engineers we are devastated and remain optimistic," Brett Moore, president at Humiston & Moore Engineers, wrote in a statement. "Personally, Ken and I co-founded our firm in 1991 and worked together for 30 years. He has been and remains a mentor to me as well as a close friend."

According to his LinkedIn page, Humiston served as president for Humiston & Moore Engineers, 5679 Strand Court, in Naples, between 1991 and 2011. The firm specializes in civil engineering projects within the dynamic coastal zone, according to its website.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office said the abandoned kayak floated approximately 3 nautical miles off the coast of Bonita Beach, in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting a search similar in size to the state of Rhode Island.

Self-defense claim: Woman arrested in fatal Fort Myers stabbing claims self-defense, asks court to dismiss case

Members of the Lee County Sheriffs Office Marine Unit, Collier County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Coast Guard searched the area, including Estero Bay and Wiggins Pass.

The search area covered 1,193 square miles  almost as large as the 1,214-square-mile state.

When the Lee County Sheriffs Office Marine Unit and U.S. Coast Guard responded around 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, 2024, they found documents within the kayak belonging to Kenneth Humiston, 77, of Naples.

Anyone with additional information is asked to contact the U.S. Coast Guard Sector in St. Petersburg at 866-881-1392 or the Lee County Sheriffs Office at 239-477-1000.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Search for missing Naples kayaker in Gulf of Mexico suspended
California Highway Patrol officers patrol at a pro-Palestinian encampment, the morning after it was attacked by counter-protestors at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  U.S. House Republicans Wednesday passed a bill, with heavy support from Democrats, that would define antisemitism for the Department of Education, amid nationwide college campus protests in which students are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The 320-91 vote would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964  with which all schools that receive federal funding are required to comply.

But some Democrats raised concerns that the language is too broad and could chill freedom of speech at schools.

Speech that is critical of Israel alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, said during debate of the bill, H.R. 6090.

Republicans have slammed the leaders of higher education institutions that are the sites of protests, calling for them to resign and to send in law enforcement to crack down on the students protesting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana is also rolling out a Congress-wide effort to address the protests, such as tougher oversight of university presidents and pulling funding.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in a Wednesday press conference did not commit to putting the House bill on the Senate floor.

We havent seen what the House is sending us yet, he said.

Lawmakers have focused on Columbia University in New York, where students set up a Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

Students are demanding that the university cut financial ties, such as endowments, with companies that do business with Israel or those that make weapons used in the war in Gaza. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The New York Police Department was deployed on the campus early Wednesday by Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, who authorized the NYPD to sweep the campus after students took over one of the buildings that has a history of student activism, Hamilton Hall, according to the Columbia Spectator.

However, students occupying the building have drawn criticism from Democrats as well.

Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech  it is lawlessness, and those who did it should promptly face the consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist, Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

More than 300 students were arrested by the NYPD, according to The Associated Press.

Cotton calls for protection of Jewish students

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton held a press conference Wednesday, where he was joined by several Senate Republicans in urging university presidents to crack down on the encampments and to protect Jewish students.

Cotton called for the State Department to pull the visas of international students who have participated in the protests and for the Department of Education to withhold federal funding to those schools where protests are taking place.

They have a right if they want to go out and make fools of themselves, and protest on behalf of Hamas, but they dont have the right to build little Gazas in violation of the laws, Cotton said, referring to protesters and encampments.

Cotton was joined by Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, James Lankford of Oklahoma, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Joni Ernst of Iowa and Roger Marshall of Kansas.

Lankford said that the protesters have crossed a line and have made Jewish students feel unsafe.

Every university and every student has the right to be able to speak their mind, to be able to test out new ideas  its the nature of being on a college campus to be able to speak out and be able to think through different things, Lankford said.

Were a nation that prides ourself on the right to speak out, but were also a nation that says, You cannot go and intimidate someone else in the process.

Kennedy and Marshall said policies on diversity, inclusion and equity resulted in the protests on college campuses.

Kennedy said he blamed some of the faculty members at those higher education institutions for the protests.

There are members of the faculty at some of these universities who believe in diversity, equity, inclusion, he said.

Ernst said the universities need to put an end to this.

If they dont, they should kiss their federal funding goodbye, she said.

Argument against bill

Nadler was the sole Democrat to speak out against the bill during Wednesdays floor debate.

He argued that the language is too broad and would curtail freedom of speech.

While there is much in the bill I agree with, its core provision would put a thumb on the scale in favor of one particular definition of antisemitism to the exclusion of all others to be used when the Department of Education assesses claims of antisemitism on campus, Nadler said.

He took issue with some of the examples the definition provides that can be considered antisemitic, such as criticism of the state of Israel.

That definition would be: Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California said the bill was needed because there has been a spike in antisemitism since Oct. 7, the start of the Hamas-Israel war, when Hamas staged an attack against Israeli civilians.

You cannot fight antisemitism if you cannot define it, he said.

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, who sponsored the bill, said without a clear definition of antisemitism, the Department of Education and college administrations are having trouble discerning what is considered antisemitic.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect students from discrimination based only on religion. If a student does bring up a complaint, the civil rights division in the Department of Education refers those complaints to the Department of Justice, according to the Department of Education.

Nadler argued that the bill would threaten freedom of speech, while doing nothing to combat antisemitism.

The chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, said the definition is needed to ensure the safety of Jewish students.

Foxx has held several hearings throughout the year where she and Republicans on the committee grilled the leaders of universities about the pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. Another is set for May 23 for the heads of Yale, UCLA and the University of Michigan.

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Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2024

Iron Mountain Incorporated misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.43 EPS, expectations were $1.05. Iron Mountain Incorporated isnt one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Iron Mountain First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Gillian Tiltman, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Gillian Tiltman: Thanks, Rocco. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. On today's call, we will refer to materials available on our Investor Relations website. We are joined here today by Bill Meaney, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Barry Hytinen, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After prepared remarks, we'll open up the lines for Q&A. Today's earnings materials contain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to today's earnings materials, the safe Harbor language on Slide 2 and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for a discussion of the major risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in our forward-looking statements.

In addition, we use several non-GAAP measures when presenting our financial results. We have included the reconciliations to these measures in our supplemental financial information. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bill.

William Meaney: Thank you, Gillian, and thank you all for taking time to join us today. We are pleased to report that our team has delivered outstanding results for the first quarter of 2024, achieving another set of all-time highs for revenue and profitability. Our continued progress is evidence of the success of Project Matterhorn and our team's commitment to delivering best in class solutions. On a reported basis, in the first quarter, we achieved our highest-ever quarterly revenue of $1.48 billion, representing 12% year-over-year growth and a new first quarter adjusted EBITDA record of $519 million, delivering 13% year-over-year growth. Project Matterhorn has successfully transformed Iron Mountain into a solutions based business with a commercial organization that offers a broad range of products and services to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

Story continues

This integrated product portfolio drives strong growth across all business areas through our integrated solutions, combining storage with truly differentiated services. Now I'd like to take you through some pivotal wins this quarter. Let's begin with Records and Information Management. The strength and longevity of the relationships we have built with our 240,000 customers is leading to further opportunities to offer more solutions from our portfolio to meet our customers' needs. An excellent example of this cross-selling is in the oil and energy sector where a U.S. headquartered customer with a presence in 75 countries initially selected Iron Mountain to securely manage its data containing geological information. Thanks to our expanded range of solutions and a deep understanding of the customers' needs.

We are now also providing a secure IT asset disposition solution. Another example of our strength and ability to cross-sell and provide more solutions for our customers is in the United Arab Emirates. For the past two years, we have been partnering with a prominent bank to provide records management services for a growing volume of documents. With this customer's need to comply with regulations from the UAE Central Bank, we secured an agreement to extend our solutions. These now include document capture and asset lifecycle management or ALM services. We continue to see opportunities to support government and public sector organizations with their transformations, helping them to increase efficiency and demonstrate value-for-money for the services they provide to their citizens.

A recent example of this is in the U.K., where we have a long-term relationship with a government agency that trusts us to store approximately 18 million records. This customer awarded Iron Mountain a contract to manage documents that must be retained, whilst legal proceedings are ongoing. Our proven ability to manage records effectively to this customer and a number of other government organizations in the U.K. demonstrates we have the skills, capabilities, and experience to successfully manage sensitive projects like this. Turning to our digital business, a global customer that provides automation solutions has asked us to digitize its physical records in Morocco. Our InSight platform, which as you will recall, fully integrates both artificial intelligence and machine-learning will enable this customer to simplify their current use of multiple information systems in content formats.

InSight will enable them to derive greater value from their information, whilst improving their compliance and driving greater operational efficiencies. The customer's confidence in our solution is a testament to our team's clear understanding of our customers' needs, as well as our proven track record of success as a digital transformation partner. Staying with digital solutions, an Australian government agency asked Iron Mountain to digitize approximately 250,000 land registry files dating back to the 1850s for government-owned real-estate in the state of Victoria. Our solution will ensure that these vital historical records are preserved both physically and digitally, enabling efficient access for land managers, potential developers and government departments.

Our infrastructure, reputation, and expertise, including our ability to meet a requirement to manage the entire project within the state of Victoria, were key differentiators that enabled us to secure this deal. Moving next to our data center business, we continue to be pleased by the strength and rapid growth of this business and how we can support more customers with the capacity we are creating at our facilities around the world. Today, I want to highlight three examples of leases we signed this quarter. First, we have signed a 24-megawatt 12-year contract with a global technology company for data center space at our Manassas, Virginia campus. This is an existing North American records customer that required space in Virginia to support their high-performance computing needs and to expand their footprint.

Also this quarter, we leased 4-megawatts with an existing global cloud storage customer. The customer relayed to us that our excellent customer service was a key determinant in their decision to expand their footprint with us. Additionally, in our data center business, we are pleased to welcome a global IT consulting firm as a new customer. They chose us in order to be in close proximity to their clients as well as to meet their demanding connectivity requirements. Turning to Asset lifecycle management, we are pleased to share that this quarter we closed the acquisition of Regency Technologies. The Regency leadership team have already made strong contributions to our ALM efforts, both commercially and operationally and have integrated well into our company.

Moreover, Regency adds eight complementary locations to our U.S. network. Moving to ALM more broadly, we are pleased with strong organic growth in the business driven by a combination of increased volume and component price recovery leading to a strong quarter. As we continue to build our ALM capabilities, I wish to share several examples of how ALM enables us to offer more solutions to new and existing customers. A well-known food service brand has signed an agreement with Iron Mountain in the Netherlands to recycle their decommissioned IT assets. Data security was paramount in their decision to partner with Iron Mountain as well as our ability to be at any of their in-country locations within 48 hours. Also in this quarter, an existing Iron Mountain Global Financial Institution customer signed a program deal to manage their Secure ITAD, recycling and remarketing requirements, including their remote workplace inventory for over 400 sites nationwide.

A storage facility with boxes and shelves to store records, representing the company's secure records storage.

The customer wanted a single-vendor approach to streamline their asset lifecycle management. We worked with them on a unique solution that created process and workflow enhancements integrated with their existing asset management systems and lowered their overall costs through the remarketing initiatives. The program supports all of their corporate locations with both on and offsite ALM services. Finally, a multinational conglomerate company has signed a deal with us to manage its ALM needs for data center decommissioning, as well as their end-user devices. Due to the customer's significant growth through acquisition, they had accumulated a significant amount of legacy data center and end-user device equipment that needed to be securely decommissioned.

We were pleased to be able to provide a holistic global solution backed by our secure chain of custody in order to meet their needs. To conclude, I am very proud of the strong results our Mountaineers continue to deliver. Our consistently strong performance, including our ability to achieve our highest quarterly revenue to date is evidence of the increasing heights we are achieving as part of our Matterhorn clime. At the core of this continued strong performance is our customers. All of us at Iron Mountain are humbled by the trust which more than 240,000 organizations around the world, including 95% of the Fortune 1000 have in us in our increased portfolio of services. We look forward to continuing our growth journey as we deliver our best-in-class and integrated solutions to our clients and create value for our shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Barry.

Barry Hytinen: Thanks, Bill, and thank you all for joining us to discuss our results. In the first quarter, our team continued our track record of strong performance, exceeding the expectations we provided on our last call. We achieved record quarterly revenue of $1.48 billion, up 12% on a reported basis, driven by 9% storage growth and 17% service growth. On an organic basis, revenue grew 8%. Revenue was nearly $30 million ahead of the expectations we shared on our last call, driven by stronger performance in both our Global RIM and our asset lifecycle management businesses. Total storage revenue of $885 million, up $75 million year-on-year was driven by solid performance from both Global RIM and data center. Total service revenue of $592 million was up $88 million from last year, reflecting strength in Global RIM and digital as well as strong contribution from our recently closed acquisition of Regency Technologies.

For me, two key highlights in the quarter are: first, data center storage revenue exceeded 30% growth year-on-year; and second, our organic service revenue growth accelerated to 10% year-on-year, primarily driven by improved performance in our asset lifecycle management business. Adjusted EBITDA was $519 million, an increase of $58 million from last year. This constitutes growth of 13%, both on a reported and constant-currency basis year-on-year, driven by strong contributions across all business units. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.1%, consistent year-on-year driven by revenue management and cost productivity, offset by mix. AFFO was $324 million or $1.10 on a per share basis, up $29 million and $0.09, respectively from the first quarter of last year.

This was ahead of the expectations we shared on our last call as a result of the upside in adjusted EBITDA as well as phasing of both recurring capital investments and cash taxes, which is incorporated into our guidance for the second quarter. Now turning to segment performance. In the first quarter, our Global RIM business delivered revenue of $1.21 billion, an increase of $84 million from last year. On a reported and organic basis, revenue grew 7%. Storage rental revenue growth of 6% reflects our focus on revenue management and consistent volume trends. We delivered service revenue growth of 10% driven by traditional services and digital solutions. Global RIM adjusted EBITDA was $526 million, an increase of $48 million year-on-year. Turning to our Global Data Center business, we achieved revenue of $144 million, an increase of $32 million and 28% year-on-year.

Data Center adjusted EBITDA was $62 million or 22% growth from the first quarter of 2023. Turning to new and expansion leasing, we had a successful quarter with the team signing 30 megawatts with strong cross-selling activity. Our data center pipeline is robust across the markets we serve. In Phoenix, where we are fully leased in our first two sites, we have now commenced construction on our third site and have a considerable pipeline of opportunities to fill it. In support of our data center strategy and consistent with our sustainability commitments, we were pleased to execute our first green loan in April. This $300 million financing was well-received and considerably oversubscribed. Proceeds will be used to support the construction of energy-efficient data centers in Northern Virginia.

Turning to asset lifecycle management. In the first quarter, we delivered improved performance for both revenue and EBITDA. Total ALM revenue in the quarter was $84 million, an increase of 103% year-on-year. Regency Technologies performed ahead of our expectations in the quarter with revenue of $32 million. While we are only one quarter into the integration, we are very pleased with the acquisition and are already seeing more benefit than planned in terms of cross-selling, increased capabilities, and improved operational efficiencies. On an organic basis, ALM revenue increased 25% year-on-year, driven by both improved component pricing and increased volume from our strong cross-selling activity. Turning to capital. In the first quarter, we invested $366 million, of which $337 million was growth and $29 million was recurring.

Our full year capital expenditure target remains $1.35 billion of growth and $150 million of recurring. Turning to the balance sheet. With strong EBITDA performance, we ended the quarter with net lease-adjusted leverage of 5.1 times. As a reminder, this remains at the lowest level in the past decade. We expect to operate within our target leverage range, which is 4.5 times to 5.5 times. Our Board of Directors declared our quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share to be paid in early July. On a trailing four-quarter basis, our payout ratio is now 61% at the lower end of our long-term target range of low-to-mid 60s percent. And now turning to our forecast. With our positive outlook, we are pleased to reiterate our full-year guidance despite the impact of the strengthening U.S. dollar.

Our forecast today includes current FX rates, which results in an incremental headwind of approximately $25 million to revenue and approximately $10 million to adjusted EBITDA through the remainder of the year as compared to our initial guidance. For the second quarter, we expect revenue of approximately $1.5 billion, adjusted EBITDA of approximately $535 million, AFFO of approximately $310 million and AFFO per share of approximately $1.05. In summary, we are pleased to have delivered strong first quarter results and we expect continued growth in 2024 as a result of our focus on Project Matterhorn objectives. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank our entire team for their continued dedication and commitment to Iron Mountain and our clients.

And with that, operator, will you please open the line for Q&A?

See also

20 Fastest Growing Fintech Companies In 2024 and

30 Most Fun Cities in the US in 2024.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
At a rally on the terrace of the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines May 1, 2024, members of immigrant advocacy groups and supporters spoke against an Iowa law that makes illegal immigration a state crime. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The U.S. Department of Justice intends to file a lawsuit against an Iowa law making illegal immigration a state crime if the law remains in effect, a top official wrote in a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Attorney General Brenna Bird.

First reported by the Des Moines Register, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a letter to the Republican state officials that the federal department intends to bring a lawsuit to enforce the supremacy of federal law and enjoin Senate File 2340, blocking it from being enforced.

The Iowa law, signed by Reynolds in April, allows state law enforcement officers to charge people with an aggravated misdemeanor if they have been deported, denied admission or removed from the U.S., or if they have an order to leave the country. People with a criminal history can be charged with higher penalties for being in the country unlawfully under the new measure.

Additionally, state courts are able to order the deportation of people charged, with state agencies and law enforcement having the ability to transport migrants to U.S. ports of entry to ensure they leave the country. People who do not leave as ordered can be charged with a felony for failure to comply.

The law is set to go into effect July 1. However, the federal justice department plans to stop the law from being enforced before that date. In the letter, Boynton gave Reynolds and Bird a deadline of Tuesday to suspend enforcement of the law or the Department of Justice will take action.

If you have not confirmed by May 7, 2024, that Iowa will forbear such enforcement, the United States intends to pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Iowa does not interfere with the functions of the federal government, the letter states.

In the message, Boynton said the Iowa law is preempted by federal law and violates the United States Constitution, and that the measure is contrary to the federal governments goal of processing undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in a way that is consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The state measure conflicts with federal immigration law in several ways, he wrote, including various provisions of federal law permitting noncitizens to seek protection from removal to avoid persecution or torture, Boynton wrote, in addition to undermining U.S. foreign relations.

Boynton said the Iowa law effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme by imposing state criminal penalties for violating the federal prohibition on unlawful reentry into the United States, and is intruding on the federal governments oversight of immigration law and enforcement.

However, Reynolds and Bird argued the law is necessary because President Joe Biden and his administration are not enforcing current immigration laws.

The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden Administration refused to enforce the laws already on the books. I have a duty to protect the citizens of Iowa, Reynolds said in a statement. Unlike the federal government, we will respect the rule of law and enforce it.

Bird also criticized Biden in a post on social media about the lawsuit, saying that Iowa will not back down.

Not only has Biden refused to enforce federal immigration laws & secure our border, he is now threatening to block states like IA from enforcing our own laws. Our message to Biden is this: IA will not back down & stand by as our states safety hangs in the balance. If Biden  Brenna Bird (@BrennaBird) May 3, 2024

On Wednesday, immigrant advocacy groups rallied across the state in opposition to the new law. Immigrants and allies expressed concerns about the law breaking up families, as well as potentially leading to discrimination against Latino Iowans.

Some law enforcement officers have also brought up concerns about enforcing the law. Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert told the Associated Press in March that Des Moines police forces are not equipped, funded or staffed to take on enforcement of immigration laws.

Iowa is not the only state to pass a state-level immigration law. The Iowa law is modeled after a similar 2023 Texas measure also allowing state law enforcement and courts to take action on illegal immigration. The Texas law is currently under a preliminary injunction, having been challenged in federal appeals court by the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights organizations.

Reynolds has sent personnel with Iowa National Guard and Iowa Department of Public Safety to Texas to support the states law enforcement efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border in both 2021 and 2023. In March, the governor announced plans to deploy 115 National Guard troops and 10 DPS officers to Texas, taking on duties like assistance with the Texas Military Departments security objectives.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt also signed a similar measure into law earlier this week that went into effect immediately. The Oklahoma law establishes a crime for impermissible occupation, the act of entering the state without legal authorization to be in the country. The first offense is a misdemeanor charge with an order to leave the state within 72 hours, and a second offense would charge someone with a felony, with up to two years in prison if convicted.

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A ground operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza city of Rafah could lead to a slaughter, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

May 3 (UPI) -- A ground operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza city of Rafah "could lead to a slaughter," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday.

"Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists in Geneva Friday, referring to some 1.2 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in or around the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.

The World Health Organization issued a similar statement Friday, saying any on-the-ground military operation could become a humanitarian "catastrophe."

The comments from the two U.N. agencies come just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that an invasion of Rafah will go forward regardless of what transpires from ongoing negotiations to free hostages held in captivity by the terrorist group Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

Netanyahu confirmed Tuesday, Israeli forces would enter Rafah and "eliminate the Hamas battalions there...with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory."

The World Health Organization issued a similar statement Friday, saying any on-the-ground military operation could become a humanitarian catastrophe. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI

The WHO on Friday cautioned against such a move.

"This contingency plan is Band-Aids. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation,"WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Dr. Rik Peeperkorn said during a video message from Jerusalem Friday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned any IDF military operation would contribute to the already existing displacement of people living in Gaza, as well as less access to essential food, water and sanitation. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

Gaza: "This contingency plan is Band-Aids. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation." - Dr Richard Peeperkorn of @WHOoPt "Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death" - @UNOCHA . pic.twitter.com/tJHt8dh3D7 United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) May 3, 2024

"The ailing health system will not be able to withstand the potential scale of devastation that the incursion will cause."

Peeperkorn warned any IDF military operation would contribute to the already existing displacement of people living in Gaza, as well as less access to essential food, water and sanitation.

Those conditions, he said, would "definitely" lead to more outbreaks of disease.

"The health system is barely surviving...if any (Israeli) operation will happen which means the population and patients will not be able to access these hospitals, what is going to happen to these patients; ultimately that would be a catastrophe," WHO team leader in Gaza Dr. Ahmed Dahir said Friday in the same video statement as Peeperkorn.

The comments come the same day volunteers from aid group World Central Kitchen returned to work and prepared food for Palestinians in need in Rafah, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza.
Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary, shows marijuana plant buds on May 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Leading U.S. Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Wednesday to remove marijuana from the list of federal controlled substances, following the Biden administrations move a day earlier to significantly ease regulations on the drug.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, on Wednesday at a press conference applauded the Justice Departments announcement it would move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

But they said it didnt solve problems, including race-based discrimination, created by federal prohibition.

Instead, they promoted a bill that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely, while adding new federal regulations and oversight.

The bill will help our country close the book once and for all on the awful, harmful and failed war on drugs, which all too often has been nothing more than a war on Americans of color, Schumer said. In short, our bills about individual freedom and basic fairness.

Most Americans believe cannabis should be legalized, Schumer said.

The move announced Tuesday by the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration will ease some of the harshest restrictions on marijuana use under Schedule I, which lists the most dangerous and easily abused drugs without any medicinal value.

Schedule III drugs, which include Tylenol with codeine and anabolic steroids, are allowed to be studied and dispensed under certain guidelines.

DOJ move not enough, Dems say

The Tuesday announcement from the Justice Department didnt go far enough, the trio said at a Wednesday press conference, and should be seen as a potential launching pad for further reforms.

We want to disabuse people of the notion that because the White House moved yesterday, things are at a standstill here in the United States Congress, Wyden said. I look at this as a chance to get new momentum for our bill, for action on Capitol Hill.

Fifteen other Senate Democrats have cosponsored the bill.

Communities of color and small businesses

The senators said that federal prohibition, even as many states have legalized medicinal or recreational use, has disproportionately harmed communities of color.

I think its a great step that the Biden administration is moving in the direction of not making this a Schedule I drug  the absurdity of that is outrageous, Booker said. But honestly, the bill that we are reintroducing today is the solution to this long, agonizing, hypocritical, frankly unequally enforced set of bad laws.

Federal prohibition has also blocked tax breaks for marijuana-related businesses, including small independent enterprises that Wyden, who chairs the tax-writing Finance Committee, said he is eager to help.

Wyden said he was excited about a provision in the bill to allow state-legal marijuana business access to a common tax break that allows small businesses to deduct business expenses.

With marijuana classified as a Schedule I substance, the federal tax break has not been allowed even for businesses that operate with a state license. Wyden said that small independent businesses really get clobbered under the current system. He indicated that his committee would look at more ways to reduce the tax burden for small mom-and-pop businesses.

The senators did not answer a question about if the legalization bill should be considered in tandem with a separate bill to allow state-legal marijuana businesses greater access to the banking system. Many banks refuse to do business with marijuana businesses out of fear they will be sanctioned as an accessory to drug trafficking.

New regulatory framework

The bill would automatically expunge federal marijuana-related convictions, direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a program to help people who lost access to housing benefits because of marijuana convictions and establish a Cannabis Justice Office within the U.S. Justice Department.

It would direct funding to an Opportunity Trust Fund to help people and individuals most harmed by the failed War on Drugs, according to a summary from Schumers office. It would disallow possession of cannabis to be used against any noncitizen in an immigration proceeding and prevent withholding of other federal benefits from people who use the drug.

While the bill would remove cannabis from regulations under the Controlled Substances Act, it would add new federal oversight, making the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau the federal agency with jurisdiction over the drug.

The bill would establish a federal Center for Cannabis Products to regulate production, sales, distribution and other elements of the cannabis industry, instruct the Food and Drug Administration to establish labeling standards and create programs to prevent youth marijuana use.

It would also retain a federal prohibition on marijuana trafficking conducted outside of state-legal markets, ask the Transportation Department to develop standards on cannabis-impaired driving and have the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration collect data and create educational materials on cannabis-impaired driving.

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Workers sort packages at the Amazon AGS5 facility on October 27, 2022, in Appling, Georgia. Two U.S. Senate Democrats plan to introduce a bill to address quota systems they say lead to injuries for warehouse workers. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Two Democratic U.S. senators announced Thursday they plan to introduce a piece of legislation that would require large companies to disclose quota practices to workers and prevent those quotas from interfering with a workers health.

The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would put an end to the most dangerous quotas that plague warehouses, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a sponsor of the bill, said.

There is no published bill text yet.

Markey said the bill would require companies to notify workers of the quotas they need to meet and ban quotas that rely on 24/7 surveillance or are likely to lead to violations of health and safety laws. He added that companies that dont comply would be investigated by the Department of Labor and could face fines and penalties.

Injuries at Amazon

Markey was joined outside the U.S. Capitol by workers who shared their stories of being injured on the job at Amazon warehouses, along with Democratic Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and Sean OBrien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Smith said that big companies like Amazon care about efficiency and cost savings and maximizing their profits.

Theyre experiencing record profits at the same time that the people whose labor they are earning profits on the backs (of), are experiencing completely unacceptable levels of injuries, she said.

The speakers singled out Amazon for quota practices that endanger workers, though Markey said the Seattle-based e-retail giant is not the only company that engages in a quota system that harms workers.

Amazon may be at the front of the pack with an injury rate double the national average, but the rest of the big warehousing companies are close behind, he said.

Some of Amazons quota practices include constant monitoring to measure how many items a worker scans, with automatic flags for workers below a certain percentile, and monitoring how long employees take on bathroom breaks and other time off task, according to a Thursday report by the National Employment Law Project.

The Amazon warehouse injury rate is twice that of the private-sector average for all industries and tens of thousands of warehouse workers each year experience serious injuries requiring medical treatment, according to the report.

OBrien said that Amazons business model pushes workers to the brink and creates a culture of fear.

Warehouses can be very dangerous places to work if safety isnt made a priority, he said.

Wendy Taylor, an Amazon worker in Missouri who is organizing for a union, was injured at work in March.

I was injured at work because of Amazons inhumane work rates, because of the exhausting pace in the physical work me and my coworkers do, she said.

Taylor said she fell and hurt her knee, but when she went to the company medical center, she said they (refused) to let me see a doctor when I asked, sending me back to work.

She eventually went to her own doctor, who diagnosed her with a torn meniscus in her knee.

This experience (shows) how hard it is to get timely, adequate medical treatment from a company that breaks down my body and speeds up my aging for shareholder profits, she said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Amazon pushed back against some of the comments from senators, including claims that workers lack adequate bathroom breaks and see fixed performance quotas.

Its a common misperception that Amazon has fixed quotas, but we do not, the spokesperson said. Our Time Logged In policy assesses whether employees are actually working while theyre logged in at their station. Our employees can see their own performance at any time and can talk to their manager if theyre having trouble finding the information.

The spokesperson also said claims that the injury rate at Amazon is double the industry standard are misleading.

Many large companies that should be included in these comparisonscompanies like Walmart, Target and Costcoreport almost all of their injuries under different OSHA reporting categories, the spokesperson said.

Brian Wild, a spokesperson for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, said in a statement that the industry group does not support the bill, arguing that it could lead to delays and price hikes.

The bill includes provisions that inappropriately tip the scales to union bosses at the expense of employees and employers by inviting labor organizations to participate in investigations, essentially granting union leaders access to potentially coerce or harass worksites under the guise of worker safety, Wild said.

Seeking bipartisan support

Markey said there is bipartisan support in the Senate for the bill, as well as the House.

We just want to build this out, Markey said. It should not be a Democrat or Republican thing, its a worker safety bill.

A warehouse protection law went into effect in Minnesota last year, but advocates have raised concerns that Amazon is not complying with the law.

Several other states, including California, New York, Oregon and Washington, have passed legislation similar to what Markey and Smith are proposing.

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UCLA Chancellor Gene Block released a letter to the campus community Thursday afternoon following the chaotic events of recent days, including overnight drama that unfolded when police cleared a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on Royce Quad.

Our community is in deep pain. We are reeling from days of violence and division. And we hope with all our hearts that we can return to a place where our students, faculty and staff feel safe and, one day, connected again, Block said in his campus message.

He said the university had planned to allow protestors and community members to voice their opinions about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas as long as students and educators were not placed in harms way. But following violent conflicts between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, the decision was made to clear Royce Quad.

Workers clean up the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus after police evicted pro-Palestinian students, in Los Angeles, California, early on May 2, 2024. Hundreds of police tore down protest barricades and began arresting students early Thursday at the University of California, Los Angeles  the latest flashpoint in an eruption of protest on US campuses over Israels war against Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA  MAY 02: A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer detains a protestor near encampment graffiti while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared unlawful by the university and over 100 protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA  May 2: Police officers clash with pro-Palestinian protesters as a fire extinguisher is deployed at UCLA early Thursday morning. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Demonstrators directly interfered with instruction by blocking students pathways to classrooms. Indirectly, violence related to the encampment led to the closure of academic buildings and the cancellation of classes. And frankly, hostilities were only continuing to escalate, Block wrote. In the end, the encampment on Royce Quad was both unlawful and a breach of policy.

The university chancellor said those who remained in the encampment into the late hours were given multiple warnings to disperse prior to law enforcement entering. He said about 300 demonstrators left voluntarily, while about 200 remained and were arrested.

Block said he wanted the university to be a place where students and faculty are encouraged to make their voices heard, but said violence would not be tolerated.

Police raid on UCLA encampment in photos

He also called the mounting deaths in Gaza devastating, and said the school would continue to support pro-Palestinian demonstrators and their First Amendment rights to protest, as well as Jewish students and faculty who are still reeling from the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, as well as rising antisemitic sentiment across the globe.

He added that UCLA would continue to investigate the violent incidents that took place on campus, particularly those sparked by a mob of instigators. In the meantime, counseling and support resources are being made available to all students and staff.

I also hope we can support one another through this difficult moment and reaffirm the ties that unite us as a community of learning, Block concluded.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
According to a group representing Gaza war protesters at UCLA, the arrests of more than 200 people early Thursday during the eviction of the schools pro-Palestine student encampment was an orchestrated effort by LAPD and CHP officers to inflict harm, and not a response to any real safety concerns.

In a statement obtained by TheWrap, the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment organization accused Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol of committing multiple acts of brutality over a span of 12 hours. They shot students with rubber bullets and threw flashbang grenades to disarm and paralyze them and brutalized students and community allies, the group said, and also specifically targeted students who were wearing keffiyehs.

However, the group asserted, the bulk of this brutality wasnt documented by the press because officers performed in full composure wherever media was present.

The group also denounced UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and accused him and the school of allowing the right wing mob that attacked protesters unprovoked late Tuesday night  referred to in the statement as zionist aggressors and an uncaring tyrannical extension of the zionist project  to gather directly across from our encampment for days.

The only thing keeping us safe is each other, the statement said.

The statement continued along similar lines: Disputing that UCLA cares about student safety, it concluded with a call for other students and faculty to reflect on the events, and a vow to continue the protests. The statement can be read in full at the bottom of the page.

LAPD representatives declined to comment on the accusations and directed TheWraps reporter to UCLA media relations. Representatives for UCLA and for the California Highway Patrol, which was also on hand during the eviction, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from thewrap.

The events Thursday morning capped a tumultuous 24 hours beginning with the aforementioned Tuesday night attack by people using fireworks, pipes and tear gas against the encampment. Block later said that violence was perpetrated largely by people from outside the UCLA student community. LAPD and the university were heavily criticized for taking more than 3 hours to quell the attack, with students even accusing LAPD of standing by and doing nothing as it raged on. UCLAs campus was closed on Wednesday afternoon and authorities declared the encampment to be an unlawful assembly soon after.

Across town, USC announced on Thursday that the Marshall Business School commencement ceremony will take place at the Coliseum instead of Alumni Park, where protesters have been encamped for at least a week, indicating that for now it will not follow UCLAs lead and evict protesters by force.

The statement from the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment reads in full:

Today is day 207 of Israels genocidal campaign against Gaza, and 76 years into the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Talk to us about safety. Last night, law enforcement assaulted the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment. Over the span of 12 hours, police brutalized students and community allies, broke down the encampment barricades, and targeted the most vulnerable inside, resulting in over 200 arrests. Safety.

In an orchestrated effort, CHP and LAPD shot students with rubber bullets and threw flashbang grenades to disarm and paralyze them, while zionists attacked students with pepper spray and bear mace outside and within the encampment. Police arrested hundreds, beating them back with batons before dragging them to the ground for detainment. Officers were fully equipped with riot gear against weaponless students who created a human chain to defend our encampment from sanctioned abuse by the university. And yet, they dare speak to us on

safety.

Police specifically targeted students wearing keffiyehs, who often wore them as masks when we could not find the proper protective equipment. While they performed in full composure under clear media surveillance, the police committed the brunt of their brutalities where press was not present. They tore students from our human chain and shot rubber bullets at close range, doing this in the corners of the Royce and Haines Hall barricade away from media coverage. Many were rushed to the ER after the bullets connected with heads and hands.

Tell us: is this safety? Time and time again this university has emphasized that all its actions were guided by one ideal safety. Who was unsafe last night? Who was unsafe the night before? We, the students, have been the targets of despicable attacks employed by an uncaring tyrannical extension of the zionist project. Gene Block mentions that the encampment had become a focal point for serious violence. Violence from who? Perhaps the zionist aggressors whom the school allowed to remain directly across from our encampment for days?

By refusing to protect its students against chemical weapons and fireworks literal acts of terrorism and by deploying the LAPD to brutally tear down the student encampment, UCLA is deliberately crushing a nonviolent movement calling for divestment from genocide. Safety seems to have a new meaning to the oppressive and repressive administration. To the UCLA administration, safety has nothing to do with its students or with the 38,000+ Palestinian lives lost in Gaza over the last 200 days. The only safety our university cares about is that of its investments in a system that profits from genocide. Our administration dares to speak to this community about safety and yet the only thing keeping us safe is each other.

Sumud, or , is the Palestinian concept of collective resilience and steadfastness. The Palestinian Solidarity Encampment remains strong in their sumud. To students, faculty, and community members: reflect on these days in the community of the encampment. Structures of violence should not be utilized by UCLA a supposed free speech advocate to suppress our demands. We would relive this week again and again if it means the liberation of Palestine and we remain committed to our just cause- as should you all. We will not stop, we will not rest.

In solidarity,

The repressed, oppressed, and forever-resolved UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment.

The post UCLA Gaza Protest Group Says LAPD, CHP Brutalized Students in Orchestrated Effort During Encampment Eviction appeared first on TheWrap.
Facing criticism from Californias political leaders, school faculty and students, UCLAs chancellor is placing blame for the upheaval that overtook the universitys campus this week on instigators and outside agitators whose terrifying violent acts ultimately ended the weeks of pro-Palestine protests with the removal of an encampment by police and hundreds of arrests on campus.

The arrests of pro-Palestine protesters on Thursday at UCLA, which is estimated at over 200, came after officers in riot gear descended on the campus to dismantle the encampment erected on April 25 by the UC Divest Coalition and Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA. Flares blasted over UCLAs Dickson Plaza as demonstrators sprayed fire extinguishers at police in an attempt to fend off their removal by force. About 30 hours earlier, their encampment at the plaza was the scene of a violent attack from pro-Israel counter-protesters that left multiple people injured and led to the cancellation of classes.

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Chancellor Gene Block wrote a letter to the UCLA community on Thursday, openly addressing the deep pain seen on campus over the past days. Block referred to the violence at the encampment Tuesday night as a horrific attack by a mob of instigators and vowed that an investigation into the incident will continue. In the letter, Block also explained the schools approach to student direct action campaigns and how the decision was made to have outside forces dismantle the encampment after meetings with demonstration leaders did not bring about the colleges desired result  namely for an agreement on the disbandment of the encampment.

In the end, the encampment on Royce Quad was both unlawful and a breach of policy, he wrote. It led to unsafe conditions on our campus and it damaged our ability to carry out our mission. It needed to come to an end.

Tuesdays attack on the largely peaceful encampment began just before midnight. A group of counter-demonstrators in black getups and white masks marched in, some carrying flags indicating solidarity with Israel and reportedly yelling pro-Israel slogans, then swarmed the encampment and began an attempt to dismantle its makeshift barriers. Tear gas and objects including fireworks, water bottles, and a scooter were reportedly thrown at the pro-Palestine group, members of which attempted to defend themselves and the encampment.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers clear a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Demonstrators from the encampment said in a student press conference that the attack went on for hours, with no response from law enforcement or campus police. One student said he was hit in the head twice during the attack, leaving him with 14 staples in the back of his head. UCLA campus newspaper The Daily Bruin, citing a spokesperson with UC Divest at UCLA reported that 25 protesters within the pro-Palestine encampment were hospitalized overnight on Wednesday.

Deep scrutiny is now being placed on who exactly the masked counter-demonstrators are but also on the slow response to an attack on students at one of the most prominent state schools in the nation. California Governor Gavin Newsoms representative said the limited and delayed response by police was unacceptable and he tweeted a statement that the right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus.

Meanwhile, UC President Michael V. Drake has announced an independent review of the universitys actions and law enforcements response. In his letter to the UCLA community, Block briefly detailed campus leaderships actions in those terrifying moments on Tuesday as he wrote that he is grateful to Drake for demanding the probe.

Chancellor Gene Block

When physical violence broke out that night, leadership immediately directed our UCPD police chief to call for the support of outside law enforcement, medical teams and the fire department to help us quell the violence, the chancellor wrote. We are carefully examining our security processes that night.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported that requests for additional police resources had been made five days before the attack on the encampment, but were quickly canceled for reasons that are unclear. The Times spoke with the head of the UC police officers union, who said that had the orders not been canceled, about 80 members of UCPDs System Wide Response Team would have been deployed to UCLA from Sunday to Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Federated University Police Officers Association released a statement assuring that within the UC system, police take orders from school chancellors. When protests erupt on campus, the decisions regarding the response of the UC Police rest firmly in the hands of campus leadership, the union said.

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Chancellor Block for a response but did not immediately hear back on Friday. On August 3, 2023, Block announced that he will be stepping down as UCLAs chancellor after this academic year; July 31 is set to be his final day in the leadership role.

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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  UC San Diego officials abruptly cancelled the Sun God Festival a mere days before it was set to take place due to the Gaza Solidarity encampment, marking the third time ever that the annual event has not gone on as planned in its 40 year history.

In a statement Thursday night, Maureen Harrigan, interim vice chancellor for resource management and planning, said the decision was made over concerns about campus security resources being stretched thin between the festival and the protest outside Geisel Library.

Due to ongoing protest activity adjacent to Library Walk, our campus security resources that would otherwise be available to ensure the safety and security of the people participating in Sun God must be deployed elsewhere to support the overall security of our students, faculty, staff and visitors, Harrigan said.

Can students at San Diego universities get punished for protesting?

We know that this event is a beloved campus tradition and understand the disappointment that this decision causes for many, Harrigan continued.

The annual festival has been a staple of the campus culture since the mid-1980s. According to the Associated Students, the event was expected to draw upwards of 6,000 to 8,000 students and alumni this year, and cost about $1 million to put on.

It was originally scheduled for Saturday, May 4 at RIMAC Field, which is located on the northwestern side of campus.

The Sun God Festival is an annual campus event featuring music and art with roots going back to 1984. Image from 2023 Sun God Festival. (Photo by Erik Jepsen, University Communications.)

The encampment was erected along Library Walk Wednesday afternoon, featuring two dozen tents, canopies, tables and prayer mats. Those who camped out at the site on Thursday told FOX 5/KUSI that their plan is to stay for as long as possible or until their demands are heard.

This includes asks of the university administration to affirm Palestinians right to life and safety, cut financial and academic ties with Israel, and call for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting, which they describe as an unfolding genocide against Palestinians.

The demands echo those of other camp sites that have been erected at dozens of college campuses across the country over the last few weeks, including Columbia University, University of Southern California and UC Los Angeles.

Campus police have been at the UCSD site since it was set up, although no attempts to dismantle it have been made.

In a statement on Wednesday, however, UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla alluded to possible action against the encampment, saying that the site is in violation of campus policy. He added that students could be met with sanctions, such as suspension or legal action.

Although he added that the university fully supports the right to peacefully protest and express views on campus.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
On Friday, 3 May, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron arrived in Lviv and, with Mayor Andrii Sadovyi, planted a tree in the city centre.

Source: Sadovyi on Twitter (X), as reported by European Pravda

Details: In his post, Sadovyi emphasised Cameron's statement about the employment of UK weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation. He said it raised "our hopes." "Now, he [Cameron - ed.] has his own tree here, giving him a great reason to return to Ukraine with more good news," the mayor of Lviv stated in his message.

While working with a shovel, Cameron pointed out that this is "the famous black earth of Ukraine." He also stated that he has planted numerous trees throughout his life, but this is his first tree in Ukraine.

To Sadovyi's lighthearted remark that the UK guest expected to be met with coffee rather than work with land, Cameron said, "I like working."

Cameron questioned which tree he had planted as he cleared the wheelbarrow with the soil. It turned out that it was robinia.

UK Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron in Lviv. Mornings aren't just for coffee! Statements on the use of British weapons on aggressor territory bolster our hopes. Now, he has his own tree here, giving him a great reason to return to Ukraine with more good news. pic.twitter.com/BjiPLXGckN    (@AndriySadovyi) May 3, 2024

Cameron's robinia will grow alongside a tree planted by Yale professor Timothy Snyder last year.

As reported earlier, during his visit to Kyiv, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron initiated negotiations with Ukraine about a 100-year partnership. This will be a completely new agreement to deepen relations between the two countries.

Cameron promised that the UK would allocate 3 billion in annual military aid to Ukraine, and this would happen "as much as needed."

Cameron also told Reuters that Ukraine has the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets in Russia.

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Pierre Omidyar, the founder and former chairman of eBay. Ramin Talaie/Getty

Forbes put out a list of the wealthiest residents in every US state.

Pierre Omidyar, the elusive founder of eBay, is Hawaii's wealthiest permanent resident.

Omidyar has given away $1.5 billion of his fortune since 2014.

America's elite have long seen Hawaii as an ideal tropical paradise for their vacation homes.

Billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Larry Ellison all own property there.

But despite the big names and showy personalities of Hawaii's ultrarich, Pierre Omidyar, the media-shy founder of eBay, is the island state's richest permanent resident, according to Forbes' list of the richest billionaire in every state for 2024.

Forbes' list consisted of 54 billionaires living in 47 of the 50 US states. Together, they're worth $1.6 trillion.

Omidyar contributes $6.5 billion to that total.

The French-born Iranian American founded eBay in 1995. Omidyar became a billionaire when the company went public three years later.

Omidyar and Meg Whitman, eBay's former CEO. James D. Wilson/Getty

In 2002, eBay acquired the online-payment platform PayPal for $1.5 billion, which was later spun off in 2015.

In 2020, Omidyar stepped down from eBay's board as part of a broader overhaul of the company. The departure was not related to any disagreement with the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. He retains the title of director emeritus.

In 2013, Omidyar founded First Look Media, a media nonprofit that launched the investigative-news outlet The Intercept in 2014. In 2023, The Intercept left First Look to become an independent organization.

Though he resides in Honolulu with his wife, Pamela, Omidyar is also a real-estate developer in Mexico.

According Forbes' real-time billionaire list, the 56-year-old is the world's 444th richest person. In 2004, he started the Omidyar Network, and has since given over $1.5 billion to philanthropic causes and impact investments.

He's been a longtime supporter of progressive political causes and is a critic of Big Tech. In 2020, his Omidyar Group donated $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit that was representing the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Omidyar has taken the top spot in Hawaii on Forbes' list from Larry Ellison, the chief technology officer and cofounder of Oracle.

Though Ellison still owns 98% of Lanai, an island in Hawaii, records now indicate that California is his primary home, Forbes reported.

Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief technology officer, purchased the island of Lanai in 2012. Ted Soqui/Getty

Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who also own large properties in Hawaii, are likewise residents of different states.

In 2021, Bezos and his now-fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, broke records for purchasing the most expensive property ever sold on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Architectural Digest reported , when the couple paid $78 million for a 14-acre property.

Story continues

Correction: May 2, 2024  An earlier version of this story misstated Larry Ellison and Pierre Omidyar's roles at Oracle and eBay, respectively. Ellison is the chief technology officer, not the CEO, and Omidyar is the former chairman.

Read the original article on Business Insider
UK Foreign Secretary explains why investing in Ukraine's security is crucial while on visit to Kyiv  video

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has recorded a video in the centre of Kyiv in which he spoke about two visions of the future in the event of proper or insufficient support for Ukraine.

Source: Cameron on Twitter (X), reported by European Pravda

Details: Cameron stressed that the UK is one of the countries that supports Ukraine diplomatically, economically and militarily the most. He also noted that the UK is one of the countries that does it the fastest.

"Its important because Ukraine needs help now. Theyve done brilliantly on the Black Sea, sinking so much of Putins Black Sea Fleet.

But there are many challenges on land and they need to meet those challenges," Cameron said.

Similarly, he said that it is necessary to act quickly, as this will give leverage to put pressure on other countries to act quickly and provide funds.

"Well, it matters crucially for this country But it also matters for us. Ukrainian security is about European security and about British security," he noted.

My message from Kyiv: supporting Ukraine's security is the best investment we can make in our security. pic.twitter.com/5Fr0azyCVK  David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 3, 2024

Cameron said that two different visions of the future are now emerging.

"One is that we push back Putin. Theres a just peace, and this country recovers its sovereignty. And NATO will be stronger, Europe will be stronger, Britain will be stronger.

But there is an alternative scenario where we dont back Ukraine sufficiently, where Putin scores a win here in Ukraine, and well be living in a far more unsafe and uncertain and dangerous world," Cameron said.

Cameron said that the investments being made today in Ukraine's security are the best possible investments in our own security.

Background:

As reported by European Pravda, Cameron began negotiations with Ukraine on a 100-year partnership during his visit to Kyiv the day before.

He promised that the UK would provide Ukraine with three billion pounds of annual military aid, and this would continue "for as long as it takes."

Cameron also told Reuters that Ukraine had the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets in Russia.

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During his visit to Kyiv, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron initiated negotiations with Ukraine about a 100-year partnership. This will be a completely new agreement to deepen relations between the two countries.

Source: European Pravda, citing British Embassy in Kyiv

Quote: "The Foreign Secretary also kicked off negotiations with Ukraine on a 100 Year Partnership  a new agreement that will build enduring links between our two countries across the spectrum of trade, security and defence cooperation, science and tech, education, culture, and much more."

Details: Cameron said that "we must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win."

Background:

In January, British PM Rishi Sunak emphasised during his speech in the UK Parliament that his country was building a new partnership with Ukraine that was intended to last for 100 years and beyond.

British Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Harris stated in an interview with European Pravda that London intends to convey that Ukraine will still be there in 100 years.

As European Pravda reported, during his visit to Kyiv, Cameron promised that Britain would allocate GBP 3 billion in annual military aid to Ukraine, and this would happen "as much as needed."

Cameron also told Reuters that Ukraine has the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets in Russia.

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The latest Ukrainian deep-strike weapon isnt a drone, a cruise missile or a ballistic missile. Its a balloon.

In a recent speech, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Russian air defences had shot down 37 Ukrainian balloons since Russia widened its war on Ukraine starting in February 2022.

Many of the balloons arrived recently. The Kremlin reported five balloon shoot-downs on April 18 and two more on April 20  one of the latter got as far as Moscow, 275 miles from the border with Ukraine. Another balloon crashed just inside Russian territory in March.

The balloon designs are all pretty similar: an inexpensive envelope, a simple satellite-communications relay, a bit of ballast  and a few pounds of explosives. Its possible each balloon costs just a few hundred dollars, likely making the lighter-than-air vehicles the cheapest of Kyivs deep-strike weapons, which also include long-range strike drones, British- and French-made cruise missiles and ballistic missiles from the United States.

A US-made Army Tactical Missile System launch. Every Russian air defence weapon expended on a balloon isn't available to stop one of these - John Hamilton/US Army via AP

The recent barrage of balloons is part of a wider campaign of Ukrainian raids targeting strategic targets hundreds of miles inside Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine: air bases, weapons factories and oil refineries are among the top targets.

The Ukrainians lately have been especially busy with their American-supplied Army Tactical Missile System rockets. The United States reportedly shipped more than a hundred of the precision-guided ATACMS starting in March. Ukraine wasted no time bombarding Russian air bases and air-defence batteries in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian air bases have escalated to the point that, in recent days, the Kremlin pulled back dozens of its best warplanes, redeploying them from bases near the front line to bases hundreds of miles away  beyond the reach of Ukraines cruise and ballistic missiles, although not beyond the reach of the farthest-flying strike drones.

Dont expect the balloons to have such a serious impact on Russian operations, however. Explosive war balloons arent new. Theyve floated across borders in at least three wars in just the last century  and never had any meaningful impact.

This is for one major reason: theyre unguided. They just float on the wind until they cant anymore. Japan floated nearly 300 bomb-laden balloons across the Pacific Ocean in 1944 and 45. The only casualties were a pastors wife and five Sunday School students on a fishing trip in Oregon who accidentally triggered the explosive payload of a crashed balloon .

The Japanese balloon bombs were more effective than the crude bombs terror group Islamic State deployed in Syria in 2015. The tiny unguided craft  apparently just condoms full of some lighter-than-air gas and carrying miniscule explosive charges  apparently inflicted exactly zero damage on Syrian forces.

Balloons can work as wide-area surveillance systems, which is why Russia has drifted a few over Ukraine since 2022  and why China routinely deploys them over the western Pacific Ocean and even sent a few floating over the United States last year.

But surveillance doesnt necessarily require precision. High-resolution cameras and sensitive electronic receivers can collect useful intelligence over thousands of square miles.

An air raid does require precision: missing by just a few yards can make the difference between a successful raid and a failed one. An unguided strike balloon is, at best, a way for one country to compel another country to waste precious air-defence resources trying to shoot them down.

Smart air-defence commanders would simply ignore them. Ukrainian planners might be hoping they dont. Its apparent that one aim of Ukraines widening strike campaign  more and more drones, missiles and rockets hitting more and more bases and industrial sites  is to force Russia to spread out, and thin out, its radars and surface-to-air missile batteries.

Ukrainian drone strikes against targets within Russia are ... likely increasing pressure on available Russian air-defence assets, the Institute for the Study of War in Washington DC explained.

And for the Ukrainians, that pressure represents an opportunity. Thinner Russian air-defences along the front line means less risk to Ukrainian warplanes operating directly over the battlefield. You cant defend everywhere, retired US Army general Mark Hertling noted.

As long as the Russians are wasting resources shooting down balloons, theyre not devoting those same resources to shooting down Ukrainian assets that actually matter. Ones with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

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(Reuters) - Ukraine will at some point have to enter into talks with Russia to bring an end to their more than two-year-old war, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said in an interview published on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly ruled out talks with the Kremlin, and a decree he issued after Russia formally annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022 deems negotiations "impossible".

But Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine's HUR military intelligence directorate, told the Economist magazine that talks would eventually be needed, as would be the case with any war.

"General Skibitsky says he does not see a way for Ukraine to win the war on the battlefield alone. Even if it were able to push Russian forces back to the borders  an increasingly distant prospectit wouldnt end the war," the magazine wrote.

"Such wars can only end with treaties, he says. Right now, both sides are jockeying for the 'the most favourable position' ahead of potential talks. But meaningful negotiations can begin only in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, he guesses."

Zelenskiy and other officials have said Russia is not invited to a "peace summit" planned for Switzerland in June as there is no assurance that Moscow will bargain in good faith.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appeared to echo Skibitsky's thoughts in a separate interview this week with Foreign Policy magazine, saying the goal of the June summit was "to unite countries who share principles and approaches that they will build further actions on.

"After that, communication with Russia may take place and Russia can be part of the talks. Because you are right: In the end, you cannot put the war to an end without both parties."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials say Ukraine is blocking any attempt at a settlement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said the June gathering could not be a "serious conference with serious expectations of some kind of results" without Russia's presence.

Zelenskiy in his nightly video address on Thursday, described the June meeting as "practically the first real chance to start restoring a just peace".

"All our positions, on the battlefield, in diplomacy and in the information sphere, must be equally strong now," he said. "Our strength, our capabilities, our weapons, unity with partners -- all this must work together. And it will work."

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Ukraine will receive six more TRML-4D air defence radars from manufacturer

German sensor company HENSOLDT has announced the supply of six more TRML-4D radars to Ukraine to strengthen its air defence.

Source: press release from HENSOLDT on 3 May, European Pravda reports

Details: The manufacturer specifies that as part of a "comprehensive order package worth over 100 million euros", Ukraine will receive six TRML-4D radars by the end of 2024.

Quote from Oliver Dierre, CEO of HENSOLDT: "Our radars are urgently needed by the Ukrainian air defence and we are proud to be able to deliver all the systems this year. The feedback from our customers confirms how important the rapid availability of the radars is for the protection of their citizens."

More details: The TRML-4D uses the latest AESA radar technology capable of detecting, tracking and classifying various types of airborne targets, focusing on small, fast and low-flying and/or manoeuvrable cruise missiles and aircraft, as well as hovering helicopters. It provides rapid detection and tracking of about 1,500 targets within a radius of up to 250 km.

Background:

As of now, Ukraine has received a total of nine TRML-4D radars, with the last one being announced by Germany last week.

Berlin also promised to provide a Patriot air defence system for Ukraine as soon as possible.

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Ukraine rises in World Press Freedom Index despite constraints of full-scale war

Ukraine rose from 79th to 61st place in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 3.

The index is determined by five factors, including the given countrys security, legal framework, and economic, political, and socio-cultural contexts.

Worldwide, it is the political indicator that has fallen most, creating major challenges for press freedom, according to the organization.

"RSF sees a worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors," the report read.

There were a few incidents in Ukraine over the past months in what the Ukrainian media view as mounting pressure against the press.

In April, Yevhenii Shulhat, a Slidstvo.Info journalist, published an investigation into Illia Vitiuk, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) cybersecurity chief, that led to Vitiuk's dismissal. Shulhat was reportedly later targeted by enlistment officers in retaliation.

Other incidents included the illegal surveillance of investigative outlet Bihus.Info and threats to journalist Yurii Nikolov.

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In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, media censorship has intensified "in a spectacular mimicry of Russian repressive methods," RSF wrote.

Russia's ongoing full-scale war against Ukraine has had a major impact on the media ecosystem and the safety of journalists, according to the report.

"The war launched by Russia on 24 February 2022 threatens the survival of the Ukrainian media. In this information war, Ukraine is on the front line of resistance against the expansion of the Kremlins propaganda system," Reporters Without Borders said.

The organization added that nevertheless, Ukraine moved up 18 places over the past year due to improvements in its security indicator  fewer journalists killed  and its political indicator.

A total 0f 83 media workers have been killed since 2014 as a result of Russia's war against Ukraine, according to the Institute for Mass Information (IMI). Over 25 Ukrainian journalists remain in Russian captivity, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, the head of the Ukrainian parliament's Committee on Freedom of Speech, said in January.

Read also: Recent campaigns against journalists raise concerns about press freedom in Ukraine

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
By Gabriel Araujo and Kylie Madry

SAO PAULO/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Chilean carrier LATAM Airlines hiked its earnings forecasts for this year on Thursday, backed by a strong first-quarter performance and increased demand.

LATAM sees its revenues ranging from $12.8 billion to $13.1 billion for the year, up from a previous estimate of $12.4 billion to $12.8 billion.

Meanwhile, its adjusted EBITDAR - earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and restructuring or rent costs - for the year were estimated at a record $2.75 billion to $3.0 billion, up 10% to 22% from 2023.

The previous estimate in December had been for between $2.6 billion and $2.9 billion.

In a presentation to journalists, LATAM executives cited boosted operations, cost-containment measures and an improved capital structure as the reasoning behind the fresh EBITDAR outlook.

In the first quarter, LATAM brought in $796 million in EBITDAR. Net profit more than doubled in the quarter to $258 million, from revenues up 18% to $3.32 billion.

Passenger traffic, as measured by available seat kilometers (ASK), grew 17.5% in the quarter, topping the pre-pandemic capacity logged in 2019.

LATAM said the increase came as it moved a record number of passengers in the quarter and upped its occupation levels on flights.

Meanwhile, LATAM's passenger costs were steady in the quarter at 4.3 cents per ASK, the carrier said, while generating $137 million in cash.

LATAM's liquidity "allows us to be competitive, to grow more steadily, to more calmly take on new projects and to obtain better terms with providers," Chief Financial Officer Ramiro Alfonsin told journalists.

The carrier, which currently operates a 330-plane fleet, is waiting on several aircraft deliveries this year, Alfonsin said.

LATAM Airlines said late last month that it was no longer seeking to acquire Boeing B737 planes, opting to look for alternative narrowbody aircraft after talks failed.

Alfonsin said that LATAM was targeting Airbus' A320 or A321 aircraft in the absence of B737s, but that the carrier was open to alternatives.

Alfonsin said going forward LATAM would deleverage "more than expected" after closing out the quarter with a financial net debt to adjusted EBITDAR ratio of 1.9 times. He later added that the firm was weighing a debt refinancing later this year.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo and Kylie Madry; Additional reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Valentine Hilaire; editing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft)
Ukraine has right to use UK weapons to strike targets in Russia  UK Foreign Secretary

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged 3 billion (US$3.74 billion) in annual military aid to Ukraine for "as long as it takes" on Thursday, 2 May, adding that London has not objected to the use of these weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

Source: Cameron in an interview with Reuters

Details: Cameron stated that Ukraine has the right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets on Russian territory and that Kyiv should decide whether to do so.

Quote: "Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself.

We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment.

Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here."

More details: Cameron, UK Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, who only came back to politics a few months ago, met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his second visit to Kyiv as Foreign Secretary.

The UKs most senior diplomat welcomed the US Congress's allocation of the long-awaited $60 billion aid package, stating: "It's absolutely crucial, not just in terms of the weapons it will bring, but also the boost to morale that it will bring to people here in Ukraine."

However, Cameron did not directly answer a question about his opinion on how the potential re-election of Republican leader Donald Trump to the White House could affect US support for Ukraine, saying "it's not for us to decide who the Americans choose as their president  we will work with whoever that is,". He added that Ukraine's allies strategy should be to ensure Ukraine has the upper hand before the elections in the US in November.

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Key updates on May 3:

Ukraine may use British weapons to strike targets inside Russia, Cameron says

Military intelligence general: Chasiv Yar's fall probably a matter of time

Military intelligence carries out cyberattack in Russia's Tatarstan

Commander: Russia aims to completely occupy 3 oblasts in 2024

Media: Italy to give Ukraine SAMP/T air defense system in new aid package.

Britain pledged three billion pounds ($3.74 billion) in annual military assistance to Ukraine, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron announced on May 3, adding that it would continue "as long as it takes."

He assured that London had no qualms about the possibility of the provided weaponry being utilized within Russian territory.

The visit follows U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks announcement that the U.K. will spend 2.5% of GDP on defense, and commit to at least three billion pounds a year on military support to Ukraine.

"We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment," he said in an interview with Reuters on a visit to Kyiv.

"Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here," Cameron said outside St. Michael's Cathedral in downtown Kyiv.

Cameron added that Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so: "Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself."

The U.K. has consistently voiced strong support for Ukraine, alongside the U.S. and Germany. The country has pledged 12.5 billion pounds ($15.6 billion) in support to Ukraine since February 2022, of which 7.6 billion pounds ($9.5 billion) in military assistance.

"We must all step up to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to win," Cameron said. "Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision, and vital support to protect and repair Ukraines energy infrastructure, the U.K. is standing with Ukraine."

The Foreign Office also announced that the U.K. and Ukraine had begun negotiations on the creation of a "100-Year Partnership" between the two countries.

Without providing specific details, the proposed partnership would "build enduring links between our two countries across the spectrum of trade, security and defense cooperation, science and tech, education, culture, and much more."

"The U.K.'s commitment to developing this Partnership is a clear signal of its intent to build close and enduring cooperation with Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people, for decades to come," the announcement concluded.

The Kyiv Independent has reached out to the Foreign Office for more concrete information about the proposed partnership.

Read also: Former UK Armed Forces minister: Ukraine defeat will cost trillions to West in new Cold War

Military intelligence general: Chasiv Yar's fall probably a matter of time

The fall of the embattled Donetsk Oblast town of Chasiv Yar in a way similar to Avdiivka is probably a matter of time, a military intelligence deputy head, Major General Vadym Skibitsky, said in an interview with The Economist published on May 2.

"Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies," the general added.

Russian forces shifted their focus toward Chasiv Yar, an elevated town that potentially opens the way to further advances into the oblast, after capturing Avdiivka in February.

Ukraine is also facing a difficult situation near the village of Ocheretyne, a village some 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of Avdiivka, where Moscow's troops have reportedly managed to create a salient.

Skibitsky believes that as its first goal, Russia will seek to capture the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Looking further ahead, the Kremlin is likely preparing for an offensive around northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, with the main push likely to begin at the end of May or early June, Skibitsky suggested. Other Ukrainian officials have also mentioned this timeline.

Russia's group of forces around the Kharkiv Oblast border is currently 35,000-strong but set to expand to 50,000-70,000 troops, according to the general.

While this is not enough to capture a major city, it could be sufficient for smaller tasks, he clarified: "A quick operation to come in and come out: maybe. But an operation to take Kharkiv, or even Sumy city, is of a different order."

Read also: Battle of Chasiv Yar begins: On the ground with Ukrainian forces defending city key to Russias plans

May will be a key month, as Russia is preparing a three-step plan to destabilize Ukraine, the general said.

The first part relates to military pressure. Even though the U.S. finally approved a $61 billion aid bill for Ukraine, it will likely take weeks before it can make an impact on the battlefield, giving Russia some time to press forward.

The second phase is a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the Ukrainian leadership and the mobilization push. Many observers have criticized Kyiv's delayed draft efforts, which resulted in manpower shortages, but the country finally passed an updated mobilization bill in April.

Skibitsky acknowledged that the manpower situation has somewhat improved since December 2023 but said that the emergency is far from over.

As the third step, Russia will seek to isolate Ukraine internationally, the officer said.

According to Skibitsky, the main unknown factor is Europe and the issue of whether it will be able to ramp up its defense production to help Ukraine and stave off further Russian aggression.

Looking at the possible end of the ongoing war, the intelligence officer believes that battlefield victories alone would not be sufficient. Even if Ukraine manages to push Russian forces from its borders, wars like this eventually have to end in treaties, he said.

Both sides are now contesting for "the most favorable position," but any real talks can begin only in the second half of 2025 at the earliest, the general estimated. Skibitsky thinks that by then, Russia will also face significant challenges, as its arms production will reach a plateau by early 2026 due to a shortage of materials and engineers.

Military intelligence carries out cyberattack in Russia's Tatarstan

Ukraine's military intelligence carried out a large-scale cyberattack in Russia's Tatarstan on May 3, a source in the agency confirmed to the Kyiv Independent.

The attack reportedly targeted internet providers and mobile operators in the Russian republic.

The Ukrainian media outlet NV, citing sources, reported that the Alabuga special economic zone was the main target.

NV wrote that it was a denial of service (DDoS) attack, which effectively blocked internet access in Tatarstan's capital of Kazan, Russia's fifth largest city.

The press service for Tattelecom, one of the largest telecommunications operators in the republic, said that it was the most powerful cyberattack on its networks in the history of the company.

Alabuga, which reportedly hosts a factory that produces Shahed-type drones, has previously been the target of Ukrainian attacks.

Ukrainian forces struck drone factories in the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk in April, located about 1,300 kilometers (around 800 miles) away from the Russia-Ukraine border, Ukraine's military intelligence agency reported.

The strikes, which were some of Ukraine's longest-distance attacks into Russian territory, were reportedly carried out with domestically-produced weapons.

Read also: One night with Ukrainian drone hunters near Russia

Commander: Russia aims to completely occupy 3 oblasts in 2024

Russia's goal in 2024 is to completely occupy Donetsk, Luhansk, and, if possible, Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Ukraine's Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk told The Times on May 2.

Russia is likely trying to take as much territory as possible before the impact of the recently passed U.S. aid bill for Ukraine can be felt on the battlefield.

Chasiv Yar, a town in Donetsk Oblast, remains one of Russia's key targets as it could facilitate further advances toward the nearby cities of Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk, the Ukrainian military said.

Russian forces reportedly aim to capture Chasiv Yar by May 9, in time for the celebration of cult-like Victory Day in Russia. Pavliuk believes that it will not happen.

"We are trying everything we can do to stop the Russian plan to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9," the commander said.

"But the Russians have a 10-to-one ratio of artillery superiority there, and total air superiority," Pavliuk added.

The commander hopes that fresh billions in U.S. military aid, which had been stalled for nearly seven months, will impact the Ukrainian battlefield.

"We will do everything we can to prevent a Russian breakthrough, and we hope that the American weaponry will help us. If it had arrived in time, we would not have lost the territories that we have lost in the last few months."

Apart from completing the occupation of three oblasts, Russian forces are still focused on capturing the regional centers of Kharkiv and Sumy, located proximately to the Ukrainian-Russian state border, as well, according to Pavliuk, who cited Ukraine's military intelligence.

"But we do not know how serious those plans are, nor if they are capable of realizing them with the forces they have at their disposal," he said.

The commander also expects the number of Russian troops to increase this year as the Russian summer offensive is looming.

"We believe the Russians want to mobilize 100,000 more troops and that they will use these to reinforce their forces already in Ukraine in June and July," Pavliuk said.

"By the end of the year, we think that the Russians intend to mobilize nearly 300,000 more soldiers. But also they are losing nearly 25,000 to 30,000 per month in dead and wounded."

Read also: Surviving through the darkness: How Kharkiv endures new wave of brutal Russian attacks (Photos)

Media: Italy to give Ukraine SAMP/T air defense system in new aid package

The Italian government is readying its new defense aid package for Ukraine that will include, among others, a SAMP/T air defense system, the Italian news outlet La Repubblica reported on May 2.

Ukraine has asked international partners to deliver more air defense in the wake of an increase in Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure since March.

Previously, France and Italy jointly supplied Ukraine with a SAMP/T system back in 2023.

The new advanced air defense system Italy allegedly plans to deliver was deployed in Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, known for his Ukraine-skeptic stances, said in March that Rome decided to pull back the system from his country.

The decision by the Italian government to provide another SAMP/T is reportedly linked to the worsening battlefield situation in eastern Ukraine, as Russia seeks to break through Ukrainian defense lines.

The new defense aid package will also allegedly include artillery and Stinger anti-air missiles, La Repubblica writes. It remains unclear whether Italy will agree to supply any of the available 100-200 Storm Shadow long-range missiles, according to the outlet.

The La Foglio outlet reported, citing NATO sources, that the decree on the new aid package may be published within the next few days or the next week. However, La Repubblica wrote that the package should be presented by the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy, which will begin on June 13.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims as the Italian government has not made a public announcement.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), which tracks international aid for Ukraine, Italy has provided Ukraine with 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in defense assistance as of late February.

Read also: Russian strikes overwhelm Ukraines overstretched air defense amid Western aid delays

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Ukraine's Foreign Minister mentions "positive dynamic" with Poland after talking to Polish counterpart

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has had a telephone conversation with his Polish counterpart Radosaw Sikorski.

Source: Ukraine's Foreign Ministry press service on Thursday, 2 May, cited by European Pravda

Details: The ministry cited Kuleba's statement after the conversation, in which he stressed that "Radosaw Sikorski and I noted the positive dynamics in Ukrainian-Polish bilateral relations."

Kuleba and Sikorski also reportedly discussed strengthening Ukraine's air defence, Ukraine's path to the European Union and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula.

Background:

In late April, Polish farmers stopped blocking the movement of lorries in front of the last blocked checkpoint on the Ukrainian border. The Poles have thereby lifted the blockade from the Ukrainian border, at least temporarily.

This happened after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on Polish farmers on 18 April to stop blocking the border with Ukraine, stressing that Ukraine is currently in an extremely difficult situation.

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Ukraine's Foreign Minister talks with his Czech counterpart on progress in purchasing shells for Ukraine

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has reported on a telephone conversation with his Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky, which focused on the progress of the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine.

Source: Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter (X); European Pravda

Details: Kuleba noted that Jan Lipavsky and he talked about the progress of the Czech initiative to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine in third countries, for which a number of other allies have provided funds and, in general, efforts to strengthen military support for Ukraine.

I spoke with @JanLipavsky to take stock of the Czech initiatives progress and overall efforts to strengthen military assistance to Ukraine. We also coordinated joint steps to make the Peace Summit a success. I am grateful to Czechia for its friendly and continued support.  Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 3, 2024

"We also coordinated joint steps to make the Peace Summit a success. I am grateful to Czechia for its friendly and continued support," Dmitry Kuleba wrote.

Background:

The EU's chief diplomat admitted that the first shells from the Czech initiative will be in Ukraine in late May or early June.

Jan Lipavsky and several other Western officials called on Europe "not to relax" after the long-awaited approval of additional funding to support Ukraine by the US Congress.

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The President's Office website has rejected the publication of a petition to support the unblocking of the provision of Western weapons and assistance to the Azov 12th Special Forces Brigade of the National Guard.

Source: the bridage's press office; Denys Prokopenko, the Commander of the Azov Assault Brigade

Quote: "Despite the Azov's repeated demonstration of professionalism and effectiveness, the spread of Russian propaganda continues to restrict the 12th Azov Special Purpose Brigade's access to modern Western weapons.

The publication of a petition calling on Ukraine's political leadership to make every effort to remove the amendment banning the provision of American weapons to the Azov brigade from US consolidated appropriations laws was rejected.

The website of the official internet representation of the President of Ukraine rejected the petition twice."

Details: The Azov brigade reiterates that their fighters defended Mariupol in 2022 with limited resources and obsolete weapons. This was the consequence of amendments to US laws, which have been in effect since 2017, blocking the provision of weapons and training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion.

"Azov has proven its professionalism and determination in repelling Russian aggression with blood. The fighters of the 12th Azov Brigade defend the civilised world every day and require support to obtain modern Western weaponry," the brigade emphasises.

Background:

Denys Prokopenko, the Commander of the Azov Assault Brigade, has called for the brigade to be removed from the US Appropriations Bill, which effectively prevents Azov from receiving Western weaponry.

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A Ukrainian man died of a stab wound during a quarrel with a Kazakh citizen in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Source: European Pravda with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

Details: The Embassy of Ukraine in Hungary noted that a citizen of Ukraine who was about 48 died as a result of a stabbing.

The incident occurred as a result of a quarrel in a dormitory for employees of a haulier company. A Kazakh citizen suspected of committing the crime has been detained, and investigative actions are underway.

"The Embassy is establishing contact with the relatives of the deceased and is in constant contact with the Hungarian investigative authorities," the Foreign Ministry's press service said.

The day before, the Budapest police reported that they had detained a 44-year-old man suspected of murdering a 48-year-old Ukrainian. The Hungarian police learned about the clash that resulted in the death of the Ukrainian on 1 May.

Hungarian RTL Hirado reported that both men worked as lorry drivers.

Background: Recently, there have been several high-profile murders of Ukrainians abroad. Two Ukrainian soldiers were stabbed to death in April in Bavaria, Germany, and a preventive measure was chosen for a 57-year-old Russian suspect.

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The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has created a separate subgroup to work on the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets abroad.

Source: Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine, as reported by European Pravda with reference to the press service of the Ukrainian government

Details: Shmyhal announced the creation of the subgroup after the government adopted the draft decree of the president of Ukraine that updates the composition of the working group developing mechanisms for compensation for property damaged as a result of Russian aggression.

The subgroup will include representatives of ministries, the President's Office, the parliament, the National Bank of Ukraine and Ukrainian and foreign experts.

Shmyhal added Ukraine is already negotiating with its partners on specific mechanisms for how Russia should pay. The confiscation of the assets is one of the topics of these discussions.

Background:

Western states are still discussing acceptable ways of using frozen sovereign Russian assets, the estimated worth of which is 300 billion.

The US suggests allocating the funds to Ukraine by providing loans secured by future income from frozen assets. The EU is in favour of a more cautious approach: using the interest from the frozen Russian assets  about 5 billion per year.

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BATON ROUGE  The Louisiana House approved a bill this week to phase out a rule that a home insurer cannot cancel a customers policy for three years except for lack of payment or fraud, sending it to Gov. Jeff Landry for his signature.

The bill is at the center of a high stakes push by the new insurance commissioner, Tim Temple, and Landry to reduce regulations on insurers to try to attract more of them to the state.

After a series of hurricanes in 2020-2021  Laura, Delta, Ida and Zeta  a dozen insurers became insolvent, leaving many homeowners with only the most expensive options.

Rep. Gabe Firment sponsored a bill to give home insurers more flexibility in canceling policies in Louisiana.

But some lawmakers and other critics have said the new plan will hurt some residents in the short run. They also question whether insurers that return to the state will have the financial strength to survive amid predictions of more frequent intense storms.

House Bill 611, which would scrap the three-year rule, is the most notable of a package of bills sought by Temple. Under the bill, upon filing a plan with the commissioner, an insurer may decide not to renew up to 5 percent of its customers' policies per calendar year for any reason, provided that no more than 5 percent of the insurer's policies included within the plan to be dropped are in one parish.

Legislators also sent a bill to Landry this week that would allow insurance companies to raise premiums without having to get pre-approval from Temples department. The insurance commissioner would then have 30 days to notify the insurer if the rates are rejected.

Temple said during one hearing that the totality of everything were trying to do to create a competitive market. He said that he believes that bringing more carriers to Louisiana would create more competition, and that would lower premium rates.

I hear from people every day that cant afford their insurance, and maintaining status quo is not going to help us, Temple said.

But some lawmakers expressed concerns about deregulation, specifically in the short term before the market might theoretically correct itself.

Until then, many families could lose generational homes because they would be dropped from insurance plans and forced into the most expensive options, said Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans.

My biggest concern with this bill right now is the impact that it will have on those policyholders who have protections from the three-year rule, Willard said.

Willard is also concerned that phasing out the rule will force people to turn to more expensive policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the states insurer of the last resort.

Story continues

Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, the author of HB 611 and an advocate for deregulation, argued for a long-term view of the problem. He said Louisiana is the only state with a three-year no-cancellation rule, and he identified that as the reason new insurers will not come into the market.

By not allowing a strategic nonrenewal, youre penalizing everyone by forcing them to raise their premiums, Firment said at a hearing. So look: If you want us to come in here this morning and say nobody will experience an increase in their premiums, I mean, we cant do that. But you know, if you look at the big picture, customers need options, they need choices, and this is a way to accomplish that.

There are a few bills this session that could help consumers. House Bill 257 raises penalties on insurers for failure to comply with certain directives issued by the commissioner of insurance, with fines of up to $1,000.

House Bill 120 helps both insurers and consumers long-term by extending the termination date of the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program, which provides state grants for consumers to fortify their roofs as protection from bad storms.

Researchers at Colorado State University are predicting an "extremely active" 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, citing warmer than normal temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. Looking further ahead, scientists predict that the Gulf Coast will generally experience more frequent and intense hurricanes than in the past.

This article originally appeared on Gonzales Weekly Citizen: Louisiana House advances changes to state's home insurance regulations
Ukrainian President's Office provides details of Zelenskyy's meeting with Cameron, on private visit to Kyiv

The Office of the President of Ukraine provided details on Friday morning of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday, 2 May.

Source: European Pravda

Details: The press service of the Presidents Office noted that Zelenskyy had thanked the UK government for the largest defence support package of 0.5 billion, which was announced last week.

Quote: "The provision of this package, together with the crucial decision by the United States to help, is of great importance to us at this key moment," Zelenskyy said.

The President briefed Cameron on the situation at the front and emphasised that it was important that the weapons provided for in the support package arrive as soon as possible. First of all, it concerns armoured vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types.

Special attention was paid to preparations for the upcoming international events: the Group of Seven summit in Italy, the inaugural Peace Summit in Switzerland, the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., and the fourth summit of the European Political Community in the United Kingdom.

Cameron's visit to Kyiv was reported by Reuters, which interviewed the diplomat. The agency noted that Cameron met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his second visit to the Ukrainian capital as UK Foreign Secretary.

Meanwhile, no official sources in either of the countries reported on Camerons visit. The same goes for Cameron's meetings with Kuleba and Zelenskyy.

In Kyiv, Cameron promised that the UK would provide Ukraine with three billion pounds of annual military aid, and this would continue for "as long as it takes."

Cameron also told Reuters that Ukraine has the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets in Russia.

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Dmytro Lysenko, activist and leader of the Solidarna Molod public organisation [an official youth organisation of the European Solidarity political party  ed.], was killed in action on the Avdiivka front.

Source: Petro Poroshenko, the fifth Ukrainian president and the leader of the European Solidarity political party; MP Iryna Herashchenko

Quote from Poroshenko: "Dmytro was a person whom many people associated with the future of Donetsk Oblast, its rebuilding and development. A person who is the symbol of a new generation of young residents of Donetsk Oblast: patriotic, courageous, intelligent, open to the world."

Details: Poroshenko added that Dmytro joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was part of the 109 Territorial Defense Brigade and had been injured in combat. He is survived by his wife and his little daughter.

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Ukrainians on pickup trucks are using machine guns designed in WWI to stop Russian drones

A Ukrainian unit is using century-old US guns to target Russian drones and planes.

Ukraine is running low on missiles, which are far more expensive than drones and ammo.

One unit is using cheaper M2 Brownings, which were developed in 1918, the last year of World War I.

Ukrainians are putting machine guns first designed in the US at the end of World War I on the back of pickup trucks to try to shoot down Russian drones and spy planes.

Soldiers in Ukraine's 117th Territorial Defense Brigade are using guns, including the M2 Browning, to try to take down Russia's Shahed drones, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The M2 was used by American forces in World War II, and is still used by some today, but it was initially developed in 1918, the last year of World War I.

The Kyiv Independent, which visited one Ukrainian unit, reported that they are often the first to confront drones that Russia fires north, toward the cities of Sumy and Kyiv.

Its members monitor the sky, watch their tracking equipment, and drive where needed, eager to shoot down whatever they can.

The wreckage of what Kyiv has described as an Iranian Shahed drone downed near Kupiansk, Ukraine. Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Directorate via AP, File

Russia has been firing drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure since it launched its full-scale invasion, often targeting places far from the front lines.

These attacks have killed civilians, destroyed residential buildings, and damaged Ukraine's energy network.

Ukraine faces a dilemma when it comes to shooting them down.

Shahed drones are estimated to cost around $20,000 each, but some of the air-defense missiles that Ukraine has in its arsenal have a price tag in the millions.

Ukraine's supply of air-defense missiles has also been running low after Republicans stalled billions in further aid for six months.

Soldiers often had to make difficult choices about when to use their precious stockpile.

That's where weapons like the M2 Browning come in.

Its predecessor, the M1917, was designed by American John Browning and first used in 1917, with the M2 coming the following year.

Both Russia and Ukraine have used decades-old equipment and weaponry in the war, sometimes because it is proven to be reliable and sometimes due to shortages of more modern supplies.

The unit's leader, call sign Dias, described the Browning to the Kyiv Independent as "reliable, user-friendly" and with a higher fire rate.

But he and other soldiers still said they desired more modern weapons: "We're eager to take down Shaheds. We could cut them with such weapons," he said.

Green Berets fire a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in April 2019. US Army/Sgt. Steven Lewis

Dias' unit is made up of 16 soldiers, who were all civilians before Russia's invasion, the outlet reported.

Dias, who had combat experience, said he "taught them to shoot and survive" and that they have downed six Shaheds and 12 reconnaissance aircraft.

He described the unit as protecting the city of Sumy, which is close to the border with Russia, and said that his unit works within range of Russian artillery, guided bombs, and first-person-view drones.

Another soldier described the wider region to the Kyiv Independent as "Ukraine's northern shield."

He called their group "the last defensive line" for the area.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's latest climate action plan is unlawful because ministers were not told of the risk that key policies could not be delivered, London's High Court ruled on Friday, in a further challenge for Britain as it navigates the move towards net zero.

The court's judgment  that carbon budgets set by the government in 2023 to meet the UK's target of net zero emissions by 2050 were set without evidence they could be achieved  means Britain will have to submit a new plan for a second time.

Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project took legal action over the targets last year, having successfully challenged the previous budgets set by the Conservative government in 2022.

The High Court ruled then that Britain had breached legislation designed to help reach the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, requiring a new plan.

The three environmental groups argued the new plan was also unlawful because it was agreed based on incorrect assumptions about its viability, citing the fact that the then-energy minister, Grant Shapps, was not told of the risk that policies to reduce emissions could not eventually be delivered.

Judge Clive Sheldon upheld four out of five grounds of their legal challenge in a written ruling that Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer with Friends of the Earth, described as "another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans".

In response, a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "The UK can be hugely proud of its record on climate change."

The spokesperson added: "The claims in this case were largely about process and the judgment contains no criticism of the detailed plans we have in place.

"We do not believe a court case about process represents the best way of driving progress towards our shared goal of reaching net zero."

MORE CHALLENGES

Friday's ruling comes as climate campaigners have increasingly turned to the law to force governments to move more quickly on tackling emissions.

Europe's top human rights court ruled in April that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change, in a decision that could set a precedent for future climate lawsuits.

The case in Britain was also heard amid concerns the country has lost its position as a global leader on climate action.

Friends of the Earth lawyer David Wolfe said at February's hearing that Britain's Climate Change Committee warned there were credible policies in place for less than 20% of the reductions required to meet the carbon budget for 2033-2037.

But, the group said, Shapps "proceeded on the assumption that the reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases from all of the proposals and policies ... would all be delivered in full".

The High Court ruled that Shapps was wrongly told by officials that "each of the individual proposals and policies that form the package of measures would be delivered in full", rendering the carbon budget delivery plan unlawful.

Shapps' decision was "based on reasoning which was simply not justified by the evidence", Sheldon said in his ruling.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Mark Heinrich)
United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemned the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been in Russian prison for more than a year.

We gather here on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, an opportunity to recognize journalists remarkable courage and vital contributions, Thomas-Greenfield said in a speech Thursday.

Today, as we mourn the dozens of journalists killed in Gaza; as hundreds more remain unjustly detained around the world; and as Evan Gershkovich marks 400 days  400 days in a Russian prison  this occasion is less a celebration than an urgent call to action, she continued.

Gershkovich, who was based in Russia, was detained by the countrys Federal Security Service and charged with suspicion of espionage. He has been detained since March 28, 2023.

In late March, a Moscow court extended Gershkovichs pretrial detention until the end of June.

The Biden administration has been working on securing a prisoner swap to free Gershkovich, but a deal has yet to emerge. Russia is also holding other American prisoners, including former Marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.

In her remarks, Thomas-Greenfield highlighted instances in which reporters are far too often violently attacked and wrongfully detained for telling the truth.

That was Evans crime: reporting the facts about Russias illegal war in Ukraine. A war that continues to today, she said.

She said Gershkovichs detention is meant to be a sign from Russia of toughness, strength and control.

But the truth is, this pernicious targeting by the Kremlin, and by strongmen across the world only reveals their weakness and their fear, Thomas-Greenfield said. Because they know that history is not kind to those who squash dissent through force.

She said the U.N. is launching new campaigns to strengthen security for journalists and independent media outlets, as well as programs that fight lawsuits meant to intimidate reporters.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  More than half of Republican primary voters say they still dont know who they will vote for to represent their party in the race for Michigans open U.S. Senate seat.

Thats according to a new poll by Emerson College and The Hill. The company that owns The Hill also owns WLNS-TV.

After 24 years in the upper house of Congress, Senator Debbie Stabenow has announced her plans to retire when her term is up, leaving the seat open in a battleground state.

When asked who they would support, 545 likely Republican primary votes responded like this:

Undecided  54%

Mike Rogers  32%

Justin Amash  8%

Sandy Pensler  3%

Sherry ODonnell  2%

Former Congressman Mike Rogers, who has more support than any other candidate, also has the support of former president Donald Trump.

Perhaps because of that endorsement, Rogers is also the most well-known of the group, although 30% of those surveyed did not know who he was.

Your Local Election Headquarters

Justin Amash, who is also a former member of Congress, is in second place. Businessman Sandy Pensler is in third, and physician Sherry ODonnell is in fourth.

Almost half of those polled (48%) do not know who Amash is. He once quit the Republican Party and ran for president as a Libertarian in 2020.

Almost 6 in 10 (59%) arent familiar with Pensler, and almost 7 in 10 (69%) have never heard of ODonnell.

In August, voters will choose which Republican candidate will run in the November general election.

The winner will square off against one of several potential Democratic contenders, including Representative Elissa Slotkin, actor and activist Hill Harper, and businessman Nasser Beydoun.

As of March 31st, Slotkin had raised $16 million for the race. Pensler had raised just over $3 million, and Rogers just under $3 million. Harper had collected $2 million. The other candidates were all below $1 million.

The open Senate race could help determine who controls the upper body of Congress for the next two years. Democrats currently maintain a slight 51-49 edge  which means Republicans only need to pick up a seat or two (depending on the outcome of the presidential race) to flip the chamber.

A March poll showed Slotkin leading four potential Republican candidates. A poll earlier this week showed her with a slight lead over Rogers, with a large number of undecided voters.

The poll, conducted on April 30th and May 1st, has a margin of error of +/-4.1%.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.






Good morning! Heres what you need to know in North Carolina politics today.

Kelly Daughtry was blunt about why shes no longer a congressional candidate, stating that former President Donald Trumps endorsement of her opponent Brad Knott made it impossible for her to win. But Daughtry is already on the ballot for the scheduled May 14 Republican runoff, which means anything can happen.  Stephanie Loder, correspondent

Nancy Pelosi to speak at NC Democrats event

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is coming to North Carolina this summer.

The N.C. Democratic Party announced Thursday that Pelosi would be the keynote speaker at its annual Unity Dinner in July.

As always, North Carolina is shaping up to be a key battleground for the 2024 election, with both Joe Biden and Donald Trump amping up their campaign presences in the state. Biden himself visited Wilmington on Thursday after Trump canceled an event there due to weather earlier this month.

Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein will also attend the Unity Dinner.

The dinner will be held on July 20 at the Raleigh Convention Center. Individual tickets start at $250 each.  Kyle Ingram

Kelly Daughtry, an attorney from Smithfield, is running in the Republican primary to represent North Carolinas 13th Congressional District.

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE DROPS OUT

Republican Kelly Daughtry, an attorney from Smithfield, announced Thursday she will drop out of the primary election for North Carolinas 13th Congressional District seat and endorsed her opponent, Brad Knott, a Republican endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Daughtry said she wanted to be transparent and said the endorsement by Trump made it impossible for her to win the May 14 runoff.

Knott issued a written statement that commended Daughtry for her desire to unite the Republican Party and thanked her for the endorsement.

Daughtrys decision to step aside would appear to make Knott the GOP nominee.

But ballots have been printed and cast, so if she happens to get the most votes she will still be the winner despite what she says, said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.

Get the full story from Danielle Battaglia here.

President Joe Biden touts a $3 billion federal program to help water utilities nationwide find and replace lead service lines during remarks at the Wilmington Convention Center on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

BIDEN VISITS FAMILIES OF CHARLOTTE OFFICERS KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

President Joe Biden traveled on Thursday to Charlotte to visit with the families of four officers who were shot to death while trying to make a warrant arrest this week.

Biden arrived at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, but it isnt known who or how many people Biden met with before leaving for a Wilmington, where he touted a $3 billion federal program to help water utilities nationwide replace outdated lead service lines.

President Joe Biden arrives at North Carolina Air National Guard in Charlotte to meet with meets with families of slain officers on Thursday, May 2, 2024

Upon Bidens arrival in Charlotte:

Biden shook hands with Gov. Roy Cooper and then Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles.

He took off his sunglasses and addressed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings.

The president addressed a group of five local and state leaders before going to meet the families of the slain officers.

Sam Poloche and William Elliott of the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Officer Joshua Eyer and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks died and four others were injured Monday in Charlotte when they tried to serve an arrest warrant for a man who opened fire on them.

Read more from Julia Coin and Mary Ramsey here and from Adam Wagner here.

People sing The Star-Spangled Banner while holding Israeli and American flags on the steps of South Building at UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. UNC-Chapel Hill police charged 36 members of a pro-Palestinian Gaza solidarity encampment Tuesday morning after warning the group to remove its tents from campus or face possible arrest, suspension or expulsion from the university.

JEWS REACT AMID UNC PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS

Jewish counter-protesters were in attendance this week at the Gaza solidarity encampments pro-Palestinian protest on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, but they stood in small groups and were keenly aware of their surroundings.

Jewish faculty, Jewish students, many of them are scared to be here. Theyre scared theyre gonna be accosted, said Professor Adam Goldstein of the UNC School of Medicine as he stood outside the encampment on Monday.

Goldstein spoke as a pro-Palestinian demonstrator inside the encampment denounced Zionism  and held up a sign with profane language.

But even as some Jewish students and faculty members joined counter protests, others were part of the encampment. Some pushed back against accusations of antisemitism, including Michael Palm, a UNC communications professor and member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine

As a Jew, I refuse to let them weaponize antisemitism, Palm said.

The timing of the encampment was unsettling for many since it happened during Passover, a major Jewish holiday celebrating the liberation of Hebrews from slavery. North Carolina Hillel claimed in a social media post that the timing of the protest on a Jewish holiday was intentional.

Get the full story from Korie Dean here.

NC SENATE PASSES BILL TO FORCE SHERIFF COOPERATION WITH ICE

The GOP-sponsored House Bill 10, requiring North Carolina sheriffs cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on Thursday cleared the state Senate with a 28-16 vote.

Republicans have wanted the legislation since 2019, the year after Democratic sheriffs entered office in some counties and pledged to cut back cooperation with ICE.

Sheriffs already are responsible to notify ICE when they cant determine a persons legal status. But they are not required to comply with federal immigration detainers that can keep someone jailed for up to 48 hours if suspected of illegally entering the country.

HB 10 would force sheriffs to comply with detainer requests and require them to let ICE know if they cant determine the legal status of a person they charge with certain offenses like homicide or rape.

An amendment to the bill by Republican Sen. Buck Newton of Wilson includes a provision in HB 10 allowing a complaint to be filed with the North Carolina attorney general by anyone who thinks a sheriff isnt complying with the bill.

During Thursdays floor debate, Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Democrat from Charlotte, expressed his concern for public safety regarding the bill because he said it will hinder and not help immigrant communities trust in law enforcement.

Get the full story from Avi Bajpai here.

A group of counter-protesters hold up an United States flag after pro-Palestinian protesters replaced the flag with a Palestinian flag on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at UNC-Chapel Hill. Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police while the Palestinian flag was removed and the American flag was replaced.

GOFUNDME EFFORT LAUDS PI KAPPA PHI FRAT BROTHERS FLAG EFFORTS

Andy Warhol predicted in a 1971 New York Times article that in the future, everyone in the world will get a chance to be famous for 15 minutes.

Warhol was correct, at least for a group of UNC Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers who have found themselves the potential beneficiaries of a $400,000-plus GoFundMe page to support a rager. The party is to honor their efforts in protecting an American flag during the UNC-Chapel Hill pro-Palestinian protest.

The frat brothers appeared in a photo taken Tuesday after protesters  many who police had removed earlier in the day from a campus encampment  returned to the Chapel Hill grounds to take down the American flag and raise a Palestinian flag.

During the ensuing struggle, students  some members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity  were photographed with others standing at the flagpole and holding the American flag off the ground.

Heres what we know:

The original GoFundMe post was created by John Noonan.

Noonan referred questions to blogger Max Meyer , who describes himself on X as a propagandist .

The GoFundMe was later changed to say John Noonan is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Susan Ralston .

Ralston, a conservative, served as former special assistant to President George W. Bush and former deputy to Karl Rove, who was Bushs senior advisor until 2007.

A national Pi Kappa Phi spokeswoman said the fundraiser isnt endorsed by the fraternity.

What we dont know is whether the invites are in the mail.

Get the full story from Josh Shaffer and Tammy Grubb here.

Thats all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.

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UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, about a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary. (Screenshot from committee webcast)

WASHINGTON  Capitol Hill lawmakers from both parties on Wednesday grilled UnitedHealth Groups CEO over the largest-ever cyberattack on the U.S. health care industry, which has crippled payments to providers and pharmacies and left millions of patients clueless about whether their information is now on the dark web.

A Russia-linked cybercrime organization dubbed BlackCat infiltrated a vulnerable server in February belonging to Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of the massive Minnesota-based UnitedHealth. The hackers demanded ransom for stolen data.

UnitedHealths CEO Andrew Witty told the Senate Committee on Finance the decision to pay the $22 million ransom in Bitcoin was mine (and) was one of the hardest decisions Ive ever had to make.

To all those impacted, let me be very clear: I am deeply sorry, Witty said in his opening testimony.

The company warned in its latest update in late April that a preliminary ongoing investigation revealed compromised personal health and identifiable information that could cover a substantial proportion of people in America.

Mr. Witty owes Americans an explanation

Wittys apology did little to stop lawmakers from demanding that he answer for basic cybersecurity missteps, significant revenue losses and delays in notifying patients whether their personal information was among data stolen by the cyber criminals.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the committees chair, said failure starts at the top.

Mr. Witty owes Americans an explanation for how a company of UHGs size and importance failed to have multi-factor authentication on a server providing open door access to protected health information, why its recovery plans were so woefully inadequate and how long it will take to finally secure all of its systems, the Oregon Democrat said.

UnitedHealth Group, which ranks among the nations largest companies, acquired Change Healthcare in a controversial 2022 deal that added to its behemoth footprint in the American health care industry.

Change Healthcare is an information superhighway for payments, requests for insurers to authorize care and roughly a third of Americans medical records. It processes 14 billion clinical, financial and operational transactions annually, according to the company.

Witty told lawmakers that with the Change purchase came the companys legacy technology that UnitedHealth has been in the process of upgrading.

Both Wyden and the committees ranking member, Mike Crapo of Idaho, criticized the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for not playing a larger role after the attack.

Wyden panned the agency for not conducting a proactive cybersecurity audit in seven years.

HHS, which has published recommended cybersecurity standards for the health care industry, did not respond to a request for comment. It released a statement and guidance about the cyberattack on March 5.

That wasnt soon enough, Crapo said, and the administrations delay exacerbated an already uncertain landscape, leaving providers and patients with reasonable concerns about access to essential medical services and life-saving drugs.

Not a rosy picture

The cybercriminals that attacked Change Healthcare allegedly accessed a server using stolen credentials.

The server did not have multi-factor authentication  a widely used two-step log-in process  and hackers were in the system for nine days before being detected, Witty confirmed for the committee.

Wyden said the attack could have been stopped by using cybersecurity 101.

I dont believe there are any excuses for that, Wyden said.

The company immediately contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and disconnected Change from the rest of its network after discovering the breach, Witty said.

Cutting off the system halted billing, insurance authorizations and other activities for weeks, costing providers more than $100 million a day, according to the American Medical Association.

UnitedHealth maintains medical claims are flowing again at near normal levels, and payment processing has reached 86% of pre-incident levels and is increasing as additional functionality is restored, according to Wittys submitted written testimony.

Witty told lawmakers that as of Friday the company had issued $6.5 billion in payments and no-interest loans to medical providers.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn said her office has been inundated with calls about the Change attack. The reality patients and providers are describing is wildly different from the rosy picture that you have painted, she said.

The Tennessee Republican said shes hearing from hospitals and doctors who are facing weeks of backlogged claims and payments.

Heres a good for instance for you: a small, independent, private hospital in West Tennessee. They have diligently submitted all of their claims, and they are burdened with a backlog of Medicare claims that is equivalent to 30 days revenue, and theyre waiting for these things to be transmitted to Medicare, Blackburn said.

This is all because of the missteps you all have had.

Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, asked Witty for a target time when everyone will be made completely whole.

I would hope that thats in the next month or six weeks, Witty said.

Patient data

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina held up the book Hacking for Dummies, which he said hes used as a resource on various Senate committees, and told Witty this is basic stuff.

Your entire enterprise is based on the movement and exchange of data, Tillis, a Republican, said during his questioning. Thats how you create value.  When you have a breach, its gotta be your problem, not my problem. So everything that you do to keep those folks whole for any damage in the brief is just a function of doing business. Do you agree with that?

I do sir, Witty responded. And weve (leaned) in to take full responsibility on notification, and we are waiting for that notification. Weve already stood up credit protection, identity theft protection, and they can reach us through a 1-800 number and through our cyber support.

The company has provided a call center at 1-866-262-5342 and a website changecybersupport.com.

Witty told Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto that the timeline for notifying providers and patients whether their data has been breached  as required by federal and state law  will take several weeks.

Youve been saying several more weeks since what, this attack was how long ago, 69 days ago? asked Cortez-Masto, a Nevada Democrat.

Yes, and thank you for the question. We only were able to start this process about a month after the attack when we got the dataset back and were able to start to interrogate it, a very complex process, Witty replied.

Protesters briefly stood after the hearing adjourned and chanted Andrew Witty, you cant hide. We can see your greedy side.

Witty also testified before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Wednesday.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation into the attack.

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Allison Montgomery is a real estate agent, investor and the owner of Buy My House. The company  which pairs sellers with local cash buyers  operates nationwide, giving Montgomery a coast-to-coast perspective on the national real estate market that extends beyond any individual metro, state or region.

Discover More: Heres When To Buy a New House, According To Kevin OLeary

Try This: Become a Real Estate Investor for Just $1K Using This Bezos-Backed Startup

If youre considering purchasing a property with wealth-building in mind, Montgomery has identified five rapidly growing cities where you should invest in real estate for significant appreciation in the next five years.

Also heres more home advice from a real estate agent.

Wealthy people know the best money secrets. Learn how to copy them.

Boise, Idaho

US News and World Report says Boise consistently ranks highly among other metro areas for its quality of life and fast growth and is buoyed by a diverse economy with a burgeoning tech industry.

Montgomery thinks the citys sustained upward trajectory makes it one of the best markets for growing wealth through real estate in the coming years  and plenty of homeowners and investors agree.

Boise shows the potential to be one of the best places to buy property, with a home appreciation of 218% and yearly growth of 12% on average over the last 10 years, she said.

Redfin reports that in March, home prices in Boise were up 10.9% over last year alone.

Factors that make this a great choice for an investment property include a potential home value growth of 2% or more in the next two years, an increasing job market, affordable homes, and high demand, Montgomery said.

Learn More: Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki: Use This Two-Step Formula for Real Estate Investing

Seattle

Montgomery also thinks Seattle and its broader metro region is a hotspot poised to get even hotter.

The city offers strong economic prospects, a buoyant labor market and consistently high rental occupancies, she said.

Many buyers share Montgomerys optimism.

Redfin calls the Seattle housing market very competitive and reports that prices increased 11.5% in March over the previous year.

Even though its an expensive city with a median sale price of $818,000, theres no shortage of eager buyers  the average home there sells in just 10 days, down from 12 days last year.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

New home construction is a key indicator of a citys economic health, which is the primary logic behind Montgomerys third pick.

Tulsa saw a significant jump in the percentage of newly built homes for sale, with new homes making up 33% of single-family homes for sale in Q2 of 2023, she said.

Story continues

But Tulsa is building new homes as quickly as its selling them.

In November 2023, the citys website reported, The City of Tulsa has seen a record number of home starts in 2023, with 447 homes starting construction this year.

Despite rapid five-year growth  Zillow says the average home there sold for less than $125,000 in 2019  the city remains accessible to buyers on a budget who are priced out of places like Seattle. The average home value is still just roughly $200,000  but its a city on the move.

The housing market experienced 12.3% growth year over year, making it an attractive option for real estate investment, Montgomery said.

San Antonio, Texas

A Zillow Group study found that more Gen Zers are moving to Texas than any other state by a wide margin and that its the No. 2 destination for out-of-state movers across all demographics, behind only Florida.

Out of Texass four largest cities, booming San Antonio is gaining the most newcomers of all, according to a local CBS affiliate.

San Antonio is the nations eighth fastest-growing metro, offering plenty of fun activities, history, and over 300 days of sunshine per year, Montgomery said. It is currently a buyers market, making it an opportune time to invest in real estate.

Redfin backs up that assertion, reporting that home prices are down 1.8% over last year and the average property languishes on the market for 62 days.

While its more expensive than Tulsa, San Antonios $257,711 average home value is still roughly $100,000 below the national average.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Zillow ranked Charlotte as the No. 7 hottest housing market of 2024. The year before in 2023, it was the hottest market in the entire country.

Its nothing new. Charlotte has been a perennial contender thanks to a growing population attracted to its booming economy.

Charlotte is experiencing job growth, with a 45.2% increase expected over the next 10 years, Montgomery said. The city is home to top companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Amazon, and LendingTree, making it an attractive location for real estate investment.

According to the Charlotte Observer, its the No. 6 fastest-growing metro in the country. The Charlotte area added 135,000 residents between 2020 and 2023 alone.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Im a Real Estate Agent: Buy Property in These 5 Fast-Growing Cities To Be Rich in 5 Years
The University of Chicago announced it was prepared to intervene to remove the pro-Palestine encampment from the schools Main Quadrangle, president Paul Alivisatos said Friday, claiming student protestors have created a systemic disruption on campus.

But what or when that intervention looked like remained to be seen. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to comment.

The announcement added to the heightened tensions Friday afternoon when a group of fraternity brothers marched to the encampment carrying American flags, chanting USA, USA! as Muslim students gathered for prayers. A line of cops formed between the groups.

Student Eliza Ross said Maroons for Israel had organized a picnic near the encampment for anyone who was proud to be Jewish, proud of Israel or otherwise wanted to join. She said it wasnt intended to be a counter protest, but when a group of fraternity students tried to plant the American flag near a flagpole where protestors had raised a Palestinian flag Thursday, a larger group followed.

Theres a lot of discontent with the fact that this has been allowed to go on unchecked, Ross said. A group of about 40 professors also signed a letter Thursday asking administrators to remove the protestors and firmly (reject) their demands.

Arthur Long, a student and fraternity brother with the University chapter of Fiji, said hed put out a call to other students to assemble at the quad at 12:30 p.m. to put an American flag by the flagpole. The two groups met near the border of the flagpole and encampment protestors blocked the pole with their bodies, he said.

There were no arrests, and the situation calmed a couple hours later. However the future of the encampment is still uncertain and organizers and protesters hoped the situation would remain calm.

Representatives with the UChicago United for Palestine said in a news release they had unsuccessful negotiations Thursday with Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker about their demands to divest and disclose its investments. They said Alivisatos refused to acknowledge the well-documented and widely accepted fact that every university in Gaza has been destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

It is clear to UCUP that the University is negotiating in bad faith, said Christopher Iacovetti, a student who participated in negotiations. UCUP refuses to accept President Alivisatos repeated condescending offer of a public forum to discuss diverse viewpoints on the genocide, as this is clearly a poor attempt at saving face without material change.

As the death toll in Gaza climbs to 40,000, he added, it is more important than ever for students and people of conscience worldwide to stand in steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the IOFs tactics of bombing, imprisonment, torture, starvation and apartheid.

Students had set up the encampment Monday morning, joining other large-scale protests across the country in demanding the university divest from companies with ties to Israel, including weapons manufacturers supplying arms to Israels military amid the mounting death toll in Gaza.

What started as around a dozen tents, has grown throughout the week. It now includes a makeshift food center stocked with hot meals and snacks, a donation tent and an arts and crafts corner, although some students and faculty have said theyve grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of police intervention.

In the Friday statement, Alivisatos said protestors are monopolizing areas of the Main Quad at the expense of other members of our community. He also cited clear violations of policies, including disrupted classroom learning, destruction of an approved installation of Israeli flags, disrupting speakers, vandalism and graffiti to historic buildings and co-opting a University flagpole to fly a Palestinian flag.

Fewer police are providing safety patrols in the neighborhoods because they are obliged to be present for the growing 24-hour unauthorized protest. Left to itself, there is no end in sight, and the disruptions will continue to mount, he said. The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them, despite UChicago being an institution that allows for many ways to express views.

Alivisatos then seemed to imply that the university will shut down the encampment if an agreement isnt reached to end it. He didnt expand on what methods the university might use to intervene.

Many schools, including Columbia University in New York City, have called in law enforcement to douse demonstrations, leading to more than 2,000 arrests nationwide and, at times, violent confrontations with police. Meanwhile, in rarer instances, other schools  including Northwestern University  have struck agreements with protest leaders to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

At an unrelated news conference on Friday, Mayor Brandon Johnson would not say whether he agrees with forcibly removing students.

Were going to continue to assess all of these demonstrations, Johnson said after being asked. Were at a critical point in our nations history. And so protecting peoples First Amendment right is, of course, paramount. But again, it really requires full assessment.

Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling reiterated the support for free speech and added: What were more concerned about than anything else is the safety of everyone. We can talk about the encampments, the question is whats happening with the encampment. Are there violent acts at these locations? Are people in danger?

What we dont want to do as a police department is escalate any situation unnecessarily, Snelling said. So we take our time, we assess these situations, and if its not necessary for us to go in and attempt to start removing people, then we wont. What well do is rely on the universities and the campuses to determine what needs to be done.

Chicago Tribunes Zareen Syed contributed.
The University of Chicago announced it was prepared to intervene to remove the pro-Palestine encampment from the schools Main Quadrangle, President Paul Alivisatos said Friday, claiming student protesters have created a systemic disruption on campus.

But what or when that intervention looks like remains to be seen. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to a request for comment.

The announcement added to the heightened tensions Friday afternoon when a group of fraternity brothers marched to the encampment, which had hundreds of people, carrying American flags, chanting USA, USA! as Muslim students gathered for prayers. A line of cops formed between the groups.

In a written statement, the university acknowledged a confrontation Friday afternoon between two groups on the campus Main Quadrangle, but credited university police with restoring order.

Student Eliza Ross said Maroons for Israel had organized a picnic near the encampment for anyone who was proud to be Jewish, proud of Israel or otherwise wanted to join. She said it wasnt intended to be a counterprotest but rather a parallel activity. However, when a group of fraternity students tried to plant the American flag near a flagpole where protesters had raised a Palestinian flag Thursday, a crowd gathered.

Theres a lot of discontent with the fact that this has been allowed to go on unchecked, Ross said about the encampment. A group of about 40 professors signed a letter Thursday asking administrators to remove the protesters and firmly (reject) their demands.

Arthur Long, a student and fraternity brother with the university chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, said hed put out a call to other students to assemble on the quad at 12:30 p.m. to put an American flag by the flagpole. Long said he chose to attend the university for its commitment to free speech but felt the weeks encampment had been a step too far.

Others in the group said they wanted to take back their campus. The confrontation occurred as encampment protesters blocked the area perimeter with their bodies.

There were no arrests Friday, and the situation calmed as the day went on. However the future of the encampment is uncertain and organizers and protesters hoped the situation would remain peaceful.

The administration has expressed dissent at our peaceful protests here because of the purported disruption of academics at the university, one of the protesters said, who is Palestinian and declined to giver her name for safety reasons. At the same time, all student learning and academics have been completely disrupted in Gaza. And the university has nothing to say about that.

Representatives with the UChicago United for Palestine said in a news release they had unsuccessful negotiations Thursday with Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker over their demands to divest and disclose its investments. They said Alivisatos refused to acknowledge the well-documented and widely accepted fact that every university in Gaza has been destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

It is clear to UCUP that the university is negotiating in bad faith, said Christopher Iacovetti, a student who participated in negotiations. UCUP refuses to accept President Alivisatos repeated condescending offer of a public forum to discuss diverse viewpoints on the genocide, as this is clearly a poor attempt at saving face without material change.

As the death toll in Gaza climbs to 40,000, he added, it is more important than ever for students and people of conscience worldwide to stand in steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the IOFs tactics of bombing, imprisonment, torture, starvation and apartheid.

Students set up the encampment Monday morning, joining other large-scale protests across the country in demanding the university divest from companies with ties to Israel, including weapons manufacturers supplying arms to Israels military amid the mounting death toll in Gaza. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, where the group killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right to protest but insisted that order must prevail at college campuses, as some in Chicagos Jewish community demanded action at local universities to prevent hate speech.

What started as around a dozen tents at U. of C., grew throughout the week. As of Friday, it included a makeshift food center stocked with hot meals and snacks, a donation tent and an arts and crafts corner, although some students and faculty have said theyve grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of police intervention.

In the Friday statement, Alivisatos said protesters are monopolizing areas of the Main Quad at the expense of other members of our community. He also cited clear violations of policies, including disrupted classroom learning, destruction of an approved installation of Israeli flags, disrupting speakers, vandalism and graffiti to historic buildings and co-opting a university flagpole to fly a Palestinian flag.

Fewer police are providing safety patrols in the neighborhoods because they are obliged to be present for the growing 24-hour unauthorized protest. Left to itself, there is no end in sight, and the disruptions will continue to mount, he said. The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them, despite UChicago being an institution that allows for many ways to express views.

Alivisatos then seemed to imply that the university will shut down the encampment if an agreement isnt reached to end it. He didnt expand on what methods the university might use to intervene.

As protest encampments popped up throughout the country, many schools, including Columbia University in New York City, have called in law enforcement to douse demonstrations, leading to more than 2,000 arrests nationwide and, at times, violent confrontations with police. Meanwhile, in rarer instances, other schools  including Northwestern University  have struck agreements with protest leaders to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

At an unrelated news conference Friday, Mayor Brandon Johnson would not say whether he agrees with forcibly removing students.

Were going to continue to assess all of these demonstrations, Johnson said. Were at a critical point in our nations history. And so protecting peoples First Amendment right is, of course, paramount. But again, it really requires full assessment.

Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling reiterated the support for free speech and added: What were more concerned about than anything else is the safety of everyone. We can talk about the encampments, the question is whats happening with the encampment. Are there violent acts at these locations? Are people in danger?

What we dont want to do as a Police Department is escalate any situation unnecessarily, Snelling said. So we take our time, we assess these situations, and if its not necessary for us to go in and attempt to start removing people, then we wont. What well do is rely on the universities and the campuses to determine what needs to be done.

Chicago Tribunes Zareen Syed contributed.
The University of Minnesota reached an initial agreement with pro-Palestine protesters late Wednesday to end their encampment on campus.

Hundreds of students at colleges nationwide, from Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to Northwestern University in Illinois and Brown University in Rhode Island, held demonstrations in recent weeks to demand that their universities divest from companies that are in business with Israel, and publicly called for a cease-fire.

Students at the University of Minnesota joined the national mobilization and set up an encampment that lasted 10 days to protest Israels ongoing attacks in Gaza, which has killed over 34,000 people, displaced most of the population and caused famine. Israels offensive began after a surprise attack on Oct. 7 from the militant group Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage.

Eight students and one faculty member were arrested at the encampment Tuesday, but the university agreed to not pursue disciplinary action and urged campus police not to charge anyone involved in the demonstrations over the past week with criminal offense, CBS News reported.

On Thursday morning, interim President Jeff Ettinger sent an email to students and faculty outlining the agreement that was reached the night before at a meeting with members of the UMN Divest Coalition to discuss their demands.

We regret that this meeting did not happen sooner, and have committed to regular meetings moving forward to continue to discuss this coalitions concerns, Ettinger said in the email.

The agreement states that the college will disclose its holdings with public companies on May 7, but that other investments are protected by non-disclosure agreements or other legal constraints. Coalition representatives have also been invited to address their divestment demands with the Board of Regents at a meeting on May 10.

In return, students agreed to disband the encampments and tents that they had set up on campus, and to not disrupt finals or the universitys commencement ceremony later this month.

Beyond divestments and transparency on Israel ties, University of Minnesotas student protesters had a total of six demands, including amnesty for arrested students, an academic divestment from Israeli universities, and a statement of support for Palestinian students and their right to self-determination.

While we take these concessions as a win for the movement as a whole, we know that the fight for divestment is not over and are committed to continue fighting for divestment from apartheid Israel until it is won and Palestine is free. When we fight, we win! the UMN Divest Coalition wrote in a social media post on Thursday.

The University of Minnesota joins at least two other colleges that have reached agreements with pro-Palestine student protesters. Many other colleges have either refused or ignored student protesters demands.

The protests have escalated with police intervention at certain schools, leading to graphic scenes of unrest and violence. On Tuesday, New York Police Department officers arrived at Columbia University wearing riot gear to sweep through student encampments and remove protesters from an academic building they had occupied, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Similar events occurred this week at UCLA and CUNY College.

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University of Tennessee and Knoxville Police Department officers arrested nine demonstrators on campus around 9:30 p.m. Thursday. They were brought to the campus police station and were released soon after.

Seven of those arrested were students, two were community members.

Pro-Palestine demonstrators had peacefully gathered on campus for most of the day May 2, and were in talks with school administrators over demands the university identify and divest from assets with ties to Israel.

Throughout the day, administrators posted signs and distributed flyers about campus rules and a Tennessee law against camping after 10 p.m. on state property, a move by the Tennessee legislature designed to limit political demonstrations.

Officers set up fencing after the arrests around the College of Law lawn on Cumberland Avenue, where demonstrators had gathered all day with protest signs.

Arrestees were students and community members

Those who were arrested were released soon after.

"UTPD confirmed to me that the students have been released without any legal penalty but will receive notice of disciplinary action from the institution. Those who are not students were cited for trespassing and have been released, defense attorney Mike Whalen told Knox News.

What to do if you get arrested? What to know about the First Amendment amid Tennessee campus protests

Chancellor Donde Plowman statement balances free speech and rules

"This was not the result any of us wanted."

That's how University of Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman reacted this morning in a statement to faculty members.

Plowman again emphasized the university's commitment to free speech, and noted "A group of individuals does not have the right to monopolize university property for an indefinite period of time."

She said administrators worked with the participants on both days and advised them on rules and laws.

The students arrested Thursday night will face sanctions under the Student Code of Conduct, Plowman said.

"We will continue to engage with all our students to provide support, and we will also continue to enforce the law and university policy for the benefit and protection of everyone in our community. We ask that all Volunteers express themselves in ways that respect the rights of others," the statement read.

She read the statement this morning at a scheduled University of Tennessee at Knoxville Advisory committee meeting.

University releases a statement after the arrests

The University of Tennessee, through spokesperson Kerry Gardner, released this statement after the arrest:

"As communicated repeatedly today with organizers, the crowd gathered on the Law School lawn was in violation of university events policy. We do not take this situation lightly and worked throughout the day to give people information with which to make informed decisions. We met with leaders from the group, repeatedly informing them that anyone remaining in the space after 9 p.m. is subject to suspension from the university or arrest.

"After this meeting and an announcement to the entire group, the group did not vacate the area and were trespassing. Nine group members were taken into custody, including seven students and two people not affiliated with the university. Any student arrested will be referred to student conduct and will be released this evening.

The University of Tennessee respects individuals rights to free speech and free expression, and is committed to the safety of all members of our campus community. Anyone on campus must follow university policy. We will continue to be guided by the law and university policy, neutral of viewpoint."

Demonstrators regrouped and marched through Fort Sanders

The demonstrators who were not arrested marched together along Cumberland Avenue, and continued through the Fort Sanders neighborhood before breaking up around 11 p.m.

What happened earlier on the University of Tennessee campus

University of Tennessee at Knoxville students and community members have committed to demonstrating "indefinitely" in solidarity with their peers across the country as administrators worked May 2 to set clear expectations and avoid escalation.

It was the second day of student demonstrations in support of Palestine. The gathering, centered on the lawn outside the College of Law, was led by People's School for Gaza. A vigil May 1 on the lawn next to the Pedestrian Walkway near John C. Hodges Library was led by Students for Justice in Palestine, a separate activist group.

On the afternoon of May 2, about 90 students joined the College of Law gathering with signs and started discussions. Administrators handed out flyers emphasizing students' rights to free speech and protest while reminding them about rules against camping, vandalism and disrupting classes.

One demonstrator, Hasan Atatrah, said students met with administrators for more than two hours and discussed the university's investments with ties to Israel and safety of protestors. Administrators said they would look into the specifics and update the students.

Fourth-year engineering student Fatima El-Hassan told Knox News "what brings me out here today is that I just care about the world and I care about others and I believe in a liberated and free world. And I believe in the liberation of Palestine. And I think anyone who cares about saving lives and the oppressed should be out here as well."

El-Hassan, who was born in Sudan and attended Bearden High School, said the issue matters to her because this region is a huge research hub with ties to Oak Ridge National Lab "that was instrumental in atomic bombs that caused destruction and death. Its my second night out here and I plan to keep coming. Its my moral compass that has me wanting to take a stand. I want this university to divest and stop funding genocide."

Campuses across the country have been hot spots this week for clashes between police and demonstrators, many of whom have supported Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war.

President Joe Biden in a May 2 speech condemned violence, destruction and antisemitism on college campuses while defending the right for pro-Palestinian protesters to peacefully demonstrate.

UT advocates said they gathered for peace, awareness and solidarity with the Palestinian people trapped by the Israel-Hamas war. Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on Oct 7, 2023. The attackers killed more than 1,100 people, most of them civilians, and took hostage about 205 people. Some people targeted in the attacks have accused Hamas fighters of raping and sexually assaulting some Israelis.

Israel launched a massive counterattack that has claimed the lives of more than 34,500 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry told Reuters on April 30. Palestinian health officials say two-thirds of those killed were women and children.

Demonstrators hold hands on the University of Tennessee campus.

The UT demonstrators' overall goals, like their peers on other campuses, are for the university to disclose any investments tied to Israel and divest from them, plus cancel a study abroad trip to Israel.

"(We) definitely support the students' demands, which are calling for full disclosure of university investment, for divestment from weapons manufacturers involved in horrific human rights violations and involved in killing civilians, and we are calling on the university to protect its students' rights to free speech and to free assembly," Atatrah said.

A university spokesperson, Kerry Gardner, reiterated that students are welcome to demonstrate within the bounds of university rules and state laws.

"The university values freedom of speech and expression and is committed to the safety of all members of our campus community. Everyone on campus is expected to follow applicable laws and university policy for freedom of assembly and demonstration," she said in a statement.

Graduate student Mark Sanchez was there to support the peaceful demonstration.

My biggest thing is police, minimizing police brutality and interactions. As long as no one's looting, I think they should just let people protest. If anything goes crazy, like in the news, so we've seen UCLA, Columbia, across the nation, it'd be heartbreaking," he said.

Police were present throughout the day and set up a surveillance camera nearby.

Restaurant owner and Syrian refugee Yassin Terou joined the students and praised their commitment to raising awareness.

Im out here to support these students and to support Palestine. These students are following the law, they are protesting as their right and Im asking that their rights be protected by this community and leaders at UT. There are children being killed and most of us out here are Americans who support Palestine," he said. "We are standing up against genocide, to stop the genocide of innocent people.

Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.

Angela Dennis is the Knox News race, justice and equity reporter. Email angela.dennis@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @AngeladWrites. Instagram @angeladenniswrites. Facebook at Angela Dennis Journalist.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing to knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Police arrest demonstrators on University of Tennessee campus
Police officers and pro-Palestine protesters clash at the University of Utah on Monday, April 29, 2024.

Police officers and pro-Palestinian protesters clash at the University of Utah on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)

Over 160 University of Utah faculty, including professors from a number of departments, have signed a joint statement asking the school to end its police presence at the recent pro-Palestinian protests and start the process of a divestment strategy from those profiting from the war in Gaza.

On Monday, a group of several hundred protesters gathered outside the Presidents circle, calling for the university to disclose and divest from Israel and any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza. An estimated 34,262 Palestinians and 1,139 Israelis have been killed since the war started on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations.

The protesters had planned to camp on the lawn  but citing its policy against camping, University of Utah Police along with Salt Lake Police officers, Utah Highway Patrol troopers and other local departments forcibly removed protesters, turning a peaceful event into a chaotic scene.

Since then, two other protests have taken place at the university. None have seen the violence that played out over the encampment, but officers have been present at each demonstration and made additional arrests stemming from Monday. At least 21 people have been arrested in relation to Mondays protest.

Pro-Palestine protesters gather outside of the Salt Lake County Jail in South Salt Lake after a student organizer was arrested on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside of the Salt Lake County Jail in South Salt Lake after a student organizer was arrested on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)

In response, 165 university faculty  105 publicly and 56 anonymously  signed the letter addressed to University of Utah President Taylor Randall asking that the school respond substantively to the protesters demands.

That includes ending the police presence at peaceful protests; forming a university committee to examine the Universitys investment portfolio and recommend a divestment strategy from those profiting from the war in Gaza; and granting amnesty to the student organizers of recent protests.

We vehemently object to this unprovoked and unwarranted use of force against students and community members exercising their right to free speech  we are deeply concerned about the lack of regard for the safety of our students and community, faculty members wrote.

A number of university professors confirmed the legitimacy of the letter on Friday. The signees include professors, associate professors and assistant professors from a range of departments and schools, including English, communications, law, chemistry, social work, biological sciences, dance, history and medicine.

These students actions reflect all four of the Universitys learning outcomes for general education: collaborate effectively, reason effectively and act ethically, respond creatively, and persist in addressing complex problems. Peaceful protests met with police retaliation, or the threat thereof, creates a chilling effect that stifles free expression, which undercuts the Universitys mission, the letter reads.

In addition, the letter voices opposition to possible disciplinary action against students and faculty involved with the protests, which the faculty members say is designed to deter free expression.

In a statement earlier this week, the university said students could be suspended or placed on probation and faculty could face termination. Both could be charged with criminal trespass or disorderly conduct, the university said.

We urge the University administration to both accept and embrace our campus as a democratic space of peaceful protest, the letter from faculty members reads.

Police officers form a line after breaking up a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Utah on Monday, April 29, 2024.

Police officers form a line after breaking up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Utah on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)

The letter also includes a now common refrain from those critical of the universitys response to Mondays event  the school previously encouraged camping in Presidents Circle just months earlier when ESPNs College Gameday came to Utah, but said camping was the reason for the violent crackdown on the pro-Palestinian protest.

That, according to the letter, demonstrated that encampments are permissible when the University deems them so.

A spokesperson for the school said the ESPN Gameday event was sanctioned, while there was no permit filed for Mondays protest and there were no associated university events.

The University of Utahs campus is comparable to the State Capitol or a city park  both of which close at dusk. The tents qualified as illegal structures, said Rebecca Walsh, a spokesperson for the University of Utah.

Moving forward, the letter asks the university to collaborate with students to set aside a place for protesters to camp in protest, while requesting transparency about the role the University administration played in the police response.

We call for the University to clarify how, when, and why police were directed to act on April 29, 2024, the letter reads, adding, We want assurance that future peaceful student protests will not be met with police violence.

The post University of Utah faculty ask for divestment strategy from Israel, decry protest crackdown appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.
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Nations that have typically held an unfavorable view of the US seem to be deepening their ties, the Institute for the Study of War suggested. Officials from Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia held at least 10 bilateral meetings in one week in April, the ISW noted, a sign of the deepening multilateral partnership these states are constructing to confront the West.

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Axis of upheaval threatening Western dominance

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Source: Foreign Affairs

Moscow, which has been cut off from much of the world by sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine, has increasingly relied on Beijing to import goods. Russia is also being propped up with military help from Iran and North Korea, Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Richard Fontaine wrote in Foreign Affairs. The result is an axis of upheaval that is fundamentally altering the geopolitical landscape. Though they have not forged a formal alliance, the partnership between the four countries has disrupted Western dominance around the world. The axis is ushering in an international system characterized by two orders that are becoming increasingly organized and competitive, the authors wrote.

World on the brink of second Cold War

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Source: Bloomberg

The emergence of the axis has given rise to a new Cold War, columnist Niall Ferguson argues in Bloomberg. For now, those tensions havent given way to a third World War  but Cold War II is proceeding rather faster than Cold War I, he wrote. The unity between Russia and China poses issues for the US, Ferguson noted, especially since many nations would prefer not to choose a side. The West is now economically intertwined with China in ways it wasnt with the USSR, and Western allies, like India, arent as reliable, which is why, Ferguson reasons, We should not be overconfident about the outcome of Cold War II.

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A U.S. airstrike in Syria in May 2023 that was targeting an al-Qaida leader killed an innocent civilian instead, U.S. Central Command said Thursday, confirming early reports from residents and family members shortly after the attack.

U.S. Central Command said an investigation into the May 3 strike concluded that U.S. forces misidentified the intended al-Qaida target and that a civilian, Mr. Lufti Hasan Masto, was struck and killed.

Shortly after the drone strike, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said it had hit a chicken farm near the town of Harem, killing one person. And just days later, relatives and neighbors told The Associated Press that the person killed was a farmer who raised sheep, chickens and cattle and had no involvement with armed groups.

Mastos brother, Mohamed Masto, said reports that his brother, 60, was involved with al-Qaida were absolute lies and his killing was an injustice and an aggression. Instead, Masto was simply tending his sheep when the strike hit.

Central Command said the investigation into the strike was completed last November  but it wasnt released publicly until Thursday.

In a statement, Central Command said much of the investigation and findings are classified but acknowledged it revealed several issues that could be improved.

What we can share is the investigation concluded the strike was conducted in compliance with the law of armed conflict as well as Department of Defense and CENTCOM policies, the statement said. We are committed to learning from this incident and improving our targeting processes to mitigate potential civilian harm.

The Defense Department has come under fire over the course of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for killing civilians in airstrikes. It set up a detailed investigation and review process for strikes when there are allegations of innocent people being killed.

The U.S. also continues to target al-Qaida and Islamic State leaders in Syria, including the 2017 airstrike that killed Abu al-Kheir al-Masri, a former aide to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaidas second in command in Syria.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink has said that the main objectives of the US$61 billion aid package for Ukraine are military and economic assistance, support for reforms on the path to integration into the European Union and NATO, and accountability for Washington's aid.

Source: Brink at a joint meeting for journalists with USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman in Kyiv, Interfax-Ukraine reports

Details: Brink noted that in addition to the military aspect, the United States understands the importance of supporting the Ukrainian economy, so part of the aid package will be aimed at supporting efforts to protect Ukraine's energy infrastructure and at supporting exports.

The first objective, she said, is to help Ukraine win the war.

The second objective is to help Ukraine win in the future, which essentially means supporting Ukraine's efforts to integrate into the EU and NATO and to transform itself into a stronger and thriving democracy.

Brink said the US would continue to support reforms and efforts to reform various areas of Ukraines government in order to bolster its efforts to move in that direction.

Details: Brink also assured Ukraine that the US supports its aspirations to join NATO, and that part of the aid package will therefore be used to support reforms in this area.

The ambassador said the third point was accountability, stressing that it is important in the context of ongoing support for Ukrainians.

She said part of that work that she and everyone at the US embassy has to do  in addition to people in Washington and various parts of the US system  is to provide oversight on the US$61 billion.

Quote: "So that's an important part of my job. It's something that Congress actually raises to me every time I'm there and something that we're very committed to, which helps us not only support you but also keep support going."

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Meijer, the Michigan-based supercenter company, will open its new Alliance location on May 14.

ALLIANCE  Meijer is planning to have a gas station after all at its new Alliance location.

Store manager Patrick Hughes said the supercenter chain expects to add a Meijer Express in the future but there is no deadline for it.

It had been widely believed the new store  which opens May 14  would not have a gas station. That was not true.

Speaking at Wednesday's Kiwanis Club of Alliance luncheon, Hughes said the Michigan-based company has reserved a "grassy area" on the property at 2500 W. State St. for the future station. The area is behind McDonald's, adjacent to Sarchione Ford of Alliance.

"The gas station is coming," he told club members.

Erin Cataldo, a company spokeswoman, later said the gas station was a possibility, but it was not a definite addition.

Patrick Hughes, manager of the Alliance Meijer store, said this grassy area will be the future home of a Meijer Express gas station.

Hughes: No two Meijer stores are exactly the same, but all of them strive to satisfy customers

Meijer also is opening a new supercenter in North Canton on May 14  the same day, as Alliance. A gas station adjacent to the North Canton location opened April 18. The two new locations increase the chain's store count to 55 in Ohio, and three in Stark County.

There also is a store in Jackson Township.

All Meijer stores have plenty of similarities, but Hughes said, none of them are exactly the same. He said stores will adjust their inventory, adding or subtracting products, to meet the demands of their market area.

Patrick Hughes, a Boardman native, is the store manager for the new Alliance Meijer location. He spoke at the Kiwanis Club of Alliance luncheon Thursday at the Alliance YWCA.

"You will see some differences" between each location, Hughes said.

However, Hughes said customers should expect a "fresh and clean" environment, with no cluttered aisles, at all locations.

He said the Alliance store, with 350 employees, will have 10 manned checkouts and 16 self-checkouts available for customers. The company also has a policy that requires them to open a checkout if any line exceeds three customers, Hughes told the club.

Meijer already active in the Alliance community

Hughes said the company is an active member of every community it serves, helping organizations and food pantries, to "enrich lives."

For example, Meijer is setting up its signature program, Simply Give, to help the Alliance Community Pantry. The campaign encourages customers to buy $10 donation cards, with Meijer matching the amount, and it turns into a food-only gift card for the pantry to use at Meijer.

"It'll be a really big help," said Mike Patterson, a pantry board member.

Hughes also said the store is planning to donate $12,000 to Clothed in Righteousness, a homeless ministry in Alliance, and $12,000 to Legacy of Honor, a veterans service center in the Louisville area, later this month.

Story continues

"We seem like a big company, but we're a family company," Hughes said.

Reach Benjamin Duer at 330-580-8567 or ben.duer@cantonrep.com. On X (formerly Twitter): @bduerREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Meijer ready for customers at new Alliance, North Canton stores
US to help NATO and EU punish Russia for cyberattacks against European countries

The United States has condemned Russia's malicious cyber activities against European allies and vowed to help bring it to justice.

Source: Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US Department of State, on Twitter, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Miller said the US condemns "the malicious cyber activity carried out by Russia's military intelligence service targeting Germany, Czechia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden".

"We join NATO and the EU in efforts to counter such activities and hold perpetrators accountable," Miller added.

Background: Earlier on Friday, the EU condemned Russia's malicious cyber campaign against Germany and Czechia.

NATO also expressed solidarity with Germany and Czechia in connection with the cyberattacks carried out by a Russian hacker group and is ready to consider a coordinated response to the threat.

On 3 May, the German Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Embassy's charge d'affaires in reaction to last year's Russian cyberattack on the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD).

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Russian President Vladimir Putin's "paranoid fear" of the West seeking to limit Russia's power has led him to spend historically record amounts on militarization, Director of U.S. National Intelligence Avril Haines said on May 2, according to Voice of America.

The Kremlin has increased defense spending to nearly 7% of Russia's GDP, almost double the historical average. Russia's defense budget accounts for roughly 25% of all federal spending as of now, considering the U.S. National Intelligence calculations.

"Putin continues to believe that Russia is under threat and almost certainly assumes that a larger, better-equipped military will convey that opinion to Western and domestic audiences," Haines said during the hearing in Congress.

The Russian president continues to perceive NATO's expansion and Western assistance for Ukraine as "the U.S. and Europe trying to limit Russia's power," according to Haines.

Putin is assured that the current domestic and international events are benefiting him, while he is trying to take advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas to divide the Western allies as well, the U.S. National Intelligence chief added.

Haines also assumed that Moscow is likely to continue its "increasingly aggressive tactics" against Ukraine, including attacks on energy infrastructure, and the all-out war is unlikely to end "anytime soon."

Moscow attacked Ukraine with over 3,2000 guided aerial bombs, nearly 300 Shahed-type drones, and over 300 missiles in April alone, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Read also: NATO accuses Russia of conducting hybrid attacks inside alliance territory

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US issues travel warning for Germany: Terrorist groups keep planning attacks

Germany has been given a travel advisory from the U.S. due to an increased threat of terrorism.

The United States has issued a travel advisory to Germany over fears of terrorism.

On Wednesday, the Department of State upgraded Germany to Level 2 out of four  an edict to exercise increased caution  with the stark warning that terrorist groups keep planning attacks in Germany.

The US government added that tourist locations and transportation hubs are frequently targeted, along with hotels, restaurants, clubs, places of worship, parks, and both sporting and cultural events.

Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, the State Department noted.

In late March, Canada also advised travelers to exercise a high degree of caution in Germany due to the threat of terrorism.

The United Kingdoms foreign travel advice additionally cited incidents of terror in Germany in recent years.

Germany is under a heightened threat of terrorism, the US State Department has warned. AFP via Getty Images

These include a killing and severe injury from a knife attack in Dresden in 2020, as well as two mass shootings at bars in Hanau that killed eight in the same year.

In 2019, two people were fatally shot near a synagogue in the city of Halle.

The State Department advises travelers to identify safe areas to turn toward in the event of an attack.

Public places frequented by foreigners are high targets. DDP/AFP via Getty Images

Formulate a plan of action. Know where you will go if a terrorist attack or security incident takes place.

Germany is the only European nation to have an elevated travel warning from the US in 2024, except for Ukraine bordering Moldova, which is on the same level two status due to Ukraines war with Russia.
Biden administration officials are increasingly worried that rogue Russian soldiers in Niger will take actions to antagonize U.S. troops in the country, forcing the U.S. to respond.

Theyre concerned that the Russian fighters  who are stationed at the same air base as American troops in the capital of Niamey  will engage in disruptive behavior such as driving aggressively or harassing U.S. troops at checkpoints, according to two officials familiar with Western intelligence.

The intelligence, they stressed, shows that Russian soldiers pose no immediate threat to the U.S. troops. But even small hostile encounters would increase the risk of a confrontation that could result in an exchange of fire.

The officials, and others, were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive intelligence.

The Russian and American soldiers have been residing in the same location  Base 101, which is attached to Niameys international airport  for weeks. The Russian fighters began arriving in April at the invitation of Nigers military junta, soon after it called for the dissolution of the agreement that governed the U.S. troop presence in the country. U.S. troops are making preparations to leave Niger, but do not have specific dates by which they need to leave, a Defense Department official said.

Skirmishes between U.S. and Russian troops in Niger would significantly escalate tensions between the two countries at a time when their relationship is increasingly strained over the war in Ukraine. The last time U.S. and Russian troops were stationed in such close proximity in Syria, the two sides engaged in an intense firefight that threatened to pull the two sides into a direct conflict.

There are between 60 and 100 Russians in Niamey, said the first DOD official.

U.S. officials tried to work out a deal with the countrys military junta that would allow them to stay in the country, pushing its leaders to agree to a roadmap that would eventually lead to a return to democratic rule. While U.S. officials are still attempting to negotiate, the junta has so far refused to agree to those terms and pulled in Russian paramilitaries to help train its troops and provide arms.

The presence of Russian paramilitary fighters at the same base as U.S. troops is symbolic of the broader problem the Biden administration faces in Africa. Moscow is increasingly forging partnerships with coup governments, providing arms and security to militaries at a time when U.S. law prohibits such support.

The National Security Council and the CIA declined to comment. Spokespeople for the Russian and Nigerien embassies did not respond to requests for comment.

Many are members of what was formerly known as the Wagner force, formerly led by Russian mercenary Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin. Following his death in August 2023, Moscow folded thousands of those fighters into new and existing paramilitary groups aligned with its military and intelligence services. Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using those fighters to help boost Russias presence on the continent.

U.S. officials believe the paramilitary group in Niger will also engage in political missions at the direction of Moscow to encourage the Nigerien government to interfere with the U.S. mission in Niamey and try to force the withdrawal of American personnel from the country.

The Russian forces are in Niamey to train and advise the Nigerien armed forces. One of the two U.S. officials said the Russians are expected to help the Nigerien soldiers train on air defenses.

The Pentagon is confident in its force protection measures and assesses the Russian troops are not looking to clash with Americans. But DOD officials are concerned that the Russian forces could also try to gather intelligence on the American capabilities.

The concern is more along the lines of intel. Obviously they are eyes on the ground and they have the ability to monitor, said a second DOD official. We obviously dont love that they are there, but its not our country.

U.S. officials are also concerned that the Russian forces will be in position to take over American compounds and equipment when and if U.S. troops withdraw, said a second DOD official.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday confirmed reports that Russian forces had moved into Air Base 101, a Nigerien Air Force Base that is co-located with Niameys international airport. The Russians are in a separate compound and dont have access to U.S. forces or equipment, he said.

I'm always focused on the safety and the protection of our troops, something that we'll continue to watch. But right now, I don't see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection, Austin said, speaking at a joint press conference with his Australian, Japanese and Philippine counterparts in Honolulu, Hawaii.

U.S. officials are more broadly concerned that the Russian forces will seek to exploit Nigerien people and resources, as they have done in other unstable African nations. As some of those countries have looked to Kremlin-backed proxy groups like Wagner to provide security, the problem actually gets manifestly worse, said one U.S. military official, citing dramatic increases of violence against civilians and worsening violent extremism.
DENVER (KDVR)  Colorados U.S. senators joined 16 other senators in reintroducing a bill that would decriminalize and deschedule marijuana, only days after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly moved toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

The proposal from the Justice Department would recognize medical uses for cannabis, but would not legalize the plant for recreational use. A group of Democratic senators, including Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, has sought to completely deschedule the drug, stating that marijuana likely does not meet the criteria to be considered a Schedule 1 drug.

US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana: AP sources

This long-overdue legislation will protect legal businesses and workers in Colorado, open up research into cannabis, expand tax revenues, and help address historic inequities in our justice system. Congress should follow Colorados lead and bring our nations marijuana laws into the 21st century, said Bennet in a release.

Hickenlooper has been a cautious advocate of the recreational marijuana industry, saying during his tenure as Colorados governor that it was reckless for Colorado voters to approve legal marijuana in 2012. However, the senator has been resolute in his stance that cannabis prohibition has disproportionately affected communities of color, often leading to Black men serving prison time for nonviolent marijuana crimes.

Reclassifying marijuana

The measure reintroduced on Friday would remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances and empowers states to create individualized laws.

Gov. Jared Polis has also voiced his support for rescheduling marijuana, joining a letter sent in December by a group of five other governors to ask President Joe Biden to urge the DEA to reschedule the drug to a Schedule III drug.

Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I drug, listed among those considered to have no accepted medical use and with a high potential for abuse  the same scheduling level as heroin, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA.

Schedule III drugs are less tightly regulated. These drugs are defined as having a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence, and also usually have widely accepted medical uses. These drugs include ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.

Will rescheduling marijuana benefit Coloradans?

Rescheduling marijuana to a Schedule III drug could have wide-ranging ripple effects in the nation. However, the proposal still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The move has been heralded as one of the biggest policy shifts for the DEA in more than 50 years.

Today, the Attorney General circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, Xochitl Hinojosa, Justice Department director of public affairs, said in a statement to the Associated Press. The DEA is a component of the Department of Justice. Once published by the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal rulemaking process as prescribed by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.

Economic impact

The measure introduced to the U.S. Senate on Friday to deschedule marijuana would create a regulatory framework that prioritizes restorative and economic justice while protecting public health and safety, to help undo the decades of harm caused by the failed war on drugs, ends discrimination in the provision of federal benefits on the basis of cannabis use, provides major investments for cannabis research, and strengthens worker protections, according to a release from Hickenloopers office.

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One important economic change introduced by the bill would be allowing cannabis businesses or related industries access to bank accounts and financial services that have been denied due to their ties to marijuana.

Americans resoundingly support legalization, said Hickenlooper in a release. The federal government needs to deschedule and decriminalize marijuana so we can move on to more effectively regulating marijuana while prioritizing social equity and righting the wrongs of the war on drugs.

Last August, Hickenlooper reintroduced the PREPARE Act, which would direct the federal government to develop a regulatory framework for when marijuana is legalized federally, modeled after Colorados regulatory commission convened when he was governor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
USC will hold a Graduate Celebration at the Coliseum in place of the canceled main commencement

In the wake of the cancellation of the universitys main commencement due to safety measures, USC announced plans Thursday night to celebrate the Class of 2024 in a different way.

Next Thursday, May 9, USC will hold what it calls the Trojan Family Graduate Celebration at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in place of the main commencement, which was canceled last month. Each graduate will receive up to six tickets to the event, which promises drone shows, fireworks, surprise performances, the Trojan marching band and a gift for the grads.

The university says the coliseum became available for the event due to last-second adjustments from other groups.

USCs main commencement cancellation came as a wave of pro-Palestinian protests swept the nations college campuses.

Asna Tabassum, USC's 2024 valedictorian seen in a personal photo. (Asna Tabassum)

The controversy began when the university decided to bar valedictorian Asna Tabassum from speaking at the commencement in mid-April. Tabassum was accused by pro-Israeli groups of liking and sharing anti-Israel posts on her Instagram page.

USCs treatment of Tabassum became the subject of even more protests, eventually leading to the cancellation of commencement. Tensions have been high since, and restrictions on campus are still in place for non-students and staff.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
When University of South Florida student Alina Atiq took her place among pro-Palestine protesters on the schools campus Tuesday, she expected pushback from school police. The day before, she was present when campus police broke up a similar event, arresting three protesters.

As her fellow protesters tried for a second day to erect a tent in the campus square, she was surprised to see what felt like hundreds of police officers decked out in full riot gear, Atiq said at a Tuesday news conference.

After giving repeated warnings to disperse, Hillsborough County sheriffs deputies tossed at least half a dozen smoking canisters into the cluster of protesters, videos of the event show.

We didnt expect the tear gas, Atiq said.

Videos of USF students fleeing the fumes joined the montage of images of police at campuses around the nation using what can appear to be extreme tactics to quell campus protests.

Protesters and some First Amendment experts have raised alarms at the use of what they say is disproportionate force to silence protected criticism of universities and U.S. foreign policy.

But law enforcement officials say the response at USF was appropriate as they tried to balance freedom of speech rights and safety.

In the past week, at least 37 students and activists protesting Israels actions in its war with Hamas were arrested at Florida public universities. More than 2,000 have been arrested on college campuses nationally as of Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

This is Florida, a law and order state, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement Tuesday. Every student should be able to freely move about campus without fear of harassment or intimidation. The moment a peaceful protestor arms his or herself with a shield or attempts to occupy a space that isnt theirs, as occurred today, they will be dispersed.

Confronting peaceful protesters

In a 2022 report, the Police Executive Research Forum recommended that police agencies focus on facilitating First Amendment rights, rather than crack down on protesters.

The report cautions against the use of less-than-lethal weapons against peaceful protesters. That includes tear gas, which can inflict serious injuries and even death.

The gas should be used only when the crowd has become violent or is causing significant property damage, the report states. Even then police must repeatedly communicate an order to disperse and give the crowd enough time to safely comply.

These weapons should not be used against peaceful demonstrators, even if demonstrators are engaging in minor acts of civil disobedience that do not threaten public safety, such as occupying a park without a permit, the report concludes.

At USF, police determined that Tuesdays event was no longer peaceful after officers observed participants in person and through social media expressing their intent to use some of the items they brought on campus as weapons and to resist university staff members and law enforcement, USF Police Department spokesperson Michael Lavelle wrote in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

The protesters had locked arms and were holding umbrellas and shields made of wood.

At that point, the campus police, along with leadership from the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office, Tampa Police Department and Florida Highway Patrol decided to take measures to disperse the event, Lavelle wrote.

Several law enforcement agencies, including members of our Crisis Negotiations Team, gave multiple lawful commands to evacuate the area as it was an unsanctioned protest, sheriffs spokesperson Jessica Lang wrote in an email to the Times regarding Tuesdays protest.

She added: After repeatedly ignoring those dispersal commands, (the sheriffs office) used tactical skills to evacuate agitators. That included deploying (tear) gas.

Police caught in the middle

Being called in to a protest can feel like a no-win situation for police officers, said retired Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan.

Officers have the duty to uphold protesters First Amendment rights, he said. But theres not much latitude for discretion when youve been instructed to break up a protest.

Im standing here dealing with people who I dont necessarily have a beef with. he said. The police, were always thrown in the middle of it. And when there are cell phone cameras and body cams, law enforcement leaders and street cops are very much aware of public perception.

In that situation, minimizing serious injury is the priority.

You can use a chemical agent, which is temporary, he said, or you physically have to go in, hands-on, and potentially hurt them. And either way it can look ugly.

Dugan defended the universitys claim that wooden shields carried by protesters on Tuesday could be used as weapons.

When you have someone taking a defensive posture like that, theyre saying theyre not willing to disperse, he said.

One video captured by a Tampa Bay Times reporter appears to show a protester throwing a shield at police officers after tear gas was deployed.

Proportional response

The law is clear when it comes to protests on public campuses, said First Amendment lawyer Alex Morey. Outdoor spaces are open to public protest. And while universities can place some reasonable limits on time, place and manner of protests, they cannot shut down speech they disagree with.

When it comes to police use of force: Its really hard to call balls and strikes on what constitutes reasonable and proportional response, said Morey, who is vice president of campus activity at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a civil rights advocacy organization.

What were watching out for is, are the rules being applied evenly, is the response consistent, when its a message that you disagree with, she said.

Her organization launched an investigation into the police response at the University of Texas Austin after Gov. Greg Abbott called for schools to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters. Morey said they are watching closely as events play out on Florida campuses.

USF history professor Brain Connolly said hes never seen anything like Tuesdays confrontation in his 16 years teaching at the school.

Connolly said he briefly joined Mondays protest but left before police moved in to prevent the erection of a tent.

I understand the university has rules, Connolly said. When you have anti-abortion protesters on campus who are regularly yelling at students, and theres no response its hard to then say theyre being applied evenly.

The universitys use of police force in response to minor infractions is intended to send a message, he said. So the students tried to set up a tent. When youre using that as a reason to break up a lawful protest, it shows you how the First Amendment is on pretty thin ice.
The crew of the Navy destroyer Stout recently provided medical assistance to an injured member of a cargo ship Monday while conducting operations with Carrier Strike Group 8 off the coast of North Carolina.

The Stouts bridge crew overheard a bridge-to-bridge radio transmission from a cargo vessel requesting medical assistance from the Coast Guard as it completed exercise Group Sail last month, the Navy said in a news release.

The destroyer jumped into action and immediately prepared a small boat team equipped with medical personnel as it headed toward cargo vessel Grande Portogallo, which was en route for Mexico. The Stout sent five sailors on a rigid inflatable boat to embark the cargo vessel and treat the crew member, who suffered injuries from a hot fuel oil spill.

The team eventually determined the injured crew member required a medical evacuation, prompting the Stout team to coordinate with the Coast Guard to arrange a helicopter to arrive on the scene. The Stout team then transferred medical care to the Coast Guard team upon arrival, transporting the patient to shore for additional treatment and evaluation.

The crew performed well as professionals, quickly transitioning from tactical training to real-life humanitarian assistance, Cmdr. Desmond Walker, commanding officer of the Stout, said in a statement. The coordination between our combat information center, bridge, small boat team and the U.S. Coast Guard ensured the fastest response possible, given the type of emergency.

The Stout is part of the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group. The carrier wrapped up a maintenance period in December and is poised to complete its Composite Training Unit Exercise this summer ahead of deploying later this year.
Protesters chant at Texas Department of Public Safety troopers during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on April 24 at the University of Texas in Austin. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

The bruises were still fresh on Anne-Marie Jardines legs when she delivered the final presentation for her civil rights class last week.

At the bottom of her final research paper, she typed a disclaimer: This is the best I can do right now.

Jardine, who is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, is still recovering from multiple injuries after police dragged her by the hair to detain her last week during the first police crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. These are the last days she will spend at the school. But she doesnt have it in her to finish strong.

I can't write. I was trying to order food on Friday. I couldn't read the menu, Jardine said. It was so weird. I was looking at the words but my head was just everywhere.

Jardine, who is studying international relations in the Middle East, is set to walk across the stage at her graduation ceremony next week. At least, she hopes so.

[UT-Austin says protesters carried guns and assaulted people. Prosecutors haven't seen proof.]

Students who were arrested during the chaotic protests are awaiting to hear if they will face campus discipline. University of Texas System leaders have vowed to make sure that students who violated campus policies are punished. Jardine is terrified that could lead the school to withhold her degree from her.

We have heard nothing. And we are so scared, said Jardine, who was part of the high school class of 2020 that graduated in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn't get a graduation then. And if I don't get a graduation now, I will go bonkers bananas.

Most of the 136 people arrested during the protests were not affiliated with UT-Austin, according to university officials. For students who were arrested  and for their close friends  juggling the fallout from demonstrations and their school responsibilities has been a difficult balancing act.

Students brought their study notes to the schools South Lawn when they occupied that space  and to the Travis County Jail as they waited for friends to be released. For many, the injuries and violent memories from the demonstrations have tainted their relationship with the school and weighed on their ability to perform well in classes. They also fear their participation in the protests will hurt their academic plans and chances of getting jobs.

Balancing finals and student life

A divide on campus was clear at the universitys South Lawn in the days after officers deployed pepper spray and flash bangs to disperse protesters who had set up an encampment on school grounds Monday.

At the foot of the lawn, students in orange stoles and white dresses posed for photos, adjusting their hair after every outtake. Others huddled in study groups in empty classrooms, scribbling notes on cheat sheets. Of the 40,000 students on campus, many have tuned out the protest chants as they wrap up the school year.

[UT-Austins Jay Hartzell praised by GOP leaders as university presidents nationwide take heat over protest response]

But while student life marches on as normal for some, student protesters like Jardine have clutched tightly in the last two weeks onto their demands for the university to divest from manufacturers supplying Israel weapons in its strikes on Gaza. The lawn has been littered with students finishing final assignments while their peers painted Free Palestine posters.

It was the same outside the Travis County Jail, where students went over their outstanding class assignments on their laptops. One student pored over a picture of trigonometry formulas on his phone in preparation for a test.

On Tuesday, Hansa Sreemanthula stared at a bright blue presentation on her laptop to prepare for one of her last entrepreneurship club meetings this year. For most of the day, the UT-Austin sophomore had been traveling back and forth between the campus and the jail, where she waited for her roommate, who was arrested Monday, to be released.

Sreemanthula and a friend had bought a Raising Canes meal for their roommate to eat when she got out. But hours passed and the meal got cold.

Sreemanthula, who studies management information, asked her professor for an extension on an exam so she could wait for her roommate, but never heard back. Her other friends skipped formal for a spirit club because it didnt feel right to go after the arrests.

Some students who spent the night in jail had to switch back to pressing school concerns once they got out. Mia Cisco, who was among the first demonstrators arrested during last weeks protest, rushed home to shower and change for class after she was released. She was back on campus within an hour and a half.

For students like her, campus grounds now hold raw memories of police officers charging at them with horses, pushing them with black batons and deploying pepper spray and flash-bang explosives.

Its a trauma that Im having to take time and space to process but its really hard during finals considering you cant avoid the place of trauma, Cisco said. How much am I willing to re-trigger myself to get As?

Life after protests and graduation

Citlalli Soto-Ferate is weeks away from getting her dual degree in health and society, and race, indigeneity and migration. The UT-Austin senior would like to use the degree to work in public health for the city.

She had made some inroads with contacts at a job fair she was supposed to email. But she got arrested at the first police crackdown before she got a chance to reach out.

She's trying to reestablish contact with those potential employers but crystalizing plans after college now feels trivial compared with the constant violence 7,000 miles away in Gaza, she said.

Everything feels like its floating right now, said Soto-Ferate, who was waiting for protesters to be released from jail Tuesday and had a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh tied around her waist.

Graduating seniors involved in the protests like Soto-Ferate are also waiting to hear from the university about possible disciplinary measures against them, which could range from getting a warning to being expelled.

[Gov. Greg Abbott and UT-Austin shift from championing free speech to policing protesters intentions]

For Jardine, her plans after graduation would be upended if her participation in the protests prevented her from getting her degree. She was headed to New York Universitys global affairs masters program but wouldnt be able to enroll without her undergraduate diploma.

She put her housing search in New York on hold until she knows whether the university will take disciplinary measures against her.

Jardine said her left ear goes numb with anger when she thinks about how her participation in a cause she believes in could keep her from finishing school.

What do you mean you don't know if I can even get my diploma, my degree that I've spent four years on? she said.

Jardine was planning to celebrate her graduation with a backyard cookout. She had pictured ordering catered Mexican food and getting a burnt-orange, vintage-style cake with frilly piping.

I dont want that freaking cake anymore. Im going to change the colors, she said.

William Melhado contributed to this story.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Minnesota Power has agreed to significantly shrink its request for higher electric rates, leading to a smaller increase on customer bills once state regulators approve.

The Duluth-based utility said Friday it had struck a deal for a 4.9% rate increase for residential and small business customers, plus a roughly 4.4% hike for industrial and large commercial customers. Minnesota Power had originally asked for a 12% increase for all customers, worth $89.1 million.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) still has to weigh in on the smaller $34 million rate increase. The company's settlement was with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the state Attorney General's office and a coalition of large industrial customers including taconite mines and paper mills.

"This settlement still allows us to move forward on the three important goals that we had when we first filed this rate case, including transitioning to a carbon-free power supply, making those investments that preserve safety and reliability and balancing that with offering competitive rates for customers," said Jennifer Cady, vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs for Minnesota Power.

A smaller rate hike also means refunds for customers. The PUC approved a temporary 8.6% increase that began in January.That increase amounted to an extra $8 a month for the average residential customer compared to 2023 bills. But if the PUC passes these lower rates, customers will receive the difference with interest: roughly $5 per month for typical residential customers, per Minnesota Power.

The agreement would set a crucial profit measure known as return on equity at 9.78%, lower than Minnesota Power's plan for 10.3% but bigger than what Commerce and large power customers initially recommended.

The PUC previously granted a 9.5% rate increase for Minnesota Power in January 2023, also much smaller than the company had wanted.

Minnesota Power has 150,000 residential and commercial customers across northeastern Minnesota. It also serves energy-hungry iron mines, pipelines and the paper industry, all of which make up nearly 70% of the utility's retail sales.

In November, the company said it has the lowest total bills for residential customers in the state, plus electric rates for residential customers below the national average. At the same time, the utility has shifted its power mix from 95% coal in 2005 to nearly 60% renewable energy now as it works to meet a new state law requiring a carbon-free electric grid by 2040.

Cady said there is often a disagreement about what costs should fall on residential customers and Minnesota Power's large industrial customers. She said it was notable the company managed to strike a deal with those big customers and state officials who represent residential customers. This was also the first time Minnesota Power had reached a rate case settlement with every party who intervened.
UTs Jay Hartzell praised by some state leaders as other university presidents take heat over protests

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune)  The call for state police to help wrangle protesters came from the universitys own president, Jay Hartzell.

Across campus, many had assumed that Gov. Greg Abbott deployed the intense show of force on April 24, as hed been vocal about his opposition to the pro-Palestinian protests elsewhere.

79 arrested on UT campus during Monday protest, sheriffs office says

But Hartzell told a state senator he called for backup because he was unwilling to let the University of Texas at Austin become the next Columbia University, which was making headlines as protesters erected encampments across campus.

[Protesters] indicated their desire to mimic what happened at Columbia and elsewhere, which we are doing our best to avoid for obvious reasons. Our police force couldnt handle it alone, he said in an April 25 text with State. Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, first reported by the Austin American-Statesman.

That was music to many Texas Republicans ears.

President [Hartzell] is exactly the right man at the right time to lead our states flagship university, said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, in a social media post that derided the hundreds of radical and feckless faculty members who signed a letter of no confidence over Hartzells protest response.

Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, said on X the vast majority of us think (Hartzell) is doing a fantastic job and referred to student protesters as snot-nosed, entitled, mindless brats.

UT-Austin has joined the ranks of other universities in the national spotlight as hoards of protesters have been recorded being dragged, pepper sprayed and tear gassed by officers wearing riot gear. But Hartzells strategy, which so far has netted more than 130 arrests, has prevented encampments or building occupations that have forced presidents of other elite universities into protracted negotiations with students. This refusal to cede any ground earned him rare praise from Republican officials in an environment where university presidents are increasingly becoming punching bags for conservatives angry over their handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Unrest on college campuses has contributed in part to the resignations of the former presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. And last week, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called on Columbias president to resign if she could not immediately bring order to this chaos.

As other university leaders have struggled to strike a balance between respecting students right to protests while preserving safety  Columbia University this week enlisted the New York Police Department to retake an academic building from demonstrators and the University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony over safety concerns  UT-Austins approach has been refreshingly bold, Republicans say.

Im glad to say the response there was far different than what youve seen in many other parts of the country, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said in a statement. As hundreds of protesters attempted to occupy the campus, the university hasnt wavered in its commitment to preserve a safe environment for all of its students.

But the approach has also earned Hartzell who did not respond to request for comment  intense blowback from his faculty and students, some of whom feel he too often capitulates to the desires of state leaders rather than standing up for the independence of the university.

In a Tuesday video posted to social media platform X, a group of protesters  considerably smaller than the group that had gathered on campus earlier in the week  can be seen yelling shame and chanting Hartzell, Hartzell, youre a clown, we demand that you step down outside of the presidents home.

I dont know how many times in the history of UT that the president of the university has had protesters show up at their house, but I think that just gives you a sense of how enraged people are, said Sam Law, a graduate student at UT-Austin who was among those arrested on Monday.

Law is among the 825 graduate students  as of Thursday midday  who signed a petition that expresses solidarity with the protesters and demands that Hartzell resign.

We demand the resignation of Jay Hartzell and the appointment of a president that upholds the constitutional right of students to free speech, the petition reads.

On Thursday, faculty with UTs chapter of the American Association of University Professors published a letter expressing their loss in confidence in Hartzell. The letter, which was signed by more than 600 faculty members , calls out Hartzells management of the previous days protest and his actions to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs earlier this month.

On April 2, UT disbanded the Division of Campus and Community Engagement and laid off dozens of employees who worked in DEI programs to bring the university into compliance with Senate Bill 17, a state law passed last year that bans DEI initiatives in public universities.

The President has shown himself to be unresponsive to urgent faculty, staff, and student concerns, the letter states. He has violated our trust. The University is no longer a safe and welcoming place for the diverse community of students and scholars who until now have called this campus home.

AAUP members were motivated to sign the letter because they see the administrations response to the protests as violations of First Amendment free speech protections, said Pauline Strong, president of the UT-Austin chapter of AAUP and a professor of anthropology.

Academic freedom benefits everyone, Strong said. I think it should be possible to come to a nonpartisan consensus on this issue. Strong pointed to universities that have managed to quell campus protests through negotiation. Northwestern University reached an agreement with anti-war protestors this week, as did Brown University and others.

House Democrats also said that bringing state troopers to UT-Austin was unnecessary. In a statement released after last weeks student walkout, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa called the response a gross misuse of state funds.

Political finesse

Hartzell was selected president in 2020 after 19 years on the faculty of the universitys McCombs School of Business. He serves at the pleasure of the board of regents, each of whom is appointed by Abbott.

The job requires political finesse as Republicans who control the Legislature increasingly view state universities  especially the states flagship, UT-Austin  as out-of-touch institutions where leftist faculty indoctrinate students to hate traditional American values.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in 2022 proposed eliminating faculty tenure at public universities to combat professors who he said corrupted students by teaching critical race theory. Hartzell pushed back against the idea  without criticizing the lieutenant governor directly  by arguing that ending tenure would limit UTs ability to recruit the most talented professors.

A watered-down tenure reform bill still passed, which allows professors to be fired for misconduct including professional incompetence and conduct involving moral turpitude.

But on other issues, Hartzell has attempted to placate state leaders. He defended the mass layoff of university DEI staff last month as a way to build goodwill with Republican lawmakers. He had previously closed a multicultural center and ended a scholarship for undocumented students.

The legislative climate toward higher education has been moving, Hartzell said. We have to make choices to worry about the long-run future of the university.

The protests have only inflamed the tension between lawmakers and the universities who rely on them for funding.

Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress and a candidate for speaker of the House, said he supported using the revised tenure law to fire faculty who skipped class to attend protests.

We thought you heard us when we passed (Senate Bill) 18, Oliverson said on X.  I guess not.

Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, said in an interview that Hartzell has succeeded in quelling the protests on campus in part because he knows the Legislature supports him. Tepper, who wrote a letter opposing the protests signed by 35 fellow House Republicans, said all of the students demonstrating are, in his view, either ignorant, terrorist sympathizers or terrorists.

Tepper said he is more broadly concerned that some students at Texas universities are not loyal to the United States and said these protests make many Texans question why their tax dollars should support their education.

I think (Hartzell) has a more sympathetic constituency than you might have in New York, or Michigan or California, Tepper said. And hes got a sympathetic governor who has the power of the forces who are armed, you know, the peace keepers.

Another protest is planned for Sunday. The university, which plans to hold its graduation ceremonies next week, said it would continue to rely on police to regulate demonstrations.

Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife said the university would call on DPS as needed, and would make every effort to ensure those who are arrested are fully prosecuted.

Stephen Simpson, Sneha Dey and William Melhado contributed reporting.

Disclosure: Northwestern University  Medill School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Austin  McCombs School of Business and University of Texas at Austin  Texas Enterprise  McCombs School of Business have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/02/jay-hartzell-university-texas-republicans-protest/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
A University of Texas at Arlington lecturer was arrested Thursday while setting up tents at a pro-Palestine student encampment on campus, according to Arlington police and the UTA Progressive Student Union.

Undergraduate advisor and lecturer Charles Hermes was arrested by UTA police and was booked into the Arlington City Jail on a charge of criminal trespassing, Arlington police confirmed.

According to Max Davis, a member of the student union, Hermes had assembled a small pop-up tent and was trying to pitch a when about five or six officers approached the lecturer.

Officers handcuffed Davis and confiscated the tent and the shelter.

Its a shame to see how theyre treating their own faculty, not even their students, said Michael Anderson, president of the student union.

UTA officials did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegrams request for comment.

Anderson says UTAs no-camping policy, implemented on April 24, is draconian against students as it prohibits sleeping on campus grounds from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

The policy went into effect the same day about 150 UTA student protesters gathered outside of UTAs Central Library.

Its a targeted attack on students and student organizers, as well as now were seeing with faculty, said Anderson. We think that its ridiculous and its not going to stand as a policy.

The arrest comes after students at universities across the country, including the University of Texas at Dallas and University of North Texas, have partaken in pro-Palestinian protests on campus against Israels war in Gaza.

Over 1,000 people participated in the peaceful protest held at UNT Tuesday. Meanwhile, at UT Dallas protest, 21 people were arrested Wednesday after authorities dismantled an encampment students set up early that day, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas  Palestinian militants  attacked Israel, killing over 1,200 people.
Student employees at the University of Washington said they will go on strike in less than two weeks.

On Friday, hundreds of academic student employees gathered on the Seattle UW campus for a rally and to announce they would strike on May 14.

The ASE union, UAW Local 4121, is demanding fair pay, affordable heathcare, and protections for non-citizen members who are also employees.

Union officials said that more than half of its 6,000 members voted to authorize the strike. The union claims its members do a large bulk of the research and teaching at the university that could stop if they are not on the job.

On Monday, the university had said its most recent proposal included a 47% wage increase in the first year, with a 6% increase in each of the two remaining years.
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) A vacant home in the 700 block of Elizabeth Avenue in Lafayette sustained heavy amounts of fire damage early Thursday.

Lafayette police officers spotted the fire, and when firefighters arrived at the location, they saw the house was fully engulfed. The flames were tamed within 15 minutes, according to the Lafayette Fire Department.

The home was heavily damaged and two nearby residences sustained minor fire damages.

Neighbors informed firefighters the home has been empty for 10 years aside from vagrants that were seen going into the home, according to LFD.

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What caused the fire is still being investigated.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLFY.com.
VANETTEN, N.Y. (WETM)  A VanEtten man has been sentenced to serve time in state prison after he pleaded guilty to a criminal contempt charge back in April in Schuyler County Court.

According to the Schuyler County District Attorneys Office, Joshua R. White, 38, was sentenced on May 2, by Hon. Matthew C. Hayden to serve 1-3 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to criminal contempt in the first degree, a class E felony, on April 11.

Van Etten man pleads guilty to criminal contempt

Whites charge stems from an incident where he violated an order of protection by threatening and damaging a vehicle that belonged to the person he was supposed to stay away from.

The case was prosecuted by Schuyler County Chief Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Hourihan.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com.
Vehicle crushes man to death at South Natomas hotel, Sacramento police say

A vehicle crushed a man to death Thursday at a South Natomas hotel while he performed repairs on it, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

Officers were called to Extended Stay America hotel on the 2800 block of Gateway Oaks Drive, the citys Metro Center neighborhood, after the victims girlfriend reported a vehicle fell on him in the parking lot.

Police and fire personnel arrived and rendered medical aid but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, said Officer Anthony Gamble, a spokesman for the Police Department.

Investigators said a carjack under the vehicle lifted it and then fell as the man performed repairs.

The mans identity is expected to be released by the Sacramento County Coroners Office after next-of-kin notification.

Officers are investigating the incident.
Venezuela opposition's Gonzalez says gov't would have blocked candidacy by now if that was its plan

By Vivian Sequera and Mayela Armas

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said on Friday that President Nicolas Maduro's government would have already banned him from public office if it had been planning on blocking his presidential candidacy.

Gonzalez, 74, a former diplomat to Algeria and Argentina, was named by the Unitary Platform opposition coalition last month as its candidate for the July 28 presidential election, after landslide primary winner Maria Corina Machado had a ban on holding office upheld by the Supreme Court.

Members of the opposition and analysts have warned the ruling party could take action to ban Gonzalez or block opposition parties from appearing on the ballot.

"They would have done it already," Gonzalez told Reuters when asked if he thought he could face a ban. "Once they accepted me, once they accepted another party endorsing my candidacy, I don't think there will be any issue," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez will appear on the ballot for three opposition parties, while Maduro is set to represent 13 parties.

"One could anticipate any kind of actions, attempts to boycott or impede the candidacy, but this is now really far advanced," he added, referring to the campaign for the July vote.

Gonzalez said he has already held meetings with delegates from the Carter Center and the European Union, who are set to act as election observers.

The former diplomat would not be drawn about sanctions on Maduro's government by Washington, which last month reimposed broad measures on the oil industry, saying Maduro had failed to comply with an electoral deal with the opposition.

Asked about foreign debt obligations facing Venezuela, Gonzalez said the country "always has honored its international commitments."

If elected, Gonzalez said rebuilding a normal diplomatic relationship with the United States would be a priority.

"We have cut all the ties of cooperation which existed and those must be reestablished" Gonzalez said, adding Venezuela needs more attention from the international community.

Gonzalez said he was preparing for campaigning in the center of the country. Various opposition leaders, including Machado, have been touring Venezuela to encourage voters to go to the polls for the opposition.

A poll from More Consulting last month, before Gonzalez was named as the candidate, showed 46% of those surveyed planned to back the candidate supported by Machado, while some 21% planned to vote for Maduro.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Mayela ArmasWriting by Julia Symmes Cobb, editing by Deepa Babington)
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Vice President Kamala Harris is returning to Las Vegas this weekend.

It was announced Friday that the Vice President will visit Las Vegas on Saturday, May 4.

According to the release, Vice President Harris will be visiting for political events. Additional details about Saturdays events will released prior to her visit.

This visit will mark the her fifth visit to Nevada this year and her 13th since being sworn in.

Vice President Harris was in Las Vegas in April to participate in a moderated conversation about the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and its impact.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A man who had a gun pointed at him on a COTA bus nearly two weeks ago is speaking out. Columbus police now need the publics help in identifying the man responsible.

The bus route it happened on is one Sonny James is familiar with. He said he takes it every single day. James said hes still shaken up about it, but wants to share his story and get this man caught.

He pointed a gun directly to my face, an inch from my face, and stated, You know, Im a bad man. I will kill you, said James, I want to see him go to the penitentiary, and for a long time, he could have cost me my life.

Lethal Benadryl dose used in murder of Ohio 3-year-old, investigators say

It happened on the 5300 block of East Livingston Avenue on April 20. James hopped on the COTA bus, just like he does every day. What started as a normal day took a turn shortly before 3 p.m., when a man wearing a tan-colored hoodie got on the bus and began arguing with the driver.

So he started harassing her. He paid his fare, went back and sat down, and when he was getting up, he was calling all kinds of names and harassing her real bad, said James.

Thats when James got involved, telling the man to leave her alone. The suspect got off the bus but quickly turned back around and thats when he pointed the gun at James and threatened to shoot him.

Police are searching for a suspect believed to have threatened a COTA bus passenger in east Columbus, April, 20, 2024. (Courtesy/Columbus Division of Police)

Police are searching for a suspect believed to have threatened a COTA bus passenger in east Columbus, April, 20, 2024. (Courtesy/Columbus Division of Police)

I took a chance, a serious chance on my life. I said its either going to be me or him. I maced him in his face. He got off the bus, he fell, he dropped the gun about three or four times walking away, he said.

James tells NBC4 that hes never seen that man before, but hell never forget him. He realizes that this situation could have had a different outcome, but hes thankful to be alive.

I have a family that loves me, he said, I dont only think about myself. I think about other people in my life as well.

NBC4 reached out to COTA regarding this incident. A spokesperson replied with:

We are grateful no one was harmed, but this incident is an important reminder that no weapons of any kind are permitted on any COTA transit vehicle. We are incredibly shocked and disturbed by this incident and are working with the Columbus Division of Police to apprehend a suspect. If anyone has any information about the suspect, we urge them to contact the authorities. Public transportation must remain a safe place for our operators, our customers, and our community.

According to CPD, the suspect is approximately 50 to 60 years old, six feet tall and approximately 200 pounds. If anyone has any information about this man, theyre asked to contact Det. Kerr at KKerr@ColumbusPolice.org or 614-645-4035.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
BUENOS AIRES, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Argentina on Thursday came one step closer to joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

At a ceremony held during the opening session of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris, OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann formally delivered the OECD Accession Roadmap to Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino.

In a speech to the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, Mondino expressed the South American country's "gratitude and satisfaction" at embarking on the process.

Argentina wants to "focus on a system based on rules, not only for the greater well-being of our citizens, but to consolidate the agenda for freedom that Argentina is carrying out at the moment," she said.

The South American nation aspires to "carry out rigorous coordination as requested by the OECD in this process and we hope to have a qualitative change in better public policies that our country needs," she added.

"The Ministerial Council Meeting is the highest level forum organized by the OECD, with the attendance of the ministers of finance, economy, foreign affairs, trade and other government departments of member and associated countries, as well as representatives of other international organizations," said the ministry. 
Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson is pictured at an April 3, 2023, meeting.

Oklahoma County's newest commissioner likely will have to pay late fees after failing to file quarterly campaign finance reports.

Commissioner Myles Davidson on Wednesday took responsibility for not making sure the reports were filed.

It is ultimately on me to ensure I am up to date on finance reports," Davidson said after he was notified of a complaint. "I am in the process of filing amended documentation that shows my past campaign finance records. I am happy to correct any wrong-doings and pay any fines handed down from the Ethics Commission.

Midwest City resident Sara Bana filed the complaint Tuesday with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, saying Jan. 31, 2023, was the last time Davidson filed a campaign finance report related to his successful 2022 run to become the District 3 commissioner.

More: OK County hundreds of millions short of what's needed to build new jail

Questions raised over location for new Oklahoma County jail, campaign donation to Myles Davidson

Bana said Davidson's failure to file timely reports raises questions about his ongoing efforts to secure 1901 E Grand Blvd. as a location for the county's new jail, given what she said is a long-standing personal relationship with the Garrett Family, a co-owner of that property.

After commissioners voted to select that location in February, opponents complained William Garrett, a co-owner of that land, had donated $2,900 to Davidson's $200,000-plus election campaign.

She also mentioned Davidson's ties to Flintco, the contractor commissioners unanimously voted to hire to build the new jail.

Earlier this year, Davidson changed the location of a post-election fundraising event from Flintco's headquarters.

Davidson admitted his campaign staff's choice to hold a fundraiser at Flintco was a bad idea. But at the same time, he denied critics claims that William Garrett's donation had any influence on his preference to build the jail within the mostly industrial area located just west of Del City.

Bana said Davidson should be held accountable for not filing the reports.

"This failure by a public official to comply with the rules/regulations of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission and state laws for over a year constitutes suspicious activities, egregious ethics violations and gross negligence," Bana wrote.

The Ethics Commission has in the past collected late fees from candidates who do not file their reports on time. Those candidates include state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters.

The Ethics Commission has regularly complained it has not been given funding to check campaign reports of county and city candidates.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: County Commissioner Myles Davidson fails to file campaign reports
This article was originally published in Virginia Mercury.

The Virginia Board of Education recently approved six applications to bring students and colleges together to offer specialized instruction amid concerns over awarding state funds to private schools and financial uncertainty as leaders discuss funding for the biennium budget.

Under Gov. Glenn Youngkins administration, which has made laboratory schools a priority since the governors term started in 2022, the list of applications accepted by the board increased from six to 12 on April 18. The additions are Paul D. Camp Community College, George Mason University, Old Dominion University at Newport News and Chesapeake, and private schools Roanoke College and Emory and Henry College.

In a desperate move to advance his political agenda, the Governors administration is recklessly fast-tracking approvals of new lab schools and willfully breaking the law by extending state grant funding to private and two-year universities, said James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association in a statement. Although these institutions can launch lab schools, the budget couldnt be more clear that they are disqualified from receiving state grant funding.

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Todd Reid, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that for the past two years the department has been working closely with community colleges, universities, school divisions and communities on their lab school proposals and applications.

It is no surprise that we are seeing several applicants now ready for board consideration as many of them have been moving on similar tracks through the planning process for a similar amount of time, said Reid.

Why lab schools?

Laboratory schools, which operate like charter schools, offer students tuition-free specialized instruction for high-demand careers like teaching, computer science and technology; higher education institutions create their own curriculum, which is reviewed by the state, in partnership with local employers and community organizations.

Students are accepted through a lottery system.

Dating back to his campaign, the governor has called for more options for students, including providing more options for students in public education by expanding charter schools.

In January 2022, Youngkin proposed in his first budget investing $150 million to kick start 20 new charter schools. During his first month in office, he signed a proclamation standing up for school choice during School Choice Week.

We must empower parents and students with choice and innovation in K-12 public education, Youngkin said in a statement.

But he faced opposition from Democrats on his pledge for school choice because it would siphon funding from already underfunded public schools.

By mid-February, the administrations position changed slightly after Democrats killed efforts to add more charter schools. Laboratory schools then became Youngkins alternative to public schools.

A debate over language

Later that year lawmakers passed legislation establishing laboratory schools and appropriated $100 million to support the Virginia College Partnership Laboratory fund, which had been established 12 years before for colleges and universities with teacher education programs.

Out of the $100 million, $5 million was appropriated for planning grants to support eligible entities in the design of lab schools and to assist in drafting and submitting a lab school application to the board. A total $20 million was designated for initial start-up grants for approved lab schools to make one-time purchases and $75 million for per-pupil operating grants to support ongoing expenses for lab school operation and maintenance.

Chapter 2 of the 2022 Appropriation Act, which the governor signed, stipulated that a college partnership laboratory school means a public, nonsectarian, nonreligious school in the commonwealth established by a baccalaureate public institution of higher education.

During a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee hearing at the time, then-Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, said the language was created to keep the funding for public four-year institutions before any expansion to other institutions of higher education is considered.

That language is not squishy, he said. That language is very clear.

Since then, however, the administration and legislature have debated which applicants can receive state funds under the definition of lab schools and how much funding should be appropriated over the next two years.

Youngkins administration says the definition in state law does not prohibit the College Partnership Laboratory Schools Standing Committee from accepting applications from all institutions. In two April 10 letters, Deborah Love, a senior assistant attorney general, agreed, saying: In my view, there are no legal impediments to the Standing Committees consideration of this application.

Love wrote that the office reviewed earlier versions of the Roanoke and Emory & Henry Colleges applications and provided feedback to the department on March 21 and April 4, and Feb. 2 and March 5. However, the feedback the office provided to the department was not included in the committees public documents.

But Democrats and the Virginia Education Association are critical of the education department awarding grants to private colleges such as Ferrum College, the University of Lynchburg and Virginia Union University.

Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, said the administration attempted to rewrite the state code about establishing College Partnership Laboratory Schools prompting Democrats to make sure funding was supporting public education.

We put a lot of safety rails on it so that so-called college partnership schools would only be delivered through four-year institutions, said Hashmi. They would not be open to private actors and they would have to follow a process of approval that included local school divisions and so there has been a lot of effort on the administrations part to bypass some of those safety rails that we put in.

However, Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, said he hopes the state will support lab schools, public and private, both of which he pointed out benefit public school children.

Im not looking at the school thats providing it, Im looking at students that are receiving it, said Peake, who sits on the Senate Education committee.

I think we need to take new looks at how we are educating our children and the opportunities were giving our children, and that is especially the case after the learning shortfalls we have had since Governor [Ralph] Northam shut down our schools during the coronavirus, Peake said. When you look at the learning loss our students are facing since the coronavirus shut down, weve got to try everything possible to get our kids caught back up and if its lab schools, I think its a great opportunity.

Funding

Within the past two years, the Board of Education has accepted six lab school applications: Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Virginia, and Germanna and Mountain Gateway Community Colleges.

VCUs partnership with CodeRVA Regional High School was the first application approved by the Board of Education and awarded $6 million. It opened in January. While VCU is a public university, the decision was criticized because it supported a regional school that was already fully funded and fully staffed.

Fedderman of the Virginia Education Association, suggested the money could have gone instead to neighboring Overby-Sheppard Elementary School in Richmond.

Virginia is one of the richest states in the country, yet we spend less per student in state funding than states with fewer resources, such as Alabama and West Virginia, Fedderman said in a statement at the time. Showering one school with huge amounts of state and local funding might look nice and distract some of the public, but parents of kids in other public schools want and deserve adequate funding for their students, too. Lets work to fund all our public schools like we fund our lone lab school.

Democrats reiterated in budget amendments during the recent legislative session that public funds for lab schools should only be used for public four-year institutions. Youngkin and lawmakers have gone back and forth over whether to include funding for lab schools in the two year budget.

After trading proposals, which included Youngkin proposing $60 million and the General Assembly offering no investments for lab schools, the two are at a stalemate before the current budget ends on July 1.

Change in process

The budget negotiations and disagreements on language are not the only issues plaguing lab school decisions.

On April 11, Virginias College Partnership Laboratory Schools Standing Committee voted 3-2 to adjust the process for approving applications by cutting the number of reviews from two to one before submitting them to the Board of Education for final review. While some members said the move would help, others expressed concern after the process was created a year ago.

Board member Andy Rotherham, a Youngkin appointee on the committee, said the move would streamline the process for applicants to meet with reviewers and travel to Richmond.

I think we just need to continue to try to refine it [the process] to maintain the highest bar of quality, but also think about how can we do it as efficiently as possible, Rotherham said at the meeting.

He said if the committee finds any issues with applications, it has options including sending applications to the board with conditions.

Some of the notable elements reviewed in applications is a schools plan for serving all students including those with disabilities, English language learners, and students who are academically behind or gifted.

According to state law, all lab schools are subject to all federal and state and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, ancestry, or need for special education services.

Applications must also include plans for student recruitment and enrollment, the schools financial plan and policies, including financial controls and audit requirements; and assurances that the college partnership laboratory school is nonreligious in its programs, admission policies, employment practices.

Fundamentally the accountability for actually authorizing these schools lies with the nine members of the state board who its incumbent on them to look at everything including the public comment which is still provided in this process, Rotherham said

Board Vice President Bill Hansen, a Youngkin appointee, also supported the change.

I think its the evolution of where we are, where the Department of Education is, where we are in the process and I just really dont have any concerns whatsoever that were going to be stepping away from quality outcomes of what were all seeking to achieve here, Hansen said during the meeting.

However, Joan Wodiska and Pam Moran, committee chair and vice chair, voted against changing the process.

Moran asked the committee to consider keeping a second review on a case by case basis, but no action was taken.

I dont want to vote no, said Moran. Id like to be able to have these proposals get the support and go through the process if they need to, and [if] there are some that are coming to us that we may say  lets send it on, Im good with that; but I dont want to leave out a piece of the process that gets people something that they need to then get back to the place where they can go to the state board.

Wodiska added that she believes having a first and final review is necessary, a historical practice done by the state board.

The role of a standing committee as charged under law is to set a process to review applications, Wodiska said. That is our role, that is our charge. There are millions of taxpayer dollars at stake in these conversations, but most importantly is the welfare of the students and educational professionals that will be at these lab schools.

House Education Committee Chair Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, who represents a part of Roanoke City near Roanoke College, said he considered the boards decision presumptive when the budget is not completed and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that Virginia has been underfunding public education for a number of years.

Lab schools in and of themselves are not a bad idea, Rasoul said. The question is, are we going to be diverting funds when we just had a massive report from JLARC, saying how underfunded our public schools are, given that funds for new projects like this seem to divert away from needing to pay our teachers at the national average mental health resources and other critical services.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.
Volusia County caregiver sentenced to 60 years in prison after elderly womans murder

A woman in Volusia County has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for a womans murder.

Micayla Yusco was working as a caregiver for 89-year-old Margaret Hindsley in 2022.

The sheriffs office says Yusco smoked drugs with her husband, convinced him to kill Hindsley, gave him the murder weapon, and told him how to kill her.

Watch: Disabled womans death ruled a homicide, while in caregivers custody

Yuscos husband, Tyden Guinn, is awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Voters may get a say on the future of natural gas in Washington

State Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, speaks at a rally in support of six initiatives to the Legislature, on the steps of the state Capitol in Olympia, Wash., Feb. 23, 2024. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

The November ballot could be the next battleground in the fight over Washingtons march toward ending natural gas use in homes.

Key players behind three Republican-backed initiatives state voters are already set to decide are close to launching an all-out effort for a fourth, aimed at blocking the states shift away from natural gas and toward technology like heat pumps.

They are working to assemble the means and the money to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures in less than two months to qualify the measure for the ballot.

But for now, they are hung up in court, unable to get started with the signature-gathering effort, as environmental groups that favor the states path on energy policy challenge their proposals.

This issue is white hot, said state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen. But time is tight.

In addition to working through the court dispute, Walsh and others must decide which of four pending initiatives they want to proceed with.

Walsh, chair of the state Republican Party, is the author of three proposed initiatives focused on repealing a new state law meant to hasten Puget Sound Energys transition away from natural gas.

The Building Industry Association of Washington is sponsoring one too. It repeals provisions of the new law, then goes further to bar the state and local governments from banning, restricting or disincentivizing the use of natural gas in new or existing home or commercial buildings.

BIAWs measure, Initiative 2066, states the Washington energy code  adopted by the state Building Code Council  may not in any way prohibit, penalize, or discourage the use of gas for any form of heating, or for uses related to any appliance or equipment, in any building.

To get a measure on the ballot, supporters must submit signatures of at least 324,516 registered voters by 5 p.m. July 5. It is recommended that at least 405,000 signatures be turned in to allow for invalid signatures.

But backers of the natural gas measures cannot circulate petitions due to legal challenges from environmental groups. Climate Solutions, Washington Conservation Action and NW Energy Coalition are contesting the wording of the ballot title and description for all of them.

The three filed by Walsh cleared a final legal hurdle Thursday. But hes waiting to see what happens with the BIAW proposal. A Thurston County Superior Court judge could resolve the skirmish by May 15, giving sponsors roughly seven weeks before the July 5 deadline.

A BIAW official said no decisions on next steps will be made until the ballot title is settled.

Ever-confident, Walsh acknowledged hard decisions are coming.

Well need to consolidate efforts around one [measure] because we must do in seven or eight weeks what we had months to do in 2023, Walsh said, referring to signature-gathering for the already-qualified initiatives concerning the state capital gains tax, long-term care benefit program, and climate law.

In 2012, a coalition of Washington education groups filed its charter school initiative in late May. A ballot title challenge for Initiative 1240 took until mid-June to resolve. Organizers needed 241,000 signatures and turned in 357,352 by the July 6 deadline.

Opponents legal maneuvering is a delay tactic, Walsh said

Lauren McCloy, policy director for NW Energy Coalition rejected that claim.

That is not the reason. Theyre entitled to their opinion, McCloy said. We think that the titles need to be more clear and informative to voters to fully understand what each seeks to do.

Neutral wording

For each initiative, the state attorney generals office drafted a 10-word statement of subject, 30-word concise description and 75-word ballot measure summary. The environmental groups are offering alternative language for the court to adopt.

On Thursday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Mary Sue Wilson finalized wording for Walshs proposed initiatives: 2052, 2053 and 2054. Some tweaks were made in all three.

State attorneys wrote that each measure concerns energy and large combination utilities. Wilson revised language in all three to read concerns repealing a law relating to energy and large combination utilities.

With Initiative 2066, the BIAW measure, foes are seeking significant rewriting.

In a legal filing, their attorneys ask Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp to amend the subject statement from concerns natural gas regulations to concerns repealing and prohibiting requirements to decarbonize and promote electrification.

Opponents contend the concise description needs amending too.

It now reads: This measure would repeal or prohibit certain state and local laws and regulations that restrict or discourage gas use, and would require utilities and local governments to provide natural gas to eligible customers.

Environmental groups propose it read: This measure would repeal or prohibit certain state and local laws and regulations that promote decarbonization and electrification, and would restrict the ability of certain utilities and local governments to regulate gas.

Our clients believe that there is certain wording that will be more favorable to rejection of the initiatives. But it still must be neutral wording, said attorney Paul Lawrence of the Pacifica Law Group, a veteran of ballot title face-offs who is representing the three environmental groups.

In a statement, BIAW said it supports the language drafted by the attorney generals office.

It clearly describes what the initiative is trying to accomplish and thats protecting natural gas as an energy choice for the millions of families and businesses who count on it for cooking, heating and power, the statement says. The challengers proposed title and brief description is not only confusing, but also inaccurate.

State attorneys will file their response to opponents proposed changes on Monday. Zipp is slated to hold a hearing May 15 and could issue a decision then.

The post Voters may get a say on the future of natural gas in Washington appeared first on Washington State Standard.
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Va. (WJHL)  Virginia State Police (VSP) are investigating after a three-vehicle crash in a work zone on Interstate 81 Thursday.

The VSP reports a Cadillac SUV collided with two other vehicles on I-81 South in Washington County. The crash occurred around 4 p.m.

Kingsport PD: 1 dead after motorcycle crash on Fort Henry Drive

The Virginia Department of Transportation 511 Traffic Map stated the crash had at one point backed up traffic for six miles in the southbound lanes.

State police report all three vehicles ended up in the center median after the collision.

The drivers in the two vehicles hit by the Cadillac were checked out and declined medical transport.

News Channel 11 has reached out to local authorities for information on what led to the crash.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
W.E.B. Du Bois study The Philadelphia Negro at 125 still explains roots of the urban Black experience  sociologist Elijah Anderson tells why it should be on more reading lists

W.E.B. Du Bois is widely known for his civil rights activism, but many sociologists argue that he has yet to receive due recognition as the founding father of American sociology. His groundbreaking study, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, was published in 1899 and exhaustively detailed the poor social conditions of thousands of Black Philadelphians in the citys historic Seventh Ward neighborhood.

We spoke with Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, about the importance of Du Bois seminal study and why its still relevant for Philadelphians 125 years later.

How did the Philadelphia Negro study come about?

Much of Philadelphias elite of the day believed that the city was going to the dogs, and that the reason was the huge influx of Black people from the South. Susan Wharton, a philanthropist and the wife of Joseph Wharton  after whom the Wharton School is named  and then-provost at the University of Pennsylvania Charles Harrison invited Du Bois to come to Philadelphia to study Philadelphias Black population and try to find answers to this problem.

Du Bois accepted their offer, which came with a small stipend, and came to Philadelphia along with his new bride, Nina Gomer. They settled in the Old Seventh Ward in a local settlement house, located at Sixth and Waverly streets, down the street from Mother Bethel AME, the famous Black church. Du Bois then set about studying the Seventh Ward, known for its concentration of the Black population. These people lived in the alleys and streets adjacent to the wealthy white people for whom they worked as servants.

Family portrait of W.E.B Du Bois, his wife, Nina, and their baby son Burghardt in 1898. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

Due to Du Bois upbringing and Harvard education, his bearing was that of the elite. While conducting his field work, he at times dressed in spats and a suit and tie.

Du Bois approached his subjects as an objective social scientist. He wanted to understand the condition of Philadelphias Black population and then provide his report to the white elite whom he believed would use his work to improve the condition of Black people, both within Philadelphia and beyond.

Can you explain his idea of the benevolent despot?

This term is based on Du Bois original premise: that the inequality between the living conditions of Blacks and whites could be rectified by the wealthy people who controlled the city. He regarded these leaders as despots due to the power they wielded, but also believed them to be benevolent as well as rational. Du Bois observed the Irish and Scottish immigrants who were employed in certain industries. He wondered why these companies would fail to employ Black people, as well, and concluded that they must simply be ignorant. After all, in his mind, these were benevolent people as well as rich and powerful  and most importantly, they were rational. So why would they employ the Irish and Scots, but not the Black people? This was a critical question for Du Bois, and one he was determined to answer through his study.

Elijah Anderson wrote the introduction to the 1995 and 2023 editions of The Philadelphia Negro. University of Pennsylvania Press

However, as the study progressed, Du Bois began to realize that the problem was much more complicated than hed originally assumed. He realized that the so-called benevolent despots may not be so benevolent after all, focusing on their own financial interests. These included pitting Irish and Scottish workers against Black people to keep wages low, but also a simple preference of white workers over Black workers.

Halfway through the study, Du Bois pours out a soliloquy of disappointment. He declares that there is, in fact, no benevolent captain of industry, because if such a person existed, he wouldnt let these Black boys and girls fester in poverty and crime.

He writes:

If now a benevolent despot had seen the development, he would immediately have sought to remedy the real weakness of the Negros position, i.e., his lack of training; and he would have swept away any discrimination that compelled men to support as criminals those who might support themselves as workmen.

"He would have made special effort to train Negro boys for industrial life and given them a chance to compete on equal terms with the best white workmen; arguing that in the long run this would be best for all concerned, since by raising the skill and standard of living of the Negroes he would make them effective workmen and competitors who would maintain a decent level of wages. He would have sternly suppressed organized or covert opposition to Negro workmen.

"There was, however, no benevolent despot, no philanthropist, no far-seeing captain of industry to prevent the Negro from losing even the skill he had learned or to inspire him by opportunities to learn more.

This is also where Du Bois began to see and clarify the situation as a problem of racism. He doesnt use the word racism  that word did not exist at the time  but he speaks in terms of racial preferences and discrimination.

How are his findings relevant to Philadelphians today?

The Philadelphia Negro remains a powerful work. It depicts the social organization of the Black community, and especially the Black class structure of Du Bois day. It also utilizes the technique we know today as cohort analysis  the idea that social conditions affecting a group are also impactful to the individual, and that what happens to the group is a function of historic moments of society.

Du Bois ethnographic descriptions of Black people living in isolated communities after the end of slavery and migrating to these cities presages the dire conditions in inner-city communities of today, many of which are still largely Black.

Additionally, the role of European immigration in Du Bois day played a critical role in undermining the position of Black people in society. In the context of white over Black, each successive wave of immigration from Europe since the end of the Civil War typically worked to undermine the position of the emerging Black middle class.

Du Bois pointed this out back in 1899. He observed that employers preferred white immigrants from Europe over Black people. The benevolent despot Du Bois hoped to reach ignored his work, with implications for Philadelphia race relations to this day.

W.E.B. Du Bois seated in his office at Atlanta University in 1909. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries

How did it inform your own work as a sociologist?

When I was a sociology graduate student at the University of Chicago in the 1970s, The Philadelphia Negro was not required reading. But later, I taught a summer course at Northwestern University about Du Bois and, like so many young Black scholars of my generation, I was deeply inspired by his work.

Afterwards, when I was recruited by Swarthmore College  located 11 miles outside Philadelphia  I felt honored to reside near the city where Du Bois had conducted his work. I often traveled to Philadelphia to walk through the neighborhoods where hed worked. Ultimately, the University of Pennsylvania  the very place that had originally recruited Du Bois to conduct his study  offered me a position. I moved to the city and began conducting ethnographic studies. In some sense, I followed in the footsteps of Du Bois.

In fact, my entire body of ethnographic work grows out of some of the questions Du Bois raises, and the unresolved problems he uncovers. Streetwise focuses on the sociology of gentrification and its implications for both white and Black people living in gentrifying neighborhoods. Code of the Street addresses the violence that occurs in inner-city neighborhoods, as well as the issue of policing and the abdication of the police. After that, I began to deal with some of the issues that brought different races together. The Cosmopolitan Canopy is an ethnographic study of Philadelphias Rittenhouse Square and the Reading Terminal Market and Center City. Most recently, in 2022, I published Black in White Space, a fine-grained ethnographic portrait of how systemic racism operates in everyday life.

All these books, based on studies that were conducted in Philadelphia, stem from the inspiration of reading Du Bois as a graduate student.

Philadelphia has more residents living in poverty than any other big city in the U.S. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Why should Philadelphians read this book?

The book is a seminal work, and while it has influenced many Black sociologists, it has not yet received the attention it deserves. However, an increasing number of scholars, both Black and white, are beginning to grapple with Du Bois work.

Philadelphians should read this book to become enlightened about the citys history and how it relates to the dire circumstances of the citys impoverished population of today.

The Philadelphia economy is undergoing a period of profound transition, from an economy based on manufacturing to one based increasingly on service and high technology, including robotics, computers and social media. Jobs and financial opportunities are sent away from Philadelphia to non-metropolitan America and to underdeveloped nations around the world. As a result, many residents of the city have become dislocated economically; 22% of the citys population is impoverished, and a majority of them are Black. Hence, the condition of the disenfranchised underclass whom Du Bois regarded as the submerged tenth has become remarkably more complicated and dire.

This complex mix of factors creates a good deal of crime and alienation, which feeds into the dominant narrative that our cities are falling apart  and that its the fault of this disenfranchised underclass, this submerged tenth. This is blatantly incorrect. The problems facing todays poor inner-city residents stem from systemic racism and the structure of capital, not the individuals trapped inside that structure.

Strikingly, despite being written over a century ago, The Philadelphia Negro anticipates not only the condition of todays poor inner-city Blacks, but also the unwillingness or the inability of todays benevolent despots to rectify or even address the situation. We see Du Bois submerged tenth in todays drug dealers, drug addicts and the persistently impoverished Black community. And we see his not-so-benevolent despots in politicians who would rather blame the victims than take any steps to improve their lot.

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: Elijah Anderson, Yale University

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Elijah Anderson 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.
Was a W. Richland killer grooming his victim in 6th grade? What a WA investigation found

Angelica Santos was in the sixth grade when she started telling friends she had a secret boyfriend.

She said it was Elias Huizar  a 34-year-old Yakima policeman working as a school resource officer at her middle school.

Within the next five years, Huizar lost his police job, got a divorce and had a baby with Santos.

Less than two weeks ago, he stabbed her to death at his home in the Tri-Cities and fled with their 1-year-old son.

The 17-year-old likely was killed the same day that he gunned down his ex-wife at a nearby Tri-Cities school where she worked.

The murders led to a 300-mile, two-state manhunt that ended last week along Interstate 5 in Oregon when Huizar shot and killed himself.

Now, among the many questions being asked, is what police and school officials in Yakima and Richland knew of Huizars relationship with Santos and if it began when she was just 12.

The allegations were the focus of a month-long criminal investigation in 2019, resulting in a 105-page report by the Washington State Attorney Generals Office.

At the time, many officials and her own family members didnt believe Santos was telling her friends the truth.

The full story of when their sexual relationship began likely will never be known. But recently his grooming of young girls was becoming clearer.

He was charged in February with raping Santos when she was 15 and with raping her teen friend earlier this year.

Angelica Santos was a sixth-grade student when she told friends that she was dating a Yakima police officer. Courtesy Samantha Deluna

How she met Huizar

Santos and her younger brother grew up in the care of her grandmother, Ann Wells, in Yakima. Santos had limited contact with her mother, who had a history of drug problems and being abusive.

Her father wasnt around much. He showed up in Yakima in October 2017 while fleeing warrants in Indiana and North Carolina. On Christmas Day 2017, he was killed in a confrontation with Yakima police.

Yakima School District records show Santos started getting into trouble at school in 2018, in her first year at middle school.

A Washington Middle School discipline report from October 2018 attached to the Attorney Generals investigation said she was fighting with another girl.

By January 2019, Santos was suspended twice and she was served with a restraining order to stay away from the other student.

One day when the two girls were at lunch, another fight erupted. The disciplinary records say Santos started the confrontation, and Huizar, the schools resource officer, stepped between the girls and stopped the fight.

Elias Huizar in 2018. Yakima Police Department

After that, Santos continued to have problems in school with attendance and being disruptive, but no other physical fights were reported.

But thats also when others started noticing that Santos began hanging around the handsome officer who participated in bodybuilding tournaments and who had broken up her earlier fight, according to school Principal Bill Hilton and Vice Principal Sara Cordova.

Huizar, who joined Yakima police in 2013, had been a school resource officer for about a year and a half. His supervising sergeant, Joseph Deccio, later told investigators he heard positive feedback about Huizars work.

However, Hilton acknowledged in the report that there were some questions in the beginning about Huizars behavior around students.

It was reported to him by some teachers that Huizar was making comments such as, Im your daddy, to students, Hilton told senior AG investigator Bradley Graham.

Hilton said he counseled Huizar about it  telling him that it was inappropriate humor for the students. He said he felt that Huizar was doing it simply to be funny.

Cordova also told Huizar to change his Facebook account to a private setting to prevent students from viewing his private pictures.

But Hilton, Cordova and the schools security officer, Herberto Zuniga, all vouched for Huizar.

Angelica Santos, shown here in an undated photo with her brother, was a sixth-grade student in Yakima when she told friends that she was dating a Yakima police officer. Courtesy Samantha Deluna

Dating an officer

Hilton said school officials started to notice Santos standing near Huizar before school in the mornings and during the lunch hour.

(The principal) referred to her as always by (Huizar), Graham wrote. Asked if he spoke with Huizar about it early on, he said he didnt. He did talk to (Angelica) and her grandmother about it and told the student to stop doing it.

Then in March 2019, another student reported to school officials that Santos was claiming on the social media app SnapChat that she and Huizar were dating.

Hilton noted that (the other student) had a history of making false accusations and he didnt feel it was valid, Graham wrote.

When he talked to Santos and her grandmother about the message, Santos denied sending it and said her account was hacked, according to the report.

The principal also talked to Huizar about the message, and the officer said Santos made him uncomfortable and he didnt want her hanging around him.

Angelica Santos, pictured here with her family, was a sixth-grade student when she told friends that she was dating a Yakima police officer in 2019. Courtesy Samantha Deluna

Hilton didnt notify school district administrators or Huizars supervisor at the police department about the allegations.

Hilton said, We handled it  we couldnt verify it.

He said school leaders talked more to the other student, who seemed to back off some on her statements.

A couple months later in May 2019, some other girls came forward to report Santos was talking about dating Huizar and being sexually active.

Santos told them on SnapChat and in person, that she and the officer had sex in a janitors closet at school and at his Yakima home.

The SnapChat messages from a person with the username Lowkeyy were printed out and included in the AGs report.

Lowkeyy says she had sex with Huizar and shared photos of him without a shirt believed to be from his personal Facebook page.

In the messages, she asked her friends to keep it a secret. But others at school learned about the messages and Santos became despondent and told her friends she wanted to die by suicide.

She also had told a friend at school that shed been sexually active with Huizar and the girl told her dad.

The father called the vice principal and reported that Santos was going around school telling people that she lost her virginity to Officer Huizar.

2019 investigation

This time, school administrators called Yakima police.

Santos was emergency expelled from school while they investigated the claims. And Huizar was placed on administrative leave.

Former Yakima Police Officer Elias Huizar, on the left, is accused of raping a teen at a West Richland home. He is pictured here in 2018 with two other resource officers delivering food to families in need. Courtesy Yakima Police

Yakima Detective Michael Durbin talked with the principal and vice principal along with Child Protective Services. But since Huizar was a Yakima officer, the department asked the state Attorney Generals Office to investigate the allegations.

But even in the early stages of the investigation, Durbin found school officials and her relatives did not believe what Santos posted or told friends.

Santos grandmother told me that she did not believe the poor officer did anything with (Angelica) and that she didnt want to see the officer suffer harm for something that didnt happen, Durbin wrote.

The detective told Santos grandmother that he couldnt talk about the details the case, but wanted to make sure that she and Santos had access to programs to support them.

Graham from the AGs Office took over the investigation in June 2019.

The principal and vice principal told Graham that they had no concerns that Huizar raped any of their students.

They noted that the janitors closet at the school was in a public place that was monitored by security cameras. And a live feed of the cameras was visible in the main office and there was only a limited amount of recorded video.

Vice Principal Sara Cordova also told Graham that her husband currently worked as Yakima police captain. The principal didnt believe that would affect her judgment about the allegations against Huizar.

A GoFundMe was created for Angelica M. Santos, 17, who was killed by her boyfriend Elias Huizar, a 39-year-old former police officer, inside his West Richland home in April 2024. Courtesy GoFundMe

Disbelief and denials

Graham also interviewed six students at Washington Middle School.

Each said they had never seen Santos and Huizar together off campus. He asked some if they believed there was a relationship, and they said they didnt.

Most of the girls said they were no longer friends with Santos because of the allegations.





Santos grandmother told the AG investigator that her granddaughter was a sensitive and caring girl who liked to help the homeless.

She didnt believe her granddaughter was sexually active and hadnt shown any sexualized behaviors. And she said there was no opportunity for Santos to got to Huizars home because she took the girl to and from school everyday.

She said this is (Angelicas) first year in middle school and her granddaughter wasnt sure she wanted to go there, said the report. (Angelica) described it as a dark and scary place. She said that having the officer there made her feel safer.

Nothing Santos had said or done made Wells think she had an inappropriate relationship with Huizar. Santos told her grandmother that she was upset about the other students spreading rumors about her at school.

Santos also denied the rumors when she was interviewed by a law enforcement interviewer who specializes in talking with children. Santos told the interviewer that Huizar is nice and smiles a lot, but said they were never alone with each other.

She said (the rumors) came from a group of girls at school who were friends of hers and the girls cause drama, said the AG report. She said the group of girls would fight and make up and fight again and she decided to stop being a friend with them.

The rumors started after she stopped being their friend, according to the report. She told Graham that the Lowkeyy username had been hers once, but it wasnt anymore.

Findings and aftermath

Graham said he found no other evidence of sexual contact between Santos and Huizar.

He noted that while students reported having conversations with Santos where she claimed to be dating the officer, they had no specific dates or times.

Without any corroborating evidence, the case was dropped in June 2019.

Three months later, in September, Huizar asked a judge for a protection order to keep Santos away from him and his wife and their two kids.

In it, he said his wife, Amber Rodriguez, was receiving strange anonymous phone calls and text messages.

A Yakima investigation uncovered that the messages were coming from Santos, according to his petition for the protection order.

I was told that Santos wrote a letter at school and she was attempting to give me the letter. From what I was told, she was being inappropriate in the letter, he wrote in the petition.

The two-year protection order was granted when she was 13 years old.

Its unclear if they had any contact during that time. But a year later, Huizars wife filed for divorce and moved with their two sons to the Tri-Cities, where she worked as a real estate agent. She later became a paraeducator at William Wiley Elementary School in West Richland.

Their divorce paperwork filed in 2020 did not mention Santos.

Four years later in February 2024,when Rodriguez filed for a protection order against her ex-husband, she said she did not know that his current girlfriend, Angelica Santos, was the same girl he had gotten the protection order against years before.

Santos told investigators during a rape investigation involving Huizar and one of Santos teen friends that she and Huizar began dating when she was 15 when he contacted her through Facebook.

At that time in 2021, he was reportedly on medical leave for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the Yakima Police Department.

Court records show their relationship continued and she had his son in April 2023 when she was 16.

In February 2024, he was accused of raping her teen friend at their West Richland house while she was there. The allegations made police officials question whether Huizars sexual relationship with Santos was a crime because of her age.

He was formally charged with raping her friend and also with child rape because of his relationship with Santos. A judge ordered Huizar to stay away from both of them.

Angelica Santos body was discovered April 22 inside Elias Huizars home on South Highlands Boulevard in West Richland. She was found dead after Huizar shot and killed his ex-wife at a nearby school. Karlee Van de Venter/Tri-City Herald

But West Richland police found her body at his home on April 22, 2024, when they were searching for him after hed shot and killed his ex-wife at the school a block away. Its unclear if Santos had returned to living there.

Santos aunt Samantha Deluna told the Tri-City Herald this week that they didnt approve of her relationship with Huizar and had talked to her about it.

But Santos had never told them that Huizar was the babys father.

Huizar took the boy with him when he fled the Tri-Cities murders. The baby was found safe in his car seat after Huizar crashed along Interstate 5 near Eugene on April 23 and shot himself.

Oregon State Patrol Officers secure 1-year-old Roman Huizar after stopping Elias Huizar near Eugene, Oregon. KEZI 9 News
Walgreens is now a candy destination, thanks to TikTok.

The pharmacy chain said it is ramping up production of Walgreen's Nice! Gummy Mango peelable candy, and limiting online sales to one bag per customer due to high demand for the squishy treats, fed by social media.

Walgreens Nice! brand Gummy Mango peelable candy and Gummy Burst Pineapple. / Credit: Walgreens

Part of the retailer's lower-priced Nice! house brand of snacks and drinks, the miniature versions of mango fruit which sells for $1.99 a bag  first appeared in September 2023 in 2,500 Walmart stores.

The idea for the candy came from a vendor relaying peelable mango trends they were seeing in Asia, Marty Esarte, vice president of Walgreens' owned brands, said in an email.

"TikTokers discovered the candies in January and before we knew it, products were flying off the shelves," Esarte said.

In one video on the platform, a TikToker describes picking up a bag of the candy at Walgreens after seeing it "all over social media."

Walgreens is increasing inventory for the mango-flavored product to 8,000 stores on May 22. A new peelable banana gummy will launch in 5,700 stores on the same day, also selling for $1.99 a bag, the company said.

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(Bloomberg) -- After 14 years of debate, the Securities and Exchange Commission is in the final stages of bringing a powerful new surveillance tool fully online. But Wall Street is seizing on the ideal political environment for a last-ditch attempt to kill it.

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The Consolidated Audit Trail is a database, one of the largest ever created, that is set to revolutionize how the agency monitors trading activity and spots potential misconduct. By its May 31 industry compliance deadline, it will collect almost all US trading data, as many as 500 billion records a day, and give the SEC a live window into activity across markets.

Citadel Securities is leading a suit seeking to have the CAT declared illegal, and Wall Street is rallying behind it. Though financial firms have long expressed skepticism about the project, they are now allying with Republicans in Congress to paint it as a dystopian nightmare that would allow the federal government to spy on the investment decisions of every American. The fight also comes as the US Supreme Court has hinted that its inclined to rein in the SEC and other federal agencies.

Orwellian Surveillance

Ken Griffins market-making firm declined to comment for this article but pointed to its Feb. 8 court brief, in which it accused the SEC of trying to keep the American people in the dark about the adverse impacts of its unprecedented effort to subject the national securities markets to an Orwellian surveillance regime.

Citadel Securities filed the suit with the American Securities Association, a trade group representing regional financial institutions. In a Feb. 15 filing, it also got the support of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Managed Funds Association, the Alternative Investment Management Association and other trade groups representing just about every major US bank, brokerage, hedge fund, private equity and asset management firm  everyone from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Robinhood Markets Inc. Rival market maker Virtu Financial Inc. signed on separately in a show of unity against a common threat.

The SEC called the challenge meritless in an April 15 court filing and said Citadel Securities had never objected to the CAT before it filed its challenge last fall.

The regulator defended the CAT as a natural progression of its oversight powers and said the previously cumbersome, time-consuming and frequently unsuccessful process of tracking orders had become obsolete in todays faster and more automated markets. The agency also said there were limits on the CATs access to and use of personal data and decried the caricature of the database being used to snoop on Americans personal financial decisions.

Wall Street has a specific beef with how the SEC wants to pay for the CAT  by imposing billions of dollars in fees on broker-dealers. The database is actually owned by CAT LLC, which is composed of stock exchanges and the industry-backed Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The current SEC plan is to allocate two-thirds of the costs of developing and operating CAT to broker-dealers as opposed to the exchanges and Finra. Citadel Securities claims those fees will result in higher costs for investors over time.

But David Rosenfeld, a former SEC enforcement official now teaching law at Northern Illinois University, said theres also clearly concern on Wall Street about enhancing the agencys ability to examine trading activity.

It gives the SEC not exactly real-time but close to real-time insight into whats going on as far as trading is concerned, said Rosenfeld. That can give them a huge advantage in terms of ferreting out certain types of misconduct. Theres lot of things you can figure out just by looking at the data.

One in a Trillion

First proposed in the wake of the 2010 flash crash, the CATs data collection has proceeded in stages, starting with equity trades and non-complex options trades in 2020 and moving to complex options trades the following year. The May deadline is for market participants to submit client information to the CAT.

In December 2022, the SEC gave its first indication of how it would use CAT data for enforcement, quietly crediting the database with uncovering one of the biggest front-running schemes ever. Nuveen trader Lawrence Billimek was charged with tipping off Oregon retiree Alan Williams about stocks the asset-management giant was planning to buy, netting them $47 million in illegal profits.

Legal experts say the pairs insider trading probably wouldnt have been caught without the CAT.

Major insider-trading cases have often focused on single-market events like merger announcements. In the Nuveen case, the SEC used the CAT to track some 1,697 intraday equity trades made by Williams, finding he had a 97% win rate over a five-year period. The chances of that occurring randomly were less than one in a trillion, the SEC said.

Both men pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year, and Billimek is scheduled to be sentenced on May 20. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Before the CAT, it was literally like the SEC was in the horse-and-buggy era of the 19th century trying to catch the fastest race car drivers of the 21st century, said Dennis Kelleher, co-founder of financial reform advocacy group Better Markets. I mean, it just wasnt a fair fight. This changes all of that.

Supreme Court v. Agencies

At an October conference in Chicago, SEC enforcement official Rachael Clarke said the agency has built a whole analytic infrastructure to crunch CAT data. She hinted more enforcement cases were in the works.

Stay tuned. More CAT in the future, she said.

But that promise of stepped-up enforcement could be in jeopardy.

In November, the conservative Supreme Court majority indicated that it might bar the SEC from using in-house judges to decide enforcement cases, forcing it to litigate all actions in federal court. The same justices in January suggested they might also overturn the courts landmark 1984 decision in Chevron v. NRDC, which held that federal judges must defer to the expertise of government agencies like the SEC.

Citadel Securities filed its October suit in the federal appeals court in Atlanta, which is regarded as more conservative than its counterpart in Washington. The firm argues in its suit that a project as big and expensive as the CAT, with an estimated price tag of $1 billion to develop and then $200 million a year to maintain, cant be pushed on the industry by the SEC without explicit congressional approval.

Congressional Brief

David Slovick, a former SEC lawyer now at Barnes & Thornburg, said rulings on agency overreach by the Supreme Court could influence the judges in the CAT case.

If theres an avenue for a win here, he said, I think its the Supreme Court saying, Youre acting outside of the scope of your regulatory authority and you need to go back to the congressional well and get legislative authority to do what youre trying to do.

More specifically, Citadel Securities argues that the CAT goes against the spirit of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, which created a regime of private self-regulatory organizations, namely the exchanges and Finra, that the SEC oversees. The CAT improperly shifts to the SEC a primary enforcement role previously entrusted to SROs, the suit claims.

Citadel Securities arguments have already found a receptive audience on Capitol Hill. In February, Congressional Republicans led by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and including Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, filed a brief in support the CAT challenge. They said creating such an elaborate and intrusive structure involved significant policy judgments on questions of individual liberty, personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement should be a matter for Congress.

Core Values

Republicans have expressed a particular fear that CAT data could be used to monitor investors political and religious beliefs.

Economic transactions offer a window into a persons deepest thoughts and core values, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in a dissenting May 2020 letter urging the agency to reconsider the project.

That some investors undoubtedly are engaged in misconduct in our financial markets cannot justify amassing this information, she added. A conservative think tank last month filed a suit in Texas federal court challenging the CAT as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

But Slovick says the concerns about investor privacy are overblown, since the data was already being collected by the exchanges and Finra. In his view, the finance industry is harnessing the political argument to cloak its true reason for opposing the CAT.

It makes the SECs lift a lot lighter, said Slovick. Their cases against Wall Street are going to be more effective and, of course, Wall Street doesnt like that.

--With assistance from Lydia Beyoud and Austin Weinstein.

(Updates to add co-plaintiff American Securities Association.)

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BOISE, Idaho (ABC4)  Prosecutors in the Chad Daybell murder trial showed more law enforcement bodycam footage Friday morning, this time of Officer David Stubbs walking through the Rexburg, Idaho, apartments of both Lori Vallow Daybell and her niece, Melani Cope (now Melani Pawlowski).

Additionally, jurors got a deeper look into some of the search warrants executed in the case, both before and after Vallows children, Joshua JJ Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ashlyn Ryan, 16, were found buried in shallow graves on Daybells property.

CONTEXT: A complete timeline for the Daybell, Vallow murders

Stubbs noted that in the first apartment walk-through, in the apartment belonging to Lori, there were no clothes in some of the closets  which he said made him think the occupants left in haste.

In the second apartment walk-through, in the apartment belonging to Loris next-door neighbor and niece Melani Cope, Stubbs said the apartment appeared to be lived in, as there were clothes in the closets and a car in the garage.

However, Stubbs said he found a three-ring binder of credit cards and drivers licenses belonging to Brandon Boudreaux, Melanies ex-husband, which struck him as odd, as the couple was divorced. There was no evidence Brandon still lived at that apartment, Stubbs said.

Search warrants

Stubbs said he obtained several search warrants for digital devices.

The first warrant obtained was for Loris first-known phone number, which Stubbs said was used for information about where the kids and Lori may be.

Additionally, he received account information for Alex Cox, Loris brother who shot and killed her estranged husband Charles Vallow, as well as account information for Chad Daybell.

Another warrant, Stubbs explained, was for Loris PO box in Sugar City where they found a Verizon bill containing phone numbers for Lori, Alex, Charles, and Tylee that they didnt have before. According to Stubbs, these phone numbers helped them solidify a lot of information.

Stubbs was asked if any internet searches by Lori stood out to him. Stubbs replied yes, and said she looked up wedding rings made of malachite and attempted to purchase two. However, Stubbs said the credit card she used on the near-$800 purchase failed.

According to Patrick Adair Designs, malachite jewelry is seen as a protective gemstone with healing properties. Its website states it helps heal emotional pain by absorbing the pain for you.

Stubbs also said Lori looked up the definition of possessed three days before the bodies of the children were found.

According to Stubbs, Chad Daybell also looked up what the direction of the wind was going to be for the day Tylee was burned in the firepit by Chads house.

Tylees remains

Steve Daniels, an FBI agent specializing in forensics and evidence response, testified Friday afternoon about how crews carefully excavated the remains of Tylee Ryan in June 2020, working layer by layer on areas of Daybells property. He explained that his team was trying to understand how the remains were buried.



What we ended up finding was this melted mass of remains, he said, referring to Tylees body, which was found in Daybells backyard pet cemetery.



The teenagers remains were buried in roughly two feet of earth, and her skull was in a melted green five-gallon bucket, Daniels said. When his team worked to lift the remains out of the ground, they fell apart before they could be placed in a body bag.



Evidence taken from the scene included tools from Daybells backyard shed. Jurors were presented with a dirty pickaxe, which was brought into the courtroom for them to see. Jurors were also presented with a chain and a silver charm that crews sifted out of Daybells backyard firepit.

When Daniels was presented a photograph of Tylee, he testified that the teen was wearing what appeared to be the chain and silver charm found in the firepit.



For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
This North Carolina woman super commutes 500 miles every other week to save $2K  whats driving this trend

Oh, the extremes folks will go to keep the Big Apple from taking a big bite out of their bank accounts.

Take hairstylist Kaitlin Jorgenson of Brooklyn. Well, once of Brooklyn.

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Yes, Jorgenson still working her same job at the Scott J. Aveda Hair Salon in the Upper West Side. But now she commutes in from North Carolina and she brings her social media followers along on her days.

For 12 months now, Jorgensen has made the 544-mile round trip from Charlotte to her NYC job, commuting by plane to and from LaGuardia airport every other week. As super commutes go for someone who isnt a corporate executive, it may qualify for one of the longest in the U.S.

I feel like Im the happiest Ive ever been, Jorgensen told CNBCs Make It. Yes, but we wouldnt blame you if you questioned the practicality of it all, let alone the sanity. Regardless, its one fascinating case to examine for breaking down the pros and cons.

Pros of a super commute, close up

While the geographic expanse of a Charlotte-to-New York flight could easily overwhelm Joe or Jane Commuter, the truth is that, under certain circumstances, it can actually save time.

For example: Any Chicago denizen will tell you that driving from the citys northern to southern border via the main thoroughfare of Western Avenue can easily take two hours. But flying from OHare airport to LaGuardia? Nonstop, its 2 hours, 10 minutes.

In Jorgensens case, runaway expenses were also a major consideration. The cost-benefit analysis isnt hard to grasp: flights, Ubers, parking her car at the Charlotte airport and crash privileges at a friends NYC apartment run about $1,000 a month. Add another $1,000 to rent in Charlotte, and as Jorgensen shared with one of her followers, shes still paying half the $4,000 she paid to live in Brooklyn. (And racking up the frequent flyer miles, too.)

Like many who relocated during the pandemic, Jorgensen enjoys living in a bucolic locale far from big-city headaches. And trends in cities such as San Francisco may correlate to the rise of aerial super commutes, as in 2022 100 people moved out for every 63 people who moved in, according to analysis by Move Buddha.

Story continues

Read more: The 5 most expensive mistakes in options trading and how to avoid them

Commuting cons over the long haul

But it doesnt mean by a longshot that super commuting is a no-brainer. If you miss a bus or train in New York City, another one comes in five or 10 minutes. Miss a flight, though  or have it cancel on you  and youve gone from super commute to super calamity. A train from Charlotte to New Yorks Moynahan Station typically takes 12 or 13 hours.

Youll also need a boss of the most understanding order to agree to a super commuting arrangement. Calling in late from an airport terminal halfway across the country isnt exactly good form and filling in last minute for your sick co-worker approaches a near impossibility.

The super commute also takes on a different tenor if you make the haul by car. Gas, tolls, and wear and tear on the car add up. And depending on your route, the aggravations of fighting traffic, dealing with construction backups, or waiting out accidents could increase  a physically and mentally draining proposition. A pre-pandemic study contended that sedentary commuting was a chronic activity with the potential for stress and a time use that can compete with other health-promoting activities.

This is also not a tactic for workers in a small town who suspect that their big-city business is in trouble. One study concludes that if the business falters, workers in larger markets are unemployed for much shorter stints and lose less income than those in smaller markets.

The hybrid super commute?

As a stylist, Jorgensen cant phone it in from home. But as many people found out during the pandemic, working hundreds of miles away from HQ is a feasible option that allows people to relocate without racking up commuter miles.

Thus another possibility arises for those who can pull it off: hybrid super commuting. Assuming youre called back into the office from a long distance  as many companies are demanding these days  its not out of the question to work out an arrangement that still allows you to work from home part of the week.

Or you may choose to do it that way, as increasing numbers have done; the Wall Street Journal calls these hybrid travel warriors a new breed of commuter. And who knows? Should Jorgensen take on a haircut side hustle in Charlotte, or her boss open a satellite salon there, she could work at home (or very close to it) several days a week, too.

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
(Bloomberg) -- The US presidential election may come down to a city in the Midwestern prairie that is home to Warren Buffett  a prospect that is raising hopes among some Democrats that the once-prolific political donor will come off the sidelines to try to power President Joe Biden to reelection.

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Back in 2016, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman wrote checks for Democrat Hillary Clintons White House bid, appearing onstage with her at a rally and scoffing at her rival, Donald Trump. For decades before that, he had sprinkled money on moderate Democrats in US Senate races all over the country. As recently as 2019, he lavished a six-figure check on the partys committee that supports House candidates.

But since then, his money spigot has remained closed to federal political candidates up and down the ballot as he aimed to spare his companies and employees from any potential backlash. And that choice has become more conspicuous as his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, has been thrust into the unusual position of potentially deciding this years presidential race.

The city, which is welcoming thousands of visitors this weekend for Berkshires carnival-like annual shareholders meeting, is situated in a congressional district that Biden won in 2020 and Trump won in 2016. The area gets a single Electoral College vote that could deliver the incumbent another term in a scenario where he wins a trio of northern battleground states, but none of the swing states in the South.

Plenty of Democrats think Biden is well-positioned to win in the city theyve dubbed Joemaha. But others see flaws in the partys approach.

Preston Love Jr., the Nebraska Democrat challenging Republican Senator Pete Ricketts in November, says the Buffett family declined his overtures for funding and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has rebuffed his call for cash.

Love is sounding the alarm that Black voter turnout will sag in Nebraska this campaign cycle unless there is greater investment in the state and his own bid. With Black voters heavily concentrated in the battleground district, a dip in participation from that key demographic could cost Biden a win and imperil Democrats chances of flipping Omahas House seat.

Its a prospect that could spook Omahas richest resident, who has long supported Democratic priorities such as higher taxes on the wealthy. That leaves Buffett with the difficult decision of whether to plunge back into a political arena that is more partisan and awash in money than ever before.

Anytime that the Buffetts get engaged, it signals to other donors that its more important to give, says State Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb. So obviously I do hope they get more involved in this cycle in a visible way, because Buffett brings all the good luck.

Trumps party has been unnerved enough by Omahas ability to tip the contest that there are calls for Nebraskas Republican governor to hold a special legislative session to change the states rules for allocating its Electoral College votes. It has also sent both parties on a furious hunt for ways to galvanize voters in Omahas district, including with dueling abortion ballot measures.

Electoral Math

Nebraska is one of just two US states that doesnt use a winner-take-all approach to Electoral College votes. It awards one vote for each congressional district, and two for the victor of the state overall.

The rural state is a GOP stronghold and hasnt backed a Democrat for president since 1964. But the 2nd Congressional District, which local Democrats call the blue dot, has been more competitive because its largest population center, Omaha, is a liberal enclave.

Omahas lone vote would clinch the presidency for Biden if he wins Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but none of the other battlegrounds, and holds all the reliable Democratic states. Recent polling suggests those three states are more fertile ground for him than Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

This math is different than in 2020, because electoral vote apportionment has changed to reflect state population counts in the latest US Census.

Local party officials view the situation with a mix of pride and dread, because an election so closely fought that Omaha is the tipping point is one that could seriously inflame partisan grievances.

If we end up being the one vote, you know, God help us, said C.J. King, Democratic chair in Douglas County, which includes much of Omaha.

Republicans, meanwhile, are angling to make sure that doesnt come to pass. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has revived a push to change Nebraska back to a winner-take-all state, talking up the idea on his podcast and descending on Omaha for a rally to drum up enthusiasm for the idea.

While an effort in April to ram the law through in the waning days of the legislative session failed, Governor Jim Pillen has indicated hes open to calling a special session to pass it if it appears the measure has enough support to succeed.

Trump may not need a rule change to carry the 2nd District. A poll for the campaign of Dan Osborn, an independent challenging Republican Senator Deb Fischer, shows Trump leading Biden by 3 percentage points there. The same poll shows Osborn's upstart campaign trailing Fischer by just 4 percentage points statewide, hinting that disarray among Nebraska Republicans is weakening GOP candidates.

Backing Away

Buffett has politics in his blood: His father represented Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District for several terms between 1943 and 1953. The Oracle of Omaha has appeared animated by elections at times, including in 2016, when he endorsed Clinton and held forth about her opponent in front of a crowd.

I ask Donald Trump: have you no sense of decency, sir? Buffett said, invoking a line that sunk Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the 1950s. He offered to release his own tax return if Trump did the same. Ive really never known another businessman that brags about his bankruptcies.

But if that antipathy for Trump persists, it hasnt propelled him to open his checkbook to Biden.

Ive been told that hes not involved and hes not going to be involved, said Paul Landow, a retired University of Nebraska at Omaha professor who has been affiliated with Democratic campaigns in the state.

Buffett has signaled his reasons for backing away. Ive also learned that you can make a whole lot more people sustainably mad than you can make temporarily happy by speaking out on any subject, he said in 2022, asked about executives and companies engaging with politics. People will take it out on Buffetts companies, hurting employees and shareholders, he said.

Ive just decided Im not going to be doing that. And if I want to do that, I should quit my job, he said, later adding: That is a good question. And I probably thought more about that question than I think about whether this stock or that stock is cheap.

Democrats say the Buffetts are generous supporters of charitable causes across Nebraska, but not steady funders of their party.

Some state party chairs are like, Oh you have it easy, you have Buffett in your state, Kleeb says with a laugh. And Im like, Um, he does not give to the party.

Precious McKesson, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party, says her group is confident in its fundraising  and its ability to win both the presidential and House races in the 2nd District  but noted Buffett isnt a backer. I wish! she said, cautioning shes never personally approached him.

Buffett declined an interview request for this story ahead of his companys annual meeting, which takes place Saturday, but said in a statement that either Trump or Biden could win the district.

I think Warren Buffett is being very wise, very cautious, to duck out of the way of the political fray, said David Kass, a University of Maryland professor and longtime Buffett watcher who will attend Saturdays meeting. The stakes are high, including with many of his businesses affected by federal regulation. As a responsible CEO at Berkshire, he may not want to expose Berkshire and any of its businesses to any political risk.

Abortion Efforts

Others in Buffetts orbit have thrown their dollars into Nebraska politics this year. An effort by Democrats to get a measure on the states ballot that would change the state constitution to allow for abortions until fetal viability, with some exceptions, has raised over $750,000 as of March, including $200,000 from Barbara Weitz and $10,000 from Katie Weitz. Theyre the spouse and daughter, respectively, of Wally Weitz, who serves on the Berkshire Hathaway board.

A counter-effort to get an anti-abortion measure on the ballot is also taking shape. It had reported a single donor as of March: Ricketts, the Republican senator seeking reelection. The deep-pocketed candidate, son of Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, gave $500,000 to the cause.

Love, the Democrat challenging Ricketts, says the DSCC hasnt funded his longshot bid to unseat the incumbent. And while that likely reflects a strategic decision to conserve dollars for more competitive races, he worries it could have consequences for his party up and down the ballot.

The DSCC didnt respond to requests for comment.

Love reasons more money for his candidacy could help with Black turnout  and in turn, bolster Biden and US House candidate Tony Vargas.

Im challenging them to widen the lens," said Love, who is Black. Theyre missing this thing. They cant count on the Black vote."

One of his surrogates, he says, approached Buffetts daughter, Susie, for funding.

And she said, Well, Im not doing much local politics. You know, it broke my heart, he said.

Along with Loves warnings, there are other headwinds that could affect Black voter turnout that would buoy Biden.

Ashlei Spivey, a Democrat running for the state legislature in a North Omaha district, said she thinks turnout will be higher than 2020 but that the conflict in Gaza may affect things.

Especially people whove been traditionally marginalized  they see themselves in Palestinians, right? Spivey said.

Latino Voters

Latino voters, too, who are heavily concentrated in South Omaha, are poised to play an important role in deciding the districts key races  including a competitive House contest that could be pivotal in determining which party controls that chamber.

Vargas, the Democratic state senator running for the seat, aims to portray his potential rival, incumbent Republican Don Bacon, as disconnected from their priorities.

They care about cost of living, they care about whether or not their wages are keeping up, they care about whether or not they can save money, whether or not they have good education, Vargas said. On all these issues, they are out of line with the Republican party  and out of line with Bacon and Trump.

But first, Bacon  who has a tumultuous relationship with Trump and whose campaign declined an interview request  has to secure the nomination. He is getting a primary challenge from Dan Frei, who bills himself as an America first candidate and has slammed Congress for doing little to rein in the US deficit or take action on the border.

Bacon has done nothing to stem the tide of everything that is destroying the lives of the voters of this district, Frei said.

In a clear signal that the Biden campaign is keyed in on Omahas importance, it dispatched Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff there in March, where he held a roundtable with Vargas on reproductive rights. In an interview, Emhoff expressed optimism about Biden repeating his 2020 victory in Nebraskas 2nd District, but cautioned, we cant take any chances. Its too important.

--With assistance from Bill Allison.

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Washington Man Busted For Chasing His Stolen Truck

With all the car theft going on in many parts of the country, people are understandably frustrated. One of the harder hit groups is dealerships, so when a man stole a Ford F-150 from a dealer lot in Eatonville, Washington on April 30, the owner chased the thief down. Now the dealership owner is facing a citation from Pierce County deputies.

Watch a Ford F-150 running from police shake off a few PITs.

Aaron Babcock, who owns Sunrise Auto Sales, told KIRO 7 he had the Ford truck idling in the lot when he ran into the office to grab For Sale signs. By the time he came back outside, a thief was in the drivers seat.

Upset about the potential of losing the truck, Babcock pulled out a gun and pointed it at the thief. But the suspect drove off anyway, as if he were daring Babcock to shoot him.

Deputies started pursuing the stolen truck, and thats when the suspect reportedly drove even faster, weaving around innocent bystanders. Realizing the chase had to end, deputies down the road set up Stop Sticks, but the suspect saw them and swerved around the devices, hitting another car before taking off again.

While law enforcement dealt with the accident caused by the truck thief, Babcock kept chasing the suspect. It took a bit, but he caught up when the Ford suffered engine failure, then held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested the thief.

However, it wasnt just the truck thief who picked up charges. Babcock was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and has to make a court appearance to explain his actions. Deputies claim he ran two red lights while chasing down the stolen pickup.

It gets even better: KIRO 7 pulled court documents and found the truck thief had his long list of charges amended to just second-degree stealing a vehicle. That was done without any explanation, so well let you draw your own conclusions about the why.

Just keep this in mind before you try getting your stolen car back. In some areas you might get hit with criminal charges while the thief sees a lighter punishment.

Image via KIRO 7

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Smartphones gripping peoples attention isnt anything new. But following the pandemic, Kris Hagel recalls seeing a troubling rise in public school students distracted by their phones during class.

I would walk through classrooms last year and kids have absolutely no attention to the teacher thats presenting a lesson in front of them because theyre so engrossed in whats going on with their cellphones, said Hagel, executive director of learning and innovation at Peninsula School District, which has 17 schools and serves about 9,000 students in the Gig Harbor area.

We struggled for a long time on what to do, Hagel said. Then, late last school year, one high school in the district decided to try a cellphone ban. It went surprisingly well, according to Hagel. We started hearing from more and more parents who said, Hey, we want this everywhere, we want the district to do the exact same thing.

So it did. We are not a district that says you cant have the device anywhere in school, Hagel explained Thursday during a webinar the League of Education Voters held to discuss smartphone use in schools. Were just saying it needs to be put away, he added. It should not be in classrooms.

Peninsula School District is hardly alone. Schools around the state and country are searching for a balance with their cellphone policies for students. Phones can not only cause distractions, they can also contribute to bullying and pose mental health risks, especially for kids.

Just having that cellphone there, having that distraction there, that temptation there, is definitely not productive, said Maria De Luna, a student at Bethel Virtual Academy and a member of the Association of Washington Student Leaders. There are a lot of very creative ways that students have found to use their phones, regardless of the rules.

De Luna said not using a phone or eschewing social media apps when other students are using them can also be difficult. Theres always that like, Oh, what if Im missing out? What if theyre talking about me? Theres that anxiety and that culture thats been created.

Meanwhile, Kelsey Parke, principal at Kopachuck Middle School in the Peninsula School District, said since the phone ban, cyberbullying at her school has dropped to almost zero.

But students, educators, and researchers point out that phones can have benefits, helping people to build social connections and to access information. Plus, parents want to be able to reach their kids by phone in case of an emergency.

So there are questions over whether outright phone bans in schools are the best path.

I think that with support, with scaffolding, with training, with regulation and with age-appropriate design, we can really maximize the benefits and minimize the negatives, said Lucia Magis-Weinberg, a psychology professor at the University of Washington.

Just over three-quarters of K-12 public schools nationwide prohibited non-academic cellphone use during the 2021-22 school year, according to a report from January. How strictly the policies are enforced can vary.

Last year, Florida became the first state to require all its public schools to keep students from using phones during class. Governors and lawmakers in at least a half-dozen other states have pushed schools to go down similar paths, Stateline reported in March.

It wasnt immediately clear how many of Washingtons public schools have cellphone restrictions.

We know of a few who have policies limiting or banning cellphone use: Peninsula, Pasco, Kennewick, Reardon-Edwall, and Monroe, Katy Payne, a spokesperson for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said in an email.

We are hearing about more and more districts exploring policies, she added.

Hagel said by email that hed received a lot of calls from districts across the state looking to implement restrictions in line with Peninsulas. He also said his district received a survey from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in late April asking about cellphone policies.

A bill in the state Legislature this year wouldve directed school districts to adopt restrictions on student cellphone use by the start of the 2027-28 school year. The measure passed out of the House Education Committee with bipartisan support, then stalled.

Mobile device use in our public schools has become a chronic issue and our kids are suffering because of it, Stephanie McClintock, R-Vancouver, the lead sponsor on the bill said during the session. We want to eliminate the distraction these devices are creating during class time.

Hagel was skeptical of the bill and of taking a statewide approach. I think its really important that school districts make that decision on what will work best, on the timeline that works best for them, he said. He added that its not even certain his district will keep its ban permanently.

But for now, Hagel said, We needed to take a hard reset.

The post Should Washingtons public schools ban students from using cellphones? appeared first on Washington State Standard.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza took to the streets after police cleared the occupiers from Portland State Universitys Millar Library, bringing large crowds of other protesters into the mix.

The evening kicked off with a car that drove through the crowd and parked in the middle of a street, where KOIN 6 News reporters saw someone get out of the car and run away. Video footage showed a man spraying people in the crowd.

Protests continue after PSU library cleared, at least 22 arrests

According to the Portland Police Bureau, PSU located the man responsible and took him to a hospital on a mental health hold.

The mans identity is unclear and police said they do not plan to reveal his personal information.

Protesters were spotted running from the building as police wearing riot gear entered the facility around 9 a.m. Since then, protests have erupted in the areas off campus.

PPB previously said they did not plan to use tear gas on the protesters inside the building. However, chemical munitions appeared to be administered in the open air once the protest made its way outside.

Authorities also noted officers were armed with 40mm less-lethal launchers, which they said are regulated by Portland polices use-of-force policies.

KOIN 6 reporters saw protesters pushing and knocking down the police tape, eventually resulting in police threatening to arrest anyone who pushes the lines.

VIDEO: Protesters flee library as police make arrests at Portland State University

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Mayor Ted Wheeler questioned the rationale behind the decision to damage local businesses in an effort to protest the ongoing Gaza-Israel conflict.

If you believe that by damaging a business, which frankly harms the front line employees who work in those businesses  we have reports that they were hurt, that they were traumatized, Wheeler said. If you believe that damaging these businesses or trashing a library on a university campus will impact events in the Middle East, you are delusional.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
BOISE, Idaho (ABC4)  Prosecutors in the Chad Daybell murder trial showed bodycam footage of officers conducting a welfare check on Joshua JJ Vallow months before his body was found on Chad Daybells Idaho property.

David Stubbs, who previously served as a supervisor in the Rexburg Police Departments detective division, took the stand Thursday afternoon. Stubbs testified to assisting with a welfare check on JJ after his grandmother Kay Woodcock  who took the stand earlier in the day  had contacted them.

RELATED STORY: Chad Daybells mother, sister-in-law drop bombshells against him in court

On Nov. 26, 2019, several officers conducted the welfare check speaking with Lori Vallow Daybell, Chads wife and mother of JJ, which was recorded on Stubbs bodycam.

The bodycam footage was shown in the court and is included below, however, it may be difficult to see due to the courts online livestream.

During the visit, the footage depicts Lori telling officers her son is with her friend Melani Gibbs in Arizona and she plans to move there soon. She told officers her brother  who lives in Kansas  was trying to kill her, and that she found evidence of him conspiring with her late husband Charles Vallow after his passing. She said he had shown up at her door in Rexburg recently.

I look like a suspect but Im a good person, raised all my kids, Ive done everything that Im supposed to do in life, but everyone is causing me trouble right now, she is heard saying to officers in the bodycam footage.

She also told officers Woodcock had asked for the welfare check as part of a scheme to win JJ in a future custody battle.

Shes been horrible to me since my husband died, Lori said.

She also told officers the two men police saw earlier at her residence were her other brother Alex Cox, who she called her protector, and his friend Chad Daybell. She told officers her daughter Tylee was attending BYU-Idaho.

Prosecutors asked Stubbs if he had any concerns after meeting with Lori that day to which he said he had several.

READ NEXT: A complete timeline for the Daybell, Vallow murders

Stubbs said he found it strange that she had referred to Chad Daybell as her brothers friend when he had tracked them earlier and seen them holding hands at a Hobby Lobby and also discovered they had been married in Hawaii three weeks prior.

Stubbs testified that they found no evidence that her brother in Kansas had come to Idaho, that Tylee was enrolled or even applied to BYU-Idaho, and that JJ was with Gibbs.

Finally, he said he had been concerned about officer safety as she said her brother lived there but was nowhere in sight. Stubbs said he saw a shadow at the top of the stairs moving and he was worried about that persons intentions.

About ten minutes after meeting with Lori, they returned since they could not get ahold of Gibbs. The video shows Lori telling them Gibbs and JJ were at the movies watching Frozen 2 and might not be able to pick up.

Stubbs said they verified that Gibbs was not in Arizona and could not verify that she had JJ, and therefore served a search warrant.

The court adjourned for the day. This story will be updated tomorrow morning as David Stubbs will return to the stand.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
May 3 (UPI) -- Officials in a Washington county are asking members of the public to steer clear of the area where a zebra remains on the loose.

The zebra was one of four to escape from a trailer Sunday on Interstate 90, near North Bend in King County.

Three of the African equines were corralled and returned to their owner, but one remains on the loose. The zebra was initially reported to be male, but county officials said they have identified the missing animal as a mare named Z.

King County Councilmember Sarah Perry urged members of the public not to go looking for the zebra along the Snoqualmie Valley Regional Trail, which has seen an influx in visitors since the animal's escape.

"Please join us in partnership as we work to rescue our sweet zebra by giving our rescuers all the space they need to rescue her. She is in an area where there are feeding zones to coax her out for a rescue, but every time a well-intended walker, bicycle, or unleashed 'search dog' comes near her it makes rescuing her so much more difficult," Perry wrote on Facebook.

Eleanor Lee, a spokesperson for the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, said "trail closed" signs would be posted on the trail along the the Boxley Creek Natural Area on Friday to allow professionals to track the zebra without amateur interference.

Anyone who spots the loose zebra is being urged to keep a distance and call 911 or contact the Regional Animal Services of King County.
Weather to blame for partial collapse of Lincoln Park school roof

CHICAGO  Weather is likely to blame for a partial roof collapse at a school in the citys Lincoln Park neighborhood, a fire official said.

Crews were called to the Goldfish Swim School, at 1630 W. Medill Ave., during Thursday afternoons storms.

Chief Scott Shawaluk said some roofing materials were lifted by winds that knocked over air conditioning units, causing the partial collapse. Some electrical lines were also taken down.

There was only one person inside the building at the time and no injuries were reported, Shawaluk said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
The third week of Donald Trumps hush-money trial will come to a close on Friday after a second week of bombshell testimony about what prosecutors claim was a scheme to bury salacious, damaging stories about him in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

The Manhattan courtroom on Thursday heard more from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougalboth of whom claimed to have had sexual liaisons with Trump (which he denies). Jurors heard about Davidsons shock when he realized that he may have contributed to the success of Trumps first bid for the White House, sending a dramatic election night text to Dylan Howard, the then-editor of the National Enquirer, reading: What have we done?

Stormys Defiant Ex-Lawyer Tries to Defend Slimy Hush-Money Deal

Oh my God, replied Howard, who participated in the so-called catch and kill scheme at the Enquirer to shut down embarrassing stories about Trump. When asked in court what the exchange meant, Davidson explained that the pair had an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

The prosecution argues that Trump sought to illegally influence the 2016 election with the plot to prevent damaging stories from ever becoming public. Trump is specifically charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to the Trump Organization recording payments to Michael Cohenthe presumptive Republican presidential nominees former attorney and fixeras legal expenses. Prosecutors allege that the payments were in fact reimbursements to Cohen for a $130,000 payment hed made to Daniels to buy her silence.

Trump denies the allegations. Cohen, a star witness for the prosecution, is yet to testify. His words, however, were nevertheless heard in the courtroom on Thursday.

First, Trump attorney Todd Blanche cited one of Cohens X posts while complaining to Judge Juan Merchan that the gag order put in place to stop Trump from intimidating people connected to the case was creating a situation in which everybody can say anything they want, except for President Trump.

By way of illustration, Blanche pointed to Cohens tweet, which featured a picture of Trump in court along with the caption: Hey Von ShitzInPantzyour attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defense.

Second, Cohens voice was heard in court with the playing of a tape that Cohen himself secretly made. The September 2016 recording captured Cohen talking with Trump about a plan to buy McDougals story from the Enquirer in order to bury it for good.

Cohen could be heard saying on the recording that hed spoken to Allen Weisselberg, the then-CFO of the Trump Organization, about how to set the whole thing up with funding, according to the Associated Press. What do we got to pay for this? Trump said in response. One-fifty?

The tape was played after Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst in the Manhattan district attorneys office, was called to the stand. Daus testified about data he helped to extract from Cohens phones that were handed to authorities during the investigation.

Daus is set to testify again Friday morning.

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The audio recording that jurors heard Thursday lays it all out: There is then-candidate Donald Trump, in September 2016, talking about a hush payment with his former fixer, Michael Cohen, including the amount and how the Trump Organization would facilitate the whole thing.

"We'll have to pay," Cohen can be heard telling Trump, who responds by discussing whether they should "pay with cash." The president's former personal attorney, now a star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, goes on to say he's gone over the deal  to buy the silence of Playboy model Karen McDougal, who alleges she had an affair with the Republican candidate  with Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg on "how to set the whole thing up."

"What do we got to pay for this?" Trump responds. "One-fifty?" (The parent company of the National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story).

In another recording, Cohen can be heard discussing a separate, $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels with the adult film star's attorney, Keith Davidson. I cant even tell you how many times he said to me, you know, I hate the fact that we did it, Cohen said on the call, referring to Trump.

As prosecutors tell it, the recordings show that Trump was intimately involved in the scheme to "catch and kill" potentially damning stories about him  and that Cohen wasn't just acting on his own. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to evade campaign finance laws and cover up a the hush payment to Daniels; in 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after confessing to his own role in the alleged conspiracy.

For Trump's defense team, a priority has been undermining the credibility of Cohen, who they paint as a perjurer acting out of bitterness that he didn't get a job in the Trump administration.

But how can you argue with a recording? By trying to undermine its credibility, too.

That's exactly what Trump defense attorney Emil Bove tried Thursday. During a cross examination of Douglas Daus, a forensic data expert for the Manhattan DA, Bove appeared to be trying to suggest that the 2016 Trump-Cohen recording may have been altered, zeroing in on the fact that the phone containing the recording had first been obtained by the FBI.

"There is at least ... a risk that a prior acquisition and extraction could impact the data that you looked at in 2023, isn't there?" Bove asked. "And you didn't talk to the FBI about the methods they used, did you?"

Undermining the credibility of damning evidence is what defense lawyers are paid to do. But the insinuation that the FBI might have mishandled the data in question, in such a way as to effectively frame a former president, plays into conspiracy theories on the right, where  particularly since the Jan. 6 insurrection and subsequent arrest of hundreds of its participants  a bureau led by a Trump appointee is said to be a mere arm of the liberal deep state.

To MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, the exchange between Trump's defense team and the data forensics expert was the "weirdest moment" of Thursday's testimony. Daus, she wrote on social media, "struck me as knowledgeable, earnest, and honest." But "for a defense looking to sow seeds of mistrust  and in need of only one juror  even that guy is ripe for a brutal cross," she continued, highlighting Bove's suggestion that the recordings "could have been manipulated and/or deleted by the FBI."

Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance said the exchange actually revealed Trump's lack of a good defense. "The 'they planted evidence' defense, especially in a white collar crime case is such a tell," she posted on social media, noting that Trump also deployed it after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and found top secret national security documents. "It's spaghetti thrown at the wall. If there was anything to it, Trump would have his own forensic experts to say so."

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, was even more harsh in his assessment of Trump's legal strategy. "The 'someone planted the evidence' defense," he wrote, "is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Welcome to your House, unless you disagree with Republicans

Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror

The Arizona House of Representatives is your House, so long as you dont disagree with the Republicans who run the chamber.

Thats the only conclusion to reach after this weeks overblown GOP reaction to Democrats using a meeting room in the House basement to invite a drag artist to read a childrens book about acceptance to a group of adults.

In response to a drag performer wearing gaudy pink makeup, a black suit coat with a glittery pink sleeve and a wide-brimmed hat reading poems and an illustrated childrens book about inclusion and acceptance, House Speaker Ben Toma declared that Democrats no longer could access the chambers meeting rooms.

The event for lawmakers and legislative staffers, Toma bleated on X, was radical activism that promoted a dangerously perverse ideology.

Tomas vitriolic reaction, which came only after one of his opponents in the GOP primary for a West Valley congressional district called him out for ostensibly approving the event, was matched by a number of House Republicans.

This is a desecration of the peoples house, Rep. Rachel Jones insisted.

The Peoples House should be a safe place for the children of Arizona and I am outraged at this violation of trust, whined Rep. Alex Kolodin, wrongly insinuating there were children present instead of just lawmakers and their aides. He further demanded that Toma bar the Democrat who arranged the event from accessing any parts of the building except for the floor.

This is completely unacceptable behavior! House Majority Whip Teresa Martinez shouted on social media.

The histrionics make clear just how duplicitous and hypocritical these Republicans are. Less than a week earlier, all three  Jones, Kolodin and Martinez  emphatically declared from the chambers floor that the House of Representatives belonged to Arizonans.

I just want to give you a friendly reminder: This is not our House, this is your House. So, welcome to your House, Jones said on April 24 as she welcomed a gaggle of anti-abortion activists who crowded the chambers third-floor public gallery.

Likewise, Kolodin and Martinez introduced anti-abortion advocates and activists, making sure to emphasize that this was your House and they were always welcome.

Apparently, that welcome isnt universal. If you agree with Republicans, youll be welcomed with open arms and told to make yourself at home. But do something to publicly subvert their closed-minded bigotry, and theyll cast you out as a dissident to their fragile authoritarian rule.

Its unsurprising, given the GOPs full embrace of counter-majoritarian rule and the desperate desire to cling to power at the Capitol thats been on full display since the 2022 midterms.

But, hey, at least it has us talking about something other than how 90% of legislative Republicans fought tooth and nail to strip bodily autonomy from Arizona women.

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The post Welcome to your House, unless you disagree with Republicans appeared first on Arizona Mirror.
After weeks of negotiations, Skydances proposed merger with Paramount Global appears to be on the ropes.

Paramounts special board committee appears to have cooled on the offer, which would have seen the David Ellison-led studio, joined by financial partners RedBird Capital and KKR, acquire controlling shareholder Shari Redstones stake in the company and then merge Skydance into Paramount, keeping it as a publicly traded company, with new leadership at the helm.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Skydance had been in a 30-day exclusive negotiating window, and had proposed a revised offer last weekend that would have offered some sweeteners for Paramount common shareholders, some of whom had been vocally opposed to the deal. That window ends today, and is not likely to be extended.

Another source close to the deal says that talks between the sides continue.

Paramount has another offer on the table: A $26 billion all-cash deal from Apollo and Sony Pictures. It is not immediately clear what the status of that deal is, though it would carry substantially more regulatory concerns, due to Apollos existing ownership of broadcast TV stations, and Sonys status as a Japanese company.

Redstone is said to be unenthusiastic about that deal.

The end of the Skydance talks capped off an eventful week for Paramount, with the company parting ways with CEO Bob Bakish on Monday, replacing him with a trio of executives working in an office of the CEO.

While Bakish had largely declined to comment on the deal chatter, he told analysts on the companys fourth-quarter earnings call that he was focused on creating value for all shareholders (emphasis his), suggesting that there was daylight between him and Redstone, and friction that could have led to his ouster.

Bakishs departure followed the news that four board members would not be standing for reelection at the companys next annual meeting, set for June 4. It was not immediately clear what sparked their decision, though there was speculation that it could be related to deal talks.

With the Skydance deal seemingly off, and the Apollo-Sony deals regulatory viability in question, Paramount may need to find its own path forward under its new leaders Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy.

Story continues

Going forward, we are finalizing a new long-term plan to best position this storied company to reach new and greater heights in our rapidly changing world, the trio wrote to employees shortly after taking the helm of the company.

A source says that the executives are prepared to lead the company long-term, and confirmed that a formal strategic plan will be communicated to staff in the coming weeks.

Paramount shares are down about 5 percent for the day.

Spokespersons for Paramount, Skydance, Shari Redstone and the board special committee all declined to comment.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter
There were many signs: The Fire Watch touts three years of reduced veteran suicides in NE Florida

A local nonprofit aimed at improving veterans mental health is touting three consecutive years of reduced veteran suicides in Northeast Florida.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The program aims to train community members to recognize the signs of veteran suicide, to better connect them with the help they need.

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Every day in Florida, roughly two veterans lose their lives to suicide.

But new data published by The Fire Watch shows its efforts are paying off.

Veteran suicides are down 40 percent on average in Northeast Florida since the program started in 2019.

Ryan Haczynskis neighbor and friend of almost 20 years Mike Chisler, a Vietnam veteran, died by suicide in 2022.

Haczynski was presented with the American flag from his friends funeral the following year.

Even now, just thinking about it and really reflecting on it Im kind of getting a little choked up just thinking about it, because he didnt have anybody else, said Haczynski.

After Chislers death, Haczynski learned of the veteran suicide prevention group The Fire Watch.

He took the organizations free training program to learn how to identify veterans in distress and connect them with the services they need.

In retrospect thinking about it now, and just having been through the training, there were many signs that could have been taken or interpreted as cries for help, said Haczynski.

The Fire Watch originated here in Northeast Florida and has trained nearly 4,000 Watch Standers like Haczynski in the region.

Last year, the program received $90,000 from the City of Jacksonville.

Navy veteran and Jacksonville City Councilmember Nick Howland (R-Group 3 At-Large) serves on The Fire Watchs board of directors.

I watched all of my peers go through the Global War on Terror. I watched relationships breakup. I watched them struggle financially when they got out of the service, struggle with a loss of sense of purpose and I saw veteran suicides, said Howland.

Howland said veteran suicides are down 16 percent in the four major regions of the state where the organization is present.

Thats compared to an eight percent increase in veteran suicide throughout the rest of the state.

In Northeast Florida, that equals to more than 100 fewer suicides over a three year period.

135 members of the community are affected for every suicide. So, if you have 103 less suicides, you have almost 14,000 members of the Northeast Florida community who are not mourning the death of a veteran family member, loved one or friend, said Howland.

If you want to learn more or take the free training to become a watch stander, you can find additional information on Fire Watchs website HERE.

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On Tuesday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) declared a state of emergency over persistent issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The financial aid form, which is required for any college students seeking federal grants or loansnot to mention financial aid at most collegeshas been plagued with technical bugs since its rollout in December.

As part of the state of emergency, Justice has lifted the state's requirement that students submit the FAFSA form in order to receive major state grants.

"I don't believe any other state in the nation has gone this far, but I simply cannot and will not stand by as money sits on the table that could be helping our students continue their education," Justice said in a press release. "There's only so much outreach you can do when students can't complete the form due to issues only the federal government can control. We have been left with no choice but to suspend the FAFSA requirement for our state financial aid programs."

As part of the 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act, the Education Department was directed to create a streamlined version of the FAFSA form. On December 31, 2023, the department finally released the new formmore than two months later than FAFSA's usual release date and without extending the deadline for completion. While the updated form was much shorter than previous versions, it was also inundated with technical bugs.

FAFSA's own website details dozens of errors in the form since its release datesome that persisted for months, preventing students from completing the form at all. In March, the Education Department even announced that around 200,000 complete forms had been miscalculated, leading colleges and the government to offer students more financial aid than they were eligible for.

In a typical year, around 17 million students fill out the FAFSA form, but as of mid-April successful form completions are down 29 percent. That means millions of students who would typically complete the form are likely to miss out on financial aid for college.

How is West Virginia going to know who is eligible for state grants without FAFSA? According to Tuesday's press release, students can show they're eligible for the need-based Higher Education Grant by providing their school with a letter showing they qualify for one of several state welfare programs (like Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Students who previously received the grant don't have to prove eligibility again.

The governor's executive order also lifts the FAFSA requirement for a handful of other state educational grants, though it isn't clear if students will need to complete additional steps in place of FAFSA to receive funding.

Justice's executive order highlights just how disastrous this year's FAFSA rollout has becomeand sends a powerful signal that, if the federal government can't make good on its promises, individual states can take matters into their own hands.

The post West Virginia Declares State of Emergency Over FAFSA Chaos appeared first on Reason.com.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  Weather has delayed a planned highway closure that wouldve impacted drivers traveling eastbound through Downtown this weekend.

The Ohio Department of Transportation announced the eastbound lanes of Interstate 670 would be shut down from State Route 315 to Interstate 71, for the road to be resurfaced. The work will also cut off several ramps along the highway.

Changes that are coming soon to Downtown Columbus

When the road work resumes, ODOT suggests drivers take the following detours:

 I-670 eastbound between State Route 315 and I-71 starting at 9 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday for resurfacing.

Detour: I-70 eastbound to I-71 northbound to I-670 eastbound.

 The State Route 315 southbound ramp to Neil Avenue will close starting at 7 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: State Route 315 southbound to Goodale Street, to Vine Street, to Neil Avenue.

 The State Route 315 southbound ramp to I-670 eastbound will close starting at 7 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: State Route 315 southbound to I-70 eastbound to I-71 northbound to I-670 eastbound.

 The State Route 315 northbound ramp to I-670 eastbound will close starting at 7 p.m. May 3 through 5 a.m Monday.

Detour: I-70 eastbound to I-71 northbound to I-670.

 The I-670 eastbound ramp to Neil Avenue will close starting at 11 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: I-670 eastbound to U.S. 33 eastbound to West Long Street eastbound to Neil Avenue to Vine Street

 The Neil Avenue ramp to I-670 eastbound will close starting 11 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: Neil Avenue to Long Street to Fourth Street to I-670 eastbound

 The I-670 eastbound ramp to Third Street will close starting at 11 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: I-670 eastbound to I-71 northbound to 11th Avenue to Third Street

 The I-670 eastbound ramp to Fourth Street/Goodale Street will close starting 11 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Detour: I-670 eastbound to I-71 southbound to Main Street to Fourth Street to Goodale Street

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
Wheres the migrant crime in Tarrant Countys border cities? We asked police about it

In Reality Check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? RealityCheck@star-telegram.com.

A common refrain among people raising alarms about the border crisis is that every American city is a border city, meaning undocumented immigrants bring elevated crime rates to communities far from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French have both told the Star-Telegram this in relation to border and immigration issues.

The Star-Telegram reached out to 25 police departments in Tarrant County, as well as the sheriffs office, to ask how the immigration crisis has affected their communities.

Not one could provide data or documentation that show crime rates have increased in their communities as a result of undocumented immigrants.

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has told the Star-Telegram that foreigners in the community are impacting law enforcement, yes, impacting our schools, probably, impacting our ER rooms, our infrastructures.

However, sheriffs office spokesperson Robbie Hoy was not able to provide data to back up the comments.

Any influx of people into a community impacts all of these things and puts a strain on resources, he said in an email exchange. When we dont know how many people are coming across our border illegally every day, it would be illogical to assume there isnt a strain on community resources.

He was able to clarify Waybourns statement that the county has several illegals in jail for various amounts of crime.

There were 219 inmates with an immigration retainer in late March, Hoy said. That number represents around 5% of the average jail population.

Speaking at a congressional hearing on the crisis at the border in April, Waybourn told lawmakers that violent crimes like homicide, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault and theft had all decreased last year.

None of the Tarrant County police chiefs who responded to the Star-Telegrams question of how the immigration crisis has affected their communities could point to data or anecdotal evidence that immigrants had caused crime rates to rise or other significant impacts.

I have no specific incidents where illegal immigration has been involved in any of our daily activities, said Billy Keadle, assistant chief of the Hurst Police Department.

White Settlement Police Chief Christopher Cook said in an email exchange that he was not aware of any changes that we have experienced locally as a result of immigration.

A representative of Crowley police said the department has no statistical data to show any documented immigration issues.

Blue Mound Police Chief Antonio Segura Jr. said that he was in his first year on the job and was unaware of any noticeable effect in years past.

However, I can tell you that our officers have not mentioned concerns related to the immigration crisis since I have been here, he said in an email exchange.

In March, Southlake Mayor John Huffman told the Star-Telegram that it is demonstrably true that migrants are trafficking fentanyl to North Texas communities.

Huffman visited the U.S.-Mexico border with Keller Mayor Mizani in November. The lesson that Mizani brought back to North Texas was that every city in Texas and every city in America has now become a border city.

The Star-Telegram requested statistics for fentanyl arrests in Southlake. Police there made five arrests for possession of fentanyl since 2020.

Tarrant County law enforcement agencies were unable to provide data to support the narrative that undocumented immigrants bring crime because there is no such data, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council.

When you look at the data, the data shows quite strongly  this is specifically data from the Texas prison system  that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens, though at slightly higher rates than people who come through the legal immigration system, he said. So we know that theres really no correlation between increased migrant arrivals and spikes in crime.

He mentioned crime rate reductions in New York City as the migrant population there rises.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has transported over 100,000 migrants to New York City and other sanctuary cities since 2022 as part of his border initiative called Operation Lone Star.

Migrants have also been transported to Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles. All of those cities except Los Angeles have reported drops in violent crime rates in 2024. Los Angeles police saw an uptick in violent crimes in March, but the city saw significant decreases in 2023.

Reichlin-Melnick said that the argument that any crime by undocumented immigrants is too much has a certain strength to it, but that it ultimately misses the broader picture.

Because undocumented immigrants commit crime at lower rates, the more undocumented immigrants are in that area, the lower the overall crime rate will be, even if the raw number of crimes might go up slightly, he said. They are not drivers of crime.
Where pro-Palestinian university protests are happening around the world

Demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza have spread across university campuses in the United States and around the world in recent weeks.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested at US campuses since April 18, amid polarized debates over the right to protest, the limits of free speech and accusations of antisemitism.

But while clashes and standoffs with police at New Yorks Columbia University, Portland State and UCLA have captured global attention, demonstrations and sit-ins are also being held on campuses in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

And although demands among protesters vary at each university, the majority of demonstrations have called for colleges to divest from companies that support Israel and the war in Gaza.

The current war began on October 7 when Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. Israels military response has since sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has inflamed opinion globally.

Israels seven month bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 34,600 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Half of the 2.2 million people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation and man-made famine is imminent, according to a scale used by United Nations agencies. Concerns are also heightened over an anticipated Israeli military operation in southern Gazas Rafah, prompting renewed calls for a ceasefire.

Heres a look at some of the pro-Palestinian campus protests around the world.

Australia

Over the past few weeks, pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared in at least seven universities across Australia.

The University of Queensland in Brisbane has become a gathering point for rival camps pitched around 100 meters (328 feet) from each other  one populated by supporters of the Students for Palestine UQ, and another smaller cluster of tents with the Israeli flag among others strung between trees.

They were erected in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza and student protesters in the US, but some Jewish groups say theyre causing unnecessary tension on campus and Australias opposition leader has called them racist and antisemitic.

Students for Palestine UQ want the university to disclose all links to Israeli companies and universities and to cut ties with weapons companies.

Since April 23, camps have sprung up at several university campuses across Australia. - Hilary Whiteman/CNN

So far, violent scenes that have erupted at universities across the US have not been repeated in Australia.

At the University of Sydney, about 50 tents line the quadrangle where up to 100 protesters are sleeping each night. On May 3, Jewish groups held a counter protest against what they said is a disturbing trend of antisemitic and anti-Israel activities at the university.

More than 200 people, some wearing Israeli and Australian flags, gathered at the Sydney campus, but there was no direct encounter between them and the pro-Palestinian group, which had urged followers to help them defend their camp.

United Kingdom

Pro-Palestinian protests have been held at universities across the United Kingdom since the early days of Israels war in Gaza, with some setting up encampments in recent days.

At Newcastle University, a small pro-Palestinian encampment has been set up on a lawn in front of the colleges buildings, video and pictures on social media showed.

The X account Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus shared images of their encampment, which shows around a dozen tents on the lawn, some adorned with Palestinian flags.

Tents are set up at an encampment on the grounds of Newcastle University in protest against the war in Gaza, in Newcastle, England, on May 2, 2024. - Owen Humphreys/AP

The group describes itself as a student-led coalition fighting for an end to Newcastle Universitys partnership with defense companies supplying Israel.

Students in the English cities of Leeds, Bristol and Warwick have also set up tents outside their university buildings to protest the war in Gaza, according to PA news agency.

The campus protests in Britain have received criticism from some Jewish student groups amid calls for universities to take their duty of care to Jewish students more seriously.

France

In Paris, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Sciences Po university and the Sorbonne university in late April.

French police cleared protesters from the Sorbonne  one of the countrys most prestigious universities  on April 29, with video geolocated by CNN showing officers dragging two demonstrators out of tents and along the ground.

On Friday, riot police cleared the main hall of Sciences Po, with protesters shouting shame! and free Palestine!, though the removal otherwise appeared to take place calmly.

Dozens of students had begun a sit-in inside the university the previous day, prompting the closure of the campus, a Sciences Po spokesperson said. One protester said a student had begun a hunger strike in protest at the universitys response to students wishing to support Palestine.

CNN video showed students carrying placards calling for an end to genocide in Gaza and the boycott of Israeli universities.

Riot police stand guard on the sidelines of a rally by university students in support of Palestinian people after a makeshift campement in front of the Sorbonne University was dispersed by police in Paris on May 2, 2024. - Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

Sciences Po is one of Frances most highly ranked universities and the alma mater of a slew of presidents including incumbent leader Emmanuel Macron. It has strong ties to Columbia University, where students have been staging widespread pro-Palestinian protests.

We are inspired by Columbia, Harvard, Yale, UNC, Vanderbilt, Louise, a Sciences Po student, told CNN. All these universities that have mobilized, but our solidarity remains with the Palestinian people first and foremost.

Amid the protests, the Ile-de-France region president said the university will no longer receive funding from the Parisian regional authority, until serenity and security are restored to the school.

Samuel Lejoyeaux, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France, called for more dialogue between protesters on both sides of the ideological divide.

In a piece for Le Monde newspaper on Thursday, he said pro-Palestinian protesters needed to do more to clearly denounce anti-Semitism but that sending in police was not the answer.

Ill never be happy to see CRS [riot police] entering a campus, he wrote.More than anything, I believe in dialogue. The great social advances in France have always been the fruit of militancy and debate, he added.

India

Protests have been held at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, in solidarity with students protesting at Columbia.

The protests coincided with an expected visit to the campus by US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, which was postponed.

JNUs premises shall not provide a platform for administrations and personnel representing nations complicit in terrorism and genocide committed by Israel, said a statement from JNUs student union on April 29. The union has also expressed solidarity with protesters at Columbia.

JNU, one of Indias top universities, has been at the forefront of several protest movements, including 2019 demonstrations against a controversial law that critics say discriminates against Muslims.

Two student political parties at Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi also expressed solidarity with pro-Palestinian protesters.

We also denounce the stance taken by our BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-led government in supporting Israel, which deviates from Indias historical position, said a statement from the Communist Party-affiliated Students Federation of India.

Canada

Protests against Israels war in Gaza have swept campuses across Canada.

At McGill University in downtown Montreal, pro-Palestinian student protesters have set up an encampment on the front lawn.

Like their counterparts in the US, students are demanding the college divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Mounted police officers walk past as pro-Palestinian activists at an encampment set up on McGill University's campus in Montreal, on May 2, 2024. - Christinne Muschi/AP

The university has attempted to disperse the protesters, saying it had requested police assistance after dialogue with student representatives failed to reach a resolution.

On May 2, a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected an injunction request that would have forced the pro-Palestinian protesters to leave their encampment.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have also set up encampments at the University of Torontos downtown campus and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, among others, according to public broadcaster CBC News.

Lebanon

Hundreds of students gathered at campuses in Lebanon in late April, waving Palestinian flags and demanding their universities boycott companies that do business in Israel, Reuters reported.

In the capital, images showed students at the American University of Beirut protesting the war in Gaza outside the gates.

Students at the American University of Beirut and members of the public protest the war in Gaza outside the University gates in solidarity with students across the world, on April 30, in Beirut, Lebanon. - Oliver Marsden/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

Some protesters said they were inspired by protests on US campuses.

We want to show to show the whole world that we have not forgotten the Palestinian cause and that the young generation  which is aware and cultured  is still with the Palestinian cause, Ali al-Muslem, 19, told Reuters.

Israels military and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have routinely exchanged fire since October 7. 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.

CNNs Esha Mitra, Hilary Whiteman, Angus Watson, Joseph Ataman, Julen Chavin, Melissa Bell Mark Esplin, Niamh Kennedy, Paula Newton and Alex Hardie contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto will propose a new governance structure for the university at board meetings next week. The university senate, which currently holds policy-making power, would become an advisory board, and decisions about courses and curriculum would be approved by the provost.

Britt Brockman, the chair of the University of Kentuckys Board of Trustees has attempted to assuage concerns about efforts to redefine the Universitys governance by scaling back the role of the faculty in the process. He suggests relevant constituents be comforted since board members are successful business people and public policy representatives. A review of mission statements at public and private universities will identify the fundamental purpose as creating, preserving, and disseminating knowledge through research, teaching, and public service. UKs mission statement is no exception. Given Mr. Brockmans claim, its reasonable to ask whether a universitys mission statement is consistent with that of businesses.

Milton Friedman, the renowned Nobel-prize winning University of Chicago economics professor famously stated that the singular purpose of business managers and boards was to maximize profits for the shareholders. Never lost for words, Friedman went on to say in a groundbreaking NY Times essay a business that takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, or avoiding pollution is preaching pure and unadulterated socialism.

Its not hard to envision what Professor Friedman would have had to say about programs to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion were he still with us. One of Friedmans most influential disciples, Harvard Professor Michael Jensen, is the godfather of rewarding CEOs with lavish incentive compensation. He commented before his recent death that stock options had become managerial heroin and what the business world lacked was integrity. He described the world of finance around the time of the financial crisis as staggeringly bad. Professor Jensens prolific research has been cited over 340,000 times in the academic literature according to Google Scholar.

If the most famous doyens of economics call for an extremely narrow focus for businesses that have occasionally yielded egregiously bad outcomes, it seems hard to believe a claim that business people are best qualified to govern a university. That the universitys senior administration would find this claim credible is disturbing, if not alarming. While a university obviously must assure it has a sustainable financial future, the fundamental aims of universities and businesses seem much more distinct than consistent. There are universitys focused on profit maximization as their mission, however, and they go by names such as the University of Phoenix.

Mr. Brockman contends that the proposed changes in the Universitys governance represent best practices. Says who? He cites the Association of Governing Boards, whose leadership positions are held by representatives of the University of Central Florida, The College of New Jersey, and Old Dominion University. These do not strike me as institutions that UK is aspiring to emulate. What are the peer institutions that are instituting similar changes? And what is the research that supports the claim that these proposed changes will yield positive outcomes? How did the extant faculty role in governance impede the achievement of the mission, as the proposed changes seem to imply? A university builds the rationale for its existence on quality research and teaching, as UKs mission statement attests. Why will placing more weight on the judgments of those who have never been engaged in either and less on those who have such experience be a better road to governance? As far as I can tell, there has been no adequate response to this question. Instead, the university leadership has said little more than trust us. Business members on the board may recall a famous line from Ronald Reagan: Trust, but verify.

Dr. Donald J. Mullineaux served as the DuPont Endowed Chair in Banking and Financial Services in UKs Gatton College of Business from 1984-2015. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati from 2011 to 2013, including six years as Board Chair.
When and where can I vote in the May 4 election?

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage)  The May 4 general election will see several important positions and propositions appear on the ballot, including the three-way race for the title of San Angelo Police Department police chief. Heres what you need to know about this years polling operations.

When and where can I vote?

This years election will take place on  you guessed it  May 4. According to the Tom Green County County Elections webpage, the following locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for voters to cast their ballots:

Angelo Bible Church  3506 Sherwood Way, Lobby

Belmore Baptist Church  1214 S. Bell St., Fellowship Hall

Calvary Baptist Church  2401 Armstrong St., Fellowship Center

Christoval Community Center  20022 Main, Christoval, TX. Multi-purpose room

Concho Valley Transit District (Bus Depot)  506 N. Chadbourne St., Annex Building

SAF San Angelo First  1442 Edmund Blvd., Fellowship Hall

Grape Creek Community Center  8207 US Hwy 87N, Gene Marsh Board Room

Keating Paint & Body  5050 N. Chadbourne St., Reception Area

Paulann Baptist Church  2531 Smith Blvd., The Chapel

Oak Grove Senior Apartments  4375 Oak Grove Blvd., Multi-purpose Room

Southgate Church of Christ  528 Country Club Rd., Fellowship Hall

Southside Recreation Center  2750 Ben Ficklin Rd., Multi-purpose Room

St. Ambrose Catholic Church  8602 Loop 570, Wall, TX, 76957, Fellowship Hall

MHMR Concho Valley, Admin. Bldg.  1501 W. Beauregard Ave., Jack Ray Room

Veribest Baptist Church  50 FM 2334, Veribest, TX 76886, Fellowship Hall

Wesley United Trinity Methodist Church  301 West 18th St., Fellowship Hall

TXDOT  4502 Knickerbocker Rd., Bldg. E, Training Room

St. Mark Presbyterian Church  2506 Johnson St., Fellowship Hall

This embedded content is not available in your region.

What will I be voting on?

Headlining the general election is the race for the San Angelo Police Departments police chief position. This race has three candidates that will appear on the ballot: Lt. Mike Hernandez, Sgt. Travis Griffith and Lt. Chris Cimino.

In anticipation of the election, Concho Valley Homepage conducted an interview with each of the SAPD chief candidates and hosted a forum that all three candidates attended. To watch the forum or view the interviews, follow the links below:

San Angelo Police Chief Candidate Forum recap

San Angelo Police Chief Candidate: Mike Hernandez

San Angelo Police Chief Candidate: Travis Griffith

San Angelo Police Chief Candidate: Chris Cimino

San Angelo residents and those within the Wall Independent School District can also expect to vote on who will join Wall ISDs Board of Trustees, with online sample ballots indicating that voters will need to pick none, one or two of the following candidates:

Crystal Braden

Houston Guy

Curtis Holtman

Kevin Ripple

Doug Wilde

Finally, those in the Christoval Independent School District will be asked to cast their vote for or against a proposition that would issue $19.5 million of bonds by Christoval ISD that would have their use prioritized for the construction of a new fifth- to eighth-grade campus. The proposition would also levy a property tax to accommodate for the principal and interest of the bonds as well as the cost of any credit agreements executed in connection with the bonds.

Where can I learn more?

For those who want to know more about the general election before heading to the polls, the Tom Green County websites County Elections webpage has more information.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
Image source: The Motley Fool.

Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE: PLYM)

Q1 2024 Earnings Call

May 02, 2024, 9:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:





Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Plymouth Industrial REIT first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tripp Sullivan. Please go ahead.

Tripp Sullivan -- Investor Relations Contact Officer

Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to the Plymouth Industrial REIT conference call to review the company's results for the first quarter of 2024. Last night, we issued our earnings release and posted a copy of our prepared commentary and a supplemental deck on the quarterly results section of our investor relations page.

In addition to these earnings documents, a copy of our 10-Q can be found on the SEC filings page of the IR site. Our supplemental deck includes our full year 2024 guidance assumption, detailed information on our operations, portfolio and balance sheet and definitions of non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures. We will reference this information in our remarks. With me today is Jeff Witherell, chairman and chief executive officer; Anthony Saladino, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Jim Connolly, executive vice president of asset management; and Anne Hayward, general counsel.

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I'd like to point everyone to our forward-looking statements on Page 1 of our supplemental presentation and encourage you to read them carefully. They apply the statements made in this call, our press release, our prepared commentary and in our supplemental financial information. I'll now turn the call over to Jeff Witherell.

Story continues

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Trip. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I hope that everyone had a chance to review the commentary and supplemental information we posted last night. There are a few points that I'd like to make about the results, and then we'll get right to Q&A.

First, we continue to see several announcements made for new investments that companies are making in the Golden Triangle. We've highlighted a couple of substantial ones from Toyota and Honda just last month. I'm also pleased to see that our friend, Harry Moser, from the reshoring initiative is becoming more of a household name in our industry. He was highlighted in a recent Stifel report and will be speaking at the BMO Conference next week, along with Anthony.

He's been leading this charge long before any of us, and I strongly encourage you to follow him. Second, our balance sheet and liquidity remain strong. We fixed rates for well over 90% of our debt, and we're on track to operate in the six times range during 2024. Lastly, we are seeing the transaction market unlocked a little earlier than we had anticipated, but I'll reiterate what I said last quarter.

We're focused on accretive growth in 2024 that translates into FFO growth. We intend to fund any potential new growth opportunities with a combination of asset sales and use of the credit facility. I would now like to turn it over to the operator for questions.

Questions & Answers:





Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question will come from Todd Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

First question, I just wanted to stick with investments, which you just touched on. It sounds like you're starting to see more and more opportunities. Can you just elaborate a little bit on the pipeline today? And then, based on the commentary, some of these, they sound like sort of core plus or value add with some occupancy and rent upside. Is there a way to kind of bookend the cap rates or the IRRs that you're looking to achieve?

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Todd, it's Jeff. Thanks for the question. So the basis for all of our investments, they need to be accretive, right, going in. So we are looking for cash flow starting on Day 1.

But the product that we continue to look at and have has been kind of the shorter walls, where we're going to realize some significant growth in cash flow over the next one, two, three years. There's some value-add components to some of the stuff we're looking at, but we really don't underwrite to IRRs necessarily. I think, if you have that growing cash flow and you start at the right basis, the IRR takes care of itself. I mean, we are looking at assets like we always are, both for the REIT, also for JV, really can't give you much more than that, but we are active in the market.

To answer the first part of your question, there are several portfolios in the market. And there also are several single asset deals that are popping up. So we are seeing much more activity on the for-sale side.

Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK. And in terms of pricing, have you seen seller expectations adjust or change at all in recent months just given the higher rate environment?

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

It depends on where you are. So I would say yes to some of that. But in some markets, we're still seeing negative leverage deals get done. So somebody is counting on some significant rent growth and mark-to-market to get to their hurdles.

But in our markets, I think the way we buy and the things that we buy, we're able to get some pretty attractive cap rates, so it's accretive going in for us.

Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK. And then, I wanted to ask about the 769,000 square foot facility in the St. Louis market. It sounds like there's some interest there.

You've been active marketing that. Two questions. Has FedEx officially provided notice that they are moving out? And then, a second question is, to the extent that they do, how should we think about the time line to get a tenant in the door and for rent to commence for a facility like this? It sounds like you're talking to some manufacturer groups. I'm just curious if there could be some additional time required for them to sort of fit out their space and maybe also in terms of concessions.

Just curious what we should be thinking about there.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. This is Jeff. So as far as FedEx is concerned, they're moving out. They wanted to keep a small group back in the space, but it just wouldn't work for us because we would be giving them the office and would have to build out a second office.

So it really didn't work. The building is a very good building, as you could see, if you watch the video. It's a large building. There's only really two buildings of that size available in the market right now, which is creating some of the interest that we're getting.

The video is also generating a lot of phone calls. As far as your point about the -- what to expect. Yes, some of the manufacturing would have a bit of a time to get their space set up. We've addressed that with giving them early access, which gives us GAAP rent right away and then some free rent with cash rent starting next year.

That's been a proposal. There's also logistics companies that are interested, that would be quicker than we get in right away, and cash, which start faster.

Operator

Our next question will come from Nick Thillman with Baird.

Nick Thillman -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

We've heard commentary from some of your peers on just tenants being a little bit more deliberate to commit to new space. So as we kind of look through like 2025, you guys do have some like larger expirations. I guess, remind us what the rent differential is between like the Class A new product that's being delivered and kind of the rents that you're at? And then, as we're looking at just like fixed rate renewals, I know that's weighed on the first half, your lease term is around three to four years. So are we going to start to see that come down as we go into '25?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Sure. The differential between Class A and B in some cases, it's at least $1 a square foot, maybe more, especially whether it includes abatements or not. As far as our tenants are concerned, we've recently -- just in this last few weeks, we're working with about 2 million square feet of renewals on '25 expirations with some large tenants. And as far as the fixed rate renewals are concerned, I mean, mostly, that limits our growth side.

We do have a bit in '25. However, in one case, one of our larger tenants has one and it's probably good assurance that they're going to renew. So it's not always a bad thing. But they start really to burn off next year.

Nick Thillman -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

OK. And then, maybe just a general commentary on leasing. Have you noticed any shift in kind of tenant behavior, maybe they're delaying kind of renewal discussions? Or are they a little bit more reluctant to kind of engage in conversation? Any commentary there would be helpful.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Nick, this is Jeff. I think, we talked about this last year as well, where what we were seeing were tenants, yes, taking their time on actually signing the lease, right? So they negotiate the terms and then it's out for signature and they're sitting on it for 30, 45 days. And what we believe that to be is once they have that negotiated, they go out into the marketplace and try to find a better deal, let's say, or test the market to see where things are. And so, when you're talking about our size space, if you need 50,000 square feet in one of our markets, there's probably not 10 availabilities for that.

And so, what we've just seen is people taking their time on that. I don't know if Jim can add to that.

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Yes, that's been a trend that's been going on for the past year. Another thing that's going on is the larger logistics companies are all doing studies on where they wanna be in the future. And it's across the board, like for instance Maersk won't sign leases longer than four months right now, but we get them to sign a nine-month lease, which is great. And it's just because they're trying to gauge what their business is gonna be like in the future.

So it's not just it's efficient for better deals. They were also trying to maximize and get it in the right spot.

Nick Thillman -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Very helpful. That's it for me.

Operator

Our next question will come from Mitch Germain with Citizens JMP.

Mitch Germain -- JMP Securities -- Analyst

Jeff, I know you talked about match funding or at least match only a portion of potential acquisitions. But I'm curious if you talked about some sellers or some buyers emerging and some activity in the investment sales market. Is there a potential for you to do some just opportunistic dispositions, assets that may not fit the long-term growth profile or may have some sort of leasing issues to address in the future?

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Mitch. I think, we've kind of covered some of these things in the past. We have two or three buildings right now that are ready for sale. I think, we've mentioned we want to exit the Kansas City market.

I don't want to talk about our 50,000 square foot building in Milwaukee anymore, so we're selling that as well. And I think you see this -- the sale that's being put to us by the tenant is going to bring in some proceeds. So on top of that, we're always evaluating buildings that don't quite fit. I hate to say too much on an open line about it because buyers are listening potentially.

But we're always looking to prune assets that don't fit kind of a round building. When the markets are hot, you want to sell a round building and keep the rectangles.

Mitch Germain -- JMP Securities -- Analyst

Got you. That's helpful. Are there any other purchase options in the portfolio? Or is this kind of like a one-off item?

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

We would consider this a one-off item. There are a diminutive amount of purchase options in in-place leases that based on our valuation are unlikely to be exercised.

Mitch Germain -- JMP Securities -- Analyst

OK. That's super helpful. Last for me, I'm curious about lease structure. I know you've talked a little bit about -- a little bit longer to execute.

But I'm curious about structure. Are you getting any pushback on term or escalators kind of in this new environment? Or are you still kind of able to push some of the kind of wants when you're discussing leases with tenants.

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

So at the start of the year, it seemed like it was going to go that way, that there was gonna be a lot of pushback, but it seems to have changed over the last one and a half months, where we're seeing significant rent increases term five-plus years, and a lot of people want to renew early. It's just changed over the last month.

Mitch Germain -- JMP Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thank you so much.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Mitch.

Operator

Our next question will come from Bryan Maher with B. Riley FBR.

Bryan Maher -- B. Riley Financial -- Analyst

Great. I was wondering if you could comment a little bit more on your thoughts on the Golden Triangle. And you put front and center on your prepared comments released last night, the Honda and Toyota announcements. Can you give us maybe a little bit more color on how you think that and maybe other opportunities over the next year or two are going to impact the Golden Triangle and kind of more specifically you.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Bryan, we've put so much detail out there on the Golden Triangle, and we try to add a lot more to it. I mean, those are the markets that we're primarily in. That's the market we're going to continue to focus on. And based on all the data that we've put out there, we believe this phenomenon is here to stay.

Basically, every week, there's new announcements. There's been some fantastic information put out for Harry Moser as we referenced in the prepared documentation. So how we benefit is being in markets like Memphis, St. Louis.

I mean, Chicago. I mean, I think one of the big things we pointed out was Honda in Canada, really getting set up for setting up in Canada and being able to bring their product down into the United States. So if they're going to come down into the United States, they're probably going to come right down into Chicago and distribute. And a big part of Memphis is bringing the product up from Texas into places like St.

Louis and getting it distributed. You need infrastructure for that. So how we benefit is being in places like Chicago, where you have the lowest transportation cost in the country, because you have the infrastructure and you have the employment base. So all of these things are really what is going to drive the future of onshoring and reshoring is gonna be the infrastructure.

I mean, I think we talked about it last time. In order to secure a fairly significant lease in our new building in Georgia, we needed to negotiate a contract with Georgia Power, which we did. We're also negotiating power in places like St. Louis and other markets.

But that's gonna be one of the prohibiting factors of reshoring, is gonna be infrastructure and then, obviously, labor. If you can get those things figured out, this phenomenon is not going to stop. So I think we benefit by being in these markets that have the infrastructure.

Bryan Maher -- B. Riley Financial -- Analyst

And is it too early to -- I mean, look, we're analysts, right? And we like to quantify everything. Is there -- is it too early to kind of really put pen to paper and quantify the impact on demand from the warehousing space in these markets? And this is just a bigger picture shot across the bow, hey, it's coming. we're going to have demand, but we don't exactly know what that demand level is gonna be?

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I mean, I think, if you look at just investment in manufacturing, and I'll get these numbers wrong, but between 2020 and 2023, I mean, you had an increase of about $180 billion of investment, right, in new manufacturing. And they think that that level of investment is going to carry for the next 10 years. So these -- this is all data points.

And so, again, where are you going to build -- where are you going to put this new manufacturing that's coming in? I think -- I don't know if we'll get to this, but this building and Grove City, Ohio that we're selling. I mean, this has been really the -- what we've been talking about, I think, one on one for two years now is that building is occupied by American Nitrile, which is the first manufacturer of Nitrile gloves, is basically gloves for medical use and so on and so forth. They're the first manufacturer in the United States in 50 years, and they're in that building. So they came in and put in $15 million to $20 million of improvements in the building.

And in order to do that, we needed to give them a purchase option, right? And so that's why that was done. And now, they're going to take that building and they're going to expand. So this is happening on the ground, and it's pretty exciting to see.

Operator

Our next question will come from Anthony Hau with SunTrust.

Anthony Hau -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

I'm curious, were you guys able to extend the lease at 3650 Distriplex in Memphis?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Yes. That's the Maersk lease that we extended.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So that's the lease that Jim mentioned extended for nine months. Maersk is exploring the option to extend beyond that in the event that they don't -- we have another prospect already lined up, interested to start in January '25.

Anthony Hau -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Got you. And I know it might be too early, but have you guys had any conversation with GEODIS and Royal Canin about renewal?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Yes. Royal Canin contacted us about extending their lease another year. And then, GEODIS, we've talked to them. They were one of the first tenants last year, the last time that they renewed that they held on to the lease till the last minute.

So I expect they're going to take us to the last date, but the building is full and we're positive they're going to renew.

Anthony Hau -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Got you. And then, just one last question. I know you guys are currently in negotiation with the communication test designed to extend the lease. Would this be like a one-year extension or a multiyear renewal?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

They asked for several different options. They look for a five-year option, seven-year option.

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our next question will come from Brendan Lynch with Barclays.

Brendan Lynch -- Barclays -- Analyst

You have a little less than a quarter of leases expiring in 2025. How soon can you start addressing those? And where might that come down to as a percentage of leases to address by year-end?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Yes. I would estimate that that number is gonna be around 50%. We've got several large tenants that have already approached us about renewing. So I think it's going to come down quite a bit.

Brendan Lynch -- Barclays -- Analyst

OK. That's helpful. And then, on development, maybe you could give a little bit of color on the prospect of leasing up the one facility in Cincinnati and also your interest in commencing the next phase of development at some point in the near future?

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

I'll take the first part. The current space, the 53,000 square feet that's available at Fisher Park -- Fisher Industrial Park, both tenants that are in the building now are asking about it, whether they -- to take some of that space. Plus another tenant that's over in the main building in Fisher Industrial Park is looking to expand in that as well. Plus we have a few other prospects that are there.

So we think it's going to lease up very soon.

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. As far as new development is concerned, I mean, we do outline in the supplement the available land that we have, another 1.5 million square feet, plus or minus, to build. We have identified several parcels there where the buildings are designed and we could pull permits momentarily. But we're not going to do it on a spec basis like we did in the past.

So we're going to wait until the build-to-suit shows up before we break ground. We think that's prudent.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 0 minutes

Call participants:

Tripp Sullivan -- Investor Relations Contact Officer

Jeff Witherell -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst

Nick Thillman -- Robert W. Baird and Company -- Analyst

Jim Connolly -- Executive Vice President, Asset Management

Mitch Germain -- JMP Securities -- Analyst

Bryan Maher -- B. Riley Financial -- Analyst

Anthony Hau -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Brendan Lynch -- Barclays -- Analyst

More PLYM analysis

All earnings call transcripts

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Plymouth Industrial REIT. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Plymouth Industrial REIT (PLYM) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool
White House does not currently see China open to Ukraine's peace formula

Washington does not currently believe in China agreeing to Ukraine's 10-point peace formula, U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby said on May 2.

The upcoming global peace summit will take place in mid-June in Switzerland, and 160 national delegations will be invited to the talks.

While Russia has not been invited to the summit, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak said that China's attendance would be very important and that Ukraine is making every effort to engage Chinese delegates in participating in the event.

China's participation is still in question, but Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland Wang Shihting told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung in March that China "was considering to join the talks."

Read also: Bloomberg: Blinken to warn Beijing over support for Russia in upcoming trip to China

Kirby said the U.S. welcomes China's attendance or any other state that could help to end the war and respects Kyiv's 10-point peace plan.

But we did not see China moving in this direction, Kirby said during the press briefing.

Ukraine is keeping diplomatic channels with China open, even though Beijing has maintained close ties with Moscow during the war.

Earlier in March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised the strengthening of relations between Beijing and Russia and claimed that China is a "force for peace."

During the press conference, Kirby also recalled additional financial support that was unblocked recently as the U.S. passed a $61 million aid bill for Ukraine.

The U.S. government also allocated $6 billion in military aid under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which means that the Pentagon will send contracts to U.S. defense companies to produce new military supplies to provide Kyiv with them.

We have received additional funding to repel Russian aggression, to return the territories that the Russians took from Ukraine, and to work with our own efforts to achieve a peace that meets the goals of the Ukrainian leadership and people, the spokesperson said.

Read also: US sanctions Russia, Chinese companies for war effort support

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The White House is shaking up its roster of immigration advisers, bringing in a top border enforcement policy leader and a development expert to round out its team.

Blas Nunez-Neto comes to the White House from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where he served as the assistant secretary for border and immigration policy and was a key negotiator on a failed bipartisan Senate deal on immigration.

Marcela Escobari has left her post at USAID, where she served as the head of the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The dual hires reflect the Biden administrations approach to immigration at large  which stresses restricting migration at the border while opening up legal pathways and investing heavily in development throughout Latin America in the hopes of quelling migratory flows.

Nunez-Neto, who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina as a child, has been central in crafting policies he sees as a middle ground on immigration.

His position on the enforcement side of immigration and border security has earned him scant praise from immigrant advocates  some of the policies hes shepherded have been the focal point of tensions between advocates and the Biden administration.

He helped develop the Biden administrations response to the lifting of Title 42, pushing conditions on asylum similar to those used under former President Trump, though they were paired with a program that would allow temporary entry for migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti if they could secure a U.S.-based financial sponsor.

He also helped negotiate the resumption of deportation flights to Venezuela.

In the border negotiations in the Senate, he was part of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkass team, providing technical groundwork for negotiators to craft that defunct bills crackdown on asylum rights.

We are looking forward to DHS Assistant Secretary Blas Nunez-Neto joining the White House and continuing his work implementing the Administrations vision across the border security and immigration spaces, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement.

The Administration will continue to fight to fix the broken immigration system and to push Republicans in Congress to pass the historic bipartisan border security agreement that they rejected for partisan political reasons.

At the DHS, Nunez-Neto played a key role in tackling migration policy domestically and internationally, becoming a regular face before Congress and in international negotiations.

Blas Nunez-Neto is a remarkably talented and devoted colleague. With commanding knowledge of immigration policy and deep expertise in foreign relations, he brings unique and invaluable perspective to some of the most complex issues we face. He is deeply admired and beloved, and, while we will miss him here at DHS, we look forward to working closely with him in his richly-deserved new role in the White House, Mayorkas said in a statement.

Escobaris role in the Biden administration has been less public-facing than Nunez-Netos, but the Bolivia-born development professional has built a deep corpus of publications on both foreign and domestic issues.

At USAID, she ran the agencys bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, a position she also held in 2016 under former President Obama.

Marcela has had such a tremendous impact on USAIDs work across Latin America and the Caribbean. We are grateful that she will take her vision, and her commitment to USAID, to the White House  where shell no doubt work tirelessly to drive policy change, said USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Dennis Vega.

The agency described her portfolio as spearheading USAIDs efforts to advance a collaborative, regional response to the historic displacement of seven million people across the region, as well as fighting the economic contraction felt deeply across Latin America following the COVID pandemic.

We often draw lines between so-called developed and developing, between the Global North and Global South.  But in truth, there is no bright line when it comes to the crippling effects of poverty, Escobari wrote in her testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for confirmation to her post in 2021.

The need for inclusive, sustainable growth is as real in Appalachia as it is in Antigua.

Escobari is replacing Katie Tobin, a National Security Council immigration adviser who in January announced her departure from the administration.

Between her two stints at USAID  during the Trump administration  Escobari was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she published extensive research on modernizing the American workforce.

At USAID, Escobari faced internal challenges, including the response to a 2021 Office of Inspector General report that found the agency had caved to undue political pressure from the Trump administration in its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Venezuela.

USAID also faced external headwinds in the Americas, including from U.S. allies like Mexico, where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has railed against the agency for financing organizations openly against the legal and legitimate government I represent, in reference to USAIDs funding of anti-corruption civil society groups.

In her new role, Escobari will necessarily interact with Lopez Obradors government or policy decisions, as the Mexican president is a key player in regional migration.

On Escobaris area of expertise, development, the Biden administration has openly indulged Lopez Obradors rhetoric prioritizing a humanitarian approach, though the U.S. has cherished Lopez Obradors cooperation on Nunez-Netos turf  enforcement.

Updated: 4:58 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Whitney Gravelle speaks at "Enbridge eviction" celebration, Conkling Park, Mackinaw City | Laina G. Stebbins

On Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced two appointments to the Lake Superior State University Board of Trustees, including a tribal leader whos a well-known anti-Line 5 activist.

I am proud to appoint Whitney Gravelle and Kevin Cooper to the LSSU Board, said Whitmer. They are both dedicated members of the community and bring years of diverse experience to their new roles. I am confident they will serve the students, faculty, and staff well and continue making higher education in Michigan more accessible and affordable.

The Lake Superior State University Board of Trustees is the governing body of Lake Superior State University. The board is granted the power of control and direction of all expenditures from the universitys funds.

Gravelle, president of the Executive Council of the Bay Mills Indian Community, has led that tribal nation in its fight against Enbridges Line 5 tunnel project in the Straits of Mackinac. Prior to public office, she was the Chief Judge of the Bay Mills Tribal Court and also served as an Honors Clerk for the Justice Department in the Indian Resource Section, as well as in-house counsel within the Bay Mills Indian Community.

Gravelles leadership within the Bay Mills Indian Community has included more than just opposition to Line 5, which she has long argued is a violation of the tribes long-held treaty rights. She also presided over the recent purchase of birch bark scrolls engraved by Ojibwe ancestors more than a century ago, returning them from private collections.

From Brimley, Gravelle holds a B.A. in social science and a J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law. She was previously appointed as a member of the Michigan Womens Commission and currently serves as the chairperson of the Bay Mills Community College Board of Regents. According to a release, Bay Mills Community College and LSSU work together closely to support students in the Sault region and beyond.

I am deeply honored to be appointed to the Lake Superior State University Board of Trustees, said Gravelle. Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area has a long and rich history with both Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. I am committed to contributing my expertise and passion to help all succeed in their pursuit of education, as well as bridge communities, enhance educational policies, and promote inclusivity and respect across all levels of academic engagement that actively includes and represents indigenous perspectives and leadership in higher education.

Kevin Cooper | Courtesy photo

Cooper is the owner of Cooper Dental and a lifelong resident of the Sault region. Cooper currently serves on the Board of Directors of Old Mission Bank. As a part of his dentistry practice, he serves the Chippewa County Health Department.

Cooper, from Sault Sainte Marie, holds a B.S. in biology and chemistry from Lake Superior State University and a D.D.S. from the University of Michigan. He is an LSSU alumnus, previously serving as chair of both the universitys Foundation Board of Directors and Alumni Foundation.

I am so honored to have been selected to serve on [the] Lake Superior State University Board of Trustees, said Cooper. Lake Superior has played a significant role in my life and the Cooper family for three generations from the Soo Tech branch of MTU to present day. I look forward to working with the administration, fellow board members, faculty staff, and local [residents] to make Lake Superior State University the best University it can be.

Both Gravelles and Coopers terms, which are subject to the advice and consent of the Michigan Senate, commenced Thursday and expire on Jan. 27, 2032.

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The post Whitmer taps Bay Mills tribal leader for LSSU Board of Trustees appeared first on Michigan Advance.
College Decision Day typically falls on the first day in May. But while that milestone has come and gone this year, hundreds of high school seniors still have yet to decide which university they will attend in the fall.

Why? Colleges across the country  including University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, Northern Kentucky University and Miami University  pushed back their college acceptance deadlines to accommodate issues and delays from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

USA TODAY: How did the FAFSA rollout go so wrong? A look at the key events

The student aid program, which is commonly referred to as the FAFSA and provides funds for millions of students to attend college annually, opened nearly three months later than usual this year. The delay made it impossible for some colleges to compile student financial aid packages in time for student admission decisions. Some students are still waiting on their financial aid awards.

In-state students, students with Pell Grants are taking longer to decide

For example, half of University of Cincinnati's admitted students got their financial aid packages by late April, while the other half are still waiting. But the university's vice provost for enrollment management, Jack Miner, says enrollment numbers look pretty good already in spite of the FAFSA delays.

University of Cincinnati has extended its decision deadline for first-year admitted students to June 1.

Compared to last May, University of Cincinnati commitments are behind by more than 1,000 students, Miner said. But since the university delayed its decision deadline by a month, it would be fairer to compare May 1 commitments this year to April 1 commitments last year. With that in mind, this year's commitments are up by 921 students.

More: Fewer students applied for financial aid during the pandemic; where will they be in fall?

"The truth is, realistically, some place in the middle," Miner said. He anticipates the incoming freshmen class will be the same size or a tad larger than last year's. The university welcomed 8,900 incoming freshmen last fall, marking its largest class yet.

Enrollment managers at Northern Kentucky University and Miami University also said their enrollment numbers are outperforming last year's commitments.

Miner said international and out-of-state students are committing ahead of schedule this year.

"The students that have not yet made a decision about where they're going to go in the fall are the ones that are from Ohio that are very likely waiting for their financial aid offers from other schools" in Ohio, Miner said.

He added that students who are eligible for Federal Pell Grants, which are reserved for students with exceptional financial need, and students admitted to highly selective programs are also taking longer to commit. These students, Miner explained, are likely to receive the most substantial financial aid offers from several universities.

More: How FAFSA 'fixes' have turned College Decision Day into chaos

Lauren Parcell, dean of admission at Xavier University, said the university recently polled its admitted students and the bulk of respondents said they are still in the decision-making process. Xavier released financial aid packages in mid-April.

"While students may still be waiting for responses from other schools, they have all necessary information from Xavier," Parcell said. Xavier's decision deadline is May 15.

Delayed commitments make it harder for colleges to budget

Thomas More University in Northern Kentucky never stuck to a hard decision deadline on May 1, said Mark Messingschlager. He's the university's director of financial aid.

Students who committed to Thomas More by May 1 got priority access to pick their housing assignments and class schedules. But the university never rescinded admissions or scholarships for other students after that day.

As of May 1, Messingschlager said the university is experiencing a 22% reduction in new student commitments year over year because of the FAFSA delays. He said he hopes commitments spike in the next month as other colleges' decision deadlines pass, but he's nervous.

"It's bad enough for the families," Messingschlager said. Kids are trying to make the most important decisions of their lives without all of the information they need. "But internally, for us at the schools, we don't know how to set a budget for next year."

Everything from how many classes to offer to housing is up in the air, he said.

And on an even grimmer note, Messingschlager said he's most upset for the students who need financial aid most. The FAFSA overhaul was supposed to expand access to higher education, he said, and yet the delays and errors in the online system left the most vulnerable students in limbo and "suffering the most."

"What happens if a large portion of these students decide not to go anywhere?" he said. That's his biggest fear.

Thomas More is not rescinding any admissions or scholarships for students all the way to the first day of school this fall.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FAFSA delays and why it's harder to pick a college right now
A recently passed Florida law would ban the sale or manufacturing of lab-grown meat in the state, just as the industry is beginning to gain momentum.

Cultivated meat, more widely known to the public as  lab-grown meat , is at an inflection point. Lab grown chicken and beef cultivated from cells in a petri dish remain unavailable to the average consumer, but the former has gained US Department of Agriculture approval . Two US restaurants in San Francisco and Washington DC have already served cultivated choice meat on their menus and more could follow as prices begin to fall. But new lab-grown meat bans gaining traction in mostly conservative-led states could threaten to impede the still-nascent industrys momentum.

This week, Florida officially became the first state to make good on threats to ban cultivated meat. On Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law legislation making it illegal to manufacture, sell, hold, or distribute lab-grown meat within the state. Those who run afoul of the new law could be charged with a misdemeanor crime. Similar legislation is currently under discussion in Alabama, Arizona, and Tennessee . Violators of those bills, if they come to pass, could face jail time or fines.

Florida is fighting back against the global elites plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals, DeSantis said during a press conference Wednesday. We will save our beef.

Why do Republican-led states want to ban lab-grown meat?

Republican lawmakers opposed to cultivated meat, broadly, have attempted to connect the industry to a larger supposed culture war. DeSantis, for his part, has previously described lab-grown meat as part of a whole ideological agenda and claims it would threaten ranchers. Others, like Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Wilton Simpson, who supports the law, have called lab-grown meat a disgraceful attempt to undermine our proud traditions and prosperity.

Lawmakers and cultivated meat critics have also questioned the safety of lab grown meat, though often with arguments lacking evidence. The most common safety-related critics of lab-grown meat revolved around the use of so-called  immortalized  cells in the cultivation process. These specific types of cells are essentially able to duplicate infinitely. Thats useful for cultivated meat startups that want to grow large quantities of meat from a small sample. It can also sound eerily similar to the process of rapid cell reproduction that causes cancer.

Critics of the industry have leaped on that supposed connection and implied eating lab-grown meat could cause cancer. Theres no evidence currently supporting those claims. Food regulators in the US, Australia, and Singapore have determined cultivated meats are safe to eat and cancer researchers speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek last year said its essentially impossible to get cancer from eating cultivated meat. Still, that hasnt stopped critics from leaning into that categorization. A recent ad campaign attempting to discredit the industry leaned on the theory and reportedly depicted a student at a science fair claiming the cells in the cultivated meat grow like a tumor and are bath[ed] with chemicals.

The Republican led backlash to lab grown meat isnt limited to full on bans either. More than a dozen states have pursued regulations restricting how lab cultivated meat companies brand their product. Some, like Kentucky, Maine, and Mississippi, have advanced regulations that prevent companies from using the word meat in their labeling. Others would require cultivated meat companies to provide disclosures on their packaging. On the federal level, Democratic senator Jon Tester and Republican senator Mike Rounds have even introduced legislation seeking to ban cultivated meat from being used in public school lunch and breakfast programs. All of this has occurred despite the fact that lab-grown meat still isnt commercially available to consumers in the US.

Hasty bans threaten cultivated meat innovation

Lab grown meat supporters say laws like the one recently introduced in Florida could threaten to stymie an nascent industry before it has the chance to reach its full potential. The Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports cultivated meat efforts, told PopSci laws like these take choice away from consumers and limit innovation that could lead to new jobs.

American-made cultivated meat has been rigorously inspected and ruled safe by the USDA and FDAso why are politicians with no experience in food safety interfering where they dont belong? Good Food Institute Legislative Director Pepin Andrew Tuma said. Floridians should decide for themselves what kind of meat they want to eat, and not be limited by government overreach. The Sunshine States eccentric decision casts a long shadow on its laudable ambition to keep the state open for business.

GOOD Meat, a leading lab-grown meat startup pursuing cultivated chicken, echoed those concerns, and called the law a setback for everyone.

In a state that purportedly prides itself on being a land of freedom and individual liberty, its government is now telling consumers what meat they can or cannot purchase, GOOD Meat said in a statement posted on X.

There are still more questions than answers surrounding lab-grown meat broadly. Supporters of the industry have said it could make agriculture more sustainable and reduce greenhouse house gas emissions. Recent research, however, suggests it's too early to tell if thats true . Others say lab-grown meat could one day offer carnivores an ethical alternative to eating meat that reduces animal suffering. But that supposed future will depend largely on lab-grown meat firms significantly driving down prices and simultaneously improving their products taste . Lab grown meat can also require blood drawn from unborn cow fetuses, so its not totally immune from ethical scrutiny either. Those barriers are difficult enough on their own to overcome even in the most permissive legal environment. Statewide bans on cultivated meat threaten to make an already difficult dilemma even harder.
Why flags will be flown half-staff in Kansas on Sunday

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  Governor Laura Kelly directed flags throughout Kansas to be flown at half-staff from sunup to sundown on Sunday, May 5, in recognition of National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Day and to honor Division Chief Martin Smith of the Dearing Fire Department in Montgomery County.

Division Chief Smith passed away unexpectedly in January 2023 after responding to a motor vehicle accident in the line of duty. The flag order is issued in honor of all fallen firefighters.

Our first responders work tirelessly every day to ensure the safety of our communities, said Kelly. Division Chief Smith selflessly served the people of Montgomery County for nearly 50 years. We will not forget the sacrifices Division Chief Smith made and the work all Kansas firefighters undertake each day to protect Kansans.

To receive email alerts when the governor orders flags to half-staff, click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
Wife of Doctor Who Drove Tesla Off Cliff Asks Court to Spare Him Prison: 'We Need Him in Our Lives'

Dharmesh Arvind Patel was accused of driving his familys Tesla off a 250-foot cliff with his wife and two children inside

Facebook Dharmesh A. Patel and his family pose for a photo

The wife of the man who allegedly drove his car over a California cliff with his family inside is asking the judge to rule against prison time in his case, instead saying that he needs mental health treatment.

Now, over 16 months after Dharmesh Arvind Patel was accused of driving his familys Tesla off a 250-foot cliff at Devils Slide on Jan. 2 and charged with three counts of attempted murder, his wife Neha Patel shared a statement in court (via Zoom), asking for a judge to consider mental health treatment, per The San Francisco Chronicle, The Mercury News and other outlets.

I dont want to see Dharmesh prosecuted with any of his charges, Neha said on the morning of Thursday, May 2, per The Chronicle. I am pleading with the court to grant him his mental health diversion.

Dharmesh's defense attorney Josh Bentley previously said in February, per KNTV, that his wife did not want him to face prosecution.

Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock Dharmesh Patel

Related: Father Who Drove His Family Of 4 Off Cliff Suffered Psychotic Break, Doctors Say

As previously reported by The Los Angeles Times, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said two doctors had testified that Dharmesh was suffering a psychotic break at the time of the crash leading him to believe his two children may be sex trafficked. Doctors for the defense also reportedly said he suffered from major depressive disorder.

Neha, their 7-year-old girl and their 4-year-old boy were all in the car with Dharmesh at the time of the January 2023 crash.

The L.A. Times previously noted that the radiologist pleaded not guilty to his charges and was seeking mental health diversion  which would have him released from jail and put on a two-year treatment plan if granted.

Seeing my kids in constant pain is one of the hardest things Ive had to endure, Neha told the judge Thursday. Once I tuck my children into bed at night Im reminded of my own solitude. I really miss my best friend. I really miss my partner in my life.

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.

As The Chronicle reported, Judge Susan Jakubowski will determine if Dharmesh poses a public safety threat and if mental health contributed to his decision. Neha spoke at the second day of the hearing for 10 minutes, describing her husband as a productive member of society" who she's about to celebrate 16 years of marriage with.

Neha also described Dharmesh as a father on Thursday, sharing that their son came into her bedroom crying once to ask, When is Daddy coming home? Hes taking so long and I miss him," according to The Chronicle. She also revealed that their daughter has held onto the last gift he bought her, a stuffed sea turtle.

We need him in our lives and it has been over a year and a half since my children or I have seen or spoken to Dharmesh, she said, according to the outlet. We are not a family without him.

The mental health treatment  will not only restore him back to himself, but will restore our family, Neha added.

Facebook Dharmesh A. Patel poses for a photo with his family

Related: Neighbor of Calif. Family Driven Off Cliff by Father Says, 'We Don't Know What Goes on Behind Closed Doors'

Per The Chronicle's most recent report, Deputy District Attorney Dominique Davis called on sole witness Dr. Yan Chan on Thursday, as he testified that he reached the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder for Dharmesh. The Mayo Clinic reports that the illness is "marked by a combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania."

Chan added that Dharmesh showed signs of underreporting" his symptoms and told first responders that the crash was an accident initially, per The Chronicle. Chan also revealed that, at one point, the doctor believed his mailman was out to get him, and as the outlet noted, Chan was worried that outpatient treatment would be a ripe environment for these kinds of brewing thoughts to come back.

Neha said in court that her husband never had an episode" in the 25 years that she knew him.

Now that we understand and know he has a treatable condition, things will be different, she said. I want members of the court to know the health and safety of my family is of paramount importance.

Wagstaffe previously told PEOPLE that both parents were injured in the crash, their daughter was hospitalized and their son was left with "bumps and bruises, but no injuries." Neha allegedly told paramedics that "he [Patel] intentionally tried to kill us," per Wagstaffe.

"She made that statement when asked, 'What happened? What happened?' " Wagstaffe said at the time. "'He intentionally tried to kill us.'  We have multiple people who heard her say that."



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Read the original article on People.
It didn't take long for some good-natured ribbing about there being more than one Wilmington.

"Mayor (Bill) Saffo, thanks for the passport to your city," President Joe Biden said at his presidential visit to the Wilmington Convention Center on Thursday. "By the way, you ain't the only Wilmington in America," referring to the one in his home state of Delaware.

And while there was a joke here and there sprinkled among remarks that lasted less than 30 minutes, including some jabs at former President Donald Trump, most of Thursday's speech centered around clean water, infrastructure and jobs for the Port City and across the country.

"It is my great honor to welcome you all here today on this historic day as we host the President of the United States," Saffo said, kicking off the evening's speeches.

Biden in Wilmington: A look at activities surrounding the president's visit on Thursday

The primary purpose behind the president's visit to the Port City was to announce a $3 billion-dollar federal investment into replacing toxic lead piping throughout the nation.

"I'm here to talk about something very basic and fundamental to our communities, to our economy, to our basic human dignity -- safe clean drinking water," Biden said. Lead service lines have been known to pose severe health risks for children, Biden said, including the stunting of growth, slowed learning, and lasting brain damage.

Paris Pugh, a second-grade teacher at Bradley Creek Elementary School, spoke prior to President Joe Biden at the Wilmington Convention Center on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

Paris Pugh, a second-grade teacher from Bradley Creek Elementary School, provided insight into the relevance of the issue locally. Bradley Creek Elementary School recently replaced a water fountain with high levels of lead on school grounds using funds from the president's American Rescue Plan.

"My students drink from that water fountain, filling their water bottles every day, so it is a health issue that hits home for me," Pugh said to the StarNews.

"No teacher or student should have to worry about their most basic needs, like access to clean water. Thanks to President Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris, students and teachers don't have to worry," Pugh said in her speech.

Biden underscored the need for urgency in addressing this issue.

"There is no safe level of exposure. None," Biden said. "Until the United States of America...deals with this, how can we say we're (a) leading nation in the world?"

Approximately nine million lead service lines remain in the country with approximately 300,000 of those lines present in North Carolina alone, Biden said. Nearly half of the funding allocated to the removal of these lines will be directed to disadvantaged communities across the U.S.

"Studies show communities of color have been the hardest hit," Biden said. "We have to make things right."

The president referred to his 10-year-plan to remove all lead-containing services lines as one of the nation's most ambitious water agendas and highlighted how the initiative will create "good paying jobs you can make a serious living with without a college degree (and that) you can raise a family on."

President Joe Biden spoke at the Wilmington Convention Center on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

Referencing Enviornmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Gov. Roy Cooper's recent visit to Fayetteville, Biden mentioned the administration's finalization of the first national PFAS drinking water standard. The Biden administration has dedicated $9 billion in funding to address PFAS and drinking contaminants.

"Communities across the Cape Fear watershed know too well why this matters," Biden said. "As a consequence of PFAS, you've seen aggressive cancers emerge in that area. It's gone so far, that we're advising and warning you can't eat the fish from the same water that you drink."

Both Regan and Cooper were present in Wilmington on Thursday and spoke prior to the president.

"All of us working together will achieve President Biden's vision of removing all lead pipes in this country," Regan said, adding that as a father himself, he empathizes with other parents who worry about the health and safety of their own children.

Cooper, who the president referred to as "one of the best governors in the United States of America," expressed gratitude for federal support of statewide efforts. "North Carolina is used to being first in the nation in a lot of things," Cooper said. "We're going to stay out front working to protect clean drinking water."

A few audience members voiced their approval of Thursday's overall message following the event.

Kyle Horton, a physician in Wilmington, said she was "really excited about the monumental announcement of investment in clean and safe drinking water," adding that Wilmington is "on the frontline of this crisis in many ways, including with PFAS."

Judy Justice, a former teacher and New Hanover County School Board member, said that "kids from certain neighborhoods where the lead contamination was evident (had a lot) lower test scores" from her experience as a teacher and administrator. "It should have been addressed this way, in my opinion, 30 years ago."

The presidential visit also encompassed discussion of decreasing unemployment rates, the Affordable Connectivity Program, pharmaceutical costs, and the federal deficit, among others.

"We're the only country in the world who (has) come out of every crisis we've entered stronger than we went in," Biden said before heading offstage. "There is nothing beyond our capacity when we work together."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: President Joe Biden touts lead pipe removal in Wilmington, NC speech
WISTER, Okla. (KNWA/KFTA)  The Wister, Okla. police chief was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence and endangering a child, according to court documents.

Kurt Morsund, 45 (Courtesy: LeFlore County Jail)

Kurt Morsund, 45, was arrested on April 28 on aggravated DUI and child endangerment charges, according to his booking.

A court information sheet says Morsund reportedly drove a 2014 Ram pickup at or near Glendale Road in LeFlore County while transporting a child.

The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety says aggravated driving under the influence is a charge against someone who is believed to have been driving with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of .15 or higher.

Wister City Attorney Sean McKelvey confirmed that Morsund has submitted his resignation and the City Board of Trustees will vote on May 6 to formally accept his resignation.

Morsund was released from custody on a $10,000 bond and has a court date set for June 3.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A California woman was arrested after police say she vandalized UNLV property, writing the words Free Palestine over a UNLV Strong sign Thursday.

According to the release, a woman from California was arrested on Thursday at 7 p.m. after University police determined she defaced UNLV property by placing the words Free Palestine over a UNLV Strong sign on campus in Pida Plaza.

UNLV officials said the woman, who has no affiliation with the University, faces a misdemeanor charge of vandalism and will not be allowed on UNLV property for two years.

University officials said the incident underscores the importance of the schools policies on speech and advocacy.

The incident serves as a reminder that UNLVs policy on Speech and Advocacy and use of outdoor areas clearly outline the expectations we have for our university community and the community at-large relative to supporting and protecting free speech, the release said. Violations of these policies will not be tolerated.

The message comes after a scheduled protest at UNLV gathered activists responding to the recent conflict in the Middle East.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
In a recent analysis of the second-hand car market, Independent Advisor Car Insurance reveals that Porsche owners are leading the pack in reselling their vehicles.

The study, conducted by Independent Advisor, delved into Auto Trader, the second-hand car online marketplace, to examine the prevalence of 12 top car brands in listings compared to their registered numbers in the UK.

The findings shed light on the dynamics of car ownership, with the number of listings expressed as a percentage of registered cars serving as a metric for owner turnover, or "fickleness."

According to the study, Porsche owners emerged as the most likely to part ways with their vehicles, with 3.81% of registered Porsches (7,124 cars) listed on the second-hand market.

Among the most commonly listed Porsche models, the 911 took the lead with 2,277 listings, boasting an average price of 87,667. Following closely behind are Land Rover owners, who ranked second for resale activity. With 21,082 Land Rovers listed for sale, representing 2.51% of the total registered, Land Rover owners exhibit a significant propensity for selling their vehicles.

The Range Rover Evoque emerges as the most frequently listed Land Rover model, with 4,517 listings averaging 22,292, closely trailed by the Range Rover Sport with 4,467 listings at an average price of 44,258.

BMW owners secured the third spot in the study, with 41,353 listings. However, this translates to only 2.28% of the 1,810,949 BMWs registered in the UK. The 3 Series emerges as the most common BMW listing, boasting an average price of 12,676.

In contrast, Vauxhall owners appear to be the least inclined to part with their vehicles, with just 0.92% of registered Vauxhalls listed for sale. The most prevalent listing among Vauxhalls is the Corsa, with 7,721 listings averaging 5,985.

Methodology

Independent Advisor scraped data from Auto Trader, including make, model, fuel type, price, and location of listings, resulting in a sample of over 132,000 cars. Registered car numbers for each brand were obtained from gov.uk data as of Q3 2023 to assess popularity. A ratio of listings to registrations was calculated to gauge demand and retention.

The percentage of listings compared to registered cars was used to identify which owners are most likely to sell. Data on total listings and average prices per model were also gathered. While Auto Trader is a major UK automotive marketplace, variations may exist in other platforms. The study's data is accurate as of 26/03/2024.

"Porsche 911 dominates resale market: Independent Advisor" was originally created and published by Motor Finance Online, a GlobalData owned brand.

Story continues







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WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said it arrested a woman who is accused of shooting and killing a man in an apartment building in Navy Yard.

MPD said Friday that Prashawn Brady, 31, of Southeast faces a charge of Second Degree Murder While Armed.

Officers received a report of gunfire in the 1100 block of 2nd Pl. SE around 3 a.m. on March 31. When police arrived, they found Michael James Quander Jr., 44, of Northwest shot inside the apartment building. Quander died there.

DC firefighter rescues dog from burning home in Northeast

On Friday, May 3, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force found Brady and took her into custody.

The Metropolitan Police Department did not specify the relationship between Brady and Quander but said detectives found that the two had one of some kind with each other.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
A 77-year-old New Jersey woman accused of stealing more than $1 million in benefits from her dead aunts bank account over 25 years has been indicted in federal court, prosecutors said.

After the death of her aunt in 1998, the woman drained her bank account of about $1.01 million in retirement and survivor benefits paid by the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey.

On May 2, the woman, of South Orange, was indicted on one count of wire fraud, the attorneys office announced in a news release.

A federal defender appointed to represent the woman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 3.

In October 2022, an SSA employee called a number listed for the womans aunt, who would have been over 100 years old, to see whether she was alive, according to a criminal complaint, McClatchy News previously reported.

The woman is accused of answering the phone, posing as her aunt, and providing the SSA employee with her aunts approximate birthdate, the complaint says.

In 2023, the SSA and OPM learned of the theft and stopped depositing money in the womans aunts bank account, according to prosecutors.

Shes accused of stealing from the account from Jan. 16, 1998 to June 2, 2023, the indictment shows.

The woman embezzled the federal benefits by using a debit card, making cash withdrawals and forging checks, prosecutors said.

The checks were written out to a company (she) controlled, according to prosecutors.

If convicted on the charge of wire fraud, the woman could face up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. attorneys office said.

She could also face a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss caused by the offense, whichever is greatest, prosecutors said.

South Orange is about a 20-mile drive west of New York City.

Man got $271,000 in disability while repairing and flipping homes in Florida, feds say

Men use dead womans Social Security benefits to pay Florida vacation home bills, feds say

Supervisor stole $110,000 and splurged on trips to Disney and SeaWorld, feds say

HOA treasurer stole $230,000 from neighbors, deposited money in her accounts, feds say
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS)  Woodrow Wilson High School hosted a job fair on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

New River Community & Technical College host Skills and Trade Expo

Several local businesses were in attendance including Wal-Mart, Chik-fil-A, Best Ambulance, and the Beckley Sanitary Board.

Site Coordinator for Communities in Schools, Lindsay Flanagan, said hosting a fair at this time of year is important for the sophomores and juniors.

[T]hats why we held this when we are, towards the end of the year, so that they can get summer jobs and be productive during the summer, said Flanagan.

Several businesses encouraged students to sign up for possible interviews and also gave away freebies to encourage students to apply.

The event was focused on sophomore, juniors, and seniors and was held in Van Meter Stadium.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
The Wall Street Journal and U.S. Representative to the UN commemorated World Press Freedom Day with an urgent call to action for the return of journalist Evan Gershkovich, and the dedication and bravery of student journalists across the country this week was also on the top of everyones mind.

The event, held Thursday on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, was a reminder that since Gershkovich was unjustly imprisoned in Russia 400 days ago, press freedom around the world has been encroached upon. Attendees at the event, which was held at the U.S. Mission to the UN, donned Free Evan pins.

Journalism is as important as ever today as we face new and unprecedented challenges to our democracy, our communities and to international peace and security itself, U.S. Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at the event.

When Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, took the stage at the event on Thursday, the first thing she said was that she is incredibly proud to be a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.

Were talking about journalism and the freedom for journalists, Katzarova said, referencing the recent protests and clashes with NYPD at Columbia. I wish we had time to celebrate today, instead in the room and around the world, we have work to do.

And I dont think weve done enough, she continued, referring to both the lack of reporting access during the NYPD raid on Tuesday night to break up the protest encampments, and the considerable dangers posed to journalists across the world.

As the NYPD raided Columbia University Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night in an effort to quell pro-Palestinian protestors camped inside, student journalists at WKCR and The Columbia Daily Spectator provided the most up-to-date information. Mainstream media outlets were restricted from campus, but student journalists provided real-time information on the raid, driving so many listeners to WKCR that the website crashed.

The atmosphere, however, turned sour as the NYPD forced student journalists to shelter in place in the journalism schools Pulitzer Hall. NYPD reportedly threatened journalists with arrest if they left the building.

I dont know how we comply, a WKCR journalist could be heard saying on air. No one is left here to document.

Columbia student journalists were widely praised for their crucial reporting on the encampments and the NYPD raid, while concerns continue to surface about the access needed to accurately report on a raid of this nature, involving college students.

MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell moderated a panel at the World Press Freedom Day event and also recalled her experience as a radio journalist, praising Columbia student journalists for their extraordinary work under difficult circumstances.

I started in the 60s, a very tumultuous time, as a student journalist at the campus radio station, Mitchell said. You have to cover something that is in your own backyard. Trying to do the intended job is the most challenging experience.

Mitchell also encouraged those in the room to consider how many talented young journalists are working under impossible situations across the country.

During the event, Thomas-Greenfield noted that this years World Press Freedom Day is less a celebration than an urgent call to action.

The U.S. Representative to the UN highlighted that Gershkovich was wrongfully detained simply for telling the truth.

Locking Evan up was meant to be a sign of toughness and strength and control, Thomas-Greenfield said. It truly is this pernicious targeting by the Kremlin and by strongmen across the world that only reveals their weakness and their fear.

Evan Gershkovichs sister Danielle also spoke at the event, saying, While Im so grateful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my family, none of us should be here.

While her family was able to see pictures and videos of Gershkovich in Russian court recently, she said, These are bittersweet moments for my family Its incredibly difficult to see my brother behind a piece of glass in the courtroom thousands of miles away.

Danielle Gershkovich called on the U.S. and foreign governments to redouble their efforts to bring Evan home  It has been more than a year now and everyday is a day too long.

In March, a Russian court extended Gershkovichs detention by three months, awaiting trial until at least June 30. Gershkovich, 32, has spent 400 days in a Russian prison on allegations of espionage, which the WSJ and the U.S. government have vehemently denied.

During last weeks White House Correspondents Dinner, President Joe Biden called on Vladimir Putin to release Gershkovich, adding that the U.S. government is doing everything we can, to bring him home. Gershkovichs family also attended the annual dinner, receiving a standing ovation for their strength when recognized.

The post World Press Freedom Day Event Serves as Urgent Call to Action for Evan Gershkovich and Student Journalists Covering Protests appeared first on TheWrap.
Wyoming teacher IDd as victim in Oceana Co. death investigation

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  The Oceana County Sheriffs Office has confirmed that a Wyoming teacher was the victim in Wednesdays deadly shooting near Mears.

Deputies investigate suspicious death near Mears

Juan Carlos Lozano, a 33-year-old math teacher at Godfrey-Lee High School, was found dead Wednesday night at a property on West Taylor Road in Golden Township.

The investigation was initially labeled a suspicious death, but investigators said Friday that his injuries are consistent with a gunshot wound.

Godfrey-Lee Public Schools halted classes Thursday morning and canceled classes for Lee Middle School and Lee High School Friday. In a now-deleted social media post, the school district announced Lozanos death on Thursday, saying the news has already deeply affected our school community.

Sign up for breaking news alert emails

Investigators have not released any details about a potential suspect in the case. The Michigan State Police mobile crime lab was called to the scene Wednesday night to help with the investigation.

Lozanos body is set for an autopsy Friday in Big Rapids.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
Ukraines global peace summit will be held on June 15-16, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The meeting will take place in central Switzerland, and 160 national delegations will be invited to the talks.

While Russia has not been invited to the summit, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak said that Chinas attendance would be very important, and that Ukraine is making every effort to engage Chinese delegates in participating in the event.

With respect to China, we are doing everything for China to be present there. China is very important, and consultations are continuously ongoing at various levels with the participation of our partners, Yermak said.

Ukraine is keeping diplomatic channels with China open, even though Beijing has maintained close ties with Moscow during the war. European officials have urged Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to help end the war.

Zelensky said that the summit will serve as a dialogue platform to "achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with the U.N. Charter and the norms of international law."

Read also: Bloomberg: Macron hopes to convince Xi to sway Putin toward ending invasion of Ukraine

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The Young Womens Leadership Academy (YWLA) will be hosting a signing day celebration on Friday, May 3, recognizing the achievement of the class of 2024, according to the Ysleta Independent School District (YISD).

YISD says the celebration will be at 11 a.m. at the auditorium inside the EPCC Administrative Services Building located at 9050 Viscount.

YISD says about two dozen students will be honored for achieving 100 percent college acceptance and earning scholarships, including the Ysleta Education Foundation annual scholarship.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Property Values Surging In The Unlikeliest Of Midwestern Cities

For many of the past 50 years, Detroit, Michigan has been a grim symbol of America's industrial decline, but that was yesterday. Today's Motor City is on the rise, and local property values are surging. This is especially true for Detroit's predominately Black neighborhoods, which disproportionately bore the brunt of the city's decline in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

A recent University of Michigan Poverty Solutions Report shows that home values increased by 80% in Detroit's African American neighborhoods between 2014 and 2022. That translates to a multi-billion dollar increase in total value for Detroit's Black homeowners, who saw the combined value of their property rise from $3.2 billion in 2014 to $6.2 billion in 2024.

That's especially important in a city where the Black population is about 75% of the total population. However, the property value gains are citywide. During the same period from 2014-2022, the total overall property value in Detroit rose from $4.1 billion to $8.1 billion. That's almost a 100% increase in property values citywide. It is a welcome switch from the situation in Detroit 11 years ago when the city went bankrupt.

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Detroit's bankruptcy was the low point of an economic decline that had been decades in the making, but even against that backdrop, the Detroit bankruptcy was unprecedented in its size and scope. In 2013, Detroit was $18 billion in debt and had a $300 million annual budget deficit. Left with no options, it filed what was the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

Detroit emerged from bankruptcy in December 2014 but perhaps the most important development that year was the election of Mayor Mike Duggan, who helped oversee Detroit's comeback. Under Duggan, Detroit has not only produced balanced budgets but even a few budget surpluses. He was also instrumental in helping to upgrade Detroit's public services.

Duggan spoke about the city's turnaround at a press conference at the University of Michigan. A beaming Duggan said, "When I got sworn in 10 years ago there were 1,000 people a month leaving this city. People were bailing out on Detroit right and left. Those who stayed are $4 billion better off because they bet on the city of Detroit."

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Not long after his election, Duggan embarked on a mission to improve every aspect of life in Detroit. This civic improvement program also included private investment from Detroit's business community. The results speak for themselves. The most obvious upgrades to Detroit's public and private infrastructure can be seen in its downtown and midtown areas, both of which were ghost towns during the bad old days.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Detroit's turnaround is that it has done it without displacing the city's residents. In most cases where this kind of renewal takes place, a wave of new businesses and residents move in. They bring money with them, but they often change the character of neighborhoods forever. The people who suffered the most don't benefit from the turnaround.

The exact opposite is happening in Detroit. The University of Michigan study showed that Detroit's poorest neighborhoods were the ones that experienced the biggest jumps in property values. Detroit's Condon neighborhood, where property values have surged from an average of $7,000 in 2014 to $71,000 in 2022, is a prime example of the benefit of Detroit's rebirth going to the people who needed it the most.

Under Duggan's leadership, Detroit has raised a combined $1 billion in public and private investment funds while adding 4,600 affordable housing units. Detroit's financial standing has also improved drastically, with its credit rating increased to investment level. It's a remarkably impressive turnaround. The Motor City is on the move again, and that's good news for the American economy.

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This article Property Values Surging In The Unlikeliest Of Midwestern Cities originally appeared on Benzinga.com

 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Jurors in Donald Trump's trial at the New York County Criminal Courthouse in Manhattan have heard a lot about paying people to keep their mouths shut. The New York Times understandably calls the trial a "hush money case." But both sides in the case, the first-ever criminal proceeding against a former president, object to that characterization, and their dueling interpretations go to the heart of the legally dubious charges against Trump.

When Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election to stop her from talking about her purported 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, that transaction was "not illegal," Trump's lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, said during his opening statement last week. "Entering into a nondisclosure agreement is perfectly legal. Companies do that all the time.Executives, people who are wealthy, people who are famous enter into nondisclosure agreements regularly, and there's nothing illegal about it."

When lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo objected to Blanche's gloss, Judge Juan Merchan overruled him, and it is not hard to see why. As a general matter, what Blanche said about nondisclosure agreements was plainly accurate. The same could not be said for Colangelo's description of the case.

"This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures, to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records and bank forms to conceal those payments along the way," Colangelo said during his opening statement. "It was election fraud, pure and simple."

Contrary to Colangelo's spin, there is nothing "pure and simple" about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Trump. To begin with, Trump is not charged with "conspiracy" or "election fraud." He is charged with violating a New York law against "falsifying business records" with "intent to defraud." Trump allegedly did that 34 times by disguising his 2017 reimbursement of Cohen's payment to Daniels as compensation for legal services. The counts include 11 invoices from Cohen, 11 corresponding checks, and 12 ledger entries.

Ordinarily, falsifying business records is a misdemeanor. But it becomes a felony when the defendant's "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof." Bragg says Trump had such an intent, which is why the 34 counts are charged as felonies.

Bragg had long been cagey about exactly what crime Trump allegedly tried to conceal. But during a sidebar discussion last week, Colangelo said "the primary crime that we have alleged is New York State Election Law Section 17-152." That provision says "any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

In other words, Bragg is relying on this misdemeanor to transform another misdemeanor (falsifying business records) into a felony. But the only "unlawful means" that he has identified is Cohen's payment to Daniels. And while Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to making an excessive campaign contribution by fronting the hush money, Trump was never prosecuted for soliciting that contribution.

There are good reasons for that. The question of whether this arrangement violated federal election law hinges on whether the hush money is properly viewed as a campaign expense or a personal expense. That distinction, in turn, depends on whether Trump was motivated by a desire to promote his election or by a desire to avoid embarrassment and spare his wife's feelings.

The former hypothesis is plausible, especially given the timing of the payment to Daniels. But proving that allegation beyond a reasonable doubt would have been hard, as illustrated by the unsuccessful 2012 prosecution of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. The Edwards case, which was based on similar but seemingly stronger facts, foundered on the difficulty of distinguishing between campaign and personal expenditures.

Given the fuzziness of that distinction, it is plausible that Trump did not think the payment to Daniels was illegal. In 2018, Trump seemed genuinely confused on that point, arguing that reimbursing Cohen with his personal funds was fine, while paying him with campaign funds "could be a little dicey." According to the legal theory underlying Cohen's guilty plea, by contrast, the hush money should have been treated as a campaign expenditure.

Convicting Trump of soliciting an illegal campaign contribution would have required proving that he "knowingly and willfully" violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. Federal prosecutors evidently concluded that they could not meet that requirement. But to violate Section 17-152 of the New York Election Law, the provision on which Bragg is relying for "another crime," Trump would have had to "conspire" with Cohen to influence an election through "unlawful means," which suggests he knew the payment to Daniels was illegal.

Business Insider describes Section 17-152 as "old," "obscure," and "unused." Reporter Laura Italiano interviewed "two veteran New York election-law attorneys," a Democrat and a Republican, who backed up that description.

"I've never heard of it actually being used, and I've practiced election law for 53 years," said Brooklyn attorney Martin Connor, a former Democratic state senator. "I would be shockedreally shockedif you could find anybody who can give you an example where this section was prosecuted," said Joseph T. Burns, an attorney for the Erie County Republican Committee. "I would be absolutely floored if you could find anyone prosecuting this in the last 40 years." Italiano adds that "two highly respected law professors specializing in New York election law said the same."

The fact that Bragg is relying on an obscure offense that apparently has never been prosecuted speaks volumes about his eagerness to convert the Daniels hush payment into 34 felonies. That strategy will prove "twisty," Connor said, because "you're having an underlying crime within an underlying crime to get to that felony."

If Trump did not recognize the hush payment as "unlawful," it is hard to see how his "intent" in falsifying business records could have included an intent to conceal "another crime." And that's assuming a purported violation of federal campaign finance restrictions counts as "unlawful means" under Section 17-152.

Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., took a long, hard look at potential New York charges based on the Daniels payment and ultimately concluded they were all too iffy to pursue. While Vance's prosecutors "briefly mulled using a state election law violation," the Times reported in 2022, they rejected that idea: "Since the presidential race during which the hush-money payment occurred was a federal election, they concluded it was outside the bounds of state law."

It remains unclear whether Bragg can overcome these difficulties, which may ultimately be resolved on appeal, assuming the jurors convict Trump. But to do that, they will have to accept Bragg's "election fraud" narrative.

"The entire case is predicated on the idea that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016," Colangelo told Merchan last week. But as Blanche noted, "There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy." The prosecution will try to "put something sinister on this idea," he told the jury, "as if it was a crime," but "you'll learn it's not."

In addition to describing the Daniels transaction in painstaking detail, prosecutors have presented testimony about two other payoffs: a $30,000 payment to Dino Sajudin, a former Trump Tower doorman who falsely claimed that Trump had fathered a child with a woman hired to clean the building, and a $150,000 payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who described a year-long affair with Trump. The National Enquirer made both of those "catch and kill" payments, which prosecutors portray as part of a "conspiracy" to promote Trump's election.

David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend who ran the company that owns the Enquirer, testified that he agreed to pay Sajudin and McDougal for the exclusive rights to their stories, expecting compensation from Trump that never materialized. In light of those experiences, he said, he rebelled at paying Daniels: "I said, 'We already paid $30,000 to the doorman, we paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal, and I am not a bank. I am not paying out any further disbursements.'"

The payments to Sajudin and McDougal, Pecker explained, grew out of an arrangement with Cohen and Trump. Pecker had promised to keep an eye out for people peddling potentially damaging stories about Trump and to alert Cohen about them. Pecker also agreed to run positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his opponents. He described that arrangement, which predated the 2016 campaign, as mutually beneficial, and he said he had done similar favors for other public figures, including businessman Ronald Perelman and politicians such as Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Despite that background, Pecker said his impression was that Trump, in seeking to keep Sajudin, McDougal, and Daniels quiet, was mainly worried about the impact their stories might have on the 2016 election, as opposed to the embarrassment they might cause to him and his family. That testimony reinforced the prosecution's claim that the Daniels payment at the heart of the case was a campaign expenditure rather than a personal expense. Prosecutors likewise noted that Pecker's company, to avoid federal prosecution, had admitted making an illegal corporate campaign contribution by paying off McDougal and that Cohen had admitted breaking the law by soliciting that contribution.

Keith Davidson, the attorney who represented McDougal and Daniels when they negotiated their nondisclosure agreements, testified that he thought those deals may have helped Trump beat Hillary Clinton. On Election Night, when it started to look like Trump had won, Davidson texted Enquirer Editor in Chief Dylan Howard, saying, "What have we done?"

This testimony, the prosecution argues, illuminates Trump's motivation in paying off Daniels. At the same time, however, expanding the focus beyond the transaction that Trump allegedly tried to hide by falsifying business records muddies the waters by asking jurors to consider nondisclosure agreements that are not at issue in this case. The prosecution has compounded the potential for confusion by alleging a "conspiracy" that encompassed a lot of conduct, such as pro-Trump coverage in the Enquirer, that was not only legal but constitutionally protected.

That approach reinforces Blanche's argument that prosecutors are trying to portray "perfectly legal" actions as criminal. Trump's lawyers also argue that Cohen, who has figured prominently in other witnesses' testimony but has yet to take the stand, is an admitted liar, convicted felon, and vindictive former loyalist who cannot be trusted. And they say Trump had nothing to do with the alleged falsification of business records. In their telling, Cohen presented invoices "for legal services rendered" that the Trump Organization processed as a matter of course. Trump was busy with presidential duties, they say, and his involvement was limited to signing the nine checks that were drawn from his personal account.

Whether or not you buy that explanation, the charges in this case are based on documents"just 34 pieces of paper," as Blanche described themthat were produced after the 2016 election. Yet Bragg claims the case involves "falsification of business records to the end of keeping information away from the electorate," which makes it "an election interference case." Given the timing of Trump's alleged crimes, that explanation makes no sense. Likewise Colangelo's claim that Trump committed "election fraud," which is usually understood to mean perverting the election process with phony ballots, illegal voting, or inaccurate tallies.

Trump, of course, argues that Bragg and his underlings are attempting "election interference" by undermining his current presidential campaign with a frivolous criminal case. But even if you take Bragg at his word, he is plainly trying to punish Trump for an alleged 2016 federal campaign finance violation. The Justice Department declined to prosecute that case, and the statute of limitations has since expired. Bragg, in any event, has no authority to enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act, which is why he is resorting to a "twisty" legal strategy that reeks of political desperation.

The post The New York Case Against Trump Relies on a 'Twisty' Legal Theory That Reeks of Desperation appeared first on Reason.com.
Zebra remains on the loose in Washington state as officials close trailheads to keep people away

This image provided by the Washington State Patrol shows a zebra that got loose Sunday, April 28, 2024, when the driver stopped at the Interstate 90 exit to North Bend, Wash., to secure the trailer in which they were being carried. The Washington State Patrol said the four zebras made their way to the town before three were capture, and the fate of the fourth was not immediately known. (Rick Johnson/Washington State Patrol via AP)

SEATTLE (AP)  A zebra that escaped from a trailer east of Seattle last weekend remained on the lam Friday, as authorities closed off trailheads at a nature area in hopes of keeping people away and easing her capture.

The zebra was one of four that escaped as they were being transported from Washington to Montana last Sunday. The driver had taken the Interstate 90 exit for North Bend, in the Cascade mountain foothills about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Seattle, to secure the trailer, when the zebras got loose, surprising residents and drivers as they galloped into a rural neighborhood.

Three were quickly captured after being corralled in a pasture. But the fourth  a mare called Z  hopped a fence and has proved more elusive, spawning popular social media memes that have placed the animal everywhere from riding a ferry across Puget Sound to rounding the bases at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.

There have been several more realistic sightings, most recently on Thursday, according to Regional Animal Services of King County.

On Friday, King County officials closed off trail access points along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in the Boxley Creek Natural Area, where the zebra seems to be frequenting. People trying to come out to see the zebra may be spooking it and making it harder to recapture the animal, they said.

We're hoping that by closing the trail and getting people out of that area, maybe that will help us do a successful capture, said animal services spokesman Cameron Satterfield.

Owner Kristine Keltgen previously told The Seattle Times she bought the zebras in Lewis County, Washington, and was bringing them to a petting zoo she runs near Anaconda, in southwestern Montana. She had been on the road for about two hours when she noticed one of the trailer's floor mats was flapping and dragging behind her. When she opened the door to adjust the mat, the zebras ran out.

The first thing I thought was, Keep them away from the interstate, Keltgen said. Then my next thought was, I need help.

Several people stopped to help corral the animals, including a rodeo clown and horse trainers.

Keltgen told The Associated Press on Friday she's not giving any further interviews until we find her.

The zebra has been seen grazing and has been spotted on residents' trail cameras. There are dangers: The cameras have also recently captured cougars in the area.

On her Facebook page, King County Council Member Sarah Perry urged people to keep their distance.

She is in an area where there are feeding zones to coax her out for a rescue, but every time a well-intended walker, bicycle or unleashed search dog comes near her it makes rescuing her so much more difficult, Perry wrote Thursday. She is in good hands, and a rescue seems imminent, as long as we work together to give them room to achieve our goal.
Zebra sightings in Eastern WA? Heres where shes been spotted in Tri-Cities

Its been a grim couple of weeks for news, so word about a zebra still on the lam from a trailer escape near North Bend last weekend is sparking imaginations across Washington state.

Westsiders quickly inserted the zebra into images with ferries, the Seattle Mariners, Sasquatch and more places in the greener side of the Evergreen State.

No disrespect to our neighbors on the wet west side, but zebras are savanna dwellers.

They like open, warm spaces and, per the African Wildlife Federation, arent afraid of hoofing it across great distances.

That means the loose zebra surely headed to Washingtons much sunnier east side after busting out of its Montana-bound trailer in the mountains.

The proof is in the images ponied up on social media in the Tri-Cities area.

Enjoy, and also, let us know if we missed any.

Heres Z the zebra paying an obligatory call on the Hanford nuclear reservation.

She also passed through Yakima and the Richland Library.

Here, she is taking in the view of the Columbia River from the sun sculpture outside the REACH Museum near Columbia Park and the Richland Wye.

Here, she was spotted raising spirits at Tri-Cities Chaplaincys Hospice House.

And here shes visiting Badger Mountain, courtesy Rick Zimmerman of Richland.

Rick Zimmerman of Richland shared his ride on Badger Mountains Sagebrush Trail.

And chilling with Hanford wildlife.

She was also seen helping out at PNNLs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

A wayward zebra has been spotted in western Washington! We think shes more interested in exploring EMSLs Tahoma than going to Tacoma.

The runaway Zebra appears to have enjoyed the cool server room at PNNLs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

Its not just our scientific computing capabilities that could be wowing her. As a unique being herself, shes a presumable fan of EMSLs 21 Tesla Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer or our X-ray computed tomography, the lab wrote in a Facebook post.

The runaway Zebra was spotted at PNNLs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

Thats just a few instruments that a zebra may not use, but you could for your biological and environmental research.

The runaway Zebra probably cant read, but that didnt stop her from helping out at PNNLs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

Share your east side zebra sightings at news@tricityherald.com.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Kyiv on May 2, the Presidential Office said.

The U.K.'s top diplomat visited Ukraine's capital only a week after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged 500 million pounds ($628 million) in defense aid for Ukraine, London's largest assistance package to date.

"The provision of this package, along with the crucial decision of the United States to provide assistance, is of great importance to us at this key moment," Zelensky said when thanking Cameron for the U.K.'s new pledge of support.

Ukraine's head of state informed Cameron about the situation on the front line and about the need to deliver military aid as soon as possible, namely armored vehicles, ammunition, and missiles.

Ukrainian officials and the British delegation also discussed preparations for the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy, the June peace summit in Switzerland, the NATO summit in Washington, and the Fourth European Political Community Summit in the U.K.

The U.K. has consistently voiced strong support for Ukraine. The country's government said it has pledged 12.5 billion pounds ($15.6 billion) in support to Ukraine since February 2022, of which 7.6 billion pounds ($9.5 billion) was for military assistance.

Read also: PM Sunak to announce largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine during visit to Poland

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Zelenskyy appoints new head of Khmelnytskyi Oblast State Administration

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree appointing Serhii Tiurin as Head of Khmelnytskyi Oblast State Administration.

Source: decree on the president's website

Details: The document is dated 2 May.

Quote: "Serhii Tiurin shall be appointed as Head of Khmelnytskyi Oblast State Administration."

Reference: Tiurin, who formerly served as deputy director of the Oblast State Administration, has been acting as head of the administration since Serhii Hamalii's departure in March 2023.

Tiurin is 46 years old. He has a degree in law and worked as a lawyer.

Previously: In mid-February, Ukraines Cabinet of Ministers approved the appointment of Serhii Tiurin as Head of Khmelnytskyi Oblast State Administration.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting in Khmelnytskyi Oblast to discuss the security situation, particularly the security of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant.

Source: Zelenskyy on social media

Quote: "Ive held a meeting in Khmelnytskyi regarding the security situation and protection of our people. We also discussed the social and economic situation, protection of critical infrastructure facilities and energy recovery. I have appointed a new head of Khmelnytskyi Oblast State Administration  Serhii Tiurin.

Detailed reports were provided on civil defence and emergency response in the region, focusing on key facilities. We discussed the security of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, the overall energy potential in the region and the reconstruction of facilities damaged by Russian strikes."

Details: In Khmelnytskyi, Zelenskyy also visited soldiers who are receiving treatment after injuries.

Additionally, the president met separately with cadets of the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

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More than 27,000 asteroids in our solar system had been overlooked in existing telescope images  but thanks to a new AI-powered algorithm, we now have a catalog of them. The scientists behind the discovery say the tool makes it easier to find and track millions of asteroids, including potentially dangerous ones that might strike Earth someday. It is for those threatening space rocks that the world would need years of advance warning before trying to deflect them away from our planet.

Most of the newfound asteroids hover in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter , where scientists have already cataloged over 1.3 million such rocky shards over the past 200 years. The latest bounty, discovered in about five weeks, also includes about 150 space rocks whose paths glide them within Earth's orbit; to be clear, however, none of these "near-Earth asteroids" seem to be on a collision path with our planet. Others are Trojans that follow Jupiter in its orbit around the sun . Observations of these asteroids are yet to be submitted to and accepted by International Astronomical Unions Minor Planet Center, the official body responsible for asteroid discoveries.

Astronomers conventionally find new asteroids by studying pockets of our sky over and over again, through telescope images gathered multiple times each night  usually every few hours. While planets, stars and galaxies in the background remain unchanged from one image to the next, asteroids are spotted as specks of light that move noticeably, which are then flagged and verified. From there, orbits of these asteroids are determined and monitored.

Related: How A.I. Could Help Find Alien Planets and Asteroids

"This is really a job for AI," Ed Lu, executive director of the Asteroid Institute and co-founder of the B612 Foundation, said early last month during a discussion on the discovery. In fact, AI tools designed for asteroid searches are already approaching levels attainable by humans, Lu said: "I think we're gonna quickly surpass that over the next few weeks."

The algorithm Lu's team developed, known as Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR, analyzed over 400,000 archival images of the sky maintained by the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab. As long as there are about five observations in 30 days associated with the same pocket of the sky, the algorithm can get to work. It's trained on a large dataset that makes it capable of analyzing as many as 1.7 billion light dots in just a single telescope image. It is designed to scope out and connect a point of light from one image of the sky to another one in a different image, and determine whether both specks represent the same object  more often than not, that indicates an asteroid moving through space, according to a description of the algorithm by the B612 Foundation.

"We don't own a telescope, we don't operate a telescope," Lu said during the discussion. "We're doing this from a data science perspective."

The scientists scaled their algorithm using Google Cloud, whose computational heft and data storage services made it easier for the scientists to test out thousands of orbits of asteroid candidates, according to a statement released Tuesday (April 30) by the B612 Foundation.

"Not only can we find asteroids in datasets that were never meant for it, but we can make every other telescope in the world better at finding asteroids," Lu said during the talk. "It's a change in how astronomy is done."

In 2022, the same team of scientists used THOR to discover 100 asteroids that had been undetected in existing telescope images. Other teams of astronomers have also leveraged AI to find new asteroids. Just two weeks ago, for instance, citizen scientists spearheaded training of an algorithm that led to the discovery of 1,000 new asteroids in archival images clicked by the Hubble Space Telescope. Last July, a software named HelioLinc3D designed to hunt for near-Earth asteroids found a 600-foot-wide (180-meter-wide) space rock expected to approach within 140,000 miles (225,000 kilometers) of Earth. That's closer than the average distance between our planet and the moon.

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Scientists have so far spotted over 2,000 such "potentially hazardous asteroids" and estimate about 2,000 more are yet to be discovered. Detecting these space rocks in an effort to aid planetary defense is one of the tasks of the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, for which the asteroid-hunting HelioLinc3D software was developed.

The 8.4-meter telescope, which is scheduled to start operations next year, will take images of the southern sky every night for at least a decade, each image covering 40-full-moons of area. Scientists say this cadence, supported by AI-based software like THOR and HelioLinc3D, could help the observatory find as many as 2.4 million asteroids  double than those now cataloged  in its first six months of operations.
Deploying the precautionary principle is a laser-focused way to kill off any new technology. As it happens, a new bill in the Hawaii Legislature explicitly applies the precautionary principle in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies:

In addressing the potential risks associated with artificial intelligence technologies, it is crucial that the State adhere to the precautionary principle, which requires the government to take preventive action in the face of uncertainty; shifts the burden of proof to those who want to undertake an innovation to show that it does not cause harm; and holds that regulation is required whenever an activity creates a substantial possible risk to health, safety, or the environment, even if the supporting evidence is speculative. In the context of artificial intelligence and products, it is essential to strike a balance between fostering innovation and safeguarding the well-being of the State's residents by adopting and enforcing proactive and precautionary regulation to prevent potentially severe societal-scale risks and harms, require affirmative proof of safety by artificial intelligence developers, and prioritize public welfare over private gain.

The Hawaii bill would establish an office of artificial intelligence and regulation wielding the precautionary principle that would decide when and if any new tools employing AI could be offered to consumers.

Basically, the precautionary principle requires technologists to prove in advance of deployment that their new product or service will never ever cause anyone anywhere harm. It is very difficult to think of any technology ranging from fire and the wheel to solar power and quantum computing that could not be used to cause harm to someone. It's tradeoffs all of the way down. Ultimately, the precautionary principle is the requirement for trials without errors that amounts to the demand: "Never do anything for the first time."

With his own considerable foresight, the brilliant political scientist Aaron Wildavsky anticipated how the precautionary principle would actually end up doing more harm than good. "The direct implication of trial without error is obvious: If you can do nothing without knowing first how it will turn out, you cannot do anything at all," he wrote in his brilliant 1988 book Searching for Safety. "An indirect implication of trial without error is that if trying new things is made more costly, there will be fewer departures from past practice; this very lack of change may itself be dangerous in forgoing chances to reduce existing hazards.Existing hazards will continue to cause harm if we fail to reduce them by taking advantage of the opportunity to benefit from repeated trials."

Among myriad other opportunities, AI could greatly reduce current harms by speeding up the development of new medications and diagnostics, autonomous driving, and safer materials.

R Street Institute Technology and Innovation Fellow Adam Thierer notes the proliferation of over 500 state AI regulation bills like the one in Hawaii threatens to derail the AI revolution. He singles out California's Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act as being egregiously bad.

"This legislation would create a new Frontier Model Division within the California Department of Technology and grant it sweeping powers to regulate advanced AI systems," Thierer explains. Among other things, the bill specifies that if someone were to use an AI model for nefarious purposes, the developer of that model could be subject to criminal penalties. This is an absurd requirement.

As deep learning researcher Jeremy Howard observes. "An AI model is a general purpose piece of software that runs on a computer, much like a word processor, calculator, or web browser. The creator of a model can not ensure that a model is never used to do something harmfulany more so that the developer of a web browser, calculator, or word processor could. Placing liability on the creators of general purpose tools like these mean that, in practice, such tools can not be created at all, except by big businesses with well funded legal teams."

Instead of authorizing a new agency to implement the stultifying precautionary principle in which new AI technologies are automatically presumed guilty until proven innocent, Thierer recommends "a governance regime focused on outcomes and performance [that] treats algorithmic innovations as innocent until proven guilty and relies on actual evidence of harm." And just such a governance regime already exists, since most of the activities to which AI will be applied are currently addressed under product liability laws and other existing regulatory schemes. Proposed AI regulations are more likely to run amok than are new AI products and services.

The post AI Regulators Are More Likely To Run Amok Than Is AI appeared first on Reason.com.
The yo-yoing of information surrounding Apples potential next generation of Apple Watch Ultra continues on. A new leak suggests that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 will come out later this year.

In a report from MacRumors, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that a new Apple Watch Ultra 3 is likely to be released in 2024. A 180-degree flip from previous reports that Apple wouldnt release a new watch at all this year.

Since 2021 Apple has been dealing with an ongoing lawsuit with Masimo that has currently led to a ban on Apple selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the United States. That ban officially started in January of this year.

Masimo sued Apple claiming that the Cupertino company infringed on a medical technology patent owned by Masimo. Specifically, Masimo claimed patent infringement on the blood oxygen sensor technology that first appeared in the Apple Watch Series 6 with its SpO2 reader.

Apple Watch Series 9

The US International Trade Commission issued an initial ban in October of 2023. Apple appealed that decision but the US Federal Court of Appeals denied the motion to pause the ban.

Since then, Apple has pulled the Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 from the shelves and used software to disable the disputed features in watches that have already been sold.

The ban doesnt affect the Apple Watch SE (2022), which doesnt carry the blood oxygen sensor. For its value, the SE is the best Apple Watch, so worth a purchase if youre looking for a new Apple Watch. Its also possible that an Apple Watch SE 3 would will come out this year.

Assuming that Kuos assessment is correct, we wouldnt expect to see many or any big upgrades to a potential Apple Watch Ultra 3 this year. Previously, Kuo believed that the Ultra 3 wasnt in the development schedule for Apple.

Apple watch walkie-talkie feature

Were assuming that Apple would be attempting to cover the tech resulting in the current ban. There are also rumors that the Ultra 3 will get a microLED screen.

Its also been leaked that the potential Apple Watch Series X (or 10), will have blood pressure sensing and sleep apnea detection. Those features would certainly end up in an Ultra 3 as well. They are definitely upgrades that we want to see.

We are coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch. Though, depending on when you count it, that anniversary might be this year or next. If Apple is still dealing with the fallout of the US watch ban, we might see a 10th anniversary celebration and watch in 2025.

More from Tom's Guide
The proposed Oak Ridge Schools budget for the coming year will be presented at a special called Board of Education meeting set for 5 p.m. May 6 in the School Administration Building, New York Avenue.

Will Oak Ridge educators get their requested 4% pay raise in Fiscal Year 2025?

The public meeting, which Oak Ridge City Council members have been invited to attend, begins several weeks of public budget-making work by the school board. Other meetings set for the coming weeks in the School Administration Building are:

5 p.m. May 13, a special called school board meeting for a line-by-line review of the budget, and first reading of the proposed budget;

5 p.m. May 20, the school board's monthly meeting at which the second reading and approval of the proposed budget are expected.

Other meetings could be added by the school board while budget deliberations are underway.

A key issue in the budget is always educators' pay and benefits. The Oak Ridge Education Association has already asked for a 4% pay raise, along with step raises on the school system's salary schedule based on years of service and educational degrees. School administrators asked for a 2.5% to 3% increase.

The OREA has also asked for a greater contribution by the school system to medical insurance and to increase paid bereavement by three days for a maximum of five days.

State leaders have set a goal to make the starting teacher salary $50,000 a year by 2026, the USA TODAY Network-Tennessee reported. But Oak Ridge Schools' beginning teachers pay made that goal this school year. Teachers and administrators got 4% pay raises this year, but schools Finance Director Jenifer Van Dyke told The Oak Ridger that many teachers got more because of taking "steps" on the teacher salary schedule, as well as updates to that schedule.

Another 4% raise would increase beginning teachers' pay to $52,000, she said earlier in the emailed response to The Oak Ridger's questions.

The Oak Ridge school system employs more than 650 people. In a presentation on budget concepts during the April school board meeting, the finance director stated that salaries and benefits amount to 80% of the current budget total.

"Step" increases on the salary schedule and the 4% pay raise would cost approximately $2.7 million in the upcoming budget, her information showed.

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers

Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers told the League of Women Voters last month that because Oak Ridge Schools pays educators more than some other school systems in the state, the school system hasn't faced as many problems in hiring as some other schools. Even so, he said, they now aren't getting as many eligible applicants as they once did.

Story continues

He said many educators chose to retire during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed. Correspondent Carolyn Krause contributed to this story.

Support The Oak Ridger by subscribing. Offers available at https://subscribe.oakridger.com/offers.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Proposed FY '25 Oak Ridge Schools budget to be presented Monday
Samsungs Galaxy lineup is made up of a range of cool devices, and if youre in the market for some savings youll often find Samsung Galaxy tech among the best headphone deals, best smartwatch deals, best tablet deals, and best phone deals. Phones like the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold make for some of the best foldable phone deals going on right now, and were also seeing some impressive Samsung Galaxy S24 deals. With so many devices in the lineup and so many discounts available we thought wed round up all of the best Samsung Galaxy deals in one place. Read onward for all of the details on how to save, and if youd like to shop more specifically within the lineup you can start with Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 deals, Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 deals, Samsung Galaxy Buds deals, or Samsung tablet deals.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2  $87, was $140

Samsung

If youre looking for headphone deals but you want an alternative to Apples AirPods, you should consider the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2. The wireless earbuds have great battery life thats made even better with an included charging case. While some of the other Galaxy Buds out there include the Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy Buds+, but with the Galaxy Buds 2s active noise-cancelation you can block out unwanted sounds and keep your focus on whatever youre working on, watching, or listening to. You can also control the headphones with touch controls on each earbud, and they connect easily to any Bluetooth device.

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Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro  $160, was $230

Samsung

The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are the high-end model of Samsungs Galaxy Buds earbuds. They make great competition for the best wireless earbuds even if they dont make everyones list, and with their Intelligent Active Noise-Cancelation technology they compare well with the best noise-canceling headphones. The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro produce high quality audio whether youre listening to music, watching movies, or talking on the phone, and they pair easily with any Bluetooth device.

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Samsung Galaxy S24  as low as $260, was $800

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

The Samsung Galaxy S24 is Samsungs newest flagship smartphone. Its a great phone to shop if youre looking for the newest tech and software you can get in a smartphone, but its also a great phone to shop if youre looking for some of the best phone deals currently taking place. The S24 features Galaxy AI to help with chatting, searching, translating, and even photography. The camera system features a 3x zoom that has AI assistance, and the S24s display checks in at 6.2-inches and Full HD resolution.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro  $300, was $450

Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is a great smartwatch to consider if youre hoping to look good on the trail and out on the town. Its an all-purpose smartwatch that has plenty of tracking features but also maintains a refined visual style. Its capable of tracking sleep patterns and helping you improve your overall sleep quality, as well as track your outdoor adventures whether youre running, swimming, rowing, or many other different forms of activity.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (256GB)  as low as $460, was $1,000

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 sitting upright on a bench.

Samsung has really nailed down the design of the horizontally folding phone with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. It offers supreme portability when folded, yet doesnt sacrifice a full-screen phone experience. It has a ton of modern smartphone features such as an impressive camera array and the ability to make hands-free video calls.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (128GB)  $514, was $700

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra with S-Pen against a white background.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which promises dependable performance, and an 11-inch touchscreen with Full HD resolution for a clear look at your apps. It comes with a battery life of up to 15 hours on a single charge, 128GB of internal storage, and Samsungs S-Pen stylus for an additional input option. The ultrawide camera records videos in super clear 4K resolution, and it has a front-facing webcam that makes it a great option for remote workers, collaborators, and students looking to keep in touch with friends and family.

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (512GB)  as low as $550, was $1,420

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Galaxy S24 smartphone lineup has been some fierce competition for Apples iPhone lineup, with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra coming in on the larger end of the lineups spectrum and making some fierce competition for the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. The S24 Ultra offers some of the most impressive hardware you can find in a smartphone, as its larger sizes allows more room for the camera system, a powerful processor, and a larger battery that can last all day on a single charge. With its larger size comes a larger display, and its got some major visibility upgrades, with Corning Gorilla Armor that reduces reflections and improves clarity even in direct sunlight.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 (256GB)  as low as $1,260, was $1,800

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 open in a person's hands.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a premium foldable phone and we consider it among the best folding phones. It comes in at a higher price point than most smartphones, but it features a range of new tech that makes it worth it. The camera system allows you to take hands-free photos using Flex Mode, and for even more clarity an Auto Frame Rate feature sets the optimal exposure so you video stays bright from start to finish. The Z Fold 5 is super durable and gets great battery life, even with the ability for multitasking with three windows open on the screen at one time.

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The lunar far side is wildly different from what we see. Scientists want to know why

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When the Change-4 mission landed in the Von Karman crater on January 3, 2019, China became the first and only country to land on the far side of the moon  the side that always faces away from Earth.

Now, China is sending another mission to the far side, and this time, its goal is to return the first samples of the moons hidden side to Earth.

The Change-6 mission, launched Friday, is set to spend 53 days exploring the South Pole-Aitken basin to study its geology and topography as well as collect samples from different spots across the crater.

The South Pole-Aitken basin is believed to be the largest and oldest crater on the moon, spanning nearly a quarter of the lunar surface with a diameter measuring roughly 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers). The impact crater is more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) deep.

Scientists hope that returning samples to Earth will help answer enduring questions about the intriguing far side, which hasnt been studied as deeply as the near side, as well as confirming the moons origin.

The far side of the moon is very different from the near side, said Li Chunlai, China National Space Administration deputy chief designer. The far is basically comprised of ancient lunar crust and highlands, so there are a lot of scientific questions to be answered there.

No real dark side

During a NASA budget hearing on April 17, congressman David Trone asked NASA administrator Bill Nelson why China was sending a mission to the backside of the moon.

They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side thats always in dark, Nelson responded. Were not planning to go there.

The moons hidden side has sometimes been referred to as the dark side of the moon, largely in reference to the 1973 Pink Floyd album of the same name.

But the phrase is a bit of a misnomer for a couple of reasons, according to experts.

While the far side of the moon may seem dark from our perspective, it experiences a lunar day and lunar night just like the near side, and receives plenty of illumination. A lunar day lasts just over 29 days, while the lunar night lasts for about two weeks, according to NASA.

The same side always faces Earth because the moon takes the same amount of time to complete an orbit of Earth and rotate around its axis: about 27 days.

Additionally, the far side of the moon has been more difficult to study, which led to the dark side nickname and created an air of mystery.

Humans always want to know whats on the other side of the mountain and the part that you cant see, so thats a kind of psychological motivation, said Renu Malhotra, the Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professor and Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Of course, weve sent space probes that have orbited the moon, and we have images, so in a sense, its less mysterious than before.

Several spacecraft, including NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that constantly circles and takes images of the lunar surface, have helped to shed light on the moon.

Yutu-2, a lunar rover that Change-4 released in 2019, also explored loose deposits of pulverized rock and dust littering the floor of Von Karman crater, located within the larger South Pole-Aitken basin.

The Yutu-2 lunar rover took an image of the Chang'e-4 lunar probe on the far side of the moon on January 11, 2019. - China National Space Administrat/AFP/Getty Images

But returning samples to Earth would enable the latest and most sensitive technology to analyze lunar rocks and dust, potentially revealing how the moon came to be and why its far side is so different from the near side.

Far side mysteries

Despite years of orbital data and samples collected during six of the Apollo missions, scientists are still trying to answer key questions about the moon.

The reason the far side is so compelling is because it is so different than the side of the moon that we see, the near side, said Noah Petro, NASA project scientist for both the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Artemis III, a mission which aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. For all of human history, humans have been able to look up and see the same surface, the same side of the moon.

But in 1959 the Soviet Union sent a probe to fly past the far side of the moon and captured the first images of it for humanity.

We saw this completely different hemisphere: not covered in large volcanic lava flows, pockmarked with craters, a thicker crust. It just tells a different story than the near side, Petro said.

Returning samples with robotic missions, and landing humans near the transition between the two lunar regions at the south pole through the Artemis program, will help tell this more complete story of lunar history that we are lacking in right now, he said.

Although scientists understand why one side of the moon always faces Earth, they dont know why that particular side permanently faces our planet. But it could have something to do with the moon being asymmetrical, Malhotra said.

There is some asymmetry between the side thats facing us and the other side, she said. What exactly caused those asymmetries? What actually are these asymmetries? We have little understanding of that. Thats a huge scientific question.

Orbital data has also revealed that the near side has a thinner crust and more volcanic deposits, but answers to why that is has eluded researchers, said Brett Denevi, a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins Universitys Applied Physics Lab.

It has a different kind of geochemical composition with some weird extra heat-producing elements. There are a ton of models for why the near side is different than the far side, but we dont have the data yet, Denevi said. So going to the far side, getting samples and doing different kinds of geophysical measurements is really important to figuring out this really long, long standing mystery.

The Chang'e-6 mission lunar probe launched on May 3 from Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province. - Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Change-6 is just one mission heading to the moons far side as NASA has plans to send robotic missions there as well.

Denevi helped design a mission concept for a lunar rover called Endurance, which will undertake a long drive across the South Pole-Aitken basin to collect data and samples before delivering them to the Artemis landing sites near the lunar south pole. Then, astronauts can study the samples and determine which ones to return to Earth.

Cracking the lunar code

One of the most fundamental questions that scientists have tried to answer is how the moon formed. The prevailing theory is that some kind of object had an impact with Earth early in its history, and a giant chunk that went flying off our planet formed the moon.

Scientists also want to know how the moons original crust formed.

Volcanic flows created dark patches on the moon, while the lighter parts of the surface represent the moons primordial crust.

We think at one point the moon was entirely molten, and it was this ocean of magma, and as that solidified, minerals floated to the top of this ocean, and thats that lighter terrain that we can see today, Denevi said. Getting to the really big expanses of pristine terrain on the far side is just one of the goals.

Meanwhile, the study of impact craters littering the lunar surface provides a history of how things moved around during the solar systems early days at a critical point when life was starting to form on Earth, Denevi said.

As impacts were happening on the moon, impacts were happening on the Earth at the same time, Petro said. And so whenever we look at these ancient events on the moon, were learning a little bit about whats happening on the Earth as well.

Visiting the South Pole-Aitken basin could be the start of solving a multitude of lunar mysteries, Malhotra said. While researchers believe they have an idea of when the crater formed, perhaps 4.3 billion to 4.4 billion years ago, collecting rock samples could provide a definitive age.

Many scientists are sure that if we figured out the age of that depression, she said, its going to unlock all kinds of mysteries about the history of the moon.

CNNs Wayne Chang contributed to this report.

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WENCHANG SPACE LAUNCH SITE, China  China launched an uncrewed lunar spacecraft Friday in a first-of-its-kind mission to bring back samples from the far side of the moon, the latest step in a rapidly advancing Chinese space program that is spurring competition with the United States and others.

The Change 6 lifted off on time at 5:27 p.m. local time (5:27 a.m. ET) from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Chinas southern island province of Hainan.

The launch of the lunar probe, which NBC News was one of a handful of news organizations to attend, and the national excitement around it had transformed the normally sleepy fishing village of Longlou into a major tourist attraction, with crowds spilling from tour buses and heading to beaches and rooftops with the best views of the spaceport. One rooftop owner said he had sold out 200 seats at 200 yuan (about $28) each.

A Long March 5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-6 mission lunar probe, lifts off (Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images)

Ahead of the launch there was a festival-like atmosphere on the beach, where vendors offered space paraphernalia and groups of children sold Chinese flags for 3 yuan (about 40 cents) each. Families sprawled on picnic blankets playing cards, while others strung up hammocks between palm trees so they could wait in the limited shade.

Yiuwah Ng, a 28-year-old real estate office worker from the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, traveled six hours by car and another three hours by ferry to stake out the best spot along the shore, where he had been camping for three days with friends and his dog.

I want to witness this historic moment, he said of the launch, his fourth. Its an important first step for Chinas lunar exploration.

Max Zhang, a self-described rocket chaser from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has been photographing launches at Wenchang from the beach since 2011.

Im addicted to the shock of seeing the launches, especially the sound of the rocket flame, he said. It shakes my heart.

Space enthusiasts await the launch of Chinas Change 6 lunar probe on the island of Hainan on Thursday. (Fred Dufour / NBC News)

A force to be reckoned with

If successful, the Change mission will be a crucial step in realizing the countrys goals of landing Chinese astronauts on the moon by 2030 and eventually building a base on the lunar surface.

The outcome of the mission will also have implications far beyond Chinas borders. A slew of spacefaring nations  including Russia, India, Japan and the U.S.  also have their sights set on the moon, creating what some experts have likened to a new kind of space race.

China is trying to prove that its a force to be reckoned with, and so its always that China is competing against everyone in space, said Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A successful Change 6 mission would demonstrate how sophisticated Chinas lunar exploration program has become in a relatively short time.

Twenty-five years ago, they had very rudimentary space capabilities, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank based in Washington. Going from that to where they are today  I think theyve clearly exceeded Russia, and their space capabilities are really only second to the United States.

China achieved its first moon landing in 2013 with the Change 3 mission, which set a lander and rover on the lunar surface to study the moons terrain. Before that, only the U.S. and the former Soviet Union had successfully landed spacecraft on the moon.

In 2019, China notched another historic milestone with its Change 4 flight, becoming the first country to land a probe on the far side of the moon, the part that permanently faces away from Earth.

The following year, in 2020, China returned to the moons near side, which always faces Earth, landing the Change 5 spacecraft on a volcanic plain known as Oceanus Procellarum. The probe retrieved samples there and brought them back to Earth, representing a big technological leap forward.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has invited scientists from the U.S., Europe and Asia to apply to borrow the lunar samples for their own research, holding a pitch meeting last week in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Researchers funded by NASA received rare approval from Congress to submit proposals, raising the possibility of high-level U.S.-China space cooperation that is otherwise prohibited by U.S. law.

This time, the Change 6 spacecraft is aiming to land and retrieve samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin, an ancient and sprawling impact crater on the far side of the moon.

Spectators on a beach near the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Thursday. (Fred Dufour / NBC News)

Conducting a sample return mission from the side of the moon that always faces away from Earth is challenging because mission controllers on the ground have no way of directly contacting a spacecraft in that region. Instead, signals need to be relayed through a satellite now orbiting the moon that China launched from the same site in Hainan last month.

While difficult, the effort could have enormous payoffs. Studies suggest that the moons near side was more volcanically active than the far side, which means all of the lunar samples obtained thus far may be telling only part of the story of the moons origin and evolution.

Collecting lunar samples from different geological eras and regions is of great value and significant for all mankind to have a more comprehensive understanding of the moon and even the origin of the solar system, Ge Ping, a mission leader from CNSAs Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, told reporters in Hainan on Thursday.

Beyond its scientific objectives, the Change 6 mission carries with it geopolitical considerations. The flight is a precursor to a pair of Chinese robotic missions to the moons south pole to scout locations to build a moon base. Last year, the Chinese and Russian space agencies agreed to jointly build a research station on the lunar surface.

NASA and its commercial partners also aim to establish a permanent presence at the lunar south pole, though the agencys Artemis moon missions have faced numerous delays and budget overruns. The current timeline has American astronauts returning to the lunar surface in 2026 at the earliest.

With China and Russia forming a rival coalition, there is some pressure for the U.S. to keep its foot on the accelerator, Harrison said.

It does matter who gets there first, and it matters how you get there and what kind of coalition youre bringing with you, he said.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has on multiple occasions warned that the U.S. runs the risk of falling behind Chinas lunar ambitions. In an interview this week with Yahoo Finance, Nelson outlined whats at stake in the new space race.

I think its not beyond the pale that China would suddenly say, We are here. You stay out, he said.

Asked Thursday about international competition in space, Ge said, All countries in the world should explore, develop and use outer space peacefully.

There is no need to worry too much, he added. Space programs are for all humans.

A street vendor sells space merchandise ahead of the lunar launch Friday. (Janis Mackey Frayer)

As more countries around the world build up space capabilities, NASA has pushed for more global cooperation, establishing the Artemis Accords in 2020 to promote peaceful, responsible and sustainable practices. U.S. law prevents China from joining the 39 other nations that have signed the accords, which both China and Russia have criticized as a tool to promote U.S. dominance in space.

Many Western space policy experts have in turn raised concerns about Chinas and Russias intentions. The full scope of Chinas ambitions in space is not known, for instance, because its space agency does not operate with the same level of transparency as NASA. The countrys space program is also more closely tied to the military than in the U.S.

We cannot ever say that Chinas investment in civilian space technologies are only civilian and not to be used for military purposes, said Namrata Goswami, a professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University and co-author of the 2020 book Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space.

While it may feel as if Chinas spaceflight objectives have accelerated in recent years, they are part of a decadeslong strategy, Goswami said.

Many of the leaders of Chinas space program announced these goals and timelines 20 years ago, she said. What is astounding to me is that they are achieving almost all their milestones on time, and for them, that has a strategic advantage in the global narrative of whos doing it better.

As much as the moon and its resources can provoke competition among nations, space exploration can also be unifying, Swope said.

We are literally a speck in the universe, and when we go to the moon or explore space, we as humankind have that shared human trait where we want to understand the unknown and we want to discover, he said. That does transcend politics.

Janis Mackey Frayer reported from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, and Denise Chow reported from New York.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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China launched an uncrewed lunar mission Friday that aims to bring back samples from the far side of the moon for the first time, in a potentially major step forward for the countrys ambitious space program.

The Change-6 probe  Chinas most complex robotic lunar mission to date  blasted off on a Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south Chinas Hainan island, where space fans had gathered to watch the historic moment. The countrys National Space Administration said the launch was a success.

The launch marks the start of a mission that aims to be a key milestone in Chinas push to become a dominant space power with plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and build a research base on its south pole.

It comes as a growing number of countries, including the United States, eye the strategic and scientific benefits of expanded lunar exploration in an increasingly competitive field.

Chinas planned 53-day mission would see the Change-6 lander touch down in a gaping crater on the moons far side, which never faces Earth. China became the first and only country to land on the moons far side during its 2019 Change-4 mission.

Any far-side samples retrieved by the Change-6 lander could help scientists peer back into the evolution of the moon and the solar system itself  and provide important data to advance Chinas lunar ambitions.

The Change-6 aims to achieve breakthroughs in the design and control technology of the moons retrograde orbit, intelligent sampling, take-off and ascent technologies, and automatic sample-return on the far side of the moon, Ge Ping, deputy director of the China National Space Administrations (CNSA) Center of Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering said last week from the launch site.

Ambitious mission

The Change-6 probe will be a key test for Chinas space capabilities in its effort to realize leader Xi Jinpings eternal dream of building the country into a space power.

China has made rapid space advancements in recent years, in a field traditionally led by the United States and Russia.

With the Change program, launched in 2007 and named for the moon goddess of Chinese mythology, China in 2013 became the first country to achieve a robotic lunar landing in nearly four decades. In 2022, China completed its own orbital space station, the Tiangong.

The mission aims to collect samples from the far side of the moon, part of an ambitious program that includes plans for a crewed lunar mission by 2030. - Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

The technically complex Change-6 mission builds on both the Change-4s 2019 record of landing on the far side of the moon, and Change-5s 2020 success returning to Earth with near-side moon samples.

This time, to communicate with Earth from the moons far side, Change-6 must rely on the Queqiao-2 satellite, launched into lunar orbit in March.

The probe itself is composed of four parts: an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a reentry module.

The mission plan is for the Change-6s lander to gather moon dust and rocks after touching down in the sprawling, roughly 2,500-kilometer diameter South Pole-Aitken basin, a crater formed some 4 billion years ago.

An ascender spacecraft would then transport the samples to the lunar orbiter for transfer to the reentry module and the missions return to Earth.

The complex mission goes through virtually every step that will be required for Chinese astronauts to land on the moon in the years ahead, according to James Head, a professor emeritus at Brown University who has collaborated with Chinese scientists leading the mission.

In addition to returning samples that could yield fundamental new insights into the origin and early history of the moon and solar system, the mission also serves as robotic practice for these steps to get astronauts to the moon and back, he said.

Space fans gathered to watch the launch on south China's Hainan Island - Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

China plans to launch two more missions in the Chang-e series as it nears its 2030 target of sending astronauts to the moon before building a research station in the following decade on the lunar south pole  a region believed to contain water ice.

Change-7, scheduled for 2026, will aim to search for resources on the moons south pole, while Change-8 roughly two years later could look at how to utilize lunar materials to prepare for building the research base, Chinese officials have said.

Competitive space

Fridays launch comes as multiple nations ramp up their lunar programs amid a growing focus on the potential access to resources and further deep space exploration access that successful moon missions could bring.

Last year, India landed its first spacecraft on the moon, while Russias first lunar mission in decades ended in failure when its Luna 25 probe crashed into the moons surface.

In January, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, though its Moon Sniper lander faced power issues due to an incorrect landing angle. The following month, IM-1, a NASA-funded mission designed by Texas-based private firm Intuitive Machines, touched down close to the south pole.

That landing  the first by a US-made spacecraft in over five decades  is among several planned commercial missions intended to explore the lunar surface before NASA attempts to return US astronauts there as soon as 2026 and build its scientific base camp.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson last month appeared to acknowledge that Chinas pace  and concerns about its intentions  were driving the American urgency to return to the moon, decades after its Apollo-crewed missions.

We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. I think in effect we are in a race, Nelson told lawmakers last month, adding his concern that China could try to bar the US or other countries from certain lunar areas if they arrive there first.

China has long said it stands for the peaceful use of space, and, like the US, has looked to use its space prowess to cultivate international goodwill.

This time, China has said the Change-6 mission carries scientific instruments or payloads from France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Space Agency.

China hopes to strengthen cooperation with its international counterparts and deepen international cooperation in the space field, Ge of the CNSA told reporters a day ahead of the launch.

CNNs Sawn Deng contributed reporting.

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What were the odds? NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Joan Higginbotham floated side-by-side operating the International Space Station's robotic arm in December 2006  after both had earned master's degrees from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Now Higginbotham is rooting for her friend and fellow alumnae as Williams prepares to make history by returning to the orbiting outpost aboard the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

"It's really cool that Suni is getting to fly on a new vehicle. Not too many people get to do that. Not only has she flown on shuttle, but she's going on this brand-new vehicle  and that's got to be exciting in itself," Higginbotham said.

NASA astronauts Joan Higginbotham (foreground) and Suni Williams refer to a procedures checklist as they work the controls of Canadarm 2 in December 2006 aboard the International Space Station.

"The fact that it's been delayed, that happens with the new spacecraft. It's to be expected. And you want to make sure that you work all the kinks out of the spacecraft before you put human beings on board," she said.

"So I'm excited for her. And I know she's excited because she's been waiting quite some time for this, this maiden voyage on this vehicle," she said.

Williams and NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore are scheduled to lift off inside Starliner at 10:34 p.m. Monday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida

Two days prior to launch, Higginbotham will speak to Florida Tech graduates Saturday during a trio of spring commencement ceremonies. She earned a masters degree in management in 1992 and a second masters degree in space systems in 1996 while working at Kennedy Space Center, where she became lead orbiter project engineer for shuttle Columbia.

Florida Tech President John Nicklow will present Higginbotham an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

From the education we provided to those inaugural space workers on the Cape to our cutting-edge research and teaching today that is making our nations lunar and Martian futures a reality, Florida Tech has been honored to educate some of the best and brightest in the space industry over the last 65 years, Nicklow said in an email.

Joan and Sunita are certainly two of the best and we are so proud to call them Florida Tech Panthers. Their success on Earth and above it is a wonderful inspiration to future generations of Florida Tech students and alumni," he said.

Williams earned her Florida Tech master's degree in engineering management in 1995 from the university's Extended Studies Division in Patuxent, Maryland. She served as a U.S. Navy helicopter test pilot and instructor at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

Williams and Higginbotham were mission specialists aboard Discovery during the STS-116 mission, which lasted nearly 13 days and featured installation of the P5 truss on the ISS. Williams stayed aboard the ISS as a flight engineer, and she set a women's world record by logging four spacewalks totaling 29 hours and 17 minutes before returning to Earth in June 2007.

Higginbotham described Williams as "very even-keeled, very professional, good sense of humor, just somebody that you would definitely want to fly in space with."

"Suni and I were partnered together and flying the robotic arm on the International Space Station, and it was great being paired with her. I think we were very complimentary of one another. She had my back. I had her back. And we worked well together, and we knew we were going to go up there and be very successful," Higginbotham recalled.

The STS-116 shuttle mission crew arrives at Kennedy Space Center for pre-launch exercises in November 2006. The crew from left to right: Suni Williams, Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, William Oefelein, Mark Polansky, Robert Curbeam Jr. and Christer Fuglesang.

"I don't know if a lot of people know, but Suni grew her hair really long because she was going to donate her hair to Locks of Love. So I was designated as the barber," she said.

"I cut her braid before she went over to the space station. And everyone was telling me not to quit my day job  because apparently I didn't do a wonderful job of styling the hair after cutting off the braid," she said, laughing.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA astronaut, Florida Tech grad Williams returning to ISS on Starliner
Lakeland's Main Street Garage has recently received new signage as it has been opened up for public metered parking, according to Traffic Operations Manager Tess Schwartz.

Lakeland commissioners will consider spending nearly $300,000 in hopes of making it easier for drivers to navigate two downtown parking garages.

The City Commission will vote Monday on a contract with Massachusetts-based TCS International Inc. to install parking guidance systems in the Main Street and Heritage Plaza parking garages. The project's cost is $299,888.

"I think it will make it much clearer to the user where they can park and where they can't park, " said Tess Schwartz, the city's traffic operations manager.

The city's ultimate goal is to allow downtown visitors to have an easier parking experience.

"One will be like the Disney system with LEDs above each space, the other is like express parking at a garage where there are a number of spaces on each floor," Mayor Bill Mutz said.

Heritage Garage

The Heritage Parking Garage's parking guidance system will be more extensive based on the diversity of its users in the shared space.

The city will pay TCS International to install 263 single-space censors above each parking space in the garage below the gate to the third-floor, not just the city-owned spaces.

The Heritage Parking Garage is built as a public-private partnership with Lakeland Regional Health, MidFlorida Credit Union and Heritage Plaza's owner, BKP Five. While approximately 49 spaces and 10 handicapped accessible spaces on the first floor are open to the public at all times, the other spaces are only available on evenings and weekends.

The LED lights above each space can be turned green when a parking space is open and red when it's occupied or not available for public use. Schwartz said the city can also turn the sensors other colors, such as blue to indicate a handicapped accessible parking spot is open, or even purple to indicate a space has been reserved.

There will be two LED entry signs at the main entrances to the Heritage Garage to indicate to drivers how many public spaces are available at any given time.

Main Street Garage

Lakeland opened both sides of the Main Street Garage to the public to utilize for downtown parking in November as a pilot program ahead of the holiday season, and it has remained that way.

TCS International will install two LED garage entry signs, one at each of the Main Street Garage's entrances, indicating the total number of public parking spaces available. This will be tracked by installing five ultrasonic directional sensors from the ceiling that can track vehicles entering or exiting the garage, according to the TCS's documents.

Restaurant change: Twin Peaks to rise on site of former Smokey Bones restaurant in Lakeland

The company's documents say the calibrated sensors are not tricked by pedestrians, carts, debris or bicyclists. The system is smart enough to track vehicles that enter the "wrong way" through the exit, and correct its count of available parking spaces.

Schwartz said the city will be able to set aside a number of reserved parking spots for the permit holders, subtracting those from the number of available number of parking spots displayed on the Main Garage's LED sign.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Looking for space in a Lakeland garage? LED signs could soon help
A mission badge showing the white silhouette of an arctic fox against a dark blue background. a white silhouette of a rocket lifts off in the background.

One of NASA's latest climate change missions will soon head to space on Rocket Lab's Electron rocket.

Rocket Lab shared this week that planning continues for two back-to-back launches taking that will send NASA's PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission to space from the company's Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealan. Aboard each rocket will be a cubesat that will circle the globe at an altitude between 292 and 403 miles (470 and 650 kilometers) in near-polar orbits.

The first launch is scheduled no earlier than May 22 and after the successful deployment of "Ready, Aim, PREFIRE," the second, deemed "PREFIRE and ICE", will follow within three weeks. These two launches will be Rocket Lab's sixth and seventh of the year and the 48th and 49th Electron launches to date.

Related: NASA's twin spacecraft will go to the ends of the Earth to combat climate change

"It's these types of missions where Electron really thrives as the leading launch provider for dedicated small satellite missions," Peter Beck, Rocket Lab CEO and founder, said in a statement. "We have an excellent track record of delivering NASA's payloads to exactly where they need to go and when they need to, and we're looking forward to adding to that tally further with these next back-to-back launches."

The 10-month PREFIRE mission will focus on climate change by taking measurements that can only be obtained from space, measuring the amount of heat Earth loses from its polar regions. Once in near-polar, or asynchronous orbit, each of the PREFIRE satellites will gather information from their onboard sensors, which are far more sensitive than previous spacecraft, enabling scientists to learn more about polar heat emissions in the far infrared.

an illustration of two small T-shaped satellites in orbit above Earth. the Arctic can be seen below

According to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, the Arctic has warmed more than 2.5 times faster than the rest of the planet with roughly 60% of the energy that's released into space not measured efficiently.

The PREFIRE mission will help add the remaining puzzle pieces to the Arctic heating mystery so scientists can pinpoint which specific regions of the polar environment could be the culprit for the heat loss. The data will also contribute to improving climate models and forecast changes that result from global warming.

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"Helping climate scientists better understand climate change means they need precisely located measurements of Earth's polar heat loss, which NASA's PREFIRE mission is setting out to achieve, and helping the PREFIRE mission achieve its science objectives means its satellites need precise and accurate deployments to their locations in space," Beck added in Rocket Lab's statement.

This is not the first time Rocket Lab has used Electron for NASA science and technology missions; it also was part of the CAPSTONE mission to the moon in June 2022, the TROPICS mission in May 2023, the NASA Starling mission in July 2023, and NASA's upcoming ACS3 rideshare mission .
Eighth-grade students in Washington Island's technical education class show off the first laser engraving project they made in the school's existing fabrication laboratory, or "fab lab." The school district recently received a $25,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to expand its fab lab.

WASHINGTON ISLAND  Students in the Washington Island School District soon will have more opportunities to design and make something cool in class while also possibly taking steps toward a career.

That's because the school was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to put toward a "fab lab" that is meant to teach science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) skills that could help prepare students for careers that use advanced technologies.

A "fab lab," short for fabrication laboratory, is a high-tech workshop equipped with computer-controlled manufacturing components such as 3-D printers, laser engravers, computer numerical control (CNC) routers and plasma cutters. All of those tools are commonly used today, and companies involved in manufacturing, fabrication and similar work in Door County and elsewhere have said there's a growing need for employees skilled with those tools.

"They're really hoping to boost fabrication education, digital fabrication education, laser cutting, 3-D printing, and to get that into the schools (through the grants)," technical education teacher Matt Sullivan said.

"We're preparing our students for future careers," principal and curriculum director Tim Verboomen said about the fab lab. "And that's really exciting."

Jaxin sets up a laser engraver in the Washington Island School District's existing fabrication laboratory, or "fab lab." The district recently received a $25,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to expand its fab lab.

This is the second fab lab grant Washington Island has received from the state, following one in 2020 that allowed the school to set up the lab currently in use. These WEDC grants are matching grants, with the school districts receiving them required to match at least half of the award. Sue Cornell, the school's director of business services, said the school is matching half of its $25,000 grant, so it will have $37,500 to use on the new lab equipment.

Sullivan said the grant allows the school to build on the capabilities of its existing fab lab, which offers education in CNC work, vinyl cutting, laser engraving and 3-D printing. He said he's very excited to have the new equipment coming to his classroom.

"With this grant, we'll be able to expand our laser capabilities with cutting and engraving," Sullivan said. "It also will allow us to get desktop computers to help with our digital capabilities. With the desktop computers and another laser engraver, we'll be able to quadruple our offerings. The students will really get the full experience and learn how it can inspire a future career."

The Island's tech ed courses are open to grades six through 12. All students in grades six to eight are required to take them, and high schoolers must earn at least two full credits from the fab labs, with more available as electives. Verboomen said about one-third of the 27 students in those grades take elective fab lab courses.

Washington Island students Tug, Kinsey and Marley work on a soldering project in the school district's existing fabrication laboratory, or "fab lab." The district recently received a $25,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to expand its fab lab.

Also, the school district offered a nine-week course taught by Sullivan last year to those in the community who wanted to learn some advanced fabrication skills, which Cornell said was "pretty well-received."

"We had community members who were very excited to use the laser and do the cutting and engraving," Sullivan said.

Verboomen said the district already has the ball rolling to bring in the new equipment, and he expects it'll be in place for the start of the next school year.

The state announced the grant awards in a Tuesday news release. All told, 18 school districts across the state received a total of $493,000 for fab labs, with individual district awards ranging from $22,000 to $50,000. According to the news release, the recipients will invest a total of more than $750,000 in STEAM education in their fab labs when the matching funds are added. Since the programs inception in 2016, WEDC has awarded 211 grants totaling more than $5 million to 125 school districts in Wisconsin.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County school gets a $25,000 grant to boost its 'fab lab' program
russia gazprom

Vladimir Putin is throwing everything he has got at ramping up Russias war machine.

That is why the nations economy  if one believes Moscows figures  has held up better than might have been expected in the face of Western sanctions. Rather than reflecting anything remotely like prosperity, the statistics show more weapons being produced for the meat grinder of eastern Ukraine.

The resources funding this include oil revenues. Higher oil prices send more cash into the Kremlins coffers, thanks in large part to sales via Moscows shadow fleet of embargo-busting tankers, ferrying black gold to customers without moral qualms in supportive or non-aligned nations.

But Putins financial firepower does not include one previously reliable source of cash: natural gas.

Gazprom, the largely state-owned energy giant, has tumbled to its worst loss in a quarter of a century, losing 629bn roubles, equivalent to 5.5bn, last year, as its revenues dived by more than one quarter in rouble terms.

It is the biggest loss in at least 25 years. The loss is a humiliation for the business and for the regime. Putin had thought the vast network of pipelines taking its gas into Europe had created an addiction which would force Western leaders to stand back and allow him to seize Ukraine, unwilling to wean themselves off the supply of energy.

Before the war, this was a common view. Long after the seizure of Crimea and war in Donbas, Germany in particular pressed ahead with Russian gas deals, including the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was due to start operating when Putin launched his full invasion in February 2022.

Gerhard Schroeder, a former chancellor of Germany, built a career in the Russian energy industry after he left office, clinging to his post as chairman of oil giant Rosneft for three months after the assault.

But Europes leaders did not comply. When Putin turned down gas supplies, hoping a cost of living crisis would change their minds, instead of coming to an agreement they found sources elsewhere.

Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, which built much of its industrial prowess on the back of cheap Russian energy, swore the country must never again become so beholden to hostile suppliers.

In 2021, more than 40pc of European Union gas imports came from Russia. That dropped to 8pc last year, according to the European Commission.

In raw volumes, the drop took purchases from just over 150bn cubic metres to just under 79bn in 2022 and under 43bn last year.

Once contracts to supply gas via pipes through Ukraine end, they are not expected to be renewed, slashing Russian sales further.

Story continues

Norway is now the EUs biggest supplier of gas imports, raising its sales from 79.5bn cubic metres to 87.8bn.

Britain imported little natural gas from Russia before the war  Norway, Qatar and the US were all bigger suppliers  and purchases have since been banned.

Gazprom stopped publishing details of its exports at the start of 2023, but overall its sales outside Russia fell by more than half last year.

Europe replaced the loss of Russian gas at considerable expense, but new networks have now been established which mean Moscow has lost its grip on the Western market forever.

Liquefied natural gas, imported on tankers, has grown in importance. The EU added capacity to import an extra 40bn cubic metres of LNG last year, and plans to add capacity for another 30bn this year.

Bill Weatherburn, commodities specialist at Capital Economics, describes the continents efforts as very successful.

Previously it was stable, steady and reasonably cheap pipeline gas, and they have managed to build the infrastructure to import liquefied gas from global markets, he says.

European imports from the US, flush with gas since its shale fracking boom, have risen from just under 19bn cubic metres in 2021 to 56.2bn in 2023.

Qatar provided 15.5bn cubic metres last year, almost matching British gas sales to the continent.

Weatherburn sees this as stable, in the sense that the US is going to massively increase its LNG capacity  there will be more available at the end of this year and into next year.

However, prices risk being less predictable in the coming months.

An outage in any part of the world will now affect the price of gas in Europe. Last year there were talks of strikes at an LNG facility in Australia. Although Europe doesnt get LNG from Australia, European prices spiked because there was a risk they would be competing more heavily with Asia for other supplies, he says.

Meanwhile Gazprom is scrambling for ways to reach new customers. As with Russian oil, buyers exist who will be happy to take its natural gas without worrying too much about the consequences for Ukraine.

A little gas has been diverted into China and Uzbekistan, but plans to shift more with a major new pipeline are struggling, despite pre-war plans to expand into the Asian market.

James Waddell, at Energy Aspects, says weaponising gas sales to Europe has left Russia without much of a market.

Gas is much harder to transport than oil or coal. You have to build very expensive, long pipelines that take years to build, or liquefaction terminals which also take years to build, he says.

Even attempts to build those LNG terminals are being hammered by Western sanctions.

Everything that has been lost from Europe has essentially been shut in upstream in Russia, or directed to the local market, Waddell says.

There is one back door which Putin has made use of: Russia has ramped up some of its own gas-intensive industries. One of the big ones is urea production, and they are selling lots of fertilisers into Europe, Wadell says.

Such are the remaining scraps for Putins once-mighty gas industry.

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Watch live: China launching Chang'e 6 mission to far side of the moon early May 3 (video)

China is set to launch its next robotic moon mission on Friday (May 3), and you can watch the action live.

A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang'e 6 lunar far side sample return mission is scheduled to launch between 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT) and 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT) on Friday. The mission will take off from China's Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the tropical island province of Hainan, off the southeastern coast of mainland China.

You can watch the action live here when the time comes, courtesy of CCTV+. The live webcast will begin at 4:30 a.m. ET (0830 GMT) on May 3.

Related: China to launch sample-return mission to the moon's far side on May 3

a large white rocket attached to a mobile tower rolls along a road surrounded by palm trees

Chang'e 6 will involve four different pieces of hardware during its 53-day mission: a lunar orbiter, a moon lander, an ascender spacecraft and a reentry module. First, the lunar orbiter will reach and enter lunar orbit. From there, it will send down the lander and ascender.

The robotic lander will aim for a large impact crater on the far side of the moon known as Apollo basin, where it will attempt to collect up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar material.

After the samples are collected, they will be transferred to the ascent vehicle, which will then launch them back up to the orbiter. After the samples dock with the orbiter, the spacecraft will then begin its journey back toward Earth.

Finally, the orbiter will release the samples toward Earth inside the reentry module. If successfully returned and collected, the samples will provide Earth's first glimpse at pristine moon material from the lunar far side and will help answer questions about both the early impact history of the solar system and the geological evolution of the moon.

a large white rocket stands upright on a launch tower surrounded by red flags with yellow chinese characters

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Chinese space agency leadership is already praising the level of complexity in the mission.

"Chang'e 6 aims to achieve breakthroughs in the design and control technology of the moon's retrograde orbit, intelligent sampling, takeoff and ascent technologies, and automatic sample-return on the far side of the moon," Ge Ping, deputy director of the Center of Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering for the China National Space Administration, told China Central Television (CCTV).

To aid the Chang'e 6 mission, China launched the Queqiao-2 satellite in March 2024 to serve as a communications relay for the spacecraft visiting the lunar far side. Along for the ride were two other experimental satellites that will serve as communication and navigation relays for future lunar endeavors. The two have already beamed haunting lunar imagery back to Earth.
The long-awaited Crewed Flight Test (CFT) of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is finally upon us.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is scheduled to launch Starliner with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on a shakedown mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 6. This will be Starliner's third flight, but the capsule's first with a crew aboard.

With the spacecraft day's away from its crewed debut, ULA has released a short video highlighting how Starliner's Atlas V launch vehicle was stacked and integrated with the spacecraft.

Related: How to watch Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch webcasts live

a large white rocket on a launchpad at sunset

ULA posted the video on X, formerly Twitter, a week before Starliner's scheduled launch, with the caption, "Reigniting Atlas' legacy of launching humans to space, ULA is using an #AtlasV rocket to launch the Crew Flight Test. Check out how the Atlas V rocket was stacked ahead of next week's launch."

With Starliner ready for flight, the video lays out ULA's process for assembling and stacking the Atlas V rocket, mating it with the Starliner spacecraft, rolling the stack to SLC-41, and other significant milestones leading up to the moment of launch.

Atlas V is powered by two RD-180 rocket engines, paired for this flight with two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The launch vehicle's first stage stands 106.5 feet (32.5 meters) tall, and is joined with its Centaur upper stage, propelled by a pair of RL-10A rocket engines. Combined with Starliner, the whole rocket stands at 172 feet (52.4 meters).

The trio are stacked inside ULA's vertical integration facility (VIF) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, and are scheduled to roll out the SLC-41 at 10 a.m. this Saturday, May 4.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 19, 2022.

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ULA's video also points out some of the fueling and crew boarding procedures during the mission's launch countdown. Wilmore and Williams will arrive at the launchpad about three hours prior to liftoff, aided by ULA's "Blue Team," as mission operators run through prelaunch checklists leading up to liftoff.

Starliner is scheduled to launch Monday, May 6, at 10:34 p.m. EDT, and will rendezvous with the ISS May 8, at 12:48 a.m. EDT (0648 GMT). During the shakedown flight, Wilmore and Williams will test the gamut of Starliner's systems, spending about 10 days on the space station before returning to Earth.

This mission will be Starliner's third flight. In 2019, the first of Starliner's uncrewed test flights failed to complete its mission of rendezvousing with the ISS due to software issues. Another launch in 2022 managed to meet all NASA and Boeing's major objectives for the spacecraft. However, after discovering the flammable nature of the tape used around much of Starliner's internal wiring, the crewed launch was further delayed.
Depending on where you live you may see electric vehicle charging stations often.

But experts said a lot of them have been set up by private investment not the federal grants that have been promised by the government.

The Biden administration wants to a create a national charging network for electric cars with 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030.

Part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $7.5 billion to build those stations. But more than two years after that pledge, progress is moving slowing.

Yet to date, only eight charging stations - eight - have been opened, said Rep. Rick Crawford, (R) Arkansas.

Leading to legitimate questions and criticism of publicly funded charger deployments, said Rep. Rick Larsen, (D) Washington state.

This week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers examined of the progress of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program which federal provides grants to build these public EV charging stations.

They met directly with industry leaders like the major fuel retailer Loves which is known for its travel stops.

Consumers will not purchase EVs if they are not confident in the charging network, not just how many chargers there are but where those charging stations are located, said Kimberly Okafor, General Manager of Zero Emission Solutions at The Loves Family of Companies.

Okafor told lawmakers Loves has received $30 million in federal funding to install charging stations across its gas stations.

Our industry has spent the last 60 years building out a competitive refueling network that has adapted over time aligning with driver preferences and we want to do this well into the future, said Okafor.

But other groups say accessing these federal grants isnt simple because each state has its own program requirements.

Spencer Pederson at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) said even once you get the funding, there can still be delays.

Were talking about additional generation, transmission, distribution, running level lines and cables, even the lighting thats required around some of these, some of these charging stations and then actually getting the charging stations in the ground themselves, said Spencer Pederson SVP of Public Affairs at NEMA.

NEMA along with some lawmakers want the Biden administration to update its guidance for these federal grants to make the process more uniform.

More consistency and clarity to states on some of the regulations and guidelines that they need to follow would certainly go along the way. Uniformity and standardization are always helpful, said Pederson.

Full statement from the Federal Highway Administration:

The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in a clean future, providing historic funding to build out a federally funded EV charging network across the nation. With a first-ever National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, we are building a national EV charging network from scratch, and we want to get it right  to ensure a convenient, accessible and reliable charging network that makes it as easy for Americans to find a charge as filling up on gas.

To date, FHWA has made available $3 billion in combined NEVI and CFI funding to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and D.C. to build the national charging network. You can view a breakdown of NEVI funding here. State DOTs determine projects to fund, and project sponsors should consult their State DOT on funding under this program. For more information on state deployment plans, see this FHWA website.

NEVI : 36 states from across the country have already either issued proposals or awarded contracts for their first year of funding under the NEVI program. Of these, six states (OH, PA, NY, HI, ME, VT) have opened NEVI-funded stations, adding 33 charging ports across 8 station locations. With eight states having broken ground and several more scheduled this year, we anticipate more groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings in the coming months. CFI: As a complement to the NEVI Program, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program was designed to deliver chargers in rural and disadvantaged communities and fill gaps in the charging network where private sector investments have not yet reached. We recently announced $623 million to 47 projects nationwide to install approximately 7,500 EV charging ports in communities across the country. You can view a breakdown of CFI funding here.

Since the President took office there has been a more than 75% increase in charging ports now in place, and states are moving quickly to install more chargers stamped Made-in-the-USA. With more than 182,000 public charging ports across the country and an average of 900 new public chargers opening each week, were rapidly expanding the nations EV charging network to reduce range anxiety and build consumer confidence in purchasing EVs.
A young Duke professor won $250,000 for her algorithms that could find symptoms of heart disease when they start

A young Duke professor won $250,000 for her algorithms that could find symptoms of heart disease when they start

A Duke University professor has won the ACM Prize in Computing for her work with algorithms.

Amanda Randles creates virtual simulations that incorporate data from patients' wearable devices.

Randles is also trying to make medicine more personalized by learning how cancer cells move.

Amanda Randles is shaping the future of medicine with her award-winning research.

Not so long from now, Randles envisions a world where your smartwatch, or similar device, would constantly feed data into a virtual simulation of your entire body, allowing doctors to closely monitor your health on a personalized level, unlike anything we have today.

"The long-term vision is building, essentially, your virtual human, your digital twin," Randles told Business Insider.

To that end, Randles, a professor of biomedical sciences at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, spends her time building some of those virtual simulations.

In particular, she focuses on simulating blood flow and cell movement throughout the body. Her work recently won her the Association for Computing Machinery's $250,000 Prize in Computing.

"Her innovative techniques will not only deepen our understanding of diseases but also herald a new era of biomedical simulation," Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, which provides funding for the award, said in a statement.

Putting your Apple Watch data to work

Today's standard fitness wearables can track a person's heartbeat during their daily routines. However, if they could also follow changes to blood flow in real-time, then that could help doctors move from "reactive care to the proactive," Randles said.

In other words, it could help doctors identify signs of potentially fatal conditions like heart disease much sooner, which could lead to better treatment. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, accounting for one in five deaths each year.

While there are privacy concerns, a virtual twin that tracks your health daily would be revolutionary for healthcare. However, one of the hurdles folks like Randles face is data overload.

Since your heart beats 100,000 times a day, that's an enormous amount of data. Randles and her team are working on figuring out how to take snapshots of moments and apply them to larger scenarios.

If you're sitting at your computer for a couple of hours every morning for a week, for example, the model might not need to incorporate every second.

Randles' algorithm uses smartwatch data to simulate a person's blood flow and help monitor for heart disease. BioHues Digital

Once you have that personalized baseline, "we have to have ways of calibrating when have you gone off the rails and it's not matching any longer," Randles said.

The model would be able to pick up if plaque is developing in the heart, for example.

While she's hopeful that regular wearables will provide good enough data for the model, Randles said some heart disease patients may need medical-grade devices.

These sort of wearable-driven blood maps could be on the horizon, Randles said. "It's not decades away," she said. "I think we will see it in the next five to seven years."

Right now, the circulatory system is just one piece of the whole human body, and Randles is interested in incorporating the brain and other systems into the concept of a virtual twin. That technology is at least a decade away, she said.

In the meantime, Randles's simulations are already helping doctors in other ways.

A personalized 3D map of your circulatory system

Using Randles' simulations, doctors can determine when a patient needs a stent to improve blood flow in their heart in a noninvasive way. The traditional method is to insert a guide wire into the coronary artery to measure the pressure.

"Using the virtual models, we don't have to put the guide wire in the patient," Randles said.

Randles is working on allowing doctors to virtually try different treatment options, like the placement of the stent, to see which best fits the patient before they go into the operating room.

Right now it takes a lot of computing power, so her lab is incorporating machine learning to make the process faster.

Tracking cancer cells

When cancer cells circulate through the bloodstream, they can sometimes acclimate in a different part of the body and form new tumors, which is known as metastasis.

For another part of her research, Randles is examining how a cancer cell moves. In her simulations, Randles changes different parameters, like how the size of the cell's nucleus affects its movement.

Once there's enough data on the characteristics of different cells and how they move, doctors may be better able to predict how and where certain cancer cells metastasize.

"What is it about the cancer cells that are making them more likely to go to the brain or to the breast," she said. "If we can understand what it is about the cell that's causing it to go in that direction, that can inform treatments," she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2024

Rayonier Inc. isn't one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Welcome, and thank you for joining Rayonier's First Quarter 2024 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Today's conference is being recorded. Now I will turn the meeting over to Mr. Collin Mings, Vice President, Capital Markets and Strategic Planning.

Collin Mings: Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to Rayonier's investor teleconference covering first quarter earnings. Our earnings statements and financial supplement were released yesterday afternoon and are available on our website at rayonier.com. I would like to remind you that in these presentations, we include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of federal securities laws. Our earnings release and Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC list some of the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we may make. They are also referenced on Page 2 of our financial supplement. Throughout these presentations, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which are defined and reconciled to the nearest GAAP measures in our earnings release and supplemental materials. With that, let's start our teleconference with opening comments from Mark McHugh, our President and CEO. Mark?

Aerial view of Timberland Real Estate Investment Trust's woodlands in the U.S. South and Pacific Northwest.

Mark McHugh: Thanks, Collin. Good morning, everyone. First, I'll make some high-level comments before turning it over to April Tice, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, to review our consolidated financial results. Then ask Doug Long, Executive Vice President and Chief Resource Officer, to comment on our U.S. and New Zealand Timber results. And following the review of our timber segments, April will discuss our real estate results and our outlook for the balance of the year. As this is my first earnings call since officially stepping into the CEO role, I want to reiterate how honored I feel that our Board has entrusted me to lead Rayonier at this exciting time for our company. I'm fortunate to be partnering with an experienced and dedicated team of senior leaders, all of whom are incredibly energized by the refreshed vision that we've laid out for Rayonier and eager to execute on our future growth opportunities.

On that note, I'd like to also formally welcome April to our earnings call this quarter in her new role as CFO. April has held multiple positions of increasing responsibility within the finance and accounting department since she joined Rayonier in 2010, most recently serving as our Chief Accounting Officer for the last three years before she assumed the CFO role last month. April has been instrumental in building out our finance and accounting department as well as implementing a transparent financial reporting framework for the company. I'm confident that her transition into the CFO role will continue to be seamless. Now I'll switch gears and discuss our first quarter results, which were modestly improved relative to the prior year quarter and in line with our expectations at the start of the year.

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Specifically, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $56 million and pro forma net income of $7 million or $0.05 per share. The 3% increase in adjusted EBITDA versus the prior year period was driven by stronger results from our Southern Timber and New Zealand Timber segments, partially offset by lower results in our Pacific Northwest Timber and Real Estate segments. Drilling down further on our operating segment results. Our Southern Timber segment generated first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $45 million, up $2 million from the prior year period, as a 6% increase in harvest volumes more than offset a 4% decline in net stumpage realizations. In our Pacific Northwest Timber segment, first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $5 million was down $2 million from the prior year quarter, driven by a 17% reduction in harvest volumes due to the Oregon sale completed late last year, as well as an 11% decline in weighted average log prices.

See also

25 States With the Highest Gas Prices and

30 Least Developed Countries in Africa in 2024.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.
Once again, New Jersey saw an increase in both home prices and new inventory in April compared with the same time last year.

The number of active home listings in April grew by 30.4% across the nation, marking the sixth straight month of inventory growth, said Realtor.com's April 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report. Additionally, there was more activity from home sellers this past month, with a 12.2% increase in new home listings compared with last year.

In the New York metropolitan area specifically, the number of active listings decreased by 1.2%, but the number of new listings increased by 2.4%. And of the properties for sale, 7.1% saw price reductions.

Across the nation, the number of active home listings in April increased by 30.4%, marking the sixth straight month of inventory growth.

This is how the North Jersey real estate market looked in April, based on recent data from Realtor.com.

How much has North Jersey's housing inventory changed?

Across New Jersey, 13 counties saw an increase in new home listings compared with April 2023. The number of new listings also increased in 18 New Jersey counties compared with March.

In North Jersey, the counties of Passaic, Essex and Hudson all saw inventory increases from last year. Passaic County saw 302 new listings in April  a 14.39% increase from 2023 and a 19.84% increase from last month  while Hudson County saw an 11.21% increase from 2023 and a 37.23% increase from last month, with 516 new listings. And, Essex County had 490 new listings in April, a 4.7% increase from 2023 and a 7.46% increase from last month.

While Bergen and Morris counties saw 900 and 542 new listings in April  a 19.05% and 15.81% increase from last month, respectively  both counties had fewer homes for sale than at this time last year.

With 214 new listings in April, Sussex was the only county to see inventory decrease from both last year (2.73%) and last month (0.93%).

How long are North Jersey homes staying on the market?

In April, a majority of New Jersey counties saw active listings stay on the market for a shorter period of time.

Homes in Morris and Bergen counties are staying on the market for the shortest period of time in North Jersey, at 21 and 24 days, respectively. Listings are staying on the market for 26 days in both Passaic and Essex counties, while homes stayed on the market for about 35 and 38 days, respectively, in Sussex and Hudson counties.

What about median listing prices?

Overall, median home prices continued to increase in just about every New Jersey county compared with April 2023. And 15 New Jersey counties saw median home prices increase from last month.

With a median home price of $582,250, Essex County saw the great increase in median home prices from last year, at 16.47%. In Bergen and Passaic counties, home prices increased by 8.02% and 8.35%, with median listing prices of $787,495 and $487,500.

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The median home prices in Sussex and Hudson counties are $399,900 and $656,750  6.64% and 6.36% increases from last year  while Morris County had a price increase of 1.18% and a median home price of $698,750.

Here's how all 21 counties stacked up in April:

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay , on X @maddiemcgayy , and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ real estate: Counties that saw home inventory increase in April
Today

Mostly clear. Low 68F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 68F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

A mainly sunny sky. Hot. High around 100F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
The fresh newsletter for the International Community in Hungary - described by readers as a "Great read each week" - is now available for your interest and use via the link below.
The ordeal of a pastoral couple jailed without trial for three years for taking in a runaway Muslim girl shows the injustices that Christians suffer in northern Nigeria, church leaders said.

The Rev. Jonah Gangas and his wife Josephine, pastors of an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation in Kaduna state, were acquitted of all charges in March after authorities arrested them in 2020 on false kidnapping charges, jailed them without trial and refused to grant them bail, rights advocates said.

The world needs to know that Christians in Nigeria are not free to worship as it is assumed, the Rev. Jerry Faruk of ECWA Plateau Church told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. Our hope is in God, but we need someone to help deal with cases like this one.

In 2013 the Christian couple took in a runaway, 12-year-old Muslim girl  at the request of police  allowed her to live with them for seven years and funded her education. After she returned home, an Islamic organization incited her family to report the couple to authorities with accusations of kidnapping and proselytizing, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, which supported the pastors defense.

After many delayed hearings, the High Court of Justice of Kaduna state released their decision, fully acquitting the couple of wrongdoing for lack of evidence, according to ADF International legal counsel Sean Nelson.

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The decision from the court states that, the prosecution has not disclosed a prima facie case, Nelson said in a press statement. For simply helping this young girl, and taking her in during a moment of need, they were punished, prosecuted and imprisoned. We are pleased that the court has sided with Rev. and Mrs. Gangas, and we hope that this decision will positively impact other Christians and religious minorities in the country who are being unjustly punished for their faith, as well.

Sunny Akanni, an allied attorney of ADF International and lead attorney on the case, said she was relieved at the outcome.

Christians in Nigeria are unfairly discriminated against for their faith, and we need all who are able to continue to raise their voices in support of religious freedom for all Nigerians, Akanni said in a press statement. It is my prayer that soon all Nigerians will be able to worship and share their faith freely and without fear of retribution.

Pastor Faruk said Nigeria needs more Christian attorneys willing to help fight such injustices.

May Christian lawyers be willing to help Christians who are wrongfully accused, persecuted or imprisoned, he said. I also hope that Christian legislators will rise to their responsibilities to make laws that protect the citizens and guarantee justice to all.

The Rev. Gideon Para-Malam, a Christian rights advocate and head of the Para-Malam Peace Foundation, said education for girls is a precious social commodity in some communities of Nigeria and should not be impeded by such injustices.

This young girl desired education, and it was the main motivation in her action, Para-Malam said. A good Samaritan, as it were, mentioned this need to the Gangas, and they became a medium of uncommon generosity. The Gangas ought to be celebrated for being compassionate to humanity rather than vilified by being charged to court.

In this case, religion was manipulated to create a controversy or scandal where there should have been none, Para-Malam said.

She needs help to continue with her educational thirst and drive  she needs to be supported to complete her education to university level, he said. Her biological parents should support her in this quest and not be persecuting her and the Gangas. This girl isnt a wayward child but an educationally hungry woman.

The legal effort defended not only the girl but Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB), he said.

Northern Nigeria is notorious for defying FoRB  that is where the challenge lies in this matter, Para-Malam said. The court needs to not only discharge the case but make a pronouncement on the freedom to believe for this young girl. Shes now 19, and her dignity to choose the religion of her choice at this age needs to be respected. This girl went back home on her own. Her parents should reason with her and respect her wishes.

In the 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Key Insights

Significant control over Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions

A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership

13% of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust is held by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust (SGX:CWBU), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 45% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 42% of the company's stockholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust.

View our latest analysis for Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust?

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.

Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust. Cromwell Property Securities Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 27% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.3% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

We did some more digging and found that 8 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.

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While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust

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.

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust. Insiders own 105m worth of shares in the 838m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 45% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust (at least 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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.
The March of the Living commemorating the victims of the Holocaust will be held in Budapest on Sunday, the head of the board of the March of the Living Foundation said.

Gabor Gordon told a press conference that the programme will start with the inauguration of a memorial plaque marking the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust at the Dohany Street synagogue, and the march will set off at 3pm.



Nearly 100 Holocaust survivors are scheduled to be transported by electric cars as part of the march heading to the Keleti railway station, he added.



The 20th March of the Living event will also commemorate the victims of last years October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, he said.



Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the deputy state secretary in charge of civil and social relations, said that the government was aware of the sins committed by the government of the time, and its current responsibilities.



This is also demonstrated by the special government support granted for the Holocaust 80 memorial year, he added.



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Eletmenete / March of the living



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YORK  The Nebraska Department of Revenue is appealing the York County Commissioners allowance of property tax exemption for the Yorkshire Playhouse.

A few weeks ago, York County Assessor Kurt Bulgrin recommended continued exemption for the Yorkshire Playhouse property. It has been historically declared tax exempt. The York County Commissioners, sitting as the board of equalization, agreed, as they considered all the property tax exemption applications in the county.

Now, however, the state agency is appealing that decision.

Bulgrin told the county commissioners this week he was notified about the appeal.

What Im learning is that the department of revenue is really looking at community playhouses and theaters, this year, Bulgrin said. They will notify all parties involved, including the county and the Playhouse. Im pretty sure Yorkshire will want to hire counsel to go before TERC.

The appeal will be heard by TERC, the states tax equalization review commission, at a later date.

They will stay exempt until TERC tells me otherwise, Bulgrin said.

In other business as the board of equalization, the county board was asked to consider  again  some property tax exemption applications they already approved. Bulgrin said the applications were sent back to the county by the state department of revenue because of information errors provided by the applicants. Bulgrin said in some cases the applicants forgot to check a box or provide their classification for exemption.

Bulgrin had the applicants provide the necessary corrections and the county board members reaffirmed the exemptions.

One property owned by Mosaic will no longer be exempt  per Mosaics request  because it is no longer being used in the same way it had been.

Bulgrin said he expected the department of revenue to re-examine those corrected applications upon receipt.
New Delhi: After starting a probe into alleged violation of norms in branded spices, food regulator FSSAI plans to launch surveillance on other food items like fortified rice, dairy products and spices sold in the domestic market.

According to sources, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is planning surveillance on food items like fruit and vegetables, salmonella in fish products; spice and culinary herbs; fortified rice; and milk and milk products.

FSSAI is already taking samples of spices in powder form of all brands, including MDH and Everest, from across the country in view of quality concerns flagged by Singapore and Hong Kong.

"In view of the current development, FSSAI is taking samples of spices of all brands, including MDH and Everest, from the market to check whether they meet the FSSAI norms," a source had said on April 22.

FSSAI does not regulate the quality of exported spices, sources said.

Early last month, Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety (CFS) asked consumers not to buy and traders not to sell MDH's Madras Curry Powder (spice blend for Madras curry), Everest Fish Curry Masala, MDH Sambhar Masala Mixed Masala Powder, and MDH Curry Powder Mixed Masala Powder.

The CFS had said that samples of several kinds of pre-packaged spice-mix products of two Indian brands were found to contain a pesticide ethylene oxide.

Singapore Food Agency also directed a recall of such spices. After Hong Kong's directive, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) also ordered a recall of imported 'Everest Fish Curry Masala' from India.

Last week, FSSAI said it was in the process of collecting pan-India samples of Nestle's Cerelac baby cereals, amid a global report claiming that the company was adding higher sugar content to the product.

According to sources, FSSAI carries out various pan-India surveillance on various food products to assess the compliance status of implemented regulations.

The number of samples analysed during the past few years has grown substantially from 1,07,829 in 2020-21 to more than 4,51,000 in 2023-24, registering an increase of more than 3 times.

In 2020-21, 1,07,829 samples were analysed and 28,347 samples were found non-conforming. In 2021-22, 1,44,345 samples were analysed and 32,934 were found non-conforming.

During 2022-23, 1,77,511 samples were analysed and 44,626 found non-conforming. Last fiscal, 4,51,296 samples were analysed.

There has been an increase in cases launched and convictions showing the efforts made by the concerned food safety authorities towards enforcement of the FSS Act 2006.

FSSAI undertakes regulatory testing and monitoring/surveillance of various food products through a chain of food testing laboratories operating in both government and private sectors.

The laboratories are notified as primary and referral laboratories. Presently, 239 primary food testing laboratories, 22 referral laboratories and 12 reference laboratories are operating in the country.

As per the FSSAI Act, samples analysed as Sub-standard and Misbranded are penalised under Sections 50 to 54 of the FSS Act, 2006 where the maximum penalty can be levied up to Rs 5 lakhs for sub-standard food, up to Rs 3 lakhs for Misbranded food and up to Rs 10 lakhs for misleading advertisements.

In case samples are analysed as unsafe will lead to the food businesses being prosecuted under Section 59 of the FSS Act 2006, where a three-month jail term with a penalty of up to Rs 3 lakhs can be levied, where failure does not result in injury.

Whereas in case of injuries caused due to consumption of unsafe food under section 59, from 59(ii) to sec 59 (iv), there is punishment with imprisonment from one year to six years, accompanied with a fine that may range from 3 lakhs to 5 lakhs, as applicable weighing the gravity of the injury.

Further, where such failure or contravention results in death, the defaulter food business operators (FBOs) could be convicted with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life and also with a fine, which shall not be less than Rs 10 lakh.
New Delhi: The RBI on Friday tweaked rules to reduce the risk faced by banks in their exposure to capital market in the case of issue of Irrevocable Payment Commitments (IPCs). The RBI issued a circular stating that only those custodian banks will be permitted to issue IPCs, who have a clause in the agreement with clients giving the banks an inalienable right over the securities to be received as payout in any settlement.

However, this clause will not be insisted upon if the transactions are pre-funded i.e., either clear INR funds are available in the customer's account or, in the case of FX deals, the banks nostro account has been credited before the issuance of the IPC.

The maximum intraday risk to the custodian banks issuing IPCs would be reckoned as Capital Market Exposure (CME) at 30 per cent of the settlement amount. This is based on the assumption of 20 per cent downward price movement of the equities on T+1, with an additional margin of 10 per cent for further downward movement of price, the RBI said.

In case the margin is paid in cash, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin paid. In case the margin is paid by way of permitted securities to Mutual Funds / Foreign Portfolio Investors, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin after adjusting for a 'haircut' as prescribed by the Exchange on the permitted securities accepted as margin, the RBI added.

Under T+1 settlement cycle, the exposure shall normally be only for intraday. However, in case any exposure remains outstanding at the end of T+1 Indian Standard Time, capital will have to be maintained on the outstanding capital market exposure in terms of the Master Circular  Basel III Capital Regulations dated April 1, 2024, as amended from time to time.

The underlying exposures of banks to their counterparties, emanating from the intraday CME, will be subject to limits prescribed under Large Exposure Framework dated June 3, 2019, as amended from time to time. The RBI said that these instructions shall come into force with immediate effect.

The RBI also explained that the risk mitigation measures prescribed in its earlier circular were based on T+2 rolling settlement for equities (T being the Trade day). The Stock Exchanges have since introduced T+1 rolling settlement, and accordingly, the extant guidelines on issuance of IPCs by banks have been reviewed. Henceforth, all IPCs issued by custodian banks under the T+1 settlement cycle will comply with the new instructions.
KSET 2024: The Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) has declared the Karnataka State Eligibility Test (KSET) 2024 results. Aspirants can access the results on the official website of KEA, cetonline.karnataka.gov.in. The results are provided in a PDF format for all subjects. Candidates can log in using their registration number and date of birth to obtain the KSET 2024 result.

The results for all 41 subjects, such as Commerce, Kannada, Economics, and English, have been announced. Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 provisional score lists are available on the official portal.

KSET Result 2024: Direct Link

According to the KEA notification, candidates can raise objections regarding the provisional scores by emailing keakset2023@gmail.com, providing complete details before May 10, 2024.

KSET Result 2024: Steps To Check Scores

- Go to the official result website of KSET 2024 at cetonline.karnataka.gov.in.

- Click on the KSET result link on the homepage.

- Enter the login credentials on the login page and submit.

- Your KSET result will appear on the screen.

- Download and print the result for future reference.

KSET 2024: Passing Marks

Candidates from the general category must secure a minimum aggregate of 40%, while SC, ST, PwD, Transgender, and other reserved category candidates need a minimum of 35% aggregate marks across both papers.

KSET 2024: Exam Details

The KSET 2024 aims to determine if candidates are eligible to become assistant professors in the state. The exam took place on January 13 to hire assistant professors for state universities. Paper 1 of KSET had 50 multiple-choice questions worth 100 marks, held from 10 am to 11 am. Paper 2, from 12 pm to 2 pm, comprised 100 questions worth 200 marks.
Director Jang Jae Hyun who has often delved into stories exploring exorcism, the debates between ideologies of religion, and ritualistic practices, brings a complex layered supernatural thriller Exhuma, which also links itself to a traumatic historical past.

Starring some of the finest talent led by acclaimed star Choi Min-sik of Old Boy fame, Kim Go Eun( Goblin, Little Women ) and Lee Do Hyun ( The Glory, Good Bad Mother ) Exhuma has emerged as the biggest blockbuster success across S Korea and the biggest Korean of all time. With a hit run across Vietnam, Indonesia as well as North America, Exhuma arrives in India.

The story opens in Los Angeles when two shamans Hwa Rim( Kim Go Eun ) and her assistant Bong Gil( Lee Do Hyun) have been summoned by Park Ji-yong (Kim Jae-chul), an influential Korean American man to cure his distressed infant.

Hwa Rim discovers the baby like all the firstborns of the family, is surrounded by an ominous presence. The source is the familys elder, Ji Yongs grandfather who was an influential man who bore allegiance to the Japanese. The only way out is to exhume his grave, which is in Korea. Hwa Rim enlists the help of renowned geomancer Kim Sang Duk and funeral director Ko (Yoo Hai-jin).

However, they discover the grave which is in a secluded spot on the mountain has inauspicious feng shui as well as strange markings and a plain headstone.

Kim Sang Duk warns the team with foreboding that unearthing this grave would bring sinister repercussions for all.

As Hwa Rim performs a shamanistic ritual the ornate grave is unearthed. But even before it is exhumed, one of the helpers who is greedy to raid its inside opens it and it unleashes an uncontrollable malevolent spirit which is all set to destroy and wreak havoc. But it seems taming this spirit is beyond Hwa Rims expertise. Kim Sang Duk discovers its tied up with the countrys colonial past with Japan.

Director Jang gives a textured screenplay which goes beyond bloody ghosts, and inexplicable situations beyond the realm of logic. He cleverly blends Koreas violent and complicated colonial history with Japan, the scars which not only haunt the family but the nation as well.

One cannot help but marvel at the finesse with which Choi Min-sik brings to his characters. The man who can be best described as a masterclass in acting is once again pitch-perfect.

Kim Go Eun and Lee Do Hyun known for their versatility, once again prove their excellence as actors. Showcasing how even diviners too cant keep themselves armoured, the actors are uninhibited in their performances.

Exhuma is a well crafted, and outstanding supernatural narrative which scares you as well as keeps you riveted.

4/5
The Supreme Court told the Enforcement Directorate on Friday that it would consider hearing arguments on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's interim bail plea in the excise policy-related money laundering case during the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the ED, that the hearing on Kejriwal's plea against arrest was likely to take time, so the court was considering hearing the probe agency on interim bail for him.

Raju said that he will oppose Kejriwal's interim bail application. "We say we'll hear about interim bail, not that we'll grant it. "We may or may not grant interim bail," the bench stated.

The Supreme Court ordered Raju to appear prepared for arguments on the interim bail plea on May 7. The bench is hearing Kejriwal's appeal against his arrest by the ED. The Delhi chief minister is currently in Tihar Jail in judicial custody following his arrest on March 21.



On April 15, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the ED requesting a response to Kejriwal's plea. On April 9, the high court upheld Kejriwal's arrest, ruling that there was no illegality and that the ED was left with "little option" after he ignored repeated summonses and refused to cooperate with the investigation.



The case involves alleged corruption and money laundering in the development and implementation of the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
New Delhi: Some relief for former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as the Delhi High Court has allowed him to see his ailing wife once a week. On February 26, 2022, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detained Sisodia. Former Dy CM of Delhi is accused of being involved in two cases pertaining to the purported Delhi excise fraud. Currently, Sisodia is in custody.

Manish Sisodia is currently accused of corruption related to the Delhi Excise Policy 20212022. Allegedly, Sisodia was involved in the creation and execution of the now-canceled policy. Later, on March 9, while Sisodia was in Tihar Jail, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also took him into custody in relation to the same case.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22.

Earlier on April 25, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest and said that he did not cooperate with the central agency despite multiple summons issued to him.

On April 9, the High Court dismissed his plea for release from jail and rejected his argument of political vendetta amid the looming Lok Sabha elections.

The High Court had said that Kejriwal's absence from nine ED summons over six months undermined any claims of special privilege as Chief Minister, suggesting his arrest was an inevitable consequence of his non-cooperation.
New Delhi: Pakistan has always interfered in any matters related to Kashmir and once again the neighbouring country has shown it. Recently, Pakistan has raised the Kashmir issue in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir has spoken of supporting Kashmir and the UN representative of Pakistan has raised the issue of Kashmir, CAA and Ram temple in UNGA.

In Today's DNA, Sourabh Raaj Jain analysed the scenario of Pakistan which is not ready to accept that Kashmir has changed.

Watch Today's Full Episode Here:

Pakistan is still not ready to accept that today's Kashmir has changed a lot, especially with the removal of Article 370 and how Kashmir is moving very fast on the path of development.

Recently, Pakistan's Army Chief Syed Asim gave an interview to Pakistani news channel, PTV, where he described India as Pakistan's arch-rival and spoke of giving all kinds of support to Kashmir.

Munir is serving his time in the Pakistani army. He knows that in this matter, neither the army chief before him was able to do anything, nor any army chief who came after him would be able to do anything. Munir is aware that if they tell the truth about the prosperity of Kashmir in front of their country, then their 'chiefgiri' will not last long.
Congress leaders today took to social media to counter criticism by the BJP after Rahul Gandhi switched to Rae Bareli from Amethi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocked Rahul Gandhi by saying ' Daro Mat, Bhago Mat' while BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala accused the Congress leader of 'running away' from Amethi. Reacting to the criticism, Congress leaders said that as an experienced player of chess and politics, Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Rae Bareli is well thought of.

"Remember, he (Rahul Gandhi) is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion, and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision has befuddled the BJP, its supporters, and its sycophants. The BJPs self-proclaimed Chanakya, who used to talk about 'paramparagat seat' is now not sure how to respond," said Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh.

He further said that Rae Bareli has been represented by Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi and thus it's 'not an inheritance; it is a responsibility and a duty'. "As far as the Gandhi family is concerned, it is not just Amethi-Rae Bareli, the entire country from north to south is the stronghold of the Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi has been MP thrice from Uttar Pradesh and once from Kerala. Why has the Prime Minister been unable to muster the courage to contest an election from a single seat below the Vindhyas?" asked Ramesh.

Many people have many opinions on the news of @RahulGandhi contesting elections from Rae Bareli.



Remember, he is an experienced player of politics and chess. The party leadership takes its decisions after much discussion, and as part of a larger strategy. This single decision  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 3, 2024

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate hinted that Priyanka Gandhi may contest the by-poll and go to the Lok Sabha. "Priyanka ji is campaigning vigorously and is proving to be a tough candidate for Narendra Modi. In view of this, it was important that she should not be limited to her own election. Priyanka ji will reach the House by contesting any by-election," she said.

          ,         



 ,             BJP         



     ,        .   Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) May 3, 2024

The Congress leaders further said that in this long election, 'there are a few chess moves still left to play'.

Earlier today, addressing a rally in Bengal's Bardhman, PM Modi took a dig at Rahul Gandhi over the latter's second seat contest from Rae Bareli. "I also told you earlier that the Shehzaada would start looking for another safe seat for himself, fearing defeat in Wayanad. He was so afraid after losing Amethi in 2019 that he bolted all the way down South, to Wayanad. Now, he has escaped to Raebareli. These people often go around telling people, 'Daro maat' (don't be afraid). It's now my turn to say the same to them--'Arey daro maat, bhaago maat' (don't be afraid! don't flee!)," said Modi.
A solar power sales and installation company has been ordered to pay $220,977 in restitution, fines and other costs for violating a state law designed to protect consumers, the Sedgwick County District Attorneys Office said Friday.

Sedgwick County District Judge Faith Johnson ordered the default judgment against Tennessee-based Design 1 Group LLC on April 15.

Among allegations outlined in a news release from the DAs Office were that Design 1 Group LLC:

didnt have a license when it contracted for services

made false representations about issuing permits

lied about coordinating and scheduling inspections

lied about rebates

didnt install customers solar power systems correctly

didnt install the equipment Evergy requires to connect solar power systems to the electrical grid

didnt tell customers how the position of their solar panels would affect their energy savings

and failed to tell customers that they had a right to cancel their contract within three days

The DAs Office, in the news release, characterized the companys interactions with customers as unconscionable and deceptive.

Design 1 Group LLC has been ordered to pay $106,780 in restitution; $110,000 in civil penalties; $197 in court costs and $4,000 in investigative fees, according to the DAs Office and court records.

The court also enjoined Design 1 Group LLC from engaging in all business in Kansas unless properly licensed and only after obtaining all necessary permits, the news release says.

Of the restitution, $41,340 is earmarked for a Clearwater customer who was promised a solar panel system would reduce his energy bills by 50-75%, was told plenty of sunshine would hit the panels if they were installed on the east side of his home, and was promised a more than $3,000 cash rebate, according to the DAs Feb. 2 petition.

Based on the claims, the customer paid for a 12-panel 4.8 kilowatt photovoltaic system but had issues with installation and was eventually told by Evergy that he couldnt use it and needed to shut the system down because it wasnt properly connected to the power grid, the petition says.

Another $65,440 was ordered paid to a Derby customer who was told a solar panel system would completely wipe out his energy bills, that he would receive a $2,022 rebate check and a $19,000 tax credit for installation, and that the panels would be placed on the front of his house, according to the petition.

In reality, the rebate and tax credit were much lower, the panels were placed on the back of the house, and Evergy couldnt bring the system online because it was missing required equipment, the petition says.

Story continues

The DA Offices consumer protection division investigated the company after the customers complained about their dealings with the business. Prosecutors sued on Feb. 2.

Design 1 Group LLC says on its website that it serves 17 states, including Kansas. Wichita is the only city in the state listed in its service area. No one at the company could be reached for comment Friday. The phone number listed on its website was not in service and no one immediately responded to a contact request sent through its webpage.

The business is listed as delinquent on the Kansas Secretary of States website.

Default judgments like the one against the solar power company are a type of court order usually entered when one party to a lawsuit doesnt respond to a summons or fails to appear in court. A motion requesting the default judgment says Design 1 Group LLC neither answered the lawsuit or appeared in court.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett urges residents shopping for a solar power system to think about the life of the system and whether the contract is transferable if their home is sold, the real cost of the system and whether theyll receive any rebates or tax credits, how the system generates and stores power, what direction the panels need to face to maximize energy output, and research whether the seller is properly licensed.

Bennett also encourages potential buyers to read through customer reviews, understand what steps it takes to connect their system to the power companys energy grid, know maintenance requirements and exactly what a warranty covers, and who is responsible if the system is damaged by storms or in other ways, among other information.

You can file a consumer protection complaint with the DAs Office by calling 316-660-3600 or by emailing consumer@sedgwick.gov.

Wichita used-car dealer banned, ordered to pay $418K. Heres why

Wichita contractor fined $25K after taking payment, failing to build deck for customer

Wichita business owner accused of taking money without doing work has to pay $33,000
National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile J&K state, Omar Abdullah, asserted his candidacy for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat with a firm declaration: "I have fought and won elections against Generals of Pakistan; today I'm fighting the polls against the government in Delhi, and I will win. This is my Kashmiri guarantee, not the Chinese guarantee." He made these remarks after submitting his nomination papers, accompanied by senior party leaders and supporters from both the National Conference and Congress, to the Returning Officer, Minga Sherpa.

Omar Abdullah, who has returned to parliamentary elections after a hiatus of 20 years, expressed confidence in securing a substantial victory. Criticizing the BJP's campaign tactics targeting minority communities and raising concerns about the Election Commission's conduct, Abdullah emphasized his fight against the government in Delhi and the RSS in Nagpur. He reiterated his commitment to restoring the rights of the people once in parliament.

Addressing a rally in Baramulla, North Kashmir, after filing his nomination, Abdullah took a swipe at the BJP and the Election Commission, suggesting that they might postpone the elections if they observed the overwhelming support for his candidacy. Referring to his main opponent, BJP-backed People's Conference Chairman Sajad Lone, Abdullah affirmed that regardless of the election date, victory would be theirs.

In a subtle dig at PM Modi's assurances, Abdullah underscored, "This is my guarantee, not the Chinese guarantee that others are offering. This is a pure Kashmiri guarantee." With the contest primarily between Abdullah and Lone, and Sajad Lone being supported by the Apni Party and BJP through back channels, the Baramulla race is poised for a showdown between these two political heavyweights.

In the 2019 elections, National Conference's Mohammad Akbar Lone secured victory in the Baramulla Parliamentary seat. With over 17.28 lakh registered voters, including 8.7 lakh males, 8.5 lakh females, and 33 transgenders, the constituency is witnessing a flurry of nominations, with around 12 candidates having filed papers so far. Among them, prominent figures like Sajad Gani Lone of the People's Conference and incarcerated independent candidate Er Rashid have entered the electoral fray. It's noteworthy that Er. Rashid is presently in Tihar jail facing terror-related charges. The parliamentary constituency is scheduled for polls on May 20th.
New Delhi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the sexual harassment case against JD-S MLA and former Karnataka minister H.D. Revanna, the son of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, issued a lookout notice to him on Friday. According to sources, the lookout notice was issued to prevent him from leaving the country. In addition to the sexual harassment case in which his son and NDA candidate for Hassan Lok Sabha seat Prajwal Revanna is the second accused, Revanna has been named as the prime accused in the kidnapping of one of his son's sexual assault victims.

Revanna is facing arrest, and he has filed an anticipatory bail plea in court, which has been adjourned until Saturday. Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of rape, criminal intimidation, and blackmail, has already received a lookout notice. The sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna is becoming more serious, with victims and their families approaching the police after the SIT launched its investigation.

Meanwhile, JD-S state President and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy demanded on Friday that the SIT issue a notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who claimed that Prajwal Revanna raped 300 to 400 women, claiming that he "seems to have information regarding the case".

He also claimed that a prominent Karnataka leader keeps approximately six to seven victims in a farmhouse. "Unnecessarily, the names of his father (Revanna) and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda are being dragged in. The case is being used to spread propaganda during elections," Kumaraswamy, who was in Raichur, said.

When asked if the scandal would have an impact on his party's alliance with the BJP, he insisted that he first address the Prajwal case. "The opponents will not be able to hurt me or Deve Gowda with this slanderous campaign," he said.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader and Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah on Friday questioned the BJP's decision not to field candidates from Kashmir, despite their claims of putting Jammu and Kashmir on the path to development following the repeal of Article 370. Addressing multiple public gatherings, Omar Abdullah stated that the BJP did not field candidates for three Valley seats because it is aware of its standing.

"They claim that Kashmir has prospered since the repeal of Article 370. Unfortunately, we are a helpless community. We lost children in the Gandbal boat tragedy due to an incomplete bridge. Who is responsible for this tragedy? It is the person who campaigned for your votes in 2019 and promised to develop your area," said Omar.

He lashed out at the BJP, claiming that the party in power at the Centre had taken away our identity and land rights. "They didn't establish colleges, universities, or schools. Instead, they set up liquor shops. They are pushing young people into drug addiction. What development are they referring to? Where is the development that they are referring to? "We haven't seen any healthcare facilities, schools, or bridges being built," he added.

Abdullah went on to say, "There is no space for Muslims in the BJP today. The BJP continues to spread hatred against this community. It's unfortunate that they don't realise this. The elections will end on June 3, so how will they continue for five years while spreading hatred like this?

Their goal is to incite tension and hatred." Omar urged voters to elect a strong representative to Delhi, not someone who will sit on Nagpur's lap, but someone who can truly understand their feelings.

While Omar Abdullah criticised the BJP and its allies in Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, President of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and former Chief Minister, accused the BJP government at the Centre of exploiting Kashmiri migrants' suffering for political gain without genuinely addressing their grievances or ensuring their rightful return and resettlement in their home state.

Farooq Abdullah, during his visit to Jammu, met many Kashmiri Pandits and appealed to them to support all three National Conference candidates from the Kashmir valley in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.


New Delhi: Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday filed his nomination for Rae Bareli Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi declared his assets worth approx Rs 20 crore in his papers, which included Rs 4.2 lakh gold. This declamation revealed that he did not own a car or Residential Apartment.

Congress MP said that he owns movable assets to the tune of Rs 9,24,59,264, including shares of Rs 4,33,60,519 and mutual funds of Rs 3,81,33,572. In a declaration, it shows that Gandhi has a bank balance of Rs 26,25,157 and gold bonds of Rs 15,21,740.

Meanwhile, Gandhi declared Rs 55,000 cash in hand and 333.3 grams of gold which cost Rs 4,20,850. Congress leader declared that he did not own any motor car or Residential Apartment but has a liability of Rs 49,79,184.

Gandhi's immovale assessment includes around 3.778 acres of agricultural land at Sultanpur village of Mehrauli, New Delhi. Congress leader decided that his main source of income was MP's salary, royalty, rent, interest from bonds, dividends and capital gain from mutual funds.

As per the nomination papers, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rollins College, Florida and an MPhil degree from Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

The Congress leader also informed that there are 18 cases filed against him in different states across the nation.

The Congress leader has declared 18 cases against him lodged in various states across the country. Gandhi did not mention any other criminal case against him in the affidavit during the nomination process for the Rae Bareli constituency.
New Delhi: Union Minister and BJP senior leader Amit Shah slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday during a rally in Ratnagiri of Maharashtra. Shah refuted Rahul Gandhi's prediction on the removal of Article 370 and said now it has been 5 years since the removal of 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and nobody has the guts to pelt stones there.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's remark in Parliament on Article 370, Shah said that it's been five years now and nobody has the guts to pelt stones. "they said if Article 370 is removed, there will be a bloodbath in Kashmir. Rahul baba, it has been 5 years and nobody has the guts to pelt stones...," he said.

While addressing the public rally, Shah said that Sharad Pawar and other opposition leaders have been feeding Article 370 like an orphan kid for the last 70 years. "For 70 years, Sharad Pawar and company...they kept feeding Article 370 like an orphan kid.." he said.

#WATCH | Maharashtra: During a public rally in Ratnagiri, Union Home Minister Amit Shah says, " ...For 70 years, Sharad Pawar and company...they kept feeding Article 370 like an orphan kid...you (people) made Narendra Modi ji, Prime Minister for the second time and on 5th August pic.twitter.com/JRiQX5GIql  ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

BJP leader added that people chose Narendra Modi as a PM for the second time in 2019 and he removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

"you made Narendra Modi ji, Prime Minister for the second time and on 5th August 2019, he removed Article 370 and Kashmir became part of India forever....," Shah said.

Shah also targeted Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray for obtaining support from Congress and Sharad Pawar to become Chief Minister. "I want to ask Uddhav Thackeray, those people, whose feet you fell on to become CM, what those Congress and Sharad Pawar were doing? Congress party and Sarad Pawar were opposing the removal of Article 370..," Shah said.

Amit Shah is contesting from Gujarat's Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket against Congress candidate Sonal Patel. Gandhinagar is going to polls in Phase 3 on May 7. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Electiom, Shah secured the victory from the Gandhinagar constituency against Congress candidate Dr. C. J. Chavda.
In a new turn of events linked to the JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna sex tape case, his father and former Karnataka Minister HD Revanna has been booked by the police in an alleged kidnapping case. The current JD(S) MLA was booked after a 20-year-old man lodged a police complaint alleging that HD Revanna's aide abducted his mother who was among the victims featured in sex tapes involving Prajwal Revanna, said reports.

The Karnataka Police registered a case against HD Revanna and his alleged associate Satish Babanna, a resident of Krishnarajanagara taluk in Mysore district. The duo has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. The First Information Report (FIR) revealed that the incident happened on April 29. The woman had worked at Revannas residence and farmhouse in Holenarasipura for six years but quit the job three years ago. Since then, she has been working as a daily wager, reported the Indian Express.

The boy alleged in the FIR that Babanna came to their house on April 29 and claimed that the woman would face a case if she was caught by the police and took her with him saying that Revanna had called her. The boy also said that Babanna claimed that an FIR was lodged against the woman and she had to get bail.

Meanwhile, the war of words between the BJP and the Congress has intensified with both accusing each other of supporting Prajwal Revanna. While Congress accused the BJP of helping Revanna flee the country, the saffron party questioned the Karnataka Government's inaction against the JD(S) MP for months. It was reported that Deputy CM DK Shivakumar was in possession of the sex tapes for months but did not take action. A Karnataka BJP leader has also urged its party to not campaign for Prajwal citing the presence of the sex tapes.
In the suicide case of Rohith Vemula, a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, the Cyberabad police have filed a closure report, acquitting university officials as well as BJP and ABVP leaders and stating that Vemula was not a Dalit. The police concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the accused individuals' actions were the reason behind his extreme actions, despite his statement that a number of issues would have motivated him to take his own life.

Closure Report On Rohith Vemulas Case Explained In 10 Points:
West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose said on Friday that he expects more such allegations "in the offing" after a contractual employee of the Raj Bhavan accused him of molesting her. Bose, in an apparent reference to the ruling Trinamool Congress, described the allegations as "absurd drama" and stated that none would be able to deter him from his "determined efforts to expose corruption and curb violence". The ruling Trinamool Congress stated on Friday that the party has no involvement in this matter and demanded an impartial investigation into the allegations to determine the truth.

Bose responded with a strong audio message on Friday, saying, "Waiting for the next grenade... your hidden bullets". The governor, who referred to himself as the "captain of the storm," also alerted employees to "a more sinister plot" that was "hatched in Raj Bhavan."

Bengal Governor Claims 'Sinister Plot Being Hatched'

Bose hinted at a more sinister plot being hatched in the Raj Bhavan, claiming that character assassination is the last resort of a "failing malevolence". He also mocked the allegations, claiming that one day he would be held responsible for historical events like the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the '1946 Calcutta Killings'. "That is the nature of the political forces working in the state," he went on to say.

The Governor said that he had been briefed on what to expect from certain political parties in Bengal.

"I've weathered many storms. I tell the political party plotting against me that this isn't a storm. This is not a big deal. Don't be surprised if you realise I'm the storm. Bring out all of your weapons from the arsenal. Use this against me. I'm willing. I am prepared. He stated, "I will continue to fight for the dignity and respect of my Bengali brothers and sisters."

Ealier on Thursday, Bose said that he would not be intimidated by "engineered narratives" and that the "truth shall triumph" after TMC leaders claimed that a woman working at Raj Bhavan accused him of molestation.

His statement came after senior TMC leaders claimed in a series of social media posts that the woman who made the allegations had been taken to the police station to file a complaint against Bose. Police officials said they received a complaint and are investigating it.

TMCs Response To Governor's Allegations

Senior TMC leader and industry minister Shashi Panja said on Friday that the party has no agenda or role in this. She described the alleged molestation as shocking and difficult to believe that it took place inside Raj Bhavan. "A governor has never been the target of such a charge before. Undoubtedly, this has diminished the authority of the governor's chair. We insist that an unbiased investigation be conducted," Panja stated to the media.

She said that the same governor had visited Sandeshkhali and heard the claims made by local women about sexual harassment they had experienced at the hands of TMC leaders. "A woman employee of Raj Bhavan has now made a similar allegation against the same person. That puts the governor in the same boat," she remarked.

TMC Question's Immunity Of Governors

Panja questioned the constitutionally granted immunity to governors, stating, "The governor of Bengal is accused of committing a crime. So why is this immunity present? Nothing about the law can be different.

A governor cannot face criminal charges while serving in office, according to Article 361 of the Constitution.

Panja also questioned how a governor could prevent a female minister from visiting Raj Bhavan. Bose issued orders after allegations surfaced that state finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya would not be permitted to enter Raj Bhavan. She asked, "How can the governor do this? How can he be so sure that we women ministers will go to Raj Bhavan now that these allegations have surfaced?"
New Delhi: Aadhar Housing Finance Limited's initial public offering (IPO) is going to hit the markets on May 8, 2024. The initial public offering comprises a fresh issue of Equity Shares aggregating to Rs 10,000 million and an offer of sale of up to such number of Equity Shares aggregating up to Rs 20,000 million by BCP Topco VII Pte. Ltd.



Here Are The Key Things To Know About Aadhar Housing Finance IPO

Price Band has been fixed at Rs 300 to Rs 315 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each.

Bid/ Offer will open on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 and close on Friday, May 10, 2024.

The Anchor Investor Bidding Date shall be Tuesday, May 7, 2024.

Bids can be made for a minimum of 47 Equity Shares and in multiples of 47 Equity Shares thereafter.

ICICI Securities Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers to the Offer.

All capitalized terms referred to in this press release that have not been defined shall have the same meaning as prescribed in the RHP.

The Company proposes to utilize the Net Proceeds from the Fresh Issue, (i) to meet future capital requirements towards onward lending; and (ii) general corporate purposes.

Not more than 50% of the Net Offer shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers.

Company said it may, in consultation with the Book Running Lead Managers, allocate up to 60% of the QIB Portion to Anchor Investors on a discretionary basis.

Out of above, at least one-third shall be available for allocation to domestic Mutual Funds only, subject to valid Bids being received from the domestic Mutual Funds at or above the Anchor Investor Allocation Price.

In the event of under-subscription, or non-allocation in the Anchor Investor Portion, the balance Equity Shares shall be added to the QIB Portion.

5% of the Net QIB Portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Mutual Funds only, and the remainder of the Net QIB Portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to all QIB Bidders other than Anchor Investors, including Mutual Funds, subject to valid Bids being received at or above the Offer Price.

Not less than 15% of the Net Offer shall be available for allocation to Non-Institutional Bidders.
Music director Honey Hans has expressed hapiness on completing 100 music videos. Honey Hans' journey includes collaborations with artists like Khan Saab, Garry Sandhu, Kaka, Sidhu Moose Wala, and Aatish. Hanss repertoire extends beyond borders, having shot in various countries around the world. From the picturesque landscapes of Switzerland and Italy to the vibrant streets of Thailand and Dubai, his work showcases a diverse range of settings and cultures. Recently returning from a European visit, Hans is gearing up for his next set of projects, promising even more breathtaking visuals and compelling stories.

In addition to his international ventures, Honey Hans has also made his mark in regional music scenes, notably in Haryana, where he has collaborated with local talents like Diler Kharkiya and Pardeep Boora. His ability to adapt his storytelling style to different cultural contexts highlights his versatility as a director and his commitment to showcasing the richness of music and culture from around the world.

As Hans sets his sights on Bollywood for his next venture, the industry awaits with bated breath to see how he will bring his signature style to the big screen. With a track record of delivering visual masterpieces that resonate with audiences on a profound level, theres no doubt that his Bollywood debut will be nothing short of spectacular.
Southwest Airlines has announced that it will be cutting back on flights to some airports and pulling out of a few others. The reason for this is a disappointing financial start to 2024 and delays in receiving new planes.

Despite the airline's overall entrenchment, it will continue to serve Central Mississippi and Jackson's Medgar Wiley Evers Airport. And while many markets that lost service had declining numbers of passengers, Jackson is one of the few markets where Southwest's performance has steadily increased in recent years.

Beginning in June, Southwest will reduce its daily flights in Jackson to four. However, it is maintaining service to all current markets of Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Houston, and Orlando. This adjustment represents a change from their usual five to seven daily flights.

Renovations to airport: JMAA to use an $8 million grant on infrastructure improvements. See the projects

Funding for airport: Aging Jackson airport receives an $8 million federal grant to upgrade equipment

Southwest passenger traffic in Jackson for calendar year 2023 was 3.7% above their 2022 results, according to Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, but JMAA didn't provide exact numbers for the first quarter.

"For the first quarter of calendar year 2024, their performance is consistent with all the other air carriers in the Jackson marketplace," Airport Director of Communications LSherie Dean said in a statement to the Clarion Ledger. "SWA leadership has shared with leaders at the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority their commitment to the JAN marketplace. The fact that they will remain in the Jackson market during challenging times is quite a positive for our community, in light."

Airlines add and delete flight frequencies throughout the year, demonstrating the natural ebb and flow of the industry, she said.

"We are very proud to have SWA as a valued partner at JAN," Dean said.

The Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport is the busiest airport in Mississippi, located in Jackson, Miss., seen on Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2024.

Southwest has increased its passenger traffic every year since its return to Jackson in 2021 after a seven-year layoff.

Dean said JMAA did not have the information to compare Jackson with other markets Southwest serves and what the average load service would be for all of the markets.

The airline's departure in 2014 after 17 years of service also dealt a blow to the Jackson airport, as it provided 27% of available seats out of Jackson at the time, according to a Jackson State University study.

What airports is Southwest cutting?

Southwest said it will end service at four airports:

Bellingham International Airport in Bellingham, Washington.

Cozumel International Airport in Cozumel, Mexico.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. (Southwest will continue to fly to Houston Hobby)

Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York.

Story continues

Why is Southwest Airlines cutting flights and airports?

Bob Jordan, Southwest's CEO, said in the earnings call that the airline posted a net loss of $231 million in the first three months of 2024, despite record operating revenues. A net loss is when a company's expenses are higher than its income.

Southwest also expects to fly fewer planes than it planned because of Boeing's delays in delivering new aircraft. He said the delays present "significant challenges for 2024 and 2025." For instance, he now expects Boeing to deliver about 20 737-8 planes in 2024; the airline previously expected 46 planes.

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why did Southwest Airlines cut flights in Jackson MS?
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that 97.76 per cent of the Rs 2,000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, when their withdrawal was announced, have now been returned.

"The total value of Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation, which was Rs 3.56 lakh crore at the close of business on May 19, 2023, when the withdrawal of Rs 2000 banknotes was announced, has declined to Rs 7961 crore at the close of business on April 30, 2024. Thus, 97.76% of the Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned."

The Rs 2000 banknotes continue to be legal tender.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced the withdrawal of Rs 2000 denomination banknotes from circulation vide Press Release 2023-2024/257 dated May 19, 2023. The status of withdrawal of Rs 2000 banknotes is periodically published by the RBI. The last press release in this regard was published on April 01, 2024.

The facility for deposit and / or exchange of the Rs 2000 banknotes was available at all bank branches in the country upto October 07, 2023.

The facility for exchange of the Rs 2000 banknotes is available at the 19 Issue Offices of the Reserve Bank (RBI Issue Offices)1 since May 19, 2023. From October 09, 2023, RBI Issue Offices are also accepting 2000 banknotes from individuals / entities for deposit into their bank accounts. Further, members of the public are sending 2000 banknotes through India Post from any post office within the country, to any of the RBI Issue Offices for credit to their bank accounts.
Canadian police have arrested members of an alleged hit squad assigned by the Indian government to kill Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, according to a Canadian media report on Friday. The relationship between India and Canada deteriorated significantly after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of "potential" involvement in Nijjar's death in September of last year. Trudeau's charges were rejected as "absurd" in New Delhi. According to sources close to the investigation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that police are actively investigating potential links to three additional murders in Canada, including the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in Edmonton.

Members of the hit squad played various roles on the day Nijjar was killed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, including shooters, drivers, and spotters, news agency PTI cited sources as saying. The men were apprehended Friday during police raids in at least two provinces.



According to sources, investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada several months ago and have been monitoring them closely. Police are expected to announce the arrests and provide some details about their investigation later Friday, according to the report.



Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, was fatally shot on June 18 at his Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, shortly after evening prayers. India rejected Prime Minister Trudeau's latest remarks on the killing of Nijjar on Thursday, saying they once again demonstrated Canada's political space for separatism, extremism, and violence.



Trudeau spoke at a Khalsa Day event in Toronto on Sunday, which was attended by some pro-Khalistan supporters.



On the sidelines of the event, he told the media that the killing of Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year created a "problem" that he couldn't ignore, in an apparent reference to his previous allegations of Indian agents' involvement in the assassination.

India dismissed Prime Minister Trudeau's most recent comments regarding the killing of Nijjar on Thursday, claiming they furthered the political space in Canada for violence, extremism, and separatism. Some pro-Khalistan supporters were present when Trudeau spoke on Sunday during a Khalsa Day celebration in Toronto.



In apparent reference to his earlier claims of Indian agents being involved in the assassination, he told the media on the fringes of the event that the death of Nijjar in British Columbia in June of last year created a "problem" that he couldn't ignore.

India requested that Ottawa reduce its diplomatic presence in the nation to maintain parity a few days after Trudeau's accusations. Canada then removed 41 diplomats from India along with their families.



India has maintained that the space given to separatists, terrorists, and anti-India elements in Canada is still its "core issue" with that country. In response to Trudeau's accusations from the previous year, India temporarily stopped issuing visas to citizens of Canada. A few weeks later, the visa services were once again offered.


In this podcast, Motley Fool host Dylan Lewis and analyst Mason Moser talk about Tesla's down results and up market reaction, how Boeing's backlog insulates it from short-term delivery hiccups, and why Visa's results are boring...and that's A-OK.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

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When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for two decades, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has more than tripled the market.*

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This video was recorded on April 24, 2024.

Dylan Lewis: We're hitting Boeing earnings and Boring earnings. Buckle up. Motley Fool Money starts now. I'm Dylan Lewis, and I'm joined over the airwaves by Motley Fool Analyst Jason Moser. Jason, thanks for joining me.

Jason Moser: Hey. Happy to be here. Thanks.

Dylan Lewis: We've got all earnings today on the pod. We're going to be rolling up our sleeves and digging in results from Tesla, Visa and Boeing. Jason, three companies facing very different situations, why don't we kick things off with Tesla? Maybe a bit of a surprising market reaction given the results revenue and earnings both down year-over-year, both missed expectations, shares up 10%. Help me walk through that.

Jason Moser: Well, investing just makes so much sense. It's always a bit confounding sometimes the reactions and it's worth remembering too I mean me Tesla has had a very difficult year to this point, so it's a nice little bounce from what has been otherwise underperformance, but to me when I looked at the results and I saw the reaction from the market, Tesla has always been one of the most forward-looking ideas in regard to stock performance that I can recall seeing at least in that. It gets a lot of credit because it's doing something so bold in something so new and when you dig a little bit further in you think about Elon Musk and how he runs this company. On the one hand in critics will argue that he has a million big ideas in Tesla alone. Just with a one-company and Tesla and it flows. Remember he does a million other things it seems like but within Tesla, he's got a million big ideas it feels like. On the other hand, maybe they don't all succeed but if a couple do, then that can be a really big deal. I understand both perspectives there. It was not a good quarter when you look at the way that the business performed. This is a car company still at the end of the day. Much like Apple is an iPhone company, Tesla is a car company today. When you look at the negatives, they called out in the report specifically regarding profitability and the operating margin, there are reasons to at least be a little bit concerned in the near term. They talked about reduced vehicle selling prices, they talked about increases in operating expenses. Now a lot of that was guided by investments conscious in purposeful investments in AI as well as other R&D projects, battery cell advances, whatnot. There's the cost of the cyber truck rant, and there is a decline, unfortunately in vehicle deliveries. All of that tells you that maybe they are hitting a little bit of a trough in regard to the core business itself. But again, I go back to this notion that with Tesla, it's less about the fundamentals of the business. I think most bulls, look at this from a longer-term perspective. Whether that's right or wrong, time will tell there. But again, it feels like they're doing the right things based on Musk's grand vision. It's just a matter of whether that grand vision actually plays out.

Dylan Lewis: I think Musk would be happy to hear you say that based on comments he made in the call. I think that the direct quote here is, "If you value Tesla as just an auto company, it's just the wrong framework. If someone doesn't believe that Tesla will solve autonomy, they should not be an investor in this company." That is the duality of this business right now. This is what they do, but also this is where they're going. I felt like listening to the conference call, Musk spent a lot of time on where they are going and I think we tend to see more of that when the core business is struggling a little bit. In this call Jason, we had a lot of commentary on full self-driving. We also heard about them unveiling their robotaxi ambitions on August 8th later this summer, which I think is something that hopefully builds some of that enthusiasm because when things are not going well on the delivery side, they do need it.

Jason Moser: I think you're right. Going back to what we were talking about at the beginning there. One thing I think is always worth remembering, and it's not to say this is the standard, but remember, the market gave Jeff Bezos and Amazon a lot of leash in the early days. There are people banging their heads against the wall wondering how the stock could perform so well for a business that for all intents and purposes, made no money. Right now, Tesla obviously makes money but you think about the challenges the business is dealing with and going back to that trough notion, in regard to demand for EVs, you have to look at the bigger picture. I understand why Musk does that. I think this is an idea that very much depends on the narratives, the bigger picture goals that Musk has and mine. I talked about Tesla being a car company and most folks who are on the Boeish side of this would argue that Tesla is much more than just a car company. There's something to that. If you look at some of the numbers, energy generation and storage was up 7%, services up another 25%. It was interesting to me that he got on board with this. We're going to start talking about introducing this lower-cost vehicle. The robotaxi or cyber cab as he calls it. It's a big deal, got to give it a clever name. Cyber cab it changes everything. Those are all absolute catalysts that can play out for this business. I think it's a matter of two things. Number 1, if you believe those things will actually come to fruition and then Number 2, the timeline. Because when you think about the cyber cab for example, I understand the logic behind that. Now, will that actually work? Is that the direction in which we're headed? I don't know yet. I feel maybe we could get there. I think it's probably going to take a little bit longer than people are hoping for. The other point in regard to the lower-cost vehicles, I appreciate that as well. We've seen them having to cut prices in order to stock demand. That makes a lot of sense but by the same token, you start wondering in regard to EVs where we are in this EV transition. I think most of us would agree that eventually we're headed toward that EV future. Again, it depends on how long it takes us to get there. I don't know in the near-term that developing the new lower-cost EV is necessarily the immediate answer. We've had a lot of early adopters. There's a lot of people who have jumped on it and they're all in. But there are most folks out there who are still on the fence or not really sure if that's what they want to do. A lot of focus today on hybrids, for example. You know that old saying, get to learn how to walk before you can run. Maybe that EV is running to hybrids walking. I look at myself, for example, I talk to my kids, their friends, and a lot of them think, well, that's where things are going but maybe they're not there yet. Again, I think a lot of this boils down to just timeline. I like the decisions. It seems to me that as investors in the business, you need to be probably taking a little bit of a longer view on this one.

Dylan Lewis: If you are looking into the timeline for that lower-priced model, it will apparently go into production in late 2025. You're right, Jason. I mean, when we talk Tesla, generally, we have to focus on the headline and not the details when it comes to some of these ambitions because they are loose with timelines and loose with delivery dates. But I saw that lower-priced announcement and thought, this might be the company looking to answer some of the criticisms over BYD and China and the focus on other EV companies coming in producing lower cost, cheaper products, especially in some of the big markets that they operate in and are really banking on for future growth.

Jason Moser: Price plays a huge role in this. If you go years back, the very first EVs were not the most affordable options in the world. Tesla, for example, started out at the very high end and they've started to work their way back down. I think that's worked to an extent, they've created that interest and we've been able to see the adoption to an extent at least of EVs. But again, you have to ask yourself that question of like, have we hit that stage where the early adopters are in? Now the people who are on the fence, isn't going to take a little bit more time. The time is only going to tell there. But when you look at the near term, the numbers don't bode well. Total deliveries down from a year ago, margins getting hammered. Now, a lot of the reasons for that margin pressure was investment in the business. I go back to that Amazon example because that's really what Amazon had done all throughout its early days. It was just taking the money it was making and reinvesting back in the business. So I certainly wouldn't hold that against Musk doing that for Tesla as well. I think it's the right thing to do. But you start looking at inventory numbers, it was up from 15 days worth of sales a year ago to something like 28 days now. Clearly, demand is not there but I also would not look at that today and say, well, that's just the way it's going to be forever. We've got the hype cycle. We see these things that they have in flow. I think with Tesla, that won't be any different. Again, it's really a matter of time.

Dylan Lewis: All right. Over to another company that's in the process of working through it a bit too, Boeing. Jason, this is a highly anticipated release. The question really on everyone's mind with this company is, they've had to refocus their manufacturing process. They've had to focus on quality control for their commercial airlines. How does the slowdown in deliveries that comes with that show up in the financials and what investors are looking at? What did you see in the results?

Jason Moser: Well, this wasn't a surprising release and it's not a surprising reaction from the market. I think the bad news has been out for a while. So for Boeing, I think much of this all boils down to a couple of big questions is, when are they going to be able to recover from this production problem? These plane issues. Then furthermore, we know that there's a leadership question in this company that needs to be answered, that hasn't been answered yet. I think those are the two big questions with the business looking forward. When you have a market like this, it's really dominated by two primary companies. I know there are other producers out there but you look at Boeing and Airbus because they're the two companies that are really guiding this market, so to speak. Maybe this is one of those situations where Boeing is running into some unforced errors, some things that they did wrong and it sounds like these are problems that have existed for a while and built up over time. Hopefully, leadership can take care of that. A change in leadership often can but that's not to say it necessarily will. When you look at the actual performance in total revenue, down eight percent.

Jason Moser: When you consider the headlines we've been reading over the last several weeks, that doesn't sound all that bad. Obviously profitability has fallen off a cliff but the backlog is $529 billion is versus $411 billion a year ago and it does feel like if they can ride this ship here, they can get these problems solved, things will improve but again, this is a business obviously going through a very difficult time.

Dylan Lewis: You mentioned the backlog there and I think zooming in on the commercial airplanes segment for Boeing, there was large drops there. We saw a 30% revenue drop versus about 8% overall for the business. They need to get their manufacturing right but I've wondered, this has been about as bad as it can get for a business given what they do and yet that backlog is so tremendous. How disruptive can this be to this company? Because it seems like there's a lot of insulation there.

Jason Moser: Well, I think there isn't. Part of that is just the market dynamics. You get two companies that really control such a broad and large part of the market. We often talk about competitors in the businesses that we cover. The costs, the barriers to entry in regard to a business like this are so high. There's so much capital, there's so much technological prowess that comes with it. It's just not an easy business to replicate and so if this is a situation where the business is recovering from some unforced errors, then I can see a future where things get a lot better and when we probably look back and my inclination is to believe we look back at this point in time and think that this was probably a great time to look at buying Boeing. If that's something you're interested in because it's hard for me to see this business actually falling off a cliff. Cash burn, we talked a lot about cash burn over the past several weeks with a business like this and they burned what, $4 billion in the first quarter. That was a little bit better than what the estimates were. But when you look at the company's balance sheet, cash, and investments in marketable securities still total 7.5 billion right now that's down, I think from 16 billion at the beginning of the quarter. They've obviously had to deal with some serious issues but this is a business, they have a lot of financial resources, a lot of options, a lot of ways to raise capital in the near term, to take care of those near term issues. It all boils down to making sure they get the right leadership in place to fix the problems that have built up over the course of time and just to really make sure that this type of thing doesn't happen again.

Dylan Lewis: If you're focusing on the cash side of things, CEO Dave Calhoun noted that the company is continuing its commitment to a $10 billion annual free cash flow target by the 25,26 period and Jason, you noted the cash burn their second ago. How do you take a goal like that, that is being touted by a current CEO, knowing that there's going to be a different leadership regime sometime soon and we don't have a lot of details yet on who that is?

Jason Moser: Yes. If the current CEO were to stay in place, then I would probably take that $10 billion target and cut it by a third, at least. With new leadership coming in, I think you have to throw it out the window and it's not to say that they can't get there, they certainly could. That remains to be seen. But it's all to say that with new leadership, that new leadership may have completely different priorities in place and really all that depends on who is occupying that CEO seat when that seat is filled. It's very difficult to look at a business like this and look at those longer term targets and really hold a lot of faith in them simply because that may not necessarily be the priority or the targets that new leadership has when they step in, and that could very well be the right thing for the business given the challenges that they're witnessing today.

Dylan Lewis: Putting a bow on our earnings run down. We're going to check in on Visa and the state of the consumer. Jason, a lot of intrigue with the results from Boeing and Tesla. Worse so when we look at Visa, their CFO basically said in an interview with MarketWatch, hey, this is going to sound boring but things are looking pretty good.

Jason Moser: Boring. [laughs] You hit the nail on the head there. Visa is one of those companies that just quarter in and quarter out you've learned you don't expect a lot, you don't expect a little. It's just a status quo with a business like this for the most part and that's actually the reason why you own a company like this to begin with. They have done a very good job, I think over the course of the last several years. Maintaining a strong position in the payment space as the payment space has been up-ended with all different options, alternatives, fintechs, new ways of doing things. Visa and you look at MasterCard, I think is another good example as well. But these are companies that have done a very good job of finding a new place in the value chain as that value chain evolves and I think that really comes back to just the power of those networks. It goes to speak for how important a big network like that really is. When I talk about a big network, Visa is now it's a company with 4.4 billion cards out there, that's up from 4.2 billion cards just a year ago. It's a company that continues to grow its presence, obviously has a tremendous brand. The beauty of it is it's oftentimes, it's something as consumers we don't even think about. We develop a financial relationship with whatever bank or whatever payment service we prefer and then we get a card and we use that card to spend. Whether that's a MasterCard or a Visa, a lot of people don't care. They just get whatever their bank gives them and so I think these companies benefit from that and thankfully they ultimately benefit from us spending money. No matter what money has got to get from point A to point B all throughout the day, all around the world and the market opportunity for a company like Visa, they referred to this in the call their 2022 data showed that personal consumption expenditures, excluding Russia and China was approximately $40 trillion. Now within that 40 trillion, they see their addressable opportunity at $20 trillion. Hey, listen that looks like a pretty decent opportunity for me. For a market where it's very difficult for me to, like we've talked about Starbucks and it seems like it's going to be very difficult to disrupt coffee. It's going to be very difficult to disrupt the fact that money needs to move from point A to point B and it just turns out that Visa is a company that does it really well.

Dylan Lewis: No concerns with Visa, the business, strong growth and strong profitability trends. Seems like as the consumer spends, they continue to enjoy. But I want to dig into the consumer spending side of things and some of the trends there because,.

Jason Moser: Sure.

Dylan Lewis: One of the things I enjoy with a business like this, is not only do we get this backwards, look at the quarter when they are talking about their forecasts. They're talking about both the business forecasts and generally, consumer spend forecasts and what they're expecting and when we got commentary from management, they reiterated that guidance. They're not worried about anything for the rest of the year.

Jason Moser: No. they're not. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact they've done such a good job over the last several years of diversifying the business. It's not just a business anymore, or what we're thinking about the Visa that you or I might have in our wallet. They've diversified their revenue streams well beyond just payments into all of these little subcategories of payments. Whether it's cross-border payment and that was up 16% for the quarter. You talk about new flows, that new flows we're talking about things like business-to-consumer. One of the bigger opportunities they see that the government to consumer and then they're very excited about the government payment side of the business. That was up 14% for the year and so when we talk about payments volume being up 8%, it's worth breaking out exactly what makes up all of that payments volume because it's not just us swiping our Visa card anymore. There's so much more to it between the cross-border, the new flows and you're talking about value add, things like security data analytics, risk management. That value-add revenue was up 23% and you couple that altogether with the fact that they continue to grow that network and going back to that 4.4 billion number of total cards that I referenced earlier. You can see it just takes a little bit. Everybody using that card just a little bit one way or another, using that network just a little bit one way or the other. It really adds up and it sure seems like Visa continues to really maintain a strong position in the payment space.

Dylan Lewis: Strong report. Anything that jumped out to you as a concern or little wrinkle just give how steady everything seems, Jason?

Jason Moser: I don't think there were any concerns. I thought it was very encouraging to hear they reaffirmed their guidance for the year, talking about net revenue and operating expenses growing in that low double digits with earnings per share growing in the low teens. Neat thing about this business, they always do a very good job of repurchasing shares along with rewarding shareholders for dividends. I am a shareholder of Visa, I appreciate the share repurchases. I would love to see them really bump that dividend up to a little bit more of a meaningful number. That'll come in time and I think they'll just do it slowly and methodically. It's part of the business model, it's just share repurchases and dividends. One thing to be maybe note they did ratchet down the total payment volume growth just a little bit. They adjusted down to high single digits from low double digits. I don't know if that's something I would be terribly concerned with but it's probably something just to keep in mind.

Dylan Lewis: Here I am looking for drama and you're saying everything is fine, don't worry about it.

Jason Moser: [laughs] Try to keep the status quo there.

Dylan Lewis: Jason, you are far from boring. Always love having you on the show with me. Thanks for joining me.

Jason Moser: Thanks so much. It's a pleasure being here.

Dylan Lewis: Listeners, we're in the heart of earnings so no second segment today on the show. Same for tomorrow when my colleague, Deidre Woollard will kick off the big tech updates. Let us know what you think of trying something different during these big earnings weeks, you can reach us at podcasts@fool.com. As always, people on the program may own stocks mentioned and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. I'm Dylan Lewis, thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Dylan Lewis has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Jason Moser has positions in Amazon, Apple, Mastercard, Starbucks, and Visa. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Mastercard, Starbucks, Tesla, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2025 $370 calls on Mastercard and short January 2025 $380 calls on Mastercard. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Tesla, Boeing, Visa: Big Names Worth Talking About was originally published by The Motley Fool
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP)  Three anti-wind power groups are suing New Jersey to overturn a key environmental approval for a wind energy farm planned off the coast of Long Beach Island.

Save Long Beach Island, Defend Brigantine Beach and Protect Our Coast NJ filed suit in appellate court on April 26 challenging a determination by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that the Atlantic Shores wind farm project meets the requirements of a federal coastal protection law.

Atlantic Shores is one of three proposed wind farms off New Jersey's coast that have preliminary approval.

Bruce Afran, an attorney for the groups, said the state's approval flies in the face of the federal regulators environmental impact statement that says the Atlantic Shores project will damage marine habitat, compress and harden the seafloor, damage marine communities, compromise migration corridors for endangered species, and cause commercial fishing stocks to decline.

The same three groups challenged a wind farm proposed by the Danish wind energy company Orsted, which scrapped the project in October.

The lawsuit was the latest obstacle facing New Jersey's quest to become the East Coast leader in offshore wind. These three groups are among the most vocal and litigious opponents of offshore wind projects.

The New Jersey attorney general's office declined comment on the pending litigation, and Atlantic Shores did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

But Joshua Henne, a political strategist advising several groups fighting climate change, accused the anti-wind groups of acting in league with the fossil fuel industry.

There aint nothing grassroots about this effort, he said. "It's astroturf, seeded by the fossil fuel industry."

Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast, rejected that claim.

We have never taken one penny from any entity linked to the fossil fuel industry, he said. Not one.

Up until a year ago, the group used the Caesar Rodney Institute to hold its money. The Delaware-based group is part of a group of think tanks supporting and funded by fossil fuel interests, according to the Energy and Policy Institute.

Caesar Rodney charged Protect Our Coast a 12% fee to hold its money, Shaffer said, adding his group currently has no relationship with the institute.

He also noted that one of the owners of Atlantic Shores is an affiliate of Shell, the global oil and gas company.

Shaffer said state and federal officials are racing to approve offshore wind projects without adequately considering potential negative impacts.

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Its as if they are building an airplane while its in the air, only they have no idea where the plane is headed, or if it can be landed safely, he said.

Jason Ryan, a spokesman for the American Clean Power Association, said the current slate of offshore wind projects is "among the most carefully planned and analyzed infrastructure projects in U.S. history; we are confident their permits will withstand legal scrutiny.

Earlier this week, New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities opened a fourth round of solicitations for additional offshore wind projects.

The state has set a goal of generating 100% of its power from clean sources by 2035.

___

Follow Wayne Parry on X, formerly Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
The independent accounting firm for Trump Media & Technology Group has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with substantial fraud.

BF Borgers faces allegations that they were running a sham audit mill, the SEC said in a statement on Friday.

No allegations of wrongdoing against Trump Media, the owner of Truth Social, were put forward by the commission.

The SEC alleges that Colorado-based firm committed deliberate and systemic failures, such as fabricating audit documents and falsely telling clients that their work was compliant with accounting standards.

The commission alleges that massive fraud occurred between January 2021 and June last year. Its alleged to have impacted 1,500 SEC filings and upwards of 500 public companies.

The Director of the SECs Division of Enforcement, Gurbir Grewal, said in a statement that Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets.

As a result of their fraudulent conduct, they not only put investors and markets at risk by causing public companies to incorporate non-compliant audits and reviews into more than 1,500 filings with the Commission but also undermined trust and confidence in our markets, he added.

In order to settle the charges, the firm has agreed to pay a penalty of $12m and Mr Borgers agreed to pay a penalty of $2m.

Both the firm and Mr Borgers agreed to permanent suspensions from appearing before the commission.

Because investors rely on the audited financial statements of public companies when making their investment decisions, the accountants and accounting firms that audit those statements play a critical role in our financial markets, Mr Grewal, a former New Jersey attorney general, said. Borgers and his firm completely abandoned that role, but thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.

The order from the SEC also found that the firm didnt properly supervise and review its audits.

Without admitting or denying the SECs findings as to each of them, BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers both consented to an order, effective immediately, pursuant to which they are ordered to pay civil penalties and are denied the privilege of appearing or practicing before the Commission as an accountant, the SEC said in its statement.

In another statement on Friday, the SEC told companies that they would have to find new accounting firms.

Trump Media looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with todays SEC order, Trump Media spokesperson Shannon Devine told The Independent.

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Filings show that Borgers was Trump Medias independent accounting firm before it went public in March. Later that same month, the Trump Media audit committee gave the green light to hiring Borgers as the accounting firm for the now-public company.

The Independent has contacted BF Borgers for comment.

Former President Donald Trump is the chair and majority owner of Trump Media, and while the group received a $9bn valuation on Wall Street, it doesnt create much revenue. Truth Social also remains a small platform among other social media apps.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  As the weather warms up, East Lansing and Lansing city and business officials are working to keep their respective downtowns busy.

Music, lawn games, and giveaways kicked off the return of Albert El Fresco Thursday evening in the Spartan country. The closed portion of Albert Avenue in East Lansing has been a part of the citys playbook to draw in business to downtown when many Michigan State University students are back home for the summer.

Thats a customer base many restaurants and stores on the avenue depend on. But shutting down part of Albert Avenue keeps the area busy.

Albert Ave. in Downtown East Lansing becomes a summer playground. (WLNS)

We can have a place that brings people downtown, brings foot traffic to our businesses, and keeps this community as vibrant as we know it all is, said East Lansing community and economic development specialist Matt Apostle.

He says business owners have said the plaza not only helps with brand awareness and brings in potential customers.

It also financially beneficial to them, increases the foot traffic and brings people to their doors, Apostle says. We have gotten great feedback from businesses on this updated layout.

Nearly five miles away, Downtown Lansing is undergoing a transformation and transition says Cathleen Edgerly, the executive director for Downtown Lansing Inc. While the city might not have its own Albert El Fresco, Edgerly says new businesses and more housing are creating long-term growth.

It definitely helped add to the economic vibrancy of the downtown district and help cultivate changing business model and changing open hours for downtown if you will, she said.

Edgerly says weekend events and venues like Grewal Hall will support that momentum.

While the citys transit and major roads are an obstacle for long-term street closures, she says its not out of the realm of possibility to find ways to activate streets like in East Lansing.

Edgerly says theres a lot to look forward to in downtowns future.

We invite everyone to come downtown and to support all of your local neighborhoods across the city and the people and places that call it home.

Edgerly says a calendar of events this spring kicks off later this month with the Best of Lansing event on May 18. Fun is expected to go into the fall with the Hispanic Heritage Festival.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
Police in Pakistan are refusing to arrest Muslims who attacked a Catholic family and seized their farm land, and officers also damaged property, sources said.

Shahnaz Yousaf, a resident of Chak 694/36 GB village in Toba Tek Singh District, Punjab Province, said that dozens of armed Muslims led by local landlords Atif Ali, Khawar Ali and Baber Ali attacked her family as they were harvesting their wheat crop on April 16.

Her father, Yousaf Masih, had obtained the 10.6-acre parcel on lease from the government in 1989, and the family has invested much money and work to make it cultivable, Shahnaz Yousaf said. Area Muslims became jealous and began plotting to deprive the family of their livelihood, she said.

The land was their only source of livelihood, but after they were unable to pay the lease amount for some years, in March 2023 a senior revenue official directed them to pay 3.5 million rupees (US$13,000) to retain the land  2.1 million rupees (US$7,300) upfront and the remaining amount in installments, she said.

It was not easy to gather such a big amount on such short notice, yet we sold all our valuable possessions to pay the lease amount within the given deadline, Yousaf said.

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Months passed without any issue, but in November her brothers learned that the landlords had persuaded the local assistant commissioner to include their parcel in an auction. The family filed an injunction order against the proposed auction with the Lahore High Court, which it granted.

Despite the courts order, the assistant commissioner leased the land in the name of Atif Ali, the son of Babar Ali, Yousaf said. We came to know of this shadowy auction a week later when police and revenue department officials arrived on the site and destroyed the fodder that we had cultivated for our cattle. We pleaded with them to stop and even showed them the courts order, but they refused to listen to us.

The family filed a complaint in the commissioners office the same day, and he permitted them to continue cultivating the land, she said.

During this time, we were continuously harassed and threatened by police officials and henchmen of the landlords to vacate the land, Yousaf said.

On Feb. 6, two days before general elections, the Muslims again threatened her brother, Ashraf Yousaf, she said.

He immediately called the police helpline, but we were shocked when a police team, instead of arresting the perpetrators, stormed our house and damaged household items, Shahnaz Yousaf, in tears, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. They took me to the police station and kept me in illegal detention for more than two hours.

Shahnaz said that the police told her brothers she would be freed only after they agreed to vacate the land.

I was finally allowed to go home after the village headman intervened on our behalf, she said.

Ashraf Yousaf said the Muslims continued to intimidate and harass the family, filing fake cases against them and damaging their crops.

We have no experience of legal matters, as we only focused on our agricultural work and never got involved in fights with others, he said. But in the last few months, we have realized that we are not equals in the eyes of the law.

Ashraf Yousaf said that he was working in the fields on April 16 when the Muslims arrived in groups. They were armed with guns, batons and other weapons and had also brought along a wheat-harvesting machine, he said.

When I tried to stop them, reminding them of the courts stay order, they attacked me and started hitting me with their guns and batons, Ashraf Yousaf said. Seeing the commotion, my two brothers and both sisters ran towards me to save me from the attack, but the attackers targeted them as well, resulting in several bone fractures and other injuries to all of us.

They also seized his sisters mobile phone as she was trying to record the assault and tore her clothes, he said.

The assailants fled before a police team arrived, he said. Officers told them to get medical treatment for their injuries and go to the police station, where they would also call the other party to settle the matter.

However, when we went to the town for medical treatment, the Muslims returned to the fields, harvested our wheat crop and stole the entire produce, Ashraf Yousaf said. When we reached the police station and told them what had happened in our absence, the officer on duty refused to register our complaint and said that our plight will end only when we surrender to the demand of the Muslim landowners.

The family also faced several difficulties in obtaining their medico-legal reports from the local government hospital.

It seems that the entire system is working against us, he said. After much efforts and pleading, we finally got our medical reports, but the police delayed the registration of an FIR [First Information Report] for 10 days. Our FIR was registered on April 25, but the police made no effort to arrest the accused persons.

Four days later, the Christian family learned that the Muslims had registered a fake case against them, alleging that they had injured someone, he said.

We have lost everything, our livelihood, our money and most of all the hope of getting justice, Ashraf Yousaf said. We are financially drained, as whatever money we were left with is being spent on the treatment of our injuries.

The family has appealed to the Punjab Province chief minister, senior police officials and Christian leaders to intervene and address their legitimate grievances, he said.

We are weak and helpless people, but the local police are siding with the influential accused instead of supporting us, Ashraf Yousaf said. We desperately need help and support from our Christian leadership, as theres no one else we can turn to in this very difficult time.

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.
The Colorado Supreme Court indicated in recent weeks that it may intervene in two criminal cases to decide whether a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor in county court is entitled to halt his sentence while he appeals, and whether prosecutors established probable cause of another defendant's child abuse charge.
The state owes Colorado residents $67 million in tax refunds that should have been paid out years earlier, a costly mistake lawmakers are now working to fix, having discovered the problem after the governor has already signed the next fiscal years spending plan.

Lawmakers said they only learned about the problem a few days ago and theyre frustrated with the state controller, who made the error, and other officials who didnt raise the issue as they were crafting the state budget.

The legislators are now exploring two solutions, one of which effectively rolls the dice with the hope that some of the spending would come in below budget, freeing up some money to pay for the costly mistake.

Gov. Jared Polis signed the state's $40.6 billion budget on Monday. Lawmakers often joke that the day the governor signs the budget, it would no longer be balanced as the state constitution requires.

But the mistake lawmakers just uncovered means the budget they passed was never balanced to begin with.

The mistake arose out of an interpretation on funding for the state's reinsurance program.

The state's annual financial audit  dated June 30, 2023, and published in February  actually discussed the problem, which started with legislation passed in 2020. Senate Bill 215 created the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, which pays for the state's reinsurance program. That's the kind of insurance for insurance companies to cover those extraordinarily large health insurance claims  consider $1 million or more  using fees paid to the state and placed into an "enterprise."

An "enterprise" is a type of state-run business and the revenue that goes into that enterprise, which is paid for by insurance companies, is outside of TABOR revenue calculations.

However, other revenues go into the enterprise and that caused the problem that Joint Budget Committee members have been dealing with since last Friday.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Weld County, the panel's ranking Republican, said she is annoyed that nobody  the Division of Insurance, which runs the enterprise, the state controller or the state auditor  flagged the JBC that this looming problem was about to hit the state budget.

Kirkmeyer said someone knew about the problem as early as last October, when the audit was being put together.

She said she was told some of the delay was due to the auditor seeking the opinion of the Colorado attorney general, but that nobody bothered to raise a red flag in the meantime.

"That's ridiculous," she said.

Here's how the problem arose.

Since 1913, the state has collected a premium tax from insurance companies, calculated on the gross amount of all insurance premiums collected. In 2023, that was $533 million, the audit said. SB 215 directed a portion of those premium taxes into the enterprise fund for the reinsurance program  between $9 million and $17 million per year for the past five years, a total of $66.9 million.

According to an April 26 memo from JBC analyst Eric Kurtz, the state controller treated the premium taxes transferred to the fund as exempt from TABOR.

However, the state auditor and the attorney general recently agreed that the money should have counted as TABOR revenue and would count toward TABOR surplus calculations.

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That means taxpayers are, in fact, in line for about $66.9 million in TABOR refunds.

That money will have to be paid to Coloradans next year.

The problem is where to get the $33.9 million to pay the TABOR refund owed from those premium tax payments in the program's first three years.

An April 29 communication from JBC Director Craig Harper shows that it could come from the state's general fund reserve.

But that would put the state reserve $30 million below the 15% requirement for 2024-2025.

And that doesn't sit well with Kirkmeyer.

"I'm a no," she said on Thursday. "I was told during (last November's) special session that using reserves for things like this, for backfilling local governments, was fiscally irresponsible. Well, to use it to backfill a state auditor's mistake or a state controller's mistake or a (Division of Insurance's) mistake is fiscally irresponsible, as well."

Kirkmeyer said she believes the answer to why the JBC wasn't notified about the problem until April 26 should come from the state controller or the Division of Insurance. Kirkmeyer speculated there would have been conversations between the controller, the auditor and the Division of Insurance going back to last year.

And all that took place before the audit came out in February, she said.

Fortunately, the JBC found out before the session ends next week, so while time is short, there is enough time to push through a bill to fix the problem, lawmakers said.

The first solution is to halt the premium tax transfer, the approach in House Bill 1470, which was introduced Wednesday night and flew through House Appropriations on a unanimous vote on Thursday morning. It is now awaiting debate in the full House.

That proposed solution will cover $33 million for 2023-24 and 2024-25 by requiring those transfers to be returned to the general fund and then made available for TABOR refunds.

But that still means lawmakers need to find another $33.9 million to cover the first three years of those transfers, which also must be refunded.

Harper told the JBC Wednesday it would be difficult to find a spending area to cut, given the amount needed.

However, the problem might resolve itself through the June revenue forecast, and on this, the JBC appears willing to roll the dice. Harper said virtually every general fund line item, except for what's contained in the state budget, would change with that forecast.

That could leave room for the state's general fund revenues to cover the last $33.9 million.

JBC chair Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, said these "reversions" mean funds could be returned to the state by the end of the fiscal year because of higher-than-necessary estimates in some spending areas, such as Medicaid enrollments. In fact, such reversions in Medicaid have happened in the past.

Bird said she is also OK with tapping the general fund reserve in the meantime, which doesn't require any action but would at least cover $33.9 million.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from gun rights advocates to block a recent Colorado law prohibiting the possession and transport of certain firearm components not imprinted with a serial number  known as "ghost guns."

To address the proliferation of guns privately assembled from kits or 3-D printers, the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 279 last year, making it a misdemeanor to possess ghost guns unless the owner obtains a serial number from a licensed firearm dealer and the dealer performs a background check. Multiple violations of the law are felony offenses.

On Jan. 1, the National Association for Gun Rights and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners sued to strike down the law under the Second Amendment. Under the recent guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority, they argued the ghost gun ban could not survive constitutional scrutiny.

In a May 2 order, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher declined to issue a preliminary injunction, finding the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge certain aspects of the law. Otherwise, he did not believe SB 279 even implicated the plaintiffs' Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The law "imposes a condition on the commercial sale of a firearm," Gallagher observed. It "does not prevent an individual from buying an unfinished frame or receiver or firearms part kit and in no way infringes upon Plaintiffs right to acquire arms. Rather, the Statute requires the purchaser to have the frame or receiver serialized."

Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who was one of SB 279's sponsors, welcomed the decision.

"No one should be able to produce an unregulated, unserialized gun in their home and basement. Our law says you go to a dealer, get a gun, with a background check, it's serialized," she said. "To undermine our process and federal standards gives license to people who want to do harm and do criminal activity with an unregistered gun. We aren't going to tolerate that."

The plaintiff groups have regularly sought to strike down gun safety laws following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. By 6-3, the court laid down a new legal framework for analyzing the constitutionality of gun regulations broadly, scrapping the government's ability to illustrate how a limitation on Second Amendment rights would advance a compelling public safety goal.

Instead, Bruen requires the government to show a restriction is "consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

"The tradition of at-home gun-making predates this nations founding, extends through the revolution, and reaches modern times," the plaintiffs wrote in their motion for a preliminary injunction. The government, in turn, disputed that private firearm assembly was common in the 18th century.

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Gallagher, an appointee of President Joe Biden, found he did not need to answer whether history and tradition supported the ghost gun ban. In concluding the prohibition did not trigger the Second Amendment, he quoted from the conservative justices who wrote in the Bruen case.

"Our holding decides nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun. Nor does it decide anything about the kinds of weapons that people may possess," wrote Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

"Despite the evolution of the Supreme Courts Second Amendment jurisprudence," Gallagher noted, "the Supreme Court (either in majority holdings or by the individual justices) has consistently reaffirmed that there are constitutional limitations to the Second Amendment."

Gallagher further narrowed the ability of the plaintiffs to challenge certain aspects of the law, based on what he heard during a March hearing. Three members of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners who are also named plaintiffs  Christopher James Hiestand Richardson, Max Edwin Schlosser and John Mark Howard  did not indicate they had the capability of 3-D printing firearm components, meaning that aspect of the law inflicted no injury to them.

Moreover, Gallagher observed a recent federal rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives similarly requires the inclusion of serial numbers on gun parts to facilitate the tracing of firearms used in crimes. That requirement would remain in place even if Colorado's law were to be blocked.

At the same time, Gallagher noted the Supreme Court agreed last week to review whether the ATF has the authority to regulate gun components as "firearms" in a challenge that originated from Texas.

"It is conceivable that, during the next term, the Supreme Court could determine that the ATF exceeded its congressionally delegated authority," Gallagher acknowledged. "As of now, however, the governing federal law renders this claim too speculative."

The attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The case is National Association for Gun Rights et al. v. Polis.

Colorado Politics reporter Marianne Goodland contributed to this article.
The man accused of attempting to kill an El Paso County sheriff's deputy last year was sentenced this week to 35 years in prison, the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced.

Wesley Braden, 32, faced attempted first-degree murder and several other charges when in July 2023 he shot at members of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office who were attempting to serve Braden with a warrant for his arrest, according to previous reporting from The Gazette.

The warrant for Braden's arrest was issued for failing to appear in court after posting bond to be released in two other violent crime cases. According to the release from the District Attorney's Office, Braden had posted two separate $50,000 bonds to be released from custody. One on a case where Braden faced charges of attempted second-degree murder and assault, and the other where he faced charges of aggravated robbery, weapon possession by a previous offender and theft.

While attempting to arrest Braden in July he shot back at the deputies, striking one and causing minor injuries, according to the press release.

Court records show that in April he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted first-degree murder for shooting at an El Paso County deputy, and one count of aggravated robbery in one of the 2022 cases he had previously been out on bond for.

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Braden's third case went to trial in January and he was acquitted on nearly all charges, including attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault with a deadly weapon. Braden was found guilty of one charge in the case, weapon by a previous offender, according to court records.

Court records show Braden was sentenced to 35 years in prison for pleading guilty to attempted first-degree murder, 16 years for felony aggravated robbery and three years for being found guilty of weapon possession by a previous offender. Judge Jill Brady ruled that the three sentences will run concurrently to each other and not consecutively, according to the press release from the District Attorney's Office.

This repeat violent offender continued to escalate his behavior and was able to post bonds set by the court, leaving the community and law enforcement officers vulnerable to his extreme acts of violence, District Attorney Michael Allen said via press release. Im thankful the deputy was not seriously injured or killed, and I am always impressed by our law enforcement personnel, who dedicate their lives to keeping us safe.

Braden's sentence comes with a minimum of five years parole upon his release. Braden will first be eligible for parole in 2040, according to records from the Department of Corrections.
The federal appeals court based in Denver cleared the way on Tuesday for a Biden administration rule requiring outdoor recreation companies to pay their workers, including river guides, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, plus overtime while operating on federal land.

However, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit was divided about the constitutionality of the key federal law underlying the wage rule. The all-Republican panel's disagreement sets the stage for possible intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, where conservative justices have indicated their skepticism about Congress's broad grants of authority to the executive branch.

The Colorado plaintiffs who brought the challenge  Arkansas Valley Adventures and its owner, Duke Bradford  warned the U.S. Department of Labor's minimum wage rule, enacted in response to an executive order from President Joe Biden, would increase their costs and force them to reduce services to the public. But the appellate panel's majority concluded not only that Biden and the department had authority to act, but the stated reasons for paying employees more were valid.

"Thus, even if the rule could plausibly increase costs for the government and the public, enhanced worker productivity and higher quality work  standing alone  are sufficient justifications," wrote Chief Judge Jerome A. Holmes, a George W. Bush appointee, in the April 30 opinion.

Judge Allison H. Eid, a Donald Trump appointee, dissented. In her view, the law Biden relied upon, known for short as the Procurement Act, was unconstitutional. Specifically, the act authorizes presidents to carry out directives for an "economical and efficient system" of procuring and supplying services in the federal government.

"That is it. That is all the (Procurement Act) gives us  no floor of what specific situations must arise, no ceiling on what the President may find economical or efficient to do," she wrote. Congress, in effect, gave the president authority to do "whatever he finds necessary to regulate entire industries in the name of what he believes to be economical and efficient. Such a broad delegation without limits cannot stand."

Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately indicate whether they would seek Supreme Court review on an issue that could affect the entire $700 billion sector for federal contracts.

3 administrations, 3 executive orders

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama used an executive order to establish a minimum hourly wage of $10.10 for workers on federal contracts, relying on his authority under the Procurement Act. Trump, in 2018, issued an executive order carving hunting, river running and related operations on federal lands out of the contractor minimum wage.

Then, in 2021, Biden reversed course with an executive order directing federal agencies to ensure "contracts and contract-like instruments" required companies to pay a $15 minimum wage to workers, including seasonal recreation operations. The Department of Labor published a rule later that year implementing Biden's directive, prompting Bradford and his company to sue.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer declined to issue an injunction, finding the plaintiffs were unlikely to prevail on their challenge to the Biden administration's authority  in particular, because both Trump and Obama had relied on the same law to issue their own wage directives.

The 10th Circuit agreed to temporarily block the department's rule, only for outdoor recreation companies on public lands, while the appeal proceeded. The court received supportive briefs from multiple outside organizations arguing in favor of a higher minimum wage for seasonal workers or else warning that contractors would curtail their hunting or river guide services as a result of the rule.

The Procurement Act "was never intended to give the President a license to regulate the economy to achieve his desired social equity aims by fiat," wrote a collection of Republican-controlled states, led by Arizona.

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The 10th Circuit's majority opinion concluded the executive branch had authority to impose wage conditions on outfitters, as they received permits to provide their services on federal land. Holmes noted the Procurement Act allows presidents to issue orders they consider necessary for an "economical and efficient system" of supplying goods and services  and courts have repeatedly upheld those orders.

"More specifically, the President has determined that he will issue permits  granting access to federal lands for the supply of guided tours  to outfitters that comply with the minimum wage rule, which he deems necessary to carry out the objectives of economy and efficiency. This exercise of proprietary authority is entirely within the bounds of the Presidents authority," wrote Holmes for himself and Senior Judge David M. Ebel, a Ronald Reagan appointee.

The nondelegation doctrine

In her dissent, Eid doubted the legality of the Procurement Act in the first place. Under the "nondelegation doctrine," she explained, Congress must delegate authority to the executive branch that has some guardrails restricting the exercise of power. Although the Supreme Court has only struck down laws twice in the country's history for violating that principle, Eid believed the Procurement Act qualified as the rare, unconstitutional exception.

"Nothing stops the President; he may impose any conditions at any time as long as he considers the conditions necessary," she argued.

Recently, the Supreme Court's Republican-appointed majority has taken steps to limit executive branch authority to issue rules and regulations on subjects from climate change to student loan relief. As one tool, the court has endorsed the "major questions doctrine," which requires Congress to "speak clearly" on issues of economic and political significance in order to authorize executive action.

The 10th Circuit's majority rejected the idea that minimum wages for seasonal workers on public lands was a "major question" significantly affecting the economy, and Eid did not argue otherwise in her dissent.

However, in a 2019 Supreme Court dissenting opinion, Eid's predecessor on the 10th Circuit, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, raised the major questions and nondelegation doctrines in tandem to argue for a more robust approach to striking down laws broadly empowering executive action.

"While its been some time since the Court last held that a statute improperly delegated the legislative power to another branch," Gorsuch wrote for himself and two other justices, "the Court has hardly abandoned the business of policing improper legislative delegations."

Eid quoted Gorsuch's opinion in questioning the authority presidents have to issue orders about government contracting, guided only by what they believe is necessary to maintain efficiency and economy.

"That is not a standard," she concluded.

Representatives from the Department of Labor did not respond to an email seeking comment on the 10th Circuit's decision. An attorney for the plaintiffs called the majority's opinion "dangerous and mistaken."

"As Judge Eids dissent points out, the majoritys reading of the Procurement Act contradicts the Constitution, because it gives the president unlimited unilateral power to 'impose any conditions at any time' on any person or company who holds a federal permit, allowing him to personally commandeer vast portions of the American economy," said lawyer Michael Poon. "We are considering our response."

The case is Bradford et al. v. U.S. Department of Labor et al.
Christian faith motivates believers to seek social justice and live more ecologically sustainable lifestyles, according to a scientific study presented at a StopPoverty (StopArmut) conference in Switzerland.

Findings from the research were presented to 300 attendees at a 20th anniversary of the StopPoverty awareness campaign in Biel, according to a Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA) statement on April 8. The Unit Empirical Economic Research and Sustainable Finance at the YMCA University of Kassel presented the results of the Ge-Na study during the conference with the theme, Does faith make a difference?

It is arguably the first known scientific analysis looking at the link between social justice and ecological sustainability among the sociological target group of religious and highly religious people, according to the SEA.

"I did not expect such a high level of agreement that faith motivates people to work for justice and sustainability, and that the church should get involved here, said Matthieu Dobler Paganoni, the main organizer of the StopPoverty conference. In StopPoverty's awareness-raising work in the churches, we also find that the topic is sometimes rather difficult to address in practice."

The research on behalf of StopPoverty looked at justice and sustainability based on the views of 2,500 people with an average age of 49 in Germany and Switzerland (1,574 in Germany and 782 in German-speaking Switzerland, and 205 French-speaking Swiss).

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The three-year study examined the attitudes and behaviors of practicing Christians towards the importance of social justice and ecological sustainability.

Eric Nussbaumer, a member of the National Council, the lower chamber of the Swiss Parliament, addressed the issues in an opening speech at the event. He acknowledged the issue for Christians of putting knowledge into action with social justice and sustainabilitywhen someones values do not line up with their actions.

"The study shows that many people attach great importance to social justice, Nussbaumer said. Nevertheless, the majority admit that they do not always act accordingly in everyday life. This dichotomy is also evident when it comes to sustainability."

Nussbaumer told the conference that closing the gap between mere knowledge about sustainability and taking practical action can happen partly via financial incentives and new laws. Yet there has been little progress in this regard, he opined.

"Our consumption habits play a role here. It takes energy and willpower to do something about it," Nussbaumer said, and he added that there was still hope for people of faith to to take practical action.

"A gap that is recognized can also be closed. There is no lack of good will, as the survey has shown. I hope that the study will help to close the gap, so that the discrepancy between knowledge and action disappears."

Two questions in the survey received 90 percent approval by respondents: "Does your Christian faith encourage you to work for social justice?" and "Should the Church work for sustainability?"

Half of the study participants showed awareness of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. A third of the respondents could even explain the meaning of the goals.

Tobias Faix, head of the Ge-Na study and professor of practical theology, called the figure well above the comparable figure for the Swiss population.

Meanwhile, concerns about climate change were given a mixture of yes and no responses.

"Either faith reduces worries or there is little interest in the issue, which is why people are less concerned about it, said Faix. What is surprising is that there is no significant correlation with age. Young Christians are not more concerned about climate change."

Salome Richir-Haldemann, campaign coordinator for StopPoverty in French-speaking Switzerland, explained the reasons for conducting the study. "We wanted to know how Christians position themselves on the issues we have been raising awareness of for 20 years," she said.

The research will feed into future awareness campaigning, including in the political sphere, on justice and sustainability by StopPoverty. The campaign offers resources to help churches seeking to put faith into action on social issues. The inspiration comes from their lead verse in Micah 6:8, which reads: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Police are looking to the public for leads on finding the suspect in a February assault that later turned deadly.

The Colorado Springs Police said on Thursday that Branden Lee Bishop, 42, was wanted in connection with the stabbing of Colorado Springs man Lawny Norvell, 56, in the 1200 block of North Circle Drive.

Police say Bishop and Norvell were seen in a "verbal altercation" at a local business around 5 p.m. on Feb. 2. The two separated before Bishop returned and started a fight, stabbing Norvell at least once, according to the CSPD statement.

Bishop was arrested on suspicion of first degree assault, then bonded out of jail.

Norvell was transported to a hospital, where he later died on April 26.

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While the El Paso County Coroner has not yet identified Norvell's cause of death, police are investigating the case as a homicide. Bishop is now wanted on suspicion of first degree murder.

Norvell's is the 14th homicide this year in Colorado Springs, according to police. There were eight homicides at this time last year.

Police advise anyone who sees Bishop not to approach and to call 911. People can also contact the CSPD with information on the case at 719-444-4000 or anonymously at the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 719-634-STOP or 1-800-222-8477.
A man was arrested in Colorado Springs on Thursday after allegedly crashing a stolen vehicle on Interstate 25 while eluding law enforcement, then carjacking a second vehicle, according to CSPD officials.

Christopher Esquivel, 30, faces several felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with the incident, police said.

Early Thursday, Colorado State Patrol officers had been chasing Esquivel  who was driving a vehicle that had been stolen in Colorado Springs in late April  on I-25 near Castle Rock, but did not catch him, police said.

Just before 6 a.m., the suspect crashed that vehicle on the interstate near Monument and fled the scene on foot until he found a motorist sitting in his truck in the 1700 block of Jackson Creek Parkway. Esquivel allegedly took that vehicle at gunpoint.

At about 10:45 a.m., officers from CSPDs Motor Vehicle Theft and Tactical Enforcement teams spotted the stolen truck in the 3600 block of Austin Bluffs Parkway, near Academy Boulevard. When they approached the vehicle Esquivel tried to run, but was quickly caught, police said.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration attracted around 250 students, faculty and alumni at Colorado College's Tava Quad after a class walkout Wednesday morning.

The student-led event featured multiple speakers expressing concerns against perceived economic support of the college to Israel amid the war with Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups .

Since its start nearly seven months back, Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, roughly 1.5% of the total pre-war population in Gaza, according to Associated Press reporting. Hamas launched an assault on Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people while taking more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

About 30 participating CC faculty members canceled their Wednesday morning classes to allow the walkout. Students and faculty expressed concern about a lack of support from administration for previous demonstrations of Palestinian solidarity.

"Im here for Palestinian liberation, and I dont agree with the efforts of CC (Colorado College) to disband our actions, and Im hoping that they can divest from Israel, as well," said one student demonstrator, who declined to share their name with The Gazette.

Student protesters were unwilling to provide their names to Gazette reporters, they said, over fears of retaliation from the college.

Since the war began, students organized a "teach-in" in support of Palestinians, protested outside a work session featuring the Anti-Defamation League and staged a sit-in at the Charles L. Tutt Library.

Colorado College's student newspaper, The Catalyst, previously reported that students who participated in the sit-in were met with pushback from administration due to violations of the college's "Freedom of Expression" policy. Multiple students received conduct cases that are ongoing. Some faculty members in turn said they felt their right to peaceful assembly was being violated.

The college's policy states that students, staff and faculty can participate in protests and demonstrations as long as they don't disrupt any college business or activities.

The policy also specifies that faculty may participate in protests, as long as they "ensure that they in no way represent themselves as a spokesperson for the College."

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CC Dean of College Pedro de Araujo confirmed to The Gazette that multiple student conduct cases are underway connected to past on-campus demonstrations.

He added that the administration became aware last week of plans for Wednesday's walkout and made preparations to deescalate any situation. Students were given permission for the demonstration on the quad as long as policies were followed.

After the rally, Araujo said that no policies appeared to have been violated and that administration will prepare accordingly for any future demonstrations.

"Really, it went beautifully, I think," he said. "Especially different than some of the other colleges recently."

In the preceding weeks, college campuses nationwide cracked down on student protesters, with dozens arrested at Columbia University, and thousands of others across the U.S., according to national reports.

On Denver's Auraria campus, home to the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver, pro-Palestinian protests have persisted since last week resulting in student arrests and meetings between protest organizers and campus leaders.

Wednesday's walkout at Colorado College is the only recent pro-Palestinian demonstration at a Colorado Springs-based college to date. Jennifer Sobanet, chancellor of the Colorado Springs campus of the University of Colorado, told The Gazette on Wednesday that there have been no planned demonstrations thus far.

Nothing has happened on campus, and we are not aware of any activities, she said. In some instances, college administration has threatened expulsion of students who are refusing to abandon organized encampments.

"We are here today in solidarity and in commitment to continue to fight for a free Palestine. We are here to refuse our colleges investments and colonial and White supremacist violence," a student organizer said to the crowd at CC.

"Were walking out of our classes, out of our jobs, out of refusing to continue operating in our daily lives as if nothing is happening, as if the status quo doesnt allow and in fact perpetuate extreme violence against Palestinians, the significance of this refusal must be acknowledged."
When an erratic patron started threatening himself and others at the Rockrimmon Library on the evening of April 22, staff called 911 for help. Then they called again and again, never receiving an in-person response from patrol during the nearly two-hour incident.

Police say the lack of response was due to a combination of factors, including a higher priority call in the area and a mix-up between two library incidents. Overall response times for the Colorado Springs Police Department have risen in the past few years, however, with 2023 and early 2024 figures adding 20 minutes to one priority category's average over averages six years ago.

Michael Brantner, chief safety, community resources and security officer with the Pikes Peak Library District, said that the incident at Rockrimmon began around 5:07 p.m. with a patron who in addition to making threats destroyed property, refused to follow directions from staff and "stood in front of doors refusing to move."

Staff called 911 and library security, which operates out of six of the district's 16 library locations. Security arrived at 5:38 p.m. and the incident was resolved around 6:52 p.m. with the patron finally leaving and being locked outside, according to Brantner.

The CSPD said they received "multiple calls for service" over the course of the incident from the library location starting at 5:28 p.m. but never sent officers. The CSPD's explanation involves the call-ranking system the department uses to prioritize responses.

All 911 calls made in Colorado Springs are ranked according to three priority categories, according to CSPD spokesperson Ira Cronin. Priority 1 calls "represent an imminent life-threatening situation" like an in-progress shooting or assault that "requires an immediate response."

Priority 2 calls are dangerous, "critical situations" in-progress but with no immediate threat to life and can include abuse, neglect and DUIs, according to Cronin. Priority 3 calls are the lowest-categorized in-progress incidents like harassment, loitering and suspicious persons/vehicles, as well as property crimes and incidents that are no longer in progress.

When staff at the library first called 911, Cronin said that incident was classified as a priority 3 trespassing call. The CSPD's average response time for a priority 3 call from Jan. 1 through Feb. 29 this year has been about two hours and 37 minutes, well past the time library security resolved the situation at Rockrimmon.

A later call to 911 recategorized the incident as a priority 2 disturbance, according to Cronin. That type of call for this year has a nearly 52 minute response time average. Officers were tied up in the area with another priority 1 call, however, lengthening the time for anyone to respond to the library.

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A call-center mix up with another priority 2 incident at a different library location ultimately prevented any response at all from happening at Rockrimmon. Cronin said that when library security called police to cancel a response for a disturbance at the East Library, the CSPD mistook that for a cancellation at Rockrimmon.

"This type of confusion caused by both calls is something we are addressing internally and working to ensure it doesnt happen again," he said.

Response times have also been a continuing priority for the CSPD. Last year a spokesperson told The Gazette that the department's goal when at the authorized 2024 sworn strength was to bring the priority 1 average response time to 10 minutes, calling that figure a "realistic target" given full staffing. The 2024 Jan. 1 through Feb. 29 priority 1 response time was 16 minutes and seven seconds, similar to 2023's 16 minutes and 24 seconds.

A person asking for a police response in the city waits on average nearly four minutes longer for a priority 1 call over a caller in pre-pandemic 2019. A person waiting for a priority 2 response waits nearly 20 minutes longer, according to CPSD data.

The CSPD has in the past largely blamed increasing response times on ongoing staffing shortages. Cronin said the CSPD currently has 771 sworn staff out of an authorized 819.

Brantner said that the PPLD "understands that CSPD faces the same staffing issues as many other law enforcement departments across the country" and that "the CSPD is doing the best they can at a difficult time."

Since Jan. 1, PPLD has logged 302 security incidents at library locations, which can include a variety of criminal and non-criminal issues, according to Brantner. All staff members are required to take a crisis prevention course to resolve incidents nonviolently. Brantner said that numbers of incidents at different locations vary, with some experiencing security issues "daily or multiple times a day."

The Rockrimmon location has seen eight security incidents so far this year.
The man accused of killing a 25-year-old woman in unincorporated El Paso County last year will not have video of his interrogation with law enforcement suppressed at his upcoming trial, an El Paso County judge ruled on Thursday.

Kevin Rued, 23, faces several charges, including first-degree murder, for allegedly killing Sylena Maldonado in unincorporated El Paso County in May, 2023.

According to previous reporting from The Gazette, deputies responded around 3 a.m. on May 28 to the 2000 block of B Street, where they found Maldonado suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Maldonado was taken to a hospital, where she later died.

Rued appeared in court on Thursday, just over a month out from his scheduled jury trial, for Judge William Moller to issue rulings to a pair of pre-trial defense motions.

The primary motion that was the subject of the majority of the hearing was the motion to have the interrogation footage between Rued and El Paso County detective Brad Whitehead suppressed at trial. Rued's defense attorney, Nick Rogers, alleged that Whitehead attempted to use coercive tactics in the interrogation of Rued shortly after his arrest.

The footage was not played in court on Thursday, but Judge Moller spoke about the statements made by Rued during the footage, mostly claims of "frustration" and "disbelief" at his arrest even escalating to punching the wall at one point. Moller also described the conduct of detective Whitehead, who allegedly attempted to read Rued his Miranda Rights several times despite hostility coming in return from Rued, but also expressed frustrations of his own.

Moller ruled that after reviewing the full video of the interrogation that Whitehead did not use any coercive tactics or mental abuse in his interrogation of Rued, and thus the interrogation footage will not be suppressed at trial.

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Whitehead was also the subject of the defense's second motion, requesting for a Shreck hearing to attempt to call Whitehead's qualifications into question and not be ruled an expert for future proceedings. In a Shreck hearing a potential expert will testify only to their experience and qualifications, and a judge will rule if the expert is qualified enough to testify in future proceedings, like a jury trial.

Moller denied the request to hold a Shreck hearing regarding Whitehead, ruling that Whitehead through his experience with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office is qualified to testify at future court proceedings.

Rued is scheduled to begin his jury trial next month on June 10, but will return to court next week on May 9 for an additional motions hearing.

According to previous Gazette reporting, this is not the first time Rued has been arrested for shooting someone in the head. In 2016, a then 16-year-old Rued was arrested in Fountain for allegedly shooting an unidentified 18-year-old in the back of the head.

The victim survived the shooting, and court records show that Rued was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. As part of the plea agreement Rued was sentenced to five years in the youthful offender system (YOS) with a stipulated 20 years in the Department of Corrections should he not comply in YOS.

Rued currently resides in the El Paso County jail on a no bond hold after being found to be in contempt of the court in January, according to court records. Prior to the contempt of court finding Rued was in custody on a $300,000 bond.
A man found fatally shot near Interstate 25 and South Nevada Avenue on May 1 has been identified.

Colorado Springs police responded to a call of a shooting at that location at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. They found a man there with at least one gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital, but died from his injuries.

The El Paso County Coroner's Office has identified the man as Paul Cordova, 49, according to a news release Friday from Colorado Springs police.

The Coroners Office has not yet issued an official cause and manner of death. However, the Colorado Springs Police Department's statement indicates that the death is being investigated as a homicide.

The department says there currently is not a suspect in custody.

"This is not believed to be a random act of violence, and detectives continue to investigate the circumstances of this incident, including the development of potential suspect information," the police press release states.

This is the 15th homicide of 2024 in Colorado Springs, as tracked by police. At this time last year, there were eight homicides.

Anyone with information or who was a witness to this incident is asked to call the Colorado Springs police at (719) 444-4000. If you wish to remain anonymous, you may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (719) 634-STOP (7867) or 1-800-222-8477.
Law enforcement authorities in Colorado have a new crime-fighting tool aimed at putting the brakes on car chases and auto theft, and it's called 'The Grappler.'

The Colorado State Patrol released footage of how the Grappler Police Bumper tool works this week following a demo event they hosted on Monday.

So what is it, exactly? Troopers describe it as a tethering device; video of the device in action shows that it deploys from the front bumper of a patrol car and wraps around a fleeing vehicle's rear wheel, causing it to come to a complete stop.

There have been about 75 successful uses of the device since August 2021, according to CSP. Last month, 9News in Denver reported six stolen vehicles were stopped over a period of two weeks thanks to the device.

State Patrol released dashcam footage of three instances in Colorado Springs where the device was used to stop fleeing suspects in stolen vehicles.

See all three videos below.

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The first video shows police stopping a stolen 2001 Jeep Wrangler at South Union Boulevard and Hancock Expressway in south Colorado Springs. The driver was later charged with motor vehicle theft, found to have previous offenses and sentenced to three years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

The second video shows police stopping the driver of a stolen 2016 Hyundai Accent at Lake Avenue and Venetucci Boulevard in south Colorado Springs. Police charged the suspect with motor vehicle theft, but the district attorney's office later dropped the charge.

The final video shared by CSP shows police halting a 2011 Mitsubishi Galant which was stolen out of Pueblo. CSP said the Grappler was deployed to "prevent a vehicle pursuit." The vehicle was stopped at Academy Boulevard and Platte avenues near The Citadel mall; the suspect was charged and later convicted with motor vehicle theft and sentenced to 15 months in the department of corrections.

Colorado was ranked the worst state for auto thefts in 2021, but saw a significant downward trend in the crime in 2023. That trend that has continued into 2024, according to State Patrol.

The State Patrol partners with local police agencies, including the Colorado Springs Department, through multijurisdictional task forces, including the Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement Task Force (BATTLE) and the CATPA Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force (C-MATT).
A court in Algeria last week upheld a one-year prison sentence for a top church leader baselessly convicted of illegal worshipping, according to a legal advocacy group.

The Court of Appeal in Tizi Ouzou issued the verdict against Pastor Youssef Ourahamane of Emmanuel Church in Algeria, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International said in a press statement. Pastor Ourahamane has long been a top leader in the Eglise Protestante dAlgerie (Protestant Church of Algeria, or EPA) association, which has seen 43 of its churches forcibly closed by authorities since 2019, with only one remaining open.

No one should be punished, let alone face prison, for exercising their right to religious freedom, said Kelsey Zorzi, director of advocacy for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, which is coordinating with other Non-Governmental Organizations to support the pastor. The decision of the Appellate Court to uphold Pastor Youssefs conviction and sentence amounts to a blatant violation of his rights under both Algerian and international law and must be condemned.

Pastor Ourahamane, a convert from Islam, was sentenced on July 2 to two years in prison and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars (US$738) for leading his church, though prosecutors provided no evidence of a crime, according to ADF International. His sentence was reduced to one year in November.

After Pastor Ourahamane appealed the conviction a second time to the Appellate Court in Tizi Ouzo, the judge last week upheld it and added a six-month suspended prison sentence to his one-year term, in addition to the fine.

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Zorzi of ADF International expressed hope that the Supreme Court of Algeria would hear the case and acquit Pastor Ourahamane so he can resume duties as pastor.

The international community must continue to advocate for the rights of all Algerians to freely live out their faith and worship in community without fear of persecution, she said.

Security police in Algeria on orders from the Ministry of Interior have systematically targeted churches for more than five years, citing health and safety to justify locking church doors and declaring worship to be illegal.

In one case, they physically beat a pastor in front of his young child because he was peacefully protesting against the closure of his church, ADF International stated.

Authorities have targeted Pastor Ourahamane with fabricated legal charges since 2008, according to ADF International. He asserts he is just the latest of 50 Christians to be convicted recently under charges of illegal worship, shaking the faith of Muslims or embezzling of tithing donations. He and others believe the convictions are a reaction to government concern over large numbers of Muslims converting to Christianity.

In the 1970s, the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats, Pastor Ourahamane said. Today the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts, and they therefore want to suppress the spread of the gospel among us.

Pastor Ourahamane appealed his conviction on March 26, his 36th wedding anniversary. Another pastor and four elders from his church on March 27 also appealed their three-year prison sentences and fines of 200,000 Algerian dinars (US$1,475).

Pastor Ourahamane has been leading congregations in Algeria for more than 30 years.

About 99 percent of Algerias 43 million people identify as Sunni Muslim. Islam is the official state religion, but Algerias constitution recognizes the right of all to worship and speak freely. The Algerian government limits religious freedom and expression through the enforcement of laws, including blasphemy and anti-proselytism statutes that intentionally target Christians and other religious minorities, according to ADF International.

Algeria criminalizes blasphemy, with punishments including imprisonment for up to five years and fines. The Criminal Code also censors publications by prohibiting content that is contrary to Islamic morals.

In particular, the government has systematically cracked down on the evangelical Protestant Church through church closures and raids, ADF International stated.

Algeria is a signatory to major human rights treaties, committing it to uphold the rights to freedom of religion and expression. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2024 Annual Report recommended Algeria be included on the State Departments Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.
Interview: China-Serbia ties have become stronger over time, says Chinese envoy

Xinhua) 09:47, May 03, 2024

BELGRADE, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The ironclad friendship between China and Serbia has been strengthened over time amid the changing international landscape and has continuously shown new vitality, a Chinese envoy has said.

China and Serbia have worked hand in hand in the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and in their stride toward modernization, Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Ming told Xinhua, adding that the development of the two countries have benefited their people.

At the invitation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Serbia, eight years after his last visit to the European country.

Li said that the development of China-Serbia relations fully demonstrates that the personal attention and guidance from the two heads of state are the fundamental guarantee for ensuring that bilateral relations always run at a high level and make steady progress.

Xi visited Serbia in 2016, and Serbia became China's first comprehensive strategic partner in Central and Eastern Europe, he said, adding that the two presidents have met on many occasions and maintained correspondence and telephone exchanges in recent years, with bilateral relations continuously moving to new and high levels.

The ambassador noted that in recent years, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Serbia relations have achieved leapfrog development, maintaining a high-level operation and reaching historic highs.

China and Serbia always firmly support each other's core interests and major concerns, understand each other and share similar views on international and regional affairs, and maintain close coordination in multilateral fields, he said, noting that Serbia supports the three major global initiatives put forward by China.

Economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results, with bilateral trade soaring from 596 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to 4.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In 2022, China became the largest source of direct investment for Serbia.

Guided by the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, Li said China will work with Serbia to leverage mechanisms such as the free trade agreement between the two countries and the Mid-Term Action Plan for Belt and Road Cooperation, deepen cooperation in traditional fields such as trade, investment, and infrastructure construction, and explore cooperation potential in emerging fields such as technological innovation, digital economy and green transition, so as to inject vigorous impetus into the economic development of the two countries and bring benefits to their people.

Since 2016, the number of mutual visits between China and Serbia has grown rapidly. The enthusiasm for learning Chinese and Chinese culture continue to rise in Serbia, with an increasing number of Chinese language learners. Moreover, the number of Chinese universities offering Serbian language courses has also increased significantly, and the Chinese Cultural Center in Belgrade is now in operation.

The ambassador said that people of the two nations will get closer in the context of the continuous deepening of bilateral relations.

Li noted that during his visit to Serbia, Xi will have an in-depth exchange of views with Vucic on international and regional issues of common concern, as well as bilateral relations, explore ways to upgrade bilateral ties, chart course for the future development of bilateral relations, and enrich practical cooperation between the two countries.

China looks forward to working with Serbia to take this visit as an opportunity to further consolidate the ironclad friendship between the two countries, deepen political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, open a new chapter in bilateral relations, and make new contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Li said.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.
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Lincoln Intermediate School students spent the day having fun while learning a thing or two on Thursday. They visited The Music Man Square in Mason City for an end-of-year field day. It had been on some students' minds since the school year began.

"I've been looking forward to this since the first day," said Caden Beach. "It's fun to get out of school and get away from the regular routine."

Beach is 12 years old. The trip to The Music Man Square and the focus on music education is ideal for this age group. All Lincoln students are part of the choir, but fifth grade is the first year they can also join the band. "I joined, but I wasn't passionate about it," Beach said. "So, I quit."

His friend Ava Willand also joined the Lincoln Intermediate band this year and found that it suited her nicely. "I just started violin this year," Willand said. "I'm pretty good."

Lincoln Principal Dan Arjes said the field day is a hit with fifth graders every year. "We're so lucky to have a resource like The Music Man Square here for the kids," he said. "The history and music are a part of our community."

Students were split into two groups for the field day. While one group was at The Music Man Square taking in the sights and sounds of Mason City's famed museum, the other was burning off a little extra energy roller skating at Roller City.

While at the square, kids experienced five stations of activities. There was a themed edition of "Jeopardy!," a short film called "The Making of The Music Man," a tour of the streetscape and two music stations teaching international drumming and rhythm.

Nick Whitehurst, executive director of The Music Man Square, was delighted to host the students for the field day. "That's what The Music Man Square is for," he said, "to make connections with our community and offer a place to learn. There's a lot going on here."

Mason City Community School District's last scheduled day of school is May 23. The Music Man Square, 308 S. Pennsylvania Ave., is open from 1-5 p.m. throughout the summer break. It features a replica streetscape from the musical, a museum commemorating the works of composer Meredith Willson, a gift shop, old-fashioned ice cream parlor, and entry to the adjacent, restored childhood home of Willson.
Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley announced Thursday that Iowa will receive over $30 million from the federal infrastructure law to identify and replace lead water service lines.

The Environmental Protection Agency will administer the grant through its Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

Every Iowan should have access to clean, safe drinking water. These federal dollars will help our communities and ensure water coming out of the faucet is lead-free, Grassley said in a statement. I supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill with the health and safety of Iowans in mind, and Im glad to see this investment continue to benefit our great state.

Iowa has 64,230 service lines containing lead and 270,978 services lines of unknown material, according to a recent EPA report. Lead exposure can cause a range of serious health complications, including cardiovascular disease, decreased kidney function and irreversible neurological damage in children.

Former U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat, and Grassley, a Republican, were the only members of Iowa's congressional delegation that voted for the 2021 infrastructure bill.

Reynolds requests expedited disaster declaration

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has requested an expedited Presidential Disaster Declaration for nine Iowa counties in the wake of destructive tornadoes that caused major damage last week in Minden and Pleasant Hill.

Reynolds, in her letter, requested funding under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Individual Assistance Program and the activation of the U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Program for Clarke, Crawford, Harrison, Mills, Polk, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby and Union counties.

The Individual Assistance Program provides disaster-affected homeowners, renters and businesses access to assistance with housing, personal property replacement, medical expenses and legal services. The Disaster Loan Program provides homeowners, renters, businesses and most nonprofit organizations in the affected counties whose property was damaged or destroyed the ability to apply for low-interest disaster loans.

The governor also requested funding to conduct hazard mitigation activities for the entire state.

Reynolds previously issued a state disaster proclamation allowing state resources to be used to respond to and recover from the effects of the severe weather.

Severe storms moved across Western and Central Iowa April 26, producing 24 tornadoes in Iowa with winds of up to 160 mph, resulting in significant debris, power outages and extensive damage to property, her letter says.

A water treatment plant serving the city of Minden was damaged and left inoperative from the impact of an EF3 tornado that tore through the county, Reynolds wrote. State officials found a vendor to provide water treatment to Minden residents until permanent repairs can be made.

Iowas congressional delegation also sent a letter calling on President Joe Biden to approve Reynolds request.
Re: Mathematician: Recently, Zubin Ghosh made headlines when he was recogn [ #permalink

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answer. As always, you. should read all the answer choices, but you may be at the twominute



mark already, in which case you should select (D) and move on.



The first half of choice (E) says that the first statement is a premise against the author's conclusion



(in other words, Premise Against). The second half of this choice, however, says that



the second statement is another Premise Against. Eliminate this choice.
Oct 12, 2024 - Today Islamic Date in Barbados is 10 Rabi Al-Akhar 1446. Islamic Date is also called Hijri Date or Today Arabic Date in the Muslim world that follows Moon phases as a lunar calendar. Check the exact Islamic date today in Barbados with an accurate Hijri date updated daily.

Today Islamic date in Barbados is calculated as per the lunar based calendar which consists of 12 Lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. A Muslim must know about the exact Islamic date today or chand ki date.

What is Islamic Date in Barbados today?

Todays Islamic Date in Barbados in Islamic Hijri calendar is 10 Rabi Al-Akhar 1446. The current Islamic year is 1445 AH.

Today Islamic date in Barbados

Islamic Date Today  Islam is the second biggest religion in the world with around 1.8 billion followers. Muslim population is not present in the Muslim countries but they are also in significant numbers in other countries. Muslims follow Hijri calendar to celebrate Islamic events according to the Islamic month date. However, the Islamic date today in Barbados is as per the Islamic calendar. Thats why the Muslim calendar usually gives just the overview of today Islamic date in Barbados 2024 and other upcoming dates. On this page, you can easily confirm the Islamic date today in Barbados or Hijri date in Barbados.

You can utilize this page to plan your vacations according to the Islamic holidays 2024 such as Eid al Fitr, Eid Al Adha, Hajj, etc. You can find the Urdu date today along with the respective Georgian date. You can see the Islamic date today in Barbados and also the dates of upcoming events.

This page is a perfect place for people who are interested in today Islamic date in Barbados 2024. It is recommended that you should bookmark this page to keep updated about the Islamic date today in Barbados 2024. Islamic months are as follow Muharram, Safar, Rabi ul Awal, Rabi Al-Akhir (Rabi' al-Thani), Jumada Al-Awwal (Jumada al-Ula), Jumada Al-Akhirah (Jumada l-Ukhra or Jumada al-Thani), Rajab, Shaban (Sha'ban), Ramadan (also spell as Ramazan, Ramzan, Ramadhan), Shawwal, Dhul-Qadah (Dhu al-Qi'dah or Zu al-Qa'dah) and Dhul-Hijjah (Dhu al-Hijjah or Zu al-Hijjah).

Today Arabic date for Oistins, Greenland, Bathsheba, Blackmans, Hillaby, Crab Hill, Bridgetown, Holetown, Speightstown, The Crane and others cities are also available on this page.
Oct 12, 2024 - Today Islamic Date in Bolivia is 09 Rabi Al-Akhar 1446. Islamic Date is also called Hijri Date or Today Arabic Date in the Muslim world that follows Moon phases as a lunar calendar. Check the exact Islamic date today in Bolivia with an accurate Hijri date updated daily.

Today Islamic date in Bolivia is calculated as per the lunar based calendar which consists of 12 Lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. A Muslim must know about the exact Islamic date today or chand ki date.

What is Islamic Date in Bolivia today?

Todays Islamic Date in Bolivia in Islamic Hijri calendar is 09 Rabi Al-Akhar 1446. The current Islamic year is 1445 AH.

Today Islamic date in Bolivia

Islamic Date Today  Islam is the second biggest religion in the world with around 1.8 billion followers. Muslim population is not present in the Muslim countries but they are also in significant numbers in other countries. Muslims follow Hijri calendar to celebrate Islamic events according to the Islamic month date. However, the Islamic date today in Bolivia is as per the Islamic calendar. Thats why the Muslim calendar usually gives just the overview of today Islamic date in Bolivia 2024 and other upcoming dates. On this page, you can easily confirm the Islamic date today in Bolivia or Hijri date in Bolivia.

You can utilize this page to plan your vacations according to the Islamic holidays 2024 such as Eid al Fitr, Eid Al Adha, Hajj, etc. You can find the Urdu date today along with the respective Georgian date. You can see the Islamic date today in Bolivia and also the dates of upcoming events.

This page is a perfect place for people who are interested in today Islamic date in Bolivia 2024. It is recommended that you should bookmark this page to keep updated about the Islamic date today in Bolivia 2024. Islamic months are as follow Muharram, Safar, Rabi ul Awal, Rabi Al-Akhir (Rabi' al-Thani), Jumada Al-Awwal (Jumada al-Ula), Jumada Al-Akhirah (Jumada l-Ukhra or Jumada al-Thani), Rajab, Shaban (Sha'ban), Ramadan (also spell as Ramazan, Ramzan, Ramadhan), Shawwal, Dhul-Qadah (Dhu al-Qi'dah or Zu al-Qa'dah) and Dhul-Hijjah (Dhu al-Hijjah or Zu al-Hijjah).

Today Arabic date for Sucre, Cochabamba, La Santisima Trinidad, La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, Montero, Santa Cruz De La Sierra, Tarija and others cities are also available on this page.
DECATUR  Labeling it "a great problem to have," Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe on Thursday said it was imperative for the region to develop its workforce and attract new people to fill jobs available now and in the future.

Moore Wolfe's brief remarks were before hundreds of business and community leaders who gathered for the Decatur Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual State of the Community breakfast.

They reflect a community in a state of transition with several economic development projects transforming the city's industrial northeast quadrant and expected to create hundreds of jobs.

"We've got hundreds of people in this town that can go into these great jobs. We have to reach them. We have to figure out how to get them the skills they need, how to get them to believe that we can invest in them and that they can have the great future here," Moore Wolfe said. "But that's not going to be enough. We need more workers because, I'm telling you, we got so many jobs coming into this town it will make your head spin over the next few years."

Among those projects, French company InnovaFeed, which cut the ribbon on its North American Insect Innovation Center last month, is expected to open its larger insect protein facility by 2027. The plant is expected to provide nearly 300 jobs.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. and South Korea-based LG Chem are partnering on a facility to produce environmentally friendly ingredients, which will employ up to 125 people.

Oregon-based ice cream company Tillamook purchased the former Prairie Farms plant and are in the midst of a major renovation project. They are eventually expected to employ 45 people there.

T/CCI Manufacturing continues work on retooling its facility to produce electric vehicle compressors. It will also house an EV Innovation Hub, which will include facilities for research and training programs targeting the next generation of EV workers. About 50 jobs are expected to be created. The plant is expected to open later this year.

Kara Demirjian Huss, senior vice president of T/CCI, told those in attendance that the facility is "changing the way we are being seen in the EV industry."

Primient, a food processing giant with a long history in Soy City despite several name changes, announced a $400 million investment in upgrading its facilities here.

Primient plant manager Debbie Dice, among the speakers at the Thursday morning event, said it "takes a lot of people to do that" type of investment.

"In my career, in 25 years in different industries, I've never had an opportunity to be part of a $400 million investment in one facility," Dice said. "So it is an attractive thing for newer and younger engineers to come and be part of spending that and giving them a lot of experience with project development and implementation."

But the city needs to prepare for what's coming Moore Wolfe said, specifically pointing out the need for better housing stock, calling it "a housing shortage like we've never experienced here." She pointed out that Dice, who recently moved to the city, mentioned in her own remarks that she has not yet been able to purchase a house.

"We need to upgrade what we have, we need to build some more because we've got all these jobs coming and we need great places for these folks to live," Moore Wolfe said. "So our problems are different. But they're happening and we can fix this."

Decatur Park District Executive Director Clay Gerhard, who offered an update on upcoming programs and ongoing projects, said we got conversations going on" about developing executive apartments in Chandler Park, one of the last concepts from the district's Nelson Park master plan that's yet to come to fruition.

Macon County Board Chairman Kevin Greenfield praised the continued cooperation among the various taxing bodies to address the community's needs. He noted two of the key projects underway in the county are the construction of a new Reas Bridge, which is still in need of some additional funding, and the expansion of broadband service in the rural areas.

Towards the end of her remarks, Moore Wolfe thanked outgoing City Manager Scot Wrighton, whose last day is Friday, for his five years of service.

Tim Gleason, Decatur's former and future city manager, starts in the role again on Monday. She made a good-natured ribbing of Gleason that doubled as a deep cut reference for those who have been around awhile.

"He really wanted to be here today, but (police) Chief Brandel wouldn't go pick him up," Moore Wolfe said of Gleason to much laughter in the room.

The reference was to Gleason's use of a police vehicle to travel to St. Louis for personal business immediately following a city event in May 2015. This led to a lengthy court battle with former Police Chief Brad Sweeney.
A 98-year-old veteran came to see the B-29 Superfortress known as Doc at the Statesville Regional Airport on Tuesday.

The sight of the World War II bomber stirred memories.

Leo Sheek Bowden Jr., said he flew 18 missions with the 504th Bombing Group based out of Tinian island in the Pacific Ocean in the latter phases of World War II.

Bowden said while there were some mechanical mishaps  five bombers crashed on takeoff during one mission he said  the advanced nature of the bomber, and perhaps a little bit of luck, kept him out of Japanese crosshairs for the most part.

I saw one burst of flak over our right wing. We got caught in the searchlights one night, but it was a matter of seconds. I never fired my guns at the enemy. Some of them had rough missions ... I had an easy time.

Bowden said he was the central fire control gunner tasked with coordinating fire at the enemy. He said the plane, called Big Boots, buzzed the USS Missouri on the day of the Japanese surrender in 1945.

The Mocksville native took a brief tour of the B-29 in Statesville on Tuesday. He was joined by his granddaughter, Alyse Wooldridge, her daughter, Capron Wooldridge, and her nephew, Aidan Szewczyk.

For Bowden and his family, it was a moment to connect older and younger generations. Its great to see him excited about something. He said it wasnt a big deal if he couldnt come over, but I took off work today to get over to see him in his element. Its very exciting, Alyse Wooldridge said.

Alyse said she remembered when she was younger and took a tour of FiFi, the only other B-29 that currently still flies. She took a moment to take a photo of Capron with the B-29 on Tuesday. She said she positioned her daughter in the photo at an angle reminiscent of a photo taken of her with a B-29 in the mid-1990s.

The bomber was in Statesville as part of the The B-29 Doc History Restored Tour. This particular B-29 didnt see combat in the second World War, but served in several noncombat roles.

In 1987, Tony Mazzolini found Doc and began the process of purchasing the plane, which took 12 years to secure from the U.S. government. In 2016, the big bomber took flight once again.
The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject for 2024 were released earlier in April. Partnering with the global academic publishing giant, Elsevier, the QS rankings feature 55 individual subjects across five broad subject areas, namely (i) arts and humanities; (ii) engineering and technology; (iii) life sciences and medicine; (iv) natural sciences; and (v) social sciences and management. Their ranking criteria include scores out of 100 on the following parametersacademic reputation, employer reputation, facultystudent ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international students ratio, three newly introduced metrics of the international research network, employment outcomes, and sustainability.

Needless to say, universities from the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) dominated the top spots in the 2024 QS rankings, with notable exceptions of ETH Zurich, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Melbourne finding a place in the top 15 universities. However, the performance of Indian universities has considerably improved in these rankings, with 69 Indian universities featuring in the QS rankings by subject with 424 entries, an improvement of 19.4% from 2023. India has also become the fourth-largest contributor to global research output. This positions India just after China, followed by the US and the UK. Moreover, the eight public and four private Institutes of Eminence (IoE) accounted for a significant 40% of Indias total contributions to these rankings, totalling 180 entries.

There are several key takeaways from the 2024 QS world university rankings, particularly for assessing the state of Indian higher education in particular and global higher education in general. India secured a place among 44 out of the 55 subjects mentioned in the rankings, with the majority of its top institutions being public universities. For example, Jawaharlal Nehru University, incidentally the highest-ranked Indian institution in the subject-wise QS rankings, was placed 20th in the subject of development studies, while the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad secured the 22nd rank in the subject of business and management studies, the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences ranking 24th in the subject of dentistry, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras ranking 29th in the subject of petroleum engineering. Moreover, the University of Delhi (30), IIT Bombay (28), and IIT Kharagpur (27) contributed the highest number of entries in the QS subject-wise rankings.

These rankings vindicate the unique position held by public universities in India, which have attempted to excel in research output and excellence apart from serving the social purpose of inclusivity and justice. Although private universities are increasingly mushrooming in India over the last three decades, it is notable that it is Indias public universities that yield better results in the global rankings than their private counterparts in most subject areas. This is in contrast to the trajectory of higher education in the global North countries like the US and the UK, whose highest-ranked universities in the QS rankings are private institutions.

While this shows that private universities tend to perform better in terms of securing the top spots in the global (and especially, global North) context, in India, the top spots have been consistently held by public universities across the majority of the subjects. This is true even for the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), which is coordinated by the Ministry of Education. The top 10 spots in the 2023 NIRF rankings only consist of public universities, with IIT Madras at the top. Both the QS and NIRF rankings demonstrate that the union government and policymakers alike must keep Indias public universities at the centre of their higher education infrastructure to achieve the harmonious aims of research excellence and social inclusivity.

It is in this context that one may compare the parameters of the QS and the NIRF rankings as well. The NIRF rankings consider five parameters to calculate the overall score of a university, namely (i) teaching, learning, and resources; (ii) research and professional practice; (iii) graduation outcomes; (iv) outreach and inclusivity; and (v) peer perception, which includes academic peers and potential employers. What is noteworthy in this comparison is that the QS rankings do not pay adequate attention to the concern of inclusivity and diversity as part of their assessment parameters. However, the NIRF rankings hold the concern of inclusivity to be one of the main pillars of institutional performance, where the percentage of students from other states/countries, percentage of women, economically and socially challenged students, and physically challenged students are assessed to measure the extent of inclusivity maintained by a particular university. However, it is also worth pointing out that the NIRFs parameter of inclusivity does not explicitly consider exclusion based on caste and religion, which continues to be a persistent problem for a large majority of Indian students aspiring for decent opportunities in the higher education sector.

Thus, while there may be much to celebrate in Indias rising performance in the global university rankings, it is important to highlight that these rankings are not indicative of the unique problems and struggles faced by a country like India and other global South nations in terms of developing their higher education sector. The global university rankings are more inclined to place tremendously resource-rich universities in the global North at the top with little regard for the concerns of social inclusion and justice. However, Indian universities cannot and ought not unthinkingly imitate top-ranked universities in the global North in giving up their commitments towards social inclusion and justice, as highlighted in the NIRF rankings as well. For instance, the nature, extent, and implications of the affirmative action policy followed in Indian higher educational institutions might not be assessed or reflected in the results of the global rankings. However, they are an essential mode of ensuring social inclusion and equal opportunities to a large population of students and teachers in India, which is as important as ensuring research excellence and output.

Moreover, the National Education Policy 2020 recommended that the union government ought to spend at least 6% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education. However, the 2024 interim budget saw a 16% cut in the allocation for the higher education sector. Without a conducive environment for Indian students and teachers in higher educational institutions in terms of certain material guarantees like adequate and timely stipends and scholarships, research and travel grants, world-class library and hostel facilities, and appropriate social justice policies and institutional protections in the form of equal opportunity and anti-sexual harassment cells, Indian higher educational institutions cannot yield the kind of research excellence that is expected of them. Thus, our main takeaway from the annual global and Indian university rankings should be that we need an unyielding commitment towards matching the recommended 6% allocation of the GDP to education and strengthening the public university infrastructure in India.
CONCORD  A sunny, slightly breezy day greeted the crowd gathered Friday morning at the intersection of Corban Avenue and Church Street.

But hearts were particularly heavy this year, as the event capped a week that began with tragedy in neighboring Mecklenburg County.

On Monday, an armed suspect opened fire on law enforcement officers who were conducting an investigation in east Charlotte. A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer and three officers from the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were killed. Several others were injured.

The sacrifice that is made by so many in the field of law enforcement is great, Cabarrus County Sheriff Van Shaw said after welcoming the crowd to the 2024 Law Enforcement Day and Peace Officers Memorial. And the impact on families is never-ending. On Monday, four husbands did not return to their wives. Four fathers did not return to their children. Coworkers and fellow officers mourned after hearing the news that afternoon. And then they got up and they went back to work to do the job again the next day.

The yearly event is held at the Peace Officers Memorial and honors veteran officers and local law enforcement who lost their lives in the line of duty, paying tribute to their ultimate sacrifice in keeping the public safe.

As Cabarrus Sheriffs Lt. Ross Provost reminded the crowd in his keynote speech, the day serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring principles that guide our democracy  justice, fairness and equality for all.

The journey of remembrance in Cabarrus County began in 1994 when local business owner George Diatzikis recognized the need for a lasting tribute to fallen law enforcement officers. Diatzikis, alongside longtime supporter Ann Cannon and law enforcement leaders Sheriff Robert Canaday, Kannapolis Police Chief Paul Brown and Concord Police Chief Bob Cansler embarked on a mission to honor the sacrifices of our fallen heroes, Provost said.

Diatzikis and Cannon were honored during Fridays event.

The late Robert J. Eury was also honored with a surprise announcement. Sheriff Shaw revealed that, in collaboration with the State Department of Transportation and the town of Midland, a bridge along Highway 24/27 will be named in Eurys honor.

Deputies revealed a rendering of the sign, and a dedication ceremony is scheduled for this July, Shaw said.

Eury, a Cabarrus County Sheriffs deputy, was killed in the line of duty on May 5, 1972.

Robert J. Eury Award recipient

Eurys name is also connected to the prestigious award given each year to law enforcement officers who demonstrate true commitment to law enforcement and service to the community.

The 2024 Eury Award recipient  Deputy Chief Daniel Wallace  has served more than two decades with the Kannapolis Police Department.

Wallace began his law enforcement career in November of 2000. Starting out, he took on various roles including serving on the departments Special Response Team and Honor Guard Unit.

Wallaces career milestones include his designation as a field training officer in 2009. He earned the master police officer designation in 2010 and was promoted to sergeant that same year.

He achieved the rank of lieutenant in 2014, captain in 2019 and ultimately assumed his current role in 2020.

Wallace embraces a servant-leadership philosophy, always willing to help others and contribute to the success of the community, especially children, Kannapolis Police Chief Terry Spry told the crowd.

Wow, such a range of emotions, Wallace said after accepting the award. Kind of like our career. Some moments youre angry. Some moments youre sad. Some moments youre grateful  its hard to stand here and celebrate anything knowing that one of our brothers is being buried as we speak.

The funeral for CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer was held Friday morning.

Wallace went on to thank his family, his team at the Kannapolis Police Department and the partnerships with Concord Police Department and Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office.

I encourage you to go home and pray for these families that have lost loved ones, he told the crowd. The best thing that ever happens (in the community) is when somebody comes up  and tells us were praying for you guys.

In true Law Enforcement Day tradition, the ceremony featured the placing of white roses in honor of fallen officers, a 21-gun salute by the Kannapolis Police Honor Guard and a moving rendition of taps performed by Cory Kluttz of the Kannapolis Police Department.

A bagpipe recessional of Amazing Grace by Officer Dallas Hurley of the Concord Police Department concluded the event.

Lost in the line of duty

Since 1899, eight law enforcement officers lost their lives serving Cabarrus residents in the line of duty:

William J. Kearns: Concord Police Department, Sept. 2, 1899

Ralph Chandler Kennerly: Concord Police Department, Oct. 20, 1920

William F. Propst: Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office, Nov. 17, 1922

Martin R. Kiser: Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office, March 3, 1931

Robert J. Eury: Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office, May 5, 1972

Roger D. Carter: Kannapolis Police Department, Dec. 31, 1993

Jackie L. Daniel: N.C. DMV, July 28, 1994

Jason N. Shuping: Concord, Police Department, Dec. 16, 2020

The 2024 Law Enforcement Day and Peace Officers Memorial event will premiere on Cabarrus County Television, Spectrum Cable Channel 22, on Monday, May 6, at 9 p.m. and run daily throughout the month at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The public can watch on demand at youtube.com/cabarruscounty or Facebook.com/CabarrusCounty.
The 10th annual Jiggy with the Piggy Barbecue Challenge got underway Thursday evening with the Jiggy with the Piggy 5K. Tonight the festival begins at 5 p.m. and it is highlighted by a big concert.

Country Music superstar Craig Morgan will help us celebrate the 10th anniversary with a free concert on the North Carolina Research Campus Horseshoe. Following the concert, stay for the exciting Drone Show.

Hundreds of drones will create a mesmerizing display in the nighttime sky to honor the city and the Jiggy Festival.

A multi-faceted entertainer, Morgan has made a name for himself as a country music icon, TV personality, author, celebrated outdoorsman and patriotic Army veteran. One of country musics best-loved artists, Morgan has amassed more than 1.5 billion career streams and charted over 25 songs on Billboard, thrilling massive crowds with signature hits including Bonfire, Almost Home, Redneck Yacht Club, International Harvester, This Ole Boy, Soldier, Thats What I Love About Sunday and his faith-filled tribute to his son Jerry, The Father, My Son and The Holy Ghost.

Jiggy is one of the largest sanctioned events by the Kansas City Barbeque Society and once again will host more than 70 barbecue competition teams that will compete for top bragging rights and prize money.

The presenting sponsor of Jiggy is Visit Rowan  Rowan County Tourism.

The festival, which has been named a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society, will have more than 100 arts and crafts vendors, concerts, a 5K walk/run, fireworks and a Peoples Choice pork tasting competition, as well as an exciting kids zone.

Each year, you can taste the competing teams cooking expertise by purchasing a $10 ticket for the Peoples Choice Pork Tasting Contest. You will receive 10 samples of pork and then cast your vote for the best one.

Kannapolis Firefighters Association will once again bring their cooking skills to the festival while selling barbecue to the public. Also added are more barbecue and food vendors for visitors to fill up on many varieties of yummy festival food.

As always, this festival is free to the public. No pets or smoking, please.

Friday, May 3

5 p.m.  Jiggy Festival Opens, North Carolina Research Campus Horseshoe

Food, arts and crafts, kids zone, carnival rides, and more

Rides are $2/$10 wristband

7:30 p.m.  Country Music superstar Craig Morgan performs the Jiggy concert, free admission, North Carolina Research Campus Horseshoe

9 p.m.  Drone Show

9 p.m.  Jiggy Festival closes

Saturday, May 4

KCBS barbecue competition  Throughout the day the professional barbeque teams compete for top awards and money prizes.

7-10:30 a.m.  Y Service Club Pancake Breakfast, YMCA Kannapolis

9 a.m.  Jiggy Festival opens to the public, North Carolina Research Campus Horseshoe

Food, arts and crafts, kids zone, music, carnival rides, and more

Saturday kids zone will feature a new Ninja Course.

Rides are $2/$10 wristband

Noon to 2 p.m.  Peoples Choice Pork Tasting (while supplies last), North Carolina Research Campus Horseshoe (Look for the signs and the white tent).

Proceeds benefit the Kannapolis YMCA, Kannapolis Rotary Club and the Kannapolis Youth Council. Festival attendees can purchase blocks of 10 samples for $10.

5 p.m.  Jiggy Festival closes

Sunday, May 5

KCBS barbecue competition  Throughout the day the professional barbecue teams compete for top awards and money prizes.
Tensions reached an inflection point at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier this week after pro-Palestinian protesters took down the American flag from the center of campus and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.

Concord native and UNC senior, Hugh Vogt V, had largely been a bystander as pro-Palestinian encampments had formed over the previous weekend outside Wilson Library but he, along with several other students, took action once the American flag was taken down.

The mood before Tuesday was pretty calm and peaceful, he told the Independent Tribune in a phone interview Thursday evening. There was obviously some emotional chants and some passion and then on Tuesday, there was such a large number of people that it became hostile.

Hugh, 22, estimated a crowd of around 1,000 to 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters formed in the area around the flagpole, as they repeatedly clashed with police officers, which resulted in pepper spray being deployed.

The protesters called on the university to disclose investments related to Israel in its endowment and, if they exist, to divest from them, according to an article from the News and Observer. They also demanded the university end study-abroad programs to Israel and acknowledge the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

It was like a riot was going on, Vogt said about the hourslong faceoff near the campus flagpole.

After the American flag was rehung on the flagpole, with assistance from UNC Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, protestors again took it down, Vogt said.

At this point, several counter-protesters, including Vogt, stood in the area surrounding the flagpole, holding the American flag up from touching the ground.

Myself and a few other gentlemen from a number of fraternities all stepped in and essentially held the ground where the flag is at physically, he said. We kind of formed a little circle around it  we all huddled and held the flag up.

Vogt and the other students were encircled by the protesters, who threw water bottles and other projectiles at them. He has a Hydro Flask in his living room that was thrown at him, he said.

When they cut down the American flag that flies above the university and replaced it with a Palestinian flag, thats when all of us were like, This is where were drawing the line, Vogt said about taking action.

According to The Daily Tar Heel, the American flag was reinstated by UNC Facilities workers around 6:45 p.m.

Vogt respects the right for students to peacefully protest and make their voices heard, but the protesters went too far when they took down the American flag, which had been flying at half-staff to honor the four officers who were killed in Charlotte on Monday. Its free speech, he said, not free rein to act hostile.

Hugh said that many of the pro-Palestinian protesters he spoke with told him they were not affiliated with UNC, including students from other schools such as NC State. Everybody that I personally spoke to out there claimed not to be a UNC student, he said.

There was an attempt to disrespect our nation and a small population of the students at Carolina would not let that happen, Vogt said, adding that taking down the American flag is a horrible approach to a protest.

Following the events on Tuesday, Hugh said a large industrial fence was erected around the flag pole. It would be almost impossible to get there now, he said, noting that things have calmed down considerably. It seemed that Tuesday was the peak of everything.

Campus police detained 36 people who refused to leave. UNC Police cited 10 UNC students and 20 people unaffiliated with the university for trespassing and released them. Six other demonstrators were arrested.

More than 2,000 demonstrators have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country, according to data from the New York Times, after a crackdown on demonstrators at Columbia University in New York this month spawned a wave of activism at universities.

Many of the demonstrators are protesting against the violence that is taking place in Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli military strikes. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after the terrorist group Hamas killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds hostage on Oct. 7.
COMPANY NEWS: Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace, today announced it has named Scott Chasin as CEO, effective immediately. Chasin, who has served as Pax8s chief technology officer (CTO) since 2021, will now lead the company, overseeing day-to-day operations and driving the strategic vision for Pax8s innovative marketplace technology. He succeeds John Street, the companys founder, who will continue as chairman of the board of directors, providing oversight and focusing on strategic activities.

Today marks the beginning of a new era at Pax8, as it is my pleasure to announce that Scott Chasin is officially now the CEO, said Street. I met Scott at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey nearly three decades ago and have seen first-hand how he leads, dreams, and executes. He has a strong vision and the potential to take Pax8 further as a product-led technology company. Pax8 is on track to become an iconic brand, and I am thrilled to leave it in such capable hands and excited for what comes next.

As CTO of Pax8, Chasin grew a dynamic team of engineers and product developers, led research and development initiatives, and developed a revolutionary technology roadmap. Last year, Chasin unveiled the future of Pax8s Marketplace, designed to enable partners and vendors with data-driven insights and capabilities to accelerate their growth.

Under Johns leadership, Pax8 has achieved extraordinary success, growing from a small technology startup to a leading global company, said Chasin. As I step into the CEO role, Im humbled and energised by the vast potential ahead. According to Canalys, 99% of companies worldwide are small-midsized businesses, which rely heavily on IT solution providers for their technology adoption and integrations. Through our innovative Marketplace, top-tier enablement programs, and connected community, Pax8 will empower our partners success and propel businesses around the world into the digital future.

Chasin, a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of leadership experience, has founded and led multiple successful technology startups, including USA.NET, MX Logic, and ProtectWise. As an early pioneer of cloud-based technologies, he has dedicated much of his professional efforts to developing cutting-edge solutions that address evolving market demands. Beyond his executive leadership experience, Chasin has also served on the boards of various organisations, providing strategic oversight and guidance to help new entrants navigate the dynamic technology landscape.

"We share in the excitement for Scott Chasin and Pax8 as they pass the torch of CEO, said Microsoft chief partner officer and CVP Nicole Dezen. Pax8 is an innovative partner for Microsoft globally, we look forward to working with Scott to drive Copilot, Security & AI into the partner ecosystem."

About Pax8

Pax8 is the worlds favourite cloud marketplace for IT professionals to buy, sell, and manage best-in-class technology solutions. Pioneering the future of modern business, Pax8 has cloud-enabled enterprises through its channel partners and processes one million monthly transactions. Pax8s award-winning technology enables managed service providers (MSPs) to accelerate growth, increase efficiency, and reduce risk so their businesses can thrive. The innovative company has ranked in the Inc. 5000 for six years in a row. Join the revolution at pax8.com.
COMPANY NEWS: Teradata announced today that it has renewed and expanded its strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support customers as they migrate to the cloud, accelerate the modernisation of their data analytic ecosystems and maximise the value of artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities. This deepened collaboration with AWS will also allow customers to unlock additional industry-vertical use cases, leveraging generative AI, as they take advantage of Teradatas integration with more AWS services and the two companies provision of harmonised data, Trusted AI, and secure, cloud-native technology.

The collaboration with AWS builds on an existing relationship, including previous integrations with AWS services such as Amazon SageMaker, which helps companies build, train, and deploy machine learning (ML) models for any use case with fully managed infrastructure, tools, and workflows, enabling companies to rapidly accelerate AI/ML projects to deliver data-driven insights.

As a digital retailer with millions of online customers across the UK and Ireland, we know theres nothing worse than when a consumer makes a purchase, and their desired item is out of stock. Worse yet, they make a purchase only to see the item go on sale days later, said The Very Group head of technology data platforms and governance Peter Murty. By leveraging Teradata VantageCloud on AWS, we are able to score complex machine learnings functions to predict consumer product demand of 2,000 brands and 160,000 SKUs across every product size and color imaginable. This forecasting solution integrates Amazon SageMaker models with Teradata VantageCloud to leverage the performance of Teradatas analytics database, ensuring that the right products are in stock and ready to ship when our customers want and need them. We look forward to future integrations to unlock more AI use cases, including around generative AI.

We are delighted to be working with Teradata to help our mutual customers meet their evolving analytics needs, said AWS managing director technology partnerships Chris Grusz. Through this collaboration, we can deliver greater flexibility by enabling customers to migrate at their own pace and reduce data preparation for AI initiatives.

Expected customer benefits of the expanded SCA include:

Fast, flexible cloud access

Teradata and AWS provide a complete cloud services and cloud management portfolio that give enterprise customers fast, flexible access to the cloud. With minimal risk and no application re-write needed, migrations are done in weeks, not years. The two companies considerable success at simplifying the use of Teradata VantageCloud on AWS motivated renewed and enhanced investments in new offerings. This will continue to empower a wide variety of users  including data scientists, data analysts, line of business teams, IT, and DevOps  to build new workloads and applications across the broad array of AWS services, at enterprise scale in the cloud. The expanded SCA has already led Teradata and AWS to strengthen product and engineering collaboration to increase system availability and provide a seamless experience for mutual customers.

Accelerated, simplified access to cloud platforms through AWS Marketplace

Teradata is a top-ranked Data & Analytics software provider in AWS Marketplace whose record driving AWS consumption motivated both parties to expand the SCA. Under the agreement, Teradata VantageCloud, including both Enterprise and Lake editions, as well as Teradata AI Unlimited, will be offered in AWS Marketplace. Teradata and AWS will continue to enhance customer experience by allowing customers to consolidate purchasing by subscribing directly through AWS and contributing to the draw down on their AWS commitments.

Industry cloud solutions delivering meaningful business outcomes

For organisations running on AWS, Teradata and AWS have collaborated successfully to deliver ready-to-use reference architectures and use case-specific recipes that leverage the power and speed of Teradata VantageCloud to drive impactful business outcomes. With Teradatas proven industry experience and industry logical data models, customers in key industries including financial services, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing are increasingly benefiting from accelerated time-to-insight.

Establishing a foundation for generative AI analytics use cases

Teradata and AWSs product, engineering and data science teams are leveraging the expanded SCA to develop the Teradata VantageCloud integration with Amazon Bedrock that will power customers most impactful and enterprise-grade generative AI use cases. With enhanced funding for solution development, proofs of concept and trial experiences, the new SCA will help ensure that with VantageCloud on AWS, organisations can build a trusted data foundation that secures buy-in from stakeholders and end users across the enterprise. Not only can customers realise value faster from early generative AI initiatives, they can also develop new AI solutions with confidence that they will successfully leap the POC to production gap and scale across the enterprise.

Recognising the great success we have had facilitating hundreds of cloud migrations and transactions in AWS Marketplace, our expanded SCA with AWS highlights our commitment to being a cloud-first, customer-first company," said Teradata chief customer officer Michael Hutchinson. This deepened collaboration with AWS supports our customers as they embark on their AI and cloud modernisation journeys, providing a tightly integrated, streamlined experience for customers using VantageCloud on AWS.

About Teradata

At Teradata, we believe that people thrive when empowered with trusted information. We offer the most complete cloud analytics and data platform for AI. By delivering harmonised data and trusted AI, we enable more confident decision-making, unlock faster innovation, and drive the impactful business results organisations need most.
GUEST OPINION: In the dynamic, ever-evolving realm of cybersecurity, executives find themselves at the forefront of a relentless battle against an increasingly sophisticated breed of cyberthreats.

At a time when breaches and cyberattacks dominate headlines, it has become an imperative for business leaders to adopt a security-first mindset. Regardless of their technological expertise, these leaders must champion and embed a culture of security within their organisation to safeguard against the escalating activities of cybercriminals.

Recent data from the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) reveals an alarming statistic. According to the report, 90% of organisations faced identity-related breaches in the past year with 68% experiencing direct business impacts.

The repercussions of such breaches extend beyond tangible losses and encompass brand reputation which is the bedrock of any company. Recovering from a tarnished image due to a breach is an arduous task, making prevention a strategic imperative.

There are five key strategies that leaders  regardless of their role within a business  can follow to create and nurture a security-first mindset within their organisation. Those strategies are:

1. Conduct a holistic risk assessment:

To begin the journey towards a security-first mindset, C-suite leaders must first undertake a holistic risk assessment. This involves taking a step back and objectively identifying high-level enterprise risks from both an outside-in and inside-out perspective. Having this foundational understanding is key before delving into granular protective measures. By taking a comprehensive approach, leaders can better grasp the intricacies of their organisational vulnerabilities. This proactive stance allows for a strategic allocation of resources, ensuring that protective measures align with the most critical areas of the business. Such a holistic risk assessment also serves as the cornerstone for developing a robust cybersecurity strategy. This, in turn, provides a roadmap for addressing vulnerabilities and fortifying an organisation against potential threats.

2. Partner with security experts

While senior business leaders often possess a comprehensive understanding of their businesses, the intricacies of cybersecurity require a collaborative approach. It is essential for CEOs to invest in and partner with subject matter experts, particularly in the form of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and a dedicated security team.

These experts can provide invaluable insights into the constantly evolving threat landscape, enabling the C-suite to stay ahead of potential risks. The CISO becomes a strategic ally, helping the CEO to understand, prioritise, and navigate the challenges that lie ahead.

This collaborative partnership will ensure a well-rounded perspective on cybersecurity, encompassing gaps, suggested focus areas, and effective strategies to manage everyday risks.

3. Provide internal and external protection:

A security-first mindset extends beyond the protection of corporate assets and also covers the protection of clients and partners. Business leaders must prioritise the implementation of internal tools designed to monitor and, ideally, prevent network breaches, with the understanding that customers and their data are collateral damage during a breach.

Every breach, from service disruptions to direct threats arising from compromised personal information, can have a profound impact on the customer experience. The leadership team should have a deep understanding of how their company's data is used internally as well as in the products or services provided.

This knowledge becomes the foundation for developing strategies to protect critical assets, including customer data, thereby safeguarding the trust and loyalty of the customer base.

4. Undertake proactive employee education:

The human element remains a significant vulnerability in the cybersecurity landscape. Leaders must adopt a proactive stance towards employee education, recognising that the continual evolution of threats necessitates continual progress in training programs.

Indeed, routine education must become an essential line of defence. Data from Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report[1] indicates that the human element was a driver of 82% of breaches.

For this reason, organisations must also take a comprehensive approach to employee education, focusing not only on typical hacking scenarios but also on the simple social engineering tactics that serve as gateways for more sophisticated attacks.

5. Continue a process of self-learning:

For non-security business leaders feeling overwhelmed by the intricacies of cybersecurity, the journey towards a security-first mindset requires a continuous learning process. Cybersecurity is a complex and ever-changing topic, and leaders need to be aware of current trends to prioritise security for the benefit of their customers and employees.

A range of resources is available to facilitate this learning journey. Executives can delve into webinars, blogs, whitepapers, and newsletters to gain insights into the overarching cybersecurity space.

The need for business leaders to lead with a security-first mindset has never been more acute. By thinking objectively about threats, investing in the right talent, staying vigilant, and emphasising routine employee education, leaders can lay a robust foundation for a secure corporate environment.

In an era where the stakes are higher than ever, these strategies are not just essential, but are the building blocks of resilience in the face of an evolving cyberthreat landscape.
IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Partner, have announced the successful migration and digital transformation of Macquarie Universitys workloads to a hybrid cloud environment.

Kyndryl says that to facilitate its rapidly evolving student services, Macquarie University needed an improved on-premises IT infrastructure that could enhance its flexibility in scaling data centre resources independently, elevate user satisfaction, increase resource visibility, and pursue automation with a new infrastructure-as-a-service virtual data centre, a cloud-based equivalent of a physical data centre.

During the migration period of just four months, Kyndryl worked to ensure a smooth transition for Macquarie Universitys business operations, enabling the higher education provider to continue effectively responding to online student queries, scheduling classes and exams, and running on-campus facilities such as food outlets and catering services with no disruption.

To achieve a fast and seamless migration to AWS, Kyndryl collaborated with Macquarie University to reduce the number of virtual machines being migrated to the VMware Cloud on AWS environment by 50%. The university then migrated 480 virtual machines supporting foundational and critical applications such as finance, CRM, and student support systems to the new cloud environment.

This cloud migration to AWS aligns to Macquarie Universitys long-term vision of embracing new and emerging technology to enable its community to better connect, engage, and collaborate. With AWS and Kyndryl, Macquarie University can drive efficiencies at scale by streamlining its IT infrastructure, and consolidate on-premises and cloud workloads, reducing its dependence on costly on-premises systems that are challenging to maintain, notes Kyndryl.

Kyndryl says that leveraging AWS, Macquarie University can now provide easier access to learning materials and seamless on-campus and virtual experiences to more than 40,000 students and 3,000 staff members, including a faster and easier approach to exam scheduling, class timetabling, accelerated access to academic resources, and training for staff members.

In addition, Kyndryl implemented AWS tools to help improve cyber resiliency, disaster recovery for critical business applications, automated cyber threat detection, and cybersecurity monitoring.

Our collaboration with Kyndryl and AWS is crucial when it comes to driving our digital strategy forward to create a connected university with a strong service delivery culture, said Jonathan Covell, Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) for Macquarie University Group. From application and acceptance to learning and networking, the student journey looks different for everyone. With the agility of AWS, we are able to prioritise making the experience for both students and teachers as frictionless a possible, which means we can better focus on attracting and retaining students and continuing to lead as a digital, internationally competitive university. By working with Kyndryl and AWS, we have established a solid foundation to achieve this.

Kyndryl says it will continue to manage the VMWare Cloud environment for Macquarie University as its digital transformation continues.

We are proud to be involved in this critical phase of Macquarie Universitys transformation as it sets a high standard for what it means to be a truly digital education provider, said Ashish Kumar, President, Kyndryl Australia and New Zealand. Kyndryls expertise in modernising mission-critical workloads and strong collaboration with AWS has already delivered positive results for the university, and were looking forward to achieving more milestones together in the future as the university positions itself for the next step into cloud native delivery.

Australias education sector is embracing technology to accelerate innovation, develop a more personalised approach to learning, and deliver improved experiences for administration, faculty, and students. Were delighted to be supporting Kyndryl to empower world-leading education institutions like Macquarie University to deliver new digital experiences through cloud-enabled technologies, said Craig Lawton, Head of Modernisation, Solutions Architecture, Australia and New Zealand, AWS. AWS is pleased to help enable Macquarie Universitys transformation through the power of the cloud, and we look forward to continuing our work with Kyndryl.
Data protection specialist Arcserve says Babel is a transformative leader with a 20+ year track record of driving customer success, partner growth, and global operations.

The company also announced it had received significant investment to accelerate data resilience innovation.

Our long-term financial backers, H.I.G. WhiteHorse and Monroe Capital are making a substantial investment to accelerate the development and delivery of our innovative, reliable data protection and recovery solutions, the company stated.

"We are thrilled to welcome Chris Babel as the new CEO of Arcserve," noted Mark Bernier, Managing Director at H.I.G. WhiteHorse. "Chris is a transformative leader and industry visionary who brings significant experience in establishing businesses as global leaders in the security arena. Our customers face an expanding threat landscape, and we are confident that Chris is the right person to lead the company as it continues its mission to keep global businesses and their data secure."



"Arcserve's track record of innovation and customer commitment positions it at the forefront of the rapidly evolving data resilience market. We are excited to support the company as it enters this next chapter of growth," said Matt London, Managing Director at Monroe Capital. "Our investment will allow Arcserve to continue developing customer-centric innovative products and solutions globally. We look forward to supporting Chris and the leadership team as they enable more organizations to protect, access, and leverage their data through any challenge."

Arcserve said it remains committed to helping companies protect and recover their data and increase its value.

Babel joins Arcserve from TrustArc, where he was CEO from 2010 to 2023 and turned the company into a global leader in privacy compliance and risk management. His prior experience includes leadership roles of increasing complexity and impact at Verisign, where he ran the global security business, solving customer needs in over 150 countries, noted Arcserve.



"Every day, the volume and value of data grows for businesses. Data has truly become business-critical and the lifeblood of organizations, making it imperative for businesses to ensure its availability," said Chris Babel.

"With this investment, we will accelerate Arcserve's development of innovative offerings and help businesses address the crucial challenge of protecting and leveraging their data in the face of increasing cyber threats and AI opportunities."
John Dickson left his role as chair of the Air System Development Committee to start a new AI cybersecurity company called Bytewhisper Security. Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

John Dickson, an early proponent of San Antonios airport expansion, has stepped down as chairman of the Air System Development Committee to launch a new cybersecurity company.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg formed the 21-member committee in 2017 to make the San Antonio International Airport a public policy priority. Dickson, a former Air Force intelligence officer and network-defense expert, shepherded committee members in laying the groundwork for the citys $2.5 billion, 20-year master plan to revamp the airport.

Dickson, 58, thanked Nirenberg in his April 15 resignation letter for the chance to serve.

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Im also confident that the committee and current airport team is particularly well positioned to implement the original vision of our committee, he said.

John Dickson Courtesy

The airports expansion includes a new terminal that will be more than twice the size of the facilitys two existing terminals. Its expected to open in 2028.

Nirenberg said the committee did a stellar job under Dickson, and that a new chairperson will be announced soon.

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The committee answered the lingering question about where our airport should be located and enabled the city to move forward on the long overdue redevelopment of SAT, Nirenberg said. As a result of Johns leadership, we are well on our way to creating the world-class airport that our community deserves.

Dickson was a principal at the Denim Group, one of the citys largest homegrown cybersecurity firms until it was acquired by Colorado-based Coalfire in 2021. Previously, he was a director at SecureLogix, another local cyber company.

A graduate of Texas A&M University, Dickson is a former Air Force officer who served in the Air Force Information Warfare Center. He has served on the San Antonio Chamber of Commerces Cybersecurity Committee, the Texas Leadership Council, the Texas Lyceum leadership group and the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Dickson told Nirenberg in his resignation letter that his new company, Bytewhisper Security, will use artificial intelligence to protect organizations and our critical infrastructure from the most sophisticated cyber attacks.

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Trustwave, a leading cybersecurity and managed security services provider, has announced the appointment of Keith Ibarguen as senior vice president of engineering. In this role, Ibarguen will lead Trustwave's engineering product development and SpiderLabs security research, leveraging his extensive experience in software, cybersecurity, and leadership to drive innovation and deliver impactful solutions for Trustwave's global clients.

Keith Ibarguen said, "I'm excited to join a team that's shaping the future of cybersecurity and protecting organisations on a massive scale.

Trustwaves reputation for securing companies with critical missions and keeping them safe from cyber threats is what drew me in. Its cutting-edge solutions and services empower clients to navigate todays complex digital landscape. By collaborating with Trustwaves talented team, I aim to drive innovation, enhance product development, and ultimately, equip organisations to defend against evolving cyber threats."

With over 25 years of experience, Ibarguen brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Trustwave. Prior to joining the company, he served as chief product officer at Cofense, where he played a pivotal role in spearheading strategic planning, architecture, development, deployment, and security of the product suite. His tenure at Cofense further solidified his reputation as a visionary leader capable of navigating complex cybersecurity landscapes.

Eric Harmon. chief executive officer, Trustwave, said: "We're thrilled to welcome Keith as our new Senior Vice President of Engineering.Keiths proven track record in leading innovative cybersecurity solutions and his deep understanding of evolving threats perfectly align with Trustwaves unwavering commitment to providing best-in-class offerings. We're confident that Keiths expertise will be instrumental in propelling Trustwaves product development and further solidifying our position as a leader in the cybersecurity industry.

Before his time at Cofense, Ibarguen held the position of chief engineer at MITRE Corporation for over two decades. During his tenure, he led technical cybersecurity initiatives for various government agencies, demonstrating his commitment to advancing the field of cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructures.

In addition to his professional endeavours, Ibarguen is actively engaged in industry and academic communities. He has served as a board member for the Association for Corporate Growth and chaired the Washington Technology Showcase committee, facilitating world-class technology and investment events on cybersecurity, healthcare, biomedical systems, and space. Ibarguen also sits on the Board of Advisors for academic programming at Tulane Universitys Information Technology Program and is an active member of Okeanos, a venture capital investment firm involved in early-stage growth companies across multiple verticals. Furthermore, he serves as a delegate to The World Innovation Network, contributing his insights to global innovation efforts.
(Photo: Tsukada Kazuhiro / Unsplash)

Japan is a country often revered for its overall cleanliness, with streets generally free of litter, public places well-maintained, and tidiness deeply rooted in societal norms like the shoes-off in the house culture. This reputation for keeping things clean was affirmed in the results of Skytraxs 2024 Worlds Cleanest Airports report, which saw Tokyos Haneda Airport (HND) take out first place on the top 10 list.

The report is based solely off passenger feedback, with survey results collated from August 2023 to March 2024. Respondents from over 100 countries took part in the study, and all survey entries were screened to ensure no duplicates or ineligible responses were included. The survey was also available in three languagesEnglish, Spanish, and Chineseallowing for a greater representation of participants.

The results from Skytrax noted that while airport cleanliness has always been something travelers looked for, this has become an even more important consideration since the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic showed just how quickly viruses can spread in crowded and enclosed spaces, and since airports are major transit hubs with high foot traffic and people from various locations, they can be particularly susceptible to viral transmission.

It wasnt just Haneda Airport that received praise for its cleanliness, either. Three other Japanese transit hubs made the cut, with Chubu Centrair Airport (NGO), Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), and Kansai International Airport (KIX) coming in at 5th, 6th, and 7th place respectively.

Chubu Centrair Airport also received high praise (Photo: JKT-c / CC BY 3.0)

How do you rate the overall cleanliness of Japans airports compared with other places youve traveled to? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

GETTING THERE

The full results from the Skytrax Worlds Cleanest Airports report can be found here. The report also covers the worlds cleanest airports by region, so take a look to see how your corner of the globe fares!

Japan Travel
DECATUR  Labeling it "a great problem to have," Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe on Thursday said it was imperative for the region to develop its workforce and attract new people to fill jobs available now and in the future.

The brief remarks from Moore Wolfe, a Mattoon native, were made before hundreds of business and community leaders who gathered for the Decatur Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual State of the Community breakfast.

They reflect a community in a state of transition with several economic development projects transforming the city's industrial northeast quadrant and expected to create hundreds of jobs.

"We've got hundreds of people in this town that can go into these great jobs. We have to reach them. We have to figure out how to get them the skills they need, how to get them to believe that we can invest in them and that they can have the great future here," Moore Wolfe said. "But that's not going to be enough. We need more workers because, I'm telling you, we got so many jobs coming into this town it will make your head spin over the next few years."

Among those projects, French company InnovaFeed, which cut the ribbon on its North American Insect Innovation Center last month, is expected to open its larger insect protein facility by 2027. The plant is expected to provide nearly 300 jobs.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. and South Korea-based LG Chem are partnering on a facility to produce environmentally friendly ingredients, which will employ up to 125 people.

Oregon-based ice cream company Tillamook purchased the former Prairie Farms plant and are in the midst of a major renovation project. They are eventually expected to employ 45 people there.

T/CCI Manufacturing continues work on retooling its facility to produce electric vehicle compressors. It will also house an EV Innovation Hub, which will include facilities for research and training programs targeting the next generation of EV workers. About 50 jobs are expected to be created. The plant is expected to open later this year.

Kara Demirjian Huss, senior vice president of T/CCI, told those in attendance that the facility is "changing the way we are being seen in the EV industry."

Primient, a food processing giant with a long history in Soy City despite several name changes, announced a $400 million investment in upgrading its facilities here.

Primient plant manager Debbie Dice, among the speakers at the Thursday morning event, said it "takes a lot of people to do that" type of investment.

"In my career, in 25 years in different industries, I've never had an opportunity to be part of a $400 million investment in one facility," Dice said. "So it is an attractive thing for newer and younger engineers to come and be part of spending that and giving them a lot of experience with project development and implementation."

But the city needs to prepare for what's coming Moore Wolfe said, specifically pointing out the need for better housing stock, calling it "a housing shortage like we've never experienced here." She pointed out that Dice, who recently moved to the city, mentioned in her own remarks that she has not yet been able to purchase a house.

"We need to upgrade what we have, we need to build some more because we've got all these jobs coming and we need great places for these folks to live," Moore Wolfe said. "So our problems are different. But they're happening and we can fix this."

Decatur Park District Executive Director Clay Gerhard, who offered an update on upcoming programs and ongoing projects, said we got conversations going on" about developing executive apartments in Chandler Park, one of the last concepts from the district's Nelson Park master plan that's yet to come to fruition.

Macon County Board Chairman Kevin Greenfield praised the continued cooperation among the various taxing bodies to address the community's needs. He noted two of the key projects underway in the county are the construction of a new Reas Bridge, which is still in need of some additional funding, and the expansion of broadband service in the rural areas.

Towards the end of her remarks, Moore Wolfe thanked outgoing City Manager Scot Wrighton, whose last day is Friday, for his five years of service.

Tim Gleason, Decatur's former and future city manager, starts in the role again on Monday. She made a good-natured ribbing of Gleason that doubled as a deep cut reference for those who have been around awhile.

"He really wanted to be here today, but (police) Chief Brandel wouldn't go pick him up," Moore Wolfe said of Gleason to much laughter in the room.

The reference was to Gleason's use of a police vehicle to travel to St. Louis for personal business immediately following a city event in May 2015. This led to a lengthy court battle with former Police Chief Brad Sweeney.
CHICAGO  A 22-year-old man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a Chicago police officer who was slain while off-duty and heading home from work, police said.

Xavier L. Tate Jr., was taken into custody Wednesday evening by the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force for the murder of Officer Luis M. Huesca, 30, Chicago police said in a post on the social platform X.

"We ask that the people of this city continue to support the Huesca family by keeping them in your prayers as they continue to mourn the loss of a beloved son, brother and uncle," the post adds.

The Chicago Police Department's office of news affairs said Thursday that no additional information was available regarding the case involving Tate and that the investigation was ongoing.

A message seeking information about when Tate would be arraigned and whether he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf was left Thursday with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office by The Associated Press.

A Cook County judge issued an arrest warrant last Friday charging Tate with murder in Huesca's killing. The officer was shot multiple times shortly before 3 a.m. April 21 on the city's Southwest Side and pronounced dead at a hospital.

He was in uniform but wearing something on top of it to cover it as is customary for off-duty officers, Superintendent Larry Snelling said.

Huesca, a six-year veteran of the police department, was found outside with gunshot wounds, police have said. His vehicle was taken, but police have not confirmed whether the shooting was part of a carjacking.

Hundreds of people lined the streets Monday for a funeral procession for Huesca, who was laid to rest following church services in Chicago.
Ethan Soto, 23, is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and theft. Bexar County Sheriff's Office George Santibanez, 33, is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. Bexar County Sheriff's Office Miguel Santibanez, 19, is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. Bexar County Sheriff's Office

Bexar County deputies busted a theft ring that stole Dodge cars with street racing technology, removed the powerful engines and installed them in other vehicles, according to court documents.

Ethan Soto, 23; Miguel Santibanez, 19; and George Santibanez, 33, are charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. Soto has an additional charge of theft of a vehicle valued between $30,000 to $150,000.

Arrest affidavits list two more men in connection with the thefts, but court records do not show they have been charged.

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The group found addresses for car owners by searching for their license plates on public records websites, according to the affidavits.

Investigators were watching a shop in the 1000 block of Basse Road on Feb. 27 and stopped a white Chrysler 300 after it exited the property.

The same vehicle had been stopped the previous day, and Soto had been driving it, arrest affidavits said. The VIN sticker had been tampered with, and San Antonio police scanned the cars onboard computer system, which listed a different VIN.

The scanned VIN belonged to a Dodge Charger with an estimated value of $124,000.

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In December, a Charger matching that VIN had been burglarized and the computer system that controls power to the transmission and engine was stolen.

Later that day, investigators said they saw Miguel Santibanez leave the shop in a blue Ram 1500. The license plate on the truck was registered to a 2007 Dodge Charger.

Deputies detained him and found out the truck had been stolen.

With a search warrant, deputies entered the shop and found stolen car parts belonging to seven different vehicles. A gray Dodge Charger was being put together, and the engine was listed as stolen.

Investigators then got search warrants for Sotos and Miguel Santibanezs Instagram accounts. In the messages, Soto told his counterpart that he had been shot while stealing a vehicle, the affidavit states.

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Deputies searched for stolen vehicles on Aug. 1, the same day Soto said hed been shot. A Dodge Charger, valued at $104,000, had been stolen from the 8300 block of Lake Vista, and a license plate was stolen from the same address at the same time. Sotos Instagram messages included a screenshot of the name of the vehicle owner, who had posted the car for sale.

A police report from the same day details how Soto drove himself to the hospital after being shot and crashed a car nearby. The license plate on the car was the same one stolen from Lake Vista.

Miguel Santibanez had posted a video of the car Soto allegedly stole, the affidavit states, and the owner of the stolen Charger confirmed it was their car because it had the same smoked out front headlights as his. Another video posted by Miguel Santibanez showed George Santibanez driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen, according to investigators.

Another alleged ring member posted swapped Chrysler 300s, SRTs and Hellcats for sale at half their value on Instagram. A message states they can sell a 2022 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody for $8,500. In another, Soto agreed to sell a 2018 Challenger Redeye Edition for $10,000, an affidavit said.
Wake Forest University is banning students from making chalk messages on university sidewalks for the remainder of the academic year after individuals vandalized sidewalks with antisemitic language and after the university received reports of racist, Islamophobic, and homophobic speech on campus, according to a statement from the universitys President Susan Wente.

Overnight, individuals vandalized sidewalks and a tree on the Reynolda Campus using spray paint, Wente wrote. This criminal act violates the student code of conduct. One incident of this vandalism included the use of vile, antisemitic language. The university has also received reports of racist, anti-Black, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and homophobic speech. Expressions of hatred directed toward an individual or group are completely antithetical to our values and are abhorrent and unacceptable.

The university will remove existing chalking in any areas and students found in violation of the new directive against chalk messages will be subject to conduct action, the statement read.

Wente added that the universitys police department is actively investigating those incidents.

The universitys statement comes amid a protest in support of Palestine which protesters have said is inspired by other student demonstrations at colleges and universities across the country.

Around 200 protesters were arrested at UCLA Thursday, while U.S. President Joe Biden said Americans have the right to protest, but not a right to cause chaos.

According to a New York Times tally, demonstrations over the war in Gaza have led to at least 2,000 arrests over the last two weeks.

The group of protesters at Wake Forest initially set up tents in front of Wait Chapel in the middle of the universitys main plaza, but their encampment has now been moved to the universitys lower quad area on Manchester Plaza.

A Jewish student, a freshman named Jackson Winthrop, told the Journal on Wednesday that a message had been written in chalk at Wake Forest on a sidewalk that read F- Israel.

A Pro-Palestine organizer told the Journal on Wednesday morning that counter-protesters had harassed demonstrators in the encampment and shouted racist remarks at them. Barry Trachtenberg, the universitys chair of Jewish History confirmed that he had seen groups of white male students yell at the protesters.

The group of demonstrators made a claim on a social media account freepalestinewfu that on Wednesday night drunken students harassed and yelled slurs at the protesters.

We are living in volatile and difficult times, but we cannot and will not waver in our commitment to protect campus health and safety, to uphold University values and to continue to demonstrate caring for one another, Wente wrote in her statement.

The final straw

Protesters and Wake Forest administrators confronted each other Thursday evening when school officials came to power wash chalk and spray paint messages written on the Manchester Plaza.

Protesters then laid down a tarp on the sidewalk to cover messages written in chalk and spray paint. The Journal obtained pictures of the messages on the sidewalk indicating that some of the messages were an image of the Palestinian flag and the statement From the river to the sea.

A protester who identified themselves as a graduate student to the Journal said that there were messages criticizing Israel as a nation state that they believed were being misreported as hate speech.

A Jewish student who identified himself as an active member of the Jewish student organization Chabad named Adam told the Journal that he questioned whether the protesters were actually students.

The student said that he and other Jewish students found the statement From the river to the sea antisemitic and wanted the statement removed.

Other Jewish students watched the encampment with other dozens of undergraduate students who held their phones out to record the heated exchanges between protesters and administrators.

At around 6:30 p.m., the universitys dean of students Matthew Clifford kneeled down within a circle that protestors had formed around two demonstrators lying down on top of the messages on the sidewalk.

Protesters had unfurled umbrellas to shield onlookers from watching while Clifford listened to the one of the protesters who was lying down.

I want to see an actual change before I move, and you can arrest me, you can shoot me, you can hold me behind the back and asphyxiate me, I do not give a F- at this point, the protester yelled. People that look like me, that look like my friends and family are dying and Im tired, Im [expletive] sick of it!

They added that demonstrators hadnt met with Wente yet and that school officials and university donors they had met told them they didnt know how to accomplish the protesters demands to divest from companies that invest in Israel.

How many times have me or my family members been called as ones who have perpetrated 9-11 at Wake Forest? Its happened on four separate occasions, the protester said.

They will claim, say they love you and care for you, and then violate you at every turn, the protester said to Clifford. To say its OK to put chemicals in your face.

Clifford attempted to interject at points.

If youre gonna save this university you better take me away either by gun or by hand bro, Im serious because Im not moving until something happens. This is the final straw, the protester said.
After three days of protests, the pro-Palestinian encampment at Wake Forest University has been dismantled.

University officials cleared the encampment early Friday morning and notified the small number of student protesters remaining that they would be subject to suspension should they fail to follow instructions to immediately disperse, according to a statement from the universitys communications office.

Videos posted to the protesters Instagram account freepalestinewfu show campus police officers as well as Winston-Salem police cruisers parked near Manchester Plaza early Friday morning.

The account posted a statement which said that at 4:30 a.m., administrators arrived with 30+ cops and told protesters that there were new policy guidelines and that they needed to shut down the encampment.

When asked if the university had requested city police presence at Manchester Plaza early Friday morning, the universitys communications team did not immediately return a request for comment.

The students cooperated and Manchester Plaza is now clear, the universitys Friday statement read. The Universitys early morning action was taken to minimize the risk to students, both those directly involved and bystanders, and to avoid further disruption to the academic mission, final exams and planned campus activities.

No arrests were made by police throughout the three days of protests.

In a phone interview on Friday, a protester who identified themselves to the Journal as an undergraduate student, said that demonstrators are afraid that the university will revoke their scholarships or penalize them in some way.

The students said that protesters felt the number of officers and deputies who broke up the encampment was not justified because there were fewer than 10 protesters.

Many of us are on scholarship and we are low-income students, the student said, claiming that an administrator had asked for protesters student ID cards. Were very scared of retribution from the university.

The student added that protesters foremost concern was the safety of demonstrators and that there are no current plans to continue protesting at Wake Forest.

In the universitys Friday statement, school leaders also outlined a new policy on demonstrations effective through May 21.

The policy restricts acceptable demonstrations to a designated area of Poteat Field, which is between the Wake Forest School of Business and the universitys Kentner Stadium, and limits protests to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The directive also bans any sound or amplification devices as well as tents and other structures and using to chalk to write anywhere on the schools campus.

Professors contest Wentes claim

Three of the universitys faculty members said they emphatically reject university President Susan Wentes Thursday statement that there was vile, anti-Semitic language in a message written on a sidewalk on Manchester Plaza, according to a letter obtained by the Journal.

Wente, in a statement written on Thursday, claimed that one incident of vandalism on a sidewalk on the Reynolda Campus included the use of vile anti-Semitic language.

Dean Franco, Barry Trachtenberg, and Mir Yarfitz, who have been the universitys first three directors of Jewish Studies, said in response that the phrase from the river to the sea is not anti-Semitic and that they were appalled that Wente would inflame tensions by repeating such an egregious claim.

The phrase from the river to the sea is a claim that refers to the land of historic Palestine and has been used by many sides in this current conflict and long before. To Zionists who regularly use the phrase, it almost always has meant an exclusively Jewish state in a land ethnically cleansed of Palestinians, the professors wrote. To Palestinians, it has held a variety of meanings, from a land absent of Zionist settlers to its most common usage in the current crisis: that a land in which Palestinians can live free from their daily experience of Israeli occupation and apartheid.

They added that students have been bravely protesting and have faced racial and sexual slurs from fellow students, and have been threatened with physical violence from one administrator.

Protesters claim that on Thursday afternoon, the universitys dean of student conduct, Jim Settle, threatened to spray the demonstrators if they would not move from the sidewalk so that authorities could power wash spray-painted messages, which could only be removed with chemicals.

In a video obtained by the Journal, Settle stands over two protesters who were lying on the sidewalk over a chalk image of a Palestinian flag. Settle can be heard saying, Spray the chemicals. If they want to get sprayed, thats their case.

You guys are on private property, so I dont know what the problem is, another student says while watching the scene.

So you just authorized the use of chemicals against students? a student asks in the video, referring to the chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite that are used to pressure wash surfaces.

Later in the video, Settle moves over to explain to onlookers that officials are trying to move the protesters and the tarp that they are laying on so that the chalk can be washed away.

University spokesperson Cheryl Walker confirmed in an email that the university requested assistance from Winston-Salem police and from the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office.

When asked about the video of Settle, Walker responded, in accordance with university policy, all reports of misconduct are taken seriously and will be carefully reviewed.

Tension on campus

Throughout the three days of protests, all sides have reported tension on campus between students, including numerous instances of hate speech and harassment.

Fizz, a social media app for students on college campuses, includes multiple derogatory messages toward the group of protesters at Wake Forest.

Instead of suspending the protesters lets drop them all in Gaza and see if they last over 12 hours, one message read. A separate message replied to a screenshot of a statement from the university about the protests, saying, We dont negotiate with terrorists.

Just saying theres a correlation between being gay and being anti-Semitic. Just asking questions is all, another message read.

One message contained a screenshot of a notes app with the headline Wake Terror Sympathizers with a list underneath blurred out. An anonymous demonstrator who shared the post with the Journal said that the blurred list contained names of protesters and faculty observers.

Shouldnt be getting downvoted. Cant hide behind a mask, the Fizz post read.
Of all the subjects I have written about over the last 20 years, the ones concerning property damage and personal injury claims, especially those in motor vehicle wrecks, are by far the most asked about by readers.

So today begins a series of columns in this lane of the law but updated with several changes to make them current.

Here are the key issues:

When are you required by law to contact the authorities to investigate a wreck?

How do you assure you are properly reimbursed for your property damage and personal injuries if you are not at fault in a wreck?

Why is it important to document that you received timely and necessary medical treatment if you are injured?

What liability insurance policies may provide additional coverage if your injuries are more serious?

What are medical care liens?

North Carolina law requires a driver in a collision to contact the authorities when any person is injured or there is property damage of $1,000 or more.

Most bumps or dings are going to result in damage greater than $1,000. So you should always contact the authorities to investigate the wreck whether theres a personal injury or not.

No one likes to deal with the unexpected time it takes to investigate a wreck, but the investigating officer may suggest you go to the emergency room to be examined for your injuries, which may not be apparent to you  particularly if theyre of the musculature nature. These are real and often lasting injuries, not feigned in any way, which may not be fully apparent to the most honest people until hours later.

If an officer tells you to go to the ER, do it. It helps you medically to get appropriate treatment. But it also validates you were, in fact, injured.

If you decline to go to the ER and complain later, the insurance adjuster for the at-fault party may legitimately ask whether you were injured in the wreck to the extent you now claim.

What if the cause of the wreck is not fully clear? What if the at-fault party claims later you could have been partially at fault as well? The law on this issue may surprise you. North Carolina is one of three states that follows something called the unconditional contributory negligence rule. If the facts suggest you are even 1% at fault, except in limited cases, you are NOT entitled to recover.

An impartial officer will record what the parties said at the scene about how the accident unfolded. This goes a long way toward ascertaining the facts to avoid, shall we say, creative memories of the at-fault party later about what you did which allegedly contributed to the cause of the wreck.

Remember: An informed choice is a smart choice.
Jewish students are not OK. They do not feel safe. We know because they are telling us. Believing them isnt hard.

We believe members of the Black community who say they feel unsafe when law enforcement pulls them over.

We believe Muslim Americans who say they feel unsafe when a mosque is vandalized.

We believe members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community who say they feel unsafe when scapegoated for the spread of COVID-19.

We believe members of the LGBTQ+ community who say they feel unsafe when bigots attack their dance clubs.

Simply put, when members of our greater community tell us they feel, and are, unsafe, we defend them. We show up at their places of worship and pray with them; we march with them in pride parades; we patronize their businesses; we listen to them and hear what they are experiencing and give them the support they say will be meaningful to them. All the while, we dont relent in allowing for other peoples right to hate and their right to express that hatred in ways that do not threaten anyones safety.

Jewish kids have been telling us for months they do not feel safe. And 73% of Jewish college students said they experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism during the first three months of the 2023-24 school year alone  a number we should assume is exponentially higher five months later.

Encampments up the antisemitism ante. Encampments on college and university campuses are not peaceful protests against war. They are platforms for antisemitism, and administrators who do not act aggressively to shut them down risk becoming complicit.

When protesters at the encampment at Northwestern University chanted, Long live the intifada and We dont want no Zionists here, and posters at the University of Chicago encampment on Monday read, Globalize the intifada, Jewish students know these messages are calling for the killing of Jews everywhere. When protesters at the encampment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign chanted this weekend, From the river to the sea, Jewish students know they are calling for the eradication of Israel, the only true haven for Jews located in our ancestral homeland.

This is also the Jewish experience at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University and at Roosevelt University and Columbia College downtown. Protesters in recent months have regularly yelled in Jewish students faces, harassed and vandalized Jewish institutions, and celebrated Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter calls for the murder of Jews anywhere in the world.

Lets be clear: Encampments on college campuses are not First Amendment-protected protests, and the actions of the students and agitators participating in them are not speech. Oct. 7 will happen to American Jewish students 10,000 times over is not protected speech. Yet it is tolerated on campus. We should be outraged that human chains are formed to prevent Jewish students from getting to class, rabbis and universities must tell Jewish students they cannot guarantee their safety on campus, and graduation ceremonies are canceled because of antisemitic protesters. This is hate with a clear intent to intimidate Jewish students. Yet its allowed.

University leaders can start to reverse the trend by enforcing their own codes of conduct and campus policies to restore calm and safety for all students. Specifically:

Enforce time, place and manner of restrictions and permitting requirements.

Ensure there are serious consequences for violations, including suspensions and expulsion if necessary.

Prohibit professors from canceling class or exams to encourage students to participate in protests.

Do not allow students who choose to participate in these hateful protests to make up work or receive credit for exams missed for attending a protest.

Prohibit people who are not students from being on campus without approval  an important action given calls to action from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network to join the Northwestern encampment and similar actions at U. of I.s flagship campus.

The environment on college campuses is a natural extension of record levels of antisemitism in America and a growing tolerance of hate against Jews. But thats not an excuse.

We rightly believe other targeted communities when they say they are unsafe. So, are Jewish students just not believable? Or is antisemitism that baked into the collegiate DNA that no one sees it, even when its camping right in front of you?
To label Love Lies Bleeding as simply an erotic thriller dramatically undersells writer-director Rose Glass riveting, violent tale of sexual attraction, romance and family crime.

For the picture digs into the romance between gym manager Lou, played by Kristen Stewart, who has never been better, and bodybuilder Jackie, a revelatory Katy OBrian, who wanders into the grungy gym, before revealing it's really a story of violence, revenge and organized crime.

Set in New Mexico in the late 1980s, Love Lies Bleeding brings the muscled-up runaway Jackie from Oklahoma into the small border town run by Lous creepy, bug-eating father (a scarily unhinged Ed Harris).

But before she meets Lou, Jackie lands a job at her dads shooting range, courtesy of a quickie in the car with the true sleazeball J.J. (Dave Franco), whos cheating on his abused wife Beth (Jena Malone), who just happens to be Lous sister.

Drawn to the gym to work out  shes on her way to Las Vegas for a bodybuilding competition  Jackie catches Lous eye.

Then, after Jackie tries to punch out a harassing gym rat, Lou breaks up the fight, tends to Jackies jaw and, after learning of her bodybuilding goal, shoots her up with steroids  if nothing else, a novel way of starting a romance that almost instantly gets physical, first in the gym, then at Lous house.

Those sweatily erotic scenes appear to be setting the stage for an edgy love story between the two women, each an outsider in their families and society.

But an FBI agent turns up asking questions of Lou and, no spoilers here, a violent incident occurs that begets more violence, which leads to more violence, the unraveling of Lou and her familys past and seemingly the end of the reckless romance.

Carried by the tense synthesizer score and the stark cinematography of Ben Fordesman, the final act of the film cranks up the tension and violence, with a bit of magical realism thrown in to drive home the perfectly drawn ending.

Much was made about the gore in Love Lies Bleeding before the films release. But with the exception of a single, brutally bloody scene, its not all that gory. Nor is the roid rage, blood and violence exploitative.

Rather, it is seemingly the only outcome for the behavior of the women engaged in the gripping, dangerous romance.

REVIEW

Lovie Lies Bleeding

Grade: A-.

Director: Rose Glass.

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy OBrian, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Dave Franco.

Rated: R (for violence, language throughout, grisly images, drug use, nudity, sexual content).

Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

Now Showing: Ross.

The Reel Story: To call "Love Lies Bleeding" simply an erotic thriller dramatically undersells writer-director Rose Glass riveting, violent tale of sexual attraction, romance and family crime that's anchored by striking performances by Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian.

20 panned movies that went on to become cult classics 20 panned movies that went on to become cult classics American Psycho (2000) The Big Lebowski (1998) Blade Runner (1982) A Christmas Story (1983) Eraserhead (1977) The Evil Dead (1981) Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Labyrinth (1986) Office Space (1999) Predator (1987) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) The Room (2003) The Shining (1980) Starship Troopers (1997) The Thing (1982) Vertigo (1958) Videodrome (1983) The Warriors (1979) Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
Jacob Beltran covers crime, breaking news and general assignments for the Express-News. He can be reached at jbeltran@express-news.net.

A San Antonio native, Jacob began his journalism career in 2010. He's worked for the student-run newspaper for San Antonio College, The Ranger, and for Texas A&M University-San Antonio, The Mesquite.

He enjoys video games, photography and exploring during his free time.
A Nebraska man who disappeared while on parole for a 1986 murder was arrested Sunday near Waterloo, Iowa.

Peter Wade Suffredini, 63, was arrested by the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office in Iowa at about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, according to an arrest log. Prior to being paroled last year, Suffredini was serving a sentence of 30 years to life for murder.

It's unclear how long Suffredini was on the run before he was arrested. According to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, he was paroled in August 2023.

Suffredini pleaded no contest to charges of second-degree murder, robbery and use of a firearm to commit a felony in connection with the 1986 slaying of 24-year-old construction worker Samuel Coker. Coker's body was found at a rest stop near Sutherland, Nebraska, in April 1986. He had been robbed and shot five times.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office did not respond to multiple requests seeking additional information about Suffredini's arrest. Black Hawk County is about 270 miles northeast of Omaha.

Top Journal Star photos for May 2024
Last Friday, 10 tornadoes, five of them EF-3s with wind speeds of up to 158 miles per hour, tore through eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, destroying homes and businesses, overturning semitrailer trucks and train cars.

The property damage total will run into the tens if not hundreds of millions, and lives in the hardest hit areas of Elkhorn and Bennington will be disrupted for months.

But no one in Nebraska was killed in the storms  an extraordinary miracle, in the words of Gov. Jim Pillen.

That is because, in addition to some good fortune, those charged with keeping the public safe before and after natural disasters did their jobs and did them well.

They start with the National Weather Service in Valley, which issued 42 tornado warnings during the afternoon and evening Friday, the most in one day for a single Weather Service office in the past five years.

Those warnings were conveyed to the public through emergency sirens, phone alerts and the local media. Frequent updates from the Journal Star and other local media tracked the storms and warnings, and shared on-the-ground reports from volunteer storm spotters.

Those warnings were heeded by individuals at schools and businesses and, to choose one example, those at the Sandhills Global Events Center, where about 400 people there for the Nebraska Arboretums annual plant sale, sheltered in place in the buildings restrooms.

The EF-3 tornado that came close to the event center did most of the damage in Lancaster County, knocking down the roof at Garner Industries and tipping over BNSF train cars.

Law enforcement and medical first responders again did their jobs, getting on site quickly after the storm passed and treating and transporting the three people who were injured in the roof collapse.

The Elkhorn-area destruction where nearly 350 homes were damaged or destroyed will take months to replace and rebuild.

But, again, volunteers, including country star Zach Bryan and his crew who were in Omaha for a pair of concerts, turned up to clean up in such large numbers that, Pillen said, there were too many people trying to help.

Severe weather is a fact of life on the Great Plains, where tornadoes and powerful thunderstorms wreak havoc every spring.

But Fridays commendable work by the Weather Service, media and first responders demonstrated that the public could be held as safe as possible during the storm.

And the ongoing collective effort to clean up after the storms again demonstrated that Nebraskans will rally around each other and pitch in to help make the quickest possible recovery.
San Antonio police have released the names of the officers involved in the shooting death of a man accused of killing his wife on Tuesday. mbbirdy/Getty Images

San Antonio police have released the names of officers involved in the shooting death of a man who allegedly killed his wife on Tuesday.

Officers responded to a welfare check around noon in the 8600 block of Southwest Loop 410 after family members reported they had not heard from a relative. After detectives obtained a search warrant and entered the location, they found Tanya Boulding, 33, with a gunshot wound.

The shooter, identified as Jaevel Andrew Boulding, 32, had fled the scene in a rental vehicle, police said.

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Hours later, officers tracked the vehicle to the 1800 block of Vance Jackson. He was seen leaving a restaurant when officers approached him.

In their attempt to arrest him, Boulding began shooting at officers from the inside of his vehicle, according to police. Four officers returned fire, striking him.

EMS arrived at the scene and pronounced him dead.

San Antonio police also released the names of the officers involved in this incident:

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Officer G. Vales, six years of service

Officer E. Matos, four years of service

Officer E. Valladares, three years of service

Officer B. Pratt, six years of service
1. Yes. They look better and require less maintenance. Most high-end housing areas have them.

2. Yes. Wood fences can weather and look unsightly, plus masonry walls help to block sound.

3. No. Residents should have a choice of what kind of barriers are put up near their homes.

4. No. Allowing a variety of materials will be better for aesthetics, and costs may be lower.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say. Masonry walls may be sturdier, but mandating them is problematic.

Vote

View Results
For the citys efforts in sustainability and green technology, La Crosse earned its way into a new group of local governments focused on thoughtful environmental practices.

The LEED for Cities Local Government Leadership Program selected 12 new cities across the country Tuesday to gain access to LEEDs rating system and building program for its 2024 group.

La Crosse joins other major U.S. cities such as Philadelphia, New Orleans and El Paso, Texas, for the 2024 group covering 5 million residents in the country.

By joining the LEED for Cities program, La Crosse is able to access a nationwide network of sustainable building groups for networking and assistance. Members also gain educational resources, free membership to the U.S. Green Building Council and help with fees to certify buildings with LEED status.

Other La Crosse groups such as UW-La Crosse and Western Technical College have previously attained LEED certifications for their buildings. LEED measures how buildings use sustainability, water efficiency, energy use, building materials, quality of the space and innovation in design to score buildings for certification.

The scoring process is largely similar for cities. Added on top of normal LEED measurements are sections for public transit options and the citys ability to set green building policies.

From its entry into the program, LEED estimates nine to 12 months to complete certification for any given city. By working on certification, La Crosse can identify strengths and weaknesses in its goals for sustainability and green technology.

The LEED program is run by the U.S. Green Building Council and supported by Bank of America.
NEW YORK  Donald Trumps 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed Trump bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission, longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified Friday at his hush money trial.

Hicks, a former White House official, was compelled to testify by prosecutors, who are hoping her remarks bolster their argument that the uproar over the infamous Access Hollywood tape hastened Trumps then-lawyer to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to bury a negative story that could imperil his 2016 presidential bid.

Once one of Trump's closest confidants, Hicks provided jurors with a glimpse into the chaotic fallout from the tape's release just days before a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton. Hicks described being stunned and huddling with other Trump advisers after learning about the tape's existence from the Washington Post reporter who broke the story. Hicks forwarded the reporter's request to campaign leadership with the recommendation to deny, deny, deny, Hicks said.

I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days, Hicks testified. This was a damaging development."

She added: "This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.

Prosecutors used her testimony to strengthen their case alleging Trump worked to prevent damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and slammed the case as an effort to hurt his bid to reclaim the White House this November. The defense has sought to show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by burying embarrassing stories about his personal life.

Hicks told jurors that Trump claimed he did not know anything about his then-attorney Michael Cohen paying $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from going public with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump. But, Hicks said, Trump eventually came to believe that burying Daniels' story was prudent, saying he thought it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.

At other points, Hicks' testimony appeared to help the defense's contention that the former president was trying to protect his reputation and family  not his campaign  by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he has slammed as an effort to derail his campaign to reclaim the White House in November.

Under questioning by Trump's attorney, Hicks told jurors that he was worried about the effect of the Access Hollywood tape on his family. And when the Wall Street Journal published a story revealing ex-Playboy Model Karen McDougal's affair allegations right before the election, Hicks said Trump was concerned about his wife seeing the story and asked Hicks to make sure newspapers weren't delivered to their residence that morning.

But when asked if Trump was also worried about the storys impact on the campaign, Hicks responded that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign. Trump would often asking her, How is it playing? as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters, she said.

Hicks proximity to Trump over the years has made her a figure of interest to congressional and criminal investigators alike, who have sought her testimony on multiple occasions on topics ranging from Russia election interference to Trumps election loss and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

She appeared reluctant to be in the courtroom, taking a deep breath as she stepped up to the microphone and acknowledging she was really nervous. She later started crying on the witness stand when Trump lawyer Emil Bove started to ask her to reflect on her time at the Trump Organization before Trump brought her onto his 2016 campaign.

Referring to her former boss as Mr. Trump, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or fall of 2022. While no longer in Trumps inner circle, Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background.

She recounted how the political firestorm that ensued after the release of the tape was so intense that it knocked an actual storm out of the headlines. Before the tape became public, the news was dominated by a Category 4 hurricane that was charging toward the East Coast.

I dont think anybody remembers where that hurricane hit, Hicks told jurors.

Hurricane Matthew, which hit Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 storm, made landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Oct. 8, the day after the Access Hollywood tape was made public.

In the aftermath of the tape's release, she asked Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen to chase down a rumor of another potentially damaging tape. Hicks said she wanted to be proactive in seeking out the supposed tape because she didn't want anyone to be "blindsided. There ended up not being one.

Then, four days before the 2016 election, Hicks said she received a request for comment from a Wall Street Journal reporter for a forthcoming story about American Media Inc. buying the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougals story that she had an affair with Trump years earlier. Trump denies the allegations.

Hicks recalled reaching out to Jared Kushner in hopes he could use his connections to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Journals parent company, to help delay the story. Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, told her that he likely would not be able to reach Murdoch in time, Hicks testified.

Testimony will resume Monday. The case could last another month or more.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case charging Trump with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

One of the most pivotal pieces of evidence disclosed to jurors this week was a recording of a meeting between Trump and Cohen shortly before the 2016 election in which they discussed a plan to purchase the rights to McDougals story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougals story to bury it on Trumps behalf.

At one point, Trump can be heard saying: What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?

In a victory for Trump just as court was ending for the week, Judge Juan M. Merchan denied a request by prosecutors to ask Trump, should he choose to testify, about being held in contempt of court for gag order violations in the case. Merchan said allowing it would be so prejudicial it would be very, very difficult for the jury to look past that.

Trump this week paid his $9,000 fine for violating the gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.

His attorney, Todd Blanche, told the judge Friday they are appealing the finding that Trump violated the gag order. Blanche said that they took particular issue with penalties for what are known as reposts  instances where Trump shared someone elses post with his followers.

Photos: Scenes from Donald Trump's hush money trial
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, speaks during a hearing of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press FBI agents are seen at the home of Congressman Henry Cuellar, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Danny Zaragoza Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, left, speaks with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, right, before a hearing before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press Federal agents search the home of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar in Laredo, Texas, on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. (Valarie Gonzalez/The Monitor via AP) Valerie Gonzalez/Associated Press Rep. Henry Cuellar speaks on Jan. 3, 2024 at Tres Laredos Park. David Gomez Jr./Laredo Morning Times President Joe Biden talks with Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, second from left, as they walk along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Oscar Leeser, Mayor of the City of El Paso is at right. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Andrew Harnik/Associated Press Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, speaks during a hearing of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Federal officials have charged U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and his wife for allegedly accepting bribes from two foreign entities and money laundering, according to the Department of Justice, which unsealed the indictment Friday.

Investigators allege that the longtime congressman and his wife, Imelda, took roughly $600,000 in bribes between 2014 and 2021 from a bank headquartered in Mexico City and an oil and gas company owned and operated by the government of Azerbaijan. In exchange, Cuellar  who has denied all wrongdoing  allegedly used the powers of his office to influence legislative action that would help the bank and promote foreign policy that would favor Azerbaijan, a former Soviet state.

Cuellar and his wife face a maximum penalty of 204 years in prison if convicted. The charges against them include bribery of a federal official, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal. Investigators say the bribes were laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into a shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar.

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In a statement Friday, Cuellar said he and his wife are innocent and that he still plans to run for reelection this fall. Derek Hollingsworth, an attorney for Cuellar's wife, said the couple appeared in court around 1 p.m. A judge gave them each a $100,000 unsecured bond and restricted their travel, he said.

The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people, Cuellar said in the statement.

Without providing context, Cuellar said he proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee before I took any action. He said he also requested a meeting with federal prosecutors to explain the facts, but they declined to discuss the case.

Chris Flood, Cuellar's lawyer, expressed concern about the DOJ's agenda in pursuing the charges, noting the case could harm his client's reelection bid.

"Congressman Cuellar is not guilty," Flood said. "Any allegation that he's a foreign agent is ludicrous."

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The 54-page indictment claims the Cuellars used the bribes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in personal debts, including taxes, credit card bills and car payments. The couple also purchased a $12,000 custom gown, used $7,000 as a down payment for a new car, and splurged at restaurants and retail stores.

The document is a play-by-play accounting of the Cuellars alleged scheme to rack up money from foreign governments in exchange for political favors. The indictment references several third parties, including individuals and companies, that allegedly served as intermediaries between the governmental entities and Imelda Cuellars fake companies.

For example, beginning at least in May 2014, investigators allege, the Cuellars negotiated a sham contract with a Mexican bank, eventually through a U.S.-based affiliate, and used a Mexican official as a middleman. Almost a year later, Cuellar and the official allegedly exchanged messages about finding another intermediary to further disguise the bribe payments, the indictment states.

In one message, the Mexican official told Cuellar that we need to find another scheme for the bank because it was not recommended to enter a contract directly with the Cuellars shell company. The official suggested using a Mexican company in Mexico as a new middleman, but Cuellar replied, Prefer American.

After the shell company received the money, Imelda Cuellar periodically wrote checks to her husband for rent. They were deposited into the couples joint bank account.

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In exchange for the payments, Cuellar allegedly pressured executive branch officials to soften anti-money laundering policies that would have hurt the bank. The indictment says Cuellar also backed a bill amending money laundering laws that was supported by the bank and its affiliates.

In January 2022, the FBI raided Cuellars home and campaign office. ABC News reported at the time that the investigation was part of a wide-ranging federal probe relating to Azerbaijan and several U.S. businessmen, but Cuellars attorney told reporters that year that the Democrat was not a target of the probe.

The office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday that Cuellar will take leave as ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee while the case continues.

Like any American, Congressman Cuellar is entitled to his day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process, Jeffries spokesperson Christie Stephenson said.

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Cuellar is a member of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, and he has a long relationship with the nations ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, whom he has credited with helping to establish a partnership between Texas A&M International University and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan.

He also has ties to a Houston-based businessman who was convicted of lying to Congress about Azerbaijans role in funding a 2013 trip to the western Asian nation for 10 lawmakers, federal records show.

Kemal Oksuz, who pleaded guilty in that case, was a regular campaign donor to Cuellar and other Texas politicians and in 2015 enlisted Cuellar to establish the partnership. Cuellar and his wife had been issued subpoenas for information including records related to Oksuz and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, ABC reported in early 2022.

Cuellar has represented South Texas in Congress since 2005. He is among the most moderate representatives in the U.S. House and the only anti-abortion Democrat.

The congressman faced two difficult primary challenges in 2020 and 2022 from a more progressive Democrat, immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros, but eked out a victory both times. In November 2022, he beat a Republican opponent by more than 13 percentage points.

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Cuellar did not have a Democratic primary challenger this year. He has two potential Republican opponents, Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza Jr., who are headed to a runoff at the end of this month. Cuellar's district stretches from San Antonio to Laredo.
Classes at Mount Horeb Middle School were canceled again Friday, two days after a 14-year-old student showed up with a gun and was killed by police. Community and school leaders are offering support to students and their families as they process the ordeal.

Here is what we know:

What happened?

A Mount Horeb resident called police about a person with a gun and a backpack walking toward Mount Horeb Middle School. Students saw a 14-year-old classmate outside with a gun and alerted staff, who took action to protect the students.

Mount Horeb police ordered the student to drop the gun, but he pointed his gun at authorities and was shot and killed by police.

The weapon turned out to be a .177 caliber pellet rifle.

Who was the student who was killed?

Authorities are not yet identifying the suspect, but parents and students identified him as Damian Haglund.

Did he enter the school?

No. He was not able to enter the building. Superintendent Steve Salerno has credited a referendum passed by voters that allowed the district to install security measures. He also credited the staff.

What are some of those security measures?

A vestibule was added to the building. People have to be buzzed into the first locked door, and then allowed in through a second door. Salerno said there are also security cameras and bullet-resistant glass, among other things.

Was there a school resource officer?

Yes, there was at least one resource officer at the school.

What is known about the suspect?

Damian Haglund was a student at the middle school, but no other information about him has been released.

In social media posts and on a personal blog Damian described an all-consuming addiction to learning about the 1999 Columbine school shooting and other school shootings. Other writings expressed hatred for diversity and feminists, displayed a fascination with guns and included racist statements.

In one post, Damian details a March visit he made to Weston High School in Cazenovia, the site of a 2006 shooting in which a student fatally shot the schools principal, John Klang.

Why were students held so long after the shooting?

Authorities have said there was quite a bit of information and many calls coming in, and it took some time to verify that there was no other threat to the students or the school.

Who is investigating?

Mount Horeb Police continue to work on the case, and the state Department of Justice is investigating.

Hands on Wisconsin: Mount Horeb community supports itself after shooting The community of Mount Horeb, about 20 minutes southwest of Madison, was shook by a school shooting this week.

Students describe Mount Horeb school shooting: 'I just ran' Gavin Reynolds was eating lunch in the cafeteria Wednesday when he saw his eighth-grade classmate bang on the window with the butt of a gun.

Mount Horeb police chief: Please do not spread rumors about school shooting "This community has been nothing short of amazing. ... The show of support from businesses, other agencies, and the community at large has been beyond humbling," Doug Vierck said.
A man walks past a flooded car on Williams Trace Boulevard in Sugar Land in this May 2019 photo. Mark Mulligan/Associated Press

Flooding, one of the top weather-related killers in the United States, claims an average of 90 deaths each year  and more than half of all deaths are caused by people walking or vehicles driving around barriers and into a flooded roadway, according to the National Weather Service.

People often underestimate the force and power of water. A mere 6 inches of fast-moving floodwater can knock over an adult. It takes rushing water only as high as a cowboy boot, or about 12 inches, to float most vehicles.

San Antonio firefighters rescue a man in August 2017 from the roof of his SUV at Pinn Road and Texas 151 after rain swept through the San Antonio area. The man was not injured. John Davenport/San Antonio Express-News San Antonio firefighters rescue a man in August 2017 from the roof of his SUV at Pinn Road and Texas 151 after rain swept through the San Antonio area. The man was not injured. John Davenport/San Antonio Express-News San Antonio firefighters rescue a man in August 2017 from the roof of his SUV at Pinn Road and Texas 151 after rain swept through the San Antonio area. The man was not injured. John Davenport/San Antonio Express-News San Antonio Fire Department personnel rescue a man trapped on top of his submerged vehicle at a low water crossing on Pinn Road by Texas 151 in this August 2017 photo. JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News SAFDs Technical Rescue personnel come out from Leon Creek off Military Road during a search for reported missing individuals who may have been caught up in high water after a storm blew through the city in this May 2017 photo. Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News A motorist stops to photograph a car in the floodwaters of Leon Creek by U.S. 90 West in September 2016. JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News Joel Sierra, 18, waits to be rescued by San Antonio Fire Department personnel after attempting to cross a low water crossing on Pinn Road near Texas 151 in April 2023. It happens, I dont know. When I hit the water, it was in my mind, dont do stupid things, Sierra said. Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-News

Because most flooding deaths are preventable, the National Weather Service initiated a flood safety campaign in Texas 20 years ago in the middle of severe weather season that popularized the now familiar slogan: Turn Around, Dont Drown.

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This lifesaving campaign originated in Texas, where Hector Guerrero, a warning coordinating meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Brownsville, was concerned about the safety of hurricane evacuees from the Texas Gulf Coast who might move to Central Texas.

When these hurricanes were approaching, they were sending people to evacuate to the deadliest flood alley in the country, which is Austin and San Antonio, Guerrero said. And unfortunately, I would hear stories of some of the same people succumbing to the flash floods in their vehicles, while living in this area.

He said he felt that the National Weather Service needed a catchy phrase or slogan that would effectively communicate the dangers of flooded roadways to the public. He drew inspiration from another popular safety slogan that continues to echo in households, workplaces and school classrooms to this day.



I thought something along the lines of the fire safety slogan, Stop, Drop, and Roll, would be great, Guerrero said. So, after meeting with some firefighters in Harlingen, we came up with the slogan Turn Around, Dont Drown. 

Hector Guerrero is the creator of the slogan Turn Around, Dont Drown. National Weather Service

With his vision and dedication to public safety, he took the idea to a team from the National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Texas Floodplain Management Association and the city of Fort Worth Fire Department to develop a broader campaign and safety program.

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In 2004, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration officially launched the Turn Around, Dont Drown campaign to warn people of the hazards of walking or driving a vehicle through floodwaters. Since then, hundreds of Turn Around, Dont Drown signs and billboards have been placed along roads that are prone to flooding.

Guerreros four simple words have since become widely recognized and used by emergency officials and media outlets across the country. The Turn Around, Dont Drown slogan serves as a powerful reminder that, when faced with floodwaters, it is always safer to find an alternative route or wait for the water to recede rather than risk ones life by attempting to cross.

We cant control the weather, but we can try and encourage all of our fellow Americans to make the right decisions when they are faced with a flooded roadway, Guerrero said. We wanted to make it very simple and thats why the catchy slogan was very important.

The Turn Around, Dont Drown slogan serves as a powerful reminder that, when faced with floodwaters, it is always safer to find an alternative route or wait for the water to recede rather than risk ones life by attempting to cross. JOHN CONRAD/AP

Austin and San Antonio officials have created online trackers to help citizens identify flooded roads and stay safe:

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BEXARflood.org monitors 150 low water crossings across Bexar County. The online tracking tool was developed by Bexar County, the city of San Antonio and the San Antonio River Authority. If the water is too high, roads are closed by the city by activating flashing lights or a combination of flashing lights and gates to warn people of the danger.

ATXFloods.com monitors low water crossings in the Austin metro area counties, including Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop. It is maintained by Austins Watershed Protection Department, the Capital Area Council of Governments and various county agencies in Central Texas.
Police have removed encampments, released tear gas and arrested protesters on college campuses around the United States.

At Columbia University, New York City police twice came to the school to arrest those who set up camps and occupied a building to protest Israels war in Gaza. Several hundred people have been arrested. Some students have been suspended and threatened with expulsion. Police are now stationed all day and night on campus.

Early Thursday, police began to remove a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Reuters news agency reported several loud explosions during the clash. Some demonstrators carried shields and umbrellas to block the police officers, shouting, "push them back. Others surrendered and were moved with their hands over their heads by police. The arrests came one day after violence broke out between pro-Palestinian protesters and those who support Israel.

A different result at Berkeley

Nearly 600 kilometers north, the situation has been very different at the University of California, Berkeley. Student demonstrations have taken place so far without arrests or disruption to campus operations.

The contrast in how protests have developed at the top universities, with long histories of student activism, has been notable. The results show how college and law enforcement officials deal with events that can quickly turn into a crisis.

Several other schools, including Northwestern University in Illinois and Brown University in Rhode Island, have avoided clashes between police and students.

Education experts say these cases offer lessons in keeping tensions from rising. They say it is important for university officials to learn from experience and balance student activism with pressure from donors, outside groups and politicians.

Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ has permitted students to maintain a protest space on campus on the steps of Sproul Hall since April 22. The building is where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a 1967 civil rights speech.

Dan Mogulof is a spokesman for Berkeley. He said the protest space remained in effect Wednesday in the hours after UCLA and Columbia called police.

"UC Berkeley has long experience with nonviolent political protest," Mogulof said. He added that the school was following the University of California systems policy for demonstrations.

That guidance tells college administrators to avoid police involvement unless it is really necessary. Police are to be called when the physical safety of students, faculty and staff is threatened.

That policy is not normal for most schools. Most universities have rules that bar permanent encampments or overnight student activities on campus.

The University of California (UC) system has seen in the past where police involvement can lead.

In 2011, during the Occupy movement against economic inequality at Berkeley, campus police hit students with sticks. Then-Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau later apologized, and the University of California system turned to the policy of restraint, spokesman Mogulof said.

Pro-Palestinian protesters are demanding that colleges end investments in Israel and in companies doing business with the Israeli army.

In Illinois, Northwestern University reached a deal with protesters. The activists agreed to remove tents and sound systems on campus in return for a new advisory committee on investments.

Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island also agreed to take down their encampment in return for a vote by the college on whether to divest from companies tied to Israel's military attacks on Gaza.

But some deals have failed to end tensions.

Portland State University in Oregon agreed to suspend donations from aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Boeing is the U.S. company that makes attack helicopters used in Gaza. But students there have continued their occupation of the library. The Associated Press says the campus was closed on Thursday because of police activity.

Im Mario Ritter, Jr.

Hai Do adapted this report for VOA Learning English from Associated Press and Reuters sources.

_______________________________________________

Words in This Story

campus n. the grounds of a school, college or institution

umbrella n. folding coverings that block rain and sun

disruption n. interference in a normal activity

contrast n. a comparison that examines the differences between things

lesson n. something that is learned from an event or situation

faculty n. the group of educators at a school

staff n. employees of an organization usually not including educators at a school or college

divest v. to sell or exchange interest in an investment or financial entity

We want to hear from you.

Our comment policy is here.
Heavy rains and severe flooding have been hitting Kenya since March. They are among the most disastrous rainstorms to hit the East African country in recent years.

At least 169 people have died from the heavy rains. At least 91 others are missing, the latest government estimates say.

On Monday, at least 48 people died after water blew through a blocked river tunnel under a railway line in southwestern Kenya.

The flooding has displaced more than 190,000 people and damaged roads and other structures.

Seasonal weather patterns, climate change and other natural weather events all combine to create deadly rainstorms.

Long rainy season

Kenya and some other parts of eastern Africa have two main rainfall periods: the long rains season from March to May, and the short rains season from October to December.

The long rains season is when most of the countrys average yearly rainfall happens.

In its forecast for this years long rains season, the Kenya Meteorological Department predicted above-average rainfall in many parts of the country. It also warned of flooding, landslides and other harmful effects.

Last years short rains season saw severe storms in many parts of the country. The meteorological department said Lamu, Mombasa and Garissa areas received nearly three times their long-term average rainfall.

Why is the rain so severe?

Kenya's rainfall frequency and intensity are affected by a natural climate system called the Indian Ocean Dipole.

The Indian Ocean Dipole makes the surface of the western Indian Ocean warmer and then colder than the eastern Indian Ocean. It causes heavy rainfall in areas west of the Indian Ocean, such as Kenya, and droughts in Indonesia and Australia.

Joyce Kimutai is a researcher at Imperial College London. She said that, in Kenyas case, the Indian Ocean Dipole and climate change are likely bringing more severe rainfall and flooding.

In a study in December last year, Kimutai and other scientists from World Weather Attribution found that human-caused climate change had made last years short rains season in Kenya and other parts of eastern Africa up to two times more intense.

When will long rains end?

It has become more difficult to predict long-term weather in Kenya in recent years. The start and the length of dry and wet seasons have increasingly changed.

The Kenya Meteorological Department expects the long rains season to continue into June. In its latest weather report on Monday, the department said it expects heavy rain in six areas of the country. It also predicted flooding in low-lying areas and landslides in hilly areas.

Flooding in East Africa also has killed more than 150 people in neighboring Tanzania and Somalia. It has also affected hundreds of thousands of people in Ethiopia and Burundi.

I'm Andrew Smith.

Carlos Mureithi reported this story for The Associated Press. Hai Do adapted it for Learning English.

_______________________________________________

Words in This Story

pattern - n. regular and repeated way in which something happens

forecast - n. statement about what you think is going to happen

frequency - n. the fact or condition of happening often

drought - n. a long period of time with little or no rain
In last weeks Everyday Grammar, we explored large numbers in the news. We learned about numbers such as a million, a billion, and a trillion. We asked our listeners and readers to write us messages about their countries.

Today we give feedback on some of the messages we received.

We will learn some ideas about English grammar. We will also learn a little about the world around us.

Afghanistan

Lets start our lesson with Afghanistan.

An unnamed VOA Learning English fan wrote us two sentences about Afghanistan  both involving the large number 40 million.

The writer uses afs, which is the plural short form for the Afghan currency, the Afghani.

UN announces $40 million aid for Afghan government.

Every year, Afghan government spends almost 40 million afs in education section.



We suggest adding a few elements to the first sentence. We can use the article the in several places. We can also include the short word in. Here is one way we might update the sentence:

The UN announced $40 million in aid for the Afghan government.

In the second sentence, we might change the final noun. Instead of section, we might use sector which suggests a field of the economy.

Here is one way we might update the sentence:

Every year, the Afghan government spends almost 40 million afs for the education sector .

Turkey

Now lets turn to a message about Turkey.

Here is what Emre wrote:

People love to share their knowledge and ideas. Everyday, 4 millions of blog have been written, 80 million photos have been shared on Instagram and 616 millions twits which is meaning 7,1 thousand twits per second have been posted on cyber space on earth planet.

Emre wrote an excellent message. We particularly liked the first sentence. This is a great way to introduce an idea.

We suggest organizing the rest of the paragraph so that the structures are parallel. We could change the verb form to the present.

We also might slightly change some wording. For example, instead of saying 4 millions of blogs, we might instead say 4 million blogposts.

Here is one way to update the message:

Every day, 4 million blogposts are written, 80 million photos are shared on Instagram and 616 million Tweets are posted - a rate of 7,100 tweets per second.

Czech Republic

Next, we read part of a message from Lukas in the Czech Republic.

Lukas wrote one sentence for each large number  a million, a billion, and a trillion. We enjoyed how Lukas used a wonderful verb  hover. It means to hang over a point or to move around over a place.

Here are the sentences:

The population of the Czech Republic has been hovering around 10 million for many decades.

Billions of Czech crowns are sent every month to seniors for their pensions.

Our country is too small to have a trillion of anything.

While the Czech Republic may be too small to have a trillion of anything, we imagine that millions  if not billions  of people would love to visit it!

Japan

Lets end with a message from Japan. Ishi wrote:

On New Year's Day this year, a major earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula, located in northern Japan. The total damage is estimated at $16.6 billion.

Ishis writing is excellent.

We would offer a couple ways of changing the sentence so that it contains the same information. Our suggestions relate to style and not the substance of the first sentence.

One choice would be this:

On New Year's Day this year, a major earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in northern Japan.

Another choice would be this:

On New Year's Day this year, a major earthquake struck northern Japans Noto Peninsula.

Closing thoughts

We were impressed by all the wonderful messages we received. We were not able to use all of them in this lesson, but some of them might make appearances in future lessons.

If you have any questions or comments, please send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com

Im John Russell.

John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

______________________________________________

Words in This Story

article n. (grammar) a group of small words that modify nouns identifying them as definite or indefinite

feedback  n. helpful information that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve something

parallel  adj. involving very similar grammatical structures

decade  n. a period of 10 years

pension  n. an amount of money that a company or the government pays to a person who no longer works

style n. a particular way of doing something like writing or wearing clothes
Recently, the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, who is considered by many to be an example of elegance and style, has been seen wearing simple shoes. The public figure favored chunky pairs with simple designs, which she combined with her business outfits.

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Krystyna Aleksiychuk, a style expert and lecturer at the Andre Tan Academy of Style and Design, told OBOZ.UA what Olena Zelenska's choice could symbolize, as she usually wears classic and elegant shoes.

The fashion expert pointed out that Olena Zelenska's choice of clothes is guided not only by aesthetic criteria but also by comfort and quality of materials.

"In the spring season, we often see Olena in loafers. This is a truly trendy model that has not lost its position for several seasons in a row and has already become a classic. The woman also chooses shoes in a masculine style (derby) for her looks. This type of footwear indicates seriousness of intentions and adds elegance. Not only the first lady's good taste is conveyed, but also her strength and determination," explained Kristina Aleksiychuk.

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The stylist suggested another meaning of such a choice in the first lady's wardrobe, namely, the fight for gender equality.

"Men's shoes also reflect the movement of modern fashion towards gender equality and break down stereotypes about women's and men's clothing. In this way, Olena Zelenska supports the progressive trends of society and chooses comfort for herself," the style expert said.

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According to the stylist, such pairs could be seen in the collections of many famous brands: Prada, Miu Miu, Victoria Beckham, The Row. According to Kristina Aleksiychuk, loafers and derbies will be relevant in the fall of 2024.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Libra will have to change their plans unexpectedly. Pisces will be able to meet up with old friends.

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Tarotist and prognosticator Olga Solomka has compiled a horoscope for all zodiac signs for May 3 exclusively for AstroOBOZ. Find out what awaits you

Aries

This day promises to be full of joy and various pleasant moments. You will be able to enjoy meeting friends, celebrating personal achievements, or participating in friendly and family celebrations that may continue throughout the weekend.

Taurus

Your last day of the week will be dedicated to family. You will spend a lot of time dealing with family issues, dealing with relatives, perhaps visiting or hosting them at your home, or traveling to your native land.

Gemini

Your day is planned down to the minute: from work tasks to personal shopping, from attention to family to time for hobbies. This requires you to be flexible and able to quickly switch between different activities.

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Cancer

You may feel a decrease in vitality today, perhaps due to weather changes or simple fatigue. It's important to stay calm and avoid unnecessary stress, and if necessary, seek professional advice.

Leo

Try to avoid unnecessary pressure from others who may try to shift their problems onto you. Just take care of your own business and solve your own problems instead of trying to please others.

Virgo

Today you may feel tired after a busy week. You may have even overworked a bit. Thus, this Friday will be calm and relaxed for you, as you have already used up all your energy reserves.

Libra

Your plans may suddenly change, and what you have been planning for a long time may not happen. In such cases, you can either adapt to the new circumstances or find a new direction for your efforts.

Scorpio

Today can be especially enjoyable thanks to moments spent with family and friends, or through warm communication with colleagues who show you special attention and care.

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Sagittarius

Today, find a place of solitude where you can work quietly without disturbance. This will help you focus on important tasks and complete them efficiently. And unnecessary contacts, even on the phone, will distract you.

Capricorn

You will receive good news from afar, perhaps even from abroad, which will bring hope and new prospects. You may be invited to participate in exciting projects or become part of an international community.

Aquarius

The time of harmony finally comes when all aspects of your life are in balance. You feel satisfied with your work, family life, and hobbies, and you see great prospects ahead.

Pisces

Today you will have the opportunity to meet with old friends, share news and memories, discuss current issues and plans for the future, and spend a great time with loved ones.

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First China-Serbia cultural exchange forum highlights cooperation potential

Xinhua) 09:49, May 03, 2024

BELGRADE, May 2 (Xinhua) -- About 50 experts, scholars, government and industry representatives from China and Serbia attended the first China-Serbia cultural exchange forum held here this week.

They discussed the development of China-Serbia cultural exchanges, civilization dialogue and new opportunities for people-to-people communications under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Addressing the opening ceremony, Tang Dasheng, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, said that cultural exchanges, an important part in China-Serbia ties, have played a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Tang also said he hopes the forum will act as an opportunity to further leverage the role of experts, scholars, think tanks and universities of the two countries to push bilateral cultural exchanges to a new level.

Danijel Nikolic, assistant secretary general of the government of the Republic of Serbia, said that cultural exchanges can help enhance understanding and promote cooperation.

The forum will further enhance the two countries' iron-clad friendship and lay the foundation for deeper cooperation in the future, he noted.

Both China and Serbia have a long history and splendid civilization, and there is great potential and broad prospect for cooperation in the field of cultural exchanges, said Ma Ligeng, vice president of Capital Normal University of China.

The forum will contribute to enhancing understanding and deepening friendship between the two peoples, Ma added.

Sharing Serbia's experience in participating in the BRI over the past decade, Bojan Lalic, director of the Institute for Belt and Road Studies in Belgrade, said that Serbia and China can strengthen cooperation in such fields as digital economy and green development.

Meanwhile, Li Jiashan, an expert on culture development at Beijing International Studies University, said the two countries' cultural industries have the desire, foundation and space for cooperation, and joint efforts should be made to boost in-depth development of bilateral cultural trade.

The BRI is the best framework to promote Serbia-China cultural exchanges, which can in turn push forward communications in other areas, Violeta Djerkovic from the Network of Cultural Stations of Novi Sad in Serbia also stressed.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
BioNTech SE said it will use some of the profits from the COVID-19 vaccine it sells with Pfizer Inc., to invest in malaria and tuberculosis vaccines research in Africa, as part of the German firm's aim to build a big manufacturing base for breakthrough medicines on the continent.

Vaccine technology through mRNA was an experimental, unproven outlier on the boundaries of mainstream research eighteen months ago. The amazing success of two mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 has paved the way for a slew of future developments.

Covid-19 mRNA vaccine success to expand through malaria jab

BioNTech is presently working on many additional mRNA vaccines to expand on the success of Covid-19. Along with mRNA vaccines for HIV and Tuberculosis, the firm has also revealed the development of a malaria vaccine, New Atlas reported.

The large-scale endeavor is part of a larger effort to combat malaria. BioNTech is collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Africa's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish mRNA manufacturing facilities in Africa, in addition to developing and testing an mRNA malaria vaccine.

The objective is to expand vaccination availability in low- and middle-income nations so that, if a vaccine candidate proves effective in trials, it may be quickly manufactured and given to those who need it most.

According to WHO, 229 million cases of malaria were reported worldwide in 2019, with around 409,000 fatalities. Children under the age of five accounted for 67 percent of fatalities in 2019, with Africa accounting for 94 percent of cases and deaths, as per Sky News.

"We are already working on HIV and tuberculosis, and malaria is the third big indication (disease) with a high unmet medical need," said Ugur Sahin, Chief executive of Biotech.

However, Sahin admitted that the initiative is still in its early stages and that there is no assurance of success. Because of ideas acquired from creating an mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, he noted, the company feels now is the right moment to solve this problem.

According to Reuters, malaria is a complicated disease produced by a parasite that escapes immune system identification, according to Sahin, who said that the objective is to develop a vaccine that makes the parasite visible and attackable from the start.

Read Also: Fatal, Untreatable "Superbug" Spreads from Patients in Two Cities; CDC Warns Global Health Threat

BioNTech aims to evaluate the tuberculosis vaccine in 2022

Messenger RNA vaccines cause the human body to produce a pathogen-specific protein, prompting an immune response. They're also easier to modify than standard vaccinations and take less time to create.

Mosquirix, the world's first and only approved malaria vaccine, was produced over several years of clinical trials in many African nations by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), although it is only around 30% effective. Adrian Hill, one of the key scientists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, is leading a team of researchers at Oxford's Jenner Institute who are working on a potential new malaria vaccine that has shown promise in a year-long study.

BioNTech said it will evaluate several vaccine candidates targeting the circumsporozoite protein (CSP), as well as novel antigens found in pre-clinical research, and choose the most promising for a clinical trial that will begin by the end of 2022. The firm is also looking for suitable mRNA vaccine production facilities in Africa, either with partners or on its own, with help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Commission, and others.

BioNTech Chief Operating Officer Sierk Poetting stated that the firm will fund the vaccine's research and initial manufacturing, then turn to its partners for help with large-scale trials and infrastructure, such as fill and finish facilities and local training.

The company also aims to begin a clinical trial in 2022 to evaluate a tuberculosis vaccine candidate and is collaborating with partners to develop vaccines for nine other infectious illnesses, including cancer.

Related Article: CDC Launches Investigation Following Teen's Death After Receiving Second Dose of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine





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Looking at modern Russia, one is uncomfortable with how willingly citizens there complain about each other to the authorities. They report not only actions but also thoughts and words. But, knowing how widespread the culture of denunciation was in the USSR, of which Russia claims to be the heir, it is not surprising.

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"Novaya Gazeta. Europe" has described the main reasons and practices of denunciation that were widespread in the Soviet era. And also about how people ruined each other's lives with its help.

In this way, informers in the USSR could safely remain anonymous, writing complaints not on their own behalf, but on behalf of the "concerned public." This format was personally encouraged by Joseph Stalin, who himself did not shy away from it in the intra-party struggle. Denunciations were called a manifestation of concern and vigilance on the part of the "little man" who wanted to contribute to the development of communism. However, writing denunciations did not save the denunciator from the fact that he or she could one day become a victim of this practice.

Even children were encouraged to write complaints. This is how the USSR tried to make a hero out of the pioneer Pavlik Morozov, who denounced his own father, who, as head of the village council, helped dekulakized peasants move to a place where no one knew them and find work for bribes. Later, Pavlo and his brother Fedir were found stabbed to death in the woods. The murder was blamed on the boys' grandfather, who allegedly took revenge on them for denouncing their father.

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The nomenklatura poet Sergei Mikhalkov, the father of the Putinist filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, tried to glorify Morozov's dubious feat in his work. However, people were well aware of the lowliness of the teenager's act, and his name became not a symbol of the struggle for the cause of communism, but a synonym for a traitor.

However, Morozov's act was far from the only one, as denunciation of relatives in the USSR became widespread for a time. Representatives of individual families used to settle scores with each other or divide property in this way. However, it quickly became clear that such an act worked against the informant himself. Thus, an unwanted relative received a shameful status in society, up to and including being labeled an "enemy of the people," but this stigma also extended to his family. This fact, as well as the absolute immorality of informing on relatives, quickly made this practice unpopular. Moreover, it was always possible to curry favor by complaining about someone not too close to you.

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For example, a neighbor. Thus, a complaint about wrong words and actions could free up additional space in a cramped communal apartment, allowing you to take possession of someone else's property. And at work, it was a way to make a career by getting rid of a strong competitor. That is why denunciation was so widespread at the grassroots level- in teams where people talked to each other a lot, it was easy to catch on to some words and present a colleague or neighbor as an enemy of the party.

Moreover, in the USSR, there was a practice of punishment for concealing the facts of "anti-Soviet activity" one could go to prison for up to six months, or be expelled from the Komsomol or the party. Instead, they tried to present writing denunciations as a moral duty of a Soviet citizen.

However, accusing oneself of having wrong views could result in a lighter sentence. That is why some citizens preferred to write a denunciation against themselves rather than to be on the pages of someone else's complaint.

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Subscribe to OBOZ.UA's Telegram and Viber channels to keep up with the latest developments.
During the Easter holidays, you really want to treat yourself to something tasty and unusual. Black caviar will be a great addition to the festive table and will definitely delight everyone present. But, in order for the holiday not to be spoiled, it is necessary that the caviar is tasty and fresh.

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That is why it is extremely important to know how to choose the right black caviar so as not to spend money on a fake or buy the one that was caught by poachers. Experts from the World Wide Fund for Nature Ukraine (WWF) told us about this in an exclusive commentary.

Where to buy black caviar?

You should not buy black caviar from small places as there is a high probability of getting the product from poachers. Sturgeons are an endangered species of fish, so this point is really extremely important.

Black caviar should be purchased only from specialized stores or companies that specialize in sturgeon farming. You can also buy black caviar in large chain supermarkets that really care about their reputation.

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Pricing policy

When choosing black caviar, you should pay attention to its price. This product is never cheap. If you see black caviar in the store that is much cheaper than other caviar, do not even think about buying it.

Labeling on the package

Any jar of genuine black caviar should have a ribbon with the CITES code (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Only if it is present can you be sure that you are buying a really high-quality product.

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When choosing black caviar, you should also pay attention to its appearance and taste, as well as take into account all signs of possible alterations.

Appearance

Eggs: whole, without cracks. The same size and color.

Consistency: eggs are easily separated from each other and are not sticky.

Size: depending on the sturgeon species. Beluga is the largest, and stellate sturgeon is the smallest.

Color: from gray to black. Shades are possible.

Taste

Creamy, delicate, without foreign flavors.

Slightly salty.

Does not have a pronounced fish flavor.

Signs of counterfeiting

It's also important to know all the signs that indicate a fake:

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The eggs are perfectly round in shape.

Strong fishy odor.

Too thick or too liquid consistency.

Uneven color.

Artificial additives indicated on the package.
The Public Prosecutors Office has requested the Family and Juvenile Court to implement measures under the general social protection regime and undertake educational guardianship actions for young offenders involved in the bullying of an elderly citizen, according to a statement released.

Under the Macau Penal Code, criminal liability begins at age 16. Individuals aged 12 but under 16 may face seven educational interventions aimed at fostering legal compliance through increased supervision and intervention, the statement said. The severity and recurrence of offenses, family support, and educational circumstances are taken into account when determining the appropriate measures.

The prosecutor may propose supervision of minors for up to three years or placement in temporary housing for one year. Internment, the harshest choice, may be considered for a period of up to eight years until age 21.

For individuals under 12, universal social protection ensures follow-up arrangements until the age of 18. In cases where family support is lacking, alternative arrangements such as placement with another family, third party or organization may be considered. Parents must participate in counseling from the Social Welfare Bureau for ensure their proper parental duties are fulfilled appropriately.

Bullying incidents frequently involve crimes like assault, verbal abuse, defamation or distribution of inappropriate content involving minors. As cognitive development and the ability to distinguish right from wrong are still developing in young people, they may be liable to offend due to influence from online sources. Officials emphasized the importance of family and community support in instilling a sound conception of ethical principles and life skills among young people.

Staff Reporter
* May Day for change

 On May Day, Macau lawmakers call for thorough revision of labor laws while workers around the world manifest over human rights and global conflicts

* GBA Views | Prof. Tang Lixing says Macau can help overcome East-West misunderstandings

* Taste of Edesia

* MGM China has reported record-breaking financial results for this year first quarter, outperforming the industrys recovery in Macau

* Top court denies appeals of MP and Ng Lap Seng, sends case back to TSI

* Casino revenue surpasses expectations in April

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Friday, May 3, 2024  edition no. 4475
Thus far, the Workers Day Golden Week holiday has been meeting expectations in terms of visitor numbers.

According to figures from the Public Security Police Force (PSP), some 121,750 visitors crossed the border into Macau on the first day of the five-day holiday.

Although the day one figure fell slightly short of the average of 130,000 expected by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the tourism industry, preliminary figures for the second day (May 2) indicate that the influx of visitors has either met or exceeded the anticipated average.

Both the MGTO and tourism operators earlier anticipated a higher influx of visitors compared to Easter and the Ching Ming Festival, which fell short of expectations, delivering an average of about 96,000 per day.

Macau should receive some 650,000 visitors between May 1 and May 5 to align with forecasts.

Preliminary figures released by the PSP for May 2 (yesterday) indicate that 145,664 visitors entered Macau, with available data spanning until 9 p.m.

Complete data from May 1 also shows that on this day, 6,554 foreign visitors entered Macau, a figure slightly lower than the average of 7,774 per day recorded over the 11 days of Easter and Ching Ming.

Nevertheless, the number of tourists at major hotspots such as the Ruins of St Pauls, Senado Square, and Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro has been notably high, prompting the PSP to implement crowd control measures in the vicinity of the Ruins of St Pauls.
As Macau continues to undergo social and economic development, local legislators are calling for comprehensive revisions to the citys labor laws to better safeguard the rights and interests of workers.

Lawmaker and president of the Macau Civil Servants Association, Jose Pereira Coutinho, has called on a comprehensive revision to the Labor Relations Law, highlighting that the current law imposed would need to keep up with the times.

Over the past 10 years, Macau has experienced rapid social development and changes. Due to the unique nature of labor relations, it is time for the 2008 Labor Relations Law to be comprehensively amended, Coutinho said in an interview with the Times.

Coutinho noted that under the current law, employers can dismiss employees at will, and workers in the gaming industry are not provided with any allowances for night and shift work.

All in all, 25 years after the handover, the SAR Government has not yet been able to fully protect the basic rights and interests of laborers, he said.

Coutinho also highlighted the lack of transparency in the amendment process, which is handled by the Standing Committee for the Coordination of Social Affairs, and the need for relevant departments to address public complaints against illegal workers more promptly.

As Macaus economy continues to evolve, lawmakers and advocates agree that comprehensive labor law reforms are necessary to ensure that the rights and interests of workers are fully protected.

Echoing similar sentiments, lawmaker and head of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) Ella Lei emphasized the need to review all labor laws, rather than just addressing specific issues such as minimum wage and compensation for work accidents.

Compensation for work accidents, labor union protection, and many other issues related to labor law protection are impossible to change all at once, Lei told TDM.

But the government cannot always say that there are no steps to be taken, and only conduct a few inspections every year.

Lei noted that while the government does inspect minimum wage provisions and work accident compensation annually, there is no clear plan for addressing other pressing labor issues.

In some stages, where social demands are more severe, such as those we have been strongly advocating for many years, the mechanisms for seeking compensation should be optimized, and the enforcement mechanisms and punishments for illegal work need to be optimized, she said.

The Labor Day was first marked in Macau in 1965, despite not being celebrated in Salazars Portugal at the time. Only in 1974, right after the Carnation Revolution coup, fifty years ago, the Portuguese authorities instituted the mandatory May Day holiday. Staff Reporter
MGM China Holdings Limited has reported record-breaking financial results for the first quarter of 2024, outperforming the industrys recovery in Macau.

The casino operator saw net revenue surge 70.6% year-on-year to HKD8.3 billion, reaching 143% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2019. Adjusted EBITDA skyrocketed 77.3% to HKD2.5 billion, marking a new high and representing 155% of Q1 2019 figures.

MGM Chinas market share in Macau reached an all-time high of 17% in the first quarter, up from 15.2% in 2023 and 9.5% in 2019. The companys mass market gaming segment saw particularly strong growth, with mass GGR recovering to approximately 110% of pre-COVID levels.

We are delighted to have achieved record-breaking results in the first quarter this year. This is mainly driven by the Companys deep understanding of the market, especially our extensive insights in premium mass customers, said Kenneth Feng, president and executive director of MGM China.

Our efficient and agile business strategies are the key driving factor for us to seize opportunities arising from the resumption of global tourism, he added.

Meanwhile, as cited in an earnings call with analysts, MGM Resorts noted that MGM China and MGM Resorts both agree there is no longer a need for MGM to support its liquidity. In March, the subordinated loan agreement was terminated.

Bill Hornbuckle, CEO and president of MGM Resorts, revealed that new villas at MGM Macau and Suites in Cotai will be introduced because, in his words, We are under-seated in that market.

Leading market in smart table implementation

The gaming operator asserts that it has at least several years lead in the implementation and use of smart tables over its competitors in the Macau casino market.

In the earnings call, Hubert Wang, president and COO of MGM China, stated that while other operators are striving to adopt smart tables, MGM China has a significant advantage.

These smart tables enable gaming chip tracking and authentication, providing operators with valuable customer data for precision marketing and new game development. For instance, we already launched insurance [bet] baccarat in this market and this is impossible to do manually, Wang said.

Feng, meanwhile, noted the company had this technology in place since 2016, giving it a significant head start. Feng credited the companys deep understanding of its premium mass customers as a key differentiator, stating, What differentiates us in the market is that company-wide, we possess a deep outstanding of our customers, particularly the premium mass segment, encompassing their culture, habits, behavior, background profiles, and even their home provinces and dialects.

Staff Reporter
Microsoft is investing $2.2 billion over the next four years in Malaysias new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure as well as partnering with the government to establish a national AI center, its CEO Satya Nadella said yesterday.

It marks Microsofts single largest investment in Malaysia, as the tech giant seeks to bolster support for AI development in the region and worldwide.

We are committed to supporting Malaysias AI transformation and ensure it benefits all Malaysians, he said. Our investments in digital infrastructure and skilling will help Malaysian businesses, communities and developers apply the latest technology to drive inclusive economic growth and innovation across the country.

Nadella on Tuesday also announced a $1.7 billion investment in cloud and AI services in Indonesia during his visit there as part of his Southeast Asia tour. On Wednesday, he said Microsoft will build its first regional data center in Thailand.

In April, the tech giant similarly unveiled a $2.9 billion investment in Japan and $1.5 billion in G42, an AI firm in Abu Dhabi.

Microsoft also pledged to provide AI training for 2.5 million people in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam by 2025.

Nadella earlier met Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who said the investment will be the key support pillar for the governments goal to enhance AI capacity in Malaysia.

The new investment will include AI training for another 300,000 people, the establishment of a national AI center of excellence, enhancing the nations cybersecurity capabilities and supporting the growth of Malaysias developer community, Anwar said on Facebook.

Microsoft runs one of the worlds largest cloud computing operations and has taken a leap into artificial intelligence through its partnership with OpenAI, developers of ChatGPT.

Since then, Microsoft has integrated an AI assistant into its Microsoft Edge browser, named Copilot, helping lift its profits by 20% in the first quarter.

Microsoft sees Southeast Asia, with its population of over 600 million people, as a growing market and potential location for more AI product development. A study held by global consulting firm Kearney said AI could contribute nearly $1 trillion to Southeast Asias GDP by 2030. Indonesia is expected to capture $366 billion of the total and Malaysia $115 billion. MDT/AP
Bollywood stars seldom weigh in on politics, so videos showing two celebrities criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  and endorsing his main opposition, the Congress party  were bound to go viral.

But the clips of A-list actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh were fake, AI-generated videos that were yet another example of the false or misleading claims swirling online with the goal of influencing Indias election. Both actors filed complaints with police but such actions do little to stanch the flow of such misinformation.

Claims circulating online in India recently have misstated details about casting a ballot, claimed without evidence that the election will be rigged, and called for violence against Indias Muslims.

Researchers who track misinformation and hate speech in India say tech companies poor enforcement of their own policies has created perfect conditions for harmful content that could distort public opinion, spur violence and leave millions of voters wondering what to believe.

A non-discerning user or regular user has no idea whether its someone, an individual sharing his or her thoughts on the other end, or is it a bot? Rekha Singh, a 49-year-old voter, told The Associated Press. Singh said she worries that social media algorithms distort voters view of reality. So you are biased without even realizing it, she said.

In a year crowded with big elections, the sprawling vote in India stands out. The worlds most populous country boasts dozens of languages, the greatest number of WhatsApp users as well as the largest number of YouTube subscribers. Nearly 1 billion voters are eligible to cast a ballot in the election, which runs into June.

Tech companies like Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, say they are working to combat deceptive or hateful content while helping voters find reliable sources. But researchers who have long tracked disinformation in India say their promises ring hollow after years of failed enforcement and cookie-cutter approaches that fail to account for Indias linguistic, religious, geographic and cultural diversity.

Given Indias size and its importance for social media companies, you might expect more of a focus, say disinformation researchers who focus on India.

The platforms are earning money off of this. They are benefiting from it, and the whole country is paying the price, said Ritumbra Manuvie a law professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Manuvie is a leader of The London Story, an Indian diaspora group which last month organized a protest outside Metas London offices.

Research by the group and another organization, India Civil Watch International, found that Meta allowed political advertisements and posts that contained anti-Muslim hate speech, Hindu nationalist narratives, misogynistic posts about female candidates as well as ads encouraging violence against political opponents.

The ads were seen more than 65 million times over 90 days earlier this year. Together they cost more than $1 million.

Meta defends its work on global elections and disputed the findings of the research on India, noting that it has expanded its work with independent fact-checking organizations ahead of the election, and has employees around the world ready to act in case its platforms are misused to spread misinformation. Nick Clegg, Metas president of global affairs, said of Indias election: Its a huge, huge test for us.

We have months and months and months of preparation in India, he told The Associated Press during a recent interview. We have teams working around the clock. We have fact checkers in multiple languages operating in India. We have a 24-hour escalation system.

YouTube is another problematic site for disinformation in India, experts say. To test how well that video-sharing platform was doing in enforcing its own rules, researchers at the nonprofits Global Witness and Access Now created 48 fake ads in English, Hindi and Telugu with false voting information or calls for violence. One claimed India raised its voting age to 21, though it remains 18, while another said women could vote by text message, though they cannot. A third called for the use of force at polling places.

When Global Witness submitted the ads to YouTube for approval, the response was disappointing, said Henry Peck, an investigator at Global Witness.

YouTube didnt act on any of them, Peck said, and instead approved the ads for publication.

Google, YouTubes owner, criticized the research and noted that it has multiple procedures in place to catch ads that violate its rules. Global Witness removed the ads before they could be spotted and blocked, the company said.

Our policies explicitly prohibit ads making demonstrably false claims that could undermine participation or trust in an election, which we enforce in several Indian languages, Google said in a statement. The company also noted its partnerships with fact-checking groups.

AI is this years newest threat, as advances in programs make it easier than ever to create lifelike images, video or audio. AI deepfakes are popping up in elections across the world, from Moldova to Bangladesh.

Senthil Nayagam, founder of an AI startup called Muonium AI, believes there is growing demand for deepfakes, especially of politicians. In the run up to the election, he had several inquiries on making political videos using AI. Theres a market for this, no doubt, he said.

Some of the fakes Nayagam produces feature dead politicians and are not meant to be taken seriously, but other deepfakes circulating online could potentially fool voters. Its a danger Modi himself has highlighted.

We need to educate people about artificial intelligence and deepfakes, how it works, what it can do, Modi said.

Indias Information and Technology Ministry has directed social media companies to remove disinformation, especially deepfakes. But experts say a lack of clear regulation or law focused on AI and deepfakes makes it harder to squash, leaving it to voters to determine what is true and what is fiction.

For first-time voter Ankita Jasra, 18, these uncertainties can make it hard to know what to believe.

If I dont know what is being said is true, I dont think I can trust in the people that are governing my country, she said. DAVID KLEPPER & KRUTIKA PATHI, NEW DELHI, MDT/AP
Rescue crews rescued people from rooftops in central Appalachia on Thursday, as heavy rains unleashed some of the worst floodings in the state's history, killing at least eight people and leaving others missing, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

As water rescue personnel sought trapped persons in hard-hit eastern Kentucky, one emergency official called the situation "catastrophic."

Gov. Andy Beshear Expects "Double-Digit Deaths" in Kentucky Floods

According to Beshear, hundreds of houses might be damaged, and the flooding is historic and continuous. At least 20 to 30 people have already been flown to safety, but officials fear there are more in need who will be more difficult to reach.

During the meeting, Beshear stated that "we predict double-digit deaths and requested assistance in collecting certain supplies for locals." Later that night, Beshear tweeted that he had requested government aid from President Biden, adding that the devastation caused is massive and rehabilitation will be a long-term commitment.

Thunderstorms deposited several inches of rain during the previous three days, causing flash flooding and mudslides in the hilly terrain of eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, and southern West Virginia, CBS News reported. Aerial footage from Garrett County, Kentucky, shows residences, petrol stations, and automobiles half immersed in water. One person can be seen riding a jet ski through the floodwaters, while others wait in a boat.

According to the governor, another 2 to 3 inches of rain could fall Thursday night and into the weekend, with most of it falling overnight. Flood warnings continue to be issued for up to 4 million people in Kentucky, southern Ohio, West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia.

Earlier in the day, the governor told a news conference that the state expected significant property damage that would take months, if not years, for many families to repair and recover from. He also revealed that 25,111 people are without electricity statewide, according to NBC News.

Read Also : Taiwan Simulates Attack on Capital Amid Tensions With China, Launches Jets and Tanks in Military Drill

Kentucky Flood Survivor Recalls "Horror" Incident

When rising water enveloped her home, a flood survivor was forced to walk to the top of a hill and beg for help. During a severe rainfall in Kentucky, Brianna Imhoff had to blast a rifle in the air so that emergency services could rescue her, her husband, pets, and an elderly neighbor.

Imhoff reported hearing water beating on her house around 5 am. When she looked outside, she saw that the yard had been totally inundated by the swiftly rising water. Imhoff and her husband, Austin, then waded to their next-door neighbor's house, carrying their two dogs. Imhoff and her husband had only been in their rental property for a month, but they worked at a nearby nursing facility and had been acquainted with their neighbor through caring for his grandmother.

His aunt let them in even though he was not at home at the time. When the water began to rise, Imhoff claimed they were forced to relocate upstairs. They felt compelled to leave by 7 am, so they went up a hill behind the home. Imhoff attempted to share their location on Facebook, but the service refused.

They didn't hear a rescue helicopter until 10:30 am. They were saved by the local fire department and, according to Imhoff, the state rescue squad. They were brought to Jackson, where they boarded a volunteer bus to check on Imhoff's mother, whose trailer had also been inundated, as per The Sun.
More than 40% of Americans now label China as an enemy, up from a quarter two years ago and reaching the highest level in five years, according to an annual Pew Research Center survey released yesterday [Macau time].

Half of Americans think of China as a competitor, and only 6% consider the country a partner, according to the report. The findings come as the Biden administration is seeking to stabilize U.S.-China relations to avoid miscalculations that could result in clashes, while still trying to counter the worlds second-largest economy on issues from Russias war in Ukraine to Taiwan and human rights.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have both recently visited China in the administrations latest effort to responsibly manage the competition with Beijing. Despite those overtures, President Joe Biden has been competing with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in Novembers election, on being tough on China.

The Pew report, which is drawn from an April 1-7 survey of a sample of 3,600 U.S. adults, found that roughly half of Americans think limiting Chinas power and influence should be a top U.S. foreign policy priority. Only 8% dont think it should be a priority at all.

For the fifth year in a row, about eight in 10 Americans report an unfavorable view of China, the Pew report said.

Today, 81% of U.S. adults see the country unfavorably, including 43% who hold a very unfavorable opinion. Chinese President Xi Jinping receives similarly negative ratings, the report said.

About eight in 10 Americans say they have little or no confidence in Xi to do the right thing regarding world affairs. About 10% said they have never heard of him.

American attitudes toward China have turned largely critical after the U.S. launched a trade war against China in 2018 and since the emergence of COVID-19, which was first reported in China.

At the same time, the U.S. government has been overt about competing with China on economic and diplomatic issues.

Following that, 42% of Americans say China is an enemy of the U.S., the highest level since 2021, when Pew began asking the question.

The share is much larger among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Pew said, with 59% of them describing China as an enemy, compared with 28% of Democrats and those leaning Democratic.

Older Americans, conservative Republicans and those with a sour view of the U.S. economy are more critical of China and more likely to consider the country an enemy, the report said. MDT/AP
On the Agenda

Touching the Greater Bay Area  A Journey of Discovery, the latest programme co-launched by Guangdong Radio and Television and Peoples Daily Online (UK), is calling for applications to take part in an engaging journey across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China, the state daily reported last week.

The GBA, situated in south China, is composed of nine cities in Guangdong Province and two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

According to the state media, The programme will invite ten UK students to embark on a 7-day in-depth journey to this vibrant city cluster between July 15 and Aug. 15, 2024.

Participants will access a wide range of points of interest from historic landmarks to bustling street markets and to delve into various topics from Chinese martial arts to the latest telecommunication and green technology. In addition, there will be many opportunities for them to engage with local university students across the region.

Participants are expected to be part of the programme televised through multiple channels, record their journey on video and share it on social media platforms, the Peoples Daily said.

Candidates should be non-Chinese full-time undergraduate students enrolled at a university in the UK. There are no specific constraints on their majors.

Also, candidates should also have an active and curated social media presence. Though a big following is not a must, any experience with vlogging and engaging with followers will be a plus.

Last but not least, candidates must show a passion for Chinese language or culture, but proficiency in the language is not required.

The paper added that, all expenses for the trip, all fees from international flights to food and accommodation will be covered by the sponsors.

As of the latest official data, there are over 22 thousand international students in universities across Guangdong province. The largest groups come from South Korea, Thailand, and Russia, with substantial numbers also arriving from Vietnam and Indonesia. Students from nearby regions, such as Hong Kong and Macau, also contribute notably to the international student body in Guangdong.
Professor Tang Lixing, the chair professor and doctoral supervisor of the Chinese Teacher Development Center at New York University, who recently visited Macau, strongly advocates for the significance of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, particularly in the field of education.

In an exclusive interview with the Macau Daily Times, Professor Tang highlighted the importance of education in promoting understanding and suggested that schools and educational agencies have a crucial role to play in facilitating international exchanges.

He specifically emphasized the unique position of Macau, with its rich history of cultural exchange spanning almost 500 years between the East and the West. Professor Tang believes that Macau can leverage this history to foster cultural exchanges, enhance mutual understanding among nations and individuals, and utilize education to cultivate intercultural competence.

I think it has everything to do with the education of the next generation. Its not just between nations, but its between people. Schools, and educational agencies are the best route for international exchanges. Now, take me for example. Ive been teaching in the United States for over 30-plus years. But my roots are in China. So, Im more of a bicultural and bilingual person. And I feel theres such a need for people in both nations and around the world to get to know each other.

I have seen too many misunderstandings. I dont think the Chinese people understand the West the same way the West understands the Chinese.

He believes that these misunderstandings arise from a lack of knowledge and exposure to each others cultures. Through cultural exchanges, he aims to bridge these gaps and foster a deeper understanding between different societies.

The professor shares his involvement in bringing Chinese students to the United States and American students to China, promoting cultural exchange, and addressing misunderstandings. He highlights the need for people from both nations to get to know each other and advocate for dialogue between individuals rather than just governments.

He further elaborates on how Macau can utilize its distinctive global position to facilitate meaningful exchanges between the East and the West. One of his suggestions is for universities in Macau to admit a greater number of international students and promote diversity among faculty members. Although he acknowledges that efforts have been made to internationalize universities and the broader SAR, he believes that there is still room for further progress in this regard.

To facilitate cultural exchanges, Professor Tang advocates for a two-way flow of students and scholars between countries. By immersing themselves in different cultural contexts, students gain a broader perspective and develop a more nuanced understanding of each others societies.

The number one [measure] is to bring international students in. Once you have brought them in, you need to create opportunities to have local students and international students mingle together. he said, offering ideas such as mixed dormitories, group projects, and studies on the unique differences and commonalities between East and West.

Secondly, allow Macau students to go out of Macau. So instead of studying for four years, for example, for an undergraduate locally, consider allowing them to study in, say, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, London, or Paris. In other words, give them opportunities to see the world, enabling them to broaden their perspectives and interact with people from diverse backgrounds.

With its unique history of cultural exchange, Macau can leverage its position to foster cultural exchanges, enhance mutual understanding, and promote intercultural competence. The professor advocates for dialogue between individuals and suggests these practical measures to promote cross-cultural interactions in Macaus universities.

Professor Tang was in Macau last week at the invitation of the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) as part of its 24th anniversary activities.

In a ceremony held on April 24, Professor Tang Lixing was appointed Distinguished Professor and gave a lecture on Humanizing teaching: A humanistic approach to teaching languages, which attracted over a hundred graduate students from MUST School of International Studies.

His views are particularly relevant in the context of the Greater Bay Areas goals to enhance international connectivity and foster an environment of cultural and educational exchange.

Interview by Howard Tong
The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) has decided on the appeals to the final court by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) and Ng Lap Seng, one of the defendants in the case.

The case is known as the Land, Public Works, and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) Case, as it involved several businessmen in the construction sector and two former bureau directors, Jaime Carion and Li Canfeng.

In the TUI ruling, the judges concluded that no concrete and objective factual elements proved the existence of a criminal organization beyond the individual purposes of its members. Therefore, the court did not agree with the conviction of the defendants for this crime.

Regarding the charges of corruption and money laundering, TUI acquitted defendant Li of six charges of passive corruption, since he was not yet a public official when he received the benefits offered by the businessmen.

This decision has also direct consequences for several other defendants who were accused of money laundering crimes.

The same court notes that since the previous conviction for participating in a secret society or association was overturned, the defendants could not be convicted of money laundering crimes.

The TUI also evaluated the requests from defendant Ng in response to MPs appeal. The court considered that there was no need to discuss criminal procedures for the crime of participating in a secret society or association since the defendant had already been acquitted of that crime. Accordingly, the TUI considered that the request to suspend the sentence execution was legally inadmissible.

Finally, considering the acquittal of several defendants from various crimes, the TUI decided to send back the case to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) to reevaluate the sentences imposed on the defendants who did not file an appeal, such as Carion.

In late November last year, the TSI had already decided to reduce the sentences imposed on several defendants in the case.

TSI reduced Lis prison term from 24 to 17 years, acquitting him of seven of the 12 crimes of passive corruption for which he had been found guilty by the Court of First Instance (TJB).

The TSI judges also reduced Lis count of money laundering crimes from 10 to four.

The TJB had initially sentenced the former public works heads, Li and Carion to 24 years and 20 years in prison respectively on charges of corruption, forgery, participation in a secret society or association, and money laundering.

The TSI also resulted in reduced sentences for other defendants such as developer Sio Tak Hong from 24 to 12 years, as well as for another two real estate businessmen, William Kuan and Ng, whose prison sentences were reduced from 18 years to five years and six months, and from 15 years to four years and six months respectively.

The reduction in sentences was also granted to other defendants, including Si Tit Sang (from 20 years to eight years), Ng Kei Nin (from eight years and six months to two years), Lau Pou Fong (from 10 years to three years and nine months), Miguel Wu (from 10 years to three years and nine months), and Siu Ka Kuen (from nine years to three years and six months). Huang Qijun, who had been initially sentenced to six and a half years, was fully acquitted.

The TSI retained the 20-year jail term handed to Carion, sentenced in absentia, who had not filed an appeal. The TUI wants this case to be resolved by the TSI in light of the new decision.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.  United Methodist delegates on Friday repealed their churchs longstanding ban on the celebrations of same-sex marriages or unions by its clergy and in its churches.

The action marked the final major reversal of a collection of LGBTQ bans and disapprovals that have been embedded throughout the laws and social teachings of the United Methodist Church over the previous half-century.

The 447-233 vote by the UMC's General Conference came one day after delegates overwhelmingly voted to repeal a 52-year-old declaration that the practice of homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching and two days after they repealed the denomination's ban on LGBTQ clergy.

Its the UMCs first legislative gathering since 2019, one that featured its most progressive slate of delegates in memory following the departure of more than 7,600 mostly conservative congregations in the United States because it essentially stopped enforcing its bans on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ordination.

The delegates voted to repeal a section in their Book of Discipline, or church law, that states: Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.

Clergy will neither be required nor prohibited from performing any marriage, according to existing law that the conference affirmed with minor revisions Friday.

On Thursday, delegates approved Revised Social Principles, or statements of the church's values. In addition to removing the language about homosexuality being incompatible with Christian teaching," that revision also defined marriage as a covenant between two adults, without limiting it to heterosexual couples, as the previous version had done.

But while Social Principles are non-binding, the clause removed on Friday had the force of law.

Regional conferences outside the United States have the ability to set their own rules, however, so churches in Africa and elsewhere with more conservative views on sexuality could retain bans on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy. A pending amendment to the church constitution would also enable the U.S. region to make such adaptations.

The change doesnt mandate or even explicitly affirm same-sex marriages. But it removes their prohibition. It takes effect Saturday following the close of General Conference.
Darin Burreson has owned and operated small grocery stores for nearly 30 years in communities like Blanchardville, Belleville and New Glarus.

His latest store is in a more urban environment and is far from the only game in town. In fact, its in one of the most competitive grocery cities in the Midwest.

Burreson has purchased Capitol Centre Market, a 25,000-square-foot store at the corner of West Mifflin and Broom streets in Madisons Downtown. But Burreson is no stranger to the retailer that opened its doors in 1983.

For the past four years, Burreson, 57, has lived a few blocks away and has been a regular shopper at the store, a prime food depot for UW-Madison students along with working professionals like Burreson and older customers who live in the neighborhood. Hell be assisted in the endeavor by his daughter, Kensie Burreson.

And thats one of the main reasons Im coming in here, Darin Burreson said of his daughter. There will definitely be more traffic. That will be different, seeing different people every day. In smaller towns you see the same people.

No changes are planned for the store, which will maintain its name and staff of 50 employees. The exception will be Mitch Eveland, who is retiring.

50 years in the grocery business

Eveland, 65, became just the second owner of Capitol Centre Market when he purchased the business in 2007 from original owners John and Peg Leemkuil.

Eveland built, owned and operated the Lake Mills Market in 2014, selling the store in 2021 to a subsidiary of Festival Foods. In 2019, he expanded Capitol Centre Market by buying the adjacent hardware store space. The $2.75 million expansion and remodel included a larger checkout area and a massive deli that serves up sliced lunch meats, salads, fried chicken and hot soups. The beer cave got bigger, the meat department, with two butchers has been expanded, and sushi is now made on-site instead of being brought in from a vendor.

The expansion, which enlarged the retail sales floor to 15,000 square feet, included new offices and a break room, more cooler and freezer space in the backroom and, on the retail floor, produce and dairy departments that are 20% larger.

Theres more competition Downtown, and, in order to serve our customers better, I thought we needed to provide them with a deli and a bakery, Eveland told the Wisconsin State Journal at the time. To stay competitive nowadays you have to be able to provide more of what the customer wants.

When Eveland purchased the store, there was no Fresh Madison Market in the heart of the UW-Madison campus, the construction of a Festival Foods on East Washington Avenue was nine years away, students made up the majority of his customers and Epic Systems in Verona had 10,000 fewer employees. Willy Street Co-op also had plans to open an 8,750-square-foot store across the street from Capitol Centre but ultimately abandoned those plans.

Eveland is one of the citys most experienced grocery operators. The West High School graduate worked at Fauerbachs Fine Foods and Nakoma Trading Post in Madison and spent five years with the Hannaford Brothers Co. food stores based in Portland, Maine, before returning to Madison to manage seven area Pick n Save stores for 14 years before their purchase by Roundys.

The sale of his store to Burreson comes just a few weeks after Metcalfes Market, locally owned for 107 years, was purchased by SpartanNash, a Michigan-based retailer with 144 grocery stores in nine Midwest states.

Eveland found the right buyer

Eveland wanted to find someone who would continue to buy its inventory from Certco, an independent grocery wholesaler co-op founded in 1930, when five retailers in the Madison area joined together to get lower prices through combined purchasing. Certco, with a distribution center in Fitchburg, now services more than 200 stores throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.

Eveland found Burreson, who is a member of the co-op and since 2016 has owned Roys Market in New Glarus. Eveland, who will continue to own the Capitol Centre Market building and lease the property to Burreson, plans to spend some of his retirement volunteering at Madison-area food pantries.

There was a very long list of people that were interested (in buying the store) but a very short list to work with, Eveland said. I think hes going to do awesome. He has a very high-energy daughter thats going to be very hands-on with the business, Kensie, and I think shes going to do a great job.

Darin Burreson owned a grocery store in Blanchardville from 1996 to 2009 and opened Burresons Foods in Belleville in 2009 but sold that business in 2022 to Tegan Counihan, Tanya Haessly and Bryce Haessly, owners of Piggly Wiggly grocery stores in Waunakee and Lodi.

The purchase of a store with 16,000 specific items in Madison creates a new opportunity.

This is a very good location and thats one of the main reasons Im here, Burreson said. Even in smaller towns youre kind of competing with the bigger stores because a lot of them work in Madison. But this is college kids, and this location works really well.

Photos: Opening day of the Dane County Farmers Market
MOUNT HOREB  Gavin Reynolds was eating lunch in the cafeteria at Mount Horeb Middle School on Wednesday when he saw his eighth-grade classmate bang on the window  not with his hand but with the butt of a long gun.

I just saw the gun. I heard people yell, What is Damian doing? he said. And then somebody yelled, Damians got a gun, and I just ran.

Authorities have not identified the boy who they say arrived at the middle school with a gun at about 11:30 a.m., but several classmates and their parents identified him as Damian Haglund, 14. The boy was not able to enter the school and was shot and killed in a confrontation with police, including a school resource officer, according to the state Department of Justice, which is investigating the incident. No one else was injured.

Seeing the gun, Gavin and about 10 to 15 other students ran out the sixth-grade doors on the opposite end of the building and into a nearby OReilly auto parts store, where they huddled for about an hour before being reunited with their parents at the district school bus garage.

Others who stayed inside the school said Damian then fired his weapon, Gavin said. They say he was just smiling and laughing and shooting up into the air, he said.

Gavin said he heard four shots; others said they heard five.

I just thought it was a dream. I never thought it would actually happen, Gavin said. I was just trying to save myself and get everyone at OReillys to calm down. So just in case he came there, he wouldnt know that we were there and the employees there could take care of it.

Wyatt Bush, another eighth grader at the school, said Damian was usually a nice person and that nobody took him seriously when hed joke about hurting himself. He also talked about making a bomb, Wyatt said.

He always would joke about it and hed do it in, like, a funny tone, he said. So nobody ever would think that this would happen out of Mount Horeb.

Wyatt said he was about 10 feet from the doors the boy was banging on and started running when he heard the first gunshot. He said he followed people into a nearby wood shop and lumberyard.

Thankfully they waved us in, he said. The group stayed there for about an hour and a half.

Wyatt said he wasnt friends with Damian, but the boy had other friends. Hed always joke, he said. He was just like a funny person to people.

Efforts by the Wisconsin State Journal to reach Damians family Thursday were unsuccessful.

Support in community

Classes were canceled Thursday and Friday, although evening events in the district Friday would go ahead, the district said on its Facebook page.

Instead, many students and their parents filled Mount Horeb High Schools commons area Thursday afternoon in a show of community support and to get resources for parents about how to talk to their children about what happened. On hand were district staff, first responders, and therapy dogs and their handlers. Snacks and beverages were provided, and paper and art supplies were set out for children to draw their feelings or create messages of support.

In brief remarks to the group, superintendent Steve Salerno related how local restaurants delivered food to students locked down in their classrooms Wednesday and said it was an example of the Mount Horeb way.

This is the way in which we heal and we move forward, he said. There will be time for us to look back but nows not that time. Nows the time to take care of our children. Nows the time to take care of our loving staff, who are hurting right now.

Matt Etmanczyk, the father of an eighth grader and a fifth grader in the district thought it was great ... to have kids be with other kids and feel out these emotions and talk to each other.

Chris Christian said Damian was in her eighth-grade sons homeroom.

He was pretty in shock yesterday, Christian said. He saw the pounding on the window and he took off running with everyone else in the lunch room.

We hear about this every day in the news, but we dont expect it to come here, she said. How do you move forward from that? For me this is a start.

In social media posts and on a personal blog Damian described an all-consuming addiction to learning about the 1999 Columbine school shooting and other school shootings. Other writings expressed hatred for diversity and feminists, displayed a fascination with guns and included racist statements.

In one post, Damian details a March visit he made to Weston High School in Cazenovia, the site of a 2006 shooting in which a student fatally shot the schools principal, John Klang.

When I went there the energy was powerful, Haglund wrote.

Lockdown lasted well into evening

After the shooting Wednesday, authorities kept the school locked down well into the evening, something Mount Horeb Police Chief Doug Vierck said was a necessary precaution, even though parents were anxious to see their children.

Due to the number of resources needed to coordinate the response and the number of calls and information, there was a longer delay than anyone probably wanted for reuniting the children back to their families, Vierck said in a statement. Know that the time line and decisions made were in the best interest of safety for the children and staff while we confirmed critical details.

Gavins mother, Jen Reynolds, a special education coordinator in the Middleton-Cross Plains district, said she had her phone silenced Wednesday while in a meeting and found out through a work colleague that there had been a shooting in Mount Horeb.

Where are my babies? Where are my kids? was what she said went through her mind. She also has a fifth-grade daughter in the district. Mount Horebs intermediate, middle and high schools sit on a combined campus, about 20 miles southwest of Madison.

While she was able to reunite with Gavin as soon as she made it to Mount Horeb, it took another five-plus hours to get to her daughter.

I wanted nothing more than to hold her and hug her and see her, Reynolds said, although by that point, I had complete faith that she was safe.

I think for her, just being able to come home made a big difference, Reynolds said.

Grateful to school staff, police

People around Mount Horeb on Thursday said the community is hurting, but strong. Many said they appreciate how the situation was handled by school staff and law enforcement officers.

Ive never had concerns about my kids education and I was impressed and so grateful to the staff here, as a community, Reynolds said. I know there are still lots of tears and mixed emotions everywhere.

Heidy Lange, co-owner of Firefly Events Decor and Flowers near the school, said she looked up Wednesday and saw dozens of kids fleeing the school and running down the street.

There were sirens and dozens of squad cars.

They brought in SWAT teams. They had ATVs, and they were just flying, Lange said. We had no idea what it was because when we saw the kids, they were unaccompanied and we were like, Where are they going? And they were just running so fast.

Lange said teachers and other adults were running after them.

I dont know how you recover from something like this, Lange said, adding that she feels for everybody involved, including the boy with the gun. There had to be a reason. Everybody doesnt know how bad somebodys hurting.

State Journal reporters Chris Rickert and Lucas Robinson contributed to this report.
Scientists have found traces of the influenza A virus in wastewater samples across 18 states  leading to increased concerns that cattle throughout the country are infected with avian flu.

Avian flu  also referred to by the scientific name H5N1  has been found in more than 30 herds of cattle across nine states. It's possible, however, that the virus is even more widespread than that.

Recent tests found non-infectious genetic material from H5N1 present in 20% of milk sampled at a grocery store. The USDA has also announced that it will begin testing retail ground beef to determine "whether any viral particles are present." Lactating dairy cows are also required to test negative for the virus before they can move between states.

In its current form, avian flu poses a limited risk to humans. There are only two reported cases of people contracting the virus in the United States. The CDC is monitoring the H5N1 outbreak, however, because there is a possibility that the illness could change and become more infectious.

The avian flu does continue to pose a threat to both wild and domesticated animals. More than 90,000 poultry and 9,000 wild birds have been impacted by the virus. A University of Minnesota analysis also suggests that the illness is causing inflammation in cows' udders that could contribute to a drop in milk production.

While wastewater tests can give some indication about the presence of influenza viruses, researchers can't necessarily distinguish H5N1 from other strains of the flu.

"If dairy industry activities in these sewersheds are a primary source of H5 in wastewater, this suggests that there may be additional, unidentified outbreaks among cattle with milk sent to these facilities since milk from infected animals is required to be diverted from the food supply," researchers wrote in a paper co-authored by scientists at Stanford and Emory.
In 2016, officer Joseph Mensah, then with the Wauwatosa Police Department, shot Alvin Cole, an armed suspect who reached for a gun during a foot chase outside a busy Wauwatosa mall. Cole was killed.

The incident was investigated by the Milwaukee Police Department and reviewed by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who declined to issue charges on the grounds that Mensahs use of force was a justifiable exercise of the right to self-defense.

Officer Mensah was similarly cleared by separate investigations by the Wauwatosa Police Department, the United States Attorneys Office and former U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic.

Even after all that, on being petitioned to reopen the case, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Glenn Yamahiro launched yet another investigation into Mensah and assigned two special prosecutors to continue investigating him. After nearly another year of legal badgering, their investigation cleared Mensah yet again.

Similar events occurred with Madison police officer Matt Kenny. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to issue charges after determining his fatal shooting of Tony Robinson was an exercise of self-defense. For both officers, the process became the punishment for crimes for which they were never charged.

It was possible for Judge Yamahiro to be persuaded to reopen the case, despite Mensah being cleared several times, because of an obscure state law dating to before statehood that allows secretive investigations into a citizen who was found to have acted within the bounds of the law. Any person or group just has to file a petition with a sympathetic judge requesting a proceeding be opened.

A judge in such a position can launch an unlimited number of investigations without being presented with any new evidence refuting the findings of self-defense. The toll such legal tormenting can take on the target is immense.

This punishment by process is exactly the point for those who target police. But nothing is stopping it from being used against any other citizen that some group decides to go after.

But it is especially relevant to law enforcement, who are put in high-stakes encounters every day. They are trained to deescalate dangerous situations and do so admirably every day, but the chance they will need to use force in self-defense or the defense of others is constant.

In addition, police officers must pay for their legal defense out of their own pockets. They live with constant anxiety that any high-risk encounter could lead to professional and financial ruin and years of unimaginable stress on their families, just as Mensah experienced.

I learned the depth of this problem after a ride-along with Milwaukee police and many conversations with law enforcement leaders. They told me this is one of the top reasons officers leave the force and are hard to replace, exacerbating staffing and morale problems.

Thats why I authored Senate Bill 517. SB 517 required that, before a judge can reopen a case where a district attorney declined to issue charges, new evidence must be presented that disputes the prior evidence that the person acted in self-defense.

The robust processes and protections that exist now will remain, ensuring thorough investigations will continue to be conducted. Petitioners can still ask a judge to reopen a case and launch an investigation under this law.

The bill did only one thing: require new evidence. This would limit the current open-ended, limitless nature of these probes and respect the decisions of elected district attorneys.

Unfortunately, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the bill in April, a missed opportunity to support law enforcement in a way that would have a tangible impact on morale and staffing challenges. Evers veto also risks political harassment of any other citizen that the justice system determined acted within the bounds of the law.
Dong Nai, VietnamHundreds of thousands of fish have died in a reservoir in southern Vietnams Dong Nai province, with locals and media reports suggesting a brutal heatwave and the lakes management are to blame.

Like much of Southeast Asiawhere schools have recently been forced to close early and electricity usage has surgedsouthern and central Vietnam have been scorched by devastating heat.

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All the fish in the Song May reservoir died for lack of water, a local resident in Trang Bom district, who identified himself only as Nghia, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Our life has been turned upside down over the past 10 days because of the smell.

Pictures show residents wading and boating through the 300-hectare Song May reservoir, with the water barely visible under a blanket of dead marine life.

According to media reports, the area has seen no rain for weeks, and the water in the reservoir is too low for the creatures to survive.

Reservoir management had previously discharged water to try to save crops downstream, Nghia said.

They then tried to renovate the reservoir, bringing in a pump to take the mud out, so that the fish would have more space and water, he said.

However, the efforts did not work, and shortly afterwards many of the fish died, with local media reports suggesting as many as two hundred tons worth may have perished.

Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that the firm in charge of managing the lake had begun dredging in early 2024, initially planning to release extra water into the reservoir for the fish.

But owing to an unrelenting heatwave, the investor released the water into the downstream area, leading to the water level going down. As a result, fish died en masse, the newspaper reported.

The reservoir is the water source for crops in Trang Bom and Vinh Cuu districts of Dong Nai province.

Authorities are investigating the incident, while working to quickly remove the dead fish.

We hope authorities will do their best to improve the situation, Nghia said.

Southeast Asia bakes

According to weather forecasters, temperatures in Dong Nai province, 100 kilometers west of Ho Chi Minh City, reached around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in April, breaking the record high temperature recorded in 1998.

The soaring temperatures are also impacting neighboring Cambodia, where the high could reach 43 on the mercury.

On Wednesday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered schools to consider closing to protect teachers and students from the heat, and put officials on stand-by in case of water shortages.

It follows the education minister on Tuesday ordering establishments to shorten morning classes and delay afternoon ones in an attempt to avoid the worst of the midday heat.

Hang Chuon Naron said the measures were to prevent risks and to avoid illnesses that would harm the health of students and teachers.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, electricity usage surged to new records on Tuesday as temperatures in northeastern province Udon Thani broke 44C.
AT least 100 Filipino health workers are needed to work as caregivers in South Korea under the Employment Permit System between the Philippine and Republic of South Korea, according to the Migrant Workers (DMW).

The project aims to expand bilateral labor ties between Mnaila and Seoul, as well as assess the feasibility of a larger caregiver deployment plan between the two countries.

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It will directly benefit Korean families who need help caring for children, including infants, or who have pregnant women, single parents, or dual-income couples.

Qualified caregivers will assist with childcare, daily tasks like cleaning and laundry, and support for pregnant women. It will also open up new job opportunities for qualified Philippine caregivers.

Prospective caregivers must present their Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, or TESDA, NC II Caregiving Certificate and should be between 24 and 38 years old.

Selected applicants will undergo comprehensive medical, psychological, language, and physical tests. They will receive pre-departure and post-arrival training sessions. Prospective Korean families will also attend the orientation sessions.

Registration starts May 9 until May 10, 2024.
The latest powerful salvo from the Malaysian Foreign Minister Hasan should be a final wake-up call to BBM that he is taking a disastrous track on the collaboration with the war-thirsty US and Western forces

THE South China Morning Post headlined last April 25, 2024 South China Sea: Malaysia opposes external forces meddling in disputed waters, foreign minister says in swipe at US-Philippines military exercises, the normally very reticent ASEAN member states are certainly beginning to be very audible in their opposition to the year-and-a-half US-BBM ramp-up of tensions in the disputed South China Sea areas of the Philippines with other littoral ASEAN countries, Taiwan and China.

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China is the only focus of the Philippine contestations which is so very strangely convenient for the Americans containment targeting of China and the Project Myoushus assertive transparency campaign of the US Office Of Naval Researchs Gordian Knot Center of National Security Innovation (a.k.a. Maritime Counter-Insurgency operations).

Some of the objectives of these US Black Ops are exacting reputational cost on China and, generating international support for Philippine claims.

In the SCMP report, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan stated his opposition to external forces meddling in disputed waters as no longer such a veiled swipe at US-BBM military exercises.

The reference is clearly to the US naval assets leading the US-BBM military drills in disputed SCS waters, an unequivocal chastisement of the interference which the US is conducting in the ASEAN and Asian region stirring up trouble and tension.

The Malaysian foreign ministers criticism of the US interference in the ASEAN regions comes just a week-and-a-half after Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnans visit to Manila to advice the Philippines foreign minister Enrique Manalo that  Although Singapore has no claims in the SCS, the moment you have escalation of tension or collisions or military action in the SCS, it will immediately impair and impede trade. It will increase insurance premiums

Balakrishnan objected to the accusations from US and Philippine sources that ASEAN has failed to issue a unified stance on the SCS dispute saying, The most important thing for the whole of ASEAN is to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea because it is not only our immediate backyard but it is also one of the worlds busiest waterways 

In fact, the US-BBMs daily tension-building naval drills news releases are already impacting ASEAN trade.

All these followed Singapore Premier Lee Hsien Loongs Nov. 2013 rhetorical advice to Filipinos, Do Filipinos want to be the battleground between the US and China?

That had apparently shaken the Philippine government to re-engage China in bilateral talks again in the Wang Yi-Manalo phone talk in Dec. 2023 and the official Jan. 2024 8th Bilateral Mechanism talks which resulted in January to the February 4th peaceful and uneventful BRP Sierra Madre RORE.

The USAF ex-colonel Raymond Powell went on the offensive again and went on to browbeat BBM, and the AFP knelt again and obeyed the US diktats to escalate the blatant RORE missions to deliver construction materials for the US project to build Forward Operating Base Sierra Madre to complement the US bases deploying the mid-range missiles with the Typhoon launchers for the military drills that would then be deployed to the EDCA bases in Cagayan Province.

The latest powerful salvo from the Malaysian Foreign Minister Hasan should be a final wake-up call to BBM that he is taking a disastrous track on the collaboration with the war-thirsty US and Western forces with their Japanese militarist allies.

Hed better take heed before ASEAN rises forcefully against this US threat to create war in Asia to destroy its growing GDP.

To repeat, ASEAN rejection of the US-BBM proxy war preparations collapses the US assertive transparency aim of exacting reputational costs on China and generating international support for the Philippine claim as it shows even the Philippines closest neighbors are rejecting it.

This collapses the assertive transparency of the US Office Naval Researchs Project Myoushu in the just first quarter of 2024.

The US Office of Naval Research is funding the operations of Project Myoushu from the 2022 US Congressional $ 500-million special America Compete Act anti-China information fund. Its running out very soon as the US financial system grinds into its last gasp in the last quarter of 2024. (rpkapunan@gmail.com)
Due to having the largest graduating class in the colleges history, McDowell Technical Community College will hold two graduation ceremonies this year, with students divided between the ceremonies by program area.

The keynote speaker and musicians will be the same for both ceremonies. Combined, approximately 430 graduates will receive degrees, diplomas or certificates during the day. Almost 325 of those students will receive curriculum degrees, with another 54 receiving continuing education certificates and 53 receiving an adult high school or high school equivalency credential.

We took these steps to make sure that we would have adequate seating for all of the family and friends coming to celebrate with our graduates, said Ryan Garrison, interim MTCC president. By dividing students into two ceremonies, we shouldnt have to worry about people having to stand during the ceremony, and things should move a little more quickly.

Both ceremonies will be held on Friday, May 10, with one ceremony at 3 p.m. and the other at 7 p.m. The ceremonies will be held at Nebo Crossing church on Barnes Road in Marion.

Students in college transfer and business technology program areas will attend the 3 p.m. ceremony, while career and technical education students, including health sciences, workforce and continuing education, adult high school, and high school equivalency, will attend the 7 p.m. ceremony. This is the first year that longer-term workforce and continuing education students have participated in the colleges official graduation ceremonies. Communications have gone out to students in all areas to notify them of which ceremony they should attend.

Kim Effler, director of McDowell Chamber of Commerce, will be the keynote speaker for this years ceremonies. Local vocalist Greg Conley, who has sung at McDowell Tech graduations for at least a couple of decades, will once again regale students with powerful vocals. Adding to the excitement, Max Dasher, a 2024 American Idol contestant, will also sing for the graduates. Dasher is a recent McDowell Tech student.

Due to increasing security concerns across the nation, McDowell Tech is joining most other colleges and major event venues in establishing a clear bag policy for event safety and security this year. Students and guests must use clear plastic or vinyl bags or small clutch bags instead of regular purses, backpacks, camera bags, cross-body bags and so forth. Medical bags will be allowed with proper inspection at the entrance, as will diaper bags for those with infants and toddlers, although these will also be inspected prior to entry. Marion Police Department and other law enforcement staff will support college staff before, during and after the event to make sure that students and their families can enjoy a safe and smooth event.

It is exciting to see so many students take advantage of the many higher education opportunities that we offer, said Garrison. As we produce more and more quality graduates, we reinforce our role as a key player in workforce development throughout the state and region, and our students and their families improve their socioeconomic status. Higher education is a win-win for everyone. Congratulations to the Class of 2024!
President Joseph Boakai has recently issued an executive order to establish a long-awaited war crimes court in Liberia, aiming to provide justice for victims of the nations two devastating civil wars.

These conflicts were marked by widespread atrocities such as mass killings, torture, and sexual violence. The legislative process for the court received approval from both the parliament and the senate, with a majority of lawmakers, including potential prosecution targets, endorsing it. Boakai emphasized the necessity of justice and healing for fostering peace and harmony in the nation.

Victims and advocates have long demanded accountability for war crimes perpetrators. However, the government took no action despite a Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 2009 to identify individuals for prosecution. Justice became a significant issue in the preceding presidential election, aiding Boakai in defeating the incumbent President George Weah.

Liberia, initially established as a settlement for freed slaves from the United States in 1822, later declared independence. The resolution urges international donors to finance the court, with several procedural measures still pending to establish an independent and efficient judicial system.

Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. envoy for global criminal justice, expressed willingness to support the court financially, contingent on appropriate setup and clarity on operational details. Other donors have also shown interest pending a clear framework. Human Rights Watch and other civil society organizations have urged the Biden administration to encourage Liberian authorities to establish and fund the long-awaited court. Such measures are crucial for delivering justice to victims, holding perpetrators accountable, and fostering respect for the rule of law and lasting peace.
The United States is set to allocate close to $55 million to address a severe humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso, as revealed by U.S. aid chief Samantha Power in a statement obtained by Reuters. The aid package will primarily target urgent food and nutrition needs, alongside other forms of assistance, bringing the total emergency aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development to Burkina Faso to nearly $158 million since the start of fiscal year 2023.

Samantha Power emphasized the unfolding crisis in Burkina Faso, where widespread violence and assaults on civilians and critical infrastructure have led to mass displacement and disrupted essential services. Approximately 6.3 million Burkinabe, accounting for nearly a third of the countrys population, require urgent aid this year, she stated.

Burkina Faso is among several nations in Africas Sahel region grappling with Islamist insurgencies linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, resulting in numerous casualties and displacements. Concerns over the failure of authorities to safeguard civilians have contributed to multiple coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger since 2020. The current military regime in Burkina Faso took control at the end of 2022.

Power highlighted a recent report by Human Rights Watch detailing the summary execution of approximately 223 villagers, including at least 56 children, in February, allegedly as part of a military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with jihadist militants. She urged donors to step up their support for the overlooked and underfunded humanitarian response, emphasizing the challenges of reaching vulnerable civilians amid ongoing conflict. Power stressed the critical need for protecting civilians and ensuring unhindered humanitarian access to prevent the worsening of the devastating situation in Burkina Faso.
The Kenyan government has instructed residents living near 178 dams and reservoirs to evacuate due to ongoing heavy rains. The interior ministry has issued a warning, stating that these water bodies are either full or nearing capacity, posing a significant risk to nearby inhabitants. Those residing within a 30-meter wetland corridor of the Nairobi River are given a 24-hour evacuation notice starting from 18:30 local time on Thursday.

Recent torrential rains have led to severe flooding and landslides across Kenya and Tanzania, resulting in numerous casualties. The situation is expected to deteriorate further with the forecasted Cyclone Hidaya, particularly affecting the coastal region and Nairobi. The interior ministry emphasized the urgency of evacuations, citing fully saturated soils nationwide.

Evacuations are scheduled to commence at 06:00 on Friday, with temporary shelters and essentials arranged for evacuees. Areas near the Nairobi Dam and Titanic Dam are included in the evacuation, with plans to remove buildings within the Nairobi River wetland area. The extent of the evacuations impact remains uncertain.

The governments response to the natural disaster has drawn criticism, but President William Rutos office assured a comprehensive approach is underway. The cabinet pledged to implement measures addressing climate change and its effects, acknowledging climate change as a significant factor behind the extreme weather events, influenced notably by the Indian Ocean Dipole.
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Health care providers can more effectively connect parents and other caregivers of children to needed social resources when they present a menu of options rather than using standard screening tools, a recent study found. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

According to researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, health care providers typically use risk-based screening to identify families facing food and housing insecurity, financial strain, and unsafe environments.

Experts say this approach can lead to inequalities in resource distribution and usage by requiring families to disclose hardshipsoften in front of their childrenin order to receive assistance. Researchers found that allowing family members to select desired resources from a menu of options increased the interest in and use of social support.

Researchers randomly provided nearly 4,000 caregivers with either a traditional social risk screening tool, a resource menu, or no assessment. Participants using the resource menu were 9.4% more likely to request resources than those using the screening tool, the study found.

The beneficial effect of the resource menu was even more pronounced among families who prefer a non-English language. More than 40% of the participants used an online resource map to access resources, while 33.4% reported sharing it.

"Children and families with social need should receive resources that reflect their priorities, not based on whether they meet the threshold of a screening tool," said Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH, MSHP, assistant professor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and presenting author.

"Using a 'resource menu' allows for a more family-centered approach to resource connection, equipping children and families with tailored social resources based on their priorities while reducing inequalities and feared unintended consequences that may be perpetuated by screening practices."

Study authors recommend that providers use resource menus as an alternative to social risk screening to provide a more equitable, family-centered approach.

More information: Abstract: Socially Equitable Care by Understanding Resource Engagement (SECURE): A Pragmatic RCT
WNBA star blamed a "mental lapse" for her bringing cannabis oil cartridges in her luggage, a "mistake" that led to her spending nearly 10 months in a Russian prison.

Griner, 33, was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow on Feb. 17, 2022, for having the cannabis vaping cartridges, which are illegal in Russia, in her suitcase and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

"I could just visualize everything I worked so hard for just crumbling and going away," Griner told Robin Roberts in an interview that aired Wednesday evening on ABC's "20/20."

The two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays for the Phoenix Mercury said she was awakened late on the morning she was to travel to Russia during the WNBA's off-season and was in "panic mode."

"My packing at that moment was just throwing all my stuff in there and zipping it up and saying, 'OK, I'm ready,'" Griner said on the program.

She said she was devastated when she realized that she had forgotten the cartridges in her luggage after security asked to search her bags at the airport.

"I'm just like, 'Oh, my God.' Like, 'How did I - how did I make this mistake?'" Griner said.

"I could just visualize everything I worked so hard for just crumbling and going away," she added.

Roberts asked Griner about how some people were skeptical that she could have left the cartridges in her bags: "How did you not know?"

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said, noting that she had "no intention" of breaking the law.

"Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen," she added.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 4, 2022, and was sent to a prison in Mordovia, where she was put to work cutting fabric for Russian military uniforms.

"Really cold," Griner said of the conditions at the prison. "It's a work camp. You go there to work ... there's no rest."

She was released in December 2022 as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington, exchanging her for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is known as the "Merchant of Death."
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Artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT displayed lower concern than physicians in 36% of potential developmental delays, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

Researchers found ChatGPT made different conclusions about the abnormality of a potential delay than pediatricians 41% of the time.

The study investigated how ChatGPT responded to parents' concerns whether their child's development was normal or abnormal, including if the response aligned with a pediatrician's diagnosis. The research found that ChatGPT rarely categorized a case as abnormal, underscoring pediatricians' concerns that the tool is not prepared to be a reliable source of guidance for child behavioral patterns.

"Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can provide accurate information for parents regarding their child's development, but still do not perform like physicians in certain tasks," said Joseph G. Barile, BA, research assistant at Cohen Children's Medical Center and presenting author.

"This study reveals how pediatricians may have more conviction than ChatGPT when it comes to denoting certain developmental delays as 'abnormal.'"

While ChatGPT showed higher concern than physicians in only 5% of cases, the research found that pediatricians identified approximately 30% more potential developmental delays than ChatGPT.

ChatGPT and pediatricians were most inconsistent with social, emotional, and behavioral concerns rather than physical, and for children older than one.

The study looked at 108 concerns in children up to five years old. The results were scored by board-certified physicians for accuracy.

More information: Abstract: Dr. ChatGPT, is my child normal? An Investigation into a Public Artificial Intelligence Chatbot's Categorizations of Potential Developmental Delays
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Resident physicians at more than 98% of U.S. training programs aren't paid enough to afford childcare, according to a new national study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

Childcare remains unaffordable even at most programs that subsidize childcare or offer it onsite, the examination of data from the Labor Department and the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) revealed.

"People in the United States from many walks of life struggle to pay for childcare, and resident physicians are no exception," said Ryan Brewster, MD, resident physician at Boston Children's Hospital and presenting author.

"If we want to address this country's physician shortage, we need to ensure that talented, motivated residents of all backgroundswho already work long hours and, all too often, carry huge student loan debtsearn enough for basic childcare."

The study of second-year residents at 935 accredited residency programs found that childcare is less likely to be affordable in urban areas and in the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and on the West Coast. Researchers found that childcare has become less affordable over the last two decades.

Resident physician salaries fell by 0.23% while childcare costs rose by 44.7% between 2000 and 2022, according to the study.

Childcare becomes unaffordable when it consumes more than 7% of household income, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

These findings underscore the need for multilevel advocacy for graduate medical compensation, according to the authors.

More information: Abstract: Childcare Affordability and Benefits Amongst U.S. Resident Physicians
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Youth with high blood pressure are nearly four times more likely to be at long-term risk of serious heart conditions including stroke and heart attack, according to a new study. The research, led by McMaster University, will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

Hypertension affects one of every 15 children and adolescents worldwide and is a growing concern, according to researchers. Despite this, it is unclear what happens to these children in the long-term. Researchers compared 25,605 youth diagnosed with hypertension from 19962021 in Ontario to peers without the condition.

The study found that during average follow-up of 13 years, youth with hypertension were at two to four times higher risk of experiencing heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or cardiac surgery compared to youth without hypertension. Experts say that improved blood pressure screening and treatment during childhood may reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular disease as an adult.

"Devoting more resources to pediatric blood pressure screening and control could lower the risks of long-term heart conditions in children with hypertension," said Cal H. Robinson, MD, pediatric nephrology fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and presenting author.

"More awareness about the importance of regular screening and follow-up for pediatric hypertension may prevent children from developing significant adverse heart outcomes later in life."

Study authors recommend additional funding for long-term pediatric hypertension studies to provide greater insight into adult heart and kidney outcomes in children with hypertension.

More information: Abstract: Long-term cardiovascular outcomes in children and adolescents with hypertension: A population-based, propensity-matched cohort study
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Use of an eye ultrasound may quickly and safely identify children with brain drainage tube failure in the emergency department, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

A ventricular shunt is a surgically implanted thin, plastic tube that drains extra fluid and relieves pressure on the brain. Children receive ventricular shunts for hydrocephalus, a condition where brain fluid doesn't drain or reabsorb properly from brain bleeds, tumors, or other causes.

Nearly 30% of shunts break, are displaced, or become blocked within two years of placement, and another 5% fail each year after that, experts say.

When a patient visits the emergency department for potential shunt failure, their symptoms are often nonspecific, including headache, vomiting, and fatigue, according to researchers. Shunt failure is life threatening, and children with shunts typically undergo multiple computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans per year, exposing them to excessive radiation and sedation. A backup of fluid causes the optic nerve sheath to swell, which researchers can measure with eye ultrasound.

The study found that comparing the diameter of the optic nerve when a patient is symptomatic to the diameter when they are well can help determine if a shunt is blocked.

"The research team is interested in finding ways to lessen radiation exposure and expedite diagnosing shunt failure in the emergency department," said Adrienne L. Davis, MD, MSc, FRCPC, pediatric emergency medicine research director at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and presenting author.

"The study uses patients as their own controls by measuring the optic nerve when well and sicka strategy that individualizes this test for every patient and recognizes that every patient with a shunt has a unique degree of shunt dependence and ability to tolerate high brain pressures."

The researchers studied 76 pairs of eye ultrasounds of nearly 60 children presenting to the Toronto hospital's emergency department with potential shunt failure. Researchers note that while findings are promising, results require further confirmation in a larger population of children with shunts across North America.

More information: Abstract: Change in Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) and Optic disc elevation (ODE) in predicting Shunt failure in the Emergency department (CHOOSE study)
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Extending the use of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment in premature infants by two weeks significantly increases lung volume and lung diffusion capacity, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

CPAP treatment is common for preterm infants with breathing issues, but researchers note there is no consensus on optimal treatment length when the preterm infant is doing well. Preterm birth is the most common cause of altered lung development and breathing issues that can last into adulthood, experts say.

"Extending CPAP treatment may be a simple and safe approach to improving preterm infant lung function and breathing in the absence of a lung growth therapy," said Cindy T. McEvoy, MD, MCR, professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University and the presenting author.

"The study's findings solidify CPAP treatment as beneficial for preterm infants without requiring pharmaceuticals."

In the study, researchers kept a group of preterm infants on CPAP treatment for an additional two weeks. The study found that patients who received the extra treatment had larger, healthier lungs six months later than those who did not.

Study authors say that the results can help clinicians determine an appropriate length of treatment.

More information: Abstract: Increased Alveolar Volume and Lung Diffusion Capacity in Former Preterm Infants Randomized to Two Extra Weeks of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) in the NICU
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Preterm infants supported with a multicomponent intravenous lipid emulsion saw improved brain development compared to those given a single-fat source, a new study finds. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2024 Meeting, held May 26 in Toronto.

Soybean-only lipid emulsions traditionally have been used in neonatal intensive care units to provide intravenous nutritional support to preterm infants, according to researchers. This study investigated the effects of newer multicomponent lipid emulsions, with fat sources derived from soybeans, olives, coconuts, and fish oil, on preterm brain development compared to soybean-only.

Researchers evaluated the impact of a variety of intravenous lipid emulsions on preterm brain development using magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and early neurobehavioral assessments from 89 U.S. preterm infants born at or before 32 gestational weeks.

Researchers found that preterm infants receiving the multicomponent lipid emulsion demonstrated improved regional brain growth and biochemical markers of neuronal integrity, as well as superior neurobehavioral regulation, by term-corrected age. These findings could be due to the potential anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of the newer multicomponent lipids, the authors postulate.

"Preterm births account for more than 10% of all births in the United States, and the majority of very preterm infants experience neurological issues later in life," said Katherine Ottolini, MD, attending neonatologist in the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National Hospital and presenting author.

"Early lipid intake is critical for preterm brain development, and our findings suggest that reformulated intravenous lipid products have the potential to enhance neurodevelopment in this particularly vulnerable population."

Study authors recommend ongoing research on reformulated intravenous lipid emulsions be conducted to assess long-term neurodevelopmental effects.

More information: Abstract: Type of Intravenous Lipid Emulsion Affects Very Preterm Brain Development
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Drug overdose rates skyrocketed in the United States during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 92,000 people died due to overdose in 2020. Public health experts worried early in the pandemic that lockdowns and other measures to control the spread of the virus could lead to more overdoses.

In work published in the American Journal of Public Health, Syracuse University researchers quantify how much the pandemic measures and economic policies impacted those rates. The findings provide answers to lawmakers and health leaders about future health policies and the unintended consequences that come with certain health measures, even if those measures were intended to save lives.

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs faculty members and Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health researchers Douglas Wolf, Shannon Monnat, Emily Wiemers, Jennifer Karas Montez and Yue Sun led the study, while former Syracuse postdoctoral student Xue Zhang and National Institute on Drug Abuse program scientist Elyse Grossman also contributed.

Professors Wolf and Monnat sat down to discuss the main findings of the work.

What were the key findings that you discovered in this study?

Douglas Wolf: There are three main conclusions supported by this study:

The increases in drug overdose mortality observed in many states during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have been exacerbated by state policies intended to control the spread of the viruspolicies that restricted in-person activities, travel and business; State policies intended to mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemicfor example, expanded unemployment benefitsappear also to have reduced drug overdose mortality; and While the two types of policies had opposite effects, no states imposed economic support policies sufficient to fully offset the harmful consequences of the restrictions on individual and business activity.

Did lockdowns have an unintended consequence of increasing drug overdose deaths?

Wolf: Yes, lockdown policies appear to have contributed to an increase in drug overdose deaths. This could have occurred due to loss of employment and income, adverse mental health outcomes, reduced access to treatment and harm reduction services, an inadequate supply of EMS responders, reductions in interdiction of illicit drugs or an increase in solitary drug use.

Do you find any examples of economic support policies that worked better than others in reducing overdose rates?

Wolf: No, we are unable to separate the effects of expanded unemployment benefits and moratoria on evictions and foreclosures, which were the two main types of economic support policies.

How can public health officials best address the needs of people struggling with addiction during public health emergencies like the pandemic?

Shannon Monnat: Crises in general, not just the COVID-19 pandemic, tend to amplify the risk factors for overdose. In the short term, reducing overdose risk among people who are already struggling with substance use disorders requires ensuring widespread and easy access to Narcanthe overdose reversal drug.

However, we can't Narcan our way out of the drug overdose crisis. The most forward-thinking and effective strategy to reduce overdoses in the long term is to reduce the upstream social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs and become addicted.

At its core, this means making sure our society is set up in a way that provides opportunities for people to engage in activitieswork, family and communitythat bring purpose and meaning to their lives.

Four years laterwhat are the biggest takeaways from your work that could be applied to the next pandemic response?

Monnat: As with all policies, there are tradeoffs. Our finding that restrictive policies were associated with larger increases in drug overdoses must be considered within a broader context of their reductions in COVID-19 mortality. These policies certainly saved lives.

People who would have otherwise contracted and died from COVID lived because these policies reduced disease spread. We should all be grateful for that. But we must also acknowledge that some of these policies had the unintended consequence of cutting other lives short.

The challenge for policymakers is to find the ideal balance that will save the most lives possible.

More information: Douglas A. Wolf et al, State COVID-19 Policies and Drug Overdose Mortality Among Working-Age Adults in the United States, 2020, American Journal of Public Health (2024). DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2024.307621 Journal information: American Journal of Public Health
The shapes of many legislative districts in southwest Montana have changed this election year, and some are numbered differently, but there are still some familiar names on the ballots.

Several incumbents are seeking reelection to the Montana House. Five current or former lawmakers from Butte-Silver Bow and surrounding counties are running for Senate seats.

Those Senate candidates include Democrats Jessica Wicks and Sara Novak of Anaconda, Democrat Derek Harvey from Butte and Republicans Ray Shaw of Sheridan, Becky Beard of Elliston and Gregory Frazier of Deer Lodge.

There are lots of new candidates, too, including Democrat Marc Lee and Republican Trenin Bayless of Butte running in a reconfigured House District 74. Three Dillon Republicans are running in a new House District 70.

House District 70 is mostly new by number, since it comprises all of Beaverhead County and parts of rural Butte-Silver Bow County just as it did as House District 72 before once-a-decade redistricting last year.

Heres a look at the legislative landscape as the June 4 primary election approaches in Butte-Silver Bow County and other parts of southwestern Montana, including Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Beaverhead, Granite, Jefferson, Madison and Powell counties.

House District 69

Republican Rep. Ken Walsh of Twin Bridges seeks another House term but this time in District 69 instead of the previous District 71. The new district still includes Madison County and Ennis, Twin Bridges and Sheridan, but it no longer stretches into southeastern portions of Butte-Silver Bow County. Nobody else filed for the seat.

House District 70

Republican Tom Welch of Dillon has represented the area since 2017 but cant run again because of term limits. The three GOP candidates from Dillon hoping to replace him are Mary Ann Nicholas, Shannon Maness and Mike Klakken.

No Democrat filed so unless an independent, minor-party or write-in candidate gets in and wins  a very unlikely scenario  the Republican who wins the primary will likely be sworn in come January.

House District 71

The new District 71 covers most of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County and northern Butte-Silver Bow County, including Walkerville.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge County is longtime Democrat territory but not as Democrat-dominant as it used to be. Donald Trump lost in the county in 2016 and 2020 but by less than 8 percentage points each time. And Anaconda Republicans Terry Vermeire and John Fitzpatrick won legislative contests two years ago.

Butte-Silver Bow has been a Democrat stronghold for decades, including at the legislative level.

In 1996, Haley Beaudry became the first Republican from Butte elected to the Legislature in 46 years. In 2010, Max Yates was the next Butte Republican elected to the Legislature. Both men were defeated trying for re-election.

Two candidates are running in the new District 71: Democrat Scott Demarios of Anaconda and Republican H. Steiger of Butte. Both will advance to the Nov. 5 general election.

House District 72

Democrat Rep. Donovan Hawk of Butte is seeking a third term in the House but this time in a newly drawn District 72. It still includes part of urban Butte, as it did previously under District 76, but this time on the west side instead of the east side.

Republican Andy Johnson of Butte also filed for the seat and he and Hawk will advance to November with a clean slate, meaning June primary results will count for nothing.

House District 73

Jennifer Lynch, D-Butte, seeks reelection in District 73, which shrunk in geographic size but still includes a large part of urban Butte. She will face Republican Zach Tomaszewski of Butte in November.

House District 74

Democrat Marc Lee of Butte hopes to replace fellow Democrat Derek Harvey in a reconfigured District 74, which includes parts of Butte but now stretches into far southeastern portions of the county. Lee will face Republican Trenin Bayless of Butte in November.

House District 75

The district covers most of Jefferson County as it did before redistricting. Marta Bertoglio, R-Clancy, is seeking a third term and will take on Democrat Nancy Jane Lien of Whitehall in November.

House District 76

The new district includes Granite County as it did under House District 77 before redistricting but two big changes were made: All but a slice of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County was removed and Powell County was added, a move that should favor Republicans just as the new House District 71 that includes Anaconda should favor Democrats.

Republican John Fitzpatrick of Anaconda seeks a second term, this time in District 76 instead of 77, but he faces a primary challenge from Republican Dave Kesler III of Philipsburg. The June 4 winner will face Libertarian Elena Gagliano of Philipsburg in the fall.

Senate District 35

The district is essentially the previous Senate District 36 that covers Beaverhead and Madison counties, but the new 35 takes in less of rural Butte-Silver Bow County than before.

Republican Jeff Welborn of Dillon has been the state senator for the area for eight years but cannot run again because of term limits. He is running for the Public Service Commission this year.

Three Republicans are running in the new 35 and no Democrat filed so the winner of the June 4 primary will likely win the seat. The GOP candidates are former Republican Rep. Ray Shaw of Sheridan, Tony Tezak of Ennis and Mark MJ McGinley of Dillon.

Senate District 36

This could be the most hotly contested primary race in the region since it pits educator and former state Rep. Sara Novak of Anaconda versus Teamsters business agent Jessica Wicks of Anaconda.

Wicks was an interim state senator for several months in 2022 after Democrat Sen. Mark Sweeney of Philipsburg died but she was not on the ballot in November that year, when Republican Terry Vermeire of Anaconda won the seat.

The new District 36 is far different than the previous District 39 that Sweeney served. It includes Anaconda and parts of urban Butte, two Democrat-strong cities.

And big portions of Granite and Powell counties are no longer included. Those largely GOP stomping grounds have been moved into a new Senate District 38.

The June 4 winner between Wicks and Novak will take on Republican Darlean Newman of Anaconda in November.

Senate District 37

The district is about twice the size of the previous Senate District 37 that Democrat Ryan Lynch of Butte has served the past four years, but it still covers much of urban Butte plus southeastern portions of the county.

Lynch decided not to seek a second term this year but is backing fellow Democrat Derek Harvey of Butte, who hopes to go from the House to the Senate. Harvey will take on Republican Jim Kephart of Butte in the fall.

Senate District 38

Following horse trading between Democrats and Republicans that took place during redistricting, the Senate District 38 that Butte Democrats Jim Keane and Edie McClafferty represented for a decade is essentially gone.

Its Jefferson County portions are now part of a new Senate District 38, which also takes in Granite County, adds it to Powell County, includes a sliver of Lewis and Clark County but doesnt have any part of Butte. The result is a sprawling district that favors Republicans based on past voting trends and results.

Republican state Sen. Becky Beard of Elliston, who is now in Senate District 40, is running in Senate District 38. She faces state Rep. Gregory Frazier of Deer Lodge and Jeremy Mygland of Townsend in the June 4 Republican primary. The winner will take on Democrat Jeffrey Benson of Boulder in November.
Whistleblower Joshua Dean, who had accused a Boeing supplier of overlooking defects in the production of the 737 MAX, has died from a "sudden illness," making him the second whistleblower to die in as many months.

Dean's mother posted on her Facebook account last month that her 45-year-old son was "fighting for his life" after contracting pneumonia and suffering a stroke following an MRSA infection. Dean passed away on Tuesday morning, according to Aljazeera.

The former Spirit AeroSystems employee who claimed he was fired in an act of revenge for flagging lax standards at the company's Wichita, Kansas, manufacturing plant had filed a complaint against Spirit with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging significant failures at its production facility and had also recently testified in a shareholder lawsuit against the company.

Aerosystems has been under investigation since the door panel that flew off a 737 MAX 9 aircraft mid-flight in January was found to have been produced in their facility.

The near-catastrophe, including Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which has been the subject of multiple inquiries, was the latest in a string of incidents causing alarm over safety standards at Boeing.

Dean had previously told NPR that he believed his firing was used as an example to others who were contemplating speaking out, according to Aljazeera.

"If you are too loud, we will silence you," he said in February.

Dean's passing comes less than two months after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Barnett, 62, who was also fired for exposing issues with the 787 Dreamliner, was in the midst of a deposition in a lawsuit against Boeing at the time of his death.
A new poll by research firm TIFA shows that a majority of Kenyans do not support the ongoing doctors strike, which reached its 50th day on Thursday.

According to the poll conducted between April 27 and April 29, 54 percent of the Kenyan public stated they do not support it at all.

Additionally, 23 percent of respondents indicated strong support(a lot) for the strike, while nineteen percent expressed only minimal support(a little).

According to the survey, Kenyans primarily hold Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha responsible for the strike.

When asked who they believe is most responsible for the prolonged medical workers strike in the country, 47 percent of respondents pointed to CS Nakhumicha, while 28 percent cited the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU).

Eight percent attributed blame to county governments, five percent faulted the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), while the Council of Governors and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei each received one percent of the blame.

There is no mention of the leadership of the previous (Jubilee) administration that was a party to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) the failure of which to implement was the main/initial basis for the first of the several strikes now in place, TIFA pointed out.

The poll further reveals that the strike has garnered the most attention in the Mt. Kenya and Western regions, with the latter region experiencing the highest proportion of individuals directly affected by the absence of medical practitioners from medical facilities.

TIFA conducted telephonic interviews mainly in Kiswahili with a total of 2,912 respondents nationwide.
Tom Morello, the guitarist for rock band Rage Against the Machine, joined student protesters at the Cal State Northridge demonstration for Palestine, coincidentally where the band performed its first public show at the university in 1991.

Morello, both guitarist and activist, shared a post on Instagram where he can be seen posing for a photo with the students, fists held up high and wrapped around his guitar.

MAY DAY 2024. Rocking Palestine protest at Cal State Northridge today, site of RATMs 1st ever show. pic.twitter.com/imi6rGCaOn  Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 2, 2024

"HAPPY MAY DAY 2024,"

"Day 1: Cal State Northridge Palestine protest. RATM's 1st show ever was here in 1991, and it was an honor to play for the students today in the name of justice, human rights, peace, and liberation for all."

Morello posted his show of solidarity on X with the same photograph.

"MAY DAY 2024. Rocking Palestine protest at Cal State Northridge today, site of RATM's 1st ever show."

The artist has always fused music and political activism through the band's successful career. Several of the band's songs address issues facing us today.

When asked by the Los Angeles Times why activism in music matters, he simply said,

"Dangerous times demand dangerous songs," and 'there has never been a successful social movement in this country that has not had a great soundtrack.

Morello has also repeatedly raised the alarm about the spike in anti-Semitism in the United States since October 7, doubling down when he tweeted,

"Important to remember the horrific war crimes in Gaza aren't being done by "the Jews" but rather by a particular murderous right-wing Israeli administration."

"Many brave Jews in Israel & abroad condemn the slaughter. Our fight is against oppression. No room for antisemitism," he wrote.

Protests have emerged on college campuses nationwide as students pressure universities to divest from Israeli businesses and for the federal government to cease its support for Israel's military actions amid the barrage in the Gaza Strip.
Just before college, Joelle Solowiejczyk got the chance to travel to Mumbai, India, where she saw an elderly man bathing in a polluted river. Further downstream, children were playing and drinking from the same waterway.

Distraught by the scene, Solowiejczyk decided to spend her years at the University of Miami focused on ways to offer clean water to more people. She changed her major to environmental engineering with a plan to focus on water and has spent much of the past four years working with faculty in the field.

Her dedication has paid off. Solowiejczyk is now among three accomplished seniors and a recent alumnus of the University of Miami selected for Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards to teach English or conduct research across the globe.

Solowiejczyk will be using her grant to design low-cost stormwater runoff solutions for people living in Indonesia.

I want to take my engineering, water resources, and management training to develop basic infrastructure that can help people optimize the use of runoff water for drought periods, she said.

In addition, senior Laura Caram will be teaching English in Portugal and Lindsey Faucher, who is also graduating next week, will be teaching in Switzerland. Recent alumnus Kalid Gawon will be teaching English in Mongolia this summer.

The class of Fulbright students is the largest the University has had in nine years, said Erika Liberus, director of the Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships. And University administrators are thrilled. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program funds international exchange scholarships and awards for students as well as staff and faculty members through its Fulbright Scholars program. The program was named after the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the father of former University of Miami first lady, Roberta Bosey Fulbright Foote.

The spirit of the Fulbright Programto connect people from different countries and to promote mutual respect and understandingis one facet of the University's missionto transform livesand I am proud that our students continue to do this work with Fulbright grants around the world, said Maria Galli Stampino, dean of undergraduate affairs, and professor of Italian language and culture.

Gawon, a North Miami native whose parents immigrated from Nigeria, earned a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship to attend the University and graduated last December with a degree in political science and a minor in psychology. As a former Model United Nations delegate who is also interested in Asian culture, Gawon wanted to develop a more global perspective by working in Mongolia before hopefully starting law school next fall.

Gawon also enjoyed serving as a teaching assistant at Achieve Miami throughout high school. He watched many friends who immigrated from other countries learn English and thrive upon graduation.

I am really excited and grateful for this experience, Gawon said. I want to help more people that want to learn English do so because I think everyone who wants to learn should be able to.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Faucher, an international studies, psychology, and French major, will also be teaching English, but in Switzerland. As part of an internship in 2022, Faucher spent a summer in Portugal teaching English to young children, and she looks forward to doing it again in Switzerland because she believes that education is an important way to establish relationships between countries.

Faucher is also a Stamps Scholar and, as part of her scholarship, was able to attend a study abroad program in Switzerland last summer, when she enjoyed taking classes in the French-speaking region. However, she will be teaching in the German-speaking part of Switzerland this summer.

It was always a dream of mine to work abroad, so this is a great step towards that, said Faucher, who hopes to go into diplomacy. International development is something I am really passionate about, since my parents came to the U.S. from Haiti. I was able to get more opportunities because of the place I was born, so in the future I want to give more opportunities to others and make connections between countries.

Finally, Caram, who is studying international relations and English, also hopes to go into the foreign service. She will be teaching English to young students in Santarem, Portugal, through the Fulbright Program. Caram is a Presidents Scholar who was born in Brazil, so she is fluent in Portuguese, which is a requirement of her very selective program.

But Caram also recognized her love for teaching and mentoring young students by working for Teach For America, where she virtually tutors Missouri third graders in reading. Caram also volunteers at South Miami Senior High School and taught a college preparatory class this spring.

Through these experiences, I realized the potential that teachers have to make an impact on their students, and to shape minds and ideas, said Caram, who is one of just six students teaching in Portugal. I am excited for the Fulbright experience because I think its important to get to know the world around you and how the rest of it works, as well as how you work. This experience, it will equip me with the knowledge and tools I need to know myself and the world before I join the workforce.

If you are interested in learning more about Fulbright U.S. Student Program award opportunities, contact Prestigious Awards and Fellowships at prestigiousawards@miami.edu.
An Arizona father will spend at least 8 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a murder-for-hire scheme, admitting that he tried to have his ex-wife killed because he believed that she would not raise their children on "the right path."

Ali Joseph, 44, finalized his divorce from his wife and the mother of his daughters in February 2021. More than a year later, in May 2022, he spoke with an individual he believed could put him in contact with a hit man because he did not want to share custody with his former spouse.

"Joseph revealed that he was unwilling to share custody of his children with the victim because he believed her to be an 'apostate' who would not raise his children on 'the right path,'" the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona wrote in a statement.

In actuality, the individual Joseph spoke with a confidential human source for the FBI. The source subsequently put Joseph in contact with an undercover FBI employee, posing as a hit man.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge issued a ruling that gave Joseph and his ex joint custody of their children, just one day before he contacted the man he believed to be a hit man and said he'd made a decision, the Arizona Republic reported.

"Joseph offered to pay the 'hitman' $3,000 to disguise himself as a homeless person who would attempt to rob and violently attack the victim as she left her workplace," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He gave the fake hit man a $1000 advance, photographs of his ex-wife and documents with identifying information, according to court records.

"He wanted the 'hitman' to stab the victim in the neck to ensure she would not survive the attack, and asked the [source] to notify him when the murder was completed by sending him a funny photo or short video," the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Joseph pleaded guilty to use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire, in December 2023. United States District Judge Diane J. Humetewa sentenced Joseph to 102 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
09:20

The United States is a country of immigrants, the White House has said, defending President Joe Biden's remarks calling two of his QUAD partners -- India and Japan -- as well as Russia and China "xenophobic" nations, asserting that none of these countries, unlike the US, welcome immigrants.

Responding to a question about the remarks made by Biden at an election fundraiser on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the president was making a "broader point".

He was making a broader point. Our allies and partners know very well that -- how much this president respects them," Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Thursday.

"As you know, in regard to Japan, they were just here for the state visit. The US-Japan relationship is an important relationship. It's a deep, enduring alliance," she said.

"He (Biden) was making a more broad comment, speaking about this country and speaking about how important it is to be a country of immigrants and how it makes our country stronger. And so, that's what he was talking about," she said.

"It relates to our relationship with our allies, that continues. Obviously, we have a strong relationship with India (and) with Japan. And the President, if you just look at the last three years, has certainly focused on those diplomatic relationships," Jean-Pierre said.

"He was talking about who we are as a country. He was talking about the importance of being in a country of immigrants, especially as you see the attacks that we have seen very recently, in the last couple of years, those attacks on immigrants, in particular," the White House Press Secretary said, defending the president.

"The President is always going to be really clear on speaking to issues that matter to the American people. We are a country of immigrants. That matters. And we've seen these attacks. And so, the President is never going to shy away from that," Jean-Pierre said.

It is important for us to remember that we are a country of immigrants. I'm explaining what he was talking about and what he was focusing on in those comments: a country of immigrants makes us stronger. It is important to be very clear about that," she said. -- PTI
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken stringent action against The Satara Sahakari Bank Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra, by imposing a monetary penalty of Rs 2 lakh for non-compliance with certain provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (BR Act) and RBI directions on 'Prudential Norms on Capital Adequacy - Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs)'. According to RBI, the penalty, imposed by an order dated April 29, 2024, has been invoked under the powers vested in RBI, conferred under section 47A(1)(c) read with sections 46(4)(i) and 56 of the BR Act. The statutory inspection of the bank, with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2023, revealed discrepancies in its compliance with RBI directives. Based on supervisory findings of non-compliance and related correspondence, RBI issued a notice to the bank, advising it to show cause as to why a penalty should not be imposed for its failure to comply with the said directions. Following the bank's response to the notice, RBI found, among other things, that the bank allowed the refund of share capital to its members despite its last assessed Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) being below 9 percent. The imposition of the monetary penalty is a result of deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pass judgment on the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers. Furthermore, the penalty is without prejudice to any other action that may be initiated by RBI against the bank. (ANI)
Indian stock markets have generated an impressive performance during the FY 2023-24. The Nifty 50 index delivered a substantial return of 29 percent in FY 24. According to the data shared by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the growth of the Indian markets has marked the eighth consecutive year of positive returns. Notably, the last instance of negative returns in the Indian market dates back to 2015, highlighting the consistent upward trajectory of Indian equities. While the FDs (Fixed Deposits) have given a return of around 7 per cent in the last year and Gold returns have also surged to 17 per cent in FY24. Comparing the performance of the Indian stock market with its American and European counterparts reveals India's strong position in terms of returns. While the Nifty 50 provided a return of 29 percent, the S&P 500 index of America offered a slightly lower return of 27.9 percent. Similarly, the Euro Stoxx 50 index of Europe yielded a return of 17.8 percent only. "Indian markets have benefited from a convergence of a strong macro, positive governmental policies to enhance the infrastructure and manufacturing base of the country, strong domestic institutional and household flows into the markets, and a robust IPO market. We see all of these trends continuing and creating a very long runway of outperformance for the Indian markets" said Ajay Bagga, Banking and Market expert. The returns in the last year indicate that the Indian market has outperformed both the American and European markets in the fiscal year, underscoring its attractiveness as an investment destination. The experts have highlighted that the performance of the Indian market can be attributed to various factors, including favorable economic conditions, regulatory reforms, and growing investor confidence. Additionally, as per the data by NSE the influx of 1.8 crore new investors during FY24 reflects the increasing interest in Indian equities among both retail and institutional investors. The surge in investor participation is the second-highest recorded in a single year, indicating a broad-based bullish sentiment in the Indian market. "Strong performance of Indian equities is primarily driven by robust economic growth and strong corporate earnings trajectory despite challenging global macro environment. India continues to be an 'Oasis in the desert' and is attracting consistent flows" Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO-Equity, Kotak Mahindra AMC. In the Indian markets, beyond the Nifty 50 index, the performance of the Nifty Next 50 index was particularly noteworthy, with a growth rate of 60 percent during the same period. With consistent positive returns and a growing investor base, India remains an attractive destination for domestic and international investors seeking opportunities for wealth creation and capital appreciation. As investors navigate global uncertainties, India stands out as a beacon of stability and growth in the world of finance and investments. (ANI)
India and Nigeria have agreed to an early conclusion of the Local Currency Settlement System Agreement to strengthen bilateral economic ties. This was decided at the second session of the India-Nigeria Joint Trade Committee held in Abuja which also identified several areas of focus including digital economy and Digital Public Infrastructure, crude oil and natural gas and pharmaceuticals A seven-member delegation from India led by Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, AmardeepSingh Bhatia, held a Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting with their Nigerian counterparts in Abuja on April 29 and 30. He was accompanied by the High Commissioner of India to Nigeria G Balasubramanian and Economic Adviser, Department of Commerce Priya P Nair. During the comprehensive dialogue, both sides undertook a detailed review of recent developments in bilateral trade and investment ties and acknowledged the vast untapped potential for further expansion, according to a Commerce Ministry release. Both sides identified several areas of focus for enhancing both bilateral trade as well as mutually beneficial investments. These include resolving of market access issues and cooperation in key sectors such as crude oil and natural gas, pharmaceuticals, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), local currency settlement system, power sector and renewable energy, agriculture and food processing, education, transport, railway, aviation, MSMEs development. agriculture and food processing, education, transport, railway, aviation, MSMEs development. "Both sides agreed to early conclusion of Local Currency Settlement System Agreement to further strengthen bilateral economic ties," the release said. Official delegation from India consisted of officials from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), EXIM Bank of India and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The release said that discussions were held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere and were fruitful. "There was enthusiastic response towards greater cooperation, addressing pending issues, boosting trade and investment, greater people to people contacts," the release said. In a concerted effort to bolster bilateral trade, both sides committed to expeditiously address all issues impeding bilateral trade and facilitate trade promotion between the two nations. A business delegation led by CII also accompanied the official delegation. "The deliberations of the second Session of India-Nigeria JTC were cordial and forward-looking, indicative of the amicable and special relations between the two countries," the release said. The JTC was co-chaired by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment, Nigeria, Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi; and Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce. Nigeria is a major partner- the second largest trading partner of India in Africa region. Bilateral trade between India and Nigeria stood at USD 11.8 billion in 2022-23. In the year 2023-24, the bilateral trade stands at 7.89 billion showing a declining trend. With a total investment of USD 27 billion, approximately 135 Indian companies are actively engaged in Nigeria's vibrant market. These investments traverse diverse sectors, encompassing infrastructure, manufacturing, consumer goods and services, the release said. (ANI)
Bazmee shared some throwback pictures from the sets of 'Swarg' and wrote, "Celebrating 34 years of 'Swarg! This was the start of a superhit trio of @govinda_herono1, #DavidDhawan, and I. I'm really thankful for this incredible collaboration which led to many big entertaining films. A very enjoyable journey."

In the first picture, Anees Bazmee and David Dhawan can be seen sitting together, looking relaxed and natural in front of the camera.

The next picture is in black and white and appears to capture an ongoing discussion between Anees, David, and Rajesh Khanna.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6eAwcXtrIg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Actor Arjun Kapoor quickly responded to the nostalgic photos, commenting, "Masters of Comedy."

Fans too chimed in the comments section.

One user wrote, "Two masters & Super duper hit No.1 Jodi [?]@aneesbazmee."

Another user commented, "You are a magician [?] you have given this industry some of its best films."

'Swarg' marked Bazmee's debut as a writer and is still considered a classic in Hindi cinema.

Directed by David Dhawan, the film starred Rajesh Khanna, Juhi Chawla, and Govinda in important roles. 'Swarg' received praise from critics and audiences alike and was one of the top-grossing films of 1990.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Anees Bazmee is busy preparing for the third installment of the popular horror series 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa,' which stars Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, and Tripti Dimri. (ANI)
Meryl Streep will be honored with a special Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival's opening ceremony on May 14, organizers announced Thursday. The Hollywood icon, who won the best actress prize at Cannes in 1989, will join the kickoff of the 77th edition at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6eAOFcIeFj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link "I am immeasurably honored to receive the news of this prestigious award. To win a prize at Cannes, for the international community of artists, has always represented the highest achievement in the art of filmmaking. To stand in the shadow of those who have previously been honored is humbling and thrilling in equal part. I so look forward to coming to France to thank everyone in person this May!" Streep said in a statement. She'll return to the renowned French festival, after a successful Hollywood career spanning five decades. "We all have something in us of Meryl Streep! We all have something in us of Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison County, The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia! Because she has spanned almost 50 years of cinema and embodied countless masterpieces, Meryl Streep is part of our collective imagination, our shared love of cinema." Cannes festival heads Iris Knobloch and Thierry Fremaux said in a joint statement. Streep's participation in the Cannes opening will mark the beginning of a festival ending on May 25, with awards presented by a jury led by president Greta Gerwig. Previous recipients of the Cannes honorary Palme d'Or include Jeanne Moreau, Marco Bellocchio, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Jane Fonda, Agnes Varda, Forest Whitaker, and Jodie Foster. (ANI)
Kevin Spacey is pushing back against the upcoming Channel 4 documentary 'Spacey Unmasked,' which will explore his career and the allegations of misconduct against him. The documentary is set to premiere in the UK on May 6-7. "I will not sit back and be attacked by a dying network's one-sided 'documentary' about me in their desperate attempt for ratings," Spacey said in a lengthy post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Channel 4 documentary comes after Spacey was acquitted in July 2023 of nine charges in a UK criminal case. It is set to air on Max and Investigation Discovery, although no US premiere dates have been announced. In his social media message, Spacey dismissed the British broadcaster as the appropriate platform for addressing his controversial history: "There's a proper channel to handle allegations against me and it's not Channel 4. Each time I have been given the time and a proper forum to defend myself, the allegations have failed under scrutiny and I have been exonerated," the Oscar winner asserted. Spacey mentioned that Channel 4 had provided him with insufficient time to counter accusations made in the documentary before its scheduled premiere dates in the UK on May 6 and 7. "Over the last week, I have repeatedly requested that @Channel4 afford me more than 7 days to respond to allegations made against me dating back 48 years and provide me with sufficient details to investigate these matters. Channel 4 has refused on the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymized and non-specific allegations is a 'fair opportunity' for me to refute any allegations made against me," Spacey wrote on X. The actor assures a detailed response to the British documentary. "Watch this weekend for my reply on http://X.com/kevinspacey. Channel 4 and @RoastBeef TV might be 'speechless,' but I won't," Spacey stated. He faced nine criminal charges from four different men during his UK trial, including allegations ranging from unwanted touching to performing oral sex on a man while he was asleep, as testified by one individual, as per The Hollywood Reporter. The charges relate to incidents said to have occurred between 2001 and 2013, while Spacey served as artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre from 2004 to 2015. "Spacey Unmasked" is scheduled to air on Channel 4 in the UK before its release in the US and other countries. All3Media International is managing international distribution, with Warner Bros. Discovery securing rights for the US and other nations. Directed and produced by Katherine Haywood, "Spacey Unmasked" has Dorothy Byrne and Mike Lerner as executive producers. The production is in collaboration with Roast Beef Productions (known for "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer") and All3 Media International. (ANI)
British-American screenwriter and film producer Jonathan Nolan said he would like to return to the Batman universe. During the promotion of his hit series 'Fallout', he spoke about revisiting the popular Batman franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Wouldn't that be a dream?" Nolan said. "That period was 10 years of my life from when I got the call to work on Batman Begins, and it was epic. Working with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and to honour an American icon. If I had the chance to go back and work on that again,? Absolutely." "We've moved onto other things," he added. "And, of course, other people have picked up the mantle and moved on with those characters," referring presumably to Matt Reeves The Batman franchise, which is set to release The Batman Part II in 2026. When asked who he would like to see playing The Dark Knight in a newly launched Batman trilogy, Nolan said, "To me, it will always be Christian." Recently, Nolan reacted to Chris' crediting him with The Dark Knight's most famous line, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." "It came later in the script," Nolan recalled. "We've done a version or two of the script where we were looking for something that would distil the tragedy of Harvey Dent but that would also apply to Batman. The richness of Batman is in the way this principled, almost Boy Scout-like figure is wrapped up in this kind of ghoulish appearance and his willingness to embrace the darkness. So I was looking at Greek tragic figures." "The first part of that line is 'you either die a hero' -- and that part's important, because not everybody wants to be a hero; it's engaging in heroics that puts you in this space, where you have this binary outcome. The idea is that there are people who put themselves on the line, and so often that wager turns on them. It's also that old idea of absolute power corrupting absolutely. It felt particularly resonant with the tragedies of Harvey Dent and Batman. The fact that it resonates with people beyond the film is gratifying. I was proud of that line," he shared, as per The Hollywood Reporter. (ANI)
As the suspense over the Congress' candidates for the Amethi and Raebareli Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh continues to mount, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday exuded confidence in his party winning the seats irrespective of the stature of any candidate from the other side. Speaking to ANI, Maurya said, "No matter who contests- be it from Congress, Yadav family or BSP, BJP will only win (From Raibareli and Amethi)." He also said that the problem of candidates on both seats lies with Congress only as his party has already announced its candidates. "Anyone can come as their candidate. We will relish his/her defeat," he added. The Congress has not yet put out any official statement on its choice of nominees from Amethi and Raebareli, which were considered the party's strongholds until the 2019 elections. According to sources, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is already on the Congress ticket from Wayanad in Kerala, which polled in the second phase on April 26, is likely to put himself in the fray from Amethi as well. Adding to the intrigue around the Congress' choice of candidates for these two constituencies, sources claimed that even as Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi appear reluctant to contest Amethi and Raebareli, Kharge insisted that at least one of them enter the fray. The Congress, which is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh as part of the seat-sharing deal with the Samajwadi Party (SP), has announced candidates for all the seats barring Amethi and Raebareli. Amethi is scheduled to poll in the fifth phase on May 20, with the last date for filing nominations scheduled on May 3. Rahul represented Amethi in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2019. His father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, too, was an elected member of Amethi in the Lower House from 1981 till his death in 1991. Sonia Gandhi contested elections from here in 1999 before passing the baton on to Rahul in 2004. (ANI)
Ejected from the contest in the Indore Lok Sabha constituency after its candidate joined the BJP following the withdrawal of his nomination, the Congress has appealed to voters to hit the 'None of the above' (NOTA) option on May 13, the date for election in the parliamentary constituency. Akshay Kanti Bam, whom the Congress pitted against BJP's sitting MP Shankar Lalwani withdrew his nomination on Monday, the last day for withdrawal of nomination switched over to the BJP. Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma, while speaking to ANI accused the BJP of committing a "heinous crime". "I think Narendra Modi's BJP has committed a heinous crime. Indore is known for justice. But BJP people wrote the definition for injustice. For months we have been saying that if you make the BJP win, democracy will not survive, that the Constitution will not survive," he said. The Congress leader further said that the "forced withdrawal of the form of a recognised party's candidate is the murder of democracy". "Indore will have to give them an answer for this. This is a question of the honour of Indore. I appeal to every citizen that 'NOTA' is the only option. If you want to keep democracy alive, you will have to make an example out of Indore," he added. The Indore constituency in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls on May 13 in the fourth phase of the general elections. After the withdrawal of nominations, 14 candidates, including nine independents, are left in the fray in Indore. In a major blow to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh Akshay Kanti Bam, the party's candidate from Indore on Monday withdrew his nomination and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Soon after, senior BJP leader and state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya welcomed Bam to the BJP. In a post on X, Vijayvargiya stated, "Akshay Kanti Bam, Congress' Lok Sabha candidate from Indore, is welcomed to the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, and state president VD Sharma." (ANI)
The man accused in the fatal shooting of Chicago police officer Luis Huesca last month was taken into custody using handcuffs belonging to the fallen officer, according to reports.

Xavier Tate, 22, was nabbed in Glendale Heights, a suburb of Chicago, Wednesday night by Chicago police and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force.

Tate was taken from an apartment building with his hands pinned behind his back by department-issued handcuffs belonging to Huesca, NBC 5 Chicago reported.

He is accused of shooting Huesca, 30, a six-year veteran of the force, on April 21 with a 40-caliber handgun.

The officer had just finished a shift and was headed home in uniform when the shooting happened.

Huesca's Toyota SUV was taken but later recovered, the report said.

The officer's pistol was recovered last Friday during a raid at a home of Tate's relative, Caschaus Tate, who police say tossed the weapon over a fence as officers closed in on him, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Amidst cheers and applause from thousands of supporters, Routhray's procession brought a wave of enthusiasm.

A seasoned pilot by profession, Routhray's unconventional campaigning captured the attention of the people of Bhubaneswar.

Speaking to ANI, the BJD leader said that he would keep his promises made to the public.

"I am receiving so much love and support from the public. I just want to say that I will never break my promises made to them," Routhray said.

He also filed his nomination papers from Bhubaneshwar.

Manmath Routray resigned as a pilot of Air India in January.

Routray is the son of six-time Odisha Congress MLA Suresh Routray who recently resigned from all committees of his party, soon after Routray joined the ruling BJD and was named as its candidate for the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency.

Like in 2019, the simultaneous elections in Odisha this time will be held in four phases, with the only difference this time being that the state will vote in the last four of the seven phases, unlike last time when it voted in the first four phases.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, BJD under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik won 12 of the 21 seats. The BJP won eight seats and Congress got one seat.

The BJD swept the Odisha assembly polls in 2019, winning 112 seats. BJP won 23 seats and Congress nine seats. (ANI)
After the Election Commission of India (ECI) released the voter turnout data for the first and second phases of the Lok Sabha elections, BJP's Goa Lok Sabha election incharge, Ashish Sood said the way the Congress leaders reacted to ECI's figures shows their fear. He also said Congress should worry about its seat count. "The way Congress is so worried and the way the Congress leaders started reacting yesterday after the Election Commission released the numbers, actually shows their fear. People like Shashi Tharoor saying that the BJP will get 200 or 225 seats only shows their fear & this fear is good. This fear is good because corrupt parties and those who carry corrupt ideologies forward should be afraid of PM Modi's arrival," Sood told ANI. "Congress is worried about how many seats BJP will get. Congress should worry about how many seats Congress will win...," he further said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 30 released final figures of voting in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha election, showing a turnout of over 66 per cent in both phases. According to the poll body, in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 66.14 per cent and 66.71 per cent in the second phase. Voting for the first phase was held on April 19 and the second phase on April 26. The poll panel further said that the male turnout in the first leg stood at 66.22 per cent, female at 66.07 per cent and third-gender (31.32 per cent). The figures for the second phase were 66.99 per cent (Male), 66.42 per cent (Female), and 23.86 per cent (Third-Gender), respectively. Of the total 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, as many as 102 went to polls on April 19, and 88 on April 26. Voting will also be held on May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The counting of votes and result declaration is scheduled for June 4. (ANI)
After the Congress ended weeks of suspense around its choice of candidates from Raebareli and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies, naming Rahul Gandhi and KL Sharma as its picks from the traditional strongholds; the Wayanad MP, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi and several Congress heavyweights, arrived at party's mini-pocket borough on the last day for filing nominations for the fifth phase of the general elections on Friday. A chartered flight with Rahul, his mother and several Congress top tuns landed at the Fursatgunj airfield ahead of his nomination filing from Raebareli. The Wayanad MP was flanked by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Robert Vadra, former Rajasthan chief minister and AICC member Ashok Gehlot, as he arrived at the airstrip. Rahul and Sonia, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party who resigned as the sitting Raebareli MP earlier and was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Jaipur, were pictured leaving the latter's Delhi residence after the Congress formally announced its picks for its two UP strongholds earlier in the day. According to party sources, Rahul will hold an elaborate roadshow in Raebareli before filing his nomination papers at noon. Ahead of his arrival at the Congress stronghold, hectic preparations were underway at the party office in Raebareli to accord him a rousing reception. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy also left for Raebareli on a special flight from Hyderabad's Begumpet airport ahead of Rahul's nomination filing. A video clip showed the Congress' Raebareli office being bedecked with petals ahead of Rahul's arrival. Rahul is pitted against Congress defector and three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli. A sitting MP from Kerala's Wayanad, he is also seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from the seat that polled in Phase 2 of the general elections on April 26. Before Sonia, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had won Raebareli thrice. The constituency also elected Indira's husband and Congress leader Feroze Gandhi twice in 1952 and 1957. The BJP, meanwhile, took a dig at Rahul's candidature from two seats, saying he was "running away from Wayanad" after "accepting defeat in Amethi." "Rahul Gandhi is losing Wayanad, which is why he is going to file nomination from Raebareli. He ran away to Wayanad after losing Amethi earlier (in the 2019 elections). Such is the state of affairs in the Congress these days that no one wants to contest Amethi, which had been one of their traditional strongholds. He will also have to run away from Raebareli just as did from Amethi, as the people will give him a befitting reply. He will lose Raebareli as well," BJP national secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa told ANI on Friday. In 2019, he contested both Wayanad and Amethi, losing the latter to Union Minister Smriti Irani. Rahul represented Amethi in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2019. His father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, too, was an elected member of Amethi in the Lower House from 1981 till his death in 1991. Sonia Gandhi contested elections from here in 1999 before passing the baton on to Rahul in 2004. This time, however, the Congress named party loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi against incumbent MP Irani. Irani had earlier filed her nomination as an NDA candidate. Congress party members expressed happiness over KL Sharma's candidature from Amethi. "There is no shortage of enthusiasm. KL Sharma has stood with the people here in their time of need over the 30-35 years. He has helped out people regardless of their political affiliation," Raghav Ram Mishra, a Congress worker, said. Shubham Singh, another Congress worker, said, "We stand in support of the decision taken by 'Didi' (Priyanka) and 'Bhaiya' (Rahul) to not contest Amethi. We are always ready to obey the high command's decision. There were expectations that either of them would contest Amethi but we will try to convince the people and try to rally support for our candidate." UP Congress President Ajay Rai expressed confidence in the INDIA bloc forming the government, adding that Rahul's candidature from Raebareli would "impact the results". "It was our demand for a long time that Rahul Gandhi contest from Uttar Pradesh. We are happy that Rahul Gandhi has been named our candidate from Raebareli and KL Sharma from Amethi. They have been among the people, serving them selflessly. This (Rahul Gandhi's candidature) would turn the poll results in the state upside down. It is clear that INDIA will form the next government at the Centre. Rahul is a fighter and he won't back off," Rai said. Both constituencies are traditional strongholds of the Gandhi-Nehru family, with its members holding these seats for decades. Rahul's defeat in Amethi, once considered a Congress 'pocket borough' at the hands of Irani in the 2019 polls was seen as a significant blow to the party's national prestige. The Congress is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh as part of the seat-sharing deal with its ally partner, Samajwadi Party (SP). (ANI)
BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from South Delhi, Ramveer Singh Bidhuri offered prayers at Shri Gopal Temple in the national capital before filing nominations on Friday. Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the work done in Delhi, he said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lot to Delhi. Peripheral roads, new headquarters to police, Kartavya Path, new Parliament to India. In my region, he has constructed the world's biggest Eco Park and a six-lane highway is being constructed." Launching a scathing attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP leader said, "Arvind Kejriwal destroyed Delhi. People are not getting drinking water and good transportation facilities. He has made Delhi the world's most polluted city...Delhi government has not opened hospitals, schools and colleges. CM Kejriwal keeps on talking about purchasing 15,000 buses for DTC ... Yamuna River has become more poisonous than before." Exuding confidence in securing over 70 per cent of votes in the Lok Sabha elections, he said, "All the seven candidates are going to win. The candidates of BJP will get more than 70 per cent of votes... Now, the people of Delhi have taken the elections into their hands and they want to elect PM Narendra Modi as Prime Minister again for the third time." Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also participated in the nomination filing of Ramveer Singh Bidhuri. CM Dhami also held a roadshow in support of Ramveer Singh Bidhuri in Delhi. All seven seats in Delhi are going to polls in the 6th phase on May 25. The seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the capital are New Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West and North East Delhi. The nominations will be scrutinised on May 7 and nominations can be withdrawn till May 9. Votes will be counted on June 4. In the 2019 election, BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri won the seat bagging 56.68 per cent of the votes polled. BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2019. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. (ANI)
The court had reserved the decision in the case on February 28.

Earlier, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Soren's plea seeking interim relief in a money laundering case.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta listed the matter for the second week of May to hear Soren's plea.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said that the Jharkhand High Court may pronounce the order in Soren's plea challenging his arrest in a money laundering case. Jharkhand High Court had reserved the order on Soren's plea on February 28.

Aggrieved by the High Court for not deciding his plea, Soren moved the top court against it and in the meantime sought interim bail in the matter.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Soren, apprised that HC has not passed the order on Soren's plea challenging arrest and urged the top court for interim bail in the matter.

Earlier, Soren sought an urgent hearing on the grounds of the ongoing Lok Sabha poll.

In February, the High Court reserved its decision on Soren's plea challenging his arrest. Soren, in his plea, has claimed that his arrest was unwarranted and his remand in the matter was arbitrary and illegal.

Hemant Soren, who has filed the petition through advocate Pragya Baghel, called his arrest illegal and malafide.

After prolonged speculation in the media and a hide-and-seek drama, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Chairperson was arrested by the ED in the land scam case in January. (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday hit out at the Congress and Samajwadi party's alliance in UP, likening their partnership to a reckless driver of a tractor. "The alliance of Congress and Samajwadi Party is such, if you ask an inept person to drive a tractor, he will run over someone. '2 ladkon ki jodi yahi hai', Yogi Adityanath said while addressing an election rally in Sambhal. Training guns at the Samajwadi party, Yogi said that they had previously adorned mafias with garlands, targeted saints, and hindered efforts to ensure the safety of women and businessmen in the state. Yogi Adityanath criticized the Congress party for continuously bringing up the idea of conducting a caste survey in India. He suggested that this tactic is aimed at creating differences among different communities and ultimately expanding reservations to Muslims. "Reservations based on religion was the reason behind the partition of this country. Do Congress and the Samajwadi Party want the partition of the country? They say they'll do a caste census, for what? They will divide people based on caste and induce a fight amongst them and then they'll say to the people that first you need to resolve this issue, and by that time they will give your reservations to Muslims." Yogi said. The Indian National Congress, in its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections pledged to carry out a census across the nation to identify and assess various castes, sub-castes, and their socio-economic status. Additionally, they proposed amending the Constitution to lift the 50 per cent limit on reservations for marginalized communities, including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backward classes. Further, slamming the opposition alliance, Yogi Adityanath said, "Neither can they provide you security, nor can provide respect to the country, neither can they benefit the poor, nor do they respect your faith, then why would you even elect them?" Uttar Pradesh is gearing up for another round of voting as the third phase of the ongoing general elections approaches. Scheduled for May 7, this phase will see ten Lok Sabha constituencies heading to the polls. These include Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Bareilly, and Aonla. (ANI)
BRS candidate from Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency, Manne Srinivas Reddy, says that banning KCR from campaigning for 48 hours is creating a sympathy wave in the public. Manne Srinivas Reddy said, "I am happy, In 2019 this opportunity (his candidature) given by KCR. I have completed my 5 years successfully in people's service. The ECI ban on KCR from campaigning for 48 hours is a good opportunity for the people. It affected the campaigning, but the public's sympathy is improving." He hit out at the BJP and said that it was harassing opposition leaders including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha and using ED as a weapon. "The BJP is using ED as a weapon. Non-BJP candidates are being harassed by the ED. If they support the BJP, then within seconds the cases are closed," he added. He stated that the claim of the BJP that the NDA would win 400 seats was overstated. He further said, "400 seats for the NDA is impossible. INDIA bloc has good prospects. We are neither in the INDIA alliance nor with BJP, depending on the majority, we will do that. BRS has completed all the projects in the last 5 years. KCR has helped the paddy farmers and now the productivity is 3 crores metric tonnes. Earlier, it was 63 lakh metric tonnes." The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday banned former Telangana chief minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao from campaigning for 48 hours, for making "derogatory and objectionable statements" against Congress. According to an order notice issued by the ECI, "The Election Commission vide ECI Press Note number ECI/PN/23/2024 dated March 16, 2024, announced the schedule of General Election to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim and the provisions of Model Code of Conduct came into the force with immediate effect all over the country." This comes after KCR at a press meet in Sircilla on April 5 referred to the congress leaders as 'sons of dogs'. The Mahbubnagar Constituency in Telangana will see a replay of the 2019 general elections, as the three major parties have fielded the same candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections too. Challa Vamsichand Reddy will again contest from Congress, DK Aruna will contest from the BJP and sitting MP Manna Srinivas Reddy will contest in the ticket of the BRS. In the 2019 General Elections, Manne Srinivas Reddy contested from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (now BRS) and gathered 4,11,402 votes. DK Aruna from the BJP got 3,33,573 votes, while Congress candidate Vamshi Chand Reddy gathered 1,93,631 votes. The Lok Sabha election in the 17 parliamentary constituencies of Telangana will be held on May 13 in a single phase. In the 2019 general election, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won nine seats, BJP four, Congress three and AIMIM one seat. (ANI)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday expressed grief at the demise of the state's Forest Development Corporation Chairman and former Champawat MLA Kailash Gahtori and paid his humble tributes to the latter saying that his life in public service will always be remembered. Taking to his social media handle, Chief Minister Dhami remembered the former MLA as a 'dear friend and elder brother' and said that his passing away is a personal loss for him and the state. "I am shocked to hear the sad news of the demise of the Forest Development Corporation Chairman, former MLA, dear friend and elder brother Kailash Gahtori ji. His departure is a personal loss for me as well as the organization and the state. I am unable to express this immense pain in words. Kailash ji spent your entire life in public service and will always be remembered as an ideal public representative," posted the Chief Minister on X. Lauding the leader's efforts towards the development of the Champawat region, CM Dhami said, "As an MLA, your dedication towards the development of the Champawat region is an inspiration for us. The association with you in the field of politics and public service was so intimate and close to the heart that today it is very difficult to believe that you are no longer amongst us." "You will always be remembered as a good friend and elder brother. We will work dedicatedly towards fulfilling your resolutions regarding the development of Champawat. I pray to God to give a place to the noble soul in his feet and provide strength to the grief-stricken family to bear this immense pain. Humble tribute!" read the post further. Speaking to ANI, CM Dhami said, "This is a big loss. He was a simple and easygoing person who served the people. Besides his government service, he was always there for the people personally. He has a huge contribution to the development of the Champawat Assembly. "We will take forward his good deeds. I have received affection and immense support from him as a friend and elder brother. Whenever I met him, he would discuss the development of Champawat. I am working dedicatedly to make his dreams of Champawat's development come true and this is our true tribute to him," he added. Former Uttarakhand BJP MLA and Chairman of the state Forest Development Corporation Kailash Chandra Gahtori died at a hospital in Dehradun on Friday, after a prolonged illness. Besides CM Dhami, BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt, BJP candidate from Nainital Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha seat Ajay Bhatt, BJP candidate from Almora-Pithoragarh Lok Sabha seat Ajay Tamta as well as Cabinet Minister Rekha Arya have also expressed grief over the demise of Kailash Gahtori. (ANI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday offered prayers soon after filing his nominations from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli seat. Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party leader Priyanka Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra also offered prayers at the party's central office. Rahul Gandhi today files his nomination from one of the most anticipated seats in Uttar Pradesh-Raebareli, but what raised the eyebrows was that the Congress did not gave ticket to Priyanka Gandhi from Amethi Lok Sabha seat. Congress has fielded KL Sharma from Amethi seat against Bharatiya Janata Party's sitting MP, Smriti Irani. Rahul is pitted against Congress defector and three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli. Earlier today, claiming that Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was deliberately denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections, expelled leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam on Friday said she was a "victim of family and party conspiracy". "I said this earlier that Rahul Gandhi will not contest Amethi. I said this, too, that Rahul Gandhi will not let Priyanka Gandhi Vadra fight these elections. There is a big conspiracy afoot against Priyanka. She is the victim of a conspiracy hatched by her family and the party," Acharya Krishnam told ANI on Friday. Union Minister Smriti Irani said that Congress had conceded defeat from the constituency even before a vote was cast, adding that the opposition party would not have fielded a "proxy candidate" (Kishori Lal Sharma) if they were hopeful about the outcome of the polls. "I welcome the guests to Amethi. The fact that the Gandhis are not fighting in Amethi shows that even before a vote has been cast, they are losing from Amethi. If they had seen even a glimmer of hope, they would have contested and not put up a proxy candidate," Smriti Irani told reporters in Amethi. The voting in both seats will be held in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on May 7. (ANI)
Addressing an election meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Gormi on Friday, Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Guna parliamentary seat, Jyotiraditya Scindia enumerated the development works done under the Modi government. He urged people to vote for the BJP candidate from the Bhind constituency Sandhya Ray. Scindia fiercely targeted the Congress government and also counted the development works done under the Modi government. Scindia said, "Today the country is developing rapidly. Construction of bridges and dams is going on at a rapid pace in the country. A network of roads is being laid all around. All this has been possible because of the determination of the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a developed India." He said that today it is possible for the poor of the country to get free treatment in any private hospital under the Ayushman Scheme. "We are also continuously moving forward in the field of education. New trains have been run in India, stations have been developed," he conveyed. He further expressed that the relationship of the Scindia family with the Bhind district is two hundred and fifty years old, it is our family. Union Minister Scindia said that many development works have been done by the Scindia family in Bhind district. "From the railway line to the college, construction here has been done by the Scindia family," he added further. He said that a double-engine government is needed for the development of Bhind. "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be at the centre and a BJP government in the state, there is a double engine government, your city, town and village will run fast on the axis of development," he said. (ANI)
Newly released video shows "God's Misfits" grandma Tifany Adams shopping with her grandkids days after she allegedly killed their mom.

Four days after the alleged murder, surveillance video from a store self-checkout kiosk captured Adams and her grandkids on a seemingly conventional shopping trip, according to NewsNation. As Adams paid for their items, one of the kids appeared to playfully wave at the camera before grabbing a bag of groceries from her grandmother.

This is the full surveillance video of Tiffany Adams and her grandchildren four days after she is accused of murdering Kansas moms Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. pic.twitter.com/XfkWJTHZid  Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) May 2, 2024

Adams, 54; her boyfriend Tad Cullum, 43; Cora Twombly, 44; her husband Cole Twombly, 50; and Paul Grice, 31; have each been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping, and a single count of conspiracy to commit murder, in connection with the deaths of Veronica Butler, 27; and Jillian Kelley, 39, according to authorities.

Adams is the paternal grandmother to Butler's two young children and had custody of them.

Butler and Kelley disappeared on March 30 during a drive from Hugoton, Kansas, to Eva, Oklahoma, authorities said. The pair were on the way to pick up Butler's children from their alleged would-be murderer.

The women's abandoned vehicle  with evidence of foul play  was later found on the side of a bloodied highway, according to authorities.

Butler and Kelley's bodies were discovered last month buried in a hay-covered hole on a property rented out by Cullum, two weeks after they vanished.

Authorities allege a child custody battle between Butler and her ex motivated the suspects to kill.
After Telangana Home Department filed a closure report in Rohith Vemula's alleged suicide case, Bharatiya Janata party spokesperson, Rachna Reddy on Friday urged people not to polticize the matter, adding that the report stated that there has not been any active abetment of suicide and on which the investigation was closed. "The home department of Telangana has submitted a closure report in the controversial Rohith Vemula suicide and abetment of suicide case, way back from 2016. The Hyderabad Central University went up in flames and protested against a Dalit student Rohith Vemula being driven to commit suicide by the management. The BJP leaders, including prominent leaders, were accused in the said investigation. However, the police in March filed a detailed closure report informing that no violation of the SC-ST Atrocities Act (SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act) was noticed. Rohith Vemula's suicide was unfortunate, but there has not been any active abetment of suicide is what the report has stated and the investigation was closed," she said. Further, Rachna Reddy also pointed out that the report stated that the abetment has nothing to do with BJP leaders at that point of time or with management of the University etc. "I am not going to comment on his caste because it is a matter of fact. There was alleged discrimination on the University campus and is continuing on other campuses. We have reservations, specific criminal laws and provisions to protect the SC-ST community from discrimination. But, when you instil such false allegations, you are doing a disservice to the people who are genuinely discriminated against on the said lines. Please, don't make it political. Rahul Gandhi made it political in 2016, and it backfired. Political parties should not flare up already inflamed lives and students," she said. Vemula, a PhD scholar at the Hyderabad Central University, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a hostel room on January 17, 2016. He was allegedly upset over disciplinary actions that were taken against him by the university. (ANI)
Hours after Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from Raebareli on Friday, his sister and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra penned an emotional post, stating "relationship of service and faith" with the Lok Sabha constituency has "remained unbroken for half a century." Raebareli, a stronghold of the Gandhi family, was represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi since 2004 in the outgoing Lok Sabha. There was speculation earlier that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest from either Amethi or Raebareli, two seats in Uttar Pradesh, which are prestige battles for the party. Before Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Indira Gandhi had won from Raebareli three times, and Indira's husband and Congress leader, Feroze Gandhi, twice in 1952 and 1957. "A few days ago, my mother said, 'My family is incomplete in Delhi. It becomes complete after coming to Raebareli.' Such a family, which has included many generations, has stood with us like a rock in every ups and downs, happiness and sorrow, crisis, and struggle for decades. This is a relationship of affection and trust. It is also a relationship of service and faith that has remained unbroken for half a century," Priyanka said in a social media post on X. "The love, affection, and respect we have received from the people here is priceless. The greatest beauty of a family relationship is that you can never repay the debt of its affection, even if you want to. In this difficult time, when we are fighting to save the country's democracy, constitution, and the rights of the people, our entire family stands firmly with us in this fight. Today, in the presence of thousands of family members, elder brother Rahul ji filed his election nomination," she added in the post. Meanwhile, the BJP has fielded three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh against Rahul in Raebareli. Singh lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2019. Earlier, after filling his nomination, Rahul Gandhi along with Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra offered prayers during a puja held at the house of late party leader Gaya Prasad Shukla. The house has been associated with the party for decades. Locals said the puja was held after filing the nomination due to paucity of time earlier. "It started with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1967. It has become a norm that whenever a member of the Gandhi family files the nomination, they first offer prayers here," KC Shukla, grandson of Gyan Prasad Shukla, told ANI. Rahul Gandhi, who is the incumbent MP from Wayanad in Kerala and is re-contesting from the seat, lost from Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to Union Minister Smriti Irani. Rahul Gandhi had won Amethi three times in a row till 2019. Congress has fielded KL Sharma, a loyalist of the Gandhi family, from Amethi against Smriti Irani. Elections in Amethi and Raebareli will be held on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase poll process. (ANI)
Tripura Transport and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Friday assured that the rail and road connectivity will be restored in four days. "Railway and roadway connectivity for Tripura is likely to be fully restored within a couple of days and things will certainly move forward in a positive direction once the connectivity issues are resolved," Tripura Transport and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Choudhary told ANI amidst the fuel crisis looming large all over the state. A significant number of fuel stations have been out of operation after Tripura was virtually cut off from the rest of the North Eastern region due to harsh weather conditions prevailing in parts of Assam. In some areas, roads have been caved which disrupted the supplies in the state. The crisis of petroleum products is quite palpable all over. The state government has already imposed restrictions on fuel refilling. "A review meeting was organised on Friday at the civil secretariat here in Agartala. "The official update that we have received from the authorities indicated that in the next few days, things will be normal again," the Minister added. On being contacted, Additional Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Department Normal Adhikari said, "The railway authorities have informed us that on May 5, they will resume services. Once the railway route is open, all our problems will be solved. Till then, we are getting limited supplies through roadways. The roadway supply is not enough which is why the restrictions are imposed." On being asked whether the alternative Bangladesh route will be explored for bringing essential supplies to Tripura, Adhikari said, "To get approval for transportation of goods through Bangladesh would be a lengthy process. The updates that we have received from Assam are quite satisfactory and hopefully, things will turn out to be positive for us. By the time we get approval for the Bangladesh route, railway services will be restored." (ANI)
The 'Vaishya' community has come in support of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manoj Tiwari for the Lok Sabha elections. A huge gathering was organised on Friday in Shahdara in support of Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician, who is seeking his third term from North East Delhi. Union Minister Piyush Goyal was also present at the event. Addressing the event, he urged people to support Manoj Tiwari and said it is important to make him win so that the "forces who want to break the country" don't come to power. "According to Vastu, God resides in the North East direction, hence the victory of soft-spoken, hard-working Manoj Tiwari who supports Satya (truth) and Sanatana, is crucial. If the forces wanting to break the country come to power, the whole of Delhi will be affected. Now, you have to decide, if you want an MP who ignites riots or who carries out development," Goyal said. He also lauded the economic policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP. "Under years of Congress rule, a weak economy had become India's identity. However, some strong decisions by PM Narendra Modi helped India in coming out of the crisis. As a result, today India is the world's fifth-largest economy," he said. BJP's Lok Sabha election in-charge Vishnu Mittal, District President Manoj Tyagi, Corporation Councilor Pramod Gupta, Mohan Goyal, Reena Maheshwari, party leader Jai Bhagwan Goyal, Neelkant Bakshi, Satish Garg, along with hundreds of people of Vaishya community were present in the event. The event was organized by BJP's Municipal Councilor Mukesh Bansal. Manoj Tiwari, the BJP candidate from North East Delhi, said in his address that he first won from the constituency, it was "extremely backward", while it is rapidly progressing today. He promised to further develop it in the next term. "We built the first Kendriya Vidyalaya, the first passport centre, the first railway station, the first convention centre. We brought the metro for the first time and now we are expanding it. We constructed highways, built many parks, and increased the capacity of the Harsh Vihar Transmission Center at a cost of Rs 400 crore to provide 24-hour electricity. The constituency is moving in the path of development under PM Modi's achievements. With the blessings of you all, it will be our target to make it an ideal region," Tiwari said. Later, while speaking to the reporters, Piyush Goyal criticised Congress' "divisive" ideology and said PM Modi believes in 'One India'. He also praised Manoj Tiwari calling him the 'son of Delhi." "We are all Indians first, we are one county. Unlike the Congress, which is talking of divisive politics, whose Deputy CM's brother from Karnataka talks about the southern states having to think of separating from India; PM Modi believes in one India and in the unity and integrity of India," Goyal told reporters. "Manoj Tiwari is the son of Delhi. He is the pride of Delhi and we are all proud of his great achievements. North East Delhi is privileged to have an MP of the stature of Manoj Tiwari. We will give him a resounding victory," he added. Manoj Tiwari is a two-time MP from the North East Delhi constituency. Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician is up against Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar. He defeated AAP's Anand Kumar in 2014 and Congress' Sheila Dixit -- also the former Delhi Chief Minister -- in 2019. Kanhaiya Kumar has served as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union. Kumar will be contesting his second Lok Sabha election. In 2019, he contested as a Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate from Bihar's Begusarai, wherein he lost to Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh. Later, he joined the Congress in 2021. The Lok Sabha elections in Delhi will be held in a single phase on May 25, 2024. Voting in Delhi will be held for 7 Lok Sabha seats. The counting of the votes will be done collectively across the nation on June 4. (ANI)
Union Minister Anurag Thakur mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for running from Wayanad to Rae Bareli and said that the latter will face defeat in both the Lok Sabha constituencies. "Rahul Gandhi used to say, do not get scared just to grab the headlines. But he first left Amethi, reached Wayanad. Sensing defeat in Wayanad and staring at defeat from Amethi, he has gone to Rae Bareli. He will also face defeat there. Do not get scared, Rahul ji, people will clean your mess. People have got fed up with Congress," Thakur told reporters here on Friday. The BJP leader also claimed that the Congress leaders are "scared" of contesting the elections. "Wether it is Surat or Indore, the Congress candidates have not joined the fray. There, leader Rahul Gandhi has also left the ground," Thakur added. Rahul Gandhi will be contesting elections from Rae Bareli, the seat vacated recently by his mother and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi when she moved to the Rajya Sabha. Rahul is pitted against Congress defector and three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli. A sitting MP from Kerala's Wayanad, Rahul is also seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from the seat that polled in Phase 2 of the general elections on April 26. He also expressed confidence that the BJP will win all four seats in Himachal Pradesh. "The BJP is the only party where workers can go on to become the Prime Minister and even become its national president. That is our strength. The party workers have resolved to give Modi one of the largest victories, surpassing the 2019 record. We will win all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal," he said. He also reiterated the "400 par" slogan. (NDA winning more than 400 Lok Sabha seats). Anurag Thakur is seeking reelection from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency. Himachal Pradesh has four Lok Sabha seats: Hamirpur, Mandi, Shimla, and Kangra. The BJP had won all four seats in 2019. The elections to the four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal Pradesh and by-polls to the six assembly constituencies that fell vacant with the disqualification of six rebel Congress MLAs will be held on June 1. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases, running from April 19 to June 1. The counting and results will be declared on June 4. (ANI)
The Delhi Police has arrested Arun Reddy, who handles the 'Spirit of Congress' X account, in connection with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah's doctored video case. In the doctored video, the Union Home Minster is purportedly heard saying that the BJP stands against the reservations in the country. However, during his address at a public meeting in Congress-ruled Telangana, Shah said, "If the BJP forms the government here, we will withdraw the unconstitutional reservations to Muslims. We will ensure that the SCs, STs and OBCs get quotas as guaranteed under the Constitution." Earlier, five Congress workers were arrested by the Telangana Police in connection with Shah's fake video case. "Five people including Telangana Social Media Convenor Naveen and Taslima have been arrested by the Cyber Crime unit of Telangana police based on a complaint by Telangana BJP. Delhi Police has not arrested them," Telangana Congress Media Convenor Kamal Medagoni said speaking to ANI on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police issued summons to 16 individuals across seven to eight states in connection with the circulation of a 'doctored' video featuring Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The summons were issued under Sections 91 and 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), asking the persons concerned to join the investigation and provide relevant documents and electronic devices as evidence. According to police sources, those summoned include six members of the ruling Congress in Telangana, including Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. They, along with other persons from several states, were asked to appear for questioning on May 1 at the IFSO unit in Delhi's Dwarka. CrPC Section 160 allows police to summon a person for investigation, while Section 91 allows police to seek specific documents or gadgets to be presented as evidence. The BJP's Telangana unit filed a complaint against the CM and the Congress' state chief, Revanth Reddy, at the Cyber Crime police station, accusing the party of fabricating and morphing the speech of Amit Shah. The complaint stated that the Telangana Congress Pradesh Congress Party, on its official X handle, posted a 'morphed' and 'fabricated' video of Amit Shah. (ANI)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday received delivery of the second of the 56 C295 aircraft, which are set to replace its ageing Avro-748 fleet, the officials said. In September 2021, India formalised the acquisition of 56 Airbus C295 aircraft to replace the legacy Avro fleet of the IAF at a cost of Rs 21,935 crore. In a statement, Airbus Defence and Space said that of the total 56 aircraft ordered by the Indian customer, 16 will be produced by Airbus in Seville, Spain. The remaining 40 C295s of the IAF order will be manufactured and assembled--in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL)--at a Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Gujarat's Vadodara. "The story continues: the 2nd C295 for India has been delivered to the Indian Air Force. Of the total 56 aircraft ordered by the Indian customer, 16 will be produced by Airbus in Seville, Spain. As part of an industrial partnership, the remaining 40 are going to be produced by Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in the C295 Final Assembly Line in Vadodara in Western India," it said. The aircraft will be manufactured under India's first-ever 'Make in India' Aerospace programme in the private sector. For the longest time, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has had a monopoly over the manufacture of military aircraft in India. The first India-made C295 will roll out of the Vadodara factory in September 2026. "Mark your calendars: The first 'Make in India' C295 is scheduled to roll out of the Vadodara plant in September 2026," the statement added. The Indian Defence Ministry and Airbus Defence and Space, Spain, signed a contract for the procurement of 56 C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force in September 2021. The C-295MW aircraft is a transport aircraft of 5-10 tonne capacity with contemporary technology that will replace the ageing Avro aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The aircraft has a rear ramp door for quick reaction and paradropping of troops and cargo. Sixteen aircraft will be delivered in flyaway condition from Spain within 48 months of the signing of the contract, and forty aircraft will be manufactured in India by the TATA Consortium within 10 years of the signing of the contract. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden on Thursday broke the silence on the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests in several universities across the nation, emphasising that both free speech and the rule of law must be upheld. In his address from the Roosevelt Room, US President Biden highlighted two fundamental American principles. "The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld," Biden said. He stated that the US is not an authoritarian nation, adding that here, people are heard and peaceful protest is in the best tradition. "We are a civil society and order must prevail. We often face moments like this because we are big diverse, free-thinking and free to love nations," he stressed. Marking a line between peaceful protests and violent protests, Biden clarified that destroying property, vandalism and trespassing are against the law and are not peaceful. "Peaceful protest in America, violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is. It's against the law if violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it's against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, cancellation of classes in graduation. None of this is a peaceful protest," he said. Biden added that it is a matter of fairness, a matter of what's right. Right to protest but not the right to cause chaos. Further condemning violence and hate speech, the US President said that there should be no place in any campus or America where anti-semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students. "There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind whether is anti-semitism, islamophobia or discrimination against...there is no place for racism in America," he said. After Biden delivered his remarks, a reporter asked whether the protests had forced him to reconsider American policies toward the region. To which, Biden responded, "No". In the wake of ongoing Pro-Palestinian protests in several universities in the US, respective authorities have begun taking action against the protesting students and asked police to remove demonstrators from campuses. Pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University were arrested by New York Police Department (NYPD) officials, as they entered the premises on Tuesday night, according to The New York Times. The protesters had stormed and occupied a building on Columbia University's main campus overnight, flying a Palestinian flag from Hamilton Hall. The officers burst through a second-floor window to enter Hamilton Hall, then led demonstrators in zip ties into law enforcement buses parked near campus. In a statement, the university stated that the facility had been "vandalised and blockaded," leaving the administration with "no choice" except to summon police to campus for the second time in less than two weeks. In Columbia University, which has turned into the epicentre of protests, at least 200 students barricaded the University's entrance to Hamilton Hall. While these recent arrests have garnered significant attention, colleges across the US have been employing law enforcement measures, along with academic penalties such as suspensions and, in some cases, expulsion, to manage student protests since Hamas' October attack on Israel, which resulted in over 1,200 deaths and numerous hostages. (ANI)
This decision was disclosed by a senior police official during a meeting held on Wednesday.

Deputy Inspector General of Police in Hazara range, Tahir Ayub Khan, stated, "As we're adopting all possible measures for the safety of Chinese nationals, they shouldn't travel in the province without armoured vehicles in line with the government's directions

The meeting, which convened to discuss security arrangements for the Suki Kinari hydropower project in the Malkandi area of Kaghan Valley, brought together key stakeholders including security personnel, Chinese engineers, and project managers.

During the discussions, emphasis was placed on ensuring stringent security measures to protect the lives of those involved in critical infrastructure projects, Dawn reported.

Inspecting the sites of the Suki Kinari and Balakot hydropower projects, DIG Tahir Ayub Khan reiterated the government's stance on maintaining high standards of security. He emphasised that residential colonies housing Chinese engineers and workers would have boundary walls of no less than eight feet in height, potentially topped with barbed wire for added protection.

The heightened security measures come in the wake of a recent incident wherein a convoy of Chinese engineers working on the Dasu hydropower project in Shangla district was targeted in a suicide attack, resulting in casualties.

Following the attack, security concerns have been elevated, prompting authorities to take proactive steps to mitigate risks and ensure the safety of foreign nationals. (ANI)
The Government Postgraduate College, Timergara has issued directives instructing girl students to abstain from participating in political events, birthday celebrations, and other extracurricular activities during their commute to and from the campus, Dawn reported. Prof Riaz Mohammad, the college's chief proctor, formally circulated these instructions, emphasizing the importance of adhering to local customs and asserting that it is in the best interest of the girl students. He justified the decision by citing incidents reported in co-educational institutions and stated that their college aimed to prevent such occurrences, according to Dawn. Additionally, Prof Riaz urged parents to maintain communication with the administration to aid in enhancing academic standards. In a separate event held at the Government High School Adam Dherai in the Adenzai area, speakers highlighted the significant role of teachers in society during a function commemorating the retirement of teacher Syedul Ibrar. Former district education officer Saeed Khan, principals Ayaz Khan and Bahadar Zeb, along with other dignitaries including former principal Gul Rehman, Dr Ihteshamul Haq, poet Jehan Bakht Jehan, and Qari Tahseenullah Qadri, commended the retiring teacher for his unwavering commitment to his duties. During the ceremony, attendees, including teachers, students, and friends, presented gifts to Syedul Ibrar as a token of appreciation for his dedicated service, Dawn reported. It's a grim reality that Pakistan ranks among the most challenging countries for women to live in, evident in the denial of social rights, discrimination, honour killings, rapes, abductions, marital abuses, forced marriages, and coerced abortions. This harsh truth places Pakistan as the sixth most unsafe place for women. Numerous national and international studies confirm the vulnerability of women in Pakistan. According to the World Economic Forum's 2018 report, Pakistan ranks 148th out of 149 countries in terms of women's empowerment, as reported by The Nation. Sadly, Pakistani women often find themselves marginalised culturally, particularly concerning education and recognition for their roles in reproduction and domestic duties. Female literacy, standing at 45 per cent, pales in comparison to the male literacy rate of 69 per cent. Parental illiteracy and misinterpretations of Islamic teachings regarding women contribute significantly to this disparity. While gender inequality is a global concern, its effects are deeply rooted in Pakistan, yet the society's response to this issue remains insufficient due to widespread ignorance and biased attitudes towards gender, The Nation reported. (ANI)
A 14-year-old boy killed in a samurai sword attack as he walked to school Tuesday in London was unaware of warnings that he was in danger because he was wearing headphones, according to a report.

A neighbor of Daniel Anjorin said the man wielding the sword had initially confronted her before turning his sights on the teenager, the Independent reported on Thursday.

"We were shouting and waving towards Daniel as he came out. He had his headphones in so he wouldn't hear us. It just happened right before our eyes, it was horrible," Auiste Dabasinskaite said.

Marcus Ardiuni Monzo, 36, has been charged with Daniel's death and appeared in court Thursday morning, the Guardian reported.

"It's horrible isn't it, poor boy, I feel really bad for his family," Dabasinskaite said. "As my next-door neighbor, we used to say hello and wave at each other in the mornings when he left for school."

She said people have been coming from all over and putting flowers near Daniel's home.

"They're really supportive, we've got a great community here, we never expected something like this to happen," she said.

Another neighbor said Daniel's family was stunned by the gruesome slaying.

"Yesterday, I spoke to the father and he was shocked," the neighbor told a British news agency, the Independent reported. "He had tears.

The woman, who saw the attack unfold from her window, said an ambulance was on the scene quickly, but the man with the sword kept them at bay.

"The ambulance was here on time, they tried to help but it was just because of him that they couldn't help," she said, adding: "He was trying to attack them with the sword."

Monzo has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article, the Guardian said.

The attack left four people injured, including two police officers.

Prosecutors said the violent rampage began when Monzo crashed a van into a fence around 7 a.m. Tuesday and hit a man.

He jumped out of the van and slashed the man in the neck. He then broke into a nearby home and terrorized a man, woman and their four-year-old daughter, cutting the father in the neck and arm.

Prosecutors said Monzo then attacked Daniel, who fell to the ground.

As police officers cared for the teen, Monzo turned on them with the sword before he was subdued.
Russian and US troops have been operating out of the same military base in Niger for several weeks, according to a US defence official and another source familiar with the situation, as reported by CNN. This development places the two military forces in close proximity amid heightened tensions surrounding the conflict in Ukraine and the junta's resistence on the withdrawal of US forces from the country. While both Russian and US troops operate out of Air Base 101 in Niger, they utilise separate facilities. The Russians occupy a distinct hangar on the base, ensuring physical separation from American personnel. However, given the limited space, the proximity between the two forces remains notable. The presence of Russian troops at the base has fueled tensions between the US and Niger's military junta, which seized power in a coup in July 2023. It raises concerns among US officials about Niger's potential pivot towards Russia, particularly considering the country's historical role as a vital hub for US counterterrorism efforts in the region. In March, US diplomatic and military representatives, including Gen Michael Langley and Celeste Wallander, voiced apprehension during their visit to Niger about the escalating Russian military presence. Questions arose regarding the fate of Air Base 101 and the possibility of it being transferred to Russian control, CNN previously reported. Following the tense meeting, Niger announced its decision to terminate the agreement allowing US military personnel and civilian staff to operate in the country since 2014. Consequently, the US military is collaborating with Nigerien authorities to facilitate an orderly withdrawal of troops from the nation, confirmed by the Pentagon. Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh stated that another US delegation is scheduled to visit Niger "hopefully ... this week" to discuss further the withdrawal process. However, military flights in and out of the country are contingent upon clearance from the Nigerien government. The deepening military cooperation between Russia and Niger has been a focal point of contention between the US and the Nigerien junta. Russia's Defense Ministry announced in January an agreement to bolster military ties with Niger, while Russian media disclosed plans to dispatch equipment and 100 military trainers to the country. Nonetheless, sources indicate that Russian troops had been present in Niger before April. In a separate development, the US military has commenced withdrawing troops from a French military base in Chad following the government's demand for their departure last month. Over half of the US troops stationed at the base in N'Djamena have relocated to Germany, CNN reported. (ANI)
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam's leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has once again dismissed the outcomes of the general elections and called for new polls, citing "widespread rigging and irregularities," as reported by ARY News. During a public gathering in Karachi, Maulana Fazlur Rehman asserted that the assemblies had been "sold," including the Sindh Assembly and the President House. He emphasized the necessity for immediate re-elections to uphold the integrity of the democratic process. "The recent elections were fake, and its results are unacceptable," he declared, insisting on fresh elections to ensure the people's voices are heard and their mandate respected, ARY News reported. Fazlur Rehman also criticized the federal government's foreign policy, particularly its stance on Israel and Palestine. "We are being punished for supporting Palestine and opposing Israel," he remarked, adding, "We are being punished for attempting to improve relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan." Asserting the importance of governance according to the constitution, Fazlur Rehman stated, "If there is to be governance in the country, it will be only according to the constitution." He highlighted that the struggle of JUI-F is not limited to a single day or month, indicating that their successors will continue the fight. Maulana Ghafoor Haidari, a leader of JUI-F, emphasized the party's commitment to safeguarding the constitution since 1973. "The constitution would have been damaged, had we (JUI-F) not protected it," he noted. He pointed out that "massive rigging" occurred on February 8, 2024, ARY News reported. (ANI)
Saudi activist Manahel al-Otaibi, 29, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for advocating women''s rights and her manner of dress, CNN reported, citing, human rights organisations. The sentence, handed down in a "secret hearing" by Saudi Arabia''s Specialised Criminal Court on January 9, 2024, was only revealed weeks later, following a United Nations inquiry, according to Amnesty International and the London-based Saudi rights group ALQST. According to a joint statement by the watchdogs, al-Otaibi''s charges are allegedly linked to her clothing choices and online activism, including advocating for the end of Saudi Arabia''s male guardianship system, sharing videos of herself in what authorities deemed "indecent clothing," and going out without wearing an abaya, according to CNN. While al-Otaibi''s sister, Fawzia al-Otaibi, faced similar charges, she managed to escape Saudi Arabia after being summoned for questioning in 2022. Saudi Arabia''s mission to Geneva responded to the UN inquiry in January, stating that al-Otaibi was arrested in accordance with the law under a valid warrant and is accused of terrorist offenses. The mission asserted that no individual is detained in the country for exercising their rights and freedoms and that state institutions are obligated to ensure fair treatment regardless of religion, race, sex, or nationality. Amnesty International''s Campaigner on Saudi Arabia, Bissan Fakih, condemned al-Otaibi''s conviction and sentence, calling it an "appalling and cruel injustice" that exposes the insincerity of the Saudi government''s touted women''s rights reforms. While Saudi authorities have made some strides in dismantling the male guardianship system, Amnesty and ALQST highlight that many discriminatory practices persist. They point to the 2022 Personal Status Law, which, rather than abolishing restrictive elements, reportedly codifies them, particularly in matters of marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Ironically, al-Otaibi believed in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman''s promises of reform, yet she found herself arrested in November 2022 for exercising the very freedoms she thought were being promoted. Al-Otaibi''s sentencing occurs within a broader context of increased suppression of free speech in Saudi Arabia, particularly online. Over the past two years, Saudi courts have handed down lengthy prison terms to numerous individuals, including many women, for their social media expression. Amnesty International and ALQST are urging Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release al-Otaibi, emphasizing that her imprisonment contradicts the narrative of reform and women''s empowerment promoted by the government, CNN reported. (ANI)
For the fifth consecutive year, approximately eight out of ten Americans maintain unfavourable perceptions of China, with a significant portion advocating for constraints on Beijing's influence, according to a recent public opinion poll, Voice of America reported. The Washington-based Pew Research Center disclosed that 81 per cent of Americans harbour unfavourable sentiments toward China, with 43 per cent expressing a particularly strong aversion towards the nation. "Views of China across all Americans remain critical -- pretty negative," remarked Christine Huang, a research associate at Pew, in an interview with VOA. "As China emerges as a prominent player on the global stage, it's imperative for us to monitor public sentiment towards China and its actions, and assess how these perceptions may impact foreign policy decisions," Huang added. The survey highlights the influence of political ideology and age on individuals' attitudes towards China. "Not all Americans perceive China in the same light. Certain demographics exhibit notably negative views of China," Huang explained. Republicans exhibit a significantly more unfavourable stance towards China compared to Democrats, according to Pew's findings. Republicans and those leaning towards the party are approximately twice as likely as their Democratic counterparts to hold an extremely unfavourable view of China and perceive it as a US adversary. Furthermore, conservative Republicans demonstrate a higher propensity for negative perceptions of China and a belief in Beijing's adversarial role compared to moderate or liberal Republicans. Additionally, older individuals tend to harbour more apprehension towards China, with Americans aged 65 and above showcasing a more unfavourable view of Beijing. While Pew's research does not delve into the underlying reasons behind Americans' negative perceptions of China, it does examine perceptions of Chinese influence, as Huang clarified. "A majority of Americans believe that China's power and influence have grown in recent years," noted Huang. "So, there's a correlation between the perception of China's increasing power and the negative attitudes towards the country." This sentiment is particularly pronounced when considering China's economic impact on the United States. Over 80 per cent of Americans believe that China wields at least a fair amount of influence on US economic conditions, with the majority perceiving this influence negatively. Among those who acknowledge China's influence on the US economy, 79 per cent view it negatively, in contrast to 18 per cent who perceive it positively, according to Pew's findings. One noteworthy aspect highlighted in this year's survey, according to Huang, is American apprehension regarding China's territorial disputes. Beijing's claims over extensive regions of the South China Sea, despite opposition from countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines, have sparked concern among Americans. Approximately six out of ten Americans, or 61 per cent, express some level of concern about territorial disputes between China and its neighbouring countries, with 20 per cent indicating significant concern, the report revealed. "Americans are considering the broader implications beyond their immediate interests," remarked Huang, Voice of America reported. (ANI)
Former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry said Thursday that the party's founder would become Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif if he makes a deal with the establishment, Pakistan-based Geo News reported. Chaudhry's remarks came as purported "talks" between the PTI and the establishment in the headlines for the past few days after senior PTI leader Shehryar Afridi said that his party will hold "dialogue with the chief of army staff (COAS) and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI) soon" instead of speaking to "rejected people" who reached parliament through Form 47. Afridi made the remarks on the Geo News programme 'Naya Pakistan.' The PTI leadership denied any backdoor talks with "anyone." Speaking to journalists outside the Lahore High Court (LHC), Fawad Chaudhry, who denies parting ways with the PTI, predicted that the former Pakistan PM Imran Khan, who was ousted from power in April 2022, would not strike the deal with the establishment. Pakistan's former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry said, "If he [Imran Khan] strikes a deal, he will become Shehbaz Sharif," adding that "Now, a threat to PM Shehbaz is not from his house but from those who brought him to power and outsiders," Geo News reported. Speaking about the multiple crises being faced by Pakistan, Fawad Chaudhry said, "We need to recover [from the economic instability]." He further said: "No new charter is needed as the Constitution exists." In response to another question, Fawad Chaudhry praised the judiciary and stressed that "judges are rewriting history." On April 30, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said his party, as of now, was not holding 'backdoor talks' with anyone, top Pakistani daily The Express Tribune reported. His remarks come a day after it was reported that incarcerated PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan had given the green light to negotiations with the establishment and political forces. PTI chairman made the remarks while addressing a press conference alongside party leader Sher Afzal Marwat after meeting Imran Khan at Adiala Jail on Monday. He said that the PTI founder had only sought names for holding talks. However, no talks are being held right now. Gohar said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif had been "exonerated of all charges while the PTI founder was being punished in fabricated cases", The Express Tribune reported. "The police are being used against our party. Maryam Nawaz dressed in police attire sends a clear message that the police is subordinate to them," PTI chairman quoted Imran Khan as saying during their meeting. Earlier, on Sunday, it was reported that Imran gave the go-ahead to PTI to hold negotiations with the establishment and political adversaries. However, he made it clear that any talks must play by the rulebook, emphasizing PTI's readiness to sit down with both the powers that be and political adversaries for the greater good. (ANI)
Confucius Institutes (CIs), non-profit educational institutions funded by the Chinese government, have been added to a list of political, governmental, and military bodies of China where Taiwan's citizens are banned from working, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported, citing the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). Announcing the decision, the MAC in a press release said that the revisions to an existing act ban people of Taiwan from working for any Chinese organization engaged in matters linked to national identity and loyalty, united front work, or which poses a threat to national security. The revised guidelines particularly prohibit citizens from working at Confucius Institutes -- non-profit educational institutes funded by the Chinese government to spread the culture of China. These educational institutes have also come under suspicion as tools for political influence, CNA reported. The organizations which have been included in the blacklist were the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) which is China's semi-official body in charge of handling technical and business matters with Taiwan and All-China Youth Federation and the All-China Federation of Taiwanese Compatriots. As per the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (the Cross-Strait Act), people who work for banned organizations can face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$500,000, CNA reported. According to the Act, the person who breaches the rule is a government official or a person working in defense, foreign affairs, intelligence, China affairs, or other relevant agencies whose work is linked to matters of national security or other classified information, can face up to three years in prison. The MAC said the Act has been revised to stop China from intentionally exploiting the regulations. It further said that it had originally established the guidelines in 2004 in accordance with the authority given to it under the Cross-Strait Act. The MAC said that the rules, however, remained unchanged in the past 20 years, even as the Chinese underwent significant structural changes, according to a Central News Agency report. After the announcement, the Taiwanese counterpart to the ARATS, the Straits Exchange Foundation, announced it would make efforts to explain the changes in the law to Taiwanese people travelling frequently between Taiwan and China, to ensure they do not accidentally run afoul of the law. (ANI)
The South Korean chapter of the Baloch National Movement (BNM) staged a protest at Biff Square in South Korea's Busan calling for an end to what they describe as "state-sponsored" oppression against the Baloch people, The Balochistan Post reported. To raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Balochistan, protesters distributed pamphlets to residents. During the demonstration, the protesters expressed their anger and denounced the Pakistani state for the widespread enforced disappearances and unresolved cases of thousands of missing Baloch individuals. During the demonstration, protestors distributed pamphlets to residents, raising awareness about the ongoing crisis in Balochistan, according to The Balochistan Post report. Shouting anti-Pakistan slogans, the demonstrators expressed their frustration and anger and criticized the Pakistani state for the widespread enforced disappearances and highlighted cases of thousands of missing Baloch individuals. Bakhtawar Baloch, one of the protesters, spoke of the Baloch people's enduring fight against what she termed "Pakistani occupation," which has lasted for 75 years. She criticized the Pakistani state for the suppression and denial of self-determination rights. She condemned the alleged "genocide" of the Baloch people by Pakistani forces over the forced disappearances of women, students, human rights activists, journalists, leaders, scholars, engineers, doctors, political and social workers and livestock herders, The Balochistan Post reported. Residents of South Korea expressed sympathy for the Baloch cause and highlighted the need for international recognition of the Baloch people's suffering, The Balochistan Post reported. Speakers like Hafsa Baloch, Sameer Baloch, and Agha Faiz also denounced the treatment meted out to Baloch people by the Pakistani state. Protesters marched through Biff Square as they shouted slogans. On Thursday, Baloch rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch voiced concern over the atrocities inflicted by the Pakistan Army on the locals of Mashkay, who are being forced into labour camps for the reconstruction of the alleged army post attacked recently. "The people of Mashkay Tank are facing the worst atrocities in the ongoing struggle of Balochistan," Sammi Deen Baloch said. She said that about a month ago, an army camp was attacked by separatists in Balochistan's Mashkay. She said, "After this attack, the locals are forced to work for free in inhumane conditions. They are forced to leave their occupations and jobs. Moreover, all the physically fit men of the area are taken to labour camps and are forced to do labour work for free. They are forced to work as cleaners, sweepers and physical labourers for free." The Baloch rights activist highlighted that in some cases the people are used as a human shield to protect the army personnel in case of potential attacks. https://twitter.com/SammiBaluch/status/1785950639228698845 Sammi Deen Baloch said, "They are captured in a live prison, they are not allowed to take care of their families or go back to their farms. For over a month now these men have been working for the army for free, whereas their fields remain barren. Their families are forced to starve and their pockets remain empty." (ANI)
The eight-month-long India's iconic 'Mandvi to Muscat' lecture series has concluded with the lecture increasing awareness about the contributions of the Indian community in strengthening India-Oman ties. The landmark lecture series 'Mandvi to Muscat: Indian Community and the Shared History of India and Oman' was organised by the Indian embassy in Muscat, and concluded on Wednesday. Notably, the 'Mandvi to Muscat' lecture series is in line with and inspired by the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a proactive and sustained engagement with the Indian diaspora communities spread worldwide. The lecture series has helped in making a meaningful contribution to promoting a better understanding of the history of the Indian community in Oman. Moreover, it has enabled a better appreciation of their role in nurturing and strengthening the special bilateral relationship between the two nations. Over 300 people attended the event held at the Mahajan Recreation Centre in Al Wadi Al Kabir including dignitaries, scholars and prominent members from Omani, Indian and Indian-Omani communities. Prof Dr Calvin Allen from the US, the noted authority on the subject, gave the final lecture. Allen's lecture provided a panoramic view of the rich history of the Indian diaspora in Oman, spanning from prehistoric times to the modern era. From ancient trade routes to contemporary collaborations, Dr. Allen explained the cultural exchanges, people-to-people ties, and socio-economic interactions that have shaped the close bond between the two countries. Additionally, Harshendu Shah traced the evolution of Indian schools in Oman and Kiran Asher, a Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awardee presented a detailed narrative of Oman's Hindu temples, highlighting the inclusive ethos of Omani society. Moreover, P Mohammad Ali, recipient of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award, shared poignant anecdotes from his inspiring journey during the modern renaissance in Oman, while Dharmin Ved offered insights into the illustrious history of the Ved family, adding to the stories of deep-rooted people-to-people connections between India and Oman. The attendees included the director-general of the National Museum, New Delhi BR Mani, the Secretary-General of the National Museum of Oman, Jamal al-Moosawi, Chairman of Oman Historical Association, Sayyid Nooh bin Mohammed Al Busaidi and Advisor for Foreign Trade and International Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce, Pankaj Khimji. Amit Narang, Ambassador of India to the Sultanate of Oman, in his address, underscored the significance of the 'Mandvi to Muscat' series in revitalizing awareness about the contributions of the Indian community in strengthening India-Oman ties. He further stressed that all the papers presented during the lecture series will be compiled and published into a book. The lecture series was inaugurated by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on October 19, 2023, and the event was concluded on May 1, marking the conclusion of an 8-month journey, offering rich insights into the historical connections between the two countries. Moreover, the lecture series was also attended by distinguished academics, historians and anthropologists based in Oman, India, the US and UAE including M. Redha Bhacker, a noted scholar from Oman; Chaya Goswami, historian of the western Indian Ocean from India; Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council; Prof. James Onley, Historian from the American University Sharjah; Sandhya Rao Mehta, Associate Professor at Sultan Qaboos University; and Swagath Pani, an Anthropologist Historian based in the US. Additionally, the family histories of Ratansi Purushottam, Khimji Ramdas, Naranjee Hirjee, Lakhoo Ved, Toprani, and Shah Nagardas families were narrated by the latest generations of these houses. In more modern times, the experiences of Syed Mohammed Rafay from Bihar and Mohamed Ali from Kerala were presented. (ANI)
The session was held in Sweden's capital wherein, the Indian side was led by Pavan Kapoor, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs and the Sweden side was led by State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Sweden), Jan Knutsson.

https://twitter.com/MEAIndia/status/1786366212299239602

A spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal shared a post on X, stating, "7th India-Sweden FOC held in Stockholm today. Co-chaired by Secy (West) @AmbKapoor and Secretary of State @SweMFA , Jan Knutsson. They reviewed the entire range of bilateral cooperation and also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest."

India and Sweden have longstanding close relations based on common values; strong business, investment and R&D linkages; and similar approaches to meet global challenges of peace and security and development.

The year 2023 marked 75 years of diplomatic relations, which were established in 1948 and have steadily strengthened over the decades.

During 2023 (Jan-October) there have been four Ministerial visits from Sweden (Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Infrastructure and Finance). EAM visited Sweden in May 2023. There have been around 13 ministerial interactions from November 2022-October 2023. (ANI)
The British High Commission appreciated the completion of the landmark visit of the United Kingdom's Littoral Response Group (LRG) to India, and stated that it adds a new dimension to the existing UK-India defence partnership. The Littoral Response Group (LRG) arrived in Chennai on March 26 as the first engagement of the UK's deployment to the Indian Ocean region. Littoral Response Group is a UK Royal Navy task group. https://twitter.com/ukdefenceindia/status/1786347283262423434?s=48 In a post on X, Brigadier Nick Sawyer, the Defence Advisor, British High Commission, said, "Last month, the UK's Littoral Response Group (South) completed a landmark visit to India. The month long deployment was so special and adds a new dimension to the already vibrant maritime pillar of the UK-India defence partnership." Further, he appreciated the engagement and stated, "These activities strengthen the foundation laid for future maritime engagements as part of the 2030 UK-India Roadmap." The Littoral Response Group (South) is a multi-functional amphibious task force equipped to undertake a wide spectrum of activity in the littoral environment. It consists of the ships Royal Fleet Auxiliary and RFA Lyme Bay with embarked forces centred on a Royal Marines strike force. This is the first time a Royal Navy vessel will undergo maintenance at an Indian shipyard - a direct result of the logistics-sharing agreement signed between the UK and India in 2022. "While there have been a record number of Royal Navy ship visits in the past 12 months, a new landmark was achieved this time when the LRG(S) vessels docked at the Larsen and Toubro shipyard in Kattupalli near Chennai," Brigadier Nick Sawyer said. Prior to this, the UK task group had conducted maritime exercises with INS Trishul in the Arabian Sea while sailing towards the eastern seaboard of India. This was the first time a Royal Navy vessel underwent essential maintenance in an Indian shipyard a direct result of the logistics-sharing agreement signed between India and the UK in 2022. The logistics-sharing agreement allows for the provision of logistic support, supplies and services between the UK and Indian Armed Forces, for joint training, joint exercises, authorised port visits and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations. This agreement has been a real game changer. It has led to engagements between our armed forces. The vital logistics partnership supports longer deployments of our capabilities in the region and is clear evidence of the Indo-Pacific tilt in action and in sync. In recent deployments, Royal Navy ships have received spare parts manufactured by Indian shipyards within a short notice period, showcasing the growing interoperability between our navies. But it is not just the ships, Royal Air Force flights travelling in the region have benefitted from taking logistic halts in India twice so far, allowing opportunities for our air forces to share best practices and invaluable experiences. Following the completion of the maintenance, RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay conducted a maritime exercise in the Bay of Bengal. INS Sahyadri joined the UK Task Group, conducting maritime manoeuvres, aviation, and replenishment serials. Earlier, during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's UK visit, India and UK agreed that the latter would send its naval groups -- Littoral Response Group and Carrier Strike Group -- to the Indian Ocean Region, in addition to holding multiple joint military exercises and expanding defence cooperation with India. In the coming years, the UK and India will also embark on more complex exercises between their respective militaries, building up to a landmark joint exercise to be conducted before the end of 2030, supporting shared goals of protecting critical trade routes and upholding the international rules-based system, the UK government informed in a release. (ANI)
China reports record railway trips on 1st day of May Day holiday

Xinhua) 10:03, May 03, 2024

BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Railway passenger trips in China hit a record high of over 20.69 million on Wednesday, the first day of the five-day May Day holiday, data from the national railway operator shows.

The China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) said 17 million railway passenger trips are expected on Thursday, with 1,094 additional passenger trains planned.

The country's railway network is expected to handle 144 million passenger trips during the eight-day May Day holiday travel rush from April 29 to May 6, according to China Railway.

During the period, an average of over 12,000 passenger trains are planned daily, which is about 1,800 more than the usual number during non-rush periods, it said.

This year's May Day holiday runs from May 1 to May 5.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liu Ning)
A Suburban Philadelphia priest is accused of stealing more than $40,000 from his parish to play online games like Candy Crush and Pokemon.

Father Lawrence Kozak is accused of stealing from St. Thomas More Parish in Pottstown.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia told the Catholic News Agency that a financial review "resulted in certain expenses and expenditure levels utilizing parish funds being questioned," the archdiocese said and "referred the matter to law enforcement."

Police arrested Kozak late last month on felony theft charges.

According to parish records, nearly 2,200 transactions were related to a category of spending identified as "gaming."

When interviewed by police Kozak allegedly said he "didn't realize when he went past the balance on his Apple Card [that] the charges were kicked over to the parish card."

The criminal complaint reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer said the priest told officers, "There's no excuse except that he wasn't paying attention and should have been."

Kozak said it was possible he had used the church credit cards accidentally because he was not "a details guy," the affidavit said.

But the business manager told investigators she believed Kozak knew the parish card was being used for his gaming and said she had previously warned him about the practice.

He is on administrative leave from the church during the investigation.
According to Mansehra District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Gandapur, a First Information Report (FIR) against the suspect has been lodged at the Garhi Habibullah police station.

Confirming the assault, Gandapur stated, "A case has been registered under the Child Protection Act. The suspect has been successfully arrested." He further stated, "We have collected evidence and formed a special investigation team. I am personally overseeing this case," as reported by Dawn.

In a video statement on X, Gandapur assured, "We have met the victim in the hospital today. We assure the family that justice will be served, and the authorities will punish the accused strictly according to the law."

A statement from the DPO's office stated that a deputy superintendent of police, the Garhi Habibullah station house officer, and the case's investigating officer have been directed to "conduct the investigation on merit" and ensure the accused is punished.

DPO Gandapur also instructed the Victim Support Service Team Mansehra to provide the girl with medical aid and psychological treatment.

Over the past two decades, Pakistan has witnessed a troubling shift in social development approaches, with an increasing focus on sacralising development to appease Muslim sensibilities. This trend has compounded existing challenges within Pakistan's colonial and Islamic legal framework, exacerbating the stigma surrounding gender and sexuality while elevating clerical authority above human rights advocacy.

According to Sahil, an NGO dedicated to children's welfare, a total of 4,213 child abuse cases were reported in 2023. These cases spanned all four provinces, Islamabad, and Gilgit-Baltistan, encompassing instances of child sexual abuse, abduction, missing children, and child marriages, Dawn reported. (ANI)
The Canadian Police have arrested and charged three individuals in connection with the killing of India-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, amid ongoing investigations into alleged connections to the Indian government. According to court documents, Karanpreet Singh (28), Kamalpreet Singh (22), and Karan Brar (22) each face charges of one count first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder Nijjar's death, Canadian news website CTV News reported. This charge, however, has been repeatedly denied by India. In September 2023, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that the Indian government had told Canada that it was not Government of India policy to engage in such acts like the killing of Nijjar Addressing reporters at a news conference, RCMP Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, who leads the Federal Policing Program in the Pacific Region, emphasised the active nature of the investigation into Nijjar's murder. "Three suspects have been arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in the killing of Nijjar.... We are not able to make any comments on the nature of evidence... Nor can we speak behind the motive of murder of Nijjar... However, I will say this matter is very much under active investigation," he said. "There are separate and distinct investigations ongoing into these matters, certainly not limited to the involvement of the people arrested today, and these efforts include investigating connections to the government of India," Teboul also said. The indictments allege that the conspiracy unfolded in both Surrey and Edmonton between May 1, 2023, and the day of Nijjar's killing. Scheduled updates on the case from the BC RCMP and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team were announced for 12:30 pm PT on Friday. Nijjar's assassination triggered diplomatic tensions between Canada and India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disclosed intelligence investigations regarding a potential link between the Indian government and the killing. Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc refrained from confirming any connection to the Indian government, asserting that such inquiries should be directed to the RCMP, as reported by CTV News. "I have full confidence in the security apparatus of the government of Canada and the work of the RCMP, and the work that the (Canadian) Security Intelligence Service does," Leblanc affirmed. "The police operation that you see ongoing today confirms that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously. But questions with respect to particular links or non-links are properly put to the RCMP," he added. Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by the National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed as he came out of a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on the evening of June 18, 2023. The video of his killing that reportedly surfaced in March recently, showed Nijjar being shot by armed men in what has been described as a 'contract killing'. The killing led to accusations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the government of India had a hand in the killing -- a claim that was denied by India and led to the deterioration of diplomatic ties between Canada and India. (ANI)
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been questioned as a suspect in a witness-tampering case against her husband, according to local media reports Thursday.

The 56-year-old supermodel was questioned as a witness in the case last year but is now considered a suspect, according to Le Monde. The witness tampering case is linked to allegations that her husband accepted money from Muammar Gaddafi, the late Libyan autocrat, to help finance an election campaign.

Gaddafis Ghost Takes Revenge as Frances Ex-President Sarkozy Detained for Questioning

Bruni-Sarkozy was at the Paris offices of the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses on Thursday, according to MailOnline. A source told the outlet that the former first lady of France is a free suspect, adding: She has spoken to officers before, but not as a suspect in a case in which shes accused of trying to whitewash her husband.

Sarkozy was charged last year with illegal witness tampering in connection with the Libya funding allegations. Authorities suspect that multiple people in Sarkozys orbit were involved in an effort to pressure a key witnessZiad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessmanto retract a statement hed made that incriminated Sarkozy.

Takieddine had originally claimed that hed delivered three suitcases containing more than $5 million worth of euros to Sarkozys campaign staff in 2006 and 2007, but he suddenly recanted on his claims in 2020, raising suspicions that hed been pressured to do so.

Takieddine dropped his accusations in an interview with the magazine Paris Match. Michele Marchandan influential figure in the French media dubbed the paparazzi queenwas charged with witness tampering in 2021.

According to Le Monde, an investigation found that Bruni-Sarkozy deleted all messages shed exchanged with Marchand on the day that Marchand was charged. The former first lady is also reportedly suspected of helping Marchand and a paparazzo get hold of COVID tests in October 2020 that allowed them to travel to Lebanon where the interview with Takieddine took place.

Bruni-Sarkozy is now one of 11 defendants in the case, the newspaper reports, all of whom are suspected of misleading the justice system in France.

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Editors note: This report has been updated to clarify the Biden administrations efforts to empower the Palestinian Authority to replace Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Biden administration and Israels supporters in Congress are lashing out at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over potential arrest warrants that could be issued for alleged crimes by Israeli officials in prosecuting the countrys war against Hamas.

The reports of forthcoming arrest warrants have reignited debate over the courts priorities, and poses a high-profile test of the bodys independence in the face of political pressure and influence from all sides.

Lawmakers on both sides of the U.S. political aisle have raised the prospect of consequences if the ICC goes ahead with the arrest warrants.

President Bidens officials and allies argue the court holds no jurisdiction over Israel, and that democratic nations with an independent judiciary should not be subject to the courts scrutiny.

My understanding of the ICC, first Im not sure they have jurisdiction. Secondly, If a country has a comparable system, its not an appropriate investigation by the ICC, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Hill.

But Biden officials have remained tight-lipped on whether they would seek to impose actions on the ICC if it went ahead with the arrest warrants. In April 2021, Biden revoked sanctions on ICC prosecutors imposed by the Trump administration.

Blowback from Israels supporters in the U.S. would likely chill American cooperation with the court, which can be carried out on a case-by-case basis.

Thats something that always worried us, because we wanted the ICC to be succeeding in Sudan or Ukraine or Uganda or Congo, wherever it was doing cases, said Stephen Rapp, who served as head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice during the Obama administration.

Thats one of the things I frankly fear from all of this, and something the ICC should be aware of, added Rapp, who also served as a prosecutor of war crimes for Sierra Leone and Rwanda.

Even as the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, its participation in certain cases gives it significant influence with the prosecutors on the court, which they use to elevate American concerns over how actions by the court can have a negative impact on sensitive diplomacy or the situation on the ground.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly courting U.S. influence to help kill ICC attempts to issue arrest warrants for himself and other senior Israeli officials over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. The ICC is reportedly also looking to issue arrest warrants for Hamas officials over its Oct. 7 assault in Israel, which triggered the war.

It will  be the first time that a democratic country fighting for its life according to the rules of war is itself accused of war crimes, Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Israel expects the leaders of the free world to stand firmly against the ICCs outrageous assault on Israels inherent right of self-defense. We expect them to use all the means at their disposal to stop this dangerous move.

The U.S. has a complicated relationship with the ICC that has drawn claims of hypocrisy. When the U.S. in 2022 engaged the court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called to revoke a Bush-era law that requires the U.S. to block the court from investigating Americans.

Its easy for people to see the hypocrisy in those two statements when weve said previously that we dont believe in the ability of the court to [be] unbiased, Omar told HuffPost at the time.

The criticism from Omar, a fierce critic of Israels policy toward Palestinians who has been condemned by her colleagues for trafficking in antisemitic language, speaks to the pressure faced by ICC prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan from both sides of the Gaza conflict.

Muslim-majority countries and developing countries, including many who support Palestinians, have long criticized the court as bowing to the whims of the U.S.

The most intense pressure and the criticism has come that hes  going after countries that arent liked by the U.S. rather than countries that are liked by the U.S. said Rapp.

The ICC launched its investigation into possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza at the request of ICC members South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti.

I see it from both sides, Rapp said. On one hand, each prosecutor takes an oath not to take instructions from any government  on the other hand, the international courts do not succeed without state cooperation.

The U.S. and its allies are reportedly worried that the court moving ahead with arrest warrants could harm sensitive diplomacy being carried out to reach a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which would allow the release of Israeli hostages and an increase in humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On top of this, the Biden administration is working to empower the Palestinian Authority to replace Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Further, the administration wants to use establishing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia as a potential pathway for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has reportedly warned the U.S. that if the ICC goes ahead with the arrest warrants, he would be forced to impose consequences on the Palestinian Authority, which could trigger its collapse.

Rapp said a clear way for Israel to negate efforts by the ICC is to more publicly show its taking steps to alleviate the apparent merits of the case. The New York Times reported earlier this week that Israeli officials believe the arrest warrants will center on allegations of Israel preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and pursuing an excessively harsh response to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Frankly, one of the surefire ways to get the ICC off [the case] is to actually conduct genuine investigations  not that they have to have guilty verdicts  but do it in a transparent way, taking seriously their obligations, Rapp said.

Updated at 8:01 a.m. EDT

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Hundreds of thousands of fish die off in Vietnam as heatwave roasts Southeast Asia

A mass fish die-off in a reservoir in southern Vietnams Dong Nai province has shone a new light on soaring temperatures in Southeast Asia.

Fishermen have been working to wade through and collect the hundreds of thousands of dead fish that have blanketed the 300-hectare Song May reservoir amid a ferocious heatwave.

Intense drought swept through Vietnams south in April as temperatures soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving farmers struggling to keep their crops alive.

Community members and local media are blaming the drought, heatwave and problems with the reservoirs management as contributing factors.

A cluster of dried, perished fish from Song May reservoir. - AFP/Getty Images

Recent photos show fish layered on top of one another, muddied, dry and disintegrated.

The water in the lake was reportedly too low for the animals to survive as there has been no rainfall for weeks, according to AFP.

Nghia, a resident from the provinces Trang Bom district, told AFP that the fish died for lack of water, adding: Our life has been turned upside down over the past 10 days because of the smell.

A fisherman in a boat with buckets holds up a fishing net to collect dead fish. - AFP/Getty Images

Even with numerous buckets and nets, removing all the fish appears to be almost an insurmountable task.

Local media has suggested that as many as 200 tons worth perished after a failed attempt to renovate the reservoir, according to AFP.

The dried-up Song May reservoir bed. - AFP/Getty Images

In images, the reservoir bed can be seen visibly dried up, cracked and muddied, with the clustered dead fish floating in the remaining water.

Nghia told AFP that the effort to renovate the reservoir included a pump being brought in to remove mud so that the fish would have more space to move.

A fisherman deep in the reservoir collecting the dead fish surrounding him. - AFP/Getty Images

The reservoir provides water for crops in the Trang Bom and Vinh Cuu districts, and its management had previously discharged water from it in an attempt to save crops downstream, Nghia said.

Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that extra water initially planned to be released into the reservoir for the fish was instead diverted downstream because of the unrelenting heatwave, according to AFP.

Authorities are investigating the mass die-off as efforts continue to remove the dead fish, AFP said.

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An Israeli airstrike on Al-Shaboura refugee camp in southern Gazas Rafah city late Tuesday killed two young children and injured several other people, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza and the Kuwait Hospital in Rafah.

Several people injured in the strike were brought to the medical facility just before midnight including a 4-year-old boy named Kareem Jarada and his 2-year-old sister Mona Jarada. The Kuwait Hospital said the two infants were declared dead by medics shortly after they had arrived.

Video obtained by CNN shows people in bloodied clothes being pulled out of civilian cars and rushed into the hospital. Other videos show some injured people being taken out of ambulances marked with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) symbol into the hospital on stretcher beds.

Another video obtained by CNN from inside the hospital shows a doctor trying to treat Monas injuries. Her body appears to be covered in blood splatters with her left eye severely wounded. Her head and right leg are covered in bandages.

Video shot by a journalist working for CNN in the Kuwait Hospital courtyard shows a single small body bag with the bodies of both siblings inside it and their names written in marker on the outside and their date of death  April 30

Four men are seen praying over the body bag, as the childrens grandmother Um Rami Abu-Shalab crouches over, crying.

She is seen opening the bag and looking at her grandchildren, saying: they are going to heaven. The two lifeless heads of the children look bloodied and discolored.

Every time I saw her eyes, Id say she has eyes like a deersGod give your mother strength. God rest your souls my grandchildren, she says while sobbing.

Um Rami told CNN she spoke to her daughter on Tuesday after sunset, when she told her she put her kids to bed after they played with the neighbors and had dinner.

She put them to bed and then the treacherous ones cameGod will punish them, she said.

Pointing at the body bag, Um Rami told CNN they were her first and only grandchildren, calling them her first joy. She said their parents were injured in the airstrike and are now between life and death.

Kareem Jarada, aged 4, was taken to the hospital after the airstrike but was later pronounced dead. - Abu-Shalab family

Kareem's sister Mona, aged 2, also died in the airstrike. - Abu-Shalab family

We are going to bury them without their parents and without most of their loved ones, because they were either injured in the attack or displaced in different areas of Gaza, she said.

Um Rami told CNN the family has been displaced multiple times by the Israeli military, but that it didnt matter because this is all they want, this is their goal, she said, pointing at her dead grandchildren.

The childrens aunt, Maram Abu-Shalab told CNN from the hospital that the Israeli military struck the home her sister and her family were sheltering in without giving a warning.

Were still in a state of shock. What is one supposed to say? They are innocent. The babies went to bed last night, and they never woke up. They went to Godthis heartbreak will stay with us forever, she said.

Unable to hold back tears, she told CNN that Palestinian blood has been flowing like a waterfall that hasnt stopped since October 7, when Israel launched its war on Hamas following an attack by the terror group that killed more than 1,200 people. Israels subsequent devastating assault in the Palestinian enclave has killed more than 34,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

I didnt even have time to enjoy being called an aunt, said Abu-Shalab. They didnt even have time to grow. They were so youngwe are all so sadthere is nothing harder than the devastation of death, and the death of children, she said.

In response to a CNN request for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) referred to a previous statement, that said the IDF is operating to dismantle the Hamas military and administrative capabilities, saying it follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.

Given the ongoing exchanges of fire, remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks. The IDF will continue to counter threats while persisting to mitigate harm to civilians, the statement added.

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Turkey's president blasted American authorities for their "cruelty" in cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests at schools across the country, saying the demonsrators are "protesting the massacre" in Gaza, according to a report.

Protests against Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza have spread across the United States, prompting the police to clamp down on protests at Columbia University in New York City and at UCLA.

"Conscientious students and academics including anti-Zionist Jews at some prestigious American universities are protesting the massacre (in Gaza)," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Turkey's capital Ankara, Reuters reported.

"These people are being subjected to violence, cruelty, suffering, and even torture for saying the massacre has to stop," he said, noting that university staff were being "sacked and lynched" for supporting the protesters.

"The limits of Western democracy are drawn by Israel's interests," the leader of Turkey, a NATO ally to the U.S., said. "Whatever infringes on Israel's interests is anti-democratic, antisemitic for them."

In the past couple of days, police dismantled encampments at UCLA, Columbia and other schools as Jewish students say they fear for their safety on campus amid the protests.

President Joe Biden, addressing the turmoil in a White House speech Thursday, denounced hate speech but backed the right to protest.

"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," Biden said.

"The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But, but neither are we a lawless country."
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)  A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury said it was deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq two decades ago.

The mistrial came in the jurys eighth day of deliberations. The deliberations went far longer than the trial itself.

Its a very difficult case, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema told lawyers in the case Wednesday afternoon, outside the jurys presence. Im not sure were going to get a verdict.

The eight-member civil jury in Alexandria deadlocked on accusations the civilian interrogators who were supplied to the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers there to abuse detainees as a means of softening them up for questioning.

The trial was the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment  accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse  shocked the world during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Reston, Virginia-based CACI had argued that it wasnt complicit in the detainees abuse. It said that its employees had minimal interaction with the three plaintiffs in the case and that any liability for their mistreatment belonged to the government, not CACI.

Multiple jurors told The Associated Press that a majority of the jury sided with the plaintiffs, but they declined to give an exact numerical breakdown among the eight-member panel.

The jury sent out a note Wednesday afternoon saying it was deadlocked, and indicating in particular that it was hung up on a legal principle known as the borrowed servants doctrine.

CACI, as one of its defenses, has argued it shouldnt be liable for any misdeeds by its employees if they were under the control and direction of the Army.

The plaintiffs lawyers tried to bar CACI from making that argument at trial, but Brinkema allowed the jury to consider it.

Both sides argued about the scope of the doctrine. Fundamentally, though, if CACI could prove its interrogators were under the command and control of the Army at the time any misconduct occurred, then the jury was instructed to find in favor of CACI.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs introduced as evidence CACIs contract with the Army, which required CACI to supervise its own employees. Jurors also saw a section of the Army Field Manual that pertains to contractors and states that only contractors may supervise and give direction to their employees.

In their note explaining their deadlock, the jury said the Field Manual was one of the pieces of evidence over which they disagreed.

The jurors who spoke to AP said there was conflicting evidence in the case about whether CACI retained control of its employees while they were in Abu Ghraib.

The plaintiffs can seek a retrial.

Asked if they would do so, one of their lawyers, Baher Azmy with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said that the current expectation is that well continue to fight.

The work we put in to this case is a fraction of what they endured as survivors of the horrors of Abu Ghraib, and we want to honor their courage, Azmy said.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2008 and was delayed by 15 years of legal wrangling and multiple attempts by CACI to have the case dismissed.

CACIs lawyers declined comment as they left court. A company spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  Law enforcement officers from different agencies gathered at the Statehouse to honor those they lost in the line of duty.

The Capitol hosted a candlelight vigil Thursday in memory of law enforcement officers.

This was part of National Police Week and National Peace Officers Memorial Day. This year, three officers have been added to the Kansas Law Enforcement Monument: Officer Jonah Oswald with the Fairway Police Department, Railroad Special Agent George R. Stewart with the Union Pacific Railroad and La Cross City Marshall William J. Talbott.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Photos courtesy of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Topeka Fraternity Order of Police President Ben Heusted told 27 News tonights vigil is important because it shows the survivors that they are not alone.

NE Kansas Foundation collects donations for Westmoreland residents after deadly tornado

They dont have to be alone through this process, Heusted said. As love moved forward for them, they have support here for them and they have a family of blue here to be with them and to help them with everything they need going forward.

At noon on Friday on the second-floor rotunda of the Statehouse, there will be a Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony with a wreath-laying ceremony to follow at the Kansas Law Enforcement Monument, located on the northeast section of the Statehouse grounds.

For more local 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.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Man dies in explosion at Queens garage while working on vehicle: sources

Man dies in explosion at Queens garage while working on vehicle: sources

JAMAICA, Queens (PIX11)  A man died in an explosion at a Queens garage early Thursday morning, sources told PIX11 News.

A fire broke out at the garage on 89th Avenue in Jamaica around 1:58 a.m., according to the NYPD. A 47-year-old man was found unconscious and unresponsive with burns on his body, police said.

FDNY fights large fire in Brooklyn: officials

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Its believed the man was working on his vehicle at the time of the explosion, according to sources.

Four propane tanks were also found in the garage, sources said.

Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Ohio babysitter charged with murder in death of 3-year-old given fatal dose of Benadryl

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed the amount of diphenhydramine. It was 5,000 ng/ml.

An Ohio man has been charged with murder after police say he gave a fatal overdose of Benadryl to a toddler he was babysitting.

Randy Mollett, 35, is charged with murder, reckless homicide and endangering children, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records. Officers took him into custody Wednesday, according to the Franklin County Sheriff's office.

It's unclear whether he has an attorney.

On April 13 at 6:15 p.m. deputies responded to a call about an unresponsive child at a home in Darbydale, just southwest of Columbus. They found a 3-year-old who Mollett was babysitting at his home for a family friend. Mollett told deputies the child had a medical emergency and a seizure, according to the sheriff's office.

Paramedics took the victim to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. An investigation determined Mollett gave the child more than 5,000 ng/mL of diphenhydramine, a type of antihistamine known as an active ingredient in Benadryl, leading to the child's death, according to court records.

The sheriff's office has not identified the child.

Nationwide Children's Hospital is pictured in Columbus, Ohio.

Mollett did not receive permission to give Benadryl

Court records show that Mollett had been taking care of the child for about three days and the child's parents had not given him permission to provide Benadryl.

Mollett appeared in Franklin County Municipal Court Thursday on the reckless homicide and endangering children charges. Judge Eileen Paley set his bond at $1 million for each count, and he remained in the Franklin County Jail on Thursday.

His first court appearance on the murder charge is scheduled for Friday.

In 2009, Mollett was convicted of felony child endangerment and given an eight-year prison sentence, court records show. In that case, he admitted to beating a 23-month-old, causing broken bones in both of the child's hands.

Is Benadryl safe for kids?

Benadryl is pictured among other medicine in Falls Church, Virginia, on Dec. 30, 2020.

Benadryl is generally considered dangerous for infants or children 2 or under, according to Medical News Today. Only under a medical doctor's instructions, small doses may be given to infants between 2 to 5.

Benadryl's official website advises which of their medicines are safe to consume based off age and other factors.

In rare instances, an antihistamine can cause a fetal overdose or serious heart rhythm disturbances that result in death, according to the Mount Sinai Health System. All medicines should be kept in in child-proof bottles and out of reach of children.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio babysitter charged after 3-year-old given fatal dose of Benadryl
A Tesla electric vehicle charging station sits ready for use in Bismarck on Feb. 19, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

Two more North Dakota elected officials are showing no love for the electric vehicle.

Republican U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven on Thursday issued news releases announcing they are co-sponsoring a bill to eliminate tax incentives for electric vehicles.

Cramer, Hoeven and co-sponsor Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., are calling it ELITE, which news releases said stands for the Eliminate Lavish Incentives to Electric Vehicles Act.

The bill would eliminate a tax credit of up to $7,500 for electric vehicles. The news release said it also would close a leasing loophole that allows wealthy buyers to bypass income caps and domestic manufacturing restrictions on EV incentives.

The news release says China makes most of the EVs and the batteries they use.

Were funneling taxpayer money to a supply chain controlled by China, Cramer said in the release.

Data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that as of 2022, North Dakota (640) and Wyoming (840) were the only states with fewer than 1,000 EVs as registered vehicles. The Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska are among the states with the lowest per capita ownership and market share of EVs, Stateline.org reported in 2023.

Earlier this week, another North Dakota Republican, Gov. Doug Burgum, questioned why the state should fund a regional plan for EVs, saying they dont make sense in cold-weather states. Burgum also said the incentives artificially inflate demand for EVs at the same time federal policies are making it harder for baseload power facilities like coal-fired power plants to provide affordable energy.

State Sen. Merrill Piepkorn, the Democratic nominee for governor, called that horse and buggy thinking, referring to the resistance of adopting the gas-powered automobile.

Even as we currently enjoy the financial benefits of our current coal and oil industries, weve got to look to the future, Piepkorn said in a news release.

He advocated for EV charging stations as necessary for North Dakota tourism.

Earlier this year, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe began using electric vehicles for a transit program on the reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota state line.

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The post Sens. Cramer, Hoeven call for killing EV tax credits appeared first on North Dakota Monitor.
London  Protests in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip have swept across college campuses in the United States in recent weeks, but they've also spread rapidly around the world.

Demonstrations have cropped up on campuses at major universities across the Arab and Western world as the war grinds on. Below is a look at where some of the larger protests have taken shape.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, hundreds of students gathered at university campuses across the country's capital Beirut this week. Video posted online from the American University of Beirut showed demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and posters emblazoned with messages demanding the university cut all business ties with Israel.

"This is not just about Palestinians, of course  it is, but it's also about what's happening to us in our own country," Karine Ballout, a 23-year-old Lebanese student at the university, told CBS News on Thursday. "We are asking for the immediate end to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide on the Palestinians, and also for the immediate end of the U.S.-backed Israeli aggressions on Lebanon."

Israel has exchanged fire with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally that's also backed by Iran, since the war started on Oct. 7. The war was sparked by Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw the militants seize about 240 others as hostages. There are still 100 people, including five U.S. nationals, believed to be alive and captive in Gaza.

Students take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the American University of Beirut, April 30, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza. / Credit: Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images

"Of course we were inspired by the protests in the U.S., and Columbia University in particular," Rayyan Kilani, 21, a student at the American University, told the Reuters news agency.

Jordan

Thousands of protesters have also demonstrated in Jordan, which, like Lebanon, borders Israel, in solidarity with Palestinians since the war broke out, including university students.

Jordanian authorities have cracked down on university activists over the past seven months of the war, however, and activists called off a sit-in that had been planned for Tuesday at Jordan University in Amman, Reuters reported.

DAWN, an organization focused on human rights in the Middle East, has said at least nine students have been arrested and five expelled or suspended for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Jordan since Oct. 7.

"While King Abdullah is loudly protesting the war in Gaza to the international community, he's not allowing Jordanians the same right to express their own views," said DAWN's Senior Consultant Jamal Al Tahat in a March press release.

United Kingdom

Mass demonstrations have taken place on university campuses across the U.K. since the war began, including at Oxford University, Newcastle University, Warwick University and University College London, among others.

A student adjusts a sign at an encampment on the grounds of Newcastle University, protesting against the war in Gaza, May 2, 2024. Students at universities in Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol have set up tents outside university buildings, replicating the nationwide campus demonstrations that started in the U.S. / Credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images

At University College London, protesters have called for the school to sever its link with Tel Aviv University and to cut all economic ties with weapons manufacturers they say are supporting Israel's war effort.

"Our demands are basically to demand of UCL to end its complicity in what we see as a genocide in Gaza  to demand an academic boycott because Tel Aviv, like many other Israeli universities, is embedded in the Israeli military establishment," Bushra, a 24-year-old UCL master's student who only gave her first name, told CBS News on Thursday. "UCL has collaborations with BAE Systems, with Lockheed Martin  there has been no statement about the ethical nature of these partnerships."

Bushra said she stood in solidarity with U.S. protesters as they face police crackdowns on some campuses, but she stressed that the focus should be on Gaza.

"Activists at Columbia have said the same thing," she told CBS News. "Whatever oppression they face is not the tiniest fraction of the suffering that the people in Palestine are facing."

France

At France's renowned Sciences Po Paris university, protesters have clashed with riot police over the last week, with several dozen officers entering the school to clear out about 60 protesters who had set up an encampment, according to Le Monde newspaper.

Students block the entrance of the ESJ Superior School of Journalism in Lille, northern France, May 2, 2024, during a pro-Palestinian solidarity demonstration amid Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. / Credit: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images

On Wednesday, the Sciences Po Palestine Committee, which has organized the protests, posted a map showing where protests against the war in Gaza were scheduled at universities across France.

"While American universities' students are being repressed, the movement is spreading throughout France," the group said in its Instagram post.

On Friday, dozens of French police in riot gear were seen moving onto the Sciences Po campus and removing several students who had occupied one of its buildings.

Australia

Sit-in college protests have also popped up in the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and the capital Canberra, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., mirroring the tent camps on U.S. universities. Australian students have also called for their universities to divest from Israel and disclose and cut ties with weapons manufacturers that do business with Israel, the Australian national broadcaster said.

As on some U.S. campuses, there were reports of antisemitism amid the protests at universities across Australia.

On Wednesday, the Australian Union of Jewish Students said that, since the outbreak of the war, "Jewish students have been targeted at university events and demanded to declare their political stances during classes publicly," adding its concern that, "we are witnessing a further escalation in the vilification of Jewish students."

On Friday, demonstrators at the more than week-long pro-Palestinian encampment on the grounds of Sydney University faced off with rival, pro-Israel protesters, shouting slogans and waving flags, but without any physical clashes.

Canada

Closer to the chaos unfolding in the U.S., student protesters set up a camp on a common at the University of Toronto's campus, Canadian national broadcaster CBC reported Thursday.

Pro-Palestinian students and other protesters set up camp on the University of Toronto campus in solidarity with Palestinians, at King's College Circle in Toronto, Ontario, May 2, 2024. / Credit: Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images

Activists there issued similar demands for their university to divest from assets that "sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine," according to CBC News.

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(Nevada Department of Wildlife photo)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

For more than a decade, hunters in Nevada have been limited to killing 20 bears a year. But in recent years that number has climbed, and on Friday, the Nevada Wildlife Commission is expected to vote to allow hunters to kill 42 bears come September.

Nevadas first bear hunt in 2011 authorized the sale of 45 tags and permitted that 20 bears be killed, including six females, according to wildlife commission documents. The quota  the number of tags sold to prospective hunters  was later increased to 50 tags but the hunting limit remained at 20 bears.

Last year, despite a recommendation from the Department of Wildlife that hunters be limited to killing 20 bears, the commission voted to decrease the quota to 37 tags but increase the number of bears that could be killed to 37.

On Friday, the commission will vote on a proposal to make 42 tags available and permit hunters to kill 42 bears, this time in accordance with the departments recommendation.

Since the commission drastically increased these limits to match the quota, it seems the department has followed their lead, says Cathy Smith, a board member of No Bear Hunt Nevada.

The move is a surprise to animal advocates, given recent criticism of the commission for failing to represent the vast majority of Nevadans who do not hunt and favor coexisting with wildlife over their slaughter.

We are not commenting on this at this time as it will be thoroughly addressed at tomorrows Commission meeting, where an NDOW bear biologist will be providing a comprehensive presentation on current bear populations, NDOW spokeswoman Ashley Zeme said via email. All NDOWs recommendations are based on current population sizes. NDOW only makes recommendations, and then the Commission will make the final decision on quotas after reviewing and hearing input from the public and County Advisory Boards.

This hunt has always been about hunter convenience, opportunity and success and flouts the Commissions responsibility to protect wildlife.' as required by state law, says activist Fred Voltz of the Nevada Wildlife Alliance.

The commission and the department of wildlife have made it perfectly clear they dont care that the majority of Nevadans are against the bear hunt and particularly against the use of dogs in the bear hunt, says animal rights activist Carolyn Stark, noting that last year, all 19 bears killed in the hunt were chased by hounds and then shot dead out of a tree.

Stark says the department and commission made it perfectly clear that they could care less that bear hunters killed two lactating females in last years hunt. This undoubtedly orphaned the dependent cubs as well.

The commission is dominated by hunting and ranching interests under a statutory scheme that requires it to have five sportsmen, i.e. hunters, fishermen or trappers who have purchased a license in three of the past four years, one rancher, one farmer, one conservationist, and one member of the public.

The lopsided membership, critics say, renders the board ineffective and preoccupied with looking out for ranchers and hunters at the peril of the wildlife it is charged with protecting.

Less than 3% of the population hunts. Yet, 8 of 9 (89%) of commissioners making decisions about wildlife, hunt, says Stark. They make decisions based on their own biases and preferences.

I knew where the commission is regarding changing wildlife values  the majority dont believe it, says Smith. She says the recommendation to allow more bears to be killed illustrates the commissions lack of concern for public sentiment regarding trophy hunting.

Wildlife, particularly bears, mountain lions and now moose will never get a fair shake in this state under the current system, says Stark.

The post Wildlife Commission expected to allow hunters to kill more bears appeared first on Nevada Current.
More than 2,000 activists have been arrested on college campuses across the United States, according to a report, in the weeks since the New York Police Department first forcefully cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University on April 18.

The Los Angeles Police Department raided the Palestine Solidarity Encampment at the University of California Los Angeles, in the early hours of Thursday morning, arresting at least 200 students and faculty members in the process.

Similar clashes between law enforcement and activists have unfolded across the nation - from private liberal arts colleges to massive state universities - prompting criticism from First Amendment advocates and pro-Palestinian activists.



According to a tally done by the Associated Press, over 2,000 people have been arrested across the country in connection to campus protests and encampments.

"Mass arresting protestors - many of whom are themselves Jewish - does nothing to quell the very real threat of antisemitism. Officials must not conflate support for Palestinian lives and criticism of Israel with antisemitism," the New York Civil Liberties Union wrote, on April 23, in response to the NYPD initial Columbia arrests.

"NYU, Columbia, and all schools have a responsibility to keep students protected from violence and discrimination - as well as from censorship. Calling the NYPD on their own students and squashing their nonviolent advocacy does nothing to keep students safer."

There have been confirmed arrests at more than 40 colleges and universities, according to a New York Times analysis. Columbia, UCLA, the University of Texas Austin, the City College of New York and Emerson College all saw more than 100 individuals detained at pro-Palestine events.

"[The police] kept being like, 'this is your last chance. If you are here you will be arrested.' But they didn't start saying things like that until after they had already started grabbing and dragging people out," an Emerson student told WBZ-TV.

"It was not so much a last chance of not being arrested more so, a last chance of not being brutalized. There were people getting thrown down to the ground, arms put behind their back [and] dragged away."

The union that represents academic workers in the University of California system threatened to strike on Wednesday, partially in response to the administration's decision to involve the LAPD in student protests.

"Management has employed police violence or allowed violence to be used against students, faculty and academic workers exercising their right to free speech, the executive board of UAW 4811 wrote, in an email obtained by HNGN. "The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate."

President Joe Biden addressed the campus upheaval, on Thursday, during an impromptu speech at the White House.

"We've often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation," the president said. "In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn't a moment for politics. It's a moment for clarity."

"So, let me be clear. Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is."
TOKYO, May 03 (News On Japan) - An elderly man, who lost his wife to cancer, survives on a monthly income of only 45,000 yen. We take a close look at his "real life" on the day he receives his pension.

This feature follows a 79-year-old man living alone on a monthly pension of approximately 45,000 yen. His resilience in daily life is fueled by the memory of his wife, who passed away from metastatic cancer one and a half years ago. After wiping away tears and receiving his pension, the man heads out to...

The scene is set near a park in Osaka city where the crew met the widower. When asked about his current age and pension details, he replied, "79 now. The pension? About 45,000 yen a month. That's all the money I have; theres no other income or savings. I can't work since I was diagnosed with stomach cancer at 62, had a major surgery and had to stop working altogether. At that time, the business I was involved in was failing, and it was decided to close it by the time I was discharged from the hospital."

Despite these hardships, Shimizu managed to sustain his household through a security guard part-time job and by renting out a room in his house, all while being supported tirelessly by his wife, Emiko. "She managed everything, kept all records in a notebook; she was meticulous, unlike me."

Recalling his first impression when meeting his wife, Shimizu shared, "I wasn't much interested at first, but she had this inviting charm. It felt right to be together, and I fell for her at first sight. After our children grew up, we often traveled together, creating lasting memories."

However, last summer, when Emiko felt unwell and visited the hospital, a sudden diagnosis showed she had widespread terminal cancer, with only two months left. "It was tough, but she remained composed, making sure to pass on everything to our daughter."

Emiko passed away peacefully on October 21 last year, at the age of 73. Now, Shimizu lives alone in the house full of memories, trying to cook for himself and spending his bi-monthly pension carefully.

On pension day, his account was credited with two months' worth of pension, totaling 95,000 yen. "What are you going to do now?" asked the staff. "Going shopping," he replied. At the local shopping street, he frequents, Shimizu headed straight for his favorite spots, securing a fresh sea bream and other essentials. Despite the financial constraints, he still enjoys the occasional indulgence, like his favorite strawberries that his wife loved.

Riding his beloved motorcycle, Shimizu then headed to Umeda, Osaka's largest shopping area, possibly to buy something special. Known for his love of boat racing and horse racing, he enjoys these activities without letting them impact his day-to-day life, betting small amounts he can afford. Even if he loses, Shimizu remains cheerful, ready to face whatever comes next, embodying resilience and contentment in his later years.

Source: YOMIURI
SHIZUOKA, May 03 (News On Japan) - Atami, one of Japan's premier hot spring destinations, is witnessing a full-fledged revival. Land prices in the area have increased by 13%, and there's a surge in new eateries opening their doors. Inquiries for resort condominiums built during the bubble era have risen by 1.5 times.

Just a 40-minute bullet train ride from Tokyo, Atami is buzzing with tourists. One popular spot is a pudding shop located about a 15-minute walk from Atami Station.

A tourist from Tochigi shared on TikTok, "You see Atami Pudding everywhere. It's such a hit."

Another visitor from Nagano commented, "It's easy to get to, and I just wanted to come here. The pudding was delicious."

Each pudding is handcrafted and carefully steamed, served in retro milk bottles, making them popular on social media.

Another sweets shop that uses a generous amount of original blend tea from Shizuoka Prefecture has also seen lines since its opening in December last year. Targeting the youth, it offers Instagram-worthy delights.

Atami Osakana Diner, which opened in March, is popular for its seafood bowls heaped generously like Mount Fuji with seasonal ingredients.

Hori, the manager of Atami Osakana Diner, mentioned, "With many new eateries opening nearby, it feels like a battleground for dominance."

The popularity of the Atami area is on the rise. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, the officially announced land prices have increased by 13.2% compared to last year, making it the highest in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Since the 1960s, Atami has thrived as a hot spring destination near the capital. However, after the bubble burst, tourist numbers declined, and by 2011, the number of overnight stays had halved from its peak of over 5 million.

To reclaim its tourist appeal, the city of Atami revamped its image.

Tatsumi, the deputy director of Atami's Tourism and Construction Department, stated, "We also had the perception that hot springs were for the elderly. To dispel this image, we pushed forward with promoting our scenery, cuisine, and flowers, positioning our town as a place for the youth to enjoy, which significantly shifted our visitor demographics."

This strategy began to pay off about ten years ago as tourists started returning. However, the number of tourists plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a record low of 1.49 million in the fiscal year 2020.

When the pandemic eased, young tourists, driven by social media, started flocking to Atami, bringing the numbers back to nearly 90% of the previous levels, with 2.9 million visitors.

Demand for 'Resort Mansions'

The pandemic also sparked an increase in demand.

Tomooka, a PR manager at Angel Group, explained, "These are resort condominiums that we sell and manage. They look like hotels."

Located about a 15-minute drive from Atami Station, this 37-year-old condominium features a chandelier and a spiral staircase in the entrance, resembling a hotel lobby.

Tomooka added, "After the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in people considering relocating or having a secondary residence here. Inquiries about our properties have increased by about 1.5 times compared to before the pandemic."

The rooms for sale include 1LDKs, measuring 49.5 square meters, fully furnished and with appliances, all offering a sweeping view of Atami's sea. The asking price for these units is...

"9.8 million yen," Tomooka revealed. "And with monthly maintenance and repair fees totaling 28,044 yen, its under 30,000 yen a month."

Because many resort condominiums built during the bubble era remain, there are opportunities to buy properties at lower prices.

The area's unique attractions include hot springs drawn directly for use in a large communal bath and sauna, along with an outdoor and an indoor heated pool. In the summer, residents can enjoy nearby fireworks displays.

A resident, who bought a room two years ago and is in her 50s, said, "The sight of the sea always lifts my spirits. I come here whenever I feel like it. I arrived spontaneously today. Its great that I can come without a reservation."

Tomooka concluded, "The transaction of second-hand properties is also very active. With hotel developments progressing, the whole town of Atami is becoming more vibrant."

Source: ANN
PARIS, May 03 (News On Japan) - During his visit to France, Prime Minister Kishida, as chair at the OECD Ministerial Council, declared his commitment to removing employment barriers facing women and the elderly.

Prime Minister Kishida stated, "Along with reversing the declining birthrate trend, we will eliminate employment barriers for women and the elderly to achieve sustainable growth."

On the topic of wage increases, he boasted that Japan is seeing the highest levels in about 30 years, emphasizing the need to revive Japan's earning power.

He also expressed concern over the challenges of achieving consensus in an increasingly diverse international community, particularly in light of emerging economies like China. "It's becoming increasingly difficult to find common ground as the rise of emerging countries progresses and the international community diversifies," he noted.

Furthermore, Kishida appealed for a collective understanding within the OECD to form an "international order that is free and open, based on the rule of law."

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Japan's membership in the OECD, which currently includes 38 countries, with Japan and South Korea being the only members from Asia.

Prime Minister Kishida emphasized his commitment to continue efforts to include emerging nations from Southeast Asia and Latin America, often referred to as the Global South, into the OECD.

Source: ANN
The Council Bluffs Police Department arrested a 30-year-old man in connection with the murder of two Omaha men found shot to death last weekend.

Dequanta R. Zachary of Council Bluffs was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, according to a news release issued Friday morning.

Police were notified at 12:18 a.m. Sunday of a man down on the 2100 block of South 29th Street, where officers found 36-year-old Deonte Ivory of Omaha, who was pronounced dead at the scene along the roadway just north of the Horseshoe Casino.

At 7:02 a.m. Sunday, police were notified of a second man down at the entrance of the Western Trails Historic Center, about 2 1/2 miles away, where officers found 25-year-old Michael Anderson of Omaha, who was deceased. The call to law enforcement came from someone who had been walking their dog.

Autopsies later confirmed that the men died of gunshot wounds, the release stated.

Police detectives identified a suspect vehicle, which was later recovered in Mills County. The investigation found that Zachary, Ivory and Anderson were associates, the release states.

Council Bluffs detectives found Zachary in Blair, Nebraska, on Monday, and he was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for first-degree theft out of Council Bluffs with assistance from the Blair Police Department and the Washington County Sheriffs Office.

Detectives handed over the case to the Pottawattamie County Attorney's Office, and the murder and weapon charges were filed, the release states.

First-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, while the firearms charge faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine. The theft charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine.

Zachary is being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail. No additional information on his case was immediately available in online court records or the jail's website, and the police news release said no further information on the investigation is being made available.

The Council Bluffs Police Department thanked members of the public who came forward with information, as well as its own detectives and assistance received from the Mills County Sheriff's Office, Omaha Police Department and law enforcement officers in Washington County.

The police news release concludes with a general warning to call any potential violent criminal in the community: "To any individual intending to do violence in the City of Council Bluffs, rest assured you will be identified and held accountable."
Former President Donald Trump says he may not accept the 2024 election results in Wisconsin, a key swing state, in his race against President Joe Biden, reiterating a similar move from 2021.

In a new interview, Trump, currently on trial in New York while he is also campaigning for a return to the White House, declared that if he doesn't consider the result of November's election legitimate, "you have to fight for the right of the country."

"If everything's honest, I will absolutely accept the results," he said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday.

Trump has not ruled out the likelihood of political violence surrounding the election but revealed "it depends on the fairness" of the process, as reported by Reuters.

The former president continues to stand by his unfounded claim that he had actually won the State of Wisconsin by 21,000 votes in 2020 against Biden and that the election was smeared by fraud.

In an unsuccessful attempt, Trump tried to disqualify almost 240,000 ballots cast for Biden in the previous election.

While his rematch with Biden later this year is expected to be neck-and-neck, he won Wisconsin over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Trump organized rallies on Wednesday in key battleground states, Wisconsin and Michigan, despite the overhelming felony charges he's facing as his trial play outs in a New York courtroom.

"I'd be doing a disservice to the country if I said otherwise," Trump stated.

"But no, I expect an honest election, and we expect to win, maybe very big," he added.
British authorities have detained an unspecified number of migrants in preparation to send them to Rwanda in the next nine to 11 weeks under Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks flagship immigration policy, government officials said earlier this week.

Days after British Parliament adopted the controversial law providing for deporting asylum seekers to the African country, Sunaks spokesman announced Wednesday that the first illegal migrants set to be removed to Rwanda have now been detained, adding that the UK was pleased that the first detentions have taken place. On the same day, the interior ministry confirmed that a series of nationwide operations was under way, releasing photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining migrants at different residences and leading them away in handcuffs.

The UK government expects to deport nearly 6,000 migrants to Rwanda this year, a senior minister has said, adding that of those, 2,143 can be located for detention, which leaves more than 3,500 migrants unaccounted for.

Rwanda has in principle agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in the country, the UK Home Office has revealed. Official data shows that over 7,500 migrants have arrived in England on small boats from France in 2024. But rights groups and opposition parties have criticized the new deportation law for disregarding sections of relevant international and domestic human rights legislation and accused Veteran Rwandan President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech.

The deal with Rwanda is a violation of human rights on multiple fronts, Yasmine Ahmed, the UKs Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, calling on Sunaks administration to abandon the plan to send people to Rwanda.
Talks between the US military and Chads government aiming to revise the security partnership agreement between both countries are set to begin within a month, just as US officials are negotiating the withdrawal of American troops from neighboring Niger after the countrys military junta ended a longstanding pact.

The US military has withdrawn its about 100 troops from a French military base in Chad after the countrys interim government last month questioned the legality of their operations there and demanded they leave, Pentagon confirmed on May 1. This followed a decision by Nigers junta-led government to order all US troops out of the country and replace them with Russian military personnel.

Niger and Chad are the latest Sahel countries to eject Western forces, dealing a blow to US military operations in the Sahel, a vast region where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

But the US military plans to return to Chad within a month for talks, US Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, the commander of US Africa Command, assured, aiming to see in what ways, and what they need, to be able to build further in their security construct and also against terrorism. Langley added that the withdrawal of US troops from Chad was expected to be temporary as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chads 6 May presidential election, whereby NDjamena had communicated to Washington that it wanted to continue the security partnership.

General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, the countrys interim leader, is reportedly the favorite to win the presidential election after the junta violently repressed much of the opposition.
Ticket-mates? Maybe not. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

One of the big remaining mysteries that makes the Trump-Biden 2024 rematch a bit less of a rematch is the identity of Donald Trumps running mate. And there are now regular signals from MAGA land that the 45th president has been steadily winnowing his initially long list of VP prospects. Word is that a small group of vice-presidential wannabes are finalists, and Bloomberg reports that major donors are getting very involved:

Donald Trump is sharpening his focus on a possible running mate by taking a page from his days hosting reality show The Apprentice and parading the top contenders for the slot in front of rich benefactors this weekend 

An exclusive donor retreat at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach this week promises a similar vibe  drawing hundreds of deep-pocketed GOP backers as well as allies eyeing the No. 2 spot on the Republican presidential ticket.

The spectacle comes as Trump is narrowing his gaze on a handful of potential running mates: Ohio Senator JD Vance, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, according to people familiar with the deliberations as recently as this week.

If this really is the state of play, its interesting that Trump has eliminated the many women who were for so long a big part of the veep speculation. Only one of them has fallen from grace for shooting a pet, so far as we know. Gender aside, the remaining prospects have various pros and cons, but the one who seems to stand out is Rubio, a donor and Establishment favorite who has sufficiently sucked up to Trump recently to overcome the unpleasantness of their encounters in 2016, when Trump crushed him in the GOP primaries. Little Marco, as Trump used to call him then, is relatively young (52) and telegenic. Hes been in the public eye long enough to have some name recognition and prove there are no skeletons in his closet. Rubio is associated with some vaguely interesting ideas about catering to the GOPs white working-class supporters. And hes one of the nations most prominent Hispanic politicians at a time when Hispanic voters could be Joe Bidens most crucial vulnerability.

According to The Bulwarks Marc Caputo, Rubio is eager for the gig:

The question is how badly Rubio wants to be Trumps vice president. Answer: bad enough. Rubio has already run for president, and would be a heartbeat away from the White House under a one-term president whos 77 and likes to eat McDonalds too often 

Marco can almost smell the Naval Observatory, said a Trump adviser, referring to the official residence of the vice president, and echoing others who know Rubio, Trump, and the former presidents vetting process.

Theres just one problem with Trump-Rubio 2024. Its the 12th Amendment, which stipulates that the first formal step in determining presidential-election results is that the Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. According to the most common interpretation of this language, Floridas 30 electoral votes could not be cast for both Trump and Rubio.

So lets say the Trump-Rubio 2024 ticket wins somewhere between 270 and 300 electoral votes (which is entirely plausible; Trump won 304 in 2016 and Biden won 306 in 2020). Trump would become president, but if Rubio is denied 30 electoral votes, the vice-presidency would be determined by a vote in the Senate (as also provided by the 12th Amendment). Senators would get to choose between the top two electoral-vote winners, i.e., the Democratic and Republican vice-presidential nominees. If the Senate is still controlled by Democrats at that point, you could have Donald Trump taking the oath of office on January 20, 2025, alongside his vice-president, Kamala Harris. The mind reels.

There are potentially ways around the same-state prohibition in the 12th Amendment. Most famously, in 2000, when George W. Bush decided on Dick Cheney as his running mate, both were living in Texas. Cheney promptly re-established residency in Wyoming, the state he had lived in for many years and represented in Congress. Rubio is a sitting member of the U.S. Senate from Florida, a state that has always been his home aside from an interlude in childhood when he and his family lived in Las Vegas. Will he give up the Senate seat he has held since 2011, just two years into his third term? If so, where will he move? Back to Las Vegas? Thats not clear, though it is clear Trumps not the one whos going to move in that situation (hes definitely not going to reestablish residency in New York, the state where he is allegedly being persecuted by evil Marxist prosecutors, judges and jurors).

There are theories surrounding the meaning of the 12th Amendment term inhabitant that might somehow allow Rubio to keep his Senate seat despite moving away temporarily, and at least one legal expert believes only Congress, not the courts, can enforce the 12th Amendment provisions against same-state ticket mates. Republicans could roll the dice by moving ahead and figuring it all out later. But if they guess wrong and federal courts decide the ban on electors voting for two of their inhabitants means what it says, you could again wind up with the Trump-Harris partnership, the worst situation since Aaron Burr became Thomas Jeffersons veep in 1801 (precisely the situation that led to the adoption of the 12th Amendment).

All in all, its much safer if Trump goes with one of the many VP options that do not in any way risk a constitutional crisis. Hes got enough problems in the legal system now  and if he wins in November, in quashing indictments  without inviting more trouble in the courts.
Photo: Seth Wenig/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sometimes, the forces of attraction are just too strong to resist  the heart wants what it wants. This sentiment is at work not just in love affairs, but in all kinds of relationships, even oddball corporate partnerships. Take, for instance, the pairing of Trump Media & Technology Group, the former Presidents corporate parent for his Twitter clone, and BF Borgers, its auditor since 2022. On the surface, they dont appear to have much in common. Trumps company is a $6 billion publicly traded entity, while Borgers is an unknown auditor run by an obscure number cruncher. They arent even located anywhere near each other with Trump Media in Florida and Borgers headquartered in Colorado. But on Friday, federal regulators charged Trump Medias auditor with massive fraud and shut down the company, and all of a sudden the pairing started to make a little more sense.

Auditors are supposed to be the people who look over all of a companys financial statements and make sure they are both accurate and non-fraudulent. It is, statistically speaking, not a job for everyone, since the work is incredibly detail-oriented. But the forder, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, accuses the company of basically doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to. According to the 15-page document, BF Borgers, as well as its CEO, Benjamin Borgers, oversaw a deliberate and systematic failure to audit and review public company and SEC-registered broker-dealer clients financial statements. Its auditors copied old financial documents to save time (this is bad) and review important workpapers (also bad) and made false records of meetings that never occurred (very bad!). They also auto-deleted their emails, tried to circumvent the auditing industrys watchdog agency, and werent able to provide any proof of much of their work.

Of course, Trump  the man, as well as his broader real-estate organization  was found liable for fraud in New York in February for fabricating financial documents that were used to get loans. (Hes appealing the ruling, a process that hasnt been going great.) Its worth pointing out that Trump Media is not being accused of any kind of fraud here. While the SECs settlement says that BF Borgers fabricated more than 1,500 filings from 2021 to last June, the court documents dont actually mention Trump Media, and its unclear if any of the former presidents filings were affected. However, its statistically likely that Trump Media is among that batch, since the SEC estimated that at least 75 percent of its customers public filings and disclosures were botched. So far, this isnt quite on the level of the mess created by former auditing giant Arthur Anderson  the company that helped Enron and WorldCom cover up their massive frauds  but 1,500 is a large number of filings, and many of those companies will likely have to publicly disclose new, correct financial figures in the coming months.

BF Borgers didnt bother to get back to me. The company didnt admit any wrongdoing, but it is paying a $12 million fine  the CEO is paying an additional $2 million  and shutting down. (Borgers has also been banned from auditing.) As for Trump Media, it looks like the companys brief relationship with BF Borgers is over. Trump Media looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with todays SEC order, a spokeswoman for Trump media said. (She didnt respond to a question about whether the company would have to restate its filings.) The companys stock dropped by about 4 percent, which is fairly small for a meme stock. But then again, maybe seeing massive fraud in a headline with Trump Media isnt so shocking.
An arts and craft business based out of Dothan will shut down its Auburn store after serving the community for five years.

Craft Closet will close its 1345 Opelika Road business on May 18 in the wake of rising costs. Owner Megan Harrell said the location's five-year lease is ending and a renewal would cost too much.

"With the price of rent going up and the price of everything going up right now, it just really didn't make sense to renew it," Harrell said. "We couldn't justify signing another five-year lease with the economy the way that it is right now."

Craft Closet will continue to have an everything-must-go sale until the business closes on May 18. All merchandise in the store is 50 percent off.

The business will continue to sell its furniture in its Auburn store days after they officially close.

Harrell said they will also close their Prattville location, but the Craft Closet store in Montgomery, Enterprise and Dothan will stay open.

The business got its start in 2017 in Dothan when Harrell and her father worked together to create it. Since 2003, Harrell has worked as an accountant with her dad's sign company, Signs Etcetera.

She said the idea for Craft Closet was sparked when customers would visit their store looking for scraps of vinyl.

Harrell said they saw a need and decided to give it a shot, opening the first store in 2017 and it took off from there. They opened the Montgomery store in 2018 and the Auburn and Prattville stores in 2019.

Harrell said that right now, the business is not looking to go anywhere else as it is just too expensive to move and do a build out. She also wanted to thank the loyal customers in Auburn that supported the business since it opened.

"There's been so many ladies that have become like friends, more to the employees we have there," said Harrell, who lives in Dothan. "I know that our ladies there have had lots of tears and hugs from customers that are just regulars that come in weekly and some even daily, so it's been really hard for them."

Harrell said its important for people to shop at their local stores.
As the energy transition continues at pace, reducing the carbon footprint of traditionally high-emitting industries is increasingly crucial to limiting global emissions. Of these hard-to-abate sectors, steel manufacturing is one of the most challenging. Despite incentives and tax breaks designed to promote the production of green steel  produced using zero-carbon electricity  European steel mills are facing an up-hill struggle.

The long-term economic viability of green steel versus grey steel  produced using fossil fuels  is in serious jeopardy, with the environmentally-friendly material costing up to 1,000 ($1,072) per tonne more than the alternative. To close the gap, taxes on grey steel would need to be around 500 per tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2), a sharp increase from the current 60 per tonne tax, or governments would need to offer substantial incentives to produce green steel.

Rystad Energy has observed that importing direct reduction green iron (DRI)  iron ore produced by green hydrogen  from countries with better renewable energy resources, such as Australia or Oman, could help lower costs in Europe. However, DRI's history of maritime trade indicates that it could be a risky option for some regions. Trade volumes have declined in recent years for several reasons, including the nationalization of production facilities in Venezuela. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is another risk factor.

While European steelmakers might want to be self-sufficient, investments in such facilities within the EU appear to have temporarily stalled, according to regional plant manufacturers. European steelmakers seem to be completely dependent on pending election results and taxpayers' money to move forward, an amount that differs from project to project. For instance, in Duisburg, Germany, ThyssenKrupp will receive 500 million to construct a new set of facilities, which will cost 1,800 million. Additionally, the company has been allotted 1,450 million to subsidize its energy costs with the condition it opts for green hydrogen over natural gas. However, to qualify for the subsidy, ThyssenKrupp must provide independent verification that it has purchased green hydrogen instead of grey.

Despite economic uncertainty, the industry is taking concrete steps to replace shot blasting, a carbon-heavy surface treatment process that removes rust, contaminants and general debris from scrap metal. Mills are replacing this practice with more sustainable alternatives like DRI facilities and electric arc furnaces (EAFs), even though these are more expensive. DRI involves the direct reduction of iron ore in a solid-state using carbon monoxide and hydrogen derived from natural gas or coal, while EAFs use electrical energy to melt iron and scrap.

DRI is a raw material used in the production of steel, alongside scrap metal and pig iron. When DRI is manufactured in countries with lower energy costs, by using natural gas or green hydrogen, for example, it can be transported to Europe at a reduced rate over domestic production. This DRI can be melted down in an EAF to produce steel or transported in molten liquid form to a Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF). By doing so, the steelmaker can achieve a more cost-effective solution than producing its own DRI in Europe.

According to the World Steel Association, integrated works, comprising blast furnaces and basic oxygen steelmaking plants, release an average of 2.33 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel, while DRI and EAF plants emit only 1.37 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel. Only 7% of current global steel production comes from these cleaner forms of manufacturing.

The steel industry is at a pivotal moment in the energy transition, battling a drive to decarbonize with economic uncertainty. Importing DRI from countries with better renewable energy resources could reduce the cost of green steel production, but only if transportation costs do not outweigh the benefits. For instance, German steelmakers could import DRI as hot briquetted iron (HBI) produced through green hydrogen from Oman or Australia, if lower hydrogen costs offset high shipping costs when compared to production in Germany.

Alistair Ramsay, Vice President of Supply Chain, Rystad Energy

Learn more with Rystad Energys Steel Solution and Hydrogen Solution.

Rystad Energy's analysis shows that it is currently more cost-effective to import DRI from Oman than to produce it internally in Germany, with savings of around $25 to $30 per tonne. Australia currently has lower green hydrogen production costs, but due to shipping costs, the cost of delivering DRI to Germany is comparable to other H2-DRI (use of hydrogen to produce direct reduced iron) cases.

While using natural gas (NG-DRI) to produce DRI is the cheapest option, it only reduces emissions by about 50%. By contrast, green hydrogen reduces emissions by more than 90%, but is still 50% more expensive than NG-DRI, despite the expected cost decrease by the end of the decade.

EAFs running on green electricity could eliminate the need for DRI, but as the supply of scrap is limited and the low residual requirements of steel consumers reject the high copper content of obsolete scrap, it is essential that there are other raw materials. As a result, DRI (or pig iron) is an essential part of the mix, accounting for up to 100% of the raw material used in some cases. A commonly used mix includes 20% DRI, which adds value to the 80% collected from scrap metal.

The interest in investments in DRI and EAF has slowed down and, as mentioned, European steelmakers rely on public funding and the outcome of pending elections. However, the integrated sector, which has received criticism in the past, is making a comeback by identifying another way to reduce emissions in traditional plants, which involves using hydrogen.

Cleveland Cliffs, the largest flatbed rolled steel mill in the United States, has completed a second test on hydrogen injection at its Indiana Harbor IH7 plant. This test is a breakthrough that challenges the traditional way of thinking, as it suggests that hydrogen could become a solution for reducing emissions in the integrated steel sector. Companies like ThyssenKrupp and Tata Steel are also exploring the potential of hydrogen injection to reduce their emissions.

By Rystad Energy

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While all attention is on the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war, Moscow is securing key venues in Africa while Western nations withdraw or are forced out. Late on Thursday, Russian troops entered a U.S. airbase in Niger, after the new military junta there evicted the Americans (some 1,000 personnel) in the aftermath of a July 2023 coup. In an eerie development, both Russian and American troops are now housed at the same base, in different hangers, reportedly. Prior to the July coup, Washington was a key partner with Niger in terms of rounding up al-Qaeda groups in the Sahel.

Now, the SahelMali, in particularLibya, and Sudan are falling apart at the seams, and not only is this a major in for Russia and its Wagner mercenaries (2.0), but the unrest and coups are being supplied by Wagner, which has a new black market supply route running through Africanot least of which includes smuggling Libyan fuel into Sudan to feed the paramilitary forces fighting against the Sudanese Army in a long-running civil war in which neither side can get the advantage. It also includes weapons smuggled from Syria into Libyapotentially in support of General Haftar (the eastern strongman), or they are headed further into Africa to another of Moscows proxy venues.

This is where security will experience a regional breakdown. The developments in Niger removed a key U.S. base from which it conducted surveillance and counterterrorism operations, including in Libya where the U.S.
Metal Miner

Metals markets recently saw UK metal and mining multinational Anglo American reject a 31.1 billion ($38.8 billion) takeover bid from Australias BHP. Meanwhile, shareholders in the latter company continue to urge an increase in the offer price.



On April 26, London- and Johannesburg-listed Anglo Americans board of directors unanimously rejected BHPs unsolicited, all-share offer made the previous day. Under the offer, Anglo American would demerge all its shareholdings in Anglo American Platinum Limited and Kumba Iron Ore Limited in South Africa. Anglo American also stated that the offers and the demergers would be inter-conditional.

Anglo American Board Deems Proposal Highly Unattractive'

The board has considered the proposal with its advisers and concluded that the proposal significantly undervalues Anglo American and its future prospects, Anglo said on April 26. In addition, the proposal contemplates a structure which the board believes is highly unattractive for Anglo Americans shareholders, given the uncertainty and complexity inherent in the proposal and significant execution risks, the group added.

In their statement, Anglo American noted that copper comprises up to 30% of its portfolio. With the benefit of well-sequenced and value-accretive growth options in copper and other structurally attractive products, the Board believes that Anglo Americans shareholders stand to benefit from what we expect to be significant value appreciation as the full impact of those trends materializes, the company noted.

Insiders From Metals Markets Feel the Buy Was All About Copper

In terms of metals markets, coppers three-month closing price on the London Metal Exchange reached a record-high of $10,135.50 per metric tonne on April 29. This represents an increase of almost 25% from the low of $8,169 seen on February 9. One analyst was unsurprised that BHP would need to raise its offer and noted that this normally occurs in mergers and acquisitions.

The source also believes that the Australian company was eyeing Anglo American for its copper assets, and that acquiring them would make BHP the worlds largest single producer of copper, at about 10% of the global total. Copper is already tight. No one is building any new mines, that source noted.



It is also less expensive to acquire active copper mines, rather than to develop a new one, the source added. That fact, plus expectations of higher demand, continues to push up copper prices. Besides the refusal by Anglo Americans board, the source warned that other difficulties could lie in the reaction by the South African and Chilean governments.

By Christopher Rivituso

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's attempt to shame house members who support funding the Ukraine war may inadvertently send more U.S. dollars overseas.



On Wednesday, Rep. Greene, who is advocating for the removal of House Speaker Mike Johnson, wore a 'MUGA' (Make Ukraine Great Again) hat-a reference to the MAGA slogan often associated with former President Donald Trump-while standing beside a poster of Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and condemning "forever wars."



Greene's 'MUGA' moment appears to have influenced MeidasTouch, a liberal anti-Trump organization to sell their own version, taking $45 pre-orders for the limited-edition hat.

The Unite with Ukraine campaign, which the Ukrainian World Congress runs, will purportedly use the proceeds from the 'MUGA' hats to fund the war effort.

The group slammed Greene but cheekily thanked her for her support. "

Greene has sought Speaker Johnson's removal since the successful passage of a foreign aid package last month, which included $61 billion in aid for Ukraine. Greene and some republicans had vehemently opposed it, and criticized Johnson as a "uniparty" member for his cooperation with Democcrats to get the foriegn aid package passed.
Chevron is repairing a mechanical fault in a turbine at one of the three LNG production trains at its Gorgon LNG facility in Australia, with works expected to take weeks, the local unit of the U.S. supermajor told LNG Prime on Friday.

The fault at the turbine occurred in the afternoon local time on Tuesday, April 30, the company said on Friday.

Chevron Australia has already started working to repair the fault, with works expected to take a number of weeks, a spokesperson for Chevron Australia told LNG Prime.

Domestic gas and the remaining two LNG production trains at Gorgon are unaffected and are producing at full rates, the spokesperson added.

Chevron has notified the parties concerned about the repair works and will keep them posted when production can safely resume at full capacity, the company said.

Chevron holds 47.3% in the Gorgon Project located on Barrow Island, about 37 miles off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The three LNG trains at Gorgon have a production capacity of 15.6 million metric tons per year.

Last November, one of Gorgons LNG trains was working at reduced capacity for a few weeks following an electrical incident.

Prior to this incident at Gorgon, a fault at Chevrons other LNG export facility in Australia, Wheatstone, reduced LNG production at the plant by 25%.

The fault at the Wheatstone plant in September 2023 coincided with the escalation of strikes at the two Chevron facilities in Australia.

The weeks-long dispute between Chevron and workers at its two LNG projects in Australia finally ended in late October with an agreement that eliminated the risk of further industrial action. Members of the Offshore Alliancethe group that represents the workersvoted in favor of a deal with the supermajor endorsing what Chevron offered in wages and working conditions.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Exxon Mobil Corporation has finalized its acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, marking a monumental milestone in the energy sector. With a price tag of $60 billion, this deal stands as one of the largest oil-and-gas acquisitions in recent memory, reshaping the landscape of the industry.

The completion of this megadeal significantly bolsters Exxon's presence in the coveted Permian Basin. This strategic move effectively doubles Exxon's footprint in the region, solidifying its position as a dominant player in one of the most prolific oil-producing areas in the country.

The acquisition hands Exxon access to over 1.4 million net acres in the Delaware and Midland basins within the Permian.

According to Exxon's projections, the combined entity is poised for a substantial surge in production to as much as 1.3 million bpd. Looking ahead, Exxon anticipates further growth, with production forecasted to reach an impressive 2 million bpd by 2027, underscoring the long-term strategic value of this acquisition.

However, the road to finalizing this landmark deal was not without its challenges. In order to secure regulatory approval from antitrust authorities, Exxon made concessions aimed at addressing concerns over market competition. One notable compromise involved an agreement not to appoint Scott Sheffield, Pioneer's former chief executive, to its board of directors.

This decision came in the wake of allegations leveled against Sheffield and Pioneer, accusing them of colluding with officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to manipulate oil prices. These allegations, which have been referred to the Justice Department, added a layer of complexity to the deal, requiring Exxon to navigate carefully through regulatory scrutiny to bring the acquisition to fruition.

Despite these hurdles, Exxon's successful completion of the Pioneer acquisition underscores its commitment to strategic expansion and reinforces its position as a key player in the global energy market. As the industry continues to evolve, Exxon's bold move sets the stage for enhanced growth and competitiveness in the years to come.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Commodity giant Glencore has held early internal discussions about making a potential approach for mining giant Anglo American, which has just rejected an initial takeover offer from BHP, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting two sources.

Glencore, which is active in both commodity mining and trading, hasnt approached Anglo American yet, and it may not do it as all discussions have been internal and preliminary, one of the sources told Reuters.

We do not comment on market rumor or speculation, a spokesperson for Glencore told Reuters.

Last week, mining giant BHP made an all-share offer for fellow major Anglo American. If completed, the deal would be the biggest one in the mining world in years.

On the day after announcing it had received an offer from BHP, Anglo American rejected the proposal, after the Board and its advisers concluded that it significantly undervalues Anglo American and its future prospects.

Under takeover offer rules, BHP must by not later than May 22, 2024, either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Anglo American or announce that it does not intend to make an offer.

A potential BHP-Anglo American deal would consolidate the global copper market in one fell swoop at a time when demand is expected to rise but supply is not growing in tune with these expectations as prices do not yet reflect the expected level of demand.

Since the start of the year copper prices have gained about 15%, the Wall Street Journal notes, but they are still palpably below the records they hit in 2022 in the months after Russian troops entered the Ukraine in February.

BHPs biggest business is in iron ore but with all the forecasts predicting a surge in the demand for copper thanks to the energy transition, it would make sense that the worlds biggest miner would look for an expansion in that segment.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Pioneer Natural Resources reported weaker financial results for the first quarter of the year on lower natural gas prices as the company prepares to merge with Exxon.

Higher costs also contributed to the weaker net result, Reuters said in a report on the news before the company released the numbers on its website.

Net profit came in at $1.1 billion for the period, which compared with $1.2 billion a year earlier, as the average price for the oil it produced rose but the price of gas fell substantially. The average price per barrel of Pioneer oil during the quarter stood at $76.86, which was up 2.3% on the year. However, the average price per thousand cubic feet of gas dropped 51% to $1.87.

The release of the first-quarter results came soon after news broke earlier this week that the Federal Trade Commission has greenlit Exxons $60-billion acquisition of the oil independent but on the condition of banning Scott Sheffield, Pioneers former chief executive, from joining the board of the new company.

The condition was based on allegations by the FTC that Sheffield was involved in an attempt to co-ordinate production cuts to lift oil prices, according to unnamed sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Sheffield, according to the allegations, contacted other shale oil producers as well as companies from OPEC to try and coordinate a production policy that would have raised oil prices, thus benefiting Pioneer. The WSJ report mentioned hundreds of messages to representatives of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries about market dynamics, including pricing and production levels.

Mr. Sheffields past conduct makes it crystal clear that he should be nowhere near Exxons boardroom," said the deputy director of the FTCs Bureau of Competition, Kyle Mach, as quoted by Reuters.

Pioneer, for its part, said that its former chief executive had had "neither the intent nor an effect of his communications to circumvent the laws and principles protecting market competition."

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
(Photo by Luis Samayoa)

When Im vacationing on Okinawa, I love grabbing acai bowls for a late breakfast or early lunch. My usual spot is in Chatan, but I heard about Hawaiian Bowls and wanted to give it a try.

Hawaiian Bowls is a food truck near Camp Shields owned by a U.S. Navy veteran. The owner, Brandon, said he and his wife moved from Maui to Okinawa and wanted to share the flavors of Hawaii with the locals and military community nearby.

(Photo by Luis Samayoa)

Their menu, which has plenty more than just smoothie bowls, including poke, smoothies and teriyaki chicken, is definitely a sample of Hawaiis delicious offerings.

Since I was on a mission to try an acai bowl, I made sure to order one. From all the toppings, I customized my bowl with banana, kiwi, strawberries, and chia seeds. There were more, but I decided to stick with the basics.

(Photo by Luis Samayoa) (Photo by Luis Samayoa) (Photo by Luis Samayoa) (Photo by Luis Samayoa)

Once I took my first bite, it became impossible to stop and I destroyed it in one sitting. The acai paste was flavorful, and every topping enhanced the taste even more.

The wait time was short, and they personally delivered the acai bowl to you. Its always exciting to discover new places in Okinawa since its a small island.

Hawaiian Bowls is conveniently located near Camp Shields and Kadena Air Bases Gate 3. Since its open 3 days a week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., I would recommend leaving a bit before lunch-hour rush.

Though I had trouble finding their location with the Maps application on my iPhone, Google Maps seemed to work. They accept credit cards as well, so it is convenient if youre low on yen.

The acai bowl made it clear that I may have a new favorite spot on Okinawa and their other offerings guarantee that Ill be back next time Im in town.

Google Maps address: Hawaiian Bowls, 4-Chome 48-15 Chibana, Okinawa, 904-2143

Hours: Mon., Wed. and Fri., 11 a.m.  2 p.m.

Website

Parking: There is a small, dirt lot next to the food truck. For lowered cars it might be difficult.
The Nebraska State Board of Education approved a long list of schools to receive funding for security upgrades on Friday, but some districts were still left hanging.

For the first time, the state offered a pot of $10 million in grant funding earlier this spring for schools to fortify their security measures. A total of 217 public and private school districts scrambled to submit their wish lists for upgrades, with the requests totaling more than $55 million. The Nebraska Department of Education selected 174 schools to receive the $10 million available, which was allocated by lawmakers in 2023.

The Education Department used a weighted rubric to determine which schools would receive money, said Jay Martin, Nebraskas director of school safety and security. Schools were evaluated based on factors such as their needs, percentage of low-income students and the requested projects. Preventative efforts, like securing entrances or installing cameras, were prioritized over materials wanted for emergency response.

As a result, much of the money went to schools wanting to update doors or door locks. He said ensuring doors can be locked from the inside was the top recommendation the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission made in a 2015 national report.

If you have someone behind a locked door, they are going to be safe, and thats why it was a priority that was looked at the most, Martin said.

For example, the Omaha Public Schools received the largest allocation of $1.5 million, and district officials said they will use the funds to put alarms on every exterior door in the district.

The Valentine Community Schools, a district of roughly 600 students in north-central Nebraska, were allocated $161,532 to replace school door locks. Superintendent Mike Halley said this was the districts main priority, because teachers still have to go outside their classroom to lock their doors, instead of being able to lock from the inside.

The allocation wont cover the entire cost of replacing all door locks, which was quoted at around $230,000, Halley said.

It will be a good start, he said. Were grateful for anything we can get.

Martin said no district received everything it requested. When board members asked about the unmet $45 million in requested security needs statewide, Martin said state officials will have to go back to the Legislature for more funding.

Halley said Valentine had a $600,000 wish list of security needs, such as updating each buildings camera system so there would be video surveillance of each exit, entrance and classroom.

We (asked) for an electronic access system  our high school here in Valentine kind of serves as a community center as well, so theres lots of different community organizations in here a lot, Halley said. If we had electronic access, it would be easier to just shut down when we needed to shut it down. Its a little better than the old key method. I think there have been a lot of keys not checked back in over a period of years.

Halley said Valentine also needs fencing around its playground to keep some students from running off school property during recess.

The Crofton Community Schools, a district of roughly 350 students in northeast Nebraska, received $702,500, the second-largest amount. The funds are for remodeling the elementary and high school front entrances to be more secure. Roughly 20 other Nebraska districts are also planning to update their school entryways.

We feel very fortunate to be one of the districts thats going to get a significant amount of help through this grant, said Superintendent Chris Look.

The districts allocation will cover a large portion, but not all, of the cost to remodel both entrances, Look said. The remodel will include creating a security vestibule at each school. After entering the school, a visitor would have to be buzzed in by an office secretary through a second set of doors before they could get into the building.

Right now, theres only one set of locked doors to enter the schools, Look said.

In my elementary school, the people in the office cannot see the front door, Look said. It just makes it a lot safer.

Some schools will use their grant money to buy bleeding control kits, panic buttons and walkie talkies. In Omahas Westside Community Schools, officials plan to use their allocation of $77,000 to expand surveillance technology across buildings.

Westside plans to use the money to purchase a new software called ZeroEyes, a program that uses artificial intelligence to scan security camera footage for firearms inside and outside school buildings.

The district decided to move forward with the ZeroEyes purchase after learning about its use in Iowas Glenwood Community School District, said Elizabeth Power, a Westside spokeswoman.

It is a really interesting and very forward-thinking tool that were excited about implementing in our school district, Power said. Its utilizing a great partnership between AI technology and human experience and skills to detect firearms outside and inside a building.

The software connects to existing security cameras and uses artificial intelligence to continuously scan for firearms. If the technology spots a potential firearm, it sends the video to a human technician who verifies the object, according to the ZeroEyes website. If the technician believes there is a firearm present, they will alert school administrators and law enforcement.

The entire process takes less than 10 seconds, the company says.

The reality is that schools have lots of security cameras  which is so important and it has been a game-changer in increasing the safety and security on any campus at a school  but at the same time, every single staff member inside the school building is busy, Power said. Our safety team cant monitor every single camera at every moment.

Westside is also using the funds to expand its use of software called Gaggle to the middle school, instead of just the high school. The technology monitors student online activity and identifies students who might be at risk for mental health concerns, such as self-harm.

Roughly 30 school districts were awarded funds to update or buy new surveillance systems, including security cameras and other equipment.

I think all of us appreciate this is the first time that infrastructure has been addressed, said board member Lisa Fricke. I am really thankful that this is available to schools.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of April 2024
When Ted Bloemker heard that hundreds of headstones at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Elkhorn were knocked over in Fridays tornado, he had to help.

No one asked Bloemker, owner of Fremont Monument Co., to pitch in and no one was paying him to do it. He said he showed up Saturday to meet with members of the cemeterys board, let them know his goal and got to work.

Weve been out here all week so far just doing what we can do to get stuff put back up and put back together, he said Wednesday.

Bloemker wasnt alone. People from Pulverente Monument Co. and Milacek Monument Co. were also at the cemetery lifting fallen gravestones and resetting them.

Weve all come together to help, Bloemker said. Were getting them taken care of for all the families.

Ryan and Kimberly Norton with Pulverente Monument Co. said they figured, with their expertise, this was the best way they could assist those affected by the tornadoes that ravaged eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Theres not a whole lot of people around that know how to do this, Ryan said.

While the damage to the cemetery paled compared to the destroyed homes visible on the other side of West Maple Road, Bloemker said the scale of the cemeterys damage was unlike anything hed ever worked on.

It was devastated, he said.

Approximately 450 to 500 headstones were damaged by the tornado that swept through the Elkhorn area, according to Julie Curry, office manager at Reichmuth Funeral Home, located next to the cemetery. Some headstones were simply knocked over, while others had cracks or missing pieces.

Nearly all the gravestones in the eastern section of the cemetery had been placed upright as of Wednesday afternoon, but many still had wooden slats placed under them as they waited to be re-secured. Other areas of the cemetery still had fallen gravestones, and crews were also continuing to clean up tree debris.

Any monuments with significant damage were being left in place for families and monuments makers to assess, Curry said.

Tom Hope, whose daughter Allison Hope is buried at the cemetery, said it was amazing to see the work volunteers had done to repair the cemetery after last Fridays devastation. Allisons gravestone had been knocked over, but it was standing upright on Wednesday.

Im driving up here and I go, this things sitting up, he said. Its unreal.

Bloemker said its already a busy time for those in the memorial business, with Memorial Day just a few weeks away, but he was determined to take the time to help.

Its just very important, he said. Your loved ones memorial is what you have to hold onto.

Curry said the funeral home has established a fund to compensate the volunteers for their work to repair headstones and cover other restoration costs.

Photos: Volunteers work to repair Prospect Hill Cemetery in Elkhorn after tornado
Thousands of sickle cell disease patients will get access to a new "life-changing" treatment on the NHS on May 3 after the approval and introduction of a novel medication that has the potential to greatly enhance their quality of life.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) in England has approved the medication Voxelotor for use in patients with the condition who are 12 years or older.

The drug, taken as a daily tablet, is said to considerably enhance the quality of life for sickle cell patients by lowering their need for blood transfusions, which results in fewer hospital visits.

According to the NHS, people with African or Caribbean ancestry are more likely to have the illness, and nearly 17,000 people in England are affected by the disease, with at least 4,000 of those thought to be qualified for the new treatment.

Charities and groups that help people with sickle cell disease have praised the drug's approval.

Charles Kwaku-Odoi, the chief executive of the Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN), said they are delighted that Nice has approved this treatment for people living with Sickle Cell and the Black community.

He claimed that this treatment offers significant hope of a better quality of life to those who suffer from this often debilitating condition.

He also noted that at CAHN, that they continue to advocate and amplify patient voices when addressing systemic inequities for an underserved community.

John James, the chief executive of the Sickle Cell Society, said that Nice's decision offered a great deal of hope, and they are profoundly grateful that this day has arrived. He described it as deeply life-changing and celebrated the moment for people with the condition.

Blood flow is hindered by sickle cell disease, which causes blood cells to change in a crescent shape. Patients experience severe painful episodes, which can require hospital admission.

Furthermore, there may be a 20-30-year difference in life expectancy compared to the general population.
Since visiting for Arise Fashion Week last year, Naomi Campbell has been loud and proud about her love for Nigeria. The iconic supermodel recently returned for the show again, and during her media run, revealed two of her favourite Nigerian fashion designers.

Even though there is an increase in diversity in the global fashion industry, there is still a gap in the market for African fashion. Naomi Campbells self-assigned role in the Nigerian fashion industry seems to be to give these brands more visibility, and she is definitely dedicated to it.

Speaking with BBC, the supermodel said:

We want the world to know and be able to get out there and change the perception of Africa that they have. I want them to see young and emerging designers from all across Africa, cause theyre immensely talented, and they have the right to be championed, just like any other designer.

She revealed that Kenneth Ize and Tiffany Amber are amongst her favourite African designers working today. This must be a great feeling for the Nigerian designers, as their work is being recognised on a global level, by one of the most important people in the fashion industry.

Kenneth Ize

In 2013, Kenneth Ize launched his eponymous label, which is known for being daring and audacious. With a showroom in Paris and stockists in Vienna, Switzerland and Nigeria, the brand is definitely among a spate of Nigerian designers at the forefront of this African fashion boom.

Tiffany Amber

Founded by Folake Coker in 1998, Tiffany Amber is easily one of the most prestigious Nigerian fashion brands. Their opulent designs have been coveted by many over the years, and they have now expanded with a diffusion line for young millennials, TAN by Tiffany Amber.
The 2019 Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) is holding in Rwanda.

This years event is aimed at driving progress for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) on the continent.

The three-day event started on Monday at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda.

Themed 2030 Now: Multi-sectoral Action to Achieve Universal Health Coverage in Africa, the event is co-hosted by Amref Health Africa and the Ministry of Health of Rwanda.

According to organizers, this is the largest African-led health conference assembling on the continent with over 1,500 participants expected.

Those in attendance include scientists, practitioners and advocates as well as political leaders, the private sector and the media.

They will discuss the most important health challenges and advancements in Africa and co-create home-grown solutions.

The Development Research and Project Centre (DRPC) in collaboration with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPPS), is leading the Nigerian delegation at the conference.

DRPC is a leading NGO under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale. PACFaH@Scale aims to strengthen the capacities of indigenous CSO to hold policy decision-makers accountable in terms of to their financial commitments to the people.

Universal Health Coverage is central to the principles of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of leaving no one behind. Its benefit goes beyond ensuring good health for populations. It also contributes to a reduction in poverty, gender equity, social economic growth, and human capital development of any society.

It was to achieve UHC in Africa that brought about the Abuja Declaration, a commitment made 18 years ago on funding of healthcare by heads of state of member countries of the African Union (AU).

The African leaders had pledged at least 15 per cent of their annual budgets to enhance the health sectors of their various countries. However, this is yet to become a reality.

Since the declaration, Nigeria that hosted the conference in 2001 has not attained the pledged funding benchmark as the federal government has never voted more than six per cent of its annual budget to the health sector.

The highest percentage since the declaration was in 2012 when 5.95% of the budget was allotted to health.

This years event promises to address the challenges of achieving UHC and more issues in engaging settings  from main plenaries and partner-led side sessions to scientific workshops and youth-led innovation forums.

Specific areas of focus for the conference will include communicable and non-communicable diseases; health in fragile settings; water, sanitation and hygiene; sexual and reproductive health and rights; innovation and technology; and accountability for health.

Organisers said the conference will serve as the go-to forum for African leaders to map how new research, innovation and political commitments will help drive Africas UHC progress over the next decade.

PREMIUM TIMES will bring extensive coverage of the event.
The Cambridge WAEC certificate and secondary school photo President Muhammadu Buhari presented before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, has been made public.

KanyiDaily had reported on Wednesday that the Deputy Registrar of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Oshindehinde Adewumi disowned the Cambridge Universitys Moderated International Examination credentials produced by President Buhari and tendered as exhibits before the Presidential Tribunal.

Adewumi said he could not confirm Buharis Cambridge Assessment International Certified Statement Of West African School Certificate issued in 1961. He said:

This document is not bearing my name or signature. You cannot expect me to certify a document that is not from WAEC. This document is bearing Cambridge Assessment International Certified Statement. It is not a document from the WAEC.

Below is the WASC certificate presented at the presidential tribunal on Tuesday, July 30, which was allegedly issued by Cambridge;

Here is President Buharis group photograph with other form 6 students at Provincial Secondary School Katsina in 1961. He is the 5th sitting from L-R.
Innocent Chukwuma

The Chairman and CEO of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM), Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma has asked for the contact of a young Nigerian boy who impressed after sharing a design logo of the Vehicle Manufacturing Company.

The young boy identified as Osuolale Farouq had taken to Twitter to circulate and canvass for retweets after he completely re-made the logo.

Farouq took to the platform on Tuesday, October 15th, to give full details as to what the new redesign and logo represents.

The company after thousands of retweets noticed the design and reposted it to their followers to judge and perhaps, validate the new design.

Though the new design on Farouqs page already gathered a lot of retweets and likes, followers on the companys official Twitter adjudged the new logo to be a very good one.

The company then later tweeted that the Chairman is impressed with the new design, and as such will like to schedule a meeting with Farouq.

Dear @osuolale_farouq the attention of the Chairman/CEO of @Innosonvehicles has been called upon on your creative re-design of IVM logo. The Chairman is highly impressed and has requested for a meeting with you. Please DM to us your contact details for possible reach. Regards

See the tweets below:

So Im proposing a new logo for @innosonvehicles If this comes across your timeline, please retweet pic.twitter.com/MvanjSHe4v  Theonlyfarouq (@osuolale_farouq) October 15, 2019

Another logo for the African Pride #IVM Lets settle this Like for our current logo

Retweet for the new logo Thanks @osuolale_farouq for the design https://t.co/hqupgm48gW  Innoson Vehicles (@innosonvehicles) October 15, 2019
No fewer than 17 persons have been confirmed dead and 25 others injured after a gas explosion rocked the Abule-Ado area, near the International Trade Fair Complex, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State on Sunday.

More than 50 buildings in the area were impacted by the explosion, as hundreds of residents were rendered homeless.

Several vehicles parked in the area were also destroyed by the explosion.

Boarding pupils of the Bethlehem Girls College were trapped in the wreckage of their hostel, as residents and sympathisers pulled them out of the rubble.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the Principal of the college, Rev. Sr. Henritta Alokha, lost her life while attempting to rescue the pupils.

Our correspondents were told that the explosion occurred around 9am after a truck hit some gas cylinders in a gas processing plant.

The gas plant was located near the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporations System 2B pipelines right of way.

A witness, who identified himself simply as Chibuzor, said his neighbour, who was just delivered of a baby, was trapped after her residence caved in.

He said, We were in the church when it happened. At first, we thought it was a tanker explosion and we ran out of the church to see what had happened. But on getting out, we saw fire raging.

My brothers house was affected and a woman, who just gave birth, was in the house. We cannot hear her voice and she is not picking her calls.

Immediately the explosion happened, the chapel of the school, where the children were gathered for morning mass, collapsed. Some were trapped underneath the rubble, while some have been rescued and rushed to hospital.

A Twitter user, Alexehi Imobhio, said he was also in church when the explosion occurred.

It felt like it exploded on the church premises. All the windows were shattered and worshippers ran for their lives. It was my first day in church after over four years, he said.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said 17 people were confirmed dead, adding that 25 were injured.

The Public Affairs Officer of the agency, Nosa Okunbor, said there was a series of explosions, which started around 9.05am.

He stated, The incident, which recorded 17 dead and 25 injured, destroyed property estimated to worth hundreds of millions of naira, with unquantifiable devastation to other assets, as well as the environment.

Aside these, people in their hundreds have suddenly become displaced in an incident in which two LASEMA response teams, as well as the Lagos State Government Fire Service, the Rapid Response Squad of the Nigeria Police and other first responders were in full attendance.

While quoting the Director-General of LASEMA, Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, he said the agency could not tell the primary cause of the incident.

While security agents are investigating the cause of the explosion, recovery and rescue activities were carried out by the Ministry of Special Duties, LASEMA, men of the Lagos State Fire Service, the Federal Fire Service Department, the Lagos State Safety Commission, LASBCA and other first responders.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered, while 25 injured persons are being treated on site, he added.

The National Emergency Management Agency said it recovered 15 corpses, including a family of four.

The spokesperson for the South-West, Ibrahim Farinloye, said a couple and their two sons were among those who died in the explosion.

He said they were on their way to church when the incident happened.

According to him, no fewer than 60 pupils of the Bethlehem Girls College, who sustained varying degrees of injury, were taken to the Nigerian Navy Hospital in Satellite Town.

Farinloye said over 50 buildings, including the college and a popular hotel, were damaged by the explosion.

He stated, The resulting fire later spread to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation oil pipeline passing through the area even though the pipeline has been shut down as a precautionary measure.

The fire was eventually extinguished around 3.30pm through the combined efforts of officials of the Lagos State Fire Service, Federal Fire Service and the Nigerian Navy Fire Tender.

The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Kennie Obateru, explained that preliminary findings indicated that the impact of the explosion was so huge that it led to the collapse of nearby houses and damage to the pipeline.

The corporations Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, and other management staff of the oil firm were said to have left for Lagos on Sunday evening for an on-the-spot assessment.

Obateru stated that following the report of the explosion, the corporation halted pumping operations on the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline, which was active at the time.

The NNPC said it had already mobilised its in-house team, consisting of health safety environment experts, medical and security personnel from its nearby Satellite Town depot in Lagos, adding that the Lagos State Fire Service was mobilised to extinguish the fire.

The corporation said more firefighting personnel and equipment were mobilised from the NNPC Mosimi area office to the scene.

It urged members of the public and residents of the affected communities to remain calm, adding that the temporary shutdown of the petroleum products pipeline would not affect the normal supply of products to Lagos and its environs.

The Staff Officer, Western Naval Command, Oladele Daji, told journalists that the injured pupils had been stabilised at the Navy Hospital, adding that those who had fully recovered would be discharged soon.

During a visit to the Bonne Sante Hospital, where most of the pupils were rushed for treatment, one of the pupils, Ebube Abana, 15, said the explosion occurred while the Mass was being celebrated in the refectory.

I am a boarding student; we were in the refectory when a car blew up. We were having Mass when I came outside and as I heard the explosion, blood started coming out of my ear, so I started running for my safety,

The schools Hostel Mistress, Christiana Adedoyin, said one of the security guards at the school died from the effect of the building collapse during the explosion.

One Federick Ose, whose brother, Festus, died during the incident, said, My brother wanted to have his child dedication today (Sunday) when the incident happened and he was killed. His wife and children were able to escape. It was not the fire that killed him.

Another resident, Ebis Michael, said his uncle, Obi Iyio, his wife and two children, Tochukwu and Kachi, were about to go to church when the explosion occurred and they were burnt beyond recognition.

The Chairman of the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, Valentine Buraimoh, said three schools were affected.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), condoled with the families of the victims.

Buhari also consoled all those who lost property to the incident or were affected in any way, according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu.

He commiserated with the Lagos State Government and all those affected by the incident.

Buhari was quoted as saying, I have received with sadness the news of this unfortunate incident, which caused loss of lives and property.

A misfortune of whatever scale anywhere is a tragedy to the country, and while the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation makes efforts to determine the cause of the incident, I send my deepest and profound sympathises to the victims, their families, the government and people of Lagos State.

The All Progressives Congress also commiserated with victims of the explosion.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in a statement expressed sadness over the incident and lauded the emergency responders.

Issa-Onilu said, We commend the emergency response led by the National Emergency Management Agency, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the fire service and other agencies in quickly containing the incident and attending to the injured victims of the explosion.

While the party deeply condoles with families and loved ones over recorded deaths, we also wish the injured a speedy and full recovery and sympathise with residents, who lost property in the explosion.

We are confident that the Lagos State Government will implement measures to bring succour to the victims.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, also commiserated with victims.

Lawan, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ola Awoniyi, also sympathised with those who were injured and those who lost property to the inferno.

He called on the relevant authorities and agencies to get to the root of the incident with a view to forestalling a recurrence.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, also expressed sadness over the explosion.

Gbajabiamila called for calm as the state government makes frantic efforts to ascertain the cause of the incident.

The Speaker commended the Lagos State Government as well as relevant agencies for taking action following the explosion.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, Gbajabiamila said everything should be done to avert the reoccurrence of such incidents in the future.

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who visited the scene, instructed officials of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency to release personal safety equipment, such as face and nose protection masks, to first responders and residents of the affected area.

Sanwo-Olu, in a statement, said the protective equipment would prevent any form of medical hazards, such as respiratory infections, by the residents who might unknowingly inhale toxic substances from the explosion.

He reiterated the need for residents to maintain a safe distance and avoid breathing in polluted air.

The governors of Ekiti and Ondo, Kayode Fayemi and Rotimi Akeredolu, respectively, commiserated with their Lagos State counterpart and the families of the victims as well as residents and business owners, who lost property to the fire incident that followed the explosion.

In separate statements, the governors regretted the huge losses recorded in the incident and urged those who lost their relatives and property not to lose hope in the face of the disaster.

According to them, the development reinforced the need for caution and vigilance on the part of all Nigerians irrespective of their status.

Post Views: 16
NORMAL  Around 40 people congregated Thursday at Schroeder Plaza on the Illinois State University Quad to share praises in Hebrew and show Jewish pride.

The songs, cheers and traditional customs were led by the Chabad at Illinois State University & Bloomington-Normal. The event, two days after the end of the Passover holiday, came as an organized demonstration against the war in Gaza continued elsewhere on the Quad.

The dozens of protesters, who arrived with tents and signs on Tuesday, are calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and divestment from companies that are connected to Israel. Demonstrators complied with campus authorities' request to take down their tents Wednesday, mirroring to a limited extent responses by other universities across the country that also saw protester campouts.

In a statement posted hours after the camp was first built in Normal, the Chabad sought to reassure Jewish students who "may be feeling afraid and anxious."

The organization invited members to remember the reading from their Passover Seder meal: "Our enemies have been trying to destroy us throughout our history and yet WE ARE STILL HERE AND ALIVE while our enemies have long disappeared!"

The group's meeting on Thursday was intended to spread love and light, Rabbi Chaim Telsner told The Pantagraph.

"One of our missions is to add light to the world and make the world a better place, and bring the world to its utter perfection to the coming of Mashiach of the Josiah," Telsner said. "Everyone has their mission in life, and the Jewish people have their mission to bring light to the world."

He said it was a beautiful Passover that included many people for meals and fun times. Now that campus is diving into finals, he said, it can be hectic for students.

"It doesn't help the situation with students' anxiety," Telsner said, but then added the university has done its best to make sure everyone feels safe.

"Jewish students, non-Jewish students, everyone can feel safe and everyone can voice their opinions, as long they do it according to campus policies," he said.

Telsner also said he hasn't had many concerns on campus and he hopes it stays that way. "I have every reason to think it will," he said.

A narrow bridge

At Schroeder Plaza, the group formed a semicircle and joined in singing "The World is a Narrow Bridge," with lyrics urging listeners not to be afraid, and "Proud Jew." Clapping in unison, the Chabad members chanted: "We've existed so long, for the Torah is strong / and the Torah will never disappear!"

Telnser said there are about 250 Chabad houses on college campuses around the country that provide Jewish students a home away from home.

Jonah Marks, a senior who will graduate next weekend with a degree in recreation management, described the Chabad as a second family.

"I've really enjoyed being with a Jewish community that shows love and care for all Jewish people," said Marks, of Highland Park.

When his family visited him in Normal, he said, they all attended Shabbat dinners on Friday nights with the Chabad. This week will mark the group's final Shabbat of the semester.

"As I got to college, I became a bit closer with Judaism," he said. "So, it means a lot to me that I have this community that I can lean on."

Clay Goldman was another Redbird student showing pride with the Chabad. When he arrived, Telsner helped him put on a tefillin, or black leather boxes with long straps that are worn during morning prayers.

Goldman said it was important for him to show his Jewish pride because there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding recent developments.

"I think people just don't have a full understanding what they're protesting on both sides," he said.

Since he was born as a Jew, Goldman said he has strong feelings about people singling out Judaism and the entire Jewish state.

Goldman said the group didn't gather Thursday with the intent of creating conflicts with others, noting that members also go out on the Quad with the rabbi on days when no other groups are present.

On Thursday, the group of pro-Palestinian protestors remained over a hundred yards away to the south. No tents were erected, but tarps had been laid out as dozens stayed on site.

It was unclear whether the group intended to remain overnight. On two visits to the protest site Thursday, a Pantagraph reporter was unable to locate any demonstrator willing to speak to the media, individually or as a representative of the group. Protesters were directed not to talk to reporters as part of a list of "camp rules" posted at the site earlier this week.

'A very fine line'



For Dani Schwarz, showing Jewish pride also offers an opportunity to build relationships with other Jewish people.

A senior from Buffalo Grove studying creative technologies, Schwarz is a member of Greek life organizations but said she feels most welcome and cared about at the Chabad, where she is a student board member.

"I think that just goes to show Jewish people really care for each other," she said.

Schwarz said she feels fortunate that antisemitism is not as prevalent at ISU as in some other areas.

There is "a very fine line between protesting and standing up for what you believe in, and then hate speech," she said.

"You can still support Palestine  I support Palestine. I don't want a war... I want peace," Schwarz said.

She added that Israel deserves the same respect as every other country, including the right to exist.

That's the same for all Jewish people, Schwarz said.

"We are a minority ... we are not responsible for the Israeli government, just like Americans aren't responsible for things that Biden or Trump or whoever is going to do," she said.

When asked what misconceptions she would like to clear up, Schwarz spoke about the term "Zionism," which refers to efforts of Jews to regain and retain their biblical homeland.

She said the word is interpreted differently from person to person. It can mean the right to a Jewish state, and not wanting Israel to be wiped off the map, Schwarz continued.

The terms "Zionism" or "Zionist" have also been used to claim that Jews don't care about the war, she said, and that's not the case.

"It's a way for us to stand up for ourselves in a time of such hatred, for things that are pointed at us, for things we can't even control," Schwarz said.

After the Holocaust, she said, Jewish people all over the world felt like they didn't belong anywhere. She said Jews should feel safe, everywhere.

"They should be talked about and cared about," she said, "and not hated for standing up for ourselves."

Pro-Palestine protesters meet with Tarhule

On Friday, ISU President Aondover Tarhule met in his conference room with students from the group of pro-Palestinian protestors, according to a statement from university spokesperson Chris Coplan.

"(Tarhule) commended the students for their civic engagement and using their freedom of expression in accordance with university policies," Coplan said, adding, "President Tarhule stressed the importance of Illinois State Universitys role to provide a safe environment that is welcoming of dialogue around issues happening around the world that most often are persistent, enduring, and complex."

Coplan's statement said the students had specific questions about divestment, and that Tarhule responded that "the University does not have direct investments with the identified companies included in the participants' demand letter. Illinois State only invests in U.S.-backed Treasury bills and Illinois funds managed by the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. This information was communicated in a FOIA response yesterday."

Tarhule also noted that questions regarding the ISU Foundation involve a separate 501(c)3 organization, Coplan said.

The conversation ended when it was time for Tarhule to attend another meeting, Coplan said, and he "remains actively engaged in monitoring both local and international events."

Summer camp for Jewish children of color a place where everybody belongs
Officials have warned that the Houston area faces "life-threatening" flood conditions as severe weather batters parts of Texas. A flood watch is in effect Thursday in southeastern Texas and parts of Louisiana.

Several flash flood warnings have been issued since up to eight inches of rain fell on Thursday in some areas of southeast Texas. Additional rounds of rain are predicted for these areas through Friday.

Gov. Greg Abbott declared a disaster as the state was in danger from extreme weather and flooding. He expanded the disaster declaration to add 59 counties to ensure Texans and their communities receive the assistance and support they need to stay safe as flooding conditions and severe weather persist in multiple areas across Texas.

The governor added that it is vital for Texans in at-risk areas to remain weather-aware, follow the guidance of state and local officials, and avoid traveling in dangerous flood conditions.

He ensured that the State of Texas continues working with emergency management and local officials to deploy any additional resources needed to provide ongoing support and protect their fellow Texans.

On Thursday, Harris County officials also declared a disaster. Due to continuous floods and severe rainfall north of the area, they demanded that residents closest to the banks of the East Fork of the San Jacinto River be forced to evacuate.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told the residents that they want them out of this area.

"This is a life-threatening situation. The river is expected to rise to 77 feet above sea level by Friday." Hidalgo said the water level will be several feet below where it was during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. She said the river is typically 45 to 50 feet above sea level.

She warned those who cannot evacuate will probably be stuck in their houses for two or three days.
Security analyst, Adam Bona says state security agencies must beef up protection across the country ahead of the December election.



According to him, the recent gun attacks in both Kasoa and Trassacco should be a wake-up call for the police to crack down on hooligans and the use of guns.



Adam Bona described the situation as worrying and a security threat to citizens.



Things are already hard in Ghana and if we are not safe as well, then it's a worry to all." He said in an interview with NEAT FM's morning show, Ghana Montie.



Adam Bona was discussing the killing of two policemen shot to death at Trassacco.



According to a report, a bodyguard of the Member of Parliament for Saboba was fatally shot by gunmen, who are currently on the run, on Thursday evening, May 2, 2024.



The Ghana Police Service, in a statement on Thursday, confirmed the fatal shooting of two of its officers.



The police statement read in part: The Ghana Police Service is on a manhunt for two gunmen who fatally shot two off-duty police officers sitting in front of their private residence at Block Factory, East Trassacco, Accra, today, Thursday, May 2nd, 2024, at about 6:00 pm.

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The flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia believes his leadership as President of Ghana will change the country drastically to benefit all.



He told the clergy in the Western Region during his Bold Solution campaign tour that Ghana needed a leader like him who would ensure and foresee the country's transformation.



I believe that I can do something for Ghana. I believe that God uses everybody that He wants to use to change society. The good book tells us that. In the Bible, God used Cyrus. Someone asked me, can anything good come from Walewale? I think that something good can come from Walewale. If God says it should come from Walewale, it will come from Walewale, Dr Bawumia said.



He added "Ghana is a very blessed country. Sometimes I am just in awe of how blessed this small country is. Last week I had the privilege and honour of visiting his holiness, the Pope, and we had a conversation about Ghana, and one of the things he was commending Ghana for is the peace and tolerance in this country. He is knowledgeable about this country. The peace and tolerance we have in Ghana are second to none."

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Western Regional House of Chiefs has commended Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for his respect for traditional authorities.



As an integral part of his Regional campaign tour, Dr. Bawumia meets traditional authorities among other stakeholders.



On Thursday, he met the Western Regional House of Chiefs in Takoradi and shared his vision with them as well as listened to their concerns as he intensifies his campaign towards the December elections.



During the meeting, the acting President of the Western Regional House Chiefs, on behalf of the House, praised Dr. Bawumia's humility and honor for traditional authority.



"Your humility and respect for traditional authorities in the country is overwhelming, the acting President said.



He added; "We are also reciprocating this gesture to you, hence our presence here to receive you.



Dr. Bawumia promised the traditional leaders that he will amend the Chieftaincy Act to restore their power.



Dr. Bawumia explained that traditional rulers appear to be left off the governance system and restoring their power, especially to deal with local judicial matters, will not only accord Chieftaincy institution more respect but also it will free up the piling of local disputes at the law courts.



The Vice President also stressed his government will establish a fund to develop the chieftaincy institution.

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Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has described as "cheap politics" the decision by former President John Dramani Mahama to reopen the Cecelia Dapaahs case when he is voted as President in the upcoming December 2024 elections.



Taking to his official X page, the leader and flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), wrote, "my government will reopen investigations into alleged acts of corruption and graft in the Cecelia Dapaah case.



This statement made by the former President, according to the A-G and minister of Justice, stems out of desperation for power, accusing the former President of seizing every opportunity in the public discourse to score political points.



Godfred Dame in an interview with Accra based Joy FM on May 2, said, He is only playing cheap politics. He hears something, then he says I will fix it.



The Attorney General further indicated that since investigations are still ongoing by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, the former president will be engaging in a needless exercise should he (Mahama) decide to reopen the case.



A-G To EOCO



Former President John Mahamas statement comes on the heels of the Attorney-Generals recent advice to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to suspend investigations into the alleged money laundering case leveled against the former Sanitation minister by the Special Prosecutor.



The Attorney Generals letter to EOCO was as a result of EOCOs decision to seek futrjher advice on the said matter for which the Attorney general in a letter dated April 25, 2024, and copied to EOCO, said it found out that the OSP did not submit the report on its collaborative investigation to EOCO.



In addition to the above, the Attorney Generals office said it also realized that the OSP had not responded to EOCOs request for its findings.



According to the A-G's office, the docket presented to EOCO only contains the OSPs letter transmitting the docket, the diary of action, statements taken during the investigation, and letters written by the OSP to other institutions like the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks for inquiries.



OSP: No Evidence Of Corruption Found?



Further analysis of the docket by the Attorney-Generals office revealed that the OSP did not find any evidence of corruption or corruption-related offenses against Cecilia Dapaah.



The Attorney-Generals office emphasised that the key to pursuing money laundering investigations is the capacity to prove that financial gains were obtained from criminal proceeds arising from unlawful activity.



In the absence of the identification of any criminality associated with the properties retrieved from the suspects, the OSPs referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis.



The Attorney-General also advised against EOCO investigating the source of Cecilia Dapaahs funds on the basis that the CID had been tasked with taking charge of that aspect of the case.







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To enhance blogging standards and foster responsible citizenship ahead of the December elections, the Ghana Bloggers Association has embarked on a nationwide training initiative, commencing in the vibrant city of Accra.



Addressing a gathering brimming with enthusiasm and dedication, President Andre Mustapha NII Okai Inusah of the Ghana Bloggers Association set a profound tone for the conscientious reporting journey ahead.



With the anticipation of the December 2024 elections permeating the air, The President emphasized the paramount importance of placing Ghana's welfare at the forefront of every blogging endeavour.



"As bloggers, we wield significant influence in shaping public opinion and discourse," President Andre Mustapha NII Okai Inusah remarked, underscoring the pivotal role of responsible reporting in nurturing informed citizenship.



The inauguration of this training program signifies a pivotal moment in the association's calendar, heralding the commencement of meticulous preparations for the upcoming December 7th elections. The President stressed the imperative of extending this training initiative to regional levels, ensuring that bloggers across Ghana are equipped with the requisite tools and knowledge to report ethically and accurately.



Throughout the sessions, bloggers delved into crucial areas such as Blogging & journalistic ethics, with a resounding emphasis on the indispensable practice of verifying information before dissemination.



Fact-checking emerged as a cornerstone of responsible reporting, ensuring that content contributes positively to the national discourse.



Moreover, the comprehensive training encompassed practical facets such as crafting engaging content, mastering SEO techniques, and harnessing social media platforms effectively to amplify messages. Discussions on monetization strategies were tempered with a firm commitment to integrity, viewing financial sustainability as a means to uphold journalistic and blogging values rather than compromise them.



Recognizing the intricate landscape of the digital realm, the President of the Association proposed workshops on digital security and online safety, empowering bloggers to navigate the virtual sphere with confidence and vigilance.



As the training drew to a close, The President reiterated the association's unwavering dedication to upholding blogging integrity, urging fellow bloggers to embrace their role as custodians of truth and accountability.



"Through our collective efforts, let us endeavour to elevate the standard of online discourse and make meaningful contributions to the advancement of our beloved Ghana," he concluded, instilling a sense of purpose that resonated deeply as the bloggers departed, emboldened to fulfil their civic duty with diligence and integrity.







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Get ready for an unforgettable theatrical experience as playwright Gerald Nyarko Mensah brings to life the captivating tale of AYORKUMI The Shea Butter Queen (Part 1: The Awakening).



The name "Ayorkumi" originates from the Ewe-Togo Benin dialect which means "Sheer Butter Seller"



This total theatre act promises an immersive journey through time, blending live band music, choreographed dance, deep narrations, and traditional poetry.



This is a Music Dance Drama Rendition Performed by Gean Fusion Drama Group and expertly directed by Kobina Hagan.



This groundbreaking production promises to captivate audiences with its rich storytelling, mesmerizing performances, and innovative staging.



Set against the backdrop of the colonial era, AYORKUMI follows the soul-stirring story of a Ghanaian princess who narrowly escapes capture by slave raiders as an infant during shea butter market day in Salaga.



Rescued and adopted by a salt trader guided by the gods, the princess embarks on a remarkable journey of self-discovery.



The salt trader, guided by the gods, takes the princess to his hometown in the south, where, against the skepticism of the local elders, he raises the baby princess to adulthood together with his wife.



The royal ancestry of the princess and the future of her lineage as laid out in her destiny is revealed on her 18th birthday in a romantic encounter with the gods and in an engagement with the spirit of her deceased mother.



Through a series of divine encounters, including a romantic rendezvous with the gods and an engagement with the spirit of her deceased mother, the royal lineage of the princess is unveiled on her 18th birthday.



Join us as we witness the princess's extraordinary upbringing in the south, amidst skepticism from local elders.



In the vibrant heart of Accra, anticipation is building as theatre enthusiasts eagerly await the arrival of "AYORKUMI: Part 1 - The Awakening."



The official event is scheduled to take place at Alliance Francaise in Accra on Saturday 11th May 2024 at 7pm prompt.



Theatre patrons, fans are entreated to mark their calendars for Saturday, May 11th, 2024, as Alliance Francaise in Accra plays host to this mesmerizing event.



Set against the backdrop of Ghanaian culture and folklore, "AYORKUMI" weaves together a tapestry of tradition and modernity, offering a unique theatrical experience like no other.



At its core, "AYORKUMI: Part 1 - The Awakening" explores themes of identity, destiny, and the power of the human spirit.



As the story unfolds, audiences will be transported to a world where ancient myths collide with contemporary struggles, creating a dynamic and thought-provoking narrative that resonates with audiences of all ages.



Interestingly enough it is not just the compelling storyline that sets "AYORKUMI" apart  it's also the extraordinary talent behind the production.



Led by a visionary director, with Kobina Hagan at his best, the writers, and performers, the cast and crew of "AYORKUMI" bring their passion and expertise to the stage, breathing life into characters and landscapes with unparalleled skill and dedication.



From the stunning set design to the breathtaking choreography, every aspect of "AYORKUMI" has been meticulously crafted to immerse audiences in a world of wonder and enchantment.



Meanwhile in an interview with the writer of the play and one of Ghana's most iconic Playwrights, Gerald Nyarko Mensah, this is what he had to share with the media:



"The story is set in the colonial era and it's meant to be a series. This first part is the beginning and so this is how it all started.



We want to bring the story of the origin of the people of Ghana, particularly the collectivity of all people of Ghana who migrated from West Africa, the old Ghana, ancient Ghana as we know it was part of Mali in the northern region.



In this setting, we match the tradition of slavery and the slavery story which has been told countless times but we only see one side of it as some people came from somewhere and took our people as slaves.



....Now, what we want to do with "Ayorkumi" is to tell the other side of the story, you know, the holistic view. There was a trade component even before the slave trade itself commenced.



There was a very vibrant trade that went on between the northern and southern Ghana. There was salt moving up by canoe via the Volta River to the north in exchange for Shea Butter. There was also the Kola Nut economy coming through via the Ashantis.



So we want to show through "Ayorkumi" how all this interplay. So we start with the story of this young person, baby princess who actually got captured in the typical slavery era.



The slave raiders would pounce on people during market day or wherever they can get them, and then just stick them."



He continued......"So they really found her, you know, captured but this baby princess had lost her mother during the attack raid.



So we show the story of how the baby was rescued by a trader from the South and this baby was held up.



She along the line grows up to an adult and shows how they are able to be resilient against the colonialists at that time. This is very very knowledgeable."



He also explained that "the ethics and the science of trade, you know, taxation, its effect on the economy and all of that and all are being demonstrated in this piece of theatre arts. We want to bring out the story of how our Ghanaian people were resilient.



So we want to show how the resilience has roots way back, how people in Ghana already had deep knowledge of trade issues, international trade and all of that is embedded in the culture."



From this narration, as the curtains rise and the lights dim, no doubt spectators will be transported on a journey of discovery, as they follow the protagonist's quest for truth, purpose, and ultimately, greatness.



Don't miss out on this enchanting tale of resilience, destiny, and the enduring power of the human spirit.



Secure your tickets now for AYORKUMI (Part 1: The Awakening) and prepare to be transported to a world where magic and reality intertwine seamlessly.



The rates being charged for the show are as follows: GHC150 for Single; GHC280 for Double and GHC600 E-Bundle for 5 tickets.



Tickets can be purchased through the shortcode: *713*33*11#.



Also reach out for more details on 0591 250 055.

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Late 19th century drawings of the eagle and bull symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. Credit: New York Public Library

Ancient symbols on a 2,700-year-old temple, which have baffled experts for more than a century, have been explained by Trinity Assyriologist Dr. Martin Worthington.

The sequence of "mystery symbols" was on view on temples at various locations in ancient city of Dur-Sarrukin, present-day Khorsabad, Iraq, which was ruled by Sargon II, king of Assyria (721704 BC).

The sequence of five symbolsa lion, eagle, bull, fig tree and plowwas first made known to the modern world through drawings published by French excavators in the late nineteenth century. Since then, there has been a spate of ideas about what the symbols might mean.

They have been compared to Egyptian hieroglyphs, understood as reflections of imperial might, and suspected to represent the king's namebut how?

Dr. Martin Worthington of Trinity's School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies has proposed a new solution in a paper published April 26 in the Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research. He argues the Assyrian words for the five symbols (lion, eagle, bull, fig tree and plow) contain, in the right sequence, the sounds that spell out the Assyrian form of the name "Sargon" (sarginu).

Late 19th century drawings of the tree and plough symbols published by French excavator Victor Place. Credit: New York Public Library

Sometimes, the same archaeological site uses only three of the symbols (lion, tree, plow), which Dr. Worthington argues again write the name "Sargon," following similar principles.

Dr. Worthington commented, "The study of ancient languages and cultures is full of puzzles of all shapes and sizes, but it's not often in the Ancient Near East that one faces mystery symbols on a temple wall."

What is more, according to Dr. Worthington, each of the five symbols can also be understood as a constellation. Thus, the lion represents Leo, and the eagle Aquila (our own constellations are largely inherited from Mesopotamia, via the Greeks, so many of them are the same). The fig tree stands in for the hard-to-illustrate constellation "the Jaw" (which we don't have today), on the basis that isu "tree" sounds similar to isu "jaw."

"The effect of the five symbols, was to place Sargon's name in the heavens, for all eternitya clever way to make the king's name immortal. And, of course, the idea of bombastic individuals writing their name on buildings is not unique to ancient Assyria," says Dr. Worthington.

Late 19th century drawings of the lion symbol published by French excavator Victor Place. Credit: New York Public Library

Ancient Mesopotamia, or modern Iraq and neighboring regions, was home to Babylonians, Assyrians, Sumerians, and others, and is today being researched from cuneiform writings, which survive in abundance. Indeed, writing was probably invented there around 3400 BC. So, though Sargon's scholars would not have been aware of this, in devising new written symbols they were echoing Mesopotamian history from over a thousand years before.

Dr. Worthington explained, "I can't prove my theory, but the fact it works for both the five-symbol sequence and the three-symbol sequence, and that the symbols can also be understood as culturally appropriate constellations, strikes me as highly suggestive. The odds against it all being happenstance areforgive the punastronomical."

Dr. Worthington specializes in the languages and civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, including those of the Babylonians, Assyrians and Sumerians.

"This region of the world, which includes present-day Iraq and parts of Iran, Turkey and Syria, is often referred to as the "cradle of civilization." It is where cities and empires were born, and its story is a huge part of human history.

It is because of the Mesopotamian habit of counting in sixties that today we have 60 minutes in an hour, and Abraham (a central figure in three of the world's major religions) is said to have come from the Mesopotamian city of Ur.

"Solving puzzles (or trying to) is an especially fun bit," says Dr. Worthington, "but Mesopotamian studies at large have the grander aim of understanding the complexity and diversity of a huge part of human societies and cultural achievements."

More information: Martin Worthington, Solving the Starry Symbols of Sargon II, Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research (2024). DOI: 10.1086/730377
An engaged teacher who allegedly told her Wisconsin elementary school student, an 11-year-old boy, she loves them "more than anyone in the world" has been accused of sexual assault after his parents found out about their relationship.

Madison Bergmann, 24, of St. Paul, Minnesota, has been charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child, according to charging documents, KARE-TV reported.

It's unclear if she entered a plea to the charge. Her defense attorney, Joseph Tamburino, did not immediately respond to HNGN's request for comment.

Police launched an investigation into Bergmann  a fifth grade teacher at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, Wisconsin  earlier this week, when the victim's parents allegedly discovered inappropriate text messages between the pair.

Bergmann allegedly texted the victim about "making out" and how much she enjoyed him touching her, according to the documents.

A search of Bergmann's bag allegedly revealed handwritten notes between her and the student.

"One of my cousins is in the 5th grade and I can't imagine a man talking to her how we talk," she allegedly wrote. "I know we have a special relationship and I do love you more than anyone in the world but I have to be the adult here and stop."

The Hudson School District placed Bergmann on administrative leave pending investigation.

The district sent a letter to parents and staff, describing the accusations against the teacher as "deeply troubling," KSTP-TV reported.

The allegations against Bergmann come months before she is set to wed her fiance at a July 27 ceremony in Dellwood, Minnesota, according to the couple's wedding invitation published on theknot.com.

On Facebook in August 2022, Bergmann announced she would be teaching fifth grade at River Crest. "I am so excited and can't wait!" she wrote.
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A three-color image of NGC 346 combining observations from NIRCam and MIRI. Credit: Habel et al., 2024.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has explored young stellar objects (YSOs) in an open cluster known as NGC 346. The study, published April 24 on the preprint server arXiv, yields crucial information about the properties of YSO population in this cluster.

In general, YSOs are stars in early stages of evolution; in particular, protostars and pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. They are usually detected within dense molecular clusters, which are abundant in molecular gas and interstellar particles.

At a distance of some 202,000 light years away from Earth, NGC 346 is a young open cluster and the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The cluster has a complex star formation history, with multiple populations identifiedfrom massive, evolved stars to low-mass YSOs.

The group of astronomers led by Nolan Habel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) decided to take a closer look at stellar populations of NGC 346, especially its YSO content. For this purpose, they employed JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and MidInfrared Instrument (MIRI).

"In this paper, we present JWST imaging data of NGC 346 from 1.1525.0 m and provide an overview of the populations in the region, particularly the young populations, as determined from photometric analysis," the researchers wrote.

Initially, Habel's team detected a total of 203,891 unique sources in NGC 346 using NIRCam and MIRI. Afterward, they identified 196 young stellar objects and pre-main sequence (PMS) stars out of this sample, with a high degree of confidence suitable for further spectroscopic studies.

Furthermore, the astronomers identified a population of 833 objects in NGC 346 showing significant mid-infrared excess. These objects are preferentially co-located with regions of diffuse dust and gas, which suggests that many of them may be YSOs.

The researchers performed spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting on 77 sources, which resulted in the identification of 23 of them as young stellar objects with a high degree of certainty.

According to the paper, these 23 YSOs showcase a wide spread of sizes, as their radii vary from 0.14 to 82.32 solar radii, while their masses are between 0.95 and 4.15 solar masses. The bolometric temperatures of these objects range from 2,051 to 17,930 K.

The authors of the paper noted that the least massive young stellar object from the sample, designated CN202153, is the lowest-mass extragalactic YSO confirmed to date. They added that near-infrared spectroscopic studies with JWST should be conducted in order to further constrain the nature and properties of the 23 YSOs identified in NGC 346.

More information: Nolan Habel et al, Young Stellar Objects in NGC 346: A JWST NIRCam/MIRI Imaging Survey, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2404.16242 Journal information: arXiv

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As a result of the climate crisis, global warming is driving up temperatures around the worldand bumblebees, like humans, are struggling to cope with homes that can't beat the heat.

In a new article published in Frontiers in Bee Science, scientists identify rising heat as a potential culprit for the decline in bumblebee populations worldwide, compromising bumblebees' ability to construct livable nests in which healthy larvae can develop.

"The decline in populations and ranges of several species of bumblebees may be explained by issues of overheating of the nests and the brood," said Dr. Peter Kevan of the University of Guelph, Canada, lead author of the article.

"The constraints on the survival of the bumblebee brood indicate that heat is likely a major factor, with heating of the nest above about 35 degrees Celsius being lethal, despite the remarkable capacity of bumblebees to thermoregulate."

There are many bumblebee species around the world, living in many different environments. Lots of these species are in a decline linked to climate change, but identifying a causative factor has proven difficult.

However, by reviewing the literature, Kevan and colleagues identified a critical commonality between these species, regardless of geographic range: the optimal temperature of their nests, 2832 degrees Celsius.

"We can assume that the similarity reflects the evolutionary relatedness of the various species," said Kevan.

Because this characteristic appears to be common between so many species, it may have limited evolutionary plasticity, meaning the bumblebees would find it hard to adapt to rising temperatures, and would struggle to remain within their thermal neutral zonea point at which staying the right temperature requires minimal metabolic expenditure. Heat stress that takes a species out of this range is dangerous.

"Excessively high temperatures are more harmful to most animals and plants than cool temperatures. When conditions are cool, organisms that do not metabolically regulate their body temperatures simply slow down, but when temperatures get too high metabolic processes start to break down and cease," said Kevan. "Death ensues quickly."

Reviewing 180 years of literature, Kevan and colleagues found that bumblebees seem to be able to survive at up to 36 degrees Celsius and develop optimally at around 3032 degrees Celsiusthough this might differ between species and biogeographical conditions. While bumblebees have some behavioral adaptations that allow them to thermoregulate, this may not be enough to deal with climate change.

Additionally, the bumblebee colony also acts as a "superorganism," where reproductive fitness is dependent on the collective survival and reproduction of the colony rather than individual bees.

One bumblebee may cope better with the heat than another, but if the nest is too hot to raise healthy larvae the whole colony suffers, regardless of individual bumblebees' adaptation.

On a wing and a prayer

"The effect of high nest temperatures has not been studied very much, which is surprising," said Kevan. "We can surmise that nest temperatures above the mid-30s Celsius would likely be highly detrimental and that above about 35 Celsius death would occur, probably quite quickly."

Studies of honeybees show that higher nest temperatures compromise bee queens' strength and reproductive ability, and lead to smaller worker bees in poorer condition. If heat has a similar effect on bumblebees, so that colonies produce less healthy offspring at a higher temperature, then global warming could be directly leading to their decline.

To ensure that bumblebees continue to thrive, the scientists call for more research into what they say is an understudied aspect of bumblebee ecology: nest morphology, material properties, temperature, and thermoregulation. It may be possible for some bumblebee colonies to adapt their nest site choice and form or behavior to cool their nests.

Ground-penetrating radar could help study ground-nesting species, while flow-through respirometry analysis of nests at different temperatures might help scientists gauge the stress placed on the bee colonies inside. We need both to understand how different colonies cope with the same conditions and how different species cope with different conditions, including whether some bumblebee species have broader thermal neutral zones, affording them more resilience.

"We hope that future scientists may take the ideas we present and apply them to their own research on bumblebee health and conversation," concluded Kevan.

More information: Thermodynamics, thermal performance and climate change: Temperature regimes for bumblebee (Bombus spp.) colonies as examples of superorganisms, Frontiers in Bee Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/frbee.2024.1351616

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Kin Klizhin great house with tower kiva (LA 4935). Credit: Ruth Van Dyke

Archaeologists have modeled the auditory range of conch-shell trumpets in the 9th11th century US Southwest, proposing that the sound was key in the structuring of pre-Columbian Pueblo communities.

At the center of the ancient Pueblo world was Chaco Canyon in north-west New Mexico. The site was occupied from ~AD 8501150 and surrounded by smaller Chacoan communities, each organized around a central great house.

Conch-shell trumpets have been found in burial contexts at Chaco Canyon, despite the nearest source of the shells being some 1,000km away. Today, these shells are used in contemporary Pueblo ritual practices, suggesting that they were also significant in ancient Chacoan society.

Previous studies indicate that sound was integral to ritual pageantry in Chaco Canyon. However, it was unknown whether communities beyond the canyon also placed significance on auditory experience.

"Chaco Canyon is surrounded by over one hundred understudied great house communities," says lead author Professor Ruth Van Dyke from Binghamton University. "We sought to determine if extra-canyon great house communities demonstrated relationships similar to Chaco Canyon between landscape, community layout, and sound."

To achieve this, Professor Van Dyke and a team of researchers from several US institutions used a Soundshed Analysis model developed by co-author K.E. Primeau to digitally model the sound of a conch-shell trumpet being sounded at a great house in relation to other features in the landscape. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.

Modeled audible reach of a conch-shell blast at Pierres El Faro (LA 16514); one of the five communities. Credit: the authors

Soundshed Analysis calculates the distance a sound can travel from a point, taking into account both the type of sound and environmental conditions such as elevation and ambient noise.

In this case, the team modeled the sound of a conch from great houses at five Chacoan communities to determine whether it would reach all habitation sites within the community.

They found that if somebody blew a conch-shell trumpet from the great house at the center of all five Chacoan communities, the sound would have reached almost all of the surrounding settlements.

This suggests that ancient Puebloans may have managed their land-use and community structures around the sound of trumpets. The sound was potentially used to signal communal activities, such as religious ceremonies.

"This is not unlike the idea of a medieval church bell calling a community to mass," states Professor Van Dyke.

It also indicates how Chacoan heritage sites should be managed going forward.

"Soundscapes were meaningful dimensions of past experiences, landscapes, and environments and are important facets of social interaction in the ancient world," observes Professor Van Dyke. "Management of archaeological and heritage sites should incorporate consideration of the auditory environment."

More information: Ruth M. Van Dyke et al, Seashells and sound waves: modelling soundscapes in Chacoan great-house communities, Antiquity (2024). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2024.54 Journal information: Antiquity

Provided by Antiquity
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Construction workers typically work six days a week but research tracking a five-day work week in the industry shows flexibility is key to improving worker well-being, with minimal perceived impact on productivity.

The interim report, led by RMIT University in collaboration with the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (CICT), tracked five pilot infrastructure projects trialing a five-day work week to address issues such as the lack of time for life, poor health and well-being, and difficulty in attracting a diverse workforce.

A survey conducted at three of the pilot sites found 84% of workers on an annual salary and 61% of workers on an hourly wage were in support of a five-day work week compared to a six-day work week.

Project lead, RMIT Distinguished Professor Helen Lingard said having more time for life outside work was the most common reason workers supported the five-day work week.

"We found the majority of workers, irrespective of gender, preferred a five-day work week because it allowed them to spend more time with their family, see their friends or play sports," said Lingard, from RMIT's School of Property Construction and Project Management.

Chief Investigator and RMIT Professor Michelle Turner said having a two-day weekend was important to allow workers to rest properly before another work week began.

"The advantage of being well rested not only helps with productivity but improves well-being and mental health," she said.

Workers interviewed talked about "a better state of mental well-being" and said the shorter work week was "a massive step in the right direction."

This backs previous findings through Lingard and Turner's prior research with the CICT, which found young people were deterred from joining the construction industry because of the long and inflexible hours and lack of time for life.

"We are seeing a shift in priorities in the next generation of workers, and the construction industry needs to adapt to attract and retain good workers," Lingard said.

Effects on pay, productivity and well-being

Interviews showed some workers were initially concerned the shorter work week would impact project deadlines and reduce pay.

But, for the most part, those views changed once people experienced working a five-day week, Lingard said.

Participants found the five-day work week had minimal impact on productivity, even when site-based construction activity ramped up.

"Many workers we interviewed said Saturday was typically not a productive work day across the construction industry," Lingard said.

"Some participants said they were more productive working five days because they knew they were not working on the Saturday."

Some participants thought working longer hours actually reduced productivity, instead of increasing it.

"I think, when you do stupid hours, like 70 to 80 hours, I don't think you get any more work done. I think you're just less effective and you're tired," said one worker.

One supervisor said they preferred to have a happy and well-rested team, which produced a net improvement in productivity.

"When you start the week tired, there's more risk of things going wrong, accidents and stress," they said.

Concerns about pay reductions were also substantially reduced once the projects began.

"Many of those who were concerned about pay actually indicated in their second interview that the slight reduction in pay was worth it because they could spend more time with their families during the weekends," Lingard said.

However, Turner said some of the younger workers liked having the option to work on a Saturday.

"Younger workers who are establishing their careers and do not have family responsibilities expressed a preference to work on Saturdays to earn more money," she said.

"All these findings point towards the crucial need for more choice and flexibility for workers in construction, which can have positive benefits to well-being.

"A flexible workplace can enable families to share the caring load better, which will help to attract women to the industry and also men who want to participate more actively in family life."

Gender diversity in construction

The report found women, who made up almost half the interview participants in the study, mostly felt respected and accepted while working on the pilot projects.

Lingard said there was still more work to be done, but the initiatives piloted in this projectsuch as mentoring programs for women and incorporating respect policies in subcontract agreementsdemonstrated great potential to change the culture of the industry.

"In order to encourage more women to work in the industry, we need to create a good working environment that is inclusive and respectful to help all workers thrive," Lingard said.

More information: Culture in Construction Pilot Projects: Interim Report. cict.mymedia.delivery/wp-conte  rt-December-2023.pdf
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The C-130 used in the CAESAR field campaign warms up just before liftoff. Credit: University of Miami

With dancing ribbons of light visible in the sky, a team of researchers flew on a series of scenic and sometimes stormy flights into the cold unknown, trying to learn more about why one of the most frigid places on Earth is warming at a feverish pace.

The researchersa University of Miami atmospheric scientist and her two Ph.D. studentstook the flights as part of a nearly two-month-long field campaign aimed at investigating to what extent clouds generated by marine cold-air outbreaks (MCAOs) reflect and potentially contribute to the rapid warming of the Arctic while also sustaining the more extreme weather events of that polar region.

"The Arctic is changing rapidly, warming at a rate two to four times faster than the global average," said Paquita Zuidema, professor and chair of atmospheric sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the principal investigator of CAESAR, or Cold-Air Outbreak Experiment in the Sub-Arctic Region.

"A consensus on why and how this is occurring is still lacking, and questions remain on how clouds contribute or simply respond to these changes. The more we can learn about Arctic cloud behavior now, the better we can predict the Arctic of the future. Regardless, as the Arctic becomes more accessible, we will need to improve Arctic weather prediction in one of the most poorly observed regions of the planet."

MCAOs, which can impact weather patterns around the world, occur when cold, dry air moves over warm ocean waters, with the difference in air and sea temperatures causing the ocean to release large amounts of heat and moisture into the air. As part of that extreme air-sea energy exchange, an extensive boundary layer of convective clouds forms, producing, at times, intense hurricane-like polar lows.

Those clouds are of a complex nature, consisting of both ice and liquid. But little is known about how they form and evolve. "Understanding how those clouds partition their moisture between liquid and ice is still not that well represented in models," Zuidema said.

"And that's starting to be a big deal because liquid clouds reflect a lot of sunlight. Ice clouds tend to just snow out on the ground or ocean. So, we want to know, in very cold clouds, how much of that moisture is liquid and how much is ice, and why and how that change occurs?"

And that's where CAESAR comes in. During the recent field camp, organized by the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research, Zuidema and Rosenstiel School graduate students Sam Ephraim and Tyler Tatro flew out of Kiruna, Sweden, aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft, traveling to the Arctic sea ice edge off Greenland and employing a suite of instruments that collected a wealth of data.

Dropsondes released from the C-130 recorded in-situ data on wind, temperature, and humidity as they traveled vertically through the atmosphere. Lidars, radars, and radiometers on the aircraft determined the proportion of ice and water in clouds. Instruments mounted on the aircraft's wings sampled cloud properties, while air intakes collected aerosols for analysis.

Rosenstiel School graduate students Sam Ephraim, seated, and Tyler Tatro examine data collected from instruments aboard the C-130. Credit: Paquita Zuidema and Sam Ephraim

Scientists from eight other universities in the United States as well as from Stockholm University in Sweden, the University of Oslo in Norway, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory also participated in the field campaign. They are examining how aerosols, air from the stratosphere, and dynamics at small scales impact cloud development. Modelers were also brought in to help facilitate a more rapid transfer of knowledge.

For Ephraim, who flew on four of the eight CAESAR flights, the campaign was more than an opportunity to observe senior scientists at work. He played a critical role in the mission's success, operating the radiometer that measured the amount of radiation emitted from water vapor and liquid water in the air. In addition, he helped conduct weather forecast briefings for the team of scientists that determined whether flights on each day of the campaign would take off or be grounded.

"It's one thing to sit in a classroom or at a computer and look at data on cold-air outbreaks that other people have collected in other field campaigns, but it's quite another thing to actually be able to see it with your own eyes and to play an active role in the research," said Ephraim, who as a little boy decided he wanted a career in meteorology after watching several hours of Weather Channel coverage.

"Our entire deployment was amazing," he continued. "We saw the northern lights quite a bit. They were extremely active during the period we were there. And on the flights, seeing the transition of going from clear, sunny skies over the sea ice to stormy conditions was just remarkable."

Tatro, who is studying biomass burning and aerosol cloud interactions over Africa, also assisted in operating the radiometer and helped plan some of the flights. For him, the campaign was "science from textbooks brought to life."

"I got a sense of how much community there is in atmospheric science," he said. "I've seen the names of well-known scientists in books and on research papers. Seeing them in action and collaborating with them gave me a sense of how passionate they are about their work."

Preliminary analysis of the CAESAR data is now underway, with a dedicated session on the campaign proposed for an upcoming meeting of the American Meteorological Society, according to Zuidema.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The spotlight is yet again shining on the national crisis of violence against women in Australia, and the calls for increased action and improved responses to all forms of domestic, family and sexual violence has intensified over the last three weeks.

With the need for a perpetrator register or a disclosure scheme emerging as one option to improve women's safety, Monash University and University of Liverpool researchers have published a study examining whether such schemes actually improve women's safety.

Domestic violence disclosure schemes (DVDS) provide a mechanismfor victim-survivors, individuals who feel at risk, and/or an individual's friends and family membersto apply for information about whether a person has a documented history of domestic violence. The schemes can also involve police proactively providing information to protect potential 'high risk' victims from harm from their partner.

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, who led this research, said the study revealed significant gaps in terms of both timeliness of data sharing and also the lack of follow-up supports and safety planning provided to applicants.

"This study represents the first examination of the operation of the domestic violence disclosure scheme in Australia," said Professor Fitz-Gibbon. "It raises significant questions as to the value of the scheme, and serves as a word of caution for other states and territories that are currently considering this approach."

The research team, including Professor Sandra Walklate and Dr. Ellen Reeves from University of Liverpool, interviewed scheme users, relevant practitioners, academics and policymakers in Australia and New Zealand to generate the evidence required to inform decisions about the introduction of a DVDS.

Despite the often used political justification for disclosure schemesthat it provides women with the information they require to secure their safetythis study found that of the applicants interviewed, the majority had already experienced abuse and since separated from their partner when they accessed the same. For these applicants, the information disclosed did not necessarily come as a surprise, but rather a confirmation of suspicions they already held.

"Applicants in this study did not necessarily require the information disclosed to them to support immediate safety planning and relationship decision making, but rather to confirm decisions they had already made about the viability of their intimate partner relationship and their safety in it," Professor Fitz-Gibbon said.

Sharing information with no follow up may put the applicant at greater risk of harm and represents a missed opportunity to keep the victim-survivor's risk in view.

In Australia, only South Australia has a domestic violence disclosure scheme. NSW piloted a scheme in 2016 but it was discontinued in 2018. No other state or territory has as yet introduced a scheme, although several have considered a scheme.

Professor Fitz-Gibbon said DVDS carry significant resourcing implications; administrative workload, data sharing, training, support services and access.

"The specialist domestic, family and sexual violence sector are calling for an urgent increase in funding to ensure they can support the safety needs of victim-survivors across Australia. At a time when funding for services is falling short across the country, it is imperative to critically question what policies are supported. While several practitioners described the value of the schemewhether it is the best use of resources in a chronically under-funded sector was of paramount consideration," she said.

With national and state conversations currently underway around implementing reforms to end violence against women and children, this study assists policymakers in understanding not only what works, but also what policy approaches may be less effective.

This research calls not for the introduction of a DVDS but for evidence-based policies and adequate funding for wraparound specialist support services to support safer outcomes for victim-survivors.

More information: Informed and safe, or blamed and at risk? Examining the merits and limits of domestic violence disclosure schemes in Australia and New Zealand. figshare.com/s/b165586bb566ea80a899
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A few weeks ago, a team of engineers carefully extracted ESA's EarthCARE satellite from its protective transport container, initiating a meticulous process of inspection, testing and preparation for its liftoff later this month from the Vandenberg launch site in California. One of the tasks involved opening the satellites cloud profiling radar antenna, which spans 2.5 m across. This instrument, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is engineered to penetrate clouds to yield detailed insights into their vertical structure, velocity, particle size and distribution, and water content. Credit: European Space Agency

A few weeks ago, a team of engineers carefully extracted ESA's EarthCARE satellite from its protective transport container, initiating a meticulous process of inspection, testing and preparation for its liftoff later this month from the Vandenberg launch site in California.

Amidst an extensive checklist of tasks, was a rigorous effort to guarantee that the satellite is in pristine condition, underscoring the thorough attention to detail essential to making the satellite ready for launch.

Checking that EarthCARE is immaculately clean is paramount to optimizing the performance of its four instruments.

This set of instruments will shed new light on the interplay between clouds, aerosols, incoming solar energy and outgoing radiation, which together regulate Earth's climate.

Aerosols are small particles, such as dust, suspended in the air.

While we all know that dust gets everywhere, thanks to the team's painstaking work, they verified that EarthCARE is dust-free by turning off the cleanroom lights and using UV light for their inspections.

With the task of cleaning done and dusted, EarthCARE now stands on the verge of being fueled, marking a significant milestone in its journey to space.

Prior to the satellite being cleaned, one of the earlier tasks involved opening the satellite's cloud profiling radar antenna, which spans 2.5 m across.

ESAs Earth Explorer EarthCARE is designed to answer critical scientific questions related to the role that clouds and aerosols, such as desert dust, play in reflecting incident solar radiation back out to space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earths surface. This delicate balance is an important factor in regulating Earths temperature. The mission provides global profiles of clouds and aerosols along with measurements of solar radiation reflected from the planet and thermal radiation emitted from the planet. To do this the satellite carries a unique set of four instruments to provide a holistic view of the interplay between clouds, aerosols and radiation. Its cloud profiling radar provides information on the vertical structure and internal dynamics of clouds, its atmospheric lidar provides cloud-top information and profiles of thin clouds and aerosols, its multispectral imager provides a wide-scene overview in multiple wavelengths, and its broadband radiometer measures reflected solar radiation and outgoing infrared radiation. The use of these instruments together means that 3D cloud and aerosol scenes can be directly related to reflected solar and emitted thermal radiation. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

This instrument, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is engineered to penetrate clouds to yield detailed insights into their vertical structure, velocity, particle size and distribution, and water content.

The propulsion team from the U.K. has also arrived, and is now preparing for the hazardous job of fueling the satellite before it is eventually encapsulated in the Falcon 9 rocket fairing.
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So far, some 210 people have died in Kenya in flood-related incidents.

Kenya and Tanzania were on alert on Saturday for a cyclone heading towards their Indian Ocean coastlines, threatening to pile on more misery after deadly floods that have ravaged the region.

About 400 people have lost their lives in East Africa and tens of thousands have been uprooted from their homes in recent weeks as torrential rains triggered flooding and landslides engulfed houses, roads and bridges.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday described the weather outlook as "dire" and postponed the reopening of schools indefinitely as the nation braced for its first-ever cyclone.

Tropical Cyclone Hidaya is projected to make landfall at the weekend on the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts.

Ruto said the storm "is predicted to cause torrential rain, strong winds and powerful and dangerous waves".

Around 210 people have died in Kenya from flood-related incidents and nearly 100 are missing while 165,000 have been forced to flee their homes, according to government data.

"No corner of our country has been spared from this havoc," Ruto said. "Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period."

The Kenya Met Department said Cyclone Hidaya was expected to hit coastal areas with powerful winds surpassing 40 knots and ocean waves over two meters (more than six feet) high.

President William Ruto said Cycline Hidaya could cause torrential rain, strong winds and powerful waves.

On Thursday, the interior ministry had ordered anyone living close to major rivers or dams to leave the area within 24 hours or face "mandatory evacuation for their safety".

It warned that 178 dams and water reservoirs were full or almost full and may spill over, posing a risk to people in their vicinity.

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused the government of being unprepared and slow to respond despite weather warnings.

'Maximum precautions'

Cyclone Hidaya will peak at gusts of 165 kilometers (100 miles) per hour when it makes landfall in Tanzania on Saturday, according to the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre for East African trade bloc IGAD.

Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean normally lasts from November to April, and there are around a dozen storms each year.

Rescuers have raced against the clock to help people marooned by the floods.

The Tanzanian Meteorological Authority said in a statement posted on X on Saturday that the cyclone was about 125 kilometers from the main city of Dar es Salaam late Friday, causing strong winds and heavy rains in several coastal areas.

It has advised people living in the risk-prone areas and those involved in marine activities to take "maximum precautions".

At least 155 people have already been killed in Tanzania by floods and landslides that have destroyed crops and swallowed homes.

East Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change and the rains this year have been amplified by the El Nino weather patterna naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide that leads to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.

The heavier than usual rains have also claimed at least 29 lives in Burundi and displaced tens of thousands since September, the United Nations said.

UN refugee agency UNCHR said it was "particularly concerned" about thousands of refugees who had been displaced in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.

Torrential rains have lashed much of East Africa, triggering flooding and landslides.

"(They are) being forced to escape once again for their lives after their homes were washed away," UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur said on Friday.

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.

 2024 AFP
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A mating pair of Bicyclus anynana female (left) and male (right). Credit: Arjen Van't Hof, Biology Centre CAS

Scientists of the Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with University of Liverpool have found the genetic mechanism that determines whether individuals of the butterfly species Bicyclus anynana become male or female.

They also discovered that if individuals with the same variant of the sex-determining gene mate, the embryos will not survive. This can have critical consequences in small butterfly populations with low genetic variation, where mating occurs between related individuals.

This is the first time that scientists have described this mechanism in butterflies and, surprisingly, it resembles a similar mechanism in honey bees. The discovery is published in the journal Science Advances.

The squinting bush brown Bicyclus anynana is native to the African continent. It is often used for genetics research, partly due to its ability to reproduce rapidly and breed relatively easily in laboratory conditions, moreover, its entire genome has already been sequenced.

As revealed by entomologists led by Arjen Van't Hof from the Biology Centre CAS and an international team of collaborators, the sex of this butterfly is regulated by different combinations of variants of a gene called Masculinizer. A single variant leads to female development and two different variants result in male development.

The butterflies die as embryos when two identical variants of Masculinizer are combined but this is very uncommon in natural populations because a huge number of different variants was found. The chance of having two identical variants resulting in embryonic death becomes much higher in strongly declined populations with reduced genetic variation caused by inbreeding.

Many butterfly species are strongly in decline and if other species do have the same mechanism as Bicyclus anynana, it can have serious consequences for critically endangered species.

This sex determination mechanism is the first one found in butterflies and surprisingly resembles that of honeybees belonging to a different insect group more than that of the silkworm which belongs to the same insect order. The same mechanism evolved independently in Bicyclus anynana and honeybees which makes it a clear example of convergent evolution.

Convergent evolution of sex determination mechanisms in butterflies and bees. Both contain a hypervariable region (HVR) in the gene which controls sex determination. Credit: Arjen Van't Hof and Jan Sula, Biology Centre CAS

Uncovered genetic mechanisms determining sex

Development into two different sexes is among the most significant biological traits, but despite the importance, the underlying genetic mechanisms are not uncovered in most species. The main reason why so much is still unknown is that the mechanisms are extremely diverse.

Lepidoptera, a large insect group consisting of butterflies and moths, have W and Z sex chromosomes instead of X and Y. Females usually have a W and a Z chromosome and males have two Z chromosomes. Sex is determined by the W chromosome in some species, but there are also species in which females do not have a W chromosome.

"These species have different sex-determining mechanisms which are not known yet. The mechanism we discovered in Bicyclus anynana is very different from the W chromosome-dependent mechanism discovered earlier in the silkworm Bombyx mori," say the researchers.

More information: Arjen van't Hof et al, Zygosity-based sex determination in a butterfly drives hypervariability of Masculinizer, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj6979. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj6979 Journal information: Science Advances
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A study led by a UC Riverside graduate student has found that Latino high school students achieve higher grades when they perceive a more positive school climate and when they have a stronger sense of self-esteem.

Published in the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, the study also found that a strong sense of ethnic identity contributed to better self-esteem. It suggests that supportive and inclusive school environments contribute to academic success. The paper is titled "Predicting Academic Success Using a Critical Approach: The Impact of Campus Climate, Ethnic Identity, and Self-Esteem Among Latinx High School Students."

"There's kind of a domino effect of climate having a predictive effect on self-esteem, and self-esteem then influencing grade point average," said Jaqueline Dighero, the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in UCR's School of Education.

The researchers found a statistically significant increase in grades when students felt good about the school environment and had a better sense of self-esteem. For instance, a C+ student could go up to a B-.

The study was based on detailed surveys of 300 Latino 9th- and 10th-grade students attending a public high school in Southern California and an examination of the participants' grade transcripts.

The study recommends that schools address institutional and individual factors to improve the educational experiences of Latino students and hence improve school climate and academic success.

Schools should foster supportive and inclusive environments that promote students' emotional well-being and academic engagement; provide opportunities for students to explore and celebrate their ethnic identities; work to reduce biases and ensure equitable treatment of minoritized students; and address systemic barriers to their academic success, the authors assert.

Dighero said institutional barriers include teaching and administrative staff who are mostly white and Eurocentric curriculums that give advantages to white students from upper-class backgrounds. School districts should recruit more minority staff, and teachers should receive training to make their lessons more culturally relevant to their students, such as lessons on Chicano, Black, and Asian American history, art, and literature, they said.

"Inclusion training isn't necessarily happening in K-12 education," Dighero said. "It is more of a thing at the university level. Some teachers may say, "Oh, but I don't know how to be inclusive. I don't know how to include curricula from different backgrounds.'"

More inclusive curricula also benefit low-income white students because standard white English is based on the language of upper-middle-class and elite white families, Dighero said.

"It is not necessarily how white folks with low-income backgrounds also speak. Exclusive curriculums are not only affecting racially and ethnically marginalized people but also poor white students," Dighero said.

Dighero also encourages school field trips to cultural centers and museums, such as the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside.

More information: Jaqueline V. Dighero et al, Predicting Academic Success Using a Critical Approach: The Impact of Campus Climate, Ethnic Identity, and Self-Esteem Among Latinx High School Students, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education (2023). DOI: 10.1177/15381927231212435
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The North Pole region heats up faster than the rest of the world. Though this is a known fact, climate models underestimate the speed with which the region warms up. Sjoert Barten obtained his PhD on this subject at Wageningen University & Research on 26 April and shares his insights.

"We lack a proper understanding of the precise dynamics of climate warming on the North Pole. When, and by how much, are temperatures going to increase? Our lack of insight makes it hard to predict the consequences, such as the melting of marine ice," Barten explains.

However, new data obtained by a research vessel that traveled the Arctic Ocean and was stuck in the sea ice for a prolonged period will now remedy that. Barten improved the predictions using the plethora of data this expedition yielded.

Barten's research uncovers two key processes that occur on the North Pole and which may drive the expedited heating: ozone and the influx of warm air. Ozone is not only found in the ozone layer, but also in the lower atmospheric strata, where it functions as a greenhouse gas. This ozone breaks down within a month, shorter than the time required for CO 2 , but sufficiently long to be carried to the North Pole by the wind.

"There, the ozone is absorbed by seawater, snow and ice, but this process is much slower than was assumed. This causes the ozone to remain in the air." Barten feels that local processes must be included in climate models.

During the vessel's research period, temperatures rose from 35 degrees below zero to zero twice within just a few days. "On days like that, the sea ice may melt at an accelerated speed and possibly break, with prolonged effects as a result."

Barten's calculations on this sudden, local influx of air are important, because these effects are expected to occur with increased frequency as a result of climate change. And they will intensify.

"The influx of warm air also transports soot particles from the industry in the northern hemisphere into the North Pole region. This soot is deposited on the sea ice, dampening the reflection of the sun's rays, and thus increasing the speed with which the ice melts."

And thus, the actions of the inhabitants of America, Europe and Asia are inextricably linked to the warming of the North Pole. Barten explains, "The North Pole region may seem like a relatively unpolluted area, but this is not at all true. Moreover, shipping and industry around the North Pole are increasing, causing local greenhouse gases and pollution to add to the already rapid heating of the region."

More information: Multi-scale model analysis of Arctic surface-atmosphere exchange of climate-active trace gases - Johannes G.M. Barten: edepot.wur.nl/640900
LAKE GEORGE  A decision from the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division Thursday has reversed the ruling made by New York Supreme Court Judge Robert Muller last year. That ruling removed permits that would have allowed the Lake George Park Commission to apply the chemical herbicide ProcellaCor to a portion of Lake George. The legal wrangling stopped the herbicide application last year.

The 30,000 foot overview is that the third circuit court of appeals unanimously overturned Judge Mullers local decision, explained LGPC executive director Dave Wick.

His agency is working to use the herbicide in Lake George.

The Lake George Association filed a claim in 2022 against the Adirondack Park Agency, asserting, among other things, that it had arbitrarily and capriciously issued the permits for use of the chemical to the LGPC by not holding an adjudicatory hearing.

The association has remained unsatisfied with the available studies conducted regarding the long-term effects of ProcellaCOR, and say the APA erroneously skipped the adjudicatory hearing process, which they claim might have been used to find the chemical unfit for use in Lake George.

The largest argument that the LGA made before Muller in 2022 claimed that the missing adjudicatory hearing was a large enough problem to stop the issuance of the permits. In the decision then, Muller agreed with the LGA.

The decision handed down by a four judge appeals panel Thursday disagreed.

Based on the foregoing, although it may have been rational for the APA board to vote differently based on the information before it, we cannot say that the APA lacked a rational basis or acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in approving the permit applications, the court decision reads.

The APA maintains that the science showing ProcellsCORs efficacy and lack of negative environmental impacts is clear, and has allowed the chemical to be used in several Adirondack lakes and waterways.

Pete Menzies, interim executive director of the LGA and chairman of the LGA board, was disappointed by the courts decision. He said he had hoped the ruling in 2023 would have slowed the process down enough to adequately address all of the concerns the LGA has expressed.

Weve been dealing with milfoil for 40 years almost, as long as I can remember, he said in an interview with The Post-Star Friday. Its not a crisis, its not going to get worse in the next couple months.

In a press release issued by the LGA, the group said it plans to request a leave to appeal the decision to the states highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.

The LGA remains convinced that ProcellaCOR is unsafe in Lake George.

The LGA strongly supports the safe and effective eradication of Eurasian milfoil, the press released reads in part. Since 1885, the LGA has faithfully advocated for the protection of Lake George and the interests of our members, many of whom have legitimate concerns given the unknown risks that ProcellaCOR may present.

After Mullers ruling, the LGPC had to remit permits issued by the DEC, which means the agency has had to re-apply for those permits.

Wick said he expects the DEC to issue new permits by the end of May. However, the APA permits were not rescinded, simply put on hold, pending the outcome of the LGPCs appeal, he said.

Wick said the agency is using the exact same permit proposals it used two years ago which had been approved, so he expected the APA permits to be re-released in time for a treatment of the proposed areas in Lake George in early June.

The one change Wick said the commission would propose to its permit application this time around would be to increase its testing after the chemical is distributed in order to address some of the concerns raised throughout this legal battle.

Were also doing samples just above the substrate because there was some concern about product breakdown, he said. And if we learn something different, then we learn something different.

Moving forward, Wick said he hopes the LGA will remain engaged in the process.

If they want to join with us, be on the boat during the process, do the sampling with us, all that kind of stuff, we would welcome that, he said. We nothing but welcome them to be a part of the project from here forward.

A sentiment also shared by Menzies.

Working in concert with the Lake George Park Commission is of the upmost importance. And its something Im committed to figuring out how to do, he said. I agree with Dave, its crazy not to work together, so lets figure out how to do it.
A "little black book" of names, phone numbers and addresses that belonged to the deceased financier and sex offender Jefferey Epstein  who hung himself in a Manhatttan jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019  is going up for auction, Alexander Historical Auctions announced Friday.

The date book being sold by the auction house is not the same one discovered by the FBI and used in legal proceedings against Epstein. The book that is for sale dates back to the mid-1990s, when a musician found it lying on a sidewalk along Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

The musician kept the book in storage until 2020, when she realized who it had actually belonged to. She reached out to "several" media outlets, but none were interested. She ended up selling it on eBay to a graduate student in the northeast, who has owned it ever since.

The book was examined by forensic investigators at Applied Forensics at the request of journalists at Business Insider, to determine its authenticity, and a copy of their report is available to potential bidders, Alexander Historical Auctions said.

According to Business Insider, which contacted a number of people listed in the book, the 1990s book contains 221 names that did not appear in the book held by the FBI which dates to around 2004.

The 64-page book contains 386 individual printed entries with two handwritten entries penned on the last page. Along with information like addresses and telephone numbers for those listed, the entries include numbers for "aides, employees, parents, and even girlfriends" of those listed.

"Ninety-four of the names bear black, hand-applied checkmarks, and five have been highlighted in yellow," the auction house said. "These five names, including that of former president Donald Trump, are those of well-recognized financial and industrial figures."

Other notable figures listed in the book include "current presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr., attorney Alan Dershowitz, Frederic Fekkai, Christy Hefner, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and many dozens of other giants in the fields of finance, manufacturing, real estate, politics, film, television, law, fashion design, and so on."

From the very first entry  which includes the front desk and five apartment numbers for residence maintained by Epstein for girlfriends, models, and an attorney  there are clues to Epstein's "sordid past."

"An entry for 'Masseuse/Masseur' lists 24 women's names and numbers, some with pager numbers as well, with one bearing the descriptive: 'ugly back up,' along with eight women listed under 'Exercise people'," the auction house said.

Alexander Historical Auctions stressed that an individual's appearance in the book is not an indication of connection to Epstein's criminal activities, except for those already tried and convicted.

The "criminal relic" is being offered for sale by sealed bid. Alexander Historical Auctions will accept bids from May 15 until June 15. The top two bidders will be notified on June 16 and offered the opportunity to submit a final offer.

If the book fails to attract a "satisfactory" bid, it will go up for public auction in mid-July.

 with reporting by TMX
Quad-Cities college and university leaders note the importance of balancing campus speech with civility as student-led protests continue to gain momentum across the globe.

Campus protests over the war in Gaza have swept the nation since April, notably following the arrests of Columbia University student demonstrators.

Many students are demanding that their institutions  and the United States government  divest from any companies or partners who are advancing Israels military attacks in Gaza. There also have been subsequent pro-Israel counter protests.

We know these are turbulent times for many college campuses and that some individuals are heartened by protesters, while it invokes fear (for others), said Augustana College President Andrea Talentino.

Our hearts are with those in the Middle East living through war and with those living in the Quad-Cities (and elsewhere nationwide) who are impacted in their own ways, she added. We hope for peace and understanding for all people, near and far.

While there havent been any local campus protests on the issue in recent weeks, a group of students at Illinois State University  called Students for Justice in Palestine ISU  set up an encampment Tuesday on the campus quad.

Since ISU policy bars students from, construction structures on campus grounds without prior approval, the university asked demonstrators to take down their tents or face consequences, such as academic sanctions. Students took down the encampment by Wednesday afternoon.

Students at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University  two of Iowas three public regent schools  also have held pro-Palestinian protests, along with Drake University.

The Iowa City Students for Justice in Palestine scheduled a three-day gathering this weekend, featuring presentations from Iowans for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace members.

Talentino said the community principles guiding Augustana Colleges campus strive for civil community dialogue and self-expression, emphasizing the responsibility and care each member should have in their words and actions.

Augustanas community does not stand for intolerance or discrimination, she said. Our social conduct code includes guidance for prioritizing safety and well-being and resources for living and working on a campus that welcomes free expression.

Augustanas social conduct code's list of prohibited conduct includes intentional disruption  or otherwise obstruction to teaching and learning, research, administrative and disciplinary proceedings, or other college-related activities. The list also included disorderly or indecent conduct and failure to comply with decisions or requests from college officials or a campus judicial body.

Similarly, St. Ambrose Universitys student handbook prohibits participating in the creation of any action that disrupts the orderly processes of (St. Ambrose University) by any means, including any attempt to obstruct or deny access to campus facilities, services or programs  extending to those who incite others to do so.

St. Ambrose University did not respond to repeated requests over two days for comment for this story.

At Western Illinois University, a public institution, all campus grounds are considered a free speech area, said university spokeswoman Alisha Looney, especially at the Macomb campus University Union.

Any demonstrations are permitted on University premises as long as they do not disrupt the academic experience or threaten the safety of students and staff, she said.

While corrective measures vary, Augustana would address any campus activities violating the social conduct code through its Dean of Students Office.

Per the (code), the college will not intervene to regulate the content of protests and demonstrations, Talentino said. At the same time, the college will not make the campus available to  or otherwise support  activities or groups that promote hate and violence towards individuals or groups, or that violate the colleges (discrimination and harassment) policies.

Augustana rejects violence of all kinds, Talentino said, and both encourages and support opportunities for respectful discourse.

We know we are stronger (by working together) to navigate a changing world and grapple with complicated issues," she added.

Brenden Dennison of The Pantagraph and Erin Murph of The Gazette contributed to this report.
SPRINGFIELD  Two Illinois Democrats were among a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to the southern border last week to see the situation firsthand with hopes of keeping immigration reform negotiations alive.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, and Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, made the trip with a fellow Democrat and three Republican colleagues through the Washington D.C.-based think tank Bipartisan Policy Center.

Bipartisan trips to the southern border are rare given the always politically charged issue of immigration and the particularly dire present humanitarian and security situation.

"Those don't happen," Sorensen said. "They're very, I would say extremely, rare to be able to have three Republicans and three Democrats come together and we have the same information in front of us. And so I think what that does is it increases the possibility that we're going to be able to come up with a real solution."

Budzinski, whose 13th Congressional District covers central and southern Illinois, and Sorensen, whose 17th Congressional District includes central and northwestern Illinois, told Lee Enterprises in separate interviews this week that it was the first time they had been to the U.S.-Mexican border since they took office last year.

"What I took away from what I saw is that this is a very complicated issue," Budzinski said. "And that we do very much have a broken system in a couple of ways. One is, first and foremost, we do have a crisis at the border that requires immediate attention."

In fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a record of more than 2.47 million encounters at the southern border, up from 2.37 million in 2022 and 1.73 million in 2021.

Budzinski, after talking to Border Patrol agents and others, said the answer is not another border wall, but more funding for technology improvements that will aid agents in managing the influx of migrants.

She said the second way in which the system is "broken" is the influx of drugs into the United States. "We have to be finding more investment to stop fentanyl, in particular, from getting into this country," she said.

Sorensen said the prevalence of fentanyl is often where the border issue hits home the most. Overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioids have skyrocketed in recent years in the United States. It's an issue he hears about from his constituents. Many of the drugs fueling America's addiction come over via the southern border.

"We need to develop the technology to find the fentanyl if it's smuggled inside the engine of a car," Sorensen said. "That's what the cartels are doing. This is huge business for them  on the order of tens of billions of dollars.

"I asked when I was riding along one-on-one with a Border Protection Officer, 'I've heard some people say that the cartels have better control over the border than the United States or Mexico, is that true?' And he said in parts of the border region, that's true because they're so sophisticated and they have so many people on both sides of the border," Sorensen said.

Budzinski said making the trip was her "top priority this year" and that she "intentionally wanted to go on a bipartisan trip," a sentiment Sorensen echoed.

But the odds of an immigration deal in Washington appear slim with the 2024 presidential election just over six months away. Immigration has been a major campaign issue, with Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, criticizing Biden for the surge of migrants crossing the border.

There was some hope earlier this year as a bipartisan group of Senators came to an agreement on a comprehensive reform bill that would essentially close the border to asylum seekers if illegal crossings reached an average of 5,000 per day over seven days or 8,500 in a day.

The legislation would have also significantly expedited the asylum process, with cases being processed within a matter of months instead of years. It would have also made the standards for seeking asylum tougher.

But, the effort was essentially killed when Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., came out in opposition.

Sorensen, who won by just four percentage points in 2022, is once again being targeted for defeat by national Republicans. The party has nominated former Circuit Court Judge Joe McGraw, whose campaign has tied Sorensen to Biden in a negative critique of the administration's border policy.

The Moline Democrat said he did not want to make immigration a political issue, arguing that "we're farther and farther away from actually having a solution" when that happens.

"I can't help when a political foe of mine wants to gin up things to actually help him win over the majority when I'm actually doing the work," Sorensen said. "And that's where I am today."

Budzinski said she still holds out hope that a bipartisan deal can be reached. She said Democrats and Republicans agree on many of the issues, including that the asylum process is "overrun" due to low staffing and some seeking the status who take advantage of a broad definition of asylum.

"These are places where Democrats and Republicans agree," Budzinski said. "We need to find the political will to make this a reality because what's happening on the border and specifically my concerns around the fentanyl that is crossing the border has to stop."
The Rapid City Fire Department on Tuesday celebrated the grand opening of its five-story fire training tower, which will allow the department to conduct a wide array of training close to home. Other than a similar facility on Ellsworth Air Force Base, it is the only live fire training tower West River.

"This is a monumental occasion for us that has been seven long years in the making, and today we get to officially say the vision for the South Dakota Fire Service Training Facility West is a reality," said Fire Operations Division Chief Brian Povandra.

The department's last training tower was torn down in 2017. The new tower is located on an 18.8-acre plot and consists of 3,740 square feet. The first and second floor feature 2,000 square feet of burn room space with configurable walls, allowing "endless possibilities" for training scenarios.

"A lot of thought and planning went into utilizing every square inch of this fire training tower," said Povandra.

The third floor is 640 square feet of configurable wall maze. The fourth floor is set up to practice breaching walls and searching for victims. An exterior stair tower and outside balcony area will be used by the department's challenge team to train.

The tower is made out of insulated shipping containers, but areas at the top have sections of shingled roof on both pitched and flat areas. Firefighters will break the shingled areas during training to practice ventilation in a structure fire. The roof portions are replaceable.

Doors and windows in the tower are designed for forcible entry, and the tower allows training using the department's ladder trucks and rappel training.

"Here at the Rapid City Fire Department, we're what we call an all hazards fire department. We do everything from not just fire and medical response, but we also do technical rescue and hazmat as well, and this facility gives us the ability to train on all of those things at a very high level," said firefighter Nick Knotek.

Previously, the department conducted live fire training on Ellsworth Air Force Base.

"Ellsworth Air Force Base has been very generous to us in the past letting us come there and train with their firefighters to help our academies and people that are getting onboarded here, but being able to have our own facility, we get to train our people without having to ask for any help," Knotek said.

American Fire Training Systems out of Illinois built the tower for $908,000. The tower was paid for with $850,000 of grant funds from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety. The funds were a result of Senate Bill 51. The bill passed during the 2022 legislative session and provided $2 million statewide to support fire department training, equipment and recruitment. The remaining $58,000 came from capital improvement funds.

State Sen. David Johnson (R-Dist. 33) served on the Senate Appropriations Committee where the bill began. Johnson spoke at the ceremony and said having safe and trained firefighters is the most important thing for communities.

Johnson said he experienced a situation about two days before the ceremony where an ambulance was called and about seven firefighters arrived to take care of him.

"I tell you what, it was quite an honor to have those firemen there, those first responders there, to help me out when I needed it," Johnson said.

Johnson said the tower is just the beginning, and he'll be bringing more material to the legislature to help fire departments.

Povandra said the tower will be open to firefighters across the state. The department plans to add additional training facilities and props on the site in the future, including a vehicle extrication area, electrical props, natural gas and propane props, an airplane prop, hazmat training, and classroom and indoor training spaces to include EMS and ambulance training.

"This is huge for us to have in the city," Povandra said.
Montana Jordan had no idea a spot on Young Sheldon would lead to a series of his own.

But the Texas native  who plays Sheldons brother Georgie  says the spinoff is a blessing and way to keep his TV family intact.

The Georgie and Mandy storyline has a lot more to be told, Jordan says. Everybody knows that, but well see where it goes.

The series is slated to air this fall.

When he landed in Sheldon, Jordan and others werent certain where that Big Bang Theory spinoff was headed.

It was an opportunity to explore how (Sheldon) affects this family around him and how the family affects him, says executive producer Chuck Lorre. It was almost immediately an ensemble show.

Key to Sheldons success was finding a young actor who could play a younger version of Jim Parsons. Lorre put the call out and Iain Armitages mom sent a tape.

We wrote the most difficult scene imaginable for an 8-year-old and this guy just killed it, Lorre says. If that had not happened, we wouldnt have gone forward. With the title character in place, it was just a matter of building an ensemble around him.

Jordan  who really does have a thick Southern accent  was cast as brother Georgie and now, Im blessed for everything that has been given me.

To retain the accent, I go straight back to Texas, and I can get it all back," he says. "It comes back real fast.

As audiences warmed to Georgie, his part expanded. Now, in Sheldons seventh and final season, hes juggling family, marriage and work. In the fifth season, Emily Osment joined the series as his love interest, Mandy.

I was just offered one episode on Young Sheldon and it grew so much from there, Osment says. I walked into my trailer one day and there was a big belly in there. Im so grateful to see the arc of Mandy sort of becoming such a staunch feminist, standing up for herself, not wanted to take the Cooper name and wanting to be her own person.

The new series, Jordan says, will look at the struggles of a young couple and how the family kind of pushes back on it. It just makes it a little bit harder for him to get through it.

Fans of Big Bang may remember Georgie becomes Dr. Tire, the head of a tire chain. In the new series, however, hes just starting his career at a local store.

The final episodes of Young Sheldon will help launch the Georgie and Mandy spinoff while Sheldon heads off to graduate school.

If some of the crew members from that show join the new series, Jordan will be thrilled.

Everybody is so down-to-earth and great to work with, he says. Youre excited when you wake up and come to a place like this.

For Armitage, whos now 15 and almost as tall as Jim Parsons, Young Sheldon has been a great launching pad and, likely, the first of many acting projects. When he started the series at 8, he told producers he wanted to be a magician. Since then, he has continued to perform tricks but believes acting is his future.

My dad is an actor as well but, if anything, Ive never been pushed in any direction, certainly not career-wise, Armitage says. Ive always felt very free to pursue what Im interested in.

Now as Young Sheldon nears the end of its run, both Armitage and Jordan say they couldnt imagine a better starter project.

Its safe to say it was love at first sight for everybody, the 21-year-old Jordan says.

For Lorre, who also served as executive producer of Big Bang, Sheldon has been a series that doesnt pander.

You do what feels right, he says. You do stuff that touches yourself and then you hope someone agrees with you. To assume we know what the audience wants is ridiculous. Its best to do the things that we believe and just trust.

A visit to the set of "Young Sheldon"